the adventures of hajji baba of ispahan by james morier illustrated by h.r. millar with an introduction by the hon. george curzon, m.p. macmillan and co. london and new york all rights reserved. introduction in the first decade of the present century persia was for a short time the pivot of the oriental interest of english and indian statesmen. but little known and scarcely visited during the preceding century, it suddenly and simultaneously focussed the ambitions of russia, the apprehensions of great britain, the asiatic schemes of france. the envoys of great powers flocked to its court, and vied with each other in the magnificence of the display and the prodigality of the gifts with which they sought to attract the superb graces of its sovereign, fath ali shah. among these supplicants for the persian alliance, then appraised at much beyond its real value, the most assiduous and also the most profuse were the british, agitated at one moment by the prospect of an afghan invasion of india, at another by the fear of an overland march against delhi of the combined armies of napoleon and the tsar. these apprehensions were equally illusory; but while they lasted they supplied the excuse for a constant stream of embassies, some from the british sovereign, others from the viceregal court at calcutta, and were reproduced in a bewildering succession of anglo-persian treaties. sir john malcolm, sir harford jones, sir gore ouseley, and sir henry ellis were the plenipotentiaries who negotiated these several instruments; and the principal coadjutor of the last three diplomats was james justinian morier, the author of �hajji baba.� born and nurtured in an oriental atmosphere (though educated at harrow), he was one of three out of four sons, whom their father, himself british consul at constantinople, dedicated to the diplomatic or consular service in eastern europe or in asia. his persian experience began when at the age of twenty-eight he accompanied sir harford jones as private secretary, in - , on that mission from the british court direct which excited the bitter jealousy and provoked the undignified recriminations of the indian government. after the treaty had been concluded, james morier returned to england, being accompanied by the persian envoy to the court of st. james, who figures in this narrative as mirza firouz, and whose droll experiences in this country he subsequently related in the volume entitled �hajji baba in england.� while at home, morier wrote the first of the two works upon persia, and his journeys and experiences in and about that country, which, together with the writings of sir john malcolm, and the later publications of sir w. ouseley, sir r. ker porter, and j. baillie frazer, familiarised the cultivated englishman of the first quarter of this century with persian history and habits to a degree far beyond that enjoyed by the corresponding englishman of the present day. returning to persia with sir gore ouseley in - to assist the latter in the negotiation of a fresh treaty, to meet the novel situation of a franco-russian alliance, morier remained in tehran as _charge d�affaire_ after his chief had left, and in rendered similar aid to sir h. ellis in the conclusion of a still further treaty superseding that of ouseley, which had never been ratified. after his return to england in , appeared the account of his second journey. finally, nearly ten years later, there was issued in the ripened product of his persian experiences and reflections in the shape of the inimitable story to which is prefixed this introduction. �hajji baba� at once became a favourite of the cultured reading public, and passed speedily through several editions. that popularity has never since been exhausted; and the constant demand for a new issue is a proof not merely of the intrinsic merit of the book as a contemporary portrait of persian manners and life, but also of the fidelity with which it continues to reflect, after the lapse of three-quarters of a century, the salient and unchanging characteristics of a singularly unchanging oriental people. its author, having left the diplomatic service, died in . the celebrity of the family name has, however, been revindicated in more recent diplomatic history by the services of his nephew, the late sir robert morier, who died in , while british ambassador at st. petersburg. james morier was an artist as well as an author. the bulk of the illustrations in his two journeys were reproduced from his own drawings; and he left upon his death a number of scrap-books, whose unpublished contents are, i believe, not unlikely to see the light. in the preface to the second edition of hajji baba he also spoke of �numerous notes which his long residence in persia would have enabled him to add,� but which his reluctance to increase the size of the work led him to omit. these, if they ever existed in a separate form, are no longer in the possession of his family, and may therefore be presumed to have ceased to exist. their place can now only be ineffectually supplied, as in the present instance, by the observations of later travellers over the familiar ground, and of inferior gleaners in the same still prolific field. such was the historic _mise-en-scène_ in which james morier penned his famous satire. i next turn to the work itself. the idea of criticising, and still more of satirising, a country or a people under the guise of a fictitious narrator is familiar in the literature of many lands. more commonly the device adopted is that of introducing upon the scene the denizen of some other country or clime. here, as in the case of the immortal gil blas of santillane, with whom hajji baba has been not inaptly compared, the infinitely more difficult plan is preferred of exposing the foibles of a people through the mouth of one of their own nationality. hajji baba is a persian of the persians, typical not merely of the life and surroundings, but of the character and instincts and manner of thought of his countrymen. and yet it is from his lips that flows the delightful stream of naive confession and mordant sarcasm that never seems either ill-natured or artificial, that lashes without vindictiveness, and excoriates without malice. in strict ratio, however, to the verisimilitude of the performance, must be esteemed the talents of the non-oriental writer, who was responsible for so lifelike a creation. no man could, have written or could now write such a book unless he were steeped and saturated, not merely in oriental experience, but in oriental forms of expression and modes of thought. to these qualifications must be added great powers of insight and long observation. james morier spent less than six years in persia; and yet in a lifetime he could scarcely have improved upon the quality of his diagnosis. if the scenic and poetic accessories of a persian picture are (except in the story of yusuf and mariam and a few other instances) somewhat wanting, their comparative neglect is more than compensated by the scrupulous exactitude of the dramatic properties with which is invested each incident in the tale. the hero, a characteristic persian adventurer, one part good fellow, and three parts knave, always the plaything of fortune--whether barber, water-carrier, pipe-seller, dervish, doctor�s servant, sub-executioner, scribe and mollah, outcast, vender of pipe-sticks, turkish merchant, or secretary to an ambassador--equally accepting her buffets and profiting by her caresses, never reluctant to lie or cheat or thieve, or get the better of anybody else in a warfare where every one was similarly engaged in the effort to get the better of him, and equipped with the ready casuistry to justify any transgression of the moral code, hajji baba never strikes a really false chord, or does or says anything intrinsically improbable; but, whether in success or adversity, as a victim of the roguery of others, or as a rogue himself, is faithful to a type of human character which modern times and a european surrounding are incapable of producing, but which is natural to a state of society in which men live by their wits, where the scullion of one day may be the grandee of the next, and the loftiest is not exempt from the extreme vicissitudes of fortune, and in which a despotic sovereign is the apex of a half-civilised community of jealous and struggling slaves. perhaps the foibles of the national character upon which the author is most severe are those of imposture in the diverse and artistic shapes in which it is practised by the modern persian. he delights in stripping bare the sham piety of the austere mohammedan, the gullibility of the pilgrims to the sacred shrines, the sanctimonious humbug of the lantern-jawed devotees of kum. one of his best portraits is that of the wandering dervish, who befriends and instructs, and ultimately robs hajji baba, and who thus explains the secrets of his trade:-- �it is not great learning that is required to make a dervish; assurance is the first ingredient. by impudence i have been a prophet, by impudence i have wrought miracles, by impudence i have restored the dying to health--by impudence, in short, i lead a life of great ease, and am feared and respected by those who, like you, do not know what dervishes are.� equally unsparing is his exposure of the reputed pillars of the church, _mollahs_ and _mûshteheds_, as illustrated by his excellent stories of the mollah bashi of tehran, and of the mollah nadan. he ridicules the combined ignorance and pretensions of the native quacks, who have in nowise improved since his day. he assumes, as he still might safely do, the venality of the _kadi_ or official interpreter of the law. he places upon the lips of an old curd a candid but unflattering estimate of the persian character, �whose great and national vice is lying, and whose weapons, instead of the sword and spear, are treachery, deceit, and falsehood�--an estimate which he would find no lack of more recent evidence to corroborate. and he revels in his tales of persian cowardice, whether it be at the mere whisper of a turcoman foray, or in conflict with the troops of a european power, putting into the mouth of one of his characters the famous saying which it is on record that a persian commander of that day actually employed: �o allah, allah, if there was no dying in the case, how the persians would fight!� in this general atmosphere of cheerful rascality and fraud an agreeable climax is reached when hajji baba is all but robbed of his patrimony by his own mother! it is the predominance in the narrative of these and other of the less attractive aspects of persian character that has led some critics, writing from the charitable but ill-informed distance of an english arm-chair, to deprecate the apparent insensibility of the author to the more amiable characteristics of the iranian people. similarly, though doubtless with an additional instigation of ambassadorial prudence, sir harford jones-brydges, morier�s own chief, wrote in the introduction to his own report of his mission to the persian court these words:-- �one may allow oneself to smile at some of the pages of �hajji baba�; but it would be just as wise to estimate the national character of the persians from the adventures of that fictitious person, as it would be to estimate the national character of the spaniards from those of don raphael or his worthy coadjutor, ambrose de lamela.... knowing the persians as well as i do, i will boldly say the greater part of their vices originate in the vices of their government, while such virtues as they do possess proceed from qualities of the mind.� to this nice, but, as i think, entirely affected discrimination between the sources respectively of persian virtues and vices, it might be sufficient answer to point out that in �hajji baba� morier takes up the pen of the professional satirist, an instrument which no satirist worthy of the name from juvenal to swift has ever yet dipped in honey or in treacle alone. but a more candid and certainly a more amusing reply was that which morier himself received, after the publication of the book, from the persian envoy whom he had escorted to england. this was how the irritated ambassador wrote: �what for you write �hajji baba,� sir? king very angry, sir. i swear him you never write lies; but he say, yes--write. all people very angry with you, sir. that very bad book, sir. all lies, sir. who tell you all these lies, sir? what for you not speak to me? very bad business, sir. _persian people very bad people, perhaps, but very good to you, sir._ what for you abuse them so bad?� there is a world of unconscious admission in the sentence which i have italicised, and which may well stand in defence of morier�s caustic, but never malicious, satire. there is, however, to my mind, a deeper interest in the book than that which arises from its good-humoured flagellation of persian peccadilloes. just as no one who is unacquainted with the history and leading figures of the period can properly appreciate sir thomas more�s �utopia,� or �gulliver�s travels,� so no one who has not sojourned in persia, and devoted considerable study to contemporary events, can form any idea of the extent to which �hajji baba� is a picture of actual personages, and a record of veritable facts. it is no frolic of imaginative satire only; it is a historical document. the figures that move across the stage are not pasteboard creations, but the living personalities, disguised only in respect of their names, with whom morier was brought daily into contact while at tehran. the majority of the incidents so skilfully woven into the narrative of the hero�s adventures actually occurred, and can be identified by the student who is familiar with the incidents of the time. above all, in its delineation of national customs, the book is an invaluable contribution to sociology, and conveys a more truthful and instructive impression of persian habits, methods, points of view, and courses of action, than any disquisition of which i am aware in the more serious volumes of statesmen, travellers, and men of affairs. i will proceed to identify some of these personages and events. no more faithful portrait is contained in the book than that of the king, fath ali shah, the second of the kajar dynasty, and the great-grandfather of the reigning shah. his vanity and ostentation, his passion for money and for women, his love of flattery, his discreet deference, to the priesthood (illustrated by his annual pilgrimage, in the garb of penance, to the shrine of fatima at kum), his royal state, his jewels, and his ambrosial beard, form the background of every contemporary work, and are vividly reproduced in these pages. the royal processions, whether in semi-state when he visited the house of a subject, or in full state when he went abroad from the capital, and the annual departure of the royal household for the summer camp at sultanieh, are drawn from the life. under the present shah they have been shorn of a good deal of their former splendour. the grand vizier of the narrative, �that notorious minister, decrepit in person, and nefarious in conduct,� �a little old man, famous for a hard and unyielding nature,� was mirza sheffi who was appointed by fath ali shah to succeed if ibrahim, the minister to whom his uncle had owed his throne, and whom the nephew repaid by putting to death. the amin-ed-dowleh, or lord high treasurer, �a large, coarse man, and the son of a greengrocer of ispahan,� was mohammed hussein khan, the second personage of court. only a slight verbal change is needed to transform hajji baba�s master, mirza ahmak, the king�s chief physician into mirza ahmed, the _hakîm bashi_ of fath ali shah. namerd khan, the chief executioner, and subsequent chief of the hero, whose swaggering cowardice is so vividly depicted, was, in actual life, feraj ullah khan. the commander of the king�s camel corps, who had to give up his house to the british _elchi_, was mohammed khan. the poet laureate of the story, asker khan, shared the name of his sovereign, fath ali khan; and the story of his mouth being filled on one occasion with gold coins, and stuffed on another with sugar-candy, as a mark of the royal approbation, is true. the serdar of erivan, �an abandoned sensualist, but liberal and enterprising,� was one hassan khan; and the romantic tale of the armenians, yûsûf and mariam, down to the minutest details, such as the throwing of a hand-grenade into one of the subterranean dwellings of the armenians, and the escape of the girl by leaping from a window of the serdar�s palace at erivan, is a reproduction of incidents that actually occurred in the russo-persian war of that date. finally, mirza firouz khan, the persian envoy to great britain, and the hero of �hajji baba in england�, is a portrait of mirza abul hassan khan, a nephew of the former grand vizier, who visited london as the shah�s representative in - , and who was subsequently sent on a similar mission to petersburg. this individual made a considerable sensation in england by his excellent manners and witty retorts, among which one is worthy of being quoted that does not appear in morier�s pages. when asked by a lady in london whether they did not worship the sun in persia, he replied, �oh yes, madam, and so would you in england too, if you ever saw him!� the international politics of the time are not without their serious place in the pages of �hajji baba.� the french ambassador who is represented in chapter lxxiv. as retiring in disgrace from tehran, was napoleon�s emissary, general gardanne, who, after his master had signed the peace of tilsit with the tsar, found a very different estimate of the value of the french alliance entertained by the persian court. the english embassy, whose honorific reception is described in chapter lxxvii., was that of sir harford jones. the disputes about hats, and chairs, and stockings, and other points of divergence between english and persian etiquette, are historical; and a contemporary oil-painting of the first audience with the shah, as described by morier, still exists on the walls of the royal palace of negaristan in the persian capital. there may be seen the portraits of sir harford jones and sir john malcolm, as well as of general gardanne, grouped by a pardonable anachronism in the same picture. there is the king with his spider�s waist and his lordly beard; and there are the princes and the ministers of whom we have been reading. the philanthropic efforts of the englishmen to force upon the reluctant persians the triple boon of vaccination, post-mortem examinations, and potatoes, are also authentic. quite a number of smaller instances may be cited in which what appears only as an incident or an illustration in the story is in reality a historical fact. it is the case that the turcoman freebooters did on more than one occasion push their _alamans_ or raids as far even as ispahan. the tribe by whom hajji baba is taken captive in the opening chapters is seemingly rather the yomuts beyond atrek river than the tekke turcomans of akhal tekke. i have myself ridden over the road between abbasabad and shahrud, where they were in the habit of swooping down upon the defenceless and terror-stricken caravans; and the description of the panic which they created among vastly superior numbers of persians is in nowise exaggerated. the pillar of skulls which aga mohammed shah is represented as having erected in chapter vii. was actually raised by that truculent eunuch at bam in persian beluchistan, and was there noticed by an english traveller, sir henry pottinger, in . i have seen the story of the unhappy zeenab and her fate described a review of �hajji baba� as more characteristic of the seraglio at stamboul than of the harem at tehran. this is an ignorant remark; for this form of execution was more than once inflicted during the reign of fath ali shah. at shiraz there still exists a deep well in the mountain above city, down which, until recently, women convicted of adultery were hurled; and when i was at bokhara in there had, in the preceding year, been more than one case of execution by being thrown from the summit of the minari-kalan or great minaret. it is an interesting but now well-nigh forgotten fact that the christian dervish who is represented in chapter lix. as publicly disputing with the _mollahs_ in a _medresseh_ at ispahan, and as writing a refutation of the mohammedan creed, was no other than the famous henry martyn, who created a prodigious sensation by the fearlessness of his polemics while at shiraz, and who subsequently died at tokat, in asiatic turkey, in . the incidental mention of the great diamond or �mountain of light� that was worn by fath ali shah in one of his _bazubands_ or armlets, though historically inaccurate, is also of interest to english readers; since the jewel alluded to is the daria-i-nur or sea of light, the sister-stone to the koh-i-nur or mountain of light, which, in the previous century, had been carried from persia to afghanistan, and in this century passed through the hands of runjit singh, the lion of the punjab, into the regalia of the british crown. the �sea of light� is still at tehran. in two respects the persia of �hajji baba� differs notably from the persia of to-day. the national, and still more the court dress, as depicted by him, have been considerably modified. the kashmir shawls and turbans, and the red-cloth gaiters, which were _de rigueur_ at the court of fath ali shah, are now only seen at the _salams_ or official levees of nasr-ed-din shah. nor does the young dandy of modern tehran wear the lofty black sheepskin _kolah_ or hat, indented at the top and stuck on sideways, as described by morier. a lower and less pretentious variety of the same head-gear adorns the brow of the _fin de siècle_ iranian gallant. secondly, the tehran of �hajji baba� has been transmogrified almost out of existence; and, in particular, the fortified ark or palace of the earlier kajars, with its watch-towers and the open porch over the gates in which the king sat to see reviews, and the lofty octagonal tower from which zeenab was thrown, have been entirely obliterated in the more spacious architectural reconstruction of the reigning shah. unchanged, however, are those customs by which now, as then, the royal coffers require to be replenished or the royal purse relieved by the application of a judicious spur to the backward generosity of the subjects of the king of kings. still, as described in �hajji baba,� is the visit of the sovereign to any of his officials the recognised intimation that a large money equivalent is expected for the unsolicited honour. still must the presents of the king be repaid by gifts of more than corresponding value to the bearers of the royal favour. still is the sending of the royal _khalat_ or dress of office adopted as an ingenious method of discharging the arrears of wages due to the royal ministers or servants. in chapter xxxiii. the sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner gives an admirable account, as true now as when penned, of the methods by which salaries are capable of being recruited in persia; and the speech of the grand vizier in chapter lxxviii., on political morality as interpreted in that country, would, i am confident, have been enthusiastically re-echoed by every subsequent incumbent of that high office. the art, however, in which morier especially excels is of introducing, so to speak by a side wind, as a subordinate incident in the narrative, or as a spontaneous comment on the lips of the various _dramatis personae_, informing and luminous knowledge upon the local charactistics of places, or the social customs of peoples. for instance, he takes advantage of being at meshed to bring in the passion-play of hussein, as annually enacted by the shiah mohammedans in the month of moharrem; of mentioning herat to introduce the _bad-i-sad-o-bist-ruz_ or famous �wind of days�; of conducting his hero to kum, to describe the curious prescription of _bast_ or sanctuary that still adheres to that sacred spot; and of his arrival at bagdad, to inflict upon him the familiar pest of the bagdad pimple. his description of camp-life among the turcomans is only surpassed in fidelity by his corresponding picture of the vagrant existence of the border cûrds; nor is there anywhere to be found a more dramatic realisation of the incidents of a nomad encampment, the arrangement and meals and etiquette, the striking of the tents, and the straggling march of the tribes with their flocks and herds, than in the narrative of the child-hood of the cûrdish slave zeenab. it is to be noted that morier represents her as a yezeedi or devil-worshipper (though it is more than doubtful whether the yezeedis could ever with justice be so described), and attributes her origin to one of the incestuous nocturnal orgies that were said to be practised by that people, and that gave rise to the epithet chiragh sunderun, or lamp extinguishers. it is to be observed, however, that in such a case zeenab would have known her parentage on the maternal rather than on the paternal side; whereas morier, by a curious error, represents her as knowing her father, but being in ignorance of the identity of her mother. in different chapters of �hajji baba� we are further initiated into the domestic life and habits of the persians. we learn that it is considered a mark of respect for a man to keep his hands and feet hidden beneath the folds of his dress. in two places we have mention of the profoundly persian device of conforming with the letter, while trifling with the spirit of the religious law, by neatly ripping open a seam as a substitute for rending the fabric of a garment in token of woe. we are reminded of the prohibition from exacting interest that is imposed upon the true believer, and of the still common custom of divination by extracting a _fall_ from the pages of hafiz or saadi. we may gain a good deal of information about the culinary methods of turcomans, persians, and cûrds; the operations of the _hammam_ or bath are disclosed to us, and we are surreptitously introduced along with the hero to the mysteries the persian harem or _anderûn_, and its petty existence, inane frivolity, open jealousy, and clandestine intrigue. the death and funeral of the old barber provide an opportunity for a valuable account of persian customs upon those occasions. similarly the story of yûsûf and mariam is utilised to furnish an equally interesting description of the armenian ritual in cases of betrothal and marriage. incidentally the return of the poet asker from his captivity among the turcomans acquaints us with the curious habit of bringing back a person supposed to be dead, not by the door, but through the roof; and when hajji baba, from the terrace of the doctor�s house, listens to �the distant din of the king�s band, the crash of the drums, and the swell of the trumpets, announcing sunset,� he is alluding to a custom that has prevailed for centuries in all the mohammedan courts of central asia and india, that is supposed to be a relic of extinct sun-worship, and that is still observed in seats of royal or princely rule, alike at tehran, ispahan and kabul. mention should not be omitted, in passing, of the perfect familiarity of the author both with cultured and colloquial persian and with the persian classics. an oriental metaphor, however hyperbolical, slips as easily from his lips as though it had always rested there. quotations from hafiz and saadi play as large and as apposite a part in his dialogue as they do to this day in the conversation of any well-educated asiatic who has been brought up in countries where persian is the language of literature and fashion. no one who has not been in the east can fully appreciate the talent for self-detachment and for successful assimilation of an alien mode of thought and expression which such an exercise demands. nor, though this is beside the main purpose of the work, should we shut our eyes to the side-lights which are thrown upon foreign nations; and which, while they lend additional testimony to the insight of the writer, are invaluable as showing the point of view from which european institutions and customs were then and are still for the most part regarded by the asiatic mussulman. how amusing is the description, placed in chapter xix., in the mouth of the chief physician, of the main external differences between persians and europeans, and in the ensuing chapter, of the contemporary costume, regarded by the persians as so improper, of the english doctor who came in the train of sir harford jones. in those days the only feringhis known to the persians were the english, the russians, and the french; and it no doubt was a matter of genuine surprise to the persian ambassador to find when he arrived at constantinople that the franks consisted of many nations with as many kings. the persians were particularly concerned to find out the truth about �the infidel boonapoort,� whose career they much admired from its supposed resemblance to that of their own hero nadir shah. nor is there less humour in hajji baba�s attempt to make progress in the study of their language by writing down the words that he heard most frequently in the conversation of the french envoys, viz. sacré, paris, and l�empereur. that the persian court was thoroughly alive to the jealous and interested struggle of the two powers, england and france, to acquire political ascendency at tehran, is sufficiently evident from the history of the period, but is admirably illustrated by the diplomatic argument placed in chapter lxxvi in the mouth of fath ali shah. finally, can a pupil of party government, and much more a member of the house of commons, read without a delicious emotion this description of the system under which is conducted the government of the greatest empire in the world?-- �then they have certain houses full of madmen, who meet half the year round for the purpose of quarrelling. if one set says white, the other cries black; and they throw more words away in settling a common question than would suffice one of our _muftis_ during a whole reign. in short, nothing can be settled in the state, be it only whether a rebellious aga is to have his head cut off and his property confiscated, or some such trifle, until these people have wrangled.� such are among the many merits of this admirable, and, i would fain add, immortal book. even were the persians be blotted out of existence as a nation, even though tehran, and meshed, and shiraz were to share the fate of persepolis and susa, it would yet remain as a portrait of unrivalled humour and accuracy of a people who, though now in their decadence, have played an immense and still play a not wholly insignificant part in the complex drama of asiatic politics. it is the picture of a people, light-hearted, nimble-witted, and volatile, but subtle, hypocritical, and insincere; metaphysicians and casuists, courtiers and rogues, gentlemen and liars, _hommes d�esprit_ and yet incurable cowards. to explain the history and to elucidate the character of this composite people great tomes have been written. i am conscious myself of having added no inconsiderable quota to their bulk; but if all this solid literature were to be burned by an international hangman to-morrow, and were �hajji baba� and the �sketches� of sir john malcolm alone to survive, i believe that the future diplomatist or traveller who visited persia, or the scholar who explored it from a distance, would from their pages derive more exact information about persian manners, and acquire a surer insight into persian character, than he would gain from years of independent study or months of local residence. together the two works are an epitome of modern and moribund iran. george n. curzon. contents chapter i of hajji baba�s birth and education. chapter ii hajji baba commences his travels--his encounter with the turcomans, and his captivity. chapter iii into what hands hajji baba falls, and the fortune which his razors proved to him. chapter iv of his ingenuity in rescuing his master�s money from the turcoman, and of his determination to keep it. chapter v hajji baba becomes a robber in his own defence, and invades his native city. chapter vi concerning the three prisoners taken by the turcomans, and of the booty made in the caravanserai. chapter vii hajji baba evinces a feeling disposition--history of the poet asker. chapter viii hajji baba escapes from the turcomans--the meaning of �falling from the frying-pan into the fire� illustrated. chapter ix hajji baba, in his distress, becomes a saka, or water-carrier. chapter x he makes a soliloquy, and becomes an itinerant vendor of smoke. chapter xi history of dervish sefer, and of two other dervishes. chapter xii hajji baba finds that fraud does not remain unpunished, even in this world--he makes fresh plans. chapter xiii hajji baba leaves meshed, is cured of his sprain, and relates a story. chapter xiv of the man he meets, and the consequences of the encounter. chapter xv hajji baba reaches tehran, and goes to the poet�s house. chapter xvi he makes plans for the future, and is involved in a quarrel. chapter xvii he puts on new clothes, goes to the bath, and appears in a new character. chapter xviii the poet returns from captivity--the consequences of it for hajji baba. chapter xix hajji baba gets into the service of the king�s physician--of the manner he was first employed by him. chapter xx he succeeds in deceiving two of the faculty, getting a pill from one, and a piece of gold from the other. chapter xxi he describes the manner in which the shah of persia takes medicine. chapter xxii hajji baba asks the doctor for a salary, and of the success of his demand. chapter xxiii he becomes dissatisfied with his situation, is idle, and falls in love chapter xxiv he has an interview with the fair zeenab, who relates how she passes her time in the doctor�s harem. chapter xxv the lovers meet again, and are very happy--hajji baba sings. chapter xxvi the history of zeenab, the cûrdish slave. chapter xxvii of the preparations made by the chief physician to receive the shah as his guest, and of the great expense which threatened him. chapter xxviii concerning the manner of the shah�s reception; of the present made him, and the conversation which ensued. chapter xxix a description of the entertainment, which is followed by an event destructive to hajji baba�s happiness. chapter xxx hajji baba meets with a rival in the shah himself, and loses the fair object of his affections. chapter xxxi his reflections on the loss of zeenab--he is suddenly called upon to exert his skill as a doctor. chapter xxxii hajji is appointed to a situation under government--he becomes an executioner. chapter xxxiii he accompanies the shah to his camp, and gets some insight into his profession. chapter xxxiv employed in his official capacity, hajji baba gives a specimen of persian despotism. chapter xxxv fortune, which pretended to frown, in fact smiles upon hajji baba, and promotes him to be sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner. chapter xxxvi although by trade an executioner, he shows a feeling heart--he meets with a young man and woman in distress. chapter xxxvii the history of yûsûf, the armenian, and his wife mariam. chapter xxxviii sequel of the foregoing history, and of the resolution which hajji baba takes in consequence. chapter xxxix the armenian yûsûf proves himself worthy of hajji baba�s confidence. chapter xl hajji baba gives an account of his proceedings to his superiors, and shows himself a friend to the distressed. chapter xli he describes an expedition against the russians, and does ample justice to the cowardice of his chief. chapter xlii he proceeds to the king�s camp, and gives a specimen of lying on a grand scale. chapter xliii he relates a horrid tale, the consequences of which plunge him in the greatest misery. chapter xliv hajji baba meets with an old friend, who cheers him up, gives him good advice, and secures him from danger. chapter xlv he takes refuge in a sanctuary, where his melancholy thoughts are diverted by a curious story. chapter xlvi he becomes a saint, and associates with the most celebrated divine in persia. chapter xlvii hajji baba is robbed by his friend, and left utterly destitute; but is released from his confinement. chapter xlviii hajji baba reaches ispahan, and his paternal roof, just time enough to close the eyes of his dying father. chapter xlix he becomes heir to property which is not to be found, and his suspicions thereon. chapter l showing the steps he takes to discover his property, and who the diviner, teez negah, was. chapter li of the diviner�s success in making discoveries, and of the resolution which hajji baba takes in consequence. chapter lii hajji baba quits his mother, and becomes the scribe to a celebrated man of the law. chapter liii the mollah nadân gives an account of his new scheme for raising money, and for making men happy. chapter liv hajji baba becomes a promoter of matrimony, and of the register he keeps. chapter lv of the man hajji baba meets, thinking him dead; and of the marriage which he brings about. chapter lvi showing how the ambition of the mollah nadân involves both him and his disciples in ruin. chapter lvii hajji baba meets with an extraordinary adventure in the bath, which miraculously saves him from the horrors of despair. chapter lviii of the consequences of the adventure, which threaten danger, but end in apparent good fortune. chapter lix hajji baba does not shine in honesty--the life and adventures of the mollah nadân. chapter lx hajji and the mollah make plans suited to their critical situation, showing that no confidence can exist between rogues. chapter lxi the punishment due to hajji baba falls upon nadân, which makes the former a staunch predestinarian. chapter lxii hajji baba hears an extraordinary sequel to his adventure in the bath, and feels all the alarms of guilt. chapter lxiii he is discovered and seized, but his good stars again befriend and set him free. chapter lxiv he reaches bagdad, meets his first master, and turns his views to commerce. chapter lxv he purchases pipe-sticks, and inspires a hopeless passion in the breast of his old master�s daughter. chapter lxvi he becomes a merchant, leaves bagdad, and accompanies a caravan to constantinople. chapter lxvii hajji baba makes a conquest of the widow of an emir, which at first alarms, but afterwards elates him. chapter lxviii he obtains an interview with the fair shekerleb, makes a settlement upon her, and becomes her husband. chapter lxix from a vender of pipe-sticks he becomes a rich aga, but feels all the inconvenience of supporting a false character. chapter lxx his desire to excite envy lays the foundation of his disgrace--he quarrels with his wife. chapter lxxi he is discovered to be an impostor, loses his wife, and the wide world is again before him. chapter lxxii an incident in the street diverts his despair--he seeks consolation in the advice of old osman. chapter lxxiii in endeavouring to gain satisfaction from his enemies he acquires a friend--some account of mirza firouz. chapter lxxiv he becomes useful to an ambassador, who makes him a partaker of his confidence. chapter lxxv of his first essays in public life, and of the use he was to his employer. chapter lxxvi hajji baba writes the history of europe and with his ambassador returns to persia. chapter lxxvii the ceremony of receiving a frank ambassador at the court is described. chapter lxxviii hajji is noticed by the grand vizier, and is the means of gratifying that minister�s favourite passion. chapter lxxix of the manner in which he turned his influence to use, and how he was again noticed by the vizier. chapter lxxx the conclusion--misfortune seems to take leave of hajji baba, who returns to his native city a greater man than when he first left. list of illustrations hajji shaves the camel-driver. the chaoûsh tells what he will do when he meets the robbers. hajji�s master and the great turkoman. hajji baba bleeds the banou. turcomans attack the caravanserai. the prince�s tent-pitcher strikes hajji over the mouth with his slipper. hajji carries the great water-sack. the dervish slays the ape. hajji and the disguised mohtesib. hajji receives the ferosles. hajji is cauterised for his sprain. the shaving of the ass. �i pretended to receive a violent twitch.� hajji and zeenab. hajji sings to zeenab. the khanum ill-treats zeenab. the procession of slaves before the shah. �an explosion took place in the very room.� �i beheld her fair form in the air, falling down the giddy height.� the two russians drive back the persians. death of zeenab. hajji takes sanctuary. the baked head. ��o mercy! mercy!� cried kior ali.� �to where the dead body of a jew lay extended.� hajji�s father dying. the diviner and the rice. hajji interviews the fair candidates for marriage. the mock marriage. the degradation of hajji and the mollah. drowning of the mollah bashi. hajji in the mollah bashi�s house. hajji leaves the village hurriedly after collecting the money. hajji meets osman aga again. the curing of hajji baba. shekerleb approaches hajji. hajji curses shekerleb and her relations. hajji disrobes. hajji relates his story to mirza firouz. the british ambassadors and the shah. introductory epistle to the rev. dr. fundgruben chaplain to the swedish embassy at the ottoman porte esteemed and learned sir, you will be astonished to see yourself addressed by one, of whose existence you are, perhaps, ignorant, and whose name doubtless long since been erased from your memory. but when i put you in mind of an english traveller, who (forgive my precision) sixteen years ago was frequently admitted to enjoy the pleasure of your conversation, and who was even honoured with a peculiar share of your attention, perhaps then you may indulgently recollect him, and patiently submit to peruse the following volumes, to which he now takes the liberty of prefixing your name. at the time to which i allude, your precious hours were employed in searching into the very depths of hieroglyphic lore, and you were then almost entirely taken up in putting together the fruits of those your researches, which have since appeared, and astonished the world in that very luminous work, entitled �the biography of celebrated mummies.� i have frequently since reflected upon the debt of gratitude which you imposed by allowing me to engross so much of your time, and upon matters of comparatively trivial importance, when your mind must have been so much engaged upon those grave and weighty subjects, which you have treated with such vast learning, clearness, and perspicuity in your above-mentioned treatise. in particular i have ever borne in mind a conversation when one beautiful moonlight night, reclining upon a sofa of the swedish palace, and looking out of those windows which command so magnificent and extensive a view of the city and harbour of constantinople, we discussed subjects which had reference to the life and manners of the extraordinary people its inhabitants. excuse me for reporting back your own words; but as the subject interested me much, i recollect well the observation you made, that no traveller had ever satisfied you in his delineation of asiatic manners; �for,� said you, �in in general their mode of treating the subject is by sweeping assertions, which leave no precise image on the mind, or by disjointed and insulated facts, which, for the most part, are only of consequence as they relate to the individual traveller himself.� we were both agreed, that of all the books which have ever been published on the subject, the �arabian nights� entertainments� give the truest picture of the orientals, and that, for the best of all reasons, because it is the work of one of their own community. �but,� said you, �notwithstanding they have been put into an european dress, weeded of their numerous repetitions, and brought as near to the level of our ideas as can be, still few would be likely to understand them thoroughly who have not lived some time in the east, and who have not had frequent opportunities of associating with its inhabitants. for,� you added, opening a volume of that work at the same time, �to make a random observation upon the first instance which occurs here in the history of the three calendars, i see that anima, after having requested the porter whom she had met to follow her with his basket, stopped at a closed door, and having rapped, a christian with a long white beard opened it, into whose hand she put some money without saying a single word. but the christian, who knew what she wanted, went in again, and a little while after returned, bringing a large pitcher full of excellent wine.� you observed, �that although we who lived in turkey might know that wine was in most cities prohibited to be sold openly, and that if it was to be found it would be in the house of a christian, many of whom disposed of it in a mysterious manner to the mohammedans; yet that circumstance would not immediately occur to the mere european reader, who, perhaps, would expect something to be forthcoming in the future narrative, from what is, in fact, only a trait of common life.� i then suggested, that, perhaps, if an european would give a correct idea of oriental manners, which would comprehend an account of the vicissitudes attendant upon the life of an eastern, of his feelings about his government, of his conduct in domestic life, of his hopes and plans of advancement, of his rivalities and jealousies, in short, of everything that is connected both with the operations of the mind and those of the body, perhaps his best method would be to collect so many facts and anecdotes of actual life as would illustrate the different stations and ranks which compose a mussulman community, and then work them into one connected narrative, upon the plan of that excellent picture of european life, �gil blas� of le sage. to this you were pleased to object, because you deemed it almost impossible that an european, even supposing him to have rejected his own faith and adopted the mohammedan, as in the case of monsieur de bonneval, who rose to high rank in the turkish government, and of messrs. c---- and b---- in more modern times (the former a _topchi bashi_, or general of artillery, the latter an attendant upon the capitan pasha), could ever so exactly seize those nice shades and distinctions of purpose, in action and manner, which a pure asiatic only could. to support your argument, you illustrated it by observing, that neither education, time, nor talent, could ever give to a foreigner, in any given country, so complete a possession of its language as to make him pass for a native; and that, do what he would, some defect in idiom, or even some too great precision in grammar, would detect him. �but,� said you, �if a native oriental could ever be brought to understand so much of the taste of europeans, in investigations of this nature, as to write a full and detailed history of his own life, beginning with his earliest education, and going through to its decline, we might then stand a chance of acquiring the desired knowledge. this conversation, reverend sir, has remained treasured up in my mind; for having lived much in eastern countries, i never lost sight of the possibility of either falling in with a native who might have written his own adventures, or of forming such an intimacy with one, as might induce him faithfully to recite them, and thus afford materials for the work which my imagination had fondly conceived might be usefully put together. i have always held in respect most of the customs and habits of the orientals, many of which, to the generality of europeans, appear so ridiculous and disgusting, because i have ever conceived them to be copies of ancient originals. for, who can think the custom of eating with one�s fingers disgusting, as now done in the east, when two or more put their hands into the same mess, and at the same time read that part of our sacred history which records, �he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,� etc.? i must own, every time that, dining with my eastern friends, i performed this very natural operation (although, at the same time, let it be understood that i have a great respect for knives and forks), i could not help feeling myself to be a living illustration of an ancient custom, and a proof of the authenticity of those records upon which our happiness depends. whenever i heard the exclamation so frequently used in persia, on the occasion of little miseries, �what ashes are fallen on my head!� instead of seeing anything ridiculous in the expression, i could not but meditate on the coincidence which so forcibly illustrated one of the commonest expressions of grief as recorded in ancient writ. it is an ingenious expression which i owe to you, sir, that the manners of the east are, as it were, stereotype. although i do not conceive that they are quite so strongly marked, yet, to make my idea understood, i would say that they are like the last impressions taken from a copperplate engraving, where the whole of the subject to be represented is made out, although parts of it from much use have been obliterated. if i may be allowed the expression, a picturesqueness pervades the whole being of asiatics, which we do not find in our own countries, and in my eyes makes everything relating to them so attractive as to create a desire to impart to others the impressions made upon myself. thus, in viewing a beautiful landscape, the traveller, be he a draughtsman or not, _tant bien que mal_, endeavours to make a representation of it; and thus do i apologise for venturing before the public even in the character of a humble translator. impressed with such feelings you may conceive the fulness of my joy, when not very long after the conversation above mentioned, having returned to england, i was fortunate enough to be appointed to fill an official situation in the suite of an ambassador, which our government found itself under the necessity of sending to the shah of persia. persia, that imaginary seat of oriental splendour! that land of poets and roses! that cradle of mankind, that uncontaminated source of eastern manners lay before me, and i was delighted with the opportunities which would be afforded me of pursuing my favourite subject. i had an undefined feeling about the many countries i was about to visit, which filled my mind with vast ideas of travel. �sive per syrtes iter aestuosas, sive facturus per inhospitalem caucasum, vel quae loca fabulosus lambit hydaspes.� i was in some degree like a french lady of my acquaintance, who had so general a notion of the east, that upon taking leave of her, she enjoined me to get acquainted with a friend of hers, living, as she said, _quelque part dans les indes_, and whom, to my astonishment, i found residing at the _cape of good hope!_ i will not say that all my dreams were realised; for, perhaps, no country in the world less comes up to one�s expectation than persia, whether in the beauties of nature, or the dress and magnificence of its inhabitants. but in what regards manners and customs, it appears to me that no asiatics bear so strong the stamp of an ancient origin as they. even in their features i thought to have distinguished a decided originality of expression; which was confirmed when i remarked, that the numerous faces seen among the sculptures of persepolis, so perfect as if chiselled but yesterday, were so many likenesses of modern persians, more particularly of the natives of the province of fars. during my long residence there, i never lost the recollection of our conversation on the sofa of the swedish palace; and every time i added an anecdote or an observation illustrative of oriental manners to my store, or a sketch to my collection, i always thought of the reverend doctor fundgruben, and sighed after that imaginary manuscript which some imaginary native of the east must have written as a complete exposition of the life of his countrymen. i will not say, learned sir, that the years i passed in persia were years of happiness, or that during that time i could so far keep up an illusion, that i was living among the patriarchs in the first ages of the world, or among those persians whose monarchs gave laws to almost the whole of asia: no, i sighed for shaven chins and swallow-tailed coats; and, to speak the truth, though addressing an antiquary of your celebrity, i felt that i would rather be one among the crowd in the graben at vienna, or in our own bond street, than at liberty to range in the ease of solitude among the ruins of the palaces of darius. at length the day of my departure came, and i left persia with books filled with remarks, and portfolios abounding in original sketches. my ideas during the journey were wholly taken up with schemes for the future, and, perhaps, like every other traveller, i nourished a sort of sly and secret conviction that i had seen and observed things which no one before me had ever done; and that when i came to publish to the world the fruits of my discoveries, i should create a sensation equal at least to the discovery of a new planet. i passed at the foot of the venerable mount ararat, and was fortunate enough to meet with a favourable moment for traversing the cold regions of arminia, _�nec armeniis in oris stat glacies iners menses per omnes�_; and i crossed the dangerous borders of turkey and persia without any event occurring worthy of record. but i must request your indulgent attention to what befell me at tocat; for it is to that occurrence you are indebted for this letter, and the world for the accompanying volume. it was at the close of a fatiguing days journey, that i and my escort, consisting of two tatars, two servants, and the conductors of our baggage and post-horses, entered the city of tocat. our approach was as usual announced by the howls of the _surujees_, who more than usually exerted their lungs in my service, because they felt that these sounds, the harbingers of rest and entertainment, could but be agreeable to weary and jaded travellers like ourselves. the moon was shining bright as our cavalcade clattered over the long paved road leading to the city, and lighted up, in awful grandeur, the turret-topped peaks which rear their heads on the crest of the surrounding abrupt crags. on entering the post-house, i was immediately conducted into the travellers� room, where, having disencumbered myself of my cloak, arms, and heavy boots, and putting myself at ease in my slippers and loose dress, i quietly enjoyed, the cup of strong coffee and the _chibouk_, which were immediately handed to me, and after that my dish of rice, my tough fowl, and my basin of sour curds. i was preparing to take my night�s rest on the sofas of the post-house, where my bed had been spread, when a stranger unceremoniously walked into the room, and stood before me. i remarked that he was a persian, and, by his dress, a servant. at any other moment i should have been happy to see and converse with him; because having lived so long in persia, i felt myself, in some measure, identified with its natives, and now in a country where both nations were treated with the same degree of contempt, my fellow-feeling for them became infinitely stronger. i discovered that he had a tale of misery to unfold, from the very doleful face that he was pleased to make on the occasion, and i was not mistaken. it was this,--that his master, one mirza hajji baba, now on his return from constantinople, where he had been employed on the shah�s business, had fallen seriously ill, and that he had been obliged to stop at tocat; that he had taken up his abode at the caravanserai, where he had already spent a week, during which time he had been attended by a frank doctor, an inhabitant of tocat, who, instead of curing, had, in fact, brought him to his last gasp,--that having heard of my arrival from persia, he had brightened up and requested, without loss of time, that i would call upon him, for he was sure the presence of one coming from his own country would alone restore him to health. in short, his servant, as is usual on such occasions, finished his speech by saying, that, with the exception of god and myself, he had nothing left to depend upon in this life. i immediately recollected who mirza hajji baba was; for though i had lost sight of him for several years, yet once on a time i had seen much of him, and had taken great interest in everything that regarded him, owing to his having been in england, whither, in quality of secretary, he accompanied the first ambassador which persia had sent in modern times. he had since been employed in various ways in the government, sometimes in high, and sometimes in lower situations, undergoing the vicissitudes which are sure to attend every persian; and at length had been sent to constantinople, as resident agent at the porte on the part of the shah. i did not hesitate an instant, tired and jaded as i was, immediately to accompany his servant; and in the same garb in which i was, only throwing a cloak over my shoulders, i walked in all haste to the caravanserai. there, on a bed spread in the middle of a small room, surrounded by several of his servants, i found the sick mirza, looking more like a corpse than a living body. when i had first known him he was a remarkably handsome man, with a fine aquiline nose, oval face, an expressive countenance, and a well-made person. he had now passed the meridian of life, but his features were still fine, and his eye full of fire. as soon as he saw he recognised me, and the joy which he felt at the meeting broke out in a great animation of his features, and in the thousand exclamations so common to a persian�s lips. �see,� said he, �what a fortunate destiny mine is, that at a moment when i thought the angel of death was about to seize me for his own, the angel of life comes and blows a fresh existence into my nostrils.� after his first transports were over, i endeavoured to make him explain what was the nature of his complaint, and how it had hitherto been treated. i saw enough by his saffron hue, that bile was the occasion of his disorder; and, as i had had great experience in treating it during my stay in persia, i did not hesitate to cheer up his hopes by an assurance of being able to relieve him. �what can i say?� said he. �i thought at first that i had been struck with the plague. my head ached intensely, my eyes became dim, i had a pain in my side, and a nauseous taste in my mouth, and expected to die on the third day; but no, the symptoms still continue, and i am alive. as soon as i arrived here, i enquired for a physician, and was told there were two practitioners in the town, a jew and a frank. of course i chose the latter; but �tis plain, that my evil star had a great deal to say in the choice i made. i have not yet been able to discover to what tribe among the franks he belongs,--certainly he is not an englishman. but a more extraordinary ass never existed in this world, be his nation what it may. i began by telling him that i was very, very ill. all he said in answer, with a grave face, was �_mashallah!_ praise be to god!� and when, in surprise and rage, i cried out, �but i shall die, man!� with the same grave face, he said, �_inshallah!_ please god!� my servants were about to thrust him from the room, when they found that he knew nothing of our language excepting these two words, which he had only learnt to misapply. supposing that he still might know something of his profession, i agreed to take his medicine; but i might have saved myself the trouble, for i have been daily getting worse.� here the mirza stopped to take breath. i did not permit him to exert himself further; but, without loss of time, returned the post-house, applied to my medicine-chest, and prepared a dose of calomel, which was administered that evening with due solemnity. i then retired to rest. the next morning i repaired to his bedside, and there, to my great satisfaction, found that my medicine had performed wonders. the patient�s eyes were opened, the headache had in great measure ceased, and he was, in short, a different person. i was received by him and his servants with all the honours due to the greatest sage, and they could not collect words sufficiently expressive of their admiration of my profound skill. as they were pouring forth their thanks and gratitude, looking up i saw a strange figure in the room, whose person i must take the liberty to describe, so highly ludicrous and extravagant did it appear. he was of the middle size, rather inclined to be corpulent, with thick black eyebrows, dark eyes, a three days� beard, and mustachios. he wore the turkish bag dress, from his shoulders downwards, yellow _pabouches_, shawl to his waist, and carried a long cane in his hand; but from his shoulders up he was an european, a neckcloth, his hair dressed in the _aile de pigeon_ fashion, a thick tail clubbed, and over all an old-fashioned, three-cornered laced hat. this redoubtable personage made me a bow, and at the same time accosted me in italian. i was not long in discovering that he was my rival the doctor, and that he was precisely what, from the description of the mirza, i expected him to be, viz. an itinerant quack, who, perhaps, might once have mixed medicines in some apothecary�s shop in italy or constantinople, and who had now set up for himself in this remote corner of asia where he might physic and kill at his pleasure. i did not shrink from his acquaintance, because i was certain that the life and adventures of such a person must be highly curious and entertaining, and i cordially encouraged him in his advances, hoping thus to acquire his confidence. he very soon informed me who he was, and what were his pursuits, and did not seem to take the least umbrage at my having prescribed for his patient without previously consulting him. his name was ludovico pestello, and he pretended to have studied at padua, where he had got his diploma. he had not long arrived at constantinople, with the intention of setting up for himself, where, finding that the city overflowed with esculapii, he was persuaded to accompany a pasha of two tails to tocat, who had recently been appointed to its government, and was there now established as his body physician. i suspected this story to be fabrication, and undertook to examine his knowledge of physic, particularly in the case of my friend the persian mirza. the galimatia which he unfolded, as we proceeded, was so extremely ridiculous, and he puzzled himself so entirely by his answers to the plain questions which i put, that at length, not being able to proceed, he joined, with the best good-nature possible, in the horse-laugh, from which i could not refrain. i made him candidly confess that he knew nothing of medicine, more than having been servant to a doctor of some eminence at padua, where he had picked up a smattering; and that, as all his patients were heretics and abominable mussulmans, he never could feel any remorse for those which, during his practice, he had despatched from this world. �but, _caro signor dottore_,� said i, �how in the name of all that is sacred, how have you managed hitherto not to have had your bones broken? turks are dangerous tools to play with.� �oh,� said he, in great unconcern, �the turks believe anything, and i take care never to give them medicine that can do harm.� �but you must have drugs, and you must apply them,� said i. �where are they?� �i have different coloured liquids,� said he, �and as long as there is bread and water to be had i am never at a loss for a pill. i perform all my cures with them, accompanied by the words _inshallah_ and _mashallah_!� �bread and water! wonderful!� did i exclaim. �_signor, si_,� said he, �i sprinkle my pills with a little flour for the common people, cover them with gold leaf for my higher patients, the agas and the pasha, and they all swallow them without even a wry face.� i was so highly amused by the account which this extraordinary fellow gave of himself, of the life he led, and of the odd adventures which he had met with, that i invited him to dine; and were it not for the length which this letter has already run, i should, perhaps, have thought it right to make partake of my entertainment by retailing his narrative. i repaid him, as he said, over and above, by presents from my medicine-chest, which he assured me would be plentifully sufficient to administer relief to the whole of asia minor. i could not think of leaving the poor persian in such hands; and feeling that i might be the means of saving his life, i determined to remain at tocat until i saw him out of danger. after three days� administration of calomel, hajji baba�s complexion was nearly restored to its original hue; and as he might now be said to be free from danger, and in a fair way of recovery, i proposed proceeding on my journey. the poor man could not find words for the expression of his gratitude, and i saw that he was labouring hard to discover a present worthy of my acceptance. at length, just before taking my leave, he desired his servants to leave us alone, and spoke to me in the following words:-- �you have saved my life; you are my old friend and my deliverer. what can i do to show my gratitude? of worldly goods i have but few: it is long since i have received any salary from my government, and the little money i have here will barely suffice, to take me to my own country. besides, i know the english,--they are above such considerations; it would be in vain to offer them a pecuniary reward. but i have that by me which, perhaps, may have some value in your eyes; i can assure you that it has in mine. ever since i have known your nation, i have remarked their inquisitiveness, and eagerness after knowledge. whenever i have travelled with them, i observed they record their observations in books; and when they return home, thus make their fellow-countrymen acquainted with the most distant regions of the globe. will you believe me, that i, persian as i am, have followed their example; and that during the period of my residence at constantinople, i have passed my time in writing a detailed history of my life, which, although that of a very obscure and ordinary individual, is still so full of vicissitude and adventure, that i think it would not fail to create an interest if published in europe? i offer it to you; and in so doing, i assure you that i wish to show you the confidence i place in your generosity, for i never would have offered it to any one else. will you accept it?� conceive, my dear sir, conceive my happiness upon hearing this--upon at length getting into my possession precisely the sort of work which you so long since had looked upon as a desideratum in the history of mankind, and which i had utterly despaired of ever seeing in reality. my eyes, i am sure, glistened with pleasure when i expressed my sense of the mirza�s liberality; and as fast as i refused his offer (for i thought it but generous to do so upon the terms he proposed), the more he pressed it upon me. as a further inducement, he said, that he was going back to his country, uncertain if he enjoyed the favour of the shah; and as he had freely expressed his sentiments, which included his observations upon england, he was afraid, should he be in disgrace, and his work be found upon him, that it might lead to his destruction. unable to withstand these entreaties, i at length acceded to his request, and became the possessor of the manuscript. it forms the subject of the following work; and tell me, can i dedicate it to any but him who first awakened my mind to its value? if you will do me the favour to peruse it, you will find i have done my best endeavour to adapt it to the taste of european readers, divesting it of the numerous repetitions, and the tone of exaggeration and hyperbole which pervade the compositions of the easterns; but still you will, no doubt, discover much of that deviation from truth, and perversion of chronology, which characterise them. however, of the matter contained in the book, this i must say, that having lived in the country myself during the time to which it refers, i find that most of the incidents are grounded upon fact, which, although not adhered to with that scrupulous regard to truth which we might expect from an european writer, yet are sufficient to give an insight into manners. many of them will, no doubt, appear improbable to those who have never visited the scenes upon which they were acted; and it is natural it should be so, because, from the nature of circumstances, such events could only occur in eastern countries. a distinct line must ever be drawn between �the nations who wear the hat and those who wear the beard�; and they must ever hold each other�s stories as improbable, until a more general intercourse of common life takes place between them. what is moral and virtuous with the one, is wickedness with the other,--that which the christian reviles as abominable, is by the mohammedan held sacred. although the contrast between their respective manners may be very amusing, still it is most certain that the former will ever feel devoutly grateful that he is neither subject to mohammedan rule, nor educated in mohammedan principles; whilst the latter, in his turn, looking upon the rest of mankind as unclean infidels, will continue to hold fast to his bigoted persuasion, until some powerful interposition of providence shall dispel the moral and intellectual darkness which, at present, overhangs so large a portion of the asiatic world. fearing to increase the size of the work, i have refrained adding the numerous notes which my long residence in persia would have enabled me to do, and have only occasionally made explanations necessary to understand the narrative. in the same fear, i have not ventured to take hajji out of his own country. his remarks upon england during his residence there, and during his travels, may perhaps be thought worthy of future notice; and should they be called for, i will do my best endeavour to interpret his feelings as near to nature as possible. i must now, dear sir, take my leave, expressing my regret at your absence from constantinople on my return from persia; for had i then been fortunate enough to meet you, no doubt, from the valuable hints which you would have afforded me, the work now presented to you would have been in every way more worthy of your acceptance. but you were far better engaged; you were seeking another oasis in the wilds of the desert (that emblem of yourself in hieroglyphic lore), to which, so i was informed, you expected to have been guided information gained in the inside wrappers of one of your most interesting mummies. may your footsteps have been fortunate, and may i live to have the pleasure of assuring you by word of mouth how truly i am, esteemed and learned sir, your very devoted and obliged humble servant, peregrine persic. london, st december . [illustration: hajji shaves the camel-driver. .jpg] the adventures of hajji baba chapter i of hajji baba�s birth and education. my father, kerbelai hassan, was one of the most celebrated barbers of ispahan. he was married, when only seventeen years of age, to the daughter of a chandler, who lived in the neighbourhood of his shop; but the connexion was not fortunate, for his wife brought him no offspring, and he, in consequence, neglected her. his dexterity in the use of a razor had gained for him, together with no little renown, such great custom, particularly among the merchants, that after twenty years� industry, he found he could afford to add a second wife to his harem; and succeeded in obtaining the daughter of a rich money-changer, whose head he had shaved, during that period, with so much success, that he made no difficulty in granting his daughter to my father. in order to get rid, for a while, of the importunities and jealousy of his first wife, and also to acquire the good opinion of his father-in-law (who, although noted for clipping money, and passing it for lawful, affected to be a saint), he undertook a pilgrimage to the tomb of hosein, at kerbelah. he took his new wife with him, and she was delivered of me on the road. before the journey took place he was generally known, simply as �hassan the barber�; but ever after he was honoured by the epithet of kerbelai; and i, to please my mother, who spoilt me, was called _hajjî_ or the pilgrim, a name which has stuck to me through life, and procured for me a great deal of unmerited respect; because, in fact, that honoured title is seldom conferred on any but those who have made the great pilgrimage to the tomb of the blessed prophet of mecca. my father having left his business during his absence to his chief apprentice, resumed it with increased industry on his return; and the reputation of a zealous mussulman, which he had acquired by his journey, attracted the clergy, as well as the merchants, to his shop. it being intended that i should be brought up to the strap, i should perhaps have received no more education than was necessary to teach me my prayers, and i not been noticed by a _mollah_, (or priest), who kept a school in an adjoining mosque, whom my father (to keep up the character he had acquired of being a good man) used to shave once a week, as he was wont to explain, purely for the love of god. the holy man repaid the service by teaching me to read and write; and i made such progress under his care, that in two years i could decipher the koran, and began to write a legible hand. when not in school i attended the shop, where i learnt the rudiments of my profession, and when there was a press of customers, was permitted to practise upon the heads of muleteers and camel-drivers, who indeed sometimes paid dear for my first essays. by the time i was sixteen it would be difficult to say whether i was most accomplished as a barber or a scholar. besides shaving the head, cleaning the ears, and trimming the beard, i became famous for my skill in the offices of the bath. no one understood better than i the different modes of rubbing or shampooing, as practised in india, cashmere, and turkey; and i had an art peculiar to myself of making the joints to crack, and my slaps echo. thanks to my master, i had learnt sufficiently of our poets to enable me to enliven conversation with occasional apt quotations from saadi, hafiz, etc.; this accomplishment, added to a good voice, made me considered as an agreeable companion by all those whose crowns or limbs were submitted to my operation. in short, it may, without vanity, be asserted that hajji baba was quite the fashion among the men of taste and pleasure. my father�s shop being situated near the royal caravanserai, the largest and most frequented in the city, was the common resort of the foreign, as well as of the resident, merchants; they not unfrequently gave him something over and above the usual price, for the entertainment they found in the repartees of his hopeful son. one of them, a bagdad merchant, took great fancy to me, and always insisted that i should attend upon him, in preference even to my more experienced father. he made me converse with him in turkish, of which i had acquired a slight knowledge, and so excited my curiosity by describing the beauties of the different cities which he had visited, that i soon felt a strong desire to travel. he was then in want of some one to keep his accounts, and as i associated the two qualifications of barber and scribe, he made me such advantageous offers, to enter into his service, that i agreed to follow him; and immediately mentioned my determination to my father. my father was very loath to lose me, and endeavoured to persuade me not to leave a certain profession for one which was likely to be attended with danger and vicissitudes; but when he found how advantageous were the merchant�s offers, and that it was not impossible that i might become one myself in time, he gradually ceased to dissuade me from going; and at length gave me his blessing, accompanied by a new case of razors. my mother�s regret for the loss of my society, and her fears for my safety, derived no alleviation from the prospect of my expected future aggrandizement; she augured no good from a career begun in the service of a _sûni_;[ ] but still, as a mark of her maternal affection, she gave me a bag of broken biscuit, accompanied by a small tin case of a precious unguent, which, she told me, would cure all fractures, and internal complaints. she further directed me to leave the house with my face towards the door, by way of propitiating a happy return from a journey undertaken under such inauspicious circumstances. [illustration: the chaoûsh tells what he will do when he meets the robbers. .jpg] chapter ii hajji baba commences his travels--his encounter with the turcomans, and his captivity. osman aga, my master, was now on a journey to meshed, the object of which was to purchase the lamb-skins of bokhara, which he afterwards purposed to convey to constantinople for sale. imagine a short squat man, with a large head, prominent spongy nose, and a thick, black beard, and you will see my fellow traveller. he was a good mussulman, very strict in his devotions, and never failed to pull off his stockings, even in the coldest morning, to wash his feet, in order that his ablutions might be perfect; and, withal, he was a great hater of the sect of ali, a feeling he strictly kept to himself, as long as he was in persia. his prevailing passion was love of gain, and he never went to sleep without having ascertained that his money was deposited in a place of safety. he was, however, devoted to his own ease; smoked constantly, ate much, and secretly drank wine, although he denounced eternal perdition to those who openly indulged in it. the caravan was appointed to collect in the spring, and we made preparations for our departure. my master bought a strong, ambling mule for his own riding; whilst i was provided with a horse, which, besides myself, bore the _kaliân_[ ] (for he adopted the persian style of smoking), the fire-pan and leather bottle, the charcoal, and also my own wardrobe. a black slave, who cooked for us, spread the carpets, loaded and unloaded the beasts, bestrode another mule, upon which were piled the bedding, carpets, and kitchen utensils. a third, carrying a pair of trunks, in which was my master�s wardrobe, and every other necessary, completed our equipment. the day before our departure, the prudent osman had taken precaution to sew into the cotton wadding of his heavy turban fifty ducats, a circumstance known only to him and me, and these were to serve in case of accidents; for the remainder of his cash, with which he intended to make his purchases, was sewn up in small white leather bags, and deposited in the very centre of the trunks. the caravan being ready to depart consisted of about five hundred mules and horses, and two hundred camels, most of which were laden with merchandize for the north of persia, and escorted by about one hundred and fifty men, composed of merchants, their servants, and the conductors of the caravan. besides these, a small body of pilgrims bound to the tomb of imâm reza at meshed joined the caravan, and gave a character of sanctity to the procession of which its other members were happy to take advantage, considering in what high estimation persons bound upon so laudable a purpose as a pilgrimage are always supposed to be held. every man on these occasions is armed, and my master, who always turned his head away whenever a gun was fired, and became pale at the sight of a drawn sword, now appeared with a long carbine slung obliquely across his back, and a crooked sword by his side, whilst a pair of huge pistols projected from his girdle; the rest of his surface was almost made up of the apparatus of cartouch-boxes, powder-flasks, ramrods, &c. i also was armed cap-à-pie, only in addition to what my master carried, i was honoured by wielding a huge spear. the black slave had a sword with only half a blade, and a gun without a lock. we started at break of day from the northern suburb of ispahan, led by the _chaoûshes_[ ] of the pilgrimage, who announced our departure by loud cries and the beating of their copper drums. we soon got acquainted with our fellow travellers, who were all armed; but who, notwithstanding their martial equipment, appeared to be very peaceably disposed persons. i was delighted with the novelty of the scene, and could not help galloping and curvetting my horse to the annoyance of my master, who in a somewhat crabbed tone, bid me keep in mind that the beast would not last the journey if i wore it out by unseasonable feats of horsemanship. i soon became a favourite with all the company, many of whom i shaved after the day�s march was over. as for my master, it is not too much to say that i was a great source of comfort to him, for after the fatigue of sitting his mule was at an end, i practised many of the arts which i had acquired at the bath to do away the stiffness of his limbs, by kneading his body all over, and rubbing him with my hands. we proceeded without impediment to tehran, where we sojourned ten days to rest our mules, and to increase our numbers. the dangerous part of the journey was to come, as a tribe of turcomans, who were at war with the king of persia, were known to infest the road, and had lately attacked and plundered a caravan, whilst at the same time they had carried those who composed it into captivity. such were the horrors related of the turcomans, that many of our party, and my master in particular, were fearful of proceeding to meshed; but the account he received of the enormous price of lamb-skins at constantinople was so alluring, that, in spite of everything, he resolved not to be frightened out of his prospect of gain. a chaoûsh had long been collecting pilgrims at tehran and its vicinity, in the expectation of the arrival of our caravan, and as soon as we made our appearance, he informed us, that he was ready to join us with a numerous band, a reinforcement which he assured us we ought to receive with gratitude, considering the dangers which we were about to encounter. he was a character well known on the road between tehran and meshed, and enjoyed a great reputation for courage, which he had acquired for having cut off a turcoman�s head whom he had once found dead on the road. his appearance was most formidable, being in person tall and broad-shouldered, with a swarthy sunburnt face, ornamented by a few stiff hairs by way of beard at the end of a bony chin. clad in a breastplate of iron, a helmet with a chain cape flapping over his shoulders, a curved sword by his side, pistols in his girdle, a shield slung behind his back, and a long spear in his hand, he seemed to bid defiance to danger. he made such boast of his prowess, and talked of the turcomans with such contempt, that my master determined to proceed under his immediate escort. the caravan was ready to depart a week after the festival of the new year�s day[ ], and after having performed our devotions at the great mosque of the congregation on the friday, we went to the village of shahabdul azim, whence the whole body was to proceed the next day on its journey. we advanced by slow marches over a parched and dreary country, that afforded little to relieve the eye or cheer the heart. whenever we approached a village, or met travellers on the road, our conductors, made invocations of allah and of the prophet in loud and shrill tones, accompanied by repeated blows with a leather thong on the drums suspended to their saddle-bow. our conversation chiefly turned upon the turcomans, and although we were all agreed that they were a desperate enemy, yet we managed to console ourselves by the hope that nothing could withstand our numbers and appearance, and by repeatedly exclaiming, �in the name of god, whose dogs are they, that they should think of attacking us?� every one vaunted his own courage. my master above the rest, with his teeth actually chattering from apprehension, boasted of what he would do, in case we were attacked; and, to hear his language, one would suppose that he had done nothing all his life but fight and slaughter turcomans. the chaoûsh, who overheard his boastings, and who was jealous of being considered the only man of courage of the party, said aloud, �no one can speak of the turcomans until they have seen them--and none but an �eater of lions� (at the same time pulling up his moustaches toward his ears) ever came unhurt out of their clutches. saadi speaks truth when he sayeth, �a young man, though he hath strength of arm, and the force of an elephant, will kick his heel ropes[ ] to pieces with fear in the day of battle.�� but osman aga�s principal hope of security, and of faring better than others in case we were attacked, was in the circumstance of his being a follower of omar;[ ] and, by way of proclaiming it, he wound a piece of green muslin round his cap, and gave himself out as an _emir_, or a descendant of the prophet, to whom, as the reader may guess, he was no more allied than to the mule upon which he rode. we had proceeded in this manner for several days, when the chaoûsh informed us, in a solemn and important manner, that we were now approaching to the places where the turcomans generally lie in wait for caravans, and directed that we should all march in a compact body, and invited us to make preparations for a desperate resistance in case we were attacked. the first impulse of my master was to tie his gun, sword, and pistols on one of his baggage mules. he then complained of an affection in the bowels, and so abandoning all his former intentions of engaging in combat, wrapped himself up in the folds of his cloak, put on a face of great misery, took to counting his beads, ever and anon repeating the prayer of _staferallah_, or �god forgive me,� and, thus prepared, resigned himself to his destiny. his greatest dependence for protection he seemed to have placed upon the chaoûsh, who, among other reasons for asserting his indifference to danger, pointed to the numerous talismans and spells that he wore bound on his arms, and which, he boldly maintained, would avert the arrow of a turcoman at any time. this double-bladed sword of a man, and one or two of the boldest of the caravan, rode ahead, at some distance, as an advanced guard, and every now and then, by way of keeping up their courage, galloped their horses, brandishing their lances, and thrusting them forward into the air. at length, what we so much apprehended actually came to pass. we heard some shots fired, and then our ears were struck by wild and barbarous shoutings. the whole of us stopped in dismay, and men and animals, as if by common instinct, like a flock of small birds when they see a hawk at a distance, huddled ourselves together into one compact body. but when we in reality perceived a body of turcomans coming down upon us, the scene instantly changed. some ran away; others, and among them my master, losing all their energies, yielded to intense fear, and began to exclaim, �oh allah!--oh imâms!--oh mohammed the prophet; we are gone! we are dying! we are dead!� the muleteers unloosed their loads from their beasts, and drove them away. a shower of arrows, which the enemy discharged as they came on, achieved their conquest, and we soon became their prey. the chaoûsh, who had outlived many a similar fray, fled in the very first encounter, and we neither saw nor heard any more of him. the invaders soon fell to work upon the baggage, which was now spread all over the plain. [illustration: hajji�s master and the great turcoman. .jpg] my master had rolled himself up between two bales of goods to wait the event, but was discovered by a turcoman of great size, and of a most ferocious aspect, who, taking him at first for part of the baggage, turned him over on his back, when (as we see a wood-louse do) he opened out at full length, and expressed all his fears by the most abject entreaties. he tried to soften the turcoman by invoking omar, and cursing ali; but nothing would do; the barbarian was inexorable: he only left him in possession of his turban, out of consideration to its colour, but in other respects he completely stripped him, leaving him nothing but his drawers and shirt, and clothing himself with my master�s comfortable cloak and trousers before his face. my clothes being scarcely worth the taking, i was permitted to enjoy them unmolested, and i retained possession of my case of razors, to my no small satisfaction. the turcomans having completed their plunder, made a distribution of the prisoners. we were blindfolded, and placed each of us behind a horseman, and after having travelled for a whole day in this manner, we rested at night in a lonely dell. the next day we were permitted to see, and found ourselves on roads known only to the turcomans. passing through wild and unfrequented tracts of mountainous country, we at length discovered a large plain, which was so extensive that it seemed the limits of the world, and was covered with the black tents and the numerous flocks and herds of our enemies. [illustration: hajji baba bleeds the banou. .jpg] chapter iii into what hands hajji baba falls, and the fortune which his razors proved to him. the distribution of their prisoners which had been made by the turcomans, turned out to be so far fortunate, that osman aga and i fell into the hands of one master, the savage robber whom i have before mentioned. he was called _aslan sultan_,[ ] or lion chief, and proved to be the captain of a considerable encampment, which we reached almost immediately after descending from the mountains into the plain. his tents were situated on the borders of a deep ravine, at the bottom of which flowed a stream that took its rise in a chain of neighbouring hills; and green pastures, teeming with cattle, were spread around as far as the eye could reach. our other fellow sufferers were carried into a more distant part of the country, and distributed among the different tribes of turcomans who inhabit this region. at our appearance the whole encampment turned out to look at us, whilst our conqueror was greeted with loud welcomes, we were barked at and nearly devoured by a pack of large sheep dogs, who had soon selected us out as strangers. my master�s green shawl had hitherto procured some degree of respect; but the chief wife, or the _banou_,[ ] as she was called, was seized at first sight with a strong desire to possess it; so he was with no other covering to his head than his padded _caoûk_, or tiara, which contained his money. that too was longed for by another wife, who said that it would just do to stuff the pack-saddle which had galled her camel�s back, and it was taken from his head and thrown, among other lumber into a corner of the tent. he did all he could to keep possession of this last remnant of his fortune, but to no purpose; in lieu of it he received an old sheep-skin cap, which had belonged to some unfortunate man, who, like us, had been a prisoner, and who had lately died of grief and wretchedness. my master having been installed in the possession of the dead man�s cap, was soon appointed to fill his situation, which was that of tending the camels, when they were sent to feed upon the mountains, and, as he was fat and unwieldy, there was no apprehension of his running away. as for me, i was not permitted to leave the tents, but was, for the present, employed in shaking the leather bags which contained the curds from which butter was made. in order to celebrate the success of the expedition, an entertainment was given by the chief to the whole encampment. a large cauldron, filled with rice, was boiled, and two sheep were roasted whole. the men, consisting of our chief�s relations, who came from the surrounding tents, and most of whom had been at the attack of our caravan, were assembled in one tent, whilst the women were collected in another. after the rice and the sheep had been served up to the men, they were carried to the women, and when they had done, the shepherds� boys were served, and, after they had devoured their utmost, the bones and scrapings of dishes were given to us and the dogs. but, when i was waiting with great anxiety for our morsel, having scarcely tasted food since we were taken, i was secretly beckoned to by one of the women, who made me screen myself behind a tent, and setting down a dish of rice, with a bit of sheep�s tail in it, which was sent, she said, by the chief�s wife, who pitied my misfortune, and bade me be of good courage, hurried away without waiting for my acknowledgements. the day was passed by the men in smoking, and relating their adventures, and by the women in singing and beating the tambourine, whilst my poor master and i were left to ponder over our forlorn situation. the mark of favour which i had just received had set my imagination to work, and led me to consider my condition as not entirely desperate. but in vain i endeavoured to cheer up the spirits of my companion; he did not cease to bewail his hard fate. i brought to his mind that constant refuge of every true mussulman in grief, �_allah kerim!_--god is merciful!� his answer was, �allah kerim, allah kerim, is all very well for you who had nothing to lose; but in the meantime i am ruined for ever.� his greatest concern seemed to be, the having failed to secure the profits which he had expected to make on his lamb-skins, and he passed all his time in calculating, to the utmost farthing, what had been his losses on this occasion. however, we were soon to be parted. he was sent off the next day to the mountains, in charge of a string of fifty camels, with terrible threats from the chief that his nose and ears should pay for the loss of any one of them, and that if one died, its price should be added to the ransom money which he hereafter expected to receive for him. as the last testimony of my affection for him, i made him sit down on a camel�s pack-saddle, and, with some water from a neighbouring spring, and a piece of soap, which, together with my razors, i had saved from the wreck of our fortunes, shaved him in the face of the whole camp.[ ] i very soon found that this exhibition of my abilities and profession might be productive of the greatest advantage to my future prospects. every fellow who had a head to scratch immediately found out that he wanted shaving, and my reputation soon reached the ears of the chief, who called me to him, and ordered me to operate upon him without loss of time. i soon went to work upon a large head that exhibited the marks of many a sword cut, and which presented as rough a surface as that of the sheep dogs aforementioned. he who had been accustomed to have his hair clipped, perhaps, with the same instrument that sheared his sheep, and who knew of no greater luxury than that of being mutilated by some country barber, felt himself in paradise under my hand. he freely expressed his satisfaction and his approbation of my services, said, on feeling his head, that i had shaved him two days� march under the skin, swore that he never would accept of any ransom for me, be it what it might, and that i should, henceforth, be entitled to the appointment of his own body barber. i leave the gentle reader to guess what were my feelings upon this occasion. whilst i stooped down and kissed the knee of this my new master, with every appearance of gratitude and respect, i determined to make use of the liberty which the confidence reposed in me might afford, by running away on the very first favourable opportunity. from being so often near the person of the chief, i soon began to acquire great ascendancy over him; and although i was still watched with care, yet i could already devise plans, which appeared to me to be practicable, for escaping from this hateful servitude into which i was thrown, and i felt in a less degree than another would have done the drudgery and wretchedness of my situation. chapter iv of his ingenuity in rescuing his master�s money from the turcoman, and of his determination to keep it. one of the first objects which i had in view for the furtherance of my plan of escape was to obtain possession of the money which was sewed in the padding of my former master�s turban. but it had been thrown into a corner of the women�s tent, to which i had no access, and it required much ingenuity to get at it without creating suspicion. i had established my reputation as a barber throughout ours and the neighbouring encampments, and had become a favourite of the men; but although i had reason to believe that the banou of my master would fain become more intimately acquainted with me than she hitherto had been, yet as neither she nor any of the other women could employ me in my profession as a shaver, our intercourse hitherto had been confined to tender glances, occasional acts of kindness on her part, and of corresponding marks of thankfulness and acknowledgement on mine. but as they knew enough of civilized life to be aware that in persia barbers were also surgeons--that besides shaving and rubbing in the bath, they could bleed, draw teeth, and set a broken limb--the banou soon discovered that she wanted to be bled, and sent a deputation to ask me if i could perform that service for her. looking upon this as a favourable opportunity to learn some tidings of the object of my solicitude, or perhaps to gain possession of it, i immediately answered that provided i was furnished with a penknife, i hoped that i could bleed as dexterously as the best of my profession. the instrument was produced, and one of the elders of the tribe, who pretended to a smattering of astrology, announced that a conjunction of the planets favourable to such an operation would take place on the following morning. at that auspicious moment, i was introduced into the women�s tent, where i found the banou seated on a carpet on the ground, waiting for me with great impatience. she was not a person to excite sensations of a tender nature in a novice like me; for, in the first place, she was of an unwieldy size (so different from the slim forms that we are taught to prize in persia)[ ] that i looked upon her with disgust; and, in the next, i lived in such terror of aslan sultan, that had i aspired to her favour, it must have been in the constant dread of the loss of my ears. however, i was much noticed by her, and received great attentions from her companions, who, looking upon me as a being of a superior order, all wanted to have their pulses felt. whilst making my preparations for bleeding the banou, i cast my eyes about the tent, in the hopes of seeing the prize, which i was anxious to possess. it struck me that i might make the very operation in which i was engaged subservient to my views, and demanding to feel the patient�s pulse once more, which i did with a look of intense meditation, i observed that this was a complicated disorder--that the blood must not be allowed to flow upon the ground, but be collected in a vessel, that i might examine it at leisure. this strange proposal of mine raised an immediate outcry amongst the women; but with the banou a deviation from the usual practice only served to confirm her opinion of my superior skill. here, however, a new difficulty arose. the scanty stock of a turcoman could ill afford to sacrifice any utensil by applying it to a service which would defile it for ever. they were recapitulated one by one, and all found too precious to be thrown away. i was hesitating whether i might venture to go straight to my point, when the banou bethought herself of an old leather drinking-cup, which she desired one of the women to search for in a corner of the tent. �this will never do: you can see the light through it,� said i, holding it up towards the tent door, and pointing to the seams with the penknife, which i held in my hand, and with which i cut, at the same time, half a dozen of the stitches. �where is the cap of that old emir?� cried out the banou. �it is mine,� said the second wife; �i want it to stuff my saddle with.� �yours!� returned the other in a fury. �there is but one god! am not i the banou of this harem? i will have it.� �you shall not,� retorted the other. upon this an uproar ensued which became so loud and threatening, that i feared it would come to the ears of aslan sultan, who very probably would have settled the dispute by taking at once the bone of contention from the contending parties. but luckily the astrologer interfered, and when he had assured the second wife that the blood of the banou would be upon her head if anything unfortunate happened on this occasion, she consented to give up her pretensions. i accordingly prepared to bleed my patient; but when she saw the penknife, the cap underneath to receive her blood, and the anxious faces of those about her, she became frightened, and refused to permit me to proceed. fearing after all that i should lose my prize, i put on a very sagacious look, felt her pulse, and said that her refusal was unavailing, for that it was her fate to be bled, and that she and every one knew nothing could avert an event which had been decreed since the beginning of the world. to this there was no reply; and all agreeing that she would commit a great sin were she to oppose herself to the decrees of providence, she put out her bare arm, and received the stab from my penknife with apparent fortitude. the blood was caught, and, when the operation was over, i ordered that it should be conveyed to a little distance from the camp, and that none but myself should be permitted to approach it, as much of the good or evil that might accrue to the patient from bleeding depended upon what happened to the blood after it had flown from the body. i waited until night, when everybody was asleep, and then with great anxiety ripped up the lining, where to my joy i found the fifty ducats, which i immediately concealed in an adjacent spot, and then dug a hole for the cap, which i also concealed. in the morning i informed the banou, that having seen some wolves prowling about the tents, i feared that something unlucky might happen to her blood, and that i had buried it, caoûk and all. this appeared to satisfy her; and by way of recompense for the service i had rendered, she sent me a dish made with her own hands, consisting of a lamb roasted whole, stuffed with rice and raisins, accompanied by a bowl of sour milk with salt in it. i must confess that when i became possessed of the fifty ducats, a recollection of my poor former master, who was leading a melancholy life in the mountains with the camels, whilst i was living in comparative luxury, came across my mind, and i half resolved to restore them to him; but by little and little i began to argue differently with myself. �had it not been for my ingenuity,� said i, �the money was lost for ever; who therefore has a better claim to it than myself? if he was to get possession of it again, it could be of no use to him in his new profession, and it is a hundred to one but what it would be taken from him, therefore, i had best keep it for the present: besides, it was his fate to lose, and mine to recover it.� this settled every difficulty, and i looked upon myself as the legitimate possessor of fifty ducats, which i conceived no law could take from me. meanwhile, i made an attempt to convey to him half of the roasted lamb which i had just received, through the means of a shepherd�s boy who was going into the mountains, and who promised not to eat any of it by the wayside. although i doubted his word, yet, after my deliberation about the ducats, my conscience wanted some quietus: �i cannot do less,� said i, �than make my fellow sufferer in adversity a partaker of my prosperity.� but alas! the boy had scarcely crossed the deep ravine that bordered the encampment ere i could perceive him carrying the meat to his mouth, and i made no doubt that every bone was picked clean before he was out of sight. it would have been a useless undertaking to have pursued him, considering the distance that already separated us, so i contented myself by discharging a stone and a malediction at his head, neither of which reached their destination. [illustration: turcomans attack the caravanserai. .jpg] chapter v hajji baba becomes a robber in his own defence, and invades his native city. i had now been above a year in the hands of the turcomans, during which i had acquired the entire confidence of my master. he consulted me upon all his own affairs, as well as those of his community, and as he considered that i might now be depended upon, he determined to permit me to accompany him in a predatory excursion into persia,--a permission, which, in hopes of a good opportunity to escape, i had frequently entreated of him to grant. hitherto i had never been allowed to stray beyond the encampment and its surrounding pastures, and as i was totally ignorant of the roads through the great salt desert which separated us from persia, i knew that it would be in vain for me to attempt flight, as many before me had done, and had invariably perished or returned to their masters, who treated them with more rigour than before. i therefore rejoiced that i now had an opportunity of observing the country we were about to cross, and determined with myself that if i could not get away during this expedition, nothing should hinder my attempting it on my return. the turcomans generally make their principal excursions in the spring, when they find pasturage for their horses in the highlands, and fresh corn in the plains, and because they then are almost certain of meeting caravans to plunder on their march. this season being now near at hand, aslan called together the chiefs of his tribe, the heads of tens and the heads of hundreds, and all those who were skilled in plunder, and proposed a plan to them of an incursion into the very heart of persia. their object was to reach ispahan itself, to enter the city in the night, when all was quiet, and to sack the caravanserai, to which the richest merchants were known to resort. our guide through the great salt desert was to be my master in person, whose experience and local knowledge were greater than that of any of his contemporaries; and he proposed to the council that as no one amongst them, except myself, knew the streets and bazaars of ispahan, i should lead the way, when once we had entered the city. this was opposed by several, who said that it was imprudent to trust a stranger and a native of the very place they intended to attack, who would be likely to run off the moment he could do so with safety. at length, after much discussion, it was agreed that i should be their guide in ispahan; that two men should ride close on each side of me, and in case i showed the least symptom of treachery in my movements, kill me on the spot. this being settled, the turcomans put their horses in training,[ ] and one was appointed for my use, which had the reputation of having twice borne away the flag at their races. i was equipped as a turcoman, with a large sheep-skin cap on my head, a sheep-skin coat, a sword, a bow and arrows, and a heavy spear, the head of which was taken off or put on as the occasion might require. i had a bag of corn tied behind on my horse, besides ropes to tether him with when we made a halt,--and for my own food i carried several flaps of bread,[ ] and half a dozen of hard eggs, trusting to the chapter of accidents, and to my own endurance of hunger, for further sustenance. i had already made a very tolerable apprenticeship to a hard life since i had first been taken, by sleeping on the ground with the first thing that i could seize for a pillow, and thus i looked upon the want of a bed as no privation. my companions were equally hardy, and in point of bodily fatigue, perhaps, we were a match for any nation in the world. i took previous care to unbury the fifty ducats, which i tied very carefully in my girdle, and i promised my former master, who from fretting had worn himself down to a skeleton, that if ever i had an opportunity, i would do all in my power to make his friends ransom him. �ah,� said be, �no one will ever ransom me. as for my son, he will be happy to get my property; and as for my wife, she will be happy to get another husband: so no hope is left. there is only one favour i beg of you, which is, to inquire what is the price of lamb-skins at constantinople.� here i had another struggle with my conscience on the subject of the ducats. should i restore them? would it not be more advantageous, even to my master, that i should keep them? my ability to take advantage of this opportunity to escape might depend upon my having a little money in my purse--and what chance had he of being relieved but through my interference? all things considered, i let them remain in my girdle. the astrologer having fixed upon a lucky hour for our departure, we, mounted at nightfall. our party consisted of aslan sultan, who was appointed chief of the expedition, and of twenty men, myself included. our companions were composed of the principal men of the different encampments in our neighbourhood, and were all, more or less, accomplished cavaliers. they were mounted upon excellent horses, the speed and bottom of which are so justly celebrated throughout asia; and as we rode along in the moonlight, completely armed, i was persuaded that we looked as desperate a gang of ruffians as ever took the field. for my part, i felt that nature had never intended me for a warrior, and although i thought that i could keep up appearances as well as most men in my predicament, and indeed i believe did act my part so perfectly, as to make both my master and his companions believe that they had got a very _rustam_[ ] in me, yet i dreaded the time when i should be put to the trial. i was surprised to observe the dexterity with which our chief led us through the thick forests that clothe the mountains which border the plains of kipchâk. the dangers of the precipices and the steep ascents were something quite appalling to a young traveller like me; but my companions rode over everything with the greatest unconcern, confident in the sure-footedness of their horses. having once ascended the mountains, we entered upon the arid plains of persia, and here my master�s knowledge of the country was again conspicuous. he knew every summit the moment it appeared, with the same certainty as an experienced frank sailor recognizes a distant headland at sea. but he showed his sagacity most in drawing his inferences from the tracks and footsteps of animals. he could tell what sort of travellers they belonged to, whence coming, whither going, whether enemy or friend, whether laden or unladen, and what their probable numbers, with the greatest precision. we travelled with much precaution as long as we were in the inhabited parts of the country, lying by during the day, and making all expedition at night. our stock of provender and provisions was renewed at the last encampment of the wandering tribes which we visited before we reached the great salt desert, and when we entered it, we urged our horses on with as much haste as we knew their strength was likely to support. at length, after travelling about parasangs,[ ] we found ourselves in the environs of ispahan. the moment for reaping the fruit of our fatigue, and for trying my courage, was now at hand, and my heart quite misgave me when i heard of the plan of attack which my companions proposed. their scheme was to enter the city through one of the unguarded avenues, which were well known to me, and at midnight to make straight for the royal caravanserai, where we were sure to find a great many merchants, who at this season of the year collect there with ready money to make their purchases. we were at once to carry off all the cash we could find, then to seize and gag each a merchant if we were able, that before the city could be alarmed, we might be on the road to our encampment again. i found the plan so hazardous, and so little likely to succeed, that i gave it as my opinion that we ought not to attempt it; but my master, putting on his most determined look, said to me, �hajji! open your eyes--this is no child�s play!--i swear by the beard of the prophet, that if you do not behave well, i�ll burn your father. we have succeeded before, and why should we not be as successful now? he then ordered me to ride near him, and placed another ruffian at my side, and both vowed, if i flinched, that they would immediately run me through the body. we then took the lead, and, from my knowledge of ispahan, i easily picked my way through the ruins which surround it, and then entered into the inhabited streets, which were at that time of night entirely forsaken. when near the scene of action, we stopped under the arches of one of the ruined houses, which are so frequently to be met with even in the most inhabited parts of the city, and dismounting from our horses, picketed them to the ground with pegs and heelropes,[ ] and left them under the care of two of our men. by way of precaution we appointed a rendezvous in a lonely dell about five parasangs from ispahan, to which it was determined we should retreat as circumstances might require. once on foot, we proceeded without noise in a body, avoiding as much as we could the bazaars, where i knew that the officers of the police kept watch, and by lanes reached the gate of the caravanserai. here was a place, every square inch of which i knew by heart, namely, my father�s shaving shop. being aware that the gate of the caravanserai would be locked, i made the party halt there, and, taking up a stone, knocked, and called out to the doorkeeper by name: �ali mohammed,� said i, �open, open: the caravan is arrived.� between asleep and awake, without showing the least symptom of opening, �what caravan?� said he. �the caravan from bagdad.� �from bagdad? why that arrived yesterday. do you laugh at my beard?� seeing myself entrapped, i was obliged to have recourse to my own name, and said, �why, a caravan to be sure with hajji baba, kerbelai hassan the barber�s son, who went away with osman aga, the bagdad merchant. i bring the news, and expect the present.� �what, hajji?� said the porter, �he who used to shave my head so well? his place has long been empty. you are welcome.� upon which he began to unbolt the heavy gates of the entrance porch, which, as they creaked on their hinges, discovered a little old man in his drawers with an iron lamp in his hand, which shed enough light to show us that the place was full of merchants and their effects. one of our party immediately seized upon him, and then we all rushed in and fell to work. expert in these sort of attacks, my companions knew exactly where to go for plunder, and they soon took possession of all the gold and silver that was to be found; but their first object was to secure two or three of the richest merchants, whose ransom might be a further source of wealth to them. ere the alarm had been spread, they had seized upon three, who from their sleeping upon fine beds, covered with shawl quilts, and reposing upon embroidered cushions, they expected would prove a good prize. these they bound hand and foot after their fashion, and forcing them away, placed them upon their best horses behind riders, who immediately retreated from the scene of action to the rendezvous. from my knowledge of the caravanserai itself, and of the rooms which the richest merchants generally occupied, i knew where cash was to be found, and i entered one room as softly as i could (the very room which my first master had occupied), and seizing upon the small box in which the merchants generally keep their money, i made off with it. to my joy, i found it contained a heavy bag, which i thrust into my bosom, and carried it about with me as well as i could; although, on account of the darkness, i could not ascertain of what metal it was. by the time we had nearly finished our operations the city had been alarmed. almost all the people within the caravanserai, such as servants, grooms, and mule-drivers, at the first alarm had retreated to the roof; the neighbouring inhabitants then came in flocks, not knowing exactly what to do: then came the police magistrate and his officers, who also got on the roof of the caravanserai, but who only increased the uproar by their cries, exclaiming, �strike, seize, kill!� without in fact doing anything to repulse the enemy. some few shots were fired at random; but, owing to the darkness and the general confusion, we managed to steal away without any serious accident. during the fray i was frequently tempted to leave the desperate gang to which i belonged, and hide myself in some corner until they were gone; but i argued thus with myself: if i should succeed in getting away, still my dress would discover me, and before i could explain who i really was, i should certainly fall a sacrifice to the fury of the populace, the effects of which more than once i had had occasion to witness. my father�s shop was before me; the happy days i had passed in that very caravanserai were in my recollection, and i was in the act of deliberating within myself what i should do, when i felt myself roughly seized by the arm, and the first thing which i recognized on turning round was the grim face of aslan sultan, who threatened to kill me on the spot, if i did not render myself worthy of the confidence he had placed in me. in order to show him my prowess, i fastened upon a persian who had just rushed by us, and, throwing him down, i exclaimed that, if he did not quietly submit to be taken prisoner and to follow me, i would put him to death. he began to make the usual lamentations, �for the sake of iman hossein, by the soul of your father, by the beard of omar, i conjure you to leave me!� and immediately i recognized a voice that could belong to no one but my own father. by a gleam from a lantern, i discovered his well-known face. it was evident, that hearing the commotion, he had left his bed to secure the property in his shop, which altogether did not consist of more than half-a-dozen of towels, a case of razors, soap, and a carpet. the moment i recognized him, i let go his beard, of which i had got a fast hold, and, owing to that habit of respect which we persians show to our parents, would have kissed his hand and stood before him; but my life was in danger if i appeared to flinch, so i continued to struggle with him, and in order to show myself in earnest, pretending to beat him, i administered my blows to a mule�s pack-saddle that was close to where he lay. this while i heard my father muttering to himself, �ah, if hajji was here, he would not permit me to be served in this way!� which had such an effect upon me, that i immediately let him go, and exclaimed in turkish to the surrounding turcomans: �he won�t do for us; he�s only a barber.� so without more ceremony i quitted the scene of action, mounted my horse, and retreated in full gallop through the city. chapter vi concerning the three prisoners taken by the turcomans, and of the booty made in the caravanserai. when we had reached our place of rendezvous, we dismounted from our horses, and made a halt to rest them, and to recruit ourselves after the fatigues of the night. one of the party had not forgotten to steal a lamb as we rode along, which was soon put into a fit state to be roasted. it was cut up into small pieces, which were stuck on a ram-rod, and placed over a slow fire made of what underwood we could find, mixed up with the dung of the animals, and, thus heated, was devoured most ravenously by us all. our next care was to ascertain the value of our prisoners. one was a tall thin man, about fifty years of age, with a sharp eye, a hollow aguish cheek, a scanty beard, wearing a pair of silken drawers, and a shawl undercoat. the other was a short round man, of a middle age, with a florid face, dressed in a dark vest, buttoning over his breast, and looked like an officer of the law. the third was stout and hairy, of rough aspect, of a strong vigorous form, and who was bound with more care than the others on account of the superior resistance which he had made. after we had finished our meal, and distributed the remains of it to the prisoners, we called them before us, and questioned them as to their professions and situations in life. the tall thin man, upon whose rich appearance the turcomans founded their chief hope, was first examined, and as i was the only one of our party who could talk persian, i stood interpreter. �who and what are you?� said aslan sultan. �i,� said the prisoner, in a very subdued voice,--�i beg to state, for the good of your service, that i am nothing--i am a poor man.� �what�s your business?� �i am a poet, at your service; what can i do more?� �a poet!� cried one of the roughest of the turcomans; �what is that good for?� �nothing,� answered aslan sultan, in a rage; �he won�t fetch ten tomauns;[ ] poets are always poor, and live upon what they can cozen from others. who will ransom a poet? but if you are so poor,� said aslan sultan, �how do you come by those rich clothes?� �they are part of a dress of honour,� returned the poet, �which was lately conferred upon me by the prince of shiraz, for having written some verses in his praise.� upon which the clothes were taken from him, a sheep-skin cloak given to him in return, and he was dismissed for the present. then came the short man. �who are you?� said the chief: �what is your profession?� �i am a poor cadi,� answered the other. �how came you to sleep in a fine bed, if you are poor?� said his interrogator. �you father of a dog, if you lie, we�ll take your head off! confess that you are rich! all cadies are rich: they live by selling themselves to the highest bidder.� �i am the cadi of galadoun, at your service,� said the prisoner. �i was ordered to ispahan by the governor to settle for the rent of a village which i occupy.� �where is the money for your rent?� said aslan. �i came to say,� answered the cadi, �that i had no money to give, for that the locusts had destroyed all my last year�s crops, and that there had been a want of water.� �then after all, what is this fellow worth?� said one of the gang. �he is worth a good price,� replied the chief, �if he happens to be a good cadi, for then the peasants may wish him back again; but if not, a _dinar_[ ] is too much for him. we must keep him: perhaps he is of more value than a merchant. but let us see how much this other fellow is likely to fetch.� they then brought the rough man before them, and aslan sultan questioned him in the usual manner--�what are you?� �i am a _ferash_� (a carpet-spreader), said he, in a very sulky manner. �_a ferash!_� cried out the whole gang--�a ferash! the fellow lies! how came you to sleep in a fine bed?� said one. �it was not mine,� he answered, �it was my master�s.� �he lies! he lies!� they all cried out: �he is a merchant--you are a merchant. own it, or we�ll put you to death.� in vain he asserted that he was only a carpet-spreader, nobody believed him, and he received so many blows from different quarters, that at last he was obliged to roar out that he was a merchant. but i, who judged from the appearance of the man that he could not be a merchant, but that he was what he owned himself to be, assured my companions that they had got but a sorry prize in him, and advised them to release him; but immediately i was assailed in my turn with a thousand maledictions, and was told, that if i chose to take part with my countrymen, i should share their fate, and become a slave again--so i was obliged to keep my peace and permit the ruffians to have their own way. their speculation in man-stealing having proved so unfortunate, they were in no very good humour with their excursion, and there was a great difference of opinion amongst them, what should be done with such worthless prisoners. some were for keeping the cadi, and killing the poet and the ferash, and others for preserving the cadi for ransom, and making the ferash a slave; but all seemed to be for killing the poet. i could not help feeling much compassion for this man, who in fact appeared to be from his manners, and general deportment, a man of consequence, although he had pleaded poverty; and seeing it likely to go very hard with him, i said, �what folly are you about to commit? kill the poet! why it will be worse than killing the goose with the golden egg. don�t you know that poets are sometimes very rich, and can, if they choose, become rich at all times, for they carry their wealth in their heads? did you never hear of the king who gave a famous poet a _miscal_[ ] of gold for every stanza which he composed? is not the same thing said of the present shah? and--who knows?--perhaps your prisoner may be the king�s poet himself.� �is that the case?� said one of the gang; �then let him make stanzas for us immediately, and if they don�t fetch a miscal each, he shall die.� �make on! make on!� exclaimed the whole of them to the poet, elated by so bright a prospect of gain; �if you don�t, we�ll cut your tongue out.� at length it was decided that all three should be preserved, and that as soon as they had made a division of the booty, we should return to the plains of kipchâk. aslan then called us together, and every man was obliged to produce what he had stolen. some brought bags of silver and others gold. nor did they confine themselves to money only; gold heads of pipes, a silver ewer, a sable pelisse, shawls, and a variety of other things, were brought before us. when it came to my turn, i produced the heaviest bag of tomauns that had yet been given in, which secured to me the applause of the company. �well done! well done! hajji,� said they all to me; �he has become a good turcoman: we could not have done better ourselves.� my master in particular was very loud in his praises, and said, �hajji, my son, by my own soul, by the head of my father, i swear that you have done bravely, and i will give you one of my slaves for a wife, and you shall live with us--and you shall have a tent of your own, with twenty sheep, and we�ll have a wedding, when i will give an entertainment to all the encampment.� these words sunk deep in my mind, and only strengthened my resolution to escape on the very first opportunity; but in the meanwhile i was very intent upon the division of the spoil which was about to be made, as i hoped to be included for a considerable portion of it. to my great mortification they gave me not a single dinar. in vain i exclaimed, in vain i entreated; all i could hear was, �if you say a word more, we will cut your head off.� so i was obliged to console myself with my original fifty ducats, whilst my companions were squabbling about their shares. at length it became a scene of general contention, and would have finished by bloodshed, if a thought had not struck one of the combatants, who exclaimed, �we have got a cadi here; why should we dispute? he shall decide between us. so immediately the poor cadi was set in the midst of them, and was made to legislate upon goods, part of which belonged in fact to himself, without even getting the percentage due to him as judge. chapter vii hajji baba evinces a feeling disposition--history of the poet asker. we made our retreat by the same road we came, but not with the same expedition, on account of our prisoners. they sometimes walked and sometimes rode. the general appearance of the poet had, from the first moment, interested me in his misfortunes; and being a smatterer in learning myself, my vanity, perhaps, was flattered with the idea of becoming the protector of a man of letters in distress. without appearing to show any particular partiality to him, i succeeded in being appointed to keep watch over him, under the plea that i would compel him to make verses; and conversing in our language, we were able to communicate with each other with great freedom without the fear of being understood. i explained my situation, and informed him of my intentions to escape, and assured him that i would do everything in my power to be useful to him. he seemed delighted to meet with kind words, where he expected nothing but ill-treatment; and when i had thus acquired his confidence, he did not scruple to talk to me freely about himself and his concerns. i discovered what i had before suspected, that he was a man of consequence, for he was no less a personage than the court poet, enjoying the title of _melek al shoherah_, or the prince of poets. he was on his road from shiraz (whither he had been sent by the shah on business) to tehran, and had that very day reached ispahan, when he had fallen into our hands. in order to beguile the tediousness of the road through the salt desert, after i had related my adventures, i requested him to give me an account of his, which he did in the following words: �i was born in the city of kerman, and my name is asker. my father was for a long time governor of that city, during the reign of the eunuch aga mohammed shah; and although the intrigues that were set on foot against him to deprive him of his government were very mischievous, still such was his respectability, that his enemies never entirely prevailed against him. his eyes were frequently in danger, but his adroitness preserved them; and he had at last the good fortune to die peaceably in his bed in the present shah�s reign. i was permitted to possess the property which he left, which amounted to about , tomauns. in my youth i was remarkable for the attention which i paid to my studies, and before i had arrived at the age of sixteen i was celebrated for writing a fine hand. i knew hafiz entirely by heart, and had myself acquired such a facility in making verses, that i might almost have been said to speak in numbers. there was no subject that i did not attempt. i wrote on the loves of leilah and majnoun;[ ] i never heard the note of a nightingale, but i made it pour out its loves to the rose; and wherever i went i never failed to produce my poetry and chant it out in the assembly. at this time the king was waging war with sadik khan, a pretender to the throne, and a battle was fought, in which his majesty commanded in person, and which terminated in the defeat of the rebel. i immediately sang the king�s praises. in describing the contest i made rustam appear standing in a cloud over the field of battle; who seeing the king lay about him desperately, exclaims to himself, �lucky wight am i to be here instead of below, for certainly i should never escape from his blows.� i also exerted my wit, and was much extolled when i said, that sadik khan and his troops ought not to repine after all; for although they were vanquished, yet still the king, in his magnanimity, had exalted their heads to the skies. in this, i alluded to a pillar of skulls which his majesty had caused to be erected of the heads of the vanquished. these sayings of mine were reported to the shah, and he was pleased to confer upon me the highest honour which a poet can receive; namely, causing my mouth to be filled with gold coin in the presence of the whole court, at the great audience. this led to my advancement: and i was appointed to attend at court, and to write verses on all occasions. in order to show my zeal, i represented to the king, that as in former times our great ferdousi had written his �shah nameh,� or the history of the kings, it behooved him, who was greater than any monarch persia ever possessed, to have a poet who should celebrate his reign; and i entreated permission to write a �shahin shah nameh,� or the history of the king of kings; to which his majesty was most graciously pleased to give his consent. one of my enemies at court was the lord high treasurer, who, without any good reason, wanted to impose upon me a fine of , tomauns, which the king, on the plea that i was the first poet of the age, would not allow. it happened one day, that in a large assembly, the subject of discussion was the liberality of mahmoud shah ghaznevi to ferdousi, who gave him a miscal of gold for every couplet in the shah nameh. anxious that the king should hear what i was about to say, i exclaimed: �the liberality of his present majesty is equal to that of mahmoud shah--equal did i say?--nay greater; because in the one case, it was exercised towards the most celebrated poet of persia; and in my case, it is exercised towards the humble individual now before you.� �all the company were anxious to hear how and when such great favours had been conferred upon me. �in the first place,� said i, �when my father died, he left a property of , tomauns; the king permitted me to inherit it; he might have taken it away--there are , tomauns. then the lord high treasurer wanted to fine me , tomauns; the king did not allow it--there are , more. then the rest is made up of what i have subsisted upon ever since i have been in the shah�s service, and so my sum is made out.� and then i took to my exclamations of �may the king live for ever!--may his shadow never be less!--may he conquer all his enemies!�--all of which i flattered myself was duly reported to his majesty: and some days after i was invested with a dress of honour, consisting of a brocade coat, a shawl for the waist, and one for the head, and a brocade cloak trimmed with fur. i was also honoured with the title of prince of poets, by virtue of a royal firman, which, according to the usual custom, i wore in my cap for three successive days, receiving the congratulations of my friends, and feeling of greater consequence than i had ever done before. i wrote a poem, which answered the double purpose of gratifying my revenge for the ill-treatment i had received from the lord high treasurer, and of conciliating his good graces; for it had a double meaning all through: what he in his ignorance mistook for praise, was in fact satire; and as he thought that the high-sounding words in which it abounded (which, being mostly arabic, he did not understand) must contain an eulogium, he did not in the least suspect that they were in fact expressions containing the grossest disrespect. in truth, i had so cloaked my meaning, that, without my explanation, it would have been difficult for any one to have discovered it. but it was not alone in poetry that i excelled. i had a great turn for mechanics, and several of my inventions were much admired at court. i contrived a wheel for perpetual motion, which only wants one little addition to make it go round for ever. i made different sorts of coloured paper; i invented a new sort of ink-stand; and was on the high road to making cloth, when i was stopped by his majesty, who said to me, �asker, stick to your poetry: whenever i want cloth, my merchants bring it from europe.� and i obeyed his instructions; for on the approaching festival of the new year�s day, when it is customary for each of his servants to make him a present, i wrote something so happy about a toothpick, i which i presented in a handsome case, that the principal nobleman of the court, at the great public audience of that sacred day, were ordered to kiss me on the mouth for my pains. i compared his majesty�s teeth to pearls, and the toothpick to the pearl-diver; his gums to a coral-bank, near which pearls are frequently found; and the long beard and mustachios that encircled the mouth to the undulations of the ocean. i was complimented by everybody present upon the fertility of my imagination. i was assured that ferdousi was a downright ass when compared to me. by such means, i enjoyed great favour with the shah; and his majesty being anxious to give me an opportunity of acquiring wealth as well as honours, appointed me to be the bearer of the usual annual dress of honour which he sends to his son, the prince of the province of fars. i was received at shiraz with the greatest distinctions, and presents were made to me to a considerable amount; which, in addition to what i had levied from the villages on the road, made a handsome sum. the event of last night has deprived me of all: all has been stolen from me, and here you see me the most miserable of human beings. if you do not manage to help me to escape, i fear that i shall die a prisoner. perhaps the king may be anxious to release me, but certainly he will never pay one farthing for my ransom. the lord high treasurer is not my friend; and since i told the grand vizier, that with all his wisdom he did not know how to wind up a watch, much less how it was made, i fear that he also will not care for my loss. the money, with which i might have purchased my ransom, the barbarians have taken; and where to procure a similar sum i know not. it is my fate to have fallen into this disaster, therefore i must not repine; but let me entreat you, as you are a fellow mussulman--as you hate omar, and love ali--let me entreat you to help me in my distress.�[ ] [illustration: the prince�s tent-pitcher strikes hajji over the mouth with his slipper. .jpg] chapter viii hajji baba escapes from the turcomans--the meaning of �falling from the frying-pan into the fire� illustrated. as soon as the poet had finished his narrative, i assured him that i would do everything in my power to serve him; but i recommended patience to him for the present, as i had not yet devised the means of procuring my own liberty, and foresaw great difficulties in saving him at the same time. it would be impossible to evade the watchfulness of our masters, as long as we were in the open desert: their horses were as good as mine, and they were much better acquainted with the country than i was. to run away from them under these circumstances would be madness; therefore it was only left us to watch my opportunity that might be given us of escape. we had reached the limits of the salt desert, and were about crossing the high road that leads from tehran to meshed, about twenty parasangs to the east of damgan, when aslan sultan made a halt, and proposed that we should remain concealed for a day in the broken ground that borders the road, in the hopes that fortune might throw us in the way of a passing caravan, which it was his intention that we should pillage. at the very dawn of the following clay, a spy, who had been stationed on an adjacent hill, came in great haste to report that he saw clouds of dust rising in the direction of damgan, and approaching towards us, on the road leading to meshed. immediately we were all upon the alert. the turcomans left their prisoners, bound hand and foot, on the spot where we had rested, with the intention of returning to take them up as soon as we should have rifled the caravan, and, fully equipped, we sallied forth with great caution, determined on blood and plunder. aslan himself proceeded before the rest, in order to reconnoitre; and calling me to him, said, �now, hajji, here is an opportunity for distinguishing yourself. you shall accompany me; and you will observe the precautions i use previous to showing our whole body, which it may be necessary for you to know, in order that you may be able to conduct such an enterprise yourself on some future occasion. i take you with me, in case i should be obliged to use an interpreter; for frequently in these caravans, there is not a person who understands our language. we will approach as near as we can, perhaps have a parley with the conductor, and if we cannot make terms with him, we will fall on with our whole party.� as the travellers approached, i perceived that aslan sultan became uneasy. �this is no caravan, i fear,� said he; �they march in too compact a body: besides, i hear no bells; the dust is too great in one spot. i see spears!--it is an immense cavalcade--five led horses!--this is no game for us.� in fact, as they approached, it was easy to discover that it was no caravan, but some great personage, the governor of a province at least, who was travelling, attended by a numerous escort of horsemen and servants, and with all the pomp and glitter usual on such occasions. my heart leaped within me when i saw this, for here was an excellent opportunity for escape. could i approach near enough to be taken prisoner by them, without exciting any previous suspicion in my master, i should be safe; and although i might be ill-treated at first, still i trusted to my eloquence to make my story believed. accordingly, i said to my companion, �let us approach nearer�; and, without waiting for his permission, i excited my horse onwards. he immediately followed, with an intention of stopping me; but we had no sooner cleared the small elevated ground behind which we had posted ourselves, than we came in full view of the whole party, and were scarcely a bow-shot from them. as soon as we were discovered, some six or seven of their best horsemen were detached from the rest of the body, and, at the fullest speed of their horses, came towards us. we turned about to fly: as much as aslan urged on his steed, so much did i restrain mine; and by this maneuver i was very soon overtaken and seized. to be knocked off my horse, disarmed, plundered of my fifty ducats, my razors and all my other effects, was but the business of a few seconds; and although i assured my new masters that i was in no intention to leave them, still they persisted in tying my arms behind me, with my own shawl, which they took from round my waist for that purpose. thus pinioned, and receiving blows every now and then, because i did not move fast enough, i was dragged before their chief, who had made a halt, surrounded by his attendants. from the sort of attentions which he received, and the low inclinations of the body that were made before him, i imagined that he must be a royal personage, and i was soon informed as much, when i came near; for several blows on the head were given me, as hints to make me prostrate myself before a _shahzadeh_, or prince. a large circle being made, he ordered me to be released, and, as soon as i felt myself free, at one bound i disengaged myself from those near me, and seizing upon the skirt of his cloak,[ ] as he was seated on his horse, exclaimed, �_penah be shahzadeh!_ protection from the prince.� one of the guards rushed forward to punish my audacity; but the prince would not allow the sacred custom to be infringed, and promised me his protection. ordering his servants not to molest me, he, at the same time, commanded me to relate how i came to be placed in the predicament in which i now stood. falling on my knees, and kissing the ground, i related my story in as concise a manner as possible; and, to corroborate all that i had said, added, that if he would order his horsemen to attack the party of turcomans, who still were close at hand, they might release the king�s poet, with two other persians, who were prisoners in their hands, and they would fully confirm all that i had asserted. i had no sooner said this than the horsemen, who had pursued aslan sultan, returned, with looks of great dismay, swearing by ali and by the head of the king, that an immense body of turcomans, at least , strong, were marching down upon us, and that the prince must prepare to fight. in vain i explained to them that they were only twenty in number--no body would believe me; i was treated as a spy and a liar, and every one said that if the turcomans did attack, they would put me to death on the spot. the party then proceeded onwards at a good pace, looking about in all directions for the expected enemy, and betraying all those symptoms of apprehension which the very name of turcoman excites throughout the whole of persia. my own horse had been taken from me, and i was permitted to ride upon a baggage mule, where i had time to ponder over my wretched fate and miserable prospects. without a farthing in my pocket, without a friend, i saw nothing before me but starvation. i had not yet become a sufficiently good mussulman to receive comfort from predestination, and i absolutely sobbed aloud at my own folly, for having voluntarily been the cause of my present misery. that fond partiality for my own countrymen, which used to predominate so powerfully in my breast when i was a prisoner, entirely forsook me here, and i cursed them aloud. �you call yourselves mussulmans!� said i to those around me: �you have not the feelings of dogs. dogs did i say? you are worse than christian dogs--the turcomans are men compared to you.� then when i found that this sort of language only produced laughter in my auditors, i tried what entreaty would do. �for the love of imam hossein, for the sake of the prophet, by the souls of your children, why do you treat a stranger thus? am i not a mussulman like yourselves? what have i done that i should be made to devour this grief? i sought refuge amongst you as friends, and i am thrust away as an enemy.� for all this i got no consolation, excepting from an old muleteer, by name ali katir, who had just lighted his _kalian_, or water pipe, and giving it to me to smoke, said, �my son, everything in this world is in the hand of god.� pointing to the mule upon which he rode, he added, �if god has made this animal white, can ali katir make it black? it one day gets a feed of corn; on the next it browses upon a thistle. can we contend with fate? smoke your pipe now and be happy, and be thankful that it is no worse with you. hafiz says, �every moment of pleasure that you enjoy, account it gain--who can say what will be the event of any thing?�� this speech of the muleteer soothed me a little, and as he found that i was as well versed in hafiz as he,[ ] and not backward in permitting myself to be comforted, he treated me with much kindness, and made me a partaker of his mess during the remainder of the journey. he informed me that the prince, into whose hands i had fallen, was the shah�s fifth son, who had lately been installed in the government of the province of khorassan, and was now on his road to meshed, the seat of his jurisdiction. he was escorted by a greater number of attendants than ordinary, on account of the alarming state of the turcoman frontier, and it was said that he had instructions to commence very active operations against that people, as many of whose heads as possible he was invited to send to tehran, to be piled up before the gate of the royal palace; and you may account yourself very fortunate,� added the muleteer, �that yours was not taken off your shoulders. had you happened to be fair, with little eyes, and without much hair, instead of being a dark man, as you are, you certainly would have been put to death, and your head have been pickled, and made to pass for that of a turcoman.� when we had reached our resting-place at night, which was a lonely caravanserai half in ruins, situated on the skirts of the desert, i determined to endeavour to procure admittance to the prince, and to make an effort to regain my fifty ducats, and my horse and arms, which i made no scruple in claiming as my own, notwithstanding a certain little voice within me, which told me that another had almost as much right to them as i had. i accordingly watched an opportunity, just before the evening prayer, of presenting myself to him. he was seated on a carpet that had been spread on the terrace of the caravanserai, reposing himself on his cushion, and before his attendants had time to beat me off, i exclaimed, �_arzi darum_, i have a petition to make.� upon which he ordered me to approach, and asked me what i wanted? i complained of the treatment i had received from his servants who had first seized me--related how they had robbed me of my fifty ducats; and then entreated that my horse and arms might be restored to me. he inquired of those surrounding him who the men were that i complained of, and when their names were mentioned, he sent his chief tent-pitcher to conduct them to him. as soon as they appeared, for they were two, i recognized the aggressors, and affirmed them to be such to the prince. �sons of dogs,� said he to them, �where is the money you stole from this man?� �we took nothing,� they immediately exclaimed. �we shall soon see that,� answered he. �call the ferashes,� said he to one of his officers, �and let them beat the rogues on the soles of their feet till they produce the fifty ducats.� they were immediately seized, and when their feet were in the air, strongly tied in the noose, and after receiving a few blows, they confessed that they had taken the money, and produced it. it was forthwith carried to the prince, who deliberately counted it over, and, putting it under the cushion upon which he was reclining, released the culprits, and said in a loud voice to me, �you are dismissed.� i stood with my mouth wide open, hoping to see the money handed over to me, when his master of the ceremonies took me by the shoulders and pushed me away. i exclaimed, �and my money, where is it?� �what does he say?� said the prince: �give him the shoe if he speaks again.� when the master of the ceremonies, taking off his high green slipper, struck me over the mouth with the heel of it, shod with iron, saying, �do you speak to a king�s son thus? go in peace, and keep your eyes open, or you�ll have your ears cut off�; and so i was pushed and dragged violently away. i returned in utter despair to my muleteer, who appeared not in the least surprised at what had happened and said, �what could you expect more? after all, is he not a prince? when once he or any man in power gets possession of a thing, do you think that they will ever restore it? you might as well expect a mule to give up a mouthful of fresh grass, when once it has got it within its mouth, as a prince to give up money that has once been in his hands.� [illustration: hajji carries the great water-sack. .jpg] chapter ix hajji baba, in his distress, becomes a saka, or water-carrier. we reached meshed in due time, and the prince made his solemn entry amidst all the noise, parade, and confusion, attendant upon such ceremonies. i found myself a solitary being, in a strange city, distant from my friends, and from any creature to whom i might look for assistance, and without even a pair of razors to comfort me. when i looked at my present means, i found that they consisted of five tomauns--which i had managed to secrete from the sack i had stolen in the caravanserai, and which i put between the lining of my cap--of a brown woollen coat, of a sheep-skin jacket, a shirt, a pair of trousers, and a heavy pair of boots. i had lived upon the muleteer as long as he enjoyed the daily allowance of provisions that he received during the time when he was attached to the suite of the prince; but now that he and his mules were discharged, i could not expect that he should continue to support me. i thought of again taking to my profession; but who would trust their throats to a man who had the reputation of being a turcoman spy? besides, although i might purchase razors, yet my means were not large enough to set up a shop, and i was determined not to become a journeyman. my friend the muleteer, who knew the ways and means of meshed, recommended me strongly to become a _saka_, or water-carrier. �you are young, and strong,� said he: �you have a good voice, and would entice people to drink by a harmonious cry. you have besides a great talent for cant and palaver, and for laughing at one�s beard. the number of pilgrims who come to meshed to perform their devotions at the tomb of the imâm is great, and charity being one of the principal instruments which they use for the salvation of their souls, they give freely to those who promise them the best reward. you must sell each draught in the name and for the sake imâm hossein, our favourite saint. always offer it gratis; but be sure you get money in hand before you pour it out; and when your customer has drunk, say, with great emphasis, �may your draught be propitious! may the holy imâm take you under his protection! may you never suffer the thirst of the blessed hossein!� and such like sort of speeches, which you must chant out so loud that everybody may hear you. in short, to devotees who come some hundreds of parasangs to say their prayers, you may say anything and everything, and you will be sure to be believed. i myself have been a saka at meshed, and know the trade. it has enabled me to buy a string of mules, and to be the man you see.� i followed my friend�s advice. i forthwith laid out my money in buying a leather sack, with a brass cock, which i slung round my body, and also a bright drinking cup. after having filled my sack with water, and let it soak for some time, in order to do away the bad smell of the leather, i sallied forth, and proceeded to the tomb, where i immediately began my operations. the cry i adopted was �water, water! in the name of the imâm, water.� this i chanted with all the force and swell of my lungs, and having practised under the tuition of the muleteer for two days before, i was assured that i acquitted myself as well as the oldest practitioners. as soon as i appeared, i immediately drew the attention of the other sakas, who seemed to question the right i had to exercise their profession. when i showed myself at the reservoir, to draw water, they would have quarrelled with me, and one attempted to push me in; but they found i was resolute, and that my resolution was backed by a set of strong and active limbs, and therefore confined themselves to abusive language, of which being the entire master, i soon got the lead, and completely silenced them. nature, in fact, seemed to have intended me for a saka. the water which i had a moment before drawn from a filthy reservoir, i extolled as having flowed from a spring created by ali in person equal to the sacred well of zem zem, and a branch of the river which flows through paradise. it is inconceivable how it was relished, and how considerable was the money i received for giving it gratis. i was always on the watch to discover when a new set of pilgrims should arrive, and before they had even alighted from their mules, all dusty from the road, and all happy at having escaped the turcomans, i plied them in the name of the prophet with a refreshing draught, and made them recollect that, this being the first devotional act which they performed on reaching meshed, so out of gratitude for their safe arrival, they ought to reward me liberally; and my admonitions were scarcely ever disregarded. the commemoration of the death of hossein, which is so religiously kept throughout persia, was now close at hand, and i determined to put myself into training to appear as the water-carrier, who on the last day of the festival, which is held the most sacred, performs a conspicuous character in the tragedy. this was to be acted in public before the prince in the great open square of the city, and i expected to acquire much reputation and profit from the feat of strength which i should perform, which consists of carrying an immense sack full of water on the back, accompanied by additional exertions. i had a rival, who accomplished the task on the last festival; but as the sack i was about to carry contained infinitely more water than he could support, my claim to superiority was not to be disputed. however, i was advised to be on my guard, for he was of a jealous character, and would not lose an opportunity of doing me an injury if he could. when the day arrived, the prince being seated in an upper room situated over the gate of his palace, and the whole population of the city assembled to witness the religious ceremonies, i appeared naked to the waist, with my body streaming with blood, slowly walking under the weight of my immense sack. having reached the window at which the prince was seated, i attracted his notice by loud exclamations for his happiness and prosperity. he threw me down a gold coin, and expressed himself pleased with my performance. in my exultation i invited several boys, who were near at hand for the purpose, to pile themselves upon my load, which they did, to the astonishment of the crowd, who encouraged me by their cries and applause. i called for another boy, when my rival, who had watched his opportunity, sprang forwards and mounted himself on the very top of all, hoping, no doubt, to crush me: but, exerting myself to the utmost of my strength, i carried my burden clean off, amidst the animating shouts of the staring multitude. but although in the heat of the exertion i felt no inconvenience, yet when i was disencumbered i found that my back was sprained so severely, that i was totally unfitted for the trade of a water-carrier for the future. i therefore sold my sack and other articles, and, with the money that i had gained in water-selling, found myself well off, compared to the deplorable situation in which i was on my arrival at meshed. my friend the muleteer had departed some time before the festival with a caravan for tehran, so i was deprived of his counsels. i should have demanded justice for the injury done me by my rival, and might have dragged him before the cadi; but i was assured that in the mohammedan law there is no provision made for a sprain. it is written an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but there is no sprain for a sprain. had i had some powerful protector, who would have prosecuted the business for me, perhaps i might have got redress; but a miserable creature like myself, unknown and unfriended, i could have gained nothing, and should perhaps have stood a chance of losing the little money i had acquired. chapter x he makes a soliloquy, and becomes an itinerant vendor of smoke. i held a consultation with myself as to what i should do next for my livelihood. various walks in life were open to me. the begging line was an excellent one in meshed, and, judging from my success as water-carrier, i should very soon have been at the head of the profession. i might also have become a _lûti_,[ ] and kept a bear; but it required some apprenticeship to learn the tricks of the one, and to know how to tame the other: so i gave that up. still i might have followed my own profession, and have taken a shop; but i could not bear the thoughts of settling, particularly in so remote a town as meshed. at length i followed the bent of my inclination, and, as i was myself devotedly fond of smoking, i determined to become an itinerant seller of smoke. accordingly i bought pipes of various sizes, a wooden tray, containing the pipe-heads, which was strapped round my waist, an iron pot for fire, which i carried in my hand, a pair of iron pincers, a copper jug for water, that was suspended by a hook, behind my back, and some long bags for my tobacco. all these commodities were fastened about my body, and when i was fully equipped, i might be said to look like a porcupine with all its quills erect. my tobacco was of various sorts--tabas, shiraz, susa, and damascus. it is true that i was not very scrupulous about giving it pure; for with a very small quantity of the genuine leaf i managed to make a large store, with the assistance of different sorts of dungs. i had a great tact in discovering amongst my customers the real connoisseur, and to him i gave it almost genuine. my whole profits, in fact, depended upon my discrimination of characters. to those of the middling ranks, i gave it half-mixed; to the lower sort, three-quarters; and to the lowest, almost without any tobacco at all. whenever i thought i could perceive a wry face, i immediately exerted my ingenuity in favour of the excellence of my tobacco. i showed specimens of the good, descanted on its superior qualities, and gave the history of the very gardener who had reared it, and pledged myself to point out the very spot in his grounds where it grew. i became celebrated in meshed for the excellence of my pipes. my principal customer was a dervish, who was so great a connoisseur that i never dared to give him any but pure tobacco; and although i did not gain much by his custom, as he was not very exact in his payments, yet his conversation was so agreeable, and he recommended so many of his friends to me, that i cultivated his good will to the utmost of my power. dervish sefer (for that was his name) was a man of peculiar aspect. he had a large aquiline nose, piercing black eyes, a thick beard, and a great quantity of jet black hair flowing over his shoulders. his conical cap was embroidered all over with sentences from the koran, and holy invocations: the skin of a red deer was fastened loosely upon his back, with the hairy side outwards: he bore in hand a long steel staff, which he generally carried on his shoulder, and in the other a calabash, suspended by three chains, which he extended whenever he deigned to ask the charity of passengers. in his girdle he wore large agate clasps, from which hung a quantity of heavy wooden beads; and, as he swung himself along through the streets and bazaars, there was so much of wildness and solicitude in all his words and actions, that he did not fail to inspire a certain awe in all beholders. this, i afterwards learn, was put on, in order to suit the character which he had adopted; for when he smoked my pipes, if no one chanced to be present, he was the most natural and unreserved of beings. our acquaintance soon improved into intimacy, and at length he introduced me into a small circle of dervishes, men of his own turn and profession, with whom he lived almost exclusively, and i was invited to frequent their meetings. it is true that this did not suit my views in the smoking line, for they amongst them consumed more of my good tobacco than all the rest of my other customers put together; but their society was so agreeable that i could not resist the temptation. dervish sefer, one evening when we had smoked more than usual, said to me, �hajji baba, you are too much of a man to be a seller of smoke all your life:--why do you not turn dervish, like us? we hold men�s beards as cheap as dirt; and although our existence is precarious, yet it is one of great variety, as well as of great idleness. we look upon mankind as fair game--we live upon their weakness and credulity; and, from what i have seen of you, i think you would do honour to our profession, and in time become as celebrated as even the famous sheikh saadi himself.� this speech was applauded by the other two, who pressed my entering upon their profession. i was nothing loath, but i pleaded my ignorance of the necessary qualifications. �how is it possible,� said i, �that a being so ignorant and unexperienced as i am can at once attain to all the learning requisite for a dervish? i know how to read and write, �tis true; i have gone through the koran, and have my hafiz and saadi nearly by heart; besides which, i have read a great part of the shah nameh of ferdûsi, but beyond that i am totally ignorant.� �ah, my friend,� said dervish sefer, �little do you know of dervishes, and still less of humankind. it is not great learning that is required to make a dervish: assurance is the first ingredient. with one-fiftieth part of the accomplishments that you have mentioned, and with only a common share of effrontery, i promise you, that you may command not only the purses, but even the lives of your hearers. by impudence i have been a prophet, by impudence i have wrought miracles, by impudence i have restored the dying to health--by impudence, in short, i lead a life of great ease, and am feared and respected by those who, like you, do not know what dervishes are. if i chose to give myself the trouble, and incur the risks which mahomed himself did, i might even now become as great a prophet as he. it would be as easy for me to cut the moon in two with my finger as it was for him, provided i once made my hearers have confidence in me; and impudence will do that, and more, if exerted in a proper manner.� when dervish sefer had done talking, his companions applauded what he had said, and they related so many curious anecdotes of the feats which they had performed, that i became very anxious to know more of these extraordinary men. they promised to relate the history of their lives at our next meeting, and, in the meanwhile, recommended me strongly to turn my thoughts to a line of life more dignified, and fuller of enjoyment, than that of a vagabond seller of adulterated smoke. [illustration: the dervish slays the ape. .jpg] chapter xi history of dervish sefer, and of two other dervishes. when we had again collected ourselves together, each with a pipe in his hand, seated with our backs against the wall, in a room, the window of which opened into a small square planted with flowers, dervish sefer, as the acknowledged head of our society, began his story in the following words: �i am the son of the lûti bashi, or head merry-andrew of the prince of shiraz, by a celebrated courtezan of the name of _taous_, or the peacock. with such parents, i leave you to imagine the education which i received. my principal associates, during my infancy, were the monkeys and bears that belonged to my father and his friends, and, perhaps, it is to the numerous tricks in which they were instructed, and to the facility with which they learnt them, that i am indebted for the talent of mimicry that has been of so much use to me through life. at fifteen i was an accomplished lûti. i could eat fire, spout water, and perform all sorts of sleight of hand, and i should very probably have continued to prosper in this profession, had not the daughter of the prince�s general of camel artillery become enamoured of me, as i danced on the tight-rope before the court on the festival of the new year�s day. a young camel-driver under his orders had a sister who served in the harem of the general: he was my most intimate friend, and his sister gave him the intelligence of the effect my appearance had produced upon her mistress. i immediately went to a mîrza or scribe, who lived in a small shed in a corner of the bazaar, and requested of him to write a love-letter for me, with as much red ink in it as possible, and crossed and re-crossed with all the complication he could devise. nothing could be better than this composition--for at the very outset it informed my mistress that i was dead, and that my death was owing to the fire of her eyes, that had made roast meat of my heart. notwithstanding this assertion, i ventured at the end to say that as i had never yet seen her, i hoped that she would contrive to grant me an interview. in the joy of my heart for the possession of such a letter, in great confidence i told the scribe who my charmer was, which he had no sooner heard, than hoping to receive a present for his trouble, he went forthwith and informed the general himself of the fact. that the son of the _lûti bashi_ should dare to look up to the daughter of _zambûrekchi bashi_ was a crime not to be forgiven, and as the latter had influence at court, he procured an order for my instant removal from shiraz. my father did not wish to incur the prince�s displeasure, and fearing, from my growing celebrity, that i should very soon rival him in his own profession, rather urged than delayed my departure. on the morning when i was about quitting shiraz, and was bidding adieu to my friends the monkeys, bears, and other animals under his care, he said to me, �sefer, my son, i should be sorry to part with you; but with the education which you have received, and the peculiar advantages which you have had of living almost entirely in the society of me and my beasts, it is impossible but that you will succeed in life. i now endow you with what will ensure you a rapid fortune. i give you my chief ape, the most accomplished of his species. make a friend of him for your own sake, and love him for mine; and i hope in time that you will reach the eminence to which your father has attained.� upon this he placed the animal upon my shoulder, and thus accompanied i left the paternal roof. �i took the road to ispahan, in no very agreeable mood, for i scarcely knew whether to be happy or sorry for this change in my circumstances. a monkey and independence were certainly delightful things; but to leave my associates, and the places that were endeared to me from my infancy, and, above all, to abandon that fair unknown, whom my imagination had pictured to me as lovely as _shireen_ herself, were circumstances which appeared to me so distressing, that by the time i had reached the hut of the dervish, at the _teng allah akbar_, my mind sank into a miserable fit of despondency. i seated myself on a stone, near the hut, and, with my monkey by my side, i gave vent to my grief in a flood of tears, exclaiming, �_ah wahi! ah wahi!_� in accents the most piteous that can be imagined. �these brought the dervish out, and when he had heard my tale, invited me into the hut, where i found another dervish, of much more commanding aspect than the former. he was clad nearly in the same manner that i am now (indeed, the cap i wear was his); but there was a wildness about his looks that was quite imposing. �at the sight of me and my companion, he appeared struck by a sudden thought. he and the other dervish having talked together in private, he proposed that i should accompany him to ispahan, promised that he would be kind to me, and, if i behaved well, would put me into the way of making my fortune. i readily agreed, and after the dervish of the hut had given us a pipe to smoke, we departed, walking at a good pace; without much being said between us during some time. _dervish bideen_, for that was his name, at length began to question me very closely about my former life, and hearing in what my accomplishments consisted, seemed to be well pleased. he then descanted upon the advantages attending the life of a dervish, proved them to be superior to the low pursuits of a lûti, and at length persuaded me to embrace his profession. he said, that if i would look upon him as my master, he would teach me all he knew, and _that_, he assured me, was no small portion of knowledge, inasmuch as he was esteemed the most perfect dervish in persia. he began to talk of magic and astrology, and gave me various receipts for making spells and charms, to serve on every occasion in life; by the sale of which alone i should be able to make my fortune. the tail of a hare, placed under the pillow of a child, he assured me, produces sleep; and its blood, given to a horse, makes him fleet and long-winded. the eye and the knuckle-bones of a wolf, attached to a boy�s person, give him courage; and its fat, rubbed on a woman, will convert her husband�s love into indifference: its gall, used in the same manner, produces fruitfulness. but the article which bore the greatest price in the seraglios was the _kûs keftar_, the dried skin of a female hyena; which, if worn about the person, conciliated the affection of all to the wearer. he discoursed long upon these and such-like subjects, until he gradually excited so much interest in my heart, by thus placing my fortune apparently in full view, that at length he ventured to make a proposal, which he easily judged would be disagreeable. ��sefer,� said he to me, �you know not the treasure you possess in that ape,--i do not mean as he stands now alive, but dead. if he were dead, i could extract such ingredients from him to make charms, which would sell for their weight in gold in the harem of the shah. you must know, that the liver of an ape, and only of that particular species which you possess, is sure to bring back the love of a desired object to the person who may possess it. then the skin of its nose, if worn round the neck, is a decisive preventive against poison; and the ashes of the animal itself, after it has been burnt over a slow tire, will, if taken internally, give all the qualities of the ape, cunning, adroitness, and the powers of imitation.� he then proposed that we should kill the beast. �i was certainly alarmed at the proposal. i had been brought up with my ape; we had hitherto gone through life together in prosperity as well as in adversity; and to lose him in this barbarous manner was more than i could bear. i was about to give a flat refusal to the dervish, when i observed that his countenance, which hitherto had been all smiles and good humour, had changed to downright furiousness; and fearing that he would take by force that which i could not protect, i, with all the reluctance imaginable, consented to the execution of his project. we then deviated from the road; and having got into a solitary glen, we gathered together some dry stubble and underwood, made a fire, striking a light with a flint and steel, which my companion carried about him. he took my poor ape into his hands, and, without further ceremony, put it to death. he then dissected it; and having taken from it the liver, and the skin off its nose, burnt it in the pile we had made; and when all was over, carefully collected the ashes, which having packed in a corner of his handkerchief, we proceeded on our journey. �we reached ispahan in due time, where i exchanged such parts of my dress as belonged to the lûti for the garb of a dervish, and then we proceeded to tehran. here my master�s appearance produced great effect; for no sooner was it known that he was arrived, than all sorts of people flocked to consult him. mothers wanted protection for their children against the evil eye; wives a spell against the jealousy of their husbands; warriors talismans to secure them from harm in battle. but the ladies of the king�s seraglio were his principal customers. their most urgent demand was some powerful charm to ensure the attention of the king. the collection of materials for this purpose, which the dervish bideen had made, was very great. he had the hairs of a lynx, the back-bone of an owl, and bear�s grease in various preparations. to one of the ladies, who, owing to her advanced age, was more pressing than the others, he sold the liver of my monkey, assuring her, that as soon as she appeared wearing it about her person, his majesty would distinguish her from her rivals. to another, who complained that she was never in favour, and frustrated in all her schemes to attract notice, he administered a decoction of the monkey�s ashes; and to a third, who wanted a charm to drive away wrinkles, he gave an ointment, which, if property applied, and provided she did not laugh, or otherwise move the muscles of her face, would effectually keep them smooth. i was initiated into all these mysteries, and frequently was a party concerned in a fraud, whenever my master was put to the necessity of doing something supernatural to support his credit, if by chance his spells were palpably of no avail. but whatever profit arose either from these services, or from the spoils of my monkey, he alone was the gainer, for i never touched a _ghauz_[ ]of it. �i accompanied the dervish bideen into various countries, where we practised our art: sometimes we were adored as saints, and at others stoned for vagrants. our journeys being performed on foot, i had good opportunities to see every place in detail. we travelled from tehran to constantinople, and from that capital to grand cairo, through aleppo and damascus. from cairo we showed ourselves at mecca and medina; and taking ship at jedda, landed at surat, in the guzerat, whence we walked to lahore and cashmire. �at this last place, the dervish, according to custom, endeavoured to deceive the natives; but they were too enlightened for us, and we were obliged to steal away in disgrace; and we at length fixed ourselves at herat, where we were repaid for our former want of success by the credulity of the affghans, who were good enough to admit all that we chose to tell them. but here, as the dervish was getting up a plan to appear as a prophet, and when our machinery for performing miracles was nearly completed, he, who had promised eternal youth to thousands, at length paid the debt of nature himself. he had shut himself up in a small hut, situated at the top of a mountain near herat, where we made the good people believe he was living upon no other food than that which the _gins_ and _peris_ brought to him; but unfortunately he actually died of a surfeit, having ate more of a roast lamb and sweetmeats than his nature could support. for my own credit, i was obliged to say, that the gins, jealous of us mortals for possessing the society of so wonderful a person, had so inflated him with celestial food, that, leaving no room for his soul, it had been completely blown out of his body, and carried away into the fifth heaven by a strong north-east wind, which was blowing at the time. this wind, which lasts for days during the summer months, and without which the inhabitants would almost die with heat, i endeavoured to make them believe was a miracle performed by the dervish in their favour, as a parting legacy to them and their descendants for ever. the old men, indeed, who recollected the wind ever since their youth, were incredulous; but their testimony bore but little weight, compared to the influence which we had acquired. he was buried with the greatest honours; and the prince of herat himself, _eshek mirza_, lent his shoulder to bear his coffin to the grave. a mausoleum was erected over it by some of the most pious of the affghans, and it has ever since been a place of pilgrimage from all the country round. �i remained at herat for some time after the death of my companion, in order to enjoy the advantages which might accrue to me from being the friend and disciple of one of such high reputation, and i did not repent of my resolution. i disposed of my spells at great prices, and moreover made a considerable sum by selling the combings of my deceased friend�s beard, and the cuttings of his nails, which i assured my purchasers had been carefully preserved during the time of his retirement in the mountains; although in fact they were chiefly collected from my own person. when i had sold of these relics enough to make several respectable beards, and a proportionate quantity of nails, i felt that if i persisted in the traffic, notwithstanding the inordinate credulity of the affghans, i might be discovered for a cheat, therefore i took my departure, and, having travelled into various parts of persia, i at length fixed myself among the hezareh, a large tribe, living for the most part in tents, and which occupy the open country between caboul and candahar. my success among them was something quite beyond my expectation, for i put into practice what the dervish bideen had planned at herat, and actually appeared in the character of a prophet.� the dervish sefer then, laying his hand upon the shoulder of the dervish who sat next to him, said, �my friend, here, was my accomplice on that occasion, and he will remember how ingeniously we managed to make the hezareh believe that we possessed a cauldron which was always full of boiled rice--a miracle which even the most incredulous did not fail to believe, as long as they got their share of it. in short, i am the celebrated _hazret ishan_ himself; he of whom you have lately heard so much in khorassan; and although my sacred character was not proof against the attacks made upon it by the arms of the shah, yet, while it lasted, i collected enough from the zeal and credulity of my disciples to enable me to pass the remainder of my life in comfort. i have lived at meshed for some time; and it is but a week ago that we contrived to perform the miracle of giving sight to a blind girl; so now are held in the highest veneration.� here the dervish sefer ended his history, and then called upon his next neighbour to give an account of himself. this was the dervish who had been his accomplice among the hezareb, and he began as follows: �my father was a celebrated man of the law, of the city of kom, enjoying the reputation of saying his prayers, making his ablutions, and keeping his fasts more regularly than any man in persia; in short, he was the cream of shîahs, and the model of mussulmans. he had many sons, and we were brought up in the strictest practice of the external parts of our religion. the rigour and severity with which we were treated were combated on our part by cunning and dissimulation. these qualities gradually fixed themselves in our character; and without any consideration for our circumstances, we were early branded as a nest of hypocrites, and as the greatest cheats and liars of our birth-place. i, in particular, was so notorious that in my own defence i became a dervish, and i owe the reputation which i have acquired in that calling to the following fortunate circumstance. �i had scarcely arrived at tehran, and had taken up my quarters opposite to a druggist�s shop, when i was called up in a great hurry by an old woman, who informed me that her master, the druggist, had just been taken exceedingly ill, after having eaten more than usual; that the medicine which he had taken had not performed its office; and that his family wished to try what a talisman would do for him: she therefore invited me to write one suited to his case. as i had neither paper, pens, nor ink, i insisted upon going into his _anderûn_, or woman�s apartments, and writing it there, to which she consented. i was introduced into a small square yard, and then into a room, where i found the sick man extended on his bed on the ground, surrounded by as many women as the place could hold, who cried aloud, and exclaimed, �_wahi, wahi_, in the name of god he dies, he dies!� the implements of medicine were spread about, which showed that everything had been done either to kill or save him. a large basin, which had contained the prescription, was seen on the shelf; the long glass tube, that instrument of torture, was in a corner; and among other furniture, the dotor himself was seen seated, unconcernedly enjoying his pipe, and who, having found that human means were inefficient, had had recourse to supernatural, and had prescribed, as a last resource, the talisman, which it was my fate to write. a new dervish excited new hopes, for i saw that i produced much stir as i entered the sick room, i asked for paper with an air of authority, as if i felt great confidence in my own powers, (although, in fact, i had never written a talisman before), and a large piece was produced, which seemed to have been the wrapper to some drug or other. pen and ink were also given me; and then calling up all my gravity, i scrawled the paper over in a variety of odd characters, which here and there contained the names of allah, mohamed, ali, hassan, and hossein, and all the imâms, placing them in different anagrams, and substituting here and there figures instead of letters. i then handed it over with great ceremony to the doctor, who, calling for water and a basin, washed the whole from off the paper into the basin, whilst the bystanders offered up prayers for the efficacy of the precious writing. the doctor then said, �in the name of the prophet, let the patient take this; and if fate hath decreed that he is to live, then the sacred names which he will now swallow will restore him: but if not, neither my skill, nor that of any other man, can ever be of the least avail.� �the draught was administered, and every eye was immediately fixed upon the wretched man�s face, as if a resuscitation was expected to ensue. he remained for some time without showing any symptom of life; when, to the astonishment of all, not excepting myself and the doctor, he groaned, opened his eyes, raised his head on his arm, then called for a basin, and at length vomited in a manner that would have done credit to the prescription of abu avicenna himself. in short, he recovered. �in my own mind, i immediately attributed the happy change to the drug which had once been wrapped in the paper, and which, with the nausea of the ink, had produced the effect just described; but i took care to let the bystanders know that the cure was entirely owing to the interference and to the handwriting of one of my sanctity; and that but for me he would have died. �the doctor, on the other hand, took all the merit of the case to himself; for as soon as his patient had opened his eyes, he exclaimed, �did i not tell you so?� and in proportion as the draught operated, he went on exulting thus: �there, there, see the efficacy of my prescription! had it not been for me, you would have seen the druggist dead before you.� �i, however, would not allow him to proceed, and said: �if you are a doctor, why did you not cure your patient without calling for me? keep to your blisters and to your bleedings, and do not interfere with that which doth not belong to you.� �he answered, �mr. dervish, i make no doubt that you can write a very good talisman, and also can get a very good price for it; but every one knows who and what dervishes are; and if their talismans are ever of use, it is not their sanctity which makes them so.� �whose dog are you,� exclaimed i, in return, �to talk to me after this manner? i, who am a servant of the prophet. as for you doctors, your ignorance is proverbial: you hide it by laying all to fate: if by chance your patient recovers, then you take all the credit of the cure to yourselves; should he die, you say, god hath decreed thus; what can the efforts of man avail? go to, go to; when you have nearly killed your next patient, and then know not what more to ordain, send for me again, and i will cover your impudent ignorance by curing him as i have just done the druggist.� �by my head, and by your death,� returned the doctor, �i am not a man to hear this from any one, much less from a dog of a dervish:� and immediately he got up and approached me in a threatening attitude, making use of every epithet of abuse that he could think of. �i received him with suitable expressions of contempt, and we very soon came to blows; he so effectually fastened upon my hair, and i upon his beard,[ ] that we plucked out whole handfuls from each other: we bit and spat, and fought with such fury, heedless of the sick man and the cries of the women, that the uproar became very great, and perhaps would have terminated in something serious, if one of the women had not run in to us, in great agitation, assuring us that the _darogah�s_ officers (police men) were then knocking at the door of the house, and inquiring whence proceeded all the disturbance. �this parted us; and then i was happy to find that the bystanders were in my favour, for they expressed their contempt of the skill of the physician, whose only object was to obtain money without doing his patients any good, whilst they looked upon me in the light of a divine person, who in handwriting alone possessed the power of curing all manner of disease. �the doctor, seeing how ill matters were going for him, stole away with the best face he could; but before he left the room, he stooped down, and collecting as many of the hairs of his beard, which i had plucked from him, as he could find, to which he cunningly added some of my own hair, he brandished them in my face, saying, �we shall see on whose side the laugh will be when you are brought before the cadi to-morrow; for beards are worth a ducat per hair in tehran, and i doubt, with all your talismans, whether you can buy these that i hold in my hand.� �it was evident, that when his anger was cooled, out of regard to his own reputation, he would not put his threat into execution; so the fear of being dragged before the justice gave me no uneasiness, and i therefore only considered how to make the most of the fortunate circumstance which had just taken place. the report that the druggist (who was the first in tehran) had been brought to life, when on the point of death, by a newly arrived dervish, was soon spread about, and i became the object of general concern. from morning to night i was taken up in writing talismans, for which i made my customers pay according to their means, and in a short time i found myself the possessor of some hundreds of piastres. but unfortunately for me, i did not meet with a dying druggist and a piece of his paper every day; and feeling myself reduced to live upon the reputation of this one miracle, which i perceived to my sorrow daily diminished, i made a virtue of necessity, and determining to make the tour of persia, i immediately left tehran. to whichsoever city i bent my steps, i managed matters so adroitly, that i made my reputation precede my arrival there. the druggist had given me an attestation under his seal, that he had been restored to life by virtue of a talisman written by my hand, and this i exhibited wherever i went, to corroborate the truth of the reports which had been circulated in my favour. i am now living upon this reputation: it supports me very tolerably for the present, but whenever i find that it begins to rail, i shall proceed elsewhere.�--the dervish here ended his history. when the third dervish came to his turn to speak, he said: �my tale is but short, although story-telling is my profession. i am the son of a schoolmaster, who, perceiving that i was endowed with a very retentive memory, made me read and repeat to him most of the histories with which our language abounds; and when he found that he had furnished my mind with a sufficient assortment, he turned me out into the world under the garb of dervish, to relate them in public to such audiences as my talents might gather round me. �my first essays were anything but successful. my auditors heard my stories, and then walked away without leaving me any reward for my pains. little by little i acquired experience. instead of being carried away, as i had at first permitted myself to he, by the interest of the story, i made a pause when the catastrophe drew near, and then, looking around me, said, �all ye that are present, if you will be liberal towards me, i will tell you what follows;� and i seldom failed in collecting a good handful of copper coin. for instance, in the story of the prince of khatai and the princess of samarcand, when the ogre _hezar mun_ seizes the prince, and is about to devour him; when he is suspended in the ogre�s mouth, between his upper and lower jaw; when the princess, all dishevelled and forlorn, is on her knees praying that he may be spared; when the attendants couch their lances, and are in dismay; when the horses start back in fright; when the thunder rolls, and the ogre growls; then i stop, and say, �now, my noble hearers, open your purses, and you shall hear in how miraculous a manner the prince of khatai cut the ogre�s head off!� by such arts, i manage to extract a subsistence from the curiosity of men; and when my stock of stories is exhausted in one place, i leave it, travel to another, and there renew my labours.� [illustration: hajji and the disguised mohtesib. .jpg] chapter xii hajji baba finds that fraud does not remain unpunished, even in this world--he makes fresh plans. the dervishes having finished their narratives, i thanked them for the entertainment and instruction which they had afforded me, and i forthwith resolved to learn as much from them as possible, in order to become a dervish myself, in case i should be obliged to abandon my present business. dervish sefer instructed me in the numerous tricks which he practised, to impose himself upon the world as a person of great sanctity; i learned the art of writing talismans from the second; and the story-teller taught me some of the tales with which his head was stored, lent me his books, and gave me general rules how to lead on the curiosity of an audience, until their money should insensibly be enticed from their pockets. in the meanwhile, i continued to sell my tobacco and my pipes; but owing to my intimacy with the dervishes, who smoked away all my profits, i was obliged to adulterate the tobacco of my other customers considerably more than usual; so that in fact they enjoyed little else than the fumes of dung, straw, and decayed leaves. one evening, when it was dusk, and about the time of closing the bazaars, an old woman in rags, apparently bent double with age, stopped me, and requested me to dress a pipe for her to smoke. she was closely veiled, and scarcely uttered a word beyond her want. i filled her one of my very worst mixtures: she put it to her mouth; and at her spitting, coughing, and exclamations, half a dozen stout fellows, with long twigs in their hands, immediately came up, seized me, and threw me on my back. the supposed old woman then cast off her veil, and i beheld the _mohtesib_ in person.[ ] �at length, wretch of an ispahani!� said he, �i have caught you--you, that have so long been poisoning the people of meshed with your abominable mixtures. you shall receive as many strokes on your feet as you have received _shahies_[ ] for your pipes. bring the _felek_,[ ] said he to his officers, �and lay on till his nails drop off.� [illustration: hajji receives the ferosles. .jpg] my feet were instantly inserted into the dreaded noose, and the blows fell upon them so thick, that i soon saw the images of ten thousand mohtesibs, intermixed with ten thousand old women, dancing before my eyes, apparently enjoying my torture, and laughing at my writhing and contortions. i implored the mercy of my tormentor by the souls of his father, mother, and grandfather--by his own head--by that of his child--and by that of his prince; by the prophet--by ali--and by all the imâms. i cursed tobacco, i renounced smoking. i appealed to the feelings of the surrounding spectators, to my friends the three dervishes, who stood there stirring neither limb nor muscle for me; in short, i bawled, cried, entreated, until i entirely lost all sensation and all recollection. at length, when i came to myself, i found myself seated with my head against the wall on the side of the road, surrounded by a crowd gaping at my miserable situation. no one seemed to pity me. my pipes, my jug, and everything that i possessed, had been taken from me, and i was left to crawl to my home as well as i was able. luckily it was not far off, and i reached it on my hands and knees, making the most piteous moans imaginable. after i had remained a day in horrid torment, with my feet swelled into a misshapen mass of flesh and gore, i received a visit from one of the dervishes, who ventured to approach me, fearful, as he told me, of being taken up as my accomplice, in case he had come sooner to my help. he had, in his early career, undergone a similar beating himself, and, therefore, knew what remedies to apply to my limbs which, in a short time, restored them to their former state. during my confinement, i had time to reflect upon my situation. i determined to leave meshed, for i felt that i had entered it at an unlucky hour. once my back had been sprained, and once i had been bastinadoed. i had managed to collect a small sum of money, which i kept carefully buried in a corner near my room; and with this i intended to make my way to tehran by the very first caravan that should be on its departure. i communicated my plan to the dervishes, who applauded it; and, moreover, the dervish sefer offered to accompany me; �for,� said he, �i have been warned that the priesthood of meshed are jealous of my increasing influence, and that they are laying a plot for my ruin; and, as it is impossible to withstand their power, i will try my fortunes elsewhere.� it was agreed that i should put on the dress of a dervish; and having made my purchases, in the bazaar, of a cap, some beads, and a goat�s skin, which i slung across my shoulder, i was ready to begin my journey at a moment�s warning. we became so impatient to depart, that we bad almost made up our minds to set off without any other companions, and trust to our good fortune to find our road, and escape the dangers of it; but we determined to take a _fall_ out of saadi,[ ] before we came to a resolution. dervish sefer, after making the usual prayer, opened the book, and read: �it is contrary to reason, and to the advice of the wise, to take medicine without confidence, or to travel an unknown road without accompanying the caravan.� this extraordinary warning settled our minds, and we determined to be guided by it. on making inquiries about the departure of caravans for tehran, i was delighted to meet my friend ali kâtir, the muleteer, who had just arrived at meshed, and was then making a bargain with a merchant, to convey merchandise, consisting of the lambs� skins of bokhara, to the capital. as soon as he saw me, he uttered an exclamation of delight, and immediately lighted his _nargil_, or water pipe, which he invited me to smoke with him. i related all my adventures since we last parted, and he gave me an account of his. having left meshed with a caravan for ispahan, with his mules loaded partly with bars of silver, and partly with lambs� skins; and having undergone great fears on account of the turcomans--he reached his destination in safety. that city was still agitated with the recollections of the late attack of the caravanserai, of which i have given an account; and the general belief was, that the invaders had made their approach in a body, consisting of more than a thousand men; that they had been received with great bravery, and that one kerbelai hassan, a barber, had, with his own hand, wounded one of the chiefs so severely, that he had escaped with the greatest difficulty. i had always kept this part of my adventures secret from everybody; so i hid any emotion that might appear on my face from the muleteer, by puffing out a sufficient volume of smoke in his face. from ispahan he carried cotton stuffs, tobacco, and copper ware to yezd, where he remained some time, until a caravan was collected for meshed, when he loaded his mules with the manufactures of the former city. ali kâtir agreed that dervish sefer and i should return with him to tehran, and that whenever we were tired with walking, he would willingly assist us, by permitting us to mount his mules. [illustration: the shaving of the ass. .jpg] chapter xiii hajji baba leaves meshed, is cured of his sprain, and relates a story. when i had cleared the gate which leads out of meshed to tehran, i shook the collar of my coat, and exclaimed to myself: �may heaven send thee misfortunes!� for had i been heard by any one of the pilgrims, who were now on their return--it very probably would have gone ill with me. my companion, dervish sefer, whom i knew to be of my mind, entered into my feelings, and we both vented our spleen against the inhabitants of that place; i for the drubbings which had been inflicted upon me, he for the persecutions he had undergone from the mollahs. �as for you, my friend,� said he to me, �you are young; you have much to suffer before you gain the experience necessary to carry you through life: do not repine at the first beating; it win probably save you many more, and will teach you another time to discover a mohtesib, although hid under a woman�s veil: but� (taking hold of his beard) �for a man of my age, one who has seen so much of the world, to be obliged to set out upon his travels again, is truly a great misfortune.� �but it would have been easy for you,� said i, �to remain at meshed, if you had chosen it: had you been regular in your prayers and ablutions, you might have bid defiance to the mollahs.� �that is true enough,� said the dervish; �but the fact is, that the festival of the ramazan is now close at hand, when i should have been more closely watched than ever by them; and as i cannot and will not fast (smoking being as necessary to me as air, and wine as daily bread), i have thought it better to make a journey during that time, for the sake of the indulgence which is permitted to travellers. i might perhaps have deceived them, as i have frequently done before, by eating and smoking in secret; but one so notorious as i, who lives by the supposed sanctity of his character, being narrowly watched, cannot take such liberties.� we arrived at semnan without the occurrence of anything remarkable, excepting, that a day or two before we reached it, when i was helping my friend ali kâtir to load one of his mules, i sprained my back again in its old place: the pain was so great, that it became impossible for me to proceed with the caravan, and i determined to remain where i was until i was cured; particularly, as all danger from the turcomans having passed, it was needless to make myself any longer a dependant upon a caravan. dervish sefer, who was anxious to get to the wine and pleasures of the capital, continued his journey. i took up my abode in a tomb on the skirts of the town; and having spread my goat�s skin in a corner of it, i proclaimed my arrival, according to the custom adopted by travelling dervishes, blowing my horn, and making my exclamations of _hak! hû! allah akbar!_ in a most sonorous and audible manner. i had allowed my person to acquire a wild and extravagant appearance, and flattered myself that i did credit to the instructions which had been given me in the arts of deception. [illustration: hajji is cauterised for his sprain. .jpg] i was visited by several women, for whom i wrote talismans, and they repaid me by small presents of fruit, milk, honey, and other trifles. my back became so painful, that i was obliged to inquire if no one at semnan could afford me relief. the barber and the farrier were the only two supposed to possess any medical talents; the one skilled in bleeding, drawing teeth, and setting a limb; the other, from his knowledge in the diseases of horses, being often consulted in human ailments. there was also a _gîs sefid_, or grey wig, an old woman of a hag-like and decrepit appearance, who was looked up to as an oracle in all cases where the knowledge of the barber and farrier was of no avail, and who had besides a great many nostrums and recipes for all sorts of aches. each came to me in succession: all were agreed that my disorder proceeded from cold; and as fire was the hottest thing in opposition to cold that they knew of, they as unanimously agreed that the actual cautery should immediately be applied to the part; and the farrier, on account of his dealings in hot and cold iron, was appointed operator. he accordingly brought a pan of charcoal, a pair of bellows, and some small skewers; and seating himself in a corner, made his fire, and heated his skewers: when they were red hot, i was placed on the ground flat on my face, and then, with great solemnity, my back was seared with the burning iron, whilst all the bystanders, at every touch, exclaimed, with great earnestness, �_khoda shefa mîdehed_,� god gives relief. my medical attendants, in their united wisdom, out of compliment to the prophet and the twelve imâms, marked me in thirteen different places; and although, when i had endured half the operation, i began to cry out most lustily with the pain, still i was not let off until the whole was gone through. it was long before the wounds which they had inflicted were cured; and as they never would heal unless i was kept in perfect quiet, i confined myself to my cell for a considerable time; at the end of which, my sprain had entirely taken its leave, and strength was restored to my whole frame. of course, my recovery was attributed to the thirteen worthies, who had presided over the operation, and all the town became more than ever persuaded of the efficacy of hot iron; but i could not but think that long repose had been my best doctor--an opinion which i took care to keep to myself; for i had no objection that the world should believe that i was a protégé of so many holy personages. i now determined to pursue my journey to tehran; but before i ventured to produce myself as a dervish upon that stage, i resolved to try my talent in relating a story before a semnan audience. accordingly, i went to a small open space, that is situated near the entrance of the bazaars, where most of the idlers of the town flock about noon; and making the sort of exclamations usual upon such occasions, i soon collected a crowd, who settled themselves on the ground, round the place which i had fixed upon for my theatre. a short story, touching a barber at bagdad (which i had heard when i was myself in that profession), luckily came into my memory; and, standing in the middle of a circle of louts with uplifted eyes and open mouths, i made my debut in the following words:-- �in the reign of the caliph haroun al-rashid, of happy memory, lived in the city of bagdad a celebrated barber, of the name of ali sakal. he was so famous for a steady hand, and dexterity in his profession, that he could shave a head, and trim a beard and whiskers, with his eyes blindfolded, without once drawing blood. there was not a man of any fashion at bagdad who did not employ him; and such a run of business had he, that at length he became proud and insolent, and would scarcely ever touch a head, whose master was not at least a _beg_ or an _aga_. wood for fuel was always scarce and dear at bagdad; and as his shop consumed a great deal, the wood-cutters brought their loads to him in preference, almost sure of meeting with a ready sale. it happened one day, that a poor wood-cutter, new in his profession, and ignorant of the character of ali sakal, went to his shop, and offered him for sale a load of wood which he had just brought from a considerable distance in the country, on his ass: ali immediately offered him a price, making use of these words, �_for all the wood that was upon the ass.�_ the woodcutter agreed, unloaded his beast, and asked for the money. �you have not given me all the wood yet,� said the barber; �i must have the pack-saddle (which is chiefly made of wood) into the bargain; that was our agreement.� �how!� said the other, in great amazement--�who ever heard of such a bargain?--it is impossible.� in short, after many words and much altercation, the overbearing barber seized the pack-saddle, wood and all, and sent away the poor peasant in great distress. he immediately ran to the cadi, and stated his griefs: the cadi was one of the barber�s customers, and refused to hear the case. the wood-cutter applied to a higher judge: he also patronized ali sakal, and made light of the complaint. the poor man then appealed to the mûfti himself; who, having pondered over the question, at length settled, that it was too difficult a case for him to decide, no provision being made for it in the koran, and therefore he must put up with his loss. the wood-cutter was not disheartened; but forthwith got a scribe to write a petition to the caliph himself, which he duly presented on friday, the day when he went in state to the mosque. the caliph�s punctuality in reading petitions is well known, and it was not long before the wood-cutter was called to his presence. when he had approached the caliph, he kneeled and kissed the ground, and then placing his arms straight before him, his hands covered with the sleeves of his cloak, and his feet close together, he awaited the decision of his case. �friend,� said the caliph, �the barber has words on his side--you have equity on yours. the law must be defined by words, and agreements must be made by words: the former must have its course, or it is nothing; and agreements must be kept, or there would be no faith between man and man; therefore the barber must keep all his wood; but--� then calling the wood-cutter close to him, the caliph whispered something in his ear, which none but he could hear, and then sent him away quite satisfied.� here then i made a pause in my narrative, and said whilst i extended a small tin cup which i held in my hand, �now, my noble audience, if you will give me something i will tell you what the caliph said to the wood-cutter.� i had excited great curiosity, and there was scarcely one of my hearers who did not give me a piece of money. �well then,� said i, �the caliph whispered to the wood-cutter what he was to do, in order to get satisfaction from the barber, and what that was i will now relate. the wood-cutter having made his obeisances, returned to his ass, which was tied without, took it by the halter, and proceeded to his home. a few days after, he applied to the barber, as if nothing had happened between them; requesting that he, and a companion of his from the country, might enjoy the dexterity of his hand; and the price at which both operations were to be performed was settled. when the wood-cutter�s crown had been properly shorn, ali sakal asked where his companion was. �he is just standing without here,� said the other, �and he shall come in presently.� accordingly he went out, and returned leading his ass after him by the halter. �this is my companion,� said he, �and you must shave him.� �shave him!� exclaimed the barber, in the greatest surprise; �it is enough that i have consented to demean myself by touching you, and do you insult me by asking me to do as much to your ass? away with you, or i�ll send you both to _jehanum_;� and forthwith drove them out of his shop. �the wood-cutter immediately went to the caliph, was admitted to his presence, and related his case. ��tis well,� said the commander of the faithful: �bring ali sakal and his razors to me this instant,� he exclaimed to one of his officers; and in the course of ten minutes the barber stood before him. �why do you refuse to shave this man�s companion?� said the caliph to the barber: �was not that your agreement?� ali, kissing the ground, answered: ��tis true, o caliph, that such was our agreement; but who ever made a companion of an ass before? or who ever before thought of treating it like a true believer?� �you may say right,� said the caliph: �but, at the same time, who ever thought of insisting upon a pack-saddle being included in a load of wood? no, no, it is the wood-cutter�s turn now. to the ass immediately, or you know the consequences.� the barber was then obliged to prepare a great quantity of soap, to lather the beast from head to foot, and to shave him in the presence of the caliph and of the whole court, whilst he was jeered and mocked by the taunts and laughing of all the bystanders. the poor wood-cutter was then dismissed with an appropriate present of money, and all bagdad resounded with the story, and celebrated the justice of the commander of the faithful.� chapter xiv of the man he meets, and the consequences of the encounter. i left semnan with a light heart--my sprain was cured--i was young and handsome--twenty tomauns, my savings at meshed, clinked in my purse--i had acquired some experience in the world; and i determined, as soon as i reached tehran, to quit the garb of a dervish, to dress myself well from head to foot, and to endeavour to push my fortunes in some higher walk in life. about a day�s journey from tehran, as i was walking onward, chanting, with all my throat, a song on the loves of _leilah_ and _majnoun_, i was overtaken by a courier, who entered into conversation with me, and invited me to partake of some victuals which he had brought with him. the heat of the day being overpowering, i willingly accepted his invitation. we settled ourselves on the borders of a rivulet, near a cornfield, whilst the courier took off his horse�s bridle, and permitted it to feed on the new wheat. he then groped up, from the deep folds of his riding trousers, a pocket handkerchief, in which were wrapped several lumps of cold boiled rice, and three or four flaps of bread, which he spread before us, and then added some sour curds, which he poured from a small bag that hung at his saddle-bow. from the same trousers, which contained his shoes, a provision of tobacco, a drinking cup, and many other useful articles, he drew half a dozen raw onions, which he added to the feast; and we ate with such appetite, that very soon we were reduced to the melancholy dessert of sucking our fingers. we washed the whole down with some water from the rivulet, and only then (such had been our voracity) we thought of questioning each other concerning the object of our respective journeys. from my dress, he perceived me to be a dervish, and my story was soon told: as for himself, he was a courier belonging to the governor of asterabad, and, to my joy and surprise, was carrying the happy intelligence of the release of my former companion, asker khan, the shah�s poet, from his captivity among the turcomans. i did not let the courier know how much i was interested in his errand, for experience had taught me how wise it was, in the affairs of life to keep one�s own counsel; and, therefore, i pretended ignorance of even the existence of such a person. my companion informed me that the poet had managed to reach asterabad in safety, and that, being destitute of everything, he, in the meanwhile, had been dispatched to give intelligence of his situation to his family. he showed me the letters with which he was entrusted, which he drew forth from his breast, wrapped up in a handkerchief; and being a very inquisitive fellow, though unable to read, he was happy to find in me one who might give him some account of their contents. the first which i inspected[ ] was a memorial from the poet to the king of kings, in which he set forth, in language the most poetic, all the miseries and tortures which he had endured since he had been thrown into the hands of the turcomans: that the hunger, the thirst, and the barbarous treatment which he had experienced, were nothing, when compared with the privation of the all-gracious and refulgent presence of that pearl of royalty, that gem of magnificence, the quintessence of all earthly perfection, the great king of kings! that as the vilest reptile that crawls is permitted to enjoy the warmth of the glorious sun, so he, the meanest of the king�s subjects, hoped once more to bask in the sunshine of the royal countenance; and, finally, he humbly prayed, that his long absence might not deprive him of the shadow of the throne; that he might aspire to reoccupy his former post near his majesty�s person, and once again be permitted to vie with the nightingale, and sing of the charms and perfections of his lovely rose. the next letter was addressed to the prime vizier, in which that notorious minister, decrepit in person, and nefarious in conduct, was called a planet among the stars, and the sheet anchor of the state, and in which the poet sues for his protection. there was nearly a similar one to his former enemy, the lord high treasurer. i then inspected the letters addressed to his family, of which one was to his wife, another to his son�s tutor, and a third to his steward. to his wife, he talked of the interior arrangements of his anderûn; hoped that she had been economical in her dress, that she had kept the female slaves in good order, and desired her immediately to set herself and them about making clothes for him, as he was destitute of everything. to the tutor, he enjoined great attention to his son�s manners; hoped that he had been taught all the best forms of cant and compliment; that he never omitted to say his prayers; that he was by this time able to sit a horse, to perform the spear exercise, and to fire a gun on the full gallop. to his steward, he gave some general instructions concerning the administration of his affairs--enjoined great economy; that he should daily go and stand before the prime vizier; praise him to the skies; and make all sorts of professions, on his part, to his excellency; that he should keep a good watch upon his women and slaves; that his wife should not go too often to the bath; that when she and her slaves went abroad to take the air, he should accompany them. he hoped that no intriguing old women, particularly jewesses, had been admitted into his harem; and that the walls, which surrounded the women�s apartments, had always been kept in good repair, in order to prevent gadding on the housetop with the neighbours. he ordered that his black slave, johur, was now no longer to be allowed free access into the anderûn; and if ever seen to be familiar with any of the female slaves, he and they were to be whipped: finally, he desired the steward to give the courier a handsome reward, for being the bearer of such good news to his family. i folded up the letters again; those which had been sealed, i again sealed, and returned to the courier. he seemed to reckon a great deal upon the reward that he was to get for bringing the first intelligence of the poet�s safety, and told me that, fearing some other might get the start of him, he had travelled day and night; and added, that the horse, which he now bestrode, belonged to a peasant, from whom he had taken it forcibly on the road, having left his own, which was knocked up, to be brought on after him. after we had conversed a little more, he seemed entirely overpowered by fatigue, and fell into a profound sleep. as he lay extended on the grass, i looked upon him, and i began to reflect how easy it would be to forestall him. i knew the whole of the poet�s history;--in fact, i was in some measure identified with it. i began to think that i had a right to the first relation of it. then as to the horse, it was as much mine as his; particularly since the peasant, with his own, must now be close at hand: so without more ceremony, i unfolded the handkerchief, which still lay in his lap, and taking out the letter to the steward, i mounted the horse: i applied the stirrups to his sides;[ ] i galloped off; and in a very short time had left the sleeper far behind me, and had made considerable progress on the road to the capital. as i rode along, i considered what was now my best line of conduct, and in what manner i should best introduce myself to the poet�s family, so as to make my story good, and secure for myself the reward which had been destined for the courier. i calculated that i should have at least a good day�s start of him; for when he awoke, he probably would be obliged to walk some distance before he got another horse, should he not regain his own, which was very doubtful; and appearing on foot as he did, it would be a hundred to one if anybody would believe his story, and he, most probably, would now be refused the loan of a beast to carry him on. i resolved, therefore immediately upon reaching tehran, to sell the horse, and its accoutrements, for what they would fetch; i would then exchange my dervish�s dress for the common dress of the country; and making myself up as one come from off a long journey, present myself at the gate of the poet�s house, and there make the best story i could, which would be a sufficiently easy matter, considering how well i was acquainted with every circumstance relating to him. chapter xv hajji baba reaches tehran, and goes to the poet�s house. i entered tehran early in the morning by the shah abdul azîm gate, just as it was opened, and immediately exhibited my horse for sale at the market, which is daily held there, for that purpose. i had proved it to be a good beast, from the rate at which i had travelled since taking my hasty leave of the courier; but a horse-dealer, to whom i showed it, made out so clearly that it was full of defects, that i thought myself in luck, if i got anything at all for it. it was _chup_--it had the _ableh_[ ]--it was old, and its teeth had been burnt;--in short, it seemed to have every quality that a horse ought not to have. i was therefore surprised when he offered me five tomauns for it, provided i threw him the bridle and saddle into the bargain; and he seemed as surprised when i took him at his word, and accepted of his offer. he paid me down one half of the money, and then offered me a half-starved ass in payment of the remainder; but this i refused, and he promised to pay me in full when we met again. i was too much in haste to continue bargaining any longer; so going straightway to the bazaar, i bought a black cap, laid by my dervish�s tiara, and having equipped myself in a manner to be taken for one come from off a journey, i inquired my way to the house of the poet. it was situated in a pleasant quarter of the town, surrounded by gardens filled with poplars and pomegranate trees, and in a street through which ran a stream of water, bordered by beautiful _chenars_.[ ] but the house itself seemed indeed to speak the absence of its master: the gate was half closed; there was no stir about it; and when i entered the first court, i could perceive but few indications of an inhabitant. this looked ill for my promised reward. at length, making my way to the upper room, that was situated over the gate, i there saw a man of about fifty years old, seated on a felt carpet, smoking his kaliân, whom i found to be the very person i was in search of, viz. the _nazir_ or steward. i immediately exclaimed, �good news! the khan is coming.� �_yani cheh?_ what do you mean?� said he; �which khan? where? when?� when i had explained myself, and had presented the letter addressed to him, he seemed to be thrown into a mixed state of feigned joy and real sorrow, amazement, and apprehension. �but are you very sure,� said he, �that the khan is alive?� �very sure,� returned i; �and before to-morrow is over, you will receive another courier, who will give you many more particulars of his safety, and who will bring letters to the king, viziers, and others.� he then began to make all sorts of incoherent exclamations; �this is a wonderful business! what dust has fallen upon our heads? where shall i go? what shall i do?� when he had a little recovered himself, i endeavoured to persuade him to give me an explanation of his emotions on this occasion, and tell me why he felt so agitated, and apparently distressed, at what ought only to be a matter of joy. all i could hear from him was, �he must be dead; everybody says he is dead; his wife dreamt that she had lost her largest tooth--the one that gave her such aching pain, and therefore he is dead; besides the king has settled it so. he cannot be alive; he must not be alive.� �well,� said i, �if he is dead, be it so; all i can say is, that he was one of the true believers at asterabad, not six days ago; and that he will soon prove in person, by showing himself at tehran, in the course of another week.� after the nazir had sat, and wondered, and ruminated for some time, he said, �you will not be surprised at my perplexity when i tell you of the state of things here, in consequence of the report of my master�s death. in the first place, the shah has seized all his property: his house, furniture, and live stock, including his georgian slaves, are to be given to khur ali mirza, one of the king�s younger sons: his village now belongs to the prime vizier: his place is about to be bestowed upon mirza fûzûl; and, to crown all, his wife has married his son�s tutor. say, then, whether or no i have not a right to be astonished and perplexed?� i agreed that there was no disputing his right; �but, in the meanwhile,� said i, �what becomes of my reward?� �o, as for that,� answered the nazir, �you cannot expect anything from me; for you have brought me no joyful tidings: you may claim it from my master, when he comes, if you choose, but i can give you nothing.� upon which, promising to return on some future day, i left the nazir to his own reflections, and quitted the house. chapter xvi he makes plans for the future, and is involved in a quarrel. i determined to wait the arrival of the poet, and through his interference to endeavour to get into some situation, where i might gain my bread honestly, and acquire a chance of advancing myself in life, without having recourse to the tricks and frauds which i had hitherto practised: for i was tired of herding with the low and the vulgar; and i saw so many instances before me of men rising in the world, and acquiring both riches and honour, who had sprung from an origin quite as obscure as my own, that i already anticipated my elevation, and even settled in my own mind how i should act when i was a prime vizier. �who,� said i to myself, �was the shah�s chief favourite, ismael beg _tellai_, or the golden, but a _ferash_, or a tent pitcher? he is neither handsomer nor better spoken than i; and if ever there should be an opportunity of comparing our horsemanship, i think one who has been brought up amongst the turcomans would show him what riding is, in spite of his reputation. well; and the famous lord high treasurer, who fills the king�s coffers with gold, and who does not forget his own--who and what was he? a barber�s son is quite as good as a greengrocer�s, and, in our respective cases, a great deal better too; for i can read and write, whereas his excellency, as report says, can do neither. he eats and drinks what he likes; he puts on a new coat every day; and after the shah, has the choice of all the beauties of persia; and all this without half my sense, or half my abilities: for to hear the world talk, one must believe him to be little better than a _khûr be teshdeed_, i.e. a doubly accented ass.� i continued wrapt up in these sort of meditations, seated with my back against the wall of one of the crowded avenues which lead to the gate of the royal palace, and had so worked up my imagination by the prospect of my future greatness, that on rising to walk away, i instinctively pushed the crowd from before me, as if such respect from them was due to one of my lofty pretensions. some stared at me, some abused me, and others took me for a madman; and indeed when i came to myself, and looked at my tattered clothes and my beggarly appearance, i could not help smiling at their surprise, and at my folly; and straightway went into the cloth bazaar in the determination of fitting myself out in decent apparel, as the first step towards my change of life. making my way through the crowd, i was stopped by a violent quarrel between three men, who were abusing each other with more than ordinary violence. i pushed into the circle which surrounded them, and there, to my dismay, discovered the courier, whom i had deceived, seconded by a peasant, attacking the horse-dealer, whom they had just pulled off the horse, which i had sold him. �that is my horse,� said the peasant. �that is my saddle,� said the courier. �they are mine,� exclaimed the horse-dealer. i immediately saw the danger in which i stood, and was about to slink away, when i was perceived by the horse-dealer, who seized hold of my girdle, and said, �this is the man i bought the horse of.� as soon as i was recognized by the courier, immediately the whole brunt of the quarrel, like a thunder-cloud, burst on my head, and i was almost overwhelmed by its violence. rascal, thief, cheat, were epithets which were dinned into my ears without mercy. �where�s my horse?� cried one. �give me my saddle,� vociferated the other. �return me my money,� roared out the third. �take him to the cadi,� said the crowd. in vain i bawled, swore, and bade defiance; in vain i was all smoothness and conciliation: it was impossible for the first ten minutes to gain a hearing: every one recited his griefs. the courier�s rage was almost ungovernable; the peasant complained of the injustice which had been done him; and the horse-dealer called me every sort of name, for having robbed him of his money. i first talked to the one, then coaxed the other, and endeavoured to bully the third. to the courier i said, �why are you so angry? there is your saddle safe and sound, you can ask no more.� to the peasant i exclaimed, �you could not say more if your beast had actually been killed; take him and walk away, and return thanks to allah that it is no worse.� as for the horse-dealer, i inveighed against him with all the bitterness of a man who had been cheated of his property:--�you have a right to talk indeed of having been deceived, when to this moment you know that you have only paid me one-half of the cost of the horse, and that you wanted to fob me off with a dying ass for the other half.� i offered to return him the money; but this he refused: he insisted upon my paying him the keep of the horse besides: upon which a new quarrel ensued, in which arguments were used on both sides which convinced neither party, and consequently we immediately adjourned to the _daroga_ or police magistrate, who, we agreed, should decide the question. we found him at his post, at the cross streets in the bazaar, surrounded by his officers, who, with their long sticks, were in readiness to inflict the bastinado on the first offender. i opened the case, and stated all the circumstances of it; insisting very strongly on the evident intention to cheat me, which the horse-dealer had exhibited. the horse-dealer answered me, and showed that as the horse did not belong to him, it being stolen from another, he had no right to pay for its keep. the question puzzled the daroga so much, that he declined interfering, and was about ordering us to the tribunal of the cadi, when a decrepit old man, a bystander, said, �why do you make so much difficulty about a plain question? when the horse-dealer shall have paid the hajji the remaining half of the price of the horse, then the hajji shall pay for the keep of the beast, as long as it was in the horse-dealer�s possession.� every one cried _barîk allah! barîk allah!_ praise be to god! and right or wrong, they all appeared so struck by the specious justice of the decision, that the daroga dismissed us, and told us to depart in peace. i did not lose a moment in repaying to the horse-dealer the purchase-money of the horse, and in getting from him a receipt in full: it was only after he had settled with me that he began to ponder over the merits of the decision, and seemed extremely puzzled to discover why, if he was entitled to the horse�s keep at all, he was not entitled to it, whether he had paid me half or the whole of the money? he seemed to think, that he for once had been duped; and very luckily his rage was averted from me to the daroga, who he very freely accused of being a puzzle-headed fool, and one who had no more pretension to law than _he_ had to honesty. chapter xvii he puts on new clothes, goes to the bath, and appears in a new character. i now looked upon myself as clear of this unpleasant business, which i had entirely brought on my own head, and congratulated myself that i had got off at so cheap a rate. i again made my way to the cloth bazaar, and going to the first shop near the gate of it, i inquired the price of red cloth, of which it was my ambition to make a _barûni_, or cloak; because i thought that it would transfer to me that respect which i always felt for those who wore it. the shopkeeper, upon looking at me from head to foot, said �a barûni indeed! and for whom do you want it, and who is to pay for it?� �for myself, to be sure,� answered i. �and what does such a poor devil as you want with such a coat? mirzas and khans only wear them, and i am sure you are no such personage.� i was about to answer in great wrath, when a _dalal_ or broker went by, loaded with all sorts of second-hand clothes, which he was hawking about for sale, and to him i immediately made application, in spite of the reiterated calls of the shopkeeper, who now too late repented of having driven me off in so hasty a manner. we retreated to a corner in the gateway of the adjacent mosque, and there the dalal, putting his load down, spread his merchandise before me. i was struck by a fine shot silk vest, trimmed in front with gold lace and gold buttons, of which i asked the price. the dalal extolled its beauty and my taste; swore that it had belonged to one of the king�s favourite georgians, who had only worn it twice, and having made me try it on, walked around and around me, exclaiming all the while, �_mashallah, mashallah!_� praise be to god! i was so pleased with this, that i must needs have a shawl for my waist to match, and he produced an old cashmerian shawl full of holes and darns, which he assured me had belonged to one of the ladies in the king�s harem, and which, he said, he would let me have at a reasonable price. my vanity made me prefer this commodity to a new _kermân_ shawl, which i might have had for what i was about to pay for the old worn-out cashmere, and adjusting it so as to hide the defects, i wound it about my waist, which only wanted a dagger stuck into it, to make my dress complete. with this the dalal also supplied me, and when i was thus equipped i could not resist expressing my satisfaction to the broker, who was not backward in assuring me, that there was not a handsomer nor better-dressed man in tehran. when we came to settle our accounts, the business wore a more serious aspect. the dalal began by assuring me of his honesty, that he was not like other dalals, who asked a hundred and then took fifty, and that when he said a thing, i might depend upon its veracity. he then asked me five tomauns for the coat, fifteen for the shawl, and four for the dagger, making altogether twenty-four tomauns. upon hearing this, my delight subsided, for i had barely twenty tomauns in my pocket, and i was about stripping myself of my finery, and returning again to my old clothes, when the dalal stopped me, and said, �you may perhaps think that price a little too much, but, by my head and by your soul, i bought them for that--tell me what you will give?� i answered, that it was out of the question dealing with him upon such high terms, but that if he would give them to me for five tomauns i would be a purchaser. this he rejected with disdain, upon which i stripped, and returned him his property. when he had collected his things again, and apparently when all dealings between us were at an end, he said, �i feel a friendship for you, and i will do for you, what i would not do for my brother--you shall have them for ten tomauns.� i again refused, and we stood higgling, until we agreed that i should pay him six, and one by way of a dress for himself. this was no sooner said than done. he then left me, and i packed up my bargain, with the intention of first going to the bath, and there equipping myself. on my road, i bought a pair of high-heeled green slippers, a blue silk shirt, and a pair of crimson silk trousers, and having tied up the whole in my handkerchief, i proceeded to the bath. no one took notice of me as i entered, for one of my mean appearance could create no sensation, and i comforted myself by the reflection, that the case would be changed as soon as i should put on my new clothes. i deposited my bundle in a corner, where i also undressed, and having wrapt myself round with a towel, i entered the bath. here all ranks were on a level, in appearance at least, and i now flattered myself that my fine form, my broad chest, and narrow waist, would make me an object of admiration. i called to one of the _dalâks_ (bathing men) to wait upon me, and to go through the different operations of rubbing with the hand, and of the friction with the hair bag, and i also ordered him to shave my head, to get ready the necessary materials for dying my beard, moustaches, and curls, as well as my hands and the soles of my feet, and also to prepare the depilatory; in short, i announced my intention of undergoing a complete lustration. the dalâk, as soon as he began rubbing me, expressed his admiration at my broad chest by his repeated exclamations; and bearing in mind the influence which new clothes were likely to create, i behaved like one who had been accustomed to this sort of praise and attention. he said that i could not have come at a luckier hour, for that he had just operated upon a khan, who having received a dress of honour from the shah, upon the occasion of bringing the first melons from ispahan, had been sent to the bath by the astrologers at this particular time, as the most fortunate for putting on a new dress. as soon as all was over, the dalâk brought me some dry linen, and conducted me to the spot where i had left my clothes. with what pleasure i opened my bundle and inspected my finery! it appeared that i was renovated in proportion as i put on each article of dress. i had never yet been clothed in silk. i tied on my trousers with the air of a man of fashion, and when i heard the rustling of my vest, i turned about in exultation to see who might be looking at me. my shawl was wound about me in the newest style, rather falling in front, and spread out large behind, and when the dagger glittered in my girdle, i conceived that nothing could exceed the finish of my whole adjustment. i indented the top of my cap in the true _kajari_ or royal style, and placed it on my head considerably on one side. when the bathing man at length brought me the looking-glass, as a signal for paying the bath, i detained him for the purpose of surveying myself, arranging my curls to twist up behind the ear, and pulling my moustaches up towards my eyes. i then paid him handsomely, and leaving my old clothes under his charge, i made my exit with the strut of a man of consequence. chapter xviii the poet returns from captivity--the consequences of it for hajji baba. i took my road towards the poet�s house, in the hope of gaining some intelligence about him. from the head of the street, i perceived a crowd surrounding the gate, and i was soon informed that he had just arrived, and had gone through the ceremony of making his entrance over the roof instead of through the door; for such is the custom when a man who has been thought dead returns home alive. i immediately pushed through the crowd, made my way into the room where the poet was seated, and with every demonstration of great joy, congratulated him upon his safe arrival. he did not recognize me, and even when i had explained who i was, he could scarcely believe that one so trim and smart as i then was could be the same dirty ragged ruffian whom he had known before. the apartment was filled with all sorts of people, some happy at his return, others full of disappointment. among the latter, and those who paid him the finest compliments, was mirza fûzûl, the man who had been nominated to succeed him in his situation, and who did not cease exclaiming, �your place has been empty, and our eyes are enlightened,� as long as he remained in the room. at length, a great bustle was heard, the doors were opened, and an officer from the king was announced, who commanded the poet forthwith to repair to the presence, which he did in the very clothes, boots, dust and all, in which he had travelled. the party then broke up, and i left the house in the determination of returning the next day; but as i was going out of the yard, i met the nazir, with whom i had had a conversation as before related. he did not appear to me to be among the happy ones. �in the name of allah,� said i, �you see that my words have proved true: the khan is alive!� �true enough,� answered he, with a sigh; �he is alive; and may his life be a long one! but god is great!� and then making two or three more similar exclamations, he left me, apparently full of care and misery. i passed the remainder of the day in strolling about, and building castles in the air. i walked through the bazaars, went to the mosques, and lounged among the idlers, who are always to be found in great numbers about the gate of the royal palace. here, the news of the day was the poet�s return, and the reception which he had met with from the shah. some said, that his majesty, upon hearing of his arrival had ordained that it could not be; that he was dead, and must be so. others, that, on the contrary, the king was happy at the intelligence, and had ordered ten tomauns to be given to the bearer of it. the truth, however, was this; the king had been disappointed at the poet�s resurrection, because it destroyed the arrangements he had made with respect to his house and effects, and he was not disposed to give him a good reception; but asker who well knew his majesty�s passion for poetry, and particularly of that kind which sings the royal praises, had long since foreseen the event, and had provided himself with an impromptu, which he had composed even when he was living an exile among the turcomans. this he repeated at the proper moment; and thus the tide of the king�s favour, which was running full against him, he entirely turned, and made it flow to his advantage. in short, he had his mouth filled with gold for his pains, was invested with a magnificent dress, and was reinstated in his situation and his possessions. i lost no time in again congratulating my adopted patron, and did not miss a single morning in attending his levee. finding that he was favourably inclined towards me, i made known to him my situation, and entreated him either to give me a place in his household, or to recommend me as a servant to one of his acquaintance. i had found out that the nazir�s despondency at his master�s return proceeded from the fear of being detected in certain frauds which he had committed on his property; and, as i hoped that i might eventually succeed to his situation, i expressed the greatest zeal for the poet�s interest, and disclosed all that i knew concerning the delinquency of his servant. however, i did not succeed; for whether he had a clearer insight into characters than i gave him credit for, or whether the nazir managed to prove his innocence, and make me suspected, i know not; but the fact was, that he kept his place, and i continued to be an attendant at the levees. at length, one morning asker called me to him, and said, �hajji, my friend, you know how thankful i have always expressed myself for your kindness to me when we were prisoners together in the hands of the turcomans, and now i will prove my gratitude. i have recommended you strongly to mirza ahmak, the king�s _hakîm bashi_, or chief physician, who is in want of a servant; and i make no doubt, that if you give him satisfaction, he will teach you his art, and put you in the way of making your fortune. you have only to present yourself before him, saying that you come from me, and he will immediately assign you an employment.� i had no turn for the practice of physic, and recollecting the story which had been related to me by the dervish, i held the profession in contempt: but my case was desperate; i had spent my last dinâr, and therefore i had nothing left me but to accept of the doctor�s place. accordingly, the next morning i proceeded to his house, which was situated in the neighbourhood of the palace; and as i entered a dull, neglected court-yard, i there found several sick persons, some squatted against the wall, others supported by their friends, and others again with bottles in their hands, waiting the moment when the physician should leave the women�s apartments to transact business in public. i proceeded to an open window, where those who were not privileged to enter the room stood, and there i took my station until i should be called in. within the room were several persons who came to pay their court to the doctor (for every man who is an officer of the court has his levee), and from remarking them, i learnt how necessary it was, in order to advance in life, to make much of everything, even the dog or the cat, if they came in my way, of him who can have access to the ear of men in power. i made my reflections upon the miseries i had already undergone, and was calculating how long it would take me to go through a course of cringing and flattery to be entitled to the same sorts of attention myself, when i perceived, by the bows of those near me, that the doctor had seated himself at the window, and that the business of the day had commenced. the hakîm was an old man, with an eye sunk deep in his head, high cheek bones, and a scanty beard. he had a considerable bend in his back, and his usual attitude, when seated, was that of a projecting chin, his head reclining back between his shoulders, and his hands resting on his girdle, whilst his elbows formed two triangles on each side of his body. he made short snappish questions, gave little hums at the answers, and seemed to be thinking of anything but the subject before him. when he heard the account of the ailments of those who had come to consult him, and had said a few words to his little circle of parasites, he looked at me, and after i had told him that i was the person of whom the poet had spoken, he fixed his little sharp eyes upon me for a second or two, and then desired me to wait, for that he wished to speak to me in private. accordingly, he soon after got up, and went out of the room, and i was called upon to attend him in a small separate court, closely walled on all sides, except on the one where was situated the _khelwet_, or private room, in which the doctor was seated. chapter xix hajji baba gets into the service of the king�s physician--of the manner he was first employed by him. as soon as i appeared, the doctor invited me into the room, and requested me to be seated; which i did with all the humility which is the etiquette for an inferior to show towards his superior for so great an honour. he informed me that the poet had spoken very favourably of me, and had said that i was a person to be depended upon, particularly on account of my discretion and prudence; that i had seen a great deal of life; that i was fertile in expedients; and that if any business in which circumspection and secrecy were necessary was intrusted to me, i should conduct it with all the ability required. i bowed repeatedly as he spoke, and kept my hands respectfully before me, covered with the border of my sleeve, whilst i took care that my feet were also completely hid. he then continued, and said,--�i have occasion for a person of your description precisely at this moment, and as i put great confidence in the recommendation of my friend asker, it is my intention to make use of your good offices; and if you succeed according to my expectations, you may rest assured that it will be well for you, and that i shall not remain unmindful of your services.� then requesting me to approach nearer to him, and in a low and confidential tone of voice, he said, looking over his shoulders as if afraid of being overheard,--�hajji, you must know that an ambassador from the franks is lately arrived at this court, in whose suite there is a doctor. this infidel has already acquired considerable reputation here. he treats his patients in a manner quite new to us, and has arrived with a chest full of medicines, of which we do not even know the names. he pretends to the knowledge of a great many things of which we have never yet heard in persia. he makes no distinction between hot and cold diseases, and hot and cold remedies, as galenus and avicenna have ordained, but gives mercury by way of a cooling medicine; stabs the belly with a sharp instrument for wind in the stomach;[ ] and, what is worse than all, pretends to do away with the small-pox altogether, by infusing into our nature a certain extract of cow, a discovery which one of their philosophers has lately made. now this will never do, hajji. the smallpox has always been a comfortable source of revenue to me; i cannot afford to lose it, because an infidel chooses to come here and treat us like cattle. we cannot allow him to take the bread out of our mouths. but the reason why i particularly want your help proceeds from the following cause. the grand vizier was taken ill, two days ago, of a strange uneasiness, after having eaten more than his usual quantity of raw lettuce and cucumber, steeped in vinegar and sugar. this came to the frank ambassador�s ears, who, in fact, was present at the eating of the lettuce, and he immediately sent his doctor to him, with a request that he might be permitted to administer relief. the grand vizier and the ambassador, it seems, had not been upon good terms for some time, because the latter was very urgent that some demand of a political nature might be conceded to him, which the vizier, out of consideration for the interests of persia, was obliged to deny; and, therefore, thinking that this might be a good opportunity of conciliating the infidel, and of coming to a compromise, he agreed to accept of the doctor�s services. had i been apprised of the circumstance in time, i should easily have managed to put a stop to the proceeding; but the doctor did not lose an instant in administering his medicine, which, i hear, only consisted of one little white and tasteless pill. from all accounts, and as ill luck would have it, the effect it has produced is something quite marvellous. the grand vizier has received such relief that he can talk of nothing else; he says, �that he felt the pill drawing the damp from the very tips of his fingers�; and that now he has discovered in himself such newness of strength and energy, that he laughs at his old age, and even talks of making up the complement of wives permitted to him by our blessed prophet. but the mischief has not stopped here; the fame of this medicine, and of the frank doctor, has gone throughout the court; and the first thing which the king talked of at the _selam_ (the audience) this morning, was of its miraculous properties. he called upon the grand vizier to repeat to him all that he had before said upon the subject; and as he talked of the wonders that it had produced upon his person, a general murmur of applause and admiration was heard throughout the assembly. his majesty then turned to me, and requested me to explain the reason why such great effects should proceed from so small a cause, when i was obliged to answer, stooping as low as i could to hide my confusion, and kissing the earth--�i am your sacrifice: o king of kings, i have not yet seen the drug which the infidel doctor has given to your majesty�s servant, the grand vizier; but as soon as i have, i will inform your majesty of what it consists. in the meanwhile, your humble slave beseeches the centre of the universe to recollect that the principal agent, on this occasion, must be an evil spirit, an enemy to the true faith, since he is an instrument in the hands of an infidel; of one who calls our holy prophet a cheat, and who disowns the all-powerful decrees of predestination.� �having said this, in order to shake his growing reputation, i retired in deep cogitation how i might get at the secrets of the infidel, and particularly inquire into the nature of his prescription, which has performed such miracles; and you are come most opportunely to my assistance. you must immediately become acquainted with him; and i shall leave it to your address to pick his brain and worm his knowledge out of him; but as i wish to procure a specimen of the very medicine which he administered to the grand vizier, being obliged to give an account of it to-morrow to the shah, you must begin your services to me by eating much of lettuce and raw cucumbers, and of making yourself as sick to the full as his highness the vizier. you may then apply to the frank, who will, doubtless, give you a duplicate of the celebrated pill, which you will deliver over to me.� �but,� said i, who had rather taken fright at this extraordinary proposal, �how shall i present myself before a man whom i do not know? besides, such marvellous stories are related of the europeans, that i should be puzzled in what manner to behave: pray give me some instructions how to act.� �their manners and customs are totally different to ours, that is true,� replied mirza ahmak, �and you may form some idea of them, when i tell you, that instead of shaving their heads, and letting their beards grow, as we do, they do the very contrary, for not a vestige of hair is to be seen on their chins, and their hair is as thick on their heads as if they had made a vow never to cut it off: then they sit on little platforms, whilst we squat on the ground; they take up their food with claws made of iron, whilst we use our fingers; they are always walking about, we keep seated; they wear tight clothes, we loose ones; they write from left to right, we from right to left; they never pray, we five times a day; in short, there is no end to what might be related of them; but most certain it is, that they are the most filthy people on the earth, for they hold nothing to be unclean; they eat all sorts of animals, from a pig to a tortoise, without the least scruple, and that without first cutting their throats; they will dissect a dead body, without requiring any purification after it, and perform all the brute functions of their nature, without ever thinking it necessary to go to the hot bath, or even rubbing themselves with sand after them.� �and is it true,� said i, �that they are so irascible, that if perchance their word is doubted, and they are called liars, they will fight on such an occasion till they die?� �that is also said of them,� answered the doctor; �but the case has not happened to me yet; however, i must warn you of one thing, which is, that if they happen to admire anything you possess, you must not say to them, as you would to one of us, �it is a present to you, it is your property,� lest they should take you at your word and keep it, which you know would be inconvenient, and not what you intended; but you must endeavour as much as possible to speak what you think, for that is what they like.� �but then, if such is the case,� said i, �do not you think that the frank doctor will find me out with a lie in my mouth; pretending to be sick when i am well; asking medicine from him for myself, when i want it for another?� �no, no,� said the mirza; �you are to be sick, really sick, you know, and then it will be no lie. go, hajji, my friend,� said he, putting his arm round my neck: �go, eat your cucumbers immediately, and let me have the pill by this evening.� and then coaxing me, and preventing me from making any further objections to his unexpected request, he gently pushed me out of the room, and i left him, scarcely knowing whether to laugh or to cry at the new posture which my affairs had taken. to sicken without any stipulated reward was what i could not consent to do, so i retraced my steps, with a determination of making a bargain with my patron; but, when i got to the room, he was no longer there, having apparently retreated into his harem; and, therefore, i was obliged to proceed on my errand. [illustration: �i pretended to receive a violent twitch.� .jpg] chapter xx he succeeds in deceiving two of the faculty, getting a pill from one, and a piece of gold from the other. i inquired my way to the ambassador�s house, and actually set off with the intention of putting the doctor�s wishes into execution, and getting, if possible, a writhing disorder on the road; but, upon more mature reflection, i recollected that a stomach-ache was not a marketable commodity which might be purchased at a moment�s notice; for although lettuce and cucumber might disagree with an old grand vizier, yet it was a hundred to one but they would find an easy digestion in a young person like me. however, i determined to obtain the pill by stratagem, if i could not procure it in a more direct manner. i considered that if i feigned to be ill, the doctor would very probably detect me, and turn me out of his house for a cheat, so i preferred the easier mode of passing myself off for one of the servants of the royal harem, and then making out some story by which i might attain my end. i accordingly stepped into one of the old clothes� shops in the bazaar, and hired a cloak for myself, such as the scribes wear; and then substituting a roll of paper in my girdle instead of a dagger, i flattered myself that i might pass for something more than a common servant. i soon found out where the ambassador dwelt. bearing in mind all that mirza ahmak had told me, i rather approached the door of the doctor�s residence with fear and hesitation. i found the avenues to it crowded with poor women, bearing infants in their arms, who, i was told, came to receive the new-fashioned preservative against the smallpox. this, it was supposed for political reasons, the franks were anxious to promote; and, as the doctor performed the operation gratis, he had no lack of patients, particularly of the poorer sort, who could not approach a persian doctor without a present, or a good fee in their hand. on entering, i found a man seated in the middle of the room, near an elevated wooden platform, upon which were piled boxes, books, and a variety of instruments and utensils, the uses of which were unknown to me. he was in dress and appearance the most extraordinary looking infidel i had ever seen. his chin and upper lip were without the vestige of a hair upon them, as like a eunuch as possible. he kept his head most disrespectfully uncovered, and wore a tight bandage round his neck, with other contrivances on the sides of his cheeks, as if he were anxious to conceal some wound or disease. his clothes were fitted so tight to his body, and his outward coat in particular was cut off at such sharp angles, that it was evident cloth was a scarce and dear commodity in his country. the lower part of his dress was particularly improper, and he kept his boots on in his room, without any consideration for the carpet he was treading upon, which struck me as a custom subversive of all decorum. i found that he talked our language; for, as soon as he saw me, he asked me how i did, and then immediately remarked that it was a fine day, which was so self-evident a truth, that i immediately agreed to it. i then thought it necessary to make him some fine speeches, and flattered him to the best of my abilities, informing him of the great reputation he had already acquired in persia; that locman[ ] was a fool when compared to one of his wisdom; and that as for his contemporaries, the persian physicians, they were not fit to handle his pestle for him. to all this he said nothing. i then told him that the king himself, having heard of the wonderful effects of his medicine upon the person of his grand vizier, had ordered his historian to insert the circumstance in the annals of the empire, as one of the most extraordinary events of his reign,--that a considerable sensation had been produced in his majesty�s seraglio, for many of the ladies had immediately been taken ill, and were longing to make a trial of his skill,--that the king�s favourite georgian slave was, in fact, at this moment in great pain,--that i had been deputed by the chief eunuch, owing to a special order from his majesty, to procure medicine similar to that which the first minister had taken--and i concluded my speech by requesting the doctor immediately to furnish me with some. he seemed to ponder over what i had told him; and, after reflecting a short time, said that it was not his custom to administer medicine to his patients without first seeing them, for by so doing he would probably do more harm than good; but that if he found that the slave was in want of his aid, he should be very happy to attend her. i answered to this, that as to seeing the face of the georgian slave, that was totally out of the question, for no man ever was allowed that liberty in persia, excepting her husband. in cases of extreme necessity, perhaps a doctor might be permitted to feel a woman�s pulse, but then it must be done when a veil covers the hand. to which the frank replied, �in order to judge of my patient�s case i must not only feel the pulse, but see the tongue also.� �looking at the tongue is totally new in persia,� said i; �and i am sure you could never be indulged with such a sight in the seraglio, without a special order from the king himself; a eunuch would rather cut out his own tongue first.� �well, then,� said the doctor, �recollect, that if i deliver my medicine to you, i do so without taking any responsibility upon myself for its effects; for if it does not cure it may perhaps kill.� when i had assured him that no harm or prejudice could possibly accrue to him, he opened a large chest, which appeared to be full of drugs, and taking there from the smallest quantity of a certain white powder, he mixed it up, with some bread, into the form of a pill, and putting it into paper gave it me, with proper directions how it should be administered. seeing that he made no mystery of his knowledge, i began to question him upon the nature and properties of this particular medicine, and upon his practice in general. he answered me without any reserve; not like our persian doctors, who only make a parade of fine words, and who adjust every ailment that comes before them to what they read in their galen, their hippocrates, and their abou avicenna. when i had learned all i could, i left him with great demonstration of friendship and thankfulness, and immediately returned to mirza ahmak, who doubtless was waiting for me with great impatience. having divested myself of my borrowed cloak and resumed my own dress, i appeared before him with a face made up for the occasion, for i wished to make him believe that the lettuce and cucumbers had done their duty. at every word i pretended to receive a violent twitch, and acted my part so true to life, that the stern and inflexible nature of mirza ahmak himself was moved into somewhat like pity for me. �there! there,� said i, as i entered his apartment, �in the name of allah take your prize:� and then pretending to be bent double, i made the most horrid grimaces, and uttered deep groans: �there! i have followed your orders, and now throw myself upon your generosity.� he endeavoured to take the object of his search from me, but i kept it fast; and whilst i gave him to understand that i expected prompt reward, i made indications of an intention to swallow it, unless he actually gave me something in hand. so fearful was he of not being able to answer the king�s interrogatories concerning the pill, so anxious to get it into his possession, that he actually pressed a gold piece upon me. no lover could sue his mistress with more earnestness to grant him a favour than the doctor did me for my pill. i should very probably have continued the deceit a little longer, and have endeavoured to extract another piece from him; but when i saw him preparing a dose of his own mixture to ease my pain, i thought it high time to finish, and pretending all of a sudden to have received relief, i gave up my prize. when once he had got possession, he looked at it with intense eagerness, and turned it over and over on his palm, without appearing one whit more advanced in his knowledge than before. at length, after permitting him fully to exhaust his conjectures, i told him that the frank doctor had made no secret in saying that it was composed of _jivch_, or mercury. �mercury, indeed!� exclaimed mirza ahmak, �just as if i did not know that. and so, because this infidel, this dog of an _isauvi_,[ ] chooses to poison us with mercury, i am to lose my reputation, and my prescriptions (such as his father never even saw in a dream) are to be turned into ridicule. whoever heard of mercury as a medicine? mercury is cold, and lettuce and cucumber are cold also. you would not apply ice to dissolve ice? the ass does not know the first rudiments of his profession. no, hajji, this will never do; we must not permit our beards to be laughed at in this manner.� he continued to inveigh for a considerable time against his rival; and would, no doubt, have continued to do so much longer, but he was stopped by a message from the king, who ordered him to repair forthwith to his presence. in the greatest trepidation he immediately put himself into his court dress, exchanged his common black lamb�s skin cap for one wound about with a shawl, huddled on his red cloth stockings, called for his horse, and, taking the pill with him, went off in great hurry, and full of the greatest apprehension at what might be the result of the audience. chapter xxi he describes the manner in which the shah of persia takes medicine. the doctor�s visit to the king had taken place late in the evening; and as soon as he returned from it he called for me. i found him apparently in great agitation, and full of anxiety. �hajji,� said he, when i appeared, �come close to me�; and having sent every one else out of the room, he said in a whisper, �this infidel doctor must be disposed of somehow or other. what do you think has happened? the shah has consulted him; he had him in private conference for an hour this morning, without my being apprised of it. his majesty sent for me to tell me its result; and i perceive that the frank has already gained great influence. it seems that the king gave him the history of his complaints, of his debility, of his old asthma, and of his imperfect digestion, but talked in raptures of the wretch�s sagacity and penetration; for merely by looking at the tongue and feeling the pulse before the infidel was told what was the state of the case, he asked whether his majesty did not use the hot baths very frequently;[ ] whether, when he smoked, he did not immediately bring on a fit of coughing; and whether, in his food, he was not particularly addicted to pickles, sweetmeats, and rice swimming in butter? the king has given him three days to consider his case, to consult his books, and to gather the opinions of the frank sages on subjects so important to the state of persia, and to compose such a medicine as will entirely restore and renovate his constitution. the centre of the universe then asked my opinion, and requested me to speak boldly upon the natures and properties of franks in general, and of their medicines. i did not lose this opportunity of giving utterance to my sentiments; so, after the usual preface to my speech, i said, �that as to their natures, the shah, in his profound wisdom, must know, that they were an unbelieving and an unclean race; for that they treated our prophet as a cheat, and ate pork and drank wine without any scruple; that they were women in looks, and in manners bears; that they ought to be held in the greatest suspicion, for their ultimate object (see what they had done in india) was to take kingdoms, and to make shahs and nabobs their humble servants. as to their medicines,� i exclaimed, �heaven preserve your majesty from them! they are just as treacherous in their effects as the franks are in their politics: with what we give to procure death, they pretend to work their cures. their principal ingredient is mercury (and here i produced my pill); and they use their instruments and knives so freely, that i have heard it said they will cut off a man�s limbs to save his life.� i then drew such a picture of the fatal effects likely to proceed from the foreign prescription, that i made the shah promise that he would not take it without using every precaution that his prudence and wisdom might suggest. to this he consented; and as soon as the frank shall have sent in the medicine which he is preparing, i shall be summoned to another interview. now, hajji,� added the doctor, �the shah must not touch the infidel�s physic; for if perchance it were to do good, i am a lost man. who will ever consult mirza ahmak again? no, we must avert the occurrence of such an event, even if i were obliged to take all his drugs myself.� we parted with mutual promises of doing everything in our power to thwart the infidel doctor; and three days after mirza ahmak was again called before the king in order to inspect the promised ordonnance, and which consisted of a box of pills. he, of course, created all sorts of suspicions against their efficacy, threw out some dark hints about the danger of receiving any drug from the agent of a foreign power, and, finally, left the shah in the determination of referring the case to his ministers. the next day, at the usual public audience, when the shah was seated on his throne, and surrounded by his prime vizier, his lord high treasurer, his minister for the interior, his principal secretary of state, his lord chamberlain, his master of the horse, his principal master of the ceremonies, his doctor in chief, and many other of the great officers of his household, addressing himself to his grand vizier, he stated the negotiations which he had entered into with the foreign physician, now resident at his court, for the restoration and the renovation of the royal person; that at the first conference, the said foreign physician, after a due inspection of the royal person, had reported that there existed several symptoms of debility. that at the second, after assuring the shah that he had for three whole days employed himself in consulting his books and records, and gathering from them the opinions of his own country sages on the subject, he had combined the properties of various drugs into one whole, which, if taken interiorly, would produce effects so wonderful, that no talisman could come in competition with it. his majesty then said, that he had called into his councils his _hakîm bashi_, or head physician, who, in his anxiety for the weal of the persian monarchy, had deeply pondered over the ordonnances of the foreigner, and had set his face against them, owing to certain doubts and apprehensions that had crept into his mind, which consisted, first, whether it were politic to deliver over the internal administration of the royal person to foreign regulations and ordonnances; and, second, whether, in the remedy prescribed, there might not exist such latent and destructive effects, as would endanger, undermine, and, finally, overthrow that royal person and constitution, which it was supposed to be intended to restore and renovate. �under these circumstances,� said the centre of the universe, raising his voice at the time, �i have thought it advisable to pause before i proceeded in this business; and have resolved to lay the case before you, in order that you may, in your united wisdoms, frame such an opinion as may be fitting to be placed before the king: and in order that you may go into the subject with a complete knowledge of the case, i have resolved, as a preparatory act, that each of you, in your own persons, shall partake of this medicine, in order that both you and i may judge of its various effects.� to this most gracious speech the grand vizier and all the courtiers made exclamations, �may the king live for ever! may the royal shadow never be less! we are happy not only to take physic, but to lay down our lives in your majesty�s service! we are your sacrifice, your slaves! may god give the shah health, and a victory over all his enemies!� upon which the chief of the valets was ordered to bring the foreign physician�s box of pills from the harem, and delivered it to the shah in a golden salver. his majesty then ordered the hakîm bashi to approach, and delivering the box to him, ordered him to go round to all present, beginning with the prime vizier, and then to every man according to his rank, administering to each a pill. this being done, the whole assembly took the prescribed gulp; after which ensued a general pause, during which the king looked carefully into each man�s face to mark the first effects of the medicine. when the wry faces had subsided, the conversation took a turn upon the affairs of europe; upon which his majesty asked a variety of questions, which were answered by the different persons present in the best manner they were able. the medicine now gradually began to show its effects. the lord high treasurer first, a large coarse man, who, to this moment had stood immovable, merely saying _�belli, belli,�_ yes, yes, whenever his majesty opened his mouth to speak, now appeared uneasy, for what he had swallowed had brought into action a store of old complaints which were before lying dormant. the eyes of all had been directed towards him, which had much increased his perturbed state; when the chief secretary of state, a tall, thin, lathy man, turned deadly pale, and began to stream from every pore. he was followed by the minister for the interior, whose unhappy looks seemed to supplicate a permission from his majesty to quit his august presence. all the rest in succession were moved in various ways, except the prime vizier, a little old man, famous for a hard and unyielding nature, and who appeared to be laughing in his sleeve at the misery which his compeers in office were undergoing. when the shah perceived that the medicine had taken effect, he dismissed the assembly, ordering mirza ahmak, as soon as he could ascertain the history of each pill, to give him an official report of the whole transaction, and then retired into his harem. the crafty old doctor had now his rival within his power; of course, he set the matter in such a light before the king, that his majesty was deterred from making the experiment of the foreign physician�s ordonnance, and it was forthwith consigned to oblivion. when he next saw me, and after he had made me acquainted with the preceding narrative, he could not restrain his joy and exultation. �we have conquered, friend hajji,� would he say to me. �the infidel thought that we were fools; but we will teach him what persians are. whose dog is he, that he should aspire to so high an honour as prescribing for a king of kings? no, that is left to such men as i. what do we care about his new discoveries? as our fathers did, so are we contented to do. the prescription that cured our ancestors shall cure us; and what locman and abou avicenna ordained we may be satisfied to ordain after them.� he then dismissed me, to make fresh plans for destroying any influence or credit that the new physician might acquire, and for preserving his own consequence and reputation at court. chapter xxii hajji baba asks the doctor for a salary, and of the success of his demand. i had thus far lived with the doctor more as a friend than as a servant; for he permitted me to sit in his presence, to eat with him, and even to smoke his pipe, whilst at the same time i associated with his servants, ate, drank, and smoked with them also; but i found that this sort of life in nowise suited my views and expectations. the only money which i had received from him was the gold coin aforementioned, for which i was indebted to my own ingenuity; and, as things went, it appeared that it would be the last. i was therefore resolved to come to an explanation with him, and accordingly seized the opportunity when he was elated with his success over the european doctor, to open the subject of my grievances. he had just returned from the imperial gate, after having seen the shah; who, by his account, had been very gracious to him, having kept him standing without his shoes only two hours, by the side of a stone fountain, instead of six, which he generally does. �what a good king he is!� he exclaimed, �how affable, how considerate! it is impossible to say how much kindness he shows to me. he gave abuse to the european doctor, all out of compliment to my abilities, and said that he is not fit to hold my shoes. he then ordered his favourite running footman to bring me a present of two partridges, which were caught by the royal hawks.� i observed, �yes, the king says true. who is your equal nowadays in persia? happy shah! to possess such a treasure. what are the franks, that they should talk of medicine? if they want learning, science, and skill, let them look to mirza ahmak.� upon this, with a smile of self-complacency, he took the pipe from his mouth and gave it to me, pulled up his moustaches, and stroked his beard. �_inshallah!_ may it please god,� i continued to say, �that i also may share in the glory of your reputation; but i am like a dog, i am nothing, i am not even like the piece of clay, which was scented by the company of the rose.� �how!� said the doctor; �why are you out of spirits?� �i will leave you to judge, and relate a story,� said i. �once upon a time there was a dog, who in looks and manners was so like a wolf, that the wolves used to admit him into their society. he ate, drank, and killed sheep with them, and, in short, was everything that a wolf ought to be; at the same time, he lived with his fellow dogs like a dog, and was admitted to all their parties. but, little by little, the dogs perceived that he associated with wolves, and became shy of him; and it also happened that the wolves discovered that he was in fact a dog, and did not like to admit him any longer into their circles; so between both, the poor dog became neglected and miserable; and, unable to bear his undefined state any longer, he determined to make a decided effort to become either a dog or a wolf. i am that dog!� exclaimed i: �you permit me to sit and smoke with you, who are so much my superior; you talk to and consult me, and i am even admitted to the society of your friends; but what does that benefit me? i am still a servant, without enjoying any of the advantages of one: i get nothing. i pray you therefore to appoint me to the situation you wish me to hold in your service, and to fix a salary upon me.� �a salary indeed!� exclaimed the doctor: �i never give salaries. my servants get what they can from my patients, and you may do the same; they eat the remains of my dinner, and they receive a coat at the festival of the _no rûz_,--what can they want more?� at this moment entered the shah�s running footman, bearing in his hands a silver tray, upon which were placed the two partridges that his majesty had presented to the doctor, and which, in great form, he gave into his hands, who, rising from his seat, carried the tray to his head, and exclaimed, �may the king�s kindness never be less! may his wealth increase, and may he live for ever!� he then was called upon to make the bearer a present. he sent first five piastres,[ ] which the servant returned with great indignation. he then sent one tomaun: this also was sent back, until at length in despair he sent five tomauns, which, it was intimated, was the sum proper to be given. this disagreeable circumstance dissipated all the pleasure which such a present had produced, and the hakîm, in his rage, permitted himself to use such expressions, which, if reported to the king, would have brought him into considerable trouble. �a present, indeed!� said he; �i wish such presents were in the other world! �tis thus we pay the wages of the king�s servants--a set of rapacious rascals, without either shame or conscience! and the worst of it is, we must pay them handsomely, or else whenever it happens that i get the bastinado on the soles of my feet--which come it will--they, who perform the operation, will show me no mercy. let me not forget what saadi says, that you can no more depend upon the friendship of a king than you can upon the voice of a child; the former changes on the slightest suspicion, the latter in the course of a night.� upon this reflection the doctor began to be alarmed at what he had said at the outset of his speech; and, with all the terrors of the felek before him, he seemed quite reconciled to the loss of his five tomauns. i found that this would not be the best moment to resume the subject of my expectations, and therefore reserved it for some future opportunity; but i had heard enough to settle in my own mind, that i would leave the �locman of the age�, whenever an opportunity should offer, and for the present to content myself with being neither dog nor wolf. [illustration: hajji and zeenab. .jpg] chapter xxiii he becomes dissatisfied with his situation, is idle, and falls in love. discontented with my present lot, and uncertain as to my future prospects, my days passed on in total idleness; and, as i had no inclination to pursue the profession of physic, which many before me had done on quite as slender a foundation as the one i had acquired, i cared little for those pursuits which engaged mirza ahmak. i should very probably have left him instantly, if a circumstance had not occurred, arising from the very state of unprofitableness in which i lived, which detained me in his house. the feelings to which it gave rise so entirely absorbed every other consideration, that i became their slave; and so violent were the emotions which they created, that i verily believe that majnoun, in the height of his frenzy, could not have been madder than i. after this, it is needless to mention that i was in love. the spring had passed over, and the first heats of summer, which now began to make themselves felt, had driven most of the inhabitants of the city to spread their beds and sleep on the house-tops. as i did not like to pass my night in company of the servants, the carpet-spreaders and the cook, who generally herded together in a room below, i extended my bed in a corner of the terrace, which overlooked the inner court of the doctor�s house, in which were situated the apartments of the women. this court was a square, into which the windows of the different chambers looked, and was planted in the centre with rose-bushes, jessamines, and poplar-trees. a square wooden platform was erected in the middle, upon which mattresses were spread, where the inhabitants reposed during the great heats. i had seen several women seated in different parts of the court, but had never been particularly struck by the appearance of any one of them; and indeed had i been so, perhaps i should never have thought of looking at them again; for as soon as i was discovered, shouts of abuse were levelled at me, and i was called by every odious name that they could devise. one night, however, soon after the sun had set, as i was preparing my bed, i perchance looked over a part of the wall that was a little broken down, and on a slip of terrace that was close under it i discovered a female, who was employed in assorting and spreading out tobacco-leaves. her blue veil was negligently thrown over her head, and as she stooped, the two long tresses which flowed from her forehead hung down in so tantalizing a manner as nearly to screen all her face, but still left so much of it visible, that it created an intense desire in me to see the remainder. everything that i saw in her announced beauty. her hands were small, and dyed with _khena_;[ ] her feet were equally small; and her whole air and form bespoke loveliness and grace. i gazed upon her until i could no longer contain my passion; i made a slight noise, which immediately caused her to look up, and before she could cover herself with her veil, i had had time to see the most enchanting features that the imagination can conceive, and to receive a look from eyes so bewitching, that i immediately felt my heart in a blaze. with apparent displeasure she covered herself; but still i could perceive that she had managed her veil with so much art, that there was room for a certain dark and sparkling eye to look at me, and to enjoy my agitation. as i continued to gaze upon her, she at length said, though still going on with her work, �why do you look at me? it is criminal.� �for the sake of the sainted hosein,� i exclaimed, �do not turn from me; it is no crime to love: your eyes have made roast meat of my heart: by the mother that bore you, let me look upon your face again.� in a more subdued voice she answered me, �why do you ask me? you know it is a crime for a woman to let her face be seen; and you are neither my father, my brother, nor my husband; i do not even know who you are. have you no shame, to talk thus to a maid?� at this moment she let her veil fall, as if by chance, and i had time to look again upon her face, which was even more beautiful than i had imagined. her eyes were large and peculiarly black, and fringed by long lashes, which, aided by the collyrium with which they were tinged, formed a sort of ambuscade, from which she levelled her shafts. her eyebrows were finely arched, and nature had brought them together just over her nose, in so strong a line, that there was no need of art to join them together. her nose was aquiline, her mouth small, and full of sweet expression; and in the centre of her chin was a dimple which she kept carefully marked with a blue puncture. nothing could equal the beauty of her hair; it was black as jet, and fell in long tresses down her back. in short, i was wrapped in amazement at her beauty. the sight of her explained to me many things which i had read in our poets, of cypress forms, tender fawns, and sugar-eating parrots. it seemed to me that i could gaze at her for ever, and not be tired; but still i felt a great desire to leap over the wall and touch her. my passion was increasing, and i was on the point of approaching her, when i heard the name of _zeenab_ repeated several times, with great impatience, by a loud shrill voice; upon which my fair one left the terrace in haste, and i remained riveted to the place where i had first seen her. i continued there for a long time, in the hope that she might return, but to no purpose. i lent my ear to every noise, but nothing was to be heard below but the same angry voice, which, by turns, appeared to attack everything, and everybody, and which could belong to no one but the doctor�s wife; a lady, who, as report would have it, was none of the mildest of her sex, and who kept her good man in great subjection. the day had now entirely closed in, and i was about retiring to my bed in despair, when the voice was heard again, exclaiming, �zeenab, where are you going to? why do you not retire to bed?� i indistinctly heard the answer of my charmer, but soon guessed what it had been, when saw her appear on the terrace again. my heart beat violently, and i was about to leap over the wall, which separated us, when i was stopped by seeing her taking up a basket, in which she had gathered her tobacco, and make a hasty retreat; but just as she was disappearing, she said to me, in a low tone of voice, �be here to-morrow night.� these words thrilled through my whole frame, in a manner that i had never before felt, and i did not cease to repeat them, and ponder over them, until, through exhaustion, i fell into a feverish doze, and i did not awaken on the following morning until the beams of the sun shone bright in my face. chapter xxiv he has an interview with the fair zeenab, who relates how she passes her time in the doctor�s harem. �so,� said i, when i had well rubbed my eyes: �so, now i am in love? well! we shall see what will come of it. who and what she is we shall know to-night, so please it; and if she is anything which belongs to the doctor, may his house be ruined if i do not teach him how to keep a better watch over his property. as for marriage, that is out of the question. who would give a wife to me; i who have not even enough to buy myself a pair of trousers, much less to defray the expenses of a wedding? _inshallah,_ please god, that will take place one of these days, whenever i shall have got together some money; but now i will make play with love, and let the doctor pay for it.� with that intention i forthwith got up and dressed myself; but it was with more care than usual. i combed my curls a great deal more than ordinary; i studied the tie of my girdle, and put my cap on one side. then having rolled up my bed, and carried it into the servants� hall, i issued from home, with the intention of bathing, and making my person sweet, preparatory to my evening�s assignation. i went to the bath, where i passed a great part of my morning in singing, and spent the remainder of the time, until the hour of meeting, in rambling about the town without any precise object in view. at length the day drew towards its close, my impatience had reached its height, and i only waited for the termination of the _shâm_, or the evening�s meal, to feign a headache, and to retire to rest. my ill luck would have it, that the doctor was detained longer than usual in his attendance upon the shah, and as the servants dined after him, and ate his leavings, it was late before i was at liberty. when that moment arrived, i was in a fever of expectation: the last glimmering of day tinged the western sky with a light shade of red, and the moon was just rising, when i appeared on the terrace with my bed under my arm. i threw it down and unfolded it in haste, and then, with a beating heart, flew to the broken wall. i looked over it with great precaution; but, to my utter disappointment, i saw nothing but the tobacco spread about in confused heaps, with baskets here and there, as if some work had been left unfinished. i looked all around, but saw no zeenab. i coughed once or twice; no answer. the only sound which reached my ears was the voice of the doctor�s wife, exerting itself upon some one within the house; although its shrillness pierced even the walls, yet i could not make out what was the cause of its being so excited, until of a sudden it burst into the open air with increasing violence. �you talk of work to me, you daughter of the devil! who told you to go to the bath? what business had you at the tombs? i suppose i am to be your slave, and you are to take your pleasure. why is not your work done? you shall neither eat, drink, nor sleep, until it is done, so go to it immediately; and if you come away until it be finished, wallah! billah! by the prophet, i will beat you till your nails drop off.� upon this i heard some pushing and scuffing, and immediately perceived my fair one proceeding with apparent reluctance to the spot, which not a moment before i had despaired of seeing blessed with her presence. oh what a wonderful thing is love! thought i to myself: how it sharpens the wits, and how fertile it is in expedients! i perceived at a glance how ingeniously my charmer had contrived everything for our interview, and for a continuance of it without the fear of interruption. she saw, but took no notice of me until the storm below had ceased; and then, when everything had relapsed into silence, she came towards me, and, as the reader may well suppose, i was at her side in an instant. ye, who know what love is, may, perhaps, conceive our raptures, for they are not to be expressed. i learnt from my fair friend that she was the daughter of a cûrdish chief, who, with his whole family, including his flocks and herds, had been made prisoner when she was quite a child; and that, from circumstances which she promised hereafter to relate to me, she had fallen into the hands of the doctor, whose slave she now was. after the first burst of the sentiments which we felt towards each other had subsided, she gave way to the feelings of anger, which she felt for the treatment that she had just experienced. �ah!� she exclaimed, �did you hear what that woman called me! woman, without faith, without religion! �tis thus she always treats me; she constantly gives me abuse; i am become less than a dog. everybody rails at me; no one comes near me; my liver is become water, and my soul is withered up. why should i be called a child of the devil? i am a cûrd; i am a yezeedi.[ ] �tis true that we fear the devil, and who does not? but i am no child of his. oh! that i could meet her in our mountains: she would then see what a cûrdish girl can do.� i endeavoured to console her as well as i could, and persuaded her to smother her resentment until she could find a good opportunity of revenging herself. she despaired at that ever coming to pass; because all her actions were so strictly watched, that she could scarcely go from one room to another without her mistress being aware of it. the fact was, so she informed me, that the doctor, who was a man of low family, had, by orders of the king, married one of his majesty�s slaves, who, from some misconduct, had been expelled from the harem. she brought the doctor no other dowry than an ill-temper, and a great share of pride, which always kept her in mind of her former influence at court; and she therefore holds her present husband as cheap as the dust under her feet, and keeps him in a most pitiful state of subjection. he dares not sit down before her, unless she permits him, which she very seldom does; and she is moreover so jealous, that there is no slave in her harem who does not excite her suspicions. the doctor, on the other hand, who is very ambitious, and pleased with his exaltation, is also subject to the frailties of human nature, and is by no means insensible to the charms of the fair creatures, his slaves. zeenab herself, so she informed me, is the peculiar object of his attentions, and consequently that of the jealousy of his wife, who permits no look, word, or sign to pass unnoticed. much intrigue and espionage is carried on in the harem; and when the lady herself goes to the bath or the mosque, as many precautions are taken about the distribution of the female slaves, with respect to time, place, and opportunity, as there would be in the arrangement of a wedding. having never seen more of the interior of an anderûn than what i recollected as a boy in my own family, i became surprised, and my curiosity was greatly excited in proportion as the fair zeenab proceeded in her narrative of the history of her life in the doctor�s house. �we are five in the harem, besides our mistress,� said she: �there is shireen, the georgian slave; then nûr jehan,[ ] the ethiopian slave girl; fatmeh, the cook; and old leilah, the duenna. my situation is that of handmaid to the _khanum_,[ ] so my mistress is called: i attend her pipe, i hand her her coffee, bring in the meals, go with her to the bath, dress and undress her, make her clothes, spread, sift, and pound tobacco, and stand before her. shireen, the georgian, is the sandukdar, or housekeeper; she has the care of the clothes of both my master and mistress, and indeed of the clothes of all the house; she superintends the expenses, lays in the corn for the house, as well as all the other provisions; she takes charge of all the porcelain, the silver, and other ware; and, in short, has the care of whatever is either precious or of consequence in the family. nûr jehan, the black slave, acts as ferash, or carpet-spreader: she does all the dirty work, spreads the carpets, sweeps the rooms, sprinkles the water over the court yard, helps the cook, carries parcels and messages, and, in short, is at the call of every one. as for old leilah, she is a sort of duenna over the young slaves: she is employed in the out-of-door service, carries on any little affair that the khanum may have with other harems, and is also supposed to be a spy upon the actions of the doctor. such as we are, our days are passed in peevish disputes; whilst, at the same time, some two of us are usually leagued in strict friendship, to the exclusion of the others. at this present moment i am at open war with the georgian, who, some time ago, found that her good luck in life had forsaken her, and she in consequence contrived to procure a talisman from a dervish. she had no sooner obtained it, than on the very next day the khanum presented her with a new jacket; this so excited my jealousy, that i also made interest with the dervish to supply me with a talisman that should secure me a good husband. on that very same evening i saw you on the terrace. conceive my happiness! but this has established a rivality between myself and shireen, which has ended in hatred, and we are now mortal enemies: perhaps we may as suddenly be friends again. i am now on the most intimate terms with nûr jehan, and at my persuasion she reports to the khanum every story unfavorable to my rival. some rare sweetmeats, with _baklava_ (sweet cake) made in the royal seraglio, were sent a few days ago from one of the shah�s ladies, as a present to our mistress; the rats ate a great part of them, and we gave out that the georgian was the culprit, for which she received blows on the feet, which nûr jehan administered. i broke my mistress�s favourite drinking-cup; shireen incurred the blame, and was obliged to supply another. i know that she is plotting against me, for she is eternally closeted with leilah, who is at present the confidant of our mistress. i take care not to eat or drink anything which has passed through her hands to me, for fear of poison, and she returns me the same compliment. it is not, that our hatred amounts to poison yet, but such precautions are constantly in use in all harems. we have as yet only once come to blows: she excited me to violent anger by spitting and saying, �_lahnet be sheitan_,� curse be on the devil, which you know to the yezeedies is a gross insult; when i fell upon her, calling her by every wicked name that i had learnt in persian, and fastening upon her hair, of which i pulled out whole tresses by the roots. we were parted by leilah, who came in for her share of abuse, and we continued railing at each other until our throats were quite dried up with rage and exhaustion. our violence has much abated since this conflict; but her enmity is undiminished, for she continues to show her spite against me in every manner she can devise.� zeenab continued to entertain me in this manner until the first dawn of the morning, and when we heard the _muezzin_[ ] call the morning prayers from the mosque, we thought it prudent to retire; but not until we had made mutual promises of seeing each other as often as prudence would allow. we agreed, that whenever she had by her stratagems secured an opportunity for meeting, she should hang her veil upon the bough of a tree in the court, which could be seen from my terrace; and that if it were not there, i was to conclude that our interview on that night was impossible. [illustration: hajji sings to zeenab. .jpg] chapter xxv the lovers meet again, and are very happy--hajji baba sings. on the following evening, i ascended the terrace in the hope of seeing the signal of meeting; but in vain; no veil was visible; and i sat myself down in despair. the tobacco, and all the apparatus for cleaning it, had disappeared, and all was hushed below. even the unceasing voice of the doctor�s wife, which i now began to look upon as the most agreeable sound in nature, was wanting; and the occasional drag of a slipper, which i guessed might proceed from the crawl of old leilah, was the only sign of an inhabitant. i had in succession watched the distant din of the king�s band, the crash of the drums, and the swell of the trumpets, announcing sunset. i had listened to the various tones of the muezzins, announcing the evening prayer; as well as to the small drum of the police, ordering the people to shut their shops, and retire to their homes. the cry of the sentinels on the watch-towers of the king�s palace was heard at distant intervals; night had completely closed in upon me, and still the same silence prevailed in the doctor�s harem. �what can be the reason of this?� said i to myself. �if they have been to the bath, they cannot have remained thus late: besides, the baths are open for the women in the mornings only. some one must be sick, or there is a marriage, or a birth, or perhaps a burial; or the doctor may have received the bastinado�; in short, i was killing myself with conjecture, when of a sudden a great beating at the door took place, and, as it opened, the clatter of slippers was heard, attended by the mingled sounds of many female voices, amongst which the well-known querulous tone of the khanum was prominent. several lanterns passed to and fro, which showed me the forms of the women, amongst whom, as they threw off their veils, i recognized that of my zeenab. i determined to watch, in the hope that i might still be blessed with an interview; and, in fact, it was not long before she appeared. she stole to me with great precaution, to say that circumstances would prevent our meeting on this occasion, as she should not fail being missed; but that, certainly, ere long, she would contrive to secure an interview. in few words, she informed me that her mistress had been called upon to attend her sister (one of the ladies in the shah�s seraglio), who being taken suddenly ill, had expired almost immediately (it was supposed by poison administered by a rival), and that she had taken all her women with her, in order to increase the clamour of lamentation which was always made on such occasions; that they had been there since noon, rending the air with every proper exclamation, until they were all hoarse; that her mistress had already torn her clothes, an etiquette which she had performed however with great care, considering that she wore a favourite jacket, having permitted only one or two seams of it to be ripped open. as the burial would take place the next day, it was necessary that they should be at their post early in the morning to continue the lamentations--a service for which she expected to receive a black handkerchief, and to eat sweetmeats. my fair one then left me, promising that she would do her utmost to secure a meeting on the following evening, and telling me not to forget the signal. on getting up the next morning, i was much surprised to see it already made, and to perceive zeenab below, beckoning me to go to her. i did not hesitate immediately to descend from the terrace by the same flight of steps which she used to ascend it, and then of a sudden i found myself in the very centre of the harem. an involuntary tremor seized me, when i reflected that i was in a place into which no man with impunity is permitted to enter; but, fortified by the smiles and the unconstrained manner of my enchantress, i proceeded. �come, hajji,� said she, �banish all fear; no one is here but zeenab, and, if our luck is good, we may have the whole day to ourselves.� �by what miracle,� exclaimed i, �have you done this? where is the khanum? where are the women? and, if they are not here, how shall i escape the doctor?� �do not fear,� she repeated again; �i have barred all the doors; and should any one come, you will have time to escape before i open them: but there is no fear of that; all the women are gone to the funeral; and as for mirza ahmak, my mistress has taken care to dispose of him in such a manner, now that i am left by myself, that he will not dare to come within a parasang of his own house. you must know then,� said she, �for i see you are all astonishment, that our destinies are on the rise, and that it was a lucky hour when we first saw each other. everything plays into our hands. my rival, the georgian, put it into the khanum�s head, that leilah, who is a professed weeper at burials, having learned the art, in all its branches since a child, was a personage absolutely necessary on the present occasion, and that she ought to go in preference to me, who am a cûrd, and can know but little of persian customs: all this, of course, to deprive me of my black handkerchief, and other advantages. accordingly, i have been left at home; and the whole party went off an hour ago to the house of the deceased. i pretended to be very angry, and opposed leilah�s taking my place with apparent warmth; but, thank heaven, here we are, and so let us make the most of our time.� upon which she went into the kitchen to prepare a tray, containing a breakfast for me, whilst she left me to explore that which is hidden from all bachelors, namely, the interior of the harem. i first went into the apartments of the khanum herself. it opened upon the garden by an immense sash-window, composed of stained glass; and in the corner was the accustomed seat of the lady, marked by a thick felt carpet, folded double, and a large down cushion, covered with cloth of gold, with two tassels at the extremities, and veiled by a thin outer covering of muslin. near this seat was a looking-glass, prettily painted, and a box containing all sorts of curiosities; the _surmé_ (collyrium) for the eyes, with its small instrument for applying it; some chinese rouge; a pair of armlets, containing talismans; a _toû zoulfeh_, or an ornament to hitch into the hair, and hang on the forehead; a knife, scissors, and other things. a guitar and a tambourine lay close at hand. her bed, rolled up in a distant corner, was enclosed in a large wrapper of blue and white cloth. several pictures, without frames, were hung against the walls, and the shelf which occupied the top of the room was covered with different sorts of glasses, basins, etc. in a corner were seen several bottles of shiraz wine, one of which, just stopped with a flower, appeared to have been used by the good lady that very morning; most likely in order to keep up her spirits during the melancholy ceremony she was about to attend. �so,� said i to myself, �the prophet is not much heeded in this house. i shall know another time how to appreciate a sanctified and mortified look. our doctor, who calls himself a staunch mussulman, i see makes up for his large potations of cold water and sherbet abroad, by his good stock of wine at home.� by the time i had satisfied my curiosity here, and had inspected the other rooms, which belonged to the servants, zeenab had prepared our breakfast, which she placed before us in the khanum�s room. we sat down next to each other, and reposed upon the very cushion of which i have just given the description. nothing could be more delicious than the meal which she had prepared: there was a dish of rice, white as snow, and near it a plate of roast meat, cut into small bits, wrapped up in a large flap of bread; then a beautiful ispahan melon, in long slices; some pears and apricots; an omelette warmed from a preceding meal; cheese, onions, and leeks; a basin of sour curds, and two different sorts of sherbet: added to this, we had some delicious sweetmeats, and a basin full of new honey. �how, in the name of your mother,� exclaimed i, as i pulled up my whiskers, and surveyed the good things before me, �how have you managed to collect all this so soon? this is a breakfast fit for the shah.� �oh, as to that,� she replied, �do not trouble yourself, but fall to. my mistress ordered her breakfast to be prepared over-night, but on second thoughts this morning she determined to make her meal at the house of the deceased, and has left me, as you see, but little to do. come, let us eat and be merry.� accordingly, we did honour to the breakfast, and left but little for those who might come after us. after we had washed our hands, we placed the wine before us, and having each broken the commandment by taking a cup, we congratulated ourselves upon being two of the happiest of human beings. such was my delight, that taking up the guitar which was near me, and putting aside all apprehension for the present, and all care for the future, i tuned it to my voice, and sang the following ode of hafiz, which i had learnt in my youth, when i used to charm my hearers in the bath:-- what bliss is like to whisp�ring love, or dalliance in the bowers of spring? why then delay my bliss t�improve? haste, haste, my love, the goblet bring. each hour that joy and mirth bestow call it treasure, count it gain; fool is the man who seeks to know his pleasure will it end in pain! the links which our existence bind hang not by one weak thread alone; of man�s distress why tease the mind? sufficient �tis, we know our own. the double charms of love and wine alike from one sweet source arise: are we to blame, shall we repine, when unconstrain�d the passions rise? if innocent in heart and mind, i sin unconscious of offence what use, o casuist, shall i find in absolution�s recompense? hermits the flowing spring approve; poets the sparkling bowl enjoy: and, till he�s judged by powers above, hafiz will drink, and sing, and toy. zeenab was quite in ecstasy: she had never heard anything so delightful in her life, and forgetting that both of us were but wretched individuals--she a slave, i the most destitute of beings--we did and felt as if all that surrounded us was our own, and that the wine and our love would last for ever. having sang several more songs, and emptied several cups of wine, i found that my poetry was exhausted as well as our bottle. it was still quite early, and we had much time before us. �zeenab,� said i, �you have long promised to tell me the history of your life, and now is a good opportunity; we are not likely to be interrupted for a long while, and, as our meetings at night are very uncertain, an hour cannot be better filled up than by the recital of your adventures.� she assented to my proposal with much good humour, and began as follows. chapter xxvi the history of zeenab, the cûrdish slave. i am the daughter of a chief, well known in the cûrdistan by the name of okous aga. who my mother was i do not precisely know. i have heard that i am the produce of one of the secret meetings at kerrund;[ ] but as such mysterious doings are hushed up among the cûrds, i have never dared to question anybody concerning them, and cannot, therefore, ascertain whether the reports about my birth be true or not. it is very certain that i never looked up to anyone as my mother; but was brought up at hazard among our women, and that my earliest friend was a foal, that lived as an inmate with us. it was born in the very tent which my father�s wives occupied; and its dam, of the purest arabian blood, was treated more like one of the family than a quadruped: in fact, it received much more attention than any of the wives; it enjoyed the warmest place in the tent, was beautifully clothed, and in all our journeys was the first object of our cares. when the mare died, a universal lamentation ensued throughout the encampment. the foal lived to be my father�s war-horse, and is to this day the pride of the cûrdistan. but would to heaven that we had felt less affection for these animals! then i might still have been a free woman; for, in truth, the many vicissitudes which we have undergone originated in the possession of a mare, of which you shall hear more hereafter. �you must know that although the cûrds do not allow that they are subject to any power, yet our ancestors (and so did my father to a certain time) grazed their flocks and pitched their tents in that part of the cûrdistan mountains belonging to turkey, which are situated in the government of the pasha of bagdad. whenever that chief had any war on his hands, he frequently called upon our tribes to afford him supplies of horsemen, who, being celebrated throughout asia, were always foremost in the battle. my father, from his strength, his courage, and his horsemanship, was a great favourite with the pasha, and in high request on such occasions. he was a majestic figure on horseback; and when his countenance was shaded by the back part of his cap thrown over his brow, his look inspired terror. he had killed several men, and was consequently honoured with the distinction of bearing a tuft of hair on his spear. but it was when clad in armour that he was most to be admired. i shall never forget the grandeur of his appearance, when, with his horse curvetting under him, i saw him in the midst of a thousand cavaliers, all dressed in shining cuirasses, peacock�s feathers streaming from their helmets, and their spears glittering in the sun, preparing themselves to join the pasha. from the result of this expedition we date part of our misfortunes. the wahabi had advanced into the territory of bagdad, and even threatened that city, when the pasha thought it high time to call the cûrds to his assistance. he took the field with a considerable number of troops, and immediately marched against the enemy. in a night attack my father happened to fall in with and slay the son of the arab sheikh himself, who commanded the wahabi; and, having despoiled him of his arms, he led away with him the mare which his antagonist had mounted. he too well knew the value of such a prize not immediately to take the utmost care of it; and, in order to keep his good fortune from the knowledge of the turkish chieftain, who would do everything in his power to get it from him, he sent the beast to his encampment, with orders that it should be carefully concealed, and lodged in the tent which his harem occupied. his precautions were useless, because the feat which he had performed, and the circumstances attending it, were soon known to every one; but as the pasha had a great esteem for him, and there being no reason to suppose that the mare was more than an ordinary one, he made no inquiries about her. however, not very long after the war had ceased, the wahabi having been driven back into the desert, and the cûrds having retired to their mountains, we were surprised one morning by a visit from one of the pasha�s chief officers, viz. the _mirakhor_, or master of the horse, who came escorted by a handsome train of ten men, well mounted and armed. everybody was immediately on the alert to do them honour. their horses were taken to the nearest pasture, and picketed with plenty of grass before them: the horsemen were led into the men�s tent with much ceremony, where they were treated with coffee and pipes; and a large cauldron of rice was set on the fire to make a pilau. two lambs were immediately killed, and cooked into a savoury dish by the women, who also baked piles of bread on the occasion. in short, we did all in our power to put into practice those obligations of hospitality which are binding upon the wandering tribes. �as soon as my father was apprised of the approach of his visitors, even when they were first espied at a distance, it immediately occurred to him what might be their object, and he ordered his eldest son to mount the mare without a moment�s delay, to take her into a neighbouring dell until he should hear further from him. our tents were pitched in a line, on the brink of a mountain torrent; and it was therefore easy to steal away unperceived in the deep bed through which it flowed; and the high mountains in our neighbourhood, with the intricacies of which we were well acquainted, afforded good shelter to us in case of disturbance. �i recollect the whole circumstance just as if it were yesterday; for we women could peep into the place where the men were assembled, and our curiosity led us to listen to what they said. the mirakhor and two other turks were seated; the others stood at the entrance of the tent, resting on their arms. my father placed himself at some distance, on the carpet, with his hands before him, and his feet tucked under him, looking very humble, but at the same time casting his eyes very sharply around him. ��you are welcome, and you have brought happiness with you,� exclaimed my father. ��happily met,� answered the mirakhor; �it is long since we have seen each other�; and when they had repeated these and similar sorts of compliments over and over again, they relapsed into silence; their pipes, which they smoked until the place was darkened with the fume, holding them in lieu of conversation. ��our master, the pasha,� said the mirakhor, �sends you health and peace; he loves you, and says that you are one of his best and oldest friends. _mashallah!_ praise be to god! you are a good man; all cûrds are good; their friends are our friends, and their enemies our enemies.� �an old turk, who was standing, the foremost of the attendants, applauded this speech by a sort of low growl; and then my father, shrugging up his shoulders, and pressing his hands on his knees, answered: �i am the pasha�s slave; i am your slave; you do me much honour. _il hem dillah,_ thanks to heaven, we eat our bread in peace under the pasha�s shade, and put our caps on one side without fear. god give him plenty.� �after a short pause: �the business of our coming, okous aga,� said the mirakhor, �is this:--the wahabi (curses be on their beards!) have sent a deputation to our chief, requiring from him the mare upon which the son of their sheikh was mounted at the time that he was killed. although they say that his blood is on our heads, and that nothing but the pasha�s life, or that of his son, can ever redeem it; yet that subject they will for the present waive, in order to regain possession of her. they say, she has the most perfect pedigree of any in arabia; that from generation to generation her descent is to be traced to the mare which the prophet rode on his flight from medina; and, in order to regain her, they offer to throw money on the board until the pasha shall say stop. now all the world knows that you are the brave he, who overcame and slew the sheikh�s son, and that yours is the spoil of the mare. my master, after consulting with the nobles and the chief men of bagdad, has determined to take the offer of the wahabi into consideration; and since it is become a business of government, has sent me to request you to deliver her up into my hands. this is my errand, and i have said it.� ��_wallah! billah!_ by the pasha�s salt which i have eat, by your soul, by the mother who bore you, by the stars and the heavens, i swear that all the wahabi say is false. where is the mare they pretend to have lost, and where the miserable jade that fell to my lot? i got a mare, �tis true, but so lean, so wretched, that i sold her to an arab the day after the battle. you may have the bridle and saddle, if you please; but as for the beast, i have her not.� ��_allah, allah!_� exclaimed the mirakhor, �this is a business of much consequence. okous aga, you are an upright man, and so am i. do not laugh at our beards, and send us away without caps on our heads. if we do not bring back the mare, our faces will be black to all eternity, and the doors of friendship between you and the pasha will be shut. by my soul, tell me; where is the beast?� ��friend,� answered my father, �what shall i say? what can i do? the mare is not here--the wahabi are liars--and i speak the truth.� then with a softened tone, he approached the mirakhor, and spoke to him for a long time in a whisper, with much animation and apparent persuasion; for, at the end of their conversation, they appeared to be well agreed. �the mirakhor then said aloud, �well, if such is the case, and the beast is not in your possession, _allah kerim,_ god is merciful, and there is no combating against fate. we must return to bagdad.� �my father then rose from his seat, and came into the women�s tent, leaving his guests to smoke their pipes and drink coffee, preparatory to the meal which was making ready for them. he ordered his wife, who was the depository of his money, to bring him a bag of gold, that was carefully wrapped in many a piece of old cloth, and deposited in a trunk, which, with his rich horse furniture, the parade pack-saddle, and other things of value, were placed in a corner of the tent. he took out twenty _bajoglis_ (ducats), which he tied into the corner of a handkerchief, and thrust them into his bosom; and then giving his orders that the victuals should forthwith be served up, he returned to his guests. little was said until the hour of eating came, and the few words that were uttered turned on horses, dogs, and arms. the mirakhor drew from his girdle a long pistol, mounted in silver, which was shown around to all the company as a real english pistol. another man exhibited his scimitar, which was assured to be a black _khorassani_ blade of the first water; and my father produced a long straight sword, sharp on both edges, which he had taken from the son of the arab sheikh whom he had slain. �the dinner being ready, the round leathern cloth was placed before the mirakhor, upon which many flaps of bread, just baked, were thrown, and water was handed about for washing the right hand. a mess of _chorba_, or soup, was served up in a large wooden dish, and placed in the centre of the cloth. my father then said aloud, �_bismillah,_� in the name of god; and all the party, consisting of the mirakhor, his ten followers, my father and three of his attendants, settling themselves round the dish, with their right shoulders advanced forwards, partook of the soup with wooden spoons. a lamb roasted whole succeeded the mess, which was pulled to pieces in a short time, each man getting as large a portion of it for himself as he could. the feast was closed by an immense dish of rice, which was dived into by the hands and fingers of all present. as fast as they were satisfied, each man got up and washed, saying _shukur allah_, thanks to god; and _allah bereket versin_, may god restore you plenty. the remains were then rolled up in the leathern cloth, and taken outside the tents, where my father�s shepherds soon made an end of them. �the mirakhor being anxious to sleep at a village in the plain, expressed a wish to depart, and his suite went to prepare their horses, leaving him and my father in the tent. i, who had narrowly watched the whole of the proceedings, was determined to see what should take place between them, and lent an ear to what they said. �my father said, �indeed ten ducats is all i can give--we are poor--where shall i find more?� to which the mirakhor replied, �it is impossible: you know perfectly what will happen if i do not receive double that sum: the pasha, when he finds that we have not brought the mare, will order me back again to seize you, and will take possession of all your property. i am indeed ordered to do that now, in case you refuse his request, but shall not touch you, if you come to my terms, which are twenty gold pieces. so, my friend, decide.� upon which, my father took the handkerchief from his bosom, and taking out the money from it, counted twenty ducats into the mirakhor�s hand, who, when satisfied that they were all good, untied the white muslin that was wound round his turban, and placing them in the folds of it, twisted it round his head again. �now,� said he to my father, �we have ate salt together; we are friends; and should the pasha attempt anything, i will interfere. but you must send him a present, or otherwise it will be impossible to prevent him from molesting you.� ��_bashem ustun_, upon my head be it!� answered my father. �i possess a famous greyhound, celebrated throughout the whole of the cûrdistan, which can seize an antelope at full speed; a creature the like of which the shah of persia�s father never even saw in a dream. will that do?� �perfectly well for one thing; but that is not enough. consider of what consequence it is that my master should be pleased with you.� ��i tell you what,� said he: �a thought has struck me; i have a daughter, more beautiful than the moon, round, large hipped, and greatly inclined to corpulency. you must say to him, that although the yezeedies are infidels in his eyes, and as the dust under his feet, yet still he may perhaps be anxious to possess a beauty, which even the houris of mahomed�s paradise would be jealous of, and i am ready to send her to him.� �the mirakhor clapped his hands in ecstasy, and said, �_aferin! aferin!_ well said! this is excellent! i will make the offer, and no doubt he will accept it; and thus you will have a powerful friend in his harem, who will get you out of this scrape, and protect you for the future.� upon this they seemed agreed. i, who it appears was to be the victim, left my watching-place to ruminate upon what was likely to be my future destiny. at first i was inclined to weep, and to lament over my fate; but after a little consideration, i exclaimed, �o my soul! am i to be a pasha�s lady? am i to wear fine clothes? am i to be borne in a litter? oh! the delight of a litter will be too great! how all the girls of the mountains will envy me!� �after some time had elapsed, looking from the tents into the open country, i saw the mirakhor and his party, who had not failed to take the greyhound with him, duly dressed out in its gayest trappings, making their way along the side of the chain of hills which bordered our camp. i then heard my father expressing his thankfulness and gratitude for having so well got rid of such unwelcome visitors. �as soon as they were fairly out of sight, he dispatched one of his shepherd�s boys to his son in the mountains, ordering him to bring back the mare; and when the animal was safely lodged in the women�s tent, he called together the elders of his tribe, consisting of his own and his wives� relations, who were encamped in our vicinity. he explained to them the situation in which he was placed; showing that his and their destruction was inevitable should they continue any longer in the territory of the pasha, who would not fail to seize this opportunity of levying fines and exactions, and reducing them to want and beggary. they were assembled in the men�s tent, to the number of ten persons; the place of honour, the corner, being given to my father�s uncle, the elder of the tribe, an old man, whose beard, as white as snow, descended to his girdle. ��you know,� said my father, �that we are yezeedies; and you also know the hatred which all mussulmans bear to us: the pasha has hitherto pretended friendship to me individually, because i have fought his battles, because i am a lion in the fight, and drink the blood of his enemies; but his love of money is so great that nothing can satisfy it; and rather than lose this opportunity, he would see me, my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and all my race grilling in eternal fires. we are too few to resist him, although, by that great power whom we all worship, if we had not wives and children to protect, i, with a spear in my hand, my sword by my side, and mounted on my mare--i would not fear to encounter the whole host of his dastardly ragamuffins, and i should like to see the _cherkaji_[ ] that would face me. i propose, therefore, that, without a moment�s delay, we abandon the turkish territory, and migrate into persia, where we shall not fail to meet with welcome and protection.� ��okous aga,� said his uncle to him, whilst every one seemed to listen with great respect to what he would say, �okous aga, you are my brother�s son; you are my child; you are the head of our tribe, and our best support and protection. if i were to advise you to give up the mare to the pasha, you would think me unworthy of being a cûrd and a yezeedi; and even were he now to get possession of her, we should not be spared; for such is the experience i have of turkish governors, that when once they have a pretext in hand for oppression, they never fail to make use of it. therefore, i am of your opinion--we cannot remain here. old as i am, and accustomed as i have been from my earliest infancy to graze our flocks and herds upon these mountains--to see the sun rise over yonder hill and set in that distant plain--much as i love these spots upon which our ancestors have been bred and born; yet it shall not be said that i have been the cause of the ruin of our tribe. i am, therefore, for immediate departure: delay now would be dangerous. in two more days we shall be visited by the pasha�s troops, who will take from us hostages, and then here shall we be fixed, and here will ruin overwhelm us. let us go, my children; god is great and merciful. the time may come when you will be restored to your ancient seats, and when you may again range from your summer pastures to your winter quarters, and from your winter quarters to your pastures, without fear and apprehension.� �when he had done speaking, an old shepherd, who had great experience in all that related to the seasons, and considerable knowledge of the country between our mountains and those of persia, spoke as follows:--�if we go, we must go immediately, for a day�s delay might stop us. the snows on the mountains are already beginning to melt, and the torrents will be so swollen in another week, that we shall not be able to get the sheep across them. besides, it is now about three weeks to the day when the sun enters the sign of the ram, at which time our ewes will, _inshallah,_ please god, bring forth in plenty; and they ought to have performed their journey and be at rest long before that time. we ought to settle beforehand in what tract of country we shall fix ourselves, because the persian wandering tribes are very tenacious of their rights of pasturage; and should we trespass upon them, without proper authority from the government, our shepherds and theirs would not fail to come to blows, and god only knows the consequences.� ��he speaks true,� exclaimed my father: then turning to the shepherd, he exclaimed, �well said, karabeg; well done! you are a good servant, and you have given good advice. before we think of establishing ourselves in persia, one of us must go to kermanshah, and ask leave of the prince to appoint us to a good country; and when once we have got out of the pasha�s reach, i will perform that service, and return to you in time to prevent strife with the other wandering tribes.� �the assembly being unanimous for immediate departure, my father gave his orders, that the cattle should be called in, the tents broken up, and the oxen in readiness to receive their loads; that the camels should have their pack-saddles put upon them, and that everything should be in readiness to depart by midnight, in order that we might reach our first stage about an hour after sunrise. his mare, which was now become an object of the first consequence, was to be mounted by my father, in person, whilst his chief wife, with her children, were to travel in the _cajaveh_ or panniers; the camel which was to carry them being ornamented with trappings inlaid with beads, set off by red cloth trimmings, and a thick profusion of tassels. �as soon as this was known by the women, they set up shouts of wailing and lamentation. the evil appeared to them greater than it really was; for they expected nothing less than the immediate approach of the pasha�s troops to seize upon the tribe, and carry them all into slavery. �as for me,� said zeenab, �my misery arose from another cause; for ever since i had overheard the conversation between my father and the mirakhor, i could think of nothing else than of the charms of being a pasha�s lady. my dream was now over, and instead of the rich dresses, the sumptuous palaces, the gilded litters, and the luxury of state, which i had flattered myself was to be my future lot, i had now nothing before me but my old drudgeries,--the loading of beasts, the packing up of baggage, the churning of milk, and the making of butter. �our whole camp was now in motion: and, as far as the eye could reach, the mountains were swarming with the flocks and herds of our tribe, which were driven by the shepherds towards their different encampments. the tents were taken to pieces, and prepared for loading. the women, who took the greatest share in the labour of departure, were seen everywhere actively bestirring themselves to pack up the furniture and utensils. the carpets were rolled up; the camel-trunks filled; all the materials for making butter collected; and the pack-saddles of the mules, oxen, and camels, laid out for immediate use. the cattle being arrived, the camels were made to kneel down in a ring, and were covered with their pack-saddles; the oxen had their pads put upon them; and the mules were tied into strings of five or seven each, and ornamented with their bells and thick felt coverings. the sheep and goats, in the meanwhile, at the close of day, had already began their march, guarded by their watch-dogs, and accompanied by their shepherds, one of whom walked in front, whilst the whole train followed. �at midnight the whole camp had cleared the ground; and, as the day dawned, our line of march was to be seen to a great distance, winding along the mountains. we kept a track little followed, in order not to meet any one who might give information of our movements to the pasha; and, after several days� march, we reached the frontier of persia, with much fewer accidents, and much less difficulties, than might have been expected. during the journey, my father, in conjunction with the principal men of his tribe, kept a constant look out in the rear, determined, should any of the pasha�s people approach us with an intention of impeding our progress, they would, without hesitation, make every resistance in their power. but fortune favoured us, and we saw none but shepherds, belonging to cûrdish tribes, who occupied part of the country that we travelled over. �when we had reached a place of safety, my father rode forwards to kermanshah, the seat of government of a powerful prince, one of the king of persia�s sons, in order to claim his protection, and to receive his permission to occupy one of the pasturages situated within the persian territory. we waited for his return with great anxiety, for in the meanwhile we were liable to an attack from both turks and persians; but as it is the policy of both countries to entice the wandering tribes into their territory, we met with no molestation from the chief of the persian town which happened to be the nearest to us. �at length my father returned, and with him an officer belonging to the prince, who assigned us a tract of country, about ten parasangs within the persian frontier. our winter residence was situated in a sheltered nook of the mountains, not far from a copious spring of water; and our summer quarters, about three days� journey off, were described as situated in the coolest spot of the adjacent mountains, abounding in grass and water, and distant from any chance of molestation from the turks. �my father was well known at kermanshah, and when his arrival and the object of his mission were known, the prince expressed great pleasure, treated him with much consideration, and dismissed him invested with a dress of honour. no stipulations were made as to the terms upon which he was to be received, and unlimited promises of protection were held out to him. �if the pasha,� said the prince, �claims you and your tribe, as the property of his government, and sends me a request that i should not admit you into mine, i will burn his father, and laugh at his beard. the face of god�s world is open to every one, and if man is ill-treated in one spot, he will take himself where better treatment is to be found.� in short, we settled, and returned to our former habits and occupations. �as the prince had expected, so it happened. a very short time after our arrival an officer from the pasha appeared at kermanshah, bearing a letter, making a formal demand, that my father, with the whole of his tribe, should be sent back to his territory; and stating all the circumstances relative to our flight. my father was called a thief, and accused of having stolen a mare of immense value, which was described as the pasha�s property. the animal was demanded to be instantly restored; and in case it were not, threats were made that immediate reprisals on persian property should ensue. the whole of these circumstances were made known to my father, and he was summoned forthwith to appear before the prince. �consternation seized us as soon as this intelligence was known amongst us. it was evident that the pasha was determined to leave nothing undone; to regain possession of the mare, and to ruin my father; nor could it be supposed that a weak and poor tribe like ours was likely to withstand the intrigues, bribes, and machinations of so powerful a chief: besides, the possession of such a treasure would of itself be a crime in the eyes of the persians, and they would certainly endeavour to get her from us, if not now, yet at some more favourable opportunity. it would soon be known that many of us were yezeedies, a circumstance of itself sufficient to excite the hatred and execration of every good sectary of ali; and every probability existed, even supposing the mare to be out of the question, that we should be a prey to every sort of persecution as soon as time enough should have passed over our heads for intrigue to have worked its effects. �before my father left us to attend the prince�s summons, he had given secret orders that the mare should be put into some place of safety, in case he should be obliged to deny that he possessed her; but on his return we found that such a precaution was unnecessary. he had been kindly received by the prince, who had assured him that he was resolved not to accede to the pasha�s demands in any one case; that my father might enjoy the possession of his mare, and depend upon protection and security as long as he remained in his territory. his words were something to this purpose: �set your mind at ease, okous aga. as long as you remain under our shade you may lay your head on your pillow in full security. what does the pasha mean by claiming you and your tribe as the subjects of his government? the gates of the palace of my father, the centre of the universe and king of kings, are open to every one, and as soon as the stranger has touched the skirt of his robe he is safe. you have sought our protection, and we should not be mussulmans if we refused it. go, return to your tents, be happy, and leave the pasha to us.� �this produced great rejoicings amongst us; and my father, to celebrate his success, gave a feast to the chiefs and elders of the tribe, where our present situation was fully discussed, and our plans for the future taken into consideration. every one present was elated with the success that had attended our flight excepting one, and that was the old man, my father�s uncle. he had seen much of the persians, having served under nadir shah when a youth, and nothing could induce him to put any faith in the promises and fair words of the prince. �you do not know the persians,� said he, addressing himself to the assembly. �you have never had any dealings with them, and therefore you permit yourselves to be lulled into security by their flattering expressions and their winning and amiable manners. but i have lived long with them; and have learned the value of what they say. their weapons are not such as you have been accustomed to meet in the bold encounter, and the open attack: instead of the sword and spear, theirs are treachery, deceit, falsehood; and when you are the least prepared, you find yourselves caught as in a net; ruin and desolation surround when you think that you are seated on a bed of roses. lying is their great, their national vice. do not you remark that they confirm every word by an oath? what is the use of oaths to men who speak the truth? one man swears by your soul, and by his own head, by your child, by the prophet, by his relations and ancestors; another swears by the _kebleh_,[ ] by the king, and by his beard; a third by your death, by the salt he eats, by the death of imâm hosein. do they care for any one of these things? no, they feel all the time that they lie, and then out comes the oath. now in our case, is it to be supposed that we shall be left unmolested, in the quiet possession of this mare, which has brought so much misfortune already on our heads? the persians are more wild, if possible, on the subject of horses than the turks, and an arabian mare in their sight is of greater value than diamonds and rubies. should the shah hear of the one we possess, he will instantly send for it, and what are we to do then? shall we continue in arms against all the world? no, my friends. you may think what you please; but, for my part, i look upon your situation as precarious, and advise you, as a general rule, not to put your trust in persians, be they who or what they may.� �the event proved to be precisely what the old man had predicted, and was the cause of placing me where you now see me. �one morning, about an hour before the dawn of day, we heard an unusual stir among the dogs of the camp; they did not cease to bark and make a most furious noise. as we were accustomed to the attacks of wolves, who were kept at bay by our dogs, we did not at first pay attention to the disturbance; but at length my father and his sons arose, and, taking their guns with them, went to see what could have happened. they had not proceeded twenty steps before they saw a horseman, and then a second, and shortly after several more; in short, they discovered that their tents were surrounded. my father immediately gave the alarm, and instantly all the camp was in motion. the horsemen rushed on my father, and attempted to seize him; but he shot the first dead at his feet, and with his sword wounded the second. the report of the gun, and the noise of the fray, was a signal to the invaders for a general attack, and in a short time our camp was entered at every corner. their principal object was evidently the mare; for the women�s tent was attacked first, and there they instantly seized the object of their search. �as the day dawned, we observed that our invaders were persians, and we also soon discovered that they were acting from authority. my father had unluckily killed their chief, and that was a sufficient reason for our being made prisoners. conceive our situation: it was a scene of misery that i shall never forget. my father was treated with every indignity before our eyes; our property was pillaged, and----� zeenab was proceeding to relate to me how she became the property of mirza ahmak, when a loud knocking at the gate of the house was heard. we both got up in great alarm. my fair one entreated me to take my departure by the terrace, while she went to see who it might be. by the voice, that was ordering the door to be opened, she recognized the doctor himself, and trusting to her own ingenuity for giving good reasons for the appearance of breakfast and good cheer, which he would perceive, she forthwith unbarred the gate and admitted him. from the terrace i could watch all that was going on. the doctor appeared quite delighted to find zeenab alone, and made her some speeches so full of tenderness, that there was no mistaking how his affections were placed. looking into the window of his wife�s apartment, he perceived the remains of the breakfast, and every appearance of the room having been occupied. he was asking some questions concerning what he saw, when in came the khanum herself, followed by her women. she entered the house so unexpectedly, that she appeared before them ere they could separate. i shall never forget her look and attitude at this sight. �_selam aleikum!_ peace be unto ye!� said she, with mock respect, �i am your very humble servant. i hope that the health of both your excellencies is good, and that you have passed your time agreeably. i have arrived too soon, i fear.� then the blood creeping into her face, she very soon relinquished her raillery, and fell tooth and nail upon the unhappy culprits. and breakfast too--and in my room. _mashallah! mashallah!_ it is understood, then, that i am become less than a dog; now that in my own house, on my own carpet, on my very pillow, my slaves give up their hearts to joy. _la allah il allah!_ there is but one god! i am all astonishment! i am fallen from the heavens to the ground!� then addressing herself to her husband, she said, �as for you, mirza ahmak, look at me, and tell me, by my soul, are you to be counted a man amongst men? a doctor too, the locman of his day, a sage, with that monkey�s face, with that goat�s beard, with that humped back, to be playing the lover, the swain! curses attend such a beard!� then putting up her five fingers to his face, she said, �poof! i spit on such a face. who am i, then, that you prefer an unclean slave to me? what have i done, that you should treat me with such indignity? when you had nothing but your prescriptions and your medicines in the world, i came, and made a man of you. you are become something, thanks to me! you now stand before a king: men bow the head to you. you wear a cashmerian shawl: you are become a person of substance. say, then, oh, you less than man! what is the meaning of all this?� the doctor, during this attack upon him, was swearing abundance of oaths, and making tell thousands of exclamations, in proof of his innocence. nothing, however, could stop the volubility of his wife, or calm her rage. by this time she had worked her passion up to such a pitch, that oath succeeded oath; and blasphemy blasphemy, in one raging, unceasing torrent. from her husband she fell on zeenab, and from zeenab she returned again to her husband, until she foamed at the mouth. she was not satisfied with words alone, but seizing the wretched girl by one of the long tresses which hung down her back, she pulled it till she roared with pain; then, with the assistance of the other slaves, she was thrown into the reservoir, where they beat and soused her until both parties were nearly exhausted. oh, how i burned to fly to her rescue! my body was become like glowing fire. i could have drunk the blood of the unfeeling wretches. but what could i do? had i rushed into the harem, death would have been my lot; for most probably they would have impaled me on the spot; and what good would that have done to zeenab? she would have been even more cruelly treated than before, and the doctor�s wife would not have been the less jealous. so when the storm had subsided, i quietly stepped down from my hiding-place on the terrace, and walked into the open country without the town, to consider upon the course which i ought to pursue. to remain with the doctor was out of the question; and: to expect to enjoy zeenab�s company again was folly. my heart bled, when i reflected what might be the fate of that poor girl; for i had heard horrid stories of the iniquities performed in harems, and there was no length to which such a demon as the khanum might not go, with one so entirely in her power. [illustration: the khanum ill-treats zeenab. .jpg] chapter xxvii of the preparations made by the chief physician to receive the shah as his guest, and of the great expense which threatened him. in my walk i had almost determined to quit the doctor�s house immediately, and abandon tehran, such was the desperate view i took of my situation; but my love for zeenab overcame this resolution; and in the hope of seeing her again, i continued to drag on a miserable existence as a dependent on mirza ahmak. he had no suspicion that i was his rival, and that i had been the cause of the late confusion in his harem; but he was aware that some one must have had access to it, and therefore took such precautions for the future, that i found great difficulty in discovering how it fared with my love, or what had been the consequences of the anger of the khanum. i daily watched the door of the anderûn, in the hope of seeing zeenab in the suite of her mistress when she went out, but in vain: there was no indication of her, and my imagination made me apprehend either that she was kept in close confinement, or that she had fallen a victim of the violence of her enemies in the harem. my impatience had risen to the utmost, when i, one day, perceived that nûr jehan,[ ] the black slave, had issued from the house by herself, and was making her way to the bazaar. i followed her, and trusting to the friendship that she formerly entertained for the mistress of my heart, i ventured to accost her. �peace be with you, nûr jehan!� said i; �where are you going in such haste by yourself?� �may your kindness never be less, aga hajji[ ], answered she; �i am bound to the druggist�s for our cûrdish slave.� �what! zeenab?� exclaimed i, in great agitation. �what has befallen her? is she sick?� �ah, poor thing,� replied the good negro girl, �she has been sick and sorry too. you persians are a wicked nation. we who are black, and slaves, have twice the heart that you have. you may talk of your hospitality, and of your kindness to strangers; but was there ever an animal, not to say a human creature, treated in the way that this poor stranger has been?� �what have they done to her? for god�s sake tell me, nûr jehan!� said i; �by my soul, tell me!� softened by my manner, and by the interest which i took in what she said, she informed me, that in consequence of the jealousy of her mistress, zeenab had been confined to a small back room, whence she was prohibited stirring; that the treatment which she had received had occasioned a violent fever, which had brought her to the brink of the grave, but that her youth and strength had enabled her to overcome it: and now that she was quite recovered, her mistress began to relent, and had permitted her to use the _khena_ and the _surmeh_,[ ] which she was about to procure from the druggist. but she was sure that this indulgence would never have been granted, if the report had not been spread, that it was the shah�s intention to pay mirza ahmak a visit; and as it is his privilege to enter every man�s harem at pleasure, and to inspect his women unveiled; her mistress, who wanted to make as great a display of slaves and attendants as possible, had released zeenab from the confinement of her room, in order that she should wait upon her: but she was still restricted to the walls of the secret chamber. i was relieved by this intelligence, and began to turn in my mind how i could manage to obtain an interview; but such insurmountable obstacles did i foresee, that, fearful of entailing fresh miseries upon her, i determined to remain quiet for the present, and to follow the poet�s advice--�to fold up the carpet of my desires, and not to prowl round and round my inclination.� in the meanwhile, the day of the shah�s departure for his usual summer campaign approached; and, according to custom, he passed the intermediate time in visiting the noblemen of his court, and thereby reaping for himself and his suite a harvest of presents, which every one who is distinguished by so great an honour is obliged to make. nûr jehan�s intelligence to me was true: the king had selected mirza ahmak as one of those to whom he intended the honour of a visit; for the doctor had the reputation of being rich, and he had long been marked as prey fit for the royal grasp. accordingly, he was informed of the day when this new and special proof of favour would be conferred upon him; and as a most distinguishing mark of it, he was told, that it should not be an ordinary visit, but that the doctor should enjoy the satisfaction of entertaining his majesty: in short, the king would take his _shâm_,[ ] or dinner, at his house. the doctor, half elated with the greatness of the distinction, half trembling at the ruin that awaited his finances, set to work to make all the necessary preparations. the first thing to be settled was the value and nature of the _pah-endaz_.[ ] this he knew would be talked of throughout the country; and this was to be the standard of the favour in which he stood with his sovereign. his vanity was roused on the one hand, and his avarice alarmed on the other. if he exhibited too much wealth, he would remain a mark for future exactions; and if he made no display, his rivals in consequence would treat him with contempt. he had not deigned to consult me for along time, and i had dwindled into a mere hanger-on; but recollecting the success which had attended my negotiation with the european doctor, he called me again into his councils. �hajji,� said he, �what is to be done in this difficult case? i have received a hint, that the king expects from me a considerable pah-endaz, and this from the lord high treasurer himself, whose magnificence on such occasions is the theme of wonder throughout the whole of persia. now, it is impossible that i can rival him. he insisted, that i ought to spread broad cloth from the entrance of the street to where the king alights from his horse; that there he should tread upon cloth of gold, until he reached the entrance of the garden; and from thence, the whole length of the court to his seat, a carpet of cashmerian shawls was to be extended, each shawl increasing in value, until the one upon the _musnud_, or carpet of state, which should be of an extraordinary price. now, you know i am not the man to make such display: i am a _hakîm_, one of the learned: i make no profession of riches. besides, �tis plain that the lord high treasurer only says this, because he has cloth, brocades, and shawls to dispose of, which he wishes me to take off his hands. no, it is impossible that i can listen to his extravagant proposals. what then is to be done?� i answered, ��tis true that you are a hakîm; but then you are the royal physician; you hold a situation of great consequence: besides, for the sake of the lady, your wife, you are bound to do something worthy of such an alliance. the king will be displeased if you do not receive him in a manner that will show your sense of the confidence he reposes in you.� �yes,� said the mirza, �and that may all be very true, friend hajji; still i am but a doctor, and cannot be supposed to have all these shawls, brocades, and stuffs by me whenever i want them.� �but what can you do otherwise?� replied i; �you would not strew the road with jalap, and spread his majesty�s seat with a blister plaster?� �no,� said he; �but we might strew flowers, which, you know, are cheap; and perhaps we might sacrifice an ox, and break plenty of bottles full of sweetmeats under his horse�s feet.[ ]--would not that answer?� �it is impossible,� exclaimed i; �if you act thus, the shah, and your enemies, will devise means to strip you as naked as my hand. perhaps there is no necessity to do all the lord high treasurer advises; but you might spread chintz in the street, velvet at the alighting spot, brocade in the court yard, and shawls in the room; that will not be very expensive.� �you do not say ill,� said the doctor: �i might perhaps manage that. we have chintz in the house, which was intended for the women�s trowsers; that will probably do. a patient gave me a piece of ispahan velvet the other day; i can sell my last dress of honour for some brocade; and two or three of my wife�s shawls will suffice for the room. by the blessing of ali, that is settled.� �ah, but the harem,� exclaimed i; �the shah must go there. you know it brings good luck to be looked at by the king, and your women must appear well-dressed on the occasion. �oh, as for that,� said the doctor, �they can borrow; they can borrow anything they like from their friends--jewels, trowsers, jackets, shawls--they can get whatever they want.� not so, said my lady the khanum. as soon as this arrangement was mentioned to her, she protested against it; she called her husband a low born, niggardly carle; one unfit for the honour of possessing her for a wife; and insisted upon his conducting himself on this occasion in a manner worthy of the high distinction that was about to be conferred upon him. it was in vain to contend against her; and therefore the preparations were made upon a scale far exceeding what the doctor had intended; and every individual of his house appeared to be actuated by only one feeling, that of making him refund all that money which he so long and so unpitifully had extorted from others. chapter xxviii concerning the manner of the shah�s reception; of the present made him, and the conversation which ensued. on the morning of the day upon which this great event was to happen (a day which had been duly settled as auspicious by the astrologers) the note of preparation was heard throughout the whole of mirza ahmak�s dwelling. the king�s tent-pitchers had taken possession of the saloon of audience in which he was to hold his court, where they spread fresh carpets and prepared the royal musnud,[ ] covering it with a magnificent shawl. they threw water over the court yard, set the fountains playing, and fitted on a new curtain to the front of the building. the king�s gardeners also came and decked the premises with flowers. on the surface of the pool of water, immediately facing the spot where his majesty was to be seated, they spread rose leaves in curious devices. around the marble basin they placed rows of oranges, and a general appearance of freshness and cheerfulness was given to the whole scene. then the cooks, a numerous and most despotic band, arrived with such accompaniments of pots, pans, braziers, and boilers, that the doctor, out of all patience, inquired of the head of the kitchen, �what this meant; whether it was intended that he should feed all the city, as well as the king.� �not quite all� was his answer; �but perhaps you will recollect the words of saadi: if from the peasant�s tree, the king an apple craves, down with it root and branch, exclaim his ready slaves; and should he, in dainty mood, one single egg require, lo! thousand spitted birds revolve before the fire. they took possession of the kitchen, which did not contain one-quarter of the space required for their operations, and consequently it was necessary to erect temporary fire-places in the adjoining court, where the braziers were placed, and in which was boiled the rice that is distributed on such occasions to all present. besides the cooks, a body of confectioners established themselves in one of the apartments, where the sweetmeats, the sherbets, the ices, and the fruits were prepared; and they called for so many ingredients, that the doctor had nearly expired when the list was presented to him. in addition to all these, arrived the king�s band of singers and musicians, and the _lûti bashi_ (jester in chief) accompanied by twenty lûtis, each with a drum hanging over his shoulder. the time appointed for the visit was after the evening�s prayer, which is made at sunset. at that hour, when the heat of the day had partly subsided, and the inhabitants of tehran were about to enjoy the cool of the evening, the shah left his palace, and proceeded to the doctor�s house. the streets had been swept and watered; and as the royal cortége approached, flowers were strewn on the path. mirza ahmak himself had proceeded to the royal presence to announce that all was ready, and walked close to the king�s stirrup during the cavalcade. the procession was opened by the heralds, who, with the distinguishing club of office in their hands, and ornament on the head, proclaimed the king�s approach, and marshalled every one on the road. the tops of the walls were occupied by women in their white veils, and in the better houses they were seen to be peeping through the holes made in the screens which surround their terraces. then followed a great body of tent-pitchers and carpet-spreaders, with long slender sticks in their hands, keeping the road clear from intruders. after this, walked a crowd of well-dressed officers of the stable, bearing rich embroidered saddle housings over their shoulders; then servants in the gayest attire, with gold pipes in their hands, the king�s shoe bearer, the king�s ewer and basin bearer, the carrier of his cloak, the comptroller of the opium box, and a number of other domestics. as this was only a private procession, his majesty was preceded by no led horses, which usually form so splendid a part of his grand displays. to these succeeded a train of running footmen, two and two, fantastically dressed, some with gold coins embroidered on their black velvet coats, others dressed in brocades, and others in silks: they immediately preceded the shah in person, who was attended by the chief of the running footmen, a man of considerable consequence, known by the enamelled handled whip stuck in his girdle. the king rode a quiet ambling horse, richly caparisoned; but his own dress was plain, and only distinguished by the beauty of the shawls and other materials of which it was composed. after him, at an interval of fifty paces, followed three of the king�s sons, then the noble of nobles, the great master of the ceremonies, the master of the horse, the court poet, and many others, all attended by their servants: and at length when the whole party were collected together, who were to partake of mirza ahmak�s substance, five hundred would probably be called a moderate number. the king alighted at the gate, the entrance being too narrow to ride through; and proceeded up the centre walk of the court to the seat prepared for him in the great saloon. every one, except the princes, stood without, and the doctor himself did the duties of a menial. after his majesty had been seated some little time, the master of ceremonies, accompanied by the master of the house, walking barefooted, appeared near the reservoir, the latter holding up breast high a silver salver, in which were spread one hundred tomauns of new coinage. the master, of ceremonies then exclaimed, in a loud voice, �the meanest of your majesty�s slaves makes a humble representation to the centre of the universe, the king of kings, the shadow of god upon earth, that mirza ahmak, the king�s chief physician, dares to approach the sacred dust of your majesty�s feet, and to bring by way of an offering one hundred gold tomauns.� to which the king answered, �you are welcome, mirza ahmak. praise be to god, you are a good servant. the shah has a particular share of condescension for you; your face is whitened, your consequence has increased, go, give praises to god, that the king has come to your house, and has accepted your present.� upon which the doctor knelt down and kissed the ground. then his majesty, turning to his noble of nobles, exclaimed, �by the head of the shah, mirza ahmak is a good man. there is no one like him now in persia--he is wiser by far than locman--more learned than galen.� �yes, yes,� answered the noble of nobles; �locman indeed! whose dog was he, or galen? this also comes from the happy star of the king of kings. such a king persia before never saw, and such a doctor for such a king! men may praise the doctors of europe and of india, but where is science to be found, if it be not in persia?--who shall dare to claim a superiority, as long as the land of persia is enlightened by the presence of its shah without compare?� �that�s all true,� said the king. �persia is the country which, from the beginning of the world to the present day, has always been famous for the genius of its inhabitants, and the wisdom and splendour of its monarchs. from kaiumars, the first king of the world, to me who am the present shah, what list is so perfect, so glorious? india also had her sovereigns, arabia her caliphs, turkey her _khon khors_ (lit. blood drinkers), tartary her khans, and china her emperors; but as for the franks, who come into my dominions from god knows where, to buy and sell, and to bring me tribute of presents,--they, poor infidels! have a parcel of kings, of whose countries even the names have not reached our ears.� �_belli, belli,_ yes, yes!� said the nobleman, �i am your sacrifice. except the english and the french nations, which by all accounts are something in the world, all others are but little better than nothing. as for moscovites, they are not europeans--they are less than the dogs of europe.� �ha! ha! ha! you say true�, answered the king, laughing. �they had their _khûrshîd colah_,[ ] their �head of glory� as they called her, who for a woman was a wonderful person, �tis true--and we all know that when a woman meddles with anything, _pena be khoda_, it is then time to put one�s trust in god; but after her, they had a paul, who was a pure madman; who, to give you an instance of what his folly was, wanted to march an army to india; just as if the _kizzil bashes_[ ] would ever have allowed it. a russian puts on a hat, a tight coat, and tight breeches, shaves his beard, and then calls himself a european. you might just as well tie the wings of a goose to your back and call yourself an angel.� �wonderful, wonderful,� exclaimed the head of the nobles; �the shah-in-shah speaks like an angel. show us a king in europe that would speak like him.� �yes, yes,� was chorused by all the bystanders. �may he live a thousand years,� said one. �may his shadow never be less,� said another. �but it is of their women,� continued the king, �of whom we hear the most extraordinary accounts. in the first place, they have no _anderûn_[ ] in their houses; men and women all live together; then the women never wear veils--they show their faces to whoever chooses to look at them, like those of our wandering tribes. tell me, mirza ahmak, you that are a doctor and a philosopher, by what extraordinary arrangement of providence does it happen, that we mussulmans should be the only people on earth who can depend upon our wives, and who can keep them in subjection. you,� said his majesty, smiling ironically, �you i hear are blessed above all men in an obedient and dutiful wife.� �possessed of the kindness and protection of the king of kings,� answered the doctor, �i am blessed with everything that can make life happy. i, my wife, my family, are your humble slaves, and everything we have your property. if your slave possesses any merit, it is none of his; it all emanates from the asylum of the world: even my failings become virtues, when the king commands me. �but what lamp can shine in the face of, the sun, or what minaret can be called high at the foot of the mountain of alwend?� with respect to what your majesty has been pleased to say concerning women, it appears to the meanest of your slaves, that there must be a great affinity between beasts and europeans, and which accounts for the inferiority of the latter to mussulmans. male and female beasts herd promiscuously together; so do the europeans. the female beasts do not hide their faces; neither do the europeans. they wash not, nor do they pray five times a day; neither do the europeans. they live in friendship with swine; so do the europeans; for instead of exterminating the unclean beast, as we do, i hear that every house in europe has an apartment fitted up for its hog. then as for their women indeed! what dog seeing its female in the streets does not go and make himself agreeable? so doubtless does the european. wife in those unclean countries must be a word without a meaning, since every man�s wife is every man�s property. �well said, doctor,� exclaimed the king; ��tis plain, then, that all are beasts but us. our holy prophet (upon whom be blessing and peace!) has told us as much. the infidel will never cease roasting, whilst the true believer will be eternally seated next to his houri in the seventh heaven! but we hear, doctor, that your paradise has begun here on earth, and that you have got your houris already. ah! how is that?� upon which mirza ahmak made a low prostration, and said, �whatever the monarch permits his slave to possess is the monarch�s. the hour will be fortunate, and mirza ahmak�s head will reach the skies, when the propitious step of the king of kings shall pass the threshold of his unworthy anderûn.� �we shall see with our own eyes,� rejoined the king; �a look from the king brings good luck. go, give notice to your harem that the shah will visit it; and if there be any one sick, any one whose desires are unaccomplished, any maiden who sighs for her lover, or any wife who wishes to get rid of her husband, let them come forward, let them look at the king, and good fortune will attend them.� upon this the poet, who had hitherto remained silent, his mind apparently absorbed in thought, exclaimed, �whatever the king hath ordained is only an additional proof of his beneficence and condescension�; and then in very good verse he sung-- the firmament possesses but one sun, and the land of irâk but one king. life, light, joy, and prosperity attend them both wherever they appear. the doctor may boast of his medicine; but what medicine is equal to a glance from the king�s eye? what is spikenard? what _mumiai_? what _pahzer_?[ ] compared even to the twinkle of a royal eyelash! oh! mirza ahmak, happiest of men, and most blessed of doctors! now, indeed, you possess within your walls an antidote to every disorder, a specific against every evil. shut up your galen, burn your hippocrates, and put avicenna in a corner: the father of them all is here in person. who will take cassia when an eye is to be had, or will writhe under a blister when a look will relieve him? oh! mirza ahmak, happiest of men, and most blessed of doctors! every one present had kept the strictest silence when this was repeating, when the king exclaimed, �_aferîn_, this is well; you are indeed a poet, and worthy of our reign. who was ferdousi when compared to you? as for mahmoud, the ghaznevi, _hâk bûd_ (he was dirt). go to him,� said he to the noble of nobles, �go, kiss him on the mouth, and, when that is done, fill it with sugar-candy. every pleasure should attend such a mouth, from whence such good things proceed.� upon which the noble of nobles, who was endowed with a large and bushy beard, approached the poet, and inflicted a kiss upon his mouth, which also was protected by an appropriate quantity of hair; and then from a plate of sugar-candy, which was handed to him, he took as many lumps as would quite fill his jaws, and inserted them therein with his fingers with all due form. though evidently distressed with his felicity, the poet did his utmost to appear at the summit of all happiness, and grinned with such rare contortions, that involuntary tears flowed from his eyes as fast as the sugar-candy distilled through his lips. the king then dismissed his courtiers and attendants, and preparations were made for serving up the royal dinner. [illustration: the procession of slaves before the shah. .jpg.] chapter xxix a description of the entertainment, which is followed by an event destructive to hajji baba�s happiness. the only persons, besides servants, admitted into the saloon where the shah dined, were the three princes, his sons, who had accompanied him; and they stood at the farthest end, with their backs against the wall, attired in dresses of ceremony, with swords by their sides. mirza ahmak remained in attendance without. a cloth, of the finest cashmerian shawl fringed with gold, was then spread on the carpet before the king, by the chief of the valets, and a gold ewer and basin were presented for washing hands. the dinner was then brought in trays which, as a precaution against poison, had been sealed with the signet of the head steward before they left the kitchen, and were broken open by him again in the presence of the shah. here were displayed all the refinements of cookery. rice, in various shapes, smoked upon the board; first the _chilau_, as white as snow; then the _pilau_, with a piece of boiled lamb smothered in the rice; then another pilau, with a baked fowl in it; a fourth coloured with saffron, mixed up with dried peas; and at length, the king of persian dishes, the _narinj pilau_, made with slips of orange-peel, spices of all sorts, almonds, and sugar: salmon and herring, from the caspian sea, were seen among the dishes; and trout from the river zengî, near erivan; then in china basins and bowls of different sizes were the ragouts, which consisted of hash made of a fowl boiled to rags, stewed up with rice, sweet herbs, and onions; a stew, in which was a lamb�s marrow-bone, with some loose flesh about it, and boiled in its own juice; small gourds, crammed with force-meat, and done in butter; a fowl stewed to rags, with a brown sauce of prunes; a large omelette, about two inches thick; a cup full of the essence of meat, mixed up with rags of lamb, almonds, prunes, and tamarinds, which was poured upon the top of the chilau; a plate of poached eggs, fried in sugar and butter; a dish of _badenjáns_, slit in the middle and boiled in grease; a stew of venison; and a great variety of other messes too numerous to mention. after these came the roasts. a lamb was served up hot from the spit, the tail of which, like marrow, was curled up over its back. partridges, and what is looked upon as the rarest delicacy in persia, two _capk dereh_, partridges of the valley, were procured on the occasion. pheasants from mazanderan were there also, as well as some of the choicest bits of the wild ass and antelope. the display and the abundance of delicacies surprised every one; and they were piled up in such profusion around the king, that he seemed almost to form a part of the heap. i do not mention the innumerable little accessories of preserves, pickles, cheese, butter, onions, celery, salt, pepper, sweets, and sours, which were to be found in different parts of the tray, for that would be tedious: but the sherbets were worthy of notice, from their peculiar delicacy: these were contained in immense bowls of the most costly china, and drank by the help of spoons of the most exquisite workmanship, made of the pear-tree. they consisted of the common lemonade, made with superior art; of the _sekenjebîn_, or vinegar, sugar, and water, so mixed that the sour and the sweet, were as equally balanced as the blessings and miseries of life; the sherbet of sugar and water, with rose-water to give it a perfume, and sweet seeds to increase its flavour; and that made of the pomegranate; all highly cooled by lumps of floating ice. the king then, doubling himself down with his head reclining towards his food, buried his hand in the pilaus and other dishes before him, and ate in silence, whilst the princes and the servants in waiting, in attitudes of respect, remained immovable. when he had finished he got up, and walked into an adjoining room, where he washed his hands, drank his coffee, and smoked his water-pipe. in the course of his eating he ordered one of the pilaus, of which he had partaken, to be carried to mirza ahmak, his host, by a servant in waiting. as this is considered a mark of peculiar honour, the mirza was obliged to give a present in money to the bearer. a similar distinction was conferred upon the poet for his impromptu, and he also made a suitable present. his majesty also sent one of the messes, of which he had freely partaken, to the doctor�s wife, who liberally rewarded the bearer. and in this manner he contrived to reward two persons, the one who received the present, and the other who bore it. the princes then sat down, and when they had eat their fill they rose, and the dishes were served up in another room, where the noble of nobles, the court poet, the master of the horse, and all the officers of state and courtiers who had attended his majesty, were seated, and who continued the feast which the king and his sons had begun. after this, the dinner was taken in succession to the different servants, until the dishes were cleared by the tent-pitchers and scullions. in the meanwhile the shah had been introduced into the harem by the doctor in person; and as immediate death would have been inflicted upon any one who might have been caught peeping, i waited in the greatest suspense until i could learn what might have taken place there; but what was my horror! what my consternation! on hearing (as soon as the king had returned to the great saloon) that the doctor had made a present of his cûrdish slave to his majesty! at this intelligence i grew sick with apprehension; and, although there was every reason to rejoice at her leaving her present situation, yet there were consequences which i anticipated--consequences which might even ultimately affect her life,--at the very thought of which my blood ran cold. we had been too much enamoured to listen to the dictates of prudence, and now the future opened a prospect to me, the background of which was darkened by images the most horrible that the imagination can conceive. �i will endeavour,� thought i, to gain some certain intelligence of what has happened; perhaps in the confusion, i may chance to get a sight of zeenab herself.� i lost no time, therefore, in resorting to our old place of meeting on the terrace. much noise and clatter were heard below amongst the women, a large number having come as visitors, in addition to those which composed the doctor�s harem; but i could perceive no one amongst them that looked at all like her i sought; indeed, the night had closed in, and i despaired of making any sign which might be recognized; but, trusting to the sympathies of love, i thought it certain that she would hit upon precisely the same plan which i had devised to see her. part of the terrace where our first interview had taken place was situated near the street, and upon this the women of the harem were accustomed to take their station whenever anything remarkable was to be seen abroad. here i hoped zeenab would not fail to come at the moment of the shah�s departure, which was now close at hand. the clatter of the horses, the shouts of men, the passing to and fro of lanterns, all announced the close of the scene; and to my delight i heard a corresponding shuffling of women�s slippers and voices making for the steps of the terrace. i had placed myself behind the wall, so as to be seen by those only who had a knowledge of the premises, and i flattered myself that zeenab, by a natural impulse, would turn her eyes towards me. i was not mistaken. she was among the women who had ascended the terrace, and she recognized me. that was all i wanted, and i left it to her ingenuity to devise a mode of conversing with me. the cry of _gitchin!_ begone! made by the heralds whenever the king rises to depart, was now heard, and every one arranged himself in the procession. with the exception of the numerous lanterns; which by their size announced the dignity of the different personages whose steps they lighted, the ceremony of the king�s return to his palace was the same as on his leaving it, and with his majesty departed all that had a moment before given life and animation to the place. the women, satisfied that nothing more was to be seen, also left the terrace. their conversation, during the time of their stay, had consisted almost entirely of disputes of who had been most seen and admired by the shah; and, as they were descending, i overheard great expressions of envy and jealousy at the good fortune which, in their eyes, had fallen to the share of zeenab. �i can�t conceive,� said one, �what the shah could have seen so attractive in her. after all, she has no beauty. did you ever see so large a mouth? she has no salt in her complexion.�[ ] �she is crooked,� said another. �as for her waist,� said a third, ��tis like that of an elephant; and then her feet--a camel has smaller.� �and then,� said a fourth, �she is a yezeedi. she must have got a charm from the shaitan himself, to make herself remarked.� �that is the truth,� they all exclaimed. �yes, that�s it--she and the devil are in partnership to make the king eat dirt.� upon this they all seemed satisfied, and i heard no more of them. but one woman still remained behind on the terrace, apparently engrossed with what was passing on in the street; she immediately rose when the others had left it, and came towards me. it was zeenab. chapter xxx hajji baba meets with a rival in the shah himself, and loses the fair object of his affections. the wall behind which i had taken post was not long a barrier between us, and i had scarcely made known to her the unhappy state of my mind, before she apprised me of the danger that we incurred in such an interview. she soon gave me to understand that this must be our last meeting; for, as she now belonged to the royal harem, death would be our fate if we were found together. i was anxious to hear in what manner the king had gained possession of her, and what was to be her future destiny; but sobs stifled everything i had to say. she, on the other hand, did not appear to take our separation quite so much to heart; for, whether dazzled by the prospect of her future destinies, or subdued by the miseries she had already endured on my account, certainly i did not meet that return to my affection which i had so warmly anticipated. she informed me, that when the shah entered the anderûn, he was received by a band of female singers, who went before, singing his praises, to the accompaniment of tambourines; and, as soon as he had seated himself in the open saloon, the khanum was permitted to enjoy the privilege of kissing his knee. a _pah-endaz_, composed of embroidered silks, had been spread for him, which, as soon as the royal footsteps had passed over, was snapped up by the eunuchs, who shared it as their perquisite. the king�s female master of the ceremonies was in attendance, and she made an offering of the khanum�s present, which was laid out on a silver tray, and consisted of six _arac gîrs_, or skull caps, embroidered by that lady�s own hands; six _sineh gîrs_, or breast covers, made of padded shawl, worn in cold weather over the shirt; two pairs of trousers of cashmerian shawl; three silk shirts, and six pairs of stockings, knitted by the women of the doctor�s house. his majesty having accepted this, with many encomiums on the khanum�s industry and skill, the women were marshalled in two lines on each side of him; �and i,� said zeenab, �in order that every mortification possible might be heaped upon me, was placed the last in the row, even below nûr jehan, the black slave. you ought to have seen the pains which all of us, even old leilah, took to attract the shah�s attention: some were bashful, others stole wicked looks and glanced sideways; others, again, were bold, and kept their eyes fixed on the king�s face. having inspected each in turn, he paused, and keeping his eyes riveted upon me, turned to the doctor, and said, �what sort of thing is this? she is no indifferent commodity. by the king�s _jika_,[ ] the animal is fine! doctor, mashallah! you have a good taste--the moon face, the stag eye, the cypress waist, everything is here.� �upon which the doctor, making the lowest obeisance, said, �may i be your sacrifice, notwithstanding the slave is totally unworthy of notice; yet, since i and everything that belongs to me is the property of the king of kings, may i venture to place her as an offering at the foot of your majesty�s throne?� ��_caboul!_ i accept her,� said the shah; and then calling the chief eunuch to him, he ordered that i should be educated for a _baziger_ (dancer or singer), that all my clothes, &c., should be made suited to my future profession, and that i should be ready accomplished to appear before him upon his return from his summer campaign. �oh! i shall never forget,� exclaimed zeenab, �the looks of the doctor�s wife when this conversation was passing; she turned towards the shah in great humility, acquiescing in all that was said, and then cast glances upon me, which spoke the thousand angry passions by which her breast was agitated. as for the georgian, she looked daggers and arsenic, whilst nûr jehan�s good-humoured face was lightened up with every expression of happiness at my good fortune. i, in the meanwhile, prostrated myself to the ground before the king, who still kept surveying me with a kind aspect. �as soon as his majesty was gone, you ought to have seen the immediate change which took place in the khanum�s conduct towards me. i was no longer �a child of the devil�, �a maiden accursed�; but it was �my love, my soul, light of my eyes, my child�. i, who had never smoked before her, was now invited to partake of her own pipe; and whether i would or not, she thrust bits of sweetmeat into my mouth with her own fingers. as for the georgian, she could not stand the sight, but withdrew to another place, to digest her envy as she might. i received the congratulations of the other women, who did not cease repeating a long list of delights that were preparing for me. love, wine, music, jewels, fine clothes, bathing, and standing before the king, were to be my future occupations. some talked to me of the best spells to secure love, and to destroy the influence of rivals; others gave me the best advice how to get presents of finery; and many again began to teach me the forms of speech and compliment which i must use in case the shah spoke to me. in short, poor zeenab, the most miserable and neglected of human beings, all of a sudden found herself the object of universal attention and admiration.� zeenab here finished talking, and the joy which she seemed to feel for the change which was about to take place in her situation was so natural, that i could not find in my heart to destroy it by communicating to her my forebodings of the danger which awaited her. she little knew the horrible penalty she would incur, in case, when called upon to attend the shah, she should be found unworthy of his attentions; for it was upon record, under such circumstances, that death, a horrid, cruel death, had been inflicted, and that without appeal to any tribunal upon earth. i therefore seemed to partake her happiness, and although we felt we must be separated yet we were consoled with the hope that opportunities of mutual intelligence would not be wanting. she told me that one of the king�s eunuchs was to call on the following morning, to conduct her to the seraglio, and, when bathed and newly dressed, she was to be delivered over to the department of the bazigers, when her education was immediately to commence. hearing her name repeatedly called, she was afraid of risking herself longer with me, and after ten thousands and thousands protestations of mutual love, we parted, perhaps to meet no more. chapter xxxi his reflections on the loss of zeenab--he is suddenly called upon to exert his skill as a doctor. as soon as she was gone i sat down on the same spot where we had been standing, and gave myself up to thought. �so,� said i to myself, �so, this is being two kernels in one almond? well, if such be the world, then what i have been taken up with for these two last months is only a dream. i thought myself a majnoun, and she a leilah, and as long as the sun and moon endured we should go on loving, and getting thin, and burning like charcoal, and making _kabob_[ ] of our hearts. but �tis clear that my beard has been laughed at. the shah came, looked, said two words, and all was over. hajji was forgotten in an instant, and zeenab took upon herself the airs of royalty.� i passed a feverish night, and rose early in the morning, full of new projects. in order to reflect more at my ease, i determined to take a walk without the city walls, but just as i had stepped from the house, i met zeenab mounted on a horse, finely caparisoned, conducted by one of the royal eunuchs, and escorted by servants making way for her to pass. i expected, that at the sight of me she would have lifted up the flap of her veil; but no, she did not even move from her perpendicular on the saddle, and i walked on, more determined than ever to drive her from my recollection. but somehow or other, instead of taking my path to the gate of the city, i followed her, and was led on imperceptibly towards the king�s palace. entering the great square, which is situated immediately before the principal gate, i found it filled with cavalry, passing muster, or the _soum_, as it is called, before the shah in person, who was seated in the upper room over the porch. i lost zeenab and her conductor in the crowd, who were permitted to pass, whilst i was kept back by the guards. the current of my thoughts was soon arrested by the scene carrying on before me. the troops now under examination consisted of a body of cavalry under the command of namerd khan, the chief executioner, who was present, dressed in cloth of gold, with the enamelled ornament on his head glittering in the sun, and mounted upon a superb charger. the review was quite new to me; and as i gazed upon the horses and the horsemen, the spears and the muskets, the days which i had passed among the turcomans came again to my mind, and i longed once more to be engaged in active life. the troops to be reviewed were stationed on one side of the square. the secretary at war with his six scribes were placed in the middle, taken up with their different registers: two criers were also present, the one who, with a loud voice, called out the name of the soldier, and the other answering _hazir_ (present) as soon as he had passed muster. whenever a name was called, a cavalier, completely equipped, dashed from the condensed body, and crossed the square at the full speed of his horse, making a low obeisance as he passed the shah; and this ceremony was performed by each man until the whole were reviewed. many and various were the appearance of the horsemen. some came forwards in fine style, looking like rustams, whilst others, who had perhaps borrowed a beast for the occasion, went hobbling through as if the day of battle had already taken place. i recognized many of my acquaintance as they galloped by, and was admiring the animated manner of a young man, who had urged his horse forwards, when, by some fatal accident, the beast fell just as they were about passing the high pole which is erected in the middle of the course, and its rider was thrown with great violence against the foot of it. he was immediately taken up and carried through the crowd. some one, recognizing me to belong to the shah�s physician, invited me to take charge of him, and, without the least apprehension from my ignorance, i did not hesitate to put on the airs of a doctor. i found the unfortunate man stretched on the ground, apparently without life. those who surrounded him had already prescribed largely. one was pouring water down his throat, �in the name of the blessed hossien�; another was smoking a pipe up his nose in order to awaken him; and a third was kneading his body and limbs, to promote circulation. as soon as i appeared, these different operations were suspended, and, room being made, i felt his pulse with great solemnity, and as the surrounding uplifted faces seemed to solicit a decision, i declared, with emphasis, that he had been struck by fate, and that life and death were now wrestling with each other who should have him. thus (according to the practice of my master) having prepared my hearers for the worst, i ordered, as a preliminary to other remedies, that the patient should be well shaken, in order to discover if life was in him or no. no prescription was ever better administered, for the crowd almost shook him to dislocation. this had no effect. i was about prescribing again, when a cry was heard in the crowd, _rah bedeh_, give way: _ser hisab_, heads, heads! and the frank doctor (of whose skill i have before given some account) made his appearance, having been sent by his ambassador, who had witnessed the catastrophe. without having seen the patient, he cried out, �take blood instantly! you must not lose a moment.� i, who now felt myself called upon to assert the dignity of the persian faculty, and give proofs of my superior wisdom, said, �take blood! what doctrine is this? do not you know that death is cold, and that blood is hot, and that the first principle of the art is to apply warm remedies to cold diseases? pocrat,[ ] who is the father of all doctors, has thus ordained, and surely you cannot say that he eats his own soil. if you take blood from that body, it dies; and go tell the world that i say so.� �as for that,� said the frank, who had now examined it, �we may save ourselves any further trouble: it is dead already, and hot and cold are now all one.� upon this he took his leave, and left me and my pocrat with our noses in the air. �then death,� said i, �has had the best of it; the wisdom of man is unavailing, when opposed to the decrees of god. we doctors can no more contend with destiny, than the waters of an aqueduct can overcome those of a river.� a mollah, who was present, ordered his feet to be turned towards the kebleh, his two great toes to be tied together, a handkerchief wrapped under his chin, and fastened over his head, and then all the bystanders after him repeated aloud the profession of the true faith. by this time some of his relatives had gathered round him, and had begun the usual lamentations, when the bier was brought, and the dead body conveyed to his family. upon inquiry i found that the deceased had been a _nasakchi_, i.e. one of the officers attached to the chief executioner, who has one hundred and fifty such under his command, and whose duties consist in preceding the shah in his marches, dispersing crowds, maintaining order, taking charge of state prisoners, and, in short, acting as police officers throughout the country. it immediately struck me, how agreeable and how convenient it would be to step into the dead man�s shoes, and how much better my temper and disposition were suited to filling such an office than mixing drugs and visiting the sick. in turning over in my mind the possibility of acquiring this situation, i recollected that the chief executioner was a great friend of mirza ahmak, and under considerable obligations to him; for, but a few days since, he had persuaded the doctor to swear to the shah, that wine, which is strictly prohibited at court, was absolutely necessary for his health, and that in consequence he had received a dispensation from the head of the law to drink it,--a privilege in which he indulged to the greatest excess. i therefore determined to interest the mirza in my favour, and if possible, to turn the waters of bitterness, which the fountain of fate had been pouring into the cup of the deceased, into streams of sweet sherbet for myself. chapter xxxii hajji is appointed to a situation under government--he becomes an executioner. i watched an opportunity before the doctor set out the next morning for the _der-khoneh_,[ ] to speak upon my future plans, and to request him to lose no time in asking for me the place of the deceased nasakchi from the chief executioner. i urged the necessity of acting immediately; for as the shah would leave the capital for his camp at sultanieh, in the course of a few days, and as the doctor would be called upon to accompany him, it was plain, if he did not in some manner provide for me, i should be left upon his hands. the doctor, who was still calculating the expenses of his entertainment to the shah, and had resolved upon adopting a system of more rigid economy in his household, was not sorry to lose a hungry hanger-on, and without hesitation he promised to assist me. it was agreed between us, that he would forthwith call upon the chief executioner, and appointed me to meet him at court, after the morning�s _selam_ (levee) was over. as soon, therefore, as the mid-day prayer had been announced from the mosque, i went to the palace, and took my station without the room which is appropriated for the use of the head executioner, and which is situated with its large window immediately facing the principal gate. several persons were collected there. he himself was taken up with saying his prayers in a corner, and apparently completely abstracted from a conversation that was carrying on between my friend the poet laureate and the under-master of ceremonies. the latter was describing to the former the death of the unfortunate nasakchi, and was mixing a considerable portion of the marvellous in his narrative, when the chief executioner, from the middle of his devotions, cried out, �_een derough est,_�--�that�s a lie--have patience, and i will tell you how it was,� and then went on with his holy invocations. as soon as they were over, and almost before he had finished his last prostration, he began his story, relating the fact with infinitely more exaggeration than the master of the ceremonies had done, and finishing by a round assertion, that the frank had bled the poor man to death, after the persian doctor had brought him to life only by shaking him.[ ] during the chief executioner�s narration, mirza ahmak entered the room, and far from denying what was asserted of the two doctors, he confirmed it the more by new and stronger circumstances, and then finished by pointing to me, and said, �this is he who would have saved the nasakchi�s life, if he had not been prevented.� upon this, the eyes of all present were turned upon me, and i was called upon to relate the whole circumstance as it had happened, which i did, making my version coincide as nearly as possible with what had been already related; but giving all the merit of the science which i had displayed to the tuition of the chief physician. mirza ahmak, elated by my praise, was full of zeal to serve me, and he then introduced me to the chief executioner as a man fit and willing to undertake the office of the deceased nasakchi. �how!� said the head of the nasakchies, �a doctor become an executioner! how can that be?� �there is no harm in that,� said the poet (looking at the doctor through the corner of his eye)--�they are both in the same line--the one does his business with more certainty than the other, that�s true; but after all, it signifies little whether a man dies gradually by a pill, or at once by a stroke of the scimitar.� �as for that,� retorted mirza ahmak, �to judge of others by you, poets are in the same line too; for they murder men�s reputations; and everybody will agree with me, that that is a worse sort of killing than the doctor�s (as you were pleased to say), or the nasakchi�s.� �that�s all very well,� exclaimed the chief executioner; �you may kill in any manner you choose, provided you leave me the soldier�s manner. give me good hard fighting--let me have my thrust with the lance, and my cut with the sabre, and i want nothing more--let me snuff up the smell of gunpowder, and i leave the scent of the rose to you, mr. poet--give me but the roar of cannon, and i shall never envy you the song of the nightingale. we all have our weaknesses--these are mine.� �yes,� said the master of the ceremonies, addressing himself to the whole assembly: �everybody knows your several merits. the shah particularly (who by the by has studied the art of killing as well as any of you) is frequently expressing his delight, that of all the monarchs which persia ever had, he is the best served; and with that feeling he talks of carrying his arms into the very heart of georgia. if the russians once hear that you are going amongst them,� addressing himself to the chief executioner, �they may begin to make their accounts clear in this world, and prepare for the next.� �what are the russians?� said the executioner, with half a shrug and half a shiver; �they are dust--they are nothing--the possession of georgia by the russians is to persia what a flea which has got into my shirt is to me: it teazes me now and then, but if i gave myself the least trouble, i would hunt it out in a minute. the russians are nothing.� then, as if he were anxious to waive the subject, he turned to me, and said: �well, i agree to take you into the service, provided you are as fond of the smell of powder as i am. a nasakchi must have the strength of a rustam, the heart of a lion, and the activity of a tiger.� then looking at me from head to foot, he seemed pleased with my appearance, and forthwith ordered me to go to his _naib_, or lieutenant, who would equip me for my office, and give me instructions respecting all the duties i should have to perform. i found the naib to be in the midst of preparations for the departure of the shah, giving his orders, and receiving the reports of those under his command. as soon as he was informed that i was the man appointed to succeed the deceased officer, he put me in possession of his horse and its accoutrements, gave me strict injunctions to take the greatest care of it, and informed me that i could not be provided with another unless i brought back its tail and the mark peculiar to the royal horses, which is burnt on its flank. my stipend was fixed at thirty tomauns per annum, with food for myself and horse. i found myself in dress and arms, except a small hatchet, which indicated my office and was provided by the government. but before i proceed further, it is necessary that i make my reader acquainted with the person and character of namerd khan, my new master. he was a tall, square-shouldered, bony man, about forty-five years of age--young enough to be still called a _khûb jûan_ (a fine youth). the features of his face were cast in a deep mould, and shaded by black and thick eyebrows, as well as by a jet black beard and moustachios. his hand was particularly large and muscular; and from the black hairs that curled out from the crevices of his shirt, it was evident that his fur was of the thickest quality. altogether he was of a figure commanding, but coarse, and looked his office greatly to the advantage of the peace of the city, for the very sight of him was sufficient to awe the evil-minded. he was the most celebrated _khôsh guzerân_ (sensualist) in tehran. he drank wine without compunction, and freely cursed the mollahs, who promised him a seat in the regions below for holding the injunctions of the prophet so cheap. his house was the seat of revelry; the noise of singing and tambours was heard there from night till morning. he kept men dancers and women dancers; and was the protector of every lûti,[ ] however impudent and obscene he might be. but with all this, he did not in the least relax in the severities of his office; and one might frequently hear, amid the sounds of revelry, the cries and groans of some unfortunate wretch who was writhing under the torture of the bastinado on his feet. he was an excellent horseman, and very dexterous at the spear exercise; and although there was everything in his appearance to make one believe that he was a soldier and a man of prowess, yet in fact he was a most arrant coward. he endeavoured to conceal this defect of his nature by boasting and big words; and succeeded in persuading those who did not know his real character, that he was among the modern persians, what sâm and afrasiâb[ ] were among the ancient. his lieutenant, a man of stern aspect, was an active and intelligent officer: he understood the management of his chief, whom he flattered into a belief, that, besides the shah and himself, no one was worthy to be called a man in persia. i soon discovered that his prevailing passion was avarice; for when he found that i was to be installed in my office without making him a present, there was no end to the difficulties which he threw in my way. however, by dint of making use of that tongue which nature had given me, and persuading him, in his turn, that he was the cream of lieutenants, and the very best of materials for the future executioner in chief, he relaxed in his dislike, and even flattered me so much as to say, that, by the blessing of allah, the benign and the merciful, he believed that i should not fail to become in time an ornament to the profession. i still kept my lodging at the doctor�s house until the period of the shah�s departure, and filled up my time in preparing for the journey. the very circumstance of being a nasakchi gave me consequence in the bazaar, and i found no difficulty in procuring everything i wanted upon credit. during my stay with the doctor, i had managed to set myself up with a small capital of necessaries, which i had procured either in presents from patients, or by happy contrivances of my own. as for instance, i wanted a bed, a quilt, and a pillow: a poor man happening to die under our charge, i assured his relations, whom i knew to be the most bigoted of mussulmans, that his death could be no fault of ours, for no one could doubt the skill with which he had been treated, but that the bed upon which he lay must be unfortunate; for in the first place, the quilt was of silk;[ ] and in the next, the foot of the bed had not been turned towards the kebleh,[ ] as it ought to have been: this was enough for the family to discard the bed, and it became mine. a looking-glass was necessary to my toilet: a mirza, sick of the jaundice, looked at himself in one which he possessed, and was horror-struck at his colour. i assured him that it only proceeded from a defect in the glass, for that in fact he was as fresh as a rose. he threw it away, and i took it home with me. no one was stricter than mirza ahmak himself in all the exteriors of religion, and scrupulous to a fault about things forbidden as unclean. i was in want of a pair of _yakhdans_, or trunks, and a pair belonging to the doctor, which were lying idle in an unfrequented room, were frequently the objects of my contemplation. how shall i manage to become master of these? thought i: had i but half the invention of dervish sefer, i should already have been packing up my things in them. a thought struck me: one of the many curs, which range wild throughout tehran, had just pupped under a ruined archway, close to our house. unseen, i contrived to lodge the whole litter within one of the trunks, and to make a deposit of old bones in the other. when they came to be moved, preparatory to the doctor�s journey (for he always accompanies the shah), the puppies and their mother set up such a confusion of yells, that the servant who had disturbed them ran breathless with the information to the doctor, who, followed by his household, including myself, proceeded to the spot. as soon as the state of the case had been ascertained, many were struck by the singularity of the circumstance, as an omen portending no good to the doctor�s house. one said, �this comes of marrying the khanum; she will give him a houseful of _harem zadehs_.� another said, �the puppies are yet blind: god grant that we and the doctor may not become so likewise!� the doctor himself was only vexed by the loss of his trunks; he pronounced them to be _nejes_ (unclean) from that moment, and ordered them, puppies, bitch and all, immediately to be expelled. i was not long in appropriating them; and very soon assumed all the consequence of a man possessing trunks, which also implied things worthy to be put into them. little by little, i scraped together a sufficient quantity of effects to be able to talk big about my baggage; and when preparations for our departure were making, i held myself entitled to the privilege of squabbling with the king�s mule-drivers concerning the necessity of a mule for carrying it. chapter xxxiii he accompanies the shah to his camp, and gets some insight into his profession. at length the day of departure for sultanieh was fixed by the astrologers. the shah left his palace just half an hour before sunrise, on the st _rebbi el evel_,[ ] and travelled without drawing bridle, until he reached his palace of sulimanieh, which is situated on the banks of the caraj, at a distance of nine parasangs from tehran. the different corps composing the army to be collected at sultanieh were ordered to meet there at a given time, whilst the shah�s escort was to consist only of his body guard, his camel artillery, and a heavy squadron of cavalry. the great officers of the court, with the viziers, and those employed in the public offices, departed at about the same time, and thus the city was bereft, almost in one day, of nearly two-thirds of its population. everything and everybody were in motion; and a stranger would have thought that all the inhabitants, like bees hiving, by one common consent had broken up housekeeping, and were about to settle in some other place. strings of mules and camels, laden with beds, carpets, cooking utensils, tents, horse furniture and provisions of all sorts, were soon making their way through each avenue, raising an impenetrable dust, whilst their conductors mingled their cries with the various toned bells which decked their beasts. on the morning of departure, i was stationed at the casbîn gate to keep order, and to prevent any impediment to the shah�s passage. the peasants bringing provisions to the city, who are in waiting every day previously to opening the gates, were ordered to take another direction. the road was watered by all the sakas of the town, and every precaution taken to make the royal exit as propitious as possible. in particular, no old woman was permitted to be seen, lest the shah might cast a look upon her, and thus get a stroke of the evil eye. i found within myself an energy and a vigour in driving the people about, that i never thought appertained to my character; for i recollected well, when one of the mob, how entirely i abominated every man in office. i made use of my stick so freely upon the heads and backs of the crowd, that my brother executioners quite stared, and wondered what demon they had got amongst them. i was anxious to establish a reputation for courage, which i expected would in time promote me to a higher situation. at length the procession began to move forwards. a detachment of camel artillery had proceeded on the evening before to receive the shah when he should alight at sulimanieh; and now was heard the salute which announced his leaving the palace at tehran. all was hushed into anxiety and expectation. the chief executioner himself, mounted upon a superb charger, galloped through the streets in haste; and horsemen were seen running to and fro, all intent upon the one object of preparing the road. first came the heralds; then the led horses, magnificently caparisoned in jewellery, shawls, and cloth of gold; after them the running footmen; then the shah in person; the princes succeeded, followed by the viziers; and last of all an immense body of cavalry. when it is mentioned that every man of any consequence was accompanied by his train of attendants, most of whom had also their trains; and when the sum total of mirzas, of servants, of pipe-bearers, of cooks and scullions, of carpet-spreaders, of running-footmen, of grooms and horses, of mule drivers and camel drivers, and of ten thousand other camp followers is reckoned up, the imagination may perhaps conceive what was the crowd which passed before me in succession, as i stood at the casbîn gate. when the shah approached, his long beard floating to his girdle, with all the terrors of despotism concentrated in his person, i could not help feeling an odd sort of sensation about my neck; and i made my lowest prostration to that power, which by a single nod might have ordered my head to take leave of my shoulders, even before i could make an objection. the whole procession having cleared the city gates, i lingered behind to smoke with the guards who are there stationed; and at that time the women of one of the viziers who were permitted to accompany him to camp passing by, brought zeenab once again to my recollection. i sighed profoundly, when i reflected on the probable miserable fate which awaited her. she had been sent (so i heard from nûr jehan the day before our departure) to a small summer-house belonging to the shah, situated at the foot of the high mountains which surround tehran, where, with many other of the bazigers, she was to receive her education of dancing, music, and tumbling. the shah had ordered that she was to be mistress of these accomplishments previously to his return in the autumn; when she would be honoured by the permission of exhibiting before him. as i rode away, i could not help turning my head towards the spot where she was now confined, and which i could just discern a speck at the foot of the mountain. perhaps at any other time i should have left every duty to endeavour to obtain a glimpse of her; but i was called up to head the procession again, and to be in readiness at sulimanieh when the king should alight from his horse. the day�s march, and the attendance at my post being at an end, i proceeded to the quarters of the chief executioner, where i found a small tent prepared for me and five other nasakchies, who were destined to be my companions for the remainder of the journey. i had already made their acquaintance in the city; but now we were brought into closer contact, for our tent was not more than six _ghez_[ ] long and four broad, and we were thus thrown almost one upon the other. i, as the junior, fared of course the worst; but i determined to put the best face possible upon any present inconveniences, anticipating many future advantages, which a certain confidence in my own pretty self whispered to me i should not fail to secure. in addition to the chief executioner�s naib, there was also a sub-lieutenant, who must have a place in my narrative, because, in fact, it was through him that i ultimately became noticed by the higher powers. his name was shîr ali, in rank a _beg_, and a shirazi by birth. although natives of the two rival cities of persia, yet without any particular previous cause, and by a combination of those nothings which give rise to most friendships, we became inseparable companions. he had given me a piece of watermelon one hot day when i was thirsty; i had lighted his pipe for him on another occasion: he had bled me with his penknife when i had overloaded my stomach with too much rice; and i had cured his horse of the colic by administering an injection of tobacco-water: in short, one thing led on to another, until a very close intimacy was established between us. he was three years older than i, tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, with the prettiest oval beard possible, just long enough to fringe round his chin, and with two large curls, twisting beautifully behind his ear, like a vine curling over the garden wall. he had been long enough in the service to acquire all the tricks of his profession; for when we came to converse upon the subject, it was surprising what a vast field for the exercise of genius he threw open to my view. he said, �do not suppose that the salary which the shah gives his servants is a matter of much consideration with them: no, the value of their places depends upon the range of extortion which circumstances may afford, and upon their ingenuity in taking advantage of it. as, for instance, take our chief: his salary is , tomauns per annum, which may or may not be regularly paid; that signifies little to him. he spends at least five or six times that sum; and how is he to get it, if it flows not from the contributions of those who come under his cognizance? a khan has incurred the shah�s displeasure; he is to be beaten and fined: the chief executioner beats and mulcts in the inverse proportion of the present which the sufferer makes him. a rebel�s eyes are to be put out; it depends upon what he receives, whether the punishment is done rudely with a dagger, or neatly with a penknife. he is sent on an expedition at the head of an army; wherever he goes presents are sent him from the towns and villages on his road to induce him not to quarter his troops upon them; and he uses his discretion, according to the value of what he receives, in choosing his halting stations. most of those in high offices, even the viziers, make him annual gifts, in case the day of the shah�s displeasure should come, and then they would hope to be dealt with gently by him. in short, wherever a stick is to be brandished, wherever punishment is to be inflicted, there the chief executioner levies his dues; and they descend in a gradual measure from him to the lowest of his officers. before i was a naib, and when i was called upon to lay the bastinado on some wretched culprit, many is the time that my compassion has been moved by a direct appeal to my purse; and then, instead of beating the sufferer�s feet, i struck the felek upon which they rested. it was but last year that the principal secretary of state incurred the wrath of the shah. he was ordered to receive the bastinado, and, by way of distinction, a small carpet was spread for him to lie upon: i and another were the operators, whilst two more held the felek. when we were taking the shawl and cap from his head, his girdle and outer coat (which became our lawful perquisites), he whispered to us, low enough not to be heard by the shah (for this was all done in his presence), �by the mothers that bore you, do not eat me much! i�ll give you each ten tomauns if you will not strike me.� his heels were tripped up, his feet placed in the noose, whilst his back reposed on the carpet; and then we set to work. for our own sakes, we were obliged to start fair, and we laid on until he roared sufficiently; and then, having ably made him increase his offer until he had bid up to any price we wished, we gradually ceased beating his feet, and only broke our sticks over the felek. much ingenuity was displayed on both sides, in order that the shah might not discover that there was any understanding between us. his bidding was interwoven with his groans, something after this manner:--�_ahi amân! amân!_ for pity�s sake, by the soul of the prophet! twelve tomauns.--by the love of your fathers and mothers! fifteen tomauns.--by the king�s beard! twenty tomauns.--by all the imâms! by all the prophets! thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, hundred, thousand,--anything you want.� when it was over, we soon found that his generosity had diminished quite as rapidly as it had before increased, and we were satisfied to receive what he first offered to us, which he was obliged to give, fearing if a similar misfortune again overtook him, we should then show him no mercy.� shîr ali, holding this sort of language, gave me such an insight into the advantages of my situation that i could dream of nothing but bastinadoing, and getting money. i went about all day flourishing a stick over my head, practising upon any object that had the least resemblance to human feet, and to such perfection did i bring my hand, that i verily believe i could have hit each toe separately, had i been so ordered. the first impulse of my nature was not cruelty, that i knew: i was neither fierce nor brave, that i also knew: i therefore marvelled greatly how of a sudden i had become such an unsainted lion.[ ] the fact is, the example of others always had the strongest influence over my mind and actions; and i now lived in such an atmosphere of violence and cruelty, i heard of nothing but of slitting noses, cutting off ears, putting out eyes, blowing up in mortars, chopping men in two, and baking them in ovens, that, in truth, i am persuaded, with a proper example before me, i could almost have impaled my own father. chapter xxxiv employed in his official capacity, hajji baba gives a specimen of persian despotism. the shah moved slowly towards sultanieh, and at length, after fourteen days� march, when a fortunate hour had been selected for his arrival, he took possession of the summer palace, which has of late days been erected there for his residence. situated on a hill, not far from the remains of the ancient city, it commands a view of the whole plain, which now, to an immense extent, was covered with the white tents of the camp. it was a magnificent sight, and i felt all the importance of the nasakchi rising in my breast, as i contrasted my present situation with my wretched and forlorn condition when an inmate in the tents of the turcomans. �in short, i am somebody now,� said i to myself; �formerly i was one of the beaten, now i am one of the beaters. i should just do for an example of the active and passive participle, with which my old master, the mollah at ispahan, used to puzzle me, when endeavouring to instil a little arabic into my mind. please heaven that my good dispositions towards my fellow-creatures may soon have an opportunity of being displayed.� scarcely i had made these reflections, when shîr ali came up to me, and said, �our fortune has taken a flight upwards: you are to accompany me, and _inshallah!_ please allah! we shall make clean work of it. you must know, that the provisions for the king�s camp are supplied, in great measure, by the surrounding villages. it seems that the village of kadj sawar, situated between this and hamadan, has not sent its quota, upon a pretext that one of the princes, with his suite, not long ago, on a hunting excursion, had there settled himself for several days, and eaten the inhabitants out of house and home. i am ordered to proceed thither, to investigate the business, and to conduct the _ked khoda_ (the head man), with the elders of the village, before our chief. since you are my friend, i have received permission to take you with me, although the other nasakchies complain that they have lost their turn. you must be ready to join me after the evening prayer, for i intend to be there to-morrow morning.� i was overjoyed to find myself so soon brought into action; and, although i did not know precisely the plan of operations which shîr ali would adopt, yet i had wit enough to perceive that a great field was open to the ingenuity of fellows like us, who are always guided by the state of the weather. �our star will be an evil one, indeed,� said i, �if that destructive prince has left us nothing to glean. some poet once said �no melon is so bad but hath its rind, and although a tyrant may pluck out a beard by the roots, yet still the chin is left upon which it grew.�� with these thoughts in my head i went to my horse, which, with the other nasakchies� horses, was picketed near our tents, and prepared him for the journey. casting off his head and heel ropes, i could not help comparing him to myself. �now,� said i, �beast! you are free to kick and plunge, and do what mischief you can�; and so, thought i, is the persian when absolved from the fear of his master. shîr ali and i quitted the camp at sunset, accompanied by a lad, seated on the top of a loaded mule, that carried our beds; and the coverings, ropes, etc. for our horses. since i had become a soldier, i also had attached the title of beg to my name; and, to add to my importance in this expedition, i borrowed a silver chain for my horse�s head, and a handsome silver mounted pistol for my girdle, from one of my comrades, and promised to bring him a _soghat_, or present, in case the harvest proved abundant. we travelled all night, and, having slept for two hours at a village on the road, reached kadj sawar just as the women were driving the cattle from their stables, and the men smoking their pipes, previously to going to their work in the field. as soon as we were perceived making for the village, it was evident that a great stir was produced. the women ceased from their cries, and hid their faces, and the men arose from their seats. i wish my reader could have seen the air and countenance which shîr ali beg put on as we approached. he swelled himself out at least into the size of the chief executioner himself, and with a tone of authority, which sufficiently indicated who and what he was, inquired for the chief of the village. a plain man, with a grey beard, humble mien, and still humbler clothing, stepped forward, and said, �peace be with you, aga! i am he; i am your servant. may your footsteps be fortunate, and your shadow never be less!� and then saying, �_bismillah!_ in the name of god!� we were helped off our horses with all due respect. one held the horse�s head, another the stirrup, whilst a third put his hand under the arm-pit, and thus we alighted, giving ourselves as much weight as we could, and making up our backs like men of consequence. a small carpet was spread at the door of ked khoda�s house, to which we had been conducted, followed by almost all the male population of the village, and there we seated ourselves until a room within was prepared. the ked khoda himself pulled off our boots, and otherwise performed all the acts of politeness and attention which are shown to guests on their arrival. shîr ali having received this with the dignity of one who thought it his due, and having let off several long whiffs from his pipe, said, with great emphasis, to our host, �you, that are the ked khoda of kadj sawar, know, that i am come on the part of shah--on the part of the shah, again i say--that i am come to know why this village has not sent its quota of provisions for the use of the royal camp at sultanieh, according to the order issued in the firman two months ago, signified to you by the governor of hamadan? give me an answer, and make your face white if you can.� the ked khoda answered, �yes, by my eyes! what i have said before i will say now. all these men present� (pointing to his fellow villagers) �know it to be the truth; and if i lie, may i become stone blind! _arz mi kunum_, i beg leave to state, o nasakchi! that you, by the blessing of god, you, in fine, are a man--you are a wise, a clever, and a sharp-sighted man--you are also a mussulman, and you fear god. i shall not say more than the truth, nor less; i shall explain what has happened, and then leave you to decide.� �well, well, say on,� said shîr ali; �i am the king�s servant: whatever the shah will decide, that you must look to.� �you are the master,� replied the ked khoda; �but pray give ear to my tale. about three months ago, when the wheat was nearly a gez high, and lambs were bleating all over the country, a servant belonging to the prince kharab cûli mirza announced to us that his master would take up his quarters in the village the next day, in order to hunt in the surrounding country, which abounds in antelopes, wild asses, partridges, bustards, and game of all descriptions. he ordered the best houses to be in readiness for him and his suite, turned out their inhabitants, and made demands for provisions of all sorts. as soon as this intelligence was known, alarm was spread throughout the village, and seeing that nothing was to be done with the prince�s servant, either by bribe or persuasion, to evade the disaster, we determined to abandon our houses and take to the mountains until the evil day bad gone by. had you seen the state of these peasants, when forced to abandon everything they had in the world, your heart would have turned upside down, and your liver would have become water.� �what do you mean?� exclaimed shîr ali: �the shah�s villages are left desolate, and i am to pity the fugitives? no, they would have all been put to death had the shah known it.� �for pity�s sake,� continued the old villager, hear the end of my story, and allow yourself to be softened. we loaded our cattle at nightfall with everything we could carry away, and took to the mountains, where we settled in a dell, close to a stream of running water. there only remained behind three sick old women and the village cats.� �do you hear that, hajji?� said my companion, addressing himself to me: �they carried away everything valuable, and left the bare walls, and their old women to the prince. well,� said he to the ked khoda, �proceed.� �we sent spies from time to time,� continued the old man, �to bring intelligence of what was doing, and took up our abode among the rocks and cliffs of the mountains. about noon the next day the party appeared, and when they discovered that we had fled, their rage and disappointment were great. the servants of the prince went from house to house, and drove in the doors with violence. the only object which at all restrained them was one of the old women, who having acquired sufficient strength to rise from her bed, attacked them with such reproaches, that none was bold enough to face her. the prince sent for provisions from a neighbouring town, and took up his abode in my house. wherever they found corn, they seized upon it; they burnt our implements of husbandry for firewood, and when they were expended had recourse to doors and windows, and even to the beams and rafters of our houses. their horses were picketed in the new wheat, and they even cut down a great extent of it to carry away. in short, we are entirely ruined; we have neither money, clothes, cattle, houses, nor provisions; and, except in god and you,� addressing himself to shîr ali and me, �we have no other refuge.� upon this shîr ali beg jumped up from his seat, took the old man vigorously by the beard, and said, �are not you ashamed, old man, with these grey hairs, to utter such lies? but a moment ago you told us that you had carried into the mountains all that was most valuable, and now pretend that you are ruined. this can never be! we have not travelled all this way to eat your dirt. if you think that we have brought our beards to market to be laughed at, you are mistaken. you don�t yet know shîr ali: we are men who sleep with one eye open and the other shut; no fox steals from its hole without our knowledge: if you think yourself a cat, we are the fathers of cats. your beard must be a great deal longer, you must have seen much more country, before you can expect to take us in.� �no, god forgive me!� said the ked khoda: �if i have thought to deceive you. who am i, that i should dare to think so? we are the shah�s _rayats_, (peasantry); whatever we have is his; but we have been stripped, we have been skinned; go, see with your own eyes--look at our fields--look into our store-rooms--we have neither corn abroad nor corn at home.� �well,� said shîr ali, �skinned or unskinned, with corn or without it, we have only one course to pursue, and one word to say--the shah�s orders must be executed. either you deliver in kind or in money your prescribed quota of provisions, or you and your elders must proceed with us to sultanieh, where you will be consigned over to the proper authorities.� after these words, much whispering and consultation took place between the ked khoda and the village elders, who, having huddled themselves into a corner, left us wrapt up in our own dignity, smoking our pipes, with apparently the greatest indifference. at length the result of their conference was made known, and they changed their order of attack; for the chief of the village now undertook to soften me, and another old man shîr ali beg. the former approached me with every manifestation of great friendship, and began, as usual, by flattery. according to him, i was the most perfect of god�s creatures. he then swore that i had excited feelings of love both in his breast, and in that of all the villagers, and that i alone was the person to extricate them from their difficulties. as long as this lasted, i merely kept a steady countenance, and made play with my pipe; but when he had a little more entered into particulars, and talked of what we were likely to get, i must own that i became considerably more interested. he said that they had consulted upon what was to be done; and were unanimous, that to send what they had not was impossible, and therefore out of the question; but perhaps if something could be offered to us to protect their interests, they were ready to satisfy us on that head. �all this is very well,� said i, �but i am not the only person to be considered. we here are only two, but recollect that our chief must be also satisfied, and if you do not begin by him, your labour and expense will be in vain: and i can tell you, if you grease his palm, you must measure your _roghun_ (grease) by the _maun_,[ ] and not by the miscal.� �whatever we possess,� said the ked khoda, �we will give; but of late taxation has been so heavy, that, excepting our wives and children, we have in fact nothing to offer.� �i tell you what, friend,� said i, �unless you have money, ready downright cash, to give, any other offer is useless: with money in your hand, you may buy the shah�s crown from his head; but without it, i can only promise you a harvest of bastinadoes.� �ah!� said the ked khoda, �money, money! where are we to procure money? our women, when they get a piece, bore a hole through it, and hang it about their necks by way of ornament; and if we, after a life of hard toil, can scrape up some fifty tomauns, we bury them in the earth, and they give us more anxiety than if we possessed the mountain of light.�[ ] then approaching to put his mouth to my ear, he whispered with great earnestness, �you are a mussulman, in fine, and no ass. you do not conceive that we will go into the lion�s mouth if it can be avoided; tell me (pointing to my companion) how much will he be contented with? can i offer him five tomauns, and a pair of crimson _shalwars_ (trowsers)?� �what do i know,� said i, �what will satisfy him? all i can say is, that he possesses not a grain of commiseration: make the tomauns ten, and the trowsers a coat, and i will endeavour to make him accept them.� �oh, that is too much,� said the old man; �our whole village is not worth that sum. satisfy him with the five and the trowsers, and our gratitude will be shown, by a present for yourself that will astonish you.� upon this our conference broke off, and i was as anxious to hear what had taken up my companion, as he was impatient to learn the result of my whisperings with the ked khoda. comparing notes, we found that both the old villagers had been endeavouring to ascertain what might be our respective prices. i assured shîr ali that i had given him out for the veriest crucible in persia, saying, that he could digest more gold than an ostrich could iron, and was withal so proud, that he rejected units as totally unworthy of notice, and never took less than tens. �well said,� answered shîr ali; �and i told my old negotiator, that unless you were handsomely paid, you were equal to any violence, notwithstanding your silence and quiet looks.� at length, after some delay, the whole party came forward again, headed by the ked khoda, who, bringing an ostensible present of apples, pears, a pot of honey, and some new cheese, begged my companion to accept it, in terms usually made on such occasions. when it had been spread before us, in an undertone of voice the ked khoda made his offer of five tomauns and the trousers, and talked of his misery and that of his village in a manner which would have melted any breast but that of shîr ali. we agreed at once to reject the present, and ordered it to be taken from before us. this produced considerable dismay among the poor people, and they walked off with their trays of fruit, etc., on their heads, with slow and sorrowful steps. in about half an hour they appeared again, the ked khoda having previously ascertained that if he came with the ten tomauns and a coat, the present would be accepted. when we had eaten thereof, shîr ali beg having pocketed his gold and secured his coat, i began to look for that something for myself which was to astonish me: nothing, however, was produced, notwithstanding certain significant winks and blinks with which the ked khoda ever and anon kept me in play. �where is it?� said i to him at last, quite out of patience. �what is it? how much?� �it is coming,� said he; �have a little patience; it is not yet quite prepared.� at length, after some waiting, with great parade, the pair of trowsers, which had been rejected by shîr ali, were placed before me on a tray, and offered for my acceptance, accompanied by a profusion of fine words. �what news is this?� exclaimed i: �do you know, ye men without shame!� addressing myself to those who stood before me, �that i am an executioner,--one who can burn your fathers, and can give you more grief to devour than you have ever yet experienced? what mean ye by bringing me this pair of frouzy shalwars? that which has passed through many generations of your ignoble ancestors, do ye now pretend to put off upon me? fools indeed you must be, to suppose that i will espouse your interests, and set forth your grievances, merely for the sake of this dirty rag! away with it, or you will see what a nasakchi can do!� upon this they were about complying with my orders, when shîr ali beg stopped them, and said, �let me look at the trousers. ah,� said he, holding them up at the same time between his eyes and the sun, and examining them with all the care of an old clothes broker, �they will do; they have no defect: be it so, they are my property, and many thanks for them. may your family prosper!� every one looked astonished; no one dared make an objection; and thus i, who had been anticipating such great advantages, lost even the miserable perquisite which i might have had, and only gained sufficient experience to know another time how to deal with my countrymen, and, moreover, how to trust one who called himself my friend. chapter xxxv fortune, which pretended to frown, in fact smiles upon hajji baba, and promotes him to be sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner. two fat lambs, which were tied on our baggage mule, were the only present we brought with us for our chief. as soon as we reached the camp, we immediately presented ourselves to the naib, who forthwith carried us before the executioner, who was seated in his tent, in conversation with one or two of his friends. �well,� said he to shîr ali, �what have you done? have you brought the corn, or the ked khoda, which?� �i beg leave to state for your service,� said shîr ali, �neither. the ked khoda and the elders of kadj sawar have sent two lambs to be laid at your feet; and they have convinced us with our own eyes, that excepting them, not a thing have they left, not even their own souls, so entirely and completely have they been pillaged: on the contrary, if food be not sent to them, they will eat up one another.� �do you say so, indeed!� exclaimed the khan: �if they have lambs, they must also have sheep. by what account do you reckon?� �that�s true,� said shîr ali, �and everything that you say is equally so; but we were talking of corn, and not of sheep.� �but why did not you follow your orders, and bring the ked khoda and the elders?� said our chief. �if i had been there, the rogues, i would have roasted them alive. i would have tied them with the camel tie,[ ] until they confessed that they had something. tell me, why did you not bring them?� �we wished much to bring them,� said shîr ali, looking at me to help him out. �yes, we had bound them all together, and we wanted very much to bring them: we also beat and abused them. hajji baba knows it all; for hajji baba told them if they had not money to give, they would certainly meet with no mercy. mercy was a thing totally out of our way; for if they knew anything, they must be aware that our khan, our lord and master, the nasakchi bashi, was a man of such invincible courage, of a resolution so great, and of bowels so immovable, that if once they got within his grasp, it was all over with them. yes, we told them all that, and they almost sunk into the earth.� �what does he say, hajji baba?� said the khan, turning round to me: �i have not quite understood why these men were not brought to me?� i answered in great humility, �indeed, o khan, i also do not understand. shîr ali beg, who is your deputy-lieutenant, had the whole business in his hands. i went in his service; i am nobody.� upon this the khan got into a violent rage, and branded us by every odious name of contempt and reproach that he could think of. �it is plain,� said he to his friends, �that these villains have been playing tricks. tell me,� said he to shîr ali, �by my soul, by the king�s salt, tell me, how much have you got for yourself? and you, aga hajji,� addressing himself to me, �you, who have scarcely been a month in service, how much have you secured?� in vain we both protested our innocence; in vain we swore that there was nothing to gain; nobody would believe us; and the scene ended by our being driven out of the tent in custody of the naib, who was ordered to confine us until the chiefs of the village should have been actually brought to the camp, and confronted with us. when shîr ali and i were left to ourselves, he immediately endeavoured to make me a partaker of the spoil, and offered to give me up half of it. �not so, my friend,� said i; �it is now too late. if you have drank and enjoyed the forbidden wine, and have got a headache by it, it is no reason that you should endeavour to make me sick too. i have had a lesson, in which you have acted as master, which will satisfy me for this time.� he then endeavoured to make me promise to stand by him, when we should be confronted with the ked khoda, and to swear through thick and thin to everything that he intended to advance; but i was too much alive to the consequences to make any such promise. he said that if once he were brought to the felek to receive the bastinado, he knew that he could not survive it; for so universal a terrorist had he been when operating upon the feet of others, that now he felt he should be treated without the least mercy; and he therefore swore upon the korân, that he would undergo every misery rather than be tied to the stake. when the time came for being called up again before our chief, shîr ali was nowhere to be found. he had absconded, and when i was interrogated, all that i could say amounted to this,--that i knew he dreaded the idea of being bastinadoed, and that i supposed he had made off to escape it. as soon as i appeared before my judge, the men of kadj sawar, who were already standing before him, declared one and all, that i had neither exacted nor received anything from them; but, on the contrary, that i had urged them to make a considerable present to the khan. they poured out the whole of their complaints against shîr ali, who they declared had put the finishing stroke to their misery, and had even torn off the new skin that had began to cover their old wounds. all this was slowly working for my advantage, and paving the road to my promotion. the story had got abroad, and was in every one�s mouth. i was looked upon as a paragon of moderation. �this comes from having been a doctor,� says one; �wisdom is better than riches.� �he knows the doctrine of consequences,� says another; �his feet will never be where his head should be.� in short, i had acquired the reputation of being a clever and a cautious fellow, merely owing to events playing fortunately into my hands; and i lost nothing from being looked upon as a man whose _taleh_ (luck) was good, and one whose star was fortunate. the result of this part of my history was, that i was installed in the situation of the fugitive, and became the sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner of persia--a character, whatever my readers may think of it, of no small consequence, as they will hereafter discover. chapter xxxvi although by trade an executioner, he shows a feeling heart--he meets with a young man and woman in distress. the shah was at this time engaged in a war with the moscovites, who had established themselves in georgia, and were threatening the frontier provinces of persia situated between the rivers kûr and arras. the governor of erivan, known by the title of _serdar_ or general, and one of the shah�s most favourite officers, had long ago opened the campaign by desultory attacks upon the advanced posts of the enemy, and by laying waste the villages and country in the track they were likely to keep in advancing towards persia. an army, under the command of the heir apparent and governor of the great province of aderbijân, had also been collected near tabrîz; and it was intended that he should immediately proceed to the seat of war, in order if possible to drive the enemy back to teflis, and, according to the language of the court, carry its arms even to the walls of moscow. intelligence was daily expected at the royal camp of sultanieh, from the serdar, concerning an attack which he had announced it his intention to make upon the russian post of gavmishlû; and orders were issued for giving a suitable reception to the heads of the enemy, which it is always the etiquette to send upon announcing a victory, for such no doubt was expected to be the result of the attack. a _chapper_, or courier, was at length seen riding towards the camp in great haste. he was the conductor of five horse-loads of heads, �tis true, and they were heaped up with great pomp and parade before the principal entrance of the royal tents; but it became evident that something had taken place which required a reinforcement; for on the very next morning our chief, namerd khan, was appointed to the command of a body of ten thousand cavalry, which were ordered to march immediately to the banks of the arras. the _min bashies_, the heads of thousands; the _yûz bashies_, the heads of hundreds, the _on bashies_, the heads of tens; and all the officers commanding the troops, were seen hurrying over the camp in various directions, attending upon their khans, and receiving their orders. the tent of namerd khan was filled with the chiefs of the expedition, to whom he distributed his directions, giving them the order of march, and allotting to each division its station in halting at the villages on the route. my duty was to precede the troops by a day, accompanied by a detachment of nasakchies, to make arrangements for billeting the men in the villages. this was a duty requiring activity and exertion; but at the same time accompanied by great advantages, which, had i chosen to avail myself of, might have increased the weight of my purse. however, the recent example of shîr ali beg was too strong before my eyes not to repress any desire i might have of levying contributions, so i determined for the present to keep my hands pure, and to quench the flame of covetousness by the waters of prudence. i set off with my detachment, and reached erivan several days before the troops could arrive. we here found the serdar, who, after his attack upon gavmishlû, had retreated, to wait the reinforcement of the cavalry under our chief. the army under the prince royal had proceeded to another part of the frontier, with the intention of attacking the fortress of ganja, of which the enemy had recently acquired possession, and unable to spare any of his troops, the serdar had solicited assistance from the shah. as soon as namerd khan and the serdar had met and consulted, it was determined that spies should immediately be sent forwards in order to ascertain the position, and the movements of the russians; and i was fixed upon to head a detachment of twenty men on the part of the chief executioner, whilst a similar number was sent by the serdar, who at the same time were to be our guides through such parts of the country as were unknown to me. we assembled at the close of day, and began our march just as the muezzins called the evening prayer. proceeding at once to the village of ashtarek, we passed etchmiazin, the seat of the armenian patriarch, on our left. it was scarcely dawn of day when we reached the bridge of ashtarek, still obscured by the deepest shade, owing to the very high and rocky banks of the river, forming, as it were, two abrupt walls on either side. the village itself, situated on the brink of these banks, was just sufficiently lighted up to be distinguished from the rocks among which it was built; whilst the ruins of a large structure, of heavy architecture, rose conspicuous on the darkest side, and gave a character of solemnity and grandeur to the whole scenery. this, my companions informed me, was the remains of the many armenian churches so frequently seen in this part of persia. the river dashed along through its dark bed, and we could perceive the foam of its waters as we began to cross the bridge. the rattle of our horses� hoofs over its pavement had alarmed the village dogs, whose bark we could just distinguish; the shrill crow of a cock was also heard, and most of our eyes were directed towards the houses, when one of our men, stopping his horse, exclaimed, �ya, ali! (oh, ali!) what is that?� pointing with his hand to the church: �do not you see, there, something white?� �yes, yes,� said another, �i see it: it�s a _ghôl_! without doubt it�s a ghôl! this is the true hour: it is in search of a corpse. i dare say it is devouring one now.� i also could see that something was there, but it was impossible to make it out. we halted upon the bridge, looking up with all our eyes, every one being satisfied that it was a supernatural being. one called upon ali, another upon hossein, and a third invoked the prophet and the twelve imâms. none seemed inclined to approach it, but every one suggested some new mode of exorcism. �untie the string of your trousers,� said an old irâki, �that�s the way we treat our ghôls, in the desert near ispahan, and they depart instantly.� �what good will that do?� answered a _delikhan_ (a hare-brained youth); �i�d rather keep the beast out than let it in.� in short, what with joking, and what with serious talk, the morning broke sufficiently to convince us that the apparition must have been an illusion of our senses, for nothing now was to be seen. however, having passed the bridge, the said delikhan, shivering in his stirrups, and anxious to gallop his horse, exclaimed, �i�ll go and find the ghôl,� drove his horse up a steep bank, and made towards the ruined church. we saw him return very speedily, with intelligence, that what we had taken for a ghôl was a woman, whose white veil had attracted our notice, and that she, with a man, were apparently hiding themselves among the deep shades of the broken walls. full of anxiety for what might throw a light upon the object of my duty, i lost no time in proceeding to the ruin, in order to ascertain why these people hid themselves so mysteriously, and ordering five men to follow me, i made the rest halt near the bridge. we saw no one until turning the sharp angle of a wall we found, seated under an arch, the objects of our search. a woman, apparently sick, was extended on the ground, whilst a man, leaning over, supported her head, in an attitude of the greatest solicitude. enough of daylight now shone upon them to discover that they were both young. the woman�s face, partially hid by her veil, notwithstanding its deadly paleness, was surprisingly beautiful; and the youth was the finest specimen of strength, activity, and manliness that i had ever seen. he was dressed in the costume of georgia, a long knife hung over his thigh, and a gun rested against the wall. her veil, which was of the purest white, was here and there stained with blood, and torn in several places. although i had been living amongst men inured to scenes of misery, utter strangers to feelings of pity or commiseration, yet in this instance i and my companions could not fail being much interested at what we saw, and paused with a sort of respect for the grief of these apparently unfriended strangers, before we ventured to break the silence of our meeting. �what are you doing here?� said i. �if you are strangers, and travellers, why do you not go into the village?� �if you have the feelings of a man,� said the youth, �give me help, for the love of god! should you be sent to seize us by the serdar, still help me to save this poor creature who is dying. i have no resistance to offer; but pray save her.� �who are you?� said i. �the serdar has given us no orders concerning you. where do you come from? whither going?� �our story is long and melancholy,� said the young man: �if you will help me to convey this poor suffering girl where she may be taken care of, i will relate everything that has happened to us. she may recover with good and kind usage: she is wounded, but i trust not mortally, and with quiet may recover. thanks to heaven, you are not one of the serdar�s officers! i entreat you to befriend me, and my lamentable tale may perhaps induce you to take us under your protection.� this appeal to my feelings was unnecessary: the countenance and appearance of the youth had excited great interest in my breast, and i immediately lent myself to his wishes, telling him that we would, without delay, convey his sick friend to the village, and then, having heard his story, settle what to do for him. she had to this moment said nothing, but gathered her veil round her with great precaution, now and then uttering low groans, which indicated pain, and venting the apparent misery of her mind by suppressed sighs. i ordered one of my followers to dismount from his horse; we placed her upon it, and immediately proceeded to the village, where, having inspected the interior of several houses, i pitched upon that which afforded the best accommodation, and whose owner appeared obliging and humane; there we deposited her, giving directions that she should be nursed with the greatest care. an old woman of the village, who had the reputation of skill in curing wounds and bruises, was sent for, and she undertook her cure. i learnt from the youth that he and his companion were armenians; and as the inhabitants of ashtarek were of the same persuasion, they very soon understood each other, and the poor sufferer felt that she could not have fallen into better hands. [illustration: �an explosion took place in the very room.� .jpg] chapter xxxvii the history of yûsûf, the armenian, and his wife mariam. it was my intention to have proceeded to the heights of aberan, where we should have found a cool region and good pasturage for our horses, before halting for the day; but hearing that the wandering tribes, whom we had expected to find encamped in a certain spot, and upon whose tents and provisions i had reckoned, were removed far into the mountains, fearful of the war which had just broken out, i determined to halt at ashtarek until the heat of the day should have subsided. accordingly, my men were quartered in different parts of the village: some settled themselves under the arches of the bridge, picketing their horses among the long grass: one or two took possession of a mill, situated in the bed of the river, whose wheel was turned by water, made to flow in an elevated channel for the purpose; and i spread my carpet in an open room, built upon a shelf, on the highest part of the rocky bank, from whence i had a view of the whole scene, and also could discern any object that might be coming towards us from the russian frontier. feeling refreshed by two hours� sound sleep, upon awaking i sent for the armenian youth; and whilst the good people of the village served us a light breakfast, of which we were both much in need, i requested him to relate his adventures, and particularly what had brought him into the situation in which he had been discovered. refreshed with rest and food, the morning sun enlightening the spot we occupied, the manly features of the youth exhibited all their beauty; and, as he spoke, their animation and earnestness helped wonderfully to convince me that all he said was the truth. he spoke as follows:-- �i am an armenian by birth, and a christian; my name is yûsûf. my father is chief of the village of gavmishlû, inhabited entirely by armenians, situated not far from the beautiful river of pembaki, and about six agatch from this place. in the middle of a verdant country, full of the richest pasturage, and enjoying a climate celebrated for coolness and serenity, we are a healthy and a hardy race; and, notwithstanding the numerous exactions of our governors, were happy in our poverty. we live so far within the mountains, that we are more distant from the tyranny usually exercised upon those who abide nearer great towns, the residences of governors; and, secluded from the world, our habits are simple, and our modes of life patriarchal. i had an uncle, my father�s brother, a deacon, and an attendant upon the head of our church, the patriarch at etchmiazin; and another uncle, by my mother�s side, was the priest of our village: therefore my family, being well in the church, determined that i should follow the sacred profession. my father himself, who subsisted by tilling the ground, and by his own labour had cleared away a considerable tract near the village, having two sons besides me, expected to receive sufficient help from them in the field, and therefore agreed to spare me for the church. accordingly, when about ten years old, i went to etchmiazin to be educated, where i learned to read, write, and perform the church service. i derived great pleasure from instruction, and read every book that came in my way. a very extensive library of armenian books exists at the convent, of which i managed now and then to get a few; and although mostly on religious subjects, yet it happened that i once got a history of armenia, which riveted all my attention; for i learnt by it that we once were a nation, having kings, who made themselves respected in the world. reflecting upon our degraded state at the present day, and considering who were our governors, i became full of energy to shake off the yoke, and these feelings turned my thoughts from the sacred profession to which i was destined. about this time war broke out between persia and russia, and our village lying in the track of the armies marching to the frontiers, i felt that my family would require every protection possible, and that i should be more usefully employed with them than in a cloister. accordingly, but a short time before taking priest�s orders, i left my friends at etchmiazin, and returned to my father�s house. i was welcomed by every one. already had they felt the horrors of war; for marauding parties of both persians and russians (both equally to be feared) had made their appearance, and molested the peaceable and inoffensive inhabitants of ours and the neighbouring villages. this frontier warfare, in its general results, was of no great utility to either of the powers at war, yet to those who inhabited the seat of it, its consequences were dreadful. we were continually harassed either by the fears of the invading enemy, or by the exactions and molestations of the troops of our own government. our harvests were destroyed, our cattle dispersed, and ourselves in constant danger of being carried away prisoners. anxious to preserve our property, and our only resource to keep us from starvation, we continued to till our fields, but went to work with swords by our sides, and guns ready loaded slung at our backs; and when a stranger appeared, whoever he might be, we immediately assembled and made a show of defence. by this means, for several years, we managed, with great difficulty and perseverance, to get in our harvest, and, by the blessing of providence, had enough to subsist upon. but here i must begin some of those particulars which relate to my individual history. �about two years ago, when securing our harvest, i had gone out long before the dawn to reap the corn of one of our most distant fields, armed and prepared as usual. i perceived a persian horseman, bearing a female behind him, and making great speed through a glen that wound nearly at the foot of a more elevated spot, upon which i was standing. the female evidently had been placed there against her will, for as soon as she perceived me she uttered loud shrieks, and extended her arms. i immediately flew down the craggy side of the mountain, and reached the lowermost part of the glen time enough to intercept the horseman�s road. i called out to him to stop, and seconded my words by drawing my sword, and putting myself in an attitude to seize his bridle as he passed. embarrassed by the burden behind him, he was unable either to use his sword or the gun slung at his back, so he excited his horse to an increased speed, hoping thus to ride over me; but i stood my ground, and as i made a cut with my sabre, the horse bounded from the road with so sudden a start that the frightened woman lost her hold and fell off. the horseman, free of his incumbrance, would now have used his gun; but, seeing mine already aimed at him, he thought it most prudent to continue his road, and i saw nothing more of him. �i ran to the assistance of the fallen woman, whom by her dress, i discovered to be an armenian. she was stunned and severely bruised: her outward veil had already disengaged itself, and in order to give her air, i immediately pulled away the under veil, which hides the lower part of the face (common to the armenians), and, to my extreme surprise, beheld the most beautiful features that imagination can conceive. the lovely creature whom i supported in my arms was about fifteen years of age. oh! i shall never forget the thrill of love, delight, and apprehension, which i felt at gazing upon her. i hung over her with all the intenseness of a first passion; a feeling arose in my heart which was new to me, and, forgetting everything but the object immediately before me, i verily believe that i should have been for ever riveted to that spot had she not opened her eyes and began to show signs of life. the first words she spoke went to my very soul; but when she discovered where she was, and in the hands of an utter stranger, she began to cry and bewail herself in a manner that quite alarmed me. little by little, however, she became more composed; and when she found that i was one of her own nation and religion, that i was, moreover, her deliverer, she began to look upon me with different feelings: my vanity made me hope that, perhaps, she was not displeased, at the interest she had awakened in me. one thing, however, she did not cease to deplore, and to upbraid me with,--i had withdrawn her veil;--there was no forgiveness for me--that indulgence which even a husband scarcely ever enjoys, that distinguishing emblem of chastity and honour, so sacred in the eyes of an armenian woman,--every sense of decency had been disregarded by me, and i stood before her in the criminal character of one who had seen all her face. in vain i represented, that had i not relieved her mouth and nose from the pressure of the lower band, she must have suffocated; that her fall having deprived her of all sensation, had she not inhaled the fresh air, death would have been the consequence. nothing would convince her that she was not a lost woman. however, the following argument had more effect upon her than any other; no one but myself was witness to her dishonour (if such she must call it); and i swore so fervently by the holy cross, and by st. gregorio, that it should remain a profound secret in my heart as long as i had one to keep it in, that she permitted herself at length to be comforted. i then requested her to give me an account of her late adventure, and to tell me from whom it had been my good fortune to liberate her. ��as for the man,� said she, �all i know of him is, that he is a persian. i never saw him before, and know of no object that he could have had in carrying me off, excepting to sell me for a slave. a few days ago a skirmish took place between a detachment of persian cavalry and georgians. the latter were driven back, and the persians made some prisoners, whom they carried away in great triumph to erivan. our village had been occupied by the persian troops some days before this affray, and i suppose then my ravisher laid his plan to carry me off, and make me pass for a georgian prisoner. i had just got up in the morning, and had gone to the village well with my pitcher to bring home water, when he darted from behind a broken wall, showed his knife, threatening to kill me if i did not follow him without noise, and made me mount behind him on his horse. we galloped away just as some other of the village maidens were proceeding to the well, and my only hope of being saved was from the alarm which i knew they would instantly spread. we were out of sight in a few minutes, for we rode furiously over hill and dale, and cut across parts of the country unfrequented by travellers. at length, seeing you on the brow of the hill, i took courage, and gave vent to my cries, notwithstanding the threats of the persian. you know the rest.� �she had scarcely finished speaking when we discovered several persons, one on horseback, the rest on foot, making towards us in great haste, and as they approached and were recognized by my fair one, it was delightful to watch her emotions. ��oh! there is my father,� exclaimed she, �and my brothers! there is ovanes, and agoop, and aratoon! and my uncle too!� �as they came up, she embraced them all with transports of delight. i was in agonies of apprehension lest some youth should appear, who might have excited other feelings in her heart; but no, none but relations were there. they explained to her that the alarm of her seizure had been spread throughout the village by her young friends; that luckily they had not yet gone to the fields, and the family horse was at home, upon which her father was instantly mounted. they had traced the fresh footsteps of her ravisher�s horse as long as he kept the road, had marked the place where he turned from it, had seen them again in several places, had tracked him through a corn-field that led up a steep slope, and at length, from a high summit, ovanes had seen them descending a glen, which must have been very near the spot where they had now found her. �she said all this was true, and again thanked god and st. gregory for her escape; and, after some hesitation, in a most embarrassed manner, pointed me out as her deliverer. the attention of the whole party was then directed to me. �whose son are you?� said the old man, her father. ��i am the son of coja petros,� said i, �the chief of the village of gavmishlû.� ��ah! he is my friend and neighbour,� answered he; �but i do not know you; perhaps you are the son who was educating at the three churches for a priest, and who came to the help of your family?� �i answered in the affirmative, and then he said, �you are welcome. may your house prosper! you have saved our daughter, and we owe you eternal gratitude. you must come with us and be our guest. if ever it were necessary to kill a lamb, to eat and be merry, it is now. we, and all our families, will carry you upon our heads; we will kiss your feet, and smooth your brow, for having saved our mariam, and preserved her from dragging out her existence the slave of the mussulman.� �i then received the congratulations and kind speeches of her brothers and uncle, who all invited me to their village in so pressing a manner, that, unable to resist, and propelled by my anxiety to see mariam, i accepted their offer, and we forthwith proceeded in a body. �as we were winding down the side of one of the mountains, mariam�s village, for such i shall call it, was pointed out to me, situated among trees, snugly seated in a warm nook, protected from every wind but the east, which here coming from the _kulzum_, or the caspian sea, is delightfully cool and serene. beyond was the pembaki river, winding its way through a beautiful valley, diversified by rich vegetation; and at a greater distance we could just discern the church of kara klisseh, or the black monastery, the first station of the russians on this part of their frontier, and situated on a dark and precipitous rock, rising conspicuous among the verdure of the surrounding scenery. �when near the village we discovered that all its inhabitants, particularly the women and children, had been watching our steps down the slope, anxious to know whether mariam had been retaken; and when they saw her safe, there was no end to their expressions of joy. the story of her flight and of her rescue was soon told, and carried from one mouth to another with such rapidity and with such additional circumstances, that at length it came out that she had been carried away by a giant, who had an iron head, claws and feet of steel, and scales on his back, mounted upon a beast that tore up the ground at every bound, and made noises in its rapid course over the hills like the discharges of artillery. they added to this, that of a sudden an angel, in the shape of a ploughboy, descended from the top of a high mountain in a cloud, and as he wielded a sword of fire in his hand, it frightened the horse, threw mariam to the ground, and reduced the giant and his steed to ashes: for when she recovered from her fright, they were no longer to be seen. i was pointed out as the illustrious ploughboy, and immediately the attention of the whole village was turned towards me; but, unfortunately, when about receiving nearly divine honours, a youth, whom i had frequently met tending cattle in the mountains, recognized me, and said, �he is no angel--he is yûsûf, the son of coja petros, of gavmishlû�; and thus i was reduced to my mortality once more. however, i was treated with the greatest distinction by everybody, and mariam�s relations could not sufficiently testify their gratitude for the service i had rendered. but, all this time, love was making deep inroads in my heart. i no longer saw mariam unveiled, that happy moment of my life had gone by; but it had put the seal to my future fate. �no,� said i to myself, �nothing shall separate me from that beautiful maid; our destinies forthwith are one; heaven has miraculously brought us together, and nothing but the decrees of providence shall disunite us, even though to gain her i should be obliged to adopt the violence of the persian, and carry her away by force.� we met now and then, mariam and i; and although our words were few, yet our eyes said much, and i knew that my passion was returned. oh, how i longed to have met and engaged another, aye, twenty more persians, to prove my love! but i recollected that i was nothing but a poor armenian, belonging to a degraded and despised nation, and that the greatest feat which i could ever expect to perform would be to keep the wolf from my father�s flocks, or to drive the marauder from our fields. �i remained the whole of that eventful day at geuklû (the name of the village), where the promised lamb was killed, and a large cauldron of rice boiled. i returned on the following day to my parents, who had been alarmed at my absence, and who listened to the history of my adventures with all the earnestness and interest that i could wish. �i was so entirely absorbed by my love, that i could think of nothing else; therefore i determined to inform them of the situation of my affections. �i am of an age now,� said i to them, �to think and act for myself. thanks to god, and to you, i have strong arms, and can work for my bread; i wish to marry, and providence has prepared the way for me.� �i then requested them forthwith to demand mariam from her parents, in order that i might make her my wife; and finished by kissing my father�s hand, and embracing my mother. �they said in answer, �that marriage was a serious consideration in these difficult times, and that the family was now too poor to incur the expense of a wedding. it was necessary to buy clothes, a ring, candles, sweetmeats, a crimson veil, bed and bed-covering, to pay the singers and musicians, and to make a feast; and where was money to be found to meet all this?� �i said, ��tis true that money is wanted, and that no marriage can take place without it, both for the honour of our family, and for the purpose of showing my love to my intended; but i can borrow; i have friends both at erivan and at the three churches; and i think i could borrow enough from the one and the other to pay the expenses of my wedding; and as for repayment, i will work so laboriously, and live so frugally, that little by little i shall pay off my debt. besides, i can become the servant of a merchant, who would give me a share in his adventures; and one journey to constantinople or to astrachan would yield me enough profit to repay every one with interest.� �in short, i said so much, that at length they were persuaded to make the necessary overtures to the parents of mariam; and it was fixed, that in the course of a few days my father, my uncle the priest, and one of the elders of the village should proceed to geuklû, and ask her in marriage for me. in the meanwhile, i myself had been there almost every day, upon one pretext or another, and i had had several opportunities of informing her of my intentions, in order that she and her family might not be taken unawares. �my father and his colleagues were very well received by the parents of my intended. having talked over the matter, and seizing this opportunity of drinking some more than usual glasses of arrack, they agreed that we should be united as soon as the marriage-articles should have been agreed upon, and the forms of the _nâm zed_ (the ceremony of betrothing) should have been gone through. �three days after this, my mother, accompanied by two old women of our village, by my uncle the priest, and me, proceeded to geuklû for the purpose of the nâm zed, and settling the terms of the marriage. they were received with more ceremony than my father and his colleagues had been, and the women of the other party having met ours, negotiations were opened. �my mother offered, on my part, that i should give of clothes to my bride two full suits, consisting of two shifts, one of crimson silk, the other of blue cotton; two pairs of trousers, one of silk, the other of striped cotton; two _jubbehs_, or robes, fitting tight to the body, of chintz; two veils, one of white cotton, the other of chequered blue; two pair of slippers, one of green shagreen skin and high heels, the other of brown leather, with flat bone heels and shod with iron; and i was also to add a printed muslin handkerchief, and a set of bandages and kerchiefs for the head. she moreover offered fifty piastres in silver coin for minor expenses; and a chain for the neck, from which there should be suspended one gold tomaun of persia. �after some little consultation among the friends of my wife, this was agreed upon; but one of the old women, who had been a servant in a persian family, started a demand which gave rise to some discussion; it was, that i ought to give something for _sheer baha_, or milk money, as is the custom throughout persia. our party said this was not usual among the armenians; the adverse party contended it was; in short, words were running high, when i requested my mother not to make any difficulty, but to offer ten piastres more; which being agreed upon, the whole was amicably adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties. �this had taken place among the women alone. i was then called in, with my uncle, to go through the ceremony, and strict injunctions were made me not to laugh, nor even to smile, while it lasted; for ill luck would attend the marriage if anything so indecorous took place at the first interview. �i found my mother seated on the ground, flanked by her two old women, opposite to my bride�s mother, supported by hers. mariam entered at the same moment, and my mother then presented her with a ring (a brass one, alas!) from me, which she put on her finger, and then wine was administered to the priest; of which, when he had taken a copious draught, it was announced that we were betrothed man and wife, and we received the congratulations of all those around us. i was delighted, although prohibited from communicating with my intended; but went about kissing everybody, and so many benedictions were showered upon us, that perhaps no couple ever was so much blessed, by good wishes at least, as we were. �my mother and her party having returned to our village, i proceeded to make the preparations for my wedding with a light heart, regardless of any event which might intervene to destroy it. when we came to discuss the money it was likely to cost, and the means of obtaining it, i was agreeably surprised to see my father walk into the room where the family was assembled, with a bag in his hand. �here,� said he, �here is money. after all, the ked khoda of gavmishlû can provide for his son as well as the best in the country. here, yûsûf,� said he to me, �take these ten tomauns, my son, and lay them out in the purchase of your wife�s clothes.� �upon which i knelt down, kissed his hand, and craved his blessing. �my uncle, the priest, warmed by this generosity, said, �and here, nephew,--the church is poor indeed, and its ministers poorer,--but here--take these twenty silver abassis, and expend them in tapers for your wedding.� others of those seated in the assembly also gave me something; by which means, without being reduced to the necessity of borrowing, i found my purse sufficiently well supplied to enable me to make my purchases at once. i expressed my thanks to my benefactors; and never before having had so much money in my possession, i scarcely knew what countenance to keep. however, my impatience knew no bounds; i was anxious to be already on my road to erivan, where the clothes were to be bought; for there was no place nearer than that city in which a bazaar was to be found. but as i was ignorant of the arts of buying, and particularly ill versed in women�s dresses, it was decided that my mother should accompany me mounted on our ass, whilst i followed on foot. she had an armenian friend at erivan, who would take us in for a night or two; and as for sleeping on the road, we could take up our abode in the tents of the wandering tribes, whose duties bind them to hospitality towards the stranger. �we departed, she on the ass, i with my sword by my side, and my gun on my shoulder; and followed by half the village, invoking good luck for us. �having reached the heights of aberan, we discovered an immense camp of white tents; one of which, belonging to the chief, was of a magnificent size. a horseman whom we met informed us that the serdar of erivan was encamped there with a considerable body of cavalry; and it was supposed posted there to watch the motions of the russians and georgians, who, it was expected, were likely soon to move their forces forwards to the attack of persia. �this intelligence gave us considerable alarm. my mother was for returning home, and for putting off the wedding. too much in love to hearken to such a proposal, i urged her to travel more expeditiously, that we might be back the sooner. we proceeded so far on the first day, that i could see the smoke of erivan in the distance. we passed the night under a projecting rock, with the majestic mountain of ararat in full view; and did not fail to cross ourselves when we first came in view of it, and of recommending ourselves to st. gregorio, when we composed ourselves to sleep. the wandering tribes had gone too far out of our track for our purpose, therefore we did not think of seeking their protection; but, refreshed with our night�s rest, we resumed our journey early in the morning, and reached erivan in safety. �my mother was received by her friend with kindness; and the day after our arrival, they went to the bazaar to make purchases of the wedding-clothes, whilst i roamed about, gaping at everything, and listening to the speeches of those who were gathered together on the market-place. various were the rumours concerning the operations of the serdar against the enemy. it was evident that some movement was likely soon to take place, and an attack of an extraordinary nature to be made; for the people at the arsenal, and powder works, had been more than usually employed in making ready certain instruments of destruction,[ ] before unknown in persia, and set on foot by russian deserters themselves. i was so entirely taken up by my own affairs, and by the happiness in store for me, that this sort of intelligence passed by me totally unheeded. it just struck me, that we might endeavour to secure the protection of the serdar, through our chief at the three churches, in case our village and its territory became the theatre of war; but when i reflected upon the length of time it would take to make such a deviation from our road, i abandoned the idea, and, in my impatience, trusted to my own sword and musket as sufficient protection against all invaders. �my mother and i returned to our village by the same road we came, but not with quite so much speed; for the ass was laden with our purchases, and, in addition to my arms, i also carried a considerable share of the burden. the serdar�s camp was still in the same place, and we passed on without hindrance or any occurrence worth relating, until we reached the high ground that overlooks gavmishlû. �the sight of a tent first struck my mother, and she stopped. ��what is that, yûsûf?� she cried out to me: �see, there is a tent.� �i, who had no thoughts in my head but those that concerned my wedding, answered, �yes, i see; perhaps they are making preparations for an entertainment for us.� ��my husband�s beard with your entertainment!� exclaimed she; �what are become of your wits? either russians or persians are there, as sure as i am a christian; and in either case it is bad for us.� �we pushed on towards our dwelling with the greatest anxiety; and, as we approached it, found that my mother had judged right. the village had been just occupied by a small detachment of russian infantry, composed of fifty men, commanded by a _penjah bashi_, or a head of fifty, who, it seems, formed the advanced posts of an army quartered at a day�s distance from us. every house in the village had been obliged to lodge a certain number of men, and ours, as the best, and belonging to the chief, was taken up by the captain. �you may conceive our consternation on finding this state of things; and, in particular, how wretched i was from the apprehension that my wedding must be put off to an indefinite time, when perhaps ruin would have overwhelmed us, and left us naked and destitute fugitives. oh! the idea was too overwhelming, and i hastened to give vent to my feelings to my friends at geuklû, who perhaps might afford me some consolation. their village being considerably out of the track of the invaders, no troops had yet made their appearance amongst them; but when they heard what was passing on our side of the country, they immediately became partakers of all our fears. i saw mariam, dear child of nature! the customs of our country did not permit us to converse openly; but love is fertile in expedients, and we managed to pour out eternal vows of constancy, and to swear upon the holy cross of our faith, that, happen what might, we would ever be united. �these interviews happened frequently, and i became almost mad with rage and disappointment that we could not marry. it was evident that some terrible catastrophe must take place soon,--the armies might meet from day to day, and then what would become of the rejoicings of our wedding-day! to undertake the performance of a ceremony of such importance, under these circumstances, would only be mocking providence, and preparing for ourselves a futurity of misfortune. however, i was too much in love, and too impatient, not to have married under any circumstances, therefore i only endured what i could not well resist. �however, a fortnight had elapsed since our return, and nothing had happened. we were upon excellent terms with our guests the russians, and as they were quiet and inoffensive, infinitely more so than persians would have been under similar circumstances, we became very intimate. they were christians as well as we; they made the sign of the cross; prayed at our church; ate pork and drank wine; all circumstances producing great sympathy of feeling, and strengthening the bonds of friendship between us. their captain was a young man of great worth, and of such unpresuming manners that he gave universal satisfaction. he kept the strictest discipline among his troops, and was himself the soberest of mankind. he was anxious to gain information concerning our manners and customs, and encouraged us to converse with him upon everything that interested our family. this brought on a full exposition of our situation in regard to my wedding, to which he listened with a degree of interest so great, as to make him my friend for life. �he said, �but why should it not take place now? there is nothing to hinder it: we are here to protect you, and whatever we can give or lend, i promise that i will procure. the persians do not show the least sign of moving, and our army must wait for reinforcements from teflis before it can advance farther; therefore you will have all the necessary time to perform your ceremonies in quiet and happiness, and perhaps with more splendour than if we had not been here.� �he, moreover, promised to make a present to the bride of some georgian gold lace, and to lend me his horse, a fine karadaghi, which i might mount on the occasion. he said so much, that he at length persuaded mine and my bride�s relations not to defer the ceremony, and a day was fixed. had any other man pressed the business so much, and appeared so personally interested in it, i should probably have been suspicious of the purity of his intentions, and certain feelings of jealousy might have arisen; but the captain was so ugly, so hideously ugly, so opposite to what passes for beauty amongst us, that i could have no fear concerning mariam on his account; for if she could notice him, she could with the same facility become enamoured of an ape. his face was composed of a white leprous skin, with a head covered by hair, or rather quills, thrown about in a variety of stiff lines, of the colour of straw; his eyes were round holes scooped deep in their sockets, and situated behind small hillocks of cheekbones; his nose was marked by a little bit of flesh, under which were pierced two holes as if with an awl, and his chin, as lucid as glass, did not show the smallest appearance of hair. a little down grew upon his upper lip, which for length and prominence quite outdid its fellow; and this indication of a man was as carefully kept greased and blacked as a pair of immense boots in which his legs were always cased. ��no,� said i, to myself, �mariam would sooner love her persian giant than this creature; and when she comes to compare him to her intended (looking over myself at the same time with some complacency), i flatter myself that i may lay my jealous fears aside.� �and thus it was settled that i should wed. the evening before the wedding-day, the clothes and other articles, placed in trays borne upon men�s heads, and preceded by singers and musicians (of which some are to be found in every village), were sent to my bride. my band consisted of a man who played on the _zourna_, or hautbois, a performer on the tambourine, and two who sang. as a mark of additional splendour, our russian friends lent us a drum, the beating of which by one of our shepherd boys produced great effect all over the country. i followed my present a few hours after, for the purpose of receiving the one which my bride, according to custom, was to make me; consisting of a pair of brass mounted pistols, made in the caucasus, which had belonged to a great uncle of hers, who had been a soldier in the troops of the wali of georgia, before the russians had got possession of that country. �on the following day, the day of my long-expected happiness, i and all my family arose betimes in the morning. the weather was serene but sultry; there had been a tendency to storm for several days before, and heavy clouds stood in threatening attitudes with their white heads in the horizon. but nature was beautiful, and refreshed by a shower that had fallen in the night. my friend, the captain, lent me his horse, which i caparisoned and ornamented as well as i could on the occasion. i myself put on a new suit of clothes from head to foot, and with the addition of many silver-studded belts, cartouche-boxes, daggers, and other appendages fastened about me, and which had been lent me by a georgian in the service of the russians, i was told, and i believe it, that i made a very handsome appearance. accompanied by my male relations, the russian captain, and as many of his men as could be spared in order to create a crowd, we proceeded to geuklû, and approaching it, marshalled ourselves in procession, preceded by music, songs, and shouts. we alighted at my bride�s house, where we partook of refreshments, and received the congratulations of all the village; and then, when everything was prepared for our return to gavmishlû, where my uncle was to perform the ceremony, we mounted again. my bride, covered by a crimson veil from head to foot, which flowed over a flat platter placed on her crown, was mounted on her father�s steed, led on either side by her brothers. it is the custom for the bridegroom to hold a sash or girdle by his right hand, which is held at the other end by the bride, on their way to the church, and this we did. all our friends, our relations, all the youth of the villages, some on foot, some on asses, others on horses, accompanied the procession, making shouts, and manifesting their joy by all sorts of games and jokes during the whole course of the march. when at length we had reached a small rising ground overlooking my village the procession stopped, and every one who had a part to act in the ceremony received a taper, which was forthwith lighted. the procession then moved on with slow and measured steps, headed by my uncle, who, assisted by my other uncle from the three churches, sang psalms as they walked forward, amidst all the noise of the surrounding lookers-on. the russian captain had had the attention to dress his men up on the occasion, and they marched to the church with us, adding much to the dignity of the scene. �we at length alighted at the door of the church, and, still holding each end of the girdle, my bride and i walked to the foot of the altar, which, notwithstanding our humble condition, had been ornamented with more than ordinary brilliancy by flowers, ribbons, and looking-glasses. my forehead was then placed against mariam�s in a sort of butting attitude, and the bible opened and laid upon our heads, whilst her hand was given into mine. the priest then asked, if we agreed to take each other for husband and wife; and after we had made an inclination of our heads as marking our consent, and a suitable proportion of prayers had been read and chanted, the ceremony was at an end, and notified to all the world by the shouts of the multitude, and by the redoubled sounds of our drums, flutes, and tambours. �daylight by this time had entirely disappeared, and the weather, which had threatened a storm, now became very lowering. the sky was darkened, rain fell, and distant thunders were heard. this circumstance put an end to the entertainment given by my father earlier than it otherwise would have done; and when our guests had retired, the hour at length arrived which was to make me the happiest of men. �oh, shall i stop here to recollect all the horrors of that night, or shall i pass on, and not distress you by relating them? you must conceive my bride lovely as the morning star, innocent as an angel, and attached to me by the purest love; and you may imagine what i felt at that moment,--i who had looked upon our union as impossible, and had thought of my awaiting happiness as a bright spot in my existence, to which i expected never to attain. �but in order to give a right impression of the scene which i am about to describe, you must know that the villages in georgia, and in our part of armenia, are built partly under ground, and thus a stranger finds himself walking on the roof of a house when he thinks that he is on plain ground, the greatest part of them being lighted by apertures at the top. such was the house in which my family lived, and in which my wedding was celebrated. my nuptial chamber had one of these apertures, which had been closed on the occasion, and was situated with its door leading at once into the open air. �it is the custom among the armenians for the bridegroom to retire first. his shoes and stockings are then taken off by his wife; and, before she resigns her veil, has the task of extinguishing the light. the storm had just broke,--thunders were rolling over our heads,--the lightning flashed,--torrents of rain were pouring down with fearful noise,--there seemed to be a general commotion of the elements, when my mariam, unveiling herself, extinguished the lamp. she had scarcely laid herself down, when we heard an unusual violent noise at the aperture in the ceiling: sounds of men�s voices were mingled with the crash of the thunder; trampling of horses was also distinctly heard; and presently we were alarmed by a heavy noise of something having fallen in our room and near our bed, accompanied by a glare and a smell of sulphur. ���tis a thunderbolt, by all that is sacred! oh heaven protect us!� cried i. �fly, my soul, my wife, escape!� �she had just time to snatch up her veil, and to get without the door, when an explosion took place in the very room, so awful, so tremendous, that i immediately thought myself transported to the regions of the damned. i fell senseless, amidst the wreck of falling stones, plaster; and furniture. all i can recollect is, that an immense blaze of light was succeeded by an overpowering sulphureous smell,--then a dead silence. �i lay there for some time, unconscious of what was passing; but by degrees came to myself, and when i found that i could move my limbs, and that nothing about my person was materially hurt, i began to consider how i had got there. as for my wedding, that appeared to me a dream: all i heard about me now was the firing of muskets, loud and frequent explosions, cries and shouts of men,--of men wounded and in pain,--of men attacking and putting others to death,--the tramplings of horses, the clashing of arms. �what, in the name of heaven, can all this be?� said i. i still thought myself transported into another planet, when the shriek of a woman struck my ear. �it is mariam! it is she, by all that is sacred! where, where, shall i seek her?� i was roused: i disencumbered myself of the weight of rubbish that had fallen upon me, and, once upon my legs again, i sallied forth in search of her. the scene which presented itself was more terrible than language can express; for the first object which struck my sight was a persian rushing by me, with a drawn sword in one hand, and a human head, dripping with blood, in another. the blackness of the night was lighted up at rapid intervals by vivid flashes of lightning, which, quick as the eye could glance, now discovered the hideous tragedy that was then acting, and now threw it again into darkness, leaving the imagination to fill up the rest. by one flash, i saw persians with uplifted swords, attacking defenceless russians, rushing from their beds: by another, the poor villagers were discovered flying from their smoking cottages in utter dismay. then an immense explosion took place, which shook everything around.[ ] the village cattle, loosened from their confinements, ran about in wild confusion, and mixed themselves with the horrors of the night: in short, my words fall short of any description that could be made of this awful scene of devastation; and i must bless the mercy of that almighty hand which hath spared me in the destruction that surrounded me. �i knew not where to turn myself to seek for my wife. i had heard her shrieks; and the shivering of despair came over me, when i thought it might have been her death groans which had struck my ears. i threw myself into the midst of the carnage, and, armed with a firebrand, snatched from my burning nuptial chamber, i made my way through the combatants, more like a maniac at the height of his frenzy, than a bridegroom on his wedding-night. getting into the skirts of the village again, i thought i heard the shrieks of my beloved. i ran towards the direction, and a flash of lightning, that glanced over the adjoining hill, showed me two horsemen making off with a woman, whose white veil was conspicuously seen, mounted behind one of them. heedless of everything but my wife, i followed them with the swiftness of a mountain goat; but as the storm subsided, the lightning flashed no more, and i was left in utter darkness at the top of the hill, not knowing which path to take, and whether to proceed or not. i was almost naked. i had been severely bruised. my feet, otherwise accustomed to the naked ground, had become quite lacerated by the pursuit i had undertaken; and altogether, i was so worn with grief, so broken-hearted, that i laid myself down on the wet earth in a state of desperation that was succeeded by a torpor of all my senses. here i lay until the first rays of the morning glared in my eyes, and brought me gradually to a sense of my situation. ��what has happened?� said i. �where am i? how came i here? either the demons and wicked angels of another world have been at work this night, or else i am most grossly abused. to see that glorious orb rising in that clear unclouded sky; to mark the soothing serenity of nature, the morning freshness, the song of the birds, the lowing of yon cattle, and the quiet and seclusion of my yonder paternal village, i ought to suppose that the images of horror, of indescribable horror, now floating in my mind, must be those of a diseased imagination. is it possible that in this secluded spot, under this lovely sky, in the midst of these bounteous gifts of nature, i could have seen man murdering his fellow creature, the blazing cottage, the mangled corse, the bleeding head; and, o cruel, o killing thought, that i should have been bereft of my dear, my innocent wife?� and then, then only, was i restored to a full possession of every occurrence that had taken place; and tears which before had refused to flow now came to my assistance, and relieved my burning temples and my almost suffocating bosom. i got up, and walked slowly to the village. all was hushed into quiet; a slight smoke was here and there to be seen; stray cattle were grazing on the outskirts; strangers on horseback seemed to be busily employed in preparations of some kind or other, and the wretched peasantry were seen huddled together in groups, scarcely awake from the suddenness of the destruction which had visited them, and uncertain of the fate which might still be in reserve. as for me, the loss which i had already sustained made me expect every other attendant misfortune. i had made my mind up to find my relations dead, to see the total ruin of our house, and to know that i was a solitary outcast on the face of the world, without a wife, without a home, without parents, without a friend. but no, imagination had worked up the picture too highly; for one of the first persons i met on entering our village was my poor mother, who, when she saw me, recollecting all the trouble she had been at to secure my happiness, fell on my neck, and shed a torrent of tears. when her first grief had subsided, she told me that my father had suffered much from bruises, and from a blow received on the head; but that the rest of the family were well; that our house had been considerably injured, many of our things pillaged; and that my nuptial room, in particular, had been almost totally destroyed. she informed me that the good russian captain had been the first to fall a sacrifice to the attack of the persians; for almost immediately after the explosion in my room, he had rushed out to see what had happened, when two persians seized him, one of whom at once decapitated him: this was the head that i saw brandished before me, when first i sallied forth. she then took me to a place of shelter, and put on me what clothes could be found. �the persians, having completed their deeds of horror, had retired from the scene of action, leaving to our unfortunate villagers the melancholy task of burying the dead bodies of thirty wretched russians, who had fallen victims to their treacherous attack, and whose heads they had carried off with them as trophies. �after i had visited my father, and left my home in as comfortable a situation as i could, under the existing circumstances, i determined instantly to set out in pursuit of my wife. it was evident that she had been carried away by some of those who had attacked our village, and that she must have been taken to erivan, as the nearest market for slaves, for such was no doubt the purpose for which she had been seized. my sword, pistols, and gun, which had formed part of the ornamental furniture of my bridal chamber, were found buried in its ruins, and with these for my protection, and with some pieces of silver in my purse, i bid adieu to gavmishlû, making a vow never to return until i had found my mariam. �i travelled with hurried steps, taking the shortest cuts over the mountains to erivan, and as i crossed a branch of the high road i met two horsemen, well-mounted and equipped, who stopped me, and asked whither i was going, and upon what errand. �i did not hesitate to tell them my wretched tale, hoping they might give me some hint which might throw light upon the fate of my wife. this they did indeed, but in a manner so cruel, that their words awakened the most horrid suspicions, and almost to a certainty convinced me that my poor innocent, my hitherto unspotted, though wedded wife, had fallen into the power of a most licentious tyrant. ��is it possible,� said i, when they had related to me the horrid expedients to which their chief, the serdar (for it was to two of his bodyguard that i was talking), had recourse, for the accomplishment of his wickedness,--�is it possible that selfishness can be carried to such an extreme, that vice can have reached to such a pitch in the heart of man? women, by you mussulmans, i know are treated as mere accessories to pleasure; but, after all, they are god�s creatures, not made for the serdar alone, as he seems to think, but given to us to be our help, our comfort, and our companions through life.� �my hearers only laughed at my sentiments, and tauntingly assured me, that, if i was seeking one who had got into the serdar�s harem, my labour would be in vain, and that i might just take the trouble to return whence i came. �little heeding what they said, i hastened my steps, without knowing why or wherefore; but impelled by a sort of feeling, that it could not be in the wisdom of the almighty to heap such a load of misfortune upon a wretched sinner like me, without at length giving some counterbalancing reward, or some consolation which it is ever in his power to bestow. �i was now near the camp at aberan, where i knew the serdar in person was settled, and, hoping to hear some favourable intelligence, i made towards it. it was greatly agitated by the arrival of the detachment of persians who had attacked our village, and were giving proofs of the success of their enterprise, by exhibiting the russian heads which they had brought away, and which were laid in several heaps before the tent of the chief. one might have supposed that a great and signal victory had been achieved, such were the rejoicings and boastings that took place at the sight. the horrid objects were forthwith salted, and sent off in great parade and ceremony to the shah of persia, who never will believe that a victory is gained until he sees these palpable proofs of it. however, in the midst of all this joy, a courier was seen arriving in great haste from the russian frontier, whose intelligence produced a change of scene. he announced that the russian army, having heard of the late attack upon their outpost at gavmishlû, was now in full march against the serdar, and coming on so rapidly, that he must expect to be attacked even before night-close. the scene that ensued defies all description. the whole camp was ordered to be struck, and an immediate retreat was commanded. tents falling, mules loading, men screaming; horses, camels, men, cannon, all were in motion at one time; and before two hours had elapsed, the whole had disappeared, and the army was on its march for erivan. �i had in the meanwhile received no account of my lost mariam; and it was plain that, if in the power of the serdar, she was within the walls of his seraglio at erivan. thither then i bent my steps, hoping that in this great confusion something might turn up for my advantage. �upon my arrival there, i posted myself at the bridge over the zengui, from whence i had a full survey of that part of the serdar�s palace which contains his women; and as the troops were crossing it at the same time in constant succession, i was unnoticed, and passed for one of the camp followers. the building is situated upon the brink of a precipice of dark rock, at the foot of which flows the zengui, a clear and rapid stream, foaming through a rocky bed, the stony projections of which form white eddies, and increase the rush of its waters. a bridge of three arches is here thrown over it, and forms part of the high road leading to georgia and turkey. the principal saloon of the palace, in a corner of which the serdar is usually seated, opens with a large casement on the river, and overlooks the rugged scenery. at some distance on the same surface of building are the windows of the women�s apartments, distinguished by their lattices, and by other contrivances of jealousy. however, i observed they were not so well secured, but that objects passing and repassing the bridge might well be seen from them; and i imagined that if mariam was a prisoner there, she might perchance make me out as i stood below. �but if she did, what then?� said i to myself in despair: �seeing me there would only add to her torture, and to my desperation.� to escape from such a height appeared impossible, for a fall would be instant death; and excepting a willow tree, which grew out of the rock immediately under one of the windows, there was nothing to break the descent. however, having remained in one spot so long in meditation, i feared to be observed; and left my post for the present, determining to return to it at the close of day, and indeed at every hour when i could appear without suspicion. [illustration: �i beheld her fair form in the air, falling down the giddy height.� .jpg] �i had been watching the windows of the seraglio in this manner for more than a fortnight, and had not ceased to parade up and down the bridge at least three times every day, when one evening, as the day was about to close, i saw the lattice of the window over the willow tree open, and a female looking out of it. i watched her with breathless suspense. she appeared to recognize me. i extended my hand; she stretched forth hers. �it is she!� said i; �yes, it must be her! it is my mariam!� upon which, without a moment�s hesitation, without thinking of the consequences, i plunged into the river, and having waded through it, stood at the foot of the precipice immediately under my beloved wife. she stretched her arms several times towards me, as if she would have thrown herself out. i almost screamed with apprehension; and yet the hope of pressing her to my heart made me half regret that she had not done so. we stood there looking wistfully at each other, fearing to speak, yet longing to do so. at length, she shut the lattice suddenly, and left me in an attitude and in all the horrors of suspense. i kept my post for some time without seeing anything more of her, when again suddenly the lattice opened, and she appeared, but with looks that spoke of intense agitation. i scarcely could tell what was about to happen, but waited in dreadful anxiety, until i saw her lean forward, retreat, lean forward again--then more and more, until, by a sudden effort, i beheld her fair form in the air, falling down the giddy height.[ ] my legs refused to perform their office, my eyes were obscured by a swimming, and i should have probably sunk under the intenseness of my feelings, when i saw her half suspended, half falling, from a branch of the willow tree. i bounded up, and in an instant had mounted the tree, and had clasped her senseless in my arms. i seemed to be impelled by new vigour and strength; to reach the ground, to recross the river, to fly with my precious burden from the inhabited outskirts into the open country, appeared but the business of a second. i was perfectly drunk with the thousand feelings which agitated me; and although i acted like one bereft of his senses, yet everything i did was precisely that which i ought to have done. nature guided me: the animal acting only from instinct would have done like me. i had saved that which was most precious to me in this world. �when i had worn out my first efforts of strength, and had felt that my hitherto senseless burden showed some symptoms of life, i stopped, and placed her quietly on the ground behind some broken walls. she was terribly bruised, although no bone had been broken. the branches of the tree, upon which she had alighted, had wounded her deeply in several places, and the blood had flowed very copiously. but she was alive; she breathed; she opened her eyes, and at length pronounced my name. i was almost crazy with joy, and embraced her with a fervour that amounted to madness. when she had reposed herself a little, i snatched her up again, and proceeded onwards with all the haste imaginable, in the determination to strike at once into the mountains; but recollecting that i had the river of ashtarek to cross, and that with her in my arms it would be impossible to do so except by the bridge, i at once directed my steps thither. �we were reposing at the foot of the bridge, when i heard the footsteps of your horses. although nearly exhausted with my previous exertions, i still had strength enough left to clamber up the bank, and take refuge in the ruined church, where you first discovered us; and there i watched your motions with the greatest anxiety, concluding that you were a party sent in pursuit of us by the serdar. need i say after this, that if you will protect us, and permit us to seek our home, you will receive the overflowing gratitude of two thankful hearts, and the blessings of many now wretched people who by our return will be made supremely happy? whoever you are, upon whatever errand you may be sent, you cannot have lost the feelings of a man. god will repay your kindness a thousand times; and although we are not of your faith and nation, still we have prayers to put up at the throne of grace, which must be received when they are employed in so good a cause.� chapter xxxviii sequel of the foregoing history, and of the resolution which hajji baba takes in consequence. the armenian youth here finished his narrative, and left me in astonishment and admiration at all he had related. with my permission he then quitted me to visit his wife, and promised to return immediately with the report of her present state, and how she felt after her repose. �he surely cannot have been inventing lies to my face all this time,� said i when left to myself, �for a bleeding woman is here in evidence to corroborate what he has advanced; but then should i permit him to proceed, and the serdar was to hear that i had done so, what would become of me? i should certainly lose my place, and perhaps my ears. no; compassion does not suit me; for if it did, i ought not to remain a nasakchi. i will stick to what the sage locman, i believe, once said on this occasion, which runs something to this purpose: �if you are a tiger, be one altogether; for then the other beasts will know what to trust to: but if you wear a tiger�s skin, and long ears are discovered to be concealed therein, they will then treat you even worse than if you walked about in your own true character, an undisguised ass.�� i kept turning over in my mind whether i should release him or not; and was fluctuating in great perplexity between the ass and the tiger, when yûsûf returned. he told me that his mariam was considerably refreshed by repose; but, weak from loss of blood, and stiff by the violence of the contusions which she had received (in particular, one upon her leg, which was of consequence), it would be impossible for her to move for several days; �except indeed we were pursued by the serdar,� added he, �when i believe nothing but force could hinder us from proceeding.� he said that not until now had she found strength enough to relate her own adventures from the time she had left him at gavmishlû. it appears that the instant she had darted from the nuptial chamber, only covered by her veil, she had been seized by a persian, who, discovering by the glare of the lightning that she was young and handsome, ran off with her to some distance, and there detained her until, with the assistance of another, she was mounted on a horse and taken forcibly away; that these two men carried her straight to the camp at aberan, and offered her for sale to the serdar; who, having agreed to take her, ordered her to be conducted to his seraglio at erivan, and there put into service; that the horrid plight in which she stood, when exhibited to the serdar, her disfigured looks, and her weak and drooping state, made her hope that she would remain unnoticed and neglected; particularly when she heard what was his character, and to what extent he carried his cruelties on the unfortunate victims of his selfishness. mariam, alluding to herself, then said, �hoping, by always talking of myself as a married woman, that i should meet with more respect in the house of a mussulman, than if i were otherwise, i never lost an opportunity of putting my husband�s name forward, and this succeeded, for little or no notice was taken of me, and i was confounded with the other slaves, and performed the different tasks of servitude which were set me. but, unfortunately, i did not long keep my own counsel; i confided my story to a persian woman, who pretended to be my friend; hoping by that means to soften her heart so much as to induce her to help me in regaining my freedom; but she proved treacherous; she made a merit of relating it to the serdar, who immediately forced me to confirm her words with my own lips, and then the extent of my imprudence became manifest. he announced his intention to avail himself of my situation, and ordered me to prepare for receiving him. conceive then what were the horrors of my position. i turned over in my mind every means of escape, but all avenues to it were shut. i had never before thought of looking over the precipice upon which the windows of our prison opened; but now i seriously thought of precipitating myself, rather than submit to the tyrant. but a few hours after i had had the blessing to discover you on the bridge, i had been ordered to hold myself in readiness to receive him; and it was then that i had positively determined in my own mind to throw myself headlong out, either once more to bejoined to you, or to die in the attempt. when i shut the lattices in haste, several women had just come into the room to conduct me to the hot bath previously to being dressed; and when i had made some excuse for delaying it, and had sent them out of the room, it was then that i opened the lattice a second time, and put my resolution into practice.� yûsûf having finished the recital of his and his wife�s adventures, was very anxious to know what part i would take, and earnestly entreated me to befriend him by my advice and assistance. the morning was far spent. my men were already mounted, and ready to proceed on our reconnoitring expedition, and my horse was waiting for me, when a thought struck me, which would settle every difficulty with regard to the young armenian and his wife. i called him to me, and said, �after what you have related, it will be impossible to leave you at liberty. you have, by your own account, run off with a woman from the serdar�s seraglio, a crime which you perhaps do not know, in a mussulman country, is punished with death, so sacred is the harem held in our estimation. if i were to act right, i ought not to lose a moment in sending you both back to erivan; but that i will not do, provided you agree to join us in our present expedition, and to serve us as guide in those parts of the country with which you are best acquainted.� i then explained to him the nature of my office, and what was the object of the expedition. �if you are zealous in our cause,� said i, �you will then have performed a service which will entitle you to reward, and thus enable me to speak in your favour to the serdar and to my chief, and, _inshallah!_ please god, to procure your release. in the meanwhile, your wife may remain here, in all safety, in the hands of the good folks of this village; and by the time we return, she will, i hope, have been restored to health.� the youth, upon hearing this language, took my hand and kissed it, agreed to everything i had said, and having girt on his arms, he was ready to attend us. i permitted him to go to his wife, to give her an account of this arrangement, and to console her, with proper assurances, that they would soon be restored to each other. he again thanked me; and, with the agility of an antelope, had already gained the summit of the first hill before we had even begun to ascend it. chapter xxxix the armenian yûsûf proves himself worthy of hajji baba�s confidence. we proceeded towards the georgian frontier, shaping our track over unfrequented parts of the mountains, in which we were very materially assisted by yûsûf, who appeared to be acquainted with every landmark, and who knew the directions of places with a precision that quite surprised us. he did not seem anxious to visit his own village; and, in fact, he assured me, that had he even permission so to do, he could not, because he felt himself bound by the oath which he had taken upon last quitting it, not to return, except accompanied by his wife. the intelligence which had been brought to the serdar of the advance of the moscovites proved false, for we found them posted on the banks of the pembaki river, occupying the village of hamamlû, and fortifying themselves in karaklisseh. we were not far from the former place; and as we approached it, i became anxious to acquire some precise intelligence concerning the numbers and the dispositions of the enemy. a thought struck me, as i pondered over the fate of my armenian protégé--�i will either save this youth or lose him,� thought i, �and never was there a better opportunity than the present. he shall go to hamamlû: if he brings me the intelligence we want, nothing can prevent me from procuring both his pardon and his wife for him--if he proves a traitor, i get rid of him, and demand a reward from the serdar, for restoring his fugitive slave.� i called him to me, and proposed the undertaking. quicker than thought, he seized all the different bearings of the question, and without hesitation accepted of my proposal. he girt himself afresh, he tucked the skirts of his coats into his girdle, putting his cap on one side, and slinging his long gun at his back, he darted down the mountain�s side, and we very soon lost him amid the sloping woods. �_ruft ke ruft._ he is gone and doubly gone,� said the young delikhan; �we shall never see him again.� �and why should he not return?� said i. �have we not got a hostage? armenian though he is, he will not leave his wife.� �yes,� said the youth, �he is an armenian; but he is also an isauvi (a christian). the russians too are isauvis; and we all know, that when these infidels get together, they will rather die than return to the sons of islam. no; were he the chaste joseph himself, and his wife zuleikha in person, i will bet this horse,� pointing to the beast under him, �that we see him no more.� �do not coin false words, my little gentleman!� said a sturdy old cavalier, whose sunburnt face was harrowed by a thousand wrinkles, and shaded by a shaggy beard, mustachios, and eyebrows:--�why, without any use, do you eat dirt? the horse is the shah�s, not yours: and do you pretend to make the _bahs_ (bets) upon it?� �the shah�s property is mine, and mine is my own,� retorted the youth. i and my party kept up this sort of desultory talk for a little while before we thought of settling ourselves, when, seeing a spot where there was much grass, we made for it, and dismounted from our horses. we dispersed ourselves here and there, each making a temporary establishment of horse-cloths and cloaks spread upon the ground, whilst our steeds, picketed among the grass, fed at pleasure. i announced my intention of passing the night here in case yûsûf did not appear before its close; and preparatory to this, two of our best marauders set off in quest of a sheep, fowls, or anything they could get for our evening�s meal. after an hour�s absence, they returned with a sheep which they had seized from a flock grazing in the neighbourhood of the river. it was soon killed, and preparations were made for roasting it. two stakes with hooks at the top were cut from the forest and stuck into the ground; then a long stick was passed through the animal in lieu of a spit, and placed on the hooks. a fire having been lighted, one of our men was stationed near it to turn the animal at intervals; and it was not long before it was ready for eating. by way of variety, some of the prime bits, with the fat of the tail, were cut off, spitted upon a ramrod, and thus roasted. the sheep was served up on its stake, and our party fell upon it with an intense appetite, whilst, by way of distinction, the ramrod was handed over to me for my share. by this time the day had entirely closed in, and yûsûf had not appeared. we then composed ourselves to sleep, leaving one or two to keep watch and to attend upon the horses. about an hour after midnight, when the moon was about going down, a distant shout was heard--presently a second, more distinctly and nearer to us. we were immediately upon the alert, and the shouts being repeated, we could no longer doubt but that the armenian was at hand. we then shouted in return, and not very long after we saw him appear. he was almost exhausted with fatigue, but still strong enough to be able to relate his adventures since he had left us. he informed me that having reached hamamlû, he was recognized by some of the russian soldiers who had escaped the attack of the persians upon his village, and who immediately introduced him into the fort, and treated him very kindly. he was taken before the commanding officer, who questioned him narrowly upon the object of his visit; but the ready pretext which he advanced, of seeking his wife, answered every difficulty; besides which, the ruin of his village, the destruction of his family property, and the acquaintances which he had on the spot, furnished him with so much matter of conversation, that no suspicion of his designs could be entertained. he was then permitted to walk about the fort, and by asking his questions with prudence, and making his own observations, as enabled to furnish me with the information i required on the strength and position of the enemy, with some very good conjectures on the nature and probability of their future operations. he then managed to slip away unperceived before the gates of the place were closed, and regained the mountains without the smallest impediment. having permitted yûsûf to refresh himself with food and rest, and being now perfectly satisfied that his story was true, and that all confidence might be placed in his integrity, i ordered my party to hold themselves in readiness to return to erivan. he was permitted to ride behind either of the horsemen when tired with walking, and in this manner, taking the shortest cuts over the mountains, we regained the village of ashtarek. whilst we stopped here to refresh ourselves and horses, and to gain intelligence of the movements of the serdar and the chief executioner, i permitted the youth to visit his wife. he returned beaming with joy, for he had found her almost cured of her bruises, and full of thanks for the kindness and hospitality with which she had been treated. the serdar and the chief executioner had moved from erivan, and were now encamped close to the residence of the armenian patriarch; and thither we bent our steps, accompanied by yûsûf. chapter xl hajji baba gives an account of his proceedings to his superiors, and shows himself a friend to the distressed. the monastery of etchmiazin, so called in the armenian tongue, or utch klisseh, or the three churches, by the turks and persians, is situated in a large and well-cultivated plain, watered by the araxes, and several smaller streams. it stands at the foot of the high mountain of agri dagh, which the christians, and in particular the armenians, hold in great veneration, because (so yûsûf informed me) upon its conspicuous snow-capt summit the ark of noah rested. the monastery and church, celebrated throughout asia for the riches which they contain, are enclosed within high walls, and secured by strong and massive gates. it is here that the head of the armenian church constantly resides, together with a large retinue of bishops, priests, and deacons, who form the stock which provides clergy for most of the armenian churches in asia. the title by which he is known in persia is _khalifeh_ or caliph, a designation which, comprising the head of the civil as well as the religious government, the mussulmans used formerly to bestow on the sovereigns who held their sway at bagdad and elsewhere. by the christians he is generally known by the name of patriarch, and his church is an object of pilgrimage for the armenians, who flock there at particular seasons in great numbers from different parts of the world. hither we bent our steps. we discovered the united camps of the serdar and the chief executioner, spreading their white tents in an irregular figure all round the monastery; and before we had reached its walls, we heard that the two chiefs had taken up their abode within it, and were the guests of the caliph. �we�ll burn the fathers of these _giaours_� (infidels), said the young delikhan, as he rode up to me in great joy at this intelligence; �and will make up for the fatigues we have undergone, by drinking abundantly of their wine.� �are you a mussulman,� said i, �and talk of drinking wine? you yourself will become a giaour.� �oh, as for that,� answered he, �the serdar drinks wine like any christian, and i do not see why i should not.� as we approached the monastery, i called yûsûf to me, and told him to be in readiness whenever he should be called for, and be prepared to confirm any oath that i might think it necessary to take for his interests. he was particularly enjoined, when he came to talk of the services he had rendered, to deviate from the truth as much as he chose, to set forth every sort of danger he had or had not incurred, and in particular to score up an account of sums expended, all for the use and advantage of the serdar and of the shah�s government. �i hope at that rate,� said i to him, �your accounts may be balanced by having your wife restored to you; for which, after considerable difficulty, you may agree to give a receipt in full of all demands.� thus agreed, we passed through the heavy archway which leads into the first court of the monastery. this we found encumbered by the equipages and servants of the serdar and the chief executioner. here and there were strings of horses picketed by ropes and pegs, with their grooms established in different corners among their saddles and horse furniture; and a corner was taken up by a set of mules, distinguished by the eternal jingle of their bells, and the no less eternal wranglings of their drivers. in the second yard were the horses of the chief servants, who themselves inhabited small rooms that surrounded two sides of the court. we alighted at the first court, and i immediately inquired for the quarters of my master, the chief executioner. it was noon, and i was informed he was then with the serdar, before whom, in all the boots, dust, and dirt of my travelling dress, i was immediately conducted. they seemed to have entirely taken possession of the armenian sanctuary, and to have dispossessed the caliph of his place and authority; for they had taken up their abode in his very rooms, whilst the poor priests were skulking about with humble and downcast looks, as if fearful and ashamed of being the lawful inhabitants of their own possessions. the favourite horses of both the persian chiefs were picketed close to the very walls of the church, more care being taken of their comforts than of the convenience of the armenians. my reader is already acquainted with the person and character of the chief executioner; and, before i proceed further, i must also make him acquainted with the serdar. a man of a more sinister aspect was never seen. his eyes, which, in the common expression of his countenance, were like opaque bits of glass, glared terribly whenever he became animated, and almost started out of their old shrivelled sockets; and when this happened, it was always remarked that a corresponding smile broke out upon his mouth, which made the shah�s poet say, that hassan khan�s face was like _agri dagh_, the mountain near which he lived. when clouded at the top, and the sun shone in the plain, a storm was sure to ensue. time had worn two deep wrinkles down his cheeks, which were not hid by a scanty beard, notwithstanding all the pains he took to make it thick; and the same enemy having despoiled him of all his teeth save one, which projected from his mouth, had produced deep cavities, that made the shaggy hairs, thinly spread over them, look like burnt stubble on the slopes of a valley. altogether, it was difficult to say whether the goat or the tiger was most predominant; but this is most certain, that never was the human form so nearly allied to that of the brute as in this instance. his character corresponded to his looks; for no law, human or divine, ever stood in the way of his sensuality; and when his passions were roused, he put no bounds to his violence and cruelty. but with all this, he had several qualities, which attached his followers to him. he was liberal and enterprising. he had much quickness and penetration, and acted so politically towards the shah and his government, that he was always treated with the greatest confidence and consideration. he lived in princely magnificence; was remarkable for his hospitality, and making no mystery of his irregularity as a mussulman, was frank and open in his demeanour, affable to his inferiors, and the very best companion to those who shared in his debaucheries. no bolder drinker of wine existed in persia, except perhaps his present companion, the executioner, who, as long as he could indulge without incurring the shah�s displeasure, had ratified an eternal treaty of alliance between his mouth and every skin of wine that came within his reach. it was before these two worshipful personages that i was introduced, followed by two or three of my principal attendants. i stood at the end of the compartment until i was spoken to. �you are welcome,� said the chief executioner. �hajji, by my soul, tell me, how many russians have you killed? have you brought a head--let me see?� here the serdar took him up, and said, �what have you done? what russians are on the frontier? and when shall we get at them?� to all of which i answered, after making the usual prefatory speech, �yes, agas, i have done all that was in my power to do. it was a lucky hour when we set off, for everything that you wish to know i can explain; and it is evident that the destinies of the serdar and of my master are much on the rise, since so insignificant a slave as i can be of use to them.� �good luck is no bad thing, that�s true,� said the serdar, �but we trust a great deal to our swords, too,�--rolling his eyes about at the same time, and smiling in the face of the chief executioner. �yes, yes,� said his companion, �swords and gunpowder, spears and pistols--those are our astrologers. it will always be a fortunate hour that will bring me within slice of an infidel�s neck. as for me, i am a _kizzel bash_ (a red head), and pretend to nothing else. a good horse, a sharp sword, a spear in my hand, and a large _maidan_ (an open space) before me, with plenty of muscovites in it: that is all i want.� �and what do you say to good wine too?� said the serdar. �i think that is as good a thing as any you have mentioned. we�ll have the caliph in, and make him give hajji a cup of his best. but tell us first,� addressing himself to me, �what have you seen and done? where are the russians posted? how many of them are there? have they any guns? who commands them? where are their cossacks? have you heard anything of the georgians? where is the russian commander-in-chief? what are the lesgî about? where is the renegade ismael khan?--come, tell us all: and you, mirza,� addressing himself to his scribe, �write down all he says.� upon this i drew myself up, and, putting on a face of wisdom, i made the following speech:-- �by the soul of the serdar! by the salt of the chief executioner! the muscovites are nothing. in comparison to the persians, they are mere dogs. i, who have seen with my own eyes, can tell you, that one persian, with a spear in his hand, would kill ten of those miserable, beardless creatures.� �ah, you male lion!� exclaimed my master, apparently delighted with what i said, �i always knew that you would be something. leave an ispahani alone: he will always show his good sense.� �they are but few muscovites on the frontier. five, six, seven, or eight hundred,--perhaps a thousand or two thousand--but certainly not more than three. they have some ten, twenty, or thirty guns; and as for the cossacks, _pûtch and_, they are nothing. it is very inconvenient that they are to be found everywhere when least wanted, with those thick spears of theirs, which look more like the goad of an ox than a warlike weapon, and they kill, �tis true; but then, they are mounted upon _yabous_ (jades), which can never come up to our horses, worth thirty, forty, fifty tomauns each, and which are out of sight before they can even get theirs into a gallop.� �why do you waste your breath upon the cossacks and their horses?� said the chief executioner; �you might as well talk of monkeys mounted upon bears. who commands the infidels?� �they call him the _deli mayor_, or the mad major; and the reason why he is called so, is because he never will run away. stories without number are related of him. among others, that he has got the pocket koran of his excellency the serdar in his possession, which he shows to every one as a great trophy.� �aye, that�s true,� exclaimed the serdar. �these bankrupt dogs surprised me last year, when encamped not five parasangs hence, and i had only time to save myself, in my shirt and trousers, on the back of an unsaddled horse. of course, they pillaged my tent, and among other things stole my koran. but i�ll be even with them. i have shown them what i can do at gavmishlû, and we still have much more to perform upon their fathers� graves. how many guns, did you say, they had?� �four or five, or six,� said i. �i wrote down twenty or thirty just now,� remarked the mirza, who was writing at the edge of the carpet,--�which of the two is right?� �why do you tell us lies?� exclaimed the serdar, his eyes becoming more animated as he spoke. �if we find that any part of what you say be false, by the head of ali! you will soon discover that our beards are not to be laughed at with impunity.� �in truth, then,� said i, �this intelligence is not of my own acquiring. the greatness of the serdar�s, and my aga�s good fortune, consists in my having fallen upon a means of getting the most perfect information through a young armenian, who risked his life for us, upon my making him promise of recompense in the name of the serdar.� �a recompense in my name!� exclaimed the serdar: �who is this armenian?--and what armenian was ever worthy of a recompense?� upon this i related the whole of yûsûf�s history, from the beginning to the end. in pleading his cause in this public manner, i hoped that the serdar would feel it impossible to resist the justice of the demand which i made upon him, and that my young protégé would at once be released from his fears and apprehensions of the chief�s resentment, and restored to the undisputed possession of his wife. when i had done speaking, nothing was said, but here and there _allah! allah! il allah!_ (there is but one god!) in suppressed exclamations from the lips of the mohammedans present; whilst the serdar, having rolled his eyes about, and twitched his mouth into various odd shapes, at length mumbled out, �the armenian has performed wonders�; and then called aloud to his servants to bring his _kaliân_ or pipe. having smoked two or three long whiffs, he said, �where is this armenian? order the caliph also to come before us.� upon which yûsûf was ushered in, with the shoves and thrusts by which a poor man of his nation is generally introduced before a persian grandee; and he stood in face of the assembly as fine a specimen of manly beauty as was ever seen, evidently creating much sensation upon all present by the intrepidity of his appearance. the serdar, in particular, fixed his eyes upon him with looks of approbation; and turning round to the executioner in chief, made signs, well known among persians, of his great admiration. the caliph, a heavy, coarse man, of a rosy and jovial appearance, dressed in the black hood peculiar to the armenian clergy, appeared soon after, followed by two or three of his priests. having stood for a short time before the serdar and his companion, he was invited to sit, which he did, going through all the ceremonial of complimentary phrases, and covering the feet and hands in a manner usual on such occasions. the serdar then, addressing himself to the caliph, said, �it is plain that we mussulmans are become less than dogs in the land of irân. the armenians now break into our harems, steal our wives and slaves from before our faces, and invite men to defile our fathers� graves. what news is this, o caliph? is this allah�s work or yours?� the caliph, attacked in this unexpected manner, looked very much alarmed, and the dew broke out upon his ample and porous forehead. experience had taught him that these sorts of attacks were generally the forerunners of some heavy fine, and he already put himself in a posture of defence to resist it. �what language is this?� said he in answer. �we, whose dogs are we, who should dare even to think upon the evil of which your highness speaks? we are the shah�s subjects:--you are our protector, and the armenians sit in peace under your shade. what manner of man is this who has brought these ashes upon our heads?� �that is he,� answered the serdar, pointing to yûsûf. �say, fellow, have you stolen my slave or not?� �if i am guilty,� said the youth, �of having taken aught from any man, save my own, here am i, ready to answer for myself with my life. she who threw herself out of your windows into my arms was my wife before she was your slave. we are both the shah�s rayats, and it is best known to yourself if you can enslave them or no. we are armenians, �tis true, but we have the feelings of men. it is well known to all persia, that our illustrious shah has never forced the harem of even the meanest of his subjects; and, secure in that feeling, how could i ever suppose, most noble serdar, that we should not receive the same protection under your government? you were certainly deceived when told that she was a georgian prisoner; and had you known that she was the wife of your peasantry, you never would have made her your property.� the caliph, frightened at the language of the youth, stopped him, by loud and angry exclamations; but the serdar, apparently struck by language so unusual to his ears, instead of appearing angry, on the contrary, looked delighted (if the looks of such a countenance could ever express delight); and, staring with astonished eyes upon the youth, seemed to forget even the reason of his having been brought before him. of a sudden, as if dispelling his former indignation, he stopped all further discussion by saying to him, �enough, enough; go, take your wife, and say no more; and, since you have rendered us a service at hamamlû, you shall remain my servant, and wait upon my person. go, my head valet will instruct you in your duties; and when attired in clothes suited to your situation, you will return again to our presence. go, and recollect that my condescension towards you depends upon your future conduct.� upon this yûsûf, in the fullness of his heart, ran up to him with great apparent gratitude, fell upon his knees, and kissed the hem of his garment, not knowing what to say, or what countenance to keep upon such unlooked-for good fortune. every one present seemed astonished: the chief executioner gave a shrug, and indulged in a deep yawn; the caliph, as if he had been disencumbered of a heavy weight, stretched his limbs, and the huge drops that were before glittering on his brow now disappeared, and his face again expanded into good humour. all congratulated the serdar upon his humanity and benevolence, and compared him to the celebrated noushirwan. _barikallah_ and _mashallah_ was repeated and echoed from mouth to mouth, and the story of his magnanimity was spread abroad, and formed the talk of the whole camp. i will not pretend to explain what were the serdar�s real sentiments; but those who well knew the man were agreed that he could be actuated by no generous motive. [illustration: the two russians drive back the persians. .jpg] chapter xli he describes an expedition against the russians, and does ample justice to the cowardice of his chief. my chief and the serdar having acquired all the information which yûsûf and i could give them upon the force and position of the muscovites, it was determined that an attack should immediately be made, and the army was ordered to march upon hamamlû. everything was soon in motion; the artillery began its tedious and difficult march through the mountains; the infantry made their way in the best manner they could, and the cavalry were seen in unconnected groups all over the plain. i must not omit to say, that before the march began i received a visit from the armenian. he was no longer, in appearance, the rude mountaineer with his rough sheepskin cap, his short georgian tunic, his sandalled feet, his long knife hung over his knee, and his gun slung obliquely across his body; but he was now attired in a long vest of crimson velvet, trimmed with gold lace and gold buttons; a beautiful cashmerian shawl was tied gracefully round his waist; his small cap, of bokhara lamb-skin, was duly indented at the top, and the two long curls behind his ears were combed out with all proper care. he had now more the appearance of a woman than a man, so much were his fine limbs hid by his robes; and as he approached me, he could not help blushing and looking awkward at the metamorphosis. he thanked me with expressions that indicated much gratitude, and assured me, that so far from having expected this result to his interview with the serdar, he had, in fact, made up his mind to the loss of both his wife and life, and therefore had spoken with the boldness of one determined to die. �but,� said he, �notwithstanding this great change in my fortunes, this new existence of mine will never do. i cannot endure the degradation of being a mere idle appendage to the state of the serdar; and be not angry if, ere long, i decline the honour of his service. i will submit to everything as long as my wife is not in a place of safety; but when once i have secured that, then adieu. better live a swineherd in the georgian mountains, naked and houseless, than in all these silks and velvets, a despised hanger on, be it even in the most luxurious court of persia.� i could not help applauding such sentiments, although i should have been happy had he made any one else his confidant, conscious that if he did run away i should in some measure be made answerable for him. in the meanwhile the army proceeded on its march. as we passed ashtarek, yûsûf got permission to take possession of mariam, who, now transformed into the wife of one who had the reputation of being in the good graces of the serdar, travelled with great respectability and consideration on horseback, and formed one among the numerous camp-followers that are always attached to a persian army. the camp was pitched between gavmishlû and aberan, where all that was not necessary for the expedition was ordered to remain until its return. it was settled that the serdar and the chief executioner, each accompanied by their own men, with two pieces of artillery, should form the expedition, and towards the close of the evening it set off. as we approached the scene of action, the serdar became impatient of delay, and, like every persian who despises the utility of infantry, expressed his wish to push on with the cavalry. i will not say as much for the impatience of my chief. he continued his boastings to the last, �tis true, and endeavoured to make every one believe that he had only to appear, and the enemy would instantly be seized with a panic; but at length he ceded to the serdar�s wishes of bringing on the rear-guard, whilst the latter pushed on to hamamlû with the main body of the cavalry. i, of course, remained behind, to act under the orders of my chief. the serdar intended to reach hamamlû before break of day in order to surprise the gates, and deviated from the road to ford the pembaki river. we continued our march straight for that place, and were to appear as the day dawned, to give a retreat to the serdar, in case he should be beaten back. the morning had just broke when we reached the banks of the river. the chief executioner was surrounded by a body of about five hundred cavalry, and the infantry was coming up as well as it could. we were about fording the river, when of a sudden we were accosted by a voice on the other side, which shouting out two or three strange words in a language unknown to us, explained their meaning by a musket shot. this stopped our career, and called the attention of our chief, who came up, looking paler than death. �what�s the news?� exclaimed he, in a voice far below its usual pitch:--�what are we doing?--where are we going?--hajji baba,� accosting me, �was it you that fired?� �no,� said i, catching rather more of his apprehension than was convenient; �no, i did not fire. perhaps there are ghôls here among the muscovites, as well as at ashtarek among the armenians.� in another minute more barbarous cries were heard, and another shot was fired, and by this time day had sufficiently advanced to show two men, on the other bank, whom we discovered to be russian soldiers. as soon as our chief saw the extent of the danger, and the foe opposed to us, his countenance cleared up, and he instantly put on the face of the greatest resolution and vigour. �go, seize, strike, kill!� he exclaimed, almost in one breath, to those around him:--�go, bring me the heads of yonder two fellows.� immediately several men dashed into the river, with drawn swords, whilst the two soldiers withdrew to a small rising ground, and, placing themselves in a convenient position, began a regular, though alternate, discharge of their muskets upon their assailants, with a steadiness that surprised us. they killed two men, which caused the remainder to retreat back to our commander, and no one else seemed at all anxious to follow their example. in vain he swore, entreated, pushed, and offered money for their heads: not one of his men would advance. at length, he said, with a most magnanimous shout, �i myself will go; here, make way! will no body follow me?� then, stopping, and addressing himself to me, he said, �hajji! my soul, my friend, won�t you go and cut those men�s heads off? i�ll give you everything you can ask.� then, putting his hand round my neck, he said, �go, go; i am sure you can cut their heads off.� we were parleying in this manner, when a shot from one of the russians hit the chief executioner�s stirrup, which awoke his fears to such a degree, that he immediately fell to uttering the most violent oaths. calling away his troops, and retreating himself at a quick pace, he exclaimed, �curses be on their beards! curse their fathers, mothers, their ancestry, and posterity! whoever fought after this fashion? killing, killing, as if we were so many hogs. see, see, what animals they are! they will not run away, do all you can to them. they are worse than brutes:--brutes have feeling,--they have none. o allah, allah, if there was no dying in the case, how the persians would fight!� by this time we had proceeded some distance, and then halted. our chief, expecting to find the russians back to back under every bush, did not know what course to pursue, when the decision was soon made for us by the appearance of the serdar, who, followed by his cavalry, was seen retreating in all haste from before the enemy. it was evident that his enterprise had entirely failed, and nothing was left for the whole army but to return whence it came. i will not attempt to draw a picture of the miserable aspect of the serdar�s troops; they all looked harassed and worn down by fatigue, and seemed so little disposed to rally, that one and all, as if by tacit consent, proceeded straight on their course homewards without once looking back. but as much as they were depressed in spirits, in the same degree were raised those of our commander. he so talked of his prowess, of the wound he had received, and of his intended feats, that at length, seizing a spear, he put his horse at the full gallop, and overtaking his own cook, who was making the best of his way to his pots and pans, darted it at him, in the exuberance of his valour, and actually pierced him in the back through his shawl girdle. thus ended an expedition which the serdar expected would have given him a great harvest of glory and of muscovites� heads; and which, the chief executioner flattered himself, would afford him exultation and boasting for the remainder of his life. but, notwithstanding its total failure, till, he had ingenuity enough to discover matter for self-congratulation. surrounded by a circle of his adherents, amongst whom i was one, he was in the midst of a peal of boasting, when a message came from the serdar, requesting that hajji baba might be sent to him. i returned with the messenger, and the first words which the serdar said, upon my appearing before him, were, �where is yûsûf? where is his wife?� it immediately occurred to me that they had escaped; and putting on one of my most innocent looks, i denied having the least knowledge of their movements. the serdar then began to roll his eyeballs about, and to twist up his mouth into various shapes. passion burst from him in the grossest and most violent expressions; he vowed vengeance upon him, his race, his village, and upon everything and everybody in the least connected with him; and whilst he expressed a total disbelief of am my protestations of ignorance, he gave me to understand, that if i was found to have been in the smallest degree an accessory to his escape, he would use all his influence to sweep my vile person from the face of the earth. i afterwards heard that he had sent a party of men to gavmishlû, to seize and bring before him yûsûf�s parents and kindred, with everything that belonged to them; to take possession of their property, and to burn and destroy whatever they could not bring away: but the sagacious and active youth had foreseen this, and had taken his measures with such prudence and promptitude, that he had completely baffled the tyrant. he, his wife, his wife�s relations, his own parents and family, with all their effects (leaving only their tilled ground behind them), had concerted one common plan of migration into the russian territory. it had fully succeeded, as i afterwards heard, for they were received with great kindness, both by the government and by their own sect; lands were allotted, and every help afforded them for the re-establishment of their losses. chapter xlii he proceeds to the king�s camp, and gives a specimen of lying on a grand scale. i returned to my chief full of apprehension at the threat which i had received; and knowing how very tenacious all our great men are of power over their own servants, i did not fail immediately to inform him of the language which the serdar had entertained me with. he became furious, and i had only to fan the flame which i had raised in order to create a quarrel between them; but, having more fears about the serdar�s power of hurting me than i had confidence in the ability of the chief executioner to protect me, i thought it best for all parties that i should retire from the scene, and craved my master�s permission to return to tehran. pleased with an opportunity of showing the serdar that no body but himself could control his servants, he at once assented to my proposal; and forthwith began to give me instructions concerning what i should say to the grand vizier touching the late expedition, and particularly in what light i was to place his own individual prowess. �you yourself were there, hajji,� said he to me, �and therefore can describe the whole action as well as i could. we cannot precisely say that we gained a victory, because, alas! we have no heads to show; but we also were not defeated. the serdar, ass that he is, instead of waiting for the artillery, and availing himself of the infantry, attacks a walled town with his cavalry only, and is very much surprised that the garrison shut their gates, and fire at him from the ramparts: of course he can achieve nothing, and retires in disgrace. had i been your leader, things would have gone otherwise; and as it was, i was the only man who came hand to hand with the enemy. i was wounded in a desperate manner; and had it not been for the river between us, not a man of them would have been left to tell the tale. you will say all this, and as much more as you please�; then, giving me a packet of letters to the grand vizier, and to the different men in office, and an _arizeh_ (a memorial) to the shah, he ordered me to depart; i found the shah still encamped at sultanieh, although the autumn was now far advanced, and the season for returning to tehran near at hand. i presented myself at the grand vizier�s levee, with several other couriers, from different parts of the empire, and delivered my dispatches. when he had inspected mine, he called me to him, and said aloud, �you are welcome! you also were at hamamlû? the infidels did not dare to face the _kizzil bashes_, eh? the persian horseman, and the persian sword, after all, nobody can face. your khan, i see, has been wounded; he is indeed one of the shah�s best servants. well it was no worse. you must have had hot work on each bank of the river.� to all of this, and much more, i said �yes, yes,� and �no, no,� as fast as the necessity of the remark required; and i enjoyed the satisfaction of being looked upon as a man just come out of a battle. the vizier then called to one of his mirzas or secretaries, �here,� said he, �you must make out a _fatteh nameh_ (a proclamation of victory), which must immediately be sent into the different provinces, particularly to khorassan, in order to overawe the rebel khans there; and let the account be suited to the dignity and character of our victorious monarch. we are in want of a victory just at present; but, recollect, a good, substantial, and bloody victory.� �how many strong were the enemy?� inquired the mirza, looking towards me. �_bisyar, bisyar,_ many, many,� answered i, hesitating and embarrassed how many it would be agreeable that i should say. �put down fifty thousand,� said the vizier coolly. �how many killed?� said the mirza, looking first at the vizier, then at me. �write ten to fifteen thousand killed,� answered the minister: �remember these letters have to travel a great distance. it is beneath the dignity of the shah to kill less than his thousands and tens of thousands. would you have him less than rustam, and weaker than afrasiab? no, our kings must be drinkers of blood, and slayers of men, to be held in estimation by their subjects, and surrounding nations. well, have you written?� said the grand vizier. �yes, at your highness�s service,� answered the mirza; �i have written (reading from his paper) �that the infidel dogs of moscovites (whom may allah in his mercy impale on stakes of living fires!) dared to appear in arms to the number of fifty thousand, flanked and supported by a hundred mouths spouting fire and brimstone; but that as soon as the all-victorious armies of the shah appeared, ten to fifteen thousand of them gave up their souls; whilst prisoners poured in in such vast numbers, that the prices of slaves have diminished per cent in all the slave-markets of asia.� �barikallah! well done,� said the grand vizier. �you have written well. if the thing be not exactly so, yet, by the good luck of the shah, it will, and therefore it amounts to the same thing. truth is an excellent thing when it suits one�s purpose, but very inconvenient when otherwise.� �yes,� said the mirza, as he looked up from his knee, upon which he rested his hand to write his letter, and quoting a well-known passage in saadi, �falsehood mixed with good intentions, is preferable to truth tending to excite strife.� the vizier then called for his shoes, rose from his seat, mounted the horse that was waiting for him at the door of his tent, and proceeded to the audience of the shah, to give an account of the different dispatches that he had just received. i followed him, and mixed in with his large retinue of servants, until he turned round to me, and said, �you are dismissed; go, and take your rest.� [illustration: death of zeenab. .jpg] chapter xliii he relates a horrid tale, the consequences of which plunge him in the greatest misery. in a few days after the camp was struck, and the shah returned to his winter quarters at tehran, in the same pomp and parade with which he had left it. i had resumed my post as sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner, and was busily engaged in disposing of the men under my command, that the best order might be preserved during the march, when i was commanded to send off a messenger to tehran, with orders that the bazigers, the dancers and singers, should be in readiness to receive the shah on his arrival at sulimanieh. this place, as i have said before, is a palace situated on the banks of the caraj, about nine parasangs from the capital. on receiving this order, my long-forgotten zeenab came again to my recollection, and all my tender feelings which, owing to my active life, had hitherto lain dormant, were now revived. seven months were elapsed since we had first become acquainted; and although during that time i had lived with men of a nature sufficiently barbarous to destroy every good feeling, yet there was something so terrible in what i imagined must now be her situation, and i felt myself so much the cause of it, that my heart smote me every time that the subject came across my mind. �we shall soon see,� thought i, �if my fears be well founded. in a few days more we reach sulimanieh, and then her fate will be decided.� on the day of our arrival i headed the procession, to see that every proper arrangement had been made within the palace; and as i approached the walls of the harem, within which the bazigers had already taken their station, i heard the sounds of their voices and of their musical instruments. what would i not have given to have spoken to zeenab, or even to have observed her at a distance! but i knew that it would not be prudent to ask many questions concerning her, as suspicions, dangerous both to her and me, might arise, and probably involve us in immediate ruin. indeed, had i been inclined to give myself much stir on the subject, it would have been to no purpose; for very shortly after i heard the salute fired from the _zamburek_ camels, which indicated that the shah had alighted from his horse. after he had smoked one pipe in his hall of state, and had dismissed the courtiers who attended him, he retired to the harem. upon his entrance there, i heard the songs of the women, accompanied by tambourines, guitars, and little drums, rending the air as they walked in procession before him. well did i listen with all my ears to discover zeenab�s voice; but every endeavour was baffled, and i remained in a disagreeable state of vibration betwixt hope and fear, until a hasty order was issued for my old master, mirza ahmak, the king�s physician, to appear immediately before the shah. combinations of the mind in all matters of deep interest are formed as quick as thought, and act like the foretellings of prophecy. when i heard that the hakîm was sent for, a cold thrill ran through my veins, and i said to myself, �zeenab is lost for ever!� he came, was soon dismissed, and seeing me at the door of the harem, took me on one side, and said, �hajji, the shah is much enraged. you remember the cûrdish slave, which i presented to him at the festival of the no rûz. she has not appeared among the dancing-women, and pretends to be ill. he loves her, and had set his heart upon seeing her. he has called me to account for her conduct, as if i could control the caprice of this daughter of the devil; and says, that if he does not find her in full health and beauty when he reaches the ark (the palace), which will be on the next best fortunate hour, he will pluck my beard out by the roots. curse the unlucky moment which made her my slave; and still more the hour when i first invited the shah into my house.� upon this he left me, to set off immediately for tehran, whilst i retired to my tent, to ruminate over the horrid fate that awaited this unfortunate girl. i endeavoured to rally my spirits by the hope that perhaps she was actually ill, and that it had been impossible for her to appear before the king; and then i consoled myself with the idea, that if my fears were well founded, the doctor�s heart might be softened, and he might screen her from the shah�s observation, by giving some evasive reason for her non-appearance. then, after all, as if braving my feelings, i repeated to myself the lines of one of our poets, who, like me, had lost his mistress. �is there but one pair of stag eyes, or one cypress waist, or one full-moon face in the world, that i should so mourn the loss of my cruel one? �why should i burn, why should i cut myself, and sigh out my griefs under the windows of the deaf-eared charmer? �no, let me love where love is cheap; for i am a miser of my feelings.� thus i endeavoured to make light of the subject, and to show myself a true mussulman by my contempt for womankind. but still, turn where i would, go where i would, the image of zeenab, a torn and mangled corpse, was ever before my eyes, and haunted my imagination at all seasons and at all hours. at length the fortunate hour for the shah�s entry was announced, and he entered tehran amidst the whole of its population, who had been turned out to greet his arrival. my most pressing want was to see the hakîm, as if by chance, in order that no suspicion might fall upon me, in case poor zeenab was found guilty. on the very evening of our arrival, my wishes (alas! how fatally!) were accomplished. as i was taken up in giving some orders to a nasakchi, i saw him come out of the shah�s private apartment, looking full of care, with one hand stuck in his girdle, the other in his side, his back more bent than usual, and with his eyes fixed on the ground. i placed myself in his way, and gave him the salutation of peace, which caused him to look up. when he had recognized me, he stopped, saying, �you are the very man i was seeking. come hither;� and he took me on one side: �here is a strange story afloat,� said he; �this cûrd has brought all sorts of ashes on my head. _wallah!_ by heaven, the shah has run clean mad. he talks of making a general massacre of all that is male, within and without his harem, beginning with his viziers, and finishing by the eunuchs. he swears by his own head, that he will make me the first example if i do not find out the culprit.� �what culprit? who? what?� said i, �what has happened?� �why, zeenab,� answered he, �zeenab.� �oh! i understand,� said i; �aye! she you used to love so much.� �i?� answered the hakîm, as if afraid of being himself suspected, �i? _astaferallah!_ heaven forbid! do not say so for pity�s sake, hajji, for if such a suspicion were once hinted, the shah would put his threat into immediate execution. where did you ever hear that i loved zeenab?� �many things were reported concerning you at that time,� said i, �and all were astonished that a man of your wisdom, the locman of his time, the galenûs of persia, should have embarked in so frail and dangerous a commodity as a cûrdish maid, one of the undoubted progeny of the devil himself, whose footsteps could not be otherwise than notoriously unfortunate; who, of herself, was enough to bring ill luck to a whole empire, much more to a single family like yours.� �you say true, hajji,� said mirza ahmak, as he shook his head from side to side, and struck his left hand on the pit of his stomach. �ah! marvellous fool was i ever to have been caught by her black eyes! in fact, they were not eyes, they were spells:--the devil himself looked out of them, not she, and if he is not in her now, may i be called _gorumsak_ all the rest of my days. but, after all, what shall i do?� �what can i say?� answered i. �what will the shah do with her?� �let her go to jehanum,� answered the doctor; �let her go to her father�s mansion, and a good journey to her. i am only thinking of my own skin.� upon this, looking up tenderly at me, he said, �ah, hajji! you know how much i have always loved you: i took you into my house when you were houseless--i placed you in a good situation, and you have risen in your profession all through me--allow that there is, or that there ought to be such a thing in the world as gratitude--you have now an opportunity of exercising it:� then pausing for a while, and playing with the tip of my beard, he said, �have you guessed what i wished to say?� �no,� said i, �it has not yet reached my understanding.� �well, then,� said he, �in two words, own that you are the culprit. a great loss of consideration would accrue to me, but none to you; you are young, and can bear such a story to be told of you.� �loss of consideration, indeed!� exclaimed i, �what is that when the loss of life will ensue? are you mad, oh hakîm, or do you think me so? why should i die? why do you wish to have my blood upon your head? all i can say, if i am questioned on the subject, is, that i do not think you guilty, because you were ever too much in fear of the khanum, your wife; but i will never say that i am guilty.� whilst in the middle of our conversation, one of the shah�s eunuchs came up to me, and said that his chief had been ordered to see that the sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner, with five men, were in waiting at the foot of the high tower at the entrance of the harem, at the hour of midnight; and that they were to bring a _taboot_, or hand-bier, with them, to bear away a corpse for interment. all i could say in answer was �_be cheshm!_ (by my eyes)�; and lucky was it for me that he quitted me immediately, that mirza ahmak had also left me, and that it was dusk, or else the fear and anguish which overwhelmed me upon hearing this message must have betrayed me. a cold sweat broke out all over my body, my eyes swam, my knees knocked under me, and i should perhaps have fallen into a swoon, if the counter fear of being seen in such a state, in the very centre of the palace, had not roused me. �what,� said i to myself, �is it not enough that i have been the cause of her death, must i be her executioner too? must i be the grave-digger to my own child? must i be the ill-fated he who is to stretch her cold limbs in the grave, and send my own life�s blood back again to its mother earth? why am i called upon to do this, oh cruel, most cruel destiny? cannot i fly from the horrid scene? cannot i rather run a dagger into my heart? but no, �tis plain my fate is ordained, sealed, fixed! and in vain i struggle,--i must fulfil the task appointed for me! oh world, world! what art thou, and how much more wouldst thou be known, if each man was to lift up the veil that hideth his own actions, and show himself as he really is!� with these feelings, oppressed as if the mountain of demawend and all its sulphurs were on my heart, i went about my work doggedly, collecting the several men who were to be my colleagues in this bloody tragedy; who, heedless and unconcerned at an event of no unfrequent occurrence, were indifferent whether they were to be the bearers of a murdered corpse, or themselves the instruments of murder. the night was dark and lowering, and well suited to the horrid scene about to be acted. the sun, unusual in these climates, had set, surrounded by clouds of the colour of blood; and, as the night advanced, they rolled on in unceasing thunders over the summits of the adjacent range of albors. at sudden intervals the moon was seen through the dense vapour, which covered her again as suddenly, and restored the night to its darkness and solemnity. i was seated lonely in the guard-room of the palace, when i heard the cries of the sentinels on the watch-towers, announcing midnight, and the voices of the muezzins from the mosques, the wild notes of whose chant floating on the wind ran through my veins with the chilling creep of death, and announced to me that the hour of murder was at hand! they were the harbingers of death to the helpless woman. i started up,--i could not bear to hear them more,--i rushed on in desperate haste, and as i came to the appointed spot, i found my five companions already arrived, sitting unconcerned on and about the coffin that was to carry my zeenab to her eternal mansion. the only word which i had power to say to them was, �_shoud?_ is it done?� to which they answered, �_ne shoud._ it is not done.� to which ensued an awful silence. i had hoped that all was over, and that i should have been spared every other horror, excepting that of conducting the melancholy procession to the place of burial; but no, the deed was still to be done, and i could not retreat. on the confines of the apartments allotted to the women in the shah�s palace stands a high octagonal tower, some thirty gez in height, seen conspicuous from all parts of the city, at the summit of which is a chamber, in which he frequently reposes and takes the air. it is surrounded by unappropriated ground, and the principal gate of the harem is close to its base. on the top of all is a terrace (a spot, ah! never by me to be forgotten!) and it was to this that our whole attention was now riveted. i had scarcely arrived, when, looking up, we saw three figures, two men and a female, whose forms were lighted up by an occasional gleam of moonshine, that shone in a wild and uncertain manner upon them. they seemed to drag their victim between them with much violence, whilst she was seen in attitudes of supplication, on her knees, with her hands extended, and in all the agony of the deepest desperation. when they were at the brink of the tower her shrieks were audible, but so wild, so varied by the blasts of wind that blew round the building, that they appeared to me like the sounds of laughing madness. we all kept a dead and breathless silence: even my five ruffians seemed moved--i was transfixed like a lump of lifeless clay, and if i am asked what my sensations were at the time, i should be at a loss to describe them,--i was totally inanimate, and still i knew what was going on. at length, one loud, shrill, and searching scream of the bitterest woe was heard, which was suddenly lost in an interval of the most frightful silence. a heavy fall, which immediately succeeded, told us that all was over. i was then roused, and with my head confused, half crazed and half conscious, i immediately rushed to the spot, where my zeenab and her burden lay struggling, a mangled and mutilated corpse. she still breathed, but the convulsions of death were upon her, and her lips moved as if she would speak, although the blood was fast flowing from her mouth. i could not catch a word, although she uttered sounds that seemed like words. i thought she said, �my child! my child!� but perhaps it was an illusion of my brain. i hung over her in the deepest despair, and having lost all sense of prudence and of self-preservation, i acted so much up to my own feelings, that if the men around me had had the smallest suspicion of my real situation, nothing could have saved me from destruction. i even carried my frenzy so far as to steep my handkerchief in her blood, saying to myself, �this, at least, shall never part from me!� i came to myself, however, upon hearing the shrill and demon-like voice of one of her murderers from the tower�s height, crying out--�is she dead?� �aye, as a stone,� answered one of my ruffians. �carry her away, then,� said the voice. �to hell yourself,� in a suppressed tone, said another ruffian; upon which my men lifted the dead body into the taboot, placed it upon their shoulders, and walked off with it to the burial-ground without the city, where they found a grave ready dug to receive it. i walked mechanically after them, absorbed in most melancholy thoughts, and when we had arrived at the burial-place, i sat myself down on a grave-stone, scarcely conscious of what was going on. i watched the operations of the nasakchies with a sort of unmeaning stare; saw them place the dead body in the earth; then shovel the mould over it; then place two stones, one at the feet and the other at the head. when they had finished, they came up to me and said �that all was done�: to which i answered, �go home; i will follow.� they left me seated on the grave, and returned to the town. the night continued dark, and distant thunders still echoed through the mountains. no other sound was heard, save now and then the infant-like cries of the jackal, that now in packs, and then by two or three at the time, kept prowling round the mansions of the dead. the longer i remained near the grave, the less i felt inclined to return to my home, and to my horrid employment of executioner. i loathed my existence, and longed to be so secluded from the world, and from all dealings with those of high authority in it, that the only scheme which i could relish was that of becoming a real dervish, and passing the rest of my days in penitence and privations. besides, the fear of having disclosed, both by my words and actions, how much i was involved in the fate of the deceased, came across my mind, and added to my repugnance of returning. day by this time began to dawn, and impelled, both by a sense of my danger and by my desire to quit a place which had become odious to me, i determined to proceed on foot to kinaragird, the first stage to ispahan, and then take advantage of the first caravan that should be going to that city. �i will go and seek consolation in retirement, and in the bosom of my family,� said i to myself; �i will see what is become of my parents--perhaps i may reach the paternal roof in time to receive my father�s dying blessing, and by my presence give him in his old age the happiness of seeing his long-lost son restored to him. how shall i be able to go through my duties, with this misfortune about my neck? i have lived long enough in vice, and it is time that i should make the _tobeh_, or renounce my wicked ways.� in short, this horrid event produced such an effect upon my mind, that had i continued in the sentiments it inspired me with through life, i might well have aspired to be placed at the head of our most holy dervishes. [illustration: hajji takes sanctuary. .jpg] chapter xliv hajji baba meets with an old friend, who cheers him up, gives him good advice, and secures him from danger. pulling out the handkerchief from my breast, still wet with the blood of the unfortunate zeenab, i contemplated it with feelings of the most bitter anguish; then spreading it before me on her grave, i went through a ceremony to which i had long been unaccustomed,--i said my prayers. refreshed by this act, and strengthened in my resolutions of leaving tehran, i tore myself away, and stept valiantly onwards towards ispahan. having reached kinaragird, without seeing the trace of a caravan, and feeling myself sufficiently strong to proceed on my journey, i pushed on for the caravanserai of the sultan�s reservoir, where i intended to halt for the night. as i came in sight of the building, at some distance in the desert, i saw a man putting himself into strange attitudes, playing antics by himself, and apparently addressing himself to something on the ground. i approached him, and found that he was talking with great animation to his cap, which was thrown some yards before him. going still nearer to him, i discovered a face that was familiar to me. �who can it be?� said i to myself: �it must be one of my old friends, the dervishes of meshed.� in fact, it proved to be the _kessehgou_, the story-teller, who was practising a new story by himself, making his cap act audience. as soon as he saw, he recognized me, and came up to embrace me with seeming rapture. �ahi, hajji,� said he, �peace be with you! where have you been these many years? your place has long been empty. my eyes are refreshed by the sight of you.� then he repeated himself in the same strain several times over, until we at length got upon more rational subjects. he related his adventures since we had last met; which consisted in the detail of long and painful journeys, and of the various methods which his ingenuity had suggested to him of gaining his bread. he was now on his return from constantinople, from whence he had walked, and had it in contemplation to make his way in the same manner to delhi, after having passed a summer at ispahan, whither he was now proceeding. although little inclined to talk, in the melancholy mood in which my mind had been plunged, still i could not refrain in some measure from catching the exuberance of spirits with which my companion seemed to overflow, and i also gave him an account of myself since the day i left meshed with dervish sefer, when i had just recovered from the bastinado on the soles of my feet. as i proceeded in my narrative, showing him how, step by step, i had advanced in station and dignity, it was amusing to see with what increased reverence he treated me. at length, when i came to my promotion to the rank of sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner, i verily believe that he would have prostrated himself before me, with such extreme respect had experience taught him to treat gentlemen of that profession. but when he heard the sequel of my story; how for a woman i had abandoned my high situation and all the prospects of advancement which it held out to me; i perceived the low estimation to which i fell in his opinion. he exclaimed that i was not worthy of the _kalaât_ (the dress of distinction), which fortune had cut out, fashioned, and invested me with. �so, because the shah thinks it fitting to destroy a faithless slave,� said he, 'in whose guilt you have at most only half the share, you think it necessary to abandon the excellent station in life to which you had reached, and to begin again the drudgery of an existence lower and more uncertain than even the one which i enjoy. well� (making a pause), �there is no accounting for the different roads which men take in their search after happiness: some keep the high road; some take short cuts; others strike out new paths for themselves; and others again permit themselves to be led on without asking the road: but i never yet heard of one, but yourself, who, having every road and every path thrown open to him, preferred losing his way, with the risk of never again finding it.� and then he finished by quoting a reflection of the poet ferdûsi, applicable to the uncertainty of a soldier�s life, by way of consoling me for the vicissitudes of mine, saying, �_gahi pûsht ber zeen, gahi zeen ber pûsht_ (sometimes a saddle bears the weight of his back, and sometimes his back the weight of a saddle).� whilst we were conversing, a caravan appeared on the road from ispahan, and making straight for the caravanserai, took up its abode there for the night. �come,� said the dervish, who was a merry sociable fellow, �come, forget your sorrows for the present; we will pass an agreeable evening, notwithstanding we are in the midst of this dreary and thirsty desert. let us get together the travellers, the merchants, and the mule-drivers who compose the caravan, and after we have well supped and smoked i will relate to you a story that has recently happened at stamboul, and which i am sure cannot yet have been imported into persia.� most willingly did i accede to his proposal; for i was happy to drive melancholy from my thoughts at any rate, and we strolled into the building together. here we found men from different parts of persia, unloading their beasts and putting their effects in order, settling themselves in the different open rooms which look upon the square of the caravanserai. a dervish, and a story-teller too, was a great acquisition, after the fatigue and dullness of a journey across the salt desert; and when we had made a hearty meal he collected them on the square platform in the middle of the court, making them sit round, whilst he took his station in the midst. he then related his promised story. i endeavoured to pay every attention to it; but i found that my mind so constantly strayed from the narrative to the scenes i had lately witnessed, that it became impossible for me to retain what he said. i remarked, however, that he interested his audience in the highest degree; for when plunged in one of my deepest reveries i was frequently roused by the laughter and applause which the dervish excited. i promised myself on some future occasion to make him relate it over again, and in the meanwhile continued to give myself up wholly to my feelings. much did i envy the apparent light-heartedness that pervaded my companions and which at intervals made the vaulted rooms of the building resound with shouts of merriment. i longed for the time when i should again be like them, and enjoy the blessings of existence without care; but grief, like every other passion, must have its course, and, as the spring which gushes with violence from the rock, by degrees dwindles into a rivulet; so it must be let to pass off gradually until it becomes a moderate feeling, and at length is lost in the vortex of the world. day had closed by the time that the dervish had finished his story. the blue vault of heaven was completely furnished with bright twinkling stars, which seemed to have acquired a fresh brilliancy after the storms of the preceding night; and the moon was preparing to add her soft lustre to the scene, when a horseman, fully equipped, entered the porch that leads into the caravanserai. the principal persons of the caravan had still kept their stations on the platform, quietly smoking their pipes and discussing the merits of the tale they had just heard; the servants had dispersed to spread their masters� beds; and the muleteers had retired for the night to nestle in among their mules and their baggage: i, destitute of everything, had made up my mind to pass my night on the bare ground with a stone for my pillow; but when i looked at the horseman, as he emerged from the darkness of the porch into the light, my ideas took another turn. i recognized in him one of the nasakchies, who under my orders had witnessed the death of the wretched zeenab; and i very soon guessed what the object of his journey might be, when i heard him ask if the caravan was coming from or going to tehran; and whether they had seen a person whom, by the description he gave, i instantly recognized to be myself. my friend the dervish immediately divined how the matter stood; and deeply versed in every stratagem of deceit, without hesitation took upon himself to answer for the whole company. he said that all were going to the capital, with the exception of himself and his friend, who, both dervishes, were just arrived from constantinople; but that he had met one answering to the person he had described, one who seemed oppressed with care and worn with grief, wandering about in a sort of chance manner through the wilds of the desert. he added many more particulars which corresponded so entirely to my appearance and history that the horseman could not doubt for a moment but that this was the person he was in search of, and rode off in great haste according to the directions of the dervish, who, as may be imagined, purposely led him wrong. when he had been gone some time the dervish took me on one side, and said, �if you want to secure yourself from this man, you must instantly depart; for when he finds his search fruitless, and is tired of wandering about the desert, he will certainly return here, and then what can hinder your being discovered?� �i will do anything rather than be discovered by him,� said i: �he is evidently sent to seize me. i can expect no mercy from such a ruffian, particularly as i have not enough money to offer him, for i know his price. where can i go?� the dervish reflected a while, and said, �you must go to kom: you will reach it before morning, and as soon as you arrive there, lose not a moment in getting within the precincts of the sanctuary of the tomb of fatimeh. you will then, and not till then, be safe, even from the shah�s power. should you be caught without its walls, there is no hope for you. you will be seized; and then may allah take you into his holy keeping!� �but when i am there,� said i, �what shall i do? how shall i live?� �leave that to me,� said the dervish; �i shall soon overtake you, and as i know the place and many of the people in it, _inshallah_, please god, you will not fare so ill as you may imagine. i myself was once obliged to do the same thing, for having been the means of procuring poison for one of the shah�s women, who used it to destroy a rival. orders were sent to seize me, and i managed to reach the _bust_ (the refuge seat) at shahabdul azîm just five minutes before the executioner who was to have apprehended me. i never fared better in my life: for i did nothing; i was supported by the charity of those who came to say their prayers at the shrine of the saint: and the women, who constantly travelled thus far to pray and take their pleasure, always contrived to comfort me in my confinement. the only evil you have to fear is an order from the shah, that no one on pain of death shall give you food: if so, you will be starved into a surrender, and then the prophet be your protector! but your case is not one of sufficient consequence to make you fear this. the shah cannot care so much for one slave, when he has a hundred others to fill her place. after all, men do not die so easily as we persians imagine. recollect what the sheikh says, �clouds and wind, the moon, the sun, the firmament (and he might have added dervishes), all are busied, that thou, o man, mayest obtain thy bread: only eat it not in neglect.�� �i am not the man,� said i, �who will forget your kindness. perhaps my fortune may again be on the rise, and then i will put my beard into your hand. you know hajji baba of old, and that he is not one of those who �exposes his virtues on the palm of his hand, and hides his vices under his armpit.� what i was at meshed, the same i am now: the seller of adulterated smoke and the deputy lieutenant to the chief executioner, are one and the same.� �well, then, go,� said the dervish, as he embraced me, �and god be with you! take care of the ghôls and gins as you cross the salt desert; and again, i repeat, may allah, peace, and safety attend you!� as the day broke i could distinguish the gilt cupola of the tomb at a considerable distance before me; and this beacon of my security inspired me with fresh vigour in my solitary march over the dreary waste. i had scarcely reached the outskirts of the town of kom before i perceived the horseman at some distance behind, making the best of his way in search of me; and therefore i looked neither right nor left until the massive chain that hangs across the principal gateway of the sanctuary was placed between myself and my pursuer. i then exclaimed, �_ilhamd�illah!_ praises to allah! o mahomed! o ali!� and kissing the threshold of the tomb i said my prayers with all the fervency of one who having escaped a tempest has got safe into port. i had scarcely time to look about me before i perceived the nasakchi coming towards me. he accosted me with a cold salutation of peace, and then said, �that he had a royal order to conduct me into the shah�s presence wherever i might be found.� i told him that, with all reverence for his firman, it was my intention to avail myself of the acknowledged privilege of every true believer, to seek refuge at the shrine of the saint, and that, of course, he could not violate it by dragging me from it. �besides, this is the favourite saint of the king of kings,� said i, �and he respects this shrine more than any other.� �what shall i do then, hajji?� said he. �you know this is not written in the order. if i go back without you, perhaps the shah may cut off my ears instead of yours.� �_inshallah!_ please god,� said i. �please god, do you say?� said he in a fury: �am i come all this way that men should call me ass? i am not a man if i do not make you return with me.� and forthwith we began to wrangle to such a degree that several of the priests, attached to the endowment, came from their rooms to inquire into the cause of the disturbance. �here is one,� exclaimed i, �who presumes to violate the sanctuary. i have taken refuge in it, and he talks of forcing me away! you, that are men of god,� addressing myself to the mollahs, �speak, and say whether you will allow this?� they all took my part. �this is unheard of,� said they, �in persia. if you dare to take one from the _bust_, you will not only have the vengeance of the saint on your head, but the whole corps of the ullemah will be upon you; and be you protected by the king of kings, or the king of demons, nothing can screen you from their fury.� the nasakchi remained quite uncertain what to do, and at length, softening his tone, he endeavoured to make a virtue of necessity, and began to negotiate with me upon what he might get if he went away without further molesting me. i did not deny the right he had of being paid for his trouble, for it is precisely what i should have expected myself had i been in his place; but i made him recollect how little i was able to requite him; for he knew as well as i all the circumstances of my flight, and that i had brought nothing away with me from tehran. he suggested that i might give him what effects i had left behind me; to which i did not in the least agree, but recommended him to go whence he came, and to leave the afflicted to their miseries. the fact is, as i afterwards found out, the rogue had already taken possession of my property, which consisted of clothes, trunks, bedding, horse-furniture, pipes, etc., having himself been the cause of denouncing me to the shah. he had watched the effect which the murderous death of the unhappy cûrd had produced upon me, and immediately had laid his plan for my destruction, and for stepping into my situation. finding that he could not exert the power which had been vested in him, and that his firman was so much waste paper, as long as i continued to hold fast to my refuge-place, he thought it best to return to tehran; but in so doing he delivered his powers into the hands of the governor of the town, with strict injunctions to keep watch over my actions, and in case i stirred from the sanctuary, to seize and send me a prisoner to the seat of government. chapter xlv he takes refuge in a sanctuary, where his melancholy thoughts are diverted by a curious story. i had scarcely got rid of the nasakchi, when i heard the voice of my friend the dervish, who was announcing his arrival in the holy city, by all the different invocations of the almighty and his attributes, which are frequently made by true believers. very soon after, i was delighted to see him coming towards me, and to hear him express his satisfaction that i had reached my resting-place before my pursuer had had time to come up with me. he proposed to keep me company for a short time, and we took possession of one of the cells situated in the square court forming part of the buildings in the centre of which the tomb is placed. i had by good luck brought away my ready money, consisting of twenty tomauns in gold, besides some silver; and we expended some of this in articles of the first necessity, such as a mat to cover the bare floor of our room, and an earthen jug for our water. but before we had got any further in our domestic arrangements, the dervish accosted me in the following manner: �i must be informed of one thing before we proceed. do you ever say your prayers? do you keep your fasts? do you make your ablutions regularly? or do you continue to live in that fit state for eternal perdition which we were wont to do at meshed?� �why do you speak thus to me?� said i. �what can it be to you whether i pray or not?� �it is not much to me,� answered the dervish, �but it is a great deal to yourself. this kom is a place that, excepting on the subject of religion, and settling who are worthy of salvation and who to be damned, no one opens his lips. every man you meet is either a descendant of the prophet or a man of the law. all wear long and mortified faces, and seem to look upon that man as an appointed subject for the eternal fires, who happens to have a rosy cheek and a laughing eye. therefore, as soon as i approach the place, i always change the atmosphere of my countenance from fair to haze, and from haze to downright clouds and darkness, according as circumstances may require. my knees, which scarcely ever touch the praying carpet, now perform their functions five good times per day; and i, who in any other place never consult any kebleh[ ] but that of my own pleasure and inclinations, now know the direction of the true one, as well as i know the way to my mouth.� �all this is very well,� said i; �but what may be the use of it? i am a mussulman, �tis true, but to such a pitch as this--no never. �the use?� answered the dervish. �the use is this; that it will save you from being starved or stoned to death. these priests will hearken to no medium,--either you are a true believer or you are not. if they were to have the least suspicion that you doubted any of the articles of the faith,--that you did not look upon the koran as a living miracle, and did not read it with becoming reverence, whether you understand or not,--they would soon show you what power they possess. and if they were to suppose you to be a _sûfi_ (a free thinker), by the death of your father and mother, they would tear you into little pieces, and then feel contented that they had got on another post on the high road to paradise. perhaps, friend hajji, you do not know that this is the residence of the celebrated mirza abdul cossim, the first _mûshtehed_ (divine) of persia; a man who, if he were to give himself sufficient stir, would make the people believe any doctrine that he might choose to promulgate. such is his influence, that many believe he could even subvert the authority of the shah himself, and make his subjects look upon his firmans as worthless, as so much waste paper. but the truth is, he is a good man; and, except stoning his sûfi, and holding us wandering dervishes as the dirt under his feet, i know of no fault in him.� having heard him out, i agreed that, however i might deplore the want of habit in my religious duties, yet, situated as i was, it was necessary that i should acquire them, in order to be held in proper estimation by the great authorities, under whose eye i was immediately placed; and forthwith i set about saying my prayers and making my ablutions, as if my very existence depended upon my regularity. indeed, what i had formerly looked upon as irksome ceremony, now became an agreeable pastime, and helped greatly to soften the tedium of my melancholy life. i never omitted to rise at the first call; to make my ablutions at the cistern, using all the forms of the strictest shiah, and then to pray in the most conspicuous spot i could find. the intonations of my _allah ho akbar_ were to be heard in each corner of the tomb, and i hoped they came to the ear of every inhabitant of it. no face wore a more mortified appearance than mine: even the dervish, who was the best mimic possible, could not beat me in the downcast eye, the hypocritical ejaculation, the affected taciturnity of the sour, proud, and bigoted man of the law. it became known that i was a refugee at the sanctuary; and i very soon discovered the advantages which the dervish had promised me, from taking upon me the airs of the place, and assuming the character of a rigid mussulman. he spread abroad the history of my misfortune, of course much to my advantage, giving me out for one who was suffering for the sins of another, and asserting that the doctor ought, in fact, to have been the sufferer. i became acquainted with the principal personages of the town, who were agreed that they had never known a better model of a true believer than i; and had i not been confined to the walls of the sanctuary, it was in contemplation to have made me a _peish namaz_ (a leader of the prayers) at their religious meetings in the mosque. i found that the profound taciturnity which i had adopted was the best help towards the establishment of a high reputation for wisdom; and that, by the help of my beads, which i kept constantly counting, a mumble of my lips, and occasional groans and pious exclamations, the road to the highest consideration was open to me. my dervish and i lived almost free of expense, so plentifully were we supplied with food. the women, in particular, did not lose an opportunity of bringing me presents of fruit, honey, bread, and other necessaries, for which i repaid them with kind thanks, and now and then with a talisman, written with my own hand. but although our life was one of ease, yet it was so dull, and so void of incident, that even the spirits of my companion began to sink under it. in order to fill up some of the long hours of listlessness which oppressed us, i encouraged him to recite all his stories, one by one, not forgetting the one which he had related with so much effect in the caravanserai of the sultan�s reservoir, and we found this a very agreeable mode of closing the day. i feel, o reader, that you also may partake of that same dullness which oppressed me; and i think it but fair that i should endeavour to dissipate it, in the same manner as mine was by the dervish,--therefore i will repeat the story which he related to me; and, whether it amuses you or not, yet perhaps you will be glad to know how the mind of a poor prisoner, in the sanctuary at kom, was diverted from its miseries. [illustration: the baked head. .jpg] story of the baked head the present khon-khor of roum[ ] is a staunch mussulman and a rigid upholder of the true faith. upon his coming to the throne, he announced his intention of doing away with many customs common to the infidels, which had crept into the administration of the state during the reign of his predecessor; and he thought it his duty to endeavour to restore things to their primitive simplicity and to adopt a mode of government purely turkish. accordingly he resumed a custom which had almost got into disuse,--that of going about the city in _tebdil_, or disguise; and he was so careful about the disguises which he adopted, and the people whom he admitted into his secrets on these occasions, that he took all sorts of precautions, and invented all sorts of schemes of secrecy, in whatever related to his dresses, and the characters in which he chose to appear. it is not long ago that considerable discontent prevailed throughout turkey, and rebellion threatened to break out in constantinople itself. he was then very anxious to ascertain the temper of the public mind; and, in his usual wary manner, determined to get a suit made that would make him undiscoverable by even his own immediate attendants. he usually sent for different tailors at different times, and in different places. on this occasion he ordered his favourite slave, the white eunuch mansouri, to bring him one of no repute, with all the requisite secrecy, at midnight, in order that he might receive instructions about a dress. the slave in great humility made his _bash ustun_ (on my head be it), and went his way to execute the command. close to the gate of the _bezesten_, or cloth-market, he saw an old man in a stall, so narrow that he could scarce turn himself about in it, who was taken up in patching an old cloak. he was almost bent double with constant labour at his shopboard; and his eyes seemed not to have benefited by his application, for a pair of glasses were mounted on his nose. "this is precisely the man i want," said the slave to himself: "i am sure he can be of no repute." so intent was he upon his work, that he did not heed the salutation of "peace be with you, friend!" with which mansouri accosted him; and when he did look up, and saw the well-dressed personage whom he thought had spoken, he continued his work, without making the usual reply; for he could not suppose that the salutation was meant for such a poor devil as he. however, finding that he was the object of the eunuch's attention, he doffed the spectacles, threw away his work, and was about getting on his legs, when he was stopped, and requested not to disturb himself. "what your name?" said mansouri. "abdallah," said the tailor, "at your service; but i am generally called babadul by my friends and the world at large." "you are a tailor, are you not?" continued the slave. "yes," said the other, "i am a tailor as well as the muezzin at the little mosque in the fish-market. what more can i do?" "well, babadul," said mansouri, "have you a mind for a job,--a good job?" "am i a fool," answered the old man, "that i should dislike it? say what it is." "softly, my friend," remarked the eunuch; "we must go on slow and sure. will you suffer yourself to be led blindfolded at midnight wherever i choose to take you, for a job?" "that's another question," said babadul; "times are critical, heads fly in abundance, and a poor tailor's may go as well as a vizier's or a capitan pacha's. but pay me well, and i believe i would make a suit of clothes for eblis, the foul fiend, himself." "well, then, you agree to my proposal?" said the eunuch, who at the same time put two pieces of gold in his hand. "yes, most surely," said babadul, "i agree. tell me what i am to do, and you may depend upon me." accordingly they settled between them that the eunuch was to come to the stall at midnight, and lead him away blindfolded. babadul, being left alone, continued his work, wondering what could be the job upon which he was to be so mysteriously employed; and, anxious to make his wife partaker of the news of his good luck, he shut up his stall earlier than usual, and went to his house, that was situated not far from the little mosque in the fish-market, of which he was the muezzin. old dilferîb, his wife, was almost as much bent double as her husband; and in consequence of the two gold pieces, and contemplation of more which they expected to receive, they treated themselves to a dish of smoking kabobs, a salad, dried grapes, and sweetmeats, after which they consoled themselves with some of the hottest and most bitter coffee which the old woman could make. true to his appointment, babadul was at his stall at midnight, where he was as punctually met by mansouri. without any words, the former permitted himself to be blindfolded, whilst the latter led him away by the hand, making many and devious turns, until they reached the imperial seraglio; there, stopping only to open the private iron gate, mansouri introduced the tailor into the very heart of the sultan's private apartments. the bandage over his eyes was taken off in a dark chamber, lighted up only by a small lamp, which stood on the shelf surrounding the top of the room, but which was splendidly furnished by sofas of the richest brocade, and by carpets of the most costly manufacture. here babadul was commanded to sit, until mansouri returned with a bundle, wrapped in a large shawl handkerchief: this being opened, a sort of dervish's dress was displayed to the tailor, and he was requested to look at it, to consider how long he would be making such a one, and then to return it again, duly folded up, to its shawl covering. in the meanwhile, mansouri told him to stay there until he should return to take him away again, and then left him. babadul, having turned the dress over and over again, calculated each stitch, and, come to his proper conclusions, packed it up in the handkerchief, as he had been commanded; but no sooner had he done this than a man of lofty demeanour and appearance, whose look made the poor tailor shrink within himself, came into the room, took up the bundle, and walked away with it, without uttering a single word. a few minutes after, as babadul was pondering over the strangeness of his situation, and just recovering from the effects of this apparition, a door opened in another part of the apartment, and a mysterious figure, richly dressed, came in, bearing a bundle, equally covered with a shawl, about the size of that which had just been taken away; and making the lowest prostrations before the tailor, in great apparent trepidation, approached him, placed it at his feet, kissed the ground, and retreated without saying a word, or even looking up. "well," said babadul to himself: "this may be something very fine, and i may be some very great personage, for aught i know; but this is very certain, that i had rather be patching my old cloak in the stall than doing this job, however grand and lucrative it may be. who knows what i may have been brought here for? these comings in and goings out of strange-looking people, apparently without tongues in their heads, do not argue well. i wish they would give me fewer bows and a greater supply of words, from which i might learn what i am to get by all this. i have heard of poor women having been sewn up in sacks and thrown into the sea. who knows? perhaps i am destined to be the tailor on such an occasion." he had scarcely got thus far in his soliloquy when the slave mansouri re-entered the room and told him, without more words, to take up the bundle; which having done, his eyes were again blindfolded, and he was led to the spot from whence he came. babadul, true to his agreement, asked no questions, but agreed with the slave that in three days the dress should be ready for delivery at his stall for which he was to receive ten more pieces of gold. having got rid of his companion, he proceeded with all haste to his house, where he knew his wife would be impatiently waiting his return; and as he walked onwards he congratulated himself that at length he had succeeded in getting indeed a job worth the having, and that his fate had finally turned up something good for his old age. it was about two o'clock in the morning when he reached the door of his house. he was received by his wife with expressions of great impatience at his long absence; but when he held up the bundle to her face, as she held up the lamp to his, and when he said, "_mujdeh_, give me a reward for good news:--see, i have got my work, and a handsome reward we shall get when it is finished," she was all smiles and good humour. "leave it there till we get up, and let us go to bed now," said the tailor. "no, no," said the wife, "i must look at what you have got before i retire, or i shall not be able to sleep": upon which, whilst he held up the lamp she opened the bundle. guess, guess at the astonishment of the tailor and his wife, when, instead of seeing a suit of clothes, they discovered, wrapped in a napkin, in its most horrid and ghastly state, a human head! it fell from the old woman's hands and rolled away some paces, whilst the horror-struck couple first hid their faces with their hands, and then looked at each other with countenances which nothing can describe. "work!" cried the wife, "work, indeed! pretty work you have made of it! was it necessary to go so far, and to take such precautions, to bring this misfortune on our heads? did you bring home this dead man's head to make a suit of clothes of?" "_anna senna! baba senna!_ curses be on his mother! perdition seize his father!" exclaimed the poor tailor, "for bringing me into this dilemma. my heart misgave me as that dog of a eunuch talked of blindfolding and silence to me: i thought, as true as i am a turk, that the job could not consist only in making a suit of clothes; and sure enough this dog's son has tacked a head to it. allah! allah! what am i to do now? i know not the way to his home, or else i would take it back to him immediately, and throw it in his face. we shall have the bostangi bashi and a hundred other bashis here in a minute, and we shall be made to pay the price of blood; or, who knows, be hanged, or drowned, or impaled! what shall we do, eh, dilferîb, my soul, say?" "do?" said his wife; "get rid of the head, to be sure: we have no more right to have it palmed upon us than anybody else." "but the day will soon dawn," said the tailor, "and then it will be too late. let us be doing something at once." "a thought has struck me," said the old woman. "our neighbour, the baker, hassan, heats his oven at this hour, and begins soon after to bake his bread for his morning's customers. he frequently has different sorts of things to bake from the neighbouring houses, which are placed near the oven's mouth over-night: suppose i put this head into one of our earthen pots and send it to be baked; no body will find it out until it is done, and then we need not send for it, so it will remain on the baker's hands." babadul admired his wife's sagacity, and forthwith she put her plan into execution. when the head had been placed in a baking-pan, she watched a moment when nobody was at hand, and set it on the ground, in the same row with the other articles that were to be inserted in hassan's oven. the old couple then double-barred the door of their house, and retired to rest, comforting themselves with the acquisition of the fine shawl and napkin in which the head had been wrapped. the baker hassan and his son mahmûd were heating their oven, inserting therein thorns, chips, and old rubbish at a great rate, when their attention was arrested by the extraordinary whinings and barking of a dog, that was a constant customer at the oven for stray bits of bread, and much befriended by hassan and his son, who were noted for being conscientious mussulmans. "look, mahmûd," said the father to the son, "see what is the matter with the dog: something extraordinary is in the wind." the son did what his father bade him, and seeing no reason for the dog's noises, said, "_bir chey yok_, there is nothing," and drove him away. but the howlings not ceasing, hassan went himself, and found the dog most extremely intent upon smelling and pointing at the tailor's pipkin. he jumped upon hassan, then at the pot, then upon hassan again, until the baker no longer doubted that the beast took great interest in its contents. he therefore gently drew off the lid, when need i mention his horror and surprise at seeing a human head staring him in the face? "allah! allah!" cried the baker; but being a man of strong nerves, instead of letting it fall, as most people would have done, he quietly put on the lid again, and called his son to him. "mahmûd," said he, "this is a bad world, and there are bad men in it. some wicked infidel has sent a man's head to bake; but thanks to our good fortune, and to the dog, our oven has been saved from pollution, and we can go on making our bread with clean hands and clear consciences. but since the devil is at work, let others have a visit from him as well as ourselves. if it be known that we have had a dead man's head to bake, who will ever employ us again? we must starve, we must shut up our oven; we shall get the reputation of mixing up our dough with human grease, and if perchance a hair is found, it will immediately be said that it came from the dead man's beard." mahmûd, a youth of about twenty, who partook of his father's insensibility and coolness, and who, moreover, had a great deal of dry humour and ready wit, looked upon the incident in the light of a good joke, and broke out into a hearty laugh when he saw the ugly picture which the grinning head made, set in its earthen frame. "let us pop it into the shop of kior ali, the barber, opposite," said the youth; "he is just beginning to open it, and as he has but one eye, we shall be better able to do so without being seen. do, father," said mahmûd, "let me; nobody shall discover me; and let it be done before there is more daylight." the father consented; and mahmûd catching the moment when the barber had walked to the corner of the street to perform certain ablutions, stepped into his shop, and placed the head on a sort of takcheh, or bracket on the wall, arranged some shaving towels about it, as if it had been a customer ready seated to be shaved, and, with a boy's mischief in his heart, stepped back to his oven again, to watch the effects which this new sort of customer would have upon the blind barber. [illustration: ��o mercy! mercy!� cried kior ali�. .jpg] kior ali hobbled into his shop, which was but ill lighted by a glimmering of daylight that hardly pierced through the oil-papered windows, and looking about him, saw this figure, as he supposed, seated against the wall ready to be operated upon. "ha! peace be unto you!" said he to it: "you are rather early this morning; i did not see you at first. my water is not yet hot. oh, i see you want your head shaved! but why do you take off your _fese_ (skull-cap) so soon? you will catch cold." then he paused. "no answer," said the barber to himself. "i suppose he is dumb, and deaf too perhaps. well, i am half blind: so we are nearly upon equal terms: however, if i were even to lose my other eye," addressing himself to the head, "i dare say, my old uncle, i could shave you for all that; for my razor would glide as naturally over your head, as a draught of good wine does over my throat." he went methodically about his preparations; he took down his tin basin from a peg, prepared his soap, then stropped his razor on the long bit of leather that was fastened to his girdle. having made his lather, he walked up to the supposed customer, holding the basin in his left hand, whilst his right was extended to sprinkle the first preparation of water on the sconce. no sooner had he placed his hand on the cold head, than he withdrew it, as if he had been burnt. "eh! why, what's the matter with you, friend?" said the barber; "you are as cold as a piece of ice." but when he attempted a second time to lather it, down it came with a terrible bounce from the shelf to the floor, and made the poor shaver jump quite across his shop with the fright. "aman! aman! o mercy, mercy!" cried kior ali, as he thrust himself into the furthermost corner without daring to move: "take my shop, my razors, my towels,--take all i have; but don't touch my life! if you are the shaitan, speak; but excuse my shaving you!" but when he found that all was hushed after the catastrophe, and that nothing was to be feared, he approached the head and taking it up by the lock of hair at the top, he looked at it in amazement. "a head, by all the imâms!" said he, accosting it: "and how did you get here? do you want to disgrace me, you filthy piece of flesh? but you shall not! although kior ali has lost one eye, yet his other is a sharp one, and knows what it is about. i would give you to the baker hassan there, if his rogue of a son, who is now looking this way, was not even sharper than this self-same eye; but now i think of it, i will take you where you can do no harm. the giaour yanaki, the greek _kabobchi_ [ ] (roast meat man), shall have you, and shall cut you up into mincemeat for his infidel customers." upon this kior ali, drawing in one hand, in which he carried the head, through the slit on the sides of his _beniche_, or cloak, and taking up his pipe in the other, he walked down two streets to the shop of the aforesaid greek. he frequented it in preference to that if a mussulman, because he could here drink wine with impunity. from long practice he knew precisely where the provision of fresh meat was kept, and as he entered the shop, casting his eye furtively round, he threw the head in a dark corner, behind one of the large sides of a sheep that was to be used for the kabobs if the day. no one saw him perform this feat; for the morning was still sufficiently obscure to screen him. he lighted his pipe at yanaki's charcoal fire, and as a pretext for his visit, ordered a dish of meat to be sent to him for breakfast; a treat to which he thought himself fully entitled after his morning's adventure. yanaki, meanwhile, having cleaned his platters, put his skewers in order, lit his fires, made his sherbets, and swept out his shop, went to the larder for some meat for the shaver's breakfast. yanaki was a true greek:--cunning, cautious, deceitful; cringing to his superiors, tyrannical towards his inferiors; detesting with a mortal hatred his proud masters, the osmanlies, yet fawning, flattering, and abject whenever any of them, however low in life, deigned to take notice of him. turning over his stock, he looked about for some old bits that might serve the present purpose, muttering to himself that any carrion was good enough for a turk's stomach. he surveyed his half sheep from top to bottom; felt it, and said, "no, this will keep"; but as he turned up its fat tail, the eye of the dead man's head caught his eye, and made him start, and step back some paces. "as ye love your eyes," exclaimed he, "who is there?" receiving no answer, he looked again, and again; then nearer, then, thrusting his hand among sheep's heads and trotters, old remnants of meat, and the like, he pulled out the head--the horrid head--which he held extended at arm's length, as if he were afraid it would do him mischief. "anathemas attend your beard!" exclaimed yanaki, as soon as he discovered, by the tuft of hair on the top, that it had belonged to a mussulman, "och! if i had but every one of your heads in this manner, ye cursed race of omar! i would make kabobs of them, and every cur in constantinople should get fat for nothing. may ye all come to this end! may the vultures feed on your carcasses! and may every greek have the good fortune which has befallen me this day, of having one of your worthless skulls for his football!" upon which, in his rage, he threw it down and kicked it from him; but recollecting himself he said, "but, after all, what shall i do with it? if it is seen here, i am lost for ever: nobody will believe but what i have killed a turk." [illustration: �to where the dead body of a jew lay extended.� .jpg] all of a sudden he cried out, in a sort of malicious ecstasy, "'tis well i remembered,--the jew! the jew!--a properer place for such a head was never thought or heard of; and there you shall go, thou vile remnant of a mahomedan!" upon which he seized it, and hiding it under his coat, ran with it down the street to where the dead body of a jew lay extended, with its head placed immediately between its legs. in turkey, you must know, when a mahomedan is beheaded, his head is placed under his arm, by way of an honourable distinction from the christian or jew, who, when a similar misfortune befalls them, have theirs inserted between their legs, as close to the seat of dishonour as possible. it was in that situation then that yanaki placed the turk's head, putting it as near, cheek by jowl, with the jew's, as the hurry of the case would allow. he had been able to effect this without being seen, because the day was still but little advanced, and no one stirring; and he returned to his shop, full of exultation at having been able to discharge his feelings of hatred against his oppressors, by placing one of their heads on the spot in nature, which, according to his estimation, was the most teeming with opprobrium. the unfortunate sufferer on this occasion had been accused of stealing and putting to death a mahomedan child (a ceremony in their religion, which they have been known to practice both in turkey and persia), and which created such an extraordinary tumult among the mob of constantinople, that, in order to appease it, he had been decapitated. his execution had taken place purposely before the door of a wealthy greek, and the body was ordered to remain there three days before it was permitted to be carried away for interment. the expectation that the greek would be induced to pay down a handsome sum, in order that this nuisance might be removed from his door, and save him from the ill luck which such an object is generally supposed to bring, made the officer entrusted with the execution prefer this spot to every other. but, careless of the consequences, the greek shut up the windows of his house, determined to deprive his oppressors of their expected perquisite; and so the dead jew remained exposed his full time. few excepting those of the true faith ventured to approach the spot, fearful that the mohamedan authorities would, in their wanton propensities to heap insults upon the giaours, oblige some one of them to carry the carcass to the place of burial; and thus the horrid and disgusting object was left abandoned to itself, and this had given an opportunity to the kabobchi, yanaki, to dispose of the head in the manner above related, unseen and unmolested. but when, as the day advanced, and as the stir of the streets became more active, this additional head was discovered, the crowd, which gathered about it, became immense. it was immediately rumoured that a miracle had been performed; for a dead jew was to be seen with two heads. the extraordinary intelligence flew from mouth to mouth, until the whole city was in an uproar, and all were running to see the miracle. the sanhedrim immediately pronounced that something extraordinary was about to happen to their persecuted race. rabbins were to be seen running to and fro, and their whole community was now poured around the dead body, in expectation that he would perhaps arise, put on his heads, and deliver them from the grip of their oppressors. but as ill luck would have it for them, a janissary, who had mixed in the crowd and had taken a close survey of the supernumerary head, exclaimed in a mixture of doubt and amazement, "allah, allah, il allah! these are no infidel's heads. one is the head of our lord and master, the aga of the janissaries." upon which, seeing more of his companions, he called them to him and making known his discovery, they became violent with rage, and set off to communicate the intelligence to their orta. the news spread like wildfire throughout the whole of the corps of the janissaries, and a most alarming tumult was immediately excited: for it seems that it was unknown in the capital that their chief, to whom they were devotedly attached, and one of their own selection, had been put to death. "what!" said they, "is it not enough to deal thus treacherously with us, and deprive us of a chief to whom we are attached; but we must be treated with the greatest contempt that it is possible for men to receive? what! the head of our most noble aga of the janissaries to be placed upon the most ignoble part of a jew! what are we come to? we alone are not insulted; the whole of islam is insulted, degraded, debased! no: this is unheard-of insolence, a stain never to be wiped off, without the extermination of the whole race! and what dog has done this deed? how did the head get there? is it that dog of a vizier's work, or has the reis effendi and those traitors of frank ambassadors been at work? _wallah, billah, tallah!_ by the holy caaba, by the beard of osman, and by the sword of omar, we will be revenged!" we must leave the tumult to rage for a short time; we must request the reader to imagine a scene, in which the jews are flying in all directions, hiding themselves with great precaution against enraged turks, who with expressions like those just mentioned in their mouths, are to be seen walking about in groups, armed to their teeth with pistols and scimitars, and vowing vengeance upon everything which came in their way. he must imagine a city of narrow streets and low houses, thronged with a numerous population, dresses the most various in shape and the most lively in colours, all anxious, all talking, all agog as if something extraordinary was to happen; in the midst of whom i will leave him, to take a look into the interior of the sultan's seraglio, and to inquire in what his eminency himself had been engaged since we last noticed him. on the very same night of the tailor's attendance, the sultan had given a secret order for taking off the head of the aga of the janissaries (the fomenter of all the disturbances which had lately taken place among his corps, and consequently their idol); and so anxious was he about its execution, that he had ordered it to be brought to him the moment it was off. the man entrusted with the execution, upon entering the room where he had been directed to bring the head, seeing some one seated, naturally took him for the sultan, and, without daring to look up, immediately placed the burden at his feet, with the prostrations which we have ready described as having been performed before the tailor. the sultan, who not a minute before had taken away the bundle containing the dervish's dress, had done so in the intention of deceiving his slave mansouri himself; so anxious was he of being unknown in his new disguise even to him; and intended to have substituted another in its stead; but not calculating either upon the reception of the head, or upon mansouri's immediate return to the tailor, he was himself completely puzzled how to act when he found the tailor was gone, led off by his slave. to have sent after them would have disconcerted his schemes, and therefore he felt himself obliged to wait mansouri's return, before he could get an explanation of what had happened; for he knew that they would not have gone away without the dress, and that dress he had then in his possession. in the meanwhile, anxious and impatient to know what had become of the expected head, he sent for the officer who was entrusted with the execution; and the astonishment of both may be imagined when an explanation took place. "by my beard!" exclaimed the sultan, having thought awhile within himself; "by my beard, the tailor must have got the head!" his impatience for mansouri's return then became extreme. in vain he fretted, fumed, and cried "allah! allah!" it did not make the slave return a minute the sooner, who, good man, would have gone quietly to rest had he not been called upon to appear before the sultan. as soon as he was within hearing, he called out, "ahi! mansouri, run immediately to the tailor--he has got the head of the aga of the janissaries instead of the dervish's dress--run, fetch it without loss of time, or something unfortunate will happen!" he then explained how this untoward event had occurred. mansouri now, in his turn, felt himself greatly embarrassed; for he only knew the road to the tailor's stall, but was totally unacquainted with his dwelling-house. however, rather than excite his master's anxiety in a higher degree, he set off in quest of the tailor, and went straight to his stall, in the hopes of hearing from the neighbours where his house was. it was too early in the day for the opening of the bezesten, and except a coffee-house that had just prepared for the reception of customers, where he applied and could gain no intelligence, he found himself completely at a standstill. by the greatest good luck, he recollected babadul had told him that he was the muezzin to the little mosque in the fish-market, and thither he immediately bent his steps. the azan, or morning invitation to prayers, was now chanting forth from all the minarets, and he expected that he might catch the purloiner of his head in the very act of inviting the faithful to prayers. as he approached the spot, he heard an old broken and tremulous voice, which he imagined might be babadul's, breaking the stillness of the morning by all the energy of its lungs; and he was not mistaken, for as he stood under the minaret, he perceived the old man walking round the gallery which encircles it, with his hand applied to the back of his ear, and with his mouth wide open, pouring out his whole throat in the execution of his office. as soon as the tailor saw mansouri making signs to him, the profession of faith stuck in his throat; and between the fright of being brought to account for the head, and the words which he had to pronounce, it is said that he made so strange a jumble, that some of the stricter mussulmans, his neighbours, who were paying attention to the call, professed themselves quite scandalized at his performance. he descended with all haste, and locking the door after him which leads up the winding staircase, he met mansouri in the street. he did not wait to be questioned respecting the fate of the horrid object, but at once attacked the slave concerning the trick, as he called it, which had been put upon him. "are you a man," said he, "to treat a poor emir like me in the manner you have done, as if my house was a charnel-house? i suppose you will ask me the price of blood next!" "friend," said mansouri, "what are you talking about? do not you see that it has been a mistake?" "a mistake, indeed!" cried the tailor, "a mistake done on purpose to bring a poor man into trouble. one man laughs at my stupid beard, and makes me believe that i am to make a suit of clothes for him--another takes away the pattern--and a third substitutes a dead man's head for it. allah! allah! i have got into the hands of a pretty nest of rogues, a set of ill-begotten knaves!" upon which mansouri placed his hand upon the tailor's mouth, and said, "say no more, say no more; you are getting deeper into the dirt. do you know whom you are abusing." "i know not, nor care not," answered babadul; "all i know is that whoever gives me a dead man's head for a suit of clothes can only be an infidel dog." "do you call god's viceregent upon earth, you old demi-stitching, demi-praying fool, an infidel dog?" exclaimed mansouri in a rage, which entirely made him forget the precaution he had hitherto maintained concerning his employer. "are your vile lips to defile the name of him who is the _alem penah_, the refuge of the world? what dirt are you eating, what ashes are you heaping on your head? come, no more words; tell me where the dead man's head is, or i will take yours of in his stead." upon hearing this, the tailor stood with his mouth wide open, as if the doors of his understanding had just been unlocked. "_aman, aman,_ mercy, mercy, o aga!" cried babadul to mansouri, "i was ignorant of what i was saying. who would have thought it? ass, fool, dolt, that i am, not to have known better. _bismillah!_ in the name or the prophet, pray come to my house; your steps will be fortunate, and your slave's head will touch the stars." "i am in a hurry, a great hurry," said mansouri. "where is the head, the head of the aga of the janissaries?" when the tailor heard whose head it had been, and recollected what he and his wife had done with it, his knees knocked under him with fear, and he began to exude from every pore. "where is it, indeed?" said he. "oh! what has come upon us! oh! what cursed _kismet_ (fate) is this?" "where is it?" exclaimed the slave, again and again, "where is it? speak quick!" the poor tailor was completely puzzled what to say, and kept floundering from one answer to another until he was quite entangled as in a net. "have you burnt it?" "no." "have you thrown it away?" "no." "then in the name of the prophet what have you done with it? have you ate it." "no." "is it lying in your house?" "no." "is it hiding at any other person's house?" "no." then at last quite out of patience, the slave mansouri took babadul by his beard, and shaking his head for him, exclaimed with a roar, "then tell me, you old dotard! what is it doing?" "it is baking," answered the tailor, half choked: "i have said it." "baking! did you say?" exclaimed the slave, in the greatest amazement; "what did you bake it for? are you going to eat it?" "true, i said: what would you have more?" answered babadul, "it is now baking." and then he gave a full account of what he and his wife had done in the sad dilemma in which they had been placed. "show me the way to the baker's," said mansouri; "at least, we will get it in its singed state, if we can get it in no other. whoever thought of baking the head of the aga of the janissaries? _allah il allah!_" they then proceeded to the baker hassan's, who was now about taking his bread from his oven. as soon as he became acquainted with their errand, he did not hesitate in telling all the circumstances attending the transmission of the head from the pipkin to the barber's bracket; happy to have had an opportunity of exculpating himself of what might possibly have been brought up against him as a crime. the three (mansouri, the tailor, and the baker) then proceeded to the barber's, and inquired from him what he had done with the head of his earliest customer. kior ali, after some hesitation, made great assurances that he looked upon this horrid object as a donation from eblis himself, and consequently that he had thought himself justified in transferring it over to the giaour yanaki, who, he made no doubt, had already made his brother-infidels partake of it in the shape of kabobs. full of wonder and amazement, invoking the prophet at each step, and uncertain as to the result of such unheard-of adventures, they then added the barber to their party, and proceeded to yanaki's cook-shop. the greek, confounded at seeing so many of the true believers enter his house, had a sort of feeling that their business was not of roast meat, but that they were in search of meat of a less savoury nature. as soon as the question had been put to him concerning the head, he stoutly denied having seen it, or knowing anything at all concerning it. the barber showed the spot where he had placed it, and swore it upon the koran. mansouri had undertaken the investigation of the point in question, when they discovered symptoms of the extraordinary agitation that prevailed in the city in consequence of the discovery which had been made of the double-headed jew, and of the subsequent discovery that had produced such great sensation among the whole corps of janissaries. mansouri, followed by the tailor, the baker, and the barber, then proceeded to the spot where the dead israelite was prostrate; and there, to their astonishment, they each recognized their morning visitor--the head so long sought after. yanaki, the greek, in the meanwhile, conscious of what was likely to befall him, without loss of time gathered what money he had ready at hand, and fled the city. "where is the greek?" said mansouri, turning round to look for him in the supposition that he had joined his party; "we must all go before the sultan." "i dare say he is run off," said the barber. "i am not so blind but i can see that he it is who gifted the jew with his additional head." mansouri now would have carried off the head; but surrounded as it was by a band of enraged and armed soldiers, who vowed vengeance upon him who had deprived them of their chief, he thought it most prudent to withdraw. leading with him his three witnesses, he at once proceeded to the presence of his master. when mansouri had informed the sultan of all that had happened, where he had found the head of the aga of the janissaries, how it had got there, and of the tumult it had raised, the reader may better imagine than i can describe the state of the monarch's mind. to tell the story with all its particulars he felt would be derogatory to his dignity, for it was sure to cover him with ridicule; but at the same time to let the matter rest as it now stood was impossible, because the tumult would increase until there would be no means of quelling it, and the affair might terminate by depriving him of his crown, together with his life. he remained in a state of indecision for some time, twisting up the ends of his mustachios, and muttering allah! allah! in low ejaculations, until at length he ordered the prime vizier and the mûfti to his presence. alarmed by the abruptness of the summons, these two great dignitaries arrived at the imperial gate in no enviable state of mind; but when the sultan had informed them of the tumult then raging in the capital, they resumed their usual tranquillity. after some deliberation it was resolved, that the tailor, the baker, the barber, and the kabobchi should appear before the tribunal of the mûfti, accused of having entered into a conspiracy against the aga of the janissaries, and stealing his head, for the purposes of baking, shaving, and roasting it, and that they should be condemned to pay the price of his blood; but as the kabobchi had been the immediate cause of the tumult by treating the head with such gross and unheard-of insult, and as he was a greek and an infidel, it was further resolved that the mûfti should issue a _fetwah_, authorizing his head to be cut off: and placed on the same odious spot where he had exposed that of the aga of the janissaries. it was then agreed between the sultan and his grand vizier, that in order to appease the janissaries a new aga should be appointed who was agreeable to them, and that the deceased should be buried with becoming distinction. all this (except killing the greek, who had fled) was done, and tranquillity again restored to the city. but it must further be added to the honour of the sultan, that he not only paid every expense which the tailor, the baker, and the barber were condemned to incur, but also gave them each a handsome reward for the difficulties into which they had so unfortunately been thrown. i have much curtailed the story, particularly where mansouri proceeds to relate to the sultan the fate of the head, because, had i given it with all the details the dervish did, it would have been over long. indeed i have confined myself as much as possible to the outline; for to have swelled the narrative with the innumerable digressions of my companion a whole volume would not have contained it. the art of a story-teller (and it is that which marks a man of genius) is to make his tale interminable, and still to interest his audience. so the dervish assured me; and added, that with the materials of the one which i have attempted to repeat, he would bind himself to keep talking for a whole moon, and still have something to say. chapter xlvi he becomes a saint, and associates with the most celebrated divine in persia. at length mirza abdul cossim himself, having heard much of my sanctity, took an opportunity, when visiting the shrine of the saint, to send for me. this was an event which i contemplated with apprehension; for how could i possibly conceal my ignorance from one who would certainly put my pretensions of knowledge to the test?--an ignorance so profound, that i could scarcely give an account of what were the first principles of the mohamedan faith. i, therefore, began to take myself to task upon what i did know. �let me see,� said i, �i know, lst, that all those who do not believe in mahomed, and in ali his lieutenant, are infidels and heretics, and are worthy of death. ndly, i also know that all men will go to jehanum (hell), excepting the true believers; and i further believe that it is right to curse omar.--i am certain that all the turks will go to _jehanum_,--that all christians and jews are _nejis_ (unclean), and will go to jehanum,--that it is not lawful to drink wine or eat pork,--that it is necessary to say prayers five times a day, and to make the ablution before each prayer, causing the water to run from the elbow to the fingers, not contrariwise, like the heretical turks.� i was proceeding to sum up the stock of my religious knowledge, when the dervish came into the room; and i made no scruple of relating to him my distress and its cause. �have you lived so long in the world,� said he, �and not yet discovered that nothing is to be accomplished without impudence? the stories which dervish sefer, his companion, and i related to you at meshed, have they made so little impression upon you?� �the effect of those stories upon my mind,� said i, �produced such a bastinado upon the soles of my feet, by way of a moral, that i request you to be well assured i shall neither forget you nor them as long as i live: the fêlek is a great help to the memory. and now, according to your own account, instead of the bastinado, i am likely to get stoned, should i be found wanting; a ceremony which, if it be the same to you, i had rather dispense with. say then, o dervish, what shall i do?� �you are not that hajji baba which i always took you to be,� said the dervish, �if you have not the ingenuity to deceive the mûshtehed. keep to your silence, and your sighs, and your shrugs, and your downcast looks, and who is there that will discover you to be an ass? no, even i could not.� �well,� said i, �be it so: _allah kerim!_ god is great!--but it is being in very ill luck to be invited to an entertainment to eat one�s own filth.� upon which i set forward with my most mortified and downcast looks to visit the mûshtehed, and, thanks to my misfortunes, i truly believe that no man in the whole city could boast of so doleful a cast of countenance as i could. however, as i slowly paced the ground, i recollected one of the tales recited by our great moralist saadi, in his chapter upon the morals of dervishes, which applied so perfectly to my own case, that i own it cheered me greatly, and gave me a degree of courage to encounter the scrutiny of the mûshtehed which otherwise i never could have acquired. it is as follows:-- �a devout personage was once asked, what he thought of the character of a certain holy man, of whom others had spoken with slight and disrespect? he answered, �in his exterior i can perceive no fault, and of what is concealed within him i am ignorant. he who weareth an exterior of religion, doubt not his goodness and piety, if you are ignorant of the recesses of his heart. what hath the mohtesib to do with the inside of the house?�� i then recollected some sentences from the same chapter, which would apply admirably in case i were called upon to show my learning and humility at the same time; for i promised to say to the holy man, should he offer me an opportunity, �do unto me that which is worthy of thee, treat me not according to my desert. whether you slay or whether you pardon, my head and face are on thy threshold. it is not for a servant to direct; whatsoever thou commandest i shall perform.� the mûshtehed had just finished his midday prayer, and was completing the last act of it by turning his head first over the right shoulder then over the left, when i entered the open apartment where he was seated. it was lined with his disciples, on each side and at the top, all of whom looked upon him with the reverence and respect due to a master. here he held his lectures. a mollah, with whom i was acquainted, mentioned who i was, and forthwith i was invited to take my place on the carpet, which i did, after having with great humility kissed the hem of the holy man�s cloak. �you are welcome,� said he; �we have heard a great deal concerning you, hajji, and _inshallah_, your steps will be fortunate. sit up higher!� i made all sorts of remonstrances against sitting higher up in the room (for i had taken the lowest place); and when i had crept up to the spot to which he had pointed with his finger, i carefully nestled my feet closely under me, covering both them and my hands with my coat. �we have heard,� said he, �that you are a chosen slave of the most high; one whose words and whose acts are the same; not wearing a beard of two colours, like those who are mussulmans in outward appearance, but who are kafirs in their hearts.� �may your propitious condescension never be less!� said i: �your servant is the most abject of the least of those who rub their forehead on the threshold of the gate of almighty splendour.� here ensued a pause and dead silence, when we each appeared absorbed in deep meditation. the mûshtehed then breaking the silence, said to me:-- �is it true, o hajji! that your _talleh_, your destiny, has turned its face upon you, and that you have come hither to seek refuge? we and the world have long bid adieu to each other; so my questions are not to satisfy curiosity, but to inform me whether i can be of use to you. our holy prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace!) sayeth, �let our faithful followers help each other: those who see, let them lead the blind; those who prosper, let them help those who are in adversity.�� upon this i took courage, spoke my sentences from saadi, as already recited, and told my tale in such a modified manner, that my auditors, i verily believe, began to look upon me as very little short of a martyr. �if it is so,� said the mûshtehed, �perhaps the day is not far off, when i may be the instrument, in the hands of god, to see justice done you. the shah is to visit the tomb before this month is expired, and as he looks upon me with the eyes of approbation, be assured that i will not be deficient in endeavouring to procure your release.� �what can such a sinner as i say to one of your high sanctity? i will pray for you; the dust of your path shall be collyrium for my eyes. whatever you will do for me will be the effect of your goodness.� �it is plain that you are one of us,� said the mûshtehed, apparently well satisfied at the almost divine honours which i paid him. �true mussulmans always recognize each other in the same manner, as i have heard to be the case among a sect of the franks, called _faramoosh_ [ ] who by a word, a look, or a touch, will discover one another even among thousands.� �_allah ho akbar!_ god is great�; and �_la allah il allah!_ there is but one god� was echoed by the company, in admiration of the mûshtehed�s knowledge; and then he continued to address me thus:-- �there is an ajem with you, who calls himself a dervish. is he an acquaintance of yours? he says that he and you are _hem dum_, of one breath. is it so?� �_che arz bekunum?_ what supplication can i make?� said i, not knowing precisely whether to acknowledge my friend or not. �yes, he is a fakîr, a poor man, to whom i have given a path near me. he has done me some little service, and i am mindful of him.� �you must be mindful of yourself,� said an old mollah, who sat next to me. �whatever is thief, whatever is knave, you will be sure to find it among these ajems.� �yes,� said the mûshtehed, as he rested both his hands upon his girdle, whilst his disciples (who knew this to be his favourite attitude when about to make a speech) settled their faces into looks of attention--�yes, these, and all who call themselves dervishes, be they the followers of _nûr ali shahi_, be they _zahabîas_, be they _nakshbendies_, or be they of that accursed race of _uweisîes_; all are kafirs or heretics--all are worthy of death. the one promulgate, that the fastings of the ramazan, our ablutions, the forms and number of our daily prayers, are all unnecessary to salvation; and that the heart is the test of piety, and not the ceremonies of the body. the other acknowledge the koran, �tis true; but they reject everything else: the sayings of the prophet, opinions of saints, etc. are odious to them; and they show their religious zeal by shouting out the blessed name of allah, until they foam at the mouth, like so many roaring lions; and this they are pleased to call religion. another set pretend to superior piety, by disfiguring the outward man, making vows, and performing acts of penance, that partake more of the tricks of mountebanks than of the servants of the almighty. the fourth, the most heretical of all, would make us believe that they live in eternal communion with supernatural powers; and whilst they put on a patched and threadbare garment, affect to despise the goods of this world, and keep themselves warm by metaphysical meditations, which neither they nor any one else understand. no distinction of clean or unclean (may they enjoy the eternal grills!) stands in their way; lawful and unlawful is all one to them; they eat and drink whatever they choose, and even the giaours, the infidels, are undefiled in their sight. and these call themselves sûfies; these are your wise men; these are your lights of the world! curses on their beard!� to which all the company answered �ameen,� or amen. curses on their fathers and mothers! curses on their children! curses on their relations! curses on sheikh attar! curses on jelâledîn rûmi!�[ ] after each curse the whole assembly echoed �ameen!� when he had concluded, all the company, whilst they expressed their admiration at his doctrine, looked at me to see if i was not struck with amazement. i was not backward in making the necessary exclamations, and acted my part so true to the life, that the impression in my favour was universal. the mûshtehed, warmed by his own words, continued to harangue against the sûfies with such vehemence, that i believe had there been one at hand, they would have risen in a body and put him to death. i hugged myself in the success which had accompanied my attempt to appear a good mussulman, and now began to think that i was one in right earnest. �if what i do,� said i, �constitutes a religious man, and is to acquire me the world�s consideration, nothing is more easy. why then should i toil through life, a slave to some tyrant, exposed to every vicissitude, uncertain of my existence beyond the present moment, and a prey to a thousand and one evils?� i left the mûshtehed, and returned to my cell, determined to persevere in my pious dispositions. when i met my companion again, i told him all that had happened, and everything that had been said about him and dervishes in general; and advised him, considering the temper in which i had left the assembly, to make the best of his way out of a place in which every man�s mind and hand were turned against him. �if they catch you, they stone you, friend!� said i; �upon that make your mind easy.� �may the stones alight on their own heads!� exclaimed the dervish: �a set of blood-thirsty heathens! what sort of religion can theirs be which makes them seek the life of an inoffensive man? i come here, having no one thing to do with either sûni or shiah, sûfi or mohamedan: on the contrary, out of compliment to them, i go through all the mummery of five washings and five prayings per day, and still that will not satisfy them; however, i will be even with them. i will go; i will leave their vile hypocritical town; and neither will i wash nor pray until necessity obliges me to pass through it again.� i must own that i was not sorry when i heard the dervish make this resolution. i saw him with pleasure gird on his broad leathern belt, from which was suspended great bunches of beads, and stick his long spoon in it. i helped to fasten his deer-skin to his back; and when he had taken up the iron weapon, which he carried on his shoulder, in one hand, whilst his other bore his calabash suspended with three chains, we bade each other adieu with great apparent cordiality. leaving me to the full possession of my cell, he sallied forth with all the lightness and gaiety of heart of one who had the world at his command, instead of the world before him, with nothing but his two feet and his ingenuity to carry him through it. �may the mercy of allah be poured over you,� said i, as i saw the last of him, �you merry rogue! and mayest thou never want a pair of shoes to your feet, nor a pleasant story to your tongue, with both of which thou mayest go through life with more pleasure both to thyself and others than the rich man, who is the slave of a thousand wants, a dependant upon his dependants for the commonest necessaries of his existence.� chapter xlvii hajji baba is robbed by his friend, and left utterly destitute; but is released from his confinement. my mind now dwelt upon the promise which the mûshtehed had made of procuring my pardon and release from the shah, when he came to visit the sanctuary at kom; and it occurred to me, that to secure the favour of so powerful an advocate, i ought to make him a present, without which nothing is ever accomplished in persia. but of what it was to be composed was the next consideration. the money left in my purse was all that i had to subsist upon until i should acquire a new livelihood; and, little as it was, i had kept it safely buried in an unfrequented corner near my cell. i fixed upon a praying-carpet, as the best present for one who is always upon his knees, and had laid my plan for getting some brought to me from the bazaar to look at. �every time the good man prays,� said i, �he will think of me; and as one is apt to make good resolutions in such moments, perhaps he will be put in mind of his promises to endeavour to release me.� i forthwith resorted to my secret corner for my purse, in the determination of sacrificing one of my remaining tomauns to this purpose. but here let me stop, and let me request the reader to recollect himself, and reflect upon his feelings after the most severe disappointment which it may have been his lot to sustain, and let me tell him, that it was nothing to my grief, to my rage, to my exasperation, when i found my purse was gone. my soul came into my mouth; and without a moment�s hesitation i exclaimed, �o thou bankrupt dog! thou unsainted dervish! you have brought me safe into harbour, �tis true; but you have left me without an anchor. may your life be a bitter one, and may your daily bread be the bread of grief! and so, after all, hajji baba has become a beggar!� i then took to making the most sorrowful moanings and lamentations; for the fear of starvation now stared me in the face notwithstanding the charity of the people of kom; and as despair is a malady which increases the more the mind dwells upon its misfortune, i seemed to take delight in reverting to all the horrors which i had lately witnessed in the death of zeenab; then i dwelt upon my confinement, then upon my loss, and at length wound myself up to look upon my situation as so desperate, that if i had had poison by me, i should certainly have swallowed it. at this moment passed by my cell the old mollah, who, during my visit to the mûshtehed, had warned me against putting too much confidence in the dervish. i told him of my misfortune, and raised such doleful wailings, that his heart was touched. �you spoke but too well, o mollah!� said i, �when you warned me against the dervish. my money is gone, and i am left behind. i am a stranger; and he who called himself my friend has proved my bitterest enemy! curses on such a friend! oh! whither shall i turn for assistance?� �do not grieve, my son,� said the mollah; �we know that there is a god, and if it be his will to try you with misfortune, why do you repine? your money is gone,--gone it is, and gone let it be; but your skin is left,--and what do you want more? a skin is no bad thing, after all!� �what words are these?� said i: �i know that a skin is no bad thing; but will it get back my money from the dervish?� i then requested the old man to state my misfortune to the mûshtehed, and, moreover, my impossibility of showing him that respect by a present, which was due to him, and which it had been my intention to make. he left me with promises of setting my case in its proper light before the holy man; and, to my great joy, on the very same day the news of the approaching arrival of the shah was brought to kom by the chief of the tent-pitchers, who came to make the necessary preparations for his accommodation. the large open saloon in the sanctuary in which the king prays was spread with fine carpets, the court was swept and watered, the fountain in the centre of the reservoir was made to play, and the avenues to the tomb were put into order. a deputation, consisting of all the priests, was collected, to go before him, and meet him on his entry; and nothing of ceremony was omitted which was due to the honour and dignity of the shadow of the almighty upon earth. i now became exceedingly anxious about my future fate; for it was long since i had heard from tehran, and i was ignorant of the measure of the shah�s resentment against me. looking upon the dark side of things, my imagination led me to think that nothing short of my head would satisfy him; but then, cheering myself with a more pleasing prospect, i endeavoured to believe that i was too insignificant a personage that my death should be of any consequence, and built all my hopes upon the intercession of the mûshtehed. the chief tent-pitcher had formerly been my friend, and among his assistants i recognized many of my acquaintance. i soon made myself known to them; and they did not, for a wonder, draw back from recognizing me, although one of our greatest sages hath said, �that a man in adversity is shunned like a piece of base money, which nobody will take; and which, if perchance it has been received, is passed off to another as soon as possible.� the newcomers gave me all the intelligence of what had happened at court since i had left it; and although i professed to have renounced the world, and to have become a recluse, a sitter in a corner, as it is called, yet still i found that i had an ear for what was passing in it. they informed me that the chief executioner had returned from his campaign against the russians, and had brought the shah a present of two georgian slaves, a male and a female, besides other rarities, in order the better to persuade him of his great feats and generalship. the present had been accepted, and his face was to be whitened by a dress of honour, provided he made the _tobeh_, oath of penance, restraining himself from the use of wine for the future. i also learnt, notwithstanding it was known how deeply i was implicated in zeenab�s guilt, that my former master, the hakîm, had still been obliged to make a large present to the shah, besides having had half his beard pulled out by the roots, for the loss which his majesty had incurred by her death, and for his disappointment at not finding her ready to dance and sing before him on his return from sultanieh. the king�s wrath for the loss of the cûrdish slave had in great measure subsided, owing to the chief executioner�s gift of the georgian one, who was described as being the finest person of the sort who had been exhibited at the slave-market since the days of the celebrated _taous_, or peacock; and was, in short, the pearl of the shell of beauty, the marrow of the spine of perfection. she had a face like the full moon, eyes of the circumference of the chief tent-pitcher�s forefinger and thumb, a waist that he could span, and a form tall and majestic as the full-grown cypress. and they moreover assured me, that the shah�s anger against me would very easily cede to a present of a few tomauns. here again my anathemas against the dervish broke forth; �and but for him,� said i, �i might have appeared not empty-handed.� however, i was delighted to hear that my case was not so desperate as i had imagined; and, seated on the carpet of hope, smoking the pipe of expectation, i determined to await my fate with that comfortable feeling of predestination which has been so wisely dispensed by the holy prophet for the peace and quiet of all true believers. the king of kings arrived the next day, and alighted at his tents, which were pitched without the town. i will not waste the reader�s time in describing all the ceremonies of his reception, which, by his desire, were curtailed as much as possible, inasmuch as his object in visiting the tomb of fatimeh was not to reap worldly distinctions, but to humble himself before god and men, in the hope of obtaining better and higher reward. his policy has always been to keep in good odour with the priesthood of his country; for he knew that their influence, which is considerable over the minds of the people, was the only bar between him and unlimited power. he therefore courted mirza abdul cossim, the mûshtehed of kom, by paying him a visit on foot, and by permitting him to be seated before him, an honour seldom conferred on one of the laity. he also went about the town on foot, during the whole time of his stay there, giving largely to the poor, and particularly consecrating rich and valuable gifts at the shrine of the saint. the king himself, and all those who composed his train, thought it proper to suit their looks to the fashion of the place; and i was delighted to find that i was not singular in my woe-smitten face and my mortified gait. i recollected to have heard, when i was about the court, that the shah, in point of fact, was a sûfi at heart, although very rigid in the outward practices of religion; and it was refreshing to me to perceive, among the great officers in his train, one of the secretaries of state, a notorious sinner of that persuasion, who was now obliged to fold up his principles in the napkin of oblivion, and clothe himself in the garments of the true faith. on the morning of the shah�s visit to the tomb for the purpose of saying his prayers, i was on the alert, in the hopes of being remarked by the mûshtehed, who would thus be reminded of his promises to me. about an hour before the prayer of midday, the shah, on foot, escorted by an immense concourse of attendants, priests, and of the people, entered the precincts of the sanctuary. he was dressed in a dark suit, the sombre colours of which were adapted to the solemn looks of his face, and he held in his hand a long enamelled stick, curiously inlaid at the pommel. he had put by all ornament, wearing none of his customary jewellery, not even his dagger, which on other occasions he is never without. the only article of great value was his rosary, composed of large pearls (the produce of his fishery at bahrein), of the most beautiful water and symmetry, and this he kept constantly in his hand. the mûshtehed walked two or three steps behind him on the left hand, respectfully answered the interrogatories which the king was pleased to make, and lent a profound attention to all his observations. when the procession came near me (for it passed close to my cell), i seized an opportunity, when no officer was at hand, to run forward, throw myself on my knees, make the prostration with my face to the ground, and exclaim, �refuge in the king of kings, the asylum of the world! in the name of the blessed fatimeh, mercy!� �who is this?� exclaimed the king to the mûshtehed, �is he one of yours?� �he has taken the bust (the sanctuary),� answered the mirza, �and he claims the accustomed pardon of the shadow of the almighty to all unfortunate refugees whenever he visits the tomb. he and we all are your sacrifice; and whatever the shah ordains, so let it be.� �but who and what are you?� said the shah to me; �why have you taken refuge here?� �may i be our sacrifice!� said i. �your slave was the sub-deputy executioner to the centre of the universe, hajji baba by name; and my enemies have made me appear criminal in the eyes of the shah, whilst i am innocent.� �_yaftéh îm_, we have understood,� rejoined the king, after a minute�s pause. �so you are that hajji baba? _mûbarek_, much good may it do you. whether it was one dog or another that did the deed, whether the hakîm or the sub-deputy, it comes to the same thing,--the end of it has been that the king�s goods have burnt. that is plain enough, is it not, mirza abdul cossim?� said he, addressing himself to the mûshtehed. �yes, by the sacred head of the king,� answered the holy man; �generally in all such cases between man and woman, they, and they alone, can speak to the truth.� �but what does our holy religion say in such cases?� observed the king: �the shah has lost a slave--there is a price of blood for the meanest of human beings--even a frank or a muscovite have their price, and why should we expend our goods gratis, for the amusement of either our chief physician or our sub-deputy executioner?� �there is a price upon each of god�s creatures, and blood must not be spilt without its fine; but there is also an injunction of forgiveness and lenity towards one�s fellow creatures,� said the mûshtehed, �which our holy prophet (upon whom be eternal blessings!) has more particularly addressed to those invested with authority, and which, o king, cannot be better applied than in this instance. let the shah forgive this unfortunate sinner, and he will reap greater reward in heaven than if he had killed twenty muscovites, or impaled the father of all europeans, or even if he had stoned a sûfi.� �be it so,� said the shah; and turning to me, he said with a loud voice, �_murakhas_, you are dismissed; and recollect it is owing to the intercession of this man of god,� putting his hand at the same time upon the shoulder of the mûshtehed, �that you are free, and that you are permitted to enjoy the light of the sun. _bero!_ go! open your eyes, and never again stand before our presence.� [illustration: hajji�s father dying. .jpg] chapter xlviii hajji baba reaches ispahan, and his paternal roof, just time enough to close the eyes of his dying father. i did not require to be twice ordered to depart; and, without once looking behind me, i left kom and its priests, and bent my steps towards ispahan and my family. i had a few reals in my pocket, with which i could buy food on the road; and, as for resting-places, the country was well supplied with caravanserais, in which i could always find a corner to lay my head. young as i was, i began to be disgusted with the world; and perhaps had i remained long enough at kom, and in the mood in which i had reached it, i might have devoted the rest of my life to following the lectures of mirza abdul cossim, and acquired worldly consideration by my taciturnity, by my austerity, and strict adherence to mahomedan discipline. but fate had woven another destiny for me. the maidan (the race-course) of life was still open to me, and the courser of my existence had not yet exhausted half of the bounds and curvets with which he was wont to keep me in constant exercise. i felt that i deserved the misfortunes with which i had been afflicted, owing to my total neglect of my parents. �i have been a wicked son,� said i. �when i was a man in authority, and was puffed up with pride at my own importance, i then forgot the poor barber at ispahan; and it is only now, when adversity spreads my path, that i recollect the authors of my being.� a saying of my school-master, which he frequently quoted with great emphasis in arabic, came to my mind. �an old friend,� used he to say, �is not to be bought, even if you had the treasures of hatem to offer for one. remember then, o youth, that thy first, and therefore thy oldest friends are thy father and thy mother.� �they shall still find that they have a son,� said i, feeling a great rush of tenderness flow into my heart, as i repeated the words; �and, please god, if i reach my home, they shall no longer have to reproach me with want of proper respect.� a still soft voice, however, whispered to me that i should be too late; and i remembered the prognostics of my mind, when, filled with grief for the loss of zeenab, i left tehran full of virtuous intentions and resolutions. when i could first distinguish the peak in the mountain of the colah cazi, which marks the situation of ispahan, my heart bounded within me; and at every step i anxiously considered in what state i should find my family. would my old schoolmaster be alive? should i find our neighbour the _baqal_ (or chandler), at whose shop i used to spend in sweetmeats all the copper money that i could purloin from my father, when i shaved for him, would he be still in existence? and my old friend the _capiji_, the door-keeper of the caravanserai, he whom i frightened so much at the attack of the turcomans, is the door of his life still open, or has it been closed upon him forever? in this manner did i muse by the wayside, until the tops of the minarets of ispahan actually came in view; when, enraptured with the sight, and full of gratitude for having been preserved thus far in my pilgrimage, i stopped and said my prayers; and then taking up one stone, which i placed upon another as a memorial, i made the following vow: �o ali, if thou wilt grant to thy humblest and most abject of slaves the pleasure of reaching my home in safety, i will, on arrival, kill a sheep, and make a pilau for my friends and family.� traversing the outskirts of the city with a beating heart, every spot was restored to my memory, and i threaded my way through the long vaulted bazaars and intricate streets without missing a single turn, until i found myself standing opposite both my father�s shop and the well-known gate of the caravanserai. the door of the former was closed, and nothing was stirring around it that indicated business. i paused a long time before i ventured to proceed, for i looked upon this first aspect of things as portentous of evil; but recollecting myself, i remembered that it was the _sheb-i-jumah_, the friday eve, and that probably my father, in his old age, had grown to be too scrupulous a mussulman to work during those hours which true believers ought to keep holy. however, the caravanserai was open, and presented the same scene to my eyes which it had done ever since i had known it. bales of goods heaped up in lots, intermixed with mules, camels, and their drivers. groups of men in various costumes, some seated, some in close conversation, others gazing carelessly about, and others again coming and going in haste, with faces full of care and calculation. i looked about for the friend of my boy-hood the capiji, and almost began to fear that he too had closed his door, when i perceived his well-known figure crawling quietly along with his earthen water-pipe, seeking his bit of charcoal wherewith to light it. his head had sunk considerably between his shoulders, and reclined more upon his breast since last i had seen him; and the additional bend in his knees showed that the passing years had kept a steady reckoning with him. �it is old ali mohamed,� said i, as i stepped up towards him. �i should know that crooked nose of his from a thousand, so often have i clipped the whisker that grows under it.� when i accosted him with the usual salutation of peace, he kept on trimming his pipe, without even looking up, so much accustomed was he to be spoken to by strangers; but when i said, �do not you recognize me, ali mohamed?� he turned up his old bloodshot eye at me, and pronounced �friend! a caravanserai is a picture of the world; men come in and go out of it, and no account is taken of them. how am i then to know you? ali mohamed is grown old, and his memory is gone by.� �but you will surely recollect hajji baba--little hajji, who used to shave your head, and trim your beard and mustachios!� �there is but one god!� exclaimed the door-keeper in great amazement. �are you indeed hajji?--ah! my son, your place has long been empty--are you come at last? well, then, praise be to ali, that old kerbelai hassan will have his eyes closed by his only child, ere he dies.� �how!� said i, �tell me where is my father? why is the shop shut? what do you say about death?� �yes, hajji, the old barber has shaved his last. lose not a moment in going to his house, and you may stand a chance to be in time to receive his blessing ere he leaves this world. please god, i shall soon follow him, for all is vanity. i have opened and shut the gates of this caravanserai for fifty years, and find that all pleasure is departed from me. my keys retain their polish, whilst i wear out with rust.� i did not stop to hear the end of the old man�s speech, but immediately made all speed to my father�s house. as i approached the well-remembered spot, i saw two mollahs loitering near the low and narrow entrance. �ha!� thought i, �ye are birds of ill-omen; wherever the work of death is going on, there ye are sure to be.� entering, without accosting them, i walked at once into the principal room, which i found completely filled with people, surrounding an old man, who was stretched out upon a bed spread upon the floor, and whom i recognized to be my father. no one knew me, and, as it is a common custom for strangers who have nothing to do with the dying to walk in unasked, i was not noticed. on one side sat the doctor, and on the other an old man, who was kneeling near the bed-head, and in him i recognized my former schoolmaster. he was administering comfort to his dying friend, and his words were something to this purpose: �do not be downcast: please god you still have many days to spend on earth. you may still live to see your son; hajji baba may yet be near at hand. but yet it is a proper and a fortunate act to make your will, and to appoint your heir. if such be your wish, appoint any one here present your heir.� �ah,� sighed out my father, �hajji has abandoned us--i shall never see him more--he has become too much of a personage to think of his poor parents--he is not worthy that i should make him my heir.� these words produced an immediate effect; i could no longer restrain my desire to make myself known, and i exclaimed, �hajji is here!--hajji is come to receive your blessing--i am your son--do not reject him!� upon which i knelt down by the bedside, and taking up the dying man�s hand, i kissed it, and added loud sobs and lamentations, to demonstrate my filial affection. the sensation which i produced upon all present was very great. i saw looks of disappointment in some, of incredulity in others, and of astonishment in all. my father�s eyes, that were almost closed, brightened up for one short interval as he endeavoured to make out my features, and clasping his trembling hands together, exclaimed, �_il hem dillah!_ praise be to god, i have seen my son, i have got an heir!� then addressing me, he said, �have you done well, o my son, to leave me for so many years? why did you not come before?� he would have gone on, but the exertion and the agitation produced by such an event were too much for his strength, and he sunk down inanimate on his pillow. �stop,� said my old schoolmaster, who had at once recognized me--�stop, hajji; say no more: let him recover himself; he has still his will to make.� �yes,� said a youngish man, who had eyed me with looks of great hostility, �yes, we have also still to see whether this is hajji baba, or not.� i afterwards found he was son to a brother of my father�s first wife, and had expected to inherit the greatest part of the property; and when i inquired who were the other members of the assembly, i found that they were all relations of that stamp, who had flocked together in the hope of getting a share of the spoil, of which i had now deprived them. they all seemed to doubt whether i was myself, and perhaps would have unanimously set me down for an impostor, if the schoolmaster had not been present: and from his testimony there was no appeal. however, all doubts as to my identity were immediately hushed when my mother appeared, who, having heard of my arrival, could no longer keep to the limits of her anderûn, but rushed into the assembly with extended arms and a flowing veil, exclaiming, �where, where is he? where is my son?--hajji, my soul, where art thou?� as soon as i had made myself known, she threw herself upon my neck, weeping aloud, making use of every expression of tenderness which her imagination could devise, and looking at me from head to foot with an eagerness of stare, and an impetuosity of expression, that none but a mother can command. in order to rouse my father from the lethargy into which he had apparently fallen, the doctor proposed administering a cordial, which, having prepared, he endeavoured to pour down his throat; during the exertion of raising the body, the dying man sneezed once, which every one present knew was an omen so bad, that no man in his senses would dare venture to give the medicine until two full hours had expired: therefore, it remained in the cup. after having waited the expiration of the two hours, the medicine was again attempted to be administered, when, to the horror of all present, and to the disappointment of those who expected that he should make his will, he was found to be stone dead. �in the name of allah, arise,� said the old mollah to him; �we are now writing your will.� he endeavoured to raise my father�s head, but to no purpose; life had entirely fled. water steeped in cotton was then squeezed into his mouth, his feet were carefully placed towards the kebleh, and as soon as it was ascertained that no further hope was left, the priest at his bed-head began to read the koran in a loud and sing-song emphasis. a handkerchief was then placed under his chin, fastened over his head, and his two great toes were also tied together. all the company then pronounced the _kelemeh shehâdet_ (the profession of faith), a ceremony which was supposed to send him out of this world a pure and well-authenticated mussulman; and during this interval a cup of water was placed upon his head. all these preliminaries having been duly performed, the whole company, composed of what were supposed to be his friends and relations, gathered close round the corpse, and uttered loud and doleful cries. this was a signal to the two mollahs (whom i before mentioned), who had mounted on the house-top, and they then began to chant out in a sonorous cadence portions of the koran, or verses used on such occasions, and which are intended as a public notification of the death of a true believer. the noise of wailing and lamentation now became general, for it soon was communicated to the women, who, collected in a separate apartment, gave vent to their grief after the most approved forms. my father, from his gentleness and obliging disposition, had been a great favourite with all ranks of people, and my mother, who herself was a professional mourner, and a principal performer at burials, being well acquainted with others of her trade, had managed to collect such a band around her on this occasion, that no khan it was said, ever had so much mourning performed for him on his death-day as my father. as for me, whose feelings had previously been set to the pitch-pipe of misfortune, i became a real and genuine mourner; and the recollection of all the actions of my life, in which my total neglect of my parents made so conspicuous a figure, caused me to look upon myself in no enviable light. i was seated quietly in a corner, adding my sincere sobs to the artificial ones of the rest of the whole company, when a priest came up to me, and said, that of course it was necessary for me to tear my clothes, as i could not prove myself to be a good son without so doing, and that if i permitted him, he would perform that operation for me without spoiling my coat. i let him do what he required, and he accordingly ripped open the seam of the breast flap, which then hung down some three or four inches. he also told me that it was the custom to keep the head uncovered, and the feet naked, at least until all the ceremonies of burial had been performed. to this i freely consented, and had the satisfaction afterwards to learn, that i was held up as the pattern of a good mourner. my mother�s grief was outrageous: her hair was concealed, and she enveloped her head in a black shawl, making exclamations expressive of her anguish, calling upon the name of her husband. by this time the neighhours, the passers-by, the known or unknown to the family, flocked round the house for the purpose of either reading the koran or hearing it read, which is also esteemed a meritorious act on that occasion. among these, many came in the character of comforters, who, by their knowledge in the forms of speech best adapted to give consolation, are looked upon as great acquisitions in the event of a mourning. my old schoolmaster, an eminent comforter, took me in hand, and seating himself by my side, addressed me in the following words:-- �yes, at length your father is dead. so be it. what harm is done? is not death the end of all things? he was born, he got a son, he ran his course, and died. who can do more? you now take his place in the world; you are the rising blade, that with millions of others promise a good harvest, whilst he is the full ripened ear of corn, that has been cut down and gathered into the granary. ought you to repine at what is a subject for joy? instead of shaving men�s heads, he is now seated between two houris, drinking milk and eating honey. ought you to weep at that? no; rather weep that you are not there also. but why weep at all? consider the many motives for which, on the contrary, you have to rejoice. he might have been an unbeliever--but he was a true mussulman. he might have been a turk--but he was a persian. he might have been a sûni--but he was a shiah. he might have been an unclean christian--he was a lawful son of islam. he might have died accursed like a jew--he has resigned his breath with the profession of the true faith in his mouth. all these are subjects of joy!� after this manner did he go on; and, having expended all he had to say, left me, to join his voice to the general wailing. those unclean men, the _mûrdeshûr_, or washers of the dead, were then called in, who brought with them the bier, in which the corpse was to be carried to the grave. i was consulted, whether they should make an imareh of it, which is a sort of canopy, adorned with black flags, shawls, and other stuffs--a ceremony practised only in the burials of great personages; but i referred the decision to my friend the schoolmaster, who immediately said, that considering my worthy father to have been a sort of public character, he should certainly be for giving him such a distinction. this was accordingly done; and the corpse having been brought out by the distant relations, and laid therein, it was carried to the place of ablution, where it was delivered over to the washers, who immediately went to work. the body was first washed with clear cold water, then rubbed over with lime, salt, and camphor, placed in the winding-sheet, again consigned to the bier, and at length conveyed to the place of burial. the many who offered themselves to carry the body was a proof how much my father must have been beloved. even strangers feeling that it was a praiseworthy action to carry a good mussulman to the grave, pressed forward to lend their shoulder to the burden, and by the time it had reached its last resting-place, the crowd was considerable. i had followed at a small distance, escorted by those who called themselves friends and relations; and after a mollah had said a prayer, accompanied by the voices of all present, i was invited, as the nearest relative, to place the body in the earth, which having done, the ligatures of the winding-sheet were untied, and another prayer, called the _talkhi_, was pronounced. the twelve imâms, in rotation, were then invoked; and the talkhi being again read, the grave was covered in. after this, the _fatheh_ (the first chapter of the koran) was repeated by all present, and the grave having been sprinkled over with water, the whole assembly dispersed, to meet again at the house of the deceased. a priest remained at the head of the grave, praying. i was now called upon to act a part. i had become the principal personage in the tragedy, and an involuntary thought stole into my mind. �ah,� said i, �the vow which i made upon first seeing the city must now be performed, whether i will or no. i must spend boldly, or i shall be esteemed an unnatural son�; therefore, when i returned to the house, i blindly ordered every thing to be done in a handsome manner. two rooms were prepared, one for the men, the other for the women. according to the received custom, i, as chief mourner, gave an entertainment to all those who had attended the funeral; and here my sheep and my pilau were not forgotten. i also hired three mollahs, two of whom were appointed to read the koran in the men�s apartment, and the other remained near the tomb, for the same purpose, inhabiting a small tent, which was pitched for its use. the length of the mourning, which lasts, according to the means of the family, three, five, seven days, or even a month, i fixed at five days, during which each of the relations gave an entertainment. at the end of that period, some of the elders, both men and women, went round to the mourners, and sewed up their rent garments, and on that day i was again invited to give an entertainment, when separate sheets of the koran were distributed throughout the whole assembly, and read by each individual, until the whole of the sacred volume had been completely gone through. after this my mother, with several of her relations and female friends, i proceeded in a body to my father�s tomb, taking with them sweetmeats and baked bread for the purpose, which they distributed to the poor, having partaken thereof themselves. they then returned, weeping and bewailing. two or three days having elapsed, my mother�s friends led her to the bath, where they took off her mourning, put her on a clean dress, and dyed her feet and hands with the khenah. this completed the whole of the ceremonies: and, much to my delight, i was now left to myself, to regulate my father�s affairs, and to settle plans for my own future conduct. chapter xlix he becomes heir to property which is not to be found, and his suspicions thereon. my father having died without a will, i was, of course, proclaimed his sole heir without any opposition, and consequently, all those who had aspired to be sharers of his property, balked by my unexpected appearance, immediately withdrew to vent their disappointment in abusing me. they represented me as a wretch, devoid of all respect for my parents, as one without religion, an adventurer in the world, and the companion of lûties and wandering dervishes. as i had no intention of remaining at ispahan, i treated their endeavours to hurt me with contempt; and consoled myself by giving them a full return of all their scurrility, by expressions which neither they nor their fathers had ever heard; expressions i had picked up from amongst the illustrious characters with whom i had passed the first years of my youth. when we were left to ourselves, my mother and i, after having bewailed in sufficiently pathetic language, she the death of a husband, i the loss of a father, the following conversation took place:-- �now tell me, o my mother--for there can be no secrets between us--tell me the state of kerbelai hassan�s concerns. he loved you, and confided in you, and you must therefore be better acquainted with them than any one else.� �what do i know of them, my son?� said she, in great haste, and seeming confusion. i stopped her, to continue my speech. �you know that according to the law, his heir is bound to pay his debts:--they must be ascertained. then, the expenses of the funeral are to be defrayed; they will be considerable; and at present i am as destitute of means as on the day you gave me birth. to meet all this, money is necessary; or else both mine and my father�s name will be disgraced among men, and my enemies will not fail to overcome me. he must have been reputed wealthy, or else his death-bed would never have been surrounded by that host of blood-suckers and time-servers which have been driven away by my presence. you, my mother, must tell me where he was accustomed to deposit his ready cash; who were, or who are, likely to be his debtors; and what might be his possessions, besides those which are apparent.� �oh, allah!� exclaimed she, �what words are these? your father was a poor, good man, who had neither money nor possessions. money, indeed! we had dry bread to eat, and that was all! now and then, after the arrival of a great caravan, when heads to be shaved were plentiful, and his business brisk, we indulged in our dish of rice, and our skewer of kabob, but otherwise we lived like beggars. a bit of bread, a morsel of cheese, an onion, a basin of sour curds--that was our daily fare; and, under these circumstances, can you ask me for money, ready money too? there is this house, which you see and know; then his shop, with its furniture; and when i have said that, i have nearly said all. you are just arrived in time, my son, to step into your father�s shoes, and take up his business; and _inshallah_, please god, may your hand be fortunate! may it never cease wagging, from one year�s end to the other!� �this is very strange!� exclaimed i, in my turn. �fifty years, and more, hard and unceasing toil! and nothing to show for it! this is incredible! we must call in the diviners.� �the diviners?� said my mother, in some agitation; �of what use can they be? they are only called in when a thief is to be discovered. you will not proclaim your mother a thief, hajji, will you? go, make inquiries of your friend, and your father�s friend, the _âkhon_.[ ] he is acquainted with the whole of the concerns, and i am sure he will repeat what i have said.� �you do not speak amiss, mother,� said i. �the âkhon probably does know what were my father�s last wishes, for he appeared to be the principal director in his dying moments; and he may tell me, if money there was left, where it is to be found.� accordingly i went straightway to seek the old man, whom i found seated precisely in the very same corner of the little parish mosque, surrounded by his scholars, in which some twenty years before i myself had received his instructions. as soon as he saw me he dismissed his scholars, saying, my footsteps were fortunate, and that others, as well as himself, should partake of the pleasure i was sure to dispense wherever i went. �ahi, âkhon,� said i, �do not laugh at my beard. my good fortune has entirely forsaken me; and even now, when i had hoped that my destiny, in depriving me of my father, had made up the loss by giving me wealth, i am likely to be disappointed, and to turn out a greater beggar than ever.� �_allah kerim_, god is merciful,� said the schoolmaster; and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, whilst he placed his hands on his knees, with their palms uppermost, he exclaimed, �o allah, whatever is, thou art it.� then addressing himself to me, he said, �yes, my son, such is the world, and such will it ever be, as long as man shuts not up his heart from all human desires. want nothing, seek nothing, and nothing will seek you.� �how long have you been a sûfi� said i, �that you talk after this manner? i can speak on that subject also, since my evil star led me to kom, but now i am engrossed with other matters.� i then informed him of the object of my visit, and requested him to tell me what he knew of my father�s concerns. upon this question he coughed, and, making up a face of great wisdom, went through a long string of oaths and professions, and finished by repeating what i had heard from my mother; namely, that he believed my father to have died possessed of no (nagd) ready cash (for that, after all, was the immediate object of my search); and what his other property was, he reminded me that i knew as well as himself. i remained mute for some time with disappointment, and then expressed my surprise in strong terms. my father, i was aware, was too good a mussulman to have lent out his money upon interest, for i recollected a circumstance, when i was quite a youth, which proved it. osman aga, my first master, wanting to borrow a sum from him, for which he offered an enormous interest, my father put his conscience into the hands of a rigid mollah, who told him that the precepts of the koran entirely forbade it. whether since that time he had relaxed his principles, i could not say; but i was assured that he always set his face against the unlawful practice of taking interest, and that he died, as he had lived, a perfect model of a true believer. i left the mosque in no very agreeable mood, and took my way to the spot where i had made my first appearance in life, namely, my father�s shop, turning over in my mind as i went what steps i should take to secure a future livelihood. to remain at ispahan was out of the question--the place and the inhabitants were odious to me; therefore, it was only left me to dispose of everything that was now my own, and to return to the capital, which, after all, i knew to be the best market for an adventurer like myself. however, i could not relinquish the thought that my father had died possessed of some ready money, and suspicions would haunt my mind, in spite of me, that foul play was going on somewhere or other. i was at a loss to whom to address myself, unknown as i was in the city, and i was thinking of making my case known to the cadi, when, approaching the gate of the caravanserai, i was accosted by the old capiji. �peace be unto you, aga!� said he; �may you live many years, and may your abundance increase! my eyes are enlightened by seeing you.� �are your spirits so well wound up, ali mohamed,� said i in return, �that you choose to treat me thus? as for the abundance you talk of, �tis abundance of grief, for i have none other that i know of. och!� said i, sighing, �my liver has become water, and my soul has withered up.� �what news is this?� said the old man. �your father (peace be unto him!) is just dead--you are his heir--you are young, and, _mashallah!_ you are handsome--your wit is not deficient:--what do you want more?� �i am his heir, �tis true; but what of that? what advantage can accrue to me, when i only get an old mud-built house, with some worn-out carpets, some pots and pans and decayed furniture, and yonder shop with a brass basin and a dozen of razors? let me spit upon such an inheritance.� �but where is your money, your ready cash, hajji? your father (god be with him!) had the reputation of being as great a niggard of his money as he was liberal of his soap. everybody knows that he amassed much, and never passed a day without adding to his store.� �that may be true,� said i; �but what advantage will that be to me, since i cannot find where it was deposited? my mother says that he had none--the âkhon repeats the same--i am no conjuror to discover the truth. i had it in my mind to go to the cadi.� �to the cadi?� said ali mohamed. �heaven forbid! go not to him--you might as well knock at the gate of this caravanserai, when i am absent, as try to get justice from him, without a heavy fee. no, he sells it by the miscal, at a heavy price, and very light weight does he give after all. he does not turn over one leaf of the koran, until his fingers have been well plated with gold, and if those who have appropriated your father�s sacks are to be your opponents, do not you think that they will drain them into the cadi�s lap, rather than he should pronounce in your favour?� �what, then, is to be done?� said i. �perhaps the diviners might give me some help.� �there will be no harm in that,� answered the doorkeeper. �i have known them make great discoveries during my service in this caravanserai. merchants have frequently lost their money, and found it again through their means. it was only in the attack of the turcomans, when much property was stolen, that they were completely at their wits� end. ah! that was a strange event. it brought much misery on my head; for some were wicked enough to say that i was their accomplice, and, what is more extraordinary, that you were amongst them, hajji!--for it was on account of your name, which the dog�s son made use of to induce me to open the gate, that the whole mischief was produced.� lucky was it for me, that old ali mohamed was very dull of sight, or else he would have remarked strange alterations in my features when he made these observations. however, our conference ended by his promising to send me the most expert diviner of ispahan; �a man,� said he, �who would entice a piece of gold out of the earth, if buried twenty gez deep, or even if it was hid in the celebrated well of kashan.�[ ] chapter l showing the steps he takes to discover his property, and who the diviner, teez negah, was. the next morning, soon after the first prayers, a little man came into my room, whom i soon discovered to be the diviner. he was a humpback, with an immense head, with eyes so wonderfully brilliant, and a countenance so intelligent, that i felt he could look through and through me at one glance. he wore a dervish�s cap, from under which flowed a profusion of jet black hair, which, added to a thick bush of a beard, gave an imposing expression to his features. his eyes, which by a quick action of his eyelid (whether real or affected, i know not) twinkled like stars, made the monster, who was not taller than a good bludgeon, look like a little demon. he began by questioning me very narrowly; made me relate every circumstance of my life--particularly since my return to ispahan--inquired who were my father�s greatest apparent friends and associates, and what my own suspicions led me to conclude. in short, he searched into every particular, with the same scrutiny that a doctor would in tracing and unravelling an intricate disorder. when he had well pondered over every thing that i had unfolded, he then required to be shown the premises, which my father principally inhabited. my mother having gone that morning to the bath, i was enabled, unknown to her, to take him into her apartments, where he requested me to leave him to himself, in order that he might obtain a knowledge of the localities necessary to the discoveries which he hoped to make. he remained there a full quarter of an hour, and when he came out requested me to collect those who were in my father�s intimacy, and in the habit of much frequenting the house, and that he would return, they being assembled, and begin his operations. without saying a word to my mother about the diviner, i requested her to invite her most intimate friends for the following morning, it being my intention to give them a breakfast; and i myself begged the attendance of the âkhon, the capiji, my father�s nephew by his first wife, and a brother of my mother, with others who had free entrance into the house. they came punctually; and when they had partaken of such fare as i could place before them, they were informed of the predicament in which i stood, and that i had requested their attendance to be witnesses to the endeavours of the diviner to discover where my father was wont to keep his money, of the existence of which, somewhere or other, nobody who knew him could doubt. i looked into each man�s face as i made this speech, hoping to remark some expression which might throw a light upon my suspicions, but everybody seemed ready to help my investigation, and maintained the most unequivocal innocence of countenance. at length the dervish, teez negah (for that was the name of the conjuror), was introduced, accompanied by an attendant who carried something wrapped up in a handkerchief. having ordered the women in the andenûn to keep themselves veiled, because they would probably soon be visited by men, i requested the dervish to begin his operations. he first looked at every one present with great earnestness, but more particularly fixed his basilisk eyes upon the âkhon, who evidently could not stand the scrutiny, but exclaimed �_allah il allah!_�--there is but one god--stroked down his face and beard, and blew first over one shoulder and then over the other, by way of keeping off the evil spirit. some merriment was raised at his expense; but he did not appear to be in a humour to meet any one�s jokes. after this, the dervish called to his attendant, who from the handkerchief drew forth a brass cup, of a plain surface, but written all over with quotations from the koran, having reference to the crime of stealing, and defrauding the orphan of his lawful property. he was a man of few words, and simply saying, �in the name of allah, the all-wise, and all-seeing,� he placed the cup on the floor, treating it with much reverence, both in touch and in manner. he then said to the lookers-on, �inshallah, it will lead us at once to the spot where the money of the deceased kerbelai hassan (may god show him mercy!) is or was deposited.� we all looked at each other, some with expressions of incredulity, others with unfeigned belief, when he bent himself towards the cup, and with little shoves and pats of his hand he impelled it forwards, exclaiming all the time, �see, see, the road it takes. nothing can stop it. it will go, in spite of me. mashallah, mashallah!� we followed him, until he reached the door of the harem, where we knocked for admittance. after some negotiation it was opened, and there we found a crowd of women (many of whom had only loosely thrown on their veils) waiting with much impatience to witness the feats which this wonderful cup was to perform. �make way,� said the diviner to the women who stood in his path, as he took his direction towards a corner of the court, upon which the windows of the room opened--�make way; nothing can stop my guide.� a woman, whom i recognized to be my mother, stopped his progress several times, until he was obliged to admonish her, with some bitterness, to keep clear of him. �do not you see,� said he, �we are on the lord�s business? justice will be done, in spite of the wickedness of man.� at length he reached a distant corner, where it was plain that the earth had been recently disturbed, and there he stopped. �_bismillah_, in the name of allah,� said he, �let all present stand around me, and mark what i do.� he dug into the ground with his dagger, clawed the soil away with his hands, and discovered a place in which were the remains of an earthen vessel, and the marks near it of there having been another. �here,� said he, �here the money was, but is no more.� then taking up his cup, he appeared to caress it, and make much of it, calling it his little uncle and his little soul. every one stared. all cried out, �_ajaib_, wonderful�; and the little humpback was looked upon as a supernatural being. the capiji, who was accustomed to such discoveries, was the only one who had the readiness to say, �but where is the thief? you have shown us where the game lay, but we want you to catch it for us:--the thief and the money, or the money without the thief--that is what we want.� �softly, my friend,� said the dervish to the capiji, �don�t jump so soon from the crime to the criminal, we have a medicine for every disorder, although it may take some time to work.� he then cast his eyes upon the company present, twinkling them all the while in quick flashes, and said, �i am sure every one here will be happy to be clear of suspicion, and will agree to what i shall propose. the operation is simple, and soon over.� �_elbetteh_, certainly�: �_belli_, yes�: �_een che harf est?_ what word is this?� was heard to issue from every mouth, and i requested the dervish to proceed. he called again to his servant, who produced a small bag, whilst he again took the cup under his charge. �this bag,� said the diviner, �contains some old rice. i will put a small handful of it into each person�s mouth, which they will forthwith chew. let those who cannot break it, beware, for eblis is near at hand.� upon this, placing us in a row, he filled each person�s mouth with rice, and all immediately began to masticate. being the complainant, of course i was exempt from the ordeal; and my mother, who chose to make common cause with me, also stood out of the ranks. the quick-sighted dervish would not allow of this, but made her undergo the trial with the rest, saying, �the property we seek is not yours, but your son�s. had he been your husband, it would be another thing.� she agreed to his request, though with bad grace, and then all the jaws were set to wagging, some looking upon it as a good joke, others thinking it a hard trial to the nerves. as fast as each person had ground his mouthful, he called to the dervish, and showed the contents of his mouth. all had now proved their innocence excepting the âkhon and my mother. the former, whose face exhibited the picture of an affected cheerfulness with great nervous apprehension, kept mumbling his rice, and turning it over between his jaws, until he cried out in a querulous tone, �why do you give me this stuff to chew? i am old, and have no teeth:--it is impossible for me to reduce the grain�; and then he spat it out. my mother, too, complained of her want of power to break the hard rice, and did the same thing. a silence ensued, which made us all look with more attention than usual upon them, and it was only broken by a time-server of my mother, an old woman, who cried out, �what child�s play is this? who has ever heard of a son treating his mother with this disrespect, and his old schoolmaster, too? shame, shame!--let us go--he is probably the thief himself.� upon this the dervish said, �are we fools and asses, to be dealt with in this manner? either there was money in that corner, or there was not--either there are thieves in the world, or there are not. this man and this woman,� pointing to the âkhon and my mother, �have not done that which all the rest have done. perhaps they say the truth, they are old, and cannot break the hard grain. nobody says that they stole the money--they themselves know that best,� said he, looking at them through and through; �but the famous diviner, hezarfun, he who was truly called the bosom friend to the great bear, and the confidant of the planet saturn,--he who could tell all that a man has ever thought, thinks, or will think,--he hath said that the trial by rice, among cowards was the best of all tests of a man�s honesty. now, my friends, from all i have remarked, none of you are slayers of lions, and fear is easily produced among you. however, if you doubt my skill in this instance, i will propose a still easier trial,--one which commits nobody, which works like a charm upon the mind, and makes the thief come forward of his own accord, to ease his conscience and purse of its ill-gotten wealth, at one and the same time. i propose the _hâk reezî_, or the heaping up earth. here in this corner i will make a mound, and will pray so fervently this very night, that, by the blessing of allah, the hajji,� pointing to me, �will find his money buried in it to-morrow at this hour. whoever is curious, let them be present, and if something be not discovered, i will give him a miscal of hair from my beard.� he then set to work, and heaped up earth in a corner, whilst the lookers on loitered about, discussing what they had just seen; some examining me and the dervish as children of the evil spirit, whilst others again began to think as much of my mother and the schoolmaster. the company then dispersed, most of them promising to return the following morning, at the appointed time, to witness the search into the heap of earth. [illustration: the diviner and the rice. .jpg] chapter li of the diviner�s success in making discoveries, and of the resolution which hajji baba takes in consequence. i must own that i began now to look upon the restoration of my property as hopeless. the diviner�s skill had certainly discovered that money had been buried in my father�s house, and he had succeeded in raising ugly suspicions in my mind against two persons whom i felt it to be a sin to suspect; but i doubted whether he could do more. however, he appeared again on the following morning, accompanied by the capiji, and by several of those who had been present at the former scene. the âkhon, however, did not appear, and my mother was also absent, upon pretext of being obliged to visit a sick friend. we proceeded in a body to the mound, and the dervish having made a holy invocation, he approached it with a sort of mysterious respect. �now we shall see,� said he, �whether the gins and the peris have been at work this night�; and exclaiming �bismillah! he dug into the earth with his dagger. having thrown off some of the soil, a large stone appeared, and having disengaged that, to the astonishment of all, and to my extreme delight, a canvas bag well filled was discovered. �oh my soul! oh my heart!� exclaimed the humpback, as he seized upon the bag, �you see that the dervish teez negah is not a man to lose a hair of his beard. there, there,� said he, putting it into my hand, �there is your property: go, and give thanks that you have fallen into my hands, and do not forget my _hak sai_, or my commission.� everybody crowded round me, whilst i broke open the wax that was affixed to the mouth of the bag, upon which i recognized the impression of my father�s seal; and eagerness was marked on all their faces as i untied the twine with which it was fastened. my countenance dropped woefully when i found that it only contained silver, for i had made up my mind to see gold. five hundred reals[ ] was the sum of which i became the possessor; out of which i counted fifty, and presented them to the ingenious discoverer of them. �there,� said i, �may your house prosper! if i were rich i would give you more: and although this is evidently but a small part of what my father (god be with him!) must have accumulated, still again i say, may your house prosper, and many sincere thanks to you.� the dervish was satisfied with my treatment of him, and took his leave, and i was soon after left by the rest of the company--the capiji alone remaining. �famous business we have made of it this morning,� said he. �did i not say that these diviners performed wonders?� �yes,� said i, �yes, it is wonderful, for i never thought his operations would have come to anything.� impelled by a spirit of cupidity, now that i had seen money glistening before me, i began to complain that i had received so little, and again expressed to ali mohamed my wish of bringing the case before the cadi; �for,� said i, �if i am entitled to these five hundred reals, i am entitled to all my father left; and you will acknowledge that this must be but a very small part of his savings.� �friend,� said he, �listen to the words of an old man. keep what you have got, and be content. in going before the cadi, the first thing you will have to do will be to give of your certain, to get at that most cursed of all property, the uncertain. be assured that after having drained you of your four hundred and fifty reals, and having got five hundred from your opponents, you will have the satisfaction to hear him tell you both to �go in peace, and do not trouble the city with your disputes.� have you not lived long enough in the world to have learnt this common saying--�every one�s teeth are blunted by acids, except the cadi�s, which are by sweets�? �the cadi who takes five cucumbers as a bribe, will admit any evidence for ten beds of melons.� after some deliberation, i determined to take the advice of the capiji; for it was plain that if i intended to prosecute any one, it could only be my mother and the âkhon; and to do that, i should raise such a host of enemies, and give rise to such unheard-of scandal, that perhaps i should only get stoned by the populace for my pains. �i will dispose of everything i have at ispahan,� said i to my adviser, �and, having done that, will leave it never to return, unless under better circumstances. it shall never see me more,� exclaimed i, in a vapouring fit, �unless i come as one having authority.� little did i think, when i made this vain speech, how diligently my good stars were at work to realize what it had expressed. the capiji applauded my intention; the more so, as he took some little interest that my resolutions should be put into practice; for he had a son, a barber, whom he wished to set up in business; and what could be more desirable, in every respect, than to see him installed in the shop in which my poor father had flourished so successfully, close to his post at the caravanserai? he made proposals that i should dispose of the shop and all its furniture to him, which i agreed to do, upon the evaluation of some well-known brother of the strap, and thus i was relieved of one of my remaining cares. as for my father�s house and furniture, notwithstanding my feelings at the recent conduct of my mother, i determined, by way of acquiring a good name (of which i was very much in want), to leave her in full possession of them, reserving to myself the _temesoûts_, or deeds, which constituted me its lawful owner. all being settled and agreed upon, i immediately proceeded to work. i received five hundred piastres from the capiji for my shop; for he also had been a great accumulator of his savings, and everybody allowed that money was never laid out to better advantage, since the shop was sure to enjoy a great run of business, owing to its excellent situation. i therefore became worth in all about one hundred and ten tomauns in gold, a coin into which i changed my silver, for the greater facility which it gave me of carrying it about my person. part of this i laid out in clothes, and part in the purchase of a mule with its necessary furniture. i gave the preference to a mule, because, after mature deliberation, i had determined to abandon the character of a _sahib shemshir_, or a man of the sword, in which, for the most part, i had hitherto appeared in life, and adopt that of a _sahib calem_, or a man of the pen, for which, after my misfortunes, and the trial which i had in some measure made of it at kom, i now felt a great predilection. �it will not suit me, now, to be bestriding a horse,� said i to myself, �armed, as i used to be, at all points, with sword by my side, pistols in my girdle, and a carbine at my back. i will neither deeply indent my cap, and place it on one side, as before, with my long curls dangling behind my ears, but wind a shawl round it, which will give me a new character; and, moreover, clip the curls, which will inform the world that i have renounced it and its vanities. instead of pistols, i will stick a roll of papers in my girdle; and, in lieu of a cartouche-box, sling a koran across my person. besides, i will neither walk on the tips of my toes, nor twist about my body, nor screw up my waist, nor throw my shoulders forward, nor swing my hands to and fro before me, nor in short take upon myself any of the airs of a _kasheng_, of a beau, in which i indulged when sub-deputy to the chief executioner. no; i will, for the future, walk with my back bent, my head slouching, my eyes looking on the ground, my hands stuck either in front of my girdle, or hanging perpendicular down my sides, and my feet shall drag one after the other, without the smallest indication of a strut. looking one�s character is all in all; for if, perchance, i happen to say a foolish thing, it will be counted as wisdom, when it comes from a mortified looking face, and a head bound round with a mollah�s shawl, particularly when it is accompanied with a deep sigh, and an exclamation of _allah ho akbar!_ or _allah, allah il allah!_ and if, perchance, i am brought face to face with a man of real learning, and am called upon to sustain my character, i have only to look wise, shut my lips, and strictly keep my own counsel. besides, i can read; and, with the practice that i intend to adopt, it will not be long before i shall be able to write a good hand;--that alone, by enabling me to make a copy of the koran, will entitle me to the respect of the world.� with reflections such as these i passed my time until it was necessary to decide whither i should bend my steps. everything told me that i ought to make the most of the good impression which i had left behind me, on the minds of the mûshtehed of kom and his disciples, for he was the most likely person to help me in my new career: he might recommend me to some mollah of his acquaintance, who would take me as his scribe or his attendant, and teach me the way that i should go. besides, i left him so abruptly when through his means i had been released from my confinement in the sanctuary, that i felt i had a debt of gratitude still to pay. �i will take him a present,� said i; �he shall not say that i am unmindful of his goodness.� accordingly i turned over in my thoughts what i ought to present, when i again determined upon a praying-carpet, which i forthwith purchased; reflecting, at the same time, that it would make a comfortable seat, when duly folded, on the top of my mule�s pad. i had now nearly finished all that i had to do, previous to my departure. i was equipped ready for my journey, and i flattered myself that my outward appearance was that of a rigid mollah. i did not take upon myself the title of one, but rather left that to circumstances; but, in the meanwhile, the epithet of hajji, which had been given to me as a pet name when i was a child, now came very opportunely to my assistance, to aid me to sustain my new character. one duty i still had to accomplish, and that was to pay the expenses of my father�s funeral. i do own that, cheated as i had been of my lawful patrimony, i felt it hard that such an expense should fall upon me; and several times had planned a departure from ispahan unknown to anybody, in order that the burden might fall upon the âkhon and my mother, to whom i had intended the honour of payment; but my better feelings got the mastery, and reflecting that by acting thus i should render myself fully entitled to the odious epithet _peder sukhtéh_[ ] (one whose father is burnt) without further combat, i went round to each of the attendants, namely, mollahs, mourners, and washers of the dead, and paid them their dues. chapter lii hajji baba quits his mother, and becomes the scribe to a celebrated man of the law. i took leave of my mother without much regret, and she did not increase the tenderness of our parting by any great expression of sorrow. she had her plans, i had mine; and, considering how we stood circumstanced, the less we ran in each other�s way the better. i mounted my mule at break of day, and, ere the sun had past its meridian, was already considerably advanced on my road to kom. i loitered but little on my journey, notwithstanding the pleasures which a halt at kashan might have afforded me, and on the ninth day i once again saw the gilded cupola of the tomb of fatimeh. alighting at a small caravanserai in the town, i saw my mule well provided, and then, with my present to the mûshtehed under my arm, i proceeded to his house. his door was open to every one, for he made no parade of servants to keep the stranger in awe, as may be seen at the houses of the great in persia; and, leaving my carpet at the door with my shoes, i entered the room, in one corner of which i found the good man seated. he immediately recognized me, and, giving me a welcome reception, he desired me to seat myself, which i did, with all proper respect, at the very edge of the felt carpet. he asked me to relate the history of my adventures since i left kom, for he professed himself interested in my fate; and, having made him all the necessary acknowledgments for procuring my release from the sanctuary, i related all that had befallen me. i also told him what a calling i felt within me to devote myself to a holy life, and entreated his help to procure me some situation in which i might show my zeal for the interests of the true faith. he reflected for a moment, and said, �that very morning he had received a letter from one of the principal men of the law of tehran, the mollah nadân, who was much in want of one who would act as half scribe and half servant; one, in short, who might be of good materials for a future mollah, and whom he would instruct in all that was necessary in that vocation.� my heart leaped within me when i heard this, for it was precisely the place that my imagination had created. �leave it to me,� thought i, �to become a whole mollah, when once i have been made half a one.� without hesitation i entreated the mûshtehed to continue his good offices in my behalf, which he promised to do; and forthwith addressed a small note, with his own hand, to the mollah nadân. this he sealed, and, having duly fashioned it in its proper shape with his scissors, rolled it up and delivered it to me; saying, �proceed to tehran immediately; no doubt you will find the place vacant, and the mollah willing to appoint you to fill it.� i was so happy that i kissed the good man�s hand and the hem of his garment, making him thousands of acknowledgments for his goodness. �i have one more favour to ask of my master,� said i, �which is, that he will deign to accept a small _peish-kesh_, a present from his humble slave; it is a praying-carpet, and, should he honour him so far as to use it, he hopes that now and then he will not forget the donor in his prayers.� �may your house prosper, hajji,� said he very graciously, �and i am thankful to you for remembering me, not that there was the least occasion for this present. be a good mussulman, wage war against the infidels, and stone the sûfis,--that is the only return i ask; and be assured that, by so doing, you will always find a place in my memory.� i then presented my gift, with which he seemed much pleased; and, having received my dismissal, i returned to my caravanserai, in the determination of pursuing my road to the capital as fast as i could. i did not even give myself time to call upon my other friends at rom, or even to take a look at my former unhappy cell in the sanctuary; but, saddling my mule, i pushed on to the caravanserai of the pûl-i-dallâk that very night. i reached tehran in the evening, and, in order not to see the spot in which the unfortunate zeenab was buried, i made a deviation from my straight road, and entered by the casbin gate. i was happy to remark that i was not recognized by the guards, who, when i was in office, were accustomed to show themselves on the alert at my approach. but indeed it was not surprising that the active, bustling, imperious nasakchi should not be known under the garb of the would-be humble and insignificant priest; so for the present i felt secure in my disguise, and i boldly took my way through the bazaars and the most public places of the city, where formerly nothing but my face was to be seen; and happy was i to find that no one recollected me. i inquired my way to the house of the mollah nadân, which was speedily pointed out, for he was a well-known character; but, on second thoughts, i deemed it more prudent and convenient to put up at a small caravanserai, situated near the house of my new master, than to present myself, late in the day as it then was, to him, upon whom it was my interest, by my looks and appearance, to produce the best possible impression. having taken good care of my mule, i slept soundly after the fatigues of the journey; and the next morning i repaired to the bath, where, having given a fresh tinge to my beard, and plentifully used the khena to my hands and feet, i flattered myself that in appearance i was precisely the sort of person likely to meet with success. the mollah�s house was situated between the royal mosque and the quarters of the camel artillerymen, and near to the entrance of the bazaar, which, leading by the gate of the said mosque, opens at its other extremity immediately on the ditch of the shah�s palace. it had a mean front; although, having once passed through the gate, the small courtyard which immediately succeeded was clean, and well watered; and the room which looked into it, though only whitewashed, had a set of carpets, which did not indicate wealth, but still spoke the absence of poverty. in this room was seated a wan and sickly-looking priest, whom i took to be the master of the house; but i was mistaken--he was in his anderûn, and i was told that he would shortly make his appearance. in order to make known my pretensions to being something more than a servant, i sat down, and entered into conversation with the priest, who, from what i could pick from him, was a dependent upon the mollah. he, in his turn, endeavoured to discover what my business could be; but he did not so well succeed, although the strange and mysterious questions which he put drew forth my astonishment. �you are evidently newly arrived in tehran?� said he. �yes, at your service,� said i. �you intend probably to make some stay?� added he. �that is not quite certain,� said i. then, after a pause, he said, �it is dull living alone, even for a week, and tehran is a city full of enjoyment. if there is any service that i can perform, i will do it--upon my eyes, be it.� �may your kindness never be less! my business is with the mollah nadân.� �there is no difference between him and me,� said he. �i can facilitate any business you may have; and, praise be to allah, you will be served to your heart�s content. we have at our disposal of all sorts and all prices.� �i am not a merchant,� said i. �there is no necessity to be a merchant,� said he; �it is enough that you are a man and a stranger. you will find, be it for a year, a month, a week, a day, or even an hour, that you will pass your time agreeably; upon my head be it.� i became more and more puzzled at his meaning, and was on the point of asking him to enlighten my understanding, when the mollah nadân, in person, entered the room. he was a tall handsome man, about forty years of age, with a jet-black beard, glossy with fresh dye, and with fine brilliant eyes, painted with the powder of antimony. he wore on his head an immense turban of white muslin, whilst a _hirkeh_, or arab cloak, with broad stripes of white and brown alternately, was thrown over his shoulders. although his athletic person was better suited to the profession of arms than to that of the law, yet his countenance had none of the frankness of the soldier, but on the contrary bespoke cunning and design, while at the same time it announced good-humour. i got up at his approach, and immediately presented my note from the mûshtehed, whilst i did not venture again to sit. having unrolled it, he looked at me and then at it, as if to divine what could be my business; but as soon as he had deciphered the seal, his face expanded into a bright smile, and he requested me to be seated. �you are welcome,� said he; and then he asked me a series of questions concerning the health of the holy man, which i freely answered, as if intimately acquainted with him.. he read the note with great attention, but said not a word of its contents. he then began to make apologies for not having a kalian (a pipe) to offer me, �for,� said he, �i am not a smoker of tobacco. we, who rigidly uphold the true faith, reject all such luxuries, and mortify our senses. our holy prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace!) has forbidden to his followers whatever intoxicates; and although tobacco be almost universally used throughout persia as well as turkey, yet it is known sometimes to obscure the understanding, and therefore i abstain from it.� he continued to talk about himself, his fasts, his penance, and his self-mortification, until i began to think that i should pass my time but so-so in his house, nor enjoy the delights the priest had just before promised me; but when i compared his healthy and rubicund face, his portly and well-fed body, to the regimen which he professed to keep, i consoled myself by the hope that he allowed great latitude in his interpretation of the law; and perhaps that i should find, like the house which he inhabited, which had its public and private apartments, that his own exterior was fitted up for the purposes of the world, whilst his interior was devoted to himself and his enjoyments. chapter liii the mollah nadân gives an account of his new scheme for raising money, and for making men happy. when left to ourselves (for the priest soon after quitted the room), mollah nadân, taking the mûshtehed�s note from his breast, said, that he should be happy to receive me in his service upon so good a recommendation; and having questioned me upon my qualifications, i gave such answers, that he expressed himself satisfied. �i have long been seeking a person of your character,� said he, �but hitherto without success. he, who has just left us, has assisted me in my several duties; but he is too much of a _napak_ (an intriguer) for my purpose. i want one who will look upon my interests as his own, who will eat his bit of bread with me and be satisfied, without taking a larger share than his due.� in answer to this, i informed the mollah that although i had already seen much of the world, yet he would find in me a faithful servant, and one ready to imbibe his principles; for (as i had already explained to the mûshtehed) my mind was made up to leading a new life, and endeavouring under his direction to become the mirror of a true mussulman. �in that,� said the mollah, �esteem yourself as the most fortunate of men; for i am looked up to as the pattern of the followers of the blessed mahomed. in short, i may be called a living koran. none pray more regularly than i. no one goes to the bath more scrupulously, nor abstains more rigidly from everything that is counted unclean. you will find neither silk in my dress, nor gold on my fingers. my ablutions are esteemed the most complete of any man�s in the capital, and the mode of my abstersion the most in use. i neither smoke nor drink wine before men; neither do i play at chess, at _gengifeh_ (cards), or any game which, as the law ordains, abstracts the mind from holy meditation. i am esteemed the model of fasters; and during the ramazan give no quarter to the many hungry fellows who come to me under various pretexts, to beg a remission of the strictness of the law. �no,� do say to them, �die rather than eat, or drink, or smoke. do like me, who, rather than abate one tittle of the sacred ordinance, would manage to exist from _jumah_ to _jumah_ (friday) without polluting my lips with unlawful food.�� although i did not applaud his tenacity about fasting, yet i did not fail to approve all he said, and threw in my exclamations so well in time, that i perceived he became almost as much pleased with me as he appeared to be with himself. �from the same devotedness to religion,� continued he, �i have ever abstained from taking to myself a wife, and in that respect i may be looked upon as exceeding even the perfection of our holy prophet; who (blessings attend his beard!) had wives and women slaves, more even than _sûleiman ibn daoud_ himself. but although i do not myself marry, yet i assist others in doing so; and it is in that particular branch of my duty in which i intend more especially to employ you.� �by my eyes,� said i, �you must command me; for hitherto i am ignorant as the turk in the fields.� �you must know then,� said he, �that, to the scandal of religion, to the destruction of the law, the commerce of _cowlies_, or courtezans, had acquired such ascendancy in this city, that wives began to be esteemed as useless. men�s houses were ruined, and the ordinances of the prophet disregarded. the shah, who is a pious prince, and respects the ullemah, and who holds the ceremony of marriage sacred, complained to the head of the law, the mollah bashi, of this subversion of all morality in his capital, and, with a reprimand for his remissness, ordered him to provide a remedy for the evil. the mollah bashi (between you and me, be it said) is in every degree an ass,--one who knows as much of religion and its duties, as of frangistân and its kings. but i--i, who am the mollah nadân,--i suggested a scheme in which the convenience of the public and the ordinances of the law are so well combined, that both may be suited without hindrance to either. you know it is lawful among us to marry for as long or as short a time as may be convenient; and in that case the woman is called _mûtî_. �why then,� said i to the chief priest, �why not have a sufficient number of such like wives in store, for those who know not where to seek for a companion? the thing is easy to be done, and nadân the man to do it.� �the mollah bashi, who, though the cream of blockheads in all other cases, is very quick-sighted when his interest is concerned, caught at my idea, for he foresaw a great harvest of gain for himself. he consequently acquired possession of several small houses of little value, in which he has installed a certain number of women, who, through his interference, are married, in the character and with the privileges of mûties, to whoever is ambitious of such a marriage; and as both parties on such occasion pay him a fee, he has thus very considerably increased his revenues. so eagerly do the people marry, hat he has several mollahs at work, wholly engaged in reading the marriage ceremony. he has entirely excluded me from any share in his profits,--i who first suggested the plan; and therefore i am determined to undertake the business myself, and thus add to the public convenience. but we must be secret; for if the mollah bashi was to hear of my scheme, he would interpose his authority, overthrow it, and perhaps have me expelled the city.� during this exposure of the mollah�s plans, i began to look at him from head to foot, and to question within myself whether this in fact could be the celebrated pillar of the law, of whom the mûshtehed, good man! had spoken in such high terms. however, i was too new in holy life to permit any scruples against the fitness of such schemes to come across my mind; so i continued to applaud all that nadân had said, and he continued as follows:-- �i have already three women in readiness, established in a small house in the neighbourhood, and it is my intention to employ you in the search of husbands for them. you will frequent the caravanserais, watching the arrival of merchants and other strangers, to whom you will propose marriage, upon easier terms than the chief priest can offer, and according to the riches of the bridegroom you will exact a proportionate fee. i shall not give you any wages, because you will have opportunities of acquiring such knowledge from me, that in time you may become a mollah yourself, and show the road to all true believers in the practices of their duty. you will find everything provided for you in my house; and, now and then, opportunities will offer for putting something honestly into your pocket. whenever my friends come to see me, and when they take their shâm (dinner) with me, you will appear as my servant; on other occasions you may sit before me, and act as my scribe.� the mollah here finished speaking, in the expectation of hearing what i should say in answer; but i was so bewildered by this vast field of action that he had opened to my view, that it took me some minutes to recollect myself. i, who had expected to lead the life of a recluse, to sit in a corner all the day long, reading my koran, or mumbling prayers--to frequent lectures in the _medressehs_ (schools), and homilies in the mosques,--i, in short, who in my master expected to have found a despiser of this world�s goods, and full of no other care than that of preparing for the next,--of a sudden was called upon to engage more deeply in the business of life than before, and to follow the footsteps of a man who seemed to exist for no other purpose than to amass wealth, and acquire consideration. �however, i can but try,� thought i. my circumstances were too desperate to admit of much hesitation; and, after all, to be the pupil of one of the most celebrated men of the capital, was a situation not to be despised; and so i accepted of the mollah�s offer. he then told me that we should soon have some further conversation, which, for the present, he was obliged to defer, because he was called upon to attend the chief of the law; but, before he went, he mentioned, that as he abstained from worldly pomp, he kept no servants but such as were absolutely necessary. his establishment consisted of a cook, and a servant who acted in the triple capacity of head-servant, valet, and groom; and his stud, for the present, was composed of one ass. �after considerable trouble,� said he, �i have managed to procure a white one, which, you know, is an animal that confers consideration on its rider; but, as my business and my dignity increase, i intend to promote myself to a mule.� i did not lose this opportunity of informing him that i had a very good one to dispose of; and, after some negotiation, it was decided that we should keep both mule and ass; he, as the dignitary, riding the former, whilst i should be carried about on the humbler beast. [illustration: hajji interviews the fair candidates for marriage. .jpg] chapter liv hajji baba becomes a promoter of matrimony, and of the register he keeps. preparatory to the full comprehension of the duties of my office, the mollah nadân requested me to introduce myself to the mûties, and gain from them sufficient information to enable me to make a register, in which i should insert their ages, appearance and beauty, tempers, and general qualifications as wives. this i should carry about me, in order to be able to exhibit it to any stranger who might fall in my way. i first went to the bazaar, and furnished myself with a priest�s cloak, with a coat that buttons across the breast, and a long piece of white muslin, which i twisted round my head. thus accoutred, in the full dress of my new character, i proceeded to the women�s house, and found a ready admission, for they had been apprised of my intended visit. i found them all three seated in a mean and wretched apartment, smoking. their veils were loosely thrown over their heads, which, upon my appearance, by a habit common to all our women, they drew tight over their faces, merely keeping one eye free. �peace be unto you, khanums!� said i (for i knew how an appearance of great respect conciliates)--�i am come, on the part of the mollah nadân, to make you a tender of my humble services; and perhaps, as you know the object of my visit, you will not object to lay your veils on one side.� �may you abide in peace,� said they, �mollah!� and then gave me to understand, by many flattering speeches, that i was welcome, and that they hoped my presence would bring them good luck. two of them immediately unveiled, and discovered faces which had long bade adieu to their lilies and roses; and upon which, notwithstanding the help of the surmeh round the eyelids, the blue stars on the forehead and chin, and the rouge on the cheeks, i could, in broad characters, make out a long catalogue of wrinkles. the third lady carefully continued to keep herself veiled. i did not hesitate to make an exclamation of surprise, as soon as the two charmers had opened their battery of smiles upon me. �praises to allah! _mashallah!_� said i, �this is a sight worthy of ferhad himself. do not look too intensely upon me, for fear that i consume. what eyes! what noses! what lips! have pity upon me, and cease looking. but why,� said i, �does this khanum�--(pointing to the unveiled one)--�why does she hold me so long in suspense? perhaps she thinks me unworthy of contemplating her charms; and she thinks right, for i am only a poor mollah, whilst doubtless even the sun, in all its majesty, is not entitled to such privilege.� �why do you make this _naz_ (coyness ),� said her companions to her; �you now he must be able to give an account of us, or else the curse of single life will be our fate, and we shall remain the scorn and reproach of womankind.� �be it so,� said the third woman; �the cat must come from under the blanket�; and, in a sort of pet, she drew off her veil, and, to my great astonishment, exhibited to my view the well-known features of the wife of the shah�s physician, my former master. �by all that is most sacred! by the beard of the blessed prophet!� said i, �how is this? are the gins at work, that they should have brought this about?� �yes, hajji,� said she, very composedly, �fate is a wonderful thing. but you, you who killed my husband, how came you to be a mollah?� �is your husband dead, then,� said i, �that you talk to me thus? why do you throw words away in this unguarded manner? what have i to do with your husband�s death? he was once my master, and i grieve for his loss. but you might as well say that i killed the martyr hossein (blessings on his memory!) as that i killed the hakîm. tell me what has happened; for i am walking round and round in the labyrinth of ignorance.� �why do you pretend ignorance,� said she with her usual scream, when you must know that it was on your account that the shah sent zeenab out of this world--that her death led to the doctor having his beard plucked --that having his beard plucked brought on his disgrace--and his disgrace death? therefore you are the cause of all the mischief.� �what ashes are you heaping upon my head, o khanum?� said i with great vehemence; �why am i to be told that i am the death of a man, when i was a hundred parasangs off at the time? you might as well say, if your husband had died of a surfeit, that the labourer who had planted the rice was the cause of his death.� we continued to argue for some time, when the other women, fearing that their interests would be neglected, interposed, and put me in mind that we had business to transact; for they were anxious that their charms should no longer lie barren and neglected. the khanum, too, who only talked for talking�s sake, and who, to my knowledge, had cherished a more than common hatred for her husband, seemed anxious that i should forget her former more flourishing situation, and requested me to proceed to business. still, to carry on the farce of respect, i began first with the doctor�s widow, and requested to know some of the particulars of her history; in order, when i came to describe her to some impatient bridegroom, i might be able to do so in the best manner for her interests. �you know as well as i,� said she, �that i once enjoyed the favour of that rose in the paradise of sweets, the king of kings; that i was the first beauty in his harem, and the terror of all my rivals. but who can withstand the decrees of destiny? a new woman arrived, who was provided with a more powerful spell than i could possess for securing the shah�s love, and she destroyed my power. she feared my charms so much, that she would not rest until i was expelled; and then, for my misfortune, the shah made a present of me to his chief physician. oh, i shall never forget the pangs of my mind, when i was transferred from the glories and delights of the royal palace to the arms of the doctor, and to a residence among physic and gallipots! i will not repeat all the history of zeenab. when the hakîm died, i endeavoured to revive the shah�s good feelings towards me; but the avenues to his ear were closed; and from one stage of misery to another i, who once could lead the viceregent of allah by the beard, am reduced to seek a husband in the highway.� upon this she began to cry and bemoan her cruel destiny; but i in some measure pacified her, by the assurance that i would do all in my power to procure for her a suitable mate. �you see,� said she, �that i am still handsome, and that the career of my youth is yet to run. look at my eyes: have they lost their brightness? admire my eyebrows. where will you meet with a pair that are so completely thrown into one? then see my waist, it is not a span round.� she went on in full enumeration of her most minute perfections, upon which i gazed with all my eyes, as she desired; but, instead of youth and beauty, i could make nothing better of her than an old fat and bloated hag, upon whom i longed to revenge myself, for her former ill-treatment to the unfortunate zeenab. the other two ladies then gave me a sketch of their lives. one was the widow of a silversmith, who had been blown from a mortar for purloining some gold, which he had received to make a pair of candlesticks for the king; and the other had turned mûti in her own defence, having been abandoned by her husband, who had fled from the wrath of the shah, and sought refuge among the russians. they also endeavoured to persuade me that they were young and handsome, to which i agreed with as good a grace as i was able; and, having made the necessary notes in my register, i promised to exert myself to the best for their advantage. �recollect,� said one, �that i am only eighteen.� �don�t forget,� said another, �that i am still a child.� �always keep in mind my two eyebrows that look like one,� roared out the hakîm�s widow. �upon my eyes be it,� exclaimed i, as i left the room; and then i consoled myself for the sight of such a trio of frights, by giving vent to a peal of anathemas and laughter. [illustration: the mock marriage. .jpg] chapter lv of the man hajji baba meets, thinking him dead; and of the marriage which he brings about. having accomplished this part of my business, i strolled to one of the most frequented caravanserais in the city, to see whether, perchance, some circumstance might not turn up to advance my master�s views. as i approached it, i found all the avenues blocked up with mules and camels heavily laden, intermixed with travellers, some of whom wearing a white band, the distinguishing mark of the pilgrims who have visited the tomb of iman reza, at meshed, informed me that the caravan came from the province of khorassan. i waited to see it gradually unravel from the maze of the narrow streets, and, after a due allowance of wrangling and abuse between the mule and camel drivers, i saw it take up its abode in the square of the building. �perhaps�, said i, �my good stars may throw some of my former acquaintance at meshed into my way�; and i looked at each traveller with great earnestness. it was true that many years had now elapsed since my memorable bastinado, and that time would have made great changes in the appearances of men; but still, i, who knew each face by heart, and had studied its expression as it inhaled my smoke, hoped that my recollection would not fail me. i had despaired of making a discovery, and was about to walk away, when a certain nose, a certain round back, and a certain projecting paunch, met my eye, and arrested my attention. �those forms are familiar to me,� said i; �they are connected with some of my early ideas; and assuredly are the property of one who is something more than a common acquaintance.� my first master, osman aga, came into my mind; but all idea of him i immediately banished, because it was more than certain that he had long since fallen a victim to the horrors of his captivity among the turcomans. still i looked at him, and at every glance i felt convinced it was either he, his brother, or his ghost. i approached to where he was seated, in the hope of hearing him speak; but he seemed to be torpid (which was another characteristic in favour of my suspicion), and i had waited some time in vain, when, to my surprise, i heard him, in a voice well known to my ears, inquire of a merchant who was passing, �in god�s name, what may be the price of lambs� skins at constantinople?� �oh, for once,� said i, �i cannot be mistaken! you can be no one but osman,�--and i immediately made myself known to him. he was as slow to believe that it was hajji baba who accosted him, as i had been to make him out osman aga. after our expressions of mutual astonishment had somewhat subsided, we began to survey each other. i discussed the greyness of his beard, and he complimented me upon the beauty and blackness of mine. he talked with great serenity of the lapse of time, and of the nothingness of this world, from which i perceived that his belief in predestination had rather increased than diminished by his misfortunes, and which alone could account for the equanimity with which he had borne them. in his usual concise manner, he related what had befallen him since we last met. he said, that after the first feelings of misery at his captivity had gone by, his time passed more agreeably than he had expected; for he had nothing to do but to sit with the camels, whose nature being of the same calm and philosophic cast as his own, suited his quiet and sedentary habits. his food was indifferent, but then he had excellent water; and the only privation which he seemed to regret was tobacco,--a want which long previous habit rendered infinitely painful. years had run on in this manner, and he had made up his mind to pass the remainder of his life with the camels, when his destiny took another turn, and he once more had the cheering hope of being restored to liberty. one, who gave himself out for a prophet, appeared among the turcomans. according to the custom of such personages, he established his influence by pretending to work two or three miracles, and which were received as such by that credulous people. his word became a law. the most celebrated and experienced marauders freely laid their spoils at his feet, and willingly listed under his banner, in whatever enterprise he chose to propose. osman aga presented himself before him, asserted his privileges of a sûni, and, moreover, of being an emir, and at length succeeded in making the impostor procure his liberty without ransom, which he did, in order to advance the glory of the true faith. once free, he lost no time in proceeding to meshed, where, to his great good fortune, he met merchants from bagdad, one of whom being nearly connected to him by marriage, advanced him a small sum of money to trade with. he received encouraging accounts of the state of the turkish markets for the produce of bokhara, and thither he proceeded to make his purchases on the spot. owing to his long residence among the turcomans, he had acquired much useful knowledge concerning their manners and customs--particularly on the subject of buying and selling--and this enabled him to trade, with much success, between bokhara and persia, until he had gained a sufficient sum to enable his return to his country with advantage. he was now on the road to constantinople, with several mules laden with the merchandise of bokhara, samarcand, and the east of persia; and having disposed of it there, it was then his intention to return to his native city, bagdad. he expressed, however, his intention to remain at tehran until the spring caravan should assemble, in order to enjoy some of the pleasures of an imperial residence, after having lived so long among savages, as he called the turcomans, and he inquired from me how he might most agreeably pass his time. my fair charges immediately came into my mind; and recollecting of old that he was a great advocate for the marriage state, i proposed a wife to him without loss of time. certainly, thought i, nothing was ever more strongly pronounced than the doctrine of predestination has been in this instance. here, one of my masters arrives from regions beyond the rising of the sun, to espouse the widow of another of my masters, who dies just at the very nick of time to produce the meeting, which i, who come from the countries of the south, step in to promote. the hakîm�s widow was the fattest of the three, and therefore i made no scruple in proposing her to osman, who at once acceded to my offer. softening down the little asperities of her temper, making much of her two eyebrows in one, and giving a general description of her person, suited to the ottoman taste, i succeeded in giving a very favorable opinion to the bridegroom of his intended. i then proceeded to inform the mollah nadân of my success, who appeared to listen with delight to the adventures of this couple, which i related to him with scrupulous detail. he directed me how to proceed, and informed me, in order to make the marriage lawful, that a vakeel, or trustee, must appear on the part of the woman, and another on that of the man. that the woman�s vakeel having beforehand agreed upon the terms of the marriage, proceeded to ask the following question of the man�s _vakeel_, in the arabic tongue. �have you agreed to give your soul to me upon such and such conditions?� to which the other answers, �i have agreed�; and then the parties are held to be lawfully joined together. nadân himself proposed to officiate on the part of the hakîm�s widow, and i on the part of osman; and it was left to my ingenuity to obtain as large a fee as possible for ourselves, on this happy occasion. i forthwith communicated the joyful tidings to the khanum, as i still called her, who did not fail to excite the envy of her other companions, for she immediately laid her success to her superior beauty, and to that never-failing object of her care, her two eyebrows in one. she was, as the reader may be allowed to suppose, in great anxiety at her appearance; for she dreaded not being corpulent enough for her turk, and from what i could judge, rather doubted the brilliancy of her eye, from the great quantity of black paint which she had daubed on her eyelids. i left her to return to osman aga, who, good man, was also arming himself for conquest; and he seemed to think that, owing to his long residence among camels, he might have imbibed so much of their natures as to have become a fit subject for the perfumes of musk and ambergris. accordingly, he went to the bath, his grey beard was dyed a glossy black; his hands received a golden tinge; and his mustachios were invited to curl upwards towards the corners of his eyes, instead of downwards into his mouth, as they usually had done. he then arrayed himself in his best, and followed me to the house of the mollah nadân, where owing to this change in his appearance, he very well passed off for a man at least ten years younger than he was in reality. as soon as the parties came in sight of each other, an unconcerned bystander would have been amused with their first glances--he, the bridegroom, endeavouring to discover what he was about to espouse--she, the bride, making play with her veil in such an artful manner as to induce his belief that it concealed celestial charms. but i was too deeply interested in the game to make it matter of amusement. besides, more than once, a certain fifty ducats that had formerly belonged to osman, and which i had appropriated to my own use, came into my mind, and made me fear that it also might have a place in his: �and if,� said i, �he gets displeased and angry, who knows what ashes may not fall upon my head!� however, they were married; and i believe most truly that he did not succeed in getting one glimpse of his intended until i had pronounced the awful words, �i agree�; when in his impatience he partly pulled her veil on one side, and i need not say that he was far from fainting with delight. as soon as he was well satisfied that his charmer was not a zuleikha, he called me to him, and said, �hajji, i thought that youth, at least, she would have possessed; but she is more wrinkled than any camel. how is this?� i got out of the scrape as well as i was able, by assuring him that she had once been the flower of the royal harem, and reminded him that nothing had so much to do with marriage as destiny. �ah! that destiny�, said he, �is an answer for everything; but be its effects what it may, it can no more make an old hag a young woman, than it can make one and one three.� sorely did i fear that he would return his bargain upon our hands; but when he found that it was impossible to expect anything better in a mutî, a class of females, who generally were the refuse of womankind,--old widows, and deserted wives; and who, rather than live under the opprobrium that single life entails in our mahomedan countries, would put up with anything that came under the denomination of husband, he agreed to take her to his home. i expected, like a hungry hawk, who, the instant he is unhooded, pounces upon his prey, that osman as soon as he had got a sight of his charmer, would have carried her off with impatience; but i was disappointed. he walked leisurely on to his room in the caravanserai, and told her that she might follow him whenever it suited her convenience. [illustration: the degradation of hajji and the mollah. .jpg] chapter lvi showing how the ambition of the mollah nadân involves both him and his disciples in ruin. upon a closer acquaintance with my master, the mollah nadân, i found that, besides his being the most covetous of men, he was also the most ambitious; and that his great and principal object was to become the chief priest of tehran. to that he turned all his thoughts, and left nothing untried which might bring him into notice, either as a zealous practiser of the ordinances of his religion, or a persecutor of those who might be its enemies. he was the leader in prayer at the principal mosque; he lectured at the royal medresseh, or college; and whenever he could, he encouraged litigants to appeal to him for the settlement of their disputes. on every occasion, particularly at the festival of the no rouz, when the whole corps of mollahs are drawn up in array before the king, to pray for his prosperity, he always managed to make himself conspicuous by the over-abundance of adulation which he exhibited, and by making his sonorous voice predominate over that of others. by such means, he had acquired considerable celebrity among the people, although those who knew him better held him in no great estimation. an opportunity soon occurred which abundantly proved this, and which, as i will now narrate, gave an entire new turn to my fortunes. the winter had passed over our heads, and spring was already far advanced, when reports reached the capital, that in the southern provinces of the kingdom, particularly in lar and fars, there had been such a total want of rain that serious apprehensions of a famine were entertained. as the year rolled on, the same apprehensions prevailed in the more northern provinces; and a drought, such as before was never known, gave rise to the most dismal forebodings. the shah ordered prayers to be put up at all the mosques in the city for rain, and the mollah bashi was very active in enforcing the order. my master nadân had there too good an opportunity of manifesting his religious zeal, and of making himself conspicuous by his exertions, not to take advantage of it; and he lost not a moment in giving himself all the stir in his power. conscious of the influence he had obtained over the populace, he went a step farther than his rival the chief priest, and invited an immense crowd of the lower orders to follow him to a large open space without the city, where he took the lead in prayer. the drought still continuing, the shah ordered all ranks of people to attend him, and join in the supplications which he had first commenced. he accounted this so great a triumph, that his zeal now knew no bounds. he caused all sects, christians, jews, and guebres, as well as mussulmans, to put up their prayers: still the heavens were inexorable; no rain came, the despair increased, and nadân redoubled his zeal. at length, one morning when the weather was more than usually sultry, he addressed a mob which he had purposely gathered round his house, in words something to this purpose:-- �is there nothing more to be done, o men of tehran! to avert this misfortune which awaits the land of irâk? �tis plain that the heavens have declared against us, and that this city contains some, whose vices and crimes must bring the almighty vengeance upon us. who can they be but the kâfirs, the infidels, those transgressors of our law, those wretches, who defile the purity of our walls by openly drinking wine, that liquor forbidden by the holy prophet (upon whom be blessing and peace!) and by making our streets the scene of their vices? let us go; follow me to where these odious wine-bibbers live; let us break their jars, and at least destroy one of the causes of the displeasure of allah against us.� upon this a general stir ensued; and fanaticism, such as i never thought could be excited in the breasts of men, broke out in the most angry expressions, which were only the forerunners of the violence that soon after ensued. nadân, putting himself at the head of the crowd, haranguing as he pressed onwards, and followed by me--who had become as outrageous a fanatic as the rest--led us to the armenian quarter of the city. the peaceable christians, seeing this body of enraged mohamedans making for their houses, knew not what to do. some barricaded their doors, others fled, and others again stood transfixed, like men impaled. but they did not long remain in doubt of our intentions; for first they were assailed with volleys of stones, and then with such shouts of execration and abuse, that they expected nothing less than a general massacre to ensue. the mollah entered the houses of the principal armenians, followed by the most violent of the mob, and began an active search for wine. he made no distinction between the women�s apartments and the public ones, but broke open every door; and when at length he had found the jars in which the liquor was contained, i leave the reader to imagine what was the havoc which ensued. they were broken into a thousand pieces; the wine flowed in every direction; and the poor owners could do nothing but look on and wring their hands. by the time that this ceremony had been performed in every house, the fury of the mob had risen to the utmost, and from the houses they proceeded to the church, which being forced open, they demolished everything within--books, crucifixes, ornaments, furniture--nothing was spared; and as there would not be wanting abundance of rogues on such occasions, it was soon discovered that whatever valuables the despoiled had possessed were carried away. the ruin was now complete; and nothing more was left to the fury of the mob but the unfortunate sufferers themselves, who perhaps would next have been attacked, had not a king�s ferash appeared, accompanied by one of the principal armenians, and their presence produced an almost instantaneous return to reason. apprehensive of the consequences of their conduct, all nadân�s followers made a precipitate retreat, leaving that revered personage and myself to face the king�s officer. i presume our feelings will not be much envied when we heard him inform us, that the king of kings demanded our immediate presence. the mollah looked at me, and i at him; and, perhaps, two bearded men never looked more like raw fools than we did at that moment. he endeavoured to temporize, and requested our conductor to accompany him to his house, in order that he might put on his red cloth stockings. �there will be no occasion for red cloth stockings,� said the ferash, dryly. this produced a universal tremor in the mollah, and i must own that it communicated itself to me in no agreeable manner. �but what have i done, in the name of the prophet?� exclaimed he:--�the enemies of our faith must be overthrown. is it not so?� said he to the ferash. �you will see,� returned the impenetrable man of blows. we at length reached the palace, and at the entrance found the grand vizier, seated with the mollah bashi, in the chief executioner�s apartment. as we stood at the window, the grand vizier said to the mollah nadân, �in the name of ali, what is this that we hear? have your wits forsaken you? do you forget that there is a king in tehran?� then the mollah bashi exclaimed, �and who am i, that you should presume to take the lead against the infidels?� �conduct them before the king,� exclaimed the executioner, as he arose and took his staff of office in hand. �do not keep the centre of the universe waiting.� more dead than alive, we were paraded through the avenues of the palace, and then stepped through the small low door, which introduced us into the enclosed garden, where we found the king seated in an upper room. as we approached, i perceived the august monarch twisting his mustachios, which is always esteemed a sign of wrath. i cast a glance at nadân, and i saw him streaming from every pore. we took our shoes off, as soon as we had come within sight of him, and advanced to the brink of the marble basin of water. the party who stood before the king consisted of the mollah bashi, the chief executioner, the armenian, nadân, and myself. the chief executioner then placed his staff of office on the ground, and making a low prostration, said, with all the prefatory form of words usual in addressing the shah, �this is the mollah nadân, and this his servant,� pointing to me. �say, mollah,� said the king, addressing himself to my master in a very composed tone of voice, �how long is it since you have undertaken to ruin my subjects? who gave you the power? have you become a prophet? or do you perhaps condescend to make yourself the king? say, fellow, what dirt is this that you have been eating?� the culprit, who on every other occasion never wanted words, here lost all power of utterance. he stammered out a few incoherent sentences about infidels, wine, and the want of rain, and then remained immovable. �what does he say?� said the king to the mollah bashi. �i have not learnt from whom he claims his authority.� �may i be your sacrifice,� said the chief priest; �he says, that he acted for the benefit of your majesty�s subjects who wanted rain, which they could not get so long as the infidels drank wine in tehran.� �so you destroy part of my subjects to benefit the remainder! by the king�s beard,� said the king to nadân, �tell me, do i stand for nothing in my own capital? are a parcel of poor dogs of infidels to be ruined under my nose, without my being asked a question whether it be my will or not that they should be so? speak, man; what dream have you been dreaming? your brain has dried up.� then raising his voice, he said, �after all, we are something in our dominions, and the kâfirs, though such they be, shall know it. here, ferashes� (calling his officers to him), �here, tear this wretch�s turban from his head and his cloak from his back; pluck the beard from his chin; tie his hands behind him, place him on an ass with his face to the tail, parade him through the streets, and then thrust him neck and shoulders out of the city, and let his hopeful disciple (pointing to me) accompany him.� happy was i not to have been recognized for the lover of the unfortunate zeenab. my fate was paradise compared to that of my master; for never was order more completely executed than that which had passed the shah�s lips. nadân�s beard was ripped from his chin with as much ease by the ferashes as if they were plucking a fowl; and then, with abundance of blows to hasten our steps, they seized upon the first ass which they met, and mounted the priest, the once proud and ambitious priest, upon it, and paced him slowly through the streets. i walked mournfully behind, having had my mollah�s shawl torn from my head, and my _hirkeh_ (cloak) from my back. when we had reached one of the gates nadân was dismounted, and with scarcely a rag to our backs, we were turned out into the open country; and it is worthy of remark, that no sooner had we left the city than rain began to pour in torrents, as if the heavens had been waiting to witness the disgrace of two of persia�s greatest rogues, and to give the mollah nadân the lie in favour of the poor, injured, and ruined armenians. [illustration: drowning of the mollah bashi. .jpg] chapter lvii hajji baba meets with an extraordinary adventure in the bath, which miraculously saves him from the horrors of despair. �so,� said i to my companion, as soon as we were left to ourselves, �so i am indebted to you for this piece of happiness. if i had thought that this adventure was to have been the result of the mûshtehed�s recommendation, you would never have seen hajji baba in this trim. what could it signify to you whether rain fell or no, or whether the armenians got drunk or remained sober? this is what we have got by your officiousness.� the mollah was in too pitiable a condition for me to continue upbraiding him any longer. we walked in silence by the side of each other in the saddest manner possible, until we reached the first village on our road. here we made a halt, in order to deliberate upon what we should do. my unfortunate companion was expelled the city, therefore it was impossible for him to show himself in it until the storm had blown over; but as we were both very anxious to know what had become of our respective properties--he of his house and effects, i of my clothes, my money, and mule,--it was determined that i should return and gain the necessary intelligence. i entered tehran in the evening, and, making myself as little recognizable as possible, i slunk through the streets to the mollah�s house. at the first glimpse i discovered that we were entirely ruined; for it was in possession of a swarm of harpies who made free property of everything that fell under their hands. one of the first persons whom i met coming from it was the very ferash who had been sent by the shah to conduct us to his presence; and he was mounted on my mule, with a bundle in his lap before him, doubtless containing my wardrobe, or that of the mollah. so borne down was i by this sight, and so fearful of being discovered, that i hurried away from the spot; and, scarcely knowing whither i was bending my steps, i strolled into a bath, situated not far from the house of our enemy the chief priest. i went in, undressed myself, and it being almost dark, i was scarcely perceived by the bathing attendants. going from the first heated room into the hottest of all, i there took my station in a dark recess, unseen by any one, and gave free course to my thoughts. i considered to what i could now possibly turn my hands for a livelihood: for fortune seemed to have abandoned me for ever, and it appeared that i was marked out for the stricken deer, as the choice game of misfortune. �i no sooner fall in love,� said i, musing, �than the king himself becomes my rival, slays my mistress, and degrades me from my employment. i am the lawful heir to a man of undoubted wealth: he lives just long enough to acknowledge me; and although everybody tells me that i ought to be rich, yet i have the mortification to see myself cheated before my face, and i turn out a greater beggar than ever. the most devout and powerful man of the law in persia takes a fancy to me, and secures to me what i expect will be a happy retreat for life: my master in an evil hour prays for the blessings of heaven to be poured upon us, instead of which we are visited with its vengeance, driven as exiles from the city, and lose all our property.� never did man count up such a sum of miseries as i did when seated in the corner of the bath. the world seemed for ever gone from me, and i wished for nothing better than to die in the very spot in which i had nestled myself. the bath had now been almost entirely abandoned by the bathers, when of a sudden a stir ensued, and i perceived a man walk in, with a certain degree of parade, whom, through the glimmering of light that was still left, i recognized to be the mollah bashi in person. neither he nor his attendants perceived me; and as soon as he was left to himself (for so he thought) he immediately got into the reservoir of hot water, or the _hazneh_ (the treasury), as it is called in the baths of persia. here i heard him for some time splashing about and puffing with all his might; a sort of playfulness which struck me as remarkable for so grave and sedate a character; and then a most unusual floundering, attended with a gurgling of the throat, struck my ear. i conceived that he might be practising some extraordinary bodily exercise, and curiosity impelled me to rise gently from my corner, and with all the precaution possible, to steal softly on the tips of my toes to the aperture of the reservoir, and look in. to my horror, i perceived the head of the law at his last gasp, apparently without a struggle left in him. it was evident that he had been seized with a fit, and had been drowned before he could call for help. all the terrible consequences of this unfortunate event stared me full in the face. �what can now hinder me,� said i, �from being taken up as his murderer? everybody knew how ill-disposed against him was my master, the mollah nadân, and i shall be called the vile instrument of his enmity.� whilst making these reflections, standing upon the step that leads into the reservoir, the mollah bashi�s servant, followed by a bathing attendant, came in, with the warm linen that is used on leaving the bath; and seeing a man apparently coming out of the water, naturally took me for the deceased, and without any words proceeded to rub me down and to put on the bathing linen. this gave me time for thought; and as i foresaw an adventure that might perhaps lead me safely out of the scrape into which my destiny had thrown me, i let it take its course, and at once resolved to personify the chief priest. a dim lamp, suspended from on high, was the only light that shone in the large vault of the dressing-room; and as i happened to be about the size and stature of the deceased, his servants, who were without suspicion, very naturally took me for their master. i had known and seen a great deal of him during my stay with the mollah nadân, and, therefore, was sufficiently acquainted with the manners of the man to be able to copy him for the short time it would take to be attended upon by his servants, until we reached his house. the most difficult part of the imposture would be, when i should enter the women�s apartments; for i was quite unacquainted with the locality there, and totally ignorant of the sort of footing he was upon with the inmates of his anderûn. indeed, i once heard that he was a perfect tyrant over the fairer part of the creation; and as much gossip was carried on at my master�s, it came to my recollection, that it had been said he waged a continual war with his lawful wife, for certain causes of jealousy which his conduct was said to promote. he was a man of few words, and when he spoke generally expressed himself in short broken sentences; and as he affected to use words of arabic origin on all occasions, more gutteral sounds obtruded themselves upon the ear than are generally heard from those who talk pure persian. i did not permit myself to open my lips during the whole time that i was dressing. i kept my face in shade as much as possible; and when the waterpipe was offered to me, i smoked it in the manner that i had seen the chief priest do; that is, taking two or three long whiffs, and then disgorging a seemingly interminable stream of smoke. one of the servants appeared to be struck by something unusual, as i pronounced my _khoda hafiz!_ to the owner of the bath upon leaving it; but all suspicion was at an end when they felt the weight which i gave myself, as they helped me to mount the horse that was in waiting. i deliberately dismounted at the gate of the house of the deceased; and although i bungled about the passages, yet, following the man who seemed to act as the confidential servant, i came to the little door which leads into the anderûn. i permitted him to do what he no doubt was daily accustomed to do, and just as he had opened the door, and i had advanced two or three paces, he shouted out, �_cheragh biar_, bring lights,� and then retired. a clatter of slippers and women�s voices was then immediately heard, and two young slaves came running towards me with tapers in their hands, apparently striving who should first reach me. the largest apartment of the building was lighted up, and i could perceive in it more women than one. that i took to be the residence of the principal personage, the now widow of the deceased; and i dreaded lest the slaves should conduct me thither. but, aided by my good stars, i must have fallen upon a most propitious moment, when the mollah bashi and his wife had quarrelled; an event which seemed to be understood by my conductors, who, seeing me unwilling to proceed to the lighted apartment, drew me on to a door which led into a small inner court, where i found a khelwet, or retiring room, into which they introduced me. how to get rid of them was my next care; for as they had walked before me, they could not have got a sight of my face, and had they entered the room with me, perhaps they would have made a discovery fatal to my safety. i took the light from the hand of one, and dismissed the other, with a sign of the head. had i been the same inconsiderate youth as at the time of my acquaintance with zeenab, perhaps i should have committed some act of imprudence that might have led to my discovery; but now i eyed the two young slaves with apprehension and even with terror; and certainly one of the most agreeable moments of my existence was, when i saw them turn their backs upon me and leave me to my own meditations. the change in my fortune, which had taken place during the last hour, was so unexpected, that i felt like one treading between heaven and earth; and my first impulse, upon finding myself in safety, after having got over the most difficult part of the imposture, was at one moment to exult and be joyful, and at another to shiver with apprehension lest my good fortune might abandon me. [illustration: hajji in the mollah bashi�s house. .jpg] chapter lviii of the consequences of the adventure, which threaten danger, but end in apparent good fortune. i carefully fastened the inside of my door as soon as i was left to myself, and put my candle in so remote a corner of the room, that if any one was curious to look through the painted glass window, they could never discover that i was not the mollah bashi. having done this, it then struck me that something more might be elicited from this adventure than i had at first imagined. �let me inspect the good man�s pockets,� said i, �and the roll of paper in his girdle; perhaps they may contain the history of my future plans.� in his right-hand pocket were two notes, a rosary, and his seals. in the left his ink-stand, a small looking-glass, and a comb. his watch was kept in the breast of his coat, and in another small pocket, nearly under his arm-pit, was his purse. the purse first came under inspection, and there i found five tomauns in gold and two pieces of silver. the watch was gold, and of english manufacture. his inkstand, beautifully painted, was also valuable, and contained a penknife, scissors, and pens. all these and the other trinkets i duly looked upon as my own (for i was determined to play the whole game), and i replaced them in their proper places on my person. the notes then came under inspection. one was to this purpose, without a seal. �o friend! my intimate! my brother!� (�o,� said i, �this is from an equal!�) �you know the affection that the friend who addresses you entertains for that bright star of the age, the shadow of our blessed prophet, and his only wish is, that their intimacy should daily increase and strengthen. he sends him six choice ispahan melons, such as are not to be found every day, and requests him, as he values his beard, to give him an unlimited permission to drink wine; for the doctors assure him if he does not take it in abundance, he will not have long to be the scourge and extirpator of the enemies of the true faith.� �this can only be from the chief executioner,� said i immediately. �who else in persia could express in such few words his own character, namely, flatterer, drunkard, and braggart? i will make something of this; but let me look at the other note. i opened it, and read as follows: �o my lord and master, �the humble inferior who presumes to address the prop of the true faith, the terror of infidels, and the refuge of the sinner, begs leave to lay before him, that after having encountered a thousand difficulties, he has at length succeeded in getting from the peasantry of his villages one hundred tomauns in ready money, besides the fifty _kherwars_, or ass loads of grain: that the man, hossein ali, could or would not pay anything, although he had bastinadoed him twice, and he had in consequence taken possession of his two cows: that he would go on beating and exerting himself to the best of his abilities; and if some one was sent for the money which he had now in hand, he would deliver it over upon receiving a proper order.� the note then finished with the usual form of words from an inferior to his master, and was sealed with a small seal, upon which was impressed abdul kerim, the name of the writer. �ah,� said i, �may my lucky stars still protect me, and i will discover who this abdul kerim is, and where the village from whence he writes, and then the hundred tomauns become mine. however, i let that matter rest for the moment, to think of the good account to which i might turn the note from the chief executioner. after due reflection i wrote as follows:-- �o my friend! my soul! �the note of that friend without compare has been received, and its contents understood. when the sacred standard of islâm runs the risk of losing that lion of lions, that double-bladed sword, that tower of strength, when he may be saved and preserved, who can doubt what is to be done? drink, o friend, drink wine, and copiously too; and let the enemies of all true believers tremble. may thy house prosper, for the melons; but add one more favour to the many already conferred; lend thy friend a horse, duly caparisoned, for he has pressing business on hand, and he will return it safe and sound, as soon as the star of his destiny shall direct him home again.� this i impressed with the seal of the deceased, and determined to present it myself very early in the morning. to the other note i wrote the following answer: �to the well-beloved abdul kerim. �we have received your note, and have understood its contents. this will be delivered to you by our confidential hajji baba beg, to whom you will deliver whatever money you have in hand for us. on other subjects you will hear from us soon; but in the meanwhile go on with the bastinado, and we pray allah to take you into his holy keeping.� having duly accomplished this, i waited for a proper hour to make my escape from a place where i was in momentary danger of a discovery, which perhaps might bring me to an ignominious end. it was past midnight, and i was preparing to issue in great secrecy from my room, when the door was gently pressed as if some one wanted admittance. my fright may better be imagined than described. i expected to see, at least, the _daroga_ (police magistrate) and all his officers rush in and seize me; and i waited in agony for the result of the intrusion, when i heard the sound of a female voice whispering words which my agitation prevented my understanding. whatever might have been the object of the visit, i had but one answer to give, and that was a loud and heavy snore, which sufficiently proclaimed that the occupant of the apartment was in no humour to be disturbed. i waited for some time until i thought that everything was hushed throughout the mansion, then made my way quietly to the principal entrance, which having easily opened, i fled as if pursued. i watched the best opportunities to steal along the streets without meeting the police, and without being discovered by the sentinels on duty. the day at length dawned, and the bazaars, little by little, began to open. dressed as i was in the mollah bashi�s clothes, my first care was to make such alterations in them that they should not hold me up to suspicion, and this i did for a trifling expense at an old clothes� shop, although, at the same time, i took care not to part with any of the valuable articles which had fallen into my possession. i then proceeded to the house of the chief executioner, where i presented my note to a servant, an utter stranger to me, saying, that the mollah bashi requested an immediate answer, as he was about going from the city on important business. to my delight, i was informed that the great personage was in his anderûn, and that he must for the present delay sending a written answer; but that in the meanwhile he had ordered one of his horses to be delivered to me. o how i eyed the beast as i saw him led out of the stable, with the gold-pommelled and velvet-seated saddle, with the gold chain dangling over his head, and the bridle inlaid with enamelled knobs. i almost dreaded to think that all this was about to become my property, and that such luck could not last long. so strong was this apprehension that i was about asking for trappings less gaudy and more serviceable; but again, i thought that any delay might be my ruin; so without mincing the matter i mounted him, and in a very short time had passed the gates of the city, and was far advanced into the country. i rode on, without stopping or once looking behind, until i had got among some of the broken ground produced by the large and undefined bed of the river caraj, and there i made a halt. i recollected to have heard that the village of the mollah bashi lay somewhere in the direction of hamadan, and consequently i directed my course thither. but, to say the truth, when pausing to breathe, i was so alarmed at the extraordinary turn which my fortunes had taken, that, like one dizzy on the brink of a precipice, invaded by a sort of impulse to precipitate himself, it was with some difficulty that i could persuade myself not to return and deliver up my person to justice. �i am,� said i, �nothing more nor less than a thief, and, if caught, should duly be blown from the mouth of a mortar. but then, on the other hand, who made me so? surely, if _takdeer_ (destiny) will work such wonderful effects, it can be no fault of mine. i sought not the death of the mollah bashi; but if he chooses to come and breathe his last in my lap, and if, whether i will or no, i am to be taken for him, then it is plain that fate has made me his vakeel, his representative; and whatever i do so long as i remain in that character is lawful--then his clothes are my clothes, his hundred tomauns are my hundred tomauns, and whatever i have written in his name is lawfully written.� revived by these conclusions, i again mounted and proceeded to the nearest village, to inquire where the property of the chief priest was situated, and if a person of the name of abdul kerim was known in the neighbourhood. as if the dice were determined to keep turning up in my favour, i found that the very next village, about one parasang distant, was the one in question, and abdul kerim a priest of that name who superintended the interests and collected the revenues of his deceased master. �ho,� said i, �a priest! i must change the tone of the letter and insert his proper titles.� i immediately sat down on the ground, taking the inkstand from my pocket, and cutting off a slip of paper from the roll in my girdle i framed my note anew, and then proceeded on my errand, determined, if i obtained possession of the hundred tomauns, to take the shortest road to the nearest persian frontier. [illustration: hajji leaves the village hurriedly after collecting the money. .jpg] chapter lix hajji baba does not shine in honesty--the life and adventures of the mollah nadân i put on an air of consequence suited to the fine horse which i bestrode as soon as i reached seidabad (for that was the name of the village), and rode through its gates with such a look of authority that the peasants who saw me did not fail to make very low inclinations of the head. �where is abdul kerim?� said i, as i dismounted, and gave my horse to one of the bystanders. in a moment every one was in motion to find him, and he very soon appeared. �i am come,� said i (after the usual salutations), �on the part of the chief priest, upon certain business well known to you�; and straight i delivered him my note. abdul kerim had a piercing eye, which did not at all suit me, particularly as he kept conning me over through a corner of it; but i was relieved as soon as he had read the note to hear him say, �_be cheshm!_ by my eyes! the money is ready. but you must refresh yourself. in the name of god, come in. i pretended great hurry, not at all liking to remain under the fire of his sharp eyes; but by way of not exciting suspicion, i consented to eat some fruit and sour milk. �i do not remember to have seen you at the chief priest�s,� said he to me, as i was opening wide my mouth to swallow a piece of melon; �and yet i am acquainted with every one of his servants perfectly.� �no,� said i, half choked at the question, �no, i do not belong to him. i am an attendant upon the chief executioner, with whom the mollah bashi, i believe, has some money transactions.� this seemed to settle every difficulty which i saw had been rising in the mind of my entertainer; and thus the fine horse, the gold-pommelled saddle, and the brilliant bridle, were at once accounted for. having received the one hundred tomauns, i safely deposited them in my breast; and then, apparently taking the road back to the city, i left the village with a heart much lighter than i had brought. but as soon as i was fairly out of sight i turned my horse�s bridle in the contrary direction, and clapping the stirrups into his flanks galloped on without stopping, until the foam fairly ran down his sides. i determined to proceed direct to kermanshah, there sell horse, saddle, and bridle, and then make my way to bagdad, where i should be safe from all danger of molestation. having proceeded some five parasangs on my road i saw a strange figure walking before me at a good pace, singing with all his throat. he was lightly dressed, having only a skull-cap on his head, his face bound round with a piece of linen, a pair of slippers on his feet, and nothing to indicate that he was a wayfaring man. as i drew near i thought that i had seen his form before; he was tall and well-shaped, with broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. i should immediately have taken him for the mollah nadân but for his singing; for it never struck me as possible that one of his grave character and manners could ever lower himself by so ignoble an act. but little by little i saw so much of him, although he had not yet discovered me, that i could not be mistaken; it was the mollah himself. i stopped my horse to deliberate whether i should notice or make myself known to him. to pass him would be the height of cruelty, but to recognize him would of necessity burden me with an inconvenient companion. but then, should he discern who i was, and find that i had shunned him, he would very probably denounce me as a thief on the very first occasion; and if i escaped him now i should have the fear ever after of knowing him to be my enemy. we were both approaching a village where we must pass the night, therefore there was no retreating on my part; for it was necessary to see that proper care was taken of my horse, considering the long journey it had to travel, and to push him on farther was impossible. i took a middle line. should he recognize me i would speak to him; if not, i would pass him unheeded. i urged my horse on, and as i approached he turned round and surveyed me from head to foot, but apparently without making me out. �o aga, for pity�s sake,� exclaimed he, �have compassion on an unfortunate man, who has no other refuge in this world than god and you!� i could not resist such an appeal to my feelings, and, keeping silence for some little while by way of hearing what more he would say, i at length burst into an immoderate fit of laughter. my laughter seemed to be as much out of season as his singing, for he was extremely puzzled what to make of me: but when i began to speak, all doubts were removed, and he ran up to me with a sort of joy and ecstasy that bordered upon madness. �ay, hajji; my soul, my uncle, light of my eyes!� said he, as he kissed my knee. �from what heaven have you dropped? what means this finery, this horse, this gold, these trappings? do you deal with the gins and the dives or has fortune fallen in love, and adopted you its heir?� i continued laughing, so amused was i at these sallies, and he went on, saying: �how comes it that you have so soon turned your mule into this fine horse? and my property, what is become of it? have you not even saved my ass, for i am sorely tired of going on foot? tell me, tell me all: by the beard of the prophet, tell me all.� i soon found that had i refused to give him a full account of my adventures, he would suspect me of having got possession of his property, and turned it into the finery which had just drawn forth his admiration; so i promised faithfully to relate everything, but i entreated him at the same time to prepare a large quantity of credulity, for what i had to say was so marvellous that he would very probably conceive it was my intention to impose upon him. we then proceeded to the village, where we took up our quarters at the _mehman khaneh_, or strangers� house, a convenience generally to be found in every hamlet throughout persia, and there established ourselves for the night. a person of my appearance could not long remain unnoticed, and i was duly waited upon by the ked khoda, who supplied us with a good supper; and during the time required for its preparation i related my adventures to my companion. their singularity was in no manner thrown away upon him; and he seemed to die away with delight when he found that all my present prosperity was at the cost of his old enemy the mollah bashi. as we sat communicating to each other in the full confidence of our hearts (for the miserable are ever greatly relieved by talking of themselves), i discovered that never before had i acquired an insight into the real character of my associate. �there must have been an assumed importance in you,� said i to him, �as long as i was in your service; for how could one really proud be so amiable as you appear now?� �ah, hajji!� said he, �adversity is a great alterative. my life has been one eternal up and down. i have often compared it to those whirligigs set up by louts in our market-places on the no rouz, which keep one dangling between heaven and earth. unfortunately, i am one of those who has never adopted the maxim of �spread not your carpet in a wet place.�� �tell me,� said i, �the history of your adventures. we cannot better pass our time, and i hope that you know me well enough now not to refuse me your confidence.� �you will hear nothing in my history but what is common to many persians, who one day are princes and the next beggars; but since you are curious to know, i will relate it with pleasure�; and he began in the following words:-- �i am a native of hamadan. my father was a mollah of such eminence that he was ambitious of becoming the mûshtehed of persia; but his controversies upon particular points of faith unfortunately carried him so far that a party was created against him, which deprived him of the elevation he sought. his most prominent quality was the hatred he bore to the osmanlies, and to sûnis in general. one of our ancestors is said to have first introduced into persia a more universal hatred against them than ever before existed, by a simple innovation in the education of the shiah children, by which means their very first ideas were trained to be inimical to the race of omar. i mean,� said the mollah, �that which you no doubt very well remember: when a little boy in schooltime is pressed upon certain occasions to ask his master�s leave to retire, the form of words in which he is enjoined to make his request is �_lahnet beh omar!_ curse be upon omar!� i dare say you have through life, as i have, never omitted to unite the name of omar with everything that is unclean, and at least once a day to repeat the curse which you were taught at school.� i fully assented to this, and then he proceeded with his story. �my father�s hatred for the sectaries of omar extended itself to all sorts of infidels. jews, christians, fire-worshippers, and worshippers of images, all came within the scope of his execration; and what at first he had practised from motives of ambition, at length became the ruling principle of his nature. his family, and i among the number, were brought up in his tenets, and imbibed all his violent prejudices; and so much did we hang together by them that we formed as it were a distinct sect,--the terror of infidels, and the most zealous upholders of the shiah faith. �after this you will not be surprised at the part i lately took in the destruction of the armenian wine-jars at tehran. but that is not the only scrape my zeal has led me into. very early in life, when still a student at hamadan, i was involved in a terrible disturbance, of which i was the principal promoter. �an ambassador from the pasha of bagdad, with his suite, was quietly taking his road through our city, having sojourned there two or three days on his way to the court of the shah, when burning to put into practice my father�s lessons, i collected a band of young fanatics like myself, and, making them an appropriate address, i so excited their passions that we resolved to perform some feat worthy of our principles. we determined to attack our turkish guests, inform them of the curses we denounced against omar, and invite them to become adherents to the doctrine of ali. heedless, and, perhaps, ignorant of what is due to the character of _elchi_, or ambassador, we only saw in suleiman effendi an enemy to the shiahs, and one calling himself a sûni. one day, as he was setting forth from his house to visit the governor of hamadan, we gathered ourselves into a body and greeted him by loud cries of �curses be upon omar!� this enraged his domestics, who retorted the insult by blows. showers of stones ensued from our party, and this led to a general fray, in which the pasha�s representative had his turban knocked from his head, his beard spit upon, and his clothes nearly torn from his back. �such an outrage of course could not be overlooked. the ambassador was furious; he threatened to send off couriers to the shah, and was even on the point of returning to his own master when the governor, frightened at the consequences if his wrath was not appeased, promised that he should have all satisfaction, and that the ringleaders of the disturbance should immediately be delivered up to him. �trusting to my father�s consequence in the city, and full of vapouring pride at what we had achieved, i at first made light of the vows of vengeance which the turks breathed against us; but the governor, who only contemplated the loss of his place if the news of this event reached tehran; and caring little whether ali was the true successor to the prophet, or whether osman, omar, and abubekr were usurpers or not, he at once ordered me to be seized, as well as two others of my companions, and forthwith we were placed at the disposal of the enraged osmanlies. �i shall never forget the contending emotions of my mind when brought face to face before these objects of my hatred. i did not at all relish the sound beating which they had it in contemplation to inflict upon me; and, at the same time, i groaned under the necessity of keeping to myself that stream of abuse which was ready to flow against them upon the smallest provocation. �they seemed, however, quite ready to return all our hatred with interest, and did not lose this opportunity of letting us know its full extent. they were not generous enough to let us off, but ordered the administration of the bastinado with a degree of religious zest that i thought could never have existed in any breast except my own. to be short, our feet were beat into a jelly, and our only consolation during the operation was the opportunity afforded us of giving vent to our pent-up rage. the turk, however, was revenged, and we were set free. �this adventure cooled my zeal for many years; although, in the pursuit of the distinctions which my father sought, i continued to addict myself to controversy. when about twenty-five years old, and my beard had acquired a respectable consistency, i went to ispahan in order to improve myself by associating with our celebrated doctors, and to make my own abilities known by the part which i might take in their disputations. i succeeded to the utmost of my wishes, and acquired considerable reputation. i only wanted an opportunity of distinguishing myself, and that was soon afforded me by the following circumstance. �in the time of our famous shah seffi; who was himself half a heretic, the franks (a sect of the christians) had considerable establishments at ispahan for the purposes of commerce, and were much patronized and encouraged by him. he allowed them free exercise of their religion,--permitted them to build churches, to import priests, and, to the scandal of the true faith, even allowed them the use of bells to call them to prayer. these franks have a supreme head of their church--a sort of caliph, whom they call _papa_--part of whose duty, like that of our own blessed prophet, is to propagate his religion throughout the world. under different pretexts, convents of his dervishes were established, some in ispahan itself, and some in julfa among the armenians. most of these have been abandoned, and the buildings fallen into decay; but one whose object more particularly was the propagation of the christian faith still existed, and to its destruction my endeavours and those of some of our most zealous mollahs were directed, notwithstanding the opposite views of the government, who are anxious to encourage the christians to settle in persia, owing to the riches which they introduce by their trade. �this convent was served by two dervishes, one of whom was in himself a calamity!--one who understood the world,--a man of deep design,--and of a wit so sharp that the shaitan in person was not fit to be his father. he was tall, thin, and strong. his eyes were like live charcoal, and his voice like a high wind. he never lost an opportunity of entering into argument with our most learned men upon points of religion, and would boldly assert, with the heart of a lion, that our holy prophet, �the chief of created beings, the sealed intercessor, mohammed mustapha�, (upon whom be eternal blessings!) was a cheat and an impostor. in short, he embarked in the sea of controversy, as if he had noah for a pilot; and, not content with words, he even wrote a book, in which he pretended to prove the truth of his mad assertions. this book was unfortunately attempted to be answered by one of our divines, who did not recollect that it is folly to play with fire, unless there be plenty of water at hand to extinguish it. his book said anything but what it ought, and tended more to throw ridicule upon islamism than to uphold its glory and perfection. ispahan was full of this subject when i arrived there; and, being anxious to bring myself forwards, i proposed that an invitation should be made to the frank dervish to meet the mollahs of the city in person, on an appointed day, in the medresseh jedeed, when they would argue every point of their respective faiths, and when they would either make the dervish turn mohammedan, by producing conviction in his mind, or they would become christians, if his arguments prevailed. to this he immediately assented; but we determined beforehand, amongst ourselves, that such a thorn in the side of our _ullemah_ should no longer exist in persia, and that the overwhelming truth of our belief should not be left to the chances of vain words and uplifted voices, but show itself in the zeal and numbers of its adherents. accordingly every turbaned head, and every beard that wagged, were secretly invited to appear on the appointed day; and never was attendance more complete,--never did the children of islam make such a show of their irresistible force, as they did on that memorable occasion. �the medresseh was already filled; for, besides the mollahs, a great crowd, all anxious to witness the triumph of the true faith, had taken possession of the courts. head over head and turban over turban were piled upon each other, in thick array, along the walls and in the utmost corners of the hall, when the frank dervish, alone, unsupported, and unfriended, appeared before us. he looked around in dismay, and appeared appalled by our numbers. two or three of the principal mollahs, who were to carry on the controversy, were seated in front of their body, and i was close at hand. we had prepared questions which were to be proposed to him, and according to the answers he gave so were we to act. he appeared to be provided with no other weapon of defence save his tongue; and he sat down opposite to us, evidently much alarmed at the hostility which he remarked on the countenances of all present. �without giving him any time for reflection, we immediately began:-- ��do you believe,� said one, �that the god in heaven put himself into a human form?� �do you,� said another, �acknowledge that god is composed of three persons, and still is only one?� �are you convinced,� said a third, �that what you call the holy ghost came down from heaven in the body of a dove?� �these questions were put so quickly that he knew not which way to turn, until, collecting within himself all the powers of his voice, he exclaimed, �if your intention is to kill me, be it so; but what good will that do your argument? if your intention be to argue, attacking me in this manner by numbers and personal violence will prove that you can only oppose passion to argument; and show the world, that by me you have been overcome.� �seeing that we were likely to fare ill, and observing that his words were producing an effect in his favour, i was the first to exclaim to the surrounding mob, and to the assembly present: �o mussulmans! mussulmans! come to our help,--our religion is attacked,--the infidel is trying to subvert our faith,--vengeance! help!� �these words produced an immediate effect, and a thousand voices were lifted up against him. �seize him!� said some; �kill him!� said others. the mob was agitated to and fro, like the waves of the sea; when the dervish, seeing himself in danger, made an attempt to escape, which was seconded by one of the mollahs, whose compassion was moved towards him. he threw his own cloak over the infidel�s shoulders, and just as violent hands were about to be laid upon him, he pushed vigorously through the crowd, and succeeded in reaching the house of an armenian in safety. �we, the mollahs, being disappointed of our prey, proceeded in a body to the house of the governor of the city, followed by an immense crowd of the people. a great fermentation had been excited, and we promoted it all in our power. �the governor himself was a strict and pious mussulman, and we expected that he would without hesitation join in the cry we had raised. we accused the frank dervish of preaching false doctrine, with a view to subvert our religion. ��this fellow,� said we, �calls our prophet cheat; and talks abomination. we demand that he be delivered over to us.� �the governor was perplexed how to act; for he knew how dangerous it was to interfere in matters in which the subjects of europe were concerned; and he was far from seconding our disposition to violence. ��why invite the dervish to an argument,� said he, �if you will not hear what he has to say? if you have no arguments to oppose to his, violence only makes your cause worse, and you do more harm than good to our religion. but if on the other hand your arguments are better than his, and he can bring no answer to them, then indeed he is a kafir, an infidel; and according to our law is worthy of death.� �finding ourselves balked again, we departed breathing vengeance; and i verily believe, had we met the dervish at that moment, he would have been tom into a thousand pieces. he was so well aware of this, we soon heard that he had left the city in secret; and so far our endeavours were successful, for it was long before he ventured again to show himself. �i had put myself so much forward on this occasion, and had shown my zeal in so many different ways, that i had become a prominent character. but hitherto i had got nothing by it. the capital i felt, after all, was the place where i ought to endeavour to gain some permanent and lucrative situation; and to that i turned my views. to gain this end, i took myself to kom, with a view of ingratiating myself with the mûshtehed, whose recommendation i knew would do me more good than ten years of prayer and fasting. i succeeded perfectly; for with the character i had acquired of being the scourge of infidels, i was received by him with great favour, and he was delighted to acknowledge me for one of his most diligent disciples. i soon took up his cause against the sûfies with all the ardour that he could wish; and it was not long before i ventured to solicit his recommendation to the body of the ullemah at tehran, and to the principal men in office at court. he professed to be sorry to part with me, but acceded to my request; and i was soon after counted one of the holy fraternity at the seat of empire. �i confess to you, although i enjoy as good an opinion of myself as most men, that i was much less successful in making my way at court than i had expected. my competitors for advancement were numerous, and more versed in the ways of the world than i. like them, i was obliged to begin by paying a most assiduous attention to men in office. having once gained the privilege of being seated in the _mejlis_ (assembly) of the head of the law, who was in fact my chief, i little by little became noticed by the grand vizier, the lord high treasurer, the secretary of state, the chief executioner, and others. i was constantly to be seen at their uprisings, and at their evening meetings; but after all, i was nothing but a poor mollah, and i longed for some opportunity of distinguishing myself from the common herd. the prime vizier first noticed me owing to my once having succeeded in making him shed tears, at the commemoration of the death of the blessed hossein, which he held at his house, and where i preached and chanted the service in a manner that drew forth his approbation, and that of all the assembly. since then i have made great progress, particularly in the eyes of the people, whose good opinion i look upon as the first of acquisitions to an ambitious man. �but you have had an opportunity of judging how little their assistance is to be depended upon, when opposed to the will of an absolute king. trusting too much to my influence over them, i have lost myself; and i am now what you see, a miserable wanderer, returning to my native city, as penniless as when i first left it.� chapter lx hajji and the mollah make plans suited to their critical situation, showing that no confidence can exist between rogues. the mollah nadân having finished his narrative, i endeavoured to persuade him that the same destiny which had presided over his success in life, and afterwards over his misfortunes, would no doubt serve him again, and restore him to his lost situation: �for,� said i, �we both of us have seen enough of life in persia to have ascertained its extreme instability. when events depend upon the will of one man, he may with as much consistency order you back from exile, as he did the plucking your beard and the thrusting you forth from the city. there is a reaction in misfortune which frequently produces increased prosperity. thus when the smith sprinkles water upon his burning charcoal, it is extinguished for a moment, and smoke takes the place of flame; but again, at the slightest blast of his bellows, the fire breaks out with redoubled brilliancy.� �that is precisely the thought with which i was consoling myself,� said my companion, �and which set me singing, when you overtook me on the road. the shah most probably thought it necessary to make an exhibition of justice, by way of ingratiating himself with the christian merchants; but the day will come when he will feel the necessity of making friends of the upholders of the mohamedan religion, and then the good opinion of such a man as i, who am beloved by my people, will be of consequence to him. i had some thoughts, i confess, of relinquishing priestcraft, and becoming a merchant; but, all things considered, i shall continue to follow my original destiny. i have now an opportunity of setting up for a martyr, and _that_, now i recollect it, is worth more than the loss of my worldly goods, my house, my furniture, my white ass, and even my mûties.� �then what do you propose doing?� said i. �will you accompany me to bagdad, or will you wait the tide of events in persia?� �my plan,� said he, �is to proceed to my native place, hamadan, where my father, who is still alive, enjoys considerable reputation: through his means i will set negotiations on foot for my readmission to the capital, and ultimately for my restoration to the situations of which i have been deprived. but you,--what road do you intend to pursue? when, inshallah, please god, i am restored, i shall require your talents to make my mûti establishment prosper. you had better remain at hamadan with me, and follow my fortunes.� �ah, my friend,� said i, �with all my present apparent prosperity, i am more of an exile than you. events have played wickedly into my lap, and here am i (god knows how unwillingly) an avowed thief. i could not do otherwise than follow my destiny, which has clothed me with the garments of the chief priest, enriched me with his money, and mounted me upon the finely caparisoned steed of the executioner in chief. that same destiny compels me to fly my country: i cannot remain in it to run the chance of being discovered and cut into quarters, to grace the gates of the city. no, before many days are expired, i hope to have reached the turkish frontier, and then only shall i call myself in safety.� upon this i made him an offer of part of my acquired spoils, by which i hoped to secure his secrecy, and happy was i to find him nothing loth. he accepted of ten tomauns (leaving me ninety-five in hand), which he said would be enough for present purposes, and which he promised to repay whenever his fortunes should be reestablished. but upon taking them from me, he again urged me to proceed with him to hamadan. he represented in the strongest colours the danger i ran of being seized before i could escape from the shah�s territories, and even when i should have quitted them. �for,� said he, �the moment the death of the mollah bashi is known, and as soon as the chief executioner shall have discovered the loss of his horse, he will not fail to dispatch officers throughout the country in search of you, and you are too conspicuous a character now not to be easily traced. it will be much better for you to take refuge with me, who will not fail to avert any inquiries, until the event has blown over, when you will be at liberty to follow your plans in safety. my father owns a village at some distance from hamadan, where you can live unsuspected; and as for your horse and trappings, we may dispose of them in such a manner that they cannot lead to your discovery. hamadan is not very far distant. if you depart hence at midnight, we shall reach it early to-morrow; and this we can easily do by making your horse carry us both. consider that the journey is long to the turkish frontier; and should the beast fail you, what is to hinder your being taken?� his words gave a new turn to my thoughts, and i saw that he spoke the language of reason. totally ignorant of this part of persia, and feeling how necessary it was for my safety not only to be acquainted with the high roads, but also with the unfrequented paths, i looked upon a rapid flight to the frontier as an undertaking not so easily performed as imagined. if the mollah was inclined to betray me, he would as easily do so whether i fled or whether i adopted his plan; and of the two, it appeared to me a safer line of conduct to confide in than to distrust him: and accordingly i agreed to accompany him. refreshed both by food and rest, we departed at midnight, and made great progress on the road to hamadan ere the sun rose. having reached a rising ground which gave us a view of the city, we made a halt, in order to decide upon our present operations. nadân pointed with his hand to a village about a parasang distant, and said, �that is the village in which you must take up your quarters, until the story of the mollah bashi�s extraordinary death be blown over; but you cannot present yourself in this magnificent garb, and mounted on this fine horse, without creating suspicion. i propose that we exchange dresses, and that, you surrender the horse up to me. by this means you will appear in the character of a dependant of my father at his village, and i shall keep up the respectability of mine, by returning to the paternal roof properly equipped. this arrangement will advance our mutual as well as our combined interests. you will be safe from suspicion, and i shall not look the pauper that i do now. the history of my disgrace will no doubt soon reach the ears of my family, and perhaps lower them in the eyes of the world; but in this country, where so much depends upon the effect of outward show, as soon as it is known that i returned to them mounted on a horse with an enamelled bridle, a gold-pommelled saddle, and with a cashmerian shawl round my waist, they as well as i will be restored to our proper places again. after i have enjoyed the advantage of these things a few days, it will be easy to sell them under some plausible pretext, and then you shall duly receive their amount.� i was rather startled by this proposal, for certainly my companion had not inspired me with sufficient confidence to encourage me trusting him with so much property without any other security than his word. but i felt the truth of all he said. it was impossible for me to keep my incognito at the village for ten days or a fortnight dressed as i was, and the possessor of a fine horse, without creating suspicion. i was now, �tis true, completely in the power of the mollah; but by his proposed arrangement he would have become such an accomplice in my guilt, that he could never denounce me without at the same time involving himself. �but,� said i, �suppose a nasakchi discovers the horse, what becomes of us then? you will be seized as well as i.� �god is great,� answered the mollah; �no one can have travelled as fast as we, and before any officer can arrive at hamadan i shall have reached my father�s house, and produced all the sensation i require in the city. it will be easy after that to secrete both the horse and his trappings. i take all the risk upon myself.� nothing more after this was to be said on my part. we immediately stripped, and made an exchange of clothes. he got from me the deceased mollah bashi�s under garment, his caba, or coat, his cashmerian girdle, and his outward cloak, made of a dark green broad cloth; and i, in return, received his old clothes, which had been torn on his person the day he had been thrust out of tehran. i gave him my black cap, round which he wound the chief priest�s head-shawl, which i had still preserved; and, in return, he delivered over to me his skull-cap. i preserved the mollah bashi�s purse, the remaining money, the watch and seals; whilst i permitted him the use of the inkstand, the rosary, the pocket looking-glass, and the comb. he then stuck the roll of paper in his girdle; and when completely made up and mounted, he looked so much like the deceased chief priest himself, that i quite started at the resemblance. we parted with great apparent affection: he promised that i should hear from him immediately, and in the meanwhile gave me every necessary information concerning his father�s village, leaving it to my own ingenuity to make out as plausible a story for myself as i might be able. he then rode away, leaving me with no very agreeable feelings, on finding myself alone in the world, uncertain of the future, and suspicious of my present fate. i made the best of my road to the village; but was extremely puzzled in what character to introduce myself to the inhabitants. in fact, i looked like one dropped from the skies; for what could be possibly said for a man, of good appearance, without a shawl to his waist, or an outer coat to his back, with a pair of slippers to his feet, and a skull-cap on his head? after much hesitation i determined to call myself a merchant, who had been robbed and plundered by the cûrds, and then sham a sickness, which might be a pretext for remaining in the village until i could hear from the mollah, who would no doubt furnish me with intelligence which might enable me to determine how long i ought to remain in my hiding-place. in this i succeeded perfectly. the good people of the village, whom heaven for my good luck had endowed with a considerable share of dullness, believed my story, and took me in. the only inconvenience i had to endure was the necessity of swallowing prescriptions of an old woman, the doctor of the community, who was called to show her skill upon me. chapter lxi the punishment due to hajji baba falls upon nadân, which makes the former a staunch predestinarian. i had passed ten long and tedious days in my hiding-place without the smallest tidings from the mollah nadân. i was suspicious that his star was still glancing obliquely at him, and that matters had not gone quite so well as he had expected. little communication existed between the city and the village; and i began to despair of ever again hearing of my horse, my rich trappings and clothes, when, one evening a peasant, who had gone to the market-place of hamadan for the purpose of hiring himself as a labourer in the fields, and who had returned disappointed, by his discourse threw some light upon my apprehension. he said that a great stir had been excited by the arrival of a nasakchi, who had seized the son of their aga (the owner of the village), taken away his horse, and carried him off prisoner to the capital, under the accusation of being the murderer of the mollah bashi of tehran. i leave the gentle reader to judge of my feelings upon hearing this intelligence. i soon became satisfied of the reason of the mollah�s silence; and although i felt myself secure for the present, yet i was far from certain how long i might remain so. i immediately declared that i was perfectly restored to health, and taking a hasty leave of my hospitable villagers, made the best of my way to hamadan, in order to ascertain the truth of the peasant�s intelligence. nadân�s father was well known in the city, and i found no difficulty in discovering where he lived. i abstained from entering his house, and making any direct inquiries concerning the fate of my friend; but i stopped at the shop of a barber in the neighbourhood, both because i wanted his assistance in giving a decent appearance to my head and face, and because i knew that he would be the most likely person to inform me of the real state of the case. i found him as talkative and as officious as i could wish. when i had asked him the news of the day, and had pleaded my ignorance of the recent occurrence that had filled everybody with astonishment, he stepped back two paces, and exclaimed, �whence do you come, that the iniquities of that dog the mollah nadân are unknown to you? he was not satisfied with killing the chief priest, but he must needs dress himself in his very clothes; and, not content with that, he also has stolen one of the chief executioner�s best horses and furniture. wondrous dirt has he been eating!� i entreated my informant to relate all the particulars of a story of which i pretended to be totally ignorant; and without waiting for a second request, he spoke as follows:-- �about ten days ago this nadân arrived at the gate of his father�s house, mounted on a superb horse, caparisoned in a style more fitting a khan and a man of the sword than a poor servant of god. he was dressed in shawls of the finest quality, and looked indeed like the high priest himself. his appearance in this fashion of dress and equipage created an extraordinary sensation; because a very short time before it was reported that he had incurred the shah�s displeasure, and had been turned out of tehran in the most ignominious manner. he gave himself all sorts of airs upon alighting; and when questioned concerning his expulsion from the capital, he appeared to make very light of it, and said that he had been made to understand, in a secret manner, that his disgrace was only temporary; and that, by way of softening it, he had been presented with the horse which he then rode. �this tale was believed by every one, and he was received at his father�s house with great honours; but most unfortunately, the next day, when about mounting his horse to show himself in the city, a nasakchi passed the gate of the house, having just arrived from tehran. he stopped, and looked at the animal very earnestly; inspected the bridle and gold-pommelled saddle, and then cried out, _la allah il allah!_ there is but one god! he inquired of the bystanders to whom the horse belonged, and was informed that it was the property of the mollah nadân. ��the mollah nadân!� exclaimed he in a great rage: �whose dog is he? that horse is the property of my master, the chief executioner; and whoever says it is not is a liar, whoever he may be, mollah or no mollah!� �at this interval appeared the delinquent himself, who, upon seeing what was going on, endeavoured to hide himself from the observation of the nasakchi; for it so happened that he was one of the officers who had paraded him through the capital on the day of his disgrace. �wearing the garments and turbaned cap of the deceased chief priest, the dangers of his situation immediately stared him in the face, and he would have decamped on the spot, had he not been recognized by the nasakchi, who as soon as he saw him cried out, �seize him, take his soul, that is he--the very man. well done, my happy stars! by the head of ali, by the beard of the prophet, that is the bankrupt rogue who killed the chief priest and stole my master�s horse.� �by this time the nasakchi had dismounted, and, with the assistance of his own attendant, and of the bystanders (who soon discovered that he was acting under authority), he secured the mollah, who, in his defence, made oath upon oath that he was neither thief nor murderer, and that he was ready to swear his innocence upon the koran.� the barber related very faithfully the whole conversation which took place between nadân and the nasakchi, the result of which was that the latter took the former with him to tehran, notwithstanding all the interest made in his favour by the mollah�s father and friends. never was breast torn by so many contending feelings as mine, upon hearing the fate that had befallen my companion, as related to me by the barber. in the first place, i bemoaned the loss of my horse and his rich trappings, and of my fine shawl dresses; but in the next i enjoyed a feeling of security when i considered, that if poor nadân should happen to lose his head, no account would ever be asked from me of my late iniquities. i still could not help looking upon myself as one under the protection of a good star, whilst the mollah, i concluded, was inevitably doomed to be unfortunate: else why should we have exchanged clothes, and he taken my horse from me at a time when i was in no way inclined to accede to his proposals? but, notwithstanding there was every likelihood that he would suffer the punishment due to me, still, for the present, i could not feel myself secure so long as i remained in persia, and therefore determined to proceed upon my original intention, and quit it without further delay. i consoled myself for the loss of the horse and clothes, by the possession of the remaining ninety-five tomauns, which would be sufficient for my present wants; and then those powerful words, _khoda buzurg est!_ god is great, stood me in lieu (as they do many a poor wretch besides) of a provision for the future, and of protection against all the unforeseen misfortunes preparing for us by the hand of fate. chapter lxii hajji baba hears an extraordinary sequel to his adventure in the bath, and feels all the alarms of guilt. having equipped myself as a merchant, for i had long since determined to abandon the character of a priest, considering how ill i had succeeded in it, i sought out the conductor of a caravan, which was on its road to kermanshah, and bargained with him for the hire of a mule. he had a spare one, that had run unloaded from tehran, and which he let me have for a trifle; and as i had no baggage but what i carried on my back, my beast and i agreed very well together. we reached our destination on the seventh day, and here i was obliged to look out for a fresh conveyance. i was informed that none was likely to offer under a month, because, owing to the cûrdish robbers, who infested the frontier, no caravan ventured on the road unless its numbers were considerable, and it would take some time to collect them; but i was told that a caravan of pilgrims and dead bodies had set off for kerbelah only the day before, and that, with a little exertion, i might easily overtake them before they had reached the dangerous passes. constantly apprehensive of being discovered and detained, i did not hesitate upon the course to adopt, and forthwith set off on foot. my money was safely deposited in my girdle; and without any other baggage than a good staff in my hand, i left kermanshah, and proceeded on my road. on the evening of the third day, when nearly exhausted with fatigue, my eyes were cheered by the sight of fires at a distance, the smoke of which curled up over the brow of a hill; and approaching them, i discovered cattle spread over the plain grazing, and thus was not mistaken in supposing that the caravan was nigh at hand. as i advanced towards the baggage, which was piled up in a hollow square, and where i knew that i should find the conductor, i observed a small white tent, pitched at some little distance, which indicated that pilgrims of consequence were of the party; and, moreover, that women were amongst them, for a _takhteravan_ (a litter) and a _kejaweh_ (panniers) were seen near the tent. i gave myself out for a pilgrim, and found the conductor very ready to furnish me with a mule for my conveyance. i was anxious to pass unnoticed, considering the predicament in which i stood; but still the conscious dignity which the ninety-five pieces of gold in my girdle gave me made it difficult for me to restrain that vanity of display so common to all my countrymen. among the baggage, at a small distance from the square in which i was seated, were several long and narrow packages sewn up in thick felts, which were spread in pairs upon the ground, apparently having been unloaded there from the backs of camels. i inquired what they might be, for the sight of them was new to me, and was informed that they contained dead bodies bound to kerbelah. �it is evident you are a stranger,� said the conductor, who appeared to be as loquacious and mother-witted as those of his profession generally are, �or otherwise you would have been better informed. we are carrying rare things to kerbelah!� �yes,� said i, �i am a stranger; i come from afar, and am like one decended from the mountains. in god�s name, what are you carrying to kerbelah?� �what!� answered he, �have you heard nothing of the extraordinary death of the mollah bashi of tehran; how he died in the bath; and how his ghost was seen on horseback, and then in his harem; and how it afterwards ran off with one of the chief executioner�s best horses? where have you been living all this while?� added he, shaking both his hands before him as he spoke, and shrugging up his shoulders. alarmed at what he had said, i pretended ignorance; and requested him to satisfy my curiosity concerning the story in question, which he did in a manner that, but for my being so deeply implicated in it, would have afforded me much amusement. �you must know then,� said the muleteer, �that what i am about to relate is true, because i was on the spot in person, at the time it happened. �the chief priest having gone to the bath at the close of day, just after the evening prayer, returned to his house surrounded by his servants, and retired to bed for the night in the _khelwet_ of his women�s apartments. �you need not be told that most of the public baths in persia are open to the women the first thing in the morning, to a certain hour in the day, and are then appropriated to the men. the wife of the mollah bashi, attended by her servants and slaves, the morning after her husband had bathed, at the earliest sound of the cow horn, proceeded to the same bath, and she and her suite were the first party who entered it on that day. out of respect to their mistress, none of her attendants ventured to get into the reservoir of hot water before her. the cupola of the bath was but very dimly lighted by the dawn; and the chief priest�s wife was almost in utter darkness when she entered the water. guess at her horror, when scarcely having proceeded two steps, her extended hand fell upon a large mass of floating flesh. �her first impulse was to utter an amazing shriek; her second to tumble headlong out as if she had been pursued, and straight to faint away. �the consternation which she produced amongst her women may easily be conceived. one after the other, with the lamp in their hand, they looked in, shrieked, and then ran back, not one among them having yet discovered what was the object of their terror. �at length the old duenna taking courage, looked boldly into the reservoir, and to her surprise she there found a dead man. more screams and cries ensued, which having brought the chief priest�s wife to her senses, caused her to join the inspecting party. little could be recognized of a floating corpse inflated with water, presenting various odd surfaces to the eye, and giving but little clue to discovery. at length the head and face appeared to view; and, as soon as the old duenna had applied her lamp to it, one and all cried out, �o ali! it is the mollah bashi; it is the mollah bashi!� �the wife again fell into a trance; the slaves made their cries; in short, there was that stir amongst them, that one would have thought they had heard the �blast of consternation from the trumpets of the resurrection.� �but amidst all the wailing, which by this time had attracted every woman in the building, one of the slaves cried out, �but it cannot be our aga, for i saw him return from the bath, i made his bed, and i am sure he was soon asleep. it is impossible he can be in bed and asleep, and in the bath, drowned, at one and the same time. it must be somebody else.� �this observation threw them all into greater consternation than ever, because they immediately felt that what the slave had seen must have been her master�s ghost. �see,� said the wife,--who had again come to life,--pointing to the face of the corpse, �i am sure this was my husband; there is the scratch i gave him but yesterday.� �and there,� said one of her servants, �that is the place in his beard from which you plucked a handful of hairs.� �these tender recollections threw the poor widow into a violent flood of tears, which were only stopped by her slaves assuring her that the mollah bashi was still alive. �how else could he have taken the lamp from my hand?� said the slave--�how could he have shut the door? how dismissed me? how snored?� so persuaded was she of the truth of what she said, that she forthwith dressed herself, and volunteered to go to her master�s bed-room, where no doubt she would find him asleep. ��but if he is there,� said one of the women, �then what can this be?� (pointing to the corpse.) ��why, this must be his ghost,� said another; �for surely no man can possess two bodies,--one in which he lives, and the other by way of a change.� ��no,� said a third in a waggish tone, �that would be quite new. he might then make the same use of them as he would of a town and country house.� �all this time (many additional bathers having poured in) whilst those who were indifferent were speculating after this fashion, the chief priest�s women were uttering loud and piercing shrieks, particularly when the slave returned and informed them that no mollah bashi had she found, and that he had left no trace behind except the print of his body in the bed. �the story had now got abroad, the bath was surrounded by a crowd, who pressed to gain admittance; and ere the women had had time to dress themselves, the place was full of men. such a scene of confusion as then ensued had never before been witnessed in a public bath at tehran. what with the wailing and lamentations of the women of the chief priest--what with the noise and cries of those who inveighed against the intrusion of the men--the clamour was excessive. �at length the friends and relations of the deceased appeared, and, with them, the washers of the dead, who immediately bore the corpse to the place of ablution, where it was embalmed, and prepared for its journey to kerbelah, for thither it was judged expedient to send it for burial. �his widow at once avowed her intention of accompanying the body; and my mules,� added my informant, �were hired on the occasion. the tent you see yonder is occupied by her and her slaves; and there,� pointing to the packages, �lies the carcass of her husband. the accompanying dead bodies are the remains of those who, both at tehran and on our road hither, died about the time that this event took place, and are now sent to kerbelah to be buried in the suite and under the protection of one who at the day of resurrection, it is hoped, may lend them a helping hand into paradise.� here the conductor stopped, whilst i, who had been struck by the latter part of his speech, became almost mute from fear. i felt that having endeavoured to escape danger, i had fallen into its very mouth. were i to be recognized by the chief priest�s servants, some of whom i had known intimately, their knowledge of my person would lead to my discovery. �but what happened after the corpse was carried out of the bath?� said i, anxious to know whether the clothes which i had left in one of its corners had been noticed. �by the head of ali!� said the man, �i do not very well recollect. this i know, that many stories were in circulation; and every person had a different one. some said that the chief priest, after being drowned, was seen in his anderûn and went to bed. others that he appeared the next morning at the chief executioner�s, and rode away with one of his best horses. the chief executioner himself shows a note of his, sealed with his seal, giving him permission to drink wine. in short, so many and so contradictory were the reports, that no one knew what to believe. all were puzzled to find out how he managed to get alive out of the bath (for that is attested by his servants, and by the master of the bath), and still remain in the reservoir. difficulties continued to increase as fast as people argued, until a discovery took place which threw a marvellous light upon the subject. some clothes were found in a dark corner of the bath. they were torn and in bad case; but without much difficulty they were known to have belonged to one hajji baba, a drivelling priest, and an attendant upon that famous breeder of disturbance, the mollah nadân, the open and avowed enemy of the head of the law. then everybody exclaimed, �hajji baba is the murderer! without doubt he is the murderer of the holy man, he must pay the price of blood!� and all the city was in full search for hajji baba. many said, that nadân was the culprit; in short, messengers have been sent all over the country to seize them both, and carry them dead or alive to tehran. i only wish that my fate may be sufficiently on the ascent, to throw either of them into my hands; such a prize would be worth my whole mule-hire to kerbelah.� i leave every one to guess my feelings upon hearing this language; i who was never famous for facing difficulties with courage, and who would always rather as a preliminary to safety make use of the swiftness of my heels, in preference to adopting any other measure. but here to retreat was more dangerous than to proceed; for in a very short time i should be in the territory of another government, until when i promised faithfully to wrap myself up in the folds of my own counsel; and to continue my road with all the wariness of one who is surrounded by imminent danger. chapter lxiii he is discovered and seized, but his good stars again befriend and set him free. the caravan pursued its march early the next morning, and i took my station among the muleteers and the hangers on (many of whom are always at hand), in order to screen myself from notice. the litter with the chief priest�s widow, and her attendants, preceded the line of march, the camels with the bodies followed, and the remainder of the caravan, consisting principally of loaded mules, spread itself in a long straggling line over the road. i envied every fellow who had a more ruffian-like face, or a more ragged coat than my own; so fearful was i of being thought good-looking enough to be noticed. more particularly i dreaded the approach of the widow�s servants, for although i was dying to know if any of them were of my acquaintance, yet i carefully turned my head on one side, as soon as there was the smallest likelihood of their looking towards me. the first day�s march had passed over in safety; and i laid my head on a projecting part of the baggage, where i slept sound through the night. i was equally fortunate on the second day, and with so much confidence did this success inspire me, that i began to be ambitious of associating with something better than a common mule-driver. i had opened a conversation with one, who i was informed was an armenian bishop; and had already made him understand how thankful he ought to be for being thus noticed by a true believer, when one of the much dreaded attendants rode by us, and in him i recognized the man who had endeavoured to palm off a mûtî upon me, upon my first introduction to the mollah nadân. my heart leapt into my mouth at the sight of him. the chief priest�s ghost, had it appeared, could not have frightened me more. i turned my head quickly on one side, but he passed on without heeding me; so for this time i was let off only with the fright; but i resolved to return to my humble station again, and forthwith left the bishop to his own meditations. on the following day we were to pass through the defiles infested by the cûrdish banditti, when every one would be too much taken up with his own safety to think of me. once having passed them, we should no longer be in the persian territory, and i might then claim protection of the turks, in case i were discovered and seized. on that eventful day, a day well remembered in the annals of my adventurous life, the caravan wore a military appearance. all those who possessed anything in the form of a weapon brought it forth and made a display. the whole scene put me in mind of a similar one which i have recorded in the first pages of my history; when, in company with osman aga, we encountered an attack from the turcomans. the same symptoms of fear showed themselves on this occasion as on that; and i am honest enough to own that time had not strengthened my nerves, nor given me any right to the title of lion-eater. the whole caravan marched in compact order, marshalled by a chaoush and by the conductor, who, with the servants of the chief priest�s wife, formed a sort of vanguard to the main body. i, who had my own safety to consult for more reasons than one, huddled myself among the crowd, and enjoyed the idea that i was encumbered with no other property than the money in my girdle. we were proceeding in silence; nothing was heard save the bells of the caravan, and i was deep in thought in what manner i might dispose of my ninety-five tomauns, on our arrival at bagdad; when, turning up my eyes, i perceived the conductor and a well-equipped persian riding towards me. the conductor pointed with his hand to me, and said to his companions, �_hem een est_, this is even he!� �by the beard of ali!� thought i, �my good fortune has turned its back upon me.� i looked at the conductor�s companion, whom i instantly discovered to be the very abdul kerim, from whom i had extracted the one hundred tomauns, at the village of seidabad, by means of the letter which i had written in the name of the deceased chief priest. i was about giving myself up for lost, when the conductor relieved me a little, by saying, �you are the last man who joined our caravan: perhaps you can tell us upon what part of the frontier kelb ali khan, the robber, is said to be at present.� i answered him in a great state of perturbation; but kept my eyes fixed upon abdul all the while, who also began to stare at me with those penetrating eyes of his, which almost turned my heart inside out. he continued looking at me like one in doubt, whilst i endeavoured to skulk away; but at length appearing to recollect himself, he exclaimed, �i have it, i have it! it is the very man; he it was who laughed at my beard and stole the hundred tomauns.� then addressing himself to the bystanders, he said, �if you want a thief, there is one. seize him in the name of the prophet!� i began to expostulate, and to deny the accusation, and probably should have succeeded to convince those who surrounded us that i was wrongly accused, when, to my consternation, the promoter of matrimony came up, at once recognized me, and called me by my name. then my whole history came to light. i was denounced as the murderer of the chief priest, and this event produced so general a bustle throughout the caravan, that fear of the robbers was for a while suspended, and every one came to gaze upon me. i was seized, my hands were pinioned behind my back, i was about being dragged before the chief priest�s widow to be exhibited, when my good planet came to my help and showed its ascendant. of a sudden a great cry was heard at a distance, and to my delight i beheld a body of cavaliers rushing down the slope of an adjacent hill. these were the very cûrds so much dreaded. the consternation was universal, the whole caravan was thrown into confusion, and resistance was unavailing when both heart and hand were wanting. those who were mounted ran away; the muleteers, anxious for the safety of their cattle, cut the ropes of their loads, which fell and were left spread on the plain to the mercy of the marauders. the camels were also disencumbered of their burdens, and coffins were to be seen in all parts of the road. i remarked that the one containing the chief priest had fallen into a rivulet, as if fate was not tired of drowning him. in short, the rout was universal and complete. i soon was left to myself, and easily found means to disengage my bonds. i perceived that the cûrds had directed their attention principally to the litter and its attendants, where they naturally expected to find prisoners of consequence; and it rejoiced me to observe, that those whom but a few minutes before i had looked upon as destined to be the perpetrators of my ruin, and very possibly of my death, were now themselves thrown into a dilemma nearly equally disastrous with the one from which i was now relieved. in vain the widow�s attendants threatened, swore, and bade defiance; nothing would soften their wild and barbarous assailants, who, under some lawless pretext of fees to be paid, began a regular pillage of such parts of the caravan as had not fled their attack. i again had an opportunity of ascertaining that my good star was prevailing; for now, whilst those who possessed any article of dress which might give respectability to their appearance became the object of the robbers� attention, i and my solitary mule had the satisfaction to find ourselves so totally unworthy of notice, that we proceeded without molestation on the original object of our journey. i owned no corpse--i was not called upon to pay duty upon a dead relation--i was free as air; and as soon as i once found myself released from the thousand miseries which had arisen all around me, and which, as if by magic, had been as quickly dispelled, i went on my way, exclaiming, _barikallah, ai talleh mun!_ well done, oh my good fortune!� [illustration: hajji meets osman aga again. .jpg] chapter lxiv he reaches bagdad, meets his first master, and turns his views to commerce. leaving the mollah bashi�s widow, her slaves, and attendants in the hands of the cûrds, i made the best of my way to my destination; and caring little to hold converse with any one, after what had so recently taken place, i shaped my course in such a manner as not to attract observation. many stragglers, flying from the cûrds, were to be seen on the road; but as they all, more or less, had interest in the fate of the caravan, they did not proceed far, but hovered about the scene of action, in the hopes of reclaiming either their friends or their property. i alone seemed to be totally independent, and by the time i had travelled two or three parasangs from the danger, i had the road to myself. everything that had befallen me was turned over and over again in my mind, and i came to this conclusion, that powerfully protected as i seemed to be by fate, i might again turn my steps towards the paths of ambition, and hope that my last failure in the pursuits of advancement was to be made up by realizing a speedy and ample fortune. �ninety-five tomauns in my girdle, and all the world before me,� said i, �is no insignificant prospect. and if nadân be but blown from a mortar, and the chief priest�s widow detained and ruined by the cûrds, i do not see why i may not put my cap on one side as well as the best man in persia.� at length the walls and turrets of bagdad appeared in view, and i entered the city a total stranger, and ignorant of its localities. caravanserais i knew that i should find at every turn, and indifferent whither i bent my steps, or where i alighted, i let my mule take the road it liked best. well acquainted with every street, the animal took me to a large caravanserai, where it no doubt had long been accustomed to resort, and there stopping, gave several loud grunts as it entered the porch, in the expectation of meeting its companions of the caravan. although disappointed, yet i was more fortunate (if fortunate i could call myself), in seeing some of my countrymen in the square, and i soon found out that this was their usual rendezvous. my person, i flattered myself, could attract no notice, go where i might: but i was sorry to find it otherwise. upon alighting i was assailed by a thousand questions--the caravan was hourly expected, the merchants were eager for the reception of their goods, and i might possibly give them some intelligence respecting it. i made such answers as were necessary for the occasion; but resolved within myself very soon to quit so inquisitive a society, and bury myself in obscurity. i accordingly left my mule to its fate, reflecting that its owner would very soon arrive and take possession of it, and straightway settled myself in another part of the city. as a first step towards preserving my incognito, i exchanged my dusty and weather-beaten sheep�s-skin cap for a head-dress of the country, namely, a long red cloth bag, which fell down in a flap behind, and fastened to my head with a parti-coloured silk. i also bought a second-hand beniche, or cloak, usually worn by the turks, which, going over my persian garments, gave me the general appearance of an osmanli; and finished my adjustment by a pair of bright crimson leather slippers. having done this, it came into my head that much good might accrue if i made myself known to the family of my first master, osman aga, for through them i might make acquaintance in the city, and promote my views in trade. i accordingly sallied forth, and took my road through the principal bazaars and bezestens, in order to make inquiries, and particularly stopped where lambskins were sold, for i well recollected that they were his favourite article of trade. i also recollected many particulars concerning bagdad, which he used to take pleasure in relating during our journeys, and i fancied that i could almost find my way to his very door without inquiry. however, my trouble was soon at an end, for in putting my head into the shop of one of the principal bokhara merchants, and inquiring if any news had reached bagdad of one osman aga, i heard a well-known voice, in answer, say, �who wants me? in the name of the prophet, i am he!� guess at my joy and surprise--it was the old man himself. i was almost as much astonished to see him at bagdad, as i had before been to meet him at tehran, and his surprise was equal to mine. i related as much of my history as i thought it necessary for him to know, and he told me his in return, which in two words was as follows. he had left tehran in the determination of proceeding to constantinople, there to dispose of his merchandise, but hearing that great danger of being robbed existed on the road between erivan and arz roum, he had deemed it a safer plan to visit bagdad; and here he was, restored to his native city after an absence of many years. he had found his son grown up to man�s estate, who, having gone through all the ceremony of mourning for his loss, had duly taken possession of his patrimony, which, according to the law, he had shared in the prescribed portions between his mother and sister. but as soon as his father was restored to him, he made no wry faces, but, like a good mussulman, put into practice that precept of the koran which ordaineth man to show kindness to his parents--but not to say unto them �fie upon you!� the old man added, that he had found his wife alive, and that his daughter was old enough to be married. but having thus disburthened himself of this short history of his adventures, he turned round upon me in a sharper manner than he had even done before, and said, �but hajji, my friend, in the name of the blessed mohammed, what could have possessed you to join me to that female satan at tehran, by way of making me pass my time agreeably? by the salt which we have so often eat together, the few days that i passed in her company were filled with more misery than was the whole time i spent among the turcomans! was it right to treat an old friend thus?� i assured him that i had no object in view but his happiness, taking it for granted that she, who had been the favourite of the monarch of persia, must, even in her later days, have had charms more than enough for one who had passed some of the best years of his life with camels. �camels!� exclaimed osman, �camels, indeed! they are angels compared to this fury. would to heaven that you had married me to a camel instead, for it, at least, poor animal, would have sat quiet, with calm and thoughtful gravity, and let me have my own way; whereas your dragon, she, the viper, she passed her whole time in telling me how vastly honoured i was in having taken to wife one who had led the shah by the beard, and enforced each word with either a slap or a scratch. _amân! amân!_� said the old man, rubbing his hand on his cheek, �i think i feel them now.� he at length ceded to my assurances that i had no other object in view than his happiness, and then very kindly asked me to take up my abode at his house during my stay at bagdad, to which, of course, i acceded with all manner of pleasure. this conversation had taken place in the back room of the bokhara merchant�s shop, during which the old man had treated me to five paras� worth of coffee, brought from a neighbouring coffee-house; and when it was over, he proposed going to his son�s shop, situated in the same bazaar, some few doors farther on. his son�s name was suleiman. having set himself up in the cloth trade during his father�s long absence, he had acquired an easy livelihood, and passed the greatest part of the day (except when necessary to go to his prayers) seated in the little platform in the front of his shop, surrounded by his merchandise, neatly arranged on shelves fixed in the wall. he was a fat, squat little man, very like his father; and when he was informed that i was hajji baba, he said that i was welcome, and taking the pipe which he was smoking from his own mouth, he immediately transferred it to mine. these preliminaries of mutual good-will being established, i enjoyed the prospect of an easy and quiet sojourn at bagdad, in the company of these good people; but in order to show that i did not intend wholly to be a dependant upon them, i made it known that i was possessed of ninety-five tomauns, and asked their opinion upon the mode of laying them out to the best advantage in trade. i gave them to understand that, tired of the buffetings of an adventurer�s life, it was my intention for the future to devote my time to securing an independence by my own industry. many had acquired wealth from beginnings much smaller than mine, said i; to which they both agreed: and, as we anticipated the fortune that i was to make, osman aga gravely let off the only bit of persian poetry which he had picked up during his travels--�drop by drop water distilleth from the rock, till at length it becometh a sea.� upon this conclusion we, that is, the father and i, proceeded to his house, which was situated at a convenient distance from the bazaars. [illustration: the curing of hajji baba. .jpg] chapter lxv he purchases pipe-sticks, and inspires a hopeless passion in the breast of his old master�s daughter. osman aga�s house was situated in a narrow lane, leading out of the street which leads into one of the principal bazaars. immediately in front of the door was a heap of rubbish, upon which a litter of kittens had just been thrown, making an essay of their young voices as we passed; and a little farther, on a similar mound, a colony of puppies had been planted, guarded by a mangy mother, which, by their united cries, left us nothing to desire in the way of discord. between these was situated the gate of osman aga�s house, into which we entered. it was a small building, consisting of some crazy rooms, which neither indicated riches nor cleanliness. as i had no baggage belonging to me, except a small carpet, my removal here from the caravanserai was soon accomplished, and i took up my future abode in a corner of mine host�s principal room, where he also spread his bed and slept. by way of celebrating my arrival, he treated me with roasted lamb, and an abundant dish of rice, to which were added dates, cheese, and onions. the dishes were cooked in the harem, by the hands of his wife and daughter, aided by a female slave, the only domestic in the establishment. neither of these had i yet seen, for it was dusk when we reached the house; nor, from good manners, did i ask more about them than osman was inclined to tell me. besides myself and his son, the old man had invited a brother dealer in lambskins to the entertainment, with whom he had formed a close intimacy during his travels in bokhara. the conversation turned exclusively upon commerce, about which i was so ignorant, that i took very little share in it, although, considering that it was my intention to enter it myself, i was very happy to open my ears to all that was said. they entered deeply into the subject and discussed the relative merits or each article of trade. to hear them talk, one might have inferred that the end of the world was at hand, because it was rumoured that the price of their favourite commodity had fallen at constantinople. they dissuaded me from embarking my capital in that article, but recommended in preference that i should invest it in pipe-sticks, which, they remarked, were subject to no decay, and for which there was a constant demand in the market of constantinople. the entertainment being over, and the guests having parted, i ruminated deeply upon what i had heard, and forthwith turned the whole weight of my thoughts to pipe-sticks. there, in a corner, i sat all day calculating what number of pipes i might acquire for my tomauns, and what would be my profit when sold at constantinople; and when my imagination was heated by the hopes of the ultimate fortune that might be realized, i gave myself up to the most extravagant expectations. the plan of the merchant, whom saadi relates he met in the island of kish, was trifling when compared to the one which i formed. �with the produce of my pipe-sticks,� said i, �i will buy figs at smyrna, which i will take to europe, and having made great profit by them there, my money shall then he invested in skull-caps, which i will carry to grand cairo; these being sold in detail, for ready cash, i will carefully pack my money in sacks, and proceed to ethiopia, where i will purchase slaves, each of whom i will sell for great profit at moccha, and thence i will make the pilgrimage to the tomb of the prophet. from moccha i will transport coffee to persia, which will fetch an amazing price; and then i will repose in my native city, until i can purchase a high situation at court, which may in time lead me to become the grand vizier to the king of kings. having thus disposed of the future in my favour, i set myself actively to work in laying in my merchandise. according to the most approved method, i made a bargain with a wood-cutter, who was to proceed to the mountains of lour and bakhtiari, where he would find forests of the wild cherry-tree, from which he would make his selections, according to the sizes with which i should furnish him. he was then to return to bagdad, where the sticks would be bored, and made up into appropriate parcels for the markets of turkey. all this was duly executed; but during the time that i was waiting for the return of the wood-cutter, i was attacked by a disorder, from which few residents, as well as strangers at bagdad are exempt, which terminating by a large pimple, as it dries up, leaves an indelible mark on the skin. to my great mortification, it broke out upon the middle of my right cheek, immediately upon the confines of the beard, and there left its baleful print, destroying some of the most favourite of my hairs, and making that appear a broken and irregular waste, which before might be likened to a highly cultivated slope. i bore this calamity as well as i was able, although i could not help frequently quarrelling with fate, for having chosen so conspicuous a spot to place that which might have been so conveniently settled anywhere else. �so be it,� said i, heaving a sigh at the same time; �the wise man said true when he remarked, �if every stone was left to choose what it would be, most probably it would be a diamond;� and if every man might choose whereabouts he would have his pimple, there would be no ugly faces in bagdad.� however, by way of consolation, i recollected the osman aga�s face was the mirror of deformity, although his pimple had budded elsewhere. he, instead of condoling with me on my misfortune, rather seemed to enjoy it. �hajji,� said he to me, �if you are not afflicted with any greater calamity than this in life, look upon it as a blessing: although one side of your face be deformed, still the other is perfect. the turquoise is the perfection of colour on one side, but is black and dirty on the other; still it is a turquoise, and a precious stone.� �ah,� said i to myself, �the ugly man cannot endure the sight of the handsome, no more than the vicious can the virtuous: in the same manner as curs of the market howl at a hunting dog, but dare not approach him.� notwithstanding the deformity of my cheek, i found, as i continued to be an inmate in the house of my old master, that i had made no small impression upon the heart of his daughter, the fair dilaram, who, by a thousand little arts, did not fail to make me acquainted with the state of her affections. her mother and she were both experienced in the mode of curing the bagdad disorder, and they undertook to superintend mine. my pimple and dilaram�s love appear to have risen at about the same time; their progress was mutual, and by the time that the former had risen to its full height, the latter had become quite inconvenient. i, �tis true, had not caught the infection; for my charmer was the very image of her father, whose face and that of an old camel�s were so entirely identified in my mind, that i never could lose that ugly association of ideas when i gazed upon her. it was, therefore, a considerable relief to me when the season for travelling approached, and when the caravan for constantinople was about to assemble. my pipe-sticks were collected and packed into their proper bundles, my accounts with my creditors regularly discharged, my wardrobe complete, and i was all delight when it was announced, that at the very next favourable conjunction of the planets the caravan was to take its departure. but as for poor dilaram, she hovered about my cheek with looks of despair; and as fast as the swelling subsided, she appeared to lose the only tie which kept her united to this world and its vanities. chapter lxvi he becomes a merchant, leaves bagdad, and accompanies a caravan to constantinople. it was a fine spring morning when the caravan took its departure from the constantinople gate of the city. mounted on the top of one of my loads, with my bed tied on the pad by way of a soft seat, and my bags surrounding me, i contemplated the scene with pleasure, listened to the bells of the mules as i would to music, and surveyed myself as a merchant of no small consequence. my more immediate companions were osman aga, and his associate in lambskins (he of whom i have already made honourable mention at the entertainment), and one or two other bagdad merchants; but besides, there were many of my own countrymen, natives of different cities of persia, all bound upon purposes of trade to constantinople, and with whom i was more or less acquainted. my adventure with the chief priest of tehran had in great measure blown over; and indeed the dress i had adopted, with the scar on my cheek, made me look so entirely like a native of bagdad, that i retained little in my appearance to remind the world that i was in fact a persian. i will not tire the reader with a recital of our adventures through turkey, which consisted of the usual fear of robbers, squabbles with muleteers, and frays at caravanserais. it will be sufficient to say, that we reached our destination in safety; but i cannot omit the expression of my first emotions upon seeing constantinople. i, a persian, and an ispahani, had ever been accustomed to hold my native city as the first in the world: never had it crossed my mind that any other could, in the smallest degree, enter into competition with it, and when the capital of roum was described to me as finer, i always laughed the describer to scorn. but what was my astonishment, and i may add mortification, on beholding, for the first time, this magnificent city! i had always looked upon the royal mosque, in the great square at ispahan, as the most superb building in the world; but here were a hundred finer, each surpassing the other in beauty and in splendour. nothing did i ever conceive could equal the extent of my native place; but here my eyes became tired with wandering over the numerous hills and creeks thickly covered with buildings, which seemed to bid defiance to calculation. if ispahan was half the world, this indeed was the whole. and then this gem of cities possesses this great advantage over ispahan, that it is situated on the borders of a beautiful succession of waters, instead of being surrounded by arid and craggy mountains; and in addition to its own extent and beauty, enjoys the advantage of being reflected in one never-failing mirror, ever at hand to multiply them. but where should i stop, if i attempted to describe the numerous moving objects which attracted my attention? thousands of boats, of all forms and sizes, skimmed along in every direction, whilst the larger vessels, whose masts looked like forests, more numerous than those of mazanderan, lined the shores of the intricate and widely extended harbour. �o, this is a paradise,� said i to those around me; �and may i never leave it!� but when i recollected in whose hands it was, possessed by a race of the most accursed of heretics, whose beards were not fit to be brooms to our dust-holes, then i thought myself too condescending in allowing them to possess me amongst them. one consolation, however, i did not fail to derive from reflection, which was, that if they were allowed the possession of so choice a spot for their use in this world, they would doubly feel the horror of that which was doubtless preparing for them in the next. after undergoing the necessary forms and examinations at the customhouse, i and my companions took boat at scutari, crossed over to constantinople, and established ourselves and merchandise in a large caravanserai, the resort of persian traders, situated in a very central part of the city, near the principal bazaars. i felt myself a slender personage indeed, when i considered that i was only one among the crowd of the immense population that was continually floating through the great thoroughfares. and when i saw the riches displayed in the shops, the magnificence of dress of almost every inhabitant, and the constant succession of great lords and agas, riding about on the finest and most richly caparisoned horses, i could not help exclaiming, in a secret whisper to myself, �where is constantinople and her splendours, and where persia and her poverty?� i, in conjunction with old osman, hired a room in the caravanserai, in which we deposited our merchandise. during the daytime i displayed my pipe-sticks in goodly rows on a platform; and as my assortments were good, i began my sales with great vigour, and reaped considerable profit. in proportion as i found money returning to my purse, so did i launch out into luxuries which i little heeded before. i increased the beauty and conveniences of my dress; i bought a handsome amber-headed chibouk; i girded my waist with a lively-coloured shawl; my tobacco pouch was made of silk, covered with spangles; my slippers were of bright yellow, and i treated myself to a glittering dagger. temptations to expense surrounded me everywhere, and i began to think that there was something worth living for in this world. so numerous were the places in which i might exhibit my person in public, that i could not refrain from visiting the most frequented coffee-houses, where, mounted on a high bench, with soft cushions to recline upon, i smoked my pipe and sipped my coffee like one of the highest degree. implicated as i had been in disagreeable adventures in persia, i was mistrustful of my own countrymen, and rather shunned them, whilst i sought the acquaintance of the turks. but they, my countrymen, who are always so inquisitive, and who feel themselves slighted upon the least inattention--they discovered who and what i was, and eyed me with no great feelings of approbation. however, i endeavoured to live upon good terms with them; and as long as we did not enter into competition in matters of trade, they left me unmolested. in places of public resort i gave myself out for a rich bagdad merchant; and now my scar, which i had before esteemed a great misfortune, was conveniently conspicuous to attest the truth of my assertions. nothing, i found, was so easy as to deceive the turks by outward appearance. their taciturnity, the dignity and composure of their manner and deportment, their slow walk, their set phrases, were all so easy to acquire, that in the course of a very short time i managed to imitate them so well, that i could at pleasure make myself one of the dullest and most solemn of their species. so perfect a hearer had i become, so well did i sigh out, every now and then, in soft accents, my sacred ejaculations of �allah! and there is but one allah!� and so steady was i in counting my beads, that i was received at the coffee-house, which i frequented, with distinguished attention. the owner of it himself made my coffee, and as he poured it out with a high flourish of his arm, he never failed to welcome me by the friendly epithets of �my aga, my sultan.� such influence had the respectability of my appearance secured for me, that in every trifling dispute which might take place in the coffee-room, either upon the subjects of horses, dogs, arms, or tobacco (the principal topics of conversation), i was ever referred to, and any low growl from my lips, of either _belli_ (yes), or _yok_ (no), was sure to set the matter at rest. [illustration: shekerleb approaches hajji. .jpg] chapter lxvii hajji baba makes a conquest of the widow of an emir, which at first alarms, but afterwards elates him. i had lived in this manner for some time, when for three successive evenings, towards the dusk, retiring from my coffee-house, i remarked an old woman standing at the corner of a small street that nearly faced it. she always gazed intensely at me, seemed desirous to speak, looked up every now and then at the latticed windows of the house, at the foot of which she had taken post, and then allowed me to pass on. the first time i scarcely took notice of her, an old woman standing at the corner of a street being nothing remarkable; but, on the second, i became surprised, and was on my guard; the third roused all my curiosity; and on the fourth evening i determined, if she appeared again, to discover what could be her meaning. accordingly i dressed myself rather better than usual, having taken it for granted that my good looks, added to the protection of my good planet, were at work for me; and issuing forth from the coffee-house, i walked with a slow and sauntering step towards the mysterious woman. i was about accosting her, when, as i turned the angle of the street that screened me from the windows of the coffee-house, of a sudden a lattice of the house before mentioned was thrown open, and an unveiled female presented herself to my sight, whose face and form appeared to me of the most dazzling beauty. a flower was in her hand, which she first held out to my notice, then placed it on her heart, threw it to me, and then shut the lattice in such haste, that the whole scene was like an apparition which had shown itself, and then suddenly disappeared. i stood with my mouth open, and my eyes directed upwards, until i was gently pulled by the sleeve by the old woman, who had picked up the flower, and was presenting it to me as i looked round upon her. �what is this,� said i, �in the name of the prophet? are there gins and peris in this land?� �are you such a novice,� answered the old woman, �not to know what that flower means? your beard is long enough, you are not a child, and your dress proclaims that you have travelled; but you have travelled to little purpose, if you know not what a lady means when she gives you an almond flower. �o yes,� said i, �i know that fistek (almond) rhymes to yastek (pillow); and i also know that two heads upon one pillow have frequently been compared to two kernels in one almond; but my beard is long enough to remind me also, that such things do not happen without danger, and that the heads may be cut off, as well as the kernels swallowed up.� �fear nothing,� said my companion with great emotion, �by the holy mohamed, we are clean ones, and you despise fortune, if you reject us. are you an ass, that you should start at a shadow? for such are your fears.� �tell me then,� said i, �who is the lady i have just seen, and what am i to do?� �be not in such a hurry,� answered she; �nothing can be done to-night, and you must have patience. time and place are not now convenient; but meet me to-morrow at noon, at the cemetery of eyúb, and you will hear all that you wish to know. i shall be seated at the foot of the tomb of the first emir on your right hand, and you will recognize me from any other woman by a red shawl, thrown over my left shoulder. go, and allah go with you!� upon this we parted, and i returned to my room in the caravanserai to ruminate over what had happened. i did not doubt that something good was in store for me; but i had heard terrible accounts of the jealousy of turkish husbands, and could not help imagining that i might fall a victim to the fury of some much-injured man. zeenab and her tower, mariam and her yûsûf, dilaram and her pimple, all the instances of unfortunate loves, came across my mind in succession, and damped any desire that i might at first have felt in prosecuting this adventure. however, my blood was yet young and warm enough to carry me forwards, and i determined, though reluctantly, to proceed. on the noon of the ensuing day i faithfully kept my engagement, looked for the first green-turbaned tomb, which i duly found on my right hand, where i discovered the old woman with her red shawl over her left shoulder. we retired from the roadside, and retreated to the shade of some of the loftiest cypress trees in the burial-ground; where, seated on the ground, with the magnificent view of the harbour of constantinople before us, we calmly entered upon the subject of our conference. she first complimented me upon my punctuality, and then again assured me, that i had nothing to fear from what she was about to propose. she had all the garrulity of her age, and spoke for some time but to little purpose, making professions of her attachment, and of her desire to serve me; all of which i foresaw would ultimately diminish the profits of my pipe-sticks, and i therefore stopped her progress, and requested her at once to let me know the history of the fair lady at the window. divesting her narrative of all her repetitions and circumlocutions, she spoke nearly to the following effect:-- �the lady whom you saw, and whose servant i am, is the only daughter of a rich aleppo merchant, who, besides her, had two sons. the father died not long ago, and was succeeded in his business by his sons, who are now wealthy merchants, and reside in this city. my mistress, whose name is shekerleb, or sugar-lips, was married when very young to an old but rich emir, who scrupulously refrained from having more than one wife at a time, because from experience he knew that he could have no peace at home if he took advantage of the permissions of his law in multiplying to himself his female companions. he was very fond of domestic quiet, and therefore hoped, by taking one so young, he might be able to mould her to his wishes, and that she would never thwart him in his inclinations. in that he was fortunate, for a more gentle and docile creature than my mistress does not exist. there was only one point upon which they could never agree, which proved indeed one of the causes of the emir�s death, which happened soon after. she liked tarts made with cream, and he preferred his with cheese. on this subject, regularly for five years they daily at breakfast had a dispute, until, about six months ago, the old man, having ate over much of his favourite cheese-tarts, had an indigestion and died. he bequeathed one-fourth of his wealth, the house which you saw, his furniture, his slaves, in short, all that he could leave according to the mohamedan law, to the fair shekerleb, now his disconsolate widow. with the advantages of youth, beauty, and riches, you may be certain that she has not lived without admirers; but she has wisdom and discretion beyond most young women of her age, and hitherto has resisted forming any new tie, resolving to wait until some good opportunity, to marry one whom she might really love, and who would neither be swayed by interest nor ambition. �living opposite to one of the most fashionable coffee-houses in the city, she has had an opportunity of watching those who frequent it; and without a compliment, i need not say that she soon distinguished you as the handsomest amongst them, and indeed, as the man most to her fancy whom she had ever seen. my brother,� said the old woman, �is the owner of the coffee-house, and as the opportunities of seeing him are frequent, i requested him to inquire who you were; and to let me know what sort of a character you bore. his report was such as highly pleased my mistress; and we resolved to endeavour to make you notice us, and if possible to get acquainted with you. you best know how we have succeeded, and now will be able to judge whether i have rendered you a service or not.� little did i expect to hear such a result when first the old woman began her tale. i now felt like one who had received his reprieve after condemnation. instead of the mysteries, disguises, scaling of walls and windows, drawn scimitars, and bloody wounds attendant on a turkish intrigue, i saw nothing before me but riches, ease, and repose from all future care. i blessed my star; in short, i held my fortune to be made. i was so transported at what i heard, that i made use of a thousand incoherent expressions to my companion; i protested and vowed eternal love to her mistress, and promised the most liberal remuneration to herself. �but there is one circumstance,� said she, �which my mistress has ordered me to ascertain before she can receive you; which is, the respectability of your family and the extent of your fortune. you must know that her brothers and relations are very proud; and if she were to make an unworthy alliance, they would treat her with the greatest harshness, and not fail to ill-treat if not to make away with her husband.� although i was not prepared for this, yet such was the quickness with which i had seized the whole extent of the good fortune awaiting me, that with the same quickness i without hesitation said, �family? family, did you say? who is there that does not know hajji baba? let him inquire from the confines of yemen to those of irâk, and from the seas of hind to the shores of the caspian, and his name will be well known.� �but who was your father?� said the old woman. �my father?� said i, after a pause; �he was a man of great power. more heads came under his thumb, and he took more men with impunity by the beard, than even the chief of the wahabi himself.� i had now gained sufficient time to arrange a little off-hand genealogy for myself; and as �the old woman�s countenance expanded at what i had said, i continued to speak to her after this manner:-- �if your mistress wants high blood, then let her look to me. be assured, that she and her brothers, be they who they may, will never exceed me in descent. arab blood flows in my veins, and that of the purest kind. my ancestor was a mansouri arab, from the province of nejd in arabia felix, who with the whole of his tribe was established by shah ismael of persia in some of the finest pastures of irâk, and where they have lived ever since. my great ancestor, _kâtir, ben khur, ben asp, ben al madian_, was of the tribe of koreish, and that brought him in direct relationship with the family of our blessed prophet, from whom all the best blood of islam flows.� �allah, allah!� exclaimed the old woman, �enough, enough. if you are all this, my mistress wants no more. and if your riches are equal to your birth, we shall be entirely satisfied.� �as for my riches,� said i, �i cannot boast of much cash; but what merchant ever has cash at command? you must know as well as myself, that it is always laid out in merchandise, which is dispersed over different parts of the world, and which in due time returns back to him with increase. my persian silks and velvets are now travelling into khorassan, and will bring me back the lambskins of bokhara. my agents, provided with gold and otter skins, are ready at meshed to buy the shawls of cashmere, and the precious stones of india. at astrakan, my cotton stuffs are to be bartered against sables, cloth and glass ware; and the indian goods which i buy at bassorah and send to aleppo are to return to me in the shape of skull-caps and shalli stuffs. in short, to say precisely what i am worth, would be as difficult as to count the ears in a field of wheat; but you may safely tell your mistress that the man of her choice, whenever he gathers his wealth together, will astonish her and her family by its extent.� �praise be to allah!� said the confidant, �all is now as it should be, and it only remains to make you acquainted with each other. you must not fail to be at the corner of the street at night-fall, when, with all the necessary precautions you will be introduced to the divine shekerleb; and if she approves of you, nothing will interpose to defer your marriage and your happiness. there is only one piece of advice which i have to give; that is, be sure to like cream-tarts, and to disapprove of cheese ones. upon every other topic she is liberal and without prejudice. may allah keep you in peace and safety!� so saying, she drew up the lower part of her veil over her mouth; and receiving two pieces of gold without a struggle, which i put into her hand, she walked away, and left me again to my meditations. chapter lxviii he obtains an interview with the fair shekerleb, makes a settlement upon her, and becomes her husband. i did not long remain at the foot of the tree, for i felt that much was to be done before the time of assignation. it would be necessary to put on an appearance of wealth, to have a purse well furnished, and a dress suited to my character; and moreover, it quite behoved me to make my person as acceptable as possible by going to the bath, and using all the requisite perfumes. frequently as i walked along did i apostrophize myself in terms of the highest approbation. �ahi hajji, friend hajji,� would i exclaim, �by the beard of your father, and by your own soul, for this once you have shown the difference between a fool and a sage. well done, thou descendant from the mansouris! thou scion of the root of koreish!� deeply pondering over my future destinies, at length i reached my caravanserai. i saw the old osman seated in one corner of our apartment, calculating the profits of his merchandise, and in the other i observed my bundle of pipe-sticks. the contrast which these ignoble objects formed to the great schemes then planning in my mind struck me so forcibly, that it affected my ordinary deportment, and gave a certain tone of superiority to my manner which i had never before felt. i know not whether it was noticed by osman; but he seemed rather startled when i asked him immediately to advance me fifty gold pieces, for which i offered to deliver over my merchandise as security. �my son,� said he, �what news is this? what can you want with so much money, and in such haste? are you mad, or are you become a gambler?� �god forgive me,� answered i, �i am neither a madman nor a gambler. my brain is in good order, and the world has taken me into favour; but give me the money, and you will hear the rest hereafter.� he did not longer hesitate to accede to my wishes, for he well knew the value of my goods, and that the transaction could not fail to be safe and profitable. so without further hesitation he counted out the money, and i forthwith left him. i immediately bought some very handsome additions to my wardrobe, and proceeded without delay to the bath, where i went through all the necessary lustrations, and attired myself like a man of the highest fashion. by the time that my new arrangements were complete, the hour of assignation had arrived, and with a beating heart i proceeded to the place appointed. i found the old woman waiting, and having looked well round to see that nobody remarked us, she introduced me into the house through a door situated in a remote corner. i was charmed at the great ease and comfort which appeared to exist throughout the whole establishment; for i now looked upon myself as lord and master of all i saw. we had entered at once into the apartments kept sacred for the use of the women, because it seems that the principal entrance of the house had been but little used since the emir�s death, out of reverence to his memory; and the same sort of mystery and precaution in entering here was kept up as if the good man was still in existence. having passed through the small street-door, we entered into a courtyard, in which was a fountain. we then ascended a wooden flight of steps, at the top of which we found a cloth curtain, composed of various colours, which being lifted up, i was introduced into an ante-room, the only furniture of which consisted of women�s slippers and a lamp. four doors, which were now closed, opened upon this, and here i was left to myself, whilst my old conductress shuffled off to prepare her mistress for my reception. i heard voices in the different apartments, the owners of which i presumed belonged to the slippers; and imagined that many eyes were directed at me, for i could distinguish them through the crannies. at length the door at the farthest angle was opened, and i was beckoned to approach. my heart beat within me as i stepped forwards, and covering myself close with the flaps of my cloak, in order to show my respect, i entered a room that was lighted up by only one lamp, which shed a soft and dubious light over the objects within it. it was surrounded by a divan, covered with the richest light blue satins fringed with gold, in one angle of which, near the window, was seated the object of all my desires. she was carefully veiled from head to foot, and all i could then distinguish of her person was a pair of brilliant black eyes, that seemed to delight in the anxious curiosity which they had roused in my features. she pointed to me with her hand to be seated; but this i obstinately refused, so anxious was i to show the depth of my respect and gratitude. at length, when further resistance was useless, i took off my slippers, and seated myself with a corner of my hip just resting upon the edge of the sofa, keeping my hands covered with the sleeves of my garment, and affecting a coyness and a backwardness, at which, now that i recollect myself, i cannot help laughing. after we had sat facing each other for some few minutes, little, except commonplace compliments, having passed, my fair mistress ordered the old ayesha (for that was the name of my conductress) to leave the room, and then leaning forwards, as if to take up her fan of peacock�s feathers, which was on the cushion, she permitted her veil to fall, and exhibited to my impatient eyes the most beautiful face that nature had ever formed. this was the signal for laying by all reserve, and i prostrated myself before this divinity with all the adoration of a profound devotee, and poured out such a rhapsody of love and admiration, as to leave no doubt in her mind of the tenderness of my heart, the acuteness of my wit, and the excellence of my taste. in short, the emir�s widow had every reason to be satisfied with the choice she had made; and she very soon showed the confidence which she intended to place in me, by making me at once the depository of her secrets. �i am in a difficult situation,� said she, �and the evil eye which many cast upon me hath embittered my soul. you may conceive, that, owing to the wealth with which i have been endowed by my late husband (upon whom be eternal blessings!) and to my own dower besides, which was considerable, i have been tormented with many persecutions, and they have almost driven me mad. my relations all claim a right to me, as if i were part of the family estate. my brothers have their own interest in view when they would negotiate a husband for me, as if they would barter a sack of wool against bags of rice. a nephew of my husband, a man of the law, pretends to claim an old custom, by which, when a man died, one of his relations had a right to his widow, which he might assert by throwing his cloak over her. another relation again pretends, that, according to the law, i am not entitled to the whole of what i now possess, and threatens to dispute it. in short, so sadly perplexed have i been under these circumstances, i only saw one way to set the matter at rest, which was to marry again. fate has thrown you in my way, and i am no longer at a loss.� she then informed me of the arrangements she had made for our immediate union, in case i was not averse to it, and referred me to a man of the law, whom she had secured to act in her behalf, who would make out all the proper papers, and whom she informed me was now in the house ready to officiate. i was not prepared for quite so much dispatch, and felt my heart misgive me, as if it were hovering between heaven and earth; but i did not hesitate to reiterate my protestations of eternal love and devotion, and said nothing to my intended but what seemed to overwhelm her with delight. so impatient was she of any delay, that she immediately ordered the old ayesha to conduct me to the man of the law, who was in attendance in a small apartment, in a more distant part of the house. besides himself he had brought another, who, he informed me, would act as my vakeel or trustee, such an intervention being necessary on the part of the man as well as the woman; and then he exhibited before me the _akdnameh_ or marriage deed, in which he had already inscribed the dower of my intended, consisting of her own property, and demanded from me what additions it was my intention to make thereto. i was again thrown back upon my ingenuity, and as the best answer i could give, repeated what i had before said to ayesha, namely, that a merchant was uncertain of his wealth, which was dispersed in trade in different parts of the world; but i did not hesitate to settle all that i possessed upon my wife, provided such engagement were mutual. �that is very liberal,� replied my wily scribe; �but we require something more specific. as for instance, what do you possess here at constantinople? you cannot have come thus far, except for important purposes. settle the wealth which you can command upon the spot, be it in cash, merchandise, or houses, and that will suffice for the present.� �be it so,� said i, putting the best face possible upon the demand. �be it so--let us see.� then appearing to calculate within myself what i could command, i boldly said, �you may insert that i give twenty purses in money and ten in clothes.� upon this, a communication took place between the emir�s widow and her agent, for the purpose of informing her what were my proposals, and for gaining her consent to them. after some little negotiation, the whole was arranged to the apparent satisfaction of both parties, and our different seals having been affixed to the documents, and the necessary forms of speech having been pronounced by our different vakeels, the marriage was declared lawful, and i received the compliments of all present. i did not fail to reward the scribes before they were dismissed, and also to send a very liberal donation to be distributed throughout the household of my fair bride. then instead of returning to old osman, and my pillow of pipe-sticks, i retired, with all the dignity and consequence of the gravest turk, into the inmost recesses of my harem. chapter lxix from a vender of pipe-sticks he becomes a rich aga, but feels all the inconvenience of supporting a false character. i soon found that i had a very difficult part to perform. a chinese philosopher is said to have remarked, that if the operation of eating was confined to what takes place between the mouth and the palate, then nothing could be more pleasant, and one might eat for ever; but it is the stomach, the digestive organs, and, in fact, the rest of the body, which decide ultimately whether the said operation has been prejudicial or healthful. so it is in marriage. if it were confined to what takes place between man and wife, nothing more simple; but then come the ties of relationship and the interests of families, and they decide much upon its happiness or misery. my fair spouse entertained me for several successive days after our marriage with such manifold and intricate stories of her family, of their quarrels and their makings-up, of their jealousies and their hatreds, and particularly of their interested motives in their conduct towards her, that she made me feel as if i might have got into a nest of scorpions. she recommended that we should use the greatest circumspection in the manner of informing her brothers of our marriage; and remarked that although we were so far secure in being lawful man and wife, still as much of our future happiness depended upon their goodwill towards us (they being men of wealth, and consequently of influence in the city), we ought to do everything in our power to conciliate them. as a precautionary measure, she had spread a report that she was on the point of being married to one of the richest and most respectable of the bagdad merchants, and in a conversation with one of her brothers, had not denied, although she had abstained from confessing it to be the case. she now requested that our marriage might be proclaimed, and to that effect recommended that we should give an entertainment to all her relations, and that no expense should be spared in making it as magnificent as possible, in order that they might be convinced she had not thrown herself away upon an adventurer, but, in fact, had made an alliance worthy of them and of herself. she found me ready in seconding her wishes, and i was delighted to have so early an opportunity to make a display of our wealth. i began by hiring a suite of servants, each of whom had their appropriate situation and title. i exchanged the deceased emir�s family of pipes for others of greater value, and of the newest fashion. in the same manner i provided myself with a new set of coffee-cups, the saucers of which were fashioned in the most expensive manner; some of filigreed gold, others of enamel, and one or two, for my own particular use, inlaid with precious stones. then, as i had stepped into the emir�s shoes, i determined to slip on his pelisses also. he was curious in the luxuries of dress, for his wardrobe consisted of robes and furs of great value, which his widow informed me had existed in his family for many years, and which i did not now blush to adjust to my own shoulders. in short, before the day of the entertainment came, i had time to set up an establishment worthy of a great aga; and i do believe, although born a barber, yet in look, manner, and deportment, no one could have acted a part truer to my new character than i did. but i must not omit to mention, that previously to the feast, i had not failed to visit my new relations in all due form; and although i was greatly anxious respecting the result of our meeting, yet when i rode through the streets mounted on one of the emir�s fat horses, caparisoned in velvet housings that swept the ground, and surrounded by a crowd of well-dressed servants, my delight and exultation exceeded any feeling that i had ever before experienced. to see the crowd make way, look up, and lay their hands on their breast as i passed,--to feel and hear the fretting and champing of my horse�s bit as he moved under me, apparently proud of the burden he bore,--to enjoy the luxury of a soft and easy seat, whilst others were on foot; in fine, to revel in those feelings of consequence and consideration which my appearance procured, and not to have been intoxicated, was more than mere humanity could withstand, and accordingly i was completely beside myself. but what added most to the zest of this my first exhibition, was meeting some of my own needy countrymen in the streets, who had been my companions in the caravan from bagdad, and who, in their sheepskin caps and thin scanty cotton garments, made but a sorry figure among the gaily dressed osmanlies, and seemed to stand forth expressly to make me relish in the highest degree the good fortune with which i had been visited. whether or no they recognized me, i know not; but this i recollect, that i turned my head on one side as i passed, and buried my face as well as i could in the combined shade of my beard, great turban, and furred pelisse. my visits succeeded better than i could have expected. whatever might have been the motives of my wife�s brothers, they behaved to me with marked civility, and indeed flattered me into the belief that i had conferred an honour on their family in taking their sister off their hands. merchants as they were, their conversation turned principally upon trade, and i made my best endeavours to talk up to the character i had assumed, and convinced them of the extent of my undertakings in commerce. but, at the same time, great was my circumspection not to commit myself; for when they began to question and cross-examine me upon the trade of bagdad and bassorah, the relations of those cities and of arabia in general with india and china, and to propose joint concerns in their various articles and produce, i immediately reduced my speech to monosyllables, entrenched myself in general terms, and assented to proposals which led to nothing. having completed my visits, i felt that one duty was still left, which was, to make the good old osman a partaker of my happiness, to inform him of my marriage, and to invite him to our ensuing entertainment. but, shall i own it? so much did i feel that i was acting a false part, and so fearful was i of being detected, that i dared not trust even him, taciturn as he naturally was, with my secret, and therefore determined for the present to have no communication with him, or, in fact, with any of my countrymen, until i could feel myself so securely fixed in my new situation as to be fearless of being displaced. [illustration: hajji curses shekerleb and her relations. .jpg] chapter lxx his desire to excite envy lays the foundation of his disgrace--he quarrels with his wife. the entertainment went off with the greatest success, and there was every reason to suppose that i fully succeeded in making my guests believe i was really the personage whom i pretended to be. i therefore began to feel secure in my new possessions, and gave myself up to enjoyment, associating with men of pleasure, dressing in the gayest attire, and, in short, keeping a house that was the talk and envy of the city. �tis true that i almost daily felt the inconvenience of being indebted to my wife for such good fortune; for, notwithstanding the previous assurances of the old ayesha, i soon found that differences of opinion would arise on many other subjects besides the comparative delicacy of cream and cheese tarts. �excellent man must that old emir have been,� frequently did i exclaim, �who could go through life with only one subject of dispute with his wife! for my part, if there happens to be two sides to a question, we are sure to appropriate them one in opposition to the other. i had long promised to myself the enjoyment of one of the principal pleasures arising from my good fortune; i mean, the exhibition of myself in all my splendour before my countrymen in the caravanserai, and enjoying the astonishment which i should excite in the old osman, my former master. now, that all was safe, as i fully hoped, i could no longer resist the temptation, and accordingly dressed myself in my best attire, mounted the finest horse in my stable, gathered my whole suite of servants about me, and in the very busiest hour of the day proceeded to the caravanserai, in which, on my first arrival at constantinople, i had appeared as a vender of pipe-sticks. upon entering the gate, no one seemed to know me, but all were anxious to do me honour, hoping that in me they might find a purchaser of their merchandise. i inquired for osman aga, whilst my servants spread a beautiful persian carpet for my seat, and at the same time offered me one of my most costly amber-headed chibouks to smoke. he came and seated himself, with all due respect, on the edge of my carpet, without recognizing me. i talked to him without reserve for some time, and remarked that he eyed me with looks of peculiar interest, when at length, unable to restrain himself any longer, he exclaimed, �by the beard of the blessed mohammed, you are either hajji baba, or you are nobody!� i laughed with all my heart at his exclamation, and when we had mutually explained, very soon related how i was situated, and to what profit i had turned the fifty pieces of gold which he had lent me. his philosophic mind did not appear so much elated with my change of fortune as i had anticipated; but my countrymen, the persians, as soon as they heard that under that large turban and that heavy pelisse was seated hajji baba, the once vender of little wares like themselves, and that all that splendour and circumstance of horse, servants, and rich pipes was attendant upon his person, their national feelings were awakened, and they could neither contain their envy nor their malevolence. i now, too late, discovered the mistake i had committed in showing myself off in this manner, and would willingly have sneaked away without further triumph. �what! is this hajji baba?� said one, �the son of the ispahan barber? may his father�s grave be polluted, and his mother abused!� �well acted, true child of irân!� said another; �you have done your utmost with the turk�s beard, and may others do the same with yours!� �look at his great turban, and his large trousers, and his long pipe,� said a third: �his father never saw such things, not even in a dream!� in this manner did my envious countrymen taunt me, until, asserting all my dignity, i rose from my seat, mounted my horse, and left the place amidst their scoffs and expressions of contempt. my first sensation was that of indignation at them, my second of anger at myself. �you have been rightly served,� said i to myself, �by the soul of kerbelai hassan, the barber! what well-fed hound ever went among wolves without being torn to pieces? what fool of a townsman ever risked himself amongst the wild arabs of the desert without being robbed and beaten? perhaps hajji may one day become a wise man, but plentiful is the vexation he must eat first! of what use is a beard,� said i, taking mine into my hand, �when an empty sconce is tied to the end of it? about as much as a handle is to a basket without dates. great wisdom had the sage who declared that no man was ever pleased with the elevation of his fellow, except perhaps when he saw him dangling on a gibbet!� in this manner did i soliloquize until i reached my house, where, having retired to the harem, i endeavoured to seek repose for the remainder of the day, in order to chew the cud of my bitter reflections. but i was mistaken; for, to add to my misery, shekerleb, my wife, as if impelled by some wicked demon, demanded that i should immediately advance her the money inserted in the marriage settlement for clothes, and so worked upon me by her very unreasonable entreaties, that, involving her in the ill-humour in which i had continued against my own countrymen, i poured forth the current of my feelings in language and gestures the most violent. curses upon them and maledictions upon her came from my lips in horrid succession, until i, the once mild and patient hajji, had become more furious than a mazanderan lion. my wife at first was all astonishment, and, as she drew herself up at the head of her slaves and handmaids, seconded by the old ayesha, waited with impatient silence for an opportunity to speak. at length, when she had found utterance, her mouth appeared too small for the volume of words which flowed from it. her volubility unloosed the tongue of ayesha, and the old woman�s those of all the other women, until there arose such a tempest of words and screams, all of which were directed against me, that i was nearly overwhelmed. i would have resisted, but i found it impossible. it raged with such fury, that the room in which we all stood was not large enough to contain us. i was the first to seek shelter, and made a retreat from my harem amid the groans, the revilings, and the clapping of hands of the beings within it, who, with my wife at their head, looked more like maniacs than those fair creatures, in paradise, promised by our prophet to all true believers. tired, jaded, and distressed by my day�s adventures, i retired into my own apartment, locked the door, and there, though surrounded by and master of every luxury that man can enjoy, i felt myself the most miserable of beings, detesting myself for my idiotical conduct in the present posture of my affairs, and full of evil forebodings for the future. the inconveniences of lying now stared me full in the face. i felt that i was caught in my own snare; for if i endeavoured to extricate myself from my present dilemma by telling more lies, it was evident that at the end i should not fail to be entirely entangled. �would to heaven,� did i exclaim, �that i had been fair and candid at first; for now i should be free as air, and my wife might have stormed until the day of judgement, without being a single shift the better for it; but i am bound by writings, sealed and doubly sealed, and i must ever and shall stand before the world a liar both by word and deed.� [illustration: hajji disrobes. .jpg] chapter lxxi he is discovered to be an impostor, loses his wife, and the wide world is again before him. i passed a feverish night, and did not fall asleep until the muezzins from the minarets had announced the break of day. scarcely had an hour elapsed, ere i was awoke by an unusual stir, and then was informed by one of my servants that my wife�s brothers, attended by several other persons, were in the house. involuntarily, upon hearing this, i was seized with a trembling, which at first deprived me of all power of action, and the consequences of lying now spoke for themselves. fifty horrors, one more hideous than the other, rose in my mind, and i began to feel a tingling in the soles of my feet, which the lapse of years had not been able to dispel, so impressive had been the lesson received at meshed. �but, after all,� i reflected, �shekerleb is my wife, happen what may; and if i have pretended to be richer than is really the case, i have only done what thousands before me have done also.� i then turned to my servant, and said, �in the name of the prophet let them come in; and make ready the pipes and coffee.� my bed was then rolled up and carried out of the room, and my visitors one after the other in silent procession walked in, and seated themselves on my divan. they consisted of my wife�s two brothers, of her late father�s brother, and his son, and of a stern-looking man whom i had never before seen. these were seated; but, besides, a numerous train of servants followed, who stood in a row at the end of the room, amongst whom, standing foremost, were two ruffian-like looking fellows armed with heavy canes, eyeing me as i thought with peculiar fierceness. i endeavoured to appear as innocent and undisturbed as possible, and pretended the greatest delight at seeing them. having made them every civil speech which i could devise, to which indeed i received nothing but monosyllables for answers, i ordered pipes and coffee, at the partaking of which i hoped to acquire some insight into the object of their visit. �may your hours be fortunate!� said i to the elder brother. �is there anything at this early time of the day in which i can be of use? if there is, command me.� �hajji,� said he, after an ominous pause, �look at me! do you take us for animals, without understanding, without common sense? or do you look upon yourself as the man of his day without compare, specially privileged to take the beards of humankind into your hand, and to do what you like with them?� �what is this that you say?� i replied. �o my aga! i am nobody and nothing; i am less than an ounce of dust.� �man!� said the second brother, in a warmer tone of voice, �nobody and nothing, do you say? then what have you made of us? are we nothing, that you should come all this distance from bagdad to make us dance like apes at your bidding?� �oh, allah, great and good!� exclaimed i, �what is all this? why do you speak after this manner? what have i done? speak, and speak truth!� �ah, hajji, hajji!� said my wife�s uncle, shaking his head and grey beard at the same time, �you have been eating much abomination! could a man who has seen the world like you, suppose that others will eat it with you, and say, thanks be to allah! no, no--we may eat, but will not digest your insolence. �but what have i done, o my uncle?� said i to him; �by my soul, speak!� �what have you done?� said my wife�s cousin. �is lying nothing? is stealing nothing? is marrying a wife under false pretences nothing? you must be a rare man without shame to call such acts nothing!� �perhaps,� said the eldest brother, �you think it a great honour which the son of an ispahan barber confers upon one of the richest families of constantinople, when he marries their daughter!� �and perhaps,� said the other, �you may look upon a beggarly vender of pipe-sticks in the light of a merchant, and think him worthy of any alliance!� �but hajji, praise be to allah! is a great merchant,� said the uncle ironically: �his silks and velvets are now on their way to bring us lambskins from bokhara; his shawls are travelling to us from cashmere, and his ships are blackening the surface of the seas between china and bassorah!� �and his parentage,� continued his son in the same strain, �a barber�s son did you say? forbid it, allah! no, no; he dates from the koreish. he is not even the descendant, but, by the blessing of god, of the ancestry of the prophet; and who can come in competition with a mansouri arab?� �what is all this?� again and again did i exclaim, as i saw the storm gathering about my ears. �if you want to kill me, do so; but do not pull off my skin by inches.� �i tell you what is it, man without faith,� said the stern man, who hitherto had remained immovable; �you are a wretch who deserves not to live! and if you do not immediately give up all pretensions to your wife, and leave this house and everything that belongs to it, without a moment�s delay, do you see those men� (pointing to the two ruffians before mentioned); �they will just make your soul take leave of your body as easy as they would knock the tobacco out of their pipes. i have spoken, and you are master to act as you please.� then the whole of the assembly, as if excited by this speech, unloosed their tongues at once, and, without reserve of words or action, told me a great number of disagreeable truths. this storm, which i permitted to rage without opening my lips, gave me time for reflection, and i determined to try what a little resistance would do. �and who are you,� said i to the stern man, �who dares come into my house, and treat me as your dog? as for these,� pointing to my wife�s relations, �the house is theirs, and they are welcome; but you, who are neither her father, her brother, nor her uncle, what have you to do here? i neither married your daughter, nor your sister, and therefore what can it be to you who i am?� all this while he seemed swelling with rage. he and his ruffians were curling up their mustachios to the corners of their eyes, and eyeing me, as the lion does the hind, before he pounces upon it. �who am i?� said he with a voice of anger. �if you want to know, ask those who brought me here. i and my men act from authority, which if you dispute, it will be the worse for you.� �but,� said i, softening my tone, for i now found that they were officers of the police, �but if you insist upon separating me from my wife, to whom i have been lawfully married, give me time to consult the men of the law. every son of islâm has the blessed koran as his refuge, and ye would not be such infidels as to deprive me of that? besides, i have not been told yet that she agrees to what you propose. she first sought me out; i did not seek her. she wooed me for my own sake, not for any worldly interest; and when i accepted her i knew her not, neither had i any tidings of either her wealth or her family. the whole has been the business of predestination, and if ye are mussulmans, will ye dare to oppose that?� �as to the wishes of shekerleb upon the subject,� said the eldest brother, �make your mind easy. she desires a separation more even than we do.� �yes, yes, in the name of the prophet, yes, let him go in peace. for the sake of allah, let us be free,� and fifty other such exclamations, all at once struck my ear; and on looking to the door which led into the women�s apartments, from whence the sound came, i beheld my women veiled, headed by my wife, who had been conducted there on purpose to give evidence against me, and who all seemed possessed by so many evil spirits, shouting and wailing out their lamentations and entreaties for my dismissal, as if i were the wicked one in person to be exorcised from the house. finding that all was over with me, that it was in vain to contend against a power i could not withstand, stranger and unprotected as i was in a foreign land, i put the best face i could upon my forlorn situation, and getting up from my seat, i exclaimed, �if it is so, be it so. i neither want shekerleb nor her money, nor her brothers, nor her uncle, nor anything that belongs to them, since they do not want me; but this i will say, that they have treated me in a manner unworthy of the creed and name of mussulmans. had i been a dog among the unbelievers, i should have been treated better. from the bottom of my heart i believe that the same punishment which shall be inflicted, on the last day, upon those who reject our holy prophet, shall be inflicted upon my oppressors.� i then, with great emphasis, pronounced the following sentence against them, as near as my memory would serve me, from the blessed koran:--�they shall have garments of living fire, fitted tight upon them; boiling water shall be poured over them; their bowels and skins shall be dissolved, and, in this state, they be beaten with red hot maces of iron, and flogged with whips, whose lashes are made of lightnings, and the noise of which shall be claps of thunder.� upon this, roused and excited as i was with the speech i had made, i stood in the middle of the room, and divested myself of every part of my dress which had belonged to my wife, or which i might have purchased with her money. throwing down every article from me, as if it had been abomination, and then calling for an old cloak which had originally belonged to me, i threw it over my shoulders and made my exit, denouncing a curse upon the staring assembly i left behind me. chapter lxxii an incident in the street diverts his despair--he seeks consolation in the advice of old osman. when i had got into the street i walked hastily on without, for some time, heeding whither i was bending my steps. my breast was convulsed by a thousand contending passions; and so nearly had i lost possession of my reason, that, when in sight of the sea, i began seriously to consider whether it would not be wisdom to throw myself headlong in. but, crossing a large open space, an occurrence happened which, however trifling it may appear, was of great consequence to me, inasmuch as it turned the current of my thoughts into a new channel, and saved me from destruction. i was witness to one of those dog fights so frequently seen in the streets of constantinople. a dog had strayed into the territory of another community, had infringed their rights, and stolen a bone. immediately an immense uproar ensued; all were on foot, and in full cry, and the strange dog was chased across the border into his own territory. here, meeting some of his own friends, he called them about him, returned to the attack, and a general engagement ensued as i was passing. while i stood by, intent upon the scene, a thought struck me, and i exclaimed, �allah, oh allah, how inscrutable are thy designs! and how little ought man, narrow-minded, short-sighted man, ever to repine at thy decrees! thou throwest into my path a lesson, which teaches me the way that i should go, and that assistance is ever at hand to those who will seek it; and, though given by a dog, let me not despise it. no, am i to be surprised at anything, when i see animals, without reason, acting like men, with it? let me not be cast down, but rather retreat to where i may still find a friend, and seek consolation in his advice and experience!� upon this, i turned almost mechanically to where i knew i should find my faithful friend and adviser, the old osman, who, although a turk and a sûni, had always behaved to me as if he had been my countryman, and one of my own religious persuasion. he received me in his usual quiet manner; and when i had related all my misfortunes, he puffed out a long volume of smoke from his never-failing chibouk, and exclaimed, with a deep sigh, �_allah kerim!_ (god is merciful!)� �my friend,� said he, �when you appeared here in all your magnificence before the persians, from that moment i was apprehensive that some evil would befall you. you perhaps are yet not old enough to have learnt how odious are comparisons. could you for a moment suppose, that men, in your own station in life, who are drudging on, day after day, intent upon the sale of a pipestick or a bag of shiraz tobacco, that they could bear to be bearded by an appearance of greatness and prosperity, so much beyond anything which they could ever expect to attain? had you appeared with a better coat or a richer cap than they, or had you been mounted on a horse, when they could only afford an ass, then, perhaps, nothing more would have been said, but that you were more expert in making your fortune, and a better retailer of your wares. but to crush, to beat them down, with your magnificent dress, your amber-headed pipes, your train of servants, your richly caparisoned horse, and, above all, the airs of grandeur and protection which you took upon yourself, was more than they could allow, and they immediately rose in hostility, and determined to bring you down to their own level again, if possible. evidently, it is they who have whispered into the ear of your wife�s brothers that you were not a bagdad merchant, but only the son of an ispahan barber, and a sorry vender of little wares. they, doubtless, soon undeceived them respecting the possibility of fulfilling the stipulations to which you have bound yourself in your wife�s marriage contract; and they, it is plain, have commented freely upon your pretensions to noble birth, and upon the flourishing account which you gave of your mercantile concerns, of your transactions in bokhara, and of your ships sailing to china. had you first visited me in a quiet way, as hajji baba, the ispahani, and not as hajji baba, the turkish aga, i would have warned you against making an undue exhibition of yourself and your prosperity before your countrymen; but the mischief was done as soon as the deed was over, and now all that can be recommended is, that from the past you gain experience for the future.� after this speech he took to his pipe again, and puffed away with redoubled vigour. �this may be very true,� said i. �what is done, is done, and peace abide with it: but, after all, i am a mussulman, and justice is due to me as well as to another. i never heard of a woman putting away her husband, although the contrary frequently happens; and it has not yet reached my understanding why i should be the only true believer who is called into the house, and thrust out of it again, in a manner that would even disgrace a dog, merely because it suits a capricious woman one morning to like, and the evening after to dislike, me. cadies, mufties, sheikh-el-islams, abound here as well as in other mohamedan cities, and why should i not have recourse to them? they are paid to administer justice, and wherefore should they sit, with their hands across, counting their beads, when such injustice as that, with which i have been visited, is going about the land seeking for redress?� �are you mad, hajji�, rejoined the old man, �to think of redress from the widow and relations of one of the most powerful emirs of islam, and that, too, when she is supported by her brothers, two of the richest merchants in constantinople? where have you lived all your lifetime, not to know, that he who hath most gold hath most justice? and that, if such a man as you were to appear before the tribunal of the mufti, with every word, line, leaf, and surai of the koran in your favour, and one as rich and powerful as your wife�s brother were to appear on the other side against you, as long as he had gold in his favour, you might appeal to your sacred book until you and it were tired of walking round each other, for justice you would never obtain.� �o, ali! o, mohammed!� exclaimed i, �if the world is indeed as iniquitous as this, then hajji baba, truly, has made a bad bargain, and i wish he were again in possession of his pipesticks: but i cannot, and will not, lose all and everything in this easy manner,--i will go and proclaim my misfortunes from the housetop, rather.� upon which, in utter despair, i began to cry and moan, and pulled out some of my beard by the roots. osman aga endeavoured to comfort me,--made me look back upon my past life, and brought to my recollection our mutual adventures while prisoners among the turcomans. �god is all-powerful and all-merciful,� said he. �our destinies are written in the book, and therefore what is there left, but to submit?� �but i am a persian,� exclaimed i (a new thought having crossed my mind), �as well as a mussulman; why, therefore, should i submit to injustice from a turk? we are, after all, a nation, and have had our jinghizs, our timours, and our nadirs, who made our name respected throughout the world, and who burnt the fathers of the turks wherever they could find them. i will seek our ambassador, and, if he be a man, he will insist upon justice being done me. yes, yes! the ambassador shall get back my wife; (oh, lucky thought!) and then we shall see who will take her from me again.� so elated was i by this idea, that i did not stop to hear what osman might have to say on the subject, but immediately sallied forth, full of fresh spirits and vigour, to seek out the representative of our king of kings, who, at the best of all fortunate hours, had very recently arrived on a mission to the sublime porte. [illustration: hajji relates his story to mirza firouz. .jpg] chapter lxxiii in endeavouring to gain satisfaction from his enemies he acquires a friend--some account of mirza firouz. upon inquiry i found that the ambassador had been provided with a residence at scutari, and thither i immediately bent my course, happy to have the time which i should pass in the boat at my disposal, in order to arrange my ideas for the purpose of making out a clear and strong case of complaint. having landed, i inquired the way to his house, the avenues of which were thronged by his numerous servants, who reminded me of my country (so different from that in which we were) by their loquaciousness and quick gesticulation. they soon found by my discourse, that i was one of them, although disguised by a turkish dress, and without any difficulty i was promised immediately to be ushered into the presence of their master. but previously to this, i was anxious to acquire some little insight into his character, in order that i might shape my discourse accordingly; and therefore entered into conversation with one of his valets, who did not scruple to talk fully and unreservedly upon every topic upon which i required information. the result of my inquiries was as follows:--the ambassador, by name mirza firouz, was by birth a shirazi, of respectable though not of high parentage, excepting in the instance of his mother, who was sister to a former grand vizier of great power, who, in fact, had been the means of placing the shah upon his throne. the mirza married his cousin, a daughter of the said vizier; and this led to his being employed in the government, though he had previously undergone many vicissitudes, which had caused him to travel into various countries. this circumstance, however, was one of the reasons of his being selected by the shah to transact his business at foreign courts. �he is a man of a quick and penetrating mind,� said my informant: �irascible, but easy to soothe, of a tender and forgiving nature, although in his first anger led to commit acts of violence. he is gifted with the most overwhelming powers of speech, which always are sure to get him out of the scrapes into which his indiscreet use of them very frequently leads him. to his servants and followers he is kind and the contrary, by turns. sometimes he permits them to do and say everything which they choose, at others, he keeps them at a most chilling distance. but, on the whole, he is easy of access, of agreeable commerce, of most fascinating manners, and of a joyous and sociable nature.� such was the man into whose presence i was conducted. he was seated in a corner, after the manner of persia; therefore i could not ascertain what his height might be, but his bust was extremely fine. his head was symmetrically placed on his shoulders, which were blended in an easy curve with his neck; whilst his tight dress helped to give great breadth to his breast. his face was one of the handsomest i had ever seen amongst my countrymen, his nose aquiline, his eyes large and sparkling, his teeth and mouth exquisite, and his beard the envy of all beholders. in short, as a specimen of the country he represented, none could have been better selected. when we had interchanged our greetings as true believers, he said to me, �are you an irani?� �yes,� said i, �so please you.� �then why in looks an osmanli?� said he. �praise be to allah, that we have a king and a country of whom no one need be ashamed.� �yes,� answered i, �your ordonnances are truth, and i am become less than a dog, since i have put on the airs of a turk. my days have been passed in bitterness, and my liver has melted into water, since i have entangled myself by a connexion with this hated people; and my only refuge is in god and you.� �how is this?� said he: �speak. has a child of ispahan (for such you are by your accent) been taken in by a turk? this is wonderful indeed! we travel all this way to make them feed upon our abomination, not to learn to eat theirs.� i then related the whole of my adventures from the beginning to the end. as i proceeded he seemed wonderfully interested. when i got to my marriage he became much amused, and roared with laughter at the settlements i had made on my wife. the account i gave of the entertainment, the respect with which i was treated, my magnificence and grandeur, afforded him great delight; and the more i descanted upon the deception which i had practised upon the cows of turks, as he called them, the more interest he took in my narrative, which he constantly interrupted by his exclamations, �aye, well done, oh ispahani! oh! thou bankrupt! by allah! you did well! if i had been there, i could not have done better.� but when i informed him of the manner i had been served by my envious countrymen, of the finishing scene in my own house, of the screams of my women, of the speeches of my wife�s relations,--and when i represented the very words, look, and attitude with which i made my exit, far from having produced the sympathy i expected, his mirth was excited to such a degree, that i thought the veins in his forehead would have burst; and he actually rolled himself on his sofa in the convulsions of laughter. �but may it please you to consider,� said i, �oh my aga! the situation in which i am now placed. instead of the bed of roses upon which i slept, i have not even a pillow whereon to lay my head. as for the horses and velvet which i used to bestride, happy should i now be could i claim even an ass for my own. and when i call to mind the luxuries in which i revelled, my rich dresses, my splendid horses, my train of servants, my marble baths, my pipes, my coffee-cups--in short, what shall i say, my everything a man could wish for, and now find myself a beggar--conceive the bitter recollections which prey upon me, and which excite anything but laughter in my breast, whatever they may do in yours.� �but those turks, those heavy buffaloes of turks,� roared he, still screaming with laughter; �praise be to allah! i can see them now with their long beards, their great caps, and their empty heads, believing all that the sharp-witted madman of persia chose to tell them, and they would have gone on believing, had they not been undeceived by a similar species of madman. �but what have i to do in the business?� said he to me. �i am neither your father nor your uncle, to interfere and make it up with your wife�s relations; nor am i a cadi, or a mufti, who can judge the case between you.� �no,� answered i; �but you are my refuge here, and the representative of god�s vicegerent upon earth; and you can see justice done me, and not let a poor unfriended stranger be oppressed.� �but would you get back possession of your wife,� said he, �and stand a chance of being murdered? of what good would all your riches be, if the day after repossessing them you were found dead in your bed? no, no; lend me your ear, and hearken to good council. throw off your turkish clothes, and be a persian again; and when in your proper character, i will keep you in mind, and see what may be done for you. your story has interested me, your wit and manner are agreeable, and believe me that many better things are to be done in the world than to smoke a long pipe all day, with no other object in life than to sleep upon a bed of roses, and to ride a fat horse. in the meanwhile, take up your quarters here; look upon yourself as one of my suite for the present, and whenever i wish to be merry you shall come and relate your story over again.� upon this i went up to him, kissed his knee in token of acknowledgement, and retired, scarcely knowing what steps to take in this unsettled posture of my affairs. chapter lxxiv he becomes useful to an ambassador, who makes him a partaker of his confidence. necessity, so the poet sayeth, �is as a strong rider with sharp stirrups, who maketh the sorry jade do that which the strong horse sometimes will not do.� i was disappointed, vexed, and mortified. my hopes of living a life of ease and enjoyment had disappeared, and i once more saw myself obliged to have recourse to my own ingenuity to keep me from starvation. �if i have lost a home,� said i, �see i have found a friend. let me not reject his proffered protection; and the same powerful destiny which has led me on step by step through the labyrinth of life will doubtless again take me by the hand, and perhaps at length safely land me where i shall no longer be perplexed respecting the path i ought to pursue.� i determined to make the most of my access to the ambassador; and happy was i to find, that the liking which he had taken to me at first sensibly, though gradually, increased during our succeeding interviews. he made use of me to acquire information, and conversed freely upon the business of his government, and upon matters connected with his mission. having all my life been taken up in making my own fortune, i had turned my mind but little to public events. of the nations of the world i scarcely knew any but my own and the turks. by name only the chinese, the indians, the affghans, the tartars, the cûrds, and the arabs were known to me; and of the africans i had some knowledge, having seen different specimens of them as slaves in our houses. of the franks,--the russians (if such they may be called) were those of whom we had the most knowledge in persia, and i had also heard of the ingliz and the franciz. when i reached constantinople, i was surprised to hear that many more frank nations existed besides the three above mentioned; but still occupied with my own affairs, i acquired but little knowledge concerning them. now that i was thrown into the ambassador�s society, my ideas took a new turn, and hearing matters discussed which had never even reached my understanding, i became more inquisitive. he seemed pleased to have found in me one who took interest in his views, and at length let me entirely into his confidence. one morning, having received letters from his court, he called me to him, said that he wished for some private conversation, and accordingly ordered every one to depart from before him except myself. he made me sit, and then in a low voice said, �hajji, i have long wished to speak to you. those who compose my suite, between you and me, do not possess the sort of understanding i require. �tis true, they are persians, and are endowed with more wit than all the world beside; but in affairs of the _dowlet_ (the state), they are nothing, and rather impede than forward the business upon which i have been sent. now, praise be to allah! i see that you are not one of them. you are much of a man, one who has seen the world and its business, and something may come from out of your hands. you are a man who can make play under another�s beard, and suck the marrow out of an affair without touching its outside. such i am in want of, and if you will devote yourself to me, and to our shah, the king of kings, both my face as well as your own will be duly whitewashed; and, by the blessings of our good destinies, both our heads will touch the skies.� �whatever is of my strength,� replied i, �is at your service. i am your slave and your servant, and i myself will place my own ear into your hand. order and command me: by my head and eyes, i am ready.� �perhaps you have heard it reported in the world,� said he, �that the object of my mission is to buy women slaves for the shah, to see them instructed in dancing, music, and embroidery, and to purchase spangled silks and other luxuries for the royal harem; but that is of course a blind for the multitude. i am not an ambassador for such miserable purposes: no, my business is of greater import; and our king, whose penetration is as searching as lightning itself, does not select men to transact his affairs without very substantial reasons. he has chosen me, and that�s enough. now hearken to what i shall tell you. �but a few months ago an ambassador from europe arrived at the gate of empire, tehran, and said he was sent by a certain boonapoort, calling himself emperor of the french nation, to bring a letter and presents to the shah. he exhibited full powers, by which his words were to be looked upon as his master�s, and his actions as his actions; and he also affirmed, that he had full instructions to make a treaty. he held himself very high indeed, and talked of all other nations of franks as dirt under his feet, and not worth even a name. he promised to make the russians restore their conquests in georgia to us, to put the shah in possession of teflis, baadkoo, derbent, and of all which belonged to persia in former times. he said, that he would conquer india for us, and drive the english from it; and, in short, whatever we asked he promised to be ready to grant. �now, �tis true, we had heard of the french before, and knew that they made good cloth and rich brocades; but we never heard that they could do all this ambassador proclaimed. �something we had heard also of their attacking egypt, for coffee and khenna had become dear in consequence; and it was in the recollection of one of our old khans of the seffi family, that an ambassador from a certain shah louis of france had been seen at the court of shah sultan hosein; but how this boonapoort had become shah, not a single man in persia could explain. the armenian merchants, who travel into all countries, affirmed, that to their knowledge such a person in fact did exist, and that he was a great breeder of disturbance; and it was from what they said and from other circumstances, that the shah agreed to receive his ambassador; but whether the papers which he exhibited, written in characters that no one could read, were true or false, or whether all he said was to the purpose or not, who was to say? our viziers, great and small, knew nothing of the matter; our shah, who (may allah preserve him) knows everything under the sun, he had no knowledge of it; and excepting one coja obed, an armenian, who had been to marsilia, a town in france, where he had been shut up in a prison for forty days,[ ] and one narses, a priest of that nation, who had studied in a convent of dervishes somewhere in those countries, we had no one at the gate of the king of kings who could let any light into the chambers of our brain, or who could in the least explain whether this boonapoort or his representative were impostors or not,--whether they were come to take our caps from off our heads, or to clothe us with the kalaats of good fortune. �however, we were not very long in doubt; for when the english infidels who trade between india and persia, some of whom reside at abusheher, heard of the arrival of this ambassador, they immediately sent off messengers, letters, and an agent, to endeavour to impede the reception of this frenchman, and made such extraordinary efforts to prevent his success, that we soon discovered much was to be got between the rival dogs. ��by my crown,� exclaimed the shah, �all this cometh from the ascendant of my good stars. here sit i upon my throne, whilst the curs of uncleanness come from the north and the south, from the east and west, bringing me vast presents for the liberty of fighting and quarrelling at the foot of it. in the name of the prophet, let them approach!� �when i left the imperial gate, an ambassador from the english was expected, and the letters which i have just received are full of the circumstances of his proposed reception, and the negotiations on foot concerning it, but the shah cannot well enter upon them before he hears from me; because, having been informed that specimens of all the different european nations were to be seen at constantinople, each of whom had an ambassador, there, he, in his wisdom, has judged it expedient to dispatch me hither, to obtain all the information of which we are so much in want, to clear up every doubt that exists in persia about the french and english, and if possible to find out whether all they say of themselves be true or false. �now, hajji� said the ambassador, �i am only one man, and this is a business, as i have found out, sufficient for fifty. the franks are composed of many, many nations. as fast as i hear of one hog, another begins to grunt, and then another and another, until i find that there is a whole herd of them. as i told you before, those who compose my suite are not men to help me in research, and i have cast my eyes upon you. from your exertions i expect much. you must become acquainted with some infidels; you understand the turkish language, and they will be able to inform you of much that we want to know. i will furnish you with a copy of the shah�s instructions to me upon that head, which you will lock up of course in the secret corners of your brain, and which will be your guide upon what we wish to acquire. and until that be done, go, sit in a corner, and make one long and deep thought upon the plan of operations that we ought to pursue.� upon this he dismissed me, and i left him with new prospects of advancement in the career of life. chapter lxxv of his first essays in public life, and of the use he was to his employer. as soon as the ambassador had furnished me with an extract of his _vakayeh nameh_, or his instructions, i walked out to an adjacent cemetery to read it over undisturbed. i kept the paper carefully folded in the lining of my cap, and as it was my first initiation into public business, the principal contents of it have remained in my memory through life. the ambassador was, in the first place, enjoined to discover, in truth, what was the extent of that country called frangistan; and if the shah, known in persia by the name of the _shahi frank_, or king of the franks, actually existed, and which was his capital. in the second place, he was ordered to discover how many _ils_, or tribes of franks, there were; whether they were divided into _shehernisheens_ and _sahranisheens_, inhabitants of towns and dwellers in the desert, as in persia, who were their khans, and how governed. thirdly, to inquire what was the extent of france, whether it was a tribe of the franks or a separate kingdom, and who was the infidel boonapoort, calling himself emperor of that country. in the fourth place, his attention was to be turned particularly to what regarded the ingliz, who had long been known in persia, by means of their broadcloth, watches, and penknives. he was to inquire what description of infidels they were, whether they lived in an island all the year round, without possessing any _kishlak_ (warm region) to migrate to in the summer, and whether most of them did not inhabit ships and eat fish; and if they did live there, how it happened that they had obtained possession of india; and he was to clear up that question so long agitated in persia, how england and london were connected, whether england was part of london, or london part of england? in the fifth place, he was commanded to bring positive intelligence of who and what the _coompani_ was, of whom so much was said,--how connected with england,--whether an old woman, as sometimes reported, or whether it consisted of many old women; and whether the account which was credited of its never dying, like the lama of thibet, were not a fable. he was also enjoined to clear up certain unintelligible accounts of the manner in which england was governed. in the sixth place, some positive information concerning _yengi duniah_, or the new world, was much wanted, and he was to devote part of his attention to that subject. lastly, he was ordered to write a general history of the franks, and to inquire what would be the easiest method of making them renounce pork and wine, and converting them to the true and holy faith, that is, to the religion of islâm. having well pondered over this paper, i considered that it would be easy to get it answered through the means of a _katib_, or scribe, attached to the then reis effendi, and with whom, during the short gleam of splendour and riches which had shone upon me, i had formed a great intimacy. i knew the coffee-house he frequented, and the hour he was most likely to be found there; and although he was not much addicted to talking, yet i hoped, as he sipped his coffee and smoked his pipe (particularly if i treated him), his heart might expand, and i might obtain his real opinion. full of this idea, i immediately imparted it to the ambassador, who seemed so delighted, that he at once did me the honour to take all the merit of it to himself. �did not i tell you so?� exclaimed he; �did i not say that you were a man of ingenuity? acknowledge, then, that i am not without penetration; own, that it requires a sharp discernment to discover at once where abilities lie; and that had it not been for me, we should never have discovered this katib, who is to tell us everything, and thus fulfil the instructions of the asylum of the universe.� he then empowered me, if i found it necessary, to promise him a present, by which means, should there be any deficiency in his information, he might perhaps succeed in obtaining it from the fountain head, namely, the reis effendi himself. i went to the coffee-house at the proper time, and there found my friend. i approached him with great demonstrations of friendship; and calling to the waiting man, ordered some best yemen coffee, which was served up as we sat one opposite the other. in the course of conversation he pulled out his watch, when i seized the opportunity of introducing my subject. �that is an european watch,� said i, �is it not?� �yes, truly,� said he; �there are none in the world beside.� �wonderful,� answered i,--�those franks must be an extraordinary people.� �yes,� said he, �but they are kafirs� (infidels). �in the name of allah,� taking my pipe from my mouth and putting it into his, �tell me something respecting them. this frangistan, is it a large country? where does its king reside?� �what say you, friend?� answered he; �a large country, do you ask? a large country indeed, not governed by one king alone, but by many kings.� �but i have heard,� said i, �it is composed of many tribes, all having different names and different chiefs; still begin, in fact, but one nation.� �you may call them one nation if you choose,� said he, �and perhaps such is the case, for they all shave their chins, let their hair grow, and wear hats,--they all wear tight clothes,--they all drink wine, eat pork, and do not believe in the blessed mahomed. but it is plain they are governed by many kings; see the numerous ambassadors who flock here to rub their foreheads against the threshold of our imperial gate. so many of these dogs are here that it is necessary to put one�s trust in the mercies of allah, such is the pollution they create.� �in the name of the prophet speak on,� said i, �and i will write. praise be to allah! you are a man of wisdom.� upon which, whilst i took out my inkstand from my girdle, and composed myself to write, he stroked his beard, and curled the tips of his moustachios, recollecting within himself which were the principal nations of europe. he prefaced his information by saying, �but why trouble yourself? they all are dogs alike,--all sprung from one dunghill; and if there be truth in heaven, and we believe our blessed koran, all will burn hereafter in one common furnace. but stop,� said he, counting his fingers: �in the first place, there is the _nemsé giaour_, the austrian infidel, our neighbours; a quiet, smoking race, who send us cloth, steel, and glassware; and are governed by a shah springing from the most ancient race of unbelievers: he sends us a representative to be fed and clothed. �then come those heretics of muscovites, a most unclean and accursed generation. their country is so large, that one extremity is said to be buried in eternal snows, whilst its other is raging with heat. they are truly our enemy; and when we kill them, we cry _mashallah_, praise be to god! men and women govern there by turns; but they resemble us inasmuch as they put their sovereigns to death almost as frequently as we do. �again, there is a prussian infidel, who sends us an ambassador, allah only knows why; for we are in no need of such vermin: but, you well know, that the imperial gate is open to the dog as well as the true believer; for the rain of providence descends equally upon both. �who shall i say next, in the name of the prophet? let us see: there are two northern unbelievers, living at the extremity of all things,--the danes and swedes. they are small tribes, scarcely to be accounted among men, although it is said the shah of denmark is the most despotic of the kings of franks, not having even janissaries to dispute his will; whilst the swedes are famous for a madman, who once waged a desperate war in europe; caring little in what country he fought, provided only that he did fight; and who, in one of his acts of desperation, made his way into our borders, where, like a wild beast, he was at length brought to bay, and taken prisoner. owing to this circumstance we were introduced to the knowledge of his nation; or otherwise, by the blessing of allah, we should never have known that it even existed. �i will mention one more, called flemengs, infidels, dun, heavy, and boorish; who are amongst the franks what the armenians are amongst us,--having no ideas beyond those of thrift, and no ambition beyond that of riches. they used to send us a sleepy ambassador to negotiate the introduction of their cheeses, butter, and salt-fish; but their government has been destroyed since the appearance of a certain boonapoort, who (let them and the patron of all unbelief have their due) is in truth a man; one whom we need not be ashamed to class with the persian nadir, and with our own suleiman.� here i stopped the katib in his narrative, and catching at the name, i exclaimed, �boonapoort, boonapoort,--that is the word i wanted! say something concerning him. i have heard he is a rare and daring infidel.� �what can i say,� said my companion, �except that he once was a man of nothing, a mere soldier; and now he is the sultan of an immense nation, and gives the law to all the franks? he did his best endeavours to molest us also, by taking egypt, and sent innumerable armies to conquer it; but he had omitted to try the edge of a true believer�s sword ere he set out, and was obliged to retreat, after having frightened a few mamalukes, and driven the bedouins into their deserts.� �but is there not a certain tribe of infidels called ingliz?� said i, �the most unaccountable people on earth, who live in an island, and make pen-knives?� �yes, truly,� said the katib, �they, amongst the franks, are those who for centuries have most rubbed their heads against the imperial threshold, and who have found most favour in the sight of our great and magnanimous sultan. they are powerful in ships; and in watches and broadcloth unrivalled.� �but what have you heard of their government?� said i: �is it not composed of something besides a king?� �yes,� returned he, �you have been rightly informed; but how can you and i understand the humours of such madmen? they have a shah, �tis true; but it is a farce to call him by that title. they feed, clothe, and lodge him; give him a yearly income, surround him by all the state and form of a throne; and mock him with as fine words and with as high-sounding titles as we give our sovereigns; but a common aga of the janissaries has more power than he; he does not dare even to give the bastinado to one of his own viziers, be his fault what it may; whereas the aga, if expedient, would crop the ears of half the city, and still receive nothing but reward and encouragement. �then they have certain houses full of madmen, who meet half the year round for the purposes of quarrelling. if one set says white, the other cries black; and they throw more words away in settling a common question than would suffice one of our muftis during a whole reign. in short, nothing can be settled in the state, be it only whether a rebellious aga is to have his head cut off and his property confiscated, or some such trifle, until these people have wrangled. then what are we to believe? allah, the almighty and all wise, to some nations giveth wisdom, and to others folly! let us bless him and our prophet, that we are not born to eat the miseries of the poor english infidels, but can smoke our pipes in quiet on the shores of our own peaceful bosphorus!� �strange, strange things you tell me,� said i, �and had i not heard them, i could not believe something more, which is, that all india belongs to them, and that it is governed by old women. do you know that fact?� �i shall not be surprised to hear of anything they do,� answered he, �so mad are they generally reported to be; but that india is governed by infidel old women, that has never yet reached our ears. perhaps it is so. god knows,� continued he, musing, �for mad people do wonderful things.� after a pause, �now,� said i, �have i learnt all, or are there more unbelievers? by your beard, tell me; for who would have thought that the world was so composed?� he reflected for some time, and said, �o yes, i forgot to mention two or three nations; but, in truth, they are not worthy of notice. there are spanish, portuguese, and italian infidels, who eat their swine, and worship their image after their own manner; but who, in fact, are nothing even amongst the franks. the first is known to us by their _patakas_ (dollars); the second sends us some jews; and the third imports different sorts of dervishes, who pay considerable sums into the imperial treasury for building churches, and for the privilege of ringing bells. i must also mention the _papa_ (pope), the caliph of the franks, who lives in italia, and does not cease his endeavours to make converts to his faith; but we are more than even with him, for we convert infidels in greater proportion than they, notwithstanding all the previous pain which man must suffer before he is accepted for a true believer. �one more question i must ask,� said i, �and then i am satisfied. can you tell me anything positive about yengi duniah, the new world; for i have heard so many contradictory reports that my brain is bewildered? how do they get at it, underground, or how?� �we have not had many dealings with it,� said the katib, �and, therefore, know not much of the matter; but this is true, that one can get there by ship, because ships belonging to the new world have actually been seen here. they are all infidels, my friend,� exclaimed he, with a sigh; �all infidels, as much as those of the old world, and, by the blessing of allah, they will all grill in the same furnace.� finding that upon this subject the katib was deficient, i ceased questioning; and our conversation having now lasted a long time, i released him from further importunity, by calling for more coffee and replenishing our pipes. we then separated, with mutual promises of meeting again. chapter lxxvi hajji baba writes the history of europe and with his ambassador returns to persia. i returned to my ambassador full of the information i had acquired, and all-joyous at the success which had attended my first essay in diplomatic life. he was delighted at the memoir i had drawn up from the materials furnished me by the katib, and as long as we remained at constantinople daily sent me in search of further particulars, until we both thought ourselves sufficiently in force to be able to draw up a general history of europe, which the centre of the universe in his instructions to the ambassador had ordered him to present on his return. most assiduously did i apply myself in composing this precious morsel of history. i made a rough draft, which was submitted to the correction of my chief, and when he had seasoned its contents to the palate of the king of kings, softening down those parts which might appear improbable, and adding to those not sufficiently strong, he delivered it over to a clerk, who in a fair hand transcribed the whole, until a very handsome volume was produced. it was duly bound, ornamented, and inserted in a silk and muslin bag, and then the ambassador conceived it might be fit to be placed in the hands of the shah. mirza firouz having now, as he conceived, accomplished the objects of his mission, prepared to return, and announced his intention not only of taking me with him, but also of continuing me in the employ of the government as soon as we should reach tehran; �for,� said he, �a person so well acquainted with the interests of the franks will be of great use in treating with the infidel ambassadors now in persia.� he could not have devised a plan better suited to my wishes; for after my cruel treatment by the turks, i hated everything relating to them. their city was become odious to me, and whenever i thought upon shekerleb my heart swelled with rage. much time had now elapsed since my affair with the chief priest of tehran. the mollah nadân, so i had heard, had long ago been blown from the mouth of a mortar, and the widow, whom i left in the hands of the cûrds, had never returned to persia. therefore, i concluded i might show myself in all safety, for i argued thus: should i even be recognized, still who would venture to molest me, powerfully protected as i should be by men in office? the chief executioner had recovered possession of his horse and furniture, when the unfortunate nadân had been seized; and there was every reason to suppose that abdul kerim had shared the fate of his mistress, the chief priest�s widow, for he had no more been heard of; so i did not fear that he would call upon me to refund the hundred tomauns. what had i then to apprehend on returning to tehran? nothing that i could foresee; and if once it were known that i was a servant of the shah, even being a thousand times more criminal than i was in fact, i might put my cap on one side and walk all over the empire with impunity. fortified by these reflections, i made my preparations with alacrity to accompany the ambassador. but previous to our departure, i determined upon visiting my countrymen in the caravanserai, where with a better chance of success i now might give myself those airs of importance which had succeeded so ill at my last exhibition. having taken some trouble to make it well understood that i was attached to the embassy, i no longer dreaded their contempt; and such is the respect that one invested with that character is sure to inspire, that on this occasion i had no reason to complain of any want of attention. every word addressed to me was now prefaced with, by your favour, by your condescension, may your kindness never be less; and compliments which never ended, interlarded all the fine discourses i heard. to hear them, nobody could have ever supposed that i was the same person whom not two months before they had laughed to scorn: on the contrary, one ignorant of the circumstance would have set me down for a personage upon whom the issues of life and death depended. but when i took my leave of the old osman, i found him unchanged, and every word he spoke showed that his affection for the son of the barber of ispahan was the feeling which ever actuated his conduct towards me. �go, my son,� said he, as he parted from me, �whether you be a prisoner with the turcomans, or a priest, or a seller of pipe-sticks, or a turkish aga, or a persian mirza; be you what you may. i shall always put up my prayers for your prosperity, and may allah attend your steps wherever you go.� having made his visits of ceremony, and taken his leave of the turkish authorities, the ambassador left scutari, accompanied by a large company of his own countrymen, who conducted him about one parasang on the road to persia, and then received their dismissal. our journey was propitious, and nothing took place in it worthy of notice from the day of our departure until our arrival in persia. at erivan we heard the news of the day, though but imperfectly; but at tabriz, the seat of abbas mirza�s government, we were initiated into the various questions which then agitated the country and the court. the principal one was the rivalry between the french and english ambassadors; the object of the former, who had already been received by the shah, being to keep away the latter, who had not yet reached the foot of the throne. various were the anecdotes related of the exertions made by them to attain their ends, and the whole of persia was thrown into astonishment upon seeing infidels come so far from their own countries, at so much trouble and expense, to quarrel in the face of a whole nation of true believers, who were sure to despise, to deride, and to take them in. the frenchman, by way of enforcing his demands, constantly brought forward the power of his own sovereign, his greatness and preponderance over all the states of europe, and did not cease to extol the immense numbers of troops he could bring into the field. to this he was answered, �that may be very true; but what is that to us? whole empires intervene, and, therefore, what affinity can there be between france and persia? �but,� said the frenchman, �we want to conquer india from the english, and we wish to have an open road through your territories.� �what is that to us?� again said the shah: �you may want india, but we are in no way anxious to entertain your troops.� �but we will conquer georgia for you, put you in possession of teflis, and secure you from further molestation from the russians.� �that is another case,� said the shah; �when once we see the effects of your interference, and hear that there are no more russians on this side the caucasus, we will treat with you: until then we can allow no passage through our territories, nor break with our old friends the english!� on the other hand, the english said, �the french can have no other object in coming to persia than to molest us; we require that you send them away.� �how!� said the shah, �we cannot do that; for that would be against the laws of hospitality. the gate of our palace is open to every one.� �but,� urged the english, �you must either retain one or the other--and must decide between us. either agree to be our friends and expel the french, or make up your minds to receive us as enemies.� �why should we make ourselves enemies to please you? we want to be friends with all the world.� �but,� continued the english, �we will help and strengthen you, and give you money.� �oh! that is another case,� said the shah; �tell me how much, and then all may be done.� such was nearly the state of things when we left tabriz, and as my ambassador was expected with impatience at tehran, we did not tarry long with the prince royal, but prosecuted our journey with all dispatch. on the morning of our arrival at sultanieh, on the road from tehran, we discovered a long train of horsemen with their baggage, whom we could make out were not persians, and whom as they approached we saw were franks. they were accompanied by a mehmander, an officer from the shah, who informed us, that this was the french embassy on its return, who it seems had been politely requested to take its leave; and it was moreover added, that the english ambassador would very shortly take its place. this at once explained how matters stood at court, and that between the rival bidders for his majesty�s favour, the king of kings had come to a good market. my ambassador was rather surprised how such a determination could have been taken previous to his arrival, fraught as he was with important information upon all the nations of europe; but every difficulty is easily explained away when money is permitted to exert its eloquence, particularly if one recollects the words of the sheikh-- �let money only appear, and every head is prostrate. �tis thus, the heaviest weight in the scales lowers the iron beam.� we were happy to have an opportunity of observing the manners of a nation about whom we had lately heard so much, and as we passed the day together in the same place, my chief did not fail to make himself known to the french ambassador. we expected of course to find them much depressed in spirits, and in no good humour, having been driven as it were from the presence of the earth�s centre; but what was our surprise to remark the contrary! never did persia see such a company of madmen. they were singing, dancing, and making the lûti all the livelong day. they all talked at once, one louder than the other, without any apparent deference to rank, for all seemed on the same footing. without in the least respecting our carpets, they were eternally pacing them with rapid strides, and, what most shocked our feelings, spitting upon them. as i now looked upon myself in some measure identified with the franks, considering at what pains i had lately been to acquire information concerning them, i endeavoured to discover if there was any affinity between their language and ours; but not a word could i comprehend. however, i thought to have made some progress in it, by recollecting and writing down the words in their speech which most frequently occurred--one was _sacré_, the other _paris_, and a third _l�empereur_. on the whole we liked them. we thought to discern many points of similitude between them and ourselves; and were of opinion, that if as infidels they were doomed to the _douzak_ of hereafter, even there, instead of moaning over and deploring their lot, they would still be found in the same happy mood we saw them at sultanieh. we parted on the following morning, they laughing, chattering, and screaming with joy; we, full of anxiety and apprehension about the reception with which our ambassador would meet from the king of kings. [illustration: the british ambassadors and the shah. .jpg] chapter lxxvii the ceremony of receiving a frank ambassador at the court is described. my chief, the mirza firouz, was received with great condescension by the shah, who was pleased at the ready answers he received to his numerous questions concerning the nations of europe. never was man better adapted to fill the situation to which he had been appointed than the mirza. every question which the shah put to him was received with a ready answer. ignorance did not confound him, no difficulty stopped him. the words �_nemi danum_, i don�t know,� ever a sin in the hearing of a king, were never known to pass his lips. he discoursed upon every matter with a confidence that made his hearers believe that whatever he said must be conclusive; and upon the subject of europeans, to listen to him, one could not but suppose he had been born and bred among them. as i was known to have been employed under him in �seizing news�, as the phrase goes, concerning europe, and also in writing its history, i in some measure enjoyed the reputation of being learned in whatever regarded its inhabitants. although my assurance was nothing equal to my master�s, yet i managed to answer the questions put to me with tolerable readiness, although, in so doing, i was obliged to be very circumspect not to commit him: therefore, i passed my days in the double fear of appearing ignorant, and of having my ears cut off in case i happened to be too wise. however, as none among our own countrymen could contradict us, we were listened to as oracles, and we exemplified what the poet al miei has so justly remarked: �that in the country of the dumb the sound of one voice, be it even that of an ass, would be called harmony.� the english elchi (ambassador) had reached tehran a few days before we arrived there, and his reception was as brilliant as it was possible for a dog of an unbeliever to expect from our blessed prophet�s own lieutenant. indeed the city was almost shocked at the honours paid him, and some of the most violent of our mollahs declared, that in treating a giaour so well, we were ourselves in some measure guilty of his infidelity, and preparing our own damnation. at different stations on the road, the throats of oxen had been cut before his horse�s feet, in many places his path was strewn with sugar-candy, and on the day of his entry he was permitted to have his trumpets sounded in the procession, all of which were honours that could be exacted by none, save our own princes. then all the proper attentions of hospitality were shown. the house of a khan was taken from him and given to the ambassador, and whatever furniture was wanting was demanded from the neighbours and placed therein. a handsome garden was levied upon another, and added to the house. the lord high treasurer was commanded to feed the strangers at his own expense as long as they chose, and clothes and shawls were collected from the courtiers and servants of the court, for the dresses of honour which it is the custom to make on such occasions. the princes and noblemen were enjoined to send the ambassador presents, and a general command issued that he and his suite were the shah�s guests, and that, on the pain of the royal anger, nothing but what was agreeable should be said to them. all these attentions, one might suppose, would be more than sufficient to make infidels contented with their lot; but, on the contrary, when the subject of etiquette came to be discussed, interminable difficulties seemed to arise. the elchi was the most intractable of mortals. first, on the subject of sitting. on the day of his audience of the shah, he would not sit on the ground, but insisted upon having a chair; then the chair was to be placed so far, and no farther, from the throne. in the second place, of shoes, he insisted upon keeping on his shoes, and not walking barefooted upon the pavement; and he would not even put on our red cloth stockings. thirdly, with respect to hats: he announced his intention of pulling his off to make his bow to the king, although we assured him that it was an act of great indecorum to uncover the head. and then, on the article of dress, a most violent dispute arose: at first, it was intimated that proper dresses should be sent to him and his suite, which would cover their persons (now too indecently exposed) so effectually that they might be fit to be seen by the king; but this proposal he rejected with derision. he said, that he would appear before the shah of persia in the very same dress he wore when before his own sovereign. now, as there was not a persian who had ever been at the court of a frank king, no body could say what that proper dress was; and, for aught we knew, the elchi might put on his bed-gown and night-cap on the occasion. this was a difficulty apparently not to be overcome, when, turning the subject over in my own mind, i recollected that among the paintings in the palace of forty pillars at ispahan, there were portraits of europeans, who, in the days of the great shah abbas, flocked to his court, and even established themselves in the city. in particular, i well recollected one in the very same painting in which shah abbas himself is represented, whose dress was doubtless the only proper costume to wear before a crowned head. i immediately suggested this to my master, who mentioned it to the grand vizier, who ordered that a copy of it should, without loss of time, be made by the best artist of ispahan, and sent to tehran. so soon as it arrived it was officially presented to the english elchi, with a notification that the shah was satisfied to receive him in the same dress he wore before his own sovereign, a model of which was now offered to him, and to which it was expected that he and his suite would strictly conform. the shouts of laughter which the infidels set up, upon seeing the picture and hearing the message, are not to be described. they asked if we thought them monkeys, that they should dress themselves as such at our bidding, and were so obstinate in their resolution of keeping to their own mode of attire, that at length they were permitted to do as they chose. the audience of the shah passed off much better than could have been expected from such rude and uncivilized people, and we were all astonished that men, so unaccustomed to the manners and forms of the world, should have conducted themselves on this difficult occasion without committing some act that was flagrant and improper. the king was seated on his throne of gold, dressed with a magnificence that dazzled the eyes of the strangers, and made even his subjects exclaim, �jemshîd? who was he? or darab? or nûshirvan? that they should be mentioned in the same breath?� on the right and left of the throne stood the princes, more beautiful than the gems which blazed upon their father�s person. at a distance were placed the three viziers of the state, those depositaries of wisdom and good council; and, with their backs to the wall, each bearing a part of the paraphernalia of the crown, were marshalled in a row the black-eyed pages of royalty, who might be compared to angels supporting planets from the starry firmament. in the midst appeared the franks, who, with their unhidden legs, their coats cut to the quick, their unbearded chins, and unwhiskered lips, looked like birds moulting, or diseased apes, or anything but human creatures, when contrasted with the ample and splendidly dressed persons by whom they were surrounded. and they stood their ground, not in the least abashed by the refulgent presence of the great king; but their attitude, manner, and expression of countenance, would have made us suppose they were as good and as undefiled as ourselves. the speech made on the occasion by the elchi was characteristic of the people he represented--that is, unadorned, unpolished, neither more nor less than the truth, such as a camel-driver might use to a muleteer; and had it not been for the ingenuity of the interpreter our shah would neither have been addressed by his title of king of kings, or of the kebleh of the universe. it would be taking up the pen of eternity were i to attempt to describe the boundless difference that we discovered between the manners and sentiments of these people and ourselves. some of our sages endeavoured to account for it upon philosophical principles, and attributed much to the climate of those dark, watery, and sunless regions in which they were bred and born: �for,�said they, �how can men living surrounded by water, and who never feel the warmth of the sun, be like those who are never a day without enjoying the full effulgence of its rays, and do not even know what the sea means?� but the men of the law settled the question in a much more satisfactory manner, by saying �it was owing to their infidelity that they were doomed to be cursed even in this life; and that if the ambassador, his suite, and even his whole nation, would submit to become mussulmans, and embrace the only true faith, they would immediately be like ourselves, their defilements would be washed clean, and they even might stand a chance of walking in the same story of the heavens as the genuine children of islam would in the world to come. chapter lxxviii hajji is noticed by the grand vizier, and is the means of gratifying that minister�s favourite passion. the transactions just recorded were all propitious to my advancement. owing to the knowledge i was supposed to have acquired respecting europe, i was employed in most of the affairs which concerned the franks in persia, and this had furnished me with many opportunities of becoming known to the grand vizier, and to other ministers and men in power. the mirza firouz was not rich, and the maintenance which he received in his public character ceasing as soon as he returned to tehran, he could no longer afford to support me, and he was happy to find that i was able to work my own way into a livelihood. he did not fail to praise my good qualities, and never lost an opportunity of extolling my abilities. nor was i backward in seconding his endeavours, for i brought everything and every person, infidels as well as true believers, to bear upon my ambitious views; and destiny (without whose aid man�s endeavours are of no avail) almost as much as whispered, that the buffetings of the world had taken their departure from me. the grand vizier was, without a doubt, the man in persia, who from his acuteness, tact, and presence of mind, had the most influence over the shah. he had enjoyed his high situation almost from the commencement of the present long reign, and had so interlaced his office with every transaction, public as well as private, that his councils became as necessary to the country as the rising and setting of the sun. to secure his protection became then the first object of my endeavours. i began by daily attending his levees and standing before him, and as the affairs relating to europe now took up his principal attention, he never saw me without asking some question referring thereto. this led to my being entrusted with messages to the english ambassador, the answers to which i always brought back, with something of my own surcharged, flattering to his abilities as a great statesman, and thus by creating goodwill between the parties, i myself became a favourite. the leading passion of the vizier was the love of receiving presents. this was my kebleh in all transactions with the elchi, and my ingenuity was constantly exercised in endeavouring to extract something from him which would be acceptable to the vizier, and serviceable to myself. that presents of ceremony should be received and given was a matter of course, and, therefore, i stood no chance of acquiring any credit on such occasions; but i was once or twice accessory in making the balance strongly preponderate in favour of my own countrymen, and the vizier from that time began to look upon me with a favourable aspect. a treaty was to be negotiated between the two countries, and my patron was appointed one of the plenipotentiaries on the part of the shah. although this was matter in which one of my insignificance could not expect to be employed, yet i did not cease to ply about the negotiators, like a dog at an entertainment seeking for a chance bone; and every now and then i got so much of the scent as to make me almost sure of springing some game for myself. at length, one morning, after a late sitting of the negotiators, i was summoned to attend the grand vizier in his very anderûn, a place to which none but his most confidential servants were ever admitted. i found him still in bed, bolstered up with many soft pillows, and entirely alone. �hajji,� said he, in a familiar tone, �draw near, and seat yourself close to me; i have something of importance to say.� i was staggered by so high an honour; but as his command was law, i did not hesitate to kneel by his bedside. without circumlocution, he at once told me that he was placed in a situation of great difficulty, for the english ambassador had made some demands impossible to be granted, and declared that he must quit tehran, should they not receive our acquiescence. �now,� said he, �the shah has threatened if i permit the elchi to leave persia dissatisfied, that my head shall answer for it; and at the same time i and my brother plenipotentiary are half persuaded that his majesty will never accede to the demands of england. what is to be done?� �could he not be bribed?� said i, with all humility, and looking as if i would give other meaning to my words. �_he_ be bribed?� said the vizier; �in the first place, whence could the bribe come? and in the second, these people are such fools, that they know not what a bribe means. but give me your ear. we are no fools, whatever they may be. the elchi is very anxious to carry his point, and you know me well enough to be aware that there is nothing i cannot accomplish if once i take it in hand. you must go and talk to him. you are his friend. you may say that you are mine--you may whisper many things to him which i cannot--do you understand?� upon this i kissed his hand with much fervour, and raising it to my head i exclaimed, �by my head and by my eyes, i will go--and _inshallah_, please god, i will not return without a white face.� he then dismissed me, and full of happy prospects i made the best of my way to the english ambassador. i will not relate all i said and did to induce him to come into the grand vizier�s terms; but in two words, i so entirely and completely succeeded, that i returned with a heavy sack of gold, of good and solid cash, in my hand, as the forerunner of what was to follow in case all was concluded to the ambassador�s satisfaction, and i also secured the promise of a large diamond ring that was forthwith to be transferred from the finger of england to that of persia, by way of an emblem of eternal friendship between the representatives of the two states. the vizier was so astonished when he saw me place the sack before him, that he looked at me and then at it, some time before he spoke, and then broke out into exclamations in praise of my activity and zeal. �hajji,� said he, �you are now my property. we are somebody in persia, and you will not long remain without a cap to your head. make an _arz_, a representation, and its accomplishment will rest with me. many were the protestations i made him of fidelity and redoubled zeal. i disowned any intention of asking for any remuneration, except the favour of being permitted to stand before him; and i looked so humble, and talked in so disinterested a manner, that if he ever could have believed a persian, i flattered myself he did me. but he understood the value of such speeches a great deal better than i, and said, �do not throw away your words at random. i was once with my head turning round and round in the world for a livelihood as well as yourself, and, therefore, i know the value of the service which you have rendered. proceed in the path which now lies before you. the franks are proper materials for your ingenuity. i give you my sanction to work upon them. they have plenty of gold, and are in want of us. what more need be said? the people of iran are like the earth; they require _rishweh_,[ ] their interests must be highly excited, before they will bring forth fruit. the franks talk of feelings in public life of which we are ignorant. they pretend to be actuated by no other principle than the good of their country. these are words without meaning to us; for as soon as i die, or when the shah is no more, all that we may have done for the welfare of persia will most likely be destroyed; and when his successor shall have well ruined the people in securing himself, the whole business of improvement and consolidation must be gone over again. certain privileges and enjoyments are the lawful inheritance of the shahs of persia: let them possess them in the name of allah! and their viziers also have their allotted portion: why should they refuse them? certainly not for the good of the country, because not one individual throughout the whole empire even understands what that good means, much less would he work for it.� my mind was greatly enlightened by this speech, and as the curtain which hitherto had darkened my understanding drew up, i discovered new prospects, and could extend my view over a new and more diversified region of profit. the words, �the franks are proper materials for your ingenuity� rung in my ears, and my wits immediately began their career of invention. chapter lxxix of the manner in which he turned his influence to use, and how he was again noticed by the vizier. i gave myself much pains to have it well understood in the city, that i was a confidential agent of the grand vizier, and did my best endeavour to impress upon the infidels that without my interference nothing could be done. the fruits of this proceeding were soon manifest, and my services put into requisition in a manner highly conducive to mutual advantage. one of the most remarkable features in the character of our english guests was their extreme desire to do us good against our inclination. rather than not attempt it, they put themselves to infinite trouble, and even did not refrain from expense to secure their ends. they felt a great deal more for us than we did for ourselves; and what they could discover in us worthy of their love, we, who did not cease to revile them as unclean infidels, and as creatures doomed to eternal fires, we were quite at a loss to discover. however, i had nothing to do with their tastes; my business was to study how to turn them to account, and the subject in all conscience was rich, and repaid me well for my trouble. my readers will perhaps recollect that, in the first volume of this my narrative, i mentioned my acquaintance with an infidel doctor, who, among other novelties in medicine, did his utmost endeavours to introduce into persia a new mode of curing the small-pox. the practice was now totally laid aside; our faculty continued to treat the disorder as our forefathers had done, and the usual quantity of children died as heretofore. a doctor was also attached to the suite of the present elchi, and he was impelled by more than common anxiety to do us good. his zeal to renew the practice of the cow medicine was unbounded, and the quantity of mothers whom he enticed to bring their children to him astonishing. i, in pursuit of my own schemes, was the first to cry out, that this great influx of women of the true faith into the dwelling of an infidel, be the object what it might, was highly indecorous, and i persuaded the grand vizier to place an officer of the police as sentry at the doctor�s door to prevent the women entering. this very soon stopped his practice, and he was in despair. �but why should you grieve?� said i to him. �you get nothing for your trouble, and the people are not obliged to you.� �oh,� said he (for he and his countrymen had learnt our language), �you know not what you say. this blessing must be spread throughout the world; and if your government stops it here, it will be guilty of the blood of all those lives which might have been saved.� �what is that to us?� answered i: �let them die--we get nothing by their being alive.� �if it be profit that you require,� exclaimed the doctor, �i will willingly pay any sum you may demand, rather than lose my vaccinating matter, which must dry up and be lost if my practice ceases.� here we entered into a negotiation, and after much difficulty and show of apprehension concerning the risk i ran of incurring the grand vizier�s displeasure, it was agreed that for certain advantages which i should enjoy, the restriction should be taken from the doctor�s house; and i leave those who know me to guess the numbers of children who now flocked to the man of medicine. his gate was thronged, and nothing more was said respecting the impropriety of the women�s attendance. another of his manias was a desire to cut up dead bodies. he did so languish after every corpse that was carried by his house for burial, that i was surprised the people did not set upon him for his impure propensities. �but what possible good will accrue to mankind in general,� said i to him, �if you dissect a dead mussulman?� �it is impossible to say what good may be lost by my not dissecting him,� said he; �besides, if i do not keep my hand in practice, i shall lose my former skill.� he then of his own accord proposed to give a large sum for a corpse, and avowed that he was not particular about its quality, for that of a jew, christian, or a true believer, would be equally acceptable. i kept this in remembrance; and indeed i had so many opportunities afforded me of advancing the designs of the infidels, and of filling my own pockets at the same time, that i felt myself gradually growing into wealth. the ambassador himself was not without his desires of improving (as he called it) our state; and i cannot resist relating a circumstance which took place between him and the grand vizier. he announced it as his intention to make a present to us of a certain produce of the earth, unknown in most parts of asia, but much cultivated in europe, which would not fail to be of incalculable benefit to the people of persia; and he requested the vizier to assist him in his undertaking, promising shortly to send him a specimen of the intended gift. the vizier, whose nose was always carried very high whenever a present was in the wind, did not fail daily to discuss with me what this great benefit which the ambassador was about to confer might be, and his impatience to gain possession became very great. he discovered through me, that the english representative had brought with him a store of fine broadcloth, upon which he had constantly kept a steady eye. finding that the projected public benefit was not forthcoming, he conceived in his wisdom that the elchi would have an easy bargain, if he agreed to commute it for a private gift to himself. therefore, one morning at his uprising he called me, and said, �by the blessing of god, whatever we want we have: we have bread and meat--we have salt, and rice, and corn, and fruits, such as the infidels never even saw in a dream; in short, we have everything that it is possible to conceive. then why should we become indebted to this infidel ambassador for things that we do not want? a happy thought has struck me, by which he will be a gainer, and be saved the trouble he wishes to incur: i will agree to receive cloth in lieu of the public benefit. this is so easy a transaction, that you, who, praise be to allah! are a man of sharp wit, will easily negotiate. go, say this to the ambassador, and without loss of time bring me the cloth.� i forthwith presented myself, and delivered the message. will it be believed that he and all his beardless suite, upon hearing it, set up such shouts of laughter, as might be heard from the top of demawend? �what affinity has cloth to potatoes?� said one. �we wish to give a cheap and comfortable article of food to your countrymen,� said another. �but it seems that your vizier likes to transfer the whole advantage of the gift from the bellies of the nation to his own back,� cried a third. the ambassador, however, who appeared the most reasonable of the party, without hesitation very politely ordered a piece of cloth to be delivered to me, which he requested me to present to my master with reiterated expressions of friendship; and with the assurance that it could make no alteration in the sentiments which he entertained for the persian nation, who he hoped would still receive the potato, as a mark of his high esteem and consideration. i returned to the vizier full of exultation at the success of my visit; and this, with the preceding and subsequent instances of my abilities, so entirely won his affections, that i soon outstripped every rival, and became his principal favourite and confidant. chapter lxxx the conclusion--misfortune seems to take leave of hajji baba, who returns to his native city a greater man than when he first left. the negotiations with the infidels were now about being closed; and it was agreed, in order to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the two, that an embassy on the part of the shah should forthwith be sent to the king of england. the experience of each succeeding day convinced me of the influence i had acquired over the mind of the grand vizier; and the event just recorded was the means of showing me to what extent he depended upon my services and zeal. the day after the treaty with england was signed, he called me into his private apartment, and spoke to me in the following manner:-- �hajji,� said he, �give me your ear. i have things of importance to impart, and as i look upon you as one exclusively mine, i am sure that you will listen to them with becoming attention.� i was proceeding to make the necessary protestations of my entire devotedness, when he stopped me, and proceeded thus:-- �well or ill, our business with the english ambassador is at length concluded, and the shah has ceded to his wishes of sending an ambassador to england in return. now, you know the persians as well as i, how they detest leaving their own country, and the difficulty i shall find in selecting a man to devote himself to this service. i have one in my eye, whom i wish to send above every other; and as it is of the utmost importance to me that he should be removed for the present from persia, and particularly from the presence of the centre of the universe, i require that you use your best endeavours to persuade his acceptance of the appointment.� i immediately felt assured that he could mean no other than me, although i did not see what reason he could have for removing me from the presence of the king; and elated by so bright a prospect of sudden elevation to rank and honours, i sprung towards him, and seizing his hand with fervour to kiss, i exclaimed, �the least of your slaves will always prove to be the most faithful of your servants: speak, and you will always find me ready, even to death.� �that is well spoken,� said he, with great composure, �and now listen to me. the man i allude to is mirza firouz� (here my countenance fell, and i drawled out in answer a long �_belli_, yes�). �the truth is, i have lately discovered that his influence with the shah has been considerably upon the increase. he possesses such great volubility of speech, and such vast command of language,--he flatters so intensely, and lies so profoundly,--that the king is more amused by him than by any other man of his court. who knows how far he may go? besides, i am assured that secretly he is my most bitter enemy, whilst openly he affects to be my most devoted of servants; and although to this day i have never for a moment dreaded the hatred or the intrigues of any one, yet i cannot but own, that, in this instance, i am not without my fears. by sending him among the infidels, as the shah�s representative, i at once cut off the source of my uneasiness; and once let him be gone, i will so arrange matters, that even should he return successful from his mission (which, please god, he never may!) he shall never acquire the influence over the shah which he is now attempting to establish.� i agreed to all he said with hesitation; and was losing myself in the reflection how i could possibly turn this piece of confidence to my own advantage, when the vizier accosted me again, and said:-- �i have only let you into one part of my scheme: the second object is, that you, hajji, should accompany the ambassador in the capacity of his first mirza, or chief secretary. you, who are my friend and confidant, who know all my wishes, and who have an intimate knowledge of all that has occurred since the arrival of the infidels, you are precisely the man to fill this situation, and you will render me the greatest of services by accepting my proposal.� however delighted i might have been at the prospect of becoming the chief of an embassy, yet when i was offered the inferior appointment, my feelings were very different. i felt that in quitting the situation i now enjoyed, i should leave the high road to preferment, to get into one of its crooked lanes. besides, i strongly participated in the national antipathy, the horror of leaving one�s country, and particularly dreaded the idea of going to sea; and when i came to reflect that the country to which i was likely to be sent was unknown land,--a land situated in eternal darkness, beyond the regions of the sun, and whose inhabitants were an unclean and unbelieving race,--i drew back from the vizier�s offer with the fear of one who had the gulf of perdition placed before him. the answer i made to the prime minister was by a string of cold assents, such as constantly hang on every persian�s lips, whatever may be his real feelings. i said, �by my eyes; i am your servant; my ear is in your hand; whatever you ordain i am bound to obey�; and then remained mute as a stone. the vizier easily discovered what passed within me, and said, �if you dislike my offer, you are your own master, and another may easily be found to accept it. i have your advantage in view as well as my own. in the first place, you should immediately proceed to ispahan, as the shah�s deputy, to collect a considerable portion of the presents intended to be sent by our court to the king of england, and which must be levied upon the inhabitants of that city. you would then have an opportunity of enriching yourself.� i did not let the vizier proceed further. the temptation of returning to my native place in such a character, clothed with such powers, was too great to be withstood, and in a very altered tone i immediately exclaimed, with great earnestness:-- �by the salt of your highness, by your death, and by the beard of the shah, i am ready to go. no other word need be said,--i will go wherever you command, were it even to fetch the father of all the franks from the inmost chambers of the world below.� �be it so,� said the vizier; �and as the first step towards it, go at once to mirza firouz, flatter and assure him that he is the only man in persia fit to be sent upon such an embassy, and persuade him of the advantages that will accrue to him. honour, riches, the goodwill of the shah, and my protection all will abound; and at his return, god best knows to what heights he may not ascend. throw out hints that some other man, some rival, whom you may discover, has been talked of for the situation, and you will see how easily he will swallow the bait. go, and allah be with you!� i left his presence scarcely knowing whether i soared in the heavens, or trod on the earth. �what,� said i to myself, �shall i then attain the summit of all earthly happiness,--shall my long past prognostics at length be fulfilled,--and shall i indeed enter my native place, clothed with the kalaât of honour, armed with the hand of power, and mounted upon the steed of splendour? let those who once scorned hajji baba, the barber�s son, now beware, for they will have to deal with the shah�s deputy. let those crowns, which once submitted to my razor, now be prostrate, for he who can cut the head off is at hand. ye that have deprived me of my inheritance tremble, for the power of making you restore it is mine.� indulging in such like feelings, i am aware that i strutted along the street with a swell and dignity of manner which must have surprised every one who saw me. i could think of nothing save my approaching honours; and my mind was riveted by the one idea of seeing myself mounted on a finely caparisoned horse, adorned by a gold chain round its neck, and a silver tassel under its throat, preceded by my led horses, and my running footmen, and greeted by a deputation from the governor of the city, to welcome my arrival in my native place. however, i proceeded to the house of mirza firouz, whom i found prepared to converse on the subject of the embassy, because the english elchi had already made proposals to him to the same effect as those which the grand vizier intended to make. although i had attached myself almost exclusively to the service of the prime minister, yet i persevered in my friendship with the intended ambassador, who was glad to hear i was to accompany him. we talked long upon our future plans, as well as past adventures, and when, roaring with laughter, he asked whether i should now endeavour to regain possession of my faithless shekerleb, i slipped away, not over-pleased to have that event of my life recalled to my recollection. the next day, the shah announced at the public audience his intention of sending mirza firouz to england as his representative, and the grand vizier ordered me to be in readiness to proceed to ispahan, as soon as the proper firmans necessary to arm me with power should be prepared. i will not tire the reader with a description of the numerous details of my preparatives for this expedition. he would sicken and i should blush at my vanity. it is sufficient to say that i travelled to ispahan with all the parade of a man of consequence; and that i entered my native city with feelings that none but a persian, bred and born in the cravings of ambition, can understand. i found myself at the summit of what, in my eyes, was perfect human bliss. misfortune seemed to have taken its leave, and everything informed me that a new chapter in the book of my life was about to open. hajji baba, the barber�s son, entered his native place as mirza hajji baba, the shah�s deputy. need i say more? and here, gentle reader! the humble translator of the adventures of hajji baba presumes to address you, and profiting by the hint afforded him by the persian story-tellers, stops his narrative, makes his bow, and says, �give me encouragement, and i will tell you more. you shall be informed how hajji baba accompanied a great ambassador to england, of their adventures by sea and land, of all he saw, and all he remarked, and of what happened to him on his return to persia.� but he begs to add, should he find, like hajji�s friend the third dervish, he has not yet acquired the art of leading on the attention of the curious, he will never venture to appear again before the public until he has gained the necessary experience to ensure success. and so he very humbly takes his leave. p.p. the end footnotes. [footnote : it is perhaps almost needless to remind the reader, that the mussulmans are divided into two inimical sects; viz. _suni_ and _shiah_; and that the turks are of the former, and the persians of the latter, persuasion. the sunies hold, that omar, osman and abubekr, were the lawful successors of mohamed. the shiahs assert that they were usurpers, and that ali, his son-in-law, was the next in succession.] [footnote : this is the persian pipe, made upon the principle of the indian hookah.] [footnote : officers whose duties are to find quarters for the pilgrims, establish the prices of provisions, make arrangements for their supply, regulate the hours of march, settle disputes, announce the time of prayer, etc.] [footnote : this takes place in the spring, when the sun enters aries, and is called the no ruz, or the new day. the festival is not of mohamedan origin, and dates from very remote antiquity.] [footnote : by heel ropes is meant those fastenings which are used to secures horses in the east.] [footnote : the turcomans, as well as the turks, their descendants, are of the suni persuasion: with them green is a sacred colour; but it is not so among the shiahs.] [footnote : the word _sultan_, which in europe is generally used to designate the sovereign of turkey, among the tartars, turcomans, etc., means captain or chief, and is given frequently to subalterns, as well as to those of higher rank.] [footnote : banou implies a female head or chief; thus in the _arabian nights_, _paribanou_, or more properly _peribanou_ means the chief of the fairies. the king of persia's principal wife is styled _banou harem_, chief of the harem.] [footnote : all classes of mohamedans shave the crown of the head. in persia two patches of hair are left behind each ear by way of curls. in turkey, a tuft is left on the very summit of the head.] [footnote : the turks differ materially from the persians in their tastes for women, the one admiring corpulency, whilst the latter show greater refinement, and esteem those forms which are mostly prized in europe.] [footnote : the races that take place among the turcomans and the persians are intended to try the _bottom_, rather than the actual speed of their horses.] [footnote : the bread here alluded to is baked on small and convex iron plates, and when prepared is about the thickness of brown paper.] [footnote : rustam is the fabulous hero of persian history, so much celebrated in the _shah nameh_ as a paragon of strength and courage. his duel with asfendiar, which lasted two whole days, is the theme of persian romance.] [footnote : a parasang is equivalent to about three and a half geographical miles.] [footnote : a full-equipped horseman in the east generally carries with him an iron peg, to which is affixed a rope terminated by a noose, with which he pickets his horse wherever he may alight. the rope is buttoned to the fore-leg, whilst the peg is driven into the ground with a stone.] [footnote : a tomaun is the principal gold coin of persia, worth about s.] [footnote : the dinar is the smallest denomination of money in persia.] [footnote : twenty-four grains make one miscal.] [footnote : the loves of these personages have been treated by various oriental writers. majnoun is looked upon as the model of a lover, and leilah as the most beautiful and perfect of her sex.] [footnote : in sketching the history of the poet asker, the author has attempted to record part of the life of the late fatteh ali khan, poet- laureate to the shah, a most ingenious and amiable man, well known to the english who were at tehran in the years and .] [footnote : seizing the skirt of a man in authority, or the heel ropes of his horses in the stable, are as great protection to a culprit in persia as the precincts of a church are in roman catholic countries.] [footnote : it is no uncommon circumstance in persia to find men of the lowest estate well versed in their poets. the persians are eminently a poetical people.] [footnote : the luties are privileged buffoons, usually keeping monkeys, bears, and other animals.] [footnote : a ghauz is a small copper coin.] [footnote : a beard is held so sacred in the east, that every hair which grows upon a mohamedan's chin is protected from molestation by a heavy fine.] [footnote : the mohteshib is an officer who perambulates the city, and examines weights and measures, and qualities of provisions.] [footnote : twenty shahies make the groush, or piastre, which is worth about two shillings british.] [footnote : the felek is a long pole, with a noose in the middle, through which the feet of him who is to be bastinadoed are passed, whilst its extremities are held up by two men for the two others who strike.] [footnote : saadi, hafiz, and the koran, are the three books to which the persians most willingly refer for this mode of divination. its resemblance to that of the sortes virgilianoe must occur to every reader.] [footnote : a persian letter is folded up like a lady's thread paper, and fastened in the middle by a slip of adhesive paper, which is moistened with the tongue, and then stamped with the seal of the writer. thus, letters are frequently opened and closed without detection.] [footnote : the stirrup, which is a sort of iron shovel, sharp at the edge, in persia as well as in turkey, is used by way of spur.] [footnote : the persians have a particular aversion to horses which have white legs on one side, which they call _chup_; and they also very much undervalue a horse that has the _ableh_, which consists of white leprous marks on its nose, round the eyes, and under the tail.] [footnote : the chenar tree is a species of sycamore.] [footnote : this alludes to tapping in cases of dropsy,--an operation unknown among the persians until our surgeons taught it them.] [footnote : locman is the most celebrated of the eastern sages, and is supposed by some to be the same as aesop. the title usually given to a doctor in persia is locman al zeman, the locman of his day.] [footnote : _isauvi_, a follower of jesus.] [footnote : this is the most approved form of speech among well- educated persians whenever any allusion to the mysteries of the harem is intended.] [footnote : a piastre is about two shillings.] [footnote : this dye is used throughout the whole of asia, and produces a strong orange or auburn colour. the persians dye the whole of their hands as far as the wrist with it, and also the soles of their feet. the turks more commonly only tinge the nails; both use it for the hair.] [footnote : the yezeedies are a tribe of the curds, who are said to worship the devil.] [footnote : the persians give the most magnificent names to their negro slaves. thus nur jehan means "light of the world."] [footnote : khanum is the title usually given to a persian lady, and is equivalent to "madam."] [footnote : the priest is so called who invites the mohamedans to prayers from the minaret, or from the roof of the mosque.] [footnote : this no doubt relates to certain mysterious and obscene customs which are said to be practised among the yezeedies, at the village of kerrund, in the curdistan, and peculiar to the tribe of nusiri, commonly called chiragh kush, or lamp extinguishers. antiquarians pretend in them to trace a resemblance to the abominable worship of venus, as practised by the babylonians, and recorded in herodotus, book i. sect. cxcix.] [footnote : the _cherkajis_ (literally wheelers about) in oriental armies are skirmishers, who are thrown out from the main body to engage in the fight, and are generally esteemed the most expert horsemen and the best soldiers.] [footnote : the point to which the mohamedans turn in prayer.] [footnote : light of the world. the persians are apt to give high- sounding names to their slaves, and particularly to the guardians of their women.] [footnote : aga is used in the sense of master.] [footnote : the surme is a collyrium.] [footnote : the sham is, in truth, the evening meal, and is served up at sunset.] [footnote : the ceremony of the _pahendaz_ consists in spreading rich stuffs for the king to walk upon.] [footnote : this is an ancient persian custom, and is supposed to secure good fortune--sweetness, and consequently sugar, being an emblem of felicity.] [footnote : the _musnud_, in eastern acceptation, is, in fact, the throne; but on occasions such as the one here described the mode of making a musnud is to double up a thick carpet, by which means there is only room for one person to be seated upon it.] [footnote : catherine ii. is so styled by the persians.] [footnote : kizzil bash, or red head, is a sort of nickname given from old times to the persians.] [footnote : the inner, or women's apartment.] [footnote : _mumiai_ and _pahzer_ are antidotes in which the persians have great faith. our bezoar is evidently a corruption of pahzer.] [footnote : this is a persian idiom, and is intended to denote the fascinations of a brunette.] [footnote : the _jika_ is an upright ornament worn in front of the crown, and is an insignia of royalty.] [footnote : roast meat.] [footnote : so hippocrates is called in persia.] [footnote : the gate of the palace, where public business is transacted.] [footnote : perhaps the description of this personage will bring to the recollection of those who were in persia in the years and the character of the nasakchi bashi of that day.] [footnote : luti here is used in the sense of polisson.] [footnote : celebrated heroes in the _shah nameh_, a book which is believed, by the present persians, to contain their ancient history.] [footnote : strict mussulmans hold silk unclean.] [footnote : in the direction of mecca.] [footnote : the third month in the arabic calendar.] [footnote : a ghez is not quite a yard.] [footnote : _shir bi pir_--a lion without a saint, is a favourite persian epithet, when applied to a desperado, a fellow without compassion.] [footnote : a maun is seven pounds and a half; a miscal, twenty-four grains.] [footnote : the shah's great diamond, which he wears in one of his armlets, is called the _koh nur_, or the mountain of light.] [footnote : the camel tie is made by fastening the lower and upper limb of one of the forelegs together, which is done to prevent an unruly animal from straying from the pasture ground.] [footnote : it is supposed that the instruments here alluded to were hand-grenades.] [footnote : hassan khan serdan, the governor of erivan, was said to have attacked armenian villages in the manner here described, by throwing grenades into the houses from the orifice at the top.] [footnote : this is a circumstance which is said to have really happened.] [footnote : i.e. mecca, to which all mohamedans turn in their prayers.] [footnote : khon-khor, literally "blood-drinker"; so the sultan of roum, or turkey, is styled in persia.] [footnote : the kabob shops at constantinople are eating-houses, where, at a moment's notice, a dish of roast meat, and small bits of meat done on skewers, are served up to whoever asks for them.] [footnote : so the persians call freemasons, about whom they are very inquisitive.] [footnote : sheikh attar and jelaledin rumi are the two great doctors of the sufies.] [footnote : a mollah who is a schoolmaster is also styled ahkon.] [footnote : it is a popular belief that near the city of kashan there exists a well of fabulous depth, at the bottom of which are found enchanted groves and gardens.] [footnote : a real is about two shillings--eight reals one tomaun.] [footnote : peder sukhteh is the most common term of abuse in a persian's mouth. it implies "one whose father is burning in eternal fires." [footnote : quarantine, we presume, is meant here.] [footnote : the word rishweh, "bribery," is also used for "manure" in agriculture.] printed by r.& r. clark, edinburgh the seven great monarchies of the ancient asian world by george rawlinson an index edited by david widger project gutenberg editions george rawlinson ( - ) chaldaea, assyria, media, babylon, persia, parthia, sassanian empire; and the history of phoenicia contents click on the ## before each title to go directly to a linked index of the detailed chapters and illustrations ## chaldaea ## assyria ## media ## babylon ## persia ## parthia ## sassanian empire and ## history of phoenicia volumes, chapters and stories chaldaea preface to five great monarchies. preface to second edition. preface to the sixth monarchy. preface to seventh monarchy. references the first monarchy. chaldaea. chapter i.	general view of the country chapter ii.	climate and productions chapter iii.	the people chapter iv.	language and writing chapter v.	arts and sciences chapter vi.	manners and customs chapter vii.	religion chapter viii. 	history and chronology list of illustrations plate . plan of mugheir ruins (after taylor) plate . ruins of warka (erech) (after loftus) plate . akkerkuf (after ker porter) . hamman (after loftus) plate . tel-ede (ditto) . palms (after oppert) plate . chaldaean reeds, from an assyrian sculpture (after layard) plate . wild sow and pigs, from koyunjik (layard) . ethiopians (after prichard) . cuneiform inscriptions (drawn by the author, from bricks in the british museum) page plate . cuneiform inscriptions (drawn by the author, from bricks in the british museum) . chaldaean tablet (after layard) . signet-cylinder (after ker porter) page plate . bowariyeh (after loftus) . mugheir temple (ditto) plate . ground-plan of ditto (ditto) . mugheir temple, restored (by the author) . terra-cotta cone, actual size (after loftus) plate . plan and wall of building patterned with cones (after loftus) . ground-plan of chambers excavated at abu-shahrein (after taylor) plate . brick vault at mugheir (ditto) . chaldaean dish-cover tombs (ditto) plate . chaldaean dish-cover tombs (ditto) . chaldaean jar-coffin (ditto) . section of drain (ditto) plate . chaldaean vases of the first period (drawn by the author from vases in the british museum) . chaldaean vases, drinking-vessels, and amphora of the second period (ditto) . chaldaean lamps of the second period (ditto) plate . seal-cylinder on metal axis (drawn and partly restored by the author) . signet-cylinder of king urukh (after ker porter) . flint knives (drawn by the author from the originals in the british museum) plate . stone hammer, hatchet, adze, and nail (chiefly after taylor) . chaldaean bronze spear and arrow-heads (drawn by the author from the originals in the british museum) plate . bronze implements (ditto) . flint implement (after taylor) . ear-rings (drawn by the author from the originals in the british museum) plate . leaden pipe and jar (ditto) . bronze bangles (ditto) plate . senkareh table of squares page plate . costumes of chaldaeans from the cylinders (after cullimore and rich) . serpent symbol (after cullimore) . flaming sword (ditto) . figure of nin. the fish-god (layard) . nin's emblem. the man bull (ditto) . fish symbols (after cullimore) . bel-mer dash (ditto) page page page plate . nergal's emblem, the ilan-lion (layard) plate . . clay images of ishtar (after cullimore and layard) . nebo (drawn by the author from a statue in the british museum) page page �table of chaldaean kings assyria the second monarchy chapter i.	description of the country chapter ii. 	climate and productions chapter iii. 	the people chapter iv.	the capital chapter v.	language and writing chapter vi. 	architecture and other arts chapter vii. 	manners and customs chapter viii. 	religion chapter ix.	chronology and history references map_top_th ( k) map_bottom_th ( k) [click on maps to enlarge] media chapter i. 	description of the country. chapter ii. 	climate and productions. chapter iii. 	character, manners and customs. chapter iv.	religion. chapter v.	language and writing. chapter vi.	chronology and history. list of illustrations map plate i. plate ii. plate iii. plate iv. plate v. plate vi. plate vii. babylon chapter i. 	extent of the empire. chapter ii. 	climate and productions. chaptee iii. 	the people. chaptee iv. 	the capital. chapter v. 	arts and sciences. chapter vi. 	manners and customs. chapter vii. 	religion. chapter viii. 	history and chronology. appendix. a. 	standard inscription of nebuchadnezzar. b. 	on the meanings of babylonian names. list of illustrations map plate vii. plate viii. plate ix. plate x. plate xi. plate xii. plate xiii. page plate xiv. plate xv. plate xvi. plate xvii. plate xviii. plate xix. plate xx. plate xxi. plate xxii. plate xxiii. plate xxiv. plate xxv. page page page page page persia chapter i. 	extent of the empire. chapter ii. 	climate and productions. chapter iii. 	character, manners and customs. chapter iv. 	language and writing. chapter v. 	architecture and other arts. chapter vi. 	religion. chapter vii. 	chronology and history. begin chapter i. parthia chapter i. chapter ii. chapter iii. chapter iv. chapter v. chapter vi. chapter vii. chapter viii. chapter ix. chapter x. chapter xi. chapter xii. chapter xiii. chapter xiv. chapter xv. chapter xvi. chapter xvii. chapter xviii. chapter xix. chapter xx. chapter xxi. chapter xxii. chapter xxiii. list of illustrations map of parthia proper map of parthia plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . plate . sassanian empire chapters i. to xiv. chapters xv. to xxviii. with maps and illustrations the seventh monarchy history of the sassanian or new persian empire. sassian_empire_th ( k) begin chapter i. history of phoenicia preface history of phoenicia chapter i�the land chapter ii�climate and productions chapter iii�the people�origin and characteristics chapter iv�the cities chapter v�the colonies chapter vi�architecture chapter vii�Æsthetic art chapter viii�industrial art and manufactures chapter ix�ships, navigation, and commerce chapter x�mining chapter xi�religion chapter xii�dress, ornaments, and social habits chapter xiii�phoenician writing, language, and literature chapter xiv�political history . phoenicia, before the establishment of the hegemony of tyre. . phoenicia under the hegemony of tyre (b.c. - ) . phoenicia during the period of its subjection to assyria (b.c. . phoenicia during its struggles with babylon and egypt (about b.c. . phoenicia under the persians (b.c. - ) . phoenicia in the time of alexander the great (b.c. - ) . phoenicia under the greeks (b.c. - ) . phoenicia under the romans (b.c. -a.d. ) footnotes procopius with an english translation by h. b. dewing in seven volumes i history of the wars, books i and ii london william heinemann ltd cambridge, massachusetts harvard university press mcmlxxi first printed contents history of the wars-- page introduction vii bibliography xv book i.--the persian war book ii.--the persian war (_continued_) introduction procopius is known to posterity as the historian of the eventful reign of justinian ( - a.d.), and the chronicler of the great deeds of the general belisarius. he was born late in the fifth century in the city of caesarea in palestine. as to his education and early years we are not informed, but we know that he studied to fit himself for the legal profession. he came as a young man to constantinople, and seems to have made his mark immediately. for as early as the year he was appointed legal adviser and private secretary[ ] to belisarius, then a very young man who had been serving on the staff of the general justinian, and had only recently been advanced to the office of general. shortly after this justinian was called by his uncle justinus to share the throne of the roman empire, and four months later justinus died, leaving justinian sole emperor of the romans. thus the stage was set for the scenes which are presented in the pages of procopius. his own activity continued till well nigh the end of justinian's life, and he seems to have outlived his hero, belisarius. during the eventful years of belisarius' campaigning in africa, in italy, and in the east, procopius was moving about with him and was an eye-witness of the events he describes in his writings. in we find him in mesopotamia; in he accompanied belisarius to africa; and in he journeyed with him to italy. he was therefore quite correct in the assertion which he makes rather modestly in the introduction of his history, that he was better qualified than anyone else to write the history of that period. besides his intimacy with belisarius it should be added that his position gave him the further advantage of a certain standing at the imperial court in constantinople, and brought him the acquaintance of many of the leading men of his day. thus we have the testimony of one intimately associated with the administration, and this, together with the importance of the events through which he lived, makes his record exceedingly interesting as well as historically important. one must admit that his position was not one to encourage impartiality in his presentation of facts, and that the imperial favour was not won by plain speaking; nevertheless we have before us a man who could not obliterate himself enough to play the abject flatterer always, and he gives us the reverse, too, of his brilliant picture, as we shall see presently. procopius' three works give us a fairly complete account of the reign of justinian up till near the year a.d., and he has done us the favour of setting forth three different points of view which vary so widely that posterity has sometimes found it difficult to reconcile them. his greatest work, as well as his earliest, is the _history of the wars_, in eight books. the material is not arranged strictly according to chronological sequence, but so that the progress of events may be traced separately in each one of three wars. thus the first two books are given over to the persian wars, the next two contain the account of the war waged against the vandals in africa, the three following describe the struggle against the goths in italy. these seven books were published together first, and the eighth book was added later as a supplement to bring the history up to about the date of , being a general account of events in different parts of the empire. it is necessary to bear in mind that the wars described separately by procopius overlapped one another in time, and that while the romans were striving to hold back the persian aggressor they were also maintaining armies in africa and in italy. in fact the byzantine empire was making a supreme effort to re-establish the old boundaries, and to reclaim the territories lost to the barbarian nations. the emperor justinian was fired by the ambition to make the roman empire once more a world power, and he drained every resource in his eagerness to make possible the fulfilment of this dream. it was a splendid effort, but it was doomed to failure; the fallen edifice could not be permanently restored. the history is more general than the title would imply, and all the important events of the time are touched upon. so while we read much of the campaigns against the nations who were crowding back the boundaries of the old empire, we also hear of civic affairs such as the great nika insurrection in byzantium in ; similarly a careful account is given of the pestilence of , and the care shewn in describing the nature of the disease shews plainly that the author must have had some acquaintance with the medical science of the time. after the seventh book of the _history of the wars_ procopius wrote the _anecdota_, or _secret history_. here he freed himself from all the restraints of respect or fear, and set down without scruple everything which he had been led to suppress or gloss over in the _history_ through motives of policy. he attacks unmercifully the emperor and empress and even belisarius and his wife antonina, and displays to us one of the blackest pictures ever set down in writing. it is a record of wanton crime and shameless debauchery, of intrigue and scandal both in public and in private life. it is plain that the thing is overdone, and the very extravagance of the calumny makes it impossible to be believed; again and again we meet statements which, if not absolutely impossible, are at least highly improbable. many of the events of the _history_ are presented in an entirely new light; we seem to hear one speaking out of the bitterness of his heart. it should be said, at the same time, that there are very few contradictions in statements of fact. the author has plainly singled out the empress theodora as the principal victim of his venomous darts, and he gives an account of her early years which is both shocking and disgusting, but which, happily, we are not forced to regard as true. it goes without saying that such a work as this could not have been published during the lifetime of the author, and it appears that it was not given to the world until after the death of justinian in . serious doubts have been entertained in times past as to the authenticity of the _anecdota_, for at first sight it seems impossible that the man who wrote in the calm tone of the _history_ and who indulged in the fulsome praise of the panegyric _on the buildings_ could have also written the bitter libels of the _anecdota_. it has come to be seen, however, that this feeling is not supported by any unanswerable arguments, and it is now believed to be highly probable at least, that the _anecdota_ is the work of procopius. its bitterness may be extreme and its calumnies exaggerated beyond all reason, but it must be regarded as prompted by a reaction against the hollow life of the byzantine court. the third work is entitled _on the buildings_, and is plainly an attempt to gain favour with the emperor. we can only guess as to what the immediate occasion was for its composition. it is plain, however, that the publication of the _history_ could not have aroused the enthusiasm of justinian; there was no attempt in it to praise the emperor, and one might even read an unfavourable judgment between the lines. and it is not at all unlikely that he was moved to envy by the praises bestowed upon his general, belisarius. at any rate the work _on the buildings_ is written in the empty style of the fawning flatterer. it is divided into six short books and contains an account of all the public buildings of justinian's reign in every district of the empire. the subject was well chosen and the material ample, and procopius lost no opportunity of lauding his sovereign to the skies. it is an excellent example of the florid panegyric style which was, unfortunately, in great favour with the literary world of his own as well as later byzantine times. but in spite of its faults, this work is a record of the greatest importance for the study of the period, since it is a storehouse of information concerning the internal administration of the empire. the style of procopius is in general clear and straightforward, and shews the mind of one who endeavours to speak the truth in simple language wherever he is not under constraint to avoid it. at the same time he is not ignorant of the arts of rhetoric, and especially in the speeches he is fond of introducing sounding phrases and sententious statements. he was a great admirer of the classical writers of prose, and their influence is everywhere apparent in his writing; in particular he is much indebted to the historians herodotus and thucydides, and he borrows from them many expressions and turns of phrase. but the greek which he writes is not the pure attic, and we find many evidences of the influence of the contemporary spoken language. procopius writes at times as a christian, and at times as one imbued with the ideas of the ancient religion of greece. doubtless his study of the classical writers led him into this, perhaps unconsciously. at any rate it seems not to have been with him a matter in which even consistency was demanded. it was politic to espouse the religion of the state, but still he often allows himself to speak as if he were a contemporary of thucydides. the text followed is that of haury, issued in the teubner series, - . bibliography the _editio princeps_ of procopius was published by david hoeschel, augsburg, ; the _secret history_ was not included, and only summaries of the six books of the work _on the buildings_ were given. the edition is not important except as being the first. the _secret history_ was printed for the first time separately with a latin translation by alemannus, lyon, . the first complete edition was that of maltretus, paris, - , reprinted in venice, ; the edition included a latin translation of all the works, which was taken over into the edition of procopius in the _corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae_ by dindorf, bonn, - . two editions of recent years are to be mentioned: domenico comparetti, _la guerra gotica di procopio di cesarea_; testo greco emendato sui manoscritti con traduxione italiana, rome, - ; vols. jacobus haury, _procopii caesariensis opera omnia_, leipzig, - ; vols. (bibl. teub.). among a number of works on procopius or on special subjects connected with his writings the following may be mentioned: felix dahn: _procopius von cäsarea_, berlin, . julius jung: _geographisch-historisches bei procopius von caesarea_, wiener studien ( ) - . w. gundlach: _quaestiones procopianae_, progr. hanau, , also dissert. marburg, . j. haury: _procopiana_, progr. augsburg, . b. pancenko: _ueber die geheimgeschichte des prokop_, viz. vrem. ( ). j. haury: _zur beurteilung des geschichtschreibers procopius von caesarea_, munich, - . . the teubner edition in volumes by j. haury ( - ) has been re-edited by g. wirth. footnote: [ ] [greek: xymboulos], _proc. bell._ i. xii. . he is elsewhere referred to as [greek: paredros] or [greek: hypographeus]. procopius of caesarea history of the wars: book i the persian war procopius of caesarea history of the wars: book i the persian war i procopius of caesarea has written the history of the wars which justinian, emperor of the romans, waged against the barbarians of the east and of the west, relating separately the events of each one, to the end that the long course of time may not overwhelm deeds of singular importance through lack of a record, and thus abandon them to oblivion and utterly obliterate them. the memory of these events he deemed would be a great thing and most helpful to men of the present time, and to future generations as well, in case time should ever again place men under a similar stress. for men who purpose to enter upon a war or are preparing themselves for any kind of struggle may derive some benefit from a narrative of a similar situation in history, inasmuch as this discloses the final result attained by men of an earlier day in a struggle of the same sort, and foreshadows, at least for those who are most prudent in planning, what outcome present events will probably have. furthermore he had assurance that he was especially competent to write the history of these events, if for no other reason, because it fell to his lot, when appointed adviser to the general belisarius, to be an eye-witness of practically all the events to be described. it was his conviction that while cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history. in accordance with this principle he has not concealed the failures of even his most intimate acquaintances, but has written down with complete accuracy everything which befell those concerned, whether it happened to be done well or ill by them. it will be evident that no more important or mightier deeds are to be found in history than those which have been enacted in these wars,--provided one wishes to base his judgment on the truth. for in them more remarkable feats have been performed than in any other wars with which we are acquainted; unless, indeed, any reader of this narrative should give the place of honour to antiquity, and consider contemporary achievements unworthy to be counted remarkable. there are those, for example, who call the soldiers of the present day "bowmen," while to those of the most ancient times they wish to attribute such lofty terms as "hand-to-hand fighters," "shield-men," and other names of that sort; and they think that the valour of those times has by no means survived to the present,--an opinion which is at once careless and wholly remote from actual experience of these matters. for the thought has never occurred to them that, as regards the homeric bowmen who had the misfortune to be ridiculed by this term[ ] derived from their art, they were neither carried by horse nor protected by spear or shield[ ]. in fact there was no protection at all for their bodies; they entered battle on foot, and were compelled to conceal themselves, either singling out the shield of some comrade[ ], or seeking safety behind a tombstone on a mound[ ], from which position they could neither save themselves in case of rout, nor fall upon a flying foe. least of all could they participate in a decisive struggle in the open, but they always seemed to be stealing something which belonged to the men who were engaged in the struggle. and apart from this they were so indifferent in their practice of archery that they drew the bowstring only to the breast[ ], so that the missile sent forth was naturally impotent and harmless to those whom it hit[ ]. such, it is evident, was the archery of the past. but the bowmen of the present time go into battle wearing corselets and fitted out with greaves which extend up to the knee. from the right side hang their arrows, from the other the sword. and there are some who have a spear also attached to them and, at the shoulders, a sort of small shield without a grip, such as to cover the region of the face and neck. they are expert horsemen, and are able without difficulty to direct their bows to either side while riding at full speed, and to shoot an opponent whether in pursuit or in flight. they draw the bowstring along by the forehead about opposite the right ear, thereby charging the arrow with such an impetus as to kill whoever stands in the way, shield and corselet alike having no power to check its force. still there are those who take into consideration none of these things, who reverence and worship the ancient times, and give no credit to modern improvements. but no such consideration will prevent the conclusion that most great and notable deeds have been performed in these wars. and the history of them will begin at some distance back, telling of the fortunes in war of the romans and the medes, their reverses and their successes. ii [ a.d.] when the roman emperor arcadius was at the point of death in byzantium, having a malechild, theodosius, who was still unweaned, he felt grave fears not only for him but for the government as well, not knowing how he should provide wisely for both. for he perceived that, if he provided a partner in government for theodosius, he would in fact be destroying his own son by bringing forward against him a foe clothed in the regal power; while if he set him alone over the empire, many would try to mount the throne, taking advantage, as they might be expected to do, of the helplessness of the child. these men would rise against the government, and, after destroying theodosius, would make themselves tyrants without difficulty, since the boy had no kinsman in byzantium to be his guardian. for arcadius had no hope that the boy's uncle, honorius, would succour him, inasmuch as the situation in italy was already troublesome. and he was equally disturbed by the attitude of the medes, fearing lest these barbarians should trample down the youthful emperor and do the romans irreparable harm. when arcadius was confronted with this difficult situation, though he had not shewn himself sagacious in other matters, he devised a plan which was destined to preserve without trouble both his child and his throne, either as a result of conversation with certain of the learned men, such as are usually found in numbers among the advisers of a sovereign, or from some divine inspiration which came to him. for in drawing up the writings of his will, he designated the child as his successor to the throne, but appointed as guardian over him isdigerdes, the persian king, enjoining upon him earnestly in his will to preserve the empire for theodosius by all his power and foresight. so arcadius died, having thus arranged his private affairs as well as those of the empire. but isdigerdes, the persian king, when he saw this writing which was duly delivered to him, being even before a sovereign whose nobility of character had won for him the greatest renown, did then display a virtue at once amazing and remarkable. for, loyally observing the behests of arcadius, he adopted and continued without interruption a policy of profound peace with the romans, and thus preserved the empire for theodosius. indeed, he straightway dispatched a letter to the roman senate, not declining the office of guardian of the emperor theodosius, and threatening war against any who should attempt to enter into a conspiracy against him. [ a.d.] when theodosius had grown to manhood and was in the prime of life, and isdigerdes had been taken from the world by disease, vararanes, the persian king, invaded the roman domains with a mighty army; however he did no damage, but returned to his home without accomplishing anything. this came about in the following way. anatolius, general of the east, had, as it happened, been sent by the emperor theodosius as ambassador to the persians, alone and unaccompanied; as he approached the median army, solitary as he was, he leapt down from his horse, and advanced on foot toward vararanes. and when vararanes saw him, he enquired from those who were near who this man could be who was coming forward. and they replied that he was the general of the romans. thereupon the king was so dumbfounded by this excessive degree of respect that he himself wheeled his horse about and rode away, and the whole persian host followed him. when he had reached his own territory, he received the envoy with great cordiality, and granted the treaty of peace on the terms which anatolius desired of him; one condition, however, he added, that neither party should construct any new fortification in his own territory in the neighbourhood of the boundary line between the two countries. when this treaty had been executed, both sovereigns then continued to administer the affairs of their respective countries as seemed best to them. iii at a later time the persian king perozes became involved in a war concerning boundaries with the nation of the ephthalitae huns, who are called white huns, gathered an imposing army, and marched against them. the ephthalitae are of the stock of the huns in fact as well as in name; however they do not mingle with any of the huns known to us, for they occupy a land neither adjoining nor even very near to them; but their territory lies immediately to the north of persia; indeed their city, called gorgo, is located over against the persian frontier, and is consequently the centre of frequent contests concerning boundary lines between the two peoples. for they are not nomads like the other hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land. as a result of this they have never made any incursion into the roman territory except in company with the median army. they are the only ones among the huns who have white bodies and countenances which are not ugly. it is also true that their manner of living is unlike that of their kinsmen, nor do they live a savage life as they do; but they are ruled by one king, and since they possess a lawful constitution, they observe right and justice in their dealings both with one another and with their neighbours, in no degree less than the romans and the persians. moreover, the wealthy citizens are in the habit of attaching to themselves friends to the number of twenty or more, as the case may be, and these become permanently their banquet-companions, and have a share in all their property, enjoying some kind of a common right in this matter. then, when the man who has gathered such a company together comes to die, it is the custom that all these men be borne alive into the tomb with him. perozes, marching against these ephthalitae, was accompanied by an ambassador, eusebius by name, who, as it happened, had been sent to his court by the emperor zeno. now the ephthalitae made it appear to their enemy that they had turned to flight because they were wholly terrified by their attack, and they retired with all speed to a place which was shut in on every side by precipitous mountains, and abundantly screened by a close forest of wide-spreading trees. now as one advanced between the mountains to a great distance, a broad way appeared in the valley, extending apparently to an indefinite distance, but at the end it had no outlet at all, but terminated in the very midst of the circle of mountains. so perozes, with no thought at all of treachery, and forgetting that he was marching in a hostile country, continued the pursuit without the least caution. a small body of the huns were in flight before him, while the greater part of their force, by concealing themselves in the rough country, got in the rear of the hostile army; but as yet they desired not to be seen by them, in order that they might advance well into the trap and get as far as possible in among the mountains, and thus be no longer able to turn back. when the medes began to realize all this (for they now began to have a glimmering of their peril), though they refrained from speaking of the situation themselves through fear of perozes, yet they earnestly entreated eusebius to urge upon the king, who was completely ignorant of his own plight, that he should take counsel rather than make an untimely display of daring, and consider well whether there was any way of safety open to them. so he went before perozes, but by no means revealed the calamity which was upon them; instead he began with a fable, telling how a lion once happened upon a goat bound down and bleating on a mound of no very great height, and how the lion, bent upon making a feast of the goat, rushed forward with intent to seize him, but fell into a trench exceedingly deep, in which was a circular path, narrow and endless (for it had no outlet anywhere), which indeed the owners of the goat had constructed for this very purpose, and they had placed the goat above it to be a bait for the lion. when perozes heard this, a fear came over him lest perchance the medes had brought harm upon themselves by their pursuit of the enemy. he therefore advanced no further, but, remaining where he was, began to consider the situation. by this time the huns were following him without any concealment, and were guarding the entrance of the place in order that their enemy might no longer be able to withdraw to the rear. then at last the persians saw clearly in what straits they were, and they felt that the situation was desperate; for they had no hope that they would ever escape from the peril. then the king of the ephthalitae sent some of his followers to perozes; he upbraided him at length for his senseless foolhardiness, by which he had wantonly destroyed both himself and the persian people, but he announced that even so the huns would grant them deliverance, if perozes should consent to prostrate himself before him as having proved himself master, and, taking the oaths traditional among the persians, should give pledges that they would never again take the field against the nation of the ephthalitae. when perozes heard this, he held a consultation with the magi who were present and enquired of them whether he must comply with the terms dictated by the enemy. the magi replied that, as to the oath, he should settle the matter according to his own pleasure; as for the rest, however, he should circumvent his enemy by craft. and they reminded him that it was the custom among the persians to prostrate themselves before the rising sun each day; he should, therefore, watch the time closely and meet the leader of the ephthalitae at dawn, and then, turning toward the rising sun, make his obeisance. in this way, they explained, he would be able in the future to escape the ignominy of the deed. perozes accordingly gave the pledges concerning the peace, and prostrated himself before his foe exactly as the magi had suggested, and so, with the whole median army intact, gladly retired homeward. iv not long after this, disregarding the oath he had sworn, he was eager to avenge himself upon the huns for the insult done him. he therefore straightway gathered together from the whole land all the persians and their allies, and led them against the ephthalitae; of all his sons he left behind him only one, cabades by name, who, as it happened, was just past the age of boyhood; all the others, about thirty in number, he took with him. the ephthalitae, upon learning of his invasion, were aggrieved at the deception they had suffered at the hands of their enemy, and bitterly reproached their king as having abandoned them to the medes. he, with a laugh, enquired of them what in the world of theirs he had abandoned, whether their land or their arms or any other part of their possessions. they thereupon retorted that he had abandoned nothing, except, forsooth, the one opportunity on which, as it turned out, everything else depended. now the ephthalitae with all zeal demanded that they should go out to meet the invaders, but the king sought to restrain them at any rate for the moment. for he insisted that as yet they had received no definite information as to the invasion, for the persians were still within their own boundaries. so, remaining where he was, he busied himself as follows. in the plain where the persians were to make their irruption into the land of the ephthalitae he marked off a tract of very great extent and made a deep trench of sufficient width; but in the centre he left a small portion of ground intact, enough to serve as a way for ten horses. over the trench he placed reeds, and upon the reeds he scattered earth, thereby concealing the true surface. he then directed the forces of the huns that, when the time came to retire inside the trench, they should draw themselves together into a narrow column and pass rather slowly across this neck of land, taking care that they should not fall into the ditch[ ]. and he hung from the top of the royal banner the salt over which perozes had once sworn the oath which he had disregarded in taking the field against the huns. now as long as he heard that the enemy were in their own territory, he remained at rest; but when he learned from his scouts that they had reached the city of gorgo which lies on the extreme persian frontier, and that departing thence they were now advancing against his army, remaining himself with the greater part of his troops inside the trench, he sent forward a small detachment with instructions to allow themselves to be seen at a distance by the enemy in the plain, and, when once they had been seen, to flee at full speed to the rear, keeping in mind his command concerning the trench as soon as they drew near to it. they did as directed, and, as they approached the trench, they drew themselves into a narrow column, and all passed over and joined the rest of the army. but the persians, having no means of perceiving the stratagem, gave chase at full speed across a very level plain, possessed as they were by a spirit of fury against the enemy, and fell into the trench, every man of them, not alone the first but also those who followed in the rear. for since they entered into the pursuit with great fury, as i have said, they failed to notice the catastrophe which had befallen their leaders, but fell in on top of them with their horses and lances, so that, as was natural, they both destroyed them, and were themselves no less involved in ruin. among them were perozes and all his sons. and just as he was about to fall into this pit, they say that he realized the danger, and seized and threw from him the pearl which hung from his right ear,--a gem of wonderful whiteness and greatly prized on account of its extraordinary size--in order, no doubt, that no one might wear it after him; for it was a thing exceedingly beautiful to look upon, such as no king before him had possessed. this story, however, seems to me untrustworthy, because a man who found himself in such peril would have thought of nothing else; but i suppose that his ear was crushed in this disaster, and the pearl disappeared somewhere or other. this pearl the roman emperor then made every effort to buy from the ephthalitae, but was utterly unsuccessful. for the barbarians were not able to find it although they sought it with great labour. however, they say that the ephthalitae found it later and sold it to cabades. the story of this pearl, as told by the persians, is worth recounting, for perhaps to some it may not seem altogether incredible. for they say that it was lodged in its oyster in the sea which washes the persian coast, and that the oyster was swimming not far from the shore; both its valves were standing open and the pearl lay between them, a wonderful sight and notable, for no pearl in all history could be compared with it at all, either in size or in beauty. a shark, then, of enormous size and dreadful fierceness, fell in love with this sight and followed close upon it, leaving it neither day nor night; even when he was compelled to take thought for food, he would only look about for something eatable where he was, and when he found some bit, he would snatch it up and eat it hurriedly; then overtaking the oyster immediately, he would sate himself again with the sight he loved. at length a fisherman, they say, noticed what was passing, but in terror of the monster he recoiled from the danger; however, he reported the whole matter to the king, perozes. now when perozes heard his account, they say that a great longing for the pearl came over him, and he urged on this fisherman with many flatteries and hopes of reward. unable to resist the importunities of the monarch, he is said to have addressed perozes as follows: "my master, precious to a man is money, more precious still is his life, but most prized of all are his children; and being naturally constrained by his love for them a man might perhaps dare anything. now i intend to make trial of the monster, and hope to make thee master of the pearl. and if i succeed in this struggle, it is plain that henceforth i shall be ranked among those who are counted blessed. for it is not unlikely that thou, as king of kings, wilt reward me with all good things; and for me it will be sufficient, even if it so fall out that i gain no reward, to have shewn myself a benefactor of my master. but if it must needs be that i become the prey of this monster, thy task indeed it will be, o king, to requite my children for their father's death. thus even after my death i shall still be a wage-earner among those closest to me, and thou wilt win greater fame for thy goodness,--for in helping my children thou wilt confer a boon upon me, who shall have no power to thank thee for the benefit--because generosity is seen to be without alloy only when it is displayed towards the dead." with these words he departed. and when he came to the place where the oyster was accustomed to swim and the shark to follow, he seated himself there upon a rock, watching for an opportunity of catching the pearl alone without its admirer. as soon as it came about that the shark had happened upon something which would serve him for food, and was delaying over it, the fisherman left upon the beach those who were following him for this service, and made straight for the oyster with all his might; already he had seized it and was hastening with all speed to get out of the water, when the shark noticed him and rushed to the rescue. the fisherman saw him coming, and, when he was about to be overtaken not far from the beach, he hurled his booty with all his force upon the land, and was himself soon afterwards seized and destroyed. but the men who had been left upon the beach picked up the pearl, and, conveying it to the king, reported all that had happened. such, then, is the story which the persians relate, just as i have set it down, concerning this pearl. but i shall return to the previous narrative. [ a.d.] thus perozes was destroyed and the whole persian army with him. for the few who by chance did not fall into the ditch found themselves at the mercy of the enemy. as a result of this experience a law was established among the persians that, while marching in hostile territory, they should never engage in any pursuit, even if it should happen that the enemy had been driven back by force. thereupon those who had not marched with perozes and had remained in their own land chose as their king cabades, the youngest son of perozes, who was then the only one surviving. at that time, then, the persians became subject and tributary to the ephthalitae, until cabades had established his power most securely and no longer deemed it necessary to pay the annual tribute to them. and the time these barbarians ruled over the persians was two years. v but as time went on cabades became more high-handed in the administration of the government, and introduced innovations into the constitution, among which was a law which he promulgated providing that persians should have communal intercourse with their women, a measure which by no means pleased the common people. [ a.d.] accordingly they rose against him, removed him from the throne, and kept him in prison in chains. they then chose blases, the brother of perozes, to be their king, since, as has been said, no male offspring of perozes was left, and it is not lawful among the persians for any man by birth a common citizen to be set upon the throne, except in case the royal family be totally extinct. blases, upon receiving the royal power, gathered together the nobles of the persians and held a conference concerning cabades; for it was not the wish of the majority to put the man to death. after the expression of many opinions on both sides there came forward a certain man of repute among the persians, whose name was gousanastades, and whose office that of "chanaranges" (which would be the persian term for general); his official province lay on the very frontier of the persian territory in a district which adjoins the land of the ephthalitae. holding up his knife, the kind with which the persians were accustomed to trim their nails, of about the length of a man's finger, but not one-third as wide as a finger, he said: "you see this knife, how extremely small it is; nevertheless it is able at the present time to accomplish a deed, which, be assured, my dear persians, a little later two myriads of mail-clad men could not bring to pass." this he said hinting that, if they did not put cabades to death, he would straightway make trouble for the persians. but they were altogether unwilling to put to death a man of the royal blood, and decided to confine him in a castle which it is their habit to call the "prison of oblivion." for if anyone is cast into it, the law permits no mention of him to be made thereafter, but death is the penalty for the man who speaks his name; for this reason it has received this title among the persians. on one occasion, however, the history of the armenians relates that the operation of the law regarding the prison of oblivion was suspended by the persians in the following way. there was once a truceless war, lasting two and thirty years, between the persians and the armenians, when pacurius was king of the persians, and of the armenians, arsaces, of the line of the arsacidae. and by the long continuance of this war it came about that both sides suffered beyond measure, and especially the armenians. but each nation was possessed by such great distrust of the other that neither of them could make overtures of peace to their opponents. in the meantime it happened that the persians became engaged in a war with certain other barbarians who lived not far from the armenians. accordingly the armenians, in their eagerness to make a display to the persians of their goodwill and desire for peace, decided to invade the land of these barbarians, first revealing their plan to the persians. then they fell upon them unexpectedly and killed almost the whole population, old and young alike. thereupon pacurius, who was overjoyed at the deed, sent certain of his trusted friends to arsaces, and giving him pledges of security, invited him to his presence. and when arsaces came to him he shewed him every kindness, and treated him as a brother on an equal footing with himself. then he bound him by the most solemn oaths, and he himself swore likewise, that in very truth the persians and armenians should thenceforth be friends and allies to each other; thereafter he straightway dismissed arsaces to return to his own country. not long after this certain persons slandered arsaces, saying that he was purposing to undertake some seditious enterprise. pacurius was persuaded by these men and again summoned him, intimating that he was anxious to confer with him on general matters. and he, without any hesitation at all, came to the king, taking with him several of the most warlike among the armenians, and among them bassicius, who was at once his general and counsellor; for he was both brave and sagacious to a remarkable degree. straightway, then, pacurius heaped reproach and abuse upon both arsaces and bassicius, because, disregarding the sworn compact, they had so speedily turned their thoughts toward secession. they, however, denied the charge, and swore most insistently that no such thing had been considered by them. at first, therefore, pacurius kept them under guard in disgrace, but after a time he enquired of the magi what should be done with them. now the magi deemed it by no means just to condemn men who denied their guilt and had not been explicitly found guilty, but they suggested to him an artifice by which arsaces himself might be compelled to become openly his own accuser. they bade him cover the floor of the royal tent with earth, one half from the land of persia, and the other half from armenia. this the king did as directed. then the magi, after putting the whole tent under a spell by means of some magic rites, bade the king take his walk there in company with arsaces, reproaching him meanwhile with having violated the sworn agreement. they said, further, that they too must be present at the conversation, for in this way there would be witnesses of all that was said. accordingly pacurius straightway summoned arsaces, and began to walk to and fro with him in the tent in the presence of the magi; he enquired of the man why he had disregarded his sworn promises, and was setting about to harass the persians and armenians once more with grievous troubles. now as long as the conversation took place on the ground which was covered with the earth from the land of persia, arsaces continued to make denial, and, pledging himself with the most fearful oaths, insisted that he was a faithful subject of pacurius. but when, in the midst of his speaking, he came to the centre of the tent where they stepped upon armenian earth, then, compelled by some unknown power, he suddenly changed the tone of his words to one of defiance, and from then on ceased not to threaten pacurius and the persians, announcing that he would have vengeance upon them for this insolence as soon as he should become his own master. these words of youthful folly he continued to utter as they walked all the way, until turning back, he came again to the earth from the persian land. thereupon, as if chanting a recantation, he was once more a suppliant, offering pitiable explanations to pacurius. but when he came again to the armenian earth, he returned to his threats. in this way he changed many times to one side and the other, and concealed none of his secrets. then at length the magi passed judgment against him as having violated the treaty and the oaths. pacurius flayed bassicius, and, making a bag of his skin, filled it with chaff and suspended it from a lofty tree. as for arsaces, since pacurius could by no means bring himself to kill a man of the royal blood, he confined him in the prison of oblivion. after a time, when the persians were marching against a barbarian nation, they were accompanied by an armenian who had been especially intimate with arsaces and had followed him when he went into the persian land. this man proved himself a capable warrior in this campaign, as pacurius observed, and was the chief cause of the persian victory. for this reason pacurius begged him to make any request he wished, assuring him that he would be refused nothing by him. the armenian asked for nothing else than that he might for one day pay homage to arsaces in the way he might desire. now it annoyed the king exceedingly, that he should be compelled to set aside a law so ancient; however, in order to be wholly true to his word, he permitted that the request be granted. when the man found himself by the king's order in the prison of oblivion, he greeted arsaces, and both men, embracing each other, joined their voices in a sweet lament, and, bewailing the hard fate that was upon them, were able only with difficulty to release each other from the embrace. then, when they had sated themselves with weeping and ceased from tears, the armenian bathed arsaces, and completely adorned his person, neglecting nothing, and, putting on him the royal robe, caused him to recline on a bed of rushes. then arsaces entertained those present with a royal banquet just as was formerly his custom. during this feast many speeches were made over the cups which greatly pleased arsaces, and many incidents occurred which delighted his heart. the drinking was prolonged until nightfall, all feeling the keenest delight in their mutual intercourse; at length they parted from each other with great reluctance, and separated thoroughly imbued with happiness. then they tell how arsaces said that after spending the sweetest day of his life, and enjoying the company of the man he had missed most of all, he would no longer willingly endure the miseries of life; and with these words, they say, he dispatched himself with a knife which, as it happened, he had purposely stolen at the banquet, and thus departed from among men. such then is the story concerning this arsaces, related in the armenian history just as i have told it, and it was on that occasion that the law regarding the prison of oblivion was set aside. but i must return to the point from which i have strayed. vi while cabades was in the prison he was cared for by his wife, who went in to him constantly and carried him supplies of food. now the keeper of the prison began to make advances to her, for she was exceedingly beautiful to look upon. and when cabades learned this from his wife, he bade her give herself over to the man to treat as he wished. in this way the keeper of the prison came to be familiar with the woman, and he conceived for her an extraordinary love, and as a result permitted her to go in to her husband just as she wished, and to depart from there again without interference from anyone. now there was a persian notable, seoses by name, a devoted friend of cabades, who was constantly in the neighbourhood of this prison, watching his opportunity, in the hope that he might in some way be able to effect his deliverance. and he sent word to cabades through his wife that he was keeping horses and men in readiness not far from the prison, and he indicated to him a certain spot. then one day as night drew near cabades persuaded his wife to give him her own garment, and, dressing herself in his clothes, to sit instead of him in the prison where he usually sat. in this way, therefore, cabades made his escape from the prison. for although the guards who were on duty saw him, they supposed that it was the woman, and therefore decided not to hinder or otherwise annoy him. at daybreak they saw in the cell the woman in her husband's clothes, and were so completely deceived as to think that cabades was there, and this belief prevailed during several days, until cabades had advanced well on his way. as to the fate which befell the woman after the stratagem had come to light, and the manner in which they punished her, i am unable to speak with accuracy. for the persian accounts do not agree with each other, and for this reason i omit the narration of them. cabades, in company with seoses, completely escaped detection, and reached the ephthalitae huns; there the king gave him his daughter in marriage, and then, since cabades was now his son-in-law, he put under his command a very formidable army for a campaign against the persians. this army the persians were quite unwilling to encounter, and they made haste to flee in every direction. and when cabades reached the territory where gousanastades exercised his authority, he stated to some of his friends that he would appoint as chanaranges the first man of the persians who should on that day come into his presence and offer his services. but even as he said this, he repented his speech, for there came to his mind a law of the persians which ordains that offices among the persians shall not be conferred upon others than those to whom each particular honour belongs by right of birth. for he feared lest someone should come to him first who was not a kinsman of the present chanaranges, and that he would be compelled to set aside the law in order to keep his word. even as he was considering this matter, chance brought it about that, without dishonouring the law, he could still keep his word. for the first man who came to him happened to be adergoudounbades, a young man who was a relative of gousanastades and an especially capable warrior. he addressed cabades as "lord," and was the first to do obeisance to him as king, and besought him to use him as a slave for any service whatever. [ a.d.] so cabades made his way into the royal palace without any trouble, and, taking blases destitute of defenders, he put out his eyes, using the method of blinding commonly employed by the persians against malefactors, that is, either by heating olive oil and pouring it, while boiling fiercely, into the wide-open eyes, or by heating in the fire an iron needle, and with this pricking the eyeballs. thereafter blases was kept in confinement, having ruled over the persians two years. gousanastades was put to death and adergoudounbades was established in his place in the office of chanaranges, while seoses was immediately proclaimed "adrastadaran salanes,"--a title designating the one set in authority over all magistrates and over the whole army. seoses was the first and only man who held this office in persia; for it was conferred on no one before or after that time. and the kingdom was strengthened by cabades and guarded securely; for in shrewdness and activity he was surpassed by none. vii. a little later cabades was owing the king of the ephthalitae a sum of money which he was not able to pay him, and he therefore requested the roman emperor anastasius to lend him this money. whereupon anastasius conferred with some of his friends and enquired of them whether this should be done; and they would not permit him to make the loan. for, as they pointed out, it was inexpedient to make more secure by means of their money the friendship between their enemies and the ephthalitae; indeed it was better for the romans to disturb their relations as much as possible. it was for this reason, and for no just cause, that cabades decided to make an expedition against the romans. [ a.d.] first he invaded the land of the armenians, moving with such rapidity as to anticipate the news of his coming, and, after plundering the greater part of it in a rapid campaign, he unexpectedly arrived at the city of amida, which is situated in mesopotamia, and, although the season was winter, he invested the town. now the citizens of amida had no soldiers at hand, seeing that it was a time of peace and prosperity, and in other respects were utterly unprepared; nevertheless they were quite unwilling to yield to the enemy, and shewed an unexpected fortitude in holding out against dangers and hardships. now there was among the syrians a certain just man, jacobus by name, who had trained himself with exactitude in matters pertaining to religion. this man had confined himself many years before in a place called endielon, a day's journey from amida, in order that he might with more security devote himself to pious contemplation. the men of this place, assisting his purpose, had surrounded him with a kind of fencing, in which the stakes were not continuous, but set at intervals, so that those who approached could see and hold converse with him. and they had constructed for him a small roof over his head, sufficient to keep off the rain and snow. there this man had been sitting for a long time, never yielding either to heat or cold, and sustaining his life with certain seeds, which he was accustomed to eat, not indeed every day, but only at long intervals. now some of the ephthalitae who were overrunning the country thereabout saw this jacobus and with great eagerness drew their bows with intent to shoot at him. but the hands of every one of them became motionless and utterly unable to manage the bow. when this was noised about through the army and came to the ears of cabades, he desired to see the thing with his own eyes; and when he saw it, both he and the persians who were with him were seized with great astonishment, and he entreated jacobus to forgive the barbarians their crime. and he forgave them with a word, and the men were released from their distress. cabades then bade the man ask for whatever he wished, supposing that he would ask for a great sum of money, and he also added with youthful recklessness that he would be refused nothing by him. but he requested cabades to grant to him all the men who during that war should come to him as fugitives. this request cabades granted, and gave him a written pledge of his personal safety. and great numbers of men, as might be expected, came flocking to him from all sides and found safety there; for the deed became widely known. thus, then, did these things take place. cabades, in besieging amida, brought against every part of the defences the engines known as rams; but the townspeople constantly broke off the heads of the rams by means of timbers thrown across them[ ]. however, cabades did not slacken his efforts until he realized that the wall could not be successfully assailed in this way. for, though he battered the wall many times, he was quite unable to break down any portion of the defence, or even to shake it; so secure had been the work of the builders who had constructed it long before. failing in this, cabades raised an artificial hill to threaten the city, considerably overtopping the wall; but the besieged, starting from the inside of their defences, made a tunnel extending under the hill, and from there stealthily carried out the earth, until they hollowed out a great part of the inside of the hill. however, the outside kept the form which it had at first assumed, and afforded no opportunity to anyone of discovering what was being done. accordingly many persians mounted it, thinking it safe, and stationed themselves on the summit with the purpose of shooting down upon the heads of those inside the fortifications. but with the great mass of men crowding upon it with a rush, the hill suddenly fell in and killed almost all of them. cabades, then, finding no remedy for the situation, decided to raise the siege, and he issued orders to the army to retreat on the morrow. then indeed the besieged, as though they had no thought of their danger, began laughingly from the fortifications to jeer at the barbarians. besides this some courtesans shamelessly drew up their clothing and displayed to cabades, who was standing close by, those parts of a woman's body which it is not proper that men should see uncovered. this was plainly seen by the magi, and they thereupon came before the king and tried to prevent the retreat, declaring as their interpretation of what had happened that the citizens of amida would shortly disclose to cabades all their secret and hidden things. so the persian army remained there. not many days later one of the persians saw close by one of the towers the mouth of an old underground passage, which was insecurely concealed with some few small stones. in the night he came there alone, and, making trial of the entrance, got inside the circuit-wall; then at daybreak he reported the whole matter to cabades. the king himself on the following night came to the spot with a few men, bringing ladders which he had made ready. and he was favoured by a piece of good fortune; for the defence of the very tower which happened to be nearest to the passage had fallen by lot to those of the christians who are most careful in their observances, whom they call monks. these men, as chance would have it, were keeping some annual religious festival to god on that day. when night came on they all felt great weariness[ ] on account of the festival, and, having sated themselves with food and drink beyond their wont, they fell into a sweet and gentle sleep, and were consequently quite unaware of what was going on. so the persians made their way through the passage inside the fortifications, a few at a time, and, mounting the tower, they found the monks still sleeping and slew them to a man. when cabades learned this, he brought his ladders up to the wall close by this tower. it was already day. and those of the townsmen who were keeping guard on the adjoining tower became aware of the disaster, and ran thither with all speed to give assistance. then for a long time both sides struggled to crowd back the other, and already the townsmen were gaining the advantage, killing many of those who had mounted the wall, and throwing back the men on the ladders, and they came very near to averting the danger. but cabades drew his sword and, terrifying the persians constantly with it, rushed in person to the ladders and would not let them draw back, and death was the punishment for those who dared turn to leave. as a result of this the persians by their numbers gained the upper hand and overcame their antagonists in the fight. so the city was captured by storm on the eightieth day after the beginning of the siege. [jan. , a.d.] there followed a great massacre of the townspeople, until one of the citizens--an old man and a priest--approached cabades as he was riding into the city, and said that it was not a kingly act to slaughter captives. then cabades, still moved with passion, replied: "but why did you decide to fight against me?" and the old man answered quickly: "because god willed to give amida into thy hand not so much because of our decision as of thy valour." cabades was pleased by this speech, and permitted no further slaughter, but he bade the persians plunder the property and make slaves of the survivors, and he directed them to choose out for himself all the notables among them. a short time after this he departed, leaving there to garrison the place a thousand men under command of glones, a persian, and some few unfortunates among the citizens of amida who were destined to minister as servants to the daily wants of the persians; he himself with all the remainder of the army and the captives marched away homeward. these captives were treated by cabades with a generosity befitting a king; for after a short time he released all of them to return to their homes, but he pretended that they had escaped from him by stealth[ ]; and the roman emperor, anastasius, also shewed them honour worthy of their bravery, for he remitted to the city all the annual taxes for the space of seven years, and presented all of them as a body and each one of them separately with many good things, so that they came fully to forget the misfortunes which had befallen them. but this happened in later years. viii at that time the emperor anastasius, upon learning that amida was being besieged, dispatched with all speed an army of sufficient strength. but in this army there were general officers in command of every symmory[ ], while the supreme command was divided between the following four generals: areobindus, at that time general of the east, the son-in-law of olyvrius, who had been emperor in the west not long before; celer, commander of the palace troops (this officer the romans are accustomed to call "magister"); besides these still, there were the commanders of troops in byzantium, patricias, the phrygian, and hypatius, the nephew of the emperor; these four, then, were the generals. with them also was associated justinus, who at a later time became emperor upon the death of anastasius, and patriciolus with his son vitalianus, who raised an armed insurrection against the emperor anastasius not long afterwards and made himself tyrant; also pharesmanes, a native of colchis, and a man of exceptional ability as a warrior, and the goths godidisklus and bessas, who were among those goths who had not followed theoderic when he went from thrace into italy, both of them men of the noblest birth and experienced in matters pertaining to warfare; many others, too, who were men of high station, joined this army. for such an army, they say, was never assembled by the romans against the persians either before or after that time. however, all these men did not assemble in one body, nor did they form a single army as they marched, but each commander by himself led his own division separately against the enemy. and as manager of the finances of the army apion, an aegyptian, was sent, a man of eminence among the patricians and extremely energetic; and the emperor in a written statement declared him partner in the royal power, in order that he might have authority to administer the finances as he wished. now this army was mustered with considerable delay, and advanced with little speed. as a result of this they did not find the barbarians in the roman territory; for the persians had made their attack suddenly, and had immediately withdrawn with all their booty to their own land. now no one of the generals desired for the present to undertake the siege of the garrison left in amida, for they learned that they had carried in a large supply of provisions; but they made haste to invade the land of the enemy. however they did not advance together against the barbarians but they encamped apart from one another as they proceeded. when cabades learned this (for he happened to be close by), he came with all speed to the roman frontier and confronted them. but the romans had not yet learned that cabades was moving against them with his whole force, and they supposed that some small persian army was there. accordingly the forces of areobindus established their camp in a place called arzamon, at a distance of two days' journey from the city of constantina, and those of patricius and hypatius in a place called siphrios, which is distant not less than three hundred and fifty stades from the city of amida. as for celer, he had not yet arrived. areobindus, when he ascertained that cabades was coming upon them with his whole army, abandoned his camp, and, in company with all his men, turned to flight and retired on the run to constantina. and the enemy, coming up not long afterwards, captured the camp without a man in it and all the money it contained. from there they advanced swiftly against the other roman army. now the troops of patricius and hypatius had happened upon eight hundred ephthalitae who were marching in advance of the persian army, and they had killed practically all of them. then, since they had learned nothing of cabades and the persian army, supposing that they had won the victory, they began to conduct themselves with less caution. at any rate they had stacked their arms and were preparing themselves a lunch; for already the appropriate time of day was drawing near. now a small stream flowed in this place and in it the romans began to wash the pieces of meat which they were about to eat; some, too, distressed by the heat, were bathing themselves in the stream; and in consequence the brook flowed on with a muddy current. but while cabades, learning what had befallen the ephthalitae, was advancing against the enemy with all speed, he noticed that the water of the brook was disturbed, and divining what was going on, he came to the conclusion that his opponents were unprepared, and gave orders to charge upon them immediately at full speed. [aug., a.d.] straightway, then, they fell upon them feasting and unarmed. and the romans did not withstand their onset, nor did they once think of resistance, but they began to flee as each one could; and some of them were captured and slain, while others climbed the hill which rises there and threw themselves down the cliff in panic and much confusion. and they say that not a man escaped from there; but patricius and hypatius had succeeded in getting away at the beginning of the onset. after this cabades retired homeward with his whole army, since hostile huns had made an invasion into his land, and with this people he waged a long war in the northerly portion of his realm. in the meantime the other roman army also came, but they did nothing worth recounting, because, it seems, no one was made commander-in-chief of the expedition; but all the generals were of equal rank, and consequently they were always opposing one another's opinions and were utterly unable to unite. however celer, with his contingent, crossed the nymphius river and made some sort of an invasion into arzanene. this river is one very close to martyropolis, about three hundred stades from amida. so celer's troops plundered the country thereabout and returned not long after, and the whole invasion was completed in a short time. ix after this areobindus went to byzantium at the summons of the emperor, while the other generals reached amida, and, in spite of the winter season, invested it. and although they made many attempts they were unable to carry the fortress by storm, but they were on the point of accomplishing their object by starvation; for all the provisions of the besieged were exhausted. the generals, however, had ascertained nothing of the straits in which the enemy were; but since they saw that their own troops were distressed by the labour of the siege and the wintry weather, and at the same time suspected that a persian army would be coming upon them before long, they were eager to quit the place on any terms whatever. the persians, on their part, not knowing what would become of them in such terrible straits, continued to conceal scrupulously their lack of the necessities of life, and made it appear that they had an abundance of all provisions, wishing to return to their homes with the reputation of honour. so a proposal was discussed between them, according to which the persians were to deliver over the city to the romans upon receipt of one thousand pounds of gold. both parties then gladly executed the terms of the agreement, and the son of glones, upon receiving the money, delivered over amida to the romans. for glones himself had already died in the following manner. when the romans had not yet encamped before the city of amida but were not far from its vicinity, a certain countryman, who was accustomed to enter the city secretly with fowls and loaves and many other delicacies, which he sold to this glones at a great price, came before the general patricius and promised to deliver into his hands glones and two hundred persians, if he should receive from him assurance of some requital. and the general promised that he should have everything he desired, and thus dismissed the fellow. he then tore his garments in a dreadful manner, and, assuming the aspect of one who had been weeping, entered the city. and coming before glones, and tearing his hair he said: "o master, i happened to be bringing in for you all the good things from my village, when some roman soldiers chanced upon me (for, as you know, they are constantly wandering about the country here in small bands and doing violence to the miserable country-folk), and they inflicted upon me blows not to be endured, and, taking away everything, they departed,--the robbers, whose ancient custom it is to fear the persians and to beat the farmers. but do you, o master, take thought to defend yourself and us and the persians. for if you go hunting into the outskirts of the city, you will find rare game. for the accursed rascals go about by fours or fives to do their robbery." thus he spoke. and glones was persuaded, and enquired of the fellow about how many persians he thought would be sufficient for him to carry out the enterprise. he said that about fifty would do, for they would never meet more than five of them going together; however, in order to forestall any unexpected circumstance, it would do no harm to take with him even one hundred men; and if he should double this number it would be still better from every point of view; for no harm could come to a man from the larger number. glones accordingly picked out two hundred horsemen and bade the fellow lead the way for them. but he insisted that it was better for him to be sent first to spy out the ground, and, if he should bring back word that he had seen romans still going about in the same districts, that then the persians should make their sally at the fitting moment. accordingly, since he seemed to glones to speak well, he was sent forward by his own order. then he came before the general patricius and explained everything; and the general sent with him two of his own body-guard and a thousand soldiers. these he concealed about a village called thilasamon, forty stades distant from amida, among valleys and woody places, and instructed them to remain there in this ambush; he himself then proceeded to the city on the run, and telling glones that the prey was ready, he led him and the two hundred horsemen upon the ambush of the enemy. and when they passed the spot where the romans were lying in wait, without being observed by glones or any of the persians, he roused the romans from their ambuscade and pointed out to them the enemy. and when the persians saw the men coming against them, they were astounded at the suddenness of the thing, and were in much distress what to do. for neither could they retire to the rear, since their opponents were behind them, nor were they able to flee anywhere else in a hostile land. but as well as they could under the circumstances, they arrayed themselves for battle and tried to drive back their assailants; but being at a great disadvantage in numbers they were vanquished, and all of them together with glones were destroyed. now when the son of glones learned of this, being deeply grieved and at the same time furious with anger because he had not been able to defend his father, he fired the sanctuary of symeon, a holy man, where glones had his lodging. it must be said, however, that with the exception of this one building, neither glones nor cabades, nor indeed any other of the persians, saw fit either to tear down or to destroy in any other way any building in amida at any rate, or outside this city. but i shall return to the previous narrative. [ a.d.] thus the romans by giving the money recovered amida two years after it had been captured by the enemy. and when they got into the city, their own negligence and the hardships under which the persians had maintained themselves were discovered. for upon reckoning the amount of grain left there and the number of barbarians who had gone out, they found that rations for about seven days were left in the city, although glones and his son had been for a long time doling out provisions to the persians more sparingly than they were needed. for to the romans who had remained with them in the city, as i have stated above, they had decided to dispense nothing at all from the time when their enemy began the siege; and so these men at first resorted to unaccustomed foods and laid hold on every forbidden thing, and at the last they even tasted each other's blood. so the generals realized that they had been deceived by the barbarians, and they reproached the soldiers for their lack of self-control, because they had shewn themselves wanting in obedience to them, when it was possible to capture as prisoners of war such a multitude of persians and the son of glones and the city itself, while they had in consequence attached to themselves signal disgrace by carrying roman money to the enemy, and had taken amida from the persians by purchasing it with silver. [ a.d.] after this the persians, since their war with the huns kept dragging on, entered into a treaty with the romans, which was arranged by them for seven years, and was made by the roman celer and the persian aspebedes; both armies then retired homeward and remained at peace. thus, then, as has been told, began the war of the romans and the persians, and to this end did it come. but i shall now turn to the narration of the events touching the caspian gates. x the taurus mountain range of cilicia passes first cappadocia and armenia and the land of the so-called persarmenians, then also albania and iberia and all the other countries in this region, both independent and subject to persia. for it extends to a great distance, and as one proceeds along this range, it always spreads out to an extraordinary breadth and rises to an imposing height. and as one passes beyond the boundary of iberia there is a sort of path in a very narrow passage, extending for a distance of fifty stades. this path terminates in a place cut off by cliffs and, as it seems, absolutely impossible to pass through. for from there no way out appears, except indeed a small gate set there by nature, just as if it had been made by the hand of man, which has been called from of old the caspian gates. from there on there are plains suitable for riding and extremely well watered, and extensive tracts used as pasture land for horses, and level besides. here almost all the nations of the huns are settled, extending as far as the maeotic lake. now if these huns go through the gate which i have just mentioned into the land of the persians and the romans, they come with their horses fresh and without making any detour or encountering any precipitous places, except in those fifty stades over which, as has been said, they pass to the boundary of iberia. if, however, they go by any other passes, they reach their destination with great difficulty, and can no longer use the same horses. for the detours which they are forced to make are many and steep besides. when this was observed by alexander, the son of philip, he constructed gates in the aforesaid place and established a fortress there. and this was held by many men in turn as time went on, and finally by ambazouces, a hun by birth, but a friend of the romans and the emperor anastasius. now when this ambazouces had reached an advanced age and was near to death, he sent to anastasius asking that money be given him, on condition that he hand over the fortress and the caspian gates to the romans. but the emperor anastasius was incapable of doing anything without careful investigation, nor was it his custom to act thus: reasoning, therefore, that it was impossible for him to support soldiers in a place which was destitute of all good things, and which had nowhere in the neighbourhood a nation subject to the romans, he expressed deep gratitude to the man for his good-will toward him, but by no means accepted this proposition. so ambazouces died of disease not long afterwards, and cabades overpowered his sons and took possession of the gates. the emperor anastasius, after concluding the treaty with cabades, built a city in a place called daras, exceedingly strong and of real importance, bearing the name of the emperor himself. now this place is distant from the city of nisibis one hundred stades lacking two, and from the boundary line which divides the romans from the persians about twenty-eight. and the persians, though eager to prevent the building, were quite unable to do so, being constrained by the war with the huns in which they were engaged. but as soon as cabades brought this to an end, he sent to the romans and accused them of having built a city hard by the persian frontier, though this had been forbidden in the agreement previously made between the medes and the romans[ ]. at that time, therefore, the emperor anastasius desired, partly by threats, and partly by emphasizing his friendship with him and by bribing him with no mean sum of money, to deceive him and to remove the accusation. and another city also was built by this emperor, similar to the first, in armenia, hard by the boundaries of persarmenia; now in this place there had been a village from of old, but it had taken on the dignity of a city by the favour of the emperor theodosius even to the name, for it had come to be named after him[ ]. but anastasius surrounded it with a very substantial wall, and thus gave offence to the persians no less than by the other city; for both of them are strongholds menacing their country. xi [aug. , a.d.] and when a little later anastasius died, justinus received the empire, forcing aside all the kinsmen of anastasius, although they were numerous and also very distinguished. then indeed a sort of anxiety came over cabades, lest the persians should make some attempt to overthrow his house as soon as he should end his life; for it was certain that he would not pass on the kingdom to any one of his sons without opposition. for while the law called to the throne the eldest of his children caoses by reason of his age, he was by no means pleasing to cabades; and the father's judgment did violence to the law of nature and of custom as well. and zames, who was second in age, having had one of his eyes struck out, was prevented by the law. for it is not lawful for a one-eyed man or one having any other deformity to become king over the persians. but chosroes, who was born to him by the sister of aspebedes, the father loved exceedingly; seeing, however, that all the persians, practically speaking, felt an extravagant admiration for the manliness of zames (for he was a capable warrior), and worshipped his other virtues, he feared lest they should rise against chosroes and do irreparable harm to the family and to the kingdom. therefore it seemed best to him to arrange with the romans to put an end both to the war and the causes of war, on condition that chosroes be made an adopted son of the emperor justinus; for only in this way could he preserve stability in the government. accordingly he sent envoys to treat of this matter and a letter to the emperor justinus in byzantium. and the letter was written in this wise: "unjust indeed has been the treatment which we have received at the hands of the romans, as even you yourself know, but i have seen fit to abandon entirely all the charges against you, being assured of this, that the most truly victorious of all men would be those who, with justice on their side, are still willingly overcome and vanquished by their friends. however i ask of you a certain favour in return for this, which would bind together in kinship and in the good-will which would naturally spring from this relation not only ourselves but also all our subjects, and which would be calculated to bring us to a satiety of the blessings of peace. my proposal, then, is this, that you should make my son chosroes, who will be my successor to the throne, your adopted son." when this message was brought to the emperor justinus, he himself was overjoyed and justinian also, the nephew of the emperor, who indeed was expected to receive from him the empire. and they were making all haste to perform the act of setting down in writing the adoption, as the law of the romans prescribes--and would have done so, had they not been prevented by proclus, who was at that time a counsellor to the emperor, holding the office of quaestor, as it is called, a just man and one whom it was manifestly impossible to bribe; for this reason he neither readily proposed any law, nor was he willing to disturb in any way the settled order of things; and he at that time also opposed the proposition, speaking as follows: "to venture on novel projects is not my custom, and indeed i dread them more than any others; for where there is innovation security is by no means preserved. and it seems to me that, even if one should be especially bold in this matter, he would feel reluctance to do the thing and would tremble at the storm which would arise from it; for i believe that nothing else is before our consideration at the present time than the question how we may hand over the roman empire to the persians on a seemly pretext. for they make no concealment nor do they employ any blinds, but explicitly acknowledging their purpose they claim without more ado to rob us of our empire, seeking to veil the manifestness of their deceit under a shew of simplicity, and hide a shameless intent behind a pretended unconcern. and yet both of you ought to repel this attempt of the barbarians with all your power; thou, o emperor, in order that thou mayst not be the last emperor of the romans, and thou, o general, that thou mayst not prove a stumbling block to thyself as regards coming to the throne. for other crafty devices which are commonly concealed by a pretentious shew of words might perhaps need an interpreter for the many, but this embassy openly and straight from the very first words means to make this chosroes, whoever he is, the adopted heir of the roman emperor. for i would have you reason thus in this matter: by nature the possessions of fathers are due to their sons and while the laws among all men are always in conflict with each other by reason of their varying nature, in this matter both among the romans and among all barbarians they are in agreement and harmony with each other, in that they declare sons to be masters of their fathers' inheritance. take this first resolve if you choose: if you do you must agree to all its consequences." thus spoke proclus; and the emperor and his nephew gave ear to his words and deliberated upon what should be done. in the meantime cabades sent another letter also to the emperor justinus, asking him to send men of repute in order to establish peace with him, and to indicate by letter the manner in which it would be his desire to accomplish the adoption of his son. and then, indeed, still more than before proclus decried the attempt of the persians, and insisted that their concern was to make over to themselves as securely as possible the roman power. and he proposed as his opinion that the peace should be concluded with them with all possible speed, and that the noblest men should be sent by the emperor for this purpose; and that these men must answer plainly to cabades, when he enquired in what manner the adoption of chosroes should be accomplished, that it must be of the sort befitting a barbarian, and his meaning was that the barbarians adopt sons, not by a document, but by arms and armour[ ]. accordingly the emperor justinus dismissed the envoys, promising that men who were the noblest of the romans would follow them not long afterwards, and that they would arrange a settlement regarding the peace and regarding chosroes in the best possible way. he also answered cabades by letter to the same effect. accordingly there were sent from the romans hypatius, the nephew of anastasius, the late emperor, a patrician who also held the office of general of the east, and rufinus, the son of silvanus, a man of note among the patricians and known to cabades through their fathers; from the persians came one of great power and high authority, seoses by name, whose title was adrastadaran salanes, and mebodes, who held the office of magister. these men came together at a certain spot which is on the boundary line between the land of the romans and the persians: there they met and negotiated as to how they should do away with their differences and settle effectually the question of the peace. chosroes also came to the tigris river, which is distant from the city of nisibis about two days journey, in order that, when the details of the peace should seem to both parties to be as well arranged as possible, he might betake himself in person to byzantium. now many words were spoken on both sides touching the differences between them, and in particular seoses made mention of the land of colchis, which is now called lazica, saying that it had been subject to the persians from of old and that the romans had taken it from them by violence and held it on no just grounds. when the romans heard this, they were indignant to think that even lazica should be disputed by the persians. and when they in turn stated that the adoption of chosroes must take place just as is proper for a barbarian, it seemed to the persians unbearable. the two parties therefore separated and departed homeward, and chosroes with nothing accomplished was off to his father, deeply injured at what had taken place and vowing vengeance on the romans for their insult to him. after this mebodes began to slander seoses to cabades, saying that he had proposed the discussion of lazica purposely, although he had not been instructed to do so by his master, thereby frustrating the peace, and also that he had had words previously with hypatius, who was by no means well-disposed toward his own sovereign and was trying to prevent the conclusion of peace and the adoption of chosroes; and many other accusations also were brought forward by the enemies of seoses, and he was summoned to trial. now the whole persian council gathered to sit in judgment moved more by envy than by respect for the law. for they were thoroughly hostile to his office, which was unfamiliar to them, and also were embittered by the natural temper of the man. for while seoses was a man quite impossible to bribe, and a most exact respecter of justice, he was afflicted with a degree of arrogance not to be compared with that of any other. this quality, indeed, seems to be inbred in the persian officials, but in seoses even they thought that the malady had developed to an altogether extraordinary degree. so his accusers said all those things which have been indicated above, and added to this that the man was by no means willing to live in the established fashion or to uphold the institutions of the persians. for he both reverenced strange divinities, and lately, when his wife had died, he had buried her, though it was forbidden by the laws of the persians ever to hide in the earth the bodies of the dead. the judges therefore condemned the man to death, while cabades, though seeming to be deeply moved with sympathy as a friend of seoses, was by no means willing to rescue him. he did not, on the other hand, make it known that he was angry with him, but, as he said, he was not willing to undo the laws of the persians, although he owed the man the price of his life, since seoses was chiefly responsible both for the fact that he was alive and also that he was king. thus, then, seoses was condemned and was removed from among men. and the office which began with him ended also with him. for no other man has been made adrastadaran salanes. rufinus also slandered hypatius to the emperor. as a result of this the emperor reduced him from his office, and tortured most cruelly certain of his associates only to find out that this slander was absolutely unsound; beyond this, however, he did hypatius no harm. xii immediately after this, cabades, though eager to make some kind of an invasion into the land of the romans, was utterly unable to do so on account of the following obstacle which happened to arise. the iberians, who live in asia, are settled in the immediate neighbourhood of the caspian gates, which lie to the north of them. adjoining them on the left towards the west is lazica, and on the right towards the east are the persian peoples. this nation is christian and they guard the rites of this faith more closely than any other men known to us, but they have been subjects of the persian king, as it happens, from ancient times. and just then cabades was desirous of forcing them to adopt the rites of his own religion. and he enjoined upon their king, gourgenes, to do all things as the persians are accustomed to do them, and in particular not under any circumstances to hide their dead in the earth, but to throw them all to the birds and dogs. for this reason, then, gourgenes wished to go over to the emperor justinus, and he asked that he might receive pledges that the romans would never abandon the iberians to the persians. and the emperor gave him these pledges with great eagerness, and he sent probus, the nephew of the late emperor anastasius, a man of patrician rank, with a great sum of money to bosporus, that he might win over with money an army of huns and send them as allies to the iberians. this bosporus is a city by the sea, on the left as one sails into the so-called euxine sea, twenty days journey distant from the city of cherson, which is the limit of the roman territory. between these cities everything is held by the huns. now in ancient times the people of bosporus were autonomous, but lately they had decided to become subject to the emperor justinus. probus, however, departed from there without accomplishing his mission, and the emperor sent peter as general with some huns to lazica to fight with all their strength for gourgenes. meanwhile cabades sent a very considerable army against gourgenes and the iberians, and as general a persian bearing the title of "varizes," boes by name. then it was seen that gourgenes was too weak to withstand the attack of the persians, for the help from the romans was insufficient, and with all the notables of the iberians he fled to lazica, taking with him his wife and children and also his brothers, of whom peranius was the eldest. and when they had reached the boundaries of lazica, they remained there, and, sheltering themselves by the roughness of the country, they took their stand against the enemy. and the persians followed after them but did nothing deserving even of mention since the circumstance of the rough country was against them. thereafter the iberians presented themselves at byzantium and petrus came to the emperor at his summons; and from then on the emperor demanded that he should assist the lazi to guard their country, even against their will, and he sent an army and eirenaeus in command of it. now there are two fortresses in lazica[ ] which one comes upon immediately upon entering their country from the boundaries of iberia, and the defence of them had been from of old in charge of the natives, although they experienced great hardship in this matter; for neither corn nor wine nor any other good thing is produced there. nor indeed can anything be carried in from elsewhere on account of the narrowness of the paths, unless it be carried by men. however, the lazi were able to live on a certain kind of millet which grows there, since they were accustomed to it. these garrisons the emperor removed from the place and commanded that roman soldiers should be stationed there to guard the fortresses. and at first the lazi with difficulty brought in provisions for these soldiers, but later they gave up the service and the romans abandoned these forts, whereupon the persians with no trouble took possession of them. this then happened in lazica. and the romans, under the leadership of sittas and belisarius, made an inroad into persarmenia, a territory subject to the persians, where they plundered a large tract of country and then withdrew with a great multitude of armenian captives. these two men were both youths and wearing their first beards[ ], body-guards of the general justinian, who later shared the empire with his uncle justinus. but when a second inroad had been made by the romans into armenia, narses and aratius unexpectedly confronted them and engaged them in battle. these men not long after this came to the romans as deserters, and made the expedition to italy with belisarius; but on the present occasion they joined battle with the forces of sittas and belisarius and gained the advantage over them. an invasion was also made near the city of nisibis by another roman army under command of libelarius of thrace. this army retired abruptly in flight although no one came out against thorn. and because of this the emperor reduced libelarius from his office and appointed belisarius commander of the troops in daras. it was at that time that procopius, who wrote this history, was chosen as his adviser. [ a.d.] xiii [apr. , ] not long after this justinus, who had declared his nephew justinian emperor with him, died, and thus the empire came to justinian alone. [aug. , ] this justinian commanded belisarius to build a fortress in a place called mindouos, which is over against the very boundary of persia, on the left as one goes to nisibis. he accordingly with great haste began to carry out the decision of the emperor, and the fort was already rising to a considerable height by reason of the great number of artisans. but the persians forbade them to build any further, threatening that, not with words alone but also with deeds, they would at no distant time obstruct the work. when the emperor heard this, inasmuch as belisarius was not able to beat off the persians from the place with the army he had, he ordered another army to go thither, and also coutzes and bouzes, who at that time commanded the soldiers in libanus[ ]. these two were brothers from thrace, both young and inclined to be rash in engaging with the enemy. so both armies were gathered together and came in full force to the scene of the building operations, the persians in order to hinder the work with all their power, and the romans to defend the labourers. and a fierce battle took place in which the romans were defeated, and there was a great slaughter of them, while some also were made captive by the enemy. among these was coutzes himself. all these captives the persians led away to their own country, and, putting them in chains, confined them permanently in a cave; as for the fort, since no one defended it any longer, they razed what had been built to the ground. after this the emperor justinian appointed belisarius general of the east and bade him make an expedition against the persians. and he collected a very formidable army and came to daras. hermogenes also came to him from the emperor to assist in setting the army in order, holding the office of magister; this man was formerly counsellor to vitalianus at the time when he was at war with the emperor anastasius. the emperor also sent rufinus as ambassador, commanding him to remain in hierapolis on the euphrates river until he himself should give the word. for already much was being said on both sides concerning peace. suddenly, however, someone reported to belisarius and hermogenes that the persians were expected to invade the land of the romans, being eager to capture the city of daras. and when they heard this, they prepared for the battle as follows. [july, ] not far from the gate which lies opposite the city of nisibis, about a stone's throw away, they dug a deep trench with many passages across it. now this trench was not dug in a straight line, but in the following manner. in the middle there was a rather short portion straight, and at either end of this there were dug two cross trenches at right angles to the first; and starting from the extremities of the two cross trenches, they continued two straight trenches in the original direction to a very great distance. not long afterwards the persians came with a great army, and all of them made camp in a place called ammodios, at a distance of twenty stades from the city of daras. among the leaders of this army were pityaxes and the one-eyed baresmanas. but one general held command over them all, a persian, whose title was "mirranes" (for thus the persians designate this office), perozes by name. this perozes immediately sent to belisarius bidding him make ready the bath: for he wished to bathe there on the following day. accordingly the romans made the most vigorous preparations for the encounter, with the expectation that they would fight on the succeeding day. at sunrise, seeing the enemy advancing against them, they arrayed themselves as follows[ ]. the extremity of the left straight trench which joined the cross trench, as far as the hill which rises here, was held by bouzes with a large force of horsemen and by pharas the erulian with three hundred of his nation. on the right of these, outside the trench, at the angle formed by the cross trench and the straight section which extended from that point, were sunicas and aigan, massagetae by birth, with six hundred horsemen, in order that, if those under bouzes and pharas should be driven back, they might, by moving quickly on the flank, and getting in the rear of the enemy, be able easily to support the romans at that point. on the other wing also they were arrayed in the same manner; for the extremity of the straight trench was held by a large force of horsemen, who were commanded by john, son of nicetas, and by cyril and marcellus; with them also were germanus and dorotheus; while at the angle on the right six hundred horsemen took their stand, commanded by simmas and ascan, massagetae, in order that, as has been said, in case the forces of john should by any chance be driven back, they might move out from there and attack the rear of the persians. thus all along the trench stood the detachments of cavalry and the infantry. and behind these in the middle stood the forces of belisarius and hermogenes. thus the romans arrayed themselves, amounting to five-and-twenty thousand; but the persian army consisted of forty thousand horse and foot, and they all stood close together facing the front, so as to make the front of the phalanx as deep as possible. then for a long time neither side began battle with the other, but the persians seemed to be wondering at the good order of the romans, and appeared at a loss what to do under the circumstances. in the late afternoon a certain detachment of the horsemen who held the right wing, separating themselves from the rest of the army, came against the forces of bouzes and pharas. and the romans retired a short distance to the rear. the persians, however, did not pursue them, but remained there, fearing, i suppose, some move to surround them on the part of the enemy. then the romans who had turned to flight suddenly rushed upon them. and the persians did not withstand their onset and rode back to the phalanx, and again the forces of bouzes and pharas stationed themselves in their own position. in this skirmish seven of the persians fell, and the romans gained possession of their bodies; thereafter both armies remained quietly in position. but one persian, a young man, riding up very close to the roman army, began to challenge all of them, calling for whoever wished to do battle with him. and no one of the whole army dared face the danger, except a certain andreas, one of the personal attendants of bouzes, not a soldier nor one who had ever practised at all the business of war, but a trainer of youths in charge of a certain wrestling school in byzantium. through this it came about that he was following the army, for he cared for the person of bouzes in the bath; his birthplace was byzantium. this man alone had the courage, without being ordered by bouzes or anyone else, to go out of his own accord to meet the man in single combat. and he caught the barbarian while still considering how he should deliver his attack, and hit him with his spear on the right breast. and the persian did not bear the blow delivered by a man of such exceptional strength, and fell from his horse to the earth. then andreas with a small knife slew him like a sacrificial animal as he lay on his back, and a mighty shout was raised both from the city wall and from the roman army. but the persians were deeply vexed at the outcome and sent forth another horseman for the same purpose, a manly fellow and well favoured as to bodily size, but not a youth, for some of the hair on his head already shewed grey. this horseman came up along the hostile army, and, brandishing vehemently the whip with which he was accustomed to strike his horse, he summoned to battle whoever among the romans was willing. and when no one went out against him, andreas, without attracting the notice of anyone, once more came forth, although he had been forbidden to do so by hermogenes. so both rushed madly upon each other with their spears, and the weapons, driven against their corselets, were turned aside with mighty force, and the horses, striking together their heads, fell themselves and threw off their riders. and both the two men, falling very close to each other, made great haste to rise to their feet, but the persian was not able to do this easily because his size was against him, while andreas, anticipating him (for his practice in the wrestling school gave him this advantage), smote him as he was rising on his knee, and as he fell again to the ground dispatched him. then a roar went up from the wall and from the roman army as great, if not greater, than before; and the persians broke their phalanx and withdrew to ammodios, while the romans, raising the pæan, went inside the fortifications; for already it was growing dark. thus both armies passed that night. xiv on the following day ten thousand soldiers arrived who had been summoned by the persians from the city of nisibis, and belisarius and hermogenes wrote to the mirranes as follows: "the first blessing is peace, as is agreed by all men who have even a small share of reason. it follows that if any one should be a destroyer of it, he would be most responsible not only to those near him but also to his whole nation for the troubles which come. the best general, therefore, is that one who is able to bring about peace from war. but you, when affairs were well settled between the romans and the persians, have seen fit to bring upon us a war without cause, although the counsels of each king are looking toward peace, and although our envoys are already present in the neighbourhood, who will at no distant time settle all the points of dispute in talking over the situation together, unless some irreparable harm coming from your invasion proves sufficient to frustrate for us this hope. but lead away as soon as possible your army to the land of the persians, and do not stand in the way of the greatest blessings, lest at some time you be held responsible by the persians, as is probable, for the disasters which will come to pass." when the mirranes saw this letter brought to him, he replied as follows: "i should have been persuaded by what you write, and should have done what you demand, were the letter not, as it happens, from romans, for whom the making of promises is easy, but the fulfilment of the promises in deed most difficult and beyond hope, especially if you sanction the agreement by any oaths. we, therefore, despairing in view of your deception, have been compelled to come before you in arms, and as for you, my dear romans, consider that from now on you will be obliged to do nothing else than make war against the persians. for here we shall be compelled either to die or grow old until you accord to us justice in deed." such was the reply which the mirranes wrote back. and again belisarius and his generals wrote as follows: "o excellent mirranes, it is not fitting in all things to depend upon boasting, nor to lay upon one's neighbours reproaches which are justified on no grounds whatever. for we said with truth that rufinus had come to act as an envoy and was not far away, and you yourself will know this at no remote time. but since you are eager for deeds of war, we shall array ourselves against you with the help of god, who will, we know, support us in the danger, being moved by the peaceful inclination of the romans, but rebuking the boastfulness of the persians and your decision to resist us when we invite you to peace. and we shall array ourselves against you, having prepared for the conflict by fastening the letters written by each of us on the top of our banners." such was the message of this letter. and the mirranes again answered as follows: "neither are we entering upon the war without our gods, and with their help we shall come before you, and i expect that on the morrow they will bring the persians into daras. but let the bath and lunch be in readiness for me within the fortifications." when belisarius and his generals read this, they prepared themselves for the conflict. on the succeeding day the mirranes called together all the persians at about sunrise and spoke as follows: "i am not ignorant that it is not because of words of their leaders, but because of their individual bravery and their shame before each other that the persians are accustomed to be courageous in the presence of dangers. but seeing you considering why in the world it is that, although the romans have not been accustomed heretofore to go into battle without confusion and disorder, they recently awaited the advancing persians with a kind of order which is by no means characteristic of them, for this reason i have decided to speak some words of exhortation to you, so that it may not come about that you be deceived by reason of holding an opinion which is not true. for i would not have you think that the romans have suddenly become better warriors, or that they have acquired any more valour or experience, but that they have become more cowardly than they were previously; at any rate they fear the persians so much that they have not even dared to form their phalanx without a trench. and not even with this did they begin any fighting, but when we did not join battle with them at all, joyfully and considering that matters had gone better for them than they had hoped, they withdrew to the wall. for this reason too it happened that they were not thrown into confusion, for they had not yet come into the dangers of battle. but if the fighting comes to close quarters, fear will seize upon them, and this, together with their inexperience, will throw them, in all probability, into their customary disorder. such, therefore, is the case with regard to the enemy; but do you, o men of persia, call to mind the judgment of the king of kings. for if you do not play the part of brave men in the present engagement, in a manner worthy of the valour of the persians, an inglorious punishment will fall upon you." with this exhortation the mirranes began to lead his army against the enemy. likewise belisarius and hermogenes gathered all the romans before the fortifications, and encouraged them with the following words: "you know assuredly that the persians are not altogether invincible, nor too strong to be killed, having taken their measure in the previous battle; and that, although superior to them in bravery and in strength of body, you were defeated only by reason of being rather heedless of your officers, no one can deny. this thing you now have the opportunity to set right with no trouble. for while the adversities of fortune are by no means such as to be set right by an effort, reason may easily become for a man a physician for the ills caused by himself. if therefore you are willing to give heed to the orders given, you will straightway win for yourselves the superiority in battle. for the persians come against us basing their confidence on nothing else than our disorder. but this time also they will be disappointed in this hope, and will depart just as in the previous encounter. and as for the great numbers of the enemy, by which more than anything else they inspire fear, it is right for you to despise them. for their whole infantry is nothing more than a crowd of pitiable peasants who come into battle for no other purpose than to dig through walls and to despoil the slain and in general to serve the soldiers. for this reason they have no weapons at all with which they might trouble their opponents, and they only hold before themselves those enormous shields in order that they may not possibly be hit by the enemy. therefore if you shew yourselves brave men in this struggle, you will not only conquer the persians for the present, but you will also punish them for their folly, so that they will never again make an expedition into the roman territory." when belisarius and hermogenes had finished this exhortation, since they saw the persians advancing against them, they hastily drew up the soldiers in the same manner as before. and the barbarians, coming up before them, took their stand facing the romans. but the mirranes did not array all the persians against the enemy, but only one half of them, while he allowed the others to remain behind. these were to take the places of the men who were fighting and to fall upon their opponents with their vigour intact, so that all might fight in constant rotation. but the detachment of the so-called immortals alone he ordered to remain at rest until he himself should give the signal. and he took his own station at the middle of the front, putting pityaxes in command on the right wing, and baresmanas on the left. in this manner, then, both armies were drawn up. then pharas came before belisarius and hermogenes, and said: "it does not seem to me that i shall do the enemy any great harm if i remain here with the eruli; but if we conceal ourselves on this slope, and then, when the persians have begun the fight, if we climb up by this hill and suddenly come upon their rear, shooting from behind them, we shall in all probability do them the greatest harm." thus he spoke, and, since it pleased belisarius and his staff, he carried out this plan. but up to midday neither side began battle. as soon, however, as the noon hour was passed, the barbarians began the fight, having postponed the engagement to this time of the day for the reason that they are accustomed to partake of food only towards late afternoon, while the romans have their meal before noon; and for this reason they thought that the romans would never hold out so well, if they assailed them while hungry. at first, then, both sides discharged arrows against each other, and the missiles by their great number made, as it were, a vast cloud; and many men were falling on both sides, but the missiles of the barbarians flew much more thickly. for fresh men were always fighting in turn, affording to their enemy not the slightest opportunity to observe what was being done; but even so the romans did not have the worst of it. for a steady wind blew from their side against the barbarians, and checked to a considerable degree the force of their arrows. then, after both sides had exhausted all their missiles, they began to use their spears against each other, and the battle had come still more to close quarters. on the roman side the left wing was suffering especially. for the cadiseni, who with pityaxes were fighting at this point, rushing up suddenly in great numbers, routed their enemy, and crowding hard upon the fugitives, were killing many of them. when this was observed by the men under sunicas and aigan, they charged against them at full speed. but first the three hundred eruli under pharas from the high ground got in the rear of the enemy and made a wonderful display of valorous deeds against all of them and especially the cadiseni. and the persians, seeing the forces of sunicas too already coming up against them from the flank, turned to a hasty flight. and the rout became complete, for the romans here joined forces with each other, and there was a great slaughter of the barbarians. on the persian right wing not fewer than three thousand perished in this action, while the rest escaped with difficulty to the phalanx and were saved. and the romans did not continue their pursuit, but both sides took their stand facing each other in line. such was the course of these events. but the mirranes stealthily sent to the left a large body of troops and with them all the so-called immortals. and when these were noticed by belisarius and hermogenes, they ordered the six hundred men under sunicas and aigan to go to the angle on the right, where the troops of simmas and ascan were stationed, and behind them they placed many of belisarius men. so the persians who held the left wing under the leadership of baresmanas, together with the immortals, charged on the run upon the romans opposite them, who failed to withstand the attack and beat a hasty retreat. thereupon the romans in the angle, and all who were behind them, advanced with great ardour against the pursuers. but inasmuch as they came upon the barbarians from the side, they cut their army into two parts, and the greater portion of them they had on their right, while some also who were left behind were placed on their left. among these happened to be the standard bearer of baresmanas, whom sunicas charged and struck with his spear. and already the persians who were leading the pursuit perceived in what straits they were, and, wheeling about, they stopped the pursuit and went against their assailants, and thus became exposed to the enemy on both sides. for those in flight before them understood what was happening and turned back again. the persians, on their part, with the detachment of the immortals, seeing the standard inclined and lowered to the earth, rushed all together against the romans at that point with baresmanas. there the romans held their ground. and first sunicas killed baresmanas and threw him from his horse to the ground. as a result of this the barbarians were seized with great fear and thought no longer of resistance, but fled in utter confusion. and the romans, having made a circle as it were around them, killed about five thousand. thus both armies were all set in motion, the persians in retreat, and the romans in pursuit. in this part of the conflict all the foot-soldiers who were in the persian army threw down their shields and were caught and wantonly killed by their enemy. however, the pursuit was not continued by the romans over a great distance. for belisarius and hermogenes refused absolutely to let them go farther, fearing lest the persians through some necessity should turn about and rout them while pursuing recklessly, and it seemed to them sufficient to preserve the victory unmarred. for on that day the persians had been defeated in battle by the romans, a thing which had not happened for a long time. thus the two armies separated from each other. and the persians were no longer willing to fight a pitched battle with the romans. however, some sudden attacks were made on both sides, in which the romans were not at a disadvantage. such, then, was the fortune of the armies in mesopotamia. xv and cabades sent another army into the part of armenia which is subject to the romans. this army was composed of persarmenians and sunitae, whose land adjoins that of the alani. there were also huns with them, of the stock called sabiri, to the number of three thousand, a most warlike race. and mermeroes, a persian, had been made general of the whole force. when this army was three days' march from theodosiopolis, they established their camp and, remaining in the land of the persarmenians, made their preparations for the invasion. now the general of armenia was, as it happened, dorotheus, a man of discretion and experienced in many wars. and sittas held the office of general in byzantium, and had authority over the whole army in armenia. these two, then, upon learning that an army was being assembled in persarmenia, straightway sent two body-guards with instructions to spy out the whole force of the enemy and report to them. and both of these men got into the barbarian camp, and after noting everything accurately, they departed. and they were travelling toward some place in that region, when they happened unexpectedly upon hostile huns. by them one of the two, dagaris by name, was made captive and bound, while the other succeeded in escaping and reported everything to the generals. they then armed their whole force and made an unexpected assault upon the camp of their enemy; and the barbarians, panic-stricken by the unexpected attack, never thought of resistance, but fled as best each one could. thereupon the romans, after killing a large number and plundering the camp, immediately marched back. not long after this mermeroes, having collected the whole army, invaded the roman territory, and they came upon their enemy near the city of satala. there they established themselves in camp and remained at rest in a place called octava, which is fifty-six stades distant from the city. sittas therefore led out a thousand men and concealed them behind one of the many hills which surround the plain in which the city of satala lies. dorotheus with the rest of the army he ordered to stay inside the fortifications, because they thought that they were by no means able to withstand the enemy on level ground, since their number was not fewer than thirty thousand, while their own forces scarcely amounted to half that number. on the following day the barbarians came up close to the fortifications and busily set about closing in the town. but suddenly, seeing the forces of sittas who by now were coming down upon them from the high ground, and having no means of estimating their number, since owing to the summer season a great cloud of dust hung over them, they thought they were much more numerous than they were, and, hurriedly abandoning their plan of closing in the town, they hastened to mass their force into a small space. but the romans anticipated the movement and, separating their own force into two detachments, they set upon them as they were retiring from the fortifications; and when this was seen by the whole roman army, they took courage, and with a great rush they poured out from the fortifications and advanced against their opponents. they thus put the persians between their own troops, and turned them to flight. however, since the barbarians were greatly superior to their enemy in numbers, as has been said, they still offered resistance, and the battle had become a fierce fight at close quarters. and both sides kept making advances upon their opponents and retiring quickly, for they were all cavalry. thereupon florentius, a thracian, commanding a detachment of horse, charged into the enemy's centre, and seizing the general's standard, forced it to the ground, and started to ride back. and though he himself was overtaken and fell there, hacked to pieces, he proved to be the chief cause of the victory for the romans. for when the barbarians no longer saw the standard, they were thrown into great confusion and terror, and retreating, got inside their camp, and remained quiet, having lost many men in the battle; and on the following day they all returned homeward with no one following them up, for it seemed to the romans a great and very noteworthy thing that such a great multitude of barbarians in their own country had suffered those things which have just been narrated above, and that, after making an invasion into hostile territory, they should retire thus without accomplishing anything and defeated by a smaller force. at that time the romans also acquired certain persian strongholds in persarmenia, both the fortress of bolum and the fortress called pharangium, which is the place where the persians mine gold, which they take to the king. it happened also that a short time before this they had reduced to subjection the tzanic nation, who had been settled from of old in roman territory as an autonomous people; and as to these things, the manner in which they were accomplished will be related here and now. as one goes from the land of armenia into persarmenia the taurus lies on the right, extending into iberia and the peoples there, as has been said a little before this[ ], while on the left the road which continues to descend for a great distance is overhung by exceedingly precipitous mountains, concealed forever by clouds and snow, from which the phasis river issues and flows into the land of colchis. in this place from the beginning lived barbarians, the tzanic nation, subject to no one, called sani in early times; they made plundering expeditions among the romans who lived round about, maintaining a most difficult existence, and always living upon what they stole; for their land produced for them nothing good to eat. wherefore also the roman emperor sent them each year a fixed amount of gold, with the condition that they should never plunder the country thereabout. and the barbarians had sworn to observe this agreement with the oaths peculiar to their nation, and then, disregarding what they had sworn, they had been accustomed for a long time to make unexpected attacks and to injure not only the armenians, but also the romans who lived next to them as far as the sea; then, after completing their inroad in a short space of time, they would immediately betake themselves again to their homes. and whenever it _so_ happened that they chanced upon a roman army, they were always defeated in the battle, but they proved to be absolutely beyond capture owing to the strength of their fastnesses. in this way sittas had defeated them in battle before this war; and then by many manifestations of kindness in word and in deed he had been able to win them over completely. for they changed their manner of life to one of a more civilized sort, and enrolled themselves among the roman troops, and from that time they have gone forth against the enemy with the rest of the roman army. they also abandoned their own religion for a more righteous faith, and all of them became christians. such then was the history of the tzani. beyond the borders of this people there is a cañon whose walls are both high and exceedingly steep, extending as far as the caucasus mountains. in it are populous towns, and grapes and other fruits grow plentifully. and this canon for about the space of a three days' journey is tributary to the romans, but from there begins the territory of persarmenia; and here is the gold-mine which, with the permission of cabades, was worked by one of the natives, symeon by name. when this symeon saw that both nations were actively engaged in the war, he decided to deprive cabades of the revenue. therefore he gave over both himself and pharangium to the romans, but refused to deliver over to either one the gold of the mine. and as for the romans, they did nothing, thinking it sufficient for them that the enemy had lost the income from there, and the persians were not able against the will of the romans to force the inhabitants of the place to terms, because they were baffled by the difficult country. at about the same time narses and aratius who at the beginning of this war, as i have stated above,[ ] had an encounter with sittas and belisarius in the land of the persarmenians, came together with their mother as deserters to the romans; and the emperor's steward, narses, received them (for he too happened to be a persarmenian by birth), and he presented them with a large sum of money. when this came to the knowledge of isaac, their youngest brother, he secretly opened negotiations with the romans, and delivered over to them the fortress of bolum, which lies very near the limits of theodosiopolis. for he directed that soldiers should be concealed somewhere in the vicinity, and he received them into the fort by night, opening stealthily one small gate for them. thus he too came to byzantium. xvi thus matters stood with the romans. but the persians, though defeated by belisarius in the battle at daras, refused even so to retire from there, until rufinus, coming into the presence of cabades, spoke as follows: "o king, i have been sent by thy brother, who reproaches thee with a just reproach, because the persians for no righteous cause have come in arms into his land. but it would be more seemly for a king who is not only mighty, but also wise as thou art, to secure a peaceful conclusion of war, rather than, when affairs have been satisfactorily settled, to inflict upon himself and his people unnecessary confusion. wherefore also i myself have come here with good hopes, in order that from now on both peoples may enjoy the blessings which come from peace." so spoke rufinus. and cabades replied as follows: "o son of silvanus, by no means try to reverse the causes, understanding as you do best of all men that you romans have been the chief cause of the whole confusion. for we have taken the caspian gates to the advantage of both persians and romans, after forcing out the barbarians there, since anastasius, the emperor of the romans, as you yourself doubtless know, when the opportunity was offered him to buy them with money, was not willing to do so, in order that he might not be compelled to squander great sums of money in behalf of both nations by keeping an army there perpetually. and since that time we have stationed that great army there, and have supported it up to the present time, thereby giving you the privilege of inhabiting the land unplundered as far as concerns the barbarians on that side, and of holding your own possessions with complete freedom from trouble. but as if this were not sufficient for you, you have also made a great city, daras, as a stronghold against the persians, although this was explicitly forbidden in the treaty which anatolius arranged with the persians; and as a result of this it is necessary for the persian state to be afflicted with the difficulties and the expense of two armies, the one in order that the massagetae may not be able fearlessly to plunder the land of both of us, and the other in order that we may check your inroads. when lately we made a protest regarding these matters and demanded that one of two things should be done by you, either that the army sent to the caspian gates should be sent by both of us, or that the city of daras should be dismantled, you refused to understand what was said, but saw fit to strengthen your plot against the persians by a greater injury, if we remember correctly the building of the fort in mindouos[ ]. and even now the romans may choose peace, or they may elect war, by either doing justice to us or going against our rights. for never will the persians lay down their arms, until the romans either help them in guarding the gates, as is just and right, or dismantle the city of daras." with these words cabades dismissed the ambassador, dropping the hint that he was willing to take money from the romans and have done with the causes of the war. this was reported to the emperor by rufinus when he came to byzantium. [ a.d.] hermogenes also came thither not long afterwards, and the winter came to a close; thus ended the fourth year of the reign of the emperor justinian. xvii at the opening of spring a persian army under the leadership of azarethes invaded the roman territory. they were fifteen thousand strong, all horsemen. with them was alamoundaras, son of saccice, with a very large body of saracens. but this invasion was not made by the persians in the customary manner; for they did not invade mesopotamia, as formerly, but the country called commagene of old, but now euphratesia, a point from which, as far as we know, the persians never before conducted a campaign against the romans. but why the land was called mesopotamia and why the persians refrained from making their attack at this point is what i now propose to relate. there is a mountain in armenia which is not especially precipitous, two-and-forty stades removed from theodosiopolis and lying toward the north from it. from this mountain issue two springs, forming immediately two rivers, the one on the right called the euphrates, and the other the tigris. one of these, the tigris, descends, with no deviations and with no tributaries except small ones emptying into it, straight toward the city of amida. and continuing into the country which lies to the north of this city it enters the land of assyria. but the euphrates at its beginning flows for a short distance, and is then immediately lost to sight as it goes on; it does not, however, become subterranean, but a very strange thing happens. for the water is covered by a bog of great depth, extending about fifty stades in length and twenty in breadth; and reeds grow in this mud in great abundance. but the earth there is of such a hard sort that it seems to those who chance upon it to be nothing else than solid ground, so that both pedestrians and horsemen travel over it without any fear. nay more, even wagons pass over the place in great numbers every day, but they are wholly insufficient to shake the bog or to find a weak spot in it at any point. the natives burn the reeds every year, to prevent the roads being stopped up by them, and once, when an exceedingly violent wind struck the place, it came about that the fire reached the extremities of the roots, and the water appeared at a small opening; but in a short time the ground closed again, and gave the spot the same appearance which it had had before. from there the river proceeds into the land called celesene, where was the sanctuary of artemis among the taurians, from which they say iphigenia, daughter of agamemnon, fled with orestes and pylades, bearing the statue of artemis. for the other temple which has existed even to my day in the city of comana is not the one "among the taurians." but i shall explain how this temple came into being. when orestes had departed in haste from the taurians with his sister, it so happened that he contracted some disease. and when he made inquiry about the disease they say that the oracle responded that his trouble would not abate until he built a temple to artemis in a spot such as the one among the taurians, and there cut off his hair and named the city after it. so then orestes, going about the country there, came to pontus, and saw a mountain which rose steep and towering, while below along the extremities of the mountain flowed the river iris. orestes, therefore, supposing at that time that this was the place indicated to him by the oracle, built there a great city and the temple of artemis, and, shearing off his hair, named after it the city which even up to the present time has been called comana. the story goes on that after orestes had done these things, the disease continued to be as violent as before, if not even more so. then the man perceived that he was not satisfying the oracle by doing these things, and he again went about looking everywhere and found a certain spot in cappadocia very closely resembling the one among the taurians. i myself have often seen this place and admired it exceedingly, and have imagined that i was in the land of the taurians. for this mountain resembles the other remarkably, since the taurus is here also and the river sarus is similar to the euphrates there. so orestes built in that place an imposing city and two temples, the one to artemis and the other to his sister iphigenia, which the christians have made sanctuaries for themselves, without changing their structure at all. this is called even now golden comana, being named from the hair of orestes, which they say he cut off there and thus escaped from his affliction. but some say that this disease from which he escaped was nothing else than that of madness which seized him after he had killed his own mother. but i shall return to the previous narrative. from tauric armenia and the land of celesene the river euphrates, flowing to the right of the tigris, flows around an extensive territory, and since many rivers join it and among them the arsinus, whose copious stream flows down from the land of the so-called persarmenians, it becomes naturally a great river, and flows into the land of the people anciently called white syrians but now known as the lesser armenians, whose first city, melitene, is one of great importance. from there it flows past samosata and hierapolis and all the towns in that region as far as the land of assyria, where the two rivers unite with each other into one stream which bears the name of the tigris. the land which lies outside the river euphrates, beginning with samosata, was called in ancient times commagene, but now it is named after the river[ ]. but the land inside the river, that namely which is between it and the tigris, is appropriately named mesopotamia; however, a portion of it is called not only by this name, but also by certain others. for the land as far as the city of amida has come to be called armenia by some, while edessa together with the country around it is called osroene, after osroes, a man who was king in that place in former times, when the men of this country were in alliance with the persians. after the time, therefore, when the persians had taken from the romans the city of nisibis and certain other places in mesopotamia, whenever they were about to make an expedition against the romans, they disregarded the land outside the river euphrates, which was for the most part unwatered and deserted by men, and gathered themselves here with no trouble, since they were in a land which was their own and which lay very close to the inhabited land of their enemy, and from here they always made their invasions. when the mirranes[ ], defeated in battle[ ] and with the greater part of his men lost, came back to the persian land with the remainder of his army, he received bitter punishment at the hands of king cabades. for he took away from him a decoration which he was accustomed to bind upon the hair of his head, an ornament wrought of gold and pearls. now this is a great dignity among the persians, second only to the kingly honour. for there it is unlawful to wear a gold ring or girdle or brooch or anything else whatsoever, except a man be counted worthy to do so by the king. thereafter cabades began to consider in what manner he himself should make an expedition against the romans. for after the mirranes had failed in the manner i have told, he felt confidence in no one else. while he was completely at a loss as to what he should do, alamoundaras, the king of the saracens, came before him and said: "not everything, o master, should be entrusted to fortune, nor should one believe that all wars ought to be successful. for this is not likely and besides it is not in keeping with the course of human events, but this idea is most unfortunate for those who are possessed by it. for when men who expect that all the good things will come to them fail at any time, if it so happen, they are distressed more than is seemly by the very hope which wrongly led them on. therefore, since men have not always confidence in fortune, they do not enter into the danger of war in a straightforward way, even if they boast that they surpass the enemy in every respect, but by deception and divers devices they exert themselves to circumvent their opponents. for those who assume the risk of an even struggle have no assurance of victory. now, therefore, o king of kings, neither be thus distressed by the misfortune which has befallen mirranes, nor desire again to make trial of fortune. for in mesopotamia and the land of osroene, as it is called, since it is very close to thy boundaries, the cities are very strong above all others, and now they contain a multitude of soldiers such as never before, so that if we go there the contest will not prove a safe one; but in the land which lies outside the river euphrates, and in syria which adjoins it, there is neither a fortified city nor an army of any importance. for this i have often heard from the saracens sent as spies to these parts. there too, they say, is the city of antioch, in wealth and size and population the first of all the cities of the eastern roman empire; and this city is unguarded and destitute of soldiers. for the people of this city care for nothing else than fêtes and luxurious living, and their constant rivalries with each other in the theatres. accordingly, if we go against them unexpectedly, it is not at all unlikely that we shall capture the city by a sudden attack, and that we shall return to the land of the persians without having met any hostile army, and before the troops in mesopotamia have learned what has happened. as for lack of water or of any kind of provisions, let no such thought occur to thee; for i myself shall lead the army wherever it shall seem best." when cabades heard this he could neither oppose nor distrust the plan. for alamoundaras was most discreet and well experienced in matters of warfare, thoroughly faithful to the persians, and unusually energetic,--a man who for a space of fifty years forced the roman state to bend the knee. for beginning from the boundaries of aegypt and as far as mesopotamia he plundered the whole country, pillaging one place after another, burning the buildings in his track and making captives of the population by the tens of thousands on each raid, most of whom he killed without consideration, while he gave up the others for great sums of money. and he was confronted by no one at all. for he never made his inroad without looking about, but so suddenly did he move and so very opportunely for himself, that, as a rule, he was already off with all the plunder when the generals and the soldiers were beginning to learn what had happened and to gather themselves against him. if, indeed, by any chance, they were able to catch him, this barbarian would fall upon his pursuers while still unprepared and not in battle array, and would rout and destroy them with no trouble; and on one occasion he made prisoners of all the soldiers who were pursuing him together with their officers. these officers were timostratus, the brother of rufinus, and john, the son of lucas, whom he gave up indeed later, thereby gaining for himself no mean or trivial wealth. and, in a word, this man proved himself the most difficult and dangerous enemy of all to the romans. the reason was this, that alamoundaras, holding the position of king, ruled alone over all the saracens in persia, and he was always able to make his inroad with the whole army wherever he wished in the roman domain; and neither any commander of roman troops, whom they call "duces," nor any leader of the saracens allied with the romans, who are called "phylarchs," was strong enough with his men to array himself against alamoundaras; for the troops stationed in the different districts were not a match in battle for the enemy. [ a.d.] for this reason the emperor justinian put in command of as many clans as possible arethas, the son of gabalas, who ruled over the saracens of arabia, and bestowed upon him the dignity of king, a thing which among the romans had never before been done. however alamoundaras continued to injure the romans just as much as before, if not more, since arethas was either extremely unfortunate in every inroad and every conflict, or else he turned traitor as quickly as he could. for as yet we know nothing certain about him. in this way it came about that alamoundaras, with no one to stand against him, plundered the whole east for an exceedingly long time, for he lived to a very advanced age. xviii this man's suggestion at that time therefore pleased cabades, and he chose out fifteen thousand men, putting in command of them azarethes, a persian, who was an exceptionally able warrior, and he bade alamoundaras lead the expedition. so they crossed the river euphrates in assyria, and, after passing over some uninhabited country, they suddenly and unexpectedly threw their forces into the land of the so-called commagenae. this was the first invasion made by the persians from this point into roman soil, as far as we know from tradition or by any other means, and it paralyzed all the romans with fear by its unexpectedness. and when this news came to the knowledge of belisarius, at first he was at a loss, but afterwards he decided to go to the rescue with all speed. so he established a sufficient garrison in each city in order that cabades with another hostile army might not come there and find the towns of mesopotamia utterly unguarded, and himself with the rest of the army went to meet the invasion; and crossing the river euphrates they moved forward in great haste. now the roman army amounted to about twenty thousand foot and horse, and among them not less than two thousand were isaurians. the commanders of cavalry were all the same ones who had previously fought the battle at daras with mirranes and the persians, while the infantry were commanded by one of the body-guards of the emperor justinian, peter by name. the isaurians, however, were under the command of longinus and stephanacius. arethas also came there to join them with the saracen army. when they reached the city of chalcis, they encamped and remained there, since they learned that the enemy were in a place called gabboulon, one hundred and ten stades away from chalcis. when this became known to alamoundaras and azarethes, they were terrified at the danger, and no longer continued their advance, but decided to retire homeward instantly. accordingly they began to march back, with the river euphrates on the left, while the roman army was following in the rear. and in the spot where the persians bivouacked each night the romans always tarried on the following night. for belisarius purposely refused to allow the army to make any longer march because he did not wish to come to an engagement with the enemy, but he considered that it was sufficient for them that the persians and alamoundaras, after invading the land of the romans, should retire from it in such a fashion, betaking themselves to their own land without accomplishing anything. and because of this all secretly mocked him, both officers and soldiers, but not a man reproached him to his face. finally the persians made their bivouac on the bank of the euphrates just opposite the city of callinicus. from there they were about to march through a country absolutely uninhabited by man, and thus to quit the land of the romans; for they purposed no longer to proceed as before, keeping to the bank of the river. the romans had passed the night in the city of sura, and, removing from there, they came upon the enemy just in the act of preparing for the departure. [ap. , ] now the feast of easter was near and would take place on the following day; this feast is reverenced by the christians above all others, and on the day before it they are accustomed to refrain from food and drink not only throughout the day, but for a large part of the night also they continue the fast. then, therefore, belisarius, seeing that all his men were passionately eager to go against the enemy, wished to persuade them to give up this idea (for this course had been counselled by hermogenes also, who had come recently on an embassy from the emperor); he accordingly called together all who were present and spoke as follows: "o romans, whither are you rushing? and what has happened to you that you are purposing to choose for yourselves a danger which is not necessary? men believe that there is only one victory which is unalloyed, namely to suffer no harm at the hands of the enemy, and this very thing has been given us in the present instance by fortune and by the fear of us that overpowers our foes. therefore it is better to enjoy the benefit of our present blessings than to seek them when they have passed. for the persians, led on by many hopes, undertook an expedition against the romans, and now, with everything lost, they have beaten a hasty retreat. so that if we compel them against their will to abandon their purpose of withdrawing and to come to battle with us, we shall win no advantage whatsoever if we are victorious,--for why should one rout a fugitive?--while if we are unfortunate, as may happen, we shall both be deprived of the victory which we now have, not robbed of it by the enemy, but flinging it away ourselves, and also we shall abandon the land of the emperor to lie open hereafter to the attacks of the enemy without defenders. moreover this also is worth your consideration, that god is always accustomed to succour men in dangers which are necessary, not in those which they choose for themselves. and apart from this it will come about that those who have nowhere to turn will play the part of brave men even against their will, while the obstacles which are to be met by us in entering the engagement are many; for a large number of you have come on foot and all of us are fasting. i refrain from mentioning that some even now have not arrived." so spoke belisarius. but the army began to insult him, not in silence nor with any concealment, but they came shouting into his presence, and called him weak and a destroyer of their zeal; and even some of the officers joined with the soldiers in this offence, thus displaying the extent of their daring. and belisarius, in astonishment at their shamelessness, changed his exhortation and now seemed to be urging them on against the enemy and drawing them up for battle, saying that he had not known before their eagerness to fight, but that now he was of good courage and would go against the enemy with a better hope. he then formed the phalanx with a single front, disposing his men as follows: on the left wing by the river he stationed all the infantry, while on the right where the ground rose sharply he placed arethas and all his saracens; he himself with the cavalry took his position in the centre. thus the romans arrayed themselves. and when azarethes saw the enemy gathering in battle line, he exhorted his men with the following words: "persians as you are, no one would deny that you would not give up your valour in exchange for life, if a choice of the two should be offered. but i say that not even if you should wish, is it within your power to make the choice between the two. for as for men who have the opportunity to escape from danger and live in dishonour it is not at all unnatural that they should, if they wish, choose what is most pleasant instead of what is best; but for men who are bound to die, either gloriously at the hands of the enemy or shamefully led to punishment by your master, it is extreme folly not to choose what is better instead of what is most shameful. now, therefore, when things stand thus, i consider that it befits you all to bear in mind not only the enemy but also your own lord and so enter this battle." after azarethes also had uttered these words of exhortation, he stationed the phalanx opposite his opponents, assigning the persians the right wing and the saracens the left. straightway both sides began the fight, and the battle was exceedingly fierce. for the arrows, shot from either side in very great numbers, caused great loss of life in both armies, while some placed themselves in the interval between the armies and made a display of valorous deeds against each other, and especially among the persians they were falling by the arrows in great numbers. for while their missiles were incomparably more frequent, since the persians are almost all bowmen and they learn to make their shots much more rapidly than any other men, still the bows which sent the arrows were weak and not very tightly strung, so that their missiles, hitting a corselet, perhaps, or helmet or shield of a roman warrior, were broken off and had no power to hurt the man who was hit. the roman bowmen are always slower indeed, but inasmuch as their bows are extremely stiff and very tightly strung, and one might add that they are handled by stronger men, they easily slay much greater numbers of those they hit than do the persians, for no armour proves an obstacle to the force of their arrows. now already two-thirds of the day had passed, and the battle was still even. then by mutual agreement all the best of the persian army advanced to attack the roman right wing, where arethas and the saracens had been stationed. but they broke their formation and moved apart, so that they got the reputation of having betrayed the romans to the persians. for without awaiting the oncoming enemy they all straightway beat a hasty retreat. so the persians in this way broke through the enemy's line and immediately got in the rear of the roman cavalry. thus the romans, who were already exhausted both by the march and the labour of the battle,--and besides this they were all fasting so far on in the day,--now that they were assailed by the enemy on both sides, held out no longer, but the most of them in full flight made their way to the islands in the river which were close by, while some also remained there and performed deeds both amazing and remarkable against the enemy. among these was ascan who, after killing many of the notables among the persians, was gradually hacked to pieces and finally fell, leaving to the enemy abundant reason to remember him. and with him eight hundred others perished after shewing themselves brave men in this struggle, and almost all the isaurians fell with their leaders, without even daring to lift their weapons against the enemy. for they were thoroughly inexperienced in this business, since they had recently left off farming and entered into the perils of warfare, which before that time were unknown to them. and yet just before these very men had been most furious of all for battle because of their ignorance of warfare, and were then reproaching belisarius with cowardice. they were not in fact all isaurians but the majority of them were lycaones. belisarius with some few men remained there, and as long as he saw ascan and his men holding out, he also in company with those who were with him held back the enemy; but when some of ascan's troops had fallen, and the others had turned to flee wherever they could, then at length he too fled with his men and came to the phalanx of infantry, who with peter were still fighting, although not many in number now, since the most of them too had fled. there he himself gave up his horse and commanded all his men to do the same thing and on foot with the others to fight off the oncoming enemy. and those of the persians who were following the fugitives, after pursuing for only a short distance, straightway returned and rushed upon the infantry and belisarius with all the others. then the romans turned their backs to the river so that no movement to surround them might be executed by the enemy, and as best they could under the circumstances were defending themselves against their assailants. and again the battle became fierce, although the two sides were not evenly matched in strength; for foot-soldiers, and a very few of them, were fighting against the whole persian cavalry. nevertheless the enemy were not able either to rout them or in any other way to overpower them. for standing shoulder to shoulder they kept themselves constantly massed in a small space, and they formed with their shields a rigid, unyielding barricade, so that they shot at the persians more conveniently than they were shot at by them. many a time after giving up, the persians would advance against them determined to break up and destroy their line, but they always retired again from the assault unsuccessful. for their horses, annoyed by the clashing of the shields, reared up and made confusion for themselves and their riders. thus both sides continued the struggle until it had become late in the day. and when night had already come on, the persians withdrew to their camp, and belisarius accompanied by some few men found a freight-boat and crossed over to the island in the river, while the other romans reached the same place by swimming. on the following day many freight-boats were brought to the romans from the city of callinicus and they were conveyed thither in them, and the persians, after despoiling the dead, all departed homeward. however they did not find their own dead less numerous than the enemy's. when azarethes reached persia with his army, although he had prospered in the battle, he found cabades exceedingly ungrateful, for the following reason. it is a custom among the persians that, when they are about to march against any of their foes, the king sits on the royal throne, and many baskets are set there before him; and the general also is present who is expected to lead the army against the enemy; then the army passes along before the king, one man at a time, and each of them throws one weapon into the baskets; after this they are sealed with the king's seal and preserved; and when this army returns to persia, each one of the soldiers takes one weapon out of the baskets. a count is then made by those whose office it is to do so of all the weapons which have not been taken by the men, and they report to the king the number of the soldiers who have not returned, and in this way it becomes evident how many have perished in the war. thus the law has stood from of old among the persians. now when azarethes came into the presence of the king, cabades enquired of him whether he came back with any roman fortress won over to their side, for he had marched forth with alamoundaras against the romans, with the purpose of subduing antioch. and azarethes said that he had captured no fortress, but that he had conquered the romans and belisarius in battle. so cabades bade the army of azarethes pass by, and from the baskets each man took out a weapon just as was customary. but since many weapons were left, cabades rebuked azarethes for the victory and thereafter ranked him among the most unworthy. so the victory had this conclusion for azarethes. xix at that time the idea occurred to the emperor justinian to ally with himself the aethiopians and the homeritae, in order to injure the persians. i shall now first explain what part of the earth these nations occupy, and then i shall point out in what manner the emperor hoped that they would be of help to the romans. the boundaries of palestine extend toward the east to the sea which is called the red sea. now this sea, beginning at india, comes to an end at this point in the roman domain. and there is a city called aelas on its shore, where the sea comes to an end, as i have said, and becomes a very narrow gulf. and as one sails into the sea from there, the egyptian mountains lie on the right, extending toward the south; on the other side a country deserted by men extends northward to an indefinite distance; and the land on both sides is visible as one sails in as far as the island called iotabe, not less than one thousand stades distant from the city of aelas. on this island hebrews had lived from of old in autonomy, but in the reign of this justinian they have become subject to the romans. from there on there comes a great open sea. and those who sail into this part of it no longer see the land on the right, but they always anchor along the left coast when night comes on. for it is impossible to navigate in the darkness on this sea, since it is everywhere full of shoals. but there are harbours there and great numbers of them, not made by the hand of man, but by the natural contour of the land, and for this reason it is not difficult for mariners to find anchorage wherever they happen to be. this coast[ ] immediately beyond the boundaries of palestine is held by saracens, who have been settled from of old in the palm groves. these groves are in the interior, extending over a great tract of land, and there absolutely nothing else grows except palm trees. the emperor justinian had received these palm groves as a present from abochorabus, the ruler of the saracens there, and he was appointed by the emperor captain over the saracens in palestine. and he guarded the land from plunder constantly, for both to the barbarians over whom he ruled and no less to the enemy, abochorabus always seemed a man to be feared and an exceptionally energetic fellow. formally, therefore, the emperor holds the palm groves, but for him really to possess himself of any of the country there is utterly impossible. for a land completely destitute of human habitation and extremely dry lies between, extending to the distance of a ten days' journey; moreover the palm groves themselves are by no means worth anything, and abochorabus only gave the form of a gift, and the emperor accepted it with full knowledge of the fact. so much then for the palm groves. adjoining this people there are other saracens in possession of the coast, who are called maddeni and who are subjects of the homeritae. these homeritae dwell in the land on the farther side of them on the shore of the sea. and beyond them many other nations are said to be settled as far as the man-eating saracens. beyond these are the nations of india. but regarding these matters let each one speak as he may wish. about opposite the homeritae on the opposite mainland dwell the aethiopians who are called auxomitae, because their king resides in the city of auxomis. and the expanse of sea which lies between is crossed in a voyage of five days and nights, when a moderately favouring wind blows. for here they are accustomed to navigate by night also, since there are no shoals at all in these parts; this portion of the sea has been called the red sea by some. for the sea which one traverses beyond this point as far as the shore and the city of aelas has received the name of the arabian gulf, inasmuch as the country which extends from here to the limits of the city of gaza used to be called in olden times arabia, since the king of the arabs had his palace in early times in the city of petrae. now the harbour of the homeritae from which they are accustomed to put to sea for the voyage to aethiopia is called bulicas; and at the end of the sail across the sea they always put in at the harbour of the adulitae. but the city of adulis is removed from the harbour a distance of twenty stades (for it lacks only so much of being on the sea), while from the city of auxomis it is a journey of twelve days. all the boats which are found in india and on this sea are not made in the same manner as are other ships. for neither are they smeared with pitch, nor with any other substance, nor indeed are the planks fastened together by iron nails going through and through, but they are bound together with a kind of cording. the reason is not as most persons suppose, that there are certain rocks there which draw the iron to themselves (for witness the fact that when the roman vessels sail from aelas into this sea, although they are fitted with much iron, no such thing has ever happened to them), but rather because the indians and the aethiopians possess neither iron nor any other thing suitable for such purposes. furthermore, they are not even able to buy any of these things from the romans since this is explicitly forbidden to all by law; for death is the punishment for one who is caught. such then is the description of the so-called red sea[ ] and of the land which lies on either side of it. from the city of auxomis to the aegyptian boundaries of the roman domain, where the city called elephantine is situated, is a journey of thirty days for an unencumbered traveller. within that space many nations are settled, and among them the blemyes and the nobatae, who are very large nations. but the blemyes dwell in the central portion of the country, while the nobatae possess the territory about the river nile. formerly this was not the limit of the roman empire, but it lay beyond there as far as one would advance in a seven days' journey; but the roman emperor diocletian came there, and observed that the tribute from these places was of the smallest possible account, since the land is at that point extremely narrow (for rocks rise to an exceedingly great height at no great distance from the nile and spread over the rest of the country), while a very large body of soldiers had been stationed there from of old, the maintenance of which was an excessive burden upon the public; and at the same time the nobatae who formerly dwelt about the city of oasis used to plunder the whole region; so he persuaded these barbarians to move from their own habitations, and to settle along the river nile, promising to bestow upon them great cities and land both extensive and incomparably better than that which they had previously occupied. for in this way he thought that they would no longer harass the country about oasis at least, and that they would possess themselves of the land given them, as being their own, and would probably beat off the blemyes and the other barbarians. and since this pleased the nobatae, they made the migration immediately, just as diocletian directed them, and took possession of all the roman cities and the land on both sides of the river beyond the city of elephantine. then it was that this emperor decreed that to them and to the blemyes a fixed sum of gold should be given every year with the stipulation that they should no longer plunder the land of the romans. and they receive this gold even up to my time, but none the less they overrun the country there. thus it seems that with all barbarians there is no means of compelling them to keep faith with the romans except through the fear of soldiers to hold them in check. and yet this emperor went so far as to select a certain island in the river nile close to the city of elephantine and there construct a very strong fortress in which he established certain temples and altars for the romans and these barbarians in common, and he settled priests of both nations in this fortress, thinking that the friendship between them would be secure by reason of their sharing the things sacred to them. and for this reason he named the place philae. now both these nations, the blemyes and the nobatae, believe in all the gods in which the greeks believe, and they also reverence isis and osiris, and not least of all priapus. but the blemyes are accustomed also to sacrifice human beings to the sun. these sanctuaries in philae were kept by these barbarians even up to my time, but the emperor justinian decided to tear them down. accordingly narses, a persarmenian by birth, whom i have mentioned before as having deserted to the romans[ ], being commander of the troops there, tore down the sanctuaries at the emperor's order, and put the priests under guard and sent the statues to byzantium. but i shall return to the previous narrative. xx at about the time of this war hellestheaeus, the king of the aethiopians, who was a christian and a most devoted adherent of this faith, discovered that a number of the homeritae on the opposite mainland were oppressing the christians there outrageously; many of these rascals were jews, and many of them held in reverence the old faith which men of the present day call hellenic. he therefore collected a fleet of ships and an army and came against them, and he conquered them in battle and slew both the king and many of the homeritae. he then set up in his stead a christian king, a homerite by birth, by name esimiphaeus, and, after ordaining that he should pay a tribute to the aethiopians every year, he returned to his home. in this aethiopian army many slaves and all who were readily disposed to crime were quite unwilling to follow the king back, but were left behind and remained there because of their desire for the land of the homeritae; for it is an extremely goodly land. these fellows at a time not long after this, in company with certain others, rose against the king esimiphaeus and put him in confinement in one of the fortresses there, and established another king over the homeritae, abramus by name. now this abramus was a christian, but a slave of a roman citizen who was engaged in the business of shipping in the city of adulis in aethiopia. when hellestheaeus learned this, he was eager to punish abramus together with those who had revolted with him for their injustice to esimiphaeus, and he sent against them an army of three thousand men with one of his relatives as commander. this army, once there, was no longer willing to return home, but they wished to remain where they were in a goodly land, and so without the knowledge of their commander they opened negotiations with abramus; then when they came to an engagement with their opponents, just as the fighting began, they killed their commander and joined the ranks of the enemy, and so remained there. but hellestheaeus was greatly moved with anger and sent still another army against them; this force engaged with abramus and his men, and, after suffering a severe defeat in the battle, straightway returned home. thereafter the king of the aethiopians became afraid, and sent no further expeditions against abramus. after the death of hellestheaeus, abramus agreed to pay tribute to the king of the aethiopians who succeeded him, and in this way he strengthened his rule. but this happened at a later time. at that time, when hellestheaeus was reigning over the aethiopians, and esimiphaeus over the homeritae, the emperor justinian sent an ambassador, julianus, demanding that both nations on account of their community of religion should make common cause with the romans in the war against the persians; for he purposed that the aethiopians, by purchasing silk from india and selling it among the romans, might themselves gain much money, while causing the romans to profit in only one way, namely, that they be no longer compelled to pay over their money to their enemy. (this is the silk of which they are accustomed to make the garments which of old the greeks called medic, but which at the present time they name "seric"[ ]). as for the homeritae, it was desired that they should establish caïsus, the fugitive, as captain over the maddeni, and with a great army of their own people and of the maddene saracens make an invasion into the land of the persians. this caïsus was by birth of the captain's rank and an exceptionally able warrior, but he had killed one of the relatives of esimiphaeus and was a fugitive in a land which is utterly destitute of human habitation. so each king, promising to put this demand into effect, dismissed the ambassador, but neither one of them did the things agreed upon by them. for it was impossible for the aethiopians to buy silk from the indians, for the persian merchants always locate themselves at the very harbours where the indian ships first put in, (since they inhabit the adjoining country), and are accustomed to buy the whole cargoes; and it seemed to the homeritae a difficult thing to cross a country which was a desert and which extended so far that a long time was required for the journey across it, and then to go against a people much more warlike than themselves. later on abramus too, when at length he had established his power most securely, promised the emperor justinian many times to invade the land of persia, but only once began the journey and then straightway turned back. such then were the relations which the romans had with the aethiopians and the homeritae. xxi hermogenes, as soon as the battle on the euphrates had taken place, came before cabades to negotiate with him, but he accomplished nothing regarding the peace on account of which he had come, since he found him still swelling with rage against the romans; for this reason he returned unsuccessful. and belisarius came to byzantium at the summons of the emperor, having been removed from the office which he held, in order that he might march against the vandals; but sittas, as had been decreed by the emperor justinian, went to the east in order to guard that portion of the empire. and the persians once more invaded mesopotamia with a great army under command of chanaranges and aspebedes and mermeroes. since no one dared to engage with them, they made camp and began the siege of martyropolis, where bouzes and bessas had been stationed in command of the garrison. this city lies in the land called sophanene, two hundred and forty stades distant from the city of amida toward the north; it is just on the river nymphius which divides the land of the romans and the persians. so the persians began to assail the fortifications, and, while the besieged at first withstood them manfully, it did not seem likely that they would hold out long. for the circuit-wall was quite easily assailable in most parts, and could be captured very easily by a persian siege, and besides they did not have a sufficient supply of provisions, nor indeed had they engines of war nor anything else that was of any value for defending themselves. meanwhile sittas and the roman army came to a place called attachas, one hundred stades distant from martyropolis, but they did not dare to advance further, but established their camp and remained there. hermogenes also was with them, coming again as ambassador from byzantium. at this point the following event took place. it has been customary from ancient times both among the romans and the persians to maintain spies at public expense; these men are accustomed to go secretly among the enemy, in order that they may investigate accurately what is going on, and may then return and report to the rulers. many of these men, as is natural, exert themselves to act in a spirit of loyalty to their nation, while some also betray their secrets to the enemy. at that time a certain spy who had been sent from the persians to the romans came into the presence of the emperor justinian and revealed many things which were taking place among the barbarians, and, in particular, that the nation of the massagetae, in order to injure the romans, were on the very point of going out into the land of persia, and that from there they were prepared to march into the territory of the romans, and unite with the persian army. when the emperor heard this, having already a proof of the man's truthfulness to him, he presented him with a handsome sum of money and persuaded him to go to the persian army which was besieging the martyropolitans, and announce to the barbarians there that these massagetae had been won over with money by the roman emperor, and were about to come against them that very moment. the spy carried out these instructions, and coming to the army of the barbarians he announced to chanaranges and the others that an army of huns hostile to them would at no distant time come to the romans. and when they heard this, they were seized with terror, and were at a loss how to deal with the situation. at this juncture it came about that cabades became seriously ill, and he called to him one of the persians who were in closest intimacy with him, mebodes by name, and conversed with him concerning chosroes and the kingdom, and said he feared the persians would make a serious attempt to disregard some of the things which had been decided upon by him. but mebodes asked him to leave the declaration of his purpose in writing, and bade him be confident that the persians would never dare to disregard it. so cabades set it down plainly that chosroes should become king over the persians. the document was written by mebodes himself, and cabades immediately passed from among men. [sept. , ] and when everything had been performed as prescribed by law in the burial of the king, then caoses, confident by reason of the law, tried to lay claim to the office, but mebodes stood in his way, asserting that no one ought to assume the royal power by his own initiative but by vote of the persian notables. so caoses committed the decision in the matter to the magistrates, supposing that there would be no opposition to him from there. but when all the persian notables had been gathered together for this purpose and were in session, mebodes read the document and stated the purpose of cabades regarding chosroes, and all, calling to mind the virtue of cabades, straightway declared chosroes king of the persians. thus then chosroes secured the power. but at martyropolis, sittas and hermogenes were in fear concerning the city, since they were utterly unable to defend it in its peril, and they sent certain men to the enemy, who came before the generals and spoke as follows: "it has escaped your own notice that you are becoming wrongfully an obstacle to the king of the persians and to the blessings of peace and to each state. for ambassadors sent from the emperor are even now present in order that they may go to the king of the persians and there settle the differences and establish a treaty with him; but do you as quickly as possible remove from the land of the romans and permit the ambassadors to act in the manner which will be of advantage to both peoples. for we are ready also to give as hostages men of repute concerning these very things, to prove that they will be actually accomplished at no distant date." such were the words of the ambassadors of the romans. it happened also that a messenger came to them from the palace, who brought them word that cabades had died and that chosroes, son of cabades, had become king over the persians, and that in this way the situation had become unsettled. and as a result of this the generals heard the words of the romans gladly, since they feared also the attack of the huns. the romans therefore straightway gave as hostages martinus and one of the body-guards of sittas, senecius by name; so the persians broke up the siege and made their departure promptly. and the huns not long afterward invaded the land of the romans, but since they did not find the persian army there, they made their raid a short one, and then all departed homeward. xxii straightway rufinus and alexander and thomas came to act as ambassadors with hermogenes, and they all came before the persian king at the river tigris. and when chosroes saw them, he released the hostages. then the ambassadors coaxed chosroes, and spoke many beguiling words most unbecoming to roman ambassadors. by this treatment chosroes became tractable, and agreed to establish a peace with them that should be without end for the price of one hundred and ten "centenaria," on condition that the commander of troops in mesopotamia should be no longer at daras, but should spend all his time in constantina, as was customary in former times; but the fortresses in lazica he refused to give back, although he himself demanded that he should receive back from the romans both pharangium and the fortress of bolum. (now the "centenarium" weighs one hundred pounds, for which reason it is so called; for the romans call one hundred "centum"). he demanded that this gold be given him, in order that the romans might not be compelled either to tear down the city of daras or to share the garrison at the caspian gates with the persians[ ]. however the ambassadors, while approving the rest, said that they were not able to concede the fortresses, unless they should first make enquiry of the emperor concerning them. it was decided, accordingly, that rufinus should be sent concerning them to byzantium, and that the others should wait until he should return. and it was arranged with rufinus that seventy days' time be allowed until he should arrive. when rufinus reached byzantium and reported to the emperor what chosroes' decision was concerning the peace, the emperor commanded that the peace be concluded by them on these terms. in the meantime, however, a report which was not true reached persia saying that the emperor justinian had become enraged and put rufinus to death. chosroes indeed was much perturbed by this, and, already filled with anger, he advanced against the romans with his whole army. but rufinus met him on the way as he was returning not far from the city of nisibis. therefore they proceeded to this city themselves, and, since they were about to establish the peace, the ambassadors began to convey the money thither. but the emperor justinian was already repenting that he had given up the strong holds of lazica, and he wrote a letter to the ambassadors expressly commanding them by no means to hand them over to the persians. for this reason chosroes no longer saw fit to make the treaty; and then it came to the mind of rufinus that he had counselled more speedily than safely in bringing the money into the land of persia. straightway, therefore, he threw himself on the earth, and lying prone he entreated chosroes to send the money back with them and not march immediately against the romans, but to put off the war to some other time. and chosroes bade him rise from the ground, promising that he would grant all these things. so the ambassadors with the money came to daras and the persian army marched back. then indeed the fellow-ambassadors of rufinus began to regard him with extreme suspicion themselves, and they also denounced him to the emperor, basing their judgment on the fact that chosroes had been persuaded to concede him everything which he asked of him. however, the emperor showed him no disfavour on account of this. at a time not long after this rufinus himself and hermogenes were again sent to the court of chosroes, and they immediately came to agreement with each other concerning the treaty, subject to the condition that both sides should give back all the places which each nation had wrested from the other in that war, and that there should no longer be any military post in daras; as for the iberians, it was agreed that the decision rested with them whether they should remain there in byzantium or return to their own fatherland. and there were many who remained, and many also who returned to their ancestral homes. [ a.d.] thus, then, they concluded the so-called "endless peace," when the emperor justinian was already in the sixth year of his reign. and the romans gave the persians pharangium and the fortress of bolum together with the money, and the persians gave the romans the strongholds of lazica. the persians also returned dagaris to the romans, and received in return for him another man of no mean station. this dagaris in later times often conquered the huns in battle when they had invaded the land of the romans, and drove them out; for he was an exceptionally able warrior. thus both sides in the manner described made secure the treaty between them. xxiii straightway it came about that plots were formed against both rulers by their subjects; and i shall now explain how this happened. chosroes, the son of cabades, was a man of an unruly turn of mind and strangely fond of innovations. for this reason he himself was always full of excitement and alarms, and he was an unfailing cause of similar feelings in all others. all, therefore, who were men of action among the persians, in vexation at his administration, were purposing to establish over themselves another king from the house of cabades. and since they longed earnestly for the rule of zames, which was made impossible by the law by reason of the disfigurement of his eye, as has been stated, they found upon consideration that the best course for them was to establish in power his child cabades, who bore the same name as his grandfather, while zames, as guardian of the child, should administer the affairs of the persians as he wished. so they went to zames and disclosed their plan, and, urging him on with great enthusiasm, they endeavoured to persuade him to undertake the thing. and since the plan pleased him, they were purposing to assail chosroes at the fitting moment. but the plan was discovered and came to the knowledge of the king, and thus their proceedings were stopped. for chosroes slew zames himself and all his own brothers and those of zames together with all their male offspring, and also all the persian notables who had either begun or taken part in any way in the plot against him. among these was aspebedes, the brother of chosroes' mother. cabades, however, the son of zames, he was quite unable to kill; for he was still being reared under the chanaranges, adergoudounbades. but he sent a message to the chanaranges, bidding him himself kill the boy he had reared; for he neither thought it well to shew mistrust, nor yet had he power to compel him. the chanaranges, therefore, upon hearing the commands of chosroes, was exceedingly grieved and, lamenting the misfortune, he communicated to his wife and cabades' nurse all that the king had commanded. then the woman, bursting into tears and seizing the knees of her husband, entreated him by no means to kill cabades. they therefore consulted together, and planned to bring up the child in the most secure concealment, and to send word in haste to chosroes that cabades had been put out of the world for him. and they sent word to the king to this effect, and concealed cabades in such a way that the affair did not come to the notice of any one, except varrames, their own child, and one of the servants who seemed to them to be in every way most trustworthy. but when, as time went on, cabades came of age, the chanaranges began to fear lest what had been done should be brought to light; he therefore gave cabades money and bade him depart and save himself by flight wherever he could. at that time, then, chosroes and all the others were in ignorance of the fact that the chanaranges had carried this thing through. at a later time chosroes was making an invasion into the land of colchis with a great army, as will be told in the following narrative[ ]. and he was followed by the son of this same chanaranges, varrames, who took with him a number of his servants, and among them the one who shared with him the knowledge of what had happened to cabades; while there varrames told the king everything regarding cabades, and he brought forward the servant agreeing with him in every particular. when chosroes learned this he was forthwith exceedingly angry, and he counted it a dreadful thing that he had suffered such things at the hand of a man who was his slave; and since he had no other means of getting the man under his hand he devised the following plan. when he was about to return homeward from the land of colchis, he wrote to this chanaranges that he had decided to invade the land of the romans with his whole army, not, however, by a single inroad into the country, but making two divisions of the persian army, in order that the attack might be made upon the enemy on both sides of the river euphrates. now one division of the army he himself, as was natural, would lead into the hostile land, while to no one else of his subjects would he grant the privilege of holding equal honour with the king in this matter, except to the chanaranges himself on account of his valour. it was necessary, therefore, that the chanaranges should come speedily to meet him as he returned, in order that he might confer with him and give him all the directions which would be of advantage to the army, and that he should bid his attendants travel behind him on the road. when the chanaranges received this message, he was overjoyed at the honour shown him by the king, and in complete ignorance of his own evil plight, he immediately carried out the instructions. but in the course of this journey, since he was quite unable to sustain the toil of it (for he was a very old man), he relaxed his hold on the reins and fell off his horse, breaking the bone in his leg. it was therefore necessary for him to remain there quietly and be cared for, and the king came to that place and saw him. and chosroes said to him that with his leg in such a plight it was not possible that he make the expedition with them, but that he must go to one of the fortresses in that region and receive treatment there from the physicians. thus then chosroes sent the man away on the road to death, and behind him followed the very men who were to destroy him in the fortress,--a man who was in fact as well as in name an invincible general among the persians, who had marched against twelve nations of barbarians and subjected them all to king cabades. after adergoudounbades had been removed from the world, varrames, his son, received the office of chanaranges. not long after this either cabades himself, the son of zames, or someone else who was assuming the name of cabades came to byzantium; certainly he resembled very closely in appearance cabades, the king. and the emperor justinian, though in doubt concerning him, received him with great friendliness and honoured him as the grandson of cabades. so then fared the persians who rose against chosroes. later on chosroes destroyed also mebodes for the following reason. while the king was arranging a certain important matter, he directed zaberganes who was present to call mebodes. now it happened that zaberganes was on hostile terms with mebodes. when he came to him, he found him marshalling the soldiers under his command, and he said that the king summoned him to come as quickly as possible. and mebodes promised that he would follow directly as soon as he should have arranged the matter in hand; but zaberganes, moved by his hostility to him, reported to chosroes that mebodes did not wish to come at present, claiming to have some business or other. chosroes, therefore, moved with anger, sent one of his attendants commanding mebodes to go to the tripod. now as to what this is i shall explain forthwith. an iron tripod stands always before the palace; and whenever anyone of the persians learns that the king is angry with him, it is not right for such a man to flee for refuge to a sanctuary nor to go elsewhere, but he must seat himself by this tripod and await the verdict of the king, while no one at all dares protect him. there mebodes sat in pitiable plight for many days, until he was seized and put to death at the command of chosroes. such was the final outcome of his good deeds to chosroes. xxiv [jan. , ] at this same time an insurrection broke out unexpectedly in byzantium among the populace, and, contrary to expectation, it proved to be a very serious affair, and ended in great harm to the people and to the senate, as the following account will shew. in every city the population has been divided for a long time past into the blue and the green factions; but within comparatively recent times it has come about that, for the sake of these names and the seats which the rival factions occupy in watching the games, they spend their money and abandon their bodies to the most cruel tortures, and even do not think it unworthy to die a most shameful death. and they fight against their opponents knowing not for what end they imperil themselves, but knowing well that, even if they overcome their enemy in the fight, the conclusion of the matter for them will be to be carried off straightway to the prison, and finally, after suffering extreme torture, to be destroyed. so there grows up in them against their fellow men a hostility which has no cause, and at no time does it cease or disappear, for it gives place neither to the ties of marriage nor of relationship nor of friendship, and the case is the same even though those who differ with respect to these colours be brothers or any other kin. they care neither for things divine nor human in comparison with conquering in these struggles; and it matters not whether a sacrilege is committed by anyone at all against god, or whether the laws and the constitution are violated by friend or by foe; nay even when they are perhaps ill supplied with the necessities of life, and when their fatherland is in the most pressing need and suffering unjustly, they pay no heed if only it is likely to go well with their "faction"; for so they name the bands of partisans. and even women join with them in this unholy strife, and they not only follow the men, but even resist them if opportunity offers, although they neither go to the public exhibitions at all, nor are they impelled by any other cause; so that i, for my part, am unable to call this anything except a disease of the soul. this, then, is pretty well how matters stand among the people of each and every city. but at this time the officers of the city administration in byzantium were leading away to death some of the rioters. but the members of the two factions, conspiring together and declaring a truce with each other, seized the prisoners and then straightway entered the prison and released all those who were in confinement there, whether they had been condemned on a charge of stirring up sedition, or for any other unlawful act. and all the attendants in the service of the city government were killed indiscriminately; meanwhile, all of the citizens who were sane-minded were fleeing to the opposite mainland, and fire was applied to the city as if it had fallen under the hand of an enemy. the sanctuary of sophia and the baths of zeuxippus, and the portion of the imperial residence from the propylaea as far as the so-called house of ares were destroyed by fire, and besides these both the great colonnades which extended as far as the market place which bears the name of constantine, in addition to many houses of wealthy men and a vast amount of treasure. during this time the emperor and his consort with a few members of the senate shut themselves up in the palace and remained quietly there. now the watch-word which the populace passed around to one another was nika[ ], and the insurrection has been called by this name up to the present time. the praetorian prefect at that time was john the cappadocian, and tribunianus, a pamphylian by birth, was counsellor to the emperor; this person the romans call "quaestor." one of these two men, john, was entirely without the advantages of a liberal education; for he learned nothing while attending the elementary school except his letters, and these, too, poorly enough; but by his natural ability he became the most powerful man of whom we know. for he was most capable in deciding upon what was needful and in finding a solution for difficulties. but he became the basest of all men and employed his natural power to further his low designs; neither consideration for god nor any shame before man entered into his mind, but to destroy the lives of many men for the sake of gain and to wreck whole cities was his constant concern. so within a short time indeed he had acquired vast sums of money, and he flung himself completely into the sordid life of a drunken scoundrel; for up to the time of lunch each day he would plunder the property of his subjects, and for the rest of the day occupy himself with drinking and with wanton deeds of lust. and he was utterly unable to control himself, for he ate food until he vomited, and he was always ready to steal money and more ready to bring it out and spend it. such a man then was john. tribunianus, on the other hand, both possessed natural ability and in educational attainments was inferior to none of his contemporaries; but he was extraordinarily fond of the pursuit of money and always ready to sell justice for gain; therefore every day, as a rule, he was repealing some laws and proposing others, selling off to those who requested it either favour according to their need. now as long as the people were waging this war with each other in behalf of the names of the colours, no attention was paid to the offences of these men against the constitution; but when the factions came to a mutual understanding, as has been said, and so began the sedition, then openly throughout the whole city they began to abuse the two and went about seeking them to kill. accordingly the emperor, wishing to win the people to his side, instantly dismissed both these men from office. and phocas, a patrician, he appointed praetorian prefect, a man of the greatest discretion and fitted by nature to be a guardian of justice; basilides he commanded to fill the office of quaestor, a man known among the patricians for his agreeable qualities and a notable besides. however, the insurrection continued no less violently under them. now on the fifth day of the insurrection in the late afternoon the emperor justinian gave orders to hypatius and pompeius, nephews of the late emperor, anastasius, to go home as quickly as possible, either because he suspected that some plot was being matured by them against his own person, or, it may be, because destiny brought them to this. but they feared that the people would force them to the throne (as in fact fell out), and they said that they would be doing wrong if they should abandon their sovereign when he found himself in such danger. when the emperor justinian heard this, he inclined still more to his suspicion, and he bade them quit the palace instantly. thus, then, these two men betook themselves to their homes, and, as long as it was night, they remained there quietly. but on the following day at sunrise it became known to the people that both men had quit the palace where they had been staying. so the whole population ran to them, and they declared hypatius emperor and prepared to lead him to the market-place to assume the power. but the wife of hypatius, mary, a discreet woman, who had the greatest reputation for prudence, laid hold of her husband and would not let go, but cried out with loud lamentation and with entreaties to all her kinsmen that the people were leading him on the road to death. but since the throng overpowered her, she unwillingly released her husband, and he by no will of his own came to the forum of constantine, where they summoned him to the throne; then since they had neither diadem nor anything else with which it is customary for a king to be clothed, they placed a golden necklace upon his head and proclaimed him emperor of the romans. by this time the members of the senate were assembling,--as many of them as had not been left in the emperor's residence,--and many expressed the opinion that they should go to the palace to fight. but origenes, a man of the senate, came forward and spoke as follows: "fellow romans, it is impossible that the situation which is upon us be solved in any way except by war. now war and royal power are agreed to be the greatest of all things in the world. but when action involves great issues, it refuses to be brought to a successful conclusion by the brief crisis of a moment, but this is accomplished only by wisdom of thought and energy of action, which men display for a length of time. therefore if we should go out against the enemy, our cause will hang in the balance, and we shall be taking a risk which will decide everything in a brief space of time; and, as regards the consequences of such action, we shall either fall down and worship fortune or reproach her altogether. for those things whose issue is most quickly decided, fall, as a rule, under the sway of fortune. but if we handle the present situation more deliberately, not even if we wish shall we be able to take justinian in the palace, but he will very speedily be thankful if he is allowed to flee; for authority which is ignored always loses its power, since its strength ebbs away with each day. moreover we have other palaces, both placillianae and the palace named from helen, which this emperor should make his headquarters and from there he should carry on the war and attend to the ordering of all other matters in the best possible way." so spoke origenes. but the rest, as a crowd is accustomed to do, insisted more excitedly and thought that the present moment was opportune, and not least of all hypatius (for it was fated that evil should befall him) bade them lead the way to the hippodrome. but some say that he came there purposely, being well-disposed toward the emperor. now the emperor and his court were deliberating as to whether it would be better for them if they remained or if they took to flight in the ships. and many opinions were expressed favouring either course. and the empress theodora also spoke to the following effect: "as to the belief that a woman ought not to be daring among men or to assert herself boldly among those who are holding back from fear, i consider that the present crisis most certainly does not permit us to discuss whether the matter should be regarded in this or in some other way. for in the case of those whose interests have come into the greatest danger nothing else seems best except to settle the issue immediately before them in the best possible way. my opinion then is that the present time, above all others, is inopportune for flight, even though it bring safety. for while it is impossible for a man who has seen the light not also to die, for one who has been an emperor it is unendurable to be a fugitive. may i never be separated from this purple, and may i not live that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress. if, now, it is your wish to save yourself, o emperor, there is no difficulty. for we have much money, and there is the sea, here the boats. however consider whether it will not come about after you have been saved that you would gladly exchange that safety for death. for as for myself, i approve a certain ancient saying that royalty is a good burial-shroud." when the queen had spoken thus, all were filled with boldness, and, turning their thoughts towards resistance, they began to consider how they might be able to defend themselves if any hostile force should come against them. now the soldiers as a body, including those who were stationed about the emperor's court, were neither well disposed to the emperor nor willing openly to take an active part in fighting, but were waiting for what the future would bring forth. all the hopes of the emperor were centred upon belisarius and mundus, of whom the former, belisarius, had recently returned from the persian war bringing with him a following which was both powerful and imposing, and in particular he had a great number of spearmen and guards who had received their training in battles and the perils of warfare. mundus had been appointed general of the illyrians, and by mere chance had happened to come under summons to byzantium on some necessary errand, bringing with him erulian barbarians. when hypatius reached the hippodrome, he went up immediately to where the emperor is accustomed to take his place and seated himself on the royal throne from which the emperor was always accustomed to view the equestrian and athletic contests. and from the palace mundus went out through the gate which, from the circling descent, has been given the name of the snail. belisarius meanwhile began at first to go straight up toward hypatius himself and the royal throne, and when he came to the adjoining structure where there has been a guard of soldiers from of old, he cried out to the soldiers commanding them to open the door for him as quickly as possible, in order that he might go against the tyrant. but since the soldiers had decided to support neither side, until one of them should be manifestly victorious, they pretended not to hear at all and thus put him off. so belisarius returned to the emperor and declared that the day was lost for them, for the soldiers who guarded the palace were rebelling against him. the emperor therefore commanded him to go to the so-called bronze gate and the propylaea there. so belisarius, with difficulty and not without danger and great exertion, made his way over ground covered by ruins and half-burned buildings, and ascended to the stadium. and when he had reached the blue colonnade which is on the right of the emperor's throne, he purposed to go against hypatius himself first; but since there was a small door there which had been closed and was guarded by the soldiers of hypatius who were inside, he feared lest while he was struggling in the narrow space the populace should fall upon him, and after destroying both himself and all his followers, should proceed with less trouble and difficulty against the emperor. concluding, therefore, that he must go against the populace who had taken their stand in the hippodrome--a vast multitude crowding each other in great disorder--he drew his sword from its sheath and, commanding the others to do likewise, with a shout he advanced upon them at a run. but the populace, who were standing in a mass and not in order, at the sight of armoured soldiers who had a great reputation for bravery and experience in war, and seeing that they struck out with their swords unsparingly, beat a hasty retreat. then a great outcry arose, as was natural, and mundus, who was standing not far away, was eager to join in the fight,--for he was a daring and energetic fellow--but he was at a loss as to what he should do under the circumstances; when, however, he observed that belisarius was in the struggle, he straightway made a sally into the hippodrome through the entrance which they call the gate of death. then indeed from both sides the partisans of hypatius were assailed with might and main and destroyed. when the rout had become complete and there had already been great slaughter of the populace, boraedes and justus, nephews of the emperor justinian, without anyone daring to lift a hand against them, dragged hypatius down from the throne, and, leading him in, handed him over together with pompeius to the emperor. and there perished among the populace on that day more than thirty thousand. but the emperor commanded the two prisoners to be kept in severe confinement. then, while pompeius was weeping and uttering pitiable words (for the man was wholly inexperienced in such misfortunes), hypatius reproached him at length and said that those who were about to die unjustly should not lament. for in the beginning they had been forced by the people against their will, and afterwards they had come to the hippodrome with no thought of harming the emperor. and the soldiers killed both of them on the following day and threw their bodies into the sea. the emperor confiscated all their property for the public treasury, and also that of all the other members of the senate who had sided with them. later, however, he restored to the children of hypatius and pompeius and to all others the titles which they had formerly held, and as much of their property as he had not happened to bestow upon his friends. this was the end of the insurrection in byzantium. xxv tribunianus and john were thus deprived of office, but at a later time they were both restored to the same positions. and tribunianus lived on in office many years and died of disease, suffering no further harm from anyone. for he was a smooth fellow and agreeable in every way and well able by the excellence of his education to throw into the shade his affliction of avarice. but john was oppressive and severe alike with all men, inflicting blows upon those whom he met and plundering without respect absolutely all their money; consequently in the tenth year of his office he rightly and justly atoned for his lawless conduct in the following manner. the empress theodora hated him above all others. and while he gave offence to the woman by the wrongs he committed, he was not of a mind to win her by flattery or by kindness in any way, but he openly set himself in opposition to her and kept slandering her to the emperor, neither blushing before her high station nor feeling shame because of the extraordinary love which the emperor felt for her. when the queen perceived what was being done, she purposed to slay the man, but in no way could she do this, since the emperor justinian set great store by him. and when john learned of the purpose of the queen regarding him, he was greatly terrified. and whenever he went into his chamber to sleep, he expected every night that some one of the barbarians would fall upon him to slay him; and he kept peeping out of the room and looking about the entrances and remained sleepless, although he had attached to himself many thousands of spearmen and guards, a thing which had been granted to no prefect before that time. but at daybreak, forgetting all his fears of things divine and human, he would become again a plague to all the romans both in public and in private. and he conversed commonly with sorcerers, and constantly listened to profane oracles which portended for him the imperial office, so that he was plainly walking on air and lifted up by his hopes of the royal power. but in his rascality and the lawlessness of his conduct there was no moderation or abatement. and there was in him absolutely no regard for god, and even when he went to a sanctuary to pray and to pass the night, he did not do at all as the christians are wont to do, but he clothed himself in a coarse garment appropriate to a priest of the old faith which they are now accustomed to call hellenic, and throughout that whole night mumbled out some unholy words which he had practised, praying that the mind of the emperor might be still more under his control, and that he himself might be free from harm at the hands of all men. at this time belisarius, after subjugating italy, came to byzantium at the summons of the emperor with his wife antonina, in order to march against the persians[ ]. and while in the eyes of all others he was an honoured and distinguished person, as was natural, john alone was hostile to him and worked actively against him, for no other reason than that he drew the hatred of all to himself, while belisarius enjoyed an unequalled popularity. and it was on him that the hope of the romans centred as he marched once more against the persians, leaving his wife in byzantium. now antonina, the wife of belisarius, (for she was the most capable person in the world to contrive the impossible,) purposing to do a favour to the empress, devised the following plan. john had a daughter, euphemia, who had a great reputation for discretion, but a very young woman and for this reason very susceptible; this girl was exceedingly loved by her father, for she was his only child. by treating this young woman kindly for several days antonina succeeded most completely in winning her friendship, and she did not refuse to share her secrets with her. and on one occasion when she was present alone with her in her room she pretended to lament the fate which was upon her, saying that although belisarius had made the roman empire broader by a goodly measure than it had been before, and though he had brought two captive kings and so great an amount of wealth to byzantium, he found justinian ungrateful; and in other respects she slandered the government as not just. now euphemia was overjoyed by these words, for she too was hostile to the present administration by reason of her fear of the empress, and she said: "and yet, dearest friend, it is you and belisarius who are to blame for this, seeing that, though you have opportunity, you are not willing to use your power." and antonina replied quickly: "it is because we are not able, my daughter, to undertake revolutions in camp, unless some of those here at home join with us in the task. now if your father were willing, we should most easily organize this project and accomplish whatever god wills." when euphemia heard this, she promised eagerly that the suggestion would be carried out, and departing from there she immediately brought the matter before her father. and he was pleased by the message (for he inferred that this undertaking offered him a way to the fulfilment of his prophecies and to the royal power), and straightway without any hesitation he assented, and bade his child arrange that on the following day he himself should come to confer with antonina and give pledges. when antonina learned the mind of john, she wished to lead him as far as possible astray from the understanding of the truth, so she said that for the present it was inadvisable that he should meet her, for fear lest some suspicion should arise strong enough to prevent proceedings; but she was intending straightway to depart for the east to join belisarius. when, therefore, she had quit byzantium and had reached the suburb (the one called rufinianae which was the private possession of belisarius), there john should come as if to salute her and to escort her forth on the journey, and they should confer regarding matters of state and give and receive their pledges. in saying this she seemed to john to speak well, and a certain day was appointed to carry out the plan. and the empress, hearing the whole account from antonina, expressed approval of what she had planned, and by her exhortations raised her enthusiasm to a much higher pitch still. when the appointed day was at hand, antonina bade the empress farewell and departed from the city, and she went to rufinianae, as if to begin on the following day her journey to the east; hither too came john at night in order to carry out the plan which had been agreed upon. meanwhile the empress denounced to her husband the things which were being done by john to secure the tyranny, and she sent narses, the eunuch, and marcellus, the commander of the palace guards to rufinianae with numerous soldiers, in order that they might investigate what was going on, and, if they found john setting about a revolution, that they might kill the man forthwith and return. so these departed for this task. but they say that the emperor got information of what was being done and sent one of john's friends to him forbidding him on any condition to meet antonina secretly. but john (since it was fated that he should fare ill), disregarding the emperor's warning, about midnight met antonina, close by a certain wall behind which she had stationed narses and marcellus with their men that they might hear what was said. there, while john with unguarded tongue was assenting to the plans for the attack and binding himself with the most dread oaths, narses and marcellus suddenly set upon him. but in the natural confusion which resulted the body-guards of john (for they stood close by) came immediately to his side. and one of them smote marcellus with his sword, not knowing who he was, and thus john was enabled to escape with them, and reached the city with all speed. and if he had had the courage to go straightway before the emperor, i believe that he would have suffered no harm at his hand; but as it was, he fled for refuge to the sanctuary, and gave the empress opportunity to work her will against him at her pleasure. [may, ] thus, then, from being prefect he became a private citizen, and rising from that sanctuary he was conveyed to another, which is situated in the suburb of the city of cyzicus called by the cyzicenes artace. there he donned the garb of a priest, much against his will, not a bishop's gown however, but that of a presbyter, as they are called. but he was quite unwilling to perform the office of a priest lest at some time it should be a hindrance to his entering again into office; for he was by no means ready to relinquish his hopes. all his property was immediately confiscated to the public treasury, but a large proportion of this the emperor remitted to him, for he was still inclined to spare him. there it was possible for john to live, disregarding all dangers and enjoying great wealth, both that which he himself had concealed and that which by the decision of the emperor remained with him, and to indulge in luxury at his pleasure, and, if he had reasoned wisely, to consider his present lot a happy one. for this reason all the romans were exceedingly vexed with the man, because, forsooth, after proving himself the basest of all demons, contrary to his deserts he was leading a life happier than before. but god, i think, did not suffer john's retribution to end thus, but prepared for him a greater punishment. and it fell out thus. there was in cyzicus a certain bishop named eusebius, a man harsh to all who came in his way, and no less so than john; this man the cyzicenes denounced to the emperor and summoned to justice. and since they accomplished nothing inasmuch as eusebius circumvented them by his great power, certain youths agreed together and killed him in the market-place of cyzicus. now it happened that john had become especially hostile to eusebius, and hence the suspicion of the plot fell upon him. accordingly men were sent from the senate to investigate this act of pollution. and these men first confined john in a prison, and then this man who had been such a powerful prefect, and had been inscribed among the patricians and had mounted the seat of the consuls, than which nothing seems greater, at least in the roman state, they made to stand naked like any robber or footpad, and thrashing him with many blows upon his back, compelled him to tell his past life. and while john had not been clearly convicted as guilty of the murder of eusebius, it seemed that god's justice was exacting from him the penalties of the world. thereafter they stripped him of all his goods and put him naked on board a ship, being wrapped in a single cloak, and that a very rough one purchased for some few obols; and wherever the ship anchored, those who had him in charge commanded him to ask from those he met bread or obols. thus begging everywhere along the way he was conveyed to the city of antinous in aegypt. and this is now the third year during which they have been guarding him there in confinement. as for john himself, although he has fallen into such troubles, he has not relinquished his hope of royal power, but he made up his mind to denounce certain alexandrians as owing money to the public treasury. thus then john the cappadocian ten years afterward was overtaken by this punishment for his political career. xxvi at that time the emperor again designated belisarius general of the east, and, sending him to libya, gained over the country, as will be told later on in my narrative. when this information came to chosroes and the persians, they were mightily vexed, and they already repented having made peace with the romans, because they perceived that their power was extending greatly. and chosroes sent envoys to byzantium, and said that he rejoiced with the emperor justinian, and he asked with a laugh to receive his share of the spoils from libya, on the ground that the emperor would never have been able to conquer in the war with the vandals if the persians had not been at peace with him. so then justinian made a present of money to chosroes, and not long afterwards dismissed the envoys. in the city of daras the following event took place. there was a certain john there serving in a detachment of infantry; this man, in conspiracy with some few of the soldiers, but not all, took possession of the city, essaying to make himself tyrant. then he established himself in a palace as if in a citadel, and was strengthening his tyranny every day. and if it had not happened that the persians were continuing to keep peace with the romans, irreparable harm would have come from this affair to the romans. but as it was, this was prevented by the agreement which had already been reached, as i have said. on the fourth day of the tyranny some soldiers conspired together, and by the advice of mamas, the priest of the city, and anastasius, one of the notable citizens, they went up to the palace at high noon, each man hiding a small sword under his garment. and first at the door of the courtyard they found some few of the body-guards, whom they slew immediately. then they entered the men's apartment and laid hold upon the tyrant; but some say that the soldiers were not the first to do this, but that while they were still hesitating in the courtyard and trembling at the danger, a certain sausage-vendor who was with them rushed in with his cleaver and meeting john smote him unexpectedly. but the blow which had been dealt him was not a fatal one, this account goes on to say, and he fled with a great outcry and suddenly fell among these very soldiers. thus they laid hands upon the man and immediately set fire to the palace and burned it, in order that there might be left no hope from there for those making revolutions; and john they led away to the prison and bound. and one of them, fearing lest the soldiers, upon learning that the tyrant survived, might again make trouble for the city, killed john, and in this way stopped the confusion. such, then, was the progress of events touching this tyranny. footnotes: [ ] cf. _iliad_ xi. [greek: toxota, lôbêtêr, kerai aglae, parthenopipa], the only place where [greek: toxotês] occurs in homer. [ ] cf. _iliad_ v. . [ ] cf. _iliad_ viii. ; xi. . [ ] cf. _iliad_ iv. . [ ] cf. _iliad_ iv. . [ ] cf. _iliad_ xi. . [ ] the trench crossed the plain in an approximately straight line. the army of the ephthalitae were drawn up behind it, facing the advancing persians, while a few of them went out beyond the trench to draw the attack of the persians. [ ] cf. thuc. ii. , . [ ] cf. book vii. xxvi. . [ ] cf. thuc. i. . [ ] a division of no fixed number. [ ] cf. book i. ii. . [ ] modern erzeroum. [ ] _i.e._ "by force." [ ] cf. book viii. xiii. . [ ] cf. _iliad_ xxiv. ; _odyssey_ x. . [ ] lebanon. [ ] roman formation. _a--a, trench._ . bouzes and pharas. . sunicas and aigan. . john, cyril, marcellus, germanus, and dorotheus. . simmas and ascan. . belisarius and hermogenes. [illustration: roman formation.] . . (h)======= |----| =========== hill .--| . |-- . a__________| |__________a ================= [ ] cf. book i. x. . [ ] cf. book i. xii. . [ ] cf. book i. xiii. . [ ] "euphratesia"; cf. section . [ ] title meaning a patrician. see index. [ ] ch. xiv. - . [ ] the coast described here is that of arabia. [ ] rather the "arabian gulf." [ ] cf. ch. xv. . [ ] in latin _serica_, as coming from the chinese (seres). [ ] cf. chap. xvi. . [ ] cf. book ii. xvii. [ ] _i.e._ "conquer." [ ] book vi. xxx. . history of the wars: book ii the persian war (_continued_) history of the wars: book ii the persian war (_continued_) i not long after this chosroes, upon learning that belisarius had begun to win italy also for the emperor justinian, was no longer able to restrain his thoughts but he wished to discover pretexts, in order that he might break the treaty on some grounds which would seem plausible. and he conferred with alamoundaras concerning this matter and commanded him to provide causes for war. so alamoundaras brought against arethas, the charge that he, arethas, was doing him violence in a matter of boundary lines, and he entered into conflict with him in time of peace, and began to overrun the land of the romans on this pretext. and he declared that, as for him, he was not breaking the treaty between the persians and romans, for neither one of them had included him in it. and this was true. for no mention of saracens was ever made in treaties, on the ground that they were included under the names of persians and romans. now this country which at that time was claimed by both tribes of saracens[ ] is called strata, and extends to the south of the city of palmyra; nowhere does it produce a single tree or any of the useful growth of corn-lands, for it is burned exceedingly dry by the sun, but from of old it has been devoted to the pasturage of some few flocks. now arethas maintained that the place belonged to the romans, proving his assertion by the name which has long been applied to it by all (for strata signifies "a paved road" in the latin tongue), and he also adduced the testimonies of men of the oldest times. alamoundaras, however, was by no means inclined to quarrel concerning the name, but he claimed that tribute had been given him from of old for the pasturage there by the owners of the flocks. the emperor justinian therefore entrusted the settlement of the disputed points to strategius; a patrician and administrator of the royal treasures, and besides a man of wisdom and of good ancestry, and with him summus, who had commanded the troops in palestine. this summus was the brother of julian, who not long before had served as envoy to the aethiopians and homeritae. and the one of them, summus, insisted that the romans ought not to surrender the country, but strategius begged of the emperor that he should not do the persians the favour of providing them with pretexts for the war which they already desired, for the sake of a small bit of land and one of absolutely no account, but altogether unproductive and unsuitable for crops. the emperor justinian, therefore, took the matter under consideration, and a long time was spent in the settlement of the question. but chosroes, the king of the persians, claimed that the treaty had been broken by justinian, who had lately displayed great opposition to his house, in that he had attempted in time of peace to attach alamoundaras to himself. for, as he said, summus, who had recently gone to the saracen ostensibly to arrange matters, had hoodwinked him by promises of large sums of money on condition that he should join the romans, and he brought forward a letter which, he alleged, the emperor justinian had written to alamoundaras concerning these things. he also declared that he had sent a letter to some of the huns, in which he urged them to invade the land of the persians and to do extensive damage to the country thereabout. this letter he asserted to have been put into his hands by the huns themselves who had come before him. so then chosroes, with these charges against the romans, was purposing to break off the treaty. but as to whether he was speaking the truth in these matters, i am not able to say. ii at this point vittigis, the leader of the goths, already worsted in the war, sent two envoys to him to persuade him to march against the romans; but the men whom he sent were not goths, in order that the real character of the embassy might not be at once obvious and so make negotiations useless, but ligurian priests who were attracted to this enterprise by rich gifts of money. one of these men, who seemed to be the more worthy, undertook the embassy assuming the pretended name of bishop which did not belong to him at all, while the other followed as his attendant. and when in the course of the journey they came to the land of thrace, they attached to themselves a man from there to be an interpreter of the syriac and the greek tongues, and without being detected by any of the romans, they reached the land of persia. for inasmuch as they were at peace, they were not keeping a strict guard over that region. and coming before chosroes they spoke as follows: "it is true, o king, that all other envoys undertake their task for the sake of advantages to themselves as a rule, but we have been sent by vittigis, the king of the goths and the italians, in order to speak in behalf of thy kingdom; and consider that he is now present before thee speaking these words. if anyone should say, o king, putting all in a word, that thou hast given up thy kingdom and all men everywhere to justinian, he would be speaking correctly. for since he is by nature a meddler and a lover of those things which in no way belong to him, and is not able to abide by the settled order of things, he has conceived the desire of seizing upon the whole earth, and has become eager to acquire for himself each and every state. accordingly (since he was neither able alone to assail the persians, nor with the persians opposing him to proceed against the others), he decided to deceive thee with the pretence of peace, and by forcing the others to subjection to acquire mighty forces against thy state. therefore, after having already destroyed the kingdom of the vandals and subjugated the moors, while the goths because of their friendship stood aside for him, he has come against us bringing vast sums of money and many men. now it is evident that, if he is able also to crush the goths utterly, he will with us and those already enslaved march against the persians, neither considering the name of friendship nor blushing before any of his sworn promises. while, therefore, some hope of safety is still left thee, do not do us any further wrong nor suffer it thyself, but see in our misfortunes what will a little later befall the persians; and consider that the romans could never be well-disposed to thy kingdom, and that when they become more powerful, they will not hesitate at all to display their enmity toward the persians. use, therefore, this good chance while the time fits, lest thou seek for it after it has ceased. for when once the time of opportunity has passed, it is not its nature to return again. and it is better by anticipating to be in security, than by delaying beyond the opportune time to suffer the most miserable fate possible at the hands of the enemy." when chosroes heard this, it seemed to him that vittigis advised well, and he was still more eager to break off the treaty. for, moved as he was by envy toward the emperor justinian, he neglected completely to consider that the words were spoken to him by men who were bitter enemies of justinian. but because he wished the thing he willingly consented to be persuaded. and he did the very same thing a little later in the case of the addresses of the armenians and of the lazi, which will be spoken of directly. and yet they were bringing as charges against justinian the very things which would naturally be encomiums for a worthy monarch, namely that he was exerting himself to make his realm larger and much more splendid. for these accusations one might make also against cyrus, the king of the persians, and alexander, the macedonian. but justice is never accustomed to dwell together with envy. for these reasons, then, chosroes was purposing to break off the treaty. iii at this same time another event also occurred; it was as follows. that symeon who had given pharangium into the hands of the romans persuaded the emperor justinian, while the war was still at its height, to present him with certain villages of armenia. and becoming master of these places, he was plotted against and murdered by those who had formerly possessed them. after this crime had been committed, the perpetrators of the murder fled into the land of persia. they were two brothers, sons of perozes. and when the emperor heard this, he gave over the villages to amazaspes, the nephew of symeon, and appointed him ruler over the armenians. this amazaspes, as time went on, was denounced to the emperor justinian by one of his friends, acacius by name, on the ground that he was abusing the armenians and wished to give over to the persians theodosiopolis and certain other fortresses. after telling this, acacius, by the emperor's will, slew amazaspes treacherously, and himself secured the command over the armenians by the gift of the emperor. and being base by nature, he gained the opportunity of displaying his inward character, and he proved to be the most cruel of all men toward his subjects. for he plundered their property without excuse and ordained that they should pay an unheard-of tax of four centenaria[ ]. but the armenians, unable to bear him any longer, conspired together and slew acacius and fled for refuge to pharangium. therefore the emperor sent sittas against them from byzantium. for sittas had been delaying there since the time when the treaty was made with the persians. so he came to armenia, but at first he entered upon the war reluctantly and exerted himself to calm the people and to restore the population to their former habitations, promising to persuade the emperor to remit to them the payment of the new tax. but since the emperor kept assailing him with frequent reproaches for his hesitation, led on by the slanders of adolius, the son of acacius, sittas at last made his preparations for the conflict. first of all he attempted by means of promises of many good things to win over some of the armenians by persuasion and to attach them to his cause, in order that the task of overpowering the others might be attended with less difficulty and toil. and the tribe called the aspetiani, great in power and in numbers, was willing to join him. and they went to sittas and begged him to give them pledges in writing that, if they abandoned their kinsmen in the battle and came to the roman army, they should remain entirely free from harm, retaining their own possessions. now sittas was delighted and wrote to them in tablets, giving them pledges just as they desired of him; he then sealed the writing and sent it to them. then, confident that by their help he would be victorious in the war without fighting, he went with his whole army to a place called oenochalakon, where the armenians had their camp. but by some chance those who carried the tablets went by another road and did not succeed at all in meeting the aspetiani. moreover a portion of the roman army happened upon some few of them, and not knowing the agreement which had been made, treated them as enemies. and sittas himself caught some of their women and children in a cave and slew them, either because he did not understand what had happened or because he was angry with the aspetiani for not joining him as had been agreed. but they, being now possessed with anger, arrayed themselves for battle with all the rest. but since both armies were on exceedingly difficult ground where precipices abounded, they did not fight in one place, but scattered about among the ridges and ravines. so it happened that some few of the armenians and sittas with not many of his followers came close upon each other, with only a ravine lying between them. both parties were horsemen. then sittas with a few men following him crossed the ravine and advanced against the enemy; the armenians, after withdrawing to the rear, stopped, and sittas pursued no further but remained where he was. suddenly someone from the roman army, an erulian by birth, who had been pursuing the enemy, returning impetuously from them came up to sittas and his men. now as it happened sittas had planted his spear in the ground; and the erulian's horse fell upon this with a great rush and shattered it. and the general was exceedingly annoyed by this, and one of the armenians, seeing him, recognized him and declared to all the others that it was sittas. for it happened that he had no helmet on his head. thus it did not escape the enemy that he had come there with only a few men. sittas, then, upon hearing the armenian say this, since his spear, as has been said, lay broken in two on the ground, drew his sword and attempted immediately to recross the ravine. but the enemy advanced upon him with great eagerness, and a soldier overtaking him in the ravine struck him a glancing blow with his sword on the top of his head; and he took off the whole scalp, but the steel did not injure the bone at all. and sittas continued to press forward still more than before, but artabanes, son of john of the arsacidae, fell upon him from behind and with a thrust of his spear killed him. thus sittas was removed from the world after no notable fashion, in a manner unworthy of his valour and his continual achievements against the enemy, a man who was extremely handsome in appearance and a capable warrior, and a general second to none of his contemporaries. but some say that sittas did not die at the hand of artabanes, but that solomon, a very insignificant man among the armenians, destroyed him. after the death of sittas the emperor commanded bouzes to go against the armenians; and he, upon drawing near, sent to them promising to effect a reconciliation between the emperor and all the armenians, and asking that some of their notables should come to confer with him on these matters. now the armenians as a whole were unable to trust bouzes nor were they willing to receive his proposals. but there was a certain man of the arsacidae who was especially friendly with him, john by name, the father of artabanes, and this man, trusting in bouzes as his friend came to him with his son-in-law, bassaces, and a few others; but when these men had reached the spot where they were to meet bouzes on the following day, and had made their bivouac there, they perceived that they had come into a place surrounded by the roman army. bassaces, the son-in-law, therefore earnestly entreated john to fly. and since he was not able to persuade him, he left him there alone, and in company with all the others eluded the romans, and went back again by the same road. and bouzes found john alone and slew him; and since after this the armenians had no hope of ever reaching an agreement with the romans, and since they were unable to prevail over the emperor in war, they came before the persian king led by bassaces, an energetic man. and the leading men among them came at that time into the presence of chosroes and spoke as follows: "many of us, o master, are arsacidae, descendants of that arsaces who was not unrelated to the parthian kings when the persian realm lay under the hand of the parthians, and who proved himself an illustrious king, inferior to none of his time. now we have come to thee, and all of us have become slaves and fugitives, not, however, of our own will, but under most hard constraint, as it might seem by reason of the roman power, but in truth, o king, by reason of thy decision,--if, indeed, he who gives the strength to those who wish to do injustice should himself justly bear also the blame of their misdeeds. now we shall begin our account from a little distance back in order that you may be able to follow the whole course of events. arsaces, the last king of our ancestors, abdicated his throne willingly in favour of theodosius, the roman emperor, on condition that all who should belong to his family through all time should live unhampered in every respect, and in particular should in no case be subject to taxation. and we have preserved the agreement, until you, the persians, made this much-vaunted treaty, which, as we think, one would not err in calling a sort of common destruction. for from that time, disregarding friend and foe, he who is in name thy friend, o king, but in fact thy enemy, has turned everything in the world upside down and wrought complete confusion. and this thou thyself shalt know at no distant time, as soon as he is able to subdue completely the people of the west. for what thing which was before forbidden has he not done? or what thing which was well established has he not disturbed? did he not ordain for us the payment of a tax which did not exist before, and has he not enslaved our neighbours, the tzani, who were autonomous, and has he not set over the king of the wretched lazi a roman magistrate?--an act neither in keeping with the natural order of things nor very easy to explain in words. has he not sent generals to the men of bosporus, the subjects of the huns, and attached to himself the city which in no way belongs to him, and has he not made a defensive alliance with the aethiopian kingdoms, of which the romans had never even heard? more than this he has made the homeritae his possession and the red sea, and he is adding the palm groves to the roman dominion. we omit to speak of the fate of the libyans and of the italians. the whole earth is not large enough for the man; it is too small a thing for him to conquer all the world together. but he is even looking about the heavens and is searching the retreats beyond the ocean, wishing to gain for himself some other world. why, therefore, o king, dost thou still delay? why dost thou respect that most accursed peace, in order forsooth that he may make thee the last morsel of all? if it is thy wish to learn what kind of a man justinian would shew himself toward those who yield to him, the example is to be sought near at hand from ourselves and from the wretched lazi; and if thou wishest to see how he is accustomed to treat those who are unknown to him and who have done him not the least wrong, consider the vandals and the goths and the moors. but the chief thing has not yet been spoken. has he not made efforts in time of peace to win over by deception thy slave, alamoundaras, o most mighty king, and to detach him from thy kingdom, and has he not striven recently to attach to himself the huns who are utterly unknown to him, in order to make trouble for thee? and yet an act more strange than this has not been performed in all time. for since he perceived, as i think, that the overthrow of the western world would speedily be accomplished, he has already taken in hand to assail you of the east, since the persian power alone has been left for him to grapple with. the peace, therefore, as far as concerns him, has already been broken for thee, and he himself has set an end to the endless peace. for they break the peace, not who may be first in arms, but they who may be caught plotting against their neighbours in time of peace. for the crime has been committed by him who attempts it, even though success be lacking. now as for the course which the war will follow, this is surely clear to everyone. for it is not those who furnish causes for war, but those who defend themselves against those who furnish them, who are accustomed always to conquer their enemies. nay more, the contest will not be evenly matched for us even in point of strength. for, as it happens, the majority of the roman soldiers are at the end of the world, and as for the two generals who were the best they had, we come here having slain the one, sittas, and belisarius will never again be seen by justinian. for disregarding his master, he has remained in the west, holding the power of italy himself. so that when thou goest against the enemy, no one at all will confront thee, and thou wilt have us leading the army with good will, as is natural, and with a thorough knowledge of the country." when chosroes heard this he was pleased, and calling together all who were of noble blood among the persians, he disclosed to all of them what vittigis had written and what the armenians had said, and laid before them the question as to what should be done. then many opinions were expressed inclining to either side, but finally it was decided that they must open hostilities against the romans at the beginning of spring. [ a.d.] for it was the late autumn season, in the thirteenth year of the reign of the emperor justinian. the romans, however, did not suspect this, nor did they think that the persians would ever break the so-called endless peace, although they heard that chosroes blamed their emperor for his successes in the west, and that he preferred against him the charges which i have lately mentioned. iv [ a.d.] at that time also the comet appeared, at first about as long as a tall man, but later much larger. and the end of it was toward the west and its beginning toward the east, and it followed behind the sun itself. for the sun was in capricorn and it was in sagittarius. and some called it "the swordfish" because it was of goodly length and very sharp at the point, and others called it "the bearded star"; it was seen for more than forty days. now those who were wise in these matters disagreed utterly with each other, and one announced that one thing, another that another thing was indicated by this star; but i only write what took place and i leave to each one to judge by the outcome as he wishes. straightway a mighty hunnic army crossing the danube river fell as a scourge upon all europe, a thing which had happened many times before, but which had never brought such a multitude of woes nor such dreadful ones to the people of that land. for from the ionian gulf these barbarians plundered everything in order as far as the suburbs of byzantium. and they captured thirty-two fortresses in illyricum, and they carried by storm the city of cassandria (which the ancients called potidaea, as far as we know), never having fought against walls before. and taking with them the money and leading away one hundred and twenty thousand captives, they all retired homeward without encountering any opposition. in later times too they often came there and brought upon the romans irreparable calamity. this same people also assailed the wall of the chersonesus, where they overpowered those who were defending themselves from the wall, and approaching through the surf of the sea, scaled the fortifications on the so-called black gulf; thus they got within the long wall, and falling unexpectedly upon the romans in the chersonesus they slew many of them and made prisoners of almost all the survivors. some few of them also crossed the strait between sestus and abydus, and after plundering the asiatic country, they returned again to the chersonesus, and with the rest of the army and all the booty betook themselves to their homes. in another invasion they plundered illyricum and thessaly and attempted to storm the wall at thermopylae; and since the guards on the walls defended them most valiantly, they sought out the ways around and unexpectedly found the path which leads up the mountain which rises there[ ]. in this way they destroyed almost all the greeks except the peloponnesians, and then withdrew. and the persians not long afterwards broke off the treaty and wrought such harm to the romans of the east as i shall set forth immediately. belisarius, after humbling vittigis, the king of the goths and italians, brought him alive to byzantium. and i shall now proceed to tell how the army of the persians invaded the land of the romans. when the emperor justinian perceived that chosroes was eager for war, he wished to offer him some counsel and to dissuade him from the undertaking. now it happened that a certain man had come to byzantium from the city of daras, anastasius by name, well known for his sagacity; he it was who had broken the tyranny which had been established recently in daras. justinian therefore wrote a letter and sent it by this anastasius to chosroes; and the message of the letter was as follows: "it is the part of men of discretion and those by whom divine things are treated with due respect, when causes of war arise, and in particular against men who are in the truest sense friends, to exert all their power to put an end to them; but it belongs to foolish men and those who most lightly bring on themselves the enmity of heaven to devise occasions for war and insurrection which have no real existence. now to destroy peace and enter upon war is not a difficult matter, since the nature of things is such as to make the basest activities easy for the most dishonourable men. but when they have brought about war according to their intention, to return again to peace is for men, i think, not easy. and yet thou chargest me with writing letters which were not written with any dark purpose, and thou hast now made haste to interpret these with arbitrary judgment, not in the sense in which we conceived them when we wrote them, but in a way which will be of advantage to thee in thy eagerness to carry out thy plans not without some pretext. but for us it is possible to point out that thy alamoundaras recently overran our land and performed outrageous deeds in time of peace, to wit, the capture of towns, the seizure of property, the massacre and enslavement of such a multitude of men, concerning which it will be thy duty not to blame us, but to defend thyself. for the crimes of those who have done wrong are made manifest to their neighbours by their acts, not by their thoughts. but even with these things as they are, we have still decided to hold to peace, but we hear that thou in thy eagerness to make war upon the romans art fabricating accusations which do not belong to us at all. natural enough, this; for while those who are eager to preserve the present order of things repel even those charges against their friends which are most pressing, those who are not satisfied with established friendships exert themselves to provide even pretexts which do not exist. but this would not seem to be becoming even to ordinary men, much less to kings. but leaving aside these things do thou consider the number of those who will be destroyed on both sides in the course of the war, and consider well who will justly bear the blame for those things which will come to pass, and ponder upon the oaths which thou didst take when thou didst carry away the money, and consider that if, after that, thou wrongly dishonour them by some tricks or sophistries, thou wouldst not be able to pervert them; for heaven is too mighty to be deceived by any man." when chosroes saw this message, he neither made any immediate answer nor did he dismiss anastasius, but he compelled him to remain there. v [ a.d.] when the winter was already reaching its close, and the thirteenth year of the reign of the emperor justinian was ending, chosroes, son of cabades, invaded the land of the romans at the opening of spring with a mighty army, and openly broke the so-called endless peace. but he did not enter by the country between the rivers, but advanced with the euphrates on his right. on the other side of the river stands the last roman stronghold which is called circesium, an exceedingly strong place, since the river aborras, a large stream, has its mouth at this point and mingles with the euphrates, and this fortress lies exactly in the angle which is made by the junction of the two rivers. and a long second wall outside the fortress cuts off the land between the two rivers, and completes the form of a triangle around circesium. chosroes, therefore, not wishing to make trial of so strong a fortress and not having in mind to cross the river euphrates, but rather to go against the syrians and cilicians, without any hesitation led his army forward, and after advancing for what, to an unencumbered traveller, is about a three-days' journey along the bank of the euphrates, he came upon the city of zenobia; this place zenobia had built in former times, and, as was natural, she gave her name to the city. now zenobia was the wife of odonathus, the ruler of the saracens of that region, who had been on terms of peace with the romans from of old. this odonathus rescued for the romans the eastern empire when it had come under the power of the medes; but this took place in former times. chosroes then came near to zenobia, but upon learning that the place was not important and observing that the land was untenanted and destitute of all good things, he feared lest any time spent by him there would be wasted on an affair of no consequence and would be a hindrance to great undertakings, and he attempted to force the place to surrender. but meeting with no success, he hastened his march forward. after again accomplishing a journey of equal extent, he reached the city of sura, which is on the river euphrates, and stopped very close to it. there it happened that the horse on which chosroes was riding neighed and stamped the ground with his foot. and the magi considered the meaning of this incident and announced that the place would be captured. chosroes then made camp and led his army against the fortifications to assail the wall. now it happened that a certain arsaces, an armenian by birth, was commander of the soldiers in the town; and he made the soldiers mount the parapets, and fighting from there most valiantly slew many of the enemy, but was himself struck by an arrow and died. and then, since it was late in the day, the persians retired to their camp in order to assail the wall again on the following day; but the romans were in despair since their leader was dead, and were purposing to make themselves suppliants of chosroes. on the following day, therefore, they sent the bishop of the city to plead for them and to beg that the town be spared; so he took with him some of his attendants, who carried fowls and wine and clean loaves, and came before chosroes; there he threw himself on the ground, and with tears supplicated him to spare a pitiable population and a city altogether without honour in the eyes of the romans, and one which in past times had never been of any account to the persians, and which never would be such thereafter; and he promised that the men of sura would give him ransom worthy of themselves and the city which they inhabited. but chosroes was angry with the townsmen because, being the first he had met of all the romans, they had not willingly received him into their city, but even daring to raise their arms against him had slain a large number of persian notables. however he did not disclose his anger, but carefully concealed it behind a smooth countenance, in order that by carrying out the punishment of the inhabitants of sura he might make himself in the eyes of the romans a fearful person and one not to be resisted. for by acting in this way he calculated that those who would from time to time come in his way would yield to him without trouble. accordingly with great friendliness he caused the bishop to rise, and receiving the gifts, gave the impression, in a way, that he would immediately confer with the notables of the persians concerning the ransom of the townsmen, and would settle their request favourably. thus he dismissed the bishop and his following without any suspicion of the plot, and he sent with him certain of the men of note among the persians, who were to be ostensibly an escort. these men he secretly commanded to go with him as far as the wall, encouraging him and cheering him with fair hopes, so that he and all those with him should be seen by those inside rejoicing and fearing nothing. but when the guards had set the gate open and were about to receive them into the city, they were to throw a stone or block of wood between the threshold and the gate and not allow them to shut it, but should themselves for a time stand in the way of those who wished to close it; for not long afterwards the army would follow them. after giving these directions to the men chosroes made ready the army, and commanded them to advance upon the city on the run whenever he should give the signal. so when they came close to the fortifications, the persians bade farewell to the bishop and remained outside, and the townsmen, seeing that the man was exceedingly happy and that he was being escorted in great honour by the enemy, forgetting all their difficulties opened the gate wide, and received the priest and his following with clapping of hands and much shouting. and when all got inside, the guards began to push the gate in order to close it, but the persians flung down a stone, which they had provided, between it and the threshold. and the guards pushed and struggled still more, but were quite unable to get the gate back to the threshold. on the other hand they dared not open it again, since they perceived that it was held by the enemy. but some say that it was not a stone but a block of wood which the persians threw into the gateway. when the townsmen had as yet scarcely realized the plot, chosroes was at hand with his whole army, and the barbarians forced back and flung open the gate, which was soon carried by storm. straightway, then, chosroes, filled with wrath, plundered the houses and put to death great numbers of the population; all the remainder he reduced to slavery, and setting fire to the whole city razed it to the ground. then he dismissed anastasius, bidding him announce to the emperor justinian where in the world he had left chosroes, son of cabades. afterwards either through motives of humanity or of avarice, or as granting a favour to a woman whom he had taken as a captive from the city, euphemia by name, chosroes decided to shew some kindness to the inhabitants of sura; for he had conceived for this woman an extraordinary love (for she was exceedingly beautiful to look upon), and had made her his wedded wife. he sent, accordingly, to sergiopolis, a city subject to the romans, named from sergius, a famous saint, distant from the captured city one hundred and twenty-six stades and lying to the south of it in the so-called barbarian plain, and bade candidus, the bishop of the city, purchase the captives, twelve thousand in number, for two centenaria. but the bishop, alleging that he had no money, refused absolutely to undertake the matter. chosroes therefore requested him to set down in a document the agreement that he would give the money at a later time, and thus to purchase for a small sum such a multitude of slaves. candidus did as directed, promising to give the money within a year, and swore the most dire oaths, specifying that he should receive the following punishment if he should not give the money at the time agreed upon, that he should pay double the amount and should himself be no longer a priest, as one who had neglected his sworn promise. and after setting down these things in writing, candidus received all the inhabitants of sura. and some few among them survived, but the majority, unable to support the misery which had fallen to their lot, succumbed soon afterwards. after the settlement of this affair chosroes led his army forward. vi it had happened a little before this that the emperor had divided into two parts the military command of the east, leaving the portion as far as the river euphrates under the control of belisarius who formerly held the command of the whole, while the portion from there as far as the persian boundary he entrusted to bouzes, commanding him to take charge of the whole territory of the east until belisarius should return from italy. bouzes therefore at first remained at hierapolis, keeping his whole army with him; but when he learned what had befallen sura, he called together the first men of the hierapolitans and spoke as follows: "whenever men are confronted with a struggle against an assailant with whom they are evenly matched in strength, it is not at all unreasonable that they should engage in open conflict with the enemy; but for those who are by comparison much inferior to their opponents it will be more advantageous to circumvent their enemy by some kind of tricks than to array themselves openly against them and thus enter into foreseen danger. how great, now, the army of chosroes is you are assuredly informed. and if, with this army, he wishes to capture us by siege, and if we carry on the fight from the wall, it is probable that, while our supplies will fail us, the persians will secure all they need from our land, where there will be no one to oppose them. and if the siege is prolonged in this way, i believe too that the fortification wall will not withstand the assaults of the enemy, for in many places it is most susceptible to attack, and thus irreparable harm will come to the romans. but if with a portion of the army we guard the wall of the city, while the rest of us occupy the heights about the city, we shall make attacks from there at times upon the camp of our antagonists, and at times upon those who are sent out for the sake of provisions, and thus compel chosroes to abandon the siege immediately and to make his retreat within a short time; for he will not be at all able to direct his attack without fear against the fortifications, nor to provide any of the necessities for so great an army." so spoke bouzes; and in his words he seemed to set forth the advantageous course of action, but of what was necessary he did nothing. for he chose out all that portion of the roman army which was of marked excellence and was off. and where in the world he was neither any of the romans in hierapolis, nor the hostile army was able to learn. such, then, was the course of these events. but the emperor justinian, upon learning of the inroad of the persians, immediately sent his nephew germanus with three hundred followers in great disorder, promising that after no great time a numerous army would follow. and germanus, upon reaching antioch, went around the whole circuit of the wall; and the greater part of it he found secure, for along that portion of it which lies on the level ground the river orontes flows, making it everywhere difficult of access, and the portion which is on higher ground rises upon steep hills and is quite inaccessible to the enemy; but when he attained the highest point, which the men of that place are accustomed to call orocasias, he noticed that the wall at that point was very easy to assail. for there happens to be in that place a rock, which spreads out to a very considerable width, and rises to a height only a little less than the fortifications. he therefore commanded that they should either cut off the rock by making a deep ditch along the wall, lest anyone should essay to mount from there upon the fortifications, or that they should build upon it a great tower and connect its structure with the wall of the city. but to the architects of public buildings it seemed that neither one of these things should be done. for, as they said, the work would not be completed in a short time with the attack of the enemy so imminent, while if they began this work and did not carry it to completion, they would do nothing else than shew to the enemy at what point in the wall they should make their attack. germanus, though disappointed in this plan, had some hope at first because he expected an army from byzantium. but when, after considerable time had passed, no army arrived from the emperor nor was expected to arrive, he began to fear lest chosroes, learning that the emperor's nephew was there, would consider it more important than any other thing to capture antioch and himself, and for this reason would neglect everything else and come against the city with his whole army. the natives of antioch also had these things in mind, and they held a council concerning them, at which it seemed most advisable to offer money to chosroes and thus escape the present danger. accordingly they sent megas, the bishop of beroea, a man of discretion who at that time happened to be tarrying among them, to beg for mercy from chosroes; and departing from there he came upon the median army not far from hierapolis. and coming into the presence of chosroes, he entreated him earnestly to have pity upon men who had committed no offence against him and who were not able to hold out against the persian army. for it was becoming to a king least of all men to trample upon and do violence to those who retreated before him and were quite unwilling to array themselves against him; for not one of the things which he was then doing was a kingly or honourable act, because, without affording any time for consideration to the roman emperor, so that he might either make the peace secure as might seem well to both sovereigns, or make his preparations for war in accordance with a mutual agreement, as was to be expected, he had thus recklessly advanced in arms against the romans, while their emperor did not as yet know what had come upon them. when chosroes heard this, he was utterly unable by reason of his stupidity to order his mind with reason and discretion, but still more than before he was lifted up in spirit. he therefore threatened to destroy all the syrians and cilicians, and bidding megas follow him, he led his army to hierapolis. when he had come there and established his camp, since he saw that the fortifications were strong and learned that the city was well garrisoned with soldiers, he demanded money from the hierapolitans, sending to them paulus as interpreter. this paulus had been reared in roman territory and had gone to an elementary school in antioch, and besides he was said to be by birth of roman extraction. but in spite of everything the inhabitants were exceedingly fearful for the fortifications, which embraced a large tract of land as far as the hill which rises there, and besides they wished to preserve their land unplundered; accordingly they agreed to give two thousand pounds of silver. then indeed megas entreated chosroes in behalf of all the inhabitants of the east, and would not cease his entreaty, until chosroes promised him that he would accept ten centenaria of gold and depart from the whole roman empire. vii thus, then, on that day megas departed thence and went on the way to antioch, while chosroes after receiving the ransom was moving toward beroea. this city lies between antioch and hierapolis, at a distance from both of two-days' journey for an unencumbered traveller. now while megas, who travelled with a small company, advanced very quickly, the persian army was accomplishing only one half of the distance which he travelled each day. and so on the fourth day he reached antioch, while the persians came to the suburb of beroea. and chosroes immediately sent paulus and demanded money of the beroeans, not only as much as he had received from the hierapolitans, but double the amount, since he saw that their wall in many places was very vulnerable. as for the beroeans, since they could by no means place confidence in their fortifications, they gladly agreed to give all, but after giving two thousand pounds of silver, they said that they were not able to give the remainder. and since chosroes pressed them on this account, on the following night all of them fled for refuge into the fortress which is on the acropolis together with the soldiers who had been stationed there to guard the place. and on the following day men were sent to the city by chosroes in order to receive the money; but on coming near the fortifications they found all the gates closed, and being unable to discover any man, they reported the situation to the king. and he commanded them to set ladders against the wall and to make trial of mounting it, and they did as directed. then since no one opposed them, they got inside the fortifications and opened the gates at their leisure, and received into the city the whole army and chosroes himself. by this time the king was furious with anger and he fired nearly the whole city. he then mounted the acropolis and decided to storm the fortress. there indeed the roman soldiers while valiantly defending themselves slew some of the enemy; but chosroes was greatly favoured by fortune by reason of the folly of the besieged, who had not sought refuge in this fortress by themselves, but along with all their horses and other animals, and by this inconsiderate act they were placed at a great disadvantage and began to be in danger. for since there was only one spring there and the horses and mules and other animals drank from it when they should not have done so, it came about that the water was exhausted. such, then, was the situation of the beroeans. megas, upon reaching antioch and announcing the terms arranged by him with chosroes, failed utterly to persuade them to carry out this agreement. for it happened that the emperor justinian had sent john, the son of rufinus, and julian, his private[ ] secretary, as ambassadors to chosroes. the person holding this office is styled "a secretis" by the romans; for secrets they are accustomed to call "secreta." these men had reached antioch and were remaining there. now julian, one of the ambassadors, explicitly forbade everybody to give money to the enemy, or to purchase the cities of the emperor, and besides he denounced to germanus the chief priest ephraemius, as being eager to deliver over the city to chosroes. for this reason megas returned unsuccessful. but ephraemius, the bishop of antioch, fearing the attack of the persians, went into cilicia. there too came germanus not long afterwards, taking with him some few men but leaving the most of them in antioch. megas then came in haste to beroea, and in vexation at what had taken place, he charged chosroes with having treated the beroeans outrageously; for while, as it seemed, he had sent him to antioch to arrange the treaty, he had both plundered the property of the citizens, though they had committed no wrong at all, and had compelled them to shut themselves up in that fortress, and had then set fire to the city and razed it to the ground in defiance of right. to this chosroes replied as follows: "verily, my friend, you yourself are responsible for these things, in having compelled us to delay here; for as it is, you have arrived, not at the appointed time, but far behind it. and as for the strange conduct of your fellow-citizens, my most excellent sir, why should one make speeches of great length? for after agreeing to give us a fixed amount of silver for their own safety, they even now do not think it necessary to fulfil the agreement, but placing such complete confidence in the strength of their position, they are disregarding us absolutely, while we are compelled to undertake the siege of a fortress, as you surely see. but for my part, i have hope that with the help of the gods i shall have vengeance upon them shortly, and execute upon the guilty the punishment for the persians whom i have lost wrongfully before this wall." so spoke chosroes, and megas replied as follows: "if one should consider that as king thou art making these charges against men who are in pitiable and most dishonoured plight, he would be compelled without a word of protest to agree with what thou hast said; for authority which is unlimited is bound by its very nature to carry with it also supremacy in argument; but if one be permitted to shake off all else and to espouse the truth of the matter, thou wouldst have, o king, nothing with which justly to reproach us; but mayst thou hear all mildly. first, as for me, since the time when i was sent to declare to the men of antioch the message which thou didst send them, seven days have passed (and what could be done more quickly than this?) and now coming into thy presence i find these things accomplished by thee against my fatherland; but these men, having already lost all that is most valuable, thereafter have only one struggle to engage in--that for life--and have come, i think, so to be masters of the situation that they can no longer be compelled to pay thee any of the money. for to pay a thing which one does not possess could not be made possible for a man by any device. from of old indeed have the names of things been well and suitably distinguished by men; and among these distinctions is this, that want of power is separated from want of consideration. for when the latter by reason of intemperance of mind proceeds to resistance, it is accustomed to be detested, as is natural, but when the former, because of the impossibility of performing a service, is driven to the same point, it deserves to be pitied. permit, therefore, o king, that, while we receive as our portion all the direst misfortunes, we may take with us this consolation at least, that we should not seem to have been ourselves responsible for the things which have befallen us. and as for money, consider that what thou hast taken into thy possession is sufficient for thee, not weighing this by thy position, but with regard to the power of the beroeans. but beyond this do not force us in any way, lest perchance thou shouldst seem unable to accomplish the thing to which thou hast set thy hand; for excess is always punished by meeting obstacles that cannot be overcome, and the best course is not to essay the impossible. let this, then, be my defence for the moment in behalf of these men. but if i should be able to have converse with the sufferers, i should have something else also to say which has now escaped me." so spoke megas, and chosroes permitted him to go into the acropolis. and when he had gone there and learned all that had happened concerning the spring, weeping he came again before chosroes, and lying prone on the ground insisted that no money at all was left to the beroeans, and entreated him to grant him only the lives of the men. moved by the tearful entreaties of the man chosroes fulfilled his request, and binding himself by an oath, gave pledges to all on the acropolis. then the beroeans, after coming into such great danger, left the acropolis free from harm, and departing went each his own way. among the soldiers some few followed them, but the majority came as willing deserters to chosroes, putting forth as their grievance that the government owed them their pay for a long time; and with him they later went into the land of persia. viii [june a.d.] then chosroes (since megas said that he had by no means persuaded the inhabitants of antioch to bring him the money) went with his whole army against them. some of the population of antioch thereupon departed from there with their money and fled as each one could. and all the rest likewise were purposing to do the same thing, and would have done so had not the commanders of the troops in lebanon, theoctistus and molatzes, who arrived in the meantime with six thousand men, fortified them with hope and thus prevented their departure. not long after this the persian army also came. there they all pitched their tents and made camp fronting on the river orontes and not very far from the stream. chosroes then sent paulus up beside the fortifications and demanded money from the men of antioch, saying that for ten centenaria[ ] of gold he would depart from there, and it was obvious that he would accept even less than this for his withdrawal. and on that day their ambassadors went before chosroes, and after speaking at length concerning the breaking of the peace and hearing much from him, they retired. but on the morrow the populace of antioch (for they are not seriously disposed, but are always engaged in jesting and disorderly performance) heaped insults upon chosroes from the battlements and taunted him with unseemly laughter; and when paulus came near the fortifications and exhorted them to purchase freedom for themselves and the city for a small sum of money, they very nearly killed him with shots from their bows, and would have done so if he had not seen their purpose in time and guarded against it. on account of this chosroes, boiling with anger, decided to storm the wall. on the following day, accordingly, he led up all the persians against the wall and commanded a portion of the army to make assaults at different points along the river, and he himself with the most of the men and best troops directed an attack against the height. for at this place, as has been stated by me above, the wall of fortification was most vulnerable. thereupon the romans, since the structure on which they were to stand when fighting was very narrow, devised the following remedy. binding together long timbers they suspended them between the towers, and in this way they made these spaces much broader, in order that still more men might be able to ward off the assailants from there. so the persians, pressing on most vigorously from all sides, were sending their arrows thickly everywhere, and especially along the crest of the hill. meanwhile the romans were fighting them back with all their strength, not soldiers alone, but also many of the most courageous youths of the populace. but it appeared that those who were attacking the wall there were engaged in a battle on even terms with their enemy. for the rock which was broad and high and, as it were, drawn up against the fortifications caused the conflict to be just as if on level ground. and if anyone of the roman army had had the courage to get outside the fortifications with three hundred men and to anticipate the enemy in seizing this rock and to ward off the assailants from there, never, i believe, would the city have come into any danger from the enemy. for the barbarians had no point from which they could have conducted their assault, for they would be exposed to missiles from above both from the rock and from the wall; but as it was (for it was fated that antioch be destroyed by this army of the medes), this idea occurred to no one. so then while the persians were fighting beyond their power, since chosroes was present with them and urging them on with a mighty cry, giving their opponents not a moment in which to look about or guard against the missiles discharged from their bows, and while the romans, in great numbers and with much shouting, were defending themselves still more vigorously, the ropes with which the beams had been bound together, failing to support the weight, suddenly broke asunder and the timbers together with all those who had taken their stand on them fell to the ground with a mighty crash. when this was heard by other romans also, who were fighting from the adjoining towers, being utterly unable to comprehend what had happened, but supposing that the wall at this point had been destroyed, they beat a hasty retreat. now many young men of the populace who in former times had been accustomed to engage in factional strife with each other in the hippodromes descended into the city from the fortification wall, but they refused to flee and remained where they were, while the soldiers with theoctistus and molatzes straightway leaped upon the horses which happened to be ready there and rode away to the gates, telling the others a tale to the effect that bouzes had come with an army and they wished to receive them quickly into the city, and with them to ward off the enemy. thereupon many of the men of antioch and all the women with their children made a great rush toward the gates; but since they were crowded by the horses, being in very narrow quarters, they began to fall down. the soldiers, however, sparing absolutely no one of those before them, all kept riding over the fallen still more fiercely than before, and a great many were killed there, especially about the gates themselves. but the persians, with no one opposing them, set ladders against the wall and mounted with no difficulty. and quickly reaching the battlements, for a time they were by no means willing to descend, but they seemed like men looking about them and at a loss what to do, because, as it seems to me, they supposed that the rough ground was beset with some ambuscades of the enemy. for the land inside the fortifications which one traverses immediately upon descending from the height is an uninhabited tract extending for a great distance and there are found there rocks which rise to a very great height, and steep places. but some say that it was by the will of chosroes that the persians hesitated. for when he observed the difficulty of the ground and saw the soldiers fleeing, he feared lest by reason of some necessity they should turn back from their retreat and make trouble for the persians, and thus become an obstacle, as might well happen, in the way of his capturing a city which was both ancient and of great importance and the first of all the cities which the romans had throughout the east both in wealth and in size and in population and in beauty and in prosperity of every kind. hence it was that, considering everything else of less account, he wished to allow the roman soldiers freely to avail themselves of the chance for flight. for this reason too the persians also made signs to the fugitives with their hands, urging them to flee as quickly as possible. so the soldiers of the romans together with their commanders took a hasty departure, all of them, through the gate which leads to daphne, the suburb of antioch; for from this gate alone the persians kept away while the others were seized; and of the populace some few escaped with the soldiers. then when the persians saw that all the roman soldiers had gone on, they descended from the height and got into the middle of the city. there, however, many of the young men of antioch engaged in battle with them, and at first they seemed to have the upper hand in the conflict. some of them were in heavy armour, but the majority were unarmed and using only stones as missiles. and pushing back the enemy they raised the paean, and with shouts proclaimed the emperor justinian triumphant, as if they had won the victory. at this point chosroes, seated on the tower which is on the height, summoned the ambassadors, wishing to say something. and one of his officers, zaberganes, thinking that he wished to have words with the ambassadors concerning a settlement, came quickly before the king and spoke as follows: "thou dost not seem to me, o master, to think in the same way as do the romans concerning the safety of these men. for they both before fighting offer insults to thy kingdom, and when they are defeated dare the impossible and do the persians irreparable harm, as if fearing lest some reason for shewing them humanity should be left in thee; but thou art wishing to pity those who do not ask to be saved, and hast shewn zeal to spare those who by no means wish it. meanwhile these men have set an ambush in a captured city and are destroying the victors by means of snares, although all the soldiers have long since fled from them." when chosroes heard this, he sent a large number of the best troops against them, and these not long afterwards returned and announced that nothing untoward had come to pass. for already the persians had forced back the citizens by their numbers and turned them to flight, and a great slaughter took place there. for the persians did not spare persons of any age and were slaying all whom they met, old and young alike. at that time they say that two women of those who were illustrious in antioch got outside the fortifications, but perceiving that they would fall into the hands of the enemy (for they were already plainly seen going about everywhere), went running to the river orontes, and, fearing lest the persians should do them some insult, they covered their faces with their veils and threw themselves into the river's current and were carried out of sight. thus the inhabitants of antioch were visited with every form of misfortune. ix then chosroes spoke to the ambassadors as follows: "not far from the truth, i think, is the ancient saying that god does not give blessings unmixed, but he mingles them with troubles and then bestows them upon men. and for this reason we do not even have laughter without tears, but there is always attached to our successes some misfortune, and to our pleasures pain, not permitting anyone to enjoy in its purity such good fortune as is granted. for this city, which is of altogether preeminent importance in fact as well as in name in the land of the romans i have indeed succeeded in capturing with the least exertion, since god has provided the victory all at once for us, as you doubtless see. but when i behold the massacre of such a multitude of men, and the victory thus drenched with blood, there arises in me no sense of the delight that should follow my achievement. and for this the wretched men of antioch are to blame, for when the persians were storming the wall they did not prove able to keep them back, and then when they had already triumphed and had captured the city at the first cry these men with unreasoned daring sought to die fighting against them in close combat. so while all the notables of the persians were harassing me unceasingly with their demand that i should drag the city as with a net and destroy all the captives, i was commanding the fugitives to press on still more in their flight, in order that they might save themselves as quickly as possible. for to trample upon captives is not holy." such high-sounding and airy words did chosroes speak to the ambassadors, but nevertheless it did not escape them why he gave time to the romans in their flight. for he was the cleverest of all men at saying that which was not, and in concealing the truth, and in attributing the blame for the wrongs which he committed to those who suffered the wrong; besides he was ready to agree to everything and to pledge the agreement with an oath, and much more ready to forget completely the things lately agreed to and sworn to by him, and for the sake of money to debase his soul without reluctance to every act of pollution--a past master at feigning piety in his countenance, and absolving himself in words from the responsibility of the act. this man well displayed his own peculiar character on a certain occasion at sura; for after he had hoodwinked the inhabitants of the city by a trick and had destroyed them in the manner which i have described, although they had previously done him no wrong at all, he saw, while the city was being captured, a comely woman and one not of lowly station being dragged by her left hand with great violence by one of the barbarians; and the child, which she had only lately weaned, she was unwilling to let go, but was dragging it with her other hand, fallen, as it was, to the ground since it was not able to keep pace with that violent running. and they say that he uttered a pretended groan, and making it appear to all who were present at that time including anastasius the ambassador that he was all in tears, he prayed god to exact vengeance from the man who was guilty of the troubles which had come to pass. now justinian, the emperor of the romans, was the one whom he wished to have understood, though he knew well that he himself was most responsible for everything. endowed with such a singular nature chosroes both became king of the persians (for ill fortune had deprived zames of his eye, he who in point of years had first right to the kingdom, at any rate after caoses, whom cabades for no good reason hated), and with no difficulty he conquered those who revolted against him, and all the harm which he purposed to do the romans he accomplished easily. for every time when fortune wishes to make a man great, she does at the fitting times those things which she has decided upon, with no one standing against the force of her will; and she neither regards the man's station, nor purposes to prevent the occurrence of things which ought not to be, nor does she give heed that many will blaspheme against her because of these things, mocking scornfully at that which has been done by her contrary to the deserts of the man who receives her favour; nor does she take into consideration anything else at all, if only she accomplish the thing which has been decided upon by her. but as for these matters, let them be as god wishes. chosroes commanded the army to capture and enslave the survivors of the population of antioch, and to plunder all the property, while he himself with the ambassadors descended from the height to the sanctuary which they call a church. there chosroes found stores of gold and silver so great in amount that, though he took no other part of the booty except these stores, he departed possessed of enormous wealth. and he took down from there many wonderful marbles and ordered them to be deposited outside the fortifications, in order that they might convey these too to the land of persia. when he had finished these things, he gave orders to the persians to burn the whole city. and the ambassadors begged him to withhold his hand only from the church, for which he had carried away ransom in abundance. this he granted to the ambassadors, but gave orders to burn everything else; then, leaving there a few men who were to fire the city, he himself with all the rest retired to the camp where they had previously set up their tents. x a short time before this calamity god displayed a sign to the inhabitants of that city, by which he indicated the things which were to be. for the standards of the soldiers who had been stationed there for a long time had been standing previously toward the west, but of their own accord they turned and stood toward the east, and then returned again to their former position untouched by anyone. this the soldiers shewed to many who were near at hand and among them the manager of finances in the camp, while the standards were still trembling. this man, tatianus by name, was an especially discreet person, a native of mopsuestia. but even so those who saw this sign did not recognize that the mastery of the place would pass from the western to the eastern king, in order, evidently, that escape might be utterly impossible for those who were bound to suffer those things which came to pass. but i become dizzy as i write of such a great calamity and transmit it to future times, and i am unable to understand why indeed it should be the will of god to exalt on high the fortunes of a man or of a place, and then to cast them down and destroy them for no cause which appears to us. for it is wrong to say that with him all things are not always done with reason, though he then endured to see antioch brought down to the ground at the hands of a most unholy man, a city whose beauty and grandeur in every respect could not even so be utterly concealed. so, then, after the city had been destroyed, the church was left solitary, thanks to the activity and foresight of the persians to whom this work was assigned. and there were also left about the so-called cerataeum many houses, not because of the foresight of any man, but, since they were situated at the extremity of the city, and not connected with any other building, the fire failed entirely to reach them. the barbarians burned also the parts outside the fortifications, except the sanctuary which is dedicated to st. julianus and the houses which stand about this sanctuary. for it happened that the ambassadors had taken up their lodgings there. as for the fortifications, the persians left them wholly untouched. a little later the ambassadors again came to chosroes and spoke as follows: "if our words were not addressed to thee in thy presence, o king, we should never believe that chosroes, the son of cabades, had come into the land of the romans in arms, dishonouring the oaths which have recently been sworn by thee--for such pledges are regarded as the last and most firm security of all things among men to guarantee mutual trust and truthfulness--and breaking the treaty, though hope in treaties is the only thing left to those who are living in insecurity because of the evil deeds of war. for one might say of such a state of affairs that it is nothing else than the transformation of the habits of men into those of beasts. for in a time when no treaties at all are made, there will remain certainly war without end, and war which has no end is always calculated to estrange from their proper nature those who engage in it. with what intent, moreover, didst thou write to thy brother not long ago that he himself was responsible for the breaking of the treaty? was it not obviously with the admission that the breaking of treaties is an exceedingly great evil? if therefore he has done no wrong, thou art not acting justly now in coming against us; but if it happen that thy brother has done any such thing, yet let thy complaint have its fulfilment thus far, and go no farther, that thou mayst shew thyself superior. for he who submits to be worsted in evil things would in better things justly be victorious. and yet we know well that the emperor justinian has never gone contrary to the treaty, and we entreat thee not to do the romans such harm, from which there will be no advantage to the persians, and thou wilt gain only this, that thou wilt have wrongfully wrought deeds of irreparable harm upon those who have recently made peace with thee." so spoke the ambassadors. and chosroes, upon hearing this, insisted that the treaty had been broken by the emperor justinian; and he enumerated the causes of war which the emperor afforded, some of them of real importance and others idle and fabricated without any reason; most of all he wished to shew that the letters written by him to alamoundaras and the huns were the chief cause of the war, just as i have stated above[ ]. but as for any roman who had invaded the land of persia, or who had made a display of warlike deeds, he was unable either to mention or to point out such a one. the ambassadors, however, referred the charges in part not to justinian but to certain of those who had served him, while in the case of others they took exception to what he had said on the ground that the things had not taken place as stated. finally chosroes made the demand that the romans give him a large sum of money, but he warned them not to hope to establish peace for all time by giving money at that moment only. for friendship, he said, which is made by men on terms of money is generally spent as fast as the money is used up. it was necessary, therefore, that the romans should pay some definite annual sum to the persians. "for thus," he said, "the persians will keep the peace secure for them, guarding the caspian gates themselves and no longer feeling resentment at them on account of the city of daras, in return for which the persians themselves will be in their pay forever." "so," said the ambassadors, "the persians desire to have the romans subject and tributary to themselves." "no," said chosroes, "but the romans will have the persians as their own soldiers for the future, dispensing to them a fixed payment for their service; for you give an annual payment of gold to some of the huns and to the saracens, not as tributary subjects to them, but in order that they may guard your land unplundered for all time." after chosroes and the ambassadors had spoken thus at length with each other, they at last came to terms, agreeing that chosroes should forthwith take from the romans fifty centenaria[ ], and that, receiving a tribute of five more centenaria annually for all time, he should do them no further harm, but taking with him hostages from the ambassadors to pledge the keeping of the agreement, should make his departure with the whole army to his native land, and that there ambassadors sent from the emperor justinian should arrange on a firm basis for the future the compact regarding the peace. xi then chosroes went to seleucia, a city on the sea, one hundred and thirty stades distant from antioch; and there he neither met nor harmed a single roman, and he bathed himself alone in the sea-water, and after sacrificing to the sun and such other divinities as he wished, and calling upon the gods many times, he went back. and when he came to the camp, he said that he had a desire to see the city of apamea which was in the vicinity for no other reason than that of his interest in the place. and the ambassadors unwillingly granted this also, but only on condition that after seeing the city and taking away with him from there one thousand pounds of silver, he should, without inflicting any further injury, march back. but it was evident to the ambassadors and to all the others that chosroes was setting out for apamea with this sole purpose, that he might lay hold upon some pretext of no importance and plunder both the city and the land thereabout. accordingly he first went up to daphne, the suburb of antioch, where he expressed great wonder at the grove and at the fountains of water; for both of these are very well worth seeing. and after sacrificing to the nymphs he departed, doing no further damage than burning the sanctuary of the archangel michael together with certain other buildings, for the following reason. a persian gentleman of high repute in the army of the persians and well known to chosroes, the king, while riding on horseback came in company with some others to a precipitous place near the so-called tretum, where is a temple of the archangel michael, the work of evaris. this man, seeing one of the young men of antioch on foot and alone concealing himself there, separated from the others and pursued him. now the young man was a butcher, aeimachus by name. when he was about to be overtaken, he turned about unexpectedly and threw a stone at his pursuer which hit him on the forehead and penetrated to the membrane by the ear. and the rider fell immediately to the ground, whereupon the youth drew out his sword and slew him. then at his leisure he stripped him of his weapons and all his gold and whatever else he had on his person, and leaping upon his horse rode on. and whether by the favour of fortune or by his knowledge of the country, he succeeded completely in eluding the persians and making good his escape. when chosroes learned this, he was deeply grieved at what had happened, and commanded some of his followers to burn the sanctuary of the archangel michael which i have mentioned above. and they, thinking that the sanctuary at daphne was the one in question, burned it with the buildings about it, and they supposed that the commands of chosroes had been executed. such, then, was the course of these events. but chosroes with his whole army proceeded on the way to apamea. now there is a piece of wood one cubit in length in apamea, a portion of the cross on which the christ in jerusalem once endured the punishment not unwillingly, as is generally agreed, and which in ancient times had been conveyed there secretly by a man of syria. and the men of olden times, believing that it would be a great protection both for themselves and for the city, made for it a sort of wooden chest and deposited it there; and they adorned this chest with much gold and with precious stones and they entrusted it to three priests who were to guard it in all security; and they bring it forth every year and the whole population worship it during one day. now at that time the people of apamea, upon learning that the army of the medes was coming against them, began to be in great fear. and when they heard that chosroes was absolutely untruthful, they came to thomas, the chief priest of the city, and begged him to shew them the wood of the cross, in order that after worshipping it for the last time they might die. and he did as they requested. then indeed it befell that a sight surpassing both description and belief was there seen. for while the priest was carrying the wood and shewing it, above him followed a flame of fire, and the portion of the roof over him was illuminated with a great and unaccustomed light. and while the priest was moving through every part of the temple, the flame continued to advance with him, keeping constantly the place above him in the roof. so the people of apamea, under the spell of joy at the miracle, were wondering and rejoicing and weeping, and already all felt confidence concerning their safety. and thomas, after going about the whole temple, laid the wood of the cross in the chest and covered it, and suddenly the light had ceased. then upon learning that the army of the enemy had come close to the city, he went in great haste to chosroes. and when the king enquired of the priest whether it was the will of the citizens of apamea to marshal themselves on the wall against the army of the medes, the priest replied that no such thing had entered the minds of the men. "therefore," said chosroes, "receive me into the city accompanied by a few men with all the gates opened wide." and the priest said "yes, for i have come here to invite thee to do this very thing." so the whole army pitched their tents and made camp before the fortifications. then chosroes chose out two hundred of the best of the persians and entered the city. but when he had got inside the gates, he forgot willingly enough what had been agreed upon between himself and the ambassadors, and he commanded the bishop to give not only one thousand pounds of silver nor even ten times that amount, but whatsoever treasures were stored there, being all of gold and silver and of marvellous great size. and i believe that he would not have shrunk from enslaving and plundering the whole city, unless some divine providence had manifestly prevented him; to such a degree did avarice overpower him and the desire of fame turn his mind. for he thought the enslavement of the cities a great glory for himself, considering it absolutely nothing that disregarding treaties and compacts he was performing such deeds against the romans. this attitude of chosroes will be revealed by what he undertook to do concerning the city of daras during his withdrawal at this same time, when he treated his agreements with absolute disregard, and also by what he did to the citizens of callinicus a little later in time of peace, as will be told by me in the following narrative[ ]. but god, as has been said, preserved apamea. now when chosroes had seized all the treasures, and thomas saw that he was already intoxicated with the abundance of the wealth, then bringing out the wood of the cross with the chest, he opened the chest and displaying the wood said: "o most mighty king, these alone are left me out of all the treasures. now as for this chest (since it is adorned with gold and precious stones), we do not begrudge thy taking it and keeping it with all the rest, but this wood here, it is our salvation and precious to us, this, i beg and entreat thee, give to me." so spoke the priest. and chosroes yielded and fulfilled the request. afterwards, being filled with a desire for popular applause, he commanded that the populace should go up into the hippodrome and that the charioteers should hold their accustomed contests. and he himself went up there also, eager to be a spectator of the performances. and since he had heard long before that the emperor justinian was extraordinarily fond of the venetus[ ] colour, which is blue, wishing to go against him there also, he was desirous of bringing about victory for the green. so the charioteers, starting from the barriers, began the contest, and by some chance he who was clad in the blue happened to pass his rival and take the lead. and he was followed in the same tracks by the wearer of the green colour. and chosroes, thinking that this had been done purposely, was angry, and he cried out with a threat that the caesar had wrongfully surpassed the others, and he commanded that the horses which were running in front should be held up, in order that from then on they might contend in the rear; and when this had been done just as he commanded, then chosroes and the green faction were accounted victorious. at that time one of the citizens of apamea came before chosroes and accused a persian of entering his house and violating his maiden daughter. upon hearing this, chosroes, boiling with anger, commanded that the man should be brought. and when he came before him, he directed that he should be impaled in the camp. and when the people learned this, they raised a mighty shout as loud as they could, demanding that the man be saved from the king's anger. and chosroes promised that he would release the man to them, but he secretly impaled him not long afterwards. so after these things had been thus accomplished, he departed and marched back with the whole army. xii and when he came to the city of chalcis, eighty-four stades distant from the city of beroea, he again seemed to forget the things which had been agreed upon, and encamping not far from the fortifications he sent paulus to threaten the inhabitants of chalcis, saying that he would take the city by siege, unless they should purchase their safety by giving ransom, and should give up to the persians all the soldiers who were there together with their leader. and the citizens of chalcis were seized with great fear of both sovereigns, and they swore that, as for soldiers, there were absolutely none of them in the city, although they had hidden adonachus, the commander of the soldiers, and others as well in some houses, in order that they might not be seen by the enemy; and with difficulty they collected two centenaria[ ] of gold, for the city they inhabited was not very prosperous, and they gave them to chosroes as the price of their lives and thus saved both the city and themselves. from there on chosroes did not wish to continue the return journey by the road he had come, but to cross the river euphrates and gather by plunder as much money as possible from mesopotamia. he therefore constructed a bridge at the place called obbane, which is forty stades distant from the fortress in barbalissum; then he himself went across and gave orders to the whole army to cross as quickly as possible, adding that he would break up the bridge on the third day, and he appointed also the time of the day. and when the appointed day was come, it happened that some of the army were left who had not yet crossed, but without the least consideration for them he sent the men to break up the bridge. and those who were left behind returned to their native land as each one could. then a sort of ambition came over chosroes to capture the city of edessa. for he was led on to this by a saying of the christians, and it kept irritating his mind, because they maintained that it could not be taken, for the following reason. there was a certain augarus in early times, toparch of edessa (for thus the kings of the different nations were called then). now this augarus was the most clever of all men of his time, and as a result of this was an especial friend of the emperor augustus. for, desiring to make a treaty with the romans, he came to rome; and when he conversed with augustus, he so astonished him by the abundance of his wisdom that augustus wished never more to give up his company; for he was an ardent lover of his conversation, and whenever he met him, he was quite unwilling to depart from him. a long time, therefore, was consumed by him in this visit. and one day when he was desirous of returning to his native land and was utterly unable to persuade augustus to let him go, he devised the following plan. he first went out to hunt in the country about rome; for it happened that he had taken considerable interest in the practice of this sport. and going about over a large tract of country, he captured alive many of the animals of that region, and he gathered up and took with him from each part of the country some earth from the land; thus he returned to rome bringing both the earth and the animals. then augustus went up into the hippodrome and seated himself as was his wont, and augarus came before him and displayed the earth and the animals, telling over from what district each portion of earth was and what animals they were. then he gave orders to put the earth in different parts of the hippodrome, and to gather all the animals into one place and then to release them. so the attendants did as he directed. and the animals, separating from each other, went each to that portion of earth which was from the district in which it itself had been taken. and augustus looked upon the performance carefully for a very long time, and he was wondering that nature untaught makes animals miss their native land. then augarus, suddenly laying hold upon his knees, said: "but as for me, o master, what thoughts dost thou think i have, who possess a wife and children and a kingdom, small indeed, but in the land of my fathers?" and the emperor, overcome and compelled by the truth of his saying, granted not at all willingly that he should go away, and bade him ask besides whatever he wished. and when augarus had secured this, he begged of augustus to build him a hippodrome in the city of edessa. and he granted also this. thus then augarus departed from rome and came to edessa. and the citizens enquired of him whether he had come bringing any good thing for them from the emperor augustus. and he answering said he had brought to the inhabitants of edessa pain without loss and pleasure without gain, hinting at the fortune of the hippodrome. at a later time when augarus was well advanced in years, he was seized with an exceedingly violent attack of gout. and being distressed by the pains and his inability to move in consequence of them, he carried the matter to the physicians, and from the whole land he gathered all who were skilled in these matters. but later he abandoned these men (for they did not succeed in discovering any cure for the trouble), and finding himself helpless, he bewailed the fate which was upon him. but about that time jesus, the son of god, was in the body and moving among the men of palestine, shewing manifestly by the fact that he never sinned at all, and also by his performing even things impossible, that he was the son of god in very truth; for he called the dead and raised them up as if from sleep, and opened the eyes of men who had been born blind, and cleansed those whose whole bodies were covered with leprosy, and released those whose feet were maimed, and he cured all the other diseases which are called by the physicians incurable. when these things were reported to augarus by those who travelled from palestine to edessa, he took courage and wrote a letter to jesus, begging him to depart from judaea and the senseless people there, and to spend his life with him from that time forward. when the christ saw this message, he wrote in reply to augarus, saying distinctly that he would not come, but promising him health in the letter. and they say that he added this also that never would the city be liable to capture by the barbarians. this final portion of the letter was entirely unknown to those who wrote the history of that time; for they did not even make mention of it anywhere; but the men of edessa say that they found it with the letter, so that they have even caused the letter to be inscribed in this form on the gates of the city instead of any other defence. the city did in fact come under the medes a short time afterwards, not by capture however, but in the following manner. a short time after augarus received the letter of the christ, he became free from suffering, and after living on in health for a long time, he came to his end. but that one of his sons who succeeded to the kingdom shewed himself the most unholy of all men, and besides committing many other wrongs against his subjects, he voluntarily went over to the persians, fearing the vengeance which was to come from the romans. but long after this the citizens of edessa destroyed the barbarian guards who were dwelling with them, and gave the city into the hands of the romans. * * *[ ] he is eager to attach it to his cause, judging by what has happened in my time, which i shall present in the appropriate place. and the thought once occurred to me that, if the christ did not write this thing just as i have told it, still, since men have come to believe in it, he wishes to guard the city uncaptured for this reason, that he may never give them any pretext for error. as for these things, then, let them be as god wills, and so let them be told. for this reason it seemed to chosroes at that time a matter of moment to capture edessa. and when he came to batne, a small stronghold of no importance, one day's journey distant from edessa, he bivouacked there for that night, but at early dawn he was on the march to edessa with his whole army. but it fell out that they lost their way and wandered about, and on the following night bivouacked in the same place; and they say that this happened to them a second time also. when with difficulty chosroes reached the neighbourhood of edessa, they say that suppuration set in in his face and his jaw became swollen. for this reason he was quite unwilling to make an attempt on the city, but he sent paulus and demanded money from the citizens. and they said that they had absolutely no fear concerning the city, but in order that he might not damage the country they agreed to give two centenaria of gold. and chosroes took the money and kept the agreement. xiii at that time also the emperor justinian wrote a letter to chosroes, promising to carry out the agreement which had been made by him and the ambassadors regarding the peace[ ]. when this message was received by chosroes, he released the hostages and made preparations for his departure, and he wished to sell off all the captives from antioch. and when the citizens of edessa learned of this, they displayed an unheard-of zeal. for there was not a person who did not bring ransom for the captives and deposit it in the sanctuary according to the measure of his possessions. and there were some who even exceeded their proportionate amount in so doing. for the harlots took off all the adornment which they wore on their persons, and threw it down there, and any farmer who was in want of plate or of money, but who had an ass or a sheep, brought this to the sanctuary with great zeal. so there was collected an exceedingly great amount of gold and silver and money in other forms, but not a bit of it was given for ransom. for bouzes happened to be present there, and he took in hand to prevent the transaction, expecting that this would bring him some great gain. therefore chosroes moved forward, taking with him all the captives. and the citizens of carrhae met him holding out to him great sums of money; but he said that it did not belong to him because the most of them are not christians but are of the old faith. but when, likewise, the citizens of constantina offered money, he accepted it, although he asserted that the city belonged to him from his fathers. [ a.d.] for at the time when cabades took amida, he wished also to capture edessa and constantina. but when he came near to edessa he enquired of the magi whether it would be possible for him to capture the city, pointing out the place to them with his right hand. but they said that the city would not be captured by him by any device, judging by the fact that in stretching out his right hand to it he was not giving thereby the sign of capture or of any other grievous thing, but of salvation. and when cabades heard this, he was convinced and led his army on to constantina. and upon arriving there, he issued orders to the whole army to encamp for a siege. now the priest of constantina was at that time baradotus, a just man and especially beloved of god, and his prayers for this reason were always effectual for whatever he wished; and even seeing his face one would have straightway surmised that this man was most completely acceptable to god. this baradotus came then to cabades bearing wine and dried figs and honey and unblemished loaves, and entreated him not to make an attempt on a city which was not of any importance and which was very much neglected by the romans, having neither a garrison of soldiers nor any other defence, but only the inhabitants, who were pitiable folk. thus spoke the priest; and cabades promised that he would grant him the city freely, and he presented him with all the food-supplies which had been prepared by him for the army in anticipation of the siege, an exceedingly great quantity; and thus he departed from the land of the romans. for this reason it was that chosroes claimed that the city belonged to him from his fathers. and when he reached daras, he began a siege; but within the city the romans and martinus, their general (for it happened that he was there), made their preparations for resistance. now the city is surrounded by two walls, the inner one of which is of great size and a truly wonderful thing to look upon (for each tower reaches to a height of a hundred feet, and the rest of the wall to sixty), while the outer wall is much smaller, but in other respects strong and one to be reckoned with seriously. and the space between has a breadth of not less than fifty feet; in that place the citizens of daras are accustomed to put their cattle and other animals when an enemy assails them. at first then chosroes made an assault on the fortifications toward the west, and forcing back his opponents by overwhelming numbers of missiles, he set fire to the gates of the small wall. however no one of the barbarians dared to get inside. next he decided to make a tunnel secretly at the eastern side of the city. for at this point alone can the earth be dug, since the other parts of the fortifications were set upon rock by the builders. so the persians began to dig, beginning from their trench. and since this was very deep, they were neither observed by the enemy nor did they afford them any means of discovering what was being done. so they had already gone under the foundations of the outer wall, and were about to reach the space between the two walls and soon after to pass also the great wall and take the city by force; but since it was not fated to be captured by the persians, someone from the camp of chosroes came alone about midday close to the fortifications, whether a man or something else greater than man, and he made it appear to those who saw him that he was collecting the weapons which the romans had a little before discharged from the wall against the barbarians who were assailing them. and while doing this and holding his shield before him, he seemed to be bantering those who were on the parapet and taunting them with laughter. then he told them of everything and commanded them all to be on the watch and to take all possible care for their safety. after revealing these things he was off, while the romans with much shouting and confusion were ordering men to dig the ground between the two walls. the persians, on the other hand, not knowing what was being done, were pushing on the work no less than before. so while the persians were making a straight way underground to the wall of the city, the romans by the advice of theodoras, a man learned in the science called mechanics, were constructing their trench in a cross-wise direction and making it of sufficient depth, so that when the persians had reached the middle point between the two circuit-walls they suddenly broke into the trench of the romans. and the first of them the romans killed, while those in the rear by fleeing at top speed into the camp saved themselves. for the romans decided by no means to pursue them in the dark. so chosroes, failing in this attempt and having no hope that he would take the city by any device thereafter, opened negotiations with the besieged, and carrying away a thousand pounds of silver he retired into the land of persia. when this came to the knowledge of the emperor justinian, he was no longer willing to carry the agreement into effect, charging chosroes with having attempted to capture the city of daras during a truce. such were the fortunes of the romans during the first invasion of chosroes; and the summer drew to its close. xiv now chosroes built a city in assyria in a place one day's journey distant from the city of ctesiphon, and he named it the antioch of chosroes and settled there all the captives from antioch, constructing for them a bath and a hippodrome and providing that they should have free enjoyment of their other luxuries besides. for he brought with him charioteers and musicians both from antioch and from the other roman cities. besides this he always provisioned these citizens of antioch at public expense more carefully than in the fashion of captives, and he required that they be called king's subjects, so as to be subordinate to no one of the magistrates, but to the king alone. and if any one else too who was a roman in slavery ran away and succeeded in escaping to the antioch of chosroes, and if he was called a kinsman by any one of those who lived there, it was no longer possible for the owner of this captive to take him away, not even if he who had enslaved the man happened to be a person of especial note among the persians. thus, then, the portent which had come to the citizens of antioch in the reign of anastasius reached this final fulfilment for them. for at that time a violent wind suddenly fell upon the suburb of daphne, and some of the cypresses which were there of extraordinary height were overturned from the extremities of their roots and fell to the earth--trees which the law forbade absolutely to be cut down. [ a.d.] accordingly, a little later, when justinus was ruling over the romans, the place was visited by an exceedingly violent earthquake, which shook down the whole city and straightway brought to the ground the most and the finest of the buildings, and it is said that at that time three hundred thousand of the population of antioch perished. and finally in this capture the whole city, as has been said, was destroyed. such, then, was the calamity which befell the men of antioch. and belisarius came to byzantium from italy, summoned by the emperor; and after he had spent the winter in byzantium, the emperor sent him as general against chosroes and the persians at the opening of spring, together with the officers who had come with him from italy, one of whom, valerianus, he commanded to lead the troops in armenia. [ a.d.] for martinus had been sent immediately to the east, and for this reason chosroes found him at daras, as has been stated above. and among the goths, vittigis remained in byzantium, but all the rest marched with belisarius against chosroes. at that time one of the envoys of vittigis, he who was assuming the name of bishop, died in the land of persia, and the other one remained there. and the man who followed them as interpreter withdrew to the land of the romans, and john, who was commanding the troops in mesopotamia, arrested him near the boundaries of constantina, and bringing him into the city confined him in a prison; there the man in answer to his enquiries related everything which had been done. such, then, was the course of these events. and belisarius and his followers went in haste, since he was eager to anticipate chosroes' making any second invasion into the land of the romans. xv but in the meantime chosroes was leading his army against colchis, where the lazi were calling him in for the following reason. the lazi at first dwelt in the land of colchis as subjects of the romans, but not to the extent of paying them tribute or obeying their commands in any respect, except that, whenever their king died, the roman emperor would send emblems of the office to him who was about to succeed to the throne. and he, together with his subjects, guarded strictly the boundaries of the land in order that hostile huns might not proceed from the caucasus mountains, which adjoin their territory, through lazica and invade the land of the romans. and they kept guard without receiving money or troops from the romans and without ever joining the roman armies, but they were always engaged in commerce by sea with the romans who live on the black sea. for they themselves have neither salt nor grain nor any other good thing, but by furnishing skins and hides and slaves they secured the supplies which they needed. but when the events came to pass in which gourgenes, the king of the iberians, was concerned, as has been told in the preceding narrative[ ], roman soldiers began to be quartered among the lazi; and these barbarians were annoyed by the soldiers, and most of all by peter, the general, a man who was prone to treat insolently those who came into contact with him. this peter was a native of arzanene, which is beyond the river nymphius, a district subject to the persians from of old, but while still a child he had been captured and enslaved by the emperor justinus at the time when justinus, after the taking of amida, was invading the land of the persians with celer's army.[ ] and since his owner showed him great kindness, he attended the school of a grammatist. and at first he became secretary to justinus, but when, after the death of anastasius, justinus took over the roman empire, peter was made a general, and he degenerated into a slave of avarice, if anyone ever did, and shewed himself very fatuous in his treatment of all. and later the emperor justinian sent different officers to lazica, and among them john, whom they called tzibus, a man of obscure and ignoble descent, but who had climbed to the office of general by virtue of no other thing than that he was the most accomplished villain in the world and most successful in discovering unlawful sources of revenue. this man unsettled and threw into confusion all the relations of the romans and the lazi. he also persuaded the emperor justinian to build a city on the sea in lazica, petra by name; and there he sat as in a citadel and plundered the property of the lazi. for the salt, and all other cargoes which were considered necessary for the lazi, it was no longer possible for the merchants to bring into the land of colchis, nor could they purchase them elsewhere by sending for them, but he set up in petra the so-called "monopoly" and himself became a retail dealer and overseer of all the handling of these things, buying everything and selling it to the colchians, not at the customary rates, but as dearly as possible. at the same time, even apart from this, the barbarians were annoyed by the roman army quartered upon them, a thing which had not been customary previously. accordingly, since they were no longer able to endure these things, they decided to attach themselves to the persians and chosroes, and immediately they sent to them envoys who were to arrange this without the knowledge of the romans. these men had been instructed that they should take pledges from chosroes that he would never give up the lazi against their will to the romans, and that with this understanding they should bring him with the persian army into the land. accordingly the envoys went to the persians, and coming secretly before chosroes they said: "if any people in all time have revolted from their own friends in any manner whatsoever and attached themselves wrongfully to men utterly unknown to them, and after that by the kindness of fortune have been brought back once more with greatest rejoicing to those who were formerly their own, consider, o most mighty king, that such as these are the lazi. for the colchians in ancient times, as allies of the persians, rendered them many good services and were themselves treated in like manner; and of these things there are many records in books, some of which we have, while others are preserved in thy palace up to the present time. but at a later time it came about that our ancestors, whether neglected by you or for some other reason (for we are unable to ascertain anything certain about this matter), became allies of the romans. and now we and the king of lazica give to the persians both ourselves and our land to treat in any way you may desire. and we beg of you to think thus concerning us: if, on the one hand, we have suffered nothing outrageous at the hands of the romans, but have been prompted by foolish motives in coming to you, reject this prayer of ours straightway, considering that with you likewise the colchians will never be trustworthy (for when a friendship has been dissolved, a second friendship formed with others becomes, owing to its character, a matter of reproach); but if we have been in name friends of the romans, but in fact their loyal slaves, and have suffered impious treatment at the hands of those who have tyrannized over us, receive us, your former allies, and acquire as slaves those whom you used to treat as friends, and shew your hatred of a cruel tyranny which has risen thus on our borders, by acting worthily of that justice which it has always been the tradition of the persians to defend. for the man who himself does no wrong is not just, unless he is also accustomed to rescue those who are wronged by others when he has it in his power. but it is worth while to tell a few of the things which the accursed romans have dared to do against us. in the first place they have left our king only the form of royal power, while they themselves have appropriated the actual authority, and he sits a king in the position of a servant, fearing the general who issues the orders; and they have put upon us a multitude of soldiery, not in order to guard the land against those who harass us (for not one of our neighbours except, indeed, the romans has disturbed us), but in order that they may confine us as in a prison and make themselves masters of our possessions. and purposing to make more speedy the robbery of what we have, behold, o king, what sort of a design they have formed; the supplies which are in excess among them they compel the lazi to buy against their will, while those things which are most useful to them among the products of lazica these fellows demand to buy, as they put it, from us, the price being determined in both cases by the judgment of the stronger party. and thus they are robbing us of all our gold as well as of the necessities of life, using the fair name of trade, but in fact oppressing us as thoroughly as they possibly can. and there has been set over us as ruler a huckster who has made our destitution a kind of business by virtue of the authority of his office. the cause of our revolt, therefore, being of this sort, has justice on its side; but the advantage which you yourselves will gain if you receive the request of the lazi we shall forthwith tell. to the realm of persia you will add a most ancient kingdom, and as a result of this you will have the power of your sway extended, and it will come about that you will have a part in the sea of the romans through our land, and after thou hast built ships in this sea, o king, it will be possible for thee with no trouble to set foot in the palace in byzantium. for there is no obstacle between. and one might add that the plundering of the land of the romans every year by the barbarians along the boundary will be under your control. for surely you also are acquainted with the fact that up till now the land of the lazi has been a bulwark against the caucasus mountains. so with justice leading the way, and advantage added thereto, we consider that not to receive our words with favour would be wholly contrary to good judgment." so spoke the envoys. and chosroes, delighted by their words, promised to protect the lazi, and enquired of the envoys whether it was possible for him to enter the land of colchis with a large army. for he said that previously he had heard many persons report that the land was exceedingly hard to traverse even for an unimpeded traveller, being extremely rugged and covered very extensively by thick forests of wide-spreading trees. but the envoys stoutly maintained to him that the way through the country would be easy for the whole persian army, if they cut the trees and threw them into the places which were made difficult by precipices. and they promised that they themselves would be guides of the route, and would take the lead in this work for the persians. encouraged by this suggestion, chosroes gathered a great army and made his preparations for the inroad, not disclosing the plan to the persians except those alone to whom he was accustomed to communicate his secrets, and commanding the envoys to tell no one what was being done; and he pretended that he was setting out into iberia, in order to settle matters there; for a hunnic tribe, he kept saying in explanation, had assailed the persian domain at that point. xvi at this time belisarius had arrived in mesopotamia and was gathering his army from every quarter, and he also kept sending men into the land of persia to act as spies. and wishing himself to encounter the enemy there, if they should again make an incursion into the land of the romans, he was organizing on the spot and equipping the soldiers, who were for the most part without either arms or armour, and in terror of the name of the persians. now the spies returned and declared that for the present there would be no invasion of the enemy; for chosroes was occupied elsewhere with a war against the huns. and belisarius, upon learning this, wished to invade the land of the enemy immediately with his whole army. arethas also came to him with a large force of saracens, and besides the emperor wrote a letter instructing him to invade the enemy's country with all speed. he therefore called together all the officers in daras and spoke as follows: "i know that all of you, my fellow officers, are experienced in many wars, and i have brought you together at the present time, not in order to stir up your minds against the enemy by addressing to you any reminder or exhortation (for i think that you need no speech that prompts to daring), but in order that we may deliberate together among ourselves, and choose rather the course which may seem fairest and best for the cause of the emperor. for war is wont to succeed by reason of careful planning more than by anything else. now it is necessary that those who gather for deliberation should make their minds entirely free from modesty and from fear. for fear, by paralyzing those who have fallen into it, does not allow the reason to choose the nobler part, and modesty obscures what has been seen to be the better course and leads investigation the opposite way. if, therefore, it seems to you that any purpose has been formed either by our mighty emperor or by me concerning the present situation, let no thought of this enter your minds. for, as for him, he is altogether ignorant of what is being done, and is therefore unable to adapt his moves to opportune moments; there is therefore no fear but that in going contrary to him we shall do that which will be of advantage to his cause. and as for me, since i am human, and have come here from the west after a long interval, it is impossible that some of the necessary things should not escape me. so it behoves you, without any too modest regard for my opinion, to say outright whatever is going to be of advantage for ourselves and for the emperor. now in the beginning, fellow officers, we came here in order to prevent the enemy from making any invasion into our land, but at the present time, since things have gone better for us than we had hoped, it is possible for us to make his land the subject of our deliberation. and now that you have been gathered together for this purpose, it is fair, i think, that you should tell without any concealment what seems to each one best and most advantageous." thus spoke belisarius. and peter and bouzes urged him to lead the army without any hesitation against the enemy's country. and their opinion was followed immediately by the whole council. rhecithancus, however, and theoctistus, the commanders of the troops in lebanon, said that, while they too had the same wish as the others concerning the invasion, they feared that if they abandoned the country of phoenicia and syria, alamoundaras would plunder it at his leisure, and that the emperor would be angry with them because they had not guarded and kept unplundered the territory under their command, and for this reason they were quite unwilling to join the rest of the army in the invasion. but belisarius said that the opinion of these two men was not in the least degree true; for it was the season of the vernal equinox, and at this season the saracens always dedicated about two months to their god, and during this time never undertook any inroad into the land of others. agreeing, therefore, to release both of them with their followers within sixty days, he commanded them also to follow with the rest of the army. so belisarius was making his preparation for the invasion with great zeal. xvii but chosroes and the median army, after crossing iberia, reached the territory of lazica under the leadership of the envoys; there with no one to withstand them they began to cut down the trees which grow thickly over that very mountainous region, rising to a great height, and spreading out their branches remarkably, so that they made the country absolutely impassable for the army; and these they threw into the rough places, and thus rendered the road altogether easy. and when they arrived in the centre of colchis (the place where the tales of the poets say that the adventure of medea and jason took place), goubazes, the king of the lazi, came and did obeisance to chosroes, the son of cabades, as lord, putting himself together with his palace and all lazica into his hand. now there is a coast city named petra in colchis, on the sea which is called the euxine, which in former times had been a place of no importance, but which the emperor justinian had rendered strong and otherwise conspicuous by means of the circuit-wall and other buildings which he erected. when chosroes ascertained that the roman army was in that place with john, he sent an army and a general, aniabedes, against them in order to capture the place at the first onset. but john, upon learning of their approach, gave orders that no one should go outside the fortifications nor allow himself to be seen from the parapet by the enemy, and he armed the whole army and stationed them in the vicinity of the gates, commanding them to keep silence and not allow the least sound of any kind to escape from them. so the persians came close to the fortifications, and since nothing of the enemy was either seen or heard by them they thought that the romans had abandoned the city and left it destitute of men. for this reason they closed in still more around the fortifications, so as to set up ladders immediately, since no one was defending the wall. and neither seeing nor hearing anything of the enemy, they sent to chosroes and explained the situation. and he sent the greater part of the army, commanding them to make an attempt upon the fortifications from all sides, and he directed one of the officers to make use of the engine known as a ram around the gate, while he himself, seated on the hill which lies very close to the city, became a spectator of the operations. and straightway the romans opened the gates all of a sudden, and unexpectedly fell upon and slew great numbers of the enemy, and especially those stationed about the ram; the rest with difficulty made their escape together with the general and were saved. and chosroes, filled with rage, impaled aniabedes, since he had been outgeneralled by john, a tradesman and an altogether unwarlike man. but some say that not aniabedes, but the officer commanding the men who were working the ram was impaled. and he himself broke camp with the whole army, and coming close to the fortifications of petra, made camp and began a siege. on the following day he went completely around the fortifications, and since he suspected that they could not support a very strong attack, he decided to storm the wall. and bringing up the whole army there, he opened the action, commanding all to shoot with their bows against the parapet. the romans, meanwhile, in defending themselves, made use of their engines of war and all their bows. at first, then, the persians did the romans little harm, although they were shooting their arrows thick and fast, while at the same time they suffered severely at the hands of the romans, since they were being shot at from an elevation. but later on (since it was fated that petra be captured by chosroes), john by some chance was shot in the neck and died, and as a result of this the other romans ceased to care for anything. then indeed the barbarians withdrew to their camp; for it was already growing dark; but on the following day they planned to assail the fortifications by an excavation, as follows. the city of petra is on one side inaccessible on account of the sea, and on the other on account of the sheer cliffs which rise there on every hand; indeed it is from this circumstance that the city has received the name it bears. and it has only one approach on the level ground, and that not very broad; for exceedingly high cliffs overhang it on either side. at that point those who formerly built the city provided that that portion of the wall should not be open to attack by making long walls which ran along beside either cliff and guarded the approach for a great distance. and they built two towers, one in each of these walls, not following the customary plan, but as follows. they refused to allow the space in the middle of the structure to be empty, but constructed the entire towers from the ground up to a great height of very large stones which fitted together, in order that they might never be shaken down by a ram or any other engine. such, then, are the fortifications of petra. but the persians secretly made a tunnel into the earth and got under one of the two towers, and from there carried out many of the stones and in their place put wood, which a little later they burned. and the flame, rising little by little, weakened the stones, and all of a sudden shook the whole tower violently and straightway brought it down to the ground. and the romans who were on the tower perceived what was being done in sufficient time so that they did not fall with it to the ground, but they fled and got inside the city wall. and now it was possible for the enemy to storm the wall from the level, and thus with no trouble to take the city by force. the romans, therefore, in terror, opened negotiations with the barbarians, and receiving from chosroes pledges concerning their lives and their property, they surrendered to him both themselves and the city. [ a.d.] thus chosroes captured petra. and finding the treasures of john, which were extremely rich, he took them himself, but besides this neither he himself nor anyone else of the persians touched anything, and the romans, retaining their own possessions, mingled with the median army. xviii meantime belisarius and the roman army, having learned nothing of what was being done there, were going in excellent order from the city of daras toward nisibis. and when they had reached the middle of their journey, belisarius led the army to the right where there were abundant springs of water and level ground sufficient for all to camp upon. and there he gave orders to make a camp at about forty-two stades from the city of nisibis. but all the others marvelled greatly that he did not wish to camp close to the fortifications, and some were quite unwilling to follow him. belisarius therefore addressed those of the officers who were about him thus: "it was not my wish to disclose to all what i am thinking. for talk carried about through a camp cannot keep secrets, for it advances little by little until it is carried out even to the enemy. but seeing that the majority of you are allowing yourselves to act in a most disorderly manner, and that each one wishes to be himself supreme commander in the war, i shall now say among you things about which one ought to keep silence, mentioning, however, this first, that when many in an army follow independent judgments it is impossible that anything needful be done. now i think that chosroes, in going against other barbarians, has by no means left his own land without sufficient protection, and in particular this city which is of the first rank and is set as a defence to his whole land. in this city i know well that he has stationed soldiers in such number and of such valour as to be sufficient to stand in the way of our assaults. and the proof of this you have near at hand. for he put in command of these men the general nabedes, who, after chosroes himself at least, seems to be first among the persians in glory and in every other sort of honour. this man, i believe, will both make trial of our strength and will permit of our passing by on no other condition than that he be defeated by us in battle. if, therefore, the conflict should be close by the city, the struggle will not be even for us and the persians. for they, coming out from their stronghold against us, in case of success, should it so happen, will feel unlimited confidence in assailing us, and in case of defeat they will easily escape from our attack. for we shall only be able to pursue them a short distance, and from this no harm will come to the city, which you surely see cannot be captured by storming the wall when soldiers are defending it. but if the enemy engage with us here and we conquer them, i have great hopes, fellow officers, of capturing the city. for while our antagonists are fleeing a long way, we shall either mingle with them and rush inside the gates with them, as is probable, or we shall anticipate them and compel them to turn and escape to some other place, and thus render nisibis without its defenders easy of capture for us." when belisarius had said this, all the others except peter were convinced, and they made camp and remained with him. he, however, associating with himself john, who commanded the troops in mesopotamia and had no small part of the army, came up to a position not far removed from the fortifications, about ten stades away, and remained quietly there. but belisarius marshalled the men who were with him as if for combat, and sent word to peter and his men also to hold themselves in array for battle, until he himself should give the signal; and he said that he knew well that the barbarians would attack them about midday, remembering, as they surely would, that while they themselves are accustomed to partake of food in the late afternoon, the romans do so about midday. so belisarius gave this warning; but peter and his men disregarded his commands, and about midday, being distressed by the sun (for the place is exceedingly dry and hot), they stacked their arms, and with never a thought of the enemy began to go about in disorderly fashion and eat gourds which grew there. and when this was observed by nabedes, he led the persian army running at full speed against them. and the romans, since they did not fail to observe that the persians were coming out of the fortifications (for they were seen clearly because moving over a level plain), sent to belisarius urging him to support them, and they themselves snatched up their arms, and in disorder and confusion confronted their foe. but belisarius and his men, even before the messenger had reached them, discovered by the dust the attack of the persians, and went to the rescue on the run. and when the persians came up, the romans did not withstand their onset, but were routed without any difficulty, and the persians, following close upon them, killed fifty men, and seized and kept the standard of peter. and they would have slain them all in this pursuit, for the romans had no thought of resistance, if belisarius and the army with him had not come upon them and prevented it. for as the goths, first of all, came upon them with long spears in close array, the persians did not await their attack but beat a hasty retreat. and the romans together with the goths followed them up and slew a hundred and fifty men. for the pursuit was only of short duration, and the others quickly got inside the fortifications. then indeed all the romans withdrew to the camp of belisarius, and the persians on the following day set up on a tower instead of a trophy the standard of peter, and hanging sausages from it they taunted the enemy with laughter; however, they no longer dared to come out against them, but they guarded the city securely. xix and belisarius, seeing that nisibis was exceedingly strong, and having no hope regarding its capture, was eager to go forward, in order that he might do the enemy some damage by a sudden inroad. accordingly he broke camp and moved forward with the whole army. and after accomplishing a day's journey, they came upon a fortress which the persians call sisauranon. there were in that place besides the numerous population eight hundred horsemen, the best of the persians, who were keeping guard under command of a man of note, bleschames by name. and the romans made camp close by the fortress and began a siege, but, upon making an assault upon the fortifications, they were beaten back, losing many men in the fight. for the wall happened to be extremely strong, and the barbarians defended it against their assailants with the greatest vigour. belisarius therefore called together all the officers and spoke as follows: "experience in many wars, fellow officers, has made it possible for us in difficult situations to foresee what will come to pass, and has made us capable of avoiding disaster by choosing the better course. you understand, therefore, how great a mistake it is for an army to proceed into a hostile land, when many strongholds and many fighting men in them have been left in the rear. now exactly this has happened to us in the present case. for if we continue our advance, some of the enemy from this place as well as from the city of nisibis will follow us secretly and will, in all probability, handle us roughly in places which are for them conveniently adapted for an ambuscade or some other sort of attack. and if, by any chance, a second army confronts us and opens battle, it will be necessary for us to array ourselves against both, and we should thus suffer irreparable harm at their hands. and in saying this i do not mention the fact that if we fail in the engagement, should it so happen, we shall after that have absolutely no way of return left to the land of the romans. let us not therefore by reason of most ill-considered haste seem to have been our own despoilers, nor by our eagerness for strife do harm to the cause of the romans. for stupid daring leads to destruction, but discreet hesitation is well adapted always to save those who adopt such a course. let us therefore establish ourselves here and endeavour to capture this fortress, and let arethas with his forces be sent into the country of assyria. for the saracens are by nature unable to storm a wall, but the cleverest of all men at plundering. and some of the soldiers who are good fighters will join them in the invasion, so that, if no opposition presents itself to them, they may overwhelm those who fall in their way, and if any hostile force encounters them, they may be saved easily by retiring to us. and after we have captured the fortress, if god wills, then with the whole army let us cross the river tigris, without having to fear mischief from anyone in our rear, and knowing well how matters stand with the assyrians." these words of belisarius seemed to all well spoken, and he straightway put the plan into execution. accordingly he commanded arethas with his troops to advance into assyria, and with them he sent twelve hundred soldiers, the most of whom were from among his own guard, putting two guardsmen in command of them, trajan and john who was called the glutton, both capable warriors. these men he directed to obey arethas in everything they did, and he commanded arethas to pillage all that lay before him and then return to the camp and report how matters stood with the assyrians with regard to military strength. so arethas and his men crossed the river tigris and entered assyria. there they found a goodly land and one which had been free from plunder for a long time, and undefended besides; and moving rapidly they pillaged many of the places there and secured a great amount of rich plunder. and at that time belisarius captured some of the persians and learned from them that those who were inside the fortress were altogether out of provisions. for they do not observe the custom which is followed in the cities of daras and nisibis, where they put away the annual food-supply in public store-houses, and now that a hostile army had fallen upon them unexpectedly they had not anticipated the event by carrying in any of the necessities of life. and since a great number of persons had taken refuge suddenly in the fortress, they were naturally hard pressed by the want of provisions. when belisarius learned this, he sent george, a man of the greatest discretion with whom he shared his secrets, to test the men of the place, in the hope that he might be able to arrange some terms of surrender and thus take the place. and george succeeded, after addressing to them many words of exhortation and of kindly invitation, in persuading them to take pledges for their safety and to deliver themselves and the fortress to the romans. thus belisarius captured sisauranon, and the inhabitants, all of whom were christians and of roman origin, he released unscathed, but the persians he sent with bleschames to byzantium, and razed the fortification wall of the fortress to the ground. and the emperor not long afterwards sent these persians and bleschames to italy to fight against the goths. such, then, was the course of events which had to do with the fortress of sisauranon. but arethas, fearing lest he should be despoiled of his booty by the romans, was now unwilling to return to the camp. so he sent some of his followers ostensibly for the purpose of reconnoitring, but secretly commanding them to return as quickly as possible and announce to the army that a large hostile force was at the crossing of the river. for this reason, then, he advised trajan and john to return by another route to the land of the romans. so they did not come again to belisarius, but keeping the river euphrates on the right they finally arrived at the theodosiopolis which is near the river aborrhas. but belisarius and the roman army, hearing nothing concerning this force, were disturbed, and they were filled with fear and an intolerable and exaggerated suspicion. and since much time had been consumed by them in this siege, it came about that many of the soldiers were taken there with a troublesome fever; for the portion of mesopotamia which is subject to the persians is extremely dry and hot. and the romans were not accustomed to this and especially those who came from thrace; and since they were living their daily life in a place where the heat was excessive and in stuffy huts in the summer season, they became so ill that the third part of the army were lying half-dead. the whole army, therefore, was eager to depart from there and return as quickly as possible to their own land, and most of all the commanders of the troops in lebanon, rhecithancus and theoctistus, who saw that the time which was the sacred season of the saracens had in fact already passed. they came, indeed, frequently to belisarius and entreated him to release them immediately, protesting that they had given over to alamoundaras the country of lebanon and syria, and were sitting there for no good reason. belisarius therefore called together all the officers and opened a discussion. then john, the son of nicetas, rose first and spoke as follows: "most excellent belisarius, i consider that in all time there has never been a general such as you are either in fortune or in valour. and this reputation has come to prevail not alone among the romans, but also among all barbarians. this fair name, however, you will preserve most securely, if you should be able to take us back alive to the land of the romans; for now indeed the hopes which we may have are not bright. for i would have you look thus at the situation of this army. the saracens and the most efficient soldiers of the army crossed the river tigris, and one day, i know not how long since, they found themselves in such a plight that they have not even succeeded in sending a messenger to us, and rhecithancus and theoctistus will depart, as you see surely, believing that the army of alamoundaras is almost at this very moment in the midst of phoenicia, pillaging the whole country there. and among those who are left the sick are so numerous that those who will care for them and convey them to the land of the romans are fewer in number than they are by a great deal. under these circumstances, if it should fall out that any hostile force should come upon us, either while remaining here or while going back, not a man would be able to carry back word to the romans in daras of the calamity which had befallen us. for as for going forward, i consider it impossible even to be spoken of. while, therefore, some hope is still left, it will be of advantage both to make plans for the return and to put the plans into action. for when men have come into danger and especially such danger as this, it is downright folly for them to devote their thoughts not to safety, but to opposition to the enemy." so spoke john, and all the others expressed approval, and becoming disorderly, they demanded that the retreat be made with all speed. accordingly belisarius laid the sick in the carts and let them lead the way, while he led the army behind them. and as soon as they got into the land of the romans, he learned everything which had been done by arethas, but he did not succeed in inflicting any punishment upon him, for he never came into his sight again. so ended the invasion of the romans. and after chosroes had taken petra, it was announced to him that belisarius had invaded the persian territory, and the engagement near the city of nisibis was reported, as also the capture of the fortress of sisauranon, and all that the army of arethas had done after crossing the river tigris. straightway, then, he established a garrison in petra, and with the rest of the army and those of the romans who had been captured he marched away into the land of persia. such, then, were the events which took place in the second invasion of chosroes. and belisarius went to byzantium at the summons of the emperor, and passed the winter there. xx [ a.d.] at the opening of spring chosroes, the son of cabades, for the third time began an invasion into the land of the romans with a mighty army, keeping the river euphrates on the right. and candidus, the priest of sergiopolis, upon learning that the median army had come near there, began to be afraid both for himself and for the city, since he had by no means carried out at the appointed time the agreement which he had made[ ]; accordingly he went into the camp of the enemy and entreated chosroes not to be angry with him because of this. for as for money, he had never had any, and for this reason he had not even wished in the first place to deliver the inhabitants of sura, and though he had supplicated the emperor justinian many times on their behalf, he had failed to receive any help from him. but chosroes put him under guard, and, torturing him most cruelly, claimed the right to exact from him double the amount of money, just as had been agreed. and candidus entreated him to send men to sergiopolis to take all the treasures of the sanctuary there. and when chosroes followed this suggestion, candidus sent some of his followers with them. so the inhabitants of sergiopolis, receiving into the city the men sent by chosroes, gave them many of the treasures, declaring that nothing else was left them. but chosroes said that these were by no means sufficient for him, and demanded that he should receive others still more than these. accordingly he sent men, ostensibly to search out with all diligence the wealth of the city, but in reality to take possession of the city. but since it was fated that sergiopolis should not be taken by the persians, one of the saracens, who, though a christian, was serving under alamoundaras, ambrus by name, came by night along the wall of the city, and reporting to them the whole plan, bade them by no means receive the persians into the city. thus those who were sent by chosroes returned to him unsuccessful, and he, boiling with anger, began to make plans to capture the city. he accordingly sent an army of six thousand, commanding them to begin a siege and to make assaults upon the fortifications. and this army came there and commenced active operations, and the citizens of sergiopolis at first defended themselves vigorously, but later they gave up, and in terror at the danger, they were purposing to give over the city to the enemy. for, as it happened, they had not more than two hundred soldiers. but ambrus, again coming along by the fortifications at night, said that within two days the persians would raise the siege since their water supply had failed them absolutely. for this reason they did not by any means open negotiations with the enemy, and the barbarians, suffering with thirst, removed from there and came to chosroes. however, chosroes never released candidus. for it was necessary, i suppose, that since he had disregarded his sworn agreement, he should be a priest no longer. such, then, was the course of these events. but when chosroes arrived at the land of the commagenae which they call euphratesia, he had no desire to turn to plundering or to the capture of any stronghold, since he had previously taken everything before him as far as syria, partly by capture and partly by exacting money, as has been set forth in the preceding narrative. and his purpose was to lead the army straight for palestine, in order that he might plunder all their treasures and especially those in jerusalem. for he had it from hearsay that this was an especially goodly land and peopled by wealthy inhabitants. and all the romans, both officers and soldiers, were far from entertaining any thought of confronting the enemy or of standing in the way of their passage, but manning their strongholds as each one could, they thought it sufficient to preserve them and save themselves. the emperor justinian, upon learning of the inroad of the persians, again sent belisarius against them. and he came with great speed to euphratesia since he had no army with him, riding on the government post-horses, which they are accustomed to call "veredi," while justus, the nephew of the emperor, together with bouzes and certain others, was in hierapolis where he had fled for refuge. and when these men heard that belisarius was coming and was not far away, they wrote a letter to him which ran as follows: "once more chosroes, as you yourself doubtless know, has taken the field against the romans, bringing a much greater army than formerly; and where he is purposing to go is not yet evident, except indeed that we hear he is very near, and that he has injured no place, but is always moving ahead. but come to us as quickly as possible, if indeed you are able to escape detection by the army of the enemy, in order that you yourself may be safe for the emperor, and that you may join us in guarding hierapolis." such was the message of the letter. but belisarius, not approving the advice given, came to the place called europum, which is on the river euphrates. from there he sent about in all directions and began to gather his army, and there he established his camp; and the officers in hierapolis he answered with the following words: "if, now, chosroes is proceeding against any other peoples, and not against subjects of the romans, this plan of yours is well considered and insures the greatest possible degree of safety; for it is great folly for those who have the opportunity of remaining quiet and being rid of trouble to enter into any unnecessary danger; but if, immediately after departing from here, this barbarian is going to fall upon some other territory of the emperor justinian, and that an exceptionally good one, but without any guard of soldiers, be assured that to perish valorously is better in every way than to be saved without a fight. for this would justly be called not salvation but treason. but come as quickly as possible to europum, where, after collecting the whole army, i hope to deal with the enemy as god permits." and when the officers saw this message, they took courage, and leaving there justus with some few men in order to guard hierapolis, all the others with the rest of the army came to europum. xxi but chosroes, upon learning that belisarius with the whole roman army had encamped at europum, decided not to continue his advance, but sent one of the royal secretaries, abandanes by name, a man who enjoyed a great reputation for discretion, to belisarius, in order to find out by inspection what sort of a general he might be, but ostensibly to make a protest because the emperor justinian had not sent the ambassadors to the persians at all in order that they might settle the arrangements for the peace as had been agreed. when belisarius learned this, he did as follows. he himself picked out six thousand men of goodly stature and especially fine physique, and set out to hunt at a considerable distance from the camp. then he commanded diogenes, the guardsman, and adolius, the son of acacius, to cross the river with a thousand horsemen and to move about the bank there, always making it appear to the enemy that if they wished to cross the euphrates and proceed to their own land, they would never permit them to do so. this adolius was an armenian by birth, and he always served the emperor while in the palace as privy counsellor (those who enjoy this honour are called by the romans "silentiarii"), but at that time he was commander of some armenians. and these men did as directed. now when belisarius had ascertained that the envoy was close at hand, he set up a tent of some heavy cloth, of the sort which is commonly called a "pavilion," and seated himself there as one might in a desolate place, seeking thus to indicate that he had come without any equipment. and he arranged the soldiers as follows. on either side of the tent were thracians and illyrians, with goths beyond them, and next to these eruli, and finally vandals and moors. and their line extended for a great distance over the plain. for they did not remain standing always in the same place, but stood apart from one another and kept walking about, looking carelessly and without the least interest upon the envoy of chosroes. and not one of them had a cloak or any other outer garment to cover the shoulders, but they were sauntering about clad in linen tunics and trousers, and outside these their girdles. and each one had his horse-whip, but for weapons one had a sword, another an axe, another an uncovered bow. and all gave the impression that they were eager to be off on the hunt with never a thought of anything else. so abandanes came into the presence of belisarius and said that the king chosroes was indignant because the agreement previously made had not been kept, in that the envoys had not been sent to him by caesar (for thus the persians call the emperor of the romans), and as a result of this chosroes had been compelled to come into the land of the romans in arms. but belisarius was not terrified by the thought that such a multitude of barbarians were encamped close by, nor did he experience any confusion because of the words of the man, but with a laughing, care-free countenance he made answer, saying: "this course which chosroes has followed on the present occasion is not in keeping with the way men usually act. for other men, in case a dispute should arise between themselves and any of their neighbours, first carry on negotiations with them, and whenever they do not receive reasonable satisfaction, then finally go against them in war. but he first comes into the midst of the romans, and then begins to offer suggestions concerning peace." with such words as these he dismissed the ambassador. and when abandanes came to chosroes, he advised him to take his departure with all possible speed. for he said he had met a general who in manliness and sagacity surpassed all other men, and soldiers such as he at least had never seen, whose orderly conduct had roused in him the greatest admiration. and he added that the contest was not on an even footing as regards risk for him and for belisarius, for there was this difference, that if he conquered, he himself would conquer the slave of caesar, but if he by any chance were defeated, he would bring great disgrace upon his kingdom and upon the race of the persians; and again the romans, if conquered, could easily save themselves in strongholds and in their own land, while if the persians should meet with any reverse, not even a messenger would escape to the land of the persians. chosroes was convinced by this admonition and wished to turn back to his own country, but he found himself in a very perplexing situation. for he supposed that the crossing of the river was being guarded by the enemy, and he was unable to march back by the same road, which was entirely destitute of human habitation, since the supplies which they had at the first when they invaded the land of the romans had already entirely failed them. at last after long consideration it seemed to him most advantageous to risk a battle and get to the opposite side, and to make the journey through a land abounding in all good things. now belisarius knew well that not even a hundred thousand men would ever be sufficient to check the crossing of chosroes. for the river at many places along there can be crossed in boats very easily, and even apart from this the persian army was too strong to be excluded from the crossing by an enemy numerically insignificant. but he had at first commanded the troops of diogenes and adolius, together with the thousand horsemen, to move about the bank at that point in order to confuse the barbarian by a feeling of helplessness. but after frightening this same barbarian, as i have said, belisarius feared lest there should be some obstacle in the way of his departing from the land of the romans. for it seemed to him a most significant achievement to have driven away from there the army of chosroes, without risking any battle against so many myriads of barbarians with soldiers who were very few in number and who were in abject terror of the median army. for this reason he commanded diogenes and adolius to remain quiet. chosroes, accordingly, constructed a bridge with great celerity and crossed the river euphrates suddenly with his whole army. for the persians are able to cross all rivers without the slightest difficulty because when they are on the march they have in readiness hook-shaped irons with which they fasten together long timbers, and with the help of these they improvise a bridge on the spur of the moment wherever they may desire. and as soon as he had reached the land on the opposite side, he sent to belisarius and said that he, for his part, had bestowed a favour upon the romans in the withdrawal of the median army, and that he was expecting the envoys from them, who ought to present themselves to him at no distant time. then belisarius also with the whole roman army crossed the river euphrates and immediately sent to chosroes. and when the messengers came into his presence, they commended him highly for his withdrawal and promised that envoys would come to him promptly from the emperor, who would arrange with him that the terms which had previously been agreed upon concerning the peace should be put into effect. and they asked of him that he treat the romans as his friends in his journey through their land. this too he agreed to carry out, if they should give him some one of their notable men as a hostage to make this compact binding, in order that they might carry out their agreement. so the envoys returned to belisarius and reported the words of chosroes, and he came to edessa and chose john, the son of basilius, the most illustrious of all the inhabitants of edessa in birth and in wealth, and straightway sent him, much against his will, as a hostage to chosroes. and the romans were loud in their praises of belisarius and he seemed to have achieved greater glory in their eyes by this affair than when he brought gelimer or vittigis captive to byzantium. for in reality it was an achievement of great importance and one deserving great praise, that, at a time when all the romans were panic-stricken with fear and were hiding themselves in their defences, and chosroes with a mighty army had come into the midst of the roman domain, a general with only a few men, coming in hot haste from byzantium just at that moment, should have set his camp over against that of the persian king, and that chosroes unexpectedly, either through fear of fortune or of the valour of the man or even because deceived by some tricks, should no longer continue his advance, but should in reality take to flight, though pretending to be seeking peace. but in the meantime chosroes, disregarding the agreement, took the city of callinicus which was entirely without defenders. for the romans, seeing that the wall of this city was altogether unsound and easy of capture, were tearing down portions of it in turn and restoring them with new construction. now just at that time they had torn down one section of it and had not yet built in this interval; when, therefore, they learned that the enemy were close at hand, they carried out the most precious of their treasures, and the wealthy inhabitants withdrew to other strongholds, while the rest without soldiers remained where they were. and it happened that great numbers of farmers had gathered there. these chosroes enslaved and razed everything to the ground. a little later, upon receiving the hostage, john, he retired to his own country. and the armenians who had submitted to chosroes received pledges from the romans and came with bassaces to byzantium. such was the fortune of the romans in the third invasion of chosroes. and belisarius came to byzantium at the summons of the emperor, in order to be sent again to italy, since the situation there was already full of difficulties for the romans. xxii [ a.d.] during these times there was a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated. now in the case of all other scourges sent from heaven some explanation of a cause might be given by daring men, such as the many theories propounded by those who are clever in these matters; for they love to conjure up causes which are absolutely incomprehensible to man, and to fabricate outlandish theories of natural philosophy, knowing well that they are saying nothing sound, but considering it sufficient for them, if they completely deceive by their argument some of those whom they meet and persuade them to their view. but for this calamity it is quite impossible either to express in words or to conceive in thought any explanation, except indeed to refer it to god. for it did not come in a part of the world nor upon certain men, nor did it confine itself to any season of the year, so that from such circumstances it might be possible to find subtle explanations of a cause, but it embraced the entire world, and blighted the lives of all men, though differing from one another in the most marked degree, respecting neither sex nor age. for much as men differ with regard to places in which they live, or in the law of their daily life, or in natural bent, or in active pursuits, or in whatever else man differs from man, in the case of this disease alone the difference availed naught. and it attacked some in the summer season, others in the winter, and still others at the other times of the year. now let each one express his own judgment concerning the matter, both sophist and astrologer, but as for me, i shall proceed to tell where this disease originated and the manner in which it destroyed men. it started from the aegyptians who dwell in pelusium. then it divided and moved in one direction towards alexandria and the rest of aegypt, and in the other direction it came to palestine on the borders of aegypt; and from there it spread over the whole world, always moving forward and travelling at times favourable to it. for it seemed to move by fixed arrangement, and to tarry for a specified time in each country, casting its blight slightingly upon none, but spreading in either direction right out to the ends of the world, as if fearing lest some corner of the earth might escape it. for it left neither island nor cave nor mountain ridge which had human inhabitants; and if it had passed by any land, either not affecting the men there or touching them in indifferent fashion, still at a later time it came back; then those who dwelt round about this land, whom formerly it had afflicted most sorely, it did not touch at all, but it did not remove from the place in question until it had given up its just and proper tale of dead, so as to correspond exactly to the number destroyed at the earlier time among those who dwelt round about. and this disease always took its start from the coast, and from there went up to the interior. and in the second year it reached byzantium in the middle of spring, where it happened that i was staying at that time. and it came as follows. apparitions of supernatural beings in human guise of every description were seen by many persons, and those who encountered them thought that they were struck by the man they had met in this or that part of the body, as it happened, and immediately upon seeing this apparition they were seized also by the disease. now at first those who met these creatures tried to turn them aside by uttering the holiest of names and exorcising them in other ways as well as each one could, but they accomplished absolutely nothing, for even in the sanctuaries where the most of them fled for refuge they were dying constantly. but later on they were unwilling even to give heed to their friends when they called to them, and they shut themselves up in their rooms and pretended that they did not hear, although their doors were being beaten down, fearing, obviously, that he who was calling was one of those demons. but in the case of some the pestilence did not come on in this way, but they saw a vision in a dream and seemed to suffer the very same thing at the hands of the creature who stood over them, or else to hear a voice foretelling to them that they were written down in the number of those who were to die. but with the majority it came about that they were seized by the disease without becoming aware of what was coming either through a waking vision or a dream. and they were taken in the following manner. they had a sudden fever, some when just roused from sleep, others while walking about, and others while otherwise engaged, without any regard to what they were doing. and the body shewed no change from its previous colour, nor was it hot as might be expected when attacked by a fever, nor indeed did any inflammation set in, but the fever was of such a languid sort from its commencement and up till evening that neither to the sick themselves nor to a physician who touched them would it afford any suspicion of danger. it was natural, therefore, that not one of those who had contracted the disease expected to die from it. but on the same day in some cases, in others on the following day, and in the rest not many days later, a bubonic swelling developed; and this took place not only in the particular part of the body which is called "boubon,"[ ] that is, below the abdomen, but also inside the armpit, and in some cases also beside the ears, and at different points on the thighs. up to this point, then, everything went in about the same way with all who had taken the disease. but from then on very marked differences developed; and i am unable to say whether the cause of this diversity of symptoms was to be found in the difference in bodies, or in the fact that it followed the wish of him who brought the disease into the world. for there ensued with some a deep coma, with others a violent delirium, and in either case they suffered the characteristic symptoms of the disease. for those who were under the spell of the coma forgot all those who were familiar to them and seemed to be sleeping constantly. and if anyone cared for them, they would eat without waking, but some also were neglected, and these would die directly through lack of sustenance. but those who were seized with delirium suffered from insomnia and were victims of a distorted imagination; for they suspected that men were coming upon them to destroy them, and they would become excited and rush off in flight, crying out at the top of their voices. and those who were attending them were in a state of constant exhaustion and had a most difficult time of it throughout. for this reason everybody pitied them no less than the sufferers, not because they were threatened by the pestilence in going near it (for neither physicians nor other persons were found to contract this malady through contact with the sick or with the dead, for many who were constantly engaged either in burying or in attending those in no way connected with them held out in the performance of this service beyond all expectation, while with many others the disease came on without warning and they died straightway); but they pitied them because of the great hardships which they were undergoing. for when the patients fell from their beds and lay rolling upon the floor, they, kept patting them back in place, and when they were struggling to rush headlong out of their houses, they would force them back by shoving and pulling against them. and when water chanced to be near, they wished to fall into it, not so much because of a desire for drink (for the most of them rushed into the sea), but the cause was to be found chiefly in the diseased state of their minds. they had also great difficulty in the matter of eating, for they could not easily take food. and many perished through lack of any man to care for them, for they were either overcome by hunger, or threw themselves down from a height. and in those cases where neither coma nor delirium came on, the bubonic swelling became mortified and the sufferer, no longer able to endure the pain, died. and one would suppose that in all cases the same thing would have been true, but since they were not at all in their senses, some were quite unable to feel the pain; for owing to the troubled condition of their minds they lost all sense of feeling. now some of the physicians who were at a loss because the symptoms were not understood, supposing that the disease centred in the bubonic swellings, decided to investigate the bodies of the dead. and upon opening some of the swellings, they found a strange sort of carbuncle that had grown inside them. death came in some cases immediately, in others after many days; and with some the body broke out with black pustules about as large as a lentil and these did not survive even one day, but all succumbed immediately. with many also a vomiting of blood ensued without visible cause and straightway brought death. moreover i am able to declare this, that the most illustrious physicians predicted that many would die, who unexpectedly escaped entirely from suffering shortly afterwards, and that they declared that many would be saved, who were destined to be carried off almost immediately. so it was that in this disease there was no cause which came within the province of human reasoning; for in all cases the issue tended to be something unaccountable. for example, while some were helped by bathing, others were harmed in no less degree. and of those who received no care many died, but others, contrary to reason, were saved. and again, methods of treatment shewed different results with different patients. indeed the whole matter may be stated thus, that no device was discovered by man to save himself, so that either by taking precautions he should not suffer, or that when the malady had assailed him he should get the better of it; but suffering came without warning and recovery was due to no external cause. and in the case of women who were pregnant death could be certainly foreseen if they were taken with the disease. for some died through miscarriage, but others perished immediately at the time of birth with the infants they bore. however, they say that three women in confinement survived though their children perished, and that one woman died at the very time of child-birth but that the child was born and survived. now in those cases where the swelling rose to an unusual size and a discharge of pus had set in, it came about that they escaped from the disease and survived, for clearly the acute condition of the carbuncle had found relief in this direction, and this proved to be in general an indication of returning health; but in cases where the swelling preserved its former appearance there ensued those troubles which i have just mentioned. and with some of them it came about that the thigh was withered, in which case, though the swelling was there, it did not develop the least suppuration. with others who survived the tongue did not remain unaffected, and they lived on either lisping or speaking incoherently and with difficulty. xxiii now the disease in byzantium ran a course of four months, and its greatest virulence lasted about three. and at first the deaths were a little more than the normal, then the mortality rose still higher, and afterwards the tale of dead reached five thousand each day, and again it even came to ten thousand and still more than that. now in the beginning each man attended to the burial of the dead of his own house, and these they threw even into the tombs of others, either escaping detection or using violence; but afterwards confusion and disorder everywhere became complete. for slaves remained destitute of masters, and men who in former times were very prosperous were deprived of the service of their domestics who were either sick or dead, and many houses became completely destitute of human inhabitants. for this reason it came about that some of the notable men of the city because of the universal destitution remained unburied for many days. and it fell to the lot of the emperor, as was natural, to make provision for the trouble. he therefore detailed soldiers from the palace and distributed money, commanding theodorus to take charge of this work; this man held the position of announcer of imperial messages, always announcing to the emperor the petitions of his clients, and declaring to them in turn whatever his wish was. in the latin tongue the romans designate this office by the term "referendarius." so those who had not as yet fallen into complete destitution in their domestic affairs attended individually to the burial of those connected with them. but theodorus, by giving out the emperor's money and by making further expenditures from his own purse, kept burying the bodies which were not cared for. and when it came about that all the tombs which had existed previously were filled with the dead, then they dug up all the places about the city one after the other, laid the dead there, each one as he could, and departed; but later on those who were making these trenches, no longer able to keep up with the number of the dying, mounted the towers of the fortifications in sycae[ ], and tearing off the roofs threw the bodies in there in complete disorder; and they piled them up just as each one happened to fall, and filled practically all the towers with corpses, and then covered them again with their roofs. as a result of this an evil stench pervaded the city and distressed the inhabitants still more, and especially whenever the wind blew fresh from that quarter. at that time all the customary rites of burial were overlooked. for the dead were not carried out escorted by a procession in the customary manner, nor were the usual chants sung over them, but it was sufficient if one carried on his shoulders the body of one of the dead to the parts of the city which bordered on the sea and flung him down; and there the corpses would be thrown upon skiffs in a heap, to be conveyed wherever it might chance. at that time, too, those of the population who had formerly been members of the factions laid aside their mutual enmity and in common they attended to the burial rites of the dead, and they carried with their own hands the bodies of those who were no connections of theirs and buried them. nay, more, those who in times past used to take delight in devoting themselves to pursuits both shameful and base, shook off the unrighteousness of their daily lives and practised the duties of religion with diligence, not so much because they had learned wisdom at last nor because they had become all of a sudden lovers of virtue, as it were--for when qualities have become fixed in men by nature or by the training of a long period of time, it is impossible for them to lay them aside thus lightly, except, indeed, some divine influence for good has breathed upon them--but then all, so to speak, being thoroughly terrified by the things which were happening, and supposing that they would die immediately, did, as was natural, learn respectability for a season by sheer necessity. therefore as soon as they were rid of the disease and were saved, and already supposed that they were in security, since the curse had moved on to other peoples, then they turned sharply about and reverted once more to their baseness of heart, and now, more than before, they make a display of the inconsistency of their conduct, altogether surpassing themselves in villainy and in lawlessness of every sort. for one could insist emphatically without falsehood that this disease, whether by chance or by some providence, chose out with exactitude the worst men and let them go free. but these things were displayed to the world in later times. during that time it seemed no easy thing to see any man in the streets of byzantium, but all who had the good fortune to be in health were sitting in their houses, either attending the sick or mourning the dead. and if one did succeed in meeting a man going out, he was carrying one of the dead. and work of every description ceased, and all the trades were abandoned by the artisans, and all other work as well, such as each had in hand. indeed in a city which was simply abounding in all good things starvation almost absolute was running riot. certainly it seemed a difficult and very notable thing to have a sufficiency of bread or of anything else; so that with some of the sick it appeared that the end of life came about sooner than it should have come by reason of the lack of the necessities of life. and, to put all in a word, it was not possible to see a single man in byzantium clad in the chlamys[ ], and especially when the emperor became ill (for he too had a swelling of the groin), but in a city which held dominion over the whole roman empire every man was wearing clothes befitting private station and remaining quietly at home. such was the course of the pestilence in the roman empire at large as well as in byzantium. and it fell also upon the land of the persians and visited all the other barbarians besides. xxiv [ a.d.] now it happened that chosroes had come from assyria to a place toward the north called adarbiganon, from which he was planning to make an invasion into the roman domain through persarmenia. in that place is the great sanctuary of fire, which the persians reverence above all other gods. there the fire is guarded unquenched by the magi, and they perform carefully a great number of sacred rites, and in particular they consult an oracle on those matters which are of the greatest importance. this is the fire which the romans worshipped under the name of hestia[ ] in ancient times. there someone who had been sent from byzantium to chosroes announced that constantianus and sergius would come before him directly as envoys to arrange the treaty. now these two men were both trained speakers and exceedingly clever; constantianus was an illyrian by birth, and sergius was from the city of edessa in mesopotamia. and chosroes remained quiet expecting these men. but in the course of the journey thither constantianus became ill and much time was consumed; in the meantime it came about that the pestilence fell upon the persians. for this reason nabedes, who at that time held the office of general in persarmenia, sent the priest of the christians in dubios by direction of the king to valerianus, the general in armenia, in order to reproach the envoys for their tardiness and to urge the romans with all zeal toward peace. and he came with his brother to armenia, and, meeting valerianus, declared that he himself, as a christian, was favourably disposed toward the romans, and that the king chosroes always followed his advice in every matter; so that if the ambassadors would come with him to the land of persia, there would be nothing to prevent them from arranging the peace as they wished. thus then spoke the priest; but the brother of the priest met valerianus secretly and said that chosroes was in great straits: for his son had risen against him in an attempt to set up a tyranny, and he himself together with the whole persian army had been taken with the plague; and this was the reason why he wished just now to settle the agreement with the romans. when valerianus heard this, he straightway dismissed the bishop, promising that the envoys would come to chosroes at no distant time, but he himself reported the words which he had heard to the emperor justinian. this led the emperor immediately to send word to him and to martinus and the other commanders to invade the enemy's territory as quickly as possible. for he knew well that no one of the enemy would stand in their way. and he commanded them to gather all in one place and so make their invasion into persarmenia. when the commanders received these letters, all of them together with their followers began to gather into the land of armenia. and already chosroes had abandoned adarbiganon a little before through fear of the plague and was off with his whole army into assyria, where the pestilence had not as yet become epidemic. valerianus accordingly encamped close by theodosiopolis with the troops under him; and with him was arrayed narses, who had with him armenians and some of the eruli. and martinus, the general of the east, together with ildiger and theoctistus, reached the fortress of citharizon, and fixing his camp there, remained on the spot. this fortress is separated from theodosiopolis by a journey of four days. there too peter came not long afterwards together with adolius and some other commanders. now the troops in this region were commanded by isaac, the brother of narses. and philemouth and beros with the eruli who were under them came into the territory of chorzianene, not far from the camp of martinus. and justus, the emperor's nephew, and peranius and john, the son of nicetas, together with domentiolus and john, who was called the glutton, made camp near the place called phison, which is close by the boundaries of martyropolis. thus then were encamped the roman commanders with their troops; and the whole army amounted to thirty thousand men. now all these troops were neither gathered into one place, nor indeed was there any general meeting for conference. but the generals sent to each other some of their followers and began to make enquiries concerning the invasion. suddenly, however, peter, without communicating with anyone, and without any careful consideration, invaded the hostile land with his troops. and when on the following day this was found out by philemouth and beros, the leaders of the eruli, they straightway followed. and when this in turn came to the knowledge of martinus and valerianus and their men, they quickly joined in the invasion. and all of them a little later united with each other in the enemy's territory, with the exception of justus and his men, who, as i have said, had encamped far away from the rest of the army, and learned later of their invasion; then, indeed, they also invaded the territory of the enemy as quickly as possible at the point where they were, but failed altogether to unite with the other commanders. as for the others, they proceeded in a body straight for doubios, neither plundering nor damaging in any other way the land of the persians. xxv now doubios is a land excellent in every respect, and especially blessed with a healthy climate and abundance of good water; and from theodosiopolis it is removed a journey of eight days. in that region there are plains suitable for riding, and many very populous villages are situated in very close proximity to one another, and numerous merchants conduct their business in them. for from india and the neighbouring regions of iberia and from practically all the nations of persia and some of those under roman sway they bring in merchandise and carry on their dealings with each other there. and the priest of the christians is called "catholicos" in the greek tongue, because he presides alone over the whole region. now at a distance of about one hundred and twenty stades from doubios on the right as one travels from the land of the romans, there is a mountain difficult of ascent and moreover precipitous, and a village crowded into very narrow space by the rough country about, anglon by name. thither nabedes withdrew with his whole army as soon as he learned of the inroad of the enemy, and, confident in his strength of position, he shut himself in. now the village lies at the extremity of the mountain, and there is a strong fortress bearing the same name as this village on the steep mountain side. so nabedes with stones and carts blocked up the entrances into the village and thus made it still more difficult of access. and in front of it he dug a sort of trench and stationed the army there, having filled some old cabins with ambuscades of infantrymen altogether the persian army amounted to four thousand men. while these things were being done in this way, the romans reached a place one day's journey distant from anglon, and capturing one of the enemy who was going out as a spy they enquired where in the world nabedes was then. and he asserted that the man had retired from anglon with the whole median army. and when narses heard this, he was indignant, and he heaped reproaches and abuse upon his fellow-commanders for their hesitation. and others, too, began to do the very same thing, casting insults upon one another; and from then on, giving up all thought of battle and danger, they were eager to plunder the country thereabout. the troops broke camp, accordingly, and without the guidance of generals and without observing any definite formation, they moved forward in complete confusion; for neither had they any countersign among themselves, as is customary in such perilous situations, nor were they arranged in their proper divisions. for the soldiers marched forward, mixed in with the baggage train, as if going to the ready plunder of great wealth. but when they came near to anglon, they sent out spies who returned to them announcing the array of the enemy. and the generals were thunder-struck by the unexpectedness of it, but they considered it altogether disgraceful and unmanly to turn back with an army of such great size, and so they disposed the army in its three divisions, as well as the circumstances permitted, and advanced straight toward the enemy. now peter held the right wing and valerianus the left, while martinus and his men arrayed themselves in the centre. and when they came close to their opponents, they halted, preserving their formation, but not without disorder. the cause for this was to be found in the difficulty of the ground, which was very badly broken up, and in the fact that they were entering battle in a formation arranged on the spur of the moment. and up to this time the barbarians, who had gathered themselves into a small space, were remaining quiet, considering the strength of their antagonists, since the order had been given them by nabedes not under any circumstances to begin the fighting, but if the enemy should assail them, to defend themselves with all their might. and first narses with the eruli and those of the romans who were under him, engaged with the enemy, and after a hard hand-to-hand struggle, he routed the persians who were before him. and the barbarians in flight ascended on the run to the fortress, and in so doing they inflicted terrible injury upon one another in the narrow way. and then narses urged his men forward and pressed still harder upon the enemy, and the rest of the romans joined in the action. but all of a sudden the men who were in ambush, as has been said[ ], came out from the cabins along the narrow alleys, and killed some of the eruli, falling unexpectedly upon them, and they struck narses himself a blow on the temple. and his brother isaac carried him out from among the fighting men, mortally wounded. and he died shortly afterwards, having proved himself a brave man in this engagement. then, as was to be expected, great confusion fell upon the roman army, and nabedes let out the whole persian force upon his opponents. and the persians, shooting into great masses of the enemy in the narrow alleys, killed a large number without difficulty, and particularly of the eruli who had at the first fallen upon the enemy with narses and were fighting for the most part without protection. for the eruli have neither helmet nor corselet nor any other protective armour, except a shield and a thick jacket, which they gird about them before they enter a struggle. and indeed the erulian slaves go into battle without even a shield, and when they prove themselves brave men in war, then their masters permit them to protect themselves in battle with shields. such is the custom of the eruli. and the romans did not withstand the enemy and all of them fled as fast as they could, never once thinking of resistance and heedless of shame or of any other worthy motive. but the persians, suspecting that they had not turned thus to a shameless flight, but that they were making use of some ambuscades against them, pursued them as far as the rough ground extended and then turned back, not daring to fight a decisive battle on level ground, a few against many. the romans, however, and especially all the generals, supposing that the enemy were continuing the pursuit without pause, kept fleeing still faster, wasting not a moment; and they were urging on their horses as they ran with whip and voice, and throwing their corselets and other accoutrements in haste and confusion to the ground. for they had not the courage to array themselves against the persians if they overtook them, but they placed all hope of safety in their horses' feet, and, in short, the flight became such that scarcely any one of their horses survived, but when they stopped running, they straightway fell down and expired. and this proved a disaster for the romans so great as to exceed anything that had ever befallen them previously. for great numbers of them perished and still more fell into the hands of the enemy. and their weapons and draught animals which were taken by the enemy amounted to such an imposing number that persia seemed as a result of this affair to have become richer. and adolius, while passing through a fortified place during this retreat--it was situated in persarmenia--was struck on the head by a stone thrown by one of the inhabitants of the town, and died there. as for the forces of justus and peranius, they invaded the country about taraunon, and after gathering some little plunder, immediately returned. xxvi [ a.d.] and in the following year, chosroes, the son of cabades, for the fourth time invaded the land of the romans, leading his army towards mesopotamia. now this invasion was made by this chosroes not against justinian, the emperor of the romans, nor indeed against any other man, but only against the god whom the christians reverence. for when in the first invasion he retired, after failing to capture edessa[ ], both he and the magi, since they had been worsted by the god of the christians, fell into a great dejection. wherefore chosroes, seeking to allay it, uttered a threat in the palace that he would make slaves of all the inhabitants of edessa and bring them to the land of persia, and would turn the city into a pasture for sheep. accordingly when he had approached the city of edessa with his whole army, he sent some of the huns who were following him against that portion of the fortifications of the city which is above the hippodrome, with the purpose of doing no further injury than seizing the flocks which the shepherds had stationed there along the wall in great numbers: for they were confident in the strength of the place, since it was exceedingly steep, and supposed that the enemy would never dare to come so very close to the wall. so the barbarians were already laying hold of the sheep, and the shepherds were trying most valiantly to prevent them. and when a great number of persians had come to the assistance of the huns, the barbarians succeeded in detaching something of a flock from there, but roman soldiers and some of the populace made a sally upon the enemy and the battle became a hand-to-hand struggle; meanwhile the flock of its own accord returned again to the shepherds. now one of the huns who was fighting before the others was making more trouble for the romans than all the rest. and some rustic made a good shot and hit him on the right knee with a sling, and he immediately fell headlong from his horse to the ground, which thing heartened the romans still more. and the battle which had begun early in the morning ended at midday, and both sides withdrew from the engagement thinking that they had the advantage. so the romans went inside the fortifications, while the barbarians pitched their tents and made camp in a body about seven stades from the city. then chosroes either saw some vision or else the thought occurred to him that if, after making two attempts, he should not be able to capture edessa, he would thereby cover himself with much disgrace. accordingly he decided to sell his withdrawal to the citizens of edessa for a great sum of money. on the following day, therefore, paulus the interpreter came along by the wall and said that some of the roman notables should be sent to chosroes. and they with all speed chose out four of their illustrious men and sent them. when these men reached the median camp, they were met according to the king's order by zaberganes, who first terrified them with many threats and then enquired of them which course was the more desirable for them, whether that leading to peace, or that leading to war. and when the envoys agreed that they would choose peace rather than the dangers of war, zaberganes replied: "therefore it is necessary for you to purchase this for a great sum of money." and the envoys said that they would give as much as they had provided before, when he came against them after capturing antioch. and zaberganes dismissed them with laughter, telling them to deliberate most carefully concerning their safety and then to come again to the persians. and a little later chosroes summoned them, and when they came before him, he recounted how many roman towns he had previously enslaved and in what manner he had accomplished it; then he threatened that the inhabitants of edessa would receive more direful treatment at the hands of the persians, unless they should give them all the wealth which they had inside the fortifications; for only on this condition, he said, would the army depart. when the envoys heard this, they agreed that they would purchase peace from chosroes, if only he would not prescribe impossible conditions for them: but the outcome of a conflict, they said, was plainly seen by no one at all before the struggle. for there was never a war whose outcome might be taken for granted by those who waged it. thereupon chosroes in anger commanded the envoys to be gone with all speed. on the eighth day of the siege he formed the design of erecting an artificial hill against the circuit wall of the city; accordingly he cut down trees in great numbers from the adjacent districts and, without removing the leaves, laid them together in a square before the wall, at a point which no missile from the city could reach; then he heaped an immense amount of earth right upon the trees and above that threw on a great quantity of stones, not such as are suitable for building, but cut at random, and only calculated to raise the hill as quickly as possible to a great height. and he kept laying on long timbers in the midst of the earth and the stones, and made them serve to bind the structure together, in order that as it became high it should not be weak. but peter, the roman general (for he happened to be there with martinus and peranius), wishing to check the men who were engaged in this work, sent some of the huns who were under his command against them. and they, by making a sudden attack, killed a great number; and one of the guardsmen, argek by name, surpassed all others, for he alone killed twenty-seven. from that time on, however, the barbarians kept a careful guard, and there was no further opportunity for anyone to go out against them. but when the artisans engaged in this work, as they moved forward, came within range of missiles, then the romans offered a most vigorous resistance from the city wall, using both their slings and their bows against them. wherefore the barbarians devised the following plan. they provided screens of goat's hair cloth, of the kind which are called cilician, making them of adequate thickness and height, and attached them to long pieces of wood which they always set before those who were working on the "agesta"[ ] (for thus the romans used to call in the latin tongue the thing which they were making). behind this neither ignited arrows nor any other weapon could reach the workmen, but all of them were thrown back by the screens and stopped there. and then the romans, falling into a great fear, sent the envoys to chosroes in great trepidation, and with them stephanus, a physician of marked learning among those of his time at any rate, who also had once cured cabades, the son of perozes, when ill, and had been made master of great wealth by him. he, therefore, coming into the presence of chosroes with the others, spoke as follows: "it has been agreed by all from of old that kindness is the mark of a good king. therefore, most mighty king, while busying thyself with murders and battles and the enslavement of cities it will perhaps be possible for thee to win the other names, but thou wilt never by any means have the reputation of being 'good.' and yet least of all cities should edessa suffer any adversity at thy hand. for there was i born, who, without any foreknowledge of what was coming to pass, fostered thee from childhood and counselled thy father to appoint thee his successor in the kingdom, so that to thee i have proved the chief cause of the kingship of persia, but to my fatherland of her present woes. for men, as a general thing, bring down upon their own heads the most of the misfortunes which are going to befall them. but if any remembrance of such benefaction comes to thy mind, do us no further injury, and grant me this requital, by which, o king, thou wilt escape the reputation of being most cruel." such were the words of stephanus. but chosroes declared that he would not depart from there until the romans should deliver to him peter and peranius, seeing that, being his hereditary slaves, they had dared to array themselves against him. and if it was not their pleasure to do this, the romans must choose one of two alternatives, either to give the persians five hundred centenaria of gold, or to receive into the city some of his associates who would search out all the money, both gold and silver, as much as was there, and bring it to him, allowing everything else to remain in the possession of the present owners. such then were the words which chosroes hurled forth, being in hopes of capturing edessa with no trouble. and the ambassadors (since all the conditions which he had announced to them seemed impossible), in despair and great vexation, proceeded to the city. and when they had come inside the city-wall, they reported the message from chosroes, and the whole city was filled with tumult and lamentation. now the artificial hill was rising to a great height and was being pushed forward with much haste. and the romans, being at a loss what to do, again sent off the envoys to chosroes. and when they had arrived in the enemy's camp, and said that they had come to make entreaty concerning the same things, they did not even gain a hearing of any kind from the persians, but they were insulted and driven out from there with a great tumult, and so returned to the city. at first, then, the romans tried to over-top the wall opposite the hill by means of another structure. but since the persian work was already rising far above even this, they stopped their building and persuaded martinus to make the arrangements for a settlement in whatever way he wished. he then came up close to the enemy's camp and began to converse with some of the persian commanders. but they, completely deceiving martinus, said that their king was desirous of peace, but that he was utterly unable to persuade the roman emperor to have done with his strife with chosroes and to establish peace with him at last. and they mentioned as evidence of this the fact that belisarius, who in power and dignity was far superior to martinus, as even he himself would not deny, had recently persuaded the king of the persians, when he was in the midst of roman territory, to withdraw from there into persia, promising that envoys from byzantium would come to him at no distant time and establish peace securely, but that he had done none of the things agreed upon, since he had found himself unable to overcome the determination of the emperor justinian. xxvii in the meantime the romans were busying themselves as follows: they made a tunnel from the city underneath the enemy's embankment, commanding the diggers not to leave this work until they should get under the middle of the hill. by this means they were planning to burn the embankment. but as the tunnel advanced to about the middle of the hill, a sound of blows, as it were, came to the ears of those persians who were standing above. and perceiving what was being done, they too began from above and dug on both sides of the middle, so that they might catch the romans who were doing the damage there. but the romans found it out and abandoned this attempt, throwing earth into the place which had been hollowed out, and then began to work on the lower part of the embankment at the end which was next to the wall, and by taking out timbers and stones and earth they made an open space just like a chamber; then they threw in there dry trunks of trees of the kind which burn most easily, and saturated them with oil of cedar and added quantities of sulphur and bitumen. so, then, they were keeping these things in readiness; and meanwhile the persian commanders in frequent meetings with martinus were carrying on conversations with him in the same strain as the one i have mentioned, making it appear that they would receive proposals in regard to peace. but when at last their hill had been completed, and had been raised to a great elevation, approaching the circuit-wall of the city and rising far above it in height, then they sent martinus away, definitely refusing to arrange the treaty, and they intended from then on to devote themselves to active warfare. accordingly the romans straightway set fire to the tree-trunks which had been prepared for this purpose. but when the fire had burned only a certain portion of the embankment, and had not yet been able to penetrate through the whole mass, the wood was already entirely exhausted. but they kept throwing fresh wood into the pit, not slackening their efforts for a moment. and when the fire was already active throughout the whole embankment, some smoke appeared at night rising from every part of the hill, and the romans, who were not yet willing to let the persians know what was being done, resorted to the following device: they filled small pots with coals and fire and threw these and also ignited arrows in great numbers to all parts of the embankment. and the persians who were keeping guard there, began to go about in great haste and extinguish these, and they supposed that the smoke arose from them. but since the trouble increased, the barbarians rushed up to help in great numbers, and the romans, shooting them from the wall, killed many. and chosroes too came there about sunrise, followed by the greater part of the army, and, upon mounting the hill, he first perceived what the trouble was. for he disclosed the fact that the cause of the smoke was underneath, not in the missiles which the enemy were hurling, and he ordered the whole army to come to the rescue with all speed. and the romans, taking courage, began to insult them, while the barbarians were at work, some throwing on earth, and others water, where the smoke appeared, hoping thus to get the better of the trouble; however, they were absolutely unable to accomplish anything. for where the earth was thrown on, the smoke, as was natural, was checked at that place, but not long afterwards it rose from another place, since the fire compelled it to force its way out wherever it could. and where the water fell most plentifully it only succeeded in making the bitumen and the sulphur much more active, and caused them to exert their full force upon the wood near by; and it constantly drove the fire forward, since the water could not penetrate inside the embankment in a quantity at all sufficient to extinguish the flame by its abundance. and in the late afternoon the smoke became so great in volume that it was visible to the inhabitants of carrhae and to some others who dwelt far beyond them. and since a great number of persians and of romans had gone up on top of the embankment, a fight took place and a hand-to-hand struggle to drive each other off, and the romans were victorious. then even the flames rose and appeared clearly above the embankment, and the persians abandoned this undertaking. on the sixth day after this, at early dawn, they made an assault secretly upon a certain part of the circuit-wall with ladders, at the point which is called the fort. and since the romans who were keeping guard there were sleeping a quiet, peaceful sleep, as the night was drawing to its close, they silently set the ladders against the wall and were already ascending. but one of the rustics alone among the romans happened to be awake, and he with a shout and a great noise began to rouse them all. and a hard struggle ensued in which the persians were worsted, and they retired to their camp, leaving the ladders where they were; these the romans drew up at their leisure. but chosroes about midday sent a large part of the army against the so-called great gate in order to storm the wall. and the romans went out and confronted them, not only soldiers, but even rustics and some of the populace, and they conquered the barbarians in battle decisively and turned them to flight. and while the persians were still being pursued, paulus, the interpreter, came from chosroes, and going into the midst of the romans, he reported that rhecinarius had come from byzantium to arrange the peace; and thus the two armies separated. now it was already some days since rhecinarius had arrived at the camp of the barbarians. but the persians had by no means disclosed this fact to the romans, plainly awaiting the outcome of the attempts upon the wall which they had planned, in order that, if they should be able to capture it, they might seem in no way to be violating the treaty, while if defeated, as actually happened, they might draw up the treaty at the invitation of the romans. and when rhecinarius had gone inside the gates, the persians demanded that those who were to arrange the peace should come to chosroes without any delay, but the romans said that envoys would be sent three days later; for that just at the moment their general, martinus, was unwell. and chosroes, suspecting that the reason was not a sound one, prepared for battle. and at that time he only threw a great mass of bricks upon the embankment; but two days later he came against the fortifications of the city with the whole army to storm the wall. and at every gate he stationed some of the commanders and a part of the army, encircling the whole wall in this way, and he brought up ladders and war-engines against it. and in the rear he placed all the saracens with some of the persians, not in order to assault the wall, but in order that, when the city was captured, they might gather in the fugitives and catch them as in a drag-net. such, then, was the purpose of chosroes in arranging the army in this way. and the fighting began early in the morning, and at first the persians had the advantage. for they were in great numbers and fighting against a very small force, since the most of the romans had not heard what was going on and were utterly unprepared. but as the conflict advanced the city became full of confusion and tumult, and the whole population, even women and little children, were going up on to the wall. now those who were of military age together with the soldiers were repelling the enemy most vigorously, and many of the rustics made a remarkable shew of valorous deeds against the barbarians. meanwhile the women and children, and the aged also, were gathering stones for the fighters and assisting them in other ways. some also filled numerous basins with olive-oil, and after heating them over fire a sufficient time everywhere along the wall, they sprinkled the oil, while boiling fiercely, upon the enemy who were assailing the wall, using a sort of whisk for the purpose, and in this way harassed them still more. the persians, therefore, soon gave up and began to throw down their arms, and coming before the king, said that they were no longer able to hold out in the struggle. but chosroes, in a passion of anger, drove them all on with threats and urged them forward against the enemy. and the soldiers with much shouting and tumult brought up the towers and the other engines of war to the wall and set the ladders against it, in order to capture the city with one grand rush. but since the romans were hurling great numbers of missiles and exerting all their strength to drive them off, the barbarians were turned back by force; and as chosroes withdrew, the romans taunted him, inviting him to come and storm the wall. only azarethes at the so-called soinian gate was still fighting with his men, at the place which they call tripurgia[ ]. and since the romans at this point were not a match for them, but were giving way before their assaults, already the outer wall, which they call an outwork, had been torn down by the barbarians in many places, and they were pressing most vigorously upon those who were defending themselves from the great circuit-wall; but at last peranius with a large number of soldiers and some of the citizens went out against them and defeated them in battle and drove them off. and the assault which had begun early in the morning ended in the late afternoon, and both sides remained quiet that night, the persians fearing for their defences and for themselves, and the romans gathering stones and taking them to the parapets and putting everything else in complete readiness, so as to fight against the enemy on the morrow when they should attack the wall. now on the succeeding day not one of the barbarians came against the fortifications; but on the day after that a portion of the army, urged on by chosroes, made an assault upon the so-called gate of barlaus; but the romans sallied forth and confronted them, and the persians were decisively beaten in the engagement, and after a short time retired to the camp. and then paulus, the interpreter of the persians, came along by the wall and called for martinus, in order that he might make the arrangements for the truce. thus martinus came to conference with the commanders of the persians, and they concluded an agreement, by which chosroes received five centenaria from the inhabitants of edessa, and left them, in writing, the promise not to inflict any further injury upon the romans; then, after setting fire to all his defences, he returned homeward with his whole army. xxviii at about this time two generals of the romans died, justus, the nephew of the emperor, and peranius, the iberian, of whom the former succumbed to disease, while peranius fell from his horse in hunting and suffered a fatal rupture. the emperor therefore appointed others in their places, dispatching marcellus, his own nephew who was just arriving at the age of manhood, and constantianus, who a little earlier had been sent as an envoy with sergius to chosroes. then the emperor justinian sent constantianus and sergius a second time to chosroes to arrange the truce. and they overtook him in assyria, at the place where there are two towns, seleucia and ctesiphon, built by the macedonians who after alexander, the son of philip, ruled over the persians and the other nations there. these two towns are separated by the tigris river only, for they have nothing else between them. there the envoys met chosroes, and they demanded that he should give back to the romans the country of lazica, and establish peace with them on a thoroughly secure basis. but chosroes said that it was not easy for them to come to terms with each other, unless they should first declare an armistice, and then should continue to go back and forth to each other without so much fear and settle their differences and make a peace which should be on a secure basis for the future. and it was necessary, he said, that in return for this continued armistice the roman emperor should give him money and should also send a certain physician, tribunus by name, in order to spend some specified time with him. for it happened that this physician at a former time had rid him of a severe disease, and as a result of this he was especially beloved and greatly missed by him. when the emperor justinian heard this, he immediately sent both tribunus and the money, amounting to twenty centenaria. [ a.d.] in this way the treaty was made between the romans and the persians for five years, in the nineteenth year of the reign of the emperor justinian. and a little later arethas and alamoundaras, the rulers of the saracens, waged a war against each other by themselves, unaided either by the romans or the persians. and alamoundaras captured one of the sons of arethas in a sudden raid while he was pasturing horses, and straightway sacrificed him to aphrodite; and from this it was known that arethas was not betraying the romans to the persians. later they both came together in battle with their whole armies, and the forces of arethas were overwhelmingly victorious, and turning their enemy to flight, they killed many of them. and arethas came within a little of capturing alive two of the sons of alamoundaras; however, he did not actually succeed. such, then, was the course of events among the saracens. but it became clear that chosroes, the persian king, had made the truce with the romans with treacherous intent, in order that he might find them remiss on account of the peace and inflict upon them some grave injury. for in the third year of the truce he devised the following schemes. there were in persia two brothers, phabrizus and isdigousnas, both holding most important offices there and at the same time reckoned to be the basest of all the persians, and having a great reputation for their cleverness and evil ways. accordingly, since chosroes had formed the purpose of capturing the city of daras by a sudden stroke, and to move all the colchians out of lazica and establish in their place persian settlers, he selected these two men to assist him in both undertakings. for it seemed to him that it would be a lucky stroke and a really important achievement to win for himself the land of colchis and to have it in secure possession, reasoning that this would be advantageous to the persian empire in many ways. in the first place they would have iberia in security forever afterwards, since the iberians would not have anyone with whom, if they revolted, they might find safety; for since the most notable men of these barbarians together with their king, gourgenes, had looked towards revolt, as i have stated in the preceding pages,[ ] the persians from that time on did not permit them to set up a king over themselves, nor were the iberians single-minded subjects of the persians, but there was much suspicion and distrust between them. and it was evident that the iberians were most thoroughly dissatisfied and that they would attempt a revolution shortly if they could only seize upon some favourable opportunity. furthermore, the persian empire would be forever free from plunder by the huns who lived next to lazica, and he would send them against the roman domains more easily and readily, whenever he should so desire. for he considered that, as regards the barbarians dwelling in the caucasus, lazica was nothing else than a bulwark against them. but most of all he hoped that the subjugation of lazica would afford this advantage to the persians, that starting from there they might overrun with no trouble both by land and by sea the countries along the euxine sea, as it is called, and thus win over the cappadocians and the galatians and bithynians who adjoin them, and capture byzantium by a sudden assault with no one opposing them. for these reasons, then, chosroes was anxious to gain possession of lazica, but in the lazi he had not the least confidence. for since the time when the romans had withdrawn from lazica, the common people of the country naturally found the persian rule burdensome. for the persians are beyond all other men singular in their ways, and they are excessively rigid as regards the routine of daily life. and their laws are difficult of access for all men, and their requirements quite unbearable. but in comparison with the lazi the difference of their thinking and living shews itself in an altogether exceptional degree, since the lazi are christians of the most thorough-going kind, while all the persian views regarding religion are the exact opposite of theirs. and apart from this, salt is produced nowhere in lazica, nor indeed does grain grow there nor the vine nor any other good thing. but from the romans along the coast everything is brought in to them by ship, and even so they do not pay gold to the traders, but hides and slaves and whatever else happens to be found there in great abundance; and when they were excluded from this trade, they were, as was to be expected, in a state of constant vexation. when, therefore, chosroes perceived this, he was eager to anticipate with certainty any move on their part to revolt against him. and upon considering the matter, it seemed to him to be the most advantageous course to put goubazes, the king of the lazi, out of the way as quickly as possible, and to move the lazi in a body out of the country, and then to colonize this land with persians and certain other nations. when chosroes had matured these plans, he sent isdigousnas to byzantium, ostensibly to act as an envoy, and he picked out five hundred of the most valorous of the persians and sent them with him, directing them to get inside the city of daras, and to take their lodgings in many different houses, and at night to set these all on fire, and, while all the romans were occupied with this fire, as was natural, to open the gates immediately, and receive the rest of the persian army into the city. for word had been sent previously to the commander of the city of nisibis to conceal a large force of soldiers near by and hold them in readiness. for in this way chosroes thought that they would destroy all the romans with no trouble, and seizing the city of daras, would hold it securely. but someone who knew well what was being arranged, a roman who had come to the persians as a deserter a little earlier, told everything to george, who was staying there at the time; now this was the same man whom i mentioned in the preceding pages[ ] as having persuaded the persians who were besieged in the fortress of sisauranon to surrender themselves to the romans. george therefore met this ambassador at the boundary line between roman and persian soil and said that this thing he was doing was not after the fashion of an embassy, and that never had so numerous a body of persians stopped for the night in a city of the romans. for he ought, he said, to have left behind all the rest in the town of ammodios, and must himself enter the city of daras with some few men. now isdigousnas was indignant and appeared to take it ill, because he had been insulted wrongfully, in spite of the fact that he was dispatched on an embassy to the roman emperor. but george, paying no heed to him in his fury, saved the city for the romans. for he received isdigousnas into the city with only twenty men. so having failed in this attempt, the barbarian came to byzantium as if on an embassy, bringing with him his wife and two daughters (for this was his pretext for the crowd which had been gathered about him); but when he came before the emperor, he was unable to say anything great or small about any serious matter, although he wasted no less than ten months in roman territory. however, he gave the emperor the gifts from chosroes, as is customary, and a letter, in which chosroes requested the emperor justinian to send word whether he was enjoying the best possible health. nevertheless the emperor justinian received this isdigousnas with more friendliness and treated him with greater honour than any of the other ambassadors of whom we know. so true was this that, whenever he entertained him, he caused braducius, who followed him as interpreter, to recline with him on the couch, a thing which had never before happened in all time. for no one ever saw an interpreter become a table-companion of even one of the more humble officials, not to speak of a king. but he both received and dismissed this man in a style more splendid than that which befits an ambassador, although he had undertaken the embassy for no serious business, as i have said. for if anyone should count up the money expended and the gifts which isdigousnas carried with him when he went away, he will find them amounting to more than ten centenaria of gold. so the plot against the city of daras ended in this way for chosroes. xxix his first move against lazica was as follows. he sent into the country a great amount of lumber suitable for the construction of ships, explaining to no one what his purpose was in so doing, but ostensibly he was sending it in order to set up engines of war on the fortifications of petra. next he chose out three hundred able warriors of the persians, and sent them there under command of phabrizus, whom i have lately mentioned, ordering him to make away with goubazes as secretly as possible; as for the rest, he himself would take care. now when this lumber had been conveyed to lazica, it happened that it was struck suddenly by lightning and reduced to ashes. and phabrizus, upon arriving in lazica with the three hundred, began to contrive so that he might carry out the orders received by him from chosroes regarding goubazes. now it happened that one of the men of note among the colchians, pharsanses by name, had quarrelled with goubazes and in consequence had become exceedingly hostile to him, and now he did not dare at all to go into the presence of the king. when this was learned by phabrizus, he summoned pharsanses and in a conference with him disclosed the whole project, and enquired of the man in what way he ought to go about the execution of the deed. and it seemed best to them after deliberating together that phabrizus should go into the city of petra, and should summon goubazes there, in order to announce to him what the king had decided concerning the interests of the lazi. but pharsanses secretly revealed to goubazes what was being prepared. he, accordingly, did not come to phabrizus at all, but began openly to plan a revolt. then phabrizus commanded the other persians to attend as carefully as they could to the guarding of petra, and to make everything as secure as possible against a siege, and he himself with the three hundred returned homeward without having accomplished his purpose. and goubazes reported to the emperor justinian the condition in which they were, and begged him to grant forgiveness for what the lazi had done in the past, and to come to their defence with all his strength, since they desired to be rid of the median rule. for if left by themselves the colchians would not be able to repel the power of the persians. [ a.d.] when the emperor justinian heard this, he was overjoyed, and sent seven thousand men under the leadership of dagisthaeus and a thousand tzani to the assistance of the lazi. and when this force reached the land of colchis, they encamped together with goubazes and the lazi about the fortifications of petra and commenced a siege. but since the persians who were there made a most stalwart defence from the wall, it came about that much time was spent in the siege; for the persians had put away an ample store of victuals in the town. and chosroes, being greatly disturbed by these things, dispatched a great army of horse and foot against the besiegers, putting mermeroes in command of them. and when goubazes learned of this, he considered the matter together with dagisthaeus and acted in the manner which i shall presently set forth. the river boas rises close to the territory of the tzani among the armenians who dwell around pharangium. and at first its course inclines to the right for a great distance, and its stream is small and can be forded by anyone with no trouble as far as the place where the territory of the iberians lies on the right, and the end of the caucasus lies directly opposite. in that place many nations have their homes, and among them the alani and abasgi, who are christians and friends of the romans from of old; also the zechi, and after them the huns who bear the name sabeiri. but when this river reaches the point which marks the termination of the caucasus and of iberia as well, there other waters also are added to it and it becomes much larger and from there flows on bearing the name of phasis instead of boas[ ]; and it becomes a navigable stream as far as the so-called euxine sea into which it empties; and on either side of it lies lazica. now on the right of the stream particularly the whole country for a great distance is populated by the people of lazica as far as the boundary of iberia. for all the villages of the lazi are here beyond the river, and towns have been built there from of old, among which are archaeopolis, a very strong place, and sebastopolis, and the fortress of pitius, and scanda and sarapanis over against the boundary of iberia. moreover there are two cities of the greatest importance in that region, rhodopolis and mocheresis. but on the left of the river, while the country belongs to lazica as far as one day's journey for an unencumbered traveller, the land is without human habitation. adjoining this land is the home of the romans who are called pontic. now it was in the territory of lazica, in the part which was altogether uninhabited, that the emperor justinian founded the city of petra in my own time. this was the place where john, surnamed tzibus, established the monopoly, as i have told in the previous narrative[ ], and gave cause to the lazi to revolt. and as one leaves the city of petra going southward, the roman territory commences immediately, and there are populous towns there, and one which bears the name of rhizaeum, also athens and certain others as far as trapezus. now when the lazi brought in chosroes, they crossed the river boas and came to petra keeping the phasis on the right, because, as they said, they would thus provide against being compelled to spend much time and trouble in ferrying the men across the river phasis, but in reality they did not wish to display their own homes to the persians. and yet lazica is everywhere difficult to traverse both to the right and to the left of the river phasis. for there are on both sides of the river exceedingly high and jagged mountains, and as a result the passes are narrow and very long. (the romans call the roads through such passes "clisurae" when they put their own word into a greek form.[ ]) but since at that time lazica happened to be unguarded, the persians had reached petra very easily with the lazi who were their guides. but on this occasion goubazes, upon learning of the advance of the persians, directed dagisthaeus to send some men to guard with all their strength the pass which is below the river phasis, and he bade him not on any account to abandon the siege until they should be able to capture petra and the persians in it. he himself meanwhile with the whole colchian army came to the frontier of lazica, in order to devote all his strength to guarding the pass there. now it happened that long before he had persuaded the alani and sabeiri to form an alliance with him, and they had agreed for three centenaria not merely to assist the lazi in guarding the land from plunder, but also to render iberia so destitute of men that not even the persians would be able to come in from there in the future. and goubazes had promised that the emperor would give them this money. so he reported the agreement to the emperor justinian and besought him to send this money for the barbarians and afford the lazi some consolation in their great distress. he also stated that the treasury owed him his salary for ten years, for though he was assigned a post among the privy counsellors in the palace, he had received no payment from it since the time when chosroes came into the land of colchis. and the emperor justinian intended to fulfil this request, but some business came up to occupy his attention and he did not send the money at the proper time. so goubazes was thus engaged. but dagisthaeus, being a rather young man and by no means competent to carry on a war against persia, did not handle the situation properly. for while he ought to have sent certainly the greater part of the army to the pass, and perhaps should have assisted in person in this enterprise, he sent only one hundred men, just as if he were managing a matter of secondary importance. he himself, moreover, though besieging petra with the whole army, accomplished nothing, although the enemy were few. for while they had been at the beginning not less than fifteen hundred, they had been shot at by romans and lazi in their fighting at the wall for a long time, and had made a display of valour such as no others known to us have made, so that many were falling constantly and they were reduced to an exceedingly small number. so while the persians, plunged in despair and at a loss what to do, were remaining quiet, the romans made a trench along the wall for a short space, and the circuit-wall at this point fell immediately. but it happened that inside this space there was a building which did not stand back at all from the circuit-wall, and this reached to the whole length of the fallen portion; thus, taking the place of the wall for the besieged, it rendered them secure none the less. but this was not sufficient greatly to disturb the romans. for knowing well that by doing the same thing elsewhere they would capture the city with the greatest ease, they became still more hopeful than before. for this reason dagisthaeus sent word to the emperor of what had come to pass, and proposed that prizes of victory should be in readiness for him, indicating what rewards the emperor should bestow upon himself and his brother; for he would capture petra after no great time. so the romans and the tzani made a most vigorous assault upon the wall, but the persians unexpectedly withstood them, although only a very few were left. and since the romans were accomplishing nothing by assaulting the wall, they again turned to digging. and they went so far in this work that the foundations of the circuit-wall were no longer on solid ground, but stood for the most part over empty space, and, in the nature of things, would fall almost immediately. and if dagisthaeus had been willing immediately to apply fire to the foundations, i think that the city would have been captured by them straightway; but, as it was, he was awaiting encouragement from the emperor, and so, always hesitating and wasting time, he remained inactive. such, then, was the course of events in the roman camp. xxx but mermeroes, after passing the iberian frontier with the whole median army, was moving forward with the river phasis on his right. for he was quite unwilling to go through the country of lazica, lest any obstacle should confront him there. for he was eager to save the city of petra and the persians in it, even though a portion of the circuit-wall had fallen down suddenly. for it had been hanging in the air, as i have said; and volunteers from the roman army to the number of fifty got inside the city, and raised the shout proclaiming the emperor justinian triumphant. these men were led by a young man of armenian birth, john by name, the son of thomas whom they used to call by the surname gouzes. this thomas had built many of the strongholds about lazica at the direction of the emperor, and he commanded the soldiers there, seeming to the emperor an intelligent person. now john, when the persians joined battle with his men, was wounded and straightway withdrew to the camp with his followers, since no one else of the roman army came to support him. meanwhile the persian mirranes who commanded the garrison in petra, fearing for the city, directed all the persians to keep guard with the greatest diligence, and he himself went to dagisthaeus, and addressed him with fawning speeches and deceptive words, agreeing readily to surrender the city not long afterwards. in this way he succeeded in deceiving him so that the roman army did not immediately enter the city. now when the army of mermeroes came to the pass, the roman garrison, numbering one hundred men, confronted them there and offered a stalwart resistance, and they held in check their opponents who were attempting the entrance. but the persians by no means withdrew, but those who fell were constantly replaced by others, and they kept advancing, trying with all their strength to force their way in. among the persians more than a thousand perished, but at last the romans were worn out with killing, and, being forced back by the throng, they withdrew, and running up to the heights of the mountain there were saved. dagisthaeus, upon learning this, straightway abandoned the siege without giving any commands to the army, and proceeded to the river phasis; and all the romans followed him, leaving their possessions behind in the camp. and when the persians observed what was being done, they opened their gates and came forth, and approached the tents of the enemy in order to capture the camp. but the tzani, who had not followed after dagisthaeus, as it happened, rushed out to defend the camp, and they routed the enemy without difficulty and killed many. so the persians fled inside their fortifications, and the tzani, after plundering the roman camp proceeded straight for rhizaeum. and from there they came to athens and betook themselves to their homes through the territory of the trapezuntines. and mermeroes and the median army came there on the ninth day after the withdrawal of dagisthaeus; and in the city they found left of the persian garrison three hundred and fifty men wounded and unfit for fighting, and only one hundred and fifty men unhurt; for all the rest had perished. now the survivors had in no case thrown the bodies of the fallen outside the fortifications, but though stifled by the evil stench, they held out in a manner beyond belief, in order that they might not afford the enemy any encouragement for the prosecution of the siege, by letting them know that most of their number had perished. and mermeroes remarked by way of a taunt that the roman state was worthy of tears and lamentation, because they had come to such a state of weakness that they had been unable by any device to capture one hundred and fifty persians without a wall. and he was eager to build up the portions of the circuit-wall which had fallen down; but since at the moment he had neither lime nor any of the other necessary materials for the building ready at hand, he devised the following plan. filling with sand the linen bags in which the persians had carried their provisions into the land of colchis, he laid them in the place of the stones, and the bags thus arranged took the place of the wall. and choosing out three thousand of his able fighting men, he left them there, depositing with them victuals for no great length of time, and commanding them to attend to the building of the fortifications; then he himself with all the rest of the army turned back and marched away. but since, if he went from there by the same road, no means of provisioning his army was available, since he had left everything in petra which had been brought in by the army from iberia, he planned to go by another route through the mountains, where he learned that the country was inhabited, in order that by foraging there he might be able to live off the land. in the course of this journey one of the notables among the lazi, phoubelis by name, laid an ambush for the persians while camping for the night, bringing with him dagisthaeus with two thousand of the romans; and these men, making a sudden attack, killed some of the persians who were grazing their horses, and after securing the horses as plunder they shortly withdrew. thus, then, mermeroes with the median army departed from there. but goubazes, upon learning what had befallen the romans both at petra and at the pass, did not even so become frightened, nor did he give up the guarding of the pass where he was, considering that their hope centred in that place. for he understood that, even if the persians had been able by forcing back the romans on the left of the river phasis to cross over the pass and get into petra, they could thereby inflict no injury upon the land of the lazi, since they were utterly unable to cross the phasis, in particular because no ships were at their disposal. for in depth this river is not inferior to the deepest rivers, and it spreads out to a great width. moreover it has such a strong current that when it empties into the sea, it goes on as a separate stream for a very great distance, without mingling at all with the sea-water. indeed, those who navigate in those parts are able to draw up drinking water in the midst of the sea. moreover, the lazi have erected fortresses all along the right bank of the river, in order that, even when the enemy are ferried across in boats, they may not be able to disembark on the land. the emperor justinian at this time sent to the nation of the sabeiri the money which had been agreed upon, and he rewarded goubazes and the lazi with additional sums of money. and it happened that long before this time he had sent another considerable army also to lazica, which had not yet arrived there. the commander of this army was rhecithancus, from thrace, a man of discretion and a capable warrior. such then was the course of these events. now when mermeroes got into the mountains, as i have said, he was anxious to fill petra with provisions from there. for he did not by any means think that the victuals which they had brought in with them would suffice for the garrison there, amounting to three thousand men. but since the supplies they found along the way barely sufficed for the provisioning of that army, which numbered no less than thirty thousand, and since on this account they were able to send nothing at all of consequence to petra, upon consideration he found it better for them that the greater part of the army should depart from the land of colchis, and that some few should remain there, who were to convey to the garrison in petra the most of the provisions which they might find, while using the rest to maintain themselves comfortably. he therefore selected five thousand men and left them there, appointing as commanders over them phabrizus and three others. for it seemed to him unnecessary to leave more men there, since there was no enemy at all. and he himself with the rest of the army came into persarmenia and remained quietly in the country around doubios. now the five thousand, upon coming nearer to the frontier of lazica, encamped in a body beside the phasis river, and from there they went about in small bands and plundered the neighbouring country. now when goubazes perceived this, he sent word to dagisthaeus to hasten there to his assistance: for it would be possible for them to do the enemy some great harm. and he did as directed, moving forward with the whole roman army with the river phasis on the left, until he came to the place where the lazi where encamped on the opposite bank of the river. now it happened that the phasis could be forded at this point, a fact which neither the romans nor the persians suspected in the least because of their lack of familiarity with these regions; but the lazi knew it well, and they made the crossing suddenly and joined the roman army. and the persians chose out a thousand men of repute among them and sent them forth, that no one might advance against the camp to harm it. and two of this force, who had gone out ahead of their fellows to reconnoitre, fell unexpectedly into the hands of the enemy and informed them of the whole situation. the romans, therefore, and the lazi fell suddenly upon the thousand men, and not one of them succeeded in escaping, but the most of them were slain, while some also were captured; and through these the men of goubazes and dagisthaeus succeeded in learning the numbers of the median army and the length of the journey to them and the condition in which they then were. they therefore broke camp and marched against them with their whole army, calculating so that they would fall upon them well on in the night; their own force amounted to fourteen thousand men. now the persians, having no thought of an enemy in their minds, were enjoying a long sleep; for they supposed that the river was impassable, and that the thousand men, with no one to oppose them, were making a long march somewhere. but the romans and lazi at early dawn unexpectedly fell upon them, and they found some still buried in slumber and others just roused from sleep and lying defenceless upon their beds. not one of them, therefore, thought of resistance, and the majority were caught and killed, while some also were captured by the enemy, among whom happened to be one of the commanders; only a few escaped in the darkness and were saved. and the romans and lazi captured the camp and all the standards, and they also secured many weapons and a great deal of money as plunder, besides great numbers of horses and mules. and pursuing them for a very great distance they came well into iberia. there they happened upon certain others of the persians also and slew a great number. thus the persians departed from lazica; and the romans and lazi found there all the supplies, including great quantities of flour, which the barbarians had brought in from iberia, in order to transport them to petra, and they burned them all. and they left a large number of lazi in the pass, so that it might no longer be possible for the persians to carry in supplies to petra, and they returned with all the plunder and the captives. [ a.d.] and the fourth year of the truce between the romans and persians came to an end, being the twenty-third year of the reign of the emperor justinian. and john the cappadocian one year before this came to byzantium at the summons of the emperor. for at that time the empress theodora had reached the term of her life. however, he was quite unable to recover any of his former dignities, but he continued to hold the priestly honour against his will; and yet the vision had often come to the man that he would arrive at royalty. for the divine power is accustomed to tempt those whose minds are not solidly grounded by nature, by holding before their vision, on great and lofty hopes, that which is counted splendid among men. at any rate the marvel-mongers were always predicting to this john many such imaginary things, and especially that he was bound to be clothed in the garment of augustus. now there was a certain priest in byzantium, augustus by name, who guarded the treasures of the temple of sophia. so when john had been shorn and declared worthy of the priestly dignity by force, inasmuch as he had no garment becoming a priest, he had been compelled by those who were in charge of this business to put on the cloak and the tunic of this augustus who was near by, and in this, i suppose, his prophecy reached its fulfilment. footnotes: [ ] that is, the saracens subject to the romans and those subject to the persians. [ ] cf. book i. xxii. . [ ] the huns placed a part of their force in the rear of the defenders of the pass, which lies between the sea and the mountains, sending them around by the same path, probably, as that used by xerxes when he destroyed leonidas and his three hundred spartans; see _herod_. vii. - . [ ] "secretary of secrets." [ ] cf. book i. xxii. . [ ] cf. book ii. i. ; iii. . [ ] cf. book i. xxii. . [ ] cf. book ii. xxi. - . [ ] this term was applied to the "blue faction" in byzantium and elsewhere. [ ] cf. book i. xxii. . [ ] nine ms. lines are missing at this point. [ ] cf. book ii. x. . [ ] cf. book i. xii. ff. [ ] cf. book i. viii. - . [ ] cf. chap. v. . [ ] _i.e._ "groin." [ ] modern galata. [ ] the official dress. [ ] vesta. [ ] cf. section above. [ ] cf. book ii. xii. - . [ ] latin _agger_, "mound." [ ] "three towers." [ ] cf. book i. xii. ff. [ ] book ii. xix. . [ ] procopius seems to have confused two separate and distinct rivers. [ ] cf. book ii. xv. . [ ] latin _clausura_, "a narrow shut-in road." * * * * * index abandanes, secretary of chosroes, sent to belisarius, ii. xxi. ff.; his report, ii. xxi. , abasgi, their location, ii. xxix. ; friends of the romans, _ib._ abochorabus, ruler of the saracens of arabia, presents the palm groves to justinian, i. xix. ff. aborrhas river, protects one side of circesium, ii. v. ; near theodosiopolis, ii. xix. abramus, becomes king of the homeritae, i. xx. ; his servile origin, i. xx. ; defeats two aethiopian armies, i. xx. - ; pays tribute to the aethiopians, i. xx. ; his idle promises to justinian to invade persia, i. xx. abydus, city opposite sestus on the hellespont, ii. iv. acacius, father of adolius, ii. xxi. ; denounces amazaspes to the emperor, ii. iii. ; slays him treacherously, ii. iii. ; his shameless career as governor of armenia, ii. iii. , ; slain by the armenians, ii. iii. adarbiganon, chosroes halts there with his army, ii. xxiv. ; the fire-sanctuary located there, ii. xxiv. ; abandoned by chosroes, ii. xxiv. adergoudounbades, made "chanaranges" by chosroes, i. vi. , ; saves cabades from the hand of chosroes, i. xxiii. ff.; betrayed by his son, i. xxiii. ; his death, i. xxiii. adolius, son of acacius, an armenian, urges severe treatment of armenians, ii. iii. ; commander of roman cavalry, ii. xxi. , , ; commands a detachment in an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. ; killed by a stone, ii. xxv. adonachus, commander in chalcis, ii. xii. adrastadaran salanes, an office in persia of high authority (_lit._ "leader of the warriors"), i. vi , xi. ; held only by seoses, i. xi. adulis, in aethiopia, the city and harbour, distance from auxomis, i. xix. ; home of a certain roman trader, i. xx. aegypt, its topography, i. xix. ; john the cappadocian an exile there, i. xxv. ; the pestilence there, ii. xxii. aeimachus, a butcher of antioch, his encounter with a persian horseman, ii. xi. ff. aelas, on the "red sea," i. xix. , , aethiopians, location of their country, i. xix. ; the ships used there, i. xix. ; iron not produced there nor imported from elsewhere, i. xix. . ; sought as allies by justinian, i. xix. , xx. ff., ii. iii. ; unable to buy silk from the indians, i. xx. agamemnon, father of iphigenia, i. xvii. ii agesta, _i.e._, "agger," employed by the persians in besieging edessa, ii. xxvi. aigan, massagete chief, in the roman army at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , xiv. , alamoundaras, son of saccice, king of the saracens, marches with the persian army, i. xvii. ; his character and services to the persians, i. xvii. ff.; advises cabades to invade roman territory south of the euphrates river, i. xvii. ff.; retires with azarethes before belisarius, i. xviii. ff.; brings charge against arethas of violating boundary lines, ii. i. ; war with arethas, ii. xxviii. - ; sacrifices to aphrodite the son of arethas, ii. xxviii. ; sought as an ally by justinian, ii. i. , iii. ; accused by justinian of violating the treaty, ii. iv. ; a menace to syria and phoenicia, ii. xvi. ; also to lebanon, ii. xix. alani, their location, ii. xxix. ; friends of the romans, _ib._; neighbours of the sunitae, i. xv. ; persuaded by goubazes to ally themselves with him, ii. xxix. albani, a people near the taurus, i. x. alexander, son of philip, fortified the caspian gates, i. x. ; justinian compared with him, ii. ii. alexander, ambassador to the persians, i. xxii. alexandria, visited by the pestilence, ii. xxii. ; citizens of, accused by john the cappadocian, i. xxv. amazaspes, nephew of symeon, made ruler of certain armenian villages, ii. iii. ; denounced to the emperor, ii. iii. ; treacherously slain, ii. iii. ambazouces, a hun, offers to sell to anastasius the control of the caspian gates, i. x. ; his death, i. x. ambrus, a saracen christian, saves sergiopolis from capture by chosroes, ii. xx. , amida, a city on the border between armenia and mesopotamia, i. xvii. ; distance from martyropolis, i. xxi. ; distance from the nymphius river, i. viii. ; from siphrios, i. viii. ; from endielon, i. vii. ; from thilasamon, i. ix. ; besieged by cabades, i. vii. , ff.; bravely defended, i. vii. , ff.; captured by cabades, i. vii. ; besieged by the romans, i. ix. - ; recovered by the romans by purchase, i. ix. , ; captives of, generously treated by chosroes, i. vii. ; citizens relieved of taxes, i. vii. ammodios, a place near daras, i. xiii. , ; ii. xxviii. anastasius, roman emperor, uncle of hypatius, i. viii. , xi. ; of probus, i. xii. ; and of pompeius, i. xxiv. ; refuses to purchase from ambazouces the control of the caspian gates, i. x. , , xvi. ; insurrection raised against him by vitalianus, i. viii. , xiii. ; refuses request of cabades for a loan, i. vii. , ; shews favour to citizens of amida, i. vii. ; sends succour to amida, i. viii. ; fortifies daras, i. x. ; placates cabades, i. x. ; fortifies theodosiopolis, i. x. , ; his death, i. xi. anastasius of daras, overthrows tyranny there, i. xxvi. , ii. iv. ; bears a letter from justinian to chosroes, ii. iv. ; detained by chosroes, ii. iv. ; dismissed by chosroes, ii. v. ; present with chosroes at the sack of sura, ii. ix. anatolius, general of the east, averts danger to the empire by courtesy to the persian king, i. ii. - andreas, of byzantium, his exploits in single combat, i. xiii. ff. anglon, village in persarmenia, ii. xxv. ; roman armies routed there, ii. xxv. ff. aniabedes, sent by chosroes to capture petra, ii. xvii. ; impaled by chosroes, ii. xvii. antinous, city of, in aegypt, john the cappadocian imprisoned there, i. xxv. antioch, its importance, i. xvii. , ii. viii. , ix. , x. ; situation, ii. vi. , viii. ; ease with which it might be captured, i. xvii. ; character of the inhabitants, i. xvii. , ii. viii. ; distance from beroea, ii. vii. ; from seleucia, ii. xi. ; visited by an earthquake, ii. xiv. ; the citizens propose to buy off chosroes, ii. vi. ; besieged by chosroes, ii. viii. ff.; the wall stormed by chosroes, ii. viii. ff.; captured by chosroes, ii. viii. ff.; plundered by chosroes, ii. ix. ff.; burnt, ii. ix. , ; young men of, check the victorious persians in a street fight, ii. viii. , , , ix. ; citizens of, massacred by the persians, ii. viii. ; church of, robbed of great treasures by chosroes, ii. ix. , ; spared in the burning of the city, ii. ix. , x. ; citizens of, receive portent of coming misfortunes, ii. x. ff.; xiv. ; two women of, their sad fate at the capture of the city, ii. viii. ; captives of, offered for sale by chosroes, ii. xiii. ff.; settled by chosroes in a newly built city under special laws, ii. xiv. ff. antioch of chosroes, special laws concerning it, ii. xiv. , antonina, wife of belisarius, brings about the downfall of john the cappadocian, i. xxv. ff.; departs to the east, i. xxv. apamea, city of syria, ii. xi. , ; wood of the cross preserved there, ii. xi. ; it gives forth a miraculous light in the church, ii. xi. , ; visited by chosroes, ii. xi. ff.; entered by chosroes and robbed of all its treasure, ii. xi. ff.; a citizen of, accuses a persian of having violated his daughter, ii. xi. aphrodite, son of arethas sacrificed to, ii. xxviii. apion, an aegyptian, manager of finances in the roman army, i. viii. arabia, its location, i. xix. arabian gulf, called "red sea" by procopius, i. xix. ; its description, i. xix. ff. aratius, in company with narses defeats sittas and belisarius, i. xii. , ; deserts to the romans, i. xii. , xv. ; sent to italy, i. xii. arcadius, roman emperor, when about to die makes provision for the safety of his heir, i. ii. ff. archaeopolis, a strong city of lazica, ii. xxix. areobindus, son-in-law of olyvrius, roman general, i. viii. ; flees with his army before cabades, i. viii. , ; summoned to byzantium, i. ix. ares, house of, portion of the imperial residence in byzantium, i. xxiv. arethas, son of gabalas, made king of the saracens of arabia by justinian and pitted against alamoundaras, i. xvii. , ; with the roman army, i. xviii. ; at the battle on the euphrates, i. xviii. , ; quarrels with alamoundaras, ii. i. - ; joins belisarius in mesopotamia, ii. xvi. ; sent by belisarius to plunder assyria, ii. xix. , ff.; returns another way, ii. xix. ff.; wages war against alamoundaras, ii. xxviii. - ; son of, sacrificed to aphrodite, ii. xxviii. argek, a guardsman, his effective fighting against the persians at edessa, ii. xxvi. , armenia, considered by some to extend as far as amida, i. xvii. ; armenians wage war with persia, i. v. ff.; history of the armenians, i. v. , arsaces, king of armenia, progenitor of the arsacidae, ii. iii. ; his abdication, ii. iii. arsaces, king of armenia, wages a truceless war with persia, i. v. ff.; slandered to pacurius, i. v. ; victim of strategem of magi, betrays himself to pacurius, i. v. ff.; confined in the prison of oblivion, i. v. ff.; kills himself, i. v. arsaces, last king of armenia, gives his kingdom to theodosius, ii. iii. arsaces, commander in sura, killed while valiantly defending the city, ii. v. arsacidae, descendants of the armenian king, arsaces, ii. iii. ; their privileges, ii. iii. arsinus river, tributary to the euphrates, i. xvii. artabanes, son of john, of the arsacidae, slays sittas, ii. iii. artace, suburb of cyzicus, i. xxv. artemis among the taurians, sanctuary of, in celesene, i. xvii. ; a sanctuary of, founded by orestes in pontus, i. xvii. ; another in cappadocia, i. xvii. arzamon, in mesopotamia, distance from constantina, i. viii. arzanene, district of armenia beyond the river nymphius, i. viii. , ii. xv. ; invaded by celer, i. viii. ascan, a massagete chief, at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , xiv. ; his exploits at the battle on the euphrates and his death, i. xviii. asia, entered from the hellespont by the huns, ii. iv. aspebedes, uncle of chosroes, i. xi. , xxiii. ; negotiates a treaty with celer, i. ix. ; shares command of invading army, i. xxi. ; put to death by chosroes, i. xxiii. aspetiani, their alliance with sittas frustrated by a misunderstanding, ii. iii. - assyria, plundered by arethas, ii. xix. ff. athens, a city near lazica, ii. xxix. , xxx. attachas, place in armenia, distance from martyropolis, i. xxi. augarus, toparch of edessa, ii. xii. ; friend of augustus, ii. xii. , ; his visit to rome, ii. xii. ff.; with difficulty persuades augustus to allow him to return, ii. xii. ff.; receives from augustus the promise of a hippodrome for edessa, ii. xii. ; his enigmatic reply to the enquiries of the citizens, ii. xii. ; stricken with gout, seeks relief from physicians, ii. xii. , ; invites christ to come to edessa, ii. xii. ; cured upon receiving the reply of christ, ii. xii. ; son of, an unrighteous ruler, delivers over edessa to persia, ii. xii. augustus, roman emperor, his affection for augarus, ii. xii. - augustus, priest in byzantium, ii. xxx. , auxomis, capital city of the homeritae, i. xix. ; distance from adulis, i. xix. ; from elephantina and the roman boundary, i. xix. auxomitae, name applied to some of the aethiopians, i. xix. azarethes, persian general, invades roman territory, i. xvii. , xviii. ; retires before belisarius, i. xviii. ff.; exhorts the persian army, i. xviii. ff.; arrays them for battle, i. xviii. ; dishonoured by cabades, i. xviii. ff.; at the siege of edessa, ii. xxvii. baradotus, priest of constantina, his godliness, ii. xiii. ; persuades cabades to spare constantina, ii. xiii. , barbalissum, fortress on the euphrates, distance from obbane, ii. xii. barbarian plain, the, near sergiopolis, ii. v. baresmanas, persian general, at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , xiv. , ; standard bearer of, attacked and killed by sunicas, i. xiv. - barlaus, gate of, in the wall of edessa, ii. xxvii. basilides, appointed quaestor in place of tribunianus, i. xxiv. basilius, father of john of edessa, ii. xxi. bassaces, son-in-law of john, accompanies him on a mission to bouzes, ii. iii. ; escapes with his companions from an ambush, ii. iii. ; leads an embassy to the persian king, ii. iii. ; comes with armenians to byzantium, ii. xxi. bassicius, trusted friend of the armenian king arsaces, i. v. ; flayed by pacurius, i. v. batne, fortress one day's journey distant from edessa, ii. xii. belisarius, married to antonina, i. xxv. ; in company with sittas invades persarmenia, i. xii. , ; defeated by narses and aratius, i. xii. ; appointed commander of troops in daras with procopius his adviser, i. xii. ; at the command of justinian undertakes to build a fortress in mindouos, i. xiii. , ; prevented by the persians, i. xiii. ff.; made general of the east, i. xiii. ; in company with hermogenes prepares to meet the persians at daras, i. xiii. ff.; at the battle of daras, i. xiii. ff.; sends letters to mirranes, i. xiv. ff., ; address to his soldiers, i. xiv. ff.; arrays the army on the second day of the battle of daras, i. xiv. ; wins a brilliant victory, i. xiv. ff.; recalls the romans from the pursuit of the persians, i. xiv. ; hurries to meet the invading army of azarethes i. xviii. ; follows the retiring persian army, i. xviii. ff.; ridiculed by his army, i. xviii. ; attempts to dissuade the romans from battle, i. xviii. ff.; insulted by his army, i. xviii. ; arrays them for battle, i. xviii. , ; fights valiantly after most of the roman army had been routed, i. xviii. ff.; returns to byzantium in order to go against the vandals, i. xxi. ; his share in quelling the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; made general of the east and sent to libya, i. xxvi. ; victorious in italy, ii. i. ; brings vittigis to byzantium, ii. iv. ; shares the command of the east with bouzes, ii. vi. ; summoned from italy to byzantium, ii. xiv. ; sent against chosroes, ii. xiv. , ; gathers an army in mesopotamia, ii. xvi. ff.; invades persia, ii. xviii. ff.; defeats nabedes at nisibis, ii. xviii. , ; sends arethas into assyria, ii. xix. ; attacks sisauranon, ii. xix. ff.; captures it, ii. xix. ; holds consultation with commanders, ii. xix. ff.; returns to roman territory, ii. xix. ; recalled to byzantium, ii. xix. ; journeys swiftly to the east to confront chosroes, ii. xx. ; gathers an army at europum, ii. xx. ff.; receives abandanes, the envoy of chosroes, i. xxi. ff.; forces chosroes to retire, ii. xxi. ; gives john of edessa as a hostage, ii. xxi. ; his great fame, ii. xxi. , ; summoned to byzantium, ii. xxi. beroea, a town of syria between hierapolis and antioch, ii. vii. ; distance from chalcis, ii. xii. ; chosroes demands money from the inhabitants, ii. vii. ; the citizens retire to the acropolis, ii. vii. ; the lower city entered by chosroes and a large part of it fired, ii. vii. , ; acropolis valiantly defended against chosroes, ii. vii. ; miserable plight of the besieged, ii. vii. ; citizens capitulate to chosroes, ii. vii. beros, an erulian leader, encamps near martinus, ii. xxiv. ; with philemouth follows peter into persia, ii. xxiv. bessas, a goth, officer in the roman army, i. viii. ; commander in martyropolis, i. xxi. bithynians, on the euxine sea, ii. xxviii. black gulf, ii. iv. black sea, _see_ "euxine." blases, brother of perozes, chosen king in place of cabades, deposed, i. v. ; imprisoned and blinded by cabades, i. vi. blemyes, a people of upper aegypt, i. xix. ; receive annual payment from the roman emperor, i. xix. , ; diocletian purposes to hold them in check by means of the nobatae, i. xix. ; their religion, i. xix. , bleschames, commander of the persian soldiers in sisauranon, ii. xix. ; sent to byzantium by belisarius with persian captives, ii. xix. ; sent to italy by justinian, ii. xix. blue faction, their struggles with the green faction, i. xxiv. - ; favoured by justinian, ii. xi. ; in the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; also called the "veneti" blue colonnade, in byzantium, i. xxiv. boas river, considered by procopius the upper portion of the phasis, ii. xxix. - boes, a persian general, i. xii. bolum, fortress in persarmenia, near which were the gold mines of the persian king, i. xv. ; betrayed to the romans by isaac, i. xv. , ; its return demanded by chosroes, i. xxii. ; given up by the romans, i. xxii. boraedes, nephew of justinian, assists in making hypatius prisoner, i. xxiv. bosporus, a city on the euxine, i. xii. ; citizens of, put themselves under the sway of justinus, i. xii. ; justinian accused of seizing it, ii. iii. bouzes, brother of coutzes, commander in lebanon, i. xiii. ; sent to support belisarius at mindouos, _ib._; commander in martyropolis, i. xxi. ; at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , ff.; sent against the armenians, ii. iii. ; his offers of friendship distrusted by them, ii. iii. , ; slays john treacherously, ii. iii. ; shares the command of the east with belisarius, ii. vi. ; makes suggestions as to the defence of hierapolis, ii. vi. ff.; abandons the city, ii. vi. , ; prevents the citizens of edessa from ransoming the captives of antioch, ii. xiii. ; favours invasion of persia by belisarius, ii. xvi. ; takes refuge with justus in hierapolis, ii. xx. ; they invite belisarius to join them, ii. xx. ff.; but later come to him at europum, ii. xx. braducius, interpreter of isdigousnas, ii. xxviii. bronze gate, in the emperor's palace in byzantium, i. xxiv. bulicas, harbour of the homeritae, i. xix. byzantium, nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; suburbs ravaged by huns, ii. iv. ; visited by the pestilence, ii. xxii. ff.; chosroes contemplates its capture by way of the euxine, ii. xxviii. cabades, youngest son of perozes, i. iv. ; chosen king of persia, i. iv. ; introduces innovations into the persian government displeasing the people, i. v. ; cast into the prison of oblivion, i. v. ; escapes from it, i. vi. , , ; enters persia with an army of ephthalitae, i. vi. - ; appoints adergoudounbades "chanaranges" i. vi. , ; deposes blases, i. vi. ; institutes a new office, i. vi. , ; appeals to anastasius for a loan, i. vii. ; invades roman territory, i. vii. ; grants request of jacobus, the hermit, i. vii. - ; besieges amida, i. vii. - ; captures amida, i. vii. ; puts glones in command of the city, i. vii. ; his treatment of the captives of amida, i. vii. ; routs the roman armies near amida, i. viii. - ; shews kindness to baradotus by sparing constantina, ii. xiii. ; desirous of capturing edessa and constantina, ii. xiii. ; abandons his purpose of capturing edessa, ii. xiii. ff.; retires in order to meet an invasion of the huns, i. viii. ; seizes the caspian gates, i. x. ; protests at the fortification of daras, i. x. ; solicitude as to his successor, i. xi. ff.; cured by stephanus of edessa, ii. xxvi. ; hates his oldest son caoses, i. xi. , ii. ix. ; requests justinus to adopt chosroes, i. xi. , ff.; unwilling to save seoses, i. xi. , ; tries to force the iberians to adopt the persian religion, i. xii. ff.; sends an army against them, i. xii. ; sends an army into roman armenia, i. xv. ; his gold mine at pharangium, i. xv. ; deprived of the revenue therefrom, i. xv. , ; treats with the ambassador rufinus at daras, i. xvi. ff.; punishes perozes, i. xvii. ff.; plans a new campaign against the romans, i. xvii. ; advised by alamoundaras, i. xvii. ff.; adopts the suggestion of alamoundaras, i. xviii. ; dishonours azarethes, i. xviii. ff.; refuses to negotiate with hermogenes, i. xxi. ; bought pearl from the ephthalitae, i. iv. ; his last illness, i. xxi. ff.; his ability as a ruler, i. vi. cabades, son of zames, plot to set him on the persian throne in place of chosroes, i. xxiii. ; ordered to be killed by chosroes, i. xxiii. ; escapes by the help of the chanaranges, i. xxiii. ff.; one claiming this name entertained by justinian in byzantium, i. xxiii. , cadiseni, in the persian army at the battle of daras, i. xiv. , caesar, the title used by the persians to designate the roman emperor, ii. xxi. , xi. caesarea, the home of procopius, i. i. caisus, a homerite, of captain's rank, a fugitive because of murder committed by him, i. xx. , callinicus, city of mesopotamia, ii. xi. ; on the euphrates, i. xviii. ; roman army conveyed thither by boats after the battle on the euphrates, i. xviii. ; taken by chosroes, ii. xxi. ff. candidus, priest of sergiopolis, makes agreement with chosroes, ii. v. ; punished by chosroes for failing to keep his agreement, ii. xx. ff., , caoses, oldest son of cabades, i. xi. ; hated by his father, ii. ix. ; claims the throne of persia upon the death of cabades, i. xxi. ; prevented by mebodes from becoming king, i. xxi. cappadocia, country of asia embracing a portion of the taurus, i. x. ; desired by chosroes, ii. xxviii. ; visited by orestes, i. xvii. carrhae, city of mesopotamia, citizens of, offer money to chosroes, ii. xiii. ; able to see the smoke of the burning "agger" at edessa, ii. xxvii. caspian gates, their location and strategic importance, i. x. ff.; fortified by alexander, i. x. ; offered to anastasius by ambazouces, i. x. ; seized by cabades, i. x. , xvi. , , xxii. ; guarded by the persians, ii. x. cassandria, known in ancient times as potidaea, captured by the huns, ii. iv. catholicos, title of the priest of doubios, ii. xxv. caucasus mountains, i. xv. ; inhabited by huns, ii. xv. , , xxviii. ; by alani, etc., ii. xxix. ; barbarians in, held in check by lazica, ii. xxviii. celer, roman general, i. viii. ; invades arzanene, i. viii. , ii. xv. ; with patricius and hypatius besieges amida, i. ix. ; negotiates a treaty with aspebedes, i. ix. celesene, district in armenia, i. xvii. , ; sanctuary of artemis there, i. xvii. cerataeum, a district of antioch, ii. x. chalcis, city in syria, distance from gabboulon, i. xviii. ; from beroea, ii. xii. ; saved from chosroes by money payment, ii. xii. , chanaranges (_lit._ "commander of the frontier troops"), persian term for "general," i. v. , vi. , xxiii. chanaranges, persian general, shares command of invading army, i. xxi. ; besieges martyropolis, i. xxi. , ; retires, i. xxi. cherson, a city at the limits of roman territory on the euxine, i. xii. chersonesus, its wall assailed by the huns, ii. iv. chorzianene, place in armenia, eruli encamp there, ii. xxiv. chosroes, third son of cabades, i. xi. ; cabades proposes to justinus that he adopt chosroes, i. xi. ff.; ch. awaits outcome of negotiations regarding his adoption by justinus, i. xi. ; retires in anger to persia, i. xi. ; declared by cabades in his testament successor to the throne of persia, i. xxi. ff.; his election to the kingship, i. xxi. ; meets roman ambassadors on the tigris, i. xxii. ff.; failure of their negotiations, i. xxii. ff.; grants the prayer of rufinus, i. xxii. ; concludes the "endless peace." i. xxii. , ; his unpopularity among the persians, i. xxiii. - ; plot to dethrone him, i. xxiii. ff.; slays zames and other male relatives, i. xxiii. ; orders the chanaranges to slay cabades, son of zames, i. xxiii. ; hears from varrames how cabades had been spared, i. xxiii. ; his punishment of adergoudounbades, i. xxiii. ff.; destroys mebodes, i. xxiii. ff.; vexed at roman successes in libya, i. xxvi. ; demands his share of the spoils, i. xxvi. ; desires to break the treaty with the romans, ii. i. ; charges justinian with having broken the treaty, ii. i. - , x. , ; hears with favour the ambassadors of vittigis, ii. ii. ; receives an embassy from the armenians, ii. iii. ff.; decides to open hostilities against the romans, ii. iii. ; admonished by justinian by letter, ii. iv. ff.; detains anastasius, ii. iv. ; dismisses him, ii. v. ; first invasion of roman territory, ii. v. ; marches towards syria, ii. v. ; refrains from attacking zenobia, ii. v. ; arriving at sura, besieges the city, ii. v. ff.; captures it by a strategem, ii. v. ff.; marries euphemia, ii. v. ; releases captives for ransom, ii. v. ; hears the plea of megas, ii. vi. ff.; exacts money from the hierapolitans, ii. vi. - ; promises to depart from the east for ten centenaria of gold, ii. vi. ; demands money from the beroeans, ii. vii. ; enters beroea and fires a large portion of it, ii. vii. , ; besieges the acropolis, ii. vii. ff.; reproached by megas, ii. vii. ; his reply, ii. vii. ff.; allows the beroeans to capitulate, ii. vii. ; moves against antioch, ii. viii. ; demands money from the citizens of antioch, ii. viii. ; hears the ambassadors, ii. viii. ; insulted by the citizens, ii. viii. ; storms the city wall, ii. viii. ff.; captures antioch, ii. viii. ; reproached by zaberganes, ii. viii. ff.; addresses the ambassadors, ii ix. ff.; his hesitation in allowing the persians to enter antioch, ii. viii. - , ix. ; his character ii. ix. - ; orders the plunder of antioch, ii. ix. ; burns the city, ii. ix. , ; addressed by the ambassadors, ii. x. ff.; demands money from them, ii. x. ff.; agrees upon terms for peace, ii. x. ; visits seleucia, ii. xi. ; visits daphne, ii. xi. ff.; burns the sanctuary of michael at daphne, ii. xi. , ; proceeds to apamea, ii xi. ; enters the city and seizes its treasures, ii. xi. ff.; becomes a spectator in the hippodrome, ii. xi. ff.; impales a persian adulterer, ii. xi. , ; exacts money from the citizens of chalcis, ii. xii. , ; crosses the euphrates by a bridge, ii. xii. ff.; eager to capture edessa because of the belief of the christians that it could not be captured, ii. xii. ff., , ; demands and receives money from the citizens, ii. xii. , ; upon receipt of a letter from justinian prepares for departure, ii. xiii. , ; protests at the offer of money by the citizens of carrhae, ii. xiii. ; accepts money from the citizens of constantina, ii. xiii. ; claims constantina as his possession by inheritance, _ib._, ii. xiii. ; besieges daras, ii. xi. , xiii. ; abandons the siege of daras upon receipt of money, ii. xiii. ; charged by justinian with breaking the treaty, ii. xiii. ; provides a home for the captives of antioch, ii. xiv. ff.; called in by the lazi, ii. xv. , ff.; prepares to invade lazica, ii. xv. - ; belisarius sent against him, ii. xiv. ; invades lazica, ii. xvii. ff.; commands an attack to be made on petra, ii. xvii. ; impales aniabedes, ii. xvii. ; besieges petra, ii. xvii. ff.; captures petra, ii. xvii. ; retires from lazica, ii. xix. ; third invasion of roman territory, ii. xx. ff.; besieges sergiopolis in vain, ii. xx. ff.; punishes candidus, the priest of sergiopolis, ii. xx. ff., , ; takes much treasure from sergiopolis, ii. xx. ; sends envoy to belisarius, ii. xxi. , ; retires before belisarius, ii. xxi. ff.; crosses the euphrates by a bridge, ii. xxi. ; takes callinicus, ii. xi. , xxi. - ; receives the hostage john, ii. xxi. ; awaits the roman envoys at adarbiganon, ii. xxiv. ff.; his army visited by the pestilence, ii. xxiv. , ; retires from adarbiganon into assyria, ii. xxiv. ; fourth invasion of roman territory, ii. xxvi. ff.; makes an attempt upon edessa, ii. xxvi. ff.; comes to terms with the citizens of edessa, ii. xxvii. ; arranges a five-year truce with constantianus and sergius, ii. xxviii. ff.; lays plans to capture daras and secure his possession of lazica, ii. xxviii. ff.; attemps to capture daras by a ruse, ii. xxviii. ff.; plans to build a fleet in the euxine, ii. xxix. ; sends phabrizus into lazica to destroy goubazes, ii. xxix. ff.; sends an army to relieve petra, ii. xxix. christ, suffered in jerusalem, ii. xi. . _see_ "jesus." christians, converted two temples into churches, i. xvii. ; boast that edessa cannot be captured, ii. xii. ; reverence especially the feast of easter, i. xviii. ; the lazi and iberians devout christians, i. xii. , ii. xxviii. ; among the homeritae, abused by jews, i. xx. cilicia, the refuge of ephraemius, ii. vii. ; and germanus, ii. vii. cilicians, the objective of chosroes' invasion, ii. v. , vi. cilician screens, used at the siege of edessa, ii. xxvi. circesiurn, roman stronghold on the euphrates, ii. v. ; its excellent defences, ii. v. citharizon, fortress in armenia, four days from theodosiopolis, ii. xxiv. colchis, the old name for lazica (_q.v._) i. xi. , etc. comana, called "golden comana," a city of cappadocia founded by orestes, i. xvii. comana, city in pontus, founded by orestes, not the one "among the taurians," i. xvii. comet, the, its appearance in the heavens, ii. iv. , ; various explanations of the meaning of the phenomenon, ii. iv. commagene, old name for euphratesia, i. xvii. , , ii. xx. ; invaded by the persians, i. xviii. constantianus, an illyrian, ii. xxiv. ; envoy to chosroes with sergius, ii. xxiv. ; appointed general, ii. xxviii. ; sent as envoy to chosroes with sergius a second time, ii. xxviii. ff. constantina, city in mesopotamia, i. xxii. ; distance from arzamon, i. viii. ; cabades desirous of capturing the city, ii. xiii. ; spared by cabades owing to the entreaties of baradotus, ii. xiii. ff.; claimed by chosroes as an inherited possession, ii. xiii. , ; citizens of, their offer of money accepted by chosroes, ii. xiii. constantine, forum of, in byzantium, i. xxiv. , coutzes, roman general, brother of bouzes, sent to support belisarius at mindouos, i. xiii. ; captured by the persians, i. xiii. ctesiphon, town on the tigris, ii. xxviii. - ; distance from the antioch of chosroes, ii. xiv. cyril, roman commander at the battle of daras, i. xiii. cyrus, king of the persians, ii. ii. cyzicus, john the cappadocian exiled thither, i. xxv. dagaris, a roman spy, captured by huns, i. xv. ; returned to the romans, i. xxii. ; his later services to the romans, i. xxii. dagisthaeus, commands an army to succour the lazi, ii. xxix. ; with goubazes besieges petra, ii. xxix. ff.; sends an insufficient force to guard the pass into lazica, ii. xxix. - ; his incompetent conduct of the siege of petra, ii. xxix. ff.; deceived by mirranes, ii. xxx. ; abandons petra, ii. xxx. ; with phoubelis attacks mermeroes, ii. xxx. ; with goubazes attacks and almost annihilates the persians, ii. xxx. ff. daphne, suburb of antioch, ii viii. ; visited by chosroes, ii. xi. ff.; the portent of the uprooted cypresses, ii. xiv. daras, a city in mesopotamia, fortified by anastasius, i. x. ; distance from nisibis and the persian boundary, i. x. ; from ammodius, i. xiii. ; its formidable defences, ii. xiii. ; a menace to the persians, i. xvi. ; battle of, i. xiii. ff.; the persians demand that its walls be demolished, i. xvi. ; its abandonment by the roman army a condition of the "endless peace," i. xxii. ; the tyranny of john, i. xxvi. - ; besieged by chosroes, ii. xi. , xiii. ff.; citizens of, make a settlement with chosroes, ii. xiii. ; chosroes plans to capture it by a ruse, ii. xxviii. ; failure of the attempt, ii. xxviii. ff. death, gate of, in byzantium, i. xxiv. diocletian, roman emperor, readjusts the roman boundary in aegypt, i. xix. ff.; builds the fortress of philae, i. xix. , diogenes, a guardsman, commander of cavalry, ii. xxi. , , domentiolus commands a detachment of an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. dorotheus, a roman commander at the battle of daras, i. xiii. dorotheus, general of armenia, attacks invading persian army, i. xv. ff.; makes a sally from satala upon the persian army, i. xv. ff. doubios, district in persarmenia, ii. xxv. , ; its trade with india, ii. xxv. ; distance from theodosiopolis, ii. xxv. ; mermeroes stops there with his army ii. xxx. ; priest of, called catholicos, ii. xxv. ; sent to urge the romans to make peace, ii. xxiv. , easter, its especial observance by the christians, i. xviii. edessa, the centre of so-called osroene, i. xvii. ; in mesopotamia, ii. xxiv. ; augustus promises to build a hippodrome in the city, ii. xii. ; the story of its toparch augarus, ii. xii. ff.; citizens of, convinced that the city could not be captured by barbarians, ii. xii. , , ; the letter of christ to augarus inscribed on the city wall, ii. xii. ; given over to the persians by the son of augarus, ii. xii. ; citizens of, destroy the persian guards and give back the city to the romans, ii. xii. ; citizens pay chosroes two centenaria, ii. xii. ; their zeal to ransom the captives of antioch frustrated by bouzes, ii. xiii. ff.; cabades desirous of capturing the city, ii. xii. , , , xiii. ; abandons his purpose upon reaching it, ii. xiii. ff.; attacked by chosroes, ii. xxvi. ff.; the home of sergius, ii. xxiv. eirenaeus, roman general, sent to lazica, i. xii. elephantina, city in aegypt, on the roman boundary, i. xix. ; near philae, i. xix. , endielon, place near amida, i. vii. ephraemius, chief priest of antioch, accused of treason by julian, ii. vii. ; retires to cilicia, ii. vii. ephthalitae huns, called white huns, their manners and customs, i. iii. , ; wage war with perozes, i. iii. ff.; entrap the persian army, i. iii. ff.; in a second war with perozes completely destroy his army, i. iv. ff.; force the persians to pay tribute, i. iv. ; receive cabades after his escape from the prison of oblivion, i. vi. ; cabades owes their king money, i. vii. , ; punished for impiety towards jacobus, the hermit, i. vii. ; eight hundred eph. killed by the persians, i. viii. eruli, accustomed to fight without protective armour except a shield, ii. xxv. , ; in the roman army, ii. xxi. ; in the roman army at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , xiv. , ; under mundus, i. xxiv. ; in the army of valerianus, ii. xxiv. ; with the army of martinus, ii. xxiv. ; follow peter into persia, ii. xxiv. ; in the battle of anglon, ii. xxv. ff. esimiphaeus, established as king of the homeritae, i. xx. ; deposed by insurgents, i. xx. ; makes idle promise to justinian, i. xx. ff. euphemia, daughter of john the cappadocian i. xxv. euphemia, captive of sura, married by chosroes, ii. v. euphratesia, ancient name of commagene i. xvii. , , ii. xx. , ; chosen by azarethes as the starting point for an invasion of roman territory, i. xvii. euphrates river, its source in armenia, i. xvii. ; disappears in a strange marsh, i. xvii. ff.; its course from celesene as far as the junction with the tigris, i. xvii. , ; receives the waters of the aborrhas, ii. v. ; protects one side of circesium, _ib._; important battle on its banks, i. xviii. ff. europe, invaded by the huns, ii. iv. ff. europum, on the euphrates, headquarters of belisarius while recruiting his army, ii. xx. , , eusebius, roman ambassador to the persian king perozes, i. iii. ; warns perozes of the stratagem of the ephthalitae i. iii. eusebius, bishop of cyzicus, murdered by the citizens, i. xxv. , euxine sea, receives the waters of the phasis, ii. xxix. ; chosroes desires an outlet to it, ii. xxviii. evaris, builder of a temple of michael at tretum, near antioch, ii. xi. florentinus, a thracian, distinguishes himself at the battle of satala, i. xv. , gabalas, a saracen, father of arethas, i. xvii. galatians, on the euxine, ii. xxviii. gabboulon, distance from chalcis, i. xviii. gaza, limit of arabia in olden times, i. xix. gelimer, brought captive to byzantium by belisarius, ii. xxi. george, confidant of belisarius, persuades the inhabitants of sisauranon to capitulate, ii. xix. , ; saves the city of daras, ii. xxviii. f. germanus, nephew of justinian, ii. vi. ; commander at the battle of daras, i. xiii. ; sent to meet the invasion of chosroes, ii. vi. ; establishes himself in antioch and inspects the fortifications, ii. vi. ; retires into cilicia, ii. vii. glones, a persian, in command of the garrison in amida, i. vii. ; destroyed by a stratagem, i. ix. - ; son of, i. ix. , godidisklus, a goth, an officer in the roman army, i. viii. gorgo, city of the ephthalitae, against the persian frontier, i. iii. , iv. goths, march with belisarius against chosroes, ii. xiv. , xviii. , xxi. goubazes, king of lazica, privy councillor of justinian _in absentia_, ii. xxix. ; gives himself and his people over to chosroes, ii. xvii. ff.; plotted against by phabrizus, ii. xxix. ff.; begs justinian to succour the lazi, ii. xxix. ; with dagisthaeus besieges petra, ii. xxix. ff.; defends one pass against the persians, ii. xxix. ff.; asks justinian to send money to the alani and the sabeiri, ii. xxix. ; chosroes plans to put him out of the way, ii. xxviii. , xxix. ff.; rewarded with money by justinian, ii. xxx. ; with dagisthaeus attacks and almost annihilates the persians, ii. xxx. ff. gourgenes, king of iberia, revolts from the persians, i. xii. ff., ii. xv. , xxviii. ; retires before the persian army into lazica, i. xii. , gousanastades, "chanaranges," counsels the execution of cabades, i. v. ; put to death by cabades, i. vi. greece, plundered by the huns, ii. iv. greeks, the, i. xix. green faction, their struggles with the blue faction, i. xxiv. - ; in the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; favoured by chosroes at apamea, ii. xi. hebrews, of iotabe, formerly autonomous, become subject to the romans, i. xix. helen, palace named from, in byzantium, i. xxiv. hellenic faith, the, i. xx. , xxv. hellestheaeus, king of the aethiopians, his expeditions against the homeritae, i. xx. ff.; his vain promises to justinian, i. xx. ff. hermogenes, roman general, sent to assist belisarius, i. xiii. ; in company with belisarius prepares to meet the persians at daras, i. xiii. ff.; at the battle of daras, i. xiii. ff.; forbids andreas to engage in single combat, i. xiii. ; interchange of letters with perozes, i. xiv. ff.; address to the troops, i. xiv. ff.; arrays the army on the second day of the battle of daras, i. xiv. ; at the battle of daras, i. xiv. ; recalls romans from pursuit of the persians, i. xiv. ; returns to byzantium, i. xvi. ; sent as ambassador by the emperor, i. xviii. ; negotiates unsuccessfully with chosroes, i. xxi. ; accompanies the army of sittas as ambassador, i. xxi. , ; ambassador to chosroes with rufinus, i. xxii. hestia, _i.e._ vesta, identified with the persian fire-divinity, ii. xxiv. hierapolis, city on the euphrates, i. xiii. , xvii. ; distance from beroea and antioch, ii. vii. ; bouzes and the roman army stationed there, ii. vi. ; suggested plan for its defence, ii. vi. ff.; deserted by bouzes, ii. vi. , ; saved from chosroes by payment of money, ii. vi. - ; justus and bouzes take refuge there, ii. xx. homeric bowmen, compared with bowmen of procopius' time, i. i. - homeritae, people of arabia, sought as allies by justinian, i. xix. , xx. ff.; location of their country, i. xix. ; domestic conflicts and intervention of hellestheaeus, i. xx. ff. honorius, emperor of the west, uncle of theodosius ii. unable to assist him, i. ii. huns, a nomadic people, of ugly countenance, i. iii. ; their homes, i. x. , xii. , ii. xv. , xxviii. ; their war with cabades, i. viii. , ix. , x. , ii. xvi. ; justinian attempts to win their support, ii. i. , iii. , x. ; capture a roman spy i. xv. ; attack of, feared by the persians at martyropolis, i. xxi. ; invade roman territory, i. xxi. ; often defeated by dagaris, i. xxii. ; receiving annual payments from the romans, ii. x. ; held back by the lazi, ii. xv. ; in the army of chosroes, ii. xxvi. ; assist the romans in the defence of edessa, ii. xxvi. , ; invade europe, ii. iv. ff.; cross the hellespont into asia, ii. iv. ; plunder illyricum and thessaly and greece as far as the isthmus, ii. iv. - hypatius, nephew of anastasius, i. viii. ; army routed by cabades, i. viii. - ; his escape, i. viii. ; sent as envoy to the persians, i. xi. ; slandered by rufinus, i. xi. ; his punishment, i. xi. ; sent from the palace by justinian, i. xxiv. - ; declared emperor by the populace, and conducted to the hippodrome, i. xxiv. f.; his wife mary, i. xxiv. ; takes the emperor's seat in the hippodrome, i. xxiv. ; brought before justinian as a prisoner, i. xxiv. ; meets his death bravely, i. xxiv. , iberia, iberians, a christian people, side with the romans, i. xii. ff., ii. xv. ; come to byzantium, i. xii. ; given choice of remaining in byzantium or returning to their homes, i. xxii. ; dissatisfied with persian rule, ii. xxviii. , ildiger, in the army of martinus, ii. xxiv. illyricum, invaded by the huns, ii. iv. , immortals, a detachment of the persian army, i. xiv. ; at the battle of daras, i. xiv. ff. india, washed by the "red sea," i. xix. ; boats in, tale to account for their construction without iron, i. xix. , ; iron not produced there nor imported from elsewhere, i. xix. - ; silk export, i. xx. , ; its trade with doubios, ii. xxv. ionian gulf, ii. iv. iotabe, an island in the "red sea," i. xix. iphigenia, the story of her flight from the sanctuary of artemis, i. xvii. ff.; temple dedicated to her by orestes, i. xvii. iris river, in pontus, i. xvii. isaac, brother of narses, betrays bolum to the romans and comes as a deserter to byzantium, i. xv. , ; commander in armenia, ii. xxiv. ; carries his brother narses out of the battle of anglon, ii. xxv. isaurians, in the roman army, i. xviii. ; commanded by longinus and stephanacius, i. xviii. ; at the battle on the euphrates, i. xviii. ; their inexperience in war, i. xviii. isdigerdes, persian king, guardian of theodosius i. ii. ff. isdigousnas, high persian official, ii. xxviii. ; employed by chosroes for the furtherance of his plans, ii. xxviii. ; attempts to capture daras for chosroes by a ruse, ii. xxviii. ff.; continues to byzantium as an envoy, ii. xxviii. ff. isis, worshipped by the blemyes and nobatae, i. xix. italy, subdued by belisarius, ii. i. jacobus, a holy man among the syrians, i. vii. ff. jason, the tale of his adventure with medea in colchis, ii. xvii. jerusalem, the scene of christ's suffering, ii. xi. ; its treasures desired by chosroes, ii. xx. jesus, his life and work in palestine, ii. xii. , ; invited by augarus to come to edessa, ii. xii. ; his reply, in which he promises health to augarus, ii. xii. . _see also_ "christ." jews, oppress the christians among the homeritae, i. xx. . _see also_ "hebrews." john, father of artabanes, of the arsacidae, ii. iii. ; treacherously slain by bouzes, ii. iii. - john, son of basilius, a notable of edessa, given as a hostage to chosroes, i. xxi. , john, an armenian, son of thomas gouzes, in the roman army, ii. xxx. john the cappadocian, praetorian prefect, i. xxiv. ; his character and ability, i. xxiv. - , xxv. - ; highly esteemed by justinian, i. xxv. , , ; dismissed from office, i. xxiv. ; restored to office, i. xxv. ; hated by theodora, i. xxv. - ; hostility to belisarius, i. xxv. ; entrapped by antonina, i. xxv. ff.; forced to become a priest and exiled to cyzicus, i. xxv. ; looks forward confidently to becoming emperor, i. xxv. , , , ii. xxx. ; his easy lot in cyzicus, i. xxv. , ; accused of the murder of eusebius, i. xxv. ; his treatment at the trial, i. xxv. ; his punishment, i. xxv. , ; imprisoned in the city of antinous in aegypt, i. xxv. ; returns to byzantium, ii. xxx. , ; the grotesque fulfilment of his dreams, ii. xxx. ; his daughter euphemia, i. xxv. john, son of lucas, roman officer, captured by alamoundaras, i. xvii. , john, commander of troops in mesopotamia, arrests the interpreter of vittigis' envoys, ii. xiv. ; attacked by the persians before nisibis, ii. xviii. john, son of nicetas, roman commander at the battle of daras, i. xiii. ; urges belisarius to retire from mesopotamia, ii. xix. ff.; commands a detachment of an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. john, son of rufinus, sent as ambassador to chosroes, ii. vii. , ix. , x. , ff. john tzibus, governor of lazica, his origin and character, ii. xv. ; persuades justinian to build petra, ii. xv. ; monopolises the retail trade, ii. xv. , xxix. ; valiantly defends petra, ii. xvii. ff.; killed by a missile, ii. xvii. john, serving in the roman infantry, his tyranny at daras, i. xxvi. - ; his death, i. xxvi. john the glutton, a guardsman, sent with arethas into assyria, ii. xix. ff.; commands a detachment in an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. julian, sanctuary of, in antioch, ii. x. julian, brother of summas, envoy to the aethiopians and homeritae, i. xx. , ii. i. ; private secretary of justinian, sent as ambassador to chosroes, ii. vii. ; forbids giving money to chosroes and denounces ephraemius, ii. vii. justinian, nephew of justinus, i. xi. ; his great love for his wife theodora, i. xxv. ; favours adoption of chosroes by his uncle justinus, i. xi. ; as general, i. xi. , xii. ; becomes emperor upon the death of justinus, i. xiii. ; orders the building of a fort in mindouos, i. xiii. ; appoints belisarius general of the east, i. xiii. ; makes arethas commander of many tribes, i. xvii. ; pits arethas against alamoundaras, i. xvii. , ; orders demolition of philae, i. xix. ; endeavours to secure the alliance of the aethiopians and homeritae, i. xix. , xx. ff.; receives the palm groves as a present from abochorabus, i. xix. ff.; recalls belisarius and sends sittas to the east, i. xxi. , ; receives information from a persian spy, i. xxi. ; concludes the "endless peace," i. xxii. ; receives in byzantium the cabades who claimed to be the son of zames, i. xxiii. ; his conduct during the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; his affection for john the cappadocian, i. xxv. , , ; denounced by the armenian embassy before chosroes, ii. iii. ff.; refuses to sanction treaty, ii. xiii. ; summons belisarius from italy and sends him against chosroes, ii. xiv. ; commands belisarius to invade persia, ii. xvi. ; sends him again against chosroes, ii. xx. ; summons belisarius from the east in order to send him to italy, ii. xxi. ; takes measures for the relief of the victims of the pestilence, ii. xxiii. ff.; attacked by the pestilence, ii. xxiii. ; orders valerianus and martinus with others to invade persia, ii. xxiv. ; appoints marcellus and constantianus generals, ii. xxviii. ; sanctions the five-year peace, ii. xxviii. ; receives isdigousnas with especial honour, ii. xxviii. ff.; sends succour to the lazi, ii. xxix. ; neglects to send money requested by goubazes, ii. xxix. - ; finally sends the money for the sabeiri, and gifts of money to goubazes, ii. xxx. ; sends john tzibus to lazica, ii. xv. ; founds petra in lazica, ii. xv. , xxix. ; makes a present of money to chosroes, i. xxvi. ; considers the question of strata, ii. i. ff.; accused of tampering with alamoundaras, ii. i. - , iii. , x. ; advises chosroes not to wage war, ii. iv. ff.; sends germanus to syria, ii. vi. ; sends ambassadors to chosroes, ii. vii. ; favours the green faction, ii. xi. ; writes to chosroes, ii. xiii. ; the years of his reign noted, i. xvi. , xxii. , ii. iii. , v. , xxviii. , xxx. justinus, uncle of justinian, i. xi. ; an officer in the roman army, i. viii. ; becomes emperor, i. xi. ; declines to adopt chosroes, i. xi. ff.; reduces hypatius from authority, i. xi. ; captures peter of arzanene during celer's invasion, ii. xv. ; supports the iberians in their revolt from the persians, i. xii. ff.; makes justinian partner in the royal power, i. xii. ; appoints procopius adviser to belisarius, i. xii. ; his death, i. xiii. justus, nephew of justinian, assists in making hypatius prisoner, i. xxiv. ; takes refuge with bouzes in hierapolis ii. xx. ; they invite belisarius to join them, ii. xx. ff.; but later come to him in europum, ii. xx. ; commands a detachment of an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. ; invades persia apart from the other commanders, ii. xxiv. ; invades the country about taraunon with peranius, ii. xxv. ; his death, ii. xxviii. lazica, lazi, later names for colchis and colchi (_q.v._), i. xi. ; its cities, ii. xxix. ; an unproductive country, i. xii. ii. xxviii. ; imported salt and other necessities of life, ii. xv. , xxviii. ; many fortresses there, ii. xxx. ; difficult to traverse, ii. xxix. , ; bulwark against the barbarians of the caucasus, ii. xxviii. ; its importance to persia, ii. xxviii. ff.; the scene of the story of jason and medea, ii. xvii. ; the lazi in ancient times allies of the persians, ii. xv. ; become allies of the romans, ii. xv. ; the people christian, ii. xxviii. ; lazica claimed by the persians, i. xi. ; forts of, abandoned by the romans and occupied by the persians, i. xii. ; chosroes refuses to return them to the romans, i. xxii. ; finally given up by the persians, i. xxii. ; invaded by chosroes, i. xxiii. , ii. xv. , xvii. ff.; limited subjection of the lazi to the romans, ii. xv. - ; placed under a roman magistrate, ii. iii. ; become discontented by reason of roman misrule, ii. xv. ff.; appeal to chosroes, ii. xv. , ff.; demanded from chosroes by the roman envoys, ii. xxviii. ; chosroes plans to populate it with persians, ii. xxviii. ; lazi hostile to persian rule, ii. xxviii. lebanon, i. xiii. , ii. viii. , xvi. , xix. libelarius of thrace, roman general, invades mesopotamia, i. xii. ; reduced from office, i. xii. libyans, ii. iii. ligurians, envoys of vittigis to chosroes, ii. ii. longinus, commander of isaurians, i. xviii. lucas, father of john, i. xvii. lycaones, in the army of belisarius, i. xviii. macedonians, founders of seleucia and ctesiphon, ii. xxviii. maddeni, tribe of saracens in arabia, subject to the homeritae, i. xix. , i. xx. magi, advise perozes to deceive the ephthalitae, i. iii. ff.; entrap arsaces, i. v. ff.; advice to cabades at the siege of amida, i. vii. ; announce to chosroes that he will capture sura, ii. v. ; answer cabades' enquiry with regard to edessa, ii. xiii. , ; guardians of the fire-sanctuary, ii. xxiv. mamas, priest of daras, assists in overthrowing the tyranny of john, i. xxvi. marcellus, nephew of justinian, appointed general, ii. xxviii. marcellus, roman commander at the battle of daras i. xiii. ; commander of palace guards, sent by theodora to assassinate john the cappadocian, i. xxv. ff.; wounded in the encounter, i. xxv. martinus, given as a hostage to the persians, i. xxi. ; sent to the east, ii. xiv. ; defends daras against chosroes, ii. xiii. ff.; ordered to invade persia with valerianus, ii., xxiv. ; general of the east, encamps at citharizon, ii. xxiv. ; follows peter in invading persia, ii. xxiv. ; commands the centre at the battle of anglon ii. xxv. ; with peter and peranius defends edessa against chosroes, ii. xxvi. ff.; deceived by the persian commanders, ii. xxvi. ff., xxvii. , ; arranges a settlement with chosroes, ii. xxvii. , martyropolis, near the river nymphius, i. viii. ; distance from amida, i. xxi. ; besieged by the persians, i. xxi. ff.; fears of sittas and hermogenes concerning its safety, i. xxi. ; siege abandoned by the persians, i. xxi. ; near phison, ii. xxiv. mary, wife of hypatius, tries to prevent her husband from going to the hippodrome, i. xxiv. , massagetae, reported to be preparing to join the persians, i. xxi. . _see also_"huns" mebodes, a persian official, sent as envoy to the romans, i. xi. ; slanders seoses, i. xi. ; persuades cabades to leave a written declaration concerning chosroes, i. xxi. - ; opposes the claim of caoses, i. xxi. ; secures the election of chosroes as king, i. xxi. ; his tragic death, i. xxiii. ff. medea, the tale of her adventure with jason in colchis, ii. xvii. medes, the name used by procopius as an equivalent for "persians" (_q.v._) medic garments, called to procopius' time "seric," i. xx. megas, bishop of beroea, sent to chosroes, ii. vi. ; begs him to spare the roman cities, ii. vi. ff.; goes to antioch, ii. vii. ; fails to persuade the citizens of antioch to pay money to chosroes, ii. vii. ; his conference with chosroes at beroea, ii. vii. ff. melitene, chief city of armenia minor, i. xvii. mermeroes, persian general, invades roman armenia, i. xv. ff.; driven back by dorotheus and sittas, i. xv. ; invades roman territory a second time, i. xv. ; defeated at satala, i. xv. ff.; shares command of an invading army, i. xxi. ; lends an army to the relief of petra, ii. xxix. , xxx. ff.; forces the pass into iberia, ii. xxx. - ; reaches petra, ii. xxx. ; taunts the romans, ii. xxx. ; leaving a garrison in petra, starts back, ii. xxx. ; attacked by phoubelis and goubazes, ii. xxx. ; departs from lazica with the greater part of his army, ii. xxx. , mesopotamia, bounded by the tigris and the euphrates, i. xvii. ; its hot climate, ii. xix. ; persians accustomed to invade roman territory from here, i. xvii. ; avoided by invading persian army, i. xvii. ; invaded by the persians, i. xxi. ff. michael, sanctuary of, in daphne, burned by chosroes, ii. xi. , , ; temple of, at tretum, ii. xi. , mindouos, place near the persian border, justinian attempts to fortify it, i. xiii. , xvi. mirranes, a persian term (_lit._ "mithra-son," denoting properly, not an office, but a patrician family); _see_ perozes ; also, commander in petra, deceives dagisthaeus, ii. xxx. mocheresis, important city of lazica, ii. xxix. molatzes, commander of troops in lebanon, brings succour to antioch, ii. viii. ; flees precipitately with the soldiers, ii. viii. - monks, distinguished for piety, i. vii. , moors, ii. ii. , iii. mopsuestia, a city of cilicia, ii. x. mundus, general in illyricum, assists in quelling the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff. nabedes, commander of the persian soldiers in nisibis, ii. xviii. ; attacks the roman troops before the city, ii. xviii. ff.; general in persarmenia, takes measures to urge the romans toward making peace, ii. xxiv. ; takes up his position in anglon, ii. xxv. ; defeats the roman armies, ii. xxv. ff. narses, a persarmenian, the emperor's steward, receives narses and aratius when they desert to the romans, i. xv. ; a eunuch, i. xxv. ; sent by theodora to assist in the assassination of john the cappadocian, _ib._; overhears his conversation with antonina, i. xxv. narses, a persarmenian, in company with aratius defeats sittas and belisarius, i. xii. , ; deserts to the romans, i. xv. ; dismantles the sanctuaries in philae at justinian's order, i. xix. ; encamps with valerianus near theodosiopolis, ii. xxiv. ; leads the attack at anglon, ii. xxv. ; dies bravely, ii. xxv. ; brother of isaac, ii. xxiv. nicetas, father of the general john, i. xiii. , ii. xix. , xxiv. nika insurrection, in byzantium, i. xxiv. ff.; significance of the name, i. xxiv. nile river, the nobatae dwell along its banks, i. xix. , ; the island of philae in it, i. xix. nisibis, distance from the tigris, i. xi. ; from daras, i. x. ; from sisauranon, ii. xix. ; bulwark of the persian empire, ii. xviii. ; its capture by the persians, i. xvii. ; its territory invaded by libelarius, i. xii. ; by belisarius, ii. xviii. ff.; negotiations with chosroes there, i. xxii. nobatae, a people of upper aegypt, i. xix. ; settled along the nile by diocletian, i. xix. ff.; receive annual payment from the roman emperor, i. xix. , ; their religion, i. xix. nymphius river, near martyropolis, i. viii. , xxi. ; forms boundary between the roman and persian territory, i. xxi. ; boundary of arzanene, i. viii. , ii. xv. oasis, city in upper aegypt, former home of the nobatae, i. xix. obbane, on the euphrates, distance from barbalissum, ii. xii. octava, place in armenia, distance from satala, i. xv. odonathus, ruler of the saracens, husband of zenobia, ii. v. ; his services to the romans, ii. v. oenochalakon, place in armenia, ii. iii. olyvrius, emperor of the west, father-in-law of areobindus, i. viii. orestes, the story of his flight from tauris, i. xvii. ff. origenes, a senator, counsels moderation, i. xxiv. ff. orocasius, highest part of the city of antioch, ii. vi. orontes river, flows along by antioch, ii. vi. , viii. , osiris, worshipped by the blemyes and nobatae, i. xix. osroene, name applied to country about edessa, i. xvii. ; its strongly fortified cities, i. xvii. osroes, ancient king of edessa, i. xvii. pacurius, king of persia at the time of the truceless war with the armenians, i. v. ; entraps arsaces, i. v. ff.; confines arsaces in the prison of oblivion, i. v. ; flays bassicius, i. v. ; grants favour to a friend of arsaces, i. v. ff. palestine, bounded by the "red sea," i. xix. ; saracens dwelling in it, i. xix. ; the objective of chosroes' third invasion, ii. xx. ; visited by the pestilence, ii. xxii. palm groves, held by saracens of arabia, i. xix. , , ii. iii. ; presented to justinian, i. xix. ff. palmyra, city of phoenicia, ii. i. parthians, their connection with the first arsaces, ii. iii. patriciolus, an officer in the roman army, i. viii. patricias, the phrygian, roman general, i. viii. ; his army routed by cabades, i. viii. - ; his escape, i. viii. ; entraps glones with two hundred persians, i. ix. - paulus, interpreter of chosroes, ii. vi. ; a roman reared in antioch, ii. vi. ; presents the persian demands at hierapolis, ii. vi. ; at beroea, ii. vii. ; at antioch, ii. viii. ; where he exhorts the citizens to abstain from their folly, ii. viii. ; at chalcis, ii. xii. ; at edessa, ii. xii. ; a second time at edessa, ii. xxvi. , xxvii. , pearl, story of the, i. iv. - peloponnesus, escapes plunder by the huns, ii. iv. pelusium, in aegypt, the starting point of the pestilence, ii. xxii. peranius, son of gourgenes, king of iberia, i. xii. ; commands a detachment of an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. ; invades the country about taraunon with justus, ii. xxv. ; with peter and martinus defends edessa against chosroes, ii. xxvi. ff., xxvii. ; chosroes demands that he and peter be surrendered to him, ii. xxvi. ; his death, ii. xxviii. perozes, persian king, wages war against the ephthalitae, i. iii. , ; entrapped by the ephthalitae, i. iii. ff.; escapes with his army, i. iii. ; his second expedition, i. iv. ff.; destroyed with his army by the ephthalitae, i. iv. ff.; his famous pearl, i. iv. perozes, persian general, i. xiii. ; interchange of letters with belisarius and hermogenes, i. xiv. ff.; address to his troops, i. xiv. ff.; defeated by belisarius, i. xiv. ff.; punished by cabades, i. xvii. ff. perozes, sons of, murder symeon, ii. iii. persarmenia, its trade with india, ii. xxv. ; devastated by sittas and belisarius, i. xii. persarmenians, in the persian army, i. xv. persians, worship the rising sun, i. iii. ; their fire-worship, ii. xxiv. ; do not bury the dead, i. xi. , xii. ; their set character, ii. xxviii. ; their trade in indian silk, i. xx. ; the arrogance of their officials, i. xi. ; their custom of counting an army before and after a campaign, i. xviii. ff.; their infantry inefficient, i. xiv. ; their bowmen quick, but inferior to those of the romans, i. xviii. ; their skill in bridging rivers, ii. xxi. ; maintain spies at public expense, i. xxi. ; suffer a severe defeat at the hands of the ephthalitae, i. iv. , ; pay tribute to the ephthalitae for two years, i. iv. ; make peace with theodosius, i. ii. ; unable to prevent the fortification of daras, i. x. ; capture amida, i. vii. ; receive money from the romans and give back amida, i. ix. ; wage war with the huns during the seven-years' peace with the romans, i. ix. ; seize certain forts in lazica, i. xii. ; prevent the fortification of mindouos, i. xiii. , ; defeated in battle at daras, i. xiv. ff.; defeated in persarmenia, i. xv. ; and in armenia, i. xv. ; refrain from entering roman territory by mesopotamia, i. xvii. ; victorious in the battle on the euphrates, i. xviii. ; invade mesopotamia, i. xxi. ; besiege martyropolis in vain, i. xxi. ff.; make peace with the romans, i. xxii. , ; capture sura, ii. v. ; and beroea, ii. vii. ff.; capture and destroy antioch, ii. viii. ff.; capture petra, ii. xvii. ; besiege edessa in vain, ii. xxvi. ff., xxvii. ; save petra from capture by the romans, ii. xxix. ff.; suffer a severe defeat in lazica, ii. xxx. ff. pestilence, the, devastates the whole world, ii. xxii. ff.; in byzantium, ii. xxii. ff.; in persia, ii. xxiv. , peter, captured as a boy in arzanene by justinus, ii. xv. ; roman general, sent to lazica, i. xii. ; summoned to byzantium, i. xii. ; bodyguard of justinian, commander of infantry, i. xviii. ; at the battle on the euphrates, i. xviii. ; favours invasion of persia by belisarius, ii. xvi. ; attacked by the persians before nisibis, ii. xviii. ff.; commands a detachment in an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. ; precipitately enters persia, ii. xxiv. ; commands the right wing at the battle of anglon, ii. xxv. ; with martinus and peranius defends edessa against chosroes, ii. xxvi. ff.; chosroes demands that he and peranius be surrendered to him, ii. xxvi. ; his base character and misrule in lazica, ii. xv. - petra, built by justinian in lazica, ii. xv. , xvii. , xxix. ; its impregnable defences, ii. xvii. ff.; attacked by the persians, ii. xvii. ff.; besieged by chosroes, ii. xvii. ff.; captured by chosroes, ii. xvii. ; fortified with a garrison, ii. xix. ; besieged by the romans and lazi, ii. xxix. ff.; the siege abandoned, ii. xxx. ; valour of the persian defenders, ii. xxix. ; monopoly established there by john tzibus, ii. xv. , xxix. petrae, ancient capital of the arabs, i. xix. phabrizus, high persian official, ii. xxviii. ; employed by chosroes for the furtherance of his plans, ii. xxviii. ; attempts to destroy goubazes, ii. xxix. ff.; left as commander in lazica by mermeroes, ii. xxx. ; his forces almost annihilated by the lazi, ii. xxx. ff. pharangium, fortress in persarmenia, occupied by the romans, i. xv. ; gold-mines of the persians there, i. xv. , ; given over to the romans, i. xv. , ii. iii. ; its return demanded by chosroes, i. xxii. ; given up by the romans, i. xxii. ; near the source of the boas river, ii. xxix. pharas, an erulian chief, at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , ff., xiv. , , pharesmanes, of colchis, an officer in the roman army, i. viii. pharsanses, a man of note in lazica, ii. xxix. ; his friendship sought by phabrizus, ii. xxix. ; saves goubazes, ii. xxix. phasis river, its source in the taurus, i. xxv. ; its course through lazica, ii. xxix. ; its size and strong current, ii. xxx. , ; strongly defended by the lazi, ii. xxx. ; forded by the lazi, ii. xxx. philae, fortress established by diocletian on an island in the nile near elephantina, i. xix. - ; its temples dismantled by justinian, i. xix. , philemouth, an erulian chief, encamps near martinus, i. xxiv. ; with beros follows peter into persia, ii. xxiv. phison, place in armenia near martyropolis, ii. xxiv. phocas, made pretorian prefect in place of john the cappadocian, i. xxiv. phoenicia, ii. xvi. phoubelis, a notable among the lazi, with dagisthaeus attacks mermeroes, ii. xxx. pitius, a fortress in lazica, ii. xxix. pityaxes, persian general at the battle of daras, i. xiii. , xiv. , placillianae, palace in byzantium, i. xxiv. pompeius, nephew of anastasius, sent from the palace by justinian, i. xxiv. - ; brought before justinian as a prisoner, i. xxiv. ; his death, i. xxiv. pontic romans, their location, ii. xxix. pontus, visited by orestes, i. xvii. potidaea, known in later times as cassandria, captured by the huns, ii. iv. priapus, worshipped by the blemyes and nobatae, i. xix. prison of oblivion, in persia, reason for the name, i. v. ; law regarding it suspended once in the case of arsaces, i. v. - ; cabades confined therein, i. v. probus, nephew of anastasius, sent by justinus to bosporus to collect an army of huns, i. xii. , proclus, quaestor, dissuades justinus from adopting chosroes, i. xi. ff. procopius of caesarea, author of the _history of the wars_, i. i. ; eye-witness of the events described, i. i. ; chosen adviser to belisarius, i. i. , xii. ; in byzantium at the time of the pestilence, ii. xxii. ; had seen cappadocia and armenia, i. xvii. ; his frankness in writing, i. i. pylades, the story of the flight with orestes from tauris, i. xvii. ff. red sea, its location, extent, harbours, etc. (confused by procopius with the arabian gulf), i. xix. ff., ii. iii. rhecinarius, envoy to chosroes, ii. xxvii. , rhecithancus, of thrace, commander of troops in lebanon, objects to invading persia with belisarius, ii. xvi. ff.; eager to return to lebanon, ii. xix. , ; commands an army sent to lazica, ii. xxx. rhizaeum, a city near lazica, ii. xxix. , xxx. rhodopolis, important city of lazica, ii. xxix. romans, used by procopius to designate the subjects of the empire of byzantium, and mentioned constantly throughout; lack of discipline in roman armies, i. xiv. ; their bowmen more efficient than those of the persians, i. xviii. ; maintain spies at public expense, i. xxi. rufinianae, suburb of byzantium, i. xxv. , rufinus, son of silvanus, sent as an envoy to the persians, i. xi. ; slanders hypatius, i. xi. ; sent as ambassador to hierapolis, i. xiii. ; treats with cabades at daras, i. xvi. ff.; reports to the emperor i. xvi. ; meets chosroes on the tigris, i. xxii. ; sent, to byzantium, i. xxii. ; false report of his death, i. xxii. ; persuades chosroes to give back the money brought by the ambassadors and postpone the war, i. xxii. , ; slandered to the emperor, i. xxii. ; sent again as ambassador to chosroes, i. xxii. ; brother of timostratus, i. xvii. ; father of john, the ambassador, ii. vii. sabeiri huns, their location, ii. xxix. ; in the persian army, i. xv. ; persuaded by goubazes to form an alliance with him, ii. xxix. ; receive promised money from justinian, ii. xxx. saccice, mother of alamoundaras, i. xvii. samosata, city on the euphrates, i. xvii. ; on the boundary of euphratesia, i. xvii. saracens, experts at plundering, but not at storming cities, ii. xix. ; in persia, all ruled by alamoundaras, i. xvii. ; some in alliance with the romans, i. xviii. ; their king odonathus, ii. v. ; of arabia, ruled by arethas, i. xvii. ; receiving annual payments from the romans, ii. x. ; settled in the palm groves, i. xix. , ; and in palestine, i. xix. ; cannibals in arabia, i. xix. ; never mentioned in treaties, ii. i. ; observe a religious holiday at the vernal equinox, ii. xvi. ; dispute possession of strata, ii. i. ; in the army of chosroes, ii. xxvii. ; in the army of azarethes, i. xvii. , xviii. ; with the army of belisarius, i. xviii. , , , , ii. xvi. ; wage war among themselves, ii. xxviii. - sarapanis, a city of lazica, ii. xxix. sarus river, in cappadocia, i. xvii. satala, city in armenia, its location, i. xv. , ; battle of, i. xv. ff. scanda, a city in lazica, ii. xxix. sebastopolis, a fortress of lazica, ii. xxix. seleucia, city on the tigris, founded by the macedonians, ii xxviii. seleucia, distance from antioch, ii. xi. ; visited by chosroes, _ib._ senecius, body-guard of sittas, given as a hostage to the persians, i. xxi. seoses, rescues cabades from the prison of oblivion, i. vi. . ; receives the office of "adrastadaran salanes," i. vi , ; sent as envoy to the romans, i. vi. ; slandered by mebodes and brought to trial, i. xi. ff.; condemned to death, i. xi sergiopolis, city in mesopotamia, ii. v. ; citizens of, give much treasure to chosroes, ii. xx. ; saved from capture by ambrus, ii. xx. ; besieged in vain by chosroes, ii. xx. ff. sergius, an illustrious saint, ii. v. sergius, of edessa, ii. xxiv. ; envoy to chosroes with constantianus, ii. xxiv. ; a second time envoy to chosroes with const., ii. xxviii. ff. sestus, city opposite abydus on the hellespont, ii. iv. silentiarius, a title given to certain officials in the palace at byzantium, "privy councillors," ii. xxii. , ii. xxix. silvanus, father of rufinus, i. xi. , xvi. simmas, massagete chief, in the roman army, i. xiii. , xiv. siphrios, a fortress, distance from amida, i. viii. sisauranon, fortress in mesopotamia, ii. xix. ; attacked by belisarius, ii. xix. ; capitulates to belisarius, ii. xix. , sittas, roman general, in company with belisarius invades persarmenia, i. xii. , ; defeated by narses and aratius, i. xii. ; attacks the persian army invading armenia, i. xv. ff.; occupies the hills about satala, i. xv. ; attacks the persian army unexpectedly, i. xv. ; defeats the tzani in battle and then wins them over by kindness, i. xv. , ; proceeds to the east, i. xxi. ; awaits the persian army at attachas, i. xxi. ; opens negotiations with the persians before martyropolis, i. xxi. ff.; sent against the armenians, ii. iii. ff.; his death, ii. iii. ; his valour and achievements, ii. iii. snail, gate of the, in the palace in byzantium, i. xxiv. soinian gate, in the wall of edessa, ii. xxvii. solomon, an armenian, according to one report slew sittas, ii. iii. sophanene, district in armenia, i. xxi. sophia, sanctuary of, destroyed by fire to the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ; its treasures guarded by the priest augustus, ii. xxx. stephanacius, commander of isaurians, i. xviii. stephanus, a physician of note, begs chosroes to spare edessa, ii. xxvi. ff. strata, its possession disputed by the saracens, ii. i. ; meaning of the name, ii. i. ; unproductive, ii. i. strategius, guardian of the royal treasures, sent as an envoy by justinian, ii. i. ; his advice concerning strata, ii. i. summus, father of julian, commander in palestine, sent as an envoy by justinian, ii. i. , ; his advice concerning strata, ii. i. sunicas, massagete chief, in the roman army, i. xiii. , xiv. . , ; charges the standard bearer of baresmanas, i. xiv. ; kills baresmanas, i. xiv. sunitae, march in the persian army, i. xv. sura, a city on the euphrates, i. xviii. , ii. v. ; distance from sergiopolis, ii. v. ; besieged by chosroes, ii. v. ff.; bishop of, begs chosroes to spare the city, ii. v. ff.; captured by a stratagem and destroyed, ii. v. ff.; a woman of, made captive by a barbarian in sight of chosroes, ii. ix. , sycae, a suburb of byzantium, modern "galata," ii. xxiii. symeon, sanctuary of, at amida, burned, i. ix. symeon, manager of the persian gold-mine at pharangium, i. xv. ; goes over to the romans, i. xv. , ; presented with certain armenian villages, ii. iii. ; murdered by the sons of perozes, ii. iii. ; uncle of amazaspes, ii. iii. syria, open to invasion by the persians, i. xvii. ff., ii. xvi. , xix. ; attacked by chosroes, ii. v. , vi. syriac tongue, ii. ii. taraunon, a district in persarmenia, invaded by justus and peranius, ii. xxv. tatianus, of mopsuestia, quarter-master of the camp in antioch, witnesses the portent of the standards, ii. x. taurians, the, in celesene, i. xvii. ff., taurus mountains, the, their size and extent, i. x. , , xv. , xvii. theoctistus, commander of troops in lebanon, brings succour to antioch, ii. viii. ; flees precipitately with the soldiers, ii. viii. - ; objects to invading persia with belisarius, ii. xvi. ff.; eager to return to lebanon, ii. xix. , ; commands a detachment in an army to invade persia, ii. xxiv. theodoric, leader of the goths, i. viii. theodora, wife of justinian, greatly beloved by him, i. xxv. ; her hatred of john the cappadocian, _ib._; counsels firmness in dealing with the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. ff.; encourages antonina in her plan to entrap john the cappadocian, i. xxv. ; succeeds in punishing him, i. xxv. ; her death, ii. xxx. theodoras, a citizen of daras, skilled in mechanics, ii. xiii. theodorus, an official in the palace in byzantium, superintends the work of providing burial for the victims of the pestilence, ii. xxiii. ff. theodosiopolis, its location, i. x. , xv. , ii. xxiv. ; near the sources of the euphrates and tigris, i. xvii. ; fortified by anastasius, i. x. ; near bolum, i. xv. ; distance from doubios, ii. xxv. ; from citharizon, ii. xxiv. theodosiopolis, city near the aborrhas river, ii. xix. theodosius ii., son of arcadius, as a child is made the ward of the persian king isdigerdes, i. ii. ff.; sends anatolius as envoy to the persians, i. ii. ; makes peace with the persians, i. ii. ; arsaces' abdication of the kingship of armenia in his favour, ii. iii. thermopylae, attacked by the huns, ii. iv. thessaly, plundered by the huns, ii. iv. thilasamon, village near amida, i. ix. thomas, chief priest of apamea, displays the wood of the cross, ii. xi. ff.; goes before chosroes, ii. xi. ff.; saves the wood of the cross, ii. xi. , thomas, ambassador to the persians, meets chosroes on the tigris, i. xxii. thomas gouzes, commander in lazica, ii. xxx. thrace, thracians in the army of belisarius, ii. xix. , xxi. ; home of coutzes and bouzes, i. xiii. timostratus, brother of rufinus, roman officer, captured by alamoundaras, i. xvii. , tigris river, its source in armenia, i. xvii. ; its course into assyria, i. xvii. , ; distance from nisibis, i. xi. ; its junction with the euphrates, i. xvii. ; flows between seleucia and ctesiphon, ii. xxviii. trajan, a guardsman, sent with arethas into assyria, ii. xix. ff.; they return by another route, ii. xix. ff. trapezus, city on the euxine, ii. xxix. , xxx. tretum, a place near antioch where was a temple of michael, ii. xi. tribunianus, a pamphylian, quaestor, i. xxiv. ; his dexterity in manipulating laws, i. xxiv. ; dismissed from office, i. xxiv. ; restored to office, i. xxv. , ; his death, i. xxv. tribunus, a physician, beloved by chosroes, ii. xxviii. ff. tripod, before the palace of the persian king, where all must sit who fell under the king's displeasure, i. xxiii. tripurgia, a place at edessa, ii. xxvii. tzani, called sani in early times, i. xv. ; the source of the boas river among them, ii. xxix. ; conquered by the romans, i. xv. ff.; become christian, i. xv. ; reduced to subjection, ii. iii. ; with the roman army at petra, ii. xxix. , ; defend the roman camp, ii. xxx. ; return to their homes, ii. xxx. valerianus, appointed general of armenia, ii. xiv. ; receives persian envoys, ii. xxiv. - ; reports to justinian, ii. xxiv. ; ordered to invade persia with martinus, ii. xxiv. ; encamps near theodosiopolis, ii. xxiv. ; follows peter in invading persia, ii. xxiv. ; commands the left wing at the battle of anglon, ii. xxv. vandals, ii. ii. , iii. vararanes, persian king, invades roman territory, i. ii. ff.; concludes peace with the romans, i. ii. varizes, title of a persian general (_lit._ "victorious," properly a family name), i. xii. varrames, son of adergoudounbades, shares the secret of the sparing of chosroes, i. xxiii. ; reveals to chosroes the true story, i. xxiii. ; made chanaranges, i. xxiii. veneti, name of one of the factions, i. xxiv. - ; supported by justinian, ii. xi. ; also called the blue faction, _ib._ venetian colonnade, the, in byzantium, i. xxiv. veredi, the government post horses, ii. xx. vesta, _see_ hestia vitalianus, son of patriciolus, an officer in the roman army, i. viii. ; becomes tyrant, _ib._ his hostility to anastasius, i. xiii. ; his adviser hermogenes, _ib._ vittigis, king of the goths, sends ambassadors to chosroes, ii. ii. ; they address chosroes, ii. ii. ff.; brought to byzantium by belisarius, ii. iv. , xxi. ; remains in byzantium, ii. xiv. ; envoys of, one dies, the other remains in persia, ii. xiv. ; their interpreter captured, ii. xiv. white syrians, old name for the inhabitants of armenia minor, i. xvii. zaberganes, misrepresents mebodes to chosroes, i. xxiii. , ; reproaches chosroes, ii. viii. ff.; at the bidding of chosroes receives the envoys of edessa, ii. xxvi. - zames, son of cabades, disqualified from succeeding his father, i. xi. ; ii. ix. ; plot to put him in power in place of chosroes, i. xxiii. , ; slain by chosroes, i. xxiii. zechi, their location, ii. xxix. zeno, roman emperor at the time of the persian king arsaces, i. iii. zenobia, city on the euphrates, ii. v. ; founded by zenobia, ii. v. ; chosroes refrains from attacking it, ii. v. zenobia, wife of odonathus, founder of the city of zenobia, ii. v. zeuxippus, baths of, destroyed by fire in the nika insurrection, i. xxiv. * * * * * * transcriber's notes: index errata: "caisus" should read "caïsus" under aigan "massagete" should read "massagetae" also under: ascan simmas sunicus under auxomis "elephantina" should be "elephantine" also under: elephantina philae under darras "ammodius" should be "ammodios" "florentinus" should be "florentius" under julian "summas" should be "summus" "orocasius" should read "orocasias" under phocus "pretorian" should read "praetorian"] procopius with an english translation by h. b. dewing in seven volumes ii history of the wars, books iii and iv london william heinemann ltd cambridge, massachusetts harvard university press mcmlxxi first printed contents history of the wars-- page book iii.--the vandalic war book iv.--the vandalic war _(continued)_ index procopius of caesarea history of the wars. book iii the vandalic war i such, then, was the final outcome of the persian war for the emperor justinian; and i shall now proceed to set forth all that he did against the vandals and the moors. but first shall be told whence came the host of the vandals when they descended upon the land of the romans. after theodosius, the roman emperor, had departed from the world, having proved himself one of the most just of men and an able warrior, his kingdom was taken over by his two sons, arcadius, the elder, receiving the eastern portion, and honorius, the younger, the western. [jan. , a.d.] but the roman power had been thus divided as far back as the time of constantine and his sons; for he transferred his government to byzantium, and making the city larger and much more renowned, allowed it to be named after him. now the earth is surrounded by a circle of ocean, either entirely or for the most part (for our knowledge is not as yet at all clear in this matter); and it is split into two continents by a sort of outflow from the ocean, a flow which enters at the western part and forms this sea which we know, beginning at gadira[ ] and extending all the way to the maeotic lake.[ ] of these two continents the one to the right, as one sails into the sea, as far as the lake, has received the name of asia, beginning at gadira and at the southern[ ] of the two pillars of heracles. septem[ ] is the name given by the natives to the fort at that point, since seven hills appear there; for "septem" has the force of "seven" in the latin tongue. and the whole continent opposite this was named europe. and the strait at that point separates the two continents[ ] by about eighty-four stades, but from there on they are kept apart by wide expanses of sea as far as the hellespont. for at this point they again approach each other at sestus and abydus, and once more at byzantium and chalcedon as far as the rocks called in ancient times the "dark blue rocks," where even now is the place called hieron. for at these places the continents are separated from one another by a distance of only ten stades and even less than that. now the distance from one of the pillars of heracles to the other, if one goes along the shore and does not pass around the ionian gulf and the sea called the euxine but crosses from chalcedon[ ] to byzantium and from dryous[ ] to the opposite mainland,[ ] is a journey of two hundred and eighty-five days for an unencumbered traveller. for as to the land about the euxine sea, which extends from byzantium to the lake, it would be impossible to tell everything with precision, since the barbarians beyond the ister river, which they also call the danube, make the shore of that sea quite impossible for the romans to traverse--except, indeed, that from byzantium to the mouth of the ister is a journey of twenty-two days, which should be added to the measure of europe by one making the computation. and on the asiatic side, that is from chalcedon to the phasis river, which, flowing from the country of the colchians, descends into the pontus, the journey is accomplished in forty days. so that the whole roman domain, according to the distance along the sea at least, attains the measure of a three hundred and forty-seven days' journey, if, as has been said, one ferries over the ionian gulf, which extends about eight hundred stades from dryous. for the passage across the gulf[ ] amounts to a journey of not less than four days. such, then, was the size of the roman empire in the ancient times. and there fell to him who held the power in the west the most of libya, extending ninety days' journey--for such is the distance from gadira to the boundaries of tripolis in libya; and in europe he received as his portion territory extending seventy-five days' journey--for such is the distance from the northern[ ] of the pillars of heracles to the ionian gulf.[ ] and one might add also the distance around the gulf. and the emperor of the east received territory extending one hundred and twenty days' journey, from the boundaries of cyrene in libya as far as epidamnus, which lies on the ionian gulf and is called at the present time dyrrachium, as well as that portion of the country about the euxine sea which, as previously stated, is subject to the romans. now one day's journey extends two hundred and ten stades,[ ] or as far as from athens to megara. thus, then, the roman emperors divided either continent between them. and among the islands britain, which is outside the pillars of heracles and by far the largest of all islands, was counted, as is natural, with the west; and inside the pillars, ebusa,[ ] which lies in the mediterranean in what we may call the propontis, just inside the opening where the ocean enters, about seven days' journey from the opening, and two others near it, majorica and minorica, as they are called by the natives, were also assigned to the western empire. and each of the islands in the sea itself fell to the share of that one of the two emperors within whose boundaries it happened to lie. ii now while honorius was holding the imperial power in the west, barbarians took possession of his land; and i shall tell who they were and in what manner they did so. [ - a.d.] there were many gothic nations in earlier times, just as also at the present, but the greatest and most important of all are the goths, vandals, visigoths, and gepaedes. in ancient times, however, they were named sauromatae and melanchlaeni;[ ] and there were some too who called these nations getic. all these, while they are distinguished from one another by their names, as has been said, do not differ in anything else at all. for they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome to look upon, and they use the same laws and practise a common religion. for they are all of the arian faith, and have one language called gothic; and, as it seems to me, they all came originally from one tribe, and were distinguished later by the names of those who led each group. this people used to dwell above the ister river from of old. later on the gepaedes got possession of the country about singidunum[ ] and sirmium,[ ] on both sides of the ister river, where they have remained settled even down to my time. but the visigoths, separating from the others, removed from there and at first entered into an alliance with the emperor arcadius, but at a later time (for faith with the romans cannot dwell in barbarians), under the leadership of alaric, they became hostile to both emperors, and, beginning with thrace, treated all europe as an enemy's land. now the emperor honorius had before this time been sitting in rome, with never a thought of war in his mind, but glad, i think, if men allowed him to remain quiet in his palace. but when word was brought that the barbarians with a great army were not far off, but somewhere among the taulantii,[ ] he abandoned the palace and fled in disorderly fashion to ravenna, a strong city lying just about at the end of the ionian gulf, while some say that he brought in the barbarians himself, because an uprising had been started against him among his subjects; but this does not seem to me trustworthy, as far, at least, as one can judge of the character of the man. and the barbarians, finding that they had no hostile force to encounter them, became the most cruel of all men. for they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially those south of the ionian gulf, so completely that nothing has been left to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or one gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. and they killed all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike, sparing neither women nor children. wherefore even up to the present time italy is sparsely populated. they also gathered as plunder all the money out of all europe, and, most important of all, they left in rome nothing whatever of public or private wealth when they moved on to gaul. but i shall now tell how alaric captured rome. after much time had been spent by him in the siege, and he had not been able either by force or by any other device to capture the place, he formed the following plan. among the youths in the army whose beards had not yet grown, but who had just come of age, he chose out three hundred whom he knew to be of good birth and possessed of valour beyond their years, and told them secretly that he was about to make a present of them to certain of the patricians in rome, pretending that they were slaves. and he instructed them that, as soon as they got inside the houses of those men, they should display much gentleness and moderation and serve them eagerly in whatever tasks should be laid upon them by their owners; and he further directed them that not long afterwards, on an appointed day at about midday, when all those who were to be their masters would most likely be already asleep after their meal, they should all come to the gate called salarian and with a sudden rush kill the guards, who would have no previous knowledge of the plot, and open the gates as quickly as possible. after giving these orders to the youths, alaric straightway sent ambassadors to the members of the senate, stating that he admired them for their loyalty toward their emperor, and that he would trouble them no longer, because of their valour and faithfulness, with which it was plain that they were endowed to a remarkable degree, and in order that tokens of himself might be preserved among men both noble and brave, he wished to present each one of them with some domestics. after making this declaration and sending the youths not long afterwards, he commanded the barbarians to make preparations for the departure, and he let this be known to the romans. and they heard his words gladly, and receiving the gifts began to be exceedingly happy, since they were completely ignorant of the plot of the barbarian. for the youths, by being unusually obedient to their owners, averted suspicion, and in the camp some were already seen moving from their positions and raising the siege, while it seemed that the others were just on the point of doing the very same thing. but when the appointed day had come, alaric armed his whole force for the attack and was holding them in readiness close by the salarian gate; for it happened that he had encamped there at the beginning of the siege. and all the youths at the time of the day agreed upon came to this gate, and, assailing the guards suddenly, put them to death; then they opened the gates and received alaric and the army into the city at their leisure. [aug. , a.d.] and they set fire to the houses which were next to the gate, among which was also the house of sallust, who in ancient times wrote the history of the romans, and the greater part of this house has stood half-burned up to my time; and after plundering the whole city and destroying the most of the romans, they moved on. at that time they say that the emperor honorius in ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that rome had perished. and he cried out and said, "and yet it has just eaten from my hands!" for he had a very large cock, rome by name; and the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of rome which had perished at the hands of alaric, and the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly: "but i, my good fellow, thought that my fowl rome had perished." so great, they say, was the folly with which this emperor was possessed. but some say that rome was not captured in this way by alaric, but that proba, a woman of very unusual eminence in wealth and in fame among the roman senatorial class, felt pity for the romans who were being destroyed by hunger and the other suffering they endured; for they were already even tasting each other's flesh; and seeing that every good hope had left them, since both the river and the harbour were held by the enemy, she commanded her domestics, they say, to open the gates by night. now when alaric was about to depart from rome, he declared attalus, one of their nobles, emperor of the romans, investing him with the diadem and the purple and whatever else pertains to the imperial dignity. and he did this with the intention of removing honorius from his throne and of giving over the whole power in the west to attalus. with such a purpose, then, both attalus and alaric were going with a great army against ravenna. but this attalus was neither able to think wisely himself, nor to be persuaded by one who had wisdom to offer. so while alaric did not by any means approve the plan, attalus sent commanders to libya without an army. thus, then, were these things going on. and the island of britain revolted from the romans, and the soldiers there chose as their king constantinus, a man of no mean station. [ a.d.] and he straightway gathered a fleet of ships and a formidable army and invaded both spain and gaul with a great force, thinking to enslave these countries. but honorius was holding ships in readiness and waiting to see what would happen in libya, in order that, if those sent by attalus were repulsed, he might himself sail for libya and keep some portion of his own kingdom, while if matters there should go against him, he might reach theodosius and remain with him. for arcadius had already died long before, and his son theodosius, still a very young child,[ ] held the power of the east. [ - a.d.] but while honorius was thus anxiously awaiting the outcome of these events and tossed amid the billows of uncertain fortune, it so chanced that some wonderful pieces of good fortune befell him. for god is accustomed to succour those who are neither clever nor able to devise anything of themselves, and to lend them assistance, if they be not wicked, when they are in the last extremity of despair; such a thing, indeed, befell this emperor. for it was suddenly reported from libya that the commanders of attalus had been destroyed, and that a host of ships was at hand from byzantium with a very great number of soldiers who had come to assist him, though he had not expected them, and that alaric, having quarrelled with attalus, had stripped him of the emperor's garb and was now keeping him under guard in the position of a private citizen. [ a.d.] and afterwards alaric died of disease, and the army of the visigoths under the leadership of adaulphus proceeded into gaul, and constantinus, defeated in battle, died with his sons. however the romans never succeeded in recovering britain, but it remained from that time on under tyrants. and the goths, after making the crossing of the ister, at first occupied pannonia, but afterwards, since the emperor gave them the right, they inhabited the country of thrace. and after spending no great time there they conquered the west. but this will be told in the narrative concerning the goths. iii now the vandals dwelling about the maeotic lake, since they were pressed by hunger, moved to the country of the germans, who are now called franks, and the river rhine, associating with themselves the alani, a gothic people. then from there, under the leadership of godigisclus, they moved and settled in spain, which is the first land of the roman empire on the side of the ocean. at that time honorius made an agreement with godigisclus that they should settle there on condition that it should not be to the detriment of the country. but there was a law among the romans, that if any persons should fail to keep their property in their own possession, and if, meanwhile, a time amounting to thirty years should pass, that these persons should thenceforth not be entitled to proceed against those who had forced them out, but they were excluded by demurrer[ ] from access to the court; and in view of this he established a law that whatever time should be spent by the vandals in the roman domain should not by any means be counted toward this thirty-year demurrer. and honorius himself, when the west had been driven by him to this pass, died of disease. [aug. , a.d.] now before this, as it happened, the royal power had been shared by honorius with constantius, the husband of placidia, the sister of arcadius and honorius; but he lived to exercise the power only a few days, and then, becoming seriously ill, he died while honorius was still living, [ a.d.] having never succeeded in saying or in doing anything worth recounting; for the time was not sufficient during which he lived in possession of the royal power. now a son of this constantius, valentinian, a child just weaned, was being reared in the palace of theodosius, but the members of the imperial court in rome chose one of the soldiers there, john by name, as emperor. this man was both gentle and well-endowed with sagacity and thoroughly capable of valorous deeds. at any rate he held the tyranny five years[ ] and directed it with moderation, and he neither gave ear to slanderers nor did he do any unjust murder, willingly at least, nor did he set his hand to robbing men of money; but he did not prove able to do anything at all against the barbarians, since his relations with byzantium were hostile. against this john, theodosius, the son of arcadius, sent a great army and aspar and ardaburius, the son of aspar, as generals, and wrested from him the tyranny and gave over the royal power to valentinian, who was still a child. and valentinian took john alive, and he brought him out in the hippodrome of aquileia with one of his hands cut off and caused him to ride in state on an ass, and then after he had suffered much ill treatment from the stage-performers there, both in word and in deed, he put him to death. [ a.d.] thus valentinian took over the power of the west. but placidia, his mother, had reared this emperor and educated him in an altogether effeminate manner, and in consequence he was filled with wickedness from childhood. for he associated mostly with sorcerers and those who busy themselves with the stars, and, being an extraordinarily zealous pursuer of love affairs with other men's wives, he conducted himself in a most indecent manner, although he was married to a woman of exceptional beauty. [ a.d.] and not only was this true, but he also failed to recover for the empire anything of what had been wrested from it before, and he both lost libya in addition to the territory previously lost and was himself destroyed. and when he perished, it fell to the lot of his wife and his children to become captives. now the disaster in libya came about as follows. there were two roman generals, aetius and boniface, especially valiant men and in experience of many wars inferior to none of that time at least. these two came to be at variance in regard to matters of state, but they attained to such a degree of highmindedness and excellence in every respect that if one should call either of them "the last of the romans" he would not err, so true was it that all the excellent qualities of the romans were summed up in these two men. one of these, boniface, was appointed by placidia general of all libya. now this was not in accord with the wishes of aetius, but he by no means disclosed the fact that it did not please him. for their hostility had not as yet come to light, but was concealed behind the countenance of each. but when boniface had got out of the way, aetius slandered him to placidia, saying that he was setting up a tyranny and had robbed her and the emperor of all libya, and he said that it was very easy for her to find out the truth; for if she should summon boniface to rome, he would never come. and when the woman heard this, aetius seemed to her to speak well and she acted accordingly. but aetius, anticipating her, wrote to boniface secretly that the mother of the emperor was plotting against him and wished to put him out of the way. and he predicted to him that there would be convincing proof of the plot; for he would be summoned very shortly for no reason at all. such was the announcement of the letter. and boniface did not disregard the message, for as soon as those arrived who were summoning him to the emperor, he refused to give heed to the emperor and his mother, disclosing to no one the warning of aetius. so when placidia heard this, she thought that aetius was exceedingly well-disposed towards the emperor's cause and took under consideration the question of boniface. but boniface, since it did not seem to him that he was able to array himself against the emperor, and since if he returned to rome there was clearly no safety for him, began to lay plans so that, if possible, he might have a defensive alliance with the vandals, who, as previously stated, had established themselves in spain not far from libya. there godigisclus had died and the royal power had fallen to his sons, gontharis, who was born to him from his wedded wife, and gizeric,[ ] of illegitimate birth. but the former was still a child and not of very energetic temper, while gizeric had been excellently trained in warfare, and was the cleverest of all men. boniface accordingly sent to spain those who were his own most intimate friends and gained the adherence of each of the sons of godigisclus on terms of complete equality, it being agreed that each one of the three, holding a third part of libya, should rule over his own subjects; but if a foe should come against any one of them to make war, that they should in common ward off the aggressors. on the basis of this agreement the vandals crossed the strait at gadira and came into libya, and the visigoths in later times settled in spain. but in rome the friends of boniface, remembering the character of the man and considering how strange his action was, were greatly astonished to think that boniface was setting up a tyranny, and some of them at the order of placidia went to carthage. there they met boniface, and saw the letter of aetius, and after hearing the whole story they returned to rome as quickly as they could and reported to placidia how boniface stood in relation to her. and though the woman was dumbfounded, she did nothing unpleasant to aetius nor did she upbraid him for what he had done to the emperor's house, for he himself wielded great power and the affairs of the empire were already in an evil plight; but she disclosed to the friends of boniface the advice aetius had given, and, offering oaths and pledges of safety, entreated them to persuade the man, if they could, to return to his fatherland and not to permit the empire of the romans to lie under the hand of barbarians. and when boniface heard this, he repented of his act and of his agreement with the barbarians, and he besought them incessantly, promising them everything, to remove from libya. but since they did not receive his words with favour, but considered that they were being insulted, he was compelled to fight with them, and being defeated in the battle, he retired to hippo[ ] regius, a strong city in the portion of numidia that is on the sea. there the vandals made camp under the leadership of gizeric and began a siege; for gontharis had already died. and they say that he perished at the hand of his brother. the vandals, however, do not agree with those who make this statement, but say that gontharis' was captured in battle by germans in spain and impaled, and that gizeric was already sole ruler when he led the vandals into libya. this, indeed, i have heard from the vandals, stated in this way. but after much time had passed by, since they were unable to secure hippo regius either by force or by surrender, and since at the same time they were being pressed by hunger, they raised the siege. and a little later boniface and the romans in libya, since a numerous army had come from both rome and byzantium and aspar with them as general, decided to renew the struggle, and a fierce battle was fought in which they were badly beaten by the enemy, and they made haste to flee as each one could. and aspar betook himself homeward, and boniface, coming before placidia, acquitted himself of the suspicion, showing that it had arisen against him for no true cause. iv so the vandals, having wrested libya from the romans in this way, made it their own. and those of the enemy whom they took alive they reduced to slavery and held under guard. among these happened to be marcian, who later upon the death of theodosius assumed the imperial power. at that time, however, gizeric commanded that the captives be brought into the king's courtyard, in order that it might be possible for him, by looking at them, to know what master each of them might serve without degradation. and when they were gathered under the open sky, about midday, the season being summer, they were distressed by the sun and sat down. and somewhere or other among them marcian, quite neglected, was sleeping. then an eagle flew over him spreading out his wings, as they say, and always remaining in the same place in the air he cast a shadow over marcian alone. and gizeric, upon seeing from the upper storey what was happening, since he was an exceedingly discerning person, suspected that the thing was a divine manifestation, and summoning the man enquired of him who he might be. and he replied that he was a confidential adviser of aspar; such a person the romans call a "domesticus" in their own tongue. and when gizeric heard this and considered first the meaning of the bird's action, and then remembered how great power aspar exercised in byzantium, it became evident to him that the man was being led to royal power. he therefore by no means deemed it right to kill him, reasoning that, if he should remove him from the world, it would be very clear that the thing which the bird had done was nothing (for he would not honour with his shadow a king who was about to die straightway), and he felt, too, that he would be killing him for no good cause; and if, on the other hand, it was fated that in later times the man should become king, it would never be within his power to inflict death upon him; for that which has been decided upon by god could never be prevented by a man's decision. but he bound marcian by oaths that, if it should be in his power, he would never take up arms against the vandals at least. [ a.d.] thus, then, marcian was released and came to byzantium, and when at a later time theodosius died he received the empire. and in all other respects he proved himself a good emperor, but he paid no attention at all to affairs in libya. but this happened in later times. at that time gizeric, after conquering aspar and boniface in battle, displayed a foresight worth recounting, whereby he made his good fortune most thoroughly secure. for fearing lest, if once again an army should come against him from both rome and byzantium, the vandals might not be able to use the same strength and enjoy the same fortune, (since human affairs are wont to be overturned by heaven and to fail by reason of the weakness of men's bodies), he was not lifted up by the good fortune he had enjoyed, but rather became moderate because of what he feared, and so he made a treaty with the emperor valentinian providing that each year he should pay to the emperor tribute from libya, and he delivered over one of his sons, honoric, as a hostage to make this agreement binding. so gizeric both showed himself a brave man in the battle and guarded the victory as securely as possible, and, since the friendship between the two peoples increased greatly, he received back his son honoric. and at rome placidia had died before this time, and after her, valentinian, her son, also died, having no male offspring, but two daughters had been born to him from eudoxia, the child of theodosius. and i shall now relate in what manner valentinian died. there was a certain maximus, a roman senator, of the house of that maximus[ ] who, while usurping the imperial power, was overthrown by the elder theodosius and put to death, and on whose account also the romans celebrate the annual festival named from the defeat of maximus. this younger maximus was married to a woman discreet in her ways and exceedingly famous for her beauty. for this reason a desire came over valentinian to have her to wife. and since it was impossible, much as he wished it, to meet her, he plotted an unholy deed and carried it to fulfilment. for he summoned maximus to the palace and sat down with him to a game of draughts, and a certain sum was set as a penalty for the loser; and the emperor won in this game, and receiving maximus' ring as a pledge for the agreed amount, he sent it to his house, instructing the messenger to tell the wife of maximus that her husband bade her come as quickly as possible to the palace to salute the queen eudoxia. and she, judging by the ring that the message was from maximus, entered her litter and was conveyed to the emperor's court. and she was received by those who had been assigned this service by the emperor, and led into a certain room far removed from the women's apartments, where valentinian met her and forced her, much against her will. and she, after the outrage, went to her husband's house weeping and feeling the deepest possible grief because of her misfortune, and she cast many curses upon maximus as having provided the cause for what had been done. maximus, accordingly, became exceedingly aggrieved at that which had come to pass, and straightway entered into a conspiracy against the emperor; but when he saw that aetius was exceedingly powerful, for he had recently conquered attila, who had invaded the roman domain with a great army of massagetae and the other scythians, the thought occurred to him that aetius would be in the way of his undertaking. and upon considering this matter, it seemed to him that it was the better course to put aetius out of the way first, paying no heed to the fact that the whole hope of the romans centred in him. and since the eunuchs who were in attendance upon the emperor were well-disposed toward him, he persuaded the emperor by their devices that aetius was setting on foot a revolution. and valentinian, judging by nothing else than the power and valour of aetius that the report was true, put the man to death. [sept. , a.d.] whereupon a certain roman made himself famous by a saying which he uttered. for when the emperor enquired of him whether he had done well in putting aetius to death, he replied saying that, as to this matter, he was not able to know whether he had done well or perhaps otherwise, but one thing he understood exceedingly well, that he had cut off his own right hand with the other. so after the death of aetius,[ ] attila, since no one was a match for him, plundered all europe with no trouble and made both emperors subservient and tributary to himself. for tribute money was sent to him every year by the emperors. at that time, while attila was besieging aquileia, a city of great size and exceedingly populous situated near the sea and above the ionian gulf, they say that the following good fortune befell him. for they tell the story that, when he was able to capture the place neither by force nor by any other means, he gave up the siege in despair, since it had already lasted a long time, and commanded the whole army without any delay to make their preparations for the departure, in order that on the morrow all might move from there at sunrise. and the following day about sunrise, the barbarians had raised the siege and were already beginning the departure, when a single male stork which had a nest on a certain tower of the city wall and was rearing his nestlings there suddenly rose and left the place with his young. and the father stork was flying, but the little storks, since they were not yet quite ready to fly, were at times sharing their father's flight and at times riding upon his back, and thus they flew off and went far away from the city. and when attila saw this (for he was most clever at comprehending and interpreting all things), he commanded the army, they say, to remain still in the same place, adding that the bird would never have gone flying off at random from there with his nestlings, unless he was prophesying that some evil would come to the place at no distant time. thus, they say, the army of the barbarians settled down to the siege once more, and not long after that a portion of the wall--the very part which held the nest of that bird--for no apparent reason suddenly fell down, and it became possible for the enemy to enter the city at that point, and thus aquileia was captured by storm. such is the story touching aquileia. later on maximus slew the emperor with no trouble and secured the tyranny, and he married eudoxia by force. [ a.d.] for the wife to whom he had been wedded had died not long before. and on one occasion in private he made the statement to eudoxia that it was all for the sake of her love that he had carried out all that he had done. and since she felt a repulsion for maximus even before that time, and had been desirous of exacting vengeance from him for the wrong done valentinian, his words made her swell with rage still more against him, and led her on to carry out her plot, since she had heard maximus say that on account of her the misfortune had befallen her husband. and as soon as day came, she sent to carthage entreating gizeric to avenge valentinian, who had been destroyed by an unholy man, in a manner unworthy both of himself and of his imperial station, and to deliver her, since she was suffering unholy treatment at the hand of the tyrant. and she impressed it upon gizeric that, since he was a friend and ally and so great a calamity had befallen the imperial house, it was not a holy thing to fail to become an avenger. for from byzantium she thought no vengeance would come, since theodosius had already departed from the world and marcian had taken over the empire. [mar. , a.d.] v and gizeric, for no other reason than that he suspected that much money would come to him, set sail for italy with a great fleet. and going up to rome, since no one stood in his way, he took possession of the palace. now while maximus was trying to flee, the romans threw stones at him and killed him, and they cut off his head and each of his other members and divided them among themselves. but gizeric took eudoxia captive, together with eudocia and placidia, the children of herself and valentinian, and placing an exceedingly great amount of gold and other imperial treasure[ ] in his ships sailed to carthage, having spared neither bronze nor anything else whatsoever in the palace. he plundered also the temple of jupiter capitolinus, and tore off half of the roof. now this roof was of bronze of the finest quality, and since gold was laid over it exceedingly thick, it shone as a magnificent and wonderful spectacle.[ ] but of the ships with gizeric, one, which was bearing the statues, was lost, they say, but with all the others the vandals reached port in the harbour of carthage. gizeric then married eudocia to honoric, the elder of his sons; but the other of the two women, being the wife of olybrius, a most distinguished man in the roman senate, he sent to byzantium together with her mother, eudoxia, at the request of the emperor. now the power of the east had by now fallen to leon, who had been set in this position by aspar, since marcian had already passed from the world. [ a.d.] afterwards gizeric devised the following scheme. he tore down the walls of all the cities in libya except carthage, so that neither the libyans themselves, espousing the cause of the romans, might have a strong base from which to begin a rebellion, nor those sent by the emperor have any ground for hoping to capture a city and by establishing a garrison in it to make trouble for the vandals. now at that time it seemed that he had counselled well and had ensured prosperity for the vandals in the safest possible manner; but in later times when these cities, being without walls, were captured by belisarius all the more easily and with less exertion, gizeric was then condemned to suffer much ridicule, and that which for the time he considered wise counsel turned out for him to be folly. for as fortunes change, men are always accustomed to change with them their judgments regarding what has been planned in the past. and among the libyans all who happened to be men of note and conspicuous for their wealth he handed over as slaves, together with their estates and all their money, to his sons honoric and genzon. for theodorus, the youngest son, had died already, being altogether without offspring, either male or female. and he robbed the rest of the libyans of their estates, which were both very numerous and excellent, and distributed them among the nation of the vandals, and as a result of this these lands have been called "vandals' estates" up to the present time. and it fell to the lot of those who had formerly possessed these lands to be in extreme poverty and to be at the same time free men; and they had the privilege of going away wheresoever they wished. and gizeric commanded that all the lands which he had given over to his sons and to the other vandals should not be subject to any kind of taxation. but as much of the land as did not seem to him good he allowed to remain in the hands of the former owners, but assessed so large a sum to be paid on this land for taxes to the government that nothing whatever remained to those who retained their farms. and many of them were constantly being sent into exile or killed. for charges were brought against them of many sorts, and heavy ones too; but one charge seemed to be the greatest of all, that a man, having money of his own, was hiding it. thus the libyans were visited with every form of misfortune. the vandals and the alani he arranged in companies, appointing over them no less than eighty captains, whom he called "chiliarchs,"[ ] making it appear that his host of fighting men in active service amounted to eighty thousand. and yet the number of the vandals and alani was said in former times, at least, to amount to no more than fifty thousand men. however, after that time by their natural increase among themselves and by associating other barbarians with them they came to be an exceedingly numerous people. but the names of the alani and all the other barbarians, except the moors, were united in the name of vandals. at that time, after the death of valentinian, gizeric gained the support of the moors, and every year at the beginning of spring he made invasions into sicily and italy, enslaving some of the cities, razing others to the ground, and plundering everything; and when the land had become destitute of men and of money, he invaded the domain of the emperor of the east. and so he plundered illyricum and the most of the peloponnesus and of the rest of greece and all the islands which lie near it. and again he went off to sicily and italy, and kept plundering and pillaging all places in turn. and one day when he had embarked on his ship in the harbour of carthage, and the sails were already being spread, the pilot asked him, they say, against what men in the world he bade them go. and he in reply said: "plainly against those with whom god is angry." thus without any cause he kept making invasions wherever chance might lead him. vi and the emperor leon, wishing to punish the vandals because of these things, was gathering an army against them; and they say that this army amounted to about one hundred thousand men. and he collected a fleet of ships from the whole of the eastern mediterranean, shewing great generosity to both soldiers and sailors, for he feared lest from a parsimonious policy some obstacle might arise to hinder him in his desire to carry out his punishment of the barbarians. therefore, they say, thirteen hundred centenaria[ ] were expended by him to no purpose. but since it was not fated that the vandals should be destroyed by this expedition, he made basiliscus commander-in-chief, the brother of his wife berine, a man who was extraordinarily desirous of the royal power, which he hoped would come to him without a struggle if he won the friendship of aspar. for aspar himself, being an adherent of the arian faith, and having no intention of changing it for another, was unable to enter upon the imperial office, but he was easily strong enough to establish another in it, and it already seemed likely that he would plot against the emperor leon, who had given him offence. so they say that since aspar was then fearful lest, if the vandals were defeated, leon should establish his power most securely, he repeatedly urged upon basiliscus that he should spare the vandals and gizeric. [ a.d.] now before this time leon had already appointed and sent anthemius, as emperor of the west, a man of the senate of great wealth and high birth, in order that he might assist him in the vandalic war. and yet gizeric kept asking and earnestly entreating that the imperial power be given to olybrius, who was married to placidia, the daughter of valentinian, and on account of his relationship[ ] well-disposed toward him, and when he failed in this he was still more angry and kept plundering the whole land of the emperor. now there was in dalmatia a certain marcellianus, one of the acquaintances of aetius and a man of repute, who, after aetius had died in the manner told above,[ ] no longer deigned to yield obedience to the emperor, but beginning a revolution and detaching all the others from allegiance, held the power of dalmatia himself, since no one dared encounter him. but the emperor leon at that time won over this marcellianus by very careful wheedling, and bade him go to the island of sardinia, which was then subject to the vandals. and he drove out the vandals and gained possession of it with no great difficulty. and heracleius was sent from byzantium to tripolis in libya, and after conquering the vandals of that district in battle, he easily captured the cities, and leaving his ships there, led his army on foot toward carthage. such, then, was the sequence of events which formed the prelude of the war. but basiliscus with his whole fleet put in at a town distant from carthage no less than two hundred and eighty stades (now it so happened that a temple of hermes had been there from of old, from which fact the place was named mercurium; for the romans call hermes "mercurius"), and if he had not purposely played the coward and hesitated, but had undertaken to go straight for carthage, he would have captured it at the first onset, and he would have reduced the vandals to subjection without their even thinking of resistance; so overcome was gizeric with awe of leon as an invincible emperor, when the report was brought to him that sardinia and tripolis had been captured, and he saw the fleet of basiliscus to be such as the romans were said never to have had before. but, as it was, the general's hesitation, whether caused by cowardice or treachery, prevented this success. and gizeric, profiting by the negligence of basiliscus, did as follows. arming all his subjects in the best way he could, he filled his ships, but not all, for some he kept in readiness empty, and they were the ships which sailed most swiftly. and sending envoys to basiliscus, he begged him to defer the war for the space of five days, in order that in the meantime he might take counsel and do those things which were especially desired by the emperor. they say, too, that he sent also a great amount of gold without the knowledge of the army of basiliscus and thus purchased this armistice. and he did this, thinking, as actually did happen, that a favouring wind would rise for him during this time. and basiliscus, either as doing a favour to aspar in accordance with what he had promised, or selling the moment of opportunity for money, or perhaps thinking it the better course, did as he was requested and remained quietly in the camp, awaiting the moment favourable to the enemy. but the vandals, as soon as the wind had arisen for them which they had been expecting during the time they lay at rest, raised their sails and, taking in tow the boats which, as has been stated above, they had made ready with no men in them, they sailed against the enemy. and when they came near, they set fire to the boats which they were towing, when their sails were bellied by the wind, and let them go against the roman fleet. and since there were a great number of ships there, these boats easily spread fire wherever they struck, and were themselves readily destroyed together with those with which they came in contact. and as the fire advanced in this way the roman fleet was filled with tumult, as was natural, and with a great din that rivalled the noise caused by the wind and the roaring of the flames, as the soldiers together with the sailors shouted orders to one another and pushed off with their poles the fire-boats and their own ships as well, which were being destroyed by one another in complete disorder. and already the vandals too were at hand ramming and sinking the ships, and making booty of such of the soldiers as attempted to escape, and of their arms as well. but there were also some of the romans who proved themselves brave men in this struggle, and most of all john, who was a general under basiliscus and who had no share whatever in his treason. for a great throng having surrounded his ship, he stood on the deck, and turning from side to side kept killing very great numbers of the enemy from there, and when he perceived that the ship was being captured, he leaped with his whole equipment of arms from the deck into the sea. and though genzon, the son of gizeric, entreated him earnestly not to do this, offering pledges and holding out promises of safety, he nevertheless threw himself into the sea, uttering this one word, that john would never come under the hands of dogs. so this war came to an end, and heracleius departed for home; for marcellianus had been destroyed treacherously by one of his fellow-officers. and basiliscus, coming to byzantium, seated himself as a suppliant in the sanctuary of christ the great god ("sophia"[ ] the temple is called by the men of byzantium who consider that this designation is especially appropriate to god), and although, by the intercession of berine, the queen, he escaped this danger, he was not able at that time to reach the throne, the thing for the sake of which everything had been done by him. for the emperor leon not long afterwards destroyed both aspar and ardaburius in the palace, because he suspected that they were plotting against his life. [ a.d.] thus, then, did these events take place. vii [aug. , a.d.] now anthemius, the emperor of the west, died at the hand of his son-in-law rhecimer, and olybrius, succeeding to the throne, a short time afterward suffered the same fate. [oct. , a.d.] and when leon also had died in byzantium, the imperial office was taken over by the younger leon, the son of zeno and ariadne, the daughter of leon, while he was still only a few days old. and his father having been chosen as partner in the royal power, the child forthwith passed from the world. [ a.d.] majorinus also deserves mention, who had gained the power of the west before this time. for this majorinus, who surpassed in every virtue all who have ever been emperors of the romans, did not bear lightly the loss of libya, but collected a very considerable army against the vandals and came to liguria, intending himself to lead the army against the enemy. for majorinus never showed the least hesitation before any task and least of all before the dangers of war. but thinking it not inexpedient for him to investigate first the strength of the vandals and the character of gizeric and to discover how the moors and libyans stood with regard to friendship or hostility toward the romans, he decided to trust no eyes other than his own in such a matter. accordingly he set out as if an envoy from the emperor to gizeric, assuming some fictitious name. and fearing lest, by becoming known, he should himself receive some harm and at the same time prevent the success of the enterprise, he devised the following scheme. his hair, which was famous among all men as being so fair as to resemble pure gold, he anointed with some kind of dye, which was especially invented for this purpose, and so succeeded completely in changing it for the time to a dark hue. and when he came before gizeric, the barbarian attempted in many ways to terrify him, and in particular, while treating him with engaging attention, as if a friend, he brought him into the house where all his weapons were stored, a numerous and exceedingly noteworthy array. thereupon they say that the weapons shook of their own accord and gave forth a sound of no ordinary or casual sort, and then it seemed to gizeric that there had been an earthquake, but when he got outside and made enquiries concerning the earthquake, since no one else agreed with him, a great wonder, they say, came over him, but he was not able to comprehend the meaning of what had happened. so majorinus, having accomplished the very things he wished, returned to liguria, and leading his army on foot, came to the pillars of heracles, purposing to cross over the strait at that point, and then to march by land from there against carthage. and when gizeric became aware of this, and perceived that he had been tricked by majorinus in the matter of the embassy, he became alarmed and made his preparations for war. and the romans, basing their confidence on the valour of majorinus, already began to have fair hopes of recovering libya for the empire. [ a.d.] but meantime majorinus was attacked by the disease of dysentery and died, a man who had shewn himself moderate toward his subjects, and an object of fear to his enemies. [july , a.d.] and another emperor, nepos, upon taking over the empire, and living to enjoy it only a few days, died of disease, and glycerius after him entered into this office and suffered a similar fate. [ - a.d.] and after him augustus assumed the imperial power. there were, moreover, still other emperors in the west before this time, but though i know their names well, i shall make no mention of them whatever. for it so fell out that they lived only a short time after attaining the office, and as a result of this accomplished nothing worthy of mention. such was the course of events in the west. but in byzantium basiliscus, being no longer able to master his passion for royal power, made an attempt to usurp the throne, and succeeded without difficulty, since zeno, together with his wife, sought refuge in isauria, which was his native home. [ a.d.] and while he was maintaining his tyranny for a year and eight months he was detested by practically everyone and in particular by the soldiers of the court on account of the greatness of his avarice. and zeno, perceiving this, collected an army and came against him. and basiliscus sent an army under the general harmatus in order to array himself against zeno. but when they had made camp near one another, harmatus surrendered his army to zeno, on the condition that zeno should appoint as caesar harmatus' son basiliscus, who was a very young child, and leave him as successor to the throne upon his death. and basiliscus, deserted by all, fled for refuge to the same sanctuary as formerly. and acacius, the priest of the city, put him into the hands of zeno, charging him with impiety and with having brought great confusion and many innovations into the christian doctrine, having inclined toward the heresy of eutyches. and this was so. and after zeno had thus taken over the empire a second time, he carried out his pledge to harmatus formally by appointing his son basiliscus caesar, but not long afterwards he both stripped him of the office and put harmatus to death. and he sent basiliscus together with his children and his wife into cappadocia in the winter season, commanding that they should be destitute of food and clothes and every kind of care. and there, being hard pressed by both cold and hunger, they took refuge in one another's arms, and embracing their loved ones, perished. and this punishment overtook basiliscus for the policy he had pursued. these things, however, happened in later times. but at that time gizeric was plundering the whole roman domain just as much as before, if not more, circumventing his enemy by craft and driving them out of their possessions by force, as has been previously said, and he continued to do so until the emperor zeno came to an agreement with him and an endless peace was established between them, by which it was provided that the vandals should never in all time perform any hostile act against the romans nor suffer such a thing at their hands. and this peace was preserved by zeno himself and also by his successor in the empire, anastasius and it remained in force until the time of the emperor justinus. but justinian, who was the nephew of justinus, succeeded him in the imperial power, and it was in the reign of this justinian that the war with which we are concerned came to pass, in the manner which will be told in the following narrative. [ a.d.] gizeric, after living on a short time, died at an advanced age, having made a will in which he enjoined many things upon the vandals and in particular that the royal power among them should always fall to that one who should be the first in years among all the male offspring descended from gizeric himself. so gizeric, having ruled over the vandals thirty-nine years from the time when he captured carthage, died, as i have said. viii and honoric, the eldest of his sons, succeeded to the throne, genzon having already departed from the world. during the time when this honoric ruled the vandals they had no war against anyone at all, except the moors. for through fear of gizeric the moors had remained quiet before that time, but as soon as he was out of their way they both did much harm to the vandals and suffered the same themselves. and honoric shewed himself the most cruel and unjust of all men toward the christians in libya. for he forced them to change over to the arian faith, and as many as he found not readily yielding to him he burned, or destroyed by other forms of death; and he also cut off the tongues of many from the very throat, who even up to my time were going about in byzantium having their speech uninjured, and perceiving not the least effect from this punishment; but two of these, since they saw fit to go in to harlots, were thenceforth no longer able to speak. and after ruling over the vandals eight years he died of disease; and by that time the moors dwelling on mt. aurasium[ ] had revolted from the vandals and were independent (this aurasium is a mountain of numidia, about thirteen days' journey distant from carthage and fronting the south); and indeed they never came under the vandals again, since the latter were unable to carry on a war against moors on a mountain difficult of access and exceedingly steep. after the death of honoric the rule of the vandals fell to gundamundus, the son of genzon, the son of gizeric. [ a.d.] for he, in point of years, was the first of the offspring of gizeric. this gundamundus fought against the moors in numerous encounters, and after subjecting the christians to still greater suffering, he died of disease, being now at about the middle of the twelfth year of his reign. [ a.d.] and his brother trasamundus took over the kingdom, a man well-favoured in appearance and especially gifted with discretion and highmindedness. however he continued to force the christians to change their ancestral faith, not by torturing their bodies as his predecessors had done, but by seeking to win them with honours and offices and presenting them with great sums of money; and in the case of those who would not be persuaded, he pretended he had not the least knowledge of what manner of men they were.[ ] and if he caught any guilty of great crimes which they had committed either by accident or deliberate intent, he would offer such men, as a reward for changing their faith, that they should not be punished for their offences. and when his wife died without becoming the mother of either male or female offspring, wishing to establish the kingdom as securely as possible, he sent to theoderic, the king of the goths, asking him to give him his sister amalafrida to wife, for her husband had just died. and theoderic sent him not only his sister but also a thousand of the notable goths as a bodyguard, who were followed by a host of attendants amounting to about five thousand fighting men. and theoderic also presented his sister with one of the promontories of sicily, which are three in number,--the one which they call lilybaeum,--and as a result of this trasamundus was accounted the strongest and most powerful of all those who had ruled over the vandals. he became also a very special friend of the emperor anastasius. it was during the reign of trasamundus that it came about that the vandals suffered a disaster at the hands of the moors such as had never befallen them before that time. there was a certain cabaon ruling over the moors of tripolis, a man experienced in many wars and exceedingly shrewd. this cabaon, upon learning that the vandals were marching against him, did as follows. first of all he issued orders to his subjects to abstain from all injustice and from all foods tending towards luxury and most of all from association with women; and setting up two palisaded enclosures, he encamped himself with all the men in one, and in the other he shut the women, and he threatened that death would be the penalty if anyone should go to the women's palisade. and after this he sent spies to carthage with the following instructions: whenever the vandals in going forth on the expedition should offer insult to any temple which the christians reverence, they were to look on and see what took place; and when the vandals had passed the place, they were to do the opposite of everything which the vandals had done to the sanctuary before their departure. and they say that he added this also, that he was ignorant of the god whom the christians worshipped, but it was probable that if he was powerful, as he was said to be, he should wreak vengeance upon those who insulted him and defend those who honoured him. so the spies came to carthage and waited quietly, observing the preparation of the vandals; but when the army set out on the march to tripolis, they followed, clothing themselves in humble garb. and the vandals, upon making camp the first day, led their horses and their other animals into the temples of the christians, and sparing no insult, they acted with all the unrestrained lawlessness natural to them, beating as many priests as they caught and lashing them with many blows over the back and commanding them to render such service to the vandals as they were accustomed to assign to the most dishonoured of their domestics. and as soon as they had departed from there, the spies of cabaon did as they had been directed to do; for they straightway cleansed the sanctuaries and took away with great care the filth and whatever other unholy thing lay in them, and they lighted all the lamps and bowed down before the priests with great reverence and saluted them with all friendliness; and after giving pieces of silver to the poor who sat about these sanctuaries, they then followed after the army of the vandals. and from then on along the whole route the vandals continued to commit the same offences and the spies to render the same service. and when they were coming near the moors, the spies anticipated them and reported to cabaon what had been done by the vandals and by themselves to the temples of the christians, and that the enemy were somewhere near by. and cabaon, upon learning this, arranged for the encounter as follows. he marked off a circle in the plain where he was about to make his palisade, and placed his camels turned sideways in a circle as a protection for the camp, making his line fronting the enemy about twelve camels deep. then he placed the children and the women and all those who were unfit for fighting together with their possessions in the middle, while he commanded the host of fighting men to stand between the feet of those animals, covering themselves with their shields.[ ] and since the phalanx of the moors was of such a sort, the vandals were at a loss how to handle the situation; for they were neither good with the javelin nor with the bow, nor did they know how to go into battle on foot, but they were all horsemen, and used spears and swords for the most part, so that they were unable to do the enemy any harm at a distance; and their horses, annoyed at the sight of the camels, refused absolutely to be driven against the enemy. and since the moors, by hurling javelins in great numbers among them from their safe position, kept killing both their horses and men without difficulty, because they were a vast throng, they began to flee, and, when the moors came out against them, the most of them were destroyed, while some fell into the hands of the enemy; and an exceedingly small number from this army returned home. such was the fortune which trasamundus suffered at the hands of the moors. and he died at a later time, having ruled over the moors twenty-seven years. ix [ a.d.] and ilderic, the son of honoric, the son of gizeric, next received the kingdom, a ruler who was easily approached by his subjects and altogether gentle, and he shewed himself harsh neither to the christians nor to anyone else, but in regard to affairs of war he was a weakling and did not wish this thing even to come to his ears. hoamer, accordingly, his nephew and an able warrior, led the armies against any with whom the vandals were at war; he it was whom they called the achilles of the vandals. during the reign of this ilderic the vandals were defeated in byzacium by the moors, who were ruled by antalas, and it so fell out that they became enemies instead of allies and friends to theoderic and the goths in italy. for they put amalafrida in prison and destroyed all the goths, charging them with revolutionary designs against the vandals and ilderic. however, no revenge came from theoderic, for he considered himself unable to gather a great fleet and make an expedition into libya, and ilderic was a very particular friend and guest-friend of justinian, who had not yet come to the throne, but was administering the government according to his pleasure; for his uncle justinus, who was emperor, was very old and not altogether experienced in matters of state. and ilderic and justinian made large presents of money to each other. now there was a certain man in the family of gizeric, gelimer, the son of geilaris, the son of genzon, the son of gizeric, who was of such age as to be second only to ilderic, and for this reason he was expected to come into the kingdom very soon. this man was thought to be the best warrior of his time, but for the rest he was a cunning fellow and base at heart and well versed in undertaking revolutionary enterprises and in laying hold upon the money of others. now this gelimer, when he saw the power coming to him, was not able to live in his accustomed way, but assumed to himself the tasks of a king and usurped the rule, though it was not yet due him; and since ilderic in a spirit of friendliness gave in to him, he was no longer able to restrain his thoughts, but allying with himself all the noblest of the vandals, he persuaded them to wrest the kingdom from ilderic, as being an unwarlike king who had been defeated by the moors, and as betraying the power of the vandals into the hand of the emperor justinus, in order that the kingdom might not come to him, because he was of the other branch of the family; for he asserted slanderously that this was the meaning of ilderic's embassy to byzantium, and that he was giving over the empire of the vandals to justinus. and they, being persuaded, carried out this plan. [ a.d.] thus gelimer seized the supreme power, and imprisoned ilderic, after he had ruled over the vandals seven years, and also hoamer and his brother euagees. [ a.d.] but when justinian heard these things, having already received the imperial power, he sent envoys to gelimer in libya with the following letter: "you are not acting in a holy manner nor worthily of the will of gizeric, keeping in prison an old man and a kinsman and the king of the vandals (if the counsels of gizeric are to be of effect), and robbing him of his office by violence, though it would be possible for you to receive it after a short time in a lawful manner. do you therefore do no further wrong and do not exchange the name of king for the title of tyrant, which comes but a short time earlier. but as for this man, whose death may be expected at any moment, allow him to bear in appearance the form of royal power, while you do all the things which it is proper that a king should do; and wait until you can receive from time and the law of gizeric, and from them alone, the name which belongs to the position. for if you do this, the attitude of the almighty will be favourable and at the same time our relations with you will be friendly." such was his message. but gelimer sent the envoys away with nothing accomplished, and he blinded hoamer and also kept ilderic and euagees in closer confinement, charging them with planning flight to byzantium. and when this too was heard by the emperor justinian, he sent envoys a second time and wrote as follows: "we, indeed, supposed that you would never go contrary to our advice when we wrote you the former letter. but since it pleases you to have secured possession of the royal power in the manner in which you have taken and now hold it, get from it whatever heaven grants. but do you send to us ilderic, and hoamer whom you have blinded, and his brother, to receive what comfort they can who have been robbed of a kingdom or of sight; for we shall not let the matter rest if you do not do this. and i speak thus because we are led by the hope which i had based on our friendship. and the treaty with gizeric will not stand as an obstacle for us. for it is not to make war upon him who has succeeded to the kingdom of gizeric that we come, but to avenge gizeric with all our power." when gelimer had read this, he replied as follows: "king gelimer to the emperor justinian. neither have i taken the office by violence nor has anything unholy been done by me to my kinsmen. for ilderic, while planning a revolution against the house of gizeric, was dethroned by the nation of the vandals; and i was called to the kingdom by my years, which gave me the preference, according to the law at least. now it is well for one to administer the kingly office which belongs to him and not to make the concerns of others his own. hence for you also, who have a kingdom, meddling in other's affairs is not just; and if you break the treaty and come against us, we shall oppose you with all our power, calling to witness the oaths which were sworn by zeno, from whom you have received the kingdom which you hold." the emperor justinian, upon receiving this letter, having been angry with gelimer even before then, was still more eager to punish him. and it seemed to him best to put an end to the persian war as soon as possible and then to make an expedition to libya; and since he was quick at forming a plan and prompt in carrying out his decisions, belisarius, the general of the east, was summoned and came to him immediately, no announcement having been made to him nor to anyone else that he was about to lead an army against libya, but it was given out that he had been removed from the office which he held. and straightway the treaty with persia was made, as has been told in the preceding narrative.[ ] x and when the emperor justinian considered that the situation was as favourable as possible, both as to domestic affairs and as to his relations with persia, he took under consideration the situation in libya. but when he disclosed to the magistrates that he was gathering an army against the vandals and gelimer, the most of them began immediately to show hostility to the plan, and they lamented it as a misfortune, recalling the expedition of the emperor leon and the disaster of basiliscus, and reciting how many soldiers had perished and how much money the state had lost. but the men who were the most sorrowful of all, and who, by reason of their anxiety, felt the keenest regret, were the pretorian prefect, whom the romans call "praetor," and the administrator of the treasury, and all to whom had been assigned the collection of either public or imperial[ ] taxes, for they reasoned that while it would be necessary for them to produce countless sums for the needs of the war, they would be granted neither pardon in case of failure nor extension of time in which to raise these sums. and every one of the generals, supposing that he himself would command the army, was in terror and dread at the greatness of the danger, if it should be necessary for him, if he were preserved from the perils of the sea, to encamp in the enemy's land, and, using his ships as a base, to engage in a struggle against a kingdom both large and formidable. the soldiers, also, having recently returned from a long, hard war, and having not yet tasted to the full the blessings of home, were in despair, both because they were being led into sea-fighting,--a thing which they had not learned even from tradition before then,--and because they were sent from the eastern frontier to the west, in order to risk their lives against vandals and moors. but all the rest, as usually happens in a great throng, wished to be spectators of new adventures while others faced the dangers. but as for saying anything to the emperor to prevent the expedition, no one dared to do this except john the cappadocian, the pretorian prefect, a man of the greatest daring and the cleverest of all men of his time. for this john, while all the others were bewailing in silence the fortune which was upon them, came before the emperor and spoke as follows: "o emperor, the good faith which thou dost shew in dealing with thy subjects enables us to speak frankly regarding anything which will be of advantage to thy government, even though what is said and done may not be agreeable to thee. for thus does thy wisdom temper thy authority with justice, in that thou dost not consider that man only as loyal to thy cause who serves thee under any and all conditions, nor art thou angry with the man who speaks against thee, but by weighing all things by pure reason alone, thou hast often shewn that it involves us in no danger to oppose thy purposes. led by these considerations, o emperor, i have come to offer this advice, knowing that, though i shall give perhaps offence at the moment, if it so chance, yet in the future the loyalty which i bear you will be made clear, and that for this i shall be able to shew thee as a witness. for if, through not hearkening to my words, thou shalt carry out the war against the vandals, it will come about, if the struggle is prolonged for thee, that my advice will win renown. for if thou hast confidence that thou wilt conquer the enemy, it is not at all unreasonable that thou shouldst sacrifice the lives of men and expend a vast amount of treasure, and undergo the difficulties of the struggle; for victory, coming at the end, covers up all the calamities of war. but if in reality these things lie on the knees of god, and if it behoves us, taking example from what has happened in the past, to fear the outcome of war, on what grounds is it not better to love a state of quiet rather than the dangers of mortal strife? thou art purposing to make an expedition against carthage, to which, if one goes by land, the journey is one of a hundred and forty days, and if one goes by water, he is forced to cross the whole open sea and go to its very end. so that he who brings thee news of what will happen in the camp must needs reach thee a year after the event. and one might add that if thou art victorious over thy enemy, thou couldst not take possession of libya while sicily and italy lie in the hands of others; and at the same time, if any reverse befall thee, o emperor, the treaty having already been broken by thee, thou wilt bring the danger upon our own land. in fact, putting all in a word, it will not be possible for thee to reap the fruits of victory, and at the same time any reversal of fortune will bring harm to what is well established. it is before an enterprise that wise planning is useful. for when men have failed, repentance is of no avail, but before disaster comes there is no danger in altering plans. therefore it will be of advantage above all else to make fitting use of the decisive moment." thus spoke john; and the emperor justinian, hearkening to his words, checked his eager desire for the war. but one of the priests whom they call bishops, who had come from the east, said that he wished to have a word with the emperor. and when he met justinian, he said that god had visited him in a dream, and bidden him go to the emperor and rebuke him, because, after undertaking the task of protecting the christians in libya from tyrants, he had for no good reason become afraid. "and yet," he had said, "i will myself join with him in waging war and make him lord of libya." when the emperor heard this, he was no longer able to restrain his purpose, and he began to collect the army and the ships, and to make ready supplies of weapons and of food, and he announced to belisarius that he should be in readiness, because he was very soon to act as general in libya. meanwhile pudentius, one of the natives of tripolis in libya, caused this district to revolt from the vandals, and sending to the emperor he begged that he should despatch an army to him; for, he said, he would with no trouble win the land for the emperor. and justinian sent him tattimuth and an army of no very great size. this force pudentius joined with his own troops and, the vandals being absent, he gained possession of the land and made it subject to the emperor. and gelimer, though wishing to inflict punishment upon pudentius, found the following obstacle in his way. there was a certain godas among the slaves of gelimer, a goth by birth, a passionate and energetic fellow possessed of great bodily strength, but appearing to be well-disposed to the cause of his master. to this godas gelimer entrusted the island of sardinia, in order both to guard the island and to pay over the annual tribute. but he neither could digest the prosperity brought by fortune nor had he the spirit to endure it, and so he undertook to establish a tyranny, and he refused to continue the payment of the tribute, and actually detached the island from the vandals and held it himself. and when he perceived that the emperor justinian was eager to make war against libya and gelimer, he wrote to him as follows: "it was neither because i yielded to folly nor because i had suffered anything unpleasant at my master's hands that i turned my thoughts towards rebellion, but seeing the extreme cruelty of the man both toward his kinsmen and toward his subjects, i could not, willingly at least, be reputed to have a share in his inhumanity. for it is better to serve a just king than a tyrant whose commands are unlawful. but do thou join with me to assist in this my effort and send soldiers so that i may be able to ward off my assailants." and the emperor, on receiving this letter, was pleased, and he sent eulogius as envoy and wrote a letter praising godas for his wisdom and his zeal for justice, and he promised an alliance and soldiers and a general, who would be able to guard the island with him and to assist him in every other way, so that no trouble should come to him from the vandals. but eulogius, upon coming to sardinia, found that godas was assuming the name and wearing the dress of a king and that he had attached a body-guard to his person. and when godas read the emperor's letter, he said that it was his wish to have soldiers, indeed, come to fight along with him, but as for a commander, he had absolutely no desire for one. and having written to the emperor in this sense, he dismissed eulogius. xi the emperor, meanwhile, not having yet ascertained these things, was preparing four hundred soldiers with cyril as commander, who were to assist godas in guarding the island. and with them he also had in readiness the expedition against carthage, ten thousand foot-soldiers, and five thousand horsemen, gathered from the regular troops and from the "foederati." now at an earlier time only barbarians were enlisted among the foederati, those, namely, who had come into the roman political system, not in the condition of slaves, since they had not been conquered by the romans, but on the basis of complete equality.[ ] for the romans call treaties with their enemies "foedera." but at the present time there is nothing to prevent anyone from assuming this name, since time will by no means consent to keep names attached to the things to which they were formerly applied, but conditions are ever changing about according to the desire of men who control them, and men pay little heed to the meaning which they originally attached to a name. and the commanders of the foederati were dorotheus, the general of the troops in armenia, and solomon, who was acting as manager for the general belisarius; (such a person the romans call "domesticus." now this solomon was a eunuch, but it was not by the devising of man that he had suffered mutilation, but some accident which befell him while in swaddling clothes had imposed this lot upon him); and there were also cyprian, valerian, martinus, althias, john, marcellus, and the cyril whom i have mentioned above; and the commanders of the regular cavalry were rufinus and aïgan, who were of the house of belisarius, and barbatus and pappus, while the regular infantry was commanded by theodorus, who was surnamed cteanus, and terentius, zaïdus, marcian, and sarapis. and a certain john, a native of epidamnus, which is now called dyrrachium, held supreme command over all the leaders of infantry. among all these commanders solomon was from a place in the east, at the very extremity of the roman domain, where the city called daras now stands, and aïgan was by birth of the massagetae whom they now call huns; and the rest were almost all inhabitants of the land of thrace. and there followed with them also four hundred eruli, whom pharas led, and about six hundred barbarian allies from the nation of the massagetae, all mounted bowmen; these were led by sinnion and balas, men endowed with bravery and endurance in the highest degree. and for the whole force five hundred ships were required, no one of which was able to carry more than fifty thousand medimni,[ ] nor any one less than three thousand. and in all the vessels together there were thirty thousand sailors, egyptians and ionians for the most part, and cilicians, and one commander was appointed over all the ships, calonymus of alexandria. and they had also ships of war prepared as for sea-fighting, to the number of ninety-two, and they were single-banked ships covered by decks, in order that the men rowing them might if possible not be exposed to the bolts of the enemy. such boats are called "dromones"[ ] by those of the present time; for they are able to attain a great speed. in these sailed two thousand men of byzantium, who were all rowers as well as fighting men; for there was not a single superfluous man among them. and archelaus was also sent, a man of patrician standing who had already been pretorian prefect both in byzantium and in illyricum, but he then held the position of prefect of the army; for thus the officer charged with the maintenance of the army is designated. but as general with supreme authority over all the emperor sent belisarius, who was in command of the troops of the east for the second time. and he was followed by many spearmen and many guards as well, men who were capable warriors and thoroughly experienced in the dangers of fighting. and the emperor gave him written instructions, bidding him do everything as seemed best to him, and stating that his acts would be final, as if the emperor himself had done them. the writing, in fact, gave him the power of a king. now belisarius was a native of germania, which lies between thrace and illyricum. these things, then, took place in this way. gelimer, however, being deprived of tripolis by pudentius and of sardinia by godas, scarcely hoped to regain tripolis, since it was situated at a great distance and the rebels were already being assisted by the romans, against whom just at that moment it seemed to him best not to take the field; but he was eager to get to the island before any army sent by the emperor to fight for his enemies should arrive there. he accordingly selected five thousand of the vandals and one hundred and twenty ships of the fastest kind, and appointing as general his brother tzazon, he sent them off. and so they were sailing with great enthusiasm and eagerness against godas and sardinia. in the meantime the emperor justinian was sending off valerian and martinus in advance of the others in order to await the rest of the army in the peloponnesus. and when these two had embarked upon their ships, it came to the emperor's mind that there was something which he wished to enjoin upon them,--a thing which he had wished to say previously, but he had been so busied with the other matters of which he had to speak that his mind had been occupied with them and this subject had been driven out. he summoned them, accordingly, intending to say what he wished, but upon considering the matter, he saw that it would not be propitious for them to interrupt their journey. he therefore sent men to forbid them either to return to him or to disembark from their ships. and these men, upon coming near the ships, commanded them with much shouting and loud cries by no means to turn back, and it seemed to those present that the thing which had happened was no good omen and that never would one of the men in those ships return from libya to byzantium. for besides the omen they suspected that a curse also had come to the men from the emperor, not at all by his own will, so that they would not return. now if anyone should so interpret the incident with regard to these two commanders, valerian and martinus, he will find the original opinion untrue. but there was a certain man among the body-guards of martinus, stotzas by name, who was destined to be an enemy of the emperor, to make an attempt to set up a tyranny, and by no means to return to byzantium, and one might suppose that curse to have been turned upon him by heaven. but whether this matter stands thus or otherwise, i leave to each one to reason out as he wishes. but i shall proceed to tell how the general belisarius and the army departed. xii [ a.d.] in the seventh year of justinian's reign, at about the spring equinox, the emperor commanded the general's ship to anchor off the point which is before the royal palace. thither came also epiphanius, the chief priest of the city, and after uttering an appropriate prayer, he put on the ships one of the soldiers who had lately been baptized and had taken the christian name. and after this the general belisarius and antonina, his wife, set sail. and there was with them also procopius, who wrote this history; now previously he had been exceedingly terrified at the danger, but later he had seen a vision in his sleep which caused him to take courage and made him eager to go on the expedition. for it seemed in the dream that he was in the house of belisarius, and one of the servants entering announced that some men had come bearing gifts; and belisarius bade him investigate what sort of gifts they were, and he went out into the court and saw men who carried on their shoulders earth with the flowers and all. and he bade him bring these men into the house and deposit the earth they were carrying in the portico; and belisarius together with his guardsmen came there, and he himself reclined on that earth and ate of the flowers, and urged the others to do likewise; and as they reclined and ate, as if upon a couch, the food seemed to them exceedingly sweet. such, then, was the vision of the dream. and the whole fleet followed the general's ship, and they put in at perinthus, which is now called heracleia,[ ] where five days' time was spent by the army, since at that place the general received as a present from the emperor an exceedingly great number of horses from the royal pastures, which are kept for him in the territory of thrace. and setting sail from there, they anchored off abydus, and it came about as they were delaying there four days on account of the lack of wind that the following event took place. two massagetae killed one of their comrades who was ridiculing them, in the midst of their intemperate drinking; for they were intoxicated. for of all men the massagetae are the most intemperate drinkers. belisarius, accordingly, straightway impaled these two men on the hill which is near abydus. and since all, and especially the relatives of these two men, were angry and declared that it was not in order to be punished nor to be subject to the laws of the romans that they had entered into an alliance (for their own laws did not make the punishment for murder such _as_ this, they said); and since they were joined in voicing the accusation against the general even by roman soldiers, who were anxious that there should be no punishment for their offences, belisarius called together both the massagetae and the rest of the army and spoke as follows: "if my words were addressed to men now for the first time entering into war, it would require a long time for me to convince you by speech how great a help justice is for gaining the victory. for those who do not understand the fortunes of such struggles think that the outcome of war lies in strength of arm alone. but you, who have often conquered an enemy not inferior to you in strength of body and well endowed with valour, you who have often tried your strength against your opponents, you, i think, are not ignorant that, while it is men who always do the fighting in either army, it is god who judges the contest as seems best to him and bestows the victory in battle. now since this is so, it is fitting to consider good bodily condition and practice in arms and all the other provision for war of less account than justice and those things which pertain to god. for that which may possibly be of greatest advantage to men in need would naturally be honoured by them above all other things. now the first proof of justice would be the punishment of those who have committed unjust murder. for if it is incumbent upon us to sit in judgment upon the actions which from time to time are committed by men toward their neighbours, and to adjudge and to name the just and the unjust action, we should find that nothing is more precious to a man than his life. and if any barbarian who has slain his kinsman expects to find indulgence in his trial on the ground that he was drunk, in all fairness he makes the charge so much the worse by reason of the very circumstance by which, as he alleges, his guilt is removed. for it is not right for a man under any circumstances, and especially when serving in an army, to be so drunk as readily to kill his dearest friends; nay, the drunkenness itself, even if the murder is not added at all, is worthy of punishment; and when a kinsman is wronged, the crime would clearly be of greater moment as regards punishment than when committed against those who are not kinsmen, at least in the eyes of men of sense. now the example is before you and you may see what sort of an outcome such actions have. but as for you, it is your duty to avoid laying violent hands upon anyone without provocation, or carrying off the possessions of others; for i shall not overlook it, be assured, and i shall not consider anyone of you a fellow-soldier of mine, no matter how terrible he is reputed to be to the foe, who is not able to use clean hands against the enemy. for bravery cannot be victorious unless it be arrayed along with justice." so spoke belisarius. and the whole army, hearing what was said and looking up at the two men impaled, felt an overwhelming fear come over them and took thought to conduct their lives with moderation, for they saw that they would not be free from great danger if they should be caught doing anything unlawful. xiii after this belisarius bethought him how his whole fleet should always keep together as it sailed and should anchor in the same place. for he knew that in a large fleet, and especially if rough winds should assail them, it was inevitable that many of the ships should be left behind and scattered on the open sea, and that their pilots should not know which of the ships that put to sea ahead of them it was better to follow. so after considering the matter, he did as follows. the sails of the three ships in which he and his following were carried he painted red from the upper corner for about one third of their length, and he erected upright poles on the prow of each, and hung lights from them, so that both by day and by night the general's ships might be distinguishable; then he commanded all the pilots to follow these ships. thus with the three ships leading the whole fleet not a single ship was left behind. and whenever they were about to put out from a harbour, the trumpets announced this to them. and upon setting out from abydus they met with strong winds which carried them to sigeum. and again in calm weather they proceeded more leisurely to malea, where the calm proved of the greatest advantage to them. for since they had a great fleet and exceedingly large ships, as night came on everything was thrown into confusion by reason of their being crowded into small space, and they were brought into extreme peril. at that time both the pilots and the rest of the sailors shewed themselves skilful and efficient, for while shouting at the top of their voices and making a great noise they kept pushing the ships apart with their poles, and cleverly kept the distances between their different vessels; but if a wind had arisen, whether a following or a head wind, it seems to me that the sailors would hardly have preserved themselves and their ships. but as it was, they escaped, as i have said, and put in at taenarum, which is now called caenopolis.[ ] then, pressing on from there, they touched at methone, and found valerian and martinus with their men, who had reached the same place a short time before. and since there were no winds blowing, belisarius anchored the ships there, and disembarked the whole army; and after they were on shore he assigned the commanders their positions and drew up the soldiers. and while he was thus engaged and no wind at all arose, it came about that many of the soldiers were destroyed by disease caused in the following manner. the pretorian prefect, john, was a man of worthless character, and so skilful at devising ways of bringing money into the public treasury to the detriment of men that i, for my part, should never be competent to describe this trait of his. but this has been said in the preceding pages, when i was brought to this point by my narrative.[ ] but i shall tell in the present case in what manner he destroyed the soldiers. the bread which soldiers are destined to eat in camp must of necessity be put twice into the oven, and be cooked so carefully as to last for a very long period and not spoil in a short time, and loaves cooked in this way necessarily weigh less; and for this reason, when such bread is distributed, the soldiers generally received as their portion one-fourth more than the usual weight.[ ] john, therefore, calculating how he might reduce the amount of firewood used and have less to pay to the bakers in wages, and also how he might not lose in the weight of the bread, brought the still uncooked dough to the public baths of achilles, in the basement of which the fire is kept burning, and bade his men set it down there. and when it seemed to be cooked in some fashion or other, he threw it into bags, put it on the ships, and sent it off. and when the fleet arrived at methone, the loaves disintegrated and returned again to flour, not wholesome flour, however, but rotten and becoming mouldy and already giving out a sort of oppressive odour. and the loaves were dispensed by measure[ ] to the soldiers by those to whom this office was assigned, and they were already making the distribution of the bread by quarts and bushels. and the soldiers, feeding upon this in the summer time in a place where the climate is very hot, became sick, and not less than five hundred of them died; and the same thing was about to happen to more, but belisarius prevented it by ordering the bread of the country to be furnished them. and reporting the matter to the emperor, he himself gained in favour, but he did not at that time bring any punishment upon john. these events, then, took place in the manner described. and setting out from methone they reached the harbour of zacynthus, where they took in enough water to last them in crossing the adriatic sea, and after making all their other preparations, sailed on. but since the wind they had was very gentle and languid, it was only on the sixteenth day that they came to land at a deserted place in sicily near which mount aetna rises. and while they were being delayed in this passage, as has been said, it so happened that the water of the whole fleet was spoiled, except that which belisarius himself and his table-companions were drinking. for this alone was preserved by the wife of belisarius in the following manner. she filled with water jars made of glass and constructed a small room with planks in the hold of the ship where it was impossible for the sun to penetrate, and there she sank the jars in sand, and by this means the water remained unaffected. so much, then, for this. xiv and as soon as belisarius had disembarked upon the island, he began to feel restless, knowing not how to proceed, and his mind was tormented by the thought that he did not know what sort of men the vandals were against whom he was going, and how strong they were in war, or in what manner the romans would have to wage the war, or what place would be their base of operations. but most of all he was disturbed by the soldiers, who were in mortal dread of sea-fighting and had no shame in saying beforehand that, if they should be disembarked on the land, they would try to show themselves brave men in the battle, but if hostile ships assailed them, they would turn to flight; for, they said, they were not able to contend against two enemies at once, both men and water. being at a loss, therefore, because of all these things, he sent procopius, his adviser, to syracuse, to find out whether the enemy had any ships in ambush keeping watch over the passage across the sea, either on the island or on the continent, and where it would be best for them to anchor in libya, and from what point as base it would be advantageous for them to start in carrying on the war against the vandals. and he bade him, when he should have accomplished his commands, return and meet him at the place called caucana,[ ] about two hundred stades distant from syracuse, where both he and the whole fleet were to anchor. but he let it be understood that he was sending him to buy provisions, since the goths were willing to give them a market, this having been decided upon by the emperor justinian and amalasountha, the mother of antalaric,[ ] who was at that time a boy being reared under the care of his mother, amalasountha, and held sway over both the goths and the italians. for when theoderic had died and the kingdom came to his nephew, antalaric, who had already before this lost his father, amalasountha was fearful both for her child and for the kingdom and cultivated the friendship of justinian very carefully, and she gave heed to his commands in all matters and at that time promised to provide a market for his army and did so. now when procopius reached syracuse, he unexpectedly met a man who had been a fellow-citizen and friend of his from childhood, who had been living in syracuse for a long time engaged in the shipping business, and he learned from him what he wanted; for this man showed him a domestic who had three days before that very day come from carthage, and he said that they need not suspect that there would be any ambush set for the fleet by the vandals. for from no one in the world had they learned that an army was coming against them at that time, but all the active men among the vandals had actually a little before gone on an expedition against godas. and for this reason gelimer, with no thought of an enemy in his mind and regardless of carthage and all the other places on the sea, was staying in hermione, which is in byzacium, four days' journey distant from the coast; so that it was possible for them to sail without fearing any difficulty and to anchor wherever the wind should call them. when procopius heard this, he took the hand of the domestic and walked to the harbour of arethousa where his boat lay at anchor, making many enquiries of the man and searching out every detail. and going on board the ship with him, he gave orders to raise the sails and to make all speed for caucana. and since the master of the domestic stood on the shore wondering that he did not give him back the man, procopius shouted out, when the ship was already under way, begging him not to be angry with him; for it was necessary that the domestic should meet the general, and, after leading the army to libya, would return after no long time to syracuse with much money in his pocket. but upon coming to caucana they found all in deep grief. for dorotheus, the general of the troops of armenia, had died there, leaving to the whole army a great sense of loss. but belisarius, when the domestic had come before him and related his whole story, became exceedingly glad, and after bestowing many praises upon procopius, he issued orders to give the signal for departure with the trumpets. and setting sail quickly they touched at the islands of gaulus and melita,[ ] which mark the boundary between the adriatic and tuscan seas. there a strong east wind arose for them, and on the following day it carried the ships to the point of libya, at the place which the romans call in their own tongue "shoal's head." for its name is "caputvada," and it is five days' journey from carthage for an unencumbered traveller. xv and when they came near the shore, the general bade them furl the sails, throw out anchors from the ships, and make a halt; and calling together all the commanders to his own ship, he opened a discussion with regard to the disembarkation. thereupon many speeches were made inclining to either side, and archelaus came forward and spoke as follows: "i admire, indeed, the virtue of our general, who, while surpassing all by far in judgment and possessing the greatest wealth of experience, and at the same time holding the power alone, has proposed an open discussion and bids each one of us speak, so that we shall be able to choose whichever course seems best, though it is possible for him to decide alone on what is needful and at his leisure to put it into execution as he wishes. but as for you, my fellow officers--i do not know how i am to say it easily--one might wonder that each one did not hasten to be the first to oppose the disembarkation. and yet i understand that the making of suggestions to those who are entering upon a perilous course brings no personal advantage to him who offers the advice, but as a general thing results in bringing blame upon him. for when things go well for men, they attribute their success to their own judgment or to fortune, but when they fail, they blame only the one who has advised them. nevertheless i shall speak out. for it is not right for those who deliberate about safety to shrink from blame. you are purposing to disembark on the enemy's land, fellow-officers; but in what harbour are you planning to place the ships in safety? or in what city's wall will you find security for yourselves? have you not then heard that this promontory--i mean from carthage to iouce--extends, they say, for a journey of nine days, altogether without harbours and lying open to the wind from whatever quarter it may blow? and not a single walled town is left in all libya except carthage, thanks to the decision of gizeric.[ ] and one might add that in this place, they say, water is entirely lacking. come now, if you wish, let us suppose that some adversity befall us, and with this in view make the decision. for that those who enter into contests of arms should expect no difficulty is not in keeping with human experience nor with the nature of things. if, then, after we have disembarked upon the mainland, a storm should fall upon us, will it not be necessary that one of two things befall the ships, either that they flee away as far as possible, or perish upon this promontory? secondly, what means will there be of supplying us with necessities? let no one look to me as the officer charged with the maintenance of the army. for every official, when deprived of the means of administering his office, is of necessity reduced to the name and character of a private person. and where shall we deposit our superfluous arms or any other part of our necessaries when we are compelled to receive the attack of the barbarians? nay, as for this, it is not well even to say how it will turn out. but i think that we ought to make straight for carthage. for they say that there is a harbour called stagnum not more than forty stades distant from that city, which is entirely unguarded and large enough for the whole fleet. and if we make this the base of our operations, we shall carry on the war without difficulty. and i, for my part, think it likely that we shall win carthage by a sudden attack, especially since the enemy are far away from it, and that after we have won it we shall have no further trouble. for it is a way with all men's undertakings that when the chief point has been captured, they collapse after no long time. it behoves us, therefore, to bear in mind all these things and to choose the best course." so spoke archelaus. and belisarius spoke as follows: "let no one of you, fellow-officers, think that my words are those of censure, nor that they are spoken in the last place to the end that it may become necessary for all to follow them, of whatever sort they may be. for i have heard what seems best to each one of you, and it is becoming that i too should lay before you what i think, and then with you should choose the better course. but it is right to remind you of this fact, that the soldiers said openly a little earlier that they feared the dangers by sea and would turn to flight if a hostile ship should attack them, and we prayed god to shew us the land of libya and allow us a peaceful disembarkation upon it. and since this is so, i think it the part of foolish men first to pray to receive from god the more favourable fortune, then when this is given them, to reject it and go in the contrary direction. and if we do sail straight for carthage and a hostile fleet encounters us, the soldiers will remain without blame, if they flee with all their might--for a delinquency announced beforehand carries with it its own defence--but for us, even if we come through safely, there will be no forgiveness. now while there are many difficulties if we remain in the ships, it will be sufficient, i think, to mention only one thing,--that by which especially they wish to frighten us when they hold over our heads the danger of a storm. for if any storm should fall upon us, one of two things, they say, must necessarily befall the ships, either that they flee far from libya or be destroyed upon this headland. what then under the present circumstances will be more to our advantage to choose? to have the ships alone destroyed, or to have lost everything, men and all? but apart from this, at the present time we shall fall upon the enemy unprepared, and in all probability shall fare as we desire; for in warfare it is the unexpected which is accustomed to govern the course of events. but a little later, when the enemy have already made their preparation, the struggle we shall have will be one of strength evenly matched. and one might add that it will be necessary perhaps to fight even for the disembarkation, and to seek for that which now we have within our grasp but over which we are deliberating as a thing not necessary. and if at the very time, when we are engaged in conflict, a storm also comes upon us, as often happens on the sea, then while struggling both against the waves and against the vandals, we shall come to regret our prudence. as for me, then, i say that we must disembark upon the land with all possible speed, landing horses and arms and whatever else we consider necessary for our use, and that we must dig a trench quickly and throw a stockade around us of a kind which can contribute to our safety no less than any walled town one might mention, and with that as our base must carry on the war from there if anyone should attack us. and if we shew ourselves brave men, we shall lack nothing in the way of provisions. for those who hold the mastery over their enemy are lords also of the enemy's possessions; and it is the way of victory, first to invest herself with all the wealth, and then to set it down again on that side to which she inclines. therefore, for you both the chance of safety and of having an abundance of good things lies in your own hands." when belisarius had said this, the whole assembly agreed and adopted his proposal, and separating from one another, they made the disembarkation as quickly as possible, about three months later than their departure from byzantium. and indicating a certain spot on the shore the general bade both soldiers and sailors dig the trench and place the stockade about it. and they did as directed. and since a great throng was working and fear was stimulating their enthusiasm and the general was urging them on, not only was the trench dug on the same day, but the stockade was also completed and the pointed stakes were fixed in place all around. then, indeed, while they were digging the trench, something happened which was altogether amazing. a great abundance of water sprang forth from the earth, a thing which had not happened before in byzacium, and besides this the place where they were was altogether waterless. now this water sufficed for all uses of both men and animals. and in congratulating the general, procopius said that he rejoiced at the abundance of water, not so much because of its usefulness, as because it seemed to him a symbol of an easy victory, and that heaven was foretelling a victory to them. this, at any rate, actually came to pass. so for that night all the soldiers bivouacked in the camp, setting guards and doing everything else as was customary, except, indeed, that belisarius commanded five bowmen to remain in each ship for the purpose of a guard, and that the ships-of-war should anchor in a circle about them, taking care that no one should come against them to do them harm. xvi but on the following day, when some of the soldiers went out into the fields and laid hands on the fruit, the general inflicted corporal punishment of no casual sort upon them, and he called all the army together and spoke as follows: "this using of violence and the eating of that which belongs to others seems at other times a wicked thing only on this account, that injustice is in the deed itself, as the saying is; but in the present instance so great an element of detriment is added to the wrongdoing that--if it is not too harsh to say so--we must consider the question of justice of less account and calculate the magnitude of the danger that may arise from your act. for i have disembarked you upon this land basing my confidence on this alone, that the libyans, being romans from of old, are unfaithful and hostile to the vandals, and for this reason i thought that no necessaries would fail us and, besides, that the enemy would not do us any injury by a sudden attack. but now this your lack of self-control has changed it all and made the opposite true. for you have doubtless reconciled the libyans to the vandals, bringing their hostility round upon your own selves. for by nature those who are wronged feel enmity toward those who have done them violence, and it has come round to this that you have exchanged your own safety and a bountiful supply of good things for some few pieces of silver, when it was possible for you, by purchasing provisions from willing owners, not to appear unjust and at the same time to enjoy their friendship to the utmost. now, therefore, the war will be between you and both vandals and libyans, and i, at least, say further that it will be against god himself, whose aid no one who does wrong can invoke. but do you cease trespassing wantonly upon the possessions of others, and reject a gain which is full of dangers. for this is that time in which above all others moderation is able to save, but lawlessness leads to death. for if you give heed to these things, you will find god propitious, the libyan people well-disposed, and the race of the vandals open to your attack." with these words belisarius dismissed the assembly. and at that time he heard that the city of syllectus was distant one day's journey from the camp, lying close to the sea on the road leading to carthage, and that the wall of this city had been torn down for a long time, but the inhabitants of the place had made a barrier on all sides by means of the walls of their houses, on account of the attacks of the moors, and guarded a kind of fortified enclosure; he, accordingly, sent one of his spearmen, boriades, together with some of the guards, commanding them to make an attempt oh the city, and, if they captured it, to do no harm in it, but to promise a thousand good things and to say that they had come for the sake of the people's freedom, that so the army might be able to enter into it. and they came near the city about dusk and passed the night hidden in a ravine. but at early dawn, meeting country folk going into the city with waggons, they entered quietly with them and with no trouble took possession of the city. and when day came, no one having begun any disturbance, they called together the priest and all the other notables and announced the commands of the general, and receiving the keys of the entrances from willing hands, they sent them to the general. on the same day the overseer of the public post deserted, handing over all the government horses. and they captured also one of those who are occasionally sent to bear the royal responses, whom they call "veredarii"[ ]; and the general did him no harm but presented him with much gold and, receiving pledges from him, put into his hand the letter which the emperor justinian had written to the vandals, that he might give it to the magistrates of the vandals. and the writing was as follows: "neither have we decided to make war upon the vandals, nor are we breaking the treaty of gizeric, but we are attempting to dethrone your tyrant, who, making light of the testament of gizeric, has imprisoned your king and is keeping him in custody, and those of his relatives whom he hated exceedingly he put to death at the first, and the rest, after robbing them of their sight, he keeps under guard, not allowing them to terminate their misfortunes by death. do you, therefore, join forces with us and help us in freeing yourselves from so wicked a tyranny, in order that you may be able to enjoy both peace and freedom. for we give you pledges in the name of god that these things will come to you by our hand." such was the message of the emperor's letter. but the man who received this from belisarius did not dare to publish it openly, and though he shewed it secretly to his friends, he accomplished nothing whatever of consequence. xvii and belisarius, having arrayed his army as for battle in the following manner, began the march to carthage. he chose out three hundred of his guards, men who were able warriors, and handed them over to john, who was in charge of the expenditures of the general's household; such a person the romans call "optio."[ ] and he was an armenian by birth, a man gifted with discretion and courage in the highest degree. this john, then, he commanded to go ahead of the army, at a distance of not less than twenty stades, and if he should see anything of the enemy, to report it with all speed, so that they might not be compelled to enter into battle unprepared. and the allied massagetae he commanded to travel constantly on the left of the army, keeping as many stades away or more; and he himself marched in the rear with the best troops. for he suspected that it would not be long before gelimer, following them from hermione, would make an attack upon them. and these precautions were sufficient, for on the right side there was no fear, since they were travelling not far from the coast. and he commanded the sailors to follow along with them always and not to separate themselves far from the army, but when the wind was favouring to lower the great sails, and follow with the small sails, which they call "dolones,"[ ] and when the wind dropped altogether to keep the ships under way as well as they could by rowing. and when belisarius reached syllectus, the soldiers behaved with moderation, and they neither began any unjust brawls nor did anything out of the way, and he himself, by displaying great gentleness and kindness, won the libyans to his side so completely that thereafter he made the journey as if in his own land; for neither did the inhabitants of the land withdraw nor did they wish to conceal anything, but they both furnished a market and served the soldiers in whatever else they wished. and accomplishing eighty stades each day, we completed the whole journey to carthage, passing the night either in a city, should it so happen, or in a camp made as thoroughly secure as the circumstances permitted. thus we passed through the city of leptis and hadrumetum and reached the place called grasse, three hundred and fifty stades distant from carthage. in that place was a palace of the ruler of the vandals and a park the most beautiful of all we know. for it is excellently watered by springs and has a great wealth of woods. and all the trees are full of fruit; so that each one of the soldiers pitched his tent among fruit-trees, and though all of them ate their fill of the fruit, which was then ripe, there was practically no diminution to be seen in the fruit. but gelimer, as soon as he heard in hermione that the enemy were at hand, wrote to his brother ammatas in carthage to kill ilderic and all the others, connected with him either by birth or otherwise, whom he was keeping under guard, and commanded him to make ready the vandals and all others in the city serviceable for war, in order that, when the enemy got inside the narrow passage at the suburb of the city which they call decimum,[ ] they might come together from both sides and surround them and, catching them as in a net, destroy them. and ammatas carried this out, and killed ilderic, who was a relative of his, and euagees, and all the libyans who were intimate with them. for hoamer had already departed from the world.[ ] and arming the vandals, he made them ready, intending to make his attack at the opportune moment. but gelimer was following behind, without letting it be known to us, except, indeed, that, on that night when we bivouacked in grasse, scouts coming from both armies met each other, and after an exchange of blows they each retired to their own camp, and in this way it became evident to us that the enemy were not far away. as we proceeded from there it was impossible to discern the ships. for high rocks extending well into the sea cause mariners to make a great circuit, and there is a projecting headland,[ ] inside of which lies the town of hermes. belisarius therefore commanded archelaus, the prefect, and calonymus, the admiral, not to put in at carthage, but to remain about two hundred stades away until he himself should summon them. and departing from grasse we came on the fourth day to decimum, seventy stades distant from carthage. xviii and on that day gelimer commanded his nephew gibamundus with two thousand of the vandals to go ahead of the rest of the army on the left side, in order that ammatas coming from carthage, gelimer himself from the rear, and gibamundus from the country to the left, might unite and accomplish the task of encircling the enemy with less difficulty and exertion. but as for me, during this struggle i was moved to wonder at the ways of heaven and of men, noting how god, who sees from afar what will come to pass, traces out the manner in which it seems best to him that things should come to pass, while men, whether they are deceived or counsel aright, know not that they have failed, should that be the issue, or that they have succeeded, god's purpose being that a path shall be made for fortune, who presses on inevitably toward that which has been foreordained. for if belisarius had not thus arranged his forces, commanding the men under john to take the lead, and the massagetae to march on the left of the army, we should never have been able to escape the vandals. and even with this planned so by belisarius, if ammatas had observed the opportune time, and had not anticipated this by about the fourth part of a day, never would the cause of the vandals have fallen as it did; but as it was, ammatas came to decimum about midday, in advance of the time, while both we and the vandal army were far away, erring not only in that he did not arrive at the fitting time, but also in leaving at carthage the host of the vandals, commanding them to come to decimum as quickly as possible, while he with a few men and not even the pick of the army came into conflict with john's men. and he killed twelve of the best men who were fighting in the front rank, and he himself fell, having shewn himself a brave man in this engagement. and the rout, after ammatas fell, became complete, and the vandals, fleeing at top speed, swept back all those who were coming from carthage to decimum. for they were advancing in no order and not drawn up as for battle, but in companies, and small ones at that; for they were coming in bands of twenty or thirty. and seeing the vandals under ammatas fleeing, and thinking their pursuers were a great multitude, they turned and joined in the flight. and john and his men, killing all whom they came upon, advanced as far as the gates of carthage. and there was so great a slaughter of vandals in the course of the seventy stades that those who beheld it would have supposed that it was the work of an enemy twenty thousand strong. at the same time gibamundus and his two thousand came to pedion halon, which is forty stades distant from decimum on the left as one goes to carthage, and is destitute of human habitation or trees or anything else, since the salt in the water permits nothing except salt to be produced there; in that place they encountered the huns and were all destroyed. now there was a certain man among the massagetae, well gifted with courage and strength of body, the leader of a few men; this man had the privilege handed down from his fathers and ancestors to be the first in all the hunnic armies to attack the enemy. for it was not lawful for a man of the massagetae to strike first in battle and capture one of the enemy until, indeed, someone from this house began the struggle with the enemy. so when the two armies had come not far from each other, this man rode out and stopped alone close to the army of the vandals. and the vandals, either because they were dumbfounded at the courageous spirit of the man or perhaps because they suspected that the enemy were contriving something against them, decided neither to move nor to shoot at the man. and i think that, since they had never had experience of battle with the massagetae, but heard that the nation was very warlike, they were for this reason terrified at the danger. and the man, returning to his compatriots, said that god had sent them these strangers as a ready feast. then at length they made their onset and the vandals did not withstand them, but breaking their ranks and never thinking of resistance, they were all disgracefully destroyed. xix but we, having learned nothing at all of what had happened, were going on to decimum. and belisarius, seeing a place well adapted for a camp, thirty-five stades distant from decimum, surrounded it with a stockade which was very well made, and placing all the infantry there and calling together the whole army, he spoke as follows: "fellow-soldiers, the decisive moment of the struggle is already at hand; for i perceive that the enemy are advancing upon us; and the ships have been taken far away from us by the nature of the place; and it has come round to this that our hope of safety lies in the strength of our hands. for there is not a friendly city, no, nor any other stronghold, in which we may put our trust and have confidence concerning ourselves. but if we should show ourselves brave men, it is probable that we shall still overcome the enemy in the war; but if we should weaken at all, it will remain for us to fall under the hand of the vandals and to be destroyed disgracefully. and yet there are many advantages on our side to help us on toward victory; for we have with us both justice, with which we have come against our enemy (for we are here in order to recover what is our own), and the hatred of the vandals toward their own tyrant. for the alliance of god follows naturally those who put justice forward, and a soldier who is ill-disposed toward his ruler knows not how to play the part of a brave man. and apart from this, we have been engaged with persians and scythians all the time, but the vandals, since the time they conquered libya, have seen not a single enemy except naked moors. and who does not know that in every work practice leads to skill, while idleness leads to inefficiency? now the stockade, from which we shall have to carry on the war, has been made by us in the best possible manner. and we are able to deposit here our weapons and everything else which we are not able to carry when we go forth; and when we return here again, no kind of provisions can fail us. and i pray that each one of you, calling to mind his own valour and those whom he has left at home, may so march with contempt against the enemy." after speaking these words and uttering a prayer after them, belisarius left his wife and the barricaded camp to the infantry, and himself set forth with all the horsemen. for it did not seem to him advantageous for the present to risk an engagement with the whole army, but it seemed wise to skirmish first with the horsemen and make trial of the enemy's strength, and finally to fight a decisive battle with the whole army. sending forward, therefore, the commanders of the foederati,[ ] he himself followed with the rest of the force and his own spearmen and guards. and when the foederati and their leaders reached decimum, they saw the corpses of the fallen--twelve comrades from the forces of john and near them ammatas and some of the vandals. and hearing from the inhabitants of the place the whole story of the fight, they were vexed, being at a loss as to where they ought to go. but while they were still at a loss and from the hills were looking around over the whole country thereabouts, a dust appeared from the south and a little later a very large force of vandal horsemen. and they sent to belisarius urging him to come as quickly as possible, since the enemy were bearing down upon them. and the opinions of the commanders were divided. for some thought that they ought to close with their assailants, but the others said that their force was not sufficient for this. and while they were debating thus among themselves, the barbarians drew near under the leadership of gelimer, who was following a road between the one which belisarius was travelling and the one by which the massagetae who had encountered gibamundus had come. but since the land was hilly on both sides, it did not allow him to see either the disaster of gibamundus or belisarius' stockade, nor even the road along which belisarius' men were advancing. but when they came near each other, a contest arose between the two armies as to which should capture the highest of all the hills there. for it seemed a suitable one to encamp upon, and both sides preferred to engage with the enemy from there. and the vandals, coming first, took possession of the hill by crowding off their assailants and routed the enemy, having already become an object of terror to them. and the romans in flight came to a place seven stades distant from decimum, where, as it happened, uliaris, the personal guard of belisarius, was, with eight hundred guardsmen. and all supposed that uliaris would receive them and hold his position, and together with them would go against the vandals; but when they came together, these troops all unexpectedly fled at top speed and went on the run to belisarius. from then on i am unable to say what happened to gelimer that, having the victory in his hands, he willingly gave it up to the enemy, unless one ought to refer foolish actions also to god, who, whenever he purposes that some adversity shall befall a man, touches first his reason and does not permit that which will be to his advantage to come to his consideration. for if, on the one hand, he had made the pursuit immediately, i do not think that even belisarius would have withstood him, but our cause would have been utterly and completely lost, so numerous appeared the force of the vandals and so great the fear they inspired in the romans; or if, on the other hand, he had even ridden straight for carthage, he would easily have killed all john's men, who, heedless of everything else, were wandering about the plain one by one or by twos and stripping the dead. and he would have preserved the city with its treasures, and captured our ships, which had come rather near, and he would have withdrawn from us all hope both of sailing away and of victory. but in fact he did neither of these things. instead he descended from the hill at a walk, and when he reached the level ground and saw the corpse of his brother, he turned to lamentations, and, in caring for his burial, he blunted the edge of his opportunity--an opportunity which he was not able to grasp again. meantime belisarius, meeting the fugitives, bade them stop, and arrayed them all in order and rebuked them at length; then, after hearing of the death of ammatas and the pursuit of john, and learning what he wished concerning the place and the enemy, he proceeded at full speed against gelimer and the vandals. but the barbarians, having already fallen into disorder and being now unprepared, did not withstand the onset of the romans, but fled with all their might, losing many there, and the battle ended at night. now the vandals were in flight, not to carthage nor to byzacium, whence they had come, but to the plain of boulla and the road leading into numidia. so the men with john and the massagetae returned to us about dusk, and after learning all that had happened and reporting what they had done, they passed the night with us in decimum. xx but on the following day the infantry with the wife of belisarius came up and we all proceeded together on the road toward carthage, which we reached in the late evening; and we passed the night in the open, although no one hindered us from marching into the city at once. for the carthaginians opened the gates and burned lights everywhere and the city was brilliant with the illumination that whole night, and those of the vandals who had been left behind were sitting as suppliants in the sanctuaries. but belisarius prevented the entrance in order to guard against any ambuscade being set for his men by the enemy, and also to prevent the soldiers from having freedom to turn to plundering, as they might under the concealment of night. on that day, since an east wind arose for them, the ships reached the headland, and the carthaginians, for they already sighted them, removed the iron chains of the harbour which they call mandracium, and made it possible for the fleet to enter. now there is in the king's palace a room filled with darkness, which the carthaginians call ancon, where all were cast with whom the tyrant was angry. in that place, as it happened, many of the eastern merchants had been confined up to that time. for gelimer was angry with these men, charging them with having urged the emperor on to the war, and they were about to be destroyed, all of them, this having been decided upon by gelimer on that day on which ammatas was killed in decimum; to such an extremity of danger did they come. the guard of this prison, upon hearing what had taken place in decimum and seeing the fleet inside the point, entered the room and enquired of the men, who had not yet learned the good news, but were sitting in the darkness and expecting death, what among their possessions they would be willing to give up and be saved. and when they said they desired to give everything he might wish, he demanded nothing of all their treasures, but required them all to swear that, if they escaped, they would assist him also with all their power when he came into danger. and they did this. then he told them them the whole story, and tearing off a plank from the side toward the sea, he pointed out the fleet approaching, and releasing all from the prison went out with them. but the men on the ships, having as yet heard nothing of what the army had done on the land, were completely at a loss, and slackening their sails they sent to the town of mercurium; there they learned what had taken place at decimum, and becoming exceedingly joyful sailed on. and when, with a favouring wind blowing, they came to within one hundred and fifty stades of carthage, archelaus and the soldiers bade them anchor there, fearing the warning of the general, but the sailors would not obey. for they said that the promontory at that point was without a harbour and also that the indications were that a well-known storm, which the natives call cypriana, would arise immediately. and they predicted that, if it came upon them in that place, they would not be able to save even one of the ships. and it was as they said. so they slackened their sails for a short time and deliberated; and they did not think they ought to try for mandracium (for they shrank from violating the commands of belisarius, and at the same time they suspected that the entrance to mandracium was closed by the chains, and besides they feared that this harbour was not sufficient for the whole fleet) but stagnum seemed to them well situated (for it is forty stades distant from carthage), and there was nothing in it to hinder them, and also it was large enough for the whole fleet. there they arrived about dusk and all anchored, except, indeed, that calonymus with some of the sailors, disregarding the general and all the others, went off secretly to mandracium, no one daring to hinder him, and plundered the property of the merchants dwelling on the sea, both foreigners and carthaginians. on the following day belisarius commanded those on the ships to disembark, and after marshalling the whole army and drawing it up in battle formation, he marched into carthage; for he feared lest he should encounter some snare set by the enemy. there he reminded the soldiers at length of how much good fortune had come to them because they had displayed moderation toward the libyans, and he exhorted them earnestly to preserve good order with the greatest care in carthage. for all the libyans had been romans in earlier times and had come under the vandals by no will of their own and had suffered many outrages at the hands of these barbarians. for this very reason the emperor had entered into war with the vandals, and it was not holy that any harm should come from them to the people whose freedom they had made the ground for taking the field against the vandals. [sept. , a.d.] after such words of exhortation he entered carthage, and, since no enemy was seen by them, he went up to the palace and seated himself on gelimer's throne. there a crowd of merchants and other carthaginians came before belisarius with much shouting, persons whose homes were on the sea, and they made the charge that there had been a robbery of their property on the preceding night by the sailors. and belisarius bound calonymus by oaths to bring without fail all his thefts to the light. and calonymus, taking the oath and disregarding what he had sworn, for the moment made the money his plunder, but not long afterwards he paid his just penalty in byzantium. for being taken with the disease called apoplexy, he became insane and bit off his own tongue and then died. but this happened at a later time. xxi but then, since the hour was appropriate, belisarius commanded that lunch be prepared for them, in the very place where gelimer was accustomed to entertain the leaders of the vandals. this place the romans call "delphix," not in their own tongue, but using the greek word according to the ancient custom. for in the palace at rome, where the dining couches of the emperor were placed, a tripod had stood from olden times, on which the emperor's cupbearers used to place the cups. now the romans call a tripod "delphix," since they were first made at delphi, and from this both in byzantium and wherever there is a king's dining couch they call the room "delphix"; for the romans follow the greek also in calling the emperor's residence "palatium." for a greek named pallas lived in this place before the capture of troy and built a noteworthy house there, and they called this dwelling "palatium"; and when augustus received the imperial power, he decided to take up his first residence in that house, and from this they call the place wherever the emperor resides "palatium." so belisarius dined in the delphix and with him all the notables of the army. and it happened that the lunch made for gelimer on the preceding day was in readiness. and we feasted on that very food and the domestics of gelimer served it and poured the wine and waited upon us in every way. and it was possible to see fortune in her glory and making a display of the fact that all things are hers and that nothing is the private possession of any man. and it fell to the lot of belisarius on that day to win such fame as no one of the men of his time ever won nor indeed any of the men of olden times. for though the roman soldiers were not accustomed to enter a subject city without confusion, even if they numbered only five hundred, and especially if they made the entry unexpectedly, all the soldiers under the command of this general showed themselves so orderly that there was not a single act of insolence nor a threat, and indeed nothing happened to hinder the business of the city; but in a captured city, one which had changed its government and shifted its allegiance, it came about that no man's household was excluded from the privileges of the marketplace; on the contrary, the clerks drew up their lists of the men and conducted the soldiers to their lodgings, just as usual,[ ] and the soldiers themselves, getting their lunch by purchase from the market, rested as each one wished. afterwards belisarius gave pledges to those vandals who had fled into the sanctuaries, and began to take thought for the fortifications. for the circuit-wall of carthage had been so neglected that in many places it had become accessible to anyone who wished and easy to attack. for no small part of it had fallen down, and it was for this reason, the carthaginians said, that gelimer had not made his stand in the city. for he thought that it would be impossible in a short time to restore such a circuit-wall to a safe condition. and they said that an old oracle had been uttered by the children in earlier times in carthage, to the effect that "gamma shall pursue beta, and again beta itself shall pursue gamma." and at that time it had been spoken by the children in play and had been left as an unexplained riddle, but now it was perfectly clear to all. for formerly gizeric had driven out boniface and now belisarius was doing the same to gelimer. this, then, whether it was a rumour or an oracle, came out as i have stated. at that time a dream also came to light, which had been seen often before this by many persons, but without being clear as to how it would turn out. and the dream was as follows. cyprian,[ ] a holy man, is reverenced above all others by the carthaginians. and they have founded a very noteworthy temple in his honour before the city on the sea-shore, in which they conduct all other customary services, and also celebrate there a festival which they call the "cypriana"; and the sailors are accustomed to name after cyprian the storm, which i mentioned lately,[ ] giving it the same name as the festival, since it is wont to come on at the time at which the libyans have always been accustomed to celebrate the festival. this temple the vandals took from the christians by violence in the reign of honoric. and they straightway drove out their priests from the temple in great dishonour, and themselves thereafter attended to the sacred festival which, they said, now belonged to the arians. and the libyans, indeed, were angry on this account and altogether at a loss, but cyprian, they say, often sent them a dream saying that there was not the least need for the christians to be concerned about him; for he himself as time went on would be his own avenger. and when the report of this was passed around and came to all the libyans, they were expecting that some vengeance would come upon the vandals at some time because of this sacred festival, but were unable to conjecture how in the world the vision would be realized for them. now, therefore, when the emperor's expedition had come to libya, since the time had already come round and would bring the celebration of the festival on the succeeding day, the priests of the arians, in spite of the fact that ammatas had led the vandals to decimum, cleansed the whole sanctuary and were engaged in hanging up the most beautiful of the votive offerings there, and making ready the lamps and bringing out the treasures from the store-houses and preparing all things with exactness, arranging everything according to its appropriate use. but the events in decimum turned out in the manner already described. and the priests of the arians were off in flight, while the christians who conform to the orthodox faith came to the temple of cyprian, and they burned all the lamps and attended to the sacred festival just as is customary for them to perform this service, and thus it was known to all what the vision of the dream was foretelling. this, then, came about in this way. xxii and the vandals, recalling an ancient saying, marvelled, understanding clearly thereafter that for a man, at least, no hope could be impossible nor any possession secure. and what this saying was and in what manner it was spoken i shall explain. when the vandals originally, pressed by hunger, were about to remove from their ancestral abodes, a certain part of them was left behind who were reluctant to go and not desirous of following godigisclus. and as time went on it seemed to those who had remained that they were well off as regards abundance of provisions, and gizeric with his followers gained possession of libya. and when this was heard by those who had not followed godigisclus, they rejoiced, since thenceforth the country was altogether sufficient for them to live upon. but fearing lest at some time much later either the very ones who had conquered libya, or their descendants, should in some way or other be driven out of libya and return to their ancestral homes (for they never supposed that the romans would let libya be held for ever), they sent ambassadors to them. and these men, upon coming before gizeric, said that they rejoiced with their compatriots who had met with such success, but that they were no longer able to guard the land of which he and his men had thought so little that they had settled in libya. they prayed therefore that, if they laid no claim to their fatherland, they would bestow it as an unprofitable possession upon themselves, so that their title to the land might be made as secure as possible, and if anyone should come to do it harm, they might by no means disdain to die in behalf of it. gizeric, accordingly, and all the other vandals thought that they spoke fairly and justly, and they were in the act of granting everything which the envoys desired of them. but a certain old man who was esteemed among them and had a great reputation for discretion said that he would by no means permit such a thing. "for in human affairs," he said, "not one thing stands secure; nay, nothing which now exists is stable for all time for men, while as regards that which does not yet exist, there is nothing which may not come to pass." when gizeric heard this, he expressed approval and decided to send the envoys away with nothing accomplished. now at that time both he himself and the man who had given the advice were judged worthy of ridicule by all the vandals, as foreseeing the impossible. but when these things which have been told took place, the vandals learned to take a different view of the nature of human affairs and realized that the saying was that of a wise man. now as for those vandals who remained in their native land, neither remembrance nor any name of them has been preserved to my time.[ ] for since, i suppose, they were a small number, they were either overpowered by the neighbouring barbarians or they were mingled with them not at all unwillingly and their name gave way to that of their conquerors. indeed, when the vandals were conquered at that time by belisarius, no thought occurred to them to go from there to their ancestral homes. for they were not able to convey themselves suddenly from libya to europe, especially as they had no ships at hand, but paid the penalty[ ] there for all the wrongs they had done the romans and especially the zacynthians. for at one time gizeric, falling suddenly upon the towns in the peloponnesus, undertook to assault taenarum. and being repulsed from there and losing many of his followers he retired in complete disorder. and while he was still filled with anger on account of this, he touched at zacynthus, and having killed many of those he met and enslaved five hundred of the notables, he sailed away soon afterwards. and when he reached the middle of the adriatic sea, as it is called, he cut into small pieces the bodies of the five hundred and threw them all about the sea without the least concern. but this happened in earlier times. xxiii but at that time gelimer, by distributing much money to the farmers among the libyans and shewing great friendliness toward them, succeeded in winning many to his side. these he commanded to kill the romans who went out into the country, proclaiming a fixed sum of gold for each man killed, to be paid to him who did the deed. and they killed many from the roman army, not soldiers, however, but slaves and servants, who because of a desire for money went up into the villages stealthily and were caught. and the farmers brought their heads before gelimer and departed receiving their pay, while he supposed that they had slain soldiers of the enemy. at that time diogenes, the aide of belisarius, made a display of valorous deeds. for having been sent, together with twenty-two of the body-guards, to spy upon their opponents, he came to a place two days' journey distant from carthage. and the farmers of the place, being unable to kill these men, reported to gelimer that they were there. and he chose out and sent against them three hundred horsemen of the vandals, enjoining upon them to bring all the men alive before him. for it seemed to him a most remarkable achievement to make captive a personal aide of belisarius with twenty-two body-guards. now diogenes and his party had entered a certain house and were sleeping in the upper storey, having no thought of the enemy in mind, since, indeed, they had learned that their opponents were far away. but the vandals, coming there at early dawn, thought it would not be to their advantage to destroy the doors of the house or to enter it in the dark, fearing lest, being involved in a night encounter, they might themselves destroy one another, and at the same time, if that should happen, provide a way of escape for a large number of the enemy in the darkness. but they did this because cowardice had paralyzed their minds, though it would have been possible for them with no trouble, by carrying torches or even without these, to catch their enemies in their beds not only without weapons, but absolutely naked besides. but as it was, they made a phalanx in a circle about the whole house and especially at the doors, and all took their stand there. but in the meantime it so happened that one of the roman soldiers was roused from sleep, and he, noticing the noise which the vandals made as they talked stealthily among themselves and moved with their weapons, was able to comprehend what was being done, and rousing each one of his comrades silently, he told them what was going on. and they, following the opinion of diogenes, all put on their clothes quietly and taking up their weapons went below. there they put the bridles on their horses and leaped upon them unperceived by anyone. and after standing for a time by the court-yard entrance, they suddenly opened the door there, and straightway all came out. and then the vandals immediately closed with them, but they accomplished nothing. for the romans rode hard, covering themselves with their shields and warding off their assailants with their spears. and in this way diogenes escaped the enemy, losing two of his followers, but saving the rest. he himself, however, received three blows in this encounter on the neck and the face, from which indeed he came within a little of dying, and one blow also on the left hand, as a result of which he was thereafter unable to move his little finger. this, then, took place in this way. and belisarius offered great sums of money to the artisans engaged in the building trade and to the general throng of workmen, and by this means he dug a trench deserving of great admiration about the circuit-wall, and setting stakes close together along it he made an excellent stockade about the fortifications. and not only this, but he built up in a short time the portions of the wall which had suffered, a thing which seemed worthy of wonder not only to the carthaginians, but also to gelimer himself at a later time. for when he came as a captive to carthage, he marvelled when he saw the wall and said that his own negligence had proved the cause of all his present troubles. this, then, was accomplished by belisarius while in carthage. xxiv but tzazon, the brother of gelimer, reached sardinia with the expedition which has been mentioned above[ ] and disembarked at the harbour of caranalis[ ]; and at the first onset he captured the city and killed the tyrant godas and all the fighting men about him. and when he heard that the emperor's expedition was in the land of libya, having as yet learned nothing of what had been done there, he wrote to gelimer as follows: "know, o king of the vandals and alani, that the tyrant godas has perished, having fallen into our hands, and that the island is again under thy kingdom, and celebrate the festival of triumph. and as for the enemy who have had the daring to march against our land, expect that their attempt will come to the same fate as that experienced by those who in former times marched against our ancestors." and those who took this letter sailed into the harbour of carthage with no thought of the enemy in mind. and being brought by the guards before the general, they put the letter into his hands and gave him information on the matters about which he enquired, being thunderstruck at what they beheld and awed at the suddenness of the change; however, they suffered nothing unpleasant at the hand of belisarius. at this same time another event also occurred as follows. a short time before the emperor's expedition reached libya, gelimer had sent envoys into spain, among whom were gothaeus and fuscias, in order to persuade theudis, the ruler of the visigoths,[ ] to establish an alliance with the vandals. and these envoys, upon disembarking on the mainland after crossing the strait at gadira, found theudis in a place situated far from the sea. and when they had come up to the place where he was, theudis received them with friendliness and entertained them heartily, and during the feast he pretended to enquire how matters stood with gelimer and the vandals. now since these envoys had travelled to him rather slowly, it happened that he had heard from others everything which had befallen the vandals. for one merchant ship sailing for trade had put out from carthage on the very same day as the army marched into the city, and finding a favouring wind, had come to spain. from those on this ship theudis learned all that had happened in libya, but he forbade the merchants to reveal it to anyone, in order that this might not become generally known. and when gothaeus and his followers replied that everything was as well as possible for them, he asked them for what purpose, then, they had come. and when they proposed the alliance, theudis bade them go to the sea-coast; "for from there," he said, "you will learn of the affairs at home with certainty." and the envoys, supposing that the man was in his cups and his words were not sane, remained silent. but when on the following day they met him and made mention of the alliance, and theudis used the same words a second time, then at length they understood that some change of fortune had befallen them in libya, but never once thinking of carthage they sailed for the city. and upon coming to land close by it and happening upon roman soldiers, they put themselves in their hands to do with them as they wished. and from there they were led away to the general, and reporting the whole story, they suffered no harm at his hand. these things, then, happened thus. and cyril,[ ] upon coming near to sardinia and learning what had happened to godas, sailed to carthage, and there, finding the roman army and belisarius victorious, he remained at rest; and solomon[ ] was sent to the emperor in order to announce what had been accomplished. xxv but gelimer, upon reaching the plain of boulla, which is distant from carthage a journey of four days for an unencumbered traveller, not far from the boundaries of numidia, began to gather there all the vandals and as many of the moors as happened to be friendly to him. few moors, however, joined his alliance, and these were altogether insubordinate. for all those who ruled over the moors in mauretania and numidia and byzacium sent envoys to belisarius saying that they were slaves of the emperor and promised to fight with him. there were some also who even furnished their children as hostages and requested that the symbols of office be sent them from him according to the ancient custom. for it was a law among the moors that no one should be a ruler over them, even if he was hostile to the romans, until the emperor of the romans should give him the tokens of the office. and though they had already received them from the vandals, they did not consider that the vandals held the office securely. now these symbols are a staff of silver covered with gold, and a silver cap,--not covering the whole head, but like a crown and held in place on all sides by bands of silver,--a kind of white cloak gathered by a golden brooch on the right shoulder in the form of a thessalian cape, and a white tunic with embroidery, and a gilded boot. and belisarius sent these things to them, and presented each one of them with much money. however, they did not come to fight along with him, nor, on the other hand, did they dare give their support to the vandals, but standing out of the way of both contestants, they waited to see what would be the outcome of the war. thus, then, matters stood with the romans. but gelimer sent one of the vandals to sardinia with a letter to his brother tzazon. and he went quickly to the coast, and finding by chance a merchant-ship putting out to sea, he sailed into the harbour of caranalis and put the letter into the hands of tzazon. now the message of the letter was as follows: "it was not, i venture to think, godas who caused the island to revolt from us, but some curse of madness sent from heaven which fell upon the vandals. for by depriving us of you and the notables of the vandals, it has seized and carried off from the house of gizeric absolutely all the blessings which we enjoyed. for it was not to recover the island for us that you sailed from here, but in order that justinian might be master of libya. for that which fortune had decided upon previously it is now possible to know from the outcome. belisarius, then, has come against us with a small army, but valour straightway departed and fled from the vandals, taking good fortune with her. for ammatas and gibamundus have fallen, because the vandals lost their courage, and the horses and shipyards and all libya and, not least of all, carthage itself, are held already by the enemy. and the vandals are sitting here, having paid with their children and wives and all their possessions for their failure to play the part of brave men in battle, and to us is left only the plain of boulla, where our hope in you has set us down and still keeps us. but do you have done with such matters as rebel tyrants and sardinia and the cares concerning these things, and come to us with your whole force as quickly as possible. for when men find the very heart and centre of all in danger, it is not advisable for them to consider minutely other matters. and struggling hereafter in common against the enemy, we shall either recover our previous fortune, or gain the advantage of not bearing apart from each other the hard fate sent by heaven." when this letter had been brought to tzazon, and he had disclosed its contents to the vandals, they turned to wailing and lamentation, not openly, however, but concealing their feelings as much as possible and avoiding the notice of the islanders, silently among themselves they bewailed the fate which was upon them. and straightway setting in order matters in hand just as chance directed, they manned the ships. and sailing from there with the whole fleet, on the third day they came to land at the point of libya which marks the boundary between the numidians and mauretanians. and they reached the plain of boulla travelling on foot, and there joined with the rest of the army. and in that place there were many most pitiable scenes among the vandals, which i, at least, could never relate as they deserve. for i think that even if one of the enemy themselves had happened to be a spectator at that time, he would probably have felt pity, in spite of himself, for the vandals and for human fortune. for gelimer and tzazon threw their arms about each other's necks, and could not let go, but they spoke not a word to each other, but kept wringing their hands and weeping, and each one of the vandals with gelimer embraced one of those who had come from sardinia, and did the same thing. and they stood for a long time as if grown together and found such comfort as they could in this, and neither did the men of gelimer think fit to ask about godas (for their present fortune had prostrated them and caused them to reckon such things as had previously seemed to them most important with those which were now utterly negligible), nor could those who came from sardinia bring themselves to ask about what had happened in libya. for the place was sufficient to permit them to judge of what had come to pass. and indeed they did not make any mention even of their own wives and children, knowing well that whoever of theirs was not there had either died or fallen into the hands of the enemy. thus, then, did these things happen. footnotes: [ ] cadiz. [ ] sea of azov. [ ] abila. [ ] or septem fratres. [ ] most ancient geographers divided the inhabited world into three continents, but some made two divisions. it was a debated question with these latter whether africa belonged to asia or to europe; of. sallust, _jugurtha_, . [ ] kadi keui. [ ] more correctly hydrous, lat. hydruntum (otranto). [ ] at aulon (avlona). [ ] adding these four days to the other items ( , , ), the total is days. [ ] calpe (gibraltar). [ ] _i.e._, instead of stopping at otranto, one might also reckon in the coast-line around the adriatic to dyrrachium. [ ] about twenty-four english miles. [ ] iviza. [ ] "black-cloaks." [ ] belgrade. [ ] mitrovitz. [ ] in illyricum. [ ] he ascended the throne at the age of seven. [ ] that is, the actual occupant could enter a demurrer to the former owner's action for recovery, citing his own occupancy for thirty years or more. the new law extended the period during which the ousted proprietor could recover possession, by admitting no demurrer from the occupant so far as the years were concerned during which the vandals should be in possession of the country. [ ] this is an error; he really ruled only eighteen months. [ ] geiseric, gaiseric, less properly genseric. [ ] now corrupted to bona. [ ] emperor in gaul, britain and spain - . aspiring to be emperor of the west, he invaded italy, was defeated by theodosius, and put to death. [ ] this is an error, for attila died before aetius. [ ] including the famous treasure which titus had brought from jerusalem, cf. iv. ix. . [ ] domitian had spent , talents (£ , , ) on the gilding alone; plutarch, _publ._ . [ ] _i.e._ "leaders of a thousand." [ ] , roman pounds; cf. book i. xxii. . the modern equivalent is unknown. [ ] placidia's sister, eudocia, was wife of honoric, gizeric's son. [ ] see chap. iv. . [ ] _i.e._ "wisdom." [ ] jebel auress. [ ] _i.e._ to what sect or religion they belonged. [ ] cf. book iv. xi. ff. [ ] book i. xxii. . [ ] the "imperial" taxes were for the emperor's privy purse, the fiscus. [ ] these foederati were private bands of troops under the leadership of condottiere; these had the title of "count" and received from the state an allowance for the support of their bands. [ ] the medimnus equalled about one and a half bushels. [ ] _i.e._ "runners." [ ] eregli, on the sea of marmora. [ ] cape matapan. [ ] book i. xxiv. - ; xxv. - . [ ] the ration of this twice-baked bread represented for the same weight one-fourth more wheat than when issued in the once-baked bread. he was evidently paid on the basis of so much per ration, in weight, of the once-baked bread, but on account of the length of the voyage the other kind was requisitioned. [ ] instead of by weight. [ ] now porto lombardo. [ ] or athalaric. [ ] now gozzo and malta. [ ] cf. iii. v. ff. [ ] _i.e._ couriers, from _veredus_, "post-horse." [ ] an adjutant, the general's own "choice." [ ] topsails. [ ] _i.e._ _decimum miliarium_, tenth milestone from carthage. [ ] before a.d. [ ] hermaeum, lat. mercurii promontorium (cape bon). [ ] "auxiliaries"; see chap. xi. , . [ ] the troops were billeted as at a peaceful occupation. [ ] st. cyprian (_circa_ - a.d.), bishop of carthage. [ ] chap. xx. . [ ] compare the remarks of gibbon, iv. p. . [ ] in _arcana_, , ff., procopius estimates the number of the vandals in africa, at the time of belisarius, at , males, and intimates that practically all perished. [ ] chap. xi. . [ ] cagliari. [ ] on this theudis and his accession to the throne of the visigoths in spain see v. xii. ff. [ ] the leader of a band of _foederati_. cf. iii. xi. , , xxiv. . [ ] also a _dux foederatorum_, and _domesticus_ of belisarius. cf. iii. xi. ff. * * * * * history of the wars: * * * * * book iv the vandalic war (_continued_) i gelimer, seeing all the vandals gathered together, led his army against carthage. and when they came close to it, they tore down a portion of the aqueduct,--a structure well worth seeing--which conducted water into the city, and after encamping for a time they withdrew, since no one of the enemy came out against them. and going about the country there they kept the roads under guard and thought that in this way they were besieging carthage; however, they did not gather any booty, nor plunder the land, but took possession of it as their own. and at the same time they kept hoping that there would be some treason on the part of the carthaginians themselves and such of the roman soldiers as followed the doctrine of arius. they also sent to the leaders of the huns, and promising that they would have many good things from the vandals, entreated them to become their friends and allies. now the huns even before this had not been well-disposed toward the cause of the romans, since they had not indeed come to them willingly as allies (for they asserted that the roman general peter had given an oath and then, disregarding what had been sworn, had thus brought them to byzantium), and accordingly they received the words of the vandals, and promised that when they should come to real fighting they would turn with them against the roman army. but belisarius had a suspicion of all this (for he had heard it from the deserters), and also the circuit-wall had not as yet been completed entirely, and for these reasons he did not think it possible for his men to go out against the enemy for the present, but he was making his preparations within as well as possible. and one of the carthaginians, laurus by name, having been condemned on a charge of treason and proved guilty by his own secretary, was impaled by belisarius on a hill before the city, and as a result of this the others came to feel a sort of irresistible fear and refrained from attempts at treason. and he courted the massagetae with gifts and banquets and every other manner of flattering attention every day, and thus persuaded them to disclose to him what gelimer had promised them on condition of their turning traitors in the battle. and these barbarians said that they had no enthusiasm for fighting, for they feared that, if the vandals were vanquished, the romans would not send them back to their native land, but they would be compelled to grow old and die right there in libya; and besides they were also concerned, they said, about the booty, lest they be robbed of it. then indeed belisarius gave them pledges that, if the vandals should be conquered decisively, they would be sent without the least delay to their homes with all their booty, and thus he bound them by oaths in very truth to assist the romans with all zeal in carrying through the war. and when all things had been prepared by him in the best way possible, and the circuit-wall had been already completed, he called together the whole army and spoke as follows: "as for exhortation, fellow romans, i do not know that it is necessary to make any to you,--men who have recently conquered the enemy so completely that carthage here and the whole of libya is a possession of your valour, and for this reason you will have no need of admonition that prompts to daring. for the spirits of those who have conquered are by no means wont to be overcome. but i think it not untimely to remind you of this one thing, that, if you on the present occasion but prove equal to your own selves in valour, straightway there will be an end for the vandals of their hopes, and for you of the battle. hence there is every reason why you should enter into this engagement with the greatest eagerness. for ever sweet to men is toil coming to an end and reaching its close. now as for the host of the vandals, let no one of you consider them. for not by numbers of men nor by measure of body, but by valour of soul, is war wont to be decided. and let the strongest motive which actuates men come to your minds, namely, pride in past achievement. for it is a shame, for those at least who have reason, to fall short of one's own self and to be found inferior to one's own standard of valour. for i know well that terror and the memory of misfortunes have laid hold upon the enemy and compel them to become less brave, for the one fills them with fear because of what has already happened, and the other brushes aside their hope of success. for fortune, once seen to be bad, straightway enslaves the spirit of those who have fallen in her way. and i shall explain how the struggle involves for you at the present time a greater stake than formerly. for in the former battle the danger was, if things did not go well for us, that we should not take the land of others; but now, if we do not win the struggle, we shall lose the land which is our own. in proportion, then, as it is easier to possess nothing than to be deprived of what one has, just so now our fear touches our most vital concerns more than before. and yet formerly we had the fortune to win the victory with the infantry absent, but now, entering the battle with god propitious and with our whole army, i have hopes of capturing the camp of the enemy, men and all. thus, then, having the end of the war ready at hand, do not by reason of any negligence put it off to another time, lest you be compelled to seek for the opportune moment after it has run past us. for when the fortune of war is postponed, its nature is not to proceed in the same manner as before, especially if the war be prolonged by the will of those who are carrying it on. for heaven is accustomed to bring retribution always upon those who abandon the good fortune which is present. but if anyone considers that the enemy, seeing their children and wives and most precious possessions in our hands, will be daring beyond reason and will incur risks beyond the strength which they have, he does not think rightly. for an overpowering passion springing up in the heart in behalf of what is most precious is wont to diminish men's actual strength and does not allow them to make full use of their present opportunities. considering, then, all these things, it behooves you to go with great contempt against the enemy." ii after such words of exhortation, belisarius sent out all the horsemen on the same day, except five hundred, and also the guardsmen and the standard, which the romans call "bandum,"[ ] entrusting them to john the armenian, and directing him to skirmish only, if opportunity should arise. and he himself on the following day followed with the infantry forces and the five hundred horsemen. and the massagetae, deliberating among themselves, decided, in order to seem in friendly agreement with both gelimer and belisarius, neither to begin fighting for the romans nor to go over to the vandals before the encounter, but whenever the situation of one or the other army should be bad, then to join the victors in their pursuit of the vanquished. thus, then, had this matter been decided upon by the barbarians. and the roman army came upon the vandals encamped in tricamarum, one hundred and fifty stades distant from carthage. so they both bivouacked there at a considerable distance from one another. and when it was well on in the night, a prodigy came to pass in the roman camp as follows. the tips of their spears were lighted with a bright fire and the points of them seemed to be burning most vigorously. this was not seen by many, but it filled with consternation the few who did see it, not knowing how it would come out. and this happened to the romans in italy again at a much later time. and at that time, since they knew by experience, they believed it to be a sign of victory. but now, as i have said, since this was the first time it had happened, they were filled with consternation and passed the night in great fear. and on the following day gelimer commanded the vandals to place the women and children and all their possessions in the middle of the stockade, although it had not the character of a fort, and calling all together, he spoke as follows: "it is not to gain glory, or to retrieve the loss of empire alone, o fellow vandals, that we are about to fight, so that even if we wilfully played the coward and sacrificed these our belongings we might possibly live, sitting at home and keeping our own possessions; but you see, surely, that our fortunes have come round to such a pass that, if we do not gain the mastery over the enemy, we shall, if we perish, leave them as masters of these our children and our wives and our land and all our possessions, while if we survive, there will be added our own enslavement and to behold all these enslaved; but if, indeed, we overcome our foes in the war, we shall, if we live, pass our lives among all good things, or, after the glorious ending of our lives, there will be left to our wives and children the blessings of prosperity, while the name of the vandals will survive and their empire be preserved. for if it has ever happened to any men to be engaged in a struggle for their all, we now more than all others realize that we are entering the battle-line with our hopes for all we have resting wholly upon ourselves. not for our bodies, then, is our fear, nor in death is our danger, but in being defeated by the enemy. for if we lose the victory, death will be to our advantage. since, therefore, the case stands so, let no one of the vandals weaken, but let him proudly expose his body, and from shame at the evils that follow defeat let him court the end of life. for when a man is ashamed of that which is shameful, there is always present with him a dauntless courage in the face of danger. and let no recollection of the earlier battle come into your minds. for it was not by cowardice on our part that we were defeated, but we tripped upon obstacles interposed by fortune and were overthrown. now it is not the way of the tide of fortune to flow always in the same direction, but every day, as a rule, it is wont to change about. in manliness it is our boast that we surpass the enemy, and that in numbers we are much superior; for we believe that we surpass them no less than tenfold. and why shall i add that many and great are the incentives which, now especially, urge us on to valour, naming the glory of our ancestors and the empire which has been handed down to us by them? for in our case that glory is obscured by our unlikeness to our kindred, while the empire is bent upon fleeing from us as unworthy. and i pass over in silence the wails of these poor women and the tears of our children, by which, as you see, i am now so deeply moved that i am unable to prolong my discourse. but having said this one thing, i shall stop,--that there will be for us no returning to these most precious possessions if we do not gain the mastery over the enemy. remembering these things, shew yourselves brave men and do not bring shame upon the fame of gizeric." after speaking such words, gelimer commanded his brother tzazon to deliver an exhortation separately to the vandals who had come with him from sardinia. and he gathered them together a little apart from the camp and spoke as follows: "for all the vandals, fellow soldiers, the struggle is in behalf of those things which you have just heard the king recount, but for you, in addition to all the other considerations, it so happens that you are vying with yourselves. for you have recently been victorious in a struggle for the maintenance of our rule, and you have recovered the island for the empire of the vandals; there is every reason, therefore, for you to make still greater display of your valour. for those whose hazard involves the greatest things must needs display the greatest zeal for warfare also. indeed, when men who struggle for the maintenance of their rule are defeated, should it so happen, they have not failed in the most vital part; but when men are engaged in battle for their all, surely their very lives are influenced by the outcome of the struggle. and for the rest, if you shew yourselves brave men at the present time, you will thereby prove with certainty that the destruction[ ] of the tyrant godas was an achievement of valour on your part; but if you weaken now, you will be deprived of even the renown of those deeds, as of something which does not belong to you at all. and yet, even apart from this, it is reasonable to think that you will have an advantage over the rest of the vandals in this battle. for those who have failed are dismayed by their previous fortune, while those who have encountered no reverse enter the struggle with their courage unimpaired. and this too, i think, will not be spoken out of season, that if we conquer the enemy, it will be you who will win the credit for the greatest part of the victory, and all will call you saviours of the nation of the vandals. for men who achieve renown in company with those who have previously met with misfortune naturally claim the better fortune as their own. considering all these things, therefore, i say that you should bid the women and children who are lamenting their fate to take courage even now, should summon god to fight with us, should go with enthusiasm against the enemy, and lead the way for our compatriots into this battle." iii after both gelimer and tzazon had spoken such exhortations, they led out the vandals, and at about the time of lunch, when the romans were not expecting them, but were preparing their meal, they were at hand and arrayed themselves for battle along the bank of the stream. now the stream at that place is an ever-flowing one, to be sure, but its volume is so small that it is not even given a special name by the inhabitants of the place, but it is designated simply as a brook. so the romans came to the other bank of this river, after preparing themselves as well as they could under the circumstances, and arrayed themselves as follows. the left wing was held by martinus and valerian, john, cyprian, althias, and marcellus, and as many others as were commanders of the foederati[ ]; and the right was held by pappas, barbatus, and aïgan, and the others who commanded the forces of cavalry. and in the centre john took his position, leading the guards and spearmen of belisarius and carrying the general's standard. and belisarius also came there at the opportune moment with his five hundred horsemen, leaving the infantry behind advancing at a walk. for all the huns had been arrayed in another place, it being customary for them even before this not to mingle with the roman army if they could avoid so doing, and at that time especially, since they had in mind the purpose which has previously been explained,[ ] it was not their wish to be arrayed with the rest of the army. such, then, was the formation of the romans. and on the side of the vandals, either wing was held by the chiliarchs, and each one led the division under him, while in the centre was tzazon, the brother of gelimer, and behind him were arrayed the moors. but gelimer himself was going about everywhere exhorting them and urging them on to daring. and the command had been previously given to all the vandals to use neither spear nor any other weapon in this engagement except their swords. after a considerable time had passed and no one began the battle, john chose out a few of those under him by the advice of belisarius and crossing the river made an attack on the centre, where tzazon crowded them back and gave chase. and the romans in flight came into their own camp, while the vandals in pursuit came as far as the stream, but did not cross it. and once more john, leading out more of the guardsmen of belisarius, made a dash against the forces of tzazon, and again being repulsed from there, withdrew to the roman camp. and a third time with almost all the guards and spearmen of belisarius he took the general's standard and made his attack with much shouting and a great noise. but since the barbarians manfully withstood them and used only their swords, the battle became fierce, and many of the noblest of the vandals fell, and among them tzazon himself, the brother of gelimer. then at last the whole roman army was set in motion, and crossing the river they advanced upon the enemy, and the rout, beginning at the centre, became complete; for each of the roman divisions turned to flight those before them with no trouble. and the massagetae, seeing this, according to their agreement among themselves[ ] joined the roman army in making the pursuit, but this pursuit was not continued for a great distance. for the vandals entered their own camp quickly and remained quiet, while the romans, thinking that they would not be able to fight it out with them inside the stockade, stripped such of the corpses as had gold upon them and retired to their own camp. and there perished in this battle, of the romans less than fifty, but of the vandals about eight hundred. but belisarius, when the infantry came up in the late afternoon, moved as quickly as he could with the whole army and went against the camp of the vandals. and gelimer, realising that belisarius with his infantry and the rest of his army was coming against him straightway, without saying a word or giving a command leaped upon his horse and was off in flight on the road leading to numidia. and his kinsmen and some few of his domestics followed him in utter consternation and guarding with silence what was taking place. and for some time it escaped the notice of the vandals that gelimer had run away, but when they all perceived that he had fled, and the enemy were already plainly seen, then indeed the men began to shout and the children cried out and the women wailed. and they neither took with them the money they had nor did they heed the laments of those dearest to them, but every man fled in complete disorder just as he could. and the romans, coming up, captured the camp, money and all, with not a man in it; and they pursued the fugitives throughout the whole night, killing all the men upon whom they happened, and making slaves of the women and children. and they found in this camp a quantity of wealth such as has never before been found, at least in one place. for the vandals had plundered the roman domain for a long time and had transferred great amounts of money to libya, and since their land was an especially good one, nourishing abundantly with the most useful crops, it came about that the revenue collected from the commodities produced there was not paid out to any other country in the purchase of a food supply, but those who possessed the land always kept for themselves the income from it for the ninety-five years during which the vandals ruled libya. and from this it resulted that their wealth, amounting to an extraordinary sum, returned once more on that day into the hands of the romans. so this battle and the pursuit and the capture of the vandals' camp happened three months after the roman army came to carthage, at about the middle of the last month, which the romans call "december." [ a.d.] iv then belisarius, seeing the roman army rushing about in confusion and great disorder, was disturbed, being fearful throughout the whole night lest the enemy, uniting by mutual agreement against him, should do him irreparable harm. and if this thing had happened at that time in any way at all, i believe that, not one of the romans would have escaped and enjoyed this booty. for the soldiers, being extremely poor men, upon becoming all of a sudden masters of very great wealth and of women both young and extremely comely, were no longer able to restrain their minds or to find any satiety in the things they had, but were so intoxicated, drenched as they were by their present good fortunes, that each one wished to take everything with him back to carthage. and they were going about, not in companies but alone or by twos, wherever hope led them, searching out everything roundabout among the valleys and the rough country and wherever there chanced to be a cave or anything such as might bring them into danger or ambush. for neither did fear of the enemy nor their respect for belisarius occur to them, nor indeed anything else at all except the desire for spoils, and being overmastered by this they came to think lightly of everything else. and belisarius, taking note of all this, was at a loss as to how he should handle the situation. but at daybreak he took his stand upon a certain hill near the road, appealing to the discipline which no longer existed and heaping reproaches upon all, soldiers and officers alike. then indeed, those who chanced to be near, and especially those who were of the household of belisarius, sent the money and slaves which they had to carthage with their tentmates and messmates, and themselves came up beside the general and gave heed to the orders given them. and he commanded john, the armenian, with two hundred men to follow gelimer, and without slackening their speed either night or day to pursue him, until they should take him living or dead. and he sent word to his associates in carthage to lead into the city all the vandals who were sitting as suppliants in sanctuaries in the places about the city, giving them pledges and taking away their weapons, that they might not begin an uprising, and to keep them there until he himself should come. and with those who were left he went about everywhere and gathered the soldiers hastily, and to all the vandals he came upon he gave pledges for their safety. for it was no longer possible to catch anyone of the vandals except as a suppliant in the sanctuaries. and from these he took away their weapons and sent them, with soldiers to guard them, to carthage, not giving them time to unite against the romans. and when everything was as well settled as possible, he himself with the greater part of the army moved against gelimer with all speed. but john, after continuing the pursuit five days and nights, had already come not far from gelimer, and in fact he was about to engage with him on the following day. but since it was not fated that gelimer should be captured by john, the following obstacle was contrived by fortune. among those pursuing with john it happened that there was uliaris, the aide of belisarius. now this man was a passionate fellow and well favoured in strength of heart and body, but not a very serious man, but one who generally took delight in wine and buffoonery. this uliaris on the sixth day of the pursuit, being drunk, saw a bird sitting in a tree at about sunrise, and he quickly stretched his bow and despatched a missile at the bird. and he missed the bird, but john, who was behind it, he hit in the neck by no will of his own. and since the wound was mortal, john passed away a short time afterwards, leaving great sorrow at his loss to the emperor justinian and belisarius, the general, and to all the romans and carthaginians. for in manliness and every sort of virtue he was well endowed, and he shewed himself, to those who associated with him, gentle and equitable to a degree quite unsurpassed. thus, then, john fulfilled his destiny. as for uliaris, when he came to himself, he fled to a certain village which was near by and sat as a suppliant in the sanctuary there. and the soldiers no longer pressed the pursuit of gelimer, but they cared for john as long as he survived, and when he had died they carried out all the customary rites in his burial, and reporting the whole matter to belisarius they remained where they were. and as soon as he heard of it, he came to john's burial, and bewailed his fate. and after weeping over him and grieving bitterly at the whole occurrence, he honoured the tomb of john with many gifts and especially by providing for it a regular income. however, he did nothing severe to uliaris, since the soldiers said that john had enjoined upon them by the most dread oaths that no vengeance should come to him, since he had not performed the unholy deed with deliberate intent. thus, then, gelimer escaped falling into the hands of the enemy on that day. and from that time on belisarius pursued him, but upon reaching a strong city of numidia situated on the sea, ten days distant from carthage, which they call hippo regius,[ ] he learned that gelimer had ascended the mountain papua and could no longer be captured by the romans. now this mountain is situated at the extremity of numidia and is exceedingly precipitous and climbed only with the greatest difficulty (for lofty cliffs rise up toward it from every side), and on it dwell barbarian moors, who were friends and allies to gelimer, and an ancient city named medeus lies on the outskirts of the mountain. there gelimer rested with his followers. but as for belisarius, he was not able to make any attempt at all on the mountain, much less in the winter season, and since his affairs were still in an uncertain state, he did not think it advisable to be away from carthage; and so he chose out soldiers, with pharas as their leader, and set them to maintain the siege of the mountain. now this pharas was energetic and thoroughly serious and upright in every way, although he was an erulian by birth. and for an erulian not to give himself over to treachery and drunkenness, but to strive after uprightness, is no easy matter and merits abundant praise.[ ] but not only was it pharas who maintained orderly conduct, but also all the erulians who followed him. this pharas, then, belisarius commanded to establish himself at the foot of the mountain during the winter season and to keep close guard, so that it would neither be possible for gelimer to leave the mountain nor for any supplies to be brought in to him. and pharas acted accordingly. then belisarius turned to the vandals who were sitting as suppliants in the sanctuaries in hippo regius,--and there were many of them and of the nobility--and he caused them all to accept pledges and arise, and then he sent them to carthage with a guard. and there it came about that the following event happened to him. in the house of gelimer there was a certain scribe named boniface, a libyan, and a native of byzacium, a man exceedingly faithful to gelimer. at the beginning of this war gelimer had put this boniface on a very swift-sailing ship, and placing all the royal treasure in it commanded him to anchor in the harbour of hippo regius, and if he should see that the situation was not favourable to their side, he was to sail with all speed to spain with the money, and go to theudis, the leader of the visigoths, where he was expecting to find safety for himself also, should the fortune of war prove adverse for the vandals. so boniface, as long as he felt hope for the cause of the vandals, remained there; but as soon as the battle in tricamarum took place, with all the other events which have been related, he spread his canvas and sailed away just as gelimer had directed him. but an opposing wind brought him back, much against his will, into the harbour of hippo regius. and since he had already heard that the enemy were somewhere near, he entreated the sailors with many promises to row with all their might for some other continent or for an island. but they were unable to do so, since a very severe storm had fallen upon them and the waves of the sea were rising to a great height, seeing that it was the tuscan sea,[ ] and then it occurred to them and to boniface that, after all, god wished to give the money to the romans and so was not allowing the ship to put out. however, though they had got outside the harbour, they encountered great danger in bringing their ship back to anchorage. and when belisarius arrived at hippo regius, boniface sent some men to him. these he commanded to sit in a sanctuary, and they were to say that they had been sent by boniface, who had the money of gelimer, but to conceal the place where he was, until they should receive the pledges of belisarius that upon giving gelimer's money he himself should escape free from harm, having all that was his own. these men, then, acted according to these instructions, and belisarius was pleased at the good news and did not decline to take an oath. and sending some of his associates he took the treasure of gelimer and released boniface in possession of his own money and also with an enormous sum which he plundered from gelimer's treasure. v and when he returned to carthage, he put all the vandals in readiness, so that at the opening of spring he might send them to byzantium; and he sent out an army to recover for the romans everything which the vandals ruled. and first he sent cyril to sardinia with a great force, having the head of tzazon, since these islanders were not at all willing to yield to the romans, fearing the vandals and thinking that what had been told them as having happened in tricamarum could not be true. and he ordered this cyril to send a portion of the army to corsica, and to recover for the roman empire the island, which had been previously subject to the vandals; this island was called cyrnus in early times, and is not far from sardinia. so he came to sardinia and displayed the head of tzazon to the inhabitants of the place, and he won back both the islands and made them tributary to the roman domain. and to caesarea[ ] in mauretania belisarius sent john with an infantry company which he usually commanded himself; this place is distant from carthage a journey of thirty days for an unencumbered traveller, as one goes towards gadira and the west; and it is situated upon the sea, having been a great and populous city from ancient times. another john, one of his own guardsmen, he sent to gadira on the strait and by one of the pillars of heracles, to take possession of the fort there which they call "septem."[ ] and to the islands which are near the strait where the ocean flows in, called ebusa and majorica and minorica[ ] by the natives, he sent apollinarius, who was a native of italy, but had come while still a lad to libya. and he had been rewarded with great sums of money by ilderic, who was then leader of the vandals, and after ilderic had been removed from the office and was in confinement, as has been told in the previous narrative,[ ] he came to the emperor justinian with the other libyans who were working in the interest of ilderic, in order to entreat his favour as a suppliant. and he joined the roman expedition against gelimer and the vandals, and proved himself a brave man in this war and most of all at tricamarum. and as a result of his deeds there belisarius entrusted to him these islands. and later belisarius sent an army also into tripolis to pudentius and tattimuth,[ ] who were being pressed by the moors there, and thus strengthened the roman power in that quarter. he also sent some men to sicily in order to take the fortress in lilybaeum, as belonging to the vandals' kingdom,[ ] but he was repulsed from there, since the goths by no means saw fit to yield any part of sicily, on the ground that this fortress did not belong to the vandals at all. and when belisarius heard this, he wrote to the commanders who were there as follows: "you are depriving us of lilybaeum, the fortress of the vandals who are the slaves of the emperor, and are not acting justly nor in a way to benefit yourselves, and you wish to bring upon your ruler, though he does not so will it and is far distant from the scene of these actions, the hostility of the great emperor, whose good-will he has, having won it with great labour. and yet how could you but seem to be acting contrary to the ways of men, it you recently allowed gelimer to hold the fortress, but have decided to wrest from the emperor, gelimer's master, the possessions of the slave? you, at least, should not act thus, most excellent sirs. but reflect that, while it is the nature of friendship to cover over many faults, hostility does not brook even the smallest misdeeds, but searches the past for every offence, and allows not its enemy to grow rich on what does not in the least belong to them.[ ] moreover, the enemy fights to avenge the wrongs which it says have been done to its ancestors; and whereas, if friendship thus turned to hostility fails in the struggle, it suffers no loss of its own possessions, yet if it succeeds, it teaches the vanquished to take a new view of the indulgence which has been shewn them in the past. see to it, then, that you neither do us further harm nor suffer harm yourselves, and do not make the great emperor an enemy to the gothic nation, when it is your prayer that he be propitious toward you. for be well assured that, if you lay claim to this fortress, war will confront you immediately, and not for lilybaeum alone, but for all the possessions you claim as yours, though not one of them belongs to you." such was the message of the letter. and the goths reported these things to the mother[ ] of antalaric, and at her direction made the following reply: "the letter which you have written, most excellent belisarius, carries sound admonition, but pertinent to some other men, not to us the goths. for there is nothing of the emperor justinian's which we have taken and hold; may we never be so mad as to do such a thing! the whole of sicily we claim because it is our own, and the fortress of lilybaeum is one of its promontories. and if theoderic gave his sister, who was the consort of the king of the vandals, one of the trading-ports of sicily for her use, this is nothing. for this fact could not afford a basis for any claim on your part. but you, o general, would be acting justly toward us, if you should be willing to make the settlement of the matters in dispute between us, not as an enemy, but as a friend. and there is this difference, that friends are accustomed to settle their disagreements by arbitration, but enemies by battle. we, therefore, shall commit this matter to the emperor justinian, to arbitrate[ ] in whatever manner seems to him lawful and just. and we desire that the decisions you make shall be as wise as possible, rather than as hasty as possible, and that you, therefore, await the decision of your emperor." such was the message of the letter of the goths. and belisarius, reporting all to the emperor, remained quiet until the emperor should send him word what his wish was. vi but pharas, having by this time become weary of the siege for many reasons, and especially because of the winter season, and at the same time thinking that the moors there would not be able to stand in his way, undertook the ascent of papua with great zeal. accordingly he armed all his followers very carefully and began the ascent. but the moors rushed to the defence, and since they were on ground which was steep and very hard to traverse, their efforts to hinder those making the ascent were easily accomplished. but pharas fought hard to force the ascent, and one hundred and ten of his men perished in this struggle, and he himself with the remainder was beaten back and retired; and as a result of this he did not dare to attempt the ascent again, since the situation was against him, but he established as careful a guard as possible, in order that those on papua, being pressed by hunger, might surrender themselves; and he neither permitted them to run away nor anything to be brought in to them from outside. then, indeed, it came about that gelimer and those about him, who were nephews and cousins of his and other persons of high birth, experienced a misery which no one could describe, however eloquent he might be, in a way which would equal the facts. for of all the nations which we know that of the vandals is the most luxurious, and that of the moors the most hardy. for the vandals, since the time when they gained possession of libya, used to indulge in baths, all of them, every day, and enjoyed a table abounding in all things, the sweetest and best that the earth and sea produce. and they wore gold very generally, and clothed themselves in the medic garments, which now they call "seric,"[ ] and passed their time, thus dressed, in theatres and hippodromes and in other pleasureable pursuits, and above all else in hunting. and they had dancers and mimes and all other things to hear and see which are of a musical nature or otherwise merit attention among men. and the most of them dwelt in parks, which were well supplied with water and trees; and they had great numbers of banquets, and all manner of sexual pleasures were in great vogue among them. but the moors live in stuffy huts[ ] both in winter and in summer and at every other time, never removing from them either because of snow or the heat of the sun or any other discomfort whatever due to nature. and they sleep on the ground, the prosperous among them, if it should so happen, spreading a fleece under themselves. moreover, it is not customary among them to change their clothing with the seasons, but they wear a thick cloak and a rough shirt at all times. and they have neither bread nor wine nor any other good thing, but they take grain, either wheat or barley, and, without boiling it or grinding it to flour or barley-meal, they eat it in a manner not a whit different from that of animals. since the moors, then, were of a such a sort, the followers of gelimer, after living with them for a long time and changing their accustomed manner of life to such a miserable existence, when at last even the necessities of life had failed, held out no longer, but death was thought by them most sweet and slavery by no means disgraceful. now when this was learned by pharas, he wrote to gelimer as follows: "i too am a barbarian and not accustomed to writing and speaking, nor am i skilful in these matters. but that which i am forced as a man to know, having learned from the nature of things, this i am writing you. what in the world has happened to you, my dear gelimer, that you have cast, not yourself alone, but your whole family besides, into this pit? is it, forsooth, that you may avoid becoming a slave? but this is assuredly nothing but youthful folly, and making of 'liberty' a mere shibboleth, as though liberty were worth possessing at the price of all this misery! and, after all, do you not consider that you are, even now, a slave to the most wretched of the moors, since your only hope of being saved, if the best happens, is in them? and yet why would it not be better in every way to be a slave among the romans and beggared, than to be monarch on mount papua with moors as your subjects? but of course it seems to you the very height of disgrace even to be a fellow slave with belisarius! away with the thought, most excellent gelimer. are not we,[ ] who also are born of noble families, proud that we are now in the service of an emperor? and indeed they say that it is the wish of the emperor justinian to have you enrolled in the senate, thus sharing in the highest honour and being a patrician, as we term that rank, and to present you with lands both spacious and good and with great sums of money, and that belisarius is willing to make himself responsible for your having all these things, and to give you pledges. now as for all the miseries which fortune has brought you, you are able to bear with fortitude whatever comes from her, knowing that you are but a man and that these things are inevitable; but if fortune has purposed to temper these adversities with some admixture of good, would you of yourself refuse to accept this gladly? or should we consider that the good gifts of fortune are not just as inevitable as are her undesirable gifts? yet such is not the opinion of even the utterly senseless; but you, it would seem, have now lost your good judgment, steeped as you are in misfortunes. indeed, discouragement is wont to confound the mind and to be transformed to folly. if, however, you can bear your own thoughts and refrain from rebelling against fortune when she changes, it will be possible at this very moment for you to choose that which will be wholly to your advantage, and to escape from the evils which hang over you." when gelimer had read this letter and wept bitterly over it, he wrote in reply as follows: "i am both deeply grateful to you for the advice which you have given me and i also think it unbearable to be a slave to an enemy who wrongs me, from whom i should pray god to exact justice, if he should be propitious to me,--an enemy who, though he had never experienced any harm from me either in deeds which he suffered or in words which he heard, provided a pretext for a war which was unprovoked, and reduced me to this state of misfortune, bringing belisarius against me from i know not where. and yet it is not at all unlikely that he also, since he is but a man, though he be emperor too, may have something befall him which he would not choose. but as for me, i am not able to write further. for my present misfortune has robbed me of my thoughts. farewell, then, dear pharas, and send me a lyre and one loaf of bread and a sponge, i pray you." when this reply was read by pharas, he was at a loss for some time, being unable to understand the final words of the letter, until he who had brought the letter explained that gelimer desired one loaf because he was eager to enjoy the sight of it and to eat it, since from the time when he went up upon papua he had not seen a single baked loaf. a sponge also was necessary for him; for one of his eyes, becoming irritated by lack of washing, was greatly swollen. and being a skilful harpist he had composed an ode relating to his present misfortune, which he was eager to chant to the accompaniment of a lyre while he wept out his soul. when pharas heard this, he was deeply moved, and lamenting the fortune of men, he did as was written and sent all the things which gelimer desired of him. however he relaxed the siege not a whit, but kept watch more closely than before. vii and already a space of three months had been spent in this siege and the winter was coming to an end. and gelimer was afraid, suspecting that his besiegers would come up against him after no great time; and the bodies of most of the children who were related to him[ ] were discharging worms in this time of misery. and though in everything he was deeply distressed, and looked upon everything,--except, indeed, death,--with dissatisfaction, he nevertheless endured the suffering beyond all expectation, until it happened that he beheld a sight such as the following. a certain moorish woman had managed somehow to crush a little corn, and making of it a very tiny cake, threw it into the hot ashes on the hearth. for thus it is the custom among the moors to bake their loaves. and beside this hearth two children were sitting, in exceedingly great distress by reason of their hunger, the one being the son of the very woman who had thrown in the cake, and the other a nephew of gelimer; and they were eager to seize the cake as soon as it should seem to them to be cooked. and of the two children the vandal got ahead of the other and snatched the cake first, and, though it was still exceedingly hot and covered with ashes, hunger overpowered him, and he threw it into his mouth and was eating it, when the other seized him by the hair of the head and struck him over the temple and beat him again and thus compelled him with great violence to cast out the cake which was already in his throat. this sad experience gelimer could not endure (for he had followed all from the beginning), and his spirit was weakened and he wrote as quickly as possible to pharas as follows: "if it has ever happened to any man, after manfully enduring terrible misfortunes, to take a course contrary to that which he had previously determined upon, consider me to be such a one, o most excellent pharas. for there has come to my mind your advice, which i am far from wishing to disregard. for i cannot resist fortune further nor rebel against fate, but i shall follow straightway wherever it seems to her best to lead; but let me receive the pledges, that belisarius guarantees that the emperor will do everything which you recently promised me. for i, indeed, as soon as you give the pledges, shall put both myself into your hands and these kinsmen of mine and the vandals, as many as are here with us." such were the words written by gelimer in this letter. and pharas, having signified this to belisarius, as well as what they had previously written to each other, begged him to declare as quickly as possible what his wish was. and belisarius (since he was greatly desirous of leading gelimer alive to the emperor), as soon as he had read the letter, became overjoyed and commanded cyprian, a leader of foederati,[ ] to go to papua with certain others, and directed them to give an oath concerning the safety of gelimer and of those with him, and to swear that he would be honoured before the emperor and would lack nothing. and when these men had come to pharas, they went with him to a certain place by the foot of the mountain, where gelimer came at their summons, and after receiving the pledges just as he wished he came with them to carthage. and it happened that belisarius was staying for a time in the suburb of the city which they call aclas. accordingly gelimer came before him in that place, laughing with such laughter as was neither moderate nor the kind one could conceal, and some of those who were looking at him suspected that by reason of the extremity of his affliction he had changed entirely from his natural state and that, already beside himself, he was laughing for no reason. but his friends would have it that the man was in his sound mind, and that because he had been born in a royal family, and had ascended the throne, and had been clothed with great power and immense wealth from childhood even to old age, and then being driven to flight and plunged into great fear had undergone the sufferings on papua, and now had come as a captive, having in this way had experience of all the gifts of fortune, both good and evil, for this reason, they believed, he thought that man's lot was worthy of nothing else than much laughter. now concerning this laughter of gelimer's, let each one speak according to his judgment, both enemy and friend. but belisarius, reporting to the emperor that gelimer was a captive in carthage, asked permission to bring him to byzantium with him. at the same time he guarded both him and all the vandals in no dishonour and proceeded to put the fleet in readiness. now many other things too great to be hoped for have before now been experienced in the long course of time, and they will continue as long as the fortunes of men are the same as they now are; for those things which seem to reason impossible are actually accomplished, and many times those things which previously appeared impossible, when they have befallen, have seemed to be worthy of wonder; but whether such events as these ever took place before i am not able to say, wherein the fourth descendant of gizeric, and his kingdom at the height of its wealth and military strength, were completely undone in so short a time by five thousand men coming in as invaders and having not a place to cast anchor. for such was the number of the horsemen who followed belisarius, and carried through the whole war against the vandals. for whether this happened by chance or because of some kind of valour, one would justly marvel at it. but i shall return to the point from which i have strayed. viii so the vandalic war ended thus. but envy, as is wont to happen in cases of great good fortune, was already swelling against belisarius, although he provided no pretext for it. for some of the officers slandered him to the emperor, charging him, without any grounds whatever, with seeking to set up a kingdom for himself,[ ] a statement for which there was no basis whatever. but the emperor did not disclose these things to the world, either because he paid no heed to the slander, or because this course seemed better to him. but he sent solomon and gave belisarius the opportunity to choose whichever of two things he desired, either to come to byzantium with gelimer and the vandals, or to remain there and send them. and belisarius, since it did not escape him that the officers were bringing against him the charge of seeking supreme power, was eager to get to byzantium, in order that he might clear himself of the charge and be able to proceed against his slanderers. now as to the manner in which he learned of the attempt of his accusers, i shall explain. when those who denounced him wished to present this slander, fearing lest the man who was to carry their letter to the emperor should be lost at sea and thus put a stop to their proceedings, they wrote the aforesaid accusation on two tablets, purposing to send two messengers to the emperor in two ships. and one of these two sailed away without being detected, but the second, on account of some suspicion or other, was captured in mandracium, and putting the writing into the hands of his captors, he made known what was being done. so belisarius, having learned in this way, was eager to come before the emperor, as has been said. such, then, was the course of these events at carthage. but the moors who dwelt in byzacium and in numidia turned to revolt for no good reason, and they decided to break the treaty and to rise suddenly against the romans. and this was not out of keeping with their peculiar character. for there is among the moors neither fear of god nor respect for men. for they care not either for oaths or for hostages, even though the hostages chance to be the children or brothers of their leaders. nor is peace maintained among the moors by any other means than by fear of the enemies opposing them. now i shall set forth in what manner the treaty was made by them with belisarius and how it was broken. when it came to be expected that the emperor's expedition would arrive in libya, the moors, fearing lest they should receive some harm from it, consulted the oracles of their women. for it is not lawful in this nation for a man to utter oracles, but the women among them as a result of some sacred rites become possessed and foretell the future, no less than any of the ancient oracles. so on that occasion, when they made enquiry, as has been said, the women gave the response: "there shall be a host from the waters, the overthrow of the vandals, destruction and defeat of the moors, when the general of the romans shall come unbearded." when the moors heard this, since they saw that the emperor's army had come from the sea, they began to be in great fear and were quite unwilling to fight in alliance with the vandals, but they sent to belisarius and established peace, as has been stated previously,[ ] and then remained quiet and waited for the future, to see how it would fall out. and when the power of the vandals had now come to an end, they sent to the roman army, investigating whether there was anyone unbearded among them holding an office. and when they saw all wearing full beards, they thought that the oracle did not indicate the present time to them, but one many generations later, interpreting the saying in that way which they themselves wished. immediately, therefore, they were eager to break the treaty, but their fear of belisarius prevented them. for they had no hope that they would ever overcome the romans in war, at least with him present. but when they heard that he was making his departure together with his guards and spearmen, and that the ships were already being filled with them and the vandals, they suddenly rose in arms and displayed every manner of outrage upon the libyans. for the soldiers were both few in each place on the frontier and still unprepared, so that they would not have been able to stand against the barbarians as they made inroads at every point, nor to prevent their incursions, which took place frequently and not in an open manner. but men were being killed indiscriminately and women with their children were being made slaves, and the wealth was being plundered from every part of the frontier and the whole country was being filled with fugitives. these things were reported to belisarius when he was just about setting sail. and since it was now too late for him to return himself, he entrusted solomon with the administration of libya and he also chose out the greatest part of his own guards and spearmen, instructing them to follow solomon and as quickly as possible to punish with all zeal those of the moors who had risen in revolt and to exact vengeance for the injury done the romans. and the emperor sent another army also to solomon with theodoras, the cappadocian, and ildiger, who was the son-in-law of antonina, the wife of belisarius. and since it was no longer possible to find the revenues of the districts of libya set down in order in documents, as the romans had recorded them in former times,[ ] inasmuch as gizeric had upset and destroyed everything in the beginning, tryphon and eustratius were sent by the emperor, in order to assess the taxes for the libyans each according to his proportion. but these men seemed to the libyans neither moderate nor endurable. ix belisarius, upon reaching byzantium with gelimer and the vandals, was counted worthy to receive such honours, as in former times were assigned to those generals of the romans who had won the greatest and most noteworthy victories. and a period of about six hundred years had now passed since anyone had attained these honours,[ ] except, indeed, titus and trajan, and such other emperors as had led armies against some barbarian nation and had been victorious. for he displayed the spoils and slaves from the war in the midst of the city and led a procession which the romans call a "triumph," not, however, in the ancient manner, but going on foot from his own house to the hippodrome and then again from the barriers until he reached the place where the imperial throne is.[ ] and there was booty,--first of all, whatever articles are wont to be set apart for the royal service,--thrones of gold and carriages in which it is customary for a king's consort to ride, and much jewelry made of precious stones, and golden drinking cups, and all the other things which are useful for the royal table. and there was also silver weighing many thousands of talents and all the royal treasure amounting to an exceedingly great sum (for gizeric had despoiled the palatium in rome, as has been said in the preceding narrative),[ ] and among these were the treasures of the jews, which titus, the son of vespasian, together with certain others, had brought to rome after the capture of jerusalem. and one of the jews, seeing these things, approached one of those known to the emperor and said: "these treasures i think it inexpedient to carry into the palace in byzantium. indeed, it is not possible for them to be elsewhere than in the place where solomon, the king of the jews, formerly placed them. for it is because of these that gizeric captured the palace of the romans, and that now the roman army has captured that the vandals." when this had been brought to the ears of the emperor, he became afraid and quickly sent everything to the sanctuaries of the christians in jerusalem. and there were slaves in the triumph, among whom was gelimer himself, wearing some sort of a purple garment upon his shoulders, and all his family, and as many of the vandals as were very tall and fair of body. and when gelimer reached the hippodrome and saw the emperor sitting upon a lofty seat and the people standing on either side and realized as he looked about in what an evil plight he was, he neither wept nor cried out, but ceased not saying over in the words of the hebrew scripture:[ ] "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." and when he came before the emperor's seat, they stripped off the purple garment, and compelled him to fall prone on the ground and do obeisance to the emperor justinian. this also belisarius did, as being a suppliant of the emperor along with him. and the emperor justinian and the empress theodora presented the children of ilderic and his offspring and all those of the family of the emperor valentinian with sufficient sums of money, and to gelimer they gave lands not to be despised in galatia and permitted him to live there together with his family. however, gelimer was by no means enrolled among the patricians, since he was unwilling to change from the faith of arius. [jan. , a.d.] a little later the triumph[ ] was celebrated by, belisarius in the ancient manner also. for he had the fortune to be advanced to the office of consul, and therefore was borne aloft by the captives, and as he was thus carried in his curule chair, he threw to the populace those very spoils of the vandalic war. for the people carried off the silver plate and golden girdles and a vast amount of the vandals' wealth of other sorts as a result of belisarius' consulship, and it seemed that after a long interval of disuse an old custom was being revived.[ ] these things, then, took place in byzantium in the manner described. x and solomon took over the army in libya; but in view of the fact that the moors had risen against him, as has been told previously, and that everything was in suspense, he was at a loss how to treat the situation. for it was reported that the barbarians had destroyed the soldiers in byzacium and numidia and that they were pillaging and plundering everything there. but what disturbed most of all both him and all carthage was the fate which befell aïgan, the massagete, and rufinus, the thracian, in byzacium. for both were men of great repute both in the household of belisarius and in the roman army, one of them, aïgan, being among the spearmen of belisarius, while the other, as the most courageous of all, was accustomed to carry the standard of the general in battle; such an officer the romans call "bandifer."[ ] now at the time referred to these two men were commanding detatchments of cavalry in byzacium, and when they saw the moors plundering everything before them and making all the libyans captives, they watched in a narrow pass with their followers for those who were escorting the booty, and killed them and took away all the captives. and when a report of this came to the commanders of the barbarians, coutzinas and esdilasas and iourphouthes and medisinissas, who were not far away from this pass, they moved against them with their whole army in the late afternoon. and the romans, being a very few men and shut off in a narrow place in the midst of many thousands, were not able to ward off their assailants. for wherever they might turn, they were always shot at from the rear. then, indeed, rufinus and aïgan with some few men ran to the top of a rock which was near by and from there defended themselves against the barbarians. now as long as they were using their bows, the enemy did not dare come directly to a hand-to-hand struggle with them, but they kept hurling their javelins among them; but when all the arrows of the romans were now exhausted, the moors closed with them, and they defended themselves with their swords as well as the circumstances permitted. but since they were overpowered by the multitude of the barbarians, aïgan fell there with his whole body hacked to pieces, and rufinus was seized by the enemy and led away. but straightway one of the commanders, medisinissas, fearing lest he should escape and again make trouble for them, cut off his head and taking it to his home shewed it to his wives, for it was a remarkable sight on account of the extraordinary size of the head and the abundance of hair. and now, since the narration of the history has brought me to this point, it is necessary to tell from the beginning whence the nations of the moors came to libya and how they settled there. when the hebrews had withdrawn from egypt and had come near the boundaries of palestine, moses, a wise man, who was their leader on the journey, died, and the leadership was passed on to joshua, the son of nun, who led this people into palestine, and, by displaying a valour in war greater than that natural to a man, gained possession of the land. and after overthrowing all the nations he easily won the cities, and he seemed to be altogether invincible. now at that time the whole country along the sea from sidon as far as the boundaries of egypt was called phoenicia. and one king in ancient times held sway over it, as is agreed by all who have written the earliest accounts of the phoenicians. in that country there dwelt very populous tribes, the gergesites and the jebusites and some others with other names by which they are called in the history of the hebrews.[ ] now when these nations saw that the invading general was an irresistible prodigy, they emigrated from their ancestral homes and made their way to egypt, which adjoined their country. and finding there no place sufficient for them to dwell in, since there has been a great population in aegypt from ancient times, they proceeded to libya. and they established numerous cities and took possession of the whole of libya as far as the pillars of heracles, and there they have lived even up to my time, using the phoenician tongue. they also built a fortress in numidia, where now is the city called tigisis. in that place are two columns made of white stone near by the great spring, having phoenician letters cut in them which say in the phoenician tongue: "we are they who fled from before the face of joshua, the robber, the son of nun." there were also other nations settled in libya before the moors, who on account of having been established there from of old were said to be children of the soil. and because of this they said that antaeus, their king, who wrestled with heracles in clipea,[ ] was a son of the earth. and in later times those who removed from phoenicia with dido came to the inhabitants of libya as to kinsmen. and they willingly allowed them to found and hold carthage. but as time went on carthage became a powerful and populous city. and a battle took place between them and their neighbours, who, as has been said, had come from palestine before them and are called moors at the present time, and the carthaginians defeated them and compelled them to live a very great distance away from carthage. later on the romans gained the supremacy over all of them in war, and settled the moors at the extremity of the inhabited land of libya, and made the carthaginians and the other libyans subject and tributary to themselves. and after this the moors won many victories over the vandals and gained possession of the land now called mauretania, extending from gadira as far as the boundaries of caesarea,[ ] as well as the most of libya which remained. such, then, is the story of the settlement of the moors in libya. xi now when solomon heard what had befallen rufinus and aïgan, he made ready for war and wrote as follows to the commanders of the moors: "other men than you have even before this had the ill fortune to lose their senses and to be destroyed, men who had no means of judging beforehand how their folly would turn out. but as for you, who have the example near at hand in your neighbours, the vandals, what in the world has happened to you that you have decided to raise your hands against the great emperor and throw away your own security, and that too when you have given the most dread oaths in writing and have handed over your children as pledges to the agreement? is it that you have determined to make a kind of display of the fact that you have no consideration either for god or for good faith or for kinship itself or for safety or for any other thing at all? and yet, if such is your practice in matters which concern the divine, in what ally do you put your trust in marching against the emperor of the romans? and if you are taking the field to the destruction of your children, what in the world is it in behalf of which you have decided to endanger yourselves? but if any repentance has by now entered your hearts for what has already taken place, write to us, that we may satisfactorily arrange with you touching what has already been done; but if your madness has not yet abated, expect a roman war, which will come upon you together with the oaths which you have violated and the wrong which you are doing to your own children." such was the letter which solomon wrote. and the moors replied as follows: "belisarius deluded us with great promises and by this means persuaded us to become subjects of the emperor justinian; but the romans, while giving us no share in any good thing, expected to have us, though pinched with hunger, as their friends and allies. therefore it is more fitting that you should be called faithless than that the moors should be. for the men who break treaties are not those who, when manifestly wronged, bring accusation against their neighbours and turn away from them, but those who expect to keep others in faithful alliance with them and then do them violence. and men make god their enemy, not when they march against others in order to recover their own possessions, but when they get themselves into danger of war by encroaching upon the possessions of others. and as for children, that will be your concern, who are not permitted to marry more than one wife; but with us, who have, it may be, fifty wives living with each of us, offspring of children can never fail." when solomon had read this letter, he decided to lead his whole army against the moors. so after arranging matters in carthage, he proceeded with all his troops to byzacium. and when he reached the place which is called mammes,[ ] where the four moorish commanders, whom i have mentioned a little before,[ ] were encamped, he made a stockade for himself. now there are lofty mountains there, and a level space near the foothills of the mountains, where the barbarians had made preparations for the battle and arranged their fighting order as follows. they formed a circle of their camels, just as, in the previous narrative,[ ] i have said cabaon did, making the front about twelve deep. and they placed the women with the children within the circle; (for among the moors it is customary to take also a few women, with their children, to battle, and these make the stockades and huts for them and tend the horses skilfully, and have charge of the camels and the food; they also sharpen the iron weapons and take upon themselves many of the tasks in connection with the preparation for battle); and the men themselves took their stand on foot in between the legs of the camels, having shields and swords and small spears which they are accustomed to hurl like javelins. and some of them with their horses remained quietly among the mountains. but solomon disregarded one half of the circle of the moors, which was towards the mountain, placing no one there. for he feared lest the enemy on the mountain should come down and those in the circle should turn about and thus make the men drawn up there exposed to attack on both sides in the battle. but against the remainder of the circle he drew up his whole army, and since he saw the most of them frightened and without courage, on account of what had befallen aïgan and rufinus, and wishing to admonish them to be of good cheer, he spoke as follows: "men who have campaigned with belisarius, let no fear of these men enter your minds, and, if moors gathered to the number of fifty thousand have already defeated five hundred romans, let not this stand for you as an example. but call to mind your own valour, and consider that while the vandals defeated the moors, you have become masters of the vandals in war without any effort, and that it is not right that those who have conquered the greater should be terrified before those who are inferior. and indeed of all men the moorish nation seems to be the most poorly equipped for war's struggle. for the most of them have no armour at all, and those who have shields to hold before themselves have only small ones which are not well made and are not able to turn aside what strikes against them. and after they have thrown those two small spears, if they do not accomplish anything, they turn of their own accord to flight. so that it is possible for you, after guarding against the first attack of the barbarians, to win the victory with no trouble at all. but as to your equipment of arms, you see, of course, how great is the difference between it and that of your opponents. and apart from this, both valour of heart and strength of body and experience in war and confidence because you have already conquered all your enemies,--all these advantages you have; but the moors, being deprived of all these things, put their trust only in their own great throng. and it is easier for a few who are most excellently prepared to conquer a multitude of men not good at warfare than it is for the multitude to defeat them. for while the good soldier has his confidence in himself, the cowardly man generally finds that the very number of those arrayed with him produces a want of room that is full of peril. furthermore, you are warranted in despising these camels, which cannot fight for the enemy, and when struck by our missiles will, in all probability, become the cause of considerable confusion and disorder among them. and the eagerness for battle which the enemy have acquired on account of their former success will be your ally in the fight. for daring, when it is kept commensurate with one's power, will perhaps be of some benefit even to those who make use of it, but when it exceeds one's power it lends into danger. bearing these things in mind and despising the enemy, observe silence and order; for by taking thought for these things we shall win the victory over the disorder of the barbarians more easily and with less labour." thus spoke solomon. and the commanders of the moors also, seeing the barbarians terrified at the orderly array of the romans, and wishing to recall their host to confidence again, exhorted them in this wise: "that the romans have human bodies, the kind that yield when struck with iron, we have been taught, o fellow-soldiers, by those of them whom we have recently met, the best of them all, some of whom we have overwhelmed with our spears and killed, and the others we have seized and made our prisoners of war. and not only is this so, but it is now possible to see also that we boast great superiority over them in numbers. and, furthermore, the struggle for us involves the very greatest things, either to be masters of all libya or to be slaves to these braggarts. it is therefore necessary for us to be in the highest degree brave men at the present time. for it is not expedient that those whose all is at stake should be other than exceedingly courageous. and it behoves us to despise the equipment of arms which the enemy have. for if they come on foot against us, they will not be able to move rapidly, but will be worsted by the agility of the moors, and their cavalry will be terrified both by the sight of the camels, and by the noise they make, which, rising above the general tumult of battle, will, in all likelihood, throw them into disorder. and if anyone by taking into consideration the victory of the romans over the vandals thinks them not to be withstood, he is mistaken in his judgment. for the scales of war are, in the nature of the case, turned by the valour of the commander or by fortune; and belisarius, who was responsible for their gaining the mastery over the vandals, has now, thanks to heaven, been removed out of our way. and, besides, we too have many times conquered the vandals and stripped them of their power, and have thus made the victory over them a more feasible and an easier task for the romans. and now we have reason to hope to conquer this enemy also if you shew yourselves brave men in the struggle." after the officers of the moors had delivered this exhortation, they began the engagement. and at first there arose great disorder in the roman army. for their horses were offended by the noise made by the camels and by the sight of them, and reared up and threw off their riders and the most of them fled in complete disorder. and in the meantime the moors were making sallies and hurling all the small spears which they had in their hands, thus causing the roman army to be filled with tumult, and they were hitting them with their missiles while they were unable either to defend themselves or to remain in position. but after this, solomon, observing what was happening, leaped down from his horse himself first and caused all the others to do the same. and when they had dismounted, he commanded the others to stand still, and, holding their shields before them and receiving the missiles sent by the enemy, to remain in their position; but he himself, leading forward not less than five hundred men, made an attack upon the other portion of the circle.[ ] these men he commanded to draw their swords and kill the camels which stood at that point. then the moors who were stationed there beat a hasty retreat, and the men under solomon killed about two hundred camels, and straightway, when the camels fell, the circle became accessible to the romans. and they advanced on the run into the middle of the circle where the women of the moors were sitting; meanwhile the barbarians in consternation withdrew to the mountain which was close by, and as they fled in complete disorder the romans followed behind and killed them. and it is said that ten thousand of the moors perished in this encounter, while all the women together with the children were made slaves. and the soldiers secured as booty all the camels which they had not killed. thus the romans with all their plunder went to carthage to celebrate the festival of triumph. xii but the barbarians, being moved with anger, once more took the field in a body against the romans, leaving behind not one of their number, and they began to overrun the country in byzacium, sparing none of any age of those who fell in their way. and when solomon had just marched into carthage it was reported that the barbarians with a great host had come into byzacium and were plundering everything there. he therefore departed quickly with his whole army and marched against them. and when he reached bourgaon, where the enemy were encamped, he remained some days in camp over against them, in order that, as soon as the moors should get on level ground, he might begin the battle. but since they remained on the mountain, he marshalled his army and arrayed it for battle; the moors, however, had no intention of ever again engaging in battle with the romans in level country (for already an irresistible fear had come over them), but on the mountain they hoped to overcome them more easily. now mt. bourgaon is for the most part precipitous and on the side toward the east extremely difficult to ascend, but on the west it is easily accessible and rises in an even slope. and there are two lofty peaks which rise up, forming between them a sort of vale, very narrow, but of incredible depth. now the barbarians left the peak of the mountain unoccupied, thinking that on this side no hostile movement would be made against them; and they left equally unprotected the space about the foot of the mountain where bourgaon was easy of access. but at the middle of the ascent they made their camp and remained there, in order that, if the enemy should ascend and begin battle with them, they might at the outset, being on higher ground, shoot down upon their heads. they also had on the mountain many horses, prepared either for flight or for the pursuit, if they should win the battle. now when solomon saw that the moors were unwilling to fight another battle on the level ground, and also that the roman army was opposed to making a siege in a desert place, he was eager to come to an encounter with the enemy on bourgaon. but inasmuch as he saw that the soldiers were stricken with terror because of the multitude of their opponents, which was many times greater than it had been in the previous battle, he called together the army and spoke as follows: "the fear which the enemy feel toward you needs no other arraignment, but voluntarily pleads guilty, bringing forward, as it does, the testimony of its own witnesses. for you see, surely, our opponents gathered in so many tens and tens of thousands, but not daring to come down to the plain and engage with us, unable to feel confidence even in their own selves, but taking refuge in the difficulty of this place. it is therefore not even necessary to address any exhortation to you, at the present time at least. for those to whom both the circumstances and the weakness of the enemy give courage, need not, i think, the additional assistance of words. but of this one thing it will be needful to remind you, that if we fight out this engagement also with brave hearts, it will remain for us, having defeated the vandals and reduced the moors to the same fortune, to enjoy all the good things of libya, having no thought whatever of an enemy in our minds. but as to preventing the enemy from shooting down upon our heads, and providing that no harm come to us from the nature of the place, i myself shall make provision." after making this exhortation solomon commanded theodorus, who led the "excubitores[ ]" (for thus the romans call their guards), to take with him a thousand infantrymen toward the end of the afternoon and with some of the standards to go up secretly on the east side of bourgaon, where the mountain is most difficult of ascent and, one might say, impracticable, commanding him that, when they arrived near the crest of the mountain, they should remain quietly there and pass the rest of the night, and that at sunrise they should appear above the enemy and displaying the standards commence to shoot. and theodoras did as directed. and when it was well on in the night, they climbed up the precipitous slope and reached a point near the peak without being noticed either by the moors or even by any of the romans; for they were being sent out, it was said, as an advance guard, to prevent anyone from coming to the camp from the outside to do mischief. and at early dawn solomon with the whole army went up against the enemy to the outskirts of bourgaon. and when morning had come and the enemy were seen near at hand, the soldiers were completely at a loss, seeing the summit of the mountain no longer unoccupied, as formerly, but covered with men who were displaying roman standards; for already some daylight was beginning to shew. but when those on the peak began their attack, the romans perceived that the army was their own and the barbarians that they had been placed between their enemy's forces, and being shot at from both sides and having no opportunity to ward off the enemy, they thought no more of resistance but turned, all of them, to a hasty flight. and since they could neither run up to the top of bourgaon, which was held by the enemy, nor go to the plain anywhere over the lower slopes of the mountain, since their opponents were pressing upon them from that side, they went with a great rush to the vale and the unoccupied peak, some even with their horses, others on foot. but since they were a numerous throng fleeing in great fear and confusion, they kept killing each other, and as they rushed into the vale, which was exceedingly deep, those who were first were being killed constantly, but their plight could not be perceived by those who were coming up behind. and when the vale became full of dead horses and men, and the bodies made a passage from bourgaon to the other mountain, then the remainder were saved by making the crossing over the bodies. and there perished in this struggle, among the moors fifty thousand, as was declared by those of them who survived, but among the romans no one at all, nor indeed did anyone receive even a wound, either at the hand of the enemy or by any accident happening to him, but they all enjoyed this victory unscathed. all of the leaders of the barbarians also made their escape, except esdilasas, who received pledges and surrendered himself to the romans. so great, however, was the multitude of women and children whom the romans seized as booty, that they would sell a moorish boy for the price of a sheep to any who wished to buy. and then the remainder of the moors recalled the saying of their women, to the effect that their nation would be destroyed by a beardless man.[ ] so the roman army, together with its booty and with esdilasas, marched into carthage; and those of the barbarians who had not perished decided that it was impossible to settle in byzacium, lest they, being few, should be treated with violence by the libyans who were their neighbours, and with their leaders they went into numidia and made themselves suppliants of iaudas, who ruled the moors in aurasium.[ ] and the only moors who remained in byzacium were those led by antalas, who during this time had kept faith with the romans and together with his subjects had remained unharmed. xiii but during the time when these things were happening in byzacium, iaudas, who ruled the moors in aurasium, bringing more than thirty thousand fighting men, was plundering the country of numidia and enslaving many of the libyans. now it so happened that althias[ ] in centuriae was keeping guard over the forts there; and he, being eager to take from the enemy some of their captives, went outside the fort with the huns who were under his command, to the number of about seventy. and reasoning that he was not able to cope with such a great multitude of moors with only seventy men, he wished to occupy some narrow pass, so that, while the enemy were marching through it, he might be able to snatch up some of the captives. and since there are no such roads there, because flat plains extend in every direction, he devised the following plan. there is a city not far distant, named tigisis, then an unwalled place, but having a great spring at a place which was very closely shut in. althias therefore decided to take possession of this spring, reasoning that the enemy, compelled by thirst, would surely come there; for there is no other water at all close by. now it seemed to all upon considering the disparity of the armies that his plan was insane. but the moors came up feeling very much wearied and greatly oppressed by the heat in the summer weather, and naturally almost overcome by an intense thirst, and they made for the spring with a great rush, having no thought of meeting any obstacle. but when they found the water held by the enemy, they all halted, at a loss what to do, the greatest part of their strength having been already expended because of their desire for water. iaudas therefore had a parley with althias and agreed to give him the third part of the booty, on condition that the moors should all drink. but althias was by no means willing to accept the proposal, but demanded that he fight with him in single combat for the booty. and this challenge being accepted by iaudas, it was agreed that if it so fell out that althias was overcame, the moors should drink. and the whole moorish army was rejoiced, being in good hope, since althias was lean and not tall of body, while iaudas was the finest and most warlike of all the moors. now both of them were, as it happened, mounted. and iaudas hurled his spear first, but as it was coming toward him althias succeeded with amazing skill in catching it with his right hand, thus filling iaudas and the enemy with consternation. and with his left hand he drew his bow instantly, for he was ambidextrous, and hit and killed the horse of iaudas. and as he fell, the moors brought another horse for their commander, upon which iaudas leaped and straightway fled; and the moorish army followed him in complete disorder. and althias, by thus taking from them the captives and the whole of the booty, won a great name in consequence of this deed throughout all libya. such, then, was the course of these events. and solomon, after delaying a short time in carthage, led his army toward mt. aurasium and iaudas, alleging against him that, while the roman army was occupied in byzacium, he had plundered many of the places in numidia. and this was true. solomon was also urged on against iaudas by the other commanders of the moors, massonas and ortaïas, because of their personal enmity; massonas, because his father mephanias, who was the father-in-law of iaudas, had been treacherously slain by him, and ortaïas, because iaudas, together with mastinas, who ruled over the barbarians in mauretania, had purposed to drive him and all the moors whom he ruled from the land where they had dwelt from of old. so the roman army, under the leadership of solomon, and those of the moors who came into alliance with them, made their camp on the river abigas, which flows along by aurasium and waters the land there. but to iaudas it seemed inexpedient to array himself against the enemy in the plain, but he made his preparations on aurasium in such a way as seemed to him would offer most difficulty to his assailants. this mountain is about thirteen days' journey distant from carthage, and the largest of all known to us. for its circuit is a three days' journey for an unencumbered traveller. and for one wishing to go upon it the mountain is difficult of access and extremely wild, but as one ascends and reaches the level ground, plains are seen and many springs which form rivers and a great number of altogether wonderful parks. and the grain which grows here, and every kind of fruit, is double the size of that produced in all the rest of libya. and there are fortresses also on this mountain, which are neglected, by reason of the fact that they do not seem necessary to the inhabitants. for since the time when the moors wrested aurasium from the vandals,[ ] not a single enemy had until now ever come there or so much as caused the barbarians to be afraid that they would come, but even the populous city of tamougadis, situated against the mountain on the east at the beginning of the plain, was emptied of its population by the moors and razed to the ground, in order that the enemy should not only not be able to encamp there, but should not even have the city as an excuse for coming near the mountain. and the moors of that place held also the land to the west of aurasium, a tract both extensive and fertile. and beyond these dwelt other nations of the moors, who were ruled by ortaïas, who had come, as was stated above, as an ally to solomon and the romans. and i have heard this man say that beyond the country which he ruled there was no habitation of men, but desert land extending to a great distance, and that beyond that there are men, not black-skinned like the moors, but very white in body and fair-haired. so much, then, for these things. and solomon, after bribing the moorish allies with great sums of money and earnestly exhorting them, began the ascent of mt. aurasium with the whole army arrayed as for battle, thinking that on that day he would do battle with the enemy and just as he was have the matter out with them according as fortune should wish. accordingly the soldiers did not even take with them any food, except a little, for themselves and their horses. and after proceeding over very rough ground for about fifty stades, they made a bivouac. and covering a similar distance each day they came on the seventh day to a place where there was an ancient fortress and an ever-flowing stream. the place is called "shield mountain" by the romans in their own tongue.[ ] now it was reported to them that the enemy were encamped there, and when they reached this place and encountered no enemy, they made camp and, preparing themselves for battle, remained there; and three days' time was spent by them in that place. and since the enemy kept altogether out of their way, and their provisions had failed, the thought came to solomon and to the whole army that there had been some plot against them on the part of the moors who were their allies; for these moors were not unacquainted with the conditions of travel on aurasium, and understood, probably, what had been decided upon by the enemy; they were stealthily going out to meet them each day, it was said, and had also frequently been sent to their country by the romans to reconnoitre, and had decided to make nothing but false reports, in order, no doubt, that the romans, with no prior knowledge of conditions, might make the ascent of mt. aurasium without supplies for a longer time or without preparing themselves otherwise in the way which would be best. and, all things considered, the romans were suspicious that an ambush had been set for them by men who were their allies and began to be afraid, reasoning that the moors are said to be by nature untrustworthy at all times and especially whenever they march as allies with the romans or any others against moors. so, remembering these things, and at the same time being pinched by hunger, they withdrew from there with all speed without accomplishing anything, and, upon reaching the plain, constructed a stockade. after this solomon established a part of the army in numidia to serve as a guard and with the remainder went to carthage, since it was already winter. there he arranged and set everything in order, so that at the beginning of spring he might again march against aurasium with a larger equipment and, if possible, without moors as allies. at the same time he prepared generals and another army and a fleet of ships for an expedition against the moors who dwell in the island of sardinia; for this island is a large one and flourishing besides, being about two thirds as large as sicily (for the perimeter of the island makes a journey of twenty days for an unencumbered traveller); and lying, as it does, between rome and carthage, it was oppressed by the moors who dwelt there. for the vandals in ancient times, being enraged against these barbarians, sent some few of them with their wives to sardinia and confined them there. but as time went on they seized the mountains which are near caranalis, at first making plundering expeditions secretly upon those who dwelt round about, but when they became no less than three thousand, they even made their raids openly, and with no desire for concealment plundered all the country there, being called barbaricini[ ] by the natives. it was against these barbarians, therefore, that solomon was preparing the fleet during that winter. such, then, was the course of events in libya. xiv and in italy during these same times the following events took place. belisarius was sent against theodatus and the gothic nation by the emperor justinian, and sailing to sicily he secured this island with no trouble. and the manner in which this was done will be told in the following pages, when the history leads me to the narration of the events in italy. for it has not seemed to me out of order first to record all the events which happened in libya and after that to turn to the portion of the history touching italy and the goths. during this winter belisarius remained in syracuse and solomon in carthage. and it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. for the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed. and from the time when this thing happened men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death. and it was the time when justinian was in the tenth year of his reign. [ - a.d.] [ a.d.] at the opening of spring, when the christians were celebrating the feast which they call easter, there arose a mutiny among the soldiers in libya. i shall now tell how it arose and to what end it came. after the vandals had been defeated in the battle, as i have told previously,[ ] the roman soldiers took their daughters and wives and made them their own by lawful marriage. and each one of these women kept urging her husband to lay claim to the possession of the lands which she had owned previously, saying that it was not right or fitting if, while living with the vandals, they had enjoyed these lands, but after entering into marriage with the conquerors of the vandals they were then to be deprived of their possessions. and having these things in mind, the soldiers did not think that they were bound to yield the lands of the vandals to solomon, who wished to register them as belonging to the commonwealth and to the emperor's house and said that while it was not unreasonable that the slaves and all other things of value should go as booty to the soldiers, the land itself belonged to the emperor and the empire of the romans, which had nourished them and caused them to be called soldiers and to be such, not in order to win for themselves such land as they should wrest from the barbarians who were trespassing on the roman empire, but that this land might come to the commonwealth, from which both they and all others secured their maintenance. this was one cause of the mutiny. and there was a second, concurrent, cause also, which was no less, perhaps even more, effective in throwing all libya into confusion. it was as follows: in the roman army there were, as it happened, not less than one thousand soldiers of the arian faith; and the most of these were barbarians, some of these being of the erulian[ ] nation. now these men were urged on to the mutiny by the priests of the vandals with the greatest zeal. for it was not possible for them to worship god in their accustomed way, but they were excluded both from all sacraments and from all sacred rites. for the emperor justinian did not allow any christian who did not espouse the orthodox faith to receive baptism or any other sacrament. but most of all they were agitated by the feast of easter, during which they found themselves unable to baptize[ ] their own children with the sacred water, or do anything else pertaining to this feast. and as if these things were not sufficient for heaven, in its eagerness to ruin the fortunes of the romans, it so fell out that still another thing provided an occasion for those who were planning the mutiny. for the vandals whom belisarius took to byzantium were placed by the emperor in five cavalry squadrons, in order that they might be settled permanently in the cities of the east; he also called them the "vandals of justinian," and ordered them to betake themselves in ships to the east. now the majority of these vandal soldiers reached the east, and, filling up the squadrons to which they had been assigned, they have been fighting against the persians up to the present time; but the remainder, about four hundred in number, after reaching lesbos, waiting until the sails were bellied with the wind, forced the sailors to submission and sailed on till they reached the peloponnesus. and setting sail from there, they came to land in libya at a desert place, where they abandoned the ships, and, after equipping themselves, went up to mt. aurasium and mauretania. elated by their accession, the soldiers who were planning the mutiny formed a still closer conspiracy among themselves. and there was much talk about this in the camp and oaths were already being taken. and when the rest were about to celebrate the easter festival, the arians, being vexed by their exclusion from the sacred rites, purposed to attack them vigorously. and it seemed best to their leading men to kill solomon in the sanctuary on the first day of the feast, which they call the great day. [march , a.d.] and they were fortunate enough not to be found out, since no one disclosed this plan. for though there were many who shared in the horrible plot, no word of it was divulged to any hostile person as the orders were passed around, and thus they succeeded completely in escaping detection, for even the spearmen and guards of solomon for the most part and the majority of his domestics had become associated with this mutiny because of their desire for the lands. and when the appointed day had now come, solomon was sitting in the sanctuary, utterly ignorant of his own misfortune. and those who had decided to kill the man went in, and, urging one another with nods, they put their hands to their swords, but they did nothing nevertheless, either because they were filled with awe of the rites then being performed in the sanctuary, or because the fame of the general caused them to be ashamed, or perhaps also some divine power prevented them. and when the rites on that day had been completely performed and all were betaking themselves homeward, the conspirators began to blame one another with having turned soft-hearted at no fitting time, and they postponed the plot for a second attempt on the following day. and on the next day they acted in the same manner and departed from the sanctuary without doing anything, and entering the market place, they reviled each other openly, and every single man of them called the next one soft-hearted and a demoralizer of the band, not hesitating to censure strongly the respect felt for solomon. for this reason, indeed, they thought that they could no longer without danger remain in carthage, inasmuch as they had disclosed their plot to the whole city. the most of them, accordingly, went out of the city quickly and began to plunder the lands and to treat as enemies all the libyans whom they met; but the rest remained in the city, giving no indication of what their own intentions were but pretending ignorance of the plot which had been formed. but solomon, upon hearing what was being done by the soldiers in the country, became greatly disturbed, and ceased not exhorting those in the city and urging them to loyalty toward the emperor. and they at first seemed to receive his words with favour, but on the fifth day, when they heard that those who had gone out were secure in their power, they gathered in the hippodrome and insulted solomon and the other commanders without restraint. and theodorus, the cappadocian, being sent there by solomon, attempted to dissuade them and win them by kind words, but they listened to nothing of what was said. now this theodorus had a certain hostility against solomon and was suspected of plotting against him. for this reason the mutineers straightway elected him general over them by acclamation, and with him they went with all speed to the palace carrying weapons and raising a great tumult. there they killed another theodorus, who was commander of the guards, a man of the greatest excellence in every respect and an especially capable warrior. and when they had tasted this blood, they began immediately to kill everyone they met, whether libyan or roman, if he were known to solomon or had money in his hands; and then they turned to plundering, going up into the houses which had no soldiers to defend them and seizing all the most valuable things, until the coming of night, and drunkenness following their toil, made them cease. and solomon succeeded in escaping unnoticed into the great sanctuary which is in the palace, and martinus joined him there in the late afternoon. and when all the mutineers were sleeping, they went out from the sanctuary and entered the house of theodorus, the cappadocian, who compelled them to dine although they had no desire to do so, and conveyed them to the harbour and put them on the skiff of a certain ship, which happened to have been made ready there by martinus. and procopius also, who wrote this history, was with them, and about five men of the house of solomon. and after accomplishing three hundred stades they reached misuas, the ship-yard of carthage, and, since they had reached safety, solomon straightway commanded martinus to go into numidia to valerian and the others who shared his command, and endeavour to bring it about that each one of them, if it were in any way possible, should appeal to some of the soldiers known to him, either with money or by other means, and bring them back to loyalty toward the emperor. and he sent a letter to theodorus, charging him to take care of carthage and to handle the other matters as should seem possible to him, and he himself with procopius went to belisarius at syracuse. and after reporting everything to him which had taken place in libya, he begged him to come with all speed to carthage and defend the emperor, who was suffering unholy treatment at the hands of his own soldiers, solomon, then, was thus engaged. xv but the mutineers, after plundering everything in carthage, gathered in the plain of boulla, and chose stotzas,[ ] one of the guards of martinus, and a passionate and energetic man, as tyrant over them, with the purpose of driving the emperor's commanders out of all libya and thus gaining control over it. and he armed the whole force, amounting to about eight thousand men, and led them on to carthage, thinking to win over the city instantly with no trouble. he sent also to the vandals who had run away from byzantium with the ships and those who had not gone there with belisarius in the beginning, either because they had escaped notice, or because those who were taking off the vandals at that time took no account of them. now they were not fewer than a thousand, and after no great time they joined stotzas and the army with enthusiasm. and a great throng of slaves also came to him. and when they drew near carthage, stotzas sent orders that the people should surrender the city to him as quickly as possible, on condition of their remaining free from harm. but those in carthage and theodorus, in reply to this, refused flatly to obey, and announced that they were guarding carthage for the emperor. and they sent to stotzas joseph, the secretary of the emperor's guards, a man of no humble birth and one of the household of belisarius, who had recently been sent to carthage on some mission to them, and they demanded that stotzas should go no further in his violence. but stotzas, upon hearing this, straightway killed joseph and commenced a siege. and those in the city, becoming terrified at the danger, were purposing to surrender themselves and carthage to stotzas under an agreement. such was the course of events in the army in libya. but belisarius selected one hundred men from his own spearmen and guards, and taking solomon with him, sailed into carthage with one ship at about dusk, at the time when the besiegers were expecting that the city would be surrendered to them on the following day. and since they were expecting this, they bivouacked that night. but when day had come and they learned that belisarius was present, they broke up camp as quickly as possible and disgracefully and in complete disorder beat a hasty retreat and belisarius gathered about two thousand of the army and, after urging them with words to be loyal to the emperor and encouraging them with large gifts of money, he began the pursuit of the fugitives. and he overtook them at the city of membresa, three hundred and fifty stades distant from carthage. there both armies made camp and prepared themselves for battle, the forces of belisarius making their entrenchment at the river bagradas, and the others in a high and difficult position. for neither of them saw fit to enter the city, since it was without walls. and on the day following they joined battle, the mutineers trusting in their numbers, and the troops of belisarius despising their enemy as both without sense and without generals. and belisarius, wishing that these thoughts should be firmly lodged in the minds of his soldiers, called them all together and spoke as follows:-- "the situation, fellow-soldiers, both for the emperor and for the romans, falls far short of our hopes and of our prayers. for we have now come to a combat in which even the winning of the victory will not be without tears for us, since we are fighting against kinsmen and men who have been reared with us. but we have this comfort in our misfortune, that we are not ourselves beginning the battle, but have been brought into the conflict in our own defence. for he who has framed the plot against his dearest friends and by his own act has dissolved the ties of kinship, dies not, if he perishes, by the hands of his friends, but having become an enemy is but making atonement to those who have suffered wrong. and that our opponents are public enemies and barbarians and whatever worse name one might call them, is shewn not alone by libya, which has become plunder under their hands, nor by the inhabitants of this land, who have been wrongfully slain, but also by the multitude of roman soldiers whom these enemies have dared to kill, though they have had but one fault to charge them with--loyalty to their government. and it is to avenge these their victims that we have now come against them, having with good reason become enemies to those who were once most dear. for nature has made no men in the world either friends or opponents to one another, but it is the actions of men in every case which, either by the similarity of the motives which actuate them unite them in alliance, or by the difference set them in hostility to each other, making them friends or enemies as the case may be. that, therefore, we are fighting against men who are outlaws and enemies of the state, you must now be convinced; and now i shall make it plain that they deserve to be despised by us. for a throng of men united by no law, but brought together by motives of injustice, is utterly unable by nature to play the part of brave men, since valour is unable to dwell with lawlessness, but always shuns those who are unholy. nor, indeed, will they preserve discipline or give heed to the commands given by stotzas. for when a tyranny is newly organized and has not yet won that authority which self-confidence gives, it is, of necessity, looked upon by its subjects with contempt. nor is it honoured through any sentiment of loyalty, for a tyranny is, in the nature of the case, hated; nor does it lead its subjects by fear, for timidity deprives it of the power to speak out openly. and when the enemy is handicapped in point of valour and of discipline, their defeat is ready at hand. with great contempt, therefore, as i said, we should go against this enemy of ours. for it is not by the numbers of the combatants, but by their orderly array and their bravery, that prowess in war is wont to be measured." so spoke belisarius. and stotzas exhorted his troops as follows: "men who with me have escaped our servitude to the romans, let no one of you count it unworthy to die on behalf of the freedom which you have won by your courage and your other qualities. for it is not so terrible a thing to grow old and die in the midst of ills, as to return again to it after having gained freedom from oppressive conditions. for the interval which has given one a taste of deliverance makes the misfortune, naturally enough, harder to bear. and this being so, it is necessary for you to call to mind that after conquering the vandals and the moors you yourselves have enjoyed the labours of war, while others have become masters of all the spoils. and consider that, as soldiers, you will be compelled all your lives to be acquainted with the dangers of war, either in behalf of the emperor's cause, if, indeed, you are again his slaves, or in behalf of your own selves, if you preserve this present liberty. and whichever of the two is preferable, this it is in your power to choose, either by becoming faint-hearted at this time, or by preferring to play the part of brave men. furthermore, this thought also should come to your minds,--that if, having taken up arms against the romans, you come under their power, you will have experience of no moderate or indulgent masters, but you will suffer the extreme of punishment, and, what is more, your death will not have been unmerited. to whomsoever of you, therefore, death comes in this battle, it is plain that it will be a glorious death; and life, if you conquer the enemy, will be independent and in all other respects happy; but if you are defeated,--i need mention no other bitterness than this, that all your hope will depend upon the mercy of those men yonder. and the conflict will not be evenly matched in regard to strength. for not only are the enemy greatly surpassed by us in numbers, but they will come against us without the least enthusiasm, for i think that they are praying for a share of this our freedom." such was the speech of stotzas. as the armies entered the combat, a wind both violent and exceedingly troublesome began to blow in the faces of the mutineers of stotzas. for this reason they thought it disadvantageous for them to fight the battle where they were, fearing lest the wind by its overpowering force should carry the missiles of the enemy against them, while the impetus of their own missiles would be very seriously checked. they therefore left their position and moved toward the flank, reasoning that if the enemy also should change front, as they probably would, in order that they might not be assailed from the rear, the wind would then be in their faces. but belisarius, upon seeing that they had left their position and in complete disorder were moving to his flank, gave orders immediately to open the attack. and the troops of stotzas were thrown into confusion by the unexpected move, and in great disorder, as each one could, they fled precipitately, and only when they reached numidia did they collect themselves again. few of them, however, perished in this action, and most of them were vandals. for belisarius did not pursue them at all, for the reason that it seemed to him sufficient, since his army was very small, if the enemy, having been defeated for the present, should get out of his way. and he gave the soldiers the enemy's stockade to plunder, and they took it with not a man inside. but much money was found there and many women, the very women because of whom this war took place.[ ] after accomplishing this, belisarius marched back to carthage. and someone coming from sicily reported to him that a mutiny had broken out in the army and was about to throw everything into confusion, unless he himself should return to them with all speed and take measures to prevent it. he there therefore arranged matters in libya as well as he could and, entrusting carthage to ildiger and theodorus, went to sicily. and the roman commanders in numidia, hearing that the troops of stotzas had come and were gathering there, prepared for battle. now the commanders were as follows: of foederati,[ ] marcellus and cyril, of the cavalry forces, barbatus, and of infantry terentius and sarapis. all, however, took their commands from marcellus, as holding the authority in numidia. he, therefore, upon hearing that stotzas with some few men was in a place called gazophyla,[ ] about two days' journey distant from constantina,[ ] wished to anticipate the gathering of all the mutineers, and led his army swiftly against them. and when the two armies were near together and the battle was about to commence, stotzas came alone into the midst of his opponents and spoke as follows: "fellow-soldiers, you are not acting justly in taking the field against kinsmen and those who have been reared with you, and in raising arms against men who in vexation at your misfortunes and the wrongs you have suffered have decided to make war upon the emperor and the romans. or do you not remember that you have been deprived of the pay which has been owing you for a long time back, and that you have been robbed of the enemy's spoil, which the law of war has set as prizes for the dangers of battle? and that the others have claimed the right to live sumptuously all their lives upon the good things of victory, while you have followed as if their servants? if, now, you are angry with me, it is within your power to vent your wrath upon this body, and to escape the pollution of killing the others; but if you have no charge to bring against me, it is time for you to take up your weapons in your own behalf." so spoke stotzas; and the soldiers listened to his words and greeted him with great favour. and when the commanders saw what was happening, they withdrew in silence and took refuge in a sanctuary which was in gazophyla. and stotzas combined both armies into one and then went to the commanders. and finding them in the sanctuary, he gave pledges and then killed them all. xvi when the emperor learned this, he sent his nephew germanus, a man of patrician rank, with some few men to libya. and symmachus also and domnicus, men of the senate, followed him, the former to be prefect and charged with the maintenance of the army, while domnicus was to command the infantry forces. for john,[ ] who had held the office of prefect, had already died of disease. and when they had sailed into carthage, germanus counted the soldiers whom they had, and upon looking over the books of the scribes where the names of all the soldiers were registered, he found that the third part of the army was in carthage and the other cities, while all the rest were arrayed with the tyrant against the romans. he did not, therefore, begin any fighting, but bestowed the greatest care upon his army. and considering that those left in carthage were the kinsmen or tentmates of the enemy, he kept addressing many winning words to all, and in particular said that he had himself been sent by the emperor to libya in order to defend the soldiers who had been wronged and to punish those who had unprovoked done them any injury. and when this was found out by the mutineers, they began to come over to him a few at a time. and germanus both received them into the city in a friendly manner and, giving pledges, held them in honour, and he gave them their pay for the time during which they had been in arms against the romans. and when the report of these acts was circulated and came to all, they began now to detach themselves in large numbers from the tyrant and to march to carthage. then at last germanus, hoping that in the battle he would be evenly matched in strength with his opponents, began to make preparations for the conflict. but in the meantime stotzas, already perceiving the trouble, and fearing lest by the defection of still others of his soldiers the army should be reduced still more, was pressing for a decisive encounter immediately and trying to take hold of the war with more vigour. and since he had some hope regarding the soldiers in carthage, that they would come over to him, and thought that they would readily desert if he came near them, he held out the hope to all his men; and after encouraging them exceedingly in this way, he advanced swiftly with his whole army against carthage. and when he had come within thirty-five stades of the city, he made camp not far from the sea, and germanus, after arming his whole army and arraying them for battle, marched forth. and when they were all outside the city, since he had heard what stotzas was hoping for, he called together the whole army and spoke as follows: "that there is nothing, fellow-soldiers, with which you can justly reproach the emperor, and no fault which you can find with what he has done to you, this, i think, no one of you all could deny; for it was he who took you as you came from the fields with your wallets and one small frock apiece and brought you together in byzantium, and has caused you to be so powerful that the roman state now depends upon you. and that he has not only been treated with wanton insult, but has also suffered the most dreadful of all things at your hands, you yourselves, doubtless, know full well. and desiring that you should preserve the memory of these things for ever, he has dismissed the accusations brought against you for your crimes, asking that this debt alone be due to him from you--shame for what you have done. it is reasonable, therefore, that you, being thus regarded by him, should learn anew the lesson of good faith and correct your former folly. for when repentance comes at the fitting time upon those who have done wrong, it is accustomed to make those who have been injured indulgent; and service which comes in season is wont to bring another name to those who have been called ungrateful. "and it will be needful for you to know well this also, that if at the present time you shew yourselves completely loyal to the emperor, no remembrance will remain of what has gone before. for in the nature of things every course of action is characterized by men in accordance with its final outcome; and while a wrong which has once been committed can never be undone in all time, still, when it has been corrected by better deeds on the part of those who committed it, it receives the fitting reward of silence and generally comes to be forgotten. moreover, if you act with any disregard of duty toward these accursed rascals at the present time, even though afterwards you fight through many wars in behalf of the romans and often win the victory over the enemy, you will never again be regarded as having requited the emperor as you can requite him to-day. for those who win applause in the very matter of their former wrong-doing always gain for themselves a fairer apology. as regards the emperor, then, let each one of you reason in some such way. but as for me, i have not voluntarily done you any injustice, and i have displayed my good-will to you by all possible means, and now, facing this danger, i have decided to ask this much of you all: let no man advance with us against the enemy contrary to his judgement. but if anyone of you is already desirous of arraying himself with them, without delay let him go with his weapons to the enemy's camp, granting us this one favour, that it be not stealthily, but openly, that he has decided to do us wrong. indeed, it is for this reason that i am making my speech, not in carthage, but after coming on the battle-field, in order that i might not be an obstacle to anyone who desires to desert to our opponents, since it is possible for all without danger to shew their disposition toward the state." thus spoke germanus. and a great uproar ensued in the roman army, for each one demanded the right to be the first to display to the general his loyalty to the emperor and to swear the most dread oaths in confirmation. xvii now for some time the two armies remained in position opposite each other. but when the mutineers saw that nothing of what stotzas had foretold was coming to pass, they began to be afraid as having been unexpectedly cheated of their hope, and they broke their ranks and withdrew, and marched off to numidia, where were their women and the money from their booty. and germanus too came there with the whole army not long afterwards, having made all preparations in the best way possible and also bringing along many wagons for the army. and overtaking his opponents in a place which the romans call scalae veteres, he made his preparations for battle in the following manner. placing the wagons in line facing the front, he arrayed all the infantry along them under the leadership of domnicus, so that by reason of having their rear in security they might fight with the greater courage. and the best of the horsemen and those who had come with him from byzantium he himself had on the left of the infantry, while all the others he placed on the right wing, not marshalled in one body but in three divisions. and ildiger led one of them, theodoras the cappadocian another, while the remaining one, which was larger, was commanded by john, the brother of pappus, with three others. thus did the romans array themselves. and the mutineers took their stand opposite them, not in order, however, but scattered, more in the manner of barbarians. and at no great distance many thousands of moors followed them, who were commanded by a number of leaders, and especially by iaudas and ortaïas. but not all of them, as it happened, were faithful to stotzas and his men, for many had sent previously to germanus and agreed that, when they came into the fight, they would array themselves with the emperor's army against the enemy. however, germanus could not trust them altogether, for the moorish nation is by nature faithless to all men. it was for this reason also that they did not array themselves with the mutineers, but remained behind, waiting for what would come to pass, in order that with those who should be victorious they might join in the pursuit of the vanquished. such was the purpose, then, of the moors, in following behind and not mingling with the mutineers. and when stotzas came close to the enemy and saw the standard of germanus, he exhorted his men and began to charge against him. but the mutinous eruli who were arrayed about him did not follow and even tried with all their might to prevent him, saying that they did not know the character of the forces of germanus, but that they did know that those arrayed on the enemy's right would by no means withstand them. if, therefore, they should advance against these, they would not only give way themselves and turn to flight, but would also, in all probability, throw the rest of the roman army into confusion; but if they should attack germanus and be driven back and put to rout, their whole cause would be ruined on the spot. and stotzas was persuaded by these words, and permitted the others to fight with the men of germanus, while he himself with the best men went against john and those arrayed with him. and they failed to withstand the attack and hastened to flee in complete disorder. and the mutineers took all their standards immediately, and pursued them as they fled at top speed, while some too charged upon the infantry, who had already begun to abandon their ranks. but at this juncture germanus himself, drawing his sword and urging the whole of that part of the army to do the same, with great difficulty routed the mutineers opposed to him and advanced on the run against stotzas. and then, since he was joined in this effort by the men of ildiger and theodorus, the two armies mingled with each other in such a way that, while the mutineers were pursuing some of their enemy, they were being overtaken and killed by others. and as the confusion became greater and greater, the troops of germanus, who were in the rear, pressed on still more, and the mutineers, falling into great fear, thought no longer of resistance. but neither side could be distinguished either by their own comrades or by their opponents. for all used one language and the same equipment of arms, and they differed neither in figure nor in dress nor in any other thing whatever. for this reason the soldiers of the emperor by the advice of germanus, whenever they captured anyone, asked who he was; and then, if he said that he was a soldier of germanus, they bade him give the watchword of germanus, and if he was not at all able to give this, they killed him instantly. in this struggle one of the enemy got by unnoticed and killed the horse of germanus, and germanus himself fell to the ground and came into danger, and would have been lost had not his guards quickly saved him by forming an enclosure around him and mounting him on another horse. as for stotzas, he succeeded in this tumult in escaping with a few men. but germanus, urging on his men, went straight for the enemy's camp. there he was encountered by those of the mutineers who had been stationed to guard the stockade. a stubborn fight took place around its entrance, and the mutineers came within a little of forcing back their opponents, but germanus sent some of his followers and bade them make trial of the camp at another point. these men, since no one was defending the camp at this place, got inside the stockade with little trouble. and the mutineers, upon seeing them, rushed off in flight, and germanus with all the rest of the army dashed into the enemy's camp. there the soldiers, finding it easy to plunder the goods of the camp, neither took any account of the enemy nor paid any further heed to the exhortations of their general, since booty was at hand. for this reason germanus, fearing lest the enemy should get together and come upon them, himself with some few men took his stand at the entrance of the stockade, uttering many laments and urging his unheeding men to return to good order. and many of the moors, when the rout had taken place in this way, were now pursuing the mutineers, and, arraying themselves with the emperor's troops, were plundering the camp of the vanquished. but stotzas, at first having confidence in the moorish army, rode to them in order to renew the battle. but perceiving what was being done, he fled with a hundred men, and succeeded with difficulty in making his escape. and once more many gathered about him and attempted to engage with the enemy, but being repulsed no less decisively than before, if not even more so, they all came over to germanus. and stotzas alone with some few vandals withdrew to mauretania, and taking to wife the daughter of one of the rulers, remained there. and this was the conclusion of that mutiny. xviii now there was among the body-guards of theodorus, the cappadocian, a certain maximinus, an exceedingly base man. this maximinus had first got a very large number of the soldiers to join with him in a conspiracy against the government, and was now purposing to attempt a tyranny. and being eager to associate with himself still more men, he explained the project to others and especially to asclepiades, a native of palestine, who was a man of good birth and the first of the personal friends of theodorus. now asclepiades, after conversing with theodorus, straightway reported the whole matter to germanus. and he, not wishing as yet, while affairs were still unsettled, to begin any other disturbance, decided to get the best of the man by cajoling and flattering him rather than by punishment, and to bind him by oaths to loyalty toward the government. accordingly, since it was an old custom among all romans that no one should become a body-guard of one of the commanders, unless he had previously taken the most dread oaths and given pledges of his loyalty both toward his own commander and toward the roman emperor, he summoned maximinus, and praising him for his daring, directed him to be one of his body-guards from that time forth. and he, being overjoyed at the extraordinary honour, and conjecturing that his project would in this way get on more easily, took the oath, and though from that time forth he was counted among the body-guards of germanus, he did not hesitate to disregard his oaths immediately and to strengthen much more than ever his plans to achieve the tyranny. now the whole city was celebrating some general festival, and many of the conspirators of maximinus at about the time of lunch came according to their agreement to the palace, where germanus was entertaining his friends at a feast, and maximinus took his stand beside the couches with the other body-guards. and as the drinking proceeded, someone entered and announced to germanus that many soldiers were standing in great disorder before the door of the court, putting forward the charge that the government owed them their pay for a long period. and he commanded the most trusty of the guards secretly to keep close watch over maximinus, allowing him in no way to perceive what was being done. then the conspirators with threats and tumult proceeded on the run to the hippodrome, and those who shared their plan with them gathered gradually from the houses and were assembling there. and if it had so chanced that all of them had come together, no one, i think, would have been able easily to destroy their power; but, as it was, germanus anticipated this, and, before the greater part had yet arrived, he straightway sent against them all who were well-disposed to himself and to the emperor. and they attacked the conspirators before they expected them. and then, since maximinus, for whom they were waiting to begin the battle for them, was not with them, and they did not see the crowd gathered to help them, as they had thought it would be, but instead even beheld their fellow-soldiers unexpectedly fighting against them, they consequently lost heart and were easily overcome in the struggle and rushed off in flight and in complete disorder. and their opponents slew many of them, and they also captured many alive and brought them to germanus. those, however, who had not already come to the hippodrome gave no indication of their sentiment toward maximinus. and germanus did not see fit to go on and seek them out, but he enquired whether maximinus, since he had sworn the oath, had taken part in the plot. and since it was proved that, though numbered among his own body-guards he had carried on his designs still more than before, germanus impaled him close by the fortifications of carthage, and in this way succeeded completely in putting down the sedition. as for maximinus, then, such was the end of his plot. xi [ - a.d.] and the emperor summoned germanus together with symmachus and domnicus and again entrusted all libya to solomon, in the thirteenth year of his reign; and he provided him with an army and officers, among whom were rufinus and leontius, the sons of zaunas the son of pharesmanas, and john, the son of sisiniolus. for martinus and valerianus had already before this gone under summons to byzantium. and solomon sailed to carthage, and having rid himself of the sedition of stotzas, he ruled with moderation and guarded libya securely, setting the army in order, and sending to byzantium and to belisarius whatever suspicious elements he found in it, and enrolling new soldiers to equal their number, and removing those of the vandals who were left and especially all their women from the whole of libya. and he surrounded each city with a wall, and guarding the laws with great strictness, he restored the government completely. and libya became under his rule powerful as to its revenues and prosperous in other respects. and when everything had been arranged by him in the best way possible, he again made an expedition against iaudas and the moors on aurasium. and first he sent forward gontharis, one of his own body-guards and an able warrior, with an army. now gontharis came to the abigas river and made camp near bagaïs, a deserted city. and there he engaged with the enemy, but was defeated in battle, and retiring to his stockade was already being hard pressed by the siege of the moors. but afterwards solomon himself arrived with his whole army, and when he was sixty stades away from the camp which gontharis was commanding, he made a stockade and remained there; and hearing all that had befallen the force of gontharis, he sent them a part of his army and bade them keep up the fight against the enemy with courage. but the moors, having gained the upper hand in the engagement, as i have said, did as follows. the abigas river flows from aurasium, and descending into a plain, waters the land just as the men there desire. for the natives conduct this stream to whatever place they think it will best serve them at the moment, for in this plain there are many channels, into which the abigas is divided, and entering all of them, it passes underground, and reappears again above the ground and gathers its stream together. this takes place over the greatest part of the plain and makes it possible for the inhabitants of the region, by stopping up the waterways with earth, or by again opening them, to make use of the waters of this river as they wish. so at that time the moors shut off all the channels there and thus allowed the whole stream to flow about the camp of the romans. as a result of this, a deep, muddy marsh formed there through which it was impossible to go; this terrified them exceedingly and reduced them to a state of helplessness. when this was heard by solomon, he came quickly. but the barbarians, becoming afraid, withdrew to the foot of aurasium. and in a place which they call babosis they made camp and remained there. so solomon moved with his whole army and came to that place. and upon engaging with the enemy, he defeated them decisively and turned them to flight. now after this the moors did not think it advisable for them to fight a pitched battle with the romans; for they did not hope to overcome them in this kind of contest; but they did have hope, based on the difficult character of the country around aurasium, that the romans would in a short time give up by reason of the sufferings they would have to endure and would withdraw from there, just as they formerly had done. the most of them, therefore, went off to mauretania and the barbarians to the south of aurasium, but iaudas with twenty thousand of the moors remained there. and it happened that he had built a fortress on aurasium, zerboule by name. into this he entered with all the moors and remained quiet. but solomon was by no means willing that time should be wasted in the siege, and learning that the plains about the city of tamougade were full of grain just becoming ripe, he led his army into them, and settling himself there, began to plunder the land. then, after firing everything, he returned again to the fortress of zerboule. but during this time, while the romans were plundering the land, iaudas, leaving behind some of the moors, about as many as he thought would be sufficient for the defence of the fortress, himself ascended to the summit of aurasium with the rest of the army, not wishing to stand siege in the fort and have provisions fail his forces. and finding a high place with cliff's on all sides of it and concealed by perpendicular rocks, toumar by name, he remained quietly there. and the romans besieged the fortress of zerboule for three days. and using their bows, since the wall was not high, they hit many of the barbarians upon the parapets. and by some chance it happened that all the leaders of the moors were hit by these missiles and died. and when the three days' time had passed and night came on, the romans, having learned nothing of the death of the leaders among the moors, were planning to break up the siege. for it seemed better to solomon to go against iaudas and the multitude of the moors, thinking that, if he should be able to capture that force by siege, the barbarians in zerboule would with less trouble and difficulty yield to the romans. but the barbarians, thinking that they could no longer hold out against the siege, since all their leaders had now been destroyed, decided to flee with all speed and abandon the fortress. accordingly they fled immediately in silence and without allowing the enemy in any way to perceive it, and the romans also at daybreak began to prepare for departure. and since no one appeared on the wall, although the besieging army was withdrawing, they began to wonder and fell into the greatest perplexity among themselves. and in this state of uncertainty they went around the fortress and found the gate open from which the moors had departed in flight. and entering the fortress they treated everything as plunder, but they had no thought of pursuing the enemy, for they had set out with light equipment and were familiar with the country round about. and when they had plundered everything, they set guards over the fortress, and all moved forward on foot. xx and coming to the place toumar, where the enemy had shut themselves in and were remaining quiet, they encamped near by in a bad position, where there would be no supply of water, except a little, nor any other necessary thing. and after much time had been spent and the barbarians did not come out against them at all, they themselves, no less than the enemy, if not even more, were hard pressed by the siege and began to be impatient. and more than anything else, they were distressed by the lack of water; this solomon himself guarded, giving each day no more than a single cupful to each man. and since he saw that they were openly discontented and no longer able to bear their present hardships, he planned to make trial of the place, although it was difficult of access, and called all together and exhorted them as follows: "since god has granted to the romans to besiege the moors on aurasium, a thing which hitherto has been beyond hope and now, to such as do not see what is actually being done, is altogether incredible, it is necessary that we too should lend our aid to the help that has come from above, and not prove false to this favour, but undergoing the danger with enthusiasm, should reach after the good fortune which is to come from success. for in every case the turning of the scales of human affairs depends upon the moment of opportunity; but if a man, by wilful cowardice, is traitor to his fortune, he cannot justly blame it, having by his own action brought the guilt upon himself. now as for the moors, you see their weakness surely and the place in which they have shut themselves up and are keeping guard, deprived of all the necessities of life. and as for you, one of two things is necessary, either without feeling any vexation at the siege to await the surrender of the enemy, or, if you shrink from this, to accept the victory which goes with the danger. and fighting against these barbarians will be the more free from danger for us, inasmuch as they are already fighting with hunger and i think they will never even come to an engagement with us. having these things in mind at the present time, it behooves you to execute all your orders with eagerness." after solomon had made this exhortation, he looked about to see from what point it would be best for his men to make an attempt on the place, and for a long time he seemed to be in perplexity. for the difficult nature of the ground seemed to him quite too much to contend with. but while solomon was considering this, chance provided a way for the enterprise as follows. there was a certain gezon in the army, a foot-soldier, "optio"[ ] of the detachment to which solomon belonged; for thus the romans call the paymaster. this gezon, either in play or in anger, or perhaps even moved by some divine impulse, began to make the ascent alone, apparently going against the enemy, and not far from him went some of his fellow-soldiers, marvelling greatly at what he was doing. and three of the moors, who had been stationed to guard the approach, suspecting that the man was coming against them, went on the run to confront him. but since they were in a narrow way, they did not proceed in orderly array, but each one went separately. and gezon struck the first one who came upon him and killed him, and in this way he despatched each of the others. and when those in the rear perceived this, they advanced with much shouting and tumult against the enemy. and when the whole roman army both heard and saw what was being done, without waiting either for the general to lead the way for them or for the trumpets to give the signal for battle, as was customary, nor indeed even keeping their order, but making a great uproar and urging one another on, they ran against the enemy's camp. there rufinus and leontius, the sons of zaunas the son of pharesmanes, made a splendid display of valorous deeds against the enemy. and by this the moors were terror-stricken, and when they learned that their guards also had been destroyed, they straightway turned to flight where each one could, and the most of them were overtaken in the difficult ground and killed. and iaudas himself, though struck by a javelin in the thigh, still made his escape and withdrew to mauretania. but the romans, after plundering the enemy's camp, decided not to abandon aurasium again, but to guard fortresses which solomon was to build there, so that this mountain might not be again accessible to the moors. now there is on aurasium a perpendicular rock which rises in the midst of precipices; the natives call it the rock of geminianus; there the men of ancient times had built a tower, making it very small as a place of refuge, strong and unassailable, since the nature of the position assisted them. here, as it happened, iaudas had a few days previously deposited his money and his women, setting one old moor in charge as guardian of the money. for he could never have suspected that the enemy would either reach this place, or that they could in all time capture the tower by force. but the romans at that time, searching through the rough country of aurasium, came there, and one of them, with a laugh, attempted to climb up to the tower; but the women began to taunt him, ridiculing him as attempting the impossible; and the old man, peering out from the tower, did the same thing. but when the roman soldier, climbing with both hands and feet, had come near them, he drew his sword quietly and leaped forward as quickly as he could, and struck the old man a fair blow on the neck, and succeeded in cutting it through. and the head fell down to the ground, and the soldiers, now emboldened and holding to one another, ascended to the tower, and took out from there both the women and the money, of which there was an exceedingly great quantity. and by means of it solomon surrounded many of the cities in libya with walls. and after the moors had retired from numidia, defeated in the manner described, the land of zabe, which is beyond mt. aurasium and is called "first mauretania," whose metropolis is sitiphis,[ ] was added to the roman empire by solomon as a tributary province; for of the other mauretania caesarea is the first city, where was settled mastigas[ ] with his moors, having the whole country there subject and tributary to him, except, indeed, the city of caesarea. for this city belisarius had previously recovered for the romans, as has been set forth in the previous narrative[ ]; and the romans always journey to this city in ships, but they are not able to go by land, since moors dwell in that country. and as a result of this all the libyans who were subjects of the romans, coming to enjoy secure peace and finding the rule of solomon wise and very moderate, and having no longer any thought of hostility in their minds, seemed the most fortunate of all men. xxi but in the fourth year after this it came about that all their blessings were turned to the opposite. [ - a.d.] for in the seventeenth year of the reign of the emperor justinian, cyrus and sergius, the sons of bacchus, solomon's brother, were assigned by the emperor to rule over the cities in libya, cyrus, the elder, to have pentapolis,[ ] and sergius tripolis. and the moors who are called leuathae came to sergius with a great army at the city of leptimagna,[ ] spreading the report that the reason they had come was this, that sergius might give them the gifts and insignia of office which were customary[ ] and so make the peace secure. but sergius, persuaded by pudentius, a man of tripolis, of whom i made mention in the preceding narrative[ ] as having served the emperor justinian against the vandals at the beginning of the vandalic war, received eighty of the barbarians, their most notable men, into the city, promising to fulfil all their demands; but he commanded the rest to remain in the suburb. then after giving these eighty men pledges concerning the peace, he invited them to a banquet. but they say that these barbarians had come into the city with treacherous intent, that they might lay a trap for sergius and kill him. and when they came into conference with him, they called up many charges against the romans, and in particular said that their crops had been plundered wrongfully. and sergius, paying no heed to these things, rose from the seat on which he was sitting, with intent to go away. and one of the barbarians, laying hold upon his shoulder, attempted to prevent him from going. then the others began to shout in confusion, and were already rushing together about him. but one of the body-guards of sergius, drawing his sword, despatched that moor. and as a result of this a great tumult, as was natural, arose in the room, and the guards of sergius killed all the barbarians. but one of them, upon seeing the others being slain, rushed out of the house where these things were taking place, unnoticed by anyone, and coming to his tribemates, revealed what had befallen their fellows. and when they heard this, they betook themselves on the run to their own camp and together with all the others arrayed themselves in arms against the romans. now when they came near the city of leptimagna, sergius and pudentius confronted them with their whole army. and the battle becoming a hand-to-hand fight, at first the romans were victorious and slew many of the enemy, and, plundering their camp, secured their goods and enslaved an exceedingly great number of women and children. but afterwards pudentius, being possessed by a spirit of reckless daring, was killed; and sergius with the roman army, since it was already growing dark, marched into leptimagna. at a later time the barbarians took the field against the romans with a greater array. and sergius went to join his uncle solomon, in order that he too might go to meet the enemy with a larger army; and he found there his brother cyrus also. and the barbarians, coming into byzacium, made raids and plundered a great part of the country there; and antalas (whom i mentioned in the preceding narrative[ ] as having remained faithful to the romans and as being for this reason sole ruler of the moors in byzacium) had by now, as it happened, become hostile to solomon, because solomon had deprived him of the maintenance with which the emperor had honoured him and had killed his brother, charging him with responsibility for an uprising against the people of byzacium. so at that time antalas was pleased to see these barbarians, and making an offensive and defensive alliance with them, led them against solomon and carthage. and solomon, as soon as he heard about this, put his whole army in motion and marched against them, and coming upon them at the city of tebesta, distant six days' journey from carthage, he established his camp in company with the sons of his brother bacchus, cyrus and sergius and solomon the younger. and fearing the multitude of the barbarians, he sent to the leaders of the leuathae, reproaching them because, while at peace with the romans, they had taken up arms and come against them, and demanding that they should confirm the peace existing between the two peoples, and he promised to swear the most dread oaths, that he would hold no remembrance of what they had done. but the barbarians, mocking his words, said that he would of course swear by the sacred writings of the christians, which they are accustomed to call gospels. now since sergius had once taken these oaths and then had slain those who trusted in them,[ ] it was their desire to go into battle and make a test of these same sacred writings, to see what sort of power they had against the perjurers, in order that they might first have absolute confidence in them before they finally entered into the agreement. when solomon heard this, he made his preparations for the combat. and on the following day he engaged with a portion of the enemy as they were bringing in a very large booty, conquered them in battle, seized all their booty and kept it under guard. and when the soldiers were dissatisfied and counted it an outrage that he did not give them the plunder, he said that he was awaiting the outcome of the war, in order that they might distribute everything then, according to the share that should seem to suit the merit of each. but when the barbarians advanced a second time, with their whole army, to give battle, this time some of the romans stayed behind and the others entered the encounter with no enthusiasm. at first, then, the battle was evenly contested, but later, since the moors were vastly superior by reason of their great numbers, the most of the romans fled, and though solomon and a few men about him held out for a time against the missiles of the barbarians, afterwards they were overpowered by the enemy, and fleeing in haste, reached a ravine made by a brook which flowed in that region. and there solomon's horse stumbled and threw him to the ground, and his body-guards lifted him quickly in their arms and set him upon his horse. but overcome by great pain and unable to hold the reins longer, he was overtaken and killed by the barbarians, and many of his guards besides. such was the end of solomon's life. xxii after the death of solomon, sergius, who, as has been said, was his nephew, took over the government of libya by gift of the emperor. and this man became the chief cause of great ruin to the people of libya, and all were dissatisfied with his rule--the officers because, being exceedingly stupid and young both in character and in years, he proved to be the greatest braggart of all men, and he insulted them for no just cause and disregarded them, always using the power of his wealth and the authority of his office to this end; and the soldiers disliked him because he was altogether unmanly and weak; and the libyans, not only for these reasons, but also because he had shown himself strangely fond of the wives and the possessions of others. but most of all john, the son of sisiniolus, was hostile to the power of sergius; for, though he was an able warrior and was a man of unusually fair repute, he found sergius absolutely ungrateful. for this reason neither he nor anyone else at all was willing to take up arms against the enemy. but almost all the moors were following antalas, and stotzas came at his summons from mauretania. and since not one of the enemy came out against them, they began to sack the country, making plunder of everything without fear. at that time antalas sent to the emperor justinian a letter, which set forth the following: "that i am a slave of thy empire not even i myself would deny, but the moors, having suffered unholy treatment at the hands of solomon in time of peace, have taken up arms under the most severe constraint, not lifting them against thee, but warding off our personal enemy; and this is especially true of me. for he not only decided to deprive me of the maintenance, which belisarius long before specified and thou didst grant, but he also killed my own brother, although he had no wrongdoing to charge against him. we have therefore taken vengeance upon him who wronged us. and if it is thy will that the moors be in subjection to thy empire and serve it in all things as they are accustomed to do, command sergius, the nephew of solomon, to depart from here and return to thee, and send another general to libya. for thou wilt not be lacking in men of discretion and more worthy than sergius in every way; for as long as this man commands thy army, it is impossible for peace to be established between the romans and the moors." such was the letter written by antalas. but the emperor, even after reading these things and learning the common enmity of all toward sergius, was still unwilling to remove him from his office, out of respect for the virtues of solomon and especially the manner of his death. such, then, was the course of these events. but solomon, the brother of sergius, who was supposed to have disappeared from the world together with his uncle solomon, was forgotten by his brother and by the rest as well; for no one had learned that he was alive. but the moors, as it happened, had taken him alive, since he was very young; and they enquired of him who he was. and he said that he was a vandal by birth, and a slave of solomon. he said, moreover, that he had a friend, a physician, pegasius by name, in the city of laribus near by, who would purchase him by giving ransom. so the moors came up close to the fortifications of the city and called pegasius and displayed solomon to him, and asked whether it was his pleasure to purchase the man. and since he agreed to purchase him, they sold solomon to him for fifty pieces of gold. but upon getting inside the fortifications, solomon taunted the moors as having been deceived by him, a mere lad; for he said that he was no other than solomon, the son of bacchus and nephew of solomon. and the moors, being deeply stung by what had happened, and counting it a terrible thing that, while having a strong security for the conduct of sergius and the romans, they had relinquished it so carelessly, came to laribus and laid siege to the place, in order to capture solomon with the city. and the besieged, in terror at being shut in by the barbarians, for they had not even carried in provisions, as it happened, opened negotiations with the moors, proposing that upon receiving a great sum of money they should straightway abandon the siege. whereupon the barbarians, thinking that they could never take the city by force--for the moors are not at all practised in the storming of walls--and at the same time not knowing that provisions were scarce for the besieged, welcomed their words, and when they had received three thousand pieces of gold, they abandoned the siege, and all the leuathae retired homeward. xxiii but antalas and the army of the moors were gathering again in byzacium and stotzas was with them, having some few soldiers and vandals. and john, the son of sisiniolus, being earnestly entreated by the libyans, gathered an army and marched against them. now himerius, the thracian, was commander of the troops in byzacium, and at that time he was ordered by john to bring with him all the troops there, together with the commanders of each detachment, and come to a place called menephesse, which is in byzacium, and join his force there. but later, upon hearing that the enemy were encamped there, john wrote to himerius telling what had happened and directing him to unite with his forces at another place, that they might not go separately, but all together, to encounter the enemy. but by some chance those who had this letter, making use of another road, were quite unable to find himerius, and he together with his army, coming upon the camp of the enemy, fell into their hands. now there was in this roman army a certain youth, severianus, son of asiaticus, a phoenician and a native of emesa, commanding a detachment of horse. this man alone, together with the soldiers under him, fifty in number, engaged with the enemy. and for some time they held out, but later, being overpowered by the great multitude, they ran to the top of a hill in the neighbourhood on which there was also a fort, but one which offered no security. for this reason they surrendered themselves to their opponents when they ascended the hill to attack them. and the moors killed neither him nor any of the soldiers, but they made prisoners of the whole force; and himerius they kept under guard, and handed over his soldiers to stotzas, since they agreed with great readiness to march with the rebels against the romans; himerius, however, they threatened with death, if he should not carry out their commands. and they commanded him to put into their hands by some device the city of hadrumetum on the sea. and since he declared that he was willing, they went with him against hadrumetum. and upon coming near the city, they sent himerius a little in advance with some of the soldiers of stotzas, dragging along, as it seemed, some moors in chains, and they themselves followed behind. and they directed himerius to say to those in command of the gates of the city that the emperor's army had won a decisive victory, and that john would come very soon, bringing an innumerable multitude of moorish captives; and when in this manner the gates had been opened to them, he was to get inside the fortifications together with those who went with him. and he carried out these instructions. and the citizens of hadrumetum, being deceived in this way (for they could not distrust the commander of all the troops in byzacium), opened wide the gates and received the enemy. then, indeed, those who had entered with himerius drew their swords and would not allow the guards there to shut the gates again, but straightway received the whole army of the moors into the city. and the barbarians, after plundering it and establishing there some few guards, departed. and of the romans who had been captured some few escaped and came to carthage, among whom were severianus and himerius. for it was not difficult for those who wished it to make their escape from moors. and many also, not at all unwillingly, remained with stotzas. not long after this one of the priests, paulus by name, who had been appointed to take charge of the sick, in conferring with some of the nobles, said: "i myself shall journey to carthage and i am hopeful that i shall return quickly with an army, and it will be your care to receive the emperor's forces into the city." so they attached some ropes to him and let him down by night from the fortifications, and he, coming to the sea-shore and happening upon a fishing-vessel which was thereabouts, won over the masters of this boat by great sums of money and sailed off to carthage. and when he had landed there and come into the presence of sergius, he told the whole story and asked him to give him a considerable army in order to recover hadrumetum. and since this by no means pleased sergius, inasmuch as the army in carthage was not great, the priest begged him to give him some few soldiers, and receiving not more than eighty men, he formed the following plan. he collected a large number of boats and skiffs and embarked on them many sailors and libyans also, clad in the garments which the roman soldiers are accustomed to wear. and setting off with the whole fleet, he sailed at full speed straight for hadrumetum. and when he had come close to it, he sent some men stealthily and declared to the notables of the city that germanus, the emperor's nephew, had recently come to carthage, and had sent a very considerable army to the citizens of hadrumetum. and he bade them take courage at this and open for them one small gate that night. and they carried out his orders. thus paulus with his followers got inside the fortifications, and he slew all the enemy and recovered hadrumetum for the emperor; and the rumour about germanus, beginning there, went even to carthage. and the moors, as well as stotzas and his followers, upon hearing this, at first became terrified and went off in flight to the extremities of libya, but later, upon learning the truth, they counted it a terrible thing that they, after sparing all the citizens of hadrumetum, had suffered such things at their hands. for this reason they made raids everywhere and wrought unholy deeds upon the libyans, sparing no one whatever his age, and the land became at that time for the most part depopulated. for of the libyans who had been left some fled into the cities and some to sicily and the other islands. but almost all the notables came to byzantium, among whom was paulus also, who had recovered hadrumetum for the emperor. and the moors with still less fear, since no one came out against them, were plundering everything, and with them stotzas, who was now powerful. for many roman soldiers were following him, some who had come as deserters, and others who had been in the beginning captives but now remained with him of their own free will. and john, who was indeed a man of some reputation among the moors, was remaining quiet because of the extreme hostility he had conceived against sergius. xxiv at this time the emperor sent to libya, with some few soldiers, another general, areobindus, a man of the senate and of good birth, but not at all skilled in matters of warfare. and he sent with him athanasius, a prefect, who had come recently from italy, and some few armenians led by artabanes and john, sons of john, of the line of the arsacidae,[ ] who had recently left the persian army and as deserters had come back to the romans, together with the other armenians. and with areobindus was his sister and prejecta, his wife, who was the daughter of vigilantia, the sister of the emperor justinian. the emperor, however, did not recall sergius, but commanded both him and areobindus to be generals of libya, dividing the country and the detachments of soldiers between them. and he enjoined upon sergius to carry on the war against the barbarians in numidia, and upon areobindus to direct his operations constantly against the moors in byzacium. and when this expedition lauded at carthage, sergius departed forthwith for numidia with his own army, and areobindus, upon learning that antalas and stotzas were encamped near the city of siccaveneria, which is three days' journey distant from carthage, commanded john, the son of sisiniolus, to go against them, choosing out whatever was best of the army; and he wrote to sergius to unite with the forces of john, in order that they might all with one common force engage with the enemy. now sergius decided to pay no heed to the message and have nothing to do with this affair, and john with a small army was compelled to engage with an innumerable host of the enemy. and there had always been great enmity between him and stotzas, and each one used to pray that he might become the slayer of the other before departing from the world. at that time, accordingly, as soon as the fighting was about to come to close quarters, both rode out from their armies and came against each other. and john drew his bow, and, as stotzas was still advancing, made a successful shot and hit him in the right groin, and stotzas, mortally wounded, fell there, not yet dead, but destined to survive this wound only a little time. and all came up immediately, both the moorish army and those who followed stotzas, and placing stotzas with little life in him against a tree, they advanced upon their enemy with great fury; and since they were far superior in numbers, they routed john and all the romans with no difficulty. then, indeed, they say, john remarked that death had now a certain sweetness for him, since his prayer regarding stotzas had reached fulfilment. and there was a steep place near by, where his horse stumbled and threw him off. and as he was trying to leap upon the horse again, the enemy caught and killed him, a man who had shown himself great both in reputation and in valour. and stotzas learned this and then died, remarking only that now it was most sweet to die. in this battle john, the armenian, brother of artabanes, also died, after making a display of valorous deeds against the enemy. and the emperor, upon hearing this, was very deeply grieved because of the valour of john; and thinking it inexpedient for the two generals to administer the province, he immediately recalled sergius and sent him to italy with an army, and gave over the whole power of libya to areobindus. xxv and two months after sergius had departed from there, gontharis essayed to set up a tyranny in the following manner. he himself, as it happened, was commanding the troops in numidia and spending his time there for that reason, but he was secretly treating with the moors that they might march against carthage. forthwith, therefore, an army of the enemy, having been gathered into one place from numidia and byzacium, went with great zeal against carthage. and the numidians were commanded by coutzinas and iaudas, and the men of byzacium by antalas. and with him was also john, the tyrant, and his followers; for the mutineers, after the death of stotzas, had set him up as ruler over themselves. and when areobindus learned of their attack, he summoned to carthage a number of the officers with their men, and among them gontharis. and he was joined also by artabanes and the armenians. areobindus, accordingly, bade gontharis lead the whole army against the enemy. and gontharis, though he had promised to serve him zealously in the war, proceeded to act as follows. one of his servants, a moor by birth and a cook by trade, he commanded to go to the enemy's camp, and to make it appear to all others that he had run away from his master, but to tell antalas secretly that gontharis wished to share with him the rule of libya. so the cook carried out these directions, and antalas heard the word gladly, but made no further reply than to say that worthy enterprises are not properly brought to pass among men by cooks. when this was heard by gontharis, he immediately sent to antalas one of his body-guards, ulitheus by name, whom he had found especially trustworthy in his service, inviting him to come as close as possible to carthage. for, if this were done, he promised him to put areobindus out of the way. so ulitheus without the knowledge of the rest of the barbarians made an agreement with antalas that he, antalas, should rule byzacium, having half the possessions of areobindus and taking with him fifteen hundred roman soldiers, while gontharis should assume the dignity of king, holding the power over carthage and the rest of libya. and after settling these matters he returned to the roman camp, which they had made entirely in front of the circuit-wall, distributing among themselves the guarding of each gate. and the barbarians not long afterwards proceeded straight for carthage in great haste, and they made camp and remained in the place called decimum.[ ] and departing from there on the following day, they were moving forward. but some of the roman army encountered them, and engaging with them unexpectedly, slew a small number of the moors. but these were straightway called back by gontharis, who rebuked them for acting with reckless daring and for being willing to give the romans foreknowledge of the danger into which they were thrown. but in the meantime areobindus sent to coutzinas secretly and began to treat with him with regard to turning traitor. and coutzinas promised him that, as soon as they should begin the action, he would turn against antalas and the moors of byzacium. for the moors keep faith neither with any other men nor with each other. this areobindus reported to gontharis. and he, wishing to frustrate the enterprise by having it postponed, advised areobindus by no means to have faith in coutzinas, unless he should receive from him his children as hostages. so areobindus and coutzinas, constantly sending secret messages to each other, were busying themselves with the plot against antalas. and gontharis sent ulitheus once more and made known to antalas what was being done. and he decided not to make any charges against coutzinas nor did he allow him to know that he had discovered the plot, nor indeed did he disclose anything of what had been agreed upon by himself and gontharis. but though enemies and hostile at heart to one another, they were arrayed together with treacherous intent, and each of them was marching with the other against his own particular friend. with such purposes coutzinas and antalas were leading the moorish army against carthage. and gontharis was intending to kill areobindus, but, in order to avoid the appearance of aiming at sole power, he wished to do this secretly in battle, in order that it might seem that the plot had been made by others against the general, and that he had been compelled by the roman army to assume command over libya. accordingly he circumvented areobindus by deceit, and persuaded him to go out against the enemy and engage with them, now that they had already come close to carthage. he decided, therefore, that on the following day he would lead the whole army against the enemy at sunrise. but areobindus, being very inexperienced in this matter and reluctant besides, kept holding back for no good reason. for while considering how he should put on his equipment of arms and armour, and making the other preparations for the sally, he wasted the greatest part of the day. he accordingly put off the engagement to the following day and remained quiet. but gontharis, suspecting that he had hesitated purposely, as being aware of what was being done, decided openly to accomplish the murder of the general and make his attempt at the tyranny. xxvi and on the succeeding day he proceeded to act as follows. opening wide the gates where he himself kept guard, he placed huge rocks under them, that no one might be able easily to shut them, and he placed armoured men with bows in their hands about the parapet in great numbers, and he himself, having put on his breastplate, took his stand between the gates. and his purpose in doing this was not that he might receive the moors into the city; for the moors, being altogether fickle, are suspicious of all men. and it is not unnatural that they are so; for whoever is by nature treacherous toward his neighbours is himself unable to trust anyone at all, but he is compelled to be suspicious of all men, since he estimates the character of his neighbour by his own mind. for this reason, then, gontharis did not hope that even the moors would trust him and come inside the circuit-wall, but he made this move in order that areobindus, falling into great fear, might straightway rush off in flight, and, abandoning carthage as quickly as he could, might betake himself to byzantium. and he would have been right in his expectation had not winter come on just then and frustrated his plan. [ - a.d.] and areobindus, learning what was being done, summoned athanasius and some of the notables. and artabanes also came to him from the camp with two others and he urged areobindus neither to lose heart nor to give way to the daring of gontharis, but to go against him instantly with all his men and engage him in battle, before any further trouble arose. at first, then, areobindus sent to gontharis one of his friends, phredas by name, and commanded him to test the other's purpose. and when phredas returned and reported that gontharis by no means denied his intention of seizing the supreme power, he purposed immediately to go against him arrayed for battle. but in the meantime gontharis slandered areobindus to the soldiers, saying that he was a coward and not only possessed with fear of the enemy, but at the same time quite unwilling to give them, his soldiers, their pay, and that he was planning to run away with anastasius and that they were about to sail very soon from mandracium[ ], in order that the soldiers, fighting both with hunger and with the moors, might be destroyed; and he enquired whether it was their wish to arrest both and keep them under guard. for thus he hoped either that areobindus, perceiving the tumult, would turn to flight, or that he would be captured by the soldiers and ruthlessly put to death. moreover he promised that he himself would advance to the soldiers money of his own, as much as the government owed them. and they were approving his words and were possessed with great wrath against areobindus, but while this was going on areobindus together with artabanes and his followers came there. and a battle took place on the parapet and below about the gate where gontharis had taken his stand, and neither side was worsted. and all were about to gather from the camps, as many as were well disposed to the emperor, and capture the mutineers by force. for gontharis had not as yet deceived all, but the majority remained still uncorrupted in mind. but areobindus, seeing then for the first time the killing of men (for he had not yet, as it happened, become acquainted with this sight), was terror-stricken and, turning coward, fled, unable to endure what he saw. now there is a temple inside the fortifications of carthage hard by the sea-shore, the abode of men who are very exact in their practice of religion, whom we have always been accustomed to call "monks"; this temple had been built by solomon not long before, and he had surrounded it with a wall and rendered it a very strong fortress. and areobindus, fleeing for refuge, rushed into the monastery, where he had already sent his wife and sister. then artabanes too ran away, and all the rest withdrew from carthage as each one could. and gontharis, having taken the city by assault, with the mutineers took possession of the palace, and was already guarding both the gates and the harbour most carefully. first, then, he summoned athanasius, who came to him without delay, and by using much flattery athanasius made it appear that what had been done pleased him exceedingly. and after this gontharis sent the priest of the city and commanded areobindus, after receiving pledges, to come to the palace, threatening that he would besiege him if he disobeyed and would not again give him pledges of safety, but would use every means to capture and put him to death. so the priest, reparatus, stoutly declared to areobindus that in accordance with the decision of gontharis he would swear that no harm would come to him from gontharis, telling also what he had threatened in case he did not obey. but areobindus became afraid and agreed that he would follow the priest immediately, if the priest, after performing the rite of the sacred bath[ ] in the usual manner, should swear to him by that rite and then give him pledges for his safety. so the priest did according to this. and areobindus without delay followed him, clad in a garment which was suitable neither for a general nor for any one else in military service, but altogether appropriate to a slave or one of private station; this garment the romans call "casula"[ ] in the latin tongue. and when they came near the palace, he took in his hands the holy scriptures from the priest, and so went before gontharis. and falling prone he lay there a long time, holding out to him the suppliant olive-branch and the holy scriptures, and with him was the child which had been counted worthy of the sacred bath by which the priest had given him the pledge, as has been told. and when, with difficulty, gontharis had raised him to his feet, he enquired of gontharis in the name of all things holy whether his safety was secure. and gontharis now bade him most positively to be of good cheer, for he would suffer no harm at his hands, but on the following day would be gone from carthage with his wife and his possessions. then he dismissed the priest reparatus, and bade areobindus and athanasius dine with him in the palace. and during the dinner he honoured areobindus, inviting him to take his place first on the couch; but after the dinner he did not let him go, but compelled him to sleep in a chamber alone; and he sent there ulitheus with certain others to assail him. and while he was wailing and crying aloud again and again and speaking many entreating words to them to move them to pity, they slew him. athanasius, however, they spared, passing him by, i suppose, on account of his advanced age. xxvii and on the following day gontharis sent the head of areobindus to antalas, but decided to deprive him of the money and of the soldiers. antalas, therefore, was outraged, because he was not carrying out anything of what had been agreed with him, and at the same time, upon considering what gontharis had sworn and what he had done to areobindus, he was incensed. for it did not seem to him that one who had disregarded such oaths would ever be faithful either to him or to anyone else at all. so after considering the matter long with himself, he was desirous of submitting to the emperor justinian; for this reason, then, he marched back. and learning that marcentius, who commanded the troops in byzacium, had fled to one of the islands which lie off the coast, he sent to him, and telling him the whole story and giving pledges, persuaded him by kind words to come to him. and marcentius remained with antalas in the camp, while the soldiers who were on duty in byzacium, being well disposed to the emperor, were guarding the city of hadrumetum. but the soldiers of stotzas, being not less than a thousand, perceiving what was being done, went in great haste, with john leading them, to gontharis; and he gladly received them into the city. now there were five hundred romans and about eighty huns, while all the rest were vandals. and artabanes, upon receiving pledges, went up to the palace with his armenians, and promised to serve the tyrant according to his orders. but secretly he was purposing to destroy gontharis, having previously communicated this purpose to gregorius, his nephew, and to artasires, his body-guard. and gregorius, urging him on to the undertaking, spoke as follows: "artabanes, the opportunity is now at hand for you, and you alone, to win the glory of belisarius--nay more, even to surpass that glory by far. for he came here, having received from the emperor a most formidable army and great sums of money, having officers accompanying him and advisers in great numbers, and a fleet of ships whose like we have never before heard tell of, and numerous cavalry, and arms, and everything else, to put it in a word, prepared for him in a manner worthy of the roman empire. and thus equipped he won back libya for the romans with much toil. but all these achievements have so completely come to naught, that they are, at this moment, as if they had never been--except indeed, that there is at present left to the romans from the victory of belisarius the losses they have suffered in lives and in money, and, in addition, that they are no longer able even to guard the good things they won. but the winning back of all these things for the emperor now depends upon the courage and judgment and right hand of you alone. therefore consider that you are of the house of the arsacidae by ancient descent, and remember that it is seemly for men of noble birth to play the part of brave men always and in all places. now many remarkable deeds have been performed by you in behalf of freedom. for when you were still young, you slew acacius,[ ] the ruler of the armenians, and sittas,[ ] the general of the romans, and as a result of this becoming known to the king chosroes, you campaigned with him against the romans. and since you have reached so great a station that it devolves upon you not to allow the roman power to lie subject to a drunken dog, show at this time that it was by reason of noble birth and a valorous heart that at the former time, good sir, you performed those deeds; and i as well as artasires here will assist you in everything, so far as we have the power, in accordance with your commands." so spoke gregorius; and he excited the mind of artabanes still more against the tyrant. but gontharis, bringing out the wife and the sister of areobindus from the fortress, compelled them to remain at a certain house, showing them no insult by any word or deed whatsoever, nor did they have provisions in any less measure than they needed, nor were they compelled to say or to do anything except, indeed, that prejecta was forced to write to her uncle[ ] that gontharis was honouring them exceedingly and that he was altogether guiltless of the murder of her husband, and that the base deed had been done by ulitheus, gontharis by no means approving. and gontharis was persuaded to do this by pasiphilus, a man who had been foremost among the mutineers in byzacium, and had assisted gontharis very greatly in his effort to establish the tyranny. for pasiphilus maintained that, if he should do this, the emperor would marry the young woman to him, and in view of his kinship with her would give also a, dowry of a large sum of money. and gontharis commanded artabanes to lead the army against antalas and the moors in byzacium. for coutzinas, having quarrelled with antalas, had separated from him openly and allied himself with gontharis; and he gave gontharis his son and his mother as hostages. so the army, under the leadership of artabanes, proceeded immediately against antalas. and with artabanes was john also, the commander of the mutineers of stotzas, and ulitheus, the body-guard of gontharis; and there were moors also following him, led by coutzinas. and after passing by the city of hadrumetum, they came upon their opponents somewhere near there, and making a camp a little apart from the enemy, they passed the night. and on the day after that john and ulitheus, with a detachment of the army, remained there, while artabanes and coutzinas led their army against their opponents. and the moors under antalas did not withstand their attack and rushed off in flight. but artabanes of a sudden wilfully played the coward, and turning his standard about marched off towards the rear. for this reason ulitheus was purposing to kill him when he came into the camp. but artabanes, by way of excusing himself, said he feared lest marcentius, coming to assist the enemy from the city of hadrumetum, where he then happened to be, would do his forces irreparable harm; but gontharis, he said, ought to march against the enemy with the whole army. and at first he considered going to hadrumetum with his followers and uniting with the emperor's forces. but after long deliberation it seemed to him better to put gontharis out of the world and thus free both the emperor and libya from a difficult situation. returning, accordingly, to carthage, he reported to the tyrant that he would need a larger army to meet the enemy. and gontharis, after conferring with pasiphilus, consented, indeed, to equip his whole army, but purposed to place a guard in carthage, and in person to lead the army against the enemy. each day, therefore, he was destroying many men toward whom he felt any suspicion, even though groundless. and he gave orders to pasiphilus, whom he was intending to appoint in charge of the garrison of carthage, to kill all the greeks[ ] without any consideration. xxviii and after arranging everything else in the very best way, as it seemed to him, gontharis decided to entertain his friends at a banquet, with the intention of making his departure on the following day. and in a room where there were in readiness three couches which had been there from ancient times, he made the banquet. so he himself reclined, as was natural, upon the first couch, where were also athanasius and artabanes, and some of those known to gontharis, and peter, a thracian by birth, who had previously been a body-guard of solomon. and on both the other couches were the first and noblest of the vandals. john, however, who commanded the mutineers of stotzas; was entertained by pasiphilus in his own house, and each of the other leaders wherever it suited the several friends of gontharis to entertain them. artabanes, accordingly, when he was bidden to this banquet, thinking that this occasion furnished him a suitable opportunity for the murder of the tyrant, was planning to carry out his purpose. he therefore disclosed the matter to gregorius and to artasires and three other body-guards, bidding the body-guards get inside the hall with their swords (for when commanders are entertained at a banquet it is customary for their body-guards to stand behind them), and after getting inside to make an attack suddenly, at whatever moment should seem to them most suitable; and artasires was to strike the first blow. at the same time he directed gregorius to pick out a large number of the most daring of the armenians and bring them to the palace, carrying only their swords in their hands (for it is not lawful for the escort of officers in a city to be armed with anything else), and leaving these men in the vestibule, to come inside with the body-guards; and he was to tell the plan to no one of them, but to make only this explanation, that he was suspicious of gontharis, fearing that he had called artabanes to this banquet to do him harm, and therefore wished that they should stand beside the soldiers of gontharis who had been stationed there on guard, and giving the appearance of indulging in some play, they were to take hold of the shields which these guards carried, and waving them about and otherwise moving them keep constantly turning them up and down; and if any tumult or shouting took place within, they were to take up these very shields and come to the rescue on the run. such were the orders which artabanes gave, and gregorius proceeded to put them into execution. and artasires devised the following plan: he cut some arrows into two parts and placed them on the wrist of his left arm, the sections reaching to his elbow. and after binding them very carefully with straps, he laid over them the sleeve of his tunic. and he did this in order that, if anyone should raise his sword over him and attempt to strike him, he might avoid the chance of suffering serious injury; for he had only to thrust his left arm in front of him, and the steel would break off as it crashed upon the wood, and thus his body could not be reached at any point. with such purpose, then, artasires did as i have said. and to artabanes he spoke as follows: "as for me, i have hopes that i shall prove equal to the undertaking and shall not hesitate, and also that i shall touch the body of gontharis with this sword; but as for what will follow, i am unable to say whether god in his anger against the tyrant will co-operate with me in this daring deed, or whether, avenging some sin of mine, he will stand against me there and be an obstacle in my way. if, therefore, you see that the tyrant is not wounded in a vital spot, do you kill me with my sword without the least hesitation, so that i may not be tortured by him into saying that it was by your will that i rushed into the undertaking, and thus not only perish myself most shamefully, but also be compelled against my will to destroy you as well." and after artasires had spoken such words he too, together with gregorius and one of the body-guards, entered the room where the couches were and took his stand behind artabanes. and the rest, remaining by the guards, did as they had been commanded. so artasires, when the banquet had only just begun, was purposing to set to work, and he was already touching the hilt of his sword. but gregorius prevented him by saying in the armenian tongue that gontharis was still wholly himself, not having as yet drunk any great quantity of wine. then artasires groaned and said: "my good fellow, how fine a heart i have for the deed, and now you have for the moment wrongfully hindered me!" and as the drinking went on, gontharis, who by now was thoroughly saturated with wine, began to give portions of the food to the body-guards, yielding to a generous mood. and they, upon receiving these portions, went outside the building immediately and were about to eat them, leaving beside gontharis only three body-guards, one of whom happened to be ulitheus. and artasires also started to go out in order to taste the morsels with the rest. but just then a kind of fear came over him lest, when he should wish to draw his sword, something might prevent him. accordingly, as soon as he got outside, he secretly threw away the sheath of the sword, and taking it naked under his arm, hidden by his cloak, he rushed in to gontharis, as if to say something without the knowledge of the others. and artabanes, seeing this, was in a fever of excitement, and became exceedingly anxious by reason of the surpassing magnitude of the issue at stake; he began to move his head, the colour of his countenance changed repeatedly, and he seemed to have become altogether like one inspired, on account of the greatness of the undertaking. and peter, upon seeing this, understood what was being done, but he did not disclose it to any of the others, because, being well disposed to the emperor, he was exceedingly pleased by what was going on. and artasires, having come close to the tyrant, was pushed by one of the servants, and as he retreated a little to the rear, the servant observed that his sword was bared and cried out saying: "what is this, my excellent fellow?" and gontharis, putting his hand to his right ear, and turning his face, looked at him. and artasires struck him with his sword as he did so, and cut off a piece of his scalp together with his fingers. and peter cried out and exhorted artasires to kill the most unholy of all men. and artabanes, seeing gontharis leaping to his feet (for he reclined close to him), drew a two-edged dagger which hung by his thigh--a rather large one--and thrusting it into the tyrant's left side clean up to the hilt, left it there. and the tyrant none the less tried to leap up, but having received a mortal wound, he fell where he was. ulitheus then brought his sword down upon artasires as if to strike him over the head; but he held his left arm above his head, and thus profited by his own idea in the moment of greatest need. for since ulitheus' sword had its edge turned when it struck the sections of arrows on his arm, he himself was unscathed, and he killed ulitheus with no difficulty. and peter and artabanes, the one seizing the sword of gontharis and the other that of ulitheus who had fallen, killed on the spot those of the body-guards who remained. thus there arose, as was natural, an exceedingly great tumult and confusion. and when this was perceived by those of the armenians who were standing by the tyrant's guards, they immediately picked up the shields according to the plan which had been arranged with them, and went on the run to the banquet-room. and they slew all the vandals and the friends of gontharis, no one resisting. then artabanes enjoined upon athanasius to take charge of the money in the palace: for all that had been left by areobindus was there. and when the guards learned of the death of gontharis, straightway many arrayed themselves with the armenians; for the most of them were of the household of areobindus. with one accord, therefore, they proclaimed the emperor justinian triumphant. and the cry, coming forth from a multitude of men, and being, therefore, an exceedingly mighty sound, was strong enough to reach the greater part of the city. wherefore those who were well-disposed to the emperor leaped into the houses of the mutineers and straightway killed them, some while enjoying sleep, others while taking food, and still others while they were awe-struck with fear and in terrible perplexity. and among these was pasiphilus, but not john, for he with some of the vandals fled to the sanctuary. to these artabanes gave pledges, and making them rise from there, sent them to byzantium, and having thus recovered the city for the emperor, he continued to guard it. and the murder of the tyrant took place on the thirty-sixth day of the tyranny, in the nineteenth year of the reign of the emperor justinian. [ - a.d.] and artabanes won great fame for himself from this deed among all men. and straightway prejecta, the wife of areobindus, rewarded him with great sums of money, and the emperor appointed him general of all libya. but not long after this artabanes entreated the emperor to summon him to byzantium, and the emperor fulfilled his request. and having summoned artabanes, he appointed john, the brother of pappus, sole general of libya. and this john, immediately upon arriving in libya, had an engagement with antalas and the moors in byzacium, and conquering them in battle, slew many; and he wrested from these barbarians all the standards of solomon, and sent them to the emperor--standards which they had previously secured as plunder, when solomon had been taken from the world.[ ] and the rest of the moors he drove as far as possible from the roman territory. but at a later time the leuathae came again with a great army from the country about tripolis to byzacium, and united with the forces of antalas. and when john went to meet this army, he was defeated in the engagement, and losing many of his men, fled to laribus. and then indeed the enemy, overrunning the whole country there as far as carthage, treated in a terrible manner those libyans who fell in their way. but not long afterward john collected those of the soldiers who had survived, and drawing into alliance with him many moors and especially those under coutzinas, came to battle with the enemy and unexpectedly routed them. and the romans, following them up as they fled in complete disorder, slew a great part of them, while the rest escaped to the confines of libya. thus it came to pass that those of the libyans who survived, few as they were in number and exceedingly poor, at last and after great toil found some peace. footnotes: [ ] the _vexillum praetorium_ carried by the cavalry of the imperial guard, iv. x. below; cf. lat. _pannum_. [ ] see iii. xxiv. . [ ] "auxiliaries"; see book iii. xi. and note. [ ] chap. i. . [ ] chap. i. . [ ] now bona; it was the home and burial-place of st. augustine. [ ] the eruli, or heruli, were one of the wildest and most corrupt of the barbarian tribes. they came from beyond the danube. on their origin, practices, and character, see vi. xiv. [ ] the greek implies that the tuscan sea was stormy, like the adriatic. the syrtes farther east had a bad reputation. [ ] about twelve miles west of algiers, originally iol, now cherchel; named after augustus. [ ] see iii. i. and note. [ ] see iii. i. . [ ] book iii. ix. . [ ] see iii. x. [ ] lilybaeum had been ceded to the vandals by theoderic as dower of his sister amalafrida on her marriage to thrasamund, the african king (iii. viii. ). [ ] "friendship" and "hostility" refer to the present relations between justinian and the goths and what they may become. [ ] amalasountha. [ ] the correspondence between queen amalasountha and justinian is given in v. iii. . [ ] in latin _serica_, "silk," as coming from the chinese (seres). [ ] cf. thucydides' description of the huts in which the athenians lived during the great plague. [ ] pharas and the other eruli. [ ] cf. ch. vi. . [ ] "auxiliaries"; see book iii. xi. . [ ] _i.e._ there in africa, as successor to the throne of the vandal kings. [ ] book iii. xxv. - . [ ] examples of the roman system have come to light in egyptian papyri: cf. the declarations of personal property, [greek: apographai], _pap. lond._, i., p. ; _flinders petrie pap._, iii., p. , ed. mahaffy and smyly. [ ] since a triumph was granted only to an _imperator_, after the establishment of the principate by augustus all triumphs were celebrated in the name of the emperor himself, the victorious general receiving only the _insignia triumphalia_. the first general to refuse a triumph was agrippa, after his campaign in spain, about years before belisarius' triumph in constantinople. [ ] the barriers (_carceres_), or starting-point for the racers, were at the open end of the hippodrome, the imperial box at the middle of the course at the right as one entered. [ ] cf. book iii. v. ; that was in a.d. . the spoliation of jerusalem by titus had taken place in a.d. . [ ] ecclesiastes, i. . [ ] not an actual "triumph," but a triumphal celebration of his inauguration as consul. [ ] the reference is to the old custom of distributing to the populace largesses (_congiaria_) of money or valuables on the occasion of events of interest to the imperial house, such as the emperor's assumption of the consular office, birthdays, etc. the first largess of this kind was made by julius caesar. [ ] cf. book iv. ii. . [ ] the canaanites of the old testament. [ ] _i.e._, clypea, or aspis, now kalibia, on the carthaginian coast. [ ] _i.e._, from tangier, opposite cadiz, to algiers. on caesarea see iv. v. and note. [ ] "on the borders of mauretania" according to procopius, _de aedificiis_, vi. . . [ ] chap. x. . [ ] book iii. viii. , . [ ] the side toward the mountains; cf. § . [ ] in the late empire the _excubitores_, in number, constituted the select guard of the palace. their commander, _comes excubitorum_, held high rank at court; cf. viii. xxi. , where we are told that belisarius held this position, and _arcana_ . , where justin, afterwards emperor, is mentioned. [ ] cf. chap. viii. . procopius has explained in iii. xi. that solomon was a eunuch. [ ] see iii. viii. . [ ] a _comes foedtratorum_, mentioned in iii. xi. . [ ] book iii. viii. . [ ] _i.e._ clypea. not the place mentioned in iv. x. . [ ] the region in the interior of sardinia called barbargia or barbagia still preserves this name. but procopius' explanation of the origin of the barbarian settlers there has not been generally accepted. [ ] book iii. xviii. ff. [ ] iv. iv. and note. [ ] baptism was administered only during the fifty days between easter and pentecost. justinian had forbidden the baptism of arians. [ ] cf. iii. xi. . [ ] cf. chap. xiv. . [ ] "auxiliaries"; see book iii. xi. . [ ] more correctly gadiaufala, now ksar-sbehi. [ ] cirta, later named constantina, now constantine (ksantina). [ ] john the cappadocian, cf. i. xxiv. ff. [ ] see book iii. xvii. and note. [ ] now setif. [ ] called mastinas in iv. xiii. . [ ] book iv. v. . [ ] cyrenaica. [ ] now lebida. [ ] cf. iii. xxv. ff. [ ] book iii. x. ff. [ ] book iv. xii. . [ ] a reference to his slaughter of the eighty notables, iv. xxi. , where, however, nothing is said of an oath sworn on the gospels. [ ] cf. book ii. iii. . [ ] cf. book iii. xvii. , xxi. . [ ] the port of carthage; see iii. xx. . [ ] _i.e._ baptism. [ ] a garment with a cowl, like the _cucullus_. [ ] cf. book ii. iii. . [ ] cf. book ii. iii. . [ ] justinian. [ ] a contemptuous term for "subjects of the emperor." [ ] see book iv. xxi. . * * * * * index abigas river, in numidia, flowing down from mt. aurasium, iv. xix. , , xiii. ; its many channels, iv. xix. - ; turned upon the roman camp, iv. x. abydus, city on the hellespont, iii. i. ; the roman fleet delayed there, iii. xii. -xiii. acacius, ruler of armenians; slain by artabanes, iv. xxvii. acacius, priest of byzantium, delivers over basiliscus, iii. vii. achilles, bath of, in byzantium, iii. xiii. achilles, the, of the vandals, name applied to hoamer, iii. ix. aclas, suburb of carthage, iv. vii. adaulphus, king of the visigoths, iii. ii. adriatic sea, divided from the tuscan sea by the islands gaulus and melite, iii. xiv. ; crossed by the roman fleet, iii. xiii. ; the scene of one of gizeric's atrocities, iii. xxii. aetius, roman general; his splendid qualities, iii. iii. , ; rival of boniface, iii. iii. ; whom he slanders to placidia, iii. iii. ; writes a deceitful letter to boniface, iii. iii. , ; spared by placidia by reason of his great power, iii. iii. ; defeats attila, iii. iv. ; maximus plans to destroy him, iii. iv. , ; slandered to the emperor, iii. iv. ; his death, iii. iv. , vi. ; a great loss to the emperor, iii. iv. aetna, mountain in sicily, iii. xiii. aïgan, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius, iii, xi. , , iv. x. ; commander of cavalry, iii. xi. ; on the right wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; makes a successful attack upon the moors in byzacium, iv. x. ; his force in turn annihilated by the moors, iv. x. ff.; his death, iv. x. , xi. alani, a gothic people, allies of the vandals in their migration, iii. iii. ; with the vandals in africa, iii. v. , , xxiv. ; lose their individuality as a people, iii. v. alaric, king of the visigoths, invades europe, iii, ii, ; captures rome by a trick, iii. ii. - ; plunders the city, iii. ii. ; declares attalus emperor of the romans, iii. ii. ; marches with attalus against ravenna, iii. ii. ; opposes sending of commanders to libya by attalus, iii. ii. ; quarrels with attalus, and reduces him from the kingship, iii. ii. ; dies of disease, iii. ii. alexandria, the home of calonymus, iii. xi. althias, commander of roman auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; commander of huns in numidia, iv. xiii. ; his encounter with iaudas, iv. xiii. - ; his fame from the deed, iv. xiii. amalasountha, mother of antalaric; makes an agreement with justinian, iii. xiv. ; courts his friendship to secure protection, iii. xiv. ; appealed to by the goths in regard to lilybaeum, iv. v. amalafrida, sister of theoderic; sought and given in marriage to trasamundus, iii. viii. , ; presented with lilybaeum, iii. viii. ; put under guard by the vandals, iii. ix. ammatas, brother of gelimer; instructed to prepare to meet the romans near carthage, iii. xvii. , xviii. ; kills his kinsmen in prison, iii. xvii. ; his inopportune arrival at decimum, iii. xviii. , ; on the day before easter, iii. xxi. ; engages with john there and is defeated, iii. xviii. , ; his death, iii. xviii. ; xix. , xx. , xxv. ; his body found by the romans, iii. xix. anastasius, emperor of the east, keeps peace with the vandals, iii. vii. , viii. ancon, a dungeon in the royal residence in carthage, iii. xx. ; unexpected release of roman merchants confined there, iii. xx. - antaeus, the mythical wrestler, king in libya, iv. x. antalas, ruler of the moors in byzacium, iii. ix. , iv. xxv. ; remains faithful to the romans, iv. xii. ; becomes hostile to solomon, iv. xxi. ; joins forces with the leuathae, iv. xxi. ; gathers almost all the moors under him, iv. xxii. ; writes a letter to justinian, iv. xxii. - ; gathers his army again, iv. xxiii. ; areobindus sends an army against him, iv. xxiv. ; makes an agreement with gontharis for the destruction of areobindus, iv. xxv. - ; coutzinas agrees to turn against him, iv. , , ; hears of the plot of coutzinas and keeps his knowledge secret, iv. xxv. - ; resents the sending of the head of areobindus to him by gontharis, iv. xxvii. , ; decides to side with justinian, iv. xxvii. ; persuades marcentius to come to him, iv. xxvii. , ; artabanes sent against him, iv. xxvii. ; his quarrel with coutzinas, iv. xxvii. ; artabanes marches against him, iv. xxvii. ; his army spared by artabanes, iv. xxvii. , ; defeated by john, iv. xxviii. , anthemius, a wealthy senator, appointed emperor of the west by leon, iii. vi. ; killed by his son-in-law, rhecimer, iii. vii. antonina, wife of belisarius, mother-in-law of ildiger, iv. viii. ; sets sail with belisarius for africa, iii. xii. ; preserves drinking water for belisarius and his attendants, iii. xiii. , ; with the army at decimum, iii, xix. , xx. apollinaris, a native of italy; comes to justinian to seek support for ilderic, iv. v. , ; his good services to the romans, iv. v. ; sent to the islands of ebusa, majorica, and minorica, with an army, iv. v. aquileia, city in italy, iii. iii. ; its size and importance, iii. iv. ; besieged and captured by attila, iii. iv. ff. arcadius, elder son of theodosius i; receives the eastern empire, iii. i. ; brother of honorius and placidia, iii. iii. ; his alliance with the visigoths, iii. ii. ; succeeded by his son theodosius ii, iii. ii. archelaus, a patrician; manager of expenditures of the african expedition, iii. xi. ; advises against disembarking on the african coast, iii. xv. - ; ordered by belisarius not to take the fleet into carthage, iii. xvii. ; commands the fleet to anchor off carthage, iii. xx. ardaburius, son of aspar, roman general; sent against the tyrant john, iii. iii. ; destroyed by leon, iii. vi. areobindus, a senator; sent as general to libya, iv. xxiv. ; his inexperience in warfare, iv. xxiv. , xxv. , xxvi. ; accompanied by his sister and wife, iv. xxiv. ; shares the rule of libya with sergius, iv. xxiv. , ; sends john against antalas and stotzas, iv. xxiv. ; writes to sergius to unite with john, iv. xxiv. ; made sole commander of libya, iv. xxiv. ; sends gontharis against the moors, iv. xxv. , ; arranges with coutzinas to turn against the other moors, iv. xxv. ; tells gontharis of his dealings with coutzinas, iv. xxv. ; persuaded by g. to postpone the engagement, iv. xxv. , ; his death planned and finally accomplished by gontharis, iv. xxv. -xxvi. ; treasure left by him in the palace, iv. xxviii. ; sister of, iv. xxiv. ; placed in a fortress for her safety, iv. xxvi. ; removed from the fortress by gontharis, iv. xxvii. arethusa, harbour of syracuse, iii. xiv. ariadne, daughter of leon, wife of zenon, and mother of leon the younger, iii. vii. ; flees to isauria with zenon, iii. vii. arian faith, disqualified one for the office of emperor, iii. vi. ; followed by all goths, iii. ii, ; by the vandals, iii. viii. , xxi. ; by some among the roman soldiers, iv. i, , xiv. , ; adhered to steadfastly by gelimer, iv. ix. ; arian priests of the vandals, iii. xxi. , armenia, iii. xi. ; armenians, sent with areobindus to libya, iv. xxiv. ; follow artabanes in entering the service of gontharis, iv. xxvii. ; support artabanes in his plot against gontharis, iv. xxviii. , , arsacidae, the ancient royal family of armenia, iv. xxiv. , xxvii. artabanes, son of john, of the arsacidae; sent to libya in command of armenians, iv. xxiv. ; known to chosroes for his brave deeds, iv. xxvii. ; brother of john, iv. xxiv. ; uncle of gregorius, iv. xxvii. ; joins areobindus, iv. xxv. ; supports him against gontharis, iv. xxvi. , , ; enters the service of gontharis, iv. xxvii. ; his plot to kill the tyrant, iv. xxvii. ; urged on by gregorius, iv. xxvii. - ; sent against antalas, iv. xxvii. , ; joins battle, but allows the enemy to escape, iv. xxvii. - ; threatened by ulitheus, iv. xxvii. ; his excuses, iv. xxvii. , ; after deliberation returns to carthage, iv. xxvii. , ; entertained by gontharis at a banquet, iv. xxviii. ; arranges to carry out his plot against gontharis, iv. xxviii. - ; artasires makes a request of him, iv. xxviii. , ; he succeeds in destroying gontharis with his own hand, iv. xxviii. - ; assisted by peter, cuts down the body-guards who remain, iv. xxviii. ; directs athanasius to look after the treasure of areobindus, iv. xxviii. ; sends john and others to byzantium, iv. xxviii. ; wins great fame, iv, xxviii. ; rewarded with money by prejecta, iv. xxviii. ; made general of all libya, iv. xxviii. ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xxviii. . artasires, body-guard of artabanes; shares knowledge of his plot against gontharis, iv. xxvii. , ; renders good service in the execution of the plot, iv. xxviii. - ; his ingenious protection for his arm, iv. xxviii. , , asclepiades, a native of palestine and friend of theodorus, iv. xviii. ; reveals the plot of maximinus to theodorus and germanus, iv. xviii. asia, the continent to the right of the mediterranean as one sails into it, iii. i. ; distance from europe at different points, iii. i. , ; distance along the asiatic side of the euxine, iii. i. asiaticus, father of severianus, iv. xxiii. aspar, roman general; father of ardaburius, iii. iii. ; of the arian faith, iii. vi. ; his great power in byzantium, iii. iv. ; sent against the tyrant john, iii. iii. ; defeated by the vandals in libya, iii. iii. ; returns home, iii. iii. ; makes leon emperor of the east, iii. v. ; his friendship sought by basiliscus, iii. vi. ; quarrels with leon, iii. vi. ; urges basiliscus to spare the vandals, iii. vi. , ; destroyed by leon, iii. vi. ; the emperor marcian had been his adviser, iii. iv. atalaric, son of amalasuntha; ruler of the goths, iii. xiv. ; succeeded his grandfather theoderic, iii. xiv. athanasius, sent with areobindus to libya, iv. xxiv. ; summoned by areobindus, iv. xxvi. ; being summoned by gontharis, pretends to be pleased, iv. xxvi. , ; with areobindus entertained by gontharis, iv. xxvi. ; spared by the assassins of gontharis, iv. xxvi. ; entertained by gontharis at a second banquet, iv. xxviii. ; directed by artabanes to look after the treasure of areobindus, iv. xxviii. athens, its distance from megara a measure of one day's journey, iii. i. attalus, made king of the visigoths and declared emperor of the romans by alaric, iii. ii. ; of noble family, _ibid._; his lack of discretion, iii. ii. ; marches with alaric against ravenna, _ibid._; sends commanders alone to libya against the advice of alaric, iii. ii. , ; failure of his attempt upon libya, _ibid._; quarrels with alaric, and is reduced from the kingship, iii. ii. attila, leader of the huns, defeated by aetius, iii. iv. ; overruns europe, iii. iv. ; besieges and captures aquileia; iii. iv. ff. augustus, emperor of the west, iii. vii. aurasium, a mountain in numidia; distance from carthage, iii. viii. , iv. xiii. ; its great size, fruitful plateaus, and defences, iv. xiii. - ; source of the abigas river there, iv. xiii. , xix. ; adjoins first mauretania, iv. xx. ; taken by the moors from the vandals, iii. viii. , iv. xiii. ; its west side also held by the moors, iv. xiii. ; moors of, ruled by iaudas, iv. xii. , xiii. ; solomon marches thither, iv. xiii. ; iaudas establishes himself there, iv. xiii. ; ascended by solomon, iv. xiii. ff.; the romans eluded by the moors on the mountain, iv. xiii. , ; solomon prepares more carefully for a second attempt, iv. xiii. ; in which he succeeds completely in dislodging the moors from there, iv. xix. -xx. ; fortified and held by the romans, iv. xx. ; capture of iaudas' treasure there, iv. xx. - ; fugitive vandals return thither, iv. xiv. babosis, place in numidia, iv. xix. bacchus, brother of solomon, and father of cyrus and sergius, iv. xxi. , ; father of solomon the younger, iv. xxi. , xxii. bagaïs, a deserted city near the abigas river, iv. xix. bagradas river, in libya, iv. xv. balas, leader of the massagetae, iii. xi. bandifer, "standard-bearer" (latin), cf. bandum, iv. x. bandum, the latin term for "standard" in procopius' time, iv. ii. barbaricini, name applied to the moors in sardinia, iv. xiii. barbatus, commander of roman cavalry, iii. xi. , iv. xv. ; on the roman right wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; his death, iv. xv. basiliscus, brother of berine; commander of an expedition against the vandals, iii. vi. ; his aspirations to the throne, _ibid._; urged by aspar to spare the vandals, iii. vi. ; landing in africa, makes a complete failure of the expedition, iii. vi. - , x. ; returning to byzantium, becomes a suppliant, iii. vi. ; saved by berine, _ibid._; makes himself tyrant in byzantium, iii. vii. ; his misrule, iii. vii. ; sends an army under harmatus to meet zenon, iii. vii. ; becomes a suppliant, iii. vii. ; exiled to cappadocia and dies, iii. vii. , basiliscus, son of harmatus, iii. vii. ; made caesar and then removed by zenon, iii. vii. belisarius, roman general; a native of "germany," iii. xi. ; summoned from the east, iii. ix. ; ordered to be in readiness to lead the african expedition, iii. x. ; made commander-in-chief of the african expedition with unlimited power, iii. xi. , ; sets sail for africa, iii. xii. ; punished two massagetae for murder, iii. xii. ; addresses the army at abydus, iii. xii. - ; provides for the safe navigation of the fleet, iii. xiii. - ; disembarks the army at methone, iii. xiii. ff.; provides a supply of bread for the army, iii. xiii. ; his wife preserves the drinking water, iii. xiii. , ; sends procopius to syracuse to get information, iii. xiv. ff.; his anxiety regarding the vandals and the attitude of his own soldiers, iii. xiv. , ; starts from sicily toward africa, iii. xiv. ; holds a consultation regarding disembarking on the african coast, iii. xv. ff.; disembarks the army and fortifies a camp, iii. xv. - ; orders the fleet not to put in at carthage, iii. xvii. ; commands five men to remain on each ship, iii. xv. ; punishes some of the soldiers for stealing and addresses the army, iii. xvi. - ; advances with the army to decimum, where he defeats the vandals in an engagement, iii. xvi. -xix. , xxi. . xxii. ; captures with ease the unwalled cities of libya, iii. v. ; prevents the army from entering carthage on the evening of their arrival, iii. xx. ; his commands respected by the greater part of the fleet, iii. xx. ; enters carthage with his army, iii. xx. ; exhorts the soldiers to moderation, iii. xx. - ; sits upon the throne of gelimer, iii. xx. ; hears and answers complaints of carthaginian citizens, iii. xx. , ; lunches in gelimer's palace, iii. xxi. , ; enjoys great renown by reason of the peaceful entry into carthage, iii. xxi. ; his treaties with the moors, iii. xxv. - , iv. viii. ff., xi. ; considers the repair of the fortifications of carthage, iii. xxi. ; presses on the work of repairing them, iii. xxiii. , ; spares the messengers of tzazon, iii. xxiv. ; and the envoys of gelimer, iii. xxiv. ; takes measures to prevent desertions to the vandals, iv, i. - ; addresses the army, iv. i. - ; defeats the moors in the battle of tricamarum, iv. ii. -iii. ; attacks the vandal camp, iv. iii. ; takes measures to stop the disorder in the roman army, iv. iv. - ; sends john the armenian to pursue gelimer, iv. iv. ; himself follows gelimer, iv. iv. ; mourns the death of john the armenian, iv. iv. ; spares uliaris, iv. iv, ; continues the pursuit of gelimer, iv. iv. ; leaves pharas to besiege gelimer, iv. iv. ; sends suppliant vandals to carthage, iv. iv. ; captures boniface with the treasures of gelimer, iv. iv. - ; returns to carthage, iv. v. ; sends out armies to recover many lost provinces, v. v. - ; makes an unsuccessful expedition to sicily, iv. v. ; writes a letter to the goths, iv. v. - ; their reply, iv. v. - ; reports to justinian, iv. v. ; receives the report of pharas regarding gelimer, iv. vii. ; sends cyprian with instructions, iv. vii. ; receives gelimer at aclas, iv. vii. , ; reports the capture of gelimer, iv. vii. ; the victim of unjust slander, iv. viii. , ; given choice of going to byzantium or remaining in carthage, iv. viii. ; chooses the former iv. viii. ; learns of the accusation of treason to be brought against him, iv. viii. , ; hears the report of the uprising of the moors, iv. viii. ; leaves solomon in charge of libya, iv. viii. ; returning to byzantium, receives great honours, iv, ix. ff.; brings vandals with him, iv. ix. , xiv. ; pays homage to justinian in the hippodrome, iv. ix. ; later celebrates a "triumph" in the old manner, iv. ix. ; becomes a consul, _ibid._; distributes much wealth of the vandals to the people, iv. ix. ; subjugates sicily, iv. xiv. ; passes the winter in syracuse, iv. xiv. , ; solomon begs him to come to carthage from syracuse to put down the mutiny, iv. xiv. , ; arrives at carthage in time to prevent its surrender, iv. xv. - ; pursues and overtakes the fugitives, iv. xv. , ; encamps at the bagradas river and prepares for battle, iv. xv. - ; addresses the army, iv. xv. - ; defeats stotzas' army, iv. xv. ff.; forbids pursuit of the enemy, but allows their camp to be plundered, iv. xv. , ; returns to carthage, iv. xv. ; upon receipt of unfavourable news, sets sail for sicily, iv. xv. , ; solomon sends suspected soldiers to him, iv. xix. ; counted the chief cause of the defeat of the vandals, iv. xi. . berine, wife of the emperor leon, and sister of basiliscus, iii. vi. ; gains clemency for basiliscus, iii. vi. boniface, roman general; his splendid qualities, iii. iii. , ; rival of aetius, iii. iii. ; made general of all libya, iii. iii. ; slandered by aetius, iii. iii. ; summoned to rome by placidia, iii. iii. ; refuses to come, iii. iii. ; makes an alliance with the vandals, iii. iii. , ; the true cause of his conduct discovered by his friends, iii. iii. , ; urged by placidia to return to rome, iii. iii. ; unable to persuade the vandals to withdraw, meets them in battle and is twice defeated, iii. iii. - , xxi. ; returns to rome, iii. iii. boniface, the libyan, a native of byzacium; entrusted by gelimer with his wealth, iv. iv. , ; falls into the hands of belisarius, iv. iv. - boriades, body-guard of belisarius; sent to capture syllectus, iii. xvi. boulla, plain of, distance from carthage, iii. xxv. ; near the boundary of numidia, _ibid._; the vandals gather there, iii. xix. , xxv. ; the only territory left to the vandals, iii. xxv. ; gelimer and tzazon meet there, iii. xxv. ; mutineers gather there, iv. xv. bourgaon, mountain in byzacium; battle there with the moors, iv. xii. ff. britain, counted in the western empire, iii. i. ; revolts from the romans, iii. ii. ; not recovered by the romans, but held by tyrants, iii. ii. byzacium, a moorish province in libya, iii. xix. ; a dry region, iii. xv. ; the town hermione there, iii. xiv. ; moors of, defeat the vandals, iii. ix. ; moors, of, seek alliance with the romans, iii. xxv. ; the home of boniface, the libyan, iv. iv. ; moors of, revolt, iv. viii. , x. , xii. , ; roman force annihilated there, iv. x. ff.; solomon marches thither to confront the moors, iv. xi. ; moors of, suffer a crushing defeat, iv. xii. - ; abandoned by the moors, iv. xii. ; except those under antalas, iv. xii. ; plundered by the leuathae, iv. xxi. ; moors gather there once more, iv. xxiii. ; himerius of thrace commander there, iv. xxiii. , ; moors march, thence against carthage, iv. xxv. ; defeated by john, iv. xxviii. ; subsequent battles, iv. xxviii. ff. byzantium, distance from the mouth of the danube, iii. i. ; from carthage, iii. x. ; its chief priest epiphanius, iii. xii. ; natives of, as rowers in the roman fleet, iii. xi. cabaon, a moorish ruler, prepares to meet the vandals, iii. viii. - ; sends spies to carthage, iii. viii. ff.; receives the report of his spies, iii. viii. ; prepares for the conflict, iii. viii. , , iv. xi. ; defeats the enemy, iii. viii. caenopolis, name of taenarum in procopius' time, iii. xiii. caesar, a title given to one next below the emperor in station, iii. vii. , caesarea, first city of "second mauretania," iv. xx. ; situated at its eastern extremity, iv. x. ; distance from carthage, iv. v. ; recovered for the romans by belisarius, _ibid._, iv. xx. calonymus, of alexandria, admiral of the roman fleet, iii. xi. ; ordered by belisarius not to take the fleet into carthage, iii. xvii. ; enters the harbour mandracium with a few ships, and plunders the houses along the sea, iii. xx. ; bound by oath to return his plunder, iii. xx. ; disregards his oath, but later dies of apoplexy in byzantium, iii. xx. , capitolinus, see jupiter. cappadocia, basiliscus exiled thither, iii. vii. caputvada, a place on the african coast; distance from carthage, iii. xiv. ; the roman army lands there, _ibid._ caranalis, town in sardinia, captured by tzazon, iii. xxiv. , xxv. , iv. xiii. carthage, city in africa, founded by dido, iv. x. ; grows to be the metropolis of libya, iv. x. , ; captured by the romans, iv. x. ; after the vandal occupation, its wall preserved by gizeric, iii. v. ; the only city with walls in libya, iii. xv. ; its defences neglected by the vandals, iii. xxi. , ; entered by the roman army under belisarius, iii. xx. , ; its fortifications restored by belisarius, iii. xxiii. , ; besieged by gelimer, iv. i. ; by stotzas, iv. xv. ; its surrender prevented by belisarius, iv. xv. , ; the harbours, stagnum, iii. xv. , xx. , and mandracium, iii. xx. , , iv. xxvi. ; the ship-yard misuas, iv. xiv. ; its suburb aclas, iv. vii. ; and decimum, iii. xvii. ; its aqueduct, iv. i. ; its hippodrome, iv. xiv. , xviii. ; its palace, iii. xx, , iv. xiv. , xviii. , xxvi. ; the priest of the city, reparatus, iv. xxvi. , ; monastery built and fortified there by solomon, iv. xxvi. ; an ancient saying among the children there, iii. xxi. - ; church of st. cyprian, and a special annual festival in his honour, iii. xxi. , ; distance from aurasium, iii, viii. , iv. xiii. ; from the plain of boulla, iii. xxv. ; from byzantium, iii. x. ; from caesarea, iv. v. ; from caputvada, iii. xiv. ; from decimum, iii. xvii. ; from grasse, iii. xvii. ; from hippo regius, iv. iv. ; from iouce, iii, xv. ; from membresa, iv. xv. ; from mercurium, iii. vi. ; from siccaveneria, iv. xxiv. ; from stagnum, iii. xv. , xx. ; from tebesta, iv. xxi. ; from tricamarum, iv. ii. casula (latin), garment befitting one of humble station, iv. xxvi. caucana, place in sicily, iii. xiv. , , ; distance from syracuse, iii. xiv. centenarium, a sum of money, so called because it "weighs one hundred pounds" (i. xxii. ), iii. vi. centuriae, place in numidia, iv. xiii. chalcedon, city opposite byzantium, iii. i. , ; distance from the phasis river, iii. i. chiliarch, iii. v. , iv. iii. chosroes, persian king; artabanes known to him, iv. xxvii. christ, his temple in byzantium, iii. vi. christians, persecuted by honoric, iii. viii. , , xxi. ; by gundamundus, iii. viii. ; courted by trasamundus, iii. viii. , ; not troubled by ilderic, iii. ix. ; justinian reproached for not protecting them, iii. x. ; the church of st. cyprian taken from them by the vandals, iii. xxi. ; consoled in a dream sent by st. cyprian, iii. xxi. ; recover the church of st. cyprian, iii. xxi. ; in jerusalem, receive the treasures of the temple, iv. ix. ; reverence their churches and their worship, iii. viii. , , , ; their rite of baptism, iii. xii. , iv. xxvi. , ; their feast of easter, iv. xiv. ; if not of the orthodox faith, excluded from the church, iv. xiv. ; christian scriptures, iv. xxi. , xxvi. ; christian teaching, offended against by basiliscus, iii. vii. cilicians, as sailors in the african expedition, iii. xi. clipea, city in africa, iv. x. clypea, see shield mountain colchis, at the end of the black sea, iii. i. constantina, city in africa; distance from gazophyla, iv. xv. constantine the great; division of the roman empire dating from his time, iii. i. ; his enlargement of byzantium and giving of his name to the city, _ibid._ constantinus, chosen king by the soldiers in britain, iii. ii. ; his invasion of spain and gaul, _ibid._; defeated and killed in battle, iii. ii. constantius, husband of placidia, partner in the royal power with honorius; his brief reign and death, iii. iii. ; father of valentinian, iii. iii. corsica, called cyrnus in ancient times, iv. v. ; cyril sent thither with an army, _ibid._; recovered for the roman empire, iv. v. coutzinas, a moorish ruler, joins in an attack upon a roman force, iv. x. ; agrees to turn against the other moors, iv. xxv. , ; his further dealings with areobindus, iv. xxv. , ; ignorant of antalas' knowledge of his plot, iv. xxv. , ; separates from antalas, and sides with gontharis, iv. xxvii. ; marches with artabanes against antalas, iv. xxvii. , ; in alliance with john, iv. xxviii. cteanus, name applied to theodorus, iii. xi. cyanean rocks, or "dark blue rocks" at the mouth of the bosphorus, iii. i. cyprian, commander of roman auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; sent by belisarius to bring gelimer from papua, iv. vii. cyprian, a saint, especially reverenced at carthage, iii. xxi. ; a church to him there and a festival celebrated in his honour, iii. xxi. , , ; sends a dream to devout christians, iii. xxi. cypriana, a periodic storm on the african coast, iii. xx. cypriana, a festival celebrated at carthage, in honour of cyprian, from which the storm was named, iii. xxi. cyrene, city in africa, marking the division between the eastern and western empires, iii. i. cyril, sent as commander of an army to sardinia, iii. xi. , ; avoids sardinia and sails to carthage, iii. xxiv. ; sent to sardinia and corsica with an army, iv. v. , ; wins them back for the empire, iv. v. ; commander of auxiliaries in numidia, iv. xv. ; his death, iv. xv. cyrnus, ancient name of corsica, iv. v. cyrus, son of bacchus and brother of sergius; becomes ruler of pentapolis in libya, iv. xxi. , ; brother of solomon the younger, iv. xxi. ; marches with solomon against the moors, ibid. dalmatia, held by marcellianus as tyrant, iii. vi. danube river, called also the ister, iii. i. daras, city on the eastern frontier of the empire; home of solomon, iii. xi. december, iv. in. decimum, suburb of carthage, iii. xvii. , , xviii. , xix. , , , , xx. , , , xxi. , , iv. xxv. ; the vandals routed there, iii. xviii. - , xix. ; distance from carthage, iii. xvii. ; from pedion halon, iii. xviii. delphi, tripods first made there, iii. xxi. delphix, a word used by the romans to designate a royal banquet room, iii. xxi. , ; in the palace of gelimer, iii. xxi. dido, her emigration from phoenicia, iv. x. diogenes, guardsman of belisarius; his notable exploit on a scouting expedition, iii. xxiii. - dolones, the large sails on ships, iii. xvii. domesticus, a title designating a kind of confidential adviser, iii. iv. , xi. domnicus, senator, accompanies germanus to libya, iv. xvi. ; at the battle of scalae veteres, iv. xvii. ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xix. dorotheus, general of armenia; commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; his death; iii. xiv. dromon, a swift ship of war, iii. xi. , , xv. dryous, city on the east coast of italy, iii. i. , dyrrachium, the name of epidamnus in procopius' time, iii. i. , xi. easter, a feast of the christians, iv. xiv. ; arians annoyed by exclusion from it, iv. xiv, ebusa, island in the western mediterranean, so-called by the natives, iii. i. ; apollinarius sent thither with an army, iv. v. egypt, formerly marked the limit of phoenicia, iv. x. ; densely populated from ancient times, iv. x. ; the migration of the hebrews from there, iv. x. ; the phoenicians pass through it on their way to libya, iv. x. egyptians, as sailors in the african expedition, iii. xi. emesa, city in syria; home of severianus, iv. xxiii. epidamnus (dyrrachium), city on the ionian sea, iii. i. ; home of john, iii. xi. epiphanius, chief priest of byzantium; blesses the fleet, iii. xii. eruli, roman auxiliaries in the african expedition, iii. xi. ; their untrustworthy character, iv. iv. ; of the arian faith, iv. xiv. ; dissuade stotzas from attacking germanus, iv. xvii. , esdilasas, a moorish ruler; joins in an attack upon a roman force, iv. x. ff.; surrenders himself to the romans, iv. xii. ; brought to carthage, iv. xii. euagees, brother of hoamer; imprisoned by gelimer, iii. ix. . ; killed in prison by ammatas, iii. xvii. eudocia, daughter of eudoxia; taken captive by gizeric, iii. v. ; married to honoric, iii. v. eudoxia, daughter of theodosius and wife of valentinian, iii. iv. , ; mother of eudocia and placidia, iii. v. ; forced to be the mistress of maximus, iii. iv. ; invites gizeric to avenge her, iii. iv. - ; taken captive by gizeric, iii. v. ; sent to byzantium, iii. v. eulogius, roman envoy to godas, iii. x. , ; returns with his reply, iii. x. europe, the continent opposite asia, iii. i. , xxii. ; distance from asia at different points, iii. i. , ; distance along the european side of the euxine, iii. i. ; extent of the western empire in, iii. i. ; invaded by alaric, iii. ii. ; all its wealth plundered by the visigoths, iii. ii. ; overrun by attila, iii. iv. eustratius, sent to libya to assess the taxes, iv. viii. eutyches, heresy of, iii. vii. euxine sea, distance around it, iii. i. , ; receives the waters of the phasis, iii. i. excubitori, a latin name for "guard," iv. xii. foederati, auxiliary troops, iii. xi. , , , xix. , , iv. iii. , vii. , xv. foedus (latin) "treaty," iii. xi. franks, name used for all the germans in procopius' time, iii. iii. fuscias, sent as envoy to spain by gelimer, iii. xxiv. ff. gadira, the strait of gibraltar at the western extremity of the mediterranean, iii. i. , , xxiv. , iv. v. , ; width of the strait, iii. i. ; distance from tripolis, iii. i. ; and from the ionian sea, iii. i. ; marking the limit of mauretania, iv. x. ; the vandals cross there, iii. iii. ; _see_ heracles, pillars of galatia, lands there given to gelimer, iv. ix. gaulus, island between the adriatic and tyrrhenian seas, iii. xiv. gaul, the visigoths retire thither, iii. ii. , ; invaded by constantius, iii. ii. gazophyla, place in numidia, iv. xv. ; distance from constantina, _ibid._; roman commanders take sanctuary there, iv. xv. geilaris, son of genzon and father of gelimer, iii. ix. gelimer, king of the vandals; son of geilaris, iii. ix. ; brother of tzazon, iii. xi. , xxiv. ; and of ammatas, iii. xvii. ; uncle of gibamundus, iii. xviii. ; his character, iii. ix. ; encroaches upon the authority of ilderic, iii. ix. ; secures the royal power, _ibid._; allowed by the goths to hold lilybaeum, iv. v. ; imprisons ilderic, hoamer, and euagees, iii. ix. ; defies justinian, and shews further cruelty to the imprisoned princes, iii. ix. ; replies to justinian, iii. ix. - ; justinian prepares an expedition against him, iii. x. ff.; sends envoys to spain, iii. xxiv. ; his slave godas becomes tyrant of sardinia, iii. x. - ; sends an expedition to sardinia, iii. xi. , ; his ignorance of the approaching roman expedition, iii. xiv. ; entrusts his wealth to boniface, iv. iv. ; confines roman merchants in a dungeon in the palace, iii. xx. , ; expected by belisarius to make an attack, iii. xvii. ; writes to his brother in carthage, iii. xvii. ; follows the roman army, iii. xvii. ; plans his attack upon the roman army, iii. xviii. ; comes upon the romans with a large force of cavalry, iii. xix. ; anticipates them in seizing a point of advantage, iii. xix. - ; by a great blunder loses the chance of defeating the roman armies, iii. xix. - ; attacked and routed by belisarius, iii. xix. , , xxi. ; flees to the plain of boulla, iii. xix. ; belisarius sits upon his throne, iii. xx. ; his banquet-hall, servants, and even food, used by the romans, iii. xxi. - ; reason for his not staying in carthage, iii. xxi. ; encourages libyan farmers to kill roman soldiers, iii. xxiii. - ; eluded by a party of roman scouts, iii. xxiii. - ; tzazon writes to him from sardinia, iii. xxiv. - ; collects the vandals in the plain of boulla, iii. xxv. ; sends a letter to tzazon in sardinia, iii. xxv. - ; leads the vandals against carthage, iv. i. ; cuts the aqueduct and tries to besiege the city, iv. i. , ; prepares the vandals for battle at tricamarum, and addresses the army, iv. ii. - ; at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; flees from the vandals' camp, iv. iii. ; pursued by john the armenian, iv. iv. , ; and by belisarius, iv. iv. , ; escapes his pursuers, and takes refuge on mt. papua, iv. iv. , ; moors there friendly to him, iv. iv. ; pharas set to guard him, iv. iv. , ; suffers great misery on mt. papua, iv. vi. , ; receives a letter from pharas, iv. vi. - ; replies with a letter, iv. vi. - ; the meaning of his strange request, iv. vi. - ; after enduring extreme suffering, is induced by a piteous sight to surrender, iv. vii. - ; writes a second time to pharas, iv. vii. - ; cyprian comes to papua to take him prisoner, iv. vii. ; surrenders himself, iv. vii. ; meets belisarius at aclas, iv. vii. ; his unexpected laughter, iv. vii. - ; marvels at the restoration of the fortifications of carthage by belisarius, iii. xxiii. , ; his capture reported by belisarius, iv. vii. ; reaches byzantium with belisarius, iv, ix. ; a slave in belisarius' triumph, iv. ix. ; before justinian in the hippodrome, iv. ix. , ; given lands in galatia, but not made a patrician, iv. ix. , ; nephew of, iv. vii. geminianus, rock of, on mt aurasium, iv. xx. genzon, son of gizeric; receives libyan slaves, iii. v. ; tries to save john, iii. vi. ; father of gundamundus and trasamundus, iii. viii. , ; and of geilaris, iii. ix. ; his death, iii. viii. gergesites, ancient people of phoenicia, iv. x. ; emigrate to egypt and then to libya, iv. x. , gepaides, one division of the gothic peoples, iii. ii. ; their location, iii. ii. getic, a name sometime applied to the gothic peoples, iii. ii. gezon, a roman infantryman, paymaster of his company, iv. xx. ; scales the fortress of toumar and leads the army to its capture, iv. xx. - germania, the home of belisarius, iii. xi. germans, called franks in procopius' time, iii. iii. ; according to one account killed gontharis, iii. iii. germanus, roman general, nephew of justinian; sent to libya, iv. xvi. ; makes a count of the loyal part of the army, iv. xvi. ; wins over many mutineers by persuasion, iv. xvi. - ; prepares to meet stotzas in battle, iv. xvi. ; arrays his army for battle, iv. xvi. ; addresses his troops, iv. xvi. - ; follows the mutineers into numidia, iv. xvii. ; overtaking the enemy at scalae veteres, prepares for battle, iv. xvii. - ; receives offers of desertion from the moors with stotzas, iv. xvii. ; not able to trust them, iv. xvii. ; stotzas proposes to attack his division, iv. xvii. ; rallies the romans, iv. xvii. ; routs the mutineers, iv. xvii. , ; his horse killed under him, iv. xvii. ; orders his men to distinguish their comrades by the countersign, iv. xvii. ; captures and plunders the enemy's camp, iv. xvii. - ; tries to restore order in the army, iv. xvii. ; defeats stotzas in a second battle, iv. xvii. ; learns the plot of maximinus from asclepiades; iv. xviii. ; invites max. to join his body-guards, iv. xviii. , ; frustrates the attempt of maximinus, iv. xviii. - ; examines max. and impales him, iv. xviii. , ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xix. ; false report of his coming to carthage, iv. xxiii. , gibamundus, nephew of gelimer, iii. xviii. ; sent to attack the roman army on the left, _ibid._; his force destroyed at pedion halon, iii. xviii. , , xix. , , xxv. gizeric, king of the vandals; son of godigisclus and brother of gontharis, iii. iii. ; father of honoric, genzon, and theodorus, iii. v. , , vi. ; becomes ruler of the vandals with his brother, iii. iii. ; according to one account destroyed his brother gontharis, iii. iii. ; his great ability, iii. iii. ; invited by boniface to share libya, iii. iii. ; leads the vandals into libya, iii. iii. ; besieges hippo regius, iii. iii. , ; discovers marcian among roman captives, iii. iv. - ; spares his life and makes him swear friendship to the vandals, iii. iv. , ; secures possession of libya, iii. xxi. , xxii. ; secures his power by making a compact with valentinian and giving his son as a hostage, iii. iv. - , xvi. ; receives his son back, iii. iv. ; receives ambassadors from the vandals who had not emigrated, iii. xxii. ; at first hears them with favour, but later refuses their petition, iii. xxii. - ; makes an attempt on taenarum, iii. xxii. ; attacks zacynthus and brutally massacres many of the inhabitants, iii. xxii. , ; invited by eudoxia to punish maximus, iii. iv. , ; despoils the city of rome, iii. v. ff. iv. ix. , ; takes captive eudoxia and her daughters, iii. v. ; removes the walls of libyan cities, iii. v. , xv. ; wins ridicule thereby in later times, iii. v. ; destroyed all the tax records of libya, iv. viii. ; enslaves notable libyans and takes property from others, iii. v. , ; exempts confiscated lands from taxation, iii. v. ; with the moors, makes many inroads into roman provinces iii. v. - ; aspar urges basiliscus to spare him, iii. vi. ; desires the appointment of olyvrius as emperor of the west, iii. vi. ; his fear of leon, iii. vi. ; persuades basiliscus to delay, iii. vi. - ; destroys the roman fleet, iii. vi. - ; receives majorinus disguised as an envoy, iii. vii. , , , ; prepares to meet the army of majorinus, iii. vii. ; forms a compact with zenon, iii. vii. , ix. ; his death and his will, iii. vii. , . ix. , xvi. ; the "law of gizeric," iii. ix. glycerius, emperor of the west, dies after a very short reign, iii. vii. godas, a goth, slave of gelimer; sets up a tyranny in sardinia, iii. x. - . xi. , xxv. ; invites justinian to support him, iii. x. - ; receives the envoy eulogius, iii. x. ; sends him back with a letter, iii. x. ; the vandals send an expedition against him, iii. xi. , xiv. ; killed by tzazon, xi, xxiv. , , iv. ii. godigisclus, leader of the vandals in their migration, iii. iii. , xxii. , ; settles in spain by agreement with honorius, iii. iii. ; dies in spain, iii. ii. ; father of gontharis and gizeric, iii. ii. gontharis, son of godigisclus and brother of gizeric; becomes ruler of the vandals with his brother, iii. ii. ; his mild character, iii. ii. ; invited by boniface to share libya, iii. ii. ; his death, iii. iii. , . gontharis, body-guard of solomon; sent forward against the moors, iv. xix. ; camps near the abigas river, iv. xix. ; defeated by the moors and besieged in his camp, iv. xix. ; receives support from solomon, iv. xix. ; attempts to set up a tyranny, iv. xxv. ff.; summoned to carthage and sent against the moors, iv. xxv. , ; makes an agreement with antalas to betray the romans, iv. xxv. - ; recalls roman skirmishers, iv. xxv. ; hears of the treasonable plan of coutzinas, iv. xxv. ; persuades areobindus to postpone the engagement, iv. xxv. , ; reveals the plot to antalas, iv. xxv. ; plans to kill areobindus, iv. xxv. ; persuades him to join battle with the moors, iv. xxv. ff.; openly sets about establishing his tyranny, iv. xxv. ff.; summons athanasius, iv. xxvi. ; and areobindus, iv. xxvi. ; his reception of areobindus, iv. xxvi. - ; has him assassinated, iv. xxvi. , ; offends antalas by sending him the head of areobindus, iv. xxvii. , ; receives the mutineers under john, iv. xxvii. , ; removes the wife and sister of areobindus from the fortress, iv. xxvii. ; compels prejecta to write a false report in a letter to justinian for his own advantage, iv. xxvii. - ; sends artabanes against antalas, iv. xxvii. ; coutzinas sides with him, iv. xxvii. ; artabanes determines to kill him, iv. xxvii. ; prepares a larger army against antalas, iv. xxvii. ; destroys many in the city, iv. xxvii. , ; entertains artabanes and others at a banquet, iv. xxviii. ff.; his murder planned by artabanes, iv. xxviii. ff; his death, iv. xxviii. - gospels, the sacred writings of the christians; oaths taken upon them, iv. xxi. . gothaeus, sent as envoy to spain by gelimer, iii. xxiv. ff. goths, general description of the gothic peoples, iii. ii. ff.; their migrations, iii. ii. ff.; their common religion and language, iii. ii. ; enter pannonia and then settle in thrace for a time, iii. ii. ; subdue the western empire, iii. ii. ; in italy, belisarius sent against them, iv. xiv. ; furnish the roman fleet a market in sicily, iii. xiv. ; refuse to give up lilybaeum, iv. v. ; receive a letter of remonstrance from belisarius, iv. v. - ; their reply, iv. v. - grasse, a place in libya, iii. xvii. , , ; its pleasant park, iii. xvii. , ; distance from carthage, iii. xvii. greece, plundered by gizeric, iii. v. greeks, contemptuous term for the subjects of the emperor, iv. xxvii. gregorius, nephew of artabanes; with him plans the murder of gontharis, iv. xxviii. - ; urges artabanes to carry out the plot, iv. xxvii. - ; takes his stand in the banquet-hall, iv. xxviii. ; restrains artasires, iv. xxviii. gundamundus, son of gezon; becomes king of the vandals, iii. viii. ; his reign and death, iii. viii. ; brother of trasamundus, iii. viii. hadrumetum, city in libya, iii. xvii. , iv. xxvii. , , ; taken by the moors, iv. xxiii. - ; recovered by paulus, a priest, iv. xxiii. - , ; guarded for the emperor, iv. xxvii. harmatus, roman general; marches against zenon, iii. vii. ; surrenders to him, iii. vii. ; killed by zenon, iii. vii. hebrews, their migration from egypt to palestine, iv. x. ; history of the, iv. x. hebrew scripture, quoted by gelimer, iv. ix. hellespont, strait between sestus and abydus, iii. i. heracleia, the name of perinthus in procopius' time, iii. xii. heracles, wrestled with antaeus in clipea, iv. x. heracles, pillars of, gibraltar, iii. i. , , , . vii. , iv. x. heraclius, defeats the vandals in tripolis, iii. vi. ; returns to byzantium, iii. vi. hermes, called mercury by the romans, iii. vi. ; town of hermes or mercurium, on the coast of libya, iii. vi. , xvii. , xx. hermione, town in byzacium; distance from the coast, iii. xiv. , xvii. , hieron, near the mouth of the bosphorus, iii. i. himerius of thrace, commander in byzacium; fails to unite with john, and falls into the hands of the moors, iv. xxiii. - ; guarded by the moors, iv. xxiii. ; puts hadrumetum into their hands, iv. xxiii. - ; escapes to carthage, iv. xxiii. hippo regius, a strong city of numidia, iii. iii. , iv. iv. ; besieged by the vandals, iii. iii. , ; distance from carthage, iv. iv. ; boniface the libyan captured there, iv. iv. , , hoamer, nephew of ilderic; acts as his general, iii. ix. ; imprisoned by gelimer, iii. ix. ; blinded by gelimer, iii. ix. , ; his death, iii. xvii. honoric, son of gizeric; given as a hostage to valentinian, iii. iv. ; returned, iii, iv. ; marries eudocia, iii. v. ; receives libyan slaves, iii. v. ; succeeds to the throne of the vandals, iii. viii. , xxi. ; makes war on the moors, iii. viii. , ; persecutes the christians, iii. viii. , ; his death, iii. viii. ; father of ilderic, iii. ix. ; in his reign the church of st. cyprian taken by the arians, iii. xxi. honorius, younger son of theodosius; receives the western empire, iii. i. , ii. ; brother of arcadius and placidia, iii. iii. ; the western empire overrun by barbarians during his reign, iii. ii. ; retires from rome to ravenna, iii. ii. , ; accused of bringing in the visigoths, iii. ii. ; his stupid remark upon hearing of the fall of rome, iii. ii. , ; displaced from the throne of the western empire by attalus, iii. ii. ; prepares for flight either to libya or to byzantium, iii. ii. ; his good fortune in extreme peril, iii. ii. - ; allows the vandals to settle in spain, iii. iii. ; provides that they shall not acquire possession of the land, iii. iii. ; shares royal power with constantius, iii. iii. ; his death, iii. iii. huns, see massagetae. iaudas, ruler of the moors in aurasium, iv. xii. , xxv. ; the best warrior among the moors, iv. xiii. ; plunders numidia, iv. xiii. ; his combat with althias at tigisis, iv. xiii. - ; solomon marches against him, iv. xiii. ; accused before solomon by other moorish rulers, iv. xiii. ; slays his father-in-law mephanius, _ibid._; establishes himself on mt, aurasium, iv. xiii. ; with the mutineers of stotzas, iv. xvii. ; solomon marches against him, iv. xix. ; remains on mt. aurasium, iv. xix. ; goes up to the top of mt. aurasium, iv. xix. ; escapes wounded from toumar, iv. xx. ; deposited his treasures in a tower at the rock of geminianus, iv. xx. ilderic, son of honoric, becomes king of the vandals, iii. ix. ; an unwarlike ruler, _ibid._; uncle of hoamer, iii. ix. ; suspected plot of the goths against him, iii. ix. ; on terms of special friendship with justinian, iii. ix. ; makes large gifts to apollinarius, iv. v. ; allows gelimer to encroach upon his authority, iii. ix. ; dethroned and imprisoned, iii. ix. , , , ; killed in prison by ammatas, iii. xvii. , ; his sons and other offspring receive rewards from justinian and theodora, iv. ix. ildiger, son-in-law of antonina, iv. viii. ; sent to libya with an army, _ibid._; made joint commander of carthage with theodoras, iv. xv. ; at the battle of scalae veteres, iv. xvii. , illyricum, iii. xi. , ; plundered by gizeric, iii. v. ionian sea, iii. i. , , , ii. , ionians, as sailors in the african expedition, iii. xi. iouce, distance from carthage, iii. xv. iourpouthes, a moorish ruler, joins in an attack upon a roman force, iv. x. ff. ister, called also the danube, iii. i. , ii. ; crossed by the goths, iii. ii. italy the brutal destruction of its cities and people by the visigoths, iii. ii. , ; invaded by gizeric, iii. v. ff., , jebusites, ancient people of phoenicia, iv. x. ; emigrate to egypt and then to libya, iv. x. , jerusalem, captured by titus, iv. ix. ; christians there receive back the treasures of the temple, iv. ix. jews, their treasures brought to byzantium by belisarius, iv. ix. ; sent back to jerusalem by justinian, iv. ix. ; one of them warns the romans not to keep the treasures of the temple in jerusalem, iv. ix. - john the armenian; financial manager of belisarius, iii. xvii. , ; commanded to precede the roman army, iii. xvii, , xviii. ; engages with ammatas at decimum and defeats his force, iii. xviii. , ; pursues the fugitives to carthage, iii. xviii. , xix. ; rejoins belisarius, iii. xix. ; entrusted with the command of a skirmishing force, iv. ii. ; in the centre at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; begins the fighting, iv. iii. , , ; pursues gelimer, iv, iv. , ; killed accidentally by uliaris, iv. iv. , ; his character, iv, iv. ; cared for and buried by his soldiers, iv. iv. ; mourned by belisarius, iv. iv. john, father of artabanes and john, of the arsacidae, iv. xxiv. john, commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. in. ; sent with an army to caesarea, iv. v. john, a general under basiliscus; his excellent fighting against the vandals, iii. vi. - john the cappadocian, urges justinian not to make war on the vandals, iii. x. - ; praetorian perfect; supplies the army with bad bread, iii. xiii. ff. john, guardsman of belisarius; sent to the pillars of heracles with an army, iv. v. john, a roman soldier, chosen emperor, iii. iii. ; his virtues as a ruler, iii. iii. , ; reduced from power by theodosius, iii. iii. ; captured, brutally abused, and killed by valentinian, iii. iii. john of epidamnus, commander-in-chief of infantry, iii. xi. , iv. xvi. john, son of john, of the arsacidae; sent to libya in command of armenians, iv. xxiv. ; brother of artabanes, iv. xxiv. ; his death, _ibid._ john the mutineer, succeeds stotzas as general of the mutineers, iv. xxv. ; leads the mutineers to join gontharis, iv. xxvii. ; marches with artabanes against antalas, iv. xxvii. ; does not take part in the battle, iv, xxvii. ; entertained by pamphilus at a banquet, iv. xxviii. ; taken from sanctuary, and sent to byzantium, iv. xxviii. , john, brother of pappus; at the battle of scalae veteres, iv. xvii. , ; made general of libya, iv. xxviii. ; his varying fortunes in fighting with the moors, iv. xxviii. - john, son of sisiniolus; sent as commander to libya, iv. xix. ; especially hostile to sergius, iv. xxii. , ; marches against the moors, iv. xxiii. ; fails to meet himerius, iv. xxiii. - ; quarrels with sergius, iv. xxiii. ; sent against antalas and stotzas, iv. xxiv. c; meets the enemy at a great disadvantage, iv. xxiv. ; his enmity against stotzas, iv, xxiv. ; gives him a mortal wound in the battle, iv. xxiv. ; his army routed by the moors, iv. xxiv. ; his death, iv. xxiv. . ; justinian's sorrow at his death, iv. xxiv. joseph, an imperial scribe, sent as envoy to stotzas, iv. xv. ; killed by stotzas, iv. xv. joshua ("jesus"), son of ("naues"), brings the hebrews into palestine, iv. x. ; subjugates the country, iv. x. ; mentioned in a phoenician inscription, iv. x. juppiter capitolinus, temple of, in rome, despoiled by gizeric, iii. v. justinian, succeeds his uncle justinus as emperor, iii. vii. ; on terms of especial friendship with ilderic, iii. ix. ; sends warning to gelimer, iii. ix. - ; sends a second warning to gelimer, iii. ix. - ; approached by apollinarius and other libyans seeking help for ilderic, iv. v. ; prepares to make war upon gelimer, iii. ix. , ; summons belisarius from the east to command the african expedition, iii. ix. ; makes preparations for the expedition, iii. x. ff.; discouraged by john the cappadocian, iii. x. ff.; urged by a priest to prosecute the war, iii. x. - ; continues preparations iii. x. ; invited by godas to support him in sardinia, iii. x. - ; sends an envoy to him, iii. x. ; and later an army, iii. xi. ; sends valerianus and martinus in advance of the african expedition, iii. xi. ; despatches the expedition, iii. xii. ff.; makes an agreement with amalasountha for a market, iii. xiv. ; their mutual friendship, iii. xiv. ; his letter to the vandals, iii. xvi. - ; never properly delivered, iii. xvi. ; the goths appeal to him as arbiter, iv. v. ; receives report of belisarius regarding the dispute with the goths, iv. v. ; hears slander against belisarius, iv. viii. ; sends solomon to test him, iv. viii. ; sends the jewish treasures back to jerusalem, iv. ix. ; receives the homage of gelimer and of belisarius, iv. ix. ; distributes rewards to gelimer and others, iv. ix. ; sends belisarius against the goths in italy, iv. xiv. ; sends germanus to libya, iv. xvi. ; entrusts solomon again with the command of libya, iv. xix. ; receives a letter from antalas, iv. xxii. - ; refuses to recall sergius, iv. xxii. ; sends areobindus to libya iv. xxiv. ; recalls sergius and sends him to italy, iv. xxiv. ; appoints artabanes general of all libya, iv. xxviii. ; summons him to byzantium, iv. xxviii. ; uncle of germanus, iv. xvi. ; and of vigilantia, iv. xxiv. ; the vandals of, iv. xiv. ; excluded all not of the orthodox faith from the church, iv. xiv. ; years of reign noted, iii. xii. , iv. xiv. , xix. , xxi. , xxviii. justinus, roman emperor, uncle of justinian, iii. vii. ; not a vigorous or skilful ruler, iii. ix. ; ilderic accused of betraying the vandals to him, iii. ix. laribus or laribous, city in libya, iv. xxii. , xxviii. ; attacked by the moors, iv. xxii. - latin tongue, the, iii. i. , iv. xiii. laurus, a carthaginian; impaled by belisarius, iv. i. leon, emperor of the east, iii. v. ; sends an expedition against the vandals, iii. vi. ff., xx. ; quarrels with aspar, iii. vi. ; appoints anthemius emperor of the west, iii. vi. ; wins over the tyrant marcellianus and sends him against the vandals in sardinia, iii. vi. ; dreaded by gizeric, iii. vi. ; his expedition destroyed by the vandals, iii. vi. ff.; destroys aspar and ardaburius, iii. vi. ; his death, iii. vii. ; husband of berine, iii. vi. ; father of ariadne, iii. vii. leon the younger, son of zenon and ariadne, iii. vii. ; becomes emperor while an infant, iii. vii. ; dies soon afterwards, iii. vii. leontius, son of zaunus, sent as commander to libya, iv. xix. ; fights valorously at the capture of toumar, iv. xx. ; brother of rufinus, _ibid._ leptes, city in libya, iii. xvii. leptimagna, city in tripolis; threatened by an army of leuathae, iv. xxi. , , lesbos, passed by the fugitive vandals, iv. xiv. leuathae, tribe of moors; present demands to sergius, iv. xxi. ; their representatives received by sergius and killed, iv. xxi. - ; come in arms against leptimagna, iv. xxi. ; routed by the romans, iv. xxi. ; march against the romans a second time, iv. xxi. ; scorn the overtures of solomon, iv. xxi. - ; capture solomon, son of bacchus, iv. xxii. ; release him, iv. xxii. ; besiege laribus, iv. xxii. ; depart to their homes iv. xxii. ; join the moors of byzacium against the romans, iv. xxviii. libya, included in "asia," iii. i. ; its aborigines, iv. x. ; the phoenicians emigrate thither, iv. x. ; phoenician tongue used there, iv. x. ; subjugated by the romans, iv. x. ; failure of the visigothic king attalus to get a foothold there, iii. ii. , , ; lost by valentinian, iii. iii. ; occupied by the vandals, iii. iii. , xxii. ; who remove the walls of the cities, iii. v. , xv. ; recovered for the romans by belisarius, iii. xvi. ff.; prospers under the rule of solomon, iv. xix. , xx. ; who restores the walls of the cities, iv. xix. , xx. ; overrun by the moors, iv. xxiii. - , xxviii. libyans, enslaved and impoverished by gizeric, iii. v. - , - ; cannot trust the vandals, iii. xvi. ; their sufferings at the hands of the vandals, iii. xx. ; oppressed by the moors, iv. viii. , xxiii. ; enjoy peace at last, iv. xxviii. liguria, the army of majorinus halts there, iii. vii. , lilybaeum, a promontory of sicily; presented to amalafrida, iii. viii. ; belisarius attempts unsuccessfully to take it, iv. v. ; he asserts his claim, iv. v. ff.; the claim denied by the goths, iv. v. ff. massagetae, called huns in procopius' time, iii. xi. ; their love of wine, iii. xii. ; their custom of allowing only members of a certain family to begin a battle, iii. xviii. ; in the army of aetius, iii. iv. ; in the african expedition of belisarius, iii. xi. , xii. - , xvii. , xviii. , , , xix. , , iv. xiii. ; their doubtful allegiance, iv. i. , , - , ii. , iii. , ; with the mutineers under john, iv. xxvii. maeotic lake, at the eastern extremity of the "mediterranean," iii. i. ; limit of the euxine, iii. i. ; home of the vandals, iii. iii. majorica, island in the western mediterranean, iii. i. ; apollinarius sent thither with an army, iv. v. majorinus, emperor of the west; makes an expedition against the vandals, iii. vii. - ; disguised as an envoy and received by gizeric, iii. vii. - ; his death, iii. vii. malea, southern promontory of the peloponnesus, iii. xiii. mammes, a place in byzacium; solomon encamps there, iv. xi. ; battle fought there, iv. xi. - mandracium, the harbour of carthage, iii. xx. , , iv. viii. , xxvi. ; opened to the roman fleet, iii. xx. ; entered by calonymus with a few ships, iii. xx. marcellianus, rules as independent tyrant over dalmatia, iii. vi. ; won over by leon and sent to sardinia against the vandals, iii. vi. ; destroyed by treachery, iii. vi. marcellus, commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; commander-in-chief of roman forces in numidia, iv. xv. , ; leads his army against stotzas, iv. xv. ; his death, iv. xv. marcentius, commander in byzacium; persuaded by antalas to join him, iv. xxvii. , , marcian, confidential adviser of aspar, iii. iv. ; taken prisoner by gizeric, iii. iv. ; his career foreshadowed by a sign, iii. iv. - ; spared by gizeric, iii. iv. , ; becomes emperor of the east, iii. iv. , ; his successful reign, iii. iv. ; his death, iii. v. marcian, commander of infantry, iii. xi. martinus, commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. , ; sent with valerian in advance of the african expedition, iii. xi. ; meets the roman fleet at methone, iii. xiii. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; escapes with solomon from the mutiny in carthage iv. xiv. - ; sent back to numidia, iv. xiv. ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xix. massonas, son of mephanias; a moorish ruler, accuses iaudas to solomon, iv. xiii. mastigas, moorish ruler, iv. xx. mastinas, ruler of moors in mauretania, iv. xiii. mauritania, occupied by the moors, iv. x. ; moors of, seek alliance with the romans, iii. xxv. ; ruled by mastinas iv. xiii. ; fugitive vandals return thither, iv. xiv. ; iaudas retires thither, iv. xx. ; "first mauritania," called zabe, subjugated by solomon, iv. xx. ; stotzas comes thence to joizabetalas, iv. xxii. ; adjoins numidia, iii. xxv. ; city of caesarea there, iv. v. maximinus, body-guard of theodorus the cappadocian; tries to set up a tyranny, iv. xviii. - ; upon invitation of germanus, becomes a body-guard of his, iv. xviii. , ; his attempt frustrated by germanus, iv. xviii. - ; examined by germanus and impaled, iv. xviii. , maximus the elder, his tyranny, iii. iv. ; the festival celebrating his defeat, _ibid._ maximus, a roman senator, iii. iv. ; his wife outraged by valentinian, iii. iv. - ; plans to murder valentinian, iii. iv. ; slanders and destroys aetius, iii. iv. - ; kills valentinian, and makes himself tyrant, iii. iv. ; stoned to death, iii. v. medeos, city at the foot of mt. papua in numidia, iv. iv. medic garments, _i.e._ silk; called "seric" in procopius' time, as coming from the chinese (seres); worn by the vandals, iv. vi. medissinissas, a moorish ruler; joins in an attack upon a roman force, iv. x. ff.; slays rufinus, iv. x. megara, its distance from athens the measure of a one day's journey, iii. i. melanchlaenae, an old name for the goths, iii. ii. melita, island between the adriatic and tyrrhenian seas (malta), iii. xiv. membresa, city in libya, iv. xv. ; distance from carthage, _ibid._ menephesse, place in byzacium, iv. xxiii. mephanias, a moor, father of massonas, and father-in-law of iaudas, iv. xiii. ; treacherously slain by iaudas, _ibid._ mercurium, a town near carthage, iii. vi. , xvii. , xx. mercurius, the latin name for hermes, iii. vi. methone, a town in the peloponnesus, iii. xiii. ; the roman fleet stops there, iii. xiii. - minorica, island in the western mediterranean, iii. i. ; apollinarius sent thither with an army, iv. v. misuas, the ship-yard of carthage, iv. xiv. monks, their monastery in carthage, iv. xxvi. moors, a black race of africa, iv. xiii. ; an account of their origin in palestine, and migration westward, iv. x. ff.; driven away from carthage, iv. x. , ; possess themselves of much of libya, iv. x. ; take mt. aurasium from the vandals, iv. xiii. , ; those beyond mt. aurasium ruled by ortaïas, iv. xiii. ; on aurasium, ruled by iaudas, iv. xii. , xiii. ; of mauritania, ruled by mastinas, iv. xiii. ; inhabit mt. papua, iv. iv. , vi. , ; not merged with the vandals, iii. v. ; their alliance secured by gizeric, iii. v. ; make war on the vandals, iii. viii. , ; dwelling on mt. aurasium, establish their independence from the vandals, iii. viii. ; their wars with gundamundus, iii. viii. ; inflict a great disaster upon the vandals, iii. viii. - ; of byzacium, defeat the vandals, iii. ix. ; most of them seek alliance with the romans, iii. xxv. - , iv. viii. ff.; their doubtful fidelity, iii. xxv. ; stationed in the rear of the vandals at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; threaten the roman power in tripolis, iv. v. ; on mt. papua, drive back pharas and his men, iv. vi. - ; of byzacium and numidia, rise and overrun the country, iv. viii. - , x. , ; caught by aïgan and rufinus in an ambush, iv. x. ; in turn annihilate the roman force, iv. x. ff.; receive a warning letter from solomon, iv. xi. - ; their reply, iv. xi. - ; solomon marches against them, iv. xi. ; prepare for battle at mammes, iv. xi. , , - ; defeated by the romans, iv. xi. - ; rise against the romans a second time, iv. xii. ; establish themselves on mt. bourgaon, iv. xii. - ; suffer a crushing defeat, iv. xii. ff.; finally understand their ancient prophecy, iv. xii. ; emigrate from byzacium to numidia, iv. xii, ; those under antalas remain in byzacium, iv. xii. ; of aurasium, take up arms under iaudas, iv. xiii. ff.; checked by althias at the spring of tigisis, iv. xiii. , ; in the army of solomon, iv. xiii. ; elude solomon on mt. aurasium, iv. xiii. , ; solomon prepares another expedition against them, iv. xiii. ; with the mutineers of stotzas, iv. xvii. ; their uncertain allegiance, iv. xvii. - ; join in the pursuit of the mutineers, iv. xvii. ; on aurasium; solomon marches against them, iv. xix. ; defeat gontharis, iv. xix. ; flood the roman camp, iv. xix. ; retire to mt. aurasium, iv. xix. ; defeated by solomon, retire to the heights of aurasium, iv. xix. , ; abandon the fortress of zerboule to the romans, iv. xix. - ; overwhelmingly defeated at toumar, iv, xx. ff.; defeat the romans under solomon, iv. xxi. - ; gather under antalas, iv. xxii. ; tricked by solomon the younger, iv. xxii. - ; attack laribus, iv. xxii. - ; gathered a second time by antalas, iv. xxiii. ; capture himerius and take hadrumetum, iv. xxiii. - ; lose hadrumetum, iv. xxiii. ; pillage all libya unhindered, iv. xxiii. - ; defeat the roman army at siccaveneria, iv. xxiv. - ; at the invitation of gontharis, march against carthage, iv. xxv. , ; of coutzinas, in the army of artabanes, iv. xxvii. ; of byzacium, defeated by john, iv. xxviii. ; with the leuathae defeat john, iv. xxviii. , ; routed in a third battle, iv. xxviii. , ; of coutzinas, in alliance with john, iv. xxviii. ; in sardinia, solomon prepares an expedition against them, iv. xiii. , ; sent thither by the vandals, iv. xiii. ; overrun the island, iv. xiii. , ; called barbaricini, iv. xiii. ; their polygamy, iv. xi. ; untrustworthy by nature, iv. xiii. , xvii. , even among themselves, iv. xxv. ; suspicious toward all, iv. xxvi. ; their hardiness as a nation, iv. vi. , - ; their reckless character, iv. viii. ; their female oracles, iv. viii. ; their method of cooking bread, iv. vii. ; accustomed to take some women with their armies, iv. xi. , ; undesirable allies, iv. xiii. ; not practised in storming walls, iv. xxii. ; not diligent in guarding captives, iv. xxiii. ; the symbols of kingship among them received from the roman emperor, iii. xxv. - ; moorish old man, guardian of iaudas' treasures, iv. xx. ; slain by a roman soldier, iv. xx. ; moorish woman, iv. vii. moses, leader of the hebrews, his death, iv. x. nepos, emperor of the west, dies after a reign of a few days, iii. vii. numidia, in africa, adjoins mauritania, iii. xxv. ; its boundary near the plain of boulla, iii. xxv. ; mt. papua on its borders, iv. iv. ; includes mt. aurasium, iii. viii. ; and the city of hippo regius, iii. iii. , iv. iv. ; and the city of tigisis, iv. x. ; moors of, seek alliance with the romans, iii. xxv. ; plundered by the moors, iv. viii. , x. ; plundered by iaudas, iv. xiii. , ; a place of retreat for the mutineers of stotzas, iv. xv. , , xvii. ; romans retire from there, iv. xx. ; gontharis commander there, iv. xxv. ; moors of, march out against carthage, iv. xxv. nun ("naues"), father of joshua ("jesus"), iv. x. , ocean, procopius' conception of it as encircling the earth, iii. . olyvrius, roman senator, husband of placidia, iii. v. , vi. ; becomes emperor of the west; killed after a short reign, iii. vii. optio (latin), a kind of adjutant in the roman army, iii. xvii. , iv. xx. ortaïas, moorish ruler beyond mt. aurasium, iv. xiii. , ; accuses iaudas to solomon, iv. xiii. ; with the mutineers of stotzas, iv. xvii. ; his report of the country beyond his own, iv. xiii. palatium, the imperial residence in rome; said to be named from pallas, iii. xxi. ; despoiled by gizeric, iii. v. , iv. ix. palestine, settlement of the hebrews there, iv. x. ; moors emigrated therefrom, iv. x. pallas, an "eponymous" hero, used to explain the word "palatium," iii. xxi. pannonia, entered by the goths, iii. ii. pappus, brother of john, iv. xvii. , xxviii. ; commander of cavalry, iii. xi. ; on the right wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. papua, mountain in numidia, iv. iv. ; gelimer takes refuge there, iv. , ; its ascent attempted by pharas, iv. vi. ; closely besieged, iv. iv. , vi. ; cyprian sent thither to receive gelimer, iv. vii. pasiphilus, a mutineer in the roman army; active supporter of gontharis, iv. xxvii. , , , ; entertains john at a banquet, iv. xxviii. ; his death, iv. xxviii. patrician rank, iii. ii. , xi. , iv. vi. , xvi. ; gelimer excluded from it because of arianism, iv. ix. paulus, a priest of hadrumetum; rescues the city from the moors, iv. xxiii. - ; comes to byzantium, iv. xxiii. pedion halon, in libya, distance from decimum; forces of gibamundus destroyed there, iii. xviii. pegasius, friend of solomon the younger, iv. xxii. , peloponnesus, iii. xi. , iv. xiv. ; plundered by gizeric, iii. v. , xxii. pentapolis, part of libya; its rule falls to cyrus, iv. xxi. perinthus, called heracleia in procopius' time, iii, xii. persians, iii. xix. ; make peace with the romans, iii. i. , ix. , ; vandals fight against them iv. xiv. peter, roman general, accused by the massagetae of unfair dealing, iv. i. peter, of thrace, body-guard of solomon; at the banquet of gontharis, iv. xxviii. ; looks with approval upon artabanes' plot, iv. xxviii. , ; with artabanes cuts down the body-guards who remain, iv. xxviii. pharas, leader of eruli, in the african expedition, iii. xi. ; left in charge of the siege of gelimer on mt. papua, iv. iv. , , vi. , ; his correspondence with gelimer, iv. vi. - , vii. - ; learns the reasons for gelimer's peculiar request, and fulfils it, iv. vi. - ; reports to belisarius, iv. vii. ; his good qualities, iv. iv. , ; an uneducated man, iv. vi. pharesmanes, father of zaunas, iv. xix. , xx. phasis river, in colchis, iii. i. ; distance from chalcedon, _ibid._ phoenicia, its extent, iv. x. ; ruled by one king in ancient times, iv. x. ; home of various peoples, iv. x. ; dido's emigration therefrom, iv. x. ; phoenician tongue, spoken in libya, iv. x. ; phoenician writing, on two stones in numidia iv. x. phredas, friend of areobindus, sent by him to gontharis, iv. xxvi. , placidia, sister of arcadius and honorius and wife of constantius, iii. iii. ; mother of valentinian, brings him up in vicious ways, iii. iii. ; as regent for her son, appoints boniface general of all libya, iii. iii. ; gives ear to aetius' slander of boniface, iii. iii. , ; summons him to rome, iii. iii. ; sends men to boniface at carthage, iii. iii. ; upon learning the truth tries to bring him back, iii. iii. , ; finally receives him back, iii. iii. ; her death, iii. iv. placidia, daughter of eudoxia and wife of olyvrius; taken captive by gizeric, iii. v. , vi. ; sent to byzantium, iii. v. pontus, see euxine praetor, iii. x. praetorian, see prefect prefect, praetorian prefect (lit. "of the court"), iii. x. , , xi. , xiii. ; of the army, "financial manager," iii. xi. . cf. iii. xv. , xvii, , iv. xvi. prejecta, daughter of vigilantia and wife of areobindus, accompanies him to libya, iv. xxiv. ; placed in a fortress for her safety, iv. xxvi. ; removed from the fortress by gontharis and compelled to give a false report in a letter to justinian, iv. xxvii. ; presents a great sum of money to artabanes, iv. xxviii. proba, a notable woman of rome; according to one account opened the gates of the city to alaric, iii. ii. procopius, author of the history of the wars; sails with belisarius for africa, iii. xii. ; his reassuring dream, iii. xii. - ; sent by belisarius to syracuse to get information, iii. xiv. , , - ; praised by belisarius iii. xiv. ; congratulates belisarius upon a good omen, iii. xv. ; escapes from carthage with solomon, iv. xiv. ; goes to belisarius in syracuse, iv. xiv. pudentius, of tripolis; recovers this country for the roman empire, iii. x. - , xi. , iv. xxi. ; receives support from belisarius, iv. v. ; persuades sergius to receive only representatives of the leuathae, iv. xxi. ; rights against the leuathae, iv. xxi. , ; his death, iv. xxii. ravenna, city in italy; the refuge of honorius, iii. ii. , ; attacked by alaric and attalus, iii. ii. reparatus, priest of carthage; sent by gontharis to summon areobindus, iv. xxvi. ; with difficulty persuades him to come, iv. xxvi. - ; dismissed by gontharis, iv. xxvi. rhecimer, slays his father-in-law anthemius, emperor of the west, iii. vii. rhine river, crossed by the vandals, iii. iii. romans, subjects of the roman empire, both in the east and in the west; mentioned constantly throughout; celebrate a festival commemorating the overthrow of maximus, iii. iv. ; accustomed to enter subject cities in disorder, iii. xxi. ; require especial oaths of loyalty from body-guards of officers, iv. xviii. ; subjugate the peoples of libya, iv. x. ; lose libya to gizeric and the vandals, iii. iii. - ; send an unsuccessful expedition under basiliscus against the vandals, iii. vi. - ; make peace with the persians, iii. ix. ; send a second expedition under belisarius, iii. xi. ff.; defeat the vandals at decimum, iii. xviii. - , xix. - ; at tricamarum, iv. ii. ff.; defeat the moors at the battle of mammes, iv. xi. - ; on mt. bourgaon, iv. xii. ff.; and on mt. aurasium, iv. xix. -xx. ; further conflicts with the moors, iv. xi.-xxviii.; poverty of the roman soldiers, iv. iv. ; their marriages with the vandal women, iv. xiv. ; and their desire for the vandals estates, iv. xiv. ; they make a mutiny, iv. xiv. ff. rome, abandoned by honorius, iii. ii. , ; completely sacked by the visigoths, iii. ii. ; captured by alaric, iii. ii. - ; sacked by alaric, iii. ii. ; according to one account, was delivered over to alaric by proba, iii. ii. ; the suffering of the city during the siege of alaric, iii. ii. ; despoiled by gizeric, iii. v. ff., iv. ix. rome, name of a cock of the emperor honorius, iii. ii. rufinus, of thrace; of the house of belisarius and his standard-bearer, iv. x. , ; commander of cavalry, iii. xi. ; makes a successful attack upon the moors in byzacium, iv. x. ; his force in turn annihilated by the moors, iv. x. ff; captured and killed, iv. x. , , xi. rufinus, son of zaunas and brother of leontius; sent as commander to libya, iv. xix. ; fights valorously at the capture of toumar, iv. xx. salarian gate, at rome, iii. ii. , sallust, roman historian, the house of, burned by alaric, iii. ii. sarapis, commander of roman infantry, iii. xi. , iv. xv. ; his death, iv. xv. sardinia, its size compared with that of sicily, iv. xiii. ; half way between rome and carthage, _ibid._; recovered by the romans from the vandals, iii. vi. , ; occupied by the tyrant godas, iii. x. , ; gelimer sends an expedition to recover it, iii. xi. , ; subdued by tzazon, iii, xxiv. , , iv. ii. ; avoided by cyril, iii. xxiv. ; tzazon and his men summoned thence by gelimer, iii. xxv. , , , ; recovered for the roman empire by cyril, iv. v. , ; solomon sends an expedition against the moors who had overrun the island, iv. xiii. - sauromatae, an old name for the goths, iii. ii. scalae veteres, place in numidia, iv. xvii. scythians, a barbarian people, iii. xix. ; in the army of attila, iii. iv. scriptures of the christians; areobindus seeks to protect himself by them, iv. xxvi. ; see also gospel, and hebrew scriptures septem, fort at the pillars of heracles, iii. i. ; john sent thither with an army, iv. v. sergius, son of bacchus, and brother of cyrus; becomes ruler of tripolis in libya, iv. xxi. ; brother of solomon the younger, iv. xxi. ; threatened by an army of leuathae, iv. xxi, ; receives representative from them, iv. xxi. ff.; meets them in battle, iv. xxi. , ; retires into the city, iv. xxi. ; and receives help from solomon, iv. xxi. , ; succeeds solomon in the command of libya, iv. xxii. ; his misrule, iv. xxii, ; his recall demanded by antalas, iv. xxii. , ; justinian refuses to recall him, iv. xxii. ; appealed to by paulus to save hadrumetum, but does nothing, iv. xxiii. , ; quarrels with john, son of sisiniolus, iv. xxii. ; xxiii. ; shares the rule of libya with areobindus, iv. xxiv. , ; departs to numidia, iv. xxiv. ; disregards areobindus' instructions to unite with john, iv. xxiv. , ; recalled and sent to italy, iv. xxiv. , xxv. seric, see medic garments, iv. vi. sestus, city on the hellespont, iii. i. severianus, son of asiaticus, a phoenician; his daring encounter with the moors, iv. xxiii. - ; escapes to carthage, iv. xxiii. shield mountain (clypea), ancient fort on aurasium, iv. xiii. shoal's head, see caputvada, iii. xiv. siccaveneria, city in libya; distance from carthage, iv. xxiv. sicily, its size compared with that of sardinia, iv. xiii. ; invaded by gizeric, iii. v. , ; concessions given the vandals there, iii. viii. , iv. v. ; reached by the roman fleet, iii. xiii. ; expedition sent thither by belisarius, iv. v. ; claimed by the goths, iv. v. ; subjugated by belisarius, iv. xiv. ; a mutiny there causes belisarius to return to it, iv. xv. , ; refuge of libyans, iv. xxiii. sidon, city at the extremity of phoenicia, iv. x. sigeum, promontory on the coast of the troad, iii. xiii. singidunum, town in the land of the gepaides, modern belgrade, iii. ii. sinnion, leader of the massagetae, iii. xi. sirmium, town in the land of the gepaides, iii. ii. sisiniolus, father of john, iv. xix. , xxii. , xxiii. , xxiv. sitiphis, metropolis of "first mauritania," iv. xx. sittas, roman general; slain by artabanes, iv. xxvii. sophia, name of the great church in byzantium, iii. vi. solomon, commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; a eunuch, iii. xi. ; a native of the country about daras, iii. xi. ; uncle of bacchus, iv. xxi. ; sent to report belisarius' victory to the emperor, iii. xxiv. ; returns to libya, iv. viii. ; left by belisarius in charge of libya, iv. viii. ; receives reinforcements from byzantium, iv. viii. ; disturbed by the news of uprisings in libya, iv. x. _ff._; writes to the moorish leaders, iv. xi. - ; their reply, iv. xi. - ; moves against the moors with his whole army, iv. xi. ; addresses his troops, iv. xi. - ; inflicts a crushing defeat upon the enemy at mammes, iv. xi. ff.; receives word of the second moorish uprising, and marches back, iv. xii. ; wins a brilliant victory on mt. bourgaon, iv. xii. ff.; moves against iaudas, iv. xiii. ; instigated against him by other moorish leaders, iv. xiii. ; encamps on the abigas river, iv. xiii. ; ascends mt. aurasium with few provisions, iv. xiii. - ; eluded by the moors, iv. xiii. , ; returns to carthage, iv. xiii. ; prepares a second expedition against mt. aurasium, iv. xiii. ; and against sardinia, iv. xiii. . ; passes the winter in carthage, iv. xiv. ; opposed by the soldiers in regard to confiscated lands, iv. xiv. ; plan to assassinate him, iv. xiv. ; his guards implicated in the plot, iv. xiv. ; failure of the conspirators to act, iv. xiv. - ; tries to win back the loyalty of his men, iv. xiv. ; insulted openly, iv. xiv. ; sends theodorus to the mutineers, iv. xiv. ; his enmity toward theodorus, iv. xiv. ; his acquaintances killed by the mutineers, iv. xiv. ; flees to a sanctuary in the palace, iv. xiv. ; joined by martinus there, _ibid._; they come out to the house of theodorus, iv. xiv. ; escape in a boat to misuas, whence he sends martinus to numidia, iv. xiv. ; writes to theodorus, and departs to syracuse, iv. xiv. ; begs belisarius to come to carthage, iv. xiv. ; returns with him, iv. xv. ; entrusted again with the command of libya, iv. xix. ; his prosperous rule, iv. xix. , , xx. ; marches against iaudas once more, iv. xix. ; sends gontharis ahead, iv. xix. ; hears of the defeat of gontharis, iv. xix. ; advances to the camp of gontharis, thence to babosis, iv. xix. ; defeats the moors in battle, iv. xix. ; plunders the plain and then returns to zerboule, iv. xix. ; which he unexpectedly captures, iv. xix. - ; his care of the water supply during the siege of toumar, iv. xx. ; addresses the army, iv. xx. - ; tries to find a point of attack, iv. xx. , ; fortifies mt. aurasium against the moors, iv. xx, ; fortifies many libyan cities with money captured from iaudas, iv. xix. , xx. ; subjugates zabe, or "first mauritania," iv. xx. ; appealed to by sergius for help, iv. xxi. ; incurs the enmity of antalas, iv. xxi. , xxii. , ; marches against the moors, iv. xxi. ; his overtures scorned by the leuathae, iv. xxi. - ; captures some booty and refuses to distribute it to the soldiers, iv. xxi. , ; defeated by the moors and slain, iv. xxi. - ; justinian's regard for him, iv. xxii. ; builds and fortifies a monastery in carthage, iv. xxvi. ; standards of, recovered from the moors, iv. xxviii. solomon the younger, brother of cyrus and sergius; marches with solomon against the moors, iv. xxi. ; his capture and release, iv. xxii. - solomon, king of the jews, iv. ix. sophia, temple of, in byzantium; appropriateness of its name, iii. vi. spain, settled by the vandals, iii. iii. , ; invaded by constantinus, iii. ii. ; settled by the visigoths, iii. iii. . xxiv. , iv. iv. stagnum, a harbour near carthage, iii. xv. ; the roman fleet anchors there, iii. xx. , stotzas, a body-guard of martinus, destined not to return to byzantium, iii. xi. ; chosen tyrant by the mutineers, iv. xv. ; marches on carthage, iv. xv. ; invites the vandals to join his army, iv. xv. , ; demands the surrender of carthage, iv. xv. ; kills the envoy joseph, and besieges carthage, iv. xv. ; addresses his troops, iv. xv. - ; defeated by belisarius, iv. xv. ff.; his forces gather in numidia, iv. xv. ; the romans march against him at gazophyla, iv. xv. ; comes alone into the roman army and addresses the soldiers, iv. xv. - ; received with favour, iv. xv. ; kills the roman commanders in a sanctuary, iv. xv. ; eager to fight a battle with germanus, iv. xvi. ; approaches carthage, hoping for defection from there, iv. xvi. , ; his hopes falsified, iv. xvii. ; defeated by germanus at scalae veteres, iv. xvii. ff.; escapes with a few men, iv. xvii. ; hopes to renew the battle with the help of the moors, iv. xvii. ; makes his escape with difficulty, iv. xvii. ; suffers another defeat, iv. xvii. ; withdraws to mauritania and marries the daughter of a moorish chief, iv. xvii. ; the end of his mutiny, _ibid._; iv. xix. ; joins antalas, iv. xxii. , xxiii. ; receives roman captives, iv. xxiii. , ; joins the moors in plundering libya, iv. xxiii. - ; areobindus sends an army against him, iv. xxiv. ; his enmity against john, iv, xxiv. ; mortally wounded by him in battle, iv. xxiv. ; carried out of the battle, iv. xxiv. ; his death, iv. xxiv. ; succeeded by john as tyrant of the mutineers, iv. xxv. syllectus, city in libya, iii. xvi. ; captured by belisarius' men, iii. xvi. ; entered by the roman army, iii. xvii. symmachus, a roman senator; accompanies germanus to libya, iv. xvi. ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xix. syracuse, city in sicily, iii. xiv. ; its harbour arethusa, iii. xiv. ; procopius sent thither, iii. xiv. , ; belisarius passes the winter there, iv. xiv. , ; distance from caucana, iii. xiv. taenarum, called caenopolis in procopius' time; promontory of the peloponnesus, iii. xiii. ; gizeric repulsed from there, iii. xxii. tamougadis, a city at the foot of mt. aurasium; dismantled by the moors, iv. xiii. , xix. tattimuth, sent in command of an army to tripolis, iii. x. ; receives support from belisarius, iv. v. taulantii, a people of illyricum, iii. ii. tebesta, city in libya; distance from carthage, iv. xxi. terentius, roman commander of infantry, iii. xi. , iv. xv. theoderic, king of the goths; gives his daughter in marriage to the king of the vandals, and makes certain concessions in sicily, iii. viii. - , iv. v. ; becomes hostile to the vandals, iii. ix. ; refrains from attacking them iii. ix. ; his death, iii. xiv. ; grandfather of antalaric, _ibid._; brother of amalafrida, iii. viii. , theodora, wife of justinian; distributes rewards to gelimer and others, iv. ix. theodorus, youngest son of gizeric; his death, iii. v. theodorus, called cteanus, commander of infantry, iii. xi. theodorus, commander of guards; sent to the top of mt. bourgaon by solomon, iv. xii. ; killed by the mutineers, iv. xiv. ; his excellent qualities as a soldier, _ibid._ theodorus, the cappadocian; sent to libya with an army, iv. viii. ; sent by solomon to quiet the mutineers, iv. xiv. ; his enmity against solomon, iv. xiv. ; elected general by the mutineers, iv. xiv. ; gives solomon and martinus dinner and helps them to escape, iv. xiv. ; bidden by solomon to take care of carthage, iv. xiv. ; refuses to surrender carthage to stotzas, iv. xv. ; made joint ruler of carthage with ildiger, iv. xv. ; at the battle of scalae veteres, iv. xvii. , ; learns of the plot of maximinus from asclepiades, iv. xviii. theodosius i, roman emperor, father of arcadius and honorius, iii. i. ; overthrows the tyranny of maximus, iii. iv. theodosius ii, son of arcadius; becomes emperor of the east, iii. ii. , iii. ; honorius considers the possibility of finding refuge with him, iii. ii. ; rears valentinian, iii. iii. ; makes him emperor of the west, iii. iii. ; sends an army against the tyrant john, _ibid._; his death, iii. iv. ; succeeded by marcian, iii. iv. , ; father of eudoxia, iii. iv. thrace, starting point of alaric's invasion, iii. ii. ; the goths settle there for a time, iii. ii. ; home of several roman commanders, iii. xi. ; adjoins "germania," iii. xi. ; royal horse-pastures there, iii. xii. ; home of himerius, iv. xxiii. ; and of peter, iv. xxviii. thessalian cape, or chlamys, iii. xxv. theodatus, king of the goths; belisarius sent against him, iv. xiv. theudis, king of the visigoths, iv. iv. ; receives envoys from gelimer, iii. xxiv. - tigisis, city in numidia, iv. x. ; two phoenician inscriptions there, iv. x. ; its great spring, iv. xiii. titus, roman emperor, iv. ix. ; his capture of jerusalem, iv. ix. ; son of vespasian, _ibid._ toumar, place on the summit of mt. aurasium, iv. xix. ; besieged by the romans, iv. xx. ff.; scaled by gezon and captured by solomon, iv. xx. - trajan, roman emperor, iv. ix. trasamundus, brother of gundamundus; becomes king of the vandals, iii. viii. ; tries to win over the christians, iii. viii. , ; asks the hand of amalafrida, iii. viii. ; becomes a friend of anastasius, iii. viii. ; his death, iii. viii. tricamarum, place in libya; distance from carthage, iv. ii. ; vandals defeated there, iv. iii. ff., iv. , v. , tripolis, district in libya; distance from gadira, iii. i. ; the vandals there defeated by heraclius, iii. vi. , ; moors dwelling there, iii. viii. ; lost again by the vandals, iii. x. - ; gelimer hopeless of recovering it, iii. xi. ; belisarius sends an army thither, iv. v. ; rule of, falls to sergius, iv. xxi. ; leuathae come from there with a large army, iv. xxviii. troy, iii. xxi. tryphon, sent to libya to assess the taxes, iv. viii. tuscan sea, separated from the adriatic by gaulus and melita, iii. xiv. ; severity of its storms, iv. iv. tzazon, brother of gelimer; sent with an army to recover sardinia, iii. xi. ; overthrows and kills godas in sardinia, iii. xxiv. ; writes to gelimer, iii. xxiv. - ; receives a letter from him, iii. xxv. - ; thereupon departs for libya, iii. xxv. - ; meets gelimer in the plain of boulla, iii. xxv. ; addresses his troops separately, iv. ii. - ; commands the centre at the battle of tricamarum, iv. in. , , , ; his death, iv. iii. ; his head taken to sardinia by cyril, iv. v. , uliaris, body-guard of belisarius, iii. xix. ; his stupid action at decimum, iii. xix. ; kills john the armenian accidentally, iv, iv. ff.; takes refuge in a sanctuary, iv. iv. ; spared by belisarius, iv. iv. ulitheus, trusted body-guard of gontharis, iv. xxv. ; bears messages to antalas, iv. xxv. - , ; at gontharis' order assassinates areobindus, iv. xxvi. , , xxvii. ; marches with artabanes against antalas, iv. xxvii. ff.; killed by artasires at the banquet of gontharis, iv. xxviii. ff. valentinian, son of constantius, reared by theodosius, iii. iii. ; made emperor of the west, iii. iii. ; captures john and after brutal abuse kills him, iii. iii. ; his viciousness resulting from early training, iii. iii. , ; loses libya to the empire, iii. iii. ; receives tribute and a hostage from gizeric, iii. iv. ; returns the hostage, iii. iv. ; slays aetius, iii. iv. ; outrages the wife of maximus, iii. iv. ff.; slain by him, iii. iv. , ; son of placidia, iii. iii. ; father of eudocia and placidia, iii. v. , vi. ; husband of eudoxia, iii. iv. ; members of his family receive rewards from justinian and theodora, iv. ix. valerian, commander of auxiliaries, iii. xi. ; sent with martinus in advance of the african expedition, iii. xi. , ; meets the roman fleet at methone, iii. xiii. ; on the left wing at the battle of tricamarum, iv. iii. ; martinus sent to him in numidia, iv. xiv. ; summoned to byzantium, iv. xix. vandals, a gothic people, iii. ii. ; whence they came into the roman empire, iii. i. , iii. ff.; a portion of them left behind and lost to memory, iii. xxii. , ; settle in spain, iii. iii. ; their alliance sought by boniface, iii. iii. , ; cross from spain into libya, iii. iii. ; defeat boniface in battle, iii. iii. ; besiege hippo regius, iii. iii. , ; defeat a second roman army, iii. iii. ; secure possession of libya, iii. xxii. ; send moors to sardinia, iv. xiii. ; take the church of st. cyprian at carthage from the christians, iii. xxi. ; invade italy and sack rome, iii. v. ff.; their numbers together with the alani, iii. v. - ; absorb all barbarian peoples associated with them except the moors, iii. v. ; leon sends an expedition against them, iii. vi. ff.; driven out of sardinia by marcellianus; iii. vi. ; defeated in tripolis by heraclius, iii. vi. ; lost mt. aurasium to the moors, iv. xiii. ; enter into an "endless peace" with the emperor zeno, iii. vii. ; make war on the moors, iii. viii. , ; suffer a great disaster at the hands of the moors, iii. viii. - ; defeated by the moors, and become enemies of the goths, iii. ix. ; defeated many times by the moors, iv. x. ; justinian prepares an expedition against them, iii. x. ff.; lose tripolis, iii. x. - ; and sardinia, iii. x. - ; letter addressed to them by justinian, iii. xvi. - ; recover sardinia, iii. xxiv. ; defeated by the romans at decimum, iii. xviii. ff.; greatly feared by the roman army iii. xix. ; collected by gelimer in the plain of boulla, iii. xxv. ff.; besiege carthage, iv. i. ; invite the huns to join them, iv. i. ; defeated by the romans at tricamarum, iv. ii. ff.; taken to byzantium by belisarius, iv. xiv. ; some of them go to the east, while the others escape to libya, iv. xiv. - ; together with their women, sent out of libya, iv. xix. ; upon invitation of stotzas, join the mutineers, iv. xv. , ; accumulate great wealth in africa, iv. iii. ; not trusted by the libyans, iii. xvi. ; their effeminacy as a nation, iv. vi. - ; their women, as wives of the romans, incite them to mutiny, iv. xiv. , ; priests of, incite romans of arian faith to mutiny, iv. xiv. ; vandals' estates, established by gizeric, iii. v. ; vandals of justinian, iv. xiv. veredarii (latin), royal messengers, iii. xvi. vespasian, roman emperor, father of titus, iv. ix. vigilantia, mother of prejecta, and sister of justinian, iv. xxiv. visigoths, a gothic people, iii. ii. ; their alliance with arcadius, iii. ii. ; the destruction wrought by them in italy, iii. ii. - ; settle in spain, iii. iii. ; iv. iv. ; invited to form alliance with the vandals, iii. xxiv. zabe, called "first mauritania"; subjugated by solomon, iv. xx. zacynthus, island off the coast of greece, iii. xiii. ; its inhabitants the victims of gizeric's atrocity, iii. xxii. , , zaïdus, commander of roman infantry, iii. xi. zaunus, son of paresmanes, and father of leontius and rufinus, iv. xix. , xx. zeno, emperor of the east; husband of ariadne, and father of leon the younger, iii. vii. ; shares the empire with his infant son, iii. vii. ; flees into isauria, iii. vii. ; gathers an army and marches against basiliscus, iii. vii. ; meets harmatus and receives the army by surrender, iii. vii. ; captures basiliscus and banishes him, iii. vii. , ; becomes emperor a second time, iii. vii. ; kills harmatus, _ibid._; forms a compact with gizeric, iii. vii. zerboule, fortress on mt. aurasium, iv. xix. , ; besieged by the romans, iv. xix. - ; abandoned by the moors, iv. xix. - * * * * * * transcriber's note: periods added in index to some instances of roman numerals to conform to rest of index. index errata: under adriatic sea "melite" should read "melita" "apollonaris" should read "apollonarius" "arethusa" should read "arethousa" (also under syracuse) under ariadne "zenon" should read "zeno" also under: basiliscus, brother of berine basiliscus, son of harmatus gizeric harmatus leon the younger "atalaric" should be "antalaric" under atalaric "amalasuntha" should be "amalasountha" "centenarium" should be "centenaria" "dromon" should be "dromone" "gepaides" should be "gepaedes" also under: singidunum sirmium under gizeric "olyvrius" should be "olybrius" also under: olyvrius placidia "heraclius" should be "heracleius" also under: tripolis vandals under iaudas "mephanius" should be "mephanias" "iourpouthes" should be "iourphothes" under john, the mutineer, "pamphilus" should be "pasiphilus" "juppiter" should be "jupiter" under leontius "zaunus" should be "zaunas" also under: zaunus "leptes" should be "leptis" "medeos" should be "medeus" "medissinissas" should be "medisinissas" under zaunus "paresmanes" should be "pharesmanes" [transcriber's note: the main text in this book is interspersed with numerous illustrations and accompanying text. in this e-book, the illustrations and accompanying text are set off from the main text by lines of asterisks. for the reader's convenience, where the original indicates that the main text is continued on another page (e.g., [continued on page three]), the page on which it is continued is marked with a page number, e.g., [page ].] special exhibition the arts of persia & other countries of islam h. kevorkian collection [illustration] from thursday, april twenty-second to saturday, may fifteenth, inclusive on the entire third floor the anderson galleries park avenue at fifty-ninth street, new york the entire third floor galleries from thursday, april twenty-second to saturday, may fifteenth, inclusive [open week-days, - ; sundays, - p.m.] * * * * * [illustration: stucco bas-relief, painted in polychrome. excavated at ray (rhages) anterior to the xiith century] this exhibition has been arranged with a desire to meet the convenience of those who are interested in manifestations of the arts of different countries over which islam held sway at one time or other in the past. an effort has been made to show under one roof representative examples of works produced at different epochs and stages of the civilizations referred to, so that they may be seen, and perhaps studied, with the minimum expenditure of time. fine examples of many branches of the arts of these peoples are in permanent exhibitions at the metropolitan museum, new york, and the museums of great cities throughout the country. it is difficult to find adequate words to describe the enchanting atmosphere of the halls at the metropolitan museum where near eastern art is installed; and the same can truly be said of the museum of fine arts, boston, and the university of pennsylvania museum, philadelphia. these exhibitions must inevitably contribute to the enjoyment and education of countless visitors to these institutions, and will continue to do so in increasing degree to the enjoyment of generations to come. the present exhibition does not comprise a vast number of objects. its claim to attention lies in the fact that it includes an important series of really first class works which are also of great historical importance. there will be on view as well some comparatively new types of objects of æsthetic and archæological interest, obtained as the result of recent excavations. the briefness of time available precluded the possibility of compiling a catalogue, as was at first intended. the present booklet is issued to explain the scope of the exhibition, and extend a cordial invitation to visit it. h.k. * * * * * [illustration: muhammad (the prophet) witnesses ali (his son-in-law and successor) defeat amr ben abdwad] one of the eight illustrations for a xiiith century persian manuscript entitled, "history of tabari", compiled a.h. (a.d. ). the present copy is a subsequent one of the persian version, translated by al b'ala'mi, a.h. . it is interesting to note that tabari records in the book here referred to, that three messages were sent by muhammad to khusraw parniz, imparting the divine warnings. one of the messages, as recorded in an old manuscript entitled nihayat ul-irab, reads: "in the name of god, the merciful, the compassionate. from muhammad the apostle of god to khusraw son of hurmazd. but to proceed. verily i extol unto thee god, beside whom there is no other god. he it is who guarded me when i was an orphan, and made me rich when i was destitute, and guided me when i was straying in error. only he who is bereft of understanding, and over whom calamity triumphs, rejects the message which i am sent to announce. o khusraw, submit and thou shalt be safe, or else prepare to wage with god and with his apostle a war which shall not find them helpless. farewell." * * * * * [illustration] the rise of islam and its rapid advent to power, is perhaps the most surprising chapter of the history of mankind. the great empires, persian and byzantine, which were subjected to the urgent onslaught of this rising power may have been in an enfeebled condition as a result of excess of despotism and internal dissensions, as historians affirm; but that the element of the power must have been in the rationality of the principles contained in the teaching, there can be no doubt. "it was undoubtedly to islam, that simple yet majestic creed of which no unprejudiced student can ignore the grandeur, that arabs owed the splendid part which they were destined to play in the history of civilization. in judging of the arabian prophet, western critics are too often inclined to ignore the condition from which he raised his country, and to forget that many institutions which they condemn were not introduced but only tolerated by islam. the early muslims were very sensible of the immense amelioration in their life effected by muhammad's teachings. what this same amelioration was is well shown in the following passage from the oldest extant biography of the prophet," says professor g. browne in his memorable work on persia,[ ] and quotes ibn hisham (a.h. : a.d. ) in support. [footnote : "literary history of persia," by edward g. browne, m.a., m.b., vol. i, page .] "during the first half of the seventh century," says dozy in [continued on page three] * * * * * [illustration: accession at kufa, a.d. , of abu'l-abbas abdullah as-saffah first caliph of the house of abbas] one of eight illustrations for a xiiith century manuscript entitled, "history of tabari", compiled a.h. (a.d. ). the present copy is a subsequent one of the persian version, translated by al b'ala'mi, a.h. . "it was a dynasty abounding in good qualities, richly endowed with generous attributes, wherein the wares of science found a ready sale, the merchandise of culture was in great demand, the observances of religion were respected, charitable bequests flowed freely ... and the frontiers were bravely kept."--al-fakhri (historian of fame of the xiiith century) on the abbasid dynasty. * * * * * [page ] his excellent work on islam,[ ] "everything followed its accustomed course in the byzantine as in the persian empire. these two states continued always to dispute the possession of western asia; they were, to all outward appearance, flourishing; the taxes which poured into the treasuries of their kings reached considerable sums, and the magnificence, as well as the luxury of their capitals had become proverbial. but all this was but in appearance, for secret disease consumed both empires; they were burdened by a crushing despotism; on either hand the history of the dynasties formed a concatenation of horrors, that of the state a series of persecutions born of dissensions in religious matters. at this juncture it was that, all of a sudden, there emerged from deserts hardly known and appeared on the scene of the world a new people, hitherto divided into innumerable nomad tribes, who, for the most part, had been at war with one another, now for the first time united. it was this people, passionately attached to liberty, simple in their food and dress, noble and hospitable, gay and witty, but at the same time proud, irascible, and, once their passions were aroused, vindictive, irreconcilable and cruel, who overthrew in an instant the venerable but rotten empire of the persians, snatched from the successors of constantine their fairest provinces, trampled under their feet a germanic kingdom but lately founded, and menaced the rest of europe, while at the same time, at the other end of the world, its victorious armies penetrated to the himalayas. yet it was not like so many other conquering peoples, for it preached at the same time a new religion. in opposition to the dualism of the persians and a degenerate christianity, it announced a pure monotheism which was accepted by millions of men, and which, even in our own time, constitutes the religion of a tenth part of the human race." [footnote : translated into french by victor chauvin under the title of "essai sur l'histoire de l'islamisme" (leyden and paris, ).] the teachings of muhammad were not of a nature to arouse [continued on page five] * * * * * [illustration: polychrome enamelled glass mosque lamp of the xiiith century] very few examples of this highly advanced art survive. they represent an extremely aristocratic manifestation of art and were executed by order of mameluke caliphs of egypt, and dedicated by them to their great mosques, individually inscribed in magnificent calligraphy. * * * * * [page ] intolerance.[ ] history does not record the practice of compulsory conversion in the scheme of conquest of early converts. "it is often supposed," says professor browne, "that the choice offered by the warriors of islam was between the qur'an and the sword; this, however, is not the fact." there are innumerable evidences to the contrary which history records.[ ] it appears that the exemplary behavior of the arabs, under their newly acquired faith, was the main factor not only in the success of their scheme of conquest, but also in the impression which it made on the defeated in determining them to adopt the faith which produced such upright warriors. [footnote : "righteousness is not that ye turn your faces to the east and to the west, but righteousness is this: whosoever believeth in god, and the last day, and the angels, and the book, and the prophets; and whoso, for the love of god, giveth of his wealth unto his kindred, and unto orphans, and the poor, and the traveller, and to those who crave alms, and for the release of the captives; and whoso observeth prayer and giveth in charity; and those who, when they have covenanted, fulfil their covenant; and who are patient in adversity and hardship, and in times of violence: these are the righteous and they that fear the lord."--qur'an, sura ii.] [footnote : the treaty concluded by habib b. maslama with the people of dabil in armenia ran as follows: "in the name of god the merciful, the clement. this is a letter from habib b. maslama to the people of dabil, christians, magians, and jews, such of them as are present and such of them as are absent. verily i guarantee the safety of your lives, properties, churches, temples and city walls; ye are secure, and it is incumbent upon us faithfully to observe this treaty so long as you observe it and pay the poll-tax and the land-tax. god is witness, and he sufficeth as a witness."--qur'an, v. . concerning the acceptance of the poll-tax from zoroastrians, as well as from jews and christians. a. von kremer's "kulturgeschichte d. orients," vol. i, page .] the tremendous political upheaval that the evolution of islam brought in its train to the affairs of the world does not fall within the scope of this paper. a highly important fact, however, must not be lost sight of, that by consolidating and unifying the tottering states a new civilization was founded which knew how to turn to account the culture of the ancient states conquered. in this overwhelming transformation persia came in, from the outset, to play the most conspicuous and important part. the [continued on page nine] * * * * * [illustration: royal ivory box, with metal mounting. hispano-arabian art, xiith-xiiith century decorated in enamel and gold, depicting insignia of successors of umayyad caliphs of spain, and qur'anic rosettes and kufic calligraphy of the highest distinction] [illustration: faience cylindrical vase, with relief and lustre decoration. from fostat (ancient cairo), dynasty of fatimid anti-caliphs (a.d. - )] [illustration: an early safawid painting (circa a.d. ) of exquisite rhythm, depth and dignity] * * * * * [page ] artistic productions of the muhammadan world that have come down to us as living monuments, substantiate this statement without a shadow of doubt, which makes it unnecessary to resort to recorded history, although its pages abound with incontestable evidences.[ ] [footnote : "thus it is by no means correct to imply that the two or three centuries immediately following the muhammadan conquest of persia were a blank page in the intellectual life of its people. it is, on the contrary, a period of immense and unique interest, of fusion between the old and the new, of transformation of forms and transmigration of ideas, but in no wise of stagnation or death. politically, it is true, persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate national existence, being merged in that great muhammadan empire which stretched from gibraltar to the jaxartes; but in the intellectual domain she soon began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and subtlety of her people entitled her. even the forms of state organization were largely adapted from persian models."--al-fakhri (ed. ahlwardt, page ), on the organization of the diwans or government offices. "in the finance department not only was the persian system adopted, but the persian language and notation continued to be used till the time of al-hajjaj b. yusuf (about a.d. )."--edward g. browne, "literary history of persia", vol. i, page .] it would be difficult to offer an explanation for the underlying unity and integrity of character manifest in the artistic expression of the muhammadan countries, of vast geographical range, without a clear understanding of the vital force contained in the teachings of the arabian apostle, and the characteristics of his people, destined to carry those teachings from one end of the earth to the other. for this reason the foregoing brief survey has been ventured. there can be no doubt that the pivot around which the artistic activities of muhammadan countries revolved, was persia.[ ] she was to attain the function of the sun, element of [continued on page seventeen] * * * * * illustrations for title-pages of a shahnama (epic of kings) of the xvth century. representing timur-i-lang (a.h. - ) attending a festival. the name and the full titles of timur appear in excellent thuluth lettering round the border of the rug upon which the monarch sits. this important manuscript was presented by the emperor of russia to the ambassador of persia at st. petersburg, a.d. . the ambassador's autograph inscription reads: "the shahnama graciously presented by h.m. the emperor at my third visit--may it be omen of good fortune. muhammad ali ibni ghafouri ambassador, nd of rajab, a.h. ." "timur beg was seated in a portal, in front of the entrance of a beautiful palace; and he was sitting on the ground.... the lord was seated cross-legged, on silken embroidered carpets, amongst round pillows. he was dressed in a robe of silk, with white headdress on his head, on the top of which there was a spinel ruby, with pearls and precious stones round it. as soon as the ambassadors saw the lord, they made a reverential bow, placing the knee on the ground, and crossing the arms on the breast; then they went forward and made another and then a third, remaining with their knees on the ground. the lord ordered them to rise and come forward.... three mirzas, or secretaries, ... came and took the ambassadors by the arms, and led them forward until they stood before the lord.... he asked after the king, saying, 'how is my son the king? is he in good health?' when the ambassadors had answered, timur beg turned to the knights who were seated around him, amongst whom were one of the sons of toktamish, the former emperor of tartary, several chiefs of the blood of the late emperor of samarquand, and others of the family of the lord himself, and said, 'behold, here are the ambassadors sent by my son, the king of spain, who is the greatest king of franks, and lives at the end of the world. these franks are truly great people, and i will give my benediction to the king of spain, my son."--from the diary of ruy gonzalez di clavijo, principal of the embassy despatched a.d. to the court of samarquand by henry iii of castile, spain. clavijo describes the beautiful gardens with their tiled palaces where banquets were given. the ambassador, who was invited, marvelled at the gorgeous tents, one of which "was so large and high that from a distance it looked like a castle, and it was a very wonderful thing to see, and possessed more beauty than it is possible to describe". it is interesting to notice that sharaf-u-din mentions the presence of the ambassadors, "for," he writes, "even the smallest of fish have their place in the sea". truly a delightful touch!--history of persia, by sir percy sykes, vol. ii, page . [illustration: illustrations for title-pages of a shahnama (epic of kings) of the xvth century] "on the extreme of the western side of the royal precincts opening on to the chahar bagh are a garden and building. the garden was previously called "bagh i bulbul" (garden of nightingales).--lord curzon, history of persia. "night drawing on, all the pride of spahaun was met in the chaur baug and grandees were airing themselves, prancing about with their numerous trains, striving to outdo each other in pomp and generosity."--dr. fryer, recorded a.d. . chardin, who was at ispahan at the time of shah suleiman's reign ( - ), records in his "voyages", vol. viii, page : "when one walks in these places expressly made for the delights of love and when one passes through all these cabinets and niches, one's heart is melted to such an extent that to speak candidly, one always leaves with a very ill grace. the climate without doubt contributes much towards exciting this amorous disposition, but assuredly these places, although in some respects little more than cardboard castles, are nevertheless more smiling and agreeable than our most sumptuous palaces." lord curzon says (history of persia, vol. ii, page ) that "even chardin, enthusiastic but seldom sentimental, was inspired to an unwonted outburst by the charms of hasht bahisht". [illustration: view of chahar bagh (four gardens) and hasht bahisht (pavilion of eight paradises) at ispahan. constructed by shah suleiman safawi about a.d. . reproduction from "la perse, la chaldee et la susiane" ( ) by dieulafoy] pair of doors from the pavilion of chahal situn (hall of forty pillars) built by shah abbas the great (a.d. - ). these are decorated with representations of scenes from the royal court of the great shah, painted minutely by court artists. "they transport us straight to the court of the lordly abbas and his predecessors or successors on the throne.... we see the king engaged at some royal festivity enjoying the pleasure of the bowl."--lord curzon, history of persia, vol. ii, page . ker porter, who saw the palace of chahal situn in its perfect condition, records: "the exhaustless profusion of its splendid materials reflected not merely their own golden lights on each other, but all the variegated colours of the garden, so that the whole surface seemed formed of polished silver and mother of pearl set with precious stones." lord curzon, who visited it soon after its last repair in , quotes ker porter and by way of contrast says: "the bulk of this superb decoration which still remains in the throne room behind, to point bitter contrast, had on the walls of the loggia been ruthlessly obliterated by the brush of the painter, who had left in its place pink wash; had i caught the pagan, i would gladly have suffocated him in a barrel of his own paint."--history of persia, vol. ii, page . [illustration: pair of doors from the pavilion of chahal situn (hall of forty pillars) built by shah abbas the great (a.d. - )] [illustration: riza abbasi, favored court artist, portrays europeans at the court of shah abbas the great (a.d. - )] detail of exquisitely painted woodwork from the pavilion of chahal situn (hall of forty pillars), the palace at ispahan built by shah abbas. the young shah, who was pleased with the leader of the party (europeans), gave him royal gifts, sir anthony sherley records ( ), including "forty horses all furnished, two with exceeding rich saddles, plated with gold, and set with rubies and turquoises." to these he added camels, tents, and a sum of money. * * * * * [page ] her old faith, source of sustaining energy; and continued to radiate into these planets of countries and races of the system, her all-stimulating cultural beams, the reflection of which is discernible in all artistic manifestations of those countries. in the field of literature, which is so little known in the western world, the influence is even greater than in the visual art with which we are concerned. muhammadan literature, be it arabic, turkish, or persian, is persian in spirit and feeling.[ ] [footnote : "the ascendancy of the persians over the arabs, that is to say of the conquered over the victors, had already for a long while been in course of preparation; it became complete when the abbasids, who owed their elevation to the persians, ascended the throne (a.d. ). the most distinguished personages at court were consequently persians. the famous barmecides were descended from a persian noble who had been superintendent of the fire temple at balkh. afshin, the all-powerful favorite of the caliph al-mutasim, was a scion of the princes of usrushna in transoxiana."--dozy, "histoire de l'islamisme".] [footnote : "with the rise of persian influence, there opened an era of culture, toleration, and scientific research. the practice of oral tradition was also giving place to recorded statement and historical narrative,--a change hastened by the scholarly tendencies introduced from the east."--sir william muir, on the rise of the abbasid dynasty.] the fusion of muhammadan doctrine with this aryan (persian) culture of old,[ ] is an important event in the history of art. for out of this fusion came forth into being a new phase of artistic expression completely different, in form and spirit, from its predecessors. probably of equal importance is the fact that, although practised by divers races and subjected to many developments, fluctuations and variations, it has retained throughout the centuries its identical characteristics. what was the vital force that brought about this cultural evolution and unification? the answer appears to be religion, as we shall see. [footnote : "persian influence increased at the court of the caliphs, and reached its zenith under al-hadi, harunu'r-rashid, and al-mamun. most of the ministers of the last were persians or of persian extraction. in baghdad, persian fashions continued to enjoy an increasing ascendancy. the old persian festivals of the nawruz, mihrgan, and ram were celebrated. persian raiment was the official court dress, and the tall, black, conical persian hats were already prescribed as official by the second abbasid caliph (in a.h. : a.d. ). at the court the customs of the sassanian kings were imitated, and garments decorated with golden inscriptions were introduced, which it was the exclusive privilege of the ruler to bestow. a coin of the caliph al-mutawakkil shows us this prince actually clothed in true persian fashions".--von kremer, streitzuge, page .] the foundation of the muhammadan empire was religion. it was to the holy standard that the nations bent [continued on page twenty-three] * * * * * _"lips sweet as sugar on my pen bestow, and from my book let streams of odour flow."_ --j'ami. illustrated and illuminated manuscript the complete volume of "yusuf-ou-zalikha", the popular poem by the famous mystic poet j'ami, based on the biblical story of joseph and potiphar's wife. the scribe, mir ali sultani. the colophon reads: "terminated by the sinner, humble mir ali sultani the penman, may god forgive his sins and shelter his faults. terminated in the month of moharram al haram in the year a.h. (in letters) (a.d. ) in the glorious city of bukhara." the dedication in the handwriting of the scribe, in ornate gold lettering, reads: "for his majesty, the august, the just, the possessor of virtues, the great khagan ghazi abd-ul-aziz bahadur khan, may his domain last forever." the autograph of the emperor shah jahan, the "great mogul", on the magnificently decorated mount reads: "in the name of god compassionate and merciful this yusuf-ou-zalikha treasured on the occasion of blessed accession." (a.d. ) in confirmation of the foregoing, it is of great interest that jahangir makes special reference in his memoirs (tuzuk-i-jahangiri) to an incident, as of highest importance, that he was presented by abd-al-rahim khan, khan-i-khanan, with a superb copy of j'ami's poem yusuf-ou-zalikha, transcribed by mir ali sultani, "prince of penmen", and that the gift was appraised at "a thousand muhr". [illustration: complete illustrated and illuminated manuscript of "yusuf-ou-zalikha", by the famous mystic poet j'ami] one of the illustrations to the manuscript yusuf-ou-zalikha zalikha in old age, broken and in poverty, meets yusuf in the market place in egypt. _"where is thy youth, and thy beauty, and pride?" "gone, since i parted from thee," she replied. "where is the light of thine eye?" said he. "drowned in blood-tears for the loss of thee." "why is that cypress tree bowed and bent?" "by absence from thee and my long lament." "where is thy pearl, and thy silver and gold, and the diadem bright on thy head of old?"..._ --quotation from yusuf-ou-zalikha (j'ami). translation of r.t. griffith. [illustration] [illustration: chiselled silver bowl, decorated in filigree and polychrome enamel. persian work of the xvith century, probably executed in asia minor for a princely ottoman patron] * * * * * [page ] and professed unqualified allegiance. a powerful political unity came into existence and continued for a period of six centuries uninterrupted. the nations of this united kingdom of islam were thus merged into one unit, under the stimulus of one formal religion, freely transmigrating local ideas. arts and culture were transformed, but the evolution thus caused by the religion was essentially political in nature. "there is no god but god," said the apostle of arabia, but the poet reflected awhile, and his rejoinder was: "the ways of god are as the number of souls of men." the prophet's religion was rational, its principles attainable; it secured for the poet social amelioration and physical comfort, but there was a voice from the depth of his soul that he could not silence. it was the voice of mystery; he was concerned with the problems of the "wherefore, the whence, and the whither".... was he not a son of the land which plotinus visited to learn mystery of the orient of old?[ ] [footnote : "il prit un si grand goût pour la philosophie qu'il se proposa d'étudier celle qui était enseignée chez les perses et celle qui prévalait chez les indiens. lorsque l'empéreur gordien se prépara à faire son expédition contre les perses, plotin, alors âgé de trente-neuf ans, se mit à la suite de l'armée. il avait passé dix années entières près d'ammonius. gordien ayant été tué en mesopotamie, plotin eût assez de peine à se sauver à antioche."--porphyry on plotinus: translation of the enneads of plotinus (bouillet; paris, ).] we have to look therefore to the religion, "the ways" of whose god "are as the number of souls of men", to perceive the true nature of the evolution of the artistic expression of these people. souls with irresistible cravings for mysticism, poets, artists, philosophers and the like, discovered for the first time from muhammad's formal teachings, which contained certain esoteric elements, that the senses, unreal and phenomenal, have yet an important mission to fulfill in the task which aims to escape from self (which is an illusion and the root of sin, pain, and sorrow) and to attain the height where the eternal beauty, [continued on page twenty-seven] * * * * * "portrait of mehdi ali guli khan, commander of fortress, by ramdas"--a.d. . a leaf from the national portrait album conceived by the emperor akbar, and amplified and executed by jahangir and shah jahan. the volume consists of portraits of the royal family of the great moguls and their principal supporters. these historic personages are represented in the centre as single individuals, with their chief officials and retainers in the border around them. ramdas, a hindu artist, was one of akbar's artists who worked under jahangir and shah jahan. his signed works include the following: baburnama in the british museum and south kensington museum. akbarnama in south kensington museum. razmnama in the state library, jaipur, india. timurnama in the oriental public library, bankipur, india. [illustration: "portrait of mehdi ali guli khan, commander of fortress, by ramdas"--a.d. ] [illustration: silk fabric--a rare example of the kind produced by the royal looms at ispahan, which flourished under the direct patronage of shah abbas the great (a.d. - )] "oct. th, .--to court. it being ye first time his ma'ty (charles ii of england) put himself solemnly into eastern fashion of vest, changeing doublet, stiff collar, bands and cloake, into a comley dress, after ye persian mode. i had sometime before presented an invective against our so much affecting the french fashion, to his majesty, in which i took occasion to describe the comelinesse and usefulness of the persian clothing, in ye very same manner his ma'ty now clad himself."--john evelyn (a.d. ), celebrated historian and diarist. * * * * * [page ] which is but one, reveals itself through countless phenomena which are but reflections of one. "the phantasmal is the bridge to the real," says the mystic, and the immortal lines of j'ami read: _"though in this world a hundred tasks thou tryest, 'tis love alone which from thyself will save thee. even from earthly love thy face avert not, since to the real it may serve to raise thee. ere a, b, c, are rightly apprehended, how canst thou con the pages of the_ qur'an? _a sage (so heard i) unto whom a scholar came craving counsel on the course before him, said, 'if thy steps be strangers to love's pathways, depart, learn love, and then return before me, for, shouldst thou fear to drink wine from form's flagon, thou canst not drain the draughts of the ideal. but yet beware, be not by form belated, strive rather with all speed the bridge to traverse. if to the bourn thou fain wouldst bear thy baggage, upon the bridge let not thy footsteps linger."_[ ] [footnote : "religious systems of the world" (swan sonnenschein, ).] the unreality of things material, the illusion of self and desires, the perception that all living things and apparent phenomena reflected but one all-embracing good and beauty, was the philosophy of hindu and all oriental mystics of old; but they attempted to destroy the self and desires (source of sin) uncompromisingly and unreasonably. it was a philosophy "cold" and "bloodless", as professor browne points out, in trenchant terms. the muhammadan mystic became conscious that the stream cannot be crossed without the aid of the bridge constructed for this purpose. here (as it seems to us) lies the keynote, the mainspring of inspiration of artistic expression, which (for the lack of better designation) might be termed muhammadan art: a merging of physical and spiritual, of worldly magnificence and eternal bliss. [continued on page thirty-one] * * * * * the princes of the house of timur emir timur (timur-i-lang) on the throne (a.d. - ) on the right of the throne: babur a.d. - humayun a.d. - akbar a.d. - jahangir a.d. - shah jahan a.d. - on the left are three sons of shah jahan: dara shikoh shah shuja aurengzib (who succeeded shah jahan) mughal painting from the imperial library of delhi, a.d. [illustration: the princes of the house of timur mughal painting from the imperial library of delhi, a.d. ] talar (hall of audience) rug from the looms of ispahan or the adjoining city of joshagan. made during the reign of shah suleiman (a.d. - ), upon the model of chahar bagh royal garden at ispahan, on the grounds of which the royal pavilion of hasht bahisht (eight paradises) stands. the rug measures feet by feet inches. lord curzon in his history of persia, vol. ii, page , gives the following description of the garden of chahar bagh: "at the upper extremity a two storeyed pavilion connected by a corridor with the seraglio of the palace, so as to enable the ladies of the harem to gaze unobserved upon the merry scene below, looked out upon the centre of the avenue. water conducted in stone channels ran down the centre, falling in cascades from terrace to terrace, and was occasionally collected in great square or octagonal basins where cross roads cut the avenues. on either side of the central channel was a row of chenars and a paved pathway for pedestrians, then occurred a succession of open parterres, usually planted or sown. next on either side was a second row of chenars, between which and flanking walls was a raised causeway for horsemen. at intervals corresponding with the successive terraces and basins, arched doorways with recessed open chambers overhead conducted through these walls into the various royal or noble gardens that stretched on either side and were known as the gardens of the throne; nightingale, vines, mulberries, dervishes, etc. some of these pavilions were places of public resort and were used as coffee houses, where when the business of the day was over the good burghers of ispahan assembled to sip that beverage and inhale their kalians the while. at the bottom quays lined the banks of the river and were bordered with the mansions of the nobility." [illustration] * * * * * [page ] a desire to reach to our higher instincts through the vehicle of our senses is apparent in all forms in which these masters sought to express themselves; we feel that, in their entrancing rhythmical compositions, in their incomparable poetry of flowing melodious words, in all their literature, in the inimitable colors and lyrical lines of all branches of representation of visual art. we feel the presence of an element prevailing throughout, and underlying every form of expression, an element which may be described in a word, "human". it is stated that the persian spirit and feeling were reflected in all forms of artistic expression of the muhammadan world. it is not, however, intended that other nations and countries over which islam held sway, contributed nothing in the building of the influences of each were felt in varying degrees in the transmigration of ideas continued to take place between the nations, and the influences of each were felt in varying degrees in the transformation that resulted. in the fusion referred to, the influence of the persian culture was predominant, a fact so transparent, as to require (we may assume) no emphasis. it is not intended to deal here with particular aspects or divers branches of arts in which the genius of these artists found expression. in offering briefly these lines as to the general aspect of the art of the muhammadan world, the intention is to offer an explanation to those who may not be familiar with its history. h. kevorkian [illustration] modern persia by rabbi mooshie g. daniel, mccormick seminary _late professor of ancient syriac in oroomiah college, persia._ wheaton college press wheaton, ill. . copyrighted , by mooshie g. daniel to the class of of mccormick theological seminary, this volume is respectfully dedicated by the author. preface. the author, in spending four years in america, has come in contact with different classes of people who have raised serious questions concerning modern persia. those who are interested in politics and government, have asked: is modern persia a province of turkey? is it as large as the state of michigan? is the king still absolute as in ancient times? have the laws of the medes and persians undergone no change? are there any remains of persia's ancient beauty and grandeur? these, and questions like these, have been from time to time presented to the author. on the other hand it is to be observed that many journalists traveling through persia have greatly misrepresented that country. their limited stay made it impossible for them to acquire any accurate knowledge of the country. it is no easy task to familiarize oneself with the ideas and customs of that ancient and historic country. to thousands in persia the literature and history of their own land is a sealed book. questions the most serious and earnest have been raised by godly ministers and devoted people who have for years been generous givers to the cause of foreign missions. i have been asked questions like these: is there a solid foundation established by missions in persia? what has the gospel done? what changes have taken place? what are some of the fruits of our mission work over there? what are some of the temporal improvements? very recently rev. o. n. hunt of edwardsburg, mich., wrote the author asking what is the moral condition of persia to-day in comparison to what it was when the missionaries began their work? questions like these prompted the author to write this small book. its object is to encourage the mission spirit; to quicken and kindle anew the fires of divine love in the hearts of all those to whom it will come; to promote and advance the blessed gospel of our lord and his christ; to hasten the day when millions that now sit in darkness and the shadow of death may set their faces toward the light. oh, jehovah of the east! who was once born in the east, who preached and was crucified in the east, when wilt thou again visit the east? remarks: the author wishes to say that in the survey of modern persia free use was made of the international encyclopedia, especially in the matter of dates. dr. philip scaff's church history was also consulted in the account given of mohammed. the leaves of the trees, are the gift of the poors. contents. part i. chapter. page i. general survey of persia--climate and products--inhabitants--manufactories and trades--government and taxation--the army - ii. the ancient history of persia. - iii. architecture of persia - iv. the language and poetry of persia - part ii. _religions._ i. parsee religion--bible and doctrines--their rituals - ii. mohammedanism--mohammed--his birth and character--the conquest of islam - iii. the mohammedan religion - iv. the creed of islam - v. the priesthood--mujtahids--arch-mujtahids, common mujtahids--mollah--the sayyids--darwishes--their service - vi. the laymen--middle class--low class - vii. the mosques and their services--special service - viii. moslem's private prayer and fasting - ix. the pilgrimages--preparation--alms giving--carrying the dead--the motive in pilgrimages for the dead--the female pilgrims--their returning - x. the shiite moslem's mu-har-ram--singers - xi. heaven and hell - xii. matrimony - part iii. i. the royal family--the king in his palace--his table--treasury--wives - ii. governor--prisons--executions - iii. counts or lords - iv. cities--holidays--schools - part iv. i. bobeism--bobe--his doctrine--his personal appearance - ii. the kurds--occupation--their character--houses--religion - part v. i. the nestorians--their place--language - ii. their history - iii. clergy - iv. churches and ordinances - v. assyrian or nestorian college - vi. assyrian missionary spirit - vii. their persecutions - viii. their condition at the time american missions were started - part vi. i. introduction of mission work - ii. method of work - iii. development of mission work - iv. religious education--college--ladies' seminary---medical schools--country schools--translation of books - v. the gospel and temporal improvement--temperance--conversion to mohammedanism--morals elevated - vi. mission work among moslems - [illustration: m. g. daniel.] life of mooshie g. daniel in persia. the ancestors of m. g. daniel, a true stock of the nestorian sect and syrian nationality came down from kurdiston mountain in and settled in persia at oroomiah district. the one family now increased to fifty, all live in villages near to each other. g. daniel with his four brothers settled in a small village four miles east of oroomiah city. the inhabitants of this village are composed of fifty mohammedan families and twenty-eight nestorians. his parents had four sons and two daughters, all died in their childhood. daniel was their seventh child born in . his native village was visited by rev. g. coan, d.d. and dr. perkins, missionaries from america who preached the gospel message to the nestorians of that village, at the same time also started a school for their children. at this time daniel was thirteen years old. the parents were very glad to send their children to this school which increased to thirty students. daniel was very anxious to attend this school. this desire was encouraged in every possible way by his earnest, self sacrificing christian mother, rachel, who came of high and noble lineage. but his father vigorously objected for fear his son would change from his old nestorian faith. when daniel saw other boys going to school he would often cry and pray that god would change his father's heart and lead him to send his son to school. this earnest desire on the part of the young and earnest lad led to an earnest discussion and difference between his parents as to the future policy with their boy. finally after two month's earnest prayer on the part of the mother and her son the spirit of god reconciled the opposition of the father and made him willing to send his son to school. daniel continued his studies in this school four years and read a chapter of the bible to his parents every night. the father thus became interested and in the second year sent daniel's two sisters and brother to school. he soon became the first student in the school. rev. g. coan when visiting the school embraced daniel and his sisters and kissed them with the holy kiss of joy as the first fruit of his labors. after four years this school closed on account of lack of students. there arose a dark cloud of sorrow and disappointment to poor daniel. what shall i do to continue my studies, was the despairing cry of the consecrated boy. but his strong will soon found a way. he was now sixteen years old. there was a small village of three hundred families called golpashan two miles distant from his home town. golpashan contained a high school and a presbyterian church of three hundred members. daniel decides to go to school at this place, but again meets opposition from his father, who wants him to stay at home and work for him. but his mother met his father with the strong argument that she had consecrated her child to god before he was born, because god gave him to me after the death of my six children. but the mother lived in continual fear that her son would be devoured by wolves on his way to school and then she said, "i will go down to my grave in a miserable condition." but the son, willing to sacrifice even life itself for study, said, "i will go, mother, trusting in god and your prayers." events soon proved that the mother's fears were well founded. once, very early in the morning, while on his way to school he was attacked by a large, ferocious wolf. but he made good his escape up a tree near by. but he received such a shock from this attack that he was prostrated three months and his life was despaired of by all his friends. but god graciously restored him to health for his holy ministry. daniel always believed in the out-stretched hand of god that snatched him from the wolf. hundreds of times he thanks god in his prayers for this deliverance. when mr. daniel was seventeen years old he reached the greatest crisis of his life. his parents decided to marry him to a girl a few steps only from his residence, because the parents of the couple had decided when they were children to marry them to each other. this was in accordance with a foolish custom of the nestorians. his father had firmly decided to make the match, but his mother said, "only if he himself wishes." but daniel's aim was very high, he was running to obtain a higher prize. he said to his mother, "i am married to my studies." his mother replied, "my son, i have dedicated you to god, i cannot compel you to marry." his father was full of indignation and anger against the disobedience of his son, and he said, "i will never send you to the presbyterian college. i cannot spend one cent on you." daniel was very fond of fishing, hunting, and raising grapes, and was one of the best husbandmen in persia. one morning when fishing, a young man whose name was abraham, and afterward a classmate for seven years in college, handed to him an envelope in which was written by dr. oldfather, a missionary, and president of the presbyterian college at oroomiah, persia, "we have accepted you in our college." daniel thought this a calling from jesus christ just as he had called four of his disciples from their fishing. he threw his net on the shore of the river, and kneeling down, thanked god for this, his holy calling. rising up from his prayer he took his net, and started for home. on arrival he told his parents that he wanted to go to college. again his father objected, saying that he could not spend any money for his education. but his mother sold all her jewels and sent him to college. college life. in daniel went to oroomiah college. for first two years rev. dr. oldfather was president of the college. in the second year he was converted by hearing a sermon and a song by dr. oldfather whose singing quickens sleeping souls of sinners. his class at the beginning was thirty persons, but at graduation only twelve. he studied very hard, sitting up at night with his book until eleven o'clock. one of his classmates, rev. abraham, was his bosom friend. they recited in a small closet often until midnight and then had prayers before going to bed. daniel graduated in under the presidency of dr. j. h. shedd, one of the most eminent men ever sent as a missionary to persia by the presbyterian church. all his classmen are leaders in the presbyterian church as well as of the nestorian nation. for two of them have lately been offered the title counts by the late shah. dr. s. j. alamsha a noble consecrated doctor of medicine, one of the fellow graduates of daniel, shows the tenor of the spirit of christian fortitude and devotion in declaring his faith in the trinity in the very face of the governor of state who had just threatened him with persecution by cutting off his hands if he insisted on repeating the confession. but dr. alamsha replied that he was a christian, and if ever questioned as to his faith would confess it not only at the cost of his hands but his head also. he further stated that he would not impose his faith on any one unless they requested, and that if the governor did not want his confession he had better not ask for it. [illustration: wife and daughter of the author.] two weeks after daniel's graduation he was elected instructor in the high school for three years. each year he had a week of revival meetings which was very fruitful in the conversion of many students. nearly one hundred students were graduates under him in high school. in daniel was married to miss sarah george, a young lady graduate of the ladies' seminary, whose mother was instructor in this seminary for seven years. in was offered to him the chair of ancient syriac in oroomiah college which he occupied for seven years. his many friends rejoiced with him in his call to this higher and wider field of labor. when he moved to college mrs. daniel was very ambitious for his success in college. she said, "i like to tell you i want you to teach your studies better than any professor in the college; i want you to devote all your time to your work; i want you to be a shining example to all students; i want you to love all students as your brothers; i want you to respect yourself. be kind to all students, let our home be as their homes. i want you to preach the best sermons, then you will be the crown of my head and i will love you as the pupil of my eyes." this was a very hard charge and very precious work, but it proved for daniel very precious jewels. mrs. daniel is one of the most intelligent ladies of persia. for the first three years he went to bed always at eleven o'clock and taught each week twenty-six studies. three times a week he conducted gospel meetings and each alternate sabbath conducted sabbath-school. he was a leader of the college church, secretary of board of education, superintendent and quester of county schools. the testimony of faculty and board of education was that he taught ancient syriac better than any of his predecessors. daniel was the youngest member of the faculty. he had students ten years older than himself but they all loved him as their brother. sometimes he would spend as much as two hours a night talking and praying with individual students. four months of winter for several years he was visitor of the county schools. besides this he worked in revival meetings during one week in his own church. while working with the pastor he preached twice each day and forty-two persons were converted. when he was leaving town all elders, deacons and other prominent men escorted him a long distance with much gratitude. his piety and integrity were taken as an example by christian and un-christian. life of mooshi g. daniel in america. church, school and class. on the first of october i entered mccormick seminary. immediately feeling the need of identifying myself with the church i accordingly became a member of the church of the covenant, dr. w. s. plummer bryan, pastor. it is impossible to set down in words the comfort, encouragement and assistance that has come to me through this relation. dr. bryan has been to me a steadfast and faithful friend. his sermons have been to me a continual source of instruction in things spiritual and divine. many of them have left a lasting impression upon my mind. one i remember with great distinctness. it was upon the last seven words of christ, so real and vivid did the scene appear that the whole of that mournful tragedy was enacted before my eyes. concerning the church of the covenant i can say with david, "if i forget thee, oh jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. if i do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if i prefer not jerusalem above my chief joy." even though i were on the other side of the globe, i will not forget the kindness of the church and its pastor. naturally my life at the seminary at first was lonesome; but as soon as i became acquainted with professors and students the seminary became a home to me much prized and enjoyed. from my studies i derived much pleasure. systematic theology was to me a continual banquet of delicacies. in pastoral theology and homiletics i was inspired with the high and sacred duties of the christian ministry. by the study of greek exegesis i was taught the invaluable benefit that comes from close attention to the original texts and manuscripts which are the source of interpretation in the study of new testament greek. in old and new testament literature belief in inspiration was reinforced and fortified. the whole scheme of the christian religion was to me rendered plain and reasonable. my class. the class of is unique and original among all the classes graduated from mccormick seminary. it was said by one in position to know, that it was perhaps the strongest class ever sent out from the seminary. this was evidenced by the character of the orations delivered at the graduating exercises. among this class are many who will be adorned by degrees and honorary titles. all, i hope, will meet with much success in winning souls to christ. in personal appearance there are among them princes and lords; but one thing made me sorry every time i looked upon their faces, namely that so many shaved their mustaches. my advice to all of them is to raise mustaches, and not appear like girls, but as princes. some of them had such long and difficult names that i could not pronounce them, but a few had very easy names, for instance mr. mcgaughey, which means in persian language, "don't say so," a phrase used by young girls. mr. earhart which means in ancient syriac, "i will run." mr. ross in arabic means "head." my class was very loving and kind to us two persians. every time we made good recitations in classes, they were gladder than we were, and when we failed they became even more sorry than we. i remember once failing in my recitation, and after class mr. earhart came into my room to comfort me. the memories of my class are to me like sweet spices, and will be cherished by me everywhere i go. introduction. this book is by a native who knows at first-hand of what he writes. he writes of those features and facts of persia as a country and a people in which an intelligent american is most sure to be interested. very ancient and renowned among the asiatics, persia, persisting in her nationality and gradually improving her condition excites inquiry abroad. in this volume we have a view of her geographical divisions, her form of government, system of taxation, methods of merchandise, educational conditions and the state of religion. the author also particularizes and portrays the character, creed and course of mohammed: how moslemism was propagated by violence and perpetuated by deceit, and of such false doctrines, as hatred toward enemies, and rewards in heaven and hell. the reader is informed of bobeism, a new sect which has arisen in opposition to government and orthodox mohammedanism. the book was written for the reading public and by its style, movement, and contents is calculated not only to enlarge ones general knowledge of the land of the shah but to quicken interest in the enterprise of christian missions which are the chief hope of the country. rev. john l. withrow, d.d., ll.d. _ex-moderator of general assembly, chicago, ill. july , ' ._ part i. chapter i. general survey of persia. once, in ages long past, persia was the home of heroes and was studded with palaces of splendor. bards and poets of all nations have vied with each other in singing of the bravery of her sons and the beauty of her daughters. the names of cyrus the great, darius, and others are engraved in ever-living letters on the pages of history. to-day, though her glory has flown away and her splendor has faded, her natural beauty remains untarnished. the words of the poet sahdy are still true: "it is a paradise making men drunken with the odors of its roses; it is a garden whose streams wreath the faces of men in smiles." in , in the war between persia and russia, the territory of the former was greatly reduced. it now contains , square miles or three times the number in france or germany. it is divided into thirteen states as follows: ghilon, mazandaron, ostorobad, in the north; azerbijon, persian kurdistan, luriston and khuziston on the west; fariston, loriston, kerman with mogiston in the south; irakeston the capital state where the king resides being in the center. on the east lies the large state of khorason, which is mainly desert. persia is dotted with many great and small mountains, interspersed with fertile valleys, flowing fountains and silvery streams. dense jungles abound in the states of mazandaron and ghilon. climate and products. the great extent of the country gives rise to an extremely varied climate. cyrus said of it: "the people perish with the cold at one extremity, while they are suffocated with the heat at the other." persia may be considered to possess three climates: that of southern dashtiston; of the elevated plateau; and of the caspian provinces. in dashtiston the autumnal heats are excessive, those of summer are more tolerable, while in winter and spring the climate is delightful. in the plateau the climate of fariston is temperate. about isphahon in the same plateau the winters and summers are equally mild, and the regularity of the seasons appears remarkable to a stranger. the caspian provinces from their general depression below the level of the sea are exposed to fierce heat during the summer months, though their winters are mild. heavy rains are frequent and many of the low districts are marshy and unhealthy. except in the caspian and northwest provinces the atmosphere of persia is remarkable above that of all other countries for its dryness and purity. the cultivated portions of persia, where there is a good rainfall or the land can be irrigated, produce an immense variety of crops. here is grown the best wheat in the world. other characteristic products are barley, rice, cotton, sugar and tobacco. vineyards are plentiful. the vines of shiroz are celebrated in eastern poetry. mulberries and silk are two other famous persian products, while the finest perfumes are made from the countless varieties of roses with which the land is carpeted. the forests of the elburz mountains abound with wild animals, such as wolves, tigers, jackals, wild boars, foxes and the caspian cat. deer of every variety inhabit some of the mountains. lions and leopards are also found in mazandaron. among domestic animals the horse, camels and the buffalo hold the first place. the horses of persia have always been celebrated as the finest in the east. they are larger and more handsome, but not so fleet as the horses of arabia. sheep are one of the main sources of wealth of the country. all the rivers are well stocked with fish, especially with sturgeon. silver, lead, iron, copper, salt, antimony, sulphur, and naptha are mined in large quantities. the late shah found a little gold, but not in quantities sufficient to pay for mining. inhabitants. in the days of darius and cyrus the population numbered not less than , , , but that number has diminished until now not more than , , people dwell in this once-populous land. these are from different nationalities: the kurds, numbering , , arabs, , , jews, , , nestorians, , , armenians, , , zoroastrians, , , and the remainder are a mohammedan sect. manufacturies and trades. the manufacturies of persia are by no means extensive, but persian rugs and shawls have a reputation the world over. the deft fingers of the women have contributed for centuries to the glory and wealth of this country. in the marts and markets of the world these rugs and shawls sell for fabulous prices. at the world's fair i saw a single rug valued at $ , . trade, both domestic and foreign, is carried on by caravans. tabriz is the chief commercial city and from this point goods to the value of $ , , are exported annually. from the province shiraz about $ , worth of opium is sent out each year. government and taxation. the government of persia is a pure despotism. the shah is absolute monarch; he appoints governors for each of the thirteen states and these governors, in turn, appoint minor governors for the cities. six cabinet officers assist the executive, but their function is wholly advisory. upon the least pretext, any member of the cabinet may, at the will of the shah, lose his head. the country has been impoverished for ages from two principle sources. nomadic tribes, wandering bands of kurds and arabs swoop down upon some unprotected villages and carry away everything of any value. taxation is the second cause of poverty. the burden of the taxes falls upon jews and christians, the most cruel extortions often being used to obtain the desired amount. in the revenue was about £ , , , of which nearly £ , , were from direct taxations. but notwithstanding so much is collected, not one cent goes for public improvements. the army. the standing army numbers about , , of which only , are well disciplined infantry, , artillery, , cavalry, and irregular infantry and guards constitute the remainder. the officers in the persian army are for the most part ignorant and inefficient, while the soldiers are described as obedient, sober, intelligent and capable to endure great fatigue. the peculiar power of the persian army lies in its irregular cavalry of kurds and other tribes who are famous for their courage and daring, and are equal to the russian cossacks and vastly superior to the turkish sultan's boshibozouks. [illustration: persian officer.] chapter ii. the ancient history of persia. according to the poet, firdusi, in his shah nomeh, the history of persia begins some thousands of years before the christian era. professor yooseph of oroomiah college one of persia's most scholarly men holds that as early as the time of abraham there was here an organized government. the first king was the chedolaomer of the bible, king of elam (gen. : ). this opinion is confirmed by the fact that the name elam is in reality the name of persia. persians call their country ajam. thus it can be seen that the hebrew letter j has been changed to l. however there is stronger proof of this theory in the accounts of greek historians. the northwest part of ancient persia, called media, was known to the greeks as a part of the assyrian empire. but the medes under dejoce in b.c. threw off the yoke of assyria and gained the dominance over the other tribes of persia. in cyrus of persia rebelled against the medes, led an army to victory over them, and extended the persian empire as far east as the oxus and indus and over asia minor, syria, palestine and mesopotania. he was succeeded by his son cambyses ( - ) and the latter by darius ( - ). this dynasty ruled till darius iii. ( - ). he was compelled to yield his throne to alexander the great, who conquered all persia. under the leadership of the tribe of arsocide persia became independent in b.c. but the dynasty of arsocide came to an end at the hand of ardasher babajan, who managed to gain possession of more than half of the entire country, _i.e._, of the provinces of fars, kerman and the whole of irakiston. then in this valiant warrior conquered the whole nation and was crowned "king of kings" (in persian, shah in shah) with ardasher begin the famous dynasty of the sassanidae who brought persia to an unprecedented eminence of power and prosperity. their last king succumbed to the arabs in a.d. and the latter ruled till a.d. the tribe of the abbossides went to the throne at this time but were soon in turn overthrown. persia was then divided into different provinces until in it was conquered by the mongols under genghis-khan and his grandson khula-kun-khan. the former was a christian. during his reign moryaw-alaha was the nestorian patriarch and under him the church was very successful. the mongol dynasty lasted until . a new dynasty arose in western persia in . the first prince of this line was ismael, the descendant of an ancient family of devotees and saints. he was held in the highest esteem by his followers, who revered him not only on account of his own valor but for the high standing of his family. having become the leader of a number of tribes, he overthrew the power of the turkoman and made azerbijon their capital. he then rapidly subdued western persia and in took kurason and balkh from the uzbeks. in the year he encountered a far more formidable enemy in the mighty salim, sultan of turkey, whose zeal for conquest was fanned by religious hatred of the shiites, who were followers of ismael, and who in turn were fiercely inflamed against a sect called sunites. in the ensuing conflict ismael was defeated but salim did not gain greatly by his victory. the son of ismael, shah tah-masip who reigned from - subdued all the uzbeks of khorason and frequently defeated the turks without suffering the loss of a single battle. he takes rank as a prudent and spirited ruler. shah abbos i, the great, who was one of the most glorious of persia's modern kings ascended the throne in and ruled until . he restored internal tranquillity and repelled the invasions of the uzbeks and turks. in the year he gave the turks such a terrific drubbing that they made no more trouble during his long reign. he also restored to his kingdom kurdiston-mosul and diarbekir which had long been separated from persia. abbos' government was strict, but just and equitable. roads, bridges, caravansaries, and other conveniences for trade were constructed at great cost, and the improvement and ornamentation of the towns were not neglected. many of his large caravansaries which bear his name remain to this day. isphahan, his capital, in a brief period of his reign, doubled its population. his tolerance was remarkable, considering the character of his ancestors and subjects, for he encouraged the armenian christians to settle in the country, well knowing that their peaceable industrious habits would enhance the prosperity of his kingdom. his successors were shah sufi ( - ), shah abbos ii, ( - ), and shah soliman ( - ). during the reign of shah sultan hussein ( - ), a weak and foolish prince, priests and slaves were elevated to high offices and the sunnites suffered sore persecution. the result was that afghan besieged the king in isphahan. hussein abdicated the throne in favor of his conqueror, who ultimately became insane and suffered deposition in at the hands of his brother, ashrab. the atrocious tyranny of ashrab was suddenly checked by the celebrated nadir-shah. hussein and ashrab belonged to the dynasty of syydes, a holy sect, descendants of their prophet, mohammed. nadir-shah was one of the greatest warriors of persia. he raised tah-masip ( - ) and his son abbos iii ( - ), of the suffivian race, to the throne and then on some frivolous pretext, deposed abbos iii, and seized the scepter himself ( - ). nadir was assassinated by imam-kuli-­khan, of oroomiah, whose descendants now live very near our mission station in oroomiah. again after the murder of nadir, persia was divided into many independent states and became a field of blood. bloogistan and afghaniston became independent till when a kurd, karim khan ( - ), abolished this state of affairs, reestablished peace and unity in western persia, and by his justice, wisdom, and warlike talents acquired both the esteem of his subjects and the respect of the neighboring states. he received the title, "father of persia." karim khan was succeeded in by al-murad, then by jaafor and the latter by lutf-ali-merza. [illustration: king karim khan kurd.] during lutf-ali's reign, mazandaron became independent under agha mohammed khan a turkoman. lutf-ali-merza rushed on mazandaron and killed all the relations of mohammed khan who were ruling there, and took captive agha mohammed khan a boy only six years old, making him a eunuch. this boy was of kojor race. when he was in the harem of lutf-ali, he kept thinking how his cruel master murdered his father and all his relations. when he sat on the royal rugs, he would take his revenge by cutting them. when he was of full age, twenty or twenty-five years old, he ran away to his own country, mazandaron, and joined himself to his relations. he frequently attacked lutf-ali and defeated him in . he was then able to establish his throne in the southern part of mazandaron. this great eunuch king founded the dynasty which rules to-day, restored the kingdom as it was under karim-kurd and conquered georgia and kharason. but he was assassinated may , . his nephew futten-ali-shah ( - ) engaged in three wars with russia and was defeated each time. as a result he lost his territory in armenia, and a great part of persia, namely from the caucassian mountains to the river, aras, which now fixed the boundary between russia and persia. futteh-ali in his last war with russia in was entirely defeated. beside losing some part of his territory he paid the sum of , , , rubles ($ , , ) to russia. the death of the crown prince, abbos mirza, in seemed to give the final blow to the declining fortune of persia, as he was the only man who seriously attempted to raise his country from the state of abasement into which it had fallen. futteh-ali had seven sons. one of them johon-suz-mirza lives to-day. seven years ago he was governor in the author's city; and came to visit the college of oroomiah with a hundred princes and counts with him. he is a very ostentatious man. after the death of the crown prince each of the seven sons claimed to be inheritor of the throne, while the father was still living. at the same time the crown prince abbas-mirza had a son named mohammed. futteh-ali when quite old and near to death, by the aid of russia made mohammed, his grandson, king ( - ). nayib-al-saltana acted as regent during the boyhood of mohammed. when he came to power for himself he conceived the idea of restoring bloogistan, afghanistan, and a great part of turkoman to persian dominion. he was especially anxious to take herat, the key to india, but was resisted by england. the war was terminated in . [illustration: founder of the present dynasty.] nasiruddin (defender of his religion), the late shah who was assassinated may , , a young man eighteen years old and very energetic succeeded to the throne of his father in . following his father's example the new shah tried to restore afghaniston and bloogiston but was compelled by england to sign an agreement on jan. , by which he was bound not to interfere further in the internal affairs of herat. in he violated this treaty and took the city of herat. after a severe war with england in in which his loss was , soldiers he relinquished herat but he added to persia many provinces in the western part of afghaniston and bloogiston, and also some states in turkoman. he was one of the best kings of persia. he visited europe three times, once in . he had european ideas and was a well-educated man. he started a good system of postal-telegraph and had trained after the european discipline , soldiers. above all he founded a beautiful college in teheran which is called in persian daralfnoon (or the place of science). the present shah, mozuffur-uddin was born march , and succeeded to the throne of his father may , . in the author saw him at oroomiah college. he came with a large retinue to visit being entertained at the home of dr. cochran. the work of the college pleased him and he made it a gift of thirty pounds. he is a very kind and liberal man, especially toward the poorer of his subjects. we believe god will make him to be good to the oppressed christians. the list of kings who have reigned over persia as regular kings make a total of . chapter iii. architecture of persia. the architecture of persia is of considerable interest from the fact that the persians added to their own the architecture of assyria and egypt, when they conquered those mighty empires. hence the composite nature of the designs of some of her most famous buildings. a brief study of the old city of persepolis will enable us the better to understand the nature of the architecture of this land so rich in magnificent ruins. (the author wishes to give credit to mcclintock and strong's encyclopedia, for a large part of the following pages. he has extracted many quotations from this work.) this city called "the glory of the east," the ancient capital of persia, is situated in the province of faris, on the river araxes. darius, hastaspes, xerxes, artaxerxes and others tried to make it one of the grandest cities in all the world. unfortunately it was destroyed by alexander the great, and now contains only some ruins of the royal palaces. first is the chehly minor (_forty pillars_,) also called tokhtie-jamshid, or throne of jamshid. some suppose that jamshid was the founder of the city. next in order is nakhshie-rustum, to the northwest. near each of these palaces are the mounds of the tombs. the east building is the harem of jamshid, situated on a vast terrace of cyclopean masonry, at the foot of a lofty mountain range. by far the most important is the first group, situated at the foot of a lofty mountain range. the extent of this terrace is about feet from north to south and feet from east to west, and was once surrounded by triple walls , and feet in height respectively. the internal area is further divided into three terraces, the lowest one to the south; the central being about feet square and rising feet above the plain; and the third, the northern, about feet long and feet high. on the northern is the "propyleum of xerxes," but most distinguished here is the "great hall" of xerxes, called chehly minor by way of eminence. the palace of xerxes and that of darius towering one above the other in successive elevation are also on this terrace. the stones used for this building are of dark gray marble, cut into gigantic square blocks, and in many cases exquisitely polished. the ascent from the plain to the great platform is made by two flights, the steps being nearly feet wide, - / inches high and inches in tread so that travelers have been able to ascend on horseback. the propyleum of xerxes is composed of two masses of stone work which probably formed an entrance for foot passengers. the steps are paved with gigantic slabs of polished marble. the portal is still standing and bears figures of animals feet high. the building itself is conjectured to have been a hall feet square, closely resembling the assyrian halls of nineveh. it bears the following inscription: "the great god ahroomazda, he it is who has given this world and who has given life to mankind, who has made xerxes both king and lawgiver of the people. i am xerxes the king and great king, the king of kings, the king of the many peopled countries, the supporter of the great world, the son of king darius, the achoemenian." "says xerxes the king, by the grace of ahroomazda i have made this gate of entrance. there is many another nobler work besides this,--persepolis which i have made and which my father has executed." an expanse of feet divides this platform from the center one which bears many of those columns of the hall of xerxes, from which the ruins have taken their names. the stairs leading up to the chehly minor are still magnificent according to the statement of prof. jooseph whose residence was near this historic palace. the walls are superbly decorated with sculptures, representing colossal warriors with spears, gigantic bulls, combats with wild beasts, processions, and the like, while broken capitals, shafts, pillars and countless fragments of buildings with cuneiform inscriptions cover the whole extent of the platform, feet from north to south and feet from east to west. the great hall of xerxes, perhaps the largest and most magnificent structure the world has ever seen, is computed to have been a rectangle of about to feet and to have consequently covered two and a half acres. the pillars were arranged in four divisions consisting of a central group six deep every way and an advanced body of twelve in two ranks, the number flanking the center. fifteen columns are all that now remain of the number. their form is very beautiful. their height is feet, the circumference of the shaft feet, the length from the capital to the turrets feet. next along the west front stood the palace of darius and to the south the palace of xerxes measuring about feet square, similarly decorated with lions, birds, heroes, kings and warriors. of course the present architecture of persia is not equal to the old for the evident reason that the country is not so rich as it was. however the work in some cities is equivalent to ancient buildings. in modern times some splendid palaces have been erected of brick, either of raw or hardened by fire. these tower to a considerable height. the custom of persia is to beautify without rather than within, so the exterior is painted with different colors. blue, red and green are favorites. the walls are adorned with the pictures of flowers, birds, lions and many verses of al-kuran. favorite poems also appear. inside it is more plain, whitened by chalks. but the roof is wonderfully decorated with delicate chalk work. here are sculptured designs of ladies holding bouquets of flowers, playing with doves on their shoulders and surrounded by beautiful objects. usually in the center is a large mirror. this is all hand work. a single mason may work a month in completing the roof decorations of one room. all buildings are square. village architecture is very poor. buildings are one story in height, especially of mohammedans. most all are built of unburnt bricks. a mohammedan peasant does not know the joy and pleasure of living. though he has plenty of money, he is content to live in a small cottage, spending little. christians, on the other hand, are the direct reverse and are learning to enjoy having things nice. chapter iv. the language and poetry of persia. the ancient languages of persia are three ( ) the zend or east iranian, or bactorian language. but this became obsolete during the third century before christ. this was called the zoroastrian languages, because the name zend is that of their sacred book. ( ) the ancient persian language, the chief remnants of which are found in the cuneiform inscriptions of the time of archemides, discovered in the ruins of persepolis on the rocks of behiston. the inscriptions contain the names of gods, men and of daniel the prophet. ( ) the third language was pehlawee spoken by the west iranians, medians and persians, during the period of the sassanidæ-- rd to th century, a.d. at last a new form of commentaries to the sacred writings came into existence, in which clearer and more distinct characters were used. almost all old words of the zend were replaced. this new form is called pazend. in later times historians and the arabs have called it parsee. it was in use from to a.d. at the old persian language was revived. this is called jamie or nizamie. a purer dialect came into use as the direct result of the writings of the poet hafiz a.d. and has continued down to the present day. this is spoken especially in shiraz, a city of great note in the history of persia, and the capital of the state of faris, which gives persia its name. unfortunately after the mohammedan conquest persia fell under their reign. arabs tried to infuse arabic into the persian language. the koran was the only holy bible to them they believed that its teachings should be accepted by all parsees. all writers in the country now, as a matter of course, became mohammedans. with the fanaticism, characteristic of a conquering religion, with the ruthlessness which islam has always shown, all the representatives of the old persian literature and science were grievously persecuted by omar's general, sayid ibn abou wakkas. all priests and writers were compelled to accept the new order of things: "allah the only god, and mohammed his prophet." so the pure language of the parsees was infused with arabic words to such an extent that one-third of the words of the language are arabic. poetical literature. under the dynasty of samanides, a writer comes into view, one nasr, living about a.d. under the third ruler of the dynasty. also abul hasson rudige, the blind, lived under the same ruler. this man wrote , , rhymes. about a.d. kabbas wrote, being a contemporary of mahmud who surrounded himself with four hundred court poets. ansarie, another writer, wrote , rhymes in honor of the king. the reign of atabek dynasty was the brilliant age of persian poetry. anhaduddin anawaree was one of the greatest writers of that period. the best mystic poet was sunayi, author of , distichs. nizami about the twelfth century, was the founder of the romantic epoch. the greater part of his jami­ or collection of five romantic poems, are about khosraw and shirin, a king and his betrothed; magenoon and leila, a lover and his beloved. kizilarsalon, the king offered for each one of his poems not less than fourteen estates. his tomb now at gendsheh is visited by hundreds of pious pilgrims. in the eastern part of persia the theosophical mysticism was preeminently cultivated, especially in azerbijon state. a great number of these mystics are in oroomiah, my city. they speak in allegorical form in glowing songs of wine and love. again in this province we find sunayee in the thirteenth century and fariduddin attar, born . a still greater man in this peculiar field was djalal eddin romi born at balkh and who died . he was the founder of a still existing and most popular order of darwishes. his poems on contemplative life have made him the oracle of oriental mysticism up to this day. i will give one of his rhymes which will show the spirit of his mysticism: "gar kasi wasf ou zman posad, bidil oz binishon chiguyan baz, ashikon kushtagon mashookand, bar nayayad z kooshtagon awaz." the thirteenth century was one of the most brilliant in the annals of persian poetry. the greatest seer of the era was sheikh musli eddin sahdie of shiraz who died in the year . he stands unrivaled as persia's foremost didactic poet. his boston and guliston--"the fruit of the garden and roses,"--are universally known and loved in europe. at the beginning of the fourteenth century we made several meritorious imitations of sahdi in didactic poetry. but far above all these as above all other persian lyrical and erratic poets shines hafiz. the "sugar lip" is a book in which he sang of wine and love, nightingale and flowers, bee and roses. below is given a quotation from one of his poems about the nightingale and the miller: "ai morgh saher ashk zparwana beyamoz, kan sukhtara jan shud wawaz nayamab" translation: "o thou the bird of morning, you must learn love from the miller. it burned itself in the fire but did not make any noise." haji mollah kozim translated this rhyme as follows: "the morning bird is the nightingale--little smaller than the sparrow, but it has a very loud voice as clear as a golden bell." all poets in persia agree that it is a better singer than any other bird in asia. besides his singing he is the bird that has more love for his mate than any other bird in the world. they generally sing in the morning and the evening time. when the female is on her nest the male sits in the same tree, or very near, and sings for his mate. at times the male sits on the nest and his mate perched near by sings for him in a wonderfully sweet voice. the nightingale is a general favorite, and many popular songs have been written about this bird, and are sung by nearly every young man and young lady, boy and girl in persia. this author says of the miller that it loves light more than any other insect. from its love of light it throws itself into the fire, as everyone has seen in america of a summer evening about an electric lamp. sahdi takes this example for himself to illustrate his love to god. he says the love of the miller is more than the love of the nightingale because the nightingale shows its love by singing and making noise; but the miller, though it has a living body, makes no noise when it is burning in the fire. "so," says he, "ought to be my love to god." the city of shiraz from the beginning until this day has been the seat of religion and especially of poetry because these two eminent poets, sahdi and hafiz, were born, lived, wrote and died here. their tombs are visited annually by thousands of pilgrims. they are dead but their influence still lives and it has much effect on persia and especially on the inhabitants of the city of shiraz. many students are enrolled at the great cathedral mosque in the city, where some of the ablest professors of the country are instructors. professor yooseph, a graduate of this institution, told me that the air and the very dust of that city has in it the spirit of poetry. even the small boys who sell grapes, apples, etc. in the streets sing some very charming poems about their fruits, though they themselves may never have learned to read. the sweetness of persian language for poetry. the persians have one poem about the sweetness of their language for poetry, as follows: "the original language was the language of arabs. the turkish language is hard. but the persian language is honey comb." in comparison with the other asiatic languages many scholars think it is indeed honey-comb and the sweetest of asiatic languages, if not also of european languages, for the expression of poetry. part ii. religion. chapter i. parsee religion. this was the prevailing religion of persia in ancient times. zerdush was either the founder or a reformer of that religion. the general belief is that he was the founder, since the religion and its followers are called by his name. some suppose that this religion, the religion of hindoo, were originally the same and that they were divided by some political affair between the iranians and the aryans. the hindoo branch took the name brahminian. the doctrines changed somewhat after the separation, but the fundamental principles remained the same. different dates are given for the beginning of the zerdush religion. some authorities date its beginning at b.c. while others place it at b.c. the latter is generally agreed upon. there are two prevailing ideas about his place of birth, both babylonia and oroomiah, persia being claimed as his native city. there are many good reasons for believing that oroomiah was his birthplace. first, the original worshipers were persians, and the religion was started in persia. second, all oriental scholars and writers supposed that this was his native city. third, in the district immediately surrounding oroomiah the writer has seen more than thirty immense hills of ashes, the remaining monuments of the fire-worshippers of this religion. fire was their god and a continuous flame was kept burning through the centuries. some of these mountains of ashes are so huge in size that it would take a man an entire day to walk around it, and as high as the masonic temple of chicago, a twenty story office building. some of these hills are named as following: de-ga-la, sheikh-ta-pa, gog-ta-pa, etc. among these hills we find the "tower of silence", a large structure built of stone and containing the remains of kings and other notable men of ancient times. bible and doctrines. the bible of the parsees is called avesta, which means the revelation. the language is zend from which the persian language is derived. the founder of this religion taught as pure monotheism as was taught by mohammed. zerdush taught the existence of but one deity, who was called maz-daw or as it is pronounced now in persia, hurmizd. to this god was attributed the creation of all good fortune, government, long life, honor, health, beauty, truth, joy and happiness. but later this doctrine of monotheism became dualism, _i.e._, the supposition of two primal causes of the real and intellectual world, the vahu mano; the good mind or reality and akem mano or the naught mind or naught reality. ah-ra-man, the god of darkness has created devils, he causes evil thoughts, evil deeds, wars, misfortune, sorrow, death, and hell. zerdush taught there are two lives, one mental and the other physical. he believed in the immortality of the soul; that there are two abodes for the departed, heaven, the house of angels and hell the dwelling-place of the devil and his angels. between the two there is a bridge of judgment over which only the followers of zerdush will be able to cross safely. before the general resurrection the sosiosh, the son of zerdush, will be spiritually begotten. he will come as a messenger from ahuramazdoo and will foretell the time of the resurrection and judgment. the world at that time will be utterly steeped in wretchedness and darkness and sin; will then be renewed, death, the arch fiend of creation, will be slain and life will be everlastingly holy; and righteousness will dwell in the renewed world. this zoroastrian creed flourished until the time of alexander the great throughout ancient ironiona including cabuliston, bakhria, media and persia, and then declined. but again under ardashir, who has been called bobegon, and who claimed to be the descendant of zerdush, the religion of his ancestors was renewed, and the lost parts of the holy book, avesta, were found and put together. he chose a magician the ablest of , magician priests, to translate the book into vernacular language, thus renewing the religion. unfortunately the avesta was utterly destroyed in a.d. by the followers of mohammed. now we have in persia only , zoroastrians. the mohammedans called them gabrees, _i.e._, ungodly. most of them live in kerman yezd on the soil of their motherland. the men are good citizens, humble, honest, and generous, especially to their own brethren, and are industrious, intelligent, handsome, clean in appearance and faithful to their religion. the women are most beautiful, delicate in frame, small hands, small nose, clear complexion, with pink cheeks, black eyes and eyebrows. they do not cover their faces when in public, except to mohammedans, whom they consider wicked men. the women are good faithful housewives and honest to their husbands. their rituals. a parsee child must be born on the ground floor of the house of its parents as a sign of humility and that the child may begin its life with good thoughts, words and actions, and as a sign of loyalty to its parents. the mother cannot go out for forty days. after that she washes herself with holy water which has been sanctified by the priest. a parsee rises early, washes his hands and face, and recites his prayers toward the sun. he rejects pork, ham and camel flesh and will not eat anything cooked by one outside of the parsee religion. marriages can be contracted only with persons of their own creed. polygamy is forbidden except after nine years of sterility, then a man is allowed to marry another woman. divorces are entirely forbidden. the crimes of fornication and adultery are very severely punished. they worship the clean creations of the great hurmizda such as the sun, moon, fire, etc. aha-ramazda is the origin of light, the sun and fire having come from him, he having first been created by hurmizda. in the case of a hopelessly sick person the priest will recite some text of the holy bible avesta, as a consolation to the dying person. after death the body is taken to the ground floor, the place of its birth, to be washed and anointed with perfumes, dressed in white and put upon an iron grating. a dog is brought in to take a last look, and he drives away all evil spirits. the friends and relatives go before the door, bow down and raise their hands to their heads after touching the floor, as an indication of their last respect to the departed soul. the body upon the bier is covered. two men will bring it out and give it to four pall-bearers dressed in white, who, followed by a great procession take it to the "tower of silence." the last prayer will be recited in the holy temple, a building in which the holy fire burns continually through the ages. the body is then taken from the "tower of silence" and, placed on an iron bier, is exposed to the fowls of the air and the dew of heaven and to the sun until the flesh has disappeared, and the bleached bones fall through into a pit beneath, and are afterwards buried in a cave. they believe the holy fire is brought down from heaven. only priests can approach it and they must wear a half-mask over the face lest their breath should defile it, and never touch it with hands, but by instruments. tobacco smoking is prohibited as the smoker would defile the holy fire. they say there are five kinds of fire and great respect is shown to them. i remember having had a conversation with a parsee in which he said: "fire purifies all things, is stronger than all things, is cleaner than all other things, more beautiful than all things; therefore, fire is _god_. your own bible says: 'i am a consuming fire.'" the parsees have five kinds of sacrifices. these are the slaughtering of animals for the public and poor men; prayer, the doruns sacrament with its consecrated bread and wine in honor of the founder of the law, heromah (or sama) and dahman. this sacrament resembles our lord's supper. it is eaten publicly as a feast of joy. fourth, the sacrifice of expiation which is offered by all men and is killed in their temples. lastly the sacrifice for the souls of the dead. the removal of moral and physical impurities is effected by holy water and earth and by prayer. prayer and holy words from the avesta are recited several times every day. fasting and celibacy are hateful to the divinity. the ethical code may be summed up in three words--purity of thought, of words and of deeds. this, they claim, will become the universal religion of the world. a parsee believes the soul of a dead man is for three days walking near the tomb where the dead body is laid. the fourth day the gates of heaven will be opened and he will approach the bridge of chin-vat. here the good and evil deeds of his life will be weighed in the balances of justice. if the good deeds of his life outweigh the bad, he will pass over the bridge into heaven. if the bad are heavier than the good the candidate falls beneath the bridge into hell. in both heaven and hell there are three states. in heaven, good words, thoughts, deeds and words. in hell, bad words, thoughts and deeds. chapter ii. mohammedanism. mohammed means "praised one." one of the mohammedan divines once spoke in the presence of the writer of the similarity in the arabic language of "ahamad" and the "holy spirit" and he claimed to believe that ahamad or mohammed was the holy spirit which jesus promised to send into the world. when told in reply that jesus promised to send the comforter into the world immediately after his departure, and that mohammed did not live until years after christ, the priest had no more to say. this great prophet of the desert who converted the wild arabs was born about a.d. at mecca. he was the only child of abdulla and his mother halima, both from the noble family of koreish who claimed that they were the descendants of ismael and that their family was hereditary guardians of the sacred kaaba mosque in which was kept the holy black stone worshipped by all arabs. the moslems have many legends and traditions regarding the birth of mohammed. the sun moved from its place and gave a more brilliant light, with the seven colors of the rainbow; the angels bowed themselves to him and sung a new song in heaven; all the trees were shaken as by a strong wind. he was born circumcised and with his navel cut. a seal of prophecy was written on his back in letters of light. immediately prostrating himself on the ground he raised his hands and prayed. three persons as brilliant as the sun, one holding a silver goblet, another an emerald tray and the third a silken towel appeared in company with the angel gabriel, the latter holding in his hand a knife. gabriel cut open the child's belly, the first angel poured cleansing water over the child to wash away all sin, the second held the emerald tray beneath him and the third dried him with the silken towel, and then all saluted him and called him the "prince and savior of mankind." his father died at the age of twenty-five years, before his son was born. he left his widow five camels, a few goats and a slave girl, her name being amina. at the age of six years mohammed had a fit of epilepsy. he frequently fell down and foamed at the mouth, and snored like a camel. about this time his mother died and he was reared by his grandfather abdul-mota-kalib and his uncle abu-ta-lif and nursed by his faithful slave amina. for a time he herded goats, a disreputable occupation among arabs. but he afterwards glorified in it, pointing to the example of moses and david and saying that god never called a prophet who had not before been a shepherd. in appearance he was of medium size, slender but broad-shouldered and of strong muscles, black eyes and hair, white teeth, oval shaped face (which is now much praised among mohammedans), a long nose, patriarchal beard and a commanding look. his step was quick and firm. he wore common garments of white cotton stuff, and mended his own clothing and did everything possible for himself and aided his wives in household affairs. he had fourteen wives besides concubines. he possessed a vivid imagination and a genius for poetry and religious doctrines, but was not learned and perhaps could not read nor write. he became servant for a very wealthy widow named khadijah, and made several caravan journeys for her to syria and palestine with great success. afterwards he won the heart of the widow and married her against the will of her father. he was twenty-five years of age and the widow was forty-five years old. marriage proved happy and was fruitful with four daughters and two sons, but all died except one little daughter fa-ti-ma. mohammed adopted ali, his nephew, and married his daughter fa-ti-ma to him. she became the mother of all the prophet's descendants. mohammed loved his first wife kha-di-jah, was faithful to her, and after her death always cherished her memory, as she was the first person to believe in his doctrines. on his journeys to palestine and syria he became acquainted with jews and christians and got an imperfect knowledge of their religion and traditions. at that time the jews and christians had scattered the ideas of monotheism among the arabs. some of the arabs were tired of worshiping false idols and embraced the faith in one god. one of these men was mohammed. he became zealous to establish a religion throughout arabia, to teach and compel men to worship only one god and to recognize himself as his only prophet. he spent many days and nights in the caves of mount hira near mecca in meditation and prayer. his zealous efforts to establish his faith brought a return of the violent convulsion and epileptic fits of earlier days, and his enemies said he was possessed with demons. he started preaching to the ignorant classes of arabs teaching them that there was only one living god who created heaven and earth and all mankind. in a.d. , his fortieth year he claimed to have received a call from the angel gabriel while in a trance in mount hira, directing him to say: "in the name of god." many times after this first meeting he communicated with gabriel in these caves and saw many visions. once when almost discouraged he waited for further enlightenment in visions to qualify him for the duties of his office as prophet--if not to commit suicide--when suddenly gabriel, at the end of the horizon appeared, saying: "i am gabriel and thou art mohammed the prophet of god, fear not." after this assurance he commenced his career as a prophet and founder of a new religion. his doctrines were gathered from three religions, the jewish, christian and arabic. he taught that there is only one allah--almighty god, ever-present and working will. henceforth the revelations came from time to time, sometimes like the sound of a bell conversing with him; at other times gabriel came down and spoke to him. for the first three years he worked among his family. kadijah was his first believer. his father-in-law, abi-baker, omar, a young energetic man, his daughter fatima, his son-in-law ali and other faithful followers to the number of forty, were the first disciples of this new religion, and were very influential in spreading the same. then he publicly announced that he had a command from god, and had been given the divine office as prophet and lawgiver. as his notoriety spread, pilgrims flocked to mecca and he preached to them attacking the idolatry of mecca. when his enemies demanded a miracle from him, he responded by producing the koran leaf by leaf as occasion demanded. he provoked persecution; and civil war followed. in a.d. he was forced to flee for his life from mecca to medina, a distance of miles. this flight is called higira, meaning the flight, (july , ) from which the era of islam begins. in medina he was generally accepted as a prophet of god. his method was at first toleration. he said: "let there be no compulsion in religion," but afterwards said: "all infidels must accept one god and mohammed his prophet. if men refuse, kill them, plunder their property and their wives and daughters are for you." the wild arabs were kindled by this command. his followers were all robbers except some of the leaders. in with an army of , all citizens of medina, he gained a victory over his strong enemy, koreish, whose army was double the size of mohammed's. by other engagements he rapidly conquered jews and christians. after one battle jews were massacred at his order and their wives and daughters were made slaves. in he triumphantly entered mecca and in he demolished idols; then koreish, a leading tribe, shouted "there is but one god and mohammed is his prophet." ten years after higira, with , moslems he made his last journey to mecca, and subdued all arabia. upon returning to medina, he died in his home and in the arms of ayesha his favorite wife, june th, , at the age of sixty-three years. when on his death-bed and suffering extreme pain and anguish his friends expressed surprise that a great prophet should suffer so. he called their attention to the fact that one prophet of olden times was eaten by worms, while another was so poor as to have only a rag to cover his shame, and stated that a prophet is not rewarded here but hereafter. his last words were a prayer for the destruction of all jews and christians because they were so hard to convert. he prayed, "o lord let not my tomb be an object of worship. let there remain only one faith, that of islam, in all arabia. gabriel come near me, lord pardon me, grant me joy, accept me into thy companionship on high, etc." mohammed did not claim the power of performing miracles but since his death some of his followers have attributed miracles to him such as, when walking the streets, trees and stones would salute him; he caused a flood of water to spring up from dry ground; he rode on his horse borak through air from medina to mecca, jerusalem to paradise and to the heavenly mansions and again came back to mecca. the only miracle mohammed himself claimed was the revelation of koran. his character. some people have the impression that mohammed was a man of good character and great simplicity. possibly this was true of him in the earlier part of his life, but he degenerated as solomon, but unlike the wise preacher of "vanity" he never repented. mohammed was a slave of sensual passion. the doctrine of polygamy which he taught was the result of his own sensuality. ayesha his favorite wife said: "the prophet loves three things, women, perfumes and food." he, at the age of fifty-three years, married this woman when she was at the age of nine years. again he claimed to have a special revelation from heaven to marry zey-nab the wife of his adopted son. to gratify this wish, it was necessary for zeyd, his faithful son, to get a divorce from zey-nab. the conquest of islam. "the secret of success for islam is in the sword," said mohammed. his faith teaches that one drop of blood shed for allah, or god, avails more than all prayer, fastings and sacrifices. one night spent in the holy armies of islam will be rewarded by allah more than human reason can think. everyone that falls in battle is received in heaven as a martyr and rewarded for his devotion to the faith. after mohammed's death, his successor became aggressive as his forces grew stronger. his command to his armies was: "before you is paradise, behind you is hell." inspired by this belief, the wild and superstitious arabs rushed forward and subdued syria, palestine and egypt. the churches in the large cities of these lands were converted into mosques for the worship of mohammed. in and they besieged constantinople and in subdued the northern provinces of africa. in they established a califat in spain at cordova. the arabs crossed the pyrenees and made the threat that they would soon stable their horses in st. paul's cathedral at rome. but they were defeated by charles martel in . ferdinand drove them out of spain into africa. in the east the moslems had, in the ninth century subdued persia, afghan, bloogiston, a large part of india, also a large part of brahmanism and buddhism. the turks were conquered in the eleventh century; the mongols in the thirteenth century. constantinople fell into the hands of the unspeakable turks in . the magnificent church of st. sophia in which chrysostom preached the gospel with a fiery tongue and many church fathers chanted in it the true word of god was converted into a mosque. to-day the koran is read there in instead of the gospel. the sultan occupies the throne of constantine and calls himself the "shadow of almighty," boasts in his fanatical religion, and scorns christian powers. on the other hand the christian powers look at him with the cold spirit of christianity but i believe the time will come and is near when the gospel will be preached again in the church of st. sophia instead of the koran. chapter iii. the mohammedan religion. the koran is the mohammedan's holy bible, creed, and code of laws. the holy koran was delivered to mohammed neither in graven tablets of stone, nor by cloven tongues of fire, but it was engraven on mohammed's heart and was communicated by his tongue to the arabs. his heart was the sinai where he received his revelation and his tablets of stone were the hearts of believers. the koran contains chapters and verses. each chapter begins with formula, "in the name of god the merciful and the compassionate." the chapter is named from the chief subject treated therein; as "praise," "the light," "the spider," "the woman," etc. mohammed received all of his revelation at once but when occasion required he dictated new chapters to zeid. another notion is that the koran was delivered orally and was scattered until after the prophet's death when it was collected by ayesha, his youngest wife, and zeid. all of it was written in the best classical poetry. it is sweet in the arabic language but it looses its beauty when translated into other languages. mohammed did not invent a new religion but collected most of his doctrines from the jewish, heathen and christian religions and christian tradition. mohammed was greatly indebted to a nestorian monk named sargius be-hi-ra, a man of rare ability, whom the prophet kept in his home for several years and learned all he knew about christian doctrines and traditions. many of the wise counsels, stories, teachings of our duties to god and brethren in the faith, that are related in the old and new testament are reproduced in the koran, but the language is changed and the order of their occurrences is reversed. the koran contains mistakes such as making the virgin mary the mother of our lord the same person as mary the sister of moses and aaron. but without question the koran is one of the greatest books of the world in the number of adherents it has. it is a code of civil and religious law; , , mohammedans scattered all over the world to-day are following the teaching of the koran. the book contains much that is good and wise but one of its most dangerous defects is the prominence and approval given to polygamy and sensualism. chapter iv. the creed of islam. monotheism is the corner-stone of islam. their creed consists of six articles. god, predestination, the angels good and bad, the books and the traditions of the , prophets, the resurrection and judgment, eternal reward and punishment. the formula continually repeated by the mohammedans is this: "there is no god but god and mohammed is his prophet." allah or god has infinite power and wisdom and is holy, omnipotent, omnipresent, creator of the universe, upholder of all. he is an arbitrary ruler but deals justly with men. he is an object of fear and reverence, rather than of love and gratitude. the mohammedan does not look upon god as the father. he says god is the almighty creator and men ought to fear and tremble before him as slaves. the writer was reasoning with a mohammedan one day and spoke of god as "our heavenly father." he said "you blaspheme. don't call god a father." this could not be as he never had a wife. allah has foreordained all things, good and evil. an unconditional resignation to him is true wisdom. he is known because he has revealed himself through chosen messengers, angelic and human, such as adam, noah, abraham, moses, and jesus, our great and chief prophets, but mohammed is the last and the greatest above all. chapter v. the priesthood. the muj-ta-hid is the highest order of the priesthood but this order is divided into four degrees. the members of the highest degree reside at karbala, the sacred city. the chief of this degree is called naib-el-emam and in the belief of shiite moslems he is the representative of mohammed. his position is the same as that of the pope in the roman catholic church; and he is believed to be infallible. his authority extends over the entire clergy and in some respects over government. he resides in the most holy mosque which was built on the tombs of hassan and hussein, children of ali, who were martyrs in the war between the shi-ites and sun-neh moslems. he has power to declare holy war. vast sums of money are contributed into his keeping every year which he spends in defraying the expenses of thousands of pilgrims who flock to this shrine, and also for students who study in that mosque. he leads a simple life but it was stated by one of the pilgrims that he makes considerable money for his children. when this great chief dies there is a day of lamentation throughout persia and lords and counts feed thousands of poor men and divide money among them. all business is suspended for the day. the late shah, it is said, sent three different messengers to this high church official before he could get an interview, the churchman pleading humility and unworthiness to receive the king but before the latter departed after the interview he was charged to be a good and faithful ruler. the second degree in the muj-ta-hid is called arch-muj-ta­hid. it is composed of four priests who reside in the four places known as era-wa-nee shirazee, khorasonee and isphahonee, and one of these officials succeeds na-ib-el emam at the death of the latter. the third degree is the common muj-ta-hid who are numerous. in my city oroomiah of , inhabitants there are ten or more priests of this degree. sometimes they are called eulama meaning divines. the method of their living. they are executors of civil and religious law; no man can be a judge or lawyer unless he is a muj-ta-hid. these priests judge such cases as the division of property for which he charges a fee. where the interested parties are rich they are frequently required to appear before the priest several times before a decision is given that he may charge them a larger fee. as a general rule the man who pays these priest-­magistrates the most money will win the case, even if it is necessary to pervert the law. many a well-to-do man has been brought to poverty by the extortions of these muj-ta-hid. government cannot resist them. when lords or counts or rich people marry they charge large sums of money for performing the ceremony. large fees are also made for writing legal documents in the transference of land or other valuable property. the common people consider it a privilege to make presents to the muj-ta-hid. these men are usually very rich, and own one or more beautiful palaces and have from two to four wives. every young widow who has beauty and riches is sought in marriage by some of the priests. the fourth degree is called mollah, and their office is the same as the protestant elder. the mohammedans have no preaching services such as we have except on holidays, when certain ceremonies are carried out. the mol-lah visit the sick, call on families, teach them prayers and traditions and conduct funerals. some of them teach children who come to them each day for instruction. their meals are provided by the students who bring them some food, usually very choice each morning. one dime a month is generally the tuition fee. in the fall his parishioners who are able give him a collection of provisions for the winter such as grapes, apples, wheat, fuel, etc. he is highly respected in the community and is always invited out to a feast in some private home on holidays. he writes documents for the people for which he gets from two to ten cents, but the fee is often two or three eggs or a basket of fruit. this is the poor mollah's only income. some of them have no parish and do secular work for a living, others recite koran on the tomb of a lord for which they are paid by the relatives of the deceased. i have seen one mollah reciting koran for fifteen years at the tomb of a noted army officer. there are a class of priests, more learned and devout, who work as the revivalists of their religion. on holidays, which are quite frequent, the mosques are crowded with worshipers, when one of these priests mounts an elevated pulpit with great ostentation and in an impressive voice begins to read or repeat koran. he will chant traditions of the prophets and martyrs and relate pathetic stories of the noble sacrifices of departed heroes of the faith. his charming tones and utterances have much effect on his audience and men and women weep and beat their breasts. the garments of muj-ta-hid. the muj-ta-hid wears underclothes of white linen, his long coat is made of woolen cloth. his outer cloak is a robe that hangs to the feet. this robe is quite expensive, being made of the fur of animals, and is dyed yellow. they believe it a duty to wear a robe of skin as a sign of meekness. the robes cost from $ to $ . he wears a girdle of white linen in many folds. his turban is large and white. the light, heelless shoes cover only half of his feet. when he goes out he has a fine staff in his hand, the handle being of gold or silver. from ten to twenty servants accompany him, some stepping before, others after him. men of all class rise and salute him by bowing with their hands across their breast. many men kiss the shoes of the high muj-ta-hids. the place of say-yids in mohammedanism. mohammedanism is divided into two great sects:--viz. shiites and sunnites. both hold mohammed to be the prophet and savior of mankind and koran to be the holy bible, written by the finger of god and given to mohammed through the mediation of gabriel. but they differ in their belief as to who are the true successors of mohammed. shiites claim that ali the son-in-law and nephew of mohammed was caliph, while sunnites contend that four disciples of mohammed were his true successors. this difference led to war and bloodshed and gave rise to a permanent division in mohammedanism. persia generally belongs to the shiites tribe. they receive ali as the caliph after mohammed. the descendants of ali are therefore held in high esteem and rank in persia. they are called say-yids, which means prophets and masters and they have privileges that do not belong to common men. they are very zealous to perpetuate their own sect. from the time of ali they have kept a careful record of their genealogy. this book of testimony called sajjara, is given from father to son and serves as a credential to the say-yidical tribe. each family must have in its possession a credential at least two hundred years old. when these are worn by age and use their leaders may draft copies and duly certify them. the say-yid's dress distinguishes him from other men. he wears a green turban and girdle, so that he is really known whether alone or in a throng. if a common man should presume to wear these articles of dress he would be severely punished. the say-yid's turban is to them more precious than a kingly crown. it is the sign of their glory. the girdle is a symbol of strength. their rank is higher than all other degrees among men and their high priest is more honored than a prince. so say-yid ruleth over other men. he demands and receives their honors. in the assemblies of lords and influential men, the say-yid occupies the chief seats, and are always served first. oaths of gravity are sworn by their heads. all men fear them, believing that their curse will surely be brought to pass. they are never smitten or reviled. if a christian should lift his hand against them that hand must be severed from his body. they are exempt from legal punishment. governors cannot impose on them fines or imprisonments. if a say-yid should kill a common man it would be impossible to punish him with death for his murder. the governor cannot punish him for it would be a sin against god; it is believed that god created all men for the sake of mohammed and his descendants. a say-yid's punishment must come through the leader of that order. many vows are made to them. parents when their daughters are sick, vow to marry them to a say-yid, believing that god will cure her for the sake of the say-yid. they generally ride on gray horses, claiming that those of that color belong to them. they lead the large pilgrim caravans, which go every year to worship at the tomb of ali. their presence is believed to protect the caravans from thieves and robbers. their law gives them authority over the property of other men. they are masters while others are peasants. sometimes they smite and punish other men without mercy. by their law one-tenth of all property belongs to them. generally they do not work, but live well, because of their position as say-yids or holy men. the more noble of them will sit in their houses and receive tithes of the fruits, coffee, tea and money of the surrounding people. if these tithes are not freely given a servant will be sent with authority to demand and take same. the less noble of the say-yids go personally to the homes vineyards and gardens and gather their portion. sometimes there might be seen no less than ten say-yids going to vineyards for this purpose. generally they ask nothing from christians, as their law restrains them and they are ashamed to ask of other religions. i once met a say-yid in my father's vineyard and he asked a portion. i refused, telling him that i myself was also a say-yid _i.e._, a christian say-yid, and asked if one say-yid should receive something from another. he laughed, and said: "yes sir, sometimes." i gave him three pounds of raisins. these say-yids are in only the shiites branch of islam. in later years their honor is decreased; the government is against them. some of them are very religious. two of them in the city of ispha-han were converted to christianity and suffered martyrdom. one has been converted to christianity in my city, oroomiah. he is one of the most spiritual men among christians. the darwishes. shiites mohammedanism rests upon two pillars one of which is darwishes. this is one of the most holy orders of the musalmans. it corresponds to the monasticism of christianity. it contains several degrees, such as asceticism, mandicanism, etc. it is a volunteer consecration to allah and his prophet, except in cases in which parents had dedicated their sons to the order. there are numerous instances in which women without children made a vow to allah that if given a son they would consecrate him to god to be a darwish. this order contains members from all classes, high and low, rich and poor, and even from the royal family. celibacy is not required but they are taught that it is far better for them not to marry. [illustration: high-class dervish.] their character. a darwish is expected to be and usually is humble, kind and liberal, ready to serve any man. he must suffer all the trouble of life and live in an humble condition because this is holiness. he is required to be well informed in all religious stories, tradition, and koran, and particularly in the poetical writings of maw-le-wee order, which is their own order, founded by an-wa-ree the father of the darwishes. some of the members know from one to five thousand of these sacred poems. most of them are sufficiently educated to read. the darwishes are the most faithful, honest and pure of all the followers of mohammed. in all my life i have never heard of a single immoral darwish. some of them are very intelligent and well educated and familiar with all their religious rites. on the other hand they are very superstitious, fanatical and ambitious to propagate their religion, believing it to be a true religion. they are free to discuss their faith with all men in a kind spirit. in a discussion with one of them he could not answer me but proposed that we prove the truth of our religion by both entering a burning fire, and the one who came out unharmed would have the true religion. i told him to enter the fire and if he was not burned i would believe in his religion and become a mohammedan. he did not dare do it and was ashamed. the nature of their service. the darwishes' work is to tell stories, tales and traditions during week days in the streets. friday is holy day among mohammedans and is to be observed in worshiping god. the darwishes begin at one o'clock p.m. on that day singing poems on the streets and continue until evening. their poems are for the glory and honor of mohammed and ali, for they believe these two men were the supreme creation of god. one of their poems reads as follows: "the first of creatures is ali; the supreme of beings is ali; the true calif of the prophet all is ali; the lord of all the world is ali; the lord of my soul is ali." the darwishes wear long hair, and a pointed orange shape cap, a cloak of patch work and a long white robe and in his right hand a tomahawk with a fancy handle with some poems written on the blade. in the other hand is held a kashkul for the collection of money. these are the rituals of his office. a dozen or more of them may be seen on every street, not far from each other, standing in front of the stores singing some poems for the praise of ali in a loud voice, and with an earnest and enthusiastic spirit. then he will pass his kashkul and the shopman will drop in it from one to three pennies and sometimes only a bit of sugar or ginger. any gift is acceptable. one passing in the streets hears voices of base, tenor, etc, some rough, some clear as the sound of a bell of gold making an attractive melody. sometimes they sing two by two, one for the praise of mohammed, the other for the praise of ali. once i heard a darwish singing a poem to the praise of ali, and when he had finished another responded near by singing to the praise of mohammed in the following words: "he (mohammed) has attained to the supremacy of his personal holiness; he has enlightened the darkness by personal beauty; beautiful are all his deeds. the blessings of god be upon him and upon all his children." some darwishes travel over all persia, spending a short time in each city they visit doing their work. the cap which the darwish wears has embroidered upon it a verse from koran and signifies his consecration to the service of allah. the kashkul is a box in which to collect money for the poor and sick. the white robe is a sign of purity. the sheepskin on his shoulder is a sign of meekness. the beads on his neck are to remind him of the duty of prayer. the tomahawk is a sign of war and victory for his prophet and allah. those who have excelled in their holy service go to their leader and he places on the skin of the right shoulder of the darwish an inscription which remains as a sign of consecration and honor. there is a low class of darwishes who are very ignorant, superstitious and fanatical and are like beggars. they pitch their tents at the gates of rich people and will not go away until they have been satisfied with money. sometimes a large crowd of this class will gather in a mosque and spend several hours in howling unto allah and the prophets until made weary by the exertion. when the good darwish goes home friday evening he will have gathered some money and also provisions, such as tea, coffee, sugar etc. he will keep for himself and family enough to last one week; the remainder is given to the poor. their place in mohammedan religion. the darwish is highly respected by all classes from the royal family to the most humble. no man dares to beat or lay hands on one of them, as it would be considered a great crime. in case a darwish does wrong or commits crime the government does not punish him but refers the matter to the leader of the order. sometimes they are called kallander, which means humble and holy men of allah. they are exempted from paying tax and from military service. many presents are given to them by the people. the salutation is different from the common people. the first says, "ya-ho" which means: "o living god"; the response is "ya-mal-ho," which means: "o god the giver of life." so it is plain that the darwishes are one of the two pillars that support islamism. thank god we have some darwishes converted to christianity. chapter vi. the laymen. the laymen are divided into three classes, viz., the counts, lords, middle class and low class. the middle class live mostly in towns and cities. their occupation is merchandise; to carry goods to europe and import goods into persia. others are manufacturing carpets, rugs, etc. others are iron-smiths, silver-smiths, carpenters, druggists, butchers, and masons. a great number are secretaries for lords, counts, and in military service. the life of this class is very happy indeed. their homes are quite comfortable, and kept in good order. their tables are spread with enough of the good things to satisfy. this class do none of the work that custom has assigned to the lower classes. pride would not allow it. custom requires them to have smooth hands--not always white, for some prefer to dye them red. the women of the middle class take life easy. they are not often allowed to go outside without permission of their husbands or mothers-in-law. in some instances the older ladies spend their time making rugs, shawls, and carpets--some of which are very beautiful and costly. the young ladies and brides spend their time in making caps, purses, head-covering, dresses, etc. unmarried girls are positively required and it is the duty of her mother to teach her how to make rugs, carpets and embroidery work, etc. for her marriage. one of her first duties is to learn to dress herself handsomely. the face and brow will be colored with red and white paints. the eyes and eyebrows with black paint. the hands and feet are dyed with hana a kind of paint that colors them red. [illustration: harem costume.] costumes at home. the shirt worn at home by woman is an article made of silk or cotton. it is short, open breast, well embroidered, and is red or white and reaches to the middle of the thigh. over the shirt is the cula-ja, rather loose, with long sleeves fastened with buttons of silver. the shalwar is similar to the ordinary skirt only it is very short. some wear from three to ten of these skirts. the outer one is very rich and trimmed with gold lace. the head covering is called char-kat and is made square of a long embroidered article of fine silk or thin cotton and is fastened under her chin. sometimes at home they are bareheaded. hose are white and long. the hair is generally black, heavy, braided and spread on her back. in front it is parted in the middle when bangs are not worn. the hair is usually painted to appear black and smooth. her jewelry. the middle class of women are fond of jewelry, but do not burden themselves with heavy ornaments as do some of the lower class. they usually wear two or three finger rings, small earrings of gold, bracelets and necklace. there is frequently a large emerald, incased in gold, hanging from the necklace, bearing this inscription: "there is no god but allah." beautiful ornaments of gold and silver are attached to the ends of their braided hair. when a wife has perfumed and adorned herself she will await the coming of her husband from his shop. she knows at what time he will return home. an hour before his coming she will go before the mirror to see if she is dressed beautifully enough to please her husband. ten minutes before his arrival she will prepare a delicious kalyon, (which is a smoke and water pipe.) holding it in her hand she will rise and offer him the kalyon, saying, "my lord, command your pleasure." he will take the pipe and smoke. while he is sitting she will sprinkle perfume on his head and clothes. for several minutes they exchange the pipe and smoke alternately. this is the first thing which a husband of the middle class expects of his wife--not to work for him but to adorn herself and please him. it cannot be said that the mohammedan does not love his wife. he buys her whatever she asks for; not because he considers her his equal, but for the sake of his own pleasure. men's costume. most men of the middle class, at some time in life go on a pilgrimage to mecca and medina. after a pilgrim returns he is given the title of ha-jeh and thereafter wears a turban on his head instead of the ordinary cap. the cap commonly worn by the persian is about eight inches high, has no brim and is black in color. the shirt is of white cotton, open in front and fastened with a button on the right shoulder. the trousers are very much like the bloomers worn by some bicyclists of modern times, and old people wear garments even wider than bloomers. they are made of wool or cotton and are usually black. the coat is called ar-ka-look. some are long enough to reach the ankle, while others reach about the middle of the thigh. the sleeves fasten at the wrist by a button of silk cord. there is a pocket on either side near the belt. various colors are worn. the gima or overcoat is a heavy wool garment reaching to the knee, the lower part of which is pleated. it is open in front and fastened with a number of buttons. the belt is a large piece of linen folded many times around the waist. some wear heavy and costly shawls. it is a general custom to shave the head except a small place on each side of the head just over the ear and a spot on the crown of the head. the hair-covered spots are called zoolf and are dyed with hana. the most religious men and the aged shave the entire surface of the head. the young men shave the beard, except the mustache, till the age of thirty years after which time the beard is clipped at the length of about one inch till the age of forty. after the age of forty the beard is never cut. the mustache is never shaved, by young or old. it is a mean thing to do, and is against their religion. no man has been seen in persia with a smooth upper lip except europeans. a man who will shave his mustache is not a mohammedan but an infidel; not a man, but a girl. the long mustache is regarded as the glory of man. the lower class. the lower class of people are farmers and day labors and among them is much misery. they work long hours and get from fifteen to twenty-five cents a day. their clothing is of cheap material, poorly made, and shorter than the garments of the higher classes. in order to save time and soap their clothes are sometimes not washed for a month. some farmer's wives use the sickle all day long in the field during harvest-time. many women do the lighter work of killing weeds. sometimes a woman will take her babe to the field with her and leave it in the care of an older child while she labors. in the fall of the year the laborers are busy in the vineyards, a great abundance of grapes being produced in this country. a familiar scene of an evening is to see men and women trudging homeward bearing heavy burdens of fruit, raisins, etc. stored in baskets. some of the children are employed through the day looking after and feeding the cattle, buffaloes and sheep, while it is the duty of others to carry food and drink to the workers in the fields. in the winter the men are employed feeding cattle or in weaving coarse cloths for the clothing of the lower class. others who are not thus engaged spend the winter in carrying dried fruits, wheat, fuel and various kinds of goods to the cities on donkey caravans. the women of this class spend the winter in spinning cotton and wool, making carpets, sacks, etc. and in sewing garments for their children and husbands. young girls are busy in preparing useful articles for their wedding. the dozen or more holidays that come during the year are celebrated by this class in having big dinners, and the women cease from the heavy burdens of their labor for the day and attempt to beautify themselves after the fashion of women of the higher classes with paint and finery. their taste not being cultivated in that art they often make themselves more hideous than beautiful. chapter vii. the mosques and their services. the mosque is the mohammedan holy temple or church. there is one in most every community which has been erected by lords or rich people. in the cities they have some magnificent mosques built of stone and brick. a mosque is divided into several small rooms and two large halls. one hall is for winter service, the other for summer. the summer hall is in the front end of the building, is enclosed with three walls, the front being open. the pillars that guard the entrance to this hall are adorned with artistic designs. the interior walls of the mosque are painted white and on them are inscribed in large letters numerous verses from the koran. the floors of the halls are not covered with carpets or rugs, as they would be stolen; but there are cheap mats made of reeds on the floor. there are no chairs but the worshipers sit on the floor. it is believed that any man who builds a mosque has remission of his sins. it gives him great reputation and he is known as a holy and religious man. there are some very old mosques, a few having stood as long as years. in some instances christian churches have been converted into mosques in times of persecution. in the city of oroomiah one very fine church was converted into a mosque about years ago. it is a very large building with a high steeple and stands in the heart of the city, surrounded by fine grounds of about three acres. the grounds are surrounded by high wall, inside of which are rows of small buildings divided into rooms and used by students. these were originally used by the christians as a kind of a university. even to-day the door facing the east which christians entered to worship jesus remains. when the mohammedans took possession of the building a new door was made on the south side facing the holy city of mecca. mosques are regarded as holy and no animal is allowed to step in, especially dogs. if a mohammedan knew that dogs sometimes enter christian churches they would despise christians the more. jews and christians are not allowed to enter a mosque. they can only stand before the door and listen solemnly. the mohammedans have no bells on their mosques. they say satan is in the bell, and that its sound is the sound of satan. sometimes they stop our bells, saying that allah will not accept their prayers on account of our bells. they have no bell, but a man, sometimes a mool-lah, who ascends to the roof of the mosque three times daily, morning, noon and night and in a loud voice calls men to prayer. the call is made in the following words: "al-lah ak-par." this means almighty god and is repeated three times. then he continues: "ashuddu-in-nah la il-la-ha ella allah," meaning, "i testify that there is no god but god." "ashud-du in-nah mohammed rus-sool al-lah," meaning, "i testify that mohammed is the only apostle of god." "hay-ya alal sa-lah," meaning, "hasten to prayer." "hay-ya alal falah," meaning, "hasten to the place of refuge and hope." "hay-ya allal kher-ul amal," meaning, "hasten to do good works." the call is concluded by again repeating three times the words, "allah ak-par." the mosque is open day and night, and men may come into prayer at any hour. friday is holy day and corresponds somewhat to the christian sunday. no man is chastised if he works on friday but all faithful mohammedans attend public services on that day. the services in the mosques of the cities are conducted by muj-ta-hids or high priests. the priest starts to the house of worship when he hears the voice of the mah-zin calling to prayer from the top of the mosque. he is accompanied by eight or ten servants beside numbers of worshipers who may fall in line with the holy man. when he enters the assembled worshipers rise to their feet and remain standing until the priest has seated himself in the pulpit. he will recite from the koran and tell traditions in a chanting voice. women are allowed to attend these services but they are required to sit in one corner of the mosque apart from men. special services. among muj-ta-hids two titles are given to those who excel in holiness, viz., pish-namaz and imam-ju-ma. the former means mediator in prayer; the latter, the prophet of holy friday. they are indeed more devoted to their faith and at the same time more fanatical in their hatred for christianity. when one of these priests goes to the mosque he wears a large turban on his head, some of them costing $ , a cloak of fur, a staff with gold or silver handle. he wears a long beard which is painted black. following him is a procession of from fifty to one hundred men, mostly mollah, or lower class, who are faithful moslems. proceeding toward the mosque with slow and solemn tread, he is saluted by the people of all classes along the street by their rising to their feet, crossing the breast with the arms and reverently bowing before him, uttering the words "sallam ali-kun agha," which means "peace be unto you, sir." this service occurs on holy friday sometimes , or , men will be gathered in the mosque. women are not admitted in these most holy and solemn services. the muj-ta-hid stands in the front part of the mosque, facing mecca, and all the audience is back of him. as he advances in the prayer all the people repeat what he prays. they imitate every motion he makes. when he kneels, they kneel. when he puts the end of his front fingers in his ears, the entire audience does the same. they believe all prayers which are prayed in that way are accepted through his mediatorial prayer. [illustration: priests at worship.] chapter viii. moslem's private prayer and fasting. prayer. prayer carries the musselman half way to heaven. there is no salvation by grace or by atonement. allah forgives his sins only on the condition of good works. hence it is an obligation with every one to pray. prayer is not a duty issuing from his love to allah, but a yoke which binds him against his will. it is reduced to a mechanical act without spirit. the moslem always washes with cold water before prayer. he will take a jar of water and say, "bism allah" meaning, "in the name of god i do this holy service." then dipping his right hand in the water he rubs his arms from the wrist to the elbow; with the tips of his fingers he will wet his forehead and the inside of his ears, and the surface of his feet. travelers in the desert, use sand as a substitute for water. the worshiper must have a seal of mecca which is made of clay and is about the size of a half-dollar. on it are the words, "there is no god but god." facing mecca, he puts the seal on the ground and standing erect he raises both hands to his head, kneels to the ground, puts his brow on the seal, then kisses it. rising to his feet he puts both index fingers in his ears; and also makes numerous other gestures. they have one prayer which is always repeated. they have five stated seasons daily for prayer; daybreak, noon, soon after noon, after sunset (to avoid the idea of sun worship) and just before retiring. the general place of prayer is the mosque, but few of the moslems pray there, as they prefer praying in the streets, open squares and in meadows before mosques where they will be seen by more men and can better show their piety and integrity. in the midst of his prayer he will stop and speak a few words to the surrounding people as a religious custom, or to revile children whose noise while at play may have interrupted him. a prayer often prayed by faithful moslems, quoted from the koran, is a foolish and selfish prayer and is entirely against the spirit and teachings of our lord jesus christ. it reads: "o allah, i seek refuge to thee from satan and all evil spirits. o lord of all creatures destroy all heathen and infidels, even those who believe in the trinity, the enemy of our religion. o allah, make their children orphans, their wives widows, and defile their abodes. give their families, their households, their women, their children, their relatives, their possessions, their race, their wealth, their lands, and their daughters as a booty to the moslems, thy only people, o lord of all creatures." every word is against the blessed teachings of our lord who said: "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." the mohammedan religion does not require women to pray. it is a question if she has the same soul that man has. however some women among the higher classes and some old widows do pray. but they cannot pray in the most holy mosques on account of their uncleanness, nor in the streets for they ought not to be seen of men. if they wish to they may pray in their private houses. while prayer carries a musselman half way to heaven, fasting carries him to the gate and alms admit him. so fasting and alms are the keys to paradise and every man must practice them. the moslems have only one month of fasting called the ramadhan. their month begins with the new moon; but sometimes in some parts of the land it is cloudy and they cannot see the moon. so men will be appointed by the government throughout all the empire to watch carefully for the new moon, sometimes from the peaks of mountains. when she is discovered telegrams are sent announcing the beginning of the fast on the morrow. they will fast from one hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset, or till it becomes too dark for a man to discriminate between red and black thread. during this time they abstain from eating, drinking, and smoking. the poor class work till noon. the rich do not work at all. the most of the day is spent in reciting the koran, praying and sleeping. christians cannot eat in the street, for the moslems might long to eat too, or even take a taste, and thus break their fast. boys and girls above eight years must fast, while sick men are not compelled to during this month. however when they recover they are required to fast thirty days as soon as they are able. they do not converse much in the day but wear a sad countenance. they do not allow a christian to speak to them. at morning and evening in the cities a cannon is fired for the beginning and ending of the fast. during this month much alms is given. the lords and princes especially send meals from their table. they believe fasting and giving secure absolute forgiveness of sins and admittance to heaven. the night is changed to a feast. they eat and drink and converse till twelve o'clock. then they retire but are up again at three and eat and drink till one hour before sun is down. death among them occurs most often in that month because many eat too much. so many different meals hurt their stomach and they fall sick and die. the mohammedans say they go to heaven for its gates are open during this month for musselmen. hundreds of them eat everything they want and at any time of the day. they do not believe in fasting: but they must be careful that the high priest does not catch them breaking the fast, for he would punish such offence severely. the writer has seen many mohammedans eating in this month. they would eat and smoke in their houses and then wash out their mouths and tell everyone they were fasting. thousands fast either for their own glory or from the fear of men. chapter ix. the pilgrimages. islam's religion has many holy places and it is the duty of every mohammedan to visit these shrines unless circumstances hinder him. pilgrimages secure not only forgiveness of sins, but a great reputation as well. of all mohammedan shrines there are four most remarkable. medina is the first. it was the birthplace of mohammed. here he lived till he was six years old when his mother, amina, died. a slave girl faithfully nourished him and took him to mecca. but his last days were spent in medina. when he was dying in the arms of ayesha, omar asked him: "prophet where do you wish us to bury you?" he answered: "throw the rein of the bridle on my camel's neck and i believe the angel gabriel will come and direct her where to go. there bury me." they did so. his camel started off, but soon stopped and would not proceed further. so they buried mohammed there and a magnificent mosque stands above his grave. this building is adorned with silver and gold and mohammedans worship it. the second place is mecca. this city is the most holy for all the mohammedan world. here is the old temple of the arabs the kaaba which was converted by mohammed into a mosque. it has been rebuilt many times by the rich kings of islam. this mosque is among the seven wonders of the world and is not inferior in beauty and cost' to solomon's temple. outside at the gate is a black stone which the ancient arabs worshiped before mohammed. some said the stone was cast out of paradise with adam; others that it was cast down from heaven. upon it abraham offered isaac. the worshipers held a tradition that if anyone should place a smooth stone on this holy stone and it should stick fast he should have the wish of his heart. many childless women use this means to find if god will give them a child. near the mosque is the well of ab zimzim, _i.e._, living water. mohammedans claim abraham, hagar and jacob quenched their thirst at this well. jacob and other patriarchs, they say, watered their sheep here. many pilgrims have assured the writer that the mosque of the kaaba was originally built by the angel gabriel. there are two hundred million moslems scattered throughout the world and each of them turns his face toward this mosque and prays five times daily. the third place is karballa. this city holds the second place in sacredness in the estimation of the mohammedans. it is situated in asiatic turkey, near the famous city of bagdad, where saleek and katispon once flourished, ancient towns of the christian nestorians. here their patriarch dwells who ruled over all the nestorian church. after the death of mohammed his four caliph successors overthrew these places and took them from the nestorians. later a battle took place here between these caliphs and the grandchildren of mohammed to decide which should be at the head of the new religion. the caliphs were successful; the grandchildren being slain. they were buried here and upon their graves was reared a magnificent mosque. like that of mecca this, too, is adorned with gold and silver. hundreds of rich men from all parts of persia give large offerings for this temple. karballa has different meanings. some translate it the place of danger, some the place of mourning, some the place of the killing of martyrs, others the place of those holy men. here in this city is the pope of all persia,--they call him prophet. in his hands is all the power of his religion, and he has more power than the king. everything he commands they must do, even to the killing or massacring of all the christians. the king must do him formal reverence. the fourth place is mashhad. this city is situated in the northeast part of persia, in the state of khorason, near the caspian sea. this is the most holy city in persia. here are buried many famous persons as the grandchildren of mohammed. this mosque is more rich than mecca and karballa. the dome is gilded with gold outside and inside. generally each king of persia makes expensive presents, but the most remarkable event in this connection was two hundred years ago. nadirshah, a powerful king of persia, he that conquered india and despoiled calcutta of its treasures,--made a present to this temple of a crown of gold, adorned with precious stones. they say at night it is like the electricity building at the columbian exposition. they call it mashhad-mokaddas, meaning holy. it is a place of martyrs. no christians or jews are permitted to reside in this city. in the thirteenth century this was the cathedral of the archbishop of the nestorians. pilgrimages to the holy places. mohammedan law commands all to go to these holy places. the books of ceremony emphasize the importance of such pilgrimages. the hope of remission of sins is given to all visitors, and they are thereafter called by a different name from ordinary men. everyone has confidence in them; and sometimes for a witness they call from this class of men. their law is, every man able must go and god will be merciful to his family, and afterward he will be rich. everyone who refuses to go is not a true moslem and does not love his religion. preparation for the journey. before going on this journey many fast and pray. they must repent of every sin and sometimes one sees men praying in various ways, and it is easy to see that they are preparing for a pilgrimage. they put on a sorrowful countenance and walk about sadly,--all of which is merely for vain glory. every day they must wash and cleanse themselves and go to the mosque. if they are at enmity with any man, they must first be reconciled before their journey will be recognized. some days before starting some say-yids, descendants of mohammed who wear a blue turban and are considered most honorable and holy men, who do not work, who are not punished for any violation of law, will ride on blue horses with long spears in their hands. they will walk in the streets crying in a loud voice to all those who are to make a pilgrimage to prepare themselves and be ready on a certain day. together with this command is uttered words of comfort and encouragement. they tell the people not to fear. god will send for the sake of mohammed his angels and prophets, riding on blue horses, to deliver them from all robbers and thieves. yet many do die on this pilgrimage at the hands of desperate characters of the desert or mountains. alms-giving. one month before starting each man must give according to his ability for alms. they are besieged by the others to prepare food and drink for feasts. if a man is rich the demand is repeated. before starting the pilgrim goes to the leader to inquire what is necessary for him to do and how to do it that his pilgrimage be accepted. the priest will say if the man is rich, "you found a mosque." if a man is poor a smaller amount of money is required. the very poor are commanded to fast from ten to forty days. those who make their pilgrimage on horseback scatter money on the way for the benefit of the beggars and the poor. as the pilgrim sets out he is accompanied by friends for some distance as a mark of honor to the faithful islam. before the band of pilgrims the leader rides calling out in a loud voice, "säläwät." carrying the dead. their law requires that not only the living but also the dead shall go to these places. the dead are sometimes carried to the sacred cities forty years after burial. sometimes when a stingy man dies who has not gone on a pilgrimage in his lifetime, he exacts a promise from his relatives that a certain amount of his money will be used to carry his body to a holy city. if this promise is not kept, the priest will compel his relatives and heirs not only to restore the specified sum for sacred purposes but more. when the poor man is about to die he administers an oath to his relatives that after his death his body shall at some future time be taken to karballa. as a reward for this service, the relatives will be blessed of god and made rich. the dead are buried in a box so that at some appointed time the remains may be exhumed and transferred to a new box and strapped to the back of a horse and carried to the holy city. it matters not if the body has decayed. if the bones remain it is not too late for the pilgrimage. if the deceased has been very poor and his friends cannot take him in person, they hire strangers to do it. thus one may see the caravans with hundreds of horses--sometimes thousands--with the boxes of dead strapped to their backs on their way to the holy places. motive in pilgrimages for the dead. the object of these trips is to secure heaven for the dead. their religion teaches that all who die in a holy city or who are buried there find a home in heaven. some say god has a multitude of spiritual camels with riders who will come and carry the dead bodies to heaven. if you say to them, "flesh and bones cannot inherit the holy place of god," they will answer, "their spirit is taken to heaven, not their body." others will say, "the bones are not the original ones but likenesses of them." others say, "it is an honor to the prophets who are buried in the holy city for other dead men to be buried there." at an appointed time after burial it is believed that the dead will rise and bow to the tombs of the prophets. this is the manner of their worship: those who go to medina must arrive before a certain day because on that particular day their worship is commenced. for two or three days various ceremonies are performed such as fasting, prayer, purification and washing of their bodies. when these are concluded, on the fourth day they array themselves in a special robe for worship. without any covering on their feet they walk around the mosque seven times. when they enter the mosque they bow themselves before the tomb of mohammed. after this bowing they walk seven times around the tomb of the prophet. they then kneel down and kiss the tomb at the same time placing such money upon it as they can spare. upon leaving the mosque a ram is killed as a sacrificial offering. on that day more than one hundred thousand sheep are killed in that small city. this together with the warm sun beating on the blood of the victims gives rise to the most fearful of all scourges, cholera. in karballa, medina and mashhad worship is conducted in this manner. the female pilgrim. the law requires that females also go to these holy places. girls at every age are allowed to go, also children. widows under fifty years are not accepted as pilgrims, first, because of their probable desire for marriage, and second because the law says no women must undertake a pilgrimage alone for thus they would expose themselves to men. so in order to go some marry for the occasion. the husband accompanies them hither and upon returning either divorces them or keeps them as wives or concubines. the return of the pilgrims. those who went to mecca from certain parts before trains began to run in the east consumed a year or more in their journey, but now it takes only six or eight months. those going to karballa take from three to five months, likewise those going to mashhad. every band of pilgrims when returning to their own city will send a messenger about ten days ahead to announce that in so many days a band of pilgrims will appear in the city. on the day of their arrival many hundred men will meet them several miles from the city. the say-yids ride before them crying säläwäts. friends and relatives kill lambs as a sacrifice before them. this sacrifice is a holy thing and no man can touch it till its blood is shed, but when it is beheaded, it belongs to god and the strongest man takes it for his own. this being a sacred thing all are very anxious to partake of it. the weak will do all they can to keep the strong from carrying the sacrifice away. so there is always quarreling when the pilgrims return. the acquaintances of the pilgrims will come and say, "my portion be as thy portion. blessed art thou. may your pilgrimage be accepted," and the pilgrim will answer, "god grant that you may also go to this holy place and receive remission of sin." women will sometimes cut pieces from the pilgrim's garments which are supposed to be holy. at the pilgrims home many sheep are killed and a variety of fine meats are cooked. people gather there to eat and drink and they say to the host, "god bless your pilgrimage." he will answer, "may the prophet give you success and grant that you, too, may visit the holy place." it is evident from the above descriptions that there is no place in islam for peace of conscience or absolute assurance of heaven. the writer has often asked of mohammedans: "have you any hope of heaven?" they say, "we don't know god knows." "yes god knows everything but what do you say of your hope?" he will reply, "i have no hope--but god is merciful." many of them would receive christ if there was freedom of worship. there are even now some true christians among the moslems who secretly like nicodemus. let us pray that god will open the way of freedom for them. chapter x. the shiite moslem's mu-har-ram. when mohammed was dying he announced, against his will, that abbubaker his father-in-law was his rightful successor. it was his real desire to be succeeded by ali his son-in-law, but he saw that abbubaker had a much wider influence than ali. in the next generation after the four caliphs, or chief disciples of the head of the faith, and ali had died there arose divisions in the church. hassan and hussein, sons of ali, claimed to be the rightful caliphs after the death of abbubaker. they contended that their grandfather had made abbubaker caliph because he was old and faithful, and therefore that that office should not descend to his children. a great body of moslems followed them. one of them, hassan, was too timid to push his claims. his death came soon from a dose of poison administered to him by some of his enemies. the energetic young hussein continued to assert his claims, but he had no army. with seventy men, mostly relatives, he started for a fortified city, but was surrounded by the army of yazid. taking shelter in a cave beneath a huge rock, hussein and his followers defended themselves for three days and three nights. at last they were driven to desperation by hunger and thirst. drawing their swords they came out and met an army of several thousand men. after a brief contest hussein and his men were overcome. hussein was captured alive. the shiite moslems of persia say that when hussein was taken before the chief captain for execution, he was very thirsty and asked for a drink of water before being beheaded. but this request was not granted and he was executed with his thirst unquenched. in memory of this tragedy there may now be seen walking the streets of persian cities every warm summer day men carrying a bottle or jar of water and crying aloud: "sakkaw, sakkaw" (their name) and giving water to any who may be thirsty, in the name of hussein. moslems take this drink in a cup carried by the sakkaw, but a christian must furnish his own cup or drink from the palms of his hands. if offered one or two cents the sakkaw will take it, but he never asks for money. the killing of hussein and his followers occurred in the month called mooharram. this entire month and ten days of the following month are observed as a time of lamentation for hassan, hussein and their followers who were slain. during this period every man, woman and child of the shiite moslems are under obligations to wear black garments. the last ten days of mooharram are observed in a fanatical spirit as a revival of religion. this period is called ashara, meaning ten days. the first seven days are for preparation. the mosques will be crowded with men and women. the mas-ya-khans, or revivalist priests, are in charge of these services. followed by a large procession this priest goes to the mosque and mounting a high pulpit preaches to large crowds. his general theme is tragic tales, stories of martyrs, the manner of their death, their last utterances and the wailing and moaning of their friends and relatives. often in the concluding words of a pathetic story, the entire audience, sometimes numbering thousands, will be deeply moved and slapping their foreheads with the palms of their hands will cry aloud to give vent to their emotions. the mosques cannot accommodate all the worshipers during this period, so some parts of a street are laid with carpets and rugs where the people sit while listening to preaching. the last three days are the most solemn. all the stores of the city are closed and no business of any kind is transacted. at an early hour on these days the whole population, except the old men and women who stay at home to take care of young children, gather around the mosques. in and near the mosque a national and a religious emblem are carried on a pole by strong men. these are quite heavy and the standard bearers change every few minutes. headed by these emblems the large crowd, often numbering , to , people will march through the streets. each company visits from one mosque to another. passing through the streets the men bearing the national and religious emblems are followed by musicians playing mournful dirges with such instruments as drum, flute, and cymbals. surrounding the musicians are hundreds of men marching with bare breasts, shouting "hassan, hussein hassan, hussein" and pounding upon their breasts with bare hands. following them is another band surrounding a say-yid a descendant of ali, and all of them are shouting "hassan, hussein" and beating their breasts. next in the procession comes a band of ascetic darwishes, wearing neither hat nor shoes nor other garments than a pair of pants, when the weather is mild. holding in their bands a whip about two feet long and one or two inches in diameter, made of small iron strands, they beat their bare shoulders and back with the same as they march shouting, "yahu, yamalhu" which are names of their god. following comes another band of darwishes bearing in one hand a knotty club to which is fastened nails, bits of brass, etc. with the other hand they beat their breasts as they repeat the cry of the preceding band. these worshipers torture the flesh by beating it thus and bruise it black. the procession is completed by a crowd of boys and girls and women following. the marching commences early in the morning and continues till eleven; is taken up again at two in the afternoon and continues till six o'clock. the greatest demonstration of all occurs on the last of the ten days. at sunrise the crowds of former days gather around the mosques to start again on the marches. on this day there are also fresh recruits. in front of the mosque is a band of to men and boys of to years of age. they are bareheaded, and uniformed with a white shirt over the other clothing that reaches to the feet. held in the right hand before each one is a two edged sword. the left hand rests on the belt of the soldier next in front. the leader standing at the head of the band recites their creed: "allah is god and the only god. mohammed is the prophet of god and ali is his vicar." all the band repeats this creed. immediately the leader smites his own brow with his sword, and this act is imitated by all his followers. soon the faces and white clothing of the men are red with blood. bleeding they go marching through the streets shouting: "hassan hussein," and waving their swords in harmony with step and voice. their rout can often be traced by drops of blood in the streets. when zeal reaches a high pitch, the blows are repeated on their brows. fearing that these zealous young men may lose all regard for life, and inflict upon themselves mortal blows, relatives or friends frequently walk near with long sticks in hand to hinder them from such deeds. this band first marches to the courthouse to be seen by the governor. every band has a right to ask the governor for the freedom of some one prisoner, and these requests are always granted, no matter what the crime of the imprisoned. these bleeding men are as martyrs, and would go direct to heaven if death resulted from these self-inflicted wounds. after the parade ends, the bloody shirts of these men are divided among their friends and kept as holy relics. the men who compose these bands are usually the most wicked in the community. they go through these ceremonies for the remission of sins, and to redeem themselves in the eyes of others; but they usually continue in their wickedness as time goes on. another important feature of the last day in the procession, is a richly decorated hearse containing a coffin, in which lies a man representing the corpse of hassan. beside the coffin sits a woman, the widow of hassan, dressed in sackcloth, and her head covered with mud. following the hearse are three beautiful arabian horses, finely saddled and harnessed, with a flake of gold embedded with pearls on their foreheads. on two of them are seated two girls representing the daughters of martyrs. the top of the girls' heads are covered with mud and straw. the third horse is riderless to remind one of the missing martyr. following next is a large number of women, boys and girls and some men, all with yokes about their necks, their hands chained behind them, seated on horses and mules. these are to represent the captives taken by yazid, the captain who killed hussein. near them are men in helmets to represent the soldiers of yazid. they are armed with whips and are driving these women and children of moslems into captivity. next in line may be seen false heads, raised aloft on poles, representing yazid, mawya, and other ancient enemies of hussein. boys and men gather around them spitting at and reviling them. gathered, all the sword bearers, chain strikers, and the many men beating their breasts, they make a great crowd and tremendous noise. the bystander is struck with horror when two fanatical bands meet, each trying to excel the other in self mutilation. then are frightful gushes cut; the thumping of chains on bruised bodies, and the pounding of breasts is heard louder than before. with an upward sweep of the right arm every man cries in a loud voice: "ya ali, ya ali!" as the companies pass each other. at p.m. on the last day the marching ceases, and the throng halts by some tents pitched in the middle of a public square. the population of the city is gathered round about. there is not even standing room for all, and hundreds or thousands of people are gathered at windows or on housetops near by. perhaps , people are present. the sword and chain strikers approach the tents and with a shout of victory, utter the names of ali, hassan and hussein, then set fire to the tents and burn them and their contents to the ground. they imagine that their enemies were in those tents, and now that they have been destroyed it is a time of great rejoicing. the marching clubs disband and the active ones are soon found at the mosques drinking sharbat, a sweet drink, as a sort of a reward for performing their religious duties. singers. the closing hours of the last day are given to the singing of poems by the best musicians, gathered at the mosques. the singing band usually numbers from twenty to thirty men. they sing poems about the last utterances of hussein and other martyrs, or about the sayings and weeping of the relatives of these martyrs. it is not very safe for christians to mix with the crowds on these last days, unless in company with some honest mohammedan. if one is seen laughing at the ceremonies he is apt to be beaten by some one whose fanatical spirit is thoroughly aroused. our missionaries sometimes ask the privilege of using a roof by which the procession passes. this is always granted. the three nights are considered holy and the most religious moslems do not retire until midnight. services are held in the mosques, reciting traditions. the audience is composed of men only. it would not be safe for the women to attend, owing to the wickedness of the men. the audience is frequently deeply moved by the tragic tales, and weep angry tears. they curse and revile their enemies and their enemies' wives and daughters. the last night is called watch night, and many moslems do not even slumber during the night. it is holy night in which hussein and other martyrs were buried in their tombs. it is a dishonor, and even a sin, for them to go to bed without meditation on their prophets. in the mosque services the people shout: "o hassan and hussein, let my soul be a sacrifice for thee." they believe the observance of that night is absolute remission of sins; that the gates of heaven are open to all believers for the sake of martyrs. some pious moslems preserve the tears of that night in small bottles, as it is believed they will cure disease when applied to the brows of sick men. these tears are prized as a most holy relic. the musselman says: "even david the prophet believed in the efficacy of tears when he wrote in the psalms, 'put thou my tears in thy bottle, o god.'" on the last night many shiite moslems walk to the mosque in bare feet, wearing sackcloth. often a governor or lord accompanied by to servants, all barefooted, will be seen slowly treading their way toward a mosque. wearied by the great exertions of the past ten days it is difficult to keep awake during the last night; so many men will be seen coming out of the mosques during the night to walk around and keep awake. at daybreak these solemn ceremonies end. in all these ten days of special religious services not one word is said in condemnation of sin. there is no moral teaching. nothing is taught about man's duty to god, or his duty to fellow-men. nothing is said to strengthen his character, to make him a purer and nobler man. the only teaching is in tragic tales of martyrs; the only inspiration is hatred to enemies. compare this religion with that of our blessed savior, jesus christ, god-man. he gave his life for all nations, even his enemies. he calls mankind to sacrifice, but it has a practical object: that they may be purer and live a higher and nobler life. christianity is as the sun shining in its fulness, while mohammedanism, in its ignorance and superstition, is as the darkness of midnight. chapter xi. heaven and hell. heaven. mohammed declared in the koran that there are seven heavens. above all is the heaven for prophets, martyrs, those who die in battle for religion's sake, and for angels. chief among all in this heaven is mohammed, mediator between god and believers. the other heavens will be inhabited by believers, the degree of piety and integrity determining to which heaven they shall go. heaven was pictured as an earthly paradise. there are beautiful gardens, vineyards, green pastures, fresh fountains, the river of living water, many bathing pools of glass, a palace of marble and glass, ornamented with pearls and diamonds. the trees bear fruit continuously, some in blossom, others ripe with fruit. prominent are the palm, and grape, fruits which were favorites of mohammed while on earth. choice fruits grow in abundance and on low trees so that a man can stand on the ground and eat of the fruit. each vine bears , clusters of grapes, and every grape contains , gallons of juice. the pastures are eternally green, and in them grow many thousand varieties of flowers of exquisite odors. there are no animals in heaven as they are not needed. there will be no dogs, cats, swine, nor unclean birds, as eagles, hawks, and buzzards. but there are millions of brilliantly plumaged birds whose melodies continually ring through heaven. the walls and gates of heaven are as described in the nd chapter of revelation. believers will spend eternity in the joys of luxurious life in paradise, amidst blooming gardens and beautiful virgins. to an ordinary believer will be given houries or female angels. these creatures are described in the koran as being fair, with rosy cheeks, black eyes, and in blooming youth. such beauty the eyes of men have not seen on earth. martyrs and more pious men have more than houries, the number increasing in proportion to the believer's prominence. the believer will sit under a fragrant tree in a golden chair, or lie on a golden cot, while birds overhead sing wonderfully sweet. his fairies will be about him and offer him choice unfermented wine in a golden cup on an emerald tray. such is the moslem's heaven. these were the promises with which mohammed aroused the enthusiasm of his followers. fanatical zeal has been so enkindled in men that many thousands have perished in an effort to spread these doctrines throughout the world. saints will live nearer to allah than ordinary believers and will have conversation with him. no people can enter heaven unless they be moslems. the gate to heaven is reached by a bridge. this bridge is as narrow as a hair, and only believers can walk it. when a soul approaches the gate it finds fatima, the daughter of mohammed, standing there. she asks him to recite the creed: "allah is the only god, and mohammed is his prophet." if repeated, the soul enters heaven; if not, with a breath fatima blows him off the bridge and he falls into hell, the regions below. hell. as there are seven heavens according to degree of integrity of believers even so there are seven hells. gehenna is beneath the lowest part of the earth and the seas of darkness. it is a place of fire, as a great ocean without limits. it burns with brimstone and like materials. there are thousands of terrible flames and bad smells. satan is there with all infidels, christians, jews, fire-worshipers and apostate mohammedans. the torture of the latter will be worse than the torture of others. there are in hell thousands of wild animals, as lions, tigers, vipers and serpents. every lion has in his mouth , teeth, and every tooth has , different stings or poisons. so with the tiger and serpents. every viper has , tails and on every tail , stingers, and every stinger contains , kinds of poison. the common drink of the inmates of hell is poison drunk from iron cups. their meals will be the flesh of animals and even their own flesh. satan and his servants will torture them with spears and swords of iron. there will be no rest for them day or night. men and women will gnash their teeth against their own children. all will be weeping, cursing and blaspheming. hell is surrounded by walls of iron over which none can escape. chapter xii. matrimony. marriage among assyrians is considered as sacred as the ordination of priests, but is subordinate to or less sacred than the sacrament of the lord's supper or baptism. therefore marriage is a solemn service and the rules relating to it are very strict. engagements for marriage are made by the parents of the contracting parties rather than by the young people themselves. girls are strictly forbidden speaking of or referring to marriage in the presence of their parents or brothers. if a young man loves a young lady, he does not ask his parents' consent to marriage, but tells his aunt or married sister about what cupid has done for him. this news is soon conveyed to his mother and then it is proper for her to call on the mother of the young lady. if not already acquainted with the young woman, this visit will give her an opportunity to form an opinion of her. if that opinion is favorable, all is well and the matter will be further considered. but if the opinion is unfavorable she returns home and tells her son that she is not pleased and does not want him to marry this girl. this method must be resorted to as the girls and boys in assyria do not have an opportunity to associate as they do in america. mothers always advise their girls not to walk with boys and young men, and custom does not permit it. therefore, if she meets a young man in the street, she bows, and perhaps blushes a little, as she passes. if lovers are passing each other, custom does not allow them to stop and converse, but it does allow the young man to telegraph his message of love with a wink. several months usually elapse between the engagement and marriage. [illustration: nestorian wedding.] the method of making an engagement is quite different from that of americans. after a mother has assured herself that a certain girl whom her son fancies would make him a good wife, she, with two or three relatives, will send word to the girl's parents that they will call at a certain time, and stay over night. while there the object of their visit will be made known and the matter discussed. if the girl's parents are ever so willing, they will not give their consent at the first visit, but will take the matter into consideration. the friends are invited to call again in two or three weeks for an answer. a third or fourth visit may be made before a final answer is obtained. at the last visit the father of the girl says, in reply to a request for an answer, that the girl does not belong to him. he says he gave her to his brother. the brother then says he gave her to his sister, etc., until the person is reached who can give her away. this man rises and says, "i give our daughter to mr. and mrs. ---- as a handmaiden." the question now being settled, refreshments are served and the company rejoices until a late hour. sometimes the foregoing proceedings are witnessed from an opening in the roof by the young man who is most interested and who is anxiously awaiting the result. during the period of the betrothal, the young man is allowed to make but one visit. he is not allowed to kiss his betrothed until after marriage. the assyrian idea of a virgin is a pure maiden who is not married nor has ever been kissed by any man. two weeks before the wedding the young man's parents make another call to settle the amount of dowry with which to purchase wedding garments for the bride. the wedding feast lasts two or three days. on the last day a company of the groom's friends go to bring the bride. dressed in her wedding garments, and seated on a fine horse she is taken to the groom's home. the company make merry on the way with music of drum and flute, and dancing. the horse is stopped about fifty yards from the house, and the groom appears on the roof of his father's house with three red apples in his hands. kissing each one he tries to throw it over the bride. when the apples strike the ground there is a crowd of boys ready to scramble for them as there is a superstition that the lucky boy will be the next to marry. the bride now goes to her new home. the wedding ceremony, which is performed by a minister and a deacon, is taken largely from the bible. it lasts about two hours, during which time the bride and groom remain standing. the bride's dress covers her body and face from view except her forehead. she wears a crown and is called a queen. the groom wears a high feather on his crown, a sash around his chest and is called a king. for two months after the wedding they are called king and queen. they do no work during this time but visit and take life easy. moslem marriages. the marriage ceremony of the mohammedans takes place about a week before the formal wedding. it is very simple. representatives of the contracting parties go to a priest and get two ceremonial letters, one for the bride, the other for the groom. in them is stated the sum necessary for the groom to pay, if he ever divorces the woman. it further states that it is the groom's duty to love this woman and all other women that he may marry thereafter. that it is the bride's duty to love the groom and no one else. the prevailing low regard for woman grows out of the teaching of mohammed. among his last words he charged husbands not to place any confidence in their wives. he stated that they had been the cause of much of the crime and misery in the world. when a moslem goes out with his wife he is disgraced if she goes before or even beside him; she should follow. a man can marry four wives, but can divorce any one of them at any time. but a woman cannot get a divorce from her husband. a man is angry when his wife gives birth to a girl babe, and his friends fear to break the news to him. one man was known to be so angry when his fourth daughter was born, that he did not speak to his wife for three months. the mother of a son is loved the more, and the first person who breaks the news to the father is given a present. if a man murders his wife he may be fined a sum of money, but can't be executed because woman is not equal to man. the question as to whether a woman has a soul is sometimes discussed. men do not salute women in meeting them, but women are expected to bow their heads to men. part iii. chapter i. the royal family. the present dynasty is called the kajar dynasty. it began with agha mohammed khan who was taken captive by the enemy when he was a child and all of the prominent members of the family excepting children were slain. agha mohammed khan, then a boy six years of age was made a eunuch by the new king to serve in his harem. but at the age of twenty or twenty five he escaped from his master and returned to his relatives and former friends. collecting a force he attacked the king's army and after several engagements overthrew the king and took possession of the throne. as a ruler he was very cruel to his enemies but very kind to his officers and subjects. one night while resting in his tent two servants or subordinate officials in an adjoining tent quarreled and awakened the king with their noise. this angered him and the next day he ordered that both of them be beheaded. the following night, before the time for execution had come, the two condemned men formed a plot with some other officials who hated their ruler's cruelty, to kill the king. this plot was successfully carried out. the king's nephew, futteh ali, became his successor. he became one of the most noted kings of persia, and was called the king of kings. futteh ali had several sons, one of whom, abbas mirza, was chosen as crown prince this prince died in early manhood. he left a son, mohammed by name, who afterwards became king. after mohammed, the late nasiraldinshah became king and was assassinated may st, . nasiraldin was a good king and did more for persia than any ruler during the past years. he made three visits to europe and gathered many modern ideas which he wished to introduce in his kingdom. he organized a postal system connecting all the prominent towns and cities of persia. telegraphic communication was also established. he built roads between important towns and cities and detailed soldiers as guards where the roads passed through sections infested with robbers. this king reigned forty-eight years. a year ago he became a victim of a fanatical babei, a new religious sect. the assassin took the king's life while the latter was worshiping in the most holy place of a mosque. nasiraldin left four sons. the eldest is named zelli sultan. he is a highly educated and powerful man. the second son, mozafferedden succeeded his father and is now king of persia. the third son is governor of the capital. the fourth son is a youth of twelve years. before the death of the late king, zelli sultan, his first, son, began making secret preparations to usurp the throne. when the plot was learned, the son was stolen from his home one night and taken before the king. all implements of war prepared by him were confiscated, and he was sentenced to death. but high officials interceded for the son, and the sentence was changed to that of blinding him. when the hour came for putting out the prince's eyes, the king was moved by the young man's beauty, and said there was not a handsomer pair of eyes in all his empire, and that he would not destroy them. therefore zelli sultan's punishment was changed to three years' imprisonment. at the expiration of the term, the king gave him solemn warning that any further attempt at usurpation would be punished by death. i have often been asked why the first son did not take the throne instead of the second. the reason is this. the king had several wives, but the first one was a princess from his own tribe, and is called the queen. her first son must be successor to the throne. therefore zelli sultan was not eligible to the throne, as his mother was not a princess. [illustration: present shah.] the present shah is a man who has a strong desire to rule in peace. he tolerates all religious beliefs, even though they differ from his own. he is loved by all classes of people, and all religious sects because he is kind and considerate toward them. the shah is very friendly toward the christian missionaries. a few years ago he visited the presbyterian college, the ladies' seminary, and listened to some of the recitations. as an evidence of his friendliness he was a guest at the home of dr. cochran, and dined with him. not every one is so honored, for i have heard that an army officer in that part of persia offered the shah £ , to take dinner with him, but the invitation was not accepted. the shah has also visited a nestorian bishop, who resides in a cottage so humble that some lords would be ashamed to enter it. on the other hand when he was in our city of oroomiah he did not visit the homes of any of the mujtahids, but met these high priests in a mosque by appointment. of late years the royal family has been kind to christians. nine out of ten cases of cruelty to christians come from the mujtahids and the lords. the priesthood is stronger than the government in persia. sometimes the king has to give up his ideas to please the priests. for example: the late shah desired to introduce the modern railroad into persia, but the priests were bitterly opposed to it, and the king had to give up his plans. when asked why they opposed railroads, one priest gave two reasons: "first, our country is weak. if we built railroads, europeans could run in on us and take our country. second, it would destroy our religion. and we could not control our wives. if we beat them they could take the train and be in europe in one day, while now it takes twenty days. again, some of our women might marry christians and escape to europe." the king in his palace. the royal palace is surrounded by high stone walls. the grounds are entered by four beautiful gates. the walls at the sides and above the gates are adorned with the pictures of former kings and brave generals; also decorative carvings of lions, the standards of persia, and of birds. the grounds are beautifully arranged, all the roads leading to the king's palace in the center, and beautified with ornamental trees and hedges of roses of varied hues. guarding the entrances to the gates and the roadways that lead to the palace doors are numerous officers of superior rank, those nearest the palace ever standing with drawn swords. when the king sits in judgment he uses the peacock throne, and is surrounded by his six cabinet officers, who are advisers. he is absolute, and may overrule the advice of the cabinet. this body makes the laws of the land. the king appoints the members of his cabinet, the people having no voice whatever in government. when the shah tires of the routine of governmental duties, his secretary reads to him from shahnameh, a poetical history of persian kings. it is one of the king's duties to become very familiar with the history of persia and her former rulers. when the king retires to his private room at night, the entrance to the room is guarded by two most trusted officials with drawn swords. one of the four gates in the walls around the palace is called the king's gate, as he always enters through it. no other person, be he lord, count, or high official is permitted to pass through this gate on horseback or in carriage. he must dismount and walk through. when the king goes from the palace for a hunt or vacation, he is escorted out of the city by a large guard. first, coming down the street will be seen about thirty infantry bearing each a golden club, and shouting: "get out; get out!" whereupon the street is cleared of all traffic that the royal procession may pass. the infantry is followed by about fifty cavalrymen with drawn swords. next comes ten or a dozen riderless arabian horses. these horses are beauties, and are adorned with bridles of gold and many precious stones. his table. the king's table is set with the luxuries of the land. from the time of the purchase until it appears on the table, the food is inspected by two trusted officials whose duty it is to see that the king is not poisoned. before the king eats of the food it is further examined by his physician. treasury. the late shah left $ , , to his son, nearly half of which was in the form of precious stones and jewelry. perhaps he has a larger amount invested in precious stones than any other king in the world. his peacock throne which was brought from delhi, india, by king nadirshah, who captured that city about years ago, was prized at $ , , some years ago, and is worth more than that now. it is made of solid gold, and is embedded with diamonds, pearls, and other precious stones. the rug upon which he prays is worth $ , , . at the beginning of each new year, seated on the peacock throne, he wears his crown, and all of his officers bow before him and wish him a prosperous reign during the new year. on such occasions his person is covered with many dazzling jewels. wives. the late shah had forty regular wives and about sixty concubines. the present shah has seven wives. the palace in which the king's wives reside is almost as beautiful as the king's palace, near which it is located. a number of soldiers guard the entrance to this palace. there are no men inside the palace except a few eunuch servants. there is also a large number of maid servants therein. when the king has many wives he marries some of them against their will. if he fancies a beautiful daughter of a lord, her parents will frequently marry her to the king in order to get an office or a title. the eunuchs have authority to rebuke the wives of the king. sometimes a number of the women will playfully resent the eunuch's authority and push him against a wall or knock his high hat down over his eyes. once they picked an old fellow up and threw him into a pool of water greatly damaging his fine suit of clothes. at times they give a valuable present to a eunuch such as a nice robe. chapter ii. governor. persia is divided into thirteen states. the king appoints a governor over each state; this governor appoints a mayor over each city within his territory. this office is not awarded on the basis of education, ability or worthiness, but is given to the man who will pay the most money, provided his ancestry is fairly good. many mayors of cities are related to the royal family. these offices are limited to terms of one year, but many times a mayor is removed before his time is out; the subjects may complain, or some person may bid more money for the office. when a man is appointed mayor of a city, the lords and counts of that city, accompanied by soldiers, will go three miles out of the city to meet the new official. he is greeted with discharges of artillery. these lords ride on very fine arabian horses, with goldbitted bridles, and escort the mayor into the city. the new governor of the city admires the fine horses of his lords, and sometimes covets some fine steed, and before his term expires finds a way to get possession of it by helping the lord out of some trouble. if the new mayor is a prince all prisoners confined in the city jails are taken before him as he enters the city. this is to signify that, as a member of the royal family, he has authority to behead them. the third day after a new mayor has arrived in a city it is customary for lords and counts to visit him with presents of money, golden articles, arabian horses etc. as presents. a mayor has from one hundred to three hundred servants. he pays them no salary. some became his servants for the name, some from fear, and others from choice. most of these servants get their living from fines and bribes. some of them are detailed to settle quarrels between men in some village that belongs to the city. this is their opportunity and they early learn to make the most of it. the mayor has great power. he is judge, sheriff, tax-collector, etc. he has things his own way. when there is an injustice done there is no other local officer to appeal to. prisons. the prisons are frequently cellars, underground, without windows, damp and infested with flies. they are seldom ventilated, and there is no bed nor furniture in them. the government does not feed the inmates. friends of the imprisoned ones bring bread and throw to them, and some of this even, is sometimes picked up by the jailer and kept for his own nourishment. no men are allowed to visit the prisons, but wives or daughters are allowed to visit their friends if they pay a fee to the jailer. the torture of prisoners is regulated according to the nature of their crimes. the common method of torture for thieves, robbers and murderers is to put the bare foot of the criminal in a vice and squeeze it until he cries in agony. if he gives the jailer some money or promises to give some the next time his friends visit him, the pressure on the foot is lessened. if a man goes to jail wearing good clothes, the jailer often exchanges his own poorer suit for the good clothes. execution. this is done in different ways. a prince from the royal family has authority to behead men. sometimes when a good friend of the king is appointed governor, the king presents him with a knife. this is a sign and carries with it authority to behead men. every prince-mayor or other governor who has been given this authority keeps two executioners. the uniform of their office is a suit of red clothes. these two men walk before the mayor when he goes through the streets. when a condemned man is to be executed he is brought from the cell, hands chained behind, and with a chain about his neck. he is surrounded by a group of soldiers with fixed bayonets. the guilty man has been in a dungeon for several months perhaps. his clothes are in rags, and, having had no bath since first imprisoned, he is very dirty, his hair and beard are long and shaggy. a few steps before him walks the executioner, with blood-red garments and a knife in his hand. thus they proceed to the public square, and before the assembled crowd the executioner steps behind the kneeling victim and with a single stroke of the keen knife cuts his throat, and another soul takes its flight, having completed its part in the drama of life. a common mayor who has not the authority to behead, may kill criminals by fastening them to the mouth of a cannon and sending a ball through the body. another method is to bury the condemned alive in a cask filled with cement, leaving only the head exposed. the cement soon hardens and the victim dies. sometimes when their crime is not very bad the punishment is the severing of one hand from the body. if the man thus punished should commit a second crime the remaining hand would be severed. if a mohammedan becomes drunk with wine and gets loud and abusive, he is arrested, and the executioner punctures the partition skin between the nostrils of the drunken man, and a cord of twine, several feet long, is passed through the opening. then the executioner starts down the street leading his victim. the man soon gets sober and is very much ashamed. shopkeepers give the executioner pennies as he passes along the street. men who quarrel and fight are punished by tying their feet to a post, with the bare soles upward, and then whipping the feet until the flesh is bruised and bleeding and, frequently, the nails torn from the toes. the victims frequently become insensible under this punishment. one good thing in the laws of punishment is that no christians or jews are ever beheaded. the mohammedans consider the christian and jew as being unclean, and think it would be a mean thing to behead them. princes, lords and counts are never beheaded. the most severe punishment for a prince is to pluck out his eyes. the method of execution for counts and lords is of two kinds. the king will send a bottle of sharbat to the condemned man which is given him in the form of a sweet drink but it contains a deadly poison. he is compelled to drink this and soon dies. another form is for the condemned man to be met by a servant from the governor after having taken a bath and the servant cuts blood-vessels in the arm of the condemned until death results from loss of blood. thus it will be seen that the contrast in modes of punishment in a christian nation and a mohammedan nation is very great. the kind of punishment inflicted on criminals in any country grows out of the prevailing religious belief of that country. a religion that has much cruelty in it will lead a people to torture its criminals. but a nation whose religion is based upon love will deal with its criminals effectively, but as kindly as possible. the writer has visited prisons in both persia and america and finds that the contrast between the prisons of the two countries is like the contrast of a palace and a cellar. prisoners in america ought to be very thankful for the humane treatment they receive under this christian government. chapter iii. counts or lords. the counts and lords live in luxury. their title was not obtained by great service to the nation or by high education. it descends from ancestors, and many ignorant and unworthy men bear this title. wealthy merchants sometimes purchase a title for their sons. the titled class in persia is very numerous. in one city of , inhabitants there are more than counts. they own almost all of the land in persia. in some instances one count owns as much as one hundred villages. all inhabitants of a village are subjects of the count and they pay taxes to him and also to the king. the men pay a poll tax of one dollar a year; a tax is levied on all horses, cows, sheep, and chickens. the count gets two thirds of all grain raised by the farmers, and he expects a portion of all fruits raised, which portion is called a present. if this 'present' is not large enough to please the count, he has an unfavorable opinion of the subject and soon finds faults in him and withholds favors. all of the count's work is done by his subjects without pay. when he builds a palace or cultivates a vineyard, he calls upon his subjects to do the work. he punishes his subjects if they rebel or are discourteous to him. sometimes the punishment is so severe that death is the result. the count collects a large sum of money annually from his subjects in the way of fines--some of them for most trivial offences or discourtesies, and these numerous fines keep the subjects very poor. the counts are the most immoral class of people in persia. they are without education, knowing nothing of the sciences, geography, mathematics or political economy, but most of them can read and write the persian language and know something of persian history. it is not much wonder that this leisure class becomes immoral, for it is a disgrace for them to do any kind of work, and "satan finds work for idle hands to do." a count can't keep his own accounts or sell goods in a store. there are no newspapers and magazines circulated throughout persia to occupy and lead out the thought of the people of leisure hours. no public libraries, and no private libraries except those of a few persian volumes. the only newspaper published in persia is an eight page paper published every three weeks. it does not circulate much outside of the capital city. the presbyterian mission publishes a monthly paper about christian work. when a subject goes before his lord, he finds the lord seated in his private room before a window. the subject bows before approaching near to the window. when the lord is ready to listen, the subject comes to the window. he usually meets with a frown and gets replies to his questions in a gruff voice. as a class the counts are not strong physically; they eat and drink too much for their own good. chapter iv. cities, schools and holidays. the persian cities generally are very old and most of them are surrounded by walls about six feet through and twenty feet high. the walls are made of clay, tramped solid by buffaloes or by men. the gates giving entrance to the city are opened during the day from eight o'clock in the morning until night. these walls would not withstand a charge from modern cannon, but they were very useful fourteen years ago when parts of the empire were overrun by about , kurds, a tribe of wild nomads. they spoiled the villages wherever they went but could not take the walled cities. the streets of cities are generally narrow and crooked, and are not paved. the best houses are brick with stone foundation. some poor men build homes with sun dried brick and still others make the walls of mud. the roof is flat and made of mud supported by timber. the houses are built adjoining one another, so that men can walk all over the city on the housetops. this is the common way of travel in winter when the streets are muddy. in some of the large cities like the capital, tehran, and isphahan and shiraz modern paving of streets with stone is being introduced. on each business street a single line of goods is sold. one will be devoted to drygoods, another to groceries, another to carpenter shops, another to iron and silver smiths, etc. the streets are from ten to thirty feet in width, and many of them are arched over with brick, so that rain and snow are shut out. light is let into these enclosed streets by openings in the top of the arch. camels, horses and donkeys bearing burdens of various kinds of goods may be seen passing through the streets. and in open squares of the city there stand many of these animals belonging to men who have come to the city to buy or sell goods. before some of the mosques may be seen secretaries or mollahs whose business it is to write documents in business transactions for which they get from two to fifteen cents. in buying goods in persia a stranger is liable to be cheated. it is a custom among dealers to ask two or three times what an article is worth, expecting to come down with the price before making a sale. the silver smiths do some highly skillful work in making rings for the ears and fingers, and belts for the ladies. in all persia you cannot find a lady selling goods in a store, except in one street where poor old women and widows are allowed to come for a few hours each day to sell such articles as caps, purses, sacks and soaps. their faces must be covered except the eyes. only a few women of the lower class are seen in the stores buying goods, and they must not have their faces exposed to view. no christian can sell fluids such as milk, oil, syrups or juicy fruits like grapes. it is against the mohammedan law to buy such things from a christian. if a christian wishes to buy any such goods from a mohammedan he must not touch the same, as the merchant could not thereafter sell it to a mohammedan. there are many pick-pockets, both male and female in the crowded streets. a stranger must beware. weights. the standard measure is the miscal, of which equals a pound. four persian pounds equal one hapta while it takes five american pounds to equal one hapta. eight hapta equal one batma. four batma equal one khancaree. in this measure they weigh raisins, molasses, and tobacco. ten batma equal one load. in this they weigh green wheat, corn, etc. twenty-five batma equal kharwar. in this they weigh fuel. the money is of copper and silver and a very little gold. the following table shows the values of persian coins: denars = / cent denars = cent denars = cent denars = cent , denars = cent , denars = dollar the bankers sit on small rugs before the shops with boxes of money in their laps. their chief business through the day is to change money. for changing cents into copper, they charge one cent, and the fee increases in proportion to the amount of the bill changed. interest in persia, especially among mohammedans, is very high, being from to per cent. per annum. but the synod of the presbyterian evangelical church has a law which forbids any of their members charging more than or per cent. there are no gas or electric lights in the streets of a persian city. the mayor appoints an officer, who has a number of assistants, to watch over the city day and night. every day of the year is given a name by the mayor; as, lion, eagle, cyrus, fortune, etc. this word is known only to the officials and such persons as may have been given permission to be out at a late hour. if an officer finds a man on the street after o'clock he calls to him to give the name of the night. if he can't do this he is arrested. one of the worst things in a persian city is the large graveyards, which contain two to five acres of ground. mohammedans dig up the remains of a dead relative to carry it to a shrine place, and these removals often fill the city with bad odors. these graveyards make excellent hiding places for robbers and thieves. there are many robbers outside of the city walls, and it is very dangerous to go out after night, even a distance of one mile. victims are usually shot while at a distance, or stabbed and then plundered. the hammams or bath-places are quite numerous in the cities. they are usually well-built, brick buildings and have within two or three pools of water, some hot, others cold. men can bathe any day in the week except friday, which day is reserved for women. the charge is three or four cents. christians cannot enter a mohammedan hammam, as they are considered unclean. holidays. the mohammedans have several holidays. neither the government nor the priesthood compel observance of these days, but they are usually observed either for the sake of rest, religious profit or amusement. there is, however, one set of holidays, ten days known as moharram, that is strictly observed by all faithful mohammedans. there is also one national holiday generally observed in memory of the beginning of the persian nation. it is called newrooz, meaning new day. this name was given by a persian king in ancient times. two weeks before this day all stores will be decorated with different kinds of fruits, such as palms, figs, pomegranates, apples, almonds, and raisins. also some fine shawls and rugs are hung before the stores. during these two weeks most people buy of these fruits and prepare for the national feast. on that day nearly every man, woman and child puts on some new garments of clothing and new clothes throughout if possible. people also clean their houses for this occasion. on the evening of newrooz a table is spread with the finest fruits and the family will gather around and feast until a late hour in the night. the poor are remembered on these occasions and presents of fruit are sent to them. christians are also frequently remembered in this way. schools. there is no system of public or state schools in persia. there are schools in all large towns and cities which are taught by the priest in a room of the mosque. these schools are voluntary, no person being obliged to send his children. the students pay the priest each from to cents per month. those who can't pay anything are admitted free. the priest's food is brought to him by the students. the ages of the pupils range from ten to twenty years. these schools are for boys only. there are no schools for girls. if a girl gets any education at all, it must be from a private tutor. in the schools the textbooks in history and poetry are in the persian language and koran and grammar are taught in the arabic language. mathematics, geography, the sciences and the history of other nations are never taught. when the pupils are at study they reel back and forth and repeat words loud enough to be heard a block away. they imagine this is an aid to memory. the teacher has authority to punish the students very severely. sometimes a parent will take his child to a teacher and will deliver him into the gentle keeping of the professor with the remark: "his bones are mine, but his flesh is yours. teach him, but punish him as you see fit." a post is planted in the schoolroom to which a wild boy's feet are fastened, soles upward, and the bottoms are whipped with heavy switches. this punishment is only for the worst boys. for mild offences, the teacher raps the student over the head with a long switch which is always kept in a convenient place or carried in the teacher's hand. the religious teaching consists of quotations from koran and traditions about their prophets. the boys are usually very bad about reviling each other and about fighting. the teacher does not protect the weaker, but urges him to return the revilings or the blows he has received. the students of one mosque often attack the students of a neighboring mosque as they regard them as enemies. the most prominent university of the shiite mohammedans is in the shrine place of karballa. all those who are to become mujtahids study at this place. in several of the large cities they have schools of higher rank than the ordinary mosque school in which a course of persian literature is given. it is a pleasure to state that the late shah, after his visit to some of the universities of europe, founded a college in the capital city which is called the place of science. the french, english and russian languages are taught, and the study of some modern sciences are being introduced. the college is only for princes and the children of rich people. it is only one flower in a vast wilderness. the problem of mohammedanism is to keep the common people ignorant, so the priest can continue to rule them. therefore the priesthood does not favor higher education. some counts or lords send their sons to paris to be educated, but the ordinary young men have no opportunities for education. part iv. chapter i. bobeism. the mohammedan religion is to-day divided in about fifty different sects. this division greatly weakens it. the bobe sect was started by mirza mohammed ali of shiraz, a city in which reside the most intellectual and poetical scholars of persia. he began to plan the new religion at the age of eighteen, but did not reveal it until he was twenty-five years old. the foundation of his faith was this: mohammed, like christ, taught that the latter days will be a millennium. they have a tradition that when all the prophets had died, or had been killed by their enemies, a son six years of age was, by the direction of allah, hid in an unknown well. he was to remain there until the time for the millennium. it was believed that he would be the ruler of the mohammedans in these last days. he was to lead both his victorious armies and conquer all the world, and islam would become the universal religion. mirza mohammed ali based his doctrine on this theory but changed it somewhat. at the age of twenty-five he made several pilgrimages to shrines, such as karballa, mecca, and medina, and then returned to his native town of shiraz. at first he began to teach his doctrine to his confidential friends and relatives until it was deepened in their hearts. and then he began to preach to the public that he was mehdeialzaman. his doctrine. he taught that every age must have its own prophet, inspired from god. he claimed that he was inspired and that he had frequent communications from god telling him how to direct the people. he openly claimed to be mehdeialzaman. and he taught that the priesthood and the religion were corrupt and that he was appointed to renew them. he did not oppose the koran, but at the same time said that every age needs a new bible. he claimed to have received a bible from god. this book is called bayon, meaning exposition. he taught the equality of both sexes and paid homage to woman. he showed that it was against the law of god to marry more than one woman or to keep concubines. further, it is against the law of society and the happiness of women to marry more than one wife. the law of divorce, which is common among mohammedans, was not practised by the new sect. the place of woman among them is the same as among christians. the prophet taught that the spirit of charity ought to be as a flame of fire in the hearts of his followers. he said we cannot please god if we see our brother in need and do not help him, if we pray he will not hear us, if we worship him he will turn his face away from us. believing this, the spirit of charity is very strong among them, and they support the needy. the use of wine and all intoxicants is strictly forbidden. they are very kind to people of other faiths who are not mohammedans; them they hate. mehdeialzaman preached these doctrines and won many hearts. the converts were generally intelligent and well educated. his doctrine spread through the southern and northeastern parts of persia. among his followers were two prominent and attractive persons, mollah hussein and hajee mohammed ali. he called them his right and left hand supporters. another convert of importance was a lady of rare attainments. in poetry she was accomplished, in beauty wonderfully rare, and she was highly educated. she traveled with two assistants from state to state and from city to city preaching the new doctrine. she never met bobe, the founder and knew of him only through letters. she said that god had endowed him with unusual gifts for this holy cause. by the power of her eloquence she made many converts, and was called by her followers, kurratool alaein, which is a very high title. personal appearance of bobe. in stature he was tall and slender, eyes black; eyebrows, heavy and long; beard, patriarchal. his countenance was very pleasant and attractive. in conversation with high and low classes of people alike he showed himself a servant of all. he was poetical, a great orator and a deep thinker. he wrote many beautiful poems. his epistles to his disciples were philosophical. his words in sermons touched the hearts of men. when orthodox mohammedans saw that bobeism was spreading among the people, the priesthood and the government joined in severely persecuting the disciples of the new faith. the disciples were scattered by this persecution to different cities which resulted in a still greater spread of the new doctrine. at that time the prophet appointed eighteen of his apostles as guards of the faith. two of them were women, and he requested that this rule be followed in future ages. about this time bobe and his twelve disciples were arrested in shiraz and taken to isphahan. while imprisoned there his doctrines were being rapidly carried on by his followers. he was finally banished to makoo, an obscure town between persia and russia, as it was thought his religion could not spread from such an obscure place. but his doctrine soon prevailed there. at last the priesthood and government decided to bring him to tabreez to be shot. after his arrival in tabreez many learned priests came to discuss doctrines with him, but none were able to answer his questions, but his enemies were determined to kill him. bobe and his twelve disciples were hanged to a wall before the soldiers. before the order to fire, the disciples were given a chance to save their lives by denying bobe's faith. only one denied the faith and was saved. the others asserted that they were willing to die for the truth. when the soldiers obeyed command to shoot, all the disciples on the wall were killed. but bobe was not struck by the ball; it struck above his body cutting in two the rope by which he was suspended. bobe fell to the ground unharmed and tried to escape through the crowd. he ran into a house which proved to be the home of an officer, who promptly arrested the fleeing prophet and returned him to the executioner. before the second shot was fired bobe was again promised freedom if he would deny his own teachings. he replied that many of the holy prophets of the past died for the truth and that he, too, was willing to die in this holy testimony. after the killing of bobe and his disciples, the government issued an edict that the surviving followers who would not deny bobe should be killed. this happened at the beginning of the reign of the late shah. many fanatical bobes tried to kill the shah. soon after the edict one of them shot at the chief ruler of the land, but was killed by a soldier. after this incident, fiery persecutions arose against them and about eighteen thousand of their number were killed. the torture inflicted in many instances was very cruel. the more prominent victims were taken to the capital city, stripped of clothing except trousers, and led about the streets while flaming candles were burning away their flesh. many of them cried allegiance to bobe to the last. the heroic death of the fanatical bobes had the effect on many prominent men in the capital of making them believers in bobe. after the great massacre, which occurred in , the believers in bobe held their faith in secret. eighteen men, whose names were not generally known, were appointed guardians of the faith, and one very learned young man was appointed to take bobe's place. his title is baha and he resides in akra, a small city in turkish territory. even to-day they are very earnest in spreading their religion, but their work is done in secret. their apostles go from place to place and are known by a secret sign. the enmity between them and the orthodox mohammedans has been very severe. from the killing of bobe until the present time they have been trying to kill the shah. in their first attempt they failed, but a year ago while the shah was worshiping in the most holy place of the mosque, he became the victim of a fanatic bobe who had disguised himself as a woman. this bobe, while under disguise, shot the king, who died two minutes afterward. some thought that the government would again persecute them, but there were some hindrances which would not permit this. in the first place their religion is kept secret; it is impossible to know who belongs to this new sect. secondly, many of the high classes and royal officers belong to this sect, and for this reason it would be impossible to persecute them. thirdly, their number to-day would reach two hundred thousand, and to kill this immense company would certainly damage the government. their antagonism against the government and against orthodox mohammedanism is caused entirely by the lack of freedom of religious worship. they are very warm friends of the christians, placing in them the greatest confidence, sometimes they will even lodge in the houses of christians and eat with them without questioning. this a strict mohammedan would never do. they readily allow the christians to preach to them and to discuss religion with them. yet it is not an easy matter to convert them, for one must know their manner of life and religious doctrines to successfully meet their arguments. a few however have been truly converted. this filled the mohammedans with hatred both against the christians and the converts. when the christian shows the superiority of christ and of his doctrine over that of their prophet bobe, they are forced into silence. they are now securing many converts from mohammedanism, and it is believed that the time will come when religious toleration will be obtained by them. this will also give the christians a good opportunity of preaching the gospel. chapter ii. the kurds. the kurds are the wildest tribe of nomads in all asia. they have been known in europe as raiders for a long time, and during the past two years they have attracted the attention of the civilized world by their horrible massacre of the armenians. it may be of interest to the reader to know something more of the life of this tribe. a former student of the writer who spent several years among the kurds as a physician, and who mastered their language and is intimately acquainted with their lives, manners, and customs, has kindly given some of the information that follows. in regard to their ancestry it is very difficult to trace back to the original stock from which they came. they have lived under the authority of several governments, and it is believed that in their blood is a mixture of old assyrian, chaldean, babylonian, and arabian. it is supposed that some of the wildest characters in all of these old nations formed the tribe of kurds, of whom there are to-day, about , , . their dwelling-place is in the kurdiston mountains, a large territory through which runs the boundary line between turkey and persia. most of it lies in turkey. the kurds are nominally subjects of these two countries, but practically they are a band of outlaws beyond the control of any government. those who live in the mountain districts pay no taxes to turkey or persia, but those residing in the villages of the plains are required to pay taxes the same as other citizens. great numbers of them residing in the mountains and deserts are nomads, traveling where they will with their herds and flocks. a kurd is very wild and independent in spirit. he would rather live in a cave under a projecting rock and be unmolested, than to dwell in a palace and be subject to higher authority. some of the tribes have a small village in the mountains, to which they return in winter. recognizing the wild and daring spirit of these men, the sultan of turkey has trained some of the dwellers in villages of the plains for cavalrymen, and called them the imperial cavalry. mounted on splendid arabian horses and provided with modern firearms, they are well-nigh invincible. the persian government has no confidence in the kurds, and so employs none of them in the army. [illustration: kurdish chief and attendants.] occupation. the kurds seldom cultivate the soil, but keep herds of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep, moving from place to place in search of good pasture. they can make very good carpets and other articles of wool, which they sell to persian and turkish merchants. some of them become very rich from their herds and flocks and from the sale of carpets. one of their principal occupations is robbery. parents teach their children how to become successful thieves. a father will give his son, of six or seven years of age, a pistol, dagger and shield and then play robber with the child, showing him how to use these deadly instruments. a kurd once told the writer of his timid son. the child was afraid to steal. the father wanted to make him a successful thief and so tried the following plan. the first night he sent the child to steal grapes from his own vineyard; the second night, corn from his own crib; the third night, grapes from a stranger, next a chicken, then a sheep, then to enter a house, and so on until the youth became one of the most daring of highway robbers. then the father was proud of his son and told him that he had become a man and could marry. the girls of these tribes will not marry a man until his reputation as a successful robber is established. they want to be assured that they will not be allowed to starve after marriage. as before stated, the kurds are divided into tribes, each tribe having a chief. these tribes are generally enemies with one another. the chief of a tribe will lead his men against another tribe and kill all the men and take the flocks, herd and all other property as booty. but they do not harm the women and children. an old man is not honored by a tribe. they say he can't fight nor rob and is good for nothing but to feed sheep. the man most highly honored is the one who has killed many men. when a man is killed in battle or while robbing he is honored at the funeral by the singing of many songs, in weeping and in lamentation; but not many tears are shed when one dies a natural death. they are very skillful horsemen, and have fine horses which become very intelligent under training. their horses bring a high price in turkey and persia. their character. the kurds are very quick-tempered. a slight offense will make them an enemy and they will at once seek revenge. they are very fond of fighting and war. very active and nimble in climbing mountains and in running and fighting. they love to revile an enemy and are continually trying to invent new and more severe expressions of hatred. it is their nature to quarrel and fight. brothers often become angered over a small matter and fight to death. they think no more of killing a man than we do of killing a chicken. they are very licentious, especially those living in towns and cities. husband and wife are not loyal to each other and this is frequently the cause of murder. as a people they have no foresight, having no thought for the morrow. they have a saying among them, "god will be merciful for to-morrow." they are very rash, acting on the impulse of the moment and having no consideration for consequences. they never forget a kindness shown them. if a kurd eat bread given him, he will never try to rob the giver. this is against their law. they treat travelers very kindly who may come to their tents or caves, and will offer him food. but it would not be well for him to show any gold while there as they would follow and rob him. the most prominent characteristic of the race is thieving. most all of the thieves in persia and turkey are kurds. a kurd was once arrested in persia for stealing and a hand was cut off as punishment. soon after he was again arrested for the same offence, and the other hand was cut off. the third time he was found stealing and arrested. there being no other member of the body left which is used in the art of stealing except the head, that was cut off. thus the poor kurd's career ended. houses. their houses are made of stone and mud and are usually under projecting rocks or in the side of a hill. the roof is so low that a man cannot stand erect. the writer once visited a kurd's home. the wife brought a carpet and spread it in the center of the large room on which to be seated, and then fixed some bread and milk for a luncheon. in one corner of the house were tied a pair of fine horses; in another stood several cows quietly chewing their cuds, while a few sheep were lying on the opposite side of the room. it is needless to say that this house, like all other kurdish houses, was a dirty, filthy place. the men are tall and slender with very black hair and eyes. living a wild out-door life they are very healthy and strong. the women are very beautiful. sometimes persian lords marry them. the food of the kurds consists of milk, butter, bread, honey, vegetables and but little meat. religion. in religion the kurds are mohammedans of the turkish faith. their chief priests are called sheikh and are honored as a god. they kneel before a chief priest and kiss his hands, clothes and shoes, and ask for his blessing. to penitent ones he promises that he will ask god to forgive their sins. he has absolute power over laymen. they believe his words as inspired truth and obey implicitly. one leader of this type assisted turkey in a war against russia some years ago. he commanded about , kurds. he told them not to be afraid of the big cannon that would be seen when they met the russians, for, he says, "i have by the help of allah bound the mouths of these cannon and they can't hurt you." believing this statement, the kurds wildly flew into the face of the big guns and many thousand were slain. there are priests of different rank but all are subordinate to the sheikh. they are more superstitious and fanatical than the mohammedans of turkey or persia. they have no written languages. they speak a mixed language collected from persian arabic, syrian, and other tongues. the kurds have been called wild asses of the desert, thirsty to shed blood and eager to plunder. part v. chapter i. the nestorians. nestorius was a greek, born in the latter part of the fourth century near germanicia. he became a monk in the roman catholic church and was ordained an elder by the patriarch of antioch. being learned in literature and an orator of power, he became patriarch of constantinople in . cyril, patriarch of alexandria, was jealous of nestorius as he desired to become patriarch of constantinople himself. he attacked the teachings of nestorius, claiming that he taught that there are in christ two distinct persons and two natures; and that he denied the divinity of christ in refusing to call the virgin mary the mother of god. this criticism of nestorius's teachings is without foundation, as he did not teach anything of the kind. many writers of church history have made this mistaken criticism. there are now in the possession of prominent nestorians manuscripts of nestorius from to years old and in none of them is that doctrine held. nestorians of to-day resent this doctrine as being no part of their belief. nestorius believed that mary was the mother of christ and that christ had two natures, perfect god and perfect man, united with each other but not mingled. he rejected pictures and statues representing christ, mary or the saints. upon this basis he was anathematized in the council of ephesus in a.d. in the council his friends were absent and nestorius refused to attend as his enemy cyril presided at the council and had power to rule it. nestorius then united himself with the syrian church whose doctrines agreed with his own. he soon became a prominent leader among this sect and the name nestorians was given to the sect by enemies. many learned men in the syrian church of to-day are not willing to be called by this name. not because they reject any of nestorius's doctrine but because they say it is not right for a nation to be called after the name of a stranger. but most uneducated people glory in being called nestorians. the true origin of the nestorians was in the old assyrian nation. the assyrians were descendants of arphaxad the son of shem. their place. they originally dwelt in or near the cradle of mankind, in eastern mesopotamia, assyria and syria. at times their empire extended nearly to babylon and nineveh and the great empire of assyria was established. language. all assyrian scholars believe or suppose that the original language spoken before the confusion of tongues was assyrian, while some other scholars believe it was the hebrew language. it is believed that in time it will be generally agreed that assyrian was the original language. it is evident that abraham was a descendant of aber, grandson of arphaxad, third son of shem. the assyrian language was spoken in purity until the time of abraham. when he left his parents by command of god to dwell in canaan and egypt it is an inevitable truth that abraham spoke the language of his assyrian parents. but when he dwelt in canaan and egypt his speech became mixed with words of those languages. the old testament was written by this confused language of assyria and egypt which was called holy language. therefore we see names in the old testament both of assyrian and the mixed language of abraham. chapter ii. their history. st. thomas and st. bartholomew from the twelve apostles, and the st. eddi and st. maree from the seventy apostles have been called the apostles of assyria. their first patriarch was st. maree whose residence was in ktispon on the river tigris which was for a long time capital of the sassanites dynasty. st. maree expired in a.d. . after his death his disciples went to jerusalem and chose abriz as their patriarch. he served from a.d. to . after abriz from a.d. to , abraham, a relative of the apostle james, became their patriarch. his successor was james, a just man, and a relative of the virgin mary, mother of our lord. akhad abowoy became their patriarch from to . during this period there was a severe war between the romans and persians. the latter then ruled over persia, assyria and babylonia. the patriarch of jerusalem, a subject of rome, advised the assyrians who were under the parthians to elect a patriarch who was a subject of the parthians. the parthians ruled over persia from b.c. until a.d. in all the changes of government the assyrians have kept in office a succession of patriarchs even to the present time. the residence of their first patriarch was in ktispon and since that time at various places as baghdad, babel, nineveh, mosoel and for a long time at elkosh, the town of the prophet nahum. he now resides in kurdiston mountain in the village of kudshanoos. his home is located on a hill surrounded by much beautiful scenery. the church in which marshimon administers is called st. ruben, a building made of granite. [illustration: nestorian archbishop.] chapter iii. clergy. the assyrian church believe they have an apostolic succession from st. thomas and st. bartholomew. there are seven orders in the clergy. the patriarch, metropolitan, episcopas, archdeacon, elder, deacon and reader. the first three are forbidden marriage. the eating of meat is prohibited but fish, butter and eggs can be used. in olden times the presence of twelve metropolitans was required at the ordination of a patriarch, but to-day they require only four metropolitans and a few episcopas. the patriarch ordains the metropolitans and episcopas and these in turn ordain the lower clergy. it is the duty of the patriarch to overlook the entire church. much of his time is also taken up in sending messages to kurdish priests and to turkish officials about wrongs that have been committed against his people. the patriarch is highly respected and his messages receive prompt attention. his income consists of a small annual fee of five to twenty cents from all the men who belong to his sect. fifty years ago it was a custom for elders to marry a virgin and not a widow. this custom is not observed now. they have seven orders of monks. in ancient times these were the strength of the church. the monks are pure men and learned. there are a few nuns, one of the most faithful of whom is a sister of the present patriarch. chapter iv. churches and ordinances. their faith. their faith as it is described in some ancient mss about years old was entirely evangelical. they believed in the trinity, god the father, son and holy spirit, three persons, equal in power and nature, working together for the salvation of mankind. some western historians have made the error of stating that the assyrians deny the divinity of christ or believe that he has two personalities. from the beginning until the present time they have believed in the merit of saints. their clergy does not claim the power to forgive sins. they accept the creed of the apostles and it is recited by the clergy and by religious men. many days of fasting are observed, as fifty days before easter, twenty-five days before christmas, and others. on these days old people take no food until noon. in times of persecution their schools and books were destroyed and the people became ignorant. catholics introduced among them their literature which changed prevailing doctrines. their churches. many of their churches are built of stone while others are made of brick and clay. some of the buildings are years old and will stand many years to come. the walls are about eight feet thick at the base gradually tapering toward the top. in the older churches the doors are quite low and it is necessary for a man to stoop in entering. it is believed by some that the doors were built in this way that the church might be used as a place of refuge, rolling stones in the doorway after entering. others say the object was to prevent horses, cattle and other animals from entering. these churches are regarded as most sacred places and are called houses of god. there is an interior stairway leading to the roof, which is necessary for repairing the roof or shoveling off snow. the yard in front of a church is shaded with elm-trees; the yard is used as a graveyard. extending from each corner of the roof is a pair of horns from a wild goat, which is a sign of sacrifice. there is a small room in the rear of the building which is called the most holy place. in this room the priests carry on certain ceremonies and no other people are allowed to enter it at any time. before this room is a small pulpit on which are placed a cross, bible, and other ceremonial books. the only windows are a few small openings just below the room. candles are burned during hours of service to light the room, and incense is burned as a ceremonial and to produce a pleasing odor. there are no pictures on the walls but there are some decorations in the way of finely embroidered silk towels brought by some of the worshipers. reading scripture and prayer-book, and chanting psalms are the main features of worship. there is no music except a number of small bells on the walls which the worshipers ring as they enter the building. the audience sits on the floor or stands through the service. assyrians believe the two chief ordinances are the lord's supper and baptism. the ordaining of priests and marriage are ordinances that rank next in importance. baptism is administered by bishops and elders. all the children of a member are baptized by immersing three times. some believe that baptism regenerates a child, while others say it will have a good effect provided the parents give the child proper training thereafter. the lord's supper is administered with much ritual on festival days such as easter, christmas and ascension day. this ceremony is more highly honored than any other ordinance as it commemorates the death and victory of christ. both wine and bread are used. a few years ago (and even now in some places) it was a custom to make the bread and wine from gleanings brought in from the fields and vineyards by virgins. this was considered pure and more acceptable as it had belonged to no man. they do not believe with the catholics that the bread and wine become the flesh and blood of christ, but they put much emphasis on these ingredients after the same have been consecrated. they are then holy. on the night previous to communion day, the priest and deacons go to the church shortly after midnight and entering into the most holy place, make the bread for use on the next day. the priest himself kneads the dough. this bread is considered more sacred than that made in the ordinary way. after the bread has been made, the remainder of the night is spent in chanting psalms, scripture and prayer-book. an hour before sunrise the people flock to the church. when the church is full of worshipers the priest mounts the pulpit, chants the sacred words for an hour or more. the audience remains in perfect silence until he reaches the end of a psalm or the end of the service, when all the people say "amen." the priest and a deacon stand in the pulpit to administer the sacrament. communicants come forward one by one and the priest puts a small piece of bread in their mouths, and the deacon gives the wine. children under seven years of age do not partake of the sacrament. on these occasions the priest and deacon wear long white robes of silk or cotton, tied about with a long silk girdle. a turban is worn on the head. chapter v. assyrian or nestorian college. the golden age of this church was the period from the fourth to the thirteenth century. they had twenty-five flourishing colleges. the most important schools were located at oddessa, nesibis, and urhai. the latter was called the queen of schools. these schools, while they flourished, were the secret of the churches' strength. the instructors were the most learned men of their age. aiwaz and st. basil of nesibis and urhai were among the most learned teachers. the assyrian, arabic and greek languages were taught classically. medicine, astronomy, and mathematics including geometry were taught. especial attention was given to the study of theology. there were as many as , monks and students in some of these institutions. their doctors of medicine were given high positions under the arabian and persian governments. literature in the eastern languages was rich. from these schools came great church fathers who defended the church from the heretics of the age. there is one mss years old in the library of the presbyterian mission which is called "persecuted simon." it was written by simon, a student in one of these colleges. it contains twelve lectures all against the heretics of his age. during that period about such mss were written. there are to-day in europe many mss written by these scholars that are from to years old. the new testament was translated into the assyrian language in the middle of the second century. these mss are skillfully executed and show the beauty and antiquity of this church. only three of these ancient mss are now to be found in persia, but there are many of them scattered in the libraries of europe. chapter vi. assyrian missionary spirit. the aim of the schools mentioned in the preceding chapter was to educate monks to become missionaries and spread the gospel. these schools were fountains from which flowed living waters for a thirsty land. there was no other nation in their age that possessed such a spirit of christian vitality. zeal for the spread of the gospel was burning in their hearts as a divine flame. there was a class of bishops appointed by their leaders to awaken and keep alive this missionary spirit. "the dying love of christ for sinners" was the text from which they preached. also his last commission to his disciples, matt. : , . these bishops preached with an inspiration from god, and enflamed many hearts until they were ready to sacrifice their lives for christ. these missionaries wore sandals on the feet, carried a staff of peace in the hand, and a knapsack on the shoulder containing bread and manuscripts of sacred writing. thus equipped, they journeyed into heathen lands, following the command of their nazarene teacher. the church was very poor and had no board of foreign missions to guarantee even a small income. the missionaries went forth trusting in their heavenly father. if he took care of the birds of the air, how much more would he care for the heralds of his gospel. the week before departure was spent in fasting and prayer and consecration. on the last day they partook of communion from the hand of their leader, and solemn advice was given by the bishop. in parting the bishop kissed the missionary's brow, and the latter kissed the bishop's hand; and the bishop would say: "the lord god of the prophets and apostles be with you; the love of christ defend you; the holy spirit sanctify and continually comfort you." some of the missionaries went to distant lands, requiring eight to twelve months to make the journey on foot. they worked in china, india, tatariston, persia, bloogistan, afghanistan, and northern africa. success followed their work. in the territory between china and tatariston, they converted , heathen. not long ago a monument was unearthed in china which had been set about years ago by one of these pioneers of the cross. on it were engraved the names of many of their leaders, and also the creed, doctrine of the trinity, and incarnation of christ. they established twenty-five churches in northern persia. in southern india is a small church planted at that time. these followers are now called the disciples of st. thomas, and sometimes their young priests come to persia to be ordained by the patriarch, who resides in the kurdiston mountains. this spirit which was shining as the sun in heaven began to languish in the tenth century, and by the fourteenth century had entirely died. at that time some of the church's true sons in lamentation said: "how are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!" hundreds of their missionaries had become martyrs of christ in a heroic spirit. they would enter fire singing praises to god, believing their shed blood would be the seed of the church. chapter vii. their persecutions. this ancient church of the assyrians which began with the apostles, has been praised in all the eastern and western churches for its zeal in spreading the gospel, but at no time in its history has it been free from persecution. like the burning bush of old, this church has been burning with persecution, but has not been consumed. the ten plagues of egypt have been here repeated several times. it has passed through the agony of blood, but with a spirit of submission to the will of god who rules over all the changes of a nation for the good of his own kingdom. severe persecutions began in a.d. . when constantine convened the nicean council of the delegates from the eastern church, mostly from assyria, only eleven of them were free from mutilation in some form. at the time the sassanites dynasty ruled over assyria. their patriarch was st. shumon, son of a painter. no other assyrian patriarch was equal to him in piety, integrity, and his heroic spirit of martyrdom. he was patriarch from to a.d. in that period the king of persia was second shafoor of the fire-worshipers. the fire-worshipers believed in two creative powers, hurmizd and ahramon. every good thing as virtue, success, long years, praise, truth, purity, were created by hurmizd; while wickedness, hate, war, disaster, etc., issued from ahramon, their creator. shafoor worshiped clean creatures of hurmizd, such as sun, moon, and fire. christianity was strong then, some of the royal family being christians. the christians were antagonized by the fire-worshipers because they rejected the sun and moon and de-defiled fire. other objections were that the christians taught that god had become incarnate and come to earth; and also that they preferred poverty to wealth and did not marry, thus diminishing the strength of the nation. the emperor issued an edict that those who would not worship the sun and the moon should pay a large sum of money. the patriarch answered that "while god is the creator of the sun we can not substitute the created for the creator. concerning a fine we have no money to pay your lord the sum required, as our lord commanded us not to lay up our treasures on earth." then the king commanded that all christians be put to death by terrible torture, except the patriarch. him he would spare to the last, that he might be moved by the torture of others and worship the sun. but st. shumon meantime was urging the christians to stand firm in the faith. the king requested that the patriarch and two chief bishops be brought before him. it had been a custom to prostrate himself before the king as a token of honor, but on this occasion he wished to avoid any show of worshiping a creature and did not prostrate himself before the ruler. the king asked him to worship the sun. st. shumon replied: "if i refuse to worship the king how can you expect me to worship the sun, a creature without life." being unable to make him worship the sun the king put him in jail for the night. next morning the patriarch was taken before the king again. on his way he met a steward of the king who was a christian but had been worshiping the sun to please the king. st. shumon rebuked the steward for being faithless. the steward was touched by this rebuke and, going before the king, confessed that he was a christian and must therefore be beheaded. but he requested that a herald be sent through the streets to proclaim that he had been a faithful subject to his ruler, and that he must die because he was a christian. this was granted. in company with one hundred bishops and priests st. shumon was brought before the king. again he was told that he could save the life of himself and his people by worshiping the sun. st. shumon replied, "we have one god and jesus christ our savior as the object of our worship. our lord teaches us to be faithful to kings and to pray for them, but we are forbidden to worship any creature." then the king commanded that all of them be beheaded next day. the night in a dungeon was spent in prayer and song and words of advice from st. shumon in love and tears of sorrow. the patriarch consoled his followers by referring to the fact that st. paul and apostles spent many nights in prison. he said, "the prison is heaven because the presence of our lord is with us. this is our last night on earth; to-morrow we will be crowned." taking the new testament in his hand he preached to his condemned disciples of the suffering and death of christ and then administered the lord's supper. at the close of his prayer he thanked christ that they were worthy to be his martyrs, and further prayed, "watch with me, o lord, help our infirmity, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. thanks be to god that we are to become martyrs on the same day of the week as did christ." in the morning he, with his followers stood before the king. the bishops were first beheaded, and st. shumon spoke to each one as follows: "my son, close your eyes, and after one minute you will be with christ." st. shumon had asked to be beheaded first that he might not see the death of his beloved followers, but he was not heard. at last came his turn with two chief bishops. when he alone was left he sang a song of thanks to god that out of martyrs, not one had denied the faith. his song was as follows: "praised be thy power our god; let the kingdom of our savior be victorious. thou quickener of life, thou hast prepared a crown for thy martyrs." then he was beheaded with an axe. another severe persecution was in the th century by tamerlane. in two kurdish dukes baddirkhunback and nurullaback and their armies came whirling down from the kurdish mountains and in one month massacred , assyrians. the spirit of martyrdom still lives in this people, as was shown in , when two men and a girl were killed as martyrs. no doubt there are to-day singing praises before the throne of god, hundreds of martyrs from this nation. chapter viii. their condition at the time american missions were started. the colleges of the assyrians were destroyed four hundred years before the american missionaries came. not a single school was left, and the only effort at education was by monks teaching dead languages to aspirants for the priesthood. learned bishops and monks who were full of the spirit of christ in spreading the gospel at home and abroad had all vanished. some of the clergy could not understand what they read. priests and their parish became blind to the word of god, as their books had been burned in times of persecution by the mohammedans in order to keep them ignorant. sometimes there was only one priest in a dozen villages. the clouds of ignorance spread over all the nation. their sun went down. regeneration and conversion were unknown to them. traditions prevailed among priests and laymen. they trusted in saints and in ancient and holy church buildings. in their ignorance they offered sacrifice to martyrs and built tombs to prophets; put more hope in the merit of fasting than in christ. a small number of new testament manuscripts, which were written in dead languages were used only in taking oaths. sometimes laymen kneeled before them and kissed them instead of obeying the truth that was written in them. the candlestick of the church was turned down and the light quenched. moreover the mohammedans had threatened to massacre them if they did not accept that faith. the assyrians had lost about all of their christianity except the name. among , christians in kurdiston and , in persia there was only one lady who could read, and she was a nun, sister of the patriarch. the words of the daughter-in-law of eli when she said, "the glory is departed from israel." could have been applied to this nation. part vi. chapter i. introduction of mission work. while the sky of persia was covered with heavy clouds of ignorance and even the dim ray of light in assyria was almost quenched, suddenly god, in his great wisdom and wise providence, awakened the consciences of godly men in america to think about mission work in persia. in the year of messrs. smith and dwight were sent by the a.b.c.f.m. to examine the degenerate and antique churches of the east. they traveled through syria, asia minor, armenia and persia. in the latter country they remained in the city of oroomiah for several weeks, and met the bishops and leaders of the assyrian church with whom they visited the villages of assyria. men, women and children everywhere greeted them with great joy. in this way they became acquainted with the needs of the nations. mr. smith said at that time: "i see that this field is white and ready for the harvest. in all my journey i have seen no people as willing to accept the gospel as are the assyrians of persia. it is a good field for the work." on their return to america messrs. smith and dwight reported the needs of the assyrians and their readiness to accept the gospel. but the question arose, where is the man qualified for the work, who can overcome the difficulties? in the beginning of every great work there must always be a unique man to lead it. god found only moses among all the israelites as being competent to bring his people out of egypt. he elected george washington to make free america. even so, in his providence, he found the rev. justin perkins to be the man equipped for this great mission work. in , justin perkins and dr. grant as his medical assistant were appointed to the work in persia. these two blessed messengers of emanuel shone in the dark skies of persia, and i believe will everlastingly shine in the sky of heaven. they were received by the natives as if god had sent them from heaven. many assyrians went out to meet them with tears of joy in their eyes. perhaps some one will ask why the assyrians were so eager to receive the missionaries. were they awakened to their spiritual condition? the answer is, they were not fully awakened to their great need of spirituality, but they were eager to be saved from the wicked plan of the mohammedans to convert them to that faith by force, if need be. chapter ii. method of work. mr. perkins gained the confidence and won the love of the people by making himself one of their number, by adopting their customs and speaking of assyria as "our nation." in this way he got very close to the people, they believed him their friend, and were not afraid to come near to him. in adopting the native dress it must be remembered of him that he wore the hat commonly worn by aged religious men. it was made of sheep-skin and was not less than two feet high. the assyrians churches were open to the new missionaries and they preached two or three times every sunday. there was marked interest in the new teachers from the beginning, and every service was attended by or natives. in addition to the observance of sunday the assyrians have numerous sacred or saint's days; at such times the churches are better attended than on sundays. services were also lead by the missionaries on these days. through every day of the week the missionaries were busy scattering the blessed seed. when there were no services held in the churches they would meet in some private home. several neighboring families would come in, and all would listen to the gospel. the writer remembers when he was a boy of dr. coan lodging at his father's home several nights and holding meetings. our homes were very humble among the assyrians. the houses were low and dark, blackened with smoke from the ovens. the floor was covered with cheap mats, but some people had a carpet which was spread when guests came. most of the families are very large, numbering from ten to thirty-five. in many instances, five or six sons having married are found raising their families under their father's roof. the food for all is cooked in the one oven, but more than one table is used when the family is very large. the meals set before the missionaries were very different from what they had been accustomed to. there were no knives and forks, no tables and chairs. but the missionaries humbled themselves, sat on the floor, and ate of the poorly cooked food with their fingers. in summer most of the people were working in the field and vineyards. the missionaries would visit them at their work and ask permission to talk for an hour. the workers would gather in the shade of a tree and for an hour listen to the message. many times these meetings proved very beneficial. in the well known fidelia fisk and several other noble women came to work for women. they would visit them in their homes or where they were at work in the field or vineyard, and while helping them in their work would strive to ennoble their lives by talking of christian principles. a story is told of a missionary who one day passed a shepherd among his flocks. he asked the shepherd if he ever prayed. the reply was that he did not know how. when the good man offered to teach him the shepherd said it was useless to try as he could not learn. but the faithful missionary was eager to teach truth, even to the dullest minds, and so began teaching him the lord's prayer. but the shepherd could not memorize it. remembering how this shepherd knew every sheep in his flock by name a happy thought struck the missionary. he would name a small number of the sheep with words or phrases of the lord's prayer. calling the sheep and giving them these new names the shepherd soon learned the prayer, and could repeat it readily. when passing that way a few weeks later the missionary asked the shepherd if he still remembered the prayer. calling his sheep the herdsman went through the prayer with but one mistake. the missionary complimented him but told him that he had omitted "forgive our sins." "did i?" replied the shepherd. "oh, i know how it happened. "forgive our sins" took sick and died a few days ago." this made it necessary to point out another sheep and name it "forgive our sins." missionaries have to resort to various methods to teach truth. many times the hearts of parents are won by the missionaries kissing one of their beloved children. they proved to the people that they were not ashamed to be as brothers to them. this kind of treatment will touch the human heart in any clime. chapter iii. development of mission and organization of the church. after several years work by justin perkins and dr. grant, his medical assistant, the mission had grown until more workers were needed. from time to time other workers came, such as messrs. stoddard, stakings, dr. coan and mr. ray. the latter was known among the natives as the prince of preachers. he died in that country and his widow, mrs. ray, now resides in lake forest, ill. other workers who should be mentioned are dr. larabee and mr. cochran. during these years of preaching, seed was sown for more thorough work. revival meetings were begun in the churches, and, in answer to prayer, the lord poured out his spirit upon both preachers and listeners. at some of these meetings there would be from thirty to men and women crying aloud and trying to learn what they must do to be saved. in those times some of the penitents in their ignorance prayed prayers that they would to-day be ashamed of. one old man, who is now an elder, became terribly in earnest when he was under conviction and was seeking conversion. in his anguish he prayed thus: "o lord god, father of christ, send thy spirit and regenerate all of this church. if you won't do this, then destroy this church over our heads and kill us." this prayer, and others like it, was prayed with such intense earnestness, that another seeker near by thought the lord would answer it at once; and so, reaching for his hat, he prayed: "o lord don't do this until i get out; then destroy all of them if you want to." hastily uttering this prayer he sought safety outside the walls of the building. when the old elder was recently reminded of the prayer he made years ago, he was not ashamed, for he said that was all they knew in those days as they had not yet learned how to pray. until the time of these revivals there had been no separation of the missionaries from the old assyrian church. it had been their custom to take of the lord's supper from the hands of assyrian priests. mr. cochran, president of the oroomiah college thought it was now time to form a separate organization. accordingly the new converts were organized into a separate church on evangelical principles. this separation aroused the bitter opposition of the bishops and priests of the old church for a time, but it finally resulted beneficially to both sects. the ancient church tried to attract and hold the people by adopting the same kind of preaching and sunday-schools as were being carried on by the evangelical branch. preaching sermons was a new work for priests of the old church, and many amusing mistakes were made at first. one priest in an enthusiastic discourse when intending to call the mohammedans, dogs, made the sad mistake of addressing his audience as, "ye dogs and sons of dogs." at another time a bishop having announced that he would preach a sermon, carefully wrote his discourse. a large and expectant audience greeted him. when it was time to deliver the address the bishop felt in every pocket for his written sermon but failed to find it. turning to the audience he said: "satan, the accursed, has stolen my sermon out of my pocket and disappeared with it." being unable to make the address from memory he dismissed the audience. the church has developed along this line, however, and to-day in oroomiah their services differ very little from that of the evangelical churches. once a tiny rivulet the evangelical church has become a brook which flows in beauty and waters much of a thirsty land. it is the hope of persia. the statistics of mission work in persia in were as follows: five presbyteries, fifty-five churches, , members, , sunday-school scholars, , attendants at preaching services. these five presbyteries make one synod. besides this there are two other presbyteries with about church members. there are seven missionary stations, viz., oroomiah, tabriz, tehron, salmas, hamadon, myandab and moesul. these are in charge of american missionaries; besides them there are many native preachers in the different towns and cities. oroomiah is the mother station. most of these missions are dependent on missionaries, but some of them are self-supporting. the total number of protestants in persia will number fully , . chapter iv. religious education. college. the first need of the nation was a college. in justin perkins gathered a small number of deacons and priests to teach them for the work of spreading the gospel. the native priests were very ignorant, but mr. perkins believed it would take fewer years to prepare them for the work than children, so he opened a rude school in a cellar. at that time the priests in common with all other people drank wine and were frequently drunk. when dr. perkins opened his school for the native priests and deacons many of them brought a bottle of wine for use during school hours. dr. perkins dealt patiently with them but stated that it was against the rules of the school to bring wine. they replied that they would not come to study if they were not allowed to bring wine. so wine they brought. one native preacher who is now an old man and a fine singer, told at a recent synod of this early school, of which he was a member: one day they got too much wine and went upstairs and began to dance. dr. perkins called to them and asked them to dance a little slower. they replied to the teacher that they would dance slower, but kept on dancing. in time the habit of drinking was left off and total abstinence was firmly established. the school in the cellar has grown until now we have in oroomiah a fine brick building in which the college classes meet. in it are six branches: high-school, preparatory, college, medicine, industrial, and theological. its superintendents from the start have been able men. dr. perkins founded it, mr. cochran further developed it, and the late dr. shedd, a profound theologian, contributed his fine ability to the institution. several eastern languages are taught. mathematics, including algebra and geometry, geography and history are taught, but of course not as completely as in america. ladies' seminary. when the missionaries came to persia there was only one woman among the , assyrians who could read. girls were not encouraged to study as it was against law and believed to be useless. this belief originated in mohammed's teachings. fidelia fisk, soon after her arrival, saw the condition of women and determined to open a seminary. at first it was difficult to get girls to attend. if mothers were asked to send their girls, they asked, "what is the use? they can never become bishops or priests." if a girl was asked to attend she would reply that she did not have time as she must be preparing a dowry for her wedding, an event that would certainly occur before her eighteenth year. however, a small free school was opened for girls, where the branches taught were similar to those of the college. fidelia fisk labored faithfully in her duties as teacher and made for herself a lasting reputation in that country. her patience was often severely taxed. it is told of her that once after she had become old she was trying to explain an example in multiplication, when a loose tooth dropped out of her mouth. she sank wearily into a chair, exclaiming, "it's no use; there is no god of mathematics in this nation." there stands to-day on the same site where this faithful soul started the little school, a beautiful brick building known as the fidelia fisk seminary. it is also self-supporting, and is attended by or students. now the girls and mothers laugh at their old superstition about education, as they have learned that it prepares one for something besides bishop or priest. fathers want their daughters to attend the seminary, and young men who are looking for a wife appreciate the importance of the training which seminary girls have received. they know that she can raise their children better, keep the home cleaner, and better understand her relation to her husband. while the seminary was founded by fidelia fisk it was developed largely by jenny deane, who was superintendent of the institution for thirty years. it was under her direction that the building was erected. miss deane was a very wise lady, and has few, if any, superiors in america in the management of an institution. as a retired missionary she now resides in detroit, michigan. she will never be forgotten by the many women in persia whom she has so greatly helped. there are also four other seminaries in persia for ladies. medical schools. the beauty and blessing of medical mission work will be better understood if we contrast it with prevailing ideas about medicine. until about fifteen years ago there were no persian doctors who had become such from the study of books on medical science. there, were, however, many quack doctors who had a system of superstition which had been taught them orally by older men. blades of some kinds of grasses which are known to medical science as having no medicinal properties were the chief remedies prescribed for disease. internal diseases were called supernatural, and it was believed they were inflicted by evil spirits. none of the doctors could do anything for this form of disease, as they considered it out of their realm. a patient with an internal disease was sent to the priest who would diagnose the case by looking into the koran or some other book in which he locates the particular demon that is afflicting the patient. writing something mystical on two slips of paper, the priest gives direction for their use: "this one soak in a cup of water and have the patient drink the water. the other, bind on the patient's arm. i find that it is demon so and so afflicting the sick man, and i have bound the mouth of that evil spirit so that he cannot do further harm." there are several remedies for fever. one is to tie seven knots in a white thread and fasten it around the wrist. wearing this fifteen or twenty days cures the fever, they say. another remedy is to remove the clothing and jump into cold water before breakfast. if a man has a severe attack of colic and cries, "i die, i die," his friends run for the nearest baldheaded man, as he is known to have power to remove the pains by firmly pressing the smooth surface of his cranium against the surface of the patient's body nearest the seat of pain. many baldheaded men in other countries laugh at this remedy, but persian doctors affirm that it will cure, and that skeptics should try it. pork is never used as food, but it is believed to remove rheumatism when bound on the parts afflicted. there are now some medical men in persia who have graduated in an american or european medical college. patients for whom they have prescribed often consult the mujtahid before taking the medicine. once a man with a diseased foot came to dr. cochran for treatment. the doctor told him that his life could be saved by amputating the foot. the patient consulted a mujtahid who told him that it was against religion to part with any member of the body. therefore the patient retained his foot and died. the modern midwife is greatly needed in persia as many women die for want of attention, and it is against the law for male doctors to give them treatment. the name hospital was unknown in persia before the missionaries came. but, thanks to god, we have to-day three missionary hospitals. the good they do cannot be expressed in words. they are open for all no matter what their beliefs. the largest one is in oroomiah. it is under the charge of dr. cochran, a godly man, who is known in all persia. the late shah appreciated his work so much that he gave him the highest degree that is possible to give to a foreigner. when patients enter these hospitals, lie down on clean beds, are given good food and kind treatment, they are surprised, and sometimes have said that heaven cannot be a nicer place. some wild kurds have been brought to the hospitals. they came in like roaring lions but went out meek as lambs. hundreds of people have been snatched from the mouth of the grave by treatment received here. they cure not only the body but the soul also. two wild kurds who were healed here became christians and are now active church-members. dr. cochran has from six to ten native students of medicine. they take a three years' course, and some of them have become such useful physicians that the shah gave them the title of count. the mohammedans have confidence in the christian doctors, and send for them to treat their children and wives in all cases except childbirth. country schools. there were no schools for common education among the people before the missionaries came. they met with some opposition in starting country schools from superstitious old men. they said the europeans and americans are a cunning people. they will fill our children's heads with notions that will take them away from us to foreign countries. on the other hand there were many parents eager to have their children get learning. so schools began. books and writing material were so expensive and scarce for a time, that a canvas with the alphabet printed on it was stretched on the wall. thirty or more children could stand before this canvas and study. for those who were learning to write boxes of sand were provided. herein written language was traced. there are to-day seventy schools for children in the district of oroomiah. the population of this district is nearly half a million. some of the schools are self-supporting, while in others the teacher's salaries are paid by the missionaries. these schools are like a garden of flowers in a desert. they have a very strong moral and elevating influence in a community. it is generally believed by christian workers there that there is no better foundation for the future of the church than these schools. in them are taught three languages, a little geography, mathematics and the bible. nearly all the students can repeat from memory the ten commandments, the lord's prayer, and creed of the apostles. the chief aim is to teach the fear of god. a good many students are converted in school. after school some of the students go among their neighbors in the evening to read the bible to them. the teachers are chosen by the board of education. one important rule governing the choice is that the applicant must be a regular member of the church. the teachers are very devoted and faithful to their work. they consider that their work among the children is similar to a pastor's work among his people. they watch after their pupils in school and out as a shepherd cares for his flock. a monthly meeting is held for teachers at which best methods of teaching are discussed. one of the principal subjects considered is, how to develop spirituality among the pupils. these meetings are refreshing to the teachers, and they return to their work full of the love of christ, zealous to spread his truth. sometimes a religious mid-week meeting is held in the schoolhouse for students only. these meetings often bear blessed fruit. in one such meeting in a preparatory school over which the writer held supervision, thirteen boys of ages from thirteen to sixteen years, were converted. these boys remained after the meeting closed and, touched with the spirit of god, they prayed with tears in their eyes. some of them have since become preachers of the gospel. in the country schools some of the teachers work more faithfully for the salvation of their pupils than pastors work for their flock. in one school two boys were attacked with a fatal disease. the teacher, accompanied with several pupils, visited the first sick boy and asked him if he was afraid to die. he replied that he did not want to give up his studies. the teacher asked if he did not know that christ was a teacher. the dying boy was gladdened by this thought, and, with a smile on his boyish face, he said: "i'm going away to christ and he will teach me." with these words his soul took its flight above. the other sick boy was then visited and comforted in the same way. he, too, soon died of the fatal disease. the missionaries are carrying on schools in persia and the kurdiston mountains. the number of teachers employed is and there are boys and girls; total . translation of books. when the missionaries first came to persia, ancient syriac was the language of literature; therefore the common people could not understand anything in the ceremonial words of the priests. dr. perkins, with the aid of native scholars, translated the bible into the common language, or modern syriac. after the new translation was printed the common people were surprised and rejoiced greatly at having the sacred word in a form that they could understand. from time to time other books were translated, such as parts of commentaries on the bible, pilgrim's progress, rest of saints, morning to morning, etc. these books are read in connection with the bible in the daily worship of the native christians. rev. benjamin larabee d.d., with some native scholars, greatly improved the translation of the bible into modern syriac, about two years ago, by a careful revision of the first translation. mrs. j. h. shedd who was known as the "mother in israel" did a great work for our people in translating books, and tracts and preparing the sunday lessons. chapter v. the gospel and temporal improvement. the assyrian houses were one story, low flat roof, and built of mud. mohammedan law was opposed to christians building houses of more than one story. the houses were poorly kept, dark and unfurnished. this was the case even when a man was well-to-do and could have afforded something better. families were large, numbering from ten to forty. it was the custom when sons married to raise their families, for a time at least, under the parental roof. the mother or father was supreme authority in the home, but they could not always control the sons, daughters and grandchildren, and there is much quarreling and frequently fighting. however, custom demands that a son bring his bride to the father's house. if he does not he is called mean. when the writer married his wedding ceremony was performed at the preparatory school where he was then teaching, and he did not take his bride to his father's home. he remembers that his good mother was grieved and shed tears at this breaking away from custom. men in the street were inclined to look upon him with scorn. the house that accommodates a large family is usually divided into several rooms. there are often four beds in one large room. the reader must understand that these large families do not give rise to immorality. men may be wicked in other ways, but this vice is very uncommon. christians were compelled by mohammedan law to wear poor grade clothing. they could not wear any garments commonly worn by lords. men wore coarse home-made clothing something like american blue jeans of earlier days. women dressed in plain cloth, usually colored red. lords objected to their subjects wearing nice clothing. they suspected the spirit of pride was growing underneath, and might some day resent their authority. christians were compelled to wear red braid on their clothing to distinguish them from mohammedans. it was a sin for a mohammedan to give the same salutation to a christian that was given to his own sect, so it was necessary to mark the christian's clothing. only bishops and some few prominent men were allowed to ride a horse, while other christians must walk or ride a donkey, for the moslems said: "god created horses for us and donkeys for you." if a christian, who was riding a horse, met a moslem, he should dismount, bow to him, and remain off the horse until the moslem had passed. the per cent. of death in infancy was very large. mothers did not understand how to nourish the delicate life during the most trying period. the infants were not dressed warm enough in many instances. in other instances the clothes about the child bound it helpless and injured it, sometimes causing death. ignorantly, they exposed them to contagious disease. before the missionaries introduced vaccination, hundreds died with smallpox. the women of the mission have taught the natives a great deal about caring for young children, and now many a mother dresses and cares for her babe after american custom. temperance. the assyrians were a great nation for drinking wine. many men owned vineyards and made from the fruit some of the best wine. one man was known who made barrels of wine one year for his own use. wine and not water was the drink. grapes were very cheap and the poor man could be supplied with wine. nearly all forms of industry and business were suspended in winter, and the time was spent in trying to get joy from the cup. they said wine was love and good fellowship, which is a common notion in many nations of the earth to-day. when a man had a guest from a distance, he would invite forty or fifty neighbors to his home where the entire day would be spent in eating and drinking. next day one of the neighbors would entertain the company, and so the feast would continue for a week or more. by the end of the debauch perhaps one or more of the number would have met death. falling by the wayside at a late hour, or tumbling from a housetop as he was journeying homeward, he would die from cold or from the shock. in those degenerate days idleness, extravagance and drunkenness were praised in a man. when such a one died, an engraving on his tombstone would show that his table was always spread and provided with wine for his friends. many a man was brought to poverty by these habits of extravagance and drunkenness. the women were required to let wine alone that they might cook much food for these degenerate christians. on such occasions the master of the house demanded that the very best food be put before his guest. the missionaries have completely broken up these customs. the evangelical church forbids its members to make or taste wine or to sit among drinkers. any who disobey this rule are dismissed from membership. rev. e. w. pierce, one of the most beloved of all missionaries, spent one winter in preaching temperance. many were converted to his views on the subject and brought their wines, many barrels, and poured it into the streets. they believed it would be a sin to even sell it. the old assyrian church-members have given up their former ways and are now temperate. formerly it was the glory of a man to be idle and drunken, but now public opinion has been entirely reversed. the drunkard is looked upon as an object of shame. the assyrians used to observe many saint's days. at times as many as four thousand men and women would gather in the yard of some building built in honor of an ancient saint and would there spend several days in eating, drinking and dancing. sometimes quarreling, fighting and even murder would result from these gatherings. moslems often mingled with the crowd and sometimes kidnaped some of their fairest daughters. instead of places of worship these gatherings became places of sin. all of these vicious customs have now vanished before the influence the true gospel. more than half the days of the year were days of fasting with the old assyrians. on these days they ate no meat, milk, butter, cheese, eggs or fish; some very religious old people would eat nothing before noon. all has now been changed. members of the evangelical church do not fast and but few of the old assyrians do. there is no longer faith in the virtue of fasting. conversion to mohammedanism. before the missionaries came many beautiful girls and ladies were converted by force to the faith of moslems. girls were often stolen when alone in the fields and vineyards. mothers feared for their daughters, and advised them not to wash their faces, nor put on nice clothes lest a mohammedan would be attracted by their beauty. when a mohammedan saw a beautiful girl he would say, "god created her for us and not for these infidels." when girls were converted by force, it was not much use to complain to the government, as the government is mohammedan and it is in the mohammedan doctrine that when a man converts a christian he has done a good thing and all his sins will be forgiven. the method of making the convert is not questioned. the conversions now as compared with the number when the missionaries came are very few. kidnaping is not easy now as parents can telegraph to the king, or the prime minister, or even to europe and cause much trouble. a few years ago a prince had a beautiful armenian stolen from her home, and tried to get her to consent to be a mohammedan and become his wife. but the woman stood firm, and denounced him and his faith. her friends, and the missionaries of all denominations, were making an angry search for the missing woman, and the prince ordered his servants to return her to her native village. when a girl has been stolen and complaint is made to the government, officers bring the girl into court, if she can be found, and ask her if she had been taken by force, or whether she was willing to become a moslem. if she says she was taken by force, she is returned to her parents. there are a few cases where women willingly go to the moslem but this is from their wickedness or their poverty. morals elevated. not many years ago a moslem would enter the private homes of the assyrians without an invitation. the husband and father did not want him there, but so long had his rights as a man been ignored that he did not have the manhood to drive him away. then, too, he feared if he offended the moslem, that the latter would secretly destroy some of his property. these uninvited visits gave the stranger an opportunity to become acquainted with the family, and perhaps an attempt to kidnap a daughter would follow. but this has changed. if a stranger enters an assyrian home to-day he behaves like a gentleman or he is ordered to leave. the manhood and independence of the old assyrian has been aroused. in a national conference of the protestants, catholics and old assyrian churches held a few months ago, rules and plans for the development of the nation and the uplifting of morality were adopted. among other things, christian girls and women are prohibited by these rules from working for mohammedans; second, no girl nor woman can go to a city of mohammedan merchants to do trading. this is the first conference of this kind that has been held by assyrians for years. many of the native young men who have been educated by the missionaries have become able men and influential citizens. there are some of them who can stand before the king and speak with greater power than any of the government officers. this is in great contrast with the condition of assyrians before the missionaries came. in those days leading assyrians could not stand before even a low court to plead their cause. in a general, third in the government, visited oroomiah college. when he saw the training of the young men he was impressed and afterwards, in a conference of lords, said: "the young men who are being educated in the mission schools would become leaders in the political affairs of our nation if they had a chance. i believe a time will come when they will hold high offices, and the sons of lords will be ruled by them, unless you do something for the future of your children." the shah has given the title of count to some of the graduates in medicine. he sees their useful work and says they are helping his people. the royal family and some officers favor indirectly if not directly, modern education; and they have confidence in christians. the occupation of selling merchandise is being entered by christians; they have much prejudice to overcome but will likely succeed gradually. thanks to god, many of the old oppressions have passed away. assyrians can now build any kind of house they want; moslems can no longer say that they must walk or ride a donkey; they can wear clothes of any style or quality they choose. no longer are christians required to trim their clothes in red to mark their inferiority. all these are the fruits of the blessed gospel. chapter vi. mission work among moslems. mission work indirectly and slowly spreads among moslem. the koran forbids christians to preach to moslems, and no christian dared discuss questions of religion with moslems before the time of missionaries. to attempt to show christ's superiority of mohammed was forbidden. if a moslem should say, "mohammed was a greater prophet than christ. ours is the true religion. you are infidels." the christian with a timid, downward look would reply "yes sir, you are right." but the answer to this assertion to-day is a firm "no sir." the christian now sees truth clearly and feels it his duty to uphold it. there is now free discussion of religious questions. a christian discusses with moslem priest if he chooses. and sometimes they call at the homes of moslems and read the bible to them. the christian feels it his duty to discuss with any one who approaches him, as he possesses light which that one needs. there is in one city an evangelical church in which all of its members are mohammedan converts, while many other churches have a few. the spirit of these converts is that of martyrs. the koran teaches that any mohammedan who denounces the faith deserves death, and that one who kills the deserter has done a noble deed. some of these converts have suffered martyrdom and one who was killed after great torture, prayed as his last words: "o jesus we thank thee that thou hast made us worthy to be thy martyrs. our supplication is that our blood may become as seed to thy church." no doubt god will answer this prayer in due time. the seed is sown; the leaven is mingled and will in time, no doubt, leaven the , , mohammedans. the writer, a representative of the evangelical missions, wishes to express his deep gratitude to the american board who started mission work in persia, and to the presbyterian church, which, in , assumed the responsibility of the work and has since so nobly carried it on. missionary annals. (a series.) life of henry martyn, missionary to india and persia, to abridged from the memoir. by mrs. sarah j. rhea. chicago: woman's presbyterian board of foreign missions of the northwest, room , mccormick block. copyright, , by woman's presbyterian board of missions of the northwest. contents. page. education and preparation, . . . . . . . . . . . life in india, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . life in persia, and death, . . . . . . . . . . . i hold in my hand an album adorned with pictures of missionaries, my brethren and sisters, the ambassadors of the king. on one of the first pages is "the tomb of henry martyn," given me by dr. van lennep, who had just visited the sacred spot and described it vividly. when i turn the pages of my album and come to this, i pause with reverence and the overflowings of deep and tender emotion, and my mind adds other pictures, both terrestrial and celestial, to the one upon the page. my own missionary life as the companion of him whom dr. perkins called "the later henry martyn," was spent in henry martyn's persia. they were alike i think in many things, these two persian evangelists, and also in their deaths. when they passed out of the tabriz gate, journeying homeward after a course of illness in the fated city, for each it was a quick ascent, a painful translation, to the heavenly city with abundant entrance and the master's "well done"--in heaven; and on earth, a foreign grave taking possession for christ, as the nestorians reverently say, with "white stones still speaking out." s. j. r. education and preparation. henry martyn was born in england on the south-western coast of truro, february , . his father, mr. john martyn, worked in the mines. he was not educated but was very fond of learning. the miners were in the habit of working and resting alternately every four hours. mr. john martyn spent many of his rest intervals in study, and so by diligence and education raised himself to a higher position, and became a clerk in the office of a merchant in truro. when henry was seven years old, he went to school to dr. cardew. from his earliest years all who knew him considered him a very interesting and promising child. dr. cardew says his proficiency in the classics exceeded that of his schoolfellows; he was of a lively, cheerful temper and seemed to learn without application, almost by intuition. but he was not robust, and loving books better than sport, and having a peculiar tenderness and inoffensiveness of spirit, he was often abused by rude and coarse boys in the school. a friendship which he formed at this time with a boy older than himself was the source of great comfort and advantage to him, and was kept up throughout his whole life. this friend often protected him from the bullies of the play-ground. at this school, under excellent tuition, henry remained until fourteen years old, when he was induced to offer himself as a candidate for a vacant scholarship at corpus christi college, oxford. young as he was, he went there alone, and acquitted himself so well, though strongly and ably opposed by competitors, that in the opinion of some of the examiners he ought to have been elected. how often is the hand of god seen in frustrating our fondest designs! speaking of this disappointment he afterwards wrote: "had i remained and become a member of the university at that time, as i should have done in case of success, the profligate acquaintances i had there would have introduced me to scenes of debauchery, in which i must in all probability, from my extreme youth, have sunk forever." he continued after this with dr cardew till , and then joined his school friend at cambridge at st. john's college. here he obtained a place in the first class at the public examination in december, a circumstance which, joined to the extreme desire he had to gratify his father, encouraged and excited him to study with increased alacrity, and as the fruit of this application, at the next public examination in the summer he reached the second station in the first class, a point of elevation which "flattered his pride not a little." at this time he appeared in the eye of the world most amiable and commendable, outwardly moral, unwearied in application, and exhibited marks of no ordinary talent. one exception to this statement is to be found in an irritability of temper arising perhaps from the treatment he had received at school. on one occasion in sudden anger, he threw a knife at the head of another boy, which providentially missed him and was left trembling in the wall; but it was a narrow escape, and might have proved fatal. though not a christian at this time, he was under two strong influences for good, one from his religious friend in college, the other from his sister in cornwall, a christian of a meek, heavenly and affectionate spirit. he paid a visit to his home in the summer of , carrying with him no small degree of academical honor. it may be well supposed that to a sister such as we have described, her brother's spiritual welfare would be a most serious and anxious concern; and that she often conversed with him on the subject of religion we know from his own declaration. the first result of her tender exhortations and earnest endeavors was very discouraging; a violent conflict took place in her brother's mind between his conviction of the truth of what she urged, and his love of the world; and for the present, the latter prevailed. yet, sisters similarly circumstanced may learn from this case, not merely their duty, but also, from the final result, the success they may anticipate in the faithful discharge of it. "at the examination at christmas, ," he writes: "i was first, and the account of it pleased my father prodigiously, who, i was told, was in great health and spirits. what, then, was my consternation when in january i received an account of his death!" most poignant were his sufferings under this affliction, which led him to god for comfort in prayer and bible study. he says: "i began with the acts, and found myself insensibly led to inquire more attentively into the doctrines of the apostles." writing to his sister, having announced shortly and with much simplicity that his name stood first upon the list at the college examination of the summer of , he says: "what a blessing it is for me that i have such a sister as you, my dear s., who have been so instrumental in keeping me in the right way. after the death of our father you know i was extremely low spirited, and like most other people began to consider seriously without any particular determination, that invisible world to which he was gone and to which i must one day go. soon i began to attend more diligently to the words of our savior in the new testament, and to devour them with delight, when the offers of mercy and forgiveness were made so freely; i supplicated to be made partaker of the covenant of grace with eagerness and hope, and thanks be to the ever-blessed trinity for not leaving me without comfort!" how cheering to his sister it must have been to receive at a moment of deep sorrow such a communication as this! how salutary to his own mind to have possessed so near a relation to whom he could thus freely open the workings of his heart. at this time he also received great benefit from attendance on the faithful ministry of rev. charles simeon, under whose pastoral instructions he himself declares that he "gradually acquired more knowledge in divine things." with this excellent man he had the most friendly and unreserved intercourse. mr. martyn received his first impressions of the transcendent excellence of the christian ministry of mr. simeon, from which it was but a short step to choose this calling for his own, for until now he had intended to devote himself to the law "chiefly," he confesses, "because he could not consent to be poor for christ's sake." in january, , the highest academical honor, that of "senior wrangler," was awarded to him before the completion of his twentieth year. his description of his feelings on this occasion is remarkable: "i obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to find that i had grasped a shadow." so impossible it is for earthly distinction to fill and satisfy the mind. in march, , after another rigid examination, mr. martyn was chosen fellow of st. johns, a situation honorable to the society and gratifying to himself. soon after he obtained first prize for best latin prose composition over many competitors of classical celebrity, and this was the more remarkable, as his studies had been almost entirely in mathematics. henry martyn's attention was called to the great cause of foreign missions by some remarks of rev. mr. simeon on the work of carey in india, but more particularly by reading the memoir of david brainerd, who preached with apostolic zeal and success to the north american indians, and who finished a course of self-denying labors for his redeemer with unspeakable joy at the early age of thirty-two. henry martyn's soul was filled with holy emulation, and after deep consideration and fervent prayer he was at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example. nor let it be conceived that he could adopt this resolution without the severest conflict in his mind, for he was endued with the truest sensibility of heart, and was susceptible of the warmest and tenderest attachments. no one could exceed him in love for his country, or in affection for his friends, and few could surpass him in an exquisite relish for the various and refined enjoyments of a social and literary life. how then could it fail of being a moment of extreme anguish when he came to the deliberate resolution of leaving forever all he held dear upon earth? but he was fully satisfied that the glory of that savior who loved him and gave himself for him would be promoted by his going forth to preach to the heathen. he considered their pitiable and perilous condition; he thought on the value of their immortal souls; he remembered the last solemn injunction of his lord, "go teach all nations,"--an injunction never revoked, and commensurate with that most encouraging promise, "lo, i am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." actuated by these motives, he offered himself as a missionary to the society for missions, and from that time stood prepared with childlike simplicity and unshaken constancy to go to any part of the world whither it might be deemed expedient to send him. in the early part of , mr. martyn's plans of becoming a missionary were dampened by the loss of his slender patrimony, and as his sister was also involved in the calamity, it appeared hardly justifiable for him to go away. after some delay his friends obtained for him the position of chaplain to the east india company, and so the obstacles which detained him were removed. the time of the delay was spent in zealous service for his divine master. he was associated with rev. mr. simeon as curate and preached with great zeal and unction, often to very large audiences, and sometimes with such unsparing denunciation of common sins as to awaken opposition. he considered it his duty to rebuke iniquity, and on one occasion severely reproved a student for shocking levity,--reading a play with some young ladies while their father lay dying. he feared the result of this might be estrangement from his friend, but prayed earnestly that it might lead to his awakening. this prayer was answered, and afterwards this very friend became his beloved associate in missionary work in india. in very early youth mr. martyn became fondly attached to a young lady named lydia grenfell. she considered herself his superior in social position. the memoirs all speak of her as estimable, and we infer from the little that is said that she somewhat indifferently accepted henry martyn's homage, but she did not wholeheartedly and generously respond. what a contrast to the beloved and devoted harriet newell, who was not afraid to risk all for christ, and counted not her life dear even unto the death! it was miss grenfell's greatest honor that henry martyn would have made her his wife, but she declined the honor, and yet gave him encouragement, for their correspondence only ended with his life, and his very last writing was a letter to her. he begged her with all the eloquence of a lonely and devoted heart to come out to him after he had gone to india, arranging every detail for her comfort with thoughtful tenderness, and urging and encouraging her and lavishing upon her an affection that would have crowned and enriched her life. we are left to infer from the history that she did love him in her way, but if she had shared his consecration and gone with him and taken care of him, and cheered and comforted him, and made for him a happy restful home, as some missionary wives have done in self-denying foreign fields, what a blessing she might have been, and her life, how fruitful, and her memory, how fragrant! as it was, she has this distinction, that she was henry martyn's disappointment and trial and discipline. no one less tender and sensitive than henry martyn can appreciate all he suffered on this account; but he made it, like all the other great sorrows of his life, a cross on which to be crucified with christ. he writes to his dear sister s.: "when i sometimes offer up supplications with strong crying to god to bring down my spirit into the dust i endeavor calmly to contemplate the infinite majesty of the most high god and my own meanness and wickedness, or else i quietly tell the lord, who knows the heart, i would give him all the glory of everything if i could. but the most effectual way i have ever found is to lead away my thoughts from myself and my own concerns by praying for all my friends, for the church, the world, the nation, and especially by beseeching that god would glorify his own great name by converting all nations to the obedience of faith, also by praying that he would put more abundant honor on those christians whom he seems to have honored especially, and whom we see to be manifestly our superiors." in spite of henry martyn's beautiful humility, honor after honor was heaped upon him by his admiring and appreciative alma mater. three times he was chosen examiner, and discharged the duties of this office with great care and faithfulness. as the time approaches for his parting from all he holds dear, especially the beloved l., our hearts go out to him in irrepressible sympathy. he writes, "parted with l. forever in this life with a sort of uncertain pain which i know will increase to greater violence." and these forebodings were but too soon realized. for many succeeding days his mental agony was extreme, yet he could speak to god as one who knew the great conflict within him. yet while the waves and billows are going over him he writes from these depths, "i never had so clear a conviction of my call as at the present. never did i see so much the exceeding excellency and glory and sweetness of the work, nor had so much the favorable testimony of my own conscience, nor perceived so plainly the smile of god. blessed be god, i feel myself to be his minister. this thought which i can hardly describe came in the morning after reading brainerd. i wish for no service but the service of god, to labor for souls on earth and to do his will in heaven." life in india. on the th of july, , the union east indiaman conveying mr. martyn sailed from portsmouth. mr. martyn says: "though it was what i had been anxiously looking forward to so long, yet the consideration of being parted forever from my friends, almost overcame me. my feelings were those of a man who should suddenly be told that every friend he had in the world was dead." though suffering much in mind and body throughout the long and tedious voyage of nine months, mr. martyn seeks no selfish ease. he preaches, reads and labors assiduously with officers, passengers and crew, and shuns not to declare the whole counsel of god, even the unpalatable doctrine of the future punishment of the wicked. he says: "the threats and opposition of these men made me willing to set before them the truths they hated, yet i had no species of hesitation about doing it. they said they would not come if so much hell was preached, but i took for my text, 'the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget god.' the officers were all behind my back in order to have an opportunity of retiring in case of dislike. h., as soon as he heard the text, went back and said he would hear no more about hell; so he employed himself in feeding the geese. however, god i trust blessed the sermon to the good of many; some of the cadets and many of the soldiers were in tears. i felt an ardor and vehemence in some parts which are unusual with me. after service walked the deck with mrs. ----; she spoke with so much simplicity and amiable humility that i was full of joy and admiration to god for a sheep brought home to his fold. in the afternoon went below intending to read to them at the hatchway, but there was not one of them, so i could get nothing to do among the poor soldiers." what a picture revealing henry martyn's character!--the contrasting attributes of sternness and gentleness, his martyrlike determination to do his whole duty at any cost to himself from suffering and insult, the keen shrinking of a nature so refined and sensitive from coarseness and abuse, undeviating yet uncompromising, bringing to our thoughts the divine exemplar. i pass by the incidents of the voyage, including mutiny, sickness and death, romantic stay at st. salvador, battles at the cape of good hope, etc., eloquently and vividly recorded. the friday preceding his arrival in india he spends "in praying that god would no longer delay exerting his power in the conversion of the eastern nations. i felt emboldened" he says, "to employ the most familiar petitions by is. xii. , , 'keep not silence; give him no rest,' etc. blessed be god for those words! they are like a cordial to my spirits, because if the lord is not pleased by me or during my lifetime to call the gentiles, yet he is not offended at my being urgent with him that the kingdom of god may come." april , , the nine months' journey is complete, and they land at madras. mr. martyn gives first impressions and description of the natives, ending in these words: "in general, one thought naturally occurred: the conversion of their poor souls. i am willing, i trust, through grace, to pass my life among them if by any means these poor people may be brought to god. the sight of men, women and children, all idolaters, makes me shudder as if in the dominions of the prince of darkness. hearing the hymn, 'before jehovah's awful throne,' it excited a train of affecting thoughts in my mind." "wide as the world is thy command. therefore it is easy for thee to spread abroad thy holy name. but oh, how gross the darkness here! the veil of the covering cast over all nations seems thicker here; the friends of darkness seem to sit in sullen repose in this land. what surprises me is the change of views i have here from what i had in england. there my heart expanded with hope and joy at the prospect of the speedy conversion of the heathen; but here the sight of the apparent impossibility requires a strong faith to support the spirits." ah, how vividly this describes missionary experiences! after great peril from storm and illness, passing up the hoogly from madras, mr. martyn arrived at calcutta, may . in this city for years had been a band of english christians faithfully praying for the coming of the kingdom in that dark land, and into the home of one of these, rev. david brown, was mr. martyn received with much affection. a pagoda in one end of the yard on the river bank was fitted up for him, and the place where once devils were worshiped now became a christian oratory. the first experience here was of severe illness from acclimating fever, from which he was kindly nursed into convalescence. he then applied himself earnestly to the study of the hindoostanee, having engaged a brahmin as a teacher. here he witnessed with horror the cruel and debasing rites of heathenism. the blaze of a funeral pile caused him one day to hasten to the rescue of a burning widow who was consumed before his eyes. and in a dark wood he heard the sound of cymbals and drums calling the poor natives to the worship of devils, and saw them prostrate with their foreheads to the ground before a black image in a pagoda surrounded with burning lights--a sight which he contemplated with overwhelming compassion, "shivering as if standing in the neighborhood of hell." mr. martyn's plain and pungent preaching was a great offense to some of the easy-going formalists of the english church at calcutta, and some of the ministry attacked him bitterly from their pulpits, declaring, for instance, that to affirm repentance to be the gift of god and to teach that nature is wholly corrupt, is to drive men to despair, and that to suppose the righteousness of christ sufficient to justify is to make it unnecessary to have any of our own. though compelled to listen to such downright heresies, to hear himself described as knowing neither what he said nor whereof he affirmed, and as aiming only to gratify self sufficiency, pride and uncharitableness,--"i rejoiced," said this meek and holy man, "to receive the lord's supper afterwards;--as the solemnities of that blessed ordinance sweetly tended to soothe any asperity of mind, and i think that i administered the cup to ---- and ---- with sincere good will." september , , mr. martyn received his appointment to singapore. a farewell meeting of great interest was held in his pagoda, followed by a tender parting from the family who had been so kind to him, and two fellow laborers who, following his bright example, had just come out from england. the voyage to singapore was performed in a budgero, a small boat with a cabin, in which he studied and translated and prayed while making the seventeen or eighteen miles a day of the six-weeks' journey. at night the boat was fastened to the shore. his journal record of these days is very interesting and very characteristic. he says: "october . arrived at berhampore. in the evening walked out to the hospital in which there were european soldiers sick. i was talking to a man said to be dying, when a surgeon entered. i went up and made some apology for entering the hospital. it was my old school-fellow and townsman, ----. the remainder of the evening he spent with me in my budgero. "october . rose very early and was at the hospital at daylight. waited there a long time wandering up and down the wards in hopes of inducing the men to get up and assemble, but it was in vain. i left three books with them and went away amidst the sneers and titters of the common soldiers. certainly it is one of the greatest crosses i am called to bear to take pains to make people hear me. it is such a struggle between a sense of propriety and modesty on the one hand, and a sense of duty on the other, that i find nothing equal to it. i could force my way anywhere, in order to introduce a brother minister; but for myself, i act with hesitation and pain. "walking out into a village where the boat stopped for the night i found the worshipers of kali by the sound of their drums and cymbals. invited by the brahmins to walk in i entered and asked a few questions about the idol. the brahmin who spoke bad hindoostanee disputed with great heat, and his tongue ran faster than i could follow, and the people, about one hundred, shouted applause. i continued my questions and among other things asked if what i had heard of vishnu and brahma was true, which he confessed. i forbore to press him with the consequences, which he seemed to feel; and then i told him what was my belief. the man grew quite mild and said it was _chula bat_ (good words), and asked me seriously at last what i thought, 'was idol worship true or false?' i felt it a matter of thankfulness that i could make known the truth of god though a stammerer and that i had declared it in the presence of the devil. and this also i learnt, that the power of gentleness is irresistible. i never was more astonished than at the change in deportment of this hot-headed brahmin.... came to on the eastern bank below a village called ahgadup. wherever i walked the women fled at the sight of me. some men were sitting under the shed dedicated to their goddess; a lamp was burning in her place. a conversation soon began, but there was no one who could speak hindoostanee. i could only speak by the medium of my mussulman, musalchee. they said that they only did as others did, and that if they were wrong then all bengal was wrong. i felt love for their souls, and longed for utterance to declare unto these poor simple people the holy gospel. i think that when my mouth is opened i shall preach to them day and night. "october . my moonshee said, 'how can you prove this book (the gospel), to be the word of god?' i took him to walk with me on the shore that we might discuss the matter, and the result of our conversation was that i discovered that the mussulmen allow the gospel to be in general the command of god, though the words of it are not his as the words of the koran are, and contend that the actual words of god given to jesus were burnt by the jews; that they also admit the new testament to have been in force till the coming of mohammed. when i quoted some passages which proved the christian dispensation to be the final one, he allowed it to be inconsistent with the divinity of the koran, but said, 'then those words of the gospel must be false.' the man argued and asked his questions seemingly in earnest, and another new impression was left upon my mind, namely, that these men are not fools and that all ingenuity and clearness of reasoning are not confined to england and europe. i seem to feel that these descendants of ham are as dear to god as the haughty sons of japheth; i feel, too, more at home with the scriptures than ever; everything i see gives light to, and receives it from, the scriptures. i seem transported back to the ancient times of the israelites and the apostles. my spirit felt composed after the dispute by simply looking to god as one who had engaged to support his own cause; and i saw it to be my part to pursue my way through the wilderness of this world, looking only to that redemption which daily draweth nigh. how should this consideration quell the tumult of anger and impatience when i cannot convince men 'the government is on his shoulders?' jesus is able to bear the weight of it; therefore we need not be oppressed with care or fear, but a missionary is apt to fancy himself an atlas. "november . walking on shore met a large party. i asked if any of them could read. one young man who seemed superior in rank to the rest, said he could, and accordingly read some of the only nagree tract that i had. i then addressed myself boldly to them and told them of the gospel. when speaking of the inefficacy of the religious practices of the hindoos i mentioned as an example the repetition of the name of ram. the young man assented to this and said, 'of what use is it?' as he seemed to be of a pensive turn and said this with marks of disgust, i gave him a nagree testament, the first i have given. may god's blessing go along with it and cause the eyes of the multitudes to be opened. the men said they should be glad to receive tracts, so i sent them back a considerable number. the idea of printing the parables in proper order with a short explanation to each, for the purpose of distribution and as school books, suggested itself to me to-night and delighted me prodigiously.... a mussulman, when he received one of the tracts and found what it was, was greatly alarmed, and after many awkward apologies, returned it, saying that 'a man who had his legs in two different boats, was in danger of sinking between them.'" established at singapore, mr. martyn began upon three different lines of work, establishing schools, attaining readiness in hindoostanee so as to preach the gospel in that language, and translating the scriptures and religious books. to his great discouragement he was informed by the pundit that every four miles the language changed, so that a book in the dialect of one district would be unintelligible to the people of another. being advised to learn sanscrit, he took up this language with great zeal. the commencement of mr. martyn's ministry amongst the europeans of singapore was not of such a kind as to either gratify or encourage him. at first he read prayers to the soldiers at the barracks from the drumhead, and as there were no seats provided, was desired to omit the sermon. afterwards more decent arrangements being made, the families came in; but taking offense at his evangelical plainness, they asked that he should desist from extempore preaching. these european members of his flock were jealous and angry at his constant efforts for the salvation of the heathen natives. they thought it much beneath the dignity of an english chaplain to care for these degraded souls. some of mr. martyn's duties as chaplain were exceedingly onerous. on several occasions he was summoned to distant places involving long and dangerous journeys to perform a marriage ceremony. on these journeys he suffered severely, and they were a great draft upon his very delicate health; always weak and languid, and often alarmingly disordered. yet through all he continued to labor incessantly. every sabbath he held at least four services: at for europeans; at for hindoos, about two hundred in attendance; in the afternoon at the hospital; in the evening in his own room for the soldiers. in his household were two natives who assisted in his studies and translations, the moonshee and the pundit, with whom he held long disputes and with whom he labored daily, though unsuccessfully, to bring them to faith in christ. he says, "translating the epistle of st. john with the moonshee, i asked him what he thought of those passages which so strongly express the doctrines of the trinity and of the divinity of christ. he said he never would believe it, because the koran declared it sinful to say that god had any son. i told him that he ought to pray that god would teach him what the truth really is. he said he had no occasion on this subject, as the word of god was express. i asked him whether some doubt ought not to arise in his mind whether the koran is the word of god. he grew angry, and i felt hurt and vexed. i should have done better to have left the words of the chapter with him without saying anything. i went also too far with the pundit in arguing against his superstition, for he also grew angry." if any qualification seems necessary to a missionary in india it is wisdom--operating in the regulation of the temper and the due improvement of opportunities. mr. martyn needed the heavenly gift of wisdom also in the management of his native schools, five or six of which were supported by himself in singapore. little by little he succeeded in introducing as a text-book a part of the bible--his own translation of the sermon on the mount and the parables. he was called to do more and more of this work of translating the scriptures, and was persuaded by the rev. david brown not only to continue the hindoostanee, but to superintend the translation of the scriptures into persian. he engaged in it at once with zeal. he writes: "the time fled imperceptibly while so delightfully engaged in the translations; the days seemed to have passed like a moment. what do i not owe to the lord for permitting me to take part in a translation of his word? never did i see such wonder and wisdom and love in the blessed book as since i have been obliged to study every expression. employed a good while at night in considering a difficult passage, and being much enlightened respecting it, i went to bed full of astonishment at the wonder of god's word. never before did i see anything of the beauty of the language and the importance of the thoughts as i do now. what a source of perpetual delight have i in the precious word of god!" this ecstasy of enthusiasm in most successful and congenial labor was suddenly dashed by a great wave of sorrow which came to mr. martyn in the news of the death of his eldest sister. to missionaries in foreign lands such news is especially bitter, and to recover from such a shock and sense of irreparable loss seems almost impossible. the mind, unsatisfied with details of the sad event, is left in shadow which deepens into heavy gloom. mr. martyn was all alone and felt it keenly and inexpressibly. some of his most intimate and sympathetic friends at this time, realizing how it was not good for him to be alone, encouraged him to renew his matrimonial offer to his ever beloved l. after her refusal he says, "the lord sanctify this, and since this last desire of my heart is also withheld may i turn away forever from the world and henceforth live forgetful of all but god. with thee, o my god, is no disappointment. i shall never have to regret that i have loved thee too well. thou hast said, 'delight thyself in the lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.'" could sweeter words than these be expressed in any language! could greater depths of submission or heights of consecration be attained! they deserve to be recorded on imperishable marble or blazoned on the sky in sight of all, and received as the confession of every christian heart, to the honor and praise of him who gave such glorious victory to this tried soldier of the cross. providentially for mr. martyn's comfort his thoughts were much occupied after this by the arrival of his coadjutors in the work of translation, one of these, mirza of benares, well known in india as an eminent hindoostanee scholar; the other sabat the arabian, since but too well known both in india and england by his rejection of that faith which he then appeared to profess in sincerity and faith. in the latter of these mr. martyn confidently trusted that he had found a christian brother with respect to the reality of his belief in christianity, although mr. martyn immediately discovered in him an unsubdued arab spirit, and witnessed with pain many deflections from that temper and conduct which he himself so eminently exemplified; yet, he could not but "believe all things and hope all things," even while he continued to suffer much from him, and for a length of time, with unparalleled forbearance and kindness. sabat's temper was a continual trial and mortification. the very first sabbath in singapore, imagining he was not treated with sufficient dignity, he left the church before service in great anger. often in the midst of the translation he would come to a sudden stop and refuse to go on for the most trivial reasons, sometimes for fear that mirza who would review the work might have part of the honor. about this time mr. martyn was much bereaved by the removal of a family with whom he had lived in intimate terms of christian intercourse. "this separation affected him the more sensibly because it was not in every family at that station that he met with a kind and cordial reception." he says, "i called on one of the singapore families, and felt my pride rise at the uncivil manner in which i was received. i was disposed at first to determine never to visit the house again, but i remembered the words, 'overcome evil with good.'" in the month of march, , the new testament in hindoostanee was completed. he says, "i have read and corrected the manuscript till my eyes ache; such a week of labor i believe i have never passed. the heat is terrible, often at degrees, the nights insupportable." we next hear of mr. martyn suffering from severe illness with fever and vertigo, and pained with the thought of leaving the persian gospels unfinished! so unselfish, so full of zeal! again at work, mercury at degrees. "arabic now employs my few moments of leisure. in consequence of reading the koran with sabat audibly, and drinking no wine, the slander has gone forth that the singapore padre has turned mussulman. "june th. to-day we have completed the persian of st. matthew. sabat desired me to kneel down to bless god for the happy event, and we joined in praise of the father of lights. it is a superb performance in every respect, with elegance enough to attract the careless and please the fastidious; it contains enough of eternal life to save the reader's soul.... my services on the lord's day always leave me with a pain in the chest, and such a great degree of general relaxation, that i seldom recover it till tuesday. the society still meet every night at my quarters, and though we have lost many by death, others are raised up in their room. one officer, a lieutenant, is also given to me, and he is not only a brother beloved, but a constant companion and nurse; so you must feel no apprehension that i should be left alone in sickness." in april, , mr. martyn removes from dinapore to cawnpore. here he met friendship and hospitality. we quote from the graceful pen of mrs. sherwood: "the month of april in the upper provinces of hindoostan is one of the most dreadful months for traveling throughout the year; indeed, no european at that time can remove from place to place, but at the risk of his life. "but mr. martyn had that anxiety to begin the work which his heavenly father had given him to do, that notwithstanding the violent heat, he traveled from chunar to cawnpore, the space of about four hundred miles. at that time as i well remember, the air was as hot and dry as that which i have sometimes felt near the mouth of a large oven, no friendly cloud or verdant carpet of grass to relieve the eye from the strong glare of the rays of the sun pouring on the sandy plains of the ganges. thus mr. martyn traveled, journeying night and day, and arrived at cawnpore in such a state that he fainted away as soon as he entered the house. when we charged him with the rashness of hazarding his life in this manner, he always pleaded his anxiety to get to the great work. he remained with us ten days, suffering considerably at times from fever and pain in the chest. "mr. martyn's removal from dinapore to cawnpore was to him in many respects a very unpleasant arrangement. he was several hundred miles farther distant from calcutta and more widely separated than before from his friend mr. corrie. he had new acquaintances to form at his new abode, and after having with much difficulty procured the erection of a church at dinapore he was transported to a spot where none of the conveniences, much less the decencies and solemnities of public worship, were visible. "we find him soon after he arrived there preaching to a thousand soldiers drawn up in a hollow square, when the heat was so great, although the sun had not risen, that many actually dropped down, unable to support it." yet mr. martyn's labors were not abated. every sabbath at dawn were prayers and sermon with the regiment, and again at eleven at the house of the general of the station. in the afternoon he preached to a crowd of poor natives, five, to eight hundred, rude, noisy, wretched beggars, for whose souls he felt a tender care. again in the evening, the best of the day, he had a meeting with the more devout of his flock. these ministrations so earnestly performed were most exhausting, yet he knew not how to forego them; at this time, too, from england came the sad and sudden news of the death of his sister, the one who had led him to christ. the alarming state of his health made some change necessary, and mr. martyn was urged to leave india and make trial of a sea voyage. his persian new testament had been criticised as unfit for general circulation, being written in a style too learned and exalted for the comprehension of the common people. he was advised to visit persia and there revise his work and also complete his version in arabic, almost finished. mr. brown, his devoted friend, and the calcutta agent of the british and foreign bible society, thus writes: "can i then bring myself to cut the string and let you go? i confess i could not if your bodily frame were strong, and promised to last for half a century. but as you burn with the intenseness and rapid blaze of heated phosphorus, why should we not make the most of you? your flame may last as long and perhaps longer in arabia, than in india. where should the phoenix build her odoriferous nest, but in the land prophetically called 'the blessed?' and where shall we ever expect, but from that country, the true comforter to come to the nations of the east? i contemplate your new testament springing up, as it were, from dust and ashes, but beautiful as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and his feathers like yellow gold." his farewell services at cawnpore were very tender and affecting, both with his great audience of natives and englishmen. of the latter, mrs. sherwood says: "he began in a weak and faint voice, being at that time in a very bad state of health; but, gathering strength as he proceeded, he seemed as one inspired from on high. never was an audience more affected. the next day this holy and heavenly man left cawnpore and the society of many who sincerely loved and admired him." stopping to visit the friends in calcutta, the rev. mr. thomason says: "this bright and lovely jewel first gratified our eyes on saturday last. he is on his way to arabia, where he is going in pursuit of health and knowledge. you know his genius, and what gigantic strides he takes in everything. he has some great plan in his mind, of which i am no competent judge; but as far as i do understand it, the object is far too grand for one short life, and much beyond his feeble and exhausted frame. feeble it is, indeed; how fallen and changed! his complaint lies in his lungs and appears to be an incipient consumption. but let us hope the sea air may revive him, and that change may do him essential service and continue his life many years. in all other respects he is exactly the same as he was; he shines in all the dignity of love, and seems to carry about him such a heavenly majesty as impresses the mind beyond description. but if he talks much, though in a low voice, he sinks, and you are reminded of his being dust and ashes." though so infirm, mr. martyn preached every sabbath of his visit, and his last sermon on the anniversary of the calcutta bible society was afterwards printed and entitled "christian india, or an appeal on behalf of nine hundred thousand christians in india who want the bible." life in persia. from this time a change comes over mr. martyn's varied life. we have seen him the successful candidate for academical distinctions--the faithful and laborious pastor--the self-denying and devoted missionary--the indefatigable translator--the preacher of the gospel to the heathen; we are now called to admire in him the courageous spirit of the christian confessor. he says, on his voyage towards persia: "all down the bay of bengal i could do nothing but sit listless, viewing the wide waste of water, a sight that would have been beautiful had i been well. in my hebrew researches i scarcely ever felt so discouraged. all the knowledge i thought i had acquired became uncertain, and consequently i was unhappy. it was in vain that i reflected that thousands live and die happy without such knowledge as i am in search of. "proposed family prayer every night in the cabin--no objection was made. "february , anchored off bombay. this day i finished the thirtieth year of my unprofitable life, the age at which david brainerd finished his course. i am now at the age at which the savior of men began his ministry, and at which john the baptist called a nation to repentance. hitherto i have made my youth and insignificance an excuse for sloth and imbecility, now let me have a character and act boldly for god. "march . feerog, a parsee who is considered the most learned man here, called to converse about religion. he spoke persian and seemed familiar with arabic. he began by saying that no one religion had more evidences of its truth than another, for that all the miracles of the respective founders depended upon tradition. this i denied. he acknowledged that the writer of the zendavesta was not cotemporary with zoroaster. after disputing and raising objections he was left without an answer, but continued to cavil. 'why' said he, 'did the magi see the star in the east and none else? from what part of the east did they come? and how was it possible that their king should come to jerusalem in seven days?' the last piece of information he had from the armenians. i asked him whether he had any thoughts of changing his religion. he replied with a contemptuous smile, 'no, every man is safe in his own religion.' i asked him, 'what sinners must do to obtain pardon?' 'repent,' said he. i asked, 'would repentance satisfy a creditor or a judge?' 'why, is it not said in the gospel,' rejoined he, 'that we must repent?' i replied, 'it cannot be proved from the gospel that repentance alone is sufficient, or good works, or both.' 'where then is the glory of salvation?' he said; i replied, 'in the atonement of christ.' 'all this' said he, 'i know, but so the mohammedans say, that hosyn was an atonement for the sins of men.' he then began to criticise the translations he saw on the table. "april . moscat, arabia. went on shore and met the vizier. his african slave argued with me for mohammed and did not know how to let me go, he was so interested in the business. "april . gave him an arabic copy of the gospel, which he at once began to read, and carried it off as a great prize, which i hope he will find it to be. "bushire, persia. called on the governor, a persian khan. he was very particular in his attentions. seated me on his own seat and then sat by my side. after the usual salutations and inquiries the calean (pipe), was introduced, then coffee in china cups placed within silver ones, then calean, then some rose-water syrup, then calean. observing the windows of stained glass, i began to question him about the art of coloring glass, observing that the modern europeans were inferior to the ancient in the manufacture of the article. he expressed his surprise that europeans, who were so skillful in making watches, should fail in any handicraft work. i could not help recollecting the emperor of china's sarcastic remark on the europeans and their arts, and therefore dropped the subject. on his calean--i called it hookah at first, but he did not understand me--i noticed several little paintings of the virgin and child, and asked him whether such things were not unlawful among mohammedans. he answered very coolly 'yes,' as much as to say, 'what then?' i lamented that the eastern christians should use such things in their churches. he repeated the words of a good man who was found fault with for having an image before him while at prayer, 'god is nearer to me than that image, so that i do not see it.' this man, i afterwards found, is like most of the other grandees of the east, a murderer. "on the th of may, our persian dresses were ready, and we set out for shiraz. the persian dress consists of first, stockings and shoes in one; next, a pair of large blue trousers, or else a pair of huge red boots; then the shirt, then the tunic, and above it the coat, both of chintz, and a great coat. i have here described my own dress, most of which i have on at this moment. on the head is worn an enormous cone made of the skin of the black tartar sheep with the wool on. if to this description of my dress i add that my beard and mustachios have been suffered to vegetate undisturbed ever since i left india; that i am sitting on a persian carpet, in a room without tables or chairs, and that i bury my hand in the pillar (rice), without waiting for spoon or plate, you will give me credit for being already an accomplished oriental. "at ten o'clock on the th our califa began to move. it consisted chiefly of mules with a few horses. i wished to have a mule, but the muleteer favored me with his own pony; this animal had a bell fastened to its neck. to add solemnity to the scene, a bombay trumpeter who was going to join the embassy was directed to blow a blast as we moved off the ground; but whether it was that the trumpeter was not an adept in the science or that his instrument was out of order, the crazy sounds that saluted our ears had a ludicrous effect. at last, after some jostling, mutual recriminations and recalcitrating of the steeds, we each found our places and moved out of the gate of the city in good order. the residents accompanied us a little way, and then left us to pursue our journey over the plain. it was a fine moonlight night, the scene new and perfectly oriental, and nothing prevented me from indulging my own reflections. as the night advanced the califa grew quiet; on a sudden one of the muleteers began to sing, and sang in a voice so plaintive that it was impossible not to have one's attention arrested. every voice was hushed. "these were the words translated: think not that e'er my heart could dwell contented far from thee, how can the fresh-caught nightingale enjoy tranquility? oh, then forsake thy friend for naught that slanderous tongues can say, the heart that fixeth where it ought no power can rend away. "thus far our journey was agreeable. now for miseries. at sunrise we came to our ground at ahmedu, six parasangs, and pitched our little tent under a tree; it was the only shelter we could get. at first the heat was not greater than we had felt in india, but it soon became so intense as to be quite alarming. when the thermometer was above degrees, fever heat, i began to lose my strength fast; at last it became quite intolerable. i wrapped myself up in a blanket and all the warm covering i could get to defend myself from the external air, by which means the moisture was kept a little longer upon the body, and not so speedily evaporated as when the skin was exposed. one of my companions followed my example and found the benefit of it. but the thermometer still rising, and the moisture of the body being quite exhausted, i grew restless and thought i should have lost my senses. the thermometer at last stood at degrees. in this state i composed myself and concluded that, though i might hold out but a day or two, death was inevitable. captain ---- continued to tell the hour and heights of the thermometer, and with pleasure we heard of it sinking to degrees, degrees, etc. at last the fierce sun retired and i crept out more dead than alive. the next day we secured some comfort from a large wet towel wrapped about the head and body. at sunset, rising to go out, a scorpion fell upon my clothes. the night before we found a black scorpion in our tent, that made us uneasy, so we got no sleep." june mr. martyn arrived at shiraz, the celebrated seat of persian literature, and at once began work upon his translation with the efficient help of mirza seid ali khan. in this work he had many interruptions, being himself an object of attention and curiosity. he received many calls, and unwilling to lose any opportunity of benefiting the inhabitants of shiraz, was never inaccessible to them. he says, "june , in the evening, seid ali came with two moollahs, and with them i had a very long and temperate discussion. one of them read the beginning of john in arabic and inquired very particularly into our opinions respecting the person of christ, and when he was informed that we did not consider his human nature eternal nor his mother divine, seemed quite satisfied, and remarked to the others, 'how much misapprehension is removed when people come to an explanation.'" "june . the prince's secretary called to talk about soofeeism. they believe they know not what. he thought to excite my wonder by telling me that i and every created being was god. "june . two young men from the college came, full of zeal and logic, to try me with hard questions such as, whether being be but one or two? what is the state and form of disembodied spirits? and other foolish and unlearned questions ministering strife. at last, one of them discovered the true cause of his coming by asking me bluntly to bring a proof of the religion of christ. you allow the divine mission of christ, said i, why need i prove it? not being able to draw me into an argument they said what they wished to say, namely, that i had no other proof for the miracles of christ than they had for those of mohammed, which is tradition. 'softly' i said, 'you will be pleased to observe a difference between your books and ours, when by tradition we have reached our several books, our narrators were eye witnesses; yours are not, nor nearly so.' "in the evening seid ali asked me the cause of evil. i said i knew nothing about it. he thought he could tell me, so i let him reason on till he soon found he knew as little about the matter as myself. he wanted to prove that there was no real difference between good and evil; that it was only apparent. i observed that the difference, if only apparent, was the cause of a great deal of misery. "june , sunday. preached to the ambassador's suite on the 'faithful saying.' in the evening baptized his child. zachariah told me this morning that i was the town talk." indeed shiraz was stirred to its depth by the presence of mr. martyn during the whole year of his stay. men of every kind, especially the learned and zealous, came singly and in groups almost every day to argue and dispute against christ. now it was a party of armenians, now learned jews, now a prince, now a general, now the very moojtuhid himself, the professor of mohammedan law. this great dignitary invited mr. martyn to his house, where for hours he talked on and on, defending his prophet and showing his learning; he was greatly annoyed at any difference of opinion, and decided it was "quite useless for mohammedans and christians to argue together, as they had different languages and different histories." but fearing mr. martyn's influence he was stirred to write a defense of his faith, which was said to surpass all former treatises on islam. he concludes it in these words, addressed to mr. martyn: "oh, thou that art wise! consider with the eye of justice, since thou hast no excuse to offer to god. thou hast wished to see the truth of miracles. we desire you to look at the great koran: that is an everlasting miracle." mr. martyn replied, showing why men are bound to reject mohammedanism; that mohammed was foretold by no prophet, worked no miracles, spread his religion by means merely human, appeals to man's lowest and sensual nature, that he was ambitious for himself and family, that the koran is full of absurdities and contradictions, that it contains a method of salvation wholly inefficacious, sadly contrasting with the divine atonement of jesus christ. the prince's nephew, hearing of the attack on mohammed, said, "the proper answer to it is the sword." mr. martyn writes, february : "this is my birthday, on which i complete my thirty-first year. the persian new testament has been begun and finished in it. such a painful year i never passed, owing to the privations i have been called to, on the one hand, and the spectacle before me of human depravity on the other. but i hope i have not come to this seat of satan in vain. the word of god has found its way into persia, and it is not in satan's power to oppose its progress if the lord hath sent it." the psalms in persian was finished by the middle of march. on the d mr. martyn writes: "i called on the vizier. in the court where he received me, mirza ibraheem was lecturing. finding myself so near my old and respectable antagonist, i expressed a wish to see him, on which jaffier ali khan went up to ascertain if my visit would be agreeable. the master consented, but some of the disciples demurred. at last, one of them, observing that by the blessing of god on the master's conversation i might possibly be converted, it was agreed that i should be invited to ascend. then it became a question where i ought to sit. below all would not be respectful to a stranger, but above all the moollahs could not be tolerated. i entered and was surprised at the numbers. the room was lined with moollahs on both sides and at the top. i was about to sit down on the floor but was beckoned to an empty place near the top, opposite to the master, who, after the usual compliments, without further ceremony, asked me, 'what we meant by calling christ, god?' war being thus unequivocally declared, i had nothing to do but stand upon the defensive. mirza ibraheem argued temperately enough; but of the rest, some were very violent and clamorous. the former asked 'if christ had ever called himself god--was he the creator or a creature?' i replied, 'the creator.' the moollahs looked at one another. such a confession had never before been heard among the mohammedan doctors. "one moollah wanted to controvert some of my illustrations by interrogating me about the personality of christ. to all his questions i replied by requesting the same information respecting his own person. to another, who was rather contemptuous and violent, i said 'if you do not approve of our doctrine, will you be so good as to say what god is, according to you, that i may worship a proper object?' one said, 'the author of the universe.' 'i can form no idea from these words,' said i, 'but of a workman at work upon a vast number of materials. is that a correct notion?' another said, 'one who came of himself into being.' 'so then he came,' i replied, 'out of one place into another, and before he came he was not. is this an abstract and refined notion?' after this no one asked me any more questions, and for fear the dispute should be renewed jaffier ali khan carried me away." when we think of the bigotry and intolerance of these people and of mr. martyn's unflinching courage single-handed and alone, declaring the truth and preaching christ, exposed to the greatest personal danger, contempt and insult, but unabashed, he stands before the world during his shiraz residence as one of the bravest and grandest heroes that has ever lived. such a spectacle is thrilling and sublime. god was with him to protect him and to inspire his magnificent confessions. a figure-head in history! a sight for angels and for men! faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, his loyalty he kept, his zeal, his love. and god was with him to cheer and comfort, and we rejoice to know that some of the scenes of his life in shiraz were quiet and restful. at one time a tent was pitched for him in a garden in the suburbs of the city. living amidst clusters of grapes by the side of a clear stream and frequently sitting under the shade of an orange tree, which jaffier ali khan delighted to point out to visitors, until the day of his own departure, he passed many a tranquil hour, and enjoyed many a sabbath of holy rest and divine refreshment. he says: "passed some days at jaffier ali khan's garden with mirza seid ali, aga baba, sheikh abul hassam, reading at their request the old testament histories. their attention to the word and their love and respect for me seemed to increase as the time for my departure approached. aga baba, who had been reading st. matthew, related very circumstantially to the company the particulars of the death of christ. the bed of roses on which we sat and the notes of the nightingales warbling around us, were not so sweet to me as this discourse from the persian." the plain of shiraz is covered with ancient ruins, and contains the tombs of the poets zaadi and hafiz. a vision of the bright shiraz, of persian bards the theme; the vine with bunches laden hangs o'er the crystal stream; the nightingale all day her notes in rosy thicket trills, and the brooding heat-mist faintly lies along the distant hills. about the plain are scattered wide in many a crumbling heap, the fanes of other days, and tombs where iran's poets sleep; and in the midst, like burnished gems, in noonday light repose the minarets of bright shiraz,--the city of the rose. one group beside the river bank in rapt discourse are seen, where hangs the golden orange on its boughs of purest green; their words are sweet and low, and their looks are lit with joy, some holy blessing seems to rest on them and their employ. the pale-faced frank among them sits; what brought him from afar? nor bears he bales of merchandise, nor teaches skill in war; one pearl alone he brings with him--the book of life and death,-- one warfare only teaches he,--to fight the fight of faith. and iran's sons are round him, and one with solemn tone tells how the lord of glory was rejected by his own; tells from the wondrous gospel of the trial and the doom,-- the words divine of love and might,--the scourge, the cross, the tomb. far sweeter to the stranger's ear these eastern accents sound, than music of the nightingale that fills the air around; lovelier than balmiest odors sent from gardens of the rose, the fragrance from the contrite soul and chastened lip that flows. the nightingales have ceased to sing, the roses' leaves are shed, the frank's pale face in tocat's field hath mouldered with the dead; alone and all unfriended midst his master's work he fell, with none to bathe his fevered brow, with none his tale to tell. but still those sweet and solemn tones about him sound in bliss, and fragrance from those flowers of god forevermore is his; for his the meed, by grace, of those who rich in zeal and love, turn many unto righteousness, and shine as stars above. . --henry alford. on the th of may, after a year's residence, mr. martyn left shiraz, bearing his precious translation to be presented to the shah. the journey was an occasion of disappointment, exposure and suffering. arrived at the shah's camp he says: "june th, attended the vizier's levee, when there was a most intemperate and clamorous controversy kept up for an hour or two, eight or ten on one side, and i on the other. amongst them were two moollahs, the most ignorant of any i have met in persia or india. it would be impossible to enumerate all the absurd things they said. their vulgarity in interrupting me in the middle of a speech, their utter ignorance of the nature of an argument, their impudent assertions about the law and the gospel, neither of which they had ever seen in their lives, moved my indignation. the vizier said, 'you had better say, god is god and mohammed is the prophet of god.' i said, 'god is god,' but added, instead of 'mohammed is the prophet of god,' 'jesus is the son of god.' they had no sooner heard this, which i had avoided bringing forward till then, than they all exclaimed in contempt and anger, 'he is neither born nor begets,' and rose up as if they would have torn me in pieces. one of them said, 'what will you say when your tongue is burnt out for this blasphemy?' "my book which i had brought, expecting to present it to the king, lay before mirza shufi. as they all rose up after him to go, some to the king, and some away, i was afraid they would trample upon the book; so i went in among them to take it up, and wrapped it in a towel before them, while they looked at it and me with supreme contempt. thus i walked away alone to my tent to pass the rest of the day in heat and dirt. what have i done, thought i, to merit all this scorn? nothing, i trust, but bearing testimony to jesus. i thought over these things in prayer and found the peace which christ hath promised. to complete the trials of the day a messenger came from the vizier in the evening to say that it was the custom of the king not to see any englishman unless presented by the ambassador or accredited by a letter from him, and that i must therefore wait till the king reached sultania, where the ambassador would be." traveling toward tabriz he writes, june : "met with the usual insulting treatment at the caravansarai when the king's servant had got possession of a good room built for the reception of the better order of guests; they seemed to delight in the opportunity of humbling a european--all along the road when the king is expected the people are patiently waiting as for some dreadful disaster; plague, pestilence or famine are nothing to the misery of being subject to the violence and extortion of this rabble soldiery. "june . have eaten nothing now for two days. my mind much disordered from headache and giddiness;--but my heart is with christ and his saints. "june . passed the third day in the same exhausted state, my head tortured with shocking pains, such as, together with the horror i felt at being exposed to the sun, showed me plainly to what to ascribe my sickness." thus in great illness and suffering mr. martyn reached tabriz, and was nursed through a fever of two months' continuance at the ambassador's residence. this defeated his plan of presenting the persian new testament to the king--but it was afterwards done by sir gore ouseley himself, and publicly received the royal approbation, and still later was printed in st. petersburg. on leaving cawnpore, mr. martyn had intended returning to england, but had willingly remained in persia to finish the translation, which being now disposed of, he reverted to his original intention, and set out on his last fatal journey towards constantinople, september . his journal is filled with expressions of gratitude for restored health, delight in the scenery of tabriz, descriptions of the country and the journey, the araxes river, the hoary peaks of ararat, the governor's palace, the ancient armenian church and monastery at ech-miazin, where he received great kindness from the patriarch and the monks. he was profoundly impressed with the view from an elevated table-land looking out upon persia, russia and turkey--a pisgah vision, which excites in later missionaries a strong desire for christian conquest. describes cars and erzroom. september , left erzroom. was attacked with fever and ague. "september . took nothing all day but tea; headache and loss of appetite depressed my spirits, yet my soul rests in him who is as anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which, not seen, keeps me fast. "october . marched over a mountainous tract; we were out from seven in the morning till eight at night. after sitting a little by the fire i was near fainting from sickness. my depression of spirits led me to the throne of grace as a sinful abject worm. when i thought of myself and my transgressions, i could find no text so cheering as, 'my ways are not as your ways.' from the men who accompanied sir wm. ouseley to constantinople i learned that the plague was raging at constantinople and thousands dying every day. one of the persians had died of it. they added that the inhabitants of tocat were flying from their town from the same cause. thus i am passing into imminent danger. o lord thy will be done! living or dying, remember me. "october . lodged in the stables of the post-house. as soon as it began to grow a little cold, the ague came on and then the fever, after which i had a sleep, which let me know too plainly the disorder of my frame. in the night hossan sent to summon me away, but i was quite unable to move. finding me still in bed at the dawn he began to storm furiously at my detaining him so long, but i quietly let him spend his ire, ate my breakfast composedly, and set out at eight. he seemed determined to make up for the delay, for we flew over hill and dale to sherean, where we changed horses. from thence we traveled all the rest of the day and all night. it rained most of the time. after sunset the ague came on again, which in my wet state was very trying. i hardly know how to keep my life in me. about that time there was a village at hand, but hassan had no mercy. the night was pitchy dark, so that i could not see the road under my horse's feet. however, god being mercifully pleased to alleviate my bodily suffering, i went on contentedly to the munzil (stopping-place). after sleeping three or four hours hassan hurried me away, and galloped furiously toward a village, which he said was four hours distant, which was all i could undertake in my present state; but village after village did he pass, till night coming on, and no signs of another, i suspected he was carrying me on to the munzil; so i got off my horse and sat upon the ground and told him i neither could nor would go any farther. he stormed, but i was immovable, till a light, appearing at a distance, i mounted my horse and made toward it, leaving him to follow or not as he pleased. he brought in the party, but would not exert himself to get a place for me. they brought me to an open verandah, but sergius told them i wanted a place in which to be alone. this seemed very offensive to them, 'and why must he be alone'? they asked, ascribing this desire of mine to pride, i suppose. tempted at last by money they brought me to a stable room, and hassan and a number of others planted themselves there with me. my fever here increased to a violent degree, the heat in my eyes and forehead was so great that the fire almost made me frantic. i entreated that it might be put out or that i might be carried out of doors. neither was attended to; my servant, who from my sitting in that strange way on the ground, believed me delirious, was deaf to all i said. at last i pushed my head in among the luggage and lodged it on the damp ground and slept. "october . preserving mercy made me see the light of another morning. the sleep had refreshed me but i was feeble and shaken, yet the merciless hassan hurried me off. i was pretty well lodged and felt tolerably well till a little after sunset, when the ague came on with a violence i had never before experienced. i felt as if in a palsy, my teeth chattering, and my whole frame violently shaken. aga hosyn and another persian on their way here from constantinople, came hastily to render me assistance if they could. these persians appear quite brotherly after the turks. while they pitied me, hassan sat in perfect indifference, ruminating on the further delay this was likely to occasion. the cold fit after continuing two or three hours was followed by a fever, which lasted the whole night and prevented sleep. "october . no horses were to be had, and i had an unexpected repose. sat in the orchard and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my god: in solitude my companion, friend and comforter. oh, when shall time give place to eternity--when shall appear that new heaven and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness! there, there shall in no wise enter in anything that defileth; none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts, none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of humanity, shall be seen or heard of any more." here abruptly closes the journal, with pantings for the glory and the purity of immanuel's land, into which he was admitted by a blessed translation, released from all the sufferings of life on october , , at tocat, turkey. the manner of his death is not known, whether it resulted from the sickness described, or from the plague, then raging. whether hassan was cruel and driving to the last, whether all his heartless turkish attendants deserted him or not in his hour of final agony, we cannot tell. no relative or friend was there, no tender voice of sympathy, no woman's soothing hand, no alleviations from medicine. even the commonest decencies and necessities of civilized life were lacking. earth gave nothing to henry martyn in his mortal need, but we are sure heavenly consolations were unstinted. "jesus can make a dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are." and jesus was there! and henry martyn was satisfied, and is forever satisfied! "precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints." and the most priceless legacy of the blood-bought and commissioned church is the memory of a life, so gifted, so unselfish, so consecrated. it is wanting in no element of moral heroism. our souls confess its grandeur. the contemplation lifts us into a higher atmosphere than that of mammon, and self, and earth. we rejoice to see a crown so rare, so fair, so precious, laid at the feet of jesus, the king. he is worthy. and we long to see the youth of our land and the church inspired by henry martyn's example, as he was inspired by david brainerd's. and so we would have the apostolic succession continued till the millennium, of such as shall not count their lives dear for the testimony of the gospel. it is said that after mr. martyn's death one of his earliest and most devoted friends, the rev. charles simeon, used always to keep his picture before him in his study for help and inspiration. "move where he would through the apartment, it seemed to keep its eyes upon him, and ever to say to him, 'be earnest, be earnest; don't trifle, don't trifle,' and the good simeon would gently bow to the speaking picture, and with a smile, reply, 'yes, i will; i will be in earnest, i will not trifle; for souls are perishing and jesus is to be glorified.'" would that henry martyn's life might bring such a message to every heart, and awaken in every one a similar response. missionary annals. price per vol., cloth c., paper c. i. memoir of robert moffat _by mrs. m. l. wilder_. ii. life of adoniram judson _by miss julia h. johnston_. iii. woman and the gospel in persia _by rev. thomas laurie, d.d._ iv. life of rev. justin perkins, d.d. _by rev. henry martyn perkins_. v. life of david livingstone _by mrs. j. h. worcester, jr._ others in preparation. sent postpaid on receipt of price. chicago: woman's presbyterian board of missions of the northwest. room , mccormick block. [illustration: his majesty the shah of persia.] across coveted lands or a journey from flushing (holland) to calcutta, overland by a. henry savage landor _with illustrations, diagrams, plans and maps_ _by author_ in two volumes vol. i london macmillan and co., limited _all rights reserved_ richard clay and sons, limited, london and bungay list of illustrations _to face page_ his majesty the shah of persia _frontispiece_ the baku oil wells the amir of bokhara leaving baku to return to his country persian wrestling fourgons on the russian road between resht and teheran making a _kanat_ the murderer of nasr-ed-din shah persian cossacks (teheran) drilled by russian officers the eftetahié college, supported by meftah-el-mulk h. e. mushir-ed-doulet, minister of foreign affairs persian soldiers--the band recruits learning music the arrival of a caravan of silver at the imperial bank of persia the imperial bank of persia decorated on the shah's birthday a typical persian window. (mr. rabino's house, teheran.) the first position in persian wrestling palawans, or strong men giving a display of feats of strength iman jumeh. head priest of teheran, and official sayer of prayers to the shah sahib divan, who was at various periods governor of shiraz and khorassan persian woman and child a picturesque beggar girl ruku sultaneh, brother of the present shah the shah in his automobile the sadrazam's (prime minister's) residence, teheran in the shah's palace grounds, teheran the shah and his suite rock sculpture near shah-abdul-azim author's diligence between teheran and kum the track along the kohrut dam between gyabrabad and kohrut the interior of chappar khana at kohrut chapparing--the author's post horses persian escort firing at brigands jewish girls, isfahan an isfahan jew the square, isfahan the palace gate, isfahan boys weaving a carpet cotton cleaners handsome doorway in the madrassah, isfahan one of zil-es-sultan's eunuchs the "hall of forty columns," isfahan the quivering minarets near isfahan h.r.h. zil-es-sultan, governor of isfahan agriculture and pigeon towers near isfahan persian spinning wheels and weaving looms halting at a caravanserai a street in yezd, showing high _badjirs_ or ventilating shafts ardeshir meheban irani and the leading members of the anguman-i-nasseri (parsee national assembly), yezd parsee priests of yezd officiating during ceremony in their fire temple interior of old caravanserai with central water tank typical caravanserai and mud fort in the desert between yezd and kerman a trade caravanserai, kerman h. e. ala-el-mulk, governor of kerman, in his palace tiled walls and picturesque windows in the madrassah, kerman sirkar agha's son, the head of the sheikhi sect, kerman the interior of a hammam or bath--first room the hot room in a persian bath the kala-i-dukhtar or virgin fort graveyard and kala-i-dukhtar or virgin fort, kerman ruined houses of farmitan plan of house at farmitan a steep rock climb, kerman a view of the kerman plain from the "ya ali" inscription wives returning from the pilgrimage for sterile women map at the end of volume. across coveted lands chapter i the start--the terrors of the russian custom-house--an amusing incident at the russian frontier--politeness of russian officials--warsaw: its sights; its lovely women--the talented pole--people who know how to travel by train--a ludicrous scene. "first single to baku," i requested when my turn came at the window of the ticket office at victoria station. "baku?--where is that?" queried the ticket man. "in southern russia." "oh, i see! well, we cannot book further than warsaw for russia." "warsaw will do. . . . . how much? . . . thank you." my baggage having next been duly registered direct for the capital of poland, off i set to queenborough, crossed over by the night boat to flushing, and continued the following morning by express to berlin. once in the russian train from the german capital one hears a great deal of the terrors of the approaching russian custom-house, and here i may relate rather an amusing incident which will prove what these terrors amount to. in my sleeping car there happened to be some french merchants on their way to the fair of nijni-novgorod. on perceiving my two rifles, a good-sized ammunition case, and two cameras, one of the gentlemen gratuitously informed me that if i intended to proceed to russia i had better leave all these things behind, or they would all be confiscated at the frontier. i begged to differ, and the frenchmen laughed boisterously at my ignorance, and at what would happen presently. in their imaginative minds they perceived my valued firearms being lost for ever, and predicted my being detained at the police station till it pleased _les terribles cossacques_ to let me proceed. "evidently," shouted one of the frenchmen at the top of his voice, "this is your first journey abroad. . . . _we_," he added, "are great travellers. we have been once before in russia." "you _are_ great travellers!" i exclaimed, with the emphasis very strong on the _are_, and pretending intense admiration. naturally the franco-russian alliance was dragged into the conversation; were i a frenchman i might fare less badly. the russians and the french were brothers. but a british subject! a hated englishman bringing into russia two rifles, two revolvers, six hundred cartridges, twelve hundred photographic plates, two cameras, a large case of scientific instruments, all of which i would duly declare! why? russia was not england. i should soon experience how englishmen were treated in some countries. "russians," he exclaimed, "have not a polished manner like the french. _ah, non!_ they are semi-barbarians yet. they respect and fear the french, but not the english. . . . _par exemple!_" the frontier station of alexandrovo was reached, and a horde of terror-stricken passengers alighted from the carriages, preceded and followed by bags, portmanteaux, hold-alls, and bundles of umbrellas, which were hastily conveyed to the long tables of the huge custom-house inspection room. the two frenchmen had their belongings next to mine on the long counter, and presently an officer came. they were french subjects and they had nothing to declare. their elaborately decorated bags were instantly ordered open and turned upside down, while the officer searched with some gusto among the contents now spread on the table. there was a small pocket camera, two packets of photographic plates, some soiled handkerchiefs, collars and cuffs, a box of fancy note-paper, a bottle of scent, a pair of embroidered pantoufles, and a lot of patent brass studs and cuff links. with the exception of the soiled linen, everything was seized, for all were liable to duty, and some sharp words of reprimand were used by the officer to my now subdued french neighbours for attempting to smuggle. the officer moved on to me. "monsieur," mournfully remarked the frenchman, "now _you_ will be done for." i declared everything and produced a special permit, which had been very courteously given me by the russian ambassador, and handed it to the officer. having eagerly read it, he stood with his heels together and gave me a military salute. with a profound bow he begged me to point out to him all my luggage so that he could have it stamped without giving me further trouble. he politely declined to use the keys i handed him, and thinking that i might feel uncomfortable in the hustling crowd of people he conveyed me to a chair in order that i might sit down. i turned round to look at the frenchmen. they had altogether collapsed. "i thought you said that englishmen were hated in russia, and that they would confiscate all my things? you see they have confiscated nothing," i meekly remarked to the frenchmen, when they returned to the sleeping car. "i do not think that i have met with more polite customs officials anywhere." "_oui, oui_," muttered the stouter frenchman, who was evidently in no mood to enter into further conversation. "_et nous autres bêtes_," he soliloquized, "_qui avons fait l'alliance avec ces sauvages là! on m'a tout pris même le papier à lettres!_" he removed his coat and waistcoat and the many interesting patent appliances for holding his tie in the correct position--where it never remained--then he threw himself violently on the berth, face towards the wall, and grumbled the greater part of the night on the stupid mistake of the franco-russian alliance. on his return to france he would write a letter to the ministre des affaires Étrangères. after a long and tedious soliloquy he fortunately fell asleep. warsaw on the vistula, the old capital of poland, was reached in the morning. the quickest way to baku would have been to proceed to moscow and then by the so-called "petroleum express," which leaves once a week, every tuesday, for baku. unluckily, i could not reach moscow in time, and therefore decided to travel across russia by the next best route, _via_ kiev, rostoff, and the caspian. the few hours i remained in warsaw were pleasantly spent in going about seeing the usual sights; the palace and lovely lazienski gardens, laid out in the old bed of the vistula; the out-of-door theatre on a small island, the auditorium being separated by water from the stage; the lakes, the saski ogrod, and the krasinski public gardens; the jewish quarter of the town; the museums of ancient and modern art. there are few cities in europe that are prettier, cleaner, and more animated than warsaw, and few women in the world that have a better claim to good looks than the warsaw fair sex. the majority of women one sees in the streets are handsome, and carry themselves well, and their dress is in good taste, never over-done as it is in paris, for instance. the whole city has a flourishing appearance, with its tramways, gay omnibuses, electric light, telephones, and every modern convenience. the streets are broad and cheerful. in the newer parts of the city there are beautiful residences, several of which, i was told, belong to british subjects settled there. the russian military element is very strong, for poland's love for russia is not yet very great. as we walk along the main thoroughfares a long string of cossacks, in their long black felt cloaks and astrakan caps, canter along. they are a remarkably picturesque and business-like lot of soldiers. poles are civility itself, that is, of course, if one is civil to them. historically the place is of extreme interest, and the battlefields of novogeorgievsk, which played such an important part in the polish insurrection of , and of grochowo, where the poles were defeated, are well worth a visit. at maciejowice, too, some fifty miles up the vistula, kosciuzko was made prisoner by the conquering russians. warsaw is the third largest city in the russian empire, and its favourable geographical position makes it one of the great pivots of eastern europe. with a navigable river and the great main railway lines to important centres such as berlin, vienna, moscow, st. petersburg, dantzig, kiev, and odessa, with good climatic conditions, and fertile soil; with the pick of natural talent in art and science, and the love for enterprise that is innate in the polish character, warsaw cannot help being a prosperous place. the city has very extensive suburbs. the best known to foreigners, praga, on the opposite bank of the vistula, is connected with warsaw by two iron bridges. warsaw itself is built on terraces, one above another, along the bank of the river, but the main portion of the city stands on a high undulating plain above. there are over a hundred catholic, several greek churches, and a number of synagogues; a university, schools of art, academies, fourteen monasteries, and two nunneries. there are few places in the world where the artisan or the common workman is more intelligent and artistic, and where the upper classes are more refined and soundly cultured, than in warsaw. with a certain reflex of the neighbouring german commercial influence, the place has become a thriving manufacturing and trading centre. machinery, excellent pianos and other musical instruments, carriages, silver and electro-plate, boots and leather goods are manufactured and exported on a large scale. the tanneries of warsaw are renowned the world over, and the warsaw boots are much sought after all over the russian empire for their softness, lightness and durability. then there are great exports of wheat, flax, sugar, beer, spirits, and tobacco. but time is short, and we must drive to the station. say what you will about the russian, there is a thing that he certainly knows how to do. he knows how to travel by rail. one has a great many preconceived ideas of the russian and his ways. one is always reminded that he is a barbarian, that he is ignorant, that he is dirty. he is possibly a barbarian in one way, that he can differentiate good from bad, real comfort from "optical illusions" or illusions of any other kind, a thing highly civilised people seem generally unable to do. this is particularly noticeable in russian railway travelling,--probably the best and cheapest in the world. to begin with, when you take a first-class ticket it entitles you to a seat numbered and reserved that nobody can appropriate. no more tickets are sold than correspond with the accommodation provided in the train. this does away entirely with the "leaving one's umbrella" business, to secure a seat, or scattering one's belongings all over the carriage to ensure the whole compartment to one's self, to the inconvenience of other travellers. then first, second and third-class passengers are provided with sleeping accommodation. the sleeping accommodation, especially for first and second-class passengers, consists of a wide and long berth wherein they can turn round at their will, if they please, not of a short, narrow bunk in which even a lean person has to lie edgewise or roll out, as in the continental sleeping car, for which discomfort (rather than accommodation) preposterous extra charges have to be paid, above the first-class fare. then, too, in the latter the compartments are so small, so ridiculously ventilated, that after one night spent boxed in, especially if another passenger shares the same cabin, one feels sick for some hours, and in the day-time one has no room to turn round, nor space to put one's legs. as for the lighting, the less said the better. these faults exist in our own and the continental first-class compartments. but the barbarian russian knows and does better. the line being of a very broad gauge, his first-class carriages are extremely spacious and very high, with large windows and efficacious ventilators; and there is plenty of room everywhere to spread one's limbs in every direction. there is probably less gilding about the ceiling, fewer nickel-plated catches about the doors; not so much polished wood, nor ghastly coloured imitation-leather paper, nor looking-glasses, but very convenient folding-tables are found instead; the seats are ample and serviceable, of plain, handsome red velvet, devoid of the innumerable dust-collecting button-pits--that striking feature of british and continental railway-carriage decoration. movable cushions are provided for one's back and head. there are bright electric lights burning overhead, and adjustable reading lights in the corners of the carriage. a corridor runs along the whole train, and for a few kopeks passengers can at any moment procure excellent tea, caviare sandwiches, or other light refreshments from attendants. now for the bedding itself. the russian, who is ever a practical man, carries his own bedding--a couple of sheets, blankets, and small pillow,--a custom infinitely cleaner and more sensible than sleeping in dubious, smelly blankets of which one does not know who has used them before, nor when they were washed last. but if passengers wish, by paying a rouble (two shillings) a night to the guard, bedding is provided by the railway. there is a fine _lavabo_ at the end of each carriage, with shampoo, hot and cold water, etc. here, too, by asking the guard, towels are handed over to those passengers who have not brought their own. here i may relate another amusing incident. unable to get at my towels packed in my registered baggage, and ignorant of the russian language, i inquired of a polyglot fellow-passenger what was the russian word for towel, so that i could ask the guard for one. "_palatiensi_," said he, and i repeated, "palatiensi, palatiensi, palatiensi," so as to impress the word well upon my memory. having enjoyed a good wash and a shampoo, and dripping all over with water, i rang for the guard, and sure enough, when the man came, i could not recollect the word. at last it dawned upon me that it was,--"_palatinski_," and "_palatinski_," i asked of the guard. to my surprise the guard smiled graciously, and putting on a modest air replied: "_palatinski niet, paruski_ (i do not speak latin, i speak only russian)," and the more i repeated "palatinski," putting the inflection now on one syllable, then on the other, to make him understand, the more flattered the man seemed to be, and modestly gave the same answer. this was incomprehensible to me, until my polyglot fellow-passenger came to my assistance. "do you know what you are asking the guard?" he said in convulsions of laughter. "yes, i am asking for a 'palatinski'--a towel." "no, you are not!" and he positively went into hysterics. "palatinski means 'do you speak latin?' how can you expect a russian railway-guard to speak latin? look how incensed the poor man is at being mistaken for a latin scholar! ask him for a _palatiensi_, and he will run for a towel." the man did run on the magic word being pronounced, and duly returned with a nice clean _palatiensi_, which, however, was little use to me for i had by this time nearly got dry by the natural processes of dripping and evaporation. one or two other similar incidents, and the extreme civility one meets from every one while travelling in russia, passed the time away pleasantly until kiev, one of the oldest cities of russia, was reached. chapter ii kiev--its protecting saint--intellectuality and trade--priests and education--wherein lies the strength of russia--industries--a famous monastery--the catacombs of st. theodosius and st. anthony--pilgrims--veneration of saints--the dnieper river--churches--a luminous cross--kharkoff--agriculture--horse fairs--rostoff--votka drunkenness--strong fortifications--cheap and good travelling--baku. tradition tells us that kiev was founded before the christian era, and its vicissitudes have since been many and varied. it has at all times been considered one of the most important ecclesiastical centres of russia,--if not indeed the most important--but particularly since st. vladimir, the protecting saint of the city, preached christianity there in , this being the first time that the religion of christ had been expounded in russia. a century and a half before that time (in ) kiev was the capital city of the state and remained such till . in it was captured by mongols who held it for years. the lithuanians came next, and remained in possession for years, until ; then poland possessed it until the year , when it became part of the russian empire. kiev has the name of being a very intellectual city. somehow or other, intellectuality and trade do not seem to go together, and although the place boasts of a military school and arsenal, theological colleges, a university, a school of sacred picture painters, and a great many scientific and learned societies, we find that none of these are locally put to any marked practical use, except the sacred-picture painting; the images being disposed of very rapidly, and for comparatively high prices all over the country. hardly any religious resorts are great commercial centres, the people of these places being generally conservative and bigoted and the ruling priestly classes devoting too much attention to idealism to embark in commercial enterprise, which leaves little time for praying. agriculture and horticulture are encouraged and give good results. the priests make money--plenty of it--by their religion, and they probably know that there is nothing more disastrous to religion in laymen than rapid money-making by trade or otherwise. with money comes education, and with education, too powerful a light thrown upon superstition and idolatry. it is nevertheless possible, even probable, that in the ignorance of the masses, in the fervent and unshaken confidence which they possess in god, the czar and their leaders, may yet lie the greatest strength of russia. it must not be forgotten that half-educated, or half uneducated, masses are probably the weakness to-day of most other civilised nations. some business on a small scale, however, is transacted at the various fairs held in kiev, such as the great fair at the beginning of the russian year. there are many beet-root sugar refineries, the staple industry of the country, and next come leather tanneries, worked leather, machinery, spirits, grain and tobacco. wax candles are manufactured in huge quantities, and in the monastery there is a very ancient printing-press for religious books. peter the great erected a fortress here in a most commanding spot. it is said to contain up-to-date guns. a special pass has to be obtained from the military authorities to be allowed to enter it, not so much because it is used as an arsenal, but because from the high tower a most excellent panoramic view is obtained of the city, the neighbourhood, and the course of the river down below. but kiev is famous above all for its monastery, the kievo-petcherskaya, near which the two catacombs of st. theodosius and st. antony attract over three hundred thousand pilgrims every year. the first catacomb contains forty-five bodies of saints, the other eighty and the revered remains are stored in plain wood or silver-mounted coffins, duly labelled with adequate inscriptions. the huge monastery itself bears the appearance of great wealth, and has special accommodation for pilgrims. as many as , pilgrims are said to receive board and lodging yearly in the monastery. these are naturally pilgrims of the lower classes. enormous riches in solid gold, silver and jewellery are stored in the monastery and are daily increased by devout gifts. but let us visit the catacombs. the spare-looking, long-haired and bearded priests at the entrance of the catacomb present to each pilgrim, as a memento, a useful and much valued wax candle, which one lights and carries in one's hand down the steep and slippery steps of the subterranean passages. all along, the procession halts before mummified and most unattractive bodies, a buzzing of prayers being raised by the pilgrims when the identity of each saint is explained by the priest conducting the party. the more devout people stoop over the bodies and kiss them fervently all over, voluntarily and gladly disbursing in return for the privilege all such small cash as may lie idle in their pockets. down and down the crowd goes through the long winding, cold, damp, rancid-smelling passages, devoid of the remotest gleam of ventilation, and where one breathes air so thick and foul that it sticks to one's clothes and furs one's tongue, throat and lungs for several hours after one has emerged from the catacombs into fresh air again. yet there are hermit monks who spend their lives underground without ever coming up to the light, and in doing so become bony, discoloured, ghastly creatures, with staring, inspired eyes and hollow cheeks, half demented to all appearance, but much revered and respected by the crowds for their self-sacrifice. further on the pilgrims drink holy water out of a small cup made in the shape of a cross, with which the liquid is served out from a larger vessel. the expression of beatitude on their faces as they sip of the holy water, and their amazing reverence for all they see and are told to do, are quite extraordinary to watch, and are quite refreshing in these dying days of idealism supplanted by fast-growing and less poetic atheistic notions. the scowl i received from the priest when my turn came and he lifted the tin cross to my lips, is still well impressed upon my mind. i drew back and politely declined to drink. there was a murmur of strong disapproval from all the people present, and the priest grumbled something; but really, what with the fetid smell of tallow-candle smoke, the used-up air, and the high scent of pilgrims--and religious people ever have a pungent odour peculiar to themselves--water, whether holy or otherwise, was about the very beverage that would have finished me up at that particular moment. glad i was to be out in the open air again, driving through the pretty gardens of kiev, and to enjoy the extensive view from the high cliffs overlooking the winding dnieper river. a handsome suspension bridge joins the two banks. the river is navigable and during the spring floods the water has been known to rise as much as twenty feet. the city of kiev is situated on high undulating ground some feet above the river, and up to consisted of the old town, podol and petchersk, to which forty-two years later were added shulyavka, solomenka, kurenevka and lukyanovka, the city being divided into eight districts. the more modern part of the town is very handsome, with wide streets and fine stone houses of good architecture, whereas the poorer abodes are mostly constructed of wood. as in all the other cities of russia there are in kiev a great many churches, over seventy in all, the oldest of which is the cathedral of st. sophia in the centre of the town, built as early as on the spot where the petchenegs were defeated the previous year by yarosloff. it is renowned for its superb altar, its valuable mosaics and the tombs of russian grand-dukes. next in importance is the church of the assumption, containing the bodies of seven saints conveyed here from constantinople. at night the cross borne by the statue of vladimir, erected on a high point overlooking the dnieper, is lighted up by electricity. this luminous cross can be seen for miles and miles all over the country, and the effect is most impressive and weird. from kiev i had to strike across country, and the trains were naturally not quite so luxurious as the express trains on the main line, but still the carriages were of the same type, extremely comfortable and spacious, and all the trains corridor trains. the next important city where i halted for a few hours was kharkoff in the ukraine, an agricultural centre where beet-root was raised in huge quantities and sugar manufactured from it; wheat was plentiful, and good cattle, sheep and horses were bred. the population was mostly of cossacks of the don and little russians. the industries of the place were closely akin to farming. agricultural implements were manufactured; there were wool-cleaning yards, soap and candle factories, wheat-mills, brandy distilleries, leather tanneries, cloth manufactories, and brick kilns. the horse fairs at kharkoff are patronised by buyers from all parts of russia, but to outsiders the city is probably better known as the early cradle of nihilistic notions. although quite a handsome city, with fine streets and remarkably good shops, kharkoff has nothing special to attract the casual visitor, and in ordinary times a few hours are more than sufficient to get a fair idea of the place. with a railway ticket punched so often that there is very little left of it, we proceed to rostoff, where we shall strike the main line from moscow to the caucasus. here is a comparatively new city--not unlike the shambling lesser western cities of the united states of america, with plenty of tumbling-down, made-anyhow fences, and empty tin cans lying everywhere. the streets are unpaved, and the consequent dust blinding, the drinking saloons in undue proportion to the number of houses, and votka-drunken people in undue proportion to the population. votka-drunkenness differs from the intoxication of other liquors in one particular. instead of "dead drunk" it leaves the individuals drunk-dead. you see a disgusting number of these corpse-like folks lying about the streets, cadaverous-looking and motionless, spread flat on their faces or backs, uncared-for by everybody. some sleep it off, and, if not run over by a droshki, eventually go home; some sleep it on, and are eventually conveyed to the graveyard, and nobody seems any the wiser except, of course, the people who do not drink bad votka to excess. rostoff stands at the head of the delta of the don, a position of great strategical importance, where of course the russians have not failed to build strong fortifications. these were begun as early as . now very active ship-building yards are found here, and extensive caviare factories. leather, wool, corn, soap, ropes and tobacco are also exported, and the place, apart from its military importance, is steadily growing commercially. the majority of shops seem to deal chiefly in american and german made agricultural implements, machinery and tools, and in firearms and knives of all sizes and shapes. the place is not particularly clean and certainly hot, dusty and most unattractive. one is glad to get into the train again and steam away from it. as we get further south towards the caucasus the country grows more barren and hot, the dust is appalling, but the types of inhabitants at the little stations become very picturesque. the georgians are very fine people and the armenians too, in appearance at least. the station sheds along the dusty steppes are guarded by soldiers, presumably to prevent attacks on the trains, and as one gets near the caspian one begins to see the wooden pyramids over oil wells, and long freight trains of petroleum carried in iron cylindrical tanks. the wells get more numerous as we go along; the stations more crowded with petroleum tanks. we are nearing the great naphtha wells of baku, where at last we arrive, having travelled from tuesday to sunday afternoon, or five days, except a few hours' halt in kiev, kharkoff and rostoff. [illustration: the baku oil wells.] the first-class railway fare from warsaw for the whole journey was fully covered by a five-pound note, and, mind you, could have been done cheaper if one chose to travel by slower trains on a less direct route! chapter iii baku--unnecessary anxiety--a storm--oil wells--naphtha spouts--how the wells are worked--the native city--the baku bay--fortifications--the maiden's tower--depressing vegetation--baku dust--prosperity and hospitality--the amir of bokhara--the mail service to persia on the caspian--the mercury and caucasus line--lenkoran--astara (russo-persian boundary)--antiquated steamers. so many accounts are heard of how one's registered baggage in russia generally arrives with locks smashed and minus one's most valuable property, and how unpunctual in arriving luggage is, and how few passengers escape without having their pockets picked before reaching their destination--by the way, a fellow-passenger had his pockets picked at the station of mineralnya vod--that i was somewhat anxious to see my belongings again, and fully expected to find that something had gone wrong with them. much to my surprise, on producing the receipt at the very handsome railway terminus, all my portmanteaux and cases were instantly delivered in excellent condition. the caspian sea steamers for persia leave baku on sunday and tuesday at midnight. there was a fierce sand storm raging at the time and the steamer had returned without being able to land her passengers at their destination. i decided to wait till the tuesday. there is plenty to interest one in baku. i will not describe the eternal fires, described so often by other visitors, nor tell how naphtha was tapped for the first time at this place, and how in one particular well spouted oil with such tremendous force that it was impossible to check it and it deluged a good portion of the neighbourhood. a year later, in , another fountain rose to a height of ft. there are myriads of other lesser fountains and wells, each covered by a wooden shed like a slender pyramid, and it is a common occurrence to see a big spout of naphtha rising outside and high above the top of the wooden shed, now from one well, now from another. the process of bringing naphtha to the surface under ordinary circumstances is simple and effective, a metal cylinder is employed that has a valve at the lower end allowing the tube to fill while it descends, and closing automatically when the tube is full and is being raised above ground and emptied into pits provided for the purpose. the naphtha then undergoes the process of refinement. there are at the present moment hundreds of refineries in baku. the residue and waste of naphtha are used as fuel, being very much cheaper than coal or wood. the greater number of wells are found a few miles out of the town on the balakhani peninsula, and the naphtha is carried into the baku refineries by numerous pipe lines. the whole country round is, however, impregnated with oil, and even the sea in one or two bays near baku is coated with inflammable stuff and can be ignited by throwing a lighted match upon it. at night this has a weird effect. apart from the oil, baku--especially the european settlement--has nothing to fascinate the traveller. in the native city, persian in type, with flat roofs one above the other and the hill top crowned by a castle and the mosque of shah abbas, constant murders occur. the native population consists mostly of armenians and persians. cotton, saffron, opium, silk and salt are exported in comparatively small quantities. machinery, grain and dried fruit constitute the chief imports. the crescent-shaped baku bay, protected as it is by a small island in front of it, affords a safe anchorage for shipping. it has good ship-yards and is the principal station of the russian fleet in the caspian. since baku became part of the russian empire in the harbour has been very strongly fortified. the most striking architectural sight in baku is the round maiden's tower by the water edge, from the top of which the lovely daughter of the khan of baku precipitated herself on to the rocks below because she could not marry the man she loved. the most depressing sight in baku is the vegetation, or rather the strenuous efforts of the lover of plants to procure verdure at all costs in the gardens. it is seldom one's lot to see trees and plants look more pitiable, notwithstanding the unbounded care that is taken of them. the terrific heat of baku, the hot winds and sand-storms are deadly enemies to vegetation. nothing will grow. one does not see a blade of grass nor a shrub anywhere except those few that are artificially brought up. the sand is most trying. it is so fine that the wind forces it through anything, and one's tables, one's chairs, one's bed are yellow-coated with it. the tablecloth at the hotel, specklessly white when you begin to dine, gets gradually yellower at sight, and by the time you are half through your dinner the waiter has to come with a brush to remove the thick coating of dust on the table. these are the drawbacks, but there is an air of prosperity about the place and people that is distinctly pleasing, even although one may not share in it. there is quite a fair foreign community of business people, and their activity is very praiseworthy. the people are very hospitable--too hospitable. when they do not talk of naphtha, they drink sweet champagne in unlimited quantities. but what else could they do? everything is naphtha here, everything smells of naphtha, the steamers, the railway engines are run with naphtha. the streets are greasy with naphtha. occasionally--frequently of late--the monotony of the place is broken by fires of gigantic proportions on the premises of over-insured well-owners. the destruction to property on such occasions is immense, the fires spreading with incalculable rapidity over an enormous area, and the difficulty of extinguishing them being considerable. when i was in baku the amir of bokhara was being entertained in the city as guest of the government. his suite was quartered in the grand hotel. he had taken his usual tour through russia and no trouble had been spared to impress the amir with the greatness of the russian empire. he had been given a very good time, and i was much impressed with the pomp and cordiality with which he was treated. neither the governor nor any of the other officials showed him the usual stand-off manner which in india, for instance, would have been used towards an asiatic potentate, whether conquered by us or otherwise. they dealt with him as if he had been a european prince--at which the amir seemed much flattered. he had a striking, good-natured face with black beard and moustache, and dark tired eyes that clearly testified to russian hospitality. i went to see him off on the steamer which he kept waiting several hours after the advertised time of departure. he dolefully strode on board over a grand display of oriental rugs, while the military brass band provided for the occasion played russian selections. everybody official wore decorations, even the captain of the merchant ship, who proudly bore upon his chest a brilliant star--a bokhara distinction received from the amir on his outward journey for navigating him safely across the caspian. [illustration: the amir of bokhara leaving baku to return to his country.] the amir's suite was very picturesque, some of the men wearing long crimson velvet gowns embroidered in gold, others silk-checked garments. all had white turbans. the snapshot reproduced in the illustration shows the amir accompanied by the governor of baku just stepping on board. there is a regular mail service twice a week in summer, from april to the end of october, and once a week in winter, on the caspian between baku and enzeli in persia, the russian government paying a subsidy to the kavkas and mercury steam navigation company for the purpose of conveying passengers, mails (and, in the event of war, troops) into persia and back. there are also a number of coasting steamers constantly plying between the various ports on the caspian both on the russian and persian coast. the hurricane having abated there was a prospect of a fair voyage and the probability of landing at enzeli in persia, so when the tuesday came i went on board the old rickety paddle-steamer (no less than forty-five years old) which was to convey me to that port. she was one of the mercury-caucasus co. fleet, and very dirty she was, too. it is perhaps right to mention that for the first time in russia, purposeless rudeness and insolence came to my notice on the part of the ticket officials of the mercury line. they behaved like stupid children, and were absolutely incompetent to do the work which had been entrusted to them. they were somewhat surprised when i took them to task and made them "sit up." having found that they had played the fool with the wrong man they instantly became very meek and obliging. it is nevertheless a great pity that the mercury company should employ men of this kind who, for some aim of their own, annoy passengers, both foreign and russian, and are a disgrace to the company and their country. on board ship the captain, officers and stewards were extremely civil. nearly all the captains of the caspian steamers were norwegian or from finland, and were jolly fellows. the cabins were very much inhabited, so much so that it was difficult to sleep in them at all. insects so voracious and in such quantities and variety were in full possession of the berths, that they gave one as lively a night as it is possible for mortals to have. fortunately the journey was not a long one, and having duly departed at midnight from baku i reached lenkoran the next day, with its picturesque background of mountains and thickly-wooded country. this spot is renowned for tiger-shooting. our next halt was at astara, where there were a number of wooden sheds and drinking saloons,--a dreadful place, important only because on the perso-russian boundary line formed by the river of the same name. we landed here a number of police officers, who were met by a deputation of some fifty persian-looking men, who threw their arms round their necks and in turn lustily kissed them on both cheeks. it was a funny sight. when we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore the wind rose and we tossed about considerably. another sleepless night on the "living" mattress in the bunk, and early in the morning we reached the persian port of enzeli. chapter iv the port of enzeli--troublesome landing--flat-bottomed boats--a special permit--civility of officials--across the murd-ap lagoon--piri-bazaar--a self-imposed golden rule--where our stock came from--the drive to resht--the bazaar--the native shops and foreign goods--ghilan's trade--the increase in trade--british and russian competitions--sugar--tobacco--hotels--the british consulate--the governor's palace--h.e. salare afkham--a swiss hotel--banks. one calls enzeli a "port" _pour façon de parler_, for persia has no harbours at all on the caspian sea. enzeli, meshed-i-sher or astrabad, the three principal landing places on the persian coast, have no shelter for ships, which have to lie a good distance out at sea while passengers and cargo are transhipped by the company's steam launch or--in rough weather--by rowing boats. in very rough weather it is impossible to effect a landing at all, and--this is a most frequent occurrence on the treacherous caspian--after reaching one's journey's end one has to go all the way back to the starting point and begin afresh. there are people who have been compelled to take the journey four or five times before they could land, until the violent storms which often rage along the persian coast had completely subsided and allowed the flimsy steam-launch at enzeli to come out to meet the steamers, lying about a mile outside. we had passengers on board who had been unable to land on the previous journey, and were now on their second attempt to set foot in persia. we were rolling a good deal when we cast anchor, and after waiting some hours we were informed that it was too rough for the steam-launch to come out. the captain feared that he must put to sea again, as the wind was rising and he was afraid to remain so near the coast. two rowing boats eventually came out, and with some considerable exertion of the rowers succeeded in getting near the steamer. i immediately chartered one, and after a good deal of see-saw and banging and knocking and crackling of wood alongside the steamer, my baggage and i were transhipped into the flat-bottomed boat. off we rowed towards the shore, getting drenched each time that the boat dipped her nose into the sea. the narrow entrance of the enzeli bay is blocked by a sand-bar. the water is here very shallow, only about six feet deep. riding on the top of the breakers was quite an experience, and we occasionally shipped a good deal of water. we, however, landed safely and had to pay pretty dearly for the convenience. the boatmen do not run the risk of going out for nothing, and when they do, take every advantage of passengers who employ them. i was fortunate to get off by giving a backshish of a few _tomans_ (dollars), but there are people who have been known to pay three, four and even five pounds sterling to be conveyed on shore. here, too, thanks to the civility of the persian ambassador in london, i had a special permit for my firearms, instruments, etc., and met with the greatest courtesy from the belgian and persian officers in the customs. it is necessary to have one's passport in order, duly _visé_ by the persian consul in london, or else a delay might occur at enzeli. there is a lighthouse at enzeli, the customs buildings and a small hotel. from this point a lagoon, the murd-ap has to be crossed, either by the small steam-launch or by rowing boat. as there seemed to be some uncertainty about the departure of the launch, and as i had a good deal of luggage, i preferred the latter way. eight powerful men rowed with all their might at the prospect of a good backshish; and we sped along at a good pace on the placid waters of the lagoon, in big stretches of open water, now skirting small islands, occasionally through narrow canals, the banks of which were covered with high reeds and heavy, tropical, confused, untidy vegetation. the air was still and stifling--absolutely unmoved, screened as it was on all sides by vegetation. the sailors sang a monotonous cadence, and the boat glided along for some three hours until we arrived at the mouth of the piri river, hardly wide enough for a couple of boats to go through simultaneously, and so shallow that rowing was no longer practicable. the men jumped off, tied the towing rope that hung from the mast to their belts, and ran along the banks of the piri river, the water of which was almost stagnant. an hour or so later we suddenly came upon a number of boats jammed together in the miniature harbour of piri bazaar--a pool of putrid water a few feet in circumference. as the boat gradually approached, a stone-paved path still separated from you by a thick wide layer of filthy mud wound its way to the few miserable sheds--the bazaar--up above. a few trays of grapes, some persian bread, some earthenware pottery of the cheapest kind, are displayed in the shop fronts--and that is all of the piri-bazaar. on landing at enzeli one hears so much of piri-bazaar that one gets to imagine it a big, important place,--and as it is, moreover, practically the first really typical persian place at which one touches, the expectations are high. upon arrival there one's heart sinks into one's boots, and one's boots sink deep into black stinking mud as one takes a very long--yet much too short--jump from the boat on to what one presumes to be _terra firma_. with boots clogged and heavy with filth, a hundred people like ravenous birds of prey yelling in your ears (and picking your pockets if they have a chance), with your luggage being mercilessly dragged in the mud, with everybody demanding backshish on all sides, tapping you on the shoulder or pulling your coat,--thus one lands in real persia. in the country of iran one does not travel for pleasure nor is there any pleasure in travelling. for study and interest, yes. there is plenty of both everywhere. personally, i invariably make up my mind when i start for the east that no matter what happens i will on no account get out of temper, and this self-imposed rule--i must admit--was never, in all my travels, tried to the tantalising extent that it was in the country of the shah. the persian lower classes--particularly in places where they have come in contact with europeans--are well-nigh intolerable. there is nothing that they will not do to annoy you in every possible way, to extort backshish from you. in only one way do persians in this respect differ from other orientals. the others usually try to obtain money by pleasing you and being useful and polite, whereas the persian adopts the quicker, if not safer, method of bothering you and giving you trouble to such an unlimited degree that you are compelled to give something in order to get rid of him. and in a country where no redress can be obtained from the police, where laws do not count, and where the lower classes are as corrupt and unscrupulous as they are in the more civilised parts of persia (these remarks do not apply to the parts where few or no europeans have been) the only way to save one's self from constant worry and repressed anger--so bad for one's health--is to make up one's mind at once to what extent one is prepared to be imposed upon, and leave the country after. that is to say, if one does not wish to adopt the only other and more attractive alternative of inflicting summary justice on two-thirds of the natives one meets,--too great an exertion, to be sure, in so hot a climate. they say that persia is the country that our stock came from. it is quite possible, and if so we are indeed to be congratulated upon having morally improved so much since, or the persians to be condoled with on their sad degeneration. the better classes, however, are very different, as we shall see later. personally, i adopted the first method suggested above, the easier of the two, and i deliberately put by what i thought was a fair sum to be devoted exclusively to extortion. on leaving the country several months later, much to my astonishment i found that i had not been imposed upon half as much as i expected, although i had stayed in persia double the time i had intended. maybe this can be accounted for by my having spent most of my time in parts not so much frequented by europeans. indeed, if the persian is to-day the perfidious individual he is, we have to a great extent only ourselves to blame for making him so. keeping my temper under control, and an eye on my belongings, i next hired a carriage to convey me to the town of resht, seven miles distant. in damp heat, that made one's clothes moist and unpleasant, upon a road muddy to such an extent that the wheels sank several inches in it and splashed the passenger all over, we galloped through thick vegetation and patches of agriculture, and entered the city of resht. through the narrow winding streets of the bazaar we slowed down somewhat in some places, the carriage almost touching the walls of the street on both sides. the better houses possess verandahs with banisters painted blue, while the walls of the buildings are generally white. one is struck by the great number of shoe shops in the bazaar, displaying true persian shoes with pointed turned-up toes,--then by the brass and copper vessel shops, the ancient and extremely graceful shapes of the vessels and amphoras being to this date faithfully preserved and reproduced. more pleasing still to the eye are the fruit shops, with huge trays of water-melons, cucumbers, figs, and heaps of grapes. the latter are, nevertheless, not so very tasty to the palate and do not compare with the delicate flavour of the italian or spanish grapes. somewhat incongruous and out-of-place, yet more numerous than truly persian shops, are the semi-european stores, with cheap glass windows displaying inside highly dangerous-looking kerosene lamps, badly put together tin goods, soiled enamel tumblers and plates, silvered glass balls for ceiling decoration, and the vilest oleographs that the human mind can devise, only matched by the vileness of the frames. small looking-glasses play an important part in these displays, and occasionally a hand sewing-machine. tinned provisions, wine and liquor shops are numerous, but unfortunate is the man who may have to depend upon them for his food. the goods are the remnants of the oldest stocks that have gradually drifted, unsold, down to baku, and have eventually been shipped over for the persian market where people do not know any better. resht is the chief city in the ghilan province. ghilan's trade in piece-goods is about two-thirds in the hands of russia, while one-third (or even less) is still retained by england,--manchester goods. this cannot well be helped, for there is no direct route from great britain to resht, and all british goods must come through bagdad, tabriz, or baku. the two first routes carry most of the trade, which consists principally of shirtings, prints, cambrics, mulls, nainsooks, and turkey-reds, which are usually put down as of turkish origin, whereas in reality they come from manchester, and are merely re-exported, mainly from constantinople, by native firms either in direct traffic or in exchange for goods received. one has heard a great deal of the enormous increase in trade in persia during the last couple of years or so. the increase has not been in the trade itself, but in the collection of customs dues, which is now done in a regular and business like fashion by competent belgian officials, instead of by natives, to whom the various collecting stations were formerly farmed out. it will not be very easy for the british trader to compete successfully with the russian in northern persia, for that country, being geographically in such close proximity, can transport her cheaply made goods at a very low cost into iran. also the russian government allows enormous advantages to her own traders with persia in order to secure the persian market, and to develop her fast-increasing industrial progress,--advantages which british traders do not enjoy. still, considering all the difficulties british trade has to contend with in order to penetrate, particularly into ghilan, it is extraordinary how some articles, like white manchester shirtings, enjoy practically a monopoly, being of a better quality than similar goods sent by russia, austria, hungary, germany, italy or holland. loaf sugar, which came at one time almost entirely from france, has been cut out by russian sugar, which is imported in large quantities and eventually finds its way all over persia. it is of inferior quality, but very much cheaper than sugar of french manufacture, and is the chief russian import into ghilan. tobacco comes principally from turkey and russia. in going on with our drive through the bazaar we see it sold in the tiny tobacco shops, where it is tastily arranged in heaps on square pieces of blue paper, by the side of russian and turkish cigarettes. [illustration: persian wrestling.] and now for the resht hotels. here is an armenian hotel--european style. from the balcony signs and gesticulations and shouts in english, french, and russian endeavour to attract the passer-by--a youth even rushes to the horses and stops them in order to induce the traveller to alight and put up at the hostelry; but after a long discussion, on we go, and slowly wind our way through the intricate streets crowded with men and women and children--all grumbling and making some remark as one goes by. at one point a circle of people squatting in the middle of a road round a pile of water-melons, at huge slices of which they each bit lustily, kept us waiting some time, till they moved themselves and their melons out of the way for the carriage to pass. further on a soldier or two in rags lay sleeping flat on the shady side of the road, with his pipe (kalian) and his sword lying by his side. boys were riding wildly on donkeys and frightened women scrambled away or flattened themselves against the side walls of the street, while the hubs of the wheels shaved and greased their ample black silk or cotton trousers made in the shape of sacks, and the horses' hoofs splashed them all over with mud. the women's faces were covered with a white cloth reaching down to the waist. here, too, as in china, the double basket arrangement on a long pole swung across the shoulders was much used for conveying loads of fruit and vegetables on men's shoulders;--but least picturesque of all were the well-to-do people of the strong sex, in short frock-coats pleated all over in the skirt. one gets a glimpse of a picturesque blue-tiled pagoda-like roof with a cylindrical column upon it, and at last we emerge into a large quadrangular square, with european buildings to the west side. a little further the british flag flies gaily in the wind above h.m.'s consulate. then we come upon a larger building, the palace of the governor, who, to save himself the trouble and expense of having sentries at the entrances, had life-size representations of soldiers with drawn swords painted on the wall. they are not all represented wearing the same uniform, as one would expect with a guard of that kind, but for variety's sake some have red coats, with plenty of gold braiding on them, and blue trousers, the others blue coats and red trousers. one could not honestly call the building a beautiful one, but in its unrestored condition it is quite picturesque and quaint. it possesses a spacious verandah painted bright blue, and two windows at each side with elaborate ornamentations similarly coloured red and blue. a red-bordered white flag with the national lion in the centre floats over the palace, and an elaborate castellated archway, with a repetition of the persian lion on either side, stands in front of the main entrance in the square of the palace. so also do four useful kerosene lamp-posts. the telegraph office is to the right of the palace with a pretty garden in front of it. the most important political personage living in resht is his excellency salare afkham, called mirza fathollah khan, one of the richest men in persia, who has a yearly income of some twenty thousand pounds sterling. he owns a huge house and a great deal of land round resht, and is much respected for his talent and kindly manner. he was formerly minister of the customs and posts of all persia, and his chest is a blaze of russian, turkish and persian decorations of the highest class, bestowed upon him by the various sovereigns in recognition of his good work. he has for private secretary abal kassem khan, the son of the best known of modern persian poets, chams-echoéra, and himself a very able man who has travelled all over asia, turkestan and europe. persia is a country of disappointments. there is a general belief that the swiss are splendid hotel-keepers. let me give you my experience of the hotel at resht kept by a swiss. "can this be the swiss hotel?" i queried to myself, as the driver pulled up in front of an appallingly dirty flight of steps. there seemed to be no one about, and after going through the greater part of the building, i eventually came across a semi-starved persian servant, who assured me that it was. the proprietor, when found, received me with an air of condescension that was entertaining. he led me to a room which he said was the best in the house. on inspection, the others, i agreed with him, were decidedly not better. the hotel had twelve bedrooms and they were all disgustingly filthy. true enough, each bedroom had more beds in it than one really needed, two or even three in each bedroom, but a _coup-d'oeil_ was sufficient to assure one's self that it was out of the question to make use of any of them. i counted four different coloured hairs, of disproportionate lengths and texture, on one bed-pillow in my room, leaving little doubt that no less than four people had laid their heads on that pillow before; and the pillow of the other bed was so black with dirt that i should imagine at least a dozen consecutive occupants of that couch would be a low estimate indeed. as for the sheets, blankets, and towels, we had better draw a veil. i therefore preferred to spread my own bedding on the floor, and slept there. the hotel boasted of three large dining-rooms in which a few moth-eaten stuffed birds and a case or two of mutilated butterflies, a couple of german oleographs, which set one's teeth on edge, and dusty, stamped cotton hangings formed the entire decoration. to give one an appetite--which one never lost as long as one stayed there--one was informed before dinner that the proprietor was formerly the shah's cook. after dinner one felt very, very sorry for the poor shah, and more so for one's self, for having put up at the hotel. but there was no other place in resht, and i stuck to my decision that i would never get angry, so i stood all patiently. the next day i would start for teheran. one talks of persian extortion, but it is nothing to the example offered to the natives by europeans in persia. the charges at the hotel were exorbitant. one paid as much per day as one would at the very first hotel in london, new york, or paris, such as the carlton, the waldorf, or ritz. only here one got absolutely nothing for it except very likely an infectious disease, as i did. in walking bare-footed on the filthy matting, while taking my bath, some invisible germ bored its way into the sole of my right foot and caused me a good deal of trouble for several weeks after. animal life in all its varieties was plentiful in all the rooms. previous to starting on the long drive to the capital i had to get some meat cooked for use on the road, but it was so putrid that even when i flung it to a famished pariah dog he refused to eat it. and all this, mind you, was inexcusable, because excellent meat, chickens, eggs, vegetables, and fruit, can be purchased in resht for a mere song, the average price of a good chicken, for instance, being about _d._ to _d._, a whole sheep costing some eight or ten shillings. i think it is only right that this man should be exposed, so as to put other travellers on their guard, not so much for his overcharges, for when travelling one does not mind over-paying if one is properly treated, but for his impudence in furnishing provisions that even a dog would not eat. had it not been that i had other provisions with me i should have fared very badly on the long drive to teheran. it may interest future travellers to know that the building where the hotel was at the time of my visit, august, , has now been taken over for five years by the russian bank in order to open a branch of their business in resht, and that the hotel itself, i believe, has now shifted to even less palatial quarters! the imperial bank of persia has for some years had a branch in resht, and until was the only banking establishment in the town. chapter v resht--impostors--a visit to the head mullah--quaint notions--arrangements for the drive to teheran--the russian concession of the teheran road--the stormy caspian and unsafe harbours--the great menzil bridge--a detour in the road--capital employed in the construction of the road--mistaken english notions of russia--theory and practice--high tolls--exorbitant fares--a speculator's offer refused--development of the road. resht is an odious place in every way. it is, as it were, the "port said" of persia, for here the scum of armenia, of southern russia, and of turkestan, stagnates, unable to proceed on the long and expensive journey to teheran. one cannot go out for a walk without being accosted by any number of impostors, often in european clothes, who cling like leeches and proceed to try to interest you in more or less plausible swindles. one meets a great many people, too, who are on the look out for a "lift" in one's carriage to the persian capital. i paid quite an interesting visit to a near relation of the shah's, who was the guest of the local head mullah. the approach to the mullah's palace was not attractive. i was conveyed through narrow passages, much out of repair, until we arrived in front of a staircase at the foot of which lay in a row, and in pairs, shoes of all sizes, prices, and ages, patiently waiting for their respective owners inside the house. a great many people were outside in the courtyard, some squatting down and smoking a kalian, which was passed round after a puff or two from one person to the other, care being taken by the last smoker to wipe the mouthpiece with the palm of his hand before handing it to his neighbour. others loitered about and conversed in a low tone of voice. a mullah received me at the bottom of the staircase and led me up stairs to a large european-looking room, with glass windows, cane chairs, and austrian glass candelabras. there were a number of mullahs in their long black robes, white or green sashes, and large turbans, sitting round the room in a semicircle, and in the centre sat the high mullah with the young prince by his side. they all rose when i entered, and i was greeted in a dignified yet very friendly manner. a chair was given me next to the high mullah, and the usual questions about one's family, the vicissitudes of one's journey, one's age, one's plans, the accounts of what one had seen in other countries, were duly gone through. it was rather curious to notice the interest displayed by the high mullah in our south african war. he seemed anxious to know whether it was over yet, or when it would be over. also, how was it that a big nation like great britain could not conquer a small nation like the boers. "it is easier for an elephant to kill another elephant," i replied, "than for him to squash a mosquito." "do you not think," said the mullah, "that england is now an old nation, tired and worn--too old to fight? nations are like individuals. they can fight in youth--they must rest in old age. she has lived in glory and luxury too long. glory and luxury make nations weak. persia is an example." "yes, there is much truth in your sayings. we are tired and worn. we have been and are still fast asleep in consequence. but maybe the day will come when we shall wake up much refreshed. we are old enough to learn, but not to die yet." he was sorry that england was in trouble. tea, or rather sugar with some drops of tea on it was passed, in tiny little glasses with miniature perforated tin spoons. then another cross-examination. "do you drink spirits and wine?" "no." "do you smoke?" "no." "you would make a good mussulman." "possibly, but not probably." "in your travels do you find the people generally good or bad?" "taking things all round, in their badness, i find the people usually pretty good." "how much does your king give you to go about seeing foreign countries?" "the king gives me nothing. i go at my own expense." this statement seemed to take their breath away. it was bad enough for a man to be sent--for a consideration--by his own government to a strange land, but to pay for the journey one's self, why! it seemed to them too preposterous for words. they had quite an excited discussion about it among themselves, the persian idea being that every man must sponge upon the government to the utmost extent. the young prince hoped that i would travel as his guest in his carriage to teheran. unfortunately, however, i had made other arrangements, and was unable to accept his invitation. my visit ended with renewed salaams and good wishes on their part for my welfare on the long journey i was about to undertake. i noticed that, with the exception of the prince, who shook my hand warmly, the mullahs bowed over and over again, but did not touch my hand. now for the business visit at the post station. after a good deal of talk and an unlimited consumption of tea, it had been arranged that a landau with four post horses to be changed every six farsakhs, at each post station, and a _fourgon_--a large van without springs, also with four horses,--for luggage, should convey me to teheran. so little luggage is allowed inside one's carriage that an additional _fourgon_ is nearly always required. one is told that large packages can be forwarded at a small cost by the postal service, and that they will reach teheran soon after the passengers, but unhappy is the person that tries the rash experiment. there is nothing to guarantee him that he will ever see his luggage again. in persia, a golden rule while travelling, that may involve some loss of time but will avoid endless trouble and worry in the end, is never to let one's luggage go out of sight. one is told that the new teheran road is a russian enterprise, and therefore quite reliable, and so it is, but not so the company of transportation, which is in the hands of natives, the firm of messrs. bagheroff brothers, which is merely subsidized by the russian road company. as every one knows, in the russians obtained a concession to construct a carriage-road from piri-bazaar _via_ resht to kasvin, an extension to hamadan, and the purchase of the road from kasvin to teheran, which was already in existence. nominally the concession was not granted to the russian government itself--as is generally believed in england--but to a private company--the "compagnie d'assurance et de transport en perse," which, nevertheless, is a mere off-shoot of government enterprise and is backed by the russian government to no mean degree. the company's headquarters are in moscow, and in persia the chief office is at kasvin. here it may be well to add that if this important concession slipped out of our hands we have only ourselves to blame. we can in no way accuse the russians of taking advantage of us, but can only admire them for knowing how to take advantage of a good opportunity. we had the opportunity first; it was offered us in the first instance by persia which needed a loan of a paltry sixty million francs, or a little over two million pounds sterling. the concession was offered as a guarantee for the loan, but we, as usual, temporised and thought it over and argued--especially the people who did not know what they were arguing about--and eventually absolutely refused to have anything to do with the scheme. the russians had the next offer and jumped at it, as was natural in people well versed in persian affairs, and well able to foresee the enormous possibilities of such an undertaking. it was, beyond doubt, from the very beginning--except to people absolutely ignorant and mentally blind--that the concession, apart from its political importance, was a most excellent financial investment. not only would the road be most useful for the transit of russian goods to the capital of persia, and from there all over the country, but for military purposes it would prove invaluable. maybe its use in the latter capacity will be shown sooner than we in england think. of course, to complete the scheme the landing at enzeli must still be improved, so that small ships may enter in safety and land passengers and goods each journey without the unpleasant alternative, which we have seen, of having to return to one's point of departure and begin again, two, or three, or even four times. one gentleman i met in persia told me that on one occasion the journey from baku to enzeli--thirty-six hours--occupied him the space of twenty-six days! [illustration: fourgons on the russian road between resht and teheran.] the caspian is stormy the greater part of the year, the water shallow, no protection from the wind exists on any side, and wrecks, considering the small amount of navigation on that sea, are extremely frequent. as we have seen, there are not more than six feet of water on the bar at enzeli, but with a jetty which could be built at no very considerable expense (as it probably will be some day) and a dredger kept constantly at work, enzeli could become quite a possible harbour, and the dangers of long delays and the present risks that await passengers and goods, if not absolutely avoided, would at least be minimised to an almost insignificant degree. the navigation of the lagoon and stream presents no difficulty, and the russians have already obtained the right to widen the mouth of the murd-ap at enzeli, in conjunction with the concession of the piri-bazaar-teheran road. the road was very easy to make, being mostly over flat country and rising to no great elevation, , feet being the highest point. it follows the old caravan track nearly all the way, the only important detour made by the new road being between paichinar and kasvin, to avoid the high kharzan or kiajan pass-- , feet--over which the old track went. considering the nature of the country it crosses, the new road is a good one and is well kept. three large bridges and fifty-eight small ones have been spanned across streams and ravines, the longest being the bridge at menzil, yards long. from resht, _via_ deschambe bazaar, to kudum the road strikes due south across country. from kudum (altitude, feet) to rudbar ( feet) the road is practically along the old track on the north-west bank of the kizil uzen river, which, from its source flows first in a south-easterly direction, and then turns at menzil almost at a right angle towards the north-east, changing its name into sefid rud (the white river). some miles after passing rudbar, the river has to be crossed by the great bridge, to reach menzil, which lies on the opposite side of the stream. from menzil to kasvin the russian engineers had slightly more trouble in constructing the road. a good deal of blasting had to be done to make the road sufficiently broad for wheeled traffic; then came the important detour, as we have seen, from paichinar to kasvin, so that practically the portion of the road from menzil to kasvin is a new road altogether, _via_ mala ali and kuhim, the old track being met again at the village of agha baba. the width of the road averages twenty-one feet. in difficult places, such as along ravines, or where the road had to be cut into the rock, it is naturally less wide, but nowhere under fourteen feet. the gradient averages -- to -- . at a very few points, however, it is as steep as in . if the hill portion of the road is excepted, where, being in zig-zag, it has very sharp angles, a light railway could be laid upon it in a surprisingly short time and at no considerable expense, the ground having been made very hard nearly all along the road. the capital of £ , employed in the construction of the road was subscribed in the following manner: , shares of , rubles each, or , , rubles original capital subscribed in moscow; , , rubles debentures taken by the russian government, and a further , rubles on condition that , rubles additional capital were subscribed, which was at once done principally by the original shareholders. the speculation had from the very beginning a prospect of being very successful, even merely considered as a trade route--a prospect which the british government, capitalist, and merchant did not seem to grasp, but which was fully appreciated by the quicker and more far-seeing russian official and trader. any fair-minded person cannot help admiring the russian government for the insight, enterprise and sound statesmanship with which it lost no time in supporting the scheme (discarded by us as worthless), and this it did, not by empty-winded, pompous speeches and temporising promises, to which we have so long been accustomed, but by supplying capital in hard cash, for the double purpose of enhancing to its fullest extent russian trade and of gaining the strategic advantages of such an enterprise, which are too palpable to be referred to again. so it was, that while we in england relied on the everlasting and ever-idiotic notion that russia would never have the means to take up the loan, being--as we are told--a bankrupt country with no resources, and a government with no credit and no cash,--that we found ourselves left (and laughed at), having lost an opportunity which will never present itself again, and which will eventually cost us the loss of northern persia, if not of the whole of persia. russia--it is only too natural--having once set her foot, or even both feet, on persian soil, now tries to keep out other nations--which, owing to her geographical position, she can do with no effort and no trouble--in order to enhance her youthful but solid and fast-growing industries and trade. in the case of the teheran road, the only one, it must be remembered, leading with any safety to the persian capital, it is theoretically open to all nations. practically, russian goods alone have a chance of being conveyed by this route, owing to the prohibitive customs duties exacted in russia on foreign goods in transit for persia. russia is already indirectly reaping great profits through this law, especially on machinery and heavy goods that have no option and must be transported by this road. there is no other way by which they can reach teheran on wheels. but the chief and more direct profit of the enterprise itself is derived from the high tolls which the russian company, with the authorisation of the persian government, has established on the road traffic, in order to reimburse the capital paid out and interest to shareholders. the road tolls are paid at resht (and at intermediate stations if travellers do not start from resht), and amount to krans == _s._ _d._ for each pack animal, whether it be a camel, a horse, a mule, or a donkey. a post-carriage with four horses (the usual conveyance hired between resht and teheran) pays a toll of no less than _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ a carriage with horses " " " " " horse a _fourgon_, or luggage van, horses, £ _s._ _d._ passengers are charged extra and above these tolls, so that a landau or a victoria, for instance, actually pays £ _s._ for the right of using the road, and a _fourgon_ with one's servants, as much as £ _s._ _d._ the fares for the hire of the conveyance are very high:-- £ _s._ _d._ landau victoria coupé fourgon as only lbs. of personal luggage are allowed in the landau or lbs. in other carriages, and this weight must be in small packages, one is compelled to hire a second conveyance, a _fourgon_, which can carry lbs. every pound exceeding these weights is charged for at the rate of two shillings for every ½ lbs. of luggage. the luggage is weighed with great accuracy before starting from resht, and on arrival in teheran. care is taken to exact every half-penny to which the company is entitled on luggage fares, and much inconvenience and delay is caused by the persian officials at the scales. it is advisable for the traveller to be present when the luggage is weighed, to prevent fraud. it may be noticed that to travel the miles, the distance from resht to teheran, the cost, without counting incidental expenses, tips (amounting to some £ or more), etc., £ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._ landau, plus toll, fourgon, plus toll, ------------ total £ which is somewhat high for a journey of only to hours. this strikes one all the more when one compares it with the journey of several thousand miles in the greatest of luxury from london across holland, germany, russia, and the caspian to enzeli, which can be covered easily by three five-pound notes. as every one knows, the road from piri-bazaar to kasvin and teheran was opened for wheel traffic in january . i am told that in --before the road was completed--a persian speculator offered the sum of £ a day to be paid in cash every evening, for the contract of the tolls. the offer was most emphatically refused, as the daily tolls even at that time amounted to between £ and £ . in these last three years the road has developed in a most astounding manner, and the receipts, besides being now considerably greater, are constantly increasing. the russian shareholders and government can indeed fairly congratulate themselves on the happy success which their well-thought-out investment has fairly won them. chapter vi a journey by landau and four--picturesque coachman--tolls--intense moisture--luxuriant vegetation--deschambe bazaar--the silk industry of ghilan--the cultivation and export of rice--the governor's energy--agriculture and allah--the water question--the coachman's backshish--the white river--olive groves--halting places on the road--the effects of hallucination--princes abundant. we have seen how the road was made. now let us travel on it in the hired landau and four horses driven by a wild-looking coachman, whose locks of jet-black hair protrude on either side of his clean-shaven neck, and match in colour his black astrakan, spherical, brimless headgear. like all good persians, he has a much pleated frockcoat that once was black and is now of various shades of green. over it at the waist he displays a most elaborate silver belt, and yet another belt of leather with a profusion of cartridges stuck in it and a revolver. why he did not run over half-a-dozen people or more as we galloped through the narrow streets of resht town is incomprehensible to me, for the outside horses almost shaved the walls on both sides, and the splash-boards of the old landau ditto. that he did not speaks volumes for the flexibility and suppleness of persian men, women and children, of whom, stuck tight against the walls in order to escape being trampled upon or crushed to death, one got mere glimpses, at the speed one went. the corners of the streets, too, bore ample testimony to the inaccuracy of drivers in gauging distances, and so did the hubs and splash-boards of the post-carriages, all twisted and staved in by repeated collisions. it is with great gusto on the part of the drivers, but with a certain amount of alarm on the part of the passenger, that one's carriage chips off corner after corner of the road as one turns them, and one gets to thank providence for making houses in persia of easily-powdered mud instead of solid stone or bricks. one's heart gets lighter when we emerge into the more sparsely inhabited districts where fields and heavy vegetation line the road, now very wide and more or less straight. here the speed is greatly increased, the coachman making ample use of a long stock whip. in persia one always travels full gallop. after not very long we pull up to disburse the road toll at a wayside collecting house. there are a great many caravans waiting, camels, mules, donkeys, horsemen, _fourgons_, whose owners are busy counting hard silver krans in little piles of krans each--a _toman_, equivalent to a dollar,--without which payment they cannot proceed. post carriages have precedence over everybody, and we are served at once. a receipt is duly given for the money paid, and we are off again. the coachman is the cause of a good deal of anxiety, for on the chance of a handsome backshish he has indulged in copious advance libations of rum or votka, or both, the vapours of which are blown by the wind into my face each time that he turns round and breathes or speaks. that this was a case of the horses leading the coachman and not of a man driving the horses, i have personally not the shade of a doubt, for the wretch, instead of minding his horses, hung backwards, the whole way, from the high box, yelling, i do not know what, at the top of his voice, and making significant gestures that he was still thirsty. coachmen of all countries invariably are. we ran full speed into caravans of donkeys, scattering them all over the place; we caused flocks of frightened sheep to stampede in all directions, and only strings of imperturbable camels succeeded in arresting our reckless flight, for they simply would not move out of the way. every now and then i snatched a furtive glance at the scenery. the moisture of the climate is so great and the heat so intense, that the vegetation of the whole of ghilan province is luxuriant,--but not picturesque, mind you. there is such a superabundance of vegetation, the plants so crammed together, one on the top of the other, as it were, all untidy, fat with moisture, and of such deep, coarse, blackish-green tones that they give the scenery a heavy leaden appearance instead of the charming beauty of more delicate tints of less tropical vegetation. we go through deschambe bazaar, a place noted for its fairs. here you have high hedges of reeds and hopelessly entangled shrubs; there your eyes are rested on big stretches of agriculture,--indian corn, endless paddy fields of rice and cotton, long rows of mulberry trees to feed silkworms upon their leaves. silk is even to-day one of the chief industries of ghilan. its excellent quality was at one time the pride of the province. the export trade of dried cocoons has been particularly flourishing of late, and although prices and the exchanges have fluctuated, the average price obtained for them in resht when fresh was from ½ krans to ½ krans (the kran being equivalent to about fivepence). the cocoon trade had until recently been almost entirely in the hands of armenian, french and italian buyers in resht, but now many persian merchants have begun to export bales of cocoons direct to marseilles and milan, the two chief markets for silk, an export duty of per cent. on their value being imposed on them by the persian government. the cocoons are made to travel by the shortest routes, _via_ the caspian, baku, batum, and the black sea. the year seems to have been an exceptionally good year for the production and export of cocoons. the eggs for the production of silkworms are chiefly imported by levantines from asia minor (gimlek and brussa), and also in small quantities from france. according to the report of mr. churchill, acting-consul at resht, the quantity of cocoons exported during that year showed an increase of some , lbs. above the quantity exported the previous year ( ); and a comparison between the quantity exported in and will show at a glance the enormous apparent increase in the export of dried cocoons from ghilan. , lbs. value £ , , , " " £ , it must, however, be remembered that the value given for may be very incorrect. large meadows with cattle grazing upon them; wheat fields, vegetables of all sorts, vineyards, all pass before my eyes as in a kaleidoscope. a fine country indeed for farmers. plenty of water--even too much of it,--wood in abundance within a stone's throw. next to the silk worms, rice must occupy our attention, being the staple food of the natives of ghilan and constituting one of the principal articles of export from that province. the cultivation and the export of rice from ghilan have in the last thirty years become very important, and will no doubt be more so in the near future, when the mass of jungle and marshes will be cleared and converted into cultivable land. the governor-general of resht is showing great energy in the right direction by cutting new roads and repairing old ones on all sides, which ought to be of great benefit to the country. in persia, remember, it is not easy to learn anything accurately. and as for persian statistics, unwise is the man who attaches any importance to them. much as i would like to quote statistics, i cannot refrain from thinking that no statistics are a hundredfold better than slip-shod, haphazard, inaccurate ones. and this rule i must certainly apply to the export of rice from ghilan to europe, principally russia, during , and will limit myself to general remarks. extensive tracts of country have been cleared of reeds and useless vegetation, and converted into paddy fields, the natives irrigating the country in a primitive fashion. it is nature that is mostly responsible if the crops are not ruined year after year, the thoughtless inhabitants, with their natural laziness, doing little more than praying allah to give them plenty of rain, instead of employing the more practical if more laborious expedient of artificially irrigating their country in some efficient manner, which they could easily do from the streams close at hand. perhaps, in addition to this, the fact that water--except rain-water--has ever to be purchased in persia, may also account to a certain extent for the inability to afford paying for it. in , for instance, rain failed to come and the crops were insufficient even for local consumption, which caused the population a good deal of suffering. but , fortunately, surpassed all expectations, and was an excellent year for rice as well as cocoons. we go through thickly-wooded country, then through a handsome forest, with wild boars feeding peacefully a few yards from the road. about every six farsakhs--or twenty-four miles--the horses of the carriage, and those of the fourgon following closely behind, are changed at the post-stations, as well as the driver, who leaves us, after carefully removing his saddle from the box and the harness of the horses. he has to ride back to his point of departure with his horses. he expects a present of two krans,--or more if he can get it--and so does the driver of the fourgon. two krans is the recognised tip for each driver, and as one gets some sixteen or seventeen for each vehicle,--thirty-two or thirty-four if you have two conveyances,--between resht and teheran, one finds it quite a sufficient drain on one's exchequer. as one gets towards kudum, where one strikes the sefid river, we begin to rise and the country gets more hilly and arid. we gradually leave behind the oppressive dampness, which suggests miasma and fever, and begin to breathe air which, though very hot, is drier and purer. we have risen feet at kudum from feet, the altitude of resht, and as we travel now in a south-south-west direction, following the stream upwards, we keep getting higher, the elevation at rustamabad being already feet. we leave behind the undulating ground, covered with thick forests, and come to barren hills, that get more and more important as we go on. we might almost say that the country is becoming quite mountainous, with a few shrubs here and there and scenery of moderate beauty, (for any one accustomed to greater mountains), but quite "wildly beautiful" for the ordinary traveller. we then get to the region of the grey olive groves, the trees with their contorted, thickly-set branches and pointed leaves. what becomes of the olives? they are exported to europe,--a flourishing trade, i am told. one bumps a great deal in the carriage, for the springs are not "of the best," and are hidden in rope bandages to keep them from falling apart. the road, too, is not as yet like a billiard table. the doors of the landau rattle continuously, the metal fastenings having long disappeared, and being replaced by bits of string. one travels incessantly, baked in the sun by day and chilled by the cold winds at night, trying to get a little sleep with one's head dangling over the side of the carriage, one's legs cramped, and all one's bones aching. but this is preferable to stopping at any of the halting-places on the road, whether russian or persian, which are filthy beyond words, and where one is mercilessly swindled. should one, however, be compelled to stop anywhere it is preferable to go to a thoroughly persian place, where one meets at least with more courtesy, and where one is imposed upon in a more modest and less aggressive way than at the russian places. it must, however, be stated that the russian places are usually in charge of over-zealous persians, or else in the hands of inferior russian subjects, who try to make all they can out of their exile in the lonely stations. i occasionally halted for a glass of tea at the persian khafe-khanas, and in one of them a very amusing incident happened, showing the serious effects that hallucination may produce on a weak-minded person. i had got off the carriage and had carried into the khafe-khana my camera, and also my revolver in its leather case which had been lying on the seat of the carriage. at my previous halt, having neglected this precaution, my camera had been tampered with by the natives, the lenses had been removed, and the eighteen plates most of them already with pictures on them--that were inside, exposed to the light and thrown about, with their slides, in the sand. so to avoid a repetition of the occurrence, and to prevent a probable accident, i brought all into the khafe-khana room and deposited the lot on the raised mud portion along the wall, seating myself next to my property. i ordered tea, and the attendant, with many salaams, explained that his fire had gone out, but that if i would wait a few minutes he would make me some fresh _chah_. i consented. he inquired whether the revolver was loaded, and i said it was. he proceeded to the further end of the room, where, turning his back to me, he began to blow upon the fire, and i, being very thirsty, sent another man to my fourgon to bring me a bottle of soda-water. the imprisoned gases of the soda, which had been lying for the whole day in the hot sun, had so expanded that when i removed the wire the cork went off with a loud report and unfortunately hit the man in the shoulder blade. by association of ideas he made so certain in his mind that it was the revolver that had gone off that he absolutely collapsed in a semi-faint, under the belief that he had been badly shot. he moaned and groaned, trying to reach with his hand what he thought was the wounded spot, and called for his son as he felt he was about to die. we supported him, and gave him some water and reassured him, but he had turned as pale as death. "what have i done to you that you kill me?" he moaned pitifully. "but, good man, you have no blood flowing,--look!" a languid, hopeless glance at the ground, where he had fallen and sure enough, he could find no blood. he tried to see the wound, but his head could not revolve to a sufficiently wide arc of a circle to see his shoulder-blade, so in due haste we removed his coat and waistcoat and shirt, and after slow, but careful, keen examination, he discovered that not only there were no marks of flowing blood, but no trace whatever of a bullet hole in any of his garments. even then he was not certain, and two small mirrors were sent for, which, by the aid of a sympathising friend, he got at proper angles minutely to survey his whole back. he eventually recovered, and was able to proceed with the brewing of tea, which he served with terribly trembling hand on the rattling saucer under the tiny little glass. "it was a very narrow escape from death, sahib," he said in a wavering voice--"for it might have been the revolver." there is nothing like backshish in persia to heal all wounds, whether real or otherwise, and he duly received an extra handsome one. in persia the traveller is particularly struck by the number of princes one encounters on the road. this is to a certain extent to be accounted for by the fact that the word _khan_ which follows a great many persian names has been translated, mainly by flattering french authors, into the majestic but incorrect word "prince." in many cases the suffix of _khan_ is an equivalent of lord, but in most cases it is no more than our nominal "esquire." i met on the road two fellows, one old and very dignified; the other young, and who spoke a little french. he informed me that they were both princes. he called his friend "_monsieur le prince, mon ami_," and himself "_monsieur le prince, moi!_" which was rather amusing. he informed me that he was a high customs official, and displayed towards his fellow countrymen on the road a great many qualities that revealed a very mean native indeed. the elder one wore carpet slippers to which he had attached--i do not know how--an enormous pair of golden spurs! he was now returning from russia. he was extremely gentleman-like and seemed very much annoyed at the behaviour of his companion. he begged me to believe that not all men in persia were like his friend, and i quite agreed with him. we travelled a great portion of the road together, and the old fellow was extremely civil. he was very well informed on nearly all subjects, and had belonged to the army. he pointed out to me the important sights on the road, such as mount janja ( , ft.) to the east. after passing rudbar ( ft.) the road is mostly in narrow gorges between mountains. it is rocky and arid, with hardly any vegetation. the river has to be crossed by the new bridge, a handsome and solid structure, and we arrive at the village of menjil or menzil. the russian station-house is the most prominent structure. otherwise all is desert and barren. grey and warm reddish tints abound in the dried-up landscape, and only a few stunted olive groves relieve the scenery with some vegetable life. chapter vii menzil and the winds--the historical alamut mountain--a low plateau--volcanic formation--mol-ali--a genuine case of smallpox--characteristic sitting posture--a caravan of mules--rugged country--the remains of a volcanic commotion--the old track--kasvin, the city of misfortunes--the governor's palace and palatial rest house--earthquakes and famine--_kanats_, the marvellous aqueducts--how they are made--manufactures--kasvin strategically. perhaps menzil should be mentioned in connection with the terrific winds which, coming from the north-east and from the south, seem to meet here, and blow with all their might at all times of the year. the traveller is particularly exposed to them directly above the river course on crossing the bridge. menzil is celebrated for these winds, which are supposed to be the worst, in all persia, but unpleasant as they may be to any one who has not experienced worse, they are merely gentle breezes as compared, for instance, with the wind storms of the tibetan plateau. to the east there is a very mountainous region, the biwarzin yarak range, or kuse-rud, averaging from , to , ft.; further north a peak of , ft., and south-west of the janja, , ft., the high salambar, , ft. on the historical mt. alamut the old state prisons were formerly to be found, but were afterwards removed to ardebil. from menzil we have left the sefid river altogether, and we are now in a very mountainous region, with a singular low plateau in the centre of an extensive alluvial plain traversed by the road. we cross the shah rud, or river of the king, and at paichinar, with its russian post-house, we have already reached an altitude of , ft. from this spot the road proceeds through a narrow valley, through country rugged and much broken up, distinctly volcanic and quite picturesque. it is believed that coal is to be found here. perhaps one of the prettiest places we had yet come to was mol-ali, a lovely shady spot with veteran green trees all round. while the horses were being changed i was asked by the khafe-khana man to go and inspect a man who was ill. the poor fellow was wrapped up in many blankets and seemed to be suffering greatly. he had very high fever and his was a genuine case of smallpox. next to him, quite unconcerned, were a number of persian travellers, who had halted here for refreshments. they were squatting on their heels, knees wide apart, and arms balanced, resting above the elbow on their knees--the characteristic sitting posture of all asiatics. very comfortable it is, too, when you learn to balance yourself properly and it leaves the free use of one's arms. the _kalian_ was being passed round as usual, and each had a thimble-full of sugared tea. i was much attracted by a large caravan of handsome mules, the animals enjoying the refreshing shade of the trees. they had huge saddles ornamented with silver pommels and rings and covered over with carpets. variegated cloth or carpet or red and green leather saddle-bags hung on either side of the animals behind the saddles. the bridle and bit were richly ornamented with shells and silver or iron knobs. the few mud houses in the neighbourhood had flat roofs and were not sufficiently typical nor inviting enough for a closer internal inspection. we are now on a tributary of the shah-rud on the new road, instead of the old caravan track, which we have left since paichinar. the country becomes more interesting and wild as we go on. in the undoubtedly volcanic formation of the mountains one notices large patches of sulphurous earth on the mountain-side, with dark red and black baked soil above it. over that, all along the range, curious column-like, fluted rocks. lower down the soil is saturated with sulphurous matter which gives it a rich, dark blue tone with greenish tints in it and bright yellow patches. the earth all round is of a warm burnt sienna colour, intensified, when i saw it, by the reddish, soft rays of a dying sun. it has all the appearance of having been subjected to abnormal heat. the characteristic shape of the peaks of the range is conical, and a great many deep-cut channels and holes are noticeable in the rocky sides of these sugar-loaf mountains, as is frequently the case in mountains of volcanic formation. we rise higher and higher in zig-zag through rugged country, and we then go across an intensely interesting large basin, which must at a previous date have been the interior of an exploded and now collapsed volcano. this place forcibly reminded me of a similar sight on a grander scale,--the site of the ex-bandaisan mountain on the main island of nippon in japan, after that enormous mountain was blown to atoms and disappeared some few years ago. a huge basin was left, like the bottom part of a gigantic cauldron, the edges of which bore ample testimony to the terrific heat that must have been inside before the explosion took place. in the persian scene before us, of a much older date, the basin, corroded as it evidently was by substances heated to a very high temperature and by the action of forming gases, had been to a certain extent obliterated by the softening actions of time and exposure to air. the impression was not so violent and marked as the one received at bandaisan, which i visited only a few days after the explosion, but the various characteristics were similar. in the basin was a solitary hut, which rejoiced in the name of kort. these great commotions of nature are interesting, but to any one given to sound reflection they are almost too big for the human mind to grasp. they impress one, they almost frighten one, but give no reposeful, real pleasure in gazing upon them such as less disturbed scenery does. the contrasts in colour and shape are too violent, too crude to please the eye: the freaks too numerous to be comprehensible at a glance. here we have a ditch with sides perfectly black-baked, evidently by lava or some other hot substance which has flowed through; further on big splashes of violent red and a great variety of warm browns. the eye roams from one spot to the other, trying to understand exactly what has taken place--a job which occupies a good deal of one's time and attention as one drives through, and which would occupy a longer time and study than a gallop through in a post landau can afford. at agha baba we were again on the old track, quite flat now, and during the night we galloped easily on a broad road through uninteresting country till we reached kasvin, _versts_ from resht. kasvin, in the province of irak, is a very ancient city, which has seen better days, has gone through a period of misfortune, and will in future probably attain again a certain amount of prosperity. it is situated at an altitude of , feet (at the indo-european telegraph office), an elevation which gives it a very hot but dry, healthy climate with comparatively cool nights. the town is handsome, square in form, enclosed in a wall with towers. the governor's palace is quite impressive, with a fine broad avenue of green trees leading from it to the spacious kasvin rest-house. this is by far the best rest-house on the road to the persian capital, with large rooms, clean enough for persia, and with every convenience for cooking one's food. above the doorway the persian lion, with the sun rising above his back, has been elaborately painted, and a picturesque pool of stagnant water at the bottom of the steps is no doubt the breeding spot of mosquitoes and flies, of which there are swarms, to make one's life a misery. [illustration: making a _kanat_.] the palatial rest-house, the governor's palace, a mosque or two, and the convenient bath-houses for mahommedans being barred, there is nothing particular to detain the traveller in kasvin. one hears that kasvin occupied at one time a larger area than teheran to-day. the remains of this magnitude are certainly still there. the destruction of the city, they say, has been due to many and varied misfortunes. earthquakes and famines in particular have played an important part in the history of kasvin, and they account for the many streets and large buildings in ruins which one finds, such as the remains of the sufi palace and the domed mosque. the city dates back to the fourth century, but it was not till the sixteenth century that it became the _dar-el-sultanat_--the seat of royalty--under shah tamasp. it prospered as the royal city until the time of shah abbas, whose wisdom made him foresee the dangers of maintaining a capital too near the caspian sea. isfahan was selected as the future capital, from which time kasvin, semi-abandoned, began its decline. in a famine devastated the town to a considerable extent, but even previous to that a great portion of the place had been left to decay, so that to-day one sees large stretches of ruined houses all round the neighbourhood and in kasvin itself. the buildings are mostly one-storied, very few indeed boasting of an upper floor. the pleasant impression one receives on entering the city is mostly caused by the quantity of verdure and vegetation all round. one of the principal things which strike the traveller in persia, especially on nearing a big city, is the literal myriads of curious conical heaps, with a pit in the centre, that one notices running across the plains in long, interminable rows, generally towards the mountains. these are the _kanats_, the astounding aqueducts with which dried-up persia is bored in all directions underground, the canals that lead fresh water from the distant springs to the cities, to the villages, and to irrigate the fields. the ancient process of making these _kanats_ has descended unchanged to the modern persian, who is really a marvellous expert--when he chooses to use his skill--at conveying water where nature has not provided it. i watched some men making one of these _kanats_. they had bored a vertical hole about three feet in diameter, over which a wooden windlass had been erected. one man was working at the bottom of the shaft. by means of buckets the superfluous earth was gradually raised up to the surface, and the hole bored further. the earth removed in the excavation is then embanked all round the aperture of the shaft. when the required depth is attained a tunnel is pierced, mostly with the hands and a small shovel, in a horizontal direction, and seldom less than four feet high, two feet wide, just big enough to let the workman through. then another shaft has to be made for ventilation's sake and to raise to the surface the displaced earth. miles of these _kanats_ are thus bored, with air shafts every ten to twenty feet distant. in many places one sees thirty, forty, fifty parallel long lines of these aqueducts, with several thousand shafts, dotting the surface of the ground. near ancient towns and villages one finds a great many of these _kanats_ dry and disused at present, and nearly everywhere one sees people at work making fresh ones, for how to get water is one of the great and serious questions in the land of iran. near kasvin these _kanats_ are innumerable, and the water carried by them goes through the streets of the city, with holes here and there in the middle of the road to draw it up. these holes are a serious danger to any one given to walking about without looking where he is placing his feet. it is mainly due to these artificial water-tunnels that the plain of kasvin, otherwise arid and oppressively hot, has been rendered extremely fertile. there are a great many gardens with plenty of fruit-trees. vineyards abound, producing excellent stoneless grapes, which, when dried, are mostly exported to russia. pomegranates, water-melons, cucumbers, and cotton are also grown. excellent horses and camels are bred here. kasvin being the half-way house, as it were, between resht and teheran, and an important city in itself, is bound--even if only in a reflected manner--to feel the good effects of having through communication to the caspian and the capital made so easy by the completion of the russian road. the silk and rice export trade for bagdad has gone up during the last two years, and in the fertile plain in which kasvin lies agriculture is beginning to look up again, although not quite so much as in the resht district, which is naturally the first to reap benefit from the development of northern persia. the chief manufactures of kasvin are carpets, a kind of coarse cotton-cloth called _kerbas_, velvet, brocades, iron-ware and sword-blades, which are much appreciated by persians. there is a large bazaar in which many cheap european goods are sold besides the more picturesque articles of local manufacture. from a strategical point of view, kasvin occupies a position not to be overlooked, guarding as it does the principal entrance from the south into the ghilan province. chapter viii four thousand feet above sea-level--castellated walls--an obnoxious individual--luggage weighing--the strange figure of an african black--how he saved an englishman's life--teheran hotels--interesting guests--life of bachelors in teheran--the britisher in persia--home early--social sets--etiquette--missionaries--foreign communities--the servant question. a few hours' rest to give one's aching bones a chance of returning into their normal condition and position, and amidst the profound salaams of the rest-house servants, we speed away towards teheran, versts more according to the russian road measurement (about miles). we gallop on the old, wide and flat road, on which the traffic alone diverts one,--long strings of donkeys, of camels, every now and then a splendid horse with a swaggering rider. we are travelling on the top of the plateau, and are keeping at an altitude slightly above , feet. distant mountains lie to the north, otherwise there is absolutely nothing to see, no vegetation worth mentioning, everything dry and barren. now and then, miles and miles apart, comes a quadrangular or rectangular, castellated mud wall enclosing a cluster of fruit trees and vegetable gardens; then miles and miles again of dreary, barren country. were it not for the impudence of the natives--increasing to a maximum--there is nothing to warn the traveller that one is approaching the capital of the persian empire, and one finds one's self at the gate of the city without the usual excitement of perceiving from a distance a high tower, or a dome or a steeple or a fortress, or a landmark of some sort or other, to make one enjoy the approach of one's journey's end. abdulabad, , feet, kishslak, , feet, sankarabad, , feet, sulimaneh, , feet, are the principal places and main elevations on the road, but from the last-named place the incline in the plateau tends to descend very gently. teheran is at an altitude of , feet. six farsakhs from teheran, where we had to change horses, an individual connected with the transport company made himself very obnoxious, and insisted on accompanying the carriage to teheran. he was picturesquely attired in a brown long coat, and displayed a nickel-plated revolver, with a leather belt of cartridges. he was cruel to the horses and a nuisance to the coachman. he interfered considerably with the progress of the carriage and made himself unbearable in every possible way. when i stopped at a khafe-khana for a glass of tea, he actually removed a wheel of the carriage, which we had considerable difficulty in putting right again, and he pounded the coachman on the head with the butt of his revolver, in order, as far as i could understand, that he should be induced to go half-shares with him in the backshish that the driver would receive at the end of the stage. all this provided some entertainment, until we reached the teheran gate. only half a mile more and i should be at the hotel. but man proposes and the persian disposes. the carriage and fourgon were driven into a large courtyard, the horses were unharnessed, all the luggage removed from the fourgon and carriage, and deposited in the dust. a primitive scale was produced and slung to a tripod, and each article weighed and weighed over again so as to take up as much of one's time as possible. various expedients to impose upon me, having failed i was allowed to proceed, a new fourgon and fresh horses being provided for the journey of half a mile more, the obnoxious man jumping first on the box so as to prevent being left behind. at last the hotel was reached, and here another row arose with a profusion of blows among a crowd of beggars who had at once collected and disputed among themselves the right of unloading my luggage. a strange figure appeared on the scene. a powerful, half-naked african, as black as coal, and no less than six foot two in height. he sported a huge wooden club in his hand, which he whirled round in a most dangerous manner, occasionally landing it on people's skulls and backs in a sonorous fashion. the crowd vanished, and he, now as gently as possible, removed the luggage from the fourgon and conveyed it into the hotel. the obnoxious man now hastily descended from his seat and demanded a backshish. "what for?" "oh, sir," intervened a persian gentleman present, "this man says he has annoyed you all the way, but he could not make you angry. he must have backshish! he makes a living by annoying travellers!" in contrast to this low, depraved parasite, the african black seemed quite a striking figure,--a scamp, if you like, yet full of character. he was a dervish, with drunken habits and a fierce nature when under the influence of drink, but with many good points when sober. on one occasion an englishman was attacked by a crowd of persians, and was in danger of losing his life, when this man, with considerable bravery (not to speak of his inseparable mallet which he used freely), went to the rescue of the sahib and succeeded in saving him. for this act of courage he has ever since been supported by the charity of foreigners in teheran. he unfortunately spends all his earnings in drink, and can be very coarse indeed, in his songs and imitations, which he delights in giving when under the influence of liquor. he hangs round the hotel, crying out "_yahu! yahu!_" when hungry--a cry quite pathetic and weird, especially in the stillness of night. there are two hotels in teheran and several european and armenian restaurants. the english hotel is the best,--not a dream of cleanliness, nor luxury, nor boasting of a cuisine which would remain impressed upon one's mind, except for its elaborate monotony,--but quite a comfortable place by comparison with the other european hotels of persia. the beds are clean, and the proprietress tries hard to make people comfortable. more interesting than the hotel itself was the curious crowd of people whom one saw at the dinner-table. i remember sitting down one evening to dinner with nine other people, and we represented no less than ten different nationalities! the tower of babel sank almost into insignificance compared with the variety of languages one heard spoken all round, and one's polyglot abilities were tested to no mean extent in trying to carry on a general conversation. one pleasant feature of these dinners was the amount of talent and good-humour that prevailed in the company, and the absolute lack of distinction of class or social position. side by side one saw a distinguished diplomat conversing with the shah's automobile driver, and a noteworthy english member of parliament on friendly terms with an irish gentleman of the indo-european telegraphs. a burly, jolly dutchman stood drinks all round to members of the russian and english banks alike, and a french _sage-femme_ just arrived discussed her prospects with the hotel proprietress. the shah's a.d.c. and favourite music-composer and pianist came frequently to enliven the evenings with some really magnificent playing, and by way of diversion some wild belgian employees of the derelict sugar-factory used almost nightly to cover with insults a notable "chevalier d'industrie" whose thick skin was amazing. then one met armenians--who one was told had come out of jail,--and curio-dealers, mine prospectors, and foreign generals of the persian army. occasionally there was extra excitement when an engagement or a wedding took place, when the parties usually adjourned to the hotel, and then there was unlimited consumption of beer, nominally (glycerine really, for, let me explain, beer does not stand a hot climate unless a large percentage of glycerine is added to it), and of highly-explosive champagne and french wines, château this and château that--of caspian origin. being almost a teetotaller myself, this mixed crowd--but not the mixed drink--was interesting to study, and what particularly struck me was the _bonhomie_, the real good-heartedness, and manly but thoughtful, genial friendliness of men towards one another, irrespective of class, position or condition, except, of course, in the cases of people with whom it was not possible to associate. the hard, mean, almost brutal jealousy, spite, the petty rancour of the usual anglo-indian man, for instance, does not exist at all in persia among foreigners or english people. on the contrary, it is impossible to find more hospitable, more gentlemanly, polite, open-minded folks than the britishers one meets in persia. of course, it must be remembered, the type of britisher one finds in persia is a specially talented, enterprising and well-to-do individual, whose ideas have been greatly broadened by the study of several foreign languages which, in many cases, have taken him on the continent for several years in his youth. furthermore, lacking entirely the ruling "look down upon the native" idea, so prevalent in india, he is thrown much in contact with the persians, adopting from them the courteous manner and form of speech, which is certainly more pleasant than the absurd rudeness of the "keep-aloof" notion which generally makes us hated by most orientals. the britisher in persia, with few exceptions, is a charming person, simple and unaffected, and ready to be of service if he can. he is not aggressive, and, in fact, surprisingly suave. this abnormal feature in the british character is partly due to the climate, hot but very healthy, and to the exile to which the briton has to reconcile himself for years to come. indeed, persia is an exile, a painful one for a bachelor, particularly. woman's society, which at all times helps to make life sweet and pleasant, is absolutely lacking in persia. european women are scarce and mostly married or about to get married. the native women are kept in strict seclusion. one never sees a native woman except heavily veiled under her _chudder_, much less can a european talk to her. the laws of persia are so severe that anything in the shape of a flirtation with a persian lady may cost the life of juliet or romeo, or both, and if life is spared, blackmail is ever after levied by the police or by the girl's parents or by servants. in teheran all good citizens must be indoors by nine o'clock at night, and any one found prowling in the streets after that hour has to deal with the police. in the european quarter this rule is overlooked in the case of foreigners, but in the native city even europeans found peacefully walking about later than that hour are taken into custody and conveyed before the magistrate, who satisfies himself as to the man's identity and has him duly escorted home. there are no permanent amusements of any kind in teheran. an occasional concert or a dance, but no theatres, no music-halls. there is a comfortable club, where people meet and drink and play cards, but that is all. social sets, of course, exist in the teheran foreign community. there are "the telegraph" set, "the bank," "the legations." there is an uncommon deal of social etiquette, and people are most particular regarding calls, dress, and the number of cards left at each door. it looks somewhat incongruous to see men in their black frock-coats and silk tall hats, prowling about the streets, with mud up to their knees if wet, or blinded with dust if dry, among strings of camels, mules, or donkeys. but that is the fashion, and people have to abide by it. there are missionaries in teheran, american and english, but fortunately they are not permitted to make converts. the english, russian and belgian communities are the most numerous, then the french, the dutch, the austrian, the italian, the american. taking things all round, the europeans seem reconciled to their position in teheran--a life devoid of any very great excitement, and partaking rather of the nature of vegetation, yet with a certain charm in it--they say--when once people get accustomed to it. but one has to get accustomed to it first. the usual servant question is a very serious one in teheran, and is one of the chief troubles that europeans have to contend with. there are armenian and persian servants, and there is little to choose between the two. servants accustomed to european ways are usually a bad lot, and most unreliable; but in all fairness it must be admitted that, to a great extent, these servants have been utterly spoilt by europeans themselves, who did not know how to deal with them in a suitable manner. i repeatedly noticed in teheran and other parts of persia that people who really understood the persian character, and treated subordinates with consideration, had most excellent servants--to my mind, the most intelligent and hard-working in the world--and spoke very highly of them. chapter ix teheran--the seat of the kajar family--the square of the gun--sanctuaries--the top meidan--tramways--a railway--opposition of the mullahs and population--destruction of a train--mosques--habitations--extortion and blackmail--persian philosophy. a description of teheran is hardly necessary here, the city being so well-known, but for the help of people unfamiliar with its character a rough sketch of the place may be given. teheran, it must be remembered, has only been the capital of persia for the last hundred years, when the capital was removed from isfahan. previous to that it was merely a royal resort and nothing more. in shape it was formerly almost circular--or, to be strictly accurate, polygonal, the periphery of the polygon measuring a _farsakh_, four miles. like all persian cities it was enclosed in a mud wall and a moat. since then the city has so increased that an extension has been made to an outer boundary some ten miles in circumference, and marked by an uneven ditch, the excavated sand of which is thrown up to form a sort of battlement. twelve gates, opened at sunrise and closed at night, give access to the town. the citadel, the ancient part of the city, contains the principal public buildings, the private residences of high officials, and the shah's palace. to the south of this are found the extensive domed bazaars and the commercial portion of teheran. to the north lies the european quarter with the legations, banks and european shops. we will not go as far back as the afghan invasion in when, according to history, teheran was looted and razed to the ground by the afghans, but we will only mention the fact, which is more interesting to us, that it was not till about that the city was selected on account of its geographical position and of political necessities, as the seat of the kajar dynasty by agha mohammed, who in became the first king of his family. the kajar, as everybody knows, has remained the reigning dynasty of persia to this day. the most interesting point of teheran, in the very centre of the city, is the old "place du canon," where on a high platform is a gigantic piece of ordnance enclosed by a railing. in the same square is a large reservoir of more or less limpid water, in which at all hours of the day dozens of people are to be seen bathing. but the big gun attracts one's attention principally. a curious custom, which is slowly being done away with, has made this spot a sanctuary. whoever remains within touch or even within the shadow of the gun--whether an assassin, a thief, a bankrupt, an incendiary, a traitor or a highwayman,--in fact, a criminal of any kind cannot be touched by the police nor by persons seeking a personal revenge--the usual way of settling differences in persia. a number of distinctly criminal types can always be observed near the gun and are fed by relations, friends, or by charitable people. persians of all classes are extremely charitable, not so much for the sake of helping their neighbours in distress, as for increasing their claims to a seat in paradise, according to the mussulman religion. these sanctuaries are common in persia. the mosques, the principal shrines, such as meshed, kum, the houses of mullahs, and in many cases the bazaars which are generally to be found adjoining places of pilgrimage, afford most convenient shelter to outlaws. the mullahs are greatly responsible for the protection of miscreants. by exercising it they are able to show their power over the authorities of the country--a fact which impresses the masses. that is why in the neighbourhood of many mosques one sees a great number of ruffianly faces, unmistakable cut-throats, men and boys whose villainy is plainly stamped on their countenances. as long as they remain inside the sacred precincts--which they can do if they like till they die of old age--they can laugh at the law and at the world at large. but let them come out, and they are done for. the shah's stables are considered a very safe sanctuary. houses of europeans, or europeans themselves, were formerly considered sanctuaries, but the habit has--fortunately for the residents--fallen into disuse. i myself, when driving one day in the environs of teheran, saw a horseman leading a man whose neck was tied to a substantial rope. much to my surprise, when near enough, the prisoner jumped into my carriage, and it was only after some persuasion on my side and a few pulls at the rope from the rider at the other end that the unwelcome companion was made to dismount again. [illustration: the murderer of nasr-ed-din shah.] when in the company of high mullahs evil characters are also inviolable. the largest square in teheran is the top meidan or "cannon plain," where several small and antiquated pieces of artillery are enclosed in a fence. two parallel avenues with trees cross the rectangular square at its longest side from north to south. in the centre is a large covered reservoir. the offices of both the persian and indo-european telegraphs are in this square, and also the very handsome building of the bank of persia. the square is quite imposing at first sight, having on two sides uniform buildings with long balconies. the _lunettes_ of the archways underneath have each a picture of a gun, and on approaching the southern gates of the parallelogram a smile is provoked by the gigantic but crude, almost childish representations of modern soldiers on glazed tiles. to the west is the extensive drill ground for the persian troops. another important artery of teheran runs from east to west across the same square. one cannot but be interested on perceiving along the main thoroughfares of teheran a service of horse tramways working quite steadily. but the rolling stock is not particularly inviting outwardly--much less inwardly. it is mostly for the use of natives and armenians, and the carriages are very dirty. the horses, however, are good. the tramway company in the hands of russian jews, i believe, but managed by an englishman and various foreigners--subalterns--was doing pretty fair business, and jointly with the tramways had established a capital service of "voitures de remise," which avoided all the trouble and unpleasantness of employing street cabs. the carriages, mostly victorias, were quite good and clean. among other foreign things, teheran can also boast of a railway--a mere steam tramway, in reality--of very narrow gauge and extending for some six miles south of the city to the shrine of shah abdul hazim. the construction of even so short and unimportant a line met with a great deal of opposition, especially from the priestly class, when it was first started in by a belgian company--"la société des chemins de fer et des tramways de perse." the trains began to run two years later, in , and it was believed that the enormous crowds of pilgrims who daily visited the holy shrine would avail themselves of the convenience. huge profits were expected, but unluckily the four or five engines that were imported at an excessive cost, and the difficulties encountered in laying down the line, which was continually being torn up by fanatics, and, most of all, the difficulty experienced in inducing pilgrims to travel in sufficient numbers by the line instead of on horses, mules or donkeys were unexpected and insoluble problems which the managers had to face, and which made the shareholders grumble. the expenses far exceeded the profits, and the capital employed in the construction of the line was already vastly larger than had been anticipated. one fine day, furthermore, a much-envied and respected pilgrim, who had returned in holiness from the famous shrine of kerbalah, was unhappily run over and killed by a train. the mullahs made capital of this accident and preached vengeance upon foreign importations, the work of the devil and distasteful to allah the great. the railway was mobbed and the engine and carriages became a mass of débris. there was nearly a serious riot about this in teheran city; the trains continued to run with the undamaged engines, but no one would travel by them. result? "la compagnie des chemins de fer et des tramways de perse" went bankrupt. the whole concern was eventually bought up cheap by a russian company, and is now working again, as far as regards the railway, in a more or less spasmodic manner. the tramway service connects the three principal gates of the outer wall of teheran with the centre of the city "the place des canons" (meidan-top-khaned). although there are a great many mosques in teheran city there is not one of great importance or beauty. the mesjid-i-shah, or the shah's mosque, is the most noteworthy, and has a very decorative glazed tiled façade. then next in beauty is probably the mosque of the shah's mother, but neither is in any way uncommon for size, or wealth, architectural lines, or sacredness. several mosques have colleges attached to them, as is the usual custom in persia. access to the interior of the mosques is not permitted to europeans unless they have embraced the mahommedan religion. outwardly, there are few native houses in teheran that impress one with any remarkable features of wealth or beauty; in fact, they are nearly all wretchedly miserable,--a plastered mud or brick wall with a modest little doorway being all one sees from the street of the dwellings of even the richest and noblest of persians. inside matters are different. frequently a miserable little tumbling-down gate gives access, after going through similarly miserable, narrow, low passages, to magnificent palaces and astoundingly beautiful and luxurious courts and gardens. i asked what was the reason of the poor outward appearance of these otherwise luxurious dwellings. was it modesty,--was it to deceive envious eyes? there are few countries where blackmail and extortion are carried on on a more extensive and successful scale than in persia; all classes and conditions of people are exposed to the danger, and it is only by an assumed air of poverty that a certain amount of security is obtained. a miserable-looking house, it was explained by a persian, does not attract the covetous eye of the passer-by; an unusually beautiful one does. "it is a fatal mistake," he added, "to let anybody's eye rest on one's possessions, whether he be the shah, a minister, or a beggar. he will want to rest his hands upon them next, and then everything is gone. besides," he said, "it is the inside of a house that gives pleasure and comfort to the occupier and his friends. one does not build a house to give pleasure and comfort to the people in the street. that is only vainglory of persons who wish to make their neighbours jealous by outward show. they usually have to repent it sooner or later." there was more philosophy than european minds may conceive in the persian's words--at least, for persian householders. chapter x legations--germany a stumbling-block to russia's and england's supremacy--sir arthur hardinge, british minister in teheran--his talent, tact, and popularity--the british legation--summer quarters--legation guards--removal of furniture. as late as there were only four legations in teheran: the english, french, russian and turkish; but since then the governments of austria, belgium, holland, and the united states have established legations in the persian capital. by the persians themselves only four are considered of first-class importance, viz.: the british, russian, turkish and belgian legations, as being more closely allied with the interests of the country. the austrian legation comes next to these in importance, then the german. american interests are so far almost a negligible quantity in persia, but germany is attempting to force her trade into persia. in future, if she can realise her railway schemes in asia minor, germany will be a very serious stumbling-block to england's and russia's supremacy, both in north and southern persia. germany's representative in teheran is a man of considerable skill and untiring energy. no doubt that when the opportune time comes and germany is ready to advance commercially in the persian market, england in particular will be the chief sufferer, as the british manufacturer has already experienced great difficulty in contending with the cheap german goods. even in india, where transport is comparatively easy, german goods swamp the bazaars in preference to english goods. much more will this be the case in persia when the railway comes to the persian boundary. the german minister is certainly sparing no efforts to foster german interests in persia, and the enterprising emperor william has shown every possible attention to the shah on his visit to berlin, in order that the racial antipathy, which for some reason or other persians entertain towards germans, may with all due speed be wiped out. to us the british legation is more interesting at present. we may well be proud of our present minister, sir arthur hardinge, a man of whose like we have few in our diplomatic service. i do not think that a man more fit for persia than sir arthur could be found anywhere in the british empire. he possesses quite extraordinary talent, with a quick working brain, a marvellous aptitude for languages--in a few months' residence in persia he had mastered the persian language, and is able to converse in it fluently--and is endowed with a gift which few britishers possess, refined tact and a certain amount of thoughtful consideration for other people's feelings. nor is this all. sir arthur seems to understand orientals thoroughly, and persians in particular. he is extremely dignified in his demeanour towards the native officials, yet he is most affable and cheery, with a very taking, charming manner. that goes a much longer way in persia than the other unfortunate manner by which many of our officials think to show dignity--sheer stiffness, rudeness, bluntness, clumsiness--which offends, offends bitterly, instead of impressing. a fluent and most graceful speaker, with a strong touch of oriental flowery forms of speech in his compliments to officials, with an eye that accurately gauges situations--usually in persia very difficult ones--a man full of resource and absolutely devoid of ridiculous insular notions--a man who studies hard and works harder still--a man with unbounded energy and an enthusiast in his work--a man who knows his subject well, although he has been such a short time in teheran--this is our british minister at the shah's court. nor is this faint praise. sir arthur hardinge has done more in a few months to save british prestige and to safeguard british interests in persia than the public know, and this he has done merely by his own personal genius and charm, rather than by instructions or help from the home government. while in teheran i had much opportunity of meeting a great many high persian officials, and all were unanimous in singing the praises of our new minister. many of them seemed very bitter against some of his predecessors, but whether the fault was in the predecessors themselves or in the home government, it is not for me to say. anyhow, bygones are bygones, and we must make the best of our present opportunities. the staff at our legation and consulate is also first-class. it is to be hoped, now that the south african war is over, that the government will be able to devote more attention to the persian question, a far more serious matter than we imagine; and as extreme ignorance prevails in this country about persia--even in circles where it should not exist--it would be well, when we have such excellent men as sir arthur hardinge at the helm, in whose intelligence we may confidently and absolutely trust, to give him a little more assistance and freedom of action, so as to allow him a chance of safeguarding our interests properly, and possibly of preventing further disasters. it is not easy for the uninitiated to realise the value of certain concessions obtained for the british by sir arthur hardinge, such as, for instance, the new land telegraph line _via_ kerman beluchistan to india. of the petroleum concessions, of which one hears a great deal of late, i would prefer not to speak. the legation grounds in teheran itself are extensive and beautiful, with a great many fine trees and shady, cool avenues. the legation house is handsomely furnished, and dotted all over the gardens are the various other buildings for secretaries, attachés, and interpreters. all the structures are of european architecture--simple, but solid. in summer, however, all the legations shift their quarters to what is called in teheran "_la campagne de_ golahek, de tejerish, de zargandeh,"--by which gracefully misleading and misapplied terms are indicated the suburban residences of the legations, at the foot of the arid, barren, hot, dusty shamran range of mountains. golahek, where the british legation is to be found, does actually boast of a few green trees in the legation grounds; and a cluster or two of nominally "green" vegetation--really whitish brown--can be seen at zargandeh, where the russian and belgian legations are side by side, and tejerish, where the persian foreign office and many persian officials have their summer residences. the drive from teheran to golahek--seven miles--is dusty beyond words. there are wretched-looking trees here and there along the road, so dried and white with dust as to excite compassion. half-way to golahek the monotony of the journey is broken by a sudden halt at a khafe-khana, into which the coachman rushes, leaving the horses to take care of themselves, while he sips refreshing glasses of tea. when it suits his convenience he returns to splash buckets of water between the horses' legs and under their tails. this, he told me, in all seriousness, was to prevent sunstroke (really, the persian can be humorous without knowing it), and was a preventive imported with civilised ways from europe! the ears and manes of the animals are then pulled violently, after which the horses are considered able to proceed. [illustration: persian cossacks (teheran) drilled by russian officers.] the persian government gives each legation a guard of soldiers. the british legation is guarded by infantry soldiers--an untidy, ragged, undisciplined lot, with cylindrical hats worn at all angles on the side of the head, and with uniforms so dirty and torn that it is difficult to discern what they should be like. nearly all other legations are provided with soldiers of the (persian) cossack regiment, who are infinitely better drilled and clothed than the infantry regiments. they are quite military in appearance. it was believed that these cossacks, being drilled by russian military instructors, would not be acceptable at the british legation, hence the guard of infantry soldiers. the russian legation has two additional russian cavalry soldiers. the country residences of all the legations are quite comfortable, pretty and unpretentious, with the usual complement of furniture of folding pattern, so convenient but so inartistic, and a superabundance of cane chairs. really good furniture being very expensive in teheran, a good deal of the upholstery of the teheran legations is conveyed to the country residences for the summer months. perhaps nothing is more amusing to watch than one of these removals to or from the country. chairs, tables, sofas, and most private effects are tied to pack-saddles on ponies, mules or donkeys, with bundles of mattrasses, blankets, and linen piled anyhow upon them, while the more brittle articles of the household are all amassed into a high pyramid on a gigantic tray and balanced on a man's head. rows of these equilibrists, with the most precious glass and crockery of the homestead, can be noticed toddling along on the golahek road, dodging carriages and cavaliers in a most surprising manner. they are said never to break even the smallest and most fragile articles, but such is certainly not the case with the heavily laden donkeys and mules, which often collide or collapse altogether, with most disastrous results to the heavier pieces of furniture. on my arrival in teheran i received a most charming invitation to go and stay at the british legation, but partly owing to the fact that i wished to remain in town and so be more in touch with the natives themselves, partly because i wished to be unbiassed in any opinion that i might form, i decided not to accept anybody's hospitality while in teheran. this i am very glad i did, for i feel i can now express an opinion which, whether right or wrong, is my own, and has not been in any way influenced by any one. chapter xi visits to high persian officials--meftah-es-sultaneh--persian education--a college for orphans--uncomfortable etiquette--the foreign office--h.e. mushir-ed-doulet, minister of foreign affairs--persian interest in the chinese war of --reform necessary. perhaps the description of one or two visits to high persian officials may interest the reader. through the kindness of the persian legation in london i had received letters of introduction which i forwarded to their addresses on my arrival in teheran. the first to answer, a few hours after i had reached teheran, was meftah-es-sultaneh (davoud), the highest person in the foreign office after the minister, who in a most polite letter begged me to go to tea with him at once. he had just come to town from tejerish, but would leave again the same evening. [illustration: the eftetahié college, supported by meftah-el-mulk.] escorted by the messenger, i at once drove to meftah's palace, outwardly, like other palaces, of extremely modest appearance, and entered by a small doorway leading through very narrow passages. led by my guide, we suddenly passed through a most quaint court, beautifully clean and with a pretty fountain in the centre,--but no time was given me to rest and admire. again we entered another dark passage, this time to emerge into a most beautiful garden with rare plants and lovely flowers, with a huge tank, fountains playing and swans floating gracefully on the water. a most beautiful palace in european architecture of good taste faced the garden. i was admitted into a spacious drawing-room, furnished in good european style, where meftah-es-sultaneh--a rotund and jovial gentleman--greeted me with effusion. although he had never been out of persia, he spoke french, with a most perfect accent, as fluently as a frenchman. what particularly struck me in him, and, later, in many other of the younger generation of the upper classes in persia, was the happy mixture of the utmost charm of manner with a keen business head, delightful tact and no mean sense of humour. meftah-es-sultaneh, for instance, spoke most interestingly for over an hour, and i was agreeably surprised to find what an excellent foreign education students can receive without leaving persia. it is true that meftah is an exceptionally clever man, who would make his mark anywhere; still it was nevertheless remarkable how well informed he was on matters not concerning his country. he comes from a good stock. his father, meftah-el-mulk, was minister member of the council of state, a very wealthy man, who devoted much of his time and money to doing good to his country. among the many praiseworthy institutions founded and entirely supported by him was the college for orphans, the dabetsane daneshe, and the eftetahié school. the colleges occupy beautiful premises, and first-rate teachers are provided who instruct their pupils in sensible, useful matters. the boys are well fed and clothed and are made quite happy in every way. meftah told me that his excellency the minister of foreign affairs wished to see me, so it was arranged that i should drive to tejerish the next morning to the minister's country residence. as early as five a.m. the following day i was digging in my trunks in search of my frock-coat, the only masculine attire in persia that is considered decent, and without which no respectable man likes to be seen. then for the tall hat; and with the temperature no less than ° in the shade i started in an open victoria to drive the nine miles or so to the appointment. not being a persian myself, and not quite sharing the same ideas of propriety, i felt rather ridiculous in my get-up, driving across the sunny, dusty and barren country until we reached the hills. i had to keep my feet under the seat of the carriage, for when the sun's rays (thermometer above °) struck my best patent-leather shoes, the heat was well-nigh intolerable. at last, after going slowly up-hill through winding lanes enclosed in mud walls, and along dry ditches with desiccated trees on either side, we arrived at the _campagne de tejerish_, and pulled up in front of a big gate, at the residence of the minister. the trials of the long drive had been great. with the black frock-coat white with dust, my feet absolutely broiled in the patent shoes, and the perspiration streaming down my forehead and cheeks, i really could not help laughing at the absurdity of civilised, or semi-civilised fashions, and at the purposeless suffering inflicted by them. there were a number of soldiers at the gate with clothes undone--they were practical people--and rusty muskets resting idle on a rack. "is meftah-es-sultaneh here?" i inquired. "yes, he is waiting for you," answered a soldier as he sprang to his feet. he hurriedly buttoned up his coat and hitched his belt, and, seizing a rifle, made a military salute in the most approved style. an attendant led me along a well-shaded avenue to the house, and here i was ushered into a room where, round tables covered with green cloth, sat a great many officials. all these men wore pleated frock-coats of all tints and gradations of the colours of the rainbow. one and all rose and politely saluted me before i sat down. through the passage one could see another room in which a number of other officials, similarly clad and with black astrakan caps, were opening and sorting out correspondence. suddenly there was a hurried exit of all present--very much like a stampede. up the avenue a stately, tall figure, garbed in a whitish frock-coat over which a long loose brown coat was donned, walked slowly and ponderously with a crowd of underlings flitting around--like mosquitoes round a brilliant light. it was mushir-ed-doulet, the minister of foreign affairs. he turned round, now to one, then to another official, smiling occasionally and bowing gracefully, then glancing fiercely at another and sternly answering a third. [illustration: h. e. mushir-ed-doulet, minister of foreign affairs.] i was rather impressed by the remarkable facility with which he could switch on extreme courteousness and severity, kindliness and contempt. his face was at no time, mind you, subjected to very marked exaggerated changes or grimaces, such as those by which we generally expect emotions to show themselves among ourselves, but the changes in his expression, though slight, were quite distinct and so expressive that there was no mistake as to their meaning. a soft look of compassion; a hard glance of offended dignity; the veiled eyes deeply absorbed in reflection; the sudden sparkle in them at news of success, were plainly visible on his features, as a clerk approached him bringing correspondence, or asking his opinion, or reporting on one matter or another. a considerable amount of the less important business was disposed of in this fashion, as the minister strode up the avenue to the foreign office building, and more still with two or three of the more important personages who escorted him to his tents some little way from the avenue. meftah-es-sultaneh, who had disappeared with the minister, hurriedly returned and requested me to follow him. on a sofa under a huge tent, sat mushir-ed-doulet, the minister, who instantly rose and greeted me effusively as i entered. he asked me to sit on his right on the sofa while meftah interpreted. his excellency only spoke persian. cigarettes, cigars, coffee and tea were immediately brought. the minister had a most intelligent head. as can be seen by the photograph here reproduced, he might have passed for a european. he was extremely dignified and business-like in his manner. his words were few and much to the point. our interview was a pleasant one and i was able to learn much of interest about the country. the minister seemed to lay particular stress on the friendly relations of russia and england, and took particular care to avoid comments on the more direct relations between persia and russia. one point in our conversation which his excellency seemed very anxious to clear up was, what would be the future of china? he seemed keenly interested in learning whether russia's or england's influence had the supremacy in the heavenly empire, and whether either of these nations was actually feared by the chinese. "will the chinese ever be able to fight england or russia with success? were the chinese well-armed during the war of ? if properly armed and drilled, what chances had the chinese army of winning against the allies? would china be eventually absorbed and divided into two or more shares by european powers, or would she be maintained as an empire?" although the minister did not say so himself, i could not help suspecting that in his mind the similarity and probably parallel futures of china and persia afforded ground for reflection. there is no doubt that in many ways the two countries resemble one another politically, although persia, owing to her more important geographical position, may have a first place in the race of european greed. the interest displayed by persians of all classes in the chinese war of was intense, and, curiously enough, the feeling seemed to prevail that china had actually won the war because the allies had retreated, leaving the capital and the country in the hands of the chinese. "more than in our actual strength," said a persian official once to me, "our safety lies in the rivalry of great britain and russia, between which we are wedged. let those two nations be friends and we are done for!" after my visit to the minister of foreign affairs i had the pleasure of meeting the prime minister, the minister of war, and the minister of public works. i found them all extremely interesting and courteous and well up in their work. but although talent is not lacking in persia among statesmen, the country itself, as it is to-day, does not give these men an opportunity of shining as brightly as they might. the whole country is in such a decayed condition that it needs a thorough overhauling. then only it might be converted into quite a formidable country. it possesses all the necessary requirements to be a first-class nation. talent in exuberance, physical strength, a convenient geographical position, a good climate, considerable mineral and some agricultural resources, are all to be found in persia. all that is wanted at present is the development of the country on a solid, reliable basis, instead of the insecure, unsteady intrigues upon which business, whether political or commercial, is unfortunately carried on in the present state of affairs. no one realises this better than the well-to-do persian, and nothing would be more welcome to him than radical reform on the part of the shah, and the establishment of the land of iran on unshakable foundations. with a national debt so ridiculously small as persia has at present, there is no reason why, with less maladministration, with her industries pushed, with her army reorganised and placed on a serviceable footing, she should not rank as one of the first and most powerful among asiatic independent nations. we have seen what young japan, against all odds, has been able to accomplish in a few years. all the more should a talented race like the persians, situated to begin with in a far less remote position than japan, and therefore more favourably for the acquisition of foreign ways, be able to emulate, and even in a short time surpass, the marvellous success attained by the little islanders of the far east. it is grit that is at present lacking in persia. the country has a wavering policy that is extremely injurious to her interests. one cannot fail to compare her to a good old ship in a dangerous sea. the men at her helm are perplexed, and cannot quite see a clear way of steering. the waves run high and there are plenty of reefs and rocks about. a black gloomy sky closes the horizon, forecasting an approaching cyclone. the ship is leaking on all sides, and the masts are unsteady; yet when we look at the number of rocks and reefs and dangers which she has steered clear through already, we cannot fail to have some confidence in her captain and crew. maybe, if she is able to resist the fast-approaching and unavoidable clash of the wind and sea (figuratively england is the full-blown wind, russia the sea)--she may yet reach her destination, swamped by the waves, dismantled, but not beyond repair. her damage, if one looks at her with the eye of an expert, is after all not so great, and with little present trouble and expense she will soon be as good as new. not, however, if she is left to rot much longer. such is persia at present. the time has come when she must go back into the shelter of a safe harbour, or face the storm. chapter xii the persian army--the persian soldier as he is and as he might be--when and how he is drilled--self-doctoring under difficulties--misappropriation of the army's salary--cossack regiments drilled by russian officers--death of the head mullah--tribute of the jews--the position of europeans--a gas company--how it fulfilled its agreement. a painful sight is the persian army. with the exception of the good cossack cavalry regiment, properly fed, dressed, armed and drilled by foreign instructors such as general kossackowski, and russian officers, the infantry and artillery are a wretched lot. there is no excuse for their being so wretched, because there is hardly a people in asia who would make better soldiers than the persians if they were properly trained. the persian is a careless, easy-going devil, who can live on next to nothing; he is a good marksman, a splendid walker and horseman. he is fond of killing, and cares little if he is killed--and he is a master at taking cover. these are all good qualities in a soldier, and if they were brought out and cultivated; if the soldiers were punctually paid and fed and clothed and armed, there is no reason why persia should not have as good an army as any other nation. the material is there and is unusually good; it only remains to use it properly. [illustration: persian soldiers--the band.] [illustration: recruits learning music.] i was most anxious to see the troops at drill, and asked a very high military officer when i might see them. "we do not drill in summer," was the reply, "it is too hot!" "do you drill in winter?" "no, it is too cold." "are the troops then only drilled in the autumn and spring?" "sometimes. they are principally drilled a few days before the shah's birthday, so that they may look well on the parade before his majesty." "i suppose they are also only dressed and shod on the shah's birthday?" "yes." "what type and calibre rifle is used in the persian army?" "make it plural, as plural as you can. they have every type under the sun. but," added the high military officer, "we use of course 'bullet rifles' (_fusils à balle_) not 'small shot guns'!" this "highly technical explanation" about finished me up. as luck or ill-luck would have it, i had an accident which detained me some four weeks in teheran. while at the resht hotel, it may be remembered how, walking barefooted on the matting of my room, an invisible germ bored its way into the sole of my foot, and i could not get it out again. one day, in attempting to make its life as lively as the brute made my foot, i proceeded to pour some drops of concentrated carbolic acid upon the home of my invisible tenant. unluckily, in the operation my arm caught in the blankets of my bed, and in the jerk the whole contents of the bottle flowed out, severely burning all my toes and the lower and upper part of my foot, upon which the acid had quickly dripped between the toes. with the intense heat of teheran, this became a very bad sore, and i was unable to stand up for several days. some ten days later, having gone for a drive to get a little air, a carriage coming full gallop from a side street ran into mine, turning it over, and i was thrown, injuring my leg very badly again; so with all these accidents i was detained in teheran long enough to witness the shah's birthday, and with it, for a few days previous, the "actual drilling of the troops." i have heard it said, but will not be responsible for the statement, that the troops are nearer their full complement on such an auspicious occasion than at any other time of the year, so as to make a "show" before his majesty. very likely this is true. when i was in teheran a great commotion took place, which shows how things are occasionally done in the land of iran. the ex-minister of war, kawam-ed-douleh, who had previously been several times governor of teheran, was arrested, by order of the shah, for embezzling a half year's pay of the whole persian army. soldiers were sent to his country residence and the old man, tied on a white mule, was dragged into teheran. his cap having been knocked off--it is a disgrace to be seen in public without a hat--his relations asked that he should be given a cap, which concession was granted, on payment of several hundred tomans. a meal of rice is said to have cost the prisoner a few more hundred tomans, and so much salt had purposely been mixed with it that the thirsty ex-minister had to ask for copious libations of water, each tumbler at hundreds of tomans. several other high officials were arrested in connection with these army frauds, and would probably have lost their heads, had it not been for the special kindness of the shah who punished them by heavy fines, repayment of the sums appropriated, and exile. it is a well-known fact in persia that whether the frauds begin high up or lower down in the scale of officials, the pay often does not reach the private soldier, and if it does is generally reduced to a minimum. the food rations, too, if received by the men at all, are most irregular, which compels the soldiers to look out for themselves at the expense of the general public. this is a very great pity, for with what the shah pays for the maintenance of the army, he could easily, were the money not appropriated for other purposes, keep quite an efficient little force, properly instructed, clothed, and armed. the drilling of the soldiers, which i witnessed just before the shah's birthday, partook very much of the character of a theatrical performance. the drilling, which hardly ever lasted more than a couple of hours a day, was limited to teaching the soldiers how to keep time while marching and presenting arms. the brass bands played _fortissimo_--but not _benissimo_--all the time, and various evolutions were gone through in the spacious _place d'armes_ before the italian general, in persian employ, and a bevy of highly-dressed persian officers. there was a great variety of ragged uniforms, and head-gears, from kolah caps to brass and tin helmets, and the soldiers' ages ranged from ten to sixty. the soldiers seemed very good-humoured and obedient, and certainly, when i saw them later before the shah in their new uniforms, they looked quite different and had not the wretched appearance they present in daily life. but these infantry soldiers do not bear comparison with the russian-drilled persian cossacks. the jump is enormous, and well shows what can be done with these men if method and discipline are used. of course perfection could not be expected in such a short time, especially considering the difficulties and interference which foreign officers have to bear from the persians, but it is certainly to be regretted that such excellent material is now practically wasted and useless. there were several other excitements before i left teheran. the head mullah--a most important person--died, and the whole population of teheran turned out to do him honour when his imposing funeral took place. curiously enough, the entire male jewish community marched in the funeral procession--an event unprecedented, i am told, in the annals of persian mussulman history. the head mullah, a man of great wisdom and justice, had, it was said, been very considerate towards the jews and had protected them against persecution: hence this mark of respect and grief at his death. the discovery of the ex-minister of war's frauds, the death of the head mullah, the reported secret attempts to poison the shah, the prospects of a drought, the reported murder of two russians at resht, and other minor sources of discontent, all coming together, gave rise to fears on the part of europeans that a revolution might take place in teheran. but such rumours are so very frequent in all eastern countries that generally no one attaches any importance to them until it is too late. europeans are rather tolerated than loved in persia, and a walk through the native streets or bazaars in teheran is quite sufficient to convince one of the fact. nor are the persians to be blamed, for there is hardly a nation in asia that has suffered more often and in a more shameful manner from european speculators and adventurers than the land of iran. perhaps the country itself, or rather the people, with their vainglory and empty pomp, are particularly adapted to be victimised by impostors and are easy preys to them. some of the tricks that have been played upon them do not lack humour. take, for instance, the pretty farce of the _compagnie générale pour l'éclairage et le chauffage en perse_, which undertook to light the city of teheran with no less than one thousand gas lights. machinery was really imported at great expense from europe for the manufacture of the gas--many of the heavier pieces of machinery are still lying on the roadside between resht and teheran--extensive premises were built in teheran itself, and an elaborate doorway with a suitable inscription on it, is still to be seen; but the most important part of all--the getting of the coal from which the gas was to be extracted--had not been considered. the lalun coal mines, which offered a gleam of hope to the shareholders, were exploited and found practically useless. the company and government came to loggerheads, each accusing the other of false dealing, and the result was that the persians insisted on the company lighting up teheran with the agreed , lights. if gas could not be manufactured, oil lights would do. there was the signed agreement and the company must stick to it. the company willingly agreed, but as the document did not specify the site where each lamp-post should be situate nearly all were erected, at a distance of only a few feet from one another--a regular forest of them--in the two main streets of the european settlement. one single man is employed after dark to set the lamps alight, and when he has got to the end of the two streets he proceeds on his return journey to blow them all out again. by ten o'clock everything is in perfect darkness. the company now claim that they have fulfilled their agreement! the belgian company for the manufacture of beetroot sugar was another example of how speculations sometimes go wrong, and no wonder. in theory the venture seemed quite sound, for the consumption of sugar in persia is large, and if it had been possible to produce cheap sugar in the country instead of importing it from russia, france and india, huge profits would have been probable; but here again the same mistake was made as by the gas company. the obtaining of the raw material was neglected. the sugar refinery was built at great cost in this case, too, machinery was imported to manufacture the three qualities of sugar most favoured by the persians--loaf sugar, crystallised sugar, and sugar-candy,--but all this was done before ascertaining whether it was possible to grow the right quality of beetroot in sufficient quantities to make the concern pay. theoretically it was proved that it would be possible to produce local sugar at a price which, while leaving the company a huge profit, would easily beat russian sugar, by which french and indian sugar have now been almost altogether supplanted. a model farm was actually started (and is still in existence) near shah-abdul azim, where beetroot was to be grown in large quantities, the experts declaring that the soil was better suited for the crop than any to be found in europe. somehow or other it did not answer as well as expected. moreover, the question of providing coal for the engines proved--as in the case of the gas company--to be another serious stumbling block. an attempt to overcome this difficulty by joining with the gas company in working the lalun mines was made, but, alas! proved an expensive failure. moreover, further difficulties were encountered in obtaining the right manure for the beetroots, in order that the acids, which delay crystallisation, might be eliminated; and the inexperience, carelessness and reluctance with which the natives took up the new cultivation--and, as it did not pay, eventually declined to go on with it--render it by no means strange that the sugar factory, too, which was to make the fortunes of so many became a derelict enterprise. chapter xiii cash and wealth--capital as understood by persians--hidden fortunes--forms of extravagance--unbusiness-like qualities--foreign examples--shaken confidence of natives in foreigners--greed for money--small merchants--illicit ways of increasing wealth--the persian a dreamer--unpunctuality--time no money and no object--hindrance to reform--currency--gold, silver, and copper--absorption of silver--drainage of silver into transcaspia--banknotes--the fluctuations of the kran--how the poorer classes are affected by it--coins old and new--nickel coins--the _shai_ and its subdivisions. the persian does not understand the sound principles on which alone extensive business can be successful. partly owing to prevailing circumstances he is under the misapprehension that hard cash is synonymous with wealth, and does not differentiate between treasure, savings, and savings transformed into capital. this is probably the main cause of the present anaemic state of business in the shah's empire. thus, when we are told there is in persia enormous "capital" to be invested, we are not correctly informed. there are "enormous accumulations of wealth" lying idle, but there is no "capital" in the true meaning of the word. these huge sums in hard cash, in jewellery, or bars of gold and silver, have been hidden for centuries in dark cellars, and for any good they are to the country and commerce at large might as well not exist at all. partly owing to the covetousness of his neighbours, partly owing to a racial and not unreasonable diffidence of all around him, and to the fact that an asiatic always feels great satisfaction in the knowledge that he has all his wealth within his own reach and protection, rich men of persia take particular care to maintain the strictest secrecy about their possessions, and to conceal from the view of their neighbours any signs which might lead them to suspect the accumulation of any such wealth. we have already seen how even the houses of the wealthiest are purposely made humble outwardly so as to escape the notice of rapacious officials, and it is indeed difficult to distinguish from the outside between the house of a millionaire and that of a common merchant. the persian, it must be well understood, does not hide his accumulated treasure from avaricious reasons; on the contrary, his inclinations are rather toward extravagance than otherwise, which extravagance he can only satisfy under a mask of endless lies and subterfuges. no honest ways of employing his wealth in a business-like and safe manner are open to the rich persian under the present public maladministration, nor have the foreign speculations in the country offered sufficient examples of success to induce natives to embark upon them again. far from it; these enterprises have even made persians more sceptical and close than before, and have certainly not shown foreign ways of transacting business at the best. that is why, no other way being open to him, the persian who does wish to get rid of his wealth, prefers to squander his money, both capital and income (the latter if he possesses land), in luxurious jewellery and carpets, and in unhealthy bribery and corruption, or in satisfying caprices which his voluptuous nature may suggest. the result? the persian is driven to live mostly for his vanity and frivolity--two unbusiness-like qualities not tending to the promotion of commercial enterprise on a large scale, although it is true that in a small way his failings give rise and life to certain industries. for instance, even in remote, poor and small centres where food is scarce and the buildings humble, one invariably finds a goldsmith, filigree-workers and embroidery makers, whereas the necessaries of life may be more difficult to obtain. of course persia contains a comparatively small number of persians of a more adventurous nature, men who have travelled abroad and have been bitten with the western desire for speculation to increase their money with speed, if not always with safety; but even these men have mostly retired within their shells since the colossal _fiascos_ of the speculations started in persia by foreign "company promoters." a considerable number of persians, seduced by glowing prospectuses and misplaced faith in everything foreign, were dreadfully taken in by the novel experiments--everything novel attracts the persian considerably--and readily unearthed solid gold and silver bars, that had lain for centuries in subterranean hiding-places, and now came out to be converted into shares in the various concerns, hardly worth the paper on which they were printed, but promising--according to the prospectus--to bring the happy possessors fabulous incomes. we have seen how the sugar refinery, the glass factory, the "gas" company--a more appropriate name could not have been given--and the ill-fated mining company have created well-founded suspicion of foreign ways of increasing one's capital, nor can we with any fairness blame the persians for returning to their old method of slow accumulation. true enough, a fortune, if discovered, has a fair possibility of being seized in the lump by a greedy official, but that is only a possibility; whereas, when invested in some foreign speculations the loss becomes a dead certainty! more even than the actual loss of the money, the persians who burned their fingers by meddling with foreign schemes felt the scorn of their friends, of whom they had become the laughing stock. there is no doubt that to-day the confidence of the natives towards foreigners has been very much shaken, and excepting a few men whom they well know, trust and respect, they regard most europeans as adventurers or thieves. the "treasuring" of capital instead of the investment of it is, therefore, one of the reasons why industries in persia seldom assume large proportions. it is only the small merchant, content to make a humble profit, who can prosper in his own small way while more extensive concerns are distrusted. but it must not be understood that persians do not care for money. there is, on the contrary, hardly a race of people on the face of the earth with whom the greed for money is developed to such an abnormal extent as in all classes in the land of iran! but, you will ask, how can money be procured or increased fast and without trouble in a country where there is no commercial enterprise, where labour is interfered with, where capital cannot have a free outlet or investment? an opening has to be found in illicit ways of procuring wealth, and the most common form adopted is the loan of money at high interest on ample security. as much as per cent., per cent., per cent. and even more is demanded and obtained as interest on private loans, per cent. being the very lowest and deemed most reasonable indeed! (this does not apply to foreign banks.) all this may seem strange in a mussulman country, where it is against all the laws of the koran to lend money at usury, and it is more strange still to find that the principal offenders are the mullahs themselves, who reap large profits from such illegal financial operations. the persian is a dreamer by nature; he cannot be said to be absolutely lazy, for he is always absorbed in deep thought--what the thoughts are it does not do to analyse too closely--but he devotes so much time to thinking that he seldom can do anything else. his mind--like the minds of all people unaccustomed to hard work and steady, solidly-built enterprise--runs to the fantastic, and he ever expects immense returns for doing nothing. the returns, if any, and no matter how large they may be, are ever too small to satisfy his expectations. as for time, there is no country where it is worth less than to the natives of persia. the _mañana_ of the spaniards sinks into perfect insignificance when compared with the habits of the land of iran. punctuality is unknown--especially in payments, for a persian must take time to reflect over everything. he cannot be hurried. a three months' limit of credit--or even six months--seems outrageously short in the eyes of persians. twelve months and eighteen, twenty, or twenty-four months suit him better, but even then he is never ready to pay, unless under great pressure. he does disburse the money in the end, capital and interest, but why people should worry over time, and why it should matter whether payment occurs to-day or to-morrow are quite beyond him. if he does transact business, days are wasted in useless talk and compliments before the subject with which he intends to deal is incidentally approached in conversation, and then more hours and days and weeks, even months have to elapse before he can make up his mind what to do. our haste, and what we consider smartness in business, are looked upon by the persian as quite an acute form of lunacy,--and really, when one is thrown much in contact with such delightful placidity, almost torpor, and looks back upon one's hard race for a living and one's struggle and competition in every department, one almost begins to fancy that we are lunatics after all! [illustration: the arrival of a caravan of silver at the imperial bank of persia.] the persian must have his hours for praying, his hours for ablutions, more hours for meditation, and the rest for sleep and food. whether you hasten or not, he thinks, you will only live the number of years that god wills for you, and you will live those years in the way that he has destined for you. each day will be no longer and no shorter, your life no sadder and no happier. why then hurry? amid such philosophic views, business in european fashion does not promise to prosper. unable to attach a true meaning to words--his language is beautiful but its flowery form conduces to endless misunderstandings--casual to a degree in fulfilling work as he has stipulated to do it; such is the persian of to-day. whether the vicissitudes of his country, the fearful wars, the famines, the climate, the official oppression have made him so, or whether he has always been so, is not easy to tell, but that is how he is now. besides all this, each man is endowed with a maximum of ambition and conceit, each individual fully believing himself the greatest man that ever lived and absolute perfection. moreover the influence of mullahs is used to oppose reform and improvement, so that altogether the economic development of production, distribution and circulation of capital is bound to be hampered to no mean extent. on examining things carefully it seems almost astonishing that the trade of persia should be as well developed as it is. another difficulty in the way is the currency, which offers some interesting lessons, and i am indebted to the author of a paper read before the statistical society for the following details. gold is not produced in persia. bar gold is imported in very small quantities only. gold coin is a mere commodity--is quite scarce, and is mostly used for presents and hoarding. it is minted principally from russian imperials and turkish pounds which drift into persia in small quantities in the course of business. goldsmiths, too, in their work, make use of foreign coins, although some gold and silver bullion is imported for manufacturing purposes. silver, too, is not obtainable in persia except in very small quantities, and the imported silver comes from great britain, _via_ the gulf or _via_ hamburg and russia. in the year the persian government, in connection with the russian loan, imported some three million tomans' worth of silver to be minted, and the imperial bank of persia another million tomans; while some , tomans more were brought into the country by other importers. but under normal circumstances the annual output hardly ever exceeds three to four million tomans. in it was something between , , and , , tomans. the mint--like all other institutions of persia--is in a tumbling-down condition, with an ancient plant ( ) so obsolete and worn as to be almost useless. partly owing to the insufficient production of coin, partly because of the export in great quantities of persian silver coin into transcaspia, and, last but not least, owing to the persian custom of "making a corner" by speculators, the commercial centres of persia suffer from a normal dearth of silver coins. persian silver coin has for the foregoing reasons a purchasing power of sometimes per cent. beyond its intrinsic value. in distant cities, like yezd or kerman, it is difficult to obtain large sums in silver coin at face value, as it disappears into the villages almost as soon as it arrives by caravan or post. new coin is generally in great demand and commands a premium. so the yearly drain of silver coin from teheran as soon as it is minted is very considerable, especially to the north, north-east and north-west provinces. this coin does not circulate but is almost entirely absorbed and never reappears, the people themselves holding it, as we have seen, as treasure, and huge quantities finding their way into transcaspia and eventually into afghanistan, where persian coin is current and at a premium, especially on the border land. in transcaspia persian coin is cherished because the nominally equivalent persian coin contains a much larger quantity of silver than the russian. russian silver is a mere token of currency, or, at best, stands midway between a token and a standard or international currency, and its difference when compared with the persian coin amounts to no less than . per cent. in favour of the persian. persian coin, although defective and about per cent. below legal weight and fineness, is a standard or international currency. it appears that a good deal of the silver exported into transcaspia finds its way to chinese turkestan, where it is converted into bars and ingots, and is used for the inland trade to china. the russian government have done all in their power to prevent the competition of persian and russian coins in their transcaspian provinces. a decree was issued some eleven years ago forbidding the importation, and in a second ukase further prohibited foreign silver from entering the country after the th of may ( st of may of our calendar), and a duty of about per cent. was imposed on silver crossing the frontier. all this has resulted in silver entering the provinces by smuggling instead of openly, but it finds its way there in large quantities just the same as before. the government of persia does not issue bank-notes, which would be regarded with suspicion among the people, but it is interesting to find that the monopoly granted to the imperial bank of persia for the issue of paper money has had excellent results, in teheran particularly, where the bank is held in high esteem and the notes have been highly appreciated. in other cities of persia which i visited, however, the notes did not circulate, and were only accepted at the bank's agencies and in the bazaar by some of the larger merchants at a small discount. naturally, with the methods adopted by persians, and the insecurity which prevails everywhere, the process of convincing the natives that a piece of printed paper is equivalent to so many silver krans, and that the silver krans will surely be produced in full on demand is rather a slow one; but the credit of the imperial bank and the popular personality of mr. rabino, the manager, have done much towards dispelling the suspicions, and since the notes have assumed a considerable place in the circulation. in september the circulation of them amounted to , tomans; in it had gradually increased to , tomans, and by leaps and bounds had reached the sum of , , in .[ ] it is rather curious to note that in the previous year, , the note circulation was , tomans, and became very nearly double in the following twelve months. this only applies to teheran and the principal cities; in the villages, and in out-of-the-way towns, notes are out of the question, and even silver coins are very scarce. a two-kran piece of the newer type is seldom found, and only one-kran pieces, little irregular lumps of silver, are occasionally to be seen. copper is really the currency and is a mere subsidiary or token coinage with a value fluctuating according to local dearth or other causes at almost every place one goes to. the precarious system of farming, accompanied by the corruption of officials, has given an opportunity for most frequent and flagrant abuses in the excessive over-issue of copper coin, so that in many cities copper issued at the nominal value of shais per kran was current at , , , and even, in eastern persia, at shais per kran. i myself, on travelling through persia, never knew exactly what a kran was worth, as in almost every province i received a different exchange of shais for my krans. in birjand and sistan, particularly, the exchange differed very considerably. this state of maladministration affects the poorer classes, for the copper currency forms their entire fortune. on coming to the throne the present shah, with praiseworthy thoughtfulness, endeavoured to put a stop to this cause of misery in his people, and ordered the government to withdraw some , tomans' worth of copper coins at to shais per kran. this had a good effect, and although much of the depreciated coin is still in circulation, particularly in out-of-the-way places, its circulation in the larger towns has been considerably diminished. lately the government has adopted the measure of supplying the public with nickel coins, one-shai and two-shai pieces, which, although looked at askance at first, are now found very handy by the natives and circulate freely, principally in resht, kasvin, teheran and isfahan. in other cities i did not see any, nor would the natives accept mine in payment, and in villages no one would have anything to do with them as they were absolutely unknown. but wherever it has been possible to commence the circulation of these nickel coins--which were struck at the brussels mint and which are quite pretty--they have been accepted with great pleasure. the old gold coins in circulation in persia--very few and far apart--were the toman, half-toman, and two-kran piece. the gold had a legal fineness of . the legal weight in grains troy was: toman, . ; half-toman, . ; two-kran piece, . . weight in pure gold; toman, . ; half-toman, . ; two-kran piece, . . the new coins are the two-tomans, one-toman (differentiated in and subsequent to ), half-toman and two-kran pieces, the gold having a legal fineness of . legal weight:-- | | one toman. | | | two | | subsequent| half | two kran | tomans.| . | to . | toman. | piece. --------------------+---------+--------+-----------+--------+--------- grains troy | . | . | . | . | . weight in pure gold | . | . | . | . | . the new silver coinage consists of -kran pieces (five of which make a toman), one-kran, half-kran, and quarter-kran, all keeping to the legal fineness of as in the older coins struck from to :-- | two | one | half | quarter | krans. | kran. | kran. | kran. ---------------------------+---------+--------+--------+-------- legal weight (grains troy) | . | . | . | . weight in grains silver | . | . | . | . the to coins were merely one-kran, half-kran, quarter-kran:-- | one kran. | half kran. | quarter kran. ---------------------+-----------+------------+-------------- legal weight | . | . | . weight in pure silver| . | . | . the older coinage before , a most irregular coin--of one kran--varied considerably and had an approximate average fineness of , an average weight (grains troy) of . , and a weight in pure silver of grains troy . , which is below the correct standard by no less than . per cent. in the newest coinage of two-kran pieces, the coin most used in cities,--large payments being always made in two-kran pieces--we have an average fineness of . ; average weight, grains troy, . ; weight in pure silver, grains troy, . , or . per cent. below the standard. in nickel coinage, composed of per cent. of nickel and per cent. of copper, we have:-- two shai pieces (grains troy) . one shai pieces (grains troy) . the copper coins are in great variety. there is the _abassi_ (one-fifth of a kran) worth four shais, and very scarce now. the _sadnar_ (one-tenth of a kran) equivalent to two shais. the (one) _shai_ (one-twentieth of a kran). the _pul_ (one-fortieth of a kran), half a shai. and the _jendek_ (one-eightieth of a kran) a quarter shai; this coin only found in circulation in khorassan. when it is remembered that at the present rate of exchange the kran can be reckoned at fivepence in english money, and the toman as roughly equivalent to one american dollar, it will be seen that the subdivisions of the kran are rather minute for the average european mind. [illustration: the imperial bank of persia decorated on the shah's birthday.] yet there are things that one can buy even for a _jendek_; think of it,--the fourth part of a farthing! but that is only in khorassan. footnotes: [ ] i understand this figure has since considerably increased. chapter xiv the banks of persia--the imperial bank of persia--the most revered foreigner in persia--loans--the road concession--the action of the stock exchange injurious to british interests--securities--brains and not capital--risks of importing capital--an ideal banking situation--hoarding--defective communication--the key to profitable banking in persia--how the exchange is affected--coins--free trade--the russian bank and mr. de witte--mr. grube an able manager--healthy competition--support of the russian government. the banks of persia can be divided into three classes. one, containing the smaller native bankers, who often combine the jeweller's business with that of the money changer; the larger and purely native banking businesses, and then the foreign banks, such as the imperial bank of persia (english bank), the banque d'escompte et de prêts (russian bank) and the agency of the banque internationale de commerce de moscow (banque poliakoff). there are other foreign firms too, such as ziegler and co., hotz, the persian gulf trading co., etc., which transact banking to a limited extent besides their usual and principal trading business; but these are not banks proper. the imperial bank of persia, being a purely british enterprise, is the most interesting to us. its main offices are in a most impressive building in the principal square of teheran, and it has branch offices at tabriz, isfahan, meshed, yezd, shiraz, in the teheran bazaar, at bushire and kermanshah. it would be useless to go into the various vicissitudes through which the bank has passed since it was first started, and the difficulties which it encountered in meeting the unusual ways of doing business of persians and satisfying the desires of directors and shareholders in simple london town. one thing is, nevertheless, certain, and that is that if the imperial bank of persia maintains the prestige now belonging to it, it owes this to mr. rabino, of egyptian fame, the manager of the bank,--without exception the most revered foreigner in persia. i will not touch on the sore question of the persian loans, eventually secured by russia, but, curiously enough, the capital of the first loan, at least, was in great measure practically transferred from russia to persia by the imperial bank, which had the greatest stock of money in teheran; nor shall i go into the successful and unsuccessful ventures of the bank, such as the road concession, and the mining corporation. as to the road concession, it is beyond doubt that had the bank not become alarmed, and had they held on a little longer, the venture might have eventually paid, and paid well. but naturally, in a slow country like persia, nothing can be a financial success unless it is given time to develop properly. with regard to its relation with the banque d'escompte et de prêts, the russian bank--believed by some to be a dangerous rival--matters may to my mind be seen in two aspects. i believe that the russian bank, far from damaging the imperial bank, has really been a godsend to it, as it has relieved it by sharing advances to the government which in time might have proved somewhat of a burden on one establishment. it is a mistake, too, to believe that in a country like persia there is not room for two large concerns like the two above-mentioned banks, and that one or the other is bound to go. the rumoured enormous successes of the russian bank and its really fast-increasing prestige are indisputable, but the secret of these things is well known to the local management of the imperial bank, which could easily follow suit and quickly surpass the russians if more official and political support were forthcoming. the action of the london stock exchange in depreciating everything persian, for the sake of reprisal, is also injurious to the bank, and more so to the prestige of this country, though we do not seem to see that our attitude has done much more harm to ourselves than to the persians. it is true that persia is a maladministered country, that there is corruption, that there is intrigue, and so forth, but is there any other country, may i ask, where to a greater or smaller extent the same accusation could not be made? nor can we get away from the fact that although persia has been discredited on the london market it is one of the few countries in which the national debt is extremely small and can easily be met. the obligations of the imperial government and of muzaffer-ed-din shah's signature, have never failed to be met, nor has the payment of full interest on mortgages contracted ever been withheld. delays may have occurred, but everything has come right in the end. our absurd attitude towards the persians, when we are at the same time ready to back up enterprises that certainly do not afford one-tenth of the security to be found in persia, is therefore rather difficult to understand. there are few countries in which so much can be done with a comparatively small outlay as in persia. it is not enterprises on a gigantic scale, nor millions of pounds sterling that are needed; moderate sums handled with judgment, knowledge and patient perseverance, would produce unlooked-for results. large imported sums of capital in hard cash are not wanted and would involve considerable risk. first of all, stands the danger of the depreciation of capital by the fall in silver and the gradual rise in exchange due to the excess of imports over exports. then comes the narrowness of the persian markets which renders the return of large sums in cash an extremely long and difficult operation; and last but not least, the serious fact that capital is generally imported at a loss, inasmuch as the intrinsic value of the kran is much below its exchange value. the ideal situation of an english bank trading with the east,[ ] is when its capital remains in gold, whilst its operations are conducted in silver by means of its deposits. this, because of the instability in the price of silver as compared with that of gold, and the risks which follow upon holding a metal fluctuating in value almost daily. the situation in persia, partly owing to the constant appreciation of the persian currency, due to the great dearth of silver produced by hoarding as well as by the export of coin to central asia, is quite suitable to the system of banking indicated above. the difference between the intrinsic and the exchange value of the kran, notwithstanding the constant demand for exchange, is quite worthy of note. political preoccupation is the principal cause of the hoarding system in government circles, and in the masses the absence of banking organisations in which the natives have sufficient confidence to deposit their savings. slowly but surely the persian is beginning to feel the good effects of depositing his money in a european-managed bank offering sound guarantees, and it is certain that in time all the money required for trade purposes will be found in persia itself. when better communication between the various commercial centres has been established, the distribution of the funds as required, now a matter of great difficulty and risk, will be greatly facilitated. when the despatching of sums from one city to another instead of taking minutes by telegraph or hours by post occupy, under normal circumstances, days, weeks, a month or even more, because the payments are made in solid silver which has to travel by caravan, it is easy to understand how the dangerous system of hoarding comes to be practised with impunity and facility all over persia. [illustration: a typical persian window. (mr. rabino's house, teheran.)] of course every precaution is taken to foresee abnormal scarcity of funds, by sending specie to the places threatened, in order to help trade. during the summer months, for instance, most of the floating capital is absorbed in the provinces by the opium crop in the yezd and isfahan markets, when the silver krans find their way _en masse_ to the villages, much to the inconvenience of the two cities. in the autumn a similar occurrence hampers trade during the export season of dried fruit and silk from azerbaijan and ghilan, the exchange falling very low owing to scarcity of money. a very important item in the bank's transactions in persia is the constant demand for remittances of revenue to teheran for government purposes, such as payments for the army, officials, etc., and these remittances amount to very large sums. the key to profitable banking in persia is the arbitration of foreign exchanges, which being so intimately connected with internal exchange allows the latter to be worked at a profit, advantage being taken of breaks in the level of prices; but of course, with the introduction of telegraphs and in future of railways, these profits will become more and more difficult to make. in persia the lack of quick communication still affords a fair chance of good remuneration without speculation for the important services rendered by a bank to trade. the exchange of persia upon london is specially affected by two influences. in the north by the value of the ruble, the more important and constant factor, tabriz, the persian centre of the russian exchange, being the nearest approach in persia to a regular market; and in the south by the rupee exchange, which differs from the ruble in its being dependent upon the price of silver. in a country like persia, where the exchange is not always obtainable and money at times is not to be procured, it is easy to conceive the difficulty of a bank. forecasts of movements, based on general causes, are of little or no value in persia. to this must be added the difficulties of examining and counting coins--weighing is not practicable owing to the irregularity of each coin--of the transmission of funds to distant places, and the general ignorance except in mercantile circles--of banking methods as we understand them. the imperial bank is established in persia, not as is believed by some persons to do business for england and english people, but to do business with everybody. "the spirit of free trade alone," said mr. rabino to me, "must animate the management of such a bank. its services must be at the disposal of all; its impartiality to english, russian, austrian, persian, or whatever nationality a customer may belong to, unquestioned. all must have a fair and generous treatment." the interests of the imperial bank are firstly those of its shareholders, secondly those of persia which gives the bank hospitality. the bank has already rendered inestimable services to persia by diffusing sound business principles, which the persians seem slowly but gladly to learn and accept. that the future of a bank on such true principles is bound to be crowned with success seems a certainty, but as has often been pointed out, it would be idle to fancy that a couple of years or three will remove the prejudices and peculiar ways of thinking and of transacting business of an oriental race, whose civilisation is so different from ours, or that the natives will accept our financial system with its exactitude and punctuality, the result of ages of experience, unhesitatingly and immediately. the persian requires very careful handling. he is obstinate, and by mere long, tedious, passive resistance will often get the better in a bargain. by the employment of similar methods however, it is not difficult to obtain one's way in the end. a good deal of patience is required and time _ad libitum_, that is all. there is no need for a large stock of gold and rubles, but what is mostly wanted is a greater number of men who might be sent all over the country, men with good business heads and a polite manner, and, above all, men well suited to the present requirements of the country. the russian, we find,--contrary to our popular ideas, which ever depict him knut in hand,--almost fraternises with the asiatics, and in any case treats them with due consideration as if they had a right to live, at least in their own country. hence his undoubted popularity. but we, the quintessence of christianity and charity towards our neighbours, habitually treat natives with much needless harshness and reserve, which far from impressing the natives with our dignity--as we think--renders us ridiculous in their eyes. a number of younger englishmen are beginning to be alive to this fact, and instruction on this point should form part of the commercial training of our youths whose lives are to be spent in the east. the other important bank in persia upon which great hopes are built, although worked on different lines, is the so-called russian bank, the _société de prêts de perse_, as it was at first called when founded by poliakoff in . it was an experiment intended to discover exactly what was wanted in the country and what was the best way to attract business. the monopoly of public auctions was obtained in conjunction with the mont-de-piété--a scheme which did not work very well at first, the natives not being accustomed to sudden innovations. the concern subsequently developed into the _bank estekrasi_ (bank of loans), or _banque de prêts de perse_, as it styled itself, but financially it did not pay, and at one moment was expected to liquidate. it is said that it then threatened to amalgamate with the imperial bank. mr. de witte, of st. petersburg fame, was consulted in the matter, and took exactly twenty-four hours to make up his mind on what was the best course to pursue. he bought the bank up, the state bank of st. petersburg making an advance on the shares. the minister of finance has a right to name all the officials in the bank, who, for appearance sake, are not necessarily all of russian nationality, and the business is transacted on the same lines as at the state bank of st. petersburg. a most efficient man was sent out as manager; mr. grube, a gentleman of much tact and most attractive manner, and like mr. rabino--a genius in his way at finance; a man with a thorough knowledge of the natives and their ways. in the short time he has been in teheran the bank has made enormous strides, by mere sound, business capability and manly, straightforward enterprise. mr. grube has, i think, the advantage of the manager of the imperial bank in the fact that, when the russians know they have a good man at the helm, they let him steer his ship without interference. he is given absolute power to do what he thinks right, and is in no way hampered by shareholders at home. this freedom naturally gives him a very notable advantage over the imperial bank, which always has to wait for instructions from london. mr. grube, with whom i had a long and most interesting conversation, told me how he spends his days in the bazaar branch of his bank, where he studies the ways and future possibilities of the country and its natives, and the best ways of transacting business compatible with european principles, and in particular carefully analysing the best ways of pushing russian trade and industries in persia. in all this he has the absolute confidence and help of his government, and it is really marvellous how much he has been able to do to further russian influence in persia. there is no trickery, no intrigue, no humbug about it; but it is mere frank, open competition in which the stronger nation will come out first. it was most gratifying to hear in what glowing terms of respect the managers of the two rival banks spoke of each other. they were fighting a financial duel, bravely, fairly, and in a most gentlemanly manner on both sides. there was not the slightest shade of false play on either side, and this i specially mention because of the absurd articles which one often sees in english papers, written by hasty or ill-informed correspondents. russia's trade, owing to its convenient geographical position, is bound to beat the english in northern persia, but it should be a good lesson to us to see, nevertheless, how the russian government comes forward for the protection of the trade of the country, and does everything in its power to further it. russia will even go so far as to sell rubles at a loss to merchants in order to encourage trade in persia, no doubt with the certainty in sight that as trade develops the apparent temporary loss will amply be compensated in due time by big profits. it is, to an englishman, quite an eye-opener to watch how far the russians will go for the absolute benefit of their own trade, and this conduct pursued openly and blamelessly can only be admired by any fair-minded person. it is only a pity that we are not yet wide awake enough to do the same. the russian bank has branches in the principal cities of northern persia, her business being so far merely confined to the north. footnotes: [ ] see institute of bankers. chapter xv illegitimate bank-notes--hampering the bank's work--the grand fiasco of the tobacco corporation--magnificent behaviour of the natives--the mullahs and tobacco--the nation gives up smoking--suppression of the monopoly--compensation--want of tact--important european commercial houses and their work--russian and british trade--trade routes--the new persian customs--what they are represented to be and what they are--duties--the employment of foreigners in persia--the maclean incident. the work of the imperial bank has at various times been hampered by speculators who tried to make money by misleading the public. their speculations were always based on the prestige of the bank. for instance, take the bushire company and the fars trading company, limited, companies started by native merchants. they illegally issued bank-notes which, strangely enough, owing to the security found in the imperial bank-notes, found no difficulty in circulating at a small discount, especially in shiraz. naturally, the imperial bank, having in its conventions with the persian government the exclusive right to issue bank-notes payable at sight, protested against this infringement of rights, but for a long time got little redress, and some of the fraudulent bank-notes are to this day circulating in southern persia. sooner or later this was bound to interfere with the bank, as the natives, unaccustomed to bank-notes, confused the ones with the others. moreover, the enemies of the bank took advantage of this confusion to instigate the people against the imperial bank, making them believe that the word "imperial" on the bank-notes meant that the issuing of bank-notes was only a new scheme of the government to supply people with worthless paper instead of a currency of sound silver cash. in the southern provinces this stupid belief spread very rapidly, and was necessarily accentuated by the issue of the illegal bank-notes of local private concerns, which, although bearing foreign names, were merely persian undertakings. necessarily, the many foreign speculations to which we have already referred, cannot be said to have strengthened confidence in anything of european importation; but the grand successive abortions of the belgian and russian factories--which were to make gas, sugar, glass, matches, etc.--are hardly to be compared in their disastrous results to the magnificent english fiasco of the tobacco corporation, which not only came to grief itself, but nearly caused a revolution in the country. it is well-known how a concession was obtained by british capitalists in to establish a tobacco monopoly in persia, which involved the usual payment of a large sum to the shah, and presents to high officials. the company made a start on a very grand scale in february, , having the whole monopoly of purchase and sale of tobacco all over persia. no sooner had it begun its work than a commission of injured native merchants presented a petition to the shah to protest against it. a decree was, however, published establishing the monopoly of the corporation all over persia, and upon this the discontent and signs of rebellion began. yet this affair of the tobacco monopoly showed what fine, dignified people the persians can be if they choose. the want of tact, the absolute mismanagement and the lack of knowledge in dealing with the natives, the ridiculous notion that coercion would at once force the persians to accept the tobacco supplied by the corporation, fast collected a dense cloud of danger overhead. teheran and the other larger cities were placarded with proclamations instigating the crowds to murder europeans and do away with their work. but the persians, notwithstanding their threats, showed themselves patient, and confident that the shah would restore the nation to its former happiness. in the meantime the company's agents played the devil all over the empire. it seems incredible, even in the annals of persian history, that so little lack of judgment could have been shown towards the natives. the mullahs saw an excellent opportunity to undo in a few days the work of europeans of several scores of years. "allah," they preached to the people, "forbids you to smoke or touch the impure tobacco sold you by europeans." on a given day the mugte halh, or high priest of sacred kerbalah, declared that the faithful throughout the country must touch tobacco no more; tobacco, the most cherished of persian indulgences. mirza hassan ashtiani, _mujtehed_ of teheran, on whom the shah relied to pacify the crowds now in flagrant rebellion, openly preached against his sovereign and stood by the veto of his superior priest at kerbalah. he went further and exhorted the people to cease smoking, not because tobacco was impure, but because the koran says that it is unlawful to make use of any article which is not fairly dealt in by all alike. at a given date all through the shah's dominions--and this shows a good deal of determination--the foreigner and his tobacco were to be treated with contempt. tobacco was given up by all. in the bazaars, in the caravanserais, in the streets, in the houses, where under ordinary circumstances every man puffed away at a _kalian_, a _chibuk_ (small pocket-pipe) or cigarette, not a single soul could be seen smoking for days and days. only the shah made a point of smoking in public to encourage the people, but even his wife and concubines--at the risk of incurring disfavour--refused to smoke, and smashed the _kalians_ before his eyes. in house-holds where the men--ever weaker than women--could, after weeks of abstinence, not resist the temptation in secrecy, their wives destroyed the pipes. for several weeks not a single individual touched tobacco--a most dignified protest which quite terrified the shah and everybody, for, indeed, it was apparent that people so strong-willed were not to be trifled with. in many places the natives broke out into rebellion, and many lives were lost. nasr-ed-din shah, frightened and perplexed, called the high mullah of teheran to the palace (january th- th, ). by his advice the tobacco monopoly was there and then abolished by an imperial decree, and the privileges granted for the sale and export of tobacco revoked. furthermore, the mullah only undertook to pacify the people on condition that all foreign enterprises and innovations in persia should be suppressed; that all people imprisoned during the riots should be freed, and the families of those killed fully indemnified. the sudden end of the tobacco corporation necessarily led to much correspondence with the british minister, sir frank lascelles, on the question of compensation and damages to the company which, depending on its monopoly, had entered into agreements, and had already paid out large sums of money. it was finally agreed that the shah should pay £ , sterling compensation, and take over the assets of the company, supposed to be some £ , , subject to realisation. with the assistance of the bank of persia, a six per cent. loan was issued, which was taken up principally by the shareholders of the tobacco corporation. the interest and the sinking fund of this loan were punctually met until the year when it was repaid in full on the conclusion of the russian loan. in england this failure seems to have been ascribed to russian intrigue, but it must in all fairness be said that had the russians tried a similar scheme in a similar manner, they would have fared even worse than we did. even persian concerns established on european principles have serious troubles to contend with; but it was madness to believe that an entire eastern nation could, at a moment's notice, be forced to accept--in a way most offensive to them--such an article of primary use as tobacco, which, furthermore, was offered at a higher price than their own tobaccos which they liked better. there are in persia a few important european commercial houses, such as ziegler and co., and hotz and son, which have extensive dealings with persians. ziegler and co. deal in english imports and in the exportation of carpets, etc., whereas hotz and son import russian articles, which they find cheaper and of easier sale. both are eminently respectable firms, and enjoy the esteem of everybody. notwithstanding the swiss name, ziegler and co. is an english firm, although, as far as i know, it has not a single english employee in its various branches in persia. the reason, as we have seen, is that foreigners are considered more capable. it has in the various cities some very able swiss agents, who work most sensibly and excellently, and who certainly manage to make the best of whatever business there is to be done in the country. for over thirty years the house has been established in persia, having begun its life at tabriz and then extended to teheran, resht, meshed, isfahan, yezd--the latter so far a non-important branch--and shiraz, bushire, bandar abbas and bagdad, where it has correspondents working for the firm. the house imports large quantities of manchester goods and exports chiefly carpets, cloths, opium and dried fruit. the carpets, which are specially made for the european market, are manufactured chiefly at sultanabad where thousands of hands are employed at the looms, scattered about in private houses of the people and not in a large factory. the firm takes special care to furnish good wool and cottons coloured with vegetable dyes, and not with aniline. ancient patterns are selected and copied in preference to new designs. of course, besides these, other carpets are purchased in other parts of the country. carpets may be divided into three classes. the scarce and most expensive pure silk rugs; the _lamsavieh_ or good quality carpets, and the _mojodeh_ or cheaper kind. there is a good demand for the two latter qualities all over europe and in america. articles specially dealt in are the cotton and wool fabrics called _ghilim_, the designs of which are most artistic; and to a certain extent other fabrics, such as the vividly coloured kashan velvets, the watered silks of resht, the kerman cloths resembling those of cashmir, the silver and gold embroidered brocades of yezd, and the silk handkerchiefs manufactured in the various silk districts, principally tabriz, resht, kashan and yezd. the stamped and hand-drawn _kalamkars_ in stringent colours upon white cotton also find their way in large quantities to europe, but are more quaint than beautiful. large and ill-proportioned figures are frequently attempted in these designs. when of truly persian manufacture the colours are said to be quite permanent under the action of both light and water. the firm of hotz and son deals in well-nigh everything, and has made good headway of late years. it has large establishments at isfahan, shiraz and bushire, and two agencies, one at ahwaz on the karun river, and one in teheran (groeneweg, dunlop, and co.); while it has correspondents in bagdad, busrah, hongkong and rotterdam, the head offices being in london. its carpet manufacturing business in sultanabad is now carried on by the persian manufacturing co. the exports are similar to those of ziegler and co. there are also smaller firms, particularly in teheran, such as the toko, virion, and others who do a retail business in piece goods and articles of any kind, and are entirely in the hands of foreigners, belgians, austrians, and french. without reference to statistics, which are absolutely worthless in a country like persia, the yearly foreign trade of persia, divided between the gulf ports and the north and north-western and south-western frontiers, may be put down roughly at some nine or ten millions sterling. the russian trade in the north may be considered as about equal to the british in the south. then there are the goods brought by the trebizonde-tabriz trade route from turkey and the mediterranean, and by the bagdad-kermanshah, another very important route. the extravagant system of farming prevailing until quite lately in persia, as well as the uncertainties of customs and revenue returns, makes it difficult to give trustworthy figures; but in future, probably this year, we may expect some more reliable data from the new belgian customs office, a really sensible and well-managed administration organised by monsieur naus, who is, indeed, to be congratulated on the success with which his efforts at bringing about so radical a reform in the system of collecting duties have in so short a time been crowned. we often hear in england that the customs of persia are absolutely in the hands of russia, and are worked by russian officials. even serious papers like _the times_ publish misleading statements of this kind, but nothing could be more erroneous. m. naus, at the head of the customs, is a belgian, and so are nearly all the foreign employees (there are one or two french, i believe) in persian employ, but not a single russian is to be found among their number. that the russians hold a comparatively trifling mortgage on the customs as a security for their loan is true, but, as long as persia is able to pay interest on it, russia has no more power over the persian customs than we have. under regular and honest management, like the present, the customs have already given considerable results, and were it not for the weakness of the government in the provinces, the customs receipts might easily be doubled, even without a change in the tariff. the duties levied in persia are determined by the treaty of turkmantchai with russia in , by which a uniform and reciprocal five per cent. for import and export was agreed to, a special convention, nevertheless, applying to turkey, which fixed a reciprocal per cent. export and per cent. import duty, and per cent. on tobacco and salt. an attempt was made to negotiate a new commercial treaty with russia last year, but unfortunately, matters did not go as was expected by m. naus, who was very keen on the subject. a high russian official was despatched to teheran who caused a good deal of trouble, and eventually the whole matter fell through. regarding the employment of foreigners by the persian government, it is not out of place to recall the maclean incident. an agreement had been entered into with mr. maclean, a british subject, and a former employee of the imperial bank, to take charge of the mint, in order to bring it up to date and work it on more business-like principles than at present. this led to a demand from the russians that a similarly high office in the shah's government should be given to a russian, so that this appointment might not be taken as a slight against russia; or, if this were not possible, that two or three russians might be employed instead in minor capacities in the new customs. the persian government would not agree to this, but owing to the pressure that had been brought to bear by the russians they felt obliged to dismiss mr. maclean. the british minister necessarily then stood up for british rights, and a great scandal was made of the whole affair, and as an agreement for three years had been signed, the persian government had to pay the salary in full for that period, although they had only availed themselves of mr. maclean's services for a few months. it is to be regretted that the sadrazam acted in so reckless a manner, for the whole matter might have been settled quietly without the slightest disturbance and unpleasantness. anyhow, this led to a decree being passed (in ) that in future _no british subject, no russian, and no turk_ will be accepted in persian employ. this includes the army, with the exception of the special cossack regiment which had previously been formed under russian instructors. it can safely be said that there is not a single russian in any civil appointment in persia, no more than there is any britisher; but, in the customs service particularly, m. naus being a belgian, nearly all the employees are belgian, as i have said, with only one or two french lower subordinates. [illustration: the first position in persian wrestling.] [illustration: palawans, or strong men giving a display of feats of strength.] the customs service is carried on with great fairness to all alike, and the mischievous stories of russian preference and of the violation of rules in favour of russian goods are too ridiculous to be taken into consideration. one fact is certain, that any one who takes the trouble to ascertain facts finds them very different from what they are represented to be by hasty and over-excited writers. chapter xvi russia on the brain--the apprehended invasion of india--absolute nonsense--russia's tariff--in the house of commons--a friendly understanding advisable--german competition--the peace of the world--russia's firm policy of bold advance--an outlet in the persian gulf--the policy of drift--sound knowledge of foreign countries needed--mutual advantages of a russian and british agreement--civilisation--persia's integrity. there is, unfortunately, a class of englishmen--especially in india--who have russia on the brain, and those people see the russian everywhere and in everything. every humble globe-trotter in india must be a russian spy--even though he be an englishman--and much is talked about a russian invasion of india, through tibet, through afghanistan, persia or beluchistan. to any one happening to know these countries it is almost heartrending to hear such nonsense, and worse still to see it repeated in serious papers, which reproduce and comment upon it gravely for the benefit of the public. in explanation, and without going into many details, i will only mention the fact that it is more difficult than it sounds for armies--even for the sturdy russian soldier--to march hundreds of miles across deserts without water for men and animals, or over a high plateau like tibet, where (although suggested by the wise newspaper englishman at home as a sanatorium for british troops in india) the terrific climate, great altitudes, lack of fuel, and a few other such trifles would reduce even the largest european army into a very humble one at the end of a journey across it. then people seem to be ignorant of the fact that, with a mountainous natural frontier like the himahlyas, a maxim gun or two above each of the few passable passes would bring to reason any army--allowing that it could get thus far--that intended to cross over into india! but, besides, have we not got soldiers to defend india? why should we fear the russians? are we not as good as they are? why should we ever encourage the so far unconcerned russian to come to india by showing our fear? it is neither manly nor has it any sense in it. the russian has no designs whatever upon india at present--he does not even dream of advancing on india--but should india eventually fall into russia's hands--which is not probable--believe me, it will never be by a russian army marching into india from the north, or north-west, or west. the danger, if there is any, may be found probably very much nearer home, in our own ignorance and blindness. we also hear much about the infamy of russia in placing a tariff on all goods in transit for persia, and we are told that this is another blow directed at english trade. such is not the case. russia, i am told by people who ought to know, would be only too glad to come to an understanding with england on some sensible basis, but she certainly is not quite so unwise as we are in letting germany, her real enemy, swamp her market with cheap goods. the tariff is chiefly a protection against germany. of course, if we choose to help germany to ruin russia's markets as well as our own, then we must suffer in consequence, but looking ahead towards the future of asia, it might possibly not be unwise to come to some sensible arrangement with russia, by which her commercial interests and ours would mutually benefit instead of suffering as they do at present. in persia we are playing a rapidly losing game. commercially, as i have already said, we have lost northern persia, and russian influence is fast advancing in southern persia. this is surely the time to pull up and change our tactics, or we shall go to the wall altogether. as mr. joseph walton, m.p., very ably put it before the house of commons on january nd, , in the case of russia we have at present to contend with abnormal conditions of competition. it would therefore be wise for the british government to reconsider its policy in order to maintain, at least, our commercial interests in southern persia. the government of india, too, should take its share in upholding british interests--being directly concerned in affairs that regard the welfare of persia. russia has gone to great expense to construct two excellent roads from the north into persia to facilitate russian commerce, and it would be advisable if we were to do the same from the south. (one of the roads, the piri bazaar--kasvin road, is said to have cost, including purchase of the kasvin teheran section, something like half a million sterling). it is indeed idle, as mr. walton said, to adhere to methods of the past when foreign governments are adopting modern methods in order to achieve the commercial conquest of new regions. the matter of establishing consulates, too, is of the greatest importance. we find even large trading cities like kermanshah, yezd, shiraz and birjand devoid of british consuls. undoubtedly we should wish a priority of right to construct roads and railways in southern persia--in the event of the persians failing to construct these themselves--to be recognised, and it seems quite sensible and fair to let persia give a similar advantage to russia in northern persia. nothing but a friendly understanding between england and russia, which should clearly define the respective spheres of influence, will save the integrity of persia. that country should remain an independent buffer state between russia and india. but to bring about this result it is more than necessary that we should support persia on our side, as much as russia does on hers, or the balance is bound to go in the latter's favour. the understanding with russia should also--and i firmly believe russia would be only too anxious to acquiesce in this--provide a protection against german commercial invasion and enterprise in the region of the persian gulf. germany--not russia--is england's bitterest enemy--all the more to be dreaded because she is a "friendly enemy." it is no use to try and keep out russia merely to let germany reap any commercial advantages that may be got--and that is the policy england is following at the present moment. the question whether or no we have a secret agreement with germany, in connection with the euphrates valley railway, is a serious one, because, although one cannot but admire german enterprise in that quarter, it would be well to support it only in places where it is not likely to be disastrous to our own trade and interests generally. little or no importance should be attached to the opinion of the russian press in their attacks upon england. the influential men of russia, as well as the emperor himself, are certainly anxious to come to a satisfactory understanding with england regarding affairs not only in persia but in asia generally. an understanding between the two greatest nations in the world would, as long as it lasted, certainly maintain the peace of the world, and would have enormous control over the smaller nations; whereas petty combinations can be of little practical solid assistance or use to us. as i have pointed out before on several occasions,[ ] russia is not to-day what she was half a century ago. she has developed enough to know her strength and power, and her soldiers are probably the finest in europe--because the most practical and physically enduring. her steady, firm policy of bold advance, in spite of our namby-pamby, ridiculous remonstrances, can but command the admiration of any fair-minded person, although we may feel sad, very sad, that we have no men capable of standing up against it, not with mere empty, pompous words, but with actual deeds which might delay or stop her progress. as matters are proceeding now, we are only forwarding russia's dream of possessing a port in the persian gulf. she wants it and she will no doubt get it. in chapters xxxiii and xxxiv the question of the point upon which her aims are directed is gone into more fully. the undoubted fact remains that, notwithstanding our constant howling and barking, she invariably gets what she wants, and even more, which would lead one to believe that, at any rate, her fear of us is not very great. we are told that our aggressive--by which is meant retrogressive--policy towards russia is due to our inability to effect an entire reversal of our policy towards that country, but this is not the case at all. at any rate, as times and circumstances have changed, our policy need not be altogether reversed, but it must necessarily be subjected to modifications in order to meet changed conditions. if we stand still while russia is going fast ahead, we are perforce left behind. the policy of drift, which we seem to favour, is bound to lead us to disaster, and when we couple with it inefficacious resistance and bigoted obstruction we cannot be surprised if, in the end, it only yields us bitter disappointment, extensive losses, enmity and derision. the policy of drift is merely caused by our absolute ignorance of foreign countries. we drift simply because we do not know what else to do. we hear noble lords in the government say that the reason we did not lend persia the paltry two and a half millions sterling was because "men of business do not lend money except on proper security, and that before embarking on any such policy the government must be anxious to see whether the security is both sufficient and suitable." yes, certainly, but why did the government not see? had the government seen they certainly would have effected the loan. surely, well-known facts, already mentioned in previous pages, have proved very luminously our folly in taking the advice of incompetent men who judge of matters with which, to say the least, they are not familiar. but the real question appears to be, not how to make a safe and profitable financial investment, which is no part of the functions of the british or any other government, but rather whether it is not better to lay out a certain sum for a valuable political object than to allow a formidable competitor to do so to our prejudice. hence the disadvantageous position in which we find ourselves at present, all over asia, but particularly in persia. it would no doubt be the perfection of an agreement if an amicable understanding could be arrived at with russia, not only regarding persia but including china, manchuria, and corea as well. a frank and fair adjustment of russian and british interests in these countries could be effected without serious difficulty, mutual concessions could advantageously be granted, and mutual advice and friendly support would lead to remarkably prosperous results for both countries. russia, notwithstanding all we hear of her, would only be too glad to make sacrifices and concessions in order to have the friendship and support of england, and russia's friendship to england would, i think, be of very great assistance to british manufacturers. it must be remembered that russia is an enormous country, and that her markets both for exports and imports are not to be despised. in machinery alone huge profits could be made, as well as in cloths, piece goods, fire-arms, manchester goods, worked iron, steel, etc. articles of british manufacture are in much demand in russia and siberia, and, should the british manufacturer see his way to make articles as required by the buyer, very large profits could be made in the russian market. also huge profits will eventually be made by the export of siberian products into england and the continent, a branch of industry which the russians themselves are attempting to push into the british market with the assistance of their government. to return to persia it must not be forgotten that british imports into that country (in ) amounted to £ , , , whilst russia imported £ , , of british goods. which, after all, is the customer best worth cultivating: persia which takes £ , , of our goods, or russia which buys from us for £ , , ? it is a mistake to believe that we are the only civilising agents of the world, and that the work of other powers in that direction only tends to the stagnation of eastern peoples. one might affirm with more truth that our intercourse with the civilisation of the east tends to our own stagnation. we do impart to the natives, it is true, some smattering of the semi-barbaric, obsolete ways we possess ourselves, but standing aside and trying to look upon matters with the eye of a rational man, it is really difficult to say whether what we teach and how we teach it does really improve the eastern people or not. personally, with a long experience of natives all over asia, it appears to me that it does not. the russian, though from a british point of view altogether a barbarian, does not appear to spoil the natives quite so much in his work among them. the natives under his _régime_ seem happy, and his work of civilisation is more of the patriarchal style, tending more to enrich the people, to promote commerce and trade on appropriate lines, than to educate the masses according to western methods and laws. the results are most decidedly good, and anyhow lead to much greater contentment among the masses than we can secure, for instance, in india. above all things it makes for peace; the natives are treated with extreme consideration and kindness, but at the same time they know that no nonsense is tolerated, and that is undoubtedly the way most appreciated by asiatics. in persia, it is to be hoped for the peace of all that neither russia nor england will acquire any territorial rights, but that the integrity of the shah's empire may long be preserved. only it would not be unwise to prepare for emergencies in case the country--already half spoiled by european ways--should one day collapse and make interference necessary. the integrity of states in asia intended to serve as buffers is all very well when such states can look after themselves, but with misgovernment and want of proper reform, as in persia, great trouble may be expected sooner than we imagine, unless we on our side are prepared to help persia as much as russia does on her side. if this can be done, with little trouble to ourselves, and in a way agreeable to the persians, there is no reason why, as an independent state, persia should not fully develop her resources, reorganise her government and army, become a powerful nation, and establish a flourishing trade, russia and england profiting equally by the assistance given her. footnotes: [ ] see _china and the allies_, heinemann; scribner. chapter xvii education--educated but not instructed--the mullahs--the madrassahs--the royal college in teheran--secular schools--the brain of persian students--hints on commercial education for englishmen--languages a necessity--observation--foreigners and englishmen--the englishman as a linguist--special commercial training in germany--the british manufacturer--ways and ways--our colonies swamped with foreign-made goods--russia fast and firmly advancing. to believe that the persians are illiterate would be a mistake, and to think that the masses of iran were properly educated would be a greater mistake still; but, if i may be allowed the expression, the average persian cannot be better described than by saying he is "educated in ignorance"; or, in other words, the average persian is educated, yes; but instructed, no. if what the people are taught can be called education--and we in england should not be the first to throw stones at others--the average persian is better educated than the average european. but there is education and education. it is difficult to find the commonest man in persian cities who cannot read to a certain extent, and most people can also write a little and have a smattering of arithmetic. the teaching, except in the larger and principal centres, is almost entirely in the hands of the mullahs, so that naturally, as in our clerical schools, religion is taught before all things, verses of the koran are learnt by heart, and the various rites and multiple religious ceremonies are pounded into the children's brains, and accessory religious sanitary duties of ablutions, etc., which are believed to purify the body and bring it nearer to allah, are inculcated. even in remoter villages, the boys are taught these things in the mosques as well as a little reading, and enough writing for daily uses and how to add and subtract and multiply figures. famous bits of national poetry and further passages from the koran are committed to memory. [illustration: iman jumeh. head priest of teheran, and official sayer of prayers to the shah.] in the large cities a higher education can be obtained in the elaborate madrassahs adjoining the mosques, and here, too, entirely at the hands of the mullahs; but these higher colleges, a kind of university, are only frequented by the richer and better people, by those who intend to devote themselves to medicine, to jurisprudence, or to theological studies. literature and art and science, all based mostly on the everlasting koran, are here taught _à fond_, the students spending many years in deep and serious study. these are the old-fashioned and more common schools. but new schools in european or semi-european style also exist and, considering all things, are really excellent. in teheran, a royal college has been in existence for some years. it has first-class foreign teachers, besides native instructors educated in europe, and supplies the highest instruction to the students. modern languages are taught to perfection, the higher mathematics, international jurisprudence, chemistry, philosophy, military strategy, and i do not know what else! i understood from some of the professors that the students were remarkable for their quickness and intelligence as compared with europeans, and i myself, on meeting some of the students who had been and others who were being instructed in the university, was very much struck by their facility in learning matters so foreign to them, and by their astounding faculty of retaining what they had learnt. it must be recollected that the various scientific lessons and lectures were delivered not in persian, but in some foreign language, usually french, which intensified their difficulty of apprehending. other private schools have also been started on similar principles in various parts of the empire. even in yezd a most excellent school on similar lines is to be found and will be described later on. naturally the mullahs look askance upon these government schools, in which foreign methods are adopted. the alliance française of paris, which has a committee in teheran, has opened a french school under the direction of mr. virioz, a certificated professor. the school has nearly pupils, all natives. this is a primary school, of which the studies are in french, but a mullah has been added to the staff to teach the koran and religious subjects. in hamadan, a large jewish centre, the alliance israelite has opened important schools which have largely drained the american presbyterian schools of their jewish pupils. other secular schools, it appears, are to be opened in which foreign education is to be imparted, and no doubt this is a first and most excellent step of persia towards the improvement, if not the actual reform, of the old country. not that the religious education received from the priests was without its good points. the love for literature and poetry, which it principally expounded, developed in the people the more agreeable qualities which have made the persian probably the most polite man on this earth. the clerical education, indeed, worked first upon the heart, then upon the brain; it taught reverence for one's parents, love for one's neighbours, and obedience to one's superiors; it expounded soft, charitable ways in preference to aggression or selfishness--not the right instead of the duty--as is frequently the case in secular schools. but softness, consideration, poetry, and charity are things of the past; they can only be indulged in by barbarians; in civilisation, unluckily, there is very little use for them except for advertisement sake. so the persians were wise to resort to our style of education, which may yet be the means of saving their country. they will lose their courteousness--they are fast beginning to do that already--their filial love, their charity, and all the other good qualities they may possess; only when these are gone will they rank in civilisation quite as high as any european nation! the wealthier people send their sons to be educated abroad in european capitals, and one cannot help being struck by the wonderful ease with which these fellows master not only languages, but science and extremely complex subjects. whether this is due to the brain of young persians being fresher owing to its not having been overtaxed for generations--and therefore the impressions are clearly received and firmly recorded, or whether the mode of life is apt to develop the brain more than any other part of their anatomy is difficult to say, but the quickness and lucidity of the average young persian brain is certainly astounding when compared to that of european brains of the same ages. the persian, too, has a most practical way of looking at things,--when he does take the trouble to do so--not sticking to one point of view but observing his subject from all round, as it were, with a good deal of philosophical humour that is of great help to him in all he undertakes; and it is curious to see how fast and thoroughly the younger persians of better families can adapt themselves to european ways of thought and manner without the least embarrassment or concern. in this, i think, they surpass any other asiatic nation, the small community of the parsees of india alone excepted. and here a word or two on the education of englishmen intending to make a living abroad, especially in asia, and particularly in persia, will not, i hope, be out of place. with the fast-growing intercourse between east and west, sufficient stress cannot be laid upon the fact that sound commercial education on up-to-date principles is chiefly successful in countries undergoing the processes of development, and that, above all, the careful study of foreign languages--the more the better--should occupy the attention of the many students in our country who are to live in asia. there is a great deal too much time absolutely wasted in english schools over latin and greek, not to mention the exaggerated importance given to games like cricket, football, tennis, which, if you like, are all very well to develop the arms and legs, but seem to have quite the reverse effect upon the brain. yet what is required nowadays to carry a man through the world are brains, and not muscular development of limbs. as for a classical education, it may be all right for a clergyman, a lawyer, or for a man with high but unprofitable literary tastes, but not for fellows who are not only to be useful to themselves, but indirectly to the mother country, by developing the industries or trades of lands to be opened up. if i may be permitted to say so, one of the principal qualities which we should develop in our young men is the sense of observation in all its forms--a sense which is sadly neglected in english education. it has always been my humble experience that one learns more of use in one hour's keen observation than by reading all the books in the world, and when that sense is keenly developed it is quite extraordinary with what facility one can do things which the average unobservant man thinks utterly impossible. it most certainly teaches one to simplify everything and always to select the best and easiest way in all one undertakes, which, after all, is the way leading to success. again, when observation is keenly developed, languages--or, in fact, anything else--can be learnt with amazing facility. the "knack" of learning languages is only due to observation; the greatest scientific discoveries have been due to mere observation; the greatest commercial enterprises are based on the practical results of observation. but it is astounding how few people do really observe, not only carefully, but at all. the majority of folks might as well be blind for what they see for themselves. they follow like sheep what they are told to do, and make their sons and grandsons do the same; and few countries suffer more from this than england. when travelling in the east one cannot help being struck by the difference of young englishmen and foreigners employed in similar capacities in business places. the foreigner is usually fluent in four, five or six different languages, and has a smattering of scientific knowledge which, if not very deep, is at any rate sufficient for the purposes required. he is well up in engineering, electricity, the latest inventions, explorations, discoveries and commercial devices. he will talk sensibly on almost any subject; he is moderate in his habits and careful with his money. now, take the young englishman. he seldom knows well more than one language; occasionally one finds fellows who can speak two tongues fluently; rarely one who is conversant with three or four. his conversation generally deals with drinks, the latest or coming races, the relative values of horses and jockeys and subsequent offers to bet--in which he is most proficient. the local polo, if there is any, or tennis tournaments afford a further subject for conversation, and then the lack of discussible topics is made up by more friendly calls for drinks. the same subjects are gone through with variations time after time, and that is about all. now, i maintain that this should not be so, because, taking things all round, the young englishman is really _au fond_ brighter and infinitely more intelligent than foreigners. it is his education and mode of living that are at fault, not the individual himself, and this our cousins the americans have long since discovered; hence their steaming ahead of us in every line with the greatest ease. we hear that the englishman is no good at learning languages, but that is again a great mistake. i do not believe that there is any other nation in europe, after the russians, who have greater facility--if properly cultivated--and are more capable of learning languages to perfection than the english. i am not referring to every shameless holiday tripper on the continent who makes himself a buffoon by using misapplied, mispronounced, self-mistaught french or italian or german sentences, but i mean the rare observant englishman who studies languages seriously and practically. speaking from experience, in my travels--which extend more or less all over the world--i have ever found that englishmen, when put to it, could learn languages perfectly. hence my remarks, which may seem blunt but are true. truly there is no reason why the gift of learning languages should be neglected in england,--a gift which, i think, is greatly facilitated by developing in young people musical qualities, if any, and training the ear to observe and receive sounds correctly,--a fact to which we are just beginning to wake up. it is undoubted that the command of several languages gives a commercial man an enormous advantage in the present race of european nations in trying to obtain a commercial superiority; but the command of a language requires, too, to a limited extent the additional etiquette of ways and manners appropriate to it to make it quite efficient; and these, as well as the proper manner of speaking the language itself, can only, i repeat, be learnt by personal observation. the germans train commercial men specially for the east, men who visit every nook of asiatic countries where trade is to be developed, and closely study the natives, their ways of living, their requirements, reporting in the most minute manner upon them, so that the german manufacturers may provide suitable articles for the various markets. in the specific case of persia, russia, the predominant country in the north, does exactly the same. the russian manufacturer studies his client, his habits, his customs, and supplies him with what he desires and cherishes, and does not, like the british manufacturer, export to eastern countries articles which may very well suit the farmer, the cyclist, or the cabman in england, but not the persian agriculturist, camel-driver, or highwayman. the everlasting argument that the british manufacturer supplies a better article borders very much on the idiotic. first of all, setting apart the doubt whether he does really supply a better article, what is certain is that a "better article" may not be of the kind that is wanted at all by the people. there are in this world climates and climates, peoples and peoples, religions and religions, houses and houses, customs and customs; and therefore the well-made english article (allowing it to be well-made) which suits english people is not always adapted for all other countries, climates, and usages. another prevalent mistake in this country is to believe that the persian, or any other oriental, will only buy cheap things. the oriental may endeavour to strike a bargain--for that is one of the chief pleasures of his existence, though a fault which can easily be counter-balanced--but he is ever ready to pay well for what he really wants. thus, if because of his training in fighting he requires a certain curl and a particular handle to his knife; if he fancies a particular pattern printed or woven in the fabrics he imports, and if because of his religious notions he prefers his silver spoons drilled with holes; there does not seem to be any plausible reason why his wishes should not be gratified as long as he pays for the articles supplied. we, who own half the world, and ought to know better by this time, seem constantly to forget that our customs, and ways, seem as ridiculous to orientals (to some of ourselves, too,) quite as ridiculous as theirs to us. in some cases, even, great offence can be caused by trying to enforce our methods too suddenly upon eastern countries. civilised people may prefer to blow their noses with an expensive silk handkerchief, which they carefully fold up with contents into the most prominent pocket of their coats; the unclean oriental may prefer to close one nostril by pressing it with his finger and from the other forcibly eject extraneous matter to a distance of several feet away, by violent blowing, repeating the operation with the other nostril. this may be thought not quite graceful, but is certainly a most effective method, and possibly cleaner than ours in the end. we may fancy it good manners when in public to show little more of our shirts than the collar and cuffs, but the persian or the hindoo, for instance, prefers to let the garment dangle to its full extent outside so as to show its design in full. again, we may consider it highly unbecoming and improper for ladies to show their lower limbs above the ankle; the persian lady thinks nothing of that, but deems it shocking to show her face. and so we could go on and on; in fact, with the persians, one might almost go as far as saying that, with the exception of eating and drinking and a few other matters, they do most things in a contrary way to ours. they remove their shoes, when we would remove our hats; they shave their heads and let the beard grow; they sleep in the day and sit up the greater portion of the night; they make windows in the roof instead of in the walls; they inoculate smallpox instead of vaccinating to prevent it; they travel by night instead of by day. it would be absurd to believe that we can alter in a day the customs, religions, and manners of millions of natives, and it seems almost incomprehensible that in such long colonial experience as ours we have not yet been able to grasp so simple a fact. but here, again, comes in my contention that our failing is absolute lack of observation; unless it be indeed our conceited notion that other people must rise up to our standard. anyhow, we have lost and are losing heavily by it. we see the germans and austrians swamping our own colonies with goods wherewith our bazaars in india are overflowing; whereas english articles--if cottons are excepted--are seldom to be seen in the bazaars. this seems indeed a curious state of affairs. nor do we need to go to india. england itself is overflowing with foreign-made goods. now, why should it not be possible--and certainly more profitable--to meet the wishes of natives of eastern countries and give them what they want? there is another matter which greatly hampers the british manufacturer, in his dealings with persians particularly. it is well to recollect that the blunt way we have of transacting business does not always answer with orientals. impatience, too, of which we are ever brimful, is a bad quality to possess in dealings with persians. times have gone by when england had practically the monopoly of the trade of the east and could lay down the law to the buyers. the influx of europeans and the extension of trade to the most remote corners of the globe have increased to such an extent during the last few years--and with these competition--that the exporter can no longer use the slack, easy ways of half-a-century ago, when commercial supremacy was in our hands, and must look out for himself. a knowledge of the language, with a conciliatory, courteous manner, a good stock of patience and a fair capacity for sherbet, hot tea and coffee, will, in persia, carry a trader much further in his dealings than the so-called "smarter ways" appreciated in england or america; and another point to be remembered in countries where the natives are unbusiness-like, as they are in persia, is that personal influence and trust--which the natives can never dissociate from the bargain in hand--go a very long way towards successful trading in iran. this is, to my mind, one of the principal reasons of russian commercial successes in northern persia. we will not refer here to the ridiculous idea, so prevalent in england, that russia was never and never will be a manufacturing country. russia is very fast developing her young industries, which are pushed to the utmost by her government, and what is more, the work is done in a remarkably practical way, by people who possess a thorough knowledge of what they are doing. the natives and the geographical features of the country have been carefully studied, and the russian trading scheme is carried firmly and steadily on an unshakable base. we sit and express astonishment at russian successes in persia; the people at home can hardly be made to realise them, and i have heard people even discredit them; but this is only the beginning and nothing to what we shall see later on unless we proceed to work on similar sensible lines. it certainly arouses admiration to see what the russians can do and how well they can do it with ridiculously small capital, when we waste, absolutely waste, immense sums and accomplish nothing, or even the reverse of what we intend to accomplish. but there again is the difference between the observant and the unobservant man. chapter xviii persia's industrial, mineral and agricultural resources--climate of various districts--ghilan's trade--teheran and the surrounding country--khorassan and sistan--the caspian provinces--mazanderan, astrabad and azerbaijan--russian activity and concessions in azerbaijan--hamadan--the malayer and borujird districts--the nomads of kurdistan--naphtha--the tribes of pusht-i-kuh--the pastoral people of luristan--arabistan--farsistan--laristan--shiraz wines--persian beluchistan. the geographical situation of persia, its extent, the altitude of its plateau above the sea level, its vast deserts and its mountain ranges, give the country a good selection of climates, temperatures and vegetation. we have regions of intense tropical heat and of almost arctic cold, we have temperate regions, we have healthy regions, and regions where everybody is fever-stricken. regions with moist air, plenty of water, and big marshes, and dreary waterless deserts. necessarily such natural conditions are bound to give a great variety of resources which show themselves in various guises. a quick survey of the agricultural, industrial and mineral resources of the principal provinces of persia according to up-to-date information may not be out of place, and will help the reader to appreciate the journey through some of the districts mentioned. we have already been through ghilan with its almost temperate climate in the lowlands, but damp in the northern portion, where fever is rampant, but where, at the same time, luxuriant vegetation with thick forests, grass in abundance, paddy fields for the extensive cultivation of rice, olive-groves, vineyards, cotton, wheat, tobacco, sugar-cane, fruit and all kinds of vegetables nourish; while the production of silk for export on a large and fast-increasing scale--it might be increased enormously if more modern methods were adopted--and wool and cotton fabrics, mostly for the persian market, are manufactured. it exports, mostly to russia, great quantities of dried fruit, wool, cotton, and tobacco (made into cigarettes), salt fish, caviare and oil. south-east of ghilan we find teheran on a high plateau, its situation giving it a delightful and healthy climate, but very scanty agricultural resources owing to lack of water. in and near the capital city there are good gardens, grown at considerable expense and trouble, but very little other vegetation. we have seen in previous chapters what the industries of the capital, both native and foreign, are, and what they amount to; there is also a manufacture of glazed tiles, quite artistic, but not to be compared in beauty of design, colour and gloss with the ancient ones. teheran is dependent on the neighbouring provinces and europe for nearly everything. this is not, however, the case with isfahan, the ancient capital, in the province of which cotton, wheat, indian corn, tobacco and opium are grown in fair quantities, the last-named for export. mules and horses are reared, and there are several flourishing industries, such as carpet-making, metal work, leather tanneries, gold and silver work, and silk and wool fabrics. to the east we have khorassan and sistan, a great wheat-growing country with some good pastures, and also producing opium, sugar-cane, dates and cotton. in summer the northerly winds sweeping over the desert are unbearable, and the winter is intensely cold. in the northern part of khorassan snow falls during the coldest months, but in sistan the winter is temperate. life is extremely cheap for natives in sistan, which is a favourite resort for camel men and their beasts, both from afghanistan and beluchistan. northern khorassan is the great centre of turquoise mining; copper and coal are also found there, but its local trade, now that the export of grain is forbidden, is mostly in opium, worked leather, wool and excellent horses, which can be purchased for very little money. camels, both loading and riding (or fast-going camels) are also reared here in the southern portion of the province, the northern part being too cold for them in winter. the handsomest and richest districts of persia, but not the healthiest, are undoubtedly the northern ones on the caspian sea, or bordering on russian territory, such as mazanderan, astrabad, and azerbaijan. in the first two, rice is grown in large quantities, castor-oil, wheat, cotton and barley; and in mazanderan extensive pasturages are found on the hills for sheep; but not so in astrabad, which, owing to its peculiar formation, is exposed to broiling heat on the sandy wastes, and to terrific cold on the mountains, but has a fairly temperate climate in the southern portion of the province. these--if the production of silk is excepted--are mostly agricultural districts. at one time mazanderan had beautiful forests which are now fast being destroyed. considerable bartering is carried on between the towns and the nomad tribes, in rugs, carpets, horses and mules, against grain, rice, felts and woollen cloths of local manufacture. azerbaijan, the most northern province of persia, with tabriz as a centre, is very rich in agricultural products, particularly in rice and wheat. notwithstanding the severe climate in winter, when the snowfall is rather heavy, and the thermometer down to ° below zero centigrade in february, there are good vineyards in the neighbourhood of tabriz, and most excellent vegetables and fruit. tobacco is successfully grown (and manufactured for the pipe and into cigarettes). the heat in summer is intense, with hot winds and dust storms; but owing to the altitude ( , feet at tabriz) the nights are generally cool. in the spring there are torrential rains, and also towards the end of the autumn, but the months of may, june, october and november are quite pleasant. the local trade of azerbaijan is insignificant, but being on the russian border the transit trade has of late assumed large proportions, and is increasing fast. the importation, for instance, of turkey-reds by russia is growing daily, and also the importation of silk, in cocoons and manufactured, velvet, woollen goods, various cotton goods, raw wool, dyes (such as henna, indigo, cochineal and others), and sugar, the principal import of all. with the exception of tea, indigo and cochineal, which come from india, the imports into azerbaijan come almost altogether from russia, turkey, austria-hungary and france. the russian trade in sugar is enormous from this quarter. the carpet trade, which at one time seemed to be dying out, is now about to enter on a prosperous phase; but not so the wool-weaving, which does not go beyond the local market. firearms are manufactured and sold to the kurds, and jewellery is made; but the principal exports are dried fruit, raisins, almonds, pistachios, chiefly to russia and turkey; also gum, oils, raw metals (copper, iron), hides, precious stones, alimentary products (honey and dried vegetables), various kinds of wood, live stock (mainly sheep and oxen), tobacco, raw and manufactured, dyes, and raw and manufactured cotton and silk, carpets, rugs, and cloth. all these exports are to russia and turkey, and do not all necessarily come from azerbaijan. the russians are displaying great activity in this province, and have established an important branch of their "banque d'escompte et de prêts de perse." they have obtained road, railway, and mining concessions, and according to the report of our consul in tabriz, the russian bank makes advances, to the extent of fifty per cent., to merchants dealing in russian goods, especially to native exporters of dried fruit, such advances being repaid in russia by the sale of such produce, or in persia by the sale of corresponding imports of manufactured goods. tabriz itself, being a centre of export of the produce of northern persia, is a promising field for banking enterprise, and will assume greater importance even than it has now when the carriage road scheme, a concession which was granted by the shah, is completed, and furnishes easier communication for trade and travelling purposes. russian engineers are said to have surveyed and mapped the country for the establishment of a railway system in azerbaijan. the mineral resources of azerbaijan are said to be considerable, iron being found in rich deposits of hematite; sulphur, copper and arsenical pyrites, bitumen, lignite, salt, mineral, ferruginous and sulphurous springs, and variegated marble. a similar geological formation is found extending to hamadan, where beds of lignite and anthracite exist, and fine marbles and granites are to be found. here, too, we have a trifling market for local produce, but a considerable transit trade between the capital and kermanshah, bagdad and tabriz. hamadan is mostly famous for its capital tanneries of leather and for its metal work; but its climate is probably the worst in persia, if the suffocating gulf coast is excepted--intensely cold in winter and spring, moist and rainy during the rest of the year. this produces good pasturages and gives excellent vegetables, wine of sorts, and a flourishing poppy culture--a speciality of the province. the same remarks might apply to the adjoining (south) malayer and borujird districts, which, however, possess a more temperate climate, although liable to sudden terrific storms accompanied by torrential rains. there is a great deal of waste lands in these regions; but, where irrigated and properly cultivated, wheat flourishes, as well as fruit trees, vines, vegetables, poppies, cotton and tobacco. the people are extremely industrious, being occupied chiefly in carpet-making for foreign export, and preparing opium and dried fruit, as well as dyed cottons. gold dust is said to be found in beds of streams and traces of copper in quartz. other provinces, such as kurdistan, are inhabited by nomadic peoples, who have a small trade in horses, arms, opium, wool and dates; but the cultivation of land is necessarily much neglected except for the supply of local needs. in many parts it is almost impossible, as for five or six winter months the soil is buried in snow, and the heat of the summer is unbearable. there seem to be no intermediate seasons. the people live mostly on the caravan traffic from bagdad to various trading centres of persia, and they manufacture coarse cloths, rugs and earthenware of comparatively little marketable value. naphtha does exist, as well as other bituminous springs, but it is doubtful whether the quantity is sufficient and whether the naphtha wells are accessible enough to pay for their exploitation. that naphtha does exist, not only in kurdistan, but in pusht-i-kuh, luristan, and all along the zone extending south of the caucasus, is possible; but whether those who bore wells for oil in those regions will make fortunes similar to those made in the extraordinarily rich and exceptionally situated baku region, is a different matter altogether, which only the future can show. [illustration: sahib divan, who was at various periods governor of shiraz and khorassan.] the tribes of pusht-i-kuh are somewhat wild and unreliable. on the mountain sides are capital pasturages. a certain amount of grain, tobacco and fruit are grown, principally for local consumption. in luristan, too, we have partly a nomad pastoral population. being a mountainous region there are extremes of temperature. in the plains the heat is terrific; but higher up the climate is temperate and conducive to good pasturages and even forests. as in the pusht-i-kuh mountain district, here, too, wheat, rice and barley are grown successfully in huge quantities, and the vine flourishes at certain altitudes as well as fruit trees. the local commerce consists principally in live stock, the horses being quite good, and there is a brisk trade in arms and ammunition. there remain now the large districts of khuzistan, better known as arabistan, farsistan and laristan. the heat in these provinces is terrible during the summer, and the latter district is further exposed to the scirocco winds of the gulf, carrying with them suffocating sand clouds. if properly developed, and if the barrage of the karun river at ahwaz were put in thorough repair, the plains of arabistan could be made the richest in persia. wheat, rice and forage were grown in enormous quantities at one time, and cotton, tobacco, henna, indigo and sugar-cane. but this region, being of special interest to britain, a special chapter is devoted to it, as well as to the possibilities of farsistan and laristan, to which future reference will be made. the trade in shiraz wines is fairly developed, and they are renowned all over persia. considering the primitive method in which they are made they are really excellent, especially when properly matured. the better ones resemble rich sherries, madeira and port wine. indigo, horses, mules and carpets form the trade of the province which, they say, possesses undeveloped mineral resources such as sulphur, lead, presumed deposits of coal, mercury, antimony and nickel. persian beluchistan is quite undeveloped so far, and mostly inhabited by nomad tribes, somewhat brigand-like in many parts and difficult to deal with. they manufacture rugs and saddle-bags and breed good horses and sheep. their trade is insignificant, and a good deal of their country is barren. the climate is very hot, and in many parts most unhealthy. chapter xix a persian wedding--polygamy--seclusion of women--match-makers--subterfuges--the _nomzad_, or official betrothal day--the wedding ceremony in the harem--for luck--the wedding procession--festival--sacrifices of sheep and camels--the last obstacle, the _ruhmah_--the bride's endowment--the bridegroom's settlement--divorces--a famous well for unfaithful women--women's influence--division of property. the general european idea about persian matrimonial affairs is about as inaccurate as is nearly every other european popular notion of eastern customs. we hear a great deal about harems, and we fancy that every persian must have dozens of wives, while there are people who seriously believe that the shah has no less than one wife for each day of the year, or in all! that is all very pretty fiction, but differs considerably from real facts. first of all, it may be well to repeat that by the mahommedan doctrine no man can have more than four wives, and this on the specified condition that he is able to keep them in comfort, in separate houses, with separate attendants, separate personal jewellery, and that he will look upon them equally, showing no special favour to any of them which may be the cause of jealousy or envy. all these conditions make it well-nigh impossible for any man of sound judgment to embark in polygamy. most well-to-do persians, therefore, only have one wife. another important matter to be taken into consideration is, that no persian woman of a good family will ever marry a man who is already married. so that the chances of legal polygamy become at once very small indeed in young men of the better classes, who do not wish to ruin their career by marrying below their own level. an exception should be made with the lower and wealthy middle classes, who find a satisfaction in numbers to make up for quality, and who are the real polygamists of the country. but even in their case the real wives are never numerous--never above the number permitted by the koran,--the others being merely concubines, whether temporary or permanent. the shah himself has no more than one first wife, with two or three secondary ones. in a country where women are kept in strict seclusion as they are in persia, the arrangement of matrimony is rather a complicated matter. everybody knows that in mussulman countries a girl can only be seen by her nearest relations, who by law cannot marry her, such as her father, grandfather, brothers and uncles--but not by her cousins, for weddings between cousins are very frequently arranged in persia. it falls upon the mother or sisters of the would-be bridegroom to pick a suitable girl for him, as a rule, among folks of their own class, and report to him in glowing terms of her charms, social and financial advantages. if he has no mother and sisters, then a complaisant old lady friend of the family undertakes to act as middlewoman. there are also women who are professional match-makers--quite a remunerative line of business, i am told. anyhow, when the young man has been sufficiently allured into matrimonial ideas, if he has any common sense he generally wishes to see the girl before saying yes or no. this is arranged by a subterfuge. the women of the house invite the girl to their home, and the young fellow is hidden behind a screen or a window or a wall, wherein convenient apertures have been made for him, unperceived, to have a good look at the proposed young lady. this is done several times until the boy is quite satisfied that he likes her. the primary difficulty being settled, his relations proceed on a visit to the girl's father and mother, and ask them to favour their son with their daughter's hand. if the young man is considered well off, well-to-do, sober and eligible in every way, consent is given. a day is arranged for the nomzad--the official betrothal day. all the relations, friends and acquaintances of the two families are invited, and the women are entertained in the harem while the men sit outside in the handsome courts and gardens. the bridegroom's relations have brought with them presents of jewellery, according to their means and positions in life, with a number of expensive shawls, five, six, seven or more, and a mirror. also some large trays of candied sugar. after a great consumption of tea, sherbet, and sweets, the young man is publicly proclaimed suitable for the girl. music and dancing (by professionals) are lavishly provided for the entertainment of guests, on a large or small scale, according to the position of the parents. some time elapses between this first stage of a young man's doom and the ceremony for the legal contract and actual wedding. there is no special period of time specified, and the parties can well please themselves as to the time when the nuptial union is to be finally effected. when the day comes the parties do not go to the mosque nor the convenient registry office--persia is not yet civilised enough for the latter--but a _mujtehed_ or high priest is sent for, who brings with him a great many other mullahs, the number in due proportion to the prospective backshish they are to receive for their services. the wedding ceremony takes place in the bride's house, where on the appointed day bands, dancing, singing, and sweets in profusion are provided for the great number of guests invited. the high priest eventually adjourns to the harem, where all the women have collected with the bride, the room being partitioned off with a curtain behind which the women sit. the bride and her mother (or other lady) occupy seats directly behind the curtain, while the priest with the bridegroom and his relations take places in the vacant portion of the room. the priest in a stentorian voice calls out to the girl:-- "this young man, son of so-and-so, etc., etc., wants to be your slave. will you accept him as your slave?" (no reply. trepidation on the bridegroom's part.) the priest repeats his question in a yet more stentorian voice. again no reply. the women collect round the bride and try to induce her to answer. they stroke her on her back, and caress her face, but she sulks and is shy and plays with her dress, but says nothing. when the buzzing noise of the excited women-folk behind the curtain has subsided, the priest returns to his charge, while the expectant bridegroom undergoes the worst quarter of an hour of his life. the third time of asking is generally the last, and twice the girl has already not answered. it is a terrible moment. evidently she is not over anxious to bring about the alliance, or is the reluctance a mere feminine expedient to make it understood from the beginning that she is only conferring a great favour on the bridegroom by condescending to marry him? the latter hypothesis is correct, for when the priest thunders for the third time his former question, a faint voice--after a tantalizing delay--is heard to say "yes." the bridegroom, now that this cruel ordeal is over, begins to breathe again. the priest is not yet through his work, and further asks the girl whether she said "yes" out of her will, or was forced to say it. then he appeals to the women near her to testify that this was so, and that the voice he heard behind the curtain was actually the girl's voice. these various important points being duly ascertained, in appropriate arabic words the priest exclaims: "i have married this young lady to this man and this man to this young lady." the men present on one side of the curtain nod and (in arabic) say they accept the arrangement. the women are overheard to say words to the same effect from the other side of the partition. congratulations are exchanged, and more sherbet, tea and sweets consumed. the religious ceremony is over, but not the trials of the bridegroom, now legal husband. when sufficient time has elapsed for him to recover from his previous mental anguish, he is conveyed by his mother or women relatives into the harem. all the women are veiled and line the walls of the drawing-room, where a solitary chair or cushion on the floor is placed at the end of the room. he is requested to sit upon it, which he meekly does. a small tray is now brought in with tiny little gold coins (silver if the people are poor) mixed with sweets. the bridegroom bends his head; and sweets and coins are poured upon his back and shoulders. being round--the coins, not the shoulders--they run about and are scattered all over the room. all the ladies present gracefully stoop and seize one pellet of gold, which is kept for good luck; then servants are called in to collect the remainder which goes to their special benefit. this custom is not unlike our flinging rice for luck at a married couple. the bridegroom then returns to the men's quarters, where he receives the hearty congratulations of relatives and friends alike. from this moment the girl becomes his wife, and the husband has the right to see her whenever he chooses, but not to cohabit with her until further ordeals have been gone through. the husband comes to meet his wife for conversation's sake in a specially reserved room in the harem, and each time he comes he brings presents of jewellery or silks or other valuables to ingratiate himself. so that, by the time the real wedding takes place, they can get to be quite fond of one another. there is no special limit of time for the last ceremony to be celebrated. it is merely suited to the convenience of the parties when all necessary arrangements are settled, and circumstances permit. usually for ten days or less before the wedding procession takes place a festival is held in the bridegroom's house, when the mullahs, the friends, acquaintances, relations and neighbours are invited--fresh guests being entertained on each night. music, dancing, and lavish refreshments are again provided for the guests. the men, of course, are entertained separately in the men's quarter, and the women have some fun all to themselves in the harem. on the very last evening of the festival a grand procession is formed in order to convey the bride from her house to that of her husband. he, the husband, waits for her at his residence, where he is busy entertaining guests. all the bridegroom's relations, with smart carriages--and, if he is in some official position, as most persians of good families are,--with infantry and cavalry soldiers, bands and a large following of friends and servants on horseback and on foot proceed to the bride's house. a special carriage is reserved for the bride and her mother or old lady relation, and another for the bridesmaids. she is triumphantly brought back to the bridegroom's house, her relations and friends adding to the number in the procession. guns are fired and fireworks let off along the road and from the bride's and bridegroom's houses. one good feature of all persian festivities is that the poor are never forgotten. so, when the bride is driven along the streets, a great many sheep and camels are sacrificed before her carriage to bring the bride luck and to feed with their flesh the numberless people who congregate round to divide the meat of the slaughtered animals. in the house of the bridegroom, too, any number of sheep are sacrificed and distributed among the poor. there are great rejoicings when the procession arrives at the house, where the bridegroom is anxiously awaiting to receive his spouse. as she alights from the carriage more sheep are sacrificed on the door-step--and the husband, too, is sacrificed to a certain extent, for again he has to content himself with merely conducting his bride to the harem and to leave her there. it is only late in the evening, when all the guests, stuffed with food, have departed, that the husband is led by his best man to a special room prepared for him and his wife in the harem. the bride comes in, heavily veiled, in the company of her father or some old and revered relation, who clasps the hands of husband and wife and joins them together, making a short and appropriate speech of congratulation and good wishes for a happy conjugal existence. then very wisely retreats. there is yet another obstacle: the removal of the long embroidered veil which hangs gracefully over the bride's head down to her knees. this difficulty is easily surmounted by another present of jewellery, known as the _ruhmuhah_ or "reward for showing the face." there is no further reward needed after that, and they are at last husband and wife, not only in theory but in fact. true, some gold coins have to be left under the furniture to appease expecting servants, and the next day fresh trials have to be endured by the bride, who has to receive her lady friends and accept their most hearty congratulations. this means more music, more professional dancing, more sweets, more sherbet, more tea. but gradually, even the festivities die out, and wife and husband can settle down to a really happy, quiet, family life, devoid of temptations and full of fellow-feeling and thoughtfulness. ten days before this last event takes place the wife is by custom compelled to send to the husband's house the endowment which by her contract she must supply: the whole furniture of the apartments complete from the kitchen to the drawing-room, both for the man's quarter and for her own. besides this--which involves her in considerable expense--she, of course, further conveys with her anything of which she may be the rightful owner. her father, if well-off, will frequently present her on her wedding-day with one or more villages or a sum in cash, and occasionally will settle on her what would go to her in the usual course of time after his death. all this--in case of divorce or litigation--remains the wife's property. on the other hand, the bridegroom, or his parents for him, have to settle a sum of money on the bride before she consents to the marriage, and this is legally settled upon her by the mullah in the wedding contract. she has a right to demand it whenever she pleases. it can be seen by all this that a persian legal marriage is not a simple matter nor a cheap undertaking. the expense and formalities connected with each wedding are enormous, so that even if people were inclined to polygamy it is really most difficult for them to carry their desire into effect. among the nobility it has become unfashionable and is to-day considered quite immoral to have more than one wife. partly because the marriages are seldom the outcome of irresistible--but fast burning out--love; partly because it is difficult for a husband and almost impossible for a wife to be unfaithful, divorces in persia are not common. besides, on divorcing a wife, the husband has to pay her in full the settlement that has been made upon her, and this prevents many a rash attempt to get rid of one's better-half. to kill an unfaithful wife is, in the eyes of persians, a cheaper and less degrading way of obtaining justice against an unpardonable wrong. one hears a good deal in persia about a famous and extraordinarily deep well--near shiraz, i believe--into which untrue wives were precipitated by their respective offended husbands, or by the public executioner; and also how dishonoured women are occasionally stoned to death; but these cases are not very frequent nowadays. the persian woman is above all her husband's most intimate friend. he confides all--or nearly all--his secrets to her. she does the same, or nearly the same with him. their interests are mutual, and the love for their own children unbounded. each couple absolutely severed from the outside world, forbidden to get intoxicated by their religion, with no excitements to speak of, and the wife in strict seclusion--there is really no alternative left for them than to be virtuous. women have in persia, as in other countries, great influence over their respective husbands, and through these mediums feminine power extends very far, both in politics and commerce. at the husband's death the property is divided among his children, each male child taking two shares to each one share for every girl's part, after one-eighth of the whole property has been paid to the deceased's widow, who is entitled to that amount by right. most praiseworthy union exists in most persian families, filial love and veneration for parents being quite as strong as paternal or maternal affection. extreme reverence for old age in any class of man is another trait to be admired in the persian character. chapter xx persian women--their anatomy--their eyes--_surmah_--age of puberty--the descendants of mohammed--infanticide--circumcision--deformities and abnormalities--the ear--the teeth and dentistry--the nose--a persian woman's indoor dress--the _yel_--the _tadji_ and other jewels--out-of-door dress--the _chakchur_--the _ruh-band_--the _chudder_. persia, they say, is the country of the loveliest women in the world. it probably has that reputation because few foreign male judges have ever seen them. the persians themselves certainly would prefer them to any other women. still, there is no doubt, from what little one sees of the persian woman, that she often possesses very beautiful languid eyes, with a good deal of animal magnetism in them. her skin is extremely fair--as white as that of an italian or a french woman--with a slight yellowish tint which is attractive. they possess when young very well modelled arms and legs, the only fault to be found among the majority of them being the frequent thickness of the wrists and ankles, which rather takes away from their refinement. in the very highest classes this is not so accentuated. the women are usually of a fair height, not too small, and carry themselves fairly well, particularly the women of the lower classes who are accustomed to carry weights on their head. the better-off women walk badly, with long steps and a consequent stoop forward; whereas the poorer ones walk more firmly with a movement of the hips and with the spine well arched inwards. the neck lacks length, but is nicely rounded, and the head well set on the shoulders. anatomically, the body is not striking either for its beauty or its strength or suppleness. the breasts, except with girls of a very tender age, become deformed, and very pendant, and the great tendency to fatness rather interferes with the artistic beauty of their outlines. the skeleton frame of a persian woman is curiously constructed, the hip-bones being extremely developed and broad, whereas the shoulder blades and shoulders altogether are very narrow and undeveloped. the hands and feet are generally good, particularly the hand, which is less developed and not so coarse as the lower limbs generally and the feet in particular. the fingers are usually long and quite supple, with well-proportioned nails. the thumb is, nevertheless, hardly ever in good proportion with the rest of the hand. it generally lacks length and character. the feet bear the same characteristics as the hands except, as i have said, that they are infinitely coarser. why this should be i cannot explain, except that intermarriage with different races and social requirements may be the cause of it. [illustration: persian woman and child.] [illustration: a picturesque beggar girl.] the head i have left to the last, because it is from an artist's point of view the most picturesque part of a persian woman's anatomy. it may possibly lack fine chiselled features and angularity; and the first impression one receives on looking at a persian woman's face is that it wants strength and character--all the lines of the face being broad, uninterrupted curves. the nose is broad and rounded, the cheeks round, the chin round, the lips large, voluptuous and round--very seldom tightly closed; in fact, the lower lip is frequently drooping. but when it comes to eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows, there are few women in the world who can compete with the persian. there is exuberant fire and expression in the persian feminine organs of vision, large and almond-shaped, well-cut, and softened by eyelashes of abnormal length, both on the upper and lower lid. the powerful, gracefully-curved eyebrows extend far into the temples, where they end into a fine point, from the nose, over which they are very frequently joined. the iris of the eye is abnormally large, of very rich dark velvety brown, with jet black pupils, and the so-called "white of the eye" is of a much darker tinge than with europeans--almost a light bluish grey. the women seem to have wonderful control over the muscles of the eyelids and brows, which render the eyes dangerously expressive. the habit of artificially blackening the under lid with _surmah_, too, adds, to no mean extent, to the luminosity and vivid power of the eyes in contrast to the alabaster-like, really beautiful skin of the younger persian women. i said "younger," for owing to racial and climatic conditions the persian female is a full-grown woman in every way at the age of ten or twelve, sometimes even younger. they generally keep in good compact condition until they are about twenty or twenty-five, when the fast expanding process begins, deforming even the most beautiful into shapeless masses of flesh and fat. they are said, however, to be capable of bearing children till the mature age of forty to forty-five, although from my own observation thirty-five to forty i should take to be the more common average at which persian women are in full possession of prolific powers. in the case of sayids, the descendants of mahommed, both sexes of whom are reputed for their extraordinary powers and vitality, women are said not to become sterile till after the age of fifty. whether this is a fact or not, i cannot say, but it is certain that the sayids are a superior race altogether, more wiry and less given to orgies--drinking and smoking,--which may account for their natural powers being preserved to a later age than with most other natives of persia. their women are very prolific. sayid men and women are noticeable even from a tender age for their robustness and handsome features. they are dignified and serious in their demeanour, honest and trustworthy, and are a fine race altogether. infanticide after birth is not very common in persia, but abortion artificially procured has, particularly of late, become frequent for the prevention of large families that cannot be supported. this is done by primitive methods, not dissimilar to those used in european countries. medicine is occasionally also administered internally. these cases are naturally illegal, and although the law of the country is lenient--or, rather, short-sighted--in such matters, any palpable case, if discovered, would be severely punished. the umbilicus of newly-born children is inevitably tied by a doctor and not by a member of the family, as with some nations. circumcision is practised on male children when at the age of forty days. it is merely performed as a sanitary precaution, and is not undergone for religion's sake. there are few countries where deformities and abnormalities are as common as they are in persia. in women less than in men; still, they too are afflicted with a good share of nature's freaks. the harelip is probably the most common abnormality. webbed and additional fingers and toes come next. birth-marks are very common--especially very large black moles on the face and body. persian ears are very seldom beautiful. they are generally more or less malformed and somewhat coarse in modelling, although they seem to answer pretty well the purpose for which they are created. but although the hearing is very good in a general sense, i found that the persian, of either sex, had great difficulty in differentiating very fine modulations of sounds, and this is probably due to the under-development or degeneration of the auricular organ, just the same as in the ears of purely anglo-saxon races. to an observant eye, to my mind, there is no part of people's anatomy that shows character and refinement more plainly than the ear. much more delicate in texture than the hands or feet, the ear is, on the other hand, less subject to misleading modifications by artificial causes which are bound to affect the other extremities. the ear of a persian is, in the greater percentage of cases, the ear of a degenerate. it is coarse and lumpy, and somewhat shapeless, with animal qualities strongly marked in it. occasionally one does come across a good ear in persia, but very rarely. similar remarks might apply to teeth. when young, men and women have good teeth, of fairly good shape and length, and frequently so very firmly set in their sockets as to allow their possessors to lift heavy weights with them, pulling ropes tight, etc., when the strength of the hands is not sufficient. one frequently notices, however, irregularity, or additional teeth--caused again by intermixture of race--the upper teeth not fitting properly the lower ones, and causing undue friction, early injury to the enamel, and consequent decay. this is also greatly intensified by the unhealthy state of persian blood, especially in people inhabiting the cities, where the worst of venereal complaints has crept in a more or less virulent form into the greater part of the population. add to this, a disorganized digestion, coloration by constant smoking, and the injury to the enamel brought on by the great consumption of sugary stuff; and if one marvels at all it is that persian teeth are as good and serviceable as they are to a fair age. native persian dentistry is not in a very advanced stage. with the exception of extraction by primitive and painful methods, nothing efficient is done to arrest the progress of decay. the persian nose is well shaped--but it is not perfection, mind you--and generally does not perform its duties in a creditable manner. it has nearly all the drawbacks of civilised noses. partly owing to defective digestive organs and the escaping fumes of decayed teeth, the nose, really very well shaped in young children, generally alters its shape as they get older, and it becomes blocked up with mucous matter, causing it unduly to expand at the bridge, and giving it rather a stumpy, fat appearance. the nostrils are not very sharply and powerfully cut in most cases, and are rounded up and undecided, a sign of pliant character. women have better cut and healthier noses than men, as they lead a more wholesome life. in children and young people, however, very handsome noses are to be seen in persia. the sense of odour is not very keen in either sex; in fact, it is probably the dullest of all persian senses, which is not unfortunate for them in a country where potent smells abound. in experimenting upon healthy specimens, it was found that only comparatively strong odours could be detected by them, nor could they distinguish the difference between two different scents, when they did succeed in smelling them at all! a persian woman is not seen at her best when she is dressed. this sounds very shocking, but it is quite true. of all the ugly, inartistic, clumsy, uncomfortable, tasteless, absurd female attires, that of the persian lady ranks first. let us see a persian lady indoors, and describe her various garments in the order in which they strike the observer. first of all one's eye is caught by a "bundle" of short skirts--usually of very bright colours--sticking out at the hips, and not unlike the familiar attire of our ballet girls--only shorter. these skirts are made of cotton, silk or satin, according to the lady's wealth and position. there are various versions of how such a fashion was adopted by persian ladies. it is of comparatively modern importation, and up to fifty or sixty years ago women wore long skirts reaching down to the ankle. the skirts gradually got shorter and shorter as the women got more civilised--so a persian assures me--and when nasr-ed-din shah visited europe and brought back to his harem the glowing accounts of the ladies' dress--or, rather, undress--at the empire and alhambra music-hall ballets, which seem to have much attracted him, the women of his court, in order to compete with their european rivals, and to gain afresh the favour of their sovereign, immediately adopted a similar attire. scissors were busy, and down (or up) were the skirts reduced to a minimum length. as in other countries, fashions in men and women are copied from the court, and so the women from one end of persia to the other, in the cities, took up the hideous custom. one of the principal points in the fashion is that the skirt must stick out at the sides. these skirts are occasionally very elaborate, with heavy gold braiding round them, richly embroidered, or covered all over with small pearls. the shape of the skirt is the same in all classes of women, but of course the difference lies in the material with which the dress is made. under the skirt appear two heavy, shapeless legs, in long foreign stockings with garters, or in tight trousers of cotton or other light material--a most unseemly sight. when only the family are present the latter garments are frequently omitted. perhaps the only attractive part of a woman's indoor toilet is the neat zouave jacket with sleeves, breast and back profusely embroidered in gold, or with pearls. it is called the _yel_. when lady friends are expected to call, some additions are made to the costume. a long veil fastened to the belt and supported on the projecting skirt hangs down to the feet. sometimes it is left to drag behind. it is quite transparent, and its purposeless use none of my persian friends could explain. "the women like it, that is all," was the only answer i could elicit, and that was certainly enough to settle the matter. persian women are extremely fond of jewellery, diamonds, pearls and precious stones. on the head, the hair being plastered down with a parting in the centre and knot behind on the neck, a diadem is worn by the smarter ladies, the _tadji_. those who can afford it have a _tadji_ of diamonds, the shape varying according to fashion; others display sprays of pearls. the _tadji_ is a luxurious, heavy ornament only worn on grand occasions; then there is another more commonly used, the _nim tadji_, or small diadem, a lighter and handsome feathery jewel worn either in the upper centre of the forehead, or very daintily and in a most coquettish way on one side of the head, where it really looks very pretty indeed against the shiny jet black hair of the wearer. heavy necklaces of gold, pearls, turquoises and amber are much in vogue, and also solid and elaborate gold rings and bracelets in profusion on the fingers and wrists. out of doors women in the cities look very different to what they do indoors, and cannot be accused of any outward immodesty. one suspects blue or black bag-like phantoms whom one meets in the streets to be women, but there is really nothing to go by to make one sure of it, for the street costume of the persian lady is as complete a disguise as was ever conceived. before going out a huge pair of loose trousers or bloomers--the _chakchur_--fastened at the waist and pulled in at the ankle, are assumed, and a _ruh-band_--a thick calico or cotton piece of cloth about a yard wide, hangs in front of the face, a small slit some three to four inches long and one and a half wide, very daintily netted with heavy embroidery, being left for ventilation's sake and as a look-out window. this is fastened by means of a hook behind the head to prevent its falling, and is held down with one hand at the lower part. over all this the _chudder_--a black or blue piece of silk or cotton about two yards square and matching the colour of the trousers, covers the whole from head to foot, and just leaves enough room in front for the ventilating parallelogram. in public places this cloak is held with the spare hand quite close to the chin, so that, with the exception of a mass of black or blue clothing and a tiny bit of white embroidery over the eyes, one sees absolutely nothing of the persian woman when she promenades about the streets. with sloping shoulders, broad hips, and huge bloomers, her silhouette is not unlike a soda-water bottle. her feet are socked in white or blue, and she toddles along on dainty slippers with no back to the heels. a husband himself could not recognise his wife out of doors, nor a brother his sister, unless by some special mark on her clothing, such as a spot of grease or a patch--otherwise, poor and rich, young and old, are all dressed alike. of course the diadem and other such ornaments are only worn in the house, and the _chudder_ rests directly on the head. yet with some good fortune one occasionally gets glimpses of women's faces, for face-screens and _chudders_ and the rest of them have their ways of dropping occasionally, or being blown away by convenient winds, or falling off unexpectedly. but this is only the case with the prettier women, the ugly old ones being most particular not to disillusion and disappoint the male passers-by. this is possibly another reason why hasty travellers have concluded that persian women must all be beautiful. chapter xxi the shah's birthday--illuminations--the shah in his automobile--ministers in audience--etiquette at the shah's court--the shah--a graceful speaker--the shah's directness of speech--the kajars and the mullahs--the _défilé_ of troops--a blaze of diamonds. there are great rejoicings in teheran and all over persia on the shah's birthday and the night previous to it, when grand illuminations of all the principal buildings, official residences and business concerns take place. large sums of money are spent in decorating the buildings suitably on such an auspicious occasion, not as in our country with cheap, vari-coloured cotton rags and paper floral ornaments, but with very handsome carpets, numberless looking-glasses of all sizes and shapes, pictures in gold frames, plants and fountains. nor are the lights used of a tawdry kind. no, they are the best candles that money can purchase, fitted in nickel-plated candlesticks with tulip globes--thousands of them--and crystal candelabras of austrian make, or rows of paraffin lamps hired for the occasion. it is customary in teheran even for foreign business houses to illuminate their premises lavishly, and the atabeg azam or prime minister and other high officials go during the evening to pay calls in order to show their appreciation of the compliment to their sovereign, and admire the decorations of the leading banks and merchants' buildings. in front of each illuminated house carpets are spread and a number of chairs are prepared for friends and guests who wish to come and admire the show. sherbet, tea, coffee, whisky, brandy, champagne, cigarettes and all sorts of other refreshments are provided, and by the time you have gone round to inspect all the places where you have been invited, you have been refreshed to such an extent by the people, who are very jolly and hospitable, that you begin to see the illuminations go round you of their own accord. the show that i witnessed was very interesting and really well done, the effect in the bazaar, with all the lights reflected in the mirrors, and the gold and carpets against the ancient wood-work of the caravanserais, being quite picturesque. the crowds of open-mouthed natives were, as a whole, well behaved, and quite amusing to watch. they seemed quite absorbed in studying the details of each bit of decoration. the bank of persia was decorated with much artistic taste. side by side, in the wind, two enormous flags--the british and the persian--flew on its façade. fireworks were let off till a late hour of the night from various parts of the town, and bands and strolling musicians played in the squares, in the bazaar, and everywhere. the following morning the shah came in his automobile to town from his country residence, driven, as usual, by a frenchman. the persian and foreign ministers were to be received in audience early in the morning, and i was to be presented after by sir arthur hardinge, our minister at the shah's court. the strict etiquette of any court--whether european or eastern--does remind one very forcibly of the comic opera, only it is occasionally funnier. [illustration: ruku sultaneh, brother of the present shah.] as early as a.m. we left the legation in a procession--all on horseback--the officials in their diplomatic uniforms, with plenty of gold braiding, and cocked hats; i in my own frock-coat and somebody else's tall hat, for mine had unluckily come to grief. we rode along the very dusty streets and arrived at the palace, where we got off our horses. we entered the large court of the alabaster throne. there were a great many dismounted cavalry soldiers, and we were then led into a small ante-room on the first floor where all the foreign representatives of other nations in teheran were waiting, received by a persian high official. we were detained here for a considerable time, and then marched through the garden to another building. by the number of pairs of shoes lining both sides of the staircase in quadruple rows, it was evident that his majesty had many visitors. we were ushered into the jewelled globe room adjoining the shah's small reception room. after some adjustment of clothes and collars in their correct positions, and of swords and belts, the door opened and the ministers were let in to the shah's presence. one peculiarity of the shah's court is that it is etiquette to appear before the sovereign with one's hat on, and making a military salute. in former days carpet slippers were provided for the ministers to put on over the shoes, but the custom has of late been abandoned, as it looked too ludicrous, even for a court, to see the ministers, secretaries, and attachés in their grand uniforms dragging their feet along for fear of losing a _pantoufle_ on the way. there was the usual speech of greeting and congratulation on the part of the _doyen_ minister, and presently the crowd of foreign representatives returned to the ante-room in the most approved style, walking backwards and stooping low. my turn came next. as we entered, the shah was standing almost in the centre of the room, with the familiar aigrette in his _kolah_ (black headgear) and his chest a blaze of diamonds. he rested his right hand on a handsome jewelled sword. he looked pale and somewhat worn, but his features were decidedly handsome, without being powerful. one could plainly see depicted on his face an expression of extreme good-nature--almost too soft and thoughtful a face for a sovereign of an eastern country. his thick underlip added a certain amount of obstinate strength to his features, which was counter-balanced by the dreamy, far-away look of his eyes heavily shadowed by prominent lids. his thick black eyebrows and huge moustache were in great contrast to the shah's pallid face. his majesty appeared bored, and was busy masticating a walnut when we entered, the shell of which lay in _débris_ by the side of two additional entire walnuts and a nut-cracker on a small jewelled side-table. we stood at attention with our hats on while sir arthur, who, as we have seen, is a linguist of great distinction, delivered to the sovereign, a most charming and graceful speech in persian with an oriental fluency of flowery language that nearly took my breath away. the shah seemed highly delighted at the nice compliments paid him by our minister, and graciously smiled in appreciation. then sir arthur broke forth in french--which he speaks like a frenchman--and with astounding grace proceeded to the presentation. the shah was curt in his words and much to the point, and i was greatly delighted at the charming directness of his remarks. there was no figure of speech, no tawdry metaphor in the compliment paid me. i had presented his majesty with two of my books. "_vous écrivez livres?_" thundered the shah to me in lame french, as he stroked his moustache in a nervous manner. "_malheureusement pour le public, oui, majesté_," (unfortunately for the public, yes, your majesty), i replied, touching my hat in military fashion. "_combien de livres avez vous écrits?_" (how many books have you written?) "_quatre, majesté._" (four, your majesty.) "_combien livres avez vous envoyé moi?_" (how many books have you sent me?) he roared again in his perso adaptation of french. "_deux, majesté._" (two, your majesty.) "_envoyez encore deux autres._" (send the other two.) and with a nod the conversation was over, and we retreated backwards through the glass door, but not before sir arthur hardinge had completed the interview with another most appropriate and graceful little speech. the foreign ministers departed, but i was allowed to remain in the palace grounds to witness the various native officials and representatives paying their salaams to the shah. after us the foreigners in persian employ were received in audience, and it was interesting to notice that they had adopted the persian headgear, and some even the persian pleated frock-coat. the shah's reception room had a very large window overlooking the garden. the glass was raised and a throne was placed close to the edge of the window on which the shah seated himself with a _kalian_ by his side. then began the _défilé_ of native representatives. the _kajars_ in their grand robes and white turbans paraded before the window, and then forming a semicircle salaamed the head of their family. one of them stepped forward and chanted a long poem, while the shah puffed away at the _kalian_ and stroked his luxuriant moustache. every now and then the sovereign bowed in acknowledgment of the good wishes paid him, and his bow was repeated by the crowd below in the court. after the kajars came the mullahs. again another recitation of poetry, again more bows, more _kalian_ smoking. then foreign generals stood before the window, and native officers, court servants and eunuchs. the _défilé_ of troops, colleges, merchant associations and schools came next, and was very interesting. persian cossacks in their nice long white uniforms and formidable chest ornamentations; bandsmen with tin helmets and linoleum top boots; hussars with plenty of braiding on cotton coats and trousers; infantrymen, artillerymen, military cadets,--all were reviewed in turn by his majesty, who displayed his royal satisfaction by an occasional bow. there were no shrieks of enthusiasm, no applause, no hurrahs, as they went, but they all walked past the royal window in a quiet, dignified way--no easy matter, considering the extraordinary clothing that some were made to wear. one had a sort of suspicion that, not unlike the armies marching on the stage, one recognised the same contingents marching past several times to make up for numbers, but that did not take away from the picturesqueness of the scene, in the really beautiful garden, with lovely fountains spouting and flowers in full bloom. the procession with banners and music went on for a very long time, but at last the garden was cleared of all people. his majesty wished to descend for a little walk. absolutely alone, the shah sauntered about, apparently quite relieved that the ordeal was over. the atabeg azam was signalled to approach, and prime minister and sovereign had a friendly conversation. although personally not fond of jewellery, i must confess that i was much impressed by the resplendent beauty of the shah's diamonds when a ray of sun shone upon them. his chest and the aigrette on the cap were a blaze of dazzling light, with a myriad of most beautiful flashing colours. the great social excitement of the year in teheran was the prime minister's evening party on the shah's birthday, when all the higher persian officials were invited, and nearly all the europeans resident in teheran, regardless of their grade or social position. this evening party was preceded by an official dinner to the members of the legations. elaborate fireworks were let off in the beautiful gardens and reflected in the ponds in front of the house, and the gardens were tastefully illuminated with vari-coloured lanterns and decorated with flags. the house itself was full of interesting objects of art, and had spacious rooms in the best european style. persian officials, resplendent in gold-braided uniforms, their chests a mass of decorations, were politeness itself to all guests. excellent persian bands, playing european airs, enlivened the evening, and it was quite interesting to meet the rank and file and beauty of teheran official and commercial life all here assembled. persian ladies, naturally, did not appear, but a few armenian ladies of the better classes were to be observed. [illustration: the shah in his automobile.] [illustration: the sadrazam's (prime minister's) residence, teheran.] the gentle hint given to the guests to depart, when the prime minister got tired and wanted to retire, was quaintly clever. a soft music was heard to come from his bedroom. it was the signal. all hastened to make their best bows and departed. chapter xxii the shah's palace--the finest court--alabaster throne hall--a building in european style--the museum--a chair of solid gold and silver--the _atch_--paintings--the banqueting room--the audience room--beautiful carpets--an elaborate clock--portraits of sovereigns and their places--pianos and good music--the jewelled-globe room--queen victoria's photograph--moving pictures--conservatory--roman mosaics--toys--adam and eve--royal and imperial oil paintings--a decided slight--the picture gallery--valuable collection of arms--strange paintings--coins--pearls--printing press--shah's country places. one is told that one must not leave teheran without carefully inspecting the shah's palace, its treasures and its museum. a special permit must be obtained for this through the legation or the foreign office. the first large court which i entered on this second visit has pretty tiled buildings at the sides, with its rectangular reservoir full of swans, and bordered by trees, is probably the most impressive part of the palace. fountains play in the centre, the spouts being cast-iron women's heads of the cheapest european kind. the lofty throne hall stands at the end, its decorative curtains screening its otherwise unwalled frontage. for my special benefit the curtains were raised, leaving exposed the two high spiral stone columns that support the roof in front. the bases of these columns bore conventionalized vases with sunflowers and leaf ornamentations, while the capitols were in three superposed fluted tiers, the uppermost being the largest in diameter. the frieze of the ceiling was concave, made of bits of looking-glass and gold, and the ceiling itself was also entirely composed of mirrors. the back was of shiny green and blue, with eight stars and two large looking-glasses, while at the sides there was a blue frieze. two large portraits of nasr-ed-din shah, two battle scenes and two portraits of fath-ali-shah decorated the walls. the two side doors of the throne-hall were of beautifully inlaid wood, and the two doors directly behind the throne were of old shiraz work with ivory inscriptions upon them in the centre. the lower part of the wall was of coloured alabaster, with flower ornaments and birds, principally hawks. there were also other less important pictures, two of which i was told represented nadir and mahmud shah, and two unidentified. high up in the back wall were five windows, of the usual persian pattern, and also a cheap gold frame enclosing a large canvas that represented a half-naked figure of a woman with a number of fowls, a cat and a dog. two gold _consoles_ were the only heavy articles of movable furniture to be seen. the spacious throne of well-marked yellow alabaster was quite gorgeous, and had two platforms, the first, with a small fountain, being reached by three steps, the second a step higher. the platform was supported by demons, "guebre" figures all round, and columns resting on the backs of feline animals. on the upper platform was spread an ancient carpet. on leaving this hall we entered a second court giving entrance to a building in the european style, with a wide staircase leading to several reception rooms on the first floor. one--the largest--had a billiard table in the centre, expensive furniture along the walls, and curtains of glaring yellow and red plush, the chairs being of the brightest blue velvet. taken separately each article of furniture was of the very best kind, but it seemed evident that whoever furnished that room did his utmost to select colours that would not match. there were two parisian desks and a fine old oak inlaid desk, a capital inlaid bureau, manufactured by a russian in teheran, and some sultanabad carpets not more than fifty years old. on the shelves and wherever else a place could be found stood glass decorations of questionable artistic taste, and many a vase with stiff bunches of hideous artificial flowers. let us enter the adjoining museum, a huge room in five sections, as it were, each section having a huge chandelier of white and blue austrian glass, suspended from the ceiling. there are glass cases all round crammed full of things arranged with no regard to their value, merit, shape, size, colour or origin. beautiful chinese and japanese _cloisonné_ stands next to the cheapest vienna plaster statuette representing an ugly child with huge spectacles on his nose, and the most exquisite sèvres and other priceless ceramic ware is grouped with empty bottles and common glass restaurant decanters. in company with these will be a toy--a monkey automatically playing a fiddle. costly jade and cheap prints were together in another case; copies of old paintings of saints and the virgin, coloured photographs of theatrical and music-hall stars, and of picturesque scenery, a painting of the shah taken in his apartments, jewels, gold ornaments inlaid with precious stones, a beautiful malachite set consisting of clock, inkstand, vases, and a pair of candlesticks; meteoric stones and fossil shells--all were displayed in the utmost confusion along the shelves. at the further end of the museum, reached by three steps, was a gaudy throne chair of solid gold and silver enamelled. the throne had amphoras at the sides and a sunflower in diamonds behind it. the seat was of red brocade, and the chair had very small arms. it rested on a six-legged platform with two supports and two ugly candelabras. a glance at the remaining glass cases of the museum reveals the same confusion; everything smothered in dust, everything uncared for. one's eye detects at once a valuable set of china, and some lovely axes, pistols and swords inlaid in gold, ivory and silver. then come busts of bismarck and moltke, a plaster clown, tawdry painted fans and tortoiseshell ones; a set of the most common blue table-service, and two high candelabras, green and white; a leather dressing-bag with silver fittings (unused), automatic musical figures, shilling candlesticks, artificial coloured fruit in marble, and a really splendid silver dinner-service. from the museum we passed into the _atch_, a kind of store-room, wherein were numberless cigar-boxes, wicker-work baskets, and badly-kept tiger skins. here were photographs of some of the shah's favourites, a great assortment of nut-crackers--the persians love walnuts--cheap prints in profusion, and some good antelope-skins. this led into the banqueting room, in the european style--and quite a good, sober style this time. the room was lighted by column candelabras, and there was a collection of the shah's family portraits in medallions; also a large-sized phonograph, which is said to afford much amusement to his majesty and his guests. the paintings on the walls ran very much to the nude, and none were very remarkable, if one excepts a life-size nude figure of a woman sitting and in the act of caressing a dove. it is a very clever copy of a painting by foragne in the shah's picture gallery, and has been done by a persian artist named kamaol-el-mulk, who, i was told, had studied in paris. most interesting of all in the room, however, was the exquisite old carpet with a delightful design of roses. it was the carpet that nasr-ed-din shah brought to europe with him to spread under his chair. the dining-room bore evident signs of his majesty's hasty departure for the country. on the tables were piled up anyhow mountains of dishes, plates, wine-glasses, and accessories, the table service made in europe being in most excellent taste, white and gold with a small circle in which the persian "lion and sun" were surmounted by the regal crown. [illustration: in the shah's palace grounds, teheran.] we go next into the shah's favourite apartments, where he spends most of his time when in teheran. we are now in the small room in which i had already been received in audience by his majesty on his birthday, a room made entirely of mirrors. there was a low and luxurious red couch on the floor, and we trod on magnificent soft silk carpets of lovely designs. one could not resist feeling with one's fingers the deliciously soft kerman rug of a fascinating artistic green, and a charming red carpet from sultanabad. the others came from isfahan and kashan. the most valuable and beautiful of all, however, was the white rug, made in sultanabad, on which the shah stands when receiving in audience. next after the carpets, a large clock by benson with no less than thirteen different dials, which told one at a glance the year, the month, the week, the day, the moon, the hour, minutes, seconds, and anything else one might wish to know, was perhaps the most noticeable item in the shah's room. there was nothing in the furniture to appeal to one, the chairs and tables being of cheap bamboo of the familiar folding pattern such as are commonly characteristic of superior boarding-houses. in the way of art there was a large figure of a woman resting under a palm tree, a photographic enlargement of the shah's portrait, and on the shah's writing-desk two handsome portraits of the emperor and empress of russia, the emperor occupying the highest place of honour. two smaller photographs of the czar and czarina were to be seen also in shilling plush frames on another writing-desk, by the side of an electric clock and night-light. the eye was attracted by three terrestrial globes and an astronomical one with constellations standing on a table. a number of very tawdry articles were lying about on the other pieces of furniture; such were a metal dog holding a ten-shilling watch, paper frames, cheap imitation leather articles, numerous photographs of the shah, a copy of the _petit journal_ framed, and containing a representation of the attempt on the shah's life, an amber service, and last, but not least, the nut-cracker and the empty nutshells, the contents of which the shah was in process of eating when i had an audience of him some days before, still lying undisturbed upon a small desk. the shah's special chair was embroidered in red and blue. all this was reflected myriads of times in the diamond-shaped mirror ceiling and walls, and the effect was somewhat dazzling. the room had a partition, and on the other side was an ample couch for his majesty to rest upon. in each reception room is to be seen a splendid grand piano, the music of which, when good, the shah is said passionately to enjoy. one of his aides de camp--a european--is an excellent pianist and composer. we now come to the world-renowned "jewelled-globe" room, and of course one makes at once for the priceless globe enclosed in a glass case in the centre of the room. the frame of the large globe is said to be of solid gold and so is the tripod stand, set in rubies and diamonds. the globe, to do justice to its name, is covered all over with precious stones, the sea being represented by green emeralds, and the continents by rubies. the equator line is set in diamonds and also the whole area of persian territory. there is nothing else of great artistic interest here, and it depressed one to find that, although the portraits in oil and photographs of the emperors of russia and austria occupied prominent places of honour in the shah's apartments, the only image of our queen victoria was a wretched faded cabinet photograph in a twopenny paper frame, thrown carelessly among empty envelopes and writing paper in a corner of his majesty's writing desk. princess beatrice's photograph was near it, and towering above them in the most prominent place was another picture of the emperor of russia. we, ourselves, may attach little meaning to these trifling details, but significant are the inferences drawn by the natives themselves. in this room, as in most of the others, there is bohemian glass in great profusion, and a "one year chronometer" of great precision. a really beautiful inlaid ivory table is disfigured by a menagerie of coloured miniature leaden cats, lions, lizards, dogs, a children's kaleidoscope, and some badly-stuffed birds, singing automatically. on another table were more glass vases and a variety of articles made of cockle shells on pasteboard, cycle watches, and brass rings with imitation stones. adjoining this room is a small boudoir, possessing the latest appliances of civilisation. it contains another grand piano, a large apparatus for projecting moving pictures on a screen, and an ice-cream soda fountain with four taps, of the type one admires--but does not wish to possess--in the new york chemists' shops!! the shah's, however, lacks three things,--the soda, the ice, and the syrups! less modern but more reposeful is the next ante-room with white walls and pretty wood ceiling. it has some military pictures of no great value. on going down ten steps we find ourselves in a long conservatory with blue and yellow tiles and a semi-open roof. a channel of water runs in the centre of the floor, and is the outlet of three octagonal basins and of spouts at intervals of ten feet. there is a profusion of lemon and orange trees at the sides of the water, and the place is kept deliciously cool. here we emerge again into the gardens, which are really beautiful although rather overcrowded, but which have plenty of fountains and huge tanks, with handsome buildings reflected into the water. the high tiled square towers, one of the landmarks of teheran, are quite picturesque, but some of the pleasure of looking at the really fine view is destroyed by numerous ugly cast-iron coloured figures imported from austria which disfigure the sides of all the reservoirs, and are quite out of keeping with the character of everything round them. we are now conducted into another building, where roman mosaics occupy a leading position, a large one of the coliseum being quite a valuable work of art; but on entering the second room we are suddenly confronted by a collection of hideous tin ware and a specimen case of ordinary fish hooks, manufactured by messrs. w. bartlett and sons. next to this is a framed autograph of "nina de muller of st. petersburg," and a photographic gathering of gay young ladies with suitable inscriptions--apparently some of the late shah's acquaintances during his european tours. here are also stuffed owls, an automatic juggler, an imitation snake, japanese screens, and an amusing painting by a persian artist of adam and eve in the garden of eden--the forbidden fruit already missing. previous to entering the largest room we come to an ante-room with photographs of scenery and events belonging to the shah's tour to europe. in the large gold room the whole set of furniture, i am told, was presented to nasr-ed-din shah by the sultan of turkey, and there are, besides, six large oil-paintings hanging upon the walls in gorgeous gold frames. they represent the last two shahs, the emperor and empress of russia, the crown prince at the time of the presentation, and the emperor of austria. a smaller picture of victor emmanuel also occupies a prominent place, but here again we have another instance of the little reverence in which our beloved queen victoria was held in the eyes of the persian court. among the various honoured foreign emperors and kings, to whom this room is dedicated, queen victoria's only representation is a small, bad photograph, skied in the least attractive part of the room--a most evident slight, when we find such photographs as that of the emperor william occupying a front and honoured place, as does also the photograph of queen wilhelmina of holland with her mother. yet another palpable instance of this disregard for the reigning head of england appears in a series of painted heads of sovereigns. the shah, of course, is represented the biggest of the lot, and king humbert, emperor william, the sultan of turkey and the emperor of austria, of about equal sizes; whereas the queen of england is quite small and insignificant. the furniture in this room is covered with the richest plush. we now come upon the royal picture gallery (or, rather, gallery of painted canvases), a long, long room, where a most interesting display of persian, afghan, beluch and turkish arms of all kinds, ancient and modern, gold bows and arrows, jewelled daggers, damascus swords, are much more attractive than the yards of portraits of ladies who have dispensed altogether with dressmakers' bills, and the gorgeously framed advertisements of brooks' machine cottons, and other products, which are hung on the line in the picture gallery! the pictures by persian art students--who paint in european style--are rather quaint on account of the subjects chosen when they attempt to be ideal. they run a good deal to the fantastic, as in the case of the several square yards of canvas entitled the "result of a dream." it contains quite a menagerie of most suggestive wild animals, and dozens of angels and demons in friendly intercourse playing upon the surface of a lake and among the entangled branches of trees. in the background a pyrotechnic display of great magnitude is depicted, with rockets shooting up in all directions, while ethereal, large, black-eyed women lie gracefully reclining and unconcerned, upon most unsafe clouds. the result on the spectator of looking at the "result of a dream," and other similar canvases by the same artist, is generally, i should think, a nightmare. there are some good paintings by foreign artists, such as the life-size nude with a dove by folagne, which we have already seen, most faithfully and cleverly copied by a persian artist, in the shah's dining-room. then there are some pretty dutch and italian pictures, but nothing really first-rate in a purely artistic sense. the cases of ancient and rare gold and silver coins are, however, indeed worthy of remark, and so are the really beautiful persian, afghan and turkish gold and silver inlaid shields, and the intensely picturesque and finely ornamented matchlocks and flintlocks. here, too, as in china, we find an abnormally large rifle--something like the _gingal_ of the celestials. these long clumsy rifles possess an ingenious back sight, with tiny perforations at different heights of the sight for the various distances on exactly the principle of a lyman back sight. the persians who accompanied me through the palace seemed very much astonished--almost concerned--at my taking so much interest in these weapons--which they said were only very old and obsolete--and so little in the hideous things which they valued and wanted me to admire. they were most anxious that i should stop before a box of pearls, a lot of them, all of good size but not very regular in shape. anything worth big sums of money is ever much more attractive to persians (also, one might add, to most europeans) than are objects really artistic or even pleasing to the eye. next to the pearls, came dilapidated butterflies and shells and fossils and stuffed lizards and crocodiles and elephants' tusks, and i do not know what else, so that by the time one came out, after passing through the confusion that reigned everywhere, one's brain was so worn and jumpy that one was glad to sit and rest in the lovely garden and sip cup after cup of tea, which the palace servants had been good enough to prepare. but there was one more thing that i was dragged to see before departing--a modern printing-press complete. his majesty, when the fancy takes him, has books translated and specially printed for his own use. with a sigh of relief i was glad to learn that i had now seen everything, quite everything, in the shah's palace! the shah has several country seats with beautiful gardens on the hills to the north of teheran, where he spends most of the summer months, and in these residences, too, we find the rooms mostly decorated with mirrors, and differing very little in character from those in the teheran palace, only not quite so elaborate. european influence has frequently crept in in architectural details and interior decorations, but not always advantageously. the andarun or harem, the women's quarter, is generally less gaudy than the other buildings, the separate little apartments belonging to each lady being, in fact, quite modest and not always particularly clean. there is very little furniture in the bedrooms, persian women having comparatively few requirements. there is in addition a large reception room, furnished in european style, with elaborate coloured glass windows. this room is used when the shah visits the ladies, or when they entertain friends, but there is nothing, it may be noted, to impress one with the idea that these are regal residences or with that truly oriental, gorgeous pomp, popularly associated in europe with the shah's court. there is probably no court of any importance where the style of life is simpler and more modest than at the shah's. all the houses are, nevertheless, most comfortable, and the gardens--the principal feature of all these country places--extremely handsome, with many fountains, tanks, and water channels intersecting them in every direction for the purpose of stimulating the artificially reared vegetation, and also of rendering the places cooler in summer. unlike most natives of the asiatic continent, the persian shows no reluctance in accepting foreign ways and inventions. he may lack the means to indulge in foreign luxuries, but that is a different matter altogether; the inclination to reform and adopt european ways is there all the same. more forward in this line than most other persians is the shah's son, a very intelligent, bright young fellow, extremely plucky and charmingly simple-minded. he takes the keenest interest in the latest inventions and fads, and, like his father the shah, fell a victim to the motor car mania. only, the shah entrusts his life to the hands of an expert french driver, whereas the young prince finds it more amusing to drive the machine himself. this, of course, he can only do within the palace grounds, since to do so in the streets of the town would be considered below his dignity and would shock the people. at the country residences he is said to have a good deal of amusement out of his motor, but not so the shah's ministers and friends who are now terrified at the name "motor." the young prince, it appears, on the machine being delivered from europe insisted--without previous knowledge of how to steer it--on driving it round a large water tank. he invited several stout ministers in all their finery to accompany him, which they did with beaming faces, overcome by the honour. the machine started full speed ahead in a somewhat snake-like fashion, and with great destruction of the minor plants on the way; then came a moment of fearful apprehension on the part of spectators and performers alike. the car collided violently with an old tree; some of the high dignitaries were flung into the water, others though still on dry land lay flat on their backs. [illustration: the shah and his suite. prime minister. general kossakowski.] it speaks volumes for the young prince's pluck that, when the car was patched up, he insisted on driving it again; but the number of excuses and sudden complaints that have since prevailed among his father's friends when asked to go for a drive with the prince are said to be quite unprecedented. the prince is a great sportsman and much beloved by all for his frankness and geniality. chapter xxiii the selection of a servant--a persian _diligence_--shah-abdul-azim mosque--rock carving--the round tower--beggars--the _kerjawa_--hasanabad--run-away horses--misplaced affection--characteristics of the country--azizawad--salt lake of daria-i-nimak--aliabad--sunsets. i had much difficulty in obtaining a really first-class servant, although many applied with glowing certificates. it has always been my experience that the more glowing the certificates the worse the servant. for my particular kind of travelling, too, a special type of servant has to be got, with a constitution somewhat above the average. i generally cover very great distances at a high speed without the least inconvenience to myself, but i find that those who accompany me nearly always break down. after inspecting a number of applicants i fixed upon one man whose features showed firmness of character and unusual determination. he was a man of few words--one of the rarest and best qualities in a travelling servant, and--he had no relations dependent upon him--the next best quality. he could shoot straight, he could stick on a saddle, he could walk. he required little sleep. he was willing to go to any country where i chose to take him. he required a high salary, but promised by all he held most sacred that he would die before he would give me the slightest trouble. this seemed all fair, and i employed him. only one drawback did this man have--he was an excellent european cook. i had to modify him into a good plain cook, and then he became perfection itself. his name was sadek. on october nd i was ready to start south. my foot was still in a bad condition, but i thought that the open air cure would be the best instead of lying in stuffy rooms. riding is my favourite way of progression, but again it was necessary to submit to another extortion and travel by carriage as far as kum on a road made by the bank of persia some few years ago. the speculation was not carried on sufficiently long to become a success, and the road was eventually sold to a persian concern. the same company runs a service of carriages with relays of horses between the two places, and if one wishes to travel fast one is compelled to hire a carriage, the horses not being let out on hire for riding purposes at any of the stations. this time i hired a large diligence--the only vehicle in the stables that seemed strong enough to stand the journey. it was painted bright yellow outside, had no windows, and was very properly divided into two compartments, one for men and one for women. the money for the journey had to be paid in advance, and the vehicle was ordered to be at the door of the hotel on friday, october th, at . a.m. it arrived on sunday evening, october th, at . o'clock. so much for persian punctuality. sadek said i was lucky that it did come so soon; sometimes the carriages ordered come a week later than the appointed time; occasionally they do not come at all! sadek, much to his disgust, was made to occupy the ladies' compartment with all the luggage, and i had the men's. we were off, and left the city just in time before the south gate was closed. there were high hills to the south-east, much broken and rugged, and to the north beyond the town the higher ones above golahek, on which snow caps could be perceived. damovend ( , ft.), the highest and most graceful mountain in persia, stood with its white summit against the sky to the north-east. even two hundred yards away from the city gate there was nothing to tell us that we had come out of the capital of persia--the place looks so insignificant from every side. a green-tiled dome of no impressive proportions, a minaret or two, and a few mud walls--that is all one sees of the mass of houses one leaves behind. barren country and dusty road, a graveyard with its prism-shaped graves half-buried in sand, are the attractions of the road. one comes to an avenue of trees. poor trees! how baked and dried and smothered in dust! a couple of miles off, we reached a patch of verdure and some really green trees and even signs of agriculture. to our left (east) lay the narrow-gauge railway line--the only one in persia--leading to the shah-abdul azim mosque. the whole length of the railway is not more than six miles. to the right of the road, some little distance before reaching the mosque, a very quaint, large high-relief has been sculptured on the face of a huge rock and is reflected upside down in a pond of water at its foot. men were bathing here in long red or blue drawers, and hundreds of donkeys were conveying veiled women to this spot. an enormous tree casts its shadow over the pool of water in the forenoon. [illustration: rock sculpture near shah-abdul-azim.] [illustration: author's diligence between teheran and kum.] it is interesting to climb up to the high-relief to examine the figures more closely. the whole sculpture is divided into three sections separated by columns, the central section being as large as the two side ones taken together. in the centre is fath-ali-shah--legless apparently--but supposed to be seated on a throne. he wears a high cap with three aigrettes, and his moustache and beard are of abnormal length. in his belt at the pinched waist he disports a sword and dagger, while he holds a bâton in his hand. there are nine figures to his right in two rows: the naib sultaneh, hussein ali, taghi mirza, above; below, mahommed, ali mirza, fatali mirza, abdullah mirza, bachme mirza, one figure unidentified. to the shah's left the figures of ali-naghi mirza and veri mirza are in the lower row; malek mirza, the last figure to the left, hedar mirza and moh-allah-mirza next to fath-ali-shah. all the figures are long-bearded and garbed in long gowns, with swords and daggers. on fath-ali-shah's right hand is perched a hawk, and behind his throne stands an attendant with a sunshade, while under the seat are little figures of muchul mirza and kameran mirza. there are inscriptions on the three sides of the frame, but not on the base. a seat is carved in the rock by the side of the sculpture. a few hundred yards from this well-preserved rock carving, a round tower or feet in height has been erected. its diameter inside is about feet and the thickness of the wall about feet. it has two large yellow doors. why this purposeless structure was put up, nobody seems to know for certain. one gets a beautiful view from the top of the wall--teheran in the distance on one side; the shah-abdul-azim mosque on the other. mountains are close by to the east, and a patch of cultivation and a garden all round down below. near the mosque--as is the case with all pilgrimage places in persia--we find a bazaar crammed with beggars, black bag-like women riding astride on donkeys or mules, depraved-looking men, and stolid-looking mullahs. there were old men, blind men, lame men, deaf men, armless men, men with enormous tumours, others minus the nose or lower jaw--the result of cancer. millions of flies were buzzing about. one of the most ghastly deformities i have ever seen was a tumour under a mullah's foot. it was an almost spherical tumour, some three inches in diameter, with skin drawn tight and shining over its surface. it had patches of red on the otherwise whitish-yellow skin, and gave the impression of the man resting his foot on an unripe water-melon with the toes half dug into the tumour. non-mussulmans are, of course, forbidden to enter the mosque, so i had to be content with the outside view of it--nothing very grand--and must take my reader again along the flat, uninteresting country towards kum. the usual troubles of semi-civilised persia are not lacking even at the very first stage. there are no relays of horses, and those just unharnessed are too tired to proceed. they are very hungry, too, and there is nothing for them to eat. several hours are wasted, and sadek employs them in cooking my dinner and also in giving exhibitions of his temper to the stable people. then follow endless discussions at the top of their voices, in which i do not take part, for i am old and wise enough not to discuss anything with anybody. the prospects of a backshish, the entreaties and prayers being of no avail, sadek flies into a fury, rushes to the yard, seizes the horses and harness, gives the coachman a hammering (and the post master very nearly another), and so we are able to start peacefully again at three a.m., and leave chah-herizek behind. but the horses are tired and hungry. they drag and stumble along in a most tiresome manner. there is moonlight, that ought to add poetry to the scenery--but in persia there is no poetry about anything. there are a great many caravans on the road--they all travel at night to save the animals from the great heat of the day--long strings of camels with their monotonous bells, and dozens of donkeys or mules, some with the covered double litters--the _kerjawa_. these _kerjawas_ are comfortable enough for people not accustomed to ride, or for women who can sleep comfortably while in motion inside the small panier. the _kerjawa_ is slung over the saddle like two large hampers with a roof of bent bands of wood. a cloth covering is made to turn the _kerjawa_ into a small private room, an exact duplicate of which is slung on the opposite side of the saddle. two persons balancing each other are required by this double arrangement, or one person on one side and an equivalent quantity of luggage on the other so as to establish a complete balance--a most important point to consider if serious accidents are to be avoided. every now and then the sleepy voice of a caravan man calls out "salameleko" to my coachman, and "salameleko" is duly answered back; otherwise we rattle along at the speed of about four miles an hour, bumping terribly on the uneven road, and the diligence creaking in a most perplexing manner. at hasanabad, the second stage, i was more fortunate and got four good horses in exchange for the tired ones. one of them was very fresh and positively refused to go with the others. the driver, who was brutal, used his stock-whip very freely, with the result that the horse smashed part of the harness and bolted. the other three, of course, did the same, and the coachman was not able to hold them. we travelled some few hundred yards off the road at a considerable speed and with terrible bumping, the shaky, patched-up carriage gradually beginning to crumble to pieces. the boards of the front part fell apart, owing to the violent oscillations of the roof, and the roof itself showed evident signs of an approaching collapse. we were going down a steep incline, and i cannot say that i felt particularly happy until the horses were got under control again. i feared that all my photographic plates and cameras might get damaged if the diligence turned over. while the men mended the harness i had a look at the scenery. the formation of the country was curious. there were what at first appeared to be hundreds of small mounds like ant-hills--round topped and greyish, or in patches of light brown, with yellow sand deposits exposed to the air on the surface. on getting nearer they appeared to be long flat-topped ridges evidently formed by water-borne matter--probably at the epoch when this was the sea or lake bottom. "_khup es!_" (it is all right!) said the coachman, inviting me to mount again--and in a sudden outburst of exuberant affection he embraced the naughty horse and kissed him fondly on the nose. the animal reciprocated the coachman's compliment by promptly kicking the front splashboard of the carriage to smithereens. we crossed a bridge. to the east the water-level mark, made when this valley was under water, is plainly visible on the strata of gravel with reddish mud above, of which the hills are formed. then, rising gradually, the diligence goes over a low pass and along a flat plateau separating the first basin we have left behind from a second, more extensive, of similar formation. the hills in this second basin appear lower. to the s.s.e. is a horseshoe-shaped sand dune, much higher than anything we had so far encountered, and beyond it a range of mountains. salt can be seen mixed with the pale-brownish mud of the soil. then we drive across a third basin, large and flat, with the scattered hills getting lower and seemingly worn by the action of weather. they are not so corrugated by water-formed channels as the previous ones we had passed. twenty feet or so below the summit of the hills a white sediment of salt showed itself plainly. the fourth basin is at a higher level than the others--some feet or so above the third--and is absolutely flat, with dark, gravelly soil. azizawad village has no special attraction beyond the protecting wall that encloses it--like all villages of persia--and the domed roofs of houses to which one begins to get reconciled. next to it is the very handsome fruit garden of khale-es-sultan. at khale mandelha the horses are changed. the road becomes very undulating, with continuous ups and downs, and occasional steep ascents and descents. glimpses of the large salt lake, daria-i-nimak, or the masileh, as it is also called, are obtained, and eventually we had quite a pretty view with high blue mountains in the background and rocky black mounds between the spectator and the silvery sheet of water. aliabad has a large caravanserai with a red-columned portico to the east; also a special place for the sadrazam, the prime minister, when travelling on this road; a garden with a few sickly trees, and that is all. on leaving the caravanserai one skirts the mountain side to the west, and goes up it to the horse station situated in a most desolate spot. from this point one gets a bird's-eye view of the whole lake. its waters, owing to evaporation, seem to withdraw, leaving a white sediment of salt along the edge. the road from the khafe-khana runs now in a perfectly straight line s.w., and, with the exception of the first short incline, is afterwards quite flat, passing along and very little above the lake shore, from which the road is about one mile distant. the lake is to the s.e. of the road at this point. to the s.w., w., n.w., n., lies a long row of dark-brown hills which circle round the valley we are about to cross. the sunset on that particular night was one in which an amateur painter would have revelled. a dirty-brown foreground as flat as a billiard-table--a sharp cutting edge of blue hill-tops against a bilious lemon-yellow sky blending into a ghastly cinabrese red, which gradually vanished into a sort of lead blue. there are few countries where the sun appears and disappears above and from the earth's surface with less glow than in persia. of course, the lack of moisture in the atmosphere largely accounts for this. during the several months i was in the country--though for all i know this may have been my misfortune only--i never saw more than half a dozen sunsets that were really worth intense admiration, and these were not in western persia. the usual sunsets are effects of a washed-out sort, with no force and no beautiful contrasts of lights and colours such as one sees in egypt, in morocco, in spain, italy, or even, with some amount of toning down, in our little england. the twilight in persia is extremely short. chapter xxiv severe wind--kum, the holy city--thousands of graves--conservative mullahs--ruin and decay--leather tanning--the gilt dome--another extortion--ingenious bellows--damovend--the scenery--passangun--evening prayers--a contrivance for setting charcoal alight--putrid water--post horses--sin sin--mirage--nassirabad--villages near kashan. on a deserted road, sleepy and shaken, with the wind blowing so hard that it tore and carried away all the cotton curtains of the carriage, i arrived at kum ( , feet above sea level) in the middle of the night. the distance covered between teheran and kum was twenty-four farsakhs, or ninety-six miles. as we approached the holy city there appeared to be a lot of vegetation around, and sadek and the coachman assured me that this was a region where pomegranates were grown in profusion, and the castor-oil plant, too. cotton was, moreover, cultivated with success. kum is, to my mind, and apart from its holiness, one of the few really picturesque cities of persia. i caught the first panoramic glimpse of the shrine and mosque at sunrise from the roof of the post house, and was much impressed by its grandeur. amidst a mass of semi-spherical mud roofs, and beyond long mud walls, rise the gigantic gilded dome of the mosque, two high minarets, and two shorter ones with most beautifully coloured tiles inlaid upon their walls, the general effect of which is of most delicate greys, blues and greens. then clusters of fruit trees, numerous little minarets all over the place, and ventilating shafts above the better buildings break the monotony agreeably. kum, i need hardly mention, is one of the great pilgrimages of mahommedans. happy dies the man or woman whose body will be laid at rest near the sacred shrine, wherein--it is said--lie the remains of matsuma fatima. corpses are conveyed here from all parts of the country. even kings and royal personages are buried in the immediate neighbourhood of the shrine. round the city there are thousands of mud graves, which give quite a mournful appearance to the holy city. there are almost as many dead people as living ones in kum! innumerable mullahs are found here who are very conservative, and who seem to resent the presence of european visitors in the city. access to the shrine is absolutely forbidden to foreigners. immense sums of money are brought daily to the holy city by credulous pilgrims, but no outward signs of a prosperous trade nor of fine streets or handsome private buildings can be detected on inspecting the bazaar or streets of the town. on the contrary, the greater part of the residences are in a hopeless state of decay, and the majority of the inhabitants, to all appearance, little above begging point. leather, tanned with the bark of the pomegranate, and cheap pottery are the chief industries of the holy city. on inquiring what becomes of all the wealth that comes into the town, a persian, with a significant gesture, informed me that the mullahs get it and with them it remains. the handsome dome over the shrine was begun by order of hussein nadir shah, but the gorgeous gilding of the copper plates was not finished till a few years ago by nasr-ed-din shah. a theological college also exists at this place. there is a station here of the indo-european telegraphs, with an armenian in charge of it. much to my disgust, i was informed that the owner of the post-house had the monopoly of the traffic on the track for six or seven farsakhs more, and so travellers were compelled to submit to a further extortion by having to hire another wheeled conveyance instead of being able to ride. this time i chartered a victoria, and off we went as usual at a gallop. two horses had to be sent ahead while the carriage was driven with only two animals through the narrow streets of the bazaar, covered over with awnings or with domed perforated roofs. the place had a tawdry, miserable appearance, the leather shops being the only interesting ones, with the many elaborate saddles, harness, saddle-bags, and horses' ornamentations displayed on nails along the walls. i saw in a blacksmith's shop an ingenious device to create a perpetual draught with bellows. the big bellows were double and allowed sufficient room to let two boys stand between the two. the boys clinging to handles in the upper part of the bellows and using the weight of their bodies now to the right, then to the left, inflated first one then the other, the wind of each bellow passing through a common end tube and each being in turn refilled with air while the other was blowing. this human pendulum arrangement was carried on with incredible rapidity by the two boys, who dashed their bodies from one side to the other and back, keeping steady time and holding their feet stationary, but describing an almost complete semicircle with the remainder of the body, the whole length of the boy forming the radius. there was a shop or two where glass was being blown, and numerous fruit-shops with mountains of pomegranates, water-melons and grapes. at the entrance of the mosques crowds of people stood waiting for admission, some praying outside. once out of the town the extra two horses, which were waiting at the gate, were harnessed, and as we sped along, the lungs rejoiced in the pure air of which the stuffy, cellar-like bazaar had afforded none. behind, in the far distance, damovend mountain, covered with snow, could still be seen rising high above everything. it was undoubtedly a good-looking mountain. to the south-west and west lay indented hills of the most curious shapes and colours--one, particularly, like a roof, with a greenish base surmounted by a raw-sienna top; a twin-sister hill further west presented the same peculiarities. in the distant mountains to the west the same characteristics were apparent, the greenish stratum below extending all along and increasing in depth towards the south. the road--if one may call it so--was extremely bad and hardly fit for wheeled traffic. after leaving kum the vegetation ceased, and it was only at langherut village that a patch of green refreshed the eye. a few strolling wayfarers crowded round when the carriage stopped to give the horses a rest under the shade of a tree, and sadek was cross-examined about the sahib whom he was accompanying. it was quite amusing to hear one's self and one's doings commented upon in the most open manner, regardless of one's personal feelings, which are better discarded altogether while travelling in persia. there is absolutely nothing private in the land of iran. one's appearance, one's clothes, the quantity of food one eats, the amount of money one carries, where one comes from and where one goes, whom one knows, one's servants, one's rifles, one's cameras,--everything is remarked upon, as if one were not present. if one possesses no false pride and a sense of humour, a deal of entertainment is thus provided on the road. passangun could be perceived in the distance, and a dreary, desolate place it was when one got there. in the way of architecture, we found a large tumbling-down caravanserai, a tea-shop, and the chappar khana (the post-house). as to vegetation, thirteen sickly trees, all counted. barren, uninteresting country surrounded the halting place. i spent here a pleasant hour while waiting for my luggage to arrive on pack animals. a caravan of some fifty horses and mules had halted at sunset, and a number of pilgrims, with beards dyed bright-red, were making their evening salaams towards mecca. having removed shoes and duly washed their feet and hands, they stood erect on the projecting platform of the caravanserai, and after considerable adjusting of caps and head-scratching, assumed a meditative attitude, head bent forward, and muttered prayers with hands down. then the hands were raised flat before the face, with a bow. kneeling followed, with hands first resting on the knees, then raised again to cover the face, after which, with the palms of the hands resting flat on the ground, the head was brought down until it touched the ground too. a standing position was further assumed, when the temples were touched with the thumb while prayers were recited, and then the petitioners stooped low and fell a second time on their knees, saying the beads of their rosaries. the forehead was made to touch the ground several times before the evening prayers were over. next, food was cooked in the small fire places of the caravanserai, and tea brewed in large quantities. the inevitable kalian was called for, and the caravanserai boy brought out his interesting little arrangement to set charcoal quickly alight for the large cup of the kalian. to a string three feet long, hung a small perforated iron cup, which he filled with charcoal, one tiny bit being already alight. by quickly revolving the contrivance as one would a sling, the draught forced through the apertures in the cup produced quick combustion, and charcoal was at once distributed alight among the kalians of the impatient guests. much amusement and excitement was caused among the pilgrims by a fight between a puppy-dog and five or six small goats. only one of these at a time fought the dog, while the others occupied a high point of vantage on which they had hastily climbed, and from that place of security displayed a keen interest in the fight. the water at passangun was extremely bad. there were two tanks of rain water drained from the hillside along a dirty channel filled with animal refuse. the wells were below the ground level, and were walled and domed over to prevent too rapid an evaporation by the sun's rays. the water was pestilential. it had a nasty green look about it, and patches of putrid matter decomposing visibly on its surface. the stench from it when stirred was sickening. yet the natives drank it and found it all right! there is no accounting for people's taste, not even in persia. at last, from this point, the positive torture of driving in carriages was over, and _chappar_ horses were to be obtained. the saddles were got ready, and with five horses we made a start that same evening for sin sin. after the wretched bumping and thumping and being thrown about in the wheeled conveyance on the badly-kept road, it seemed heavenly to be ambling along at a fairly good pace, even on these poor, half-starved animals, which could not in all honesty be considered to afford perfect riding. indeed, if there ever was a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, it should have begun its work along the persian postal roads. the poor brutes--one can hardly call them horses--are bony and starved, with sore backs, chests and legs, with a bleeding tongue almost cut in two and pitifully swollen by cruelly-shaped bits, and endowed with stinking digestive organs and other nauseous odours of uncared-for sores heated by the friction of never-removed, clumsy, heavy pads under the saddles. it requires a pretty strong stomach, i can tell you, to ride them at all. yet the poor devils canter along, when they do not amble, and occasionally gallop clumsily on their unsteady, skeleton-like legs. so that, notwithstanding everything, one generally manages to go at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. if the horses at the various post-stations have just returned from conveying the post-bags, an extra sorry time is in store for the traveller. the poor animals are then so tired that they occasionally collapse on the road. i invariably used all the kindness i could to these wretches, but it was necessary for me to get on, as i intended to proceed in the greatest haste over the better known parts of persia. it is important to see the horses fed before starting from all the post-houses, but on many occasions no food whatever could be procured for them, when, of course, they had to go without it. changing horses about every to miles, and being on the saddle from fourteen to twenty hours out of the twenty-four, i was able to cover long distances, and kept up an average of from to miles daily. one can, of course, cover much greater distances than these in one day, if one is fortunate enough to get good and fresh horses at the various stations, and if one does not have to keep it up for a long period of time as i had to do. from sin sin we go due south along a flat trail of salt and mud. we have a barrier of mountains to the south-west and higher mountains to the south. to the south-east also a low ridge with another higher behind it. to the north we leave behind low hills. sin sin itself is renowned for its water-melons, and i, too, can humbly certify to their excellence. i took a load of them away for the journey. from here we began to see the wonderful effects of deceitful mirage, extremely common all over persia. one sees beautiful lakes of silvery water, with clusters of trees and islands and rocks duly reflected upside down in their steady waters, but it is all an optical deception, caused by the action of the heated soil on the expanding air immediately in contact with it, which, seen from above and at a distance, is of a bluish white tint with exactly the appearance and the mirror-like qualities of still water. although in central persia one sees many of these effects every day, they are sometimes so marvellous that even the most experienced would be deceived. the country is barren and desolate. kasimabad has but two buildings, both caravanserais; but nassirabad, further on, is quite a large village, with domed roofs and a couple of minarets. on the road is a large caravanserai, with the usual alcoves all round its massive walls. except the nice avenue of trees along a refreshing brook of limpid water, there was nothing to detain us here but the collision between one of my pack-horses and a mule of a passing caravan, with disastrous results to both animals' loads. but, with the assistance of one or two natives commandeered by sadek, the luggage scattered upon the road was replaced high on the saddles, the fastening ropes were pulled tight by sadek with his teeth and hands, while i took this opportunity to sit on the roadside to partake of my lunch--four boiled eggs, a cold roast chicken, persian bread, some cake, and half a water-melon, the whole washed down with a long drink of clear water. riding at the rate i did, the whole day and the greater part of the night, in the hot sun and the cold winds at night, gave one a healthy appetite. as we got nearer kashan city, the villages got more numerous; aliabad and the yaze (mosque) and nushabad to my left (east), with its blue tiled roof of the mosque. but the villages were so very much alike and uninteresting in colour and in architecture, that a description of each would be unimportant and most tedious, so that i will only limit myself to describing the more typical and striking ones with special features that may interest the reader. in the morning of october th i had reached the city of kashan, seventeen farsakhs (sixty-eight miles) from kum, and forty-one farsakhs or miles from teheran, in two days and a half including halts. chapter xxv kashan--silk manufactories--indo-european telegraph--the zein-ed-din tower--the meh-rab shrine--the madrassah shah--the panja shah--the hand of nazareth abbas--the fin palace--hot springs--the tragic end of an honest prime minister--ice store-houses--cultivation--in the bazaar--brass work--silk--the mullahs and places of worship--wretched post-horses--the gyabrabad caravanserai--an imposing dam--fruit-tree groves--picturesque kohrut village. kashan, , feet above sea level, is famous for its gigantic and poisonous scorpions, for its unbearable heat, its capital silk works, and its copper utensils, which, if not always ornamental, are proclaimed everlasting. the silk manufactories are said to number over three hundred, including some that make silk carpets, of world-wide renown. the population is , souls or thereabouts. nothing is ever certain in persia. there are no hotels in the city, and it is considered undignified for europeans to go to a caravanserai--of which there are some three dozen in kashan--or to the chappar khana. the indo-european telegraphs have a large two-storied building outside the north gate of the city, in charge of an armenian clerk, where, through the courtesy of the director of telegraphs, travellers are allowed to put up, and where the guests' room is nice and clean, with a useful bedstead, washstand, and a chair or two. a capital view of kashan is obtained from the roof of the telegraph building. a wide road, the one by which i had arrived, continues to the north-east entrance of the bazaar. the town itself is divided into two sections--the city proper, surrounded by a high wall, and the suburbs outside. to the south-west, in the town proper, rises the slender tower of zein-ed-din, slightly over feet high, and not unlike a factory chimney. further away in the distance--outside the city--the mosque of taj-ed-din with its blue pointed roof, adjoins the famous meh-rab shrine, from which all the most ancient and beautiful tiles have been stolen or sold by avid mullahs for export to europe. then we see the two domes of the mosque and theological college, the madrassah shah, where young future mullahs are educated. to the west of the observer from our high point of vantage, and north-west of the town, lies another mosque, the panja shah, in which the hand of one of the prophets, nazareth abbas, is buried. a life-size hand and portion of the forearm, most beautifully carved in marble, is shown to devotees in a receptacle in the east wall of the mosque. the actual grave in which the real hand lies is covered with magnificent ancient tiles. it is with a certain amount of sadness that one gazes on the old fin palace, up on the hills some six miles to the west, and listens to the pathetic and repellent tragedy which took place within its garden walls. the square garden is surrounded by a high wall, and has buildings on three sides. marble canals, fed by large marble tanks, in which run streams of limpid water, intersect the garden in the middle of a wide avenue of dark cypresses. the garden was commenced by shah abbas. the palace, however, was built by fath-ali-shah, who also much improved the gardens and made this a favourite residence during the hot summer months. there is here a very hot natural spring of sulphur water, and copper, which is said to possess remarkable curative qualities, especially for rheumatism and diseases of the blood. one bath is provided for men and another for women. the palace, with its quaint pictures and decorations is now in a state of abandonment and semi-collapse. the tragic end (in or , i could not clearly ascertain which) at this place of mirza-taki khan, then prime minister of persia--as honest and straightforward a politician as persia has ever possessed--adds a peculiar gloom to the place. a man of humble birth, but of great genius, mirza-taki khan, rose to occupy, next to the shah, the highest political position in his country, and attempted to place the government of persia on a firm basis, and to eradicate intrigue and corruption. to this day his popularity is proverbial among the lower classes, by whom he is still revered and respected for his uprightness. the shah gave him his only sister in marriage, but unhappily one fine day his enemies gained the upper hand at court. he fell into disgrace, and was banished to kashan to the fin palace. executioners were immediately sent to murder him by order of the shah. mirza-taki khan, when their arrival was announced, understood that his end had come. he asked leave to commit suicide instead, which he did by having the arteries of his arms cut open. he bled to death while in his bath. royal regret at the irreparable loss was expressed, but it was too late. the body of the cleverest statesman persia had produced was conveyed for burial to the sanctuary of karbala. one cannot help being struck, in a stifling hot place like kashan, to find large ice store-houses. yet plenty of ice is to be got here during the winter, especially from the mountains close at hand. these ice-houses have a pit dug in the ground to a considerable depth, and are covered over with a high conical roof of mud. to the north-east, outside the city, in the suburbs a great many of these ice store-houses are to be seen, as well as a small, blue-tiled roof of a mosque, the pilgrimage of habbib-mussah. there is some cultivation round about kashan, principally of cotton, tobacco, melons and water-melons, which one sees in large patches wherever there is water obtainable. kashan is protected by mountains to the south and west, and by low hills to the north-west, but to the north and north-east the eye roams uninterrupted over an open, flat, dusty, dreary plain of a light brown colour until it meets the sky line on the horizon, softly dimmed by a thick veil of disturbed sand. due east lie the siah kuh (mountains), then comes another gap in the horizon to the south-east. in the dark and gloomy bazaar the din of hundreds of wooden hammers on as many pieces of copper being made into jugs, trays, pots or pans, is simply deafening, echoed as it is under the vaulted roofs, the sound waves clashing in such an unmusical and confused way as to be absolutely diabolical. a few of these copper vessels are gracefully ornamented and inlaid, but the majority are coarse in their manufacture. they are exported all over the country. the manufactured silk, the other important product of kashan, finds its way principally to russia. the inhabitants are most industrious and, like all industrious people, are extremely docile, amenable to reason, and easy to manage. the mullahs are said to have much power over the population, and, in fact, we find in kashan no less than mosques with five times that number of shrines, counting large and small. i experienced some difficulty in obtaining relays of fresh post horses, the mail having been despatched both north and south the previous night, and therefore no horses were in the station. at seven in the evening i was informed that five horses had returned and were at my disposal. twenty minutes later the loads were on their saddles, and i was on the road again. after travelling under the pitch-dark vaulted bazaars (where, as it was impossible to see where one was going, the horses had to be led), and threading our way out of the suburbs, we travelled on the flat for some time before coming to the hilly portion of the road where it winds its way up at quite a perceptible gradient. we had no end of small accidents and trouble. the horses were half-dead with fatigue. they had gone miles already with the post, and without rest or food had been sent on with me for more miles! the poor wretches collapsed time after time on the road under their loads, although these were very light, and my servant and i and the chappar boy had to walk the whole way and drag the animals behind us, for they had not sufficient strength to carry us. even then their knees gave way every now and then, and it was no easy job to get them to stand up again. one of them never did. he died, and, naturally, we had to abandon him. it came on to blow very hard, and with the horses collapsing on all sides and the loads getting constantly undone owing to the repeated falls of the animals, we could not cover more than one mile, or two, an hour. caravans generally take the road over these mountains during the day, so that now the road was quite deserted and we could get no assistance from any one. the loss of one horse increased our difficulty, as it involved putting more weight on the other horses. at . a.m. we managed to reach the caravanserai in the mountains at gyabrabat (gabarabat), the sight of which was enough to settle all the horses. they one and all threw themselves down on reaching the door, and it was not possible to make them stand again. to continue the journey to kohrut (kohrud) through the night, as i had intended, was absolutely out of the question, so we roused the keeper of the hostelry and demanded admission. the man was extremely uncivil, as he said he had some grievance against a previous english traveller, but on being assured that i would pay with my own hands for all i got and not through servants--a rule which i always follow, and which saves much unpleasantness and unfair criticism from the natives--he provided me with all i required. first of all i fed the horses. then sadek cooked me a capital supper. then i gave the horses and myself some four hours rest--that refreshed us all very much. the caravanserai was filthy. all the small rooms and alcoves were occupied, and i preferred to sleep out in the yard, sheltered from the wind behind the huge doorway. i had with me some boxes of my own invention and manufacture, which had accompanied me on several previous journeys, and which, besides a number of other purposes, can serve as a bedstead. they came in very usefully on that particular occasion. from gyabrabad to kohrut the region is supposed to be a famous haunt of robbers. undoubtedly the country lends itself to that kind of enterprise, being mountainous and much broken up, so that the occupation can be carried on with practical impunity. the road is among rocks and boulders. although there are no very great elevations in the mountains on either side, the scenery is picturesque, with black-looking rocky slopes, at the bottom of which a tiny and beautifully limpid stream descends towards kashan. the track is mostly along this stream. [illustration: the track along the kohrut dam.] [illustration: between gyabrabad and kohrut.] after a steep, stony incline of some length, half-way between gyabrabad and the kohrut pass, one comes across a high and well-made dam, the work of a speculator. in winter and during the rains the water of the stream is shut up here into a large reservoir, a high wall being built across the two mountain slopes, and forming a large lake. the water is then sold to the city of kashan. if in due course of time the purchase-money is not forthcoming, the supply is cut off altogether by blocking up the small aperture in the dam--which lets out the tiny stream the course of which we have been following upwards. the persian post-horse is a most wonderful animal. his endurance and powers of recovery are simply extraordinary. having been properly fed, and enjoyed the few hours' rest, the animals, notwithstanding their wretched condition and the bad road, went fairly well. on nearing kohrut one is agreeably surprised to find among these barren mountains healthy patches of agriculture and beautiful groves of fruit-trees. the fruit is excellent here,--apples, plums, apricots, walnuts, and the kohrut potatoes are said (by the people of kohrut) to be the best in the world. the most remarkable thing about these patches of cultivation is that the soil in which they occur has been brought there--the mountain itself being rocky--and the imported earth is supported by means of strong stone walls forming long terraces. this speaks very highly for the industry of the natives, who are extremely hardworking. we go through these delightful groves for nearly one mile, when suddenly we find ourselves in front of kohrut village, most picturesquely perched on the steep slope of the mountain. the houses are of an absolutely different type from the characteristically domed persian hovels one has so far come across. they have several storeys, two or even three--an extremely rare occurrence in persian habitations. the lower windows are very small, like slits in the wall, but the top windows are large and square, usually with some lattice woodwork in front of them. the domed roofs have been discarded, owing to the quantity of wood obtainable here, and the roofs are flat and thatched, supported on long projecting beams and rafters. just before entering the village a great number of ancient graves can be seen dotted on the mountain-side, and along the road. the view of the place, with its beautiful background of weird mountains, and the positions of the houses, the door of one on the level with the roof of the underlying one, against the face of the rock, are most striking. [illustration: the interior of chappar khana at kohrut.] the inhabitants of this village are quite polite and friendly, and lack the usual aggressiveness so common at all the halting places in persia. fresh horses were obtained at the chappar khana, and i proceeded on my journey at once. we still wound our way among mountains going higher and higher, until we got over the kuh-i-buhlan (the pass). from the highest point a lovely view of the valley over which we had come from the north-west displayed itself in dark brown tints, and to the east we had a mass of barren mountains. chapter xxvi crossing the pass--held up by robbers--amusing courtesy--brigands to protect from brigands--parting friends--soh--biddeshk--copper and iron--robber tribes--an englishman robbed--a feature of persian mountains--a military escort--how compensation is paid by the persian government--murchikhar--robbers and the guards--ghiez--distances from teheran to isfahan. it was not till after sunset that we crossed the pass, and, the horses being tired, my men and i were walking down the incline on the other side to give the animals a rest. it was getting quite dark, and as the chappar boy had warned me that there were brigands about the neighbourhood i walked close to my horse, my revolver being slung to the saddle. the place seemed absolutely deserted, and i was just thinking how still and reposeful the evening seemed, the noise of the horses' hoofs being the only disturbing element amid quiescent nature, when suddenly from behind innocent-looking rocks and boulders leapt up, on both sides of the road, about a dozen well-armed robbers, who attempted to seize the horses. before they had time to put up their rifles they found themselves covered by my revolver and requested to drop their weapons or i would shoot them. they hastily complied with my request, and instead of ransacking my baggage, as they had evidently designed to do, had to confine themselves to polite remarks. "you are very late on the road, sahib?" said one brigand, in a voice of assumed kindness and softness. "please put back your revolver. we will not harm you," said suavely and persuasively another, who displayed a most gaudy waistcoat which he evidently did not want perforated. sadek was in a great state of excitement, and entreated me not to shoot. "persian robbers," he assured me, with a logic of his own, "do not kill the master until the servant has been killed, because it is the servant who is in charge of the luggage. . . . . they would not steal anything now, but i must be kind to these fellows." as is usual with persons accustomed to stalk other persons, i did not fail to notice that, while trying to attract my attention by conversation, my interlocutors were endeavouring to surround us. but i checked them in this, and warned them that i had met many brigands before, and was well acquainted with their ways. i hoped they would not compel me to shoot, which i would most certainly do if they attempted any tricks. they well understood that it was risky to try their luck, so they changed tactics altogether. the conversation that ensued was amusing. "sahib," shouted a boisterous robber, very gaily attired, and with cartridges in profusion in his belt, "there are lots of brigands near here and we want to protect you." "yes, i know there are brigands not far from here," i assented. "we will escort you, for you are our friend, and if we lead you safely out of the mountains, maybe, sahib, you will give us backshish." i felt certain that i could have no better protection against brigands than the brigands themselves, and preferred to have them under my own supervision rather than give them a chance of attacking us unexpectedly again some miles further on. anyhow, i resolved to let them come as far as the next pass we had to cross, from which point the country would be more open and a sudden surprise impossible. so i accepted their offer with a politely expressed condition that every man must keep in front of me and not raise his rifle above his waist or i would send a bullet through him. in the middle of the night we parted on the summit of the pass, and i gave them a good backshish--not so much for the service they had rendered me as for relieving for a few hours the monotony of the journey. they were grateful, and were the most civil brigands i have ever encountered. while resting on the pass we had an amicable conversation, and i asked them where they got their beautiful clothes and the profusion of gold and silver watch-chains. "it is not everybody we meet, sahib, that has a formidable revolver like yours," answered the boisterous brigand, with a fit of sarcastic merriment, echoed by all of us. "yes," i retorted in the same sarcastic spirit, "if it had not been for the revolver, possibly next time i came along this road i might meet the company dressed up like sahibs, in my clothes!" i advised them to put up a white flag of truce next time they sprang out from behind rocks with the intention of holding up another englishman, or surely some day or other there would be an accident. we all laughed heartily, and parted with repeated salaams--and my luggage intact. in the moonlight i took the precaution to see them well out of sight on one side of the pass before we began to descend on the other, and then we proceeded down the steep and rocky incline. we reached soh ( , feet) early in the morning, and went on to the chappar house at biddeshk. here one abandons the region of the kehriz kohrud and kale karf mountains, west and east of the road respectively, and travels over a flat sandy country devoid of vegetation and water. copper and iron are to be found at several places in the mountains between kashan and soh, for instance near gudjar, at dainum, and at kohrut. october is the month when the backhtiari tribes are somewhat troublesome previous to their return to winter quarters. a great many caravans are attacked and robbed on this road, unless escorted by soldiers. daring attempts have even been made to seize caravans of silver bullion for the bank of persia. only a few days before i went through, an english gentleman travelling from isfahan was robbed between soh and murchikhar of all his baggage, money, and clothes. the country lends itself to brigandage. one can see a flat plain for several miles to the north and south, but to the west and east are most intricate mountain masses where the robber bands find suitable hiding places for themselves and their booty. to the north-west we have flat open country, but to the west from biddeshk there are as many as three different ranges of mountains. to the east rises the peak kehriz natenz. a great many low hill ranges lie between the main backbone of the high and important range extending from north-west to south-east, and the route we follow, and it is curious to notice, not only here but all over the parts of persia i visited, that the great majority of sand dunes, and of hill and mountain ranges face north or north-east. in other words, they extend either from north-west to south-east, or roughly from west to east; very seldom from north to south. from biddeshk two soldiers insisted on escorting my luggage. i was advised to take them, for in default, one cannot claim compensation from the persian government should the luggage be stolen. in the case of _bona fide_ european travellers, robbed on the road, the persian government is extremely punctual in making good the damage sustained and paying ample compensation. the method employed by the local governor, responsible for the safety of travellers on the road, is to inflict heavy fines on all the natives of the district in which the robbery has occurred,--a very simple and apparently effective way, it would seem, of stopping brigandage, but one which, in fact, increases it, because, in order to find the money to pay the fines, the natives are driven to the road, each successive larceny going towards part payment of the previous one. [illustration: chapparing--the author's post horses.] [illustration: persian escort firing at brigands.] one or two domed reservoirs of rain-water are found by the road-side, but the water is very bad. the soldiers, laden with cartridges, ran along by the side of my horses and pretended to keep a sharp look-out for robbers. every now and then they got much excited, loaded their rifles, and fired away shot after shot at phantom brigands, whom, they said, they perceived peeping above sand hills a long way off. at murchikhar there is nothing to be seen. the post-horses were very good here and i was able to go through this uninteresting part of the road at a good speed of from six to seven miles an hour. to the west the mountains were getting quite close, and, in fact, we had hills all round except to the south-east. murchikhar is at a fairly high altitude, , ft. one still heard much about brigands. soldiers, armed to the teeth, insisted on accompanying my luggage. this, of course, involved endless backshish, but had to be put up with, as it is one of the perquisites of the guards stationed at the various stages. i have heard it stated that if one does not require their services it is often these protectors themselves who turn into robbers. there is a guard-house on the road, and the two soldiers stationed there told us that a large band of thirty robbers had visited them during the early hours of the morning, and had stolen from them all their provisions, money and tobacco! we were not troubled in any way, and, with the exception of some suspicious horsemen a long way off making for the mountains, we hardly met a soul on the road. a curious accident happened to one of my luggage horses. for some reason of his own he bolted, and galloped to the top of one of the _kanat_ cones, when getting frightened at the deep hole before him he jumped it. his fore-legs having given way on the steep incline on the other side, he fell on his head and turned a complete somersault, landing flat on his back, where, owing to the packs, he remained with his legs up in the air until we came to his aid and freed him of the loads. on nearing ghiez the track is over undulating country, but after that the road to isfahan is good and flat, but very sandy and dusty. i got to ghiez in the evening but proceeded at once to isfahan. we galloped on the twelve miles, and in less than two hours i was most hospitably received in the house of mr. preece, the british consul-general in isfahan. the distances from teheran are as follows:-- from teheran to kum farsakhs miles. " kum to kashan " " " kashan to kohrut " " " kohrut to biddeshk " " " biddeshk to murchikhar " " " murchikhar to ghiez " " " ghiez to isfahan " " -- -- total farsakhs or miles. the time occupied in covering the whole distance, including halts and delays, was somewhat less than four days. chapter xxvii missionary work in persia--educational and medical work--no mahommedan converts--bibles--julfa--armenian settlement--conservative customs--armenian women--their education--the armenian man--europeans--a bird's-eye view of isfahan--armenian graveyard--a long bridge--the rev. james loraine garland--mission among the jews. there is little to say of interest in connection with missionary work in persia, except that a considerable amount of good is being done in the educational and medical line. there are well-established schools and hospitals. the most praiseworthy institution is the supply of medicinal advice and medicine gratis or at a nominal cost. as far as the work of christianising is concerned, it must be recollected that missionaries are only allowed in persia on sufferance, and are on no account permitted to make converts among the mahommedans. any mussulman, man, woman, or child, who discards his religion for christianity, will in all probability lose his life. if any christianising work is done at all it has to be done surreptitiously and at a considerable amount of risk to both convert and converter. some interest in the christian religion is nevertheless shown by mussulmans of the younger generation--who now are practically atheists at heart--but whether this interest is genuine or not it is not for me to say. there is much in the bible that impresses them, and i understand that constant applications are made for copies of translations into the persian language. to avoid the great waste which occurred when bibles were given away for nothing, a nominal charge is now made so as to prevent people throwing the book away or using it for evil purposes. in isfahan itself there are no missionaries among the mahommedans, but some are to be found at julfa, a suburb of isfahan, on the south bank of the zindah-rud (river). julfa was in former days a prosperous armenian settlement of some , inhabitants, but is now mostly in ruins since the great migration of armenians to india. there is an armenian archbishop at julfa. he has no real power, but is much revered by the armenians themselves. he provides priests for the armenians of india. a handsome cathedral, with elaborate ornamentations and allegorical pictures, is one of the principal structures in julfa. one cannot help admiring the armenians of julfa for retaining their conservative customs so long. within the last few years, however, rapid strides have been made towards the abandonment of the ancient dress and tongue. at julfa the armenians have to a great extent retained their native language, which they invariably speak among themselves, although many of the men are equally fluent in persian; but in cities like teheran, where they are thrown into more direct contact with persians, the armenians are almost more conversant with persian than with their own tongue. the men and women of the better classes have adopted european clothes, in which they might easily be mistaken for southern italians or spaniards. but in julfa such is not the case, and the ancient style of dress is so far maintained. one is struck by the great number of women in the streets of julfa and the comparative lack of men. this is because all able-bodied men migrate to india or europe, leaving their women behind until sufficient wealth is accumulated to export them also to foreign lands. the education of the armenian women of the middle and lower classes consists principally in knitting socks--one sees rows of matrons and girls sitting on the doorsteps busily employed thus,--and in various forms of culinary instruction. but the better class woman is well educated in european fashion, and is bright and intelligent. the armenian woman, in her ample and speckless white robes, her semi-covered face, and beautiful soft black eyes, is occasionally captivating. the men, on the other hand, although handsome, have something indescribable about them that does not make them particularly attractive. the armenian man--the true type of the levantine--has great business capacities, wonderful facility for picking up languages, and a persuasive flow of words ever at his command. sceptical, ironical and humorous--with a bright, amusing manner alike in times of plenty or distress--a born philosopher, but uninspiring of confidence,--with eyes that never look straight into yours, but are ever roaming all over the place,--with religious notions adaptable to business prospects,--very hospitable and good-hearted, given to occasional orgies,--such is the persian-armenian of to-day. the more intelligent members of the male community migrate to better pastures, where they succeed, by steady hard work and really practical brains, in amassing considerable fortunes. the less enterprising remain at home to make and sell wine. personally, i found armenians surprisingly honest. in julfa the europeans--of whom, except in business, there are few--have comfortable, almost luxurious residences. the principal streets of the settlement are extremely clean and nice for persia. the indo-european telegraph office is also here. but the best part of julfa--from a pictorial point of view--is the extensive armenian cemetery, near a picturesque background of hills and directly on the slopes of mount sofia. there are hundreds of rectangular tombstones, many with neatly bevelled edges, and epitaphs of four or five lines. a cross is engraved on each grave, and some have a little urn at the head for flowers. from the roof of a house situated at the highest point of the inclined plane, one obtains a magnificent bird's-eye view of isfahan, its ancient grandeur being evinced by the great expanse of ruins all round it. the walls of isfahan were said at one time to measure twenty-four miles in circumference. like all other cities of persia, isfahan does not improve by too distant a view. the mud roofs are so alike in colour to the dried mud of the streets that a deadly monotony must follow, as a matter of course; but the many beautiful green gardens round about and in isfahan itself are a great relief to the eye, and add much attraction to the landscape. most prominent of all buildings in the city are the great semi-spherical dome of the mesjid-i-shah, with its gracefully ornamented tiles; the madrassah; the multi-columned, flat-roofed palace, and the high minarets in couples, dotted all over the city. then round about, further away, stand any number of curious circular towers, the pigeon towers. the bed of the river between isfahan and julfa is over six hundred feet wide, and is spanned by three bridges. one of these, with thirty-four arches, is no less than , ft. in length, but is much out of repair. the armenian christians of julfa are enjoying comparative safety at present, but until quite recently were much persecuted by the mahommedans, the mullahs being particularly bitter against them. one sees a great many priests about julfa, and as i visited the place on a sunday the people looked so very demure and sanctimonious--i am speaking of the armenians--on their way out of church; taciturn and with head low or talking in a whisper, all toddling alongside the wall--as people from church generally do,--that i must confess i was glad when i left this place of oppressive sanctity and returned to isfahan. somehow, julfa impresses one as a discordant note in persian harmony--although a very fine and pleasing note in itself. until quite recently the persians objected to foreigners residing even in isfahan itself. the officials of the bank of persia were the first to take up their abode within the city wall, then soon after came mr. preece, our able and distinguished consul-general. there is now a third englishman residing in jubareh, the jewish quarter, the revd. james loraine garland, of the london society for promoting christianity amongst the jews of isfahan. why such a society should exist at all seems to any one with a sense of humour bewildering, but on getting over the first shock of surprise one finds that of all the missions to persia it is probably the most sensible, and worked on practical, sound, useful lines. much as i am unfavourably inclined towards religious missions of any kind, i could not help being impressed with mr. garland's very interesting work. the first time i saw mr. garland i was nearly run over by him as he was riding a race with a sporting friend on the golahek road near teheran--raising clouds of dust, much to the concern of passers-by. the same day i met mr. garland in teheran, when he was garbed in the ample clothes of the sporting friend, his own wardrobe having been stolen, with his money and all other possessions, by robbers on the isfahan-kashan road. in fact, he was the englishman referred to in chapter xxvi. being somewhat of a sportsman myself, this highly-sporting clergyman appealed to me. extremely gentlemanly, courteous, tactful, sensible and open-minded, he was not a bit like a missionary. he was a really good man. his heart and soul were in his work. he very kindly asked me to visit his mission in isfahan, and it was a real pleasure to see a mission worked on such sensible lines. the first mission to the jews of persia and chaldea was established in by the reverend dr. stern, who resided part of the year in bagdad, and the remainder in isfahan. the work was up-hill, and in the mission was suspended. chapter xxviii the mission among jews--schools for boys and girls--a practical institution--the jews of persia--persecution by persians--characteristics of jews--girls--occupations--taxation--the social level of jews. from october, , to december, , a christianised jew of teheran, named mirza korollah, worked in isfahan as the representative of the society for promoting christianity among the jews. a bible depôt was opened, and a school started at the request of the jews themselves. in december, , however, mirza korollah was banished from the city, and the work was again interrupted. in , mr. garland volunteered to undertake the work in persia, and his offer was gladly accepted. on his arrival in isfahan he found, he told me, a prosperous boys' school, that had been re-opened in by a native jewish christian, who rejoiced in the name of joseph hakim, and who carried on the educational work under the supervision of members of the church missionary society resident in julfa. it was deemed advisable to commence a night-school, as many of the boys were unable to attend day classes. the scheme answered very well, and has been steadily continued. as many as boys attended the school daily in february, , a fact that shows the success of the new enterprise from the very beginning. at the invitation of a number of jewesses, miss stuart, the bishop of waiapu's daughter, kindly consented to go over twice a week to the jewish quarter to instruct them in the holy scriptures. this led to the commencement of a girls' school with twelve pupils, at a time of great turmoil and anxiety. however, the experiment had the happiest results. it was not, nevertheless, till that mr. garland was able to take up his abode in the jewish quarter. he met with no opposition whatever from mahommedans or jews. the usual sunday service, attended by converts and inquirers, and a saturday afternoon class were commenced in , and have uninterruptedly continued to the present time. to me, personally, the most important part of the mission, and one to which more time is devoted than to praying, was the excellent carpentry class for boys, begun in , and the carpet-weaving apparatus set up on the premises for the girls. the former has been a great success, even financially, and is paying its way. the latter, although financially not yet a success, is of great value in teaching the girls how to weave. necessarily, so many hands have to be employed in the manufacture of a large carpet, and the time spent in the manufacture is so long, that it is hardly possible to expect financial prosperity from mere beginners; but the class teaches the girls a way to earn money for themselves in future years. both trades were selected by mr. garland, particularly because they were the most suitable in a country where jews are excluded from the more honest and manly trades, and jewesses often grow up to be more of a hindrance than a help to their husbands. worse still is the case of jews who become christians; they have the greatest difficulty in earning their living at all. these industrial occupations are a great practical help to the studies of the pupils, who are taught, besides their own language, persian and hebrew, and, if they wish, english, geography, etc. more frivolous but less remunerative forms of recreation, such as cricket, tennis, football, or gymnastic drills,--which invariably accompany christianity in the east, and develop most parts of a convert's anatomy except his brain,--have not been deemed of sufficient importance among the jews of isfahan, who would, moreover, think our best english games or muscle-developers in the highest degree indecorous and unseemly. on the whole the society's work among the jews of teheran, hamadan and isfahan has been most encouraging, and this is to be put down entirely to the tact and personal influence of mr. garland, who is greatly respected by jews and mahommedans alike. no better testimony to the appreciation of his work could exist than the fact that in his interesting journeys through persia, he is frequently invited to preach in crowded synagogues. it seems probable that the jews of persia are descendants of the ten tribes, and more probable still that jews have resided in isfahan from its earliest foundation. in the tenth century--under the dilemi dynasty--isfahan consisted of two cities, yahoodieh (jewry) and shehristan (the city). in the middle of the twelfth century, according to benjamin of tudela, the jews of isfahan numbered , . at present they number about , . they are mostly pedlars by profession, or engaged in making silk thread (abreesham kâr, charkhtâbee, etc.). there are a few merchants of comparative influence. jewellers and traders in precious stones, brokers and wine-sellers are frequent, but the majority consists almost entirely of diviners, musicians, dancers--music and dancing are considered low, contemptible occupations in persia--scavengers, and beggars. the jews of isfahan, like those of all other cities in persia, have been subjected to a great deal of oppression. there is a story that timour-i-lang (tamerlane--end of th century) was riding past a synagogue in isfahan, where the mesjid-i-ali now stands, and that the jews made such a horrible noise at their prayers (in saying the "shema, israel" on the day of atonement) that his horse bolted and he was thrown and lamed. hence his name, and hence also a terrible massacre of the jews, which reduced their number to about one-third. even to this day it is not easy for jews to obtain justice against mahommedans. only as recently as a jew was murdered in cold blood a few miles from isfahan, and his body flung into the river. although the murder had been witnessed, and the murderer was well known, no punishment was ever inflicted upon him. [illustration: jewish girls, isfahan.] [illustration: an isfahan jew.] the jews of isfahan possess striking features, as can be seen by a characteristic head of a man reproduced in the illustration. the face is generally very much elongated, with aquiline nose of abnormal length and very broad at the nostrils. the brow is heavy, screening deeply-sunken eyes revealing a mixed expression of sadness and slyness, tempered somewhat by probable abuse of animal qualities. of a quiet and rather sulky nature--corroded by ever-unsatisfied avidity--assumedly courteous, but morose by nature,--with a mighty level head in the matter of business; such is the jew of isfahan. he is extremely picturesque, quite biblical in his long loose robe and skull cap, with turban wound tight round his head. jewish girls when very young are nice-looking without being beautiful, very supple and pensive, and with expressive eyes. they lack the unsteady, insincere countenance of the men, and have reposeful, placid faces, with occasional good features. there is a good deal of character in their firmly closed lips, the upper lip being slightly heavy but well-shaped. the inside of the mouth is adorned with most regular, firm, and beautiful teeth. curiously enough, the typical jewish nose--so characteristic in men--is seldom markedly noticeable in women. i have even seen jewish girls with turned-up noses. their arms are beautifully modelled, and the hands as a whole extremely graceful, with unusually long and supple fingers, but with badly-shaped nails of an unwholesome colour. jewesses in persia are not kept in seclusion and go about with uncovered faces, which exposes them to constant and unpleasant insult from the mahommedans. they dress differently from persian women, with a long skirt of either black, blue, or coloured cotton. the head is framed in a white kerchief, leaving exposed the jet black hair parted in the middle and covering the temples. over that is worn a long cloak, either black or white, almost identical with the persian "chudder." jewesses are said to be most affectionate and devoted to their husbands and their families. they are extremely amenable to reason--except in cases of jealousy, which is one of the leading characteristics of the race in general and of jewish women in particular. they are hard-working, intelligent, thrifty. they take life seriously: are endowed with no sense of humour to speak of--it would be difficult to have any under their circumstances--and whether owing to severe anæmia, caused by wretched and insufficient food, or to some external influence, are often affected by melancholia. soft and shy in manner and speech, under normal circumstances, pale and silent, the jewish woman is not unattractive. one of the few occupations open to jewesses is the practice of midwifery. hunted as the jews are by everybody in the streets, and in the bazaar, insulted, spat upon, the women often compelled to prostitution, it is to be marvelled that any honesty at all is left in them. the higher persian schools and colleges do not admit jews as students, nor is education permitted to them even in the lower persian schools. therefore, the welcome work of mr. garland is much needed and appreciated. a special quarter is reserved in which the jews must live, huddled together, the majority of them in abject poverty. until of late no peace was given them. their customs were interfered with in every way by vagabond persians, and the little money they made by industrious habits was extorted from them by officials or by the enterprising persian to whom the jewish community was farmed out. the jews of a city are taxed a certain sum, usually beyond what they can afford to pay. some speculator undertakes to pay the amount for them to the local governor and receives authority to compensate himself from the jewish community as best he can, either by making them work, or trade, or by selling their clothes or depriving them of the few articles of furniture they may possess. until quite lately, at public festivities the meek and resigned jews were driven before an insulting mob who held them in derision, and exposed them to most abject treatment; some of their number ending by being pitched into the water-tank which adorns the courtyard or garden of most residences. little by little, however, with the spread of civilisation, jews have been spared the torture of these baths. the jew is looked upon as unclean and untrustworthy by the persian, who refuses to use him as a soldier, but who gladly employs him to do all sorts of dirty jobs which persian pride would not allow him to do himself. his social level therefore stands even lower than that of the shotri of india, the outcast who does not stop at the basest occupations. the majority of the older jews are illiterate, but not unintelligent. each city has one or more rabbis or priests, but they have no power and receive a good share of the insults in the persian bazaars. whatever feeling of repulsion towards the race one may have, the position of the jews in persia--although infinitely better than it was before--is still a most pathetic one. chapter xxix the square of isfahan--the palace gate--the entrance to the bazaar--beggars--formalities and etiquette--the bazaar--competition--how persians buy--long credit--arcades--hats--cloth shops--sweet shops--butchers--leather goods--saddle-bags--the bell shop--trunks. the great square of isfahan is looked upon as the centre of the city. it is a huge oblong, with the great and beautiful dome of the mesjid-i-shah on one side of the long rectangle, and another high domed mosque with two high minarets at the end. the very impressive red and white quadrangular palace gate, flat-topped, and with a covered blue verandah supported on numerous slender columns, stands on the side of the square opposite the mesjid-i-shah mosque. to the north of the great square one enters the bazaar by a high gate, handsomely tiled with flower ornamentations; this gateway has three lower windows and a triple upper one, and a doorway under the cool shade of the outer projecting pointed archway. to the right of the entrance as one looks at it, rises a three-storied building as high as the gate of the bazaar. it has a pretty upper verandah, the roof of which is supported on transverse sets of three wooden columns each, except the outer corner roof-supports, which are square and of bricks. in front is an artistic but most untidy conglomeration of awnings to protect from the sun pedlars, merchants and people enjoying their kalians, or a thimbleful of tea. there are men selling fruit which is displayed upon the dirty ground, and there are tired horses with dismounted cavaliers sleeping by their side, the reins fastened for precaution to a heavy stone or slung to the arm. one sees masses of children of all ages and conditions of health, from the neatly attired son of the wealthy merchant, who disports himself with his eldest brother, to the orphan boy, starving, and in rags covered with mud. there is a little cripple with a shrunken leg, and further, an old man with lupus in its most ghastly form. disreputably-clothed soldiers lie about in the crowd, and a woman or two with their faces duly screened in white cloths may be seen. the sight of a sahib always excites great curiosity in persia. followed by a crowd of loafers and most insistent beggars, one forces one's way into the crowded bazaar, while the ghulams of the consulate--without whom it would be indecorous to go anywhere--shove the people on one side or the other without ceremony, drive the donkeys, laden with wood or panniers of fruit, into the shops--much to the horror of the shopman,--and disband the strings of mules and the horsemen to make room for the passing sahib. it is very difficult, under such circumstances, to stop any length of time at any particular spot to study the shops, the shop-people, and the buyers, for instead of being an unobserved spectator, one is at all times the principal actor in the scene and the centre of attention, and therefore a most disturbing element in the crowd. there are so many complicated and tiresome formalities to be adhered to in order to avoid offending the natives, or the officials, or the susceptibilities of foreign residents, who seem to feel responsible for the doings of every traveller--and who, at all events, remain to suffer for the untactful deeds of some of them,--and there are so many things one must not do for fear of destroying the prestige of one's country, that, really, if one possesses a simple and practical mind, one gets rather tired of persian town life, with its exaggerated ties, its empty outward show and pomp and absolute lack of more modest aims which, after all, make real happiness in life. [illustration: the square, isfahan.] as for european ladies it is considered most improper to be seen with uncovered faces in the bazaar. in fact, walking anywhere in the town they are generally exposed to insult. i once took a walk through the various bazaars, but the second time, at our consul's recommendation, was advised to ride in state, with gold-braided, mounted consulate ghulams preceding and following me, while i myself rode a magnificent stallion presented by zil-es-sultan to our consul. the horse had not been ridden for some time and was slightly fresh. the place to which we directed our animals was the brass bazaar, the most crowded and diabolically noisy place in the shah's dominions. the sudden change from the brilliant light of the sun to the pitch darkness of the vaulted bazaar, affected one's sight, and it was some few seconds before one could distinguish anything, although one could hear the buzzing noise of an excited crowd, and the cries of the ghulams ordering the people to make room for the cavalcade. in nearly all bazaars of the principal cities of persia a very good custom prevails. one or more streets are devoted entirely to the same article, so that the buyer may conveniently make comparisons, and the various merchants are also kept up to the mark by the salutary competition close at hand thus rendered unavoidable. a persian does not go to a shop to buy anything without going to every other shop in the bazaar to ask whether he can get a similar article better and cheaper. such a convenience as fixed prices, alike for all, does not exist in the persian bazaar, and prices are generally on the ascending or descending scale, according to the merchant's estimate of his customer's wealth. it is looked upon as a right and a duty to extort from a rich man the maximum of profit, whereas from a poor fellow a few shais benefit are deemed sufficient. to buy anything at all in the bazaar involves great loss of time--and patience,--excessive consumption of tea plus the essential kalian-smoking. two or three or more visits are paid to the stall by persian buyers before they can come to an agreement with the merchant, and when the goods are delivered it is the merchant's turn to pay endless visits to his customer's house before he can obtain payment for them. long credit is generally given by merchants to people known to them. there is comparatively little ready money business done except in the cheapest goods. we shoved our way along through the very narrow streets with a long row before us of sun columns, piercing through the circular openings in the domed arcade of the bazaar, and projecting brilliant patches of light now on brightly-coloured turbans, now on the black chudder of a woman, now on the muddy ground constantly sprinkled with water to keep the streets cool. there are miles of bazaar, in teheran and isfahan, roofed over in long arcades to protect the shops and buyers from the sun in summer, from the rain and snow in winter. the height of the arcade is from thirty to sixty feet, the more ancient ones being lower than the modern ones. to any one well acquainted with other eastern countries there is absolutely nothing in a persian bazaar that is worth buying. the old and beautiful objects of art have left the country long ago, and the modern ones have neither sufficient artistic merit nor intrinsic value to be worth the trouble and expense of sending them home. for curiosity's sake--yes, there are a few tawdry articles which may amuse friends in europe, but what i mean is that there is nothing that is really of intense interest or skilful workmanship, such as one can find in japan, in china, in morocco or egypt. we ride through the street of hatters, each shop with walls lined with piles of _kolah_ hats, black and brimless, shaped either in the section of a cone or rounded with a depression on the top. they are made of astrakan or of black felt, and are worn by the better people; but further on we come to cheaper shops, where spherical skull caps of white or light brown felt are being manufactured for the lower classes. as we ride along, a stinging smell of dyes tells us that we are in the cloth street, indigo colours prevailing, and also white and black cottons and silks. one cannot help pitying the sweating shopman, who is busy unrolling cloths of various makes before a number of squatting women, who finger each and confabulate among themselves, and request to have the roll deposited by their side for further consideration with a mountain of other previously unrolled fabrics,--just like women at home. the rolls are taken from neat wooden shelves, on which, however, they seldom rest. soiled remnants of european stocks play a very important part in this section of the bazaar. on turning round a corner we have shoes and boots, foreign made, of the favourite side-elastic pattern, or the native white canvas ones with rope soles--most comfortable and serviceable for walking. the local leather ones have strong soles with nails and turned-up toes, not unlike the familiar turkish shoe; while the slippers for women have no back to them at the heel and have fancy toes. then come the attractive sweet-shops, with huge trays of transparent candy, and the _pash mak_ pulled sugar, as white and light as raw silk, most delicious but sticky. in bottles above, the eye roams from highly coloured confetti to _abnabad_ and _kors_ or other deadly-looking lozenges, while a crowd of enraptured children deposit shais in the hands of the prosperous trader, who promptly weighs and gives in exchange a full measure of _rahat-ul-holkoom_, "the ease of the throat," or candied sugar, duly packed in paper bags. there is nothing very attractive in the butchers' bazaar; the long rows of skinned animals black with flies, and in various degrees of freshness, made even less artistic by ornamentations of paper rosettes and bits of gold and silver paper. beef, camel, mutton, game and chickens, all dead and with throats cut--the mahommedan fashion of killing--can be purchased here, but the smell of meat is so strong and sickening that we will promptly adjourn to the leather-work bazaar. for a man, this is probably the most typical and interesting section of the persian retail commerce. there is something picturesque and artistic in the clumsy silver or brass or iron mounted saddles, with handsome red, or green, or brown ample leather flaps, gracefully ornamented with more or less elaboration to suit the pockets of different customers. then the harness is pretty, with its silver inlaid iron decoration, or solid silver or brass, and the characteristic stirrups, nicely chiselled and not unlike the mexican ones. the greater part of the foot can rest on the stirrup, so broad is its base. then come the saddlebags of all sizes, the _horjin_, in cloth, in sacking, in expensive leather, in carpeting, of all prices, with an ingenious device of a succession of loops fastening the one into the other, the last with a padlock, to secure the contents of the bag from intrusive hands. these _horjins_--or double bags--are extremely convenient and are the most usual contrivance in persia for conveying luggage on horseback or mules. then in the lower part of the shop there is a grand display of leather purses, sheaths for knives, and a collection of leather stock whips, gracefully tied into multiple knots. in this same bazaar, where everything in connection with riding or loading animals can be purchased, are also to be found the bell shops. these confine themselves particularly to horses', mules' and camels' neck decorations. long tassels, either red or black, in silk or dyed horsehair, silk or leather bands with innumerable small conical shrill bells, and sets of larger bells in successive gradations of sizes, one hanging inside the other, are found here. then there are some huge cylindrical bells standing about two and a half feet high, with scrolls and geometrical designs on their sides. these are for camels and are not intended to hang from the neck. they are slung on one side under the lighter of the two loads of the pack. [illustration: the palace gate, isfahan.] next, one is attracted by a shop full of leather trunks, of the reddest but not the best morocco, stretched while wet upon a rough wooden frame. primitive ornamentations are painted on the leather, and the corners of each box are strengthened with tin caps and rings. the trunks for pack animals are better made than the others, and are solidly sewn, with heavy straps and rings to sling them upon the saddles. gaudy revolver pouches, cartridge belts, and slings for daggers are to be purchased in the same shop. chapter xxx the brass bazaar--mirror shop--curdled milk--a tea shop--fruit and vegetable bazaar--the walnut seller--the auctioneer--pipe shops--barber--headdress--bread shops--caravanserais--the day of rest. winding our way through the labyrinth of narrow streets, and meeting a crescendo of diabolical din as we approach it, we emerge into a more spacious and lighter arcade, where hundreds of men are hammering with all their might upon pieces of copper that are being shaped into trays, pots with double spouts, or pans. this is the coppersmiths' bazaar. on a long low brick platform, extending from one end to the other on both sides of the street, is tastefully arranged the work already finished. huge circular trays have coarse but elaborate ornamentations of figures, trees and birds chiselled upon them--not unlike the indian benares trays in general appearance, but not in the character of the design. copper vases with spouts are gracefully shaped, the ancient persian models being maintained. they are much used by persians in daily life. more elaborate is the long-necked vessel with a circular body and slender curved spout, that rests upon a very quaint and elegantly designed wash-basin with perforated cover and exaggerated rim. this is used after meals in the household of the rich, when an attendant pours tepid water scented with rose-water upon the fingers, which have been used in eating instead of a fork. these vessels and basins are usually of brass. all along the ground, against the wall, stand sets of concentric trays of brass, copper and pewter, and metal tumblers innumerable, having execrable designs upon them, and rendered more hideous by being nickel-plated all over. each shop, about ten to twenty feet long and eight to fifteen wide, has a furnace in one corner. considering the few and primitive tools employed, it is really wonderful that the work is as good as it is. the polishing of trays is generally done with their feet by boys, who stand on them and with a circular motion of the body revolve the tray to the right and left upon a layer of wet sand until, after some hours of labour, a sufficiently shiny surface is obtained by friction. i became much interested in watching a man joining together two pieces of metal to be turned into an amphora, but the noise made the horse i rode very restless. it was impossible to hear any one speak, the din of the hammered metal being so acute and being echoed in each dome of the arcade. the horse became so alarmed when the bellows began to blow upon the fire that he tried to throw me, first by standing on his fore-legs and scattering the crowd of yelling natives with his hindlegs, then by standing up erect the other way about. in a moment the place was clear of people; some had leapt on to the side platform: others had rushed inside the shops. the horse delighted in pirouetting about, kicking the nearest metal vases and trays all over the place, and causing quite a commotion. it was rather amusing to watch the rapidity with which the merchants a little way off withdrew their goods to safety inside the premises to prevent further damage. the horse, being then satisfied that he could not shake me off, continued the journey more or less peacefully through the bazaar. here is a mirror shop--imports from austria. there the flourishing grain merchants, whose premises are the neatest and cleanest of the whole bazaar. each merchant tastily displays his various cereals in heaps on speckless enormous brass trays, and by the side of them dried fruit, in which he also deals extensively. his shop is decorated with silvered or red or blue glass balls. further on is another very neat place, the curdled-milk retailer's, with large flat metal tanks filled with milk, and a great many trays, large and little, in front of his premises. he, too, keeps his place and belongings--but not himself--most beautifully clean. he does a flourishing business. every now and then we come upon a very spacious and well-lighted room, with gaudy candelabras of bohemian glass, and a large steaming samovar. this is a tea-shop. there are plenty of men in it, in green or brown or blue long coats, and all squatting lazily, cross-legged, sipping tea from tiny glasses and being helped to sugar from a large tray containing a mountain of it. the fruit and vegetable bazaar is always a feature of persian city markets, water-melons, cucumbers, grapes, apples, pomegranates, almonds and walnuts playing a prominent part in the various displays. then there is the retailer of peeled walnuts, a man who wears a red cap and green coat, and who sells his goods spread on a brass tray. the walnuts as soon as peeled from their skin are thrown into a large basin full of water, and when properly washed are spread on the tray to dry, ready for consumption. the walnut man is generally a character. he keeps his stall open even at night, when other shops are closed, and has plenty to say to all the passers-by on the merits of his walnuts. to enumerate all one sees in the bazaar would take a volume to itself, but on glancing through we see the excited auctioneer in his white turban calling out figures on an ascending scale, and tapping on a piece of wood when a sufficient sum is offered and no more bids are forthcoming. he has assistants showing round the various articles as they are being sold,--umbrellas, tooth-brushes, mirrors, knives, etc. the pipe shops are small--with black and red and blue earthenware cups for the kalian. there is not much variety in the shape of the pipes except that some are made to be used in the joined hands as a draw-pipe for the smoke, the cup being held between the thumbs. others, the majority of them, are intended for the top part of the kalian. the barber's shop is a quaint one, remarkably clean with whitewashed walls and a brick floor. up to some five feet along the walls is nailed a cloth, usually red, against which the customers rest their heads while being shaved. hung upon the walls are scissors of all sizes, razors, and various other implements such as forceps for drawing teeth, sharp lancets for bleeding, the knives used for the operation of circumcision, and a variety of wooden combs and branding irons. yes, the persian barber has multifarious occupations. he is surgeon, dentist and masseur, besides being an adept with comb and razor. he is--like his brother of the west--an incessant talker, and knows all the scandal of the town. while at work he has a bowl of clean water by his side which he uses on the patient's face or top of the skull and neck, which are in male persians all clean-shaved. no soap is used by typical persian barbers. their short razors, in wooden cases, are stropped on the barber's arm, or occasionally leg, and are quite sharp. the younger folks of persia shave the top of the skull leaving long locks of hair at the side of the head, which are gracefully pushed over the ear and left hanging long behind, where they are cut in a straight horizontal line round the neck. this fashion is necessitated by the custom in persia of never removing the heavy headgear. the elder people, in fact, shave every inch of the scalp, but balance this destruction of hair by growing a long beard, frequently dyed bright red or jet black with henna and indigo. the bread-shops of persia are quaint, a piece of bread being sometimes as big as a small blanket and about as thick. these huge flat loaves are hung up on slanting shelves. in central and southern persia, however, the smaller kind of bread is more commonly used, not unlike an indian _chapati_. a ball of flour paste is well fingered and pawed until it gets to a semi-solid consistency. it is then flung several times from one palm of the hand into the other, after which it is spread flat with a roller upon a level stone slab. a few indentations are made upon its face with the end of the baker's fingers; it is taken up and thrown with a rapid movement upon the inner domed portion of a small oven, some three to four feet high, within which blazes a big charcoal fire. several loaves are thus baked against the hot walls and roof of the oven, which has an aperture at the top, and when properly roasted and beginning to curl and fall they are seized with wonderful quickness and brought out of the oven. gloves on the hands and a cover over the baker's face are necessary to prevent burns and asphyxia from the escaping gases of the charcoal from the aperture over which the man must lean every time. in the bazaars of large cities one finds every now and then large caravanserais, handsome courts with a tank of water in the centre and shops all round. it is here that wholesale dealers and traders have their premises, and that caravans are accommodated on their arrival with goods. there are generally trees planted all round these courts to shade the animals and buyers, and often a high and broad platform or verandah all round, where the goods are spread for inspection. some of the richer caravanserais are quite handsome, with neat latticed windows and doors. the walls are painted white. the court is crammed with tired camels, mules, beggars and loafers. the camel men squat in one corner to smoke their pipes and eat their bread, while the merchants form another ring up above on the verandah, where prices are discussed at the top of their voices, a crowd of ever-to-be-found loafers taking active part in the discussion. on a friday, the day of rest of the mahommedan, the bazaar, so crowded on other days, is absolutely deserted. all the shops--if a hatter or two be excepted--are barricaded with heavy wooden shutters and massive padlocks of local or russian make. barring a dog or two either lying asleep along the wall, or scraping a heap of refuse in the hope of satisfying hunger--there is hardly a soul walking about. attracted by a crowd in the distance, one finds a fanatic gesticulating like mad and shouting at the top of his voice before an admiring crowd of ragamuffins squatting round him in a circle. on these holidays, when the streets are clear, the effect of the columns of sunlight pouring down from the small circular apertures from each dome of the arcade, and some twenty feet apart, is very quaint. it is like a long colonnade of brilliant light in the centre of the otherwise dark, muddy-looking, long, dirty tunnel. at noon, when the sun is on the meridian, these sun columns are, of course, almost perfectly vertical, but not so earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. chapter xxxi a carpet factory--children at work--the process of carpet-making--foreign influence in the design--aniline dyes--"ancient carpets" manufactured to-day--types of carpets--kerman carpets--isfahan silk carpets--kurdistan rugs--birjand and sultanabad carpets--carpets made by wandering tribes--jewellers--sword-makers and gunsmiths--humming birds. a visit to a carpet factory proves interesting. the horses must be left, for it is necessary to squeeze through a low and narrow door in order to enter the shed where the carpets are made. every one is familiar with the intricate and gorgeous designs of persian carpets, and one imagines that only veteran skilful artisans can tackle such artistic work. one cannot, therefore, help almost collapsing with surprise on seeing mere children from the age of six to ten working away at the looms with a quickness and ease that makes one feel very small. in badly lighted and worse ventilated rooms, they sit perched in long rows on benches at various altitudes from the floor, according to the progression and size of the carpet, the web of which is spread tight vertically in front of them. occasionally when the most difficult patterns are executed, or for patterns with european innovations in the design, a coloured drawing is hung up above the workers; but usually there is nothing for them to go by, except that a superintendent--an older boy--sings out the stitches in a monotonous cadence. a row of coloured balls of the various coloured threads employed in the design hang from the loom just within reach of the boys' hands. [illustration: boys weaving a carpet.] [illustration: cotton cleaners.] the process of carpet-making is extremely simple, consisting merely of a series of twisted--not absolutely knotted--coloured worsted threads, each passing round one of the main threads of the foundation web. the catching-up of each consecutive vertical thread in the web, inserting the coloured worsted, giving it the twist that makes it remain in its position, and cutting it to the proper length, is done so quickly by the tiny, supple fingers of the children that it is impossible to see how it is done at all until one requests them to do it slowly for one's benefit. after each horizontal row of twisted threads, a long horizontal thread is interwoven, and then the lot is beaten down with a heavy iron comb with a handle to it, not unlike a huge hair-brush cleaner. there are different modes of twisting the threads, and this constitutes the chief characteristic of carpets made in one province or another. the labour involved in their manufacture is enormous, and some carpets take several years to manufacture. the children employed are made to work very hard at the looms--seldom less than twelve or fourteen hours a day--and the exertion upon their memory to remember the design, which has taken them several months to learn by heart, is great. the constant strain on the eyes, which have to be kept fixed on each successive vertical thread so as not to pick up the wrong one, is very injurious to their sight. many of the children of the factories i visited were sore-eyed, and there was hardly a poor mite who did not rub his eyes with the back of his hand when i asked him to suspend work for a moment. the tension upon their pupils must be enormous in the dim light. although made in a primitive method, the carpet weaving of persia is about the only manufacture that deserves a first-class place in the industries of iran. the carpets still have a certain artistic merit, although already contaminated to no mean extent by european commerciality. instead of the beautiful and everlasting vegetable dyes which were formerly used for the worsted and silks, and the magnificent blue, reds, greens, greys and browns, ghastly aniline dyed threads--raw and hurtful to the eye--are very commonly used now. also, of the carpets for export to europe and america the same care is not taken in the manufacture as in the ancient carpets, and the bastard design is often shockingly vulgarised to appease the inartistic buyer. but even with all these faults, persian carpets, if not to the eye of an expert, for all general purposes are on the whole better than those of any other manufacture. they have still the great advantage of being made entirely by hand instead of by machinery. it is not unwise, before buying a persian carpet, to rub it well with a white cloth. if it is aniline-dyed, some of the colour will come off, but if the old persian dyes have been used no mark should remain on the cloth. however, even without resorting to this, it must be a very poor eye indeed that cannot recognise at once the terrible raw colours of aniline from the soft, delicious tones of vegetable dyes, which time can only soften but never discolour. to manufacture "ancient carpets" is one of the most lucrative branches of modern persian carpet-making. the new carpets are spread in the bazaar, in the middle of the street where it is most crowded, and trampled upon for days or weeks, according to the age required, foot-passengers and their donkeys, mules and camels making a point of treading on it in order to "add age" to the manufacturer's goods. when sufficiently worn down the carpet is removed, brushed, and eventually sold for double or treble its actual price owing to its antiquity! there are some thirty different types of carpets in persia. the kerman carpets are, to my mind, the most beautiful i saw in persia, in design, colour and softness. they seem more original and graceful, with conventional plant, flower and bird representations of delicate and very varied tints, and not so much geometrical design about them as is the case in the majority of persian carpets. less successful, in fact quite ugly, but quaint, are those in which very large and ill-proportioned figures are represented. one feels arab influence very strongly in a great many of the kerman designs. they say that kerman sheep have extremely soft and silky hair, and also that the kerman water possesses some chemical qualities which are unsurpassable for obtaining most perfect tones of colour with the various dyes. the principal carpet factory is in the governor's palace, where old designs are faithfully copied, and really excellent results obtained. the present governor, h. e. ala-el-mulk, and his nephew take particular interest in the manufacture, and devote much attention to the carpets, which retain the ancient native characteristics, and are hardly contaminated by foreign influence. the isfahan silk carpets are also very beautiful, but not quite so reposeful in colour nor graceful in design. those of kurdistan are principally small prayer rugs, rather vivid in colour, and much used by mahommedans in their morning and evening salaams towards mecca. in khorassan, meshed, sultanabad, kaian (kain) and birjand, some very thick carpets are made, of excellent wear, but not so very artistic. in the birjand ones, brown camel-hair is a prevailing colour, used too freely as a background, and often taking away from the otherwise graceful design. sultanabad is probably the greatest centre of carpet-making for export nearly every household possessing a loom. the firm of ziegler & co. is the most extensive buyer and exporter of these carpets. the herat (afghanistan) carpets are also renowned and find their way mostly to europe. in shiraz and faristan we find the long narrow rugs, as soft as velvet, and usually with geometrical designs on them. red, blue and white are the prevalent colours. it would be too long to enumerate all the places where good carpets are made; but kermanshah, tabriz, yezd,--in fact, nearly all big centres, make carpets, each having special characteristics of their own, although in general appearance bearing to the uninitiated more or less similar semblance. the rugs made by the wandering tribes of south-east and south-west persia are quaint and interesting. the persian beluch rugs are somewhat minute and irregular in design, deep in colour, with occasional discords of tones, but they recommend themselves by being so strongly made that it is almost impossible to wear them out. they are generally small, being woven inside their tents by the women. in northern persia turcoman carpets--the most adaptable of all for european houses--are seldom to be found now, as they are generally bought up for russia. dark red, warm and extremely soft is the striking note in these carpets, and the design is quite sedate. carpets, except the cheaper ones, are seldom sold in the bazaars nowadays. they are purchased on the looms. the best ones are only made to order. there are, of course, a few rug shops, and occasionally an old carpet finds its way to a second-hand shop in the bazaar. next in attraction to carpets come the jewellers' shops. the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' shops are not very numerous in the bazaars, nor, when we come to examine the work carefully, do they have anything really worth buying. the work is on good gold or silver of pure quality, but, with few exceptions, is generally clumsy in design and heavily executed. figures are attempted, with most inartistic results, on silver cases and boxes. the frontage of a goldsmith's shop has no great variety of articles. bracelets, rings, necklaces, tea and coffee pots, stands for coffee cups, and enamelled pipe heads; a silver kalian or two, an old cigar-box full of turquoises, and another full of other precious stones--or, rather, imitations of precious stones--a little tray with forgeries of ancient coins; that is about all. pearls and diamonds and really valuable stones are usually concealed in neat paper parcels carried on the person by the jeweller and produced on the demand of customers. the swordmaker and gunsmith displays many daggers and blades of local make and a great number of obsolete belgian and russian revolvers; also a good many martini and snider rifles, which have found their way here from india. occasionally a good modern pistol or gun is to be seen. good rifles or revolvers find a prompt sale in persia at enormous figures. nearly every man in the country carries a rifle. had i chosen, i could have sold my rifles and revolvers twenty times over when in persia, the sums offered me for them being two or three times what i had paid for them myself. but my rifles had been very faithful companions to me; one, a · mannlicher, had been twice in tibet; the other, a · take-down winchester, had accompanied me through the chinese campaign, and i would accept no sum for them. one is carried back a few score of years on seeing the old rings for carrying gun-caps, and also gunpowder flasks, and even old picturesque flintlocks and matchlocks; but still, taking things all round, it is rather interesting to note that there is a considerable number of men in iran who are well-armed with serviceable cartridge rifles, which they can use with accuracy. cartridge rifles are at a great premium, and although their importation is not allowed, they have found their way in considerable quantities from all sides, but principally, they tell me, from india, _via_ the gulf. one of the notes of the bazaar is that in almost every shop one sees a cage or two with humming-birds. in the morning and evening a male member of the family takes the cage and birds out for a walk in the air and sun, for the dulness and darkness of the bazaar, although considered sufficiently good for persians themselves, is not regarded conducive to sound health and happiness for their pets. chapter xxxii the grand avenue of isfahan--the madrassah--silver gates--the dome--the palace--the hall of forty columns--ornamentations--the picture hall--interesting paintings--their artistic merit--nasr-ed-din shah's portrait--the ceiling--the quivering minarets. the grand avenue of isfahan, much worn and out of repair, and having several lines of trees along its entire length of half a mile or so down to the river, is one of the sights of the ancient capital of persia. about half-way down the avenue the famous madrassah is to be found. it has a massive, handsome silver gate, in a somewhat dilapidated condition at present, and showing evident marks of thieving enterprise. at the entrance stand fluted, tiled columns, with alabaster bases, in the shape of vases some ten feet in height, while a frieze of beautiful blue tiles with inscriptions from the koran, and other ornamentations, are to be admired, even in their mutilated condition, on tiles now sadly tumbling down. so much for the exterior. inside, the place bears ample testimony to former grandeur and splendour, but at present hopeless decay is rampant here as everywhere else in persia. the madrassah is attributed to shah sultan hussein, the founder of the shrine at kum, and some magnificent bits of this great work yet remain. one can gaze at the beautiful dome, of a superb delicate greenish tint, surmounted by a huge knob supposed to be of solid gold, and at the two most delightful minarets, full of grace in their lines and delicately refined in colour, with lattice work at their summit. [illustration: handsome doorway in the madrassah, isfahan.] in the courts and gardens are some fine old trees, amid a lot of uncouth vegetation, while grass sprouts out between the slabs of stone on the paths and wherever it should not be; the walls all round, however, are magnificent, being built of large green tiles with ornamentations of graceful curves and the favourite leaf pattern. in other places white ornamentations, principally curves and yellow circles, are to be noticed on dark blue tiles. in some of the courts very handsome tiles with flower patterns are still in good preservation. there are in the college rooms for students to board and lodge. the buildings have two storeys and nearly all have tiled fronts, less elaborate than the minarets and dome, but quite pretty, with quaint white verandahs. when i visited the place there were only some fifty students, of all ages, from children to old men. much time is devoted by them to theological studies and some smattering of geography and history. one cannot leave isfahan without visiting the old palace. in a garden formerly beautiful but semi-barren and untidy now, on a pavement of slabs which are no longer on the level with one another, stands the palace of the twenty columns, called of "the forty columns," probably because the twenty existing ones are reflected as in a mirror in the long rectangular tank of water extending between this palace and the present dwelling of h. e. zil-es-sultan, governor of isfahan. distance lends much enchantment to everything in persia, and such is the case even in this palace, probably the most tawdrily gorgeous structure in north-west persia. the palace is divided into two sections, the open throne hall and the picture hall behind it. the twenty octagonal columns of the open-air hall were once inlaid with venetian mirrors, and still display bases of four grinning lions carved in stone. but, on getting near them, one finds that the bases are chipped off and damaged, the glass almost all gone, and the foundation of the columns only remains, painted dark-red. the lower portion of the column, for some three feet, is ornamented with painted flowers, red in blue vases. the floor under the colonnade is paved with bricks, and there is a raised platform for the throne, reached by four stone steps. there is a frieze here of graceful although conventional floral decoration with gold leaves. in the wall are two windows giving light to two now empty rooms. the end central receptacle or niche is gaudily ornamented with venetian looking-glasses cut in small triangles, and it has a pretty ceiling with artichoke-leaf pattern capitals in an upward crescendo of triangles. the ceiling above the upper platform is made entirely of mirrors with adornments in blue and gold and glass, representing the sky, the sun, and golden lions. smaller suns also appear in the ornamentation of the frieze. the ceiling above the colonnade and the beams between the columns are richly ornamented in blue, grey, red, and gold. this ceiling is divided into fifteen rectangles, the central panel having a geometrical pattern of considerable beauty, in which, as indeed throughout, the figure of the sun is prominent. the inner hall must have been a magnificent room in its more flourishing days. it is now used as a storeroom for banners, furniture, swords, and spears, piled everywhere on the floor and against the walls. one cannot see very well what the lower portion of the walls is like, owing to the quantity of things amassed all round, and so covered with dust as not to invite removal or even touch; but there seems to be a frieze nine feet high with elaborate blue vases on which the artist called into life gold flowers and graceful leaves. the large paintings are of considerable interest apart from their historical value. in the centre, facing the entrance door, we detect nadir shah, the napoleon of persia, the leader of , men through khorassan, sistan, kandahar and cabul. he is said to have crossed from afghanistan through the khyber pass to peshawar, and from there to delhi, where his presence led to a scene of loot and carnage. but to him was certainly due the extension of the persian boundary to the indus towards the east and to the oxus on the north. in the picture he is represented on horseback with a great following of elephants and turbaned figures. to the right we have a fight, in which shah ismail, who became shah of persia in , is the hero, and a crowd of bokhara warriors and afghans the secondary figures. evidently the painting is to commemorate the great successes obtained by ismail in khorassan, samarkand and tashkend. the third is a more peaceful scene--a bokhara dancing girl performing before shah tamasp, eldest of four sons of ismail and successor to his throne. the shah is represented entertaining the indian emperor humaiyun in . the lower portion of this picture is in good preservation, but the upper part has been patched up with hideous ornamentations of birds and flowers on red ground. over the door shah ismail, wearing a white turban, is represented riding a white horse and carrying a good supply of arrows. the shah is in the act of killing a foe, and the painting probably represents one of his heroic deeds at the battle of khoi against salim. to the right of the door there is a picture of dancing and feasting, with shah abbas offering drink in sign of friendship to abdul mohmek khan osbek. finally, to the left of the front door we have pictorially the most pleasing of the whole series, another scene of feasting, with the youthful figure of shah abbas ii. (died ), a man of great pluck, but unfortunately given to drunkenness and licentious living, which developed brutal qualities in him. it was he who blinded many of his relations by placing red-hot irons in front of their eyes. considering this too lenient a punishment he ordered their eyes to be extracted altogether. we see him now, sitting upon his knees, garbed in a red tunic and turban. in the foreground a most graceful dancing-girl, in red and green robes, with a peculiar waistband, and flying locks of hair. the artist has very faithfully depicted the voluptuous twist of her waist, much appreciated by persians in dancing, and he has also managed to infuse considerable character into the musicians, the guitar man and the followers of the shah to the left of the picture, as one looks at it, and the tambourine figure to the right. fruit and other refreshments lie in profusion in vessels on the floor, elaborately painted. this picture is rectangular, and is probably not only the most artistic but the best preserved of the lot. [illustration: one of zil-es-sultan's eunuchs.] [illustration: the "hall of the forty columns," isfahan.] great labour and patience in working out details have been the aim of the artists of all these pictures, rather than true effects of nature, and the faces, hands, and poses are, of course, as in most persian paintings, conventionalized and absolutely regardless of proportion, perspective, fore-shortening or atmospherical influence or action--generally called aerial perspective. the objection, common in nearly all countries, england included, to shadows on the faces is intensified a thousand-fold in persian paintings, and handicaps the artist to no mean degree in his attempts to give relief to his figures. moreover, the manipulation and concentration of light, and the art of composing a picture are not understood in old persian paintings, and the result is that it is most difficult to see a picture as an _ensemble_. the eye roams all over the painting, attracted here by a patch of brilliant yellow, there by another equally vivacious red, here by some bright detail, there by something else; and like so many ghosts in a haunted room peep out the huge, black, almond-shaped eyes, black-bearded heads, all over the picture, standing like prominent patches out of the plane they are painted on. the pictures are, nevertheless, extremely interesting, and from a persian's standpoint magnificently painted. such is not the case with the modern and shocking portrait of nasr-ed-din shah, painted in the best oil colours in european style, his majesty wearing a gaudy uniform with great wealth of gold and diamonds. this would be a bad painting anywhere in persia or europe. the ceiling of this hall is really superb. it has three domes, the centre one more lofty than the two side ones. the higher dome is gilt, and is most gracefully ornamented with a refined leaf pattern and twelve gold stars, while the other two cupolas are blue with a similar leaf ornamentation in gold. there is much quaint irregularity in the geometrical design of the corners, shaped like a kite of prettily-arranged gold, blue and green, while other corners are red and light blue, with the sides of green and gold of most delicate tones. these are quite a violent contrast to the extravagant flaming red patches directly over the paintings. the hall is lighted by three windows at each end near the lower arch of the side domes, and three further double windows immediately under them. there is one main entrance and three exits (one large and two small) towards the throne colonnade. through narrow lanes, along ditches of dirty water, or between high mud walls, one comes six miles to the west of isfahan to one of the most curious sights of persia,--the quivering minarets above the shrine and tomb of a saint. these towers, according to persians, are at least eight centuries old. enclosed in a rectangular wall is the high sacred domed tomb, and on either side of the pointed arch of the mesjid rise towards the sky the two column-like minarets, with quadrangular bases. a spiral staircase inside each minaret, just wide enough to let a man through, conveys one to the top, wherein four small windows are to be found. by seizing the wall at one of the apertures and shaking it violently an unpleasant oscillation can be started, and continues of its own accord, the minaret diverging from the perpendicular as much as two inches on either side. presently the second minaret begins to vibrate also in uniformity with the first, and the vibration can be felt along the front roof-platform between the two minarets, but not in other parts of the structure. a large crack by the side of one of the minarets which is said to have existed from time immemorial foretells that some day or other minarets and front wall will come down, but it certainly speaks well for the elasticity of minarets of years ago that they have stood up quivering so long. the minarets are not very high, some thirty-five feet above the roof of the mesjid, or about seventy-five feet from the ground. the whole structure, of bricks and mud, is--barring the dangerous crack--still in good preservation. on the outside, the minarets are tiled in a graceful, geometrical transverse pattern of dark and light blue. a visit to the sacred shrine of the quivering minarets has miraculous powers--say the persians--of curing all diseases or protecting one against them, hence the pilgrimage of a great number of natives afflicted with all sorts of complaints. beggars in swarms are at the entrance waiting, like hungry mosquitoes, to pounce upon the casual visitor or customary pleasure-seeker of isfahan, for whom this spot is a favourite resort. chapter xxxiii isfahan the commercial heart of persia--dangers of maps in argument--bandar abbas--the possibility of a russian railway to bandar abbas--bandar abbas as a harbour--the caravan road to bandar abbas--rates of transport--trade--british and russian influence--shipping--a russian line of steamers--customs under belgian officials--lingah--its exports and imports. isfahan is for england the most important city, politically and commercially, in western persia. it is the central point from which roads radiate to all parts of the shah's empire. it is the commercial heart, as it were, of persia, and the future preponderance of russian or british influence in isfahan will settle the balance in favour of one or the other of the two countries and the eventual preponderance in the whole of western iran. khorassan and sistan stand on quite a different footing, being severed from the west by the great salt desert, and must be set apart for the moment and dealt with specially. [illustration: the quivering minarets near isfahan.] a reliable map ought to be consulted in order to understand the question properly, but it should be remembered that it is ever dangerous to base arguments on maps alone in discussing either political or commercial matters. worse still is the case when astoundingly incorrect maps such as are generally manufactured in england are in the hands of people unfamiliar with the real topography and resources of a country. to those who have travelled it is quite extraordinary what an appalling mass of nonsensical rubbish can be supplied to the public by politicians, by newspaper penny-a-liners, and by home royal geographo-parasites at large, who base their arguments on such unsteady foundation. it is quite sufficient for some people to open an atlas and place their fingers on a surface of cobalt blue paint in order to select strategical harbours, point out roads upon which foreign armies can invade india, trade routes which ought to be adopted in preference to others, and so on, regardless of sea-depth, currents, winds, shelter, and climatic conditions. in the case of roads for invading armies, such small trifles as hundreds of miles of desert, impassable mountain ranges, lack of water, and no fuel, are never considered! these are only small trifles that do not signify--as they are not marked on the maps--the special fancy of the cartographer for larger or smaller type in the nomenclature making cities and villages more or less important to the student, or the excess of ink upon one river course rather than another, according to the cartographer's humour, making that river quite navigable, notwithstanding that in reality there may not be a river nor a city nor village at all. we have flaming examples of this in our government maps of persia. i myself have had an amusing controversy in some of the london leading papers with no less a person than the secretary of a prominent geographical society, who assured the public that certain well-known peaks did not exist because he could not find them (they happened to be there all the same) on his map! such other trifles as the connecting of lakes by imaginary rivers to maintain the reputation of a scientific impostor, or the building of accurate maps (_sic_) from badly-taken photographs--the direction of which was not even recorded by the distinguished photographers--are frauds too commonly perpetrated on the innocent public by certain so-called scientific societies, to be here referred to. although these frauds are treated lightly, the harm they do to those who take them seriously and to the public at large, who are always ready blindly to follow anybody with sufficient bounce, is enormous. without going into minor details, let us take the burning question of the fast-expanding russian influence in the south of persia. we are assured that russia wishes an outlet in the persian gulf, and suspicions are strong that her eye is set on bandar abbas. on the map it certainly appears a most heavenly spot for a harbour, and we hear from scribblers that it can be made into a strong naval base and turned into a formidable position. the trade from meshed and khorassan and teheran, isfahan, yezd, and kerman is with equal theoretical facility switched on to this place. even allowing that russia should obtain a concession of this place--a most unlikely thing to be asked for or conceded while persia remains an independent country--matters would not be as simple for russia as the man in the street takes them to be. it would first of all be necessary to construct a railway connecting the trans-caspian line with bandar abbas, a matter of enormous expense and difficulty, and likely enough never to be a profitable financial enterprise. the political importance is dubious. a long railway line unguarded in a foreign country could but be of little practical value. it must be remembered that persia is a very thinly populated country, with vast tracts of land, such as the salt desert, almost absolutely uninhabited, and where the construction of such a railway would involve serious difficulties, owing to the lack of water for several months of the year, intense heat, shifting sands, and in some parts sudden inundations during the short rainy season. moreover, bandar abbas itself, although ideally situated on the maps, is far from being an ideal harbour. the water is shallow, and there is no safe shelter; the heat unbearable and unhealthy. at enormous expense, of course, this spot, like almost any other spot on any coast, could be turned into a fair artificial harbour. the native town itself--if it can be honoured with such a name--consists of a few miserable mud houses, with streets in which one sinks in filth and mud. the inhabitants are the most miserable and worst ruffians in persia, together with some hindoos. there is a european community of less than half-a-dozen souls. the _british india_ and other coasting steamers touch here, and therefore this has been made the starting-point for caravans to kerman and yezd and sistan _via_ bam. but for isfahan and teheran the more direct and shorter route _via_ bushire is selected. the caravan road from bandar abbas to kerman and yezd is extremely bad and unsafe. several times of late the track has been blocked, and caravans robbed. during , and since that date, the risk of travelling on the road seems to have increased, and as it is useless for persians to try and obtain protection or compensation from their own government the traffic not only has been diverted when possible to other routes, principally bushire, but the rates for transport of goods inland had at one time become almost prohibitive. in the summer of , it cost tomans (about £ _s._) to convey lbs. weight as far as yezd, but in the autumn the charges rose to tomans (about £ _s._) or more than three times as much for the same weight of goods. eventually the rates were brought down to tomans, but only for a short time, after which they fluctuated again up to tomans. it was with the greatest difficulty that loading camels could be obtained at all, owing to the deficiency of exports, and this partly accounted for the extortionate prices demanded. an english gentleman whom i met in kerman told me that it was only at great expense and trouble that he was able to procure camels to proceed from bandar abbas to kerman, and even then he had to leave all his luggage behind to follow when other animals could be obtained. according to statistics furnished by the british vice-consul, the exports of were half those of , the exact figures being £ , for ; £ , for . opium, which had had the lead by far in previous years, fell from £ , to £ , . raw cotton, however, not only held its own but rose to a value of £ , from £ , the previous year. in the years , , , and the exports of raw cotton were abnormal, and rose to about £ , in , the highest record during the decade from to . large quantities of henna and opium are also exported from this spot, as it is the principal outlet of the kerman and yezd districts, but the trade may be said to be almost entirely in british hands at present, and russian influence so far is infinitesimal. we find that, next to opium, fruit and vegetables, especially dates, constitute a large part of the export, then wool, drugs and spices, salt, carpets and woollen fabrics, piece goods, silk (woven), seeds, skins and tanned leather, wheat and cereals, and cotton raw and manufactured. perfumery--rose-water--was largely exported from to . the exportation of tobacco seems to decrease, although it is now beginning to look up again a little. dyes and colouring substances are also exported. the value of imports is very nearly double that of the exports. cotton goods have the lead by a long way, then come tea, and piece goods, loaf-sugar, powdered sugar, indigo, metals, wheat and cereals, spices, drugs, wool and woollen fabrics, jute fabrics, cheap cutlery, coffee, tobacco, mules, horses, donkeys, etc., in the succession enumerated. it is pleasant to find that the shipping increases yearly at bandar abbas, and that, second only to persian vessels, the number of british sailing vessels entering bandar abbas in was nearly double ( ) of the previous year ( ). steamers were in the proportion of to . although in number of sailing vessels the persians have the priority, because of the great number of small crafts, the total tonnage of the persian vessels was , tons against , tons in , and , tons in british. turkish steamers occasionally ply to bandar abbas and muscat and also arab small sailing crafts. it is rather curious to note that in the imports into bandar abbas came entirely from india, great britain and france, and in a small measure from muscat, zanzibar, the arab coast, bahrain and persian ports, whereas the following year, , the imports from india fell to less than half their previous value, from £ , to £ , , and from the united kingdom there was a diminution from £ , to £ , ; whereas france doubled hers in and other countries entered into competition. the chinese empire, curiously enough, was the strongest, to the value of £ , , presumably with teas, and austria-hungary £ , . germany and turkey imported to the value of some £ , and £ , respectively. belgium £ , , java £ , , mauritius £ , , muscat £ , the canaries £ , america £ , and arabia £ . japan contributed to the amount of £ , sweden £ , italy £ , and switzerland the modest sum of £ . a most significant point is that russia, with all her alleged aims and designs, only contributed to the small amount of £ . nothing was exported from bandar abbas to russia. it would appear from this that at least commercially russia's position at bandar abbas was not much to be feared as late as . since then a russian line of steamers has been established from the black sea to the persian gulf ports, but i have no accurate statistics at hand. it is said not to be a financial success. the establishment of customs under belgian officials in caused some trouble at first, and may have been responsible for a portion of the falling-off in trade, but it is now agreed by everybody that the system is carried on in a fair and honest manner, preferable to the extortionate fashion employed by the former speculators who farmed out the customs. i rather doubt whether russia's aim is even directed towards lingah, to the south-west of bandar abbas, as has been supposed by others. although this port would afford a deeper and better anchorage and a breakwater, it has the same difficulties of approach by land from russia as bandar abbas--in fact, greater ones, being further south. lingah is a more prosperous port than bandar abbas, its exports being roughly two-thirds larger than those of bandar abbas, and its imports one-third in excess. in value the export and import of pearls form the chief item, next come wheat and cotton. very little tea is disembarked at lingah, but dates and firearms were landed in considerable quantities, especially in . coffee and tobacco were more in demand here than at bandar abbas, and metals were largely imported. white sea-shells found their way in huge quantities to beluchistan, where the women use them for decorating their persons. bangles and necklaces are made with them, and neck-bands for the camels, horses and mules, as well as ornamentations on the saddle bags. with these two exceptions the imports and exports of lingah are made up of larger quantities of articles similar to those brought to and from bandar abbas. chapter xxxiv mahommerah--where russia's aims are directed--advantages of mahommerah--the navigation of the karun river--traffic--rates on the ahwaz-isfahan track--the government's attitude--wheat--russian influence--backhtiari chiefs--up and down river trade--gum--cotton goods--sugar--caravan route--steamers--disadvantages of a policy of drift--russian enterprise. so much for bandar abbas and lingah. i will not touch on bushire, too well known to english people, but mahommerah may have a special interest to us, and also to russia. it is rather curious to note that it has never struck the british politician nor the newspaper writer that russia's aims, based usually on sound and practical knowledge, might be focussed on this port, which occupies the most favourable position in the persian gulf for russia's purposes. even strategically it is certainly as good as bandar abbas, while commercially its advantages over the latter port are a thousandfold greater. these advantages are a navigable river, through fertile country, instead of an almost impassable, waterless desert, and a distance as the crow flies from russian territory to mahommerah one-third shorter than from bandar abbas. a railway through the most populated and richest part of persia could easily be constructed to ahwaz. the climate is healthy though warm. another most curious fact which seems almost incredible is that the british government, through ignorance or otherwise, by a policy of drift may probably be the cause of helping russia to reap the benefit of british enterprise on the karun river, in the development of which a considerable amount of british capital has already been sunk. the importance, political and commercial, of continuing the navigation of the karun river until it does become a financial success--which it is bound to be as soon as the country all round it is fully developed--is too obvious for me to write at length upon it, but it cannot be expected that a private company should bear the burden and loss entirely for the good of the mother country without any assistance from the home government. the british firm, who run the steamers, with much insight and praiseworthy enterprise improved the existing caravan track from isfahan to ahwaz on the karun river, the point up to which the river is navigable by steamers not drawing more than four feet. they built two fine suspension bridges, one over the karun at godar-i-balutak and the other, the pul-amarat (or built-bridge) constructed on the side of an ancient masonry bridge. the track has thus been rendered very easy and every assistance was offered to caravans, while a regular service of river steamers plied from mahommerah to ahwaz, to relieve the traffic by water. the s.s. _blosse lynch_, tons, was sent up at first, but was too large, so the s.s. _malamir_, tons, was specially built for the karun navigation. matters were very prosperous at first, until many obstacles came in the way. the road has been open to traffic some three years. the first year traffic was healthy and strong, but the second year, owing to famine in arabistan, the traffic suddenly dropped and nothing would induce muleteers to travel by that route. although they were offered as much as (£ ) to krans (£ _s._) per load from isfahan to ahwaz, a distance of stages-- miles--they preferred to take krans (£ _s._ _d._) to bushire, a journey of about stages, over a distance of miles. the caravan men in persia are curious people to deal with, and it takes a very long time to imbue their minds with new ideas. in the case of the ahwaz road it was partly conservatism and fear instigated by the mullahs that prevented their taking loads to the steamers. it was fully expected that the route could not pay its way for at least five years from its inauguration, and the british government--which at that time seemed to understand the value of the undertaking--agreed to give in equal shares with the government of india a collective guarantee against losses up to £ , for the first two years, then of £ , for five years. for some unaccountable reason the government of india, which the scheme mostly concerned, dropped out, and the guarantee was further reduced to £ , payable by the home government only. as a result of this the steamers have been run since at a considerable loss, and had it not been for the patriotism of lynch brothers, and the prospects to which they still cling of a successful issue, the navigation of the karun would have already come to an untimely end. the principal article of export of any importance was wheat, grown in enormous quantities in the fertile plains of arabistan; and were its export legal, the export of grain would be infinitely greater than the whole of the present imports. but the persian government unfortunately prohibited the export of grain from persia, nominally to allay and prevent famine in the country, in fact to enrich local governors by permitting illicit export. consequently, the peasants could not sell their produce in the open market and had to sell it, accepting what they could get from speculators at about half the actual value. this led to the discontinuance of the cultivation of wheat. when for three years the exportation of grain was permitted, the acreage under cultivation was enormous and yielded very large returns, but as soon as the prohibition was set in force it dwindled year by year until it became approximately the fifth part of what it originally was. on the top of all this a severe drought occurred and a famine resulted. it seems very likely that the british government may now fall out also and stop the meagre guarantee of £ , . this may have disastrous results, for it cannot be expected that a private firm will continue the navigation of the karun at a great loss. this is, in a few words, what it may lead to. should the british abandon the work already done, russia will step in--she has had her eye upon the karun more than upon any other spot in persia--and reap the benefit of the money and labour that has been spent by us. in the plain of arabistan russian influence is not yet very far advanced, but among the backhtiaris it is spreading fast. intrigue is rampant. the russian agents endeavour to get the tribesmen into disgrace with the government and they succeed to a great extent in their aim. isphandiar khan, who has the title of sirdar assad, is the head chief of the backhtiaris, and with his cousin sephadar keeps going the various branches of the family, but serious family squabbles are very frequent and may eventually cause division. the two above named men manage to keep all together except hadji-riza kuli khan, who is an opposing factor. he is an uncle of isphandiar khan, and his rancour arises from having been ousted from the chieftainship. he is said to have fallen very badly under russian influence, and instigated his followers to rebellion, the cause being, however, put down not to family squabbles and jealousy--the true causes--but to disapproval of the new road and the influence exercised by it upon the backhtiari country. only about one-fifth of foreign imports into mahommerah find their way up the karun river. it is certainly to be regretted that no articles direct from the united kingdom are forced up the river. the trade with india in only amounted to some £ , against £ , the previous year, france, turkey, and egypt being the only other importers. the total imports into mahommerah for transhipment to karun ports amounted to £ , in , and showed a considerable increase on . piece goods find their way up the river in considerable quantities. then loaf-sugar and soft sugar are the principal articles of import; dates, iron, and treacle come next; while various metals, tea and matches come last. in regard to local commerce the river trade for was £ , , showing an increase of £ , upon the trade of . this ought to be regarded as satisfactory, considering the slowness of oriental races in moving from their old grooves. the down river trade falls very short of the up river commerce, and consists mostly of wheat, oil seeds, opium, wool, gum, flour, beans, cotton, rice, tobacco, piece goods, glue. in the decrease in the carriage of wheat was enormous, and also the trade in oil seeds. although gum was carried down stream in much larger quantities, owing to the yield being unusually abundant, the price obtained was very poor, owing to the falling london market. gum tragacanth was conveyed principally by the isfahan-ahwaz route. notwithstanding all this there was an increase of £ , in over the trade of , which shows that the route is nevertheless progressing and is worth cultivating. cotton goods, which are reimported from india mostly by parsee and jewish firms, originally come from manchester and are in great demand. they consist of grey shirtings, prints (soft finish), lappets, imitation turkey red, tanjibs and jaconets. marseilles beetroot sugar is holding its own against other cheaper sugars imported lately and finds its way to isfahan by the ahwaz road. caravans usually employ twenty days on the ahwaz-isfahan journey, but the distance can easily be covered in fifteen days and even less. a fortnightly steamer is run by the euphratis and tigris steam navigation company to ahwaz. mahommerah exports chiefly to india, then to turkey, the united kingdom, hong kong, the persian gulf ports, egypt and france. in the exports were to the value of £ , . the imports were similar to those of bandar abbas, viz.:--cotton goods, sugar, coffee, silk, iron, tea, manufactured metal, thread, spices, etc. they amounted to an aggregate sum of £ , in , against £ , in .[ ] if i have gone into details it is to show the mistake made by the british government in letting such a valuable position, of absolute vital importance to our interest, drift slowly but surely into russian hands. russia's aims in the gulf are at present concentrated on the karun river; our movements are closely watched, and nothing could be more probable than, that if we abandon the karun, russia will at once fill our place and turn the whole business into a formidable success. the russian government have now granted a subsidy of £ , per round voyage to the russian steam navigation to run three steamers a year from odessa to bussorah, touching at all the principal ports of the persian gulf. the s.s. _kornilof_ made two voyages in , arriving in bussorah in april and november. on her first voyage she landed most of her cargo in bushire, and only conveyed , cases of petroleum and a quantity of wood for date boxes; but on her second journey , cases of petroleum were landed at bussorah and a further supply of wood, besides a great number of samples of russian products, such as flour, sugar and matches. on the second return journey the _kornilof_ took back to odessa freight for two thousand pounds from bussorah, principally dates, a cargo which had been previously carried by british steamers to port said and then transhipped for the black sea. the appearance of the russian boats excited considerable interest among the natives and merchants, both british and indigenous. comments are superfluous on the grant given by the russian government to further russian trade, and the wavering attitude of the british government in safeguarding interests already acquired. footnotes: [ ] see diplomatic and consular reports, trade of persian gulf for the year . foreign office. h.m. stationery office. chapter xxxv the british consul-general in isfahan--russia's influence in southern persia--h.r.h. zil-es-sultan--departure for yezd--pigeon towers--a persian telegraph line--ghiavaz--characteristics of the scenery--a village in ruins--types--saigsi--mud dunes--mirage--a reservoir--kanats--scarcity of fodder. i only halted a few days in isfahan, during which time i was the guest of mr. preece, the british consul-general. mr. preece's hospitality and popularity are proverbial among europeans and natives all over persia. a step in the right direction was taken by the british government in making a consulate-general in isfahan, and another good step was that of furnishing the consulate with a guard of mounted indian soldiers. prestige and outward show go much together in persia, and no matter to what extent one's private feelings may rebel at the idea, we must make a display, i suppose. we have in mr. preece a very able and intellectual officer; a man who understands the persians thoroughly, and a gentleman of uncommon tact and kindliness. his artistic taste has served him well, so that the consulate and grounds have been rendered most comfortable and delightful, and the collections of carpets and silver which he has made during his many years' residence in persia are very interesting. it is true that russian influence is spreading fast towards the south, and that the establishment of a russian consulate in isfahan, with its guard of cossacks, has made considerable impression on the population, but no doubt mr. preece will be able to maintain british prestige high, if the government at home show grit and enable him to do so. it is most important, i think, to come to some sound conclusion on the policy to be followed towards russia in persia, either to check her advance immediately and firmly, or to come to some satisfactory agreement with her so that her interests and ours may not altogether clash; but it cannot be impressed too often upon our minds that our present policy of drift and wavering is most disastrous to our interests. we have lost northern persia. southern persia will soon slip from our grip unless we pull up soon and open our eyes wide to what is happening. we place too much reliance on the fact that zil-es-sultan, the shah's brother and now governor of isfahan, was once extremely pro-british. we have a way of getting ideas into our heads and nothing will drive them out again, but we forget that things and people change in persia as everywhere else, and what was accurate fifteen years ago may not be so now. also it must be remembered that zil-es-sultan, although in high power, does not occupy the same high position politically as before the late shah's death. he and his family are kept under strict control of the shah, and any pro-english ideas which they may still have are discouraged, if not promptly eradicated. his highness's sons have been forbidden to be educated in europe or to travel abroad, although a visit to russia only might be allowed. beyond the secondary power of a high governor, zil-es-sultan has no other influence, and has to conform to superior orders. he is now no longer very young, and his popularity, although still very great, cannot be said to be on the increase. [illustration: h. r. h. zil-es-sultan, governor of isfahan.] while in isfahan i had an audience of his highness. one could not help being struck at first glance by the powerful countenance of the prince, and the mixture of pride and worry plainly depicted on his face. he spoke very intelligently but was most guarded in his speech. one of his sons baharam mirza--a wonderfully clever young man, who spoke french and english fluently although he had never been out of persia--interpreted. i was much impressed by the kindliness of the zil-es-sultan towards his children, and in return by the intense respect, almost fear, of these towards their father. after a pleasant visit and the usual compliments and refreshments, coffee was brought, the polite signal that the audience should come to a close. the prince accompanied the consul and myself to the door of the room--a most unusual compliment. there were many soldiers, and servants and attendants with silver-topped maces who escorted us out of the grounds, where we found the consular guard again, and returned to the consulate. two days later i departed for yezd. there is no high road between the two cities; only a mere track. no postal service and relays of horses are stationed on the track, but, by giving notice some days previous to one's departure, horses can be sent out ahead from isfahan to various stages of the journey, until the kashan-nain-yezd road is met, on which post horses can again be obtained at the chappar khanas. this, however, involved so much uncertainty and exorbitant expense that i preferred to make up my own caravan of mules, the first part of the journey being rather hilly. on leaving isfahan there are mountains to the south, the urchin range, and also to the east, very rugged and with sharply defined edges. to the north-east stand distant elevations, but nothing can be seen due north. we go through a great many ruins on leaving the city, and here, too, as in other cities of persia, one is once more struck by the unimportant appearance of the city from a little distance off. the green dome of the mosque, and four minarets are seen rising on the north-east, five more slender minarets like factory chimneys--one extremely high--then everything else the colour of mud. the traffic near the city is great. hundreds of donkeys and mules toddle along both towards and away from the city gate. the dust is appalling. there is nothing more tantalizing than the long stretches of uninteresting country to be traversed in persia, where, much as one tries, there is nothing to rest one's eye upon; so it is with great relief--almost joy--that we come now to something new in the scenery, in the shape of architecture--a great number of most peculiar towers. [illustration: agriculture and pigeon towers near isfahan.] these are the pigeon towers--a great institution in central persia. they are cylindrical in shape, with castellated top, and are solidly built with massive walls. they stand no less than thirty to forty feet in height, and possess a central well in which the guano is collected--the object for which the towers are erected. a quadrangular house on the top, and innumerable small cells, where pigeons lay their eggs and breed their young, are constructed all round the tower. these towers are quite formidable looking structures, and are so numerous, particularly in the neighbourhood of isfahan, as to give the country quite a strongly fortified appearance. the guano is removed once a year. after passing khorasgun, at ghiavaz--a small village--one could count as many as twenty-four of these pigeon houses. some amusement could be got from the way the persian telegraph line had been laid between isfahan and yezd, _via_ nain. there were no two poles of the same height or shape; some were five or six feet long, others ten or fifteen;--some were straight, some crooked; some of most irregular knobby shapes. as to the wire, when it did happen to be supported on the pole it was not fastened to an insulator, as one would expect, but merely rested on a nail, or in an indentation in the wood. for hundreds of yards at a time the wire lay on the ground, and the poles rested by its side or across it. telegrams sent by these persian lines, i was told, take several days to reach their destination, if they ever do reach at all; and are usually entrusted for conveyance, not to the wire, but to caravan men happening to travel in that particular direction, or to messengers specially despatched from one city to the other. some two farsakhs from isfahan we went through a passage where the hills nearly meet, after which we entered a flat plain, barren and ugly. in the distance to the south-east lay a line of blackish trees, and another in front of us in the direction we were travelling, due east. then we saw another bunch of pigeon towers. leaving behind the hills nearer to us to the north-west, west, and south-west, and the more distant and most fantastically shaped range to the south, my mules gradually descend into the plain. for an angle of ° from east to s.s.e. no hills are visible to the naked eye, but there is a long range of comparatively low hills encircling us from n.n.w. to s.s.e. and n.e. of the observer, the highest points being at ° (almost n.e.e.). to the north we have a long line of _kanats_. following the drunken row of telegraph poles we arrive at gullahbad (gulnabad)--a village in ruins. from this point for some distance the soil is covered with a deposit of salt, giving the appearance of a snow-clad landscape, in sharp contrast with the terrific heat prevailing at the time. this road is impassable during the rainy weather. as one nears the hills to the n.e. tufts of grass of an anæmic green cover the ground (altitude , feet). under a scorching sun we reached saigsi ( farsakhs from isfahan) at six o'clock in the afternoon, and put up in the large caravanserai with two rooms up stairs and ten down below around the courtyard. the difference in the behaviour of the natives upon roads on which europeans do not frequently travel could be detected at once here. one met with the greatest civility and simplicity of manner and, above all, honesty, which one seldom finds where european visitors are more common. there are few countries where the facial types vary more than in persia. the individuals of nearly each town, each village, have peculiar characteristics of their own. at saigsi, for instance, only miles from isfahan, we find an absolutely different type of head, with abnormally large mouth and widely-expanded nostrils, the eyes wide apart, and the brow overhanging. the latter may be caused by the constant brilliant refraction of the white soil in the glare of the sun (altitude of saigsi , feet). about four miles east of saigsi and north of the track we come across five curious parallel lines of mud-heaps or dunes stretching from north to south. each of these heaps is precisely where there is a gap in the mountain range to the north of it, and each has the appearance of having been gradually deposited there by a current passing through these gaps when the whole of this plain was the sea-bottom. these mud heaps are flat-topped and vary from to feet in height, the central row of all being the highest of the series. this is a grand place for wonderful effects of mirage all round us. to the w. spreads a beautiful lake in the depression of the plain--as complete an optical deception as it is possible to conceive, for in reality there is no lake at all. water is not at all plentiful here. one finds a reservoir made for caravans along this track. it is a tank feet by feet sunk deep into the ground and roofed over with a vault. the water is sent to it by means of a channel from the small village of vartan north of it. we gradually rise to , feet and again we have before us another beautiful effect of mirage in the shape of a magnificent lake with a village and cluster of trees apparently suspended in the air. my caravan man assures me that the village, which appears quite close by, is many miles off. long rows of _kanats_, ancient and modern, to the south-east warn us of the approach of a small town, and on the road plenty of skeletons of camels, donkeys, and mules may be seen. fodder is very scarce upon this track, and many animals have to die of starvation. also animals caught here during the rains cannot proceed in the sinking soft ground, and eventually die. chapter xxxvi khupah--sunken well--caravanserai--night marching--kudeshk--the fishark and sara ranges--lhas--the pass--whirlwinds--robbers--fezahbad--the dangers of a telegraph wire--an accident--six villages--deposits of sand and gravel--bambis--the people--mosquitoes--a persian house--weaving loom--type of natives--clothing--sayids. early in the afternoon khupah (altitude , feet) was reached, with its very large and dirty caravanserai to the west, just outside the town wall. from the roof--the only clean part of the hostelry--one obtains a good panoramic view of the town. it is built in a most irregular shape, and is encircled by a castellated mud wall with round turrets. there is a humble dome of a mosque rising somewhat higher than all the other little domes above each dwelling. feeble attempts at raising a bazaar have been made on different sites in the town, where bits of arcades have been erected, but there are no signs about the place of a flourishing industry or trade. the majority of houses, especially in the northern part of the city, are in ruins. the principal thoroughfare is picturesque enough, and on the occasion of my visit looked particularly attractive to me, with its huge trays of delicious grapes. they were most refreshing to eat in the terrific heat of the day. one peculiarity of the place is that most doorways of houses are sunk--generally from one to three feet--below the level of the street. between the caravanserai and the city is a sunken well with flat roof and four ventilating shafts to keep the water cool. further away, are seven more buildings--probably dead-houses--and a garden. the little range north of the city is quite low, and has in front of it a pyramidal dune--a similar deposit to those we have already noticed to the north-west in the morning on our march to this place, but much higher. south of the town many trees and verdant gardens are visible, and to the west the immense stretch of flat--some sixty miles of it that we had travelled over from isfahan. for want of a better amusement i sat on the roof to watch the sunset, while sadek cooked my dinner. the nearer hills, of a bright cobalt blue, faded into a light grey in the distance, the sky shone in a warm cadmium yellow, and beneath stretched the plain, of a dark-brown bluish colour, uninterrupted for miles and miles, were it not for one or two tumbled-down huts in the immediate foreground, and a long, snake-like track winding its way across the expanse until it lost itself in the dim distance. directly below, in the courtyard of the caravanserai, four camels squatted round a cloth on which was served straw mixed with cotton seeds, that gave flavour to their meal. the camels slowly ground their food, moving their lower jaws sideways from right to left, instead of up and down as is usual in most other animals; and some of the caravan men placidly smoked their kalians, while others packed up their bundles to make ready for their departure as soon as the moon should rise. in another corner of the courtyard my own caravan man groomed the mules, and around a big flame a little further off a crowd of admiring natives gazed open-mouthed at sadek boiling a chicken and vegetables for my special benefit. we were to make a night march, as the heat of the day was too great to travel in. at three in the morning, yawning and stretching our limbs when we were roused by the charvadar,[ ] we got on the mules and made our departure. the cold was intense, and the wind blowing with all its might from the west. six miles off we passed kamalbek, then six miles further the large village of moshkianuh in ruins, with a few green trees near it. the plain on which we are travelling rises gently up to the village of kudeshk at the foot of the mountain (altitude , feet). we ascend gradually between hills to the north and south and find ourselves in another flat valley, about three quarters of a mile broad and one mile and a half long. (altitude , feet.) we are surrounded by hills, and find two villages, one to the east, the other to the west of the valley. the latter possesses buildings with masonry walls instead of the usual mud ones, and also masonry enclosures round wheat-fields and fruit-tree groves. we continue to rise until the highest point of the plain is reached, , feet. two or three smaller hamlets are found in the centre of the plain. a second basin is found on proceeding east, with here and there miserable clusters of trees; otherwise everything is as barren as barren could be. on the reddish hills the rocky portion shows through at the summit only, whereas the bases are enveloped in a covering of sand and salt. to the north the fishark and sara mountain range extends in a general direction of n.w. to s.e., and its formation is quite interesting. due north of us the eye is attracted by a peculiar hill, a double cone, two pointed, and much redder in colour than the hills near it. on nearing the mountains many small villages appear. yazih village has a solid stone wall round it. wheat is cultivated by the natives, good water being obtainable here in small but limpid streams. then we have the old village of lhas, now rejoicing in the new name of mazemullahmat, and near it, fezahbad, where i halted. i strolled in the afternoon a mile from the latter village to the pass, , feet above sea level. directly in front of the pass (at ° bearings magnetic) stands a high peak, and beyond it to the right of the observer (at ° b.m.) another and higher summit. we leave behind to the w.n.w. the high sara mountain range, no peaks of which, i estimated, rose above , feet. w.n.w. (at ° b.m.) is a most curious conical hill, standing isolated and very high above the plain. among the most common sights of these parts are the whirlwinds--the _tourbillons_,--each revolving with terrific rapidity round its own axis and raising to the sky a cylindrical column of dust. they further move along the country in a spasmodic manner, but never so fast that they cannot be avoided. the diameter of the wind columns i observed by the dust carried with it, varied from feet to feet. the mountains we are travelling on are said to be somewhat unsafe, the villagers being given to attacking caravans, and robber bands coming here for shelter when it becomes unsafe for them to be on the kashan-yezd high road. in fact, while resting in the house of haji-mulla ahmed at fezahbad, a curious lot of men appeared, who, notwithstanding the remonstrances of sadek and haji, broke into the house in a most boisterous manner, demanding food of the landlord. they were armed with revolvers and old martini rifles, and had plenty of cartridges about their persons. they seemed quite taken aback to find a european inside the room. they changed their attitude at once, and became quite polite. i entertained them to tea, of which they drank gallons. i cannot say that i was particularly charmed with their faces, but their manner was certainly most courteous. they showed me their rifles--english martinis with additional gold ornamentations of lion and sun, such as one sees in thousands all over persia. i asked them where they got them from. they said they came from the persian gulf. haji mulla ahmed, the founder of the village, was a fine old fellow with a kindly face, eyes shining like beads under an overhanging brow, and a crimson beard dyed with henna. he appeared rather sulky at this unwonted visit, and more sulky still later when the visitors left me and he had to provide food for them. he said that the robbers frequently called upon him, and were a great drain on his supplies. when we left at . a.m. to go across the pass, he advised sadek and myself to load our rifles and keep a sharp look-out. as i had already measured the altitude of the pass in the afternoon i had no particular object in keeping awake, so i slung the rifle to my saddle and dozed off on my mule as we were slowly winding our way up to the summit. the long night marches were so dreary and the sound of the mules' bells so monotonous that it was most difficult to keep awake. one gradually learns to balance one's self quite well on the saddle while asleep, and it does shorten the long hours of the night very considerably. occasionally one wakes up abruptly with a jolt, and one fancies that one is just about to tumble over, but although i suppose i must have ridden in my life hundreds of miles while asleep on the saddle, i have never once had a fall in the natural course of affairs. the animals, too, are generally so intelligent that they do for one the balancing required and manage to keep under the rider. on that particular night i was extremely sleepy. i opened my eyes for a second when we reached the pass and began to descend on the other side, but sleepiness overcame me again. i was riding the first mule in the caravan. unexpectedly i received a fearful blow in the face, and i was very nearly torn off the saddle. there was a curious metallic buzzing resounding in the air, and before i had time to warn those that came after, sadek, who came next, was knocked down, and the mules, frightened at this unusual occurrence, stampeded down the steep incline. it was the telegraph wire hanging loose right across the road that had caused the accident. the road was in zig-zag, and was crossed several times by the wire which was laid more or less in a straight line. but this, of course, i did not know, so a few minutes later, before we had time to bring the runaway mules to a stop, the wire, unseen, was again met with a foot or so above the ground. it caught the mules on the legs, and as they were tied to one another, and were carried on by the impetus of the pace at which we were going, all the animals tumbled down one on the top of the other in a heap. the packs got mercilessly undone, and it took us the best part of an hour to disentangle all and get things straight again. the cold was bitter. some two miles east of the pass there were two roads, one leading to nain, the other to nao gombes. we took the latter and shorter route, and with some sense of relief now we left the telegraph line, which proceeds to nain. on the plateau east of the pass, we found six small villages, the most eastern--eshratawat (ishratabad)--being the largest (altitude , ft.). when the sun was about to rise we more clearly distinguished a grey, sombre, mountainous mass to the east, sharply indented at its summit, like the teeth of a gigantic saw, and ending abruptly on the northern terminus. we had come between mountains, and some twelve miles from fezahbad we reached kudarz (altitude , ft.), a village situated at the foot of the range we had crossed. as the sun peeped above the mountains close by to the east a large plain disclosed itself before the observer. a long mountain range, bluish and indistinct, could just be perceived in the distance, bounding the plain to the north. some low, semi-spherical and a few conical hills, and also a somewhat higher and rugged rocky elevation, were found on entering the plain from the west. oskholun village lies in the plain miles from fezahbad. at the foot of the mountains on one's right one notices a curious deposit of sand and gravel, cushion shaped, rising in a gentle incline up the mountain side to a height of feet. it would be interesting to find out exactly how these accumulations have formed, and whether the wind or water or both are responsible for them. on arriving at bambis (altitude , ft.) sadek was in a great state of mind to find a suitable house where we could put up, as there were no caravanserais. several of the principal people in the town offered me their own houses, and eventually, after careful inspection, i accepted the cleanest. of course, in small, out-of-the-way villages no great luxury could be expected even in dwellings of well-to-do people, but after entering by a miserable door and going through a filthy passage, one came to a nice little court with an ornamental tank of somewhat fetid water. swarms of mosquitoes rose from the floating leaves of the water plants as soon as we appeared and gave us a very warm reception. in a few seconds we were stung all over. the women folks were made to stampede to the upper storey on our arrival, where they remained concealed while we stayed in the house, and the younger male members of the family hastily removed all the bedding and personal belongings from the principal room, which i was to occupy. clouds of dust were raised when an attempt was made to sweep the dried mud floor. out of the windows of the upper storey the women flung handsome carpets, which sadek duly spread upon the floor. the room was a very nice one, plastered all over and painted white, enriched with adhering dried leaves of red roses forming a design upon the ceiling. there were nine receptacles in the walls, and four more in the sides of the chimney piece. next to this room was another similar one, and opposite in the courtyard a kind of alcove was used as a kitchen. it had a raised part of mud bricks some three feet high and about as broad, on which was fixed the weaving loom that stretched right across the court when in use. a hole was made in the raised portion, in which the weaver sat when at work, so as to keep the legs under the loom. [illustration: persian spinning wheels and weaving looms.] the loom is simple enough, the two sets of long horizontal threads being kept at high tension by an iron bar fixed into the cylindrical wooden rollers, round which the threads are rolled. there is then a vertical arrangement for moving the long horizontal sets of threads alternately up and down by means of pedals, a cross thread being passed between them with a spool, and beaten home each time with the large comb suspended in a vertical position. the threads are kept in position by two additional combs which represent the width of the cloth, and in which each horizontal thread is kept firm in its central position by a clever device of inverted loops between which it is passed and clenched tight. the cloth is rolled round a wooden cylinder. it is extremely strong and durable. almost each house has a weaving loom. on one side of the court was a recess in the wall for valuables. the padlock was closed by means of a screw. by the side of the kitchen one found the lumber and refuse room, and there were corresponding arrangements on the floor above. unlike other persian houses this was lighted by windows with neat woodwork, instead of by the usual skylight hole in the dome of the room. the natives at this village were very handsome. there was a touch of the afghan type in the men, and the women had fine faces with magnificent eyes. one found firm mouths with well-cut and properly developed lips, in contrast to the weak, drooping mouths of the people one had met in the western cities; and the noses were finely chiselled, with well-defined nostrils. there was no unsteadiness in the eyes, so common to the persians of the north-west,--and these fellows consequently presented quite an honest appearance, while the overhanging brow added a look of pensiveness. the skull was peculiarly formed, slanting upwards considerably from the forehead to an abnormal height, and giving the cranium an elongated shape. the ears, too, generally malformed or under-developed in most persians, were better shaped in these people, although by no means perfect. they, nevertheless, showed a certain refinement of blood and race. in the matter of men's clothing it was gratifying to find the ugly pleated frockcoats discarded--or, rather, never adopted--and long picturesque shirts and ample trousers worn instead, held together by a kamarband. over all was thrown a brown burnous, not unlike that of the bedouins, and the head was wound in an ample turban of the hindoo pattern. children wore short coats ornamented with embroidery and shells at the back and pretty silver buttons in front. their little caps, too, were embellished with shells, beads, or gold braiding. nearly all male natives, old and young, suffered from complaints of the eyes, but not so the women,--probably because they spent most of the time in the house and did not expose themselves to the glare of the sun and salty dust, which seemed to be the principal cause of severe inflammation of the eyes. bambis village was greatly dependent upon isfahan for its provisions, and therefore everything was very dear. excellent vegetables, _shalga_, _sardek_, _churconda_, and pomegranates were nevertheless grown, by means of a most elaborate and ingenious way of irrigation, but the water was very brackish and dirty. felt filters were occasionally used by the natives for purifying the drinking water. there were a number of sayids living at bambis, who looked picturesque in their handsome green turbans; they were men of a splendid physique, very virile, simple in manner, serious and dignified, and were held in much respect by their fellow villagers. footnotes: [ ] charvadar--caravan man. chapter xxxvii bambis--the kashsan-yezd high road--the kevir plain--minerals--chanoh--sand deposits--sherawat--kanats--agdah--stone cairns--kiafteh--an isolated mount--a long sand bar--a forsaken village--picturesque biddeh--handsome caravanserai at meiboh--rare baths--shamsi--sand-hills--hodjatabad--fuel--a "tower of silence"--a split camel--thousands of borings for water--a four-towered well. we left bambis at ten o'clock on sunday evening and travelled on a flat plain the whole night. one village (arakan) was passed, and eventually we entered the teheran-kashan-yezd high road which we struck at nao gombes. here there were a chappar khana and an ancient caravanserai--the latter said to be of the time of shah abbas--but we did not stop, and continued our journey along a broad, immense stretch of flat country consisting of sand and gravel. my men were fast asleep on their mules, but the animals seemed to know their way well, as they had been on this road many times before. the night was extremely cold. we were now at an altitude of , feet in what is called the "kevir," a small salt desert plain, enclosed to the south-west of the track by the south-easterly continuation of the sara and keble range; to the north-east by the mehradji, turkemani, and duldul mountains; and to the north by the aparek and abiane mountains. during the rainy weather the drainage of the latter two ranges is carried in large volumes into the plain between them, and eventually into the kevir, in which it loses itself. to the south-east the ardakan mountains form a barrier, having, however, a gap between them and the andjile mountains, through which the road crosses in a south-easterly direction. antimony is found in the mehradji mountains, and copper, lead (in several localities), nickel and antimony in the anarek region. silver is said to have been found in the andjile. to the north-east, almost in the middle of the kevir, stands the isolated high mountain of siakuh. thirty-six miles from bambis we reached chanoh, a most desolate place, with a rest-house in ruins and a couple of suspicious-looking wells. we arrived here at eight in the morning, after having travelled since ten o'clock the previous evening, but we only allowed ourselves and our mules four hours' rest for breakfast, and we were again in the saddle at noon. there is nothing to interest the traveller on this part of the road except an occasional passing caravan, and the scenery is dreary beyond words. long, long stretches of flat, uninteresting sand and gravel, or sand alone in places. on nearing the spot where the track passes between the andjile and ardakan mountains we find sand deposits stretching out for nearly two miles from the mountain ranges to the south-west and south. shehrawat (shehrabad) village differs from most we have seen in the shape of its few roofs, which are semi-cylindrical, like a vault, and not semi-spherical. a mud tower rises above them, and there are a few fields and some fruit-trees near the habitations. about a mile further, more sand dunes are to be found, and a long row of kanats carrying water to the village of nasirabad, half a mile east of the track. further on we come upon an open canal, and we can perceive a village about two miles distant, also to the east of the track. just before arriving at agdah the earth has positively been disembowelled in search of water, so numerous are the kanats of all sizes and depths among which we wind our way. the large village of agdah itself stands on a prominence ( , ft.) against a background of mountains, and is embellished with a great many orchards tidily walled round. it is a famous place for pomegranates, which are really delicious. as usual a number of ruined houses surround those still standing, and as we skirt the village wall over feet high we observe some picturesque high round towers. the telegraph wire (which we had met again at nao gombes) was here quite an amusing sight. in the neighbourhood of the village it was highly decorated with rags of all colours, and with stones tied to long strings which, when thrown up, wind themselves round and remain entangled in the wire. there were some habitations in agdah, the principal one with a large quadrangular tower, being that of the governor; but both the chappar khana and the caravanserai were the filthiest we had so far encountered. a number of sayids lived here. we halted at four in the afternoon on monday, october th. the mules were so tired that i decided to give them twelve hours' rest. it may be noticed that we had travelled from ten o'clock the previous evening until four in the afternoon--eighteen hours--with only four hours' rest,--quite good going for caravan marching. the mules were excellent. at a.m. on the tuesday we rode out of the caravanserai, and still travelled south-east on a flat gravel plain, with the high ardakan mountains to the east. fourteen miles or so from agdah the country became undulating with large pebble stones washed down from the mountain-sides. cairns of stone had been erected on the first hillock we came to near the road. we passed two villages, one on the track, the other about a mile north of it, and near this latter two or three smaller hamlets were situated. sixteen miles from agdah we halted for an hour or so at the village of kiafteh (chaftah)--altitude , feet--with its round tower and the mosque of semur-ed-din one mile north of it. here there was a chappar khana. the labourers wore a short blue shirt and ample trousers, with white turban and white shoes. having partaken of a hearty breakfast we were off again on the road in the broiling sun at . a.m. beautiful effects of mirage were before us like splendid lakes, with the mountains reflected into them, and little islands. as we go through the gap in the mountains that are now to the south-west and north-east of us the plain narrows to a width of some four miles, and the direction of the track is east-south-east. to the south-east the hillocks of a low range stretch as far as the mountains on the south-west, and several parallel ranges lie on the north-east. south, very far off, is the high shirkuh mountain. eight miles from kiafteh we cross over the low hill range by a pass ( , ft.) about feet above the plain ( , ft.). there is a mournful look about the soil of black sand, and also about the gloomy shingle hill range extending from the north-east to the south-west. the black underlying rock where exposed to the air shows numberless holes corroded in it, as by the action of moving salt water. an inexplicable isolated hill stands in the centre of the valley, which here is not perfectly flat, but in a gentle incline, higher at its south-western extremity than at its north-eastern edge. a formation of mud dunes similar to those we had encountered near saigsi is here to be noticed, this time, however, not directly in front of each gap in the mountain range, but opposite them near the range in front, that forms a kind of bay. these dunes were probably caused by the deposit of sand and gravel left by a current that met the barrier of mountains on the opposite side of the bay. on crossing the hill range some eighteen miles from kiafteh, we come across a sand-bar which stretches in a semi-circle half way across the valley, where it then suddenly turns south-east. it is about feet high. to all appearance the sand deposited upon this bar seems to have travelled in a direction from north north-east to south south-west. a mile further it meets another sand dune, stretching in a general direction of south-west to north-east. where the higher dune comes to an end half-way across the valley we find a village, having the usual quadrangular mud enclosure with towers, an abandoned caravanserai fast tumbling down, and a few domed mud hovels. the larger and better preserved village of bafru, one mile to the east of the track, is well surrounded by a long expanse of verdant trees. south of it is the other flourishing settlement of deawat (deabad). the abandoned village of assiabo gordoneh, now in ruins, tells us a sad story. the village at one time evidently ran short of water. hundreds of borings can be seen all round it in all directions, but they must have been of no avail. the place had to be forsaken. the sand dune is here feet high. the space between these two sand dunes--plateau-like--is nicely cultivated in patches where some water has been found. we arrived in the evening at biddeh, a very large and most weird place, with habitations partly cut into the high mud banks. the houses were several storeys high. the greater number of buildings, now in ruins, show evidence of the former importance of this place and the wonderful ancient aqueducts with the water carried over a high bridge from one side of a ravine to the other are of great interest. this must have been a prosperous place at one time. the whitish clay soil has been quaintly corroded by the action of water, and one finds curious grottoes and deep, contorted, natural channels. a mosque and several impressive buildings--the adjective only applies when you do not get too near them--stand high up against the cliff side. the whole place is quite picturesque. the mules go along a narrow lane between walled fields, and then by a steepish ascent among ruined houses and patches of cultivation we reach the summit of the clay dune, on which the newer village of meiboh (maibut)-- , feet--is situated. there is a most beautiful (for persia) caravanserai here with a delightful domed tank of clear spring water, in which i then and there took a delicious bath, much to the horror of the caravanserai proprietor who assured me--when it was too late--that the tank was no _hammam_ or bath, but was water for drinking purposes. his horror turned into white rage when, moreover, he declared that my soap, which i had used freely, would kill all the fish which he had carefully nursed for years in the tank. we spent most of the evening in watching the state of their health, and eventually it was with some relief that we perceived all the soap float away and the water again become as clear as crystal. to the evident discomfiture of the caravanserai man, when we paid the last visit to the tank at a.m. just previous to my departure, no deaths were to be registered in the tank, and therefore no heavy damages to pay. there is nothing one misses more than baths while travelling in central and eastern persia. there is generally hardly sufficient water to drink at the various stages, and it is usually so slimy and bad that, although one does not mind drinking it, because one has to, one really would not dream of bathing or washing in it! hence my anxiety not to lose my chance of a good plunge at meiboh. on leaving meiboh at a.m. we passed for a considerable distance through land under cultivation, the crop being principally wheat. a large flour-mill was in course of construction at meiboh. after that we were again travelling on a sandy plain, with thousands of borings for water on all sides, and were advancing mainly to the south-west towards the mountains. we continued thus for some twelve miles as far as shamsi, another large village with much cultivation around it. after that, there were sand and stones under our mules' hoofs, and a broiling sun over our heads. on both sides the track was screened by mountains and by a low hill range to the north-east. about eight miles from shamsi we entered a region of sand hills, the sand accumulations--at least, judging by the formation of the hills--showing the movement of the sand to have been from west to east. this fact was rather curious and contrasted with nearly all the other sand accumulations which we found later in eastern persia, where the sand moved mostly in a south-westerly direction. no doubt the direction of the wind was here greatly influenced and made to deviate by the barriers of mountains so close at hand. there were numerous villages, large and small, on both sides of the track. hodjatabad, our last halt before reaching yezd, only sixteen miles further, had a handsome caravanserai, the porch of which was vaulted over the high road. it was comparatively clean, and had spacious stabling for animals. delicious grapes were to be obtained here, and much of the country had been cleared of the sand deposit and its fertile soil cultivated. fuel was very expensive in persia. at the entrance of nearly every caravanserai was displayed a large clumsy wooden scale, upon which wood was weighed for sale to travellers, and also, of course, barley and fodder for one's animals. the weights were generally round stones of various sizes. jaffarabad, a very large and prosperous place, stood about one mile to the north-west of the caravanserai, and had vegetation and many trees near it; this was also the case with the other village of medjamed, which had innumerable fields round it. firuzabad came next as we proceeded towards yezd, and then, after progressing very slowly,--we sank deep in sand for several miles--we perceived upon a rugged hill a large round white "tower of silence," which had been erected there by the guebres (or parsees) for the disposal of their dead. we skirted the mud wall of elawad--where the women's dress was in shape not unlike that of turkish women, and consisted of ample, highly-coloured trousers and short zouave jacket. the men resembled afghans. i here came across the first running camel i had seen in persia, and on it was mounted a picturesque rider, who had slung to his saddle a sword, a gun, and two pistols, while round his waistband a dagger, a powder-flask, bullet pouch, cap carrier, and various such other warlike implements hung gracefully in the bright light of the sun. a few yards further we came upon a ghastly sight--a split camel. the poor obstinate beast had refused to cross a narrow stream by the bridge, and had got instead on the slippery mud near the water edge. his long clumsy hind-legs had slipped with a sudden _écart_ that had torn his body ripped open. the camel was being killed as we passed, and its piercing cries and moans were too pitiful for words. the mountain on which the huge tower of silence has been erected--by permission of zil-es-sultan, i was told--is quadrangular with a long, narrow, flat-topped platform on the summit. the best view of it is obtained from the south. sadek told me in all seriousness from information received from the natives, that the bodies are placed in these towers in a sitting position with a stick under the chin to support them erect. when crows come in swarms to pick away at the body, if the right eye is plucked out first by a plundering bird, it is said to be a sure sign that the ex-soul of the body will go to heaven. if the left eye is picked at first, then a warmer climate is in store for the soul of the dead. after leaving behind the guebre tower we come again upon thousands of borings for water, and ancient _kanats_, now dry and unused. the country grows less sandy about eight miles from yezd, and we have now gradually ascended some feet from the village of meiboh (maibut) to an altitude of , feet. here we altogether miss the flourishing cultivation which lined the track as far as the guebre tower, and cannot detect a single blade of grass or natural vegetation of any kind on any side. there are high mountains to the south-west and east. on the right (west) side of the track, eight miles from yezd, is the neat mud wall of nusseratabad, with a few trees peeping above it, but to the left of us all is barren, and we toddled along on grey, clayish sand. half-way between nusseratabad and yezd a four-towered well is to be found, and a quarter of a mile further the mazereh sadrih village, one and a-half farsakhs from yezd. the mules sank deep in the fine sand. there were a good many guebres about, mostly employed in carrying manure on donkeys. one of them, who was just returning from one of these errands, addressed me, much to my surprise, in hindustani, which he spoke quite fluently. he told me that he had travelled all over india, and was about to start again for bombay. [illustration: halting at a caravanserai.] [illustration: a street in yezd, showing high _badjirs_ or ventilating shafts.] some "_badjir_"--high ventilating shafts--and a minaret or two tell us that we are approaching the town of yezd--the ancient city of the parsees--and soon after we enter the large suburb of mardavoh, with its dome and graceful tower. a track in an almost direct line, and shorter than the one i had followed, exists between isfahan and yezd. it passes south of the gao khanah (salt lake) to the south-east of isfahan. chapter xxxviii yezd--water supply--climate--cultivation--products--exports and imports--population--trade--officials--education--persian children--public schools--the mushir school--the parsee school--c.m.s. mission school--the medical mission--the hospital--christianizing difficult--european ladies in persia--tolerance of race religions. yezd is the most central city of persia, but from a pictorial point of view the least interesting city in the shah's empire. there are a great many mosques--it is said about fifty--but none very beautiful. the streets are narrow and tortuous, with high walls on either side and nothing particularly attractive about them. curious narrow arches are frequently to be noticed overhead in the streets, and it is supposed that they are to support the side walls against collapse. there is not, at least i could not find, a single building of note in the city except the principal and very ancient mosque,--a building in the last degree of decay, but which must have formerly been adorned with a handsome frontage. there is a very extensive but tumbling-down wall around the city, and a wide moat, reminding one of a once strongly fortified place. to-day the greater portion of yezd is in ruins. the water supply is unfortunately very defective and irregular. there are no perennial streams of any importance, and all the irrigation works are dependent on artificial subterranean canals and kanats, and these in their turn are mostly subject to the rain and snow fall on the hills surrounding yezd. unluckily, the rains are now neither frequent nor abundant, and the land has in consequence been suffering severely from want of water. snow falls in winter and to a great extent feeds the whole water supply of yezd and its neighbourhood. it is not surprising, therefore, that more than three-quarters of the province of yezd is barren land, cultivation being under the circumstances absolutely out of the question. some portions of the province, however, where water is obtainable are quite fertile. towards the west the hills show some signs of vegetation, mainly fruit trees. but nothing larger than a bush grows wild, if we except occasional stunted fig-trees. surrounded by mountains as yezd is, there are two different climates close at hand: that of the "kohestan" or hills, temperate in summer but piercing cold in winter, and the other, much warmer, of the low-lying land. in the eastern lowlands the summer heat is excessive, in autumn just bearable, and in the spring the climate is quite delightful. in all seasons, however, with few exceptions, it is generally dry and always healthy and pure. where some moisture is obtainable the soil is very fertile and is cultivated by the natives. the chief cultivated products are wheat, barley, and other cereals, cotton, opium, and tobacco. the vine flourishes near yezd, and the wines used by the parsees are not unpalatable. mulberries are cultivated in large quantities. silk is probably the most important product of the yezd district. wild game is said to be plentiful on the mountains. with the exception of salt, the mineral products of the district are insignificant. yezd is a great trading centre, partly owing to its geographical position, partly because its inhabitants are very go-ahead and enterprising. yezd men are great travellers and possess good business heads. they go across the salt desert to khorassan and afghanistan, and they trade, with india principally, via kerman, bandar abbas, and lingah, and also to a small extent via sistan. previously the trade went entirely by shiraz and bushire, but now that road is very unsafe, owing to robbers. yezd traders travel even much further afield, as far as china, india, java. during my short stay i met quite a number of people who had visited bombay, calcutta, russia, bokhara, and turkestan. the settled population of yezd consists mostly of shia mahommedans, the descendants of the ancient persian race, with an intermixture of foreign blood; the parsees or zoroastrians, who still retain their purity of race and religious faith, and who are principally engaged in agriculture and commerce; a very small community of european christians, including a few armenian natives of julfa (isfahan). then there are about one thousand jews, who live mostly in abject poverty. the mahommedan population of the town may be approximately estimated at sixty thousand. here, even more noticeably than in any other persian town, there is very little outward show in the buildings, which are of earth and mud and appear contemptible, but the interiors of houses of the rich are pleasant and well-cared for. the miserable look of the town, however, is greatly redeemed by the beauty of the gardens which surround it. it is to be regretted that the roads in and around yezd are in a wretched condition, being absolutely neglected, for were there safer and more practicable roads trade would be facilitated and encouraged to no mean degree. as things stand now, indigenous trade is increasing slowly, but foreign trade is making no headway. the silk and opium trades, which were formerly the most profitable, have of late declined. cottons and woollens, silk, the _kasb_ and _aluhi_ of very finest quality, shawls, cotton carpets and noted felts equal if not superior to the best of kum, are manufactured both for home use and for export. the exports mainly consist of almonds and nuts, tobacco, opium (to china), colouring matters, walnut-wood, silk, wool, cotton carpets, felts, skins, assafoetida, shoes, copper pots, country loaf-sugar, sweetmeats, for which yezd is celebrated, etc. henna is brought to yezd from minab and bandar abbas to be ground and prepared for the persian market, being used with _rang_ as a dye for the hair. the chief imports are spices, cotton goods, yarn, prints, copper sheeting, tin slabs, indian tea, broadcloth, jewellery, arms, cutlery, watches, earthenware, glass and enamel wares, iron, loaf-sugar, powdered sugar, etc. the government of yezd, as of other cities of persia, is purely despotic, limited only by the power and influence of the mahommedan priests, the mullahs, and by the dread of private vengeance or an occasional insurrection. it is true that the actions of hakims and governors and their deputies are liable to revision from the teheran authorities, but this does not prevent exactions and extortions being carried on quite openly and on a large scale. the present governor, salal-ud-dauleh--"glory of the state,"--eldest son of zil-es-sultan, is an intelligent and well-to-do young man, sensibly educated, who tries his best to be fair to everybody; but it is very difficult for him to run alone against the strong tide of corruption which swamps everything in persia. he is not in good health, and spends much of his time hunting wild game at his country place in the hills near yezd. his town residence is a kind of citadel--not particularly impressive, nor clean--inside the city wall. the naib-ul-kukumat was the deputy-governor at the time of my visit. he seemed quite an affable and intelligent man. near the palace in the heart of the city are the covered bazaars, old and new, and well stocked with goods, but they are in character so exactly like those of teheran and isfahan, already described in previous chapters, that a repetition is quite unnecessary. the streets are irregularly planned, and the older ones are very dark and dingy, but the newer arcades are lofty and handsome. the merchants seem--for persia--quite active and business-like. at the beginning of the nineteenth century the population of yezd is said to have been one hundred thousand souls, and to have dwindled down to less than thirty thousand in - during the terrific famine which took place at that time. whether this is correct or not, it is difficult to ascertain, but to-day the city is on the increase again, and the population, as already stated, is certainly not less than sixty thousand. there are numerous mahommedan _hammams_ (baths)--some or more--in yezd, but europeans are not allowed to enter them. the yezd people are very forward in educational matters. i inspected some of the schools and colleges, and was much impressed by the matter-of-fact, sensible way in which some of the more modern institutions were conducted. they would indeed put to shame a great many of our schools in england, and as for the talent of children, as compared with english children of the same age, one had better say nothing at all. with no exaggeration, children aged six analysed and reasoned out problems placed before them in a way that would in this country baffle men of six times that age. the quickness of the persian child's brain is well-nigh astounding, and as for their goodness and diligence, there is only one word that fits them: they are simply "angelic." their intense reverence for the teachers, their eagerness really to learn, and their quiet, attentive behaviour were indeed worthy of admiration. but it must be well understood that these angelic traits are confined to the school-days only. when they leave school the "angelic" wears off very soon, and the boys, unluckily, drift into the old and demoralized ways with which persia is reeking. there are about a dozen public schools in yezd, but the one conducted on most modern lines is the new school started by the mushir. if i understood aright, the mushir provided the buildings and money to work the school for a period of time, after which if successful it will be handed over to be supported by the city or by private enterprise. the school was excellent. there were a hundred pupils from the ages of six to fifteen, and they were taught arabic, persian, english, french, geography, arithmetic, &c. there was a mudir or head master who spoke french quite fluently, and separate teachers for the other various matters. the school was admirably conducted, with quite a military discipline mingled with extreme kindness and thoughtfulness on the part of the teachers towards the pupils. by the sound of a bell the boys were collected by the mudir in the court-yard, round which on two floors were the schoolrooms, specklessly clean and well-aired. while i was being entertained to tea, sherbet, and coffee, on a high platform, i was politely requested to ascertain for myself the knowledge of the boys--most of whom had only been in the school less than a year. it was rather interesting to hear little chaps of six or eight rattle off, in a language foreign to them and without making a single mistake, all the capitals of the principal countries in the world, and the largest rivers, the highest mountains, the biggest oceans, and so on. and other little chaps--no taller than three feet--summed up and subtracted and divided and multiplied figures with an assurance, quickness and accuracy which i, personally, very much envied. then they wrote english and french sentences on the slate, and persian and arabic, and i came out of the school fully convinced that whatever was taught in that school was certainly taught well. these were not special pupils, but any pupil i chose to pick out from the lot. i visited another excellent institution, the parsee school--one of several teaching institutions that have been established in yezd by the bombay society for the amelioration of persian zoroastrians,--in a most beautiful building internally, with large courts and a lofty vaulted hall wherein the classes are held. the boys, from the ages of six to fifteen, lined the walls, sitting cross-legged on mats, their notebooks, inkstands, and slate by their side. at the time of my visit there were as many as pupils, and they received a similar education, but not quite so high, as in the mushir school. in the parsee school less time was devoted to foreign languages. ustad javan mard, a most venerable old man, was the head-master, and ustad baharam his assistant. the school seemed most flourishing, and the pupils very well-behaved. although the stocks for punishing bad children were very prominent under the teacher's table, the head-master assured me that they were seldom required. another little but most interesting school is the one in connection with the clerical work done by the rev. napier malcolm. it is attended principally by the sons of well-to-do mussulmans and by a few parsees, who take this excellent opportunity of learning english thoroughly. most of the teaching is done by an armenian assistant trained at the c. m. s. of julfa. here, too, i was delightfully surprised to notice how intelligent the boys were, and mr. malcolm himself spoke in high terms of the work done by the students. they showed a great facility for learning languages, and i was shown a boy who, in a few months, had picked up sufficient english to converse quite fluently. the boys, i was glad to see, are taught in a very sensible manner, and what they are made to learn will be of permanent use to them. the church missionary society is to be thanked, not only for this good educational work which it supplies in yezd to children of all creeds, but for the well-appointed hospital for men and women. a large and handsome caravanserai was presented to the medical mission by mr. godarz mihri-ban-i-irani, one of the leading parsees of yezd, and the building was adapted and converted by the church missionary society into a hospital, with a permanent staff in the men's hospital of an english doctor and three armenian assistants. there is also a smaller women's hospital with an english lady doctor, who in was aided by two ladies and by an armenian assistant trained at julfa. there are properly disinfected wards in both these hospitals, with good beds, a well appointed dispensary, and dissecting room. the natives have of late availed themselves considerably of the opportunity to get good medical assistance, but few except the very poorest, it seems, care actually to remain in the hospital wards. they prefer to take the medicine and go to their respective houses. a special dark room has been constructed for the operation and cure of cataract, which is a common complaint in yezd. the health of yezd is uncommonly good, and were it not that the people ruin their digestive organs by excessive and injudicious eating, the ailments of yezd would be very few. the population is, without exception, most favourable to the work of the medical mission, and all classes seem to be grateful for the institution in the town. the school work of the mission necessarily appeals to a much smaller circle, but there is no doubt whatever about its being appreciated, and, further, there seems to be exceedingly little hostility to such religious inquiry and teaching as does not altogether collide with or appear to tend to severance from the mussulman or parsee communities. this is very likely due to the fast extending influence of the behai sect, the members of which regard favourably an acquaintance with other non-idolatrous religions. these people, notwithstanding their being outside of official protection and in collision with the mullahs, form to-day a large proportion of the population of yezd, and exercise an influence on public opinion considerably wider than the boundaries of their sect. as for actual missionary work of christianization going beyond this point, the difficulties encountered and the risks of a catastrophe are too great at present for any sensible man to attempt it. the european staff of the c.m.s. mission, employed entirely in educational and medical work in yezd, consists of the rev. napier malcolm, m.a., a most sensible and able man, and mrs. malcolm, who is of great help to her husband; george day esq., l.r.c.p. & s., and mrs. day; miss taylor, l.r.c.p. & s., miss stirling, miss brighty. the work for ladies is somewhat uphill and not always pleasant, for in mussulman countries women, if not veiled, are constantly exposed to the insults of roughs; but people are beginning to get reconciled to what appeared to them at first the very strange habits of european women, and no doubt in time it will be less unpleasant for ladies to work among the natives. so far the few english ladies who have braved the consequences of undertaking work in persia are greatly to be admired for their pluck, patience, and tact. the yezd c.m.s. mission was started in may, , by dr. henry white, who had a year's previous experience of medical work at julfa and isfahan. he was then joined in december of the same year by the rev. napier malcolm, who had just come out from england. the european community of yezd is very small. besides the above mentioned people--who do not always reside in yezd--there are two englishmen of the bank of persia, and a swiss employed by the firm of ziegler & co. that is all. the fact that the persian government recognizes the "race religions," such as those of armenians, parsees and jews, has led many to believe that religious liberty exists in persia. there is a relative tolerance, but nothing more, and even the parsees and jews have had until quite lately--and occasionally even now have--to submit to considerable indignities on the part of the mullahs. for new sects like the behai, however, who abandon the mussulman faith, there is absolutely no official protection. great secrecy has to be maintained to avoid persecution. there seems, nevertheless, to be a disposition on the part of the government to go considerably beyond this point of sufferance, but wider toleration does not exist at present, nor is it perfectly clear to what length the government of the country would be prepared to go. chapter xxxix the guebres of yezd--askizar--the sassanian dynasty--yezdeyard--the name "parsees"--the arab invasion of persia--a romantic tale--zoroaster--parsees of india--why the parsees remained in yezd and kerman--their number--oppression--the teaching of the zoroastrian religion and of the mahommedan--a refreshing quality--family ties--injustice--guebre places of worship--the sacred fire--religious ceremonies--three excellent points in the zoroastrian religion--the parsees not "fire worshippers"--purification of fire--no ancient sacred books--attire--no civil rights--the "jazia" tax--occupations--the bombay parsees amelioration society and its work--the pioneers of trade--a national assembly--ardeshir meheban irani--establishment of the association--naturalized british subjects--consulates wanted--the bombay parsees--successful traders--parsee generosity--mr. jamsetsji tata. yezd is extremely interesting from a historical point of view, and for its close association with that wonderful race the "guebres," better known in europe by the name of parsees. the ancient city of askizar was buried by shifting sands, in a desert with a few oases, and was followed by the present yezd, which does not date from earlier than the time of the sassanian dynasty. [illustration: ardeshir meheban irani and the leading members of the anguman-i-nasseri (parsee national assembly), yezd.] yezdeyard, the weak and unlucky last king of the sassan family, which had reigned over persia for years, was the first to lay the foundations of the city and to colonize its neighbourhood. it is in this city that, notwithstanding the sufferings and persecution of mussulmans after the arab invasion of persia, the successors of a handful of brave people have to this day remained faithful to their native soil. to be convinced that the parsees of yezd are a strikingly fine lot of people it is sufficient to look at them. the men are patriarchal, generous, sober, intelligent, thrifty; the women, contrary to the usage of all asiatic races, are given great freedom, but are renowned for their chastity and modesty. the name of parsees, adopted by the better-known guebres who migrated to india, has been retained from fars or pars, their native country, which contained, before the arab invasion, persepolis as the capital, with a magnificent royal palace. from this province the whole kingdom eventually adopted the name. it is not necessary to go into the history of the nine dynasties which ruled in persia before it was conquered by the arabs, but for our purpose it is well to remind the reader that of all these dynasties the sassanian was the last, and yezdeyard, as we have seen, the ultimate king of the sassan family. one is filled with horror at the romantic tale of how, through weakness on his part and treachery on that of his people, the fanatic arabs, guided by the light of allah the prophet, conquered persia, slaying the unbelievers and enforcing the mahommedan religion on the survivors. the runaway yezdeyard was treacherously slain with his own jewelled sword by a miller, in whose house he had obtained shelter after the disastrous battle of nahavand and his flight through sistan, khorassan and merv. persia, with every vestige of its magnificence, was lost for ever to the persians, and the supremacy of mahommedanism, with its demoralizing influence, its haughty intolerance and fanatic bigotism, was firmly established from one end of the country to the other. the fine temples, the shrines of the zoroastrians, were mercilessly destroyed or changed into mosques. zoroaster, the prophet of the parsees, had first promulgated his religion during the reign of gushtasp (b.c. ) of the kayanian family, but after centuries of vicissitudes and corruption it was not till the time of the sassanian dynasty (a.d. ) that ardeshir babekhan, the brave and just, restored the zoroastrian religion to its ancient purity. it is this religion--the true religion of ancient persia--that was smothered by the conquered arabs by means of blood and steel, and is only to-day retained in a slightly modified character by the few remaining guebres of yezd and kerman, as well as by those who, sooner than sacrifice their religious convictions and their independence, preferred to abandon their native land, migrating to india with their families, where their successors are to be found to this day still conservative to their faith. it is not too much to say that, although--in the conglomeration of races that form the indian empire--the parsees are few in number, not more than , all counted, they nevertheless occupy, through their honesty, intelligence and firmness of character, the foremost place in that country. but with these parsees who migrated we have no space to deal here. we will merely see why the remainder escaped death at the hands of the mahommedans, and, while ever remaining true to their religion, continued in yezd and kerman when, under the new rulers, almost the whole of the zoroastrian population of persia was compelled to embrace the religion of islam. the fact that yezd and kerman were two distant and difficult places of access for the invading moslems, may be taken as the likely cause of the zoroastrians collecting there. also for the same reason, no doubt, the arabs, tired of fighting and slaying, and having given way to luxury and vice, had become too lazy to carry on their wholesale slaughter of the zoroastrian population. this leniency, however, has not done away entirely with constant tyrannical persecution and oppression of the unbelievers, so that now the number of zoroastrians of yezd does not exceed , , and that of kerman is under , . a great many zoroastrians have, notwithstanding their unwillingness, been since compelled to turn mahommedans. even fifty years ago the zoroastrians of yezd and kerman called in persia contemptuously "guebres," were subjected to degradations and restrictions of the worst kind. now their condition, under a stronger government and some foreign influence, has slightly ameliorated, but is not yet entirely secure against the cruelty, fanaticism, and injustice of the mullahs and officials in the place. if yezd is, for its size, now the most enterprising trading centre of persia, it is mostly due to the guebres living there. although held in contempt by the mullahs and by the mahommedans in general, these guebres are manly fellows, sound in body and brain, instead of lascivious, demoralized, effeminate creatures like their tyrants. hundreds of years of oppression have had little effect on the moral and physical condition of the guebres. they are still as hardy and proud as when the whole country belonged to them; nor has the demoralizing contact of the present race, to whom they are subject, had any marked effect on their industry, which was the most remarkable characteristic in the ancient zoroastrians. the zoroastrian religion teaches that every man must earn his food by his own exertion and enterprise,--quite unlike the mahommedan teaching, that the height of bliss is to live on the charity of one's neighbours, which rule, however, carries a counterbalancing conviction that the more money dispensed in alms, the greater the certainty of the givers obtaining after death a seat in heaven. one of the most refreshing qualities of the guebres (and of the parsees in india) is that they are usually extraordinarily truthful for natives of asia, and their morality, even in men, is indeed quite above the average. there are few races among which marriages are conducted on more sensible lines and are more successful. the man and woman united by marriage live in friendly equality, and are a help to one another. family ties are very strong, and are carried down even to distant relations, while the paternal and maternal love for their children, and touching filial love for their parents, is most praiseworthy and deserves the greatest admiration. the mussulmans themselves, although religiously at variance and not keen to follow the good example of the guebres, admit the fact that the zoroastrians are honest and good people. it is principally the mullahs who are bitter against them and instigate the crowds to excesses. there is not such a thing for the guebres as justice in persia, and even up to quite recent times their fire temples and towers of silence were attacked and broken into by mussulman crowds, the fires, so tenderly cared for, mercilessly put out: the sacred books destroyed, and the temples desecrated in the most insulting manner. there are a number of guebre places of worship in yezd, and in the surrounding villages inhabited by guebre agriculturists, but the principal one is in the centre of the guebre quarter of yezd city. it is a neat, small structure, very simple and whitewashed inside, with a fortified back room wherein the sacred fire is kept alight, well covered with ashes by a specially deputed priest. it is hidden so as to make it difficult for intending invaders to discover it; and the strong door, well protected by iron bars, wants a good deal of forcing before it can be knocked down. the religious ceremony in the temple of the guebres is very interesting, the officiating priests being dressed up in a long white garment, the _sudra_, held together by a sacred girdle, and with the lower portion of the face covered by a square piece of cloth like a handkerchief; on the head they wear a peculiar cap. various genuflexions, on a specially spread carpet, and bows are made and prayers read. [illustration: parsee priests of yezd officiating during ceremony in their fire temple.] the priests belong generally to the better classes, and the rank is mostly hereditary. certain ceremonies are considered necessary before the candidate can attain the actual dignity of a prelate. first of the ceremonies comes the _navar_, or six days' retreat in his own dwelling, followed by the ceremony of initiation; four more days in the fire temple with two priests who have previously gone through the _yasna_ prayers for six consecutive mornings. although after this he can officiate in some ceremonies, such as weddings, he is not fully qualified as a priest until the _bareshnun_ has been undergone and again the _yasna_. the following day other prayers are offered to the guardian spirit, and at midnight the last ceremony takes place, and he is qualified to the degree of _maratab_, when he can take part in any of the zoroastrian rituals. as a preliminary, great purity of mind and body are required from candidates, and they are made to endure lavish ablutions of water and cow urine, clay and sand--an ancient custom, said to cleanse the body better than modern soaps. after that the candidate is secluded for nine whole days in the fire temple, and is not permitted to touch human beings, vegetation, water nor fire, and must wash himself twice more during that time, on the fourth day and on the seventh. it is only then that he is considered amply purified and able to go through the _navar_ ceremony. the zoroastrian religion is based on three excellent points--"good thoughts, good words, good deeds"--and as long as people adhere to them it is difficult to see how they can go wrong. they worship god and only one god, and do not admit idolatry. they are most open-minded regarding other people's notions, and are ever ready to recognise that other religions have their own good points. perhaps no greater libel was ever perpetrated on the parsees than when they were put down as "fire-worshippers," or "worshippers of the elements." the parsees are god-worshippers, but revere, not worship, fire and the sun as symbols of glory, heat, splendour, and purity; also because fire is to human beings one of the most necessary things in creation, if not indeed the most necessary thing; otherwise they are no more fire-worshippers than the roman catholics, for instance, who might easily come under the same heading, for they have lighted candles and lights constantly burning in front of images inside their churches. besides, it is not the fire itself, as fire, that parsees nurse in their temples, but a fire specially purified for the purpose. the process is this: several fires, if possible originally lighted by some natural cause, such as lightning, are brought in vases. over one of these fires is placed a flat perforated tray of metal on which small pieces of very dry sandal-wood are made to ignite by the mere action of the heat, but must not actually come in contact with the flame below. from this fire a third one is lighted in a similar manner, and nine times this operation is repeated, each successive fire being considered purer than its predecessor, and the result of the ninth conflagration being pronounced absolutely pure. it is really the idea of the purifying process that the parsees revere more than the fire itself, and as the ninth fire alone is considered worthy to occupy a special place in their temples, so, in similarity to it, they aim in life to purify their own thoughts, words, and actions, and glorify them into "good thoughts, true words, noble actions." this is indeed very different from fire-worshipping of which the parsees are generally accused. in yezd the guebres told me that they possessed very few sacred books in their temple (or if they had them could not show them). they said that all the ancient books had been destroyed by the mahommedans or had been taken away to india. there were also several smaller temples in the neighbourhood of yezd, which had gone through a good many vicissitudes in their time, but now the parsees and their places of worship are left in comparative peace. parsee men and women are still compelled to wear special clothes so as to be detected at once in the streets, but this custom is gradually dying out. the women are garbed in highly-coloured striped garments, a short jacket and a small turban, leaving the face uncovered. the men are only allowed to wear certain specially-coloured cloaks and are not allowed to ride a horse in the streets of yezd. parsees do not enjoy the civil rights of other citizens in persia, and justice was until quite lately out of the question in the case of differences with mussulmans. at death a man's property would be lawfully inherited by any distant relation who had adopted the religion of moslem, instead of by the man's own children and wife who had remained faithful to their creed; and in the matter of recovering debts from mussulmans the law of persia is certainly very far indeed from helping a guebre. this is necessarily a great obstacle in commercial intercourse. worst of all the burdens formerly inflicted upon the guebres--as well as upon armenians and jews of persia--was the "jazia" tax. some thousand or so male guebres of yezd were ordered to pay the tax yearly, which with commissions and "squeezes" of governors and officials was made to amount to some two thousand tomans, or about £ at the present rate of exchange. much severity and even cruelty were enforced to obtain payment of the tax. the parsees were, until quite lately, debarred from undertaking any occupation that might place them on a level with mahommedans. with the exception of a few merchants--who, by migrating to india and obtaining british nationality, returned and enjoyed a certain amount of nominal safety--the majority of the population consists of agriculturists and scavengers. mainly by the efforts of the bombay amelioration society of the parsees, the guebres of yezd and kerman fare to-day comparatively well. the "jazia" has been abolished, and the present shah and the local government have to be congratulated on their fairness and consideration towards these fine people. may-be that soon they will be permitted to enjoy all the rights of other citizens, which they indeed fully deserve. many steps have been made in that direction within the last few years. the parsees are a most progressive race if properly protected. they are only too anxious to lead the way in all reformation, and, with all this, are remarkable for their courteousness and refined manner. the most prominent members of the yezd community, especially the sons of meheban rustam, have been the pioneers of trade between yezd and india. besides the excellent parsee school, several other institutions have been established in yezd and its suburbs by the bombay society, supported by a few charitable parsees of bombay and some of the leading members of the parsee community in yezd. the bombay society has done much to raise the zoroastrians of persia to their present comparatively advanced state, but trade and commerce also have to a great extent contributed to their present eminence. the bombay society nominates and sends an agent to reside in teheran, the capital of persia, to look after the interests of helpless zoroastrians, and the parsees of yezd have moreover a national assembly called the anguman-i-nasseri. i was entertained by this interesting body of men, and received from their president, ardeshir meheban irani, much of the valuable information here given about the yezd parsees. the association has an elected body of twenty-eight members, all honorary, the most venerable and intelligent of the community, and its aims are to advocate the social rights of the zoroastrians as a race, to settle disputes arising between the individuals of the community, to defend helpless parsees against moslem wantonness, and to improve their condition generally. the association was established on the rd of february, , by the late mr. kaikosroo firendaz irani, the then agent of the bombay society. in this work he had the advice and help of the leading men of the community. there are several naturalised british subjects in yezd, including the president of the association--who speaks and writes english as well as any englishman--but it is greatly to be regretted that these men cannot obtain proper protection from the british government. yet these fellows could be of very great assistance to england in spreading british influence in yezd, not to speak of increasing british trade--which they are only too anxious to do, if a chance is given them--in conjunction with the representatives of their race in bombay--the most anglicised, except in religion, of all our subject races of india. there was formerly a british vice-consul in yezd, but for some reason known to the government, while russia finds it expedient to establish consular agents in all the principal centres of persia, we have actually withdrawn our representative even from so important a city as yezd! the parsee communities of yezd and bombay are in constant communication with each other, and it is well known what marvellous prosperity these fugitives of fars have now attained in bombay, through their honesty and hard work, especially since their connection with the british, whose civilisation, with the exception of religion and the hat, they have entirely adopted. most of them speak perfect english, and many of the sons of the wealthier parsees have been educated at universities in england. we find them working banking houses on a large scale, and cotton mills, running lines of steamers and shipbuilding yards. they trade considerably with the far east and far west, and with every nook in asia. even as far as samarkand, bokhara, siberia, nijni-novgorod, and st. petersburg, parsee traders are to be found, and in japan, china, the united states, and canada. with england they carry on a very extensive trade, and through them as intermediaries much of the import trade into india finds its way into neighbouring markets more difficult of access to the direct british exporter. one of the most noticeable traits of the flourishing parsees of bombay is their extreme generosity, often hampered by petty, stupid, anglo-indian officialdom, which they seem to stand with amazing patience and good-nature. we find well appointed hospitals erected by them; schools, clubs, and only lately one of the richest of all parsees, mr. jamsetsji tata, has given the city of bombay no less a gift than a quarter of a million pounds for the erection of a university on the most modern lines in that city. chapter xl _badjirs_--below the sand level--chappar service between yezd and kerman--the elasticity of a farsakh--sar-i-yezd--an escort--where three provinces meet--etiquette--robbers' impunity--a capital story--zen-u-din--the serde kuh range--desert--sand accumulations--kermanshah--the darestan and godare hashimshan mountains--chappar khana inscriptions and ornamentations by travellers--shemsh. the most characteristic objects in yezd are the _badjirs_, a most ingenious device for catching the wind and conveying it down into the various rooms of dwelling. these _badjirs_ are on the same principle as the ventilating cowls of ships. the ventilating shafts are usually very high and quadrangular, with two, three, or more openings on each side at the summit and corresponding channels to convey the wind down into the room below. the lower apertures of the channels are blocked except on the side where the wind happens to blow, and thus a draught is created from the top downwards, sweeping the whole room and rendering it quite cool and pleasant even in the hottest days of summer. the reason that one finds so many of these high _badjirs_ in yezd is probably that, owing to constant accumulations of sand, the whole city is now below the level of the surrounding desert, and some device had to be adopted to procure fresh air inside the houses and protect the inhabitants from the suffocating lack of ventilation during the stifling heat of the summer. the _badjirs_ are certainly constructed in a most scientific or, rather, practical manner, and answer the purpose to perfection. when we leave yezd the city itself cannot be seen at all, but just above the sand of the desert rise hundreds of these quadrangular towers, some very large indeed, which give the place a quaint appearance. from yezd to kerman there is again a service of post-horses, so i availed myself of it in order to save as much time as possible. the horses were not much used on this road so they were excellent. i departed from yezd on october th, and soon after leaving the city and riding through the usual plentiful but most unattractive ruins, we were travelling over very uninteresting country, practically a desert. we passed two villages--najafabat and rachmatabad--and then wound our way through avenues of dried-up mulberry trees at mahommedabad or namadawat, a village where silk-worms are reared in quantities, which accounts for the extensive mulberry plantations to provide food for them. the village is large and is three farsakhs from yezd, or something like ten miles. the "farsakh"--the most elastic measure ever invented--decreases here to just above three miles, whereas further north it averaged four miles. in a strong wind we rode on, first on sand, then on gravelly soil, ever through dreary, desolate country. the villages, taghiabad, zehnawat, etc., get smaller and poorer and further apart, and some eight farsakhs from yezd we eventually reach the small town of sar-i-yezd. from namadawat the country was an absolutely flat gravel plain with no water. [illustration: interior of old caravanserai with central water tank.] at sar-i-yezd (altitude , feet) we were detained some time. the highest official in the place had received orders from the governor of yezd not to let me proceed without a strong guard to accompany me. this was rather a nuisance than otherwise, for, although the country between sar-i-yezd and anar was reported infested by robbers, we really should have been able to hold our own against them even without the rabble that was sent to accompany us. after a delay of some hours five soldiers--as picturesque as they would have been useless in case of danger--put in an appearance. they had old long muzzle loaders, which must have been more dangerous to the person firing them than to the ones fired at, and they wore elaborate leather belts with two ample pouches for lead bullets, two gunpowder flasks made of desiccated sheep testicles, a leather bag for small shot, and a large iron ring with small clips for caps. horses could not be procured for these men, so they had to follow my baggage on foot, which caused a further delay. we left shortly before sunset as i intended marching the whole night. there was a great discussion among these soldiers about crossing over into kerman territory, four farsakhs beyond sar-i-yezd, and just at the point where the robbers are supposed to attack caravans the guard, whether through fear or otherwise, declined to come on. sadek remonstrated most bitterly, but three of them left us, while two said they had been entrusted with orders to see me and my luggage safely to the place where another guard could be obtained and would continue. i tried to persuade them to go back too, but they would not. it appears that between sar-i-yezd and zen-u-din there is an expanse of waste land near the boundary of the yezd, kerman and farsistan (shiraz) provinces, the possession of which is declared by the governors of all these provinces not to belong to them, the boundary having never been properly defined. so robbers can carry on their evil deeds with comparative immunity, as they do not come under the jurisdiction of any of the three governors in question. moreover, if chased by yezd soldiers, they escape into shiraz or kerman territory, and if pursued by kerman troops they escape into either of the neighbouring provinces, while the governor of shiraz, being the furthest and least interested in that distant corner of his province, really never knows and probably does not care to learn what takes place in so remote and barren a spot. in any case he will not be held responsible for anything happening there. it would certainly involve him in too great expense and difficulty to send soldiers to live so far into the desert, and unless in great force they could be of little assistance to caravans; so that, as things stand, robber bands have it all their own way. strict etiquette is observed between governors of provinces and their subordinates, and an encroachment on one's neighbour's territory would be considered a most outrageous breach of good manners and respective rights. still travelling quite fast across sand, and with no brigands in sight, we went on, pleasantly entertained by the astounding yarns of the two remaining soldiers. we were told how, twenty years ago, a foreign doctor--nationality unknown--being attacked by a band of thirty robbers, produced a small bottle of foreign medicine--presumably a most highly concentrated essence of chloroform--from his waistcoat pocket and, having removed the cork, the thirty brigands immediately fell on all sides in a deep sleep. the doctor and his party then continued their journey quietly, and returned several days later with a number of soldiers, who had no trouble in despatching the robbers from a temporary into an eternal sleep, without their waking up at all! on being asked how it was that the doctor himself remained awake when such a powerful narcotic was administered, the narrator did not lose his presence of mind nor his absence of conscience, and said the doctor had, during the operation, held his nose tight with his two fingers. the doctor had since been offered thousands of tomans for the precious bottle, but would not part with it. the soldiers told us a great many more stories of this type, and they recounted them with such an _aplomb_ and seriousness that they nearly made one fall off one's saddle with laughter. every now and then they insisted on firing off their rifles, which i requested them to do some distance away from my horses. there were no mishaps. at sar-i-yezd i had not been able to obtain fresh horses, so the yezd horses had been taken on, with an additional donkey. they had gone splendidly, and we arrived at zen-u-din shortly after ten o'clock at night. solitary, in the middle of the desert, and by the side of a salt water well, stands zen-u-din (alt. , feet). there is a chappar station, and a tumbling-down, circular caravanserai with massively built watch-towers. these appeared much battered as if from the result of repeated attacks. we left our soldier protectors behind here, and two more military persons, in rags and with obsolete guns, insisted on accompanying us, but as they were on foot and would have delayed us considerably i paid them off, a hundred yards from zen-u-din, and sent them back. there are mountains extending from the north-east to the south-east, the serde kuh range, and to the south-east they are quite close to the track and show low passes a mile or so apart by which the range could easily be crossed. to the west also we have high hills, some three or four miles apart from the mountains to the north-east, and to the north an open desert as far as yezd. we notice here again the curious accumulations of sand high up on the south mountain side, and also to the south-west of the mountain range east of us. [illustration: typical caravanserai and mud fort in the desert between yezd and kerman.] [illustration: a trade caravanserai, kerman.] at ten in the morning, after a dreary ride through desolate country, we reached the small village of kermanshah ( , feet), where a post station and caravanserai were to be found, a few trees and, above all, some good drinking water. from zen-u-din to kermanshah, a distance of sixteen miles (five farsakhs), we had seen only one solitary tree to the south-west of the track. we had now rugged mountains about a mile to the west and south-west. these were ranges parallel to one another, the darestan mountains being the nearest to us and the godare hashimshan behind them further south-west. while i was waiting for fresh horses to be got ready i amused myself at every station studying the curious inscriptions and ornamentations by scribbling travellers on the caravanserai and post-house walls. laboriously engraved quotations from the koran were the most numerous, then the respective names of travellers, in characters more or less elaborate according to the education of the writer, and generally accompanied by a record of the journey, place of birth, and destination of the scribbler. occasionally one was startled by a french inscription in sickening terms of humility, the work of persian minor officials in government employ, who thus made a public exhibition of their knowledge of a foreign language and expounded in glowing terms their servile admiration for superiors. more interesting were the records of illiterate travellers who, in default of literature, placed one arm and hand upon the whitewashed wall and traced their silhouette with the point of a knife or a bit of charcoal or a brush held in the other hand. then came those still more artistically inclined, who ventured into conventionalised representations of the peacock with widely-expanded tail--the most favourite and frequent of persian outbursts of chappar khana art, and probably the most emblematic representation of persian character. the conventionalised peacock is represented in a few lines, such as one sees on the familiar persian brass trays. the shah's portrait with luxuriant moustache is met in most chappar khanas scraped somewhere upon the wall, and not infrequently other whole human figures drawn in mere lines, such as children do in our country, but with a greater profusion of anatomical detail. very frequent indeed are the coarse representations of scenes in daily life, which we generally prefer to leave unrecorded--in fact, the artistic genius of the persian traveller seems to run very much in that direction, and these drawings are generally the most elaborate of all, often showing signs of multiple collaboration. horses fully harnessed are occasionally attempted, but i never saw a camel represented. only once did i come across a huge representation of a ship or a boat. small birds drawn with five or six lines only, but quite characteristic of conventionalised persian art, were extremely common, and were the most ingeniously clever of the lot. centipedes and occasional scorpions were now and then attempted with much ingenuity and faithfulness of detail but no artistic merit. all these ornamentations, studied carefully, taught one a good deal of persian character. that the persian is very observant and his mind very analytical, is quite out of the question, but his fault lies in the fact that in art as in daily life minor details strike him long before he can grasp the larger and more important general view of what he sees. he prefers to leave that to take care of itself. we find the same characteristics not only in his frivolous chappar khana art--where he can be studied unawares and is therefore quite natural--but in his more serious art, in his music, in his business transactions, in his political work. the lack of simplicity which we notice in his rude drawings can be detected in everything else he does, and the evident delight which he takes in depicting a peacock with its tail spread in all its glory is nothing more and nothing less than an expression of what the persian feels within himself in relation to his neighbours. nothing has a greater fascination for him than outward show and pomp. he cares for little else, and a further proof of this unhappy vainglory is obtained by the study of the wall scrolls of the travelling public--whether travelling officially or for trading purposes--representing in persia usually the most go-ahead and intelligent section of the persian population. on we go along the dreary track, again on flat, desolate country of sand and stones at the spur of the mountains to the west and south-west. sand deposits rise at a gentle gradient up to half the height of these mountains, well padding their slopes. the track here leads us due south to a low pass at an altitude of , feet. one gets so tired of the monotonous scenery that one would give anything to perceive something attractive; nor is the monotony of the journey diminished by two other miserable nagging soldiers who have clung to us as an escort from kermanshah, and who are running after our horses moaning and groaning and saying they are starved and tired and have not received their pay nor their food from the government for several months. on the other side of the pass there is a basin encircled by mountains, except to the south-east, where we find an open outlet. the track goes south-south-east through this yellow plain, and on proceeding across we find several conical black mounds with curious patches of a verdigris colour. to the east rises a low sand dune. we come in sight of shemsh, a most forlorn, cheerless place. sadek gallops ahead with the _horjins_, in which he has the cooking pans, some dead fowls, and a load of vegetables and pomegranates, and i slow down to give him time to prepare my lunch. i arrived at the place at . p.m. there was only a desolate caravanserai and a chappar khana. on the yezd-kerman track there are not more than three horses at each post station--at some there are only two,--and as i required no less than five horses, or, if possible, six, i always had to take on the deficient number of horses from the previous stations. i generally gave these horses two or three hours' rest, but it made their marches very long indeed, as it must be remembered that on my discharging them they must at once return to their point of departure. fortunately, the traffic was so small by this road that the horses were in good condition, and so i was able to proceed at a good rate all along. occasionally, one or two horses had to be taken on for three consecutive stages, which, taking as an average six farsakhs for each stage, made the distance they had to travel, including return journey, six stages, or some miles in all. the altitude of shemsh was , feet. chapter xli desolate scenery--anar--a word for persian servants--sadek's english--bayas village--sand deposits--robber villagers--kushkuhyeh chappar khana--the post contractor, his rifle--cotton cultivation--fast growing rafsenju--trade tracks--hindu merchants--sadek and the chappar boy--kafter-han--photography and women--a flat, salty stretch of clay and sand--the kuh djupahr peaks--robat women--baghih--attractive girls--_mirage_--arrival in kerman. i left shemsh two hours later, at . , and we travelled over slightly undulating country on sandy ground with occasional tracts of stones and gravel. if possible, this part was even more desolate than the scenery we had found before reaching here, and not a vestige of vegetation or animal life could be detected anywhere. when night descended upon us we had glorious moonlight to brighten our way, and we marched on gaily--this time without the nuisance of an escort--until we arrived at anar at . p.m.--seven farsakhs (about miles) from shemsh. from what one could see during our short stay in the night there appeared to be a large village, mostly in ruins, with a few trees and a mud fort. we had gradually descended here to , feet. the water was quite good. we only allowed ourselves three hours to have our dinner and sleep, and i ordered the horses to be ready shortly after midnight. and here, whatever other faults they may have, a word of commendation must be put in for the endurance of persian servants. it is all very well for one's self to do with little sleep, but servants who will go days and days without any at all, and without a word of complaint or sign of collapse, are retainers not easily found and not to be despised. certainly, one seldom obtains such qualities in european servants. after doing fifty or sixty miles on the saddle we would get off, and i rested awhile, writing up my notes or, if at night, changing plates in my cameras, but sadek never had any rest at all. no sooner had we jumped off our horses than he had to undo the saddles and unpack the baggage and kill fowls and cook my meals, which all took him some little time; then he had to wash or clean up everything and repack, and run about the villages to purchase provisions, and all this kept him well employed until the hour of departure; so that, even when i could put in a couple of hours' sleep of a night, he never had time to sleep at all. sleeping on the saddle, of course, was usual when we travelled by caravan, but was impossible when chapparing. so that he had to go several days at a time without a moment's wink. the remarkable facility with which, under these trying circumstances, he got most excellent meals ready at all hours of the day or night and in the most outlandish places, and the magic way in which he could produce fuel and make a fire out of the most unlikely materials, was really extraordinary. true, he took himself and his work most seriously and his pride lay principally in having no reproach about the cooking. he had a smattering of english that was very quaint. everything above ground he called "upstairs"; anything on the ground or below was "downstairs." thus, to mount and dismount a horse was laconically expressed "horse upstairs," "horse downstairs." similarly, to lie down was "downstairs," to get up "upstairs." anything involving violent motion was "shoot," by which single word to fall, to kick, to bite, to drop, to jump, to throw away, were defined. he possessed a good vocabulary of swear words--which he had learnt from sailors at bushire--and these served him well when anything went wrong; but i forbade him to use them in my presence as i wished to have the monopoly myself, and thus his english vocabulary was very much curtailed. the remainder of his english conversation applied entirely to cooking chickens. shortly after midnight we moved out of the chappar khana, and, barring some slight cultivation in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, we soon entered again upon the flat, sandy desert. we had a lovely full moon over us, which added to the pleasure of travelling, and we rode on to bayas (five farsakhs), some seventeen or eighteen miles, where we arrived at five in the morning. the altitude of this place was exactly the same as that of anar, , feet. bayas is a tiny village with a few mulberry trees and a small stream of water. it has a fair caravanserai. we rested the horses for a couple of hours, while i had breakfast, and by . a.m. we were again in our saddles. to the south-west and north-east by east we again perceived the familiar high sand deposits, all along the base of the mountain ranges, and they reached up to two-thirds of the height of the mountains, forming a smooth, inclined plane rising very gently from the flat desert on which we were travelling. to the north-east by east the sand-banks rose nearly to the summit of the hill range. sadek and the chappar boy pointed out to me a village to the north-east of the track, and informed me that all its inhabitants were robbers and murderers. in fact upon the road, we came across a poor boy crying, and bruised all over. we asked him what was the matter. he pointed to three men in the distance who were running away, and said they had beaten him and stolen his money, two krans, and two pomegranates. sure enough, when we galloped to the men and stopped them they did not wait to be accused but handed me at once both fruit and money to be returned to their rightful owner. these folks had very brutal faces, framed in flowing locks of shaggy hair. they were garbed in long thick coats of white felt, made entirely of one piece, and quite stiff, with sleeves sticking out at the sides, into which the arms were never to be inserted. there were two red and blue small circular ornamentations at the bottom of the coat in front, and one in the centre of the back, as on japanese kimonos. we began to see more habitations now, and about one mile north-east of the track we perceived the villages of esmalawat, aliabad, and sher-i-fabad,--the latter quite a large place. we still went on over sand and white salt deposits. poor sadek was so tired and sleepy that he fell off his horse a couple of times. the soil got very stony on getting near kushkuhyeh (altitude , feet), where we entered the chappar khana exactly at noon. the contractor of the postal service lived at this village, and he was extremely civil. as many as eight horses were in his stable, and he ordered that the best should be given me. he entertained me to tea and took the keenest interest in my rifles. he also possessed one of the familiar discarded british martini military rifles, specially decorated for the persian market--a rifle worth at its most a pound sterling, or two, but for which he had paid no less than tomans (about £ ). the smugglers of firearms must have made huge profits on the sale of these antiquated weapons, for firearms are among the few articles for which large sums of ready money can be obtained in persia. this particular man now took a great fancy to my . mannlicher, and jokingly said he would not let me proceed until i had sold it to him. he produced large sums in solid silver to tempt me, about four times the value of the rifle, and was greatly upset when i assured him that i would not part with the rifle at all. when i left, he accompanied me part of the way, some few hundred yards, and he took with him his martini and a belt full of cartridges; his servant who followed him was also similarly armed. on inquiring of him why master and servant loaded themselves with arms and ammunition to go such a short distance, he replied that it was not safe for him to go unarmed even one yard out of his house. one of his friends had been murdered only a few days before, and one never knows in persia when one's turn will come next. in out-of-the-way places in persia private revenge is extremely common, which generally takes the form of shooting one's adversary in the back. there seemed to be abundance of water at kushkuhyeh, and the fields were properly irrigated. cultivation seemed prosperous, and vast cotton plantations were to be seen all round. when we passed, hundreds of men, women and children were busy taking in the cotton, and scores of camels, donkeys, sheep and goats grazing were dotting the green patch in the landscape. this gay scene of active life and verdure was all the more refreshing after the many miles of sand and gravel and barren hills of which we had grown so weary since leaving yezd. two hours were wasted for lunch, and off we went again. on leaving behind kushkuhyeh we also left behind vegetation, and again we sank in sand. a few tamarisk shrubs were scattered here and there on the large plain we were traversing, bounded on all sides by distant mountains. three and a half farsakhs (about miles) saw us at hemmatawat, a large walled enclosure. at . p.m. we entered the small town of barawamad (bahramabad)--altitude , feet--or rafsenju as it is called now by its new name. this is a fast-growing place of quite modern origin, and it owes most of its prosperity to the extensive cultivation of cotton, exported from here direct to the persian gulf and india. besides the route on which we are travelling there are several other tracks leading out of barawamad. a minor one runs in a north-easterly direction, over the dehring mountains to the seroenan district, where many villages are to be found, and then turns sharply south-east _viâ_ zerend to kerman. it is also possible, when once one has crossed into seroenan, to continue to lawah (rawar) and then, across the salt desert, to meshed or to birjand. to the persian gulf there are three tracks. one south-west by west to sher-i-balek, from which place the traveller has the option to travel to bushire (_viâ_ shiraz) or to lingah or to bandar abbas _viâ_ forg. two different tracks, to reshitabad and bidu, join at melekabad (south-west) and these eventually enter the kerman-shiraz-bushire track; while another track, the most in use, goes almost due south, direct to bidu, skirting the pariz mountains on their westerly slopes. this track, too, crosses the kerman-shiraz route at saidabad, and proceeds due south to bandar abbas. the few hindoo merchants of kerman come here during the cotton season to make their purchases and send their goods direct to bandar abbas for shipment to india. pottery of an inferior kind is manufactured at rafsenju. we left the chappar khana at midnight in a terrific cold wind, and this time on shockingly bad horses. they were tired and lame, the cold wind probably intensifying the rheumatic pains from which most of them were suffering. the country was undulating and we gradually rose to , feet. the horses gave us no end of trouble and we had to walk the greater portion of the night. sadek, five feet two in height, and the chappar boy, six feet two, came to words and soon after to most sonorous blows. to add to our comfort, the chappar boy, who got the worst of the scrimmage, ran away, and it was only at sunrise that we perceived him again a long way off following us, not daring to get too near. eventually, by dint of sending him peaceful messages by a caravan man who passed us, sadek induced him to return, and still struggling in the sand of the desolate country all round us, and our horses sinking quite deep into it, we managed to drag men, horses, and loads into kafter-han (kebuter-han)--altitude , feet--at . in the morning, where we were glad to get relays of fresh steeds. we had gone about twenty-eight miles from the last station. a few mud huts, an ice store-house, a flour mill, a high building, said to have been an arsenal, the usual caravanserai, and a dingy chappar khana were all, quite all one could rest one's eye upon at kafter-han. there was some cultivation, but nothing very luxuriant. the few inhabitants were quite interested in the sudden appearance of a _ferenghi_ (a foreigner). the women, who were not veiled here, were quite good-looking, one girl particularly, whose photograph i snatched before she had time to run away to hide herself--the usual effect of a camera on persian women, quite the reverse to its effects on the european fair sex. we left almost directly on better animals, and proceeded south-east having lofty rugged hills to the north-east, east, and south of us, with the usual high sand accumulations upon their sides. to the south-east we could just discern the distant mountains near kerman. the track itself, on the sandy embankment at the foot of the hillside to the south-west, is rather high up and tortuous, owing to a very long salt marsh which fills the lower portion of the valley during the rainy weather and makes progress in a straight line impossible. but now, owing to the absolute absence of rain for months and months, the marsh was perfectly dry and formed a flat white plastered stretch of clay, sand and salt, as smooth as a billiard-table, and not unlike an immense floor prepared for tennis-courts. the dried salt mud was extremely hard, our horses' hoofs leaving scarcely a mark on it. i reckoned the breadth of this flat, white expanse at one and a half miles, and its length a little over eleven miles. two high peaks stood in front of us to the south-east, the kuh djupahr, forming part of a long range extending in a south-east direction. at a distance of four farsakhs (about thirteen miles), and directly on the other side of the dried-up salt stretch, we came to another chappar khana, at the village of robat. there were a good many women about in front of the huge caravanserai, and they looked very ridiculous in the tiny short skirts like those of ballet girls, and not particularly clean, over tight trousers quite adhering to the legs. we have the same mountains on both sides, and we continue over undulating ground, the valley getting somewhat narrower as we proceed towards baghih. six or seven miles from kafter-han was esmaratabad village, a mass of ruins, and ten miles or so a large village, still in fair preservation, sadi, with some vegetation, principally wheat. the track lay mostly over a stony, barren desert, with here and there, miles and miles apart, a forced patch of green. baghih, our last halt before reaching kerman, was nine farsakhs from kafter-han. it stood at an elevation of , feet, and had plenty of excellent water. the village was large, with handsome walled gardens and nicely-kept wheat-fields all round. the inhabitants were most affable and civil, and the women and children particularly simple and attractive. the girls were attired in longer and more graceful skirts than the damsels of robat, and did not leave the leg exposed even as high as the knee. over it they had an ample shirt with wide short sleeves, showing their gracefully modelled and well rounded arms, adorned with metal bracelets. on the head was a kerchief neatly bound quite tight over the head by means of a ribbon. it was not possible to get fresh horses here, and mine were very tired or i would have continued to kerman the same evening, completing the journey from yezd ( miles) in three days. we had arrived early in the afternoon, and had i not been compelled to take on the tired horses for the remaining four farsakhs ( miles) i could have easily reached kerman before the gates of the city were closed at sunset. as it was, i had to give it up, and had to sleep the night at baghih, making an early start on wednesday, the th. baghih is actually south-west of kerman, and the track makes this long detour to avoid the bademan mountains to the north. it thus passes over comparatively level land in the valley between that range and the kuh djupahr, the track turning here sharply to the north-east, in which direction, when we get to the highest point of the track ( , feet) one and a half farsakhs from baghih, we can almost discern kerman in the distance. except to the north-west we have high mountains all round, the highest being the djupahr to the south-east, and of which we now get a most lovely view, and also of the whole kerman plain with its innumerable semi-spherical sand-hills. at the foot of the djupahr below us we see the two villages of kheirabad and akhibarabad, with many trees and some cultivation round them. on descending into the kerman plain we have deceiving effects of mirage, lovely lakes on both sides and streams of water, but on the rising of a gentle breeze, limpid lakes and streams suddenly disappear, and the whole plain is nothing but a big undulating stretch of yellow sand, until we arrive within almost a stone's-throw of the city gates of kerman. at a.m. on wednesday, october the th, i halted at the palatial chappar khana of kerman, just outside the city wall, in a handsome garden, having accomplished the journey from yezd in four days, including halts. chapter xlii kerman--the _ark_ or citadel--civility of the natives--europeans--the british consulate--major phillott--h. e. ala-el-mulk, governor of kerman--soldiers--teaching music to recruits--preparation for the campaign against the beluch--cloth manufacture. it was my intention to pay my respects to the british consul for whom i had letters of introduction from the minister at teheran, and i at once proceeded through the city, entering first the "ark" or citadel, and then the south-west gate with two side columns of green and blue tiles in a spiral design and pointed archway, into the meidan--a fine rectangular square of great length and breadth. sentries posted at the gates of the city and at the sides of the square saluted, and also many of the people along the road. this extraordinary civility was very refreshing in a country where one only expects extreme rudeness from the lower classes. we entered the vaulted bazaar, the main big artery of kerman city, intersected about half-way by a tortuous street from north to south and by other minor narrow lanes, and crowded with people, donkeys, camels and mules; and here, too, one was rather surprised to see various merchants get up in their shops salaaming as i passed, and to receive a "salameleko" and a bow from most men on the way. the bazaar itself, being in appearance more ancient than those of yezd, isfahan and teheran, was more alluring and had many quaint bits. it bore, however, very much the same characteristics as all other bazaars of persia. at the end of it on the north-east we emerged into an open space with picturesque awnings, suspended mats, and spread umbrellas shading innumerable baskets of delicious green figs, trays of grapes, and pomegranates, piles of water-melons and vegetables of all sorts. [illustration: h. e. ala-el-mulk, governor of kerman, in his palace.] no europeans live within the wall of kerman city itself, and at the time of my visit there were only four europeans altogether residing in the neighbourhood of the town. two missionaries, husband and wife; a gentleman who, misled by representations, had been induced to come from india to dig artesian wells at great expense--in a country where the natives are masters at finding water and making aqueducts--and our most excellent consul, major phillott, one of the most practical and sensible men that ever lived. the consulate was at zeris or zirisf, some little distance to the east of the town. we passed through a graveyard on leaving the inhabited district, and had in front of us some ancient fortifications on the rocky hills to the south, which we skirted, and then came to some huge conical ice-houses--very old, but still in excellent preservation. we passed the solidly-built and foreign-looking gateway of the bagh-i-zeris, and a little further at the end of a short avenue the british flag could be seen flying upon a gate. as i came upon him a ragged infantry soldier, who, being at his dinner, was busy licking his fingers, sprang to his feet and made a military salute. having passed through a court and a garden and a series of dismantled rooms i found myself in the consulate, where i was greeted effusively by major phillott, who had no idea i was coming, and who, owing to my being very much sun-tanned, had at first mistaken me for a persian! he would not hear of my remaining at the chappar khana, and most kindly sent at once for all my luggage to be brought up to the consulate. the hospitality of englishmen in persia is really unbounded. h. e. ala-el-mulk, governor of kerman, called on the consul that same afternoon, and i was able to present the letter i had brought to him. having lived long in europe ala-el-mulk is a most fluent french scholar, and, being a man of considerable talent, sense, and honesty he is rather adverse to the empty show and pomp which is ever deemed the necessary accompaniment of high-placed officials in persia. he can be seen walking through the town with only a servant or two, or riding about inspecting every nook of his city hardly attended at all. this, curiously enough, has not shocked the natives as people feared, but, on the contrary, has inspired them with intense respect for the new governor, whose tact, gentleness, consideration and justice were fully appreciated by the whole town; so that, after all, it is pleasant to notice that the lower classes of persia have more common sense and power of differentiation than they have hitherto been credited with. "when i want anything well done," said the governor to me, "i do it myself. i want the welfare of my people and am only glad when i can see with my own eyes that they get it. i inspect my soldiers, i see them drilled before me; i go to the bazaar to talk to the people, and any one can come to talk to me. nobody need be afraid of coming to me; i am ever ready to listen to all." although this innovation in the system of impressing the crowds created somewhat of a sensation at first, the governor soon managed to impress the people with his own personality, and he is now extraordinarily popular among all classes, except the semi-official, who cannot carry on their usual extortions with impunity. he asked me to go and inspect his troops, whom he had drilled before his own eyes every morning, and undoubtedly, of all the soldiers i had seen in persia, they were the only ones--barring the cossack regiments drilled by russians--that had a real military appearance and were trained according to a method. they were better dressed, better fed, and more disciplined even than the soldiers of teheran. the teaching of music to recruits for the band was quite interesting. the musical notes were written on a black-board and the young fellows were made to sing them out in a chorus until they had learnt the whole melody by heart. the boys had most musical voices and quite good musical ears, while their powers of retention of what they were taught were quite extraordinary, when it was considered that these fellows were recruited from the lowest and most ignorant classes. the garrison of kerman was armed with vrandel rifles, an old, discarded european pattern, but quite serviceable. anyhow, all the men possessed rifles of one and the same pattern, which was an advantage not noticeable in the teheran troops, for instance. for persians, they went through their drill in an accurate and business-like manner, mostly to the sound of three drums, and also with a capital band playing european brass instruments. the governor took special delight in showing me several tents which he had had specially manufactured for his approaching campaign, in conjunction with british troops from british beluchistan, against marauding beluch tribes who had been very troublesome for some time, and who, being so close to the frontier, were able to evade alike persian, beluch, and british law, until a joint movement against them was made from west and east. h. e. ala-el-mulk told me that he intended to command the expedition himself. ala-el-mulk, a man extraordinarily courteous and simple in manner, was former persian ambassador in constantinople. through no fault of his own, owing to certain customs prevalent at the sultan's court, the shah during his visit to constantinople was unreasonably displeased, and the ambassador was recalled. the governorship of distant kerman was given him, but a man like ala-el-mulk, one of the ablest men in persia, would be more useful in a higher position nearer the capital, if not in the capital itself. kerman is a very out-of-the-way place, and of no very great importance just yet, although, if persia develops as she should, it will not be many years from the present time before kerman becomes a place of great importance to england. however, ala-el-mulk is, above all, a philosopher, and he certainly makes the best of his opportunities. he has to contend with many difficulties, intrigue, false dealing, and corruption being rampant even among some of the higher officials in the town; but with his sound judgment and patience he certainly manages to keep things going in a most satisfactory manner. besides his official business, and with the aid of his nephew, he superintends the manufacture, as we have already seen, of the best, the most characteristically persian carpets of the finest quality and dyes. there are a great many looms in the buildings adjacent to the palace and hundreds of hands employed in the governor's factories. he also possesses a good collection of very ancient carpets, from which the modern ones are copied. i returned his visit at his palace, where the consul and i were received most cordially and had a lengthy and most interesting conversation with his excellency. then he showed me all the buildings in the ark. kerman is celebrated for its cloth manufacture and felts. the cloth is of fine worsted, and is generally in pieces six yards long by three quarters of a yard wide. it is much used by the natives, both for hangings and for making clothes for men and women, being very soft and durable. embroidered turbans and kamarbands are made from these cloths, especially in white cloth, generally of a fine quality. the process of weaving these cloths, called inappropriately "kerman shawls," is identical with that of the loom described at the village of bambis in chapter xxxvi. the material used for the best quality is the selected fine wool, growing next to the skin of goats. these dyed threads are cut into short lengths and woven into the fabric by the supple and agile fingers of the children working, packed tight together, at the looms. some of the best cloths, not more than ten feet in length, take as long as a month per foot in their manufacture, and they realise very high prices, even as much as nine or ten pounds sterling a yard. the design on the more elaborate ones is, as in the carpets, learnt by heart, the stitches being committed to memory like the words of a poem. this is not, however, the case with the simpler and cheaper ones, which are more carelessly done, a boy reading out the design from a pattern or a book. [illustration: tiled walls and picturesque windows in the madrassah, kerman.] [illustration: sirkar agha's son, the head of the sheikhi sect, kerman.] the carpet factories of kerman are very extensive, the process being similar to that already described in a previous chapter. chapter xliii the madrassah--"peace on abraham"--the _hammam_--trade caravanserais--the hindoo caravanserai--parsees--ancient fortifications--the kala-i-dukhtar, or virgin fort--speculation--the kala-ardeshir--a deep well--why it was made. a visit to the madrassah on the north side of the bazaar was extremely interesting, it being the best preserved building of that type i had so far seen in persia. the consul and i were shown round it by the son of sirkar agha, the head of the sheikhi sect, a most dignified individual with long black cloak and ample white turban, and with a beard dyed as black as ink. he conversed most intelligently and took great delight in showing every nook of the building. the college is only some ninety years old. its courts, its walls, its rooms, its dome, are most beautifully tiled all over, and, strange to say, it is kept in good repair and the gardens are well looked after. there is a handsome lecture-hall, with four strong receptacles high up in the corners of the room, and fret-work at the windows, not unlike egyptian _musharabeahs_. four very high ventilating shafts are constructed over the buildings to keep the rooms cool. "peace on abraham" reads an elaborate inscription, quoted from the koran, but applying in this case, sirkar agha's son tells me, to the founder of the institution. there are other inscriptions on the towers and ventilating shafts. at the time of my visit the number of pupils was two hundred. the adjoining hammam belonging to the college was, to our astonishment, also shown us. such baths are underground and are reached by steps or by a slippery incline. these particular ones were very superior and had a beautifully tiled entrance, but the door itself was small and always kept closed. the first room was domed with a fountain playing in the centre and platforms, three feet high all round, on the matting of which lay spread a great many cotton towels, red and blue. the only light came from a centre aperture in the dome. high earthen jugs stood artistically resting against one another, and a few people were dressing or undressing preparatory to taking or after having taken a bath. this was all that was done in this room. through a narrow slippery passage we entered another room, where the steamy heat was considerable. there were small sections round the room divided by a wall, like the cells of a monastery, and in each cell was a tap of cold water. then we ascended through a small aperture into another and warmer room, spacious enough, but stifling with a sickening acid odour of perspiration and fumes of over-heated human skins. the steam heat was so great that one saw everything in a haze, and one felt one's own pores expand and one's clothes get quite wet with the absorbed damp in the atmosphere over-saturated with moisture. there were two or three men, stripped and only with a loin cloth, lying down flat on their backs,--one undergoing massage, being thumped all over; another having the hair of his head and beard dyed jet-black. the reason that the persian hair-dyes are so permanent is principally because the dyeing is done at such a high temperature and in such moist atmosphere which allows the dye to get well into the hair. when the same dyes are used at a normal temperature the results are never so successful. further, a third man was being cleansed by violent rubbing. he needed it badly; at least, judging by the amount of black stuff that rolled from his skin under the operator's fingers. the attendants, too, barring a loin-cloth, were naked. with perspiration streaming down my cheeks i took the photographs here reproduced, and then proceeded to a yet hotter small room--as suffocating a place as one may wish to enter in one's lifetime, or after! one received a positive scorching blow in the face as one entered it, the heat was so great. this is the last chamber, and in a corner is a tap of cold water with which the skin is repeatedly rinsed and made to sweat several times until the pores are considered absolutely clean. there were two people lying down in a semi-unconscious state, and although i was only there a few minutes i came out quite limp and rag-like. it ruined my watch, and only by very careful nursing i was able to save my camera from falling to pieces. on returning to the previous hot chamber it seemed quite cool by comparison, and when we emerged again into the open air, thermometer about ° in the shade, one felt quite chilled. the various trade caravanserais, of which there were over a dozen in kerman on either side of the main bazaar street, were quite interesting. they were large courts with high platforms, six to ten feet high, all round them, the centre well, enclosed by them, being tightly packed with camels, mules and donkeys. above on the broad platform lay all the packs of merchandise which had arrived from birjand and afghanistan, from beluchistan or from india _via_ bandar abbas. the shops and store rooms were neat and had wood-work in front, with gigantic padlocks of a primitive make. some, however, had neat little english padlocks. [illustration: the interior of a hammam or bath--first room.] the most interesting to us, but not the most beautiful, was the hindoo caravanserai, where some forty british hindoo merchants carried on their commerce. the place looked old and untidy, and the shops overcrowded with cheap articles of foreign make, such as are commonly to be seen in india,--paraffin lamps, knives, enamelled ware, cotton goods, indigo, tea, sugar and calicos being prominent in the shops. the piece goods come mostly from germany and austria, the cottons from manchester. the hindoos were very civil and entertained us to tea, water melon, and a huge tray of sweets, while a crowd outside gazed at the unusual sight of europeans visiting the caravanserais. the merchants said that the trade in cotton, wool, gum and dates was fairly good, and that, taking things all round, matters went well, but they had a great many complaints--they would not be hindoos if they had not--of petty quarrels to be settled among themselves and with the persians. these, of course, arose mostly out of matters of money. they seemed otherwise quite jolly and happy, notwithstanding the exaggerated hats and curious costumes they are compelled to wear, so that they may be distinguished at a glance from the persians themselves. here, too, as has been already said, there is a small parsee community of about , souls. they are, however, rather scattered nowadays, and are not so prominent as in yezd. the side streets leading out of the bazaar are narrow and dingy, covered up in places with awnings and matting. there is very little else worth seeing in the city, but the many ruins to the east of the town and the ancient fortifications are well worth a visit. it is to the east of the city that the ancient fortifications are found, on the most western portion of the crescent-shaped barrier of mountains. according to some natives the smaller fort, the kala-i-dukhtar, or virgin fort, on the terminal point of the range, at one time formed part of ancient kerman. the fort, the kala-i-dukhtar is on the ridge of the hill, with a fairly well-preserved castellated wall and a large doorway in the perpendicular rock at the end of the hill range. in a long semicircular wall at the foot of the hill a row of niches can be seen, but whether these made part of an ancient stable for horses, or were used for other purposes, i could not quite ascertain. some people said that they were a portion of a _hammam_; others said they might have been cells of a prison, but what remained of them was not sufficient to allow one to come to a satisfactory conclusion. [illustration: the hot room in a persian bath.] [illustration: the kala-i-dukhtar or virgin fort. (kala ardeshir on summit of mountain) kerman.] the outside wall of the fort was very high, and had strong battlements and towers. inside the lower wall at the foot of the hill was a moat from twenty-five to thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. the upper wall went along the summit of two ridges and was parallel to the lower one, which had four large circular turrets, and extended down to and over the flat for some yards. there was another extensive but much demolished fortress to the east of this on the lower part of the hill range, guarding the other side of the entrance of the pass, and this, too, had two large walled enclosures in the plain at its foot. a great many fragments of pottery with angular geometrical patterns and small circles upon them were to be found here and in the neighbourhood. the fort of kala-i-dukhtar is attributed by the people to king ardishir, and is one of the three mentioned by mukaddasi in the tenth century, who, in describing the city of bardasir, unmistakably identified with the present kerman, speaks of the three famous impregnable castles--the _hisn_ defended by a ditch, evidently the one above described, directly outside the city gate, and the old castle, the kala-i-kuh, on the crest of the hill. it has been assumed that the third castle mentioned by mukaddasi, was where the _ark_ or citadel is now, but personally i doubt whether this is correct. the citadel, the residence of the present governor, is to my mind of much more recent origin. there is every sign to make one doubt whether kerman extended in those days as far west as the citadel, which to-day occupies the most western point outside the city; whereas in the accounts of mukaddasi one would be led to understand that the third fortress was well within the city near a great mosque. in persian chronicles, too, the hill castle, the old, and the new castles are often referred to, but personally i believe that these three castles were adjoining one another on the same chain of hills. an ascent to the kala ardeshir well repays the trouble of getting there. it is not possible to reach the castle from the south side, where the rocky hills are very precipitous, and even from the north it is not easy of access. on the north-west side, facing the british consulate, there is a somewhat narrow and slippery track in the rock along a ravine, by which--in many places "on all fours"--one can get up to the top. the gateway is very much blocked with sand, but squeezing through a small aperture one can get inside the wall, within which are several small courts, and a series of tumbled-down small buildings. in the walls can still be seen some of the receptacles in which grain and food were formerly stored. [illustration: graveyard and kala-i-dukhtar or virgin fort, kerman.] although the exterior of the castle, resting on the solid rock and built of sun-dried bricks so welded together by age as to form a solid mass, appears in fair preservation from a distance, when one examines the interior it is found to be in a dreadful state of decay. the courts and spaces between the walls are now filled up with sand. there is a well of immense depth, bored in the rock, the fort standing some five hundred feet above the plain; but although this is said by some writers to have been a way of escape from this fortress to as distant a place as khabis, some forty-five miles as the crow flies to the east of kerman, i never heard this theory expounded in kerman itself, but in any case, it is rather strange that the well should have been made so small in diameter as hardly to allow the passage of a man, its shaft being bored absolutely perpendicular for hundreds and hundreds of feet and its sides perfectly smooth, so that an attempt to go down it would be not a way of escape from death, but positive suicide. the well was undoubtedly made to supply the fort with water whenever it became impracticable to use the larger wells and tanks constructed at the foot of the hills within the fortification walls. chapter xliv the deserted city of farmidan--more speculation--the afghan invasion--kerman surrenders to agha muhammed khan--a cruel oppressor--luft-ali-khan to the rescue--the zoroastrians--mahala giabr--second afghan invasion--luft-ali-khan's escape--seventy thousand human eyes--women in slavery--passes--an outpost--fire temples--gigantic inscriptions--a stiff rock climb--a pilgrimage for sterile women--a russian picnic--a persian dinner--fatabad--the trials of abundance--a persian menu--rustamabad--lovely fruit garden. the very large deserted city of farmidan lies directly south of the mountainous crescent on which are found the fortifications described in the previous chapter. the houses of the city do not appear very ancient, their walls being in excellent preservation, but not so the domed roofs which have nearly all fallen in. the houses are entirely constructed of sun-dried mud bricks, now quite soldered together by age and reduced into a compact mass. a few of the more important dwellings have two storeys, and all the buildings evidently had formerly domed roofs. in order that the conformation of each house may be better understood, a plan of one typical building is given. on a larger or smaller scale they all resembled one another very closely, and were not unlike the persian houses of to-day. there was a broad main road at the foot of the mountains along the southern side of which the city had been built, with narrow and tortuous streets leading out of the principal thoroughfare. curiously enough, however, this city appeared not to have had a wall round it like most other cities one sees in persia. it is possible that the inhabitants relied on taking refuge in the strength and safety of the forts above, but more probable seems the theory that farmidan was a mere settlement, a place of refuge of the zoroastrians who had survived the terrible slaughter by agha muhammed khan. it may be remembered that when the afghan determined to regain his throne or die, he came over the persian frontier from kandahar. he crossed the salt desert from sistan, losing thousands of men, horses and camels on the way, and with a large army still under his command, eventually occupied kerman. kerman was in those days a most flourishing commercial centre, with bazaars renowned for their beauty and wealth, and its forts were well manned and considered impregnable. so unexpected, however, was the appearance of such a large army that the inhabitants made no resistance and readily bowed to the sovereignty of agha muhammed. they were brutally treated by the oppressors. luft-ali-khan hastened from the coast to the relief of the city, and fiercely attacked and defeated the afghan invader, who was compelled to retreat to kandahar; but kerman city, which had undergone terrible oppression from the entry of the afghans, fared no better at the hands of the persians. the zoroastrians of kerman particularly were massacred wholesale or compelled to adopt the mahommedan religion. it is not unlikely--although i assume no responsibility for the statement--that at that time the zoroastrians, who were still numerous in kerman, driven from their homes by the invading afghan and persian armies, settled a few miles from the city, unable to proceed further afield owing to the desolate nature of the country all round. with no animals, no means of subsistence, it would have been impossible for them with their families to go much further _en masse_ in a country where food and even water are not easily obtainable. the name of the town--farmidan--also would point to the conclusion that it had been inhabited by fars, and the age attributed to the city by the natives corresponds roughly with the epoch of the afghan invasion. to the north of kerman city we have another similar settlement, now deserted, mahala-giabr (a corruption of guebre), of which there is little doubt that it was inhabited by zoroastrians. one of the reasons that these cities are now deserted may be found in the fact that agha muhammed, having raised another army in afghanistan, proceeded a second time to the conquest of persia. the zoroastrians, who had fared worse at the hands of luft-ali-khan than under the afghan rule, were persuaded to join agha muhammed against their perso-arab oppressors, in hopes of obtaining some relief to their misery, but history does not relate what became of them. they were never heard of again. one fact only is known, that very few of those living in kerman at the time succeeded in escaping massacre. that previous to this the zoroastrians must have been very numerous in kerman can be judged by the remains of many fire-temples to be seen, especially in the neighbourhood of the city. [illustration: ruined houses of farmitan.] [illustration: plan of house at farmitan.] in his second invasion of persia agha muhammed again reached kerman in and besieged the city defended by luft-ali-khan. the inhabitants, who had suffered at the hands of their saviours as much if not more than at those of their oppressors, made a half-hearted resistance and eventually, in the thick of the fighting, the city gates were opened by treachery. luft-ali-khan and a handful of his faithful men fought like lions in the streets of the city, but at last, seeing that all hope of victory had vanished, and forsaken by most of his men, luft-ali-khan rode full gallop in the midst of the afghans. according to chronicles, he defiantly ran the gauntlet with only three followers, and they were able to force their way through the kajar post and escape to bam-narmanshir, the most eastern part of the kerman province, on the borders of sistan. agha muhammed demanded the surrender of luft-ali-khan; the city was searched to find him, and when it was learned that he had succeeded in effecting an escape, the wrath of the afghan knew no bounds. the people having declared that they could not find luft-ali, he ordered , eyes of the inhabitants to be brought to him on trays, and is said to have counted them himself with the point of a dagger. but this punishment he believed to be still too lenient. a general massacre of the men was commanded, and no less than , women and children were made into slaves. to this day the proverbially easy morals of the kerman women are attributed to the afghan invasion, when the women became the concubines of soldiers and lost all respect for themselves; and so is the importation of the dreadful disease which in its most virulent form is pitifully common in a great portion of the population of the present kerman city. according to some the city was razed to the ground, but whether this was so or not, there is no doubt that kerman has never recovered from the blow received, and from the subsequent oppression at the hands of this barbarous conqueror. in the south-west part of the mountainous crescent are three very low passes, by which the hill range can be crossed. one pass between the kala-i-dukhtar and the kala-ardeshir forts; one between the kala-ardeshir and the ruins south of it along the southern continuation of the range; and the third at the most southern point of the crescent, where the precipitous rocky hill-ranges are separated by a narrow gap, level with the flat plains on either side. one can still see the remains of a ruined wall on the east side of this entrance, a round, outpost mud turret, with other buildings and a large walled enclosure directly outside the pass on the flat to the south; while on the lower slope of the eastern mountain stands a tall square building, now roofless, erected on a strong quadrangular base with corner turrets. it has three pointed arch doorways (east, west, south), almost as tall as the building itself, and by the side of these are found high and broad windows in couples. this building appears to be of a much more recent date than the underlying castle filled up with earth on which it stands. it has rather the appearance of a fire temple. on going through the pass we find ourselves in the centre basin formed by the mountainous crescent, and here we have another deserted settlement smaller than farmidan, also to all appearance not more than a century old, and directly under the lee of the precipitous rocky mountains. a high building of a rich burnt-sienna colour, with a dome of stone and mortar--the latter said to have been mixed with camel's milk, which gives the mortar greater consistency--is to be seen here. this, too, is supposed to have been a fire temple. its base is quadrangular, with two tiers of three windows each. a small lateral wall is next to the entrance, but nothing is to be seen in the interior except the bare walls. east of this, on the face of the cliff and several hundred feet above the valley, one is shown a gigantic inscription, "ya ali," in white characters depicted on the rock. the letters are so big that they can be seen from kerman, about three miles off. this is a pilgrimage well worth making, for they say every wish of those who climb up to the inscription will come true. two qualities are required--a very steady head and the agility of a monkey. the angle of the rock is very steep,--almost vertical, as can be seen on the left side of the photograph, which i took from the site of the inscription looking down upon the ruined city and the whole kerman plain. the only way by which,--on all fours,--one can climb up is so worn, greasy and slippery, owing to the many pilgrims who have glided up and down, that it is most difficult to get a grip on the rock. yet the going-up is much easier than the coming down. the full-page illustration shows the man who accompanied me just about to reach the inscription,--i took the photograph as i clung to the rock just below him, as can be seen from the distortion of his lower limbs caused by my being unable to select a suitable position from which to take the photograph. we were then clinging to the rock with a drop below us in a straight line of several hundred feet. we reached the inscription safely enough, and sat on the edge of the precipice--the only place where we could sit--with our legs dangling over it. screened as we were in deep shadow, we obtained a magnificent bird's-eye view of the kerman plain, brilliantly lighted by the morning sun, and of the forts to our left (south-west) and the many ruins down below between ourselves and kerman city. a bed of a stream, now dry, wound its way from these mountains to almost the centre of the plain, where it lost itself in the sand beyond a cluster of ruined buildings. undoubtedly at some previous time this torrent carried a good volume of water to the village, and this accounts for the deserted settlement being found there. the letters of the inscription were ten feet high, painted white. [illustration: a steep rock climb, kerman. photograph of guide taken by the author on reaching the inscription several hundred feet above the plain.] the man who had climbed up with me related an amusing incident of the occasion when h. e. the governor of the city was persuaded to climb to inspect the inscription. hauled up with the assistance of ropes and servants, he became so nervous when he reached the inscription and looked down upon the precipice below that he offered a huge reward if they took him down again alive. although otherwise a brave man he was unaccustomed to mountaineering, and owing to the great height, had been seized with vertigo and was absolutely helpless and unable to move. with considerable difficulty he was hauled down and safely conveyed to his palace. the descent presented more difficulty than the ascent, and one's shoes had to be removed to effect it in more safety. eventually we reached the bottom again where, in a gully is a small ruined temple and a mud hut or two. a great many women, who from this point had been watching us come down along the face of the cliff, stampeded away, giggling, at our approach, and on my asking why so many representatives of the fair sex were to be found here--there were lots more dotting the landscape below in their white or black chudders, all converging towards this point--it was explained that, a few yards off, was a rock possessing marvellous properties. the rock in question forms part of the mountain-side, and in its natural formation coarsely suggests, much magnified, the effigy of a component of feminine anatomy. at the foot of it there was an inscription and certain offerings, while above it, in a recess, a large wax candle was burning. near this stone a stunted tree was to be seen, laden with bits of red and white rags and various kinds of hair--a most unedifying sight. this is a well-known pilgrimage for sterile women, who, after certain exorcisms in front of and on the divine stone, and a night or two spent in the neighbouring ruins, are said infallibly to become prolific. the neighbouring ruins, it should be added, are the favourite night resort of the kerman young men in search of romantic adventure, and a most convenient rendezvous for flirtations; but whether the extraordinary qualities of prolificness are really due to the occult power of the magic stone or to the less mystic charms of nights spent away from home, the reader is no doubt better able to discriminate than i. judging by the long strings of ladies of all ages to be seen going on the pilgrimage, one would almost come to the conclusion that half the women of kerman are in a bad plight, or else that the other half only is a good lot! much unsuspected amusement was provided to the natives by a russian political agent who had visited kerman a few weeks before i did, with the intention--it was stated--of starting a consulate there and a caravanserai to further russian trade. previous to his departure, attracted merely by the lovely view from the pilgrimage stone, and absolutely unaware of what misconstruction might be placed on his hospitality, the russian gave a picnic at this spot to the tiny european community of kerman. needless to say, the evil-minded persians of course put a wrong construction upon the whole thing, and a good deal of merriment was caused among the natives--who may lack many other qualities, but not wit--by the sahibs going _en masse_ to the pilgrimage. the russian picnic was the talk of the bazaar when i was there, and will probably remain so for some little time. we will now leave ruins and puzzling pilgrimages alone, and will accept an invitation to a substantial persian dinner with hussein-ali-khan, known by the title of nusrat-al-mamalik, and probably the richest man in the province of kerman. at great expense and trouble, this man bought an english carriage, for the pleasure of driving in which he actually made a road several miles long. he kindly sent the carriage for the consul and me to drive to his place, and had relays of horses half-way on the road so that we could gallop the whole way. he has planted trees all along the new road, and brought water down from the hills by a canal along the roadside in order to provide sufficient moisture to make them grow. when we reached fatabad--that was the name of the village close to which our host's country residence stood--we alighted at a most beautiful avenue of high trees on either side of a long tank of limpid water, in which gracefully floated dozens of swans and ducks. we were met at the gate by our host, a charming old fellow, and his son, mahommed ali khan, a most intelligent young man. surrounded by a crowd of servants we were shown round the beautiful garden, with its rare plants from all parts of the world, its well-cared-for flowers, and its fruit trees of every imaginable kind. there was a handsome house built in semi-european style and with european furniture in it. on a table in the dining-room were spread a great many trays of sweets. after the usual compliments dinner was brought in by a long row of attendants, who carried tray after tray full of delicacies, part of which they deposited on the table, the rest on the floor. our host, with much modesty, asked us to sit at the table, and he and his persian friends sat themselves on the floor. we--the consul, the two other englishmen, residents of kerman, and myself, however--declined to take advantage of his offer and declared that we should all sit on the floor in the best persian style, an attention which was greatly appreciated by our host and by his friends. it was with some dismay that i saw more trays of food being conveyed into the room, until the whole floor was absolutely covered with trays, large and small, and dishes, cups and saucers, all brim-full of something or other to eat. [illustration: a view of the kerman plain from the "ya ali" inscription. (how steep the ascent to the inscription is can be seen by the mountain side on left of observer.)] [illustration: wives returning from the pilgrimage for sterile women.] persian food of the better kind and in moderation is not at all bad nor unattractive. it is quite clean,--cleaner, if it comes to that, than the general run of the best european cooking. the meat is ever fresh and good, the chickens never too high--in fact, only killed and bled a few minutes before they are cooked; the eggs always newly laid in fact, and not merely in theory, and the vegetables ever so clean and tasty. as for the fruit of central and southern persia, it is eminently excellent and plentiful. the persians themselves eat with their fingers, which they duly wash before beginning their meals, but we were given silver forks and spoons and best english knives. really to enjoy a persian meal, however, one's fingers are quite unapproachable by any more civilised device. the most sensible part of a persian meal is its comparative lack of method and order, anybody picking wherever he likes from the many dishes displayed in the centre of the room and all round him; but any one endowed with digestive organs of moderate capacity feels some apprehension at the mountains of rice and food which are placed before one, and is expected to devour. a european who wants to be on his best behaviour finds the last stages of a persian dinner a positive trial, and is reminded very forcibly of the terrible fable of the frog that tried to emulate the cow. to show the reader to what test of expansion one's capacity is put, no better evidence can be given than a faithful enumeration of the viands spread before us at the dinner here described, all of which we were made to taste. qalam pal[=a]j[=o] = cabbage pilao. chil[=a]-[=o] = white rice with a soupçon of butter. khurish-i-murgh-i-b[=a]dinj[=a]n = stew of chicken with tomatoes. kab[=a]b-i-ch[=u]ja = broiled chicken. sh[=a]m[=i] = meat sausages. dulmayi qalam = meat wrapped in cabbage leaves with onions and beans. [=a]b-g[=u]sht = soup with a lump of meat. halwa = a dish of honey, pistache, and camel's milk. k[=u]-k[=u] = omelette of eggs and vegetables. mushta = rissoles. mast = curds. kharbuza = melon. pan[=i]r = cheese. turb = radishes. pista = pistachio nuts. [=a]n[=a]r = pomegranates. zab[=a]n-i-gaw = green bombes. tursh[=i] = pickles of all sorts. rishta = white and green vermicelli cakes. murabba bihi = preserved gum. to these must be added the numerous sweets of which one has to partake freely before dinner. through dinner only water is drunk, or nothing at all, but before and after, tea--three-quarters sugar and one quarter tea, with no milk,--is served, and also delicious coffee. the capacity of persians is enormous, and on trying to emulate it we all suffered considerably. so pressing were our hosts to make us eat some of this and some of that, and to taste some of the other, that by the time we had finished we were all in a semi-conscious state. an attendant passed round a brass bowl and poured upon our fingers, from a graceful amphora, tepid water with rose-leaf scent. then our host very considerately had us led to the upper floor of the building to a deliciously cool room, wherein were soft silk broad divans with velvet pillows. five minutes later, one in each corner of the room, we were all fast asleep. it is the custom in persia to have a siesta after one's meals--one needs it badly when one is asked out to dinner. so for a couple of hours we were left to ourselves, while our hosts retired to their rooms. then more tea was brought, more coffee, more sweets. we paid an interesting visit to the village of fatabad, the older portion of which, formerly called rustamabad, had from a distance the appearance of a strongly fortified place. it had a high broad wall with four circular towers at the corners, and quite an imposing gateway. the interior of the village was curious, the habitations being adjacent to the village wall all round, and each room having a perforated dome over it. there was spacious stabling on one side for horses, and several irregular courts in the centre of the village. a long wall stretched from this village to the fatabad gardens and palatial dwelling of hussein-ali-khan, and on one side of this wall were nicely kept wheat fields, while on the other lay a capital fruit garden. in the new village of fatabad, directly outside the wall of rustamabad, there were but few houses, with an interesting underground hammam, with water coming from natural mineral springs brought here from the village of ikhtiyarabad, some little distance off. behind this village, to the west, a barrier of high rugged hills closed the horizon before us, and made the view a most delightfully picturesque one. in the evening, in the same grand carriage, we were again conveyed back to kerman, as i intended to start at midnight on my journey across the great salt desert. [illustration: sketch map showing route followed by author and principal tracks between kum and kerman (persia). drawn by a. henry savage landor.] end of vol. i richard clay and sons, limited, london and bungay. * * * * * [illustration: mahommed hussein. sadek. (author's servants.)] across coveted lands or a journey from flushing (holland) to calcutta, overland by a. henry savage landor _with illustrations, diagrams, plans and maps_ _by author_ in two volumes vol. ii london macmillan and co., limited _all rights reserved_ richard clay and sons, limited, london and bungay list of illustrations _to face page_ mahommed hussein and sadek (author's servants) _frontispiece_ kerman and zeris, the two kittens who accompanied author on his wanderings author's caravan and others halting in the desert author's caravan in the salt desert ali murat making bread wolves in camp author's camel men in their white felt coats camel men saying their prayers at sunset author's camels being fed in the desert the trail we left behind in the salt desert author's caravan descending into river bed near darband rock habitations, naiband the village of naiband, and rock dwellings in the cliff young men of an oasis in the desert man and child of the desert naiband barber stropping a razor on his leg a woman of naiband fever stricken man at fedeshk the citadel, birjand the city of birjand, showing main street and river bed combined women visiting graves of relatives, birjand. (ruined fort can be observed on hill.) in the desert. (tamarisks in the foreground.) women at bandan dr. golam jelami and his patients the main street, sher-i-nasrya (showing centre of city) the british bazar (husseinabad), sistan the wall of sher-i-nasrya at sunset the sar-tip the customs caravanserai, sher-i-nasrya, sistan (belgian customs officer in foreground) the sistan consulate on christmas day, major r. e. benn, british consul for sistan, and his escort of th bombay lancers the citadel of zaidan, the great city the zaidan west towers and modern village towers of the citadel, zaidan s.e. portion of zaidan city, showing how it disappears under distant sand accumulations double wall and circular unroofed structures, zaidan. in the distance high sand accumulations above city interior of zaidan fortress graveyard of zaidan city east view of the zaidan citadel the figure we dug out at zaidan arabic inscription and marble columns with earthenware lamps upon them. fragment of water-pipe. stone implements. brick wall of the "tombs of forty saints" showing in top corners of photograph arabic inscription on marble dug by author at the city of zaidan transfer of inscription dated , found in the "tomb of forty saints," zaidan transfer of ornament above four lines of koran on grave stone transfer of ornamentations on marble grave presumed summits of towers buried in sand, zaidan (notice top of castellated wall behind.) sketch plan of zaidan citadel, by a. henry savage landor sketch map of summit of kuh-i-kwajah, by a. henry savage landor dead houses and ziarat on kuh-i-kwajah a family tomb (eight compartments) on kuh-i-kwajah kala-i-kakaha, the "city of roars of laughter" the "gandun piran" ziarat on kuh-i-kwajah a bird's eye view of kala-i-kakaha, the "city of roars of laughter" sher-i-rustam. (rustam's city) the stable of rustam's legendary horse the gate of rustam's city, as seen from rustam's house the remains of the two upper storeys of rustam's house rustam's city, showing rustam's house in citadel, also domed roofs blown in from the north plan of sher-i-rustam view of sher-i-rustam from rustam's house. (west portion of city under the lee of wall) view of sher-i-rustam from rustam's house (south-east section of city) saïd khan, duffadar and levies at the perso-beluch frontier post of robat beluch musicians (at sibi) beluch dance (at sibi) the beluch-afghan boundary cairn and malek-siah mountains in background rest house at mahommed raza chah overlooking afghan desert beluch black tents at mahommed raza chah rock pillar between kirtaka and saindak sand hills a caravan of donkeys in afghanistan in afghanistan. who are you? in the afghan desert. afghan caravan men the thana and new bungalow at saindak. (saindak mt. in background.) beluch prisoners at saindak interior of rest house, mukak the rest house at sahib chah windmill at mushki chah three beluch who would not be photographed! ziarat at chah sandan. (belind khan salaaming) desert covered with gypsum, near sotag circular mesjid, with tomb and outer kneeling place mesjid on the site where a man had been killed between kishingi and morad khan kella the type of thana and new bungalow between nushki and robat the nushki-robat track a beluch family beluch huts thatched with palm leaves and tamarisk circular ziarat with stone, marble and horn offerings ziarat with tomb showing stone vessels beluch mesjid and graveyard at dalbandin kuchaki chah rest house old beluch mud fort near nushki beluch huts and weaving loom cave dwellers, nushki a badini sardar the salaam of the beluch sardars at nushki the new city of nushki (overlooking the tashil buildings.) jemadar and levies, nushki a giant beluch recruit. (chaman.) the track between nushki and kishingi taleri (kanak). the new type of rest house between nushki and quetta the horse fair at sibi, beluchistan beluch boys off to the races--horse fair at sibi map at the end of volume. across coveted lands chapter i difficulties of crossing the great salt desert--the trials of arranging a caravan--the ways of camel-men--a quaint man of the desert--a legal agreement--preparations for the departure--"kerman" and "zeris," my two persian kittens and travelling companions--persian cats--the start--the charms of camel riding--marching among mountains. my intention was to cross the salt desert in an almost easterly direction by the route from khabis to neh, which seemed the most direct route from kerman to the afghan frontier, but on mentioning my project to the consul and his persian assistant, nasr-el khan, they dissuaded me from attempting it, declaring it impossible to get across in the autumn. why it was impossible i could not quite ascertain, each man from whom i inquired giving a different reason, but the fact remained that it was impossible. the governor of kerman, all the highest officials in the town, told me that it could not be done till three or four months later, when the afghan camels would come over, laden with butter, by that route. even faithful sadek, whom i had despatched to the bazaar to get camels at all costs, returned with a long face after a whole day's absence, and for the first time since he was in my employ had to change his invariable answer of "sahib, have got," to a bitterly disappointing "sahib, no can get." a delay was predicted on all hands of at least a month or two in kerman before i could possibly obtain camels to cross the desert in any direction towards the east. the tantalising trials of arranging a caravan were not small. i offered to purchase camels, but no camel driver could be induced to accompany me. offers of treble pay and bakshish had no effect, and i found myself in a serious dilemma when a camel man appeared on the scene. his high terms were then and there accepted, everything that he asked for was conceded, when suddenly, probably believing that all this was too good to come true, he backed out of the bargain and positively refused to go. had i chosen to go by the southern route, skirting the desert _via_ bam, the difficulty would not have been so great, but that route is very easy, and had been followed by several europeans at different times, and i declined to go that way. i was beginning to despair when sadek, who had spent another day hunting in the various caravanserais, entered my room, and with a broad grin on his generally stolid countenance, proclaimed that he had found some good camels. to corroborate his words a clumsy and heavy-footed camel man, with a face which by association had become like that of the beasts he led, was shoved forward into the room. he was a striking figure, with an ugly but singularly honest countenance, his eyes staring and abnormally opened, almost strained--the eyes of a man who evidently lived during the night and slept during the day. his mouth stretched, with no exaggeration, from ear to ear, and displayed a double row of powerful white teeth. what was lacking in quantity of nose was made up by a superabundance of malformed, shapeless ears, which projected at the sides of his head like two wings. when his legs were closed--_pour façon de parler_--they were still some six inches apart, and a similar space was noticeable between each of his arms and his body. unmistakably this fellow was the very picture of clumsiness. he seemed so much distracted by the various articles of furniture in the consul's room that one could get no coherent answer from him, and his apprehension gave way to positive terror when he was addressed in flowing language by the various high officials who were then calling on the consul. their ways of persuasion by threats and promises alarmed the camel man to such an extent that his eyes roamed about all over the place, palpably to find a way to effect an escape. he was, however, so clumsy at it, that the consul's servants and soldiers checked him in time, and sadek broke in with one of his usual flows of words at the top of his voice, which, however, could hardly be heard amid the vigorous eloquence of the persians present, who all spoke at the same time, and at an equally high pitch. with a sinking heart i closely watched the camel man, in whom rested my faint and last hope of crossing the salt desert. he looked so bewildered--and no wonder--almost terror-stricken, that when he was asked about his camels, the desert, the amount of pay required, he sulkily mumbled that he had no camels, knew nothing whatever about the desert, and did not wish to receive any pay. "why, then, did you come here?" "i did not come here!" "but you are here." "i want to go away." "yes, sahib," cried the chorus of persians, "he has the camels, he knows the desert; only he is frightened, as he has never spoken to a sahib before." here a young hindoo merchant, mul chan dilaram, entered the room, and with obsequious salaams to the company, assured me that he had brought this camel man to me, and that when he had got over his first fears i should find him an excellent man. while we were all listening to the hindoo's assurances the camel man made a bolt for the door, and escaped as fast as he could lay his legs to the ground towards the city. he was chased by the soldiers, and after some time was dragged back. "why did you run away?" he was asked. "sahib," he replied, almost crying, "i am only a man of the desert; my only friends are my camels; please have pity on me!" "then you have camels, and you do know the desert; you have said so in your own words." the camel man had to agree, and on being assured that he would be very well paid and treated, and have a new pair of shoes given him, and as much tea brewed for him on the road, with as much sugar in it as his capacity would endure, he at last said he would come. the hindoo, with great cunning, at once seized the hand of the camel man in his own and made him swear that death should descend upon himself, his camels and his family if he should break his word, or give me any trouble. the camel man swore. an agreement was hastily drawn up before he had time to change his mind, and a handsome advance in solid silver was pressed into his hands to make the agreement good and to allay his feelings. when requested to sign the document the camel man, who had sounded each coin on the doorstep, and to his evident surprise found them all good, gaily dipped his thumb into the inkstand and affixed his natural mark, a fine smudge, upon the valuable paper, and licked up the surplus ink with his tongue. the man undertook to provide the necessary camels and saddles, and to take me across the salt desert in a north-easterly direction, the only way by which, he said, it was possible to cross the _lut_, the year having been rainless, and nearly all the wells being dry. it would take from twenty-two to twenty-six days to get across, and most of the journey would be waterless or with brackish water. skins had to be provided to carry our own supply of water. a whole day was spent in preparing for the journey, and when november th came, shortly before midnight my provisions were packed upon my camels, with an extra load of fowls and one of fruit, while on the hump of the last camel of my caravan were perched, in a wooden box made comfortable with straw and cotton-wool, two pretty persian kittens, aged respectively three weeks and four weeks, which i had purchased in kerman, and which, as we shall see, lived through a great many adventures and sufferings, and actually reached london safe and sound, proving themselves to be the most wonderful and agreeable little travelling companions imaginable. one was christened "kerman," the other "zeris." [illustration: kerman and zeris, the two kittens who accompanied author on his wanderings.] the persian cat, as everybody knows, possesses a long, soft, silky coat, with a beautiful tail and ruff, similar to the cats known in europe as angora, which possess probably longer hair on the body. the persian cats, too, have a longer pencil of hair on the ears than domestic cats, and have somewhat the appearance and the motions of wild cats, but if properly treated are gentleness itself, and possess the most marvellous intelligence. unlike cats of most other nationalities, they seem to enjoy moving from place to place, and adapt themselves to fresh localities with the greatest ease. if fed entirely on plenty of raw meat and water they are extremely gentle and affectionate and never wish to leave you; the reason that many persian cats--who still possess some of the qualities of wild animals--grow savage and leave their homes, being principally because of the lack of raw meat which causes them to go ahunting to procure it for themselves. the cat, it should be remembered, is a carnivorous animal, and is not particularly happy when fed on a vegetable diet, no more than we beef-eating people are when invited to a vegetarian dinner. isfahan is the city from which long-haired persian cats, the _burak_, are brought down to the gulf, and from there to india, but the kerman cats are said by the persians themselves to be the best. the white ones are the most appreciated by the persians; then the blue (grey) ones with differently coloured eyes, and the tabby ones. mine were, one perfectly white, the other tabby. at midnight i said good-bye to major phillott, whose kind hospitality i had enjoyed for four days, and began my slow and dreary march on camel-back. swung too and fro till one feels that one's spine is breaking in two, we wound our way down from the consulate at zeris, skirted the town, now asleep and in a dead silence, and then turned north-east among the barren kupayeh mountains. we had a fine moonlight, and had i been on a horse instead of a camel i should probably have enjoyed looking at the scenery, but what with the abnormal persian dinner to which i had been treated in the afternoon (see vol. i.)--what with the unpleasant swing of the camel and the monotonous dingle of the camels' bells--i became so very sleepy that i could not keep my eyes open. there is very little style to be observed about riding a camel, and one's only aim must be to be comfortable, which is easier said than done, for camels have so many ways of their own, and these ways are so varied, that it is really difficult to strike a happy medium. sadek had made a kind of spacious platform on my saddle by piling on it carpets, blankets, and a mattress, and on the high butt of the saddle in front he had fastened a pillow folded in two. as we wended our way along the foot of one hill and then another, while nothing particularly striking appeared in the scenery, i thought i would utilise what comfort i had within reach, and resting my head on the pillow, through which one still felt the hard wooden frame of the saddle, and with one leg and arm dangling loose on each side of the saddle, i slept soundly all through the night. every now and then the camel stumbled or gave a sudden jerk, which nearly made one tumble off the high perch, but otherwise this was really a delightful way of passing the long dreary hours of the night. we marched some nine hours, and having gone over a low pass across the range, halted near a tiny spring of fairly good water. here we were at the entrance of an extensive valley with a small village in the centre. our way, however, lay to the south-east of the valley along the mountains. we were at an elevation of , feet, or feet above kerman. the heat of the day was so great that we halted, giving the camels a chance of grazing on what tamarisks they could find during day-light, for indeed camels are troublesome animals. they must not eat after sundown or it makes them ill. they are let loose on arrival at a camp, and they drift away in search of lichens or other shrubs. at sunset they are driven back to camp, where they kneel down and ruminate to their hearts' content until it is time for the caravan to start. the heavy wooden saddles with heavy padding under them are not removed from the camel's hump while the journey lasts, and each camel has, among other neck-ornaments of tassels and shells, one or more brass bells, which are useful in finding the camels again when strayed too far in grazing. we left at midnight and crossed the wide valley with the village of sar-es-iap (no. ) four miles from our last camp. again we came among mountains and entered a narrow gorge. the night was bitterly cold. we caught up a large caravan, and the din of the camels' bells and the hoarse groans of the camels, who were quite out of breath going up the incline, made the night a lively one, the sounds being magnified and echoed from mountain to mountain. every now and then a halt had to be called to give the camels a rest, and the camel men spread their felt overcoats upon the ground and lay down for five or ten minutes to have a sleep. then the long string of camels would proceed again up the hill, the camels urged by the strange cries and sing-songs of the men. this part of the journey being mountainous, one came across three little streams of water, and at each the camel man urged me to drink as much as i could, because, he said, the time will come when we shall see no water at all for days at a time. we were gradually rising, the camels panting dreadfully, and had got up to , feet when we camped near the village of kalaoteh--a few small domed hovels, a field or two, and a cluster of trees along a brook. we were still among the kupayeh mountains with the kurus peak towering directly above us. chapter ii fifty miles from kerman--camels not made for climbing hills--the godar khorassunih pass--volcanic formation--sar-es-iap--a variegated mountain--a castle--rock dwellings--personal safety--quaint natives--women and their ways--footgear. on november th we were some fifty miles from kerman. again when midnight came and i was slumbering hard with the two kittens, who had made themselves cosy on my blankets, the hoarse grunts of the camels being brought up to take the loads woke me up with a start, and the weird figure of the camel-man stooped over me to say it was time to depart. "hrrrr, hrrrr!" spoke the camel-man to each camel, by which the animals understood they must kneel down. the loads were quickly fastened on the saddles, the kittens lazily stretched themselves and yawned as they were removed from their warm nooks, and sadek in a moment packed up all my bedding on my saddle. we continued to ascend, much to the evident discomfort of the camels, who were quite unhappy when going up or down hill. it was really ridiculous to see these huge, clumsy brutes quite done up, even on the gentlest incline. the track went up and up in zigzag and curves, the cries of the camel-drivers were constantly urging on the perplexed animals, and the dingle of the smaller bells somewhat enlivened the slow, monotonous ding-dong of the huge cylindrical bell--some two and a half feet high and one foot in diameter--tied to the load of the last camel, and mournfully resounding in the valley down below. and we swung and swung on the camels' humps, in the beautiful starlight night--the moon had not yet risen--on several occasions going across narrow passages with a drop under us of considerable depth, where one earnestly hoped the quivering legs of the timid camels would not give way or perchance stumble. the higher we got the more the camels panted and roared, and the cries of the drivers were doubled. one farsakh and a half from our last camp, we reached at a.m. the top of the godar khorassunih pass ( , ft.), and we had to halt for a while to let the camels rest. the cold was bitter. camels and men were trembling all over. then came the descent. camel riding is comfortable at no time. it is passable on the flat; just bearable going up hill, but dreadful going down a fairly steep incline. the wretched beasts assumed a kind of hopping, jerky motion on their front legs, with a good deal of spring in their knees, which bumped the rider to such an extent that it seemed almost as if all the bones in one's body began to get disjointed and rattle. when the camel happened to stumble among the rocks and loose stones the sudden jerk was so painful that it took some seconds to recover from the ache it caused in one's spine. the moon rose shortly after we had gone over the pass, as we were wending our way from one narrow gorge into another, between high rocks and cliffs and mountains of most fantastic forms. we passed the little village of huruh, and at dawn the picturesqueness of the scenery increased tenfold when the cold bluish tints of the moon gradually vanished in the landscape, and first the mountains became capped and then lighted all over with warm, brilliant, reddish tints, their edge appearing sharply cut against the clear, glowing, golden sky behind them. we were now proceeding along a dry, wide river bed, which had on one side a tiny stream, a few inches broad, of crystal-like water dripping along. evident signs could be noticed that during the torrential storms of the rainy season this bed must occasionally carry large volumes of water. a foot track can be perceived on either side some twelve feet above the bed, which is followed by caravans when the river is in flood. we now entered a volcanic region with high perpendicular rocks to our right, that seemed as if they had undergone the action of long periods of fire or excessive heat; then we emerged into a large basin in which the vegetation struck one as being quite luxuriant by contrast with the barren country we had come through. there were a few old and healthy trees on the edge of the thread of water, and high tamarisks in profusion. on our left, where the gorge narrowed again between the mountains, was a large flow of solid green lava. in this basin was a quaint little hamlet--sar-es-iap (no. )--actually boasting of a flour-mill, and curious rock dwellings which the natives inhabit. we continued, and entered a broader valley, also of volcanic formation, with reddish sediments burying a sub-formation of yellowish brown rock which appeared in the section of the mountains some feet above the plain. to the w.n.w. stood a lofty variegated mountain, the higher part of which was of dark brown in a horizontal stratum, while the lower was a slanting layer of deep red. in the valley there was some cultivation of wheat, and i noticed some plum, apple, fig and pomegranate trees. one particularly ancient tree of enormous proportions stood near the village, and under its refreshing shade i spent the day. the village itself--a quaint castle-like structure with ruined tower--was curiously built in the interior. on the first storey of the large tower were to be found several humble huts, and other similar ones stood behind to the north. these huts were domed and so low as hardly to allow a person to stand erect inside. some had an opening in the dome, most had only a single aperture, the door. the majority of the inhabitants seemed quite derelict and lived in the most abject poverty. a few yards north-east of the castle were some rock habitations. there were three large chambers dug in the rock side by side, two of one single room and one of two rooms _en suite_. the largest room measured twenty feet by twelve, and was some six feet high. in the interior were receptacles apparently for storing grain. the doorway was quite low, and the heat inside suffocating. curiously enough, one or two of these chambers were not quite straight, but formed an elbow into the mountain side. at the sides of the row of cliff dwellings were two smaller doors giving access to storehouses also dug in the rock. i was told that the natives migrated to this village during the winter months from october till one month after the persian new year, while they spend the remainder of the year higher up on the mountains owing to the intense heat. firewood, which is scarce, is stored piled up on the top of roofs, whence a little at a time is taken down for fuel, and prominent in front of the village was a coarse and well-fortified pen for sheep. wolves were said to be plentiful in the neighbourhood, and as i was sitting down writing my notes a shepherd boy ran into the tower to say that a wolf had killed one of his sheep. both from men and beasts there seemed to be little safety near the village, according to the natives, who invariably took their old-fashioned matchlocks with them when they went to work in their fields, even a few yards away from the castle. one peculiarity of this village, which stood at an altitude of , feet, was that nobody seemed to know its name. the people themselves said that it had no name, but whether they were afraid of telling me, in their suspicions that some future evil might come upon them or for other reasons, i cannot say. the natives were certainly rather original in their appearance, their ways and speech, and as i comfortably sat under the big tree and watched them coming in and out of the castle-village, they interested me much. donkeys in pairs were taken in and out of the gate to convey manure to the fields, and old men and young came in and out carrying their long-poled spades and matchlocks. even little boys were armed. the men reminded one very forcibly, both in features and attire, of the figures in ancient egyptian sculptures, of which they were the very image. they wore felt skull caps, the side locks of jet black hair cut straight across. they had clean-shaven necks and lumpy black beards. their tall bodies were slender, with short waists, and their wiry feet showed beneath ample trousers--so ample as almost to approach a divided skirt. the children were pretty, and although miserably clothed looked the very picture of health and suppleness. the women, of whom a number sat the whole day perched on the domed roofs of their huts to watch the doings of the _ferenghi_, showed their faces fully, and although professing to be mussulman made no attempt whatever at concealment. they wore picturesque light blue and red kerchiefs on the head and shoulders, falling into a point behind, and held fast in position round the skull by a small black and blue turban. a pin held the two sides of the kerchief together under the chin. the women were garbed in short, pleated blue skirts reaching just below the knee, and a short loose coat of the same cotton material with side slits and ample sleeves. they had bare legs, well proportioned and straight, with handsome ankles and long, well-formed feet and toes. when working they went about bare-footed, but when their daily occupations were finished put on small slippers. they were particularly to be admired when they walked, which they did to perfection, looking most attractively picturesque when carrying jugs of water on the head. the head had to be then kept very erect, and gave a becoming curve to the well-modelled neck and a most graceful swing to the waist. a long black cloak, not unlike a _chudder_, was worn over the head after sunset when the air was turning cold. the women did all the hard work and seemed to put their whole soul into it. some gaily spun wool on their wheels, and others worked at small, neat, but primitive weaving looms which were erected on the top storey of the castle. affectionate mothers carefully searched the hair of the heads of their children--to remove therefrom all superfluous animal life,--but to my dismay i discovered that their good-nature went so far as not to destroy the captured brutes, which were merely picked up most gently, so as not to injure them, and flung down from the castle-village wall, on the top of which this operation took place. as there were other people sitting quite unconcerned down below, no doubt this provided a good deal of perpetual occupation to the women of the castle, and the parasites were provided with a constant change of abode. probably what astonished me most was to see a young damsel climb up a tall tree in the best monkey fashion, with successively superposed arms and legs stiff and straight, not round the tree, mind you, and using her toes for the purpose with almost equal ease as her fingers. the foot-gear of the men was interesting. they wore wooden-soled clogs, held fast to the foot by a string between the big toe and the next, and another band half way across the foot. some of the men, however, wore common shoes with wooden soles. chapter iii an abandoned caravanserai--fantastic hill tops--no water--a most impressive mountain--sediments of salt--a dry river bed--curious imprints in the rock--a row--intense heat--accident to our supply of eggs--the end of a meeting--misleading maps--haoz panch--the camel-man's bread--lawah. again we left camp shortly before midnight, and ascended continually between mountains until we reached a pass , ft. above the sea, after which we came upon the abandoned caravanserai of abid (pronounced obit). on descending, the way was between high vertical rocks, and then we found ourselves among hills of most peculiar formation. the sun was about to rise, and the fantastic hill-tops, in some places not unlike sharp teeth of a gigantic saw, in others recalled stonehenge and the pillar-like remains of temples of druids. in this case they were, of course, entirely of natural formation. although there was no water in the valley into which we had descended, we camped here owing to the camels being very tired, and i took the opportunity of climbing to a neighbouring hill ( , ft.) in order to obtain a panoramic view of the surrounding country. to the south-east, whence we had come, were low and comparatively well-rounded mountains with two narrow valleys separated by a flat-topped, tortuous hill range. to the north-east of my camp was a high and most impressive mountain, the upper portion of which appeared at first almost of a basaltic formation, with vertical quadrangular columns, while the lower portion of the mountain, evidently accumulated at a later period, and slanting at an angle of °, displayed distinct strata of light brown, a deep band of grey, then dark brown, light brown, a thin layer of grey, and then a gradation of beautiful warm burnt sienna colour, getting richer and richer in tone towards the base. here at the bottom, all round the mountain, and in appearance not unlike the waves of a choppy sea in shallow water, rose hundreds of broken-up, pointed hillocks, the point of each hillock being invariably turned in a direction away from the mountain, and these were formed not of sand, but by a much broken-up stratum of black, burnt slate, at an angle of ° in relation to an imaginary horizontal plane. [illustration: author's caravan and others halting in the desert.] it was most curious to find these enormous layers of black slate here, for they were quite different in character from the whole country around. about two miles further off, north-east, we had, for instance, a range of mountains of quite a different type, not at all broken up nor with sharp cutting edges, but quite nicely rounded off. between this range and the high peculiar mountain which i have just described--in the flat stretch--were to be seen some curious hillocks, apparently formed by water. n.n.e. was the way towards birjand, first across a long flat plain bounded before us by low greyish hills, beyond which a high mountain-range--the leker kuh--towered sublime. two mountain masses of fair height stood in front of this range, one n.n.e. on the left of the track, the other n.n.w., with a white sediment of salt at its base; while beyond could be distinguished a long flat-topped mountain with a peculiar white horizontal band half way up it, like a huge chalk mark, all along its entire length of several miles. this mountain appeared to be some thirty miles off. the mountain mass to the n.w. showed no picturesque characteristics, but a more broken-up mountain, somewhat similar to the one to our n.e., stood between my camp and the range beyond. as i have already stated, we had come along a dry river bed, and from my high point of vantage i could see its entire course to the north-west. it ran in a tortuous manner until it absolutely lost itself in the flat desert. the long snake-like hill-range separating the parallel valleys from south-east to north-west appeared to owe its formation to the action of water, the surface pebbles, even at the summit of it, being well rounded and worn quite smooth, many with grooves in them. near my camp i came across some very curious imprints in the hard rock, like lava. there were some rocks hollowed out, in a fantastic way, as if the hollows had been formed by some softer matter having been enclosed in the rock and having gradually disappeared, and also a perfect cast of a large tibia bone. on other rocks were footprints of large animals, evidently made when the lava was soft. on returning to camp i found a general row going on between sadek and the camel men--my own and those of the other caravan who had asked permission to travel with me. there was no water at this camp, and only salt water could be procured in small quantities some distance away. the intense heat had played havoc with some of my fresh provisions, and we unfortunately had an accident to the load of eggs which were all destroyed. a great many of the chickens, too, had gone bad, and we were running rather short of fresh food. the caravan men said that it was impossible to go on, because, this being such a dry year, even the few brackish wells across the desert would be dry, and they refused to come on. the greater part of the evening was spent in arguing--everybody except myself shouting himself hoarse. at midnight, the usual hour of our departure, the camel men refused to pack the loads and continue across the desert. at a.m. they were preparing to leave me to return to kerman. at . , my patience being on the verge of being exhausted, they most of them received a good pounding with the butt of my rifle. at . , they having come back to their senses, i duly entertained each of them to a cup of tea, brewed with what salt water we had got, on a fire of camel dung, and at a.m. we proceeded on our course as quietly as possible as if nothing had happened. we still followed the dry river bed among hills getting lower and lower for about three miles on either side of us, and at last we entered a vast plain. we went n.n.w. for some twelve miles, when by the side of some low hillocks of sand and pebbles we came upon a caravanserai, and an older and smaller structure, a large covered tank of rain water (almost empty) which is conveyed here from the hills twelve miles off by means of a small canal. to the s.s.e. we could still see the flat-topped mountain under which we had camped the previous day, and all around us were distant mountains. the flat plain stretching for miles on every side had deep grooves cut into it by water flowing down from the mountain-side during the torrential rains and eventually losing themselves in the sand. on the english and some of the german maps these dry grooves are marked as large and important rivers, but this is a mistake. there is not a drop of water in any of them at any time of the year except during heavy storms, when the drainage of the mountains is immediately carried down by these channels and lost in the desert. it is no more right to mark these channels as rivers than it would be to see piccadilly marked on a map of london as a foaming torrent because during a heavy shower the surplus water not absorbed by the wood pavement had run down it half an inch deep until the rain stopped. to the n.e. we saw much more clearly than the day before the extensive salt deposits at the base of the mountains, and to the n.n.e. a grey mountain with a fluted top. a high mountain mass stretched from the south to the north-west and then there was a wide opening into another flat sandy plain. far, far beyond this a distant range of high mountains could hardly be distinguished, for a sand-storm was raging in that direction and veiled the view with a curtain of dirty yellowish grey. this caravanserai, called haoz panch (or "fifth water") altitude , feet--was built by some charitable person to protect caravans during sand-storms, and also to supply them with water, which was quite drinkable, if one were not too particular, and if one did not look at it. the caravanserai, very solidly built, was left to take care of itself, there being no one in charge of it. the _kilns_ erected to bake the bricks with which the caravanserai had been built, still stood near it. it is rather curious to notice what effect a drink of fair water has on the temper of one's men. my camel man, ali murat, for that was his name, was in high spirits and came to fetch me to show me how he made his bread, for he was keen to know whether camel men(!) in my country made it the same way! i reserved my answer until i had seen his process. the hands having been carefully washed first, flour and water, with great lumps of salt, were duly mixed together in a bowl until reduced into fairly solid paste. a clean cloth was then spread upon the ground and the paste punched hard upon it with the knuckles, care having been taken to sprinkle some dry flour first so that the paste should not stick to the cloth. when this had gone on for a considerable time the paste was balanced upon the knuckles and brought gaily bounding to where the hot cinders remained from a fire of camel dung which had previously been lighted. the flattened paste was carefully laid upon the hot ashes, with which it was then covered, and left to bake for an hour or so. when ready, ali murat brought me a piece of the bread to try--which i reluctantly did so as not to offend his feelings. "do camel men in your country, sahib, make as good bread as this when they cross the _lut_ (desert)?" inquired ali murat, with an expectant grin from ear to ear. "we have no camel men in my country, and no camels, and no _lut_! how could we then get as good bread as yours?" (really, when one tried to forget the process of making it, which did not quite appeal to one, the bread was not bad.) "you have no camels, sahib,--no _lut_--in your country?" exclaimed ali, with his eyes fast expanding with surprise; "why, then, did you come here?" "we have so much scenery in my country that i thought i would come here for a change." [illustration: author's caravan in the salt desert.] [illustration: ali murat making bread.] we left the caravanserai at . p.m. on november th and travelled across the plain all through the night. about miles from haoz panch we found an ancient mud caravanserai abandoned and partly ruined. we had the hills quite close on our right and we came across a good many dry channels cut by water. we travelled on the flat all the time, but we passed on either side a great many low mounds of sand and gravel. there was absolutely nothing worth noticing in the night's journey until we came to the small villages of heirabad and shoshabad, eighteen miles from our last camp. two miles further we found ourselves at lawah (rawar)--altitude , feet--a very large oasis with a small town of some three thousand mud huts and ten thousand inhabitants, according to native accounts. chapter iv lawah or rawar--a way to yezd--the bazaar--trade--ruined forts--opium smoking and its effects--beggar's ingenious device--in a local gentleman's home--the tokrajie--buying fresh provisions--water skins--an unhealthy climate--a fight--when fever is contracted--wolves in camp--fever stricken--a third cat purchased. lawah or rawar is, in a way, quite an important centre. it is the last place one passes before entering the salt desert proper, on the border of which it is situated, and is, therefore, the last spot where provisions and good water can be obtained. it has a certain amount of local trade and is connected with yezd by a very tortuous track _via_ bafk-kuh-benan. it has no possible resting place, and we therefore camped just outside the town. the natives were not particularly friendly and seemed inclined to give trouble. there was considerable excitement when we crossed the town in the morning on our arrival, and even more when i went to inspect the city alone in the afternoon. there was nothing to see, the bazaar in the place being one of the most miserable looking in persia. it was not domed over like those of other persian cities, but the streets were merely covered with rafters supporting brush wood and rotten mats. there were no shops proper, but various merchants, and brass-smiths, fruit-sellers, or sellers of articles for caravans, had a certain amount of cheap goods within their habitation doors. more quaintly interesting were the commercial caravanserais, or small squares with receptacles all round for travelling merchants to display their goods upon. lawah's trade is principally a transit trade, the caravans which occasionally come through the desert taking an opportunity of selling off some of their goods here, as also, of course, do those that come from yezd or kerman. there is some cultivation of wheat and cotton in the immediate neighbourhood, and of fruit, which is quite excellent. the water is not very plentiful, as can be seen by the hundreds of borings for water and disused _kanats_ to the north of the city, where most fields are to be found, while the majority of fruit gardens and trees are to the east. here, as everywhere else in persia, a great portion of the town is uninhabited and in ruins, and to the south-west, outside the inhabited part, can be seen an interesting ruined quadrangular castle with a double wall and moat with an outer watch tower besides the corner turrets. inside this castle was formerly a village. another smaller fort, also in ruins, is situated to the s.s.w. there are a great many palm trees within the place, and they produce good dates. the climate is most unhealthy, fever of the desert being rampant. great use is made of opium, which is smoked to excess by the natives and has very disastrous effects in such an unhealthy climate. personally, i have ever believed, and believe still, that opium used in moderation has no worse effects upon the light-headed human beings who choose to make themselves slaves to it than whisky or tobacco, but under these particular circumstances and in this particular climate it had undoubtedly most evil effects in just the same way that whisky, which is certainly the best drink for damp scotland, is most injurious to those who make use of it in similar doses in india. although i have visited opium dens, merely for the purpose of observing, in almost every asiatic country where opium smoking is practised, i have never seen cases quite so depressing as here. a great proportion of the population suffered from fever, to allay the sufferings of which opium was used. there was, of course, the usual contingent of sick people visiting my camp to obtain medicine for their various troubles--one fever-stricken man, with cadaverous face and skeleton-like limbs, collapsing altogether when reaching me and remaining senseless for a considerable time. as i never carry medicine of any kind in my travels i was unable to satisfy them, but i gave them some little present each, which did them just as much good. beggars, too, visited the camp in appalling numbers, and their ways were quite interesting; but none was so ingenious as that of an old woman, who waited till there was a goodish crowd of visitors in my camp, and then rushed at me and made a violent scene, saying that i must pay her tomans--about £ . "but i have never seen you before! what have you done to earn such a sum?" "oh, sahib, you have ruined me!" and she yelled as only an angry old woman can! she plumped herself on my best carpet and proceeded to explain. she said that she had buried the above stated sum in solid silver within a pile of straw, which she had sold the day before to a man to feed his camels upon. she was therefore--according to a reasoning of her own, since i had not yet arrived here the day before, nor could she identify the man with any of my party--certain that my camels had devoured the sum, and i, therefore, must pay the sum back! she was, nevertheless, sure that i was not to blame in the matter, and was willing to waive the claim on the immediate payment of two shais--about a half-penny! although it is well to be as kind as one can to the natives, it is never right to allow them to go unpunished for playing tricks. of all the people--and they were many--who applied for charity that day, she was the only one who received nothing. this punishment, i was glad to see, was approved of by the many natives who had collected round. a gentlemanly-looking fellow came forward and asked me to visit his house, where he was manufacturing a huge carpet--very handsome in design, but somewhat coarse in texture--ordered for turkestan. three women in his house had uncovered faces, and were very good-looking. they brought us tea in the garden, and sweets and water melon, but did not, of course, join in the conversation, and modestly kept apart in a corner. they wore white _chudders_ over the head and long petticoats--quite a becoming attire--while the men, too, were most artistic in appearance, with smart zouave yellow jackets trimmed with fur, with short sleeves not reaching quite to the elbow, leaving the arm quite free in its movements, and displaying the loose sleeve of the shirt underneath. a couple of newly-born babies were swung in hammocks in the garden, and were remarkably quiet when asleep! on going for a walk on the outskirts of the city one found a great many fairly high mud hillocks to the east, averaging feet. east-south-east there stood hundreds more of these hillocks, with taller brown hills (the leker kuh) behind them, and to the west a high peak, rising to an estimated , feet, in the kuh-benan mountains. the tokrajie mountains, south-west of lawah, did not seem to rise to more than , or , feet, and extended in a south-south-east direction. south-east we could still see the kuh legav mountain, at the foot of which we had camped on november th. to the north was a long mountain, with a white stratum like a horizontal stripe half-way up it, and the summit was in regular teeth like those of a saw. another similar but more pointed mountain was to the east-south-east, the white stratum being less horizontal in this portion. this curious white stripe in the hills extended over an arc of a circle from ° (east-north-east) to ° (north-west). we made great purchases of provisions in lawah--sheep, chickens, eggs, vegetables and fruit, the slaughtered chickens being carefully prepared in layers of salt to make them last as long as possible. then we purchased a number of sheep skins to carry a further supply of drinking water, for from this place, we were told, we should be several days without finding any. sadek was busy all day smearing these skins with molten butter to make them absolutely water tight, and i, on my part, was glad to see all the butter go in this operation, for with the intense heat of the day it was impossible to touch it with one's food. sadek's idea of good cooking was intense richness--everything floating in grease and butter; so these skins, which absorbed all the butter we had, were really a godsend to me--as far as the _cuisine_ of the future was concerned. there was something in the climate of lawah that made one feverish and irritable. in the afternoon some of the camel men had a fight with a number of lawah people, and later the camel men in a body attacked sadek. he was very plucky and quick--they were heavy but clumsy--so that sadek succeeded with a heavy mallet in giving them several cracks on the head, but as they were eight to one and closed in upon him and were about to give him a good hammering, i had to rush to his assistance and with the butt of my rifle scattered the lot about. for a moment they seemed as if they were going to turn on me; they were very excited and seized whatever they could lay their hands upon in the shape of sticks and stones, but i casually put a few cartridges in the magazine of my rifle and sat down again on my carpets to continue writing my diary. they came to beg pardon for the trouble they had given, and embraced my feet, professing great humility. four camels of the combined caravans had been taken ill with fever and had to be left behind. their cries from pain were pitiful. owing to the abundant dinner we got here, with lavish supplies of meat, fruit--most delicious figs, pomegranates and water melons--of which we partook more copiously than wisely, all the men got attacks of indigestion, and so did my poor little kittens, who had stuffed themselves to their hearts' content with milk and the insides of chickens; so that when night came, everybody being ill, we were unable to make a start. at sunset, with the sudden change in the temperature, and the revulsion from intense dryness to the sudden moisture of the dew, a peculiar feeling took possession of me, and i could feel that i was fast inhaling the miasma of fever. the natives shut themselves up inside their houses--for sunset, they say, and sunrise are the times when fever is contracted,--but we were out in the open and had no protection against it. it seems to seize one violently from the very beginning and sends up one's temperature extremely high, which produces a fearful exhaustion, with pains in the ribs, arms and spinal column. [illustration: wolves in camp.] the altitude of lawah is , ft. and therefore the nights are terribly cold in contrast to the stifling heat of the day. i had wrapped myself up in my blankets, shivering with the fever that had seized me quite violently, and the kittens were playing about near my bed. my men were all sound asleep and only the occasional hoarse roar of the squatted camels all round our camp broke the silence of the night. i eventually fell asleep with my hat over my face screening it from the heavy fall of dew. suddenly i woke up, startled by the kittens dashing under my blankets and sticking their claws into me and making a fearful racket, and also by some other animals sniffing my face. i jumped up, rifle in hand, for indeed there were some wolves visiting our camp. one--a most impudent rascal--was standing on one of my boxes, and another had evidently made a dash for the white cat; hence the commotion. the wolves bolted when i got up--i could not fire owing to the camels and people being all round--but the kittens did not stir from their hiding place until the next morning, when in broad day-light they cautiously peeped out to see that the danger had passed. with the coming day the gruesome reality had to be faced, that one and all of my party had contracted fever of the desert in more or less violent form, even the kittens, who sneezed and trembled the whole day. some of the camels, too, were unwell and lay with their long necks resting upon the ground and refused to eat. the prospects of crossing the most difficult part of the desert with such a sorry party were not very bright, but we made everything ready, and at ten o'clock in the evening we were to make a start. i purchased here a third and most beautiful cat--a weird animal, and so wild that when let out of the bag in which it had been brought to me, he covered us all over with scratches. he was three months old, and had quite a will of his own. when introduced to master kerman and miss zeris, there were reciprocal growls and arched backs, and when asked to share their travelling home for the night there was evident objection and some exchange of spitting. but as there were four corners in the wooden box and only three cats, they eventually settled down, one in each, watching the new comer with wide expanded eyes and fully outstretched claws, merely for defensive emergencies, but otherwise quite peacefully inclined. chapter v salt sediments as white as snow--brilliant stars--plaintive songs of the camel men--an improvisatore--unpleasant odour of camels--a large salt deposit--no water and no fuel--a device to protect oneself against great heat--amazing intelligence of cats--nature's ways and men's ways--a hot climb--a brilliantly coloured range--sea shells and huge fossils. on november th at ten o'clock p.m. we gladly left poisonous lawah and spent the night (november th) traversing a mountain region by a flattish and low pass, and then travelling due north entered the actual _dasht-i-lut_--the sandy salt desert, the sediment of surface salt being in some places so thick and white as to resemble snow. here and there some hillocks of sand relieved the monotony of the dreary journey, otherwise flat sand and surface salt extended as far as the eye could see. the nights, even when there was no moonlight, were so clear, and the stars and planets so brilliant, that with a little practice one could, for general purposes, see almost as well as by day. the night was terribly cold, which i felt all the more owing to the fever, as i hung resting my head on the padded pommel of the saddle and my legs and arms dangling at the sides. a howling, cutting wind blew and made it impossible to cover one's self up with blankets, as they were constantly being blown away, no matter how well one tucked one's self in them. there was a certain picturesque weirdness in these night marches in the desert--when one could dissociate one's self from the discomforts. the camel men had some sad, plaintive songs of their own--quite melodious and in good tune with the accompaniment of dingling bells hanging from the camels' necks. there was a musician in our party--ali murat's young brother--who carried a flute in his girdle during the day, but played upon the instrument the whole night--some doleful tunes of his own composition, which were not bad. true, when one had listened to the same tune, not only scores but hundreds of times during one night, one rather felt the need of a change, but still even the sound of his flute was a great relief in the dreary night marches. occasionally, when the fancy took him, and he made some variations in the airs, the camel men, who slept while mechanically walking, would join in to sing in a chorus. overhead the stars gleamed with a brightness that we can never dream of seeing in europe, and in the distance we now began to perceive some phantom-like hills rising from the whitish-grey surface of the desert. a good deal of the poetry of the desert is, nevertheless, lost each time that the camel on which you ride breathes. behold! one is brought to earth very soon! the rancid smell which comes in regular whiffs is sickening. so is the powerful stench of his hump when it gets heated by the pads of the never-removed saddle. about every two miles a few minutes' rest is given to the camels, then on again they slowly swing forward, the nose of one being attached by a long string to the tail rope of the preceding animal. [illustration: author's camel men in their white felt coats.] [illustration: camel men saying their prayers at sunset.] twenty miles from lawah, mud-hills covering underlying rock were reached, and closed us in on either side. two miles further, when it got too hot to proceed--thermometer ° in the sun and not a thread of shade--we halted on a white salt deposit of considerable extent. there was no water and no fuel, and the heat was well-nigh unbearable in the middle of the day. it was useless to pitch my tent, for in such stifling heat it is not possible to remain under it, nor could one breathe at all if one tried to get a little shade by screening one's self against a wall of loads which impeded the air moving. my camel men showed me a device which by the ignorant may be ridiculed, but to the sensible is a great blessing when exposed to abnormally high temperatures. the only way to protect one's self against the broiling air is to cover one's self, head and all, leaving space to breathe, with one or two thick blankets of wool or thick felt, of a white or light colour preferably, white being a non-absorbent of the hot sun's rays. the thickness of the cloth keeps the body at an enveloping temperature slightly above the temperature of the body itself (even when with high fever seldom more than °), and therefore a cooler temperature than outside the blankets, when it is frequently ° sometimes ° and even more. by contrast this seems quite cool. it is, in other words, a similar process to that used by us in summer to maintain ice from melting. in morocco, algeria, egypt, arabia, the people who are much exposed to the rays of the hot sun in deserts always wear extremely thick woollen clothing, or bernouses; and in persia the camel men of the desert, as we have seen, possess thick white felt coats in which they wrap themselves, head and all, during the hot hours of the day. the italians, too, seem to have been fully aware of this, for in naples and southern italy they have an ancient proverb in the neapolitan dialect:--_quel che para lo freddo para lo caldo_--"what is protection against cold is protection against heat." i know one englishman in southern persia who, when crossing the broiling plains of arabistan, wears a thick overcoat and plenty of woollen underwear--a method which he learnt from the nomad tribes of arabistan--but he is generally laughed at by his countrymen who do not know any better. this cooling device, naturally, only applies to tropical climates when the temperature of the air is greatly above the actual temperature of the blood. i had arranged with the caravan that accompanied mine to carry fodder for my camels, as there was no grazing for the animals here. large cloths were spread on which straw and cotton-seeds were mixed together, and then the camels were made to kneel round and have a meal. on this occasion i was much struck by the really marvellous intelligence of cats. we hear a lot about dogs finding their way home from long distances by using their sense of scent (how far this explanation is correct we have no time to discuss), but of cats the general belief is that if they are taken away from home they seldom find their way back. this may be the case with cats that have always been shut up in some particular house, but it is not that they do not possess the intellect to do so in their natural state. here is an instance. on letting the cats loose when we halted, the newly-purchased one attempted to make his escape. i was watching him carefully. he did not do this in a haphazard manner, running here and there as a dog would, but jumped out of the box, took his bearings with great calm and precision and in a most scientific manner, first by looking at the sun, and then at his own shadow, evidently to discover whether when shut up in the box he had travelled east or west, north or south, or to some intermediate point. he repeated this operation several times with a wonderful expression of intelligence and reflection on his little face, and then dashed away with astounding accuracy in the direction of lawah town. mind you, he did not at all follow the track that we had come by, which was somewhat circuitous, but went in a bee line for his native place and not a second to the left or right of the direct bearings which i took with my prismatic compass to check his direction. sadek and the camel men went in pursuit of him and he was brought back. this seemed so marvellous that i thought it might be a chance. we were then only twenty-two miles from lawah. i repeated the experiment for three or four days from subsequent camps, until the cat reconciled himself to his new position and declined to run away. i took the trouble to revolve him round himself several times to mislead him in his bearings, but each time he found his correct position by the sun and his own shadow, and never made a mistake in the absolutely correct bearings of his route. a remarkable fact in connection with this is that the most ignorant natives of persia, men who have never seen or heard of a compass, can tell you the exact direction of places by a very similar method, so that there is more in the process than we think. it is rather humiliating when we reflect that what we highly civilised people can only do with difficulty with the assistance of elaborate theodolites, sextants, artificial horizons, compasses and lengthy computations, an ignorant camel man, or a kitten, can do practically and simply and always correctly in a few seconds by drawing conclusions on facts of nature which speak for themselves better than all the scientific instruments we can manufacture. there was a high mountain north-east of camp, the darband, , feet, and as my fever seemed to be getting worse, and i had no quinine with which to put a sudden stop to it, i thought i would climb to the top of the mountain to sweat the fever out, and also to obtain a view of the surrounding country. after having slept some three hours and having partaken of a meal--we had the greatest difficulty in raising enough animal fuel for a fire--i started off about one in the afternoon under a broiling sun. the camp was at an altitude of , feet and the ascent not difficult but very steep and rocky, and involving therefore a good deal of violent exertion. the dark rocks were so hot with the sun that had been shining upon them that they nearly burned one's fingers when one touched them. still, the view from the top well repaid one for the trouble of getting there. a general survey showed that the highest mountain to be seen around was to the south-south-east ( ° bearings magnetic), and a couple of almost conical hills, exactly alike in shape, but not in size, stood one in front of the other on a line with ° b.m. between them both to east and west were a number of misshapen mountains. were it not for a low confused heap of grey mud and sand the desert would be an absolutely flat stretch from the distant mountains enclosing the plain on the south to the others on the north. a long high mud barrier runs diagonally at the northern end, in a direction from east to west, and another extending from south-east to north-west meets it, forming a slightly acute angle. the latter range is of a most peculiar formation, extremely brilliant in colour, the ground being a vivid red, regularly fluted and striped across so straight with friezes and bands formed by strata of different tones of colour, that from a distance it almost resembles the patient work of a skilful artisan instead of the results of the corrosive action of water. another parallel and similar range stands exactly opposite on the east. the mountain itself to which i had climbed was most interesting. imbedded in the rock were quantities of fossil white and black sea-shells, and about half way up the mountain a huge fossil, much damaged, resembling a gigantic turtle. near it on the rock were impressions of enormous paws. chapter vi a long detour--mount darband--a water-cut gorge--abandoned watch towers--passes into the desert--a wall-like mountain range--the tower and fortified caravanserai at camp darband--brackish water--terrific heat--compensating laws of nature better than absurd patents--weird rocks--cairns--chel-payeh salt well--loss of half our supply of fresh water--camels and men overcome by the heat. when we left camp soon after midnight on november th, we had to make quite a long detour to take the caravan around the darband mountain, which barred our way directly on the course we were to follow. on foot one could have taken a short cut in a more direct line by climbing up to a certain height on the western mountain slope, but it was out of the question to take camels up by it. we had to go some distance due north, through very broken country with numerous hillocks, after which we followed a narrow gorge cut deep by the action of water. the sides of this gorge were like high mud and gravel walls, occasionally rocks worn smooth, averaging from to feet apart. the river bed, now absolutely dry, evidently carried into the desert during the torrential rain all the drainage of the mountainous country we had traversed, practically that from abid, the leker mountains, and the combined flow of the lawah plain from the mountains to the west of it, to which, of course, may be added the western watershed of the darband mountain itself. a glance at the natural walls, between which we were travelling, and the way in which hard rocks had been partly eaten away and deeply grooved, or huge hollows bored into them, was sufficient to show the observer with what terrific force the water must dash its way through this deep-cut channel. the highest water-mark noticeable on the sides was twenty-five feet above the bed. the impetus with which the rain water must flow down the almost vertical fluted mountain sides must be very great, and immense also must be the body of water carried, for the mountain sides, being rocky, absorb very little of the rain falling upon them and let it flow down to increase the foaming stream--when it is a stream. some sixteen miles from our last camp we came across a circular tower, very solidly built, standing on the edge of a river cliff, and higher up on a ridge of hills in a commanding position stood the remains of two quadrangular towers in a tumbling-down condition. of one, in fact, there remained but a portion of the base; of the other three walls were still standing to a good height. the circular tower below, however, which seemed of later date, was in good preservation. according to the camel men, none of these towers were very ancient and had been put up to protect that passage from the robber bands which occasionally came over westward from sistan and afghanistan. it had, however, proved impossible to maintain a guard in such a desolate position, hence the abandonment of these outposts. this is one of the three principal passages by which the mountains can be crossed with animals from kerman towards the east (north of the latitude of kerman ° ' "). the other two passages are: one to khabis over a pass (north-east of kerman) in the husseinabad mountains; the second between the derun mountain and the leker kuh from abid, also to khabis. from the latter place it is also possible to cross the desert to birjiand, but the lack of water even at the best of times makes it a very dangerous track to follow both for men and animals. barring these passages there are high mountains protecting kerman and continuously extending, roughly, from n.n.w. to s.s.e. we travelled partly above the high cliffs, then, near the circular tower, we descended to the dry river-bed of well-rounded pebbles and sand. our course had gradually swerved to the south-east, then we left the river bed once more and went due east, over confused masses of mud hillocks from twenty to a hundred feet high. to the north we had a wall-like mountain range formed of superposed triangles of semi-solidified rock, the upper point of each triangle forming either an angle of ° or a slightly acute angle; and to the south also another wall-like range, quite low, but of a similar character to the northern ones. beyond it, to the south-west, twenty miles back (by the way followed) lay the darband mountain, on the other side of which we had made our previous camp. the camp at which we halted bore the name of darband, and from this point the desert again opened into a wide flat expanse. the mountains to the north suddenly ended in a crowded succession of low mud-hills, descending for about a mile into the flat. the desert in all its dignified grandeur, spread before us almost uninterruptedly from due north to south-east, as far as the eye could see. north, a long way off, one could perceive a low range of hills extending in an easterly direction, and beyond at ° bearings magnetic (about n.n.e.) rose a very high mountain and yet another very far north-east, with some isolated conical hills of fair height standing before it in the same direction; otherwise everything else in front of us was as flat and as barren as could be. at darband halting place there is an interesting old circular tower, much battered, as if it had seen some fighting. the attacks on it seem to have taken place mostly from the south-westerly side, which aspect bears evident marks of violent assaults. the tower is most cleverly loopholed, so as to protect the inmates while firing on the enemy, and has a look-out house on the top. for additional protection the entrance door is about twenty feet above the ground and can only be reached by a ladder, which was drawn up in cases of emergency. a large dilapidated and filthy caravanserai--a regular fortress with a watch tower of its own and loop-holes all round--is erected in the vicinity in another commanding position. in the gully below there is a small oasis of palm trees and a few square yards of vegetation alongside a small spring of brackish water--the only water there is--with a reservoir. next to this, west of the caravanserai, are the remains of a few mud huts in ruins. we were here only , feet above the sea. the heat was terrific. [illustration: author's camels being fed in the desert.] brackish water is not pleasant to drink, but it is not necessarily unhealthy. personally, i am a great believer in the compensating laws of nature in preference to the ill-balanced habits of civilised men, and am certain that the best thing one can drink in the desert, under the abnormal conditions of heat, dust and dryness, is salt water, which stimulates digestion and keeps the system clean. of filters, condensing apparatuses, soda-water cartridges, and other such appliances for difficult land travelling, the less said the better. they are very pretty toys, the glowing advertisements of which may add to the profits of geographical magazines, but they are really more useful in cities in europe than practical in the desert. possibly they may be a consolation to a certain class of half-reasoning people. but anything else, it might be argued would serve equally well. one sees them advertised as preventatives of malarial fever, but no sensible person who has ever had fever or seen it in others would ever believe that it comes from drinking water. fever is in the atmosphere--one breathes fever; one does not necessarily drink it. when the water is corrupted, the air is also corrupted, and to filter the one and not the other is an operation the sense of which i personally cannot see. it has ever been my experience, and that also of others, that the fewer precautions one takes, the more one relies on nature to take care of one instead of on impracticable devices--the better for one's health in the end. i do not mean by this that one should go and drink dirty water to avoid fever,--far from it,--but if the water is dirty the best plan is not to drink it at all, whether filtered--or, to be accurate, passed through a filter--or not, or made into soda-water! one fact is certain, that if one goes through a fever district one can take all the precautions in the world, but if one's system is so inclined one is sure to contract it; only the more the precautions, the more violent the fever. but to return to our specific case, brackish water is not necessarily dirty, and as i have said, is to my mind one of nature's protections against fever of the desert. in my own case, when i partook of it freely, it decidedly kept the fever down. we made a much earlier start, at p.m., on november th, and i had to walk part of the way as it was too steep for the camels. we had great trouble in taking them down to the dry river-bed--which we were to follow, being quite flat and therefore easier for the animals. we went along between low hills, getting lower and lower, and some two miles from the darband tower we emerged into the open, the river-bed losing itself here in the desert. during the night of the th- th we travelled miles on the flat until we came to more low hills, which we entered by another river-bed, also dry. we had come in a north-north-east direction so far, but we now turned due east among high, flat-topped hills which resembled a mass of ruined persian houses of a quadrangular shape, so strangely had they been carved out by the corrosive action of water. they were of solid rock, and eaten into holes here and there, which from a distance gave the appearance of windows and doors, and of caves. the river-bed on which we travelled was of soft sand--very troublesome--and minute gravel strewn here and there with large boulders fallen from the cliffs at the sides. cairns had been erected in various prominent points by caravan men, to show future travellers the way to naiband for birjiand and meshed. following this in an easterly direction we came to a large basin, and then further on to another. we continued in zig-zag for a short distance, when we arrived at a place where the river-bed makes an elbow, turning to the north. at this spot a caravanserai was in course of construction, built at the expense of some charitable person. there was only one well of brackish water, and very little of that, too. the workmen would not let us partake of it. everything, of course, had to be brought, as nothing could be obtained there, and the few workmen complained bitterly of the hardships they had to endure in going on with their work. they feared they would soon run short even of water. they were all fever-stricken, and two quite in a pitiable condition. they had little food left; most of their animals had died, and they were unable to leave. chel-payeh was the name of this well (altitude , feet). we were thirty-two miles from our last camp, and reached here at a.m. on taking the loads down we had a great disappointment. sadek, who was not accustomed to ride camels, was suffering considerably, and in order to make himself comfortable he had contrived a clever device to avoid coming in immediate contact with the wooden frame of his saddle. he had fastened the two largest skins we had with our supply of good water on the top of his saddle, and having covered them over with blankets and carpets, on them, he sat and slept through the whole night. alas! the weight of his body burst both skins during the night and squeezed all the water out! so here we were, with only two small skins of fresh water left, which would have to last the whole party several days. but we were to have a further misfortune on the following march. the heat was intense-- ° in the sun--not an inch of shade in the middle of the day, and the river-bed being cut into the plain, and therefore lower than the surface of the remainder of the desert, the lack of a current of air made this spot quite suffocating; so much so that both camels and men were getting quite overcome by the heat, and we had to start off early in the afternoon at o'clock. chapter vii fortress-like cliffs--a long troublesome march--sixteen hours on the saddle--all our fresh-water supply gone!--fever--electricity of the desert--troublesome camel men--a small oasis--an ancient battered tower--a giant--naiband mountain and village--rock habitations--a landmark in the desert. fortress-like, vertical rocky cliffs rose to our left and enormous boulders tumbled down to our right. our direction was due north. on our right, as we were again entering the flat desert, a quadrangular fort of natural formation stood on the mountain-side. we did not halt for dinner as we could find no fuel to do the cooking with, and we marched all night (november th)--a most painful march, for the camels were all more or less sick and tired, and they dragged themselves jerkily, grunting and making the most awful noises all night. my fever got very bad and i was seized with bad pains in my ribs and spine. sadek and the camel men complained of feeling very ill, and the cats remonstrated from their high perch at not being let out of their box at the customary hour. to add to our happiness, one of my camels, carrying some air-tight cases with sharp brass corners, collided with the camel conveying the precious load of the two remaining water-skins which hung on its sides, and, of course, as fate would have it, the brass corners wrenched the skin and out flowed every drop of water, which was avidly absorbed by the dry sand. [illustration: the trail we left behind in the salt desert.] the character of the country was the same as on the previous day, a long stretch of flat, then undulations, after which we entered another dry canal cut deep, with vertical rocky sides, very similar to the chel-payeh except that in the bed of the gorge itself there were now enormous flat slabs of stone instead of sand and gravel, as the day before. further on we were surrounded by low hills, which we crossed by a pass, and after having been on the saddle continuously for sixteen hours we halted at eight o'clock a.m. in the middle of a broiling, barren stretch of sand, gravel and shingle. after so long a march, and under such unpleasant conditions, our throats and tongues were parched with thirst. fortunately, we still had one skin of water left, i thought, so my first impulse was to hasten to have it taken off the saddle that we might all have a sip. but misfortune pursued us. on approaching the camel that carried it, the animal was all wet on one side, and i fully realised what to expect. sadek, with a long face of dismay, took down the flabby empty skin; the water had all dripped out of it, and here we were, in the middle of the desert, no well, whether salt or otherwise, and not a thimbleful of water! the very thought that we could get nothing to drink made us ten times more thirsty, and we seemed to be positively roasting under the fierce sun. the camel men threw themselves down upon their felt coats and moaned and groaned, and the camels, who had drunk or eaten nothing for three days, appeared most unhappy and grunted pitifully. for want of better remedy we sucked pebbles, which stimulated salivation and allayed the thirst to a certain extent, but with the high fever, which brought about fearful exhaustion and severe aches, and the unpleasant, abundant electricity in the air caused by the intense dryness--which has a most peculiar effect on one's skin--we none of us felt particularly happy. the three cats were the only philosophers of the party and were quite sympathetic. they amused themselves by climbing up the camel's long necks, just as they would up a tree, to the evident discomfort of the larger animals. they had a particular fancy for sitting on the camels' bushy heads. the electricity with which the air of the desert is absolutely saturated is gradually absorbed by the human body and stored as in an accumulator. on touching the barrel of a rifle or any other good conductor of electricity, one would discharge an electric spark of some length. by rubbing one's woollen blankets with one's hands one could always generate sufficient electricity to produce a spark; and as for the cats, if one touched them they always gave out a good many sparks. at night, if one caressed them, there was quite a luminous greenish glow under one's fingers as they came into contact with the hair. quite a brilliant flash ensued when the cats were rubbed with a woollen blanket. we had only risen about feet to , feet from our last camp, and we steered n.n.e. for the high naiband mountain. the camel men, taking advantage of my being ill, were very troublesome and attempted some of their tricks; but although i was absolutely at their mercy i screwed up what little strength i had and brought them back to their senses. the camels, they said, were very ill, and we could not possibly go on. we certainly could not stop where we were, and i most decidedly would not go back, so, when night came, on we went leaving camp at p.m. and travelling first over a great flat stretch, then among low hills and through several ravines cut by water. we travelled some ten hours at a good pace, and when nearing the naiband mountain the country became quite undulating. on november th we arrived in a small oasis of high palm trees, with a streamlet of salt water forming a pool or two, dirty to a degree owing to the bad habits of camels when drinking. our camels, who had drunk nothing for several days, on perceiving these pools made a dash for them and sucked to their hearts' content gallons of water of a ghastly reddish-green tint, almost as thick as syrup with mud and organic matter, but which they seemed to enjoy all the same. there was here a much battered tower, attributed, to beluch, who are said to have fought here most bravely in times gone by, but more probably of afghan origin--or at least erected during the time of the afghan invasion. it is said to be some centuries old, but here again it is well to have one's doubts upon the matter. as i was examining the tower, which has undoubtedly seen some terrific fighting, a giant man emerged from the palm trees and came towards us. he was some feet inches in height, and being slender, with a small head, appeared to be even taller than he really was. he strode disjointedly towards us and was somewhat peculiar in manner and speech. he examined us very closely and then ran away up to the village--a quaint old place perched high on the mountain side and with eight picturesque towers. most of these towers were round, but a large quadrangular one stood apart on a separate hill. there were innumerable holes in the rock, which were at one time habitations, but are used now as stables mostly for donkeys, of which there were a great number in the place. the rock on which the village stood is very rugged and difficult of access, as can be seen by the photograph which i took, and the architecture of the buildings had a character peculiar to itself and differed very considerably from any other houses we had met in persia. they were flat-roofed, with very high walls, and four circular apertures to answer the purpose of windows about half-way up the wall. the roof was plastered and made a kind of verandah, where the natives spread fruit and vegetables to dry and the women had their small weaving looms. on one side of the rock, where the greater number of habitations were to be found, they actually appeared one on the top of the other, the front door of one being on the level with the roof of the underlying one. [illustration: author's caravan descending into river bed near darband.] [illustration: rock habitations, naiband.] the path to the village was very steep, tortuous and narrow. the village extended from south-west to north-east on the top of the mountain, and the separate quadrangular tower occupied a prominent position to its eastern extremity. there were palm trees and fields both to the south and east at the foot of the rocky mountain on which the village stood, and to the w.n.w. ( ° bearings magnetic) of it towered the majestic naiband mountain mass, very high, one of the great landmarks of the dasht-i-lut, the salt desert. directly above the village of naiband was a peak from which, although of no great altitude-- , ft.--one got a beautiful bird's-eye view both of the village and the surrounding country. an immense stretch of desert spread below us, uninterrupted from north-east to south except by a small cluster of hillocks directly under us, and by the continuation towards the south-west of the naiband mountainous mass; a high mountain lay to ( ° bearings magnetic) s.s.e. the highest peak of the naiband was to the north of the village, and the mountainous region extended also in a direction further north beyond the mountain that gives its name to the whole mass. s.s.e. ( ° b.m.) of the village down in the plain rose an island of hills and also a few more to the east. the desert was rather more undulating in the eastern portion, but absolutely flat towards the south-west and to the south, while north-east of the village stood a weird collection of picturesquely confused brown-red and whitish mountains. most of the cultivation--only a few patches--was visible to the s.w. and e.n.e. of the village. palm trees were numerous. a spring of fresh water ran down the mountain side, through the main street of the village, and down into the fields, in the irrigation of which it lost itself. chapter viii a visit to the eight-towered village--a hostile demonstration--quaint houses--stoned--brigand villagers--a device--peculiar characteristics of natives--picturesque features--constant intermarriage and its effects--nature's freaks--children--elongating influence of the desert--violent women--beasts of burden--photography under difficulty--admirable teeth of the natives--men's weak chests--clothing--a farewell demonstration--fired at. i climbed up to the village, accompanied by one of my camel men, but our friend the giant had preceded us and given the warning that a _ferenghi_ had arrived, and we were met on the road by a number of boys and men who were running down the hill to see the new arrival. the people were not particularly respectful, and freely passed remarks, not always complimentary--in fact, most offensive; but as i was bent on seeing all that there was to be seen, i paid no heed and continued to go up. [illustration: the village of naiband, and rock dwellings in the cliff.] the camel man, who was getting quite alarmed--especially when a stone or two were flung at us--begged me to return to camp, but i would not, and as i had my rifle with me i thought i could hold my own, and certainly did not wish the natives to think that an englishman feared them. it appears that a european had visited this spot some time previously, and they had some grievance against him, but although it seemed rather hard that i should come in for the punishment which should have been meted to my predecessor, i well knew that the only way out of the scrape was to face the music. to run away would have been fatal. so we entered the village by a narrow path, while men, women and children collected on the house-tops and in the doorways and gesticulated and spouted away as fine a collection of insults as one may expect to listen to in one's life. the naiband people may certainly be congratulated on the possession of a most extensive and complete vocabulary of swear words. pretending unconcern, but keeping a watchful eye on what was taking place all round, i stopped here and there to examine the small water-skins hanging in couples or more outside each doorway, and halted in the small square of the village to admire the wretched buildings all round. the lower portion of the houses was of mud, the upper of stone. down the side of the main street gurgled the limpid little stream. each house had a sort of walled recess outside the front door, reached by a step or two, where tilling tools rested against the wall, and where the women's spinning wheels were worked during the day. the wheels, however, were now idle, for the women had joined the men in the demonstration. it was most evident that _ferenghis_ were not popular at naiband, but, come what might, here i was, and here i would stay as long as it suited me. a stone flung with considerable force hit me in the knee--stones always have a way of striking you in the most sensitive spots--and it took me some minutes before i could recover from the pain and move on; but i never let the natives suspect what agony i was enduring, or they would have done worse. the slow march through the village up to the highest point was decidedly not pleasant, missiles flying pretty plentifully all round. fortunately, no more hit me quite as badly again. the camel man had warned me that the population of naiband was a mixture of robbers and cut-throats, and the facts fully proved his words, so i was rather glad that i had taken not only my rifle with me but a pocketful of cartridges as well. things were getting rather hot, and it was only when, having reached a high point of vantage, i stopped and, in full view of the crowd, inserted a five cartridge clip in the magazine of my mannlicher, that most anxious inquiries were made from the camel man as to what i was about to do. the camel man, amid a sudden silence and eager attention, explained the terrific powers of a _ferenghi's_ rifle which, he said, never misses and ever kills, even ten miles off; and to add more humour to his words he explained that shots could be fired so quick that one had not time to count them. at this point of the lecture i casually produced a handful of cartridges from my coat pocket, and having counted them aloud, proceeded to count the people, who watched, somewhat flabbergasted. the device answered perfectly. they dropped the stones which, during the short armistice, they had carefully nursed in their hands, and some thought they had better return to their homes, the bolder ones only remaining, who put a grin of friendship on their faces, and made signs that they would try to do no further harm. peace being proclaimed, and after making them pay their salaams, which seemed the most unusual thing they ever had to do in their lifetime, i spoke to them in a friendly way and patted them on the back. they were much impressed with the rifle and wanted me to let them see it in their own hands, which, of course, i did not do. they showed me some of their houses, which were very dirty--people, fowls, and in some cases a donkey or a goat, occupying the same room. these brigand villagers were most interesting as a type. they were quite unlike the persians of the west, and they certainly had nothing in common with the afghan; nor did they resemble the people of the northern part of persia. the beluch type came nearer. it would be curious to trace exactly where they came from--although undoubtedly their features must have been greatly modified, even altogether altered, by the climatic conditions of the spot they live in. one was struck by the abnormal length, thinness and disjointedness of their limbs, and by the long, well-chiselled faces, with handsome aquiline noses, broad and high foreheads, well-defined eyebrows in a straight line across the brow, piercing eyes well protected by the brow and drooping at the outer corners, with quite a hollow under the lower eyelid; very firm mouths full of expression and power, also drooping slightly at the corners, and high cheek bones. [illustration: young men of an oasis in the desert.] [illustration: man and child of the desert.] their appearance was certainly most picturesque, and they possessed the cat-like manner and general ways of feline animals which made them appear rather unreliable but in a way quite attractive. they were evidently people accustomed to high-handed ways, and they needed very careful handling. they were frank and resolute enough in their speech--ever talking at the top of their voices, which, however, sounded quite musical and not grating. they possessed dirty but very beautifully-formed hands and feet, the thumb only being somewhat short and stumpy, but the fingers supple, long and tapering. the few lines which they possessed in the palms of their hands were very strongly marked. there was a good deal of refinement about their facial features and hands which made me think that these people came from a good stock, and even the ears--which were generally malformed with all the natives of persia which had so far come under my observation--were in this case much more delicately modelled and infinitely better shaped. the chins were beautifully chiselled, even when somewhat slanting backwards. i give here a photograph which i took of two typical young men, and which i think bears out my remarks. there was an extraordinary family resemblance in nearly all the heads one saw, which made one suspect constant intermarriage among relations in the small community. in fact, on asking, they professed to be all related to one another. another very curious point about the faces of the male members of naiband village, which contrasted with other natives of persia, was that, whereas the latter can grow heavy beards from a comparatively very tender age, the naiband young men were quite hairless on the face, almost like mongolians--even at twenty or twenty-two years of age. when they had reached a fairly advanced age, however, some forty years, they seemed to grow quite a good black beard and heavy moustache, somewhat curly, never very long, and of a finer texture than with modern persians. the hair of the skull was perfectly straight, and was worn long, parted in the middle, with an occasional fringe on the forehead. nature's freaks are many and varied. while the men had invariably long aquiline noses, elongated faces, and eyes well protected by the brow, the children, until the age of ten or twelve, had rather stumpy faces with noses actually turned up, and most beautiful large eyes softened by abnormally long eyelashes, the eyes themselves, strangely enough, being quite _à fleur de tête_. i noticed this curious phenomenon in members of the same family, and the older ones told me that when they were young their faces were also stubby and their noses turned up. the inference i drew was that it must be the climatic conditions of the desert that have the elongating effect, not only upon the facial features, but on all the limbs of the people. the people were not naturally born elongated. the climate certainly has an elongating effect on plants, or leaves, which all tend to come to a point, such as the leaves of the elongated palm trees, for instance, or any of the other spiky plants one finds in parts of the desert. there was a good deal of the demon about the women of the place, a superabundance of fire in their movements and in the expression of their flashing eyes, which was a great contrast to the slow, dignified manner of the men, when seen under normal circumstances. their frame was much more powerfully built than that of the men. the ladies seemed to be in a perpetual state of anger. that they were industrious there could be no mistake, and one could but be amazed at their muscular strength in lifting heavy loads; but, taking things all round, one was rather glad to have no friends among the naiband fair sex when one saw how their men, relations or otherwise, were pulled about by them. the men positively feared them, and the women seemed to have it all their own way. they were so violent that it was most difficult to approach them, but with some careful coaxing i succeeded in persuading the wildest and most typical of the lot to sit for her photograph, which i look upon as quite an achievement, considering that it might have cost her life or mine or both. as it was it went pretty well, and when i gave her a few silver pieces, she screamed with delight and sounded them on a stone to make sure they were good. women blackened their eyes underneath artificially, which gave them a languid but ardent appearance. their long, wild, curly hair hung loose at the side of the head, over which they wore a kerchief fastened into a knot under the chin. their costume was simple, a mere short blue cotton skirt reaching below the knee, and a little red loose shirt with ample sleeves. various silver ornaments and charms, mainly old coins, hung round their necks from leather cords. the arms and legs, quite bare, were well-shaped in most cases, and showed abnormal muscular development, due, no doubt, to the hard work the women were made to endure. they were positively used as beasts of burden--which occupation they seemed to like--while the men, i presume, lazily sat about smoking their tobacco or opium. but the body--very likely owing to the same reason--is, from a european point of view, quite shapeless, even in comparatively young women hardly above twenty. their little blouses, generally torn or carelessly left open, display repulsively pendent breasts and overlapping waists, while the abdominal region, draped by a thin skirt, appeared much deformed by undue development. these facts are given as they were typical of the majority of women in the place. the diet and the strain of lifting and carrying huge weights on the head may, to a certain extent, account for these evils. i also saw one or two cases of varicose veins. the children seemed very pale and anaemic, a condition which has been mainly brought about, i think, by the constant intermarriage among relations. [illustration: naiband barber stropping a razor on his leg.] [illustration: a woman of naiband.] men, women and children possessed admirable teeth, of a slightly yellowish tint, very thick, powerful and regular enough, although the front teeth were rather too long, especially in adults. they were, however, generally well protected and covered by the lips, almost invariably tightly closed. the people, i noticed, had a tendency to breathe mostly through the nose. their nostrils were wide, well-cut and healthy looking. they all possessed very keen eyesight, but not good hearing. the want of expansion of the men's chests was a striking feature of masculine anatomy at naiband, and, in fact, the profile silhouette of members of the naiband strong sex was not unlike that of a phonograph trumpet resting on the ground, for they wore trousers of enormous size, divided skirts of the largest pattern, pure and simple, and little jackets over them with broad sleeves and buttoned over on the right shoulder. it seemed almost that the further we got into the desert the larger the trousers of the men in the oases. some of the men had several yards of material draped round their legs, in hindoo fashion, instead of trousers. the colours of their clothes were white and dark blue, while their headgear consisted of a double skull cap, a thin, coloured one underneath and a light brown, thick felt one over it. the men were either barefooted or wore sandals. things went fairly well while we remained talking in the village, but in the meantime the entire population had turned out, and for some reason of their own again became rather boisterous. having seen all there was to be seen i made my way down to camp as slowly as possible, followed by a howling mob. the moment one had one's back turned stones flew in abundance. the camel man and i went down the steep incline, and when we reached the last houses of the village a great number of people were congregated on the roofs, who gesticulated frantically and yelled something or other at me as i passed. one or two of them had long matchlocks. we had gone but a few yards when a shot was fired at us, and a minute or so later another, but no damage was inflicted. we went on with assumed calm and stopped, apparently to look at the scenery all round, but really to watch what the howling mob behind were doing, and eventually, when we reached the foot of the mountain and were out in the open instead of among rocks, the mob, taken by panic, bolted, and we saw them scrambling with great speed up the rocky path to the village like so many rabbits. chapter ix misfortunes--suffocating heat--an expected attack--electricity--strayed camels--a barber and his ways--a track to meshed--pilgrim husband and wife across the desert--another long march--a salt stream--brackish well. many misfortunes befel us at this place. we had made our camp in the oasis of palm trees at the foot of the mountain, and as the camels were much worn out we were unable to proceed on our journey the same evening. the heat during the night under the palm trees was quite suffocating, and i had to remove my bedding into the open where one could breathe a little better. the camel men feared that during the night we might be attacked by the villagers and we made ready for any emergency, but nobody came. there was so much electricity in the air that it gave quite an unpleasant feeling, and had a curious effect upon one's skin. the cats on coming in contact with the woollen blankets discharged sparks all over, and sparks also snapped from one's fingers on touching anything that was a good conductor of electricity. a wild animal came into our camp during the night and carried away some newly-purchased hens. we had been told that there were many wolves and foxes in the neighbourhood. in the morning we were confronted with what seemed a disaster. eleven camels of our combined caravans had disappeared. had they been stolen or had they run away? the camel men were in tears, and, instead of going to look for them, sat on the loads sobbing bitterly and wiping the tears from their eyes with the skirts of their long coats. a ray of hope arose when we discovered their tracks. they had made for some hot water springs, some miles to the east, and judging from their footprints were evidently travelling at a great pace. two men on other camels were despatched after them, and we had to resign ourselves to a delay of another day. curiously enough, there was a sudden change in the temperature, and the thermometer in the sun only registered °, which made us feel quite chilly after the ° and ° of previous days. our camp was at an altitude of , ft. (at the foot of the naiband mountain). sadek took the opportunity of the delay to set everything tidy, and we had a great washing day. he sent for a barber in the village to trim his hair and beard. the naiband figaro was an extraordinary creature, a most bare-faced rascal, who had plenty to say for himself, and whose peculiar ways and roaming eyes made us conceal away out of his sight all small articles, for fear that he should walk away with them. he carried all the tools of his trade around his waist in a belt, and ground his razor first on a stone which he licked with his tongue, then using his bare arms and legs for stropping purposes, as snapshotted in the accompanying photograph. the camel men--on whom he was first requested to experiment--he shaved, splashing their faces with salt water during the process, but sadek, the next victim, produced a cake of soap with which he luxuriously lathered his own face, and which the barber scraped gradually from the chin and cheeks and every now and then deposited the razor's wipings on his patient's head. we were able to buy some fresh water skins, and this time they were really water tight. the natives, naturally, took every advantage of us in the bargains, but we were able to purchase a lot of fresh provisions, which we needed badly, and men and beasts felt none the worse for our compulsory halt. in the middle of the second night we were waked up by some distant grunts, and the camel men jumped up in great glee as they had recognised the beloved voices of some of their strayed camels. a few minutes later, in fact, the whole eleven were brought back by the two men who had gone in search of them. they had found them some twenty miles off. from lawah to naiband we had come practically due north, but from this camp to birjand the way lay due east for the first portion of the journey. at ° b.m. (s.s.e.) in the desert rose a high mountain. we had everything ready for our departure, but the camel men were in a dreadful state as some villager had told them that the news had spread that the strong boxes which the _ferenghi_ had were full of silver and gold--as a matter of fact there was hardly any left of either--and that a raid was being arranged for that night to kill us and rob our baggage when we were starting. the camel men spent the whole day polishing up the old rifles they possessed and, much to my concern for their safety, loaded them. to allay their fears we made a sudden start at p.m. instead of at the hour of p.m. which had been previously arranged. one mile beyond naiband a track branches to the north-east for meshed, and here we bade good-bye to a persian husband and wife--he aged twenty-eight, she aged twelve--who in the company of a donkey, were on a pilgrimage from yezd to the sacred shrine. we had picked them up in a sorry plight in the desert, the husband riding the lame donkey, the girl on foot and shoving both from behind. i could not help admiring their enterprise. all the provisions they had carried were a few cucumbers, figs, and a load of bread, nearly all of which were exhausted when we found them. on remonstrating with the strapping youth for riding the donkey while he made his poor wife walk, he replied that they had been newly married and it would not do for a man to show consideration for a wife so soon! she, being a city girl, was a bundle of clothing and we could not see her face, but she seemed a nice meek little thing, with pretty hands and feet. on being asked whether she was tired, a thread of voice from under her _chudder_ said she was, and on being invited to ride one of my camels on the top of a load, there was a giggle which meant "yes." the selected camel was brought down on his knees, and sadek and ali murat hauled her up in the most approved style; she having an evident joke at her selfish husband for having a better mount than he after all. unfortunately, the poor child was so exhausted that after she had gone some distance, with the swaying of the camel she became fast asleep, lost her balance and fell on her head. nobody delighted in the misfortune more than her lord and master, who did not fail to impress upon her that this was evidently allah's punishment for her vanity in trying to be superior to her better half! rubbing her aching skull, and much concerned at the _chudder_ having got torn, the bride thought she had better resign herself to walk after all. here, too, as in other parts of the desert, near mountainous regions we found the usual deep, cut channels carrying into the desert the overflow of rain water from the naiband mountain, and the many little hills at its foot; otherwise in the thirty-six miles which we covered during the night there was absolutely nothing of interest. when we had gone some ten miles from naiband the camel men, tired of carrying their matchlocks, slung them to the saddles and professed the danger of an attack over. we were in the open again. i was much troubled by my fever, which had seized me violently and brought on aches all over my body. we camped at , feet, having descended feet in thirty-six miles, an almost perfectly flat stretch except a hillock or undulation here and there. my fever continued so fierce the whole day that i had not the strength to stand up nor the inclination to eat, the exhaustion caused by the very high temperature being indescribable. we left at p.m., meaning to make another long march. the night was intensely cold, with a terrific wind sweeping from the north-east. several times during the night, when we came across a tamarisk shrub or two, we halted for a few minutes to make a bonfire and warm our frozen hands and toes. we actually came across a stream of brackish water--four feet broad, and about two to three inches deep--the largest stream we had seen since entering the desert, and having been twelve hours on the saddle to cover only twenty-four miles, camels and men shivering pitifully from the cold, and the latter also from fever, we made camp in a spot where there was an abundance of tamarisks and a deep well, the water of which was fully twenty feet below the earth's surface. a small basin had been excavated next to the well. we filled it with water by means of a bucket, and it was a real pleasure to see the camels crowding round it and satisfying their thirst of two days. we did not allow them to drink the water of the brackish stream. the elevation of this camp was , feet. chapter x intense cold--dulled sense of taste--characteristics of the country--beautiful stones--clouds of the desert--a salt stream--icicles on the moustache and eyelashes--longing for sunrise--prayers of the camel men--fedeshk--ali murat meets his wife--opium dens and opium smokers--effects of smoking opium in excess--fever-stricken people--dwellings--an official visitor--science reduced to practice--sadek's idea of sunset and sunrise--"keshk" cheese--arrival in birjand. we left camp at p.m. on the night of november th- st, and by midnight the cold grew intense. the camel men lighted big bonfires all through the night wherever they found a few shrubs, but i was so ill with fever that i had not the strength and energy to dismount from my camel, on which i was shivering with cold although well wrapped up in blankets. after marching eight miles from our last camp we came to a brackish well where the camel men replenished their water-skins. i was rather interested to see what dulled sense of taste these men of the desert possessed. when i saw them making a rush for this well i thought that probably we had come to fresh water, and on asking them they said this was a well of excellent "sweet water." when i tasted it, it was so salt that it quite made one's inflamed gums and palate smart with pain. i noticed some days later that when we did actually get fairly sweet water they could detect no difference between it and the most brackish water. we had come through hilly and broken country, over low passes and narrow gorges flanking dry river-beds. then we had entered another immense flat stretch of _lut_, quite level except an occasional solitary hillock breaking the monotonous line of the horizon here and there. from one of these hillocks ( , feet) near our camp of november st one got quite an interesting panorama all round. the highest mountain in sight was still the naiband peak to the south-west of us. a range which seemed about miles off spread to the north-west, and before it--about miles distant from us--a very long low hill range. in an arc from our west to our north were distinguishable several high pointed peaks. a blackish brown, handsomely cut hill stood prominent a mile or so from us in the middle of the plain. to the north the country was much broken up and low. there was a stream of salt water running from east to west with thick salt deposits on each side of the water edge. to the north-east the hills showed no peculiar characteristics but to the east and south-east could be observed two short hill-ranges, much indented, of broken up and corroded rock, similar to the many we had already found across the desert. to the north and to the south of the hill range which stood to the east of us there were low passes, and behind them again the flat _lut_. the only thing of real interest in the absolutely bare parts of the desert is the geological formation of the soil and the only amusement is to examine the different beautifully coloured stones that can be picked up, such as handsome agates, bits of malachite, crystals, beautiful marbles, and flints. these are all the more interesting when one thinks that most of them may have travelled hundreds, some, thousands of miles to get there, either brought by the water when the country was submerged or shifted on and on by the wind. they all bear marks of travel, and even the hardest are polished smooth, the original natural angles of crystals being in many cases actually worn down and quite rounded. sand-polished pebbles of red jasper, jasper-conglomerates, chalcedony, quartz and agatescent quartz, pink and brown corroded limestone, and calcite were the most frequently met with. a desert is, in england, always associated with glorious sunsets. why this should be so is rather difficult to be understood by anybody reasoning in the right way, because the magnificent tints of a sunset are caused by moisture in the air and not by abnormal dryness. all the time that i was in the desert itself i never saw a sunset that really had half the picturesqueness of one of our most modest sunsets in europe. the sun disappeared very fast, leaving a slightly yellow glow above the horizon, which soon became greenish by blending with the blue sky and then black with night. the twilight was extremely short. we seldom saw clouds at all in the desert and when we did they were scrubby, little, patchy, angular lumps at enormous heights above the earth's surface. they were generally white or light grey. occasionally they were of the fish-bone pattern, in long successive ridges, resembling the waves formed on the sand surface when shifted by wind. soon after the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, these clouds generally changed their colour from white into black and made long lines stretching for great distances across the sky, but adding no beauty to it. naturally, the play of shifting lights and shadows upon the desert when the sun shone above the clouds was quite weird, especially when the last formation of clouds referred to cast long bluish shadows slowly moving upon the brilliantly-lighted, whitish tint of the ground. lower upon the horizon line a curtain of a dirty brownish tint was generally to be seen, due to particles of sand in the air, otherwise in almost all cases that came under my observation the clouds formed well-defined, thin, clean, horizontal lines, or else when very high up patchy small skiffs. one missed greatly the fat, rolling, globular clouds which are so common to europe, and which fill the sky with fantastic forms. there is such a thing as getting tired of an everlasting spread of blue sky and the glow of a roasting sun. a strong westerly gale swept low over the surface of the desert. it was very cold after sunset, but fortunately we had plenty of tamarisk shrubs at hand and camel dung with which to make big fires. the river bed below our camp was very wide, but the salt stream itself not more than three to four feet across. it eventually lost itself to the north-west in the desert. the camels had been let loose to graze and had a good feed of tamarisk, which they seemed to enjoy much after their long diet on reduced rations of straw and cotton seeds. we left this camp ( , feet) soon after dinner at p.m., and during the night passed several ranges of hills, we travelling all the time on the flat. in the middle of the night the cold was bitter, so cold that i had icicles hanging on my moustache and eyelashes. it was impossible to remain on the camels, and ill as we all felt we had to walk--drag ourselves would be a more suitable expression--to keep ourselves from freezing. on these cold nights we simply longed for the sun to come out. the dark hours seemed interminable. one began slightly to revive when the first glimmering of yellowish light began to tinge the dark blue sky, and the dazzling stars gradually lost their brilliancy and eventually disappeared altogether from the heaven above us. on the first ray of sun appearing the devout camel men stopped the caravan, spread a small cloth upon the ground, and, having picked up a small stone, placed it in front of them. they duly turned towards sacred mecca and lifted their arms, then, muttering their prayers, knelt and placed their heads upon the ground, as we have already seen others do, in the usual mussulman manner. they were most diligent in this respect, and one could not help admiring the intent fervour of their appeals to allah. at sunset, too, their prayers never failed to be recited--no matter what they were busy doing at the time, all being interrupted for the purpose. at . a.m. we arrived at a village called fedeshk--quite a large place, situated in a flat oblong plain ten miles long and a mile and a half wide, surrounded by low hills on all sides. on being asked why he had made the camels go so fast on this march, ali murat, my camel man, blushingly confessed that in this village was his home and his wife, whom he had not seen for eight months. the anxiety to see his better half, who lived only a stone-throw from where we made camp, did not, however, prevent him looking carefully after his camels, whom he placed first of all in his affection, and smoking sadek's cigarettes, and a pipe with the other camel men, and waiting till my tea had been brewed to receive his customary six cups. after all this had been gone through, which took the best part of two hours, he disappeared and we did not see him again for the remainder of the morning. the people of fedeshk were striking for two reasons, first for being sadly fever-stricken, secondly because they were addicted to opium smoking to a disastrous degree. there were a number of opium dens in the place, and i went to see them. they were dreadful places, in which one would suspect opium smoking was not the only vice indulged in by the natives. as i entered one of these houses, after a considerable knocking at the door and a great rustling of people running about the small courtyard inside, we were admitted into a room so dark that i at first could discern nothing at all. the pungent, sickening odour of the opium pipes gave one quite a turn, and i lighted up a match to see where i was. there were men lying about on mats in a semi-stupefied state, and men attendants refilling the pipes--similar to those used in china, a cane holder with earthenware pipe in which tiny pills of opium were inserted and consumed over the flame of a small lamp. several of the men were in such a torpid state that they mechanically inhaled the opium smoke when the pipes were pressed to their lips, but were hardly cognizant of what went about around them. the opium-den keeper in the meantime did a roaring business, and had a little scale on which he weighed the opium that he served out. it seemed evident, as i lighted match after match, by certain articles of ladies' attire which in the hurried departure had been left behind in the room, that the usual attendants of the smokers were women, but they had stampeded away on our arrival. one heard them chuckle in the adjoining rooms, and in their haste, they had left behind a great many pairs of slippers at the entrance of the room. i had two men conveyed out into the sun where i wanted to examine them. the pupils of their eyes had contracted to a most abnormal extent, even before they were exposed to the sunlight, and seemed to have almost lost the power of expanding and contracting in various lights, and although the eyes were wide opened and staring they did not seem to discern what was placed before them. the eye-ball had a yellowish tinge and the iris was not well-defined but seemed to have undergone discoloration and faded away into the white of the eye. they seemed affected by a kind of temporary atrophy. the pulse beat extremely slow and faintly; the lips were drawn tight; the hearing so dulled that even loud noises seemed to have no effect upon them. the body was flabby and almost lifeless. it was not possible to obtain an answer to anything one asked them. they had quite a cadaverous appearance, with yellowish, pallid skins, sunken eyes, and teeth showing fully under the drawn lips. only now and then, as one watched them, a sigh, followed by a shiver or a grunt, came forth to show us that they were still alive. the fingers and toes displayed some muscular contraction, but not the other joints, which were quite loose. the heart beat so feebly that one could hardly feel it. they remained spread out in the yard in the positions we had placed them, and were indeed most pitiful objects. the den-keeper told me that these two men were most inveterate smokers, and were at it the whole time until they became quite unconscious. there were other men in a slightly better condition, but all more or less showing the same symptoms of stupefaction. those that could mutter words said that it was an irresistible passion that they could never stop. the opium gave them no dreams, they told me, but a delicious feeling of absolute contentment and happiness, which they could never experience when not indulging in this disastrous vice. on looking upon things impartially, however, one came to the conclusion that, bad as it was, opium-smoking had certainly more peaceful and less disgusting effects upon those unfortunates addicted to it than whiskey or absinthe, or votka drunkenness, for instance. the entire population of this village was, unfortunately, given to this bad habit, and it was quite pitiable to look upon their haggard, staring faces, and idiotic expression. malarial fever is very prevalent at fedeshk, and some of the corpse-like people affected by it came to my camp for medicine. they were not unlike walking skeletons, with stringy hands and feet and a skin of ghastly yellow colour. they had parched, bloodless ears, curled forward, and sunken cheeks, with deep sunk-in eyes. in the more virulent cases fever was accompanied by rheumatic pains so strong as practically to paralyse the legs and arms, which were reduced to a positive minimum of flesh. the dwellings of fedeshk were not impressive. mud hovels as usual, with domes over the rooms, as everywhere in persia, only the familiar aperture, instead of being directly in the centre of the dome itself, had a kind of hood over it to screen it from the terrific winds of the west. [illustration: fever stricken man at fedeshk.] [illustration: the citadel, birjand.] it is to be noticed in connection with these winds that to the west of fedeshk there are rather high mountains, and even winds originally not coming from the west may be turned back or switched in that direction by this chain of mountains. a large ice store-house is met with at the end of the village, which testifies to the intense cold that can be experienced here in the winter months. an official residing in the place sent word that he would call upon me, and we made a grand display of all the carpets we possessed to receive him. he arrived with a number of servants, and we had a very pleasant interview, with great consumption of tea. he was extremely civil; inquired whether he could be of any assistance, which was politely declined, and showed intense interest in my firearms and scientific instruments. he and his people were amazed when i told them that their village stood at an elevation of , ft. above sea level, and explained to them how i had measured the height by means of aneroids and the hypsometrical apparatus. "these are wonderful!" he said, with a salaam, as he handed me back the instruments which had been eagerly examined by all present. "and," he added, "can you also measure the length of cloth with them?" a compass, too, he had never set eyes upon; and he at first thought that it was constructed to point towards mecca! had not one long ago got accustomed to similar questions often asked one by london people, the innocence of the persian official might have taken one's breath away, but this was nothing to what happened later. the persians showed great curiosity to learn everything in connection with whatever foreign articles i possessed and the respective prices i had paid for them. then sadek was closely examined as to the amount of food i ate every day, the salary i paid him, and why i had come across the desert. was i a russian or an englishman? the officer had never seen either, but heard both well spoken of. he had understood that all englishmen had yellow hair; why had i dark hair? london, he, like most persians, believed to be a suburb of bombay, connected with russia by means of a "machine road,"--a railway! why on earth did the _ferenghi_ want to know how high mountains were? did the _ferenghi_ know how to find gold in the earth? and so on, were the queries which sadek had to answer. with repeated salaams, preceded by a thousand other questions, the official departed; but sadek, who was much excited, was still bent on a highly scientific conversation to the following effect:-- "sahib," he said, "you have travelled in many countries, have you not?" "yes." "sahib, have you been to the country where the sun 'goes to sleep' in a hole in the earth every evening?" that was sadek's idea of a sunset! his idea of a sunrise was that a brand-new sun was sent up every day, and this explained how it was that it rose from the opposite side to that on which it had "gone to sleep." ali murat, looking somewhat washed out and absent minded, came back to camp at noon, garbed in a very handsome new coat which his wife had woven and embroidered for him during his absence. he was very proud of it. we left fedeshk an hour later, as i was very anxious to reach the city of birjand the same day if possible. we were now again in fairly inhabited country, and on our hurried march passed a great many villages, large and small, such as shahzileh, mazumabad, tagot, siaguih, shamzabad. further, at ossenabad, is to be seen a ruined country-house of the governor of birjand, then the last two villages of khelatekhan and khelatehajih. ali murat seemed rather dazzled on this last march, and was so worn out that he threw himself down upon the ground several times, regardless of spoiling his smart new coat. in a moment he became fast asleep, and it took some rousing to make him get up again. his wife had given him a bag of _keshk_--a kind of cheese, which looked like hardened curdled milk--and of this he partook freely to try and regain his former strength. keshk cheese was very hard stuff to eat and took a lot of chewing. to prevent it getting too hard it had to be soaked in water every few days. we had a nasty wind against us, but the way was flat and good; our direction, due east across the long narrow valley of sand, nowhere broader than a couple of miles. to the north were a number of low hills shaped like so many tents, white, grey, and light-red in colour, and also to the south, where there was an additional irregular and somewhat higher rocky mountain. in the evening of november th we had crossed the entire salt desert and arrived at the large city of birjand, after meshed the most important city of khorassan, the journey having occupied twenty days, which was considered a very fast crossing. there was a beautiful new caravanserai here, with clean spacious rooms, and with a most attentive and obliging keeper in charge of it. chapter xi my caravan disbanded--birjand--ruined fortress--the city--number of houses--population--the citadel--artillery--trade routes--birjand as a strategical position--a trading centre--no fresh water--the amir--indian pilgrims--birjand carpets--industries--a pioneer british trader--imports and exports--how business is transacted--russian and british goods--long credit--a picturesque caravanserai--afghan soldiers--beluch camel men. at birjand, my camels being utterly exhausted, i disbanded my caravan, paid up ali murat, and attempted to make up a fresh caravan to proceed to sistan. this would take two or three days at least, so i employed my time at first by seeing all that there was to be seen in the place, then by receiving various official callers, and last in trying to shake off the fever, which i partially did by very violent but effective methods. [illustration: the city of birjand, showing main street and river bed combined.] we entered birjand from the west by a wide, dry river bed which formed the main street of the city. a ruined fortress which seemed at one time to have been of great strength, was to be seen on the western extremity of the town on a low hillock. the interior was quite interesting, with several tiers showing how the walls had been manned for defensive purposes. the general view of birjand reproduced in the illustration was taken from the fort and gives a better idea of the place than any description. it can be seen that the city is unequally divided by the combined river-bed and main street, the northern portion (to the left of observer in the photograph) having merely an extensive graveyard, a few houses, the large caravanserai at which i had halted, and a row of shops; whereas, on the southern side was the bulk of the houses, two, three and some even four storied, all of a monotonous greyish colour, the buildings being mostly of sun-dried mud bricks. the little windows in sets of threes and fives, with brown wooden shutters, relieved to a certain extent the dulness of the architecture, while a certain relief to the eye was afforded by a dome and another building, both painted white, in marked contrast to the mud walls. many houses had long verandahs and balconies, on which the women spread their washing. as the city was built in terraces upon undulating ground and two higher hills, it covered a greater area than it at first appeared to do. the streets were very tortuous and narrow, arched over in some places, forming long dark tunnels, many of the dwellings having rooms over them directly above the roadway. making a rough guess, there were, i daresay, some , to , houses in birjand and its suburbs, with a population of not over , souls. these figures, the natives said, were about correct, but no exact statistics existed. the higher point of birjand was at its south-east portion, and at the most extreme south-east point of the town at the bottom of the hill was the high, square, fortress-like enclosure with bastions and a high tower, as represented in the illustration. it was in a dilapidated condition, but was, nevertheless, the only structure in birjand which had a claim to some picturesqueness. it was the old citadel, inhabited at one time by the amir. the wall of the citadel facing south had a large window with _musharabeah_ woodwork, and a lower building to the side. the adjacent building also had quaint balconies. a good view of the whole city was obtained from a high, isolated building to the south of the town, in the centre of a large but somewhat untidy fruit garden, an official residence, but now very little used except in cases of emergency to accommodate passing officials or distinguished people. there were some persian military officers staying there and they most kindly showed me all that there was to be seen, after having entertained me to some refreshments. they conveyed me inside the citadel where they proudly showed me a battery of six nine-pounder guns of obsolete austrian manufacture; an eighteen pounder bronze gun and another gun of a somewhat smaller calibre, both of persian make. they were very carelessly kept, there being apparently only a ragged boy or two to look after them. the officer told me that the garrison of birjand consisted of one thousand men, about one hundred of whom were stationed in birjand itself, the rest being scattered in the villages around and at one or two posts along the afghan frontier. for the accuracy of this statement, however, i leave the entire responsibility to the officer. he was much distressed when i inquired whether the soldiers were ever drilled in artillery practice, and he said it could not be done because they had not sufficient ammunition, but they possessed some gunpowder. he agreed with me that artillery would be of little use if there was no one who knew how to use it, and no ammunition at hand! birjand being so near the afghan frontier and having direct roads to meshed, herat, sabzawar, anardar, farah, lash, sistan, beluchistan, bandar abbas, kerman, yezd, isfahan, and teheran, is a place of interest from a strategic point of view. in its present condition it could not possibly offer any resistance. the city and citadel can be commanded from many points on the hills to the north-east and east, and the citadel--even allowing that it were strong enough to make a resistance--could be shelled with the greatest ease at close range from the hill on which now stands the ruined fortress west of the city. this point could be reached in perfect safety and would afford absolute cover under fire from the citadel, but with modern artillery even of moderate calibre would prove fatal to the citadel itself. birjand is probably the greatest commercial centre in eastern persia, its transit trade at various seasons of the year being very extensive from all the routes above-mentioned. agriculturally, birjand could not even support its own population, for the water supply is scanty and bad. there is no fresh water obtainable in the city, but brackish water is a little more plentiful. a small spring of good water is, however, to be found some two miles from the city, and there i daily sent a man to bring us a supply. in war time, therefore, the city could not support nor aid an army, which would fare badly if locked up here. possibly in some seasons it might supply some camels, horses and mules, but no food. that the persians themselves believe this an untenable place in time of war is evident, as this is one of the few large cities in persia which is not surrounded by a wall. the amir, or governor, does not live in birjand itself but half a farsakh, or two miles, across the plains to the s.s.e., where he has a handsome residence in a pretty garden. much to my regret i was too unwell to go and pay my respects to him, although i carried an introduction to him from h.r.h. zil-es-sultan, the shah's brother. he very kindly sent to inquire after my health several times during my stay, and the karghazar was deputed to come and convey these messages to me. one cannot speak too highly of the extreme civility of persian officials if one travels in their country properly accredited and in the right way. if one does not, naturally one only has to blame one's self for the consequences. one hears a good deal about the advantages of being a britisher in any country, and one could not help being amused at the natives of birjand who could not distinguish a european from the blackest bengalese. they were all _inglis_ to them. some natives came to announce that a caravan of twenty of my own countrymen had just arrived--which gave me quite a pleasant surprise, although i could hardly credit its truth. on rushing out of my room to greet them, i found myself confronted with a crowd of black-faced, impudent, untidy indian pilgrims from bengal, on their way to the sacred shrine of meshed. most of them were fever-stricken; others, they told me, had died on the way. these caravans have caused a good deal of friction both with the persian and russian authorities, for fear that they should bring plague into persia and transcaspia. when one saw these fanatics--religious people can be so dirty--one could not with any fairness blame the authorities for making a fuss and taking stringent measures to protect their own countries and people from probable infection. true, it should be remembered that the journey of miles across the hot baluchistan desert to sistan, and the more miles to meshed, ought to have been a sufficient disinfectant as far as the plague went, but their wretched appearance was decidedly against them. these pilgrims were a great nuisance; they traded on the fact that they were under british protection; they lived in the most abject fashion, continually haggling and quarrelling with the natives, and decidedly did not add to our popularity in eastern persia, to say nothing of the endless trouble and worry they gave to our officials at the consulates and on the route. as i have said, the natives do not know the difference between these men and englishmen, and believe that all british subjects are of the same stamp--by which one cannot quite feel flattered. if these pilgrimages could be gradually restricted and eventually stopped, i think everybody all round would benefit,--even the pilgrims themselves, who might possibly not feel so holy, but whose health would not be impaired by the fearful sufferings they have to endure to gain--and often obtain very prematurely--a claim to a seat in heaven. the opening up of the nushki route from quetta to sistan and meshed is responsible for the great influx of pilgrims, who have been attracted by the glowing reports of how easy it is to travel by this route. and so it is very easy, for men accustomed to that particular kind of travelling, like myself or like traders or government officials, who can travel with all they want, and just as they please, but not for people who have to live from hand to mouth and who are destitute of everything. those fellows have no idea whatever, when they start, of what they will have to endure on the road. there is not much local trade in birjand, but quite a brisk transit trade. the industries are practically confined to carpet-weaving, the carpets being renowned all over persia for their softness, smooth texture, and colours, which are said never to fade, but the designs upon them are not always very graceful nor the colours always artistically matched. the most curious and durable are the camel-hair ones, but the design, usually with a very large medallion in the centre, does not seem to appeal to european eyes. even the smallest rugs fetch very large sums. although called birjand carpets they are mostly manufactured in some of the villages north of birjand, especially at darakush. among the shops there are a few silversmiths', some blacksmiths', and some sword and gunsmiths'. the latter manufacture fairly good blades and picturesque matchlocks. the trade caravanserais in the town are quaint, but to me most interesting of all was the one approached by a sharp incline--a very old one--where an indian british trader had started business, attempting to further british trade in these regions. this man, by name umar-al-din khan, of the firm of mahommed ali of quetta, was really a remarkable fellow. if russian trade has not yet succeeded in getting a fair hold in birjand, if british trade has it so far almost altogether its own way, we have only to thank the tact, energy, patience, and talent of this man. the patriotism, enterprise, and hard labour of umar-al-din and his firm deserve indeed the greatest credit and gratitude. birjand is a most interesting point commercially because it will be here that russian and british competition in eastern persia will eventually come into collision. the main imports of the province of kain, of which birjand is the capital, are now english and russian made merchandise. english goods are so far preferred and realize higher prices, because of their better quality. the articles principally required, and for which in retail the natives are ready to pay well, are ordinary cotton, woollen and silk cloths, household iron, copper, brass vessels, loaf-sugar, glass-ware and crockery, especially of shapes suitable for persian uses. indian tea sold very well at first, but the market is greatly overstocked at present and great caution should be exercised by indian exporters. russian sugar, being of a much cheaper quality, is rapidly driving out of the place french and indian sugars, but the quality of russian sugar is so bad that of late there has been rather a reaction in favour of shahjahanpur rosa (indian) sugar. there are in birjand several native merchants having fair amounts of capital at their disposal, but it appears that the prices which they are willing to pay are so low and the credit required so long, that it is most difficult to do business with them. the retail business is, therefore, more profitable than the wholesale. the competition in russian-made cotton cloths and tea is getting very keen and the russians can sell these things so cheaply that it is not possible for indian traders to sell at their prices. also the russians have learnt to manufacture the stuff exactly as required by the natives. the glass ware and fancy goods are chiefly sold to the better class people, but no very great profits, especially to passing trading caravans, can be assured on such articles. the exports consist of wool and skins to russia, and to bandar abbas for india; carpets to russia, europe and india; _barak_, a kind of woollen cloth, to various parts of persia; opium to china _via_ bandar abbas; saffron, caraway seeds, _onaabs_, etc., to india, also _via_ bandar abbas, and some english and russian merchandize to herat. birjand is the commercial pivot, not only of the trade of north-eastern persia, but also of western afghanistan. the commercial supremacy of this town will decide whether we are able in the future to hold our own in the south or not; but once driven back from this centre we may as well--commercially--say good-bye altogether to the northern and central persian markets; while even the southern markets will be very seriously attacked, as far as goods coming overland are concerned. umar-al-din has made a most careful and serious study of the trade of eastern persia, and i am certain that if we were to encourage a number of other indian traders of the same type to establish themselves in birjand, with possible branches in meshed, england could make rapid headway against any foreign competition. being an asiatic himself, although umar-al-din has travelled, i believe, in australia, england, etc., and speaks hindustani, persian and english perfectly, he is able to deal with the persians in a way in which a european would not be so successful. he is on most friendly terms with h. e. shan-kal-el-mulk, the governor, and all the local officials, by whom he is held in much respect and who have at various times made most extensive purchases in his shop to the amount of several thousand tomans' (dollars) worth of british goods. on one occasion he imported for the amir and his son a first-class double barrel english gun of the latest type, some revolvers, a bicycle, with a lot of european furniture for which he received immediate payment in cash of , rupees. umar-al-din was the first indian trader to open a shop in birjand. by this means he has exercised great influence over the persian merchants of the place, and has induced the leading ones to trade with india, in preference to russia, by the nushki-quetta route. his good work has been reported to government by major chevenix trench, then h. b. m. consul in sistan, now consul in meshed, by lieutenant-colonel temple, major benn, and others. on his arrival in birjand he acted as agent for the british government, and was for ten months in charge of the consular postal arrangements from sistan to meshed, while advising the government on the best ways of promoting trade in those regions, a work which he did mostly for love and out of loyalty. he has experimented a great deal, and his experience is that indigo is the article which commands the greatest sale at present, then plain white and indigo dyed cottons of two qualities, a superior kind with shiny surface for the better classes, and one rather inferior with no gloss for the lower people. fancy articles find no sale. one of the greatest difficulties that a trader has to contend with is the impossibility of selling anything for ready money, and thus making small but quick profits. credit has to be given generally for one year, eighteen months, and even as long as two years. even in the few cases where credit has been allowed for one or two months the greatest difficulty is experienced in obtaining payment for the goods supplied, threats and applications to the amir being often necessary. delays are constant, although the money is always paid in the end. this necessitates keeping the prices very high to compensate for the loss, but by careful handling good profits can be made, if sufficient capital is at hand to keep the concern going. the caravanserai in which umar-al-din had hired several rooms which he had turned into a shop was now known by the name of the english caravanserai, and nearly all the caravans with indian and afghan goods halted there. when i went to visit the place there were a number of afghan soldiers who had conveyed some prisoners, who had escaped into afghan territory, back from herat to birjand. their rifles, with bayonets fixed, were stacked on the platform outside, and they loitered about, no two soldiers dressed alike. some had old english military uniforms which they wore over their ample white or blue cotton trousers. these fellows looked very fierce and treacherous, with cruel mouths and unsteady eyes. they wore pointed embroidered peaks inside their turbans, and curly hair flowed upon their shoulders. at a distance they were most picturesque but extremely dirty. a number of beluch _mari_, or running camels, were being fed with huge balls of paste which were stuffed down their mouths by their owners. these camel men were the first beluch i had come across, and although they wore huge white flowing robes, long hair, and pointed turbans not unlike the afghans, the difference in the features and expression of the faces was quite marked. one could see that they were fighting people, but they had nice, honest faces; they looked straight in one's eyes, and had not the sneakish countenance of their northern neighbours. chapter xii a loud explosion--persian military officers--dr. abbas ali khan, british agent in birjand--his excellent work--gratefulness of the natives--a quaint letter--the russian agent--a russian temporary score--more british consulates needed--visits returned--altitude and temperature of birjand--cossacks and their houses--a bright scene in a graveyard--departure of indian pilgrims for meshed--british consular postal service--russian post--making up a second caravan. early in the morning of the th i was awakened by a fearful explosion that shook the caravanserai and made everything in the room rattle. a few minutes later there was a second report and then a third and fourth, twelve altogether, but these fortunately not quite so loud. evidently my military friends of the previous day were firing off their artillery. shortly after this, in their gaudy uniforms and with a guard of soldiers, the officers came to call upon me at the caravanserai. "have you heard the guns being fired?" was their first anxious question. indeed i had. it appears that to make sure that i should hear them a double charge of powder was placed in the first gun. when it was let off in the very small court of the citadel the concussion had most disastrous effects upon the mud walls all round, as well as upon some of the spectators who were close at hand and who were nearly stunned by the fearful report. the officers were extremely civil, intelligent and full of humour. intense astonishment and interest was shown in my repeating rifles. they had never set their eyes upon, nor ever heard that there was such a thing as, a repeating rifle! i was, nevertheless, much struck by their quickness compared with that of the average european, in grasping the mechanism and the way to use the weapons. they seemed fully to realize that it would be of little practical use to defend birjand city in case of an attack, because it could be commanded from several excellent positions close at hand to the north-east, north and north-west. furthermore, the water supply could easily be cut off. they told me, if i remember right, that it was the intention of the persian government to strengthen this place and that some more pieces of artillery were expected. we have in birjand an indian doctor, by name abbas ali khan, who acts as british agent. he is a young fellow of uncommon ability and education, a capital doctor, and a most gentlemanly man, who has had great experience of the world, having travelled with several political missions in various parts of asia, including the pekin syndicate survey expedition under command of j. w. purvis, captain r. e., where not only did he look after the medical necessities of a large party of europeans, indians and chinese, but helped to manage a large transport of mule carts. captain purvis testifies to abbas ali having performed his professional duties with zeal, and extraneous duties cheerfully, during a journey of some , miles through china. it was in april, , that abbas ali khan, at twenty-four hours' notice, accompanied major brazier creagh's mission to sistan, when british influence in that part of persia was non-existent. the mission returned to india in october of the same year, but abbas ali was sent on a second journey to sistan in charge of a small party from december, , to july, , when he was entrusted with political business which required great discretion and tact. it is greatly to his credit that he managed--in spite of many difficulties and obstacles--to win the confidence and friendship of officials of a district where all british subjects were regarded with undisguised suspicion and distrust. no better proof of this could be furnished than by reproducing here a literal translation of a quaint document, dated may, , given him, unsolicited, by mir masum sar-tip, deputy governor of sistan, whose official seal it bears:-- "god is acquainted with what is in the minds of men. beyond doubt and without hesitation it is rightly and justly stated that military doctor mirza abbas ali khan has during the period of his stay in sistan displayed his personal tact and natural ability. he has treated with great civility and politeness any person who has applied to him for medical attendance and treatment of diseases, and has in no case whatever demanded payment or anything from anybody. he has never hesitated to give gratuitous medical aid with medicines or personal attendance, and all the natives from the highest to the lowest are well satisfied and under great obligation to him. it is hoped that the trouble taken and the pecuniary loss suffered by him will be appreciated by his government. i have personally greatly benefited by his treatment of my personal diseases and ailments and i trust that he will receive great favour from his government." naturally the medicines are supplied to him by the government, but it would be becoming if the government saw its way to reward men of this type for the "soul" which they put into their work, for this it is after all that wins the esteem of the natives more than the actual cost of the medicines. a few grains of quinine, or a few ounces of castor oil have often been the means of obtaining information and advantages for the british government, which, if properly used, may be worth millions of pounds sterling. it is to these pioneers that the nation should be grateful, to these people who build sound foundations on which the empire can spread without fear of collapsing we are indebted far more than to the folks who stop at home and reap with little trouble the credit of the work which has been done by others. abbas ali has gained a most intimate knowledge of the country and people, which gives him enormous influence, and he has been the means of smoothing the way to a considerable extent for the new trade route to quetta. major chevenix trench, consul at meshed, fully testifies to this, and speaks very highly of abbas ali's political work, and so does captain webb-ware, in charge of the nushki-sistan road, who writes that in his belief the growth of british influence in sistan and birjand is due in no small degree to the tact, discretion, and conscientious discharge of duties of abbas ali. abbas ali was ordered again to persia in august, , and has remained there since, stationed at birjand. the russians have established a rival agent to look after their own interests, in the person of veziroff gazumbek, a perso-russian subject and a mussulman. this man very politely called upon me in great state, wearing a decoration of the third class which had just been bestowed upon him by the shah, and accompanied by four cossacks who were on their way to the russian consulate at sistan to relieve the escort there. he and abbas ali were socially and outwardly on excellent terms, but great rivalry necessarily existed in their work. the russian had gained a temporary advantage in the eyes of the natives by the honour conferred upon him by the shah, and it was a pity that an exception to the general rule could not be made and a similar or higher honour obtained for abbas ali, whose work certainly deserves--one would think--some consideration. matters of that sort, although of absolutely no significance in themselves, are of great importance in a country like persia, where appearances cannot altogether be neglected. the british government, one feels, makes a primary and most palpable mistake in not being represented by more english consular officials, not necessarily sent by the london foreign office, but rather of that most excellent type, the military political servants, such as those who are now found in some few persian cities. the establishment of a vice-consulate here at birjand instead of a medical political agency would, i think, also, be of very great help at the present moment and would increase british prestige there. the afternoon of that day was spent in returning the visits of abbas ali khan, the russian agent, and the karghazar. everywhere i met with extreme civility. both the british and the russian agent lived in nice houses, handsomely carpeted and furnished, only abbas ali's place had a more business-like appearance than that of the russian because of the many books, the red cross trunks of medicine and surgical instruments and folding camp furniture. the house of the russian was practically in persian style, with handsome carpets and cushions, but with hardly any european chairs or furniture. birjand is very high up, , ft. above sea level, and we did not feel any too warm. the thermometer was seldom more than ° in the shade during the day, and from ° to ° at night. in the evenings the four cossacks of the sistan consular escort, who had been detained here, and occupied one of the rooms of the caravanserai, sat out in the open singing with melodious voices in a chorus the weird songs of their country. these men were really wonderful. they had come down from turkestan, a journey of close upon five hundred miles, riding their own horses, with only a few roubles in their pockets, and little more than the clothing they wore, their rifles, and bandoliers of cartridges. the affection for their horses was quite touching, and it was fully reciprocated by the animals. one or two of the men slept by the horses so that no one should steal them, and the animals were constantly and tenderly looked after. there was a bright scene in the graveyard behind the caravanserai, the day that all the women went to visit the graves and to lay offerings of food, rice and dried fruit upon the tombs of their dead. little conical white tents were pitched by hawkers, and dozens of women in their white chudders prowled about like so many ghosts, or else squatted down in rows beside or upon the graves. the doleful voices of blind beggars sang mournful tunes, and cripples of all kinds howled for charity. a persian crowd is always almost colourless, and hardly relieved by an occasional touch of green in the men's kamarbands or a bright spot of vermilion in the children's clothes. the illustration representing the scene, shows on the left-hand side of the observer, the ruined fortress at the western end of the city of birjand, and the near range of hills to the north-west which, as i mentioned, would afford most excellent positions for artillery for commanding birjand. the domed building in the centre of the photograph is one of the dead-houses adjoining every cemetery in persia, to which the bodies are conveyed and prepared previous to interment. the persian government have a belgian customs official in birjand, but he generally spends much of his time travelling along the afghan frontier. he had left birjand when i arrived. [illustration: women visiting graves of relatives, birjand. (ruined fort can be observed on hill.)] with more pity than regret i watched at the caravanserai the departure of the indian pilgrims for the shrine at meshed. they had obtained a number of donkeys and mules, and were having endless rows with the natives about payment. eventually, however, the caravanserai court having been a pandemonium for several hours, all was settled, their rags were packed in bundles upon the saddles, and the skeleton-like pilgrims, shivering with fever, were shoved upon the top of the loads. there was more fanaticism than life left in them. the four cossacks, also, who were at the caravanserai received orders to leave at once for their post at sistan, and gaily departed in charge of the british consular courier who was to show them the way. this courier travels from meshed to sistan with relays of two horses each, in connection with the quetta-sistan postal service. the service is worked entirely by the consuls and by the agent at birjand, and is remarkably good and punctual considering the difficulties encountered. there is also a persian postal service of some sort, but unfortunate is the person who rashly entrusts letters to it. even the persian officials themselves prefer to use the english post. the russians have established a similar service from their frontier to sistan, but it does not run so frequently. the making up a second caravan in a hurry was no easy matter, but eventually i was able to persuade one of the men who had accompanied me across the salt desert to procure fresh camels and convey me there. this he did, and after a halt of three days we were on the road again to cross our third desert between birjand and sistan, a distance of some miles. chapter xiii departure from birjand--a cloud like a skeleton hand--a downpour--the village of muht--a ruined fortress--a beautiful sunset--a pass--besieged by native callers--two towers at golandeh--strayed--curious pits--sahlabad--the impression of a foreign bed--fujiama's twin. a large and most respectful crowd collected in and out of the caravanserai to watch the departure of my caravan at five o'clock in the evening on november th. we were soon out of birjand and, steering a south-easterly course, passed one or two large mud enclosures with a few fruit-trees, but otherwise there was hardly any vegetation visible anywhere--even in the immediate neighbourhood of birjand. everything was as barren as barren could be. overhead the sky after sunset was most peculiarly marked by a weird, black, skeleton-like hand of perfect but gigantic proportions, spreading its long bony fingers over us. as night came on, it grew very cold and the skeleton hand of mist compressed itself into a nasty black cloud. a few minutes later a regular downpour drenched us to the skin and the camels experienced great difficulty in walking on the slippery mud. this was the first rain we had seen, or rather felt, since leaving teheran. our long-unused macintoshes had been applied to such usages as wrapping up cases of photographic plates and enveloping notebooks, so that we could not very well get at them, now that we needed them, without taking all the loads down. so we went on until our clothes were perfectly saturated, when at least we had the satisfaction of knowing that we could not get wetter than we were. the rain came down in bucketfuls for over an hour, then luckily stopped, and in a few moments, with a howling wind rising, the sky was clear again and the myriads of stars shone bright like so many diamonds. the cutting wind and our wet clothes made this march rather a chilly one, although one felt some relief at the sensation of moisture after so many months of intense dryness. there was nothing whatever to see on any side, and i have never thanked my stars so much as when, after marching thirteen hours, we reached the village of muht, a place of fair size in a picturesque little valley with nice hills on all sides. to the north-east of the village was an interesting demolished fortress standing on a low hill. it had a very deep well in the centre within its walls, which were of stone, with twelve turrets round it. at the foot of the hill was a _haoz_, or water tank, now dry, which the natives said was very ancient and which they attributed to the hindoos. to the west a lake was said to exist called kiemarakalah, by the side of a mountain not unlike a swiss roof in shape; while to the north-east of the fortress were rugged rocks and low sand-hills. the elevation of this village was , feet. we left muht at noon of the same day and passed a small village on our way, then we gradually ascended to a pass , feet high, on the other side of which was a plain--green not from vegetation, but because the clayish soil was of that colour--with hills to the east and west. it was hardly possible to imagine more dreary, desolate scenery than that through which we were going. there was not a living soul beyond ourselves anywhere in sight. the camels, which had caught cold in the shower of the previous night, had to be given a rest, and we halted again after a five hours' march. the cold was intense. whether owing to the moisture in the atmosphere, or to some other cause, we had on the evening of the th a really beautiful sunset. the sky was dazzling with brilliant gold and vermilion tints. at midnight we were again under way, first across flat, then over undulating country, after which we got among the mountains and between precipitous gorges. this was quite a welcome change, but not for the camels, the way being somewhat rough and stony. we had some little difficulty in going up the steep pass, , feet, the camels panting terribly. we suffered from the cold and the heavy dew which positively drenched men, camels, and baggage. it was quite as bad as having been out in the rain, we were so soaked. i, unfortunately, became ill again, fever attacking me afresh more fiercely than ever; sadek, too, and abbas ali, the camel man, were also taken very sick. on the other side of the pass we went through a steep, narrow, and most fantastically picturesque defile of rocks, and eventually passed the little hamlet of golandeh which boasts of no less than half-a-dozen mud huts and as many fruit trees. we had descended to precisely the altitude of muht, or , feet. from this village the sistan track descends for a few hundred yards and then proceeds in a south by south-east direction over a flat stretch with some hills. a very high mountain could be seen to the south by south-west and another quite pointed to the south by south-east (at ° b.m.). to the east-south-east some twenty miles from muht, was another tiny hamlet built against the foot of the mountain along which we had come. a large plain opened before us to the south-west. at golandeh we were besieged by natives applying for medicine, as there seemed to be hardly a soul in the place who was not affected by some complaint or other. affections of the eyes were most common. those who wanted no medicine begged for money or lumps of sugar,--which latter there is apparently some difficulty in obtaining here and for which they seemed to have a perfect craving. men, women, and children implored to be given some. there were two towers at golandeh, the lower one quadrangular in shape and two-storied. the upper floor had recesses in all the rooms for storing grain and provisions. we left camp at . p.m. and all went well until about ten o'clock, when sadek took it into his head that we were travelling in the wrong direction and proceeded to put us right, i being fast asleep on my camel. the camel man, having never been on this route, did not know the way and depended a great deal on the bearings i gave him daily by my compass. when i awoke we had got sadly mixed up among big boulders and sharp broken-up rocks, from which the camels had the greatest difficulty in extricating themselves, and we wasted a good deal of time in helping the animals to get on to better ground as they continually stumbled and fell among the loose stones. the loads got undone several times and we were all three so ill that we had not the strength to tie them up again properly on the saddles. in the course of time i put the party on the right track again, and for more than one hour we went up and down steep but not high passes, through defiles, and across a small stream. we were following the dry river-bed among rocks in a gorge, and we arrived at a spot where there was a rock barrier several feet high beneath us, which made it impossible for camels to get down; so abbas ali was despatched to try and find an easier way while sadek and i were left to freeze in a cutting south-west wind. the camel man returned and led the camels back a long distance until we came to a faint track along a streamlet, which we tried to follow, but it went along such precipitous places that we had to abandon it for fear the camels, who could not get a proper foot-hold, might come to grief. in birjand i had only succeeded in obtaining just sufficient animals to carry my loads, sadek, and myself, and so was not very anxious to run the risk of losing any and becoming stranded in such an inhospitable place. we eventually contrived to take the camels down to the flat without any serious mishaps, and wandered and wandered about and went over another pass--my compass being all we had to go by. sadek, whose high fever had affected his vision, now swore that we were going back towards birjand instead of going on, and said he was certain my compass was wrong; but i paid no heed to his remarks, and by carefully steering our course with the compass--which involved a reckless waste of matches owing to the high wind--i eventually got the party into the open, upon a wide plain of sand and gravel. here, having shown abbas ali the right bearings to follow, i got upon my camel, again wrapped myself well in my blankets and went fast asleep. so unfortunately did abbas ali, who was tired out after his exertions among the rocks, and at a.m. i woke up to find the camels going as and where they pleased, and the camel man, buried under his thick felt coat, snoring so soundly upon his camel that it took a good deal of shouting to wake him up. i had no idea where we had drifted while i had been asleep, and the night being an unusually dark one we could not well see what was ahead of us, so we decided to halt until sunrise. [illustration: in the desert. (tamarisks in the foreground.)] when it grew light in the morning i was much interested in some curious circular and quadrangular pits only a few yards from where we had stopped, which were used as shelters for men and sheep but were now deserted. these pits were from four to six feet deep below the level of the ground, and from ten to thirty feet in diameter (when circular), a section being partitioned for sheep by a fence of thick but soft cane that grows in the neighbourhood of water. in the part reserved for human beings there was a circular fireplace of stones, and some holes in the earth at the sides for storing foodstuff. the lower portion of the inside wall all round the pit was of beaten earth up to a height of two feet, above which a wall of stones carefully fitted one upon the other was constructed from two to four feet high, up to the level of the earth. here a projecting screen of cane was erected all round at an angle converging towards the centre of the pit, for the double purpose of preventing the sheep escaping, and of sheltering the inmates during the fearful sand and windstorms that sweep with great force along the earth's surface. the entrance was cut on one side with an incline to afford easy access to the pit. at this particular place there were altogether some fifteen of these pits, and in one of them we lighted a big fire with some shrubs we collected, and rested for some three hours to give sadek time to cook my breakfast. the difference in the temperature between the interior of these pits and the open ground was extraordinary. they were comfortably warm, even when it was unpleasantly cold as one peeped out of them. while sadek was busy with his culinary work, and the camel man chewed dried pieces of bread and _keshk_ cheese, i proceeded to find our right way. it lay about one mile to the east of the pits. on resuming our march, five farsakhs (twenty miles) from golandeh, we reached sahlabad, an unimportant village. south there was to be seen an extensive white salt deposit, which at first had all the appearance of a large lake, and a stream of salt water flowed across the large valley and through the village from north-east to south-west. to the east there was a long range of multi-coloured mountains, all with high sand accumulations at their base; greys in several beautiful tones, were prevalent, and there were stretches of black, brown, burnt sienna, and a pale cadmium yellow. to the north-west, whence we had come, low hills were visible, and to the south-west fairly high ones. sahlabad was a depressing place. the natives were in abject poverty and their habitations dismal, to say the least. the huts were partly underground, and the top aperture of the domed roof was screened by a hood with an opening to the north-east. no firewood was obtainable at this place, and the only water the natives had to drink was the salt water from the stream. at sahlabad we had descended to an elevation of , ft., which made a considerable change in the temperature. we encountered here a large caravan in charge of beluch drivers, and among other curious articles one of the camels carried a beautiful new enamelled iron bedstead. the reader may suppose that, after several months of sleeping on the ground, i wished it had been mine,--but i did not. on the contrary, i was particularly struck on that occasion by what an elaborate, clumsy, useless thing it seemed, although, as bedsteads go, it was one of the best! to the south stood a high mountain, very closely resembling in shape the world-renowned fujiama of japan, only this one had a somewhat wider angle. beyond the white expanse of salt to the south-east there was low, flattish country, but to the west, north-west and south-west, rose fairly high hills. the valley itself in which we were was some two and a half miles broad, and covered with grey sand. in the centre of the village in the neighbourhood of which we camped was a tumbled-down circular tower, and an octangular tower in two tiers, also partly ruined. the latter stood at the corner of an enclosure which at one time must have been the beginning of the village wall. chapter xiv suspicious characters--a trap--held up--no water--the haunt of robbers--fierce daily winds--volcanic formation--a crater--wall-like barriers--a salt stream--a caravan from quetta. we remained at sahlabad the whole afternoon, and we were visited in camp by a number of suspicious-looking people, who were most inquisitive to know what i possessed and how much money i carried, and other such pertinent questions which they put to sadek and my camel man. also a peculiar lot of fellows, with very ugly countenances and armed to their teeth, passed by. they were mounted on fine horses with gaudy saddles, and on coming suddenly and unexpectedly upon us seemed quite upset. instead of salaaming us, as had been usual with the few well-to-do people we had so far met, they whipped their horses and galloped away. sadek said they must be sawars--mounted soldiers. abbas ali said they were robbers from afghanistan. we shall see later what they were. at . p.m. we left--it was quite dark--and we had gone but two miles when a distant voice called upon us to stop. by his speech the stranger seemed very excited when he reached us, and said we must keep the track, to the left and not follow the one to the right where two trails branched off. we could not see his face, for he kept some twenty or thirty yards off, and besides, his face was wrapped all round in the tail of his turban. we professed to be thankful for the information, but continued on the track to the right, which seemed greatly to disturb him--at least, judging by the number of times he entreated us to follow his advice. both sadek and abbas ali corroborated my conviction that this was a trap laid for us. the man, on seeing us go a different way from the one he advised us, ran away, and presently we heard some shrill whistles which were no doubt signals to his companions. we had gone but another mile when suddenly a figure with a gun in hand sprang before us and seized the camel man by the chest. "whose caravan is this?" he shouted. "it is the _ferenghi's_," hastily replied the camel man. there was a short pause in the conversation when our interlocutor, looking up at my camel which had got close upon him, perceived himself covered by my rifle. sadek had leapt off his camel as quick as lightning and shoved the muzzle of his winchester in the man's face. as the stranger's demeanour was most peculiar and his answers incoherent as well as flippant, sadek first disarmed his adversary, then turned his own rifle the round way about and gave the man a good pounding for his impertinence in holding up my camel man. we heard a number of voices of people hidden all around. when the fellow managed to effect an escape he gave an alarm signal, and we saw a lot of black figures jump up and stampede for their lives. this furnished a little variation in our dreary night marches, and we proceeded briskly, sadek, abbas ali and i being most grateful to our unknown friends for the amusement they had provided us. some three miles further we came upon several caravans that had halted and were hiding, for they were aware of robbers being about--they had seen fresh tracks of their horses during the day and were in fear of being attacked. at first when we appeared on the scene they mistook us for brigands, and as we discovered them hidden we also mistook them for robbers, so that the beginning of our interview did not lack in humour. we had a hearty laugh over it all when their identity and ours were established, and after a few minutes' halt we continued our journey on soft sand, rather undulating, with frequent depressions in places. we travelled the whole night of december st, passing to the right of the salt deposits--which looked like a big stretch of country covered with snow and threw out a certain luminosity, possibly because the salt crystals reflected and condensed what light there was from the stars. as the hours of the night went by we gradually left the salt stretch behind us to the north, and proceeded on the flat for some distance. in the morning we passed a small village right up on the mountain side, one mile and a half to the west of our course. we then entered a dry river-bed between high sand hills, and having marched nineteen hours continuously camels and men were rather in need of a rest. at one p.m. on december st we pitched our camp in the middle of the river-bed-- feet broad here--the only place where we could get a draught of air,--but the heat was suffocating, the thermometer registering °--the altitude being , feet. as we expected to find water of some kind we had omitted to fill up the skins and load the camels unnecessarily, but, unluckily, there was no water anywhere at hand. abbas ali was sent to the village we had passed--now some four miles back--to get some, but being too tired to carry the heavy skin down to us again he entrusted it to a boy, giving him full directions where our camp was. the boy did not find where we were, and in the meantime sadek and i had our throats parched with thirst. abbas ali returned at seven o'clock and had to be despatched back to the village in search of the lost boy and the water skin. it was ten o'clock when he returned, and after twenty-eight hours of dryness we had our first drink of water. it was brackish but it tasted delicious. we were compelled to remain here for the night. several caravans passed through going north, and also a lot of suspicious people, whose manner was so peculiar that we were compelled to sit up the greater part of the night and keep watch on my property. some of the caravan men who had gone through had warned us that we had encamped in a regular nest of robbers, and that three men had been robbed and murdered at this spot only a few days before. the high sand hills afford excellent hiding places for these gentry. it appears that the men on horseback whom we had seen at sahlabad, and who had bolted on coming suddenly upon us, were the high chief of the robber band and some of his confederates,--very likely on their way to birjand to dispose of booty. being so near the afghan border these fellows enjoy practical safety by merely going from one country into the other to suit their plans and to evade search parties occasionally sent out for their capture. we had come forty miles from sahlabad, and abbas ali brought us the news from the village that we should find no water on our course for fifteen miles more and no habitations for forty-eight more miles. unluckily, we had hardly enough provisions to last one day, and we perceived a fair prospect before us of having to go one day without food, when abbas ali was despatched for a third time for another eight miles' walk to the village and back to see what he could get in the way of edibles. he returned, riding a cow, in company with another man, and a third fellow on a mule carrying a fat sheep. the latter was there and then purchased and killed, and we had a copious breakfast before starting along the winding dry bed of the river at . a.m. on december nd. before us to the south by south-west ( ° b.m.) was a lofty flat-topped mountain which appeared about fifteen miles off, and directly in front of our course was also another and more extensive long, flat-topped mountain stretching from north-east to south-west, three miles off, with precipitous sides towards the north-west and north. the sides were padded with sand accumulations which reached almost to the summit of the lower portions of the mountain barrier. to the south-west, approximately twenty miles off, stood a high range. west and north-westerly winds blew every day in a fierce manner, usually from sunset till about ten or eleven o'clock the following morning, at which hour they somewhat abated. they are, no doubt, due to the great jumps in the temperature at sunset and sunrise. on december st, for instance, from ° in the sun during the day the thermometer dropped to ° at night, or ° of frost. on december nd at noon it was up again as high as °. we traversed a plain twelve miles long and at its south-east course, where the mountain ranges met, there occurred a curious spectacle--evidently of volcanic formation. on the top of the black hills of gravel and sand lying in a confused mass, as if left so by an upheaval, rose a pinnacle of bright yellow and red stone, with patches of reddish earth and of a dissimilar texture to the underlying surface of the hill. there seemed little doubt that both the rocky pinnacle and the red earth had been thrown there by some force--and under the projecting rocks and masses of soft earth one could, in fact, find a different formation altogether, bearing the same characteristics as the remainder of the hill surface. this was on the northern slope of that hill. as the track turned here due east, and rounded, as it were, this curious mount, we found in reality on the other side a large, crater-like basin with lips of confused masses of earth both vermilion and of vivid burnt sienna colour, as well as most peculiar mud-heaps in a spiral formation all round the crater, looking as if worn into that shape by some boiling liquid substance. to the south-east, on the very top of a hill of older formation, was perched at a dangerous angle another great yellow boulder like the one we had seen on the north side of the crater. for a diameter of several hundred yards the earth was much disturbed. one mile further south-east, in traversing a basin a mile broad, it was impossible not to notice a curious range of hills with some strange enormous baked boulders--(they had evidently been exposed to terrific heat)--standing upright or at different angles to the east side of the hills, stuck partly in the sand and salt with which the ground was here covered. irregular and unsystematic heaps of rock, on which sand had accumulated up to a certain height, were to be seen to the south, and huge boulders of rich colour lay scattered here and there; whereas near the mountains which enclosed the basin both to south and east there were thousands of little hillocks of rock and sand in the most disconnected order. as we went on, two perpendicular flat-topped barriers were before us to the east--like gigantic walls--one somewhat higher than the other, and of a picturesque dark burnt sienna colour in horizontal strata. the whole country about here seemed to have been much deranged at different periods. we passed hillocks in vertical strata of slate-like brittle stone, in long quadrangular prisms, but evidently these strata had solidified in a horizontal position and had been turned over by a sudden commotion of the earth. this conclusion was strengthened by the fact that the same formation in a horizontal position was noticeable all along, the strata in one or two places showing strange distortions, with actual bends, continuing in curves not unlike the letter s. in the dry river bed there were large rocks cut into the shape of tables on a single pillar stand, but these were, of course, made by the erosion of water, and at a subsequent date. further on we found a tiny stream of salt water in the picturesque gorge--as weird and puzzling a bit of scenery as can be found in persia, if one carefully examined each hill, each rock, and tried to speculate on their formation. from the rocks--a hundred feet or so above the salt stream,--we came to a spring--if one could call it by that name--of delicious sweet water. the water dripped at the rate of about a tumbler-full an hour, but a gallon or two had collected in a pool directly under the rock, with a refreshing border of green grass round it. we gladly and carefully transferred the liquid into one of the skins by means of a cup judiciously handled so as not to take up the deep sediment of mud in the shallow pool. we came across a very large caravan from quetta in charge of some beluch drivers, and--after one's experience of how things are packed by persian caravans--one was greatly struck by the neat wooden packing boxes, duly marked and numbered. i inquired whose caravan it was, and the beluch said it belonged to two english sahibs who were ten miles behind, and were expected to catch it up during the night. the names of the two sahibs were so mispronounced by the beluch that i could not, to save my life, understand what they were. we halted in the gorge at four o'clock, having come only sixteen miles from my last camp. altitude, , feet. chapter xv sadek's wastefulness--meeting two enterprising english traders--another circular crater--wind and electricity in the air--their effects--a fortress--soldiers and brigandage--zemahlabad--windmills--bandan--ancient tombs--picturesque women--lost our way--a welcome messenger--nasirabad--"ruski" or "inglis"--several miles of villages and houses--english maps and foreign names--greeted by major benn. we intended continuing our journey after dinner. this camp being well screened on all sides, sadek gave way to his ambition to have the camp lighted up by a number of candles, with which he was always most wasteful. he had two candles alight where he was doing his cooking, i had two more to do my writing by, abbas ali had also two to do nothing by. luckily, there was not a breath of wind to disturb the illumination. towards nine o'clock we heard noises of camels' and horses' hoofs stumbling against the rocks down the gorge, and my ears caught the welcome sound of english voices. "what can all those lights be?" said one. "they look like candles," replied the other. "they _are_ candles!" i intervened. "will you not get off your horses and have some dinner with me by the light of them?" "who in the world is that?" queried one of the riders of the other, evidently taken aback at being addressed in english in such a queer place and at such a time of the night. "my name is henry savage landor." "what? not tibet landor? our names are clemenson and marsh--but what in the world are you doing here? have you not some companions?" "yes, i have. here they are: three persian kittens!" as mr. clemenson had some big dogs with him, the moment the cats were let out of the box to be introduced there was a chase, but the kittens climbed in due haste up the side of the cliff and left the disappointed dogs below to bark. on this high point of vantage they squatted down and watched our proceedings below with the greatest interest. it was a real delight to meet countrymen of one's own after so many weeks of loneliness. these two enterprising english traders had brought over a very large caravan from quetta, and were on their way to meshed, having done good business in sistan. they had with them every possible article they could think of, from tea to phonographs, lamps, razors, music boxes, magic lanterns, bedsteads, cottons, silks, cloths, chairs, glass-ware, clocks, watches, and i do not know what else. i believe that it was the largest caravan of that kind that had ever come over to persia from beluchistan. after a pleasant interview of an hour or so, and what humble refreshments i could offer, they were compelled to continue their journey to the north. the kittens, having anxiously watched the departure of mr. clemenson's dogs, leapt back from rock to rock and down on to my carpet, all three sitting as usual in a row in front of my plate while i was having my dinner, with their greedy eyes on the meat, and occasionally also one of their paws. we did not make a start till . a.m., when there was moonlight, as the way was very bad among stones and boulders. for a short distance we travelled between high cliffs and boulders, then between low hills much further apart. on our left we came to a most peculiar formation of rock which seemed almost like a castle, and from this point we got into a long and wide plain, most uninteresting and swarming with a troublesome kind of small fly. a rugged mountain to the north, being higher and more vividly coloured than the rest, attracted the eye, as one tried hard to find something to admire in the scenery; and to the south-west we saw the back view of the flat-topped plateau we had skirted the day before. to the s.s.w. lay another flat-topped high mountain like the section of a cone which we had noticed on our previous march. we were now marching due east, and after some sixteen miles' journey from our last camp we again entered a hilly portion of country. we made a halt of three hours, from a.m. to a.m., to have our breakfast. then we entered the hills by one of the usual dry channels formed by the water washing down with great force in rainy weather from the hillsides. after half a mile we emerged again into another plain, three miles long and about equally wide, with very broken, low rocky mountains to the east, and low sand hills to the south. to the south-east, in the direction we were following, stood a massive-looking mountain, which, however, possessed no very beautiful lines. more interesting and quaint was the circular crater in a conical mountain to the north-east of the long dreary plain we were now traversing. the mouth of this large crater was much lower on the south-west side than on the north-east, thus exposing to the full view of the traveller the entire opening in the centre of the mountain, reddish-brown in colour. having gone some twelve miles more, we stopped, at four in the afternoon, in a bitterly penetrating cold wind, which seemed to have a most uncomfortable effect upon one's nervous system. whether it was that the intense dryness caused an excess of electricity, or what, i do not know, but one ached all over in a frightful manner, and experienced the same tendon-contracting feeling as when exposed to an electric current. one farsakh before reaching camp we had passed the camping ground of angiloh, where a tiny drip of fresh water exists. we happily found here a quantity of wood, abandoned by the clemenson caravan, which we put on our camels and carried further down into the plain, where, having found a depression in the ground affording some shelter from the fearful wind, we halted to wait until the moon rose. my fever seized me violently on that night, and i experienced intense pain in my spine, my legs and arms, more especially in places where i had received wounds on previous journeys. we left again in the middle of the night at a.m., and a great effort it was, too, to get out of one's warm blankets and scramble on the camel, aching as i was all over, and with the indescribable exhaustion that fever of the desert brings on. luckily, with the rising of the moon, the wind had somewhat abated, but the electricity in the air was as unpleasant as it was extraordinary. one was absolutely saturated with it, and discharged sparks from one's finger-tips when one touched anything that was a good conductor. in the morning at the foot of the mountains we passed a large fortress where, they told me, twenty soldiers had been stationed the previous year in order to suppress brigandage that had been rampant here. both afghan and sistan robbers seemed to be most partial to this spot, probably because it is that at which all the caravans from birjand and meshed converge on their way to sistan. we actually perceived some trees in the distance, and at last we arrived at zemahlabad, a quadrangular fort, with two such peculiar structures at the sides that i really could not at first guess what they were. sadek, called upon to explain, was no wiser, and we had to find a solution to our speculation from one of the local authorities. they were windmills, and most ingenious and simple they were, too, when once one had grasped the mechanism of them. only in their case the large opening to the east and west, to let in and out the wind, had been screened with elaborate wood-work, and it was not easy to understand the principle of the device until one visited the interior. we shall come later in our journey to some quite superior ones, which i will endeavour to describe. there were many palm trees at this place and some few patches of vegetation. a great many mat-sheds had been erected, and hundreds of cows were to be seen; the land, being marshy, provided fair pasturages. (altitude , ft.) to the extreme east of the long valley we had traversed the bandan mountains, converged into an acute angle with those on the opposite side of the valley, and on the north-east side we had again the same formation of rock in horizontal strata with some contortions at its western end. a salt stream flowed here through a narrow gorge, between the picturesque, wall-like barrier to the north and the handsome hills to the south-west. a great number of palm trees gave quite a tropical appearance to this gorge, although the whitish sand mixed with salt impressed one like dirty snow, and the sky was also whitish and promising real snow. it was none too hot--thermometer °. just before reaching bandan--also called darban by some natives ( , ft.)--we noticed on the precipitous slopes of the mountain to the south-west several buildings in ruins, said to be ancient tombs. they were domed. at the foot of the mountain were the remains of a village. bandan consisted of a quadrangular walled village with five high towers and two more partly collapsed. the lower part of the village wall--a regular fortress--was of stone and mud, the upper portion of sun-dried mud bricks. it appeared to have been built at different epochs, the south-west half especially seeming more modern than the north-east portion. holes about three feet above the ground in the wall served the purpose of windows to the houses adjoining the wall inside the castle, and a stone of suitable size shoved into the aperture was the shutter. the village wall had two entrances on the south-east side, where outside the wall could be seen fifteen small domed ovens, of the usual persian type, for baking bread, the paste of which is plastered on the inside of the dome when sufficiently heated. the highest tower was on the south-west side, and all of these structures had a foundation of stone, but the remainder was of mud. we saw here a string of picturesque women. they were carrying loads of wood and heavy bags of wheat on their heads. on perceiving me unexpectedly they tried to run away, and did so, but not before i had got the good snapshot of them here reproduced. it can be seen by this photograph what long steps these women took, and how those that carried heavier loads swung their arms about to diminish the effort and balance themselves. they walked with a good deal of spring in their knees. these women had much stronger features than the persian generally have, and resembled--in fact, were practically--afghan women. one or two only had the hindoo type, with large, soft, drooping eyes, large hook noses, and over-developed lips, with small receding chins. the younger ones were strikingly handsome. on our last march we had come from north to south, but now, after a short halt, we went on towards the south-east on what we thought would be our last two marches before reaching sher-i-nasrya, the capital city of sistan, only some sixty miles off. soon after leaving bandan we found ourselves in an open plain with gradually vanishing mountains to the south-west. to the north-east the wall-like barrier, about one mile from bandan, suddenly ceased in a gentle slope. east and e.s.e., now that the plain became of immense breadth, one could see two isolated low hill ranges, barring which, in the arc of a circle between north-east and south, we had nothing before us except a flat, dreary stretch of sand and stones meeting the sky on the horizon line. on getting nearer the hamun-i-halmund (swamp), formed by the halmund river and others losing themselves into the sand and flooding part of that region, the whole country was covered with high reeds and small water channels, which constantly made us deviate from our course. in the middle of the night we got so mixed up that we were unable to go on. it is most dangerous to make camels get into water channels, especially if muddy, without being certain of their depth. the brutes, if sinking, are seized with panic and collapse, or, in trying to get out quickly, often slip sideways and get split in two, which necessitates their being killed. in the morning we passed two cossacks from the sistan consulate escort, who, having been relieved, were now on their way back to russia. they gave us a hearty greeting, and shortly after a messenger from the british consul in sistan handed me a letter, a most kind invitation from major benn to go and stay with him at the consulate. towards noon we reached nasirabad (altitude , ft.), a very old village founded by one malik nasir khan kayani--the _kayani_, as is well known, being the former rulers of sistan, and every big _kayani_ being called "malik." we stopped for a couple of hours for lunch, the principal house in the village being vacated by the courteous inmates for my use. the arrival of a _ferenghi_ excited considerable attention, and numerous and anxious inquiries were made whether i was a "ruski" or "inglis." on learning that i was "inglis," they expressed their unsolicited conviction that all inglis were good people and ruski all bad, and no doubt if i had been a ruski the reverse conviction would have been expressed with similar eagerness. the natives were polite, but extremely noisy, shouting and yelling at the top of their voices when they spoke. the men wore large white turbans over their white skull caps, long blue shirts, opened and buttoned on the left side, reaching to below their knees, and the enormous afghan trousers. from nasirabad we came across a long uninterrupted row of ruined villages and towns, stretching in a line for some eight miles from north to south. the most northern one had the appearance of a fortress with a very high wall, still in fair preservation, and several more of these fortresses were to be seen along the line of houses, the majority of dwellings being outside these forts. the domed houses--some of which were in perfect preservation--showed the identical architecture and characteristics of persian houses of to-day. we were benighted again. curiously enough, even within a mile or so from sher-i-nasrya, on asking some natives where the city of _nasirabad_ or _nasratabad_, as it is marked in capital letters on english maps (even those of the indian trigonometrical survey), nobody could tell me, and everybody protested that no such city existed. (the real name of it, sher-i-nasrya, of course, i only learnt later.) this was puzzling, but not astonishing, for there is a deal of fancy nomenclature on english maps. eventually, when i had almost despaired of reaching the place that night, although i could not have been more than a stone-throw from it, i appealed to another passer-by, riding briskly on a donkey. "how far are we from nasratabad?" "never heard the name." "is there a town here called nasirabad?" "no, there is no such town--but you must have come through a small village by that name, two farsakhs off." "yes, i have. do you happen to know where the english consulate is?" "oh, yes, everybody knows the english consulate. i will take you there. it is only a short distance from here, near the city of sher-i-nasrya!" thanks to this fellow, a few minutes later i found myself greeted most effusively by major and mrs. benn in their charming mud consulate. this was on the evening of december th. chapter xvi english fancy geographical names--sher-i-nasrya--the main street--the centre of the city--reverence of the natives for major benn--a splendid type of british official--indian and russian goods--the shikin maghut cloth--steadily increasing trade of the nushki route--khorassan horses for remounts--husseinabad--russian vice-consulate--mr. miller--characteristic windmills--"the wind of days"--benn bazaar. disappointing as it may seem that the natives themselves should be barefaced enough not to call their city by the fancy name given it by certain british geographers, we might as well explain why the natives call the capital of sistan by its real name, sher-i-nasrya. the three words mean the "city of nasr," nasr being an abbreviation of nasr-ed-din shah, in honour of whom the city was named. in sistan itself the city goes by the shortened name of mere "sher" or "city," but letters sent by persians from other parts of the shah's dominions are generally addressed sher-i-nasrya, or simply sher-i-sistan. [illustration: women at bandan.] [illustration: dr. golam jelami and his patients.] when the place was first conquered by the father of the present amir, mir-alam-khan, it was spoken of as nusratabad, or the "city or victory," just the same as we speak of the "city of the commune," or the "eternal city," or the "city of fogs." the name "nusratabad" only applied to the victory and not to the city. we should certainly not wish to see the names of the three above illustrations given on maps for paris, rome, or london. as for calling the city nasirabad, as the trigonometrical survey maps do, there is no excuse whatever for this, which is a mere blunder--not the only one, unfortunately--and attributes to the city the name of a small village some eight miles off. the present sher-i-nasrya is not more than twenty years old. it has a double wall all round, a higher one with semicircular castellated towers, and a lower on a mud bank with outwardly projecting semicircular protected platforms, the walls of which, eight feet high, are loopholed in a primitive fashion. on the inner side of the lower wall there is a platform all along the wall for soldiers to stand upon. the city wall, forty feet high, is separated from this outer defence by a road all round the city, and outside of all there is a moat, but with very little water in it. the wall on the south side (really s.s.w.) has ten towers, the two central ones being close together and larger than the others, between which is the principal city gate, reached by an earthen bridge and a tortuous way, as the entrance of the outer wall is not in a line with the inner. the east and west side have only eight towers, including the corner ones, the double towers being the fourth and fifth. every tower is semicircular, with loopholes pointing towards the sky--very useful in case of defence--and a large opening for pieces of artillery. the corner towers have two of these apertures, one under the other. a kind of bastion or battlement has been formed by piling up the earth removed from the moat round the lower wall. the moat is forty feet broad and thirty feet deep. a large road was made not long ago round three sides of the city by colonel trench, then our consul there, so that the amir could drive to his garden, a quarter of a mile outside the north city gate, the residence of the amir's son, the sar-tip. on the west side of sher-i-nasrya there is merely a sheep track. [illustration: the main street, sher-i-nasrya. (showing centre of city.)] in the north-west corner of the city is a higher wall enclosing a large space and forming the citadel and anderun, in which the amir and part of his family reside. there are three large towers to each side of the quadrangle, the centre tower to the south being of much larger proportions than the others. a lower outer wall surrounds the higher one, and in the large tower is the entrance gate to the governor's citadel. the inside of the city of sher-i-nasrya is neither beautiful nor interesting from a pictorial point of view. there is a main street with some mud buildings standing up, others tumbled down. the full-page illustration shows the most attractive and interesting point of the city, the centre of the quadrangle where the two streets, one from south to north, the other from east to west, intersect at right angles. a dome of mud bricks has been erected over the street, and under its shade a number of the amir's soldiers were generally to be seen with their rifles resting idle against the wall. the type of sistan residence can be seen in the two hovels to the right of the observer in this photograph. the two hoods on the highest point of the dome are two typical ventilators. to the left the large doorways are mere shops, with a kind of narrow verandah on which the purchasers squat when buying goods. the main street is very narrow and has a small platform almost all along its sides, on which the natives sit smoking their kalians or conversing. i was really very much impressed, each time that i visited the city in the consul's company, by the intense respect shown by these people to our representative. there was not a single man who did not rise and salaam when we rode through the bazaar, while many also came forward to seize the consul's hand and pay him the customary compliments. major benn modestly put down this civility of the natives to the popularity of his predecessor, major trench, and the good manners which he had taught these men; but major benn himself, with his most affable manner, his unsophisticated ways, absolutely devoid of nonsensical red-tape or false pride, is to my mind also to be held responsible for the reverence which he inspires among the masses. to me personally, i must confess, it was a very great pleasure indeed to see an english gentleman held in such respect, and that solely on account of his tact and _savoir faire_. it is not a common sight. of course, a certain amount of show has also to be made to impress the natives, but "show" alone, as some believe, will be of little good unless there is something more attractive behind it. major benn seemed to be everybody's welcomed friend; everybody, whether rich or poor, whether in smart clothes or rags, gleamed with delight as they saw him come; and major benn stopped his horse, now to say a kind word to a merchant, then to shake hands with a native friend, further on to talk to a little child who had run to the door of his parents' mud hut to say "salameleko" to the consul. it is men with sound common sense, civil manners, and human sympathy, of benn's type, that we want to represent england everywhere, and these men, as i have ever maintained, can do great britain more good in foreign countries in a day than all the official red-tape in a year. it is a mistake to believe that persians or other asiatics are only impressed by gold braiding and by a large retinue of servants. the natives have a wonderful intuitive way of correctly gauging people, as we civilised folk do not seem able to do, and it is the man himself, and his doings, that they judge and criticise, and not so much the amount of gold braiding on a man's coat or trousers, or the cut of a resplendent uniform. in the northern portion of the main street are the few shops with english and russian goods. most of the articles i saw in the couple of indian shops were of indian or english importation--many of the articles appeared to me of german manufacture, like the usual cheap goods one sees in the indian bazaars. on the opposite side of the road was the rival merchant who dealt in russian goods, and he seemed to be doing quite a brisk business. he appeared to deal mostly in clothes. there is a kind of moleskin russian cloth called the _shikin maghut_, of various shades, colours and qualities, which commands a ready sale both in khorassan and sistan, although its price is high and its quality and dye not particularly good. with a little enterprise indian manufacturers could certainly make a similar and better cloth and easily undersell the russian material. it is most satisfactory to find from captain webb-ware's statement that indian trade by the nushki-sistan route, which was absolutely nil in the year - , and only amounted to some , rupees in - , made a sudden jump to , rupees in the following twelve months, - . it has since been steadily on the increase, as can be seen by the following figures:-- - rupees , - " , , - " , , these figures are the total amount of imports and exports by the nushki route, beginning from st of april each year. in - the imports were rs. , ; the exports rs. , . when the route comes to be better known the returns will inevitably be greatly increased, but of course only a railway--or a well-conducted service of motor vans--can make this route a really practical one for trade on a large scale. the cost of transport at present is too great. a point which should be noted in connection with the railway is that every year a great number of horses are brought from meshed to india _via_ quetta for remount purposes. in - the number of horses brought by dealers to quetta amounted to , and as the khorassan horses are most excellent, they were promptly sold at very remunerative prices. the average price for a capital horse in persia is from to rupees ( rupees to £ ). i understand that these horses when in quetta are sold by dealers to government at an average of rupees each, leaving a very large profit indeed. as horses are very plentiful in khorassan, if a railway existed the government could remount its cavalry at one-third of the present cost. adjoining sher-i-nasrya to the south is the partly ruined village of husseinabad. it has a wall, now collapsed, and a moat which forms an obtuse angle with the east wall of sher-i-nasrya. there are in this village some miserable little mud houses still standing up and inhabited, and the high-walled, gloomy mud building of the russian vice-consulate which has lately been erected, opposite to an extensive graveyard. the site and the outward appearance of the russian vice-consulate, which one can only reach by jumping over various drain channels or treading over graves, was decidedly not one's ideal spot for a residence, but once inside the dwelling, both house and host were really charming. mr. miller, the consul, was a very intelligent and able man indeed, a most wonderful linguist, and undoubtedly a very efficient officer for his country. there is also in husseinabad a round tower where the beluch sirdar fought the amir some nine years ago, and one or two windmills characteristic of sistan and beluchistan. these windmills are not worked by sails in a vertical position like ours, but are indeed the simplest and most ingenious contrivance of its kind i have ever seen. the motive wheel, which revolves in a horizontal position, is encased in high walls on three sides, leaving a slit on the north side, from whence the prevalent winds of sistan blow. the wind entering with great force by this vertical slit--the walls being so cut as to catch as much wind as possible--sets the wheel in motion--a wheel which, although made coarsely of reeds tied in six bundles fastened together by means of cross-arms of wood, revolves easily on a long iron pivot, and once set in motion attains a high speed. the flour mill has two stories, the motive wheel occupying the entire second floor, while attached to its pivot on the ground floor is the actual grinding stone. the wheat to be ground flows into a central aperture in this stone from a suspended vessel, a simple system of strings and ropes acting as an efficient brake on the axle of the upper wheel to control its speed, and others allowing the grain to fall uniformly and, when necessary, preventing its flow. [illustration: the british bazar (husseinabad) sistan.] there sweeps over sistan in the hot weather what is called the _bad-i-sud-o-bist-roz_, or wind of the days, which blows from the north-north-west, and, although this may seem unpleasant to the inhabitants, it has a most undoubtedly salubrious effect upon the climate of the province, which, owing to the great quantity of channels and stagnant water, would otherwise be most unhealthy. as it is the climate is now extremely healthy. the water of the halmund is delicious to drink. the suburb of husseinabad stretches for about one mile towards the south, and contains among other places of importance the buildings of the customs, with a caravanserai--very modest and unsafe--a picture of which is here given. what is called "benn bazaar," or the british bazaar, is also found at the south-east portion of husseinabad and facing the consulate hospital. chapter xvii the british bazaar--the pioneer traders of sistan--sistan a half-way house and not the terminus of the route--comfortable route--protection and redress--indian tea in persia--persian market overstocked--enterprise of indian tea traders--which are the markets worth cultivating--articles mostly wanted in sistan and meshed--exports--a problem to be faced--ways of communication needed to cities of central persia. the entire british bazaar--a modest one so far--can be taken in at a glance. the snapshot reproduced in the illustration gives a very good idea of it. besides this, one or two indian british merchants are established in the main street of sher-i-nasrya, where, as we have seen, they have opened nice shops. the pioneer merchants of sistan were the firm of mahommed ali brothers, of quetta, established in , and represented by a very intelligent man called seth suliman. the firm has branches in birjand and meshed. they have done good business both in sistan, birjand and meshed, and have been followed in sistan by tek-chand, of the wealthy firm of chaman singh from shikarpur--at one time the trade-centre of asia. this firm holds to-day the opium contract of the whole of the sind district, and is a most enterprising concern. mahommed azim khan brothers, of lahore, have also opened a shop in sistan, and so has mahommed hayab, agent for shek fars mahommed, the biggest british firm in meshed. it is probable that in the near future a number of other indian firms may be induced to open branches in sistan and khorassan; but, if they are to avoid disappointment, they should remember that the sistan market is merely a retail one, and there is very little wholesale trade to be transacted so far. in time to come no doubt a wholesale trade will eventually be developed. a point which is seldom grasped, or at any rate is frequently overlooked, is that sistan (sher-i-nasrya) is a mere half-way house between quetta and meshed, and not, as is supposed by many people, the terminus of the route. considerable loss and disappointment have been sustained by some rash british traders, who, notwithstanding the exceptional opportunities given them to obtain accurate official information, set out with large caravans, apparently without the most rudimentary geographical knowledge, as well as without sound commercial foresight. another mistake is frequent. somehow or other the idea seems to prevail among some indian traders that persia, or eastern persia, forms part of the indian empire, and they forget that the protection and unusual facilities which they enjoy from quetta to robat (the beluch frontier) and, to a certain extent, as far as sistan, cannot possibly be given on persian territory beyond sistan as far as meshed. although practically across a desert, the journey from quetta-nushki to sistan is--for travelling of that kind--extremely comfortable and easy; the real difficulty begins for traders when they are perforce left to look after themselves on persian soil, where there are no more clean rest-houses and where a britisher--if travelling as a trader--is no more thought of than if he were an asiatic trader. he is no longer the salaamed "sahib" of the indian cities, but becomes a mere _ferenghi_, a stranger, and is at the mercy of everybody. moreover, it should be well understood that the protection and redress obtainable under english law, cease on crossing the persian frontier. very little, if any, redress is to be obtained from persian officials except at great cost and infinite worry, waste of time and patience. indian tea traders have probably been the greatest sufferers in consequence of their rash ventures, and they will probably suffer even more in the future if they do not exercise greater caution in ascertaining beforehand the suitable markets for their teas and the actual cost of transport to the markets selected. several traders have brought very large caravans of indian tea to sistan on various occasions, believing that they had arrived at the end of their journey, and, after having paid the heavy duty imposed upon goods introduced into the country, have found before them the option of going the miles back to quetta or continuing at great expense, _via_ bam to kerman, a long journey with doubtful results at the end; or of going to birjand, meshed, teheran, where they have eventually been compelled to sell at a loss or to pay the additional russian duty and send the tea on to moscow. the persian market is at present very much blocked up with indian teas, and great caution should be exercised by intending exporters from india. in time to come, when good roads have been made in every direction, or railways constructed, and cost of transport greatly minimised, persia will be, i think, a considerable buyer of indian teas; but as matters are to-day the expense of conveying the tea to the various persian markets, especially by the land route, is too great to make any profit possible at the very low prices paid by the persians for tea. tea exported overland to the meshed market (not to sistan) realised, before the market became overstocked, better prices than the sea-borne tea _via_ bandar abbas. it is certain that the delicate aroma of tea is not improved by being exposed to the warm sea air, no matter how carefully it has been packed. and as major webb-ware, the political agent at chagai, points out, tea despatched by the land route direct from the gardens or from calcutta is not liable to the numerous incidental charges, commissions and transhipments which are a matter of course upon teas sent _via_ bandar abbas or other persian gulf ports. the demand for unspoiled teas brought overland is considerable in russia and all over europe, even more than in persia, and when a sensible understanding has been arrived at with russia to let indian teas proceed in transit through that country, there is no reason why the better indian teas should not favourably compete all over europe with the china caravan teas. the persian market, to my mind, speaking generally, will only be able to purchase the inferior teas, the persians as individuals being comparatively poor. superior teas in small quantities, however, may find a sale at good prices among the official classes and the few richer folks, but not in sufficient quantities to guarantee a large import. the same remarks, i think, would apply to teas finding their way into western afghanistan from various points on the sistan-meshed route. the indian tea-traders have shown very commendable enterprise in attempting to push their teas by the overland route, and trying to exploit the new markets which the nushki-meshed route has thrown open to them, but their beginning has been made too suddenly and on too large a scale, which i fear will cause a temporary loss to some of them. a gradual, steady development of the tea trade is wanted in persia, not a rush and violent competition flooding the market with tea that has to be sold at a loss. when the natives all over persia have by degrees got accustomed to indian tea, and when it is brought in at a cheap price, indian teas are likely to be popular in persia. [illustration: the wall of sher-i-nasrya at sunset.] i may be wrong, but, to my mind, the greater profits on indian teas brought by this route will in the future be made not in persia itself, but in transcaspia, turkestan, russia and central europe, where people can pay well for a good article. great credit should be given to the indian and dehra dun tea associations for despatching representatives to study the requirements of the persian market on the spot; but, as captain webb-ware suggests in the _gazette of india_, the tea associations would do well to turn their attention to the sale of indian teas in russia, and to send some experimental consignments of their teas to moscow by the overland route. the same remarks might also apply to a great many other english or indian manufactured goods. we complain a great deal that the russian protective tariff is high, but it is mild when compared with the murderous protectionism of the united states or of our beloved friend germany. and, after all, does this protection keep out our goods from those countries? by no means. russia's industries are indeed fast developing, but they are far from sufficient to supply her own wants. english, german, and american goods find their way even to the most remote spots of siberia. it is, then, a problem worth considering whether "free trade persia," with her english and indian imports amounting to one million four hundred thousand pounds sterling (£ , , ), is a customer so well worth cultivating as protectionist russia, which buys from us nearly twenty-two millions' (£ , , ) worth yearly. in regard to the quetta-meshed route, it would strike a casual observer that from our geographical situation we might, without much difficulty, kill two birds with one stone by a happy combination--persia being dealt with _en passant_, as it were, while aiming for quicker, sounder, and more extensive markets further north. persia is a good market for indian indigo, which has, so far, commanded a ready sale. in sistan itself--which, it cannot be too emphatically repeated, is to-day only a comparatively poor and sparsely-populated district--the articles which have, so far, found a quick retail sale, have been indian assorted spices, second-hand apparel, sugar, tea, boots, cheap cotton cloths, matches, kerosene oil, thread, needles, cheap cutlery, scissors, small looking glasses. the amir and the sardars have at different times made purchases of boots, shoes, saddlery, silk, woollen and cotton cloths, rugs, shawls, crockery, and enamel ware, watches, chains, and knives, and have also bought a considerable number of english-made fancy goods, furniture, stationery, cigarettes, cigars and tobacco, &c. the humbler sistanis purchase very freely from the indian british shops, but cannot afford to pay very high prices; but the high officials pay cash and give a good price for all they buy. speaking generally, the articles which are mostly wanted at present are those mentioned in the official report. for these commodities there is a steady demand in the markets of sistan and khorassan, but the supply, it should be remembered, should be in proportion to the size of the population. sistan, birjand, meshed, are not london nor paris nor berlin. the articles wanted are:-- woollen stuffs, flannels, muslins, mulls, sheetings, chintzes, cottons, &c. velvets, satins, silks, brocades. indigo of medium and good quality. (oudh indigo is principally in demand in bushire.) iron, brass and copper sheets. sulphur matches. spices, including cinnamon, cardamums, cloves, pepper, turmeric, &c. rice (for sistan). tea, black for persia, and green for afghanistan and transcaspia. coffee (in berry). refined sugar, loaf. ginger preserve (in jars). sal-ammoniac. baizes (specially of high class), khinkhabs and gold cloth. cotton turbans (lungis) of all qualities, including those with pure gold fringes. leather goods. boots (cawnpore and english). saddlery (cawnpore, as the english is too expensive). glass-ware. enamel-ware. cutlery. ironmongery of every description. cheap padlocks find a ready sale. watches (cheap). jewellery. kalai (for tinning copper vessels). fire-arms would command a very ready sale, but their importation is strictly forbidden. the articles of export from khorassan and sistan are wool, ghi, saffron, dried fruit of various kinds, hides, jujubes, assafoetida, pistachio-nuts, barak, kurak, gum, valuable carpets, and some turquoises. in sistan itself wheat and oats are plentiful, but their export to foreign countries is not permitted. opium finds its way out of the country _via_ bandar abbas, and wool, ghi, feathers, carpets, and assafoetida are conveyed principally to kerman, birjand, meshed, yezd, the gulf, and quetta. one of the principal problems of the new land route to india is not only how to induce british traders to go to persia, but how to solve the more difficult point of persuading the big persian traders to cross the bridge and venture into india. they seem at present too indolent and suspicious to undertake such a long journey, and would rather pay for luxuries to be brought to their doors than go and get them themselves. with the assistance, both moral and financial, of the enterprising major sykes, a large caravan was sent from kerman to quetta with persian goods, and paid satisfactorily, but others that followed seem to have had a good many disasters on the road (on persian territory) and fared less well. major sykes's effort was most praiseworthy, for indeed, as regards purely persian trade, i think kerman or yezd must in future be the aiming points of british caravans rather than meshed. these places have comparatively large populations and the field of operations is practically unoccupied, whereas in meshed russian competition is very strong. with the present ways of communication across the salt desert, it is most difficult and costly to attempt remunerative commercial communication with these towns. small caravans could not possibly pay expenses, and large caravans might fare badly owing to lack of water, while the circuitous road _via_ bam is too expensive. when more direct tracks, with wells at each stage, after the style of the nushki-sistan route, have been constructed between robat and kerman, and also between sher-i-nasrya and kerman, and sher-i-nasrya and yezd, matters will be immensely facilitated. chapter xviii sistan's state of transition--british consul's tact--advancing russian influence--safety--a fight between sistanis and afghans--the sar-tip--major benn's pluck and personal influence--five afghans seriously wounded--the city gates closed--the customs caravanserai--a british caravanserai needed--misstatements--customs officials--fair and just treatment to all--versatile major benn--a much needed assistant--more consulates wanted--excellent british officials--telegraph line necessary--a much-talked-of railway--the salutary effect of a garrison at robat frontier post. sistan is in a state of rapid transition, and it is doubtful whether the position of the three or four europeans on duty there is one of perfect safety. the natives are so far undoubtedly and absolutely favourable to british influence in preference to russian, a state of affairs mainly due to the personal tact of majors trench and benn rather than to instructions from home, but great caution should be exercised in the future if this prestige, now at its highest point, is to be maintained. the russians are advancing very fast, and their influence is already beginning to be felt in no slight degree. the sistanis may or may not be relied upon. they are not perfectly europeanised like peoples of certain parts of western persia, nor are they quite so amenable to reason as could be wished. they can easily be led, or misled, and bribed, and are by no means easy folks to deal with. for a few tomans one can have people assassinated, the afghan frontier so close at hand being a guarantee of impunity for murderers, and fights between the townspeople and the afghans or beluch, in which many people are injured and killed, are not uncommon. [illustration: the sar-tip.] one of these fights, between sistanis and afghans (under british protection), took place when i was in sistan, and i think it is only right that it should be related, as it proves very forcibly that, as i have continually urged in this book, calm and tact, gentleness and fairness, have a greater and more lasting control over persians than outward pomp and red-tape. the consul and i, after calling on the amir, proceeded to visit the sar-tip, the amir's first son by his legal wife. the sar-tip is the head of a force of cavalry, and inhabits a country house, the chahar bagh, in a garden to the north outside the city. he is a bright and intelligent youth, who had travelled with dr. golam jelami to india--from which country he had recently returned, and where he had gone to consult specialists about his sadly-failing eyesight. the sar-tip, of whom a portrait is here given, received us most kindly and detained us till dark. being ramzam-time we then bade him good-bye, and were riding home when, as we neared the consulate gate, a man who seemed much excited rushed to the consul and handed him a note from the belgian customs officer. as i was still convalescent--this was my first outing--and not allowed out after dusk, major benn asked me to go back to the consulate as he was called to the customs caravanserai on business. i suspected nothing until a messenger came to the consulate with news. a crowd of some sistanis had attacked some fifteen afghan camel men, who had come over with a caravan of tea from quetta. these camel drivers had been paid several thousand rupees for their services on being dismissed, and some money quarrel had arisen. on the arrival of the consul the fight was in full swing, and he found a crowd of howling sistanis throwing stones and bricks at the afghans. at major benn's appearance, notwithstanding that their blood was up and their temper, one would think, beyond control, the sistanis immediately opened a way for him, some even temporarily stopping fighting to make a courteous salaam. this will show in what respect our consul is held. the afghans, having by this time realised that they had been insulted, and having, furthermore, discovered the loss of some money--which they only detected when they went for their rifles and swords, which they kept together in a safe place with their treasure--formed up in line and, with drawn swords, made a rush on the sistanis. major benn with considerable pluck dashed between the fighting men, seizing with his left hand the rifle of the leader--who had knelt down and was on the point of firing--and with his right hand got hold of the blade--fortunately blunt--of another afghan's sword, who was slashing away at the sistanis near him. the force of the blow caused quite a wound in the gallant major's hand, but suddenly, as by magic owing to the respect he commanded on both sides, his action put a stop to the fight. seizing this opportunity he talked to them calmly in his usual quiet, jocular manner, and told the afghans how, by behaving in this fashion, while under his protection, they were doing him harm in the eyes of the persians in whose country they were guests, and that if they had any claim they must apply to him and not take the law into their own hands. with his keen sense of humour he even succeeded with some joke or other in raising a laugh from both belligerent parties, and requested them to sit down and give up their arms into his custody, which they willingly did. the afghans seated themselves at the further end of the caravanserai, while the sistanis, whom he next addressed in the kindest way, were persuaded to desist from using further violence. he managed to turn the whole thing into a joke, and eventually the sistanis dispersed laughing and retired within the wall of their city; but, indeed, there were five afghans left on the ground severely wounded,--one with a fractured skull being carried to the consulate hospital in a dying condition. the afghans possessed some excellent russian rifles, a great many of which find their way into afghanistan from the north. the consul, when the row was over, proceeded to the amir, who had the gates of the city instantly closed and promised the consul that they should not be opened again until the consul could go the next day to identify the ringleaders of the attacking sistanis. the amir received the consul with more than usually marked respect, and showed himself greatly disturbed at the occurrence. he took personal charge of the keys of the city and undertook to mete out severe punishment upon the offenders. the city gates, which are daily opened at sunrise, remained closed the greater portion of the day at the consul's request, but for a consideration the doorkeepers let out occasional citizens,--in all probability those very ones that should have been kept in. unfortunately, being ramzam-time, when mussulmans sit up feasting the greater part of the night, as they are compelled to fast when the sun is above the horizon, his excellency the amir was unable to attend to even this important matter, which was left to slide from day to day. the consul, however, although extremely patient, was the last man to let things go to the wall, and no doubt in the end the leaders were duly punished and compensation paid. the illustration shows the customs caravanserai, in front of which the fight took place. two of the domed rooms shown in the picture are occupied by mr. miletor, the belgian customs officer, in persian employ. the others are occupied by camel-men or native travellers, there being no other caravanserai of the kind in sher-i-nasrya. [illustration: the customs caravanserai, sher-i-nasrya, sistan. (belgian customs officer in foreground.)] it would be a very great addition to the british consulate, now that so many beluch and afghans, all under british protection, travel through sistan, if a british caravanserai could be built in which they, their goods and their camels, might enjoy comparative safety. the expense of putting it up would be very small, and it would avoid the constant friction which is bound to exist at present in a country where honesty is not the chief forte of the lower people, and where quarrels are ever rampant. even during the short stay of messrs. clemenson and marsh's caravan, several articles were stolen under their very eyes in the consulate shelter, and at the time of my visit caravans, british or otherwise, were absolutely at the mercy of the natives. the goods were left out in the open in front of the caravanserai, and the customs people had not sufficient men to protect them from interference at the hands of the lower people. i have seen it stated by correspondents in leading london papers that "russian" customs officials were stationed in sistan, and interfered greatly with british caravans. that is mere fiction from beginning to end. as i have already stated, there is not a single russian in the customs anywhere in persia. in sistan the only official--a belgian--far from interfering with the caravans, is of great help to them and does all in his power within the limits of his duty to be of assistance to them. the consul himself was full of praise of the extreme fairness and justice to all alike of the belgian official. there never was the slightest trouble or hitch so long as traders were prepared to comply with persian laws, and so long as people paid the duty on the goods entering the country no bother of any kind was given to anybody, either british or others. on april rd, , the persian government introduced a law abolishing all inland customs houses and transit dues, and substituting instead a _rahdari_ tax of annas per pounds. this tax is payable on crossing the frontier, and is levied in addition to the per cent. _ad valorem_ duty to which the persian government is entitled under the existing international customs convention. the rate of duty levied ( per cent.), is calculated on the actual value of goods, plus the cost of transport. the sistan consul, as well as the officials of the nushki sistan route in beluchistan, go to an immense deal of trouble to be of use to british traders and travellers, and everything is made as easy for them as is compatible with the nature of the country and existing laws. a great deal of extra heavy work was thrown upon the shoulders of major benn, who acted in no less than three official capacities--consul, postmaster, and banker--as well as, unofficially, as architect, house-builder, and general reference officer. it is very satisfactory to learn that this autumn ( ) an assistant is to be sent out to him from india, for the work seemed indeed too heavy for one man. day and night's incessant work would in time have certainly told on even the cheerful disposition and abnormally wiry constitution of major benn, who, besides being a most loyal and careful official, takes a great deal of personal pride in fighting hard to win the severe race which will result in our eventually acquiring or losing sistan and eastern persia commercially. major benn is most decidedly very far ahead in the race at present, and owing to him british prestige happens to be at its zenith, but greater support will be needed in the future if this advantageous race is to be continued up to the winning post. were a vice-consulate established at birjand, as i have said before, the sistan consular work would be relieved of much unnecessary strain, the distance from birjand to sistan being too great under present conditions to allow the consul to visit the place even yearly. the medical british agent whom we have there at present is excellent, but the powers at his disposal are small, and a consulate with an english officer in charge would most decidedly enhance british prestige in that important city, as well as being a useful connecting link between sistan and meshed, a distance of close upon miles. it was a most excellent step to select for the consular work in eastern and southern persia men from the military political service, instead of the usual foreign office men, who are probably better adapted for countries already developed. the political service is a most perfect body of gentlemanly, sensible, active-minded, well-educated men of versatile talents, the pick of the healthiest and cleverest englishmen in our indian service. they cannot help doing good wherever they are sent. captain trench, major benn, major phillott, captain white, have all answered perfectly, and have all done and are doing excellent work. what is most needed at present in sistan is a telegraph line to nushki. should everybody in the sistan consulate be murdered, it would be the best part of a fortnight or three weeks before the news could reach india at the present rate of post going. if assistance were needed it could not reach sistan from quetta in less than a couple of months, by which time, i think, it would be of little use to those in danger. and the danger, mind you, does exist. it seems rather hard that we should leave men who work, and work hard and well, for their country absolutely at the mercy of destiny. the next most important point would be to join sistan, or at least robat, on the perso-beluch frontier, with the long-talked-of railway to quetta, but of this we shall have occasion to speak later. so far the line has been sanctioned to nushki, but that point, it must be remembered, is still miles distant from sistan, a considerable distance across, what is for practical purposes, desert country. the third point--the easiest of all, which would involve little expense, but would have a most salutary effect--would be to maintain a small garrison at the perso-beluch-afghan frontier post of robat. this, to my mind, would at the present moment strengthen the hands of our officials in persia to a most extraordinary extent. something tangible, which the natives themselves could see and talk about, together with the knowledge that a smart body of soldiers could soon be on the spot if required, would not only assure the so far doubtful safety of the few but precious english lives in those parts, but would add enormously to our prestige and make us not only revered but feared. chapter xix the history of the sistan vice-consulate--major chevenix trench--laying the foundation of the consulate--hoisting the british flag--major benn--a terrible journey--a plucky englishwoman--the mud consulate--its evolution--the new buildings--ka-khanas--gardening under difficulties--how horses are kept--the enclosing wall--the legend of trenchabad city--the consulate mosque--dr. golam jelami--the hospital--successful operations--prevalent complaints of sistan--the sistan sore. the history of the sistan vice-consulate does not go back very far, but is, nevertheless, very interesting. we will recapitulate it in a few words. major brazier-creagh was sent to sistan on a special mission; as has already been said, and captain f. c. webb-ware, c. i. e., political assistant at chagai, visited the place every year at the end of his annual trip along the new route in north beluchistan from quetta to robat, the most eastern station of the route prior to entering persian territory. major sykes visited sistan in in connection with the perso-beluch boundary commission and again in , when he travelled here from kerman by the easier southern route _via_ bam. it was on february th, , that a russian vice-consul for that important province was appointed to sistan to take the place of a persian who was a news-writer in russian employ. major g. chevenix trench was then specially selected by the viceroy of india as a suitable person to look after british interests in that region--and indeed no better man could have been chosen. having given up his appointment in india this officer left quetta on march th, , and arrived at sher-i-nasrya on the th of april, accompanied by major r. e. benn, who was on a year's furlough, and can be said, i believe, to be the first european who has travelled all the way from india to england by this overland route, _via_ meshed-transcaspia. major trench, prior to leaving for meshed to take up his appointment of consul-general for khorassan, being unable to stand the fierce heat of the sun, laid the foundation stone--it was a "sun-dried mud brick," to be accurate--of the present temporary buildings of the consulate. a domed mud hut _à la persane_ was built, with an additional spacious window, but no framework and no glass. the great difficulty of hoisting the british flag, which seems to have been strongly objected to during the perso-afghan commission when sir frederic goldsmid passed through sistan in , was overcome mainly owing to the great tact shown by major trench. the union jack flew daily, gaily and undisturbed, over the mud hovel which will probably be during the next few years one of the most important consular posts we possess in asia. major benn, who had hastily proceeded to london on a long expected holiday, was immediately recalled to replace major trench. major benn, accompanied by his plucky and devoted wife and child, journeyed a second time across the beluchistan desert to reach his post. the journey was terrible, owing to torrential rains and snowstorms. when already several marches out they were compelled to return to quetta as their child had become very ill. but they were despatched again on their duty. they encountered severe storms; the country was practically flooded; some of their camels died, and for days at a time they were in the desert unable to move, the country being in many places inundated. in a blizzard two of their men lost themselves and died from exposure, but the party advanced slowly but surely, the plucky little english lady standing all the hardships without a murmur. major benn having been ordered to make a detour, they went down into the sarhad, south of the kuh-i-malek-siah, and it was not till february th, , that they eventually reached sher-i-nasrya, and were received by trench in his mud-hut consulate, he having moved into a tent. major trench, on the arrival of major benn, proceeded to meshed. during major benn's time the consulate buildings went through a marvellous evolution. it may be recollected that i reached sistan in december, , or only ten months after his arrival, but there were already several additional mud-rooms built and connected so as to form a suite of a spacious office, sitting-room, dining-room, two bedrooms and a storeroom. there were doors, made locally by imported indian carpenters, but no glass to the windows,--muslin nailed to the wall answering the purpose of blinds. famished dogs, attracted by the odour of dinner, would occasionally jump through this flimsy protection, much to the despair of mrs. benn--but those were only small troubles. thieves found their way into the rooms, and even succeeded in stealing mrs. benn's jewellery. there was no protection whatever against an attack in force, and the natives were at first most impudent in their curiosity. [illustration: the sistan consulate on christmas day, .] being a mussulman country, things were at first very uncomfortable for mrs. benn until the natives got accustomed to the sight of an english lady, she being the first they had ever seen, or who had ever travelled so far. the temporary mud-rooms were gradually furnished and decorated with so much taste that they became simply charming, but a new consulate is now being built, which, by comparison in size and style, seems quite palatial. it is being constructed of real baked bricks, major benn having put up a serviceable kiln for the purpose, and the handsome structure is so sensibly built after a design by the versatile consul, that when finished it will fully combine english comfort with the exigencies of the climate, the incessant northerly winds of the summer months--from june to the end of august--rendering life unbearable unless suitable arrangements to mitigate their effects are provided. into the northern wall _ka khanas_ or "camel thorn compartments" are being built some four feet deep, filled with camel thorn. to make them effective two coolies are employed all day long to swish buckets of water on to them. the wind forcing its way through causes rapid evaporation and consequent cooling of the air in the rooms. when the wind stops the heat is, however, unbearable. the rooms are also provided with _badjirs_, or wind-catchers, on the domed roof, but these can only be used before the heat becomes too great. an attempt had been made to start a garden, both for vegetables and flowers, but the hot winds burnt up everything. only four cabbages out of hundreds that were planted had survived, and these were carefully nursed by mrs. benn for our christmas dinner. unluckily, on christmas eve a cow entered the enclosure and made a meal of the lot! another garden is being started, but great difficulty is experienced in making anything grow owing to the quantity of salt in the ground and the terrific winds. poplars have come up fairly well under shelter of a wall, but no tree can hope to stand upright when it attains a height where the wind can reach it. in fact, what few trees one sees about near sher-i-nasrya are stooping southward in a pitiful manner. the consul's horses and those of the escort are kept out in the open. they are tethered and left well wrapped up, wearing nearly double the amount of covering to protect them from the heat during the hot summer months that they do in winter, on the principle explained in previous chapters. it is not possible to keep them in stables, owing to the terrible white fly, which has a poisonous sting. when out in the open the flies and mosquitoes are blown away by the wind. it was satisfactory to find that, although the government did not see its way to furnish the consulate with a wall for the protection of the consul and his wife, whose personal property was constantly being stolen, an allowance was at once granted with instructions to build at once a high wall all round the consulate when one of the government horses was stolen! this wall, a wonderful bit of work, was put up in a fortnight, while i was in bed with fever, and on my getting up from bed i had the surprise of finding the consulate, which, when i had arrived, stood--a few lonely buildings--in the middle of a sandy plain, now surrounded by a handsome mud wall with a most elaborate castellated, fortress-like gate of major benn's own design. the wall encloses a good many acres of land; it would be rash to say how many! this has given rise among the natives to the report that a new city is rising near sher-i-nasrya, called trenchabad, or trench's city. major benn is to be complimented on the wonderful work he succeeds in getting done with comparatively little expenditure for the government, and there is no doubt that he manages to impress the natives and to keep england's prestige high. he imported from quetta a flagstaff, in pieces, which when erected measured no less than feet, and on this, the highest flagstaff in persia, flies from sunrise to sunset the union jack. except on grand occasions only a small flag can be used in summer, owing to the fierce winds which tear the larger flags to pieces the moment they are put up. major benn scored heavily in the esteem of sistanis when he had the bright idea of erecting a handsome little mosque within the consulate boundary, wherein any traveller, whether persian or beluch or afghan or any other mussulman, can find shelter and a meal at the private expense of the consul. people devoid of a house, too, or beggars when in real need are always helped. the erection of this mosque has greatly impressed the persians with the respect of england for the mahommedan religion. on the religious festival day of the "sheep eat" the place is crowded with beluch and persians alike, the mahommedan members of the british consulate having raised a fund to feed all worshippers at the mosque during the day. major benn, who has really the energy of half-a-dozen men taken together, has organised some weekly gymkhanas, with the double object of giving his indian escort of fourteen men of the th bombay lancers and a duffadar (non-commissioned native officer) a little recreation, and of providing some amusement to the town folks; exhibitions of horsemanship, tent-pegging and sword exercises are given, in which some of the persian gentlemen occasionally also take part. the sistanis of all classes turn out in great force to witness these displays, and--for a persian crowd--i was really amazed at their extraordinarily quiet and respectful demeanour. each man who entered the grounds courteously salaamed the consul before sitting down, and there was unstinted clapping of hands--a way of applauding which they have learnt from benn--and great enthusiasm as the lancers displayed their skill at the various feats. the phonograph was also invariably brought out on these occasions, and set working near the flagstaff, much to the delight and astonishment of the sistanis, who, i believe, are still at a loss to discover where the voices they hear come from. to study the puzzled expressions on the awe-stricken faces of the natives, as they intently listened to the music, was intensely amusing, especially when the machine called out such words as "mamma," which they understood, or when it reproduced the whistling of a nightingale, which sent them raving with delight. perhaps the most touching part of these performances was when loyal major benn wound up with "god save the king," scraped on the record by a tired and blunted needle--phonograph needles are scarce in sistan and could not be renewed for the sake of only one and last tune--and we britishers removed our hats. now, to the natives of persia removing one's hat seems as ludicrous a thing as can be done, just as their equivalent discarding of shoes seems very ridiculous to us; but the natives, to whom the meaning we attach to our national anthem had been explained, behaved with the utmost reverence notwithstanding the trying circumstances, and many actually placed their right hands to their foreheads in sign of salaam until the anthem was over. another department in the consulate of great interest is the spacious hospital containing a well-supplied dispensary, where an average of forty daily patients are treated gratis by dr. golam jelami and a compounder. patients came on in their turn with various complaints, and they were disposed of with due speed, undergoing the necessary treatment with various degrees of grace. the hospital contains besides the dispensary, an in-patients' and an accident ward, office, operating room and doctor's quarters, the whole place being kept beautifully clean by indian attendants--dr. golam jelami taking great pride in his work and in the success and efficacy of the establishment. being himself a mussulman dr. golam jelami has a great advantage over a christian doctor in attending the natives, and, in fact, he has become the medical adviser to the amir and his entire family, and a favourite with all the _darbaris_ or people at the amir's court owing to his extreme tact, skill and charm of manner. he has performed some quite extraordinary operations. one day when the consul and mrs. benn were about to sit down to lunch, a huge tumour, which had just been excised from the back of a man's neck, was sent round on a tray for the consul's inspection; and lenses of the eye from successful cataract operations are frequently sent in for the consul's approval. the climate of sistan is very healthy generally, and the halmund water delicious--by some it is said to be an actual tonic--but the hot winds of the summer and the salt sand cause severe injury to the eyes. cataract is a most common complaint, even in comparatively young persons. also ophthalmia in its two forms. confusion of vision is frequent even among children, and myopia, but not so common as the opacity of the cornea. the most common complaint is the "sistan sore," which affects people on the face or any other part of the body. it is known by the local name of _dana-i-daghi_. it begins with irregularly-shaped pustules--very seldom circular--that come to suppuration and burst, and if not checked in time last for several months, extending on the skin surface, above which they hardly rise. the digestion of sistanis, although naturally good, is interfered with by the abuse of bad food, such as _krut_, or dried curd--most rancid, indigestible stuff. venereal complaints are also most common, the most terrible form of all, curiously enough, being treated even by persian doctors with mercury--a treatment called the _kalyan shingrif_--but administered in such quantities that its effects are often worse than the ailment itself. partly owing to this complaint and stomach troubles and the chewing of tobacco, the teeth are usually bad, black and decayed even in young people, nor have the sistanis themselves any way of saving the teeth. siphylitic tonsilitis is almost the only throat complaint noticeable in sistan, but inflammation of the palate is not rare. heart disease is practically unknown in sistan, and there are but very few lung affections. the bones of the skeleton are extremely hard and possess abnormal elasticity of texture, and are, therefore, not easily fractured. there are several kinds of hair diseases caused by climatic conditions and dirt, as well as cutaneous affections of the scalp. the nails both of fingers and toes are healthy, not brittle, with well-marked fibre showing through their smooth surface, and of good shape. the tape worm, so common in many other parts of persia, is absolutely unknown in sistan, and this is probably due to the excellent water obtainable. lunacy is also scarcely ever met with in sistan in any violent form, but cases of hypochondria are not unusual, produced principally by indigestion--at least, judging by the symptoms shown. the women are much healthier than the men, as they lead a more rational life, but neither possess the power of producing large families. one or two is the average number of children in healthy families. twins and triplets are unknown in sistan, or so i was assured. the mode of life of sistan men of the better classes is not conducive to large families, the men not returning to their wives till midnight or later, having spent the greater part of the day in orgies with their friends, when, what with opium smoking and what with being stuffed with food and saturated with gallons of tea, they are dead tired. abortion seldom occurs naturally, and is never artificially procured, owing to the local laws. women do not experience any difficulty during labour and operations are unheard of. the umbilicus of children, here, too, as in western persia, is tied at birth in two or three places with a common string, and the remainder cut with a pair of scissors or a knife. a mid-wife, called _daya_, is requested to perform this operation. abnormalities of any kind are extremely uncommon. chapter xx laid up with fever--christmas day--a visit to the amir--hashmat-ul-mulk--an ancient city over eighty miles long--extreme civility of persian officials--an unusual compliment--prisoners--personal revenge--"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"--punishments and crime--fines--bastinado--disfigurement--imprisonment--blowing criminals from a gun--strangling and decapitation. it was my intention to remain in sistan only four or five days, but unluckily my fever got so bad--temperature above °--that, notwithstanding my desire to continue the journey, major benn most kindly would not allow me. i was placed in bed where, covered up with every available blanket, i remained close upon three weeks. the tender care of major and mrs. benn, to whom my gratitude cannot be expressed in words, the skilful treatment of dr. golam jelami, the consulate doctor,--not to speak of the unstinted doses of quinine, phenacetin, castor-oil, and other such delightful fare, to which may also be added some gallons of the really delicious water of the halmund river,--at last told upon me and eventually, after twenty-one days of sweating i began to pull up again and was able to get up. the fever was shaken off altogether, but strange to say, whether it was that i was unaccustomed to medicine, or whether it was due to the counter-effects of the violent fever, my temperature suddenly went down and remained for several months varying from two to three degrees below normal. medical men tell me that this should mean physical collapse, but on this point i can only say that i have never in my life felt stronger nor better. i was just out of bed on christmas day, when the consulate was decorated with flags, and major benn in his uniform had his escort of bombay lancers on parade. there was an official christmas dinner in good old english style, with a fine plum pudding and real sixpences in it, followed by fire-crackers; while illuminations were burning bright on the consulate wall and roofs. official visitors were received, the doctor of the russian vice-consulate and the belgian customs officer forming the whole european community of sher-i-nasrya. sadek, who was great on charity, especially when it went to my account, in order to thank providence for my recovery sacrificed two sheep, and their meat was distributed to the clamouring poor. such an expedient was necessary, sadek said, or i should certainly get fever again! owing to the russian calendar being in disagreement with ours, the consul, mrs. benn and i were most cordially entertained to a second christmas dinner by the russian consul, who had just returned from meshed, and we had a most delightful evening. for a convalescent, i could not help thinking so many christmas dinners coming together might have been fatal, but fortunately, owing entirely to the charming and thoughtful kindness of my hosts, both english and russian, i managed to pull through with no very ill effects. the consular escort of cossacks looked very business-like and smart as they paraded in the yard which had been duly illuminated for the occasion. the amir expressed a wish to see me, and as i was just able to get on a horse the consul and i paid an official visit to the governor in the citadel. we rode in full state with the escort of lancers, and traversed the town along the main street, entering from the south gate. i was again much struck by the intense respect shown by the natives towards major benn, all rising as we passed and making a profound salaam. we traversed the greater portion of the city by the main street, and then arrived at the gate of the citadel in the north-west part of sher-i-nasrya. the door was so low that we had some difficulty in entering without dismounting, and just as we were squeezing in, as it were, through this low passage, one of the disreputable-looking soldiers on guard fired his gun--in sign of salute--which somewhat startled our horses and set them a-kicking. in the small court where we dismounted was a crowd of soldiers and servants, and here another salute was fired by the sentry. through winding, dilapidated passages and broken-down courts we were conveyed to the amir's room--a very modest chamber, whitewashed, and with humble carpets on the floor. a huge wood fire was burning in the chimney, and the furniture consisted of a table and six chairs, three folding ones and three vienna cane ones, arranged symmetrically on either side of the table. [illustration: major r. e. benn, british consul for sistan, and his escort of th bombay lancers.] the amir sat on a folding chair on one side of the table, and the consul, ghul khan and myself in a row on the opposite side. we were most cordially received by hashmat-ul-mulk, the amir, who--this being ramzam or fasting time--showed ample evidence of mis-spent nights. he had all the semblance of a person addicted to opium smoking. his excellency was unshaven and unwashed, and seemed somewhat dazed, as if still under the effects of opium. his discoloured eyes stared vaguely, now at the consul, now at ghul khan, now at me, and he occasionally muttered some compliment or other at which we all bowed. presently, however, his conversation became most interesting, when, having gone through all these tedious preliminary formalities, he began to describe to me the many ruined cities of sistan. he told me how at one time, centuries and centuries gone by, sistan was the centre of the world, and that a city existed some twenty miles off, named zaidan, the length of which was uninterrupted for some eighty or ninety miles. "the remains of this city," he said, "are still to be seen, and if you do not believe my words you can go and see for yourself. in fact," added the amir, "you should not leave sistan without going to inspect the ruins. the city had flat roofs in a continuous line, the houses being built on both sides of a main road. a goat or a sheep could practically have gone along the whole length of the city," went on the amir, to enforce proof of the continuity of buildings of zaidan. "but the city had no great breadth. it was long and narrow, the dwellings being along the course of an arm of the halmund river, which in those days, before its course was shifted by moving sands, flowed there. the ruined city lies partly in afghan, partly in sistan territory. in many parts it is covered altogether by sand, but, by digging, houses, and in them jewellery and implements, are to be found all along." i promised the amir that i would go and visit zaidan city the very next day. when we had once begun talking, the amir spoke most interestingly, and i was glad to obtain from him very valuable and instructive information. one hears accounts in some quarters of the persian officials being absolutely pro-russian and showing incivility to british subjects, but on the contrary the amir positively went out of his way to show extreme civility. he repeatedly inquired after my health and expressed his fervent wishes that fever should no more attack me. "what do you think of my beloved city, sher-i-nasrya?" he exclaimed. i prudently answered that in my travels all over the world i had never seen a city like it, which was quite true. "but you look very young to have travelled so much?" queried the amir. "it is merely the great pleasure of coming to pay your excellency a visit that makes me look young!" i replied with my very best, temporarily adopted, persian manner, at which the amir made a deep bow and placed his hand upon his heart to show the full appreciation of the compliment. he, too, like all persian officials, displayed the keenest interest in the chinese war of and the eventual end of china. he spoke bitterly of the recluse buddhists of tibet, and i fully endorsed his views. then again, he told me more of historical interest about his province, and of the medical qualities of the halmund water--which cures all evils. more elaborate compliments flowed on all sides, and numberless cups of steaming tea were gradually sipped. then we took our leave. as a most unusual courtesy, the consul told me, and one meant as a great honour, the amir came to escort us and bid us good-bye right up to the door,--the usual custom being that he rises, but does not go beyond the table at which he sits. out we went again through the same narrow passages, stooping so as not to knock our heads against the low door-way, and came to our horses. the soldier on guard fired another salute with his gun, and ghul-khan, who happened to be near at the time, nearly had his eye put out by it. as we rode through the gate a number of prisoners--seven or eight--laden with chains round the neck and wrists and all bound together, were being led in. they salaamed us and implored for our protection, but we could do nothing. i could not help feeling very sorry for the poor devils, for the way justice is administered in sistan, as in most parts of persia, is not particularly attractive. the tendons of the hands or feet are cut even for small offences, hot irons are thrust into the criminal's limbs, and other such trifling punishments are inflicted if sufficient money is not forthcoming from the accused or their relations to buy them out. here is an example of persian justice. while i was in bed with fever, one day major and mrs. benn went for a ride along the wall of the city, with their usual escort. on reaching the city gate they saw several people come out, and they were startled by a shot being fired close by them, and a dead body was laid flat across the road. the dead man, it appeared, had been himself a murderer and had been kept in chains in the amir's custody, pending trial. the verdict might have possibly turned in his favour had he been willing to grease the palms of the jailors, in accordance with old persian custom; but although the man was very well off, he refused to disburse a single shai. he was therefore there and then handed over to the relations of the murdered man so that they should mete out to him what punishment they thought fit. the man was instantly dragged through the streets of the city, and on arriving outside the city gate they shot him in the back. the body was then left in the road, the persian crowd which had assembled round looking upon the occurrence as a great joke, and informing major benn that the corpse would remain there until some of his relations came to fetch it away. on referring the matter to the governor the following day, he smilingly exclaimed: "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!"--a quotation from the koran that quite cleared his conscience. this is a very common way of disposing of criminals in persia by allowing personal revenge to take its course. although such ways of administering justice may not commend themselves to one, the moral of it as looked upon by persian eyes is not as bad as it might at first appear. the honest, the well-to-do man, they reason, has nothing whatever to fear from anybody, and if a man chooses to be a criminal, he must take the consequences of it. the more severe the punishment the less crime there will be in the country. persian law prevents crime. in a province like sistan, where the people are not quite up-to-date as in other parts of persia, naturally, ways which to us may seem very cruel have to be applied by the amir to impress the people. if fines to the maximum of the prisoner's purse are excepted, the usual way of satisfying the law for almost any offence, the next most common punishment is the bastinado applied on the bare soles of the feet. when an option is left to the prisoner of undergoing the bastinado or paying a fine, he generally selects the sticks, which he feels much less than the anguish of disbursing the smallest sum in cash. minor crimes only are so punished--it is considered the lightest punishment. occasionally it is used to obtain confessions. people are seldom known to die under it. disfigurement, or deprivation of essential limbs, such as one or more phalanges of fingers, or the ears or nose, is also much in vogue for thieves, house-breakers and highwaymen. for second offences of criminals so branded the whole hand or foot is cut off. blinding, or rather, atrophizing the eyes by the application of a hot iron in front, but not touching them, such as is common all over central asia, is occasionally resorted to in the less civilised parts of persia, but is not frequent now. i only saw one case of a man who had been so punished, but many are those who have the tendons of arms and legs cut--a favourite punishment which gives the most dreadfully painful appearance to those who have undergone it. imprisonment is considered too expensive for the government, and is generally avoided except in the bigger cities. the prisoners have a very poor time of it, a number of them being chained close together. to burn people or to bury them alive are severe punishments which are very seldom heard of now-a-days, but which occasionally take place in some remote districts and unknown to his majesty the shah, who has ever shown a tender heart and has done all in his power to suppress barbarous ways in his country; but cases or crucifixion and stoning to death have been known to have occurred not many years ago--if not as a direct punishment from officials, yet with their indirect sanction. strangling and decapitation are still in use, and i am told--but cannot guarantee its accuracy--that blowing criminals from guns is rarely practised now, although at one time this was a favourite persian way of disposing of violent criminals. a persian official was telling me that, since these terrible punishments have been to a great extent abolished, crimes are more frequent in persia than they were before. the same man--a very enlightened person, who had travelled in europe--also remarked to me that had we to-day similar punishments in europe instead of keeping criminals on the fat of the land--(i am only repeating his words)--we should not have so much crime in the country. "your laws," he added, "protect criminals; our ways deter men and women from crime. to prevent crime, no matter in how cruel a way it is done, is surely less cruel than to show leniency and kindness to the persons who do commit crimes!" that was one way of looking at it. taking things all round, if blood feuds and cases of personal revenge are excepted, there is certainly less crime in persia than in many european countries. chapter xxi the london of the east--a city eighty-six miles long--the village of bunjar--an ancient tower--iskil--the _kalantar_ of sistan--collection of ancient jewellery from the buried city--interesting objects--a romantic life and tragic death--a treacherous afghan--strained relations between the sistan and afghan governors--sand-barchans--flat roofs and gable roofs--the pillar of mil-i-zaidan--a conical ice-house--the imposing fort of zaidan--a neighbouring modern village. the consul, mrs. benn and i, started off early one morning on horseback to inspect the ruins of the ancient london of the east, the great city of zaidan, which in the days of its glory measured no less than eighty-six miles--from lash yuwain on the north to kala-i-fath on the south--ruins of the city being traceable the whole distance to this day, except in the portion which has been covered by the waters of the hamun halmund. on the way there was little to be seen for the first four miles until we reached the village of bunjar, the biggest trading village in sistan and the residence of the iman jumeh, the next holiest man to the head priest of sher-i-nasrya. this village and neighbourhood supply sher-i-nasrya entirely with wood and very largely with food. there are many stunted trees about, all curved southwards by the wind, and much cultivated land, the ground being intersected by numerous natural and artificial water channels. a very curious ancient tower, split in two, and the portion of another very much corroded at its base, and looking like a big mushroom, are to be seen on the south near this village. we cut across, almost due east, to iskil, wading through several canals and channels into which our horses dived up to their saddles. on approaching iskil from the west one was impressed by the unusual height of some of its buildings, most of which were two-storied and had domed roofs, the domes being of much larger proportions than usual. a quadrangular tower of considerable loftiness stood prominent above the height of all the other buildings. for a persian village iskil had quite a clean, fresh appearance, even from a short distance. on getting near we entered the main road--one might more accurately call it a canal--walled in on both sides and filled with water some eight or ten inches deep. our horses waded through, and having rounded another large pond of dirty green water--such as is always found in the more prosperous villages of persia--we came to a high wall enclosing a garden and an andarun near the residence of the kalantar of sistan (kalantar means the "bigger one"), the title taken by the head of the tribe who in by-gone days were the masters of the whole of sistan. the kalantar is a large landowner, and has the contract for all the grazing tax of east sistan. among the villages owned by him are iskil, bunjar, and kas-im-abad, the three richest in sistan. the name of kalantar is taken by each of the family as he succeeds to the possession of these villages, lands, and rights. the kalantar, previous to the one now in possession, was a man of most commanding presence, very tall and very stout--the biggest man in sistan--and much respected by everybody. he was extremely friendly towards the english. he had planted an entire garden of english flowers and fruit at iskil, and took the keenest interest in horticulture and agriculture. above all, however, he was renowned for a magnificent collection of ancient seals, coins, jewellery, implements, beads, and other curiosities, of which he had amassed chests and chests full that had been dug up from the great city of zaidan and neighbourhood. some of the cameos were very delicately cut in hard stone, and reminded one of ancient greek work. symbolic representations in a circle, probably to suggest eternity, were favourite subjects of these ornamentations, such designs as a serpent biting its own tail, or three fishes biting one another's tails and forming a circle, being of frequent occurrence. so also were series of triangles and simple circles. the gold rings were most beautifully delicate and simple in design, and so were all the other ornaments, showing that the people of zaidan had a most refined civilisation which is not to be found in persian art of to-day. personally, i have certainly never seen modern persian work which in any way approached in beauty of line and execution to the articles excavated from the great city of zaidan. a great profusion of beads of amber, jasper, crystal, turquoise, malachite, agate, had been found in zaidan and some that we saw were handsomely polished and cut, some were ornamented, others were made of some composition like very hard enamel. all--even the hardest crystal ones--had clean holes drilled through them. the kalantar had built himself a fine residence at iskil, with huge rooms and lofty domes, and here he kept these collections. his generous nature had caused him to build a handsome guest house in front of his dwelling in order to put up and entertain his friends, native or foreign. it was on the steps of his guest house that the last act of a terrible tragedy took place only a short time before we visited iskil. about ten years ago, in , a man called mahommed hussein khan, an afghan refugee, came to live in bunjar, bringing with him a _sigah_ wife (concubine), her mother and a child. shortly after his arrival he left his family in bunjar and went on a pilgrimage to meshed. no news was received of him for a very long time, and the wife wrote to him--when her money and patience were exhausted--that if he did not return on a certain date or answer her letter she should consider herself divorced from him. he replied that she might consider herself free from the date of receipt of his letter, and requested her to send her mother in charge of his child to meshed. during mahommed hussein's absence rumour says that kalantar mir-abbas had an intrigue with the lady, and on receipt of her husband's letter from meshed he forcibly removed her from bunjar and compelled her to marry him, mir-abbas, at iskil. unluckily, the lady was a suni and kalantar mir-abbas was a shia, which made it difficult to overcome certain religious obstacles. such a union would anyhow be greatly resented by relations on both sides. in fact, about a year ago, , the lady's brother, a native of girisk, near kandahar, enraged at his sister marrying a man who was not an afghan, and of a different persuasion, came to iskil with characteristically treacherous afghan ways and sought service with the kalantar, assuring him of the great affection and devotion he entertained towards him. the good-hearted kalantar immediately gave him employment and treated him most generously. on the night of september th, , the kalantar had been entertaining some friends in the durbar building opposite his residence, among whom was the afghan, who left the room before mir-abbas and went to conceal himself in the darkness at the entrance. when the kalantar was joyfully descending the steps after the pleasant night assembly, the treacherous afghan attacked him and, placing his rifle to mir-abbas' head, shot him dead. the assassin then endeavoured to enter the andarun to kill his sister, but the lady, having her suspicions, had barricaded herself in, and an alarm being given he had to make his escape across the afghan frontier only a few miles distant from iskil. it was rumoured that the murderer had been sheltered by the afghan governor of the chikansur district, who goes by the grand name of _akhunzada_, or "the great man of a high family." the governor of sistan, angered at the infamous deed, demanded the extradition of the assassin, but it was refused, with the result that the afghan official was next accused of screening the murderer. there was much interchange of furious correspondence and threats between the persian and afghan governors, and their relations became so strained that a fight seemed imminent. the shrewd afghan then offered to allow five persian soldiers, accompanied by twenty afghans, to search his district--an offer which was very prudently declined. persian and afghan soldiers were posted in some force on both sides of the river--forming the frontier--and devoted their time to insulting one another; but when i left sistan in january, , although the relations were still much strained, the affair of the kalantar, which seemed at one time likely to turn into a national quarrel, was gradually being settled on somewhat less martial lines. the death of such a good, honest man has been much regretted in sistan, and great hopes are now built on his son and successor, a young fellow much resembling his father both in personal appearance and kindliness towards his neighbours. we next came to a second and smaller village four miles further on--after having waded through numberless water-channels, ponds and pools and our horses having performed some feats of balancing on bridges two feet wide or even less. some of these structures were so shaky that the horses were not inclined to go over them except after considerable urging. the country between was flat and uninteresting, except that here and there some low mounds had formed where the sand blown by the n.n.w. wind had been arrested by some obstacle, such as a shrub of camel-thorn or tamarisk. most of these sand-barchans had a striking peculiarity. they were semi-spherical except to the s.s.e., where a section of the sphere was missing, which left a vacuum in the shape of a perfect crescent. by the numberless waves on the sand surface it seemed evident that the sand had accumulated from the n.n.w. side. the village was small and miserable, with a few scraggy trees bowing low, like all trees of sistan, towards the s.s.e., owing to the severe, n.n.w. winds. here instead of the everlasting domes, flat roofs were again visible--wood being, no doubt, available close at hand. more curious, however, were actual gable roofs, the first i had noticed in persia in purely native houses. the ventilating apertures were not in the roof itself, as in the domed houses, but in the walls, which were of a much greater height than in the domed habitations. the doors and windows were invariably on the south wall, but to the north at the lower portion of the roof in each house one could observe a triangular, projecting structure, usually in the centre of the upper wall. this was a different type of wind-catcher, but in winter blocked up with sun-dried bricks and mud. between this village and zaidan there was again a good deal of water to be crossed, and in some spots it was so deep that our horses sank into it up to their chests and we had to lie flat, with our legs resting on the animals' backs, to escape a ducking. to our left--to the north--could be seen in the distance a high tower, which is said to have a spiral staircase inside, and must be of very great height, as even from where we were--eight miles away--it rose very high above the horizon, some feet, as we guessed, and looked very big. this tower stood alone several miles to the north of the principal zaidan ruins for which we were steering, and i had not therefore time to visit it. the pillar is locally called mil-i-zaidan, and is circular in shape, made of kiln-baked bricks cemented together by clay. on the summit, above a broad band with ornamentations and a much worn inscription can be seen the fragments of two smaller structures, also cylindrical, which may have been the supports of the dome of the minaret. there is said to be another illegible inscription about thirty feet from the ground. according to goldsmid, who visited this place in , the tower then stood on a square foundation, and its circumference was feet at the base and only feet at the summit. the lower portion of the tower, as seen through powerful glasses, seemed very much corroded, and it will not be long before it collapses. there are various theories regarding this tower, which now rises directly above the flat desert. it is said by some to be one of a number of isolated watch towers, but this, i think, is incorrect. [illustration: the citadel of zaidan, the great city.] according to major sykes, who quotes from the seljuk history: "every three hundred paces a pillar twice the height of a man was built and two _minars_ between gurz and fahraj, one forty _gaz_ high, the other twenty-five, and _under_ each _minar_ a caravanserai and a tank." by the word "under" the historian evidently meant directly underneath the tower--which was the customary way of constructing such buildings. the _minars_ seldom rose from the ground, but were and are generally constructed on the roofs of buildings. a proof that this was the case in this particular instance was that when goldsmid visited it in , he stated that it "was built on a square foundation." the caravanserai underneath this tower and the tank are evidently buried by the sand, as is the case with a great portion of the city of zaidan. that there is underneath the sand a city connecting the southern portion of zaidan--still partly above ground--with the northern portion of zaidan, and that this _minar_ rises above buried habitations, there can be little doubt, for all along the several miles of intervening sandy stretch the earth is covered with debris, ruins and fragments of tiles, bricks, &c., &c., showing the remains of a great city. as we went along, leaving the pillar to the north and steering south-east for the main ruins of zaidan, we saw close by on the north a very large structure forming the section of a cone--the lower portion buried in sand and the upper portion having collapsed,--which a sistani who accompanied us said was an ancient ice-house. this theory may be correct, for it is probable that the climate of sistan may have greatly changed; but it is also possible that the structure may have been a large flour-mill, for to this day mills are built in persia on similar exterior lines to the ice-houses. structures of the same kind are also to be observed as far south as kala-i-fath, the southern terminus of the great city. no ice to speak of can be collected nowadays, either in sistan or within a very large radius of country, and snow is seldom, almost never seen. near this mill or ice-house, whichever it was, another high building in ruins was to be observed, but i could not afford the time to deviate from my route and inspect it. it appeared like a watch-tower, and was not dissimilar to two other round towers we had seen before on the south,--very likely they were all outer fire-signalling stations, so common all over asia. [illustration: the zaidan west towers and modern village.] after a brisk ride of some four hours we arrived at the main portion of the ruins of zaidan--an imposing fort on a clay hill, which must have formed the citadel. at the foot of the hill was the modern village of zaidan--about fifty houses, some with flat, others with gabled, roofs, such as we had seen at the previous villages, and a few with domed roofs. there were a few cultivated fields in which wheat was raised. chapter xxii an ancient city as big as london--the citadel--towers--small rooms--the walls--immensity of the city--sand drifts--why some parts are buried and some are not--an extensive wall--great length of the city--evidence that the habitations were continuous--the so-called rud-i-nasru--its position--a double outer wall--a protected road--interesting structures--an immense graveyard--tombs--sand drifts explained--a former gate of the city--the _chil-pir_ or tomb of forty saints--interesting objects found--beautiful inscriptions on marble and slate--marble columns--graceful lamps--exciting digging--a tablet--heptagonal tower--a ghastly figure. as we approached the ruins we could not help being impressed by their grandeur. they were certainly the most imposing i had so far come across in persia. the high walls and towers of the fort could be seen from a great distance, and for the benefit of my readers a photograph is reproduced in this book to show how the citadel of this great city appeared as one drew near it from the west. the photograph was taken half a mile away from the fortress. we entered the citadel by a short incline on the northern side of the main fort and found ourselves in a huge court, the sides of which were much blocked towards the wall by sand drifts. contrary to what has been stated by others, the citadel is not inhabited to-day, nor are there any signs of its having been inhabited probably for a great many years. there is nothing whatever to be seen in the centre of this yard, which is covered with accumulated sand far above its original level, and at the sides, too, of the court, where buildings would have very likely been, everything is smothered in sand up to a great height of the wall. in other places the wall has collapsed altogether. [illustration: towers of the citadel, zaidan.] remains of small rooms high up near the top of the wall can be seen. the inside of the inner fort enclosed by the highest wall is quadrangular, and has ten towers round it, eight of which are still in wonderful preservation considering their age. those at the angles of the quadrangle had large, somewhat elongated, windows ending in a point cut into them in two tiers, as may be seen in the illustration. curiously enough, while the windows were six feet in height, the doors were never more than five feet. there were rooms in all the towers, but all were extremely small. the largest averaged eight feet square. the walls of the towers were of mud bricks with layers of kiln-baked bricks, and were three to four feet deep and of very great strength. as can be seen by the illustration, a fragment of an archway was to be found on the summit of the wall and there were often signs that a covered passage, such as may be found in other northern forts of this great city, must have been in existence when the place was in all its glory. as one stood on the highest point of the wall and looked around one got a fair idea of the former immensity of the city. it evidently stretched from south-east to north, forming an obtuse angle at the citadel on which i stood. to the south-east of the fortress, where sheltered from the terrific north winds and from the sand drifts, the ruins were in better preservation and less covered with sand, which here indeed made quite a depression, while the northern aspect now displays a continuous mass of fine sand interrupted only by some of the higher buildings projecting above it. one could distinguish quite plainly where the wall of the city continued for a long distance to the south-east with occasional towers, but this portion of the wall, as seen in the illustration facing page , is now in a sad state of decay and fast being covered with sand. the first three hundred yards of it, which are the best preserved, however, will show what a place of great strength zaidan must have been. the towers appear to have been enormous, as shown by the base of the nearer one in the foreground of the photograph, and also by the second one, a portion of which still remained standing. the city boundary made a detour to the south-east at the third tower, all the buildings visible being on the east of the wall and none to the west. the modern village of zaidan should, of course, be excepted. there seems to have been a great space intervening between this wall and the nearest habitations, but why that was would now be difficult to ascertain except by digging to a considerable depth. it seems hardly likely that a moat with water should have been constructed on the inside of the fortress, although at first sight one might be led to conclude that this was the case. [illustration: s.e. portion of zaidan city, showing how it disappears under distant sand accumulations.] [illustration: double wall and circular unroofed structures, zaidan. in the distance high sand accumulations above city.] the city does not seem to have had a great general breadth, and is mostly remarkable for its enormous length, although at several of the most important points it has indeed considerable width. it extended mostly like a long line, and one could still perceive, as far as the eye could see, partially destroyed domed roofs, fragments of walls, and in some cases entire structures still standing and bearing roofs. the ice-house, which we had passed on the way, stood prominent to the north by north-west and also the pillar, the _minar_ of mil-i-zaidan. major sykes makes a very quaint statement in the _geographical journal_ for february, . he says: "i have seen it stated by previous travellers" (presumably sir f. goldsmid and bellew) "that the ruins of zaidan extend for fourteen miles, but the fact is that _there were villages lining the rud-i-nasru throughout its length_ (a length of miles according to major sykes's maps), and these have been mistaken for suburbs of the capital of sistan." it seems to me that major sykes has only strengthened the contention of previous travellers and that, whether one calls them suburbs or a continuity of habitations, villages, or by any other name, the fact is that continuous miles of buildings can be traced. the rud-i-nasru canal, according to major sykes's own maps as given in the _geographical society's journal_, is over miles in length, and if the miles are lined _throughout_ by villages surely that fact further establishes the continuity of the city. personally, however, i have my doubts whether major sykes is correct in placing the rud-i-nasru to the west of the city in zaidan's days of glory. there are signs of a canal, but to the east of the city. the hamun, too, i think, no more stretched across from east to west in the northern portion than it does to-day, but rather formed two separate lakes--the eastern one fed by the surplus water of the halmund; the western filled by the farah rud. the space between is liable to be occasionally flooded by the excess of water in these two lakes, but that is all. all the evidence goes to show that the great city, under different local names, extended continuously northwards as far as lash yuwain, passing between the two marshy lakes. in the next chapter i have brought undoubted evidence pointing to that conclusion, and if any one is still sceptical about it, all he has to do is to go there and see for himself. in such a dry climate the ruins, although gradually being covered over with sand, will remain long enough for any one wishing to spend some time there and to make a thorough study of them. to the east of the zaidan fort, about yards and yards respectively, are the remains, still fairly well preserved, of a high double wall, castellated and with loop-holes half-way up the wall. these two walls, where free from sand, stand some feet high, but in most portions the sand has accumulated to a height of to feet. these parallel walls were somewhat puzzling. they were only a few feet apart and protected a road between them which went from north-west to south-east. each wall was constructed very strongly of two brick walls filled between with beaten earth. the lower portion of the wall was much corroded by the wind and sand, but the upper part where it had not collapsed, was in good preservation. there were rows of holes at the bottom on the east side, where there appeared to have been extensive stables with mangers for horses. the lower portion of the wall was of kiln-baked bricks, and the upper part in horizontal layers of baked bricks every four feet and mud bricks between. of the two parallel walls the eastern one was not castellated, but the western or inner had a castellated summit. there was an outer moat or canal. only a comparatively small portion of this double wall stood up to its former height--merely a few hundred feet of it--but traces could be seen that it must have extended for a very long distance. it appeared to be tortuous and not in a straight line, its direction being plainly traceable even in the photograph reproduced in the illustration facing page . only one tower of a quadrangular shape could be seen along this wall, and the apertures in the wall were at regular intervals of four feet. the doorway in these walls appeared to have been next to the quadrangular tower, which was very likely constructed in order to guard the gate. there were small circular unroofed structures between the fort itself and this double wall, but they appeared more like the upper sections of towers than actual habitations. though much smaller and lower they bore all the architectural characteristics of the towers of the greater fort, and possessed windows, one above the other, similar to those we had found in the larger towers of the main fort. in the illustration the reader can see for himself. that a considerable portion of this structure is buried is shown by the fact that the upper portion of a window is just visible above the sand in the circular building to the left of the observer. these structures had in the interior some elaborately moulded recesses, and ornamented windows in pointed arches. the circular building had three rooms on the floor still above ground and six small recesses. one window was in most excellent preservation. further on, beyond the double wall to the south-east, was a most extensive graveyard, a portion of which had been freed from sand by the natives of the modern village of zaidan. there were hundreds and hundreds of tombs, some in quite good preservation, as can be seen by the two photographs facing pages and . the photograph facing page shows the eastern portion of the graveyard where some of the tombs were altogether free from sand, and in a splendid state of preservation. they were made of kiln-burnt bricks plastered over with mud, the body, it may be remarked, being enclosed in these rectangular brick cases and entirely above ground. they were mostly single tombs, not compound graves, like some which we shall inspect later on (mount) kuh-i-kwajah. their measurements were about feet by feet by ½ feet, and they were extremely simple, except that the upper face was ornamented by a series of superposed rectangles diminishing in size upwards and each of the thickness of one brick, and the last surmounted generally by a prism. [illustration: interior of zaidan fortress.] [illustration: graveyard of zaidan city.] the photograph facing page shows the north-western portion of the graveyard, with the entire eastern aspect of the zaidan fortress. i took this photograph for the special purpose of proving how high the sand has accumulated over many portions of the graveyard, as well as over a great portion of the city. the particular spot where i took the photograph was somewhat protected from the north, hence the low depression, slightly more free from sand than further back where the sand, as can be seen, was able to settle down to a great height. the upper portions of several graves can be noticed mostly buried in sand, and by the ripples on the sand and the casting of the shadows (the photograph was taken in the afternoon when the sun was west) it can be seen plainly that the sand has accumulated from the north. under the immediate lee of the fortress and of the outer walls, similar depressions in the sand were found, and it is owing to these that some portion of the city was still uncovered by sand. in the photograph facing page it may be noticed that where the lee of the high fortress no longer protects the buildings from the drifting sand, the city gradually disappears, as it were, under fairly high accumulations. we shall find later, on our journey to the beluchistan frontier, how these sand accumulations, in their turn, forming themselves into barriers against the sands which came from the north, allowed further southerly portions of the city to escape unburied, which portions can be seen extending in and out of these transverse sand ridges as far south as kala-i-fath. north of the zaidan fortress the sand, finding no high obstacles, has accumulated to a much greater height, only very lofty buildings remaining visible above the surface. in the photograph facing page this high cushion, as it were, of sand can plainly be seen over the north of the city beyond the tower of the castle; also a portion of the small canal at the foot of the tower, which some will have it was the rud-i-nasru. in the distance towards the south-east, two quadrangular towers could be seen, which the katkhuda of zaidan village told us formed part of one of the former gates of the city. these two towers can be seen in the background of the photograph facing page . some distance beyond the graveyard we came to a section of a tower, heptagonal in form, which had just been dug out to a depth of feet by the natives of the village of zaidan. the katkhuda--who could have given points to an irishman--told us that this was the tomb of the renowned legendary "forty saints of zaidan," and added, that they numbered forty-four! on being asked why it was called the tomb of the forty saints if their number was forty-four, he did not lose his presence of mind, but explained that four had been added afterwards when this sacred spot had already received its legendary name. [illustration: east view of the zaidan citadel.] for a very long time the zaidan people had searched for this sacred spot, and they seemed very proud to have discovered it. it is called by them _chil-pir_, or the "forty saints." as the tower is not large enough to contain them all, a number of them are said to be buried in the immediate neighbourhood to the south and west of the structure, and the katkhuda, to prove his words, showed us some three graves, more elaborate than the rest. there were also others that were anxiously searched for, but had not been located yet. the graves which i was shown were entirely of kiln-burnt bricks, and so was the wall of the tower itself, as can be seen by a portion of it showing in the illustration facing page , behind the marble inscription and columns. since its discovery the natives had made this into a _ziarat_ or shrine, and on its western side (towards mecca) had adorned it with a bundle of sticks, horns, and a number of rags, or pieces of ribbon, white, red or blue. every mussulman visiting it leaves an offering of a piece of cloth generally from his coat or turban, if a man, or from the chudder or other feminine wearing apparel if a woman. the katkhuda told us that a great many things had been found in digging near here, but the more valuable ones had disappeared, sold to officials or rich people of sistan. a great many seals, coins, stone weapons, lamps and pottery had been found, the latter often glazed. innumerable fragments of earthenware were strewn everywhere round about these ruins, some with interesting ornamentations, generally blue on white ground. the "parallel lines" and "heart pattern" were common, while on some fragments of tiles could be seen quotations from the koran in ancient arabic. some pieces of tiles exhibited a very handsome blue glaze, and on some plates the three leaf pattern, almost like a fleur-de-lis, was attempted, in company with the two-leaf and some unidentified flower. most interesting of all were the beautiful inscriptions on stone and marble, recently been found in the tomb of the forty saints. some had already been covered again by the sand, but we dug them out afresh and i photographed them. they were in fair preservation. they bore arabic characters, and were apparently dedicated in most laudatory terms, one to "the pomp of the country, sun of righteousness and religion, and the founder of a mosque"; the other commemorated the death of a great amir. as, however, there appears to be some difficulty in deciphering some of the very ancient characters i will refrain from giving any translation of them for fear of being inaccurate. the photographs given of them facing pages , , , are, however, quite clear enough for any one interested in the matter to decipher them for himself. these tablets were most artistic and beautifully carved, and one had a most charming ornamentation of two sprays of flowers in each of the two upper corners. the second inscription had much more minute writing on it, and was of a finer design and cut, but was, unfortunately, rather worn. it had evidently been subjected to a long period of friction--apparently by sand. the natives had made a sort of altar with this last inscription and some cylindrical sections of columns carved out of beautiful marble, white or most delicately variegated. there were also various other large pieces of marble and stone, which had evidently formed part of a very fine and rich building, as well as a very ancient fragment of a red baked earthenware water-pipe. many of the pieces of marble in the heap contained ornamentations such as successions of the heart pattern, graceful curve scrolls suggesting leaves, and also regular leaf patterns. one stone was absolutely spherical, like a cannon ball, and quite smooth; and some stone implements, such as a conical brown hammer and a pestle, were very interesting. on the white marble columns stood two charming little oil lamps, of a most graceful shape, in green earthenware, and in digging we were fortunate enough to find a third, which is now in my possession. they can be seen in the illustration (facing page ), although i fear not at their best, being so small. they were not unlike the old pompeian lamps in shape, and certainly quite as graceful. the wick used to be lighted at the spout. among other fragments was the capital of a pillar, and portions of koran inscriptions. as we dug excitedly with our hands in the sand we found other inscriptions on slate and on grey-stone, of one of which i took an impression on paper. it seemed much more ancient than the others and had a most beautiful design on it of curves and flowers. a tablet at the entrance of the tomb of the forty saints was not of marble but of slate carved. it bore the following date: [arabic: ] which i believe corresponds to . the heptagonal tower had two entrances, one to the north, the other to the south, but was, unfortunately, getting smothered in sand again. we became greatly excited on discovering the inscriptions, and pulled up our sleeves and proceeded in due haste to dig again in the sand--a process which, although much dryer, reminded one very forcibly of one's younger days at the seaside. our efforts were somewhat cooled by a ghastly white marble figure which we dug up, and which had such a sneering expression on its countenance that it set the natives all round shrieking with laughter. [illustration: the figure we dug out at zaidan.] [illustration: arabic inscription and marble columns with earthenware lamps upon them. fragment of water-pipe. stone implements. brick wall of the "tombs of forty saints" showing in top corners of photograph.] we thought we had better leave off. moreover, the natives who had accompanied us seemed rather upset at my photographing and digging, and now that i had got what i wanted i did not care to make them feel more uneasy than was necessary. i had exhausted all the photographic plates i had brought out with me, night was coming on fast, and we had twenty miles to ride back. on my last plate i photographed our last find, which is reproduced for the benefit of my readers facing page . this ugly head, with a very elongated and much expanded nose and a vicious mouth full of teeth, had been carved at the end of a piece of marble one and a half feet high. the head, with its oblique eyes, was well polished, but the remainder of the marble beyond the ears, which were just indicated by the artist, was roughly cut and appeared to have been made with the intention of being inserted into a wall, leaving the head to project outside. its flat forehead, too, would lead to the conclusion that it had been so shaped to act as a support, very likely to some tablet, or moulding of the mosque. the katkhuda said that it was a very ancient god, but its age was not easy to ascertain on so short an acquaintance. it certainly seemed very much more ancient than anything else we had found and inspected at zaidan. chapter xxiii a short historical sketch of zaidan city--how it was pillaged and destroyed--fortresses and citadels--taimur lang--shah rukh--revolutions--the safavi dynasty--peshawaran, pulki, deshtak--sir f. goldsmid's and bellew's impressions--the extent of the peshawaran ruins--arabic inscriptions--a curious ornamentation--mosques and _mihrab_--tomb of saiyid ikbal--the farah rud and harut rud--the "band" of the halmund--canals and channels old and new of the halmund delta--the rud-i-nasru and the rud-i-perian--strange temporary graves--ancient prosperity of eastern persia. it is not for me to go fully into the history of this great city of zaidan, for so much of it rests on speculation and confused traditions that i would rather leave this work to some scientist of a more gambling disposition than my own; but now that i have described what i myself saw i will add a few historical details which seem correct, and the opinions of one or two other travellers in that region which add interest to the place as well as strengthen my statements. with the many photographs which i took and which are reproduced in this book, i hope that a fair idea of the place will be conveyed to the reader. the following short historical notes were furnished to me by the katkhuda (or head village man) of the present village near the zaidan ruins. i reproduce them verbatim, without assuming any responsibility for the accuracy of the historical dates, but the information about the great city itself i found to be correct. [illustration: arabic inscription on marble dug by author at the city of zaidan.] when shah rukh shah was ruler of turkistan, and one malek kutuh-ud-din was ruler of sistan and kain, shah rukh shah was engaged in settling disturbances in the northern part of his dominions, and malek kutuh-ud-din, taking advantage of it, attacked herat and plundered it. shah rukh shah, hearing of this, collected an army and marched on sistan. during this march he devastated the country, which was then very fertile and wealthy, and captured and dispersed the inhabitants of the endless city of zaidan--which extended from kala-i-fath, to the south (now in afghan territory on the present bank of the halmund), to lash yuwain on the north (also in afghan territory on the bank of the farah rud), a distance, according to the trigonometrical survey maps, of miles as the crow flies. this would agree with the account given me by the amir of the extent of the city. the city of zaidan was protected by a large fortress at every six farsakhs ( miles). each fortress was said to be strongly garrisoned with troops, and had a high watch tower in the centre similar to that which i saw at a distance on the north-east of iskil, and which has been described in previous pages. another historical version attributes the destruction of zaidan and adjoining cities to taimur lang (tamerlane) or taimur the lame (a.h. - ), father of shah rukh whose barbarous soldiery, as some traditions will have it, were alone responsible for the pillage of zaidan city and the devastation of all sistan. the name of taimur lang is to this day held in terror by the natives of sistan. but whether zaidan was devastated twice, or whether the two accounts apply to the same disaster, it is not easy to ascertain at so distant a date. there are obvious signs all over eastern sistan that the country must have undergone great trouble and changes--probably under the rule of shah rukh and his successors (a.h. - ), after which revolutions seem to have been rampant for some sixty years, until shah ismail safavi conquered khorassan and the neighbouring countries, founding a powerful dynasty which reigned up to the year a.h. . under the safavi dynasty sistan seems to have been vested in the kayani maliks, who are believed to be descendants of the royal house of kai. (i came across a village chief claiming to be the descendant of these kayani rulers.) to return to the zaidan ruins, as seen to-day from the highest point of the citadel wall, the ruined city stretches in a curve from north to south-east. it is to the south-east that the ruins are less covered with sand and in better preservation, the citadel standing about half way between its former north and southern termini. there is every evidence to show that the present extensive ruins of peshawaran to the north, pulki, deshtak (doshak described by bellew) and nad-i-ali were at one epoch merely a continuation of zaidan the great city, just as westminster, south kensington, hammersmith, &c., are the continuation of london, and make it to-day the largest conglomeration of houses in the world. it was evidently necessary to subdivide such an enormous place into districts. [illustration: transfer of inscription dated , found in the "tomb of forty saints," zaidan.] [illustration: transfer of ornament above four lines of koran on grave stone.] [illustration: transfer of ornamentations on marble grave.] [illustration: presumed summits of towers buried in sand, zaidan. notice top of castellated wall behind.] bellew, who visited the ruins in , speaks of zaidan as "extending as far as the eye can reach to the north-east, and said to be continuous with the ruins of doshak (deshtak), about nine miles from the helmund. these ruins, with those of pulki, nadali and peshawaran, are the most extensive in sistan, and mark the sites of populous cities, the like of which are not to be found at this present day in all this region between the indus and the tigris." doshak or deshtak is situated about fourteen miles south by south-east of sher-i-nasrya, on the right bank of the main canal which extended from the halmund towards the west. it was a large walled town, with towers and a square fort in the centre. deshtak is said to have been the residence and capital of the first member of the safavi dynasty in sistan, which, like all other cities of sistan, was pillaged and razed to the ground by the terrible taimur lang. on its ruins rose the smaller city of some houses which we have mentioned--also called jalalabad--and which eventually became the seat of bahram khan, the last of the kayani chiefs. the city was built by him for his son jalaludin, after whom it was named. jalaludin, however, was expelled from the throne, and from that date the kayani family ceased to reign in sistan. pulki was also located on this main canal, east of deshtak, and peshawaran was situated due north of zaidan. they consist of an immense extent of ruins. both sir f. goldsmid and bellew, who travelled in that part testify to the whole country between jalalabad, buri-i-afghan and peshawaran being covered with ruins. the ruins at peshawaran i was not able to visit, they being in afghan territory--now forbidden to englishmen--and, being the guest of the british consul, i did not wish to cause trouble. sir f. goldsmid, who visited them during the perso-afghan frontier mission, describes them as covering a great area and being strongly built of alternate layers of sun-burnt and baked brick. the ruins of a madrassah, with a mosque and a _mihrab_, were most extensive, and had traces of ornamentations, and an inscription, said to be kufic. the walls of the citadel were (in ) in fairly good repair. "the citadel," sir f. goldsmid relates, "was of a circular form, somewhat irregular in shape, with a diameter of from two to three hundred yards. the walls are about fifty feet high, built strongly of baked brick, with a species of arched covered gallery, five feet high and five feet wide, running round the summit of the ramparts." a very similar arrangement was to be seen on the zaidan fort, as can be noticed in the photograph which i took and which is reproduced in the full page illustration (facing page ). "two massive round towers guard the gateway approached by a narrow steep ascent. in the centre of the fort on a mound stood a superior house, probably the residence of the governor. to the south,[ ] dense drifts of sand run to the summits of the ramparts." if these drifts can rise so high on the high wall of the citadel, it is certain that a great many of the smaller buildings must be rather deep under the sand level by now, but that they are there, there can be little doubt, for fragments of tiles, bricks, vases, &c., strew the ground. no doubt the usual critic will wonder how it is that, if the houses are buried, these fragments are not buried also. the wind principally is responsible for their keeping on the surface of the sand. they are constantly shifted and are blown from place to place, until arrested by some obstacle such as a wall, where a great number of these fragments can generally be found collected by the wind. "the great characteristic of these ruins"--continues sir f. goldsmid--"is the number of accurately constructed arches which still remain, and which are seen in almost every house, and the remains of strongly built windmills, with a vertical axis, as is usually the case in sistan." this again, as we have seen, is also one of the characteristics of the zaidan buildings. the ruins of peshawaran are subdivided into several groups, such as the kol marut, saliyan, three miles east of the fort, khushabad, kalah-i-mallahun, nikara-khanah, &c. bellew, who camped at saliyan, describes this section of the ruins "which cover many square miles of country, with readily distinguishable mosques and colleges (madrassahs), and the arabic inscriptions traceable on the façades of some of the principal buildings clearly refer their date to the period of the arab conquest, and further, as is evidenced by the domes and arches forming the roofs of the houses, that then, as now, the country was devoid of timber fit for building purposes. the most remarkable characteristic of these ruins is their vast extent and excellent preservation." i, too, am of bellew's opinion about these points. the several inscriptions i found at zaidan, photographs of which i have given in this book, were, as we have seen, in arabic; the ornamentations of which i took tracings were arabic in character. bellew reckons the great extent of the peshawaran section of the ruins as covering an area of about six miles by eight. he states that they were the outgrowths of successive cities rising on the ruins of their predecessors upon the same spot, and, like the other few travellers who have intelligently examined the ruins, came to the conclusion that in point of architecture and age the whole length from lash yuwain to the north to kala-i-fath to the south, and including peshawaran, zaidan and kali-i-fath were absolutely identical. goldsmid supplies information similar to bellew's regarding the peshawaran ruins, and he writes that on his march north to lash yuwain he had to go three or four miles to the west on account of the ruins. he speaks of seeing a place of worship with a _mihrab_, and, curiously enough, on the wall above it he found "the masonic star of five points surrounded by a circle and with a round cup between each of the points and another in the centre." he also saw the tomb of saiyid ikbal, also mentioned by another traveller, christie. eight miles west by north-west from the ruins rises a flat-topped plateau-like hill, called the kuh-i-kuchah, not dissimilar in shape to the kuh-i-kwajah to the south-west of sher-i-nasrya. four villages are found near it. to the east of it is found the farah rud, and to its west the harut rud,--two rivers losing themselves (when they have any water in them) into the lagoon. the harut is not always flowing. to the south is the naizar lagoon forming part of the hamun-halmund. (this lagoon was mostly dry when i went through.) it has formed a huge lake at various epochs, but now only the northern portion, skirting the southern edge of the peshawaran ruins, has any permanent water in it, and is principally fed by the delta of canals and by the overflow of the halmund, over the band, a kind of barrage. some explanation is necessary to make things clear. on the present afghan-perso boundary, at a place called the "band-i-sistan," is the great dam across the halmund, completely turning the waters of the stream, by means of semi-artificial canals, for the irrigation of sistan. hence the fertility of that district. the dam, "the band," as it is called by the natives, is a barrier slightly over feet long, constructed of upright wooden stakes holding in position horizontal fascines of tamarisk interwoven, strengthened by stones and plastered with mud to form a semi-solid wall. in olden days the band was so feebly constructed that it was generally carried away every year at the spring floods, but now greater attention is given to its construction and it is kept in fairly good repair, although portions of it usually collapse or are carried away by the force of the current during the floods. the height of the band is not more than eighteen or twenty feet. practically the actual river course comes to an end at this band, and from this point its waters are spread into a delta of canals, large and small, subdivided into hundreds other tortuous channels. the hussein ki canal is one of the most important, and feeds zaidan, iskil, bunjar and sher-i-nasrya, husseinabad, and other places, and is subdivided into minor channels during its course. it flows roughly in a north-west direction. in , according to major sykes (_royal geographical society's journal_), a new canal, known as the rud-i-perian, was formed, and destroyed jahanabad, ibrahimabad and jalalabad. this canal, he says, is not far from the rud-i-nasru, which he seems to think was at one time the main stream and flowed in a natural bed past zaidan to the west of it, but personally i have my doubts about the accuracy of this statement. i believe that the rud-i-nasru was merely a shallow canal that passed to the west of zaidan, but that the river course of the halmund itself was always to the east of zaidan as well as of the other adjoining cities north of zaidan. the canal to the east of nad-i-ali is no doubt a naturally cut channel, the obvious continuation under natural circumstances of the river course. the same remark might apply to the small channel self-cut to the west of that place. there are other important channels, such as the madar-ab, which supplies water to chiling, pulki and sekhuka; the kimak canal and the kasimabad. before the present dam was constructed some eighty years ago, a previous "band" existed, as we shall see, further up the course of the halmund to the south, and secured the irrigation of the southern portion of sistan, which is now absolutely dry and barren. dried up canal beds of great length are still to be found in southern sistan. [illustration: sketch plan of "zaidan citadel" by a. henry savage landor.] it would be a great undertaking to describe accurately all these canals and the various positions they have occupied at different epochs, and the task would at best be most thankless and useless, for, with the exception of the larger ones, the minor ones keep constantly changing their course by cutting themselves new beds in the soft soil. anybody who has visited eastern sistan, even in a very dry season, as i did, knows too well how the ground is intersected in all directions by myriads of natural water channels, all fed by the halmund, so that, unless one had months of time at one's disposal, it would hardly be possible to map them all out exactly. during flood time the water flows over the band and into its natural channel due north up into the hamun, where it loses itself. there is a good deal of verdure, trees, and high reeds near the banks of the river at the band, with many snakes, while fish is plentiful in the water and myriads of wild fowl are to be seen. curious conical temporary graves of mud can occasionally be seen, some six feet high, the body being, it is said, buried standing within these cones previous to proper interment with due ceremony. on the outside, clear imprints made while the mud was still soft of several sized hands--presumably of the deceased's relations or friends--were left on the surface of the cone, the imprints being one above the other in a line. among the ruins of peshawaran, bellew found traces of several canals, now dry, one of which, however, had been restored by the chief of hokat and brought a stream of good water up to the silyan ruins for irrigation purposes. as for the southern end of the great city at kala-i-fath, we have very good accounts from ferrier, goldsmid, and bellew, all testifying to its great extent. here, too, there is a strong citadel standing on an artificial mound, and seeming to have been repaired some twenty-five or thirty years ago. bellew says that the ruins extend over several miles of country, and goldsmid speaks of a circumference of ruins of some two and a half miles at kala-i-fath, with a large citadel and fine arched buildings within. he mentions spacious courtyards and the remains of reservoirs, caravanserais, and large buildings in abundance, but no vestige of anything approaching magnificence. this, however, is the case with everything persian, whether ancient or modern, especially in regard to architecture, and a great deal of the humbleness of the buildings is, i think, due to the facts that the inhabitants of persia are nomads by nature; that the shifting sands drive people from their homes; that rivers constantly alter their courses, and that the water supply is a constant source of difficulty in most parts of iran; moreover the terrible wars and invasions made the natives disinclined to construct themselves very elaborate houses which they might at any moment have to abandon. these reasons account for the extraordinary number of abandoned villages, towns, fortresses, and whole ruined suburbs of towns all over persia, a sight which i think cannot be seen on such a large scale in any other country in the world. at kala-i-fath the question of the water may not have been the principal one, but the fear of constant attacks must have deterred the natives from erecting magnificent buildings. or else how could we account for these enormous fortresses which are found all along to protect the great city? goldsmid describes a fine caravanserai at kala-i-fath, built of large baked bricks, each brick eleven inches square, and displaying a nicety of design foreign to sistan. the caravanserai seems to have been domed over a large central courtyard, with wings for rooms and stabling; and an adjoining ice-house of mud bricks. in the graveyard fragments of alabaster and tiles were found. the wall round the city which goldsmid describes--six feet at the base tapering to one foot at the summit--is somewhat different in character from that of zaidan, and is, to my mind, of much later construction, as are many of the buildings. "some of the streets," he says, "which all run from east to west, are in excellent preservation and as if they were of recent construction." it is quite possible, in fact, very probable, that this portion of the great city--which, by the bye, is said to have been the last capital of the kayani kings, and was deserted by them when attacked by nadir shah--has, owing to its favourable geographical position on the east bank of the halmund, been inhabited to a certain extent until a much later date. the local accounts, at least, would point to that conclusion. a dry canal exists, which we shall cross on our way to the beluchistan frontier; it is fed by the halmund, north of kala-i-fath, and strikes across the plain in a westerly direction. if all the accounts given by people who have been there are taken into consideration, together with the photographs here given, which seem to me to show that the place was one of unusual grandeur; if the fact is grasped that, whether considered as a single city or a conglomeration of adjoining successive cities, zaidan was undoubtedly a continuous and uninterrupted row of houses of no less than eighty-six miles; i think that whatever theories may be expounded by the usual scientific speculator at home, the fact must remain that this ancient london of asia marks a period of astounding prosperity in the history of eastern persia. footnotes: [ ] i think this must be a mistake; it should be to the north.--a.h.s.l. chapter xxiv departure from sistan--dadi--not one's idea of a pasture--the kuh-i-kwajah--its altitude--the "city of roars of laughter"--interesting ascent to the summit--a water reservoir--family graves--dead-houses--a grave with thirty-eight compartments--the gandun piran ziarat--scrolls and inscriptions--priest's house--modern graves--skulls and their characteristics--a smaller ziarat--the kuk fort--a bird's-eye view of kala-i-kakaha city--strange legends about the city--why kala-i-kakaha is famous. owing to the tender care of major and mrs. benn i was, at the beginning of , in a fair condition of strength to undertake the journey of miles on camels across northern beluchistan to quetta. with the help of major benn i made up a fresh caravan entirely of running camels, and expected therefore to be able to travel very fast. the camels selected were excellent, and the two beluch drivers who came with me most faithful, considerate and excellent servants. sadek also accompanied me. everything was made ready to start by january nd, but some hitch or other occurred daily, and it was not till january th that i was able to take my departure--sorry indeed to say good-bye to my new good friends, major and mrs. benn, to whose charmingly thoughtful care i altogether owed it that i was now able to proceed in good health. the hour of our departure was fixed for o'clock a.m., but my three cats, suspecting that we were going to move from our comfortable quarters, disappeared during the night, and some hours were wasted by sadek and all the servants of the consulate in trying to find them again. i was determined not to start without them. sadek was furious, the camel men impatient, the guard of lancers sent by the consul to accompany me for some distance had been ready on their horses for a long time, and everybody at hand was calling out "puss, puss, puss!" in the most endearing tones of voice, and searching every possible nook. after four hours of expressive language in persian, hindustani, beluchi and english, at nine o'clock the cats were eventually discovered. one had hidden under a huge pile of wood, all of which we had to remove to get him out; the second had found a most comfortable sanctum in mrs. benn's room, and the third, having ascertained that his companions had been discovered, walked out unconcerned and entered the travelling box of his own accord. i was sorry to leave sistan too, with its ancient ruins, its peculiar inhabitants, a mixture of all kinds, its quaint city, so strikingly picturesque especially at sunset, when, owing to the moisture in the air, beautiful warm colours appeared in the sky, and the thousands of camels, and sheep, moving like so many phantoms in clouds of dust, returned to their homes. the sad dingling of their bells sounded musical enough in the distance, and one saw horsemen dashing full gallop towards the city before the gates were closed, every man carrying a gun. far to the west in the background stood the kuh-i-kwajah mountain, so famous in the history of sistan. all this after the dreary, long salt desert journey had seemed heavenly to me, and i was more than sorry to leave the place. had i been a russian instead of an englishman i would not have continued my journey on the morning of my departure, for on coming out of the consulate gate the first thing i saw was a dead body being washed and prepared for interment by relatives in the dead-house adjoining the consulate wall. the russians believe the sight of a dead body an ill-omen at the beginning of a journey. gul khan, the consul's assistant, accompanied me as far as the kuh-i-kwajah mountain, to inspect which i had to make a detour. we passed south of sher-i-nasrya, and, after wading through numberless water channels and skirting large pools of water, crossed a tiny anonymous village of six domed huts, and then came to a very large one rejoicing in the name of dadi. my fast camels carrying loads had gone ahead, and we, who had started later on horses, caught them up some sixteen miles onward, where there was a third little village, the inhabitants of which were wild-looking and unkempt. the women and children stampeded at our approach. the houses were flat-topped and were no taller than seven feet, except the house of the head village man which was two-storeyed and had a domed roof. when the hamun halmund extended as far south as kandak the kuh-i-kwajah mountain was an island, but now the whole country around it is dry except some small swamps and pools, on the edges of which thousands of sheep could be seen grazing. it took a very powerful sight indeed to see what the animals were grazing on. one's idea of a pasture--we always picture a pasture for sheep as green--was certainly not fulfilled, and after a minute inspection one saw the poor brutes feeding on tiny stumps of dried grass, yellowish in colour and hardly distinguishable from the sand on which it grew in clusters not more than half an inch high. where the hamun had been its bed was now of a whitish colour from salt deposits. the kuh-i-kwajah (mountain), occasionally also called kuh-i-rustam, rising as it does directly from the flat, is most attractive and interesting, more particularly because of its elongated shape and its flat top, which gives it quite a unique appearance. seen from the east, it stretches for about three miles and a half or even four at its base, is feet high, and about three miles on top of the plateau. the summit, even when the beholder is only half a mile away from it, appears like a flat straight line against the sky-line, a great boulder that stands up higher on the south-west being the only interruption to this uniformity. the black rocky sides of the mountain are very precipitous--in fact, almost perpendicular at the upper portion, but the lower part has accumulations of clay, mud and sand extending in a gentle slope. in fact, roughly speaking, the silhouette of the mountain has the appearance of the section of an inverted soup-plate. [illustration: silhouette of kuh-i-kwajah.] major sykes, in the _royal geographical society's journal_, describes this mountain as resembling in shape "an apple," but surely if there ever was anything in the world that had no resemblance whatever to "an apple" it was this mountain. it would be curious to know what major sykes calls "an apple." the diagram here appended of the outline of the mountain, and indeed the photograph given by major sykes in the _royal geographical society's journal_, february, , page , will, i think, be sufficient to convince the least observant on this point. major sykes is also no less than feet out in his estimate of the height of the hill. the summit is feet above the plain--not feet as stated by him. the altitude at the base is , feet, and at the summit , feet. as we rounded the mountain to the southward to find a place at which we could climb to the top, we saw a very ancient fort perched on the summit of the mountain commanding the ruins of kala-i-kakaha, or the "city of roars of laughter,"--a quaint and picturesque city built on the steep slope of the south escarpment of the mountain. [illustration: sketch map of summit of kuh-i-kwajah by a. henry savage landor.] in the centre of this city was a large and high quadrangular wall like a citadel, and it had houses all round it, as can be seen by the bird's-eye view photograph i took of it from the fort above, a view from which high point of vantage will be described at the end of this chapter. we went along the outer wall of the city on a level with the plain at the hill's base, but we abandoned it as this wall went up the mountain side to the north. some high columns could be seen, which appeared to have formed part of a high tower. the sides of the hill on which the city was built were very precipitous, but a steep tortuous track existed, leading to the city on the east side, the two gates of the city being situated--one north-east, the other north-west--in the rear of the city, and, as it were, facing the mountain side behind. on the south-west side high accumulations of sand formed an extensive tongue projecting very far out into the plain. the rocky upper portion of the kuh-i-kwajah mountain was black towards the east, but getting yellowish in the southern part, where there were high sand accumulations up to about three-quarters of the height of the mountain, with deep channels cut into them by water. we came to a narrow gorge which divides the mountain in two, and by which along a very stony path between high vertical rocks the summit of the table mountain could be reached. we left our horses in charge of a lancer and mahommed azin, the head village man of deh-i-husena--a man who said he was a descendant of the kayani family, and who professed to know everything about everything,--gul khan and i gradually climbed to the higher part of the mountain. i say "gradually" because there was a great deal to interest and puzzle one on the way up. this path to the summit had been formerly strongly fortified. shortly after entering the gorge, where we had dismounted, was a strange wall cut in the hard, flint-like rock by a very sharp, pointed instrument. one could still distinctly see the narrow grooves made by it. then there were curious heads of the same rock with side hollows that looked as if caused by the constant friction or some horizontal wooden or stone implement. i was much puzzled by these and could not come to a definite conclusion of what could have been their use. even our guide's universal knowledge ran short; he offered no explanation beyond telling me that they had been made by man, which i had long before discovered for myself. a small reservoir for rain-water was found near this spot, and nearly at the top of the hillock a ditch had been excavated near the easiest point of access, and another ditch could be seen all round. the low land round the mountain has most certainly been inundated at various epochs, forming a shallow, temporary swamp, but not a permanent lake as has been asserted by some, and from what one saw one was tempted to believe that the plain around kuh-i-kwajah must have been dryer in the days of its glory than it has been in this century. [illustration: dead houses and ziarat on kuh-i-kwajah.] [illustration: a family tomb (eight compartments) on kuh-i-kwajah.] on reaching the summit we found ourselves on an undulating plateau covered with graves, but these graves, unlike all others which i had seen in persia, had not only the characteristic points of the zaidan ones in which the body was encased in the tomb above the level of the ground, but were in compartments and contained whole families. the first grave we examined was made of huge boulders and was six yards long, four yards wide and had four sections, each occupied by a skeleton and covered over with flat slabs of stone. each compartment was about ½ feet high, ½ feet broad, and feet long. near this family grave was a quarry of good stone from which stones for grinding wheat, hand-mortars, &c., had been cut. at the foot was a reservoir for rain-water. one was rather surprised on reaching the summit of kuh-i-kwajah to find it so undulating, for on approaching the mountain from the plain one was specially impressed by its straight upper outlines against the sky. the summit is actually concave, like a basin, with numerous hillocks all round, and one portion, judging by sediments left, would appear to have contained a lake. in the centre of the plateau are two extensive artificial camps dug into the earth and rock, and having stone sides. on a hillock to the west of one of these ponds stands a tomb with no less than ten graves side by side. from this point eastwards, however, is the most interesting portion of this curious plateau. numerous groups of graves are to be seen at every few yards, and two dead-houses, one with a large dome partly collapsed on the north side, the other still in the most perfect state of preservation. the photograph facing page gives a good idea of them. the larger and more important dead-house had a central hall ½ yards square, and each side of the square had an outer wing, each with one door and one window above it. each wing projected three yards from the central hall. to the east in the central hall there was a very greasy stone, that looked as if some oily substance had been deposited on it, possibly something used in preparing the dead. next to it was a vessel for water. outside, all round the walls of this dead-house, and radiating in all directions, were graves, all above ground and as close together as was possible to construct them, while on the hillocks to the south of the dead-houses were hundreds of compartments for the dead, some in perfect condition, others fallen through; some showing evident signs of having been broken through by sacrilegious hands--very likely in search of treasure. [illustration: kala-i-kakaha, the "city of roars of laughter."] [illustration: the "gandun piran" ziarat on kuh-i-kwajah.] on the top of a hillock higher than the others was a tomb of thirty-eight sections, all occupied. a lot of large stones were heaped on the top of this important spot, and surmounting all and planted firmly in them was a slender upright stone pillar ½ feet high. it had no inscription upon it nor any sign of any kind, and had been roughly chipped off into an elongated shape. near this grave, which was the most extensive of its kind that i had observed on the plateau, was a very peculiar ruined house with four rooms, each four yards square, and each room with two doors, and all the rooms communicating. it was badly damaged. its shape was most unusual. we then proceeded to the ziarat, a pilgrimage place famous all over persia and south-western afghanistan. i was fortunate enough to take a good photograph of its exterior (see opposite), which will represent its appearance to the reader better than a description. a high rectangular building plastered all over with mud, a front arch or alcove giving access to a small door, and two domed low stone buildings, one on either side, and another ruined building with a wall around it behind the ziarat. a few yards to the left of the entrance as one looked at it was a coarse upright stone pillar. the inside of the ziarat was more interesting than the outside. it was a very large whitewashed single room, with high vaulted ceiling, and in the centre rose from the floor to a height of three feet a gigantic tomb, six yards in length, with a gabled top. it measured one yard and a half across at the head, and one yard at its foot, and had two stone pillars some five feet high standing one at each extremity. to these two end pillars was tied a rope, from which hung numberless rags, strips of cloth and hair. behind the head of the tomb along the wall stretched a platform four and a half feet wide, on which rested two brass candlesticks of primitive shape, a much-used kalyan, and a great number of rags of all sizes, ages, and degrees of dirt. the scrolls and inscriptions on the wall were very quaint, primitive representations of animals in couples, male and female, being the most indulged in by the pilgrims. goats and dogs seemed favourite subjects for portrayal. [illustration: male and female goats. dog.] a lock of human hair and another of goat's hair hung on the wall to the right of the entrance, and on two sticks laid across, another mass of rags, white, blue, yellow and red. hundreds more were strewn upon the ground, and the cross bars of the four windows of the ziarat were also choke-full of these cloth offerings. among other curious things noticeable on the altar platform were a number of stones scooped into water-vessels. this ziarat goes by the name of gandun piran, and is said to be some centuries old. in the spring equinox pilgrimages are made to this ziarat from the neighbouring city and villages, when offerings of wheat are contributed that the donor may be at peace with the gods and expect plentiful crops. these pilgrimages take very much the form of our "day's outing on a bank holiday," and sports of various kinds are indulged in by the horsemen. it is the custom of devout people when visiting these ziarats to place a stone on the tomb, a white one, if obtainable, and we shall find this curious custom extending all over beluchistan and, i believe, into a great portion of afghanistan. directly in front of the ziarat was the priests' house, with massive, broad stone walls and nine rooms. the ceilings, fallen through in most rooms, were not semi-spherical as usual but semi-cylindrical, as could still be seen very plainly in the better-preserved one of the central room. this house had a separate building behind for stables and an outer oven for baking bread. the dwelling was secluded by a wall. the top of kuh-i-kwajah is even now a favourite spot for people to be laid to their eternal rest, and near this ziarat were to be found a great many graves which were quite modern. these modern tombs, more elaborate than the old ones, rose to about five feet above the ground, had a mud and stone perforated balustrade above them all round, and three steps by which the upper part could be reached. they seldom, however, had more than three bodies in each tomb. we found on the ground a very curious large hollowed stone like a big mortar, which seemed very ancient. then further were more old graves in rows of five, six, eight, and more. when one peeped into the broken ones, the temptation to take home some of the bleached skulls to add to the collection of one's national museum, and to let scientists speculate on their exact age, was great. but i have a horror of desecrating graves. i took one out--a most beautifully preserved specimen--meaning to overcome my scruples, but after going some distance with it wrapped up in my handkerchief i was seized with remorse, and i had to go and lay it back again in the same spot where it had for centuries lain undisturbed. i examined several skulls that were in good condition, and the following were their principal characteristics. they possessed abnormally broad cheek-bones, and the forehead was very slanting backwards and was extremely narrow across the temples and broad at its highest portion. the back portion of the skull, in which the animal qualities of the brain are said by phrenologists to reside, was also abnormally developed, when compared to european skulls. the top section (above an imaginary plane intersecting it horizontally above the ear) was well formed, except that in the back part there was a strange deep depression on the right side of the skull, and an abnormal development on the left side. this peculiarity was common to a great many skulls, and was their most marked characteristic. evidently the brains of the people who owned them must have constantly been working on a particular line which caused this development more than that of other portions of the skull. [illustration: a bird's eye view of kala-i-kakaha, the "city of roars of laughter."] the upper jaw was rather contracted and mean as compared to the remaining characteristics of the skull, slanting very far forwards where it ended into quite a small curve in which the front teeth were set. the teeth themselves were extremely powerful and healthy. the bumps behind the ear channels were well marked. the whole skull, however, as seen from above, was more fully developed on its right side than on the left; also the same abnormal development on the right side could be noticed under the skull at the sides, where it joins the spinal column. in a general way these skulls reminded one of the formation of the skulls of the present beluch. another smaller ziarat partly ruined was to be found south of the one we had inspected, the tomb itself being of less gigantic proportions, and now almost entirely buried in sand. the two end pillars, however, remained standing upright, the northern one being, nevertheless, broken in half. the door of this ziarat was to the south of the building, and had a window above it. the walls had a stone foundation, some feet high, above which the remainder of the wall was entirely of mud, with a perforated window to the west. the tomb itself was feet long by feet wide. a small square receptacle was cut in the northern wall. we had now come to the kuk fort above the city of kala-i-kakaha on the south of the mountain. with the exception of a large round tower, feet in diameter at the base, there remained very little to be seen of this strong-hold. sections of other minor towers and a wall existed, but all was a confused mass of debris, sand and mud. from this point a splendid view was obtained of the city of kala-i-kakaha just below, of which a photograph from this bird's eye aspect will be found facing p. of this volume. there was an extensive courtyard in the centre enclosed by a high wall, and having a tower in the centre of each of the two sides of the quadrangle. a belt of buildings was enclosed between this high wall and a second wall, which had two towers, one at each angle looking north towards the cliff of the mountain from which we observed. outside this wall two rows of what, from our high point of vantage, appeared to be graves could be seen, while to the east were other buildings and cliff dwellings extending almost to the bottom of the hill, where a tower marked the limit of the city. from this point a tortuous track could be seen along the gorge winding its way to the city gate, the only opening in the high third wall, most irregularly built along the precipice of the ravine. at the foot of the mountain this wall turned a sharp corner, and describing roughly a semicircle protected the city also to the west. at the most north-westerly point there seemed to be the principal gate of the city, with a massive high tower and with a road encased between two high walls leading to it. the semicircle formed by the mountain behind, which was of a most precipitous nature, was enclosed at its mouth by a fourth outer wall, with an inner ditch, making the fortress of kala-i-kakaha practically impregnable. the legend about kala-i-kakaha city furnished me by the sar-tip, through gul khan, was very interesting. in ancient days there was in that city a deep well, the abode of certain godly virgins, to whom people went from far and near for blessings. visitors used to stand listening near the well, and if their prayers were accepted the virgins laughed heartily, whereby the city gained the name of kaka-ha (roar of laughter). silence on the part of the sanctimonious maidens was a sign that the prayers were not granted. the sistan historical authorities seem to think this origin of the name plausible. there were, however, other amusing, if less reliable legends, such as the one our friend mahommed azin gave me, which is too quaint to be omitted. "in the time of alexander the great," he told us, "aristotles the famous had produced an animal which he had placed in _a_ fort" (_which_ fort mahommed azin seemed rather vague about). "whoever gazed upon the animal was seized with such convulsions of laughter that he could not stop until he died. "when alexander was 'in the west' (_i.e._ _maghreb zemin_)" continued mahommed azin, "he had seen this wonderful 'animal of laughter' produced by aristotles, and some seventy or eighty thousand soldiers had actually died of laughter which they could not repress on seeing it. plato only, who was a wise man, devised a ruse to overcome the terrible effects of looking at the animal. he brought with him a looking-glass which he placed in front of the brute, and, sure enough, the demon, which had caused the hilarious death of many others, in its turn was seized by hysterical laughing at itself, and of course could not stop and died too." mahommed azin was somewhat uncertain whether the animal itself had resided in the fortress of the kuh-i-kwajah mountain, or whether the owner of the animal had visited the place, or whether the place had been named merely in honour of the legend of the "animal of laughter." all i can say is that when mahommed, with a grave face, had finished his inimitable story, gul khan and i were also seized with such uncontrollable fits of hilarity that, notwithstanding our mournful surroundings of graves and dead-houses, we, too, very nearly went to swell the number of victims of mahommed azin's "animal of laughter," although without the pleasure of having made its personal acquaintance. mahommed azin positively finished us up when he gravely added that it was most dangerous to recount the legend he had told us for he had known people die of laughter by merely listening to it. there was some truth in that. we nearly did, not only at the story but at the story-teller himself! kala-i-kakaha is a famous spot in persian history, for it is said that the great persian hero rustam's first exploit was to capture this city and slay its king _kuk_, after whom the fort standing above kakaha is named. in more modern days kakaha, which, from ancient times, had been a place of shelter for retreating princes hard driven by the enemy, has become noteworthy for its seven years' resistance to the attacks of nadir's troops, when the kayani king malik-fath, having abandoned his capital, kala-i-fath had taken refuge in the impregnable city of kala-i-kakaha. chapter xxv villages between sher-i-nasrya and kuh-i-kwajah--the last of the kayani--husena baba--thousands of sheep--the patang kuh--protecting black walls--a marsh--sand dunes--warmal--quaint terraces--how roofs are built--a spacious residence built for nine shillings--facial characteristics of natives--bread making--semi-spherical sand mounts--natural protections against the northerly winds. we were benighted on the mountain and did not reach the village of deh-i-husena till nearly nine o'clock, our friend and guide having lost his way in the dark and having taken us round the country for a good many more miles than was necessary. it is true the night was rather black and it was not easy to see where the low mud-houses of his village were. the distance in a direct line from deh-i-husena to the foot of the kuh-i-kwajah mountain was miles, and the village of deh-i-husena was about miles from sher-i-nasrya, the village of dadi we had passed being miles off, and sanchuli ¾ miles from the city and only a quarter of a mile from deh-i-husena. to the south of the latter village was deh-i-ali-akabar. we spent the night at deh-i-husena, mahommed azin, the head village man and guide, being so entertaining in his conversation that he kept us up till all hours of the morning. he professed to be one of the only two surviving members of the kayani family which formerly reigned over sistan, his cousin being the other. according to his words--which, however, could not always claim to be models of accuracy--his family had a good deal of power in sistan up to about forty years ago ( ). they were now very poor. mahommed azin had well-cut features and bore himself like a man of superior birth, but he was very bitter in his speech against fate and things in general. it was, nevertheless, wonderful how a man, living in a small village secluded from everybody and everywhere, had heard of flying machines, of submarine boats, of balloons that _ferenghis_ made. his ideas of them were rather amusing, but he was very intelligent and quick at grasping how they worked when i explained to him. surgery interested him intensely, and after that politics. the ruski and inglis he was sure would have a great deal of trouble over sistan. he could not quite make up his mind as to which was the bigger nation. when he heard ruski's accounts of themselves he certainly thought the ruski were the greater people, but when he listened to the inglis and what they could do he really believed they must be stronger. "who do you think is the most powerful?" he inquired of me. "of course, the inglis, without doubt." "then do you think that your king will grant me a pension, so that i can live in luxury and without working to the end of my days?" "the king does not usually grant pensions to lazy people. pensions are granted to people who have done work for the country." "well then, you see," exclaimed mahommed azin, in thorough unreasonable persian fashion, "you say your king is greater than the ruski king, and he would not grant me a pension, i the last of the kayanis!" he was sure the ruski potentate would at once if he knew! i left husena at . a.m. on january th, striking south for warmal. there were a good many wretched villages in succession half a mile or so apart from one another, such as dubna, hasan-jafa, luftulla and husena baba. the ground was covered with white salt which resembled snow. husena baba was quite a large and important village. the inhabitants came out in great force to greet us. although wood was extremely scarce at this village, nearly all the houses had flat roofs supported on rough rafters. matting on a layer of reeds prevented the upper coating of mud from falling through. i came across several horses laden with bundles of long reeds which they dragged behind them, and which they had carried, probably from the naizar, where they were plentiful. we had altered our course from south to east, and here i parted with useful gul khan and the escort, who had to return to the consulate. i mounted my riding camel and started off, this time south-east, on my way to warmal. again we saw thousands of sheep grazing on the flat desert of dried mud and salt cracked in innumerable places by the sun. here and there a close examination showed tiny tufts of dried grass, some two inches in circumference, and not more than half an inch tall, and at an average distance of about ten feet from one another. it was astounding to me that so many animals could find sufficient nourishment for subsistence on so scanty a diet, but although not very fat the sheep seemed to be in pretty good condition. to the west we had a high ridge of mountains--the patang kuh--and between these mountains and our track in the distance an extensive marsh could be distinguished, with high reeds in profusion near its humid banks. to the east some miles off were dolehtabad (village), then tuti and sakawa, near lutok. south-east before us, and stretching for several miles, a flat-topped plateau rose to no very great height above the horizon, otherwise everything was flat and uninteresting all around us. some very curious walls of black mud mixed with organic matter, built to shelter sheep from the fierce north winds while proceeding from one village to another, can be seen in the _lut_. these black dashes on the white expanse of salt and sand have about the same effect on the picturesqueness of the scenery as coarse scrawls with a blunt pen on a fine page of calligraphy. you see them here and there, scattered about, all facing north, like so many black dashes in the otherwise delicate tones of grey and white of the soil. when we had gone some miles on this flat, hard stretch of ground, where the heat was terrible, we had to make a detour round a large marsh. then beyond it stood five parallel banks of sand, feet high, with horizontal layers of half-formed stone up to half the height of the dunes. the dunes were about yards apart. in the afternoon we arrived at warmal, where water seemed plentiful and good. here too, as in the centre of most villages and towns of persia, a pond of stagnant filthy water could be seen. the pond at warmal was of unusually ample proportions and extended through the whole length of the village, which was built on both sides of this dirty pond. numerous canals branched off from this main reservoir, and in fact, had one had a little imagination, one might have named this place the venice of sistan. at sunset swarms of mosquitoes rose buzzing from the putrid water, but from a picturesque point of view the effect of the buildings reflected in the yellow-greenish water was quite pretty. to facilitate transit from one side of the village to the other, a primitive bridge of earth had been constructed across the pond, but as the central portion of it was under water it was necessary to remove one's foot-gear in order to make use of the convenience. characteristic of warmal were the quaint balconies or terraces, in shape either quadrangular or rectangular, that were attached to or in close proximity of each house. they were raised platforms of mud from to feet above the ground, with a balustrade of sun-burnt bricks. on these terraces the natives seek refuge during the summer nights to avoid being suffocated by the stifling heat inside their houses. a difference in the construction and architecture of some of the roofs of the houses could be noted here. the roofs were oblong instead of perfectly circular, and when one examined how the bricks were laid it seemed extraordinary that the vaults stood up at all. these were the only roofs in persia i had seen constructed on this particular principle. the bricks were laid round the vaults for two-thirds of the roof at an angle of ° and the other third in a vertical position. there was the usual upper central aperture and occasionally one or two side ones. the natives were very civil and obliging, and as usual they all crowded round to converse. "sahib," said one old man, "you must come to settle here." "why should i settle here?" "it is very cheap to build houses at warmal." "how much does it cost to build a house?" "come and see and you will tell me whether you can build a house cheaper in your country." he took me to a spacious new residence, feet by feet inside, and feet high. "it is a fine house, is it not, sahib?" "yes, very fine." "it cost me exactly two tomans, four krans (about nine shillings) to build it, as it stands." enumerating the various items of expenditure on the tips of his fingers:--"sun-baked bricks kran ( _d._) per thousand," he continued; "carpenter kran a day for days, and mason kran a day. the people who helped were not paid as they were relations!" the dome of this house was very scientifically constructed, as can be seen by the diagram, and formed a very strong vault. to make these vaults, four workmen begin at the four corners of the quadrangular base to lay bricks in successively enlarging concentric arcs of a circle, each higher than the previous one, till each section meets the two side ones. the small portion that remains above is filled in with bricks, laid transversely, and these vaults are really of remarkable strength. [illustration: vault, shewing how bricks are laid.] [illustration: semi-spherical roof, shewing how bricks are laid.] i have seen some built on this principle, and several centuries old, standing in good preservation and as good as new. the type of natives was quite different again from that in other places already visited, and was most interesting. the men, like most men of the desert, had elongated faces, with long, regular noses, slightly convex and somewhat drooping. the nostrils were rather swollen and lacking character, and not sharply cut. at the bridge the nose was very narrow, but broad in its lower portion and quite rounded, which looked better in profile than full face. the nostrils drooped considerably towards the point of the nose and were high up where joining the cheek. the faces of these fellows formed a long smooth oval with no marked cheek-bones and vivid, dark, intelligent eyes, small but well-open, showing the entire iris. the lips were the most defective part of their faces, being unduly prominent, thick and coarsely-shaped. the hair grew in a very normal way on their faces, and they possessed very good arched eyebrows, slightly coarse but well-defined, and in most cases meeting at the root of the nose. in fully-formed men the beard was thick and curly, but did not grow to any great length. on the skull the hair was jet-black and was soaked in oil, so that it had the appearance or being perfectly straight. ample trousers, the usual long shirt and afghan boots (which are not unlike european military boots), made up the attire of the masculine members of the community. the women had, on a smaller scale, very similar features to those of the men, and at a distance their oval faces appeared quite handsome, but on a closer inspection the lineaments were much too elongated to be attractive. they had a somewhat pulled appearance. both men and women were tall, slender and of very wiry build. after sunset the women, with their heads wrapped up in a sort of white chudder, thrown gracefully behind the shoulders and reaching down to the feet, began to prowl about in a great state of excitement, carrying big balls of flour paste and small wicker work plates, like shields, covered over by a cloth. they lighted a big fire in one of the small domed ovens, and after beating the paste on the wicker shields till it had spread into a thin layer, they quickly took it up with their hands and, kneeling over the blazing furnace, stuck the paste against the roof of the oven. they used long leather gloves for the purpose. while being baked the bread was constantly sprinkled with water from a bowl close at hand. nearly each house has its own outer oven, but the one i was near seemed to be used by several families, judging by a string of clamouring women who impatiently--and did they not let the others know how impatiently!--waited with all necessaries in hand to bake bread for their men. the respective husbands and sons squatted around on their heels, languidly smoking their pipes and urging their women to be quick. a deal of good-natured chaff seemed to take place during this daily operation, but the women were quite in earnest and took themselves and the process very seriously. they seemed much concerned if one piece got too much burnt or another not enough. to the east by south-east of warmal, about a mile and a half off, were four semi-spherical sand mounts standing prominent against the sky-line, and a great number of sand hills of confused formation. the several sand-banks which i had observed in the morning on our march to this place extended to a great length towards the east, and were a great protection to warmal against the periodic northerly winds of the summer. hence the lack here of the familiar wind-catchers and wind-protectors, found further north, the sight of which one missed on the roof tops after having become accustomed to sher-i-nasrya and adjoining villages where no roof was without one. here there were only one or two wind-catchers visible on the roofs of the few two-storeyed houses of the richer folks. [illustration: sher-i-rustam. (rustam's city.)] [illustration: the stable of rustam's legendary horse.] another characteristic of dwellings in warmal was that over each front door there was a neat little fowl-house, subdivided into a number of square compartments. the place was simply swarming with chickens. chapter xxvi sand accumulations--a round tower--mahommed raza chah--a burial ground--rustam's city--an ancient canal--rustam's house--the persian hero's favourite room--a store room--reception hall--the city wall--where rustam's son was impaled--the stable of rustam's gigantic horse--more dry canals--an immense graveyard--sand and its ways--a probable buried city--a land-mark--sadek's ways--a glorious sunset--girdi--beluch greeting. warmal (altitude , feet) was left at a.m. on the th. we skirted extensive sand accumulations, high to the north, lower towards the south. the under portion of these deposits had become semi-petrified up to a height varying from feet to feet in proportion to the loftiness of the hills themselves. we were travelling in a south-east direction along these sand banks cut abruptly vertically, and when we left them and turned due south across a flat bay in the desert there were sand-hills to the east and west about one mile apart. at the most northern end of the western range a round tower could be seen on the summit of a hillock. having crossed over the low hill range before us we descended into a long, flat, sandy stretch with tamarisk shrubs in abundance. in an arc of a circle from north to south there extended sand accumulations in various guises, the highest being some lofty conical hills due east of our course. to the west in the distance we were encircled by the patang kuh and the mukh surk ranges, which also extended from north to south. [illustration: the gate of rustam's city, as seen from rustam's house.] two farsakhs (eight miles) brought us to the british consular postal station of mahommed raza chah, a mud structure of two rooms and an ante-room between. one room was full of provisions, the other accommodated the three postal _sawars_ (riders). twelve holes had been dug in search of water, but only two had been successful. one of the sawars, a beluch, on a _jumbaz_ camel, was just coming in with the post, and he was a very picturesque figure in his white flowing robes and turban over the curly long hair hanging upon his shoulders. one mile off, six or seven more deep holes had been bored for water, but with no success. tamarisk was plentiful. we were now getting near the ruins of sher-i-rustam or sher-i-sukhta, the city of rustam, the persian hero. north-east of it one came first to a ruined tower, then to a burial ground with single graves and graves in sets of two and three, very similar in shape to those we had seen on the kuh-i-kwajah. these, too, were above ground, but were made of mud instead of stone. most of the graves had been broken through. the graveyard was situated on a sand hillock. in the distance, to the east and south-east of rustam's city, there spread from the north a long stretch of ruins, which probably were part of the continuation of the great zaidan. a number of towers--as many as six being counted in a line--and a high wall could be perceived still standing. this must evidently have been a fort, and had what appeared to be the wall of a tower at its north-west end. other extensive ruins could just be observed further south-east, and also to the south-west, where a high tower stood prominent against the sky. when close to rustam's city we went through a walled oblique-angled parallelogram enclosing a tower. a great portion of the wall had collapsed, but it appeared to have been an outpost north of the city. the next thing was an ancient dry canal which came from the east by south-east, and we then found ourselves before rustam's abode. the photograph given in the illustration was taken as we approached the city and gives a good idea of the place as it appeared beyond the foreground of sand and salt. the place was in most wonderful preservation considering its age. there were four high towers to the north, the two central towers which protected the city gate being close together and more massive than the corner ones, which were circular and tapering towards the summit. the wall of the city was castellated and stood some feet high. the city gate, protected by an outer screen, was to the east, and was two-storeyed. it led directly into the main street of the city. i cannot do better than enumerate the characteristics of the city in the order in which i noticed them on my visit to it. a path, like a narrow platform, was visible all round half-way up inside the wall, as well as another on the top which gave access from one tower to another. there were no steps to reach the summit of the towers, but merely inclined planes. on entering the city gate--the only one--one came at once upon rustam's palace--a three-tiered domed structure with a great many lower annexes on its western and southern sides. a wall adjoining the city gate enclosed rustam's quarters, and had a large entrance cut into it leading to the dwelling. the various floors were reached by a series of tunnelled passages on inclined planes. rustam's favourite room was said to have been the top one, represented in the photograph facing page , where the outside of the two top storeys of the building can be seen. the domed room was well preserved, and had a sort of raised portion to sit upon. the ceiling was nicely ornamented with a frieze and a design of inverted angles. the room had four windows, and a number of slits in the north wall for ventilating purposes. it was a regular look-out house, commanding a fine view all round above the city wall of the great expanse of desert with its ancient cities to the east, and distant blue mountains to the west. there were a number of receptacles, some of which had been used for burning lights, and five doors leading into other rooms. these rooms, however, were not so well preserved--in fact, they had mostly collapsed, their side walls alone remaining. no wood had been used in the construction of the building and all the ceilings were vaulted. rustam's "compound," to use the handy word of the east, occupied about one-quarter of the area of the town and filled the entire south-east corner. besides the higher building it contained a great many side structures, with domes, unfortunately, only half-standing, and showing the same peculiarity as all the other domes in the city, _i.e._, they had all collapsed on the north side while the southern part was preserved. in the photograph facing page this is shown very clearly. this was, of course, due to the potent northerly winds. rustam's tall house and high walled enclosures can be seen in this photograph, some semi-collapsed domes of great proportions showing just above the high enclosing wall. a spacious court commanded by a raised passage from north to south--evidently for soldiers to patrol upon--was within the enclosure, and, in fact, rustam's premises formed a regular strong citadel within the city. on the ground floor, now considerably below the level of the street outside, was a long room, like a store-room. in the north wall it had a most wonderful arrangement of ventilating chambers, which made the room deliciously cool. these contrivances were like slits in the wall, with boxed-in channels, where a great draught was set up by the natural inflow and outflow of cooler and hotter air from above and under ground, and from in and out of the sun. a great many receptacles could be noticed in the lower portion of the wall, and also some low mangers, as if sheep had been kept here to supply meat for the inmates of the citadel in time of siege. next to this, with an entrance on the main street, was rustam's reception hall--a great big room with domes no less than feet high inside, but now fallen through in two places. there were doors on the south and north, and eleven receptacles specially constructed for lamps. these receptacles were rather quaint in their simple design. [illustration: receptacle for light.] all round rustam's palace the city wall was double, and strengthened with outside battlements. the same thing was noticeable in two portions of the city wall to the west and south sides. the city wall was irregular in shape, and impressed one as having been built at various epochs, and the city had the appearance of having been enlarged in comparatively recent times. there was a moat outside the wall, but in many places it had got filled up with sand. a glance at the plan which i drew of the city will give an idea of its shape. [illustration: the remains of the two upper storeys of rustam's house.] on the north side of the main street, opposite rustam's house, was a large stable, unroofed, and showing in the wall a number of mangers, which appeared as if a large number of horses had been kept. besides these there were in the western portion of the city quantities of domed roofs, very small, a few still perfect, but mostly fallen in on the northern side. the houses directly under the shelter of the northern wall were in the best preservation, and many of them were still almost entirely above ground. they were quadrangular or rectangular in shape, made of mud, and with a low door on the south side. the larger ones had ventilating channels with perforated slits in the north wall, like those in rustam's store-room, but all the houses were extremely small--an average of feet by feet. in the southern portion of the city, where exposed to the wind, the dwellings were deep-buried in sand, and hardly more than the domes remained above ground. there were, however, one or two higher buildings, presumably some of the better dwellings inhabited by rustam's officers. a portion of the south walls, which, curiously enough, had quadrangular towers instead of tapering circular ones, had collapsed, and so had the corresponding portion of the north wall. the city wall was of great interest, and even on the west side, where it was of less strength, was constructed in successive tiers, each of less than a man's height, and each with a path extending all along so that it could be remanned continuously in time of attack. when one man of the higher platform fell another could replace him immediately from the platform directly below. the towers were much higher than the wall. the city gate was of great strength, the two front towers being strengthened inwardly by a third quadrangular tower. a raised block under the gateway was said to be the execution place. this city, historians declare, was destroyed by bahram, who caused it to be burnt, but there is no evidence whatever in the buildings to show that a conflagration ever occurred in this place at all. in fact, it is rather difficult to understand how buildings entirely of mud could be burned. the city, it is said, was abandoned only about a century ago, when the sarbandi entered it by treachery and drove out the rais tribe. [illustration: rustam's city, showing rustam's house in citadel, also domed roofs blown in from the north.] a few hundred feet to the south outside the city wall are the remains of the stable of rustam's legendary gigantic horse. part of the high wall still stands up on the top of the section of a vault, but the greater portion of the building, which was evidently of great proportions, is now buried in sand. the exact spot is pointed out where the manger stood, and so is the point where the heel ropes of this famous horse were tied. this circumstance misled one traveller into stating in that "two hills, one mile apart to the south-west, denoted the places where the manger and the spot where the head of this famous horse were tied." this error has been copied faithfully by subsequent travellers, including very recent ones (see _journal of the royal geographical society_, february, , page ). there seemed little doubt that the huge building, of which the wall reproduced in the illustration made part, was a stable, and that it must have been of special importance could be seen by the elaborate cross pattern decorations on its outer face. the fragment of the wall stands over feet high, and to all appearance some twenty more feet of it are underground, buried by the sand. it had strong supports at its base. [illustration] the stable was most peculiarly shaped, ending in a sharp point at one end. another dry canal was noticeable to the west of the ruins which went from south to north, with a branch canal going due west. north-west and west were to be seen other ruined cities, one of which, with two high quadrangular towers, was approximately three miles distant. to the west on two hills were fortresses, but between these and rustam's city lay an immense graveyard (about one mile from sher-i-rustam), with graves above ground--mainly single ones, but also a few family ones in adjoining compartments. as we went along due west another ruined city was pointed out, zorap, a very ancient place, where bahram is said to have impaled the body of firamurz, rustam's son. we crossed two more dry canals of some magnitude, running parallel, which showed that in former days this now barren part of sistan must have been under flourishing cultivation. in fact, further on we came upon traces of houses and of extensive irrigation, the soil having quite a different appearance to the usual _lut_ where left untouched by human tools. [illustration: plan of sher-i-rustam.] we then came across what at first seemed a confused commotion of sand and mud, but its formation was very curious, and looked as if it covered an underlying city of great size. the surface sand seemed to reproduce to a certain extent the form of the structures that were down below, such as quadrangular buildings, walls, domes, etc. it was not the natural formation of sand on a natural ground. in one particular place a whole city wall with towers could be traced, just showing above ground, so perfectly rectangular that although covered by sand it would seem certain that a fortress must be buried under this spot. all around these particular suspected buried cities the sand is absolutely flat, and there would be no other plausible reason for this most extraordinary irregular accumulation of sand reproducing forms of walls, domes and towers against all the general rules of local sand accumulations, unless such obstacles existed below to compel the sand to accumulate in resemblance to them. this theory is strengthened too by the fact that, here and there, some of the higher buildings actually may be seen to project above ground. the sand mixed with salt had, on getting wet, become solid mud, baked hard by the sun. anybody interested in sand and its movements, its ways and process of accumulation, could not do better than take a trip to this part of sistan. little as one may care about sand, one is bound to get interested in its ways, and one point in its favour is that with a certain amount of logic and observation one can always understand why it has assumed a certain formation rather than another--a pleasing feature not always existing in all geological formations of the scenery one goes through. the great expanse of irregular surface soil, with its innumerable obstacles and undulations, was, of course, bound to give curious results in the sand accumulations south of it, where the sand could deposit itself in a more undisturbed fashion and was affected by purely natural causes. of course, sand hills do not accumulate in the flat desert unless some obstacle--a mere pebble, a tamarisk shrub, a ridge, or a stone, is the primary cause of the accumulation. in the present case, i think the greater number of sand hills had been caused by tamarisk shrubs arresting the sand along its flight southwards. to enumerate and analyse each sand hill--there were thousands and thousands--would take volumes. i will limit myself to the various most characteristic types of which i give diagrams. the absolutely conical type was here less noticeable, being too much exposed to the wind, which gradually corroded one side of each hill more than the other. whatever their shape, the highest point of the sand hills was in any case always to the north-east, the lower to the south-west. as can be seen by the diagram there were single hills and composite ones; there were well-rounded hills, semi-spherical hills, and then came the sand dunes, such as those on the right of our track, like long parallel walls of sand extending for great distances from east to west. [illustration: view of sher-i-rustam from rustam's house. (west portion of city under the lee of wall.)] one sand hill, feet high, quite semi-spherical, and with a solitary tamarisk tree on its top, rising some feet above all the others, was quite a landmark along this route. it marked a point from which to the east of our track we found more uniformity in the shape of the sand mounds, which were lower and all semi-spherical. to the west of the track, curiously enough, there were hardly any sand hills at all,--but this was due, i think, to the fact that tamarisk shrubs did not seem to flourish on the latter side, and therefore did not cause the sand to accumulate. several miles further, however, at a spot protected by high sand dunes, tamarisk trees were found growing, some being to feet high, and seeming quite luxuriant after the usual desert shrubs which hardly ever rise above two to three feet. sadek had purchased at warmal two big bottles of milk for my use, but as we had found no good water on the way and the heat of the sun was great, he could not resist the temptation, and had drunk it all. when i claimed it he professed that my cats had stolen it. a long jolting ride on the jumbaz camel produced the marvellous result that, although the cats had drunk the milk, sadek himself was attacked by indigestion caused by it. he seemed to suffer internal agony, and lay on his camel's hump doubled up with pain. he felt so very ill that he requested me to take him on my camel, and to let him exchange places with my driver. to my sorrow i consented. in a moment of temporary relief from the aching of his digestive organs he entered into one of his favourite geographical discussions. having for the twentieth time eradicated from his brain the notion that london and russia were not suburbs of bombay, he now wanted to know whether _yanki-dunia_ (by which glorified name the persians call the united states of america) were inside the "walls" of london city or outside! he had an idea that the earth was flat, and that london, bombay and russia were together on the extreme edge of it. the stars he believed to be lighted up nightly, as one would candles or paraffin lamps. fortunately, while explaining to me his extraordinary theory of how it was that the moon never appeared alike on two successive nights, he was again seized with another fearful attack, and tumbled off the camel. sadek was most unfortunate with animals. he was hated by them all. when he went near horses they would kick, buck and neigh as if a wolf had been at hand; mules stampeded at his sight; cats bolted as if he were about to beat them; and camels were restless and made most fearful noises of disapproval and distress at his approach. when he tried to get on and off, the kneeling camel would suddenly spring up again, causing him to fall, and when he did get on the saddle the vicious brutes would assume a most unusual and uncomfortable jerky motion, which bumped him to such an extent that he could not stand it long, and had to get off. the animals evidently did it purposely to get rid of him, for when i got on any of them they went beautifully. hence, whenever sadek wished to ride comfortably he always requested to change seats with my driver, who occupied the front seat on the hump of my camel. [illustration: view of sher-i-rustam from rustam's house. (south-east section of city.)] we had a glorious sunset on that evening, not unlike an aurora borealis, in brilliant rays of light radiating from a central point. the sun had already disappeared behind the blue mountain chain, and each bright vermilion ray had like a fish bone or like a peacock's feather, myriads of cross off-shoots in the shape of lighter sprays of light. there was a brilliant yellow glow which tinted the blue sky and made it appear of various gradations, from bright yellow at the lower portion to various delicate shades of green in the centre, blending again into a pure deep cobalt blue high up in the sky, and on this glorious background the feathery vermilion sprays shot up to half way across the celestial vault. other smaller sprays of vivid yellow light flared up in a crescent nearer the mountain edge. it was quite a glorious sight, unimpeded by the grand spread of sand in the foreground and a patch or two of humble tamarisks. the rapidity with which night descends upon the desert, is, as we noticed several times, quite amazing. there was hardly any twilight at all. in a few seconds this beautiful spectacle vanished as by enchantment, and was converted into a most mournful sight. the vermilion feathery sprays, now deprived of the sun's light upon them, were converted into so many gigantic black feathers--of rather funereal appearance--and the emerald green sky became of a dead leaden white. the deep blue, fringed with red and yellow, of the radiant mountains had now turned into a sombre, blackish-grey. about four miles before reaching girdi a track branches off, which avoids that place altogether, and rejoins the track again one mile south of girdi, thus saving a considerable detour. our march that day had been from warmal to mahommed raza-chah (altitude , feet), eight miles, and from that place to girdi-chah, twenty-eight miles. the track between the two latter stations was perfectly level, and on _jumbaz_ camels going at a good pace the journey had occupied eight hours and a half. on arriving at girdi (altitude , feet), the beluch _sawar_ whom i had taken as guide from mahommed raza chah, and my beluch driver had a most touching scene on meeting some beluch of a caravan travelling in the opposite direction to mine and camping at girdi for the night. the men hastily dismounted from their camels, put their heads together and pressed each the other's right hand, holding it on the heart. "it is my brother!" cried my camel man, and then followed another outburst of effusion on the brother's part, who seized my hand in both his and shook it heartily for a considerable time. the others followed suit. there is nothing that an afghan or a beluch likes better than a good hearty hand-shake. chapter xxvii girdi-chah, a desolate spot--its renowned water--post-houses and persian customs soldiers--nawar-chah and its well--the salt river shela--its course--beautiful colours in salt crystals--tamarisks--the kuh-i-malek-siah--the loftiest mountain--afghans--hormak, a picturesquely situated post station--a natural pyramid of rock--natural fortresses--the malek-siah ziarat--where three coveted countries meet--the hermit--the evolution of a sand hill--parallel sand dunes--in beluchistan--robat, the most north-easterly british post. girdi-chah (altitude , feet), a desolate spot in a desolate region, remains impressed in the minds of visitors merely and only for the vileness of its water. sadek brought me a glass of it for inspection, and it was so thick with salt and dirt that it resembled in colour and density a mixture of milk and coffee. in flavour i do not know what it was like because i would not drink it, but i induced sadek to try it and let me know, and he said that it tasted like salt, sand, and bad eggs mixed together. unluckily, sadek had omitted to fill the skins with good water at warmal, and after our long march of miles we should have been in a bad plight, had not the beluch men in charge of the other caravan offered us some good water from their supply to drink and cook with. the post station at girdi has a high wall round it, with two rooms for _sawars_, and one adjoining for their families, and grain shop. there are four watch towers at the corners of the wall of sun-dried bricks, and a path on the top to go from one tower to the other. a canal has been cut to drain as much rain water (the only water obtainable here) as possible into a small pond, but the pond was nearly dry and only had in it some filthy salt water densely mixed with camel refuse. it was of a ghastly green with patches of brown, and some spots of putrefaction in circular crowns of a whitish colour. the surface was coated with a deposit of sand, dirt and salt. a few yards from the british consular post-house stood a small hut in which two persian customs soldiers were stationed. they were picturesquely attired in peaked white turbans, long yellow coats, leather belts with powder and bullet pouches, and various other adjuncts. they were armed with long, old-fashioned matchlocks. these men and the postal _sawars_ complained of the terrible water--and no wonder!--but although they seemed painfully worn and thin it had not actually caused them any special illness so far. they generally laid in a small supply of better water from the well six miles off. on our way in that direction when we left the next morning we again saw in the distance to the east and south-east four or five ruined cities. tamarisk was plentiful and grew to quite a good height. we passed the post-house of nawar-chah with its well of fairly good water. the well was some three feet in diameter and water had been struck fifteen feet below the surface. the shelter, with a low mud enclosure round it, was very similar to the one at mahommed raza-chah. at each post-house one was generally greeted by a beluch cat with pointed ears, who came out in the hopes of getting a meal, then by picturesque, bronzed-faced beluch _sawars_, with luxuriant black hair and beard, and white turbans and cloaks. this being a minor station, there were only two _sawars_ and no animals, whereas at stations like girdi there were a _duffadar_ in charge, four _sawars_, two attendants, two camels and two horses. some three miles south-east of nawar more ruins could be seen, a small tower and three large square towers with north and south walls in great part blown down, but with eastern and western walls standing up to a great height. a separate domed building could also be observed a little way off. perhaps one of the most interesting natural sights on the journey to the beluchistan frontier was the great salt river--the shela--which we struck on that march, six miles from nawar. it was by far the largest river i had seen in persia, its channel being some yards wide in places. it came from the mountains to the south-west, where thick salt deposits are said to exist, and at the point where we crossed it its course was tortuous and the river made a sharp detour to the south-east. all along the watercourse extensive sediments of salt lined the edge of the water, and higher up, near the mountains, the water is said to be actually bridged over by salt deposits several inches thick. most interesting incrustations of salt were visible under the water, especially at the side of the stream, where, with the reverberation of the sun's rays, most beautiful effects of colour were obtained in the salt crystals. the following were the colours as they appeared from the edges of the stream downwards:--light brown, light green, emerald green, dark green, yellow, warm yellow, deep yellow, then the deep green of the limpid water. the river banks on which we travelled were about feet high above the actual stream, and owing to a huge diagonal crack across our track we had to deviate nearly half a mile in order to find a way where my camels could get across. the shela proceeds along a tortuous channel in a south-easterly direction, enters afghan territory, and loses itself, as we shall see, in the south-west afghan desert. it is said that when, which is now but rarely, the hamun-halmund is inundated, the overflow of water from the lake so formed finds its way by a natural channel into the shela, which it swells, and the joint waters flow as far as and fill the shela hamun or zirreh in afghanistan, which is at a lower level than the hamun-halmund. when i saw the lake in afghanistan, however, it was absolutely dry. the shela river had very large pools of deep water almost all along that part of it which is in sistan territory, but there was hardly any water flowing at all, so that nowadays in dry weather it loses itself in the sand long before reaching the depression in afghan territory, where, by the great salt deposits, it is evident that a lake may have formerly existed, but not now. after leaving the shela we were travelling again on the sandy _lut_, and not a blade of vegetation of any kind could be seen. we came to two tracks, one going south-west, the other due south. we followed the latter. as we got some miles further south a region of tamarisks began, and they got bigger and bigger as we went along. where some shelter existed from the north winds, the shrubs had developed into quite big trees, some measuring as much as feet in height. for a desert, this seemed to us quite a forest. near the well of salt water, half way ( miles) between the two postal stations, the tamarisks were quite thick. sixteen miles from nawar, however, some great sand dunes, like waves of a sea, extending from east to west, were again found, together with undulations of sand and gravel, and here tamarisks again became scarce. the track had been marked with cairns of stones at the sides. where the wind had full sway, the long sand banks, parallel to one another and very regular in their formation, appeared exactly like the waves of a stormy ocean. the track went towards the south-west, where one has to get round the point of afghanistan, which, projects west as far as the kuh-i-malek-siah (mountains). we were steering into what appeared at first a double row of mountains in a mountain mass generally called the malek-siah. to the west, however, on getting nearer we could count as many as four different ranges and two more to the east of us. the last range, beyond all of the four western ones, had in its s.s.w. some very high peaks which i should roughly estimate at about eight to ten thousand feet above the plain. due west there were also some high points rising approximately from six to seven thousand feet, and in front of these and nearest to the observer, a low hill range. a high even-topped range, like a whale's back, and not above , feet above the plain, had a conical hill on the highest part of its summit. the loftiest mountains were observed from south to south-west, and they, too, had a low hill barrier before them. many of the peaks were very sharply pointed, and highest of all stood a strange looking three-humped mountain ( ° w.) with a deep cut on its westerly side, and a pointed peak standing by it. the sand under foot had given place here to gravel and large pebbles, yellow, red, grey, white and green, all well rounded as if they had been rolled by water for many a mile. the underlying sand was cut into many channels by the action of water. we were some four miles off the mountainous mass. tamarisk was scarce and undersized. we were gradually rising on a slightly inclined plain, and on examining the ground one could not help thinking with what terrific force the torrents must come down--when they do come down--from the mountain sides which they drain before losing themselves in the sand. during abnormally rainy weather, no doubt, a good deal of this drainage forms an actual stream which goes to swell the river shela. its channel comes from hormak and flows first in a north-easterly then in an almost due easterly direction. we had intended stopping at hormak, thirty-two miles from girdi, our previous halting place, and we had been on the saddle from in the morning till . p.m., when we came across a lot of afghans with their camels, and they told us that we were on the wrong track for the post-house and well. it was very dark and we could not see where we were going, as the sand had covered up the track. we were among a lot of confused sand hills, and the high mountains stood directly in front like a formidable black barrier, their contour line just distinguishable against the sky. the camel driver, who had made me discharge the postal _sawar_ guide, because he was certain he knew the road well himself, was now at a loss. the afghans collected round us and yelled at the top of their voices that hormak was to the west of us, and the camel man insisted that the post house must surely be on the high track, on which we certainly seemed to have got again. i had ridden ahead, and after an anxious hour sadek, with all the luggage, and the second camel man arrived, and we decided to leave the track and try our luck among the mountains to the west. now, to find a little mud house, hidden in some sheltered spot among rocks and hills, on a dark night is not the easiest of matters. the camels stumbled among the big boulders when once we had got off the track, and we had to dismount and walk. as luck would have it, after going about half an hour we came to a nice spring of water, of which in the stillness of the night we could plainly hear the gurgling. guided by it, and a few feet above it in a sheltered position, we struck the post-house. the post-house has, of course, been built here (one mile away from the high track) because of this spring. there is a direct track to it which branches off the main track, about miles north, but we had missed this. the night was a very cold one--we were at , feet above sea level--and we lighted a big fire in the middle of the small mud room. as there was no outlet for the smoke except the door, in a few minutes the place got unbearably hot, and i had to clear out, but sadek and my camel men, who were regular salamanders, seemed to enjoy it and found it quite comfortable. there were two rooms, one occupied by the four postal _sawars_, the other by five persian customs employees. the two camels and two horses for the postal service were kept in the mud walled enclosure. hormak, when the sun rose, proved to be one of the most picturesquely situated stations on the entire route between sher-i-nasrya and nushki. it stood on a hill of sand and gravel in the centre of a basin of high reddish-brown mountains which screened it all round. there was an opening to the east which gave a glimpse of the desert extending into afghanistan, this station being not far from the border. our track was to the south-west, and wound round between handsome mountains. a strange high pyramid of rock stood on our way, and the sides of the mountains, where cut by the water, showed the interesting process of petrification in its various stages in the strata of the mountains. in hills of conical formation the centre was the first to become solidified, and where subsequent rain storms had washed away the coating around that had not yet become petrified curious rocky pillars were left standing bare on the landscape. we altered our course to due south along a river bed, and had high sand hills to our right. now that we were approaching beluchistan the track was well defined, and about feet broad, with sides marked by a row of stones. to the west of the track were a series of high sand walls (facing west) feet high, and some most peculiar red, pointed, conical hills rose above them on the east side of these walls. it was after reaching these peculiarly coloured hills that the track began a gradual descent. the highest point on the track was , feet. we passed a strange mount shaped like a mushroom, and the same formation could be noticed on a smaller scale in many other smaller hills, the lower portion of which had been corroded by wind or water or both, until the petrified centre of the hill remained like a stem supporting a rounded cap of semi-petrified earth above it. from the west there descended another water channel, quite dry. we next found ourselves in a large basin one mile across and with an outlet to the north-east, at which spot a square castle-shaped mountain stared us in the face. a similar fortress, also of natural formation, was to the south-south-west, and between these two the robat track was traced. another outlet existed to the south-east. to the west, north, east and south-east there were a great many sand-hills, and to the south-south-west high rugged mountains. a strong south-westerly gale was blowing and the sky was black and leaden with heavy clouds. we were caught in several heavy showers as we proceeded along a broad flat valley amid high and much broken-up black mountains (north-west) the innumerable sharp pointed peaks of which resembled the teeth of a saw. at their foot between them and our track stretched a long screen of sand accumulations--in this case facing north-west instead of west, the alteration in the direction being undoubtedly due to the effect of the mountains on the direction of the wind. to the east there were rocks of a bright cadmium yellow colour, some feet high, with deposits of sand and gravel on them as thick again ( feet). the mountains behind these rocks showed a similar formation, the yellow rock, however, rising to feet with rock above it of a blackish-violet colour, getting greenish towards the top where more exposed to the wind. the valley along which we were travelling averaged about yards wide, from the sand hills on one side to those on the other, and was at an incline, the eastern portion being much lower than the western. the yellow rocks at the side bore marks of having been subjected to the corrosive action of water, which must occasionally fill this gully to a great height during torrential rains. we came to a most interesting point--the malek siah ziarat, which in theory marks the point where the three coveted countries, _i.e._, persia, afghanistan and beluchistan, meet. the actual frontier, however, is on the summit of the watershed, a short distance to the east of the ziarat. this ziarat was a fine one, of the beluch pattern, not covered over by a building such as those, for instance, that we had found on kuh-i-kwajah. there seemed to be a fate against photographing these ziarats. it was only under the greatest disadvantages that i was ever able to photograph them. on this particular occasion i had hardly time to produce my camera before a downpour, such as i had seldom experienced, made it impossible to take a decent picture of it. there was a central tomb feet long, of big round white stones, supported on upright pillars of brown and green stone, and a white marble pillar at each end. circular white marble slabs were resting on the tomb itself, and a few feet from this tomb all round was a wall, feet high, of upright pillars, of brown and green stone, forming an oblong that measured feet by feet, with a walled entrance at its south-eastern extremity. an additional wall like a crescent protected the south-eastern end of the oblong, and due east in a line were three stone cairns with bundles of upright sticks fixed into them, on which hung rags of all colours. [illustration: plan of kuh-i-malek siah ziarat.] to the west of the tomb, between it and the enclosing wall, was a great collection of long sticks and tree branches--which must have been brought here from a great distance--and at their foot offerings of all sorts, such as goat-horns, ropes, leather bags, hair, stones, marble vessels, and numberless pieces of cloth. in the spring of each year, i am told, the beluch make a pilgrimage to this ziarat, and deposit some very quaint little dolls made with much symbolic anatomical detail. extending west, in the direction of mecca, from the main ziarat, were nine more stone cairns, most of them having a _panache_ of sticks and being divided into sets of three each, with a higher wall in the shape of crescents between. a second wall of round stones protected the north-west side of the ziarat. where it met the entrance way into the inner wall there was a much used sacrificial slab where sheep were beheaded. to the north-east of the ziarat were a number of cairns, and a small stone shelter in which lived a hermit. this old fanatic came out to greet us with unintelligible howls, carrying his vessel for alms, and a long stick to which a rag was attached. he touched us all on the head with it, which was meant as a blessing, and we gave him some silver pieces, which he said he did not want for himself, but for the ziarat. he wore chains like a prisoner. he appeared to be in an advanced stage of idiocy and _abrutissement_, caused by his lonely life in his feet cubic stone cabin among the desolate malek-siah mountains. having at this place rounded the most westerly point of the afghan frontier we turned due east on a tortuous but well defined track. at this point began the actual british road, and being from this point under british supervision it was well kept, and made extremely easy for camel and horse traffic. three miles from the ziarat the sand hills began to get smaller and smaller to the west, but still remained high to the east. one was particularly struck by the peculiar formation of the mountains. to the west they formed a continuous rugged, irregularly topped chain, with sharp pointed peaks, whereas to the east we had isolated, single domed hills all well rounded and smooth. where the track turns sharply south-east we entered a vast basin with picturesque high mountains to the south and north, and a series of single well-rounded mounds in front of them, rising from one to two thousand feet above the plain. on nearing robat one finds the scenery plainly illustrating the entire evolution of a small sand hill into a high mountain. we have the tiny mounds of sand, only a few inches high, clogged round tamarisk shrubs, then further higher and higher mounds, until they spread out so far that two, three, or more blend together, forming a low bank, and then banks increase to high dunes feet, feet, feet high. these grow higher and higher still; the sand below is compressed by the weight above; water exercises its petrifying influence from the base upward, and from the centre outward, and more sand accumulates on the upper surface until they become actual hill ranges of a compact shale-like formation in horizontal strata, each stratum being slightly less hardened than the underlying, and each showing plainly defined the actions of water and sun to which they were exposed when uppermost. then, above these hills, further accumulations have formed, which solidifying in turn have in the course of centuries become high mountains. they have, however, never lost the characteristics of the little primary accumulation against the humble tamarisk, to which they still bear, on a large scale, the closest resemblance. we passed a great many parallel sand dunes, feet high, east and west of our track, and went through a cut in one of these sand banks, beyond which the sand hills had accumulated in a somewhat confused fashion upon a crescent-shaped area. they seemed of a more ancient formation than those to the west of the track, and had a great quantity of shingle upon them, which gave them a black and greenish appearance, while those to the west were of a light brown colour. the shingle in this case, i think, had not formed on the hillocks themselves, but had been washed and blown down from the high mountains to the east. we were now in the territory of beluchistan, and with a bounding heart--after the experience of persian rest-houses--we saw a nice clean square whitewashed bungalow standing on a high prominence under the shelter of a rugged mountain. this was robat, the furthermost british post in west beluchistan. although still some miles from the nearest railway i looked upon this spot as the end of my difficult travelling, and, taking into consideration the fact that most of that distance had to be performed across barren and practically uninhabited country, i found that i was not far wrong in my opinion. chapter xxviii the lahr kuh--robat _thana_ and bungalow--saïd khan--persian and beluch music, songs and dancing--beluch musical instruments--beluch melodies, love and war songs--comic songs--beluch voices--persian melodies--solo songs--ululations--persian instruments--castanets--persian and beluch dancing--the _chap_. south-west of robat (at ° bearings magnetic) stands a fine mountain, the lahr kuh, and from it descends a little stream flowing towards the north-east. there is a large _thana_ (fortified post-house) at robat of eight rooms and a spacious court for horses. a shop with grain and provisions is found here, and a post office with the familiar black board outside on which one was rather amused to read the usual postal notices in the english language stuck upon it--announcing queen victoria's death, notifying that the office would be closed on such and such bank holidays, and other public news. the quarters of the _jemadar_ and his seven levies, of the _duffadar_ and the postmaster, were enclosed in the high-walled _thana_ with its imposing entrance gate and four towers at the corners. beyond the _thana_ was the old resting place built of stone, with six rooms, but now rather in a tumbling-down condition. then last, but not least, of the buildings was the new bungalow, with a nice portico all round. it contained four spacious, lofty rooms with well-drawing chimneys. there were windows, but not yet with glass in them, and this was rather an advantage, because the air of the mountains was pure and better than would have been the shut-in atmosphere of a room. each room had a bathroom attached to it--but of course the bath had to be brought by the traveller himself. [illustration: saïd khan, duffadar and levies at the perso-beluch frontier port of robat.] this was one of two types of rest-houses which are being built by the british government for travellers on the nushki-robat route. the other kind was of similar architecture but with only two rooms instead of four. these bungalows were solidly built, well ventilated and excellent in every way--of course in relation to the country they were in. it was not proposed when they were put up to compete in comfort and _cuisine_ with the carlton hotel in london, that of ritz in paris, or the waldorf-astoria of new york. they were mere rest-houses for traders and travellers accustomed to that particular kind of travelling, and the british government ought to be greatly thanked for building these shelters at the principal halting-places on the route. only a few are completed yet between robat and nushki, but their construction is going ahead fast, and within the next year or so, if i understood right, they would all be ready to accommodate travellers. they were a great improvement on the old _thanas_, which, although comfortable enough, were not always quite so clean on account of natives using them. after travelling in persia, where one climbs down a good deal in one's ideas of luxury and comfort and is glad to put up even in the most modest hovels, it seemed to me quite the zenith of luxury and comfort to set foot inside a real whitewashed rest-house, with mats on the floor and a fire blazing in a real chimney. news had come that i should arrive that afternoon, and the levies with the _jemadar_ in their best clothes all turned out to receive me, which involved considerable hand-shaking and elaborate compliments, after which i was led into the room that had been prepared for me. saïd khan, who has been employed by the government to look after the postal arrangements and other political work on the persian side of the frontier, was also here parading with the others, as can be seen in the illustration. saïd khan was a tall, intelligent, black-bearded, fearless person, wearing a handsome black frock-coat, a mass of gold embroidery on the chest, and a beautiful silver-mounted sword--which, by the way, he wore in a sensible fashion slung across his shoulder; with his well-cut features, strong, almost fierce mouth, finely chiselled nostrils and eagle eyes he was quite a striking figure. the _duffadar_, who stood on his right hand, had a most honest and good-natured face, and he, too, looked very smart in his uniform, cartridge bandolier, silver-handled sword and enfield rifle. his men were also armed with this rifle which, although of old pattern, is very serviceable. with the exception of saïd khan, the people represented in the illustration formed the entire stationary male population of robat, but some small black tents could be seen in a gully a little way off inhabited by nomad beluch. on hearing that i was much interested in music, the _duffadar_, who was a bit of a musician himself, arranged a concert in which all the local talent took part. on this and many other later occasions i heard beluch music and singing and saw their dancing, and as i also heard a good deal of persian music while in persia i daresay a few words upon the music and dancing of the two countries will not be out of place. in many ways they are akin. a large instrument called the _dumbirah_ or _dambura_--something like an italian mandola--was produced which was handsomely carved and inlaid in silver. it had three strings, two of which were played as bass; on the third the air was twanged in double notes, as the thumb and first finger are held together, the first finger slightly forward, and an oscillation is given from the wrist to the hand in order to sound the note twice as it catches first in the thumb then in the first finger. the effect obtained is similar to that of the _occalilli_ of honolulu, or not unlike a mandoline, only with the beluch instrument the oscillations are slower. the movement of the favourite beluch melodies resembles that of a neapolitan tarantella, and these airs are generally more lively than melodies of most other asiatic people. endless variations are made on the same air according to the ability and temperament of the musician. the notes of the two bass strings of the instrument are never altered, but always give the same accompaniment on being twanged together with the violin string on which only the actual melody is picked out. there is then the _soroz_, a kind of violin made of a half pumpkin, which forms the sounding board, and a handle to it with four keys and four strings. it is played with a bow of horsehair. the other instruments in use are the _seranghi_, a kind of superior violin such as the two central ones represented in the full page illustration. it has no less than fourteen keys, is hollow and uncovered in its upper portion, but has a skin stretched in the lower half of its sounding case. it is also perforated underneath and is played with a bow called _gazer_. the _rabab_ is a larger wooden instrument of a somewhat elongated shape, and its lower portion is also covered by a tight sheepskin--the remainder of the uncovered wood being prettily inlaid with silver and bone. this instrument is twanged with the fingers and has eighteen _killi_ or keys, twelve with metal strings and six with gut strings. the _surna_, or flute, is made of bamboo with a brass funnel. the mouthpiece is very ingenious, made of crushed cane fastened into a cup which is firmly applied to the lips, thus preventing any wind escaping at the sides. it certainly gives a very piercing sound when played loud. the _dohl_, or drum, was also of wood with sheepskins drawn tight at the two ends while wet, rolled up all round the rims of the apertures, and kept in position by leather strips. [illustration: beluch musicians (at sibi.)] besides these the beluch shows much ingenuity in improvising musical instruments to accompany his songs, out of any article which will give some sound, such as his rifle rod, which he balances on a bit of string and taps upon with the blade of his knife, or two pieces of wood which he uses as castanets, and, failing all these, snapping his fingers and keeping time with the melody. there is a certain weird, barbaric charm in beluch melodies, and, unlike the persian, the beluch possesses a very keen ear, in fact, a thorough musical ear, even according to our rules of harmony. to an unthoughtful european there may indeed be a certain monotony in beluch melodies, but never a grating discord which will set one's teeth on edge. monotony in music, or rather, a repetition of the same melody until it becomes monotonous, is, rather than otherwise--if one comes to think of it--a fault on the right side, for if a melody is repeated time after time it means that the people themselves like it and appreciate it. there is no doubt that anybody with an unspoilt musical ear rather fancies listening over and over again to a melody which appeals to him--and we need not go as far as beluchistan to be convinced of this--for we ourselves have been known to take fancies to songs of so high a standard as _ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay_, _the honeysuckle and the bee_, &c., and we hum them while soaking in our morning tub, we whistle them as we go down to breakfast, we strum them on the piano after breakfast, we hear them rattled outside by a barrel organ, as many times as there are forthcoming pennies from windows, while we are having lunch, we hear them pathetically sung at afternoon parties by hired entertainers, bands play them in the restaurants during dinner, and we hear them in the theatres, in music halls, and everywhere,--so that we cannot very well blame others for the monotony of their melodies since we largely follow the same course as theirs. the beluch plays and sings because it gives him real pleasure, and he is quite carried away by his music. certain notes and combinations of notes, especially such as are very high and shrill, but in good tune, seem to go straight to his heart, and he revels in them. when singing, therefore, he prefers to sing in falsetto--as high as the furthest strain of his voice permits--and having worked himself into a semi-dazed state gradually descends to low deep notes, which by contrast appeal to him and not only give balance and character to his melody but produce quite a good harmonious effect. the low notes, however, are never ejaculated, but hummed, almost buzzed, with a vibration in the voice which is most melodious. the sound is like an indefinite letter u. the beginning of a song is somewhat sudden and startling, and usually too loud, as if the singer had not properly gauged the extent of his voice in relation to the instrumental accompaniment, but he soon manages to get in most perfect unison with the melody of the dambura and the violin or other instruments, except in cases of singers endowed with extra musical genius, when they will go on improvising by the hour, using the theme as a guide. they generally sing in a minor key, with pretty refrains at the end of each bar. [illustration] the most common and favourite air is the above on which elaborate variations are added. the beluch singer seldom changes from minor into major or from one key into another, but he is very fond of repeating the same melody in all the octaves within the utmost limits of the compass of his voice. it is considered a feat in singing to hold a note for an interminable time, as also to go through the greater portion of the melody without taking breath, and it really seemed extraordinary that some of the singers did not break a blood vessel in the process. the eyes of the performers got so swollen and almost shooting out of the head with holding the notes so long, and the veins of the temples and arteries in the neck swelled to such an extent as to cause serious apprehension. on one occasion i heard an improvised song with the accompaniment of the _soroz_ (violin) only. this time--an exception in my experience--the song was given in a deep, low, nasal voice, each note being tremulous and held on for several minutes in a most plaintive manner. some of the love songs were quite pathetic and touching, and in the war songs, the grievances were poured forth very plaintively with an accompaniment of strings and drums and burst out suddenly into fire and anger. at this point, when the musicians were carried away by the martial words of the song, the instrumental accompaniment became next to diabolical. it was very inspiriting, no doubt, and made them feel very war-like. the din was certainly such as might have turned any man into a fighter. love songs, in which the singer imitated women's voices to perfection, were really most graceful and sad, and quite interesting were the musical recitatives with violin accompaniments which the beluch render in quite a masterly way. then there was the comic song--quick-timed and full of life--much too full and too comic to appeal to a european, and so fully illustrated that personally, i infinitely preferred the more melancholic ones which had more music in them. duets and trios were occasionally attempted with quite good results, except that there always seemed to be a competition as to who should start highest, and this had occasionally a grating effect. the beluch possess most soft musical voices, well-rounded and graceful, quite a contrast even in mere conversation to those of their neighbours the persians or the afghans; but the character of the beluch songs and music is not dissimilar from the persian, and both betray a markedly arab origin. in persian songs, too, an _andante_ movement with chorus joining in every few bars frequently occurs, but in the persian chorus we generally find a liking for chromatic diminuendos and crescendos, which are not so frequent in beluch music. persian music is inspiriting. there are certain musical notes the vibrations of which seem to go to the heart more than others, and on these notes the persian musician will work his melody. sad love songs in a falsetto voice are prevalent, and are sung so high that, as with the beluch, it makes one really quite anxious for the safety of the singer. the notes are kept on so long and the melody repeated so often, that the artery and veins in the singer's neck and temples bulge out in a most abnormal manner. there is no actual end to a persian melody, which terminates with the exhaustion of the singer, or abruptly by the sign of the hearers who get tired of it. the musicians every now and then join in the chorus and repeat the refrain. tenor solo songs by boys are much appreciated, and these, too, are very plaintive with frequent scales in them and certain notes held long at the end of each bar where the chorus join in. these sustained notes have modulations in them with infinitesimal fractions of tones. ululations with long, nasal, interminable notes and capricious variations at the fancy of the singer, but based on some popular theme are also much liked by persians. more than in anything else, however, the persian, like the beluch, delights in tremulous notes, of which he makes ample use in his melodies. the rhythm of persian and beluch music is much alike, although as far as instrumental execution goes the persian surpasses the beluch, having a greater variety in his orchestra and the instruments being more perfectly constructed. the _santurie_, for instance, a kind of zither, with eighteen sets of three strings each, is a most harmonious instrument from which beautiful effects can be obtained by the player. the _thar_> a sort of guitar, has four keys and is played with a plectrum, and the _kermanche_, _cynthour_, _tchogor_, _the tchaminioho_--the latter, a circular instrument covered by a skin, with one metal and two gut strings, on a long metal stand, is played with a bow;--the _dumbuk_ (drum), with only one skin pasted round its single aperture, the lower part being solid; the flute pure and proper, with five apertures on one side and one on the other, on which very low clear notes are obtained, and a pretty tremolo,--and other instruments of minor importance, are all employed in persia. the persians are masters at playing the drum. most marvellous effects are obtained by them. they hold the drum on the left leg with the left arm resting on it, and tap it with the tips of their fingers round its edge. for broader notes it is struck with the palm of the hand. soft, gentle notes as well as the rumbling sound in good time with the air they accompany, are extracted from the instrument, so fast in its vibrations as to produce a continuous sound that one would never believe came from a drum. [illustration: beluch dance (at sibi.)] metallic castanets are used both by the persian and beluch in the dancing, and it is usually the dancers--one or more boys--who play them. many of the songs and melodies i heard in persia reminded me very forcibly of spanish melodies, which, like these, are undoubtedly of arab origin. whatever fault one may find with persian or beluch music, one cannot say that the performers do not play with an immense deal of feeling and _entrain_--a quality (the primary one, to my mind,) in music often lacking in musicians nearer home, but never in orientals. the dancing, both persian and beluch, is not so interesting. it is usually executed by effeminate long-haired boys generally dressed in a long pleated coat with a tight belt, and wearing a number of metal bells attached to the ankles. the persian is probably the more lascivious of the two in his movements, and, having begun by throwing his long shock of hair backwards twirls round gracefully enough, keeping good time with the music. this is merely a feat of endurance, resembling the dancing or spinning dervishes of egypt, and generally ends by the dancer suddenly squatting down upon the floor with his flowing gown fully expanded in a circle around him. the skill of the dancer is shown most in successive dances, such as the slow progression by merely twisting the feet to right and left, occasionally varied by raising one foot directly above the other, then throwing the head far back and the body in a strained curve, with arms raised fluttering like a flying bird, while the song to which he dances imitates a nightingale. contortions and suggestive waist movements are much indulged in persian dancing, as well as throwing the body backwards with the hands almost touching the ground behind and walking while in this position--not unlike an exaggerated form of the "cake-walk" of our american cousins. each dance is closed by the dancer throwing himself down upon his knees in front of the musicians, or in turn before each of the spectators. beluch dancing was very similar, although much simpler. the two photographs, reproduced in the illustrations, which i took at sibi, show one a row of beluch musicians, the other a beluch boy in the act of dancing a sort of toe-and-heel dance, in which with extended arms he gradually fluttered round, keeping time with the music. in some of the quicker movements he either snapped his fingers or used wooden castanets, or held the pleated skirt of his coat fully extended like butterfly wings. there was very little variation to his dancing which, like the persian was more a feat of endurance and speed than a graceful performance. the ankle did most of the work. [illustration: the beluch-afghan boundary cairn and malek-siah mountains in background.] somewhat more wild and primitive was the _chap_ which i witnessed at a camp in north-west beluchistan. it consisted in swinging the body from right to left, lifting up now one leg and then the other, and waving the head to and fro in a most violent manner. the beluch get much excited over this dance, which requires some degree of stubborn tenacity, and the spectators urge the dancer to continue when he shows signs of getting tired. all superfluous clothing is discarded in a most alarming manner at various stages of this performance, and the arms are flapped vigorously against the naked body which is made to sound like a drum. the performance is not allowed to stop until the dancer is quite exhausted, when he simply collapses in the arms of one of his friends. the musical accompaniment to this dance verges on the diabolical, the rhythm of what melody there is being interspersed with abundant howls, yells and snapping of fingers from the enthusiastic crowd all round. chapter xxix an excellent track--a quaint rock--a salt rivulet--laskerisha--mahommed raza-chah--beluch encampment--the horrors of photography--maternal love--a track to mirjawa--kirtaka--direct track to sher-i-nasrya--track to cabul--sand-hills--a wide river bed--a high yellow pillar--undulating track--ten sharp-pointed peaks. from robat (altitude , feet) we took the capital road which followed a dry river bed until we got quite away from the hills. when the track turned south-east a beautiful view of the afghan desert south of the halmund, was obtained to the north-east, while south-south-east ( °, bearings magnetic) stood a high peak, the saindak mount. we first skirted very rugged mountains to the south-west which were brilliant in colour and had many peaks fluted by water erosion. sand-hills gradually dwindled away, leaving long, flat-topped sand-banks invariably facing north. to the south was quite a high sand mountain. a quaint rock resembling a huge camel's head could be seen to our left above a hill. then, six miles from robat, sand-hills began again. the track here lay only a few yards from the afghan boundary which was marked by stone cairns, six feet high, painted white. to the south was a rugged chain of mountains with low sand-hills before it, and to the north across the afghan border could now be plainly seen the interesting salt deposit of god-i-zirreh, and another whose name i do not know. i crossed into afghan territory with the object of visiting them, and a description will be found in the next chapter. i returned into beluchistan to the spot, miles from robat, where a small salt rivulet swelled by tributaries, descends from the mountains to the south and west. when in flood this stream, which must be enormously enlarged, carries down a great quantity of tamarisk wood, much of which could be seen deposited a long distance from the water's normal banks. the road stretched in front of us in a perfectly straight line, with neat stone borders on either side, and one got so tired of seeing that line in front of one's nose that one welcomed the smallest change--even a slight ascent or a curve--in its endless, monotonous straightness. we came by and by to a little ascent--quite steep enough for camels. we could have easily avoided it by leaving the road and making a detour at the foot of the hill close to the afghan boundary. some caravans do. from the highest point of the road as we looked back to the north-north-west we saw behind us sand hills, that showed traces of being still much at the mercy of the wind. further behind, still north-north-west, was a high pointed peak, and then a long blue chain extending from south-west to north-east just rising out of the sand mist. the highest peaks were at the most extreme north-east point. then the mountains became lower and lower, and the horizon met the flat long line of the desert. a fine view of the afghan desert, with its two extensive salt deposits, can be obtained from laskerisha, a name given to a brackish well on the hill side ( , feet) with a ditch and hollow next to it for the convenience of camels. a triangular unroofed shelter has been erected some feet below the well on the hill slope, and other wells have been bored close by, the water of which is undrinkable. this was the highest point of the road , feet, on that march. before reaching it we saw a castle-like structure surmounting a peak of the mountain that we had been following to the south; there appeared to be actual windows in it, showing the light through, and a track leading up to it. unfortunately, the sun--quite blinding--was just behind it when i passed it, and i could not well ascertain with my telescope whether it was a natural formation of rock or a real ancient fortress, nor could i get any information on the subject from the natives, and it was too far out of my track for me to go and visit it. on our descent on the south-east side of the hill we came across semi-spherical sand mounds in great numbers; the mountains on our right were apparently of volcanic formation. they were very highly coloured, generally bright red with green summits; then there were mountains deep red all over, and further on stood one green from top to bottom, although there was not a thread of vegetation upon it. at the foot of the mountains on the edge of the desert were a few dried up tamarisks. we stopped at mahommed raza-chah, where there are five wells, three of good water and two brackish ones. there was a mere mud _thana_ at this place, but wood and bricks were being brought up to construct a bungalow. [illustration: rest house at mahommed raza chah overlooking afghan desert.] a number of beluch were encamped here in their little black tents, hardly five feet high, and with one side of the tent raised up on two sticks. the interior of the tents seemed to be a mass of rags and dirt, among which some primitive implements, such as a wooden pestle and mortar, for pounding wheat, and a bowl or two, could be detected. otherwise they were most miserable. the tents seemed mostly in the possession of women, children and decrepit old men, the younger folks seeking a livelier life further afield. it is often in the most humble places, however, that one finds unexpected charms. on the alarm being given that an intruding stranger was at hand the women hastily shut up all the tents, and a picturesque old fellow stalked me about, seeming to become extremely anxious when i was photographing, a proceeding which he did not quite understand. a young man on a camel was coming towards us singing, and inside one of the tents i heard a great commotion evidently caused by the approaching voice. an old woman, in fact, peeped out from a fissure and gave a powerful squeak. she leapt out excitedly, nearly tearing down the whole tent in the process, and, crying bitter tears, rushed with extended arms towards the camel man. the young fellow having hastily dismounted, a most touching scene of motherly affection ensued, for, as the old man explained to me, he was her son. the poor shrivelled creature threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fondly, first on one cheek and then upon the other, after which, having affectionately taken his face between her hands, she impressed another long, long kiss in the middle of his forehead. she caressed him to her heart's content, the boy looking quite pathetically graceful and reverent under the circumstances. a similar treatment was meted out to him by his sisters, and they all shed tears of delight at seeing one another. family affection, as well as affection among tribesmen, is indeed extraordinarily effusive and genuine among beluch of all classes. the women i saw at this camp wore a sort of long shirt with a sash, and had broad bead and shell bracelets round their wrists. mahommed raza-chah was , feet above sea level, and the track from this point went south east (to ° bearings magnetic). there was a _duffadar_ in charge of two stations with four _sawars_ and four camels. it was all one could do upon this road to find anything of some interest, barring the geological formation of the country and the movement of the sand, which rather began to pall upon one after months of nothing else, and when one came across a patch of tamarisk trees a little taller than usual one could not take one's eyes off them, they seemed such interesting objects in the monotonous marches. twelve miles from mahommed raza, tamarisks seemed to flourish, for water was to be found some twenty feet below the surface. a well had been bored for the use of caravans, and the water was quite good. the track was somewhat undulating in this portion of the journey, rising, however, to no greater elevation than feet, but quite steep enough for camels. about eleven miles from mahommed raza-chah, a track diverged to mirjawa. one noticed on the mountains to our right (south-west) a superabundance of tamarisk, the cause of this abnormal vegetation being undoubtedly long streaks of moisture filtering through the sand. no actual water, however, was visible flowing, not even along a deep channel which bore the marks of having been cut by it, and in which salt deposits were to be seen on the surface soil. kirtaka, the next rest-house, was by no means an attractive place, but was interesting, inasmuch as, besides the track over the mountains leading to mirjawa, a direct route went from this point to sher-i-nasrya in sistan, which city could be reached in three days, by crossing afghan territory, and cutting off the long westerly detour via robat--the malek-siah; and yet another track to cabul, the capital of afghanistan, which could be reached in twenty days. the latter track was said to be absolutely waterless for the first three days' march, no wells and therefore no villages being found, but after three days, on striking the halmund, plenty of water, fuel, and food could be obtained, and plenty of people were to be met with. south-east of the old towered enclosure, which had five rooms, a new bungalow of two rooms and bathrooms, with kitchen buildings apart behind, was being built. it was sheltered by a rugged background of mountains of no great height, but picturesque enough and highly coloured when the sun shone upon them. being, however, well rounded and looking like petrified accumulations of sand, they did not quite compare in interest with the fantastic cutting edges of the malek-siah and neighbouring ranges. they formed the southern barrier to the beluchistan extension of the afghan desert. the altitude of kirtaka was , feet. there was a curious beluch grave here made of white stones with an edge of grey pebbles, and a circle round it, with a smaller outer kneeling place, such as may be seen in the numerous mesjids so common all over the country, the various styles of which will be duly described in a subsequent chapter. innumerable sand hills and, in fact, a long hill range some feet high stood to the west in front of the rocky mountains behind. these caused a great many ups and downs on the track, the principal heights i measured being: , feet, , feet, , feet ( miles from kirtaka), this latter altitude where the road lay close to the mountains. beyond this point the track was south-east ( ° bearings magnetic) with picturesque mountains on the east-south-east and high red sand hills in the east, one isolated high black hill lying in the desert beyond. a very pointed conical hill was noticeable, and another like a small replica of fujisan of japan fame. this latter hill was in afghan territory. a number of great rocky pillars stood upright above the hill tops. twelve miles from kirtaka we crossed a river bed feet wide, which lost itself in the afghan desert. then a mile further we came to another river bed. [illustration: beluch black tents at mahommed raza chah.] [illustration: rock pillar between kirtaka and saindak.] the track here (about miles from kirtaka) turned south-west following the river bed, then due south, where among the mountains we saw a huge pillar of a brilliant yellow colour and over feet high, standing up by the roadside. the illustration gives a fair idea of it. to the south-east in the direction of our track, which for a change was quite tortuous, were mounds of sand and debris. the red rock of the mountains seemed crumbling towards the east, whereas the hills to the west were well rounded and padded with sand and gravel. we went over a low pass , feet, and then along a flat basin with hills to the south-east, and outlets both to the south-east and east. we had descended to , feet, but had to go up another pass , feet, the highest we had so far encountered. innumerable yellow sand hills were before us to the north-north-east, and here we were on a sort of flat sandy plateau, three-quarters of a mile wide and a mile and a half long. ten sharp-pointed peaks could be counted to the south-south-east, high mountains were before us to the south-east, and a long range beyond them east-south-east. sand dunes, shaped like the back of a whale were to the east, and a remarkable spherical mount south-south-east directly in front of the ten peaks. we arrived at saindak. chapter xxx an excursion into afghanistan--the salt deposits of god-i-zirreh--sand hills--curious formation of hill range--barchans and how they are formed--alexander's march through the country--the water of godar-i-chah--afghans and their looks. the excursion which i made into afghan territory to the salt deposit of gaud- or god-i-zirreh, and a lower depression to the east of it, was of great interest to me. there are a great many theories regarding these former salt lakes, and it is not easy to say which is right and which is wrong. the general belief is that these lakes were formed by the overflow of the halmund swamp into the shela (river) which carried sufficient water not only to fill up the god-i-zirreh, but to overflow when this was full into the next depression east of the zirreh. there is no doubt that to a great extent this was the case, but these lakes were, i think, also fed more directly by several small streams descending from the mountains to the south and west of the zirreh, which form the watershed--and very probably also from the north by the halmund river itself. both lakes were dry and seemed to have been so for some time. the god-i-zirreh, forming now a great expanse of solid salt some miles long by or wide, extends in a long oval from west to east. the other lake was somewhat smaller. to the south of these salt deposits in the zones between them and the present afghan boundary, and forming the southern fringe of the afghan desert, the soil is covered with gravel and stones washed down from the mountain sides. very stony indeed is the desert towards the malek-siah end, then further north-east appear brown earth, shale, and sand. to the north of the lakes was a long line of bright yellow sand extending from west to east and broad enough towards the north to reach the bank of the river halmund. another shiny patch, which at first, from a distance, i had mistaken for another smaller lake, turned out on examination to be a stretch of polished shale which shone in the sun, and appeared like bluish water. stunted tamarisk grows in some parts but not in the immediate neighbourhood of the salt deposits. we have here instead a belt of myriads of small conical sand-hills, also spreading from west to east, quite low to the west and getting higher for several miles towards the east. in the south-west part of the desert, curiously enough, between the zone of conical hills and the salt deposits, and parallel to both, lies a row of semi-spherical sand and salt mounds of a whitish colour. to the east-south-east of the lakes the sand-hills rise to a great height and eventually form a high ridge, which for some reason or other is cut perpendicularly on its western side, possibly as the result of a volcanic commotion. of similar origin probably was the gigantic crack caused by an earthquake which we shall examine later on near nushki. in fact, both the crack at nushki and the collapse of the west side of this hill range, as well as a great portion of that deep crack in the earth's crest in which the shela flows, have very likely been formed by the same cause. they are within the same zone of volcanic formation. in the particular case of this hill range in afghanistan the collapse did not appear to me to be due to the action of water, but to a sudden crumbling which had caused a very sharp vertical cut. [illustration: sand hills.] to the north of the salt wastes was another long belt of yellow sand extending for some miles, upon which there was absolutely no vegetation, while intervening between the salt and this sand flat were numerous sand barchans, like horseshoes, with a gradual slope on the windward side (north) and a crescent hollow with a steep but not quite vertical bank on the lee side. i noticed all over persia, and in beluchistan as well as here, that these sand barchans, or barchanes, will only form on level ground--generally on extensive plains. all single sand hills, however, whether barchans, conical, semi-spherical, or of more irregular shapes, are invariably caused by a primary obstacle, however small, arresting the sand. various are the theories with regard to the formation of these barchans, and especially with regard to the formation of the hollow on the lee side. [illustration] the explanation from my own observation has--if no other--at least the merit of simplicity. the wind, on meeting the semi-circular back of the barchan, is diverted on the two sides of it; these two currents come into violent collision again on the lee-side, where, the air being more or less still, a considerable portion of the wind is forcibly driven back towards the barchan, corroding its side in a double rotatory way, each such circle having for a diameter the radius of the barchan crescent containing them. in fact in many barchans the sand ripples on the windward slopes cross the direction of the wind at right angles. a line of sand formed in the centre of the barchan crescent in the opposite direction to the wind is often to be seen during wind storms or soon after. i have also seen barchans, the inner crescent of which showed beyond doubt that when there is a prevalent wind from one side only, the above explanation, although less scientifically obscure and elaborate than most, applies, and, i think, it may eventually be found quite the most probable. the diagram here given will illustrate and, i hope, make quite clear the meaning of my words. in the centre of the crescent can be noticed the action of the parting wind currents. [illustration: a caravan of donkeys in afghanistan.] north of kirtaka was a very pointed high conical hill, and not far from it a small replica of fujisan in japan, so much were the lines like those of the japanese mountain. a great many of the drain channels from the mountains to the south extended very far into the desert and some as far as the god-i-zirreh. it is also very probable that in the days when sistan was a most populous region, with uninterrupted towns and villages along and near the halmund, numerous canals may have intersected the zirreh region and rendered it a very fertile plain. history would indeed point forcibly towards such a hypothesis. ample proof that the plain was inhabited still remains in the ruins of godar-i-chah, situated at the western limit of the zirreh salt deposits, chah-i-mardan, where a ruined fort and a ziarat are said to exist, gumbaz-i-chah, and others. all these places are now deserted and are being fast buried by the sand. they are mostly along the shela (river) banks, and the natives of sistan say that they have heard from their ancestors that when the shela did flow freely its water was quite drinkable. there was a well at godar-i-chah--hence its name, "the well of godar"--almost entirely dried up and of water so foul that it was not possible to drink it, and another just as bad was said to exist at gumbaz. it would be most interesting if one could get at the actual history of this part of the world and gain an insight into its former prosperity and civilisation. it is quite probable that alexander, in his progress through beluchistan and sistan, must have come through this country. no army--not even with a new craterus at its head--could, of course, march elephants, camels and horses through that country to-day, and this has led some critics to doubt that alexander could have done so, or to believe that, if he did so, he must have been deceived by his guides who tried to bring him as far as possible from water. but those critics forget that in alexander's days this portion of country was extremely civilised, fertile, and supplied with plenty of water--or else how can we account for the innumerable ruins we find there, and for the many canals for irrigation? sir charles mcgregor, goldsmid, bellew, major macmahon, napier, and one or two others who have visited the country north of the zirreh, can fully testify to the amazing remains of former prosperity in sistan and south-west afghanistan. sir charles mcgregor gives an amusing receipt for those who wish to know what the water at godar-i-chah is like without having the trouble of going there. "take the first nasty-looking water you can find. mix salt with it until it tastes as nasty as it looks, then impregnate it with gas from a london street lamp, and add a little bilge-water, shake vigorously and it is ready for use." major mcmahon also testifies to the accuracy of the above receipt, but, he adds, "it was not nearly so bad as much we found elsewhere." [illustration: in afghanistan. who are you?] [illustration: in the afghan desert. afghan caravan men.] the zirreh seemed just like a great stretch of country under snow, the thick salt sediment was so beautifully white. it formed a deep depression in the centre. the second deposits to the east of the zirreh were of a similar shape, with salt extremely thick, but not quite so extensive as in the zirreh. near the edge of both dry lakes there was absolutely no vegetation, but most beautifully coloured stones could be found, such as red and brown jasper and agatescent quartz, chalcedony, white and brown limestone. as i was returning towards the beluchistan boundary among the sand hills i came upon about a dozen afghans, who looked as suspiciously at me as i did at them. at first i thought they were soldiers, and as i did not much care to be caught by them and have my goods confiscated--no englishmen being allowed in their territory--i requested them to stop some way off and explain what they wanted, while i was snapshotting them. they had a great big white fluffy dog with them who seemed very anxious to have a go at the sahib. one man was asked to come forward alone, which he did with his turban right over his eyes, while the others formed a line behind and appeared most puzzled as to what was going to happen. he said they were glad to see me in their country and that they were "good people," and would not injure nor trouble me in any way; so i gave them a small present, which seemed to please them much, and they became quite friendly. they seemed to have some coarse humour about them and were rather boisterous. their faces, however, did not quite appeal to me. the afghan invariably has a slippery, treacherous look about his countenance which he cannot disguise, and which, personally, i do not much admire. he seldom looks at one straight in the face, can be very sullen when he is not boisterous, and i should think would easily seek cause of offence and pick a quarrel with any one weaker than himself in order to have a fight. these fellows were, for instance, most unlike the gentlemanly beluch. they shouted at the top of their voices when they spoke, and were uncouth in speech and manner. i was rather glad when they departed. further on i came upon more people and animals, but they, too, were quite peaceful. having accomplished my object i again crossed over into beluchistan. chapter xxxi saindak--beluch prisoners--thana and bungalow--beluch bread--the saindak mountain and its mineral resources--the daftan volcano--_surmah_ and lead--mukak and its strong man--a sick camel--gypsum--_regheth_--where the track will deviate in future--difficulty in obtaining drinkable water--wells made attractive--sahib chah--a well ventilated rest-house. saindak had an imposing _thana_, the elaborate gateway of which was decorated with heads of wild sheep and _dumbahs_. there were nine rooms--some boasting of wooden doors--at the end of the large court, but all were occupied by the seven _sawars_, the postal _moonshee_, the three _kassildars_ and the _havildar_, one _duffadar_, and one _jemadar_. [illustration: the thana and new bungalow at saindak. (saindak mt. in background.)] on my arrival they proceeded to clear one of the chambers for me, and to my astonishment out of it came four wretched men chained together by the hands and feet and in a pitiable condition. not that their countenances, when one examined their faces, called for much pity. more palpably criminal types could be found nowhere, but somehow or other to see these poor devils stumbling along, with the iron rings round their bruised and sore ankles showing through the torn rags which covered their skeleton legs, and the agonized expressions on their worn, repulsively cruel faces, was not an edifying sight. they had been brought down here to work and, for prisoners, were treated considerately enough, i suppose. but they seemed very ill and suffering. two were robbers, the other two--father and son--had murdered a man and stolen sheep. they were condemned to captivity for life. i declined to put up in that room, especially when i happened to peep in and was nearly choked by the foul odour that emanated from inside, and preferred--although it was very cold--to inhabit the unroofed new two-roomed bungalow in course of construction, which i found really very comfortable. as can be seen by the photograph the thana and bungalow of saindak are built on rather an attractive site under the shelter of the saindak mountain. whenever i see a mountain i cannot resist the temptation to go up it, and now, after all the thousands of miles of flat country i had traversed, i felt this desire more strongly than ever. the ascent of the mountain presented no difficulty except that its rocky sides were somewhat steep. i resolved to go up early the next morning before making a start with my camels. in the meantime during the evening i was instructed by mahommed hussein, my camel man, in the beluch fashion of making bread--really a most ingenious device. a stone of moderate size, say inches in diameter and as round as can be found, is made red hot on the fire, and upon it a coating of paste--flour, water, and salt--is deposited evenly so as to make an envelope of paste one inch thick all over. three, four, five, or as many of these balls as required being made, they are placed in a circle near a blazing fire, so that the outside may get baked as well as the inside. when ready for consumption the balls are split open and the stones removed. the bread is really most excellent and resembles a biscuit. [illustration: beluch prisoners at saindak.] at saindak (altitude , feet) there are a number of wells, mostly very salt, but one has quite fair water, only slightly brackish. the water, however, had a peculiar taste of its own, as if it had gone through lead deposits, and, on mentioning this to some beluch they told me that lead was, in fact, found on the mountains just above this camp. having drunk two glasses of this water i was taken with bad internal pains, but i must in fairness own that i do not know whether to attribute this entirely to the water or to indiscreet consumption of an irresistible, extra rich plum-cake which the wonderful sadek now produced, much to my surprise and delight, from among my provisions. travellers, however, would do well to bring their own supply of water from kirtaka, if they are coming from robat, or from mukak, if travelling from quetta. the ascent to the summit of the saindak mountain well repays the traveller for the exertion of getting there, and that not only on account of its geological formation. looking over the lower mountains one obtained a magnificent view of the afghan desert as far as the eye could see, to the north-west and north-east, while to the west lay a mountain mass, the mirjawa mountains, and innumerable sand hills. to the south-south-west towered above everything the double-humped active volcano of kuh-i-daftan, with its snow-capped crater. it was smoking, notwithstanding the ridiculous theory entertained by some f.r.g.s. that volcanoes cannot exist so far south in the northern hemisphere! we saw this volcano for several days and it threw up considerable volumes of smoke. at night it occasionally had quite a glow above its crater. the volcano, i need not say, is in persian territory, and is some miles distant, as the crow flies, from saindak, although in the clear atmosphere it does not appear more than a few miles off. it is a most impressive mountain. parallel ridges of sand hills, facing east, were to be seen to the south-west of the saindak mountain, and then a wide flat plain, beyond which four successive mountain ranges, formed a powerful barrier. to the south-east also were high mountains. on the top of the mountain we came upon some of the holes that contain lead and _surmah_ or _surf_--a substance much used by women in persia, afghanistan, beluchistan and india for blackening the lashes and lower eyelids. surmah was plentiful enough, especially between two layers of perpendicular rock, and also in surface pebbles when split open. calcareous rock with galena was to be found, besides fragments of calcite, gypsum, and slag. it appeared that the natives must at some time have tried to exploit these mines in a primitive manner, for there were many holes bored all over the top of the mountain, and near them bits of coal embedded in slag. these excavations were generally bored in mounds of yellow earth, or, rather, the mounds were of that colour because of the earth which had been extracted from the borings, the colour of the surrounding earth and rock being grey and black. lead filaments in brittle layers were also noticeable mixed with the earth. two inches below the ground one found, on digging, a thick deposit of salt and gypsum. my camels with loads had made an early start, and on my returning to camp some three hours after their departure i proceeded to catch them up on my excellent _mari_. there was very little of interest on the march. we rose over a gentle incline, travelling due south upon undulating ground to an altitude of , feet, beyond which we descended into a flat basin with a broad outlet to the south-south-east, and another south-west by a narrow defile in the mountain range. we then crossed a broader plain, about two miles broad, with good grazing for camels, and here again, being well out in the open, we got a magnificent view of the daftan volcano (south-west) in all its splendour. we reached mukak ( , feet) in the afternoon, the distance from saindak being miles, yards, and, owing to my camels being tired, and the small beady plant called _regheth_--much cherished by camels--plentiful, we halted for the remainder of the day. at this place we found the usual _jemadar_, a _duffadar_, and four men, and were cordially received by the _palawan's_ moonshee, a nice fellow who wore a peaked turban of gigantic size, and a brown coat beautifully embroidered on the back and sleeves with violet-coloured silk. the embroidery, he informed me, took six years to make--it was not fully completed yet--and, on inquiring the cost of it, he said that it would certainly fetch as much as rupees ( _s._ _d._) when quite finished! the pattern on it was most cleverly designed and produced a graceful effect. on the middle of the sleeves were a number of superposed t's made of ribbon bands and with delicate ornamentations round them, such as little squares with radiating threads, a frieze going all round the arm, and parallel lines. on the back was a large triangle upside down, the base at the neck and the point downwards, joining at its lower end a square the inside of which was most elaborately embroidered. the _palawan_, or strong man, in charge of this station, was a man with a romantic history of his own, and perhaps the british government were very wise to employ him. he is said to possess enormous muscular strength, being able to perform such amazing feats as reducing to dust between his first finger and thumb a silver rupee by merely rubbing it once, or breaking any coin in two in his hands with the same ease that one would a biscuit. aïd mahommed, that was his name, was unfortunately absent on the day i passed through, so i was not able to witness his marvellous feats--of strength or palming(?)--and the accounts of his native admirers were not to be taken _au pied de la lettre_. mukak had six mud rooms, three roofed over and the others unroofed. water was plentiful but slightly brackish, and a salt rivulet, a few inches broad, irrigated a patch or two of cultivation below the rest house. among low hills, we rode away first due east from mukak, the track at a mile's distance rising to , feet, and we remained at this altitude for five miles. again on this march we obtained a glorious view (at ° b.m.) of the daftan volcano, with its two imposing white domes on the crater sides. we had then gone north-east for ½ miles, when, after rounding some sand hills, our track proceeded again due east. we had crossed a plain one mile broad and four and a half miles long, where there was good grazing (_regheth_) for camels, but no tamarisk. at the termination of the plateau, which rose some feet higher than the remainder of it, we commenced to descend by a gentle incline, having high hills to our left (north) and low hills to our right (south), the track being due east. to the north-east we had another long, straight, monotonous spread of fine sand and gravel in slight undulations, and to the south-west very low ranges of sand hills varying in height from feet to feet. before us on our left to bearings magnetic (e.e.s.e.) stood above the plain a pillar-shaped mound of enormous height resembling, from a distance, a semi-ruined tower, and south-south-east ( ° b.m.) another isolated red mountain with a sharp, needle-like point. other smaller rocks, of sugar-loaf form, were scattered about on our left. by the roadside an enormous boulder weighing several tons could be seen, the presence of which could not easily be accounted for unless it had been shot out by volcanic action. it was most unlike the formation of the rock in the immediate neighbourhood of it, and had all the appearance of having dropped at this place. the track again changed its course and now went to east-south-east, ( ° b.m.). my riding camel was taken very ill, and even mahommed's most affectionate language, and the caresses he bestowed on him as if the animal had been his dearest relation, had no appreciable effect upon his health. the animal evidently had a colic, caused, no doubt, by excessive eating of _regheth_ the previous day. he seemed to have the greatest trouble in dragging his legs along, and every now and then he languidly swung his head round and gave me a reproachful look, which undoubtedly meant "can't you see i am ill? i wish you would get off." well, i did get off, although walking in the desert is not a pleasure at any time, and when we arrived at the next well, after a dreadfully slow march, we proceeded to doctor up our long-necked patient. now, doctoring a camel is not an easy matter, for one cannot work on his imagination as doctors do on human beings. when a camel is ill, he is really ill. there was no mistake about the symptoms of his complaint, and after a consultation sadek, mahommed and i agreed that a strong solution of salt and water should be administered, which was easier said than done. while the poor brute lay with his long neck stretched upon the sand, moaning, groaning and breathing heavily, we mixed a bag of salt--all we had--with half a bucket of water, and after endless trouble--for our patient was most recalcitrant--poured the contents down his throat. [illustration: interior of rest house, mukak.] [illustration: the rest house at sahib chah.] we had some moments of great anxiety, for the animal was taken with a fit. he fell on his side, his legs quivered three or four times, and for one moment we really thought our remedy had killed him. the medicine, however, had the desired effect, and about an hour later the camel was again as lively as a cricket, and we were able to continue. the reader may perhaps gauge what the loss of a camel would have been when he is told that between sher-i-nasrya, sistan, and nushki--a journey of some miles--neither camels nor any other mode of conveyance are, under ordinary circumstances, to be procured. we passed a conical hill, by the roadside, which had thick deposits of gypsum on the south-east side of its base, while on the north-west side the process of petrification of the sand was fully illustrated. the thin surface layer when moist gets baked by the sun, and thus begins its process of solidification; then another layer of sand is deposited on it by the wind and undergoes the same process, forming the thin, horizontal strata so common in the section of all these hills. the lower strata get gradually harder and harder, but those nearer the surface can be easily crumbled into sand again by pressure between one's fingers. these were the main altitudes registered on the day's march: plain, , feet; miles from mukak, , feet; while a mile and a half further we had gone as low as , feet on a wide plain with undulations. the rocky mountain, when seen edgewise from a distance, had appeared like a tower; now, on approaching it on its broad side, its silhouette altered its semblance into that of an elongated crouching lion. great quantities of gypsum could be seen in layers under the sand and fragments that covered the surface. in places the ground was quite white as if with snow. the track, until we had passed the isolated "lion" mountain (about miles from mukak), maintained a direction of east, east-south-east, and south-east, but about a mile further, it turned sharply northwards in a bed of soft sand, between sand mounds to the north-east and a sand bank facing north, the top of which, full of humps, was not unlike a crocodile's back. to the right we had an open space where one got a view of the desert and mountains to the south, and then we wended our way, in zig-zag, among sand hills bearing no unusual characteristics, and travelled across a very sandy plain with clusters of _regheth_ here and there. this was one of the worst bits of the robat-nushki road. the sand was troublesome and the track absolutely obliterated by it in this portion. twenty-three miles, yards from mukak we arrived at sahib chah, a spot which no traveller is ever likely to forget, especially if a few drops of water from one of the wells are tasted. when the road was made it was very difficult to find drinkable water in this part, and this well--renowned all over beluchistan and sistan for its magic powers--has up to the present time been the only successful attempt; but i understand from captain webb-ware, who is in charge of the road, that he hopes to find or has found water further north, on the other side of the hill range, and that in future the traveller will be spared the good fortune of visiting this heavenly spot. most attractive iron troughs had been brought here and placed near the four wells, and up-to-date wooden windlasses had been erected on the edge of each well--conveniences that were not quite so common at the stations we had already passed. this may lead the unwary traveller to believe that the water of these wells must have some special charm. one well was, fortunately, absolutely dry. the water of two was so powerful in its lightning effects that unfortunate was the wretch who succumbed to the temptation of tasting it; while the water of the fourth well, one was told, was of a quite good drinking kind. i had been warned not to touch it, but my men and camels drank some and it had equally disastrous effects on men and beasts. sadek, who was requested to experiment and report on such occasions, thought his last hour had come, and he and the camel men moaned and groaned the greater part of the night. the water seemed not only saturated with salt, but tasted of lead and phosphorus, and was a most violent purgative. the rest-house could not be called luxurious; the reader is referred to the photograph i took of it facing page . it was roofless--which, personally, i did not mind--and the walls just high enough to screen one from the wind and sand. it was in two compartments, the wall of one being ½ feet high, and of the other about feet high, while feet by feet, and feet by feet were the respective dimensions of each section. the place lies in the middle of a valley amid hills of chalk or gypsum and deep soft sand, and is screened by a low hill range to the north-east and north, while a low flat-topped sand dune protects it on the south-west. the new track, i believe, will go north of the north-east range. chapter xxxii sick men and camels--what came of photographing sahib chah--losing the track--divided opinions--allah _versus_ the compass--sadek's way of locating positions--picked up hungry and thirsty by sensible mahommed who had come in search--curious scenery--trouble at mirjawa--mythical perso-beluch frontier--gypsum and limestone--mushki chah. as all my camels as well as my men had been very sick during the night; as we had a long march before us the following day, and as i wished to take a photograph of the place, i resolved not to leave until the sun had risen, and in order to avoid delay i despatched all the camels and loads, except my camera, at four o'clock in the morning, meaning to walk some ten or fifteen miles, and thus give my own camel a rest. sadek, who said it was not right for a servant to ride when his master walked, refused to go on with the caravan and insisted on remaining with me. when the camels left--there was a cutting northerly wind blowing raising clouds of sand--i retreated to the shelter to wait for the sun to rise, and had a few hours' sleep in a solitary blanket i had retained. the track had so far been so well defined that i never thought of asking mahommed which way it led out of these hills. the sun having risen, and the photograph of sahib chah shelter duly taken, we proceeded to catch up the camels, but a few yards from the shelter all signs of the track ceased, and even the footprints of my camels had been absolutely obliterated by the high wind of the morning. to the east-south-east were rather high rocky hills and two passes, one going round to the north-north-east (which apparently would take us away from our direction), and another east-south-east, which seemed more likely to be the right one. to mislead us more we saw what we believed to be faint camel tracks smothered in sand in this direction, so on we went, sinking in fine sand, which kept filling our shoes and made walking most uncomfortable. i climbed to the top of the rocky hill to reconnoitre, but higher hills stood all round barring the view, and i was none the wiser. on we went--certain that we were going wrong, but unable to find where the track was. among hundreds of sand hills, dunes, and high parallel hill ranges it was not easy to discover it. there were flat stretches of sand and parallel dunes several hundred feet high stretching from north by north-west to south by south-east, and as i knew the way must be east we had to go over them, down on the other side, only to be confronted with others before us like the waves of a stormy sea. the sun was scorching, and when the sand got hot, too, walking was most unpleasant. when we were not on sand while ascending the hill slopes and tops we were on cutting shale. sadek, who had not yet recovered from his previous night's experience at sahib chah, was still sick, and with the extra exertion somehow or other lost his head altogether. after having gone up and down, i should not like to say how many times, we were confronted by a flat valley to the south-west and more mountains to be crossed in the direction we were going, to the north-east. sadek thereupon maintained that the track must perforce be along the valley, to which i would not agree, and i insisted on keeping east, which i knew would bring us right in the end. as we climbed hill after hill, sadek dragged himself behind me with a discontented face, every few minutes glancing back at the distant flat valley to the south-west, to which he pointed, sighing: "good master, that's road!" but up and down we continued, away from it, eastwards, range after range of hills being left behind and more ranges standing in front of us. sadek, who was sweating under the weight of the rifle and camera, grumbled that he was ill and tired, hungry and thirsty, and it was very little consolation to think that from this spot, the two nearest wells of drinkable water were distant one about twenty-eight miles, the other over forty miles. we had nothing whatever with us to eat or drink. after some three hours of uncertainty--and i must confess that it was somewhat trying each time we had reached the top of a range, which we climbed with anxious enthusiasm, expecting to get a glimpse of the track, to find our view obstructed by yet another range, generally higher than the one on which we stood,--after hours of toiling, as i was saying, we now came to a rocky range about double the height of any we had climbed so far. sadek, on looking at it, declined to climb any more. he said he knew the track must be in the opposite direction and we should only have to climb all these hills back again. he sat down and puffed away at cigarettes to allay his hunger and thirst and soothe his temper, while i climbed to the highest point, some feet, above the point where i had left sadek. behold! on reaching the summit, beyond another range lower to the north, along a wide undulating plain i did discern a whitish streak like a chalk line stretching from west to east,--unmistakably the road. i signalled the news to sadek, and shouted to him to come up, which he most reluctantly did. when panting half-way up the hill, he still turned round to the south-west and disconsolately exclaimed, "no can be road, my good master. that is road!" (to the south-west). i ordered him to hurry up to my point of vantage and see for himself. "may be road, may be not road," was his obstinate verdict, when the white streak across the plain was triumphantly pointed out to him. "but, sadek, can you not see the white perfectly straight line stretching along, straighter than anything else around you?" "i can see plenty white lines, master. _up-stairs_ mountains, _down-stairs_ mountains"--(by which he meant gypsum strata on the top and foot of hills). "may be," he added, sarcastically, "all roads to shalkot (quetta)!" "can you not see that the white track leads exactly in the direction where my compass says we must go?" "pfff! compass no good!" he exclaimed with an air of amusing superiority, and he stooped to pick two pebbles of different colours. "take one of these in one hand, and one in the other," he asked of me. "now throw one towards the east and one towards the west." i having for curiosity's sake complied with his request, he gravely examined the discarded stones. "yes, sahib, your compass speaks truth! allah says yours is the right road!" on requesting an explanation of this novel method of locating positions, sadek looked very solemn, and with a pause, as if he were about to pour forth words of great wisdom, and disregarding altogether the fact that my efforts solely and simply were responsible for discovering the track, "you see, my master," he said, "one stone i called _good road_, the other i called _no road_. whichever stone you throw first is allah's wish. allah is more right than compass." at any rate the method was simple enough, and it fortunately happened that allah and my compass seemed in agreement on that occasion; so adding these circumstances to the more substantial fact that we could see the track plainly before us, we gaily descended from our lofty pinnacle, and with renewed vigour climbed the lower and last hill range, the last obstacle before us. in the trough between the two ranges, however, the fine sand was extremely nasty, almost as bad as quicksand, and we had some trouble in extricating ourselves. we sank into it almost up to the waist. we then crossed the broad plain in a diagonal for nearly four miles, and at last, after some seven hours of anxiety, not to speak of hunger and thirst, we struck the road again. sadek, who, notwithstanding allah's patent method, my compass bearings, and our combined eyesight, was not at all certain in his own heart that we should find the road that day, was so overcome with joy when he actually recognised my camel's footprints upon the sand, where not obliterated by the wind, that he collapsed upon the ground from fatigue and strain, and slept snoring sonorously for nearly two hours. as luck would have it, a beluch horseman travelling towards mushki-chah had overtaken my camels, and much to mahommed's astonishment, informed him that he had not seen the sahib on the road, so mahommed, fearing that something had happened, had the sense to turn back with two camels to try and find us. we were very glad of a lift when he arrived, and even more glad to partake of a hearty lunch, and a long, long drink of water, which although brackish tasted quite delicious, from one of the skins. the track was like a whitish streak on a sombre grey valley, with black hills scattered here and there, and a most peculiar dome-like hill on our left ( ° b.m.) towards the north. eastwards we could see a long flat high table mountain, not unlike kuh-i-kwajah of sistan. on our right were low, much broken-up hills; to the west, low sand hillocks, and facing us, north-east-east ( ° b.m.) a low black hill range standing in front of some high and very pointed peaks. to the south-east there was an open space. we made a diagonal crossing over several sand dunes that stood from to feet high, and extended to a great length southwards. then we approached the curious-domed hill. it was of a warm reddish-brown colour, with a yellow belt of sand at its base, and half-a-dozen sugar-loaf sand hills to the west of it. to the east of it rose the flat-topped plateau, yellowish at the two extremities, as one looked at it from this point, and black in the centre. on the north-east (at ° b.m.) was a pointed peak, perfectly conical. it was a very long march to mushki-chah, and we had a few mild excitements on the road. we came across some picturesque beluch, clothed in flowing white robes, and carrying long matchlocks with a fuse wound round the stock. they were extremely civil, all insisting on shaking hands in a most hearty fashion, and seeming very jolly after they had gravely gone through the elaborate salutation which always occupies a considerable time. further on we met a cavalcade, which included the naib tashildar of mirjawa, an afghan in british employ, and the _duffadar_ of dalbandin, the latter a most striking figure with long curly hair hanging over his shoulders. they were with some levies hastening to mirjawa, an important place, which, owing to the ridiculous fashion in which the perso-beluch commission under sir t. holdich had marked out the frontier, was now claimed both by persia and beluchistan as making part of their respective territories. when i was at the perso-beluch frontier there was much ado about this matter, and some trouble may be expected sooner or later. anybody who happens to know a few facts about the way in which the frontier line was drawn must regret that england should not employ upon such important missions sensible and capable men whose knowledge of the country is thorough. it would, no doubt, be very interesting to the public to be told in detail _exactly how_ the frontier was fixed, and whether sir t. holdich, who was in charge, _ever_ visited the whole frontier line. the government maps which existed at the time of the frontier demarcation were too inaccurate to be of any use, as has been proved over and over again to our sorrow. it would also be interesting to know whether the astronomical positions of some of the supposed principal points of the boundary have been accurately tested, and whether some points which had been corrected by really efficient officers have been omitted, if not suppressed, in order to cover certain discrepancies. and if so whether it was an expedient to avoid showing the weakness of the maps (on which certain names figure prominently) which were taken as a basis for the delineation? the facts are too commonly known by all the officers in beluchistan and by the foreign office in calcutta, as well as by persians, to be kept a secret. it is painful to have to register facts of this kind, but i most certainly think it is the duty of any englishman to expose the deeds of men who obtain high sounding posts and can only manage to keep them by intrigue and by suppressing the straightforward work of really able officers (which does not agree with theirs) to the eventual expense and loss of the country at large. as we went along, leaving the plain which we had crossed for some fifteen miles, we saw to the south-west large white patches like snow. these were made of gypsum and white limestone covering the ground. a curious long, low, flat hill, with hundreds of vertical black streaks at its base and a black summit, resembled a gigantic centipede crawling on the flat desert. at the eastern end of the long plain were mud-hills on the left side of the track, and black, isolated, rounded mounds on the right. to the south-east a very curious mountain could be seen, one side of which was of beautiful white and yellow marble, and from this spot we crossed hills of sand and gravel, and the track was more tortuous, but still travelling in a general direction of east-south-east ( ° b.m.) other mountains there were, entirely of white marble, and a great many beautifully tinted fragments of marble, as well as yellow alabaster, were strewn about abundantly upon the ground. we travelled among hillocks for about seven and a half miles, then emerged again into a plain with a hill range to our left, but nothing near us on the south. at the entrance of the valley on our left stood a curious high natural stone pillar. by moonlight, but with clouds fast gathering and threatening rain, we eventually reached mushki-chah at about ten in the evening, having travelled some miles. the distance by road from sahib chah would have been miles yards. here we found the remainder of my caravan which had arrived some hours previously. chapter xxxiii mushki-chah--a ziarat--beluch dwellings--the beluch and the camera--characteristics of beluch--three wells of good water at kundi--the kuh-i-sultan and the "spear of the sultan"--a big ziarat at kundi--nineteen hours on the saddle--tretoh--cold wind--parallel rows of sand barchans--startling effect of mirage--chah sandan--brahui salutation--belind khan and his good points--a respected officer--praying at the ziarat. mushki-chah ( , feet) is rather more interesting than other stations we had passed, because of the greater number of beluch one saw about. here, too, however, one's sojourning had to be curtailed, for unluckily the water was not only brackish--to which one does not object so much--but had a sulphurous taste, with a sickening smell--not dissimilar from that of an old-fashioned hospital ward, when the windows have not been opened for several days. otherwise it had no drawback. there were four filthy pools from which water was obtainable and which reminded us of a previous experience at girdi in sistan. the water of one well had a nasty green coating on the surface; the second was of a deep yellow colour. the other two wells were slightly cleaner but they, too, were of a suspicious colour--that of strong tea. a cluster of a dozen palm trees or so had grown near this water, and a little way beyond on a sand and gravel bank was a ziarat with a low surrounding wall of black stones. the ziarat was of an ovoid shape, it just missed being circular, about feet long and feet broad. an entrance had been made to the east and a sort of altar constructed to the west by north west--which is about the accurate direction of mecca from this spot. a high pole on which flew red, white, and blue rags was fixed into the altar. the altar--if one may call it so--was a mass of blocks of beautifully coloured marble. some pieces resembled the best sienna marble, others were capriciously streaked in white and dark brown; other large pieces were quite transparent and resembled large blocks of camphor or ice. others were more granular, like lumps of frozen snow. then there were some lovely bits of a greenish yellow marble and some brown. these beautiful stones and pieces of marble were brought to these ziarats from great distances by devotees. stones reduced by nature into queer shapes, hollowed for instance by the action of sand or water, perfectly spherical, or strikingly coloured were favourite offerings. at this particular ziarat, a small marble mortar with pestle and a marble hammer, occupied the most prominent place. a flint arrow head was also in evidence. further was perched a curious doll with a string and charm round its neck, and some chips of beautiful transparent streaked yellow marble like bits of lemon. from the pole hung a circle of wood and horns, as well as coarse wooden imitations of horned animals' skulls. offerings of palm leaves had also been deposited. west of the ziarat was a small semicircular mesjid of brown stone, with a few white marble pieces to the north by north-west, and, further, long heaps of stones extending in a north by north-west direction. the last one was in the shape of a grave with a high white stone pillar to the south. the new bungalow, of which the foundations were just being laid, will be erected near this ziarat. quite a number of beluch were settled at mushki-chah, and some lived in small quadrangular mud houses, with a black tent stretched over the walls to act as roof; or else they had put up coarse huts made of branches of tamarisk and thatched with palm tree leaves and tamarisk, in which they lived--apparently in the most abject poverty. yet, although these residences were often not higher than five or six feet, their owners did not lack pride. in beluchistan as in england, the home of a man is his castle. the beluch, however--most unlike the english--would not let anybody who did not belong to his creed go into it. the occupations of the stay-at-home people did not seem to have an excess of variety, and consisted mainly of plaiting fuses for their matchlocks, keeping the threads tightly stretched by means of a wooden bow. there were but few coarse implements inside their huts, and a bag or two with grain. a long matchlock and a sword or two lay in a corner in most dwellings, and that was about all. the house of the chief was somewhat more elaborate, having trunks of palm trees inserted vertically into the stone wall to strengthen it. it had a mud and stone enclosing wall, and trophies of heads of _dumbahs_ near the flat roof. in one room of this dwelling lived the family, in the other the animals. an out-of-door enclosure for horses was also noticeable. two mud huts were next to it. the thatched semispherical huts of palm tree leaves and tamarisk were also interesting, as was the windmill, identical with those already seen in sistan. on my arrival at mushki-chah two large tents had been placed at my disposal--the first time i had been under a tent on this journey--and i received a great many callers. a very amusing incident occurred when i asked an old beluch and his two sons to sit for their photographs. they put on a sarcastic smile and said they would rather die a natural death than be taken. the old man, who said he had heard all about "the black boxes," as he styled cameras, and all the mischief they could do, complained that since one or two sahibs had passed along the route carrying "black boxes" a great many beluch had been taken ill, had misfortunes of all kinds, and those who actually had the camera pointed at them had died from the effects. one sahib had offered him, personally, a bag of silver if he would only sit for his picture, but "no, sir, not i!" said the father, as he shook his head and scratched his beard; and "no, sir, not we!" echoed the grinning youths, "never shall we be taken!" before they knew where they were, and without any suspicion on their part, i had, by a dodge of my own, taken three photographs of them, the best of which is reproduced facing page . they were rather characteristic types of the lower class beluch of northern beluchistan. they possessed very quick, bright, shining eyes, dark complexions and long noses, very broad at the base. the mouth was generally the worst feature in their faces, the upper lip being drawn very tight over the teeth and giving rather a brutal expression to their countenances. the men were very powerfully built, thick-set, with ribs well covered with muscle and fat, powerful, coarse wrists and ankles, and square-shaped hands with short stumpy thumbs. [illustration: windmill at mushki chah.] [illustration: three beluch who would not be photographed!] their attire was simple; a sort of long white cotton blouse buttoned over the right shoulder and ample trousers of the same material. many, however, wore a felt "overcoat"--or rather, "overskin," for there was no other garment underneath. a white turban was worn wound round the head. a _duffadar_, six _sawars_ and six camels were stationed at mushki-chah. i left mushki-chah on january st at . a.m., my camels with loads having started some hours previously, and our way lay for eight miles due east, first over sand hills and undulations, then on a perfectly straight and level track. to the south we had a barren waste of flat desert. we then veered east-south-east ( ° b.m.), and fifteen miles off turned slightly further to the south-east ( ° b.m.). to the north-north-east we had a mountain range. on nearing kundi we found tamarisk plentiful and good grazing for camels. some of the tamarisk trees were feet high. the march was a very cold one, a north-north-west gale blowing fiercely and penetrating right through our clothes and flesh to the marrow of our bones. three wells of good water were found ¼ miles before reaching kundi. the rest-house was uninhabited and fast tumbling down. in miles , yards we had slightly risen to , feet, and this point is one which remains well impressed on one's mind, partly on account of the splendid view obtained of the sultan mountains to the north-east--a gloomy black mass with the highest peak of a light red colour. the kuh-i-sultan is a most weirdly fantastic mountain range. sir charles mcgregor, who saw these mountains from a distance, speaks of them as the "oddest-looking mountains he had ever seen." but the best description is that given by major a. h. macmahon, who was, i believe, the first european to explore the range. approaching it from the north he, too, was struck by the grotesque shape of its numerous sharp peaks; above all by the neza-i-sultan--"the spear of the sultan"--an enormous rocky pillar of hard conglomerate, roughly resembling a slender sugar-loaf with tapering summit, and precipitous sides, that rise on the crest line of the range. "the fissures," macmahon says, "made by rain and weather action down its sides give it a fluted appearance from a distance. we expected to find a high natural pillar, but were not prepared for the stupendous size of the reality. judging from its width at the base, which is over yards in diameter, the height must be no less than from to feet. the sultan, in whose honour this range is named, is an ancient mythical celebrity, who is said to be buried in the vicinity of the mountains. his full name is sultan-i-pir-khaisar, and he is the patron saint of beluch robbers. hence these mountains have a reputation as a robber resort. the sultan mountains abound in the assafoetida plant, and in the summer months traders come in numbers from afghanistan to collect it." i was in a great hurry to return to england, and could not afford the detour entailed by going near enough to photograph the "spear." besides, major macmahon gives a capital photograph of it in the _royal geographical society's journal_. at kundi, a big ziarat, with many trunks of tamarisk trees, some feet high, supporting bleached horns, has been erected to the kuh-i-sultan. hundreds of beautiful pieces of marble and alabaster of all sizes, colours and shapes have been deposited here, as usual, but the sand is fast covering the whole ziarat. from kundi the track, which has come in a south-east-east ( ° b.m.) direction, now turned sharply to north-east ( ° b.m.). ten high mud and stone _neshans_--or _tejia_ (cairns) as they are called by the beluch--have been erected to warn the traveller. four curious mounds with tufts of high tamarisk trees upon them are to be seen at kundi. there is fair grazing for camels all along. one is specially attracted by the peculiar stones corroded into all sorts of shapes, strewn all over the ground. we made a double march on that day, and--barring the quaint sultan mountains which we saw all along--had but a very flat uninteresting country all round. we arrived during the evening at tretoh, having been nineteen hours on the saddle. it was bitterly cold at night, the drop in the temperature being very great immediately after the sun went down. at this station, too, the water tasted very bad--almost undrinkable--but was not necessarily unwholesome. we were glad to get into the thana and light up a big fire in the centre of one of the mud rooms, but no sooner had we done this than it got so hot that i had to find a cooler abode in the new bungalow in course of construction, which had not yet a roof. it was always a marvel to me how the natives could stand the great heat in the rooms with no draught for the smoke and heat to get away. it positively roasted one alive, but my men seemed to revel in it. on the other hand they suffered from the cold to a degree that was also unaccountable to me. on many occasions i have heard my camel-driver moan from pain in his frozen toes and fingers, but, true enough, when out in the open desert the wind was rather penetrating, and his clothes, barring a waistcoat, consisted of thin white cotton garments. personally, i never had occasion to make a change in my tropical clothing (i could not if i had wanted to), nor did i ever once have to use an overcoat. but--i seldom know what it is to feel cold. we delayed our departure the next morning to see if the gale would abate, but at a.m. we had to venture out. one was rather at the mercy of the wind on the hump of the camel. it did blow! the wind hampered the camels greatly and was a nuisance all round, as one could only by an effort remain on the saddle. the flying sand filled one's eyes and ears, and the wind catching the brim of one's hat made such a hissing noise that one had to find a more comfortable headgear by wrapping up one's head in a blanket. the desert was here absolutely flat, with some grazing for camels (_kirri_). we were going north-east-east ( ° b.m.) amid low sand hillocks and sand banks, and the sultan mountain still on our left in all its glory. to the north-east ( ° b.m.) we had another mountain mass lower than the sultan and not nearly so picturesque, and before us, on going over a gentle incline some ft. above the level of the plain (about miles from tretoh), three long rows of bright yellow, flat-topped, crescent-shaped sand-hills stretching for several miles from north to south were disclosed. these three rows of barchans were parallel, and at intervals of about from yards to yards from one another. the barchans averaged from ft. to ft. in height. another row of them stretched along the foot of the mountain range to the north and extended from north-west to south-east. the cause of these extensive parallel rows of barchans was to be found in gaps in the hills to the north between the sultan, the next range, and two intervening obstacles in the shape of a low mound and a great rock, the sand being blown through the interstices and gradually accumulating in the plain on the south. on that march we saw a most extraordinary effect of mirage. to the east ( ° b.m.) the peculiar flat-topped gat (or gut) mountain, which looked like a gigantic lamp-shade, could be seen apparently suspended in the air. the illusion was perfect, and most startling to any one with teetotal habits. of course the optical illusion was caused by the different temperatures in the layers of air directly over the earth's surface and the one above it. where the two layers met they deviated at an angle, or practically interrupted what would, under ordinary circumstances, be direct rays of vision. (the same effect, in other words, as produced by placing a stick vertically in water.) the real horizon was obliterated, as well as the lower part of the mountain, by the white haze caused by the warm lower layer of air. some nineteen miles from tretoh, where the hill range to the north became low, a few sand hills were to be seen, then where another gap existed in the range yet another long row of barchans stretched southwards. a mile or so beyond this spot a long sand and gravel bank stretched across the plain from north-north-east to south-south-west and near chah sandan another similar bank existed, fifty feet high, parallel to the first. at chah sandan (altitude , ft.) we were most enthusiastically received by the _duffadar_, who was politeness itself. the beluch salutation is somewhat lengthy. in the ba-roh-iya or brahui language, as spoken in north beluchistan where i was travelling, it sounds thus:--"_shar joroz druakha joroz haire meretus me murev huaja khana_," after which the persons greeting seize each other's hands and raise them to the forehead, bowing low. inquiries follow about the _mulk_ or countries one has crossed on one's journey, and whether the people have treated one kindly. the _duffadar_ at chah sandan was an afghan, belind khan by name, and had the following good points about him. he was a most sportsmanlike fellow; was very bright, civil and intelligent, and owned chickens that laid delicious eggs. he possessed a beautiful dog to which he was passionately attached, and he and his brother had a greater capacity for tea than almost any men i have known. above all, belind khan had intense admiration for the british and what they did, and as for captain webb-ware, his superior officer, he pronounced him to be the greatest "bahadur" that ever lived. "even in my own country (afghanistan)," he exclaimed, raising his right hand in the air, "there is no 'bahadur' like him!" this was not pure flattery but it was truly meant, and it was most pleasant to find that such was the opinion, not only of belind khan, but of every one of captain webb-ware's subordinates on the entire length of the road from the frontier to quetta. there is a _thana_ of three rooms at chah sandan and a ziarat to the sultan mountain. i took a photograph of belind khan making his salaams in the ziarat, the altar of which was made of a pile of white marble pieces and rounded stones with sticks on which horns and a red rag had been fixed. chah sandan possessed three wells of excellent water. the distance from tretoh to chah sandan was miles yards. chapter xxxiv the picturesque gat mountain--strange-looking mountains--mirui--white covered country--sotag--desolate shed at chakal--the _karenghi rirri_ deadly plant--the mesjid or masit--their characteristics--the religion of beluch--sects--superstitions--the symbol of evil--a knife "possessed"--a beluch's idea of a filter. due east of chah sandan was the gat mountain, this time, as there was no mirage, duly resting upon the desert. it was a most attractive looking mountain, and quite one of the most striking sights in the scenery upon the nushki-robat road. five miles from chah sandan we again struck high, flat-topped sandbanks, and a great many conical sand hills. ten miles off we went through a cut in the hills near which are to be found a well of brackish water and a great many palm trees, of two kinds (_pish_ and _metah_). big tamarisks (_kirri_) were also abundant, and there was good grazing for camels, _regheth_ being plentiful. near the salt well stood a gigantic palm tree. we had come east-north-east ( ° b.m.) from chah sandan, and from this, our nearest point to the gat mountain, the track turned east-south-east ( ° b.m.). one really had to halt to look at the gat, it was so impressive. two enormous blocks of rock several hundred feet high, one, roughly speaking, of a quadrangular shape (to the north) and one rectangular (to the south), were joined on the east side by a perpendicular wall of solid rock. up to about two-thirds of the height of the mountain these huge blocks had accumulations of debris and sand, forming a slanting pad all round except on the west side, where there was a sort of hollow recess. there was a large plain with good camel grazing to the east-south-east, bounded from east to south by a semicircle of low hills. after leaving gat there was nothing of interest on the march. another extensive sand bank, feet high, forming the eastern part of the hilly semicircle above mentioned, was crossed, then we were in a barren valley. further on, however, after going over yet another sand dune (extending from north to south) we entered one more plain, this time absolutely covered with low palm trees. from this plain we began to rise in order to cross the hill range that stood before us, and here there were innumerable sand hills and sand banks, the latter facing north. near mirui one found one's self among strange-looking mountains, some like huge waves of sand, debris, and shale; one to the left, a huge flat-topped mass in horizontal well-marked strata, while further on was a third, a most perfect cone. behind this to the south lay a mass of lower pointed conical sand hills. mirui being one of the more important stages on the road, a most comfortable large bungalow has been erected here, like the one at robat, with four rooms and four bath rooms, kitchens, etc. the water is very good at this place; there is a shop with the usual supplies for caravans, and a staff consisting of a _jemadar_, a _duffadar_, one postal moonshee, seven _sawars_, four _hasildars_, one _havildar_. the bungalow at mirui is most picturesquely situated among the quaint mountains, and the six-roomed _thana_ some little distance below, against the mountain side, looks quite formidable. it not only has high towers at the corners of the wall, but possesses an additional watch tower erected on the top of the mountain, commanding a fine view of the country around. before it, surrounded by hills, spreads a valley from north to south, which the track crosses in a south-south-west direction among palms and plentiful high tamarisks. the bungalow stood at an altitude of , feet, the valley where the _thana_ was situated was one hundred feet lower ( , feet), and the steep although not high pass by which we left the valley , feet. a short zig-zag led us into a second valley with a sand bank barring our way directly in front to the south-east ( ° b.m.), the direction of the track. for a change we had high precipitous cliffs on the north and a low range of sand hills extending from north-north-east to south-south-west. two very lofty isolated peaks broke the monotony of the horizon line to the north-east (to ° and ° respectively). having crossed a third and a fourth plain, two barren, the other at the foot of a sandbank with plenty of tamarisk, the track, which for a short distance went east, turned suddenly to the north-east ( ° b.m.). we had now a great expanse of open country before us with abundant tamarisk, palm trees, and _eshwark_, which made capital grazing for camels. three high red mounds stood respectively to the south-east, south, and south-west, while almost north ( °) the two high pointed conical peaks we had observed on the previous march were again visible. on the south-east there was quite a high mountain range. this was a region of sand banks, all facing north, only one out of the lot spreading in a south-south-west direction, and of semi-spherical sand hills which were also numerous. on getting near sotag the sandy ground was so covered with gypsum that for some distance it looked just as if it had snowed. the photograph reproduced in the illustration gives a good idea of the scenery in that part. some three and a half miles from sotag a gap in the hills afforded a view of an extensive plain to the south, with innumerable reddish-yellow sand hills, and a range of high mountains far away beyond. from this point the track rises gently over an undulation about feet higher than the plain, and on the other side undulations continue, and nothing whatever is to be seen except the same range of hills to the south, with its peaks assuming pyramidical shapes toward the eastern portion. [illustration: ziarat at chah sandan. (belind khan salaaming.)] [illustration: desert covered with gypsum, near sotag.] we passed the salt well of jujiki about half way between the two stations, and arrived at the desolate shed of chakal at nine in the evening, where the thatched roofs of two out of three of the rooms had been torn down to supply fuel to travellers. there is only a salt well at this place, but some two miles off the road a well of good water has been dug, near which a new bungalow has been erected. but as we arrived late, having done a double march-- mirui to sotag miles , yards sotag to chakal " " -------------------- total miles , yards --and as i intended moreover continuing to dalbandin after three hours' rest, i did not avail myself of the convenience. we had carried a supply of good water with us. there was no wood here nor grazing for camels, but both fuel and food for the animals can be obtained at the bungalow. chakal was at the identical altitude of mirui, , feet. my camels with loads left at midnight, and some two hours later i followed. this was a most uninteresting march in a north-east by east ( °) direction with sand hills on either side of the track, and high distant mountains to the south--a red stretch of flat sand between extending all along from north-east to south-west. when there were no more sand hills we came to sand banks, which made the track undulating like a switchback railway. our attention was drawn to a curious plant with a fruit resembling small oranges lying upon the ground and called by the natives _karenghi rirri_. there were hundreds of these fruit about, but mahommed, who had great local botanical knowledge, advised me not to eat them because their poison was deadly, and we did not care to experiment in order to test the accuracy of his statement. all along this robat-nushki route one finds a great many _mesjids_ (or _masit_, as the word is pronounced by the beluch). the mesjid or masit is a sort of temporary praying spot where good mussulmans say their prayers at sunrise or sunset, and answers the purpose--if one may be allowed the expression--of an open-air mosque! the mesjid may be simple or elaborate, small or big, according to devoutness, patience and materials at hand, but its most frequent shape is circular, or at least more or less regularly curved, and its material, stones, or if stones are not obtainable, sand or mud banked up. looking to the west towards mecca is a stone higher than the others, and in the more elaborate mesjids, such as the one shown in the illustration, a proper kneeling-place to fit the knees is made on the western side, with a stone in the centre to mark the exact direction of mecca. a "revered tomb" is duly placed in the centre of the larger mesjids, and an entrance way into them bordered with stones is always present. to enter the mesjid by stepping over the ledge from any other side would be considered irreverent. the interior is always cleared of all stones and made as smooth as practicable. there are mesjids just big enough for one man, these being frequently made by caravan men to say their prayers; and there are large ones for the use of several people. the praying spot to the west is, however, generally only big enough for one at a time. [illustration: circular mesjid, with tomb and outer kneeling place.] [illustration: mesjid on the site where a man had been killed. (between kishingi and morad khan kella.)] then there are the more ornamental constructions which had a neatly made wall of white marble enclosed in a case of black stones, a high black pillar to the west and two small white marble ones by its side. the entrance in this case was to the east with a stone slab across it which was raised when entering the mesjid. one mesjid, or more, are generally to be found near burial places. occasionally i have seen large square or rectangular ones, but they are not quite so common as those of a rounded shape. in some cases the mesjid consists of a mere semicircle facing towards the west. the beluch, as every one knows, is a suni mussulman and nourishes a hatred for the shia sect, but although very observant of certain rites pertaining to the religion of mahommed, the beluch is not bigoted in religious matters, and this is probably due to the fact that _mullahs_, _saiyads_, _fakirs_ or other such religious officials and fanatics are seldom to be encountered among the beluch in northern beluchistan. far south in makran matters are different; the people are more fanatical, and several religious sects, such as the _rafais_--a sect which proves its faith in the prophet by self-inflicted tortures--the _khwajah_ and the _zikris_ are found, as well as the "_biadhiah_," who are despised as heretics by both suni and shia mussulmans, and who fully reciprocate the hatred. unlike other true mussulmans, these biadhiahs indulge in intoxicants and are very slack in religious observances. but the brahuis--with whom i mostly came in contact in the north--although not very strict, are certainly most reverent and generally not intemperate. they have no actual mosques wherein to go and pray, but worship in the improvised mesjids which i have described. in fact, the word _mesjid_ merely means "a place of worship." superstition is generally rampant in people leading a somewhat wild life of adventure. some of the legends of the good and evil _gins_, or spirits and _peris_, fairies, are very quaint. the belief in the magic power of spells and charms is also deeply rooted. captain webb-ware told me two rather amusing instances of superstition. one day he was out stalking in the hills near dalbandin, when he came across a snake (_ekis carinata_). the beluch shikars who were with him refused to go on and sat down for half an hour waiting for the evil influences--of which the snake was a palpable symbol--to vanish. on another occasion one of his men dropped his knife--a knife which, by the way, he had found on the road. the beluch got off his camel and stalked the knife as it lay on the ground, and when within a few feet of it he let fly a stone at it--or as near it as he could. this was, he explained, to hit and hurt the "pal" which was in the knife, by which he meant that the knife was "possessed," and a positive proof of it lay in the fact that he had dropped it on no less than three separate occasions. there was a certain humour in the remark made by a beluch at isa tahir to captain webb-ware when he saw the captain's servant, with an efficient filter, reduce the filthily slimy water of the only local pool into water as clear as crystal. he rushed to the captain in a state of great concern and anxiety. "sahib," he said, "do you know what your servant is doing? he is taking _all_ the colour, _all_ the strength, and _all_ the smell out of the water that you are going to drink!" chapter xxxv captain webb-ware, c.i.e.--the nushki route--an excellent track--bungalows built and in course of construction--the water--postal service--important government concession--the nushki route and the railways--hints to traders--quaint official formalities--pilgrims and their ways--an amusing incident. we arrived very early at dalbandin, the march from chakal being very short ( miles, yards) and easy. here i had the pleasure of meeting captain f. c. webb-ware, c.i.e., political assistant at chagai, and officer in charge of the nushki-robat road. not only has this officer devoted all his time and energy to making the road, but, being a man of means, he has personally gone to considerable expense to "push" the road and make it a success. it would not have been easy to find a more practical and sensible man to do the work, and, considering the difficulties he had to encounter, it is marvellous with what little expenditure he has obtained such excellent results. it is all very well for the usual newspaper critic--who generally does not know what he is writing about--to complain of this and complain of that, and declare that something should have been done in exactly the contrary way to the way in which it is done. in regard to this road, any one with any common sense must see that all that could have been done has been, or is being, done--and done well. [illustration: the type of thana and new bungalow between nushki and robat.] the road itself--for a desert road--is excellent in every way as far as the frontier, and some sort of shelter is to be found at every stage. of course the road has only just been opened and all the arrangements for the accommodation of travellers are not quite completed, but large comfortable bungalows had already been erected--as we have seen--at robat, mirui, and dalbandin, while smaller buildings of the same type will shortly be completed at mall, kuchaki chah, yadgar chah, sotag, and chah sandan. in addition to these, the erection of bungalows has been taken in hand at chakal, tretoh, mushki-chah, saindak, kirtaka, and mahommed raza chah, and it was anticipated that all these rest houses would be finished before the close of . owing to the great increase in the traffic upon the route, the accommodation at mall, yadgar chah, and karodak, has been nearly doubled, and two rooms added to the already extensive _thana_ at dalbandin, while the tretoh, mushki-chah, and mukak posts have been much enlarged and strengthened. on the persian territory the vice-consul in sistan has erected small shelters, which, although necessarily not quite so luxurious as those under the direct control of the british authorities, are yet quite good enough for any one to spend a a night in. we have thus a complete belt of rest-houses extending from quetta to sher-i-nasrya in sistan. every effort has been made to improve the water supply upon the road, and new wells are constantly being sunk. true, the water, all along the route, is not of the best, but one does not generally expect to find delicious sweet spring water in a desert. one thing is, nevertheless, certain, that the best has been made of given circumstances. barring the most trying section of the route (in beluchistan territory) between mukak and mushki-chah, where the water is really foul, the majority of wells may be more or less brackish, but, as i have said before, not necessarily unwholesome. in fact, i have a firm belief that brackish water is the water one should drink in the desert to keep healthy, and is the remedy provided by nature for the purpose of balancing other ill-effects produced by travelling over hot, sandy, dry, barren land. brackish water, however, should not be confounded nor classified with dirty water. there are post offices at the principal stations, such as robat, saindak, mirui, dalbandin and nushki, and a bi-weekly service links robat with quetta, the time taken to convey letters being now reduced to hours. a consular postal service in connection with this continues from robat, _via_ sher-i-nasrya, birjand to meshed. there is a parcel-post service, on the very convenient "value payable parcel system," as far as robat and sistan; but from england the post office will not take the responsibility of insured parcels beyond robat. the government has granted a most important concession--of great value to traders--by which money can be remitted to or received from either sher-i-nasrya (sistan) or birjand, through the consular treasury, under the charge of the vice-consul for sistan. messrs. mciver, mackenzie, & co., of karachi, and mr. duncan macbean, of the punjab bank, quetta, are prepared to act as forwarding agents for indian and persian firms, and the quetta branch of the punjab bank is further in business communication with the imperial bank of persia, which, as we have seen, has agencies in the principal cities of west persia and also in meshed. another concession, most important to the stimulation of trade by this overland route, has been granted by the north western railway in regard to goods despatched from karachi to quetta for export to persia by the nushki-robat route. from the st of april, , a rebate, equal to one-third of the freight paid, was given on all goods, such as tea, spices, piece-goods, iron, kerosene oil, sugar, brass and copper, etc., booked and carried from karachi to quetta for export to persia by the sistan route. the usual charges are to be paid on forwarding the goods, but on producing a certificate from the agency office at quetta that the goods have actually been despatched to persia, _via_ sistan, the amount of the rebate is refunded. from the st of may, , another concession came into effect, allowing a similar rebate of one-third of the actual freight paid on all goods received at quetta from persia by the sistan route (a certificate from the agency office at quetta being required to prove the fact), and despatched thence to karachi or kiamari, or to north-western railway stations in the punjab and north-west province, or to stations on connected lines. merchants despatching goods to persia by the nushki-route should be careful to have each of the original invoices of their goods attested by some qualified officer at the place from which the goods are despatched. by doing this they will find that their goods will be passed through the persian customs at the frontier with no trouble and no delay. the invoices should be clearly written in the english or french languages. the number of travellers along the nushki-sistan route is gradually increasing, several officers returning to england travelling by it; but i was assured that i was the first european who had travelled on that route in the opposite direction, viz, from england to quetta. only british subjects and persians, it is stated, are allowed to travel on this route, and some quaint instances of inconceivable official formality on the part of the government of india are cited. for instance, a german was allowed to travel by the route from quetta to sistan, but another german who wished at the same time to travel from sistan to quetta was arrested at the frontier, detained some two months in sistan, and permission refused. i myself had quite an amusing experience at a certain station with a travelling police officer, who was not aware of my coming, and seemed in a great state of mind, fearing that i should prove to be a russian spy! [illustration: the nushki-robat track.] the only thing to be regretted along this route, and one which i think will be a perpetual cause of friction and annoyance with the persians and russians--as i am sure it would be to us were we in their case--is that we should allow pilgrims to use this trade route in order to visit the sacred shrine of imam raza in meshed. the number is so fast increasing that it is proposed, i believe, to provide special accommodation for pilgrims at every stage between quetta and robat. now, there are pilgrims and pilgrims. some are no doubt well-to-do people and deserve to be looked after; but the greater number are decrepit, sickly fanatics, burdened with all sorts of ailments, whose wish it is to go and die and be buried in the vicinity of the sacred shrine. furthermore, not only do the living ones go and breathe their last in meshed (or more frequently upon the road), but among their personal luggage they try to bring over corpses of relations for interment in the holy burial place. the passage of corpses to persia through beluchistan is not permitted by the local government, but occasional attempts are made to smuggle them through, and it is not a very easy matter to detect them, not even by the smell of the corpses, which can be no worse than that of the living pilgrims. even at best these parties of pilgrims are a miserable, half-decomposed lot, with bundles of filthy rags. when anybody dies on the road, attempts--generally successful--are invariably made to bring the bodies along. that we have had, and still have, the plague in india is a matter we cannot very well hide; that the passage across the beluchistan and persian deserts should be a sufficient disinfectant as far as individuals go is also theoretically probable; but i am not certain that the theory would apply to the filthy rags and bedding. i would not speak so feelingly had i not seen these pilgrims myself. now, if we choose to allow these creatures to bring infection into other countries--and it must be remembered that if they do go to the shrine it is generally because they are infected with some complaint or other, or actually for the purpose of dying there--we ought not to grumble if the russians, who see their thickly populated territories of transcaspia threatened, enforce upon the persian officials the necessity of hampering the progress of such parties towards meshed. nor can we blame them if, when the persian authorities are unable to enforce stringent measures, they take matters into their own hands, whether in a strictly legal way or otherwise, in order to prevent these sickly hordes from coming towards their frontier. i am sure that if the sacred shrine were in british territory, and ailing russian pilgrims came over bringing bundles of badly-packed dead relations with them, the outcry in this country would be general, and we should soon put a stop to it. as it is, the provocation to hinder them is very great, while the benefit that we reap by letting these wretches through is rather difficult to detect; they are an expense to the government rather than otherwise, not to speak of the endless bother and annoyance they give our various officials on the road, for indeed, religious people, whether mussulman or christian or buddhist, can make themselves a nuisance for religion's sake. moreover, our caravans, following directly after these funereal parties, have occasionally fared badly at the hands of the alarmed natives. in sistan, major benn was telling me an amusing incident: one or two members of one of these fanatical parties died at the consulate; the local persian doctor pronounced it--or them--cases of plague, and the natives were scared to death for fear that the infection should spread; and one day when major and mrs. benn were peacefully riding along the city wall, a number of people with rifles collected upon the ramparts and fired a volley with actual bullets over their heads. it was explained afterwards that the intention was not to cause the riders any harm but merely to drive away the "spirits of infection" which hung over the consul, who had been with the pilgrims. there seems to be a belief that the intense cold of the winter, the terrific heat of the summer, and the torrential rains of the autumn, make the nushki route impracticable during the greater part of the year, but nothing could be further from the truth. one can travel on this route comfortably at almost any time of the year, except during the heavy rains, when the desert becomes a swamp and makes it impossible for camels to go on. in summer, of course, one has to travel at night, and in winter it is pleasanter travelling during the day. chapter xxxvi the beluch-afghan boundary--substantial advantages obtained--the afghans driven from chagai--who owns beluchistan?--how beluchistan is subdivided--treaties and engagements with the kahn of kelat--the _brahui_ and _nhauri_--when british political connection with kelat began--intrigue--the treaty of --the treaty stolen--kelat stormed by the british--a revolution--protection of caravans--treaty of --at the death of nasir khan--boundary matters settled in --a brahui rebellion--british mediation--a state of chaos--the marris and bugtis--reconciliation of the sardars with the khan of kelat--treaty of --british agents at the khan's court--railways and telegraphs--subsidies--british troops stationed in the country--major sandeman, agent to the governor-general--the agreement of --transfer of dues and tolls--the chiefship of kharan--the chief of las bela--troublesome marris--british beluchistan--the occupants of zhob. a few details of how the british government came to make the nushki-robat road may interest the reader. after the afghan war was over, it was supposed that our boundary extended as far north as the river halmund, but we let things slide for many years and took no steps to extend our influence so far, and the result was that the amir of afghanistan--who very rightly regarded chagai as a most important strategical position, in fact, almost the key to the halmund--took possession of the place. in a commission was sent out to define the perso-beluch frontier properly, and major macmahon, a most thorough and conscientious officer, was placed in charge of the mission. on looking at the map, one might, if unaware of certain important circumstances, be led rashly to believe that the natural geographical boundary between beluchistan and afghanistan is along the course of the river halmund, or else that it should follow the watershed of the chain of mountains extending, from west to east, from the malek siah, the lahr kuh, the kacha kuh, mirjawa or saindak mountains, to the mountain mass extending as far as the sultan mountain. one cannot at first grasp why, when two such excellent natural boundaries exist, the boundary has been drawn right across the desert between the halmund and these ranges--where there is nothing to mark a division except the whitewashed pillar-posts put up by the boundary commission. this is what would appear, but here is what really happened. while we were taking no trouble to spread our influence in that portion of the country, the afghans claimed as theirs a considerable portion of what to-day makes part of n. beluchistan. a point which it is well not to lose sight of is that, after the sistan mission of , when general sir frederick goldsmid, assisted by general sir richard pollock, acted as arbitrators between the persian and afghan governments, it was agreed that the kuh-i-malek-siah (mountains), close to where the ziarat has been erected, should mark the most south-westerly point common to the two countries. this point being given, when the beluch-afghan boundary commission began its work in march, , they found that the afghans claimed a great deal more land as theirs than was expected. the line of boundary to be defined from gomal to the persian frontier was some miles, and during the two years which it took to complete the laying down of the boundary line the mission is said to have had very great trouble with the afghan commissioners. and here one can hardly forbear comparing the magnificently thorough manner in which this frontier was fixed, with the shoddy, confused method in which the perso-beluch frontier was "demarcated"--if the word can be used in this case--by sir thomas holdich at the same epoch. in the case of the afghan-beluch frontier, miles of frontier line was carefully laid down under the direction of captain (now major) a. h. macmahon, to whom great britain may be grateful for possessing to-day several hundred square miles of land more than she would have done; and, mark you, these additional square miles are--in a way--strategically the most important portion to us of beluchistan. i am referring to that zone of flat territory, north of the mirjawa, saindak and sultan mountains, which forms a southern barrier to the afghan desert, and along a portion of which we have now built the nushki-robat route. strategically, more particularly if a railway is to be constructed, the advantages in gaining that strip of land on the north side of the mountainous region cannot be over-estimated, and only a fearless, but extremely tactful, well-informed and, above all, able officer like macmahon could have scored such an unexpected success against the very shrewd afghan commissioners. the latter well knew the political value of the concession, and so did the amir at cabul--who, angered at hearing of the advantages gained by the british commissioners for their own country, is said to have treated his representatives in a summary way on their return to the afghan capital. but the line of boundary was laid in an unmistakable manner. the final agreements and really _accurately_ drawn maps were signed on may th, , by both the afghan and british commissioners, and there was no going back on what had been done. one of the important results of this boundary commission was that we definitely drove the afghans out of chagai, north of which place the frontier now extends eastwards to the sarlat mountains. the first thing that directed attention to these remote regions was nushki, a little district some miles from quetta--a place most conveniently situated for strategical and trade purposes. this was an outlying portion of the khan of kelat's territory. as a matter of fact these people were always fighting among themselves; they had a bitter enmity with one another, and their feuds had accumulated on an ever increasing scale for centuries. they merely acknowledged the khan's authority when it suited their ends. the government first requested the khan or kelat to keep the district in order, being a frontier district, not far from the afghan boundary, and notified him that trouble there might involve trouble with the british government. the khan, however, was helpless, and the ultimate result was that the government came to terms with the khan and agreed to give him a quit rent of , rupees a year--a sum much larger than he ever got out of it for himself--and took over nushki from him. one question frequently asked is: "who owns beluchistan?" to which one might almost answer: "yes, who does?" like afghanistan, nepal, and other such buffer states, beluchistan is going through a somewhat slow but sure process of absorption. beluchistan is a mere expression of political geography, and the country called by that name has on the west a semi-mythical boundary with persia; on the north a real boundary with afghanistan; to the south the arabian sea, and to the west, the brahuic and lukhi mountains, bordering with sindh and the lower dejarath. beluchistan may be subdivided as follows:-- british beluchistan, with the assigned districts of quetta and the bolan; territories under the immediate rule of the khan of kelat. sarawan and thalawan, the lands belonging to the two leading brahui clans. the chiefship of las bela. makran, kharan, and the country of the beluch tribes, such as the marris and bugtis, along the punjab and sind borders. bori and zhob. we have certain treaties, engagements and sanads with the khan of kelat and the other chiefs, and the country--again i have to use a paradoxical expression--may be regarded as a sort of "dependent independent" state. i can find no better way of describing it. we have bought up all the rights held by the chiefs that were worth buying for our purposes, and while, theoretically, the country is supposed to be merely under our "sphere of influence," we might with our fast-absorbing qualities practically consider it absolutely our own. the brahui khan of kelat is the most powerful ruler in beluchistan, and the city of kelat may be looked upon as the beluch capital of beluchistan. quetta, of course, is the capital of british beluchistan. the beluch may be roughly divided into two great classes, the _brahui_ and the _nharui_, the latter to be subdivided again into the _rinds_ and the _numris_. these classes, however, are again to be split up into a great many tribes of different names. [illustration: a beluch family.] the meaning of the word _brahui_ is said to be "inhabitants of the desert," and of _nharui_ "men of the plains." the nharui profess to be of arab origin, and to have come from the west; and they despise the idea that they are akin to the afghans or the turkomans. their features and habits would support this view, and their language undoubtedly bears traces of strong western influence if not of actual western origin. their being such much finer specimens of men than the average persians, may be accounted for by the fact that during the arab invasion only the fittest and finest survived to get as far as this, and that of these men the beluch are the present descendants. like all nomads the beluch are most wonderful linguists. i met a great many men who knew three, four or five languages, such as brahui, nharui, persian, afghan, and even hindustani, and on experiment they showed remarkable facility for picking up and correctly retaining words of any foreign language. the theory that the brahui--the most numerous class in beluchistan--are tartar mountaineers is, to my mind, incorrect. they believe themselves to be the aboriginal people of beluchistan, and this, i think, is more likely the case. their language is quite different from any of the nharui dialects. the nharui tribes are much given to raids and warfare, and even last year, when i was going through beluchistan, a small war had just been settled by a british force, sent to suppress the rebels, in conjunction with a persian force from kerman on the other side. i cannot speak of the southern tribes as i did not visit them, but the brahui with whom i came in contact, although very fond of a life of adventure, i invariably found extremely gentlemanly, hospitable and dignified in every way. they were men of a splendid type who, combined determined bravery with the quietest, softest, most considerate and graceful manner. the khan of kelat is the most powerful ruler, and with him we have several important treaties. from the time of abdullah khan, in the eighteenth century, kelat had been a state independent of the delhi empire, and had incorporated several provinces. to understand fully the evolution of beluchistan into its present condition i will give a hasty historical review of the most important occurrences. the political connection of the british government with kelat commenced during the time of the grandson of nasir khan, mehrab khan, a weak ruler who became khan in . he was disliked by the chiefs of the various tribes for being under the influence of a man of low extraction called daud mahommed, for whom fateh mahommed, the hereditary minister, was sacrificed. fateh's son, naib mulla mahommed hasan, however, murdered the intruder and was himself placed in the position his father should have occupied, but his hatred for the khan never ceased to crave for revenge. in this treacherous minister, in the khan's name, but without his knowledge, incited the tribes to rise and harm the british troops in their march to restore shah shujia to his dominions. sir alexander burns had to be deputed to kalat to prevent hostility and attempt to negotiate a treaty. the treaty contained the following stipulations.[ ] "(art. .) the descendants of nasir khan, as well as his tribe and sons, shall continue in future to be masters of the country of kelat, kachki, khorstan, makran, kej, bela and the port of soumiani, as in the time of the lamented ahmad shah durani. "(art. .) the english government will never interfere between the khan, his dependants and subjects, and particularly lend no assistance to shah nawaz fateh khan, and the descendants of the mahabbatzai branch of the family, but always exert itself to put away evil from his house. in case of h. m. the shah's displeasure with the khan of kelat, the english government will exert itself to the utmost to remove the same in a manner which may be agreeable to the shah and according to the rights of the khan. "(art. .) as long as the british army continues in the country of khorasan, the british government agrees to pay to mehrab khan the sum of , of company's rupees from the date of this engagement by half yearly instalments. "(art. .) in return for this sum the khan, while he pays homage to the shah and continues in friendship with the british nation, agrees to use his best endeavours to procure supplies, carriage and guards to protect provisions and stores going and coming from shikarpur by the route of rozan dadar, the bolan pass, through shal to kuchlak from one frontier to another." with assurances of fidelity to the saddozai family and friendship to the british government--and stipulation that all supplies and carriage obtained from the khan must be paid for "without hesitation"--the treaty was duly concluded on march th, . everything seemed satisfactory and the khan promised to visit quetta to pay his salaams to shah shujia. sir alexander burnes, who had preceded him, was robbed on the way of the draft of the treaty signed by the khan. treacherous mulla mahommed hasan did not fail to impress upon the british that the khan had given directions to have the treaty stolen, and had, furthermore, prevented mehrab from proceeding to quetta. the hostility of the khan being evident, it was resolved to send a punitive expedition to kelat to give the khan a lesson. on the th of november, , the town was stormed and taken by a detachment of general wiltshire's brigade, mehrab khan was killed and his son fled, while the khan's minister was made prisoner and his treachery proved. shah nawaz khan--a youth of fourteen, a direct descendant in the male line from mahabat khan--was set up by the british as the future khan of kelat. the provinces of sarawan and kach gandava were annexed to the dominions of the amir of afghanistan. mehrab's son, nasir khan, the rightful successor to the rule of kelat, headed a revolution; shah nawaz was deposed, the british representative at kelat was killed, and nasir khan was eventually established in power by the british, the two provinces restored to him, and a new treaty concluded with him on october th, . this treaty acknowledged nasir khan and his descendants the vassals of the king of cabul; allowed if necessary, the honourable company's or shah shujia's troops to be stationed in any positions they deemed advisable in any part of his territory; and declared that a british resident officer's advice should always be followed. caravans into afghanistan from the indus as well as from soumiani port were to be protected from attacks, and no undue exactions imposed on them; the british government undertook to afford nasir khan protection in case of attack; while nasir khan bound himself to provide for the support of shah nawaz whom he had deposed. this treaty became useless after the retirement from cabul, and it was found necessary to negotiate a new agreement dated th of may, , which annulled the treaty of october th, , enjoined perpetual friendship between the british government and the khan of kelat, his heirs and successors, and bound nasir khan and successive khans "to oppose to their utmost all enemies of the british government with whom he must act in subordinate co-operation, and not enter, without consent, into negotiations with foreign states." british troops might occupy, if necessary, any position they thought advisable in the kelat territory, and british subjects and merchants from sindh or the coast to afghanistan were to be protected against outrage, plunder and exactions. a transit duty, however, was to be imposed at the rate of six rupees on each camel-load from the coast to the northern frontier, and rupees from shikarpur to the same frontier. to aid nasir khan, his heirs and successors, in the fulfilment of these obligations, and on condition of faithful performance of them, the british government bound itself to pay to mir nasir khan, his heirs and successors, an annual subsidy of , company's rupees. if, however, the conditions required were not fulfilled year by year the government would stop the payment of the annual subsidy. when nasir khan died in , his brother, his son, and his half-brother claimed the succession, and the latter, khudadad khan, a boy of ten, was elected by the chiefs; but had it not been for the support given him by the british government, who for four successive years paid him an additional , rupees besides the , stipulated in the agreement, in order to help him to suppress the rebellious marris tribe, he could not have maintained his position. the leading kelat chiefs, dissatisfied with their ruler, elected sherdil khan, khudadad's cousin, as khan of kelat, but he was murdered the following year, , and the banished ruler reinstated in his former position. previous to his banishment, in , a proper agreement was signed defining the boundary line between british india and the khan's territory, but it was not till that matters regarding it were absolutely settled. one thing may be said for the beluch, and that is that, barring a few squabbles, they have in the main been friendly and faithful towards the british. on february th and march rd, , a convention was entered into with the khan containing an additional clause for the extension of a telegraph line through such of his dominions as lie between the western boundary of the province of mekran under the feudatory rule of the jam of beyla and the eastern boundary of the territory of gwadur, for the protection (only) of which line, and those employed upon it, the khan was to receive an annual payment of , rupees, the whole sum to be expended among the chiefs and people through whose country the line passed. it was particularly stipulated that the sites on which british government buildings were to be erected should remain the property of the khan. constant risings took place during the rule of khudadad, and the brahui chiefs combined in an open rebellion in . the khan, being unable to suppress the rising, demanded aid of the british. a mediation took place in jacobabad, their confiscated lands were restored to the sardars, the allowances which they customarily received in the time of mir nasir khan the younger were again granted, and the sardars on their side had to return all the property plundered. a state of chaos followed this arrangement, the khan ceased to take an interest in the administration of his country, caravans were constantly attacked and robbed, raids were frequent, and no compensation was ever paid for losses sustained. the political agent had to withdraw from kelat, and in the payment of the subsidy was withheld until the khan should stand by his agreement and restore order. an attempt was made to keep quiet the marris and bugtis frontier tribes by additional payments to the chiefs in the name of the khan, but their attitude was uncertain. constant attacks occurred on the frontier and a state or absolute anarchy reigned in the khan's country, when captain sandeman was despatched in as a special agent for the government to attempt to bring about a reconciliation between the khan and the sardars. at a darbar held at mastung in july, , an official reconciliation actually took place between the khan and the leading brahui chiefs. on the th of december of that same year the khan was received by the viceroy of india at jacobabad, and a new treaty was concluded, which was the actual foundation of the beluchistan agency. the new treaty renewed and reaffirmed the treaty of , and while the khan of kelat and his successors and sardars bound themselves faithfully to observe the provisions of article of that treaty, viz., "to oppose all enemies of the british government, and in all cases to act in subordinate co-operation with the british government; the british government on its part engaged to respect the independence of kelat and to aid the khan, in case of need, in the maintenance of a just authority and the protection of his territories from external attacks." british agents with suitable escorts were in future to reside permanently at the court of the khan and elsewhere in the khan's dominions, and a representative of the khan would in future be accredited to the government of india. the british agent at the court of the khan would, in case of dispute with the sardars, use his influence to bring about an amicable settlement, and if unsuccessful, the dispute was to be submitted to arbitration. at the request of the khan and of the sardars, and "in recognition of the intimate relations existing between the two countries, the british government (by article of treaty) assented to the request of h.h. the khan for the presence of a detachment of british troops in his country, on condition that the troops should be stationed in such positions as the british government might deem expedient and be withdrawn at the pleasure of the government." the agreement further provided for the construction of railways and telegraphs through the territories of the khan, and for free trade between the state of kelat and british territory, subject to certain conditions for the mutual protection of fiscal interests. the annual subsidy of the khan's successor was increased by this treaty to , rupees, plus , rupees annually for the establishment of posts and development of traffic along the trade routes in a manner agreeable to the british government. in compliance with the agreement, british troops were stationed at shalkot (quetta) and mittri, and on february st, , major sandeman was appointed agent to the governor-general, with three assistants, the headquarters to be in quetta. afterwards the territories, under the political control of the agent, were subdivided into distinct agencies of which kelat was one. during the afghan war the khan behaved most loyally towards the british. further developments necessitated a fresh agreement signed on june th, , by which the khan of kelat made over the entire management of the quetta district and niabat absolutely, and with all the rights and privileges, as well as full revenue, civil and criminal jurisdiction, and all other powers of administration, to the british government, the agreement to take effect from april st, , on condition that, in lieu of the annual surplus of revenue hitherto paid to the khan, the british government should from march st, , pay a fixed annual rent of rs. , , without deductions for cost of administration. the khan transferred all his rights to levy dues or tolls on the trade in either direction through the bolan pass, as well as from kachi to khorassan, and to and from british india and the districts of sibi, quetta and pishin. for the latter concession the british government paid the khan the annual sum of rs. , net, plus a fixed yearly sum to be paid by the viceroy of india to the sarawan and kurd sardars for their services in the pass. the full civil, criminal jurisdiction, and all other powers of administration within the limits of the said pass, and within the land purchased by the british, were also ceded to the british government. the population of the state of kelat, including kharan and makran, was estimated by aitchison at about , souls--the area at , square miles. the chiefship of kharan lies along the northern border of the state of kelat, roughly from near nushki, west-south-west to panjur. the principal tribes are the naushirwanis, and their chiefs have at various epochs acknowledged the suzerainty of the khan of kelat, and the rulers of persia and afghanistan respectively. in sardar azad khan acknowledged allegiance to the khan of kelat, and in a settlement was made with him by which he undertook to do certain tribal services in consideration of an annual payment of rs. , . besides kharan the sardar holds lands in panjgur, and lays claim to jalk, dizak, and kohak, the two first being within the persian boundary. we have other important agreements, such as the one ( ) with the chief of las bela for the protection of the telegraph, for which he receives a subsidy of rs. , a year; and a number of agreements with the various chiefs of makran, mostly relating also to the protection of the telegraph line with subsidies or allowances to each chief. to the troublesome marris, a tribe occupying the country from the nari river and the outskirts of the bolan as far as the plain of sham near the punjab boundary to the east, allowances are paid directly for tribal services and for good behaviour. these people have given considerable trouble on several occasions, but are now friendly. a petroleum concession was ceded by sardar mehrulla khan to the british government for an annual cash payment. the affairs of british beluchistan (pishin, sibi and dependencies) are too well known for me to refer to them again beyond what i have already mentioned in these pages. till british beluchistan formed part of the territories of afghanistan, and was occupied by british troops during the afghan war. by the treaty of gandamak its administration was put into the hands of british officers, but the surplus revenue was paid to the amir at cabul. the control of the khyber and michui passes was also retained. in , however, the district was incorporated with british india, and is now known as the province of british beluchistan. [illustration: beluch huts thatched with palm leaves and tamarisk.] an agreement of submission and allegiance was made by the maliks of zhob, bori and the muza khal, and sardar shahbaz khan, on november nd, , and they further undertook to pay a fine of rs. , , to put a stop to further raiding in british territory, and raise no opposition to british troops being stationed in zhob and bori. the occupation of zhob took place in - , when the somal pass was opened up, and the tribes intervening between the zhob and the punjab in the suliman range were subsequently added to the district. footnotes: [ ] see treaties, engagements and sanads. aitchison, office superintendent government printing, calcutta. chapter xxxvii the evolution of nushki--the zagar mengal tribe--tribal feuds--competition in trade--venturesome caravans--pasand khan--dalbandin and its geographical situation--game big and small--dates--a famous ziarat--a beluch burial ground--preparing corpses for interment--how graves are cut into the ground--beluch marriages--beluch thoughtfulness towards newly married couples--a mark of respect. having given a general sketch of the agreements with the principal chiefs we will now return to matters relating to the most important point, the pivot, as it were, of our route--nushki. when nushki was taken over by the british government, the leading tribe in the district was the zagar mengal, a brahui tribe. they had settled in nushki approximately a century or years ago, and were a most powerful tribe, supposed to number about , , a large proportion of whom lived in registan (country of sand), to the north and mostly north-east of nushki across the afghan frontier. the zagar mengal sardar was in nushki itself, and he had a right of levying what is termed in beluch, _sunge_ (a transit due) on all merchandise passing through nushki. foreseeing how such a right would interfere with trade, the british government came to terms with the sardar, by which, instead of his transit dues, he undertook what is called in beluchistan a _noukri_ or service (old custom by which a man supplies a number of _sawars_ and is responsible for them). the next thing was to settle all the tribal feuds. three or four tribes were at war. cases were carefully inquired into and settled according to beluch law, through the medium of a tribal _jirga_, a council of elders. one case led to another and eventually all were settled up to everybody's satisfaction. in the meantime traders from shikarpur, from quetta, and kelat, began to be attracted to nushki; a bazaar was started and is fast growing from year to year. one hundred thousand rupees have already been spent on it, with the result that a number of competing traders came in. competition resulted in good prices, which further attracted trade, first from the districts to the north in the immediate vicinity of nushki, and later from further and further afield. the name of nushki--practically unknown a few years ago--is at present well known everywhere, and the place has, indeed, become quite an important trade centre. from nushki, as we have seen, a chain of posts, manned by local beluch levies, was pushed west as far as robat on the persian frontier. even as late as trade in these parts was limited to a few articles of local consumption, and persian trade was represented by a stray caravan from sistan that had forced its way to nushki and frequently lost men, camels and goods on the way. the venturesome caravans seldom numbered more than one or two a year, and were at the mercy of a mamasani beluch called pasand khan, who lived in sistan and levied blackmail on such caravans as came through. this man was well acquainted with all the marauders who haunted the stretch of country south of the halmund between sistan and chagai. pasand khan levied at the rate of twenty krans (about s. d.) per camel, and saw the caravans in comparative safety as far as chagai, from which point they were left to their own devices and had to force their way through to quetta as best they could. next to nushki along the route, dalbandin--owing to its geographical situation, its ample supply of good water and good grazing--is probably the most important spot, and may one day become quite a big place. there is direct communication from this spot to chagai (and afghanistan), robat, ladis, bampur, kharan, the arabian sea, charbar, gwadur, ormarah, soumiani and quetta. even as things are now, dalbandin is a somewhat more important place than any we had met on coming from robat, with a very large _thana_ and a couple of well-provided shops. captain webb-ware's large camp made it appear to us men of the desert quite a populous district. there was excellent water here and good grazing for camels, while on the hills close by ibex shooting was said to be good. gazelles (_chinkara_ and persian gazelle), both called _ask_ in beluch, are to be found in the neighbourhood of this place, and wild asses (_ghorkhar_) nearer sahib chah. _katunga_ (sand grouse), _sisi_, _chickor_, a few small bustards (_habara_), and occasionally ducks are to be seen near the water, but taking things all round there is little on the road to repay the sportsman who is merely in search of game. [illustration: circular ziarat with stone, marble and horn offerings.] [illustration: ziarat with tomb showing stone vessels.] the spacious rest-house at dalbandin was quite palatial, with actual panes of glass in all the windows, mats on the floor, folding chairs to sit upon, tables and indian bedsteads. thanks to the kind hospitality of captain webb-ware, i had a most pleasant and instructive day's rest here, and nearly made myself sick by greedily eating irresistible beluch dates, the most delicious it has ever been my luck to taste. these dates are very carefully prepared in earthen jars with honey, and they say that only one date--the best--is picked from each tree. no description could ever come up to their delicate flavour. there is a famous ziarat a couple of miles from dalbandin which well repays a visit. the larger ziarat itself is circular, feet in diameter, with a mud and stone wall feet high round it. it has a door to the east and a tomb to the west. a bundle of sticks is laid outside the wall, and another much larger, with red and white rags upon it, at the head of the tomb, the latter being covered as usual with pieces of white marble and round stones. at the head of the grave near the upright sticks was a large stone with holes in the centre, and also a number of wooden drinking cups, masses of horns, sticks, whips, ends of broken bottles, bits of rope, etc. these fragments of civilization hardly added to its picturesqueness. the tomb lay from north to south--a very curious fact, for, as a rule, the head of the tomb in other ziarats was to the west. the tomb, however, lay in the western portion of the ziarat circle. the enclosing wall was adorned with horns of sacrificed goats, and, in fact, outside to the south was the sacrificial spot with some large slabs of stone smeared with blood, and the usual upright sticks, but no rags appended to them. it had, nevertheless, some decoration of horns. a second ziarat was to be found on the top of the hill--generally these ziarats go in couples, the principal one on the summit of a hill, the other at the foot, the latter for the convenience of travellers who have not the time or the energy to climb to the higher sacred spot,--and this ziarat was feet long also with a tomb--this time of black rounded stones--with an upright white slab of marble. the wall of black stones was ½ feet high. below this, to the south, was a third smaller oval ziarat, feet long, feet wide, with many offerings of horns perched on poles to the west, and a heap of fancy stones, together with some implements such as a mortar, pestle, and cups. a fourth ziarat, very small, with a mud tomb on which two mill stones had been deposited, was a little further on and had a solitary rag flying. near these ziarats was an extensive beluch burial-ground, to which bodies were brought from very great distances for interment. there was a large rectangular mesjid, the first i had seen of that shape, at the western point of the graveyard, and three smaller ones at the other corners, and the graves were very nice and tidy, formed generally of fragments of yellow marble, a high stone pillar at the head and one at the foot, and little chips of marble along the upper centre of the grave. others more elaborate had a neat edge and centre line of black stones and coloured end pillars, while some consisted of a pile of horizontal sticks with an upright one at each end. the bodies of more important people, such as chiefs, were given larger tombs, often very gaudy and of a prismatic shape, made of myriads of bits of crystal within a black border of stones. occasionally a trench was dug round the graves. it was interesting to note that here, too, as on the kuh-i-kwajah, one saw "family graves" which, although not in actual compartments like those on the sistan mountain, were, nevertheless, secluded from the others within a low boundary stone wall. the prismatic graves seldom rose more than ½ feet above ground, but the semi-spherical tumuli which marked some of the more important burial places were from ½ to feet high. these tumuli were either of mud or of large smooth pebbles, and generally had no pillars. one or two, however, had a pillar to the west. to the east of the graveyard the graves which seemed of a more recent date had sticks at each end instead of stone pillars, and these were connected by a string to which, halfway between the sticks, hung a piece of wood, a ribbon, or a rag. the meaning of this i could not well ascertain, and the versions i heard were many and conflicting. some said these were graves of people who had been recently buried, it being customary to erect the stone pillars some months after burial, and that the string with dangling rag or piece of wood was merely to keep wolves from digging up dead bodies. others said it was to keep evil spirits away, but each man gave a different explanation, and i really could not say which was the true origin of the custom. the pillars over a man's grave, some say, signify that the man died without leaving issue, but i think this is incorrect, for it would then appear by most graves that the beluch are the most unprolific people on earth, which i believe is not the case. children's graves were usually covered with pieces of white marble or light coloured stone, and those of women were generally smaller and less elaborate and with lower pillars than men's graves. the preparing of corpses for interment is rather interesting. with men, the lower jaw is set so that the mouth is closed tight, and is kept in this position by the man's own turban which is wound round the chin and over the head. the eyes are also gently closed by some relative, and the hands placed straight by the sides. as soon as life is pronounced extinct the body is covered over with a sheet and the dead man's relations go and procure new clothes, after which the body is removed from the tent or house and is taken towards a well or a stream, according to circumstances. here the body is laid down and carefully washed, after which it is wrapped up quite tight in sheets--so tight that the outline can plainly be distinguished. in most cases, a pillar is put up, a few stones laid round, or the outline of a grave drawn on the spot where the body has lain to undergo this operation. the body is then removed to the burial ground and laid most reverently in the grave. [illustration: beluch mesjid and graveyard at dalbandin.] beluch graves are most peculiarly cut into the ground. instead of being vertical, like ours, they are in three sections. the higher is vertical, and leads to an inclined side channel giving access to a lower last chamber, in which the body is actually deposited. the origin of this, i was told, is to prevent hyenas and wolves digging up the bodies. [illustration: section of beluch grave.] when once the body is laid in its place of rest, dried sweet-scented rose leaves are spread over it in profusion, and then the grave is filled up with stones and plastered with mud. the channel between the two chambers is filled entirely with stones, and the upper chamber entirely with earth. some few of the graves i saw had fallen through, but most were in excellent preservation and appeared to be well looked after by the people. that the beluch are provident people we had palpable proof in this cemetery, where one saw several graves ready for likely future occupants. another mesjid, a circular one seven feet in diameter, was further to be noticed to the north-east of the graveyard. it had yellow marble pillars of sugar-loaf and cylindrical shapes and was enclosed by a neat stone wall. a beluch marriage is a practical business transaction by which a girl fetches more or less money, camels or horses, according to her personal charms, beauty, and social position. beluch women, when young, are not at all bad-looking with well-cut features and languid eyes full of animal magnetism like the persian, and they seem shy and modest enough. the beluch men have great respect for them, and treat them with consideration, although--like all orientals--they let women do all the hard work, which keeps the women happy. a marriage ceremony in beluchistan bears, of course, much resemblance to the usual mussulman form, such as we have seen in persia, with variations and adaptations to suit the customs and circumstances of the people. a good wife costs a lot of money in beluchistan, although occasionally, in such cases as when a man has been murdered, a wife can be obtained on the cheap. the murderer, instead of paying a lump sum in cash, settles his account by handing over his daughter as a wife to the murdered man's son. bad debts and no assets can also be settled in a similar manner if the debtor has sufficient daughters to make the balance right. under normal circumstances, however, the girl is actually bought up, the sum becoming her property in case of divorce. when the marriage ceremony takes place and the relations and friends have collected, the first step is for the bridegroom to hand over the purchase sum, either in cash, camels, or sheep. a great meal is then prepared, when the men sit in a semicircle with the bridegroom in the centre. enormous quantities of food are consumed, such as rice saturated with _ghi_ (butter), piles of _chapatis_ (bread) and sheep meat. a man who pays four or five hundred rupees for a wife is expected to kill at least twenty or thirty sheep for his guests at this entertainment, and there is a prevailing custom that the bridegroom on this occasion makes a gift to the _lori_ or blacksmith of the clothes he has been wearing since his betrothal to the girl. the women on their side have a similar sort of entertainment by themselves, stuff themselves with food to their hearts' content, and wash it down with water or tea. at the end of the meal a bowl is passed round and each man and woman rinses mouth and hands. the _sung_, or betrothal, is regarded as most sacred, and much rejoicing is gone through for several days with music and dancing and firing of guns, and this is called the _nikkar_, just preceding the _urus_, or actual marriage ceremony, which is performed by a mullah. the bridegroom, having ridden with his friends to a neighbouring ziarat to implore allah's protection, returns and sits down in the centre of the circle formed by the men. two of his friends are sent to fetch the girl's father, who is led down to the assembly. the bridegroom again assures him in front of all these witnesses that should he from any fault of his own divorce his wife he will forfeit the premium paid for her, whereupon the father replies that he will settle a sum on the girl as a "_mehr_" or dowry. the father then departs, and returns, bringing the bride wrapped up in her best clothing and _chudder_. a slightly modified mussulman form of marriage is then gone through, and the mullah asks the woman three times if she agrees to marry the man. everything having passed off satisfactorily, the happy couple depart to a hut or tent placed at their disposal, and very discreetly, nobody goes near them for some considerable length of time. it is said that the thoughtfulness of the beluch towards a newly-married couple will go so far that, even if the tribe were stalked by the enemy, no one would go and warn the happy couple for fear of disturbing them! the bridegroom stays with his bride for several days, and if he belongs to some other village or encampment, will then return to his home, and leave his wife behind for months at a time. beluch wives are said to be quite faithful, and at the death of the husband go for a considerable time without washing. this mark of respect for the husband is, however, extensively indulged in even before the wife becomes a widow--at least, judging by appearances. chapter xxxviii a long march--karodak--sandstorm--a salt plain--yadgar--padag--beluch huts--fierce wind--plants--kuchaki chah--another double march--mall--two tracks--peculiar cracks--a gigantic geological fault--an old beluch fort--nushki. captain webb-ware having most kindly arranged to "dak" camels for me, i was enabled to remain here one day by sending my own camels with loads ahead, i proposing to catch them up by going three marches on january th. the distance was miles yards, and i covered it in nine hours, which was quite good going. "sand mounts and high hill ranges were to the north and south, and the track lay east-north-east ( ° b.m.) with parallel sand ridges to the north. three long sand banks from to feet high, facing north, accumulated by wind coming through gaps in the hills. to south, high mountains as one approaches karodak." that is the only entry i find in my note-book for the march between dalbandin and karodak ( miles yards). here the camel that had been sent ahead for me to ride to the next post-house had unluckily bolted, and after wasting nearly an hour the beluch were unable to capture him. i bade good-bye to the _jemadar_ and his men, who had politely escorted me thus far, and had to continue upon the same camel. at karodak ( , feet) there was a small _thana_ surrounded by sand hills, with high tamarisks and good grazing for camels, but the water of the wells was salt. we trotted along in a terrific wind storm, with yellowish dust obscuring everything like a fog, and went over numerous big stretches of mud and salt, cracked by the sun in semicircles like the scales of a fish. low hills could now be perceived to north, south and east, when the wind slightly abated and the dust settled down. after crossing a sand ridge extending from north to south, we still going east-north-east ( ° b.m.), another large salt plain disclosed itself before us. the old track went from this point towards the south, but the new one was in a perfectly straight line. for the first time since entering beluchistan one began to see some little vegetation on the hill sides, and a few high tamarisks could be noticed in the plain itself. at yadgar (altitude , feet) we found a four-towered _thana_, with one _duffadar_, four sepoys, five _mari_ camels, and three wells of good water, as well as a new bungalow, but i only remained just a few minutes to change my belongings from captain webb-ware's camel to mine, which was waiting here for me, and speedily proceeded for padag where, in a terrible wind which had risen again after sunset, i arrived at eight o'clock in the evening. at padag ( , feet) a number of semi-spherical beluch huts, to feet high, with domes thatched with tamarisk and palm leaves, were to be seen. most dwellings were in couples, enclosed in a circular wall for protection against the wind as well as from the observation of intruders. although a cold wind was blowing fiercely at the time, and the thermometer was only four degrees above freezing point, there were some twenty children playing about perfectly naked, and they seemed quite happy and comfortable. from padag we went across another plain of salt and mud, with _sorag_ grass and _drog_, two plants much cherished by camels. to the north of our track was an extensive surface of salt deposits, extending from west to east, which looked just as if the country were covered by snow. quantities of _eshwerk_--very pretty to look at when in flower, but most poisonous--were now found, and _brug_, good for horses. there were three parallel ranges of broken-up mountains on our south, and lots of tamarisks on the south edge of the salt deposits. it was rather curious that to the north of our track the vegetation consisted entirely of _drog_ grass, whereas to the south there was only _eshwerk_. a few yards from the track to the south we came upon a graveyard (a kabistan) with some fifteen or twenty graves. water we had seen flowing in two or three channels from the mountain to supply villages and forming pools here and there. we passed between two mountains into another plain with dried up _karankosh_ bushes, much liked by camels. good grazing for horses was to be found north, and extended as far as the foot of the mountains. [illustration: kuchaki chah rest house.] [illustration: old beluch mud fort near nushki.] kuchaki chah, an unroofed rest-house a few feet square--a photograph of which can be seen in the illustration here appended--lies between two high ranges of rocky mountains with high accumulations of sand to the south-west and north-east respectively. the rugged mountains to the south were called bajin. another shrub, _trat_, also much cherished by camels, was plentiful here. black precipitous rocks in vertical strata, splitting into long slabs and blocks, were to be seen along the mountain range to the south. we had made another double march on that day, and reached mall in the middle of the night. padag to kuchaki chah, miles, yards; kuchaki chah to mall, miles, , yards. total, miles, yards. it was freezing hard, thermometer ° fahrenheit, and the wind bitterly cold. my men felt it very much and so did my camels, which all became ill. we left mall again very early the following morning, as i intended to proceed direct to nushki. there were two tracks here to nushki, the old and the new. the old track went in a straight line and was in consequence some miles shorter; the new track more or less follows the foot of the mountain range, probably taking this course for the convenience of the several beluch villages to be found in the nushki plain. the rocky mountain range to the south got lower as we approached nushki, and was then crossed by another low range extending from north to south while the longer and higher range stretched from north-north-east to south-south-west. a few miles from nushki we came across some most peculiar and very deep cracks in the earth's crust. one could plainly see that they were not caused by the erosion of water, but by a commotion such as an earthquake. in fact, we came, soon after, to a place where the whole sandy plateau had actually collapsed, and when we stood on the edge of the portion which still remained unchanged, we could see it end abruptly in perpendicular cliffs. what was the evident continuation of the valley lay now some hundred or more feet below its former level. in this lower valley there were a number of beluch villages. this crack and depression extends for no less than miles, according to major macmahon, who in went, i believe, along its entire length into afghan territory, and he describes it as "a well-defined, broad line of deep indentations, in places as clearly defined as a deep railway cutting. springs of water are to be found along its course. the crack extends north from nushki along the foot of the sarlat range, and then diagonally across the khwajah amran range, cutting the crest of the main range near its highest peak and crossing the lora river. a well-marked indentation was traceable at the edge of the plain near murghachaman, some miles north of chaman." macmahon states that the beluch themselves attribute it to three different earthquakes, of which accounts have been handed down by their fathers, and at the time of which deep fissures appeared that have subsequently extended. major macmahon adds that this crack marks the line of a gigantic geological fault, with sedimentary rocks to the east of it and igneous rocks to the west, and he believes, rightly, i think, that the length of this fault line exceeds that of any other fault line yet discovered. on the upper plateau on which we travelled tamarisks altogether disappeared for the last twenty miles or so, and _tagaz_ shrubs, varying from one to six feet high, were practically the only plant we saw. in the underlying plain tamarisk was most plentiful. facing us on the mountain side a white cliff could be seen from a a long distance, with a most regular row of double black marks which looked exactly like windows. on approaching nushki we saw some patches of cultivation (wheat)--quite a novelty to us, being the first crops of any extent we had seen since leaving sistan--and near at hand an old beluch fort, of which a photograph is given in the illustration. the fort possessed a picturesque composite old tower, partly quadrangular, partly cylindrical. we reached nushki at night ( miles, , yards from mall). chapter xxxix a new city--the bungalow--numerous beluch villages--nomads--beluch architecture--weaving looms--implements--beluch diet--cave dwellers of nushki--beluch dress--children--the salaam of the chiefs--an impressive sight--the kwajah mahommed ziarat--shah hussein's ziarat and its legend--a convenient geographical site. on arriving at this new city, with actual streets and people moving about in them, shops, etc., it seemed to me at first almost as good as if i had arrived back in london again. the bungalow, on a prominent hill feet above the plain, was simply and nicely furnished, and was most comfortable in every way. from it one obtained a fine panoramic view of the small town and the neighbouring country with the many beluch villages scattered about. north, two miles off, was mengal, a village of about houses and , people; west lay jumaldini ( ½ miles distant), houses, - inhabitants; north-west, badini in two blocks, one belonging to alun khan, the other jointly to khaian khan and adal khan: houses collectively, to people. little badal khan karez, with only houses, stood to the south-west. the population of these villages is formed of the tribes called _barechis_ and _rashkhanis_, the people of badini and jumaldini being entirely rashkhanis. the barechis formerly inhabited afghanistan, but migrated to the nushki district three generations ago. bagag (south-west) is a village generally inhabited by mandais, a branch of the jumaldini rashkhanis. two big villages are to be found south, and they are called _batto_, which means "mixture," owing to the populations being composed of rashkhanis, mingals, samalaris, kharanis, and other minor tribes; and south of batto are two more villages (east and west respectively of each other). the one east is harunis, a separate tribe from either the rashkhanis and the mingals, who follow the head chief rind. the second village (west) is ahmed val, inhabited by ahmed zai mingals. besides these villages, the remainder of the population is of nomads. it may have been noticed that regarding the village of bagag i said that "generally" it was inhabited by mandais. certain villages are inhabited by certain tribes during the summer, the people migrating for the winter months, and other tribes come in for the winter and vacate their quarters in the summer. the beluch is not much burdened with furniture and can do this without inconvenience. the crops grown consist of wheat, barley and _jowari_ (millet). where good grazing is obtainable the younger folks are sent out with sheep, horses and camels. almost each tribe has a different style of architecture for its dwellings. those near nushki are usually rectangular in shape, domed over with matting covered with plaster. the only opening is the door, with a small porch over it. wooden pillars are necessary to support the central portion of the dome (semi-cylindrical), which is never higher than from five to eight feet. the mangers for the horses, which form an annexe to each dwelling--in fact, these mangers are more prominent than the dwellings themselves--are cylindrical mud structures eight or nine feet high, with a hole cut into them on one side to allow the horse's head to get at the barley contained in the hollowed lower portion. [illustration: beluch huts and weaving loom.] [illustration: cave dwellers, nushki.] the weaving looms are the largest and principal articles of furniture one notices--not inside, but outside the houses. the illustration shows how the cloth and threads are kept in tension, from every side, in a primitive but most effective manner. the women work with extraordinary rapidity and with no pattern before them, beating each transverse thread home by means of an iron comb held in the hand. the pattern on the cloths is of a primitive kind, generally sets of parallel lines crossing one another at right angles. in the same photograph two beluch dwellings can be seen, with matting showing through the thatch. in many villages, however, the walls of the houses are made of sun-dried bricks, and only the roof is made of a mat plastered over with mud. in either case the beluch seems to have a liking for crawling rather than walking into his house, for the doorway is invariably very low-- ½ to feet high. one is generally sorry to peep into a beluch dwelling, but i felt it a sort of duty to see what there was to be seen. nothing! or almost nothing. a large wooden bowl, a stone grinding wheel with a wooden handle to grind wheat into flour, a wooden drinking cup or an occasional tin enamelled one, of foreign importation, a matchlock, and that was all. in some of the smarter dwellings, such as the houses of chiefs, a few additional articles were to be found, such as a _badni_--a sort of jar for taking water--flat stones which are made red hot for baking bread, some occasional big brass dishes--_tash_--used on grand occasions--such as wedding dinners; and a _deg_ or two or large brass pots. nearly every household, however, possesses one or more _khwa_ or skins for water, and a large _kasa_, made either of metal or wood, into which broth is poured during meals. occasionally in a corner of the hut a small table is to be seen, on which are placed all the family's clothing, blankets, _darris_ or carpets, and _lihaf_ or mattresses. these carpets, or rather rugs, are generally spread when receiving an honoured guest. the beluch diet is wholesome but simple. they are fond of plenty of meat when they can get it, which is not often, and they generally have to be satisfied with dry bread. the woman who can make the largest and thinnest bread is much honoured among the beluch. when they do obtain meat it is generally boiled and made into a soup called _be-dir_, which in the brahui language really means "salt water," to express "flavoured water." milk and _ghi_ are dainties seldom indulged in and, being mussulmans, the beluch imbibe no intoxicants, but are smokers of strong bitter tobacco. it is not uncommon for lambs, sheep and calves to share the homes and some of the meals of their masters. perhaps the most peculiar folks at nushki are the cave dwellers, who live in abject misery in holes eroded by water in the cliffs near the river. when i visited them most were half-naked and trembling with cold. a few rags answered the purpose of blankets. the only articles of furniture and comfort were a primitive pipe moulded out of mud--the _chilam_ or the _gaddu_ as it is called by the kakars--which occupied a prominent place in the dwelling, and a musical instrument placed in a receptacle in the wall of the cave. at the entrance of the cave a wall had been built for protection against the wind and water. in another dwelling an _assah_ or long iron rod, like a crutch, the emblem of fakirs, was noticeable, and by its side an empty "potted-tongue" tin with a wire attached to it--an article which was made to answer to a great many uses. this cave had a small store place for food, a drinking cup, and the wooden vessel--another emblem of fakirs--in which charitable people deposit money for the support of these poor wretches. the dress of the better class beluch men consists of a _khuss_, or sort of loose shirt reaching below the knees, and the enormous trousers falling in ample folds, but fitting tight at the ankle. at an angle on the head they wear a conical padded cap, embroidered in gold or silver, inside a great turban of white muslin. they also wear shawls or long scarves thrown over the shoulders in a fashion not unlike our highlanders. either shoes with turned-up toes are worn or else sandals. felt coats or sheep-skins are donned in winter, while the richer people wear handsome coats and waistcoats of cloth embroidered in gold or silver. the chiefs possess most beautiful and expensive clothes. the women of the poorer classes are garbed in a short petticoat, usually red or blue, and a loose shirt. a long cloth, not unlike a chudder, is thrown over the head, and is kept tight round the forehead by a band. it is fashionable to let it drag on the ground behind. women generally go about barefooted. better class ladies wear similar clothes but of better material, and often richly embroidered. occasionally they put on large trousers like persian women. the hair is either left to flow loose at the sides of the head, or is tied into a knot behind. necklaces, ear-rings, nose-rings, bracelets and armlets are worn; white shells of all sizes from the persian gulf, as well as glass beads, playing a very important part in women's ornaments. bracelets cut out of a large white sea-shell are common. beluch children are rather quaint, with little skull caps, much decorated with silver coins, one of which larger than the others hangs directly over the forehead. the poor little mites are further burdened with ear-rings, bracelets and heavy necklaces of glass beads. mothers seem tenderly fond of their children. i was much delighted on the morning of january th to find that all the chiefs of the neighbouring tribes, garbed in their gaudy robes, had come with their retinues to pay their salaams to me. i heard the buzzing noise of a crowd approaching up the hill, and on looking out of the bungalow window beheld a most picturesque sight. a tall, long-haired figure in a brilliant long gown of red velvet, with gold embroideries in front and back, walked slowly a-head, followed by a cluster of venerable old men, some in long yellow skin _poshteens_, others in smart waistcoats covered with gold and silver embroidery. all wore huge turbans with gold embroidered conical caps inside. behind them came a mass of armed men with swords and rifles. on reaching the bungalow, fearing that i should still be asleep, they became silent, and as i watched them unseen from behind the blinds i do not believe that i have ever in my life gazed upon such a fine, dignified, manly lot of fellows anywhere. they seated themselves in a perfect circle, some twenty yards in diameter, directly outside the bungalow, carpets having been spread where the chiefs were to be accommodated. the chiefs sat together, and the soldiers and followers--over --with guns, matchlocks and snider rifles, squatted down in two semicircles at their sides. an opening was left large enough for me to enter the ring, and when i approached all respectfully rose and salaamed, and the chiefs, coming forward in turn, shook me heartily by the hand with the usual long beluch salutation, each bowing low as he did so. sitting in the centre of the circle on a carpet, which had been spread for me, i addressed them in a few words, which they seemed to appreciate, and each chief answered back in a simple, straightforward and most thoughtful, gentlemanly manner. mahommed ali, the leading chief, in a red velvet coat, was the mingal sardar of the three powerful tribes, jumaldini, badini, and mingal, and by his side sat kaim khan with his shield and sword, the second sardar of the neighbourhood and brother of the jumaldini sardar. jan beg, who sat on the left hand side of the chief sardar, was a thin tall man, and alam khan, a splendid old fellow with a fine inlaid sword, can be seen standing in the photograph reproduced in the illustration. the last of the principal five badini chiefs was a comparatively young man of black complexion, long jet black curly hair, and garbed in a gaudy poshteen, sword and belt. his name was kasin khan. then there was kadar bakhsh, uncle of the present mingal sardar, a man most useful to the british government, and beside him his brother, attar khan. gauher khan, nephew of the mingal sardar, was a picturesque young man with heavily embroidered black coat and a black turban. he carried his sword in his hand. as one looked round the circle it was really a most impressive and picturesque sight--colours of all sorts dazzling in the sunlight. among the other most important men were adal khan (cousin of the badini chief), a very old fellow, curved from age; and bai khan, his cousin, who looked somewhat stronger; kaiser khan, a smart young fellow with curly hair, black coat and trousers, was the son of the jumaldini chief, and a young fellow of weak constitution, by name abdullah aziz, was son and heir of the badini sardar. [illustration: a badini sardar.] [illustration: the salaam of the beluch sardars at nushki. (sardar alam khan standing.)] sherdil and mehrullah khan, with elaborately embroidered coats and snider rifles, sat among the elect, and the others were soldiers and followers, but a fine lot of fellows indeed, all the same. when the formal reception broke up i showed them my repeating rifles, revolvers and various instruments, which interested them greatly; and the leading chiefs having been entertained to tea, they eventually departed after repeated salaams. although the beluch and the afghan shake hands on arrival, they seldom do so on departing, the handshake being for them an outward sign to express the joy of seeing a friend. on surveying the neighbourhood from our high point of vantage at the bungalow, we found plenty to interest the observer. to the north and north-west directly below the hill could be seen a graveyard in two sections, the tombs being very high above ground, with prismatic tops of white stones, whereas the bases were of black pebbles. the tombs in the graveyard to the north-west were in bad preservation. there was at this spot a well known ziarat called kwajah mahommed, and the british government has given much pleasure to the natives by sanctioning a "mufi" or remission of revenue for ever of all the land belonging to this ziarat in order to provide for the support of it. the people of the district are extremely religious, and they have erected mesjids and ziarats on every possible hill in the neighbourhood. the most interesting is the shah-hussein ziarat, which has a curious legend of its own. they say, that when the arabs attacked shah-hussein, he killed all his enemies by merely praying to god. with their heads, which suddenly turned into solid stone, he built the ziarat. the tomb is made, in fact, of round stones, some of enormous size, evidently worn into that shape by water, but the natives firmly believe that they are petrified heads of arabs! nushki is most conveniently situated in a large valley with mountains sheltering it from the north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west, but from south-south-west to north there is a stretch of open flat desert (the _registan_, or "country of sand") as far as the eye can see. to the south of the bungalow is a hill range stretching from north-north-east to south-south-west, and suddenly broken by the valley, through which runs the stream which, then proceeding along the nushki plain from east to west, turns in a graceful curve round the western side of the hill on which the bungalow is situated, and proceeds across the desert in a north-north-west direction, where, having supplied several villages and irrigated their fields, it eventually exhausts itself in the desert. a broad river bed can be noticed on the east side of and parallel with the above hill range. the east side of these hills has been much worn by water action; so much so that actual holes and caves in the soft strata of sand and gravel have been corroded by the water, and these holes, as we have seen, are now inhabited by destitute beluch. chapter xl the fast growing city of nushki--the tashil--the tashildar--beluch law--hospital--pneumonia and consumption--lawn tennis--the nushki bazaar--satisfactory trade returns--the projected quetta-nushki railway--a great future for nushki--an extension to sistan necessary--also a telegraph--preferable routes for a railway to sistan--from nushki to kishingi--a curious mesjid--mudonek ateng mountain--a fast of twenty-five days--the chiltan and takatu mts.--the gurghena tribe--huts and tents--beluch hospitality--villages. let us take a walk through the fast growing city of nushki. half a dozen years ago there was next to nothing here, but now we have a beautiful _tashil_--a large walled enclosure, with a portico all round inside and circular towers at the four corners. the actual tashil office, occupying the north-east corner, has a most business-like appearance, with handsome iron despatch-boxes, clocks that mark each a different time, but look most imposing all the same, and folio-documents folded in two and carefully arranged in piles upon the floor by the side of wise-looking clerks squatting in their midst. the tashildar himself, sardar mahommed yuzaf khan popalzai, is a much respected man of afghan birth, of the bamezi popalzai durranis, or descendants of the tribe reigning in cabul before mahommed zeis took the throne, when his ancestors and the saddo zeis were forcibly banished from the country. [illustration: the new city of nushki. (overlooking the tashil buildings.)] the tashildar, a most intelligent officer, seems to understand the beluch chiefs thoroughly, treats them with extreme consideration--in private life dealing with them as honoured guests, and politically as government subjects who must adhere to their loyalty to the king. there are also within the tashil wall a post and telegraph office and a treasury, a neat little red brick building, with strong iron gates and huge padlocks. prisons are on either side of the treasury, so that one single sentry may keep an eye on both the prisoners and the local government funds. when i visited the place an old man in chains was squatting in the sun outside his cell. i inquired what crime he had committed. his daughter, they said, was betrothed to a young man, and at the time appointed for the marriage the old man did not bring the girl to the bridegroom as stipulated. he had consequently already been here in prison for two months to pay for his folly, and would possibly have to remain some months longer, for, according to beluch law--which is in force here--such a crime deserves severe punishment. another prisoner--a cattle lifter--had a most hideously criminal head. prisoners were very well cared for, had nice clean cells given them, and were provided with plenty of food and blankets. the tashil establishment consisted of one tashildar, one _sarishtedar_ (clerk who reads papers), one judicial _moharrir_, one _kanungo_ (revenue clerk), three _patwaris_, one accountant in treasury and one treasurer, one _chaprassi_, one petition writer, one levy moonshee, one post and telegraph master, one postman, one hospital assistant, one compounder, three servants. next to the tashil was the _thana_ and police-station, with a police thanedar, one sergeant and nine (punjab) constables, as well as a levy _jemadar_ with one _duffadar_ and ten _sawars_. there is a practical little hospital at nushki, with eight beds and a dispensary, but the health of the place seemed very good, and there were no patients when i visited it. moreover, it seems that the beluch prefer to be given medicine and remain in their dwellings, except in cases of very severe illness. the principal ailments from which they suffer are small-pox, measles, and scurvy, which in various stages is most prevalent among the beluch. chest complaints are unknown among them while they live out in the open air, but when they are forcibly confined to rooms, for instance as prisoners, they generally die of pneumonia or develop consumption. two caravanserais are found at nushki, one for traders from sistan, and one for caravans from quetta, and a mosque, so that the place is quite a self-contained little town. in front of the hospital one is rather staggered by finding an actual tennis court laid down according to the most precise rules, and no doubt in course of time we may expect golf links and ping-pong tournaments which will mark further steps towards the anglicisation of that district. but personally i was more interested in the local bazaar, counting already shops. the nushki bazaar is along a wide road kept tidy and clean, and the place boasts of butcher-shops, a washerman, one tailor marked by smallpox and one who is not; _ghi_ merchants with large round casks outside their doors; cloth merchants; blacksmiths and grain shops. in a back street--for, indeed, nushki boasts already of two streets parallel with the main thoroughfare--under a red flag hoisted over the premises is an eating house--a restaurant for natives. the merchants are mostly hindoos from sind. [illustration: jemadar and levies, nushki.] [illustration: a giant beluch recruit. (chaman.)] the land on which the shops have been built has practically been given free by the government on condition that, if required back again at a future date, the builder of the house upon the land reclaimed is entitled, as an indemnity, only to the restitution of the wood employed in the construction of the house--the chief item of expense in nushki constructions. cotton goods, blue, red and white, seem to command the greatest sale of any articles in nushki, after which the local trade consists of wheat, almonds, barley, carpets (from sistan), wool, _kanawes_ (cloth from meshed), and cloths imported from england, mostly cheap cottons; camels, dates, etc. the transit trade of nushki is, however, very considerable. the government returns of the trade that passed through nushki during the year from april, , to april, , showed an aggregate of rs. , , , against rs. , , for the preceding twelve months, while two years before ( - ) the returns barely amounted to rs. , . last year, , the trade returns made a further jump upwards in the nine months from april to the end of december, , the imports amounting to rs. , , and the exports rs. , , or an aggregate of rs. , , , which is very satisfactory indeed. so much has been written of late about nushki, especially in connection with the new railway, that i have very little to add. i most certainly think that, strategically and commercially, nushki is bound to become a very important centre, and, as far as trade goes, eventually to supplant quetta altogether, owing to its more convenient position. the projected railway from quetta to nushki will be a great boon to caravans, both from afghanistan and persia, because the severe cold of quetta makes it very difficult for camels to proceed there in winter, and camel drivers have a great objection to taking their animals there. for any one looking ahead at the future and not so much at the present, it seems, however, almost a pity that the newly sanctioned railway should not join nushki with shikarpur or sibi instead of quetta, which would have avoided a great and apparently almost useless detour. nushki will be found to develop so fast and so greatly that, sooner or later, it will have to be connected in a more direct line with more important trading centres than quetta. quetta is not a trading centre of any importance, and is merely a military station leading nowhere into british territory in a direct line. however, even the quetta-nushki railway is better than nothing, and will certainly have a beneficial effect upon the country it will pass through. from a military point of view the railway as far as nushki only is practically useless. it is only a distance of some ninety odd miles, through good country with plenty of water and some grazing. in england one reads in the papers and hears people talk of this railway as the quetta-sistan railway, and people seem to be under the impression that nushki is on the persian border. it should be clearly understood that from nushki to sistan (sher-i-nasrya) the distance, through practically desert country and scanty water, is over miles. to my mind it is in the robat-nushki portion of that distance, where travelling is difficult, and for troops almost impossible, that a railway is mostly needed. i have gone to much trouble, and risked boring the reader, to give all the differential altitudes upon the portion of the road between robat and nushki, and it will be seen that hardly anywhere does the track rise suddenly to more than or feet at most. the ground could easily be made solid enough to lay a line upon; tanks for the water supply might be established at various stations, and a railway could be built with no trouble and comparatively small expense. again, for the trade of southern persia, robat would, i think, be a fairly good terminus on the perso-beluch frontier; but, in order to compete with russia in sistan and khorassan, it would be a very good thing if the government could enter into an arrangement with afghanistan, so that if such a railway were built it should strike from dalbandin across the desert up to the southern bank of the halmund, and have sher-i-nasrya in sistan for its terminus. this would do away almost altogether--except in a small section--with the difficulty of the water, and would shorten the distance by at least one quarter. the idea one often hears that it would be dangerous to construct such a railway, because it would be to open a passage for russia into india, is too ridiculous to be argued about. it might be pointed out that the russians on their side seem not to reciprocate the fear of our invading their country, for they are pushing their railways from the north as far as they can towards the persian frontier, and it is stated that a concession has been obtained by them for a railway line to meshed. but, either _via_ robat or the halmund, the principal point is that if we do not wish to lose southern persia we must push the railway with the utmost speed, at least as far as the frontier. anything, in such a case, is better than nothing, and most undoubtedly a telegraph line should be established without delay--possibly as far as the sher-i-nasrya consulate. matters are much more urgent than we in england think, and if warning is not taken we shall only have ourselves to blame for the consequences. from nushki i went to a great extent along the line which is to be followed by the future railway. it seemed very sensibly traced, avoiding expensive difficulties, such as tunnels, as much as possible, but of course this railway has to go over a good portion of mountainous country and cannot be built on the cheap. [illustration: the track between nushki and kishingi.] i left nushki on the st, following a limpid stream of water, and we began a zig-zag ascent of the mountains before us to the east, leaving behind to the north-east in a valley a large camp of railway engineers and surveyors. after some two miles we reached a broad valley, and we continued to rise until we had reached the pass, , feet. on the other side we descended only feet to a plain--a plateau, with hill ranges rising on it, and a barrier of higher mountains behind. the vegetation here was quite different from anything we had met in the desert, and _kotor_ was plentiful--a plant, the beluch say, eaten by no animal. tamarisk seemed to flourish--it is a wonderful plant that flourishes almost everywhere. the plain was subdivided into three. in the first portion, four miles wide, and one broad, the _monguli_ shrub was abundant, and, like the _kotor_, was pronounced a useless plant, despised by all beasts. in the second plain we found more _kotor_, and in the last--very sandy--a lot of tamarisk. the ground was cut about by numerous dry water-channels, and after a very easy march of some eleven miles we came to the bungalow of kishingi, having ascended from , feet at the nushki tashil to , feet at the kishingi rest-house. we had seen a great many white pillar posts indicating the line of the future railroad. we had now quite a different type of rest-houses--two-storied, and very nice too, the two rooms being comfortably enough furnished. a caravanserai was attached to the bungalow. still going east we crossed another narrow valley, through which the railway was traced, and after going over a pass , feet we were in a valley with a lot of _johr_ growing upon it--a plant which the beluch say is deadly to man and beast alike. on the top of the pass we saw a mesjid, and several more were found on descending on the other side as well as a graveyard. a curious white mesjid was to be seen here shaped like an , and erected on the site where a beluch had been killed. a conical mountain to the south, the mudonek ateng, was famous, my camel driver told me, because a beluch fakir is said to have remained on the top of it for days without food or water. a small stone shelter could be seen on the top of the mountain, which, they say, had been the fakir's abode during his long fast. there is very little of special interest on this well-known part of the route near quetta. we rose for several miles to a higher pass ( , feet), and were then on a higher flat plateau with a high range stretching half-way across it from south-south-east to north-north-west. one's attention was at once drawn to the north-east by two renowned peaks in british beluchistan, the chiltan, and further off the takatu mount. at their foot on the other side lay quetta. in front of these we had the hilti range stretching north-west to south-east, ending in mount barag on the north, and the two askhan hills. this part seemed more populated, and we left to the east the tribe of gurghena, comprising four villages at intervals of about one mile from one another. the last was situated in the wide valley to the west of the hilti range. other villages could be seen further in the valley extending towards the south, which were supplied with water by a river flowing along the valley. a few _ghedan_, or low grass huts, were scattered about the valley, and some black tents ½ feet high, with one side raised like an awning by means of sticks. a pen for sheep was erected near them with tamarisk branches and sticks. we were very thirsty and went to one of these tents. the woman who occupied it gave us some water, but, although in abject poverty, angrily refused to accept a silver coin in payment, saying that beluch cannot be paid for hospitality. water costs nothing. god gives water for all the people alike, and, if they were to accept payment, misfortune would fall upon them. further on we passed the village of paden, with cultivation all round and plenty of water. the chief had quite an imposing residence, with a tower and castellated entrance gate, and the characteristic cylindrical mangers for horses in front of his dwelling. but although more elaborate, even this house--the largest i had seen--was absolutely devoid of windows, except for a loop-hole to the east of the tower, which i think was more for defensive purposes than for ventilation's sake. the village of kardegap was seen next, and we arrived at morad khan kella ( , feet) twenty-four miles from our last camp. chapter xli morad khan kella--the horrors of a camera--seven high dunes--three tracks--where the railway will be laid--a fine old tamarisk turned into a ziarat--pagoda-like rest-houses--science _versus_ comfort--kanak--afghan women--the kandahar road--how we butcher foreign names--quetta and chaman--the horse fair and durbar at sibi--arrival in calcutta--the first mishap--the death of faithful lawah--the end. there was a ruined fort at morad khan kella, and half a mile off a beluch village with two towers. each house had a separating wall extending outwardly. the beluch is wretched if he is not secluded. the first thing he ever wants to know is the exact extent of his property, then he is quite happy and can live at peace with his neighbours. as folks live more outside their houses than indoors, i suppose such a demarcation of property is necessary. moreover, people and beasts live in friendly intercourse, and no doubt the beasts, which may be the cherished pets of one man, may be just the reverse to his neighbours. the houses were rectangular and plastered over with mud. the people here were not quite so friendly as in other villages, and one began to feel the effects of nearing civilisation. somebody, too, had been at this people with a camera before, for i hardly had time to take mine out of its case before the whole population, which had collected around, stampeded in all directions in the utmost confusion. only a little child--whom the mother dropped in the hurry-scurry--was left behind, and he was a quaint little fellow clad in a long coloured gown and a picturesque red hood. we left morad khan kella ( , feet) again on february nd, along the vast plain which is to be crossed by the future railway from north to south ( °). on nearing the killi range we came again to some high sand dunes rising in a gentle gradient to feet, their lowest point being to the north, the highest to the south. the plain itself on which we were travelling (stretching from south-west to north-east) rose gradually to , feet on undulating ground with a number of sand hills, seven high long dunes, and some minor ones. we then came to a flat plain slanting northwards and with high sand accumulations to the south near the hill range. a rivulet of salt water losing itself in the sand was found next, and then we had to cross a pass , feet. one obtained a beautiful view of the mustang mountains to the south-east with two plains, intersected by a high mountain range between us and them. there were three tracks from this pass. one south-east, called the mustang track, the other (north-east) the tiri road, and one, on which we were travelling, north-north-east ( °) to kanak. the very high kuh-i-maran peak could be seen in the distance to the south-east. the railway will here follow the river which, coming from mustang, flows south-west to panchepoy. then the line will proceed through the gorge in the mountains to the west. some few miles from kanak at the entrance of this gorge were curious cuts in the sand, evidently caused by water. tamarisk was most luxuriant here. [illustration: taleri (kanak). the new type of rest house between nushki and quetta.] a small graveyard and a semi-natural ziarat, formed by a much contorted centenarian tamarisk tree of abnormal proportions, were also to be seen here. the branches had been twisted to form a low doorway leading to a huge grave in the centre of the enclosing oval formed by the old tree and some other smaller ones. large round stones, as well as palm leaves, brooms, and various implements had been deposited on the grave; while suspended to the tree branches over the doorway hung brass camel-bells and tassels from camel collars. during that day we had come across a great many mesjids, either single or in sets of three, and several other ziarats of no special importance. in the valley of kanak there were a number of beluch towns and villages, two at the foot of the shalkot mountain and one in each valley to the south of the track. we made our last halt at the pagoda-like bungalow of kanak, a comfortable large, black wood verandah with a tiny dwelling in the centre, whitewashed walls, and a corrugated iron roof. the man who built it was apparently more of a mechanical engineer than an architect, and every detail is carried out on some highly scientific principle which impressed one much after the less elaborate but very practical abodes we had inhabited further east. here there was a gate suspended on long iron rods besides the usual hinges, each screw had a bolt at the end, and on proceeding inside, the ceiling was supported on very neat but most insecure-looking wooden bars no thicker than three inches. a most ingenious theory of angles kept up the heavy roof--why it did, heaven only knows! in contrast to the other bungalows, where we had no glass at all, here we had glass everywhere. one's bedroom door was two-thirds made of the most transparent panes of glass that could be got, and so were the two doors of the bath-room--one leading directly on to the outside verandah. the boards of the floor had shrunk, and between the interstices one got a bird's-eye view of what went on in the underlying room. a great deal of space and expense has been devoted to outer show and scientific detail, whereas the rooms were small, and unfortunate was the man who tried to occupy the upper room when a fire had been lighted in the chimney of the room below. the bungalow was, however, comfortably furnished, and from its spacious verandah afforded a most magnificent view all round. the high chiltan mountains above shalkot were on one side, and various picturesque hill ranges stretched across the large plane dotted with a beluch village here and there. in front of the entrance gate at the bungalow a nice pool of water reflected in its more or less limpid waters the images of over-leaning leafless trees. [illustration: the horse fair at sibi, beluchistan.] whatever remarks one may make about the construction of the bungalow it must be confessed that it photographed well. (see illustration facing page ). the altitude of kanak was , feet. we made an early start on this our last march, steering between the handsome takatu mountain and the chiltan, between which quetta lies. we met a number of afghan women in long, loose black gowns from neck to foot, and silver ornaments round the neck and arms. they had austere but handsome features with expressive eyes. about six miles from quetta we struck the wide kandahar road at the foot of the takatu mountain. from this point we got the first glimpse of shalkot or quetta. "quetta" is the english corruption, abbreviation, or adaptation, if you please, of the word "shalkot!" one almost wished one could have trembled when one stopped for a moment to read the first notice in english on approaching the town, warning new-comers of the dreadful things that would happen to any one entering the town carrying a camera or found sketching or taking notes! it came on to snow as we approached the place, and shortly after sunset my caravan entered the neat, beautifully-kept roads of quetta, and behold, joy!--i heard for the first time since august last the whistle of a railway engine. this was on february rd, . i met with unbounded civility and hospitality from everybody in quetta as well as at chaman, our most north-westerly point on the afghan boundary. for those who believe in the unpreparedness of england, it may be stated that, from this point, we could with ease lay a railroad to kandahar in less than three weeks. a most charming invitation from the honourable the agent to the governor-general and chief commissioner in beluchistan, col. c. e. yate, c.s.i., c.m.g., etc., took me almost directly to sibi, where the annual horse show and beluch durbar were to take place. a great many locally-bred animals were exhibited, some very good indeed. camel, horse, and cow races enlivened the show, and a very weird representation of a beluch raid was performed with much _entrain_. at the durbar, the leading chiefs were presented by col. yate with handsome gold and silver embroidered coats, waistcoats, scarves and turbans, and the scene was very impressive. one could not help again being struck by the dignified, manly behaviour of the beluch on one side, and their frank respect for the british officers,--a respect indeed well-deserved, for a finer set of men in every way than our political service officers can be found nowhere. it is a pity we have not similar men _all_ over india. from sibi i travelled by rail across country to calcutta, where i arrived at the beginning of march, having completed my journey overland--if the short crossing from baku to enzeli be excepted--from flushing (holland). [illustration: beluch boys off to the races--horse fair at sibi.] it never does to boast. i was feeling somewhat proud to have travelled such a long distance with no serious mishaps or accidents, when, much to my sorrow, sadek, my persian servant, returned one evening to the hotel dreadfully smashed up. he had been attacked in the bazaar by three englishmen of calcutta, two of whom had held him down on the ground while the third kicked him badly in the head, body and legs. it appears that these three ruffians had a grievance against persians in general, hence their heroic deed against a man who had done them no harm. it was indeed too bad to have to register that, in a journey of over , miles, the only people who had shown any barbarity were--in a sort of way--my own countrymen! much as i love beluchistan, i like india less and less each time i go there. maybe it is because i always have misfortunes while in the country. indeed, i received a last and severe blow while proceeding by train from calcutta to bombay to catch a homeward steamer. my faithful cat lawah died, suffocated by the intense moist heat in the carriage. the other two cats i just managed to keep alive by constant rubbing with ice. from bombay i despatched sadek back to teheran _via_ the gulf and bushire, and the two surviving cats and i sailed by p. & o. for england, where we all three arrived happy, safe, and sound. appendix tables showing the distance from quetta to meshed via robat, sher-i-nasrya (sistan), birjand. _distances from quetta to persian frontier._ _name of stage._ _distance._ _miles._ _yards._ quetta to girdi talab -- girdi to kanak (taleri) -- kanak to morad khan kella -- morad khan kella to kishingi -- kishingi to nushki -- nushki to mall , mall to kuchaki chah , kuchaki chah to padag padag to yadgar , yadgar to karodak karodak to dalbandin dalbandin to chakal chakal to sotag sotag to mirui , mirui to chah sandan chah sandan to tretoh tretoh to noh kundi , noh kundi to mashki chah , mashki chah to sahib chah sahib chah to mukak mukak to saindak saindak to kirtaka kirtaka to chah mahommed , chah mahommed raza to raza kuh-i-malek-siah distances from robat (beluchistan) to sher-i-nasrya (sistan). robat to hormak miles. hormak to girdi-chah " girdi-chah to mahommed raza chah " mahommed raza chah to lutak " lutak to baghak " baghak to sher-i-nasrya (sistan) " sher-i-nasrya to birjand, about stages miles. birjand to meshed, _via_ turbat-i-haidari " botanical specimens collected by author in north beluchistan. (presented to the british museum of natural history.) _native name._ _agat_ lornia spinosa. sch. bip. _buju_ stipa (grass). _eshwerk_ rhazya stricta dec. _jirri × jerr_ artemisia herba-alva asso. _karkar_ fagonia aucheri boiss. _kesankur_ peganum harmala l. _kanderi_ (?) salsola. _kirri_ tamarix articulata vahl. _kul_ } _drug_ } phragmites communis trin. (a reed.) _kulich' nell_ cressa cretica l. { anabasis sp. _lara_ { tamarix sp. _pish_ nannorhops ritchieana wendl. (palm.) _sachdonne_ astragalus sp. ---- moricandia sp. ---- alyssum. ---- cichorium (?). ---- nerium oleander l. ---- convolvulus sp. ---- salicornia fruticosa l. ---- suæda monoica forsk. [illustration: sketch map of a. henry savage landor's journey from kerman (persia) to quetta (beluchistan) giving detailed survey of sistan-nushki route by author.] index i. == vol. i. ii. == vol. ii. abal kassem khan, i. abbas ali, camel man, ii. abbas ali khan, british agent in birjand, ii. abdulabad, i. abid, ii. accumulations of wealth, i. across the salt desert, ii. - afghan-beluch boundary, the, ii. afghan desert, ii. invasion, i. soldiers, ii. women, ii. afghanistan, ii. afghans, ii. , african black, an, i. agdah, i. agha baba, i. , mahommed, i. agha mahommed's invasion of persia, i. , ahwaz, i. ahwaz-isfahan track, i. alabaster throne, i. ala-el-mulk, governor of kerman, i. , alamut mt., i. alexandrovo, i. aliabad, i. ali murat, ii. alliance française, i. alliance israelite, i. ambition, i. american interests, i. amir of birjand, ii. sistan, ii. audience of the, ii. anar, i. ardakan mts., i. ardeshir meheban irani, i. armenian archbishop, i. men, i. women, i. armenians, i. emigration of, i. artillery, ii. assiabo gordoneh, i. astara, i. astrabad, i. , azerbaijan, i. azizawad, i. backhtiaris, i. badjirs, (ventilating shafts), i. , baghih, i. baku, i. , native city, i. bambis, i. bandan, ii. bandan mts., ii. bandar abbas, i. trade of, i. band-i-sistan, ii. banking in persia, i. bank-notes, i. , banks, i. banque d'escompte et de prêts, i. poliakoff, i. barbers, i. ; ii. baths, i. bazaar, i. , , , - ; ii. beetroot sugar company, the, i. beggars, ii. behai sect, the, i. belgian customs officers, i. , bellew, ii. bellows, i. beluch, ii. , beluch-afghan boundary, ii. beluch bread, ii. chiefs, ii. - dancing, ii. diet, ii. dress, ii. durbar, ii. dwellings, ii. fakir, ii. fort, ii. graves, ii. , , graves, section of, ii. graveyard, ii. , greeting, ii. hospitality, ii. huts, ii. implements, ii. love and war songs, ii. marriages, ii. maternal love, ii. mesjids (or mazit), ii. music, ii. ornaments, ii. prisoners, ii. religion, ii. , rugs, i. salutations, ii. tents, ii. types, ii. weaving looms, ii. beluchistan, i. persian, i. subdivisions of, ii. benn, major, r. e., british consul, sistan, ii. , , , , benn, bazaar, ii. biddeh, i. biddeshk, i. birjand, ii. citadel, ii. city, ii. commercially, ii. exports, ii. imports, ii. industries of, ii. routes from, ii. ruined fortress at, ii. biwarzin yarak range, i. blackmail, i. bohemian glass, i. bokhara, amir of, i. bombay amelioration society of the parsees, i. brahui, ii. , bread, i. making, ii. of camel men, ii. british bazaar, ii. flag, difficulties of hoisting the, ii. goods, i. , , , ; ii. india navigation company, the, i. legation, i. , staff, i. protection, ii. , trade, i. , traders, ii. britishers, i. in persia, i. bunjar, ii. buried city, seemingly, ii. bushire company, i. business principles, i. cairns, ii. , camel men, ii. , devoutness of, ii. riding, ii. camels, ii. , , canals, ii. , capital, i. , customs soldiers, ii. caravan from kerman to quetta, ii. caravan men, i. , caravans, i. caravanserais, i. , , ; ii. , carriage fares (resht teheran), i. carpet factories, i. carpets, i. , birjand, ii. kerman, i. , herat, i. sultanabad, i. tabriz, i. turcoman, i. yezd, i. caspian sea, navigation of, i. steamers, i. catacombs, i. cats, intelligence of, ii. cave dwellers of nushki, ii. chagai, ii. chah-herizek, i. chah-i-mardan, ii. chah sandan, ii. chakal, ii. chaman, ii. chaman singh, ii. chanoh, i. chap, a beluch dance, the, ii. chappar or post-horses, i. charity, i. chel-payeh, ii. chiltan mt., ii. , chinese turkestan, i. chinese war, the, i. christianisation, i. church missionary society, i. churches, i. churchill, mr., acting h.b.m. consul, resht, i. civilising agents, i. clemenson and marsh, messrs., ii. clouds, ii. above the desert, ii. coachmen, i. , cocoon trade, i. coin, old and new, i. coins, i. cold, ii. , , colleges and schools, i. communication, i. ways of, ii. compagnie d'assurance et de transport en perse, i. company promoters, i. compensating laws of nature, ii. competition in birjand, ii. trade, i. confidence in foreigners, i. conical temporary graves, ii. consular postal service, ii. consulate guard, ii. hospital, ii. mosque, ii. consulates, i. british, i. consuls, ii. copper, i. coin, i. , work, i. , cossacks, i. , , ; ii. , crater, ii. credit, ii. criminals, i. currency, i. customs caravanserai, sistan, ii. officials, ii. dadi, ii. dalbandin, ii. , routes from, ii. damovend mt., i. , dancing, i. darband, ii. mt., ii. , daria-i-nimak (salt lake), i. dearth of coins, i. deawat, i. deformities, i. , deh-i-husena, ii. dentistry, i. deschambe bazaar, i. difficulties of traders, ii. diseases, ii. distances from teheran to isfahan, i. drog, ii. dry river beds, ii. , , , dunes, i. , ; ii. , duties, i. ears of persians, i. education, i. , of persians, i. electricity of the desert, ii. , , elongating effects of the desert, ii. england and russia, i. english education, i. goods, i. englishman as a linguist, the, i. enzeli, i. , bay, i. eshwark, ii. eshwerk, ii. eternal fires, i. euphrates valley railway, i. european commercial houses, i. europeans, i. european women, i. , exchange, i. family graves, ii. famine, i. fanatic, ii. farah rud, ii. farmitan, ruins of, i. farming system, i. fars trading company, i. farsakh, the, i. fatabad, i. fedeshk, the village of, ii. fever, ii. , , , , , , , fever-stricken, ii. people, ii. fezahbad, i. fight between afghans and sistanis, ii. fin palace, i. fire temples, i. , destruction of, i. worshippers, i. food for camels, ii. foreign education, i. exchange, i. speculations, i. foreigners in persian employ, i. fort, ii. fortress, ii. in ruins, ii. fossils, ii. foxes, ii. fraud, i. , friction, ii. friday, the day of rest, i. fruit trees, i. fuel, i. garland, james loraine, i. , gas company, the, i. gat mt., ii. , geographical frauds, i. geological fault, ii. georgians, i. german commercial training, i. goods, i. , , minister, i. germany, i. , , ghiez, i. ghilan, i. province, i. , , ghilan's trade, i. ghul khan, ii. gigantic rock inscription, i. girdi, ii. , glass, i. godar-i-chah, ruins of, ii. water of, ii. godar-khorassunih pass, ii. god-i-zirreh, ii. salt deposits (afghanistan), ii. golahek, i. golam jelami, dr., ii. golandeh, ii. gold, i. coins, i. goldsmid, sir f., ii. goldsmiths, i. government guarantee, i. of india, i. grapes, i. graveyards, ii. grube, mr., i. gullahbad, i. gurghena tribe, ii. gyabrabat, i. gypsum, ii. , hallucination, i. halmund water, ii. hamadan, i. hammam (baths), i. , hamun-i-halmund, ii. , hand of prophet nazareth abbas, the, i. haoz panch caravanserai, ii. hardinge, sir arthur, i. , head mullah, death of, i. heat, ii. , , hindoo caravanserai, kerman, i. hindoo merchants, i. hoarding, i. hodjatabad, i. holy city, i. horjins (saddle-bags), i. hormak, ii. , horse fair, i. hotels, i. , , , , hotz and son, i. , , house of commons, i. houses, i. , ; ii. , , husena baba, ii. husseinabad, ii. ice store-houses, i. , illuminations, i. imperial bank of persia, i. , , , importation of arms, i. imprints, ii. incorrect maps, i. ; ii. , , india, the invasion of, i. indian pilgrims, ii. tea traders, ii. teas, ii. indo-european telegraphs, i. , , , , infanticide, i. infantry soldiers, i. inscriptions and ornamentations on chappar-khana walls, i. intermarriage, ii. investments, i. iron, i. isfahan, i. , avenue, the, i. bridge, the, i. commercially, i. historical paintings, i. jewish quarters, i. madrassah, the, i. , palace, the, i. , square of, the, i. iskil, ii. isphandiar khan, i. itinerary of journey, london to baku, i. - baku to enzeli, i. - enzeli to resht, i. - resht to teheran, i. - teheran to isfahan, i. - isfahan to yezd, i. - yezd to kerman, i. - kerman to birjand, ii. - birjand to sher-i-nasrya (sistan) ii. - sher-i-nasrya to zaidan, ii. - zaidan to kuh-i-kwajah, ii. - kuh-i-kwajah to robat, ii. - robat to saindak _viâ_ god-i-zirreh (afghanistan), ii. - saindak to quetta, ii. - quetta to calcutta, ii. - calcutta to london, ii. - jaffarabad, i. jamsetsji n. tata, mr., i. janja mt., i. "jazia" tax, the, i. jewellers, i. jews, i. , , , of isfahan, features of the, i. jubareh, i. julfa, i. europeans at, i. graveyard, i. kajar dynasty, i. kajars, i. kala ardeshir (fort), i. kala-i-dukhtar or virgin fort, i. kalantar of sistan, the, ii. , kalaoteh, ii. kanak, ii. kanats, i. , , , , ; ii. kandahar road, ii. karenghi rirri, ii. karodak, ii. karun river, navigation of, i. kashan, i. , kasvin, i. , , manufacturer of, i. rest house, i. kavkas and mercury steam navigation company, i. kawam-ed-douleh, i. kayani, the, ii. kehriz natenz peak, i. _kerbas_ cloth, i. kerjawa (litters), i. kerman, i. british consulate, i. cloths and felts, i. europeans at, i. garrison of, i. madrassah, the, i. to neh, route _viâ_ khabis, ii. keshk (cheese), ii. kevir, the, i. khafe-khanas, i. khale mandelha, i. khan of kelat, ii. , - kharkoff, i. kharzan pass, i. khorassan, i. , khupah, i. khuzistan, i. kiafteh, i. kiev, i. kievo-petcherskaya monastery, i. killi range, ii. kirtaka, ii. routes from, ii. kishingi, ii. kohrut, i. dam, i. kort, i. kotor, ii. kran, i. , kuchaki chah, ii. kudum, i, , kuh-benan mts., ii. kuh djupahr, i. peaks, i. kuh-i-buhlan pass, i. kuh-i-daftan (volcano), ii. kuh-i-kwajah, ii. - characteristic skulls, ii. dead houses, ii. gandun piran ziarat, ii. graves in compartments, ii. kala-i-kakaha, city of roars of laughter, ii. , legends regarding, ii. kuk fort, ii. priests' house, ii. tomb of thirty-eight sections, ii. kuh-i-malek-siah, ii. kuh-i-maran, ii. kum, i. , , kundi, ii. kupayeh mountains, ii. kurdistan, i. rugs, i. kurus peak, ii. kushkuhyeh, i. lahr kuh, ii. lalun mines, i. , langherut, i. languages, i. lascelles, sir frank, i. laskerisha, ii. lawah, ii. cat, ii. lawah, tracks from, ii. lawah's trade, ii. lead, ii. leather tanneries, i. legation guards, i. legations, i. leker kuh range, ii. lenkoran, i. levantines, i. lingah, i. loaf-sugar, i. loan, six per cent., i. london society for promoting christianity amongst the jews of isfahan, i. stock exchange, i. luft-ali-khan, i. luristan, i. lynch brothers, i. maclean incident, the, i. macmahon, major a. h., ii. , , , mcgregor, sir charles, ii. , mahala-giabr, i. mahommed ali brothers, ii. azim khan brothers, ii. azin, a descendant of the kayani, ii. , mahommed hayab, ii. raza chah, ii. , mahommerah, i. trade of, i. maiden's tower, baku, i. maladministration, i. malayer and borujird districts, i. malcolm, rev. napier, i. malek-siah, ziarat, (where three countries meet), ii. mall, ii. marble, ii. market worth cultivating, ii. massacre of jews, i. matsuma fatima, i. mazanderan, i. meftah-el-mulk, i. meftah-es-sultaneh, i. meh-rab shrine, i. meiboh, i. menzil, i. , bridge, i. meshed horses for remounts, ii. meshed-i-sher, i. meshed, pilgrimage to the sacred shrine of, ii. track to, ii. mesjids, ii. , , miletor, mr., belgian customs officer, sistan, ii. military drill, i. officers, ii. , political service, ii. miller, mr., russian vice-consul for sistan, ii. minerals, i. mint, the, i. mirage, i. , , ; ii. mirjawa, track to, ii. mirui, ii. mirza hassan ashtiani, i. mirza-taki-khan, assassination of, i. missionaries, i. , missionary work, i. misstatements, ii. model farm, i. moisture, i. mol-ali, i. money, i. morad-khan kella, ii. , mosques, i. , , , , , , motor cars, i. mount sofia, i. moving pictures, i. mudir school, i. mudonek ateng mt., ii. muht, ii. mukak, ii. mullahs, i. , , , , , , , murchikhar, i. murd-ap, i. , mushir-ed-doulet, minister of foreign affairs, i. , mushki-chah, ii. mushroom-shaped mount, ii. music, i. mustang track, ii. muzaffer-ed-din shah, i. naiband mt., ii. , , village of, the, ii. villagers, clothes of, ii. nao gombes, i. naphtha, i. napier, ii. nasirabad, ii. nassirabad, i. native merchants in birjand, ii. natives, troublesome, ii. naus, mr., i. nawar-chah, ii. new consulate buildings, ii. nharui, ii. nickel coins, i. nihilists, i. northern persia, i. , , nose of persians, i. nushki, ii. , - bazaar, ii. beluch durbar at, ii. beluch tribes near, ii. caravanserais, ii. health of, ii. hospital, ii. projected railway, ii. tashil, ii. tashildar, ii. trade of, ii. traders in, ii. route, ii. , , advice to traders, ii. concession to traders by the, ii. evolutions of the, ii. first to travel from london to quetta by the, ii. forwarding agents by the, ii. game on the, ii. pilgrims by the, ii. post offices on the, ii. railway rebate on freight for goods by the, ii. rest houses on the, ii. trade of the, ii. traffic on the, ii. travellers by the, ii. water supply on the, ii. oasis, ii. observation, i. officials, i. ; ii. oil wells, i. , opium, i. smoking, ii. , effects of, ii. orphans, college for, i. padag, ii. paichinar, i. paintings, i. , palawan (strong man), the, ii. palm-trees, ii. , parsee, british subjects in yezd, i. ceremonies, i. generosity, i. national assembly, i. priests, i. school, i. traders, i. parsees of india, i. of kerman, i. fire of the, i. or guebre (zoroastrians) of yezd, i. - zoroastrians, i. , pasand khan, ii. passangun, i. passports, i. patang kuh, ii. pearls, i. persecution, i. - persian army, the, i. cats, ii. cossack regiment, i. , crowds, ii. customs duty, ii. dancing, ii. dinner, i. , expedition against beluch, i. gulf, i. trading company, i. imperial government, obligations of the, i. justice, ii. markets, i. , music, ii. musical instruments, ii. officials, i. question, the, i. soldiers, i. tea market, ii. telegraphs, i. , , the, as a soldier, i. wedding, i. women's dress, i. jewels, i. out-of-door dress, i. persia's condition, i. perso-beluch frontier, ii. petroleum express, i. phillot, major, h.b.m.'s consul, kerman, i. ; ii. phonograph, ii. pigeon towers, i. pilgrimage for sterile women, i. pilgrims, i. ; ii. pilgrims, indian, ii. pipes, i. piri bazaar, i. road, ii. pish, ii. pits, ii. plague, fears of the, ii. plucky englishwoman, ii. policy of drift, i. , political service, ii. polygamy, i. portraits of sovereigns, i. post horses, i. , , , offices, ii. stations, i. practical mission work, i. praga, i. preece, mr., british consul-general, isfahan, i. , , preparing bodies for interment, ii. prime minister, i. princes, i. prisoners, ii. protection against heat, ii. protest, a, i. punctuality, i. , pusht-i-kuh, i. queen victoria's portrait, i. , quetta, ii. quivering minarets, the, i. rabino, mr., i. , , rafsenju, routes from, i. rahdari tax, ii. railway, i. to kandahar, ii. travelling, i. , railways needed, ii. , rain, ii. , redress, i. ; ii. regheth, ii. , , registan, ii. reliability of sistanis, ii. religious education, i. removals, i. resht, i. , governor-general of, i. respect of natives, ii. , rest houses, i. in north beluchistan, ii. rice, i. , road concession, the, i. robat (beluchistan) frontier post, ii. garrison needed at, ii. robbers, i. , , , , ; ii. , , , rock habitations, ii. , sculpture at shah abdul hazim, i. rostoff, i. routes, ii. across the salt desert, ii. royal college, teheran, i. rudbar, i. ruins, i. , ; ii. russia, i. russian bank, i. , , competition, i. custom house, i. goods, i. ; ii. government, i. grant, i. influence, i. line of steamers, i. loan, i. market, i. protective tariff, ii. railway travelling, i. road, the, i. , capital employed in construction of, i. tolls, i. roads in persia, i. tariff, i. tea market, ii. the, i. vice-consul, ii. vice-consulate, ii. russia's aim in the persian gulf, i. commercial success, i. trade, i. , rustamabad, i. rustam's house, ii. sadek, i. , ; ii. sahib chah, ii. , sahlabad, ii. saïd khan, ii. saigsi, i. saindak mt., ii. , , salaam to mecca, i. salambar mt., i. salare afkham, h. e., i. salt and sand, i. deposits, ii. , , desert, ii. journey across, ii. - incrustations, ii. sediments, ii. stream, ii. , , sanctuaries, i. sand bar, i. barchans, ii. formation of, ii. deposits, i. sand dunes, ii. hills, i. ; ii. , , , mounts, ii. movement and accumulations, ii. storm, ii. sara mountains, i. sar-es-iap (no. ), ii. (no. ), ii. sar-i-yezd, i. sar-tip, the, ii. sayids, i. , sefid-rud (river), i. , serde-kuh (mts.), i. servants, i. , , shah-abdul-azim, i. , , shah, an audience of the, i. shah rud (river), i. shah's anderum or harem, i. automobile, i. banqueting room, i. birthday, i. country residences, i, favourite apartments, i. jewelled-globe room, i. museum, i. palace, i, son, the, i. stables, i. shai, i. , shehrawat, i. shela (the salt river), ii. shemsh, i. sher-i-nasrya (sistan), ii. , sher-i-rustam (rustam's city), ii. - shiraz wines, i. shirkuh mt., i. shops, i. siberia, i. sibi horse fair, ii. silk, i. , , carpets, i. silver, i. coin, drain of, i. purchasing power of, i. coins, i. sin sin, i. sistan, i. articles saleable in, ii. british influence in, ii. commercially, ii. exports from, ii. vice-consulate, history of, ii. sistan's health and prevalent diseases, ii. transition, ii. small-pox, i. société de chemins de fer et des tramways de perse, i. prêts de perse, i. soh, i. soldiers, i. sorag, ii. sotag, ii. "spear of the sultan," the, ii. speculators, i. stable of rustam's legendary horse, ii. stars and planets, ii. , state bank of st. petersburg, i. statistics, i. stern, dr., i. stone pillar, ii. stuart, miss, i. sugar, ii. sultan mts., ii. summer residences, i. terraces at warmal, ii. sunge (transit due), ii. sunsets, i. ; ii. in the desert, ii. superstition, ii. surmah, i. ; ii. sweets, i. sykes, major, ii. , , tabriz, i. tadji, i. takatu mts., ii. , tamarisk (kirri), ii. , , , , , teeth of persians, i. teheran, i. , , amusements in, i. etiquette in, i. european quarters in, i. foreigners in, i. "place du canon," the, i. social sets, i. "top meidan," in, i. tejerish, i. tek-chand, ii. telegraph needed, ii. telegraphs, i. , temporary consulate, ii. territorial rights, i. thefts, ii. theological college, i. , thirst, ii. time, i. , tobacco, i. tobacco corporation, the, i. tokrajie mts., ii. toman, i. , tower, ii. of silence, i. trade caravanserais, i. ; ii. increase in, i. tramways, i. transcaspia, i. treasuring of capital, i. treaties, sanads and engagements with the khan of khelat and other beluch chiefs, ii. - trench, major g. chevenix, ii. , , tretoh, ii. tribal feuds, ii. twilight, i. ; ii. , types of natives, i. , ; ii. , , umar-al-din khan, a british trader, ii. - vanity, i. vegetation, i. , veziroff gazumbek, russian agent, birjand, ii. volcanic formation, i. ; ii. region, ii. votka, i. walton, m.p., mr. joseph, i. warmal, ii. warsaw, i. water, i. , , , , , ; ii. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , water-melons, i. water-skins, ii. weapons, i. , weaving-loom, i. webb-ware, c.i.e., captain f. c., political assistant at chagai, ii. , , , well for unfaithful women, i. wheat from arabistan, i. whirlwinds, i. white, captain, ii. white, dr. henry, i. wife, price of a beluch, ii. wind, ii. , , wind of days, the, ii. windmills, ii. , witte, mr. de, i. wolves, ii. , , woman's society, i. women, i. , ; ii. , anatomically, i. seclusion of, i. work of mission among jews, i. yadgar, ii. yate, c.s.i., c.m.g., colonel c. e., agent to governor-general of beluchistan, ii. yezd, i. citadel, i. european community, i. government of, i. governor of, i. health of, i. hospital, i. population of, i. trade, i. zagar mengal tribe, ii. zaidan, ii. history of, ii. - architecture, ii. bellew, ii. , , canals, ii. canals dry, ii. caravanserai at kala-i-fath, ii. deshtak, ii. devastation of, ii. , goldsmid, sir f., ii. , jalalabad, ii. kayani kings, ii. kayani maliks, ii. nad-i-ali, ii. nadir shah, ii. peshawaran, ii. , , pulki, ii. rud-i-perian, ii. safavi dynasty, ii. shah rukh shah, ii. taimur lang, ii. the great city, ii. , - arabic inscriptions, ii. - , chir-pir or tomb of saints, ii. citadel, ii. covered passages, ii. curiosities found at, ii. extensive graveyard, ii. goldsmid, sir f., ii. graves, ii. high wall and towers, ii. ice store-houses, ii. imposing citadel, ii. kala-i-fath, ii. , , , , , lash yuwain, ii. , , length and breadth, ii. length of, ii. , , mil-i-zaidan pillar, ii. objects found at, ii. oil lamps excavated at, ii. outer towers, ii. protecting fortresses, ii. remains of double wall, ii. rud-i-nasru, ii. canal, ii. sand accumulations, ii. strange image excavated at, ii. sykes, major, ii. , tablets, ii. unroofed structures, ii. wall, continuation of, ii. zein-ed-din tower, i. zemahlabad fort, ii. zen-u-din, i. ziarats, ii. , , , , , ziegler & co., i. , , zil-es-sultan, i. , an audience of, i. zirreh, ii. zorap, ii. zoroaster, i. zoroastrian religion, i. the end. richard clay and sons, limited, london and bungay. transcriber's notes: . obvious punctuation and printing errors repaired. . format of: "(altitude," "per cent.," "a.m.," "p.m.," "a.d.," "b.c." and "s.s." have been standardised. . this text contains diacritical marks and symbols, where possible these are represented in the text by the following symbols. diacritical mark above below -------------------------- ------ ------ macron (straight line) [=x] [x=] none none procopius with an english translation by h.b. dewing in seven volumes iii history of the wars, books v and vi london william heinemann ltd cambridge, massachusetts harvard university press _first printed_ _printed in great britain_ contents page history of the wars-- book v.--the gothic war book vi.--the gothic war (_continued_) index * * * * * plan of walls and gates of rome _facing_ procopius of caesarea history of the wars: book v the gothic war i such, then, were the fortunes of the romans in libya. i shall now proceed to the gothic war, first telling all that befell the goths and italians before this war. during the reign of zeno[a] in byzantium the power in the west was held by augustus, whom the romans used to call by the diminutive name augustulus because he took over the empire while still a lad,[b] his father orestes, a man of the greatest discretion, administering it as regent for him. now it happened that the romans a short time before had induced the sciri and alani and certain other gothic nations to form an alliance with them; and from that time on it was their fortune to suffer at the hand of alaric and attila those things which have been told in the previous narrative.[ ] and in proportion as the barbarian element among them became strong, just so did the prestige of the roman soldiers forthwith decline, and under the fair name of alliance they were more and more tyrannized over by the intruders and oppressed by them; so that the barbarians ruthlessly forced many other measures upon the romans much against their will and finally demanded that they should divide with them the entire land of italy. and indeed they commanded orestes to give them the third part of this, and when he would by no means agree to do so, they killed him immediately.[c] now there was a certain man among the romans named odoacer, one of the bodyguards of the emperor, and he at that time agreed to carry out their commands, on condition that they should set him upon the throne. and when he had received the supreme power in this way, [d] he did the emperor no further harm, but allowed him to live thenceforth as a private citizen. and by giving the third part of the land to the barbarians, and in this way gaining their allegiance most firmly, he held the supreme power securely for ten years.[ ] dates: [a] - a.d. [b]july , a.d. [c]july , a.d. [d]july , a.d. it was at about this same time that the goths also, who were dwelling in thrace with the permission of the emperor, took up arms against the romans under the leadership of theoderic, a man who was of patrician rank and had attained the consular office in byzantium. but the emperor zeno, who understood how to settle to his advantage any situation in which he found himself, advised theoderic to proceed to italy, attack odoacer, and win for himself and the goths the western dominion. for it was better for him, he said, especially as he had attained the senatorial dignity, to force out a usurper and be ruler over all the romans and italians than to incur the great risk of a decisive struggle with the emperor. now theoderic was pleased with the suggestion and went to italy, and he was followed by the gothic host, who placed in their waggons the women and children and such of their chattels as they were able to take with them. and when they came near the ionian gulf,[ ] they were quite unable to cross over it, since they had no ships at hand; and so they made the journey around the gulf, advancing through the land of the taulantii and the other nations of that region. here the forces of odoacer encountered them, but after being defeated in many battles, they shut themselves up with their leader in ravenna and such other towns as were especially strong. [e] and the goths laid siege to these places and captured them all, in one way or another, as it chanced in each case, except that they were unable to capture, either by surrender or by storm, the fortress of caesena,[ ] which is three hundred stades distant from ravenna, and ravenna itself, where odoacer happened to be. for this city of ravenna lies in a level plain at the extremity of the ionian gulf, lacking two stades of being on the sea, and it is so situated as not to be easily approached either by ships or by a land army. ships cannot possibly put in to shore there because the sea itself prevents them by forming shoals for not less than thirty stades; consequently the beach at ravenna, although to the eye of mariners it is very near at hand, is in reality very far away by reason of the great extent of the shoal-water. and a land army cannot approach it at all; for the river po, also called the eridanus, which flows past ravenna, coming from the boundaries of celtica, and other navigable rivers together with some marshes, encircle it on all sides and so cause the city to be surrounded by water. in that place a very wonderful thing takes place every day. for early in the morning the sea forms a kind of river and comes up over the land for the distance of a day's journey for an unencumbered traveller and becomes navigable in the midst of the mainland, and then in the late afternoon it turns back again, causing the inlet to disappear, and gathers the stream to itself.[ ] all those, therefore, who have to convey provisions into the city or carry them out from there for trade or for any other reason, place their cargoes in boats, and drawing them down to the place where the inlet is regularly formed, they await the inflow of the water. and when this comes, the boats are lifted little by little from the ground and float, and the sailors on them set to work and from that time on are seafaring men. and this is not the only place where this happens, but it is the regular occurrence along the whole coast in this region as far as the city of aquileia. however, it does not always take place in the same way at every time, but when the light of the moon is faint, the advance of the sea is not strong either, but from the first[ ] half-moon until the second the inflow has a tendency to be greater. so much for this matter. dates: [e] a.d. but when the third year had already been spent by the goths and theoderic in their siege of ravenna, the goths, who were weary of the siege, and the followers of odoacer, who were hard pressed by the lack of provisions, came to an agreement with each other through the mediation of the priest of ravenna, the understanding being that both theoderic and odoacer should reside in ravenna on terms of complete equality. and for some time they observed the agreement; but afterward theoderic caught odoacer, as they say, plotting against him, and bidding him to a feast with treacherous intent slew him,[ ] and in this way, after gaining the adherence of such of the hostile barbarians as chanced to survive, he himself secured the supremacy over both goths and italians. and though he did not claim the right to assume either the garb or the name of emperor of the romans, but was called "rex" to the end of his life (for thus the barbarians are accustomed to call their leaders),[ ] still, in governing his own subjects, he invested himself with all the qualities which appropriately belong to one who is by birth an emperor. for he was exceedingly careful to observe justice, he preserved the laws on a sure basis, he protected the land and kept it safe from the barbarians dwelling round about, and attained the highest possible degree of wisdom and manliness. and he himself committed scarcely a single act of injustice against his subjects, nor would he brook such conduct on the part of anyone else who attempted it, except, indeed, that the goths distributed among themselves the portion of the lands which odoacer had given to his own partisans. and although in name theoderic was a usurper, yet in fact he was as truly an emperor as any who have distinguished themselves in this office from the beginning; and love for him among both goths and italians grew to be great, and that too contrary to the ordinary habits of men. for in all states men's preferences are divergent, with the result that the government in power pleases for the moment only those with whom its acts find favour, but offends those whose judgment it violates. but theoderic reigned for thirty-seven years, and when he died, he had not only made himself an object of terror to all his enemies, but he also left to his subjects a keen sense of bereavement at his loss. and he died in the following manner.[f] date: [f] a.d. symmachus and his son-in-law boetius were men of noble and ancient lineage, and both had been leading men[ ] in the roman senate and had been consuls. but because they practised philosophy and were mindful of justice in a manner surpassed by no other men, relieving the destitution of both citizens and strangers by generous gifts of money, they attained great fame and thus led men of the basest sort to envy them. now such persons slandered them to theoderic, and he, believing their slanders, put these two men to death, on the ground that they were setting about a revolution, and made their property confiscate to the public treasury. and a few days later, while he was dining, the servants set before him the head of a great fish. this seemed to theoderic to be the head of symmachus newly slain. indeed, with its teeth set in its lower lip and its eyes looking at him with a grim and insane stare, it did resemble exceedingly a person threatening him. and becoming greatly frightened at the extraordinary prodigy and shivering excessively, he retired running to his own chamber, and bidding them place many covers upon him, remained quiet. but afterwards he disclosed to his physician elpidius all that had happened and wept for the wrong he had done symmachus and boetius. then, having lamented and grieved exceedingly over the unfortunate occurrence, he died not long afterward. this was the first and last act of injustice which he committed toward his subjects, and the cause of it was that he had not made a thorough investigation, as he was accustomed to do, before passing judgment on the two men. footnotes: [ ] book iii. ii. ff., iv. ff. [ ] odoacer was defeated and shut up in ravenna by theoderic in , surrendered to him in , and was put to death in the same year. his independent rule ([greek: tyrannis]) therefore lasted thirteen years. [ ] meaning the whole adriatic; cf. chap. xv. , note. [ ] modern cesena. [ ] he means that an estuary ([greek: porthmos]) is formed by the rising tide in the morning, and the water flows out again as the tide falls in the evening. [ ] from the first until the third quarter. [ ] see note in bury's edition of gibbon, vol. iv. p. , for an interesting account of this event. [ ] this is a general observation; the title "rex" was current among the barbarians to indicate a position inferior to that of a [greek: basileus] or "imperator"; cf. vi. xiv. . [ ] probably a reminiscence of the "princeps senatus" of classical times. ii after his death[g] the kingdom was taken over by atalaric, the son of theoderic's daughter; he had reached the age of eight years and was being reared under the care of his mother amalasuntha. for his father had already departed from among men. and not long afterward justinian succeeded to the imperial power in byzantium. [h]now amalasuntha, as guardian of her child, administered the government, and she proved to be endowed with wisdom and regard for justice in the highest degree, displaying to a great extent the masculine temper. as long as she stood at the head of the government she inflicted punishment upon no roman in any case either by touching his person or by imposing a fine. furthermore, she did not give way to the goths in their mad desire to wrong them, but she even restored to the children of symmachus and boetius their fathers' estates. now amalasuntha wished to make her son resemble the roman princes in his manner of life, and was already compelling him to attend the school of a teacher of letters. and she chose out three among the old men of the goths whom she knew to be prudent and refined above all the others, and bade them live with atalaric. but the goths were by no means pleased with this. for because of their eagerness to wrong their subjects they wished to be ruled by him more after the barbarian fashion. on one occasion the mother, finding the boy doing some wrong in his chamber, chastised him; and he in tears went off thence to the men's apartments. and some goths who met him made a great to-do about this, and reviling amalasuntha insisted that she wished to put the boy out of the world as quickly as possible, in order that she might marry a second husband and with him rule over the goths and italians. and all the notable men among them gathered together, and coming before amalasuntha made the charge that their king was not being educated correctly from their point of view nor to his own advantage. for letters, they said, are far removed from manliness, and the teaching of old men results for the most part in a cowardly and submissive spirit. therefore the man who is to shew daring in any work and be great in renown ought to be freed from the timidity which teachers inspire and to take his training in arms. they added that even theoderic would never allow any of the goths to send their children to school; for he used to say to them all that, if the fear of the strap once came over them, they would never have the resolution to despise sword or spear. and they asked her to reflect that her father theoderic before he died had become master of all this territory and had invested himself with a kingdom which was his by no sort of right, although he had not so much as heard of letters. "therefore, o queen," they said, "have done with these tutors now, and do you give to atalaric some men of his own age to be his companions, who will pass through the period of youth with him and thus give him an impulse toward that excellence which is in keeping with the custom of barbarians." dates: [g] a.d. [h] a.d. when amalasuntha heard this, although she did not approve, yet because she feared the plotting of these men, she made it appear that their words found favour with her, and granted everything the barbarians desired of her. and when the old men had left atalaric, he was given the company of some boys who were to share his daily life,--lads who had not yet come of age but were only a little in advance of him in years; and these boys, as soon as he came of age, by enticing him to drunkenness and to intercourse with women, made him an exceptionally depraved youth, and of such stupid folly that he was disinclined to follow his mother's advice. consequently he utterly refused to champion her cause, although the barbarians were by now openly leaguing together against her; for they were boldly commanding the woman to withdraw from the palace. but amalasuntha neither became frightened at the plotting of the goths nor did she, womanlike, weakly give way, but still displaying the dignity befitting a queen, she chose out three men who were the most notable among the barbarians and at the same time the most responsible for the sedition against her, and bade them go to the limits of italy, not together, however, but as far apart as possible from one another; but it was made to appear that they were being sent in order to guard the land against the enemy's attack. but nevertheless these men by the help of their friends and relations, who were all still in communication with them, even travelling a long journey for the purpose, continued to make ready the details of their plot against amalasuntha. and the woman, being unable to endure these things any longer, devised the following plan. sending to byzantium she enquired of the emperor justinian whether it was his wish that amalasuntha, the daughter of theoderic, should come to him; for she wished to depart from italy as quickly as possible. and the emperor, being pleased by the suggestion, bade her come and sent orders that the finest of the houses in epidamnus should be put in readiness, in order that when amalasuntha should come there, she might lodge in it and after spending such time there as she wished might then betake herself to byzantium. when amalasuntha learned this, she chose out certain goths who were energetic men and especially devoted to her and sent them to kill the three whom i have just mentioned, as having been chiefly responsible for the sedition against her. and she herself placed all her possessions, including four hundred centenaria[ ] of gold, in a single ship and embarked on it some of those most faithful to her and bade them sail to epidamnus, and, upon arriving there, to anchor in its harbour, but to discharge from the ship nothing whatever of its cargo until she herself should send orders. and she did this in order that, if she should learn that the three men had been destroyed, she might remain there and summon the ship back, having no further fear from her enemies; but if it should chance that any one of them was left alive, no good hope being left her, she purposed to sail with all speed and find safety for herself and her possessions in the emperor's land. such was the purpose with which amalasuntha was sending the ship to epidamnus; and when it arrived at the harbour of that city, those who had the money carried out her orders. but a little later, when the murders had been accomplished as she wished, amalasuntha summoned the ship back and remaining at ravenna strengthened her rule and made it as secure as might be. footnote: [ ] see book i. xxii. ; iii. vi. and note. iii there was among the goths one theodatus by name, son of amalafrida, the sister of theoderic, a man already of mature years, versed in the latin literature and the teachings of plato, but without any experience whatever in war and taking no part in active life, and yet extraordinarily devoted to the pursuit of money. this theodatus had gained possession of most of the lands in tuscany, and he was eager by violent methods to wrest the remainder from their owners. for to have a neighbour seemed to theodatus a kind of misfortune. now amalasuntha was exerting herself to curb this desire of his, and consequently he was always vexed with her and resentful. he formed the plan, therefore, of handing over tuscany to the emperor justinian, in order that, upon receiving from him a great sum of money and the senatorial dignity, he might pass the rest of his life in byzantium. after theodatus had formed this plan, there came from byzantium to the chief priest of rome two envoys, hypatius, the priest of ephesus, and demetrius, from philippi in macedonia, to confer about a tenet of faith, which is a subject of disagreement and controversy among the christians. as for the points in dispute, although i know them well, i shall by no means make mention of them; for i consider it a sort of insane folly to investigate the nature of god, enquiring of what sort it is. for man cannot, i think, apprehend even human affairs with accuracy, much less those things which pertain to the nature of god. as for me, therefore, i shall maintain a discreet silence concerning these matters, with the sole object that old and venerable beliefs may not be discredited. for i, for my part, will say nothing whatever about god save that he is altogether good and has all things in his power. but let each one say whatever he thinks he knows about these matters, both priest and layman. as for theodatus, he met these envoys secretly and directed them to report to the emperor justinian what he had planned, explaining what has just been set forth by me. but at this juncture atalaric, having plunged into a drunken revel which passed all bounds, was seized with a wasting disease. wherefore amalasuntha was in great perplexity; for, on the one hand, she had no confidence in the loyalty of her son, now that he had gone so far in his depravity, and, on the other, she thought that if atalaric also should be removed from among men, her life would not be safe thereafter, since she had given offence to the most notable of the goths. for this reason she was desirous of handing over the power of the goths and italians to the emperor justinian, in order that she herself might be saved. and it happened that alexander, a man of the senate, together with demetrius and hypatius, had come to ravenna. for when the emperor had heard that amalasuntha's boat was anchored in the harbour of epidamnus, but that she herself was still tarrying, although much time had passed, he had sent alexander to investigate and report to him the whole situation with regard to amalasuntha; but it was given out that the emperor had sent alexander as an envoy to her because he was greatly disturbed by the events at lilybaeum which have been set forth by me in the preceding narrative,[ ] and because ten huns from the army in libya had taken flight and reached campania, and uliaris, who was guarding naples, had received them not at all against the will of amalasuntha, and also because the goths, in making war on the gepaedes about sirmium,[ ] had treated the city of gratiana, situated at the extremity of illyricum, as a hostile town. so by way of protesting to amalasuntha with regard to these things, he wrote a letter and sent alexander. and when alexander arrived in rome, he left there the priests busied with the matters for which they had come, and he himself, journeying on to ravenna and coming before amalasuntha, reported the emperor's message secretly, and openly delivered the letter to her. and the purport of the writing was as follows: "the fortress of lilybaeum, which is ours, you have taken by force and are now holding, and barbarians, slaves of mine who have run away, you have received and have not even yet decided to restore them to me, and besides all this you have treated outrageously my city of gratiana, though it belongs to you in no way whatever. wherefore it is time for you to consider what the end of these things will some day be." and when this letter had been delivered to her and she had read it, she replied in the following words: "one may reasonably expect an emperor who is great and lays claim to virtue to assist an orphan child who does not in the least comprehend what is being done, rather than for no cause at all to quarrel with him. for unless a struggle be waged on even terms, even the victory it gains brings no honour. but thou dost threaten atalaric on account of lilybaeum, and ten runaways, and a mistake, made by soldiers in going against their enemies, which through some misapprehension chanced to affect a friendly city. nay! do not thus; do not thou thus, o emperor, but call to mind that when them wast making war upon the vandals, we not only refrained from hindering thee, but quite zealously even gave thee free passage against the enemy and provided a market in which to buy the indispensable supplies,[ ] furnishing especially the multitude of horses to which thy final mastery over the enemy was chiefly due. and yet it is not merely the man who offers an alliance of arms to his neighbours that would in justice be called their ally and friend, but also the man who actually is found assisting another in war in regard to his every need. and consider that at that time thy fleet had no other place at which to put in from the sea except sicily, and that without the supplies bought there it could not go on to libya. therefore thou art indebted to us for the chief cause of thy victory; for the one who provides a solution for a difficult situation is justly entitled also to the credit for the results which flow from his help. and what could be sweeter for a man, o emperor, than gaining the mastery over his enemies? and yet in our case the outcome is that we suffer no slight disadvantage, in that we do not, in accordance with the custom of war, enjoy our share of the spoils. and now thou art also claiming the right to despoil us of lilybaeum in sicily, which has belonged to the goths from ancient times, a lone rock, o emperor, worth not so much as a piece of silver, which, had it happened to belong to thy kingdom from ancient times, thou mightest in equity at least have granted to atalaric as a reward for his services, since he lent thee assistance in the times of thy most pressing necessity." such was the message which amalasuntha wrote openly to the emperor; but secretly she agreed to put the whole of italy into his hands. and the envoys, returning to byzantium, reported everything to the emperor justinian, alexander telling him the course which had been decided upon by amalasuntha, and demetrius and hypatius all that they had heard theodatus say, adding that theodatus enjoyed great power in tuscany, where he had become owner of the most of the land and consequently would be able with no trouble at all to carry his agreement into effect. and the emperor, overjoyed at this situation, immediately sent to italy peter, an illyrian by birth, but a citizen of thessalonica, a man who was one of the trained speakers in byzantium, a discreet and gentle person withal and fitted by nature to persuade men. footnotes: [ ] book iv. v. ff. [ ] near modern mitrowitz. [ ] cf. book iii. xiv. , . iv but while these things were going on as i have explained, theodatus was denounced before amalasuntha by many tuscans, who stated that he had done violence to all the people of tuscany and had without cause seized their estates, taking not only all private estates but especially those belonging to the royal household, which the romans are accustomed to call "patrimonium." for this reason the woman called theodatus to an investigation, and when, being confronted by his denouncers, he had been proved guilty without any question, she compelled him to pay back everything which he had wrongfully seized and then dismissed him. and since in this way she had given the greatest offence to the man, from that time she was on hostile terms with him, exceedingly vexed as he was by reason of his fondness for money, because he was unable to continue his unlawful and violent practices. at about this same time[i] atalaric, being quite wasted away by the disease, came to his end, having lived eight years in office. as for amalasuntha, since it was fated that she should fare ill, she took no account of the nature of theodatus and of what she had recently done to him, and supposed that she would suffer no unpleasant treatment at his hands if she should do the man some rather unusual favour. she accordingly summoned him, and when he came, set out to cajole him, saying that for some time she had known well that it was to be expected that her son would soon die; for she had heard the opinion of all the physicians, who agreed in their judgment, and had herself perceived that the body of atalaric continued to waste away. and since she saw that both goths and italians had an unfavourable opinion regarding theodatus, who had now come to represent the race of theoderic, she had conceived the desire to clear him of this evil name, in order that it might not stand in his way if he were called to the throne. but at the same time, she explained, the question of justice disturbed her, at the thought that those who claimed to have been wronged by him already should find that they had no one to whom they might report what had befallen them, but that they now had their enemy as their master. for these reasons, then, although she invited him to the throne after his name should have been cleared in this way, yet it was necessary, she said, that he should be bound by the most solemn oaths that while the title of the office should be conferred upon theodatus, she herself should in fact hold the power no less than before. when theodatus heard this, although he swore to all the conditions which amalasuntha wished, he entered into the agreement with treacherous intent, remembering all that she had previously done to him. thus amalasuntha, being deceived by her own judgment and the oaths of theodatus, established him in the office. and sending some goths as envoys to byzantium, she made this known to the emperor justinian. date: [i]oct. , a.d. but theodatus, upon receiving the supreme power, began to act in all things contrary to the hopes she had entertained and to the promises he had made. and after winning the adherence of the relatives of the goths who had been slain by her--and they were both numerous and men of very high standing among the goths--he suddenly put to death some of the connections of amalasuntha and imprisoned her, the envoys not having as yet reached byzantium. now there is a certain lake in tuscany called vulsina,[ ] within which rises an island,[ ] exceedingly small but having a strong fortress upon it. there theodatus confined amalasuntha and kept her under guard.[j] but fearing that by this act he had given offence to the emperor, as actually proved to be the case, he sent some men of the roman senate, liberius and opilio and certain others, directing them to excuse his conduct to the emperor with all their power by assuring him that amalasuntha had met with no harsh treatment at his hands, although she had perpetrated irreparable outrages upon him before. and he himself wrote in this sense to the emperor, and also compelled amalasuntha, much against her will, to write the same thing. date: [j]apr. , a.d. such was the course of these events. but peter had already been despatched by the emperor on an embassy to italy with instructions to meet theodatus without the knowledge of any others, and after theodatus had given pledges by an oath that none of their dealings should be divulged, he was then to make a secure settlement with him regarding tuscany; and meeting amalasuntha stealthily he was to make such an arrangement with her regarding the whole of italy as would be to the profit of either party. but openly his mission was to negotiate with regard to lilybaeum and the other matters which i have lately mentioned. for as yet the emperor had heard nothing about the death of atalaric or the succession of theodatus to the throne, or the fate which had befallen amalasuntha. and peter was already on his way when he met the envoys of amalasuntha and learned, in the first place, that theodatus had come to the throne; and a little later, upon reaching the city of aulon,[ ] which lies on the ionian gulf, he met there the company of liberius and opilio, and learned everything which had taken place, and reporting this to the emperor he remained there. and when the emperor justinian heard these things, he formed the purpose of throwing the goths and theodatus into confusion; accordingly he wrote a letter to amalasuntha, stating that he was eager to give her every possible support, and at the same time he directed peter by no means to conceal this message, but to make it known to theodatus himself and to all the goths. and when the envoys from italy arrived in byzantium, they all, with a single exception, reported the whole matter to the emperor, and especially liberius; for he was a man unusually upright and honourable, and one who knew well how to shew regard for the truth; but opilio alone declared with the greatest persistence that theodatus had committed no offence against amalasuntha. now when peter arrived in italy, it so happened that amalasuntha had been removed from among men. for the relatives of the goths who had been slain by her came before theodatus declaring that neither his life nor theirs was secure unless amalasuntha should be put out of their way as quickly as possible. and as soon as he gave in to them, they went to the island and killed amalasuntha,--an act which grieved exceedingly all the italians and the goths as well. for the woman had the strictest regard for every kind of virtue, as has been stated by me a little earlier.[ ] now peter protested openly[ ] to theodatus and the other goths that because this base deed had been committed by them, there would be war without truce between the emperor and themselves. but theodatus, such was his stupid folly, while still holding the slayers of amalasuntha in honour and favour kept trying to persuade peter and the emperor that this unholy deed had been committed by the goths by no means with his approval, but decidedly against his will. footnotes: [ ] modern bolsena. [ ] marta; "now entirely uninhabited, but with a few steps cut in the rock which are said to have led to the prison of amalasuntha."--hodgkin. [ ] modern avlona in albania. [ ] chap. ii. . [ ] see gibbon's note (chap. xli.), amplified in bury's edition, vol. iv. p. , for additional light on the part played by justinian and peter in this affair. v meanwhile it happened that belisarius had distinguished himself by the defeat of gelimer and the vandals. and the emperor, upon learning what had befallen amalasuntha, immediately entered upon the war, being in the ninth year of his reign. and he first commanded mundus, the general of illyricum, to go to dalmatia, which was subject to the goths, and make trial of salones.[ ] now mundus was by birth a barbarian, but exceedingly loyal to the cause of the emperor and an able warrior. then he sent belisarius by sea with four thousand soldiers from the regular troops and the foederati,[ ] and about three thousand of the isaurians. and the commanders were men of note: constantinus and bessas from the land of thrace, and peranius from iberia[ ] which is hard by media, a man who was by birth a member of the royal family of the iberians, but had before this time come as a deserter to the romans through enmity toward the persians; and the levies of cavalry were commanded by valentinus, magnus, and innocentius, and the infantry by herodian, paulus, demetrius, and ursicinus, while the leader of the isaurians was ennes. and there were also two hundred huns as allies and three hundred moors. but the general in supreme command over all was belisarius, and he had with him many notable men as spearmen and guards. and he was accompanied also by photius, the son of his wife antonina by a previous marriage; he was still a young man wearing his first beard, but possessed the greatest discretion and shewed a strength of character beyond his years. and the emperor instructed belisarius to give out that his destination was carthage, but as soon as they should arrive at sicily, they were to disembark there as it obliged for some reason to do so, and make trial of the island. and if it should be possible to reduce it to subjection without any trouble, they were to take possession and not let it go again; but if they should meet with any obstacle, they were to sail with all speed to libya, giving no one an opportunity to perceive what their intention was. and he also sent a letter to the leaders of the franks as follows: "the goths, having seized by violence italy, which was ours, have not only refused absolutely to give it back, but have committed further acts of injustice against us which are unendurable and pass beyond all bounds. for this reason we have been compelled to take the field against them, and it is proper that you should join with us in waging this war, which is rendered yours as well as ours not only by the orthodox faith, which rejects the opinion of the arians, but also by the enmity we both feel toward the goths." such was the emperor's letter; and making a gift of money to them, he agreed to give more as soon as they should take an active part. and they with all zeal promised to fight in alliance with him. now mundus and the army under his command entered dalmatia, and engaging with the goths who encountered them there, defeated them in the battle and took possession of salones. as for belisarius, he put in at sicily and took catana. and making that place his base of operations, he took over syracuse and the other cities by surrender without any trouble; except, indeed, that the goths who were keeping guard in panormus,[ ] having confidence in the fortifications of the place, which was a strong one, were quite unwilling to yield to belisarius and ordered him to lead his army away from there with all speed. but belisarius, considering that it was impossible to capture the place from the landward side, ordered the fleet to sail into the harbour, which extended right up to the wall. for it was outside the circuit-wall and entirely without defenders. now when the ships had anchored there, it was seen that the masts were higher than the parapet. straightway, therefore, he filled all the small boats of the ships with bowmen and hoisted them to the tops of the masts. and when from these boats the enemy were shot at from above, they fell into such an irresistible fear that they immediately delivered panormus to belisarius by surrender. as a result of this the emperor held all sicily subject and tributary to himself. and at that time it so happened that there fell to belisarius a piece of good fortune beyond the power of words to describe. for, having received the dignity of the consulship because of his victory over the vandals, while he was still holding this honour, and after he had won the whole of sicily, on the last day of his consulship,[k] he marched into syracuse, loudly applauded by the army and by the sicilians and throwing golden coins to all. this coincidence, however, was not intentionally arranged by him, but it was a happy chance which befell the man, that after having recovered the whole of the island for the romans he marched into syracuse on that particular day; and so it was not in the senate house in byzantium, as was customary, but there that he laid down the office of the consuls and so became an ex-consul. thus, then, did good fortune attend belisarius. date: [k]dec. , a.d. footnotes: [ ] or salona, near modern spalato. [ ] auxiliaries; see book iii. xi. , , and note. [ ] corresponding roughly to modern georgia, just south of the caucasus. [ ] modern palermo. vi and when peter learned of the conquest of sicily, he was still more insistent in his efforts to frighten theodatus and would not let him go. but he, turning coward and reduced to speechlessness no less than if he himself had become a captive with gelimer,[ ] entered into negotiations with peter without the knowledge of any others, and between them they formed an agreement, providing that theodatus should retire from all sicily in favour of the emperor justinian, and should send him also a golden crown every year weighing three hundred litrae,[ ] and gothic warriors to the number of three thousand whenever he should wish; and that theodatus himself should have no authority to kill any priest or senator, or to confiscate his property for the public treasury except by the decision of the emperor; and that if theodatus wished to advance any of his subjects to the patrician or some other senatorial rank this honour should not be bestowed by him, but he should ask the emperor to bestow it; and that the roman populace, in acclaiming their sovereign, should always shout the name of the emperor first, and afterward that of theodatus, both in the theatres and in the hippodromes and wherever else it should be necessary for such a thing to be done; furthermore, that no statue of bronze nor of any other material should ever be set up to theodatus alone, but statues must always be made for both, and they must stand thus: on the right that of the emperor, and on the other side that of theodatus. and after theodatus had written in confirmation of this agreement he dismissed the ambassador. but, a little later, terror laid hold upon the man's soul and brought him into fears which knew no bound and tortured his mind, filling him with dread at the name of war, and reminding him that if the agreement drawn up by peter and himself did not please the emperor at all, war would straightway come upon him. once more, therefore, he summoned peter, who had already reached albani,[ ] for a secret conference, and enquired of the man whether he thought that the agreement would be pleasing to the emperor. and he replied that he supposed it would. "but if," said theodatus, "these things do not please the man at all, what will happen then?" and peter replied "after that you will have to wage war, most noble sir." "but what is this," he said; "is it just, my dear ambassador?" and peter, immediately taking him up, said "and how is it not just, my good sir, that the pursuits appropriate to each man's nature should be preserved?" "what, pray, may this mean?" asked theodatus. "it means," was the reply, "that your great interest is to philosophize, while justinian's is to be a worthy emperor of the romans. and there is this difference, that for one who has practised philosophy it would never be seemly to bring about the death of men, especially in such great numbers, and it should be added that this view accords with the teachings of plato, which you have evidently espoused, and hence it is unholy for you not to be free from all bloodshed; but for him it is not at all inappropriate to seek to acquire a land which has belonged from of old to the realm which is his own." thereupon theodatus, being convinced by this advice, agreed to retire from the kingship in favour of the emperor justinian, and both he and his wife took an oath to this effect. he then bound peter by oaths that he would not divulge this agreement until he should see that the emperor would not accept the former convention. and he sent with him rusticus, a priest who was especially devoted to him and a roman citizen, to negotiate on the basis of this agreement. and he also entrusted a letter to these men. so peter and rusticus, upon reaching byzantium, reported the first decision to the emperor, just as theodatus had directed them to do. but when the emperor was quite unwilling to accept the proposal, they revealed the plan which had been committed to writing afterwards. this was to the following effect: "i am no stranger to royal courts, but it was my fortune to have been born in the house of my uncle while he was king and to have been reared in a manner worthy of my race; and yet i have had little experience of wars and of the turmoils which wars entail. for since from my earliest years i have been passionately addicted to scholarly disputations and have always devoted my time to this sort of thing, i have consequently been up to the present time very far removed from the confusion of battles. therefore it is utterly absurd that i should aspire to the honours which royalty confers and thus lead a life fraught with danger, when it is possible for me to avoid them both. for neither one of these is a pleasure to me; the first, because it is liable to satiety, for it is a surfeit of all sweet things, and the second, because lack of familiarity with such a life throws one into confusion. but as for me, if estates should be provided me which yielded an annual income of no less than twelve centenaria,[ ] i should regard the kingdom as of less account than them, and i shall hand over to thee forthwith the power of the goths and italians. for i should find more pleasure in being a farmer free from all cares than in passing my life amid a king's anxieties, attended as they are by danger after danger. pray send a man as quickly as possible into whose hands i may fittingly deliver italy and the affairs of the kingdom." such was the purport of the letter of theodatus. and the emperor, being exceedingly pleased, replied as follows: "from of old have i heard by report that you were a man of discretion, but now, taught by experience, i know it by the decision you have reached not to await the issue of the war. for certain men who in the past have followed such a course have been completely undone. and you will never repent having made us friends instead of enemies. but you will not only have this that you ask at our hands, but you will also have the distinction of being enrolled in the highest honours of the romans. now for the present i have sent athanasius and peter, so that each party may have surety by some agreement. and almost immediately belisarius also will visit you to complete all the arrangements which have been agreed upon between us." after writing this the emperor sent athanasius, the brother of alexander, who had previously gone on an embassy to atalaric, as has been said,[ ] and for the second time peter the orator, whom i have mentioned above,[ ] enjoining upon them to assign to theodatus the estates of the royal household, which they call "patrimonium"; and not until after they had drawn up a written document and had secured oaths to fortify the agreement were they to summon belisarius from sicily, in order that he might take over the palace and all italy and hold them under guard. and he wrote to belisarius that as soon as they should summon him he should go thither with all speed. footnotes: [ ] the captivity of gelimer is described in book iv. vii. - ; ix. - . [ ] at present values "worth about £ , ."--hodgkin. [ ] modern albano; on the appian way. cf. book vi. iv. . [ ] see book i. xxii. ; iii. vi. , note. [ ] chap. iii. . [ ] chap. iii. , iv. ff. vii but meantime, while the emperor was engaged in these negotiations and these envoys were travelling to italy, the goths, under command of asinarius and gripas and some others, had come with a great army into dalmatia. and when they had reached the neighbourhood of salones, mauricius, the son of mundus, who was not marching out for battle but, with a few men, was on a scouting expedition, encountered them. a violent engagement ensued in which the goths lost their foremost and noblest men, but the romans almost their whole company, including their general mauricius. and when mundus heard of this, being overcome with grief at the misfortune and by this time dominated by a mighty fury, he went against the enemy without the least delay and regardless of order. the battle which took place was stubbornly contested, and the result was a cadmean victory[ ] for the romans. for although the most of the enemy fell there and their rout had been decisive, mundus, who went on killing and following up the enemy wherever he chanced to find them and was quite unable to restrain his mind because of the misfortune of his son, was wounded by some fugitive or other and fell. thereupon the pursuit ended and the two armies separated. and at that time the romans recalled the verse of the sibyl, which had been pronounced in earlier times and seemed to them a portent. for the words of the saying were that when africa should be held, the "world" would perish together with its offspring. this, however, was not the real meaning of the oracle, but after intimating that libya would be once more subject to the romans, it added this statement also, that when that time came mundus would perish together with his son. for it runs as follows: "africa capta mundus cum nato peribit."[ ] but since "mundus" in the latin tongue has the force of "world," they thought that the saying had reference to the world. so much, then, for this. as for salones, it was not entered by anyone. for the romans went back home, since they were left altogether without a commander, and the goths, seeing that not one of their nobles was left them, fell into fear and took possession of the strongholds in the neighbourhood; for they had no confidence in the defences of salones, and, besides, the romans who lived there were not very well disposed towards them. when theodatus heard this, he took no account of the envoys who by now had come to him. for he was by nature much given to distrust, and he by no means kept his mind steadfast, but the present fortune always reduced him now to a state of terror which knew no measure, and this contrary to reason and the proper understanding of the situation, and again brought him to the opposite extreme of unspeakable boldness. and so at that time, when he heard of the death of mundus and mauricius, he was lifted up exceedingly and in a manner altogether unjustified by what had happened, and he saw fit to taunt the envoys when they at length appeared before him. and when peter on one occasion remonstrated with him because he had transgressed his agreement with the emperor, theodatus called both of them publicly and spoke as follows: "the position of envoys is a proud one and in general has come to be held in honour among all men; but envoys preserve for themselves these their prerogatives only so long as they guard the dignity of their embassy by the propriety of their own conduct. for men have sanctioned as just the killing of an envoy whenever he is either found to have insulted a sovereign or has had knowledge of a woman who is the wife of another." such were the words with which theodatus inveighed against peter, not because he had approached a woman, but, apparently, in order to make good his claim that there were charges which might lead to the death of an ambassador. but the envoys replied as follows: "the facts are not, o ruler of the goths, as thou hast stated them, nor canst thou, under cover of flimsy pretexts, wantonly perpetrate unholy deeds upon men who are envoys. for it is not possible for an ambassador, even if he wishes it, to become an adulterer, since it is not easy for him even to partake of water except by the will of those who guard him. and as for the proposals which he has received from the lips of him who has sent him and then delivers, he himself cannot reasonably incur the blame which arises from them, in case they be not good, but he who has given the command would justly bear this charge, while the sole responsibility of the ambassador is to have discharged his mission. we, therefore, shall say all that we were instructed by the emperor to say when we were sent, and do thou hear us quietly; for if thou art stirred to excitement, all thou canst do will be to wrong men who are ambassadors. it is time, therefore, for thee of thine own free will to perform all that thou didst promise the emperor. this, indeed, is the purpose for which we have come. and the letter which he wrote to thee thou hast already received, but as for the writing which he sent to the foremost of the goths, to no others shall we give it than to them." when the leading men of the barbarians, who were present, heard this speech of the envoys, they bade them give to theodatus what had been written to them. and it ran as follows: "it has been the object of our care to receive you back into our state, whereat you may well be pleased. for you will come to us, not in order to be made of less consequence, but that you may be more honoured. and, besides, we are not bidding the goths enter into strange or alien customs, but into those of a people with whom you were once familiar, though you have by chance been separated from them for a season. for these reasons athanasius and peter have been sent to you, and you ought to assist them in all things." such was the purport of this letter. but after theodatus had read everything, he not only decided not to perform in deed the promises he had made to the emperor, but also put the envoys under a strict guard. but when the emperor justinian heard these things and what had taken place in dalmatia, he sent constantianus, who commanded the royal grooms, into illyricum, bidding him gather an army from there and make an attempt on salones, in whatever manner he might be able; and he commanded belisarius to enter italy with all speed and to treat the goths as enemies. so constantianus came to epidamnus and spent some time there gathering an army. but in the meantime the goths, under the leadership of gripas, came with another army into dalmatia and took possession of salones; and constantianus, when all his preparations were as complete as possible, departed from epidamnus with his whole force and cast anchor at epidaurus[ ] which is on the right as one sails into the ionian gulf. now it so happened that some men were there whom gripas had sent out as spies. and when they took note of the ships and the army of constantianus it seemed to them that both the sea and the whole land were full of soldiers, and returning to gripas they declared that constantianus was bringing against them an army of men numbering many tens of thousands. and he, being plunged into great fear, thought it inexpedient to meet their attack, and at the same time he was quite unwilling to be besieged by the emperor's army, since it so completely commanded the sea; but he was disturbed most of all by the fortifications of salones (since the greater part of them had already fallen down), and by the exceedingly suspicious attitude on the part of the inhabitants of the place toward the goths. and for this reason he departed thence with his whole army as quickly as possible and made camp in the plain which is between salones and the city of scardon.[ ] and constantianus, sailing with all his ships from epidaurus, put in at lysina,[ ] which is an island in the gulf. thence he sent forward some of his men, in order that they might make enquiry concerning the plans of gripas and report them to him. then, after learning from them the whole situation, he sailed straight for salones with all speed. and when he had put in at a place close to the city, he disembarked his army on the mainland and himself remained quiet there; but he selected five hundred from the army, and setting over them as commander siphilas, one of his own bodyguards, he commanded them to seize the narrow pass[ ] which, as he had been informed, was in the outskirts of the city. and this siphilas did. and constantianus and his whole land army entered salones on the following day, and the fleet anchored close by. then constantianus proceeded to look after the fortifications of the city, building up in haste all such parts of them as had fallen down; and gripas, with the gothic army, on the seventh day after the romans had taken possession of salones, departed from there and betook themselves to ravenna; and thus constantianus gained possession of all dalmatia and liburnia, bringing over to his side all the goths who were settled there. such were the events in dalmatia. and the winter drew to a close, and thus ended the first year of this war, the history of which procopius has written. footnotes: [ ] proverbial for a victory in which the victor is slain; probably from the story of the theban, or "cadmean," heroes eteocles and polynices. [ ] see bury's edition of gibbon, vol. iv. app. , for a discussion of this oracle. [ ] modern ragusa vecchia. [ ] near sebenico. [ ] modern lesina. [ ] an important approach to the city from the west. viii and belisarius, leaving guards in syracuse and panormus, crossed with the rest of the army from messana to rhegium (where the myths of the poets say scylla and charybdis were), and every day the people of that region kept coming over to him. for since their towns had from of old been without walls, they had no means at all of guarding them, and because of their hostility toward the goths they were, as was natural, greatly dissatisfied with their present government. and ebrimous came over to belisarius as a deserter from the goths, together with all his followers; this man was the son-in-law of theodatus, being married to theodenanthe, his daughter. and he was straightway sent to the emperor and received many gifts of honour and in particular attained the patrician dignity. and the army of belisarius marched from rhegium through bruttium and lucania, and the fleet of ships accompanied it, sailing close to the mainland. but when they reached campania, they came upon a city on the sea, naples by name, which was strong not only because of the nature of its site, but also because it contained a numerous garrison of goths. and belisarius commanded the ships to anchor in the harbour, which was beyond the range of missiles, while he himself made his camp near the city. he then first took possession by surrender of the fort which is in the suburb, and afterwards permitted the inhabitants of the city at their own request to send some of their notables into his camp, in order that they might tell what their wish was and, after receiving his reply, report to the populace. straightway, therefore, the neapolitans sent stephanus. and he, upon coming before belisarius, spoke as follows: "you are not acting justly, o general, in taking the field against men who are romans and have done no wrong, who inhabit but a small city and have over us a guard of barbarians as masters, so that it does not even lie in our power, if we desire to do so, to oppose them. but it so happens that even these guards had to leave their wives and children, and their most precious possessions in the hands of theodatus before they came to keep guard over us. therefore, if they treat with you at all, they will plainly be betraying, not the city, but themselves. and if one must speak the truth with no concealment, you have not counselled to your advantage, either, in coming against us. for if you capture rome, naples will be subject to you without any further trouble, whereas if you are repulsed from there, it is probable that you will not be able to hold even this city securely. consequently the time you spend on this siege will be spent to no purpose." so spoke stephanus. and belisarius replied as follows: "whether we have acted wisely or foolishly in coming here is not a question which we propose to submit to the neapolitans. but we desire that you first weigh carefully such matters as are appropriate to your deliberations and then act solely in accordance with your own interests. receive into your city, therefore, the emperor's army, which has come to secure your freedom and that of the other italians, and do not choose the course which will bring upon you the most grievous misfortunes. for those who, in order to rid themselves of slavery or any other shameful thing, go into war, such men, if they fare well in the struggle, have double good fortune, because along with their victory they have also acquired freedom from their troubles, and if defeated they gain some consolation for themselves, in that, they have not of their own free will chosen to follow the worse fortune. but as for those who have the opportunity to be free without fighting, but yet enter into a struggle in order to make their condition of slavery permanent, such men, even if it so happens that they conquer, have failed in the most vital point, and if in the battle they fare less happily than they wished, they will have, along with their general ill-fortune, also the calamity of defeat. as for the neapolitans, then, let these words suffice. but as for these goths who are present, we give them the choice, either to array themselves hereafter on our side under the great emperor, or to go to their homes altogether immune from harm. because, if both you and they, disregarding all these considerations, dare to raise arms against us, it will be necessary for us also, if god so wills, to treat whomever we meet as an enemy. if, however, it is the will of the neapolitans to choose the cause of the emperor and thus to be rid of so cruel a slavery, i take it upon myself, giving you pledges, to promise that you will receive at our hands those benefits which the sicilians lately hoped for, and with regard to which they were unable to say that we had sworn falsely." such was the message which belisarius bade stephanus take back to the people. but privately he promised him large rewards if he should inspire the neapolitans with good-will toward the emperor. and stephanus, upon coming into the city, reported the words of belisarius and expressed his own opinion that it was inexpedient to fight against the emperor. and he was assisted in his efforts by antiochus, a man of syria, but long resident in naples for the purpose of carrying on a shipping business, who had a great reputation there for wisdom and justice. but there were two men, pastor and asclepiodotus, trained speakers and very notable men among the neapolitans, who were exceedingly friendly toward the goths, and quite unwilling to have any change made in the present state of affairs. these two men, planning how they might block the negotiations, induced the multitude to demand many serious concessions, and to try to force belisarius to promise on oath that they should forthwith obtain what they asked for. and after writing down in a document such demands as nobody would have supposed that belisarius would accept, they gave it to stephanus. and he, returning to the emperor's army, shewed the writing to the general, and enquired of him whether he was willing to carry out all the proposals which the neapolitans made and to take an oath concerning them. and belisarius promised that they should all be fulfilled for them and so sent him back. now when the neapolitans heard this, they were in favour of accepting the general's assurances at once and began to urge that the emperor's army be received into the city with all speed. for he declared that nothing unpleasant would befall them, if the case of the sicilians was sufficient evidence for anyone to judge by, since, as he pointed out, it had only recently been their lot, after they had exchanged their barbarian tyrants for the sovereignty of justinian, to be, not only free men, but also immune from all difficulties. and swayed by great excitement they were about to go to the gates with the purpose of throwing them open. and though the goths were not pleased with what they were doing, still, since they were unable to prevent it, they stood out of the way. but pastor and asclepiodotus called together the people and all the goths in one place, and spoke as follows: "it is not at all unnatural that the populace of a city should abandon themselves and their own safety, especially if, without consulting any of their notables, they make an independent decision regarding their all. but it is necessary for us, who are on the very point of perishing together with you, to offer as a last contribution to the fatherland this advice. we see, then, fellow citizens, that you are intent upon betraying both yourselves and the city to belisarius, who promises to confer many benefits upon you and to swear the most solemn oaths in confirmation of his promises. now if he is able to promise you this also, that to him will come the victory in the war, no one could deny that the course you are taking is to your advantage. for it is great folly not to gratify every whim of him who is to become master. but if this outcome lies in uncertainty, and no man in the world is competent to guarantee the decision of fortune, consider what sort of misfortunes your haste is seeking to attain. for if the goths overcome their adversaries in the war, they will punish you as enemies and as having done them the foulest wrong. for you are resorting to this act of treason, not under constraint of necessity, but out of deliberate cowardice. so that even to belisarius, if he wins the victory over his enemies, we shall perhaps appear faithless and betrayers of our rulers, and having proved ourselves deserters, we shall in all probability have a guard set over us permanently by the emperor. for though he who has found a traitor is pleased at the moment of victory by the service rendered, yet afterwards, moved by suspicion based upon the traitor's past, he hates and fears his benefactor, since he himself has in his own possession the evidences of the other's faithlessness. if, however, we shew ourselves faithful to the goths at the present time, manfully submitting to the danger, they will give us great rewards in case they win the mastery over the enemy, and belisarius, if it should so happen that he is the victor, will be prone to forgive. for loyalty which fails is punished by no man unless he be lacking in understanding. but what has happened to you that you are in terror of being besieged by the enemy, you who have no lack of provisions, have not been deprived by blockade of any of the necessities of life, and hence may sit at home, confident in the fortifications and in your garrison here?[ ] and in our opinion even belisarius would not have consented to this agreement with us if he had any hope of capturing the city by force. and yet if what he desired were that which is just and that which will be to our advantage, he ought not to be trying to frighten the neapolitans or to establish his own power by means of an act of injustice on our part toward the goths; but he should do battle with theodatus and the goths, so that without danger to us or treason on our part the city might come into the power of the victors." when they had finished speaking, pastor and asclepiodotus brought forward the jews, who promised that the city should be in want of none of the necessities, and the goths on their part promised that they would guard the circuit-wall safely. and the neapolitans, moved by these arguments, bade belisarius depart thence with all speed. he, however, began the siege. and he made many attempts upon the circuit-wall, but was always repulsed, losing many of his soldiers, and especially those who laid some claim to valour. for the wall of naples was inaccessible, on one side by reason of the sea, and on the other because of some difficult country, and those who planned to attack it could gain entrance at no point, not only because of its general situation, but also because the ground sloped steeply. however, belisarius cut the aqueduct which brought water into the city; but he did not in this way seriously disturb the neapolitans, since there were wells inside the circuit-wall which sufficed for their needs and kept them from feeling too keenly the loss of the aqueduct. footnote: [ ] _i.e._ the goths; cf. § above. ix so the besieged, without the knowledge of the enemy, sent to theodatus in rome begging him to come to their help with all speed. but theodatus was not making the least preparation for war, being by nature unmanly, as has been said before.[ ] and they say that something else happened to him, which terrified him exceedingly and reduced him to still greater anxiety. i, for my part, do not credit this report, but even so it shall be told. theodatus even before this time had been prone to make enquiries of those who professed to foretell the future, and on the present occasion he was at a loss what to do in the situation which confronted him--a state which more than anything else is accustomed to drive men to seek prophecies; so he enquired of one of the hebrews, who had a great reputation for prophecy, what sort of an outcome the present war would have. the hebrew commanded him to confine three groups of ten swine each in three huts, and after giving them respectively the names of goths, romans, and the soldiers of the emperor, to wait quietly for a certain number of days. and theodatus did as he was told. and when the appointed day had come, they both went into the huts and looked at the swine; and they found that of those which had been given the name of goths all save two were dead, whereas all except a few were living of those which had received the name of the emperor's soldiers; and as for those which had been called romans, it so happened that, although the hair of all of them had fallen out, yet about half of them survived. when theodatus beheld this and divined the outcome of the war, a great fear, they say, came upon him, since he knew well that it would certainly be the fate of the romans to die to half their number and be deprived of their possessions, but that the goths would be defeated and their race reduced to a few, and that to the emperor would come, with the loss of but a few of his soldiers, the victory in the war. and for this reason, they say, theodatus felt no impulse to enter into a struggle with belisarius. as for this story, then, let each one express his views according to the belief or disbelief which he feels regarding it. but belisarius, as he besieged the neapolitans both by land and by sea, was beginning to be vexed. for he was coming to think that they would never yield to him, and, furthermore, he could not hope that the city would be captured, since he was finding that the difficulty of its position was proving to be a very serious obstacle. and the loss of the time which was being spent there distressed him, for he was making his calculations so as to avoid being compelled to go against theodatus and rome in the winter season. indeed he had already even given orders to the army to pack up, his intention being to depart from there as quickly as possible. but while he was in the greatest perplexity, it came to pass that he met with the following good fortune. one of the isaurians was seized with the desire to observe the construction of the aqueduct, and to discover in what manner it provided the supply of water to the city. so he entered it at a place far distant from the city, where belisarius had broken it open, and proceeded to walk along it, finding no difficulty, since the water had stopped running because the aqueduct had been broken open. but when he reached a point near the circuit-wall, he came upon a large rock, not placed there by the hand of man, but a part of the natural formation of the place. and those who had built the aqueduct many years before, after they had attached the masonry to this rock, proceeded to make a tunnel from that point on, not sufficiently large, however, for a man to pass through, but large enough to furnish a passage for the water. and for this reason it came about that the channel of the aqueduct was not everywhere of the same breadth, but one was confronted by a narrow place at that rock, impassable for a man, especially if he wore armour or carried a shield. and when the isaurian observed this, it seemed to him not impossible for the army to penetrate into the city, if they should make the tunnel at that point broader by a little. but since he himself was a humble person, and never had come into conversation with any of the commanders, he brought the matter before paucaris, an isaurian, who had distinguished himself among the guards of belisarius. so paucaris immediately reported the whole matter to the general. and belisarius, being pleased by the report, took new courage, and by promising to reward the man with great sums of money induced him to attempt the undertaking, and commanded him to associate with himself some of the isaurians and cut out a passage in the rock as quickly as possible, taking care to allow no one to become aware of what they were doing. paucaris then selected some isaurians who were thoroughly suitable for the work, and secretly got inside the aqueduct with them. and coming to the place where the rock caused the passage to be narrow, they began their work, not cutting the rock with picks or mattocks, lest by their blows they should reveal to the enemy what they were doing, but scraping it very persistently with sharp instruments of iron. and in a short time the work was done, so that a man wearing a corselet and carrying a shield was able to go through at that point. but when all his arrangements were at length in complete readiness, the thought occurred to belisarius that if he should by act of war make his entry into naples with the army, the result would be that lives would be lost and that all the other things would happen which usually attend the capture of a city by an enemy. and straightway summoning stephanus, he spoke as follows: "many times have i witnessed the capture of cities and i am well acquainted with what takes place at such a time. for they slay all the men of every age, and as for the women, though they beg to die, they are not granted the boon of death, but are carried off for outrage and are made to suffer treatment that is abominable and most pitiable. and the children, who are thus deprived of their proper maintenance and education, are forced to be slaves, and that, too, of the men who are the most odious of all--those on whose hands they see the blood of their fathers. and this is not all, my dear stephanus, for i make no mention of the conflagration which destroys all the property and blots out the beauty of the city. when i see, as in the mirror of the cities which have been captured in times past, this city of naples falling victim to such a fate, i am moved to pity both it and you its inhabitants. for such means have now been perfected by me against the city that its capture is inevitable. but i pray that an ancient city, which has for ages been inhabited by both christians and romans, may not meet with such a fortune, especially at my hands as commander of roman troops, not least because in my army are a multitude of barbarians, who have lost brothers or relatives before the wall of this town; for the fury of these men i should be unable to control, if they should capture the city by act of war. while, therefore, it is still within your power to choose and to put into effect that which will be to your advantage, adopt the better course and escape misfortune; for when it falls upon you, as it probably will, you will not justly blame fortune but your own judgment." with these words belisarius dismissed stephanus. and he went before the people of naples weeping and reporting with bitter lamentations all that he had heard belisarius say. but they, since it was not fated that the neapolitans should become subjects of the emperor without chastisement, neither became afraid nor did they decide to yield to belisarius. footnote: [ ] chap. iii. . x then at length belisarius, on his part, made his preparations to enter the city as follows. selecting at nightfall about four hundred men and appointing as commander over them magnus, who led a detachment of cavalry, and ennes, the leader of the isaurians, he commanded them all to put on their corselets, take in hand their shields and swords, and remain quiet until he himself should give the signal. and he summoned bessas[ ] and gave him orders to stay with him, for he wished to consult with him concerning a certain matter pertaining to the army. and when it was well on in the night, he explained to magnus and ennes the task before them, pointed out the place where he had previously broken open the aqueduct, and ordered them to lead the four hundred men into the city, taking lights with them and he sent with them two men skilled in the use of the trumpet, so that as soon as they should get inside the circuit-wall, they might be able both to throw the city into confusion and to notify their own men what they were doing. and he himself was holding in readiness a very great number of ladders which had been constructed previously. so these men entered the aqueduct and were proceeding toward the city, while he with bessas and photius[ ] remained at his post and with their help was attending to all details. and he also sent to the camp, commanding the men to remain awake and to keep their arms in their hands. at the same time he kept near him a large force--men whom he considered most courageous. now of the men who were on their way to the city above half became terrified at the danger and turned back. and since magnus could not persuade them to follow him, although he urged them again and again, he returned with them to the general. and belisarius, after reviling these men, selected two hundred of the troops at hand, and ordered them to go with magnus. and photius also, wishing to lead them, leaped into the channel of the aqueduct, but belisarius prevented him. then those who were fleeing from the danger, put to shame by the railings of the general and of photius, took heart to face it once more and followed with the others. and belisarius, fearing lest their operations should be perceived by some of the enemy, who were maintaining a guard on the tower which happened to be nearest to the aqueduct, went to that place and commanded bessas to carry on a conversation in the gothic tongue with the barbarians there, his purpose being to prevent any clanging of the weapons from being audible to them. and so bessas shouted to them in a loud voice, urging the goths to yield to belisarius and promising that they should have many rewards. but they jeered at him, indulging in many insults directed at both belisarius and the emperor. belisarius and bessas, then, were thus occupied. now the aqueduct of naples is not only covered until it reaches the wall, but remains covered as it extends to a great distance inside the city, being carried on a high arch of baked brick. consequently, when the men under the command of magnus and ennes had got inside the fortifications, they were one and all unable even to conjecture where in the world they were. furthermore, they could not leave the aqueduct at any point until the foremost of them came to a place where the aqueduct chanced to be without a roof and where stood a building which had entirely fallen into neglect. inside this building a certain woman had her dwelling, living alone with utter poverty as her only companion; and an olive tree had grown out over the aqueduct. so when these men saw the sky and perceived that they were in the midst of the city, they began to plan how they might get out, but they had no means of leaving the aqueduct either with or without their arms. for the structure happened to be very high at that point and, besides, offered no means of climbing to the top. but as the soldiers were in a state of great perplexity and were beginning to crowd each other greatly as they collected there (for already, as the men in the rear kept coming up, a great throng was beginning to gather), the thought occurred to one of them to make trial of the ascent. he immediately therefore laid down his arms, and forcing his way up with hands and feet, reached the woman's house. and seeing her there, he threatened to kill her unless she should remain silent. and she was terror-stricken and remained speechless. he then fastened to the trunk of the olive tree a strong strap, and threw the other end of it into the aqueduct. so the soldiers, laying hold of it one at a time, managed with difficulty to make the ascent. and after all had come up and a fourth part of the night still remained, they proceeded toward the wall; and they slew the garrison of two of the towers before the men in them had an inkling of the trouble. these towers were on the northern portion of the circuit-wall, where belisarius was stationed with bessas and photius, anxiously awaiting the progress of events. so while the trumpeters were summoning the army to the wall, belisarius was placing the ladders against the fortifications and commanding the soldiers to mount them. but it so happened that not one of the ladders reached as far as the parapet. for since the workmen had not made them in sight of the wall, they had not been able to arrive at the proper measure. for this reason they bound two together, and it was only by using both of them for the ascent that the soldiers got above the level of the parapet. such was the progress of these events where belisarius was engaged. but on the side of the circuit-wall which faces the sea, where the forces on guard were not barbarians, but jews, the soldiers were unable either to use the ladders or to scale the wall. for the jews had already given offence to their enemy by having opposed their efforts to capture the city without a fight, and for this reason they had no hope if they should fall into their hands; so they kept fighting stubbornly, although they could see that the city had already been captured, and held out beyond all expectation against the assaults of their opponents. but when day came and some of those who had mounted the wall marched against them, then at last they also, now that they were being shot at from behind, took to flight, and naples was captured by storm. by this time the gates were thrown open and the whole roman army came in. [l] but those who were stationed about the gates which fronted the east, since, as it happened, they had no ladders at hand, set fire to these gates, which were altogether unguarded; for that part of the wall had been deserted, the guards having taken to flight. and then a great slaughter took place; for all of them were possessed with fury, especially those who had chanced to have a brother or other relative slain in the fighting at the wall. and they kept killing all whom they encountered, sparing neither old nor young, and dashing into the houses they made slaves of the women and children and secured the valuables as plunder; and in this the massagetae outdid all the rest, for they did not even withhold their hand from the sanctuaries, but slew many of those who had taken refuge in them, until belisarius, visiting every part of the city, put a stop to this, and calling all together, spoke as follows: date: [l] a.d. "inasmuch as god has given us the victory and has permitted us to attain the greatest height of glory, by putting under our hand a city which has never been captured before, it behooves us on our part to shew ourselves not unworthy of his grace, but by our humane treatment of the vanquished, to make it plain that we have conquered these men justly. do not, therefore, hate the neapolitans with a boundless hatred, and do not allow your hostility toward them to continue beyond the limits of the war. for when men have been vanquished, their victors never hate them any longer. and by killing them you will not be ridding yourselves of enemies for the future, but you will be suffering a loss through the death of your subjects. therefore, do these men no further harm, nor continue to give way wholly to anger. for it is a disgrace to prevail over the enemy and then to shew yourselves vanquished by passion. so let all the possessions of these men suffice for you as the rewards of your valour, but let their wives, together with the children, be given back to the men. and let the conquered learn by experience what kind of friends they have forfeited by reason of foolish counsel." after speaking thus, belisarius released to the neapolitans their women and children and the slaves, one and all, no insult having been experienced by them, and he reconciled the soldiers to the citizens. and thus it came to pass for the neapolitans that on that day they both became captives and regained their liberty, and that they recovered the most precious of their possessions. for those of them who happened to have gold or anything else of value had previously concealed it by burying it in the earth, and in this way they succeeded in hiding from the enemy the fact that in getting back their houses they were recovering their money also. and the siege, which had lasted about twenty days, ended thus. as for the goths who were captured in the city, not less than eight hundred in number, belisarius put them under guard and kept them from all harm, holding them in no less honour than his own soldiers. and pastor, who had been leading the people upon a course of folly, as has been previously[ ] set forth by me, upon seeing the city captured, fell into a fit of apoplexy and died suddenly, though he had neither been ill before nor suffered any harm from anyone. but asclepiodotus, who was engaged in this intrigue with him, came before belisarius with those of the notables who survived. and stephanus mocked and reviled him with these words: "see, o basest of all men, what evils you have brought to your fatherland, by selling the safety of the citizens for loyalty to the goths. and furthermore, if things had gone well for the barbarians, you would have claimed the right to be yourself a hireling in their service and to bring to court on the charge of trying to betray the city to the romans each one of us who have given the better counsel. but now that the emperor has captured the city, and we have been saved by the uprightness of this man, and you even so have had the hardihood recklessly to come into the presence of the general as if you had done no harm to the neapolitans or to the emperor's army, you will meet with the punishment you deserve." such were the words which stephanus, who was deeply grieved by the misfortune of the city, hurled against asclepiodotus. and asclepiodotus replied to him as follows: "quite unwittingly, noble sir, you have been heaping praise upon us, when you reproach us for our loyalty to the goths. for no one could ever be loyal to his masters when they are in danger, except it be by firm conviction. as for me, then, the victors will have in me as true a guardian of the state as they lately found in me an enemy, since he whom nature has endowed with the quality of fidelity does not change his conviction when he changes his fortune. but you, should their fortunes not continue to prosper as before, would readily listen to the overtures of their assailants. for he who has the disease of inconstancy of mind no sooner takes fright than he denies his pledge to those most dear." such were the words of asclepiodotus. but the populace of the neapolitans, when they saw him returning from belisarius, gathered in a body and began to charge him with responsibility for all that had befallen them. and they did not leave him until they had killed him and torn his body into small pieces. after that they came to the house of pastor, seeking for the man. and when the servants insisted that pastor was dead, they were quite unwilling to believe them until they were shown the man's body. and the neapolitans impaled him in the outskirts of the town. then they begged belisarius to pardon them for what they had done while moved with just anger, and receiving his forgiveness, they dispersed. such was the fate of the neapolitans. footnotes: [ ] cf. chap. v. . [ ] cf. chap. v. . [ ] chap. viii. . xi but the goths who were at rome and in the country round about had even before this regarded with great amazement the inactivity of theodatus, because, though the enemy was in his neighbourhood, he was unwilling to engage them in battle, and they felt among themselves much suspicion toward him, believing that he was betraying the cause of the goths to the emperor justinian of his own free will, and cared for nothing else than that he himself might live in quiet, possessed of as much money as possible. accordingly, when they heard that naples had been captured, they began immediately to make all these charges against him openly and gathered at a place two hundred and eighty stades distant from rome, which the romans call regata.[ ] and it seemed best to them to make camp in that place; for there are extensive plains there which furnish pasture for horses. and a river also flows by the place, which the inhabitants call decennovium[ ] in the latin tongue, because it flows past nineteen milestones, a distance which amounts to one hundred and thirteen stades, before it empties into the sea near the city of taracina; and very near that place is mt. circaeum, where they say odysseus met circe, though the story seems to me untrustworthy, for homer declares that the habitation of circe was on an island. this, however, i am able to say, that this mt. circaeum, extending as it does far into the sea, resembles an island, so that both to those who sail close to it and to those who walk to the shore in the neighbourhood it has every appearance of being an island. and only when a man gets on it does he realize that he was deceived in his former opinion. and for this reason homer perhaps called the place an island. but i shall return to the previous narrative. the goths, after gathering at regata, chose as king over them and the italians vittigis, a man who, though not of a conspicuous house, had previously won great renown in the battles about sirmium, when theoderic was carrying on the war against the gepaedes.[ ] theodatus, therefore, upon hearing this, rushed off in flight and took the road to ravenna. but vittigis quickly sent optaris, a goth, instructing him to bring theodatus alive or dead. now it happened that this optaris was hostile to theodatus for the following cause. optaris was wooing a certain young woman who was an heiress and also exceedingly beautiful to look upon. but theodatus, being bribed to do so, took the woman he was wooing from him, and betrothed her to another. and so, since he was not only satisfying his own rage, but rendering a service to vittigis as well, he pursued theodatus with great eagerness and enthusiasm, stopping neither day nor night. and he overtook him while still on his way, laid him on his back on the ground, and slew him like a victim for sacrifice. such was the end of theodatus' life and of his rule, which had reached the third year.[m] date: [m]dec. a.d. and vittigis, together with the goths who were with him, marched to rome. and when he learned what had befallen theodatus, he was pleased and put theodatus' son theodegisclus under guard. but it seemed to him that the preparations of the goths were by no means complete, and for this reason he thought it better first to go to ravenna, and after making everything ready there in the best possible way, then at length to enter upon the war. he therefore called all the goths together and spoke as follows: "the success of the greatest enterprises, fellow-soldiers, generally depends, not upon hasty action at critical moments, but upon careful planning. for many a time a policy of delay adopted at the opportune moment has brought more benefit than the opposite course, and haste displayed at an unseasonable time has upset for many men their hope of success. for in most cases those who are unprepared, though they fight on equal terms so far as their forces are concerned, are more easily conquered than those who, with less strength, enter the struggle with the best possible preparation. let us not, therefore, be so lifted up by the desire to win momentary honour as to do ourselves irreparable harm; for it is better to suffer shame for a short time and by so doing gain an undying glory, than to escape insult for the moment and thereby, as would probably be the case, be left in obscurity for all after time. and yet you doubtless know as well as i that the great body of the goths and practically our whole equipment of arms is in gaul and venetia and the most distant lands. furthermore, we are carrying on against the nations of the franks a war which is no less important than this one, and it is great folly for us to proceed to another war without first settling that one satisfactorily. for it is natural that those who become exposed to attack on two sides and do not confine their attention to a single enemy should be worsted by their opponents. but i say that we must now go straight from here to ravenna, and after bringing the war against the franks to an end and settling all our other affairs as well as possible, then with the whole army of the goths we must fight it out with belisarius. and let no one of you, i say, try to dissemble regarding this withdrawal, nor hesitate to call it flight. for the title of coward, fittingly applied, has saved many, while the reputation for bravery which some men have gained at the wrong time, has afterward led them to defeat. for it is not the names of things, but the advantage which comes from what is done, that is worth seeking after. for a man's worth is revealed by his deeds, not at their commencement, but at their end. and those do not flee before the enemy who, when they have increased their preparation, forthwith go against them, but those who are so anxious to save their own lives for ever that they deliberately stand aside. and regarding the capture of this city, let no fear come to any one of you. for if, on the one hand, the romans are loyal to us, they will guard the city in security for the goths, and they will not experience any hardship, for we shall return to them in a short time. and if, on the other hand, they harbour any suspicions toward us, they will harm us less by receiving the enemy into the city; for it is better to fight in the open against one's enemies. none the less i shall take care that nothing of this sort shall happen. for we shall leave behind many men and a most discreet leader, and they will be sufficient to guard rome so effectively that not only will the situation here be favourable for us, but also that no harm may possibly come from this withdrawal of ours." thus spoke vittigis. and all the goths expressed approval and prepared for the journey. after this vittigis exhorted at length silverius, the priest[ ] of the city, and the senate and people of the romans, reminding them of the rule of theoderic, and he urged upon all to be loyal to the nation of the goths, binding them by the most solemn oaths to do so; and he chose out no fewer than four thousand men, and set in command over them leuderis, a man of mature years who enjoyed a great reputation for discretion, that they might guard rome for the goths. then he set out for ravenna with the rest of the army, keeping the most of the senators with him as hostages. and when he had reached that place, he made matasuntha, the daughter of amalasuntha, who was a maiden now of marriageable age, his wedded wife, much against her will, in order that he might make his rule more secure by marrying into the family of theoderic. after this he began to gather all the goths from every side and to organize and equip them, duly distributing arms and horses to each one; and only the goths who were engaged in garrison duty in gaul he was unable to summon, through fear of the franks. these franks were called "germani" in ancient times. and the manner in which they first got a foothold in gaul, and where they had lived before that, and how they became hostile to the goths, i shall now proceed to relate. footnotes: [ ] near terracina. [ ] the name is made from _decem_ and _novem_, "nineteen,"--apparently a late formation. the "river" was in reality a canal, extending from appii forum to terracina. [ ] chap. iii. . [ ] silverius was pope - a.d. xii as one sails from the ocean into the mediterranean at gadira, the land on the left, as was stated in the preceding narrative,[ ] is named europe, while the land opposite to this is called libya, and, farther on, asia. now as to the region beyond libya[ ] i am unable to speak with accuracy;[ ] for it is almost wholly destitute of men, and for this reason the first source of the nile, which they say flows from that land toward egypt, is quite unknown. but europe at its very beginning is exceedingly like the peloponnesus, and fronts the sea on either side. and the land which is first toward the ocean and the west is named spain, extending as far as the alps of the pyrenees range. for the men of this country are accustomed to call a narrow, shut-in pass "alps." and the land from there on as far as the boundaries of liguria is called gaul. and in that place other alps separate the gauls and the ligurians. gaul, however, is much broader than spain, and naturally so, because europe, beginning with a narrow peninsula, gradually widens as one advances until it attains an extraordinary breadth. and this land is bounded by water on either side, being washed on the north by the ocean, and having on the south the sea called the tuscan sea. and in gaul there flow numerous rivers, among which are the rhone and the rhine. but the course of these two being in opposite directions, the one empties into the tuscan sea, while the rhine empties into the ocean. and there are many lakes[ ] in that region, and this is where the germans lived of old, a barbarous nation, not of much consequence in the beginning, who are now called franks. next to these lived the arborychi,[ ] who, together with all the rest of gaul, and, indeed, spain also, were subjects of the romans from of old. and beyond them toward the east were settled the thuringian barbarians, augustus, the first emperor, having given them this country.[ ] and the burgundians lived not far from them toward the south,[ ] and the suevi[ ] also lived beyond the thuringians, and the alamani,[ ] powerful nations. all these were settled there as independent peoples in earlier times. but as time went on, the visigoths forced their way into the roman empire and seized all spain and the portion of gaul lying beyond[ ] the rhone river and made them subject and tributary to themselves. by that time it so happened that the arborychi had become soldiers of the romans. and the germans, wishing to make this people subject to themselves, since their territory adjoined their own and they had changed the government under which they had lived from of old, began to plunder their land and, being eager to make war, marched against them with their whole people. but the arborychi proved their valour and loyalty to the romans and shewed themselves brave men in this war, and since the germans were not able to overcome them by force, they wished to win them over and make the two peoples kin by intermarriage. this suggestion the arborychi received not at all unwillingly; for both, as it happened, were christians. and in this way they were united into one people, and came to have great power. now other roman soldiers, also, had been stationed at the frontiers of gaul to serve as guards. and these soldiers, having no means of returning to rome, and at the same time being unwilling to yield to their enemy[ ] who were arians, gave themselves, together with their military standards and the land which they had long been guarding for the romans, to the arborychi and germans; and they handed down to their offspring all the customs of their fathers, which were thus preserved, and this people has held them in sufficient reverence to guard them even up to my time. for even at the present day they are clearly recognized as belonging to the legions to which they were assigned when they served in ancient times, and they always carry their own standards when they enter battle, and always follow the customs of their fathers. and they preserve the dress of the romans in every particular, even as regards their shoes. now as long as the roman polity remained unchanged,[ ] the emperor held all gaul as far as the rhone river; but when odoacer changed the government into a tyranny, [n] then, since the tyrant yielded to them, the visigoths took possession of all gaul as far as the alps which mark the boundary between gaul and liguria. [o]but after the fall of odoacer, the thuringians and the visigoths began to fear the power of the germans, which was now growing greater (for their country had become exceedingly populous and they were forcing into subjection without any concealment those who from time to time came in their way), and so they were eager to win the alliance of the goths and theoderic. and since theoderic wished to attach these peoples to himself, he did not refuse to intermarry with them. accordingly he betrothed to alaric the younger, who was then leader of the visigoths, his own unmarried daughter theodichusa, and to hermenefridus, the ruler of the thuringians, amalaberga, the daughter of his sister amalafrida. as a result of this the franks refrained from violence against these peoples through fear of theoderic, but they began a war against the burgundians. but later on the franks and the goths entered into an offensive alliance against the burgundians, agreeing that each of the two should send an army against them; and it was further agreed that if either army should be absent when the other took the field against the nation of the burgundians and overthrew them and gained the land which they had, then the victors should receive as a penalty from those who had not joined in the expedition a fixed sum of gold, and that only on these terms should the conquered land belong to both peoples in common. so the germans went against the burgundians with a great army according to the agreement between themselves and the goths; but theoderic was still engaged with his preparations, as he said, and purposely kept putting off the departure of the army to the following day, and waiting for what would come to pass. finally, however, he sent the army, but commanded the generals to march in a leisurely fashion, and if they should hear that the franks had been victorious, they were thenceforth to go quickly, but if they should learn that any adversity had befallen them, they were to proceed no farther, but remain where they were. so they proceeded to carry out the commands of theoderic, but meanwhile the germans joined battle alone with the burgundians.[p] the battle was stubbornly contested and a great slaughter took place on both sides, for the struggle was very evenly matched; but finally the franks routed their enemy and drove them to the borders of the land which they inhabited at that time, where they had many strongholds, while the franks took possession of all the rest. and the goths, upon hearing this, were quickly at hand. and when they were bitterly reproached by their allies, they blamed the difficulty of the country, and laying down the amount of the penalty, they divided the land with the victors according to the agreement made. and thus the foresight of theoderic was revealed more clearly than ever, because, without losing a single one of his subjects, he had with a little gold acquired half of the land of his enemy. thus it was that the goths and germans in the beginning got possession of a certain part of gaul. dates: [n] a.d. [o] a.d. [p] a.d. but later on, when the power of the germans was growing greater, they began to think slightingly of theoderic and the fear he inspired, and took the field against alaric and the visigoths. and when alaric learned this, he summoned theoderic as quickly as possible. and he set out to his assistance with a great army. in the meantime, the visigoths, upon learning that the germans were in camp near the city of carcasiana,[ ] went to meet them, and making a camp remained quiet. but since much time was being spent by them in blocking the enemy in this way, they began to be vexed, and seeing that their land was being plundered by the enemy, they became indignant. and at length they began to heap many insults upon alaric, reviling him on account of his fear of the enemy and taunting him with the delay of his father-in-law. for they declared that they by themselves were a match for the enemy in battle and that even though unaided they would easily overcome the germans in the war. for this reason alaric was compelled to do battle with the enemy before the goths had as yet arrived. and the germans, gaining the upper hand in this engagement, killed the most of the visigoths and their ruler alaric. [q] then they took possession of the greater part of gaul and held it; and they laid siege to carcasiana with great enthusiasm, because they had learned that the royal treasure was there, which alaric the elder in earlier times had taken as booty when he captured rome.[ ] among these were also the treasures of solomon, the king of the hebrews, a most noteworthy sight. [r]for the most of them were adorned with emeralds; and they had been taken from jerusalem by the romans in ancient times.[ ] then the survivors of the visigoths declared giselic, an illegitimate son of alaric, ruler over them, amalaric, the son of theoderic's daughter, being still a very young child. and afterwards, when theoderic had come with the army of the goths, the germans became afraid and broke up the siege. so they retired from there and took possession of the part of gaul beyond the rhone river as far as the ocean. and theoderic, being unable to drive them out from there, allowed them to hold this territory, but he himself recovered the rest of gaul. then, after giselic had been put out of the way, he conferred the rule of the visigoths upon his grandson amalaric, for whom, since he was still a child, he himself acted as regent. and taking all the money which lay in the city of carcasiana, he marched quickly back to ravenna; furthermore, he continued to send commanders and armies into gaul and spain, thus holding the real power of the government himself, and by way of providing that he should hold it securely and permanently, he ordained that the rulers of those countries should bring tribute to him. and though he received this every year, in order not to give the appearance of being greedy for money he sent it as an annual gift to the army of the goths and visigoths. and as a result of this, the goths and visigoths, as time went on, ruled as they were by one man and holding the same land, betrothed their children to one another and thus joined the two races in kinship. dates: [q] a.d. [r] a.d. but afterwards, theudis, a goth, whom theoderic had sent as commander of the army, took to wife a woman from spain; she was not, however, of the race of the visigoths, but belonged to the house of one of the wealthy inhabitants of that land, and not only possessed great wealth but also owned a large estate in spain. from this estate he gathered about two thousand soldiers and surrounded himself with a force of bodyguards, and while in name he was a ruler over the goths by the gift of theoderic, he was in fact an out and out tyrant. and theoderic, who was wise and experienced in the highest degree, was afraid to carry on a war against his own slave, lest the franks meanwhile should take the field against him, as they naturally would, or the visigoths on their part should begin a revolution against him; accordingly he did not remove theudis from his office, but even continued to command him, whenever the army went to war, to lead it forth. however, he directed the first men of the goths to write to theudis that he would be acting justly and in a manner worthy of his wisdom, if he should come to ravenna and salute theoderic. theudis, however, although he carried out all the commands of theoderic and never failed to send in the annual tribute, would not consent to go to ravenna, nor would he promise those who had written to him that he would do so. footnotes: [ ] book iii. i. . [ ] _i.e._ equatorial africa. [ ] cf. book iv. xiii. . [ ] this vague statement is intended to describe the country west of the rhine, at that time a land of forests and swamps. [ ] the people whom procopius names arborychi must be the armorici. if so, they occupied the coast of what is now belgium. [ ] now south-eastern germany. [ ] now south-eastern france. [ ] between the germans and burgundians. [ ] in modern bavaria. [ ] _i.e._ west of the rhone. [ ] _i.e._ the visigoths. [ ] _i.e._ under a recognized imperial dynasty. [ ] in gallia narbonensis, modern carcassone. procopius has been misled. the battle here described was fought in the neighbourhood of poitiers. [ ] cf. book iii. ii. - . [ ] at the capture of jerusalem by titus in a.d. the treasures here mentioned were removed from rome in a.d. the remainder of the jewish treasure formed part of the spoil of gizeric, the vandal. cf. book iv. ix. and note. xiii after theoderic had departed from the world,[s] the franks, now that there was no longer anyone to oppose them, took the field against the thuringians, and not only killed their leader hermenefridus but also reduced to subjection the entire people. but the wife of hermenefridus took her children and secretly made her escape, coming to theodatus, her brother, who was at that time ruling over the goths. after this the germans made an attack upon the burgundians who had survived the former war,[ ] and defeating them in battle confined their leader in one of the fortresses of the country and kept him under guard, while they reduced the people to subjection and compelled them, as prisoners of war, to march with them from that time forth against their enemies, and the whole land which the burgundians had previously inhabited they made subject and tributary to themselves. and amalaric, who was ruling over the visigoths, upon coming to man's estate, became thoroughly frightened at the power of the germans and so took to wife the sister of theudibert, ruler of the germans, and divided gaul with the goths and his cousin atalaric. the goths, namely, received as their portion the land to the east of the rhone river, while that to the west fell under the control of the visigoths. and it was agreed that the tribute which theoderic had imposed should no longer be paid to the goths, and atalaric honestly and justly restored to amalaric all the money which he had taken from the city of carcasiana. then, since these two nations had united with one another by intermarriage, they allowed each man who had espoused a wife of the other people to choose whether he wished to follow his wife, or bring her among his own people. and there were many who led their wives to the people they preferred and many also who were led by their wives. but later on amalaric, having given offence to his wife's brother, suffered a great calamity. for while his wife was of the orthodox faith, he himself followed the heresy of arius, and he would not allow her to hold to her customary beliefs or to perform the rites of religion according to the tradition of her fathers, and, furthermore, because she was unwilling to conform to his customs, he held her in great dishonour. and since the woman was unable to bear this, she disclosed the whole matter to her brother. for this reason, then, the germans and visigoths entered into war with each other. [t]and the battle which took place was for a long time very stoutly contested, but finally amalaric was defeated, losing many of his men, and was himself slain. and theudibert took his sister with all the money, and as much of gaul as the visigoths held as their portion. and the survivors of the vanquished emigrated from gaul with their wives and children and went to theudis in spain, who was already acting the tyrant openly. thus did the goths and germans gain possession of gaul. dates: [s] a.d. [t] a.d. but at a later time[ ] theodatus, the ruler of the goths, upon learning that belisarius had come to sicily, made a compact with the germans, in which it was agreed that the germans should have that portion of gaul which fell to the goths, and should receive twenty centenaria[ ] of gold, and that in return they should assist the goths in this war. but before he had as yet carried out the agreement he fulfilled his destiny.[u] it was for this reason, then, that many of the noblest of the goths, with marcias as their leader, were keeping guard in gaul. it was these men whom vittigis was unable to recall from gaul,[ ] and indeed he did not think them numerous enough even to oppose the franks, who would, in all probability, overrun both gaul and italy, if he should march with his whole army against rome. he therefore called together all who were loyal among the goths and spoke as follows: date: [u] a.d. "the advice which i have wished to give you, fellow-countrymen, in bringing you together here at the present time, is not pleasant, but it is necessary; and do you hear me kindly, and deliberate in a manner befitting the situation which is upon us. for when affairs do not go as men wish, it is inexpedient for them to go on with their present arrangements in disregard of necessity or fortune. now in all other respects our preparations for war are in the best possible state. but the franks are an obstacle to us; against them, our ancient enemies, we have indeed been spending both our lives and our money, but nevertheless we have succeeded in holding our own up to the present time, since no other hostile force has confronted us. but now that we are compelled to go against another foe, it will be necessary to put an end to the war against them, in the first place because, if they remain hostile to us, they will certainly array themselves with belisarius against us; for those who have the same enemy are by the very nature of things induced to enter into friendship and alliance with each other. in the second place, even if we carry on the war separately against each army, we shall in the end be defeated by both of them. it is better, therefore, for us to accept a little loss and thus preserve the greatest part of our kingdom, than in our eagerness to hold everything to be destroyed by the enemy and lose at the same time the whole power of our supremacy. so my opinion is that if we give the germans the provinces of gaul which adjoin them, and together with this land all the money which theodatus agreed to give them, they will not only be turned from their enmity against us, but will even lend us assistance in this war. but as to how at a later time, when matters are going well for us, we may regain possession of gaul, let no one of you consider this question. for an ancient saying[ ] comes to my mind, which bids us 'settle well the affairs of the present.'" upon hearing this speech the notables of the goths, considering the plan advantageous, wished it to be put into effect. accordingly envoys were immediately sent to the nation of the germans, in order to give them the lands of gaul together with the gold, and to make an offensive and defensive alliance. now at that time the rulers of the franks were ildibert, theudibert, and cloadarius, and they received gaul and the money, and divided the land among them according to the territory ruled by each one, and they agreed to be exceedingly friendly to the goths, and secretly to send them auxiliary troops, not franks, however, but soldiers drawn from the nations subject to them. for they were unable to make an alliance with them openly against the romans, because they had a little before agreed to assist the emperor in this war. so the envoys, having accomplished the mission on which they had been sent, returned to ravenna. at that time also vittigis summoned marcias with his followers. footnotes: [ ] cf. chap. xii. ff. [ ] procopius resumes his narrative, which was interrupted by the digression beginning in chap. xii. [ ] cf. book i. xxii. ; iii. vi. and note. [ ] cf. chap. xi. . [ ] cf. thuc. i. , [greek: thesthai to paron], "to deal with the actual situation"; hor. _od._ iii. , , "quod adest memento | componere." xiv but while vittigis was carrying on these negotiations, belisarius was preparing to go to rome. he accordingly selected three hundred men from the infantry forces with herodian as their leader, and assigned them the duty of guarding naples. and he also sent to cumae as large a garrison as he thought would be sufficient to guard the fortress there. for there was no stronghold in campania except those at cumae and at naples. it is in this city of cumae that the inhabitants point out the cave of the sibyl, where they say her oracular shrine was; and cumae is on the sea, one hundred and twenty-eight stades distant from naples. belisarius, then, was thus engaged in putting his army in order; but the inhabitants of rome, fearing lest all the calamities should befall them which had befallen the neapolitans, decided after considering the matter that it was better to receive the emperor's army into the city. and more than any other silverius,[ ] the chief priest of the city, urged them to adopt this course. so they sent fidelius, a native of milan, which is situated in liguria, a man who had been previously an adviser of atalaric (such an official is called "quaestor"[ ] by the romans), and invited belisarius to come to rome, promising to put the city into his hands without a battle. so belisarius led his army from naples by the latin way, leaving on the left the appian way, which appius, the consul of the romans, had made nine hundred years before[ ] and to which he had given his name. now the appian way is in length a journey of five days for an unencumbered traveller; for it extends from rome to capua. and the breadth of this road is such that two waggons going in opposite directions can pass one another, and it is one of the noteworthy sights of the world. for all the stone, which is mill-stone[ ] and hard by nature, appius quarried in another place[ ] far away and brought there; for it is not found anywhere in this district. and after working these stones until they were smooth and flat, and cutting them to a polygonal shape, he fastened them together without putting concrete or anything else between them. and they were fastened together so securely and the joints were so firmly closed, that they give the appearance, when one looks at them, not of being fitted together, but of having grown together. and after the passage of so long a time, and after being traversed by many waggons and all kinds of animals every day, they have neither separated at all at the joints, nor has any one of the stones been worn out or reduced in thickness,--nay, they have not even lost any of their polish. such, then, is the appian way. but as for the goths who were keeping guard in rome, it was not until they learned that the enemy were very near and became aware of the decision of the romans, that they began to be concerned for the city, and, being unable to meet the attacking army in battle, they were at a loss; but later, with the permission of the romans, they all departed thence and proceeded to ravenna, except that leuderis, who commanded them, being ashamed, i suppose, because of the situation in which he found himself, remained there. and it so happened on that day that at the very same time when belisarius and the emperor's army were entering rome through the gate which they call the asinarian gate, the goths were withdrawing from the city through another gate which bears the name flaminian; and rome became subject to the romans again after a space of sixty years, on the ninth day of the last month, which is called "december" by the romans, in the eleventh year of the reign of the emperor justinian. [v] now belisarius sent leuderis, the commander of the goths, and the keys of the gates to the emperor, but he himself turned his attention to the circuit-wall, which had fallen into ruin in many places; and he constructed each merlon of the battlement with a wing, adding a sort of flanking wall on the left side,[ ] in order that those fighting from the battlement against their assailants might never be hit by missiles thrown by those storming the wall on their left; and he also dug a moat about the wall of sufficient depth to form a very important part of the defences. and the romans applauded the forethought of the general and especially the experience displayed in the matter of the battlement; but they marvelled greatly and were vexed that he should have thought it possible for him to enter rome if he had any idea that he would be besieged, for it cannot possibly endure a siege because it cannot be supplied with provisions, since it is not on the sea, is enclosed by a wall of so huge a circumference,[ ] and, above all, lying as it does in a very level plain, is naturally exceedingly easy of access for its assailants. but although belisarius heard all these criticisms, he nevertheless continued to make all his preparations for a siege, and the grain which he had in his ships when he came from sicily he stored in public granaries and kept under guard, and he compelled all the romans, indignant though they were, to bring all their provisions in from the country. date: [v] a.d. footnotes: [ ] cf. chap. xi. , note. [ ] the quaestor held an important position as counsellor ([greek: paredros]) of the emperor in legal matters. it was his function, also, to formulate and publish new laws. [ ] built in b.c. by the censor, appius claudius. [ ] chiefly basalt. as built by appius, however, the surface was of gravel; the stone blocks date from later years. [ ] apparently an error, for lava quarries have been found along the road. [ ] _i.e._ on the left of the defender. the battlement, then, in horizontal section, had this form |--|--|--, instead of the usual series of straight merlons. winged merlons were used on the walls of pompeii; for an excellent illustration see overbeck, _pompeji_^ , p. . [ ] _i.e._ too great to be defended at every point: the total length of the circuit-wall was about twelve miles. xv at that time pitzas, a goth, coming from samnium, also put himself and all the goths who were living there with him into the hands of belisarius, as well as the half of that part of samnium which lies on the sea, as far as the river which flows through the middle of that district.[ ] for the goths who were settled on the other side of the river were neither willing to follow pitzas nor to be subjects of the emperor. and belisarius gave him a small number of soldiers to help him guard that territory. and before this the calabrians and apulians, since no goths were present in their land, had willingly submitted themselves to belisarius, both those on the coast and those who held the interior. among the interior towns is beneventus,[ ] which in ancient times the romans had named "maleventus," but now they call it beneventus, avoiding the evil omen of the former name,[ ] "ventus" having the meaning "wind" in the latin tongue. for in dalmatia, which lies across from this city on the opposite mainland, a wind of great violence and exceedingly wild is wont to fall upon the country, and when this begins to blow, it is impossible to find a man there who continues to travel on the road, but all shut themselves up at home and wait. such, indeed, is the force of the wind that it seizes a man on horseback together with his horse and carries him through the air, and then, after whirling him about in the air to a great distance, it throws him down wherever he may chance to be and kills him. and it so happens that beneventus, being opposite to dalmatia, as i have said, and situated on rather high ground, gets some of the disadvantage of this same wind. this city was built of old by diomedes, the son of tydeus, when after the capture of troy he was repulsed from argos. and he left to the city as a token the tusks of the calydonian boar, which his uncle meleager had received as a prize of the hunt, and they are there even up to my time, a noteworthy sight and well worth seeing, measuring not less than three spans around and having the form of a crescent. there, too, they say that diomedes met aeneas, the son of anchises, when he was coming from ilium, and in obedience to the oracle gave him the statue of athena which he had seized as plunder in company with odysseus, when the two went into troy as spies before the city was captured by the greeks. for they tell the story that when he fell sick at a later time, and made enquiry concerning the disease, the oracle responded that he would never be freed from his malady unless he should give this statue to a man of troy. and as to where in the world the statue itself is, the romans say they do not know, but even up to my time they shew a copy of it chiselled on a certain stone in the temple of fortune, where it lies before the bronze statue of athena, which is set up under the open sky in the eastern part of the temple. and this copy on the stone represents a female figure in the pose of a warrior and extending her spear as if for combat; but in spite of this she has a chiton reaching to the feet. but the face does not resemble the greek statues of athena, but is altogether like the work of the ancient aegyptians. the byzantines, however, say that the emperor constantine dug up this statue in the forum which bears his name[ ] and set it there. so much, then, for this. in this way belisarius won over the whole of that part of italy which is south of the ionian gulf,[ ] as far as rome and samnium, and the territory north of the gulf, as far as liburnia, had been gained by constantianus, as has been said.[ ] but i shall now explain how italy is divided among the inhabitants of the land. the adriatic sea[ ] sends out a kind of outlet far into the continent and thus forms the ionian gulf, but it does not, as in other places where the sea enters the mainland, form an isthmus at its end. for example, the so-called crisaean gulf, ending at lechaeum, where the city of corinth is, forms the isthmus of that city, about forty stades in breadth; and the gulf off the hellespont, which they call the black gulf,[ ] makes the isthmus at the chersonese no broader than the corinthian, but of about the same size. but from the city of ravenna, where the ionian gulf ends, to the tuscan sea is not less than eight days' journey for an unencumbered traveller. and the reason is that the arm of the sea, as it advances,[ ] always inclines very far to the right. and below this gulf the first town is dryus,[ ] which is now called hydrus. and on the right of this are the calabrians, apulians, and samnites, and next to them dwell the piceni, whose territory extends as far as the city of ravenna. and on the other side are the remainder of the calabrians, the bruttii, and the lucani, beyond whom dwell the campani as far as the city of taracina, and their territory is adjoined by that of rome. these peoples hold the shores of the two seas, and all the interior of that part of italy. and this is the country called magna graecia in former times. for among the bruttii are the epizephyrian locrians and the inhabitants of croton and thurii. but north of the gulf the first inhabitants are greeks, called epirotes, as far as the city of epidamnus, which is situated on the sea. and adjoining this is the land of precalis, beyond which is the territory called dalmatia, all of which is counted as part of the western empire. and beyond that point is liburnia,[ ] and istria, and the land of the veneti extending to the city of ravenna. these countries are situated on the sea in that region. but above them are the siscii and suevi (not those who are subjects of the franks, but another group), who inhabit the interior. and beyond these are settled the carnii and norici. on the right of these dwell the dacians and pannonians, who hold a number of towns, including singidunum[ ] and sirmium, and extend as far as the ister river. now these peoples north of the ionian gulf were ruled by the goths at the beginning of this war, but beyond the city of ravenna on the left of the river po the country was inhabited by the ligurians.[ ] and to the north of them live the albani in an exceedingly good land called langovilla, and beyond these are the nations subject to the franks, while the country to the west is held by the gauls and after them the spaniards. on the right of the po are aemilia[ ] and the tuscan peoples, which extend as far as the boundaries of rome. so much, then, for this. footnotes: [ ] probably either the biferno or the sangro. [ ] _sic_ procopius. the customary form "beneventum" shews less clearly the derivation from "ventus" which procopius favours. other possible explanations are "bene" + "venio" or "bene" + (suff.) "entum." [ ] cf. pliny iii. xi. , § , who says that the name was originally "maleventum," on account of its unwholesome air. [ ] the forum of constantine was a short distance west of the hippodrome. one of its principle monuments, a huge porphyry column, still stands and is known as the "burnt column." [ ] _i.e._ the adriatic sea; see note . [ ] chap. vii. . [ ] by the "adriatic" is meant the part of the mediterranean which lies between africa on the south, sicily and italy on the west, and greece and epirus on the east; procopius' "ionian gulf" is therefore our adriatic sea. [ ] now the gulf of saros, north and west of the gallipoli peninsula. [ ] _i.e._ to the north-west. procopius means that the adriatic should incline at its upper end more toward the left (the west) in order to form the isthmus which he is surprised to find lacking. [ ] hydruntum; cf. book iii. i. , note. [ ] modern croatia. [ ] modern belgrade. [ ] procopius seems to have erred: liguria, as well as aemilia (below), was south of the po. cf. chap. xii. , where liguria is represented as extending to the alps. [ ] whose capital was placentia (piacenzo). xvi so belisarius took possession of all the territory of rome as far as the river tiber, and strengthened it. and when all had been settled by him in the best possible manner, he gave to constantinus a large number of his own guards together with many spearmen, including the massagetae zarter, chorsomanus, and aeschmanus, and an army besides, commanding him to go into tuscany, in order to win over the towns of that region. and he gave orders to bessas to take possession of narnia, a very strong city in tuscany. now this bessas was a goth by birth, one of those who had dwelt in thrace from of old and had not followed theoderic when he led the gothic nation thence into italy, and he was an energetic man and a capable warrior. for he was both a general of the first rank, and a skilful man in action. and bessas took narnia not at all against the will of the inhabitants, and constantinus won over spolitium[ ] and perusia[ ] and certain other towns without any trouble. for the tuscans received him into their cities willingly. so after establishing a garrison in spolitium, he himself remained quietly with his army in perusia, the first city in tuscany. now when vittigis heard this, he sent against them an army with unilas and pissas as its commanders. and constantinus confronted these troops in the outskirts of perusia and engaged with them. the battle was at first evenly disputed, since the barbarians were superior in numbers, but afterwards the romans by their valour gained the upper hand and routed the enemy, and while they were fleeing in complete disorder the romans killed almost all of them; and they captured alive the commanders of the enemy and sent them to belisarius. now when vittigis heard this, he was no longer willing to remain quietly in ravenna, where he was embarrassed by the absence of marcias and his men, who had not yet come from gaul. so he sent to dalmatia a great army with asinarius and uligisalus as its commanders, in order to recover dalmatia for the gothic rule. and he directed them to add to their own troops an army from the land of the suevi, composed of the barbarians there, and then to proceed directly to dalmatia and salones. and he also sent with them many ships of war, in order that they might be able to besiege salones both by land and by sea. but he himself was hastening to go with his whole army against belisarius and rome, leading against him horsemen and infantry to the number of not less than one hundred and fifty thousand, and the most of them as well as their horses were clad in armour. so asinarius, upon reaching the country of the suevi, began to gather the army of the barbarians, while uligisalus alone led the goths into liburnia. and when the romans engaged with them at a place called scardon, they were defeated in the battle and retired to the city of burnus; and there uligisalus awaited his colleague. but constantianus, upon hearing of the preparations of asinarius, became afraid for salones, and summoned the soldiers who were holding all the fortresses in that region. he then dug a moat around the whole circuit-wall and made all the other preparations for the siege in the best manner possible. and asinarius, after gathering an exceedingly large army of barbarians, came to the city of burnus. there he joined uligisalus and the gothic army and proceeded to salones. and they made a stockade about the circuit-wall, and also, filling their ships with soldiers, kept guard over the side of the fortifications which faced the sea. in this manner they proceeded to besiege salones both by land and by sea; but the romans suddenly made an attack upon the ships of the enemy and turned them to flight, and many of them they sunk, men and all, and also captured many without their crews. however, the goths did not raise the siege, but maintained it vigorously and kept the romans still more closely confined to the city than before. such, then, were the fortunes of the roman and gothic armies in dalmatia. but vittigis, upon hearing from the natives who came from rome that the army which belisarius had was very small, began to repent of his withdrawal from rome, and was no longer able to endure the situation, but was now so carried away by fury that he advanced against them. and on his way thither he fell in with a priest who was coming from rome. whereupon they say that vittigis in great excitement enquired of this man whether belisarius was still in rome, shewing that he was afraid he would not be able to catch him, but that belisarius would forestall him by running away. but the priest, they say, replied that he need not be at all concerned about that; for he, the priest, was able to guarantee that belisarius would never resort to flight, but was remaining where he was. but vittigis, they say, kept hastening still more than before, praying that he might see with his own eyes the walls of rome before belisarius made his escape from the city. footnotes: [ ] modern spoleto. [ ] modern perugia. xvii but belisarius, when he heard that the goths were marching against him with their whole force, was in a dilemma. for he was unwilling, on the one hand, to dispense with the troops of constantinus and bessas, especially since his army was exceedingly small, and, on the other, it seemed to him inexpedient to abandon the strongholds in tuscany, lest the goths should hold these as fortresses against the romans. so after considering the matter he sent word to constantinus and bessas to leave garrisons in the positions which absolutely required them, large enough to guard them, while they themselves with the rest of the army should come to rome with all speed. and constantinus acted accordingly. for he established garrisons in perusia and spolitium, and with all the rest of his troops marched off to rome. but while bessas, in a more leisurely manner, was making his dispositions in narnia, it so happened that, since the enemy were passing that way, the plains in the outskirts of the city were filled with goths. these were an advance guard preceding the rest of the army; and bessas engaged with them and unexpectedly routed those whom he encountered and killed many; but then, since he was overpowered by their superior numbers, he retired into narnia. and leaving a garrison there according to the instructions of belisarius, he went with all speed to rome, and reported that the enemy would be at hand almost instantly. for narnia is only three hundred and fifty stades distant from rome. but vittigis made no attempt at all to capture perusia and spolitium; for these places are exceedingly strong and he was quite unwilling that his time should be wasted there, his one desire having come to be to find belisarius not yet fled from rome. moreover, even when he learned that narnia also was held by the enemy, he was unwilling to attempt anything there, knowing that the place was difficult of access and on steep ground besides; for it is situated on a lofty hill. and the river narnus flows by the foot of the hill, and it is this which has given the city its name. there are two roads leading up to the city, the one on the east, and the other on the west. one of these is very narrow and difficult by reason of precipitous rocks, while the other cannot be reached except by way of the bridge which spans the river and provides a passage over it at that point. this bridge was built by caesar augustus in early times, and is a very noteworthy sight; for its arches are the highest of any known to us. so vittigis, not enduring to have his time wasted there, departed thence with all speed and went with the whole army against rome, making the journey through sabine territory. [w]and when he drew near to rome, and was not more than fourteen stades away from it, he came upon a bridge over the tiber river.[ ] there a little while before belisarius had built a tower, furnished it with gates, and stationed in it a guard of soldiers, not because this is the only point at which the tiber could be crossed by the enemy (for there are both boats and bridges at many places along the river), but because he wished the enemy to have to spend more time in the journey, since he was expecting another army from the emperor, and also in order that the romans might bring in still more provisions. for if the barbarians, repulsed at that point, should try to cross on a bridge somewhere else, he thought that not less than twenty days would be consumed by them, and if they wished to launch boats in the tiber to the necessary number, a still longer time would probably be wasted by them. these, then, were the considerations which led him to establish the garrison at that point; and the goths bivouacked there that day, being at a loss and supposing that they would be obliged to storm the tower on the following day; but twenty-two deserters came to them, men who were barbarians by race but roman soldiers, from the cavalry troop commanded by innocentius.[ ] just at that time it occurred to belisarius to establish a camp near the tiber river, in order that they might hinder still more the crossing of the enemy and make some kind of a display of their own daring to their opponents. but all the soldiers who, as has been stated, were keeping guard at the bridge, being overcome with terror at the throng of goths and quailing at the magnitude of their danger, abandoned by night the tower they were guarding and rushed off in flight. but thinking that they could not enter rome, they stealthily marched off toward campania, either because they were afraid of the punishment the general would inflict or because they were ashamed to appear before their comrades. date: [w]feb. , a.d. footnotes: [ ] the mulvian bridge. [ ] cf. chap. v. . xviii on the following day the goths destroyed the gates of the tower with no trouble and made the crossing, since no one tried to oppose them. but belisarius, who had not as yet learned what had happened to the garrison, was bringing up a thousand horsemen to the bridge over the river, in order to look over the ground and decide where it would be best for his forces to make camp. but when they had come rather close, they met the enemy already across the river, and not at all willingly they engaged with some of them. and the battle was carried on by horsemen on both sides. then belisarius, though he was safe before, would no longer keep the general's post, but began to fight in the front ranks like a soldier; and consequently the cause of the romans was thrown into great danger, for the whole decision of the war rested with him. but it happened that the horse he was riding at that time was unusually experienced in warfare and knew well how to save his rider; and his whole body was dark grey, except that his face from the top of his head to the nostrils was the purest white. such a horse the greeks call "phalius"[ ] and the barbarians "balan." and it so happened that the most of the goths threw their javelins and other missiles at him and at belisarius for the following reason. those deserters who on the previous day had come to the goths, when they saw belisarius fighting in the front ranks, knowing well that, if he should fall, the cause of the romans would be ruined instantly, cried aloud urging them to "shoot at the white-faced horse." consequently this saying was passed around and reached the whole gothic army, and they did not question it at all, since they were in a great tumult of fighting, nor did they know clearly that it referred to belisarius. but conjecturing that it was not by mere accident that the saying had gained such currency as to reach all, the most of them, neglecting all others, began to shoot at belisarius. and every man among them who laid any claim to valour was immediately possessed with a great eagerness to win honour, and getting as close as possible they kept trying to lay hold of him and in a great fury kept striking with their spears and swords. but belisarius himself, turning from side to side, kept killing as they came those who encountered him, and he also profited very greatly by the loyalty of his own spearmen and guards in this moment of danger. for they all surrounded him and made a display of valour such, i imagine, as has never been shewn by any man in the world to this day; for, holding out their shields in defence of both the general and his horse, they not only received all the missiles, but also forced back and beat off those who from time to time assailed him. and thus the whole engagement was centred about the body of one man. in this struggle there fell among the goths no fewer than a thousand, and they were men who fought in the front ranks; and of the household of belisarius many of the noblest were slain, and maxentius, the spearman, after making a display of great exploits against the enemy. but by some chance belisarius was neither wounded nor hit by a missile on that day, although the battle was waged around him alone. finally by their valour the romans turned the enemy to flight, and an exceedingly great multitude of barbarians fled until they reached their main army. for there the gothic infantry, being entirely fresh, withstood their enemy and forced them back without any trouble. and when another body of cavalry in turn reinforced the goths, the romans fled at top speed until they reached a certain hill, which they climbed, and there held their position. but the enemy's horsemen were upon them directly, and a second cavalry battle took place. there valentinus, the groom of photius, the son of antonina, made a remarkable exhibition of valour. for by leaping alone into the throng of the enemy he opposed himself to the onrush of the goths and thus saved his companions. in this way the romans escaped, and arrived at the fortifications of rome, and the barbarians in pursuit pressed upon them as far as the wall by the gate which has been named the salarian gate.[ ] but the people of rome, fearing lest the enemy should rush in together with the fugitives and thus get inside the fortifications, were quite unwilling to open the gates, although belisarius urged them again and again and called upon them with threats to do so. for, on the one hand, those who peered out of the tower were unable to recognise the man, for his face and his whole head were covered with gore and dust, and at the same time no one was able to see very clearly, either; for it was late in the day, about sunset. moreover, the romans had no reason to suppose that the general survived; for those who had come in flight from the rout which had taken place earlier reported that belisarius had died fighting bravely in the front ranks. so the throng of the enemy, which had rushed up in strength and possessed with great fury, were purposing to cross the moat straightway and attack the fugitives there; and the romans, finding themselves massed along the wall, after they had come inside the moat, and so close together that they touched one another, were being crowded into a small space. those inside the fortifications, however, since they were without a general and altogether unprepared, and being in a panic of fear for themselves and for the city, were quite unable to defend their own men, although these were now in so perilous a situation. then a daring thought came to belisarius, which unexpectedly saved the day for the romans. for urging on all his men he suddenly fell upon the enemy. and they, even before this, had been in great disorder because of the darkness and the fact that they were making a pursuit, and now when, much to their surprise, they saw the fugitives attacking them, they supposed that another army also had come to their assistance from the city, and so were thrown into a great panic and all fled immediately at top speed. but belisarius by no means rushed out to pursue them, but returned straightway to the wall. and at this the romans took courage and received him and all his men into the city. so narrowly did belisarius and the emperor's cause escape peril; and the battle which had begun early in the morning did not end until night. and those who distinguished themselves above all others by their valour in this battle were, among the romans, belisarius, and among the goths, visandus vandalarius, who had fallen upon belisarius at the first when the battle took place about him, and did not desist until he had received thirteen wounds on his body and fell. and since he was supposed to have died immediately, he was not cared for by his companions, although they were victorious, and he lay there with the dead. but on the third day, when the barbarians had made camp hard by the circuit-wall of rome and had sent some men in order to bury their dead and to perform the customary rites of burial, those who were searching out the bodies of the fallen found visandus vandalarius with life still in him, and one of his companions entreated him to speak some word to him. but he could not do even this, for the inside of his body was on fire because of the lack of food and the thirst caused by his suffering, and so he nodded to him to put water into his mouth. then when he had drunk and become himself again, they lifted and carried him to the camp. and visandus vandalarius won a great name for this deed among the goths, and he lived on a very considerable time, enjoying the greatest renown. this, then, took place on the third day after the battle. but at that time belisarius, after reaching safety with his followers, gathered the soldiers and almost the whole roman populace to the wall, and commanded them to burn many fires and keep watch throughout the whole night. and going about the circuit of the fortifications, he set everything in order and put one of his commanders in charge of each gate. but bessas, who took command of the guard at the gate called the praenestine,[ ] sent a messenger to belisarius with orders to say that the city was held by the enemy, who had broken in through another gate which is across the tiber river[ ] and bears the name of pancratius, a holy man. and all those who were in the company of belisarius, upon hearing this, urged him to save himself as quickly as possible through some other gate. he, however, neither became panic-stricken, nor did he hesitate to declare that the report was false. and he also sent some of his horsemen across the tiber with all speed, and they, after looking over the ground there, brought back word that no hostile attack had been made on the city in that quarter. he therefore sent immediately to each gate and instructed the commanders everywhere that, whenever they heard that the enemy had broken in at any other part of the fortifications, they should not try to assist in the defence nor abandon their post, but should remain quiet; for he himself would take care of such matters. and he did this in order that they might not be thrown into disorder a second time by a rumour which was not true. but vittigis, while the romans were still in great confusion, sent to the salarian gate[ ] one of his commanders, vacis by name, a man of no mean station. and when he had arrived there, he began to reproach the romans for their faithlessness to the goths and upbraided them for the treason which he said they had committed against both their fatherland and themselves, for they had exchanged the power of the goths for greeks who were not able to defend them, although they had never before seen any men of the greek race come to italy except actors of tragedy and mimes and thieving sailors.[ ] such words and many like them were spoken by vacis, but since no one replied to him, he returned to the goths and vittigis. as for belisarius, he brought upon himself much ridicule on the part of the romans, for though he had barely escaped from the enemy, he bade them take courage thenceforth and look with contempt upon the barbarians; for he knew well, he said, that he would conquer them decisively. now the manner in which he had come to know this with certainty will be told in the following narrative.[ ] at length, when it was well on in the night, belisarius, who had been fasting up to this time, was with difficulty compelled by his wife and those of his friends who were present to taste a very little bread. thus, then, the two armies passed this night. [illustration: based upon the plan in hodgkin's "italy and her invaders." edward stanford ltd. london] footnotes: [ ] having a white spot, "white-face." [ ] see plan opposite p. . [ ] see plan opposite p. . [ ] for procopius' description of the wall "across the tiber," see chap. xix. - . [ ] see plan opposite p. . [ ] cf. book iv. xxvii. , note. [ ] chap. xxvii. - . xix but on the following day they arrayed themselves for the struggle, the goths thinking to capture rome by siege without any trouble on account of the great size of the city, and the romans defending it. now the wall of the city has fourteen large gates and several smaller ones. and the goths, being unable with their entire army to envelop the wall on every side, made six fortified camps from which they harassed the portion of the wall containing five gates, from the flaminian as far as the one called the praenestine gate; and all these camps were made by them on the left bank of the tiber river. wherefore the barbarians feared lest their enemy, by destroying the bridge which bears the name of mulvius, should render inaccessible to them all the land on the right bank of the river as far as the sea, and in this way have not the slightest experience of the evils of a siege, and so they fixed a seventh camp across the tiber in the plain of nero, in order that the bridge might be between their two armies. so in this way two other gates came to be exposed to the attacks of the enemy, the aurelian[ ] (which is now named after peter, the chief of the apostles of christ, since he lies not far from there[ ]) and the transtiburtine gate.[ ] thus the goths surrounded only about one-half of the wall with their army, but since they were in no direction wholly shut off from the wall by the river, they made attacks upon it throughout its whole extent whenever they wished. now the way the romans came to build the city-wall on both sides of the river i shall now proceed to tell. in ancient times the tiber used to flow alongside the circuit-wall for a considerable distance, even at the place where it is now enclosed. but this ground, on which the wall rises along the stream of the river, is flat and very accessible. and opposite this flat ground, across the tiber, it happens that there is a great hill[ ] where all the mills of the city have been built from of old, because much water is brought by an aqueduct to the crest of the hill, and rushes thence down the incline with great force. for this reason the ancient romans[ ] determined to surround the hill and the river bank near it with a wall, so that it might never be possible for an enemy to destroy the mills, and crossing the river, to carry on operations with ease against the circuit-wall of the city. so they decided to span the river at this point with a bridge, and to attach it to the wall; and by building many houses in the district across the river they caused the stream of the tiber to be in the middle of the city. so much then for this. and the goths dug deep trenches about all their camps, and heaped up the earth, which they took out from them, on the inner side of the trenches, making this bank exceedingly high, and they planted great numbers of sharp stakes on the top, thus making all their camps in no way inferior to fortified strongholds. and the camp in the plain of nero was commanded by marcias (for he had by now arrived from gaul with his followers, with whom he was encamped there), and the rest of the camps were commanded by vittigis with five others; for there was one commander for each camp. so the goths, having taken their positions in this way, tore open all the aqueducts, so that no water at all might enter the city from them. now the aqueducts of rome are fourteen in number, and were made of baked brick by the men of old, being of such breadth and height that it is possible for a man on horseback to ride in them.[ ] and belisarius arranged for the defence of the city in the following manner. he himself held the small pincian gate and the gate next to this on the right, which is named the salarian. for at these gates the circuit-wall was assailable, and at the same time it was possible for the romans to go out from them against the enemy. the praenestine gate he gave to bessas. and at the flaminian, which is on the other side of the pincian, he put constantinus in command, having previously closed the gates and blocked them up most securely by building a wall of great stones on the inside, so that it might be impossible for anyone to open them. for since one of the camps was very near, he feared least some secret plot against the city should be made there by the enemy. and the remaining gates he ordered the commanders of the infantry forces to keep under guard. and he closed each of the aqueducts as securely as possible by filling their channels with masonry for a considerable distance, to prevent anyone from entering through them from the outside to do mischief. but after the aqueducts had been broken open, as i have stated, the water no longer worked the mills, and the romans were quite unable to operate them with any kind of animals owing to the scarcity of all food in time of siege; indeed they were scarcely able to provide for the horses which were indispensable to them. and so belisarius hit upon the following device. just below the bridge[ ] which i lately mentioned as being connected with the circuit-wall, he fastened ropes from the two banks of the river and stretched them as tight as he could, and then attached to them two boats side by side and two feet apart, where the flow of the water comes down from the arch of the bridge with the greatest force, and placing two mills on either boat, he hung between them the mechanism by which mills are customarily turned. and below these he fastened other boats, each attached to the one next behind in order, and he set the water-wheels between them in the same manner for a great distance. so by the force of the flowing water all the wheels, one after the other, were made to revolve independently, and thus they worked the mills with which they were connected and ground sufficient flour for the city. now when the enemy learned this from the deserters, they destroyed the wheels in the following manner. they gathered large trees and bodies of romans newly slain and kept throwing them into the river; and the most of these were carried with the current between the boats and broke off the mill-wheels. but belisarius, observing what was being done, contrived the following device against it. he fastened above the bridge long iron chains, which reached completely across the tiber. all the objects which the river brought down struck upon these chains, and gathered there and went no farther. and those to whom this work was assigned kept pulling out these objects as they came and bore them to the land. and belisarius did this, not so much on account of the mills, as because he began to think with alarm that the enemy might get inside the bridge at this point with many boats and be in the middle of the city before their presence became known. thus the barbarians abandoned the attempt, since they met with no success in it. and thereafter the romans continued to use these mills; but they were entirely excluded from the baths because of the scarcity of water. however, they had sufficient water to drink, since even for those who lived very far from the river it was possible to draw water from wells. but as for the sewers, which carry out from the city whatever is unclean, belisarius was not forced to devise any plan of safety, for they all discharge into the tiber river, and therefore it was impossible for any plot to be made against the city by the enemy in connection with them. footnotes: [ ] this is an error. procopius means the porta cornelia. [ ] according to tradition the basilica of st. peter was built over the grave of the apostle. [ ] the aurelian. [ ] the janiculum. [ ] the wall described was a part of the wall of aurelian. [ ] this is an exaggeration; the channels vary from four to eight feet in height. [ ] the pons aurelius. see section of this chapter. xx thus, then, did belisarius make his arrangements for the siege. and among the samnites a large company of children, who were pasturing flocks in their own country, chose out two among them who were well favoured in strength of body, and calling one of them by the name of belisarius, and naming the other vittigis, bade them wrestle. and they entered into the struggle with the greatest vehemence and it so fell out that the one who impersonated vittigis was thrown. then the crowd of boys in play hung him to a tree. but a wolf by some chance appeared there, whereupon the boys all fled, and the one called vittigis, who was suspended from the tree, remained for some time suffering this punishment and then died. and when this became known to the samnites, they did not inflict any punishment upon these children, but divining the meaning of the incident declared that belisarius would conquer decisively. so much for this. but the populace of rome were entirely unacquainted with the evils of war and siege. when, therefore, they began to be distressed by their inability to bathe and the scarcity of provisions, and found themselves obliged to forgo sleep in guarding the circuit-wall, and suspected that the city would be captured at no distant date; and when, at the same time, they saw the enemy plundering their fields and other possessions, they began to be dissatisfied and indignant that they, who had done no wrong, should suffer siege and be brought into peril of such magnitude. and gathering in groups by themselves, they railed openly against belisarius, on the ground that he had dared to take the field against the goths before he had received an adequate force from the emperor. and these reproaches against belisarius were secretly indulged in also by the members of the council which they call the senate. and vittigis, hearing all this from the deserters and desiring to embroil them with one another still more, and thinking that in this way the affairs of the romans would be thrown into great confusion, sent to belisarius some envoys, among whom was albis. and when these men came before belisarius, they spoke as follows in the presence of the roman senators and all the commanders of the army: "from of old, general, mankind has made true and proper distinctions in the names they give to things; and one of these distinctions is this--rashness is different from bravery. for rashness, when it takes possession of a man, brings him into danger with discredit, but bravery bestows upon him an adequate prize in reputation for valour. now one of these two has brought you against us, but which it is you will straightway make clear. for if, on the one hand, you placed your confidence in bravery when you took the field against the goths, there is ample opportunity, noble sir, for you to do the deeds of a brave man, since you have only to look down from your wall to see the army of the enemy; but if, on the other hand, it was because you were possessed by rashness that you came to attack us, certainly you now repent you of the reckless undertaking. for the opinions of those who have made a desperate venture are wont to undergo a change whenever they find themselves in serious straits. now, therefore, do not cause the sufferings of these romans to be prolonged any further, men whom theoderic fostered in a life not only of soft luxury but also of freedom, and cease your resistance to him who is the master both of the goths and of the italians. is it not monstrous that you should sit in rome hemmed in as you are and in abject terror of the enemy, while the king of this city passes his time in a fortified camp and inflicts the evils of war upon his own subjects? but we shall give both you and your followers an opportunity to take your departure forthwith in security, retaining all your possessions. for to trample upon those who have learned to take a new view of prudence we consider neither holy nor worthy of the ways of men. and, further, we should gladly ask these romans what complaints they could have had against the goths that they betrayed both us and themselves, seeing that up to this time they have enjoyed our kindness, and now are acquainted by experience with the assistance to be expected from you." thus spoke the envoys. and belisarius replied as follows: "it is not to rest with you to choose the moment for conference. for men are by no means wont to wage war according to the judgment of their enemies, but it is customary for each one to arrange his own affairs for himself, in whatever manner seems to him best. but i say to you that there will come a time when you will want to hide your heads under the thistles but will find no shelter anywhere. as for rome, moreover, which we have captured, in holding it we hold nothing which belongs to others, but it was you who trespassed upon this city in former times, though it did not belong to you at all, and now you have given it back, however unwillingly, to its ancient possessors. and whoever of you has hopes of setting foot in rome without a fight is mistaken in his judgment. for as long as belisarius lives, it is impossible for him to relinquish this city." such were the words of belisarius. but the romans, being overcome by a great fear, sat in silence, and, even though they were abused by the envoys at length for their treason to the goths, dared make no reply to them, except, indeed, that fidelius saw fit to taunt them. this man was then praetorian prefect, having been appointed to the office by belisarius, and for this reason he seemed above all others to be well disposed toward the emperor. xxi the envoys then betook themselves to their own army. and when vittigis enquired of them what manner of man belisarius was and how his purpose stood with regard to the question of withdrawing from rome, they replied that the goths were hoping for vain things if they supposed that they would frighten belisarius in any way whatsoever. and when vittigis heard this, he began in great earnest to plan an assault upon the wall, and the preparations he made for the attempt upon the fortifications were as follows. he constructed wooden towers equal in height to the enemy's wall, and he discovered its true measure by making many calculations based upon the courses of stone. and wheels were attached to the floor of these towers under each corner, which were intended, as they turned, to move the towers to any point the attacking army might wish at a given time, and the towers were drawn by oxen yoked together. after this he made ready a great number of ladders, that would reach as far as the parapet, and four engines which are called rams. now this engine is of the following sort. four upright wooden beams, equal in length, are set up opposite one another. to these beams they fit eight horizontal timbers, four above and an equal number at the base, thus binding them together. after they have thus made the frame of a four-sided building, they surround it on all sides, not with walls of wood or stone, but with a covering of hides, in order that the engine may be light for those who draw it and that those within may still be in the least possible danger of being shot by their opponents. and on the inside they hang another horizontal beam from the top by means of chains which swing free, and they keep it at about the middle of the interior. they then sharpen the end of this beam and cover it with a large iron head, precisely as they cover the round point of a missile, or they sometimes make the iron head square like an anvil. and the whole structure is raised upon four wheels, one being attached to each upright beam, and men to the number of no fewer than fifty to each ram move it from the inside. then when they apply it to the wall, they draw back the beam which i have just mentioned by turning a certain mechanism, and then they let it swing forward with great force against the wall. and this beam by frequent blows is able quite easily to batter down and tear open a wall wherever it strikes, and it is for this reason that the engine has the name it bears, because the striking end of the beam, projecting as it does, is accustomed to butt against whatever it may encounter, precisely as do the males among sheep. such, then, are the rams used by the assailants of a wall. and the goths were holding in readiness an exceedingly great number of bundles of faggots, which they had made of pieces of wood and reeds, in order that by throwing them into the moat they might make the ground level, and that their engines might not be prevented from crossing it. now after the goths had made their preparations in this manner, they were eager to make an assault upon the wall. but belisarius placed upon the towers engines which they call "ballistae."[ ] now these engines have the form of a bow, but on the under side of them a grooved wooden shaft projects; this shaft is so fitted to the bow that it is free to move, and rests upon a straight iron bed. so when men wish to shoot at the enemy with this, they make the parts of the bow which form the ends bend toward one another by means of a short rope fastened to them, and they place in the grooved shaft the arrow, which is about one half the length of the ordinary missiles which they shoot from bows, but about four times as wide. however, it does not have feathers of the usual sort attached to it, but by inserting thin pieces of wood in place of feathers, they give it in all respects the form of an arrow, making the point which they put on very large and in keeping with its thickness. and the men who stand on either side wind it up tight by means of certain appliances, and then the grooved shaft shoots forward and stops, but the missile is discharged from the shaft,[ ] and with such force that it attains the distance of not less than two bow-shots, and that, when it hits a tree or a rock, it pierces it easily. such is the engine which bears this name, being so called because it shoots with very great force.[ ] and they fixed other engines along the parapet of the wall adapted for throwing stones. now these resemble slings and are called "wild asses."[ ] and outside the gates they placed "wolves,"[ ] which they make in the following manner. they set up two timbers which reach from the ground to the battlements; then they fit together beams which have been mortised to one another, placing some upright and others crosswise, so that the spaces between the intersections appear as a succession of holes. and from every joint there projects a kind of beak, which resembles very closely a thick goad. then they fasten the cross-beams to the two upright timbers, beginning at the top and letting them extend half way down, and then lean the timbers back against the gates. and whenever the enemy come up near them, those above lay hold of the ends of the timbers and push, and these, falling suddenly upon the assailants, easily kill with the projecting beaks as many as they may catch. so belisarius was thus engaged. footnotes: [ ] cf. the description of the ballista and other engines of war in ammianus marcellinus, xxii. iv. the engine here described by procopius is the catapult of earlier times; the ballista hurled stones, not arrows. see the classical dictionaries for illustrations. [ ] the "shaft" is a holder for the missile, and it (not the missile) is driven by the bowstring. when the holder stops, the missile goes on. [ ] a popular etymology of [greek: bállistra], a corrupted form of [greek: bállista]; the point is in the greek words [greek: bállo] + [greek: málista], an etymology correct only as far as [greek: bállo] is concerned. [ ] called also "scorpions"; described by ammianus, _l.c._ [ ] this contrivance was not one familiar to classical times. the "lupi" of livy xxviii. iii. were hooks; vegetius, _de re militari_, ii. and iv. , mentions "lupi" (also hooks), used to put a battering-ram out of action. xxii on the eighteenth day from the beginning of the siege the goths moved against the fortifications at about sunrise under the leadership of vittigis in order to assault the wall, and all the romans were struck with consternation at the sight of the advancing towers and rams, with which they were altogether unfamiliar. but belisarius, seeing the ranks of the enemy as they advanced with the engines, began to laugh, and commanded the soldiers to remain quiet and under no circumstances to begin fighting until he himself should give the signal. now the reason why he laughed he did not reveal at the moment, but later it became known. the romans, however, supposing him to be hiding his real feelings by a jest, abused him and called him shameless, and were indignant that he did not try to check the enemy as they came forward. but when the goths came near the moat, the general first of all stretched his bow and with a lucky aim hit in the neck and killed one of the men in armour who were leading the army on. and he fell on his back mortally wounded, while the whole roman army raised an extraordinary shout such as was never heard before, thinking that they had received an excellent omen. and twice did belisarius send forth his bolt, and the very same thing happened again a second time, and the shouting rose still louder from the circuit-wall, and the romans thought that the enemy were conquered already. then belisarius gave the signal for the whole army to put their bows into action, but those near himself he commanded to shoot only at the oxen. and all the oxen fell immediately, so that the enemy could neither move the towers further nor in their perplexity do anything to meet the emergency while the fighting was in progress. in this way the forethought of belisarius in not trying to check the enemy while still at a great distance came to be understood, as well as the reason why he had laughed at the simplicity of the barbarians, who had been so thoughtless as to hope to bring oxen up to the enemy's wall. now all this took place at the salarian gate. but vittigis, repulsed at this point, left there a large force of goths, making of them a very deep phalanx and instructing the commanders on no condition to make an assault upon the fortifications, but remaining in position to shoot rapidly at the parapet, and give belisarius no opportunity whatever to take reinforcements to any other part of the wall which he himself might propose to attack with a superior force; he then went to the praenestine gate with a great force, to a part of the fortifications which the romans call the "vivarium,"[ ] where the wall was most assailable. now it so happened that engines of war were already there, including towers and rams and a great number of ladders. but in the meantime another gothic assault was being made at the aurelian gate[ ] in the following manner. the tomb of the roman emperor hadrian[ ] stands outside the aurelian gate, removed about a stone's throw from the fortifications, a very noteworthy sight. for it is made of parian marble, and the stones fit closely one upon the other, having nothing at all[ ] between them. and it has four sides which are all equal, each being about a stone's throw in length, while their height exceeds that of the city wall; and above there are statues of the same marble, representing men and horses, of wonderful workmanship.[ ] but since this tomb seemed to the men of ancient times a fortress threatening the city, they enclosed it by two walls, which extend to it from the circuit-wall,[ ] and thus made it a part of the wall. and, indeed, it gives the appearance of a high tower built as a bulwark before the gate there. so the fortifications at that point were most adequate. now constantinus, as it happened, had been appointed by belisarius to have charge of the garrison at this tomb. and he had instructed him also to attend to the guarding of the adjoining wall, which had a small and inconsiderable garrison. for, since that part of the circuit-wall was the least assailable of all, because the river flows along it, he supposed that no assault would be made there, and so stationed an insignificant garrison at that place, and, since the soldiers he had were few, he assigned the great majority to the positions where there was most need of them. for the emperor's army gathered in rome at the beginning of this siege amounted at most to only five thousand men. but since it was reported to constantinus that the enemy were attempting the crossing of the tiber, he became fearful for that part of the fortifications and went thither himself with all speed, accompanied by some few men to lend assistance, commanding the greater part of his men to attend to the guarding of the gate and the tomb. but meanwhile the goths began an assault upon the aurelian gate and the tower of hadrian, and though they had no engines of war, they brought up a great quantity of ladders, and thought that by shooting a vast number of arrows they would very easily reduce the enemy to a state of helplessness and overpower the garrison there without any trouble on account of its small numbers. and as they advanced, they held before them shields no smaller than the long shields used by the persians, and they succeeded in getting very close to their opponents without being perceived by them. for they came hidden under the colonnade which extends[ ] to the church of the apostle peter. from that shelter they suddenly appeared and began the attack, so that the guards were neither able to use the engine called the ballista (for these engines do not send their missiles except straight out), nor, indeed, could they ward off their assailants with their arrows, since the situation was against them on account of the large shields. but the goths kept pressing vigorously upon them, shooting many missiles at the battlements, and they were already about to set their ladders against the wall, having practically surrounded those who were fighting from the tomb; for whenever the goths advanced they always got in the rear of the romans on both flanks[ ]; and for a short time consternation fell upon the romans, who knew not what means of defence they should employ to save themselves, but afterwards by common agreement they broke in pieces the most of the statues, which were very large, and taking up great numbers of stones thus secured, threw them with both hands down upon the heads of the enemy, who gave way before this shower of missiles. and as they retreated a little way, the romans, having by now the advantage, plucked up courage, and with a mighty shout began to drive back their assailants by using their bows and hurling stones at them. and putting their hands to the engines, they reduced their opponents to great fear, and their assault was quickly ended. and by this time constantinus also was present, having frightened back those who had tried the river and easily driven them off, because they did not find the wall there entirely unguarded, as they had supposed they would. and thus safety was restored at the aurelian gate.[ ] footnotes: [ ] see chap. xxiii. - and note. [ ] procopius errs again (cf. chap. xix. ). he means the porta cornelia. [ ] now called castello di sant' angelo. [ ] _i.e._ no mortar or other binding material. [ ] the square structure was the base of the monument, each side measuring roman feet in length and feet in height. above this rose a cylindrical drum, surrounded by columns and carrying the statues, and perhaps capped by a second drum. for details see jordan, _topographie der stadt rom_, iii. ff. [ ] procopius neglects to say that the tomb was across the river from the circuit-wall at this point, at the end of a bridge (pons aelius) which faced the gate (porta cornelia) which he calls the aurelian gate. [ ] from the pons aelius. [ ] because of the quadrangular shape of the building the goths were able to take their enemy in flank and in rear by advancing beyond the corners. [ ] _i.e._ the cornelian. xxiii but at the gate beyond the tiber river, which is called the pancratian gate, a force of the enemy came, but accomplished nothing worth mentioning because of the strength of the place; for the fortifications of the city at this point are on a steep elevation and are not favourably situated for assaults. paulus was keeping guard there with an infantry detachment which he commanded in person. in like manner they made no attempt on the flaminian gate, because it is situated on a precipitous slope and is not very easy of access. the "reges,"[ ] an infantry detachment, were keeping guard there with ursicinus, who commanded them. and between this gate and the small gate next on the right, which is called the pincian, a certain portion of the wall had split open of its own accord in ancient times, not clear to the ground, however, but about half way down, but still it had not fallen or been otherwise destroyed, though it leaned so to either side that one part of it appeared outside the rest of the wall and the other inside. and from this circumstance the romans from ancient times have called the place "broken wall"[ ] in their own tongue. but when belisarius in the beginning undertook to tear down this portion and rebuild it, the romans prevented him, declaring that the apostle peter had promised them that he would care for the guarding of the wall there. this apostle is reverenced by the romans and held in awe above all others. and the outcome of events at this place was in all respects what the romans contemplated and expected. for neither on that day nor throughout the whole time during which the goths were besieging rome did any hostile force come to that place, nor did any disturbance occur there. and we marvelled indeed that it never occurred to us nor to the enemy to remember this portion of the fortifications during the whole time, either while they were making their assaults or carrying out their designs against the wall by night; and yet many such attempts were made. it was for this reason, in fact, that at a later time also no one ventured to rebuild this part of the defences, but up to the present day the wall there is split open in this way. so much, then, for this. and at the salarian gate a goth of goodly stature and a capable warrior, wearing a corselet and having a helmet on his head, a man who was of no mean station in the gothic nation, refused to remain in the ranks with his comrades, but stood by a tree and kept shooting many missiles at the parapet. but this man by some chance was hit by a missile from an engine which was on a tower at his left. and passing through the corselet and the body of the man, the missile sank more than half its length into the tree, and pinning him to the spot where it entered the tree, it suspended him there a corpse. and when this was seen by the goths they fell into great fear, and getting outside the range of missiles, they still remained in line, but no longer harassed those on the wall. but bessas and peranius summoned belisarius, since vittigis was pressing most vigorously upon them at the vivarium. and he was fearful concerning the wall there (for it was most assailable at that point, as has been said[ ]), and so came to the rescue himself with all speed, leaving one of his friends at the salarian gate. and finding that the soldiers in the vivarium dreaded the attack of the enemy, which was being pressed with great vigour and by very large numbers, he bade them look with contempt upon the enemy and thus restored their confidence. now the ground there[ ] was very level, and consequently the place lay open to the attacks of any assailant. and for some reason the wall at that point had crumbled a great deal, and to such an extent that the binding of the bricks did not hold together very well. consequently the ancient romans had built another wall of short length outside of it and encircling it, not for the sake of safety (for it was neither strengthened with towers, nor indeed was there any battlement built upon it, nor any other means by which it would have been possible to repulse an enemy's assault upon the fortifications), but in order to provide for an unseemly kind of luxury, namely, that they might confine and keep there lions and other wild animals. and it is for this reason that this place has been named the vivarium; for thus the romans call a place where untamed animals are regularly cared for. so vittigis began to make ready various engines at different places along the wall and commanded the goths to mine the outside wall, thinking that, if they should get inside that, they would have no trouble in capturing the main wall, which he knew to be by no means strong. but belisarius, seeing that the enemy was undermining the vivarium and assaulting the fortifications at many places, neither allowed the soldiers to defend the wall nor to remain at the battlement, except a very few, although he had with him whatever men of distinction the army contained. but he held them all in readiness below about the gates, with their corselets on and carrying only swords in their hands. and when the goths, after making a breach in the wall, got inside the vivarium, he quickly sent cyprian with some others into the enclosure against them, commanding them to set to work. and they slew all who had broken in, for these made no defence and at the same time were being destroyed by one another in the cramped space about the exit. and since the enemy were thrown into dismay by the sudden turn of events and were not drawn up in order, but were rushing one in one direction and one in another, belisarius suddenly opened the gates of the circuit-wall and sent out his entire army against his opponents. and the goths had not the least thought of resistance, but rushed off in flight in any and every direction, while the romans, following them up, found no difficulty in killing all whom they fell in with, and the pursuit proved a long one, since the goths, in assaulting the wall at that place, were far away from their own camps. then belisarius gave the order to burn the enemy's engines, and the flames, rising to a great height, naturally increased the consternation of the fugitives. meanwhile it chanced that the same thing happened at the salarian gate also. for the romans suddenly opened the gates and fell unexpectedly upon the barbarians, and, as these made no resistance but turned their backs, slew them; and they burned the engines of war which were within their reach. and the flames at many parts of the wall rose to a great height, and the goths were already being forced to retire from the whole circuit-wall; and the shouting on both sides was exceedingly loud, as the men on the wall urged on the pursuers, and those in the camps bewailed the overwhelming calamity they had suffered. among the goths there perished on that day thirty thousand, as their leaders declared, and a larger number were wounded; for since they were massed in great numbers, those fighting from the battlement generally hit somebody when they shot at them, and at the same time those who made the sallies destroyed an extraordinary number of terrified and fleeing men. and the fighting at the wall, which had commenced early in the morning, did not end until late in the afternoon. during that night, then, both armies bivouacked where they were, the romans singing the song of victory on the fortifications and lauding belisarius to the skies, having with them the spoils stripped from the fallen, while the goths cared for their wounded and bewailed their dead. footnotes: [ ] "no doubt these are the same as the _regii_, one of the seventeen 'auxilia palatina' under the command of the magister militum praesentalis, mentioned in the _notitia orientis_, chap. v."--hodgkin. [ ] murus ruptus. "here, to this day, notwithstanding some lamentable and perfectly unnecessary 'restorations' of recent years, may be seen some portions of the muro torto, a twisted, bulging, overhanging mass of _opus reticulatum_."--hodgkin. [ ] chap. xxii. . [ ] the exact location is hard to determine; the majority of the authorities agree on the location given in the plan (opposite p. ), near the porta labicana. xxiv and belisarius wrote a letter to the emperor of the following purport: "we have arrived in italy, as thou didst command, and we have made ourselves masters of much territory in it and have taken possession of rome also, after driving out the barbarians who were here, whose leader, leuderis, i have recently sent to you. but since we have stationed a great number of soldiers both in sicily and in italy to guard the strongholds which we have proved able to capture, our army has in consequence been reduced to only five thousand men. but the enemy have come against us, gathered together to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand. and first of all, when we went out to spy upon their forces along the tiber river and were compelled, contrary to our intention, to engage with them, we lacked only a little of being buried under a multitude of spears. and after this, when the barbarians attacked the wall with their whole army and assaulted the fortifications at every point with sundry engines of war, they came within a little of capturing both us and the city at the first onset, and they would have succeeded had not some chance snatched us from ruin. for achievements which transcend the nature of things may not properly and fittingly be ascribed to man's valour, but to a stronger power. now all that has been achieved by us hitherto, whether it has been due to some kind fortune or to valour, is for the best; but as to our prospects from now on, i could wish better things for thy cause. however, i shall never hide from you anything that it is my duty to say and yours to do, knowing that while human affairs follow whatever course may be in accordance with god's will, yet those who are in charge of any enterprise always win praise or blame according to their own deeds. therefore let both arms and soldiers be sent to us in such numbers that from now on we may engage with the enemy in this war with an equality of strength. for one ought not to trust everything to fortune, since fortune, on its part, is not given to following the same course forever. but do thou, o emperor, take this thought to heart, that if at this time the barbarians win the victory over us, we shall be cast out of italy which is thine and shall lose the army in addition, and besides all this we shall have to bear the shame, however great it may be, that attaches to our conduct. for i refrain from saying that we should also be regarded as having ruined the romans, men who have held their safety more lightly than their loyalty to thy kingdom. consequently, if this should happen, the result for us will be that the successes we have won thus far will in the end prove to have been but a prelude to calamities. for if it had so happened that we had been repulsed from rome and campania and, at a much earlier time, from sicily, we should only be feeling the sting of the lightest of all misfortunes, that of having found ourselves unable to grow wealthy on the possessions of others. and again, this too is worthy of consideration by you, that it has never been possible even for many times ten thousand men to guard rome for any considerable length of time, since the city embraces a large territory, and, because it is not on the sea, is shut off from all supplies. and although at the present time the romans are well disposed toward us, yet when their troubles are prolonged, they will probably not hesitate to choose the course which is better for their own interests. for when men have entered into friendship with others on the spur of the moment, it is not while they are in evil fortune, but while they prosper, that they are accustomed to keep faith with them. furthermore, the romans will be compelled by hunger to do many things they would prefer not to do. now as for me, i know i am bound even to die for thy kingdom, and for this reason no man will ever be able to remove me from this city while i live; but i beg thee to consider what kind of a fame such an end of belisarius would bring thee." such was the letter written by belisarius. and the emperor, greatly distressed, began in haste to gather an army and ships, and sent orders to the troops of valerian and martinus[ ] to proceed with all speed. for they had been sent, as it happened, with another army at about the winter solstice, with instructions to sail to italy. but they had sailed as far as greece, and since they were unable to force their way any farther, they were passing the winter in the land of aetolia and acarnania. and the emperor justinian sent word of all this to belisarius, and thus filled him and all the romans with still greater courage and confirmed their zeal. at this time it so happened that the following event took place in naples. there was in the market-place a picture of theoderic, the ruler of the goths, made by means of sundry stones which were exceedingly small and tinted with nearly every colour. at one time during the life of theoderic it had come to pass that the head of this picture fell apart, the stones as they had been set having become disarranged without having been touched by anyone, and by a coincidence theoderic finished his life forthwith. and eight years later the stones which formed the body of the picture fell apart suddenly, and atalaric, the grandson of theoderic, immediately died. and after the passage of a short time, the stones about the groin fell to the ground, and amalasuntha, the child of theoderic, passed from the world. now these things had already happened as described. but when the goths began the siege of rome, as chance would have it, the portion of the picture from the thighs to the tips of the feet fell into ruin, and thus the whole picture disappeared from the wall. and the romans, divining the meaning of the incident, maintained that the emperor's army would be victorious in the war, thinking that the feet of theoderic were nothing else than the gothic people whom he ruled, and, in consequence, they became still more hopeful. in rome, moreover, some of the patricians brought out the sibylline oracles,[ ] declaring that the danger which had come to the city would continue only up till the month of july. for it was fated that at that time someone should be appointed king over the romans, and thenceforth rome should have no longer any getic peril to fear; for they say that the goths are of the getic race. and the oracle was as follows: "in the fifth (quintilis) month . . . under . . . as king nothing getic longer. . . ." and they declared that the "fifth month" was july, some because the siege began on the first day of march, from which july is the fifth month, others because march was considered the first month until the reign of numa, the full year before that time containing ten months and our july for this reason having its name quintilis. but after all, none of these predictions came true. for neither was a king appointed over the romans at that time, nor was the siege destined to be broken up until a year later, and rome was again to come into similar perils in the reign of totila, ruler of the goths, as will be told by me in the subsequent narrative.[ ] for it seems to me that the oracle does not indicate this present attack of the barbarians, but some other attack which has either happened already or will come at some later time. indeed, in my opinion, it is impossible for a mortal man to discover the meaning of the sibyl's oracles before the actual event. the reason for this i shall now set forth, having read all the oracles in question. the sibyl does not invariably mention events in their order, much less construct a well-arranged narrative, but after uttering some verse or other concerning the troubles in libya she leaps straightway to the land of persia, thence proceeds to mention the romans, and then transfers the narrative to the assyrians. and again, while uttering prophecies about the romans, she foretells the misfortunes of the britons. for this reason it is impossible for any man soever to comprehend the oracles of the sibyl before the event, and it is only time itself, after the event has already come to pass and the words can be tested by experience, that can shew itself an accurate interpreter of her sayings. but as for these things, let each one reason as he desires. but i shall return to the point from which i have strayed. footnotes: [ ] leaders of foederati; see book iii. xi. - ; they had been recalled from africa to byzantium, cf. book iv. xix. . [ ] the story of the origin of these oracles is given in dionysius of halicarnassus, _ant. rom._ iv. lxii. they were burned with the capitol in b.c. the second collection was burned by stilicho in a.d. the oracles procopius saw (cf. § of this chapter) were therefore a third collection. [ ] book vii. xx. xxv when the goths had been repulsed in the fight at the wall, each army bivouacked that night in the manner already described.[ ] but on the following day belisarius commanded all the romans to remove their women and children to naples, and also such of their domestics as they thought would not be needed by them for the guarding of the wall, his purpose being, naturally, to forestall a scarcity of provisions. and he issued orders to the soldiers to do the same thing, in case anyone had a male or female attendant. for, he went on to say, he was no longer able while besieged to provide them with food to the customary amount, but they would have to accept one half their daily ration in actual supplies, taking the remainder in silver. so they proceeded to carry out his instructions. and immediately a great throng set out for campania. now some, who had the good fortune to secure such boats as were lying at anchor in the harbour[ ] of rome, secured passage, but the rest went on foot by the road which is called the appian way. and no danger or fear, as far as the besiegers were concerned, arose to disturb either those who travelled this way on foot or those who set out from the harbour. for, on the one hand, the enemy were unable to surround the whole of rome with their camps on account of the great size of the city, and, on the other, they did not dare to be found far from the camps in small companies, fearing the sallies of their opponents. and on this account abundant opportunity was afforded for some time to the besieged both to move out of the city and to bring provisions into it from outside. and especially at night the barbarians were always in great fear, and so they merely posted guards and remained quietly in their camps. for parties were continually issuing from the city, and especially moors in great numbers, and whenever they found their enemies either asleep or walking about in small companies (as is accustomed to happen often in a large army, the men going out not only to attend to the needs of nature, but also to pasture horses and mules and such animals as are suitable for food), they would kill them and speedily strip them, and if perchance a larger number of the enemy should fall upon them, they would retire on the run, being men swift of foot by nature and lightly equipped, and always distancing their pursuers in the flight. consequently, the great majority were able to withdraw from rome, and some went to campania, some to sicily, and others wherever they thought it was easier or better to go. but belisarius saw that the number of soldiers at his command was by no means sufficient for the whole circuit of the wall, for they were few, as i have previously stated,[ ] and the same men could not keep guard constantly without sleeping, but some would naturally be taking their sleep while others were stationed on guard. at the same time he saw that the greatest part of the populace were hard pressed by poverty and in want of the necessities of life; for since they were men who worked with their hands, and all they had was what they got from day to day, and since they had been compelled to be idle on account of the siege, they had no means of procuring provisions. for these reasons belisarius mingled soldiers and citizens together and distributed them to each post, appointing a certain fixed wage for an unenlisted man for each day. in this way companies were made up which were sufficient for the guarding of the wall, and the duty of keeping guard on the fortifications during a stated night was assigned to each company, and the members of the companies all took turns in standing guard. in this manner, then, belisarius did away with the distress of both soldiers and citizens. but a suspicion arose against silverius, the chief priest of the city, that he was engaged in treasonable negotiations with the goths, and belisarius sent him immediately to greece, and a little later appointed another man, vigilius by name, to the office of chief priest. and he banished from rome on the same charge some of the senators, but later, when the enemy had abandoned the siege and retired, he restored them again to their homes. among these was maximus, whose ancestor maximus[ ] had committed the crime against the emperor valentinian. and fearing lest the guards at the gates should become involved in a plot, and lest someone should gain access from the outside with intent to corrupt them with money, twice in each month he destroyed all the keys and had new ones made, each time of a different design, and he also changed the guards to other posts which were far removed from those they had formerly occupied, and every night he set different men in charge of those who were doing guard-duty on the fortifications. and it was the duty of these officers to make the rounds of a section of the wall, taking turns in this work, and to write down the names of the guards, and if anyone was missing from that section, they put another man on duty in his stead for the moment, and on the morrow reported the missing man to belisarius himself, whoever he might be, in order that the fitting punishment might be given him. and he ordered musicians to play their instruments on the fortifications at night, and he continually sent detachments of soldiers, especially moors, outside the walls, whose duty it was always to pass the night about the moat, and he sent dogs with them in order that no one might approach the fortifications, even at a distance, without being detected. at that time some of the romans attempted secretly to force open the doors of the temple of janus. this janus was the first of the ancient gods whom the romans call in their own tongue "penates."[ ] and he has his temple in that part of the forum in front of the senate-house which lies a little above the "tria fata"[ ]; for thus the romans are accustomed to call the moirai.[ ] and the temple is entirely of bronze and was erected in the form of a square, but it is only large enough to cover the statue of janus. now this statue, is of bronze, and not less than five cubits high; in all other respects it resembles a man, but its head has two faces, one of which is turned toward the east and the other toward the west. and there are brazen doors fronting each face, which the romans in olden times were accustomed to close in time of peace and prosperity, but when they had war they opened them. but when the romans came to honour, as truly as any others, the teachings of the christians, they gave up the custom of opening these doors, even when they were at war. during this siege, however, some, i suppose, who had in mind the old belief, attempted secretly to open them, but they did not succeed entirely, and moved the doors only so far that they did not close tightly against one another as formerly. and those who had attempted to do this escaped detection; and no investigation of the act was made, as was natural in a time of great confusion, since it did not become known to the commanders, nor did it reach the ears of the multitude, except of a very few. footnotes: [ ] chap. xxiii. . [ ] at this time the town of portus, on the north side of the tiber's mouths, ostia, on the south side, having been long neglected. cf. chap. xxvi. , . [ ] five thousand; cf. chap. xxiv. . [ ] book iii. iv. . [ ] janus was an old italian divinity, whose worship was said to have been introduced by romulus. we are not told by anyone else that he was included among the penates, but the statement is doubtless true. [ ] "this temple of janus--the most celebrated, but not the only one in rome--must have stood a little to the right of the arch of septimius severus (as one looks toward the capitol) and a little in front of the mamertine prison."--hodgkin. the "tria fata" were three ancient statues of sibyls which stood by the rostra. [ ] _i.e._ the fates. xxvi now vittigis, in his anger and perplexity, first sent some of his bodyguards to ravenna with orders to kill all the roman senators whom he had taken there at the beginning of this war. and some of them, learning of this beforehand, succeeded in making their escape, among them being vergentinus and reparatus, the brother of vigilius, the chief priest of rome, both of whom betook themselves into liguria and remained there; but all the rest were destroyed. after this vittigis, seeing that the enemy were enjoying a large degree of freedom, not only in taking out of the city whatever they wished, but also in bringing in provisions both by land and by sea, decided to seize the harbour, which the romans call "portus." this harbour is distant from the city one hundred and twenty-six stades; for rome lacks only so much of being on the sea; and it is situated where the tiber river has its mouth.[ ] now as the tiber flows down from rome, and reaches a point rather near the sea, about fifteen stades from it, the stream divides into two parts and makes there the sacred island, as it is called. as the river flows on the island becomes wider, so that the measure of its breadth corresponds to its length, for the two streams have between them a distance of fifteen stades; and the tiber remains navigable on both sides. now the portion of the river on the right empties into the harbour, and beyond the mouth the romans in ancient times built on the shore a city,[ ] which is surrounded by an exceedingly strong wall; and it is called, like the harbour, "portus." but on the left at the point where the other part of the tiber empties into the sea is situated the city of ostia, lying beyond the place where the river-bank ends, a place of great consequence in olden times, but now entirely without walls. moreover, the romans at the very beginning made a road leading from portus to rome, which was smooth and presented no difficulty of any kind. and many barges are always anchored in the harbour ready for service, and no small number of oxen stand in readiness close by. now when the merchants reach the harbour with their ships, they unload their cargoes and place them in the barges, and sail by way of the tiber to rome; but they do not use sails or oars at all, for the boats cannot be propelled in the stream by any wind since the river winds about exceedingly and does not follow a straight course, nor can oars be employed, either, since the force of the current is always against them. instead of using such means, therefore, they fasten ropes from the barges to the necks of oxen, and so draw them just like waggons up to rome. but on the other side of the river, as one goes from the city of ostia to rome, the road is shut in by woods and in general lies neglected, and is not even near the bank of the tiber, since there is no towing of barges on that road. so the goths, finding the city at the harbour unguarded, captured it at the first onset and slew many of the romans who lived there, and so took possession of the harbour as well as the city. and they established a thousand of their number there as guards, while the remainder returned to the camps. in consequence of this move it was impossible for the besieged to bring in the goods which came by sea, except by way of ostia, a route which naturally involved great labour and danger besides. for the roman ships were not even able to put in there any longer, but they anchored at anthium,[ ] a day's journey distant from ostia. and they found great difficulty in carrying the cargoes thence to rome, the reason for this being the scarcity of men. for belisarius, fearing for the fortifications of rome, had been unable to strengthen the harbour with any garrison at all, though i think that if even three hundred men had been on guard there, the barbarians would never have made an attempt on the place, which is exceedingly strong. footnotes: [ ] the northern mouth. [ ] the emperor claudius cut the northern channel for the river, in order to prevent inundations of rome, and made the "portus claudii," opening to the sea, near its mouth; a second enclosed harbour, adjoining that of claudius, was built by trajan. [ ] _i.e._ antium. xxvii this exploit, then, was accomplished by the goths on the third day after they were repulsed in the assault on the wall. but twenty days after the city and harbour of portus were captured, martinus and valerian arrived, bringing with them sixteen hundred horsemen, the most of whom were huns and sclaveni[ ] and antae,[ ] who are settled above the ister river not far from its banks. and belisarius was pleased by their coming and thought that thenceforth his army ought to carry the war against the enemy. on the following day, accordingly, he commanded one of his own bodyguards, trajan by name, an impetuous and active fighter, to take two hundred horsemen of the guards and go straight towards the enemy, and as soon as they came near the camps to go up on a high hill (which he pointed out to him) and remain quietly there. and if the enemy should come against them, he was not to allow the battle to come to close quarters, nor to touch sword or spear in any case, but to use bows only, and as soon as he should find that his quiver had no more arrows in it, he was to flee as hard as he could with no thought of shame and retire to the fortifications on the run. having given these instructions, he held in readiness both the engines for shooting arrows and the men skilled in their use. then trajan with the two hundred men went out from the salarian gate against the camp of the enemy. and they, being filled with amazement at the suddenness of the thing, rushed out from the camps, each man equipping himself as well as he could. but the men under trajan galloped to the top of the hill which belisarius had shewn them, and from there began to ward off the barbarians with missiles. and since their shafts fell among a dense throng, they were for the most part successful in hitting a man or a horse. but when all their missiles had at last failed them, they rode off to the rear with all speed, and the goths kept pressing upon them in pursuit. but when they came near the fortifications, the operators of the engines began to shoot arrows from them, and the barbarians became terrified and abandoned the pursuit. and it is said that not less than one thousand goths perished in this action. a few days later belisarius sent mundilas, another of his own bodyguard, and diogenes, both exceptionally capable warriors, with three hundred guardsmen, commanding them to do the same thing as the others had done before. and they acted according to his instructions. then, when the enemy confronted them, the result of the encounter was that no fewer than in the former action, perhaps even more, perished in the same way. and sending even a third time the guardsman oilas with three hundred horsemen, with instructions to handle the enemy in the same way, he accomplished the same result. so in making these three sallies, in the manner told by me, belisarius destroyed about four thousand of his antagonists. but vittigis, failing to take into account the difference between the two armies in point of equipment of arms and of practice in warlike deeds, thought that he too would most easily inflict grave losses upon the enemy, if only he should make his attack upon them with a small force. he therefore sent five hundred horsemen, commanding them to go close to the fortifications, and to make a demonstration against the whole army of the enemy of the very same tactics as had time and again been used against them, to their sorrow, by small bands of the foe. and so, when they came to a high place not far from the city, but just beyond the range of missiles, they took their stand there. but belisarius selected a thousand men, putting bessas in command, and ordered them to engage with the enemy. and this force, by forming a circle around the enemy and always shooting at them from behind, killed a large number, and by pressing hard upon the rest compelled them to descend into the plain. there a hand-to-hand battle took place between forces not evenly matched in strength, and most of the goths were destroyed, though some few with difficulty made their escape and returned to their own camp. and vittigis reviled these men, insisting that cowardice had been the cause of their defeat, and undertaking to find another set of men to retrieve the loss after no long time, he remained quiet for the present; but three days later he selected men from all the camps, five hundred in number, and bade them make a display of valorous deeds against the enemy. now as soon as belisarius saw that these men had come rather near, he sent out against them fifteen hundred men under the commanders martinus and valerian. and a cavalry battle taking place immediately, the romans, being greatly superior to the enemy in numbers, routed them without any trouble and destroyed practically all of them. and to the enemy it seemed in every way a dreadful thing and a proof that fortune stood against them, if, when they were many and the enemy who came against them were few, they were defeated, and when, on the other hand, they in turn went in small numbers against their enemy, they were likewise destroyed. belisarius, however, received a public vote of praise from the romans for his wisdom, at which they not unnaturally marvelled greatly, but in private his friends asked him on what he had based his judgment on that day when he had escaped from the enemy after being so completely defeated,[ ] and why he had been confident that he would overcome them decisively in the war. and he said that in engaging with them at the first with only a few men he had noticed just what the difference was between the two armies, so that if he should fight his battles with them with a force which was in strength proportionate to theirs,[ ] the multitudes of the enemy could inflict no injury upon the romans by reason of the smallness of their numbers. and the difference was this, that practically all the romans and their allies, the huns, are good mounted bowmen, but not a man among the goths has had practice in this branch, for their horsemen are accustomed to use only spears and swords, while their bowmen enter battle on foot and under cover of the heavy-armed men. so the horsemen, unless the engagement is at close quarters, have no means of defending themselves against opponents who use the bow, and therefore can easily be reached by the arrows and destroyed; and as for the foot-soldiers, they can never be strong enough to make sallies against men on horseback. it was for these reasons, belisarius declared, that the barbarians had been defeated by the romans in these last engagements. and the goths, remembering the unexpected outcome of their own experiences, desisted thereafter from assaulting the fortifications of rome in small numbers and also from pursuing the enemy when harassed by them, except only so far as to drive them back from their own camps. footnotes: [ ] _i.e._ slavonians, described in book vi. xxvi. and book vii. xiv. ff. [ ] a slavic people, described in book vii. xiv. [ ] referring to the battle described in chap. xviii. [ ] _i.e._ smaller, but equal in strength. xxviii but later on the romans, elated by the good fortune they had already enjoyed, were with one accord eager to do battle with the whole gothic army and thought that they should make war in the open field. belisarius, however, considering that the difference in size of the two armies was still very great, continued to be reluctant to risk a decisive battle with his whole army; and so he busied himself still more with his sallies and kept planning them against the enemy. but when at last he yielded his point because of the abuse heaped upon him by the army and the romans in general, though he was willing to fight with the whole army, yet nevertheless he wished to open the engagement by a sudden sally. and many times he was frustrated when he was on the point of doing this, and was compelled to put off the attack to the following day, because he found to his surprise that the enemy had been previously informed by deserters as to what was to be done and were unexpectedly ready for him. for this reason, then, he was now willing to fight a decisive battle even in the open field, and the barbarians gladly came forth for the encounter. and when both sides had been made ready for the conflict as well as might be, belisarius gathered his whole army and exhorted them as follows: "it is not because i detected any cowardice on your part, fellow-soldiers, nor because i was terrified at the strength of the enemy, that i have shrunk from the engagement with them, but i saw that while we were carrying on the war by making sudden sallies matters stood well with us, and consequently i thought that we ought to adhere permanently to the tactics which were responsible for our success. for i think that when one's present affairs are going to one's satisfaction, it is inexpedient to change to another course of action. but since i see that you are eager for this danger, i am filled with confidence and shall never oppose your ardour. for i know that the greatest factor in the decision of war is always the attitude of the fighting men, and it is generally by their enthusiasm that successes are won. now, therefore, the fact that a few men drawn up for battle with valour on their side are able to overcome a multitude of the enemy, is well known by every man of you, not by hearsay, but by daily experience of fighting. and it will rest with you not to bring shame upon the former glories of my career as general, nor upon the hope which this enthusiasm of yours inspires. for the whole of what has already been accomplished by us in this war must of necessity be judged in accordance with the issue of the present day. and i see that the present moment is also in our favour, for it will, in all probability, make it easier for us to gain the mastery over the enemy, because their spirit has been enslaved by what has gone before. for when men have often met with misfortune, their hearts are no longer wont to thrill even slightly with manly valour. and let no one of you spare horse or bow or any weapon. for i will immediately provide you with others in place of all that are destroyed in the battle." after speaking these words of exhortation, belisarius led out his army through the small pincian gate and the salarian gate, and commanded some few men to go through the aurelian gate into the plain of nero. these he put under the command of valentinus, a commander of a cavalry detachment, and he directed him not to begin any fighting, or to go too close to the camp of the enemy, but constantly to give the appearance of being about to attack immediately, so that none of the enemy in that quarter might be able to cross the neighbouring bridge and come to the assistance of the soldiers from the other camps. for since, as i have previously stated,[ ] the barbarians encamped in the plain of nero were many, it seemed to him sufficient if these should all be prevented from taking part in the engagement and be kept separated from the rest of the army. and when some of the roman populace took up arms and followed as volunteers, he would not allow them to be drawn up for battle along with the regular troops, fearing lest, when they came to actual fighting, they should become terrified at the danger and throw the entire army into confusion, since they were labouring men and altogether unpractised in war. but outside the pancratian gate, which is beyond the tiber river, he ordered them to form a phalanx and remain quiet until he himself should give the signal, reasoning, as actually proved to be the case, that if the enemy in the plain of nero should see both them and the men under valentinus, they would never dare leave their camp and enter battle with the rest of the gothic army against his own forces. and he considered it a stroke of good luck and a very important advantage that such a large number of men should be kept apart from the army of his opponents. such being the situation, he wished on that day to engage in a cavalry battle only; and indeed most of the regular infantry were now unwilling to remain in their accustomed condition, but, since they had captured horses as booty from the enemy and had become not unpractised in horsemanship, they were now mounted. and since the infantry were few in number and unable even to make a phalanx of any consequence, and had never had the courage to engage with the barbarians, but always turned to flight at the first onset, he considered it unsafe to draw them up at a distance from the fortifications, but thought it best that they should remain in position where they were, close by the moat, his purpose being that, if it should so happen that the roman horsemen were routed, they should be able to receive the fugitives and, as a fresh body of men, help them to ward off the enemy. but there were two men among his bodyguards, a certain principius, who was a man of note and a pisidian by birth, and tarmutus, an isaurian, brother of ennes who was commander of the isaurians. these men came before belisarius and spoke as follows: "most excellent of generals, we beg you neither to decide that your army, small as it is and about to fight with many tens of thousands of barbarians, be cut off from the phalanx of the infantry, nor to think that one ought to treat with contumely the infantry of the romans, by means of which, as we hear, the power of the ancient romans was brought to its present greatness. for if it so happens that they have done nothing of consequence in this war, this is no evidence of the cowardice of the soldiers, but it is the commanders of the infantry who would justly bear the blame, for they alone ride on horseback in the battle-line and are not willing to consider the fortunes of war as shared by all, but as a general thing each one of them by himself takes to flight before the struggle begins. but do you keep all the commanders of infantry, since you see that they have become cavalry and that they are quite unwilling to take their stand beside their subordinates, and include them with the rest of the cavalry and so enter this battle, but permit us to lead the infantry into the combat. for since we also are unmounted, as are these troops, we shall do our part in helping them to support the attack of the multitude of barbarians, full of hope that we shall inflict upon the enemy whatever chastisement god shall permit." when belisarius heard this request, at first he did not assent to it; for he was exceedingly fond of these two men, who were fighters of marked excellence, and he was unwilling to have a small body of infantry take such a risk. but finally, overborne by the eagerness of the men, he consented to leave only a small number of their soldiers, in company with the roman populace, to man the gates and the battlement along the top of the wall where the engines of war were, and to put the rest under command of principius and tarmutus, ordering them to take position in the rear in regular formation. his purpose in this was, in the first place, to keep these troops from throwing the rest of the army into confusion if they themselves should become panic-stricken at the danger, and, in the second place, in case any division of the cavalry should be routed at any time, to prevent the retreat from extending to an indefinite distance, but to allow the cavalry simply to fall back upon the infantry and make it possible for them, with the infantry's help, to ward off the pursuers. footnote: [ ] chap. xix. , xiii. . xxix in this fashion the romans had made their preparations for the encounter. as for vittigis, he had armed all the goths, leaving not a man behind in the camps, except those unfit for fighting. and he commanded the men under marcias to remain in the plain of nero, and to attend to the guarding of the bridge, that the enemy might not attack his men from that direction. he himself then called together the rest of the army and spoke as follows: "it may perhaps seem to some of you that i am fearful about my sovereignty, and that this is the motive which has led me, in the past, to shew a friendly spirit toward you and, on the present occasion, to address you with seductive words in order to inspire you with courage. and such reasoning is not out of accord with the ways of men. for unenlightened men are accustomed to shew gentleness toward those whom they want to make use of, even though these happen to be in a much humbler station than they, but to be difficult of access to others whose assistance they do not desire. as for me, however, i care neither for the end of life nor for the loss of power. nay, i should even pray that i might put off this purple to-day, if a goth were to put it on. and i have always regarded the end of theodatus as one of the most fortunate, in that he was privileged to lose both his sovereignty and his life at the hands of men of his own nation. for a calamity which falls upon an individual without involving his nation also in destruction does not lack an element of consolation, in the view, at least, of men who are not wanting in wisdom. but when i reflect upon the fate of the vandals and the end of gelimer, the thoughts which come to my mind are of no ordinary kind; nay, i seem to see the goths and their children reduced to slavery, your wives ministering in the most shameful of all ways to the most hateful of men, and myself and the granddaughter[ ] of theoderic led wherever it suits the pleasure of those who are now our enemies; and i would have you also enter this battle fearing lest this fate befall us. for if you do this, on the field of battle you will count the end of life as more to be desired than safety after defeat. for noble men consider that there is only one misfortune--to survive defeat at the hands of their enemy. but as for death, and especially death which comes quickly, it always brings happiness to those who were before not blest by fortune. it is very clear that if you keep these thoughts in mind as you go through the present engagement, you will not only conquer your opponents most easily, few as they are and greeks,[ ] but will also punish them forthwith for the injustice and insolence with which they, without provocation, have treated us. for although we boast that we are their superiors in valour, in numbers, and in every other respect, the boldness which they feel in confronting us is due merely to elation at our misfortunes; and the only asset they have is the indifference we have shewn. for their self-confidence is fed by their undeserved good fortune." with these words of exhortation vittigis proceeded to array his army for battle, stationing the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the two wings. he did not, however, draw up his phalanx far from the camps, but very near them, in order that, as soon as the rout should take place, the enemy might easily be overtaken and killed, there being abundance of room for the pursuit. for he expected that if the struggle should become a pitched battle in the plain, they would not withstand him even a short time; since he judged by the great disparity of numbers that the army of the enemy was no match for his own. so the soldiers on both sides, beginning in the early morning, opened battle; and vittigis and belisarius were in the rear urging on both armies and inciting them to fortitude. and at first the roman arms prevailed, and the barbarians kept falling in great numbers before their archery, but no pursuit of them was made. for since the gothic cavalry stood in dense masses, other men very easily stepped into the places of those who were killed, and so the loss of those who fell among them was in no way apparent. and the romans evidently were satisfied, in view of their very small number, that the struggle should have such a result for them. so after they had by midday carried the battle as far as the camps of their opponents, and had already slain many of the enemy, they were anxious to return to the city if any pretext should present itself to them. in this part of the action three among the romans proved themselves brave men above all others, athenodorus, an isaurian, a man of fair fame among the guards of belisarius, and theodoriscus and george, spearmen of martinus and cappadocians by birth. for they constantly kept going out beyond the front of the phalanx, and there despatched many of the barbarians with their spears. such was the course of events here. but in the plain of nero the two armies remained for a long time facing one another, and the moors, by making constant sallies and hurling their javelins among the enemy, kept harrying the goths. for the goths were quite unwilling to go out against them through fear of the forces of the roman populace which were not far away, thinking, of course, that they were soldiers and were remaining quiet because they had in mind some sort of an ambush against themselves with the object of getting in their rear, exposing them to attack on both sides, and thus destroying them. but when it was now the middle of the day, the roman army suddenly made a rush against the enemy, and the goths were unexpectedly routed, being paralyzed by the suddenness of the attack. and they did not succeed even in fleeing to their camp, but climbed the hills near by and remained quiet. now the romans, though many in number, were not all soldiers, but were for the most part a throng of men without defensive armour. for inasmuch as the general was elsewhere, many sailors and servants in the roman camp, in their eagerness to have a share in the war, mingled with that part of the army. and although by their mere numbers they did fill the barbarians with consternation and turn them to flight, as has been said, yet by reason of their lack of order they lost the day for the romans. for the intermixture of the above-mentioned men caused the soldiers to be thrown into great disorder, and although valentinus kept constantly shouting orders to them, they could not hear his commands at all. for this reason they did not even follow up the fugitives or kill a man, but allowed them to stand at rest on the hills and in security to view what was going on. nor did they take thought to destroy the bridge there, and thus prevent the city from being afterwards besieged on both sides; for, had they done so, the barbarians would have been unable to encamp any longer on the farther side of the tiber river. furthermore, they did not even cross the bridge and get in the rear of their opponents who were fighting there with the troops of belisarius. and if this had been done, the goths, i think, would no longer have thought of resistance, but they would have turned instantly to flight, each man as he could. but as it was, they took possession of the enemy's camp and turned to plundering his goods, and they set to work carrying thence many vessels of silver and many other valuables. meanwhile the barbarians for some time remained quietly where they were and observed what was going on, but finally by common consent they advanced against their opponents with great fury and shouting. and finding men in complete disorder engaged in plundering their property, they slew many and quickly drove out the rest. for all who were caught inside the camp and escaped slaughter were glad to cast their plunder from their shoulders and take to flight. while these things were taking place in the plain of nero, meantime the rest of the barbarian army stayed very near their camps and, protecting themselves with their shields, vigorously warded off their opponents, destroying many men and a much larger number of horses. but on the roman side, when those who had been wounded and those whose horses had been killed left the ranks, then, in an army which had been small even before, the smallness of their numbers was still more evident, and the difference between them and the gothic host was manifestly great. finally the horsemen of the barbarians who were on the right wing, taking note of this, advanced at a gallop against the enemy opposite them. and the romans there, unable to withstand their spears, rushed off in flight and came to the infantry phalanx. however, the infantry also were unable to hold their ground against the oncoming horsemen, and most of them began to join the cavalry in flight. and immediately the rest of the roman army also began to retire, the enemy pressing upon their heels, and the rout became decisive. but principius and tarmutus with some few of the infantry of their command made a display of valorous deeds against the goths. for as they continued to fight and disdained to turn to flight with the others, most of the goths were so amazed that they halted. and consequently the rest of the infantry and most of the horsemen made their escape in greater security. now principius fell where he stood, his whole body hacked to pieces, and around him fell forty-two foot-soldiers. but tarmutus, holding two isaurian javelins, one in each hand, continued to thrust them into his assailants as he turned from side to side, until, finally, he desisted because his body was covered with wounds; but when his brother ennes came to the rescue with a detachment of cavalry, he revived, and running swiftly, covered as he was with gore and wounds, he made for the fortifications without throwing down either of his javelins. and being fleet of foot by nature, he succeeded in making his escape, in spite of the plight of his body, and did not fall until he had just reached the pincian gate. and some of his comrades, supposing him to be dead, lifted him on a shield and carried him. but he lived on two days before he died, leaving a high reputation both among the isaurians and in the rest of the army. the romans, meanwhile, being by now thoroughly frightened, attended to the guarding of the wall, and shutting the gates they refused, in their great excitement, to receive the fugitives into the city, fearing that the enemy would rush in with them. and such of the fugitives as had not already got inside the fortifications, crossed the moat, and standing with their backs braced against the wall were trembling with fear, and stood there forgetful of all valour and utterly unable to ward off the barbarians, although they were pressing upon them and were about to cross the moat to attack them. and the reason was that most of them had lost their spears, which had been broken in the engagement and during the flight, and they were not able to use their bows because they were huddled so closely together. now so long as not many defenders were seen at the battlement, the goths kept pressing on, having hopes of destroying all those who had been shut out and of overpowering the men who held the circuit-wall. but when they saw a very great number both of soldiers and of the roman populace at the battlements defending the wall, they immediately abandoned their purpose and rode off thence to the rear, heaping much abuse upon their opponents. and the battle, having begun at the camps of the barbarians, ended at the moat and the wall of the city. footnotes: [ ] matasuntha. [ ] cf. book iv. xxvii. , note. history of the wars: book vi the gothic war (_continued_) i after this the romans no longer dared risk a battle with their whole army; but they engaged in cavalry battles, making sudden sallies in the same manner as before, and were generally victorious over the barbarians. foot-soldiers also went out from both sides, not, however, arrayed in a phalanx, but accompanying the horsemen. and once bessas in the first rush dashed in among the enemy carrying his spear and killed three of their best horsemen and turned the rest to flight. and another time, when constantinus had led out the huns in the plain of nero in the late afternoon, and saw that they were being overpowered by the superior numbers of their opponents, he took the following measures. there has been in that place from of old a great stadium[ ] where the gladiators of the city used to fight in former times, and the men of old built many other buildings round about this stadium; consequently there are, as one would expect, narrow passages all about this place. now on the occasion in question, since constantinus could neither overcome the throng of the goths nor flee without great danger, he caused all the huns to dismount from their horses, and on foot, in company with them, took his stand in one of the narrow passages there. then by shooting from that safe position they slew large numbers of the enemy. and for some time the goths withstood their missiles. for they hoped, as soon as the supply of missiles in the quivers of the huns should be exhausted, to be able to surround them without any trouble, take them prisoners, and lead them back to their camp. but since the massagetae, who were not only good bowmen but also had a dense throng to shoot into, hit an enemy with practically every shot, the goths perceived that above half their number had perished, and since the sun was about to set, they knew not what to do and so rushed off in flight. then indeed many of them fell; for the massagetae followed them up, and since they know how to shoot the bow with the greatest accuracy even when running at great speed, they continued to discharge their arrows no less than before, shooting at their backs, and kept up the slaughter. and thus constantinus with his huns came back to rome at night. and when peranius, not many days later, led some of the romans through the salarian gate against the enemy, the goths, indeed, fled as hard as they could, but about sunset a counter-pursuit was made suddenly, and a roman foot-soldier, becoming greatly confused, fell into a deep hole, many of which were made there by the men of old, for the storage of grain, i suppose. and he did not dare to cry out, supposing that the enemy were encamped near by, and was not able in any way whatever to get out of the pit, for it afforded no means of climbing up; he was therefore compelled to pass the night there. now on the next day, when the barbarians had again been put to flight, one of the goths fell into the same hole. and there the two men were reconciled to mutual friendship and good-will, brought together as they were by their necessity, and they exchanged solemn pledges, each that he would work earnestly for the salvation of the other; and then both of them began shouting with loud and frantic cries. now the goths, following the sound, came and peered over the edge of the hole, and enquired who it was who shouted. at this, the roman, in accordance with the plan decided upon by the two men, kept silence, and the goth in his native tongue said that he had just recently fallen in there during the rout which had taken place, and asked them to let down a rope that he might come up. and they as quickly as possible threw down the ends of ropes, and, as they thought, were pulling up the goth, but the roman laid hold of the ropes and was pulled up, saying only that if he should go up first the goths would never abandon their comrade, but if they should learn that merely one of the enemy was there they would take no account of him. so saying, he went up. and when the goths saw him, they wondered and were in great perplexity, but upon hearing the whole story from him they drew up his comrade next, and he told them of the agreement they had made and of the pledges both had given. so he went off with his companions, and the roman was released unharmed and permitted to return to the city. after this horsemen in no great numbers armed themselves many times for battle, but the struggles always ended in single combats, and the romans were victorious in all of them. such, then, was the course of these events. a little after this an engagement took place in the plain of nero, wherein various small groups of horsemen were engaged in pursuing their opponents in various directions; in one group was chorsamantis, a man of note among the guards of belisarius, by birth a massagete, who with some others was pursuing seventy of the enemy. and when he had got well out in the plain the other romans rode back, but chorsamantis went on with the pursuit alone. as soon as the goths perceived this, they turned their horses about and came against him. and he advanced into their midst, killed one of the best of them with his spear, and then went after the others, but they again turned and rushed off in flight. but they were ashamed before their comrades in the camp, who, they suspected, could already see them, and wished to attack him again. they had, however, precisely the same experience as before and lost one of their best men, and so turned to flight in spite of their shame, and after chorsamantis had pursued them as far as their stockade he returned alone. and a little later, in another battle, this man was wounded in the left shin, and it was his opinion that the weapon had merely grazed the bone. however, he was rendered unfit for fighting for a certain number of days by reason of this wound, and since he was a barbarian he did not endure this patiently, but threatened that he would right speedily have vengeance upon the goths for this insult to his leg. so when not long afterwards he had recovered and was drunk at lunch time, as was his custom, he purposed to go alone against the enemy and avenge the insult to his leg; and when he had come to the small pincian gate he stated that he was sent by belisarius to the enemy's camp. and the guards at the gate, who could not doubt the word of a man who was the best of the guards of belisarius, opened the gates and allowed him to go wherever he would. and when the enemy spied him, they thought at first that some deserter was coming over to them, but when he came near and put his hand to his bow, twenty men, not knowing who he might be, went out against him. these he easily drove off, and then began to ride back at a walk, and when more goths came against him he did not flee. but when a great throng gathered about him and he still insisted upon fighting them, the romans, watching the sight from the towers, suspected that the man was crazy, but they did not yet know that it was chorsamantis. at length, after making a display of great and very noteworthy deeds, he found himself surrounded by the army of the enemy, and paid the penalty for his unreasonable daring. and when belisarius and the roman army learned this, they mourned greatly, lamenting that the hope which all placed in the man had come to naught. footnotes: [ ] perhaps the stadium of caligula. ii now a certain euthalius, at about the spring equinox, came to taracina from byzantium with the money which the emperor owed the soldiers. and fearing lest the enemy should come upon him on the road and both rob him of the money and kill him, he wrote to belisarius requesting him to make the journey to rome safe for him. belisarius accordingly selected one hundred men of note from among his own bodyguards and sent them with two spearmen to taracina to assist him in bringing the money. and at the same time he kept trying to make the barbarians believe that he was about to fight with his whole army, his purpose being to prevent any of the enemy from leaving the vicinity, either to bring in provisions or for any other purpose. but when he found out that euthalius and his men would arrive on the morrow, he arrayed his army and set it in order for battle, and the barbarians were in readiness. now throughout the whole forenoon he merely held his soldiers near the gates; for he knew that euthalius and those who accompanied him would arrive at night. then, at midday, he commanded the army to take their lunch, and the goths did the same thing, supposing that he was putting off the engagement to the following day. a little later, however, belisarius sent martinus and valerian to the plain of nero with the troops under their command, directing them to throw the enemy's camp into the greatest possible confusion. and from the small pincian gate he sent out six hundred horsemen against the camps of the barbarians, placing them under command of three of his own spearmen, artasires, a persian, and bochas, of the race of the massagetae, and cutilas, a thracian. and many of the enemy came out to meet them. for a long time, however, the battle did not come to close quarters, but each side kept retreating when the other advanced and making pursuits in which they quickly turned back, until it looked as if they intended to spend the rest of the day at this sort of thing. but as they continued, they began at last to be filled with rage against each other. the battle then settled down to a fierce struggle in which many of the best men on both sides fell, and support came up for each of the two armies, both from the city and from the camps. and when these fresh troops were mingled with the fighters the struggle became still greater. and the shouting which filled the city and the camps terrified the combatants. but finally the romans by their valour forced back the enemy and routed them. in this action cutilas was struck in the middle of the head by a javelin, and he kept on pursuing with the javelin still embedded in his head. and after the rout had taken place, he rode into the city at about sunset together with the other survivors, the javelin in his head waving about, a most extraordinary sight. during the same encounter arzes, one of the guards of belisarius, was hit by one of the gothic archers between the nose and the right eye. and the point of the arrow penetrated as far as the neck behind, but it did not shew through, and the rest of the shaft projected from his face and shook as the man rode. and when the romans saw him and cutilas they marvelled greatly that both men continued to ride, paying no heed to their hurt. such, then, was the course of events in that quarter. but in the plain of nero the barbarians had the upper hand. for the men of valerian and martinus, fighting with a great multitude of the enemy, withstood them stoutly, to be sure, but suffered most terribly, and came into exceedingly great danger. and then belisarius commanded bochas to take his troops, which had returned from the engagement unwearied, men as well as horses, and go to the plain of nero. now it was already late in the day. and when the men under bochas had come to the assistance of the romans, suddenly the barbarians were turned to flight, and bochas, who had impetuously followed the pursuit to a great distance, came to be surrounded by twelve of the enemy, who carried spears. and they all struck him at once with their spears. but his corselet withstood the other blows, which therefore did not hurt him much; but one of the goths succeeded in hitting him from behind, at a place where his body was uncovered, above the right armpit, very close to the shoulder, and smote the youth, though not with a mortal stroke, nor even one which brought him into danger of death. but another goth struck him in front and pierced his left thigh, and cut the muscles there; it was not a straight blow, however, but only a slanting cut. but valerian and martinus saw what was happening, and coming to his rescue as quickly as possible, they routed the enemy, and both took hold of the bridle of bochas' horse, and so came into the city. then night came on and euthalius entered the city with the money. and when all had returned to the city, they attended to the wounded men. now in the case of arzes, though the physicians wished to draw the weapon from his face, they were for some time reluctant to do so, not so much on account of the eye, which they supposed could not possibly be saved, but for fear lest, by the cutting of membranes and tissues such as are very numerous in that region, they should cause the death of a man who was one of the best of the household of belisarius. but afterwards one of the physicians, theoctistus by name, pressed on the back of his neck and asked whether he felt much pain. and when the man said that he did feel pain, he said, "then both you yourself will be saved and your sight will not be injured." and he made this declaration because he inferred that the barb of the weapon had penetrated to a point not far from the skin. accordingly he cut off that part of the shaft which shewed outside and threw it away, and cutting open the skin at the back of the head, at the place where the man felt the most pain, he easily drew toward him the barb, which with its three sharp points now stuck out behind and brought with it the remaining portion of the weapon. thus arzes remained entirely free from serious harm, and not even a trace of his wound was left on his face. but as for cutilas, when the javelin was drawn rather violently from his head (for it was very deeply embedded), he fell into a swoon. and since the membranes about the wound began to be inflamed, he fell a victim to phrenitis[ ] and died not long afterwards. bochas, however, immediately had a very severe hemorrhage in the thigh, and seemed like one who was presently to die. and the reason for the hemorrhage, according to what the physicians said, was that the blow had severed the muscle, not directly from the front, but by a slanting cut. in any event he died three days later. because of these things, then, the romans spent that whole night in deep grief; while from the gothic camps were heard many sounds of wailing and loud lamentation. and the romans indeed wondered, because they thought that no calamity of any consequence had befallen the enemy on the previous day, except, to be sure, that no small number of them had perished in the encounters. this had happened to them before in no less degree, perhaps even to a greater degree, but it had not greatly distressed them, so great were their numbers. however, it was learned on the following day that men of the greatest note from the camp in the plain of nero were being bewailed by the goths, men whom bochas had killed in his first charge. and other encounters also, though of no great importance, took place, which it has seemed to me unnecessary to chronicle. this, however, i will state, that altogether sixty-seven encounters occurred during this siege, besides two final ones which will be described in the following narrative. and at that time the winter drew to its close, and thus ended the second year of this war, the history of which procopius has written. footnote: [ ] inflammation of the brain. iii but at the beginning of the spring equinox famine and pestilence together fell upon the inhabitants of the city. there was still, it is true, some grain for the soldiers, though no other kind of provisions, but the grain-supply of the rest of the romans had been exhausted, and actual famine as well as pestilence was pressing hard upon them. and the goths, perceiving this, no longer cared to risk a decisive battle with their enemy, but they kept guard that nothing in future should be brought in to them. now there are two aqueducts between the latin and the appian ways, exceedingly high and carried on arches for a great distance. these two aqueducts meet at a place fifty stades distant from rome[ ] and cross each other, so that for a little space they reverse their relative position. for the one which previously lay to the right from then on continues on the left side. and again coming together, they resume their former places, and thereafter remain apart. consequently the space between them, enclosed, as it is, by the aqueducts, comes to be a fortress. and the barbarians walled up the lower arches of the aqueducts here with stones and mud and in this way gave it the form of a fort, and encamping there to the number of no fewer than seven thousand men, they kept guard that no provisions should thereafter be brought into the city by the enemy. then indeed every hope of better things abandoned the romans, and every form of evil encompassed them round about. as long as there was ripe grain, however, the most daring of the soldiers, led on by lust of money, went by night to the grain-fields not far from the city mounted on horses and leading other horses after them. then they cut off the heads of grain, and putting them on the horses which they led, would carry them into the city without being seen by the enemy and sell them at a great price to such of the romans as were wealthy. but the other inhabitants lived on various herbs such as grow in abundance not only in the outskirts but also inside the fortifications. for the land of the romans is never lacking in herbs either in winter or at any other season, but they always flourish and grow luxuriantly at all times. wherefore the besieged also pastured their horses in those places. and some too made sausages of the mules that died in rome and secretly sold them. but when the corn-lands had no more grain and all the romans had come into an exceedingly evil plight, they surrounded belisarius and tried to compel him to stake everything on a single battle with the enemy, promising that not one of the romans would be absent from the engagement. and when he was at a loss what to do in that situation and greatly distressed, some of the populace spoke to him as follows: "general, we were not prepared for the fortune which has overtaken us at the present time; on the contrary, what has happened has been altogether the opposite of our expectations. for after achieving what we had formerly set our hearts upon, we have now come into the present misfortune, and we realize at length that our previous opinion that we did well to crave the emperor's watchful care was but folly and the beginning of the greatest evils. indeed, this course has brought us to such straits that at the present time we have taken courage to use force once more and to arm ourselves against the barbarians. and while we may claim forgiveness if we boldly come into the presence of belisarius--for the belly knows not shame when it lacks its necessities--our plight must be the apology for our rashness; for it will be readily agreed that there is no plight more intolerable for men than a life prolonged amid the adversities of fortune. and as to the fortune which has fallen upon us, you cannot fail to see our distress. these fields and the whole country have fallen under the hand of the enemy; and this city has been shut off from all good things for we know not how long a time. and as for the romans, some already lie in death, and it has not been their portion to be hidden in the earth, and we who survive, to put all our terrible misfortunes in a word, only pray to be placed beside those who lie thus. for starvation shews to those upon whom it comes that all other evils can be endured, and wherever it appears it is attended by oblivion of all other sufferings, and causes all other forms of death, except that which proceeds from itself, to seem pleasant to men. now, therefore, before the evil has yet mastered us, grant us leave on our own behalf to take up the struggle, which will result either in our overcoming the enemy or in deliverance from our troubles. for when delay brings men hope of safety, it would be great folly for them prematurely to enter into a danger which involves their all, but when tarrying makes the struggle more difficult, to put off action even for a little time is more reprehensible than immediate and precipitate haste." so spoke the romans. and belisarius replied as follows: "well, as for me, i have been quite prepared for your conduct in every respect, and nothing that has happened has been contrary to my expectation. for long have i known that a populace is a most unreasoning thing, and that by its very nature it cannot endure the present or provide for the future, but only knows how rashly in every case to attempt the impossible and recklessly to destroy itself. but as for me, i shall never, willingly at least, be led by your carelessness either to destroy you or to involve the emperor's cause in ruin with you. for war is wont to be brought to a successful issue, not by unreasoning haste, but by the use of good counsel and forethought in estimating the turn of the scale at decisive moments. you, however, act as though you were playing at dice, and want to risk all on a single cast; but it is not my custom to choose the short course in preference to the advantageous one. in the second place, you promise that you will help us do battle against the enemy; but when have you ever taken training in war? or who that has learned such things by the use of arms does not know that battle affords no room for experiment? nor does the enemy, on his part, give opportunity, while the struggle is on, to practise on him. this time, indeed, i admire your zeal and forgive you for making this disturbance; but that you have taken this action at an unseasonable time and that the policy of waiting which we are following is prudent, i shall now make clear. the emperor has gathered for us from the whole earth and despatched an army too great to number, and a fleet such as was never brought together by the romans now covers the shore of campania and the greater part of the ionian gulf. and within a few days these reinforcements will come to us and bring with them all kinds of provisions, to put an end to our destitution and to bury the camps of the barbarians under a multitude of missiles. i have therefore reasoned that it was better to put off the time of conflict until they are present, and thus gain the victory in the war with safety, than to make a show of daring in unreasoning haste and thus throw away the salvation of our whole cause. to secure their immediate arrival and to prevent their loitering longer shall be my concern." footnote: [ ] torre fiscale; but it is only about thirty stades from rome. iv with these words belisarius encouraged the roman populace and then dismissed them; and procopius, who wrote this history, he immediately commanded to go to naples. for a rumour was going about that the emperor had sent an army there. and he commissioned him to load as many ships as possible with grain, to gather all the soldiers who at the moment had arrived from byzantium, or had been left about naples in charge of horses or for any other purpose whatever--for he had heard that many such were coming to the various places in campania--and to withdraw some of the men from the garrisons there, and then to come back with them, convoying the grain to ostia, where the harbour of the romans was. and procopius, accompanied by mundilas the guardsman and a few horsemen, passed out by night through the gate which bears the name of the apostle paul,[ ] eluding the enemy's camp which had been established very close to the appian way to keep guard over it. and when mundilas and his men, returning to rome, announced that procopius had already arrived in campania without meeting any of the barbarians,--for at night, they said, the enemy never went outside their camp,--everybody became hopeful, and belisarius, now emboldened, devised the following plan. he sent out many of his horsemen to the neighbouring strongholds, directing them, in case any of the enemy should come that way in order to bring provisions into their camps, that they should constantly make sallies upon them from their positions and lay ambushes everywhere about this region, and thus keep them from succeeding; on the contrary, they should with all their might hedge them in, so that the city might be in less distress than formerly through lack of provisions, and also that the barbarians might seem to be besieged rather than to be themselves besieging the romans. so he commanded martinus and trajan with a thousand men to go to taracina. and with them he sent also his wife antonina, commanding that she be sent with a few men to naples, there to await in safety the fortune which would befall the romans. and he sent magnus and sinthues the guardsman, who took with them about five hundred men, to the fortress of tibur, one hundred and forty stades distant from rome. but to the town of albani,[ ] which was situated on the appian way at the same distance from the city, he had already, as it happened, sent gontharis with a number of eruli, and these the goths had driven out from there by force not long afterward. now there is a certain church of the apostle paul,[ ] fourteen stades distant from the fortifications of rome, and the tiber river flows beside it. in that place there is no fortification, but a colonnade extends all the way from the city to the church, and many other buildings which are round about it render the place not easy of access. but the goths shew a certain degree of actual respect for sanctuaries such as this. and indeed during the whole time of the war no harm came to either church of the two apostles[ ] at their hands, but all the rites were performed in them by the priests in the usual manner. at this spot, then, belisarius commanded valerian to take all the huns and make a stockade by the bank of the tiber, in order that their horses might be kept in greater security and that the goths might be still further checked from going at their pleasure to great distances from their camps. and valerian acted accordingly. then, after the huns had made their camp in the place where the general directed, he rode back to the city. so belisarius, having accomplished this, remained quiet, not offering battle, but eager to carry on the defence from the wall, if anyone should advance against it from outside with evil intent. and he also furnished grain to some of the roman populace. but martinus and trajan passed by night between the camps of the enemy, and after reaching taracina sent antonina with a few men into campania; and they themselves took possession of the fortified places in that district, and using them as their bases of operations and making thence their sudden attacks, they checked such of the goths as were moving about in that region. as for magnus and sinthues, in a short time they rebuilt such parts of the fortress[ ] as had fallen into ruin, and as soon as they had put themselves in safety, they began immediately to make more trouble for the enemy, whose fortress was not far away, not only by making frequent raids upon them, but also by keeping such of the barbarians as were escorting provision-trains in a constant state of terror by the unexpectedness of their movements; but finally sinthues was wounded in his right hand by a spear in a certain battle, and since the sinews were severed, he became thereafter unfit for fighting. and the huns likewise, after they had made their camp near by, as i have said, were on their part causing the goths no less trouble, so that these as well as the romans were now feeling the pressure of famine, since they no longer had freedom to bring in their food-supplies as formerly. and pestilence too fell upon them and was destroying many, and especially in the camp which they had last made, close by the appian way, as i have previously stated.[ ] and the few of their number who had not perished withdrew from that camp to the other camps. the huns also suffered in the same way, and so returned to rome. such was the course of events here. but as for procopius, when he reached campania, he collected not fewer than five hundred soldiers there, loaded a great number of ships with grain, and held them in readiness. and he was joined not long afterwards by antonina, who immediately assisted him in making arrangements for the fleet. at that time the mountain of vesuvius rumbled, and though it did not break forth in eruption, still because of the rumbling it led people to expect with great certainty that there would be an eruption. and for this reason it came to pass that the inhabitants fell into great terror. now this mountain is seventy stades distant from naples and lies to the north[ ] of it--an exceedingly steep mountain, whose lower parts spread out wide on all sides, while its upper portion is precipitous and exceedingly difficult of ascent. but on the summit of vesuvius and at about the centre of it appears a cavern of such depth that one would judge that it extends all the way to the bottom of the mountain. and it is possible to see fire there, if one should dare to peer over the edge, and although the flames as a rule merely twist and turn upon one another, occasioning no trouble to the inhabitants of that region, yet, when the mountain gives forth a rumbling sound which resembles bellowing, it generally sends up not long afterward a great quantity of ashes. and if anyone travelling on the road is caught by this terrible shower, he cannot possibly survive, and if it falls upon houses, they too fall under the weight of the great quantity of ashes. but whenever it so happens that a strong wind comes on, the ashes rise to a great height, so that they are no longer visible to the eye, and are borne wherever the wind which drives them goes, falling on lands exceedingly far away. and once, they say, they fell in byzantium[ ] and so terrified the people there, that from that time up to the present the whole city has seen fit to propitiate god with prayers every year; and at another time they fell on tripolis in libya. formerly this rumbling took place, they say, once in a hundred years or even more,[ ] but in later times it has happened much more frequently. this, however, they declare emphatically, that whenever vesuvius belches forth these ashes, the country round about is bound to flourish with an abundance of all crops. furthermore, the air on this mountain is very light and by its nature the most favourable to health in the world. and indeed those who are attacked by consumption have been sent to this place by physicians from remote times. so much, then, may be said regarding vesuvius. footnotes: [ ] the porta ostiensis. [ ] see book v. vi. , note. [ ] the basilica of st. paul stood south of the city, outside the porta ostiensis which is still called porta s. paolo. [ ] st. peter and st. paul. [ ] tibur. [ ] chap. iii. . [ ] this is an error on the part of procopius. in point of fact it lies to the south-east of naples. [ ] during the eruption of a.d. [ ] since the great eruption of a.d.--the first in historical times--eruptions have succeeded one another at intervals varying from one to more than one hundred years. v at this time another army also arrived by sea from byzantium, three thousand isaurians who put in at the harbour of naples, led by paulus and conon, and eight hundred thracian horsemen who landed at dryus, led by john, the nephew of the vitalian who had formerly been tyrant, and with them a thousand other soldiers of the regular cavalry, under various commanders, among whom were alexander and marcentius. and it happened that zeno with three hundred horsemen had already reached rome by way of samnium and the latin way. and when john with all the others came to campania, provided with many waggons by the inhabitants of calabria, his troops were joined by five hundred men who, as i have said, had been collected in campania. these set out by the coast road with the waggons, having in mind, if any hostile force should confront them, to make a circle of the waggons in the form of a stockade and thus to ward off the enemy; and they commanded the men under paulus and conon to sail with all speed and join them at ostia, the harbour of rome[ ]; and they put sufficient grain in the waggons and loaded all the ships, not only with grain, but also with wine and all kinds of provisions. and they, indeed, expected to find the forces of martinus and trajan in the neighbourhood of taracina and to have their company from that point on, but when they approached taracina, they learned that these forces had recently been recalled and had retired to rome. but belisarius, learning that the forces of john were approaching and fearing that the enemy might confront them in greatly superior numbers and destroy them, took the following measures. it so happened that the enemy had encamped very close to the flaminian gate; this gate belisarius himself had blocked up at the beginning of this war by a structure of stone, as has been told by me in the previous narrative,[ ] his purpose of course being to make it difficult for the enemy either to force their way in or to make any attempt upon the city at that point. consequently no engagement had taken place at this gate, and the barbarians had no suspicion that there would be any attack upon them from there. now belisarius tore down by night the masonry which blocked this gate, without giving notice to anyone at all, and made ready the greatest part of the army there. and at daybreak he sent trajan and diogenes with a thousand horsemen through the pincian gate, commanding them to shoot missiles into the camps, and as soon as their opponents came against them, to flee without the least shame and to ride up to the fortifications at full speed. and he also stationed some men inside this gate. so the men under trajan began to harass the barbarians, as belisarius had directed them to do, and the goths, gathering from all the camps, began to defend themselves. and both armies began to move as fast as they could toward the fortifications of the city, the one giving the appearance of fleeing, and the other supposing that they were pursuing the enemy. but as soon as belisarius saw the enemy take up the pursuit, he opened the flaminian gate and sent his army out against the barbarians, who were thus taken unawares. now it so happened that one of the gothic camps was on the road near this gate, and in front of it there was a narrow passage between steep banks which was exceedingly difficult of access. and one of the barbarians, a man of splendid physique and clad in a corselet, when he saw the enemy advancing, reached this place before them and took his stand there, at the same time calling his comrades and urging them to help in guarding the narrow passage. but before any move could be made mundilas slew him and thereafter allowed none of the barbarians to go into this passage. the romans therefore passed through it without encountering opposition, and some of them, arriving at the gothic camp near by, for a short time tried to take it, but were unable to do so because of the strength of the stockade, although not many barbarians had been left behind in it. for the trench had been dug to an extraordinary depth, and since the earth taken from it had invariably been placed along its inner side, this reached a great height and so served as a wall[ ]; and it was abundantly supplied with stakes, which were very sharp and close together, thus making a palisade. these defences so emboldened the barbarians that they began to repel the enemy vigorously. but one of the guards of belisarius, aquilinus by name, an exceedingly active man, seized a horse by the bridle and, bestriding it, leaped from the trench into the middle of the camp, where he slew some of the enemy. and when his opponents gathered about him and hurled great numbers of missiles, the horse was wounded and fell, but he himself unexpectedly made his escape through the midst of the enemy. so he went on foot with his companions toward the pincian gate. and overtaking the barbarians, who were still engaged in pursuing roman horsemen,[ ] they began to shoot at them from behind and killed some of them. now when trajan and his men perceived this, since they had meanwhile been reinforced by the horsemen who had been standing near by in readiness, they charged at full speed against their pursuers. then at length the goths, being now outgeneraled and unexpectedly caught between the forces of their enemy, began to be killed indiscriminately. and there was great slaughter of them, and very few escaped to their camps, and that with difficulty; meanwhile the others, fearing for the safety of all their strongholds, shut themselves in and remained in them thereafter, thinking that the romans would come against them without the least delay. in this action one of the barbarians shot trajan in the face, above the right eye and not far from the nose. and the whole of the iron point, penetrated the head and disappeared entirely, although the barb on it was large and exceedingly long, but the remainder of the arrow immediately fell to the ground without the application of force by anyone, in my opinion because the iron point had never been securely fastened to the shaft. trajan, however, paid no heed to this at all, but continued none the less killing and pursuing the enemy. but in the fifth year afterward the tip of the iron of its own accord began to project visibly from his face. and this is now the third year since it has been slowly but steadily coming out. it is to be expected, therefore, that the whole barb will eventually come out, though not for a long time. but it has not been an impediment to the man in any way. so much then for these matters. footnotes: [ ] the regular harbour, portus, was held by the goths. [ ] book v. xix. . [ ] cf. book v. xix. . [ ] these were the forces of trajan and diogenes. vi now the barbarians straightway began to despair of winning the war and were considering how they might withdraw from rome, inasmuch as they had suffered the ravages both of the pestilence and of the enemy, and were now reduced from many tens of thousands to a few men; and, not least of all, they were in a state of distress by reason of the famine, and while in name they were carrying on a siege, they were in fact being besieged by their opponents and were shut off from all necessities. and when they learned that still another army had come to their enemy from byzantium both by land and by sea--not being informed as to its actual size, but supposing it to be as large as the free play of rumour was able to make it,--they became terrified at the danger and began to plan for their departure. they accordingly sent three envoys to rome, one of whom was a roman of note among the goths, and he, coming before belisarius, spoke as follows: "that the war has not turned out to the advantage of either side each of us knows well, since we both have had actual experience of its hardships. for why should anyone in either army deny facts of which neither now remains in ignorance. and no one, i think, could deny, at least no one who does not lack understanding, that it is only senseless men who choose to go on suffering indefinitely merely to satisfy the contentious spirit which moves them for the moment, and refuse to find a solution of the troubles which harass them. and whenever this situation arises, it is the duty of the commanders on both sides not to sacrifice the lives of their subjects to their own glory, but to choose the course which is just and expedient, not for themselves alone, but also for their opponents, and thus to put an end to present hardships. for moderation in one's demands affords a way out of all difficulties, but it is the very nature of contentiousness that it cannot accomplish any of the objects which are essential. now we, on our part, have deliberated concerning the conclusion of this war and have come before you with proposals which are of advantage to both sides, wherein we waive, as we think, some portion even of our rights. and see to it that you likewise in your deliberations do not yield to a spirit of contentiousness respecting us and thus destroy yourselves as well as us, in preference to choosing the course which will be of advantage to yourselves. and it is fitting that both sides should state their case, not in continuous speech, but each interrupting the other on the spur of the moment, if anything that is said shall seem inappropriate. for in this way each side will be able to say briefly whatever it is minded to say, and at the same time the essential things will be accomplished." belisarius replied: "there will be nothing to prevent the debate from proceeding in the manner you suggest, only let the words spoken by you be words of peace and of justice." so the ambassadors of the goths in their turn said: "you have done us an injustice, o romans, in taking up arms wrongfully against us, your friends and allies. and what we shall say is, we think, well known to each one of you as well as to ourselves. for the goths did not obtain the land of italy by wresting it from the romans by force, but odoacer in former times dethroned the emperor, changed the government of italy to a tyranny, and so held it.[ ] and zeno, who then held the power of the east, though he wished to avenge his partner in the imperial office and to free this land from the usurper, was unable to destroy the authority of odoacer. accordingly he persuaded theoderic, our ruler, although he was on the point of besieging him and byzantium, not only to put an end to his hostility towards himself, in recollection of the honour which theoderic had already received at his hands in having been made a patrician and consul of the romans,[ ] but also to punish odoacer for his unjust treatment of augustulus, and thereafter, in company with the goths, to hold sway over the land as its legitimate and rightful rulers. it was in this way, therefore, that we took over the dominion of italy, and we have preserved both the laws and the form of government as strictly as any who have ever been roman emperors, and there is absolutely no law, either written or unwritten, introduced by theoderic or by any of his successors on the throne of the goths. and we have so scrupulously guarded for the romans their practices pertaining to the worship of god and faith in him, that not one of the italians has changed his belief, either willingly or unwillingly, up to the present day, and when goths have changed,[ ] we have taken no notice of the matter. and indeed the sanctuaries of the romans have received from us the highest honour; for no one who has taken refuge in any of them has ever been treated with violence by any man; nay, more, the romans themselves have continued to hold all the offices of the state, and not a single goth has had a share in them. let someone come forward and refute us, if he thinks that this statement of ours is not true. and one might add that the goths have conceded that the dignity of the consulship should be conferred upon romans each year by the emperor of the east. such has been the course followed by us; but you, on your side, did not take the part of italy while it was suffering at the hands of the barbarians and odoacer, although it was not for a short time, but for ten years, that he treated the land outrageously; but now you do violence to us who have acquired it legitimately, though you have no business here. do you therefore depart hence out of our way, keeping both that which is your own and whatever you have gained by plunder." and belisarius said: "although your promise gave us to understand that your words would be brief and temperate, yet your discourse has been both long and not far from fraudulent in its pretensions. for theoderic was sent by the emperor zeno in order to make war on odoacer, not in order to hold the dominion of italy for himself. for why should the emperor have been concerned to exchange one tyrant for another? but he sent him in order that italy might be free and obedient to the emperor. and though theoderic disposed of the tyrant in a satisfactory manner, in everything else he shewed an extraordinary lack of proper feeling; for he never thought of restoring the land to its rightful owner. but i, for my part, think that he who robs another by violence and he who of his own will does not restore his neighbour's goods are equal. now, as for me, i shall never surrender the emperor's country to any other. but if there is anything you wish to receive in place of it, i give you leave to speak." and the barbarians said: "that everything which we have said is true no one of you can be unaware. but in order that we may not seem to be contentious, we give up to you sicily, great as it is and of such wealth, seeing that without it you cannot possess libya in security." and belisarius replied: "and we on our side permit the goths to have the whole of britain, which is much larger than sicily and was subject to the romans in early times. for it is only fair to make an equal return to those who first do a good deed or perform a kindness." the barbarians: "well, then, if we should make you a proposal concerning campania also, or about naples itself, will you listen to it?" belisarius: "no, for we are not empowered to administer the emperor's affairs in a way which is not in accord with his wish." the barbarians: "not even if we impose upon ourselves the payment of a fixed sum of money every year?" belisarius: "no, indeed. for we are not empowered to do anything else than guard the land for its owner." the barbarians: "come now, we must send envoys to the emperor and make with him our treaty concerning the whole matter. and a definite time must also be appointed during which the armies will be bound to observe an armistice." belisarius: "very well; let this be done. for never shall i stand in your way when you are making plans for peace." after saying these things they each left the conference, and the envoys of the goths withdrew to their own camp. and during the ensuing days they visited each other frequently and made the arrangements for the armistice, and they agreed that each side should put into the hands of the other some of its notable men as hostages to ensure the keeping of the armistice. footnotes: [ ] a.d. cf. book v. i. - and note. [ ] cf. book v. i. , . [ ] the goths were christians, but followed the arian heresy. vii but while these negotiations were in progress at rome, meanwhile the fleet of the isaurians put in at the harbour[ ] of the romans and john with his men came to ostia, and not one of the enemy hindered them either while bringing their ships to land or while making their camp. but in order that they might be able to pass the night safe from a sudden attack by the enemy, the isaurians dug a deep trench close to the harbour and kept a constant guard by shifts of men, while john's soldiers made a barricade of their waggons about the camp and remained quiet. and when night came on belisarius went to ostia with a hundred horsemen, and after telling what had taken place in the engagement and the agreement which had been made between the romans and the goths and otherwise encouraging them, he bade them bring their cargoes and come with all zeal to rome. "for," he said, "i shall take care that the journey is free from danger." so he himself at early dawn rode back to the city, and antonina together with the commanders began at daybreak to consider means of transporting the cargoes. but it seemed to them that the task was a hard one and beset with the greatest difficulties. for the oxen could hold out no longer, but all lay half-dead, and, furthermore, it was dangerous to travel over a rather narrow road with the waggons, and impossible to tow the barges on the river, as had formerly been the custom. for the road which is on the left[ ] of the river was held by the enemy, as stated by me in the previous narrative,[ ] and not available for the use of the romans at that time, while the road on the other side of it is altogether unused, at least that part of it which follows the river-bank. they therefore selected the small boats belonging to the larger ships, put a fence of high planks around them on all sides, in order that the men on board might not be exposed to the enemy's shots, and embarked archers and sailors on them in numbers suitable for each boat. and after they had loaded the boats with all the freight they could carry, they waited for a favouring wind and set sail toward rome by the tiber, and a portion of the army followed them along the right[ ] bank of the river to support them. but they left a large number of isaurians to guard the ships. now where the course of the river was straight, they found no trouble in sailing, simply raising the sails of the boats; but where the stream wound about and took a course athwart the wind, and the sails received no impulse from it, the sailors had no slight toil in rowing and forcing the boats against the current. as for the barbarians, they sat in their camps and had no wish to hinder their enemy, either because they were terrified at the danger, or because they thought that the romans would never by such means succeed in bringing in any provisions, and considered it contrary to their own interest, when a matter of no consequence was involved, to frustrate their hope of the armistice which belisarius had already promised. moreover, the goths who were in portus, though they could see their enemy constantly sailing by almost near enough to touch, made no move against them, but sat there wondering in amazement at the plan they had hit upon. and when the romans had made the voyage up the river many times in the same way, and had thus conveyed all the cargoes into the city without interference, the sailors took the ships and withdrew with all speed, for it was already about the time of the winter solstice; and the rest of the army entered rome, except, indeed, that paulus remained in ostia with some of the isaurians. and afterwards they gave hostages to one another to secure the keeping of the armistice, the romans giving zeno, and the goths ulias, a man of no mean station, with the understanding that during three months they should make no attack upon one another, until the envoys should return from byzantium and report the will of the emperor. and even if the one side or the other should initiate offences against their opponents, the envoys were nevertheless to be returned to their own nation. so the envoys of the barbarians went to byzantium escorted by romans, and ildiger, the son-in-law of antonina, came to rome from libya with not a few horsemen. and the goths who were holding the stronghold at portus abandoned the place by the order of vittigis because their supplies were exhausted, and came to the camp in obedience to his summons. whereupon paulus with his isaurians came from ostia and took possession of it and held it. now the chief reason why these barbarians were without provisions was that the romans commanded the sea and did not allow any of the necessary supplies to be brought in to them. and it was for this reason that they also abandoned at about the same time a sea-coast city of great importance, centumcellae[ ] by name, that is, because they were short of provisions. this city is large and populous, lying to the west of rome, in tuscany, distant from it about two hundred and eighty stades. and after taking possession of it the romans went on and extended their power still more, for they took also the town of albani, which lies to the east of rome, the enemy having evacuated it at that time for the same reason, and they had already surrounded the barbarians on all sides and now held them between their forces. the goths, therefore, were in a mood to break the agreement and do some harm to the romans. so they sent envoys to belisarius and asserted that they had been unjustly treated during a truce; for when vittigis had summoned the goths who were in portus to perform some service for him, paulus and the isaurians had seized and taken possession of the fort there for no good reason. and they made this same false charge regarding albani and centumcellae, and threatened that, unless he should give these places back to them, they would resent it. but belisarius laughed and sent them away, saying that this charge was but a pretext, and that no one was ignorant of the reason why the goths had abandoned these places. and thereafter the two sides were somewhat suspicious of one another. but later, when belisarius saw that rome was abundantly supplied with soldiers, he sent many horsemen to places far distant from rome, and commanded john, the nephew of vitalian, and the horsemen under his command, eight hundred in number, to pass the winter near the city of alba, which lies in picenum; and with him he sent four hundred of the men of valerian, whom damianus, the nephew of valerian, commanded, and eight hundred men of his own guards who were especially able warriors. and in command of these he put two spearmen, suntas and adegis, and ordered them to follow john wherever he should lead; and he gave john instructions that as long as he saw the enemy was keeping the agreement made between them, he should remain quiet; but whenever he found that the armistice had been violated by them, he should do as follows: with his whole force he was to make a sudden raid and overrun the land of picenum, visiting all the districts of that region and reaching each one before the report of his coming. for in this whole land there was virtually not a single man left, since all, as it appeared, had marched against rome, but everywhere there were women and children of the enemy and money. he was instructed, therefore, to enslave or plunder whatever he found, taking care never to injure any of the romans living there. and if he should happen upon any place which had men and defences, as he probably would, he was to make an attempt upon it with his whole force. and if he was able to capture it, he was to go forward, but if it should so happen that his attempt was unsuccessful, he was to march back or remain there. for if he should go forward and leave such a fortress in his rear, he would be involved in the greatest danger, since his men would never be able to defend themselves easily, if they should be harassed by their opponents. he was also to keep the whole booty intact, in order that it might be divided fairly and properly among the army. then with a laugh he added this also: "for it is not fair that the drones should be destroyed with great labour by one force, while others, without having endured any hardship at all, enjoy the honey." so after giving these instructions, belisarius sent john with his army. and at about the same time datius, the priest of milan, and some notable men among the citizens came to rome and begged belisarius to send them a few guards. for they declared that they were themselves able without any trouble to detach from the goths not only milan, but the whole of liguria also, and to recover them for the emperor. now this city is situated in liguria, and lies about half way between the city of ravenna and the alps on the borders of gaul; for from either one it is a journey of eight days to milan for an unencumbered traveller; and it is the first of the cities of the west, after rome at least, both in size and in population and in general prosperity. and belisarius promised to fulfil their request, but detained them there during the winter season. footnotes: [ ] ostia, since the regular harbour, portus, was held by the goths. [ ] _i.e._ facing upstream. [ ] book iv. xxvi. . [ ] modern civita vecchia. viii such was the course of these events. but the envy of fortune was already swelling against the romans, when she saw their affairs progressing successfully and well, and wishing to mingle some evil with this good, she inspired a quarrel, on a trifling pretext, between belisarius and constantinus; and how this grew and to what end it came i shall now go on to relate. there was a certain presidius, a roman living at ravenna, and a man of no mean station. this presidius had given offence to the goths at the time when vittigis was about to march against rome, and so he set out with some few of his domestics ostensibly on a hunting expedition, and went into exile; he had communicated his plan to no one and took none of his property with him, except indeed that he himself carried two daggers, the scabbards of which happened to be adorned with much gold and precious stones. and when he came to spolitium, he lodged in a certain temple outside the fortifications. and when constantinus, who happened to be still tarrying there,[ ] heard of this, he sent one of his guards, maxentiolus, and took away from him both the daggers for no good reason. the man was deeply offended by what had taken place, and set out for rome with all speed and came to belisarius, and constantinus also arrived there not long afterward; for the gothic army was already reported to be not far away. now as long as the affairs of the romans were critical and in confusion, presidius remained silent; but when he saw that the romans were gaining the upper hand and that the envoys of the goths had been sent to the emperor, as has been told by me above, he frequently approached belisarius reporting the injustice and demanding that he assist him in obtaining his rights. and belisarius reproached constantinus many times himself, and many times through others, urging him to clear himself of the guilt of an unjust deed and of a dishonouring report. but constantinus--for it must needs be that evil befall him--always lightly evaded the charge and taunted the wronged man. but on one occasion presidius met belisarius riding on horseback in the forum, and he laid hold of the horse's bridle, and crying out with a loud voice asked whether the laws of the emperor said that, whenever anyone fleeing from the barbarians comes to them as a suppliant, they should rob him by violence of whatever he may chance to have in his hands. and though many men gathered about and commanded him with threats to let go his hold of the bridle, he did not let go until at last belisarius promised to give him the daggers. on the following day, therefore, belisarius called constantinus and many of the commanders to an apartment in the palace, and after going over what had happened on the previous day urged him even at that late time to restore the daggers. but constantinus refused to do so; nay, he would more gladly throw them into the waters of the tiber than give them to presidius. and belisarius, being by now mastered by anger, enquired whether constantinus did not think that he was subject to his orders. and he agreed to obey him in all other things, for this was the emperor's will; this command, however, which at the present time he was laying upon him, he would never obey. belisarius then commanded his guards to enter, whereupon constantinus said: "in order, plainly, to have them kill me." "by no means," said belisarius, "but to have them compel your bodyguard maxentiolus, who forcibly carried away the daggers for you, to restore to the man what he took from him by violence." but constantinus, thinking that he was to die that very instant, wished to do some great deed before he should suffer anything himself. he accordingly drew the dagger which hung by his thigh and suddenly thrust it at the belly of belisarius. and he in consternation stepped back, and by throwing his arms around bessas, who was standing near, succeeded in escaping the blow. then constantinus, still boiling with anger, made after him; but ildiger and valerian, seeing what was being done, laid hold of his hands, one of the right and the other of the left, and dragged him back. and at this point the guards entered whom belisarius had summoned a moment before, snatched the dagger of constantinus from his hand with great violence, and seized him amid a great uproar. at the moment they did him no harm, out of respect, i suppose, to the officers present, but led him away to another room at the command of belisarius, and at a somewhat later time put him to death. this was the only unholy deed done by belisarius, and it was in no way worthy of the character of the man; for he always shewed great gentleness in his treatment of all others. but it had to be, as i have said, that evil should befall constantinus. footnote: [ ] cf. book v. xvi. ff. ix and the goths not long after this wished to strike a blow at the fortifications of rome. and first they sent some men by night into one of the aqueducts, from which they themselves had taken out the water at the beginning of this war.[ ] and with lamps and torches in their hands they explored the entrance into the city by this way. now it happened that not far from the small pincian gate an arch of this aqueduct[ ] had a sort of crevice in it, and one of the guards saw the light through this and told his companions; but they said that he had seen a wolf passing by his post. for at that point it so happened that the structure of the aqueduct did not rise high above the ground, and they thought that the guard had imagined the wolf's eyes to be fire. so those barbarians who explored the aqueduct, upon reaching the middle of the city, where there was an upward passage built in olden times leading to the palace itself, came upon some masonry there which allowed them neither to advance beyond that point nor to use the ascent at all. this masonry had been put in by belisarius as an act of precaution at the beginning of this siege, as has been set forth by me in the preceding narrative.[ ] so they decided first to remove one small stone from the wall and then to go back immediately, and when they returned to vittigis, they displayed the stone and reported the whole situation. and while he was considering his scheme with the best of the goths, the romans who were on guard at the pincian gate recalled among themselves on the following day the suspicion of the wolf. but when the story was passed around and came to belisarius, the general did not treat the matter carelessly, but immediately sent some of the notable men in the army, together with the guardsman diogenes, down into the aqueduct and bade them investigate everything with all speed. and they found all along the aqueduct the lamps of the enemy and the ashes which had dropped from their torches, and after observing the masonry where the stone had been taken out by the goths, they reported to belisarius. for this reason he personally kept the aqueduct under close guard; and the goths, perceiving it, desisted from this attempt. but later on the barbarians went so far as to plan an open attack against the fortifications. so they waited for the time of lunch, and bringing up ladders and fire, when their enemy were least expecting them, made an assault upon the small pincian gate, emboldened by the hope of capturing the city by a sudden attack, since not many soldiers had been left there. but it happened that ildiger and his men were keeping guard at that time; for all were assigned by turns to guard-duty. so when he saw the enemy advancing in disorder, he went out against them before they were yet drawn up in line of battle and while they were advancing in great disarray, and routing those who were opposite him without any trouble he slew many. and a great outcry and commotion arose throughout the city, as was to be expected, and the romans gathered as quickly as possible to all parts of the fortifications; whereupon the barbarians after a short time retired to their camp baffled. but vittigis resorted again to a plot against the wall. now there was a certain part of it that was especially vulnerable, where the bank of the tiber is, because at this place the romans of old, confident in the protection afforded by the stream, had built the wall carelessly, making it low and altogether without towers; vittigis therefore hoped to capture the city rather easily from that quarter. for indeed there was not even any garrison there of any consequence, as it happened. he therefore bribed with money two romans who lived near the church of peter the apostle to pass along by the guards there at about nightfall carrying a skin full of wine, and in some way or other, by making a show of friendship, to give it to them, and then to sit drinking with them well on into the night; and they were to throw into the cup of each guard a sleep-producing drug which vittigis had given them. and he stealthily got ready some skiffs, which he kept at the other bank; as soon as the guards should be overcome by sleep, some of the barbarians, acting in concert, were to cross the river in these, taking ladders with them, and make the assault on the wall. and he made ready the entire army with the intention of capturing the whole city by storm. after these arrangements were all complete, one of the two men who had been prepared by vittigis for this service (for it was not fated that rome should be captured by this army of the goths) came of his own accord to belisarius and revealed everything, and told who the other man was. so this man under torture brought to light all that he was about to do and displayed the drug which vittigis had given him. and belisarius first mutilated his nose and ears and then sent him riding on an ass into the enemy's camp. and when the barbarians saw him, they realised that god would not allow their purposes to have free course, and that therefore the city could never be captured by them. footnotes: [ ] book v. xix. . [ ] the _aqua virgo_. [ ] book v. xix. . x but while these things were happening, belisarius wrote to john and commanded him to begin operations. and he with his two thousand horsemen began to go about the land of picenum and to plunder everything before him, treating the women and children of the enemy as slaves. and when ulitheus, the uncle of vittigis, confronted him with an army of goths, he defeated them in battle and killed ulitheus himself and almost the whole army of the enemy. for this reason no one dared any longer to engage with him. but when he came to the city of auximus,[ ] though he learned that it contained a gothic garrison of inconsiderable size, yet in other respects he observed that the place was strong and impossible to capture. and for this reason he was quite unwilling to lay siege to it, but departing from there as quickly as he could, he moved forward. and he did this same thing at the city of urbinus,[ ] but at ariminum,[ ] which is one day's journey distant from ravenna, he marched into the city at the invitation of the romans. now all the barbarians who were keeping guard there were very suspicious of the roman inhabitants, and as soon as they learned that this army was approaching, they withdrew and ran until they reached ravenna. and thus john secured ariminum; but he had meanwhile left in his rear a garrison of the enemy both at auximus and at urbinus, not because he had forgotten the commands of belisarius, nor because he was carried away by unreasoning boldness, since he had wisdom as well as energy, but because he reasoned--correctly, as it turned out--that if the goths learned that the roman army was close to ravenna, they would instantly break up the siege of rome because of their fears regarding this place. and in fact his reasoning proved to be true. for as soon as vittigis and the army of the goths heard that ariminum was held by him, they were plunged into great fear regarding ravenna, and abandoning all other considerations, they straightway made their withdrawal, as will be told by me directly. and john won great fame from this deed, though he was renowned even before. for he was a daring and efficient man in the highest degree, unflinching before danger, and in his daily life shewing at all times a certain austerity and ability to endure hardship unsurpassed by any barbarian or common soldier. such a man was john. and matasuntha, the wife of vittigis, who was exceedingly hostile to her husband because he had taken her to wife by violence in the beginning,[ ] upon learning that john had come to ariminum was absolutely overcome by joy, and sending a messenger to him opened secret negotiations with him concerning marriage and the betrayal of the city. so these two kept sending messengers to each other without the knowledge of the rest and arranging these matters. but when the goths learned what had happened at ariminum, and when at the same time all their provisions had failed them, and the three months' time had already expired, they began to make their withdrawal, although they had not as yet received any information as far as the envoys were concerned. now it was about the spring equinox, and one year had been spent in the siege and nine days in addition, when the goths, having burned all their camps, set out at daybreak. and the romans, seeing their opponents in flight, were at a loss how to deal with the situation. for it so happened that the majority of the horsemen were not present at that time, since they had been sent to various places, as has been stated by me above,[ ] and they did not think that by themselves they were a match for so great a multitude of the enemy. however, belisarius armed all the infantry and cavalry. and when he saw that more than half of the enemy had crossed the bridge, he led the army out through the small pincian gate, and the hand-to-hand battle which ensued proved to be equal to any that had preceded it. at the beginning the barbarians withstood their enemy vigorously, and many on both sides fell in the first encounter; but afterwards the goths turned to flight and brought upon themselves a great and overwhelming calamity; for each man for himself was rushing to cross the bridge first. as a result of this they became very much crowded and suffered most cruelly, for they were being killed both by each other and by the enemy. many, too, fell off the bridge on either side into the tiber, sank with all their arms, and perished. finally, after losing in this way the most of their number, the remainder joined those who had crossed before. and longinus the isaurian and mundilas, the guards of belisarius, made themselves conspicuous for their valour in this battle. but while mundilas, after engaging with four barbarians in turn and killing them all, was himself saved, longinus, having proved himself the chief cause of the rout of the enemy, fell where he fought, leaving the roman army great regret for his loss. footnotes: [ ] modern osimo. [ ] modern urbino. [ ] modern rimini. [ ] cf. book v. xi. . [ ] chap. vii. . xi now vittigis with the remainder of his army marched toward ravenna; and he strengthened the fortified places with a great number of guards, leaving in clusium,[ ] the city of tuscany, one thousand men and gibimer as commander, and in urviventus[ ] an equal number, over whom he set albilas, a goth, as commander. and he left uligisalus in tudera[ ] with four hundred men. and in the land of picenum he left in the fortress of petra four hundred men who had lived there previously, and in auximus, which is the largest of all the cities of that country, he left four thousand goths selected for their valour and a very energetic commander, visandus by name, and two thousand men with moras in the city of urbinus. there are also two other fortresses, caesena and monteferetra,[ ] in each of which he established a garrison of not less than five hundred men. then he himself with the rest of the army moved straight for ariminum with the purpose of laying siege to it. but it happened that belisarius, as soon as the goths had broken up the siege of rome, had sent ildiger and martinus with a thousand horsemen, in order that by travelling more quickly by another road they might arrive at ariminum first, and he directed them promptly to remove john from the city and all those with him, and to put in their place fully enough men to guard the city, taking them from the fortress which is on the ionian gulf, ancon by name, two days' journey distant from ariminum. for he had already taken possession of it not long before, having sent conon with no small force of isaurians and thracians. it was his hope that if unsupported infantry under commanders of no great note should hold ariminum, the gothic forces would never undertake its siege, but would regard it with contempt and so go at once to ravenna, and that if they should decide to besiege ariminum, the provisions there would suffice for the infantry for a somewhat longer time; and he thought also that two thousand horsemen,[ ] attacking from outside with the rest of the army, would in all probability do the enemy great harm and drive them more easily to abandon the siege. it was with this purpose that belisarius gave such orders to martinus and ildiger and their men. and they, by travelling over the flaminian way, arrived long before the barbarians. for since the goths were moving in a great throng, they proceeded in a more leisurely manner, and they were compelled to make certain long detours, both because of the lack of provisions, and because they preferred not to pass close to the fortresses on the flaminian way, narnia and spolitium and perusia, since these were in the hands of the enemy, as has been stated above.[ ] when the roman army arrived at petra, they made an attack upon the fortress there, regarding it as an incident of their expedition. now this fortress was not devised by man, but it was made by the nature of the place; for the road passes through an extremely mountainous country at that place. on the right of this road a river descends which no man can ford because of the swiftness of the current, and on the left not far away rises a sheer rock which reaches to such a height that men who might chance to be standing on its summit, as seen by those below, resemble in size the smallest birds. and in olden times there was no passage through as one went forward. for the end of the rock reaches to the very stream of the river, affording no room for those who travel that way to pass by. so the men of ancient times constructed a tunnel at that point, and made there a gate for the place.[ ] and they also closed up the greatest part of the other[ ] entrance, leaving only enough space for a small gate there also, and thus rendered the place a natural fortress, which they call by the fitting name of petra. so the men of martinus and ildiger first made an attack upon one of the two gates,[ ] and shot many missiles, but they accomplished nothing, although the barbarians there made no defence at all; but afterwards they forced their way up the cliff behind the fortress and hurled stones from there upon the heads of the goths. and they, hurriedly and in great confusion, entered their houses and remained quiet. and then the romans, unable to hit any of the enemy with the stones they threw, devised the following plan. they broke off large pieces from the cliff and, many of them pushing together, hurled them down, aiming at the houses. and wherever these in their fall did no more than just graze the building, they yet gave the whole fortress a considerable shock and reduced the barbarians to great fear. consequently the goths stretched out their hands to those who were still about the gate and surrendered themselves and the fort, with the condition that they themselves should remain free from harm, being slaves of the emperor and subject to belisarius. and ildiger and martinus removed the most of them and led them away, putting them on a basis of complete equality with themselves, but some few they left there, together with their wives and children. and they also left something of a garrison of romans. thence they proceeded to ancon, and taking with them many of the infantry in that place on the third day reached ariminum, and announced the will of belisarius. but john was not only unwilling himself to follow them, but also proposed to retain damianus with the four hundred.[ ] so they left there the infantry and retired thence with all speed, taking the spearmen and guards of belisarius. footnotes: [ ] modern chiusi. [ ] urbs vetus, modern orvieto. [ ] tuder or tudertum, modern todi. [ ] modern montefeltro. [ ] _i.e._ the force which john had when he had set out on his raid of picenum (cf. chap. x. ) and with which he was now holding ariminum. [ ] book v. xxix. . [ ] the tunnel was made by the emperor vespasian, a.d. this gate was at the southern end. [ ] _i.e._ northern. [ ] the upper, or southern, gate. [ ] cf. chap. vii. . xii and not long afterward vittigis and his whole army arrived at ariminum, where they established their camp and began the siege. and they immediately constructed a wooden tower higher than the circuit-wall of the city and resting on four wheels, and drew it toward that part of the wall which seemed to them most vulnerable. but in order that they might not have the same experience here which they had before the fortifications of rome, they did not use oxen to draw the tower, but hid themselves within it and thus hauled it forward. and there was a stairway of great breadth inside the tower on which the barbarians in great numbers were to make the ascent easily, for they hoped that as soon as they should place the tower against the fortifications, they would have no trouble in stepping thence to the parapet of the wall; for they had made the tower high with this in view. so when they had come close to the fortifications with this engine of war, they remained quiet for the time, since it was already growing dark, and stationing guards about the tower they all went off to pass the night, supposing that they would meet with no obstacle whatever. and indeed there was nothing in their way, not even a trench between them and the wall, except an exceedingly small one. as for the romans, they passed the night in great fear, supposing that on the morrow they would perish. but john, neither yielding to despair in face of the danger nor being greatly agitated by fear, devised the following plan. leaving the others on guard at their posts, he himself took the isaurians, who carried pickaxes and various other tools of this kind, and went outside the fortifications; it was late in the night and no word had been given beforehand to anyone in the city; and once outside the wall, he commanded his men in silence to dig the trench deeper. so they did as directed, and as they dug they kept putting the earth which they took out of the trench upon the side of it nearer the city-wall, and there it served them as an earthwork. and since they were unobserved for a long time by the enemy, who were sleeping, they soon made the trench both deep and sufficiently wide, at the place where the fortifications were especially vulnerable and where the barbarians were going to make the assault with their engine of war. but far on in the night the enemy, perceiving what was being done, charged at full speed against those who were digging, and john went inside the fortifications with the isaurians, since the trench was now in a most satisfactory condition. but at daybreak vittigis noted what had been accomplished and in his exceeding vexation at the occurrence executed some of the guards; however, he was as eager as before to bring his engine to bear, and so commanded the goths to throw a great number of faggots as quickly as possible into the trench, and then by drawing the tower over them to bring it into position. this they proceeded to do as vittigis commanded, with all zeal, although their opponents kept fighting them back from the wall with the utmost vigour. but when the weight of the tower came upon the faggots they naturally yielded and sank down. for this reason the barbarians were quite unable to go forward with the engine, because the ground became still more steep before them, where the romans had heaped up the earth as i have stated. fearing, therefore, that when night came on the enemy would sally forth and set fire to the engine, they began to draw it back again. this was precisely what john was eager to prevent with all his power, and so he armed his soldiers, called them all together, and exhorted them as follows: "my men, who share this danger common to us all, if it would please any man among you to live and see those whom he has left at home, let him realize that the only hope he has of obtaining these things lies in nothing but his own hands. for when belisarius sent us forth in the beginning, hope and desire for many things made us eager for the task. for we never suspected that we should be besieged in the country along the coast, since the romans command the sea so completely, nor would one have supposed that the emperor's army would so far neglect us. but apart from these considerations, at that time we were prompted to boldness by an opportunity to display our loyalty to the state and by the glory which we should acquire in the sight of all men as the result of our struggles. but as things now stand, we cannot possibly survive save by courage, and we are obliged to undergo this danger with no other end in view than the saving of our own lives. therefore, if any of you perchance lay claim to valour, all such have the opportunity to prove themselves brave men, if any men in the world have, and thereby to cover themselves with glory. for they achieve a fair name, not who overpower those weaker than themselves, but who, though inferior in equipment, still win the victory by the greatness of their souls. and as for those in whom the love of life has been more deeply implanted, it will be of advantage to these especially to be bold, for it is true of all men, as a general thing, that when their fortunes stand on the razor's edge, as is now the case with us, they may be saved only by scorning the danger." with these words john led his army out against the enemy, leaving some few men to guard the battlement. but the enemy withstood them bravely, and the battle became exceedingly fierce. and with great difficulty and late in the day the barbarians succeeded in bringing the tower back to their own camp. however, they lost so great a number of their fighting men that they decided thenceforth to make no further attacks upon the wall, but in despair of succeeding that way, they remained quiet, expecting that their enemy would yield to them under stress of famine. for all their provisions had already failed them completely, since they had not found any place from which they could bring in a sufficient supply. such was the course of events here. but as for belisarius, he sent to the representatives of milan[ ] a thousand men, isaurians and thracians. the isaurians were commanded by ennes, the thracians by paulus, while mundilas was set over them all and commanded in person, having as his guard some few of the guardsmen of belisarius. and with them was also fidelius, who had been made praetorian prefect. for since he was a native of milan, he was regarded as a suitable person to go with this army, having as he did some influence in liguria. they set sail, accordingly, from the harbour of rome and put in at genoa, which is the last city in tuscany and well situated as a port of call for the voyage to gaul and to spain. there they left their ships and travelling by land moved forward, placing the boats of the ships on their waggons, in order that nothing might prevent their crossing the river po. it was by this means, in any event, that they made the crossing of the river. and when they reached the city of ticinum,[ ] after crossing the po, the goths came out against them and engaged them in battle. and they were not only numerous but also excellent troops, since all the barbarians who lived in that region had deposited the most valuable of their possessions in ticinum, as being a place which had strong defences, and had left there a considerable garrison. so a fierce battle took place, but the romans were victorious, and routing their opponents, they slew a great number and came within a little of capturing the city in the pursuit. for it was only with difficulty that the barbarians succeeded in shutting the gates, so closely did their enemy press upon their heels. and as the romans were marching away, fidelius went into a temple there to pray, and was the last to leave. but by some chance his horse stumbled and he fell. and since he had fallen very near the fortifications, the goths seeing him came out and killed him without being observed by the enemy. wherefore, when this was afterwards discovered by mundilas and the romans, they were greatly distressed. then, leaving ticinum, they arrived at the city of milan and secured this city with the rest of liguria without a battle. when vittigis learned about this, he sent a large army with all speed and uraïas, his own nephew, as commander. and theudibert, the leader of the franks, sent him at his request ten thousand men as allies, not of the franks themselves, but burgundians, in order not to appear to be doing injury to the emperor's cause. for it was given out that the burgundians made the expedition willingly and of their own choice, not as obeying the command of theudibert. and the goths, joined by these troops, came to milan, made camp and began a siege when the romans were least expecting them. at any rate the romans, through this action, found it impossible to bring in any kind of provisions, but they were immediately in distress for want of necessities. indeed, even the guarding of the walls was not being maintained by the regular soldiers, for it so happened that mundilas had occupied all the cities near milan which had defences, namely bergomum, comum, and novaria,[ ] as well as some other strongholds, and in every place had established a considerable garrison, while he himself with about three hundred men remained in milan, and with him ennes and paulus. consequently and of necessity the inhabitants of the city were regularly keeping guard in turn. such was the progress of events in liguria, and the winter drew to its close, and the third year came to an end in this war, the history of which procopius has written. footnotes: [ ] cf. chap. vii. . [ ] modern pavia. [ ] modern bergamo, como, and novara. xiii and belisarius at about the time of the summer solstice marched against vittigis and the gothic army, leaving a few men to act as a garrison in rome, but taking all the others with him. and he sent some men to tudera and clusium, with orders to make fortified camps there, and he was intending to follow them and assist in besieging the barbarians at those places. but when the barbarians learned that the army was approaching, they did not wait to face the danger, but sent envoys to belisarius, promising to surrender both themselves and the two cities, with the condition that they should remain free from harm. and when he came there, they fulfilled their promise. and belisarius removed all the goths from these towns and sent them to sicily and naples, and after establishing a garrison in clusium and in tudera, he led his army forward. but meanwhile vittigis had sent another army, under command of vacimus, to auximus, commanding it to join forces with the goths there, and with them to go against the enemy in ancon and make an attempt upon that fortress. now this ancon is a sort of pointed rock, and indeed it is from this circumstance that it has taken its name; for it is exceedingly like an "elbow." and it is about eighty stades distant from the city of auximus, whose port it is. and the defences of the fortress lie upon the pointed rock in a position of security, but all the buildings outside, though they are many, have been from ancient times unprotected by a wall. now as soon as conon, who was in command of the garrison of the place, heard that the forces of vacimus were coming against him and were already not far away, he made an exhibition of thoughtless folly. for thinking it too small a thing to preserve free from harm merely the fortress and its inhabitants together with the soldiers, he left the fortifications entirely destitute of soldiers, and leading them all out to a distance of about five stades, arrayed them in line of battle, without, however, making the phalanx a deep one at all, but thin enough to surround the entire base of the mountain, as if for a hunt. but when these troops saw that the enemy were greatly superior to them in number, they turned their backs and straightway fled to the fortress. and the barbarians, following close upon them, slew on the spot most of their number--those who did not succeed in getting inside the circuit-wall in time--and then placed ladders against the wall and attempted the ascent. some also began burning the houses outside the fortress. and the romans who resided habitually in the fortress, being terror-stricken at what was taking place, at first opened the small gate and received the soldiers as they fled in complete disorder. but when they saw the barbarians close at hand and pressing upon the fugitives, fearing that they would charge in with them, they closed the gates as quickly as they could, and letting down ropes from the battlement, saved a number by drawing them up, and among them conon himself. but the barbarians scaled the wall by means of their ladders and came within a little of capturing the fortress by storm, and would have succeeded if two men had not made a display of remarkable deeds by valorously pushing off the battlements those who had already got upon the wall; one of these two was a bodyguard of belisarius, a thracian named ulimuth, and the other a bodyguard of valerian, named gouboulgoudou, a massagete by birth. these two men had happened by some chance to come by ship to ancon a little before; and in this struggle, by warding off with their swords those who were scaling the wall, they saved the fortress contrary to expectation, but they themselves were carried from the battlement half dead, their whole bodies hacked with many wounds. at that time it was reported to belisarius that narses had come with a great army from byzantium and was in picenum. now this narses[ ] was a eunuch and guardian of the royal treasures, but for the rest keen and more energetic than would be expected of a eunuch. and five thousand soldiers followed him, of whom the several detachments were commanded by different men, among whom were justinus, the general of illyricum, and another narses, who had previously come to the land of the romans as a deserter from the armenians who are subject to the persians; with him had come his brother aratius,[ ] who, as it happened, had joined belisarius a little before this with another army. and about two thousand of the erulian nation also followed him, commanded by visandus and aluith and phanitheus. footnotes: [ ] he was an armenian of persia; see book i. xv. . [ ] book i. xv. . xiv now as to who in the world the eruli are, and how they entered into alliance with the romans, i shall forthwith explain.[ ] they used to dwell beyond the ister[ ] river from of old, worshipping a great host of gods, whom it seemed to them holy to appease even by human sacrifices. and they observed many customs which were not in accord with those of other men. for they were not permitted to live either when they grew old or when they fell sick, but as soon as one of them was overtaken by old age or by sickness, it became necessary for him to ask his relatives to remove him from the world as quickly as possible. and these relatives would pile up a quantity of wood to a great height and lay the man on top of the wood, and then they would send one of the eruli, but not a relative of the man, to his side with a dagger; for it was not lawful for a kinsman to be his slayer. and when the slayer of their relative had returned, they would straightway burn the whole pile of wood, beginning at the edges. and after the lire had ceased, they would immediately collect the bones and bury them in the earth. and when a man of the eruli died, it was necessary for his wife, if she laid claim to virtue and wished to leave a fair name behind her, to die not long afterward beside the tomb of her husband by hanging herself with a rope. and if she did not do this, the result was that she was in ill repute thereafter and an offence to the relatives of her husband. such were the customs observed by the eruli in ancient times. but as time went on they became superior to all the barbarians who dwelt about them both in power and in numbers, and, as was natural, they attacked and vanquished them severally and kept plundering their possessions by force. and finally they made the lombards, who were christians, together with several other nations, subject and tributary to themselves, though the barbarians of that region were not accustomed to that sort of thing; but the eruli were led to take this course by love of money and a lawless spirit. [x]when, however, anastasius took over the roman empire, the eruli, having no longer anyone in the world whom they could assail, laid down their arms and remained quiet, and they observed peace in this way for a space of three years. but the people themselves, being exceedingly vexed, began to abuse their leader rodolphus without restraint, and going to him constantly they called him cowardly and effeminate, and railed at him in a most unruly manner, taunting him with certain other names besides. and rodolphus, being quite unable to bear the insult, marched against the lombards, who were doing no wrong, without charging against them any fault or alleging any violation of their agreement, but bringing upon them a war which had no real cause. and when the lombards got word of this, they sent to rodolphus and made enquiry and demanded that he should state the charge on account of which the eruli were coming against them in arms, agreeing that if they had deprived the eruli of any of the tribute, then they would instantly pay it with large interest; and if their grievance was that only a moderate tribute had been imposed upon them, then the lombards would never be reluctant to make it greater. such were the offers which the envoys made, but rodolphus with a threat sent them away and marched forward. and they again sent other envoys to him on the same mission and supplicated him with many entreaties. and when the second envoys had fared in the same way, a third embassy came to him and forbade the eruli on any account to bring upon them a war without excuse. for if they should come against them with such a purpose, they too, not willingly, but under the direst necessity, would array themselves against their assailants, calling upon god as their witness, the slightest breath of whose favour, turning the scales, would be a match for all the strength of men; and he, in all likelihood, would be moved by the causes of the war and would determine the issue of the fight for both sides accordingly. so they spoke, thinking in this way to terrify their assailants, but the eruli, shrinking from nothing whatever, decided to meet the lombards in battle. and when the two armies came close to one another, it so happened that the sky above the lombards was obscured by a sort of cloud, black and very thick, but above the eruli it was exceedingly clear. and judging by this one would have supposed that the eruli were entering the conflict to their own harm; for there ran be no more forbidding portent than this for barbarians as they go into battle. however, the eruli gave no heed even to this, but in absolute disregard of it they advanced against their enemy with utter contempt, estimating the outcome of war by mere superiority of numbers. but when the battle came to close quarters, many of the eruli perished and rodolphus himself also perished, and the rest fled at full speed, forgetting all their courage. and since their enemy followed them up, the most of them fell on the field of battle and only a few succeeded in saving themselves. date: [x] a.d. for this reason the eruli were no longer able to tarry in their ancestral homes, but departing from there as quickly as possible they kept moving forward, traversing the whole country which is beyond the ister river, together with their wives and children. but when they reached a land where the rogi dwelt of old, a people who had joined the gothic host and gone to italy, they settled in that place. but since they were pressed by famine, because they were in a barren land, they removed from there not long afterward, and came to a place close to the country of the gepaedes.[ ] and at first the gepaedes permitted them to dwell there and be neighbours to them, since they came as suppliants. but afterwards for no good reason the gepaedes began to practise unholy deeds upon them. for they violated their women and seized their cattle and other property, and abstained from no wickedness whatever, and finally began an unjust attack upon them. and the eruli, unable to bear all this any longer, crossed the ister river and decided to live as neighbours to the romans in that region; this was during the reign of the emperor anastasius, who received them with great friendliness and allowed them to settle where they were. but a short time afterwards these barbarians gave him offence by their lawless treatment of the romans there, and for this reason he sent an army against them. and the romans, after defeating them in battle, slew most of their number, and had ample opportunity to destroy them all. but the remainder of them threw themselves upon the mercy of the generals and begged them to spare their lives and to have them as allies and servants of the emperor thereafter. and when anastasius learned this, he was pleased, and consequently a number of the eruli were left; however, they neither became allies of the romans, nor did they do them any good. but when justinian took over the empire,[y] he bestowed upon them good lands and other possessions, and thus completely succeeded in winning their friendship and persuaded them all to become christians. as a result of this they adopted a gentler manner of life and decided to submit themselves wholly to the laws of the christians, and in keeping with the terms of their alliance they are generally arrayed with the romans against their enemies. they are still, however, faithless toward them, and since they are given to avarice, they are eager to do violence to their neighbours, feeling no shame at such conduct. and they mate in an unholy manner, especially men with asses, and they are the basest of all men and utterly abandoned rascals. date: [y] a.d. afterwards, although some few of them remained at peace with the romans, as will be told by me in the following narrative,[ ] all the rest revolted for the following reason. the eruli, displaying their beastly and fanatical character against their own "rex," one ochus by name, suddenly killed the man for no good reason at all, laying against him no other charge than that they wished to be without a king thereafter. and yet even before this, while their king did have the title, he had practically no advantage over any private citizen whomsoever. but all claimed the right to sit with him and eat with him, and whoever wished insulted him without restraint; for no men in the world are less bound by convention or more unstable than the eruli. now when the evil deed had been accomplished, they were immediately repentant. for they said that they were not able to live without a ruler and without a general; so after much deliberation it seemed to them best in every way to summon one of their royal family from the island of thule. and the reason for this i shall now explain. footnotes: [ ] cf. book iv. iv. . [ ] modern danube. [ ] cf. book iii. ii. - , vii. xxiv. . [ ] book vii. xxxiv. . xv when the eruli, being defeated by the lombards in the above-mentioned battle, migrated from their ancestral homes, some of them, as has been told by me above,[ ] made their home in the country of illyricum, but the rest were averse to crossing the ister river, but settled at the very extremity of the world; at any rate, these men, led by many of the royal blood, traversed all the nations of the sclaveni one after the other, and after next crossing a large tract of barren country, they came to the varni,[ ] as they are called. after these they passed by the nations of the dani,[ ] without suffering violence at the hands of the barbarians there. coming thence to the ocean, they took to the sea, and putting in at thule,[ ] remained there on the island. now thule is exceedingly large; for it is more than ten times greater than britain. and it lies far distant from it toward the north. on this island the land is for the most part barren, but in the inhabited country thirteen very numerous nations are settled; and there are kings over each nation. in that place a very wonderful thing takes place each year. for the sun at the time of the summer solstice never sets for forty days, but appears constantly during this whole time above the earth. but not less than six months later, at about the time of the winter solstice, the sun is never seen on this island for forty days, but never-ending night envelops it; and as a result of this dejection holds the people there during this whole time, because they are unable by any means to mingle with one another during this interval. and although i was eager to go to this island and become an eye-witness of the things i have told, no opportunity ever presented itself. however, i made enquiry from those who come to us from the island as to how in the world they are able to reckon the length of the days, since the sun never rises nor sets there at the appointed times. and they gave me an account which is true and trustworthy. for they said that the sun during those forty days does not indeed set just as has been stated, but is visible to the people there at one time toward the east, and again toward the west. whenever, therefore, on its return, it reaches the same place on the horizon where they had previously been accustomed to see it rise, they reckon in this way that one day and night have passed. when, however, the time of the nights arrives, they always take note of the courses of the moon and stars and thus reckon the measure of the days. and when a time amounting to thirty-five days has passed in this long night, certain men are sent to the summits of the mountains--for this is the custom among them--and when they are able from that point barely to see the sun, they bring back word to the people below that within five days the sun will shine upon them. and the whole population celebrates a festival at the good news, and that too in the darkness. and this is the greatest festival which the natives of thule have; for, i imagine, these islanders always become terrified, although they see the same thing happen every year, fearing that the sun may at some time fail them entirely. but among the barbarians who are settled in thule, one nation only, who are called the scrithiphini, live a kind of life akin to that of the beasts. for they neither wear garments of cloth nor do they walk with shoes on their feet, nor do they drink wine nor derive anything edible from the earth. for they neither till the land themselves, nor do their women work it for them, but the women regularly join the men in hunting, which is their only pursuit. for the forests, which are exceedingly large, produce for them a great abundance of wild beasts and other animals, as do also the mountains which rise there. and they feed exclusively upon the flesh of the wild beasts slain by them, and clothe themselves in their skins, and since they have neither flax nor any implement with which to sew, they fasten these skins together by the sinews of the animals, and in this way manage to cover the whole body. and indeed not even their infants are nursed in the same way as among the rest of mankind. for the children of the scrithiphini do not feed upon the milk of women nor do they touch their mother's breast, but they are nourished upon the marrow of the animals killed in the hunt, and upon this alone. now as soon as a woman gives birth to a child, she throws it into a skin and straightway hangs it to a tree, and after putting marrow into its mouth she immediately sets out with her husband for the customary hunt. for they do everything in common and likewise engage in this pursuit together. so much for the daily life of these barbarians. but all the other inhabitants of thule, practically speaking, do not differ very much from the rest of men, but they reverence in great numbers gods and demons both of the heavens and of the air, of the earth and of the sea, and sundry other demons which are said to be in the waters of springs and rivers. and they incessantly offer up all kinds of sacrifices, and make oblations to the dead, but the noblest of sacrifices, in their eyes, is the first human being whom they have taken captive in war; for they sacrifice him to ares, whom they regard as the greatest god. and the manner in which they offer up the captive is not by sacrificing him on an altar only, but also by hanging him to a tree, or throwing him among thorns, or killing him by some of the other most cruel forms of death. thus, then, do the inhabitants of thule live. and one of their most numerous nations is the gauti, and it was next to them that the incoming eruli settled at the time in question. on the present occasion,[ ] therefore, the eruli who dwelt among the romans, after the murder of their king had been perpetrated by them, sent some of their notables to the island of thule to search out and bring back whomsoever they were able to find there of the royal blood. and when these men reached the island, they found many there of the royal blood, but they selected the one man who pleased them most and set out with him on the return journey. but this man fell sick and died when he had come to the country of the dani. these men therefore went a second time to the island and secured another man, datius by name. and he was followed by his brother aordus and two hundred youths of the eruli in thule. but since much time passed while they were absent on this journey, it occurred to the eruli in the neighbourhood of singidunum that they were not consulting their own interests in importing a leader from thule against the wishes of the emperor justinian. they therefore sent envoys to byzantium, begging the emperor to send them a ruler of his own choice. and he straightway sent them one of the eruli who had long been sojourning in byzantium, suartuas by name. at first the eruli welcomed him and did obeisance to him and rendered the customary obedience to his commands; but not many days later a messenger arrived with the tidings that the men from the island of thule were near at hand. and suartuas commanded them to go out to meet those men, his intention being to destroy them, and the eruli, approving his purpose, immediately went with him. but when the two forces were one day's journey distant from each other, the king's men all abandoned him at night and went over of their own accord to the newcomers, while he himself took to flight and set out unattended for byzantium. thereupon the emperor earnestly undertook with all his power to restore him to his office, and the eruli, fearing the power of the romans, decided to submit themselves to the gepaedes. this, then, was the cause of the revolt of the eruli.[ ] footnotes: [ ] this has not been stated before by procopius. [ ] or varini, a tribe living on the coast near the mouth of the rhine. [ ] a group of tribes inhabiting the danish peninsula. [ ] probably iceland or the northern portion of the scandinavian peninsula, which was then regarded as an island and called "scanza." the name of thule was familiar from earlier times. it was described by the navigator pytheas in the age of alexander the great, and he claimed to have visited the island. it was variously placed, but always considered the northernmost land in the world--"ultima thule." [ ] cf. chap. xiv. . [ ] chap. xiv. introduces this topic. index acarnania, a roman fleet winters there, v. xxiv. adegis, bodyguard of belisarius, vi. vii. adriatic sea, of which the modern adriatic was an inlet, v. xv. aemilia, district in northern italy, on the right of the po, v. xv. aeneas, son of anchises, meets diomedes at beneventus and receives from him the palladium, v. xv. aeschmanus, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius, v. xvi. aetolia, a roman fleet winters there, v. xxiv. africa, mentioned in the oracle regarding mundus, v. vii. , alamani, barbarian people of gaul, v. xii. alani, a gothic nation, v. i. alaric, leader of the visigoths, v. i. ; deposited plunder of rome in carcasiana, v. xii. alaric the younger, ruler of the visigoths; betrothed to theodichusa, daughter of theoderic, v. xii. ; attacked by the franks, v. xii. ; appeals to theoderic, v. xii. ; meets the franks in battle and is slain, v. xii. - ; father of giselic, v. xii. alba, town in picenum, vi. vii. albani, a people north of liguria, v. xv. albani, town near rome, v. vi. ; occupied by gontharis, vi. iv. , vii. , albanum, vi. vii. , see albani albilas, gothic commander of urviventus, vi. xi. albis, a goth sent as envoy to belisarius, v. xx. alexander, roman senator, envoy of justinian, v. iii. , vi. ; meets amalasuntha in ravenna, v. iii. ; his report, v. iii. ; brother of athanasius, v. vi. alexander, commander of cavalry, vi. v. aluith, erulian commander, vi. xiii. alps, form boundary between gaul and liguria, v. xii. , ; distance from milan, vi. vii. , ; definition of the word "alps," v. xii. , . amalaberga, daughter of amalafrida, betrothed to hermenefridus, v. xii. ; sister of theodatus, v. xiii. amalafrida, sister of theoderic and mother of theodatus, v. iii. ; mother of amalaberga, v. xii. amalaric, grandson of theoderic and son of theodichusa, v. xii. , ; becomes king of the visigoths, with theoderic as regent, v. xii. ; marries the daughter of the frankish king, and divides gaul with the goths and his cousin atalaric, v. xiii. ; receives back the treasures of carcasiana, v. xiii. ; gives offence to theudibert by his treatment of his wife, v. xiii. , ; defeated by him in battle and slain, v. xiii. amalasuntha, daughter of theoderic, v. ii. , xxiv. ; mother of atalaric, v. ii. ; acts as regent for him, v. ii. ; her plan for his education frustrated by the goths, v. ii. ff.; allows him to be trained according to the ideas of the goths, v. ii. ff.; her conflict with the gothic nobles, v. ii. - ; sends a ship to epidamnus, v. ii. ff., iii. ; later recalls it, v. ii. ; her concern at the failing health of atalaric, v. iii. , ; plans to hand over italy to justinian, v. iii. ; accused by justinian, v. iii. - ; meets alexander in ravenna, v. iii. ; receives justinian's letter, v. iii. - ; her reply, v. iii. - ; sends envoys agreeing to hand over all italy to justinian, v. iii. , ; hears accusations against theodatus, v. iv. ; compels him to make restitution, v. iv. ; attempts to gain his support, v. iv. ff.; deceived by him, v. iv. ; imprisoned, v. iv. - ; compelled by him to write justinian, v. iv. ; the envoy peter sent to treat with her, v. iv. ; championed by justinian, v. iv. ; her death, v. iv. - , ; her death foreshadowed by the crumbling of a mosaic in naples, v. xxiv. ; her noble qualities, v. iv. ; her ability and justice as a ruler, v. ii. - ; mother of matasuntha, v. xi. anastasius, roman emperor, vi. xiv. ; makes alliance with the eruli, vi. xiv. , anchises, father of aeneas, v. xv. ancon, fortress on the ionian gulf, vi. xi. , ; its strong position, vi. xiii. ; taken by belisarius, vi. xi. ; attacked by the goths, vi. xiii. ff.; port of auximus, vi. xiii. ; distance from ariminum, vi. xi. ; and from auximus, vi. xiii. antae, a people settled near the ister river; serve in the roman army, v. xxvii. anthium, used as a harbour by the romans, v. xxvi. ; distance from ostia, _ibid._ antiochus, a syrian, resident in naples, favours the roman party, v. viii. antonina, wife of belisarius, v. xviii. ; departs for naples, vi. iv. ; arriving in taracina, proceeds to campania, vi. iv. , where she assists procopius, vi. iv. ; assists in shipping provisions from ostia to rome, vi. vii. ff.; mother of photius, v. v. , xviii. ; mother-in-law of ildiger, vi. vii. aordus, an erulian, brother of datius, vi. xv. appian way, built by appius, v. xiv. ; description of the road, v. xiv. - ; travelled by refugees from rome, v. xxv. ; gothic camp near it, vi. iii. , iv. , appius, roman consul, builder of the appian way, v. xiv. - apulians, a people of southern italy, v. xv. ; voluntarily submit to belisarius, v. xv. aquileia, city in northern italy, v. i. aquilinus, bodyguard of belisarius; performs a remarkable feat, vi. v. , aratius, commander of armenians, who had deserted from the persians, vi. xiii. ; joins belisarius in italy with an army, _ibid._ arborychi, barbarians in gaul, formerly subject to the romans, v. xii. ; become roman soldiers, v. xii. ; absorbed by the germans, v. xii. - ; receive land from roman soldiers, v. xii. ares, worshipped by the inhabitants of thule, vi. xv. argos, diomedes repulsed thence, v. xv. arians, their views not held by the franks, v. v. ; not trusted by roman soldiers in gaul, v. xii. ; arian heresy espoused by amalaric, v. xiii. ariminum, city of northern italy, occupied by john, vi. x. ff.; abandoned by the goths, vi. x. ; besieged by vittigis, vi. xi. , xii. ff.; ildiger and martinus sent thither, vi. xi. , ; distance from ravenna, vi. x. ; from ancon, vi. xi. armenians, narses an armenian, vi. xiii. artasires, a persian, bodyguard of belisarius, vi. ii. arzes, bodyguard of belisarius; his remarkable wound, vi. ii. - ; treatment of his wound, vi. ii. - ; of the household of belisarius, vi. ii. asclepiodotus, of naples, a trained speaker; with pastor opposes the plan to surrender the city, v. viii. ff.; they address the neapolitans, v. viii. - ; bring forward the jews, v. viii. ; his effrontery after the capture of the city, v. x. , - ; bitterly accused by stephanus, v. x. - ; killed by a mob, v. x. asia, the continent adjoining libya, v. xii. asinarian gate, in rome, v. xiv. asinarius, gothic commander in dalmatia, v. vii. , xvi. ; gathers an army among the suevi, v. xvi. , ; joins uligisalus and proceeds to salones, v. xvi. , assyrians, v. xxiv. atalaric, grandson of theoderic; succeeds him as king of the goths, v. ii. ; reared by his mother amalasuntha, _ibid._; who attempts to educate him, v. ii. ff.; corrupted by the goths, v. ii. ff.; receives the envoy alexander, v. vi. ; divides gaul with his cousin amalaric, v. xiii. , ; returns the treasures of carcasiana to him, v. xiii. ; attacked by a wasting disease, v. iii. , iv. ; his death, v. iv. , ; his quaestor fidelius, v. xiv. ; his death foreshadowed by the crumbling of a mosaic in naples, v. xxiv. athanasius, brother of alexander, v. vi. ; envoy of justinian, v. vi. , vii. athena, her statue stolen from troy, v. xv. ; given to aeneas, v. xv. ; different views as to the existence of the statue in the time of procopius, v. xv. - ; a copy of it in the temple of fortune in rome, v. xv. ; greek statues of, v. xv. athenodorus, an isaurian, bodyguard of belisarius, v. xxix. , attila, leader of the huns, v. i. augustulus, name given to augustus, emperor of the west, v. i. ; dethroned by odoacer, v. i. , vi. vi. augustus, first emperor of the romans; allowed the thuringians to settle in gaul, v. xii. ; builder of a great bridge over the narnus, v. xvii. augustus, see augustulus aulon, city on the ionian gulf, v. iv. aurelian gate, in rome, called also the gate of peter, v. xix. , xxviii. ; near the tomb of hadrian, v. xxii. auximus, city in picenum; its strong position, vi. x. ; strongly garrisoned by the goths, vi. xi. ; metropolis of picenum, _ibid._; distance from its port ancon, vi. xiii. balan, barbarian name for a white-faced horse, v. xviii. , ballista, description of, v. xxi. - ; could shoot only straight out, v. xxii. belisarius, his victory over the vandals, v. v. ; sent by sea against the goths, v. v. ; commander-in-chief of the army, v. v. ; sent first to sicily, v. v. , , xiii. ; takes catana and the other cities of sicily, except panormus, by surrender, v. v. ; takes panormus, v. v. - ; enjoys great fame, v. v. ff.; lays down the consulship in syracuse, v. v. , ; given power to make settlement with theodatus, v. vi. , , ; ordered to hasten to italy, crosses from sicily, v. vii. , viii. ; ebrimous comes over to him as a deserter, v. viii. ; reaching naples, attempts to bring about its surrender, v. viii. ff.; failing in this, begins a siege, v. viii. ; does not succeed in storming the walls, v. viii. ; cuts the aqueduct, v. viii. , ix. ; despairs of success in the siege, v. ix. , ; learns of the possibility of entering naples by the aqueduct, v. ix. ff.; makes necessary preparations for the enterprise, v. ix. - ; makes final effort to persuade the neapolitans to surrender, v. ix. ff.; carries out the plan of entering the city by the aqueduct, v. x. ff.; captures the city, v. x. ff.; addresses the army, v. x. - ; guards the gothic prisoners from harm, v. x. ; addressed by asclepiodotus, v. x. ff.; forgives the neapolitans for killing him, v. x. ; prepares to march on rome, leaving a garrison in naples, v. xiv. , ; garrisons cumae, v. xiv. ; invited to rome by the citizens, v. xiv. ; enters rome, v. xiv. ; sends leuderis and the keys of rome to justinian, v. xiv. ; repairs and improves the defences of the city, _ibid._; prepares for a siege in spite of the complaints of the citizens, v. xiv. , ; places ballistae and "wild asses" on the wall, v. xxi. , ; guards the gates with "wolves," v. xxi. ; smallness of his army in rome, v. xxii. , xxiv. ; receives the submission of part of samnium, calabria, and apulia, v. xv. - ; in control of all southern italy, v. xv. ; sends troops to occupy many strongholds north of rome, v. xvi. ff.; vittigis fearful that he would not catch him in rome, v. xvi. , , xvii. ; recalls some of his troops from tuscany, v. xvii. , ; fortifies the mulvian bridge, v. xvii. ; comes thither with troops, v. xviii. ; unexpectedly engages with the goths and fights a battle, v. xviii. ff.; his excellent horse, v. xviii. ; shut out of rome by the romans, v. xviii. ; drives the goths from the moat, v. xviii. , ; enters the city, v. xviii. ; disposes the guards of the city, v. xviii. ; receives a false report of the capture of the city, v. xviii. - ; provides against a second occurrence of this kind, v. xviii. , ; ridiculed by the romans, v. xviii. ; persuaded to take a little food late in the night, v. xviii. ; arranges for the guarding of each gate, v. xix. - ; his name given in play to one of the samnite children, v. xx. - ; omen of victory for him, v. xx. ; stops up the aqueducts, v. xix. , vi. ix. ; operates the mills on the tiber, v. xix. ff.; reproached by the citizens, v. xx. , ; receives envoys from vittigis, v. xx. ; his reply to them, v. xx. - ; appoints fidelius praetorian prefect, v. xx. ; report of the gothic envoys regarding him, v. xxi. ; as the goths advance against the wall, shoots two of their number with his own bow, v. xxii. - ; checks their advance, v. xxii. - ; assigns constantinus to the aurelian gate, v. xxii. ; prevented from rebuilding "broken wall," v. xxiii. ; summoned to the vivarium, v. xxiii. ; directs the defence there with signal success, v. xxiii. - ; praised by the romans, v. xxiii. ; writes to the emperor asking for reinforcements, v. xxiv. ff.; receives from him an encouraging reply, v. xxiv. ; sends women, children, and servants to naples, v. xxv. ; uses roman artisans as soldiers on the wall, v. xxv. , ; exiles silverius and some senators from rome, v. xxv. , ; precautions against corruption of the guards, v. xxv. , ; against surprise at night, v. xxv. ; unable to defend portus, v. xxvi. ; encouraged by the arrival of martinus and valerian, v. xxvii. ; outwits the goths in three attacks, v. xxvii. - ; and likewise when they try his tactics, v. xxvii. - ; publicly praised by the romans, v. xxvii. ; explains his confidence in the superiority of the roman army, v. xxvii. - ; compelled by the impetuosity of the romans to risk a pitched battle, v. xxviii. , ; addresses the army, v. xxviii. - ; leads out his forces and disposes them for battle, v. xxviii. - ; commands in person at the great battle, v. xxix. ff.; grieves at the death of chorsamantis, vi. i. ; provides safe-conduct of euthalius, vi. ii. - ; appealed to by the citizens to fight a decisive battle, vi. iii. ff.; his reply, vi. iii. - ; sends procopius to naples, vi. iv. ; garrisons strongholds near rome, vi. iv. ff.; provides for the safe entry of john's troops into rome, vi. v. ff.; opens the flaminian gate, vi. v. ; out-generals the goths and wins a decisive victory, vi. v. ff.; his dialogue with the envoys of the goths, vi. vi. ff.; arranges an armistice with the goths, vi. vi. , vii. ; goes to ostia, vi. vii. , ; receives envoys from the goths, vi. vii. ff.; sends out cavalry from rome, vi. vii. ff.; appealed to for help from milan, vi. vii. , ; his disagreement with constantinus, vi. viii. ff.; puts him to death, vi. viii. , ; hearing of the strange lights in the aqueduct makes investigation, vi. ix. - ; learns of the stratagem planned by vittigis, vi. ix. ; punishes his accomplice, vi. ix. ; writes to john to begin operations in picenum, vi. x. , ; arms his men and attacks the departing goths, vi. x. ff.; sends messengers to john in ariminum, vi. xi. - ; sends assistance to milan, vi. xii. ; moves against vittigis, vi. xiii. ; takes tudera and clusium by surrender, vi. xiii. , ; garrisons them, vi. xiii. ; receives reinforcements, vi. xiii. - beneventus (beneventum), city in samnium, called in ancient times maleventus, v. xv. ; its strong winds, v. xv. ; founded by diomedes, v. xv. ; relics of the caledonian boar preserved in, _ibid._; meeting of diomedes and aeneas at, v. xv. bergomum, city near milan; occupied by mundilas, vi. xii. bessas, of thrace, roman general, v. v. ; by birth a goth, v. xvi. ; his ability, v. xvi. , ; at the capture of naples, v. x. , , , , , ; sent against narnia, v. xvi. ; takes narnia by surrender, v. xvi. ; recalled to rome, v. xvii. , ; returning slowly, meets the goths in battle, v. xvii. , ; arrives in rome, v. xvii. ; in command of the praenestine gate, sends a false report of the capture of the city, v. xviii. , xix. ; summons belisarius to the vivarium, v. xxiii. ; sent out against the goths by belisarius, v. xxvii. ; his remarkable fighting, vi. i. ; saves belisarius from constantinus, vi. viii. black gulf, modern gulf of saros, v. xv. bochas, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius, vi. ii. ; sent to the plain of nero, vi. ii. ; helps to rout the goths, but is surrounded and wounded, vi. ii. - ; after inflicting great losses upon the goths, vi. ii. ; rescued by valerian and martinus, vi. ii. ; dies of his wound, vi. ii. boetius, a roman senator, son-in-law of symmachus, v. i. ; his death, v. i. ; his children receive from amalasuntha his property, v. ii. britain, compared in size with thule, vi. xv. ; offered to the goths by belisarius, vi. vi. ; much larger than sicily, _ibid._ britons, v. xxiv. broken wall, a portion of the defences of rome, v. xxiii. , ; not rebuilt by belisarius, v. xxiii. ; never attacked by the goths, v. xxiii. , ; never rebuilt, v. xxiii. bruttii, a people of southern italy, v. xv. , bruttium, v. viii. burgundians, a barbarian people of gaul, v. xii. ; attacked by the franks, v. xii. ; alliance formed against them by the franks and goths, v. xii. , ; driven back by the franks, v. xii. , - ; and completely subjugated, v. xiii. ; sent by theudibert as allies to the goths, vi. xii. , burnus, town in liburnia, v. xvi. , byzantines, their identification of the palladium, v. xv. byzantium, ashes from vesuvius once fell there, vi. iv. ; senate house of, v. v. cadmean victory, v. vii. caesar, see augustus caesena, fortress in northern italy, v. i. ; distance from ravenna, _ibid._; garrisoned by vittigis, vi. xi. calabria, in southern italy, vi. v. calabrians, their location, v. xv. , ; voluntarily submit to belisarius, v. xv. calydonian boar, its tusks preserved in beneventus, v. xv. campani, a people of southern italy, v. xv. campania, its cities: naples, v. viii. ; and cumae, v. xiv. ; sought by roman fugitives, v. xvii. ; by refugees from rome, v. xxv. , ; by procopius, vi. ix. ff.; by antonina, vi. iv. ; roman forces unite there, vi. v. ; procopius gathers soldiers and provisions in, vi. iv. ; offered to belisarius by the goths, vi. vi. cappadocians, theodoriscus and george, v. xxix. capua, terminus of the appian way, v. xiv. carcasiana, city in gaul; battle fought near it, v. xii. ff.; besieged by the franks, v. xii. ; siege raised at the approach of theoderic, v. xii. ; its treasures conveyed to ravenna, v. xii. ; later returned to amalaric, v. xiii. carnii, a people of central europe, v. xv. carthage, the ostensible destination of belisarius' expedition, v. v. catana, in sicily; taken by belisarius, v. v. celtica, at the headwaters of the po, v. i. centenarium, a sum of money, v. xiii. ; cf. book i. xxii. centumcellae, town in italy; occupied by the romans, vi. vii. ; abandoned by the goths, vi. vii. ; distance from rome, vi. vii. charybdis, the story of, located at the strait of messana, v. viii. chersonese (thracian), the size of its isthmus, v. xv. chorsamantis, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius; alone pursues the goths to their camp, vi. i. - ; wounded in a second encounter, vi. i. , ; goes out alone against the goths and is killed, vi. i. - chorsomanus, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius, v. xvi. christ, his apostle peter, v. xix. christians, their disagreement regarding doctrine, v. iii. , ; the following are mentioned as christians: the neapolitans, v. ix. ; the arborychi and germans, v. xii. ; the lombards, vi. xiv. ; the eruli, vi. xiv. , ; christian teachings held in especial favour by the romans, v. xxv. circaeum, mountain near taracina, v. xi. ; considered to be named from the homeric circe, _ibid._; its resemblance to an island, v. xi. , circe, her meeting with odysseus, v. xi. cloadarius, ruler of the franks; sanctions treaty with theodatus, v. xiii. clusium, city in tuscany; garrisoned by vittigis, vi. xi. ; surrenders to belisarius, vi. xiii. , ; garrisoned by him, vi. xiii. comum, city near milan; occupied by mundilas, vi. xii. conon, commander of isaurians, vi. v. ; proceeds to ostia by sea, vi. v. ; captures ancon, vi. xi. ; nearly loses it by a blunder, vi. xiii. ff. constantianus, commander of the royal grooms; sent to illyricum, v. vii. ; his successful campaign in dalmatia, v. vii. - ; in control of the territory as far as liburnia, v. xv. ; prepares to defend salones, v. xvi. , constantine i, said to have discovered the palladium in byzantium, v. xv. ; his forum there, _ibid._ constantinus, of thrace, roman general, v. v. ; sent into tuscany, v. xvi. ; takes spolitium and perusia and certain other strongholds, v. xvi. ; defeats a gothic army and captures the commanders, v. xvi. , ; recalled to rome, v. xvii. - ; leaves garrisons in perusia and spolitium, v. xvii. ; assigned to guard the flaminian gate, v. xix. ; assigned to the aurelian gate and the adjoining wall, v. xxii. , ; leaves the gate during an attack, v. xxii. ; returns, v. xxii. ; leads the huns in a signally successful skirmish, vi. i. - ; his disagreement with belisarius, vi. viii. ff.; killed by his order, vi. viii. consul, this office held by romans during the gothic rule, vi. vi. ; held by appius, v. xiv. ; by theoderic, vi. vi. ; by belisarius, v. v. corinth, near the head of the crisaean gulf, v. xv. crisaean gulf (the corinthian gulf), v. xv. croton, city in southern italy, v. xv. cumae, coast city in campania, v. xiv. ; distance from naples, _ibid._; garrisoned by belisarius, v. xiv. ; one of the only two fortresses in campania, v. xiv. ; the home of the sibyl, v. xiv. cutilas, a thracian, bodyguard of belisarius, vi. ii. ; his remarkable wound, vi. ii. , , ; which causes his death, vi. ii. , dacians, a people of central europe, v. xv. dalmatia, east of the ionian gulf, adjoining precalis and liburnia, v. xv. ; counted in the western empire, _ibid._; its strong winds, v. xv. , ; opposite to italy, v. xv. , ; mundus sent thither by justinian, v. v. ; conquered by him, v. v. ; invaded by the goths, v. vii. ff.; recovered for the empire by constantianus, v. vii. - ; an army sent thither by vittigis, v. xvi. , damianus, nephew of valerian; sent from rome with troops, vi. vii. ; detained in ariminum by john, vi. xi. dani, a barbarian nation in europe, vi. xv. , datius, priest of milan; asks aid of belisarius, vi. vii. datius, brought as king from thule by the eruli, vi. xv. december, last month in the roman calendar, v. xiv. decennovium, river near rome, v. xi. demetrius, of philippi, envoy of justinian, v. iii. , , demetrius, roman commander of infantry, v. v. diogenes, bodyguard of belisarius; sent out against the goths, v. xxvii. , , vi. v. ; sent to investigate the aqueduct, vi. ix. diomedes, son of tydeus; founder of beneventus, v. xv. ; received the tusks of the caledonian boar from his uncle meleager, _ibid._; meets aeneas there, v. xv. ; gives the palladium to him, v. xv. , dryus, city in southern italy, called also hydrus, v. xv. ; vi. v. ebrimous, son-in-law of theodatus; deserts to the romans, v. viii. ; honoured by the emperor, _ibid._ egypt, traversed by the nile, v. xii. ; ancient statues of the aegyptians, v. xv. elpidius, physician of theoderic, v. i. ennes, commander of the isaurians in the roman army, v. v. ; brother of tarmutus, v. xxviii. ; at the capture of naples, v. x. , , ; saves his brother, v. xxix. ; sent to milan with isaurians, vi. xii. , ephesus, priest of, v. iii. epidamnus, situated on the sea at the limit of epirus, v. ii. , xv. ; amalasuntha sends a ship thither, v. ii. , , iii. ; constantianus gathers an army there, v. vii. , epidaurus, on the eastern side of the ionian gulf, v. vii. , epirotes, a people east of the ionian gulf, adjoining precalis, v. xv. epizephyrian locrians, among the bruttii, v. xv. eridanus, a name sometimes given the po river, v. i. eruli, serving in the roman army, vi. iv. , xiii. ; their wanderings as a nation, alliances, customs, etc., vi. xiv. - ; their worthless character, vi. xiv. , , ; some of them emigrate to thule, vi. xv. ff.; revolt from the romans, vi. xiv. ; kill their king and summon another from thule, vi. xiv. , , xv. , ; their king a figure-head, vi. xiv. , ; decide to ask justinian to nominate a king for them, vi. xv. ff.; welcome suartuas as king, vi. xv. ; abandon him, vi. xv. , ; submit to the gepaedes, vi. xv. europe, the continent to the left of gibraltar, v. xii. ; its shape, rivers, population, etc., v. xii. ff. euthalius, comes to taracina with money for the roman soldiers, vi. ii. ; secures safe-conduct from belisarius, vi. ii. ff.; arrives safely at nightfall, vi. ii. , fates, called "fata" by the romans, v. xxv. , fidelius, native of milan, v. xiv. ; previously quaestor to atalaric, _ibid._; envoy of the romans to belisarius, _ibid._; praetorian prefect, sent to milan in company with troops, vi. xii. , ; taunts the gothic envoys, v. xx. , ; killed by the goths, vi. xii. , flaminian gate, in rome; the goths pass out through it, v. xiv. ; threatened by a gothic camp, v. xix. ; next to the pincian, v. xix. , xxiii. ; held by constantianus, v. xix. ; closed by belisarius, _ibid._, vi. v. ; not attacked by the goths, v. xxiii. ; guarded by ursicinus, v. xxiii. ; opened by belisarius, vi. v. , flaminian way, road leading northward from rome, vi. xi. ; the strongholds narnia, spolitium, and perusia on it, vi. xi. foederati, auxiliary troops, v. v. fortune, temple of, in rome, v. xv. franks, "modern" name for the germans, v. xi. , xii. ; account of the growth of their kingdom up to the time of procopius, v. xii. -xiii. ; their ruler theudibert, vi. xii. ; persuaded by justinian to ally themselves with him, v. v. - , xiii. ; their war with the goths, v. xi. , , ; occupy the visigothic portion of gaul, v. xiii. , ; invited to form alliance with theodatus, receiving the gothic portion of gaul, v. xiii. ; vittigis advises forming of such an alliance with them, v. xiii. - ; make the treaty with some reserve, v. xiii. - ; send burgundians as allies, vi. xii. ; have the suevi subject to them, v. xv. ; the nations north of langovilla subject to them, v. xv. gadira, the strait of gibraltar, v. xii. gaul, extending from the pyrenees to liguria, v. xii. ; separated from liguria by the alps, v. xii. , , vi. vii. ; its great extent, v. xii. , ; its rivers, lakes, and population, v. xii. - ; formerly subject to the romans, v. xii. ; occupied by the goths, v. xi. , ; how the franks became established there, v. xi. , xii. ff.; partly occupied by the visigoths, v. xii. , ; guarded by roman soldiers, v. xii. ; divided between the franks and goths, v. xii. , ; really under the sway of theoderic, v. xii. ; divided between the goths and visigoths, v. xiii. , ; the visigothic portion taken over by the franks, v. xiii. ; visigoths retire thence to spain, v. xiii. ; the gothic portion offered to the franks as the price of alliance with theodatus, v. xiii. ; held by the goths under marcias, v. xiii. , xvi. ; threatened by the franks, v. xiii. ; given to them by vittigis, v. xiii. , gauti, nation on the island of thule, vi. xv. gelimer, king of the vandals, v. v. , vi. , xxix. genoa, its location, vi. xii. george, a cappadocian, bodyguard of martinus, conspicuous for his valour, v. xxix. , gepaedes, a people of southern europe; their war with the goths, v. iii. , xi. ; their relations with the eruli, vi. xiv. - ; who submit to them, vi. xv. germans, called also franks, _q.v._ getic, the "getic peril," v. xxiv. , ; equivalent to "gothic," v. xxiv. gibimer, gothic commander, stationed in clusium, vi. xi. giselic, illegitimate son of alaric; chosen king over the visigoths, v. xii. ; his death, v. xii. gladiators, vi. i. gontharis, roman commander; occupies albani, vi. iv. goths, used throughout to indicate the ostro-goths; called also "getic," v. xxiv. ; their fortunes previous to the war with justinian, v. i. ff.; form alliance with the franks against the burgundians, v. xii. , ; their crafty hesitation, v. xii. , ; reproached by their allies, v. xii. ; secure a portion of gaul, v. xii. ; mingle with the visigoths, v. xii. ; divide gaul with the visigoths, v. xiii. , , , ; remit the tribute imposed by theoderic, v. xiii. ; ruled formerly over the peoples north of the ionian gulf, v. xv. ; led into italy by theoderic, v. xvi. , vi. xiv. ; prevented by amalasuntha from injuring the romans, v. ii. ; their leaders hostile to her, v. iii. ; oppose her in her effort to educate atalaric, v. ii. ff.; grieve at the death of amalasuntha, v. iv. ; defeated in dalmatia, v. v. ; enter dalmatia again, v. vii. ff.; again defeated, v. vii. - ; garrison naples strongly, v. viii. ; lose naples, v. x. ; dissatisfied with theodatus, declare vittigis king, v. xi. , ; their war with the franks, v. xi. , , ; yield gaul to them, v. xiii. ; withdraw from rome, v. xi. , xiv. - ; defeat the romans at the mulvian bridge, v. xviii. ff.; establish six camps about rome and begin the siege, v. xix. - , , xxiv. ; cut the aqueducts, v. xix. ; assault the wall, v. xxi-xxiii.; capture portus, v. xxvi. ; outwitted in three attacks, v. xxvii. - ; again defeated when they try belisarius' tactics, v. xxvii. - ; inferiority of their soldiers to the romans, v. xxvii. ; defeat the romans in a pitched battle, v. xxix. ff.; but suffer great losses in the plain of nero, vi. ii. ff.; respect the church of paul, vi. iv. ; suffer famine and pestilence, vi. iv. , ; retire from the camp near the appian way, vi. iv. ; decide to abandon the siege, vi. vi. , ; send envoys to rome, vi. vi. ; arrange an armistice with belisarius, vi. vi. , vii. ; abandon portus, vi. vii. , ; and centumcellae, vi. vii. ; and albani, vi. vii. ; attempt to enter rome by stealth, vi. ix. ff.; assault the pincian gate, vi. ix. ff.; abandon ariminum, vi. x. ; raise the siege of rome, vi. x. , , ; defeated at the mulvian bridge, vi. x. ff.; besiege ariminum, vi. xii. ff.; defeated at ticinum, vi. xii. , ; besiege milan, vi. xii. , ; no new laws made by the gothic kings in italy, vi. vi. ; tolerant in religious matters, vi. vi. ; respect the churches, vi. vi. ; allowed all offices to be filled by romans, _ibid._; gothic language, v. x. ; a goth makes trouble for the romans at the salarian gate, v. xxiii. ; killed by a well-directed missile, v. xxiii. , gouboulgoudou, a massagete, bodyguard of valerian; renders signal service at ancon, vi. xiii. , gratiana, city at the extremity of illyricum, v. iii. , greece, v. xxiv. , xxv. ; magna graecia, v. xv. greeks (hellenes), include the epirotes, v. xv. ; their capture of troy, v. xv. ; greek statues of athena, v. xv. ; greek language, v. xviii. greeks, contemptuous term for the eastern romans, v. xviii. , xxix. gripas, gothic commander, in dalmatia, v. vii. ; defeated by constantianus, v. vii. - ; retires to ravenna, v. vii. hadrian, tomb of, near the aurelian gate, v. xxii. ; its excellent construction and decoration, v. xxii. , ; attacked by the goths, v. xxii. ff.; statues thereon torn down by the romans and hurled upon the goths, v. xxii. hebrews, treasures of their king solomon taken from rome by alaric, v. xii. ; a certain hebrew makes a prophecy to theodatus by the actions of swine, v. ix. - ; see also jews hellespont, v. xv. hermenefridus, ruler of the thuringians, betrothed to amalaberga, v. xii. ; killed by the franks, v. xiii. ; wife of, escapes to theodatus, v. xiii. herodian, roman commander of infantry, v. v. ; left in command of the roman garrison in naples, v. xiv. homer, his testimony as to the place where odysseus met circe, v. xi. , huns, in the roman army, v. iii. , v. , xxvii. , ; led by constantinus in a signally successful skirmish, vi. i. - ; encamp at the church of paul, vi. iv. ; harass the goths, vi. iv. ; return to rome, vi. iv. ; see also massagetae hydrus, name of dryus in procopius' time, v. xv. hypatius, priest of ephesus; envoy of justinian, v. iii. , , iberia, home of peranius, v. v. ildibert, ruler of the franks, sanctions treaty with theodatus, v. xiii. ildiger, son-in-law of antonina; comes to rome, vi. vii. ; with valerian, seizes constantinus, vi. viii. ; on guard at the pincian gate, vi. ix. ; meets a gothic attack, vi. ix. ; sent by belisarius with martinus to ariminum, vi. xi. , , ; they capture petra, vi. xi. - ; leave ariminum, vi. xi. ilium, capture of, v. xv. , ; entered by diomedes and odysseus as spies, v. xv. illyricum, mundus general of, v. v. ; constantinus sent to, v. vii. ; justinus general of, vi. xiii. ; eruli settled in, vi. xv. ; the city of gratiana at its extremity, v. iii. ; home of peter, v. iii. innocentius, roman commander of cavalry, v. v. , xvii. ionian gulf, the modern adriatic, v. i. , etc.; ends at ravenna, v. xv. isaurians, in the army of belisarius, v. v. ; commanded by ennes, v. v. , x. ; render signal service at the capture of naples, v. ix. ff., - , x. ; a force of, reaches naples, vi. v. ; arrives in the harbour of rome, vi. vii. ; they fortify a camp, vi. vii. ; guard ships at ostia, vi. vii. ; remain in ostia, vi. vii. , ; occupy portus, vi. vii. , ; occupy ancon, vi. xi. ; with john at ariminum, vi. xii. , ; sent to milan under command of ennes, vi. xii. , ; isaurian javelins, v. xxix. ister river, the modern danube; boundary of pannonia, v. xv. , etc.; antae settled near its banks, v. xxvii. istria, adjoining liburnia and venetia, v. xv. italians, often coupled with "goths," v. i. , etc.; their love for theoderic, v. i. ; grieve at the death of amalasuntha, v. iv. italy, its inhabitants enumerated, v. xv. , - ; claimed by the barbarians, v. i. , vi. vi. , ; neglected by the romans until the goths held it, vi. vi. ; amalasuntha agrees to hand it over to justinian, v. iii. , iv. ; offered to justinian by theodatus, v. vi. janus, his temple in rome, v. xxv. , ; one of the older gods, v. xxv. ; his double-faced statue, v. xxv. , jerusalem, its capture by the romans, v. xii. jews, supporting the gothic party in naples, v. viii. ; offer stubborn resistance to the romans at its capture, v. x. - ; see also hebrews john, nephew of vitalian, commander of thracians, vi. v. ; reaches campania, vi. v. ; approaches rome, vi. v. ; reaches ostia, vi. vii. ; forms a barricade of wagons, vi. vii. ; sent out from rome by belisarius, vi. vii. ff.; instructed by belisarius to begin operations, vi. x. ; defeats and kills ulitheus, vi. x. ; passes by auximus and urbinus, vi. x. - ; enters ariminum, vi. x. , . ; wins great fame, vi, x. ; receives proposal of marriage from matasuntha, vi. x. ; directed by belisarius to leave ariminum, vi. xi. ; refuses, vi. xi. ; prevents the approach of a tower to the wall of ariminum, vi. xii. ff.; addresses his soldiers, vi. xii. ff.; attacks and inflicts severe losses on the goths, vi. xii. - ; his excellent qualities, vi. x. july, called "quintilis," as being the fifth month from march, v. xxiv. ; mentioned in the sibyl's prophecy, v. xxiv. , , justinian, becomes emperor, v. ii. ; appealed to by amalasuntha, v. ii. ; makes a friendly reply, v. ii. ; theodatus purposes to hand over tuscany to him, v. iii. ; amalasuntha plans to hand over italy to him, v. iii. ; sends alexander to learn of amalasuntha's plans, v. iii. ; but ostensibly to make complaints against the goths, v. iii. - ; his letter to amalasuntha v. iii. - ; her reply, v. iii. - ; sends peter as envoy, v. iii. ; receives envoys from amalasuntha, v. iv. ; receives envoys and a letter from theodatus, v. iv. , ; sends peter as envoy to theodatus and amalasuntha, v. iv. ; champions amalasuntha against theodatus, v. iv. ; hears the report of the italian envoys, v. iv. ff.; inaugurates the gothic war, v. v. ff.; sends belisarius with a fleet to sicily, v. v. , , ; recovers all sicily, v. v. ; persuades the franks to ally themselves with him, v. v. - , xiii. ; theodatus proposes an agreement with him, v. vi. - ; receives a letter from theodatus, v. vi. - ; his reply, v. vi. - ; addresses a letter to the gothic nobles, v. vii. - ; sends constantianus to illyricum and belisarius to italy, v. vii. ; honours the deserter ebrimous, v. viii. ; receives the keys of rome, v. xiv. ; sends relief to belisarius, v. xxiv. ; writes encouragingly to belisarius, v. xxiv. ; wins the friendship of the eruli, vi. xiv. ; appoints a king over the eruli at their request, vi. xv. ff.; attempts to restore suartuas, vi. xv. ; year of reign noted, v. v. , xiv. justinus, general of illyricum; arrives in italy, vi. xiii. langovilla, home of the albani, north of liguria, v. xv. latin language, v. xi. , xv. ; latin literature, v. iii. ; latin way, running southward from rome, v. xiv. , vi. iii. , v. lechaeum, at the head of the crisaean gulf, v. xv. leuderis, a goth; left in command of the garrison in rome, v. xi. ; his reputation for discretion, _ibid._; remains in rome after the withdrawal of the garrison, v. xiv. ; sent to the emperor, v. xiv. , xxiv. liberius, roman senator; envoy of theodatus, v. iv. , ; makes a true report to justinian, v. iv. , liburnia, adjoining dalmatia and istria, v. xv. ; subdued by constantianus, v. vii. ; invaded by the goths, v. xvi. libya, the continent to the right of gibraltar, v. xii. ; character of the country, v. xii. ; huns escape from the army there, v. iii. ; ildiger comes thence, vi. vii. liguria, on the boundary of gaul, v. xii. ; separated from gaul by the cottian alps, v. xii. ; its chief city milan, vi. vii. , , v. xiv. ; bounded by the po, v. xv. ; occupied by the romans, vi. xii. lilybaeum, in sicily, subject of complaint by justinian, v. iii. ff., iv. locrians, see epizephyrian locrians lombards, a christian people, subjugated by the eruli, vi. xiv. ; attacked wantonly by rodolphus, vi. xiv. ff.; rout his army and kill him, vi. xiv. , ; defeat the eruli, vi. xv. longinus, an isaurian, bodyguard of belisarius; distinguished for his valour, vi. x. , lucani, a people of southern italy, v. xv. lucania, v. viii. lysina, island off the coast of dalmatia, v. vii. macedonia, v. iii. magna graecia, v. xv. magnus, roman commander of cavalry, v. v. at the capture of naples, v. x. , , , , ; sent to tibur with sinthues, vi. iv. ; repairs the defences, vi. iv. maleventus, ancient name of "beneventus," city in samnium, v. xv. marcentius, commander of cavalry, vi. v. march, the first month in the early roman calendar, v. xxiv. marcias, commands a gothic garrison in gaul, v. xiii. ; summoned thence by vittigis, v. xiii. , xix. ; his absence prevents vittigis from leaving ravenna, v. xvi. ; commands a gothic camp in the plain of nero, v. xix. , xxix. martinus, roman commander sent to italy, v. xxiv. - ; arrives in rome, v. xxvii. ; sent put against the goths by belisarius, v. xxvii. , ; his bodyguards theodoriscus and george, v. xxix. ; sent to the plain of nero by belisarius, vi. ii. ; fights there with varying fortune, vi. ii. ff.; with valerian rescues bochas, vi. ii. ; sent to taracina, vi. iv. , ; summoned back to rome, vi. v. ; sent by belisarius with ildiger to ariminum, vi. xi. , - ; they capture petra, vi. xi. - ; leave ariminum, vi. xi. massagetae, in the roman army; their savage conduct at the capture of naples, v. x. ; see also huns matasuntha, daughter of amalasuntha, wedded by vittigis, v. xi. ; opens negotiations with john, vi. x. mauricius, roman general, son of mundus; slain in battle, v. vii. , , maxentiolus, bodyguard of constantinus, vi. viii. , maxentius, a bodyguard of the household of belisarius, v. xviii. maximus, slayer of valentinian, v. xxv. maximus, descendant of the above maximus; exiled by belisarius, v. xxv. medes, see persians melas, see black gulf meleager, uncle of diomedes, slayer of the calydonian boar, v. xv. messana, city in sicily, v. viii. milan, chief city of liguria, vi. vii. , ; second only to rome among the cities of the west. _ibid._; receives assistance from belisarius against the goths, vi. xii. ff.; occupied by the romans, vi. xii. ; besieged by uraïas, vi. xii. , ; its priest datius, vi. vii. ; distance from rome and from the alps, vi. vii. monteferetra, town in italy; garrisoned by vittigis, vi. xi. moors, allies in the roman army, v. v. ; their night attacks upon the goths, v. xxv. ; sent outside the walls at night by belisarius, v. xxv. ; in the battle in the plain of nero, v. xxix. moras, gothic commander in urbinus, vi. xi. mulvian bridge, guarded by the goths, v. xix. mundilas, bodyguard of belisarius; distinguished for his valour, vi. x. ; sent out against the goths, v. xxvii. , ; accompanies procopius to naples, vi. iv. ; returns to rome, vi. iv. ; kills a brave goth, vi. v. ; sent in command of troops to milan, vi. xii. , ; grieves at the death of fidelius, vi. xii. ; occupies cities near milan, vi. xii. mundus, a barbarian, general of illyricum; sent against salones, v. v. ; secures salones, v. v. ; slain in battle, v. vii. , , ; the sibyl's prophecy concerning him, v. vii. - ; father of mauricius, v. vii. - naples, city in campania, on the sea, v. viii. ; commanded by uliaris, v. iii. ; strongly garrisoned by the goths, v. viii. ; belisarius attempts to bring about its surrender, v. viii. ff.; strength of its position, v. viii. ; besieged by belisarius, v. viii. ff.; its aqueduct cut by belisarius, v. viii. ; its aqueduct investigated by one of the isaurians, v. ix. ff.; the city captured thereby, v. x. - ; slaughter by the soldiers, v. x. , ; garrisoned by belisarius, v. xiv. ; women, etc., sent thither by belisarius, v. xxv. ; procopius sent thither, vi. iv. ; antonina retires thither, vi. iv. ; isaurian soldiers arrive there from byzantium, vi. v. ; offered to belisarius by the goths, vi. vi. ; goths sent thither by belisarius, vi. xiii. ; one of the only two fortresses in campania, v. xiv. ; distance from cumae, v. xiv. ; from vesuvius, vi. iv. ; its mosaic picture of theoderic, v. xxiv. ff.; its inhabitants romans and christians, v. ix. narnia, strong city in tuscany; bessas sent against it, v. xvi. ; named from the narnus river, v. xvii. ; distance from rome, v. xvii. ; surrenders to bessas, v. xvi. ; battle fought there, v. xvii. , ; garrisoned by bessas, v. xvii. ; avoided by vittigis, v. xvii. , vi. xi. narnus river, flows by narnia, v. xvii. ; its great bridge, v. xvii. , narses, a eunuch, imperial steward, vi. xiii. ; arrives in italy, _ibid._ narses, an armenian; deserted to the romans, vi. xiii. neapolitans, send stephanus to belisarius, v. viii. ; reject proposals of belisarius, v. viii. ; appeal to theodatus for help, v. ix. ; belisarius' final appeal to them, v. ix. ff.; their obduracy, v. ix. ; saved by belisarius from abuse by the romans, v. x. , - ; kill asclepiodotus, v. x. ; impale the body of pastor, v. x. ; forgiven by belisarius, v. x. ; see also naples nero, plain of, near rome; a gothic camp established there, v. xix. , , xxviii. ; troops sent thither by belisarius, v. xxviii. ff.; operations there on the day of the great battle, v. xxix. ff.; marcias ordered by vittigis to remain there, v. xxix. ; constantinus wins a signal success in, vi. i. - ; skirmish in, vi. i. ; martinus and valerian sent to, vi. ii. ; goths victorious in, vi. ii. ff.; but with heavy losses, vi. ii. ; its "stadium," vi. i. nile river, its source unknown, v. xii. norici, a people of central europe, v. xv. novaria, city near milan; occupied by mundilas, vi. xii. numa, early roman king, v. xxiv. ochus, king of the eruli, vi. xiv. odoacer, bodyguard of the emperor, v. i. ; his tyranny, v. i. , , xii. , vi. vi. ; divides lands in tuscany among his followers, v. i. ; allows the visigoths to occupy all of gaul, v. xii. ; zeno unable to cope with him, vi. vi. , ; theoderic persuaded to attack him, v. i. , vi. vi. ; his troops defeated by theoderic, v. i. , v. xii. ; besieged in ravenna, v. i. , ; his agreement with theoderic, v. i. ; killed by theoderic, v. i. odysseus, his meeting with circe, v. xi. ; with diomedes stole the palladium from troy, v. xv. oilas, bodyguard of belisarius, v. xxvii. opilio, roman senator, envoy of theodatus, v. iv. , ; makes a false report to justinian, v. iv. optaris, a goth; his hostility to theodatus, v. xi. , ; pursues and kills him, v. xi. , orestes, father of augustus, acts as regent for his son, v. i. ; his death, v. i. ostia, city at the mouth of the tiber; neglected in procopius' time, v. xxvi. ; no good road thence to rome, v. xxvi. , vi. vii. ; the only port on the tiber left to rome, v. xxvi. , vi. iv. ; distance from anthium, v. xxvi. ; paulus and conon sent thither, vi. v. ; reached by john, vi. vii. ; provisions brought into rome by way of ostia, vi. vii. ff. pancratian gate, in rome, across the tiber, v. xxviii. ; false report of its capture, v. xviii. ; threatened by the goths, v. xxiii. ; guarded by paulus, v. xxiii. pancratius, a saint; the pancratian gate named from him, v. xviii. pannonians, a people of central europe, v. xv. panormus, city in sicily; goths in, defy belisarius, v. v. ; taken by him, v. v. - ; garrisoned by him, v. viii. parian marble, used in building hadrian's tomb, v. xxii. pastor, of naples, a trained speaker; with asclepiodotus opposes the proposal to surrender the city, v. viii. ff.; they address the neapolitans, v. viii. - ; bring forward the jews, v. viii. ; his death, v. x. ; his body impaled by the mob, v. x. patrician rank, how conferred, v. vi. ; some of the patricians consult the sibylline prophecies, v. xxiv. ff.; patrician rank conferred upon theoderic, v. i. , vi. vi. ; upon ebrimous, v. viii. patrimonium, used to denote the lands of the royal house, v. iv. paucaris, an isaurian, bodyguard of belisarius, v. ix. ; prepares the channel of the aqueduct of naples for the passage of roman troops, v. ix. - paul the apostle, church of, on the tiber, vi. iv. ; respected by the goths, vi. iv. ; its site fortified by valerian, vi. iv. ; gate of rome named from him, vi. iv. paulus, roman commander of cavalry, v. v. ; on guard at the pancratian gate, v. xxiii. ; sent to milan with thracians, vi. xii. , paulus, commander of isaurians, vi. v. ; proceeds to ostia by sea, vi. v. ; remains in ostia, vi. vii. , ; occupies portus, vi. vii. , peloponnesus, its resemblance to spain, v. xii. penates, the ancient gods of rome, v. xxv. peranius, of iberia, roman general, v. v. ; of the family of the king of iberia, _ibid._; had come as a deserter to the romans, _ibid._; summons belisarius to the vivarium, v. xxiii. ; leads a sally against the goths, vi. i. persia, adjoining iberia, v. v. persians, frequently referred to, also under the name of medes, v. v. , etc.; their long shields, v. xxii. ; artasires a persian, vi. ii. perusia, the first city of tuscany, v. xvi. ; submits to constantinus, v. xvi. ; battle fought near it, v. xvi. ; garrisoned by constantinus, v. xvii. ; avoided by vittigis, v. xvii. , vi. xi. peter, the apostle, buried near rome; one of the gates of the city named after him, v. xix. ; his church, v. xxii. , vi. ix. ; his promise to guard "broken wall," v. xxiii. ; reverenced by the romans above all others, v. xxiii. peter, an illyrian, envoy of justinian to italy, v. iii. , iv. ; his excellent qualities, v. iii. ; learns of events in italy and waits in aulon, v. iv. , ; sent on with a letter to amalasuntha, v. iv. ; arrives in italy, v. iv. ; denounces theodatus, v. iv. ; who tries to prove his innocence, v. iv. ; tries to terrify theodatus, v. iv. ; who suggests to him an agreement with justinian, v. vi. - ; recalled and given further instructions, v. vi. - ; reports to justinian, v. vi. ; sent again to italy, v. vi. , , vii. ; reproaches theodatus, v. vii. ; who makes a public speech of warning, v. vii. - ; his reply thereto, v. vii. - ; delivers a letter from justinian to the gothic nobles, v. vii. petra (pertusa), on the flaminian way; allowed by vittigis to retain its original garrison, vi. xi. ; attacked and captured by the romans, vi. xi. ff.; its natural position and defences, vi. xi. - phanitheus, erulian commander, vi. xiii. philippi, in macedonia, home of demetrius, v. iii. photius, step-son of belisarius; accompanies him to italy, v. v. ; at the capture of naples, v. x. , , , ; his groom valentinus, v. xviii. piceni, a people of central italy, v. xv. picenum, john sent thither, vi. vii. ; raided by john, vi. x. ff.; its metropolis auximus, vi. xi. ; its strongholds: petra, auximus, and urbinus, vi. xi. ; caesena and monteferetra, vi. xi. ; its town alba, vi. vii. pincian gate, in rome; next to the flaminian, v. xix. , xxiii. ; held by belisarius, v. xix. ; often mentioned in the fighting, v. xxviii. , etc. pisidian, principius the guardsman, v. xxviii. pissas, gothic commander; sent into tuscany, v. xvi. ; defeated and captured, v. xvi. , pitzas, a goth; surrenders part of samnium to belisarius, v. xv. , platonic teachings, espoused by theodatus, v. iii. , vi. po river, called also the "eridanus," v. i. ; boundary of liguria, v. xv. ; and of aemilia, v. xv. ; crossed by mundilas, vi. xii. , portus, harbour of rome, v. xxvi. ; its situation, v. xxvi. - ; distance from rome, v. xxvi. ; a good road between it and rome, v. xxvi. , vi. vii. ; captured by the goths and garrisoned by them, v. xxvi. , , xxvii. , vi. vii. ; strength of its defences, v. xxvi. , ; abandoned by the goths and occupied by paulus, vi. vii. , praenestine gate, in rome; commanded by bessas, v. xviii. , xix. ; threatened by a gothic camp, v. xix. ; near the vivarium, v. xxii. precalis, a district east of the ionian gulf adjoining epirus and dalmatia, v. xv. presidius, a roman of ravenna, vi. viii. ; escapes to spolitium. _ibid._; robbed of two daggers by constantinus, vi. viii. ; appeals to belisarius in rome, vi. viii. ff. principius, a pisidian, bodyguard of belisarius; persuades him to allow his infantry troops a share in the fighting, v. xxviii. - ; fights valiantly, v. xxix. , ; killed in battle, v. xxix. procopius, writer of the history of the gothic war, v. vii. , vi. ii. , xii. ; sent to naples to procure provisions and soldiers, vi. iv. ff.; gathers soldiers and provisions in campania, vi. iv. ; assisted by antonina, vi. iv. ; religious views, v. iii. - pyrenees mountains, on the northern boundary of spain, v. xii. quaestor, office held by fidelius, v. xiv. quintilis, name given early to july as being the fifth month from march, v. xxiv. ram, an engine of war; its construction, v. xxi. - ravenna, its situation, v. i. ff.; besieged by the goths, v. i. , ; surrendered to theoderic, v. i. ; treasures of carcasiana brought to, v. xii. ; occupied by vittigis and the goths, v. xi. ; roman senators killed there by order of vittigis, v. xxvi. ; distance from ariminum, vi. x. ; from caesena, v. i. ; from milan, vi. vii. , ; from the tuscan sea, v. xv. ; limit of the picene territory, v. xv. ; the priest of, v. i. regata, distance from rome, v. xi. ; goths gather at, v. xi. , reges, a body of infantry commanded by ursicinus, v. xxiii. reparatus, brother of vigilius, escapes execution by flight, v. xxvi. rex, title used by barbarian kings, and preserved by theoderic, v. i. , vi. xiv. rhegium, city in southern italy, v. viii. ; belisarius departs thence with his army, v. viii. rhine, one of the rivers of gaul, v. xii. rhone, one of the rivers of gaul, v. xii. ; boundary of the visigothic power, v. xii. , xiii. ; boundary of roman power, v. xii. ; boundary between the franks and the goths, v. xii. rodolphus, leader of the eruli, vi. xiv. ; forced by his people to march against the lombards, vi. xiv. ff. rogi, a barbarian people, allies of the goths, vi. xiv. romans, subjects of the roman empire both in the east and in the west, mentioned constantly throughout; captured jerusalem in ancient times, v. xii. ; roman senators killed by order of vittigis, v. xxvi. ; roman dress of ancient times, preserved by descendants of soldiers stationed in gaul, v. xii. , ; roman soldiers, their importance greatly lessened by the addition of barbarians, v. i. ; superiority of their soldiers to the goths, v. xxvii. ; small importance of their infantry, v. xxviii. more particularly of the inhabitants of rome: exhorted by vittigis to remain faithful to the goths, v. xi. ; decide to receive belisarius into the city, v. xiv. ; admire the forethought of belisarius, but object to his holding the city for a siege, v. xiv. ; compelled by belisarius to provide their own provisions, v. xiv. ; deprived of the baths, v. xix. ; distressed by the labours of the siege, reproach belisarius, v. xx. ff.; applaud his marksmanship, v. xxii. ; prevent him from rebuilding "broken wall," v. xxiii. ; their allegiance feared by belisarius, v. xxiv. , ; send women, children, and servants to naples, v. xxv. , ; some of the, attempt to open the doors of the temple of janus, v. xxv. - ; praise belisarius publicly, v. xxvii. ; eager to fight a pitched battle, v. xxviii. , ; many of the populace mingle with the army, v. xxviii. , , xxix. , , ; reduced to despair, vi. iii. ; resort to unaccustomed foods, vi. iii. , ; try to force belisarius to light a decisive battle, vi. iii. ff.; lived in luxury under theoderic, v. xx. ; held in especial honour the teachings of the christians, v. xxv. rome, first city of the west, vi. vii. ; captured by alaric the elder, v. xii. ; visited by envoys from justinian, v. iii. , ; garrison left therein by vittigis, v. xi. , ; goths withdraw from, v. xi. ; abandoned by the gothic garrison, v. xiv. , ; entered by belisarius at the same time that the gothic garrison left it, v. xiv. ; keys of, sent to justinian, v. xiv. ; its defences repaired and improved by belisarius, v. xiv. ; ill-situated for a siege, v. xiv. ; had never sustained a long siege, v. xxiv. ; its territories secured by belisarius, v. xvi. ; provisioned for the siege, v. xvii. ; account of the building of the wall on both sides of the tiber, v. xix. - ; its siege begun by the goths, v. xxiv. ; not entirely shut in by them, v. xxv. ; mills operated in the tiber by belisarius, v. xix. ff.; visited by famine and pestilence, vi. iii. ; abandoned by the goths, vi. x. ff.; garrisoned by belisarius, vi. xiii. ; terminus of the appian way, v. xiv. ; its boundaries adjoin campania, v. xv. ; the palace, vi. viii. , ix. ; its aqueducts, vi. iii. - , ix. , ; cut by the goths, v. xix. ; their number and size, _ibid._; stopped up by belisarius, v. xix. ; water of one used to turn the mills, v. xix. ; its chief priest silverius, v. xi. , xiv. , xxv. ; vigilius v. xxv. , xxvi. ; its gates fourteen in number, v. xix. ; the asinarian, v. xiv. ; the pancratian, v. xviii. ; the salarian, v. xviii. ; the flaminian, v. xix. ; the praenestine, _ibid._; the aurelian, v. xix. ; the transtiburtine, _ibid._; of peter, _ibid._; of paul, vi. iv. ; the pincian, v. xix. ; its church of peter the apostle, vi. ix. ; its sewers, v. xix. ; its "stadium" in the plain of nero vi. i. ; excavations for storage outside the walls, vi. i. ; its harbour portus, v. xxv. , xxvi. , , ; ostia, vi. iv. ; distance from centumcellae, vi. vii. ; from narnia, v. xvii. ; from portus and the sea, v. xxvi. ; from tibur, vi. iv. ; description of the engines of war used against it by vittigis, v. xxi. - ; a priest of, v. xvi. rusticus, a roman priest, sent with peter to justinian, v. vi. , sacred island, at the mouth of the tiber, v. xxvi. salarian gate, in rome, v. xviii. , etc.; held by belisarius, v. xix. ; attacked by the goths, v. xxxii. - ; goths repulsed from, v. xxiii. , salones, city in dalmatia; mundus sent against, v. v. ; taken by him, v. v. ; battle near, v. vii. ff.; its inhabitants mistrusted by the goths, v. vii. , ; weakness of its defences, v. vii. ; occupied by the goths, v. vii. ; abandoned by them, v. vii. ; occupied by constantianus, v. vii. - ; vittigis sends an army against, v. xvi. , ; strengthened by constantianus, v. xvi. , ; invested by the goths, v. xvi. samnites, a people of central italy, v. xv. ; children among; their gruesome play, v. xx. - samnium, vi. v. ; a portion of, surrendered to belisarius, v. xv. , ; the remainder held by the goths, v. xv. scardon, city in dalmatia, v. vii. , xvi. sciri, a gothic nation, v. i. sclaveni, a barbarian nation, vi. xv. ; in the roman army, v. xxvii. scrithiphini, nation on the island of thule; their manner of life, customs, etc., vi. xv. - scylla, the story of, located at the strait of messana, v. viii. sibyl, the, her prophecy regarding mundus, v. vii. - ; prophecies of, consulted by patricians, v. xxiv. ; difficulty of understanding them, v. xxiv. - ; her cave shewn at cumae, v. xiv. sicilians, applaud belisarius, v. v. ; find the romans faithful to their promises, v. viii. , sicily, belisarius sent thither with a fleet, v. v. , xiii. ; taken by him, v. v. ff., ; garrisoned by him, v. xxiv. ; theodatus proposes to withdraw from, v. vi. ; grain brought thence by belisarius, v. xiv. ; roman refugees resort to, v. xxv. ; offered to belisarius by the goths, vi. vi. ; goths sent thither by belisarius, vi. xiii. ; smaller than britain, vi. vi. silverius, chief priest of rome, v. xi. ; influences the citizens to yield to the romans, v. xiv. ; dismissed by belisarius, v. xxv. singidunum, city in pannonia, v. xv. , vi. xv. sinthues, bodyguard of belisarius; sent to tibur with magnus, vi. iv. ; repairs the defences, vi. iv. ; wounded in battle, _ibid._ siphilas, bodyguard of constantianus, at the taking of salones, v. vii. sirmium, city of the gepaedes in pannonia, v. iii. , xi. , xv. siscii, a people of central europe, v. xv. solomon, king of the jews; his treasures taken from rome by alaric, v. xii. spain, first country of europe beginning from gibraltar, v. xii. ; its size compared with that of gaul, v. xii. ; formerly subject to the romans, v. xii. ; occupied by the visigoths, v. xii. ; really under the sway of theoderic, v. xii. ; theudis establishes an independent power in, v. xii. - ; spanish woman of great wealth married by him, v. xii. ; visigoths retire to, v. xiii. spaniards, situated beyond gaul, v. xv. spolitium, city in italy; submits to constantinus, v. xvi. ; garrisoned by him, v. xvi. , xvii. ; avoided by vittigis, v. xvii. , vi. xi. ; presidius takes refuge in, vi. viii. stephanus, a neapolitan; remonstrates with belisarius, v. viii. - ; urged by belisarius to win over the neapolitans, v. viii. ; his attempts to do so, v. viii. , ; assisted by antiochus, v. viii. ; opposed by pastor and asclepiodotus, v. viii. - ; goes again to belisarius, v. viii. ; summoned once more by belisarius, v. ix. ; returns to the city, v. ix. ; bitterly accuses asclepiodotus before belisarius, v. x. - suartuas, an erulian; appointed king of the eruli by justinian, vi. xv. ; attempts to destroy the eruli sent to thule, vi. xv. ; flees to byzantium, vi. xv. ; justinian attempts to restore him, vi. xv. suevi, barbarian people in gaul, v. xii. ; in two divisions, v. xv. ; asinarius gathers an army among them, v. xvi. , suntas, bodyguard of belisarius, vi. vii. symmachus, a roman senator and ex-consul, father-in-law of boetius, v. i. ; his death, v. i. ; his children receive from amalasuntha his property, v. ii. syracuse, surrenders to belisarius, v. v. ; entered by him on the last day of his consulship, v. v. , ; garrisoned by him, v. viii. syria, home of antiochus of naples, v. viii. taracina, city near rome, v. xi. ; at the limit of campania, v. xv. ; euthalius stops in, vi. ii. ; belisarius sends a hundred men thither, vi. ii. ; occupied by martinus and trajan, vi. iv. , ; left by them, vi. v. tarmutus, an isaurian, brother of ennes; persuades belisarius to allow his infantry troops a share in the fighting, v. xxviii. - ; fights valiantly, v. xxix. , ; his remarkable escape, v. xxix. , ; his death, v. xxix. taulantii, a people of illyricum, v. i. theoctistus, a physician; his successful treatment of arzes' wound, vi. ii. ff. theodatus, son of amalafrida and nephew of theoderic, v. iii. ; opposed by amalasuntha in his oppression of the people of tuscany, v. iii. , ; plans to hand over tuscany to justinian, v. iii. , ; meets the envoys of justinian secretly, v. iii. ; accused by the tuscans, v. iv. ; compelled by amalasuntha to make restitution, v. iv. ; her attempts to gain his support, v. iv. ff.; becomes king, v. iv. , ; imprisons amalasuntha, v. iv. - ; sends envoys and a letter to justinian, v. iv. , ; receives the envoy peter from justinian, v. iv. ; opposed by justinian, v. iv. ; defended by opilio, v. iv. ; persuaded to kill amalasuntha, v. iv. , ; denounced by peter, v. iv. ; his excuses, v. iv. ; terrified by peter, suggests an agreement with justinian, v. vi. - ; recalls peter and consults him further, v. vi. - ; his letter to justinian, v. vi. - ; reply of justinian, v. vi. - ; receives envoys from justinian, v. vi. ; refuses to put his agreement into effect, v. vii. , ; makes a speech regarding rights of envoys, v. vii. - ; receives a letter addressed to the gothic nobles, v. vii. ; guards the envoys peter and athanasius, v. vii. ; proposes an alliance with the franks, v. xiii. , ; kept the wives and children of the garrison of naples, v. viii. ; appealed to in vain by the neapolitans, v. ix. ; the story of the swine whose fortune foreshadowed the outcome of the war, v. ix. - ; dethroned by the goths, v. xi. ; flees toward ravenna, pursued by optaris, v. xi. ; the cause of optaris' hatred of him, v. xi. , ; killed on the road, v. xi. , xiii. , xxix. ; brother of amalaberga, v. xiii. ; father of theodegisclus, v. xi. ; father-in-law of ebrimous, v. viii. ; father of theodenanthe, _ibid._; his unstable character, v. vii. ; accustomed to seek oracles, v. ix. theodegisclus, son of theodatus; imprisoned by vittigis, v. xi. theodenanthe, daughter of theodatus, wife of ebrimous, v. viii. theoderic, gothic king, patrician and ex-consul in byzantium, v. i. , vi. vi. ; leads the goths in rebellion, v. i. ; persuaded by zeno to attack odoacer, v. i. , vi. vi. , ; leads the gothic people to italy, v. i. ; not followed from thrace by all the goths, v. xvi. ; besieges ravenna, v. i. ; his agreement with odoacer, v. i. ; kills him, v. i. ; his war with the gepaedes, v. xi. ; forms close alliance with the thuringians and visigoths, v. xii. , ; feared by the franks, v. xii. ; forms an alliance with them, v. xii. ; craftily refrains from participation in the war against the burgundians and gains part of their land, v. xii. - , , ; disregarded by the franks, v. xii. ; appealed to by alaric and sends him an army, v. xii. ; reproached by the visigoths, v. xii. ; drives the franks from besieging carcasiana, v. xii. ; recovers eastern gaul, v. xii. ; makes amalaric king of the visigoths, acting as regent himself, v. xii. ; sends theudis to spain with an army, v. xii. ; tolerates his tyranny, v. xii. - ; virtual ruler over gaul and spain as well as italy, v. xii. - ; imposed a tribute on the visigoths, v. xii. , , xiii. ; removed the treasures of carcasiana, v. xiii. ; kills symmachus and boetius, v. i. ; terrified thereafter by the appearance of a fish's head, v. i. ff.; his death, v. i. , xiii. ; succeeded by atalaric, v. ii. ; made no new laws in italy, vi. vi. ; mosaic picture of, in naples, v. xxiv. ; kept the romans in luxury, v. xx. ; did not allow the goths to educate their children, v. ii. ; his own ignorance of letters, v. ii. ; his character as a sovereign, v. i. ff., xi. ; beloved by his subjects, v. i. - ; brother of amalafrida, v. iii. ; father of amalasuntha, v. ii. , xxiv. ; father of theodichusa, v. xii. ; grandfather of amalaric, v. xii. , ; of atalaric, v. ii. , xxiv. ; of matasuntha, v. xi. , xxix. ; uncle of theodatus, v. iii. ; the family of, v. iv. theodichusa, daughter of theoderic, betrothed to alaric the younger, v. xii. ; mother of amalaric, v. xii. theodoriscus, a cappadocian, guardsman of martinus; conspicuous for his valour, v. xxix. , thessalonica, home of peter, v. iii. theudibert, king of the franks; gives his sister in marriage to amalaric, v. xiii. ; appealed to by her, v. xiii. ; defeats amalaric in battle, v. xiii. ; takes possession of the visigothic portion of gaul, v. xiii. ; sanctions treaty with theodatus, v. xiii. ; sends allies to vittigis, vi. xii. , theudis, a goth, marries a woman in spain and sets up an independent power there, v. xii. - ; tyrant in spain, v. xiii. thrace, ancient home of the goths, v. xvi. ; home of constantinus and bessas, v. v. ; of cutilas, vi. ii. ; of ulimuth, vi. xiii. thracians, a force of, reaches dryus, vi. v. ; with the roman army, vi. xi. ; sent to milan under command of paulus, vi. xii. , thule, description of the island, its inhabitants, long nights, etc., vi. xv. ff.; eruli settled there, vi. xv. ; the eruli send thither for a king, vi. xiv. , xv. , ; their messengers return from, vi. xv. thurii, a city in southern italy, v. xv. thuringians, barbarians in gaul, v. xii. , ; form close alliance with theoderic, v. xii. , ; their ruler hermenefridus, v. xii. ; subjugated by the franks, v. xiii. tiber river, an obstacle to vittigis, v. xvii. - ; defended by belisarius, v. xvii. , xviii. ff.; crossed by vittigis, v. xviii. ff.; xxiv. ; crossed by the goths to storm the wall, v. xxii. , ; used by belisarius to turn the mills, v. xix. ff.; romans bring in provisions by it, vi. vii. ff; description of its mouths, v. xxvi. - ; navigable, v. xxvi. ; freight traffic on, v. xxvi. - ; its tortuous course, v. xxvi. ; flowed by the wall near the aurelian gate, v. xxii. , vi. ix. ; sewers of rome discharged into it, v. xix. ; bridged in building the wall of rome, v. xix. ; included in the fortifications of rome, v. xix. - ; bridge over, distance from rome, v. xvii. ; fortified by belisarius, v. xvii. ; abandoned by the garrison, v. xvii. tibur, occupied by sinthues and magnus, vi. iv. ; distance from rome, _ibid._ ticinum, strongly fortified city, vi. xii. ; battle fought near, vi. xii. , totila, ruler of the goths, v. xxiv. trajan, bodyguard of belisarius; makes a successful attack upon the goths, v. xxvii. ff.; sent to taracina, vi. iv. ; which he occupies with martinus, vi. iv. ; summoned back to rome, vi. v. ; sent against the goths, vi. v. , ; in the battle at the pincian gate, vi. v. ; his strange wound, vi. v. - transtiburtine gate, threatened by a gothic camp, v. xix. tria fata, near the temple of janus in rome, v. xxv. tripolis, ashes from vesuvius fell in, vi. iv. troy, a man of troy, v. xv. ; see also ilium tudera, town in italy, garrisoned by vittigis; vi. xi. ; surrenders to belisarius, vi. xiii. , ; garrisoned by him, vi. xiii. tuscan sea, south of gaul, v. xii. , ; distance from ravenna, v. xv. tuscans, accuse theodatus before amalasuntha, v. iv. ; welcome constantinus into their cities, v. xvi. tuscany, extending from aemilia to the boundaries of rome, v. xv. ; most of its lands owned by theodatus, v. iii. , ; who plans to hand it over to justinian, v. iii. , iv. ; invaded by constantinus, v. xvi. ff.; its cities: genoa, vi. xii. ; narnia, v. xvi. ; spolitium and perusia, v. xvi. ; clusium, vi. xi. ; centumcellae, vi. vii. , ; its lake vulsina, v. iv. tydeus, father of diomedes, v. xv. uliaris, a goth, in command of naples, v. iii. ulias, a goth, given as a hostage, vi. vii. uligisalus, sent to dalmatia, v. xvi. ; enters liburnia alone, v. xvi. ; defeated, retires to burnus, v. xvi. ; proceeds with asinarius to salones, v. xvi. ; stationed in tudera, vi. xi. ulimuth, of thrace, bodyguard of belisarius; renders signal service at ancon, vi. xiii. , ulitheus, uncle of vittigis, defeated and killed by john, vi. x. unilas, gothic commander; sent into tuscany, v. xvi. ; defeated and captured, v. xvi. , uraïas, gothic commander; sent into liguria, vi. xii. ; nephew of vittigis, _ibid._ urbinus, city in picenum, vi. x. ; passed by john, vi. x. , ; garrisoned by vittigis, vi. xi. ursicinus, roman commander of infantry, v. v. , xxiii. urviventus, town near rome; garrisoned by vittigis, vi. xi. vacimus, gothic commander; sent against ancon, vi. xiii. , vacis, a goth, sent to the salarian gate to harangue the romans, v. xviii. - valentinian, roman emperor; slain by maximus, v. xxv. valentinus, roman commander of cavalry, v. v. ; sent to the plain of nero by belisarius, v. xxviii. , ; unable to control his troops, v. xxix. valentinus, groom of photius; fights valiantly, v. xviii. valerian, roman commander; sent to italy, v. xxiv. ; winters in aetolia, v. xxiv. ; ordered to hasten to rome, v. xxiv. ; arrives in rome, v. xxvii. ; sent out against the goths by belisarius, v. xxvii. ; sent to the plain of nero, vi. ii. ; fights there with varying fortune, vi. ii. ff.; with martinus rescues bochas, vi. ii. ; establishes a camp at the church of paul, vi. iv. ; returns to the city, vi. iv. ; with ildiger seizes constantinus, vi. viii. ; uncle of damian, vi. vii. ; his bodyguard gouboulgoudou, vi. xiii. vandalarius, see visandus vandals in africa; their overthrow, v. iii. , v. , xxix. varni, a barbarian nation, vi. xv. veneti, their territory adjoining istria, and extending to ravenna, v. xv. venetia, held by the goths, v. xi. vergentinus, roman senator; escapes execution by flight, v. xxvi. vesuvius, threatens an eruption, vi. iv. ; description of the mountain, vi. iv. - ; distance from naples, vi. iv. ; its heavy ash showers, vi. iv. - ; periodicity of its eruptions, vi. iv. ; its fertility, vi. iv. ; its salubrious atmosphere, vi. iv. vigilius, appointed chief priest of rome, v. xxv. ; brother of reparatus, v. xxvi. visandus vandalarius, a goth; distinguished for his bravery at the battle of the mulvian bridge, v. xviii. ; his unexpected recovery, v. xviii. - ; stationed at auximus, vi. xi. visandus, erulian commander, vi. xiii. visigoths, occupy all of spain and part of gaul, v. xii. ; their ruler alaric the younger, v. xii. ; form close alliance with theoderic, v. xii. , ; attacked by the franks, v. xii. ; encamp against them, v. xii. ; compel alaric to fight, v. xii. - ; defeated in battle, v. xii. ; choose giselic as king, v. xii. ; amalaric becomes king over them, v. xii. ; mingle with the goths, v. xii. ; separate from them, v. xiii. , ; defeated by the franks, v. xiii. ; withdraw from gaul to spain, v. xiii. vitalian, the tyrant, uncle of john, vi. v. , vii. vittigis, chosen king of the goths, v. xi. ; his good birth and military achievements, _ibid._; sends optaris in pursuit of theodatus, v. xi. ; imprisons the son of theodatus, v. xi. ; advises withdrawal to ravenna, v. xi. ff.; withdraws to ravenna, leaving a garrison in rome, v. xi. ; unable to recall the goths from gaul, v. xiii. ; addresses the goths, v. xiii. - ; forms an alliance with the franks, v. xiii. - ; summons marcias from gaul, v. xiii. ; sends an army against the romans in tuscany, v. xvi. ; eager to leave ravenna, but prevented by the absence of marcias, v. xvi. , ; sends an army to dalmatia, v. xvi. , ; finally moves against rome, v. xvi. ; his feverish haste, v. xvi. , , xvii. ; refrains from attacking perusia, spolitium, and narnia, v. xvii. , ; advances through sabine territory, v. xvii. ; halts at the tiber, v. xvii. ; sends vacis to the salarian gate, v. xviii. ; commands one gothic camp, v. xix. ; his name given in play to one of the samnite children, v. xx. - ; sends envoys to belisarius, v. xx. ; hears their report, v. xxi. ; prepares to storm the wall, v. xxi. , ; constructs engines of war, v. xxi. - ; makes a general assault on the wall, v. xxii. ff.; leads an attack on the vivarium, v. xxii. ff.; where he presses the romans hard, v. xxiii. ; breaks down the outer wall, v. xxiii. , ; his attacking force cut to pieces, v. xxiii. - ; kills roman senators, v. xxvi. ; seizes portus, v. xxvi. , ; tries to use roman tactics on belisarius, v. xxvii. - ; prepares for battle and addresses his army, v. xxix. - ; commands in person at the great battle, v. xxix. ff.; allows portus to be abandoned, vi. vii. , ; investigates the aqueduct, vi. ix. ff.; tries a new stratagem, vi. ix. ff.; alarmed for ravenna, abandons rome, vi. x. , , ; marches to ariminum, leaving garrisons in certain towns vi. xi. - ; besieges ariminum, vi. xii. ff.; sends an army into liguria, vi. xii. ; receives frankish allies, vi. xii. ; belisarius marches against him, vi. xiii. ; sends an army against ancon, vi. xiii. ; uncle of uraïas, vi. xii. ; nephew of ulitheus, vi. x. ; husband of matasuntha, v. xi. , vi. x. vivarium, an enclosure in the walls of rome, v. xxii. ; built for the keeping of wild animals, v. xxiii. ; a very vulnerable point in the wall, v. xxiii. , ; attacked by vittigis, v. xxii. , , xxiii. - ; successfully defended under the direction of belisarius, v. xxiii. - vulsina, lake in tuscany; amalasuntha imprisoned there, v. iv. wild ass, an engine used for throwing stones, v. xxi. , wolf, a contrivance used by belisarius for guarding the gates of rome, v. xxi. - zarter, a massagete, bodyguard of belisarius, sent into tuscany, v. xvi. zeno, emperor of the east, v. i. ; persuades theoderic to attack odoacer, v. i. , vi. vi. , zeno, a roman commander of cavalry, vi. v. ; given as a hostage, vi. vii. transcriber's notes: in this text edition, the dated sidenotes were replaced with lettered footnotes with the references following the paragraph in which they land. obvious punctuation errors repaired. chapter xxiii, footnote : "cap." changed to "chap." page , "dryous" changed to "dryus". (who landed at dryus) page , "seven" changed to "six". (establish six camps) index: the following words were changed so that the index matched what was actually in the text. original changed index to "aclyinus" "aquilinus" "aegypt" "egypt" "peter" "pastor" (under asclepiodotus) "giselicus" "giselic"(under alaric and giselic) "aquilea" "aquileia" "bandalarius" "vandalarius" (under vandalarius and visandus) "chorsomantis" "chorsamantis" "diomed" "diomedes" (twice under beneventus) "messina" "messana" (under charybdis and scylla) "chersonnesus" "chersonese" "rudolphus" "rodolophus"(under lombards) "viselicus" "giselic"(under visigoths) "uraias" "uraïas" body-guard used four times in the a section in index changed to bodyguard to conform to text. anabasis by xenophon translation by h. g. dakyns dedicated to rev. b. jowett, m.a. master of balliol college regius professor of greek in the university of oxford xenophon the athenian was born b.c. he was a pupil of socrates. he marched with the spartans, and was exiled from athens. sparta gave him land and property in scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in corinth. he died in b.c. the anabasis is his story of the march to persia to aid cyrus, who enlisted greek help to try and take the throne from artaxerxes, and the ensuing return of the greeks, in which xenophon played a leading role. this occurred between b.c. and march b.c. preparer's note this was typed from dakyns' series, "the works of xenophon," a four-volume set. the complete list of xenophon's works (though there is doubt about some of these) is: work number of books the anabasis the hellenica the cyropaedia the memorabilia the symposium the economist on horsemanship the sportsman the cavalry general the apology on revenues the hiero the agesilaus the polity of the athenians and the lacedaemonians text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of greek text into english using an oxford english dictionary alphabet table. the diacritical marks have been lost. anabasis by xenophon anabasis book i i. darius and parysatis had two sons: the elder was named artaxerxes, and the younger cyrus. now, as darius lay sick and felt that the end of life drew near, he wished both his sons to be with him. the elder, as it chanced, was already there, but cyrus he must needs send for from the province over which he had made him satrap, having appointed him general moreover of all the forces that muster in the plain of the castolus. thus cyrus went up, taking with him tissaphernes as his friend, and accompanied also by a body of hellenes, three hundred heavy armed men, under the command of xenias the parrhasian ( ). ( ) parrhasia, a district and town in the south-west of arcadia. now when darius was dead, and artaxerxes was established in the kingdom, tissaphernes brought slanderous accusations against cyrus before his brother, the king, of harbouring designs against him. and artaxerxes, listening to the words of tissaphernes, laid hands upon cyrus, desiring to put him to death; but his mother made intercession for him, and sent him back again in safety to his province. he then, having so escaped through peril and dishonour, fell to considering, not only how he might avoid ever again being in his brother's power, but how, if possible, he might become king in his stead. parysatis, his mother, was his first resource; for she had more love for cyrus than for artaxerxes upon his throne. moreover cyrus's behaviour towards all who came to him from the king's court was such that, when he sent them away again, they were better friends to himself than to the king his brother. nor did he neglect the barbarians in his own service; but trained them, at once to be capable as warriors and devoted adherents of himself. lastly, he began collecting his hellenic armament, but with the utmost secrecy, so that he might take the king as far as might be at unawares. the manner in which he contrived the levying of the troops was as follows: first, he sent orders to the commandants of garrisons in the cities (so held by him), bidding them to get together as large a body of picked peloponnesian troops as they severally were able, on the plea that tissaphernes was plotting against their cities; and truly these cities of ionia had originally belonged to tissaphernes, being given to him by the king; but at this time, with the exception of miletus, they had all revolted to cyrus. in miletus, tissaphernes, having become aware of similar designs, had forestalled the conspirators by putting some to death and banishing the remainder. cyrus, on his side, welcomed these fugitives, and having collected an army, laid siege to miletus by sea and land, endeavouring to reinstate the exiles; and this gave him another pretext for collecting an armament. at the same time he sent to the king, and claimed, as being the king's brother, that these cities should be given to himself rather than that tissaphernes should continue to govern them; and in furtherance of this end, the queen, his mother, co-operated with him, so that the king not only failed to see the design against himself, but concluded that cyrus was spending his money on armaments in order to make war on tissaphernes. nor did it pain him greatly to see the two at war together, and the less so because cyrus was careful to remit the tribute due to the king from the cities which belonged to tissaphernes. a third army was being collected for him in the chersonese, over against abydos, the origin of which was as follows: there was a lacedaemonian exile, named clearchus, with whom cyrus had become associated. cyrus admired the man, and made him a present of ten thousand darics ( ). clearchus took the gold, and with the money raised an army, and using the chersonese as his base of operations, set to work to fight the thracians north of the hellespont, in the interests of the hellenes, and with such happy result that the hellespontine cities, of their own accord, were eager to contribute funds for the support of his troops. in this way, again, an armament was being secretly maintained for cyrus. ( ) a persian gold coin = . grains of gold. then there was the thessalian aristippus, cyrus's friend ( ), who, under pressure of the rival political party at home, had come to cyrus and asked him for pay for two thousand mercenaries, to be continued for three months, which would enable him, he said, to gain the upper hand of his antagonists. cyrus replied by presenting him with six months' pay for four thousand mercenaries--only stipulating that aristippus should not come to terms with his antagonists without final consultation with himself. in this way he secured to himself the secret maintenance of a fourth armament. ( ) lit. "guest-friend." aristippus was, as we learn from the "meno" of plato, a native of larisa, of the family of the aleuadae, and a pupil of gorgias. he was also a lover of menon, whom he appears to have sent on this expedition instead of himself. further, he bade proxenus, a boeotian, who was another friend, get together as many men as possible, and join him in an expedition which he meditated against the pisidians ( ), who were causing annoyance to his territory. similarly two other friends, sophaenetus the stymphalian ( ), and socrates the achaean, had orders to get together as many men as possible and come to him, since he was on the point of opening a campaign, along with milesian exiles, against tissaphernes. these orders were duly carried out by the officers in question. ( ) lit. "into the country of the pisidians." ( ) of stymphalus in arcadia. ii but when the right moment seemed to him to have come, at which he should begin his march into the interior, the pretext which he put forward was his desire to expel the pisidians utterly out of the country; and he began collecting both his asiatic and his hellenic armaments, avowedly against that people. from sardis in each direction his orders sped: to clearchus, to join him there with the whole of his army; to aristippus, to come to terms with those at home, and to despatch to him the troops in his employ; to xenias the arcadian, who was acting as general-in-chief of the foreign troops in the cities, to present himself with all the men available, excepting only those who were actually needed to garrison the citadels. he next summoned the troops at present engaged in the siege of miletus, and called upon the exiles to follow him on his intended expedition, promising them that if he were successful in his object, he would not pause until he had reinstated them in their native city. to this invitation they hearkened gladly; they believed in him; and with their arms they presented themselves at sardis. so, too, xenias arrived at sardis with the contingent from the cities, four thousand hoplites; proxenus, also, with fifteen hundred hoplites and five hundred light-armed troops; sophaenetus the stymphalian, with one thousand hoplites; socrates the achaean, with five hundred hoplites; while the megarion pasion came with three hundred hoplites and three hundred peltasts ( ). this latter officer, as well as socrates, belonged to the force engaged against miletus. these all joined him at sardis. ( ) "targeteers" armed with a light shield instead of the larger one of the hoplite, or heavy infantry soldier. iphicrates made great use of this arm at a later date. but tissaphernes did not fail to note these proceedings. an equipment so large pointed to something more than an invasion of pisidia: so he argued; and with what speed he might, he set off to the king, attended by about five hundred horse. the king, on his side, had no sooner heard from tissaphernes of cyrus's great armament, than he began to make counter-preparations. thus cyrus, with the troops which i have named, set out from sardis, and marched on and on through lydia three stages, making two-and-twenty parasangs ( ), to the river maeander. that river is two hundred feet ( ) broad, and was spanned by a bridge consisting of seven boats. crossing it, he marched through phrygia a single stage, of eight parasangs, to colossae, an inhabited city ( ), prosperous and large. here he remained seven days, and was joined by menon the thessalian, who arrived with one thousand hoplites and five hundred peltasts, dolopes, aenianes, and olynthians. from this place he marched three stages, twenty parasangs in all, to celaenae, a populous city of phrygia, large and prosperous. here cyrus owned a palace and a large park ( ) full of wild beasts, which he used to hunt on horseback, whenever he wished to give himself or his horses exercise. through the midst of the park flows the river maeander, the sources of which are within the palace buildings, and it flows through the city of celaenae. the great king also has a palace in celaenae, a strong place, on the sources of another river, the marsyas, at the foot of the acropolis. this river also flows through the city, discharging itself into the maeander, and is five-and-twenty feet broad. here is the place where apollo is said to have flayed marsyas, when he had conquered him in the contest of skill. he hung up the skin of the conquered man, in the cavern where the spring wells forth, and hence the name of the river, marsyas. it was on this site that xerxes, as tradition tells, built this very palace, as well as the citadel of celaenae itself, on his retreat from hellas, after he had lost the famous battle. here cyrus remained for thirty days, during which clearchus the lacedaemonian arrived with one thousand hoplites and eight hundred thracian peltasts and two hundred cretan archers. at the same time, also, came sosis the syracusian with three thousand hoplites, and sophaenetus the arcadian ( ) with one thousand hoplites; and here cyrus held a review, and numbered his hellenes in the park, and found that they amounted in all to eleven thousand hoplites and about two thousand peltasts. ( ) the persian "farsang" = stades, nearly league, / statute miles, though not of uniform value in all parts of asia. ( ) "two plethra": the plethron = about english feet. ( ) lit. "inhabited," many of the cities of asia being then as now deserted, but the suggestion is clearly at times "thickly inhabited," "populous." ( ) lit. "paradise," an oriental word = park or pleasure ground. ( ) perhaps this should be agias the arcadian, as mr. macmichael suggests. sophaenetus has already been named above. from this place he continued his march two stages--ten parasangs--to the populous city of peltae, where he remained three days; while xenias, the arcadian, celebrated the lycaea ( ) with sacrifice, and instituted games. the prizes were headbands of gold; and cyrus himself was a spectator of the contest. from this place the march was continued two stages--twelve parasangs--to ceramon-agora, a populous city, the last on the confines of mysia. thence a march of three stages--thirty parasangs--brought him to caystru-pedion ( ), a populous city. here cyrus halted five days; and the soldiers, whose pay was now more than three months in arrear, came several times to the palace gates demanding their dues; while cyrus put them off with fine words and expectations, but could not conceal his vexation, for it was not his fashion to stint payment, when he had the means. at this point epyaxa, the wife of syennesis, the king of the cilicians, arrived on a visit to cyrus; and it was said that cyrus received a large gift of money from the queen. at this date, at any rate, cyrus gave the army four months' pay. the queen was accompanied by a bodyguard of cilicians and aspendians; and, if report speaks truly, cyrus had intimate relations with the queen. ( ) the lycaea, an arcadian festival in honour of zeus {arcaios}, akin to the roman lupercalia, which was originally a shepherd festival, the introduction of which the romans ascribe to the arcadian evander. ( ) lit. "plain of the cayster," like ceramon-agora, "the market of the ceramians" above, the name of a town. from this place he marched two stages--ten parasangs--to thymbrium, a populous city. here, by the side of the road, is the spring of midas, the king of phrygia, as it is called, where midas, as the story goes, caught the satyr by drugging the spring with wine. from this place he marched two stages--ten parasangs--to tyriaeum, a populous city. here he halted three days; and the cilician queen, according to the popular account, begged cyrus to exhibit his armament for her amusement. the latter being only too glad to make such an exhibition, held a review of the hellenes and barbarians in the plain. he ordered the hellenes to draw up their lines and post themselves in their customary battle order, each general marshalling his own battalion. accordingly they drew up four-deep. the right was held by menon and those with him; the left by clearchus and his men; the centre by the remaining generals with theirs. cyrus first inspected the barbarians, who marched past in troops of horses and companies of infantry. he then inspected the hellenes; driving past them in his chariot, with the queen in her carriage. and they all had brass helmets and purple tunics, and greaves, and their shields uncovered ( ). ( ) i.e. ready for action, c.f. "bayonets fixed". after he had driven past the whole body, he drew up his chariot in front of the centre of the battle-line, and sent his interpreter pigres to the generals of the hellenes, with orders to present arms and to advance along the whole line. this order was repeated by the generals to their men; and at the sound of the bugle, with shields forward and spears in rest, they advanced to meet the enemy. the pace quickened, and with a shout the soldiers spontaneously fell into a run, making in the direction of the camp. great was the panic of the barbarians. the cilician queen in her carriage turned and fled; the sutlers in the marketing place left their wares and took to their heels; and the hellenes meanwhile came into camp with a roar of laughter. what astounded the queen was the brilliancy and order of the armament; but cyrus was pleased to see the terror inspired by the hellenes in the hearts of the asiatics. from this place he marched on three stages--twenty parasangs--to iconium, the last city of phrygia, where he remained three days. thence he marched through lycaonia five stages--thirty parasangs. this was hostile country, and he gave it over to the hellenes to pillage. at this point cyrus sent back the cilician queen to her own country by the quickest route; and to escort her he sent the soldiers of menon, and menon himself. with the rest of the troops he continued his march through cappadocia four stages--twenty-five parasangs--to dana, a populous city, large and flourishing. here they halted three days, within which interval cyrus put to death, on a charge of conspiracy, a persian nobleman named megaphernes, a wearer of the royal purple; and along with him another high dignitary among his subordinate commanders. from this place they endeavoured to force a passage into cilicia. now the entrance was by an exceedingly steep cart-road, impracticable for an army in face of a resisting force; and report said that syennesis was on the summit of the pass guarding the approach. accordingly they halted a day in the plain; but next day came a messenger informing them that syenesis had left the pass; doubtless, after perceiving that menon's army was already in cilicia on his own side of the mountains; and he had further been informed that ships of war, belonging to the lacedaemonians and to cyrus himself, with tamos on board as admiral, were sailing round from ionia to cilicia. whatever the reason might be, cyrus made his way up into the hills without let or hindrance, and came in sight of the tents where the cilicians were on guard. from that point he descended gradually into a large and beautiful plain country, well watered, and thickly covered with trees of all sorts and vines. this plain produces sesame plentifully, as also panic and millet and barley and wheat; and it is shut in on all sides by a steep and lofty wall of mountains from sea to sea. descending through this plain country, he advanced four stages--twenty-five parasangs--to tarsus, a large and prosperous city of cilicia. here stood the palace of syennesis, the king of the country; and through the middle of the city flows a river called the cydnus, two hundred feet broad. they found that the city had been deserted by its inhabitants, who had betaken themselves, with syennesis, to a strong place on the hills. all had gone, except the tavern-keepers. the sea-board inhabitants of soli and issi also remained. now epyaxa, syennesis's queen, had reached tarsus five days in advance of cyrus. during their passage over the mountains into the plain, two companies of menon's army were lost. some said they had been cut down by the cilicians, while engaged on some pillaging affair; another account was that they had been left behind, and being unable to overtake the main body, or discover the route, had gone astray and perished. however it was, they numbered one hundred hoplites; and when the rest arrived, being in a fury at the destruction of their fellow soldiers, they vented their spleen by pillaging the city of tarsus and the palace to boot. now when cyrus had marched into the city, he sent for syennesis to come to him; but the latter replied that he had never yet put himself into the hands of any one who was his superior, nor was he willing to accede to the proposal of cyrus now; until, in the end, his wife persuaded him, and he accepted pledges of good faith. after this they met, and syennesis gave cyrus large sums in aid of his army; while cyrus presented him with the customary royal gifts--to wit, a horse with a gold bit, a necklace of gold, a gold bracelet, and a gold scimitar, a persian dress, and lastly, the exemption of his territory from further pillage, with the privilege of taking back the slaves that had been seized, wherever they might chance to come upon them. iii at tarsus cyrus and his army halted for twenty days; the soldiers refusing to advance further, since the suspicion ripened in their minds, that the expedition was in reality directed against the king; and as they insisted, they had not engaged their services for that object. clearchus set the example of trying to force his men to continue their march; but he had no sooner started at the head of his troops than they began to pelt him and his baggage train, and clearchus had a narrow escape of being stoned to death there and then. later on, when he perceived that force was useless, he summoned an assembly of his own men; and for a long while he stood and wept, while the men gazed in silent astonishment. at last he spoke as follows: "fellow soldiers, do not marvel that i am sorely distressed on account of the present troubles. cyrus has been no ordinary friend to me. when i was in banishment he honoured me in various ways, and made me also a present of ten thousand darics. these i accepted, but not to lay them up for myself for private use; not to squander them in pleasure, but to expend them on yourselves. and, first of all, i went to war with the thracians, and with you to aid, i wreaked vengeance on them in behalf of hellas; driving them out of the chersonese, when they wanted to deprive its hellenic inhabitants of their lands. but as soon as cyrus summoned me, i took you with me and set out, so that, if my benefactor had any need of me, i might requite him for the good treatment i myself had received at his hands.... but since you are not minded to continue the march with me, one of two things is left to me to do; either i must renounce you for the sake of my friendship with cyrus, or i must go with you at the cost of deceiving him. whether i am about to do right or not, i cannot say, but i choose yourselves; and, whatever betide, i mean to share your fate. never shall it be said of me by any one that, having led greek troops against the barbarians ( ), i betrayed the hellenes, and chose the friendship of the barbarian. no! since you do not choose to obey and follow me, i will follow after you. whatever betide, i will share your fate. i look upon you as my country, my friends, my allies; with you i think i shall be honoured, wherever i be; without you i do not see how i can help a friend or hurt a foe. my decision is taken. wherever you go, i go also." ( ) lit. "into the country of the barbarian." such were his words. but the soldiers, not only his own, but the rest also, when they heard what he said, and how he had scouted the idea of going up to the great king's palace ( ), expressed their approval; and more than two thousand men deserted xenias and pasion, and took their arms and baggage-train, and came and encamped with clearchus. but cyrus, in despair and vexation at this turn of affairs, sent for clearchus. he refused to come; but, without the knowledge of the soldiers, sent a message to cyrus, bidding him keep a good heart, for that all would arrange itself in the right way; and bade him keep on sending for him, whilst he himself refused to go. after that he got together his own men, with those who had joined him, and of the rest any who chose to come, and spoke as follows: "fellow soldiers, it is clear that the relations of cyrus to us are identical with ours to him. we are no longer his soldiers, since we have ceased to follow him; and he, on his side, is no longer our paymaster. he, however, no doubt considers himself wronged by us; and though he goes on sending for me, i cannot bring myself to go to him: for two reasons, chiefly from a sense of shame, for i am forced to admit to myself that i have altogether deceived him; but partly, too, because i am afraid of his seizing me and inflicting a penalty on the wrongs which he conceives that i have done him. in my opinion, then, this is no time for us to go to sleep and forget all about ourselves, rather it is high time to deliberate on our next move; and as long as we do remain here, we had better bethink us how we are to abide in security; or, if we are resolved to turn our backs at once, what will be the safest means of retreat; and, further, how we are to procure supplies, for without supplies there is no profit whatsoever in the general or the private soldier. the man with whom we have to deal is an excellent friend to his friends, but a very dangerous enemy to his foes. and he is backed by a force of infantry and cavalry and ships such as we all alike very well see and know, since we can hardly be said to have posted ourselves at any great distance from him. if, then, any one has a suggestion to make, now is the time to speak." with these words he ceased. ( ) or "how he insisted that he was not going up." then various speakers stood up; some of their own motion to propound their views; others inspired by clearchus to dilate on the hopeless difficulty of either staying, or going back without the goodwill of cyrus. one of these, in particular, with a make-believe of anxiety to commence the homeward march without further pause, called upon them instantly to choose other generals, if clearchus were not himself prepared to lead them back: "let them at once purchase supplies" (the market being in the heart of the asiatic camp), "let them pack up their baggage: let them," he added, "go to cyrus and ask for some ships in order to return by sea: if he refused to give them ships, let them demand of him a guide to lead them back through a friendly district; and if he would not so much as give them a guide, they could but put themselves, without more ado, in marching order, and send on a detachment to occupy the pass--before cyrus and the cilicians, whose property," the speaker added, "we have so plentifully pillaged, can anticipate us." such were the remarks of that speaker; he was followed by clearchus, who merely said: "as to my acting personally as general at this season, pray do not propose it: i can see numerous obstacles to my doing so. obedience, in the fullest, i can render to the man of your choice, that is another matter: and you shall see and know that i can play my part, under command, with the best of you." after clearchus another spokesman stood up, and proceeded to point out the simplicity of the speaker, who proposed to ask for vessels, just as if cyrus were minded to renounce the expedition and sail back again. "and let me further point out," he said, "what a simple-minded notion it is to beg a guide of the very man whose designs we are marring. if we can trust any guide whom cyrus may vouchsafe to us, why not order cyrus at once to occupy the pass on our behoof? for my part, i should think twice before i set foot on any ships that he might give us, for fear lest he should sink them with his men-of-war; and i should equally hesitate to follow any guide of his: he might lead us into some place out of which we should find it impossible to escape. i should much prefer, if i am to return home against the will of cyrus at all, to give him the slip, and so begone: which indeed is impossible. but these schemes are simply nonsensical. my proposal is that a deputation of fit persons, with clearchus, should go to cyrus: let them go to cyrus and ask him: what use he proposes to make of us? and if the business is at all similar to that on which he once before employed a body of foreigners--let us by all means follow: let us show that we are the equals of those who accompanied him on his march up formerly. but if the design should turn out to be of larger import than the former one--involving more toil and more danger--we should ask him, either to give us good reasons for following his lead, or else consent to send us away into a friendly country. in this way, whether we follow him, we shall do so as friends, and with heart and soul, or whether we go back, we shall do so in security. the answer to this shall be reported to us here, and when we have heard it, we will advise as to our best course." this resolution was carried, and they chose and sent a deputation with clearchus, who put to cyrus the questions which had been agreed upon by the army. cyrus replied as follows: that he had received news that abrocomas, an enemy of his, was posted on the euphrates, twelve stages off; his object was to march against this aforesaid abrocomas: and if he were still there, he wished to inflict punishment on him, "or if he be fled" (so the reply concluded), "we will there deliberate on the best course." the deputation received the answer and reported it to the soldiers. the suspicion that he was leading them against the king was not dispelled; but it seemed best to follow him. they only demanded an increase of pay, and cyrus promised to give them half as much again as they had hitherto received--that is to say, a daric and a half a month to each man, instead of a daric. was he really leading them to attack the king? not even at this moment was any one apprised of the fact, at any rate in any open and public manner. iv from this point he marched two stages--ten parasangs--to the river psarus, which is two hundred feet broad, and from the psarus he marched a single stage--five parasangs--to issi, the last city in cilicia. it lies on the seaboard--a prosperous, large and flourishing town. here they halted three days, and here cyrus was joined by his fleet. there were thirty-five ships from peloponnesus, with the lacedaemonian admiral pythagoras on board. these had been piloted from ephesus by tamos the egyptian, who himself had another fleet of twenty-five ships belonging to cyrus. these had formed tamos's blockading squadron at miletus, when that city sided with tissaphernes; he had also used them in other military services rendered to cyrus in his operations against that satrap. there was a third officer on board the fleet, the lacedaemonian cheirisophus, who had been sent for by cyrus, and had brought with him seven hundred hoplites, over whom he was to act as general in the service of cyrus. the fleet lay at anchor opposite cyrus's tent. here too another reinforcement presented itself. this was a body of four hundred hoplites, hellenic mercenaries in the service of abrocomas, who deserted him for cyrus, and joined in the campaign against the king. from issi, he marched a single stage--five parasangs--to the gates of cilicia and syria. this was a double fortress: the inner and nearer one, which protects cilicia, was held by syennesis and a garrison of cilicians; the outer and further one, protecting syria, was reported to be garrisoned by a body of the king's troops. through the gap between the two fortresses flows a river named the carsus, which is a hundred feet broad, and the whole space between was scarcely more than six hundred yards. to force a passage here would be impossible, so narrow was the pass itself, with the fortification walls stretching down to the sea, and precipitous rocks above; while both fortresses were furnished with gates. it was the existence of this pass which had induced cyrus to send for the fleet, so as to enable him to lead a body of hoplites inside and outside the gates; and so to force a passage through the enemy, if he were guarding the syrian gate, as he fully expected to find abrocomas doing with a large army. this, however, abrocomas had not done; but as soon as he learnt that cyrus was in cilicia, he had turned round and made his exit from phoenicia, to join the king with an army amounting, as report said, to three hundred thousand men. from this point cyrus pursued his march, through syria a single stage--five parasangs--to myriandus, a city inhabited by phoenicians, on the sea-coast. this was a commercial port, and numerous merchant vessels were riding at anchor in the harbour. here they halted seven days, and here xenias the arcadian general, and pasion the megarian got on board a trader, and having stowed away their most valuable effects, set sail for home; most people explained the act as the outcome of a fit of jealousy, because cyrus had allowed clearchus to retain their men, who had deserted to him, in hopes of returning to hellas instead of marching against the king; when the two had so vanished, a rumour spread that cyrus was after them with some ships of war, and some hoped the cowards might be caught, others pitied them, if that should be their fate. but cyrus summoned the generals and addressed them: "xenias and pasion," he said, "have taken leave of us; but they need not flatter themselves that in so doing they have stolen into hiding. i know where they are gone; nor will they owe their escape to speed; i have men-of-war to capture their craft, if i like. but heaven help me! if i mean to pursue them: never shall it be said of me, that i turn people to account as long as they stay with me, but as soon as they are minded to be off, i seize and maltreat them, and strip them of their wealth. not so! let them go with the consciousness that our behaviour to them is better than theirs to us. and yet i have their children and wives safe under lock and key in tralles; but they shall not be deprived even of these. they shall receive them back in return for their former goodness to me." so he spoke, and the hellenes, even those who had been out of heart at the thought of marching up the country, when they heard of the nobleness of cyrus, were happier and more eager to follow him on his path. after this cyrus marched onwards four stages--twenty parasangs--to the river chalus. that river is a hundred feet broad, and is stocked with tame fish which the syrians regard as gods, and will not suffer to be injured--and so too the pigeons of the place. the villages in which they encamped belonged to parysatis, as part of her girdle money ( ). from this point he marched on five stages--thirty parasangs--to the sources of the river dardas, which is a hundred feet broad. here stood the palace of belesys, the ruler of syria, with its park--which was a very large and beautiful one, and full of the products of all the seasons in their course. but cyrus cut down the park and burnt the palace. thence he marched on three stages--fifteen parasangs--to the river euphrates, which is nearly half a mile broad. a large and flourishing city, named thapsacus, stands on its banks. here they halted five days, and here cyrus sent for the generals of the hellenes, and told them that the advance was now to be upon babylon, against the great king; he bade them communicate this information to the soldiers and persuade them to follow. the generals called an assembly, and announced the news to the soldiers. the latter were indignant and angry with the generals, accusing them of having kept secret what they had long known; and refused to go, unless such a bribe of money were given them as had been given to their predecessors, when they went up with cyrus to the court of his father, not as now to fight a battle, but on a peaceful errand--the visit of a son to his father by invitation. the demand was reported to cyrus by the generals, and he undertook to give each man five silver minae as soon as babylon was reached, and their pay in full, until he had safely conveyed them back to ionia again. in this manner the hellenic force were persuaded--that is to say, the majority of them. menon, indeed, before it was clear what the rest of the soldiers would do--whether, in fact they would follow cyrus or not--collected his own troops apart and made them the following speech; "men," he said, "if you will listen to me, there is a method by which, without risk or toil, you may win the special favour of cyrus beyond the rest of the soldiers. you ask what it is i would have you to do? i will tell you. cyrus at this instant is begging the hellenes to follow him to attack the king. i say then: cross the euphrates at once, before it is clear what answer the rest will make; if they vote in favour of following, you will get the credit of having set the example, and cyrus will be grateful to you. he will look upon you as being the heartiest in his cause; he will repay, as of all others he best knows how; while, if the rest vote against crossing, we shall go back again; but as the sole adherents, whose fidelity he can altogether trust, it is you whom cyrus will turn to account, as commandants of garrisons or captains of companies. you need only ask him for whatever you want, and you will get it from him, as being the friends of cyrus." ( ) cf. plat. "alcib." i. b. "why, i have been informed by a credible person, who went up to the king (at susa), that he passed through a large tract of excellent land, extending for nearly a day's journey, which the people of the country called the queen's girdle, and another which they called her veil," etc. olympiodorus and the scholiast both think that plato here refers to xenophon and this passage of the "anabasis." grote thinks it very probable that plato had in his mind xenophon (either his "anabasis" or personal communications with him). the men heard and obeyed, and before the rest had given their answer, they were already across. but when cyrus perceived that menon's troops had crossed, he was well pleased, and he sent glus to the division in question, with this message: "soldiers, accept my thanks at present; eventually you shall thank me. i will see to that, or my name is not cyrus." the soldiers therefore could not but pray heartily for his success; so high their hopes ran. but to menon, it was said, he sent gifts with lordly liberality. this done, cyrus proceeded to cross; and in his wake followed the rest of the armament to a man. as they forded, never a man was wetted above the chest: nor ever until this moment, said the men of thapascus, had the river been so crossed on foot, boats had always been required; but these, at the present time, abrocomas, in his desire to hinder cyrus from crossing, had been at pains to burn. thus the passage was looked upon as a thing miraculous; the river had manifestly retired before the face of cyrus, like a courtier bowing to his future king. from this place he continued his march through syria nine stages--fifty parasangs--and they reached the river araxes. here were several villages full of corn and wine; in which they halted three days, and provisioned the army. v thence he marched on through arabia, keeping the euphrates on the right, five desert stages--thirty-five parasangs. in this region the ground was one long level plain, stretching far and wide like the sea, full of absinth; whilst all the other vegetation, whether wood or reed, was sweet scented like spice or sweet herb; there were no trees; but there was wild game of all kinds--wild asses in greatest abundance, with plenty of ostriches; besides these, there were bustards and antelopes. these creatures were occasionally chased by the cavalry. the asses, when pursued, would run forward a space, and then stand still--their pace being much swifter than that of horses; and as soon as the horses came close, they went through the same performance. the only way to catch them was for the riders to post themselves at intervals, and to hunt them in relays, as it were. the flesh of those they captured was not unlike venison, only more tender. no one was lucky enough to capture an ostrich. some of the troopers did give chase, but it had soon to be abandoned; for the bird, in its effort to escape, speedily put a long interval between itself and its pursuers; plying its legs at full speed, and using its wings the while like a sail. the bustards were not so hard to catch when started suddenly; for they only take short flights, like partridges, and are soon tired. their flesh is delicious. as the army wended its way through this region, they reached the river mascas, which is one hundred feet in breadth. here stood a big deserted city called corsote, almost literally environed by the stream, which flows round it in a circle. here they halted three days and provisioned themselves. thence they continued their march thirteen desert stages--ninety parasangs--with the euphrates still on their right, until they reached the gates. on these marches several of the baggage animals perished of hunger, for there was neither grass nor green herb, or tree of any sort; but the country throughout was barren. the inhabitants make their living by quarrying millstones on the river banks, which they work up and take to babylon and sell, purchasing corn in exchange for their goods. corn failed the army, and was not to be got for money, except in the lydian market open in cyrus's asiatic army; where a kapithe of wheat or barley cost four shekels; the shekel being equal to seven and a half attic obols, whilst the kapithe is the equivalent of two attic choeneces ( ), dry measure, so that the soldiers subsisted on meat alone for the whole period. some of the stages were very long, whenever they had to push on to find water or fodder; and once they found themselves involved in a narrow way, where the deep clay presented an obstacle to the progress of the wagons. cyrus, with the nobles about him, halted to superintend the operation, and ordered glus and pigres to take a body of barbarians and to help in extricating the wagons. as they seemed to be slow about the business, he turned round angrily to the persian nobles and bade them lend a hand to force the wagons out. then, if ever, what goes to constitute one branch of good discipline, was to be witnessed. each of those addressed, just where he chanced to be standing, threw off his purple cloak, and flung himself into the work with as much eagerness as if it had been a charge for victory. down a steep hill side they flew, with their costly tunics and embroidered trousers--some with the circlets round their necks, and bracelets on their arms--in an instant, they had sprung into the miry clay, and in less time than one could have conceived, they had landed the wagons safe on terra firma. ( ) the choenix = about quart (or, according to others, / pint). it was the minimum allowance of corn for a man, say a slave, per diem. the spartan was allowed at the public table choenices a day. altogether it was plain that cyrus was bent on pressing on the march, and averse to stoppages, except where he halted for the sake of provisioning or some other necessary object; being convinced that the more rapidly he advanced, the less prepared for battle would he find the king; while the slower his own progress, the larger would be the hostile army which he would find collected. indeed, the attentive observer could see, at a glance, that if the king's empire was strong in its extent of territory and the number of inhabitants, that strength is compensated by an inherent weakness, dependent upon the length of roads and the inevitable dispersion of defensive forces, where an invader insists upon pressing home the war by forced marches. on the opposite side of the euphrates to the point reached on one of these desert stages, was a large and flourishing city named charmande. from this town the soldiers made purchases of provisions, crossing the river on rafts, in the following fashion: they took the skins which they used as tent coverings, and filled them with light grass; they then compressed and stitched them tightly together by the ends, so that the water might not touch the hay. on these they crossed and got provisions: wine made from the date-nut, and millet or panic-corn, the common staple of the country. some dispute or other here occurred between the soldiers of menon and clearchus, in which clearchus sentenced one of menon's men, as the delinquent, and had him flogged. the man went back to his own division and told them. hearing what had been done to their comrade, his fellows fretted and fumed, and were highly incensed against clearchus. the same day clearchus visited the passage of the river, and after inspecting the market there, was returning with a few followers, on horseback, to his tent, and had to pass through menon's quarters. cyrus had not yet come up, but was riding up in the same direction. one of menon's men, who was splitting wood, caught sight of clearchus as he rode past, and aimed a blow at him with his axe. the aim took no effect; when another hurled a stone at him, and a third, and then several, with shouts and hisses. clearchus made a rapid retreat to his own troops, and at once ordered them to get under arms. he bade his hoplites remain in position with their shields resting against their knees, while he, at the head of his thracians and horsemen, of which he had more than forty in his army--thracians for the most part--advanced against menon's soldiers, so that the latter, with menon himself, were panic-stricken, and ran to seize their arms; some even stood riveted to the spot, in perplexity at the occurrence. just then proxenus came up from behind, as chance would have it, with his division of hoplites, and without a moment's hesitation marched into the open space between the rival parties, and grounded arms; then he fell to begging clearchus to desist. the latter was not too well pleased to hear his trouble mildly spoken of, when he had barely escaped being stoned to death; and he bade proxenus retire and leave the intervening space open. at this juncture cyrus arrived and inquired what was happening. there was no time for hesitation. with his javelins firmly grasped in his hands he galloped up--escorted by some of his faithful bodyguard, who were present--and was soon in the midst, exclaiming: "clearchus, proxenus, and you other hellenes yonder, you know not what you do. as surely as you come to blows with one another, our fate is sealed--this very day i shall be cut to pieces, and so will you: your turn will follow close on mine. let our fortunes once take an evil turn, and these barbarians whom you see around will be worse foes to us than those who are at present serving the king." at these words clearchus came to his senses. both parties paused from battle, and retired to their quarters: order reigned. vi as they advanced from this point (opposite charmande), they came upon the hoof-prints and dung of horses at frequent intervals. it looked like the trail of some two thousand horses. keeping ahead of the army, these fellows burnt up the grass and everything else that was good for use. now there was a persian, named orontas; he was closely related to the king by birth: and in matters pertaining to war reckoned among the best of persian warriors. having formerly been at war with cyrus, and afterwards reconciled to him, he now made a conspiracy to destroy him. he made a proposal to cyrus: if cyrus would furnish him with a thousand horsemen, he would deal with these troopers, who were burning down everything in front of them; he would lay an ambuscade and cut them down, or he would capture a host of them alive; in any case, he would put a stop to their aggressiveness and burnings; he would see to it that they did not ever get a chance of setting eyes on cyrus's army and reporting its advent to the king. the proposal seemed plausible to cyrus, who accordingly authorised orontas to take a detachment from each of the generals, and be gone. he, thinking that he had got his horsemen ready to his hand, wrote a letter to the king, announcing that he would ere long join him with as many troopers as he could bring; he bade him, at the same time, instruct the royal cavalry to welcome him as a friend. the letter further contained certain reminders of his former friendship and fidelity. this despatch he delivered into the hands of one who was a trusty messenger, as he thought; but the bearer took and gave it to cyrus. cyrus read it. orontas was arrested. then cyrus summoned to his tent seven of the noblest persians among his personal attendants, and sent orders to the hellenic generals to bring up a body of hoplites. these troops were to take up a position round his tent. this the generals did; bringing up about three thousand hoplites. clearchus was also invited inside, to assist at the court-martial; a compliment due to the position he held among the other generals, in the opinion not only of cyrus, but also of the rest of the court. when he came out, he reported the circumstances of the trial (as to which, indeed, there was no mystery) to his friends. he said that cyrus opened the inquiry with these words: "i have invited you hither, my friends, that i may take advice with you, and carry out whatever, in the sight of god and man, it is right for me to do, as concerning the man before you, orontas. the prisoner was, in the first instance, given to me by my father, to be my faithful subject. in the next place, acting, to use his own words, under the orders of my brother, and having hold of the acropolis of sardis, he went to war with me. i met war with war, and forced him to think it more prudent to desist from war with me: whereupon we shook hands, exchanging solemn pledges. after that," and at this point cyrus turned to orontas, and addressed him personally--"after that, did i do you any wrong?" answer, "never." again another question: "then later on, having received, as you admit, no injury from me, did you revolt to the mysians and injure my territory, as far as in you lay?"--"i did," was the reply. "then, once more having discovered the limits of your power, did you flee to the altar of artemis, crying out that you repented? and did you thus work upon my feelings, that we a second time shook hands and made interchange of solemn pledges? are these things so?" orontas again assented. "then what injury have you received from me," cyrus asked, "that now for the third time, you have been detected in a treasonous plot against me?"--"i must needs do so," he answered. then cyrus put one more question: "but the day may come, may it not, when you will once again be hostile to my brother, and a faithful friend to myself?" the other answered: "even if i were, you could never be brought to believe it, cyrus." at this point cyrus turned to those who were present and said: "such has been the conduct of the prisoner in the past: such is his language now. i now call upon you, and you first, clearchus, to declare your opinion--what think you?" and clearchus answered: "my advice to you is to put this man out of the way as soon as may be, so that we may be saved the necessity of watching him, and have more leisure, as far as he is concerned, to requite the services of those whose friendship is sincere."--"to this opinion," he told us, "the rest of the court adhered." after that, at the bidding of cyrus, each of those present, in turn, including the kinsmen of orontas, took him by the girdle; which is as much as to say, "let him die the death," and then those appointed led him out; and they who in old days were wont to do obeisance to him, could not refrain, even at that moment, from bowing down before him, albeit they knew he was being led forth to death. after they had conducted him to the tent of artapates, the trustiest of cyrus's wand-bearers, none set eyes upon him ever again, alive or dead. no one, of his own knowledge, could declare the manner of his death; though some conjectured one thing and some another. no tomb to mark his resting-place, either then or since, was ever seen. vii from this place cyrus marched through babylonia three stages--twelve parasangs. now, on the third stage, about midnight, cyrus held a review of the hellenes and asiatics in the plain, expecting that the king would arrive the following day with his army to offer battle. he gave orders to clearchus to take command of the right wing, and to menon the thessalian of the left, while he himself undertook to the disposition of his own forces in person. after the review, with the first approach of day, deserters from the great king arrived, bringing cyrus information about the royal army. then cyrus summoned the generals and captains of the hellenes, and held a council of war to arrange the plan of battle. he took this opportunity also to address the following words of compliment and encouragement to the meeting: "men of hellas," he said, "it is certainly not from dearth of barbarians to fight my battles that i put myself at your head as my allies; but because i hold you to be better and stronger than many barbarians. that is why i took you. see then that you prove yourselves to be men worthy of the liberty which you possess, and which i envy you. liberty--it is a thing which, be well assured, i would choose in preference to all my other possessions, multiplied many times. but i would like you to know into what sort of struggle you are going: learn its nature from one who knows. their numbers are great, and they come on with much noise; but if you can hold out against these two things, i confess i am ashamed to think, what a sorry set of folk you will find the inhabitants of this land to be. but you are men, and brave you must be, being men: it is agreed; then if you wish to return home, any of you, i undertake to send you back, in such sort that your friends at home shall envy you; but i flatter myself i shall persuade many of you to accept what i will offer you here, in lieu of what you left at home." here gaulites, a samian exile, and a trusty friend of cyrus, being present, exclaimed: "ay, cyrus, but some say you can afford to make large promises now, because you are in the crisis of impending danger; but let matters go well with you, will you recollect? they shake their heads. indeed, some add that, even if you did recollect, and were ever so willing, you would not be able to make good all your promises, and repay." when cyrus heard that, he answered: "you forget, sirs, my father's empire stretches southwards to a region where men cannot dwell by reason of the heat, and northwards to a region uninhabitable through cold; but all the intervening space is mapped out in satrapies belonging to my brother's friends: so that if the victory be ours, it will be ours also to put our friends in possession in their room. on the whole my fear is, not that i may not have enough to give to each of my friends, but lest i may not have friends enough on whom to bestow what i have to give, and to each of you hellenes i will give a crown of gold." so they, when they heard these words, were once more elated than ever themselves, and spread the good news among the rest outside. and there came into his presence both the generals and some of the other hellenes also, claiming to know what they should have in the event of victory; and cyrus satisfied the expectations of each and all, and so dismissed them. now the advice and admonition of all who came into conversation with him was, not to enter the battle himself, but to post himself in rear of themselves; and at this season clearchus put a question to him: "but do you think that your brother will give battle to you, cyrus?" and cyrus answered: "not without a battle, be assured, shall the prize be won; if he be the son of darius and parysatis, and a brother of mine." in the final arming for battle at this juncture, the numbers were as follows: of hellenes there were ten thousand four hundred heavy infantry with two thousand five hundred targeteers, while the barbarians with cyrus reached a total of one hundred thousand. he had too about twenty scythe-chariots. the enemy's forces were reported to number one million two hundred thousand, with two hundred scythe-chariots, besides which he had six thousand cavalry under artagerses. these formed the immediate vanguard of the king himself. the royal army was marshalled by four generals or field-marshals, each in command of three hundred thousand men. their names were abrocomas, tissaphernes, gobryas, and arbaces. (but of this total not more than nine hundred thousand were engaged in the battle, with one hundred and fifty scythe-chariots; since abrocomas, on his march from phoenicia, arrived five days too late for the battle.) such was the information brought to cyrus by deserters who came in from the king's army before the battle, and it was corroborated after the battle by those of the enemy who were taken prisoners. from this place cyrus advanced one stage--three parasangs--with the whole body of his troops, hellenic and barbarian alike in order of battle. he expected the king to give battle the same day, for in the middle of this day's march a deep sunk trench was reached, thirty feet broad, and eighteen feet deep. the trench was carried inland through the plain, twelve parasang's distance, to the wall of media ( ). (here are canals, flowing from the river tigris; they are four in number, each a hundred feet broad, and very deep, with corn ships plying upon them; they empty themselves into the euphrates, and are at intervals of one parasang apart, and are spanned by bridges.) ( ) for "the wall of media" see grote, "hist. of greece," vol. ix. p. and foll. note ( st ed.), and various authorities there quoted or referred to. the next passage enclosed in () may possibly be a commentator's or editor's note, but, on the whole, i have thought it best to keep the words in the text instead of relegating them, as heretofore, to a note. perhaps some future traveller may clear up all difficulties. between the euphrates and the trench was a narrow passage, twenty feet only in breadth. the trench itself had been constructed by the great king upon hearing of cyrus's approach, to serve as a line of defence. through this narrow passage then cyrus and his army passed, and found themselves safe inside the trench. so there was no battle to be fought with the king that day; only there were numerous unmistakable traces of horse and infantry in retreat. here cyrus summoned silanus, his ambraciot soothsayer, and presented him with three thousand darics; because eleven days back, when sacrificing, he had told him that the king would not fight within ten days, and cyrus had answered: "well, then, if he does not fight within that time, he will not fight at all; and if your prophecy comes true, i promise you ten talents." so now, that the ten days were passed, he presented him with the above sum. but as the king had failed to hinder the passage of cyrus's army at the trench, cyrus himself and the rest concluded that he must have abandoned the idea of offering battle, so that next day cyrus advanced with less than his former caution. on the third day he was conducting the march, seated in his carriage, with only a small body of troops drawn up in front of him. the mass of the army was moving on in no kind of order: the soldiers having consigned their heavy arms to be carried in the wagons or on the backs of beasts. viii it was already about full market time ( ) and the halting-place at which the army was to take up quarters was nearly reached, when pategyas, a persian, a trusty member of cyrus's personal staff, came galloping up at full speed on his horse, which was bathed in sweat, and to every one he met he shouted in greek and persian, as fast as he could ejaculate the words: "the king is advancing with a large army ready for battle." then ensued a scene of wild confusion. the hellenes and all alike were expecting to be attacked on the instant, and before they could form their lines. cyrus sprang from his carriage and donned his corselet; then leaping on to his charger's back, with the javelins firmly clutched, he passed the order to the rest, to arm themselves and fall into their several ranks. ( ) i.e. between and a.m. the orders were carried out with alacrity; the ranks shaped themselves. clearchus held the right wing resting on the euphrates, proxenus was next, and after him the rest, while menon with his troops held the hellenic left. of the asiatics, a body of paphlagonian cavalry, one thousand strong, were posted beside clearchus on the right, and with them stood the hellenic peltasts. on the left was ariaeus, cyrus's second in command, and the rest of the barbarian host. cyrus was with his bodyguard of cavalry about six hundred strong, all armed with corselets like cyrus, and cuirasses and helmets; but not so cyrus: he went into battle with head unhelmeted ( ). so too all the horses with cyrus wore forehead-pieces and breast-pieces, and the troopers carried short hellenic swords. ( ) the mss. add, "to expose oneself to the risks of war bareheaded is, it is said, a practice common to the persians," which i regard as a commentator's note, if not an original marginal note of some early editor, possibly of the author himself. the "cyropaedeia" is full of such comments, "pieces justificatives" inserted into the text. it was now mid-day, and the enemy was not yet in sight; but with the approach of afternoon was seen dust like a white cloud, and after a considerable interval a black pall as it were spread far and high above the plain. as they came nearer, very soon was seen here and there a glint of bronze and spear-points; and the ranks could plainly be distinguished. on the left were troopers wearing white cuirasses. that is tissaphernes in command, they said, and next to these a body of men bearing wicker-shields, and next again heavy-armed infantry, with long wooden shields reaching to the feet. these were the egyptians, they said, and then other cavalry, other bowmen; all were in national divisions, each nation marching in densely-crowded squares. and all along their front was a line of chariots at considerable intervals from one another--the famous scythe-chariots, as they were named--having their scythes fitted to the axle-trees and stretching out slantwise, while others protruded under the chariot-seats, facing the ground, so as to cut through all they encountered. the design was to let them dash full speed into the ranks of the hellenes and cut them through. curiously enough the anticipation of cyrus, when at the council of war he admonished the hellenes not to mind the shouting of the asiatics, was not justified. instead of shouting, they came on in deep silence, softly and slowly, with even tread. at this instant, cyrus, riding past in person, accompanied by pigres, his interpreter, and three or four others, called aloud to clearchus to advance against the enemy's centre, for there the king was to be found: "and if we strike home at this point," he added, "our work is finished." clearchus, though he could see the compact body at the centre, and had been told by cyrus that the king lay outside the hellenic left (for, owing to numerical superiority, the king, while holding his own centre, could well overlap cyrus's extreme left), still hesitated to draw off his right wing from the river, for fear of being turned on both flanks; and he simply replied, assuring cyrus that he would take care all went well. at this time the barbarian army was evenly advancing, and the hellenic division was still riveted to the spot, completing its formation as the various contingents came up. cyrus, riding past at some distance from the lines, glanced his eye first in one direction and then in the other, so as to take a complete survey of friends and foes; when xenophon the athenian, seeing him, rode up from the hellenic quarter to meet him, asking him whether he had any orders to give. cyrus, pulling up his horse, begged him to make the announcement generally known that the omens from the victims, internal and external alike, were good ( ). while he was still speaking, he heard a confused murmur passing through the ranks, and asked what it meant. the other replied that it was the watchword being passed down for the second time. cyrus wondered who had given the order, and asked what the watchword was. on being told it was "zeus our saviour and victory," he replied, "i accept it; so let it be," and with that remark rode away to his own position. and now the two battle lines were no more than three or four furlongs apart, when the hellenes began chanting the paean, and at the same time advanced against the enemy. ( ) i.e. the omens from inspecting the innards of the victims, and the omens from the acts and movements of the victims. but with the forward movement a certain portion of the line curved onwards in advance, with wave-like sinuosity, and the portion left behind quickened to a run; and simultaneously a thrilling cry burst from all lips, like that in honour of the war-god--eleleu! eleleu! and the running became general. some say they clashed their shields and spears, thereby causing terror to the horses ( ); and before they had got within arrowshot the barbarians swerved and took to flight. and now the hellenes gave chase with might and main, checked only by shouts to one another not to race, but to keep their ranks. the enemy's chariots, reft of their charioteers, swept onwards, some through the enemy themselves, others past the hellenes. they, as they saw them coming, opened a gap and let them pass. one fellow, like some dumbfoundered mortal on a racecourse, was caught by the heels, but even he, they said, received no hurt, nor indeed, with the single exception of some one on the left wing who was said to have been wounded by an arrow, did any hellene in this battle suffer a single hurt. ( ) some critics regard this sentence as an editor's or commentator's note. cyrus, seeing the hellene's conquering, as far as they at any rate were concerned, and in hot pursuit, was well content; but in spite of his joy and the salutations offered him at that moment by those about him, as though he were already king, he was not led away to join in the pursuit, but keeping his squadron of six hundred horsemen in cloe order, waited and watched to see what the king himself would do. the king, he knew, held the centre of the persian army. indeed it is the fashion for the asiatic monarch to occupy that position during action, for this twofold reason: he holds the safest place, with his troops on either side of him, while, if he has occasion to despatch any necessary rider along the lines, his troops will receive the message in half the time. the king accordingly on this occasion held the centre of his army, but for all that, he was outside cyrus's left wing; and seeing that no one offered him battle in front, nor yet the troops in front of him, he wheeled as if to encircle the enemy. it was then that cyrus, in apprehension lest the king might get round to the rear and cut to pieces the hellenic body, charged to meet him. attacking with his six hundred, he mastered the line of troops in front of the king, and put to flight the six thousand, cutting down, as is said, with his own hand their general, artagerses. but as soon as the rout commenced, cyrus's own six hundred themselves, in the ardour of pursuit, were scattered, with the exception of a handful who were left with cyrus himself--chiefly his table companions, so-called. left alone with these, he caught sight of the king, and the close throng about him. unable longer to contain himself, with a cry, "i see the man," he rushed at him and dealt a blow at his chest, wounding him through the corselet. this, according to the statement of ctesias the surgeon ( ), who further states that he himself healed the wound. as cyrus delivered the blow, some one struck him with a javelin under the eye severely; and in the struggle which then ensued between the king and cyrus and those about them to protect one or other, we have the statement of ctesias as to the number slain on the king's side, for he was by his side. on the other, cyrus himself fell, and eight of his bravest companions lay on the top of him. the story says that artapes, the trustiest among his wand-wearers, when he saw that cyrus had fallen to the ground, leapt from his horse and threw his arms about him. then, as one account says, the king bade one slay him as a worthy victim to his brother: others say that artapates drew his scimitar and slew himself by his own hand. a golden scimitar it is true, he had; he wore also a collar and bracelets and the other ornaments such as the noblest persians wear; for his kindliness and fidelity had won him honours at the hands of cyrus. ( ) "ctesias, the son of ctesiochus, was a physician of cnidos. seventeen years of his life were passed at the court of persia, fourteen in the service of darios, three in that of artaxerxes; he returned to greece in b.c.," and "was employed by artaxerxes in diplomatic services." see mure; also ch. muller, for his life and works. he wrote ( ) a history on persian affairs in three parts--assyrian, median, persian--with a chapter "on tributes;" ( ) a history of indian affairs (written in the vein of sir john maundeville, kt.); ( ) a periplus; ( ) a treatise on mountains; ( ) a treatise on rivers. ix so died cyrus; a man the kingliest ( ) and most worthy to rule of all the persians who have lived since the elder cyrus: according to the concurrent testimony of all who are reputed to have known him intimately. to begin from the beginning, when still a boy, and whilst being brought up with his brother and the other lads, his unrivalled excellence was recognised. for the sons of the noblest persians, it must be known, are brought up, one and all, at the king's portals. here lessons of sobriety and self-control may largely be laid to heart, while there is nothing base or ugly for eye or ear to feed upon. there is the daily spectacle ever before the boys of some receiving honour from the king, and again of others receiving dishonour; and the tale of all this is in their ears, so that from earliest boyhood they learn how to rule and to be ruled. ( ) the character now to be drawn is afterwards elaborated into the cyrus of the cyropaedeia. in this courtly training cyrus earned a double reputation; first he was held to be a paragon of modesty among his fellows, rendering an obedience to his elders which exceeded that of many of his own inferiors; and next he bore away the palm for skill in horsemanship and for love of the animal itself. nor less in matters of war, in the use of the bow and the javelin, was he held by men in general to be at once the aptest of learners and the most eager practiser. as soon as his age permitted, the same pre-eminence showed itself in his fondness for the chase, not without a certain appetite for perilous adventure in facing the wild beasts themselves. once a bear made a furious rush at him ( ), and without wincing he grappled with her, and was pulled from his horse, receiving wounds the scars of which were visible through life; but in the end he slew the creature, nor did he forget him who first came to his aid, but made him enviable in the eyes of many. ( ) the elder cyrus, when a boy, kills not a bear but a boar. after he had been sent down by his father to be satrap of lydia and great phrygia and cappadocia, and had been appointed general of the forces, whose business it is to muster in the plain of the castolus, nothing was more noticeable in his conduct than the importance which he attached to the faithful fulfilment of every treaty or compact or undertaking entered into with others. he would tell no lies to any one. thus doubtless it was that he won the confidence alike of individuals and of the communities entrusted to his care; or in case of hostility, a treaty made with cyrus was a guarantee sufficient to the combatant that he would suffer nothing contrary to its terms. therefore, in the war with tissaphernes, all the states of their own accord chose cyrus in lieu of tissaphernes, except only the men of miletus, and these were only alienated through fear of him, because he refused to abandon their exiled citizens; and his deeds and words bore emphatic witness to his principle: even if they were weakened in number or in fortune, he would never abandon those who had once become his friends. he made no secret of his endeavour to outdo his friends and his foes alike in reciprocity of conduct. the prayer has been attributed to him, "god grant i may live along enough to recompense my friends and requite my foes with a strong arm." however this may be, no one, at least in our days, ever drew together so ardent a following of friends, eager to lay at his feet their money, their cities, their own lives and persons; nor is it to be inferred from this that he suffered the malefactor and the wrongdoer to laugh him to scorn; on the contrary, these he punished most unflinchingly. it was no rare sight to see on the well-trodden highways, men who had forfeited hand or foot or eye; the result being that throughout the satrapy of cyrus any one, hellene or barbarian, provided he were innocent, might fearlessly travel wherever he pleased, and take with him whatever he felt disposed. however, as all allowed, it was for the brave in war that he reserved especial honour. to take the first instance to hand, he had a war with the pisidians and mysians. being himself at the head of an expedition into those territories, he could observe those who voluntarily encountered risks; these he made rulers of the territory which he subjected, and afterwards honoured them with other gifts. so that, if the good and brave were set on a pinnacle of fortune, cowards were recognised as their natural slaves; and so it befell that cyrus never had lack of volunteers in any service of danger, whenever it was expected that his eye would be upon them. so again, wherever he might discover any one ready to distinguish himself in the service of uprightness, his delight was to make this man richer than those who seek for gain by unfair means. on the same principle, his own administration was in all respects uprightly conducted, and, in particular, he secured the services of an army worthy of the name. generals, and subalterns alike, came to him from across the seas, not merely to make money, but because they saw that loyalty to cyrus was a more profitable investment than so many pounds a month. let any man whatsoever render him willing service, such enthusiasm was sure to win its reward. and so cyrus could always command the service of the best assistants, it was said, whatever the work might be. or if he saw any skilful and just steward who furnished well the country over which he ruled, and created revenues, so far from robbing him at any time, to him who had, he delighted to give more. so that toil was a pleasure, and gains were amassed with confidence, and least of all from cyrus would a man conceal the amount of his possessions, seeing that he showed no jealousy of wealth openly avowed, but his endeavour was rather to turn to account the riches of those who kept them secret. towards the friends he had made, whose kindliness he knew, or whose fitness as fellow-workers with himself, in aught which he might wish to carry out, he had tested, he showed himself in turn an adept in the arts of courtesy. just in proportion as he felt the need of this friend or that to help him, so he tried to help each of them in return in whatever seemed to be their heart's desire. many were the gifts bestowed on him, for many and diverse reasons; no one man, perhaps, ever received more; no one, certainly, was ever more ready to bestow them upon others, with an eye ever to the taste of each, so as to gratify what he saw to be the individual requirement. many of these presents were sent to him to serve as personal adornments of the body or for battle; and as touching these he would say, "how am i to deck myself out in all these? to my mind a man's chief ornament is the adornment of nobly-adorned friends." indeed, that he should triumph over his friends in the great matters of welldoing is not surprising, seeing that he was much more powerful than they, but that he should go beyond them in minute attentions, and in an eager desire to give pleasure, seems to me, i must confess, more admirable. frequently when he had tasted some specially excellent wine, he would send the half remaining flagon to some friend with a message to say: "cyrus says, this is the best wine he has tasted for a long time, that is his excuse for sending it to you. he hopes you will drink it up to-day with a choice party of friends." or, perhaps, he would send the remainder of a dish of geese, half loaves of bread, and so forth, the bearer being instructed to say: "this is cyrus's favourite dish, he hopes you will taste it yourself." or, perhaps, there was a great dearth of provender, when, through the number of his servants and his own careful forethought, he was enabled to get supplies for himself; at such times he would send to his friends in different parts, bidding them feed their horses on his hay, since it would not do for the horses that carried his friends to go starving. then, on any long march or expedition, where the crowd of lookers-on would be large, he would call his friends to him and entertain them with serious talk, as much as to say, "these i delight to honour." so that, for myself, and from all that i can hear, i should be disposed to say that no one, greek or barbarian, was ever so beloved. in proof of this, i may cite the fact that, though cyrus was the king's vassal and slave, no one ever forsook him to join his master, if i may except the attempt of orontas, which was abortive. that man, indeed, had to learn that cyrus was closer to the heart of him on whose fidelity he relied than he himself was. on the other hand, many a man revolted from the king to cyrus, after they went to war with one another; nor were these nobodies, but rather persons high in the king's affection; yet for all that, they believed that their virtues would obtain a reward more adequate from cyrus than from the king. another great proof at once of his own worth and of his capacity rightly to discern all loyal, loving and firm friendship is afforded by an incident which belongs to the last moment of his life. he was slain, but fighting for his life beside him fell also every one of his faithful bodyguard of friends and table-companions, with the sole exception of ariaeus, who was in command of the cavalry on the left, and he no sooner perceived the fall of cyrus than he betook himself to flight, with the whole body of troops under his lead. x then the head of cyrus and his right hand were severed from the body. but the king and those about him pursued and fell upon the cyreian camp, and the troops of ariaeus no longer stood their ground, but fled through their own camp back to the halting-place of the night before--a distance of four parasangs, it was said. so the king and those with him fell to ravaging right and left, and amongst other spoil he captured the phocaean woman, who was a concubine of cyrus, witty and beautiful, if fame speaks correctly. the milesian, who was the younger, was also seized by some of the king's men; but, letting go her outer garment, she made good her escape to the hellenes, who had been left among the camp followers on guard. these fell at once into line and put to the sword many of the pillagers, though they lost some men themselves; they stuck to the place and succeeded in saving not only that lady, but all else, whether chattels or human beings, which lay within their reach. at this point the king and the hellenes were something like three miles apart; the one set were pursuing their opponents just as if their conquest had been general; the others were pillaging as merrily as if their victory were already universal. but when the hellenes learnt that the king and his troops were in the baggage camp; and the king, on his side, was informed by tissaphernes that the hellenes were victorious in their quarter of the field, and had gone forward in pursuit, the effect was instantaneous. the king massed his troops and formed into line. clearchus summoned proxenus, who was next him, and debated whether to send a detachment or to go in a body to the camp to save it. meanwhile the king was seen again advancing, as it seemed, from the rear; and the hellenes, turning right about, prepared to receive his attack then and there. but instead of advancing upon them at that point, he drew off, following the line by which he had passed earlier in the day, outside the left wing of his opponent, and so picked up in his passage those who had deserted to the hellenes during the battle, as also tissaphernes and his division. the latter had not fled in the first shock of the encounter; he had charged parallel to the line of the euphrates into the greek peltasts, and through them. but charge as he might, he did not lay low a single man. on the contrary, the hellenes made a gap to let them through, hacking them with their swords and hurling their javelins as they passed. episthenes of amphipolis was in command of the peltasts, and he showed himself a sensible man, it was said. thus it was that tissaphernes, having got through haphazard, with rather the worst of it, failed to wheel round and return the way he came, but reaching the camp of the hellenes, there fell in with the king; and falling into order again, the two divisions advanced side by side. when they were parallel with the (original) left wing of the hellenes, fear seized the latter lest they might take them in flank and enfold them on both sides and cut them down. in this apprehension they determined to extend their line and place the river on their rear. but while they deliberated, the king passed by and ranged his troops in line to meet them, in exactly the same position in which he had advanced to offer battle at the commencement of the engagement. the hellenes, now seeing them in close proximity and in battle order, once again raised the paean and began the attack with still greater enthusiasm than before: and once again the barbarians did not wait to receive them, but took to flight, even at a greater distance than before. the hellenes pressed the pursuit until they reached a certain village, where they halted, for above the village rose a mound, on which the king and his party rallied and reformed; they had no infantry any longer, but the crest was crowded with cavalry, so that it was impossible to discover what was happening. they did see, they said, the royal standard, a kind of golden eagle, with wings extended, perched on a bar of wood and raised upon a lance. but as soon as the hellenes again moved onwards, the hostile cavalry at once left the hillock--not in a body any longer, but in fragments--some streaming from one side, some from another; and the crest was gradually stripped of its occupants, till at last the company was gone. accordingly, clearchus did not ascend the crest, but posting his army at its base, he sent lycius of syracuse and another to the summit, with orders to inspect the condition of things on the other side, and to report results. lycius galloped up and investigated, bringing back news that they were fleeing might and main. almost at that instant the sun sank beneath the horizon. there the hellenes halted; they grounded arms and rested, marvelling the while that cyrus was not anywhere to be seen, and that no messenger had come from him. for they were in complete ignorance of his death, and conjectured that either he had gone off in pursuit, or had pushed forward to occupy some point. left to themselves, they now deliberated, whether they should stay where they were and have the baggage train brought up, or should return to camp. they resolved to return, and about supper time reached the tents. such was the conclusion of this day. they found the larger portion of their property pillaged, eatables and drinkables alike, not excepting the wagons laden with corn and wine, which cyrus had prepared in case of some extreme need overtaking the expedition, to divide among the hellenes. there were four hundred of these wagons, it was said, and these had now been ransacked by the king and his men; so that the greater number of the hellenes went supperless, having already gone without their breakfasts, since the king had appeared before the usual halt for breakfast. accordingly, in no better plight than this they passed the night. book ii (in the previous book will be found a full account of the method by which cyrus collected a body of greeks when meditating an expedition against his brother artaxerxes; as also of various occurrences on the march up; of the battle itself, and of the death of cyrus; and lastly, a description of the arrival of the hellenes in camp after the battle, and as to how they betook themselves to rest, none suspecting but what they were altogether victorious and that cyrus lived.) i with the break of day the generals met, and were surprised that cyrus should not have appeared himself, or at any rate have sent some one to tell them what to do. accordingly, they resolved to put what they had together, to get under arms, and to push forward until they effected junction with cyrus. just as they were on the point of starting, with the rising sun came procles the ruler of teuthrania. he was a descendant of damaratus ( ) the laconian, and with him also came glus the son of tamos. these two told them, first, that cyrus was dead; next, that ariaeus had retreated with the rest of the barbarians to the halting-place whence they had started at dawn on the previous day; and wished to inform them that, if they were minded to come, he would wait for this one day, but on the morrow he should return home again to ionia, whence he came. ( ) the spartan king who was deposed in b.c. , whereupon he fled to king darius, and settled in south-western mysia. see herod. vi. , - . we shall hear more of his descendant, procles, the ruler of teuthrania, in the last chapter of this work. when they heard these tidings, the generals were sorely distressed; so too were the rest of the hellenes when they were informed of it. then clearchus spoke as follows: "would that cyrus were yet alive! but since he is dead, take back this answer to ariaeus, that we, at any rate, have conquered the king; and, as you yourselves may see, there is not a man left in the field to meet us. indeed, had you not arrived, we should ere this have begun our march upon the king. now, we can promise to ariaeus that, if he will join us here, we will place him on the king's throne. surely to those who conquer empire pertains." with these words he sent back the messengers and with them he sent cheirisophus the laconian, and menon the thessalian. that was what menon himself wished, being, as he was, a friend and intimate of ariaeus, and bound by mutual ties of hospitality. so these set off, and clearchus waited for them. the soldiers furnished themselves with food (and drink) as best they might--falling back on the baggage animals, and cutting up oxen and asses. there was no lack of firewood; they need only step forward a few paces from the line where the battle was fought, and they would find arrows to hand in abundance, which the hellenes had forced the deserters from the king to throw away. there were arrows and wicker shields also, and the huge wooden shields of the egyptians. there were many targets also, and empty wagons left to be carried off. here was a store which they were not slow to make use of to cook their meat and serve their meals that day. it was now about full market hour ( ) when heralds from the king and tissaphernes arrived. these were barbarians with one exception. this was a certain phalinus, a hellene who lived at the court of tissaphernes, and was held in high esteem. he gave himself out to be a connoisseur of tactics and the art of fighting with heavy arms. these were the men who now came up, and having summoned the generals of the hellenes, they delivered themselves of the following message: "the great king having won the victory and slain cyrus, bids the hellenes to surrender their arms; to betake themselves to the gates of the king's palace, and there obtain for themselves what terms they can." that was what the heralds said, and the hellenes listened with heavy hearts; but clearchus spoke, and his words were few; "conquerors do not, as a rule, give up their arms"; then turning to the others he added, "i leave it to you, my fellow-generals, to make the best and noblest answer, that ye may, to these gentlemen. i will rejoin you presently." at the moment an official had summoned him to come and look at the entrails which had been taken out, for, as it chanced, he was engaged in sacrificing. as soon as he was gone, cleanor the arcadian, by right of seniority, answered: "they would sooner die than give up their arms." then proxenus the theban said: "for my part, i marvel if the king demands our arms as our master, or for the sake of friendship merely, as presents. if as our master, why need he ask for them rather than come and take them? but if he would fain wheedle us out of them by fine speeches, he should tell us what the soldiers will receive in turn for such kindness." in answer to him phalinus said: "the king claims to have conquered, because he has put cyrus to death; and who is there now to claim the kingdom as against himself? he further flatters himself that you also are in his power, since he holds you in the heart of his country, hemmed in by impassable rivers; and he can at any moment bring against you a multitude so vast that even if leave were given to rise and slay you could not kill them." after him theopompus ( ) the athenian spoke. "phalinus," he said, "at this instant, as you yourself can see, we have nothing left but our arms and our valour. if we keep the former we imagine we can make use of the latter; but if we deliver up our arms we shall presently be robbed of our lives. do not suppose then that we are going to give up to you the only good things which we possess. we prefer to keep them; and by their help we will do battle with you for the good things which are yours." phalinus laughed when he heard those words, and said: "spoken like a philosopher, my fine young man, and very pretty reasoning too; yet, let me tell you, your wits are somewhat scattered if you imagine that your valour will get the better of the king's power." there were one or two others, it was said, who with a touch of weakness in their tone or argument, made answer: "they had proved good and trusty friends to cyrus, and the king might find them no less valuable. if he liked to be friends with them, he might turn them to any use that pleased his fancy, say for a campaign against egypt. their arms were at his service; they would help to lay that country at his feet." ( ) a.m. ( ) so the best mss. others read "xenophon," which kruger maintains to be the true reading. he suggests that "theopompus" may have crept into the text from a marginal note of a scholiast, "theopompus" (the historian) "gives the remark to proxenus." just then clearchus returned, and wished to know what answer they had given. the words were barely out of his mouth before phalinus interrupting, answered: "as for your friends here, one says one thing and one another; will you please give us your opinion"; and he replied: "the sight of you, phalinus, caused me much pleasure; and not only me, but all of us, i feel sure; for you are a hellene even as we are--every one of us whom you see before you. in our present plight we would like to take you into our counsel as to what we had better do touching your proposals. i beg you then solemnly, in the sight of heaven--do you tender us such advice as you shall deem best and worthiest, and such as shall bring you honour of after time, when it will be said of you how once on a time phalinus was sent by the great king to bid certain hellenes yield up their arms, and when they had taken him into their counsel, he gave them such and such advice. you know that whatever advice you do give us cannot fail to be reported in hellas." clearchus threw out these leading remarks in hopes that this man, who was the ambassador from the king, might himself be led to advise them not to give up their arms, in which case the hellenes would be still more sanguine and hopeful. but, contrary to his expectation, phalinus turned round and said: "i say that if you have one chance, one hope in ten thousand to wage a war with the king successfully, do not give up your arms. that is my advice. if, however, you have no chance of escape without the king's consent, then i say save yourselves in the only way you can." and clearchus answered: "so, then, that is your deliberate view? well, this is our answer, take it back. we conceive that in either case, whether we are expected to be friends with the king, we shall be worth more as friends if we keep our arms than if we yield them to another; or whether we are to go to war, we shall fight better with them than without." and phalinus said: "that answer we will repeat; but the king bade me tell you this besides, 'whilst you remain here there is truce; but one step forward or one step back, the truce ends; there is war.' will you then please inform us as to that point also? are you minded to stop and keep truce, or is there to be war? what answer shall i take from you?" and clearchus replied: "pray answer that we hold precisely the same views on this point as the king."--"how say you the same views?" asked phalinus. clearchus made answer: "as long as we stay here there is truce, but a step forward or a step backward, the truce ends; there is war." the other again asked: "peace or war, what answer shall i make?" clearchus returned answer once again in the same words: "truce if we stop, but if we move forwards or backwards war." but what he was minded really to do, that he refused to make further manifest. ii phalinus and those that were with him turned and went. but the messengers from ariaeus, procles and cheirisophus came back. as to menon, he stayed behind with ariaeus, they brought back this answer from ariaeus: "'there are many persians,' he says, 'better than himself who will not suffer him to sit upon the king's throne; but if you are minded to go back with him, you must join him this very night, otherwise he will set off himself to-morrow on the homeward route.'" and clearchus said: "it had best stand thus between us then. if we come, well and good, be it as you propose; but if we do not come, do whatsoever you think most conducive to your interests." and so he kept these also in the dark as to his real intention. after this, when the sun was already sinking, he summoned the generals and officers, and made the following statement: "sirs, i sacrificed and found the victims unfavourable to an advance against the king. after all, it is not so surprising perhaps, for, as i now learn, between us and the king flows the river tigris, navigable for big vessels, and we could not possibly cross it without boats, and boats we have none. on the other hand, to stop here is out of the question, for there is no possibility of getting provisions. however, the victims were quite agreeable to us joining the friends of cyrus. this is what we must do then. let each go away and sup on whatever he has. at the first sound of the bugle to turn in, get kit and baggage together; at the second signal, place them on the baggage animals; and at the third, fall in and follow the lead, with the baggage animals on the inside protected by the river, and the troops outside." after hearing the orders, the generals and officers retired, and did as they were bid; and for the future clearchus led, and the rest followed in obedience to his orders, not that they had expressly chosen him, but they saw that he alone had the sense and wisdom requisite in a general, while the rest were inexperienced ( ). ( ) the mss. add the words, "the total distance of the route, taking ephesus in ionia as the starting point up to the field of battle, consisted of stages, parasangs, or , furlongs; from the battle-field to babylon (reckoned a three days' journey) would have been another stades," which may well be an editor's or commentator's marginal note. here, under cover of the darkness which descended, the thracian miltocythes, with forty horsemen and three hundred thracian infantry, deserted to the king; but the rest of the troops--clearchus leading and the rest following in accordance with the orders promulgated--took their departure, and about midnight reached their first stage, having come up with ariaeus and his army. they grounded arms just as they stood in rank, and the generals and officers of the hellenes met in the tent of ariaeus. there they exchanged oaths--the hellenes on the one side and ariaeus with his principal officers on the other--not to betray one another, but to be true to each other as allies. the asiatics further solemnly pledged themselves by oath to lead the way without treachery. the oaths were ratified by the sacrifice of a bull, a wolf ( ), a boar, and a ram over a shield. the hellenes dipped a sword, the barbarians a lance, into the blood of the victims. ( ) it is a question whether the words "a wolf" ought not to be omitted. as soon as the pledge was taken, clearchus spoke: "and now, ariaeus," he said, "since you and we have one expedition in prospect, will you tell us what you think about the route; shall we return the way we came, or have you devised a better?" he answered: "to return the same way is to perish to a man by hunger; for at this moment we have no provisions whatsoever. during the seventeen last stages, even on our way hither, we could extract nothing from the country; or, if there was now and again anything, we passed over and utterly consumed it. at this time our project is to take another and a longer journey certainly, but we shall not be in straits for provisions. the earliest stages must be very long, as long as we can make them; the object is to put as large a space as possible between us and the royal army; once we are two or three days' journey off, the danger is over. the king will never overtake us. with a small army he will not dare to dog our heels, and with a vast equipment he will lack the power to march quickly. perhaps he, too, may even find a scarcity of provisions. there," said he, "you asked for my opinion, see, i have given it." here was a plan of the campaign, which was equivalent to a stampede: helter-skelter they were to run away, or get into hiding somehow; but fortune proved a better general. for as soon as it was day they recommenced the journey, keeping the sun on their right, and calculating that with the westering rays they would have reached villages in the territory of babylonia, and in this hope they were not deceived. while it was yet afternoon, they thought they caught sight of some of the enemy's cavalry; and those of the hellenes who were not in rank ran to their ranks; and ariaeus, who was riding in a wagon to nurse a wound, got down and donned his cuirass, the rest of his party following his example. whilst they were arming themselves, the scouts, who had been sent forward, came back with the information that they were not cavalry but baggage animals grazing. it was at once clear to all that they must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of the king's encampment. smoke could actually be seen rising, evidently from villages not far ahead. clearchus hesitated to advance upon the enemy, knowing that the troops were tired and hungry; and indeed it was already late. on the other hand he had no mind either to swerve from his route--guarding against any appearance of flight. accordingly he marched straight as an arrow, and with sunset entered the nearest villages with his vanguard and took up quarters. these villages had been thoroughly sacked and dismantled by the royal army--down to the very woodwork and furniture of the houses. still, the vanguard contrived to take up their quarters in some sort of fashion; but the rear division, coming up in the dark, had to bivouac as best they could, one detachment after another; and a great noise they made, with hue and cry to one another, so that the enemy could hear them; and those in their immediate proximity actually took to their heels, left their quarters, and decamped, as was plain enough next morning, when not a beast was to be seen, nor sign of camp or wreath of smoke anywhere in the neighbourhood. the king, as it would appear, was himself quite taken aback by the advent of the army; as he fully showed by his proceedings next day. during the progress of this night the hellenes had their turn of scare--a panic seized them, and there was a noise and clatter, hardly to be explained except by the visitation of some sudden terror. but clearchus had with him the eleian tolmides, the best herald of his time; him he ordered to proclaim silence, and then to give out this proclamation of the generals: "whoever will give any information as to who let an ass into the camp shall receive a talent of silver in reward." on hearing this proclamation the soldiers made up their minds that their fear was baseless, and their generals safe and sound. at break of day clearchus gave the order to the hellenes to get under arms in line of battle, and take up exactly the same position as they held on the day of the battle. iii and now comes the proof of what i stated above--that the king was utterly taken aback by the sudden apparition of the army; only the day before, he had sent and demanded the surrender of their arms--and now, with the rising sun, came heralds sent by him to arrange a truce. these, having reached the advanced guard, asked for the generals. the guard reported their arrival; and clearchus, who was busy inspecting the ranks, sent back word to the heralds that they must await his leisure. having carefully arranged the troops so that from every side they might present the appearance of a compact battle line without a single unarmed man in sight, he summoned the ambassadors, and himself went forward to meet them with the soldiers, who for choice accoutrement and noble aspect were the flower of his force; a course which he had invited the other generals also to adopt. and now, being face to face with the ambassadors, he questioned them as to what their wishes were. they replied that they had come to arrange a truce, and were persons competent to carry proposals from the king to the hellenes and from the hellenes to the king. he returned answer to them: "take back word then to your master, that we need a battle first, for we have had no breakfast; and he will be a brave man who will dare mention the word 'truce' to hellenes without providing them with breakfast." with this message the heralds rode off, but were back again in no time, which was a proof that the king, or some one appointed by him to transact the business, was hard by. they reported that "the message seemed reasonable to the king; they had now come bringing guides who, if a truce were arranged, would conduct them where they would get provisions." clearchus inquired "whether the truce was offered to the individual men merely as they went and came, or to all alike." "to all," they replied, "until the king receives your final answer." when they had so spoken, clearchus, having removed the ambassadors, held a council; and it was resolved to make a truce at once, and then quietly to go and secure provisions; and clearchus said: "i agree to the resolution; still i do not propose to announce it at once, but to wile away time till the ambassadors begin to fear that we have decided against the truce; though i suspect," he added, "the same fear will be operative on the minds of our soldiers also." as soon as the right moment seemed to have arrived, he delivered his answer in favour of the truce, and bade the ambassadors at once conduct them to the provisions. so these led the way; and clearchus, without relaxing precaution, in spite of having secured a truce, marched after them with his army in line and himself in command of the rearguard. over and over again they encountered trenches and conduits so full of water that they could not be crossed without bridges; but they contrived well enough for these by means of trunks of palm trees which had fallen, or which they cut down for the occasion. and here clearchus's system of superintendence was a study in itself; as he stood with a spear in his left hand and a stick in the other; and when it seemed to him there was any dawdling among the parties told off to the work, he would pick out the right man and down would come the stick; nor, at the same time, was he above plunging into the mud and lending a hand himself, so that every one else was forced for very shame to display equal alacrity. the men told off for the business were the men of thirty years of age; but even the elder men, when they saw the energy of clearchus, could not resist lending their aid also. what stimulated the haste of clearchus was the suspicion in his mind that these trenches were not, as a rule, so full of water, since it was not the season to irrigate the plain; and he fancied that the king had let the water on for the express purpose of vividly presenting to the hellenes the many dangers with which their march was threatened at the very start. proceeding on their way they reached some villages, where their guides indicated to them that they would find provisions. they were found to contain plenty of corn, and wine made from palm dates, and an acidulated beverage extracted by boiling from the same fruit. as to the palm nuts or dates themselves, it was noticeable that the sort which we are accustomed to see in hellas were set aside for the domestic servants; those put aside for the masters are picked specimens, and are simply marvellous for their beauty and size, looking like great golden lumps of amber; some specimens they dried and preserved as sweetmeats. sweet enough they were as an accompaniment of wine, but apt to give headache. here, too, for the first time in their lives, the men tasted the brain ( ) of the palm. no one could help being struck by the beauty of this object, and the peculiarity of its delicious flavour; but this, like the dried fruits, was exceedingly apt to give headache. when this cabbage or brain has been removed from the palm the whole tree withers from top to bottom. ( ) i.e. the cabbage-like crown. in these villages they remained three days, and a deputation from the great king arrived--tissaphernes and the king's brother-in-law and three other persians--with a retinue of many slaves. as soon as the generals of the hellenes had presented themselves, tissaphernes opened the proceedings with the following speech, through the lips of an interpreter: "men of hellas, i am your next-door neighbour in hellas. therefore was it that i, when i saw into what a sea of troubles you were fallen, regarded it as a godsend, if by any means i might obtain, as a boon from the king, the privilege of bringing you back in safety to your own country: and that, i take it, will earn me gratitude from you and all hellas. in this determination i preferred my request to the king; i claimed it as a favour which was fairly my due; for was it not i who first announced to him the hostile approach of cyrus? who supported that announcement by the aid i brought; who alone among the officers confronted with the hellenes in battle did not flee, but charged right through and united my troops with the king inside your camp, where he was arrived, having slain cyrus; it was i, lastly, who gave chase to the barbarians under cyrus, with the help of those here present with me at this moment, which are also among the trustiest followers of our lord the king. now, i counsel you to give a moderate answer, so that it may be easier for me to carry out my design, if haply i may obtain from him some good thing on your behalf." thereupon the hellenes retired and took counsel. then they answered, and clearchus was their spokesman: "we neither mustered as a body to make war against the king, nor was our march conducted with that object. but it was cyrus, as you know, who invented many and divers pretexts, that he might take you off your guard, and transport us hither. yet, after a while, when we saw that he was in sore straits, we were ashamed in the sight of god and man to betray him, whom we had permitted for so long a season to benefit us. but now that cyrus is dead, we set up no claim to his kingdom against the king himself; there is neither person nor thing for the sake of which we would care to injure the king's country; we would not choose to kill him if we could, rather we would march straight home, if we were not molested; but, god helping us, we will retaliate on all who injure us. on the other hand, if any be found to benefit us, we do not mean to be outdone in kindly deeds, as far as in us lies." so he spoke, and tissaphernes listened and replied: "that answer will i take back to the king and bring you word from him again. until i come again, let the truce continue, and we will furnish you with a market." all next day he did not come back, and the hellenes were troubled with anxieties, but on the third day he arrived with the news that he had obtained from the king the boon he asked; he was permitted to save the hellenes, though there were many gainsayers who argued that it was not seemly for the king to let those who had marched against him depart in peace. and at last he said: "you may now, if you like, take pledges from us, that we will make the countries through which you pass friendly to you, and will lead you back without treachery into hellas, and will furnish you with a market; and wherever you cannot purchase, we will permit you to take provisions from the district. you, on your side, must swear that you will march as through a friendly country, without damage--merely taking food and drink wherever we fail to supply a market--or, if we afford a market, you shall only obtain provisions by paying for them." this was agreed to, and oaths and pledges exchanged between them--tissaphernes and the king's brother-in-law upon the one side, and the generals and officers of the hellenes on the other. after this tissaphernes said: "and now i go back to the king; as soon as i have transacted what i have a mind to, i will come back, ready equipped, to lead you away to hellas, and to return myself to my own dominion." iv after these things the hellenes and ariaeus waited for tissaphernes, being encamped close to one another: for more than twenty days they waited, during which time there came visitors to ariaeus, his brother and other kinsfolk. to those under him came certain other persians, encouraging them and bearing pledges to some of them from the king himself--that he would bear no grudge against them on account of the part they bore in the expedition against him with cyrus, or for aught else of the things which were past. whilst these overtures were being made, ariaeus and his friends gave manifest signs of paying less attention to the hellenes, so much so that, if for no other reason, the majority of the latter were not well pleased, and they came to clearchus and the other generals, asking what they were waiting for. "do we not know full well," they said, "that the king would give a great deal to destroy us, so that other hellenes may take warning and think twice before they march against the king. to-day it suits his purpose to induce us to stop here, because his army is scattered; but as soon as he has got together another armament, attack us most certainly he will. how do we know he is not at this moment digging away at trenches, or running up walls, to make our path impassable. it is not to be supposed that he will desire us to return to hellas with a tale how a handful of men like ourselves beat the king at his own gates, laughed him to scorn, and then came home again." clearchus replied: "i too am keenly aware of all this; but i reason thus: if we turn our backs now, they will say, we mean war and are acting contrary to the truce, and then what follows? first of all, no one will furnish us with a market or means of providing ourselves with food. next, we shall have no one to guide us; moreover, such action on our part will be a signal to ariaeus to hold aloof from us, so that not a friend will be left to us; even those who were formerly our friends will now be numbered with our enemies. what other river, or rivers, we may find we have to cross, i do not know; but this we know, to cross the euphrates in face of resistance is impossible. you see, in the event of being driven to an engagement, we have no cavalry to help us, but with the enemy it is the reverse--not only the most, but the best of his troops are cavalry, so that if we are victorious, we shall kill no one, but if we are defeated, not a man of us can escape. for my part, i cannot see why the king, who has so many advantages on his side, if he desires to destroy us, should swear oaths and tender solemn pledges merely in order to perjure himself in the sight of heaven, to render his word worthless and his credit discreditable the wide world over." these arguments he propounded at length. meanwhile tissaphernes came back, apparently ready to return home; he had his own force with him, and so had orontas, who was also present, his. the latter brought, moreover, his bride with him, the king's daughter, whom he had just wedded. the journey was now at length fairly commenced. tissaphernes led the way, and provided a market. they advanced, and ariaeus advanced too, at the head of cyrus's asiatic troops, side by side with tissaphernes and orontas, and with these two he also pitched his camp. the hellenes, holding them in suspicion, marched separately with the guides, and they encamped on each occasion a parasang apart, or rather less; and both parties kept watch upon each other as if they were enemies, which hardly tended to lull suspicion; and sometimes, whilst foraging for wood and grass and so forth on the same ground, blows were exchanged, which occasioned further embitterments. three stages they had accomplished ere they reached the wall of media, as it is called, and passed within it. it was built of baked bricks laid upon bitumen. it was twenty feet broad and a hundred feet high, and the length of it was said to be twenty parasangs. it lies at no great distance from babylon. from this point they marched two stages--eight parasangs--and crossed two canals, the first by a regular bridge, the other spanned by a bridge of seven boats. these canals issued from the tigris, and from them a whole system of minor trenches was cut, leading over the country, large ones to begin with, and then smaller and smaller, till at last they become the merest runnels, like those in hellas used for watering millet fields. they reached the river tigris. at this point there was a large and thickly populated city named sittace, at a distance of fifteen furlongs from the river. the hellenes accordingly encamped by the side of that city, near a large and beautiful park, which was thick with all sorts of trees. the asiatics had crossed the tigris, but somehow were entirely hidden from view. after supper, proxenus and xenophon were walking in front of the place d'armes, when a man came up and demanded of the advanced guard where he could find proxenus or clearchus. he did not ask for menon, and that too though he came from ariaeus, who was menon's friend. as soon as proxenus had said: "i am he, whom you seek," the man replied: "i have been sent by ariaeus and artaozus, who have been trusty friends to cyrus in past days, and are your well-wishers. they warn you to be on your guard, in case the barbarians attack you in the night. there is a large body of troops in the neighbouring park. they also warn you to send and occupy the bridge over the tigris, since tissaphernes is minded to break it down in the night, if he can, so that you may not cross, but be caught between the river and the canal." on hearing this they took the man to clearchus and acquainted him with his statement. clearchus, on his side, was much disturbed, and indeed alarmed at the news. but a young fellow who was present ( ), struck with an idea, suggested that the two statements were inconsistent; as to the contemplated attack and the proposed destruction of the bridge. clearly, the attacking party must either conquer or be worsted: if they conquer, what need of their breaking down the bridge? "why! if there were half a dozen bridges," said he, "we should not be any the more able to save ourselves by flight--there would be no place to flee to; but, in the opposite case, suppose we win, with the bridge broken down, it is they who will not be able to save themselves by flight; and, what is worse for them, not a single soul will be able to bring them succour from the other side, for all their numbers, since the bridge will be broken down." ( ) possibly xenophon himself. clearchus listened to the reasoning, and then he asked the messenger, "how large the country between the tigris and the canal might be?" "a large district," he replied, "and in it are villages and cities numerous and large." then it dawned upon them: the barbarians had sent the man with subtlety, in fear lest the hellenes should cut the bridge and occupy the island territory, with the strong defences of the tigris on the one side and of the canal on the other; supplying themselves with provisions from the country so included, large and rich as it was, with no lack of hands to till it; in addition to which, a harbour of refuge and asylum would be found for any one, who was minded to do the king a mischief. after this they retired to rest in peace, not, however, neglecting to send a guard to occupy the bridge in spite of all, and there was no attack from any quarter whatsoever; nor did any of the enemy's people approach the bridges: so the guards were able to report next morning. but as soon as it was morning, they proceeded to cross the bridge, which consisted of thirty-seven vessels, and in so doing they used the utmost precaution possible; for reports were brought by some of the hellenes with tissaphernes that an attempt was to be made to attack them while crossing. all this turned out to be false, though it is true that while crossing they did catch sight of glus watching, with some others, to see if they crossed the river; but as soon as he had satisfied himself on that point, he rode off and was gone. from the river tigris they advanced four stages--twenty parasangs--to the river physcus, which is a hundred feet broad and spanned by a bridge. here lay a large and populous city named opis, close to which the hellenes were encountered by the natural brother of cyrus and artaxerxes, who was leading a large army from susa and ecbatana to assist the king. he halted his troops and watched the helleens march past. clearchus led them in column two abreast: and from time to time the vanguard came to a standstill, just so often and just so long the effect repeated itself down to the hindmost man: halt! halt! halt! along the whole line: so that even to the hellenes themselves their army seemed enormous; and the persian was fairly astonished at the spectacle. from this place they marched through media six desert stages--thirty parasangs--to the villages of parysatis, cyrus's and the king's mother. these tissaphernes, in mockery of cyrus, delivered over to the hellenes to plunder, except that the folk in them were not to be made slaves. they contained much corn, cattle, and other property. from this place they advanced four desert stages--twenty parasangs--keeping the tigris on the left. on the first of these stages, on the other side of the river, lay a large city; it was a well-to-do place named caenae, from which the natives used to carry across loaves and cheeses and wine on rafts made of skins. v after this they reached the river zapatas ( ), which is four hundred feet broad, and here they halted three days. during the interval suspicions were rife, though no act of treachery displayed itself. clearchus accordingly resolved to bring to an end these feelings of mistrust, before they led to war. consequently, he sent a messenger to the persian to say that he desired an interview with him; to which the other readily consented. as soon as they were met, clearchus spoke as follows: "tissaphernes," he said, "i do not forget that oaths have been exchanged between us, and right hands shaken, in token that we will abstain from mutual injury; but i can see that you watch us narrowly, as if we were foes; and we, seeing this, watch you narrowly in return. but as i fail to discover, after investigation, that you are endeavouring to do us a mischief--and i am quite sure that nothing of the sort has ever entered our heads with regard to you--the best plan seemed to me to come and talk the matter over with you, so that, if possible, we might dispel the mutual distrust on either side. for i have known people ere now, the victims in some cases of calumny, or possibly of mere suspicion, who in apprehension of one another and eager to deal the first blow, have committed irreparable wrong against those who neither intended nor so much as harboured a thought of mischief against them. i have come to you under a conviction that such misunderstandings may best be put a stop to by personal intercourse, and i wish to instruct you plainly that you are wrong in mistrusting us. the first and weightiest reason is that the oaths, which we took in the sight of heaven, are a barrier to mutual hostility. i envy not the man whose conscience tells him that he has disregarded these! for in a war with heaven, by what swiftness of foot can a man escape?--in what quarter find refuge?--in what darkness slink away and be hid?--to what strong fortress scale and be out of reach? are not all things in all ways subject to the gods? is not their lordship over all alike outspread? as touching the gods, therefore, and our oaths, that is how i view this matter. to their safe keeping we consigned the friendship which we solemnly contracted. but turning to matters human, you i look upon as our greatest blessing in this present time. with you every path is plain to us, every river passable, and of provisions we shall know no stint. but without you, all our way is through darkness; for we known nothing concerning it, every river will be an obstacle, each multitude a terror; but, worst terror of all, the vast wilderness, so full of endless perplexity. nay, if in a fit of madness we murdered you, what then? in slaying our benefactor should we not have challenged to enter the lists against us a more formidable antagonist in the king himself? let me tell you, how many high hopes i should rob myself of, were i to take in hand to do you mischief. ( ) the greater zab, which flows into the tigris near a town now called senn, with which most travellers identify caenae. "i coveted the friendship of cyrus; i believed him to be abler than any man of his day to benefit those whom he chose; but to-day i look and, behold, it is you who are in his place; the power which belonged to cyrus and his territory are yours now. you have them, and your own satrapy besides, safe and sound; while the king's power, which was a thorn in the side of cyrus, is your support. this being so, it would be madness not to wish to be your friend. but i will go further and state to you the reasons of my confidence, that you on your side will desire our friendship. i know that the mysians are a cause of trouble to you, and i flatter myself that with my present force i could render them humbly obedient to you. this applies to the pisidians also; and i am told there are many other such tribes besides. i think i can deal with them all; they shall cease from being a constant disturbance to your peace and prosperity. then there are the egyptians ( ). i know your anger against them to-day is very great. nor can i see what better force you will find to help you in chastising them than this which marches at my back to-day. again, if you seek the friendship of any of your neighbours round, there shall be no friend so great as you; if any one annoys you, with us as your faithful servitors you shall belord it over him; and such service we will render you, not as hirelings merely for pay's sake, but for the gratitude which we shall rightly feel to you, to whom we owe our lives. as i dwell on these matters, i confess, the idea of your feeling mistrust of us is so astonishing, that i would give much to discover the name of the man, who is so clever of speech that he can persuade you that we harbour designs against you." clearchus ended, and tissaphernes responded thus-- ( ) we learn from diodorus siculus, xiv. , that the egyptians had revolted from the persians towards the end of the reign of darius. "i am glad, clearchus, to listen to your sensible remarks; for with the sentiments you hold, if you were to devise any mischief against me, it could only be out of malevolence to yourself. but if you imagine that you, on your side, have any better reason to mistrust the king and me, than we you, listen to me in turn, and i will undeceive you. i ask you, does it seem to you that we lack the means, if we had the will, to destroy you? have we not horsemen enough, or infantry, or whatever other arm you like, whereby we may be able to injure you, without risk of suffering in return? or, possibly, do we seem to you to lack the physical surroundings suitable for attacking you? do you not see all these great plains, which you find it hard enough to traverse even when they are friendly? and all yonder great mountain chains left for you to cross, which we can at any time occupy in advance and render impassable? and all those rivers, on whose banks we can deal craftily by you, checking and controlling and choosing the right number of you whom we care to fight! nay, there are some which you will not be able to cross at all, unless we transport you to the other side. "and if at all these points we were worsted, yet 'fire,' as they say, 'is stronger than the fruit of the field': we can burn it down and call up famine in arms against you; against which you, for all your bravery, will never be able to contend. why then, with all these avenues of attack, this machinery of war, open to us, not one of which can be turned against ourselves, why should we select from among them all that method, which alone in the sight of god is impious and of man abominable? surely it belongs to people altogether without resources, who are helplessly struggling in the toils of fate, and are villains to boot, to seek accomplishment of their desires by perjury to heaven and faithlessness to their fellows. we are not so unreasoning, clearchus, nor so foolish. "why, when we had it in our power to destroy you, did we not proceed to do it? know well that the cause of this was nothing less than my passion to prove myself faithful to the hellenes, and that, as cyrus went up, relying on a foreign force attracted by payment, i in turn might go down strong in the same through service rendered. various ways in which you hellenes may be useful to me you yourself have mentioned, but there is one still greater. it is the great king's privilege alone to wear the tiara upright upon his head, yet in your presence it may be given to another mortal to wear it upright, here, upon his heart." throughout this speech he seemed to clearchus to be speaking the truth, and he rejoined: "then are not those worthy of the worst penalties who, in spite of all that exists to cement our friendship, endeavour by slander to make us enemies?" "even so," replied tissaphernes, "and if your generals and captains care to come in some open and public way, i will name to you those who tell me that you are plotting against me and the army under me." "good," replied clearchus. "i will bring all, and i will show you, on my side, the source from which i derive my information concerning you." after this conversation tissaphernes, with kindliest expression, invited clearchus to remain with him at the time, and entertained him at dinner. next day clearchus returned to the camp, and made no secret of his persuasion that he at any rate stood high in the affections of tissaphernes, and he reported what he had said, insisting that those invited ought to go to tissaphernes, and that any hellene convicted of calumnious language ought to be punished, not only as traitors themselves, but as disaffected to their fellow-countrymen. the slanderer and traducer was menon; so, at any rate, he suspected, because he knew that he had had meetings with tissaphernes whilst he was with ariaeus, and was factiously opposed to himself, plotting how to win over the whole army to him, as a means of winning the good graces of tissaphernes. but clearchus wanted the entire army to give its mind to no one else, and that refractory people should be put out of the way. some of the soldiers protested: the captains and generals had better not all go; it was better not to put too much confidence in tissaphernes. but clearchus insisted so strongly that finally it was arranged for five generals to go and twenty captains. these were accompanied by about two hundred of the other soldiers, who took the opportunity of marketing. on arrival at the doors of tissaphernes's quarters the generals were summoned inside. they were proxenus the boeotian, menon the thessalian, agias the arcadian, clearchus the laconian, and socrates the achaean; while the captains remained at the doors. not long after that, at one and the same signal, those within were seized and those without cut down; after which some of the barbarian horsemen galloped over the plain, killing every hellene they encountered, bond or free. the hellenes, as they looked from the camp, viewed that strange horsemanship with surprise, and could not explain to themselves what it all meant, until nicarchus the arcadian came tearing along for bare life with a wound in the belly, and clutching his protruding entrails in his hands. he told them all that had happened. instantly the hellenes ran to their arms, one and all, in utter consternation, and fully expecting that the enemy would instantly be down upon the camp. however, they did not all come; only ariaeus came, and artaozus and mithridates, who were cyrus's most faithful friends; but the interpreter of the hellenes said he saw and recognised the brother of tissaphernes also with them. they had at their back other persians also, armed with cuirasses, as many as three hundred. as soon as they were within a short distance, they bade any general or captain of the hellenes who might be there to approach and hear a message from the king. after this, two hellene generals went out with all precaution. these were cleanor the orchomenian ( ), and sophaenetus the stymphalion, attended by xenophon the athenian, who went to learn news of proxenus. cheirisophus was at the time away in a village with a party gathering provisions. as soon as they had halted within earshot, ariaeus said: "hellenes, clearchus being shown to have committed perjury and to have broken the truce, has suffered the penalty, and he is dead; but proxenus and menon, in return for having given information of his treachery, are in high esteem and honour. as to yourselves, the king demands your arms. he claims them as his, since they belonged to cyrus, who was his slave." to this the hellenes made answer by the mouth of cleanor of orchomenus, their spokesman, who said, addressing ariaeus: "thou villain, ariaeus, and you the rest of you, who were cyrus's friends, have you no shame before god or man, first to swear to us that you have the same friends and the same enemies as we ourselves, and then to turn and betray us, making common cause with tissaphernes, that most impious and villainous of men? with him you have murdered the very men to whom you gave your solemn word and oath, and to the rest of us turned traitors; and, having so done, you join hand with our enemies to come against us." ariaeus answered: "there is no doubt but that clearchus has been known for some time to harbour designs against tissaphernes and orontas, and all of us who side with them." taking up this assertion, xenophon said: "well, then, granting that clearchus broke the truce contrary to our oaths, he has his deserts, for perjurers deserve to perish; but where are proxenus and menon, our generals and your good friends and benefactors, as you admit? send them back to us. surely, just because they are friends of both parites, they will try to give us the best advice for you and for us." at this, the asiatics stood discussing with one another for a long while, and then they went away without vouchsafing a word. vi the generals who were thus seized were taken up to the king and there decapitated. the first of these, clearchus, was a thorough soldier, and a true lover of fighting. this is the testimony of all who knew him intimately. as long as the war between the lacedaemonians and athenians lasted, he could find occupation at home; but after the peace, he persuaded his own city that the thracians were injuring the hellenes, and having secured his object, set sail, empowered by the ephorate to make war upon the thracians north of the chersonese and perinthus. but he had no sooner fairly started than, for some reason or other, the ephors changed their minds, and endeavoured to bring him back again from the isthmus. thereupon he refused further obedience, and went off with sails set for the hellespont. in consequence he was condemned to death by the spartan authorities for disobedience to orders; and now, finding himself an exile, he came to cyrus. working on the feelings of that prince, in language described elsewhere, he received from his entertainer a present of ten thousand darics. having got this money, he did not sink into a life of ease and indolence, but collected an army with it, carried on war against the thracians, and conquered them in battle, and from that date onwards harried and plundered them with war incessantly, until cyrus wanted his army; whereupon he at once went off, in hopes of finding another sphere of warfare in his company. these, i take it, were the characteristic acts of a man whose affections are set on warfare. when it is open to him to enjoy peace with honour, no shame, no injury attached, still he prefers war; when he may live at home at ease, he insists on toil, if only it may end in fighting; when it is given to him to keep his riches without risk, he would rather lessen his fortune by the pastime of battle. to put it briefly, war was his mistress; just as another man will spend his fortune on a favourite, or to gratify some pleasure, so he chose to squander his substance on soldiering. but if the life of a soldier was a passion with him, he was none the less a soldier born, as herein appears; danger was a delight to him; he courted it, attacking the enemy by night or by day; and in difficulties he did not lose his head, as all who ever served in a campaign with him would with one consent allow. a good solder! the question arises, was he equally good as a commander? it must be admitted that, as far as was compatible with his quality of temper, he was; none more so. capable to a singular degree of devising how his army was to get supplies, and of actually getting them, he was also capable of impressing upon those about him that clearchus must be obeyed; and that he brought about by the very hardness of his nature. with a scowling expression and a harshly-grating voice, he chastised with severity, and at times with such fury, that he was sorry afterwards himself for what he had done. yet it was not without purpose that he applied the whip; he had a theory that there was no good to be got out of an unchastened army. a saying of his is recorded to the effect that the soldier who is to mount guard and keep his hands off his friends, and be ready to dash without a moment's hesitation against the foe--must fear his commander more than the enemy. accordingly, in any strait, this was the man whom the soldiers were eager to obey, and they would have no other in his place. the cloud which lay upon his brow, at those times lit up with brightness; his face became radiant, and the old sternness was so charged with vigour and knitted strength to meet the foe, that it savoured of salvation, not of cruelty. but when the pinch of danger was past, and it was open to them to go and taste subordination under some other officer, many forsook him. so lacking in grace of manner was he; but was ever harsh and savage, so that the feeling of the soldiers towards him was that of schoolboys to a master. in other words, though it was not his good fortune ever to have followers inspired solely by friendship or goodwill, yet those who found themselves under him, either by state appointment or through want, or other arch necessity, yielded him implicit obedience. from the moment that he led them to victory, the elements which went to make his soldiers efficient were numerous enough. there was the feeling of confidence in facing the foe, which never left them, and there was the dread of punishment at his hands to keep them orderly. in this way and to this extent he knew how to rule; but to play a subordinate part himself he had no great taste; so, at any rate, it was said. at the time of his death he must have been about fifty years of age. proxenus, the boeotian, was of a different temperament. it had been the dream of his boyhood to become a man capable of great achievements. in obedience to this passionate desire it was, that he paid his fee to gorgias of leontini ( ). after enojoying that teacher's society, he flattered himself that he must be at once qualified to rule; and while he was on friendly terms with the leaders of the age, he was not to be outdone in reciprocity of service ( ). in this mood he threw himself into the projects of cyrus, and in return expected to derive from this essay the reward of a great name, large power, and wide wealth. but for all that he pitched his hopes so high, it was none the less evident that he would refuse to gain any of the ends he set before him wrongfully. righteously and honourably he would obtain them, if he might, or else forego them. as a commander he had the art of leading gentlemen, but he failed to inspire adequately either respect for himself or fear in the soldiers under him. indeed, he showed a more delicate regard for his soldiers than his subordinates for him, and he was indisputably more apprehensive of incurring their hatred than they were of losing their fidelity. the one thing needful to real and recognised generalship was, he thought, to praise the virtuous and to withhold praise from the evildoer. it can be easily understood, then, that of those who were brought in contact with him, the good and noble indeed were his well-wishers; but he laid himself open to the machinations of the base, who looked upon him as a person to be dealt with as they liked. at the time of his death he was only thirty years of age. ( ) the famous rhetorician of leontini, - b.c. his fee was minae. ( ) proxenus, like cyrus, is to some extent a prototype of the cyrus of the "cyropaedia." in other words, the author, in delineating the portrait of his ideal prince, drew from the recollection of many princely qualities observed by him in the characters of many friends. apart from the intrinsic charm of the story, the "anabasis" is interesting as containing the raw material of experience and reflection which "this young scholar or philosopher," our friend, the author, will one day turn to literary account. as to menon the thessalian ( ), the mainspring of his action was obvious; what he sought after insatiably was wealth. rule he sought after only as a stepping-stone to larger spoils. honours and high estate he craved for simply that he might extend the area of his gains; and if he studied to be on friendly terms with the powerful, it was in order that he might commit wrong with impunity. the shortest road to the achievement of his desires lay, he thought, through false swearing, lying, and cheating; for in his vocabulary simplicity and truth were synonyms of folly. natural affection he clearly entertained for nobody. if he called a man his friend it might be looked upon as certain that he was bent on ensnaring him. laughter at an enemy he considered out of place, but his whole conversation turned upon the ridicule of his associates. in like manner, the possessions of his foes were secure from his designs, since it was no easy task, he thought, to steal from people on their guard; but it was his particular good fortune to have discovered how easy it is to rob a friend in the midst of his security. if it were a perjured person or a wrongdoer, he dreaded him as well armed and intrenched; but the honourable and the truth-loving he tried to practise on, regarding them as weaklings devoid of manhood. and as other men pride themselves on piety and truth and righteousness, so menon prided himself on a capacity for fraud, on the fabrication of lies, on the mockery and scorn of friends. the man who was not a rogue he ever looked upon as only half educated. did he aspire to the first place in another man's friendship, he set about his object by slandering those who stood nearest to him in affection. he contrived to secure the obedience of his solders by making himself an accomplice in their misdeeds, and the fluency with which he vaunted his own capacity and readiness for enormous guilt was a sufficient title to be honoured and courted by them. or if any one stood aloof from him, he set it down as a meritorious act of kindness on his part that during their intercourse he had not robbed him of existence. ( ) for a less repulsive conception of menon's character, however unhistorical, see plato's "meno," and prof. jowlett's introduction, "plato," vol. i. p. : "he is a thessalian alcibiades, rich and luxurious--a spoilt child of fortune." as to certain obscure charges brought against his character, these may certainly be fabrications. i confine myself to the following facts, which are known to all. he was in the bloom of youth when he procured from aristippus the command of his mercenaries; he had not yet lost that bloom when he became exceedingly intimate with ariaeus, a barbarian, whose liking for fair young men was the explanation; and before he had grown a beard himself, he had contracted a similar relationship with a bearded favourite named tharypas. when his fellow-generals were put to death on the plea that they had marched with cyrus against the king, he alone, although he had shared their conduct, was exempted from their fate. but after their deaths the vengeance of the king fell upon him, and he was put to death, not like clearchus and the others by what would appear to be the speediest of deaths--decapitation--but, as report says, he lived for a year in pain and disgrace and died the death of a felon. agias the arcadian and socrates the achaean were both among the sufferers who were put to death. to the credit, be it said, of both, no one ever derided either as cowardly in war: no one ever had a fault to find with either on the score of friendship. they were both about thirty-five years of age. book iii (in the preceding pages of the narrative will be found a full account, not only of the doings of the hellenes during the advance of cyrus till the date of the battle, but of the incidents which befell them after cyrus' death at the commencement of the retreat, while in company with tissaphernes during the truce.) i after the generals had been seized, and the captains and soldiers who formed their escort had been killed, the hellenes lay in deep perplexity--a prey to painful reflections. here were they at the king's gates, and on every side environing them were many hostile cities and tribes of men. who was there now to furnish them with a market? separated from hellas by more than a thousand miles, they had not even a guide to point the way. impassable rivers lay athwart their homeward route, and hemmed them in. betrayed even by the asiatics, at whose side they had marched with cyrus to the attack, they were left in isolation. without a single mounted trooper to aid them in pursuit: was it not perfectly plain that if they won a battle, their enemies would escape to a man, but if they were beaten themselves, not one soul of them would survive? haunted by such thoughts, and with hearts full of despair, but few of them tasted food that evening; but few of them kindled even a fire, and many never came into camp at all that night, but took their rest where each chanced to be. they could not close their eyes for very pain and yearning after their fatherlands or their parents, the wife or child whom they never expected to look upon again. such was the plight in which each and all tried to seek repose. now there was in that host a certain man, an athenian ( ), xenophon, who had accompanied cyrus, neither as a general, nor as an officer, nor yet as a private soldier, but simply on the invitation of an old friend, proxenus. this old friend had sent to fetch him from home, promising, if he would come, to introduce him to cyrus, "whom," said proxenus, "i consider to be worth my fatherland and more to me." ( ) the reader should turn to grote's comments on the first appearance of xenophon. he has been mentioned before, of course, more than once before; but he now steps, as the protagonist, upon the scene, and as grote says: "it is in true homeric vein, and in something like homeric language, that xenophon (to whom we owe the whole narrative of the expedition) describes his dream, or the intervention of oneiros, sent by zeus, from which this renovating impulse took its rise." xenophon having read the letter, consulted socrates the athenian, whether he should accept or refuse the invitation. socrates, who had a suspicion that the state of athens might in some way look askance at my friendship with cyrus, whose zealous co-operation with the lacedaemonians against athens in the war was not forgotten, advised xenophon to go to delphi and there to consult the god as to the desirability of such a journey. xenophon went and put the question to apollo, to which of the gods he must pray and do sacrifice, so that he might best accomplish his intended journey and return in safety, with good fortune. then apollo answered him: "to such and such gods must thou do sacrifice," and when he had returned home he reported to socrates the oracle. but he, when he heard, blamed xenophon that he had not, in the first instance, inquired of the god, whether it were better for him to go or to stay, but had taken on himself to settle that point affirmatively, by inquiring straightway, how he might best perform the journey. "since, however," continued socrates, "you did so put the question, you should do what the god enjoined." thus, and without further ado, xenophon offered sacrifice to those whom the god had named, and set sail on his voyage. he overtook proxenus and cyrus at sardis, when they were just ready to start on the march up country, and was at once introduced to cyrus. proxenus eagerly pressed him to stop--a request which cyrus with like ardour supported, adding that as soon as the campaign was over he would send him home. the campaign referred to was understood to be against the pisidians. that is how xenophon came to join the expedition, deceived indeed, though not by proxenus, who was equally in the dark with the rest of the hellenes, not counting clearchus, as to the intended attack upon the king. then, though the majority were in apprehension of the journey, which was not at all to their minds, yet, for very shame of one another and cyrus, they continued to follow him, and with the rest went xenophon. and now in this season of perplexity, he too, with the rest, was in sore distress, and could not sleep; but anon, getting a snatch of sleep, he had a dream. it seemed to him in a vision that there was a storm of thunder and lightning, and a bolt fell on his father's house, and thereupon the house was all in a blaze. he sprung up in terror, and pondering the matter, decided that in part the dream was good: in that he had seen a great light from zeus, whilst in the midst of toil and danger. but partly too he feared it, for evidently it had come from zeus the king. and the fire kindled all around--what could that mean but that he was hemmed in by various perplexities, and so could not escape from the country of the king? the full meaning, however, is to be discovered from what happened after the dream. this is what took place. as soon as he was fully awake, the first clear thought which came into his head was, why am i lying here? the night advances; with the day, it is like enough, the enemy will be upon us. if we are to fall into the hands of the king, what is left us but to face the most horrible of sights, and to suffer the most fearful pains, and then to die, insulted, an ignominious death? to defend ourselves--to ward off that fate--not a hand stirs: no one is preparing, none cares; but here we lie, as though it were time to rest and take our ease. i too! what am i waiting for? a general to undertake the work? and from what city? am i waiting till i am older mysef and of riper age? older i shall never be, if to-day i betray myself to my enemies. thereupon he got up, and called together first proxenus's officers; and when they were met, he said: "sleep, sirs, i cannot, nor can you, i fancy, nor lie here longer, when i see in what straits we are. our enemy, we may be sure, did not open war upon us till he felt he had everything amply ready; yet none of us shows a corresponding anxiety to enter the lists of battle in the bravest style. "and yet, if we yield ourselves and fall into the king's power, need we ask what our fate will be? this man, who, when his own brother, the son of the same parents, was dead, was not content with that, but severed head and hand from the body, and nailed them to a cross. we, then, who have not even the tie of blood in our favour, but who marched against him, meaning to make a slave of him instead of a king--and to slay him if we could: what is likely to be our fate at his hands? will he not go all lengths so that, by inflicting on us the extreme of ignominy and torture, he may rouse in the rest of mankind a terror of ever marching against him any more? there is no question but that our business is to avoid by all means getting into his clutches. "for my part, all the while the truce lasted, i never ceased pitying ourselves and congratulating the king and those with him, as, like a helpless spectator, i surveyed the extent and quality of their territory, the plenteousness of their provisions, the multitude of their dependants, their cattle, their gold, and their apparel. and then to turn and ponder the condition of our soldiers, without part or lot in these good things, except we bought it; few, i knew, had any longer the wherewithal to buy, and yet our oath held us down, so that we could not provide ourselves otherwise than by purchase. i say, as i reasoned thus, there were times when i dreaded the truce more than i now dread war. "now, however, that they have abruptly ended the truce, there is an end also to their own insolence and to our suspicion. all these good things of theirs are now set as prizes for the combatants. to whichsoever of us shall prove the better men, will they fall as guerdons; and the gods themselves are the judges of the strife. the gods, who full surely will be on our side, seeing it is our enemies who have taken their names falsely; whilst we, with much to lure us, yet for our oath's sake, and the gods who were our witnesses, sternly held aloof. so that, it seems to me, we have a right to enter upon this contest with much more heart than our foes; and further, we are possessed of bodies more capable than theirs of bearing cold and heat and labour; souls too we have, by the help of heaven, better and braver; nay, the men themselves are more vulnerable, more mortal, than ourselves, if so be the gods vouchsafe to give us victory once again. "howbeit, for i doubt not elsewhere similar reflections are being made, whatsoever betide, let us not, in heaven's name, wait for others to come and challenge us to noble deeds; let us rather take the lead in stimulating the rest to valour. show yourselves to be the bravest of officers, and among generals, the worthiest to command. for myself, if you choose to start forwards on this quest, i will follow; or, if you bid me lead you, my age shall be no excuse to stand between me and your orders. at least i am of full age, i take it, to avert misfortune from my own head." such were the speaker's words; and the officers, when they heard, all, with one exception, called upon him to put himself at their head. this was a certain apollonides there present, who spoke in the boeotian dialect. this man's opinion was that it was mere nonsense for any one to pretend they could obtain safety otherwise than by an appeal to the king, if he had skill to enforce it; and at the same time he began to dilate on the difficulties. but xenophon cut him short. "o most marvellous of men! though you have eyes to see, you do not perceive; though you have ears to hear, you do not recollect. you were present with the rest of us now here when, after the death of cyrus, the king, vaunting himself on that occurrence, sent dictatorially to bid us lay down our arms. but when we, instead of giving up our arms, put them on and went and pitched our camp near him, his manner changed. it is hard to say what he did not do, he was so at his wit's end, sending us embassies and begging for a truce, and furnishing provisions the while, until he had got it. or to take the contrary instance, when just now, acting precisely on your principles, our generals and captains went, trusting to the truce, unarmed to a conference with them, what came of it? what is happening at this instant? beaten, goaded with pricks, insulted, poor souls, they cannot even die: though death, i ween, would be very sweet. and you, who know all this, how can you say that it is mere nonsense to talk of self-defence? how can you bid us go again and try the arts of persuasion? in my opinion, sirs, we ought not to admit this fellow to the same rank with ourselves; rather ought we to deprive him of his captaincy, and load him with packs and treat him as such. the man is a disgrace to his own fatherland and the whole of hellas, that, being a hellene, he is what he is." here agasias the stymphalian broke in, exclaiming: "nay, this fellow has no connection either with boeotia or with hellas, none whatever. i have noted both his ears bored like a lydian's." and so it was. him then they banished. but the rest visited the ranks, and wherever a general was left, they summoned the general; where he was gone, the lieutenant-general; and where again the captain alone was left, the captain. as soon as they were all met, they seated themselves in front of the place d'armes: the assembled generals and officers, numbering about a hundred. it was nearly midnight when this took place. thereupon hieronymous the eleian, the eldest of proxenus's captains, commenced speaking as follows: "generals and captains, it seemed right to us, in view of the present crisis, ourselves to assemble and to summon you, that we might advise upon some practicable course. would you, xenophon, repeat what you said to us?" thereupon xenophon spoke as follows: "we all know only too well, that the king and tissaphernes have seized as many of us as they could, and it is clear they are plotting to destroy the rest of us if they can. our business is plain: it is to do all we can to avoid getting into the power of the barbarians; rather, if we can, we will get them into our power. rely upon this then, all you who are here assembled, now is your great opportunity. the soldiers outside have their eyes fixed upon you; if they think that you are faint-hearted, they will turn cowards; but if you show them that you are making your own preparations to attack the enemy, and setting an example to the rest--follow you, be assured, they will: imitate you they will. may be, it is but right and fair that you should somewhat excel them, for you are generals, you are commanders of brigades or regiments; and if, while it was peace, you had the advantage in wealth and position, so now, when it is war, you are expected to rise superior to the common herd--to think for them, to toil for them, whenever there be need. "at this very moment you would confer a great boon on the army, if you made it your business to appoint generals and officers to fill the places of those that are lost. for without leaders nothing good or noble, to put it concisely, was ever wrought anywhere; and in military matters this is absolutely true; for if discipline is held to be of saving virtue, the want of it has been the ruin of many ere now. well, then! when you have appointed all the commanders necessary, it would only be opportune, i take it, if you were to summon the rest of the soldiers and speak some words of encouragement. even now, i daresay you noticed yourselves the crestfallen air with which they came into camp, the despondency with which they fell to picket duty, so that, unless there is a change for the better, i do not know for what service they will be fit; whether by night, if need were, or even by day. the thing is to get them to turn their thoughts to what they mean to do, instead of to what they are likely to suffer. do that, and their spirits will soon revive wonderfully. you know, i need hardly remind you, it is not numbers or strength that gives victory in war; but, heaven helping them, to one or other of two combatants it is given to dash with stouter hearts to meet the foe, and such onset, in nine cases out of ten, those others refuse to meet. this observation, also, i have laid to heart, that they, who in matters of war seek in all ways to save their lives, are just they who, as a rule, die dishonourably; whereas they who, recognising that death is the common lot and destiny of all men, strive hard to die nobly: these more frequently, as i observe, do after all attain to old age, or, at any rate, while life lasts, they spend their days more happily. this lesson let all lay to heart this day, for we are just at such a crisis of our fate. now is the season to be brave ourselves, and to stimulate the rest by our example." with these words he ceased; and after him, cheirisophus said: "xenophon, hitherto i knew only so much of you as that you were, i heard, an athenian, but now i must commend you for your words and for your conduct. i hope that there may be many more like you, for it would prove a public blessing." then turning to the officers: "and now," said he, "let us waste no time; retire at once, i beg you, and choose leaders where you need them. after you have made your elections, come back to the middle of the camp, and bring the newly appointed officers. after that, we will there summon a general meeting of the soldiers. let tolmides, the herald," he added, "be in attendance." with these words on his lips he got up, in order that what was needful might be done at once without delay. after this the generals were chosen. these were timasion the dardanian, in place of clearchus; xanthicles, an achaean, in place of socrates; cleanor, an arcadian, in place of agias; philesius, an achaean, in place of menon; and in place of proxenus, xenophon the athenian. ii by the time the new generals had been chosen, the first faint glimmer of dawn had hardly commenced, as they met in the centre of the camp, and resolved to post an advance guard and to call a general meeting of the soldiers. now, when these had come together, cheirisophus the lacedaemonian first rose and spoke as follows: "fellow-soldiers, the present posture of affairs is not pleasant, seeing that we are robbed of so many generals and captains and soldiers; and more than that, our former allies, ariaeus and his men, have betrayed us; still, we must rise above our circumstances to prove ourselves brave men, and not give in, but try to save ourselves by glorious victory if we can; or, if not, at least to die gloriously, and never, while we have breath in our bodies, fall into the hands of our enemies. in which latter case, i fear, we shall suffer things, which i pray the gods may visit rather upon those we hate." at this point cleanor the ochomenian stood up and spoke as follows: "you see, men, the perjury and the impiety of the king. you see the faithlessness of tissaphernes, professing that he was next-door neighbour to hellas, and would give a good deal to save us, in confirmation of which he took an oath to us himself, he gave us the pledge of his right hand, and then, with a lie upon his lips, this same man turned round and arrested our generals. he had no reverence even for zeus, the god of strangers; but, after entertaining clearchus at his own board as a friend, he used his hospitality to delude and decoy his victims. and ariaeus, whom we offered to make king, with whom we exchanged pledges not to betray each other, even this man, without a particle of fear of the gods, or respect for cyrus in his grave, though he was most honoured by cyrus in lifetime, even he has turned aside to the worst foes of cyrus, and is doing his best to injure the dead man's friends. them may the gods requite as they deserve! but we, with these things before our eyes, will not any more be cheated and cajoled by them; we will make the best fight we can, and having made it, whatever the gods think fit to send, we will accept." after him xenophon arose; he was arrayed for war in his bravest apparel ( ): "for," said he to himself, "if the gods grant victory, the finest attire will match with victory best; or if i must needs die, then for one who has aspired to the noblest, it is well there should be some outward correspondence between his expectation and his end." he began his speech as follows: "cleanor has spoken of the perjury and faithlessness of the barbarians, and you yourselves know them only too well, i fancy. if then we are minded to enter a second time into terms of friendship with them, with the experience of what our generals, who in all confidence entrusted themselves to their power, have suffered, reason would we should feel deep despondency. if, on the other hand, we purpose to take our good swords in our hands and to inflict punishment on them for what they have done, and from this time forward will be on terms of downright war with them, then, god helping, we have many a bright hope of safety." the words were scarcely spoken when someone sneezed ( ), and with one impulse the soldiers bowed in worship; and xenophon proceeded: "i propose, sirs, since, even as we spoke of safety, an omen from zeus the saviour has appeared, we vow a vow to sacrifice to the saviour thank-offerings for safe deliverance, wheresoever first we reach a friendly country; and let us couple with that vow another of individual assent, that we will offer to the rest of the gods 'according to our ability.' let all those who are in favour of this proposal hold up their hands." they all held up their hands, and there and then they vowed a vow and chanted the battle hymn. but as soon as these sacred matters were duly ended, he began once more thus: "i was saying that many and bright are the hopes we have of safety. first of all, we it is who confirm and ratify the oaths we take by heaven, but our enemies have taken false oaths and broken the truce, contrary to their solemn word. this being so, it is but natural that the gods should be opposed to our enemies, but with ourselves allied; the gods, who are able to make the great ones quickly small, and out of sore perplexity can save the little ones with ease, what time it pleases them. in the next place, let me recall to your minds the dangers of our own forefathers, that you may see and know that bravery is your heirloom, and that by the aid of the gods brave men are rescued even out of the midst of sorest straits." so was it when the persians came, and their attendant hosts ( ), with a very great armament, to wipe out athens from the face of the earth--the men of athens had the heart to withstand them and conquered them. then they vowed to artemis that for every man they slew of the enemy, they would sacrifice to the goddess goats so many; and when they could not find sufficient for the slain, they resolved to offer yearly five hundred; and to this day they perform that sacrifice. and at a somewhat later date, when xerxes assembled his countless hosts and marched upon hellas, then ( ) too our fathers conquered the forefathers of our foes by land and by sea. ( ) so it is said of the russian general skobelef, that he had a strange custom of going into battle in his cleanest uniform, perfumed, and wearing a diamond-hilted sword, "in order that," as he said, "he might die in his best attire." ( ) for this ancient omen see "odyssey," xvii. : "even as she spake, and telemachus sneezed loudly, and around the roof rung wondrously. and penelope laughed."... "dost thou not mark how my son has sneezed a blessing on all my words?" ( ) see herod. vi. ; the allusion is to the invasion of greeze by datis and artaphernes, and to their defeat at marathon, b.c. . "heredotus estimates the number of those who fell on the persian side at men: the number of athenian dead is accurately known, since all were collected for the last solemn obsequies--they were ."--grote, "hist. of greece," vol. v. p. . ( ) then = at salamis, b.c. , and at plataea and mycale, b.c. , on the same day. "and proofs of these things are yet to be seen in trophies; but the greatest witness of all is the freedom of our cities--the liberty of that land in which you were born and bred. for you call no man master or lord; you bow your heads to none save to the gods alone. such were your forefathers, and their sons are ye. think not i am going to say that you put to shame in any way your ancestry--far from it. not many days since, you too were drawn up in battle face to face with these true descendants of their ancestors, and by the help of heaven you conquered them, though they many times outnumbered you. at that time, it was to win a throne for cyrus that you showed your bravery; to-day, when the struggle is for your own salvation, what is more natural than that you should show yourselves braver and more zealous still. nay, it is very meet and right that you should be more undaunted still to-day to face the foe. the other day, though you had not tested them, and before your eyes lay their immeasurable host, you had the heart to go against them with the spirit of your fathers. to-day you have made trial of them, and knowing that, however many times your number, they do not care to await your onset, what concern have you now to be afraid of them? "nor let any one suppose that herein is a point of weakness, in that cyrus's troops, who before were drawn up by your side, have now deserted us, for they are even worse cowards still than those we worsted. at any rate they have deserted us, and sought refuge with them. leaders of the forlorn hope of flight--far better is it to have them brigaded with the enemy than shoulder to shoulder in our ranks. but if any of you is out of heart to think that we have no cavalry, while the enemy have many squadrons to command, lay to heart this doctrine, that ten thousand horse only equal ten thousand men upon their backs, neither less nor more. did any one ever die in battle from the bite or kick of a horse? it is the men, the real swordsmen, who do whatever is done in battles. in fact we, on our stout shanks, are better mounted than those cavalry fellows; there they hang on to their horses' necks in mortal dread, not only of us, but of falling off; while we, well planted upon earth, can deal far heavier blows to our assailants, and aim more steadily at who we will. there is one point, i admit, in which their cavalry have the whip-hand of us; it is safer for them than it is for us to run away. "may be, however, you are in good heart about the fighting, but annoyed to think that tissaphernes will not guide us any more, and that the king will not furnish us with a market any longer. now, consider, is it better for us to have a guide like tissaphernes, whom we know to be plotting against us, or to take our chance of the stray people whom we catch and compel to guide us, who will know that any mistake made in leading us will be a sad mistake for their own lives? again, is it better to be buying provisions in a market of their providing, in scant measure and at high prices, without even the money to pay for them any longer; or, by right of conquest, to help ourselves, applying such measure as suits our fancy best? "or again, perhaps you admit that our present position is not without its advantages, but you feel sure that the rivers are a difficulty, and think that you were never more taken in than when you crossed them; if so, consider whether, after all, this is not perhaps the most foolish thing which the barbarians have done. no river is impassable throughout; whatever difficulties it may present at some distance from its source, you need only make your way up to the springhead, and there you may cross it without wetting more than your ankles. but, granted that the rivers do bar our passage, and that guides are not forthcoming, what care we? we need feel no alarm for all that. we have heard of the mysians, a people whom we certainly cannot admit to be better than ourselves; and yet they inhabit numbers of large and prosperous cities in the king's own country without asking leave. the pisidians are an equally good instance, or the lycaonians. we have seen with our own eyes how they fare: seizing fortresses down in the plains, and reaping the fruits of these men's territory. as to us, i go so far as to assert, we ought never to have let it be seen that we were bent on getting home: at any rate, not so soon; we should have begun stocking and furnishing ourselves, as if we fully meant to settle down for life somewhere or other hereabouts. i am sure that the king would be thrice glad to give the mysians as many guides as they like, or as many hostages as they care to demand, in return for a safe conduct out of his country; he would make carriage roads for them, and if they preferred to take their departure in coaches and four, he would not say them nay. so too, i am sure, he would be only too glad to accommodate us in the same way, if he saw us preparing to settle down here. but, perhaps, it is just as well that we did not stop; for i fear, if once we learn to live in idleness and to batten in luxury and dalliance with these tall and handsome median and persian women and maidens, we shall be like the lotus-eaters ( ), and forget the road home altogether. ( ) see "odyssey," ix. , "ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of returning." "it seems to me that it is only right, in the first instance, to make an effort to return to hellas and to revisit our hearths and homes, if only to prove to other hellenes that it is their own faults if they are poor and needy ( ), seeing it is in their power to give to those now living a pauper life at home a free passage hither, and convert them into well-to-do burghers at once. now, sirs, is it not clear that all these good things belong to whoever has strength to hold them? ( ) here seems to be the germ--unless, indeed, the thought had been conceived above--here at any rate the first conscious expression of the colonisation scheme, of which we shall hear more below, in reference to cotyora; the phasis; calpe. it appears again fifty years later in the author's pamphlet "on revenues," chapters i. and vi. for the special evils of the fourth century b.c., and the growth of pauperism between b.c. and , see jebb, "attic orators," vol i. p. . "let us look another matter in the face. how are we to march most safely? or where blows are needed, how are we to fight to the best advantage? that is the question. "the first thing which i recommend is to burn the wagons we have got, so that we may be free to march wherever the army needs, and not, practically, make our baggage train our general. and, next, we should throw our tents into the bonfire also: for these again are only a trouble to carry, and do not contribute one grain of good either for fighting or getting provisions. further, let us get rid of all superfluous baggage, save only what we require for the sake of war, or meat and drink, so that as many of us as possible may be under arms, and as few as possible doing porterage. i need not remind you that, in case of defeat, the owners' goods are not their own; but if we master our foes, we will make them our baggage bearers. "it only rests for me to name the one thing which i look upon as the greatest of all. you see, the enemy did not dare to bring war to bear upon us until they had first seized our generals; they felt that whilst our rulers were there, and we obeyed them, they were no match for us in war; but having got hold of them, they fully expected that the consequent confusion and anarchy would prove fatal to us. what follows? this: officers and leaders ought to be more vigilant ever than their predecessors; subordinates still more orderly and obedient to those in command now than even they were to those who are gone. and you should pass a resolution that, in case of insubordination, any one who stands by is to aid the officer in chastising the offender. so the enemy will be mightily deceived; for on this day they will behold ten thousand clearchuses instead of one, who will not suffer one man to play the coward. and now it is high time i brought my remarks to an end, for may be the enemy will be here anon. let those who are in favour of these proposals confirm them with all speed, that they may be realised in fact; or if any other course seem better, let not any one, even though he be a private soldier, shrink from proposing it. our common safety is our common need." after this cheirisophus spoke. he said: "if there is anything else to be done, beyond what xenophon has mentioned, we shall be able to carry it out presently; but with regard to what he has already proposed, it seems to me the best course to vote upon the matters at once. those who are in favour of xenophon's proposals, hold up their hands." they all held them up. xenophon rose again and said: "listen, sirs, while i tell you what i think we have need of besides. it is clear that we must march where we can get provisions. now, i am told there are some splendid villages not more than two miles and a half distant. i should not be surprised, then, if the enemy were to hang on our heels and dog us as we retire, like cowardly curs which rush out at the passer-by and bite him if they can, but when you turn upon them they run away. such will be their tactics, i take it. it may be safer, then, to march in a hollow square, so as to place the baggage animals and our mob of sutlers in greater security. it will save time to make the appointments at once, and to settle who leads the square and directs the vanguard; who will take command of the two flanks, and who of the rearguard; so that, when the enemy appears, we shall not need to deliberate, but can at once set in motion the machinery in existence. "if any one has any better plan, we need not adopt mine; but if not, suppose cheirisophus takes the lead, as he is a lacedaemonian, and the two eldest generals take in charge the two wings respectively, whilst timasion and i, the two youngest, will for the present guard the rear. for the rest, we can but make experiment of this arrangement, and alter it with deliberation, as from time to time any improvement suggests itself. if any one has a better plan to propose, let him do so."... no dissentient voice was heard. accordingly he said: "those in favour of this resolution, hold up their hands." the resolution was carried. "and now," said he, "it would be well to separate and carry out what we have decreed. if any of you has set his heart on seeing his friends again, let him remember to prove himself a man; there is no other way to achieve his heart's wish. or is mere living an object with any of you, strive to conquer; if to slay is the privilege of victory, to die is the doom of the defeated. or perhaps to gain money and wealth is your ambition, strive again for mastery; have not conquerors the double gain of keeping what is their own, whilst they seize the possessions of the vanquished?" iii the speaking was ended; they got up and retired; then they burnt the wagons and the tents, and after sharing with one another what each needed out of their various superfluities, they threw the remnant into the fire. having done that, they proceeded to make their breakfasts. while they were breakfasting, mithridates came with about thirty horsemen, and summoning the generals within earshot, he thus addressed them: "men of hellas, i have been faithful to cyrus, as you know well, and to-day i am your well-wisher; indeed, i am here spending my days in great fear: if then i could see any salutory course in prospect, i should be disposed to join you with all my retainers. please inform me, then, as to what you propose, regarding me as your friend and well-wisher, anxious only to pursue his march in your company." the generals held council, and resolved to give the following answer, cheirisophus acting as spokesman: "we have resolved to make our way through the country, inflicting the least possible damage, provided we are allowed a free passage homewards; but if any one tries to hinder us, he will have to fight it out with us, and we shall bring all the force in our power to bear." thereat mithridates set himself to prove to them that their deliverance, except with the king's good pleasure, was hopeless. then the meaning of his mission was plain. he was an agent in disguise; in fact, a relation of tissaphernes was in attendance to keep a check on his loyalty. after that, the generals resolved that it would be better to proclaim open war, without truce or herald, as long as they were in the enemy's country; for they used to come and corrupt the soldiers, and they were even successful with one officer--nicarchus ( ), an arcadian, who went off in the night with about twenty men. ( ) can this be the same man whose escape is so graphically described above? after this, they breakfasted and crossed the river zapatas, marching in regular order, with the beasts and mob of the army in the middle. they had not advanced far on their route when mithridates made his appearance again, with about a couple of hundred horsemen at his back, and bowmen and slingers twice as many, as nimble fellows as a man might hope to see. he approached the hellenes as if he were friendly; but when they had got fairly to close quarters, all of a sudden some of them, whether mounted or on foot, began shooting with their bows and arrows, and another set with slings, wounding the men. the rearguard of the hellenes suffered for a while severely without being able to retaliate, for the cretans had a shorter range than the persians, and at the same time, being light-armed troops, they lay cooped up within the ranks of the heavy infantry, while the javelin men again did not shoot far enough to reach the enemy's slingers. this being so, xenophon thought there was nothing for it but to charge, and charge they did; some of the heavy and light infantry, who were guarding the rear, with him; but for all their charging they did not catch a single man. the dearth of cavalry told against the hellenes; nor were their infantry able to overhaul the enemy's infantry, with the long start they had, and considering the shortness of the race, for it was out of the question to pursue them far from the main body of the army. on the other hand, the asiatic cavalry, even while fleeing, poured volleys of arrows behind their backs, and wounded the pursuers; while the hellenes must fall back fighting every step of the way they had measured in the pursuit; so that by the end of that day they had not gone much more than three miles; but in the late afternoon they reached the villages. here there was a return of the old despondency. cheirisophus and the eldest of the generals blamed xenophon for leaving the main body to give chase and endangering himself thereby, while he could not damage the enemy one whit the more. xenophon admitted that they were right in blaming him: no better proof of that was wanted than the result. "the fact is," he added, "i was driven to pursue; it was too trying to look on and see our men suffer so badly, and be unable to retaliate. however, when we did charge, there is no denying the truth of what you say; we were not a whit more able to injure the enemy, while we had considerable difficulty in beating a retreat ourselves. thank heaven they did not come upon us in any great force, but were only a handful of men; so that the injury they did us was not large, as it might have been; and at least it has served to show us what we need. at present the enemy shoot and sling beyond our range, so that our cretan archers are no match for them; our hand-throwers cannot reach as far; and when we pursue, it is not possible to push the pursuit to any great distance from the main body, and within the short distance no foot-soldier, however fleet of foot, could overtake another foot-soldier who has a bow-shot the start of him. if, then, we are to exclude them from all possibility of injuring us as we march, we must get slingers as soon as possible and cavalry. i am told there are in the army some rhodians, most of whom, they say, know how to sling, and their missile will reach even twice as far as the persian slings (which, on account of their being loaded with stones as big as one's fist, have a comparatively short range; but the rhodians are skilled in the use of leaden bullets ( )). suppose, then, we investigate and find out first of all who among them possess slings, and for these slings offer the owner the money value; and to another, who will plait some more, hand over the money price; and for a third, who will volunteer to be enrolled as a slinger, invent some other sort of privilege, i think we shall soon find people to come forward capable of helping us. there are horses in the army i know; some few with myself, others belonging to clearchus's stud, and a good many others captured from the enemy, used for carrying baggage. let us take the pick of these, supplying their places by ordinary baggage animals, and equipping the horses for cavalry. i should not wonder if our troopers gave some annoyance to these fugitives." ( ) these words sound to me like an author's note, parenthetically, and perhaps inadvertently, inserted into the text. it is an "aside" to the reader, which in a modern book would appear as a footnote. these proposals were carried, and that night two hundred slingers were enrolled, and next day as many as fifty horse and horsemen passed muster as duly qualified; buff jackets and cuirasses were provided for them, and a commandant of cavalry appointed to command--lycius, the son of polystratus, by name, an athenian. iv that day they remained inactive, but the next they rose earlier than usual, and set out betimes, for they had a ravine to cross, where they feared the enemy might attack them in the act of crossing. when they were across, mithridates appeared again with one thousand horse, and archers and slingers to the number of four thousand. this whole body he had got by request from tissaphernes, and in return he undertook to deliver up the hellenes to tissaphernes. he had grown contemptuous since his late attack, when, with so small a detachment, he had done, as he thought, a good deal of mischief, without the slightest loss to himself. when the hellenes were not only right across, but had got about a mile from the ravine, mithridates also crossed with his forces. an order had been passed down the lines, what light infantry and what heavy infantry were to take part in the pursuit; and the cavalry were instructed to follow up the pursuit with confidence, as a considerable support was in their rear. so, when mithridates had come up with them, and they were well within arrow and sling shot, the bugle sounded the signal to the hellenes; and immediately the detachment under orders rushed to close quarters, and the cavalry charged. there the enemy preferred not to wait, but fled towards the ravine. in this pursuit the asiatics lost several of their infantry killed, and of their cavalry as many as eighteen were taken prisoners in the ravine. as to those who were slain the hellenes, acting upon impulse, mutilated their bodies, by way of impressing their enemy with as frightful an image as possible. so fared the foe and so fell back; but the hellenes, continuing their march in safety for the rest of that day, reached the river tigris. here they came upon a large deserted city, the name of which was larissa ( ): a place inhabited by the medes in days of old; the breadth of its walls was twenty-five feet, and the height of them a hundred, and the circuit of the whole two parasangs. it was built of clay-bricks, supported on a stone basis twenty feet high. this city the king of the persians ( ) besieged, what time the persians strove to snatch their empire from the medes, but he could in no wise take it; then a cloud hid the face of the sun and blotted out the light thereof, until the inhabitants were gone out of the city, and so it was taken. by the side of this city there was a stone pyramid in breadth a hundred feet, and in height two hundred feet; in it were many of the barbarians who had fled for refuge from the neighbouring villages. ( ) larissa, on the side of the modern nimrud (the south-west corner, as is commonly supposed, of nineveh). the name is said to mean "citadel," and is given to various greek cities (of which several occur in xenophon). ( ) i.e. cyrus the great. from this place they marched one stage of six parasangs to a great deserted fortress (which lay over against the city), and the name of that city was mespila ( ). the medes once dwelt in it. the basement was made of polished stone full of shells; fifty feet was the breadth of it, and fifty feet the height; and on this basement was reared a wall of brick, the breadth whereof was fifty feet and the height thereof four hundred; and the circuit of the wall was six parasangs. hither, as the story goes, medea ( ), the king's wife, betook herself in flight what time the medes lost their empire at the hands of the persians. to this city also the king of the pesians laid siege, but could not take it either by length of days or strength of hand. but zeus sent amazement on the inhabitants thereof, and so it was taken. ( ) opposite mosul, the north-west portion of the ancient nineveh, about eighteen miles above larissa. the circuit of nineveh is said to have been about fifty-six miles. it was overthrown by cyrus in b.c. . ( ) the wife of astyages, the last king of media. some think "the wall of media" should be "medea's wall," constructed in the period of queen nitocris, b.c. . from this place they marched one stage--four parasangs. but, while still on this stage, tissaphernes made his appearance. he had with him his own cavalry and a force belonging to orontas, who had the king's daughter to wife; and there were, moreover, with them the asiatics whom cyrus had taken with him on his march up; together with those whom the king's brother had brought as a reinforcement to the king; besides those whom tissaphernes himself had received as a gift from the king, so that the armament appeared to be very great. when they were close, he halted some of his regiments at the rear and wheeled others into position on either flank, but hesitated to attack, having no mind apparently to run any risks, and contenting himself with an order to his slingers to sling and his archers to shoot. but when the rhodian slingers and the bowmen ( ), posted at intervals, retaliated, and every shot told (for with the utmost pains to miss it would have been hard to do so under the circumstanecs), then tissaphernes with all speed retired out of range, the other regiments following suit; and for the rest of the day the one party advanced and the other followed. but now the asiatics had ceased to be dangerous with their sharpshooting. for the rhodians could reach further than the persian slingers, or, indeed, than most of the bowmen. the persian bows are of great size, so that the cretans found the arrows which were picked up serviceable, and persevered in using their enemies' arrows, and practised shooting with them, letting them fly upwards to a great height ( ). there were also plenty of bowstrings found in the villages--and lead, which they turned to account for their slings. as a result of this day, then, the hellenes chancing upon some villages had no sooner encamped than the barbarians fell back, having had distinctly the worst of it in the skirmishing. ( ) the best mss read {skuthai}, scythians; if this is correct, it is only the technical name for "archers." cf. arrian, "tact." ii. . the police at athens were technically so called, as being composed of scythian slaves. cf. aristoph. "thesm." . ( ) i.e., in practising, in order to get the maximum range they let fly the arrows, not horizontally, but up into the air. sir w. raleigh (hist. of the world, iii. x. ) says that xenophon "trained his archers to short compass, who had been accustomed to the point blank," but this is surely not xenophon's meaning. the next day was a day of inaction: they halted and took in supplies, as there was much corn in the villages; but on the day following, the march was continued through the plain (of the tigris), and tissaphernes still hung on their skirts with his skirmishers. and now it was that the hellenes discovered the defect of marching in a square with an enemy following. as a matter of necessity, whenever the wings of an army so disposed draw together, either where a road narrows, or hills close in, or a bridge has to be crossed, the heavy infantry cannot help being squeezed out of their ranks, and march with difficulty, partly from actual pressure, and partly from the general confusion that ensues. or, supposing the wings are again extended, the troops have hardly recovered from their former distress before they are pulled asunder, and there is a wide space between the wings, and the men concerned lose confidence in themselves, especially with an enemy close behind. what happened, when a bridge had to be crossed or other passage effected, was, that each unit of the force pressed on in anxiety to get over first, and at these moments it was easy for the enemy to make an attack. the generals accordingly, having recognised the defect, set about curing it. to do so, they made six lochi, or divisions of a hundred men apiece, each of which had its own set of captains and under-officers in command of half and quarter companies. it was the duty of these new companies, during a march, whenever the flanks needed to close in, to fall back to the rear, so as to disencumber the wings. this they did by wheeling clear of them. when the sides of the oblong again extended, they filled up the interstices, if the gap were narrow, by columns of companies, if broader, by columns of half-companies, or, if broader still, by columns of quarter-companies, so that the space between was always filled up. if again it were necessary to effect a passage by bridge or otherwise, there was no confusion, the several companies crossing in turns; or, if the occasion arose to form in line of battle, these companies came up to the front and fell in ( ). ( ) in the passage above i have translated {lokhoi} companies, and, as usual, {lokhagoi} captains. the half company is technically called a pentecostys, and a quarter company an enomoty, and the officers in charge of them respectively penteconter and enomotarch. these would be equivalent nearly to our subalterns and sergeants, and in the evolutions described would act as guides and markers in charge of their sections. grote thinks there were six companies formed on each flank--twelve in all. see "hist. of greece," vol. ix. p. , note ( st ed.) in this way they advanced four stages, but ere the fifth was completed, they came in sight of a palace of some sort, with villages clustered round it; they could further see that the road leading to this place pursued its course over high undulating hillocks, the spur of the mountain range, under which lay the village. these knolls were a welcome sight to the hellenes, naturally enough, as the enemy were cavalry. however, when they had issued from the plain and ascended the first crest, and were in the act of descending it so as to mount the next, at this juncture the barbarians came upon them. from the high ground down the sheer steep they poured a volley of darts, slingstones, and arrows, which they discharged "under the lash ( )," wounding many, until they got the better of the hellenic light troops, and drove them for shelter behind the heavy infantry, so that this day that arm was altogether useless, huddling in the mob of sutlers, both slingers and archers alike. ( ) i.e. the persian leaders were seen flogging their men to the attack. cf. herod. vii. . . but when the hellenes, being so pressed, made an attempt to pursue, they could barely scale to the summit, being heavy-armed troops, while the enemy as lightly sprung away; and they suffered similarly in retiring to join the rest of the army. and then, on the second hill, the whole had to be gone through again; so that when it came to the third hillock, they determined not to move the main body of troops from their position until they had brought up a squadron of light infantry from the right flank of the square to a point on the mountain range. when this detachment were once posted above their pursuers, the latter desisted from attacking the main body in its descent, for fear of being cut off and finding themselves between two assailants. thus the rest of the day they moved on in two divisions: one set keeping to the road by the hillocks, the other marching parallel on the higher level along the mountains; and thus they reached the villages and appointed eight surgeons to attend to the many wounded. here they halted three days for the sake of the wounded chiefly, while a further inducement was the plentiful supply of provisions which they found, wheat and wine, and large stores of barley laid up for horses. these supplies had been collected by the ruling satrap of the country. on the fourth day they began their descent into the plain; but when tissaphernes overtook them, necessity taught them to camp in the first village they caught sight of, and give over the attempt of marching and fighting simultaneously, as so many were hors de combat, being either on the list of wounded themselves, or else engaged in carrying the wounded, or laden with the heavy arms of those so occupied. but when they were once encamped, and the barbarians, advancing upon the village, made an attempt to harass them with their sharp-shooters, the superiority of the hellenes was pronounced. to sustain a running fight with an enemy constantly attacking was one thing; to keep him at arm's length from a fixed base of action another: and the difference was much in their favour. but when it was late afternoon, the time had come for the enemy to withdraw, since the habit of the barbarian was never to encamp within seven or eight miles of the hellenic camp. this he did in apprehension of a night attack, for a persian army is good for nothing at night. their horses are haltered, and, as a rule, hobbled as well, to prevent their escaping, as they might if loose; so that, if any alarm occurs, the trooper has to saddle and bridle his horse, and then he must put on his own cuirass, and then mount--all which performances are difficult at night and in the midst of confusion. for this reason they always encamped at a distance from the hellenes. when the hellenes perceived that they were preparing to retire, and that the order was being given, the herald's cry, "pack up for starting," might be heard before the enemy was fairly out of earshot. for a while the asiatics paused, as if unwilling to be gone; but as night closed in, off they went, for it did not suit their notions of expediency to set off on a march and arrive by night. and now, when the hellenes saw that they were really and clearly gone, they too broke up their camp and pursued their march till they had traversed seven and a half miles. thus the distance between the two armies grew to be so great, that the next day the enemy did not appear at all, nor yet on the third day; but on the fourth the barbarians had pushed on by a forced night march and occupied a commanding position on the right, where the hellenes had to pass. it was a narrow mountain spur ( ) overhanging the descent into the plain. ( ) lit. "a mere nail tip." but when cheirisophus saw that this ridge was occupied, he summoned xenophon from the rear, bidding him at the same time to bring up peltasts to the front. that xenophon hesitated to do, for tissaphernes and his whole army were coming up and were well within sight. galloping up to the front himself, he asked: "why do you summon me?" the other answered him: "the reason is plain; look yonder; this crest which overhangs our descent has been occupied. there is no passing, until we have dislodged these fellows; why have you not brought up the light infantry?" xenophon explained: he had not thought it desirable to leave the rear unprotected, with an enemy appearing in the field of view. "however, it is time," he added, "to decide how we are to dislodge these fellows from the crest." at this moment his eye fell on the peak of the mountain, rising immediately above their army, and he could see an approach leading from it to the crest in question where the enemy lay. he exclaimed: "the best thing we can do, cheirisophus, is to make a dash at the height itself, and with what speed we may. if we take it, the party in command of the road will never be able to stop. if you like, stay in command of the army, and i will go; or, if you prefer, do you go to the mountain, and i will stay here."--"i leave it to you," cheirisophus answered, "to choose which you like best." xenophon remarking, "i am the younger," elected to go; but he stipulated for a detachment from the front to accompany him, since it was a long way to fetch up troops from the rear. accordingly cheirisophus furnished him with the light infantry from the front, reoccupying their place by those from the centre. he also gave him, to form part of the detachment, the three hundred of the picked corps ( ) under his own command at the head of the square. ( ) some think that these three hundred are three of the detached companies described above; others, that they were a picked corps in attendance on the commander-in-chief. they set out from the low ground with all the haste imaginable. but the enemy in position on the crest no sooner perceived their advance upon the summit of the pass than they themselves set off full tilt in a rival race for the summit too. hoarse were the shouts of the hellenic troops as the men cheered their companions forwards, and hoarse the answering shouts from the troops of tissaphernes, urging on theirs. xenophon, mounted on his charger, rode beside his men, and roused their ardour the while. "now for it, brave sirs; bethink you that this race is for hellas!--now or never!--to find your boys, your wives; one small effort, and the rest of the march we shall pursue in peace, without ever a blow to strike; now for it." but soteridas the sicyonian said: "we are not on equal terms, xenophon; you are mounted on a horse; i can hardly get along with my shield to carry;" and he, on hearing the reproach, leapt from his horse. in another instant he had pushed soteridas from the ranks, snatched from him his shield, and begun marching as quickly as he might under the circumstances, having his horseman's cuirass to carry as well, so that he was sore pressed; but he continued to cheer on the troops: exhorting those in front to lead on and the men toiling behind to follow up ( ). soteridas was not spared by the rest of the men. they gave him blows, they pelted him, they showered him with abuse, till they compelled him to take back his shield and march on; and the other, remounting, led them on horseback as long as the footing held; but when the ground became too steep, he left his horse and pressed forward on foot, and so they found themselves on the summit before the enemy. ( ) some mss. "and the men behind to pass him by, as he could but ill keep up the pace." v there and then the barbarians turned and fled as best they might, and the hellenes held the summit, while the troops with tissaphernes and ariaeus turned aside and disappeared by another road. the main body with cheirisophus made its way down into the plain and encamped in a village filled with good things of divers sorts. nor did this village stand alone; there were others not a few in this plain of the tigris equally overflowing with plenty. it was now afternoon; and all of a sudden the enemy came in sight on the plain, and succeeded in cutting down some of the hellenes belonging to parties who were scattered over the flat land in quest of spoil. indeed, many herds of cattle had been caught whilst being conveyed across to the other side of the river. and now tissaphernes and his troops made an attempt to burn the villages, and some of the hellenes were disposed to take the matter deeply to heart, being apprehensive that they might not know where to get provisions if the enemy burnt the villages. cheirisophus and his men were returning from their sally of defence when xenophon and his party descended, and the latter rode along the ranks as the rescuing party came up, and greeted them thus: "do you not see, men of hellas, they admit that the country is now ours; what they stipulated against our doing when they made the treaty, viz. that we were not to fire the king's country, they are now themselves doing--setting fire to it as if it were not their own. but we will be even with them; if they leave provisions for themselves anywhere, there also shall they see us marching;" and, turning to cheirisophus, he added: "but it strikes me, we should sally forth against these incendiaries and protect our country." cheirisophus retorted: "that is not quite my view; i say, let us do a little burning ourselves, and they will cease all the quicker." when they had got back to the villages, while the rest were busy about provisions, the generals and officers met: and here there was deep despondency. for on the one side were exceedingly high mountains; on the other a river of such depth that they failed to reach the bottom with their spears. in the midst of their perplexities, a rhodian came up with a proposal, as follows: "i am ready, sirs to carry you across, four thousand heavy infantry at a time; if you will furnish me with what i need and give me a talent into the bargain for my pains." when asked, "what shall you need?" he replied: "two thousand wine-skins. i see there are plenty of sheep and goats and asses. they have only to be flayed, and their skins inflated, and they will readily give us a passage. i shall want also the straps which you use for the baggage animals. with these i shall couple the skins to one another; then i shall moor each skin by attaching stones and letting them down like anchors into the water. then i shall carry them across, and when i have fastened the links at both ends, i shall place layers of wood on them and a coating of earth on the top of that. you will see in a minute that there's no danger of your drowning, for every skin will be able to support a couple of men without sinking, and the wood and earth will prevent your slipping off." the generals thought it a pretty invention enough, but its realisation impracticable, for on the other side were masses of cavalry posted and ready to bar the passage; who, to begin with, would not suffer the first detachment of crossers to carry out any item of the programme. under these circumstances, the next day they turned right about face, and began retracing their steps in the direction of babylon to the unburnt villages, having previously set fire to those they left, so that the enemy did not ride up to them, but stood and stared, all agape to see in what direction the hellenes would betake themselves and what they were minded to do. here, again, while the rest of the soldiers were busy about provisions, the generals and officers met in council, and after collecting the prisoners together, submitted them to a cross-examination touching the whole country round, the names, and so forth, of each district. the prisoners informed them that the regions south, through which they had come, belonged to the district towards babylon and media; the road east led to susa and ecbatana, where the king is said to spend summer and spring; crossing the river, the road west led to lydia and ionia; and the part through the mountains facing towards the great bear, led, they said, to the carduchians ( ). they were a people, so said the prisoners, dwelling up on the hills, addicted to war, and not subject to the king; so much so that once, when a royal army one hundred and twenty thousand strong had invaded them, not a man came back, owing to the intricacies of the country. occasionally, however, they made truce or treaty with the satrap in the plain, and, for the nonce, there would be intercourse: "they will come in and out amongst us," "and we will go in and out amongst them," said the captives. ( ) see dr. kiepert, "man. anc. geog." (mr. g. a. macmillan) iv. . the karduchians or kurds belong by speech to the iranian stock, forming in fact their farthest outpost to the west, little given to agriculture, but chiefly to the breeding of cattle. their name, pronounced kardu by the ancient syrians and assyrians, kordu by the armenians (plural kordukh), first appears in its narrower sense in western literature in the pages of the eye-witness xenophon as {kardoukhoi}. later writers knew of a small kingdom here at the time of the roman occupation, ruled by native princes, who after tigranes ii (about b.c.) recognised the overlordship of the armenian king. later it became a province of the sassanid kingdom, and as such was in a.d. handed over among the regiones transtigritanae to the roman empire, but in was again ceded to persia. after hearing these statements, the generals seated apart those who claimed to have any special knowledge of the country in any direction; they put them to sit apart without making it clear which particular route they intended to take. finally the resolution to which they came was that they must force a passage through the hills into the territory of the kurds; since, according to what their informants told them, when they had once passed these, they would find themselves in armenia--the rich and large territory governed by orontas; and from armenia, it would be easy to proceed in any direction whatever. thereupon they offered sacrifice, so as to be ready to start on the march as soon as the right moment appeared to have arrived. their chief fear was that the high pass over the mountains must be occupied in advance: and a general order was issued, that after supper every one should get his kit together for starting, and repose, in readiness to follow as soon as the word of command was given. book iv (in the preceding portion of the narrative a full account is given of the incidents of the march up to the battle, and of the occurrences after the battle during the truce which was established between the king and the hellenes, who marched up with cyrus, and thirdly, of the fighting to which the hellenes were exposed, after the king and tissaphernes had broken the treaty, while a persian army hung on their rear. having finally reached a point at which the tigris was absolutely impassable owing to its depth and breadth, while there was no passage along the bank itself, and the carduchian hills hung sheer over the river, the generals took the resolution above mentioned of forcing a passage through the mountains. the information derived from the prisoners taken along the way led them to believe that once across the carduchian mountains they would have the choice either of crossing the tigris--if they liked to do so--at its sources in armenia, or of going round them, if so they preferred. report further said that the sources of the euphrates also were not far from those of the tigris, and this is actually the case. the advance into the country of the carduchians was conducted with a view partly to secrecy, and partly to speed, so as to effect their entry before the enemy could occupy the passes.) i it was now about the last watch, and enough of the night remained to allow them to cross the valley under cover of darkness; when, at the word of command, they rose and set off on their march, reaching the mountains at daybreak. at this stage of the march cheirisophus, at the head of his own division, with the whole of the light troops, led the van, while xenophon followed behind with the heavy infantry of the rearguard, but without any light troops, since there seemed to be no danger of pursuit or attack from the rear, while they were making their way up hill. cheirisophus reached the summit without any of the enemy perceiving him. then he led on slowly, and the rest of the army followed, wave upon wave, cresting the summit and descending into the villages which nestled in the hollows and recesses of the hills. thereupon the carduchians abandoned their dwelling places, and with their wives and children fled to the mountains; so there was plenty of provisions to be got for the mere trouble of taking, and the homesteads too were well supplied with a copious store of bronze vessels and utensils which the hellenes kept their hands off, abstaining at the same time from all pursuit of the folk themselves, gently handling them, in hopes that the carduchians might be willing to give them friendly passage through their country, since they too were enemies of the king: only they helped themselves to such provisions as fell in their way, which indeed was a sheer necessity. but the carduchians neither gave ear, when they called to them, nor showed any other friendly sign; and now, as the last of the hellenes descended into the villages from the pass, they were already in the dark, since, owing to the narrowness of the road, the whole day had been spent in the ascent and descent. at that instant a party of the carduchians, who had collected, made an attack on the hindmost men, killing some and wounding others with stones and arrows--though it was quite a small body who attacked. the fact was, the approach of the hellenic army had taken them by surprise; if, however, they had mustered in larger force at this time, the chances are that a large portion of the army would have been annihilated. as it was, they got into quarters, and bivouacked in the villages that night, while the carduchians kept many watch-fires blazing in a circle on the mountains, and kept each other in sight all round. but with the dawn the generals and officers of the hellenes met and resolved to proceed, taking only the necessary number of stout baggage animals, and leaving the weaklings behind. they resolved further to let go free all the lately-captured slaves in the host; for the pace of the march was necessarily rendered slow by the quantity of animals and prisoners, and the number of non-combatants in attendance on these was excessive, while, with such a crowd of human beings to satisfy, twice the amount of provisions had to be procured and carried. these resolutions passed, they caused a proclamation by herald to be made for their enforcement. when they had breakfasted and the march recommenced, the generals planted themselves a little to one side in a narrow place, and when they found any of the aforesaid slaves or other property still retained, they confiscated them. the soldiers yielded obedience, except where some smuggler, prompted by desire of a good-looking boy or woman, managed to make off with his prize. during this day they contrived to get along after a fashion, now fighting and now resting. but on the next day they were visited by a great storm, in spite of which they were obliged to continue the march, owing to insufficiency of provisions. cheirisophus was as usual leading in front, while xenophon headed the rearguard, when the enemy began a violent and sustained attack. at one narrow place after another they came up quite close, pouring in volleys of arrows and slingstones, so that the hellenes had no choice but to make sallies in pursuit and then again recoil, making but very little progress. over and over again xenophon would send an order to the front to slacken pace, when the enemy were pressing their attack severely. as a rule, when the word was so passed up, cheirisophus slackened; but sometimes instead of slackening, cheirisophus quickened, sending down a counter-order to the rear to follow on quickly. it was clear that there was something or other happening, but there was no time to go to the front and discover the cause of the hurry. under the circumstances the march, at any rate in the rear, became very like a rout, and here a brave man lost his life, cleonymus the laconian, shot with an arrow in the ribs right through shield and corselet, as also basias, an arcadian, shot clean through the head. as soon as they reached a halting-place, xenophon, without more ado, came up to cheirisophus, and took him to task for not having waited, "whereby," he said, "we were forced to fight and flee at the same moment; and now it has cost us the lives of two fine fellows; they are dead, and we were not able to pick up their bodies or bury them." cheirisophus answered: "look up there," pointing as he spoke to the mountain, "do you see how inaccessible it all is? only this one road, which you see, going straight up, and on it all that crowd of men who have seized and are guarding the single exit. that is why i hastened on, and why i could not wait for you, hoping to be beforehand with them yonder in seizing the pass: the guides we have got say there is no other way." and xenophon replied: "but i have got two prisoners also; the enemy annoyed us so much that we laid an ambuscade for them, which also gave us time to recover our breaths; we killed some of them, and did our best to catch one or two alive--for this very reason--that we might have guides who knew the country, to depend upon." the two were brought up at once and questioned separately: "did they know of any other road than the one visible?" the first said no; and in spite of all sorts of terrors applied to extract a better answer--"no," he persisted. when nothing could be got out of him, he was killed before the eyes of his fellow. this latter then explained: "yonder man said, he did not know, because he has got a daughter married to a husband in those parts. i can take you," he added, "by a good road, practicable even for beasts." and when asked whether there was any point on it difficult to pass, he replied that there was a col which it would be impossible to pass unless it were occupied in advance. then it was resolved to summon the officers of the light infantry and some of those of the heavy infantry, and to acquaint them with the state of affairs, and ask them whether any of them were minded to distinguish themselves, and would step forward as volunteers on an expedition. two or three heavy infantry soldiers stepped forward at once--two arcadians, aristonymus of methydrium, and agasias of stymphalus--and in emulation of these, a third, also an arcadian, callimachus from parrhasia, who said he was ready to go, and would get volunteers from the whole army to join him. "i know," he added, "there will be no lack of youngsters to follow where i lead." after that they asked, "were there any captains of light infantry willing to accompany the expedition?" aristeas, a chian, who on several occasions proved his usefulness to the army on such service, volunteered. ii it was already late afternoon, when they ordered the storming party to take a snatch of food and set off; then they bound the guide and handed him over to them. the agreement was, that if they succeeded in taking the summit they were to guard the position that night, and at daybreak to give a signal by bugle. at this signal the party on the summit were to attack the enemy in occupation of the visible pass, while the generals with the main body would bring up their succours; making their way up with what speed they might. with this understanding, off they set, two thousand strong; and there was a heavy downpour of rain, but xenophon, with his rearguard, began advancing to the visible pass, so that the enemy might fix his attention on this road, and the party creeping round might, as much as possible, elude observation. now when the rearguard, so advancing, had reached a ravine which they must cross in order to strike up the steep, at that instant the barbarians began rolling down great boulders, each a wagon load ( ), some larger, some smaller; against the rocks they crashed and splintered flying like slingstones in every direction--so that it was absolutely out of the question even to approach the entrance of the pass. some of the officers finding themselves baulked at this point, kept trying other ways, nor did they desist till darkness set in; and then, when they thought they would not be seen retiring, they returned to supper. some of them who had been on duty in the rearguard had had no breakfast (it so happened). however, the enemy never ceased rolling down their stones all through the night, as was easy to infer from the booming sound. ( ) i.e. several ton weight. the party with the guide made a circuit and surprised the enemy's guards seated round their fire, and after killing some, and driving out the rest, took their places, thinking that they were in possession of the height. as a matter of fact they were not, for above them lay a breast-like hill ( ) skirted by the narrow road on which they had found the guards seated. still, from the spot in question there was an approach to the enemy, who were seated on the pass before mentioned. ( ) or, "mamelon." here then they passed the night, but at the first glimpse of dawn they marched stealthily and in battle order against the enemy. there was a mist, so that they could get quite close without being observed. but as soon as they caught sight of one another, the trumpet sounded, and with a loud cheer they rushed upon the fellows, who did not wait their coming, but left the road and made off; with the loss of only a few lives however, so nimble were they. cheirisophus and his men, catching the sound of the bugle, charged up by the well-marked road, while others of the generals pushed their way up by pathless routes, where each division chanced to be; the men mounting as they were best able, and hoisting one another up by means of their spears; and these were the first to unite with the party who had already taken the position by storm. xenophon, with the rearguard, followed the path which the party with the guide had taken, since it was easiest for the beasts of burthen; one half of his men he had posted in rear of the baggage animals; the other half he had with himself. in their course they encountered a crest above the road, occupied by the enemy, whom they must either dislodge or be themselves cut off from the rest of the hellenes. the men by themselves could have taken the same route as the rest, but the baggage animals could not mount by any other way than this. here then, with shouts of encouragement to each other, they dashed at the hill with their storming columns, not from all sides, but leaving an avenue of escape for the enemy, if he chose to avail himself of it. for a while, as the men scrambled up where each best could, the natives kept up a fire of arrows and darts, yet did not receive them at close quarters, but presently left the position in flight. no sooner, however, were the hellenes safely past this crest, than they came in sight of another in front of them, also occupied, and deemed it advisable to storm it also. but now it struck xenophon that if they left the ridge just taken unprotected in their rear, the enemy might re-occupy it and attack the baggage animals as they filed past, presenting a long extended line owing to the narrowness of the road by which they made their way. to obviate this, he left some officers in charge of the ridge--cephisodorus, son of cephisophon, an athenian; amphicrates, the son of amphidemus, an athenian; and archagoras, an argive exile--while he in person with the rest of the men attacked the second ridge; this they took in the same fashion, only to find that they had still a third knoll left, far the steepest of the three. this was none other than the mamelon mentioned as above the outpost, which had been captured over their fire by the volunteer storming party in the night. but when the hellenes were close, the natives, to the astonishment of all, without a struggle deserted the knoll. it was conjectured that they had left their position from fear of being encircled and besieged, but the fact was that they, from their higher ground, had been able to see what was going on in the rear, and had all made off in this fashion to attack the rearguard. so then xenophon, with the youngest men, scaled up to the top, leaving orders to the rest to march on slowly, so as to allow the hindmost companies to unite with them; they were to advance by the road, and when they reached the level to ground arms ( ). meanwhile the argive archagoras arrived, in full flight, with the announcement that they had been dislodged from the first ridge, and that cephisodorus and amphicrates were slain, with a number of others besides, all in fact who had not jumped down the crags and so reached the rearguard. after this achievement the barbarians came to a crest facing the mamelon, and xenophon held a colloquy with them by means of an interpreter, to negotiate a truce, and demanded back the dead bodies. these they agreed to restore if he would not burn their houses, and to these terms xenophon agreed. meanwhile, as the rest of the army filed past, and the colloquy was proceeding, all the people of the place had time to gather gradually, and the enemy formed; and as soon as the hellenes began to descend from the mamelon to join the others where the troops were halted, on rushed the foe, in full force, with hue and cry. they reached the summit of the mamelon from which xenophon was descending, and began rolling down crags. one man's leg was crushed to pieces. xenophon was left by his shield-bearer, who carried off his shield, but eurylochus of lusia ( ), an arcadian hoplite, ran up to him, and threw his shield in front to protect both of them; so the two together beat a retreat, and so too the rest, and joined the serried ranks of the main body. ( ) to take up position. ( ) i.e. of lusi (or lusia), a town (or district) in northern arcadia. after this the whole hellenic force united, and took up their quarters there in numerous beautiful dwellings, with an ample store of provisions, for there was wine so plentiful that they had it in cemented cisterns. xenophon and cheirisophus arranged to recover the dead, and in return restored the guide; afterwards they did everything for the dead, according to the means at their disposal, with the customary honours paid to good men. next day they set off without a guide; and the enemy, by keeping up a continuous battle and occupying in advance every narrow place, obstructed passage after passage. accordingly, whenever the van was obstructed, xenophon, from behind, made a dash up the hills and broke the barricade, and freed the vanguard by endeavouring to get above the obstructing enemy. whenever the rear was the point attacked, cheirisophus, in the same way, made a detour, and by endeavouring to mount higher than the barricaders, freed the passage for the rear rank; and in this way, turn and turn about, they rescued each other, and paid unflinching attention to their mutual needs. at times it happened that, the relief party having mounted, encountered considerable annoyance in their descent from the barbarians, who were so agile that they allowed them to come up quite close, before they turned back, and still escaped, partly no doubt because the only weapons they had to carry were bows and slings. they were, moreover, excellent archers, using bows nearly three cubits long and arrows more than two cubits. when discharging the arrow, they draw the string by getting a purchase with the left foot planted forward on the lower end of the bow. the arrows pierced through shield and cuirass, and the hellenes, when they got hold of them, used them as javelins, fitting them to their thongs. in these districts the cretans were highly serviceable. they were under the command of stratocles, a cretan. iii during this day they bivouacked in the villages which lie above the plain of the river centrites ( ), which is about two hundred feet broad. it is the frontier river between armenia and the country of the carduchians. here the hellenes recruited themselves, and the sight of the plain filled them with joy, for the river was but six or seven furlongs distant from the mountains of the carduchians. for the moment then they bivouacked right happily; they had their provisions, they had also many memories of the labours that were now passed; seeing that the last seven days spent in traversing the country of the carduchians had been one long continuous battle, which had cost them more suffering than the whole of their troubles at the hands of the king and tissaphernes put together. as though they were truly quit of them for ever, they laid their heads to rest in sweet content. ( ) i.e. the eastern tigris. but with the morrow's dawn they espied horsemen at a certain point across the river, armed cap-a-pie, as if they meant to dispute the passage. infantry, too, drawn up in line upon the banks above the cavalry, threatened to prevent them debouching into armenia. these troops were armenian and mardian and chaldaean mercenaries belonging to orontas and artuchas. the last of the three, the chaldaeans, were said to be a free and brave set of people. they were armed with long wicker shields and lances. the banks before named on which they were drawn up were a hundred yards or more distant from the river, and the single road which was visible was one leading upwards and looking like a regular artificially constructed highway. at this point the hellenes endeavoured to cross, but on their making the attempt the water proved to be more than breast-deep, and the river bed was rough with great slippery stones, and as to holding their arms in the water, it was out of the question--the stream swept them away--or if they tried to carry them over the head, the body was left exposed to the arrows and other missiles; accordingly they turned back and encamped there by the bank of the river. at the point where they had themselves been last night, up on the mountains, they could see the carduchians collected in large numbers and under arms. a shadow of deep despair again descended on their souls, whichever way they turned their eyes--in front lay the river so difficult to ford; over, on the other side, a new enemy threatening to bar the passage; on the hills behind, the carduchians ready to fall upon their rear should they once again attempt to cross. thus for this day and night they halted, sunk in perplexity. but xenophon had a dream. in his sleep he thought that he was bound in fetters, but these, of their own accord, fell from off him, so that he was loosed, and could stretch his legs as freely as he wished ( ). so at the first glimpse of daylight he came to cheirisophus and told him that he had hopes that all things would go well, and related to him his dream. ( ) it is impossible to give the true sense and humour of the passage in english, depending, as it does, on the double meaning of {diabainein} ( ) to cross (a river), ( ) to stride or straddle (of the legs). the army is unable to cross the centrites; xenophon dreams that he is fettered, but the chains drop off his legs and he is able to stride as freely as ever; next morning the two young men come to him with the story how they have found themselves able to walk cross the river instead of having to swim it. it is obvious to xenophon that the dream is sent from heaven. the other was well pleased, and with the first faint gleam of dawn the generals all were present and did sacrifice; and the victims were favourable in the first essay. retiring from the sacrifice, the generals and officers issued an order to the troops to take their breakfasts; and while xenophon was taking his, two young men came running up to him, for every one knew that, breakfasting or supping, he was always accessible, or that even if asleep any one was welcome to awaken him who had anything to say bearing on the business of war. what the two young men had at this time to say was that they had been collecting brushwood for fire, and had presently espied on the opposite side, in among some rocks which came down to the river's brink, an old man and some women and little girls depositing, as it would appear, bags of clothes in a cavernous rock. when they saw them, it struck them that it was safe to cross; in any case the enemy's cavalry could not approach at this point. so they stripped naked, expecting to have to swim for it, and with their long knives in their hands began crossing, but going forward crossed without being wet up to the fork. once across they captured the clothes, and came back again. accordingly xenophon at once poured out a libation himself, and bade the two young fellows fill the cup and pray to the gods, who showed to him this vision and to them a passage, to bring all other blessings for them to accomplishment. when he had poured out the libation, he at once led the two young men to cheirisophus, and they repeated to him their story. cheirisophus, on hearing it, offered libations also, and when they had performed them, they sent a general order to the troops to pack up ready for starting, while they themselves called a meeting of the generals and took counsel how they might best effect a passage, so as to overpower the enemy in front without suffering any loss from the men behind. and they resolved that cheirisophus should lead the van and cross with half the army, the other half still remaining behind under xenophon, while the baggage animals and the mob of sutlers were to cross between the two divisions. when all was duly ordered the move began, the young men pioneering them, and keeping the river on their left. it was about four furlongs' march to the crossing, and as they moved along the bank, the squadrons of cavalry kept pace with them on the opposite side. but when they had reached a point in a line with the ford, and the cliff-like banks of the river, they grounded arms, and first cheirisophus himself placed a wreath upon his brows, and throwing off his cloak ( ), resumed his arms, passing the order to all the rest to do the same, and bade the captains form their companies in open order in deep columns, some to left and some to right of himself. meanwhile the soothsayers were slaying a victim over the river, and the enemy were letting fly their arrows and slingstones; but as yet they were out of range. as soon as the victims were favourable, all the soldiers began singing the battle hymn, and with the notes of the paean mingled the shouting of the men accompanied by the shriller chant of the women, for there were many women ( ) in the camp. ( ) or, "having doffed it," i.e. the wreath, an action which the soldiers would perform symbolically, if grote is right in his interpretation of the passage, "hist. of greece," vol. ix. p. . ( ) lit. "comrade-women." so cheirisophus with his detachment stepped in. but xenophon, taking the most active-bodied of the rearguard, began running back at full speed to the passage facing the egress into the hills of armenia, making a feint of crossing at that point to intercept their cavalry on the river bank. the enemy, seeing cheirisophus's detachment easily crossing the stream, and xenophon's men racing back, were seized with the fear of being intercepted, and fled at full speed in the direction of the road which emerges from the stream. but when they were come opposite to it they raced up hill towards their mountains. then lycius, who commanded the cavalry, and aeschines, who was in command of the division of light infantry attached to cheirisophus, no sooner saw them fleeing so lustily than they were after them, and the soldiers shouted not to fall behind ( ), but to follow them right up to the mountains. cheirisophus, on getting across, forbore to pursue the cavalry, but advanced by the bluffs which reached to the river to attack the enemy overhead. and these, seeing their own cavalry fleeing, seeing also the heavy infantry advancing upon them, abandoned the heights above the river. ( ) or, "to stick tight to them and not to be outdone"; or, as others understand, "the (infantry) soldiers clamoured not to be left behind, but to follow them up into the mountains." xenophon, as soon as he saw that things were going well on the other side, fell back with all speed to join the troops engaged in crossing, for by this time the carduchians were well in sight, descending into the plain to attack their rear. cheirisophus was in possession of the higher ground, and lycius, with his little squadron, in an attempt to follow up the pursuit, had captured some stragglers of their baggage-bearers, and with them some handsome apparel and drinking-cups. the baggage animals of the hellenes and the mob of non-combatants were just about to cross, when xenonphon turned his troops right about to face the carduchians. vis-a-vis he formed his line, passing the order to the captains each to form his company into sections, and to deploy them into line by the left, the captains of companies and lieutenants in command of sections to advance to meet the carduchians, while the rear leaders would keep their position facing the river. but when the carduchians saw the rearguard so stript of the mass, and looking now like a mere handful of men, they advanced all the more quickly, singing certain songs the while. then, as matters were safe with him, cheirisophus sent back the peltasts and slingers and archers to join xenophon, with orders to carry out his instructions. they were in the act of recrossing, when xenophon, who saw their intention, sent a messenger across, bidding them wait there at the river's brink without crossing; but as soon as he and his detachment began to cross they were to step in facing him in two flanking divisions right and left of them, as if in the act of crossing; the javelin men with their javelins on the thong, and the bowmen with their arrows on the string; but they were not to advance far into the stream. the order passed to his own men was: "wait till you are within sling-shot, and the shield rattles, then sound the paean and charge the enemy. as soon as he turns, and the bugle from the river sounds for 'the attack,' you will face about to the right, the rear rank leading, and the whole detachment falling back and crossing the river as quickly as possible, every one preserving his original rank, so as to avoid tramelling one another: the bravest man is he who gets to the other side first." the carduchians, seeing that the remnant left was the merest handful (for many even of those whose duty it was to remain had gone off in their anxiety to protect their beasts of burden, or their personal kit, or their mistresses), bore down upon them valorously, and opened fire with slingstones and arrows. but the hellenes, raising the battle hymn, dashed at them at a run, and they did not await them; armed well enough for mountain warfare, and with a view to sudden attack followed by speedy flight, they were not by any means sufficiently equipped for an engagement at close quarters. at this instant the signal of the bugle was heard. its notes added wings to the flight of the barbarians, but the hellenes turned right about in the opposite direction, and betook themselves to the river with what speed they might. some of the enemy, here a man and there another, perceived, and running back to the river, let fly their arrows and wounded a few; but the majority, even when the hellenes were well across, were still to be seen pursuing their flight. the detachment which came to meet xenophon's men, carried away by their valour, advanced further than they had need to, and had to cross back again in the rear of xenophon's men, and of these too a few were wounded. iv the passage effected, they fell into line about mid-day, and marched through armenian territory, one long plain with smooth rolling hillocks, not less than five parasangs in distance; for owing to the wars of this people with the carduchians there were no villages near the river. the village eventually reached was large, and possessed a palace belonging to the satrap, and most of the houses were crowned with turrets; provisions were plentiful. from this village they marched two stages--ten parasangs--until they had surmounted the sources of the river tigris; and from this point they marched three stages--fifteen parasangs--to the river teleboas. this was a fine stream, though not large, and there were many villages about it. the district was named western armenia. the lieutenant-governor of it was tiribazus, the king's friend, and whenever the latter paid a visit, he alone had the privilege of mounting the king upon his horse. this officer rode up to the hellenes with a body of cavalry, and sending forward an interpreter, stated that he desired a colloquy with the leaders. the generals resolved to hear what he had to say; and advancing on their side to within speaking distance, they demanded what he wanted. he replied that he wished to make a treaty with them, in accordance with which he on his side would abstain from injuring the hellenes, if they would not burn his houses, but merely take such provisions as they needed. this proposal satisfied the generals, and a treaty was made on the terms suggested. from this place they marched three stages--fifteen parasangs--through plain country, tiribazus the while keeping close behind with his own forces more than a mile off. presently they reached a palace with villages clustered round about it, which were full of supplies in great variety. but while they were encamping in the night, there was a heavy fall of snow, and in the morning it was resolved to billet out the different regiments, with their generals, throughout the villages. there was no enemy in sight, and the proceeding seemed prudent, owing to the quantity of snow. in these quarters they had for provisions all the good things there are--sacrificial beasts, corn, old wines with an exquisite bouquet, dried grapes, and vegetables of all sorts. but some of the stragglers from the camp reported having seen an army, and the blaze of many watchfires in the night. accordingly the generals concluded that it was not prudent to separate their quarters in this way, and a resolution was passed to bring the troops together again. after that they reunited, the more so that the weather promised to be fine with a clear sky; but while they lay there in open quarters, during the night down came so thick a fall of snow that it completely covered up the stacks of arms and the men themselves lying down. it cramped and crippled the baggage animals; and there was great unreadiness to get up, so gently fell the snow as they lay there warm and comfortable, and formed a blanket, except where it slipped off the sleepers' shoulders; and it was not until xenophon roused himself to get up, and, without his cloak on ( ), began to split wood, that quickly first one and then another got up, and taking the log away from him, fell to splitting. thereat the rest followed suit, got up, and began kindling fire and oiling their bodies, for there was a scented unguent to be found there in abundance, which they used instead of oil. it was made from pig's fat, sesame, bitter almonds, and turpentine. there was a sweet oil also to be found, made of the same ingredients. ( ) or, as we should say, "in his shirt sleeves." doubtless he lay with his {imation} or cloak loosely wrapped round him; as he sprang to his feet he would throw it off, or it would fall off, and with the simple inner covering of the {khiton} to protect him, and arms free, he fell to chopping the wood, only half clad. after this it was resolved that they must again separate their quarters and get under cover in the villages. at this news the soldiers, with much joy and shouting, rushed upon the covered houses and the provisions; but all who in their blind folly had set fire to the houses when they left them before, now paid the penalty in the poor quarters they got. from this place one night they sent off a party under democrates, a temenite ( ), up into the mountains, where the stragglers reported having seen watchfires. the leader selected was a man whose judgement might be depended upon to verify the truth of the matter. with a happy gift to distinguish between fact and fiction, he had often been successfully appealed to. he went and reported that he had seen no watchfires, but he had got a man, whom he brought back with him, carrying a persian bow and quiver, and a sagaris or battleaxe like those worn by the amazons. when asked "from what country he came," the prisoner answered that he was "a persian, and was going from the army of tiribazus to get provisions." they next asked him "how large the army was, and for what object it had been collected." his answer was that "it consisted of tiribazus at the head of his own forces, and aided by some chalybian and taochian mercenaries. tiribazus had got it together," he added, "meaning to attack the hellenes on the high mountain pass, in a defile which was the sole passage." ( ) reading {temeniten}, i.e. a native of temenus, a district of syracuse; al. {temniten}, i.e. from temnus in the aeolid; al. {temeniten}, i.e. from temenum in the argolid. when the generals heard this news, they resolved to collect the troops, and they set off at once, taking the prisoner to act as guide, and leaving a garrison behind with sophaenetus the stymphalian in command of those who remained in the camp. as soon as they had begun to cross the hills, the light infantry, advancing in front and catching sight of the camp, did not wait for the heavy infantry, but with a loud shout rushed upon the enemy's entrenchment. the natives, hearing the din and clatter, did not care to stop, but took rapidly to their heels. but, for all their expedition, some of them were killed, and as many as twenty horses were captured, with the tent of tiribazus, and its contents, silver-footed couches and goblets, besides certain persons styling themselves the butlers and bakers. as soon as the generals of the heavy infantry division had learnt the news, they resolved to return to the camp with all speed, for fear of an attack being made on the remnant left behind. the recall was sounded and the retreat commenced; the camp was reached the same day. v the next day it was resolved that they should set off with all possible speed, before the enemy had time to collect and occupy the defile. having got their kit and baggage together, they at once began their march through deep snow with several guides, and, crossing the high pass the same day on which tiribazus was to have attacked them, got safely into cantonments. from this point they marched three desert stages--fifteen parassangs--to the river euphrates, and crossed it in water up to the waist. the sources of the river were reported to be at no great distance. from this place they marched through deep snow over a flat country three stages--fifteen parasangs ( ). the last of these marches was trying, with the north wind blowing in their teeth, drying up everything and benumbing the men. here one of the seers suggested to them to do sacrifice to boreas, and sacrifice was done. the effect was obvious to all in the diminished fierceness of the blast. but there was six feet of snow, so that many of the baggage animals and slaves were lost, and about thirty of the men themselves. ( ) al. "ten," al. "five." they spent the whole night in kindling fire; for there was fortunately no dearth of wood at the halting-place; only those who came late into camp had no wood. accordingly those who had arrived a good while and had kindled fires were not for allowing these late-comers near the fires, unless they would in return give a share of their corn or of any other victuals they might have. here then a general exchange of goods was set up. where the fire was kindled the snow melted, and great trenches formed themselves down to the bare earth, and here it was possible to measure the depth of the snow. leaving these quarters, they marched the whole of the next day over snow, and many of the men were afflicted with "boulimia" (or hunger-faintness). xenophon, who was guarding the rear, came upon some men who had dropt down, and he did not know what ailed them; but some one who was experienced in such matters suggested to him that they had evidently got boulimia; and if they got something to eat, they would revive. then he went the round of the baggage train, and laying an embargo on any eatables he could see, doled out with his own hands, or sent off other able-bodied agents to distribute to the sufferers, who as soon as they had taken a mouthful got on their legs again and continued the march. on and on they marched, and about dusk cheirisophus reached a village, and surprised some women and girls who had come from the village to fetch water at the fountain outside the stockade. these asked them who they were. the interpreters answered for them in persian: "they were on their way from the king to the satrap;" in reply to which the women gave them to understand that the satrap was not at home, but was away a parasang farther on. as it was late they entered with the water-carriers within the stockade to visit the headman of the village. accordingly cheirisophus and as many of the troops as were able got into cantonments there, while the rest of the soldiers--those namely who were unable to complete the march--had to spend the night out, without food and without fire; under the circumstances some of the men perished. on the heels of the army hung perpetually bands of the enemy, snatching away disabled baggage animals and fighting with each other over the carcases. and in its track not seldom were left to their fate disabled soldiers, struck down with snow-blindness or with toes mortified by frostbite. as to the eyes, it was some alleviation against the snow to march with something black before them; for the feet, the only remedy was to keep in motion without stopping for an instant, and to loose the sandal at night. if they went to sleep with the sandals on, the thong worked into the feet, and the sandals were frozen fast to them. this was partly due to the fact that, since their old sandals had failed, they wore untanned brogues made of newly-flayed ox-hides. it was owing to some such dire necessity that a party of men fell out and were left behind, and seeing a black-looking patch of ground where the snow had evidently disappeared, they conjectured it must have been melted; and this was actually so, owing to a spring of some sort which was to be seen steaming up in a dell close by. to this they had turned aside and sat down, and were loth to go a step further. but xenophon, with his rearguard, perceived them, and begged and implored them by all manner of means not to be left behind, telling them that the enemy were after them in large packs pursuing; and he ended by growing angry. they merely bade him put a knife to their throats; not one step farther would they stir. then it seemed best to frighten the pursuing enemy if possible, and prevent their falling upon the invalids. it was already dusk, and the pursuers were advancing with much noise and hubbub, wrangling and disputing over their spoils. then all of a sudden the rearguard, in the plenitude of health and strength ( ), sprang up out of their lair and run upon the enemy, whilst those weary wights ( ) bawled out as loud as their sick throats could sound, and clashed their spears against their shields; and the enemy in terror hurled themselves through the snow into the dell, and not one of them ever uttered a sound again. ( ) hug, after rehdantz, would omit the words "in the plenitude of health and strength." ( ) or, "the invalids." xenophon and his party, telling the sick folk that next day people would come for them, set off, and before they had gone half a mile they fell in with some soldiers who had laid down to rest on the snow with their cloaks wrapped round them, but never a guard was established, and they made them get up. their explanation was that those in front would not move on. passing by this group he sent forward the strongest of his light infantry in advance, with orders to find out what the stoppage was. they reported that the whole army lay reposing in such fashion. that being so, xenophon's men had nothing for it but to bivouac in the open air also, without fire and supperless, merely posting what pickets they could under the circumstances. but as soon as it drew towards day, xenophon despatched the youngest of his men to the sick folk behind, with orders to make them get up and force them to proceed. meanwhile cheirisophus had sent some of his men quartered in the village to enquire how they fared in the rear; they were overjoyed to see them, and handed over the sick folk to them to carry into camp, while they themselves continued their march forward, and ere twenty furlongs were past reached the village in which cheirisophus was quartered. as soon as the two divisions were met, the resolution was come to that it would be safe to billet the regiments throughout the villages; cheirisophus remained where he was, while the rest drew lots for the villages in sight, and then, with their several detachments, marched off to their respective destinations. it was here that polycrates, an athenian and captain of a company, asked for leave of absence--he wished to be off on a quest of his own; and putting himself at the head of the active men of the division, he ran to the village which had been allotted to xenophon. he surprised within it the villagers with their headman, and seventeen young horses which were being reared as a tribute for the king, and, last of all, the headman's own daughter, a young bride only eight days wed. her husband had gone off to chase hares, and so he escaped being taken with the other villagers. the houses were underground structures with an aperture like the mouth of a well by which to enter, but they were broad and spacious below. the entrance for the beasts of burden was dug out, but the human occupants descended by a ladder. in these dwellings were to be found goats and sheep and cattle, and cocks and hens, with their various progeny. the flocks and herds were all reared under cover upon green food. there were stores within of wheat and barley and vegetables, and wine made from barley in great big bowls; the grains of barley malt lay floating in the beverage up to the lip of the vessel, and reeds lay in them, some longer, some shorter, without joints; when you were thirsty you must take one of these into your mouth, and suck. the beverage without admixture of water was very strong, and of a delicious flavour to certain palates, but the taste must be acquired. xenophon made the headman of the village his guest at supper, and bade him keep a good heart; so far from robbing him of his children, they would fill his house full of good things in return for what they took before they went away; only he must set them an example, and discover some blessing or other for the army, until they found themselves with another tribe. to this he readily assented, and with the utmost cordiality showed them the cellar where the wine was buried. for this night then, having taken up their several quarters as described, they slumbered in the midst of plenty, one and all, with the headman under watch and ward, and his children with him safe in sight. but on the following day xenophon took the headman and set off to cheirisophus, making a round of the villages, and at each place turning in to visit the different parties. everywhere alike he found them faring sumptuously and merry-making. there was not a single village where they did not insist on setting a breakfast before them, and on the same table were spread half a dozen dishes at least, lamb, kid, pork, veal, fowls, with various sorts of bread, some of wheat and some of barley. when, as an act of courtesy, any one wished to drink his neighbour's health, he would drag him to the big bowl, and when there, he must duck his head and take a long pull, drinking like an ox. the headman, they insisted everywhere, must accept as a present whatever he liked to have. but he would accept nothing, except where he espied any of his relations, when he made a point of taking them off, him or her, with himself. when they reached cheirisophus they found a similar scene. there too the men were feasting in their quarters, garlanded with whisps of hay and dry grass, and armenian boys were playing the part of waiters in barbaric costumes, only they had to point out by gesture to the boys what they were to do, like deaf and dumb. after the first formalities, when cheirisophus and xenophon had greeted one another like bosom friends, they interrogated the headman in common by means of the persian-speaking interpreter. "what was the country?" they asked: he replied, "armenia." and again, "for whom are the horses being bred?" "they are tribute for the king," he replied. "and the neighbouring country?" "is the land of the chalybes," he said; and he described the road which led to it. so for the present xenophon went off, taking the headman back with him to his household and friends. he also made him a present of an oldish horse which he had got; he had heard that the headman was a priest of the sun, and so he could fatten up the beast and sacrifice him; otherwise he was afraid it might die outright, for it had been injured by the long marching. for himself he took his pick of the colts, and gave a colt apiece to each of his fellow-generals and officers. the horses here were smaller than the persian horses, but much more spirited. it was here too that their friend the headman explained to them, how they should wrap small bags or sacks around the feet of the horses and other cattle when marching through the snow, for without such precautions the creatures sank up to their bellies. vi when a week had passed, on the eighth day xenophon delivered over the guide (that is to say, the village headman) to cheirisophus. he left the headman's household safe behind in the village, with the exception of his son, a lad in the bloom of youth. this boy was entrusted to episthenes of amphipolis to guard; if the headman proved himself a good guide, he was to take away his son also at his departure. they finally made his house the repository of all the good things they could contrive to get together; then they broke up their camp and commenced to march, the headman guiding them through the snow unfettered. when they had reached the third stage cheirisophus flew into a rage with him, because he had not brought them to any villages. the headman pleaded that there were none in this part. cheirisophus struck him, but forgot to bind him, and the end of it was that the headman ran away in the night and was gone, leaving his son behind him. this was the sole ground of difference between cheirisophus and xenophon during the march, this combination of ill-treatment and neglect in the case of the guide. as to the boy, episthenes conceived a passion for him, and took him home with him, and found in him the most faithful of friends. after this they marched seven stages at the rate of five parasangs a day, to the banks of the river phasis ( ), which is a hundred feet broad: and thence they marched another couple of stages, ten parasangs; but at the pass leading down into the plain there appeared in front of them a mixed body of chalybes and taochians and phasianians. when cheirisophus caught sight of the enemy on the pass at a distance of about three or four miles, he ceased marching, not caring to approach the enemy with his troops in column, and he passed down the order to the others: to deploy their companies to the front, that the troops might form into line. as soon as the rearguard had come up, he assembled the generals and officers, and addressed them: "the enemy, as you see, are in occupation of the mountain pass, it is time we should consider how we are to make the best fight to win it. my opinion is, that we should give orders to the troops to take their morning meal, whilst we deliberate whether we should cross the mountains to-day or to-morrow." "my opinion," said cleanor, "is, that as soon as we have breakfasted, we should arm for the fight and attack the enemy, without loss of time, for if we fritter away to-day, the enemy who are now content to look at us, will grow bolder, and with their growing courage, depend upon it, others more numerous will join them." ( ) probably a tributary of the araxes = modern pasin-su. after him xenophon spoke: "this," he said, "is how i see the matter; if fight we must, let us make preparation to sell our lives dearly, but if we desire to cross with the greatest ease, the point to consider is, how we may get the fewest wounds and throw away the smallest number of good men. well then, that part of the mountain which is visible stretches nearly seven miles. where are the men posted to intercept us? except at the road itself, they are nowhere to be seen. it is much better to try if possible to steal a point of this desert mountain unobserved, and before they know where we are, secure the prize, than to fly at a strong position and an enemy thoroughly prepared. since it is much easier to march up a mountain without fighting than to tramp along a level when assailants are at either hand; and provided he has not to fight, a man will see what lies at his feet much more plainly even at night than in broad daylight in the midst of battle; and a rough road to feet that roam in peace may be pleasanter than a smooth surface with the bullets whistling about your ears ( ). nor is it so impossible, i take it, to steal a march, since it is open to us to go by night, when we cannot be seen, and to fall back so far that they will never notice us. in my opinion, however, if we make a feint of attacking here, we shall find the mountain chain all the more deserted elsewhere, since the enemy will be waiting for us here in thicker swarm. ( ) or, more lit., "with the head a mark for missiles." "but what right have i to be drawing conclusions about stealing in your presence, cheirisophus? for you lacedaemonians, as i have often been told, you who belong to the 'peers,' practise stealing from your boyhood up; and it is no disgrace but honourable rather to steal, except such things as the law forbids; and in order, i presume, to stimulate your sense of secretiveness, and to make you master thieves, it is lawful for you further to get a whipping if you are caught. now then you have a fine opportunity of displaying your training. but take care we are not caught stealing over the mountain, or we shall catch it ourselves." "for all that," retorted cheirisophus, "i have heard that you athenians are clever hands at stealing the public moneys; and that too though there is a fearful risk for the person so employed; but, i am told, it is your best men who are addicted to it; if it is your best men who are thought worthy to rule. so it is a fine opportunity for yourself also, xenophon, to exhibit your education." "and i," replied xenophon, "am ready to take the rear division, as soon as we have supped, and seize the mountain chain. i have already got guides, for the light troops laid an ambuscade, and seized some of the cut-purse vagabonds who hung on our rear. i am further informed by them that the mountain is not inaccessible, but is grazed by goats and cattle, so that if we can once get hold of any portion of it, there will be no difficulty as regards our animals--they can cross. as to the enemy, i expect they will not even wait for us any longer, when they once see us on a level with themselves on the heights, for they do not even at present care to come down and meet us on fair ground." cheirisophus answered: "but why should you go and leave your command in the rear? send others rather, unless a band of volunteers will present themselves." thereupon aristonymus the methydrian came forward with some heavy infantry, and nicomachus the oetean with another body of light troops, and they made an agreement to kindle several watch-fires as soon as they held the heights. the arrangements made, they breakfasted; and after breakfast cheirisophus advanced the whole army ten furlongs closer towards the enemy, so as to strengthen the impression that he intended to attack them at that point. but as soon as they had supped and night had fallen, the party under orders set off and occupied the mountain, while the main body rested where they were. now as soon as the enemy perceived that the mountain was taken, they banished all thought of sleep, and kept many watch-fires blazing throughout the night. but at break of day cheirisophus offered sacrifice, and began advancing along the road, while the detachment which held the mountain advanced pari passu by the high ground. the larger mass of the enemy, on his side, remained still on the mountain-pass, but a section of them turned to confront the detachment on the heights. before the main bodies had time to draw together, the detachment on the height came to close quarters, and the hellenes were victorious and gave chase. meanwhile the light division of the hellenes, issuing from the plain, were rapidly advancing against the serried lines of the enemy, whilst cheirisophus followed up with his heavy infantry at quick march. but the enemy on the road no sooner saw their higher division being worsted than they fled, and some few of them were slain, and a vast number of wicker shields were taken, which the hellenes hacked to pieces with their short swords and rendered useless. so when they had reached the summit of the pass, they sacrificed and set up a trophy, and descending into the plain, reached villages abounding in good things of every kind. vii after this they marched into the country of the taochians five stages--thirty parasangs--and provisions failed; for the taochians lived in strong places, into which they had carried up all their stores. now when the army arrived before one of these strong places--a mere fortress, without city or houses, into which a motley crowd of men and women and numerous flocks and herds were gathered--cheirisophus attacked at once. when the first regiment fell back tired, a second advanced, and again a third, for it was impossible to surround the place in full force, as it was encircled by a river. presently xenophon came up with the rearguard, consisting of both light and heavy infantry, whereupon cheirisophus halted him with the words: "in the nick of time you have come; we must take this place, for the troops have no provisions, unless we take it." thereupon they consulted together, and to xenophon's inquiry, "what it was which hindered their simply walking in?" cheirisophus replied, "there is just this one narrow approach which you see, but when we attempt to pass it by they roll down volleys of stones from yonder overhanging crag," pointing up, "and this is the state in which you find yourself, if you chance to be caught;" and he pointed to some poor fellows with their legs or ribs crushed to bits. "but when they have expended their ammunition," said xenophon, "there is nothing else, is there, to hinder our passing? certainly, except yonder handful of fellows, there is no one in front of us that we can see; and of them, only two or three apparently are armed, and the distance to be traversed under fire is, as your eyes will tell you, about one hundred and fifty feet as near as can be, and of this space the first hundred is thickly covered with great pines at intervals; under cover of these, what harm can come to our men from a pelt of stones, flying or rolling? so then, there is only fifty feet left to cross, during a lull of stones." "ay," said cheirisophus, "but with our first attempt to approach the bush a galling fire of stones commences." "the very thing we want," said the other, "for they will use up their ammunition all the quicker; but let us select a point from which we shall have only a brief space to run across, if we can, and from which it will be easier to get back, if we wish." thereupon cheirisophus and xenophon set out with callimachus the parrhasian, the captain in command of the officers of the rearguard that day; the rest of the captains remained out of danger. that done, the next step was for a party of about seventy men to get away under the trees, not in a body, but one by one, every one using his best precaution; and agasis the stymphalian, and aristonymous the methydrian, who were also officers of the rearguard, were posted as supports outside the trees; for it was not possible for more than a single company to stand safely within the trees. here callimachus hit upon a pretty contrivance--he ran forward from the tree under which he was posted two or three paces, and as soon as the stones came whizzing, he retired easily, but at each excursion more than ten wagon-loads of rocks were expended. agasias, seeing how callimachus was amusing himself, and the whole army looking on as spectators, was seized with the fear that he might miss his chance of being first to run the gauntlet of the enemy's fire and get into the place. so, without a word of summons to his neighbour, aristonymous, or to eurylochus of lusia, both comrades of his, or to any one else, off he set on his own account, and passed the whole detachment. but callimachus, seeing him tearing past, caught hold of his shield by the rim, and in the meantime aristonymous the methydrian ran past both, and after him eurylochus of lusia; for they were one and all aspirants to valour, and in that high pursuit, each was the eager rival of the rest. so in this strife of honour, the three of them took the fortress, and when they had once rushed in, not a stone more was hurled from overhead. and here a terrible spectacle displayed itself: the women first cast their infants down the cliff, and then they cast themselves after their fallen little ones, and the men likewise. in such a scene, aeneas the stymphalian, an officer, caught sight of a man with a fine dress about to throw himself over, and seized hold of him to stop him; but the other caught him to his arms, and both were gone in an instant headlong down the crags, and were killed. out of this place the merest handful of human beings were taken prisoners, but cattle and asses in abundance and flocks of sheep. from this place they marched through the chalybes ( ) seven stages, fifty parasangs. these were the bravest men whom they encountered on the whole march, coming cheerily to close quarters with them. they wore linen cuirasses reaching to the groin, and instead of the ordinary "wings" or basques, a thickly-plaited fringe of cords. they were also provided with greaves and helmets, and at the girdle a short sabre, about as long as the laconian dagger, with which they cut the throats of those they mastered, and after severing the head from the trunk they would march along carrying it, singing and dancing, when they drew within their enemy's field of view. they carried also a spear fifteen cubits long, lanced at one end ( ). this folk stayed in regular townships, and whenever the hellenes passed by they invariably hung close on their heels fighting. they had dwelling-places in their fortresses, and into them they had carried up their supplies, so that the hellenes could get nothing from this district, but supported themselves on the flocks and herds they had taken from the taochians. after this the hellenes reached the river harpasus, which was four hundred feet broad. hence they marched through the scythenians four stages--twenty parasangs--through a long level country to more villages, among which they halted three days, and got in supplies. ( ) these are the armeno-chalybes, so called by pliny in contradistinction to another mountain tribe in pontus so named, who were famous for their forging, and from whom steel received its greek name {khalups}. with these latter we shall make acquaintance later on. ( ) i.e. with a single point or spike only, the hellenic spear having a spike at the butt end also. passing on from thence in four stages of twenty parasangs, they reached a large and prosperous well-populated city, which went by the name of gymnias ( ), from which the governor of the country sent them a guide to lead them through a district hostile to his own. this guide told them that within five days he would lead them to a place from which they would see the sea, "and," he added, "if i fail of my word, you are free to take my life." accordingly he put himself at their head; but he no sooner set foot in the country hostile to himself than he fell to encouraging them to burn and harry the land; indeed his exhortations were so earnest, it was plain that it was for this he had come, and not out of the good-will he bore the hellenes. ( ) gymnias is supposed (by grote, "hist. of greece," vol. ix. p. ) to be the same as that which is now called gumisch-kana--perhaps "at no great distance from baibut," tozer, "turkish armenia," p. . others have identified it with erzeroum, others with ispir. on the fifth day they reached the mountain, the name of which was theches ( ). no sooner had the men in front ascended it and caught sight of the sea than a great cry arose, and xenophon, in the rearguard, catching the sound of it, conjectured that another set of enemies must surely be attacking in front; for they were followed by the inhabitants of the country, which was all aflame; indeed the rearguard had killed some and captured others alive by laying an ambuscade; they had taken also about twenty wicker shields, covered with the raw hides of shaggy oxen. ( ) some mss. give "the sacred mountain." the height in question has been identified with "the ridge called tekieh-dagh to the east of gumisch-kana, nearer to the sea than that place" (grote, ib. p. ), but the exact place from which they caught sight of the sea has not been identified as yet, and other mountain ranges have been suggested. but as the shout became louder and nearer, and those who from time to time came up, began racing at the top of their speed towards the shouters, and the shouting continually recommenced with yet greater volume as the numbers increased, xenophon settled in his mind that something extraordinary must have happened, so he mounted his horse, and taking with him lycius and the cavalry, he galloped to the rescue. presently they could hear the soldiers shouting and passing on the joyful word, "the sea! the sea!" thereupon they began running, rearguard and all, and the baggage animals and horses came galloping up. but when they had reached the summit, then indeed they fell to embracing one another--generals and officers and all--and the tears trickled down their cheeks. and on a sudden, some one, whoever it was, having passed down the order, the soldiers began bringing stones and erecting a great cairn, whereon they dedicated a host of untanned skins, and staves, and captured wicker shields, and with his own hand the guide hacked the shields to pieces, inviting the rest to follow his example. after this the hellenes dismissed the guide with a present raised from the common store, to wit, a horse, a silver bowl, a persian dress, and ten darics; but what he most begged to have were their rings, and of these he got several from the soldiers. so, after pointing out to them a village where they would find quarters, and the road by which they would proceed towards the land of the macrones, as evening fell, he turned his back upon them in the night and was gone. viii from this point the hellenes marched through the country of the macrones three stages--ten parasangs, and on the first day they reached the river, which formed the boundary between the land of the macrones and the land of the scythenians. above them, on their right, they had a country of the sternest and ruggedest character, and on their left another river, into which the frontier river discharges itself, and which they must cross. this was thickly fringed with trees which, though not of any great bulk, were closely packed. as soon as they came up to them, the hellenes proceeded to cut them down in their haste to get out of the place as soon as possible. but the macrones, armed with wicker shields and lances and hair tunics, were already drawn up to receive them opposite the crossing. they were cheering one another on, and kept up a steady pelt of stones into the river, though they failed to reach the other side or do any harm. at this juncture one of the light infantry came up to xenophon; he had been, he said, a slave at athens, and he wished to tell him that he recognised the speech of these people. "i think," said he, "that this must be my native country, and if there is no objection i will have a talk with them." "no objection at all," replied xenophon, "pray talk to them, and ask them first, who they are." in answer to this question they said, "they were macrones." "well, then," said he, "ask them why they are drawn up in battle and want to fight with us." they answered, "because you are invading our country." the generals bade him say: "if so, it is with not intention certainly of doing it or you any harm: but we have been at war with the king, and are now returning to hellas, and all we want is to reach the sea." the others asked, "were they willing to give them pledges to that effect?" they replied: "yes, they were ready to give and receive pledges to that effect." then the macrones gave a barbaric lance to the hellenes, and the hellenes a hellenic lance to them: "for these," they said, "would serve as pledges," and both sides called upon the gods to witness. after the pledges were exchanged, the macrones fell to vigorously hewing down trees and constructing a road to help them across, mingling freely with the hellenes and fraternising in their midst, and they afforded them as good as market as they could, and for three days conducted them on their march, until they had brought them safely to the confines of the colchians. at this point they were confronted by a great mountain chain, which however was accessible, and on it the colchians were drawn up for battle. in the first instance, the hellenes drew up opposite in line of battle, as though they were minded to assault the hill in that order; but afterwards the generals determined to hold a council of war, and consider how to make the fairest fight. accordingly xenophon said: "i am not for advancing in line, but advise to form companies by columns. to begin with, the line," he urged, "would be scattered and thrown into disorder at once; for we shall find the mountain full of inequalities, it will be pathless here and easy to traverse there. the mere fact of first having formed in line, and then seeing the line thrown into disorder, must exercise a disheartening effect. again, if we advance several deep, the enemy will none the less overlap us, and turn their superfluous numbers to account as best they like; while, if we march in shallow order, we may fully expect our line to be cut through and through by the thick rain of missiles and rush of men, and if this happen anywhere along the line, the whole line will equally suffer. no; my notion is to form columns by companies, covering ground sufficient with spaces between the companies to allow the last companies of each flank to be outside the enemy's flanks. thus we shall with our extreme companies be outside the enemy's line, and the best men at the head of their columns will lead the attack, and every company will pick its way where the ground is easy; also it will be difficult for the enemy to force his way into the intervening spaces, when there are companies on both sides; nor will it be easy for him to cut in twain any individual company marching in column. if, too, any particular company should be pressed, the neighbouring company will come to the rescue, or if at any point any single company succeed in reaching the height, from that moment not one man of the enemy will stand his ground." this proposal was carried, and they formed into columns by companies ( ). then xenophon, returning from the right wing to the left, addressed the soldiers. "men," he said, "these men whom you see in front of you are the sole obstacles still interposed between us and the haven of our hopes so long deferred. we will swallow them up whole, without cooking ( ), if we can." ( ) for this formation, see "the retreat of the ten thousand; a military study for all time," by lieut.-general j. l. vaughan, c.b. ( ) or, "we will gobble them up raw." he is thinking of the homeric line ("iliad", iv. ) "perchance wert thou to enter within the gates and long walls and devour priam raw, and priam's sons and all the trojans, then mightest thou assuage thine anger."--leaf. the several divisions fell into position, the companies were formed into columns, and the result was a total of something like eighty companies of heavy infantry, each company consisting on an average of a hundred men. the light infantry and bowmen were arranged in three divisions--two outside to support the left and the right respectively, and the third in the centre--each division consisting of about six hundred men ( ). ( ) this suggests as the total of the peltasts, as the total of the hoplites, but the companies were probably not limited to , and under "peltasts" were probably included other light troops. before starting, the generals passed the order to offer prayer; and with the prayer and battle hymn rising from their lips they commenced their advance. cheirisophus and xenophon, and the light infantry with them, advanced outside the enemy's line to right and left, and the enemy, seeing their advance, made an effort to keep parallel and confront them, but in order to do so, as he extended partly to right and partly to left, he was pulled to pieces, and there was a large space or hollow left in the centre of his line. seeing them separate thus, the light infantry attached to the arcadian battalion, under command of aeschines, an arcarnanian, mistook the movement for flight, and with a loud shout rushed on, and these were the first to scale the mountain summit; but they were closely followed up by the arcadian heavy infantry, under command of cleanor of orchomenus. when they began running in that way, the enemy stood their ground no longer, but betook themselves to flight, one in one direction, one in another, and the hellenes scaled the hill and found quarters in numerous villages which contained supplies in abundance. here, generally speaking, there was nothing to excite their wonderment, but the numbers of bee-hives were indeed astonishing, and so were certain properties of the honey ( ). the effect upon the soldiers who tasted the combs was, that they all went for the nonce quite off their heads, and suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea, with a total inability to stand steady on their legs. a small dose produced a condition not unlike violent drunkenness, a large one an attack very like a fit of madness, and some dropped down, apparently at death's door. so they lay, hundreds of them, as if there had been a great defeat, a prey to the cruellest despondency. but the next day, none had died; and almost at the same hour of the day at which they had eaten they recovered their senses, and on the third or fourth day got on their legs again like convalescents after a severe course of medical treatment. ( ) "modern travellers attest the existence, in these regions, of honey intoxicating and poisonous.... they point out the azalea pontica as the flower from which the bees imbibe this peculiar quality."--grote, "hist. of greece," vol. ix. p. . from this place they marched on two stages--seven parasangs--and reached the sea at trapezus ( ), a populous hellenic city on the euxine sea, a colony of the sinopeans, in the territory of the colchians. here they halted about thirty days in the villages of the colchians, which they used as a base of operations to ravage the whole territory of colchis. the men of trapezus supplied the army with a market, entertained them, and gave them, as gifts of hospitality, oxen and wheat and wine. further, they negotiated with them in behalf of their neighbours the colchians, who dwelt in the plain for the most part, and from this folk also came gifts of hospitality in the shape of cattle. and now the hellenes made preparation for the sacrifice which they had vowed, and a sufficient number of cattle came in for them to offer thank-offerings for safe guidance to zeus the saviour, and to heracles ( ), and to the other gods, according to their vows. they instituted also a gymnastic contest on the mountain side, just where they were quartered, and chose dracontius, a spartan (who had been banished from home when a lad, having unintentionally slain another boy with a blow of his dagger), to superintend the course, and be president of the games. ( ) trebizond. ( ) or, "to sacrifice to zeus the preserver, and to heracles thank-offerings for safe guidance," heracles "the conductor" having special sympathy with wanderers. as soon as the sacrifices were over, they handed over the hides of the beasts to dracontius, and bade him lead the way to his racecourse. he merely waved his hand and pointed to where they were standing, and said, "there, this ridge is just the place for running, anywhere, everywhere." "but how," it was asked, "will they manage to wrestle on the hard scrubby ground?" "oh! worse knocks for those who are thrown," the president replied. there was a mile race for boys, the majority being captive lads; and for the long race more than sixty cretans competed; there was wrestling, boxing, and the pankration ( ). altogether it was a beautiful spectacle. there was a large number of entries, and the emulation, with their companions, male and female, standing as spectators, was immense. there was horse-racing also; the riders had to gallop down a steep incline to the sea, and then turn and come up again to the altar, and on the descent more than half rolled head over heels, and then back they came toiling up the tremendous steep, scarcely out of a walking pace. loud were the shouts, the laughter, and the cheers. ( ) the pankration combined both wrestling and boxing. book v (in the preceding portion of the narrative a detailed account is given of all that the hellenes did, and how they fared on the march up with cyrus; and also of all that befell them on their march subsequently, until they reached the seaboard of the euxine sea, or pontus, and the hellenic city of trapezus, where they duly offered the sacrifice for safe deliverance which they had vowed to offer as soon as they set foot on a friendly soil.) i after this they met and took counsel concerning the remainder of the march. the first speaker was antileon of thurii. he rose and said: "for my part, sirs, i am weary by this time of getting kit together and packing up for a start, of walking and running and carrying heavy arms, and of tramping along in line, or mounting guard, and doing battle. the sole desire i now have is to cease from all these pains, and for the future, since here we have the sea before us, to sail on and on, 'stretched out in sleep,' like odysseus, and so to find myself in hellas." when they heard these remarks, the soldiers showed their approval with loud cries of "well said," and then another spoke to the same effect, and then another, and indeed all present. then cheirisophus got up and said: "i have a friend, sirs, who, as good hap will have it, is now high admiral, anaxibius. if you like to send me to him, i think i can safely promise to return with some men-of-war and other vessels which will carry us. all you have to do, if you are really minded to go home by sea, is to wait here till i come. i will be back ere long." the soldiers were delighted at these words, and voted that cheirisophus should set sail on his mission without delay. after him, xenophon got up, and spoke as follows: "cheirisophus, it is agreed, sets out in search of vessels, and we are going to await him. let me tell you what, in my opinion, it is reasonable to do while we are waiting. first of all, we must provide ourselves with necessaries from hostile territory, for there is not a sufficient market, nor, if there were, have we, with a few solitary exceptions, the means of purchase. now, the district is hostile, so that if you set off in search of provisions without care and precaution, the chances are that many of us will be lost. to meet this risk, i propose that we should organise foraging parties to capture provisions, and, for the rest, not roam about the country at random. the organisation of the matter should be left to us." (the resolution was passed.) "please listen to another proposal;" he continued: "some of you, no doubt, will be going out to pillage. it will be best, i think, that whoever does so should in each case before starting inform us of his intent, and in what direction he means to go, so that we may know the exact number of those who are out and of those who stop behind. thus we shall be able to help in preparing and starting the expedition where necessary; and in case of aid or reinforcements being called for, we shall know in what direction to proceed; or, again, if the attempt is to be undertaken by raw or less expert hands, we may throw in the weight of our experience and advice by endeavouring to discover the strength of those whom they design to attack." this proposal was also carried. "here is another point," he continued, "to which i would draw your attention. our enemies will not lack leisure to make raids upon us: nor is it unnatural, that they should lay plots for us; for we have appropriated what is theirs; they are seated over us ever on the watch. i propose then that we should have regular outposts round the camp. if we take it in succession to do picket and outlook duty, the enemy will be less able to harry us. and here is another point for your observation; supposing we knew for certain that cheirisophus must return with a sufficient number of vessels, there would be no need of the remark, but as that is still problematical, i propose that we should try to get together vessels on the spot also. if he comes and finds us already provided for here, we shall have more ships than we need, that is all; while, if he fails to bring them, we shall have the local supply to fall back upon. i see ships sailing past perpetually, so we have only to ask the loan of some war-ships from the men of trapezus, and we can bring them into port, and safeguard them with their rudders unshipped, until we have enough to carry us. by this course i think we shall not fail of finding the means of transport requisite." that resolution was also passed. he proceeded: "consider whether you think it equitable to support by means of a general fund the ships' companies which we so impress, while they wait here for our benefit, and to agree upon a fare, on the principle of repaying kindnesses in kind." that too was passed. "well then," said he, "in case, after all, our endeavours should not be crowned with success, and we find that we have not vessels enough, i propose that we should enjoin on the cities along the seaboard the duty of constructing and putting in order the roads, which we hear are impassable. they will be only too glad to obey, no doubt, out of mere terror and their desire to be rid of us." this last proposal was met by loud cries and protestations against the idea of going by land at all. so, perceiving their infatuation, he did not put the question to the vote, but eventually persuaded the cities voluntarily to construct roads by the suggestion, "if you get your roads in good order, we shall all the sooner be gone." they further got a fifty-oared galley from the trapezuntines, and gave the command of it to dexippus, a laconian, one of the perioeci ( ). this man altogether neglected to collect vessels on the offing, but slunk off himself, and vanished, ship and all, out of pontus. later on, however, he paid the penalty of his misdeeds. he became involved in some meddling and making in thrace at the court of seuthes, and was put to death by the laconian nicander. they also got a thirty-oared galley, the command of which was entrusted to polycrates, an athenian, and that officer brought into harbour to the camp all the vessels he could lay his hands on. if these were laden, they took out the freights and appointed guards to keep an eye on their preservation, whilst they used the ships themselves for transport service on the coast. while matters stood at this point, the hellenes used to make forays with varying success; sometimes they captured prey and sometimes they failed. on one occasion cleanetus led his own and another company against a strong position, and was killed himself, with many others of his party. ( ) a native of the country parts of laconia. ii the time came when it was no longer possible to capture provisions, going and returning to the camp in one day. in consequence of this, xenophon took some guides from the trapezuntines and led half the army out against the drilae, leaving the other half to guard the camp. that was necessary, since the colchians, who had been ousted from their houses, were assembled thickly, and sat eyeing them from the heights above; on the other hand the trapezuntines, being friendly to the native inhabitants, were not for leading the hellenes to places where it was easy to capture provisions. but against the drilae, from whom they personally suffered, they would lead them with enthusiasm, up into mountainous and scarcely accessible fortresses, and against the most warlike people of any in the pontus. but when the hellenes had reached the uplands, the drilae set fire to all their fastnesses which they thought could be taken easily, and beat a retreat; and except here and there a stray pig or bullock or other animal which had escaped the fire there was nothing to capture; but there was one fastness which served as their metropolis: into this the different streams of people collected; round it ran a tremendously deep ravine, and the approaches to the place were difficult. so the light infantry ran forward five or six furlongs in advance of the heavy infantry, and crossed the ravine; and seeing quantities of sheep and other things, proceeded to attack the place. close at their heels followed a number of those who had set out on the foray armed with spears, so that the storming party across the ravine amounted to more than two thousand. but, finding that they could not take the place by a coup-de-main, as there was a trench running round it, mounded up some breadth, with a stockade on the top of the earthwork and a close-packed row of wooden bastions, they made an attempt to run back, but the enemy fell upon them from the rear. to get away by a sudden rush was out of the question, since the descent from the fortress into the ravine only admitted of moving in single file. under the circumstances they sent to xenophon, who was in command of the heavy infantry. the messenger came and delivered his message: "there is a fastness choke full of all sorts of stores, but we cannot take it, it is too strong; nor can we easily get away; the enemy rush out and deliver battle, and the return is difficult." on hearing this, xenophon pushed forward his heavy infantry to the edge of the ravine, and there ordered them to take up a position, while he himself with the officers crossed over to determine whether it were better to withdraw the party already across, or to bring over the heavy infantry also, on the supposition that the fortress might be taken. in favour of the latter opinion it was agreed that the retreat must cost many lives, and the officers were further disposed to think, they could take the place. xenophon consented, relying on the victims, for the seers had announced, that there would be a battle, but that the result of the expedition would be good. so he sent the officers to bring the heavy troops across, while he himself remained, having drawn off all the light infantry and forbidden all sharp-shooting at long range. as soon as the heavy infantry had arrived, he ordered each captain to form his company, in whatever way he hoped to make it most effective in the coming struggle. side by side together they stood, these captains, not for the first time to-day competitors for the award of manly virtue. while they were thus employed, he--the general--was engaged in passing down his order along the ranks of the light infantry and archers respectively to march with the javelin on its thong and the arrow to the string, ready at the word "shoot" to discharge their missiles, while the light troops were to have their wallets well stocked with slingstones; lastly, he despatched his adjutants to see to the proper carrying out of these orders. and now the preparations were complete: the officers and lieutenants and all others claiming to be peers of these, were drawn up in their several places. with a glance each was able to command the rest in the crescent-like disposition which the ground invited. presently the notes of the battle hymn arose, the clarion spoke, and with a thrilling cry in honour of the warrior-god, commenced a rush of the heavy infantry at full speed under cover of a storm of missiles, lances, arrows, bullets, but most of all stones hurled from the hand with ceaseless pelt, while there were some who brought firebrands to bear. overwhelmed by this crowd of missiles, the enemy left their stockades and their bastion towers, which gave agasias the stymphalian and philoxenus of pellene a chance not to be missed; laying aside their heavy arms, up they went in bare tunics only, and one hauled another up, and meantime another had mounted, and the place was taken, as they thought. then the peltasts and light troops rushed in and began snatching what each man could. xenophon the while, posted at the gates, kept back as many of the hoplites as he could, for there were other enemies now visible on certain strong citadel heights; and after a lapse of no long time a shout arose within, and the men came running back, some still clutching what they had seized; and presently here and there a wounded man; and mighty was the jostling about the portals. to the questions which were put to them the outpouring fugitives repeated the same story: there was a citadel within and enemies in crowds were making savage sallies and beating the fellows inside. at that xenophon ordered tolmides the herald to proclaim: "enter all who are minded to capture aught." in poured the surging multitude, and the counter-current of persons elbowing their passage in prevailed over the stream of those who issued forth, until they beat back and cooped up the enemy within the citadel again. so outside the citadel everything was sacked and pillaged by the hellenes, and the heavy infantry took up their position, some about the stockades, others along the road leading up to the citadel. xenophon and the officers meantime considered the possibility of taking the citadel, for if so, their safety was assured; but if otherwise, it would be very difficult to get away. as the result of their deliberations they agreed that the place was impregnable. then they began making preparations for the retreat. each set of men proceeded to pull down the palisading which faced themselves; further, they sent away all who were useless or who had enough to do to carry their burdens, with the mass of the heavy infantry accompanying them; the officers in each case leaving behind men whom they could severally depend on. but as soon as they began to retreat, out rushed upon them from within a host of fellows, armed with wicker shields and lances, greaves and paphlagonian helmets. others might be seen scaling the houses on this side and that of the road leading into the citadel. even pursuit in the direction of the citadel was dangerous, since the enemy kept hurling down on them great beams from above, so that to stop and to make off were alike dangerous, and night approaching was full of terrors. but in the midst of their fighting and their despair some god gave them a means of safety. all of a sudden, by whatsoever hand ignited, a flame shot up; it came from a house on the right hand, and as this gradually fell in, the people from the other houses on the right took to their heels and fled. xenophon, laying this lesson of fortune to heart, gave orders to set fire to the left-hand houses also, which being of wood burned quickly, with the result that the occupants of these also took to flight. the men immediately at their front were the sole annoyance now, and these were safe to fall upon them as they made their exit and in their descent. here then the word was passed for all who were out of range to bring up logs of wood and pile them between themselves and the enemy, and when there was enough of these they set them on fire; they also fired the houses along the trench-work itself, so as to occupy the attention of the enemy. thus they got off, though with difficulty, and escaped from the place by putting a fire between them and the enemy; and the whole city was burnt down, houses, turrets, stockading, and everything belonging to it except the citadel. next day the hellenes were bent on getting back with the provisions; but as they dreaded the descent to trapezus, which was precipitous and narrow, they laid a false ambuscade, and a mysian, called after the name of his nation (mysus) ( ), took ten of the cretans and halted in some thick brushy ground, where he made a feint of endeavouring to escape the notice of the enemy. the glint of their light shields, which were of brass, now and again gleamed through the brushwood. the enemy, seeing it all through the thicket, were confirmed in their fears of an ambuscade. but the army meanwhile was quietly making its descent; and when it appeared that they had crept down far enough, the signal was given to the mysian to flee as fast as he could, and he, springing up, fled with his men. the rest of the party, that is the cretans, saying, "we are caught if we race," left the road and plunged into a wood, and tumbling and rolling down the gullies were saved. the mysian, fleeing along the road, kept crying for assistance, which they sent him, and picked him up wounded. the party of rescue now beat a retreat themselves with their face to the foe, exposed to a shower of missiles, to which some of the cretan bowmen responded with their arrows. in this way they all reached the camp in safety. ( ) lit. "{musos} (mysus), a mysian by birth, and {musos} (mysus) by name." iii now when cheirisophus did not arrive, and the supply of ships was insufficient, and to get provisions longer was impossible, they resolved to depart. on board the vessels they embarked the sick, and those above forty years of age, with the boys and women, and all the baggage which the solders were not absolutely forced to take for their own use. the two eldest generals, philesius and sophaenetus, were put in charge, and so the party embarked, while the rest resumed their march, for the road was now completely constructed. continuing their march that day and the next, on the third they reached cerasus, a hellenic city on the sea, and a colony of sinope, in the country of the colchians. here they halted ten days, and there was a review and numbering of the troops under arms, when there were found to be eight thousand six hundred men. so many had escaped; the rest had perished at the hands of the enemy, or by reason of the snow, or else disease. at this time and place they divided the money accruing from the captives sold, and a tithe selected for apollo and artemis of the ephesians was divided between the generals, each of whom took a portion to guard for the gods, neon the asinaean ( ) taking on behalf of cheirisophus. ( ) i.e. of asine, perhaps the place named in thuc. iv. , ; vi. situated on the western side of the messenian bay. strabo, however, speaks of another asine near gytheum, but possibly means las. see arnold's note to thuc. iv. , and smith's "dict. geog. (s.v.)" out of the portion which fell to xenophon he caused a dedicatory offering to apollo to be made and dedicated among the treasures of the athenians at delphi ( ). it was inscribed with his own name and that of proxenus, his friend, who was killed with clearchus. the gift for artemis of the ephesians was, in the first instance, left behind by him in asia at the time when he left that part of the world himself with agesilaus on the march into boeotia ( ). he left it behind in charge of megabyzus, the sacristan of the goddess, thinking that the voyage on which he was starting was fraught with danger. in the event of his coming out of it alive, he charged megabyzus to restore to him the deposit; but should any evil happen to him, then he was to cause to be made and to dedicate on his behalf to artemis, whatsoever thing he thought would be pleasing to the goddess. ( ) cf. herod. i. ; strabo. ix. for such private treasuries at delphi. ( ) i.e. in the year b.c. . the circumstances under which agesilaus was recalled from asia, with the details of his march and the battle of coronea, are described by xenophon in the fourth book of the "hellenica." in the days of his banishment, when xenophon was now established by the lacedaemonians as a colonist in scillus ( ), a place which lies on the main road to olympia, megabyzus arrived on his way to olympia as a spectator to attend the games, and restored to him the deposit. xenophon took the money and bought for the goddess a plot of ground at a point indicated to him by the oracle. the plot, it so happened, had its own selinus river flowing through it, just as at ephesus the river selinus flows past the temple of artemis, and in both streams fish and mussels are to be found. on the estate at scillus there is hunting and shooting of all the beasts of the chase that are. ( ) scillus, a town of triphylia, a district of elis. in b.c. the eleians had razed pisa and scillus to the ground. but between b.c. and the lacedaemonians, having previously (b.c. , "hell." iii. ii. ) compelled the eleians to renounce their supremacy over their dependent cities, colonised scillus and eventually gave it to xenophon, then an exile from athens. xenophon resided here from fifteen to twenty years, but was, it is said, expelled from it by the eleians soon after the battle of leuctra, in b.c. .--"dict. geog. (s.v.)" the site of the place, and of xenophon's temple, is supposed to be in the neighbourhood of the modern village of chrestena, or possibly nearer mazi. to reach olympia, about / miles distant, one must cross the alpheus. here with the sacred money he built an altar and a temple, and ever after, year by year, tithed the fruits of the land in their season and did sacrifice to the goddess, while all the citizens and neighbours, men and women, shared in the festival. the goddess herself provided for the banqueters meat and loaves and wine and sweetmeats, with portions of the victims sacrificed from the sacred pasture, as also of those which were slain in the chase; for xenophon's own lads, with the lads of the other citizens, always made a hunting excursion against the festival day, in which any grown men who liked might join. the game was captured partly from the sacred district itself, partly from pholoe ( ), pigs and gazelles and stags. the place lies on the direct road from lacedaemon to olympia, about twenty furlongs from the temple of zeus in olympia, and within the sacred enclosure there is meadow-land and wood-covered hills, suited to the breeding of pigs and goats and cattle and horses, so that even the sumpter animals of the pilgrims passing to the feast fare sumptuously. the shrine is girdled by a grove of cultivated trees, yielding dessert fruits in their season. the temple itself is a facsimile on a small scale of the great temple at ephesus, and the image of the goddess is like the golden statue at ephesus, save only that it is made, not of gold, but of cypress wood. beside the temple stands a column bearing this inscription:--the place is sacred to artemis. he who holds it and enjoys the fruits of it is bound to sacrifice yearly a tithe of the produce. and from the residue thereof to keep in repair the shrine. if any man fail in aught of this the goddess herself will look to it that the matter shall not sleep. ( ) pholoe. this mountain (north of the alpheus) is an offshoot of erymanthus, crossing the pisatis from east to west, and separating the waters of the peneus and the ladon from those of the alpheus --"dict. geog." (elis). iv from cerasus they continued the march, the same portion of the troops being conveyed by sea as before, and the rest marching by land. when they had reached the frontiers of the mossynoecians ( ) they sent to him timesitheus the trapezuntine, who was the proxenos ( ) of the mossynoecians, to inquire whether they were to pass through their territory as friends or foes. they, trusting in their strongholds, replied that they would not give them passage. it was then that timesitheus informed them that the mossynoecians on the farther side of the country were hostile to these members of the tribe; and it was resolved to invite the former to make an alliance, if they wished it. so timesitheus was sent, and came back with their chiefs. on their arrival there was a conference of the mossynoecian chiefs and the generals of the hellenes, and xenophon made a speech which timesitheus interpreted. he said: "men of the mossynoecians, our desire is to reach hellas in safety; and since we have no vessels we must needs go by foot, but these people who, as we hear, are your enemies, prevent us. will you take us for your allies? now is your chance to exact vengeance for any wrong, which they at any time may have put upon you, and for the future they will be your subjects; but if you send us about our business, consider and ask yourselves from what quarter will you ever again obtain so strong a force to help you?" to this the chief of the mossynoecians made answer:--that the proposal was in accordance with their wishes and they welcomed the alliance. "good," said xenophon, "but to what use do you propose to put us, if we become your allies? and what will you in turn be able to do to assist our passage?" they replied: "we can make an incursion into this country hostile to yourselves and us, from the opposite side, and also send you ships and men to this place, who will aid you in fighting and conduct you on the road." ( ) i.e. dwellers in mossyns, or wooden towers. see herod. iii. ; vii. . cf. also strabo, xi. . ( ) or, "consul." on this understanding, they exchanged pledges and were gone. the next day they returned, bringing three hundred canoes, each hollowed out of a single trunk. there were three men in each, two of whom disembarked and fell into rank, whilst the third remained. then the one set took the boats and sailed back again, whilst the other two-thirds who remained marshalled themselves in the following way. they stood in rows of about a hundred each, like the rows of dancers in a chorus, standing vis-a-vis to one another, and all bearing wicker shields, made of white oxhide, shaggy, and shaped like an ivy leaf; in the right hand they brandished a javelin about six cubits long, with a lance in front, and rounded like a ball at the butt end of the shaft. their bodies were clad in short frocks, scarcely reaching to the knees and in texture closely resembling that of a linen bedclothes' bag; on their heads they wore leathern helmets just like the paphlagonian helmet, with a tuft of hair in the middle, as like a tiara in shape as possible. they carried moreover iron battle-axes. then one of them gave, as it were, the key-note and started, while the rest, taking up the strain and the step, followed singing and marking time. passing through the various corps and heavy armed battalions of the hellenes, they marched straight against the enemy, to what appeared the most assailable of his fortresses. it was situated in front of the city, or mother city, as it is called, which latter contains the high citadel of the mossynoecians. this citadel was the real bone of contention, the occupants at any time being acknowledged as the masters of all the other mossynoecians. the present holders (so it was explained) had no right to its possession; for the sake of self-aggrandisement they had seized what was really common property. some of the hellenes followed the attacking party, not under the orders of the generals, but for the sake of plunder. as they advanced, the enemy for a while kept quiet; but as they got near the place, they made a sortie and routed them, killing several of the barbarians as well as some of the hellenes who had gone up with them; and so pursued them until they saw the hellenes advancing to the rescue. then they turned round and made off, first cutting off the heads of the dead men and flaunting them in the face of the hellenes and of their own private foes, dancing the while and singing in a measured strain. but the hellenes were much vexed to think that their foes had only been rendered bolder, while the hellenes who had formed part of the expedition had turned tail and fled, in spite of their numbers; a thing which had not happened previously during the whole expedition. so xenophon called a meeting of the hellenes and spoke as follows: "soldiers, do not in any wise be cast down by what has happened, be sure that good no less than evil will be the result; for to begin with, you now know certainly that those who are going to guide us are in very deed hostile to those with whom necessity drives us to quarrel; and, in the next place, some of our own body, these hellenes who have made so light of orderly array and conjoint action with ourselves, as though they must needs achieve in the company of barbarians all they could with ourselves, have paid the penalty and been taught a lesson, so that another time they will be less prone to leave our ranks. but you must be prepared to show these friendly barbarians that you are of a better sort, and prove to the enemy that battle with the undisciplined is one thing, but with men like yourselves another." accordingly they halted, as they were, that day. next day they sacrificed and finding the victims favourable, they breakfasted, formed the companies into columns, and with their barbarians arranged in similar order on their left, began their march. between the companies were the archers only slightly retired behind the front of the heavy infantry, on account of the enemy's active light troops, who ran down and kept up volleys of stones. these were held in check by the archers and peltasts; and steadily step by step the mass marched on, first to the position from which the barbarians and those with them had been driven two days back, and where the enemy were now drawn up to meet them. thus it came to pass that the barbarians first grappled with the peltasts and maintained the battle until the heavy infantry were close, when they turned and fled. the peltasts followed without delay, and pursued them right up to their city, while the heavy troops in unbroken order followed. as soon as they were up at the houses of the capital, there and then the enemy, collecting all together in one strong body, fought valiantly, and hurled their javelins, or else clenched their long stout spears, almost too heavy for a man to wield, and did their best to ward off the attack at close quarters. but when the hellenes, instead of giving way, kept massing together more thickly, the barbarians fled from this place also, and in a body deserted the fortress. their king, who sat in his wooden tower or mossyn, built on the citadel (there he sits and there they maintain him, all at the common cost, and guard him narrowly), refused to come forth, as did also those in the fortress first taken, and so were burnt to a cinder where they were, their mossyns, themselves, and all. the hellenes, pillaging and ransacking these places, discovered in the different houses treasures and magazines of loaves, pile upon pile, "the ancestral stores," as the mossynoecians told them; but the new corn was laid up apart with the straw-stalk and ear together, and this was for the most part spelt. slices of dolphin were another discovery, in narrow-necked jars, all properly salted and pickled; and there was blubber of dolphin in vessels, which the mossynoecians used precisely as the hellenes use oil. then there were large stores of nuts on the upper floor, the broad kind without a division ( ). this was also a chief article of food with them--boiled nuts and baked loaves. wine was also discovered. this, from its rough, dry quality, tasted sharp when drunk pure, but mixed with water was sweet and fragrant. ( ) i.e. "chestnuts." the hellenes breakfasted and then started forward on their march, having first delivered the stronghold to their allies among the mossynoecians. as for the other strongholds belonging to tribes allied with their foes, which they passed en route, the most accessible were either deserted by their inhabitants or gave in their adhesion voluntarily. the following description will apply to the majority of them: the cities were on an average ten miles apart, some more, some less; but so elevated is the country and intersected by such deep clefts that if they chose to shout across to one another, their cries would be heard from one city to another. when, in the course of their march, they came upon a friendly population, these would entertain them with exhibitions of fatted children belonging to the wealthy classes, fed up on boiled chestnuts until they were as white as white can be, of skin plump and delicate, and very nearly as broad as they were long, with their backs variegated and their breasts tattooed with patterns of all sorts of flowers. they sought after the women in the hellenic army, and would fain have laid with them openly in broad daylight, for that was their custom. the whole community, male and female alike, were fair-complexioned and white-skinned. it was agreed that this was the most barbaric and outlandish people that they had passed through on the whole expedition, and the furthest removed from the hellenic customs, doing in a crowd precisely what other people would prefer to do in solitude, and when alone behaving exactly as others would behave in company, talking to themselves and laughing at their own expense, standing still and then again capering about, wherever they might chance to be, without rhyme or reason, as if their sole business were to show off to the rest of the world. v through this country, friendly or hostile as the chance might be, the hellenes marched, eight stages in all, and reached the chalybes. these were a people few in number, and subject to the mossynoecians. their livelihood was for the most part derived from mining and forging iron. thence they came to the tibarenians. the country of the tibarenians was far more level, and their fortresses lay on the seaboard and were less strong, whether by art or nature. the generals wanted to attack these places, so that the army might get some pickings, and they would not accept the gifts of hospitality which came in from the tibarenians, but bidding them wait till they had taken counsel, they proceeded to offer sacrifice. after several abortive attempts, the seers at last pronounced an opinion that the gods in no wise countenanced war. then they accepted the gifts of hospitality, and marching through what was now recognised as a friendly country, in two days reached cotyora, a hellenic city, and a colony of sinope, albeit situated in the territory of the tibarenians ( ). ( ) the mss. here read, "up to this point the expedition was conducted on land, and the distance traversed on foot from the battle-field near babylon down to cotyora amounted to one hundred and twenty-two stages--that is to say, six hundred and twenty parasangs, or eighteen thousand stades, or if measured in time, an eight months' march." the words are probably the note of some editor or commentator, though it is quite likely that the author himself may have gone through such calculations and even have inserted them as a note to his text. here they halted forty-five days, during which they first of all sacrificed to the gods, and instituted processions, each set of the hellenes according to their several tribes, with gymnastic contests. provisions they got in meanwhile, partly from paphlagonia, partly from the estates of the cotyorites, for the latter would neither provide them a market nor receive their sick within their walls. meanwhile ambassadors arrived from sinope, full of fears, not only for the cotyorites and their city, which belonged to sinope, and brought in tribute, but also for the territory which, as they had heard, was being pillaged. accordingly they came to the camp and made a speech. hecatonymus, who was reported to be a clever orator, acted as their spokesman: "soldiers," he said, "the city of the sinopeans has sent us to offer you, as hellenes, our compliments and congratulations on your victories over the barbarians; and next, to express our joyful satisfaction that you have surmounted all those terrible sufferings of which we have heard, and have reached this place in safety. as hellenes we claim to receive at your hands, as fellow-hellenes, kindness and not harm. we have certainly not ourselves set you an example heretofore of evil treatment. now the cotyorites are our colonists. it was we who gave them this country to dwell in, having taken it from the barbarians; for which reason also they, with the men of cerasus and trapezus, pay us an appointed tribute. so that, whatever mischief you inflict on the men of cotyora, the city of sinope takes as personal to herself. at the present time we hear that you have made forcible entry into their city, some of you, and are quartered in the houses, besides taking forcibly from the cotyorite estates whatever you need, by hook and by crook. now against these things we enter protest. if you mean to go on so doing, you will drive us to make friends with corylas and the paphlagonians, or any one else we can find." to meet these charges xenophon, on behalf of the soldiers, rose and said: "as to ourselves, men of sinope, having got so far, we are well content to have saved our bodies and our arms. indeed it was impossible at one and the same moment to keep our enemies at bay and to despoil them of their goods and chattels. and now, since we have reached hellenic cities, how has it fared with us? at trapezus they gave us a market, and we paid for our provisions at a fair market price. in return for the honour they did us, and the gifts of hospitality they gave the army, we requited them with honour. where the barbarian was friendly to them, we stayed our hands from injury; or under their escort, we did damage to their enemies to the utmost of our power. ask them, what sort of people they found us. they are here, some of them, to answer for themselves. their fellow-citizens and the state of trapezus, for friendship's sake, have sent them with us to act as our guides. "but wherever we come, be it foreign or hellenic soil, and find no market for provisions, we are wont to help ourselves, not out of insolence but from necessity. there have been tribes like the carduchians, the taochians, the chaldaeans, which, albeit they were not subject to the great king, yet were no less formidable than independent. these we had to bring over by our arms. the necessity of getting provisions forced us; since they refused to offer us a market. whereas some other folk, like the macrones, in spite of their being barbarians, we regarded as our friends, simply because they did provide us with the best market in their power, and we took no single thing of theirs by force. but, to come to these cotyorites, whom you claim to be your people, if we have taken aught from them, they have themselves to blame, for they did not deal with us as friends, but shut their gates in our faces. they would neither welcome us within nor furnish us with a market without. the only justification they alleged was that your governor ( ) had authorised this conduct. ( ) lit. "harmost". the term, denoting properly a governor of the islands and foreign cities sent out by the lacedaemonians during their supremacy, came, it would seem, to be adopted by other greek communities under somewhat similar circumstances. cotyora receives a harmost from her mother-city, sinope. for the greek colonies here mentioned, see kiepert's "man. anct. geog." (engl. tr., mr. g. a. macmillan), p. . "as to your assertion," he continued, turning to hecatonymus, "that we have got in by force and have taken up quarters, this is what we did. we requested them to receive our sick and wounded under cover; and when they refused to open their gates, we walked in where the place itself invited us. all the violence we have committed amounts to this, that our sick folk are quartered under cover, paying for their expenses, and we keep a sentry at the gates, so that our sick and wounded may not lie at the mercy of your governor, but we may have it in our power to remove them whenever we like. the rest of us, you observe, are camping under the canopy of heaven, in regular rank and file, and we are ready to requite kindness with kindness, but to repel evil vigorously. and as for your threat," he said, once again turning to the spokesman, "that you will, if it suits you, make alliance with corylas and the paphlagonians to attack us, for our part, we have no objection to fighting both sets of you, if so be we must; we have already fought others many times more numerous than you. besides, 'if it suits us,' as you put it, to make the paphlagonian our friend (report says that he has a hankering after your city and some other places on the seaboard), we can enhance the value of our friendship by helping to win for him what he covets." thereupon the ambassadors showed very plainly their annoyance with hecatonymus, on account of the style of his remarks, and one of them stept forward to explain that their intention in coming was not at all to raise a war, but on the contrary to demonstrate their friendliness. "and if you come to sinope itself," the speaker continued, "we will welcome you there with gifts of hospitality. meanwhile we will enjoin upon the citizens of this place to give you what they can; for we can see that every word of what you say is true." thereupon the cotyorites sent gifts of hospitality, and the generals of the hellenes entertained the ambassadors of the sinopeans. many and friendly were the topics of conversation; freely flowed the talk on things in general; and, in particular, both parties were able to make inquiries and satisfy their curiosity concerning the remaining portion of the march. vi such was the conclusion of that day. on the following day the generals summoned an assembly of the soldiers, when it was resolved to invite the men of sinope, and to take advice with them touching the remainder of the journey. in the event of their having to continue it on foot, the sinopeans through their acquaintance with paphlagonia would be useful to them; while, if they had to go by sea, the services of the same people would be at a premium; for who but they could furnish ships sufficient for the army? accordingly, they summoned their ambassadors, and took counsel with them, begging them, on the strength of the sacred ties which bind hellenes to hellenes, to inaugurate the good reception they had spoken of, by present kindliness and their best advice. hecatonymus rose and wished at once to offer an apology with regard to what he had said about the possibility of making friends with the paphlagonians. "the words were not intended," he said, "to convey a threat, as though they were minded to go to war with the hellenes, but as meaning rather: albeit we have it in our power to be friendly with the barbarians, we will choose the hellenes." then, being urged to aid them by some advice, with a pious ejaculation, he commenced: "if i bestow upon you the best counsel i am able, god grant that blessings in abundance may descend on me; but if the contrary, may evil betide me! 'sacred counsel ( ),' as the saying goes--well, sirs, if ever the saying held, it should hold i think to-day; when, if i be proved to have given you good counsel, i shall not lack panegyrists, or if evil, your imprecations will be many-tongued. ( ) cf. plato, "theages," . "as to trouble, i am quite aware, we shall have much more trouble if you are conveyed by sea, for we must provide the vessels; whereas, if you go by land, all the fighting will evolve on you. still, let come what may, it behoves me to state my views. i have an intimate acquaintance with the country of the paphlagonians and their power. the country possesses the two features of hill and vale, that is to say, the fairest plains and the highest mountains. to begin with the mountains, i know the exact point at which you must make your entry. it is precisely where the horns of a mountain tower over both sides of the road. let the merest handful of men occupy these and they can hold the pass with ease; for when that is done not all the enemies in the world could effect a passage. i could point out the whole with my finger, if you like to send any one with me to the scene. "so much for the mountain barrier. but the next thing i know is that there are plains and a cavalry which the barbarians themselves hold to be superior to the entire cavalry of the great king. why, only the other day these people refused to present themselves to the summons of the king; their chief is too proud for that. "but now, supposing you were able to seize the mountain barrier, by stealth, or expedition, before the enemy could stop you; supposing further, you were able to win an engagement in the plain against not only their cavalry but their more than one hundred and twenty thousand infantry--you will only find yourself face to face with rivers, a series of them. first the thermodon, three hundred feet broad, which i take it will be difficult to pass, especially with a host of foes in front and another following behind. next comes the iris river, three hundred feet broad; and thirdly, the halys, at least two furlongs broad, which you could not possibly cross without vessels, and who is going to supply you with vessels? in the same way too the parthenius is impassable, which you will reach if you cross the halys. for my part, then, i consider the land-journey, i will not say difficult, but absolutely impossible for you. whereas if you go by sea, you can coast along from here to sinope, and from sinope to heraclea. from heraclea onwards there is no difficulty, whether by land or by sea; for there are plenty of vessels at heraclea." after he had finished his remarks, some of his hearers thought they detected a certain bias in them. he would not have spoken so, but for his friendship with corylas, whose official representative he was. others guessed he had an itching palm, and that he was hoping to receive a present for his "sacred advice." others again suspected that his object was to prevent their going by foot and doing some mischief to the country of the sinopeans. however that might be, the hellenes voted in favour of continuing the journey by sea. after this xenophon said: "sinopeans, the army has chosen that method of procedure which you advise, and thus the matter stands. if there are sure to be vessels enough to make it impossible for a single man to be left behind, go by sea we will; but if part of us are to be left while part go by sea, we will not set foot on board the vessels. one fact we plainly recognise, strength is everything to us. so long as we have the mastery, we shall be able to protect ourselves and get provisions; but if we are once caught at the mercy of our foes, it is plain, we shall be reduced to slavery." on hearing this the ambassadors bade them send an embassy, which they did, to wit, callimachus the arcadian, and ariston the athenian, and samolas the achaean. so these set off, but meanwhile a thought shaped itself in the mind of xenophon, as there before his eyes lay that vast army of hellene hoplites, and that other array of peltasts, archers, and slingers, with cavalry to boot, and all in a state of thorough efficiency from long practice, hardened veterans, and all collected in pontus, where to raise so large a force would cost a mint of money. then the idea dawned upon him: how noble an opportunity to acquire new territory and power for hellas, by the founding of a colony--a city of no mean size, moreover, said he to himself, as he reckoned up their own numbers--and besides themselves a population planted on the shores of pontus. thereupon he summoned silanus the ambraciot, the soothsayer of cyrus above mentioned, and before breathing a syllable to any of the soldiers, he consulted the victims by sacrifice. but silanus, in apprehension lest these ideas might embody themselves, and the army be permanently halted at some point or other, set a tale going among the men, to the effect that xenophon was minded to detain the army and found a city in order to win himself a name and acquire power, silanus himself being minded to reach hellas with all possible speed, for the simple reason that he had still got the three thousand darics presented to him by cyrus on the occasion of the sacrifice when he hit the truth so happily about the ten days. silanus's story was variously received, some few of the soldiers thinking it would be an excellent thing to stay in that country; but the majority were strongly averse. the next incident was that timasion the dardanian, with thorax the boeotian, addressed themselves to some heracleot and sinopean traders who had come to cotyora, and told them that if they did not find means to furnish the army with pay sufficient to keep them in provisions on the homeward voyage, all that great force would most likely settle down permanently in pontus. "xenophon has a pet idea," they continued, "which he urges upon us. we are to wait until the ships come, and then we are suddenly to turn round to the army and say: 'soldiers, we now see the straits we are in, unable to keep ourselves in provisions on the return voyage, or to make our friends at home a little present at the end of our journey. but if you like to select some place on the inhabited seaboard of the black sea which may take your fancy and there put in, this is open to you to do. those who like to go home, go; those who care to stay here, stay. you have got vessels now, so that you can make a sudden pounce upon any point you choose.'" the merchants went off with this tale and reported it to every city they came to in turn, nor did they go alone, but timasion the dardanian sent a fellow-citizen of his own, eurymachus, with the boeotian thorax, to repeat the same story. so when it reached the ears of the men of sinope and the heracleots, they sent to timasion and pressed him to accept of a gratuity, in return for which he was to arrange for the departure of the troops. timasion was only too glad to hear this, and he took the opportunity when the soldiers were convened in meeting to make the following remarks: "soldiers," he said, "do not set your thoughts on staying here; let hellas, and hellas only, be the object of your affection, for i am told that certain persons have been sacrificing on this very question, without saying a word to you. now i can promise you, if you once leave these waters, to furnish you with regular monthly pay, dating from the first of the month, at the rate of one cyzicene ( ) a head per month. i will bring you to the troad, from which part i am an exile, and my own state is at your service. they will receive me with open arms. i will be your guide personally, and i will take you to places where you will get plenty of money. i know every corner of the aeolid, and phrygia, and the troad, and indeed the whole satrapy of pharnabazus, partly because it is my birthplace, partly from campaigns in that region with clearchus and dercylidas ( )." ( ) a cyzicene stater = twenty-eight silver drachmae of attic money b.c. , in the time of demosthenes; but, like the daric, this gold coin would fluctuate in value relatively to silver. it contained more grains of gold than the daric. ( ) of dercylidas we hear more in the "hellenica." in b.c. he was harmost at abydos; in b.c. he superseded thimbron in asia minor; and was himself superseded by agesilaus in b.c. . no sooner had he ceased than up got thorax the boeotian. this was a man who had a standing battle with xenophon about the generalship of the army. what he said was that, if they once got fairly out of the euxine, there was the chersonese, a beautiful and prosperous country, where they could settle or not, as they chose. those who liked could stay; and those who liked could return to their homes; how ridiculous then, when there was so much territory in hellas and to spare, to be poking about ( ) in the land of the barbarian. "but until you find yourselves there," he added, "i, no less than timasion, can guarantee you regular pay." this he said, knowing what promises had been made timasion by the men of heraclea and sinope to induce them to set sail. ( ) the word {masteuein} occurs above, and again below, and in other writings of our author. it is probably ionic or old attic, and occurs in poetry. meanwhile xenophon held his peace. then up got philesius and lycon, two achaeans: "it was monstrous," they said, "that xenophon should be privately persuading people to stop there, and consulting the victims for that end, without letting the army into the secret, or breathing a syllable in public about the matter." when it came to this, xenophon was forced to get up, and speak as follows: "sirs, you are well aware that my habit is to sacrifice at all times; whether in your own behalf or my own, i strive in every thought, word, and deed to be directed as is best for yourselves and for me. and in the present instance my sole object was to learn whether it were better even so much as to broach the subject, and so take action, or to have absolutely nothing to do with the project. now silanus the soothsayer assured me by his answer of what was the main point: 'the victims were favourable.' no doubt silanus knew that i was not unversed myself in his lore, as i have so often assisted at the sacrifice; but he added that there were symptoms in the victims of some guile or conspiracy against me. that was a happy discovery on his part, seeing that he was himself conspiring at the moment to traduce me before you; since it was he who set the tale going that i had actually made up my mind to carry out these projects without procuring your consent. now, for my part, if i saw that you were in any difficulties, i should set myself to discover how you might capture a city, on the understanding of course that all who wished might sail away at once, leaving those who did not wish, to follow at a later date, with something perhaps in their pockets to benefit their friends at home. now, however, as i see that the men of heraclea and sinope are to send you ships to assist you to sail away, and more than one person guarantees to give you regular monthly pay, it is, i admit, a rare chance to be safely piloted to the haven of our hopes, and at the same time to receive pay for our preservation. for myself i have done with that dream, and to those, who came to me to urge these projects, my advice is to have done with them. in fact, this is my view. as long as you stay together united as to-day, you will command respect and procure provisions; for might certainly exercises a right over what belongs to the weaker. but once broken up, with your force split into bits, you will neither be able to get subsistence, nor indeed will you get off without paying dearly for it. in fact, my resolution coincides precisely with yours. it is that we should set off for hellas, and if any one stops behind, or is caught deserting before the whole army is in safety, let him be judged as an evil-doer. pray let all who are in favour of this proposition hold up their hands." they all held them up; only silanus began shouting and vainly striving to maintain the right of departure for all who liked to depart. but the soldiers would not suffer him, threatening him that if he were himself caught attempting to run away they would inflict the aforesaid penalty. after this, when the heracleots learned that the departure by sea was resolved upon, and that the measure itself emanated from xenophon, they sent the vessels indeed; but as to the money which they had promised to timasion and thorax as pay for the soldiers, they were not as good as their word, in fact they cheated them both. thus the two who had guaranteed regular monthly pay were utterly confounded, and stood in terror of the soldiers. what they did then, was to take to them the other generals to whom they had communicated their former transactions (that is to say, all except neon the asniaean, who, as lieutenant-general, was acting for cheirisophus during his continued absence). this done they came in a body to xenophon and said that their views were changed. as they had now got the ships, they thought it best to sail to the phasis, and seize the territory of the phasians (whose present king was a descendant of aeetes ( )). xenophon's reply was curt:--not one syllable would he have to say himself to the army in this matter, "but," he added, "if you like, you can summon an assembly and have your say." thereupon timasion the dardanian set forth as his opinion:--it were best to hold no parliament at present, but first to go and conciliate, each of them, his own officers. thus they went away and proceeded to execute their plans. ( ) aeetes is the patronym of the kings of colchis from mythical times onwards; e.g. medea was the daughter of aeetes. vii presently the soldiers came to learn what was in course of agitation, and neon gave out that xenophon had persuaded the other generals to adopt his views, and had a plan to cheat the soldiers and take them back to the phasis. the soldiers were highly indignant; meetings were held; little groups gathered ominously; and there seemed an alarming probability that they would repeat the violence with which they had lately treated the heralds of the colchians and the clerks of the market; when all who did not save themselves by jumping into the sea were stoned to death. so xenophon, seeing what a storm was brewing, resolved to anticipate matters so far as to summon a meeting of the men without delay, and thus prevent their collecting of their own accord, and he ordered the herald to announce an assembly. the voice of the herald was no sooner heard than they rushed with great readiness to the place of meeting. then xenophon, without accusing the generals of having come to him, made the following speech: "i hear that a charge is brought against me. it is i apparently who am going to cheat you and carry you off to phasis. i beg you by all that is holy to listen to me; and if there be found any guilt in me, let me not leave this place till i have paid the penalty of my misdoing; but if my accusers are found guilty, treat them as they deserve. i presume, sirs, you know where the sun rises and where he sets, and that he who would go to hellas must needs journey towards the sunset; whereas he who seeks the land of the barbarian must contrariwise fix his face towards the dawn. now is that a point in which a man might hope to cheat you? could any one make you believe that the sun rises here and sets there, or that he sets here and rises there? and doubtless you know this too, that it is boreas, the north wind, who bears the mariner out of pontus towards hellas, and the south wind inwards towards the phasis, whence the saying-- "'when the north wind doth blow home to hellas we will go ( ).' ( ) whether this was a local saying or a proverb i cannot say. the words have a poetical ring about them: "when borrhas blows, fair voyages to hellas." "he would be a clever fellow who could befool you into embarking with a south wind blowing. that sounds all very well, you think, only i may get you on board during a calm. granted, but i shall be on board my one ship, and you on board another hundred at least, and how am i to constrain you to voyage with me against your will, or by what cajolery shall i carry you off? but i will imagine you so far befooled and bewitched by me, that i have got you to the phasis; we proceed to disembark on dry land. at last it will come out, that wherever you are, you are not in hellas, and the inventor of the trick will be one sole man, and you who have been caught by it will number something like ten thousand with swords in your hands. i do not know how a man could better ensure his own punishment than by embarking on such a policy with regards to himself and you. "nay, these tales are the invention of silly fellows who are jealous of the honour you bestow on me. a most uncalled-for jealousy! do i hinder any of them from speaking any word of import in his power? of striking a blow in your behalf and his own, if that is his choice? or, finally, of keeping his eyes and ears open to secure your safety? what is it? in your choice of leaders do i stand in the way of any one, is that it? let him step forward, i yield him place; he shall be your general; only he must prove that he has your good at heart. "for myself, i have done; but for yourselves, if any of you conceive either that he himself could be the victim of a fraud, or that he could victimise any one else in such a thing as this, let him open his lips and explain to us how. take your time, but when you have sifted the matter to your hearts' content, do not go away without suffering me to tell you of something which i see looming. if it should burst upon us and prove in fact anything like what it gives signs of being now, it is time for us to take counsel for ourselves and see that we do not prove ourselves to be the worst and basest of men in the sight of gods and men, be they friends or be they foes." the words moved the curiosity of the soldiers. they marvelled what this matter might be, and bade him explain. thereupon he began again: "you will not have forgotten certain places in the hills--barbaric fastnesses, but friendly to the cerasuntines--from which people used to come down and sell us large cattle and other things which they possessed, and if i mistake not, some of you went to the nearest of these places and made purchases in the market and came back again. clearetus the captain learnt of this place, that it was but a little one and unguarded. why should it be guarded since it was friendly? so the folk thought. thus he stole upon it in the dead of night, and meant to sack it without saying a word to any of us. his design was, if he took the place, not to return again to the army, but to mount a vessel which, with his messmates on board her, was sailing past at the time, and stowing away what he had seized, to set sail and begone beyond the euxine. all this had been agreed upon and arranged with his comrades on board the vessel, as i now discover. accordingly, he summoned to his side all whom he could persuade, and set off at their head against the little place. but dawn overtook him on his march. the men collected out of their strongholds, and whether from a distance or close quarters, made such a fight that they killed clearetus and a good many of the rest, and only a few of them got safe back to cerasus. "these things took place on the day on which we started to come hither on foot; while some of those who were to go by sea were still at cerasus, not having as yet weighed anchor. after this, according to what the cerasuntines state, there arrived three inhabitants of the place which had been attacked; three elderly men, seeking an interview with our public assembly. not finding us, they addressed themselves to the men of cerasus, and told them, they were astonished that we should have thought it right to attack them; however, when, as the cerasuntines assert, they had assured them that the occurrence was not authorised by public consent, they were pleased, and proposed to sail here, not only to state to us what had occurred, but to offer that those who were interested should take up and bury the bodies of the slain. "but among the hellenes still at cerasus were some of those who had escaped. they found out in which direction the barbarians were minded to go, and not only had the face themselves to pelt them with stones, but vociferously encouraged their neighbours to do the same. the three men--ambassadors, mark you--were slain, stoned to death. after this occurrence, the men of cerasus came to us and reported the affair, and we generals, on being informed, were annoyed at what had taken place, and took counsel with the cerasuntines how the dead bodies of the hellenes might be buried. while seated in conclave outside the camp, we suddenly were aware of a great hubbub. we heard cries: 'cut them down!' 'shoot them!' 'stone them!' and presently we caught sight of a mass of people racing towards us with stones in their hands, and others picking them up. the cerasuntines, naturally enough, considering the incident they had lately witnessed, retired in terror to their vessels, and, upon my word, some of us did not feel too comfortable. all i could do was to go to them and inquire what it all meant. some of them had not the slightest notion, although they had stones in their hands, but chancing on some one who was better informed, i was told by him that 'the clerks of the market were treating the army most scandalously.' just then some one got sight of the market clerk, zelarchus, making his way off towards the sea, and lifted up his voice aloud, and the rest responding to the cry as if a wild boar or a stag had been started, they rushed upon him. "the cerasuntines, seeing a rush in their direction, thought that, without a doubt, it was directed against themselves, and fled with all speed and threw themselves into the sea, in which proceeding they were imitated by some few of our own men, and all who did not know how to swim were drowned. but now, what do you think of their case, these men of cerasus? they had done no wrong. they were simply afraid that some madness had seized us, like that to which dogs are liable. "i say then, if proceedings like this are to be the order of the day, you had better consider what the ultimate condition of the army is like to be. as a body you will not have it in your power to undertake war against whom you like, or to conclude peace. but in private any one who chooses will conduct the army on any quest which takes his fancy. and when ambassadors come to you to demand peace, or whatever it may be, officious people will put them to death and prevent your hearing the proposals which brought them to you. the next step will be that those whom you as a body may choose as generals will be of no account; but any one who likes to elect himself general, and will adopt the formula 'shoot him! shoot him!' will be competent to cut down whomsoever he pleases untried, be it general or private soldier, if only he have sufficient followers, as was the case just now. but just consider what these self-appointed generals have achieved for you. zelarchus, the clerk of the market, may possibly have done you a wrong; if so, he has sailed off and is gone without paying you any penalty; or he may be guiltless, in which case we have driven him from the army in terror of perishing unjustly without a trial. while those who stoned the ambassadors have contrived so cleverly that we alone of all hellenes cannot approach cerasus safely without a strong force, and the corpses which the very men who slew them themselves invited us to bury, we cannot now pick up with safety even under a flag of truce. who indeed would care to carry a flag of truce, or go as a herald with the blood of heralds upon his hands? all we could do was to implore the cerasuntines to bury them. "if then you approve of such doings, have a resolution passed to that effect, so that, with a prospect of like occurrences in the future, a man may privately set up a guard and do his best to fix his tent where he can find a strong position with a commanding site. if, however, these seem to you to be the deeds rather of wild beasts than of human beings, bethink you of some means by which to stay them; or else, in heaven's name, how shall we do sacrifice to the gods gladly, with impious deeds to answer for? or how shall we, who lay the knife to each other's throats, give battle to our enemies? what friendly city will receive us when they see rampant lawlessness in our midst? who will have the courage to afford us a market, when we prove our worthlessness in these weightiest concerns? and what becomes of the praise we expect to win from the mouths of men? who will vouchsafe it to us, if this is our behaviour? should we not ourselves bestow the worst of names on the perpetrators of like deeds?" after this they rose, and, as one man, proposed that the ringleaders in these matters should be punished; and that for the future, to set an example of lawlessness should be forbidden. every such ringleader was to be prosecuted on the capital charge; the generals were to bring all offenders to the bar of justice; prosecutions for all other misdemeanours committed since the death of cyrus were to be instituted; and they ended by constituting the officers into a board of dicasts ( ); and upon the strong representation of xenophon, with the concurrence of the soothsayers, it was resolved to purify the army, and this purification was made. ( ) i.e. a board of judges or jurors. viii it was further resolved that the generals themselves should undergo a judicial examination in reference to their conduct in past time. in course of investigation, philesius and xanthicles respectively were condemned to pay a sum of twenty minae, to meet a deficiency to that amount incurred during the guardianship of the cargoes of the merchantmen. sophaenetus was fined ten minae for inadequate performance of his duty as one of the chief officers selected. against xenophon a charge was brought by certain people, who asserted that they had been beaten by him, and framed the indictment as one of personal outrage with violence ( ). xenophon got up and demanded that the first speaker should state "where and when it was he had received these blows." the other, so challenged, answered, "when we were perishing of cold and there was a great depth of snow." xenophon said: "upon my word, with weather such as you describe, when our provisions had run out, when the wine could not even be smelt, when numbers were dropping down dead beat, so acute was the suffering, with the enemy close on our heels; certainly, if at such a season as that i was guilty of outrage, i plead guilty to being a more outrageous brute than the ass, which is too wanton, they say, to feel fatigue. still, i wish you would tell us," said he, "what led to my striking you. did i ask you for something and, on your refusing it to me, did i proceed to beat you? was it a debt, for which i demanded payment? or a quarrel about some boy or other? was i the worse for liquor, and behaving like a drunkard?" when the man met each of these questions with a negative, he questioned him further: "are you a heavy infantry soldier?" "no," said he. "a peltast, then?" "no, nor yet a peltast"; but he had been ordered by his messmates to drive a mule, although he was a free man. then at last he recognised him, and inquired: "are you the fellow who carried home the sick man?" "yes, i am," said he, "thanks to your driving; and you made havoc of my messmates' kit." "havoc!" said xenophon: "nay, i distributed it; some to one man, some to another to carry, and bade them bring the things safely to me; and when i got them back i delivered them all safely to you, and you, on your side, had rendered an account to me of the man. let me tell you," he continued, turning to the court, "what the circumstances were; it is worth hearing:-- ( ) see the "dict. of antiq." a. hybreos graphe. in the case of common assaults as opposed to indecent assault, the prosecution seems to have been allowable only when the object of a wanton attack was a free person. cf. arist. "rhet." ii. . "a man was left behind from inability to proceed farther; i recognised the poor fellow sufficiently to see that he was one of ours, and i forced you, sir, to carry him to save his life. for if i am not much mistaken, the enemy were close at our heels?" the fellow assented to this. "well then," said xenophon, "after i had sent you forward, i overtook you again, as i came up with the rearguard; you were digging a trench with intent to bury the man; i pulled up and said something in commendation; as we stood by the poor fellow twitched his leg, and the bystanders all cried out, 'why, the man's alive!' your remark was: 'alive or not as he likes, i am not going to carry him' then i struck you. yes! you are right, for it looked very much as if you knew him to be alive." "well," said he, "was he any the less dead when i reported him to you?" "nay," retorted xenophon, "by the same token we shall all one day be dead, but that is no reason why meantime we should all be buried alive?" then there was a general shout: "if xenophon had given the fellow a few more blows, it might have been better." the others were now called upon to state the grounds on which they had been beaten in each case; but when they refused to get up, he proceeded to state them himself. "i confess, sirs, to having struck certain men for failure in discipline. these were men who were quite content to owe their safety to us. whilst the rest of the world marched on in rank and did whatever fighting had to be done, they preferred to leave the ranks, and rush forward to loot and enrich themselves at our expense. now, if this conduct were to be the rule, general ruin would be the result. i do not deny that i have given blows to this man or the other who played the poltroon and refused to get up, helplessly abandoning himself to the enemy; and so i forced them to march on. for once in the severe wintry weather i myself happened to sit down for a long time, whilst waiting for a party who were getting their kit together, and i discovered how difficult it was to get up again and stretch one's legs. after this personal experience, whenever i saw any one else seated in slack and lazy mood, i tried to spur him on. the mere movement and effort to play the man caused warmth and moisture, whereas it was plain that sitting down and keeping quiet helped the blood to freeze and the toes to mortify, calamities which really befell several of the men, as you yourselves are aware. "i can imagine a third case, that of some straggler stopping behind, merely to rest for rest's sake, and hindering you in front and us behind alike from pressing on the march. if he got a blow with the fist from me it saved him a thrust with the lance from the enemy. in fact, the opportunity they enjoy to-day of taking vengeance on me for any treatment which i put upon them wrongfully, is derived from their salvation then; whereas, if they had fallen into the enemy's hands, let them ask themselves for what outrage, however great, they could expect to get satisfaction now. my defence," he continued, "is simple: if i chastised any one for his own good, i claim to suffer the same penalties as parents pay their children or masters their boys. does not the surgeon also cauterise and cut us for our good? but if you really believe that these acts are the outcome of wanton insolence, i beg you to observe that although to-day, thank god! i am heartier than formerly, i wear a bolder front now than then, and i drink more wine, yet i never strike a soul; no, for i see that you have reached smooth water. when storm arises, and a great sea strikes the vessel amidships, a mere shake of the head will make the look-out man furious with the crew in the forecastle, or the helmsman with the men in the stern sheets, for at such a crisis even a slight slip may ruin everything. but i appeal to your own verdict, already recorded, in proof that i was justified in striking these men. you stood by, sirs, with swords, not voting tablets, in your hands, and it was in your power to aid the fellows if you liked; but, to speak the honest truth, you neither aided them nor did you join me in striking the disorderly. in other words, you enabled any evilly-disposed person among them to give rein to his wantonness by your passivity. for if you will be at pains to investigate, you will find that those who were then most cowardly are the ringleaders to-day in brutality and outrage. "there is boiscus the boxer, a thessalian, what a battle he fought then to escape carrying his shield! so tired was he, and to-day i am told he has stripped several citizens of cotyora of the clothes on their backs. if then you are wise, you will treat this personage in a way the contrary to that in which men treat dogs. a savage dog is tied up on the day and loosed at night, but if you are wise you will tie this fellow up at night and only let him loose in the day. "but really," he added, "it does surprise me with what keenness you remember and recount the times when i incurred the hatred of some one; but some other occasions when i eased the burden of winter and storm for any of you, or beat off an enemy, or helped to minister to you in sickness and want, not a soul of you remembers these. or when for any noble deed done by any of you i praised the doer, and according to my ability did honour to this brave man or that; these things have slipped from your memories, and are clean forgotten. yet it were surely more noble, just, and holy, sweeter and kindlier to treasure the memory of good rather than of evil." he ended, and then one after another of the assembly got up and began recalling incidents of the kind suggested, and things ended not so unpleasantly after all. book vi i after this, whilst waiting, they lived partly on supplies from the market, partly on the fruit of raids into paphlagonia. the paphlagonians, on their side, showed much skill in kidnapping stragglers, wherever they could lay hands on them, and in the night time tried to do mischief to those whose quarters were at a distance from the camp. the result was that their relations to one another were exceedingly hostile, so much so that corylas, who was the chief of paphlagonia at that date, sent ambassadors to the hellenes, bearing horses and fine apparel, and charged with a proposal on the part of corylas to make terms with the hellenes on the principle of mutual forbearance from injuries. the generals replied that they would consult with the army about the matter. meanwhile they gave them a hospitable reception, to which they invited certain members of the army whose claims were obvious. they sacrificed some of the captive cattle and other sacrificial beasts, and with these they furnished forth a sufficiently festal entertainment, and reclining on their truckle beds, fell to eating and drinking out of beakers made of horn which they happened to find in the country. but as soon as the libation was ended and they had sung the hymn, up got first some thracians, who performed a dance under arms to the sound of a pipe, leaping high into the air with much nimbleness, and brandishing their swords, till at last one man struck his fellow, and every one thought he was really wounded, so skilfully and artistically did he fall, and the paphlagonians screamed out. then he that gave the blow stripped the other of his arms, and marched off chanting the "sitalcas ( )," whilst others of the thracians bore off the other, who lay as if dead, though he had not received even a scratch. ( ) i.e. the national thracian hymn; for sitalcas the king, a national hero, see thuc. ii. . after this some aenianians ( ) and magnesians got up and fell to dancing the carpaea, as it is called, under arms. this was the manner of the dance: one man lays aside his arms and proceeds to drive a yoke of oxen, and while he drives he sows, turning him about frequently, as though he were afraid of something; up comes a cattle-lifter, and no sooner does the ploughman catch sight of him afar, than he snatches up his arms and confronts him. they fight in front of his team, and all in rhythm to the sound of the pipe. at last the robber binds the countryman and drives off the team. or sometimes the cattle-driver binds the robber, and then he puts him under the yoke beside the oxen, with his two hands tied behind his back, and off he drives. ( ) the aenianians, an aeolian people inhabiting the upper valley of the sperchius (the ancient phthia); their capital was hypata. these men belonged to the army collected by menon, the thessalian. so, doubtless, did the magnesians, another aeolian tribe occupying the mountainous coast district on the east of thessaly. see kiepert's "man. anct. geog." (macmillan's tr.), chap. vi.. , . after this a mysian came in with a light shield in either hand and danced, at one time going through a pantomime, as if he were dealing with two assailants at once; at another plying his shields as if to face a single foe, and then again he would whirl about and throw somersaults, keeping the shields in his hands, so that it was a beautiful spectacle. last of all he danced the persian dance, clashing the shields together, crouching down on one knee and springing up again from earth; and all this he did in measured time to the sound of the flute. after him the mantineans stepped upon the stage, and some other arcadians also stood up; they had accoutred themselves in all their warlike finery. they marched with measured tread, pipes playing, to the tune of the 'warrior's march ( )'; the notes of the paean rose, lightly their limbs moved in dance, as in solemn procession to the holy gods. the paphlagonians looked upon it as something truly strange that all these dances should be under arms; and the mysians, seeing their astonishment persuaded one of the arcadians who had got a dancing girl to let him introduce her, which he did after dressing her up magnificently and giving her a light shield. when, lithe of limb, she danced the pyrrhic ( ), loud clapping followed; and the paphlagonians asked, "if these women fought by their side in battle?" to which they answered, "to be sure, it was the women who routed the great king, and drove him out of camp." so ended the night. ( ) see plato, "rep." b, for this "war measure"; also aristoph. "clouds," . ( ) for this famous dance, supposed to be of doric (cretan or spartan) origin, see smith's "dict. of antiquities," "saltatio"; also guhl and koner, "the life of the greeks and romans," eng. tr. but next day the generals introduced the embassy to the army, and the soldiers passed a resolution in the sense proposed: between themselves and the paphlagonians there was to be a mutual abstinence from injuries. after this the ambassadors went on their way, and the hellenes, as soon as it was thought that sufficient vessels had arrived, went on board ship, and voyaged a day and a night with a fair breeze, keeping paphlagonia on their left. and on the following day, arriving at sinope, they came to moorings in the harbour of harmene, near sinope ( ). the sinopeans, though inhabitants of paphlagonia, are really colonists of the milesians. they sent gifts of hospitality to the hellenes, three thousand measures of barley with fifteen hundred jars of wine. at this place cheirisophus rejoined them with a man-of-war. the soldiers certainly expected that, having come, he would have brought them something, but he brought them nothing, except complimentary phrases, on the part of anaxibius, the high admiral, and the rest, who sent them their congratulations, coupled with a promise on the part of anaxibius that, as soon as they were outside the euxine, pay would be forthcoming. ( ) harmene, a port of sinope, between four and five miles (fifty stades) west of that important city, itself a port town. see smith, "dict. geog.," "sinope"; and kiepert, op. cit. chap. iv. . at harmene the army halted five days; and now that they seemed to be so close to hellas, the question how they were to reach home not empty-handed presented itself more forcibly to their minds than heretofore. the conclusion they came to was to appoint a single general, since one man would be better able to handle the troops, by night or by day, than was possible while the generalship was divided. if secrecy were desirable, it would be easier to keep matters dark, or if again expedition were an object, there would be less risk of arriving a day too late, since mutual explanations would be avoided, and whatever approved itself to the single judgement would at once be carried into effect, whereas previously the generals had done everything in obedience to the opinion of the majority. with these ideas working in their minds, they turned to xenophon, and the officers came to him and told him that this was how the soldiers viewed matters; and each of them, displaying a warmth of kindly feeling, pressed him to accept the office. xenophon partly would have liked to do so, in the belief that by so doing he would win to himself a higher repute in the esteem of his friends, and that his name would be reported to the city written large; and by some stroke of fortune he might even be the discoverer of some blessing to the army collectively. these and the like considerations elated him; he had a strong desire to hold the supreme command. but then again, as he turned the matter over, the conviction deepened in his mind that the issue of the future is to every man uncertain; and hence there was the risk of perhaps losing such reputation has he had already acquired. he was in sore straights, and, not knowing how to decide, it seemed best to him to lay the matter before heaven. accordingly, he led two victims to the altar and made sacrifice to zeus the king, for it was he and no other who had been named by the oracle at delphi, and his belief was that the vision which he had beheld when he first essayed to undertake the joint administration of the army was sent to him by that god. he also recalled to mind a circumstance which befell him still earlier, when setting out from ephesus to associate himself with cyrus ( );--how an eagle screamed on his right hand from the east, and still remained perched, and the soothsayer who was escorting him said that it was a great and royal omen ( ); indicating glory and yet suffering; for the punier race of birds only attack the eagle when seated. "yet," added he, "it bodes not gain in money; for the eagle seizes his food, not when seated, but on the wing." ( ) cf. "cyrop." ii. i. ; an eagle appears to cyrus on the frontiers of persia, when about to join his uncle cyaxares, king of media, on his expedition against the assyrian. ( ) it is important to note that the greek word {oionos}, a solitary or lone-flying bird, also means an omen. "it was a mighty bird and a mighty omen." thus xenophon sacrificed, and the god as plainly as might be gave him a sign, neither to demand the generalship, nor, if chosen, to accept the office. and that was how the matter stood when the army met, and the proposal to elect a single leader was unanimous. after this resolution was passed, they proposed xenophon for election, and when it seemed quite evident that they would elect him, if he put the question to the vote, he got up and spoke as follows:-- "sirs, i am but mortal, and must needs be happy to be honoured by you. i thank you, and am grateful, and my prayer is that the gods may grant me to be an instrument of blessing to you. still, when i consider it closer, thus, in the presence of a lacedaemonian, to be preferred by you as general, seems to me but ill conducive either to your interests or to mine, since you will the less readily obtain from them hereafter anything you may need, while for myself i look upon acceptance as even somewhat dangerous. do i not see and know with what persistence these lacedaemonians prosecuted the war till finally they forced our state to acknowledge the leadership of lacedaemon? this confession once extorted from their antagonists, they ceased warring at once, and the siege of the city was at an end. if, with these facts before my eyes, i seem to be doing all i can to neutralise their high self-esteem, i cannot escape the reflection that personally i may be taught wisdom by a painful process. but with your own idea that under a single general there will be less factiousness than when there were many, be assured that in choosing some other than me you will not find me factious. i hold that whosoever sets up factious opposition to his leader factiously opposes his own safety. while if you determine to choose me, i should not be surprised were that choice to entail upon you and me the resentment of other people." after those remarks on xenophon's part, many more got up, one after another, insisting on the propriety of his undertaking the command. one of them, agasias the stymphalian, said: it was really ridiculous, if things had come to this pass that the lacedeamonians are to fly into a rage because a number of friends have met together to dinner, and omitted to choose a lacedaemonian to sit at the head of the table. "really, if that is how matters stand," said he, "i do not see what right we have to be officers even, we who are only arcadians." that sally brought down the plaudits of the assembly; and xenophon, seeing that something more was needed, stepped forward again and spoke, "pardon, sirs," he said, "let me make a clean breast of it. i swear to you by all the gods and goddesses; verily and indeed, i no sooner perceived your purpose, than i consulted the victims, whether it was better for you to entrust this leadership to me, and for me to undertake it, or the reverse. and the gods vouchsafed a sign to me so plain that even a common man might understand it, and perceive that from such sovereignty i must needs hold myself aloof." under these circumstances they chose cheirisophus, who, after his election, stepped forward and said: "nay, sirs, be well assured of this, that had you chosen some one else, i for my part should not have set up factious opposition. as to xenophon, i believe you have done him a good turn by not appointing him; for even now dexippus has gone some way in traducing him to anaxibius, as far as it lay in his power to do so, and that, in spite of my attempts to silence him. what he said was that he believed xenophon would rather share the command of clearchus's army with timasion, a dardanian, than with himself, a laconian. but," continued cheirisophus, "since your choice has fallen upon me, i will make it my endeavour to do you all the good in my power; so make your preparations to weigh anchor to-morrow; wind and weather permitting, we will voyage to heraclea; every one must endeavour, therefore, to put in at that port; and for the rest we will consult, when we are come thither." ii the next day they weighed anchor and set sail from harmene with a fair breeze, two days' voyage along the coast. (as they coasted along they came in sight of jason's beach ( ), where, as the story says, the ship argo came to moorings; and then the mouths of the rivers, first the thermodon, then the iris, then the halys, and next to it the parthenius.) coasting past (the latter), they reached heraclea ( ), a hellenic city and a colony of the megarians, situated in the territory of the mariandynians. so they came to anchorage off the acherusian chersonese, where heracles ( ) is said to have descended to bring up the dog cerberus, at a point where they still show the marks of his descent, a deep cleft more than two furlongs down. here the heracleots sent the hellenes, as gifts of hospitality, three thousand measures of barley and two thousand jars of wine, twenty beeves and one hundred sheep. through the flat country here flows the lycus river, as it is called, about two hundred feet in breadth. ( ) i have left this passage in the text, although it involves, at first sight, a topographical error on the part of whoever wrote it, and hug and other commentators regard it as spurious. jason's beach (the modern yasoun bouroun) and the three first-named rivers lie between cotyora and sinope. possibly the author, or one of his editors, somewhat loosely inserted a recapitulatory note concerning the scenery of this coasting voyage at this point. "by the way, i ought to have told you that as they coasted along," etc. ( ) one of the most powerful of commercial cities, distinguished as pontica (whence, in the middle ages, penteraklia), now eregli. it was one of the older greek settlements, and, like kalchedon (to give that town its proper name), a megaro-doric colony. see kiepert, op. cit. chap. iv. . ( ) according to another version of the legend heracles went down to bring up cerberus, not here, but at taenarum. the soldiers held a meeting, and took counsel about the remainder of the journey: should they make their exit from the pontus by sea or by land? and lycon the achaean got up and said: "i am astonished, sirs, that the generals do not endeavour to provide us more efficiently with provisions. these gifts of hospitality will not afford three days' victuals for the army; nor do i see from what region we are to provide ourselves as we march. my proposal, therefore, is to demand of the heracleots at least three thousand cyzicenes." another speaker suggested, "not less than ten thousand. let us at once, before we break up this meeting, send ambassadors to the city and ascertain their answer to the demand and take counsel accordingly." thereupon they proceeded to put up as ambassadors, first and foremost cheirisophus, as he had been chosen general-in-chief; others also named xenophon. but both cheirisophus and xenophon stoutly declined, maintaining both alike that they could not compel a hellenic city, actually friendly, to give anything which they did not spontaneously offer. so, since these two appeared to be backward, the soldiers sent lycon the achaean, callimachus the parrhasian, and agasias the stymphalian. these three went and announced the resolutions passed by the army. lycon, it was said, even went so far as to threaten certain consequences in case they refused to comply. the heracleots said they would deliberate; and, without more ado, they got together their goods and chattels from their farms and fields outside, and dismantled the market outside and transferred it within, after which the gates were closed, and arms appeared at the battlements of the walls. at that check, the authors of these tumultuary measures fell to accusing the generals, as if they had marred the proceeding; and the arcadians and archaeans banded together, chiefly under the auspices of the two ringleaders, callimachus the parrhasian and lycon the achaean. the language they held was to this effect: it was outrageous that a single athenian and a lacedaemonian, who had not contributed a soldier to the expedition, should rule peloponnesians; scandalous that they themselves should bear the toils whilst others pocketed the spoils, and that too though the preservation of the army was due to themselves; for, as every one must admit, to the arcadians and achaeans the credit of that achievement was due, and the rest of the army went for nothing (which was indeed so far true that the arcadians and achaeans did form numerically the larger half of the whole army). what then did common sense suggest? why, that they, the arcadians and achaeans, should make common cause, choose generals for themselves independently, continue the march, and try somewhat to better their condition. this proposal was carried. all the arcadians and achaeans who chanced to be with cheirisophus left him and xenophon, setting up for themselves and choosing ten generals of their own. these ten, it was decreed, were to put into effect such measures as approved themselves to the majority. thus the absolute authority vested in cheirisophus was terminated there and then, within less than a week of his appointment. xenophon, however was minded to prosecute the journey in their company, thinking that this would be a safer plan than for each to start on his own account. but neon threw in his weight in favour of separate action. "every one for himself," he said, for he had heard from cheirisophus that cleander, the spartan governor-general at byzantium, talked of coming to calpe haven with some war vessels. neon's advice was due to his desire to secure a passage home in these war vessels for themselves and their soldiers, without allowing any one else to share in their good-fortune. as for cheirisophus, he was at once so out of heart at the turn things had taken, and soured with the whole army, that he left it to his subordinate, neon, to do just what he liked. xenophon, on his side, would still have been glad to be quit of the expedition and sail home; but on offering sacrifice to heracles the leader, and seeking advice, whether it were better and more desirable to continue the march in charge of the soldiers who had remained faithful, or to take his departure, the god indicated to him by the victims that he should adopt the former course. in this way the army was now split up into three divisions ( ). first, the arcadians and achaeans, over four thousand five hundred men, all heavy infantry. secondly, cheirisophus and his men, viz. one thousand four hundred heavy infantry and the seven hundred peltasts, or clearchus's thracians. thirdly, xenophon's division of one thousand seven hundred heavy infantry, and three hundred peltasts; but then he alone had the cavalry--about forty troopers. ( ) the total now amounted to and over. the arcadians, who had bargained with the heracleots and got some vessels from them, were the first to set sail; they hoped, by pouncing suddenly on the bithynians, to make as large a haul as possible. with that object they disembarked at calpe haven ( ), pretty nearly at the middle point in thrace. cheirisophus setting off straight from heraclea, commenced a land march through the country; but having entered into thrace, he preferred to cling to the seaboard, health and strength failing him. xenophon, lastly, took vessels, and disembarking on the confines of thrace and the heracleotid, pushed forward through the heart of the country ( ). ( ) the haven of calpe = kirpe liman or karpe in the modern maps. the name is interesting as being also the ancient name of the rock fortress of gibraltar. ( ) some mss. here read, "in the prior chapter will be found a description of the manner in which the absolute command of cheirisophus was abruptly terminated and the army of the hellenes broken up. the sequel will show how each of these divisions fared." the passage is probably one of those commentators' notes, with which we are now familiar. iii the arcadians, disembarking under cover of night at calpe haven, marched against the nearest villages about thirty furlongs from the sea; and as soon as it was light, each of the ten generals led his company to attack one village, or if the village were large, a couple of companies advanced under their combined generals. they further agreed upon a certain knoll, where they were all eventually to assemble. so sudden was their attack that they seized a number of captives and enclosed a multitude of small cattle. but the thracians who escaped began to collect again; for being light-armed troops they had slipped in large numbers through the hands of the heavy infantry; and now that they were got together they first attacked the company of the arcadian general, smicres, who had done his work and was retiring to the appointed meeting-place, driving along a large train of captives and cattle. for a good while the hellenes maintained a running fight ( ); but at the passage of a gorge the enemy routed them, slaying smicres himself and those with him to a man. the fate of another company under command of hegesander, another of the ten, was nearly as bad; only eight men escaped, hegesander being one of them. the remaining captains eventually met, some with somewhat to show for their pains, others empty-handed. ( ) lit. "marched and fought," as did the forlorn hope under sir c. wilson making its way from abu klea to the nile in jan. . the thracians, having achieved this success, kept up a continual shouting and clatter of conversation to one another during the night; but with day-dawn they marshalled themselves right round the knoll on which the hellenes were encamped--both cavalry in large numbers and light-armed troops--while every minute the stream of new-comers grew greater. then they commenced an attack on the heavy infantry in all security, for the hellenes had not a single bowman, javelin-man, or mounted trooper amongst them; while the enemy rushed forward on foot or galloped up on horseback and let fly their javelins. it was vain to attempt to retaliate, so lightly did they spring back and escape; and ever the attack renewed itself from every point, so that on one side man after man was wounded, on the other not a soul was touched; the result being that they could not stir from their position, and the thracians ended by cutting them off even from their water. in their despair they began to parley about a truce, and finally various concessions were made and terms agreed to between them; but the thracians would not hear of giving hostages in answer to the demand of the hellenes; at that point the matter rested. so fared it with the arcadians. as to cheirisophus, that general prosecuted his march along the seaboard, and without check reached calpe haven. xenophon advanced through the heart of the country; and his cavalry pushing on in front, came upon some old men pursuing their road somewither, who were brought to him, and in answer to his question, whether they had caught sight of another hellenic army anywhere, told him all that had already taken place, adding that at present they were being besieged upon a knoll with all the thracians in close circle round them. thereupon he kept the old men under strict guard to serve as guides in case of need; next, having appointed outposts, he called a meeting of the soldiers, and addressed them: "soldiers, some of the arcadians are dead and the rest are being besieged upon a certain knoll. now my own belief is, that if they are to perish, with their deaths the seal is set to our own fate: since we must reckon with an enemy at once numerous and emboldened. clearly our best course is to hasten to their rescue, if haply we may find them still alive, and do battle by their side rather than suffer isolation, confronting danger single-handed. "let us then at once push forward as far as may seem opportune till supper-time, and then encamp. as long as we are marching, let timasion, with the cavalry, gallop on in front, but without losing sight of us; and let him examine all closely in front, so that nothing may escape our observation." (at the same time too, he sent out some nimble fellows of the light-armed troops to the flanks and to the high tops, who were to give a signal if they espied anything anywhere; ordering them to burn everything inflammable which lay in their path.) "as for ourselves," he continued, "we need not look to find cover in any direction; for it is a long step back to heraclea and a long leap across to chrysopolis, and the enemy is at the door. the shortest road is to calpe haven, where we suppose cheirisophus, if safe, to be; but then, when we get there, at calpe haven there are no vessels for us to sail away in; and if we stop here, we have not provisions for a single day. suppose the beleaguered arcadians left to their fate, we shall find it but a sorry alternative to run the gauntlet with cheirisophus's detachment alone; better to save them if we can, and with united forces work out our deliverance in common. but if so, we must set out with minds prepared, since to-day either a glorious death awaits us or the achievement of a deed of noblest emprise in the rescue of so many hellene lives. maybe it is god who leads us thus, god who chooses to humble the proud boaster, boasting as though he were exceedingly wise, but for us, the beginning of whose every act is by heaven's grace, that same god reserves a higher grade of honour. one duty i would recall to you, to apply your minds to the execution of the orders with promptitude." with these words he led the way. the cavalry, scattering as far in advance as was prudent, wherever they set foot, set fire. the peltasts moving parallel on the high ground were similarly employed, burning everything combustible they could discover. while the main army, wherever they came upon anything which had accidentally escaped, completed the work, so that the whole country looked as if it were ablaze; and the army might easily pass for a larger one. when the hour had come, they turned aside to a knoll and took up quarters; and there they espied the enemy's watch-fires. he was about forty furlongs distant. on their side also they kindled as many watch-fires as possible; but as soon as they had dined the order was passed to quench all the fires. so during the night they posted guards and slept. but at daybreak they offered prayers to the gods, and drawing up in order of battle, began marching with what speed they might. timasion and the cavalry, who had the guides with them, and were moving on briskly in front, found themselves without knowing it at the very knoll upon which the hellenes had been beleaguered. but no army could they discover, whether of friend or foe; only some starveling old women and men, with a few sheep and oxen which had been left behind. this news they reported to xenophon and the main body. at first the marvel was what had happened; but ere long they found out by inquiries from the folk who had been left behind, that the thracians had set off immediately after sundown, and were gone; the hellenes had waited till morning before they made off, but in what direction, they could not say. on hearing this, xenophon's troops first breakfasted, and then getting their kit together began their march, desiring to unite with the rest at calpe's haven without loss of time. as they continued their march, they came across the track of the arcadians and achaeans along the road to calpe, and both divisions arriving eventually at the same place, were overjoyed to see one another again, and they embraced each other like brothers. then the arcadians inquired of xenophon's officers--why they had quenched the watch-fires? "at first," said they, "when we lost sight of your watch-fires, we expected you to attack the enemy in the night; and the enemy, so at least we imagined, must have been afraid of that and so set off. the time at any rate at which they set off would correspond. but when the requisite time had elapsed and you did not come, we concluded that you must have learnt what was happening to us, and in terror had made a bolt for it to the seaboard. we resolved not to be left behind by you; and that is how we also came to march hither." iv during this day they contented themselves with bivouacking there on the beach at the harbour. the place which goes by the name of calpe haven is in asiatic thrace, the name given to a region extending from the mouth of the euxine all the way to heraclea, which lies on the right hand as you sail into the euxine. it is a long day's voyage for a war-ship, using her three banks of oars, from byzantium to heraclea, and between these two there is not a single hellenic or friendly city, but only these bithynian thracians, who have a bad reputation for the savagery with which they treat any hellenes cast ashore by shipwreck or otherwise thrown into their power. now the haven of calpe lies exactly midway, halving the voyage between byzantium and heraclea. it is a long promontory running out into the sea; the seaward portion being a rocky precipice, at no point less than twenty fathoms high; but on the landward side there is a neck about four hundred feet wide; and the space inside the neck is capable of accommodating ten thousand inhabitants, and there is a haven immediately under the crag with a beach facing the west. then there is a copious spring of fresh water flowing on the very marge of the sea commanded by the stronghold. again, there is plenty of wood of various sorts; but most plentiful of all, fine shipbuilding timber down to the very edge of the sea. the upland stretches into the heart of the country for twenty furlongs at least. it is good loamy soil, free from stones. for a still greater distance the seaboard is thickly grown with large timber trees of every description. the surrounding country is beautiful and spacious, containing numerous well populated villages. the soil produces barley and wheat, and pulse of all sorts, millet and sesame, figs in ample supply, with numerous vines producing sweet wines, and indeed everything else except olives. such is the character of the country. the tents were pitched on the seaward-facing beach, the soldiers being altogether averse to camping on ground which might so easily be converted into a city. indeed, their arrival at the place at all seemed very like the crafty design of some persons who were minded to form a city. the aversion was not unnatural, since the majority of the soldiers had not left their homes on so long a voyage from scantiness or subsistence, but attracted by the fame of cyrus's virtues; some of them bringing followers, while others had expended money on the expedition. and amongst them was a third set who had run away from fathers and mothers; while a different class had left children behind, hoping to return to them with money or other gains. other people with cyrus won great success, they were told ( ); why should it not be so with them? being persons then of this description, the one longing of their hearts was to reach hellas safely. ( ) i.e. "his society was itself a passport to good fortune." it was on the day after their meeting that xenophon sacrificed as a preliminary to a military expedition; for it was needful to march out in search of provisions, besides which he designed burying the dead. as soon as the victims proved favourable they all set out, the arcadians following with the rest. the majority of the dead, who had lain already five days, they buried just where they had fallen, in groups; to remove their bodies now would have been impossible. some few, who lay off the roads, they got together and buried with what splendour they could, considering the means in their power. others they could not find, and for these they erected a great cenotaph ( ), and covered it with wreaths. when it was all done, they returned home to camp. at that time they supped, and went to rest. ( ) "cenotaph", i.e. "an empty tomb." the word is interesting as occurring only in xenophon, until we come to the writers of the common dialect. compare "hyuscyamus," hogbean, our henbane, which we also owe to xenophon. "oecon." i. , see sauppe, "lexil. xen." s.vv. next day there was a general meeting of the soldiers, collected chiefly by agasias the stymphalian, a captain, and hieronymus, an eleian, also a captain, and other seniors of the arcadians; and they passed a resolution that, for the future, whoever revived the idea of breaking up the army should be punished by death. and the army, it was decided, would now resume its old position under the command of its former generals. though cheirisophus, indeed, had already died under medical treatment for fever ( ); and neon the asinaean had taken his place. ( ) this i take to be the meaning of the words, which are necessarily ambiguous, since {pharmakon}, "a drug," also means "poison." did cheirisophus conceivably die of fever brought on by some poisonous draught? or did he take poison whilst suffering from fever? or did he die under treatment? after these resolutions xenophon got up and said: "soldiers, the journey must now, i presume, be conducted on foot; indeed, this is clear, since we have no vessels; and we are driven to commence it at once, for we have no provisions if we stop. we then," he continued, "will sacrifice, and you must prepare yourselves to fight now, if ever, for the spirit of the enemy has revived." thereupon the generals sacrificed, in the presence of the arcadian seer, arexion; for silanus the ambraciot had chartered a vessel at heraclea and made his escape ere this. sacrificing with a view to departure, the victims proved unfavourable to them. accordingly they waited that day. certain people were bold enough to say that xenophon, out of his desire to colonise the place, had persuaded the seer to say that the victims were unfavourable to departure. consequently he proclaimed by herald next morning that any one who liked should be present at the sacrifice; or if he were a seer he was bidden to be present and help to inspect the victims. then he sacrificed, and there were numbers present; but though the sacrifice on the question of departure was repeated as many as three times, the victims were persistently unfavourable. thereat the soldiers were in high dudgeon, for the provisions they had brought with them had reached the lowest ebb, and there was no market to be had. consequently there was another meeting, and xenophon spoke again: "men," said he, "the victims are, as you may see for yourselves, not yet favourable to the march; but meanwhile, i can see for myself that you are in need of provisions; accordingly we must narrow the sacrifice to the particular point." some one got up and said: "naturally enough the victims are unfavourable, for, as i learnt from some one on a vessel which arrived here yesterday by accident, cleander, the governor at byzantium, intends coming here with ships and men-of-war." thereat they were all in favour of stopping; but they must needs go out for provisions, and with this object he again sacrificed three times, and the victims remained adverse. things had now reached such a pass that the men actually came to xenophon's tent to proclaim that they had no provisions. his sole answer was that he would not lead them out till the victims were favourable. so again the next day he sacrificed; and nearly the whole army, so strong was the general anxiety, flocked round the victims; and now the very victims themselves failed. so the generals, instead of leading out the army, called the men together. xenophon, as was incumbent on him, spoke: "it is quite possible that the enemy are collected in a body, and we shall have to fight. if we were to leave our baggage in the strong place" (pointing overhead) "and sally forth prepared for battle, the victims might favour us." but the soldiers, on hearing this proposal, cried out, "no need to take us inside that place; better sacrifice with all speed." now sheep there were none any longer. so they purchased oxen from under a wagon and sacrificed; and xenophon begged cleanor the arcadian to superintend the sacrifice on his behalf, in case there might be some change now. but even so there was no improvement. now neon was general in place of cheirisophus, and seeing the men suffering so cruelly from want, he was willing to do them a good turn. so he got hold of some heracleot or other who said he knew of villages close by from which they could get provisions, and proclaimed by herald: "if any one liked to come out and get provisions, be it known that he, neon, would be their leader." so out came the men with spears, and wine skins and sacks and other vessels--two thousand strong in all. but when they had reached the villages and began to scatter for the purpose of foraging, pharnabazus's cavalry were the first to fall upon them. they had come to the aid of the bithynians, wishing, if possible, in conjunction with the latter, to hinder the hellenes from entering phrygia. these troopers killed no less than five hundred of the men; the rest fled for the lives up into the hill country. news of the catastrophe was presently brought into camp by one of those who had escaped, and xenophon, seeing that the victims had not been favourable on that day, took a wagon bullock, in the absence of other sacrificial beasts, offered it up, and started for the rescue, he and the rest under thirty years of age to the last man. thus they picked up the remnant of neon's party and returned to camp. it was now about sunset; and the hellenes in deep despondency were making their evening meal, when all of a sudden, through bush and brake, a party of bithynians fell upon the pickets, cutting down some and chasing the rest into camp. in the midst of screams and shouts the hellenes ran to their arms, one and all; yet to pursue or move the camp in the night seemed hardly safe, for the ground was thickly grown with bush; all they could do was to strengthen the outposts and keep watch under arms the livelong night. v and so they spent the night, but with day-dawn the generals led the way into the natural fastness, and the others picked up their arms and baggage and followed the lead. before the breakfast-hour arrived, they had fenced off with a ditch the only side on which lay ingress into the place, and had palisaded off the whole, leaving only three gates. anon a ship from heraclea arrived bringing barleymeal, victim animals, and wine. xenophon was up betimes, and made the usual offering before starting on an expedition, and at the first victim the sacrifice was favourable. just as the sacrifice ended, the seer, arexion the parrhasian, caught sight of an eagle, which boded well, and bade xenophon lead on. so they crossed the trench and grounded arms. then proclamation was made by herald for the soldiers to breakfast and start on an expedition under arms; the mob of sutlers and the captured slaves would be left in camp. accordingly the mass of the troops set out. neon alone remained; for it seemed best to leave that general and his men to guard the contents of the camp. but when the officers and soldiers had left them in the lurch, they were so ashamed to stop in camp while the rest marched out, that they too set out, leaving only those above five-and-forty years of age. these then stayed, while the rest set out on the march. before they had gone two miles, they stumbled upon dead bodies, and when they had brought up the rear of the column in a line with the first bodies to be seen, they began digging graves and burying all included in the column from end to end. after burying the first batch, they advanced, and again bringing the rear even with the first unburied bodies which appeared, they buried in the same way all which the line of troops included. finally, reaching the road that led out of the villages where the bodies lay thick together, they collected them and laid them in a common grave. it was now about midday, when pushing forward the troops up to the villages without entering them, they proceeded to seize provisions, laying hands on everything they could set eyes on under cover of their lines; when suddenly they caught sight of the enemy cresting certain hillocks in front of them, duly marshalled in line--a large body of cavalry and infantry. it was spithridates and rhathines, sent by pharnabazus with their force at their backs. as soon as the enemy caught sight of the hellenes, they stood still, about two miles distant. then arexion the seer sacrificed, and at the first essay the victims were favourable. whereupon xenophon addressed the other generals: "i would advise, sirs, that we should detach one or more flying columns to support our main attack, so that in case of need at any point we may have reserves in readiness to assist our main body, and the enemy, in the confusion of battle, may find himself attacking the unbroken lines of troops not hitherto engaged." these views approved themselves to all. "do you then," said he, "lead on the vanguard straight at the enemy. do not let us stand parleying here, now that we have caught sight of him and he of us. i will detach the hindmost companies in the way we have decided upon and follow you." after that they quietly advanced, and he, withdrawing the rear-rank companies in three brigades consisting of a couple of hundred men apiece, commissioned the first on the right to follow the main body at the distance of a hundred feet. samolas the achaean was in command of this brigade. the duty of the second, under the command of pyrrhias the arcadian, was to follow in the centre. the last was posted on the left, with phrasias, an athenian, in command. as they advanced, the vanguard reached a large and difficult woody glen, and halted, not knowing whether the obstacle needed to be crossed or not. they passed down the word for the generals and officers to come forward to the front. xenophon, wondering what it was that stopped the march, and presently hearing the above order passed along the ranks, rode up with all speed. as soon as they were met, sophaenetus, as the eldest general, stated his opinion that the question, whether a gully of that kind ought to be crossed or not, was not worth discussing. xenophon, with some ardour, retorted: "you know, sirs, i have not been in the habit hitherto of introducing you to danger which you might avoid. it is not your reputation for courage surely that is at stake, but your safe return home. but now the matter stands thus: it is impossible to retire from this point without a battle; if we do not advance against the enemy ourselves, he will follow us as soon as we have turned our backs and attack us. consider, then; is it better to go and meet the foe with arms advanced, or with arms reversed to watch him as he assails us on our rear? you know this at any rate, that to retire before an enemy has nothing glorious about it, whereas attack engenders courage even in a coward. for my part, i would rather at any time attack with half my men than retreat with twice the number. as to these fellows, if we attack them, i am sure you do not really expect them to await us; though, if we retreat, we know for certain they will be emboldened to pursue us. nay, if the result of crossing is to place a difficult gully behind us when we are on the point of engaging, surely that is an advantage worth seizing. at least, if it were left to me, i would choose that everything should appear smooth and passable to the enemy, which may invite retreat; but for ourselves we may bless the ground which teaches us that except in victory we have no deliverance. it astonishes me that any one should deem this particular gully a whit more terrible than any of the other barriers which we have successfully passed. how impassable was the plain, had we failed to conquer their cavalry! how insurmountable the mountains already traversed by us, with all their peltasts in hot pursuit at our heels! nay, when we have safely reached the sea, the pontus will present a somewhat formidable gully, when we have neither vessels to convey us away nor corn to keep us alive whilst we stop. but we shall no sooner be there than we must be off again to get provisions. surely it is better to fight to-day after a good breakfast than to-morrow on an empty stomach. sirs, the offerings are favourable to us, the omens are propitious, the victims more than promising; let us attack the enemy! now that they have had a good look at us, these fellows must not be allowed to enjoy their dinners or choose a camp at their own sweet will." after that the officers bade him lead on. none gainsaid, and he led the way. his orders were to cross the gully, where each man chanced to find himself. by this method, as it seemed to him, the troops would more quickly mass themselves on the far side than was possible, if they defiled along ( ) the bridge which spanned the gully. but once across he passed along the line and addressed the troops: "sirs, call to mind what by help of the gods you have already done. bethink you of the battles you have won at close quarters with the foe; of the fate which awaits those who flee before their foes. forget not that we stand at the very doors of hellas. follow in the steps of heracles, our guide, and cheer each the other onwards by name. sweet were it surely by some brave and noble word or deed, spoken or done this day, to leave the memory of oneself in the hearts of those one loves." ( ) lit. "had they wound off thread by thread"; the metaphor is from unwinding a ball of wool. these words were spoken as he rode past, and simultaneously he began leading on the troops in battle line; and, placing the peltasts on either flank of the main body, they moved against the enemy. along the line the order had sped "to keep their spears at rest on the right shoulder until the bugle signal; then lower them for the charge, slow march, and even pace, no one to quicken into a run." lastly, the watchword was passed, "zeus the saviour, heracles our guide." the enemy waited their approach, confident in the excellence of his position; but as they drew closer the hellene light troops, with a loud alala! without waiting for the order, dashed against the foe. the latter, on their side, came forward eagerly to meet the charge, both the cavalry and the mass of the bithynians; and these turned the peltasts. but when with counter-wave the phalanx of the heavy infantry rapidly advancing, faced them, and at the same time the bugle sounded, and the battle hymn rose from all lips, and after this a loud cheer rose, and at the same instant they couched their spears;--at this conjuncture the enemy no longer welcomed them, but fled. timasion with his cavalry followed close, and, considering their scant numbers, they did great execution. it was the left wing of the enemy, in a line with which the hellene cavalry were posted, that was so speedily scattered. but the right, which was not so hotly pursued, collected upon a knoll; and when the hellenes saw them standing firm, it seemed the easiest and least dangerous course to go against them at once. raising the battle hymn, they straightway fell upon them, but the others did not await their coming. thereupon the peltasts gave chase until the right of the enemy was in its turn scattered, though with slight loss in killed; for the enemy's cavalry was numerous and threatening. but when the hellenes saw the cavalry of pharnabazus still standing in compact order, and the bithynian horsemen massing together as if to join it, and like spectators gazing down from a knoll at the occurrences below; though weary, they determined to attack the enemy as best they could, and not suffer him to recover breath with reviving courage. so they formed in compact line and advanced. thereupon the hostile cavalry turned and fled down the steep as swiftly as if they had been pursued by cavalry. in fact they sought the shelter of a gully, the existence of which was unknown to the hellenes. the latter accordingly turned aside too soon and gave up the chase, for it was too late. returning to the point where the first encounter took place they erected a trophy, and went back to the sea about sunset. it was something like seven miles to camp. vi after this the enemy confined themselves to their own concerns, and removed their households and property as far away as possible. the hellenes, on their side, were still awaiting the arrival of cleander with the ships of war and transports, which ought to be there soon. so each day they went out with the baggage animals and slaves and fearlessly brought in wheat and barley, wine and vegetables, millet and figs; since the district produced all good things, the olive alone excepted. when the army stayed in camp to rest, pillaging parties were allowed to go out, and those who went out appropriated the spoils; but when the whole army went out, if any one went off apart and seized anything, it was voted to be public property. ere long there was an ample abundance of supplies of all sorts, for marketables arrived from hellenic cities on all sides, and marts were established. mariners coasting by, and hearing that a city was being founded and that there was a harbour, were glad to put in. even the hostile tribes dwelling in the neighbourhood presently began to send envoys to xenophon. it was he who was forming the place into a city, as they understood, and they would be glad to learn on what terms they might secure his friendship. he made a point of introducing these visitors to the soldiers. meanwhile cleander arrived with two ships of war, but not a single transport. at the moment of his arrival, as it happened, the army had taken the field, and a separate party had gone off on a pillaging expedition into the hills and had captured a number of small cattle. in thir apprehension of being deprived of them, these same people spoke to dexippus (this was the same man who had made off from trapezus with the fifty-oared galley), and urged him to save their sheep for them. "take some for yourself," said they, "and give the rest back to us." so, without more ado, he drove off the soldiers standing near, who kept repeating that the spoil was public property. then off he went to cleander. "here is an attempt," said he, "at robbery." cleander bade him to bring up the culprit to him. dexippus seized on some one, and was for haling him to the spartan governor. just then agasias came across him and rescued the man, who was a member of his company; and the rest of the soldiers present set to work to stone dexippus, calling him "traitor." things looked so ill that a number of the crew of the ships of war took fright and fled to the sea, and with the rest cleander himself. xenophon and the other generals tried to hold the men back, assuring cleander that the affair signified nothing at all, and that the origin of it was a decree pased by the army. that was to blame, if anything. but cleander, goaded by dexippus, and personally annoyed at the fright which he had experienced, threatened to sail away and publish an interdict against them, forbidding any city to receive them, as being public enemies. for at this date the lacedaemonians held sway over the whole hellenic world. thereat the affair began to wear an ugly look, and the hellenes begged and implored cleander to reconsider his intention. he replied that he would be as good as his word, and that nothing should stop him, unless the man who set the example of stoning, with the other who rescued the prisoner, were given up to him. now, one of the two whose persons were thus demanded--agasias--had been a friend to xenophon throughout; and that was just why dexippus was all the more anxious to accuse him. in their perplexity the generals summoned a full meeting of the soldiers, and some speakers were disposed to make very light of cleander and set him at naught. but xenophon took a more serious view of the matter; he rose and addressed the meeting thus: "soldiers, i cannot say that i feel disposed to make light of this business, if cleander be allowed to go away, as he threatens to do, in his present temper towards us. there are hellenic cities close by; but then the lacedaemonians are the lords of hellas, and they can, any one of them, carry out whatever they like in the cities. if then the first thing this lacedaemonian does is to close the gates of byzantium, and next to pass an order to the other governors, city by city, not to receive us because we are a set of lawless ruffians disloyal to the lacedaemonians; and if, further, this report of us should reach the ears of their admiral, anaxibius, to stay or to sail away will alike be difficult. remember, the lacedaemonians at the present time are lords alike on land and on sea. for the sake then of a single man, or for two men's sake, it is not right that the rest of us should be debarred from hellas; but whatever they enjoin we must obey. do not the cities which gave us birth yield them obedience also? for my own part, inasmuch as dexippus, i believe, keeps telling cleander that agasias would never have done this had not i, xenophon, bidden him, i absolve you of all complicity, and agasias too, if agasias himself states that i am in any way a prime mover in this matter. if i have set the fashion of stone-throwing or any other sort of violence i condemn myself--i say that i deserve the extreme penalty, and i will submit to undergo it. i further say that if any one else is accused, that man is bound to surrender himself to cleander for judgement, for by this means you will be absolved entirely from the accusation. but as the matter now stands, it is cruel that just when we were aspiring to win praise and honour throughout hellas, we are destined to sink below the level of the rest of the world, banned from the hellenic cities whose common name we boast." after him agasias got up, and said, "i swear to you, sirs, by the gods and goddesses, verily and indeed, neither xenophon nor any one else among you bade me rescue the man. i saw an honest man--one of my own company--being taken up by dexippus, the man who betrayed you, as you know full well. that i could not endure; i rescued him, i admit the fact. do not you deliver me up. i will surrender myself, as xenophon suggests, to cleander to pass what verdict on me he thinks right. do not, for the sake of such a matter, make foes of the lacedaemonians; rather god grant that ( ) each of you may safely reach the goal of his desire. only do you choose from among yourselves and send with me to cleander those who, in case of any omission on my part, may by their words and acts supply what is lacking." thereupon the army granted him to choose for himself whom he would have go with him and to go; and he at once chose the generals. after this they all set off to cleander--agasias and the generals and the man who had been rescued by agasias--and the generals spoke as follows: "the army has sent us to you, cleander, and this is their bidding: 'if you have fault to find with all, they say, you ought to pass sentence on all, and do with them what seems best; or if the charge is against one man or two, or possibly several, what they expect of these people is to surrender themselves to you for judgement.' accordingly, if you lay anything to the charge of us generals, here we stand at your bar. or do you impute the fault to some one not here? tell us whom. short of flying in the face of our authority, there is no one who will absent himself." ( ) reading with the best mss., {sozoisthe}. agasias ends his sentence with a prayer. al. {sozesthe}, "act so that each," etc. at this point agasias stepped forward and said: "it was i, cleander, who rescued the man before you yonder from dexippus, when the latter was carrying him off, and it was i who gave the order to strike dexippus. my plea is that i know the prisoner to be an honest man. as to dexippus, i know that he was chosen by the army to command a fifty-oared galley, which we had obtained by request from the men of trapezus for the express purpose of collecting vessels to carry us safely home. but this same dexippus betrayed his fellow-soldiers, with whom he had been delivered from so many perils, and made off into hiding like a runaway slave, whereby we have robbed the trapezuntines of their frigate, and must needs appear as knaves in their eyes for this man's sake. as to ourselves, as far as he could, he has ruined us; for, like the rest of us, he had heard how all but impossible it was for us to retreat by foot across the rivers and to reach hellas in safety. that is the stamp of man whom i robbed of his prey. now, had it been you yourself who carried him off, or one of your emissaries, or indeed any one short of a runaway from ourselves, be sure that i should have acted far otherwise. be assured that if you put me to death at this time you are sacrificing a good, honest man for the sake of a coward and a scamp." when he had listened to these remarks, cleander replied that if such had been the conduct of dexippus, he could not congratulate him. "but still," he added, turning to the generals, "were dexippus ever so great a scamp he ought not to suffer violence; but in the language of your own demand he was entitled to a fair trial, and so to obtain his deserts. what i have to say at present therefore is: leave your friend here and go your way, and when i give the order be present at the trial. i have no further charge against the army or any one, since the prisoner himself admits that he rescued the man." then the man who had been rescued said: "in behalf of myself, cleander, if possibly you think that i was being taken up for some misdeed, it is not so; i neither struck nor shot; i merely said, 'the sheep are public property;' for it was a resolution of the soldiers that whenever the army went out as a body any booty privately obtained was to be public property. that was all i said, and thereupon yonder fellow seized me and began dragging me off. he wanted to stop our mouths, so that he might have a share of the things himself, and keep the rest for these buccaneers, contrary to the ordinance." in answer to that cleander said: "very well, if that is your disposition you can stay behind too, and we will take your case into consideration also." thereupon cleander and his party proceeded to breakfast; but xenophon collected the army in assembly, and advised their sending a deputation to cleander to intercede in behalf of the men. accordingly it was resolved to send some generals and officers with dracontius the spartan, and of the rest those who seemed best fitted to go. the deputation was to request cleander by all means to release the two men. accordingly xenophon came and addressed him thus: "cleander, you have the men; the army has bowed to you and assented to do what you wished with respect to these two members of their body and themselves in general. but now they beg and pray you to give up these two men, and not to put them to death. many a good service have these two wrought for our army in past days. let them but obtain this from you, and in return the army promises that, if you will put yourself at their head and the gracious gods approve, they will show you how orderly they are, how apt to obey their general, and, with heaven's help, to face their foes unflinchingly. they make this further request to you, that you will present yourself and take command of them and make trial of them. 'test us ourselves,' they say, 'and test dexippus, what each of us is like, and afterwards assign to each his due.'" when cleander heard these things, he answered: "nay, by the twin gods, i will answer you quickly enough. here i make you a present of the two men, and i will as you say present myself, and then, if the gods vouchsafe, i will put myself at your head and lead you into hellas. very different is your language from the tale i used to hear concerning you from certain people, that you wanted to withdraw the army from allegiance to the lacedaemonians." after this the deputation thanked him and retired, taking with them the two men; then cleander sacrificed as a preliminary to marching and consorted friendlily with xenophon, and the two struck up an alliance. when the spartan saw with what good discipline the men carried out their orders, he was still more anxious to become their leader. however, in spite of sacrifices repeated on three successive days, the victims steadily remained unfavourable. so he summoned the generals and said to them: "the victims smile not on me, they suffer me not to lead you home; but be not out of heart at that. to you it is given, as it would appear, to bring your men safe home. forwards then, and for our part, whenever you come yonder, we will bestow on you as warm a welcome as we may." then the soldiers resolved to make him a present of the public cattle, which he accepted, but again gave back to them. so he sailed away; but the soldiers made division of the corn which they had collected and of the other captured property, and commenced their homeward march through the territory of the bithynians. at first they confined themselves to the main road; but not chancing upon anything whereby they might reach a friendly territory with something in their pockets for themselves, they resolved to turn sharp round, and marched for one day and night in the opposite direction. by this proceeding they captured many slaves and much small cattle; and on the sixth day reached chrysopolis in chalcedonia ( ). here they halted seven days while they disposed of their booty by sale. ( ) the name should be written "calchedonia." the false form drove out the more correct, probably through a mispronunciation, based on a wrong derivation, at some date long ago. the sites of chrysopolis and calchedon correspond respectively to the modern scutari and kadikoi. book vii (in the earlier portion of the narrative will be found a detailed history of the fortunes of the hellenes during their march up country with cyrus down to the date of the battle; and, subsequently to his death, until they reached the euxine; as also of all their doings in their efforts to escape from the euxine, partly by land marches and partly under sail by sea, until they found themselves outside the mouth of the black sea (south of the bosphorus) at chrysopolis in asia.) i at this point pharnabazus, who was afraid that the army might undertake a campaign against his satrapy, sent to anaxibius, the spartan high admiral, who chanced to be in byzantium, and begged him to convey the army out of asia, undertaking to comply with his wishes in every respect. anaxibius accordingly sent to summon the generals and officers to byzantium, and promised that the soldiers should not lack pay for service, if they crossed the strait. the officers said that they would deliberate and return an answer. xenophon individually informed them that he was about to quit the army at once, and was only anxious to set sail. anaxibius pressed him not to be in so great a hurry: "cross over with the rest," he said, "and then it will be time enough to think about quitting the army." this the other undertook to do. now seuthes the thracian sent medosades and begged xenophon to use his influence to get the army across. "tell xenophon, if he will do his best for me in this matter, he will not regret it." xenophon answered: "the army is in any case going to cross; so that, as far as that is concerned, seuthes is under no obligation to me or to any one else; but as soon as it is once across, i personally shall be quit of it. let seuthes, therefore, as far as he may deem consistent with prudence, apply to those who are going to remain and will have a voice in affairs." after this the whole body of troops crossed to byzantium. but anaxibius, instead of proceeding to give pay, made proclamation that, "the soldiers were to take up their arms and baggage and go forth," as if all he wished were to ascertain their numbers and bid them god-speed at the same moment. the soldiers were not well pleased at that, because they had no money to furnish themselves with provisions for the march; and they sluggishly set about getting their baggage together. xenophon meanwhile, being on terms of intimacy with the governor, cleander, came to pay his host a final visit, and bid him adieu, being on the point of setting sail. but the other protested; "do not do so, or else," said he, "you will be blamed, for even now certain people are disposed to hold you to account because the army is so slow in getting under weigh." the other answered, "nay, i am not to blame for that. it is the men themselves, who are in want of provisions; that is why they are out of heart at their exodus." "all the same," he replied, "i advise you to go out, as if you intended to march with them, and when you are well outside, it will be time enough to take yourself off." "well then," said xenophon, "we will go and arrange all this with anaxibius." they went and stated the case to the admiral, who insisted that they must do as he had said, and march out, bag and baggage, by the quickest road; and as an appendix to the former edict, he added, "any one absenting himself from the review and the muster will have himself to blame for the consequences." this was peremptory. so out marched, the generals first, and then the rest; and now, with the exception of here a man and there, they were all outside; it was a "clean sweep"; and eteonicus stood posted near the gates, ready to close them, as soon as the men were fairly out, and to thrust in the bolt pin. then anaxibius summoned the generals and captains, and addressed them: "provisions you had better get from the thracian villages; you will find plenty of barley, wheat, and other necessaries in them; and when you have got them, off with you to the chersonese, where cyniscus will take you into his service." some of the soldiers overheard what was said, or possibly one of the officers was the medium of communication; however it was, the news was handed on to the army. as to the generals, their immediate concern was to try and gain some information as to seuthes: "was he hostile or friendly? also, would they have to march through the sacred mountain ( ), or round about through the middle of thrace?" ( ) so the mountain-range is named which runs parallel to the propontis (sea of marmora) from lat. degrees n. circa to lat. degrees '; from bisanthe (rhodosto) to the neck of the chersonese (gallipoli). while they were discussing these points, the soldiers snatched up their arms and made a rush full speed at the gates, with the intention of getting inside the fortification again. but eteonicus and his men, seeing the heavy infantry coming up at a run promptly closed the gates and thrust in the bolt pin. then the soldiers fell to battering the gates, exclaiming that it was iniquitous to thrust them forth in this fashion into the jaws of their enemies. "if you do not of your own accord open the gates," they cried, "we will split them in half"; and another set rushed down to the sea, and so along the break-water and over the wall into the city; while a third set, consisting of those few who were still inside, having never left the city, seeing the affair at the gates, severed the bars with axes and flung the portals wide open; and the rest came pouring in. xenophon, seeing what was happening, was seized with alarm lest the army betake itself to pillage, and ills incurable be wrought to the city, to himself, and to the soldiers. then he set off, and, plunging into the throng, was swept through the gates with the crowd. the byzantines no sooner saw the soldiers forcibly rushing in than they left the open square, and fled, some to the shipping, others to their homes, while those already indoors came racing out, and some fell to dragging down their ships of war, hoping possibly to be safe on board these; while there was not a soul who doubted but that the city was taken, and that they were all undone. eteonicus made a swift retreat to the citadel. anaxibius ran down to the sea, and, getting on board a fisherman's smack, sailed round to the acropolis, and at once sent off to fetch over the garrison troops from chalcedon, since those already in the acropolis seemed hardly sufficient to keep the men in check. the soldiers, catching sight of xenophon, threw themselves upon him, crying: "now, xenophon, is the time to prove yourself a man. you have got a city, you have got triremes, you have got money, you have got men; to-day, if you only chose, you can do us a good turn, and we will make you a great man." he replied: "nay, i like what you say, and i will do it all; but if that is what you have set your hearts on, fall into rank and take up position at once." this he said, wishing to quiet them, and so passed the order along the lines himself, while bidding the rest to do the same: "take up position; stand easy." but the men themselves, by a species of self-marshalling, fell into rank, and were soon formed, the heavy infantry eight deep, while the light infantry had run up to cover either wing. the thracian square, as it is called, is a fine site for manouvering, being bare of buildings and level. as soon as the arms were stacked and the men's tempers cooled, xenophon called a general meeting of the soldiers, and made the following speech:-- "soldiers, i am not surprised at your wrath, or that you deem it monstrous treatment so to be cheated; but consider what will be the consequences if we gratify our indignation, and in return for such deception, avenge ourselves on the lacedaemonians here present, and plunder an innocent city. we shall be declared enemies of the lacedaemonians and their allies; and what sort of war that will be, we need not go far to conjecture. i take it, you have not forgotten some quite recent occurrences. we athenians entered into war against the lacedaemonians and their allies with a fleet consisting of not less than three hundred line-of-battle ships, including those in dock as well as those afloat. we had vast treasures stored up in the city, and a yearly income which, derived from home or foreign sources, amounted to no less than a thousand talents. our empire included all the islands, and we were possessed of numerous cities both in asia and in europe. amongst others, this very byzantium, where we are now, was ours; and yet in the end we were vanquished, as you all very well know. "what, must we anticipate, will now be our fate? the lacedaemonians have not only their old allies, but the athenians and those who were at that time allies of athens are added to them. tissaphernes and all the rest of the asiatics on the seaboard are our foes, not to speak of our arch-enemy, the king himself, up yonder, whom we came to deprive of his empire, and to kill, if possible. i ask then, with all these banded together against us, is there any one so insensate as to imagine that we can survive the contest? for heaven's sake, let us not go mad or loosely throw away our lives in war with our own native cities--nay, our own friends, our kith and our kin; for in one or other of the cities they are all included. every city will march against us, and not unjustly, if, after refusing to hold one single barbarian city by right of conquest, we seize the first hellenic city that we come to and make it a ruinous heap. for my part, my prayer is that before i see such things wrought by you, i, at any rate, may lie ten thousand fathoms under ground! my counsel to you, as hellenes, is to try and obtain your just rights, through obedience to those who stand at the head of hellas; and if so be that you fail in those demands, why, being more sinned against than sinning, need we rob ourselves of hellas too? at present, i propose that we should send to anaxibius and tell him that we have made an entrance into the city, not meditating violence, but merely to discover if he and his will show us any good; for if so, it is well; but of otherwise, at least we will let him see that he does not shut the door upon us as dupes and fools. we know the meaning of discipline; we turn our backs and go." this resolution was passed, and they sent hieronymus an eleian, with two others, eurylochus an arcadian and philesius an achaean, to deliver the message. so these set off on their errand. but while the soldiers were still seated in conclave, coeratadas, of thebes, arrived. he was a theban not in exile, but with a taste for generalship, who made it his business to see if any city or nation were in need of his services. thus, on the present occasion, he presented himself, and begged to state that he was ready to put himself at their head, and lead them into the delta of thrace ( ), as it is called, where they would find themselves in a land of plenty; but until they got there, he would provide them with meat and drink enough and to spare. while they were still listening to this tale, the return message from anaxibius came. his answer was: "the discipline, they had spoken of, was not a thing they would regret; indeed he would report their behaviour to the authorities at home; and for himself, he would take advice and do the best he could for them." ( ) the exact locality, so called, is not known; doubtless it lay somewhere between byzantium and salmydessus, possibly at declus (mod. derkos); or possibly the narrow portion of thrace between the euxine, bosphorus, and propontis went by this name. see note in pretor ad. loc., and "dict. geog." "thracia." thereupon the soldiers accepted coeratadas as their general, and retired without the walls. their new general undertook to present himself to the troops next day with sacrificial beasts and a soothsayer, with eatables also and drinkables for the army. now, as soon as they were gone out, anaxibius closed the gates and issued a proclamation to the effect that "any of the soldiers caught inside should be knocked down to the hammer and sold at once." next day, coeratadas arrived with the victims and the soothsayer. a string of twenty bearers bearing barleymeal followed at his heels, succeeded by other twenty carrying wine, and three laden with a supply of olives, and two others carrying, the one about as much garlic as a single man could lift, and the other a similar load of onions. these various supplies he set down, apparently for distribution, and began to sacrifice. now xenophon sent to cleander, begging him to arrange matters so that he might be allowed to enter the walls, with a view to starting from byzantium on his homeward voyage. cleander came, and this is what he said: "i have come; but i was barely able to arrange what you want. anaxibius insisted: 'it was not convenient that xenophon should be inside while the soldiers are close to the walls without; the byzantines at sixes and sevens moreover; and no love lost between the one party of them and the other.' still, he ended by bidding you to come inside, if you were really minded to leave the town by sea with himself." accordingly xenophon bade the soldiers good-bye, and returned with cleander within the walls. to return to coeratadas. the first day he failed to get favourable signs at the sacrifice, and never a dole of rations did he make to the soldiers. on the second day the victims were standing ready near the altar, and so was coeratadas, with chaplet crowned, all ready to sacrifice, when up comes timasion the dardanian, with neon the asinaean, and cleanor of orchomenus, forbidding coeratadas to sacrifice: "he must understand there was an end to his generalship, unless he gave them provisions." the other bade them measure out the supplies, "pray, dole them out." but when he found that he had a good deal short of a single day's provisions for each man, he picked up his paraphernalia of sacrifice and withdrew. as to being general, he would have nothing more to say to it. ii now these five were left--neon the asinaean, phryniscus the achaean, philesius the achaean, xanthicles the achaean, timasion the dardanian--at the head of the army, and they pushed on to some villages of the thracians facing byzantium, and there encamped. now the generals could not agree. cleanor and phryniscus wished to march to join seuthes, who had worked upon their feelings by presenting one with a horse and the other with a woman to wife. but neon's object was to come to the chersonese: "when we are under the wing of the lacedaemonians," he thought, "i shall step to the front and command the whole army." timasion's one ambition was to cross back again into asia, hoping to be reinstated at home and end his exile. the soldiers shared the wishes of the last general. but, as time dragged on, many of the men sold their arms at different places and set sail as best they could; others (actually gave away their arms, some here, some there, and ( )) became absorbed in the cities. one man rejoiced. this was anaxibius, to whom the break-up of the army was a blessing. "that is the way," he said to himself, "i can best gratify pharnabazus." ( ) the mss. give the words so rendered--{oi de kai (didontes ta opla kata tous khorous)}, which some critics emend {diadidontes}, others bracket as suspected, others expunge. but anaxibius, while prosecuting his voyage from byzantium, was met at cyzicus by aristarchus, the new governor, who was to succeed cleander at byzantium; and report said that a new admiral, polus, if he had not actually arrived, would presently reach the hellespont and relieve anaxibius. the latter sent a parting injunction to aristarchus to be sure and sell all the cyreian soldiers he could lay hands on still lingering in byzantium; for cleander had not sold a single man of them; on the contrary, he had made it his business to tend the sick and wounded, pitying them, and insisting on their being received in the houses. aristarchus changed all that, and was no sooner arrived in byzantium than he sold no less than four hundred of them. meanwhile anaxibius, on his coasting voyage, reached parium, and, according to the terms of their agreement, he sent to pharnabazus. but the latter, learning that aristarchus was the new governor at byzantim, and that anixibius had ceased to be admiral, turned upon him a cold shoulder, and set out concocting the same measures concerning the cyreian army with aristarchus, as he had lately been at work upon with anaxibius. anaxibius thereupon summoned xenophon and bade him, by every manner of means, sail to the army with the utmost speed, and keep it together. "he was to collect the scattered fragments and march them down to perinthus, and thence convey them across to asia without loss of time." and herewith he put a thirty-oared galley at his service, and gave him a letter of authority and an officer to accompany him, with an order to the perinthians "to escort xenophon without delay on horseback to the army." so it was that xenophon sailed across and eventually reached the army. the soldiers gave him a joyous welcome, and would have been only too glad to cross from thrace into asia under his leadership. but seuthes, hearing that xenophon had arrived, sent medosades again, by sea to meet him, and begged him to bring the army to him; and whatever he thought would make his speech persuasive, he was ready to promise him. but the other replied, that none of these things were open to him to do; and with this answer medosades departed, and the hellenes proceeded to perinthus. here on arrival neon withdrew his troops and encamped apart, having about eight hundred men; while the remainder of the army lay in one place under the walls of perinthus. after this, xenophon set himself to find vessels, so as to lose no time in crossing. but in the interval aristarchus, the governor from byzantium, arrived with a couple of war-ships, being moved to do so by pharnabazus. to make doubly sure, he first forbade the skippers and shipmasters to carry the troops across, and then he visited the camp and informed the soldiers that their passage into asia was forbidden. xenophon replied that he was acting under the orders of anaxibius, who had sent him thither for this express purpose; to which aristarchus retorted, "for the matter of that, anaxibius is no longer admiral, and i am governor in this quarter; if i catch any of you at sea, i will sink you." with these remarks he retired within the walls of perinthus. next day, he sent for the generals and officers of the army. they had already reached the fortification walls, when some one brought word to xenophon that if he set foot inside, he would be seized, and either meet some ill fate there or more likely be delivered up to pharnabazus. on hearing this xenophon sent forward the rest of the party, but for himself pleaded that there was a sacrifice which he wished to offer. in this way he contrived to turn back and consult the victims, "would the gods allow him to try and bring the army over to seuthes?" on the one hand it was plain that the idea of crossing over to asia in the face of this man with his ships of war, who meant to bar the passage, was too dangerous. nor did he altogether like the notion of being blocked up in the chersonese with an army in dire need of everything; where, besides being at the beck and call of the governor of the place, they would be debarred from the necessities of life. while xenophon was thus employed, the generals and officers came back with a message from aristarchus, who had told them they might retire for the present, but in the afternoon he would expect them. the former suspicions of a plot had now ripened to a certainty. xenophon meantime had ascertained that the victims were favourable to his project. he personally, and the army as a whole, might with safety proceed to seuthes, they seemed to say. accordingly, he took with him polycrates, the athenian captain, and from each of the generals, not including neon, some one man whom they could in each case trust, and in the night they set off to visit the army of seuthes, sixty furlongs distant. as they approached, they came upon some deserted watch-fires, and their first impression was that seuthes had shifted his position; but presently perceiving a confused sound (the voices of seuthes' people signalling to one another), the explanation dawned on him: seuthes kept his watch-fires kindled in front of, instead of behind, his night pickets, in order that the outposts, being in the dark, might escape notice, their numbers and position thus being a mystery; whilst any party approaching from the outside, so far from escaping notice, would, through the glare of the fire, stand out conspicuously. perceiving how matters stood, xenophon sent forward his interpreter, who was one of the party, and bade him inform seuthes that xenophon was there and craved conference with him. the others asked if he were an athenian from the army yonder, and no sooner had the interpreter replied, "yes, the same," than up they leapt and galloped off; and in less time than it takes to tell a couple of hundred peltasts had come up who seized and carried off xenophon and those with him and brought them to seuthes. the latter was in a tower right well guarded, and there were horses round it in a circle, standing all ready bitted and bridled; for his alarm was so great that he gave his horses their provender during the day ( ), and during the nights he kept watch and ward with the brutes thus bitted and bridled. it was stated in explanation that in old days an ancestor of his, named teres, had been in this very country with a large army, several of whom he had lost at the hands of the native inhabitants, besides being robbed of his baggage train. the inhabitants of the country are thynians, and they are reputed to be far the most warlike set of fighters--especially at night. ( ) i.e. "instead of letting them graze." when they drew near, seuthes bade xenophon enter, and bring with him any two he might choose. as soon as they were inside, they first greeted one another warmly, and then, according to the thracian custom, pledged themselves in bowls of wine. there was further present at the elbow of seuthes, medosades, who on all occasions acted as his ambassador-in-chief. xenophon took the initiative and spoke as follows: "you have sent to me, seuthes, once and again. on the first occasion you sent medosades yonder, to chalcedon, and you begged me to use my influence in favour of the army crossing over from asia. you promised me, in return for this conduct on my part, various kindnesses; at least that is what medosades stated"; and before proceeding further he turned to medosades and asked, "is not that so?" the other assented. "again, on a second occasion, the same medosades came when i had crossed over from parium to rejoin the army; and he promised me that if i would bring you the army, you would in various respects treat me as a friend and brother. he said especially with regard to certain seaboard places of which you are the owner and lord, that you were minded to make me a present of them." at this point he again questioned medosades, "whether the words attributed to him were exact?" and medosades once more fully assented. "come now," proceeded xenophon, "recount what answer i made you, and first at chalcedon." "you answered that the army was, in any case, about to cross over to byzantium; and as far as that went, there was no need to pay you or any one else anything; and for yourself, you added, that once across you were minded to leave the army, which thing came to pass even as you said." "well! what did i say," he asked, "at your next visit, when you came to me in selybria?" "you said that the proposal was impossible; you were all going to perinthus to cross into asia." "good," said xenophon, "and in spite of it all, at the present moment, here i am myself, and phryniscus, one of my colleagues, and polycrates yonder, a captain; and outside, to represent the other generals (all except neon the laconian), the trustiest men they could find to send. so that if you wish to give these transactions the seal of still greater security, you have nothing to do but to summon them also; and do you, polycrates, go and say from me, that i bid them leave their arms outside, and you can leave your own sword outside before you enter with them on your return." when seuthes had heard so far, he interposed: "i should never mistrust an athenian, for we are relatives already ( ), i know; and the best of friends, i believe, we shall be." after that, as soon as the right men entered, xenophon first questioned seuthes as to what use he intended to make of the army, and he replied as follows: "maesades was my father; his sway extended over the melanditae, the thynians, and the tranipsae. then the affairs of the odrysians took a bad turn, and my father was driven out of this country, and later on died himself of sickness, leaving me to be brought up as an orphan at the court of medocus, the present king. but i, when i had grown to man's estate, could not endure to live with my eyes fixed on another's board. so i seated myself on the seat by him as a suppliant, and begged him to give me as many men as he could spare, that i might wreak what mischief i could on those who had driven us forth from our land; that thus i might cease to live in dependence upon another's board, like a dog watching his master's hand. in answer to my petition, he gave me the men and the horses which you will see at break of day, and nowadays i live with these, pillaging my own ancestral land. but if you would join me, i think, with the help of heaven, we might easily recover my empire. that is what i want of you." "well then," said xenophon, "supposing we came, what should you be able to give us? the soldiers, the officers, and the generals? tell us that these witnesses may report your answer." and he promised to give "to the common soldiers a cyzicene ( ), to a captain twice as much, and to a general four times as much, with as much land as ever they liked, some yoke of oxen, and a fortified place upon the seaboard." "but now supposing," said xenophon, "we fail of success, in spite of our endeavours; suppose any intimidation on the part of the lacedaemonians should arise; will you receive into your country any of us who may seek to find a refuge with you?" he answered: "nay, not only so, but i shall look upon you as my brothers, entitled to share my seat, and the joint possessors of all the wealth which we may be able to acquire. and to you yourself, o xenophon! i will give my daughter, and if you have a daughter, i will buy her in thracian fashion; and i will give you bisanthe as a dwelling-place, which is the fairest of all my possessions on the seaboard ( )." ( ) tradition said that the thracians and athenians were connected, through the marriage of a former prince tereus (or teres) with procne, the daughter of pandion. this old story, discredited by thucydides, ii. , is referred to in arist. "birds," foll. the birds are about to charge the two athenian intruders, when epops, king of the birds, formerly tereus, king of thrace, but long ago transformed into a hoopoe, intercedes in behalf of two men, {tes emes gunaikos onte suggene kai phuleta}, "who are of my lady's tribe and kin." as a matter of history, the athenians had in the year b.c. made alliance with sitalces, king of the odrysians (the son of teres, the first founder of their empire), and made his son, sadocus, an athenian citizen. cf. thuc. ib.; arist. acharnians, foll. ( ) a cyzicene monthly is to be understood. ( ) bisanthe, one of the ionic colonies founded by samos, with the thracian name rhaedestus (now rodosto), strongly placed so as to command the entrance into the sacred mountain. iii after listening to these proposals, they gave and accepted pledges of good faith; and so the deputation rode off. before day they were back again in camp, and severally rendered a report to those who sent them. at dawn aristarchus again summoned the generals and officers, but the latter resolved to have done with the visit to aristarchus, and to summon a meeting of the army. in full conclave the soldiers met, with the exception of neon's men, who remained about ten furlongs off. when they were met together xenophon rose, and made the following announcement: "men, aristarchus with his ships of war hinders us from sailing where we fain would go; it is not even safe to set foot on board a vessel. but if he hinders us here, he hastens us there. 'be off to the chersonese,' says he, 'force a passage through the sacred mountain.' if we master it and succeed in getting to that place, he has something in store for us. he promises that he will not sell you any more, as he did at byzantium; you shall not be cheated again; you shall have pay; he will no longer, as now, suffer you to remain in want of provisions. that is his proposal. but seuthes says that if you will go to him he will treat you well. what you have now to consider is, whether you will stay to debate this question, or leave its settlement till we have gone up into a land of provisions. if you ask me my opinion, it is this: since here we have neither money to buy, nor leave to take without money what we need, why should we not go up into these villages where the right to help ourselves is conferred by might? there, unhampered by the want of bare necessaries, you can listen to what this man and the other wants of you and choose whichever sounds best. let those," he added, "who agree to this, hold up their hands." they all held them up. "retire then," said he, "and get your kit together, and at the word of command, follow your leader." after this, xenophon put himself at the head and the rest followed. neon, indeed, and other agents from aristarchus tried to turn them from their purpose, but to their persuasions they turned a deaf ear. they had not advanced much more than three miles, when seuthes met them; and xenophon, seeing him, bade him ride up. he wished to tell him what they felt to be conducive to their interests, and in the presence of as many witnesses as possible. as soon as he had approached, xenophon said: "we are going where the troops will have enough to live upon; when we are there, we will listen to you and to the emissaries of the laconian, and choose between you both whatever seems best. if then you will lead us where provisions are to be got in plenty, we shall feel indebted to you for your hospitality." and seuthes answered: "for the matter of that, i know many villages, close-packed and stocked with all kinds of provisions, just far enough off to give you a good appetite for your breakfasts." "lead on then!" said xenophon. when they had reached the villages in the afternoon, the soldiers met, and seuthes made the following speech: "my request to you, sirs, is that you will take the field with me, and my promise to you is that i will give every man of you a cyzicene, and to the officers and generals at the customary rate; besides this i will honour those who show special merit. food and drink you shall get as now for yourselves from the country; but whatever is captured, i shall claim to have myself, so that by distribution of it i may provide you with pay. let them flee, let them creep into hiding-places, we shall be able to pursue after them, we will track them out; or if they resist, along with you we will endeavour to subdue them to our hands." xenophon inquired: "and how far from the sea shall you expect the army to follow you?" "nowhere more than seven days' journey," he answered, "and in many places less." after this, permission was given for all who wished to speak, and many spoke, but ever to one and the same tune: "what seuthes said, was very right. it was winter, and for a man to sail home, even if he had the will to do so, was impossible. on the other hand, to continue long in a friendly country, where they must depend upon what they could purchase, was equally beyond their power. if they were to wear away time and support life in a hostile country, it was safer to do so with seuthes than by themselves, not to speak of all these good things; but if they were going to get pay into the bargain, that indeed was a godsend." to complete the proceedings, xenophon said: "if any one opposes the measure, let him state his views; if not, let the officer put the proposition to the vote." no one opposed; they put it to the vote, and the resolution was carried; and without loss of time, he informed seuthes that they would take the field with him. after this the troops messed in their separate divisions, but the generals and officers were invited by seuthes to dinner at a neighbouring village which was in his possession. when they were at the doors, and on the point of stepping in to dinner, they were met by a certain heracleides, of maronea ( ). he came up to each guest, addressing himself particularly to those who, as he conjectured, ought to be able to make a present to seuthes. he addressed himself first to some parians who were there to arrange a friendship with medocus, the king of the odrysians, and were bearers of presents to the king and to his wife. heracleides reminded them: "medocus is up country twelve days' journey from the sea; but seuthes, now that he has got this army, will be lord on the sea-coast; as your neighbour, then, he is the man to do you good or do you ill. if you are wise, you will give him whatever he askes of you. on the whole, it will be laid out at better interest than if you have it to medocus, who lives so far off." that was his mode of persuasion in their case. next he came to timasion the dardanian, who, some one had told him, was the happy possessor of certain goblets and oriental carpets. what he said to him was: "it is customary when people are invited to dinner by seuthes for the guests to make him a present; now if he should become a great person in these parts, he will be able to restore you to your native land, or to make you a rich man here." such were the solicitations which he applied to each man in turn whom he accosted. presently he came to xenophon and said: "you are at once a citizen of no mean city, and with seuthes also your own name is very great. maybe you expect to obtain a fort or two in this country, just as others of your countrymen have done ( ), and territory. it is only right and proper therefore that you should honour seuthes in the most magnificent style. be sure, i give this advice out of pure friendliness, for i know that the greater the gift that you are ready to bestow on him, the better the treatment you will receive at his hands." xenophon, on hearing this, was in a sad dilemma, for he had brought with him, when he crossed from parium, nothing but one boy and just enough to pay his travelling expenses. ( ) a greek colony in thrace. among asiatico-ionian colonies were abdera, founded by teos, and maroneia, celebrated for its wine, founded by chios about b.c.--kiepert, "man. anct. geog." viii. . ( ) notably alcibiades, who possessed two or three such fortresses. as soon as the company, consisting of the most powerful thracians there present, with the generals and captains of the hellenes, and any embassy from a state which might be there, had arrived, they were seated in a circle, and the dinner was served. thereupon three-legged stools were brought in and placed in front of the assembled guests. they were laden with pieces of meat, piled up, and there were huge leavened-loaves fastened on to the pieces of meat with long skewers. the tables, as a rule, were set beside the guests at intervals. that was the custom; and seuthes set the fashion of the performance. he took up the loaves which lay by his side and broke them into little pieces, and then threw the fragments here to one and there to another as seemed to him good; and so with the meat likewise, leaving for himself the merest taste. then the rest fell to following the fashion set them, those that is who had tables placed beside them. now there was an arcadian, arystas by name, a huge eater; he soon got tired of throwing the pieces about, and seized a good three-quarters loaf in his two hands, placed some pieces of meat upon his knees, and proceeded to discuss his dinner. then beakers of wine were brought round, and every one partook in turn; but when the cupbearer came to arystas and handed him the bowl, he looked up, and seeing that xenophon had done eating: "give it him," quoth he, "he is more at leisure. i have something better to do at present." seuthes, hearing a remark, asked the cupbearer what was said, and the cupbearer, who knew how to talk greek, explained. then followed a peal of laughter. when the drinking had advanced somewhat, in came a thracian with a white horse, who snatched the brimming bowl and said: "here's a health to thee, o seuthes! let me present thee with this horse. mounted on him, thou shalt capture whom thou choosest to pursue, or retiring from battle, thou shalt not dread the foe." he was followed by one who brought in a boy, and presented him in proper style with "here's a health to thee, o seuthes!" a third had "clothes for his wife." timasion, the dardanian, pledged seuthes, and presented a silver bowl ( ) and a carpet worth ten minae. gnesippus, an athenian, got up and said: "it was a good old custom, and a fine one too, that those who had, should give to the king for honour's sake, but to those who had not, the king should give; whereby, my lord," he added, "i too may one day have the wherewithal to give thee gifts and honour." xenophon the while was racking his brains what he was to do; he was not the happier because he was seated in the seat next seuthes as a mark of honour; and heracleides bade the cupbearer hand him the bowl. the wine had perhaps a little mounted to his head; he rose, and manfully seized the cup, and spoke: "i also, seuthes, have to present you with myself and these my dear comrades to be your trusty friends, and not one of them against his will. they are more ready, one and all, still more than i, to be your friends. here they are; they ask nothing from you in return, rather they are forward to labour in your behalf; it will be their pleasure to bear the brunt of battle in voluntary service. with them, god willing, you will gain vast territory; you will recover what was once your forefathers'; you will win for yourself new lands; and not lands only, but horses many, and of men a multitude, and many a fair dame besides. you will not need to seize upon them in robber fashion; it is your friends here who, of their own accord, shall take and bring them to you, they shall lay them at your feet as gifts." up got seuthes and drained with him the cup, and with him sprinkled the last drops fraternally ( ). ( ) or rather "saucer" ({phiale}). ( ) for the thracian custom, vide suidas, s.v. {kataskedazein}. at this stage entered musicians blowing upon horns such as they use for signal calls, and trumpeting on trumpets, made of raw oxhide, tunes and airs, like the music of the double-octave harp ( ). seuthes himself got up and shouted, trolling forth a war song; then he sprang from his place and leapt about as though he would guard himself against a missile, in right nimble style. then came in a set of clowns and jesters. ( ) or, "magadis." this is said to have been one of the most perfect instruments. it comprised two full octaves, the left hand playing the same notes as the right an octave lower. guhl and koner, p. , engl. transl. see also "dict. antiq." "musica"; and arist. "polit." xix. , {dia ti e dia pason sumphonia adetai mone; magasizousi gar tauten, allen de oudemian}, i.e. "since no interval except the octave ({dia pason}) could be 'magidised' (the effect of any other is well known to be intolerable), therefore no other interval was employed at all." but when the sun began to set, the hellenes rose from their seats. it was time, they said, to place the night sentinels and to pass the watchword; further, they begged of seuthes to issue an order that none of the thracians were to enter the hellenic camp at night, "since between your thracian foes and our thracian friends there might be some confusion." as they sallied forth, seuthes rose to accompany them, like the soberest of men. when they were outside, he summoned the generals apart and said: "sirs, our enemies are not aware as yet of our alliance. if, therefore, we attack them before they take precautions not to be caught, or are prepared to repel assault, we shall make a fine haul of captives and other stock." the generals fully approved of these views, and bade him lead on. he answered: "prepare and wait; as soon as the right time comes i will be with you. i shall pick up the peltasts and yourselves, and with the help of the gods, i will lead on." "but consider one point," urged xenophon; "if we are to march by night, is not the hellenic fashion best? when marching in the daytime that part of the army leads the van which seems best suited to the nature of the country to be traversed--heavy or light infantry, or cavalry; but by night our rule is that the slowest arm should take the lead. thus we avoid the risk of being pulled to pieces: and it is not so easy for a man to give his neighbour the slip without intending, whereas the scattered fragments of an army are apt to fall foul of one another, and to cause damage or incur it in sheer ignorance." to this seuthes replied: "you reason well, and i will adopt your custom. i will furnish you with guides chosen from the oldest experts of the country, and i will myself follow with the cavalry in the rear; it will not take me long, if need be, to present myself at the front." then, for kinship's sake, they chose "athenaia ( )" as their watchword. with this, they turned and sought repose. ( ) "our lady of athens." it was about midnight when seuthes presented himself with his cavalry troopers armed with corselets, and his light infantry under arms. as soon as he had handed over to them the promised guides, the heavy infantry took the van, followed by the light troops in the centre, while the cavalry brought up the rear. at daybreak seuthes rode up to the front. he complimented them on their method: so often had he himself, while marching by night with a mere handful of men, been separated with his cavalry from his infantry. "but now," said he, "we find ourselves at dawn of day all happily together, just as we ought to be. do you wait for me here," he proceeded, "and recruit yourselves. i will take a look round and rejoin you." so saying he took a certain path over hill and rode off. as soon as he had reached deep snow, he looked to see whether there were footprints of human beings leading forward or in the opposite direction; and having satisfied himself that the road was untrodden, back he came, exclaiming: "god willing, sirs, it will be all right; we shall fall on the fellows, before they know where they are. i will lead on with the cavalry; so that if we catch sight of any one, he shall not escape and give warning to the enemy. do you follow, and if you are left behind, keep to the trail of the horses. once on the other side of the mountains, we shall find ourselves in numerous thriving villages." by the middle of the day he had already gained the top of the pass and looked down upon the villages below. back he came riding to the heavy infantry and said: "i will at once send off the cavalry into the plain below, and the peltasts too, to attack the villages. do you follow with what speed you may, so that in case of resistance you may lend us your aid." hearing this, xenophon dismounted, and the other asked: "why do you dismount just when speed is the thing we want?" the other answered: "but you do not want me alone, i am sure. the hoplites will run all the quicker and more cheerily if i lead them on foot." thereupon seuthes went off, and timasion with him, taking the hellene squadron of something like forty troopers. then xenophon passed the order: the active young fellows up to thirty years of age from the different companies to the front; and off with these he went himself, bowling along ( ); while cleanor led the other hellenes. when they had reached the villages, seuthes, with about thirty troopers, rode up, exclaiming: "well, xenophon, this is just what you said! the fellows are caught, but now look here. my cavalry have gone off unsupported; they are scattered in pursuit, one here, one there, and upon my word, i am more than half afraid the enemy will collect somewhere and do them a mischief. some of us must remain in the villages, for they are swarming with human beings." "well then," said xenophon, "i will seize the heights with the men i have with me, and do you bid cleanor extend his line along the level beside the villages." when they had done so, there were enclosed--of captives for the slave market, one thousand; of cattle, two thousand; and of other small cattle, ten thousand. for the time being they took up quarters there. ( ) {etropkhaze}, a favourite word with our author. herodotus uses it; so does aristot.; so also polybius; but the atticists condemn it, except of course in poetry. iv but the next day seuthes burnt the villages to the ground; he left not a single house, being minded to inspire terror in the rest of his enemies, and to show them what they also were to expect, if they refused obedience; and so he went back again. as to the booty, he sent off heracliedes to perinthus to dispose of it, with a view to future pay for the soldiers. but for himself he encamped with the hellenes in the lowland country of the thynians, the natives leaving the flats and betaking themselves in flight to the uplands. there was deep snow, and cold so intense that the water brought in for dinner and the wine within the jars froze; and many of the hellenes had their noses and ears frost-bitten. now they came to understand why the thracians wear fox-skin caps on their heads and about their ears; and why, on the same principle, they are frocked not only about the chest and bust but so as to cover the loins and thighs as well; and why on horseback they envelop themselves in long shawls which reach down to the feet, instead of the ordinary short rider's cloak. seuthes sent off some of the prisoners to the hills with a message to say that if they did not come down to their homes, and live quietly and obey him, he would burn down their villages and their corn, and leave them to perish with hunger. thereupon down they came, women and children and the older men; the younger men preferred to quarter themselves in the villages on the skirts of the hills. on discovering this, seuthes bade xenophon take the youngest of the heavy infantry and join him on an expedition. they rose in the night, and by daybreak had reached the villages; but the majority of the inhabitants made good their escape, for the hills were close at hand. those whom he did catch, seuthes unsparingly shot down. now there was a certain olynthian, named episthenes; he was a great lover of boys, and seeing a handsome lad, just in the bloom of youth, and carrying a light shield, about to be slain, he ran up to xenophon and supplicated him to rescue the fair youth. xenophon went to seuthes and begged him not to put the boy to death. he explained to him the disposition of episthenes; how he had once enrolled a company, the only qualification required being that of personal beauty; and with these handsome young men at his side there were none so brave as he. seuthes put the question, "would you like to die on his behalf, episthenes?" whereat the other stretched out his neck, and said, "strike, if the boy bids you, and will thank his preserver." seuthes, turning to the boy, asked, "shall i smite him instead of you?" the boy shook his head, imploring him to slay neither the one nor the other, whereupon episthenes caught the lad in his arms, exclaiming, "it is time you did battle with me, seuthes, for my boy; never will i yield him up," and seuthes laughed: "what must be must," and so consented. in these villages he decided that they must bivouac, so that the men on the mountains might be still further deprived of subsistence. stealthily descending he himself found quarters in the plain; while xenophon with his picked troops encamped in the highest village on the skirts of the hills,; and the rest of the hellenes hard by, among the highland thracians ( ), as they are called. ( ) cf. "highlanders." after this, not many days had idly slipt away before the thracians from the mountains came down and wished to arrange with seuthes for terms of truce and hostages. simultaneously came xenophon and informed seuthes that they were camped in bad quarters, with the enemy next door; "it would be pleasanter too," he added, "to bivouac in a strong position in the open, than under cover on the edge of destruction." the other bade him take heart and pointed to some of their hostages, as much as to say "look there!" parties also from the mountaineers came down and pleaded with xenophon himself, to help arrange a truce for them. this he agreed to do, bidding them to pluck up heart, and assuring them that they would meet with no mischief, if they yielded obedience to seuthes. all their parleying, however, was, as it turned out, merely to get a closer inspection of things. this happened in the day, and in the following night the thynians descended from the hill country and made an attack. in each case, the guide was the master of the house attacked; otherwise it would have taxed their powers to discover the houses in the dark, which, for the sake of their flocks and herds, were palisaded all round with great stockades. as soon as they had reached the doors of any particular house, the attack began, some hurling in their spears, others belabouring with their clubs, which they carried, it was said, for the purpose of knocking off the lance points from the shaft. others were busy setting the place on fire; and they kept calling xenophon by name: "come out, xenophon, and die like a man, or we will roast you alive inside." by this time too the flames were making their appearance through the roof, and xenophon and his followers were within, with their coats of mail on, and big shields, swords, and helmets. then silanus, a macistian ( ), a youth of some eighteen years, signalled on the trumpet; and in an instant, out they all leapt with their drawn swords, and the inmates of other quarters as well. the thracians took to their heels, according to their custom, swinging their light shields round their backs. as they leapt over the stockade some were captured, hanging on the top with their shields caught in the palings; others missed the way out, and so were slain; and the hellenes chased them hotly, till they were outside the village. ( ) "of macistus," a town in the triphylia near scillus. a party of thynians turned back, and as the men ran past in bold relief against a blazing house, they let fly a volley of javelins, out of the darkness into the glare, and wounded two captains, hieronymus, an euodean ( ), and theogenes, a locrian. no one was killed, only the clothes and baggage of some of the men were consumed in the flames. presently up came seuthes to the rescue with seven troopers, the first to hand, and his thracian trumpeteer by his side. seeing that something had happened, he hastened to the rescue, and ever the while his bugler wound his horn, which music added terror to the foe. arrived at length, he greeted them with outstretched hand, exclaiming, "i thought to find you all dead men." ( ) if this is the same man as hieronymus of elis, who has been mentioned two or three times already, possibly the word {euodea} points to some town or district of elis; or perhaps the text is corrupt. after that, xenophon begged him to hand over the hostages to himself, and if so disposed, to join him on an expedition to the hills, or if not, to let him go alone. accordingly the next day seuthes delivered up the hostages. they were men already advanced in years, but the pick of the mountaineers, as they themselves gave out. not merely did seuthes do this, but he came himself, with his force at his back (and by this time he had treble his former force, for many of the odrysians, hearing of his proceedings, came down to join in the campaign); and the thynians, espying from the mountains the vast array of heavy infantry and light infantry and cavalry, rank upon rank, came down and supplicated him to make terms. "they were ready," they professed, "to do all that he demanded; let him take pledges of their good faith." so seuthes summoned xenophon and explained their proposals, adding that he should make no terms with them, if xenophon wished to punish them for their night attack. the latter replied: "for my part, i should think their punishment is great enough already, if they are to be slaves instead of free men; still," he added, "i advise you for the future to take as hostages those who are most capable of doing mischief, and to let the old men abide in peace at home." so to a man they gave in their adhesion in that quarter of the country. v crossing over in the direction of the thracians above byzantium, they reached the delta, as it is called. here they were no longer in the territory of the maesades, but in the country of teres the odrysian (an ancient worthy ( )). here heracleides met them with the proceeds of the spoil, and seuthes picked out three pairs of mules (there were only three, the other teams being oxen); then he summoned xenophon and bade him take them, and divide the rest between the generals and officers, to which xenophon replied that for himself, he was content to receive his share another time, but added: "make a present of these to my friends here, the generals who have served with me, and to the officers." so of the pairs of mules timasion the dardanian received one, cleanor the orchomenian one, and phryniscus the achaean one. the teams of oxen were divided among the officers. then seuthes proceeded to remit pay due for the month already passed, but all he could give was the equivalent of twenty days. heracleides insisted that this was all he had got by his trafficking. whereupon xenophon with some warmth exclaimed: "upon my word, heracleides, i do not think you care for seuthes' interest as you should. if you did, you have been at pains to bring back the full amount of the pay, even if you had had to raise a loan to do so, and, if by no other means, by selling the coat off your own back." ( ) see above re previous teres. the words "an ancient worthy" may possibly be an editor's or commentator's note. what he said annoyed heracleides, who was afraid of being ousted from the friendship of seuthes, and from that day forward he did his best to calumniate xenophon before seuthes. the soldiers, on their side, laid the blame of course on xenophon: "where was their pay?" and seuthes was vexed with him for persistently demanding it for them. up to this date he had frequently referred to what he would do when he got to the seaboard again; how he intended to hand over to him bisanthe, ganos, and neontichos ( ). but from this time forward he never mentioned one of them again. the slanderous tongue of heracleides had whispered him:--it was not safe to hand over fortified towns to a man with a force at his back. ( ) for bisanthe see above. ganos, a little lower down the coast, with neontichos once belonged to alcibiades, if we may believe cornelius nepos, "alc." vii. , and plutarch, "alc." c. . see above. consequently xenophon fell to considering what he ought to do as regards marching any further up the country; and heracleides introduced the other generals to seuthes, urging them to say that they were quite as well able to lead the army as xenophon, and promising them that within a day or two they should have full pay for two months, and he again implored them to continue the campaign with seuthes. to which timasion replied that for his part he would continue no campaign without xenophon; not even if they were to give him pay for five months; and what timasion said, phryniscus and cleanor repeated; the views of all three coincided. seuthes fell to upbraiding heracleides in round terms. "why had he not invited xenophon with the others?" and presently they invited him, but by himself alone. he, perceiving the knavery of heracleides, and that his object was to calumniate him with the other generals, presented himself; but at the same time he took care to bring all the generals and the officers. after their joint consent had been secured, they continued the campaign. keeping the pontus on their right, they passed through the millet-eating ( ) thracians, as they are called, and reached salmydessus. this is a point at which many trading vessels bound for the black sea run aground and are wrecked, owing to a sort of marshy ledge or sandbank which runs out for a considerable distance into the sea ( ). the thracians, who dwell in these parts, have set up pillars as boundary marks, and each set of them has the pillage of its own flotsom and jetsom; for in old days, before they set up these landmarks, the wreckers, it is said, used freely to fall foul of and slay one another. here was a rich treasure trove, of beds and boxes numberless, with a mass of written books, and all the various things which mariners carry in their wooden chests. having reduced this district, they turned round and went back again. by this time the army of seuthes had grown to be considerably larger than the hellenic army; for on the one hand, the odrysians flocked down in still larger numbers, and on the other, the tribes which gave in their adhesion from time to time were amalgamated with his armament. they got into quarters on the flat country above selybria at about three miles ( ) distance from the sea. as to pay, not a penny was as yet forthcoming, and the soldiers were cruelly disaffected to xenophon, whilst seuthes, on his side, was no longer so friendlily disposed. if xenophon ever wished to come face to face with him, want of leisure or some other difficulty always seemed to present itself. ( ) or, "the melinophagi." ( ) see, for a description of this savage coast, aesch. "prom." vinc. , etc.-- "{trakheia pontou salmudesia gnathos ekhthroxenos nautaisi, metruia neon.}" "the rugged salmudesian jaw of the black sea, inhospitable to sailors, stepmother of ships." but the poet is at fault in his geography, since he connects "the salmydesian jaw" with the thermodon. ( ) lit. "thirty stades." selybria is about fourty-four miles from byzantium, two-thirds of the way to perinthus. vi at this date, when nearly two months had already passed, an embassy arrived. these were two agents from thibron--charminus, a lacedaemonian, and polynicus. they were sent to say that the lacedaemonians had resolved to open a campaign against tissaphernes, and that thibron, who had set sail to conduct the war, was anxious to avail himself of the troops. he could guarantee that each soldier should receive a daric a month as pay, the officers double pay, and the generals quadruple. the lacedaemonian emissaries had no sooner arrived than heracleides, having learnt that they had come in search of the hellenic troops, goes off himself to seuthes and says: "the best thing that could have happened; the lacedaemonians want these troops and you have done with them, so that if you hand over the troops to them, you will do the lacedaemonians a good turn and will cease to be bothered for pay any more. the country will be quit of them once and for ever." on hearing this seuthes bade him introduce the emissaries. as soon as they had stated that the object of their coming was to treat for the hellenic troops, he replied that he would willingly give them up, that his one desire was to be the friend and ally of lacedaemon. so he invited them to partake of hospitality, and entertained them magnificently; but he did not invite xenophon, nor indeed any of the other generals. presently the lacedaemonians asked: "what sort of man is xenophon?" and seuthes answered: "not a bad fellow in most respects; but he is too much the soldiers' friend; and that is why it goes ill with him." they asked: "does he play the popular leader?" and heracleides answered: "exactly so." "well then," said they, "he will oppose our taking away the troops, will he not?" "to be sure he will," said heracleides; "but you have only to call a meeting of the whole body, and promise them pay, and little further heed will they pay to him; they will run off with you." "how then are we to get them collected?" they asked. "early to-morrow," said heracleides, "we will bring you to them; and i know," he added once more, "as soon as they set eyes on you, they will flock to you with alacrity." thus the day ended. the next day seuthes and heracleides brought the two laconian agents to the army, and the troops were collected, and the agents made a statement as follows: "the lacedaemonians have resolved on war with tissaphernes, who did you so much wrong. by going with us therefore you will punish your enemy, and each of you will get a daric a month, the officers twice that sum, and the generals quadruple." the soldiers lent willing ears, and up jumped one of the arcadians at once, to find fault with xenophon. seuthes also was hard by, wishing to know what was going to happen. he stood within ear shot, and his interpreter by his side; not but what he could understand most of what was said in greek himself. at this point the arcadian spoke: "for the matter of that, lacedaemonians, we should have been by your sides long ago, if xenophon had not persuaded us and brought us hither. we have never ceased campaigning, night and day, the dismal winter through, but he reaps the fruit of our toils. seuthes has enriched him privately, but deprives us of our honest earnings; so that, standing here as i do to address you first, all i can say is, that if i might see the fellow stoned to death as a penalty for all the long dance he has led us, i should feel i had got my pay in full, and no longer grudge the pains we have undergone." the speaker was followed by another and then another in the same strain; and after that xenophon made the following speech:-- "true is the old adage; there is nothing which mortal man may not expect to see. here am i being accused by you to-day, just where my conscience tells me that i have displayed the greatest zeal on your behalf. was i not actually on my road home when i turned back? not, god knows, because i learned that you were in luck's way, but because i heard that you were in sore straits, and i wished to help you, if in any way i could. i returned, and seuthes yonder sent me messenger after messenger, and made me promise upon promise, if only i could persuade you to come to him. yet, as you yourselves will bear me witness, i was not to be diverted. instead of setting my hand to do that, i simply led you to a point from which, with least loss of time, i thought you could cross into asia. this i believed was the best thing for you, and you i knew desired it. "but when aristarchus came with his ships of war and hindered our passage across, you will hardly quarrel with me for the step i then took in calling you together that we might advisedly consider our best course. having heard both sides--first aristarchus, who ordered you to march to the chersonese, then seuthes, who pleaded with you to undertake a campaign with himself--you all proposed to go with seuthes; and you all gave your votes to that effect. what wrong did i commit in bringing you, whither you were eager to go? if, indeed, since the time when seuthes began to tell lies and cheat us about the pay, i have supported him in this, you may justly find fault with me and hate me. but if i, who at first was most of all his friend, to-day am more than any one else at variance with him, how can i, who have chosen you and rejected seuthes, in fairness be blamed by you for the very thing which has been the ground of quarrel between him and me? but you will tell me, perhaps, that i get from seuthes what is by right yours, and that i deal subtly by you? but is it not clear that, if seuthes has paid me anything, he has at any rate not done so with the intention of losing by what he gives me, whilst he is still your debtor? if he gave to me, he gave in order that, by a small gift to me, he might escape a larger payment to yourselves. but if that is what you really think has happened, you can render this whole scheme of ours null and void in an instant by exacting from him the money which is your due. it is clear, seuthes will demand back from me whatever i have got from him, and he will have all the more right to do so, if i have failed to secure for him what he bargained for when i took his gifts. but indeed, i am far removed from enjoying what is yours, and i swear to you by all the gods and goddesses that i have not taken even what seuthes promised me in private. he is present himself and listening, and he is aware in his own heart whether i swear falsely. and what will surprise you the more, i can swear besides, that i have not received even what the other generals have received, no, nor yet what some of the officers have received. but how so? why have i managed my affairs no better? i thought, sirs, the more i helped him to bear his poverty at the time, the more i should make him my friend in the day of his power. whereas, it is just when i see the star of his good fortune rising, that i have come to divine the secret of his character. "some one may say, are you not ashamed to be so taken in like a fool? yes, i should be ashamed, if it had been an open enemy who had so deceived me. but, to my mind, when friend cheats friend, a deeper stain attaches to the perpetrator than to the victim of deceit. whatever precaution a man may take against his friend, that we took in full. we certainly gave him no pretext for refusing to pay us what he promised. we were perfectly upright in our dealings with him. we did not dawdle over his affairs, nor did we shrink from any work to which he challenged us. "but you will say, i ought to have taken security of him at the time, so that had he fostered the wish, he might have lacked the ability to deceive. to meet that retort, i must beg you to listen to certain things, which i should never have said in his presence, except for your utter want of feeling towards me, or your extraordinary ingratitude. try and recall the posture of your affairs, when i extricated you and brought you to seuthes. do you not recollect how at perinthus aristarchus shut the gates in your faces each time you offered to approach the town, and how you were driven to camp outside under the canopy of heaven? it was midwinter; you were thrown upon the resources of a market wherein few were the articles offered for sale, and scanty the wherewithal to purchase them. yet stay in thrace you must, for there were ships of war riding at anchor in the bay, ready to hinder your passage across; and what did that stay imply? it meant being in a hostile country, confronted by countless cavalry, legions of light infantry. and what had we? a heavy infantry force certainly, with which we could have dashed at villages in a body possibly, and seized a modicum of food at most; but as to pursuing the enemy with such a force as ours, or capturing men or cattle, the thing was out of the question; for when i rejoined you your original cavalry and light infantry divisions had disappeared. in such sore straits you lay! "supposing that, without making any demands for pay whatever, i had merely won for you the alliance of seuthes--whose cavalry and light infantry were just what you needed--would you not have thought that i had planned very well for you? i presume, it was through your partnership with him and his that you were able to find such complete stores of corn in the villages, when the thracians were driven to take to their heels in such hot haste, and you had so large a share of captives and cattle. why! from the day on which his cavalry force was attached to us, we never set eyes on a single foeman in the field, though up to that date the enemy with his cavalry and his light infantry used undauntedly to hang on our heels, and effectually prevented us from scattering in small bodies and reaping a rich harvest of provisions. but if he who partly gave you this security has failed to pay in full the wages due to you therefrom, is not that a terrible misfortune? so monstrous indeed that you think i ought not to go forth alive ( ). ( ) i.e. the fate of a scape-goat is too good for me. "but let me ask you, in what condition do you turn your backs on this land to-day? have you not wintered here in the lap of plenty? whatever you have got from seuthes has been surplus gain. your enemies have had to meet the bill of your expenses, whilst you led a merry round of existence, in which you have not once set eyes on the dead body of a comrade or lost one living man. again, if you have achieved any, (or rather many) noble deeds against the asiatic barbarian, you have them safe. and in addition to these to-day you have won for yourselves a second glory. you undertook a campaign against the european thracians, and have mastered them. what i say then is, that these very matters which you make a ground of quarrel against myself, are rather blessings for which you ought to show gratitude to heaven. "thus far i have confined myself to your side of the matter. bear with me, i beg you, while we examine mine. when i first essayed to part with you and journey homewards, i was doubly blest. from your lips i had won some praise, and, thanks to you, i had obtained glory from the rest of hellas. i was trusted by the lacedaemonians; else would they not have sent me back to you. whereas to-day i turn to go, calumniated before the lacedaemonians by yourselves, detested in your behalf by seuthes, whom i meant so to benefit, by help of you, that i should find in him a refuge for myself and for my children, if children i might have, in after time. and you the while, for whose sake i have incurred so much hate, the hate of people far superior to me in strength, you, for whom i have not yet ceased to devise all the good i can, entertain such sentiments about me. why? i am no renegade or runaway slave, you have got hold of. if you carry out what you say, be sure you will have done to death a man who has passed many a vigil in watching over you; who has shared with you many a toil and run many a risk in turn and out of turn; who, thanks to the gracious gods! has by your side set up full many a trophy over the barbarian; who, lastly, has strained every nerve in his body to protect you against yourselves. and so it is, that to-day you can move freely, where you choose, by sea or by land, and no one can say you nay; and you, on whom this large liberty dawns, who are sailing to a long desired goal, who are sought after by the greatest of military powers, who have pay in prospect, and for leaders these lacedaemonians, our acknowledged chiefs: now is the appointed time, you think, to put me to a speedy death. but in the days of our difficulties it was very different, o ye men of marvellous memory! no! in those days you called me 'father!' and you promised you would bear me ever in mind, 'your benefactor.' not so, however, not so ungracious are those who have come to you to-day; nor, if i mistake not, have you bettered yourselves in their eyes by your treatment of me." with these words he paused, and charminus the lacedaemonian got up and said: "nay, by the twins, you are wrong, surely, in your anger against this man; i myself can bear testimony in his favour. when polynicus and i asked seuthes, what sort of a man he was? seuthes answered:--he had but one fault to find with him, that he was too much the soldiers' friend, which also was the cause why things went wrong with him, whether as regards us lacedaemonians or himself, seuthes." upon that eurylochus of lusia, an arcadian, got up and said (addressing the two lacedaemonians), "yes, sirs; and what strikes me is that you cannot begin your generalship of us better than by exacting from seuthes our pay. whether he like it or no, let him pay in full; and do not take us away before." polycrates the athenian, who was put forward by xenophon, said: "if my eyes do not deceive me, sirs, there stands heracleides, yonder, the man who received the property won by our toil, who took and sold it, and never gave back either to seuthes or to us the proceeds of the sale, but kept the money to himself, like the thief he is. if we are wise, we will lay hold of him, for he is no thracian, but a hellene; and against hellenes is the wrong he has committed." when heracleides heard these words, he was in great consternation; so he came to seuthes and said: "if we are wise we will get away from here out of reach of these fellows." so they mounted their horses and were gone in a trice, galloping to their own camp. subsequently seuthes sent abrozelmes, his private interpreter, to xenophon, begging him to stay behind with one thousand heavy troops; and engaging duly to deliver to him the places on the seaboard, and the other things which he had promised; and then, as a great secret, he told him, that he had heard from polynicus that if he once got into the clutches of the lacedaemonians, thibron was certain to put him to death. similar messages kept coming to xenophon by letter or otherwise from several quarters, warning him that he was calumniated, and had best be on his guard. hearing which, he took two victims and sacrificed to zeus the king: "whether it were better and happier to stay with seuthes on the terms proposed, or depart with the army?" the answer he received was, "depart." vii after this, seuthes removed his camp to some considerable distance; and the hellenes took up their quarters in some villages, selecting those in which they could best supply their commissariat, on the road to the sea. now these particular villages had been given by seuthes to medosades. accordingly, when the latter saw his property in the villages being expended by the hellenes, he was not over well pleased; and taking with him an odrysian, a powerful person amongst those who had come down from the interior, and about thirty mounted troopers, he came and challenged xenophon to come forth from the hellenic host. he, taking some of the officers and others of a character to be relied upon, came forward. then medosades, addressing xenophon, said: "you are doing wrong to pillage our villages; we give you fair warning--i, in behalf of seuthes, and this man by my side, who comes from medocus, the king up country--to begone out of the land. if you refuse, understand, we have no notion of handing it over to you; but if you injure our country we will retaliate upon you as foes." xenophon, hearing what they had to say, replied: "such language addressed to us by you, of all people, is hard to answer. yet for the sake of the young man with you, i will attempt to do so, that at least he may learn how different your nature is from ours. we," he continued, "before we were your friends, had the free run of this country, moving this way or that, as it took our fancy, pillaging and burning just as we chose; and you yourself, medosades, whenever you came to us on an embassy, camped with us, without apprehension of any foe. as a tribe collectively you scarcely approached the country at all, or if you found yourselves in it, you bivouacked with your horses bitted and bridled, as being in the territory of your superiors. presently you made friends with us, and, thanks to us, by god's help you have won this country, out of which to-day you seek to drive us; a country which we held by our own strength and gave to you. no hostile force, as you well know, was capable of expelling us. it might have been expected of you personally to speed us on our way with some gift, in return for the good we did you. not so; even though our backs are turned to go, we are too slow in our movements for you. you will not suffer us to take up quarters even, if you can help it, and these words arouse no shame in you, either before the gods, or this odrysian, in whose eyes to-day you are man of means, though until you cultivated our friendship you lived a robber's life, as you have told us. however, why do you address yourself to me? i am no longer in command. our generals are the lacedaemonians, to whom you and yours delivered the army for withdrawal; and that, without even inviting me to attend, you most marvellous of men, so that if i lost their favour when i brought you the troops, i might now win their gratitude by restoring them." as soon as the odrysian had heard this statement, he exclaimed: "for my part, medosades, i sink under the earth for very shame at what i hear. if i had known the truth before, i would never have accompanied you. as it is, i return at once. never would king medocus applaud me, if i drove forth his benefactors." with these words, he mounted his horse and rode away, and with him the rest of his horsemen, except four or five. but medosades, still vexed by the pillaging of the country, urged xenophon to summon the two lacedaemonians; and he, taking the pick of his men, came to charminus and polynicus and informed them that they were summoned by medosades; probably they, like himself, would be warned to leave the country; "if so," he added, "you will be able to recover the pay which is owing to the army. you can say to them, that the army has requested you to assist in exacting their pay from seuthes, whether he like it or not; that they have promised, as soon as they get this, cheerfully to follow you; that the demand seems to you to be only just, and that you have accordingly promised not to leave, until the soldiers have got their dues." the lacedaemonians accepted the suggestion: they would apply these arguments and others the most forcible they could hit upon; and with the proper representatives of the army, they immediately set off. on their arrival charminus spoke: "if you have anything to say to us, medosades, say it; but if not, we have something to say to you." and medosades submissively made answer: "i say," said he, "and seuthes says the same: we think we have a right to ask that those who have become our friends should not be ill-treated by you; whatever ill you do to them you really do to us, for they are a part of us." "good!" replied the lacedaemonians, "and we intend to go away as soon as those who won for you the people and the territory in question have got their pay. failing that, we are coming without further delay to assist them and to punish certain others who have broken their oaths and done them wrong. if it should turn out that you come under this head, when we come to exact justice, we shall begin with you." xenophon added: "would you prefer, medosades, to leave it to these people themselves, in whose country we are (your friends, since this is the designation you prefer), to decide by ballot, which of the two should leave the country, you or we?" to that proposal he shook his head, but he trusted the two laconians might be induced to go to seuthes about the pay, adding, "seuthes, i am sure, will lend a willing ear;" or if they could not go, then he prayed them to send xenophon with himself, promising to lend the latter all the aid in his power, and finally he begged them not to burn the villages. accordingly they sent xenophon, and with him a serviceable staff. being arrived, he addressed seuthes thus:-- "seuthes, i am here to advance no claims, but to show you, if i can, how unjust it was on your part to be angered with me because i zealously demanded of you on behalf of the soldiers what you promised them. according to my belief, it was no less to your interest to deliver it up, than it was to theirs to receive it. i cannot forget that, next to the gods, it was they who raised you up to a conspicuous eminence, when they made you king of large territory and many men, a position in which you cannot escape notice, whether you do good or do evil. for a man so circumstanced, i regarded it as a great thing that he should avoid the suspicion even of ungrateful parting with his benefactors. it was a great thing, i thought, that you should be well spoken of by six thousand human beings; but the greatest thing of all, that you should in no wise discredit the sincerity of your own word. for what of the man who cannot be trusted? i see that the words of his mouth are but vain words, powerless, and unhonoured; but with him who is seen to regard truth, the case is otherwise. he can achieve by his words what another achieves by force. if he seeks to bring the foolish to their senses--his very frown, i perceive, has a more sobering effect than the chastisement inflicted by another. or in negotiations the very promises of such an one are of equal weight with the gifts of another. "try and recall to mind in your own case, what advance of money you made to us to purchase our alliance. you know you did not advance one penny. it was simply confidence in the sincerity of your word which incited all these men to assist you in your campaign, and so to acquire for you an empire, worth many times more than thirty talents, which is all they now claim to receive. here then, first of all, goes the credit which won for you your kingdom, sold for so mean a sum. let me remind you of the great importance which you then attached to the acquisition of your present conquests. i am certain that to achieve what stands achieved to-day, you would willingly have foregone the gain of fifty times that paltry sum. to me it seems that to lose your present fortune were a more serious loss than never to have won it; since surely it is harder to be poor after being rich than never to have tasted wealth at all, and more painful to sink to the level of a subject, being a king, then never to have worn a crown. "you cannot forget that your present vassals were not persuaded to become your subjects out of love for you, but by sheer force; and but for some restraining dread they would endeavour to be free again to-morrow. and how do you propose to stimulate their sense of awe, and keep them in good behaviour towards you? shall they see our soldiers so disposed towards you that a word on your part would suffice to keep them now, or if necessary would bring them back again to-morrow? while others hearing from us a hundred stories in your praise, hasten to present themselves at your desire? or will you drive them to conclude adversely, that through mistrust of what has happened now, no second set of soldiers will come to help you, for even these troops of ours are more their friends than yours? and indeed it was not because they fell short of us in numbers that they became your subjects, but from lack of proper leaders. there is a danger, therefore, now lest they should choose as their protectors some of us who regard ourselves as wronged by you, or even better men than us--the lacedaemonians themselves; supposing our soldiers undertake to serve with more enthusiasm, if the debt you owe to them be first exacted; and the lacedaemonians, who need their services, consent to this request. it is plain, at any rate, that the thracians, now prostrate at your feet, would display far more enthusiasm in attacking, than in assisting you; for your mastery means their slavery, and your defeat their liberty. "again, the country is now yours, and from this time forward you have to make provision for what is yours; and how will you best secure it an immunity from ill? either these soldiers receive their dues and go, leaving a legacy of peace behind, or they stay and occupy an enemy's country, whilst you endeavour, by aid of a still larger army, to open a new campaign and turn them out; and your new troops will also need provisions. or again, which will be the greater drain on your purse? to pay off your present debt, or, with that still owing, to bid for more troops, and of a better quality? "heracleides, as he used to prove to me, finds the sum excessive. but surely it is a far less serious thing for you to take and pay it back to-day than it would have been to pay the tithe of it, before we came to you; since the limit between less and more is no fixed number, but depends on the relative capacity of payer and recipient, and your yearly income now is larger than the whole property which you possessed in earlier days. "well, seuthes, for myself these remarks are the expression of friendly forethought for a friend. they are expressed in the double hope that you may show yourself worthy of the good things which the gods have given you, and that my reputation may not be ruined with the army. for i must assure you that to-day, if i wished to injure a foe, i could not do so with this army. nor again, if i wished to come and help you, should i be competent to the task; such is the disposition of the troops towards me. and yet i call you to witness, along with the gods who know, that never have i received anything from you on account of the soldiers. never to this day have i, to my private gain, asked for what was theirs, nor even claimed the promises which were made to myself; and i swear to you, not even had you proposed to pay me my dues, would i have accepted them, unless the soldiers also had been going to receive theirs too; how could i? how shameful it would have been in me, so to have secured my own interests, whilst i disregarded the disastrous state of theirs, i being so honoured by them. of course to the mind of heracleides this is all silly talk; since the one great object is to keep money by whatever means. that is not my tenet, seuthes. i believe that no fairer or brighter jewel can be given to a man, and most of all a prince, than the threefold grace of valour, justice, and generosity. he that possesses these is rich in the multitude of friends which surround him; rich also in the desire of others to be included in their number. while he prospers, he is surrounded by those who will rejoice with him in his joy; or if misfortune overtake him, he has no lack of sympathisers to give him help. however, if you have failed to learn from my deeds that i was, heart and soul, your friend; if my words are powerless to reveal the fact to-day, i would at least direct your attention to what the soldiers said; you were standing by and heard what those who sought to blame me said. they accused me to the lacedaemonians, and the point of their indictment was that i set greater store by yourself than by the lacedaemonians; but, as regards themselves, the charge was that i took more pains to secure the success of your interests than their own. they suggested that i had actually taken gifts from you. was it, do you suppose, because they detected some ill-will in me towards you that they made the allegation? was it not rather, that they had noticed my abundant zeal on your behalf? "all men believe, i think, that a fund of kindly feeling is due to him from whom we accept gifts. but what is your behaviour? before i had ministered to you in any way, or done you a single service, you welcomed me kindly with your eyes, your voice, your hospitality, and you could not sate yourself with promises of all the fine things that were to follow. but having once achieved your object, and become the great man you now are, as great indeed as i could make you, you can stand by and see me degraded among my own soldiers! well, time will teach you--that i fully believe--to pay whatever seems to you right, and even without the lessons of that teacher you will hardly care to see whose who have spent themselves in benefiting you, become your accusers. only, when you do pay your debt, i beg of you to use your best endeavour to right me with the soldiers. leave me at least where you found me; that is all i ask." after listening to this appeal, seuthes called down curses on him, whose fault it was, that the debt had not long ago been paid, and, if the general suspicion was correct, this was heracleides. "for myself," said seuthes, "i never had any idea of robbing you of your just dues. i will repay." then xenophon rejoined: "since you are minded to pay, i only ask that you will do so through me, and will not suffer me on your account to hold a different position in the army from what i held when we joined you." he replied: "as far as that goes, so far from holding a less honoured position among your own men on my account, if you will stay with me, keeping only a thousand heavy infantry, i will deliver to you the fortified places and everything i promised." the other answered: "on these terms i may not accept them, only let us go free." "nay, but i know," said seuthes, "that it is safer for you to bide with me than to go away." then xenophon again: "for your forethought i thank you, but i may not stay. somewhere i may rise to honour, and that, be sure, shall redound to your gain also." thereupon seuthes spoke: "of silver i have but little; that little, however, i give to you, one talent; but of beeves i can give you six hundred head, and of sheep four thousand, and of slaves six score. these take, and the hostages besides, who wronged you, and begone." xenophon laughed and said: "but supposing these all together do not amount to the pay; for whom is the talent, shall i say? it is a little dangerous for myself, is it not? i think i had better be on the look-out for stones when i return. you heard the threats?" so for the moment he stayed there, but the next day seuthes gave up to them what he had promised, and sent an escort to drive the cattle. the soldiers at first maintained that xenophon had gone to take up his abode with seuthes, and to receive what he had been promised; so when they saw him they were pleased, and ran to meet him. and xenophon, seeing charminus and polynicus, said: "thanks to your intervention, this much has been saved for the army. my duty is to deliver this fraction over to your keeping; do you divide and distribute it to the soldiers." accordingly they took the property and appointed official vendors of the booty, and in the end incurred considerable blame. xenophon held aloof. in fact it was no secret that he was making his preparations to return home, for as yet the vote of banishment had not been passed at athens ( ). but the authorities in the camp came to him and begged him not to go away until he had conducted the army to its destination, and handed it over to thibron. ( ) i.e. "at this moment the vote of banishment had not been passed which would prevent his return to athens." the natural inference from these words is, i think, that the vote of banishment was presently passed, at any rate considerably earlier than the battle of coronea in b.c. , five years and a half afterwards. viii from this place they sailed across to lampsacus, and here xenophon was met by eucleides the soothsayer, a phliasian, the son of cleagoras, who painted "the dreams ( )" in the lycium. eucleides congratulated xenophon upon his safe return, and asked him how much gold he had got? and xenophon had to confess: "upon my word, i shall have barely enough to get home, unless i sell my horse, and what i have about my person." the other could not credit the statement. now when the lampsacenes sent gifts of hospitality to xenophon, and he was sacrificing to apollo, he requested the presence of eucleides; and the latter, seeing the victims, said: "now i believe what you said about having no money. but i am certain," he continued, "if it were ever to come, there is an obstacle in the way. if nothing else, you are that obstacle yourself." xenophon admitted the force of that remark. then the other: "zeus meilichios ( ) is an obstacle to you, i am sure," adding in another tone of voice, "have you tried sacrificing to that god, as i was wont to sacrifice and offer whole burnt offerings for you at home?" xenophon replied that since he had been abroad, he had not sacrificed to that god. accordingly eucleides counselled him to sacrifice in the old customary way: he was sure that his fortune would improve. the next day xenophon went on to ophrynium and sacrificed, offering a holocaust of swine, after the custom of his family, and the signs which he obtained were favourable. that very day bion and nausicleides arrived laden with gifts for the army. these two were hospitably entertained by xenophon, and were kind enough to repurchase the horse he had sold in lampsacus for fifty darics; suspecting that he had parted with it out of need, and hearing that he was fond of the beast they restored it to him, refusing to be remunerated. ( ) reading {ta enupnia}, or if {ta entoikhia} with hug and others, translate "the wall-paintings" or the "frescoes." others think that a writing, not a painting, is referred to. ( ) zeus meilichios, or the gentle one. see thuc. i. . the festival of the diasia at athens was in honour of that god, or rather of zeus under that aspect. cf. arist. "clouds," . from that place they marched through the troad, and, crossing mount ida, arrived at antandrus, and then pushed along the seaboard of mysia to the plain of thebe ( ). thence they made their way through adramytium and certonus ( ) by atarneus, coming into the plain of the caicus, and so reached pergamus in mysia. ( ) thebe, a famous ancient town in mysia, at the southern foot of mt. placius, which is often mentioned in homer ("il." i. , vi. , xxii. , ii. ). see "dict. geog." s.v. the name {thebes pedion} preserves the site. cf. above {kaustrou pedion}, and such modern names as "the campagna" or "piano di sorrento." ( ) the site of certonus is not ascertained. some critics have conjectured that the name should be cytonium, a place between mysia and lydia; and hug, who reads {kutoniou}, omits {odeusantes par 'atanea}, "they made their way by atarneus," as a gloss. here xenophon was hospitably entertained at the house of hellas, the wife of gongylus the eretrian ( ), the mother of gorgion and gongylus. from her he learnt that asidates, a persian notable, was in the plain. "if you take thirty men and go by night, you will take him prisoner," she said, "wife, children, money, and all; of money he has a store;" and to show them the way to these treasures, she sent her own cousin and daphnagoras, whom she set great store by. so then xenophon, with these two to assist, did sacrifice; and basias, an eleian, the soothsayer in attendance, said that the victims were as promising as could be, and the great man would be an easy prey. accordingly, after dinner he set off, taking with him the officers who had been his staunchest friends and confidants throughout; as he wished to do them a good turn. a number of others came thrusting themselves on their company, to the number of six hundred, but the officers repelled them: "they had no notion of sharing their portion of the spoil," they said, "just as though the property lay already at their feet." ( ) cf. thuc. i. ; also "hell." iii. i. . about midnight they arrived. the slaves occupying the precincts of the tower, with the mass of goods and chattles, slipped through their fingers, their sole anxiety being to capture asidates and his belongings. so they brought their batteries to bear, but failing to take the tower by assault (since it was high and solid, and well supplied with ramparts, besides having a large body of warlike defenders), they endeavoured to undermine it. the wall was eight clay bricks thick, but by daybreak the passage was effected and the wall undermined. at the first gleam of light through the aperture, one of the defendants inside, with a large ox-spit, smote right through the thigh of the man nearest the hole, and the rest discharged their arrows so hotly that it was dangerous to come anywhere near the passage; and what with their shouting and kindling of beacon fires, a relief party at length arrived, consisting of itabelius at the head of his force, and a body of assyrian heavy infantry from comania, and some hyrcanian cavalry ( ), the latter also being mercenaries of the king. there were eighty of them, and another detachment of light troops, about eight hundred, and more from parthenium, and more again from apollonia and the neighbouring places, also cavalry. ( ) the hyrcanian cavalry play an important part in the "cyropaedeia." they are the scirites of the assyrian army who came over to cyrus after the first battle. their country is the fertile land touching the south-eastern corner of the caspian. cf. "cyrop." iv. ii. , where the author (or an editor) appends a note on the present status of the hyrcanians. it was now high time to consider how they were to beat a retreat. so seizing all the cattle and sheep to be had, with the slaves, they put them within a hollow square and proceed to drive them off. not that they had a thought to give to the spoils now, but for precaution's sake and for fear lest if they left the goods and chattels behind and made off, the retreat would rapidly degenerate into a stampede, the enemy growing bolder as the troops lost heart. for the present then they retired as if they meant to do battle for the spoils. as soon as gongylus espied how few the hellenes were and how large the attacking party, out he came himself, in spite of his mother, with his private force, wishing to share in the action. another too joined in the rescue--procles, from halisarna and teuthrania, a descendant of damaratus. by this time xenophon and his men were being sore pressed by the arrows and slingstones, though they marched in a curve so as to keep their shields facing the missiles, and even so, barely crossed the river carcasus, nearly half of them wounded. here it was that agasias the stymphalian, the captain, received his wound, while keeping up a steady unflagging fight against the enemy from beginning to end. and so they reached home in safety with about two hundred captives, and sheep enough for sacrifices. the next day xenophon sacrificed and led out the whole army under the cover of night, intending to pierce far into the heart of lydia with a view to lulling to sleep the enemy's alarm at his proxmity, and so in fact to put him off his guard. but asidates, hearing that xenophon had again sacrificed with the intention of another attack, and was approaching with his whole army, left his tower and took up quarters in some villages lying under the town of parthenium. here xenophon's party fell in with him, and took him prisoner, with his wife, his children, his horses, and all that he had; and so the promise of the earlier victims was literally fulfilled. after that they returned again to pergamus, and here xenophon might well thank god with a warm heart, for the laconians, the officers, the other generals, and the soldiers as a body united to give him the pick of horses and cattle teams, and the rest; so that he was now in a position himself to do another a good turn. meanwhile thibron arrived and received the troops which he incorporated with the rest of his hellenic forces, and so proceeded to prosecute a war against tissaphernes and pharnabazus ( ). ( ) the mss. add: "the following is a list of the governors of the several territories of the king which were traversed by us during the expedition: artimas, governor of lydia; artacamas, of phrygia; mithridates, of lycaonia and cappadocia; syennesis, of cilicia; dernes, of phoenicia and arabia; belesys, of syria and assyria; rhoparas, of babylon; arbacus, of media; tiribazus, of the phasians and hesperites. then some independent tribes--the carduchians or kurds, and chalybes, and chaldaeans, and macrones, and colchians, and mossynoecians, and coetians, and tibarenians. then corylas, the governor of paphlagonia; pharnabazus, of the bithynians; seuthes, of the european thracians. the entire journey, ascent and descent, consisted of two hundred and fifteen stages = one thousand one hundred and fifty-five parasangs = thirty-four thousand six hundred and fifty stades. computed in time, the length of ascent and descent together amounted to one year and three months." the annotator apparently computes the distance from ephesus to cotyora. [illustration: in the desert sunrise] a ride to india across persia and baluchistÁn. by harry de windt, f.r.g.s., author of "from pekin to calais by land," etc. with illustrations by herbert walker _from sketches by the author_. . to audley lovell, esquire, coldstream guards, this volume is dedicated. contents chapter i. tiflis--baku ii. the caspian--astarÁ--rÉsht iii. rÉsht--patchinar iv. patchinar--teherÁn v. teherÁn vi. teherÁn--ispahÁn vii. ispahÁn--shirÁz viii. shirÁz--bushire ix. baluchistÁn--beila x. baluchistÁn--gwarjak xi. kelÁt--quetta--bombay appendix map list of illustrations. * * * * * in the desert sunrise tiflis a dirty night in the caspian astarÁ, russo-persian frontier crossing the kharzÁn teherÁn persian dancing-girl post-house at kushku baira a corpse caravan a day in the snow a family party yezdi-ghazt the caravanserai, meyun kotal sonmiani our camp at outhal malak a "zigri" at gwarjak nomad baluch tent jebri kelÁt palace of h.h. the khan kelÁt the khan of kelÁt a ride to india. chapter i. tiflis--baku. "ceci non!" a spacious apartment, its polished _parquet_ strewn with white bearskins and the thickest and softest of persian rugs; its panelled walls hung with oriental tapestries, costly daggers, pistols, and shields of barbaric, but beautiful, workmanship, glistening with gold and silver. every detail of the room denotes the artistic taste of the owner. inlaid tables and japanese cabinets are littered with priceless porcelain and _cloisonné_, old silver, and diamond-set miniatures; the low divans are heaped with cushions of deep-tinted satin and gold; heavy violet plush curtains drape the windows; while huge palms, hothouse plants, and bunches of sweet-smelling russian violets occupy every available nook and corner. the pinewood fire flashes fitfully on a masterpiece of vereschágin's, which stands on an easel by the hearth, and the massive gold "ikon," [a] encrusted with diamonds and precious stones, in the corner. a large oil painting of his majesty the czar of russia hangs over the marble chimneypiece. it is growing dark. already a wintry wilderness of garden without, upon which snow and sleet are pitilessly beating, is barely discernible. by the window looms, through the dusk, the shadowy shape of an enormous stuffed tiger, crouched as if about to spring upon a spare white-haired man in neat dark green uniform, who, seated at a writing-table covered with papers and official documents, has just settled himself more comfortably in a roomy armchair. with a pleasant smile, and a long pull at a freshly lit "papirosh," he gives vent to his feelings with the remark that heads this chapter. there is silence for a while, unbroken save by the crackle of blazing logs and occasional rattle of driving sleet against the window-panes. it is the th of january (o.s.). i am at tiflis, in the palace of prince dondoukoff korsákoff, governor of the caucasus, and at the present moment in that august personage's presence. "ceci non!" repeats the prince a second time, in answer to my request; adding impatiently, "they should know better in london than to send you to me. the war minister in st. petersburg alone has power to grant foreigners permission to visit central asia. you must apply to him, but let me first warn you that it is a long business. no"--after a pause--"no; were i in your place i would go to persia. it is a country replete with interest." i know, from bitter experience of russian officials, that further parley is useless. making my bow with as good a grace as possible under the circumstances, i take leave of the governor and am escorted by an aide-de-camp, resplendent in white and gold, through innumerable vestibules, and down the great marble staircase, to where my sleigh awaits me in the cutting north-easter and whirling snow. gliding swiftly homewards along the now brilliantly lit boulevards, i realize for the first time that mine has been but a wild-goose chase after all; that, if india is to be reached by land, it is not _viâ_ merv and cábul, but by way of persia and baluchistán. the original scheme was a bold one, and i derive some consolation in the thought that the journey would most probably have ended in defeat. this was the idea. from tiflis to baku, and across the caspian to ouzoun Áda, the western terminus of the trans-caspian railway. thence by rail to merv and bokhára, and from the latter city direct to india, _viâ_ balkh and cábul, afghanistán. a more interesting journey can scarcely be conceived, but fate and the russian government decreed that it was not to be. not only was i forbidden to use the railway, but (notwithstanding the highest recommendation from the russian ambassador in london) even to set foot in trans-caspia. the old adage, "delay is dangerous," is never so true as when applied to travel. the evening of my interview with the governor, i had resolved, ere retiring to rest, to make for india _viâ_ teherán. my route beyond that city was, perforce, left to chance, and the information i hoped to gain in the shah's capital. tiflis, capital of the caucasus, is about midway between the black and caspian seas, and lies in a valley between two ranges of low but precipitous hills. the river kúr, a narrow but swift and picturesque stream spanned by three bridges, bisects the city, which is divided in three parts: the russian town, european colony, and asiatic quarter. the population of over a hundred thousand is indeed a mixed one. although georgians form its bulk, persia contributes nearly a quarter, the rest being composed of russians, germans, french, armenians, greeks, tartars, circassians, jews, turks, and heaven knows what besides. [b] tiflis is a city of contrasts. the principal boulevard, with its handsome stone buildings and shops, tramways, gay cafés, and electric light, would compare favourably with the nevski prospect in st. petersburg, or almost any first-class european thoroughfare; and yet, almost within a stone's throw, is the asiatic quarter, where the traveller is apparently as far removed from western civilization as in the most remote part of persia or turkestán. the armenian and persian bazaars are perhaps the most interesting, i doubt whether the streets of yèzd or bokhára present so strange and picturesque a sight, such vivid effects of movement and colour. every race, every nationality, is represented, from the stalwart, ruddy-faced russian soldier in flat white cap and olive-green tunic, to the grave, stately arab merchant with huge turban and white draperies, fresh from bagdad or bussorah. georgians and circassians in scarlet tunics and silver cartridge-belts, turks in fez and frock-coat, greeks and albanians in snowy petticoats and black gaiters, khivans in furs and quaint conical lamb's-wool hats, tartars from the steppes, turkomans from merv, parsees from bombay, african negroes,--all may be seen in the tiflis bazaar during the busy part of the day. but woe to the luckless european who, tempted by the beauty of their wares, has dealings with the wily persian merchant. there is a proverb in tiflis that "it takes two jews to rob an armenian, two armenians to rob a persian," and the "accursed faringi" is mercilessly swindled whenever he ventures upon a bargain. with the exception of the aforesaid boulevard, the european quarter of tiflis presents the same mixture of squalor and grandeur found in most russian towns, st. petersburg not excepted. there is the same dead, drab look about the streets and houses, the same absence of colour, the same indescribable smell of mud, leather, and drainage, familiar to all who have visited asiatic russia. i had intended remaining a couple of days, at most, in tiflis, but my stay was now indefinitely prolonged. such a severe winter had not been known for years. the mountain passes into persia were reported impassable, and the line to baku had for some days been blocked with snow. my russian christmas (which falls, o.s., on our th of january) was not a cheerful one. a prisoner in a stuffy bedroom of the hôtel de londres, i sat at the window most of the day, consuming innumerable glasses of tea and cigarettes, watching the steadily falling snow, and wondering whether the weather would ever clear and allow me to escape from a place so full of unpleasant associations, and which had brought me so much disappointment and vexation. the loud laughter and bursts of song that ascended every now and then from the crowded _salle-á-manger_ (for the hôtel de londres is the "maison dorée" of tiflis) only served to increase my depression and melancholy. had there been a train available, i verily believe i should have taken a ticket then and there, and returned to england! but morning brings consolation in the shape of blue sky and dazzling sunshine. the snow has ceased, apparently for good. descending to breakfast full of plans for the future, i find awaiting me an individual destined to play an important part in these pages--one gerôme realini, a levantine russian subject, well acquainted with the persian language--who offers to accompany me to india as interpreter. his terms are moderate, and credentials first-rate. the latter include one from baker pasha, with whom he served on the turkoman frontier expedition. more for the sake of a companion than anything else, i close with gerôme, who, though he does not understand one word of english, speaks french fluently. there is a very natural prejudice against the levantine race, but my new acquaintance formed an exception to the rule. i never had reason to regret my bargain; a better servant, pluckier traveller, or cheerier companion no man could wish for. gerôme had just returned from a visit to bokhára, and his accounts of central asia were certainly not inviting. the trans-caspian railway was so badly laid that trains frequently ran off the line. there was no arrangement for water, travellers being frequently delayed three or four hours, while blocks of ice were melted for the boiler; while the so-called first-class carriages were filthy, and crowded with vermin. the advance of holy russia had apparently not improved merv, which had become, since its annexation, a kind of inferior port said, a refuge for the scum, male and female, of st. petersburg, moscow, and odessa. drunkenness and debauchery reigned paramount. low gambling-houses, _café chantants_, and less reputable establishments flourished under the liberal patronage of the russian officers, who, out of sheer _ennui_, ruined their pockets and constitutions with drunken orgies, night and day. there was no order of any kind, no organized police-force, and robberies and assassinations took place almost nightly. small-pox was raging in the place when gerôme left it; also a loathsome disease called the "bouton d'alep "--a painful boil which, oddly enough, always makes its appearance upon the body in odd numbers, never in even. it is caused by drinking or washing in unboiled water. though seldom fatal, there is no cure for the complaint but complete change of climate. we now set about making preparations for the journey. provisions, saddlery, both had to be thought of; and, having laid in a small stock of liebig, tea, biscuits, chocolate, and cigarettes (for space was limited), i proceeded, under gerôme's guidance, to purchase a saddle. seventy-five roubles bought a capital one, including bridle. here let me advise those visiting persia to follow my example, and buy their saddlery in tiflis. there is a heavy duty payable on foreign saddles in russia, and they are not one whit better, or indeed so well suited to the purpose, as those made in the caucasus. one hears a deal, in europe, of the beauty of the circassian and georgian women. although i remained in tiflis over a week, i did not see a single pretty woman among the natives. as in every russian town, however, the "moushtaïd," or "bois de boulogne" of tiflis, was daily, the theatre nightly, crowded with pretty faces of the dark-eyed, oval-faced russian type. the new opera-house, a handsome building near the governor's palace, is not yet completed. the hôtel de londres was the favourite _rendezvous_ after the play. here till the small hours assembled nightly the _élite_ of european tiflis. russian and georgian officers in gorgeous uniforms of dark green, gold lace, and astrachan; french and german merchants with their wives and daughters; with a sprinkling _demi-mondaines_ from odessa or kharkoff, sipping tea or drinking kummel and "kakèti" at the little marble tables, and discussing the latest scandals. kakèti, a wine not unlike carlowitz, is grown in considerable quantities in the caucasus. there are two kinds, red and white, but the former is considered the best. though sound and good, it is cheap enough--one rouble the quart. tobacco is also grown in small quantities in parts of georgia and made into cigarettes, which are sold in tiflis at three kopeks per hundred. but it is poor, rank stuff, and only smoked by the peasantry and droshki-drivers. [illustration: tiflis] tiflis has a large and important garrison, but is not fortified. its topographical depôt is one of the best in russia, and i managed, not without some difficulty, to obtain from it maps of afghanistán and baluchistán. the latter i subsequently found better and far more accurate than any obtainable in england. the most insignificant hamlets and unimportant camel-tracks and wells were set down with extraordinary precision, especially those in the districts around kelát. there is plenty of sport to be had round tiflis. the shooting is free excepting over certain tracts of country leased by the tiflis shooting-club. partridge, snipe, and woodcock abound, and there are plenty of deer and wild boar within easy distance of the capital. ibex is also found in the higher mountain ranges. for this (if for no other reason) tiflis seems to be increasing in popularity every year for european tourists. it is now an easy journey of little over a week from england, with the advantage that one may travel by land the whole way from calais. this route is _viâ_ berlin, cracow, kharkoff, and vladikavkas, and from the latter place by coach (through the dariel gorge) to tiflis. the purchase of a warm astrachan bonnet, a bourka, [c] and bashlik, [d] completed my outfit. it now consisted of two small portmanteaus (to be changed at teherán for saddle-bags), a common canvas sack for sleeping purposes, and a brace of revolvers. gerôme was similarly accoutred, with the exception of the portmanteaus. my interpreter was evidently not luxuriously inclined, for his _impedimenta_ were all contained in a small black leather hand-bag! all being ready, eleven o'clock on the night of the th of january found us standing on the platform of the tiflis railway station, awaiting the arrival of the baku train, which had been delayed by a violent storm down the line. i received a letter from the governor a few hours before my departure, wishing me _bon voyage_, and enclosing a document to ensure help and civility from the officials throughout his dominions. it may seem ungrateful, but i felt that i could well have dispensed with this, especially as i was leaving his excellency's government at baku, a distance of only ten hours by rail. it was again snowing hard, and the east wind cut through my bourka as if it had been a thin linen jacket. seeking shelter in the crowded, stuffy waiting-room, we solaced ourselves with cigarettes and vodka till past a.m., when the train arrived. another delay of two hours now occurred, the engine having broken down; but the carriages, like those of most russian railways, were beautifully warmed, and we slept soundly, undisturbed by the howling of the wind and shouting of railway officials. when i awoke, we were swiftly rattling through the dreary monotonous steppe country that separates tiflis from the caspian sea. the russians may, according to english ideas, be uncivilized in many ways, but they are undoubtedly far ahead of other european nations, with the exception perhaps of france, as regards railway travelling. although the speed is slow, nothing is left undone, on the most isolated lines, to ensure comfort, not to say luxury. even in this remote district the refreshment-rooms were far above the average in england. at akstafá, for instance, a station surrounded by a howling wilderness of steppe and marsh; well-cooked viands, game, pastry, and other delicacies, gladdened the eye, instead of the fly-blown buns and petrified sandwiches only too familiar to the english railway traveller. the best railway buffet i have ever seen is at tiumen, the terminus of the oural railway, and actually in siberia. railway travelling has, however, one drawback in this part of russia, which, though it does not upset the arrangements of a casual traveller, must seriously inconvenience the natives--the distance of stations from towns. we drank tea, a couple of hours or so before arriving at baku, at a station situated more than one hundred versts [e] from the town of its name. the inhabitants of the latter seldom availed themselves of the railway, but found it easier, except in very bad weather, to drive or ride to the caspian port. the dull wintry day wears slowly away, as we crawl along past league upon league of wild steppe land. the _coup d'oeil_ from our carriage-window is not inspiriting. it rests upon a bare, bleak landscape, rolling away to the horizon, of waves of drab and dirty-green land, unbroken save for here and there a pool of stagnant water, rotting in a fringe of sedge and rush, or an occasional flock of wild-fowl. at rare intervals we pass, close to the line, a tartar encampment. half a dozen dirty brown tents surrounded by horses, camels, and thin shivering cattle, the latter covered with coarse sack-clothing tied round their bellies to protect them from the cutting blast that sweeps from the coast across this land of desolation. none of the human population are visible, and no wonder. it must be cold enough outside. even in this well-warmed compartment one can barely keep feet and fingers from getting numbed. it is almost dark when, towards six o'clock, there appears, far ahead, a thin streak of silver, separating the dreary brown landscape from the cold grey sky. "we have nearly arrived, monsieur," says gerôme. "there is the caspian sea." [footnote a: the sacred image of the saviour or holy virgin.] [footnote b: the name tiflis is derived from _tbilis kalaki_, or "hot town," so called from the hot mineral springs near which it stands.] [footnote c: _bourka_, a long sleeveless coat made of goatskin.] [footnote d: _bashlik_, the soft camel-hair hood and neckerchief in one, worn by russian soldiers.] [footnote e: a _verst_ is about three-quarters of a mile.] chapter ii. the caspian--astarÁ--rÉsht. i arrived in baku on (the russian) new year's eve, and found railway officials, porters, and droshki-drivers all more or less fuddled with drink in consequence. with some difficulty we persuaded one of the latter to drive us to the hotel, a clean and well-appointed house, a stone's throw from the quay. our isvostchik [a] was very drunk. his horses, luckily for us, were quiet; for he fell off his box on the way, and smilingly, but firmly, declined to remount. gerôme then piloted the troika safely to our destination, leaving jehu prone in the mud. baku, a clean, well laid-out city of sixty thousand inhabitants, is the most important town on the shores of the caspian. its name is said to be derived from the persian words _bad_, "the wind," and _kubeda_, "beaten," signifying "wind-beaten;" and this seems credible, for violent storms are prevalent along the coast. the town is essentially european in character. one can scarcely realize that only fifty years ago a tumble-down persian settlement stood on the spot now occupied by broad, well-paved, gas-lit streets, handsome stone buildings, warehouses, and shops. baku has, like tiflis, a mixed population. although russians and tartars form its bulk, france, germany, italy, greece, turkey, and persia are all represented, most of the europeans being employed in the manufacture of petroleum. the naphtha springs are said to yield over , tons of oil yearly. a french engineer, mr. b----, whose acquaintance i made at the hotel, described baku as terribly monotonous and depressing to live in after a time. there is not a tree or sign of vegetation for miles round the town--nothing but bleak, desolate steppe and marsh, unproductive of sport and cultivation, or, indeed, of anything save miasma and fever. in summer the heat, dust, and flies are intolerable; in winter the sun is seldom seen. there is no amusement of any kind--no _café_, no band, no theatre, to go to after the day's work. this seemed to distress the poor parisian exile more than anything, more even than the smell of oil, which, from the moment you enter until you leave baku, there is no getting away from. although the wells are fully three miles away, the table-cloths and napkins were saturated with it, and the very food one ate had a faint sickly flavour of naphtha. "i bathed in the caspian once last summer," said mr. b------, despairingly, "and did not get the smell out of my skin for a week, during which time my friends forbade me their houses! mon dieu! quel pays!" the steamer for enzelli was to leave at eleven. having wished my french friend farewell, and a speedy return to his native country, we set out for the quay. the night was fine, but away to our left dense clouds of thick black smoke obscured the lights of the town and starlit sky, while the furnaces of the "tchornigorod" [b] blazed out of the darkness, their flames reflected in the dark waters of the caspian, turning the little harbour into a lake of fire. the landing stage is crowded with passengers--a motley crowd of russian officials, soldiers, peasants, and tartars. with difficulty we struggle through the noisy, drunken rabble, for the most part engaged in singing, cursing, fighting, and embracing by turns, and succeed at last in finding our ship, the _kaspia_, a small steamer of about a hundred and fifty tons burthen. the captain is, fortunately for us, sober, which is more than can be said of the crew. alongside us lies the _bariatinsky_, a large paddle-steamer bound for ouzounada, the terminus of the trans-caspian railway. she also is on the point of departure, and i notice, with relief, that most of the crowd are making their way on board her. the passenger-steamers on the caspian are the property of the caucase-mercure company, a russian firm. they are, with few exceptions, as unseaworthy as they are comfortless, which says a great deal. all are of iron, and were built in england and sweden, sent to st. petersburg by sea, there taken to pieces and despatched overland to nijni-novgorod, on the volga. at nijni they were repieced and taken down the volga to the caspian. the _bariatinsky_ was first away, her decks crammed with soldiers bound for central asia. they treated us to a vocal concert as the ship left port, and i paced the moonlit deck for some time, listening to the sweet sad airs sung with the pathos and harmony that seems born in every russian, high or low. i retired to rest with the "matoushka volga," a boat-song popular the length and breadth of russia, ringing in my ears. there are no private cabins on board the _kaspia_. i share the stuffy saloon with a greasy german jew (who insists on shutting all the portholes), an armenian gentleman, his wife, and two squalling children, a persian merchant, and gerôme. the captain's cabin, a box-like retreat about eight feet square, leads out of our sleeping-place, which is also used as a drawing and dining-room. as the latter it is hardly desirable, for the german and persian are both suffering violently from _mal-de-mer_ before we have been two hours out, and no wonder. though there is hardly a perceptible swell on, the tiny cock-boat rolls like a log. to make matters worse, the _kaspia's_ engines are worked by petroleum, and the smell pursues one everywhere. the passage from baku to enzelli (the port of résht) is usually made in a little over two days in _fine weather_. all depends upon the latter, for no vessel can enter if it is blowing hard. there is a dangerous bar with a depth of barely five feet of water across the mouth of the harbour, and several europeans, impatient of waiting, have been drowned when attempting to land in small boats. "i frequently have to take my passengers back to baku," said captain z---- at the meal he was pleased to call breakfast; "but i think we shall have fine weather to-morrow." i devoutly hoped so. little did i know what was in store for us; for the glass at midday was falling-fast, and at p.m., when we anchored off lenkorán, it was snowing hard and blowing half a gale. the western coasts of the caspian are flat and monotonous. there are two ports of call between baku and enzelli--lenkorán, a dismal-looking fishing-village of mud huts, backed by stunted poplars and a range of low hills; and astará, the russo-persian frontier. trade did not seem very brisk at either port. we neither landed nor took in cargo at either. a few small boats came out to the ship with fish to sell. the latter is bad and tasteless in the caspian, with the exception of the sturgeon, which abounds during certain seasons of the year. the fisheries are nearly all leased by russians, who extract and export the caviar. there is good shooting in the forests around lenkorán, and tigers are occasionally met with. the large one in the possession of prince dondoukoff korsákoff, mentioned in the first chapter, was shot within a few miles of the place. we arrived off astará about . that evening. it was too dark to see anything of the place, but i had, unfortunately for myself, plenty of opportunities of examining it minutely a couple of days later. we weighed anchor again at nine o'clock, hoping, all being well, to reach enzelli at daybreak. the sea had now gone down, and things looked more promising. my spirits rose at the thought of being able to land on the morrow. i was even able to do justice to the abominable food set before us at dinner--greasy sausages and a leathery beefsteak, served on dirty plates and a ragged table-cloth that looked as if it had been used to clean the boiler. but the german jew had recovered from his temporary indisposition, the cadaverous persian had disappeared on deck, and the armenian children had squalled themselves to sleep, so there was something, at least, to be thankful for. captain z----, a tall, fair-haired swede, who spoke english fluently, had been on this line for many years, and told us that for dangerous navigation, violent squalls, and thick fogs the caspian has no equal. many vessels are lost yearly and never heard of again. he also told us of a submarine city some miles out of baku, called by the natives "tchortorgorod," or "city of the devil." "in calm, sunny weather," said z----, "one can distinctly make out the streets and houses." the german jew, of a facetious disposition, asked him whether he had not also seen people walking about; but z---- treated the question with contemptuous silence. man is doomed to disappointment. i woke at daylight next morning; to find the _kaspia_ at anchor, pitching, rolling, and tugging at her moorings as if at any moment the cable might part. every now and again a sea would crash upon the deck, and the wind, howling through the rigging, sounded like the yelling of a thousand fiends. hurrying on deck, i learn the worst. a terrific sea is running, and the glass falling every hour. one could scarcely discern, through the driving mist, the long low shore and white line of breakers that marked the entrance to enzelli. to land was out of the question. no boat would live in such a sea. "i will lay-to till this evening," said captain z---- "if it does not then abate, i fear you must make up your mind to return to baku, and try again another day." a pleasant prospect indeed! [illustration: a dirty night in the caspian] i have seldom passed a more miserable twenty-four hours. the weather got worse as the day wore on. towards midday it commenced snowing; but this, instead of diminishing the violence of the gale, seemed only to increase it. even the captain's cheery, ruddy face clouded over, as he owned that he did not like the look of things. "had i another anchor, i should not mind," he said; calmly adding, "if this one parts, we are lost!" i thought, at the time, he might have kept this piece of information to himself. meanwhile nothing was visible from the cabin-windows but great rollers topped with crests of foam, which looked as if, every moment, they would engulf the little vessel. but she behaved splendidly. although green seas were coming in over the bows, flooding her decks from stem to stern, and pouring down the gangway into the saloon, the _kaspia_ rode through the gale like a duck. to venture on deck was impossible. one could barely sit, much less stand, and the atmosphere of the saloon may be better imagined than described. every aperture tightly closed; every one, with the exception of the captain, gerôme, and myself, sea-sick; no food, no fire, though we certainly did not miss the former much. about ten o'clock z---- weighed anchor and stood out to sea. it would not be safe, he said, to trust to our slender cable another night. about midnight i struggled on deck, to get a breath of fresh air before turning in. the night was fine and clear, but the sea around black as ink, with great foaming white rollers. the decks, a foot deep in snow, were deserted save by z---- and the steersman, whose silhouettes stood out black and distinct against the starlit sky as they paced the rickety-looking little bridge flanked by red and green lights. the enzelli lighthouse was no longer visible. the latter is under the care of persians, who light it, or not, as the humour takes them. this is, on dark nights, a source of considerable danger to shipping; but, though frequently remonstrated with by the russian government, the shah does not trouble his head about the matter. three routes to teherán were now open to us: back to baku, thence to tiflis, and over the mountains to talriz,--very dubious on account of the snow; the second, from baku to astrabad, and thence _viâ_ mount demavend,--still more dubious on account of bad landing as well as blocked passes; there remained to us astará, and along the sea-beach (no road) to enzelli, with swollen rivers and no post-horses. all things considered, we resolved to land at astará, even at the risk of a ducking. daylight found us there, anchored a mile from the shore, and a heavy swell running. but there is no bar here; only a shelving sandy beach, on which, even in rough weather, there is little danger. some good-sized boats came out to the _kaspia_ with fish and vegetables, and we at once resolved to land. anything sooner than return to baku! "there is no road from astará," said z----, "and deep rivers to cross. you will be robbed and murdered like the italian who travelled this way three years ago! he was the last european to do so." gerôme remembers the incident. in fact, he says, the murdered man was a friend of his, travelling to teherán with a large sum of money. unable to land at résht, and impatient to reach his destination, he took the unfrequented route, was waylaid, robbed, tied to a tree, and left to starve. "he was alone and unarmed, though," says my companion; adding with a wink, "let them try it on with us!" seeing remonstrance is useless, z---- wishes us god-speed. the good-natured swede presses a box of russian cigarettes into my hand as i descend the ladder--a gift he can ill afford--and twenty minutes later our boat glides safely and smoothly on persian soil. it was a lovely day, and the blue sky and sunshine, singing of birds, and green of plain and forest, a pleasant relief to the eye and senses after the cold and misery of the past two days. astará (though the port of tabriz) is an insignificant place, its sole importance lying in the fact that it is a frontier town. on one side of the narrow river a collection of ramshackle mud huts, neglected gardens, foul smells, beggars, and dogs--persia; on the other, a score of neat stone houses, well-kept roads and paths, flower-gardens, orchards, a pretty church, and white fort surrounded by the inevitable black-and-white sentry-boxes, guarded by a company of white-capped cossacks--russia. i could not help realizing, on landing at astará, the huge area of this vast empire. how many thousand miles now separated me from the last border town of the great white czar that i visited--kiakhta, on the russo-chinese frontier? surrounded by a ragged mob, we walked to the village to see about horses and a lodging for the night. the latter was soon found--a flat-roofed mud hut about thirty feet square, devoid of chimney or furniture of any kind. the floor, cracked in several places, was crawling with vermin, and the walls undermined with rat-holes; but in persia one must not be particular. leaving our baggage in the care of one "hassan," a bright-eyed, intelligent-looking lad, and instructing him to prepare a meal, we made for the bazaar, a hundred yards away, through a morass, knee deep in mud and abomination of all kinds, to procure food. a row of thirty or forty mud huts composed the "bazaar," where, having succeeded in purchasing tea, bread, eggs, and caviar, we turned our attention to horseflesh. an old jew having previously agreed to convert, at exorbitant interest, our rouble notes into "sheis" and keráns, negotiations for horses were then opened by gerôme, and, as the _patois_ spoken in astará is a mixture of turkish and persian, with a little tartar thrown in, his task was no easy one, especially as every one spoke at once and at the top of their voices. we discovered at last that but few of the villagers owned a horse, and those who did were very unwilling to let the animal for such an uncertain journey. "who is going to guarantee that the 'farangis' will not steal it?" asked one ragged, wild-looking fellow in sheepskins and a huge lamb's-wool cap. "or get it stolen from them?" added another, with a grin. "they can have my old grey mare for two hundred keráns, but you won't catch me letting her for hire," added a third. with the aid of our friend, the jew, however, we finally persuaded the sheepskin gentleman (a native of khiva) to change his mind. after considerable haggling as to price, he disappeared, to return with two of the sorriest steeds i ever set eyes on. "we ought to reach enzelli in about three days, if we do not get our throats cut," said the khivan, who was to accompany us, encouragingly. hassan had been busy in our absence; he had prepared an excellent pilaff, and sent to russian astará for some kakèti wine, which was brought over in a goatskin. this, with our own provisions bought in the morning, furnished a substantial and much-needed meal. persian native bread is somewhat trying at first to a weak digestion. it is unleavened, baked in long thin strips, and is of suet-like consistency. the hut, like most native houses in persia, had no chimney, the only outlet for the smoke being through the narrow doorway. this necessitates lying flat on one's back in the clear narrow space between smoke and flooring, or being suffocated--a minor inconvenience as compared with others in persian travel. the khivan arrived with the horses at six next morning. by seven o'clock we were well on the road, which for the first ten miles or so led by the sea-shore, through dense thickets of brushwood, alternating with patches of loose drifting sand. i was agreeably disappointed in the ponies; for though it was deep, heavy going, they stepped out well and freely. the clear sunshine, keen air, and lovely scenery seemed to have the same inspiriting effect on them as on ourselves. the _coup d'oeil_ was indeed a lovely one. to our right a glorious panorama of palm, forest, and river stretched away for miles, bounded on the horizon by a chain of lofty precipitous mountains, their snowy peaks white and dazzling against the deep cloudless blue, their grassy slopes and rocky ravines hidden, here and there, by grey mists floating lazily over depths of dark green forest at their feet. to our left broad yellow sands, streaked with seaweed and dark driftwood, and cold grey waters of the caspian sea--colourless and dead even under this mediterranean sky, and bringing one back, so to speak, from a beautiful dream to stern reality. about midday we came to a broad but fordable river, which the khivan called the chulàmak. we all crossed in safety, notwithstanding the deep holes our guide warned us against, and which, as the water was thick and muddy, gave gerôme and myself some anxiety. the stream was about fifty yards across and much swollen by the snow. landing on the other side ahead of my companions, i rode on alone, and presently found myself floundering about girth-deep in a quicksand. it was only with great difficulty that we extricated the pony. these quicksands are common on the shores of the caspian, and natives, when travelling alone, have perished from this cause. nothing occurred worthy of notice till about p.m., when we reached the river djemnil. an arm of the sea more accurately describes this stream, which is (or was at the time of which i write) over three hundred yards across. here we had some difficulty with the khivan, who was for encamping till morning. i, however, strongly objected to sleeping _a la belle étoile_, especially as the sky had now clouded over, and it was beginning to snow. partly by conciliation, partly by threats, we at last persuaded him to make the attempt, following closely in his wake. it was nasty work. twice our horses were carried off their feet by the strong current running out to sea (we were only a quarter of a mile from the mouth); and once we, or rather the horses, had to swim for it; but we reached the opposite shore in under half an hour, wet and numbed to the waist, but safe. at seven we were snugly housed for the night at katvesera, a so-called village of three or four mud hovels, selecting the best (outwardly) for our night's lodging. we were badly received by the natives. neither money nor threats would induce them to produce provisions of any kind, so we fell back on sticks of chocolate and valentine's meat-juice. the latter i never travel without--it is invaluable in uncivilized and desert countries. the inhabitants of katvesera are under a score in number, and live chiefly on fish, though i noticed in the morning that a considerable quantity of land was under cultivation--apparently rice and barley. they were a sullen, sulky lot, and we had almost to take the hut by force. the khivan, gerôme, and myself took it in turns to watch through the night. it was near here that the italian was assassinated. a start was made at daybreak. the weather had now changed. a cutting north-easter was blowing, accompanied with snow and sleet. we forded, about a.m., the kokajeri river, a mountain stream about thirty yards wide, unfordable except upon the sea-beach. at midday we halted at tchergári, a fishing-village on the shores of the caspian. tchergári contains about two hundred inhabitants, mostly fishermen employed by a russian firm. the houses, built of tree-trunks plastered with mud, had roofs of thatched reed, and were far more substantial and better built than any i had yet seen in persia. fearing a reception like that of the previous evening, we had intended riding straight through the place to our destination for the night, when a european advanced to meet us through the snow. mr. v----, a russian, and overseer of the fishery, had made his hut as comfortable as circumstances would admit, and we were soon seated before a blazing fire (with a chimney!), discussing a plate of steaming shtchi, [c] washed down by a bottle of kakèti. roast mutton and pastry followed, succeeded by coffee and vodka (for we had the good luck to arrive at our host's dinner-hour). by the time cigarettes were under way we felt fully equal to the long cold ride of fifteen miles that separated us from our night's halting-place, alalá résht itself seemed at least thirty miles nearer than it had before dinner. "you are bold," said mr. v----, in french, "to attempt this journey at this time of year. i do not mean as regards footpads and robbers reports concerning them are always greatly exaggerated; but the rivers are in a terrible state. there is one just beyond alalá, that i know you cannot cross on horseback. i will send a man on at once to try and get a boat for you, and you can pull the horses after you. there is an armenian at alalá, who will give you a lodging to-night" mr. v---- 's good fare and several glasses of vodka considerably shortened our ride, and we arrived at alalá before dark, where a hearty welcome awaited us. turning in after a pipe and two or three glasses of tea, we slept soundly till time to start in the morning. the outlook from our snug resting-place was not inviting--the sky of a dirty grey, blowing hard, and snowing harder than ever. alalá contains about eight hundred inhabitants. the land surrounding it is thickly cultivated with rice and tobacco. neither are, however, exported in any quantity, the difficulties of transport to astará or enzelli being so great. it is somewhat puzzling to a stranger to get at the names of places on the southern shores of the caspian. most of the villages are known by more than one, but alalá rejoices in as many _aliases_ as an old gaol-bird, viz. alalá, asalim, and navarim. thanks to our russian friend, a boat and a couple of men were awaiting us at the big river (i could not ascertain its name). entering it ourselves, we swam the horses over one by one. it took us the best part of two hours. though only two hundred yards wide, they were off their legs nearly the whole way. what we should have done without mr. v---- 's aid i know not. towards sundown the high tower of the shah's palace at enzelli came in sight. at last the neck of this weary journey was broken, and to-morrow, all being well, we should be at résht. the road is winding, and it was not till past ten o'clock that we rode through the silent, deserted streets to the caravanserai, a filthier lodging than any we had yet occupied. but, though devoured by vermin, i slept soundly, tired out with cold and fatigue. we dismissed the khivan with a substantial _pour-boire_. he had certainly behaved extremely well for one of his race. enzelli is an uninteresting place. it has but two objects of interest (in persian eyes)--the lighthouse (occasionally lit) and a palace of the shah, built a few years since as a _pied-à-terre_ for his majesty on the occasion of his visits to europe. it is a tawdry gimcrack edifice, painted bright blue, red, and green, in the worst possible taste. the shah, on returning from europe last time, is said to have remarked to his ministers on landing at enzelli, "i have not seen a single building in all europe to compare with this!" probably not--from one point of view. the caspian may indeed be called a russian lake, for although the whole of its southern coast is persian, the only persian vessel tolerated upon it by russia is the yacht of the shah, a small steamer, the gift of the caucase-mercure company, which lies off enzelli. even this vessel is only permitted to navigate in and about the waters of the mourdab ("dead water"), a large lake, a kind of encroachment of the sea, eighteen to twenty miles broad, which separates enzelli from peri-bazar, the landing-place for résht, four miles distant. the imperial yacht did once get as far as astará (presumably by mistake), but was immediately escorted back to enzelli by a russian cruiser. there is, however, a so-called persian fleet--the steamship _persepolis_, anchored off bushire, in the persian gulf, and the _susa_, which lies off mohammerah. the former is about six hundred tons, and carries four krupp guns; but the latter is little better than a steam-launch. both have been at anchor for about four years, and are practically unseaworthy and useless. we embarked at nine o'clock, in a boat pulled by eight men. the crossing of the mourdab is at times impossible, owing to the heavy sea; but this time luck was with us, and midday saw us at peri-bazar, where there is no difficulty in procuring riding-horses to take one into résht. the country between the two places was formerly morass and jungle, but on the occasion of the shah's visit to europe about twenty years ago, a carriage-road was made--not a good one, for such a thing does not exist in persia--but a very fair riding-track (in dry weather). we reached résht wet to the skin, the snow having ceased and given way to a steady downpour of rain. résht bears the unpleasant reputation of being the most unhealthy city in persia. its very name, say the natives, is derived from the word _rishta_, "death." "if you wish to die," says a proverb of irak, "go to résht!" the city, which had, at the beginning of the century, a population of over sixty thousand inhabitants, now has barely thirty thousand. this certainly looks as if there were some truth in the foregoing remarks; and there is no doubt that, on the visitation of the plague about ten years ago, the mortality was something frightful. a great percentage of deaths are ascribed to résht fever--a terrible disease, due to the water and the exhalations from the marshes surrounding the city. it is certainly the dampest place in the world. the sun is seldom seen, and one's clothes, even on a dry, rainless day, become saturated with moisture. the town is, nevertheless, prettily situated in a well-wooded country. it would almost be imposing were it not for the heavy rains and dews, which cause a rapid decay of the buildings. the latter are mostly of red brick and glazed tiles. résht is the depôt for goods to and from persia--chiefly silks. tobacco is also grown in yearly increasing quantities. several russian firms have opened here for the manufacture of cigarettes, which, though they may find favour among the natives, are too hot and coarse for european tastes. they are well made and cheap enough--sevenpence a hundred. in addition to the native population, résht contains about five hundred armenians, and a score or so of europeans. among the latter are a russian and a british vice-consul. to the residence of the latter we repaired. colonel stewart's kindness and hospitality are a byword in persia, and the sunday of our arrival at résht was truly a day of rest after the discomfort and privations we had undergone since leaving baku. [footnote a: _isvostchik_, a cab-driver.] [footnote b: "tchornigorod," or "black town," so called from the smoke that hangs night and day over the oil-factories.] [footnote c: russian cabbage-soup.] chapter iii. rÉsht--patchinar. day broke gloomily enough the morning following the day of our arrival at résht. the snow, still falling fast, lay over two feet deep in the garden beneath my window, while great white drifts barred the entrance-gates of the consulate. about eight o'clock our host made his appearance, and, waking me from pleasant dreams of sunnier climes, tried to dissuade me from making a start under such unfavourable circumstances. an imperial courier had just arrived from teherán, and his report was anything but reassuring. the roads were in a terrible state; the kharzán, a long and difficult pass, was blocked with snow, and the villages on either side of it crowded with weather-bound caravans. the prospect, viewed from a warm and comfortable bed, was not inviting. anxiety, however, to reach teherán and definitely map out my route to india overcame everything, even the temptation to defer a journey fraught with cold, hunger, and privation, and take it easy for a few days, with plenty of food and drink, to say nothing of cigars, books, and newspapers, in the snug cosy rooms of the consulate. "you will be sorry for it to-morrow," said the colonel, as he left the room to give the necessary orders for our departure; adding with a smile, "i suppose a wilful man must have his way." there are two modes of travelling in persia: marching with a caravan, a slow and tedious process; and riding post, or "chapar." the latter, being the quickest, is usually adopted by europeans, but can only be done on the government post-roads, of which there are five: from teherán to résht, tabriz, meshéd, kermán, and the persian gulf port, bushire. these so-called roads are, however, often mere caravan-tracks, sometimes totally hidden by drifting sand or snow. in the interior of the country the hard sun-baked soil is usually trackless, so that the aid of a "shagird chapar," or post-boy, becomes essential. the distance between the "chapar khanehs," as the tumble-down sheds doing duty for post-houses are called, is generally five farsakhs, or about twenty english miles; but the persian farsakh is elastic, and we often rode more, at other times less, than we paid for. travel is cheap: one kerán per farsakh ( - / _d_. a mile) per horse, with a _pour-boire_ of a couple of keráns to the "shagird" at the end of the stage. given a good horse and fine weather, persian travel would be delightful; but the former is, unfortunately, very rarely met with. most of the post-horses have been sold for some vice which nothing but constant hard work will keep under. kickers, rearers, jibbers, shyers, and stumblers are but too common, and falls of almost daily occurrence on a long journey. goodness knows how many gerôme and i had between résht and the persian gulf. notwithstanding these drawbacks, the speed attained by the wretched half-starved animals is little short of marvellous. nothing seems to tire them. we averaged fifty miles a day after leaving teherán, covering, on one occasion, over a hundred miles in a little over eleven hours. this is good work, considering the ponies seldom exceed fourteen hands two inches, and have to carry a couple of heavy saddle-bags in addition to their rider. gerôme must have ridden quite fourteen stone. about ten o'clock the horses arrived, in charge of a miserable-looking shagird, in rags and a huge lamb's-wool cap, the only warm thing about him. it was pitiful to see the poor wretch, with bare legs and feet, shivering and shaking in the cutting wind and snow. the ponies, too, looked tucked up and leg-weary, as if they had just come off a long stage (which, indeed, they probably had) instead of going on one. "don't be alarmed; they are the proverbial rum 'uns to look at," said our host, who would not hear of our setting out without saddle-bags crammed with good things: cold meat, sardines, cigarettes, a couple of bottles of brandy, and a flask of russian vodka. but for these we must literally have starved _en route_. "good-bye. good luck to you!" from the colonel. "en avant!" cries gerôme, with a deafening crack of his heavy chapar whip. we are both provided with this instrument of torture--a thick plaited thong about five feet long, attached to a short thick wooden handle, and terminating in a flat leathern cracker of eight or ten inches. a cut from this would make an english horse jump out of his skin, but had little or no effect on the tough hides of our "chapar" ponies. the snow is almost up to the knees of the latter as we labour through the gateway and into the narrow street. where will it be on the kharzán pass? résht is picturesquely situated. it must be a lovely place in summer-time, when fertile plains of maize, barley, and tobacco stretch away on every side, bounded by belts of dark green forest and chains of low well-wooded hills, while the post-road leads for miles through groves of mulberry trees, apple orchards, and garden-girt villas, half hidden by roses and jasmine. but this was hardly a day for admiring the beauties of nature. once out of the suburbs and in the open country, nothing met the eye but a dreary wilderness of white earth and sullen grey sky, that boded ill for the future. the cold was intense. although dressed in the thickest of tweeds and sheepskin jacket, sable pelisse, enormous "bourka," and high felt boots, it was all i could do to keep warm even when going at a hand gallop, varied every hundred yards or so by a desperate "peck" on the part of my pony. the first stage, koudoum, five farsakhs from résht, was reached about three o'clock in the afternoon. this was my first experience of a chapar khaneh. the shagird informed us that it was considered a very good one, and was much frequented by europeans in summer-time--presumably, judging from the holes in the roof, for the sake of coolness. let me here give the reader a brief description of the accommodation provided for travellers by his imperial majesty the shah. the koudoum chapar khaneh is a very fair example of the average persian post-house. imagine a small one-storied building, whitewashed, save where wind and rain have disclosed the brown mud beneath. a wooden ladder (with half the rungs missing) leads to the guest-chamber, a large bare room, devoid of furniture of any kind, with smoke-blackened walls and rotten, insecure flooring. a number of rats scamper away at our approach. i wonder what on earth they can find to eat, until gerôme points out a large hole in the centre of the apartment. this affords an excellent view of the stables, ten or twelve feet below, admitting, at the same time, a pungent and overpowering odour of manure and ammonia. a smaller room, a kind of ante-chamber, leads out of this. as it is partly roofless, i seek, but in vain, for a door to shut out the icy cold blast. further search in the guest-room reveals six large windows, or rather holes, for there are no shutters, much less window-panes. it is colder here, if anything, than outside, for the draughts are always at once; but we must in persia be thankful for small mercies. there is a chimney, in which a good log fire, kindled by gerôme, is soon blazing. lunch and a nip of the colonel's vodka work wonders, and we are beginning to think, over a "papirosh," that persia is not such a bad place after all, when the shagird's head appears at the window. there are only two horses available for the next stage, but a third has been sent for from a neighbouring village, and will shortly arrive. as night is falling fast, i set out with the shagird for the next station, rustemabad, leaving gerôme, who has already travelled the road and knows it well, to follow alone. it is still snowing fast, but my mount is a great improvement on that of the morning, luckily, for the stage is a long one, and we have a stiff mountain to climb before reaching our destination for the night. we ride for three hours, slowly and silently, over a plain knee-deep in snow. about half-way across a tinkle of bells is heard, clear and musical, in the distance. presently a large caravan looms out of the dusk--fifty or sixty camels and half a dozen men. the latter exchange a cheery "good night" with my guide. slowly the ungainly, heavily laden beasts file past us, gaunt and spectral in the twilight, the bells die away on the still wintry air, and we are again alone on the desolate plain--not a sign of life, not a sound to be heard, but the crunching of snow under our horses' feet, and the occasional pistol-like crack of my guide's heavy whip. it is almost dark when we commence the ascent of the mountain on the far side of which lies rustemabad. the path is rough and narrow, and in places hewn out of the solid rock. towards the summit, where a slip or false step would be fatal, a dark shapeless mass appears, completely barring the pathway, on the white snow. closer inspection reveals a dead camel, abandoned, doubtless, by the caravan we have just passed, for the carcase is yet warm. with considerable difficulty, but aided by the hard slippery ground, we drag it to the brink of the precipice, and send it crashing down through bush and briar, to fall with a loud splash into a foaming torrent far below. during this performance one of the ponies gets loose, and half an hour is lost in catching him again. so the journey wore on. half-way down on the other side of the mountain, my pony stumbled and shot me head first into a pool of liquid mud, from which i was, with some difficulty, extricated wet through and chilled to the bone. the discomfort was bad enough, but, worse still, my sable pelisse, the valuable gift of a russian friend, was, i feared, utterly ruined. it was nearly nine o'clock when we reached rustemabad, to find rather worse quarters than we had left at koudoum. to make matters worse, i had no change of clothes, and the black, ill-smelling mud had penetrated to the innermost recesses of my saddle-bags, which did not tend to improve the flavour of the biscuits and chocolate that constituted my evening meal. no food of any kind was procurable at the post-house, and all our own provisions were behind with gerôme. luckily, i had stuck to the flask of vodka! with the help of the postmaster, a decrepit, half-witted old man, and the sole inmate of the place, i managed to kindle a good fire, and set to work to dry my clothes, a somewhat uncomfortable process, as it entailed my remaining three-parts naked for half the night in an atmosphere very little above zero. the sables were in a terrible state. it was midnight before the mud on them was sufficiently dry to brush off, as i fondly hoped, in the morning. gerôme did not turn up till one o'clock a.m., his horse not having arrived at koudoum till past seven. he had lost his way twice, and had almost given up all hopes of reaching rustemabad till daylight, when my fire, the only light in the place, shone out of the darkness. the poor fellow was so stiff and numbed with fatigue and cold that i had to lift him off his horse and carry him into the post-house. he was a sorry object, but i could not refrain from smiling. my companion's usually comical, ruddy face wore a woebegone look, while long icicles hung from his hair, eyebrows, and moustaches, giving him the appearance of a very melancholy old father christmas. morning brought a cloudless blue sky and brilliant sunshine. my first thought on awaking was for the pelisse. summoning the old postmaster, i confided the precious garment to him, with strict injunctions to take it outside, beat it well with a stick, and bring it back to me to brush. in the mean time, we busied ourselves with breakfast and a cup of steaming cocoa, for a long ride was before us. it was still bitterly cold, with a strong north-easter blowing. the thermometer marked (in the sun) only one degree above zero. rustemabad, a collection of straggling, tumble-down hovels, contains about four or five hundred inhabitants. the post-house, perched on the summit of a steep hill, is situated some little distance from the village, which stands in the centre of a plateau, bounded on the south-west by a chain of precipitous mountains. the country around is fertile and productive, being well watered by the sefid roud (white river). rice is largely grown, but to-day not a trace of vegetation is visible; nothing but the vast white plain, smooth and unbroken, save where, here and there, a brown village blurrs its smooth surface, an oasis of mud huts in this desert of dazzling snow. an exclamation from gerôme suddenly drew my attention to the postmaster, who stood at the open doorway, my pelisse in hand. i was then unused to the ways and customs of the persian peasantry, or should have known that it was but labour lost to make one spring at the old idiot, and, twining my fingers in his throat, shake him till he yelled for mercy. nothing but a thick stick has the slightest effect upon the shah's subjects; and i was, for a moment, sorely tempted to use mine. the reader must own that i should have been justified. it was surely enough to try the patience of a saint, for the old imbecile had deliberately walked down to the river, made a hole in the ice, and soaked the garment in water to the waist, reducing it to its former condition of liquid slime. this was _his_ method of getting the mud off. i may add that this intelligent official had _assisted me in the drying process up till midnight_. there was no help for it; nothing to be done but cut off the damaged portion from the waist to the heels--no easy matter, for it was frozen as stiff as a board. "it will make a better riding-jacket now," said gerôme, consolingly; "but this son of a pig shall not gain by it," he added, stamping the ruined remains into the now expiring fire. the village of patchinar, at the foot of the dreaded kharzán pass, was to be our halting-place for the night. the post-road, after leaving rustemabad, leads through the valley of the sefid roud river, in which, by the way, there is excellent salmon-fishing. about six miles from rustemabad is a spot called by the natives the "castle of the winds," on account of the high winds that, even in the calmest weather, prevail there. although, out on the plain, there was a scarcely perceptible breeze, we had to literally fight our way against the terrific gusts that swept through this narrow gorge. fortunately, it was a fine day, but the fine powdery snow whirled up and cut into our eyes and faces, and made travelling very unpleasant. these violent wind-storms have never been satisfactorily accounted for. they continue for a certain number of hours every day, summer and winter, increasing in force till sunset, when they abate, to rise again the following dawn. on some occasions horses, and even camels, have been blown over, and caravans are sometimes compelled to halt until the fury of the storm has diminished. crossing a ridge of low hills, we descended into the valley of roudbar, a quiet and peaceful contrast to the one we had just left. the wind now ceased as if by magic. much of the snow had here disappeared under the warm sunshine, while before us, nestling in a grove of olive trees, lay the pretty village, with its white picturesque houses and narrow streets shaded by gaily striped awnings. it was like a transformation-scene, this sudden change from winter, with its grey sky and cold icy blast, to the sunny stillness and repose of an english summer's day. we rode through the bazaar, a busy and crowded one for so small a place. a large trade is done here in olives. most of it is in the hands of two enterprising frenchmen, who started business some years ago, and are doing well. we managed to get a mouthful of food at menjil while the horses were being changed. colonel s---- had especially warned us against sleeping here, the chapar khaneh being infested with the meana bug, a species of camel tick, which inflicts a poisonous and sometimes dangerous wound. it is only found in certain districts, and rarely met with south of teherán. the virus has been known, in some cases, to bring on typhoid fever, and one european is said to have died from its effects. for the truth of this i cannot vouch; but there is no doubt that the bite is always followed by three or four days' more or less serious indisposition. chapter iv. patchinar--teherÁn. our troubles commenced in real earnest at patchinar, a desolate-looking place and filthy post-house, which was reached at sunset. the post from teherán had just arrived, in charge of a tall strapping fellow armed to the teeth, in dark blue uniform and astrachan cap, bearing the imperial badge, the lion and sun, in brass. the mail was ten days late, and had met with terrible weather on the kharzán. they had passed, only that morning, two men lying by the roadway, frozen to death. the poor fellows were on their way to teherán from menjil, and had lain where they fell for two or three days. "you had far better have remained at résht," added our informant, unpleasantly recalling to my mind the colonel's prophecy, "you will be sorry for this to-morrow!" notwithstanding hunger and vermin, we managed to enjoy a tolerable night's rest. the post-house was warm at any rate, being windowless. patchinar was evidently a favourite halting-place, for the dingy walls of the guest-room were covered with writing and pencil sketches, the work of travellers trying to kill time, from the frenchman who warned one (in rhyme) to beware of the thieving propensities of the postmaster, to the more practical englishman, who, in a bold hand, had scrawled across the wall, "_big bugs here!_" i may add that my countryman was not exaggerating. there was no difficulty in getting horses the next morning. the post, which left for résht before we were stirring, had left us seven sorry-looking steeds, worn out with their previous day's journey through the deep snow-drifts of the kharzán. by nine o'clock we were ready to start, notwithstanding the entreaties of the postmaster, whose anxiety, however, was not on our account, but on that of the horses. "i don't believe i shall ever see them again!" he mumbled mournfully, as we rode out of the yard. "and who is to repay me for their loss? you will be dead, too, before sundown, if the snow catches you in the mountains!" but there seemed no probability of such a contingency. the sky was blue and cloudless, the sun so bright that the glare off the snow soon became unbearable without smoked goggles. the promise of an extra kerán or two if we reached the end of the stage by daylight had a wonderful effect on the shagird. though it was terribly heavy going, and the snow in places up to our girths, we covered the five miles lying between patchinar and the foot of the kharzán in a little over three hours--good going considering the state of the road. we were as often off the former as on it, for there was nothing to guide one; nothing but telegraph poles and wires were visible, and these are occasionally laid straight across country away from the track. our destination for the night was the village of kharzán, which is situated near the summit of the mountain, about six thousand feet high. the ascent is continuous and precipitous. an idea may be gained of the steepness by the fact that we now left the valley of the shah roud, barely one thousand feet above sea-level, to ascend, in a distance of about twelve miles, over six thousand feet. the kharzán pass is at all times dreaded by travellers, native and european, even in summer, when there are no avalanches to fear, snow-drifts to bar the way, or ice to render the narrow, tortuous pathway even more insecure. a serious inconvenience, not to say danger, is the meeting of two camel caravans travelling in opposite directions on the narrow track, which, in many places, is barely ten feet broad, and barely sufficient to allow two horses to pass each other, to say nothing of heavily laden camels. but to-day we were safe so far as this was concerned. not a soul was to be seen in the clefts and ravines around, or on the great white expanse stretched out beneath our feet, as we crept cautiously up the side of the mountain, our guide halting every ten or fifteen yards to probe the snow with a long pole and make sure that we had not got off the path. a stiff and tedious climb of nearly seven hours brought us to within a mile of the summit. halting for a short time, we refreshed ourselves with a couple of biscuits and a nip of brandy, and proceeded on our journey. we had now arrived at the most dangerous part of the pass. the pathway, hewn out of the solid rock, and about ten feet wide, was covered with a solid layer of ice eight or ten inches thick, over which our horses skated about in a most uncomfortable manner. there was no guard-rail or protection of any sort on the precipice side. all went well for a time, and i was beginning to congratulate myself on having reached the summit without-accident, when gerdme's horse, just in front of me, blundered and nearly lit on his head. "ah, son of a pig's mother!" yelled the little russian in true cossack vernacular, as the poor old screw, thoroughly done up, made a desperate peck, ending in a slither that brought him to within a foot of the brink. "that was a close shave, monsieur!" he continued, as his pony struggled back into safety, "i shall get off and walk. wet feet are better than a broken neck any day!" the words were scarcely out of his mouth, when a loud cry from the shagird, and a snort and struggle from the pack-horse behind, attracted my attention. this time the beast had slipped with a vengeance, and was half-way over the edge, making, with his fore feet, frantic efforts to regain _terra firma_ while his hind legs and quarters dangled in mid-air. there was no time to dismount and render assistance. the whole thing was over in less than ten seconds. the shagird might, indeed, have saved the fall had he kept his head instead of losing it. all he could do was, with a loud voice and outstretched arms, to invoke the assistance of "allah!" we were not long in suspense. slowly, inch by inch, the poor brute lost his hold of the slippery ground, and disappeared, with a shrill neigh of terror, from sight. for two or three seconds we heard him striking here and there against a jutting rock or shrub, till, with a final thud, he landed on a small plateau of deep snow-drifts at least three hundred feet below. here he lay motionless and apparently dead, while we could see through our glasses a thin stream of crimson flow from under him, gradually staining the white snow around. [illustration: crossing the khadzÁn] a cat is popularly supposed to have nine lives. after my experience of the persian post-horse, i shall never believe that that rough and ill-shaped but useful animal has less than a dozen. the fall i have described would assuredly have killed a horse of any other nationality, if i may use the word. it seemed, on the contrary, to have a tonic and exhilarating effect on this patchinar pony. before we could reach him (a work of considerable difficulty and some risk) he had risen to his feet, given himself a good shake, and was nibbling away at a bit of gorse that peeped through the snow on which he had fallen. a deep cut on the shoulder was his only injury, and, curiously enough, our portmanteaus, with the exception of a broken strap, were unharmed. there was, luckily, nothing breakable in either. kharzán, a miserable village under snow for six months of the year, was reached without further mishap. there is no post-house, and the caravanserai was crowded with caravans. before sundown, however, we were comfortably installed in the house of the head-man of the place, who spread carpets of soft texture and quaint design in our honour, regaled us with an excellent "pilaff," and produced a flask of persian wine. the latter would hardly have passed muster in europe. the cork consisted of a plug of cotton-wool plastered with clay; the contents were of a muddy-brown colour. "it is pure hamadán," said our host with pride, as he placed the bottle before us. "perhaps the sahib did not know that our country is famous for its wines." it was not altogether unpalatable, something like light but rather sweet hock; very different, however, in its effects to that innocent beverage, and one could not drink much with impunity. its cheapness surprised me: one shilling a quart bottle. that, at least, is the price our host charged--probably more than half again its real value. the winegrowers of hamadán have many difficulties to contend with; among others, the severe cold. in winter the wine is kept in huge jars, containing six or seven hundred bottles. these are buried in the ground, their necks being surrounded by hot beds of fermenting horse-dung, to keep the wine from freezing. but even this plan sometimes fails, and it has to be chopped out in solid blocks and melted for drinking. kharzán has a population of about a thousand inhabitants. it was here that baker pasha was brought some years ago in a dying condition, after being caught in a wind-storm on the kharzán pass, and lay for three days in the house we were lodging at. our old friend showed us a clasp-knife presented him by the colonel, who on that occasion nearly lost both his feet from frost-bite. captains gill and clayton, [a] of the royal engineers and ninth lancers, were with him, but escaped unharmed. stiff and worn out with the events of the day, we soon stretched ourselves in front of the blazing fire in anticipation of a good night's rest; but sleep was not for us. in the next room were a party of persian merchants from astrakhan on their way to bagdad _viâ_ teherán, who had been prisoners here for five days, and were now carousing on the strength of getting away on the morrow. a woman was with them--a brazen-faced, shrill-voiced armenian, who made more noise than all the rest put together. singing, dancing, quarrelling, and drinking went on without intermission till long past midnight, our neighbours raising such a din that the good people of kharzán, a quarter of a mile away, must have turned uneasily in their slumbers, and wondered whether an army of fiends had not broken loose. towards a.m. the noise ceased, and we were just dropping to sleep, when, at about half-past two in the morning, our drunken friends, headed by the lady, burst into our apartment, with the information, in bad russian, that a gang of fifty men sent that morning to clear a path through the deep snow had just returned, and the road to mazreh was now practicable. the caravans would be starting in an hour, they added. "and you'd better travel with them," joined in the lady, contemptuously, "or you will be sure to get into trouble by yourselves." a reply more forcible than polite from gerôme then cleared the apartment; and, rekindling the now expiring embers, we prepared for the road. we set out at dawn for the gate of the village, where the caravans were to assemble. it was still freezing hard, and the narrow streets like sheets of solid ice, so that our horses kept their legs with difficulty. we must have numbered fifty or sixty camels, and as many mules and horses, all heavily laden. daybreak disclosed a weird, beautiful scene: a sea of snow, over which the rising sun threw countless effects of light and colour, from the cold slate grey immediately around us, gradually lightening to the faintest tints of rose and gold on the eastern horizon, where stars were paling in a cloudless sky. portrayed on canvas, the picture would have looked unnatural, so brilliant were the hues thrown by the rising sun over the land-, or rather snow-scape. the cold, though intense, was not unbearable, for there was fortunately no wind, and the spirits rose with the crisp, bracing air, brilliant sunshine, and jangle of caravan bells, as one realized that teherán was now well within reach, and the dreaded kharzán a thing of the past. gerôme gave vent to his feelings with a succession of roulades and operatic airs; for my little friend had a very good opinion of his vocal powers, which i, unfortunately, did not share. but he was a cheery, indefatigable creature, and of indomitable pluck, and one gladly forgave him this, his only failing. it was terribly hard work all that morning, and gerôme had four, i three, falls, on one occasion wrenching my right ankle badly. some of the drifts through which we rode must have been at least ten or fifteen feet deep. some tough faggots thrown over these afforded a footing, or we should never have got over. towards midday mazreh was sighted; and we pushed on ahead, leaving the caravan to its own devices. the going was now better, and it was soon far behind us, the only object visible from the low hills which we now ascended, the camels and mules looking, from this distance, like flies crawling over a huge white sheet. lunch at mazreh consisted of damp, mouldy bread, and some sweet, sickly liquid the postmaster called tea. procuring fresh horses without difficulty, we set out about p.m. for kazvin. it was not till p.m. that we were riding through the great gate of that city, which the soldier on guard consented, with some demur, to open. kazvin boasts a hotel and a boulevard! the latter is lit by a dozen oil-lamps; the former, though a palatial building of brick, with verandahs and good rooms, is left to darkness and the rats in the absence of travellers. having groped our way for half an hour or so about a labyrinth of dark, narrow streets, we presently emerged on the dimly lit boulevard (three of the oil-lamps had gone out), and rode up to the melancholy looking hostelry at the end. failing to obtain admission, we burst open the door, and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would allow. food was out of the question; drink, saving some villainous raki of gerôme's, also; but there was plenty of firewood, and we soon had a good fire in the grate. this hotel was originally built by the shah for the convenience of himself and ministers when on his way to europe. it is only on these rare occasions that the barn-like building is put in order. visions of former luxury were still visible in our bedroom in the shape of a bedstead, toilet-table, and looking-glass. "but we can't eat _them_!" said gerôme, mournfully. kazvin, which now has a population of , , has seen better days. it was once capital of persia, with , inhabitants. strolling out in the morning before breakfast, i found it well and regularly built, and surrounded by a mud wall, with several gates of beautiful mosaic, now much chipped and defaced. being the junction of the roads from tabriz on the west, and résht on the north to the capital, is now kazvin's sole importance. the road to teherán was made some years ago at enormous expense by the shah; but it has now, in true persian style, been left to fall into decay. it is only in the finest and driest weather that the journey can be made on wheels, and this was naturally out of the question for us. a railway was mooted some time since along this, the only respectable carriage-road in persia--but the project was soon abandoned. the post-houses, however, are a great improvement on any in other parts of the country. at kishlak, for instance, we found a substantial brick building with a large guest-room, down the centre of which ran a long table with spotless table-cloth, spread out with plates of biscuits, apples, nuts, pears, dried fruits, and sweetmeats, beautifully decorated with gold and silver paper, and at intervals decanters of water--rather cold fare with the thermometer at a few degrees above zero. the fruits and biscuits were shrivelled and tasteless, having evidently been there some months. it reminded me of a children's doll dinner-party. with the exception of these barmecide feasts and some straw-flavoured eggs, there was nothing substantial to be got in any of the post-houses till we reached our destination. about four o'clock on the th we first sighted the white peak of mount demavend, and by three o'clock next day were within sight of the dingy brown walls, mud houses, and white minarets of the city of the shah--teherán. [footnote a: both have since met violent deaths. captain gill was murdered by natives with professor palmer near suez, and captain clayton killed while playing polo in india.] chapter v. teherÁn. a brilliant ball-room, pretty faces, smart gowns, good music, and an excellent supper;--thus surrounded, i pass my first evening in teherán, a pleasant contrast indeed to the preceding night of dirt, cold, and hunger. but it was not without serious misgivings that i accepted the courteous invitation of the german embassy. the crossing of the kharzán had not improved the appearance of dress-clothes and shirts, to say nothing of my eyes being in the condition described by pugilists as "bunged up," my face of the hue of a boiled lobster, the effects of sun and snow. one is struck, on entering teherán, with the apparent cleanliness of the place as compared with other oriental towns. the absence of heaps of refuse, cess-pools, open drains, and bad smells is remarkable to one accustomed to eastern cities; but this was perhaps, at the time of my visit, due to the pure rarified atmosphere, the keen frosty air, of winter. teherán in january, with its cold bracing climate, and teherán in june, with the thermometer above ninety in the shade, are two very different things; and the town is so unhealthy in summer, that all europeans who can afford to do so live on the hills around the capital. the environs are not picturesque. they have been likened to those of madrid, having the same brown calcined soil, the same absence of trees and vegetation. the city, viewed from outside the walls, is ugly and insignificant, and, on a dull day, indistinguishable at no great distance. in clear weather, however, the beehive-like dwellings and rumbling ramparts stand out in bold relief against a background of blue sky and dazzling snow-mountains, over which towers, in solitary grandeur, the peak of mount demavend, [a] an extinct volcano, over , feet high, the summit of which is reported by natives to be haunted. the ascent is gradual and easy, and has frequently been made by europeans. teherán is divided into two parts--the old city and the new. in the former, inhabited only by natives, the streets are narrow, dark, and tortuous, leading at intervals into large squares with deep tanks of running water in the centre. the latter are characteristic of persia, and have in summer a deliciously cool appearance, the coping of the fountain being only an inch or so in height, and the water almost flush with the ground. the new, or european quarter, is bisected by a broad tree-lined thoroughfare, aptly named the "boulevard des ambassadeurs," for here are the legations of england, france, and germany. the russian embassy, a poor building in comparison with the others, stands in another part of the town. hard by the english embassy is the hôtel prevôt, kept by a frenchman of that name, once confectioner-in-chief to his majesty the shah. here we took up our quarters during our stay in the capital. at the extremity of the boulevard des ambassadeurs is the "place des canons," so called from the old and useless cannon of various ages that surround it. the square is formed by low barn-like barracks, their whitewashed walls decorated with gaudy and rudely drawn pictures of persian soldiers and horses. beyond this again, and approached by an avenue of poplar trees, lit by electric light, is the palace of the shah, with nothing to indicate the presence in town of the sovereign but a guard of ragged-looking, unkempt persians in russian uniform lounging about the principal gateway. the persian soldier is not a credit to his country. although drilled and commanded by european officers, he is a slouching, awkward fellow, badly paid, ill fed, and not renowned for bravery. the ordinary infantry uniform consists of a dark-blue tunic and trousers with red facings, and a high astrachan busby with the brass badge of the lion and sun. to a stranger, however, the varied and grotesque costumes in which these clowns are put by their imperial master is somewhat confusing. one may see, for instance, russian cossacks, french chasseurs, german uhlans, and austrian cuirassiers incongruously mixed up together in the ranks on parade. his army is the shah's favourite toy, and nothing affords the eccentric monarch so much amusement as constant change of uniform. as the latter are manufactured in and sent out from the countries they represent, the expense to the state is considerable. the first europeans to instruct this rabble were frenchmen, but england, russia, germany, and austria have all supplied officers and instructors within the past fifty years, without, however, any good result. although the arsenal at teherán is full of the latest improvements in guns and magazine rifles, these are kept locked up, and only for show, the old brown bess alone being used. the cossack regiment always stationed at teherán, ostensibly for the protection of the shah, and officered by russians, is the only one with any attempt at discipline or order, and is armed with the berdán rifle. the teherán bazaar is, at first sight, commonplace and uninteresting. though of enormous extent (it contains in the daytime over thirty thousand souls), it lacks the picturesque oriental appearance of those of cairo or constantinople, where costly and beautiful wares are set out in tempting array before the eyes of the unwary stranger. here they are kept in the background, and a european must remain in the place for a couple of months or so, and make friends with the merchants, before he be even permitted to see them. the position is reversed. at stamboul the stranger is pestered and worried to buy; at teherán one must sometimes entreat before being allowed even to inspect the contents of a silk or jewel stall. even then, the owner will probably remain supremely indifferent as to whether the "farangi" purchase or not. this fact is curious. it will probably disappear with the advance of civilization and mr. cook. [illustration: teherÁn] debouching from the principal streets or alleys of the bazaar, which is of brick, are large covered caravanserais, or open spaces for the storage of goods, where the wholesale merchants have their warehouses. the architecture of some of these caravanserais is very fine. the cool, quiet halls, their domed roofs, embellished with delicate stone carving, and blue, white, and yellow tiles, dimly reflected in the inevitable marble tank of clear water below, are a pleasant retreat from the stifling alleys and sun-baked streets. talking of tanks, there seems to be no lack of water in teherán. i was surprised at this, for there are few countries so deficient in this essential commodity as persia. it is, i found, artificially supplied by "connaughts," or subterranean aqueducts flowing from mountain streams, which are practically inexhaustible. in order to keep a straight line, shafts are dug every fifty yards or so, and the earth thrown out of the shaft forms a mound, which is not removed. thus a persian landscape, dotted with hundreds of these hillocks, often resembles a field full of huge ant-hills. the mouths of these shafts, left open and unprotected, are a source of great danger to travellers by night. teherán is provided with thirty or forty of these aqueducts, which were constructed by the government some years ago at enormous expense and labour. as in most eastern cities, each trade has its separate alley or thoroughfare in the teherán bazaar. thus of jewellers, silk mercers, tailors, gunsmiths, saddlers, coppersmiths, and the rest, each have their separate arcade. the shops or stalls are much alike in appearance, though they vary considerably in size. behind a brick platform, about three feet wide and two feet in height, is the shop, a vaulted archway, in the middle of which, surrounded by his wares, kalyan [b] or cigarette in mouth, squats the shopkeeper. there are no windows. at night a few rough boards and a rough russian padlock are the sole protection, saving a smaller apartment at the back of each stall, a kind of strong-room, guarded by massive iron-bound doors, in which the most valuable goods are kept. there is no attempt at decoration; a few only of the jewellers' shops are whitewashed inside, the best being hung with the cheapest and gaudiest of french or german coloured prints. the stalls are usually opened about . a.m., and closed at sunset. an hour later the bazaar is untenanted, save for the watchmen and pariah dogs. the latter are seen throughout the day, sleeping in holes and corners, many of them almost torn to pieces from nightly encounters, and kicked about, even by children, with impunity. it is only at night that the brutes become really dangerous, and when, in packs of from twenty to thirty, they have been known to attack and kill men. occasionally the dogs of one quarter of the bazaar attack those of another, and desperate fights ensue, the killed and wounded being afterwards eaten by the victors. it is, therefore, unsafe to venture out in the streets of teherán after dark without a lantern and good stout cudgel. from to a.m. is perhaps the busiest part of the day in the bazaar. then is one most struck with the varied and picturesque types of oriental humanity, the continuously changing kaleidoscope of native races from archangel to the persian gulf, the baltic sea to afghanistán. nor are contrasts wanting. here is ivanoff from odessa or tiflis, in the white peaked cap and high boots dear to every russian, haggling over the price of a carpet with ali mahomet of bokhára; there chung-yang, who has drifted here from pekin through siberia, with a cargo of worthless tea, vainly endeavouring to palm it off on that grave-looking parsee, who, unfortunately for the celestial, is not quite such a fool as he looks. such a hubbub never was heard. every one is talking or shouting at the top of their voices, women screaming, beggars whining, fruit and water sellers jingling their cymbals, while from the coppersmiths' quarter hard by comes a deafening accompaniment in the shape of beaten metal. occasionally a caravan of laden camels stalk gravely through the alleys, scattering the yelling crowd right and left, only to reassemble the moment it has passed, like water in the wake of a ship. again it separates, and a sedan, preceded by a couple of gholams with long wands, is carried by, and one gets a momentary glimpse of a pair of dark eyes and henna-stained finger-tips, as a fair one from the "anderoon" [c] of some great man is carried to her jeweller's or perfumer's. the "yashmak" is getting very thin in these countries, and one can form a very fair estimate of the lady's features (singularly plain ones) as the sedan swings by. towards midday business is suspended for a while, and the alleys of the bazaar empty as if by magic. for nearly a whole hour silence, unbroken save by the snarling of some pariah dog, the hiss of the samovar, and gurgle of the kalyan, falls over the place, till p.m., when the noise recommences as suddenly as it ceased, and continues unbroken till sunset. on the whole, the bazaar is disappointing. the stalls for the sale of persian and central asian carpets, old brocades and tapestries, and other wares dear to the lover of eastern art, are in the minority, and must be hunted out. manchester goods, cheap calicoes and prints, german cutlery, and birmingham ware are found readily enough, and form the stock of two-thirds of the shops in the carpet and silk-mercers' arcade. it is by no means easy to find one's way about. no one understands a word of english, french, or german, and had it not been for my knowledge of russian--which, by the way, is the one known european language among the lower orders--i should more than once have been hopelessly lost. europeans in teherán lead a pleasant though somewhat monotonous life. summer is, as i have said, intolerable, and all who can seek refuge in the hills, where there are two settlements, or villages, presented by the shah to england and russia. winter is undoubtedly the pleasantest season. scarcely an evening passes without a dance, private theatricals, or other festivity given by one or other of the embassies, entertainments which his imperial majesty himself frequently graces with his presence. there is probably no living sovereign of whom so little is really known in europe as nasr-oo-din, "shah of persia," "asylum of the universe," and "king of kings," to quote three of his more modest titles. although he has visited europe twice, and been made much of in our own country, most english people know absolutely nothing of the persian monarch's character or private life. that he ate _entrées_ with his fingers at buckingham palace, expressed a desire to have the lord chamberlain bowstrung, and conceived a violent and unholy passion for an amiable society lady somewhat inclined to _embonpoint_, we are most of us aware; but beyond this, the shah's _vie intime_ remains, to the majority of us at least, a sealed book. this is perhaps a pity, for, like many others, nasr-oo-din is not so black as he is painted, and, notwithstanding all reports to the contrary, is said, by those who should know, to be one of the kindest-hearted creatures breathing. the government of persia is that of an absolute monarchy. the shah alone has power of life and death, and, even in the most remote districts, the assent of the sovereign is necessary before an execution can take place. the shah appoints his own ministers. these are the "sadr-azam," or prime minister; the "sapar-sala," commander-in-chief; "mustof-al-mamalak," secretary of state, and minister of foreign affairs. these are supposed to represent the privy council, but they very seldom meet, the shah preferring to manage affairs independently. the total revenue of the latter has been estimated at seven million pounds sterling. nasr-oo-din, who is now sixty-five years of age, ascended the throne in . his reign commenced inauspiciously with a determined attempt to assassinate him, made by a gang of fanatics of the babi sect. the plot, though nearly successful, was frustrated, and the conspirators executed; but it is said that the shah has lived in constant dread of assassination ever since. he is hypochondriacal, and, though in very fair health, is constantly on the _qui vive_ for some imaginary ailment. the post of court physician, filled for many years past by dr. tholozan, a frenchman, is no sinecure. the habits of the shah are simple. he is, unlike most persians of high class, abstemious as regards both food and drink. two meals a day, served at midday and p.m., and those of the plainest diet, washed down by a glass or two of claret or other light wine, are all he allows himself. when on a hunting-excursion, his favourite occupation, the shah is even more abstemious, going sometimes a whole day without food of any kind. he is a crack shot, and is out nearly daily, when the weather permits, shooting over his splendid preserves around teherán. there is no lack of sport. tiger and bear abound; also partridge, woodcock, snipe, and many kinds of water-fowl; but the shah is better with the rifle than the fowling-piece. the shah is passionately fond of music, and has two or three string and brass bands trained and conducted by a frenchman. when away on a long sporting-excursion, he is invariably accompanied by one of these bands. were it not for the running attendants in scarlet and gold, and the crimson-dyed [d] tail of his horse, no one would take the slim, swarthy old gentleman in black frock-coat, riding slowly through the streets, and beaming benignly through a huge pair of spectacles, for the great shah-in-shah himself. yet he is stern and pitiless enough when necessary, as many of the court officials can vouch for. but few have escaped the bastinado at one time or another; but in persia this is not considered an indignity, even by the highest in the land. the stick is painful, certainly, but not a disgrace in this strange country. nasr-oo-din has three legal wives, and an unlimited number of concubines. of the former, the head wife, shuku-es-sultana, is his own cousin and the great-granddaughter of the celebrated fatti-ali-shah, whose family was so large that, at the time of his death, one hundred and twenty of his descendants were still living. shuku-es-sultana is the mother of the "valliad," or crown prince, now governor of tabriz. the second wife is a granddaughter of fatti-ali-shah; and the third (the shah's favourite) is one anys-u-dowlet. the latter is the best looking of the three, and certainly possesses the greatest influence in state affairs. of the concubines, the mother of the "zil-i-sultan" ("shadow of the king") ranks the first in seniority. the zil-i-sultan is, though illegitimate, the shah's eldest son, and is, with the exception of his father, the most influential man in persia, the heir-apparent (valliad) being a weak, foolish individual, easily led, and addicted to drink and the lowest forms of sensuality. with the exception of eunuchs, no male person over the age of ten is permitted in the seraglio, or anderoon, which is constantly receiving fresh importations from the provinces. persians deny that there are any european women, but this is doubtful. the harems of constantinople and cairo are recruited from paris and vienna; why not those of teherán? the indoor costume of the persian lady must be somewhat trying at first to those accustomed to european toilettes. the skirt, reaching only to the knee, is full and _bouffé_, like an opera-dancer's, the feet and legs generally bare. the only becoming part of the whole costume is the tightly fitting zouave jacket of light blue or scarlet satin, thickly braided with gold, and the gauze head-dress embroidered with the same material, and fastened under the chin with a large turquoise, ruby, or other precious stone. some of the women (even among the concubines) are highly educated; can play on the "tar", [e] or harmonica, sing, and read and write poetry; but their recreations are necessarily somewhat limited. picnics, music, story-telling, kalyan and cigarette smoking, sweetmeat-making, and the bath, together with somewhat less innocent pastimes, form the sum total of a persian concubine's amusements. outside the walls of the anderoon they are closely watched and guarded, for persians are jealous of their women, and, even in the most formal social gatherings, there is a strict separation of the sexes. its imperial master occasionally joins in the outdoor amusements of his harem; indeed, he himself invented a game a few years since, which sounds more original than amusing. a slide of smooth alabaster about twenty feet long, on an inclined plane, was constructed in one of his bath-houses. down this the shah would gravely slide into the water, followed by his seraglio. the sight must have been a strange one, the costumes on these occasions being, to say the least of it, scanty! [illustration: persian dancing-girl] the shah's greatest failing is, perhaps, vacillation. he is constantly changing his mind, on trifling matters chiefly, for his northern neighbours take care that he is more consistent in affairs of state. two or three times, between his visits to europe in and , he has started with great pomp and a large retinue for the land of the "farangi," but, on arrival at résht, has returned to teherán, without a word of warning to his ministers, or apparent reason for his sudden change of plans. these "false starts" became a recognized thing after a time, and when, in , his majesty embarked on his yacht and set sail for baku, it came as a surprise, pleasant or otherwise, to his subjects at teherán. the final undertaking of the journey may have been advised by his astrologers, for the shah is intensely superstitious, and never travels without them. nor will he, on any account, start on a journey on a friday, or the thirteenth day of the month. the palace of teherán is, seen from the outside, a shapeless, ramshackle structure. the outside walls are whitewashed, and covered with gaudy red and blue pictures of men and horses, the former in modern military tunics and shakos, the latter painted a bright red. the figures, rudely drawn, remind one of a charity schoolboy's artistic efforts on a slate, but are somewhat out of place on the walls of a royal residence. the interior of the "ark," as it is called, is a pleasant contrast to the outside, although even here, in the museum, which contains some of the finest gems and _objets d'art_ in the world, the various objects are placed with singular disregard of order, not to say good taste. one sees, for instance, a tawdrily dressed mechanical doll from paris standing next to a case containing the "darai nor," or "sea of light," a magnificent diamond obtained in india, and said to be the largest yet discovered, though somewhat inferior in quality to the "koh-i-noor." a cheap and somewhat dilapidated cuckoo-clock and toy velocipede flank the famous globe of the world in diamonds and precious stones. this, the most costly and beautiful piece of workmanship in the place, is about eighteen inches in diameter, and is said to have cost eight millions of francs. the different countries are marked out with surprising accuracy and detail,--persia being represented by turquoises, england by diamonds, africa by rubies, and so on, the sea being of emeralds. the museum itself is about sixty feet in length by twenty-five feet broad, its ceiling composed entirely of looking-glasses, its parquet flooring strewn with priceless persian rugs and carpets. large oil-paintings of queen victoria, the czar of russia, and other sovereigns, surround the walls, including two portraits of her majesty the ex-empress eugenie. it would weary the reader to wade through a description of the jade work and _cloisonné_, the porcelain of all countries, the japanese works of art in bronze and gold, and last, but not least, the cut and uncut diamonds and precious stones, temptingly laid out in open saucers, like _bonbons_ in a confectioner's shop. the diamonds are perhaps the finest as regards quality, but there is a roughly cut ruby surmounting the imperial crown, said to be the largest in the world. though it was very cold, and the snow lay deep upon the ground, my stay at teherán was not unpleasant. the keen bracing air, brilliant sunshine, and cloudless blue sky somewhat made amends for the sorry lodging and execrable fare provided by mine host at the hôtel prevôt. i have seldom, in my travels, come across a french inn where, be the materials ever so poor, the landlord is not able to turn out a decent meal. i have fared well and sumptuously at new caledonia, saigon, and even pekin, under the auspices of a french innkeeper; but at teherán (nearest of any to civilized europe) was compelled to swallow food that would have disgraced a fifth-rate _gargotte_ in the slums of paris. perhaps monsieur prevôt had become "persianized"; perhaps the dulcet tones of madame p., whose voice, incessantly rating her servants, reminded one of unoiled machinery, and commenced at sunrise only to be silenced (by exhaustion) at sunset, disturbed him at his culinary labours. the fact remains that the _cuisine_ was, to any but a starving man, uneatable, the bedroom which madame was kind enough to assign to me, pitch dark and stuffy as a dog-kennel. a long conference with general s--, an austrian in the persian service, decided my future movements. the general, one of the highest geographical authorities on persia, strongly dissuaded my attempting to reach india _viâ_ meshéd and afghanistán. "you will only be stopped and sent back," said he; "what is the use of losing time?" i resolved, therefore, after mature deliberation, to proceed direct to ispahán, shiráz, and bushire, and from thence by steamer to sonmiani, on the coast of baluchistán. from the latter port i was to strike due north to kelát and quetta, and "that," added the general, "will bring you across eighty or a hundred miles of totally unexplored country. you will have had quite enough of it when you get to kelát--if you ever _do_ get there," he added encouragingly. the route now finally decided upon, preparations were made for a start as soon as possible. portmanteaus were exchanged for a pair of light leather saddle-bags, artistically embellished with squares of bright persian carpet let in at the side, and purchased in the bazaar for twenty-two keráns, or about seventeen shillings english money. in these i was able to carry, with ease, a couple of tweed suits, half a dozen flannel shirts, three pairs of boots, and toilet necessaries, to say nothing of a box of cigars and a small medicine-chest. gerôme also carried a pair of bags, containing, in addition to his modest wardrobe, our stores for the voyage--biscuits, valentine's meat juice, sardines, tea, and a bottle of brandy; for, with the exception of eggs and persian bread, one can reckon upon nothing eatable at the chapar khanehs. there is an excellent european store shop at teherán, and had it not been for limited space, we might have regaled on turtle soup, aspic jellies, quails, and _pâté de foie gras_ galore throughout persia. mr. r. n----, an _attaché_ to the british legation at teherán, is justly celebrated for his repasts _en voyage_, and assured me that he invariably sat down to a _recherché_ dinner of soup, three courses, and iced champagne, even when journeying to such remote cities as hamadán or meshéd, thereby proving that, if you only take your time about it, you may travel comfortably almost anywhere--even in persia. [footnote a: the word _demavend_ signifies literally "abundance of mist," so called from the summit of this mountain being continually wreathed in clouds.] [footnote b: a pipe similar to the turkish "hubble-bubble," wherein the tobacco is inhaled through plain or rose water.] [footnote c: harem.] [footnote d: a badge of royalty in persia.] [footnote e: a stringed instrument played in the same way as the european guitar.] chapter vi. teherÁn--ispahÁn. we are already some farsakhs [a] from teherán when day breaks on the th of february, . the start is not a propitious one. hardly have we cleared the ispahán gate than down comes the shagird's horse as if he were shot, breaking his girths and rider's thumb at the same moment. luckily, we are provided with rope, and persian saddles are not complicated. in ten minutes we are off again; but it is terribly hard going, and all one can do to keep the horses on their legs. towards midday the sun slightly thaws the surface of the frozen snow, and makes matters still worse. up till now the pace has not been exhilarating. two or three miles an hour at most. it will take some time to reach india at this rate! four or five hours of this work, and there is no longer a sign of life to be seen on the white waste, saving, about a mile ahead of us, a thin wreath of grey smoke and half a dozen blackened tents--an encampment of gypsies. far behind us the tallest minarets of the capital are dipping below the horizon, while to the left the white and glittering cone of demavend stands boldly out from a background of deep cloudless blue. though the sun is powerful--so much so, indeed, that face and hands are already swollen and blistered--the cold in the shade is intense. a keen, cutting north-easter sweeps across the white waste, and, riding for a time under the shadow of a low ridge of snow, i find my cigar frozen to my lips--nor can i remove it without painfully tearing the skin. gerôme is in his element, and, as a natural consequence, my spirits fall as his rise. the slowness of our progress, and constant stumbling of my pony, do not improve the temper, and i am forced at last to beg my faithful follower to desist, for a time at least, from a vocal rendering of "la mascotte" which has been going on unceasingly since we left teherán. he obeys, but (unabashed) proceeds to carry on a long conversation with himself in the tartar language, with which i am, perhaps happily, unacquainted. truly he is a man of unfailing resource! but even his angelic temper is tried when, shortly afterwards, we ride past the gipsy encampment as he dismounts to light a cigarette out of the wind, one of the sirens in a tent catches sight of the little russian, and in less than half a minute he is surrounded by a mob of dishevelled, half-naked females, who throw their arms about him, pull his hair and ears, and try, but in vain, to secure his horse and drag him into a tent. these gipsies are the terror of travellers in persia, the men, most of them, gaining a precarious living as tinkers and leather-workers, with an occasional highway robbery to keep their hand in, the women living entirely by thieving and prostitution. the gentlemen of the tribe were, perhaps luckily for us, away from home on this occasion. one of the women, a good-looking, black-eyed girl, was the most persistent among this band of maenads, and, bolder than the rest, utterly refused to let gerôme get on his pony, till, white with passion, the russian raised his whip. this was a signal for a general howl of rage. "strike me if you dare!" said the girl, her eyes ablaze. "if you do you will never reach the next station." but in the confusion gerôme had vaulted into his saddle, and, setting spurs to our horses, we galloped or scrambled off as quick as the deep snow would allow us. "crapule va!" shouted the little man, whose cheek and hair still bore traces of the struggle. "il n'y a qu'en perse qu'on fait des chameaus comme cela!" ispahán is about seventy farsakhs distant from teherán. the journey has, under favourable conditions, been ridden in under two days, but this is very unusual, and has seldom been done except for a wager by europeans. in our case speed was, of course, out of the question, with the road in the state it was. the ordinary pace is, on an average, six to eight miles an hour, unless the horses are very bad. it was nearly a week, however, before we rode through the gates of ispahán, and even this was accounted a fair performance considering the difficulties we had to contend with. towards sunset the wind rose--a sharp north-easter that made face and ears feel as if they were being flogged with stinging-nettles. it was not until dusk that we reached rabat kerim, a small mud village, with a filthy windowless post-house. but a pigstye would have been welcome after such a ride, and the vermin which a flickering oil-lamp revealed in hundreds, on walls and flooring, did not prevent our sleeping soundly till morning. my thermometer marked only one degree above zero when we retired to rest, and the wood was too damp to light a fire. but we are in persia! it is only fair, however, to say that the road we were now travelling is not the regular post-road, which lies some distance to the eastward of rabat kerim, but was now impassable on account of the snow. the smaller track joins the main road at koom. by taking the less frequented track, we were unable to go through the "malak al niote," or "valley of the angel of death," which lies about half-way between the capital and koom. the valley is so called from its desolate and sterile appearance, though, if this be so, the greater part of persia might with reason bear the same name. be this as it may, the shagirds and natives have the greatest objection to passing through it after dark. a legend avers that it is haunted by monsters having the bodies of men and heads of beasts and birds. surrounded by these apparitions, who lick his face and hands till he is unconscious, the traveller is carried away--where, history does not state--never to return. if the first day's work had been hard, it was child's play compared to the second. the track, leading over a vast plain, had recently been traversed by a number of camel caravans, which had transformed it into a kind of jacob's ladder formed by holes a couple of feet deep in the snow. as long as the horses trod into them all went well, but a few inches to the right or left generally brought them blundering on to their noses. the reader may imagine what a day of this work means. the strain on mind and muscle was almost unbearable, to say nothing of the blinding glare. yet one could not but admire, during our brief pauses for rest, the picture before us. the boundless expanse of sapphire blue and dazzling white, with not a speck to mar it, save where, occasionally, the warm sun-rays had, here and there, laid bare chains of dark rocks, giving them the appearance of islands in this ocean of snow. at pitché, the midday station, no horses were to be had; so, notwithstanding that deep snow-drifts lay between us and kushku baïra, the halt for the night, we were compelled, after a couple of hours' rest, to set out on the ponies that had brought us from rabat kerim. more perhaps by good luck than anything else, we reached the latter towards p.m. a bright starlit night favoured us, and, with the exception of a couple of falls apiece, we were none the worse. we found, too, to our great delight, a blazing fire burning in the post-house, kindled by some caravan-men. but there is always a saving clause in persia. no water was to be had for love or money till the morning, and, knowing the raging thirst produced by melted snow, we had to forget our thirst till next day. [illustration: post-house at kushku baira] a pleasant surprise also was in store for us. two or three miles beyond kushku baïra we were clear of snow altogether. not a vestige of white was visible upon the bare stony plain. nothing but dull drab desert, stretching away on every side to a horizon of snow-capt hills, recalling, by their very whiteness, the miseries of the past two days. "berik allah!" [b] cried gerôme. "we have done with the snow now." "inshallah!" [c] i replied, though with an inward conviction that we should see it again further on, and suffer accordingly. the sacred city of koom [d] is one of the pleasantest recollections i retain of the ride between the capital and ispahán. it was about two o'clock on the afternoon of the th of february that, breasting a chain of low sandy hills, the huge golden dome of the tomb of fatima became visible. we were then still four miles off; but, even with our jaded steeds, the ride became what it had not yet been--a pleasure. the green sunlit plains of wheat and barley, interspersed with bars of white and red poppies, the picturesque, happy-looking peasantry, the strings of mule and camel caravans, with their gaudy trappings and clashing bells,--all this life, colour, and movement helped to give one new hope and energy, and drown the dreary remembrance of past troubles, bodily and mental. even the caravans of corpses sent to koom for interment, which we passed every now and again, failed to depress us, though at times the effluvia was somewhat overpowering, many of the bodies being brought to the sacred city from the most remote parts of persia. each mule bore two dead bodies, slung on either side, like saddle-bags, and one could clearly trace the outline of the figure wrapped in blue or grey cloth. a few of the friends and relatives of some of the deceased accompanied this weird procession, but the greater number of the dead had been consigned to the care of the muleteers. the latter, in true chalvadar [e] fashion, were stretched out flat on their stomachs fast asleep, their heads lolling over their animals, arms and legs dangling helplessly, while the caravan roamed about the track unchecked, banging their loads against each other, to the silent discomfiture of the unfortunate mourners. [illustration: a corpse caravan] koom is said to cover nearly twice as much ground as shiráz, but more than half the city is in ruins, the afghans having destroyed it in . the principal buildings are mainly composed of mosques and sepulchres (for koom is second only to meshéd in sanctity), but most of them are in a state of decay and dilapidation. the mosque containing the tomb of fatima is the finest, its dome being covered with plates of silver-gilt--the natives say of pure gold. the sacred character of this city is mainly derived from the fact that fatima, surnamed "el masouna" ("free from sin"), died here many years ago. the tradition is that fatima was on her way to the city of tus, whither she was going to visit her brother, imám riza. on arrival at koom, she heard of his death, which caused her to delay her journey and take up her residence here for a time, but she shortly afterwards sickened, and died of a broken heart. a mausoleum was originally built of a very humble nature, but, by order of shah abbas, it was enlarged and richly ornamented inside and out. fatti-ali-shah and abbas the second are both buried here; also the wife of mahomet shah, who died in , having had the dome of the mosque covered with gold. there is a legend among natives that fatima's body no longer lies in the mosque, but was carried bodily to heaven shortly after death. the population of koom, which now amounts to little more than between ten and twelve thousand, was formerly much larger. like many other persian cities--saving, perhaps, teherán--it retains but little of its greatness, either as regards art or commerce. the bazaar is, notwithstanding, extensive and well supplied. koom is noted for the manufacture of a white porous earthenware, which is made into flasks and bottles, some of beautiful design and workmanship. the city is entered from the north by a substantial stone bridge, spanning a swift but shallow river. it presents, at first sight, much more the appearance of a spanish or moorish town than a persian one. the dirty brown mud huts are replaced by picturesque white houses, with coloured domes, gaily striped awnings, and carved wooden balconies overhanging the stream. riding through the city gate, we plunge from dazzling sunshine into the cool semi-darkness of the bazaar, through which we ride for at least a quarter of an hour, when a sudden turning brings us once more into daylight in the yard of a huge caravanserai, crowded with mule and camel caravans. the apartment or cell allotted to us was, however, so filthy that we decided to push on at once to pasingán, the next stage, four farsakhs distant. koom is noted for the size and venom of its scorpions; and the dim recesses of the dark, cobwebby chamber, with its greasy walls and smoke-blackened ceiling, looked just the place for these undesirable bedfellows. so we rode on again into the open country, past crowds of beggars and dervishes at the eastern gate, as usual, busily engaged, as soon as they saw us coming, at their devotions. clear of the city walls, one sees nothing on every side but huge storks. they are held sacred by the natives, being supposed to migrate to mecca every year. i heard at ispahán that, notwithstanding the outward austerity and piety of the people of koom, there is no town in persia where so much secret depravity and licentiousness are carried on as in the "holy city." the stage from koom to pasingán was accomplished in an incredibly short time; and i may here mention that this was the only occasion upon which, in persia, i was ever given a fairly good horse. the word _chapar_ signifies in persian to "gallop," but it is extremely rare to find "chapar post" pony which has any notion of going out of his own pace--something between a walk and a canter, like the old grey horse that carries round the lady in pink and spangles in a travelling circus. but to-day i got hold of a wiry, game little chestnut, who was evidently new to the job, and reached and tore away at his bridle as if he enjoyed the fun. seeing, about half-way, that he was bleeding at the mouth, i called gerôme's attention to the fact, and found that his horse was in the same plight--as, indeed, was every animal we passed on the road between koom and pasingán. this is on account of the water at and between the two places, which is full of small leeches, invisible except through a microscope. horses, mules, and cattle suffer much in consequence, for nothing can be done to remedy the evil. a pleasant gallop of under an hour brought us to pasingán. it was hardly possible to realize, riding through the warm evening air, for all the world like a june evening in england, that but two days before we had well-nigh been frozen to death. had i known what was in store for us beyond kashán, i might have marvelled even more at this sudden and welcome change of climate. the guest-chamber at pasingán was already taken by a persian khan, a rude, blustering fellow, who refused us even a corner; so we had, perforce, to make the best of it downstairs among the rats and vermin. devoured by the latter, and unable to sleep, we rose at the first streak of dawn, saddled two of the khan's horses, and rode away to sin-sin before any one was astir. the poor shagird, whom we had to threaten with a severe chastisement if he did not accompany us, was in a terrible state. the bow-string was the least he could expect when the khan came to know of the trick we had played him. an extra kerán at sin-sin, however, soon consoled our guide. he probably never returned to pasingán at all, but sought his fortunes elsewhere. persian post-boys are not particular. kashán is distant about fifty-two english miles from pasingán, and lies south-east of the latter. the caravan track passes a level tract of country, sparsely cultivated by means of irrigation. persian soil is evidently of the kind that, "tickled with a hoe, laughs with a harvest." even in this sterile desert, covered for the most part with white salt deposits, the little oases of grain and garden looked as fresh and green as though they had been on the banks of a lake or river. but the green patches were very few and far between, and, half-way between the post-stations, ceased altogether. nothing was then visible but a waste of brown mud and yellow sand, cut clear and distinct against the blue sky-line on the horizon. it is strange, when crossing such tracts of country, to note how near to one everything seems. objects six or eight miles off, looked to-day as if you could gallop up to them in five minutes; and the peak of demavend, on which we were now looking our last, seemed about twenty miles off, instead of over one hundred and fifty. kashán was reached on the th of february. at nasirabád, a village a few miles out of the city, there had been an earthquake that morning. many of the mud houses were in ruins, and their late owners sitting dejectedly on the remains. earthquakes are common enough in persia, and this was by no means our last experience in that line. commiserating with the homeless ones, we divided a few keráns among them, in return for which they brought us large water-melons (for which nasirabád is celebrated), deliciously flavoured, and as cold as ice. kashán, which stands on a vast plain about two thousand feet above sea-level, is picturesque and unusually clean for an eastern town. the bazaar is a long one, and its numerous caravanserais finer even than those of the capital. the manufacture of silk [f] and copperware is extensive; but, as usual, one saw little in the shops, _en evidence _, but shoddy cloth and manchester goods, and looked in vain for real oriental stuffs and carpets. i often wondered where on earth they _were_ to be got, for the most persistent efforts failed to produce the real thing. i often passed, on the road, camel and mule-cloths that made my mouth water, so old were their texture and delicate their pattern and colouring, but the owners invariably declined, under any circumstances, to part with them. kashán will ever be associated in my mind with the fact that i there saw the prettiest woman it was my luck to meet in persia. the glimpse was but a momentary one, but amply sufficed to convince me that those who say that _all_ persian women are ugly (as many do) know nothing-whatever about it. it was towards sunset, in one of the caravanserais, to which, hot and tired with the long dusty ride, i came for a quiet smoke and a cup of coffee. the sensation of absolute repose was delicious after the heat and glare, the stillness of the place unbroken save for the plash of a marble fountain, and, outside, the far-off voices of the "muezzims," calling the faithful to evening prayer. from the blue dome, with its golden stars and white tracery, the setting sun, streaming in through coloured glass, threw the softest shades of violet and ruby, emerald and amber, upon the marble pavement. the stalls around were closed for the night; all save one, a "manna" [g] shop. its owner, a white-turbaned old turk, and myself were the sole inmates of the caravanserai. even my "kafedji" [h] had disappeared, though probably not without leaving instructions to his neighbour to see that i did not make off with the quaint little silver coffee-cup and nargileh. it was here that i saw the "belle" of kashán, and of persia, for aught i know--a tall slim girl, dressed, not in the hideous bag-like garments usually affected by the persian female, but soft white draperies, from beneath which peeped a pair of loose baggy trousers and tiny feet encased in gold-embroidered slippers. invisible to her, i made every effort, from my hiding-place behind a projecting stall, to catch a glimpse of her face, but, alas! a yashmak was in the way--not the thin gauzy wisp affected by the smart ladies of cairo and constantinople, but a thick, impenetrable barrier of white linen, such as the peasant women of mohammedan countries wear. who could she be? what was she doing-out unattended at this late hour? i had almost given up all hope of seeing her features, when fortune favoured me. as the old turk dived into the recesses of his shop to attend to the wants of his fair customer, the latter removed her veil, revealing, as she did so, one of the sweetest and fairest faces it has ever been my good fortune to look upon. a perfectly oval face, soft delicate complexion, large dark eyes full of expression, a small aquiline nose, but somewhat large mouth, and the whitest and smallest of teeth. such was the apparition before me. she could not have been more than sixteen. i could scarcely restrain from giving vent to my admiration in speech, when the old turk returned. in an instant the yashmak was in its place, and, with a hasty glance around, my vision of beauty was scuttling away as fast as her legs could carry her. a low musical laugh like a chime of silver bells came back to me from the dark deserted alleys of the bazaar, and i saw her no more. the manna-seller was evidently irritated, and intimated, in dumb show, that i must leave the caravanserai at once, as he was shutting up for the night. i bought a pound or so of the sweetmeat to pacify him, and, if possible, glean some information about the fair one, but my advances were of no avail. the history of kashán is closely allied to that of ispahán. the former city was founded by sultana zobeide, wife of the celebrated haroun-al-raschid. ransacked and destroyed by the afghans in the eighteenth century, it was again restored, or rather rebuilt, by haji husein khan. perhaps the most interesting thing the city contains is a leaning minaret which dates from the thirteenth century. it is ascended by a rickety spiral staircase. from here, not so many years ago, it was the custom to execute adulterous wives. the husband, accompanied by his relations, forced his unfaithful spouse to the top of the tower and pushed her over the side (there is no balustrade), to be dashed to pieces on stone flags about a hundred and thirty feet below. "pas de chance, monsieur," was gerôme's greeting as i entered the caravanserai. "the koudoum pass is blocked with snow, and almost impassable. what is to be done?" mature deliberation brought but one solution to the question: start in the morning, and risk it. "it cannot be worse than the kharzán, anyhow," said gerôme, cheerfully, as we rode out of kashán next day, past the moated mud walls, forty feet high, that at one time made this city almost impregnable. i more than once during the morning, however, doubted whether we had done right in leaving our comfortable quarters at the caravanserai to embark on this uncertain, not to say dangerous, journey. twenty-nine farsakhs still lay between us and ispahán; but, once past the khurood pass (which lies about seven farsakhs from kashán), all would be plain sailing. the summit of the pass is about seven thousand feet above sea-level. its valleys are, in summer, green and fertile, but during the winter are frequently rendered impassable by the deep snow, as was now the case. khurood itself is a village of some size and importance, built on the slope of the mountain, and here, by advice of the villagers, we rested for the night. "it will take you at least a day to get to bideshk," said the postmaster--"that is, if you are going to attempt it." the ride from kashán had been pleasant enough. no snow was yet visible, save in the ravines, and the extreme summits of a chain of low rocky hills, of which we commenced the ascent a couple of hours or so after leaving kashán. half-way up, however, it became more difficult, the path being covered in places with a thick coating of ice--a foretaste of the pleasures before us. towards the summit of the mountain is an artificial lake, formed by a strong dyke, or bank of stonework, which intercepts and collects the mountain-streams and melted snows--a huge reservoir, whence the water is let off to irrigate the distant low plains of kashán, and, indeed, to supply the city itself. the waters of this lake, about fifteen feet deep, were clear as crystal, the bottom and sides being cemented. this reservoir was constructed by order of shah abbas, who seems to have been one of the wisest and best rulers this unfortunate country has ever had, for he has certainly done more for his country than nasr-oo-din or any of his stock are likely to. pass a finer caravanserai than usual, travel a better road, cross a finer bridge, and interrogate your shagird as to its history, and you will invariably receive the answer, "shah abbas." at the village of khurood, a huge caravanserai (his work) lies in ruins, having been destroyed seven or eight years ago by an earthquake. several persons were killed, the shock occurring at night-time, when the inmates were asleep. the post-house at khurood was cold, filthy, and swarmed with rats--an animal for which i have always had an especial aversion. towards midnight a persian gentleman arrived from kashán--a mild, benign-looking individual, with a grey moustache and large blue spectacles. the new-comer, who spoke a little french, begged to be allowed to join us on the morrow, as he was in a hurry to get to ispahán. notwithstanding gerôme's protestations, i had not the heart to refuse. he looked so miserable and helpless, and indeed was, as i discovered too late next day. our new acquaintance then suggested sending for wine, to drink to the success of our journey. at this suggestion gerôme woke up; and seeing that, in my case, the rats had successfully murdered sleep, i gladly agreed to anything that would make the time pass till daylight. a couple of bottles were then produced by the postmaster; but it was mawkish stuff, as sweet as syrup, and quite flavourless. gerôme and the persian, however, did not leave a drop, and before they had finished the second bottle were sworn friends. although wine is forbidden by the mohammedan faith, it is largely indulged in, in secret, by persians of the upper class. i never met, however, a follower of the prophet so open about it as our friend at khurood. the wine here was from ispahán, and cost, the persian told us, about sixpence a quart bottle, and was, in my opinion, dear at that. shiráz wine is perhaps the best in persia. it is white, and, though very sweet when new, develops, if kept for three or four years, a dry nutty flavour like sherry. this, however, does not last long, but gives place in a few months to a taste unpleasantly like sweet spirits of nitre, which renders the wine undrinkable. with proper appliances the country would no doubt produce excellent vintages, but at present the production of wine in persia is a distinct failure. leaving at a.m., we managed to reach the summit of the koudoum by two o'clock next day, when we halted to give the horses a rest, and get a mouthful of food. our persian friend had returned to koudoum after the first half-mile, during which he managed to get three falls, for the poor man had no notion of riding or keeping a horse on its legs. he reminded one of the cockney who sat his horse with consummate ease, grace, and daring, until it moved, when he generally fell off. i was sorry for him. he was so meek and unresentful, even when mercilessly chaffed by gerôme. our greatest difficulty up till now had arisen from ice, which completely covered the steep narrow pathway up the side of the mountain, and made the ascent slippery and insecure. the snow had as yet been a couple of feet deep at most, and we had come across no drifts of any consequence. arrived at the summit, however, we saw what we had to expect. below us lay a narrow valley or gorge, about a mile broad, separating us from the low range of hills on the far side of which lay bideshk. the depth of the snow we were about to make a way through was easily calculated by the telegraph-posts, which in places were covered to within two or three feet of the top. "you see, sahib," said the shagird, pointing with his whip to a huge drift some distance to the left of the wires; "two men lying under that." the intelligence did not interest me in the least. could we or not get over this "valley of death"? was the only question my mind was at that moment capable of considering. [illustration: a day in the snow] in less than a quarter of an hour we were in the thick of it, up to our waists in the snow, and pulling, rather than leading, our horses after us. it reminded me of a bad channel passage from folkestone to boulogne, and took about the same time--two hours, although the actual distance was under a mile and a half. gerôme led the way as long as he was able, but, about half-way across, repeated and violent falls had so exhausted his horse that we were obliged to halt while i took his place, by no means an easy one. during this stage of the proceedings we could scarcely see one another for the steam and vapour arising from the poor brutes, whose neighs of terror, as they blundered into a deeper drift than usual, were pitiful to hear. more than once gerôme's pony fell utterly exhausted and helpless, and it took our united efforts to get him on his legs again; while the shagird and i left our ponies prone on their sides, only too glad of a temporary respite from their labours. if there is anything in the mohammedan religion, the shagird was undoubtedly useful. he never ceased calling upon "allah!" for help for more than ten consecutive seconds the whole way across. at four o'clock we rode into the post-house at bideshk, thoroughly done up, and wet through with snow and perspiration, but safe, and determined, if horses were procurable, to push on at once to murchakhar, from whence two easy stages of six and three farsakhs would land us next day at ispahán. it was dusk, and we had just secured the only horses available, when two armenians, bound for teherán, rode into the yard. when told they were just too late for a relay, the rage of one of them--a short, apoplectic-looking little man--was awful to behold. as i mounted, his companion came up and politely advised us not to attempt to ride to murchakhar by night. "the road swarms with footpads," he said, in a mysterious undertone; "you run a very great risk of being robbed and murdered if you go on to-night." "you would have run a far greater of being frozen to death, if we had not saved you by taking these horses," cried gerôme, as we rode coolly out of the gateway. bideshk is noted for a great battle fought in its vicinity between the army of nadir shah and ashraf the afghan. its post-house is also noted, as i can vouch for, for the largest and most venomous bugs between teherán and ispahán. we only remained there three hours, and felt the effects for days afterwards. all trace of ice and snow disappeared a few farsakhs from here, and we galloped gaily across a hard and level plain to our destination for the night. the post-house was a blaze of light. a couple of armed sentries stood in front of the doorway, and a motley crowd of soldiers, shagird-chapars, and peasants outside. "you cannot come in," said the postmaster, full of importance. "the zil-i-sultan is here on a hunting expedition. he will start away early in the morning, and then you can have the guest-room, but not before." too tired to mind much--indeed, half asleep already--we groped our way to the stables, where, on the cleanest bundle of straw i have ever seen--or smelt, for it was pitch dark--in a persian post-stable (probably the property of his highness the governor of ispahán), we were soon in the land of dreams. had we known that we were calmly reposing within a couple of feet of the royal charger's heels, our slumbers might not have been so refreshing. daylight disclosed the fact. the governor and his suite had apparently made a night of it. although it was past eight o'clock when we made a start, the prince, his suite, soldiers, and grooms were none of them stirring, although his _chef_ was busily engaged, with his staff of assistants, preparing a sumptuous breakfast of kababs, roast meat and poultry, pastry, and confectionery of various kinds. i could not help envying the man whose appetite and digestion would enable him to sit down to such a meal at such an hour. sherbet, the shagird from murchakhar informed us in confidence, is the favourite drink of the zil-i-sultan. i only once tasted sherbet in persia, and was somewhat surprised--so lasting are one's youthful associations--to find it utterly different to the refreshing but somewhat depressing beverage of my school-days, sold, if i remember rightly, at twopence a packet. the real sherbet i was given (in a native house at shiráz) consisted simply of a glass of cold water with a lump of sugar in it--_eau sucré_, in fact. but persian sherbets are of endless varieties and flavours. preserved syrups of raspberry and pineapple, the juice of the fresh fruit of lemon, orange, and pomegranate, are all used in the manufacture of sherbet, which is, however, never effervescing. the water in which it is mixed should be icy cold, and has, when served in persia, blocks of frozen snow floating on the surface. the "sherbet-i-bidmishk," or "willow-flower sherbet," made from flowers of a particular kind of willow distilled in water, is perhaps the most popular of all among the higher classes, and is the most expensive. the hunting-expedition (the shagird, who was of a communicative disposition, informed us) consisted of three parties located at villages each within a couple of farsakhs of murchakhar. numbering altogether over six hundred men (all mounted), they had been out from ispahán nearly ten days. yesterday the prince's party had been exceptionally lucky, and had had splendid sport. we passed, on the road to géz, a caravan of fifteen mules laden with the spoil--ibex, deer, wild sheep, and even a wild ass among the slain. the latter had fallen to the governor's own rifle. there is plenty of sport to be had in persia, if you only take the trouble to look for it, and in comparative comfort too, with tents, stores, cooking apparatus, etc., if time is no object. the country swarms with wild animals--tiger, bear, and leopard in the forests by the caspian sea; wild asses, jackals, and wolves in the desert regions; deer and wild goats in the mountainous districts; and, as we afterwards had uncomfortable proof, lions in the southern provinces. there is no permission needed. a european may shoot over any country he pleases, with the exception of the shah's private preserves around teherán. his imperial majesty is very tetchy on this point. we galloped nearly the whole of the short stage from géz to ispahán. a couple of miles out of the city we overtook a donkey ridden by two peasants, heavy men, who challenged us to a trial of speed. we only just beat them by a couple of lengths at the gates, although our horses were fresh and by no means slow. the persian donkey is unquestionably the best in the east, and is not only speedy, but as strong as a horse. we frequently passed one of these useful beasts carrying a whole family--monsieur, madame, and an unlimited number of bebés--to say nothing of heavy baggage, in one of the queer-looking arrangements (oblong boxes with a canvas covering stretched over a wooden framework) depicted on the next page. an ordinary animal costs from two to three pounds (english), but a white one, the favourite mount of women and priests, will often fetch as much as ten or fifteen. to reach djulfa, the armenian and european quarter of ispahán, the latter city must be crossed, also the great stone bridge spanning the "zandarood," or "living river," so called from the supposed excellence of its water for drinking purposes, and its powers of prolonging life. nearing the bridge, we met a large funeral, evidently that of a person of high position, from the costly shawls which covered the bier. [illustration: a family party] as in many eastern countries, a man is never allowed to die in peace in persia. it is a ceremony like marriage or burial, and as soon as the doctors have pronounced a case hopeless, the friends and relations of the sick man crowd into his chamber and make themselves thoroughly at home, drinking tea and sherbet, and watching, through the smoke of many hubble-bubbles, the dying agonies of their friend. the wife of the dying man sits at his side, occasionally holding to the nostrils the persian substitute for smelling-salts, i. e. a piece of mud torn from the wall of the dwelling and moistened with cold water. as a last resource, a fowl is often killed and placed, warm and bleeding, on the patient's feet. this being of no avail, and death having taken place, the wife is led from the apartment, and the preparations for interment are commenced. wet cotton-wool is stuffed into the mouth, nose, and ears of the corpse, while all present witness aloud that the dead man was a good and true mohammedan. the body is laid out, a cup of water is placed at its head, and a moollah, ascending to the roof of the house, reads in a shrill nasal tone verses from the korán. the professional mourners then arrive, and night or day is made hideous with their cries, while the "washers of the dead" proceed with their work. the coffin, [i] in persia, is made of very thin wood; in the case of a poor man it is often dispensed with altogether, the corpse being buried in a shroud. interment in most cases takes place forty-eight hours at most after death. we found the house of mr. p--, the telegraph superintendent of the indo-european company, with some difficulty, for the roads or rather lanes of djulfa are tortuous and confusing. mr. p--was out, but had left ample directions for our entertainment. a refreshing tub, followed by a delicious curry, washed down with iced pale ale, prepared one for the good cigar and siesta that followed, though an unlimited supply of english newspapers, the _times, truth_, and _punch_, kept me well awake till the return of my host at sunset. [footnote a: a farsakh is about four miles.] [footnote b: "hurrah!"] [footnote c: "please god!"] [footnote d: _koom_ signifies "sand."] [footnote e: muleteer.] [footnote f: kashán silk, noted throughout persia, is of two kinds: the one thin and light for lining garments, the other thick and heavy for divans, etc. the patterns are generally white, yellow, and green on a red ground.] [footnote g: a natural sweetmeat like nougat, found and manufactured in persia.] [footnote h: attendant.] [footnote i: in the north of persia the dead are buried in a shroud of dark-blue cloth, which is, oddly enough, called in the persian language, a _kaffin_.] chapter vii. ispahÁn--shirÁz. the seven telegraph-stations, in charge of europeans, between teherán and bushire, may be called the oases of persia to the weary traveller from résht to the persian gulf. he is sure, at any of these, of a hearty welcome, a comfortable bedroom, and a well-cooked dinner from the good samaritan in charge. the latter is generally the best of company, full of anecdote and information about the country, and, necessarily, well posted in the latest news from europe, from the last parliamentary debate to the winner of the derby. these officials are usually _ci-devant_ non-commissioned officers of royal engineers. some are married, for the life is a lonely one, and three or four months often elapse without personal communication with the outer world, except on the wires. by this means, when the latter are not in public use, the telegraphist can lighten his weary hours by animated conversation with his colleague two or three hundred miles away on congenial topics--the state of the weather, rate of exchange, chances of promotion, and so on. living, moreover, at most of the stations is good and cheap; there is plenty of sport; and if a young unmarried man only keeps clear of the attractions of the fair sex, he soon makes friends among the natives. love intrigues are dangerous in persia. they once led to the massacre of the whole of the russian legation at teherán. ispahán is a city of ruins. a persian will tell you, with pride, that it is nearly fifteen miles in circumference, but a third of this consists of heaps of stones, with merely the foundation-lines around to show that they were once palaces or more modest habitations. chardin the traveller, writing in a.d. , gives the population of ispahán at considerably over a million, but it does not now exceed fifty thousand, including the suburb of djulfa. the madrassa, or college, the governor's palace, and "chil situn," or "palace of the forty pillars," are the only buildings that still retain some traces of their former glory. pertaining to the former is a dome of the most exquisite tile-work, which, partly broken away, discloses the mud underneath; a pair of massive gates of solid silver, beautifully carved and embossed; a large shady and well-kept garden in the centre of the madrassa, with huge marble tanks of water, surrounded by an oblong arcade of students' rooms--sixty queer little boxes about ten feet by six, their walls covered with arabesques of great beauty. these are still to be seen--and remembered. with the exception of the "maidan shah," or "square of the king"--a large open space in the centre of the city, surrounded by modern two-storied houses--the streets of ispahán are narrow, dirty, and ill-paved, and its bazaar, which adjoins the maidan shah, very inferior in every way to those of teherán or shiráz. the palace of "chil situn," or "the forty pillars," is like most persian palaces--the same walled gardens with straight walks, the usual avenues of cypress trees, and the inevitable tank of stone or marble in the centre of the grounds. it is owing to the reflection of the _façade_ of the palace in one of the latter that it has gained its name. there are in reality but twenty pillars, the forty being (with a stretch of imagination) made up by reflection in the dull and somewhat dirty pool of water at their feet. the palace itself is a tawdry, gimcrack-looking edifice, all looking-glass and vermilion and green paint in the worst possible taste. from the entrance-hall an arched doorway leads into the principal apartment, a lofty chamber about ninety feet long by fifty broad, its walls covered with large paintings representing the acts of the various persian kings. shah abbas is portrayed under several conditions. in one scene he is surrounded by a band of drunken companions and dancing-girls, in costumes and positions that would hardly pass muster before our lord chamberlain. this room once contained the most beautiful and costly carpet in all persia, but it has lately been sold "for the good of the state," and a dirty green drugget laid down in its place. in one of the side chambers are pictures representing ladies and gentlemen in the costume of queen elizabeth's time. how they got to ispahán i was unable to discover. they are very old, and evidently by good masters. the way back to our comfortable quarters at djulfa lay over the zandarood river. there are five bridges, the principal one being that of allaverdi khan, named after one of the generals of shah abbas, who superintended its construction. it is of solid stonework, and built in thirty-three arches, over which are ninety-nine smaller arches above the roadway on both sides, enclosing a covered-in pathway for foot-passengers. the roadway in the centre, thirty feet wide, is well paved with stone, and perfectly level. every thirty yards or so are stalls for the sale of kababs, fruit, sweetmeats, and the kalyan, for a whiff from which passers-by pay a small sum. ispahán is noted for its fruit; apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries, mulberries, and particularly fine melons, are abundant in their season. there is a saying in persia, "shiráz for wine, yèzd for women, but ispahán for melons." since it has ceased to be the capital of persia, the trade of ispahán has sadly deteriorated. there is still, however, a brisk trade in opium and tobacco. silks and satins are also made, as well as quantities of a coarser kind of cotton stuff for wearing-apparel, much used by the natives. the sword-blades manufactured here are, in comparison with those of khorassan or damascus, of little value. genuine old blades from the latter city fetch enormous prices everywhere; but a large quantity of worthless imitations is in the market, and unless a stranger is thoroughly experienced in the art of weapon-buying, he had better leave it alone in persia. modern firearms are rarely seen in the bazaars, except cheap german and french muzzle-loaders, more dangerous to the shooter than to the object aimed at. if the streets of ispahán are narrow, those of djulfa, the armenian settlement, can only be described as almost impassable, for, although the widest are barely ten feet across, quite a third of this space is taken up by the deep ditch, or drain, lined with trees, by which all are divided. but the town, or settlement, is as clean and well-kept as ispahán itself is the reverse, which is saying a great deal. djulfa is called after the armenian town of that name in georgia, the population of which, for commercial reasons, was removed to this place by shah abbas in a.d. . djulfa, near ispahán, was once a large and flourishing city, with as many as twenty district parishes, and a population of sixty thousand souls, now dwindled down to a little over two thousand, the greater part of whom live in great want and poverty. the city once possessed as many as twenty churches, but most of these are now in ruins. the cathedral, however, is still standing, and in fair preservation. it dates from a.d. . there is also a roman catholic colony and church. the latter stands in a large garden, celebrated for its quinces and apricots. lastly, the english church missionary society have an establishment here under the direction of the rev. dr. bruce, whose good deeds during the famine are not likely to be forgotten by the people of ispahán and djulfa, whatever their creed or religion. the trade of djulfa is insignificant, although there is a large amount of wine and arak manufactured there, and sold "under the rose" to the ispahánis. the production of the juice of the grape is somewhat primitive. during the season (september and october) the grapes are trodden out in a large earthenware pan, and the whole crushed mass, juice and all, is stowed away in a jar holding from twenty to thirty gallons, a small quantity of water being added to it. in a few days fermentation commences. the mass is then stirred up every morning and evening with sticks for ten or twenty days. about this period the refuse sinks to the bottom of the jar, and the wine is drawn off and bottled. in forty days, at most, it is fit to drink. my time at ispahán was limited, so much so that i was not able to pay a visit to the "shaking minarets," about six miles off. these mud towers, of from twenty to thirty feet high, are so constructed that a person, standing on the roof of the building between the two, can, by a slight movement of his feet, cause them to vibrate. i spent most of my time, as usual, strolling about the least-frequented parts of the city, or in the cool, picturesque gardens of the madrassa. the people of teherán, and other persian cities, are generally civil to strangers; but at ispahán the prejudice against europeans is very strong, and i more than once had to make a somewhat hasty exit from some of the lower quarters of the city. mrs. s----, the wife of a telegraph official, was stabbed by some miscreants while walking in broad daylight on the outskirts of the town, a few months before my visit. the offenders were never caught; probably, as ispahán is under the jurisdiction of the zil-i-sultan, were never meant to be. the zil-i-sultan returned to ispahán before i left. he is rightly named "shadow of the king," for, saving his somewhat more youthful appearance, he is as like nasr-oo-din as two peas. like his father in most of his tastes, his favourite occupations are riding, the chase, and shooting at a mark; but he is, perhaps, more susceptible to the charms of the fair sex than his august parent. the prince is now nearly forty years of age. his wife, daughter of a former prime minister of persia, who was strangled by order of the present shah, died a few years ago, having borne him a son, the "jelal-u-dowleh," a bright, clever boy, now about eighteen years old, and three daughters. the zil-i-sultan is adored by his people, and has, unquestionably, very great influence over the districts of which he is governor. within the last two years, however, at least two-thirds of his possessions have been taken from him--a proceeding that caused him considerable annoyance, and drew forth the remark that the valliad would one day regret it. there can be little doubt that, at the death of nasr-oo-din, the governor of ispahán will make a bold bid for the throne; in fact, the latter makes no secret of his intentions. drink and debauch having already rendered his younger brother half-witted, the task should not be a difficult one, especially as half the people and the whole army side with the illegitimate, though more popular, prince. it is, perhaps, under the circumstances, to be regretted that the latter is an ardent russophile, ever since his majesty the czar sent a special mission to ispahán to confer upon him the order of the black eagle. should the zil-i-sultan succeed nasr-oo-din, british influence in persia may become even less powerful than it is now, if that is possible. the zil-i-sultan is far more civilized in his habits and mode of life than the shah. a fair french scholar, he regularly peruses his _temps, gil blas_, and the latest works of the best french authors. it is strange that, with all his common sense and sterling qualities, this prince should, in some matters, be a perfect child. one of his whims is dress. suits of clothes, shirts, socks, hats, and uniforms are continually pouring in from all parts of europe, many of the latter anything but becoming to the fat, podgy figure of the "king's shadow." a photograph of his royal highness the duke of connaught in rifle brigade uniform was shown him a couple of years since. the court tailor was at once sent for. "i must have this; make it at once," was the command, the humble request to be allowed to take the measure being met by, "son of a hell-burnt father! what do you mean? make it for a well-made man--a man with a better figure than that, and it will fit me!" popular as he is with the lower orders, the zil-i-sultan does not, when offenders are brought before him, err on the side of mercy. persian justice is short, sharp, and severe, and a man who commits a crime in the morning, may be minus his head before sunset. although a persian would indignantly deny it, some of their punishments are nearly as cruel as the chinese. for instance, not so very long ago a man in southern persia was convicted of incest, for which crime his eyes were first torn out with pincers, and his teeth then extracted, one by one, sharpened to a point, and hammered, like nails, through the top of his skull. it should be said in justice that the present shah has done all he can to stop the torture system, and confine the death-sentence to one of two methods--painless and instantaneous--throat-cutting and blowing from a gun. notwithstanding, executions such as the one i have mentioned are common enough in remote districts, and crucifixion, walling up, or burying and burning alive are, although less common than formerly, by no means out of date. women are usually put to death by being strangled, thrown from a precipice or well, or wrapped up in a carpet and jumped upon; but the execution of a woman is now, fortunately, rare in persia. a dreary desert surrounds ispahán on every side save to the southward, where dark masses of rock, a thousand feet high, break the sky-line. the environs of the city are well populated, and, as we rode out, _en route_ for shiráz, we passed through a good deal of cultivated land. this is irrigated by the zandarood, whose blue waters are visible for a long distance winding through the emerald-green plain, with its gay patchwork of white and scarlet poppy-gardens. the cultivation of this plant is yearly increasing in persia, for there is an enormous demand for the drug in the country itself, to say nothing of the export market, the value of which, in , was , rupees. in it had progressed to , , rupees, and is steadily increasing every year. opium is not smoked in persia, but is taken in the form of pills. many among the upper classes take it daily, the dose being a grain to a grain and a half. we covered, the first day out from ispahán, nearly a hundred miles between sunrise and p.m.--not bad work for persia. a little after dark, and before the moon had risen, i was cantering easily along in front of gerôme, when a violent blow on the chest, followed by another between the eyes, sent me reeling off my horse on to the sand. my first thought, on collecting myself, was "robbers!"--this part of the road bearing an unpleasant reputation. cocking my revolver, i called to gerôme, and was answered by a volley of oaths, while another riderless horse galloped past me and disappeared in the darkness. our foe was a harmless one. the wind had blown down one of the telegraph-posts, and the wires had done the mischief. by good luck and the aid of lucifer matches, we managed to trace our ponies to a piece of cultivated ground hard by, where we found them calmly feeding in a field of standing corn. the moon had risen by nine o'clock. before half-past we were in sight of the rock on which stands the town of yezdi-ghazt, towering, shadowy and indistinct, over the moonlit plain. this is unquestionably the most curious and interesting village between résht and bushire. the post-house stands at the foot. as we rode to the latter through the semi-darkness caused by the shadow of the huge mass of boulders and mud on which the town is situated, the effect was extraordinary. it was like a picture by gustave doré; and, looking up the dark perpendicular side of the rock at the weird city with its white houses, queer-shaped balconies, and striped awnings, standing out clear and distinct against the starlit sky, gave one an uncomfortable, uncanny feeling, hard to shake off, and heightened by the fact that, although the hour was yet early, not a light was visible, not a sound to be heard. it was like a city of the dead. [illustration: yezdi-ghazt] daylight does not improve the appearance of yezdi-ghazt. the city, which looks so weird and romantic by moonlight, loses much of its beauty, though not its interest, when seen by the broad light of day. the system of drainage in yezdi-ghazt is simple, the sewage being thrown over, to fall, haphazard, on the ground immediately below. i nearly had a practical illustration during my examination, which, however, did not last long, for the side of the rock glistened with the filth of years, and the stench and flies were unbearable. early next morning i set out alone to explore the strange place, and with much difficulty and some apprehension--for i did not know how the natives were disposed--ascended a steep rocky path, at the summit of which a wooden drawbridge leads over a deep abyss to the gate of the city. this bridge is the only access to yezdi-ghazt, which is, so to speak, a regular fortress-town. the rock, about half a mile long, is intersected by one narrow street, which, covered from end to end with awnings and wooden beams, was almost in obscurity. the sudden change from the glare outside almost blinded one. the appearance of a farangi is evidently rare in yezdi-ghazt, for i was immediately surrounded by a crowd, who, however, were evidently inclined to be friendly, and escorted me to the house of the head-man, under whose guidance i visited the city. the houses are of stone, two-storied, and mortised into the rock, which gives them the appearance, from below, as if a touch would send them toppling over, while a curious feature is that none of their windows looks inwards to the street--all are in the outside wall facing the desert. i took coffee with the head-man on his balcony--a wooden construction, projecting over a dizzy height, and supported by a couple of rickety-looking beams. it was nervous work, for the flooring, which was rotten and broken into great holes, creaked ominously. i could see gerôme (who had evidently missed me) bustling about the post-house, and reduced, from this height, to the size of a fly. making this my excuse, i quickly finished my coffee, and bade my host farewell, nor was i sorry to be once more safe on _terra firma_. yezdi-ghazt, which has a population of about five hundred, is very old, and is said to have existed long previous to the mohammedan conquest. the present population are a continual source of dread to the neighbouring towns and villages, on account of their lawlessness and thieving proclivities, and mix very little with any of their neighbours, who have given the unsavoury city the turkish nickname of "pokloo kalla," or "filth castle." yezdi-ghazt would not be a desirable residence during an earthquake. the latter are of frequent occurrence round here. many of the villages have been laid in ruins, but, curiously enough, the rock-city has, up till now, never even felt a shock. a ride of under fifty miles through level and fertile country brought us to abadéh, a pretty village standing in the midst of gardens and vineyards, enclosed by high mud walls. a european telegraph official, mr. g----, resides here. as we passed his house--a neat white stone building easily distinguishable among the brown mud huts--a native servant stopped us. his master would not be back till sunset, but had left directions that we were to be well cared for till his return. the temptation of a bed and dinner were too much, and, as time was no object, and snowy passes things of the past, we halted for the night. an hour later, comfortably settled on mr. g---- 's sofa, and dozing over a cigar and a volume of _punch_, my rest was suddenly disturbed by a loud bang at the sitting-room door, which, flying open, admitted two enormous animals, which i at first took for dogs. both made at once for my sofa, and, while the larger one curled comfortably round my feet and quietly composed itself for sleep, the smaller, evidently of a more affectionate disposition, seated itself on the floor, and commenced licking my face and hands--an operation which, had i dared, i should strongly have resented. but the white gleaming teeth and cruel-looking green eyes inspired me with respect, to use no stronger term; for i had by now discovered that these domestic pets were--panthers! to my great relief, mr. g---- entered at this juncture. "making friends with the panthers, i see," he said pleasantly. "they are nice companionable beasts." they may have been at the time. the fact remains that, three months after my visit, the "affectionate one" half devoured a native child! the neighbourhood of abadéh, mr. g---- informed me, swarms with these animals. bears, wolves, and hyenas are also common, to say nothing of jackals, which, judging from the row they made that night, must have been patrolling the streets of the village in hundreds. a traveller starting from teherán for bushire is expected at every european station on the telegraph-line. "i thought you would have got here sooner," said mr. g----. "p---- (at ispahán) told me you were coming through quick." the dining-room of my host at abadéh adjoined the little instrument-chamber. suddenly, while we were at dinner, a bell was heard, and the half-caste clerk entered. "so-and-so of shiráz," naming an official, "wants to speak to you." "all right," replied g----. "just tell him to wait till i've finished my cheese!" "it's from f----," he said, a few moments later, "to say he expects you to make his house your head-quarters at shiráz." so the stranger is passed on through this desert, but hospitable land. persian travel would be hard indeed were it not for the ever-open doors and hospitality of the telegraph officials. we continue our journey next day in summer weather--almost too hot, in the middle of the day, to be pleasant. sheepskin and bourka are dispensed with, as we ride lazily along under a blazing sun through pleasant green plains of maize and barley, irrigated by babbling brooks of crystal-clear water. a few miles from abadéh is a cave-village built into the side of a hill. from this issue a number of repulsive-looking, half-naked wretches, men and women, with dark scowling faces, and dirty masses of coarse black hair. most are covered with skin-disease, so we push on ahead, but are caught up, for the loathsome creatures get over the ground with extraordinary speed. a handful of "sheis" [a] stops them, and we leave them swearing, struggling, and fighting for the coins in a cloud of dust. then on again past villages nestling in groves of mulberry trees, past more vineyards, maize, and barley, and peasants in picturesque blue dress (save white, no other colour is worn in summer by the country-people) working in the fields. their implements are rude and primitive enough. the plough is simply a sharpened stick covered with iron. the sickle is used for reaping. threshing is done by means of an axle with thin iron wheels. if such primitive means can attain such satisfactory results, what could not modern agricultural science be made to do for persia? sunset brings a cool breeze, which before nightfall develops into a cutting north-easter, and we shiver again under a bourka and heavy fur pelisse. crossing a ridge of rock, we descend upon a white plain, dim and indistinct in the twilight. the ground crackles under our horses' feet. it is frozen snow! a light shines out before us, however, and by ten o'clock we are snug and safe for the night in the telegraph-station of deybid. these sudden changes of temperature make the persian climate very trying. at this time of year, however balmy the air and bright the sunshine at midday, one must always be prepared for a sudden and extreme change after sunset. the plain of deybid was covered with snow at least two feet deep, the temperature must have stood at very few degrees above zero, and yet, not five hours before, we were perspiring in our shirt-sleeves. "mashallah!" exclaims gerôme next morning, shading his eyes and looking across the dazzling white expanse. "are we, then, never to finish with this accursed snow?" by midday, however, we are out of it, and, as we subsequently discover, for the last time. we had up till now been singularly fortunate as regards accidents, or rather evil results from them. to-day, however, luck deserted us, for a few miles out of deybid my right leg became so swollen that i could scarcely sit on my horse. the pain was acute, the sensation that of having been bitten by some poisonous insect. gerôme, ever the job's comforter, suggested a centipede, adding, "if so, you will probably have to lie up for four or five days." the look-out was not cheerful, certainly, for at mourghab, the first stage, i had to be lifted off my horse and carried into the post-house. with some difficulty my boot was cut off, and revealed the whole leg, below the knee, discoloured and swollen to double its size, but no sign of a wound or bite. "blood-poisoning," says gerôme, decidedly. "i have seen hundreds of cases in central asia. it generally proves fatal there," he adds consolingly; "but the russian soldier is so badly fed." the little man seems rather disappointed at my diagnosis of my case--the effect due to a new and tight boot which i had not been able to change since leaving ispahán. notwithstanding, i cannot put foot to ground without excruciating pain. spreading the rugs out on the dirty earthen floor, i make up my mind to twenty-four hours here at least. it is, perhaps, the dirtiest post-house we have seen since leaving teherán; but moving under the present circumstances is out of the question. the long summer day wears slowly away. gerôme, like a true russian, hunts up a samovar in the village, and consoles himself with innumerable glasses of tea and cigarettes, while the medicine-chest is brought into requisition, and i bathe the swollen limb unceasingly for three or four hours with goulard's extract and water, surrounded by a ring of admiring and very dirty natives. but my efforts are in vain, for the following morning the pain is as severe, the leg as swollen as ever. gerôme is all for applying a blister, which he says will "bring the poison out"! another miserable day breaks, and finds me still helpless. i do not think i ever realized before how slowly time can pass, for i had not a single book, with the exception of "propos d'exil," by pierre loti, and even that delightful work is apt to pall after three complete perusals in the space of as many weeks. from sunrise to sunset i lay, prone on my back, staring up at the cobwebby, smoke-blackened rafters, while the shadows shortened and lengthened in the bright sunlit yard, the monotonous silence broken only by the deep regular snores of my companion, whose capacity for sleep was something marvellous, the clucking of poultry, and the occasional stamp or snort of a horse in the stable below. now and again a rat would crawl out, and, emboldened by the stillness, creep close up to me, darting back into its hole with a jump and a squeal as i waved it off with hand or foot. my visitors from the village did not return to-day, which was something to be thankful for, although towards evening i should have hailed even them with delight--dirt, vermin, and all. patience was rewarded, for next day i was able to stand, and towards evening set out for kawamabad, twenty-four miles distant. though still painful and almost black, all inflammation had subsided, and three days later i was able to get on a boot "you'd have been well in half the time," insisted gerôme, "if you had only let me apply a blister." the road from mourghab to kawamabad is wild and picturesque, leading through a narrow gorge, on either side of which are precipitous cliffs of rock and forest, three or four hundred feet high. a broad, swift torrent dashes through the valley, which is about a quarter of a mile broad. in places the pathway, hewn out of the solid rock, is barely three feet wide, without guard or handrail of any kind. this part of the journey was reached at sunset, and we did not emerge on the plain beyond till after dark. our horses were, fortunately, as active as cats, and knew their way well, for to guide them was impossible. in places one's foot actually swung over the precipice, and a false step must have sent one crashing over the side and into the roaring torrent below, which, perhaps luckily, we could only hear, not see. the ruins of persepolis are situated about fifty miles north-east of shiráz, two or three miles from the main road. signs that we were approaching the famous city were visible for some distance before we actually reached them. not fifty yards from the post-house of poozeh, a picturesque spot surrounded by a chain of rocky, snow-capped hills, we came upon a kind of cave, with carvings in bas-relief on its granite walls, representing figures of men and horses from eight to ten feet high, evidently of great antiquity. the desecrating hand of the british tourist had, however, left its mark in the shape of the name "j. isaacson" cut deep into one of the slabs, considerably marring its beauty. it is not my intention to write a description of the ruins that now mark the spot where once stood the capital of the persian empire. to say nothing of its having been so graphically portrayed by far more competent hands, my visit was of such short duration that i carried away but faint recollections of the famous city. the fact that it had been persistently crammed down my throat, upon every available occasion, ever since i landed in persia, may have had something to do with the feeling of disappointment which i experienced on first sight of the ruins. it may be that, like many other things, they grow upon one. if so, the loss was mine. i cannot, however, help thinking that to any but a student of archæology, persepolis lacks interest. the pyramids, pompeii, the ancient buildings of rome and greece, are picturesque; persepolis is not. i noticed, however, that here, as at poozeh, the british tourist had been busy with chisel and hammer, and, i am ashamed to add, some of the names i read are as well known in england as that of the prince of wales. on the th of february, just before midnight, we rode into shiráz. the approach to the city lying before us, white and still in the moonlight, through cypress-groves and sweet-smelling gardens, gave me a favourable impression, which a daylight inspection only served to increase. shiráz is the pleasantest reminiscence i retain of the ride through persia. [footnote a: small copper money.] chapter viii. shirÁz--bushire. "the gardens of pleasure where reddens the rose, and the scent of the cedar is faint on the air." owen meredith. shiráz stands in a plain twenty-five miles long by twelve broad, surrounded by steep and bare limestone mountains. the latter alone recall the desert waste beyond; for the plain of shiráz is fertile, well cultivated, and dotted over with prosperous-looking villages and gardens. scarcely a foot of ground is wasted by the industrious inhabitants of this happy valley, save round the shores of the denia-el-memek, a huge salt lake some miles distant, where the sun-baked, briny soil renders cultivation of any kind impossible. were it not for its surroundings--the green and smiling plains of wheat, barley, and indian corn; the clusters of pretty sunlit villages; the long cypress-avenues; and last, but not least, the quiet shady gardens, with rose and jasmine bowers, and marble fountains which have been famous from time immemorial--shiráz would not be what it now is, the most picturesque city in persia. although over four miles in circumference, the city itself has a squalid, shabby appearance, not improved by the dilapidated ramparts of dried mud which surround it. founded a.d. , shiráz reached its zenith under kerim khan in the middle of the eighteenth century, since when it has slowly but steadily declined to its present condition. the buildings themselves are evidence of the apathy reigning among the shirázis. incessant earthquakes destroy whole streets of houses, but no one takes the trouble to rebuild them, and the population was once nearly double what it now is-- , . there are six gates, five of which are gradually crumbling away. the sixth, or ispahán gate, is the only one with any attempt at architecture, and is crenellated and ornamented with blue and yellow tile-work. a mean, poor-looking bazaar, narrow tortuous streets, knee-deep in dust or mud, as the case may be, and squalid, filthy houses, form a striking contrast to the broad, well-kept avenues, gilded domes, and beautiful gardens which encircle the city. shiráz has fifteen large mosques and several smaller ones, but the people are as fanatical as those of teherán are the reverse. gerôme, who had a singular capacity for getting into mischief, entered one of these places of worship, and was caught red-handed by an old moullah in charge. half the little russian's life having been spent among mohammedans, he quickly recited a few verses of the korán in perfect arabic, which apparently satisfied the priest, for he let him depart with his blessing. had the trick been discovered, he would undoubtedly have been roughly treated, if not killed, for the shirázis have an unmitigated contempt for europeans. there are few places, too, in asia where jews are more persecuted than in shiráz, although they have their own quarter, in the lowest, most poverty-stricken part of the town, and other privileges are granted them by the government. shortly before my visit, a whole family was tortured and put to death by a mob of infuriated mohammedans. the latter accused them of stealing young moslem children, and sacrificing them at their secret ceremonies. [a] guilty or innocent of the charge, the assassins were left unpunished. the climate of shiráz is delicious, but dangerous. though to a new-comer the air feels dry, pure, and exhilarating, the city is a hot-bed of disease, and has been christened the "fever box." small-pox, typhus, and typhoid are never absent, and every two or three years an epidemic of cholera breaks out and carries off a fearful percentage of the inhabitants. in spring-time, during heavy rains, the plains are frequently inundated to a depth of two or three feet, and the water, stagnating and rotting under a blazing sun, produces towards nightfall a thick white mist, pregnant with miasma and the dreaded shiráz fever which has proved fatal to so many europeans, to say nothing of natives. medical science is at a very low ebb in persia; purging and bleeding are the two remedies most resorted to by the native hakim. if these fail, a dervish is called in, and writes out charms, or forms of prayer, on bits of paper, which are rolled up and swallowed like pills. inoculation is performed by placing the patient in the same bed as another suffering from virulent small-pox. under these circumstances, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the shirázis die like sheep during an epidemic, and indeed at all times. persian surgery is not much better. in cases of amputation the limb is hacked off by repeated blows of a heavy chopper. in the case of fingers or toes a razor is used, the wound being dipped into boiling oil or pitch immediately after the operation. the office of the indo-european telegraph is in shiráz, but the private dwellings of the staff are some distance outside the city. a high wall surrounds the grounds in which the latter are situated--half a dozen comfortable brick buildings, bungalow style, each with its fruit and flower garden. looking out of my bedroom window the morning following my arrival, on the shrubberies, well-kept lawns, bright flower-beds, and lawn-tennis nets, i could scarcely realize that this was persia; that i was not at home again, in some secluded part of the country in far-away england. long residence in the east had evidently not changed my host mr. f---- 's ideas as to the necessity for european comforts. the cheerful, sunlit, chintz-covered bedroom, with its white furniture, blue-and-white wall-paper, and lattice windows almost hidden by rose and jasmine bushes, was a pleasant _coup d'oeil_ after the grimy, bug-infested post-houses; and the luxuries of a good night's rest and subsequent shave, cold tub, and clean linen were that morning appreciated as they only can be by one who has spent many weary days in the saddle, uncombed, unshaven, and unwashed. there is no regular post-road between shiráz and bushire, or rather sheif, the landing-place, eight miles from the latter city. the journey is performed by mule-caravan, resting by night at the caravanserais. under the guidance of mr. f----, i therefore set about procuring animals and "chalvadars," or muleteers. the task was not an easy one; for captain t---- of the indian army was then in shiráz, buying on behalf of the government; and everything in the shape of a mule that could stand was first brought for his inspection. by good luck, however, i managed to get together half a dozen sorry-looking beasts; but they suited the purpose well enough. the price of these animals varies very much in persia. they can be bought for as little as £ , while the best fetch as much as £ to £ . those were pleasant days at shiráz. one never tired of wandering about the outskirts of the city and through the quiet, shady gardens and "cities of the silent," as the persians call their cemeteries; for, when the solemn stillness of the latter threatened to become depressing, there was always the green plain, alive from morning till night with movement and colour, to go back to. early one morning, awoke by the sound of a cracked trumpet and drums, i braved the dust, and followed a persian regiment of the line to its drill-ground. the persian army numbers, on a peace footing, about , men, the reserve bringing it up to perhaps twice that number. experienced military men have said that material for the smartest soldiery in the world is to be found in persia. if so, it would surely be the work of years to bring the untrained rabble that at present exists under discipline or order of any kind. the regiment whose evolutions or antics i witnessed at shiráz was not in the dress of the russian cossack or german uhlan, as at teherán, but in the simple uniform of the persian line--dark-blue tunic, with red piping; loose red-striped breeches of the same colour, stuffed into ragged leather gaiters; and bonnets of black sheepskin or brown felt (according to the taste of the wearer), with the brass badge of the lion and sun. all were armed with rusty flint-locks. as regards smartness, the officers were not much better than the men, who did not appear to take the slightest notice of the words of command, but straggled about as they pleased, like a flock of sheep. some peasants beside me were looking on. "sons of dogs!" said one; "they are good for nothing but drunkenness and frightening women and children." there is no love lost between the army and the people in persia--none of the enthusiasm of other countries when a regiment passes by; and no wonder. the pay of a persian soldier is, at most, £ a year, and he may think himself lucky if he gets a quarter of that sum. _en revanche_, the men systematically plunder and rob the wretched inhabitants of every village passed through on the march. the passage of troops is sometimes so dreaded that commanders of regiments are bribed with heavy sums by the villagers to encamp outside their walls. troops are not the only source of anxiety to the poor fellaheen. princes and government officials also travel with an enormous following, mainly composed of hangers-on and riff-raff, who plunder and devastate as ruthlessly as a band of kurd or turkoman robbers. they are even worse than the soldiery, for the latter usually leave the women alone. occasionally a whole village migrates to the mountains on the approach of the unwelcome guests, leaving houses and fields at their mercy. there is probably no peasantry in the world so ground down and oppressed as the persian. the agricultural labourer never tries to ameliorate his condition, or save up money for his old age, for the simple reason that, on becoming known to the rulers of the land, it is at once taken away from him. though poor, however (so far as cash and valuables are concerned), the general condition of the labouring classes is not so bad as might be supposed. in a country so vast ( , square miles) and so thinly populated ( , , in all), a small and sufficient supply of food is easily raised, especially with such prolific soil at the command of the poorest. at shiráz, for instance, there are two harvests in the year. the seifi, sown in summer and reaped in autumn, consists of rice, cotton, indian corn, and garden produce; the tchatvi, sown in october and november, and reaped from may till july, is exclusively wheat and barley. a quantity of fruit is also grown--grapes, oranges, and pomegranates. shiráz is famed for the latter. the heat and dust, to say nothing of smells, prevented me from often entering the city; but i walked through the bazaar once or twice, and succeeded in purchasing some old tapestries and a prayer-carpet. the merchants here are not so reserved and secretive as those of teherán and other cities, and are, moreover, civil enough to produce coffee and a kalyan at the conclusion of a bargain, as at stamboul. the best tobacco for kalyan-smoking is grown round shiráz. some, the coarser kind, from kazeroon and zulfaicar, is exported to turkey and egypt, but the most delicate shiráz never leaves the country. the pipe is on the same principle as the narghileh, the smoke being drawn through a vessel of water. the tube, a wooden stalk about two feet long, is changed when it becomes tainted with use; for the people of the east (unlike some in the west) like their tobacco clean. manufactories are trifling in comparison with what they were in former days. where, a century since, there stood five hundred factories owned by weavers, there are now only ten, for the supply of a coarse white cotton material called "kerbas," and carpets of a cheap and common kind. earthenware and glass is also made in small quantities, the latter only for wine-bottles and kalyan water-bowls. all the best glass is imported from russia. a kind of mosaic work called "khatemi," much used in ornamenting boxes and pen-and-ink cases, is turned out in large quantities at shiráz. it is pretty and effective, though some of the illustrations on the backs of mirrors, etc., are hardly fit for a drawing-room table. caligraphy, or the art of writing, is also carried by the shirázis to the highest degree of perfection, and they are said to be the best penmen in the east. to write really well is considered as great an accomplishment in persia as to be a successful musician, painter, or sculptor in europe; and a famous writer of the last century, living in shiráz, was paid as much as five tomans for every line transcribed. my favourite walk, after the heat of the day, was to the little cemetery where hafiz, the persian poet, lies at rest--a quiet, secluded spot, on the side of a hill, in a clump of dark cypress trees a gap cut through which shows the drab-coloured city, with its white minarets and gilt domes shining in the sun half a mile away. the tomb, a huge block of solid marble, brought across the desert from yèzd, is covered with inscriptions--the titles of the poet's most celebrated works. near it is a brick building containing chambers, where bodies are put for a year or so previous to final interment at kermansháh or koom. each corpse was in a separate room--a plain whitewashed compartment, with a square brick edifice in the centre containing the body. some of the catafalques were spread with white table-cloths, flowers, candles, fruit, and biscuits, which the friends and relations (mostly women and children) of the defunct were discussing in anything but a mournful manner. a visit to a departed one's grave is generally an excuse for a picnic in persia. hard by the tomb of hafiz is a garden, one of many of the kind around shiráz. it is called "the garden of the seven sleepers," and is much frequented in summer by shirázis of both sexes. a small open kiosk, in shape something like a theatre proscenium, stands in the centre, its outside walls completely hidden by rose and jasmine bushes. inside all is gold moulding, light blue, green, and vermilion. a dome of looking-glass reflects the tesselated floor. strangely enough, this garish mixture of colour does not offend the eye, toned down as it is by the everlasting twilight shed over the mimic palace and garden by overhanging branches of cypress and yew. an expanse of smooth-shaven lawn, white beds of lily and narcissus, marble tanks bubbling over with clear, cold water, and gravelled paths winding in and out of the trees to where, a hundred yards or so distant, a sunk fence divides the garden from a piece of ground two or three acres in extent,--a perfect jungle of trees, shrubs, and flowers. here, from about p.m. till long after sunset, you may see the shirázi taking his rest, undisturbed save for the ripple of running water, the sighing of the breeze through the branches, and croon of the pigeons overhead. now and again the tinkle of caravan-bells breaks in upon his meditations, or the click-click of the attendant's sandals as he crosses the tiled floor with sherbet, coffee, or kalyan; but the interruption is brief. a few moments, and silence again reigns supreme--the perfection of rest, the acme of _dolce far niente._ from here my way usually lay homewards, through the dusky twilight, past the city gates and along the now deserted plain. a limestone hill to the south of shiráz bears an extraordinary resemblance to the head of a man in profile. towards sunset the likeness was startling, and the nose, chin, and mouth as delicately formed as if chiselled by the tools of a sculptor. on fine, still evenings, parties of people would sometimes sit out on the plain till long after dark, conversing, eating sweetmeats, and tea-drinking, till the stars appeared, and the white fever mist, gathering round the ramparts, hid the city from view. shiráz has been called the "paris of persia," from the cheerful, sociable character of its people as compared with other persian cities; also, perhaps, partly from the beauty and coquetry (to use no other term) of its women. i was enabled, thanks to my host, to glean some interesting facts concerning the latter, many european ladies having, from time to time, resided in shiráz, and, obtaining access to the "anderoon," had afterwards given mr. f---- the benefit of their observations. persian women are unquestionably allowed more freedom and liberty than those of other oriental countries. it is extremely rare, in the bazaars of stamboul or cairo, to see a lady of the harem unattended, but the sight is common enough in shiráz and ispahán. infidelity in persia is therefore more common in proportion to the licence allowed; though, when discovered, it is severely punished, in some cases by death. though a few are highly educated, the majority of persian women are ignorant, indolent, and sensual. _mariages de convenance_ are as common as in france, and have a good deal to do with the immorality and intrigue that go on in the larger cities. an eye-witness thus describes an "anderoon," or harem, of a prince in ispahán: "a large courtyard some thirty yards by ten in extent. all down the centre is the 'hauz,' or tank--a raised piece of ornamental water, the surface of which is about two feet above the ground. the edges are formed of huge blocks of well-wrought stone, so accurately levelled that the 'hauz' overflows all round its brink, making a pleasant sound of running water. goldfish of large size flash in shoals in the clear tank. on either side of it are long rectangular flower-beds, sunk six inches below the surface of the court. this pavement, which consists of what we should call pantiles, is clean and perfect, and freshly sprinkled; and the sprinkling and consequent evaporation make a grateful coolness. in the flower-beds are irregular clumps of marvel of peru, some three feet high, of varied coloured blossom, coming up irregularly in wild luxuriance. the moss-rose, too, is conspicuous, with its heavy odour; while the edging, a foot wide, is formed by thousands of bulbs of the _narcissus poeticus_, massed together like packed figs; these, too, give out a pleasant perfume. but what strikes one most is the air of perfect repair and cleanliness of everything. no grimy walls, no soiled curtains, here; all is clean as a new pin, all is spick and span. the courtyard is shaded by orange trees covered with bloom, and the heavy odour of neroli pervades the place. many of the last year's fruit have been left upon the trees for ornament, and hang in bright yellow clusters out of reach. a couple of widgeon sport upon the tank. all round the courtyard are rooms, the doors and windows of which are jealously closed, but as we pass we hear whispered conversations behind them, and titters of suppressed merriment." "the interior resembles the halls of the alhambra. a priceless carpet, surrounded by felt edgings, two inches thick and a yard wide, appears like a lovely but subdued picture artfully set in a sombre frame. in the recesses of the walls are many bouquets in vases. the one great window--a miracle of intricate carpentry, some twenty feet by twenty--blazes with a geometrical pattern of tiny pieces of glass, forming one gorgeous mosaic. three of the sashes of this window are thrown up to admit air; the coloured glass of the top and four remaining sashes effectually shuts out excess of light." such is the _coup d'oeil_ on entering an anderoon. with such surroundings, one would expect to find refined, if not beautiful women; but, though the latter are rare enough, the former are even rarer in persia. the persian woman is a grown-up child, and a very vicious one to boot. her daily life, indeed, is not calculated to improve the health of either mind or body. most of the time is spent in dressing and undressing, trying on clothes, painting her face, sucking sweetmeats, and smoking cigarettes till her complexion is as yellow as a guinea. intellectual occupation or amusement of any kind is unknown in the anderoon, and the obscene conversation and habits of its inmates worse even than those of the harems of constantinople and cairo, which, according to all accounts, is saying a good deal. a love of cruelty, too, is shown in the persian woman; when an execution or brutal spectacle of any kind takes place, one-third at least of the spectators is sure to consist of women. but this is, perhaps, not peculiar to persia; witness a recent criminal trial at the old bailey. it will thus be seen that sensuality is the prevalent vice of the female sex in persia. an english-speaking persian at bushire told me that, with the exception of the women of the wandering eeliaut tribes, there were few chaste wives in persia. although the nominal punishment for adultery is death, the law, as it stands at present, is little else than a dead letter, and, as in some more civilized countries, husbands who are fond of intrigue, do not scruple to allow their wives a similar liberty. not half an hour's walk from the tomb of hafiz, at the summit of the mountain, is a deep well, so deep that no one has ever yet succeeded in sounding it. the origin of the chasm is unknown; some say it is an extinct volcano. but the smallest child in shiráz knows the use to which it has been put from time immemorial. it is the grave of adulterous women--the well of death. an execution took place about fifteen years ago, but there have been none since. proved guilty of infidelity, the wretched woman, dressed in a long white gown, was placed on a donkey, her face to the tail, with shaven head and bared face. in front of the _cortége_ marched the executioner, musicians, dancers, and abandoned women of the town. arrived at the summit of the mountain, the victim, half dead with fright, was lifted off and carried to the edge of the yawning abyss which had entombed so many faithless wives before her. "there is but one god, and mohammed is his prophet," cried a moullah, while the red-robed executioner, with one spurn of his foot, sent the unconscious wretch toppling over the brink, the awe-stricken crowd peering over, watching the white wisp disappear into eternity. although the last execution is still fresh in the minds of many, the well has no terrors for the gay, intrigue-loving ladies of shiráz. they make a jest of it, and their husbands jokingly threaten them with it. times are changed indeed in persia! i left shiráz with sincere regret. apart from the interest attached to the place, i have never received a kinder or more hospitable welcome than from the little band of englishmen who watch over the safety, and work the wires, of the indo-european telegraph. they are under a dozen in number. with cheap horseflesh, capital shooting, the latest books and papers from india, a good billiard-room and lawn-tennis ground, time never hangs very heavily. living is absurdly cheap. a bachelor can do well on £ a month, including servants. he has, of course, no house-rent to pay. a number of square stone towers about thirty feet high, loopholed and crenelated, are visible from the caravan-track between shiráz and khaneh zinián, where we rested the first night. the towers are apparently of great antiquity, and must formerly have served for purposes of defence. we lunched at the foot of one on a breezy upland, with pink and white heather growing freely around, and a brawling, tumbling mountain stream at our feet. it was like a bit of scotland or north wales. the tower was in a state of decay and roofless, but a wandering tribe of ragged eeliauts had taken up their quarters inside, and watched us suspiciously through the grey smoke of a damp, spluttering peat fire. they are a queer race, these eeliauts, [b] and have little or nothing in common with the other natives. the sight of a well-filled lunch-basket and flasks of wine (which our kind hosts had insisted on our taking) would have brought ordinary gipsies out like flies round a honey-pot, if recollections of epsom or henley go for anything. not so the eeliauts, who, stranger still, never even begged for a sheis--a self-control i rewarded by presenting the chief, a swarthy handsome fellow, in picturesque rags of bright colour, with a couple of keráns. but he never even thanked me! it seemed, next morning, as if we had jumped, in a night, from early spring into midsummer. although at daybreak the ice was thick on a pool outside the caravanserai, the sun by midday was so strong, and the heat so excessive, that we could scarcely get the mules along. the road lies through splendid scenery. passing dashti arjin, or "the plain of wild almonds," a kind of plateau to which the ascent is steep and difficult, one might have been in switzerland or the tyrol. undulating, densely wooded hills, with a background of steep limestone cliffs, their sharp peaks, just tipped with snow, standing out crisp and clear against the cloudless sky, formed a fitting frame to the lovely picture before us; the pretty village, trees blossoming on all sides, fresh green pastures overgrown in places by masses of fern and wild flowers, and the white foaming waterfall dashing down the side of the mountain, to lose itself in the blue waters of a huge lake just visible in the plains below. the neighbourhood of the latter teems with game of all kinds--leopard, gazelle, and wild boar, partridge, duck, snipe, and quail, the latter in thousands. a stiff climb of four hours over the kotal perizun brought us to the caravanserai of meyun kotal. over this pass, ten miles in length, there is no path; one must find one's way as best one can through the huge rocks and boulders. some of the latter were two to three feet in height. how the mules managed will ever be a mystery to me. we dismounted, leaving, by the chalvadar's request, our animals to look after themselves. the summit of the mountain is under two thousand feet. we reached it at four o'clock, and saw, to our relief, our resting-place for the night only three or four hundred feet below us. but it took nearly an hour to do even this short distance. the passage of the kotal perizun with a large caravan must be terrible work. [illustration: the caravanserai, meyun kotal] the caravanserai was crowded. two large caravans had arrived that morning, and a third was hourly expected from bushire. there was barely standing-room in the courtyard, which was crowded with wild-looking men, armed to the teeth, gaily caparisoned mules, and bales of merchandise. the caravanserai at meyun kotal is one of the finest in persia. it was built by shah abbas, and is entirely of stone and marble. surrounded by walls of enormous thickness, the building is in the shape of a square. around the latter are seventy or eighty deep arches for the use of travellers. at the back of each is a little doorway, about three feet by three, leading into a dark, windowless stone chamber, unfurnished, smoke-blackened, and dirty, but dry and weather-proof. any one may occupy these. should the beggar arrive first, the prince is left out in the cold, and _vice versâ_. everybody, however, is satisfied as a rule, for there is nearly as much accommodation for guests as in a large london or paris hotel. behind the sleeping-rooms is stabling for five or six hundred horses, and, in the centre of the courtyard, a huge marble tank of pure running water for drinking and washing purposes. this, and fodder for the horses, is all that there was to be got in the way of refreshment. but gerôme, with considerable forethought, had purchased bread, a fowl, and some eggs on the road, and, our room swept out and candles lit, we were soon sitting down to a comfortable meal, with a hissing samovar, the property of the caravanserai-keeper, between us. one need sleep soundly to sleep well in a caravanserai. at sunset the mules, with loud clashing of bells, are driven into the yard from pasture, and tethered till one or two in the morning, when a start is made, and sleep is out of the question. in the interim, singing, talking, story-telling, occasionally quarrelling and fighting, go on all round the yard till nearly midnight. tired out with the stiff climb, i fell into a delicious slumber, notwithstanding the noise, about nine o'clock, to be awakened shortly after by a soft, cold substance falling heavily, with a splash, upon my face. striking a match, i discovered a large bat which the smoke from our fire (there was no chimney) had evidently detached from the rafters. i purchased, the next morning before starting, a persian dagger belonging to one of the caravan-men. he was one of the bakhtiari, a wild and lawless tribe inhabiting a tract of country (as yet unexplored by europeans) on the borders of persia and asia minor. the blade of the dagger is purest damascene work, the handle of fossilized ivory. on the back of the blade is engraved, in letters of inlaid gold, in arabic characters-- "there is one god! he is eternal!" "victory is nigh, o true believer!" connoisseurs say that the dagger is over a hundred years old. after quite an hour's haggling (during which our departure was delayed, much to gerôme's disgust), i managed to secure it for £ english money, although the bakhtiari assured me that he had already sworn "by his two wives" never to part with it. i have since been offered four times the amount by a good judge of eastern weapons. a second pass, the kotal doktar, lay between us and bushire. though steep and slippery in places, the path is well protected, and there are no boulders to bar the way. on leaving the caravanserai, we paused to examine the second longest telegraph wire (without support) in the world. it is laid from summit to summit of two hills, and spans a valley over a mile in width. [c] the country round meyun kotal is well cultivated, and we passed not only men, but women, ploughing with the odd-shaped primitive wooden ploughs peculiar to these parts. near the foot of the pass some children were gathering and collecting acorns, which are here eaten in the form of a kind of bread by the peasantry. seldom has nature seemed more beautiful than on that bright cloudless morning, as we rode through sweet-scented uplands of beans and clover, meadows of deep rich grass. by the track bloomed wild flowers, violets and narcissus, shedding their fresh delicate perfume. the song of birds and hum of insects filled the air, bright butterflies flashed across our path, while the soft distant notes of a cuckoo recalled shady country lanes and the sunlit hay-fields of an english summer. it was like coming from the grave, after the sterile deserts and bleak desolate plains of northern persia. there is a small square building at the northern end of the kotal doktar, a mud hut, in which are stationed a guard of soldiers to be of assistance in the event of robbery of caravans or travellers. such cases are not infrequent. upon our approach, three men armed with flint-locks and long iron pikes accosted us. "we are the escort," said one, apparently the leader, from the bar of rusty gold braid on his sleeve. "you cannot go on alone. it is not safe." we then learnt that a large lion had infested the caravan-track over the pass for some days, and had but yesterday attacked the mail and carried off one of the mules, the native in charge only just escaping by climbing a tree. persian travel is full of these little surprises or rather items of news; for one must be of a very ingenuous disposition to be surprised at anything after a journey of any length in that country. if the man had said that an ichthyosaurus or dodo barred the way, i should have believed him just as much. gerôme sharing my opinion that the report was got up for the sake of extorting a few keráns, we soon sent our informants about their business, and calmly proceeded on our journey. nevertheless, the kotal doktar would not be a pleasant place to encounter the "king of beasts," i thought. the pass consists simply of a narrow pathway four feet wide, on the one side a perpendicular wall of rock, on the other an equally sheer precipice. "did you come across the lion?" was mr. j---- 's first question, as we dismounted at the gate of his telegraph-station at kazeroon. "i suppose not," he added, seeing the surprise with which i greeted his remark. "we have had three parties out from here this week, but with no luck. i just managed to get a sight of him, and that's all. he is a splendid beast." ignorance had indeed been bliss in our case, and i felt some compunction when i remembered how disdainfully we had treated the ragged sergeant and his men. they would have been of no use, except in the way of stop-gaps, like the babies, in cheap prints, that the russian traveller in the sleigh throws to the wolves to occupy their attention while he urges on his mad career, a pistol in each hand and the reins in his mouth. still, even for this purpose, they might have been useful, and were certainly worth a few keráns. i was glad not to learn the truth till we reached kazeroon. the enjoyment of the meal of which we partook at the summit of the pass would have been somewhat damped by the feeling that at any moment a loud roar, bursting out of the silent fastnesses of the kotal doktar, might announce the approach of its grim tenant. there was, after all, nothing very remarkable about the occurrence, for the southern parts of persia are infested with wild animals of many kinds. of this i was already aware, but not that lions were among the number. kazeroon is, next to shiráz, the most important place in the province of fars, and has a population of about . surrounded by fields of tobacco and maize, it is neatly laid out, and presents a cheerful appearance, the buildings being of white stone, instead of the everlasting baked mud and clay. many of the courtyards were surrounded by date palms, and the people seemed more civilized and prosperous-looking than those in the villages north of shiráz. "so you refused the escort over the kotal?" said j--that evening, as we sat over our coffee and cigars in his little stone courtyard, white and cool in the moonlight, adding, with a laugh, "well, i don't blame you. a good story was told me the other day in shiráz _àpropos_ of escorts. it happened not long ago to an englishman who was going to bagdad from kermansháh through a nasty bit of country. a good many robberies with violence had occurred, and the governor of kermansháh insisted on providing him with an escort, at the same time arranging for a turkish escort to meet him on the frontier and take him on to bagdad." "you have seen the ordinary cavalry soldier of this country. there were twelve of them and a sergeant. v---- was the only european. all went well till they reached a small hamlet near zarna, about twenty miles from the turkish border. it was midday. v---- was quietly breakfasting in his tent, the horses picketed, the men smoking or asleep. suddenly the sound of firing was heard about a mile off, not sharp and loud, but slow and desultory, like the pop, pop, pop of a rifle or revolver. v---- was not in the least alarmed, but, the firing continuing for some time, he thought well at last to inquire into the matter. what was his surprise, on emerging from his tent, to find himself alone, not a trace of his companions to be seen. there were the picket-ropes, a smouldering fire, a kalyan, and the remains of a pilaff on the ground, but no men. the firing had done it. one and all had turned tail and fled. the position was not pleasant, for v---- was naturally absolutely ignorant of the road. 'they will come back,' he thought, and patiently waited. but sunset came, then night, then the stars, and still v---- was alone, utterly helpless and unable to move backwards or forwards. at sunrise a head was shoved into his tent. but it had a red fez on, not an astrakhan bonnet. it was one of the bagdad escort. the turks laughed heartily when they heard the story. 'it must have been us,' they said; 'we had nothing to do, and were practising with our revolvers.' in the mean time the persians returned post haste to kermansháh, and evinced great surprise that v---- was not with them." "'he was the first to fly,' said the sergeant. 'i am afraid he must have lost his way, and fallen into the hands of the robbers. if so, god help him. there were more than fifty of them.'" "j---- 's anecdote was followed by many others, coffee was succeeded by cognac and seltzer, gerôme gave us some startling central asian experiences, and we talked over men and things persian far into the night, or rather morning, for it was nearly a.m. when i retired to rest." "i hope you'll sleep well," said j----, as he led the way to a comfortable bedroom looking out on to the needle-like peaks of the kotal doktar, gleaming white in the moonlight. "by the way, i forgot to tell you we usually have an earthquake about sunrise, but don't let it disturb you. the shocks have been very slight lately, and it's sure not to last long," added my host, as he calmly closed the door, and left me to my slumbers. i am not particularly nervous, but to be suddenly aroused from sleep by a loud crash, as if the house were falling about one's ears; to see, in the grey dawn, brick walls bending to and fro like reeds, floors heaving like the deck of a ship, windows rattling, doors banging, with an accompaniment of women and children screaming as if the end of the world had arrived, is calculated to give the boldest man a little anxiety. i must at any rate own to feeling a good deal when, about a.m. the following morning, the above phenomena took place. as prophesied, "it" did not last long--eight or ten seconds at most, which seemed to me an hour. not the least unpleasant sensation was a low, rumbling noise, like distant thunder, that accompanied the shock. it seemed to come from the very bowels of the earth. "we have them every day," said j---- at breakfast, placidly, "but one soon gets used to them." my host was obliged to acknowledge reluctantly that this morning's shock was "a little sharper than usual"! it was sharp enough, gerôme afterwards told me, to send all the people of kazeroon running out of their houses into the street. common as the "zil-zillah" [d] is in these parts, the natives are terrified whenever a shock occurs. the great shiráz earthquake some years ago, when over a thousand lost their lives, is still fresh in their minds. an easy ride, through a pretty and fertile country, brought us to the telegraph-station of konar takta, where mr. e----, the clerk in charge, had prepared a sumptuous breakfast. but we were not destined to enjoy it. they had, said mr. e----, experienced no less than nine severe shocks of earthquake the night before, one of which had rent the wall of his house from top to bottom. his wife and children were living in a tent in the garden, and most of the inhabitants of the village had deserted their mud huts, and rigged up temporary shanties of palm leaves in the road. "we will have breakfast, anyhow," continued our host. "you must be hungry"--leading the way into the dining-room, where a long, deep crack in the whitewashed wall showed traces of last night's disaster. the latter had, apparently, considerably upset my host, who, throughout the meal, kept continually rising and walking to the open window and back again, in an evidently uneasy state of mind; so much so that i was about to propose an adjournment to the garden, when a diversion was created by the entrance of a servant with a dish of "sklitch," which he had no sooner placed on the table, than he rapidly withdrew. sklitch is peculiar to this part of persia. it is made of a kind of moss gathered on the mountains, mixed with cream and dates, and, iced, is delicious. but scarcely had i raised the first mouthful to my lips when my host leapt out of his seat. "there it is again," he cried. "run!" and with a bound disappeared through the window. before i could reach it the floor was rocking so that i could scarcely keep my feet, and i was scarcely prepared for the drop of nine feet that landed me on to the flower-beds. the shock lasted quite ten seconds. every moment i expected to see the house fall bodily over. i left poor e---- busily engaged in removing his instruments into the garden. "another night like the last would turn my hair grey," he said, as we bade him good-bye. truly the lot of a persian telegraph official is not always a bed of roses. a gradual descent of over two thousand feet leads from konar takta to the village of dalaki, which is situated on a vast plain, partly cultivated, the southern extremity of which is washed by the waters of the persian gulf. there is a comfortable rest-house at this village, the population of which is noted as being the most fierce and lawless in southern persia. rest, though undisturbed by earthquakes, was, however, almost out of the question, on account of a most abominable stench of drainage, which came on at sunset and lasted throughout the night. so overpowering was it that towards a.m. both gerôme and myself were attacked by severe vomiting, and recurrence was had to the medicine-chest and large doses of brandy. one might have been sleeping over an open drain. it was not till next day that i discovered the cause--rotten naphtha, which springs in large quantities from the ground all round the village. curiously enough, the smell is not observable in the daytime. "we have done with the snow now, monsieur," said gerôme, as we rode next morning through a land of green barley and cotton plains, date palms, and mimosa. on the other hand, we had come in for other annoyances, in the shape of heat, dust, and swarms of flies and mosquitoes. nearing the sea, vegetation entirely ceases. nothing is visible around but hard calcined plain, brown and level, lost on the horizon seaward in a series of mirages, ending northward in a chain of rocky, precipitous mountains. the bright, clear atmosphere was remarkable; objects thirty or forty miles off looking but a mile or so away. about midday an unusual sight appeared on the horizon--two europeans, a lady and gentleman, mounted on donkeys, and attended by a chalvadar on a third, who apparently carried all the baggage of the party. halting for a few moments, and waiving introduction, we exchanged a few words. mr. and mrs. d---- were on their way to teherán, with the object of making scientific researches at persepolis and other parts of persia. i could not help admiring the courage of the lady, though regretting, at the same time, the task she had set herself. to inquiries of "how is the road?" i replied, "very good," may the lie be forgiven me! it was told for a humane purpose. save a large herd of gazelle on the far horizon, nothing occurred to break the monotony of the journey through deep heavy sand till about p.m., when a thin thread of dark blue, cutting the yellow desert and lighter sky-line, appeared before us. it was the persian gulf. an hour later, and sheif, the landing-place for bushire, was reached. a trim steam-launch, with union jack floating over her stern, awaited us. she was sent by colonel ross, british resident at bushire, who kindly invited me to the residence during my stay in the persian port. i was not sorry, after the hot, dusty ride, to throw myself at length on the soft, luxurious cushion, and, after an excellent luncheon, to peruse the latest english papers. skimming swiftly through the bright blue waters, we neared the white city, not sorry to have successfully accomplished the voyage so far, yet aware that the hardest part of the journey to india was yet to come. at a distance, and seen from the harbour, bushire is not unlike cadiz. its moorish buildings, the whiteness of its houses and blueness of the sea, give it, on a fine day, a picturesque and taking appearance, speedily dissipated, how ever, on closer acquaintance; for bushire is indescribably filthy. the streets are mere alleys seven or eight feet broad, knee-deep in dust or mud, and as irregular and puzzling to a stranger as the maze at hampton court. the persian port is cool and pleasant enough in winter-time, but in summer the stench from open drains and cesspools becomes unbearable, and europeans (of whom there are thirty or forty) remove _en masse_ to sabsabad, a country place eight or ten miles off. the natives, in the mean time, live as best they can, and epidemics of cholera and diphtheria are of yearly occurrence. the water of bushire producing guinea-worms (an animal that, unless rolled out of the skin with great care, breaks, rots, and forms a festering sore), supplies of it are brought in barrels from bussorah or mahommerah; but this is not within reach of the poorer class. nearly every third person met in the street suffers from ophthalmia in some shape or other--the effect of the dust and glare, for there is no shade in or about the city. the latter is built at the end of a peninsula ten miles in length and three in breadth, the portion furthest away from the town being swampy and overflowed by the sea. most of the houses are of soft crumbling stone full of shells; some, of brick and plastered mud; but all are whitewashed, which gives the place the spurious look of cleanliness to which i have referred. the inhabitants of this "whited sepulchre" number from , to , . there is a considerable trade in tobacco, attar of roses, shawls, cotton wool, etc.; but vessels drawing over ten feet cannot approach the town nearer than a distance of three miles--a great drawback in rough or squally weather. were it five thousand miles away, bushire could scarcely be less like persia than it is. it has but one characteristic in common with other cities--its ruins. although of no antiquity, bushire is rich in these. with this exception, it much more resembles a moorish or turkish city. the native population, largely mixed with arabs, carries out the illusion, and bright-coloured garments, white "bournouses," and green turbans throng the streets, in striking contrast to the sombre, rook-like garments affected by the natives of iran. a stranger, too, is struck by the difference in the mode of life adopted by europeans as compared with those inhabiting other parts of the shah's dominions. the semi-french style of teherán and shiráz is here superseded by the anglo-indian. _déjeuner à la fourchette, vin ordinaire_, and cigarettes are unknown in this land of tiffins, pegs, and cheroots. my recollections of bushire are pleasant ones. the residency is a large, rambling building, all verandahs, passages, and courtyards, faces the sea on three sides, and catches the slightest breath of air that may be stirring in hot weather. two or three lawn-tennis courts, and a broad stone walk almost overhanging the waves, form a favourite rendezvous for europeans in the cool of the evening. from here may be seen the persian navy at anchor, represented by one small gunboat, the _persepolis_. this toy of the shah's was built by a german firm in , and cost the government over £ , sterling. she has never moved since her arrival. her bottom is now covered with coral and shells, her screw stuck hard and fast, while the four steel krupp guns which she mounts are rusty and useless. my preparations for baluchistán were soon completed. the escort furnished me by the indian government had been awaiting me for some days at sonmiani, our starting-point on the coast. a telegram from karachi, saying that men, camels, tents, and stores were ready, was the signal for our departure, and on march i took leave of my host to embark on the british india company's steamer _purulia_, for baluchistán. with genuine regret did i leave my pleasant quarters at the residency. enjoyable as my visit was, it had not come upon me quite as a surprise, for the hospitality of colonel ross, resident of bushire, is well known to travellers in persia. [footnote a: a similar case happened not long ago in southern russia.] [footnote b: the eeliauts are said to be of arab and kurd descent.] [footnote c: the longest is in cochin china, across the river meikong, the distance from post to post being feet.] [footnote d: earthquake.] chapter ix. baluchistÁn--beila. the coast-line of baluchistán is six hundred miles long. on it there is one tree, a sickly, stunted-looking thing, near the telegraph station of gwádar, which serves as a landmark to native craft and a standing joke to the english sailor. planted some years since by a european, it has lived doggedly on, to the surprise of all, in this arid soil. the tree of baluchistán is as well known to the manner in the persian gulf as regent circus or the marble arch to the london cabman. with this solitary exception, not a trace of vegetation exists along the sea-board from persian to indian frontier. occasionally, at long intervals, a mud hut is seen, just showing that the country is inhabited, and that is all. the steep, rocky cliffs, with their sharp, spire-like summits rising almost perpendicularly out of the blue sea, are typical of the desert wastes inland. "and this is the india they talk so much about!" says gerôme, contemptuously, as we watch the desolate shores from the deck of the steamer. i do not correct the little man's geography. it is too hot for argument, for the heat is stifling. there is not a breath of air stirring, not a ripple on the smooth oily sea, and the sides of the ship are cracking and blistering in the fierce, blinding sunshine. under the awning the temperature is that of a furnace, and one almost regrets the cold and snow of three weeks ago, so perverse is human nature. mark tapley himself would scarcely have taken a cheerful view of things on landing at sonmiani. imagine a howling wilderness of rock and scrub, stretching away to where, on the far horizon, some low hills cut the brazen sky-line. on the beach the so-called town of sonmiani--a collection of dilapidated mud huts, over which two or three tattered red and yellow banners flutter in the breeze, and beneath which a small and shallow harbour emits a powerful odour of mud, sewage, and rotten fish. every hut is surmounted by a "badgir," or wind-catcher--a queer-looking contrivance, in shape exactly like a prompter's box, used in the summer heats to cool the interior of the dark, stifling huts. a mob of ragged, wild-looking baluchis, with long, matted locks and gaudy rags, completes this dreary picture. shouts of "kamoo!" from the crowd brought a tall, good-looking native, clad in white, out of an adjacent hut, who, i was relieved to find, was the interpreter destined to accompany us to kelát. the camels and escort were, he said, ready for a start on the morrow, if necessary. in the mean time there was a bare but clean government bungalow at our disposal, and in this we were soon settled. but notwithstanding the comparative comfort of our quarters compared with the filthy native houses around, i determined to get away as soon as possible. the mosquitoes were bad enough, but the flies were far worse. ceiling, walls, and floor were black with them. one not only ate them with one's food, but they inflicted a nasty, poisonous bite. as for the smells, they were beyond description; but the fact that a dead camel was slowly decomposing in the immediate vicinity of our dwelling may have had something to do with this. with all these drawbacks, i was glad to find the population, although dirty, decidedly friendly--rather too much so, indeed; for the little whitewashed room was crowded to overflowing the greater part of the day with relays of visitors, who apparently looked upon us as a kind of show got up for their entertainment. towards sunset a tall, swarthy fellow, about fifty years old, with sharp, restless eyes and a huge hook nose, made his appearance at the doorway; and this was the signal for a general stampede, for my visitor was no other than the head-man of sonmiani--chengiz khan. chengiz was attired in a very dirty white garment, loose and flowing to the heels, and a pair of gold-embroidered slippers. a small conical cap of green silk was perched rakishly on the top of his head, from which fell, below the shoulders, a tumbled mass of thick, coarse, black hair. the head-man was unarmed, but his followers, five in number, fairly bristled with daggers and pistols. like all natives, chengiz was at first shy and reserved. it was only when i had prevailed upon him to take a cigar that my visitor became more at his ease. having lit his cheroot, he took a long pull and passed it on to one of his followers, who repeated the performance. when it had gone the round twice it was thrown away; and chengiz, turning to kamoo, gravely asked if i wished for anything before he retired for the night. "you should reach kelát in twenty-five days," was the answer to my question, "provided the camels keep well and you have no difficulty with the people at gwarjak; they are not used to europeans, and may give you some trouble." one of the men here whispered to his chief. "malak is the name of the head-man at gwarjak," went on chengiz--"a treacherous, dangerous fellow. do not have much to do with malak; he detests europeans." malak was, judging from my experiences that night, not the only baluchi possessed of this failing. chengiz having left, i retired to rest, to be suddenly aroused at midnight by a piercing yell, and to find a tall, half-naked fellow, with wild eyes and a face plastered with yellow mud, standing over me, brandishing a heavy club. though a revolver was at hand, it was useless; for i saw at a glance that i had to deal with a madman. after a severe tussle, gerôme and i managed to throw out the unwelcome visitor and bar the door, though we saw him for an hour or more prowling backwards and forwards in the moonlight in front of the bungalow, muttering to himself, waving his arms about, and breaking every now and then into peals of loud laughter. the incident now seems trifling enough, though it left a powerful impression upon my mind that night, on the eve of setting out through an unknown country, where the life of a european more or less is of little moment to the wild tribes of the interior. the madman was a dervish, the head-man said, and perfectly harmless as a rule, but liable to fits of rage at sight of a european and unbeliever. i was, therefore, not sorry to hear next morning that this ardent follower of the prophet had been securely locked up, and would not be released till the morrow, when we were well on the road to beïla. there are, i imagine, few countries practically so little known to europeans as the one we were about to traverse. i had, up to the time of my visit, often wondered that, with india so near, baluchistán should have been so long allowed to remain the _terra incognita_ it is. my surprise ceased on arrival at kelát. it is impossible to conceive a more monotonous or uninteresting journey, from a traveller's point of view, than that from the sea to quetta--a distance (by my route) of nearly five hundred miles, during which i passed (with the exception of kelát and beïla) but half a dozen villages worthy of the name, and met, outside the villages in question, a dozen human beings at the most. this is, perhaps, scarcely to be wondered at. the entire population of the country does not exceed , , while its area is estimated at something like , square miles, of which , are under persian rule, and the remaining , (nominally) under the suzerainty of the khan of kelát. the inhabitants of baluchistán may be roughly divided into two classes: the brahuis [a] in the north, and the baluchis in the south. the former ascribe their origin to the earliest mohammedan invaders of persia, and boast of their arab descent; the latter are supposed by some to have been originally a nation of tartar mountaineers who settled at a very early period in the southern parts of asia, where they led a nomad existence for many centuries, governed by their own chiefs and laws, till at length they became incorporated and attained their present footing at kelát and throughout northern baluchistán. both races differ essentially in language and customs, and are subdivided into an infinitesimal number of smaller tribes under the command or rule of petty chiefs or khans. although somewhat similar in appearance, the brahuis are said to be morally and physically superior to their southern neighbours. the baluch, as i shall now call each, is not a prepossessing type of humanity on first acquaintance, with his swarthy sullen features, dark piercing eyes, and long matted locks. most i met in the interior looked, a little distance off, like perambulating masses of dirty rags; but all, even the filthiest and most ragged, carried a bright, sharp tulwar. though rough and uncouth, however, i found the natives, as a rule, hospitable and kindly. it was only in the far interior that any unpleasantness was experienced. this was, perhaps, only natural, seeing that seventy miles of the journey lay through a region as yet unexplored by europeans, the inhabitants of which were naturally resentful of what they imagined to be intrusion and interference. owing to the nomadic nature of the baluchis, the barrenness of their country, and consequent absence of manufactures and commerce, permanent settlements are very rare. [illustration: sonmiani] with the exception of quetta, kelát, beïla, and kej, there are no towns in baluchistán worthy of the name. even those i have mentioned are, with the exception of quetta (now a british settlement), mere collections of tumble-down mud huts, invariably guarded by a ramshackle fort and wall of the same material. the dwellings of the nomads consist of a number of long slender poles bent and inverted towards each other, over which are stretched slips of coarse fabrics of camel's hair. it was only in the immediate neighbourhood of gwarjak that the native huts were constructed of dried palm-leaves, the fertile soil of that district rendering this feasible. attended by chengiz khan in a gorgeous costume of blue and yellow silk, and followed by a rabble of two or three hundred men and boys, i visited the bazaar next morning. chengiz had preceded his visit with the present of a fine goat, and evidently meant to be friendly, informing me, before we had gone many yards, that the queen of england had just invested the djam of beïla (a neighbouring chief) with the star of india, and did i think that that honour was very likely to accrue to him? the trade of sonmiani is, as may be imagined, insignificant. most of the low dark stalls were kept for the sale of grain, rice, salt, and tobacco, by hindus; but i was told that a brisk trade is done in fish and sharks' fins; and dried fruits, madder, and saffron, sent down from the northern districts, are exported in small quantities to india and persia. in the vicinity are some ancient pearl-fisheries of considerable value, which were once worked with great profit. these have been allowed to lie for many years undisturbed, owing to lack of vigour and enterprise on the part of those in power in the state. here is a chance for european speculators. by a well in the centre of the village stood some young girls and children. the former were decidedly good looking, and one, but for the hideous gold nose-ring, [b] would have been almost beautiful. here, as elsewhere in baluchistán, the women present much more the egyptian type of face than the indian--light bronze complexions, straight regular features, and large, dark, expressive eyes. none of these made the slightest attempt at concealment. as we passed, one of them even nodded and smiled at chengiz, making good use of her eyes, and disclosing a row of small, pearly teeth. their dress, a loose divided skirt of thin red stuff, and short jacket, with tight-fitting sleeves, open at the breast, showed off their slight graceful figures and small, well-shaped hands and feet to perfection. chengiz, pointing to the group, smiled and addressed me in a facetious tone. "he wants to know if you think them pretty," said my interpreter; but i thought it best to maintain a dignified silence. the chief of sonmiani was, for a mohammedan, singularly lax. a kind of rough pottery is made at sonmiani, and this is the only industry. some of the water-jars were neatly and gracefully fashioned, of a delicate grey-green colour; others red, with rude yellow devices painted on them. the clay is porous, and keeps the water deliciously cool. by four o'clock next morning all was ready for a start. the caravan consisted of eighteen camels, four baluchis, kamoo, and gerôme, with an escort of ten soldiers of the djam of beïla, smart-looking, well-built fellows in red tunics, white baggy trousers, and dark-blue turbans. each man, armed with a snider rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition, was mounted on a rough, wiry-looking pony. as we were starting, chengiz khan rode up on a splendid camel, and announced his intention of accompanying us the first stage, one of eighteen miles, to shekh-raj. here the honest fellow bade us good-bye. "the sahib will not forget me when he gets to india," he said, on leaving, thereby implying that he wished to be well reported to the indian government. "but take care of malak; he is a bad man--a very bad man." a rough and tedious journey of two days over deep sandy desert, varied by an occasional salt marsh, brought us to beïla, the seat of government of the djam, or chief of the province of las beïla, eighty miles due north of sonmiani. with a feeling of relief i sighted the dirty, dilapidated city, with its mud huts and tawdry pink and green banners surmounting the palace and fort. the baluch camel is not the easiest animal in existence, and i had, for the first few hours of the march, experienced all the miseries of _mal de mer_ brought on by a blazing sun and the rolling, unsteady gait of my ship of the desert. though awkward in his paces, the baluch camel is swift. they are small and better looking than most; nor do their coats present so much the appearance of a "doormat with the mange," as those of the animals of other countries. we had as yet passed but two villages--three or four low shapeless huts, almost hidden in rock and scrub by the side of the caravan-track, which, as far as beïla, is pretty clearly defined. there had been nothing else to break the dull, dead monotony of sand and swamp, not a sign of human life, and but one well (at outhal) of rather brackish water. on the second day one of the escort had pointed out a dry rocky bed as the river purali, which is one of the largest in baluchistán, but, like all the others, quite dry the greater portion of the year. there are no permanent rivers in this country. to this fact is perhaps due the slight knowledge obtained up to the present time of the interior, where arid sandy deserts, dangerous alike to native or european travellers, are the rule, and cover those large open spaces marked upon maps as "unexplored." notwithstanding the great width of the bed of the purali river in many places, it has no regular outlet into the sea. its waters, when in flood from rainfall, lose themselves in the level plains in a chain of lagoons or swamps. some of these are several miles in length, but decrease considerably in the dry season, when the water becomes salt. the habb river, which divides las from the british province of sind, is another case in point. it possesses permanent banks, is fed from the pabb chain of mountains, and after heavy rains in these hills a large body of water is formed, which rushes down to the sea with great force and velocity. but at other times water is only to be found in a few small pools in its rocky bed. it is, in short, a mountain torrent on a large scale. so also with the greater number of streams in the western districts, though a few of these have more the semblance of rivers than can be found elsewhere in baluchistán. of lakes there are none throughout the entire area of the country. at outhal we were met by one hussein khan, a wild-looking fellow mounted on a good-looking chestnut horse, its saddle and headstalls ornamented with bright-coloured leathers and gold and silver ornaments. hussein was from beïla, with a message from the djam to say that i was welcome in his dominions. tents were then pitched, and i invited hussein to partake of refreshment, which was refused. he accepted a cigarette, however, but seemed undecided whether to smoke or eat it, till presented with a light. having asked if i would like to be saluted with guns on arrival, an offer i politely declined, my visitor then left to prepare for our reception on the morrow. [illustration: our camp at outhal] daybreak saw us well _en route_ and by a.m. we were in sight of beïla. about a mile or so out of the city, a mounted sowar in scarlet and gold uniform, and armed with two huge horse-pistols and a long cavalry sabre, galloped up to the caravan. "it is a messenger from the palace," said kamoo, "to say that his highness the djam has been suddenly called away to kej, [c] but that his son, prince kumal khan, is riding out in state to meet the sahib, and conduct him to his father's city." the prince shortly afterwards appeared, mounted on a huge camel, the tail and hind quarters of which were ornamented with intricate patterns stamped on the hide by some peculiar process. a guard of honour of thirty soldiers accompanied, while a rabble of two or three hundred foot people surrounded the party, for the sight of a white face is rare in beïla. it was a strange scene: the picturesque city, brilliant barbaric costume of the young chief and his followers, and crowd of wild, half-naked baluchis were fitly set off by surroundings of desert landscape and dazzling sunshine. a gerôme or vereschágin would have revelled in the sight. shaking hands with kumal (no easy matter on camels), he placed me on his right hand, and, heading the procession, we rode into beïla, where a large tent had been erected for my accommodation. having placed a guard at my disposal, the prince then left, announcing his intention of receiving me in state that afternoon at the palace. beïla, which is protected by a fort and high mud wall, is situated on the right bank of the river purali, which, at the time of my visit, was no more than a dry rocky bed. the town contains about inhabitants, and, from a distance, presents a curious appearance, each house being fitted, as at sonmiani, with a large "badgir," or wind-catcher. like most eastern cities, beïla does not improve on closer acquaintance. the people are dirty and indolent. there is little or no trade, and the dark, narrow streets, ankle-deep in mud and filth, are crowded with beggars and pariah dogs, while the dull drab colour of the mud houses is depressing in the extreme. the fort and palace alone are built of brick, and, being whitewashed, relieve to a certain extent the melancholy aspect of the place. i was escorted to the latter the afternoon of my arrival by a guard of honour, preceded by the djam's band--half a dozen cracked english cavalry trumpets! djam ali khan, the present ruler of the state of las beïla, is about fifty years of age, and is a firm ally of england. the djam is a vassal of the khan of kelát, but, like most independent baluch chiefs, only nominally so. so far as i could glean, the court of kelát has no influence whatsoever beyond a radius of twenty miles or so from that city. the provinces of sarawán, jhalawán, kach-gandáva, mekrán, [d] and las beïla, which constitute the vast tract of country known as kalati baluchistán, are all governed by independent chiefs, nominally viceroys of the khan of kelát. practically, however, the latter has little or no supremacy over them, nor indeed over any part of baluchistán, kelát and its suburbs excepted. prince kumal khan received me in his father's durbar-chamber, a cheerless, whitewashed apartment, bare of furniture save for a somewhat rickety "throne" of painted wood, and a huge white linen punkah, overlooking a dreary landscape of barren desert and mud roofs. the prince, a tall, slim young man, about twenty-five years of age, has weak but not unpleasing features. he was dressed in a close-fitting tunic of dark-blue cloth, heavily trimmed with gold braid, baggy white linen trousers, and a pair of european side-spring boots, very dirty and down at heel. a light-blue turban completed his attire. the interview was not interesting. notwithstanding all my efforts and the services of the interpreter, kumal was evidently shy and ill at ease, and resolutely refused to enter into conversation. one thing, however, roused him. hearing that i was accompanied by a russian, kumal eagerly demanded that he should be sent for. gerôme presently made his appearance, and was stared at, much to his discomfiture and annoyance, as if he had been a wild beast. a pair of white-linen drawers, no socks, carpet slippers, and a thin jersey, were my faithful follower's idea of a costume suitable to the indian climate--surmounted by the somewhat inappropriate head-dress of a huge astrakhan cap, which for no earthly consideration could he be persuaded to exchange for a turban. "so that is a russian!" said the prince, curiously surveying him from head to foot. "i thought they were all big men!" but patience has limits, and, with a muttered "dourák," [e] poor gerôme turned and left the princely presence in anything but a respectful manner. coffee and nargileh discussed, my host moved an adjournment to the roof of the palace, where, he said, i should obtain a better view of his father's city. this ceremony concluded, the trumpets sounded, a gentle hint that the audience was at an end, and i took leave, and returned to camp outside the walls of the town. the wazir, or prime minister, of the djam paid me a visit in the evening _sans cérémonie_--a jolly-looking, fresh-complexioned old fellow, dressed in a suit of karki, cut european fashion, and with nothing oriental about him save a huge white linen turban. the wazir spoke english fairly well, and, waxing confidential over a cigar and whisky-and-water (like my sonmiani friend, the wazir was no strict mussulman), entertained me with an account of the doings of the court in beïla and the _aventures galantes_ of kumal, who, from all accounts, was a veritable don juan. "will the russians ever take india?" asked the old fellow of gerôme, as he left the tent. "you can tell them they shall never get it so long as _we_ can prevent them;" but the next moment the poor wazir, to gerôme's delight, had measured his length on the ground. either the night was very dark, or the whisky very strong; a tent-rope had avenged the taunt levelled at my companion's countrymen. early next morning came a message from prince kumal, inviting me to visit the caves of shahr-rogan, an excavated village of great antiquity, about ten miles from beïla. i gladly accepted. the camels were tired; the men of the caravan unwilling to proceed for another day, and time hung heavily on one's hands, with nothing to vary the monotony but an occasional shot at a wood-pigeon (which swarm about beïla), or a game of _ecarté_ (for nuts) with gerôme. the caves were well worth a visit. i could gain no information at beïla, quetta, or even karachi, as to the origin of this curious cave-city, though there can be no doubt that it is of great antiquity. carless the traveller's account is perhaps the most authentic. "about nine miles to the northward of beïla a range of low hills sweeps in a semicircle from one side of the valley to the other, and forms its head. the purali river issues from a deep ravine on the western side, and rushes down (in the wet season) about two hundred yards broad. it is bounded on one side by steep cliffs, forty or fifty feet high, on the summit of which is an ancient burial-ground. following the stream, we gained the narrow ravine through which it flows, and, turning into one of the lateral branches, entered shahr-rogan." here, on the day in question, prince kumal called a halt. a couple of small tents were pitched, and a meal, consisting of an excellent curry, stewed pigeons, beer, and claret, served. leaving the prince to amuse himself and delight his followers with his skill in rifle-shooting at a mark chalked out on the rocks, i continued my explorations. the result is, perhaps, better explained to the reader in the words of an older and more experienced observer. carless says--"the scene was singular. on either side of a wild broken ravine the rocks rise perpendicularly to the height of four or five hundred feet, and are excavated, as far as there is footing to ascend, up to the summit. the excavations are most numerous along the lower part of the hills, and form distinct houses, most of which are uninjured by-time. they consist, in general, of a room fifteen feet square, forming a kind of open verandah, with an interior chamber of the same dimensions, to which admittance is gained by a narrow doorway. there are niches for lamps in many, and a place built up and covered in, apparently to hold grain. most of the houses or caves at the summits of the cliffs are now inaccessible, from the narrow precipitous paths by which they were approached having worn away. the cliffs are excavated on both sides of the valley for a distance little short of a mile. there cannot be less than fifteen hundred of these strange habitations." the caves of shahr-rogan are not the only sights of interest near beïla. time, unfortunately, would not admit of my visiting the mud-volcanoes of las, situated near the harra mountains, about sixty miles from shahr-rogan. the hills upon which these are found are from three to four hundred feet high, and are conical in form, with flattened and discoloured tops and precipitous sides. at their bases are numerous fissures and cavities reaching far into their interior. captain hart, who visited these geysers some years ago, describes them as basins of liquid mud, about a hundred paces in diameter, in a continual state of eruption. these geysers, or "chandra-kupr," as they are called by the baluchis, are also found on parts of the mekrân coast. colonel ross, h.m.'s resident at bushire, is of opinion that these coast craters have communication with the sea, as the state of the tides has considerable influence on the movements of the mud. this theory is, perhaps, strengthened by the fact that by the coast natives the volcanoes are called "darya-chân," or "eyes of the sea." on the way back from shahr-rogan to beïla a herd of antelope was seen. i may here mention that, with one exception, this was the only occasion upon which i came across big game of any kind throughout the journey, although, from all accounts, there is no lack of wild animals in baluchistán. bear and hyena are found in the southern districts, and the leopard, wolf, ibex, and tiger-cat exist in other parts of the country. the wild dog is also found in the northern and more mountainous regions. the latter hunt in packs of twenty and thirty, and will seize a bullock and kill him in a few minutes. on the other hand, vermin and venomous animals are not so common as in india. dangerous snakes are rare, though we were much annoyed by scorpions and centipedes in the villages of the north, and a loathsome bug, the "mangar," which infests the houses of kelát. riding homewards, we stopped about a mile out of beïla to inspect the djam's garden, a large rambling piece of ground about fifty acres in extent, enclosed by high walls of solid masonry. never was i more surprised than upon entering the lofty iron gates guarded by a sowar in neat white uniform. it seemed incredible that such fertility and abundance could exist in this dry, arid land. the cool fragrant gardens, with their shady grass walks, forest trees, and palms, springing up, as it were, out of the scorched, stony desert, reminded one of a bunch of sweet-smelling flowers in a fever ward, and the scent of rose, jasmine, and narcissus was apparent quite half a mile away. in the centre of the garden is a tamarind tree of enormous girth. it takes twelve men with joined hands to surround it. half an hour was spent in this pleasant oasis, which was constructed by the late djam, after infinite trouble and expense, by means of irrigation from the purali river. there are also two deep wells of clear water in the grounds, which are never quite dry even in the hottest seasons. proceeding homewards, we had scarcely reached camp when a terrific thunderstorm burst over our heads. the thunderclaps were in some instances nearly a minute in duration, and the lightning unpleasantly close and vivid. the weather clearing, i visited the bazaar in the evening, under the guidance of my old friend, the wazir. trade is, as i have said, practically _nil_ in beïla, and the manufactures, which are trifling, are confined to oil, cotton, a rough kind of cloth, and coarse carpets; indeed, throughout the country, commerce is almost at a standstill. this is scarcely surprising when the semi-savage state of the people, and consequent risks to life and property, are taken into account. the export trade of the interior is, though trifling at present, capable, under firm and wise rule, of great improvement. madder, almonds, and dried fruit from kelát and mastung, seed and grain from khozdar, small quantities of assa-foetida from nushki, and sulphur from kach-gandáva, comprise all the exports. from mekrán and las beïla are exported "rogan," or clarified butter used for cooking purposes, hides, tobacco (of a very coarse kind), salt fish, oil-seeds, and dates. the imports chiefly consist of rice, pepper, sugar, spices, indigo, wood, and piece goods, chiefly landed at the ports of gwádar or sonmiani. but little is as yet known of the mineral products of this district. iron ore is said to exist in the mountains north of beïla, while to the south copper is reported as being found in large quantities; but nothing has as yet been done to open up the mineral resources of the district. although silver and even gold have been found in small quantities, and other minerals are known to exist, the only mines at present in baluchistán are those near khozdar, in the province of jhalawán, where lead and antimony are worked, but in a very primitive manner. notwithstanding the trade stagnation, there seems to be a good deal of cultivation in and around beïla. water is obtained from deep wells; and vegetables, rice, and tobacco are largely grown. most of the stalls in the bazaar were devoted to the sale of rice, wheat, and tobacco, cheap cutlery, and manchester goods; and i noticed, with some surprise, cheap photographs of mrs. langtry, ellen terry, miss nelly farren, sylvia grey, and other leading lights of society and art, spread out for sale among the many-bladed knives, nickel forks and spoons, and german timepieces. although the narrow alleys reeked with poisonous smells and filth and abomination of all kinds, beïla is not unhealthy--so at least the wazir informed me. i doubted the truth of this assertion, however, for the features of every second person i met were scarred more or less with small-pox. my caravan, on leaving beïla, was considerably increased. it now consisted of twenty-two camels (six of which were laden with water), five baluchis, my original escort, and six of the djam's cavalry. i could well have dispensed with the latter, but the kindly little wazir would not hear of my going without them. an addition also to our party was a queer creature, half portuguese, half malay, picked up by gerôme in the beïla bazaar, and destined to fulfil the duties of cook. how he had drifted to beïla i never ascertained, and thought it prudent not to inquire too much into his antecedents. no one knew anything about him, and as he talked a language peculiar to himself, no one was ever likely to; but he was an undeniably good _chef_, and that was the chief consideration. gaëtan, this strange being informed us, was his name--speedily transformed by gerôme into the more euphonious and romantic name of gaetano! i took leave of the prince and my old friend the wazir with some misgivings, for the new camel-drivers were beïla men, and frankly owned that their knowledge of the country lying between gwarjak and noundra (where we were to leave the caravan-track) was derived chiefly from hearsay. there are two caravan-roads through beïla. one, formerly much used, is that over which we had travelled from the coast, and which, on leaving beïla, leads due north to quetta _viâ_ wadd and sohrab. an ordinary caravan by this route occupies at least forty days in transit. traffic is now, therefore, usually carried on by means of the safer trade-routes through british sindh, whereby the saving of time is considerable, and chances of robbery much lessened. the second road (which has branches leading to the coast towns of gwádar, pasui, and ormara) proceeds due west to kej, capital of the mekrán province, near the persian border. the latter track we were to follow as far as noundra, ninety miles distant. i should add that the so-called roads of baluchistán are nothing more than narrow, beaten paths, as often as not entirely obliterated by swamp or brushwood. beyond noundra, where we left the main track to strike northwards for gwarjak, there was absolutely nothing to guide us but occasional landmarks by day and the stars at night. barring the intense monotony, the journey was not altogether unenjoyable. to reach noundra it took us five days. this may appear slow work, but quicker progress is next to impossible in a country where, even on the regular caravan-road, the guides are constantly losing the track, and two or three hours are often wasted in regaining it. the first two or three days of the journey lay through swampy ground, through which the camels made their way with difficulty, for a cat on the ice in walnut-shells is less awkward than a camel in mud. broad deep swamps alternating with tracts of sandy desert, with nothing to relieve the monotonous landscape but occasional clumps of "feesh," a stunted palm about three feet in height, and rough cairns of rock erected by travellers to mark the pathway where it had become obliterated, sufficiently describes the scenery passed through for the first three days after leaving beïla. large stones accurately laid out in circles of eighteen or twenty feet in diameter were also met with at intervals of every two miles or so by the side of the track, and this very often in districts where nothing was visible but a boundless waste of loose, drifting sand. our baluchis could not or would not explain the _raison d'être_ of them, though the stones must, in many instances, have been brought great distances and for a definite purpose. i could not, however, get any explanation regarding them at either kelát or quetta. with the exception of the lakh pass leading over a chain of hills about eighteen miles due west of beïla, the road to noundra was as flat as a billiard-table. the crossing of the lakh, however, was not accomplished without much difficulty and some danger; for the narrow pathway, leading over rocky, almost perpendicular, cliffs, three to four hundred feet high, had, in places, almost entirely crumbled away. the summits of these cliffs present a curious appearance--fifty to sixty needle-like spires, hardly a couple of feet thick at the top, which look as if the hand of man and not of nature had placed them in the symmetrical order in which they stand, white and clear-cut against the deep-blue sky, slender and fragile as sugar ornaments, and looking as though a puff of wind would send them toppling over. the ascent was terribly hard work for the camels, and, as the track is totally unprotected by guard-rail of any kind, anything but comfortable for their riders. towards the summit we met a couple of these beasts laden with tobacco from kej, in charge of a wild-looking fellow in rags, as black as a coal, who eyed us suspiciously, and answered in sulky monosyllables when asked where he hailed from. his merchandise, consisting of four small bags, seemed hardly worth the carrying, but kej tobacco fetches high prices in beïla. at this point the pathway had latterly been widened by order of the djam. formerly, if two camels travelling in opposite directions met, their respective owners drew lots. the animal belonging to the loser was then sacrificed and pushed over the precipice to clear the way for the other. in the wet season a foaming torrent dashes through the valley of lakh, but this was, at the time of my visit, a dry bed of rock and shingle. indeed, although we were fairly fortunate as regard wells, and i was never compelled to put the caravan on short allowance, i did not pass a single stream of running water the whole way from sonmiani to dhaïra, twenty miles south of gwarjak, though we must in that distance have crossed at least fifteen dry river-beds, varying from twenty to eighty yards in width. travelling in the daytime soon became impossible, on account of the heat, as we proceeded further inland. a start was therefore generally made before it was light, and by a.m. the day's work was over, tents pitched, camels turned loose, and a halt made till three or four the next morning. though the sun at midday was, with the total absence of shade, dangerously powerful, and converted the interior of our canvas tents into the semblance of an oven, there was little to complain of as regards weather. the nights were deliciously cool, and the pleasantest part of, the twenty-four hours was perhaps that from till a.m., when, dinner over and camp-fires lit, the baluchis enlivened the caravan with song and dance. baluch music is, though wild and mournful, pleasing. some of the escort had fine voices, and sang to the accompaniment of a low, soft pipe, their favourite instrument. gerôme was in great request on these occasions, and, under the influence of some fiery raki, of which he seemed to have an unlimited stock, would have trolled out "matoushka volga" and weird cossack ditties till the stars were paling, if not suppressed. as it was, one got little enough rest, what with the heat and flies at midday, and, at the halt about a.m., the shouting, hammering of tent-pegs, and braying of camels that went on till the sun was high in the heavens. there is a so-called town or village, jhow (situated about twenty miles east of noundra), in a sparsely cultivated plain of the same name. barley and wheat are grown by means of irrigation from the jhow river, which in the wet season is of considerable size. i had expected to find, at jhow, some semblance of a town or village, as the wazir of beïla had told me that the place contained a population of four or five hundred, and it is plainly marked on all government maps. but i had yet to learn that a baluch "town," or even village, of forty or fifty inhabitants often extends over a tract of country many miles in extent. the "town" of jhow, for instance, is spread over a plain thirty-five miles long by fourteen broad, in little clusters of from two to six houses. a few tiny patches of green peeping out of the yellow sand and brushwood, a wreath of grey smoke rising lazily here and there at long intervals over the plain, a few camels and goats browsing in the dry, withered herbage by the caravan-track, showed that there were inhabitants; but we saw no dwellings, and only one native, a woman, who, at sight of gerôme, who gallantly rode forward to address her, turned and fled as if she had seen the evil one. noundra, which was reached on the th of march, was a mere repetition of jhow. neither houses nor natives were visible, though we passed occasional patches of cultivated ground. about five miles west of this we left the beaten track and struck out due north for gwarjak, which, according to my calculation, lay about seventy miles distant. [footnote a: the traveller masson says that the word _brahui_ is a corruption of _ba-roh-i_, meaning literally, "of the waste."] [footnote b: these rings are sometimes so heavy that they are attached to a band at the top of the head to lessen the weight on the nostril.] [footnote c: a town in western baluchistán.] [footnote d: the word "mekrán" is said to be derived from "mahi-kharan," or "fish-eaters," which food the inhabitants of this maritime province subsisted on in alexander's time, and do still.] [footnote e: russian, "fool."] chapter x. baluchistÁn--gwarjak. most european travellers through this desolate land have testified to the fact that the most commendable trait in the baluch is his practice of hospitality, or "zang," as it is called. as among the arabs, a guest is held sacred, save by some of the wilder tribes on the afghan frontier, who, though they respect a stranger actually under their roof, will rob and murder him without scruple as soon as he has departed. the natives of kanéro and dhaïra (the two villages lying between noundra and gwarjak) were, though civil, evidently not best pleased at our appearance, but the sight of a well-armed escort prevented any open demonstration of ill feeling. the first day's work after noundra was rough, so much so that the camels could scarcely struggle through the deep sand, or surmount the steep, pathless ridges of slippery rock that barred our progress every two or three miles. though the greater part of the journey lay through deep, drifting sand, the soil in places was hard and stony, and here the babul tree and feesh palm grew freely, also a pretty star-shaped yellow flower, called by baluchis the "jour." this plant is poisonous to camels, but, strangely enough, harmless to sheep, goats, and other animals. for a desert-journey, we had little to complain of as regards actual discomfort. there were no mosquitoes or sandflies, and the heat, though severe, was never excessive save for a couple of hours or so at midday, when enforced imprisonment in a thin canvas tent became rather trying. there was absolutely no shade--not a tree of any kind visible from the day we left beïla till our arrival at dhaïra about midday on the st of march. scarcity of water was our greatest difficulty. at noundra it had been salt and brackish; at kanéro we searched in vain for a well. had we known that a couple of days' march distant lay a land "with milk and honey blest," this would have inconvenienced us but little. the fact, however, that only three barrels of the precious liquid remained caused me some anxiety, especially as the first well upon which we could rely was at gwarjak, nearly sixty miles distant. the sight of dhaïra, on the morning of the st, relieved us of all further anxiety. this fertile plain, about fifteen miles long by ten broad, is bounded on the north-west by a chain of limestone mountains, the name of which i was unable to ascertain. here for the second time since beïla we found a village and traces of inhabitants, the former encircled for a considerable distance by fields of maize and barley, enclosed by neat banks and hedges--a grateful contrast to the desolate waste behind us. it was the most perfect oasis imaginable. shady forest trees and shrubs surrounded us on every side, a clear stream of running water fringed with ferns and wild flowers rippled through our camp, while the poor half-starved horses of the escort revelled in the long, rich grass. hard by a cluster of three or four leaf huts, half hidden in a grove of date palms, lay (part of) the little village of dhaïra, deserted at this busy hour of the day save by women and children. the latter fled upon our arrival, and did not reappear until the evening, when the return of the men reassured them sufficiently to approach our tents and look upon the strange and unwelcome features of the farangi without fear. from here, by advice of the wazir of beïla, a messenger was despatched to malak, at gwarjak, twenty miles distant, requesting permission to travel through his dominions. i resolved to proceed no further without the chief's sanction, or to afford him in any way an excuse for making himself unpleasant. in the mean time, arms and accoutrements were looked to, and the escort cleaned and smartened up as well as circumstances would permit. the natives overcame their shyness next morning, and brought us goat's milk and "rogan," or clarified butter. the baluchis seldom eat meat, their food principally consisting of cakes or bread made of grain, with buttermilk and rice. a favourite preparation known as "shalansh," and called "krout" by the afghans, is made by boiling buttermilk till the original quantity is reduced by half. the remainder is then strained through a thick felt bag, in the sun. when the draining ceases, the mass in the bag is formed into small lumps dried hard by the sun's rays. when required for use these lumps are pounded and placed in warm water, where they are worked by the hands until dissolved. the thickened fluid is then boiled with rogan and eaten with bread. assafoetida, indigenous to the country, is largely used among all classes for flavouring dishes. so much is this noxious plant liked by baluchis, that it goes by the name of "khush-khorak," or pleasant food. at kelát, in the palace of the khan, i was offered it pickled, but it is usually eaten stewed in butter. about midday, to my great surprise, malak made his appearance in person, mounted on a good-looking chestnut stallion, its bridle and saddle adorned with gold and silver trappings. four attendants followed on sorry-looking steeds. the chief, a tall, well-built fellow, about thirty years of age, with a sulky, sinister cast of countenance, was clad in a bright green satin jacket, white and gold turban, loose dark-blue trousers, and embroidered slippers. the loss of one eye gave him a still more unpleasant expression, a lock of coarse black hair being dragged over the face to conceal the disfigurement. the whole party were armed to the teeth, and carried guns, shields, and revolvers. our interview did not commence propitiously. swinging himself off his horse, malak returned my salutation with a sulky nod, and swaggered into the tent, signing to his suite to follow his example. curtly refusing my offer of refreshment, he called for his pipe-bearer, and, lighting a kalyan, commenced puffing vigorously at some abominably smelling tobacco, which soon rendered the interior of the tent unbearable. it is, unfortunately, baluch etiquette to allow a guest to open the conversation. malak, well aware of this, maintained a stolid silence, and appeared hugely to enjoy the annoyance and impatience i tried in vain to conceal. it was not till nearly an hour had elapsed that this amiable visitor at last inquired, in a rude, surly tone, what i wanted. my interpreter's services were then called in, but it was not without demur and a long consultation with his suite that malak consented to accompany me to gwarjak on the morrow. matters were finally arranged, on the understanding that i did not remain more than one day at gwarjak, but proceeded to kelát without delay. i strolled out with a gun in the evening, and managed to bag a brace of partridges, which swarmed in the maize and barley fields. overcoming the fears of the women, i was permitted to approach and inspect, though not enter, one of their dwellings. the latter, constructed of dried palm leaves, were about fifteen feet long by eight feet broad, and were entirely devoid of rugs, carpets, or furniture of any kind, and indescribably filthy. the men, though shy and suspicious, would have been friendly, had it not been for malak, who followed me like a shadow; but nothing would induce the women and children to approach either gerôme or myself. "what is this?" said one old fellow to malak, stroking my face with his horny, grimy palm. "i never saw anything like it before." most of the men were clothed in dirty, discoloured rags. the women wore simply a cloth tied loosely over the loins, while male and female children fourteen or fifteen years old ran about stark naked. a curious flower, the "kosisant," grows luxuriantly about here. it is in shape something like a huge asparagus, and about two feet high, being covered from top to bottom with tiny white-and-yellow blossoms, with a sweet but sickly perfume. it consists but of one shoot or stalk, and bursts through the ground apparently with great force, displacing the soil for several inches. we left for gwarjak at . the following morning. etiquette compelled malak to offer me his horse, while he mounted my camel--an operation effected with very bad grace by my host. the baluch saddle consists simply of two sharp pieces of wood bound together by leathern thongs, and the exchange was by no means a welcome one so far as i was concerned. had it cut me in two, however, i would have borne it, if only to punish this boorish ruffian for his insolence of yesterday. malak's chief failing was evidently vanity, and he was very reluctant, even for an hour, to cede the place of honour to a european. the road for the first ten miles or so lay along the dry bed of a river, which, i ascertained with difficulty from my one-eyed companion, is named the mashki. large holes, from eight to ten feet deep, had been dug for some distance by the dhaïra natives, forming natural cisterns or tanks. these were, even now, after a long spell of dry weather, more than half full, and the water, with which we filled barrels and flasks, clear, cold, and delicious. the shirengaz pass, which crosses a chain of hills about five hundred feet high, separates the dhaïra valley from the equally fertile district of gwarjak. the ascent and descent are gradual and easy, and by ten o'clock we were in sight of gwarjak, before midday had encamped within half a mile of the town, if a collection of straggling tumble-down huts can so be called. the news of our arrival had preceded us, and before tents were pitched the population had turned out _en masse_, and a mob of quite two hundred men, women, and children were squatted around our camp, watching, at a respectful distance, the proceedings of my men with considerable interest. malak had meanwhile disappeared, ostensibly to warn the wazir of our arrival. gwarjak is situated on the left bank of the mashki river, and consists of some thirty huts, shapeless and dilapidated, built of dried palm leaves. about two hundred yards north of the village rises a steep almost perpendicular rock about a hundred feet high, on the summit of which is perched a small mud fort. the latter is crenelated, loopholed for musketry, and mounts six cannon of a very primitive kind. it was at once apparent that we were anything but welcome. the very sight of my armed escort seemed to annoy and exasperate the male population, while the women and children gathered together some distance off, flying in a body whenever one of our party approached them. i looked forward, with some impatience, to malak's return, for kamoo's request for the loan of a knife from one of the bystanders was met with an indignant refusal, accompanied by murmuring and unmistakable expressions of hostility. we were well armed certainly, but were only ten men against over a hundred. our camping-place was wild and picturesque, and, had it not been for the uncomfortable sensation of not quite knowing what would happen next, our stay at gwarjak would have been pleasant enough. even gerôme was depressed and anxious, and the beïla men and escort ill at ease. i was sorely tempted more than once to accede to kamoo's request, strike tents and move on to gajjar, the next village, but was restrained by the thought that such a proceeding would not only be undignified, but a source of satisfaction to my _bête noire_, malak. [illustration: malak] after a prolonged absence of four or five hours, the latter returned, together with his wazir and about a dozen followers. a more cut-throat looking set of ruffians i have seldom seen. all wore long black-cloth robes trimmed with scarlet, and white turbans, and carried a snider rifle and belt stuffed with cartridges slung over the left shoulder. i now noticed with some anxiety that malak's quiet and undemonstrative manner had completely altered to one of swaggering insolence and bravado. "the chief wishes you to know he has twenty more like this," said kamoo, pointing to malak's villainous-looking suite. "tell him i am very glad to hear it," was my reply, politely meant, but which seemed to unduly exasperate the king of gwarjak. brushing past me, he burst into the tent, followed by his men, and seated himself on my only camp-stool. then, producing a large american revolver, he cocked it with a loud click, placed it on the ground beside him, and called for his kalyan. patience has limits. with the reflection that few white men would have put up with the insults i had; that "tommy atkins" was, after all, only three hundred miles away; and that, in the event of my death, malak would probably be shot, if not blown from a gun,--i ordered him (through the trembling kamoo) to instantly leave the tent with all his followers. the fire-eating chieftain was (unlike most baluchis) a poor creature, for to my intense relief he slunk out at once, with his tail between his legs. having then re-appropriated the camp-stool, i ordered in the escort, fixed bayonets, loaded _my_ revolver with ostentation, and commanded my friend to re-enter alone, which he did, and, as americans say, "quickly." then ensued an uncomfortable silence, interrupted by the arrival of one of my men to say that the villagers had refused to sell provisions of any kind, although eggs, milk, and rice were to be had in plenty. "i am not the king of these people," said malak, passionately, on being remonstrated with. "every man here is free to do as he pleases with his own." as our stores were now running uncomfortably short, this "boycotting" system was anything but pleasant. "will _you_ sell us some eggs and milk?" i asked, as my unwilling guest rose to go. it was eating humble-pie with a vengeance, but hunger, like many other things, has no laws. "i am not a stall-keeper," was the answer. a request to be permitted to ascend the hill and visit the fort was met by an emphatic refusal. i then, as a last resource, inquired, through kamoo, if my hospitable host had any objection to my walking through the village. "if you like," was the reply; "but i will not be responsible for your safety. this is not kelát. the english are not our masters. we care nothing for them." notwithstanding these mysterious warnings, however, i visited the village towards sunset, alone with gerôme, fearing lest the sight of my escort should arouse the ire and suspicions of the natives. there was little to see and nothing to interest. gwarjak is built without any attempt at order or symmetry. many of the houses had toppled over till their roofs touched the ground, and the whole place presented an appearance of poverty and decay strangely at variance with the smiling plains of grain, rice, and tobacco around it. not a human being was visible, for our appearance was the signal for a general stampede indoors, but the dirty, narrow streets swarmed with huge, fierce dogs, who would have attacked us but for the heavy "nagaikas" [a] with which we were armed. we were evidently cordially hated by both men and beasts! on return to camp i gave orders for a start at four the next morning. there was no object to be gained by remaining, and the natives would have been only too glad of an excuse for open attack. the remains of an ancient city, covering a very large area, are said to exist near gwarjak, about a mile due south of it. i could, however, discover no trace of them, although we came from that direction, and must have traversed the supposed site. after the fatigue and anxiety of the day, i was enjoying a cigar in the bright moonlight, when a messenger from the village arrived in camp. he had a narrow escape. not answering the challenge of the sentry for the second time, the latter was about to fire, when i ran forward and threw up his rifle, which discharged in the air. a second later, and the man would have been shot, in which case i do not suppose we should ever have seen quetta. the message was from malak, inviting me to a "zigri," a kind of religious dance, taking place just outside the village. after some reflection, i decided to go. it might, of course, mean treachery, but the probability was that the chief, afraid of being reported to the indian government for his insolence and insubordination, wished to atone for his conduct before i left. under the messenger's guidance, and attended by gerôme and a guard of five men with loaded rifles, i set out. both the russian and myself carried and prominently displayed a brace of revolvers. a walk of ten minutes brought us to a cleared space by the river. in the centre blazed a huge bonfire, round which, in a semicircle, were squatted some two or three hundred natives, watching the twistings and contortions of half a dozen grotesque creatures with painted faces, and long, streaming hair, who, as they turned slowly round and round, varied the performance with leaps and bounds, alternately groaning, wailing, and screaming at the top of their voices. [illustration: a "zigri" in gwarjak] a horn, a lute, and half a dozen tom-toms accompanied the dance. some distance away, and surrounded by his grim-looking guard, sat malak, who, though he did not rise to receive me, beckoned me to his side with more politeness than usual. it was a weird, strange sight. the repulsive, half-naked figures leaping round the fire, the silent, awestruck crowd of baluchis, the wild barbaric music, and pillar of flame flashing on the dark, sullen face of malak and his followers, was not a little impressive, especially as i was in a state of pleasing uncertainty as to the object of my host's sudden change of manner, and whether this might not be a little dramatic introduction to an attack upon our party. this was, however, evidently not my sulky friend's intention, for, as i rose to go, he actually stood up and took my hand. "at gajjar," he said, "you will be able to get all you want, but take my advice, and get away from here early to-morrow morning. they do not like you." four hours after we were _en route_. the zigri was still going on as we rode out of the village. malak and his guard still sat motionless, the weird dancers and crowd of onlookers were still there, the huge bonfire blazing as brightly as ever, though the eastern sky was lightening. as we passed within a hundred yards, i waved my hand, but the compliment was not returned. some of the crowd looked up at the caravan; all must have seen it, but averted their faces till we had passed. i was not, on the whole, sorry to leave gwarjak. but one european, colonel m---- of the indian service, had visited gwarjak for fifteen years prior to my visit. my road thither from noundra has never been traversed save by natives, and it was, perhaps, more by good luck than good management that we came through successfully. the inhabitants of gwarjak are a tribe known as the nushirvanis, who claim to be of persian descent. it was only at quetta that i learnt that my friend malak was only viceroy of this inhospitable district. the head-quarters and residence of the chief, one nimrood khan, is at kharán (a hundred and fifty miles north-west of gwarjak). nimrood, who was fortunately absent, detests europeans, and would probably have made matters even worse for us. intermixed freely with the wild and lawless tribes of the baluch-afghan frontier (from which kharán is but a few miles distant), it is scarcely to be wondered at that the nushirvanis are inimical to europeans, whom they are taught by their chiefs and afghan neighbours to look upon as natural enemies. although we had not as yet formed a very favourable idea of baluch hospitality, our reception at every village from here to the capital amply atoned for the rough and uncivil behaviour of the wild nushirvanis. we were now once more on the beaten track, for though the country south of gwarjak was, previous to our crossing it, unexplored, the journey from kelát to gajjar has frequently been made by europeans during the past few years. our reception by the natives of gajjar (only twenty miles from gwarjak) was a pleasant contrast to that given us at the latter place. camp was no sooner pitched than presents of eggs, milk, rice, and tobacco were brought in, and i was cordially welcomed by the chief of the village. gajjar is a ramshackle, tumble-down place of about three hundred inhabitants. on a small hillock to the right of the village stands the fort, a square building of solid masonry, which, however, is now roofless, and has only three walls standing. the garrison (of six men) were lodged in a flimsy tent pitched in the centre of the ruins. half the houses were constructed of dried mud; the remainder, as at gwarjak, of palm leaves. the village stands in a grove of date palms, and the swarms of flies were consequently almost unendurable. we encamped close to the village well, to which, during the afternoon, many of the female population came to draw water. two of them, bright, pleasant-featured girls of eighteen or twenty, were the best-looking specimens of the baluch woman that i met with throughout the journey. towards sunset the corpse of a young man was borne past my tent and interred in a little cemetery hard by. the burial rites of the baluchis are very similar to those of persia. when a death occurs, mourners are sent for, and food is prepared at the deceased's house for such friends as desire to be present at the reading of prayers for the dead, while "kairats," or charitable distributions of food, are made for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. a wife, on the decease of her husband, neglects washing, and is supposed to sit lamenting by herself for not less than fifteen days. long before this, however, her female friends come to her house and beg her to desist from weeping, bringing with them the powder of a plant called "larra." with this the widow washes her head, and then resumes her former life and occupations. if, however, by thoughtlessness or malice, her friends defer their visit, she must mourn for a much longer period alone. a curious baluch custom is that of digging a grave much deeper for a woman than a man. they argue that woman is by nature so restless she would not remain quiet, even in death, without a larger proportion of earth over her. [illustration: nomad baluch tent] in the matter of births and marriages the baluchis, being of the mohammedan religion, regulate their ceremonies mainly according to the korán. marriage is attended with great festivities. the first step is the "zang," or betrothal, which is regarded as of a very sacred nature, the final rite being known as "nikkar." on the wedding-day the bridegroom, gorgeously arrayed, and mounted on his best horse or camel, proceeds with his friends to a "ziarat," or shrine, there to implore a blessing, after which the "winnis," or marriage, is gone through by a moullah. on the birth of a child there is also much feasting. the fourth day after birth a name is given to the infant, and on the sixth an entertainment to friends. the following day the rite of circumcision ("kattam") is performed, though not always, this being sometimes postponed for a year or more. on this occasion (as at a death) large distributions of food are made to the poor. the country between gajjar and jebri, which was reached next day, is bare and sterile, notwithstanding that, at the latter place, water is seldom scarce, even in the dryest seasons. the plain, which consists of loose, drifting sand, with intervals of hard, stony ground, is called kandari. the cold here in the months of january and february is intense. we passed some curious cave-dwellings in the side of the caravan-track, in which the natives take refuge from the icy blasts that sweep across here in winter. they are formed by digging holes eight to ten feet deep. these are rudely thatched over with palm leaves, bits of stick, and plaited straw, thus forming a warm and comfortable shelter. the chief of jebri, one chabas khan, rode out to meet me, clad in a long gown of golden thread, which, flashing in the sun, was discernible a couple of miles off. jebri contains about four hundred inhabitants, and is a neatly built village, protected by a large mud fort, and a garrison of twenty baluchis armed with snider rifles. chabas, who was very proud of his village, informed me that his rule extended over a considerable extent of country, containing a population of over , . many of his subjects were natives of seistan, kharán, and shotrawák, all afghan border districts, and gave him at times no little trouble. the jebri fort had been attacked only a year previous to my visit, but chabas (who i afterwards heard at kelát is a renowned fire-eater) gave the rebels such a warm reception that there has been no outbreak since. my genial old host had himself given a good deal of trouble to the kelát government in his younger days, and told me with evident pride that he had led many a chupao in the good old days. the savage and predatory character of the baluchi was formerly well exemplified in these lawless incursions, when large tracts of country were pillaged and devastated and the most unheard-of cruelties practised. chupaos are now a thing of the past. pottinger, who traversed this country in the last century, and had more than one unpleasant _rencontre_ with these armed bands, thus describes one of these plundering expeditions-- "the depredators are usually mounted on camels, and furnished, according to the distance they have to go, with food, consisting of dates, goat's milk, and cheese. they also carry water in a small skin-bag, if requisite, which is often the case if the expedition is prolonged. when all is prepared the band sets off and marches incessantly till within a few miles of where the chupao is to commence, and then halts in some unfrequented spot to rest their camels. on the approach of night they mount again, and, as soon as the inhabitants of a village have retired to rest, begin their attack by burning, destroying, and carrying off whatever comes in their way. they never think of resting for one moment during the chupao, but ride on over the territory on which it is made at the rate of eighty or ninety miles a day, until they have loaded their camels with as much pillage as they can possibly remove; and as they are very expert in the management of their animals, each man on an average will have charge of ten or twelve. if practicable, they make a circuit which enables them to return by a different route. this affords a double prospect of plunder and also misleads those who pursue the robbers--a step generally taken, though with little effect, when a sufficient body of men can be collected for that purpose." "in these desperate undertakings the predatory robbers are not always successful, and when any of them chance to fall into the hands of exasperated villagers, they are mutilated and put mercilessly to death. the fact," concludes pottinger, "of these plundering expeditions being an institution in baluchistán must serve to show how slight is the power wielded by the paramount rulers, and what risks to the safety of both person and property must be run by those engaged in the business of trade in such a country." chabas visited me towards evening, accompanied by his son, a clever-looking, bright-eyed lad about fifteen years old. noticing that he wore a belt and buckle of the th regiment, i inquired where he had procured it, and was told that it had been purchased from a gwarjak man, who brought it down from kharán shortly after the fatal disaster to the regiment at maiwand. the kindly old chief now pressed my acceptance of a fine fat goat--a very acceptable gift, considering the impoverished condition of the camp larder. we then visited the fort and village, under his guidance. jebri and its neighbourhood are well cultivated. the system of agriculture practised in this part of baluchistán is simple, but effective, the fields being divided off by ridges of earth and raised embankments to an accurate level. they are then further subdivided longitudinally by ridges thrown up about seven or eight paces apart. this is done for purposes of irrigation. the soil is then ploughed and manured, the former operation being generally carried on by means of bullocks. tracts of land not irrigated by streams, but which are dependent on rain and the rivulets which come down from the hillsides after it, are called "kash-kawa," and are found scattered about the valleys here and there near the tent-encampments of the nomad tribes, who plough a piece of land, sow it, and return to gather in the crop when it is matured. the implements of husbandry in general use are a light wooden plough of primitive construction, consisting of a vertical piece bent forward at the bottom and tipped with an iron point, and a long horizontal beam, which passes forward between the pair of bullocks that draw it, and is fastened to the yoke. a harrow, consisting of a wooden board about six feet long by two wide, is also used, being dragged over the ploughed land attached to the yoke by iron chains. if found not sufficiently heavy, the driver stands upon it. a spade or shovel, exactly like its english counterpart, and a reaping-hook, or sickle, having its cutting edge furnished with minute teeth, complete the list of a baluchi's agricultural tools. jebri fort stands on a steep hillock about fifty feet in height. from here a good view was obtainable of the surrounding country. immediately below were pretty gardens or enclosed spaces, sown in the centre with maize, wheat, and tobacco, and surrounded by plum and pomegranate trees and date palms. there is a considerable trade in the latter between here and beïla, which perhaps accounted for the myriads of flies which here, as at gajjar, proved a source of great annoyance. in chabas's garden were roses and other flowers, some remarkably fine vines, and a number of mulberry trees. the grounds were well and neatly laid out with paths, grass plots, and artificial streams, upon which i complimented the old man; but he would talk of nothing but his fort, which was, indeed, the only structure worthy of the name met with between quetta and the sea. in the evening his son brought me a delicious dish of preserved apricots and cream, for which i presented him with three rupees, one of which he instantly returned. it is considered, by baluchis, extremely unlucky to give or accept an odd number of coins. [illustration: jebri] at jebri, for the first time, we suffered severely from cold at night, the thermometer dropping to ° fahr. just before sunrise. the climate of baluchistán presents extraordinary varieties, and is extremely trying to europeans. although at kelát the natives suffer considerably more from cold in winter than summer heats, the hot season in the low-lying valleys and on the coast, which lasts from april till october, may be almost said to be the most severe in the world. at kej, in mekram, the thermometer sometimes registers ° fahr. in the shade as early as april, while the heat in the same district during the "khurma-paz," or "date-ripening," is so intense that the natives themselves dare not venture abroad in the daytime. notwithstanding this, even the south of baluchistán has its cold season. near beïla, in the month of january, the temperature frequently falls as low as ° fahr. in the mornings, rising no higher than ° at any portion of the day. at kelát, on the other hand, which stands feet above sea-level, the extreme maximum heat as yet recorded during the months of july and august is only ° fahr., while the extreme minimum during the same months is as low as ° fahr. in winter the cold is intense. pottinger, the traveller, relates that on the th of february, , when at baghivana, five marches from kelát, his water-skins were frozen into masses of ice, and seven days afterwards, at kelát, he found the frost so intense that water froze instantly when thrown upon the ground. bellew, a more recent traveller, in the month of january found the temperature even lower, as when at rodinjo, thirteen miles south of kelát, the thermometer at a.m. stood at ° fahr., while the next night, at kelát, it fell to ° fahr. the weather was at the time clear, sharp, and cold, the ground frozen hard all day, while snow-wreaths lay in the shelter of the walls. a detailed account of the eight days' journey from gajjar to kelát would weary the reader. a description of one village will suffice for all, while the country between these two places is nothing but bare, stony desert, varied by occasional ranges of low rocky hills, and considerable tracts of cultivated land surrounding the villages of gidar, sohrab, and rodingo, at each of which we were well received by the natives. with the exception of a strike among our camel-drivers, which fortunately lasted only a few hours, and a dust-storm encountered a few miles from sohrab, nothing worthy of mention occurred to break the monotony of the voyage till, on the morning of the _ th of_ april, we sighted the flat-roofed houses, mud ramparts, and towering citadel of the capital of baluchistán. [footnote a: cossack whips.] chapter xi. kelÁt--quetta--bombay. we encamped in the suburbs of the city, about a couple of miles from the northern or mastung gate, and near the telegraph office, a small brick bungalow in charge of an english-speaking native. there is a single wire laid to quetta, a distance, roughly speaking, of ninety miles. a terrific hurricane, accompanied by thunder, vivid lightning, and dense clouds of black dust, sprang up about sunset the day of our arrival. both tents were instantly blown down, and in a few moments reduced to shapeless rags of torn canvas. so great was the force of the wind that it snapped the tent-poles short off, and, tearing them from the ropes, sent the tents flying over the plain as if they had been shreds of tissue paper. we managed, however, to find quarters in the telegraph office, and remained there till our departure, two days later, for quetta. during the storm the thermometer sank to ° fahr., although a few moments before it had marked °. kelát contains--with its suburbs, which are of considerable extent--about , inhabitants, and is picturesquely situated on the edge of a fertile plain thickly cultivated with wheat, barley, and tobacco. the city is built in terraces, on the sides and summit of a limestone cliff, about a hundred and fifty feet high. this is called the "shah mirdan," and is surrounded at the base of the hill by high mud ramparts, with bastions at intervals, loopholed for musketry. the "mir," [a] or palace of the khan, overhangs the town, and is made up of a confused mass of buildings, which, though imposing at a distance, i found on closer inspection to consist chiefly of mud, which in many places had crumbled away, leaving great gaping holes in the walls. the mir mounts a few primitive, muzzle-loading cannon, and the citadel is garrisoned by a thousand men, chiefly afghans, deserters from cábul, kandahár, and other parts of the ameer's dominions. they are a ragged, undisciplined lot. the khan himself has a wholesome dread of his soldiery, who break out at times, and commit great depredations among the villages surrounding the capital, robbing and murdering the peasants with impunity, for few dare resist them. the remainder of the troops, three thousand in number, are quartered in barracks, or rather mud hovels, at some distance from the palace. each man is supposed to receive three rupees a month and a lump sum of forty-eight rupees at the end of each year, but pay is uncertain and mutiny frequent. when not engaged on military duties the khan's baluch soldiers are put to agricultural work on his estates, while the afghans pass their time in pillaging and plundering their neighbours. as we entered kelát we passed a regiment at drill on a sandy plain outside the walls. with the exception of a conical fur cap, there is no attempt at uniform. the men, fine strapping fellows, are armed with rusty flint-locks. though there appeared to be no officers, european or otherwise, i was rather surprised to hear the word of command given in english, and to see this band of ragamuffins march off parade to the strains of "home, sweet home," played by a very fair fife-and-drum band. the morning following my arrival, i was startled by the apparition at my bedside of a swarthy, wild-looking afghan sowar--a messenger from the wazir, to say that his highness the khan wished to make my acquaintance, and would receive me, if convenient, at three o'clock that afternoon. it had not been my intention to solicit an interview, for, from all accounts, the khan is anything but friendly towards europeans, englishmen in particular. to refuse, however, was out of the question. the morning was therefore devoted to cleaning up, and getting out a decent suit of wearing-apparel; while my beïla escort, who evidently had uncomfortable forebodings as to the appearance of the beïla uniform in the streets of kelát, polished up arms and accoutrements till they shone like silver, and paid, i noticed, particular attention to the loading of their rifles and revolvers. about midday the wazir made his appearance to conduct me to the palace. he was a fat, paunchy old man, with beady black eyes and a shy, shifty expression, very unlike my cheery little friend at beïla. after the usual preliminary questions as to who i was, my age, business, etc., he anxiously inquired after the health of mr. gladstone, and somewhat astonished me by asking whether i was a liberal or conservative. "you have some beïla men with you, i see," said the khan's adviser, who spoke english perfectly. "don't let his highness see them." i could not, after such a speech, allow my faithful escort to enter the city without warning. but it had little effect. "let the dogs do what they like," was the reply. "we shall not let the sahib go alone." tea and cigarettes discussed, a start was made for the palace. the wazir, on a wiry, good looking bay horse, and attended by half a dozen mounted afghans, led the way, and i followed on a pony borrowed of the telegraph clerk. my costume was, if not becoming, at any rate original: high boots, flannel trousers, and shirt, an evening dress-coat, and astrakhan cap. gerôme's wardrobe being even less presentable, i deemed it prudent to leave him behind. the beïla men brought up the rear of the procession some distance from the afghans, who, to my anxiety, never ceased scoffing and jeering at them the whole way. every moment i expected to hear the crack of a pistol-shot, followed by a general _mêlée_. arrived at the mastung gate, we dismounted, and, leaving our horses in charge of the guard, slowly proceeded up the steep narrow streets to the citadel. the entrance to kelát is not imposing. there had been a good deal of rain, and the streets of the lower part of the town were perfect quagmires of mud nearly knee-deep. it was more like crawling into a dark passage than entering a city. many of the thoroughfares are entirely covered over with wooden beams plastered with mud, which entirely exclude light, and give them more the appearance of subterranean passages than streets. the upper part of the town is the cleanest, for the simple reason that all filth and sewage runs down open gutters cut in the centre of the steep alleys, until it reaches the level of the plain. there is no provision made for its escape. it is allowed to collect in great pools, which in long-continued wet weather often flood the houses and drive their wretched inhabitants into the open, to live as best they may, further up the hill. kelát is, for this reason only, very unhealthy. small-pox, typhoid, and typhus are never absent, though, curiously enough, cholera visitations are rare. the filthy habits of the inhabitants have, apparently, a good deal to do with the high death rate. i saw, while walking up the hill, a native fill a cup from an open drain and drink it off, although the smell was unbearable, the liquid of a dark-brown colour. a very common and--in the absence of medical treatment--fatal disease among the inhabitants of the suburbs (chiefly afghans) is stone in the bladder, the water here, though pure and clear in the suburbs, containing a large quantity of lime. the bazaar, through which we passed on our way to the mir, does not seem a very busy one. although not a public or religious holiday, many of the stalls were closed. kelát was once the great channel for merchandise from kandahár and cábul to india, but the caravan trade is now insignificant. there is in the season a considerable traffic in dates, but that is all, for the roads to persia and afghanistán are very unsafe. only a few weeks previous to my visit, a kelát merchant, proceeding with a large caravan to kermán, in persia, was robbed and murdered in the frontier district west of kharán. few now attempt the journey, most of the goods being sent to quetta, and thence by rail to various parts of india, by sea to persia. art and industry are, as well as trade, practically at a standstill in the khan's city, though a handsome embroidery, peculiar to kelát, is made by the women, and fetches high prices in india, while some of the natives are clever at brass work and ironmongery. noticing a russian samovar in one of the shops, i entered and inquired of the owner (through the wazir) how it had reached kelát. "from russia," was the reply, "_viâ_ meshéd, herat, and kandahár. there is a good caravan-road the whole way," added the baluchi, taking down a small brass shield from a peg in the wall. "this came from bokhára, _viâ_ cábul, only ten days, ago; but trade is not what it was." "would there be any difficulty in making that journey?" i asked. "for you--an englishman--yes," said the man, with a queer smile, and was continuing, when "the khan will be growing impatient," broke in the wazir, taking my hand and leading me hurriedly into the street. an afghan guard of honour was drawn up at the entrance of the palace, wearing the nearest approach to a uniform i had yet seen--dark-green tunics, light-blue trousers, and white turbans, clean, well fitting, and evidently kept for state occasions. each man carried a berdán rifle and cavalry sabre. it struck me as a curious coincidence that the former rifle is in general use throughout the russian army. leaving my escort with strict injunctions to keep their tempers, and under no circumstances to allow themselves to be drawn into a quarrel, i followed the wazir and his attendants into the mir. the entrance is through an underground passage about forty yards long by seven wide, ill-smelling and in total darkness. arrived at the end, we again emerged into daylight, and, ascending a flight of rickety wooden steps, found ourselves in the durbar-room--a spacious apartment, its walls decorated with green, gold, and crimson panels, alternating with large looking-glasses. costly rugs and carpets from persia and bokhára strewed the grimy floor of the chamber, which is about sixty feet long, and commands a splendid view of the city and fertile plains beyond. awaiting me upon the balcony was the khan, surrounded by his suite and another guard of afghans. a couple of dilapidated cane-bottomed chairs were then brought and set one on each side of the crimson velvet divan occupied by his highness. having made my bow, which was acknowledged by a curt nod, i was conducted to the seat on the right hand of the khan by azim khan, his son, who seated himself upon his father's left hand the wazir, suite, soldiers, and attendants then squatted round us in a semicircle, and the interview commenced. a long silence followed, broken only by the whish of the fly-brush as a white-clad baluchi whisked it lazily to and fro over the khan's head. the balcony on which we were received is poised at a dizzy height over the beehive-looking dwellings and narrow, tortuous streets of the brown city, which to-day were bathed in sunshine. the khan's residence is well chosen. the pestilent stenches of his capital cannot ascend to this height, only the sweet scent of hay and clover-fields, and the distant murmur of a large population, while a glorious panorama of emerald-green plain stretches away to a rocky, picturesque range of hills on the horizon. his highness mir khudadad, khan of kelát, is about sixty years old. he would be tall were it not for a decided stoop, which, together with a toothless lower jaw, gives him the appearance of being considerably more than his age. his complexion is very dark, even for a baluch, and he wears a rusty black beard and moustaches, presumably dyed, from the streaks of red and white that run through them, and long, coarse pepper-and-salt locks streaming far below his shoulders. his personal appearance gave me anything but a favourable impression. the khan has a scowling expression, keen, piercing black eyes, and a sharp hooked nose that reminded one forcibly of cruikshank's picture of fagin the jew in "oliver twist." the khan was dressed in a long, loose, white garment, with red silk embroidery of beautiful workmanship. a thin white cashmere shawl was thrown carelessly over his shoulders, and he wore a conical violet silk cap, trimmed with gold lace, and a pair of pointed green morocco slippers, turned up at the toes, and ornamented with the same material. a massive gold necklace, or collar, thickly studded with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, hung round his neck. the stones, some of them of great size, were set indiscriminately without any regard to pattern or design. mir khudadad wore no other jewels, with the exception of three small torquoise rings, all worn on the little finger of the left hand. he carried no arms, but held in his right hand a large and very dirty pocket-handkerchief of a bright yellow hue with large red spots, which somewhat detracted from his regal appearance. the khan is a great snuff-taker, and during the audience continually refreshed himself from the contents of a small gold box carried by his son. prince azim, who was dressed in a green silk jacket and loose magenta-coloured trousers, is a pleasant-mannered lad of about twenty. he is of much lighter complexion than his father and has a strong jewish cast of feature. a huge cabochon emerald of great value, suspended from the neck, was azim's sole ornament. [illustration: palace of the khan. kelÁt.] a conversation now commenced, carried on through the medium of the wazir and my interpreter. the khan has a fidgety, uneasy manner that must be intensely exasperating to his court. more than once during the audience, having asked a question with much apparent earnestness, he would suddenly break in, in the middle of a reply, and hum a tune, or start off on a totally different subject from the one under discussion. at other times he would repeat a question twice or thrice, and, his eyes fixed on vacancy, utterly ignore the answers of the wazir, who evidently stood in great awe of his eccentric sovereign. though the following colloquy may appear brief to the reader, it took nearly an hour to get through. "where do you come from, and what are you?" was the khan's first question. "from russia, your highness." "from russia!" returned the khan, quickly. "but you are english, are you not?" "certainly i am." "how strong is russia's army?" continued the khan, after an application to the gold snuff box, and a trumpet-blast on the yellow bandanna. "nominally about three millions." "and england?" "about two hundred thousand, not counting the reserves." "humph!" grunted the khan. "tell me, do the english imagine that abdur raman [b] is their friend?" "i believe so." "then tell them from me," cried the khan, excitedly, half rising from his seat, "tell queen victoria from me that it is not so. tell her to beware of abdur raman. he is her enemy." "is england afraid of russia?" continued the khan after a long pause. "no; the english fear no one." "will england reach kandahár before russia takes herat?" "i really cannot say," was my answer to this somewhat puzzling question. mir khudadad then turned away to converse with the wazir in a low tone. about ten minutes elapsed, during which a long confabulation was held, in which many of the suite, including the afghan soldiers, joined. prince azim meanwhile invited me to inspect his sword and pistols. the former, a splendid damascus blade, and hilt encrusted with jewels, i especially admired. had i known the use to which it had been put that morning, i should not, perhaps, have been so enthusiastic. again the khan addressed me. "do you know russia well?" "pretty well." "is it true that the russians do not allow mohammedans to worship in central asia?" "i believe that is untrue." "it is a lie?" "most certainly it is." "your own countrymen told me so." at this there was a roar of laughter, in which the khan joined. the durbar-room of kelát reminded me of an english court of justice. when the khan laughed his courtiers did, and _vice versâ_. after an interval of more snuff-taking and whispering, the khan drew forth and examined my watch. taking this for a polite hint that the interview had lasted long enough, i rose to go, but was at once thrust back into my chair by azim. "you are not to go," said the wazir. "the khan is much interested by you." "dhuleep singh is in russia, is he not?" then asked the khan. "yes." "what does russia pay him a year?" "i do not know." "more than england did?" "i do not know." "you english never do know anything," muttered the khan, impatiently; adding, "do you know the czar of russia?" "i have seen him." "is he a good man?" "i believe him to be so." "then why do his people try to kill him?" "some of them are socialists." "socialists!" repeated the khan, slowly. "what is that?" i then explained with some difficulty the meaning of the word. "humph!" was the rejoinder. then, with a whisk of the yellow bandanna: "i am glad i have none in kelát!" a mark of great favour was then shown me, the khan presenting me with his photograph, with the request that i would show it to "parliament" when i got home. i think he was under the impression that the latter is a human being. an incident that occurred but two years since is typical of the intelligence of the ruler of kelát and his court. it was at quetta, on the occasion of the presentation of mir khudadad to the viceroy of india. previous to a grand _déjeûner_ given in his honour, the khan and his suite were shown into a dressing-room for the purpose of washing their hands. on entering to announce that luncheon was ready, the aide-de-camp found that the distinguished guests had already commenced operations, and were greedily devouring the cakes of pears' soap that had been placed there for a somewhat different purpose. that none of the party felt any after ill effects speaks well for the purity of the wares of the mammoth advertiser--or the baluch digestion! the khan shook my hand cordially at parting, and again begged me not to forget his warnings anent the ameer of afghanistán, with whom he is apparently not on the best of terms. i found, with some relief, that my beïla men had made friends with the afghans, and, surrounded by an admiring crowd, were hobnobbing over a hissing samovar. one of the afghans handed me a glass of tea, which, not to offend him, i drank and found delicious. it had come from china _viâ_ siberia, samarcand, and cábul. "russki!" said the man with a grin, as i handed back the cup. the khan of kelát very rarely leaves his palace, and is seldom seen abroad in the streets of kelát except on fridays, when he goes to the mosque on foot, attended by an escort armed to the teeth. he is said to live in constant dread of assassination, for his cruel, rapacious character has made him universally detested in and around the capital. his one thought in life is money and the increase of his income, which, with the yearly sum allowed him by the british government, may be put down at considerably over £ , per annum. a thorough miser, the khan does not, like most eastern potentates, pass the hours of night surrounded by the beauties of the harem, but securely locked in with his money-bags in a small, comfortless room on the roof of his palace. [illustration: the khan of kelÁt] there is not the smallest doubt in my mind that russian influence is, indirectly, being brought to bear on the court of kelát. but mir khudadad may be said to have no policy. as the french say, "il change sa nationalité comme je change de chemise," and is to be bought by the highest bidder. although the khan's subjects are heavily taxed, there is no protection whatsoever of life or property in or around kelát. theft is, according to the penal code, punished by fine and imprisonment, murder and adultery by death; but the law is subject to great modifications. in a word, the khan is the law, and so long as a man can afford to pay or bribe him handsomely, he may commit the most heinous offences with impunity. two instances of the way in which justice is carried out happened just before i arrived at kelát. in the one, a young baluch woman was found by her husband, a soldier, under circumstances which admitted no doubt of her infidelity. upon discovery, which took place at night, the infuriated husband rushed off to the guard-house for his weapon. during his absence the woman urged her lover, who was well armed, to meet and slay him in the darkness. under pretence of so doing the gay lothario left his paramour, but, fearful of consequences, made off to quetta. on his return home the husband used no violence, simply handing his wife over to the guard to be dealt with according to law. brought before the khan the next day, she was lucky enough to find that monarch in a good temper. her beauty probably obtained the free pardon accorded her, and an order that her husband was also to condone her offence. the latter said not a word, took her quietly home in the evening, and cut her throat from ear to ear. the khan, on hearing of the murder next day, made no remonstrance, nor was the offender punished. he was an afghan. the second case is even more disgraceful. one of the khan's own suite, a well-known libertine and drunkard, contracted an alliance with a young girl of eighteen. he had endeavoured in vain to marry her younger sister, almost a child, and so beautiful that she was known for many miles round the city as the "pearl of kelát." six weeks after marriage this ruffian, in a fit of drunken frenzy caused by jealousy, almost decapitated his wife with a tulwar, and afterwards mutilated her body past recognition. the shrieks of the poor woman having summoned the neighbours, he was seized, bound, and led before the khan, who at once sentenced him to death. the execution was fixed for sunrise the following day. at midnight, however, a messenger appeared at the gates of the mir with a canvas bag containing two thousand rupees. "tell him he is free," said the ruler of kelát. "and if he sends in another thousand, i will _order_ the younger sister to marry him." the money was paid, and the poor child handed over to the tender mercies of the human devil who had so ruthlessly butchered her sister. i have mentioned that azim khan showed me a sword of beautiful workmanship. it had, the very morning of my visit to the palace, cut down and hacked to pieces a waiting-maid, not sixteen years old, in the khan's harem. i myself saw the corpse of the poor girl the same evening, as it was being carried outside the walls for interment. [c] this, then, is the state of things existing at kelát, not a hundred miles from the british outposts; this the enlightened sovereign who has been made "companion of the star of india," an order which, among his own people, he affects to look upon with the greatest contempt. the few women i saw at kelát were distinctly good looking, far more so than those further south. most of them have an italian type of face, olive complexion, and large dark eyes, with sweeping lashes. but very few wore the hideous nose-rings so common at beïla and sonmiani. morality is at a discount in the capital, and prostitution common. the wazir sent me a bag of dates the morning of my departure, with a short note, written in english, begging that i would send him in return the best gold watch and rifle "that could be bought for gold" in london. the note ended jocosely, "exchange is no robbery!" the old man seemed well _au fait_ with central asian affairs. on my mentioning the day before that i had intended entering india _viâ_ cábul, he at once said, "ah! i supposed alikhanoff stopped you. he is very shy of strangers." we left kelát at a.m. on the th of april. the camels and heavy baggage had been sent on four or five hours previously to mangachar, the first station. our caravan now consisted of only eight camels, which we found reduced to seven on arrival. just before daylight a couple of panthers had appeared close to the caravan and caused a regular stampede, the beasts flying right and left. on order being restored, two were found to be missing, one laden with the only small remaining tent and some native luggage, the other with a couple of cases of whisky (nearly empty) and my camp-stool. the former was traced and brought in after a search of over two hours, but the latter is still, for aught i know, careering over the boundless desert, an unconscious advertiser of "jameson and co." i afterwards heard that this plain is noted for panther and wolf, also an animal called the "peshkori," somewhat larger than a cat, with a reddish-coloured hide. it moves about the country in packs, carrying off deer and sheep. its method of descending precipices and steep hillsides is curious, each animal fixing its teeth in the tail of another, thus forming a kind of chain. the plain of mangachar is situated nearly feet above sea-level, and is well cultivated with wheat, lucerne, and tobacco. the village itself is neatly laid out, and contains about three hundred inhabitants. the different aspects of the country north and south of kelát are striking. we had now done with deserts for good, for at night lights were seen twinkling all over the plain, while in the daytime large tracts of well-cultivated land continually met the eye. between mangachar and mastung a hot wind arose, which made the eyes smart, and dried up the skin like a blast from a furnace. one's hair felt as it does in the hottest room of a turkish bath, with the unpleasant addition of being filled with fine gritty sand. "i hope this may not end in a juloh," said kamoo, anxiously. this, my interpreter proceeded to explain, is a hot poisonous wind peculiar to these districts, and perhaps the greatest danger run by travellers in baluchistán. the warm breeze, as kamoo called it, that we experienced was, though almost unbearable, not dangerous, while the dreaded juloh has slain its hundreds of victims. cook, the traveller, who has given this subject much attention, has come to the conclusion that it is caused by the generation in the atmosphere of a highly concentrated form of ozone, by some intensely marked electrical condition. as evidence of its effect in destroying every green thing on its course, and in being frequently fatal to human life, he cites the following well-authenticated cases, which, not having encountered the death-dealing blast myself, i place before the reader:-- ( ) in the year , during one of the hot months, certain officers of the sind horse were sleeping at night on the roof of general jacob's house at jacobabad. they were awakened by a sensation of suffocation and an exceedingly hot and oppressive feeling in the air, while at the same time a very powerful smell of sulphur was noticed. on the following morning a number of trees in the garden were found to be withered in a very remarkable manner. it looked as if a current of fire, about two yards in breadth, had passed through the garden in a perfectly straight line, singeing and destroying every green thing in its course. entering on one side, and passing out at the other, its tract was as clearly defined as the course of a river. ( ) at the close of a party of five men were crossing the desert of shikarpur, being on their way from kandahár to that city, when the blast crossed their path, killing three of them instantly and seriously disabling the other two. ( ) a "moonshi" with two companions was travelling about seven miles south-east of bagh, in kachi (not far distant from mangachar). about two o'clock the blast struck them. they were sensible of a scorching sensation in the air, accompanied by a peculiar sulphurous smell, but remembered nothing further, as all three were immediately struck to the ground. they were afterwards found and carried to bagh, where, every attention being afforded them, they ultimately, after many days of sickness, recovered. as regards the strength of the juloh, pottinger writes that, so searching is its nature, it has been known to kill camels and other hardy animals, and its effects on the human frame are said by eye-witnesses to be the most agonizing and repulsive imaginable. shortly after contact with the wind the muscles of the sufferer become rigid and contracted, the skin shrivels, a terrible sensation as if the skin were on fire pervades the whole frame, while, in the last stage, the skin cracks into deep gashes, producing haemorrhage, quickly followed by death. it is curious to note that the juloh is peculiar to the northern districts of sarawán and kach-gandáva, and does not exist in the southern provinces of baluchistán. the road from mangachar to mastung is good, though slightly undulating, and intersected by deep "nullahs." the estimated area of the mastung district is two hundred and eighty miles. it is aptly named "the garden of baluchistán," for considerably more than two-thirds of its area are under cultivation. water at mastung is never-failing, and the pretty town, nestling in a valley of vineyards and fruit-gardens, fig and olive trees, reminded one more of some secluded town in the pyrenees or south of france than a baluch settlement. the soil hereabouts is light and sandy and particularly favourable to the cultivation of grapes, of which there are no less than five kinds. apricots, peaches, plums, and pomegranates are also grown, and supply the markets of quetta and kelát. madder and tobacco are also exported in large quantities from mastung, which possesses a neatly built and busy bazaar. the plain of dasht-bi-dowlat, or "the unpropitious plain," lies between mastung and quetta. the name, however, only applies after the harvest has been gathered, for next to mastung this is one of the most fertile spots in baluchistán. dasht-bi-dowlat is mainly cultivated by wandering tribes. the inhabitants of mastung were enthusiastic in their description of the plain in summer. then, they told us, the surface is covered with verdure and flowers of all kinds, especially the "lala," or tulip, which they averred cover it for miles with a carpet of crimson and gold, and load the air with sweet intoxicating perfume. the cultivation of this plain is mostly dependent on rain and heavy dews. to the west of dasht-bi-dowlat is chehel-tan, a steep, rocky mountain, , feet high, in the ravines and valleys of which snow still lay deeply. only two europeans, masson the traveller, and sir henry green, have ever succeeded in reaching the summit, on which is a "zariat," or shrine. the ascent is difficult and dangerous, as, the mountain being said to be haunted, no native guides are procurable. the word "chehel-tan" signifies in baluch "forty bodies," and is derived from the following legend. a frugal pair, many years married, were unblest with offspring. they therefore sought the advice of a holy man, who rebuked the wife, saying that he had not the power to grant her what heaven had denied. the priest's son, however (also a moullah), felt convinced he could satisfy her wishes, and cast forty pebbles into her lap, at the same time praying that she might bear children. in process of time she was delivered of forty babes--rather more than she wished or knew how to provide for. the poor husband, at his wits' end, ascended to the summit of chehel-tan with thirty-nine, and left them there, trusting to the mercy of the deity to provide for them, while the fortieth babe was brought up under the paternal roof. one day, however, touched by remorse, the wife, unknown to her husband, explored the mountain with the object of collecting the bones of her children and burying them. to her surprise, they were all living and gambolling among the trees and rocks. wild with joy, she ran back to her dwelling, brought out the fortieth babe, and, placing it on the summit of the mountain, left it there for a night to allure back its brothers, but, on returning in the morning, she found that the latter had carried it off, and it was never seen again. it is by the spirits of these forty babes that chehel-tan is said to be haunted. at a.m. on the th of april we sighted, afar off, an oasis on the dead green plain, of long barrack-like buildings, garden-girt bungalows, and white tents. we had reached our journey's end. the church-bells were ringing as i rode into quetta, for it was sunday, and, unfortunately, a bright, fine morning. had it been otherwise, i might have been spared the ordeal of riding, on a very dirty and attenuated camel, past a crowd of well-dressed women and frock-coated men on their way to church. as we passed a neat victoria, glistening with varnish, and drawn by a pair of good-looking, high-stepping ponies, containing a general in full uniform and a pretty, smartly dressed lady, i cast a glance behind me. gerôme, who brought up the rear of the caravan, had (for coolness) divested himself of boots and socks, and, sublimely unconscious, was refreshing himself from the contents of a large wicker flask. one cannot, unfortunately, urge on a camel or quicken his pace at these awkward moments, and i passed a very uncomfortable quarter of an hour before reaching the dák bungalow. but a glance at a looking-glass reassured me. no one would ever have taken the brick-coloured, ragged-looking ruffians we had become for europeans. i accepted a kind and courteous invitation from mr. l----, of the indo-european telegraph, with pleasure, for the dák bungalow was dirty and comfortless. although my host and charming hostess would have made any place agreeable, quetta is, from everything but a strategical point of view, dull and uninteresting. it is an english garrison town, and all is said. the usual nucleus of scandal, surrounded by dances, theatricals, polo, flirtation, drink, and--divorce. are they not all alike from gibraltar to hong kong? under the guidance of my host, however, a pleasant trip was made to the khojak tunnel. when one considers the comparatively short time it has been in hand, it is almost incredible that, with so many difficulties (water, hard rock, etc.), this work should have progressed as it has. the tunnel, which runs due east and west, is, or will be, two miles and a half in length and three hundred and sixty-five feet in depth at the deepest part from the earth's surface. from the eastern end only sixty-five miles over a firm and level plain separates it from kandahár. even when i was there, [d] a light line could have been laid to that city in six weeks without difficulty. the plant, rails, and sleepers were on the spot, having been carried over the hill, and a railway-carriage could then run from calcutta to the eastern extremity of the tunnel without break of gauge. the tunnel, when completed, will be thirty-four feet broad, and twenty-five feet in height. a curious incident happened at one of the railway-stations between quetta and karachi. at the buffet of the one in question, i found gerôme conversing volubly in russian with a total stranger, a native. on inquiry i found he was a very old friend, a russian subject and native of samarcand. "he has just come through from cábul," said my companion. "he often does this journey"--ostensibly for purposes of trade. the th of april saw us in bombay. an italian steamer, the _venezia_, was leaving for the black sea direct, and in her i secured a passage for gerôme, who was not impressed with our eastern possessions. the crowd of curious natives who persistently followed him everywhere may have had something to do with it, for a fur-clad esquimaux in piccadilly would not have created a greater sensation than my companion in high boots, black velvet breeches, and red caftan in the busy streets of the great indian city. only a russian could have existed in that blazing sun with no other protection to the head than the astrachan bonnet, which he obstinately refused to discard. i saw him safely on board, and something very like a tear came into my trusty little friend's eyes, as we shook hands and parted, to meet, perhaps, never again. for a better companion no man could wish. plucky, honest as the day, and tender-hearted as a woman was gerôme realini; and it was with a feeling of loneliness and sincere regret that i watched the grey smoke of the _venezia_ sink below the blue waters, which were soon to bear me, also, back to england and european civilization. has the journey been worth it? has the result repaid one for the cold, dirt, and privation of persia, the torrid heat and long desert marches through baluchistán? perhaps not. there are some pleasant hours, however, to look back upon. kashán, a vision of golden domes and dim, picturesque caravanserais; ispahán, with its stately madrassa and blue zandarood, winding lazily through miles on miles of white and scarlet poppyland; shiráz, a dream of fair women, poetry, and roses, in its setting of emerald plain, sweet-scented gardens, and cypress trees. these, at any rate, are bright oases in that somewhat dreary ride from teherán to the sea. and then--nearing india--the quiet midday siesta after the hot dusty march; the _al fresco_ repast by the light of a glorious sunset, and the welcome rest and fragrant pipe in the cool night air of the silent, starlit desert. [footnote a: parts of this palace are of great antiquity, as it owes its foundation to the hindu kings who preceded the mohammedan dynasty.] [footnote b: the ameer of afghanistán.] [footnote c: i am not at liberty to give the name of my authority for these facts. the reader may rely on their authenticity.] [footnote d: april, . the boring of the tunnel is now accomplished.] appendix a. list of stations and distances from rÉsht to bushire, persia. english miles. résht --- koudoum----------- rustemabad------- menjil--------------- patchinar----------- kharzán------------- kazvin--------------- kavarek------------- kishlak------------- yengi-imàm------- hessarek---------- shahabad---------- _teherán_---------- rabat kerim------- pitché----------- kushku baïra------ mahometabad------ _koom_--------------- pasingán------------- sin-sin--------------- _kashán_------------ khurood------------ bideshk-------------- murchakhar-------- _géz_----------------- _ispahán_------------ djulfa----------------- carried forward------------------ brought forward----------------- marg------------------ mayar----------------- koomisháh---------- magsogh-beg------- yezdi-ghazt--------- shoulgistán--------- abadéh--------------- sourmah------------- khina-khoreh------ deybid--------------- mourghab------------ kawamabad---------- sivánd-------------- poozeh-------------- zergoon------------ shiráz-------------- chinar-ráda----- khaneh zinián--- dashti arjin------- meyun kotal------ kazeroon---------- kamarij------------ konar takta------ dalaki-------------- borazjun------- sheif-------------- ----------- from sheif to bushire by sea total english miles appendix b. route--sonmiani to quetta. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- halting-place. english remarks. miles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- sonmiani.... | | small sea-port town. water abundant, but brackish. fodder and supplies procurable. shekh-raj.... | | road fairly good. water sweet and plentiful. outhal...... | | road stony and undulating; crossed dry bed of river purali. well of brackish water. shekron-ka-got | | road sandy. passed several salt marshes. no water. beïla....... | | road good through rich alluvial land irrigated by river purali. road near to beïla intersected by deep nullahs distressing to camels. water plentiful; supplies procurable. lakh........ | | road good and level till pass of lakh, which is steep and extremely difficult. water usually procurable, though very brackish. forage for horse and camel a mile distant. natchi...... | | road stony and difficult, through country irrigated (in wet season) by river lakh. a small grazing ground midway, frequented by nomads. water uncertain. forage (for camel only) plentiful. lar-anderi ... | | road along dry river bed about three hundred yards wide (name unknown), for about five miles. then over plain of arrah, sparsely cultivated. at end of stage crossed river lar-anderi, a broad but shallow stream about sixty yards wide, seldom dry. good water from river, but brackish from wells, of which there are three. forage for horse and camel. jhow........ | | crossed jhow and seridab rivers, both dry. no cultivation to be seen. water plentiful and sweet. forage for horse and camel. noundra..... | | u { no road. travelling { fairly easy. n { water brackish. kanéro...... |about| e {road rough and | | { in parts with scrub. x { stony, overgrown { a very narrow track p { extends from { noundra to kanéro, l { which we followed. { no water or forage. dhaïra...... |about| o { no road, but struck | | { several narrow r { paths leading in { all directions. e { water plentiful and { good. forage for d { horse and camel. gwarjak..... |about| {road level and | | { good. water { abundant, also { forage for horse { and camel, but { natives unfriendly. gajjar...... | | road good, through cultivated country. water good and plentiful. forage for horse and camel procurable, also supplies. jebri....... | | road good, though deep and marshy in places. water good and plentiful, also horse and camel forage. greshak..... | | road leads over the barida pass. gradual and easy ascent and descent. water good and plentiful. forage for camel only. loch........ | | road very narrow and much overgrown (lost in places) with scrub. water scarce. forage scarce for camel, none for horse. gidar........ | | good and level road. water procurable from river only. forage for camel only. sohrab | | road difficult. passed several steep, but not lofty, ranges of hills. water plentiful, but brackish. no forage for horse or camel. rodingo | | road level and easy. much camelthorn, wild thyme, and (english) furze on either side of track. water good, but scarce. no forage for horse or camel. kelát.... | | road well defined, and level. water good and abundant. forage for horse and camel. supplies of all kinds procurable. mangachar | | road well defined and level. leads through a fertile country. water good. forage for horse and camel, and supplies procurable. mastung | | road level and good, but intersected by deep nullahs, rendering it difficult for heavily laden camels. water good and plentiful. forage for horse and camel, and supplies procurable. quetta..... | | road excellent, and in parts macadamized. a garrison town, and railway to all parts of india. total english miles | | appendix c. table of languages of north and south baluchistÁn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ makrán (south). kalati (north). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ant mor khar ashes p[=u]r hiss barley o s[=a]r boy bachak m[=a]r cold sara yakt copper rod miss day roch d[=e]h dog kuchak kuchik earth duniah daghar fire ach kh[=a]ka flower p[=u]l p[=u]l gold tila kisun heavy giran kolui to eat warága kuning to kill kushàja kasfing to bring aràga atning to see guidàga khanning appendix d temperature (fahrenheit) between sonmiani and quetta, baluchistÁn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- remarks mid day ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shade | sun ---------------------------------------------------------------------- march sonmiani. fine, north west breeze ° ° sonmiani. fine, no breeze ° ° sonmiani. fine, no breeze ° ° sonmiani. fine, strong north-east breeze ° ° shekh-raj. fine, light north-east breeze ° ° outhal. fine, light north-west breeze ° ° shekron-ka-got fine, south west breeze ° ° beïla rain and thunder, light south breeze ° ° beïla rain, no wind ° ° lakh fine, west wind ° ° natchi fine, light south-east breeze ° ° lar-anden dull, no breeze ° ° jhow. fine, hot wind (north east) ° ° noundra fine, hot south-west wind ° ° kanéro fine, south west breeze ° ° dhaïra fine, light north breeze ° ° april gwarjak. fine, light south-east breeze ° ° gajjar. fine, south wind ° ° jebri. fine, strong north west wind ° ° greshak fine, strong north-west wind ° ° loch. fine, strong north wind ° ° gidar. fine, light south-east breeze ° ° april sohrab. fine; light west breeze. ° ° dám. rain; south-west wind ° ° kelát. rain and dust storm ° ° kelát. fine; west wind ° ° kelát. fine; no breeze. ° ° mangachar. fine; no breeze ° ° mastung. fine; hot wind. ° ° quetta. dull; no breeze ° ° quetta. fine; no breeze ° ° quetta. fine; south-west breeze ° ° quetta. fine; no breeze ° ° sukkur, sind. a hot wind blowing ° ° -------------------------------------------------------------------- appendix e. genealogy of the khans of kelÁt. kambar khan. | sambar. | mahammad khan. | abdulla khan. | ------------------------------------------------ | | | mobat khan, eltarz khan, nazir khan, originally reigned some slain a hostage at kandahár; time at kelát; accidentally superseded his brother, superseded by by his brother, mobat khan, and his brother, nazir khan. reigned forty years. nazir khan, | and died a | hostage at | kandahár. | | | | ------------------------------------ | | | | haji khan, mahmud mohamed mustapha khan, died a khan, rehim khan, slain by his hostage at reigned slain by sister brother, mohamed kandahár. at kelát. of mustapha rehim khan | khan. | baram khan, | died at kelát | | | |------------------- ahmad yar | | | khan, mehrab khan, azem khan. slain by slain by the | mehrab british troops. sarafrez khan, khan. slain by | mehrab khan. ------------------------------------ | | hassan khan khudadad khan, (poisoned). present ruler. [illustration] [illustration: plain of oroomiah, from the seminary at seir.] woman and her saviour in persia. by a returned missionary. with fine illustrations, and a map of nestorian country. preface. our saviour bade his disciples gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost; and many who have known of miss fiske's fifteen years of labor for woman in persia, have desired her to prepare for publication the facts now presented to the reader. the writer was one of these; and it was only when he found that she could not do it, that he attempted it, in accordance with her wishes, simply that these interesting records of divine grace might not be lost. the materials have been drawn from the letters and conversations of those familiar with the scenes described, and especially from miss fiske. in all cases, the language of others has been condensed, as much as is consistent, with the truthful expression of their ideas; and, in the translation of the letters of nestorians, it has not been deemed essential to follow slavishly every syriac idiom, for, instead of these letters owing their interest, as some have supposed, to their translators, they may have sometimes rather suffered from renderings needlessly idiomatic. it was at one time proposed to embrace the history of both the male and female seminaries, but the proposition came too late, and the memoir of the lamented stoddard gives so full an account of the former, that now we need to hear only the story of its less known companion; but let the reader bear in mind that as much might have been said of the one as of the other, had the design been to give an account of both. a strict adherence to the order of events in the following pages would have produced a series of disjointed annals. to avoid such a breaking up of the narrative, each subject has been treated in full whenever introduced, though that has involved a freedom somewhat independent of chronological order. the notices of the revivals are mere incidental sketches. their complete history remains to be written. the beautiful illustrations introduced are all new, copied from sketches taken on the spot by the skillful pencil of a dear missionary brother, whose modesty, though it will not consent to the mention of his name, yet cannot prevent a grateful sense of his kindness. the map is an improvement on others previously published, and, besides adding to our geographical knowledge, will be found valuable to the friends of missions. if the readers of these pages enjoy but a small part of the delight found in their preparation, the writer will not regret his undertaking. may the day be hastened when heaven shall repeat the hosannas of a regenerated world, even as now the abundant grace bestowed upon the nestorians redounds, through the thanksgiving of many, to the glory of god. contents. chapter i. woman without the gospel. political condition.--nestorian houses.--vermin.--sickness.--position and estimation of woman.--no readers among them.--unlovely spirit.--sins of the tongue.--profanity.--lying.--stealing.--story about pins.--impurity.--moslem interference with seminary. chapter ii. marbeeshoo. visit there.--native accommodations.--hospitality of senum.--mohammedan women. chapter iii. the scene of the narrative. nestorians.--their country.--frontispiece.--lake.--plain.--fording the shaher.--mission premises in orogmiah. chapter iv. missionary education. object.--means.--study of bible.--pupils kept in sympathy with the people.--people stimulated to exertion and self-dependence.--tahiti.--madagascar. chapter v. beginnings. mrs. grant.--early life and labors.--great influence.--her school.--her pupils.--boarding school.--getting pupils.--care op them.--poverty of people.--paying for food of scholars.--position of unmarried missionary ladies.--books. chapter vi. the seminary. mar yohanan.--standard of scholarship.--english books read in syriac.--expense.--feelings of parents.--domestic department.--daily reports.--picture of a week day and sabbath.--"if you love me, lean hard."--esli's journal.--letter from pupils to mount holyoke seminary--from the same to mrs. c.t. mills. chapter vii. vacation scenes. in gawar and ishtazin.--villages of memikan.--ooreya, darawe, and sanawar.--in gavalan.--accommodations.--sabbath school. chapter viii. early labors for women. first meetings with them.--first convert.--first lessons.--wild women of ardishai. chapter ix. fruits of labor in nestorian homes. usefulness among relatives of pupils.--deacon guwergis.--reformed drunkard and his daughter.--maternal meetings.--early inquities from geog tapa.--parting address of mr. holladay.--.visit to geog tapa.--selby and her closet. chapter x. geog tapa. deacon murad khan in .--pentecostal sabbath in .--meetings in and .--extracts from journal of yonan in . chapter xi. revival in . preparatory work.--sanctified afflictions.--name for revival.--scenes in the seminaries in january.--deacon john, sanum, and sarah.--mr. stoddard.--yacob.--yonan.--meeting in the bethel.--priest eshoo.--deacon tamo.--physical excitement and its cure.--artless simplicity of converts.--missionary box.--meetings before vacation.--mr. stoddard's labors.--female prayer meeting.--revival in the autumn. chapter xii. first fruits. sarah, daughter of priest eshoo.--martha.--hannah. chapter xiii. subsequent revivals. deacon john studying backsliding in .--work in village of seir.--wives of siyad and yonan.--khanumjan.--women at the seminary.--geog tapa.--degala.--a penitent.--sin of anger,--revival in .--miss fiske encouraged,--stillness and deep feeling.--unable to sing.--conversion of missionary children.--visit of english ambassador.--revival of .--letter of sanum. chapter xiv. dark days. seminary broken up in .--deacon isaac.--persecution by mar shimon.--funeral of daughter of priest eshoo.--deacon guwergis.--attempt at abduction of pupil.--peril of school.--mrs. harriet stoddard.--yahya khan.--anarchy.--letter from barilo. chapter xv. trials. evil influence of homes.--opposition in degala.--asker khan.--poisoning of sanum's children.--redress refused.--inquisitor in school.--troubles at khosrawa.--letters from hoimar. chapter xvi. prayerfulness. language op prayer.--prayer on horseback.--old man in supergan.--mar ogen.--earnestness.--farewell prayer meeting in .--letter from pupil.--spirit of prayer in .--woman who could not pray,--"christ become beautiful."--closet in the manger.--monthly concerts.--prayerfulness in and .--sabbath, january th.--interest continued till close of term.--family meetings.--audible prayer.-answer to mothers' prayers.--connection of revivals with prayer at home. chapter xvii. forerunners. mountain girls in seminary.--praying sarah.--return to the mountains.--visit of yonan and khamis, in .--of mr. coan, .--of yonan, again, .--sarah's letters. chapter xviii. laborers in the mountains. letter of badal.--account op hannah.--the pit.--letter of guly and yohanan.--account of sarah.--letters of oshana.--letters and journal of sarah,--letters from amadia,--conference of native helpers. chapter xix. ebenezers. examination in .--collation and address.--valedictory by sanum.--sabbath school in geog tapa.--examination there in .--prayer meeting and communion at orogmiah, may, .--selby, of gavalan, and letter.--letter from hatoon, of geog tapa. chapter xx. compositions. the field of clover.--the lost soul.--the saved soul.--hannah. chapter xxi. kind offices. hospitality of nestorians.--kindness of pupils.--bathing feet.--letters of gozel, hanee, sanum of gawar, munny, raheel, and marta.--hoshebo.--raheel to mrs. fiske.--mourning for the dead.--nazloo.--hoshebo's bereavement.--death of missionary children.--letter from sarah, daughter of joseph. chapter xxii. progress and promise. benevolence, early manifestation of.--progress.--revival of benevolence in april, .--interest of parents for the conversion of their childeren.--peace in families.--reformed marriages.--ordinations.--communion seasons.--miss rice and miss beach.--conclusion. * * * * * _list of illustrations._ i. plain and lake of oroomiah, as seen from roof of seminary at seir ii. map of the nestorian country. iii. female seminary. iv. tents. v. missionary scene in turgawer. vi. court yard of seminary. vii. seir gate, oroomiah. viii. tiary girl. woman and her saviour. chapter i. woman without the gospel. political condition.--nestorian houses.--vermin.--sickness.--position and estimation of woman.--no readers among them.--unlovely spirit.--sins of the tongue.--profanity.--lying.--stealing.--story about pins.--impurity.--moslem interference with seminary. we love to wander over a well-kept estate. its green meadows and fruitful fields delight the eye. its ripening harvests make us feel as if we too were wealthy. but while the view of what lies before us is so pleasant, our joy is greater if we can remember when it was all a wilderness, and contrast its present beauty with the roughness of its former state. so, in viewing the wonders of divine grace, we need to see its results in connection with what has been. we can appreciate the loveliness of the child of god only as we compare him with the child of wrath he was before. paul not only recounts the great things which god had done for the early disciples, but bids them remember that they were once without christ; and before he tells them that god had made them "sit together in heavenly places in christ jesus," he reminds them that they had "walked according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." in seeking, then, to set forth the great things which god has done for woman in persia, let us first look on her as his gospel found her, that we may better appreciate the grace which wrought the change. we can understand the condition of woman in that empire only as we bear in mind that its government is despotic, and that no constitutional safeguards shield the subjects of a thoroughly selfish and profligate nobility. the nestorians, too, are marked out alike by religion and nationality as victims of oppression. however great their wrongs, they can hope for little redress, for a distant court shares in the plunder taken from them, and believes its own officials rather than the despised rayahs, whom they oppress. even when foreign intervention procures some edict in their favor, these same officials, in distant oroomiah, are at no loss to evade its demands. the nestorian is not allowed a place in the bazaar;[ ] he cannot engage in commerce. and in the mechanic arts, he cannot aspire higher than the position of a mason or carpenter; which, of course, is not to be compared to the standing of the same trades among us. when our missionaries went to oroomiah, a decent garment on a nestorian was safe only as it had an outer covering of rags to hide it. [footnote : the bazaar is, literally, the market, but denotes the business part of a city.] in their language, as in arabic, the missionaries found no word for _home;_ and there was no need of it, for the thing itself was wanting. the house consisted of one large room and was generally occupied by several generations. in that one room all the work of the family was performed. there they ate, and there they slept. the beds consisted of three articles--a thick comfortable filled with wool or cotton beneath, a pillow, and one heavy quilt for covering. on rising, they "took up their beds," and piled them on a wooden frame, and spread them down again at night. the room was lighted by an opening in the roof, which also served for a chimney; though, of course, in a very imperfect manner, as the inside of every dwelling that has stood for any length of time bears witness. the upper part of the walls and the under surface of the roof--we can hardly call it ceiling--fairly glitter, as though they had been painted black and varnished, and every article of clothing, book, or household utensil, is saturated with the smell of creosote. the floor, like the walls, is of earth, covered in part with coarse straw mats and pieces of carpeting; and the flat roof, of the same material, rests on a layer of sticks, supported by large beams; the mass above, however, often sifts through, and sometimes during a heavy rain assumes the form of a shower of mud. bad as all this may seem, the houses are still worse in the mountain districts, such as gawar. there they are half under ground, made of cobble stones laid up against the slanting sides of the excavation, and covered by a conical roof with a hole in the centre. they contain, besides the family, all the implements of husbandry, the cattle, and the flocks. these last occupy "the sides of the house" ( sam. xxiv. ), and stand facing the "decana," or raised place in the centre, which is devoted to the family. as wood is scarce in the mountains, and the climate severe, the animal heat of the cattle is a substitute for fuel, except as sun-baked cakes of manure are used once a day for cooking, as is the practice also on the plain. in such houses the buffaloes sometimes break loose and fight furiously, and instances are not rare when they knock down the posts on which the roof rests, and thus bury all in one common ruin. the influence of such family arrangements, even in the more favored villages of the plain, on manners and morality, need not be told. it is equally evident that in such circumstances personal tidiness is impossible, though few in our favored land have any idea of the extent of such untidiness. if the truth must be told, vermin abound in most of these houses; the inmates are covered not only with fleas, but from head to foot they are infested with the third plague of egypt. (ex. viii. - ). this last is a constant annoyance in many parts of turkey as well as persia. if one lodges in the native houses, there is no refuge from them, and only an entire change of clothing affords relief when he returns to his own home; even there the divans have to be sedulously examined after the departure of visitors, that the plague do not spread. the writer has known daughters of new england, ready for almost any self-denial, burst into tears when first brought into contact with this. at first, the teachers of the female seminary in oroomiah had to cleanse their pupils very thoroughly, and were glad thus to purify the outside, while beseeching christ to cleanse the heart. each one, on her first arrival, had to be separately cared for, lest the enemy should recover ground from which he had already been driven with much labor. missionary publications do not usually tell of such trials, but those who drew the lambs from the deep pit, loved them all the more tenderly for having gone down into it themselves, that thence they might bring them to jesus. such trials are less common now, for it is generally understood that a degree of personal cleanliness is an indispensable requisite for admission to the seminary; but such a demand, at that time, would have rendered the commencement of the school impossible. the pupils became much improved in personal appearance, and some of their simple-hearted mothers really thought their children had grown very pretty under their teachers' care. so, as many of them were strangers to the cleansing properties of water, they would ask again and again, "how do you make them so white?" but if such houses were comfortless abodes for those in health, what were they for the sick? think of one in a burning fever, perhaps delirious, lying in such a crowd. in winter, there they must remain, for there is no other place, and in summer, they are often laid under a tree in the day time, and carried up to the flat roof, with the rest of the family, at night. dr. perkins, in the early part of his missionary life, tells us that in a village the family room was given up to him for the night, and in the morning he found a little son had been born in the stable. he supposed that he had been the unwitting cause of such an event occurring there; but longer acquaintance with the people shows that woman almost invariably resorts to that place in her hour of sorrow, and there she often dies. the number who meet death in this form is very large. in persia, as in other unevangelized countries, women spend their days in out-door labor. they weed the cotton, and assist in pruning the vines and gathering the grapes. they go forth in the morning, bearing not only their implements of husbandry, but also their babes in the cradle; and returning in the evening, they prepare their husband's supper, and set it before him, but never think of eating themselves till after he is done. one of the early objections the nestorians made to the female seminary was, that it would disqualify their daughters for their accustomed toil. in after years, woman might be seen carrying her spelling-book to the field, along with her persian hoe, little dreaming that she was thus taking the first step towards the substitution of the new implement for the old. nestorian parents used to consider the birth of a daughter a great calamity. when asked the number of their children, they would count up their sons, and make no mention of their daughters. the birth of a son was an occasion for great joy and giving of gifts. neighbors hastened to congratulate the happy father, but days might elapse before the neighborhood knew of the birth of a daughter. it was deemed highly improper to inquire after the health of a wife, and the nearest approach to it was to ask after the welfare of the house or household. formerly, a man never called his wife by name, but in speaking of her would say, "the mother of so and so," giving the name of her child; or, "the daughter of so and so," giving the name of her father; or, simply "that woman" did this or that. nor did the wife presume to call her husband's name, or to address him in the presence of his parents, who, it will be borne in mind, lived in the same apartment. they were married very young, often at the age of fourteen, and without any consultation of their own preference, either as to time or person. there was hardly a man among the nestorians who did not beat his wife. the women expected to be beaten, and took it as a matter of course. as the wife lived with the husband's father, it was not uncommon for him to beat both son and daughter-in-law. when the men wished to talk together of any thing important, they usually sent the women out of doors or to the stable, as unable to understand, or unfit to be trusted. in some cases, this might be a necessary precaution; for the absence of true affection; and the frequency of domestic broils, rendered the wife an unsafe depositary of any important family affair. the same causes often led the wife to appropriate to her own foolish gratification any money of her husband she could lay hands on, regardless of family necessities. women whose tastes led them to load themselves with beads, silver, baser metal, and rude trinkets, would not be likely to expend money very judiciously. in , the only nestorian woman that knew how to read was heleneh, the sister of mar shimon; and when others were asked if they would not like to learn, with a significant shrug they would reply, "i am a woman." they had themselves no more desire to learn than the men had to have them taught. indeed, the very idea of a woman reading was regarded as an infringement of female modesty and propriety. it is a little curious, and shows how we adapt ourselves to our situation, that the women were as unwilling to receive attention from their husbands as they were to render it. several years after the arrival of miss fiske in oroomiah, the wife of one of her assistants visited the seminary, and on leaving to return to her village, the teacher, in the kindness of her heart, proposed to the husband to go and assist her to carry the child. she seemed as if she had been insulted in being thought unable to carry it, and sent her husband back from the door in any thing but a gracious mood, leaving the good teacher half bewildered and half amused at this reception of her intended kindness. indeed, until some of them were converted, all that was lovely and of good report in woman was entirely wanting. they were trodden down, but at the same time exceedingly defiant and imperious. if they were not the "head," it was not because they did not "strive for the mastery." they seemed to have no idea of self-control; their bursts of passion were awful. the number of women who reverenced their husbands was as small as the list of husbands who did not beat their wives. says miss fiske, in writing to a friend, "i felt pity for my poor sisters before going among them, but anguish when, from actual contact with them, i realized how very low they were. i did not want to leave them, but i did ask, can the image of christ ever be reflected from such hearts? they would come and tell me their troubles, and fall down at my feet, begging me to deliver them from their husbands. they would say, 'you are sent by our holy mother, mary, to help us;' and do not think me hard-hearted when i tell you that i often said to them, 'loose your hold of my feet; i did not come to deliver you from your husbands, but to show you how to be so good that you can be happy with them.' weeping, they would say, 'have mercy on us; if not, we must kill ourselves.' i had no fear of their doing that, so i would seat them at my side, and tell them of my own dear father,--how good he was; but he was always _obeyed_. they would say, 'we could obey a good man.' 'but i am very sure you would not have been willing to obey my father.' "it is one thing to pray for our degraded sisters while in america, but quite another to raise them from their low estate. when i saw their true character, i found that i needed a purer, holier love for them than i had ever possessed. it was good for me to see that _i_ could do nothing, and it was comforting to think that jesus had talked with just such females as composed the mass around me, and that afterwards many believed because of one such woman." sometimes the revilings of the women were almost equalled by similar talk among the men, as in a village of gawar, where they said, "we would not receive a priest or deacon here who could not swear well, and lie too." in the same village, a young man spoke favorably of mr. coan's preaching in jeloo. instantly a woman called out, "and have you heard those deceivers preach?" "yes," was the reply, "both last year and this, and hope i shall again." hearing this, her eyes flashed, and drawing her brawny arms into the form of a dagger, with a vengeful thrust of her imaginary weapon, she cried, "the blood of thy father smite thee, thou satan!" and dreadful was the volley of oaths and curses that followed. yet she was only a fair specimen of the village. we of the calmer west do not know what it is to have a mob of such women come forth in their wrath. in one town was a virago, who often, single-handed, faced down and drove off moslem tax-gatherers when the men fled in terror. no one who has ever heard the stinging shrillness of their tongues, or looked on their frenzied gestures, can ever forget them, or wonder why the ancients painted the furies in the form of women. words cannot portray the excitement of such a scene. the hair of the frantic actors is streaming in the wind; stones and clods seem only embodiments of the unearthly yells and shrieks that fill the air; and yet it was such beings that grace made to be "last at the cross and first at the sepulchre." the east is notorious for profanity, and among the nestorians women were as profane as men. the pupils in the seminary at first used to swear, and use the vilest language on the slightest provocation. poor, blind martha, on her death bed, in her own father's house, was constantly cursed and reviled. she was obliged sometimes to cover her head with the quilt, and stop her ears, to secure an opportunity to pray for her profane and abusive brother; and though, in such circumstances, she died before her prayers were answered, yet they were heard, for he afterwards learned to serve his sister's god. "do you think people will believe me," said a pupil to her teacher, who was reproving her for profanity, "if i do not repeat the name of god very often?" lying was almost as common as profanity, and stealing quite as prevalent as either. it was a frequent remark, "we all lie here; do you think we could succeed in business without it?" in the early days of the seminary, nothing was safe except under lock and key. sometimes there seemed to be a dawn of improvement, and next, all the buttons would be missing from the week's washing, and the teacher was pretty sure to find that her own pupils were the thieves. miss rice tells of one, amply supplied with every thing by her parents, yet noted for her thefts. indeed, sons and daughters were alike trained to such practices. in , miss fiske could not keep a pin in her pin-cushion; little fingers took them as often as she turned away, and lest she should tempt them to lie, she avoided questioning them, unless her own eye had seen the theft. no wonder she wrote, "i feel very weak, and were it not that christ has loved these souls, i should be discouraged; but he has loved them, and he loves them still." if the pins were found with the pupils, the answer was ready--"we found them," or, "you gave them to us;" and nothing could be proved. but one summer evening, just before the pupils were to pass through her room to their beds on the flat roof, knowing that none of that color could be obtained elsewhere, the teacher put six black pins in her cushion, and stepped out till they had passed. as soon as they were gone, she found the pins gone too, and at once called them back. she told them of her loss, but none knew any thing about it. she showed them that no one else had been there, and therefore they must know. six pairs of little hands were lifted up, as they said, "god knows we have not got them;" but this only called forth the reply, "i think that god knows you have got them," and she searched each one carefully, without finding them. she then proposed to kneel down where they stood, and ask god to show where they were, adding, "he may not see it best to show me now, but he will do it some time." she laid the matter before the lord, and, just as they rose from their knees, remembered that she had not examined their cloth caps. she now proposed to examine them, and one pair of hands went right up to her cap. of course she was searched first, and there were the six pins, so nicely concealed in its folds that nothing was visible but their heads. this incident did much good. the pupils looked on the discovery as an answer to prayer, and so did their teacher. they began to be afraid to steal when god so exposed their thefts, and she was thankful for an answer so immediate. the offender is now a pious, useful woman. yet some were so accustomed to falsehood, that, even after conversion, it cost a struggle to be entirely truthful, and missionaries could see, as christians in our own land cannot see, why an apostle should write to the regenerate, "lie not one to another." the teacher labored to impress her charge with the sinfulness of such conduct, but in the revival of , they seemed to learn more in one hour than she had taught them in the two years preceding. yet that faithful instruction was not lost. it was the fuel which the spirit of god kindled into a flame. the sower has not labored in vain because the seed lies for days buried in the soil. in that revival, the awakened hastened to restore what they had stolen. one came to miss fiske in great distress, saying, "do you remember the day, two years ago, when sawdee's new shoes were taken from the door?"--they leave off their shoes on entering a house.--"yes, i recollect it." "you thought a moslem woman stole them, but"--and here her feelings overcame her--"i took them, for i was angry with her, and threw them into a well. what shall i do? i know christ will not receive me till i have confessed it to her. can i go and confess it to-night, and pray with her, and then may i go and work for money to replace them?" she paid for the shoes, and became a bright light in her dark home. there were many such cases, and from that time the teachers had little trouble from theft. new pupils would sometimes steal, but the older ones were ready to detect them, and show them a more excellent way. miss fiske says of this, "the frequent visits of the holy spirit have removed an evil which mocked my efforts. god made me feel my utter helplessness, and then he did the work." that same term there was but one case of theft in the male seminary, though formerly it was not infrequent there. in reference to transgressions of the seventh commandment, much detail is not expedient. it is sufficient to say, that the first impressions of earlier missionaries respecting the purity of nestorian women were not sustained by subsequent acquaintance. the farther they went beneath the surface of things, the more they found of corruption. one might go to persia supposing that he knew a good deal of the degradation of the people, and yet really know very little of the pit into which he was descending. a seminary gathering together such a company of young females, was a new thing in persia, and it will readily be conceived that amid a mohammedan community it was an object of peculiar solicitude to its guardians. many a moslem eye was on those girls, as the results of a religious education appeared in their manners, their dress, and personal beauty. in one instance, an officer of government attempted to take one of them to his harem, but god thwarted his purpose through the interference of the english consul. similar dangers threatened from other sources, and eternity alone will reveal the burden of care and watchfulness they involved. if only one pupil had been led astray, what a hopeless loss of confidence would have followed among the people! in the early years of the institution, when parents could hardly be persuaded to trust their daughters out of their sight for a single night, it might have broken up the whole enterprise; but in this matter, also, god showed himself the hearer of prayer, and not one danger of the kind was ever allowed to be more than an occasion for renewed intercession, and more confiding dependence on his gracious care. sometimes, in vacation, it seemed strange to its guardians that they had no longer a fold to protect, and could retire to rest free from that anxious solicitude that sometimes drove sleep from their eyes. it is not in the beginning of missionary life that all these things are understood: they are learned gradually. this is wisely ordered, that the missionary be not discouraged at the outset. strength is given each day to meet new trials as they come, and it would not be leaving a truthful impression on the reader, if, at the close of this description of what has been, it should not be recorded, to the praise of divine grace, that a great change has taken place. there are many to-day to whom the missionary may say, "such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the lord jesus, and by the spirit of our god." not only do some who stole steal no more, but many young husbands now provide separate apartments for the bride whom they bring home, and they need all that the word "home" expresses to describe their mutual joy. the hour of suffering is anticipated by a considerate affection, and that affection is so reciprocated that many hearts safely trust in the daughters of the female seminary of oroomiah. it is not merely education that has wrought this change, but a bible education. paul cared for just such converts, and left divine teachings for the use of those who should come after him in the same work. as a young wife said to her teacher one day, after she had been talking with her about her new duties, "i thank you; you are right. i am glad that you have told me what paul says, and i think that god has told you the same thing." many a graduate might say, with another, "i thank you for your instructions, and as i look on the trials of ungodly families, every drop of my blood thanks you." chapter ii. marbeeshoo. visit there.--native accommodations.--hospitality of senum.--mohammedan women. the following account of miss fiske's visit to marbeeshoo, in november, , presents a vivid picture of things as they were, and the christian thoughtfulness of one who had learned a more excellent way:-- "as we sat at dinner a few days since, mr. stocking proposed that i spend the sabbath with him at marbeeshoo. i said at once, 'i cannot leave my school.' but he forthwith called sanum, sarah, and moressa, my oldest girls, and asked them if they did not love souls in marbeeshoo well enough to take good care of school, and let me be absent till tuesday. they were delighted to think of my going where no missionary lady had ever been, and said, 'we will do all we can for the girls, and we will pray for you, if you will only go and try to do those poor women good.' it was hardly two o'clock before we were on horseback. marbeeshoo is about fifty miles from us, and in turkey. two years ago it was said 'no lady should try to go there,' but brother stocking thought not so now; and i was willing to follow where he led, especially as a former pupil had recently settled there. we must be out over night, but we thought best not to spend it in a tent, on account of the cold. near sunset we came to mawana, a village of mud huts. we went to the house of the head man, who joyfully welcomed us to his house. it consisted of a single low room, inhabited by at least a score of men, women, and children. they came in one by one, but already the hens had found their resting place, evidently no strangers there. several lambs had been brought into their corner, and three or four calves, each had his couch of grass. our horses had been arranged for the night on the other side of a partition wall, some three feet high. when all were within, the coarse bread and sour milk were brought out for supper. then mr. stocking read from the bible, and talked, and prayed with the numerous family, and the women sat around me, while i tried to do them good, till about ten o'clock. at that time, the mother of the family rose, saying, 'now we will settle it.' i listened to hear the settlement of some family quarrel, but to my surprise her meaning was, 'we will settle where to lie down for the night;' and as i looked over the room i thought, surely some little skill in settling is needed, if we are all to sleep here. but soon she took out three of the children to an empty manger, where she put new hay, and quickly settled them; they were covered with an old rug, and at once fell fast asleep. she then returned, saying, 'now there is room for our guests,' and brought a piece of cotton cloth, which she said was _all_ for me. in a short time, one and another was fast asleep. they lay on mats, without either bed or pillow, and the divers breathing or snoring of men, and calves, and lambs was soon heard, all mingled together. "i found myself sitting alone with the old lady, and so, putting my carpet bag under my head, and drawing my shawl about me, i lay down too. this was a signal for extinguishing the light; but before that, i had marked a road, where i thought i might possibly pass out between the sleepers should i need fresh air. there was no sleep for me; and the swarms of fleas made me so uncomfortable, that before midnight i found my way out, and remained as long as the cold air of that november night allowed, and so passed out and in several times during the night. i watched long for the morning, and at length it came, and the sleepers, one by one, arose. they all hoped i had slept well, and i could not tell them i had not, for they had given me the best they had, and told me again and again how glad they were that i had come, and hoped their house would always be mine when i came that way. there was a proposal for breakfast, but the morning was so fine that i suggested to mr. stocking that a carpet bag sometimes furnished a very good breakfast. "we did enjoy that ride very much after a sleepless night. the road was often only a narrow path on the edge of a precipice, and such as i had never passed over before; but i thanked my god at every step for the pure, fresh air of those mountains. as we approached the village, hid away among the cliffs, and in such a narrow spot that houses were placed one above another on the terraced hill-side, one of our attendants insisted on riding forward, and we were not greatly surprised to find a crowd ready to welcome us. one and another cried out, 'senum wants you to go to zechariah's.' so to zechariah's we went, and there was my pupil, waiting with open arms to receive me. she took me from my horse, exclaiming, 'is it true that you have come? i have heard where you staid last night, and i know you did not sleep at all. come right into my room; there are no fleas here; i have a bed that is clean, that i keep for the missionaries. i will spread it for you, and you shall sleep before any body comes to see you.' the bed was spread; she gave me milk to drink (judg, iv. ), and then said, 'i will guard the door so no one shall disturb you, and i will wake you for dinner.' i was soon asleep, and slept two long hours before she woke me. "when she did, she came with her tray in her hand, where was the freshly baked bread, the nicely cooked little fish, which, she said, 'my husband caught expressly for you and mr. stocking,' honey from their own hives, milk from their flock, and other simple refreshments. all was neatly prepared, and we were so thankful for the dear child's attentions! when dinner was over, she said, 'now i want you to see the women; but they must not come here, for they will leave fleas, and you will not be able to sleep tonight. there is another large room the other side, and we will have meeting there this afternoon.' "about three o'clock i met there more than one hundred poor women, who of course must ask many questions before their curiosity would be satisfied. they finally became quiet, however, and i could tell them of the saviour, who had loved to teach just such needy ones as they were. i enjoyed the afternoon very much; it was all the more precious for the discomforts of the night, and the comforts of senum's house. the next day was the sabbath, and most of the time i was in the 'large room,' where the women came freely. in the afternoon about three hundred were present. i was weary at night, but senum's care, with the thought of the privilege of meeting so many who had never before heard of christ as the _only_ saviour, made me forget it all." painful as is this view of woman as she was among the nestorians, her condition was still worse among the mohammedans; not, indeed, in matters of outward comfort, for the wealth of persia is in moslem hands, and they occupy every position of rank or authority in the land. but in all that pertains to morality and religion, they stand on a lower level. the nestorian woman may not have known what was contained in the bible, yet she knew that it was the word of god, and was ready to receive all its teachings as of divine authority. to her moslem sister it is not only an unknown book, but one she is taught to regard as superseded by the koran. although the nestorian woman knew nothing of spiritual worship, yet she regarded the lord's day as set apart for his service. the moslem, on the other hand, regards it like any other day of the week, and exalts her friday to the place that of right belongs to the sabbath of the lord. in all her degradation, the nestorian woman reverenced the name of jesus as her god. true, she had no correct idea of salvation or redeeming love; yet even a blind attachment to that sacred name is not without its reward. she may have fallen very low, but there was a power even in her ignorant adherence to christ, that kept her from falling to the level of those who renounced him for the arabian impostor. this was seen especially in the blessings that came to her through the institution of christian marriage, while others groaned under the debasing influence of a sensual polygamy. the wretchedness this occasioned is a topic too large and too painful to dwell upon here. but the wide gulf that separated the two classes was clearly seen, when on her sabbath the missionary could speak to the nestorian of her saviour out of her bible, while the moslem knows nothing beyond her kohl and her henna,[ ] her dresses and her follies, and other topics at once belittling, debasing, and corrupting. [footnote : kohl is a black powder used to paint the eyebrows and eyelashes. henna is a plant employed to stain the nails, and sometimes the entire hand and part of the foot, of a dark orange hue.] chapter iii. the scene of the narrative. nestorians.--their country.--frontispiece.--lake.--plain.--fording the shaher.--mission premises in oroomiah. we will now glance at the scene of the events to be narrated, as it may not be familiar to every reader. to write of woman in persia would embrace the whole empire as the field of inquiry; for the existence of woman is coextensive with the population. but "woman and her saviour in persia" confines our attention to those who have been taught the truth as it is in jesus; for when christ sent forth paul to preach his gospel to the gentiles, it was that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in him; and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? our theme, then, confines us to the nestorians, who number about one hundred thousand souls. about two thirds of these live in turkey; but the following pages relate principally to those residing in persia, and hence the title of the volume. this people inhabit, along with koords and other races, the territory extending from the western shore of the lake of oroomiah to the eastern bank of the tigris. it includes the persian province of oroomiah, and both the eastern and western slope of central koordistan. the most inaccessible recesses of the koordish mountains have been their refuge for centuries. the whole region extends across four degrees of longitude, with a varying breadth of from one to two degrees of latitude. attention will be called especially to the city of oroomiah and the villages around it. the plain of that name is seventy-five miles long and from twelve to twenty miles in width, containing more than a thousand square miles. it is dotted with perhaps three hundred villages, the population varying, according to the size of the village, from less than one hundred to more than a thousand inhabitants. the frontispiece gives a view of this plain, from the roof of the mission premises at seir, one thousand feet above the city. the lofty wolf mountain appears on the right, and the high range west of the narrowest part of the lake on the left. the lake itself is seen beyond the plain at the foot of the mountains which rise abruptly from its eastern shore. the distance makes it seem much narrower than it is, for while one hundred miles in length, it is not far from thirty miles in breadth. its surface is forty-one hundred feet above the sea, and four hundred feet below the city of oroomiah. no living thing exists in its waters, which are both salt and bituminous. the plain is more crowded with villages than here represented, and each one is made conspicuous by its grove of trees, as well as its houses. the city appears prominent at the foot of the hill, though six miles distant from the spectator. it is in the same latitude with richmond, virginia, and contains about thirty-five thousand souls. the plain slopes up very gradually from the lake, and mount seir rises, behind our point of view, two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four feet above the city. farther west, the summits of central koordistan rise, range above range, to the height of seventeen thousand feet. we pass down from seir to the city by a carriage road, now by the side of vineyards, and now near fields of wheat and clover, diversified by orchards and gardens of cucumbers. all of these, and indeed the whole plain, owes its fertility to canals, led out from the rivers which descend from the mountains. willow, poplar, and sycamore trees line these watercourses. all kinds of fruit trees abound, while the rich verdure of the plain contrasts strikingly with the bare declivities that overlook it from every side. the villages on either hand are clusters of mud houses crowded together for greater security, and every tree in their groves has to be watered as regularly as the fields and gardens. before reaching the city we must ford the shaher, a river that, though frequently all drained off into the fields in summer, is very deep in early spring, when fatal accidents sometimes occur. it was here that, in may, , miss fiske narrowly escaped a watery grave. on her way to seir, with mr. and mrs. stoddard, the horse lay down in the middle of the river, leaving her to be swept off by the rapid current. mr. stoddard hastened to the rescue; but the moment his steed was loose, he rushed to attack the horse of mrs. stoddard, and, as miss fiske rose to the surface, she caught a glimpse of mr. stoddard looking back on the battle, and his wife held between the combatants by her riding habit, which had caught on the saddle; but while she looked the dress gave way, and mrs. stoddard was safe. she herself had sufficient presence of mind not to breathe under water, and, on coming up for the fifth time, floated into shallow water near the opposite shore, forty rods below the ford, just as mr. stoddard reached the same point. from the river, beautiful orchards line the road on both sides to the city gate, of which a representation is given on page ; and about one eighth of a mile inside of that, where the nestorian and moslem sections of the city join each other, stand the mission premises, built of sun-dried bricks, like the houses around them. they occupy a little more than an acre, in the form of a parallelogram; and if, for the sake of clearness, we compare it to a window, the bottom of the lower sash is represented by a long, earthen-roofed structure, half of it a dwelling house, once the home of dr. grant, but now the dwelling of dr. wright. it is the building on the left of the engraving at page , and the round object occupying the nearest window in the second story is a clock, the gift of a well-known merchant of boston, brother of one of our deceased missionaries. let our lower sash be filled by two large panes in modern style, and these are represented by two courts surrounded by pavements, and shaded by large sycamore trees. in the engraving just referred to, the spectator stands in one of these courts, looking over a low wall into the other. for the top of the lower sash, we have another building, extending across the premises. the left half of this appearing on page , behind the trees, and on the opposite page represented without them, was the first home of dr. perkins, and is now the female seminary; but repeated additions and modifications have been required to transform a building, originally erected for a private residence, into a structure suitable for such a school. miss fiske first taught in one room of a building to the right, which does not appear in the engraving, though a part of it is seen on page ; then, as the school grew larger, another room was added, and when those quarters became too strait, this building was remodelled for its use. [illustration: female seminary at oboomiah] as we shall have a good deal to do with the seminary in these pages, let us become familiar with its home. between the central door and the one on the left, those three windows belong to a large room once used as a chapel, but since then as a guest room for the accommodation of the women whom we shall see coming here to learn of jesus. in this room, nestorian converts first partook of the lord's supper with the missionaries. the left of the three windows directly over these, with the rose-bush in it, belongs to miss fiske's private room, and the other two to her sitting room. this the pupils have named "the bethel," and it is so connected that the teacher can step into recitation room, dining room, or kitchen, as occasion requires. the last named apartment is on the rear of the building. the largest recitation room, by a curious necessity, is in the form of a carpenter's wooden square, with the teacher's desk in the angle between the two compartments. one of these is on the back side of the building, out of sight; the other, extending across the end, is represented in front by the window at the extreme left. over the central door is, first, the steward's room, and then closets over that; for one of the results of the successive alterations and additions is, that parts of the building are two, and other parts three, stories high. miss rice's room is directly over the door on the left hand, as the steward's is here. the three windows in the second story, to the right of the two central closets, open into the dining room, and one of the girls' rooms occupies the corner beyond. on the lower floor, going from the central door to the right, is first a closet, and then a large guest room for visitors; and underneath the whole is the cellar where the boys' school was first taught, that has since grown into the male seminary at seir. the rooms of the pupils are mostly in the rear. these are large enough to accommodate six or eight occupants, as the oriental style of living does not require so much furniture as ours. in each room is a member of the senior class, who exercises a kind supervision over her younger companions. every room has two or more closets, designed especially, but not exclusively, for devotion; and some sleep in the recitation rooms, as such a use of them at night does not interfere with other uses during the day. but we had almost forgotten our imaginary window, the upper sash of which remains to be described. in that we have only one pane, representing a large court, with the chapel on one side, and the wash rooms and other outbuildings of the seminary on the other. this court is more garden-like than the other two, has fewer trees, and a long arbor, covered with grape vines, forms a covered walk in the middle of it. it was in this arbor that the tables were spread for the collation in , to be described hereafter. this court is invaluable as a place for out-door exercise, where the pupils may enjoy the fresh air, free from the annoyances and exposures of the streets in an oriental city. a stream is led through all these courts in a channel lined with stone. its murmuring waters are a pleasant sound at early dawn, when they mingle sweetly with the morning song of birds. here many nestorian women come to fill their earthen pitchers, as the water is not carried through the courts of christian houses. the mission premises belonged to mohammedans; and here, in the shade of the tall sycamores, mrs. grant used to sit, with her children, and talk with the women who came for water. her successors find time to continue the same practice, and as the natives let down their pitchers (gen. xxiv. ), and now and then one is broken (eccles. xii. ), realize that they live in a bible land, and seek to make its daughters feel the power of bible truth. the seminary is outwardly very humble, and would contrast very unfavorably with the stately edifices of similar institutions at home. but we shall see that the saviour has not disdained to honor it with his presence, and its earthen floors and mud walls[ ] have witnessed many a gracious visit of the holy spirit. though the glory of lebanon has not come unto it, yet has god himself beautified the place and made it glorious. [footnote : the pilasters in the engraving are made of brick, and not only support the large timbers of the roof, but, by their greater projection, protect the softer material of the wall from the weather. the whole is plastered outside with a mixture of lime and clay, that requires frequent renewal.] chapter iv. missionary education. object--means--study of bible--pupils kept in sympathy with the people.--people stimulated to exertion and self-dependence--tahiti. --madagascar. let us now look at some of the principles on which missionary education was here carried on, that we may see what kind of an instrumentality god was pleased to crown with his blessing. the seminary was founded, not to polish the manners, refine the taste, or impart accomplishments, but to renovate the character by a permanent inward change. the main dependence for bringing this about was the power of the holy ghost--the only power that can impart or maintain spiritual life in man. this dependence was expressed in fervent prayer, offered for years amid discouragement and opposition, and, instead of ceasing when an answer came, only offered by a greater number. it is worthy of note that some of the seasons of greatest revival were preceded by disasters that threatened the very existence of the mission. the principal text book was the word of god; partly, as we shall see, through a providential necessity, but chiefly because it was god's own chosen instrumentality for the salvation of our race; and it was eminently adapted for the education of such a people. the teachers could say, with a beloved co-laborer on mount lebanon, "to the scriptures we give increased attention; they do more to unfold and expand the intellectual powers, and to create careful and honest thinkers, than all the sciences we teach." it is also most efficient in freeing mind and heart from those erroneous views that are opposed to its teachings; and actual trial developed a richness and fulness of practical adaptation to the work that astonished even those who already knew something of its value. its precepts and instructions were also clothed with power: requirements and counsels which from the missionary had only awakened opposition, coming from the bible were received as messages from heaven. said a nestorian to a missionary who had been speaking to him the words of god, "his words grew very beautiful while we were talking." in reference to every suspicious novelty or distasteful duty, the bible was the ultimate appeal. the missionary could say to them as paul did to an early church, "when ye received the word of god, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of god, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." besides, those thus educated were to teach others, and needed to be thoroughly furnished from the divine oracles with the truths they were to impart. it is not strange, then, that in the seminary the bible was studied both doctrinally and historically; that they had a system of theology and tables of scripture chronology; that biblical biography and geography were regular studies; that different portions of scripture occupied different years; and that, instead of butler's analogy and wayland's moral science, were the epistles to the romans and hebrews studied with all the accurate analysis and thoroughness bestowed elsewhere upon the classics. such teaching would yield good fruit any where, and the good seed found good ground in persia. so much for the instrumentality; but, then, influences are every where at work to check the growth of the plant of grace, and these must be overcome. there is danger that missionary education may be made worse than useless by allowing the sympathies of pupils to become alienated from the masses around them. children from heathen families may be puffed up with an idea of superiority to their own people. their taste may be cultivated so as to render disgust with heathen degradation stronger than the christian desire to do them good. a foreign language, foreign dress, and foreign habits may widen the gulf that separates them from their people, till, what with an undue exaltation on the one hand and a suspicious jealousy on the other, usefulness is well nigh impossible. but here such tendencies have been carefully watched and guarded against. the pupils have been trained with the view of doing good among their own people. no line of separation has been drawn in dress or diet, furniture or household arrangements. while taught to be neat, the goal kept ever in sight has been, a happy usefulness in their own homes, the elevation of the mass just as fast as was consistent with mutual love and sympathy, the people not feeling that their daughters were denationalized, and they not lifted out of sympathy with the homes they were to bless. hence, even in , we find the mud floor of the small school room covered with straw mats; one window, of oiled paper, admitting the light; and a brick stove, with a few rude benches, its only furniture. in the other room, where the cooking was done, the pupils ate, and spent their time out of school. here were two windows of like material; and besides the mats, the floor was covered with a thick felt, on which they spread their beds at night. a table was provided, covered with a coarse blue and white check. there were also a set of coarse plates and a few other dishes, but no knives nor forks. they eat their soup with wooden spoons, and their other food with their hands. their clothing, like their cooking, was mostly in native style; and they were taught to make it for themselves. another object in missionary education is, to do enough to stimulate to exertion, and yet not foster inefficiency or undue dependence. the nestorians are poor, but doing too much for them may make them still poorer. they must be brought to sustain their own institutions at the earliest possible moment, and their training should keep that end in view. hence miss fiske writes, "at first i was inclined to do more for them than afterwards, and at length settled down on this principle,--to give my pupils nothing for common use which they could not secure in their own homes by industry and economy. so i furnished only such articles as they could buy in the city. i preferred that they should make all their own clothing, and may have grieved friends sometimes by declining clothing which they offered to send for them. we chose rather to spend our own strength in training them to provide for themselves. i do not mean that i am not glad to see foreign articles in oroomiah; but we were in danger of fostering a more expensive taste than they would have the means of gratifying. our great object is to raise up the most efficient coadjutors from among the people, and they must labor among their neighbors as of them, and not as foreigners, and be prepared to carry forward the work when we leave it. "at first we clothed as well as boarded our pupils, and then led them to provide one article after another, till they clothed themselves. it was delightful to see the interest parents began to take in clothing their daughters, in order to send them to school after they provided their own garments. they took better care of them, and so learned to take better care of other things. since i left, miss rice has advanced farther in this matter; and last year most of the pupils paid a trifle for tuition, amounting in all to over twenty dollars. it often costs more than the amount to secure these pittances; but it does our pupils good, and we spared no pains to this end." it is touching to see the spirit manifested by some parents in this connection. one very poor widow, whose little field of grain had been devoured by locusts, brought a large squash and a quantity of raisins which she had earned by laboring for others--a self-denial almost equal to her previous giving up of her only bed for the use of a daughter in the seminary, which she brought, saying, "i can sleep on the _hasseer_ [rush mat], if you will only receive her into school." it certainly is not benevolence to do for others what they can do as well for themselves, or to do for them in a way to diminish either their ability or disposition to provide for themselves. missionaries may be in danger of staying too long and doing too much for a people, rather than of leaving them too soon after the gospel has taken root among them. native pastors came into being at tahiti simply because the french drove off the missionaries. they were not ordained before, but at once proved themselves equal to the work that providence assigned them; and after twenty years of french misrule, in spite of popery on the one hand and brandy and vice on the other, there are now more church members under these native pastors than ever before. twenty years ago the european shepherds were driven from madagascar, and a few lambs left in the midst of wolves; but god raised up native pastors, and, instead of tens of christians under europeans, there are now hundreds, yea, thousands, under these natives.[ ] those missionaries are wise who aim constantly at results like these; and it is in such a spirit that work has been done among the women of persia. [footnote: rev. dr. tidman, secretary of the london missionary society, in "conference of missions at liverpool," , p. .] chapter v. beginnings. mrs. grant.--early life and labors.--great influence.--her school.--her pupils.--changed into boarding school.--getting pupils.--care of them.--difficulties from poverty of people.--paying for food of scholars.--position of unmarried missionary ladies.--books. we have seen that among the nestorians it was counted a disgrace for a female to learn to read; and even now, in the districts remote from missionary influence, a woman who reads, and especially one who writes, is an object of public odium, if not of persecution. how, then, could the nestorians be induced to send their daughters to schools? what overcame this strong national prejudice? these questions open a delightful chapter in divine providence, showing how wonderfully god adapts means to ends, even on opposite sides of the globe. a christian gentleman in the state of new york, on the death of his wife's sister, adopted into his own family her infant child. she was trained to the exercise of a practical christian benevolence, and her superior mind was improved by an education remarkably thorough. in the classics and mathematics she exhibited uncommon aptitude, and made unusual attainments; so that it was truly said of her, "perhaps no female missionary ever left our country with a mind so well disciplined as mrs. judith s. grant." she sailed for persia, july , ; and there she displayed rare ability in acquiring the language of the people. the turkish she soon spoke familiarly. in a short time she read the ancient syriac, and acquired the spoken language with at least equal facility. previous even to these acquisitions, she taught mar yohanan and others english; and as they noticed the ease with which she turned to her greek testament, whenever ours seemed to differ from the ancient syriac, they regarded her with feelings in which it would be hard to say whether wonder, love, or reverence was the strongest. some might have cried out, when her fine intellect and rare acquirements were devoted to the missionary work, "why is this waste of the ointment made?" but had her friends searched the round world for a sphere of greatest usefulness, they could not have selected one where her rare gifts would have accomplished so much; and when such a woman manifested deep solicitude for the education of her sex, ancient prejudice fell before her. she taught her own domestics to read. she sedulously cultivated the acquaintance of both christian and mohammedan women; nor did she rest till she had opened a school for girls in what is now mr. coan's barn. such was her zeal, that when her health would not allow her to go there, she taught the pupils in her own apartment. she commenced with only four scholars, but at the same time prepared the maps for parley's geography in modern syriac, and the old map of oroomiah, so familiar to the readers of the missionary herald, was her handiwork. nor was her usefulness confined to her school room. hers was the privilege of creating such a public sentiment in favor of the education of woman, that her successors have found the gates wide open before them, and often wondered at the extent and permanence of the influence she acquired. there is no one topic of which miss fiske has spoken to the writer so frequently, and with such enthusiasm, as the great work that mrs. grant accomplished for woman in persia, during her short missionary life. she was the laborious and self-denying pioneer in female education, and every year thus far has brought to light new evidence of her extensive usefulness. it was no empty compliment, when the venerable mar elias said, "we will bury her in our church, where none but very holy men are laid. as she has done so much for us, we want the privilege of digging her grave with our own hands." miss fiske writes, shortly after her arrival, "the first syriac word i learned was 'daughter;' and as i can now use the verb 'to give,' i often ask parents to give me their daughters. some think that i cannot secure boarding scholars, but mrs. grant got day scholars; and when i hear men, women, and children say, 'how she loved us!' i want to love them too. i mean to devote at least five years to the work of trying to gather girls into a boarding school, as mrs. grant desired to do. she has gone to her rest. i wonder that i am allowed to take her place." and again: "i am usually in school till three p.m., and then i go out among the poor mothers till tea time. they often say to me, 'mrs. grant did just as you do.' her short life was a precious offering. i feel each day more and more that i have entered into the labors of a faithful servant of christ." among the pupils of mrs. grant was selby, of oroomiah, who was hopefully converted while teaching some day scholars connected with the seminary, in . raheel, (rachel,) the wife of siyad, the tailor mentioned in the memoir of mr. stoddard, was another. so were sanum, the wife of joseph; meressa, the wife of yakob; and sarah, the daughter of priest abraham, and wife of oshana, of whom we shall hear more hereafter. after the death of mrs. grant, january , , the school was continued under the charge of mr. holladay, who employed native teachers to assist him, the ladies of the mission cooperating as they could. it then passed into the hands of dr. wright, who had the care of it when miss fiske arrived in oroomiah, june , . during all this time it was only a day school, and contact with vice in the homes of the pupils greatly hindered its usefulness. it was for this reason that miss fiske was exceedingly anxious to make it a boarding school, so as to retain the pupils continuously under good influences. but would they be allowed to spend the night on the mission premises? this was doubted by many, and all had their fears; yet in august an appropriation was made for the support of six boarding pupils, who were to be entirely under the control of the mission for three years. some said they could not be obtained for even one year, and not one of them would remain to complete the three. even priest abraham said, "i cannot bear the reproach of having my daughter live with you." at that time, scarcely a girl twelve years old could be found who was not betrothed; and years were devoted to the preparation of a coarse kind of embroidery, a certain amount of which must be ready for the wedding. one day in august, mar yohanan said to miss fiske, "you get ready, and i find girls." she devoted that month and the next to preparation for her expected charge. but the day came for opening the school, and not one pupil had been obtained. the teacher was feeling somewhat anxious, when, from her window in the second story, she saw mar yohanan crossing the court, with a girl in either hand. one of them was his own niece, selby, of gavalan, seven years of age; the other, hanee, of geog tapa, about three years older. they were not very inviting in outward appearance; but it did not take miss fiske long to reach the door, where the bishop met her, and placing their little hands in hers, said, in his broken english, "they be your daughters; no man take them from your hand." she wrote to a friend an account of her success, adding, "i shall be glad to give them to the lord jesus, and love to look on them as the beginning of my dear school." these two pupils were supported by ladies in maiden, massachusetts, and the number soon increased to six; but fifteen days after, two of them, finding the gate open, suddenly left for home. their teacher did not think it advisable to follow them; nor did she see them again till, ten years after, an invitation for a reunion of all her scholars brought two whom she did not recognize. she said, "perhaps you were here under mrs. grant?" "no, we were your own scholars for fifteen days, and we are very sorry we ran away." they are now both useful christians, and the places they left in were speedily filled by others. the care of the school was much more exhausting than its instruction. when the teacher went out, and when she came in, she must take her pupils with her, for she dared not leave them to themselves. indeed, so strong were the feelings of their friends, that they allowed them to remain only on condition that they should lodge with or near their teacher, and never go out except in her company. a native teacher rendered such help as he could, needing much teaching himself; and everything combined to make the principal feel that hers was to be a work of faith and prayer. as the first of january approached, she thought how sweet it would be to be remembered by dear friends at mount holyoke; and when it came, she wrote to miss whitman, "in looking over miss lyon's suggestions for the observance of the day, last year, i cannot tell you how i felt as i read the words, 'perhaps next new year's day will find some of you on a foreign shore. if so, we pledge you a remembrance within these consecrated walls.' i thought not then that privilege would be mine; but since it is, i count your prayers the greatest favor you can confer." at oroomiah, the missionaries met together for prayer at one o'clock, and after that dr. perkins and mr. holladay preached to the assembled seminaries, while the ladies of the mission met separately for prayer; then united intercession again closed the day. and they needed to wait on god, for many difficulties combined to prevent success. one was the poverty of the people. to say merely that they were poor gives no true idea of their situation to an american reader. they were extremely poor, and grinding oppression still keeps them so. in , mr. stocking found very few pupils in the schools wearing shoes, even in the snow of midwinter; and one sprightly lad in sabbath school had nothing on but a coarse cotton shirt, reaching down to his knees, and a skull cap, though the missionary required all his winter clothes, besides a fire, to keep him comfortable. another evil growing out of their poverty was, that the missionairies, in order to give the first impulse to education, resorted to some measures which, after an interest was awakened, had to be laid aside in order to increase it. for example, poor parents could not be persuaded to earn bread for their children while they sent them to school; hence, to get scholars at first, the mission furnished their daily bread; and this having been done for the boys, had to be done for the girls also. so, in the winter of - , twenty-five cents a week was paid to the day scholars, the others having their board instead. but the current having once commenced to flow in the new channel, such inducements became more a hinderance than a help, and, in the spring of , miss fiske told her scholars that no more money would be paid for their bread; and though some of the mission feared it would be necessary to resume the practice, instead of that it was soon dropped in the other seminary also. but the special difficulty growing out of the condition of woman in a mohammedan country demands our notice. some may suppose that because miss fiske and miss rice have succeeded so well, an unmarried lady from this country has nothing to do but to go there and work like any one else. this is not true; such a one cannot live by herself: her home must be in some missionary family. she cannot go out alone, either inside or outside of the city. in many things she needs to be shielded from annoyances here unknown. and god provided all that the teachers of the seminary needed of such help; first, in the kind family of mr. stocking, and, after his death, in the pleasant household of mr. breath. indeed, not one of all the missionary circle ever stood in need of such a hint as paul gave the church at rome concerning the deaconess of cenchrea. as miss fiske says, playfully, "whenever we went with them to visit pupils at a distance, they always made us believe that it was a great privilege to take us along;" and every lady who goes out, in a similar way, to labor in the missionary field, will find just such christian kindness indispensable to her comfort and usefulness. in such a sphere of action, a lady's dependence is her independence. another difficulty was the want of books. such a thing as a school book had been unknown among the nestorians. the only ones to be had in were the bible in ancient syriac,--a language unintelligible to the common people,--and the gospel of john, with a few chapters of genesis, in the spoken language, besides a few tracts. later came the gospel of matthew, and, after that, the four gospels. mr. stocking prepared a spelling book of fifty-four pages, vo, a mental arithmetic of twenty-four pages, and afterwards a larger arithmetic. mr. coan, a scripture spelling book of one hundred and sixty pages, vo. mr. stoddard issued a very full and complete arithmetic for the older scholars in , but his system of theology did not appear till after his decease, in . dr. wright was the author of a geography of three hundred and two pages, printed in . mr. cochran's scripture geography appeared in , and barth's church history was published the same year. but the book studied more than all others, and most efficient in enlightening and elevating the people, was the bible, of which the new testament appeared in , and the old in . as many as three hours a day were devoted to that; and no recollections of missionary education in persia are so pleasant as those of the bible lessons. the pupils have pleasant memorials of some of them in the form of bible maps, drawn by themselves, which now form a conspicuous and appropriate ornament of their homes. it may seem to some as though so much study of the bible would make the pupils weary of its sacred pages; but precisely the contrary was true. when the new testament, shortly after it was printed, was offered to those who, during recreation hours, would commit to memory the scripture catechism, containing more than one thousand texts, some learned it in three weeks, and others in a longer time; and their joy in receiving the reward could hardly be expressed. it was near the close of the term, and some who had not quite finished when vacation began remained to complete the task; for they said they could not go home unless they carried with them their testament; and the diligent use they made of it afterwards showed that their desire was more than mere covetousness. even eighteen months after, writing to a friend in america, they say, "now we have each of us this blessed book, this priceless blessing; would that in it we might all find salvation for our souls. this book is from the unspeakable mercy of god; nor can we ever repay our dear friends for it." i cannot forbear quoting here the closing sentence of the letter--"dear friend, the gentle love of the saviour be with you. amen." chapter vi. the seminary. mae yohanan.--standard of scholarship.--english books read in syriac.--expense.--feelings of parents.--domestic department.--daily reports.--picture of a week day and sabbath.--"if you love me, lean hard."--esli's journal.--letter from pupils to mount holyoke seminary.--from the same to mrs. c. t. mills. when mar yohanan returned to persia after his visit to the united states, in , prince malik kassim meerza, who could speak a little english, asked him, "what are the wonders of america?" he replied, "the blind they do see, the deaf they do hear, and the women they do read; they be not beasts." having visited mount holyoke seminary, he often said, "of all colleges in america, mount holy oke be the best; and when i see such a school here, i die;" meaning that then he would be ready to die. when he brought her first boarding scholars to miss fiske, he said, "now you begin mount holy oke in persia." as she sought to reproduce one of our female seminaries, as far as was possible in such different circumstances, it seems fitting to enter somewhat into the minutiae of its arrangements. resemblance to similar institutions at home is not as yet to be sought in the standard of scholarship, though that is rapidly advancing. in an unevangelized community, the people move on a lower level. not only social condition, but morality and education, feel the want of the elevating influence of the gospel. a seminary that commences operations by teaching the alphabet must advance far, and climb high, before its graduates will stand on a level with those whose pupils were familiar with elementary algebra when they entered; yet its course of study may be the best to secure the usefulness of its members in their own community. if ragged village girls, untutored and uncombed, studying aloud in school hours, and at recess leaping over the benches like wild goats, now study diligently and in silence, move gently, and are respectful to their teachers and kind to each other, a thorough foundation has been laid; and if, in addition to that, the literary attainments of the lower classes to-day exceed those of the pupils who first left the school, the superstructure rises at once beautifully and securely. leaving out the bible,--which has been already spoken of,--to the original reading, writing, singing, and composition; have been added by degrees, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and theology; with oral instruction in physiology, chemistry, natural philosophy, and astronomy. but we should neither understand the attainments of the pupils, nor the source of their marked ability as writers, did we not notice that, as a reward for good conduct during the day, their teacher was accustomed to translate orally to them, at its close, at first simple stories, and then such volumes as paradise lost, the course of time, and edwards's history of redemption. to these were added such practical works as pike's persuasives to early piety, pastor's sketches, and christ a friend; and the pupils understood books a great deal better in the free translations thus given, than in the more exact renderings issued from the press. baxter's saints' rest, poured thus hot and glowing into a syriac mould, was more effective, at least for the time, than the same after it had cooled and been laboriously filed into fidelity to the original. the seminary was unlike similar schools at home in the matter of expense. in , the cost for each pupil was only about eighteen dollars for the year, including rent, board, fuel, lights, and clothing in part; and as this was paid by the american board, education to the people was without money and without price. we have already alluded to the efforts of the teachers to train up the people to assume this expense themselves. let us now trace the progress made in getting the pupils away from the evil influences of their persian homes. in , besides her six boarding pupils, miss fiske had a few day scholars; next year she had still fewer; and the year after that, they were dropped entirely. many wished to send their daughters in this way; but she was decided in her refusal to receive them, because thus only could the highest good of the pupils be secured. at first, so great was her dread of home influences, that she sought to retain them even in vacation; but she soon saw that their health and usefulness, their sympathy with the people, and the confidence of the people in them, required them to spend a part of the year at home. this also gave their teachers a good opportunity to become acquainted with their friends and neighbors, and a door was opened for many delightful meetings with women, in which the pupils rendered much assistance. it also secured the influence of the parents in favor of what was for the good of their daughters, and made them interested in the school. during miss fiske's entire residence in persia, fathers rarely disregarded her wishes concerning their daughters in her school. the only time that the teachers were ever reviled by a nestorian father was in the case of a village priest. he came one day to the seminary to see his daughter, and because she did not appear at once,--she was engaged at the moment,--he cursed and swore, in a great passion, and when she did come, carried her home. no notice was taken of it, and no effort made to get her back; but three years after, the first indications of his interest in religion were deep contrition for his conduct on that occasion, and a letter full of grief for such treatment of those who had come so far to tell him and his of jesus. he at once sent his daughter back, and three weeks after she too came to the saviour, and even begged, as a favor, to have the care of the rooms of the teachers her father had reviled. since then, the priest has written no less than three letters, as he says, to be sure that so great wickedness was really pardoned, it seemed to him so unpardonable. the circumstances of the seminary required a domestic department. it was difficult, in persia, to have girls only ten years old take charge of household affairs; yet a beginning was made; but how much labor of love and patience of hope it involved cannot be told to those who have not tried it. at first, their one hour of work each day was more of a hinderance than a help; but gradually, through watchfulness and much effort, they were brought to do the whole without the least interference with their regular duties in school. they were thus trained to wait upon themselves, and so one deeply rooted evil of oriental life was corrected. this practice also relieved the school of the bad influence of domestics, while it prepared the pupils for lives of contented usefulness among a people so poor as the nestorians. besides, in this way they acquired habits of regularity and punctuality such as they never saw in their own homes. but while these western habits were inculcated, such of their own customs as were harmless were left untouched. they were carefully taught to do things in their own way, so as naturally and easily to fall into their proper place at home. at first, in their daily reports, miss fiske dared not ask any question the answer to which she could not ascertain for herself. the earliest she ventured to put was, whether they had combed their hair that day. the pupils all stood up, and those who had attended to this duty were asked to sit down. the faithful ones were delighted to comply. the others, mortified and ashamed, remained standing; but if one of them tried to sit down, a glance of the eye detected her. this simple method laid a foundation for truthfulness and self-respect; and from this the teacher gradually advanced to other questions, as their moral sense became able to bear them, till, when they could answer five satisfactorily, such as, "have you all your knitting needles?" "were you at prayers?" "were you late?"--things that could be ascertained at once,--they thought themselves wonderfully good, little dreaming how much the teacher did not dare to ask, lest she should lead them into temptation. after the first revival, she could ask about things that took place out of her sight; and now this exercise is conducted in the same way as in our best schools at home. there is very little communication now between them in the school room. in , there were only five failures on this point for four months, and those by new scholars. dr. perkins wrote, that year, "the exact system in this school, and the order, studiousness, good conduct, and rapid improvement of the pupils, in both this and the other seminary, are probably unsurpassed in any schools in america." in reply to a request for the picture of a day in the seminary, miss fiske writes, in ,-- "you ask for a day of my life in persia. come, then, to my home in . you shall be waked by the noise of a hand-bell at early dawn: twenty minutes after, our girls are ready for their half hour of silent devotion. the bell for this usually finds them waiting for it, and the perfect quiet in the house is almost unbroken. at the close of it, another bell summons us to the school room for family devotion, where, besides reading the scriptures and prayer, they unite in singing one of our sweet hymns.[ ] in a few minutes after this, another bell calls us to breakfast, and, that finished, all attend to their morning work. tables are cleared, rooms put in order, and preparations made for supper--the principal meal in persia; then for an hour they study silently in their rooms. at a quarter before nine o'clock i enter the school room, while miss rice cares for things without. we open school with prayer, in which we carry to the master more of our little cares and trials than in the early morning. my first lesson is in daniel, with the older pupils, while two other classes go out to recite in another room. yonan stays with me, for i want him to help and be helped in these bible lessons. the class enjoy it exceedingly, and the forty minutes spent on it always seem too short. the other classes now come in, and all study or recite another forty minutes. after that, a short recess in the yard makes all fresh again. the older classes then study, while one of the younger ones has a bible lesson with me on the life of christ. each time i go over it with them i find things which i wonder i had not perceived before. it is delightful to hear them express their own thoughts of our blessed saviour. we trace his journeyings on maps prepared by the pupils, and they study the scripture geography of each place. after this, one class recites ancient syriac to yonan, and another, in physiology, goes out to miss rice, leaving me to spend forty minutes with the older girls on compositions. at present the topic is, "the christ of the old testament;" and i am thankful that i studied edwards's history of redemption under miss lyon. this done, fifteen minutes remain for a kind of general exercise, when we talk over many things; and then the noon recess of one and a half hours allows the girls to lunch, see friends, and recreate, till fifteen minutes before its close, when they have a prayer meeting by themselves. [footnote : at first, only one hymn was printed on a separate sheet; then a little hymn book of five,--as many as luther commenced with at the reformation. now the hymn book contains about two hundred hymns, and some of the pupils can repeat them all.] "in the afternoon, miss rice takes charge of the school, and i have the time out. at present the first hour is given to writing; soon astronomy will take its place. recitations in geography follow till recess, and after that singing or spelling. the last hour, i go in and hear a lesson in hebrews. on this epistle we have full notes prepared in syriac, and we study it carefully, in connection with the old testament. miss rice also has a lesson in judges, and then all come together for the daily reports, more as a family than a school. there is still an hour before supper for mutual calls, knitting, sewing, and family duties. after supper and work are over, and they have had a little time to themselves, come evening prayers. then they have a short study hour in their rooms, followed by the half hour for private devotion, which closes the day. "of course, at another time, the studies might be somewhat different. the hours that miss rice and i are out of school we spend in seeing visitors, holding prayer meetings, going out among the women, and sometimes devote a whole day to a distant village." having thus looked in on a day of study, let us, through the same glass, take a view of the lord's day. the letter is dated december, . my dear friend: i have learned here that he who fed five thousand with the portion of five can feed the soul to the full with what i once counted only crumbs. may i give you one of the master's sermons? a few sabbaths ago, i went to geog tapa with mr. stoddard. it was afternoon, and i was seated on a mat in the middle of the earthen floor of the church. i had already attended sabbath school and a prayer meeting with my pupils, and, weary, i longed for rest. it seemed as if i could not sit without support through the service. then i remembered that after that came my meeting with the women readers of the village; and o, how desirable seemed rest! but god sent it in an unexpected way; for a woman came and seated herself directly behind me, so that i could lean on her, and invited me to do so. i declined; but she drew me back, saying, "if you love me, lean hard." very refreshing was that support. and then came the master's own voice, repeating the words, "if you love _me_, lean hard;" and i leaned on him too, feeling that, through that poor woman, he had preached me a better sermon than i could have heard at home. i was rested long before the services were through; then i spent an hour with the women, and after sunset rode six miles to my own home. i wondered that i was not weary that night nor the next morning; and i have rested ever since on those sweet words, "if you love me, lean hard." but i intended to tell you of our sabbaths in school. saturday is the girls' day for washing and mending, and we are busy all day long. just before sunset, the bell calls us to the school room, and there we inquire if the last stitch is taken, and the rooms are all in order. if any thing is still undone, the half hour before supper sees it finished. after leaving the table, every thing is arranged for the morning, and then we have a quiet half hour in our rooms. after this, half the pupils come to miss rice, and half to me. each has a prayer meeting, remembering the absent ones, also the female seminaries in constantinople, south hadley (mass.), and oxford (ohio). all retire from these precious meetings to their "half hour," as they call it, and before nine o'clock all is quiet, unless it be the voice of some one still pleading with her god. the first bell, sabbath morning, is at half past five, when all rise and dress for the day. morning prayers are at half past six; then comes breakfast, and, our few morning duties being done, the girls retire to study their sabbath school lessons, and sometimes ask to meet together for prayer. at half past nine, we attend syriac service in the chapel. the sabbath school follows that, numbering now about two hundred pupils. about two thirds of our scholars are teachers in it, and it is a good preparation for teaching in their homes. those who do not teach form a class. we then go home to lunch, flavored with pleasant remembrances and familiar explanations of the morning service. the afternoon service commences at two o'clock, and our bible lessons an hour before supper, though some are called earlier, to help us teach the women who come in for instruction. at supper, all are allowed to ask bible questions, and before leaving the table we have evening prayers. at seven o'clock, miss rice and i go to the english prayer meeting, while the pupils meet in six or seven family meetings, as they call them, the inmates of each room being by themselves, and the pious among them taking turns in conducting them. if any wish to come to us after this, we are glad to see them; and often this hour witnesses the submission of souls to god. besides these there is a weekly prayer meeting on tuesday evening, a lecture on friday afternoon, and on wednesday, as well as sabbath evening, the school meets in two divisions for prayer. the following journal, kept during the revival, in , by esli, an assistant teacher, forms an appropriate continuation of this interior picture of the seminary:-- "_february st_. to-day, a part of the girls wrote compositions on 'anger,' and a part on 'the gospel.' "_ d, friday_. john was here to-day writing to mount holyoke seminary, and attended our noon prayer meeting. in the afternoon, deacon joseph of degala preached from the words "king of kings and lord of lords." in the evening, mr. coan sung with us, and we read the weekly report of our conduct. "_ th, sabbath_. in the forenoon, dr. wright preached from acts ii. . he said that we must know what sin is; that we are sinners; and that we cannot save ourselves. in the afternoon, priest eshoo preached from luke xv. . the evening prayer meetings were very pleasant. "_ th_. a blessed morning. some of the girls are thoughtful. this was seen in the quiet at table and the silence in the kitchen. the work was done both earlier and better than usual. during the study hour, the voice of prayer sounded very sweetly in every room. when the girls walked in the yard, it was very quiet, and so when they came in. our noon prayer meeting was very pleasant; miss rice said a few words on the shortness of time. while hanee prayed, some wept. when miss rice dismissed us, no one moved; all were bowed on their desks, weeping. she then gave opportunity for prayer, and while i prayed, all were in tears. the girls have kept all the rules well to-day. this evening, the communicants met with miss rice, and the rest with martha. miss rice read about jonah in the ship, and said a few words; after that, raheel the teacher prayed. then hanee spoke a little of her own state, and asked us to pray for raheel of ardishai, who is thoughtful. i spoke, and asked them to pray for hannah and parangis, who are in my room. " th. the state of our school is the same. mr. cochran preached on the faithfulness of the jews under nehemiah, when they rebuilt jerusalem. after meeting he told us that the members of the male seminary spent yesterday as a day of fasting and prayer, and many rose confessing their sins. one very wicked man, also from the village, asked them to pray for him. after work was done in the kitchen this evening, a little time remained, and the girls there asked to have a meeting. with gladness of heart i knelt and mingled my tears with theirs, as though i, too, were commencing the work. afterwards mr. coan came and sung with us, and we read the accounts of the week." esli, the writer of the above, is the daughter of yohanan, a pious man in geog tapa, who for a time was steward of the seminary. she was one of the first fruits of the revival of , and graduated after miss fiske's return to america. she has since been a most faithful assistant of miss rice, and is very much beloved by the pious nestorians. but the following letter to miss fiske, from her own pen, dated april , will form her best introduction to the reader:-- "when i recall your love to me, my heart is full. i remember the times when we knelt together before our father in heaven, in godly anguish for priceless souls. especially do i remember when god first came near to me, how you shared my sorrow by day and by night, and pointed me to him who bled for me. after you brought me to christ, you showed me the helps to a christian life; that i must pray not only in my closet, but also in my heart, when at work or studying, that god would keep me. o that i had heeded your counsels more! "this winter the lord led me to see my cold state. for a time the saviour's face was hidden; then it seemed to be midnight; but i looked above, and the darkness fled. i saw him standing with open arms, and quickly i threw myself into those arms. tears of joy fell from my eyes, and by the grace of god i was enabled to go forward day by day. secret prayer has since been very pleasant to me. "we have had pleasant seasons of prayer in our school this winter, and we trust that some souls have been born again. i have the care of a circle of girls in the kitchen. they work well, and keep it clean. i think you know that such work is difficult, but if you were to come in you would find every thing in order. every wednesday we scour all the shelves and the doors. "the girls have made the yard very pleasant; but one thing is wanting there: we miss you at the cool of the day, walking in it to see if any evil has grown up in your garden. "i went to my village in vacation; the prayer meetings there were very pleasant, and i enjoyed much, praying with the women alone. our seasons of family devotion also were delightful. in the morning we read the acts in course; and as each read a verse, my father asked its meaning. when he went away to preach, i used to lead, and we then read the portion for the day, in the book called 'green pastures for the lord's flock.' "in the school we have studied ezra, in connection with haggai and zechariah, and are now in nehemiah. in the new testament we are on paul's third journey, and have nearly finished scripture geography and theology." the seminary keeps up a christian intercourse with the institution at south hadley, as the following letters will show; and the beautiful melodeon in the sitting room is a tuneful testimony to the liberality of holyoke's daughters. "many salutations and much love from the school of miss fiske to you, our dear sisters of the school at mount holyoke. we rejoice that there is such a great institution full of holy words and the warm love of christ: we hear that many of you have an inheritance above, and are daily looking forward to it. we want to tell you how glad we are that the holy spirit has come among you, and that god has turned so many to himself. though we are great sinners, we rejoice exceedingly in the success of the work of god in every place; and we beg you to pray that the holy spirit may visit us also, and our people, and strike sharp arrows into flinty hearts, that they may melt like wax before the fire. blessed be god, that though we had become the least of all nations, and adopted many customs worse than the heathen, and our holy books were carefully laid away and never used, yet he put love into the hearts of his servants, that they should come to this dark land. we are greatly obliged to you and to your people for so kindly sending us these missionaries. they have greatly multiplied our books, and, as we trust, brought many souls to christ. some of us, formerly, knew not who christ was, or whether a redeemer had died for us; but now he has gathered us together in this school of godly instruction; and some of us are awaking to our sins, and to the great love god has shown in sending his son to die for us. we thank god very much that we know jesus christ, the only saviour. "again, we want to thank you for sending miss fiske to teach us the way of life; we love her because she greatly loves us, and desires our salvation. every day she takes much trouble that we may be the daughters of god. but her burdens are so great, that we fear she will not remain long with us, unless some one comes to help her. and now we have a petition to present: we hear that in many of you dwelleth the spirit of our master, jesus christ; and that you are ready to leave home and friends, and go to distant lands, to gather the lost sheep of christ. dear sisters, our petition is, that you will send us a teacher.[ ] we shall greatly rejoice if one comes, and will love her very much. we ask this, not because we do not love miss fiske. no! no! this is not in our hearts; but she is weak, and her work is more than she can do alone. we shall expect one to come, and pray god to bring her to us in safety. [footnote : miss mary susan rice, already mentioned in these pages, went out this same year ( ), from the seminary in south hadley.] "please remember us in your closets and in your meetings, and ask your friends to pray for us and for our people. farewell, beloved sisters." the following extracts are from a letter written by them, in , to miss susan l. tolman, now mrs. cyrus t. mills of the sandwich islands, and formerly of ceylon:-- "much love from the members of the female seminary of oroomiah to you, our dear miss tolman. we are very glad to find one who loves us so much, and prays for us. our delight in your letter was greater than we can express. miss fiske came in joyfully with it in her hand, and while she read, it seemed as if you were present, inviting and drawing us to christ. "give our love to all in your favored school, and ask them to pray for us. we love all those dear ladies, because they have been so kind to us, and have been willing that miss fiske and miss rice should leave them, and come here for our sakes. though they were dear to you, we think that now they have come to us, your joy in them is greater. we hope to hear of many of you carrying the leaves of life to the dark corners of the earth. "dear miss tolman, you said, 'you love miss fiske, you must also love miss rice.' did you think that we would not love her? we love them both, not only for leaving their friends to come to us, but also because they are full of the love of our dear redeemer. "we have heard that you are going to india. we are glad, and love you more for it, because the love of christ constrains you to this, and thus in spirit you come very near to our dear teachers. we entreat almighty god to be with you, and bring you in safety to the place he appoints for you, that you may be a light among a dark people. we hope that when there you will not forget us, but write us about your work, and about the daughters of india, whether they love you much or not. tell your friends not to sorrow for you, but to rejoice that they have a friend ready to go and teach those who know not christ. the saviour guide you in all your labors." those who aided miss lyon to carry out her large-hearted plans in new england, little dreamed that offshoots from the vine they planted would so soon be carried to the ends of the earth. who does not admire that grace which, in this missionary age, raised up such a type of piety to be diffused over the globe? doubtless it will undergo changes in persia, as it has done already; but the devout student of providence will watch its growth with interest, and its developments will not disappoint his hopes. chapter vii. vacation scenes. in gawar and ishtazin.--villages of memikan.--oobeya, darawe, and sanawar.--in gavalan.--accommodations.--sabbath school. to the interior pictures of the school in the last chapter we add some vacation scenes, though chronologically in advance of other things yet to come. [illustration: tents.] towards the close of july, , mr. stocking and family, with misses fiske and rice, and several native helpers, spent the vacation in gawar. mr. coan accompanied them on his way to regions beyond. wandering from place to place, like the patriarchs of old, they pitched their tents at first near the village of memikan. a sketch of these tents is here presented. the women there were frequent visitors, and few went away without some idea of the truth as it is in jesus. the pious natives were unwearied in labor, and sometimes woke the missionaries in the morning with prayer for the people round about them. on the sabbath, there was preaching in as many as five different villages, and after morning service in memikan, the women came to the tents to receive more particular instruction from their own sex. in the evening, a mother who had buried her son in february--then a very promising member of the seminary at seir[ ]--brought her youngest daughter, about six years of age, saying, "we give her to you in the place of guwergis. he has gone to a blessed place. you led him there. we thank you, and now intrust to you our little daughter." eshoo, the father, spoke of his departed son with much feeling, but most sweet submission. he said to miss fiske, as the big tears glistened in the moonlight, "i shall not be here long. i shall soon rejoin him. my hope in jesus grows stronger every day." the death of that dear son was not only a great spiritual blessing to him, but the mere mention of his name at once secured the attention of the villagers to any thing the missionaries had to say about his saviour. [footnote : nestorian biography, p. .] on monday, they left for a visit to the alpine district of ishtazin. unable to take horses along those frightful paths, they rode on hardy mules. in a subsequent journey over the same road, the fastenings of miss fiske's saddle gave way, and she fell, but providentially without injury. sometimes they climbed, or, more hazardous still, descended, a long, steep stairway of rock, or they were hid in the clouds that hung around the higher peaks of the mountain. now the path led them under huge, detached rocks, that seemed asking leave to overwhelm them, and now under the solid cliffs, that suggested the more grateful idea of the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. down in the valley were pleasant waterfalls, little fields rescued by much labor from the surrounding waste, choice fruits, and such a variety of flowers, that it seemed as if spring, summer, and autumn had combined to supply them. then, in looking up, the eye rested on silver threads apparently hanging down from far-off summits, but really foaming streams dashing headlong down the rocks, yet so distant that no sound came to the ear from their roaring waters. the party stopped at ooreya, on one of its flat roofs, shaded by a magnificent walnut tree. the villagers brought mulberries, apples, and other fruits, till they could prepare something more substantial, and seemed to forget their fears of the patriarch in their zealous hospitality. after supper, all adjourned to the churchyard, and there, in the bright moonlight, a crowd of eager listeners heard of christ, and redemption through his precious blood. the silence of night was broken only by the voice of the preacher, and the echoes of the surrounding cliffs seemed to repeat joyfully the unwonted sounds. yonan preached from the words "jesus went about all galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom." he commenced by asking whether christ was right in so doing. they replied, "certainly he did right." "yes," said the preacher, "and as he did, so must his followers do; and you must expect to see them in ishtazin. when we cease to climb over these precipices to come to you, fear lest we have become mussulmans, for christians cannot but go from village to village to preach the gospel." the reader will see the force of such an appeal, when he remembers that mar shimon had forbidden these people to receive the missionaries because they preached. this was followed by a statement of the doctrines that jesus preached, in which he did not fail to bring out the essence of the gospel. when he sat down, khamis, the brother of deacon tamo, followed with a most impassioned exhortation. the missionaries had thought him a good preacher before, but the place and the circumstances--he was among his own native mountains--seemed to carry him beyond himself. all through this region, the people appeared to render as much honor to him as they would have done to mar shimon. the assembly dispersed, and the travellers lay down where they were, to battle with the sand-flies till the welcome dawn lit up the conspicuous summits high above them. almost every moment of the next forenoon was filled by personal religious conversation with many who never heard such truths before. in the evening, even more fixed attention was given to another service in the open air, at the village of boobawa, for the pious mar ogen[ ] was then living there, and the bright light of his piety had not shone in vain. several were earnestly inquiring how to be saved. [footnote : nestorian biography, p. .] on thursday, the day after their return to memikan, mr. coan, priest dunkha, khamis, and deacon john left for central koordistan, and deacon isaac went to kochannes. but though the laborers were fewer, the number of visitors continued the same. next sabbath, besides two services, and two meetings with the women in memikan, there was preaching in three other villages. in chardewar, the home of priest dunkha, miss fiske found his daughter, who had come with them from oroomiah, already full of work. she had just dismissed her sabbath school, and was reading the bible with her cousin, the village priest, who did all in his power to help her, both in her school through the week, and her meetings with the women. one sabbath, almost every woman in the place had been present, as was the case also when she was visited by misses fiske and rice, and sanum said that she could not ask for a better place in which to work for christ. there was more of real hunger for the truth here than any where else in the mountains. leaving memikan, the travellers removed to darawe, the village described on page . here they could scarcely get permission to pitch their tent, or procure provision for themselves and horses; yet even in such a place, the manifestation of christian love was not without fruit, though many bitterly opposed them to the last. the neighboring villages wondered at the missionaries going there at all, and still more at their being able to remain. at keyat, the kindness of the people, and pleasant intercourse with them, were all the more grateful for the contrast with what had gone before. here miss fiske met with that kind reception from mar shimon, then passing through the place, described on page , while the tent literally flowed with milk and honey furnished by the villagers, whom he had charged to take good care of their visitors. on the following sabbath, yonan preached to a congregation of about two hundred, at sanawar, where forty families of refugees from saat were spending the summer. when miss fiske and miss rice visited their camp, they found a number of temporary huts enclosing a circle, where the domestic labors of spinning, weaving, and cooking were actively going on. all the women at once left their work, and welcomed their visitors with every mark of confidence and gladness. some of them had heard the gospel from the missionaries in mosul, as they had often spent the winter near there. so they drank in every word with eagerness. the ladies were delighted with their visit, especially with a widow, who, though unable to read, showed unusual familiarity with the bible, and, as they hoped, a spiritual acquaintance with its doctrines. when the topic of our fallen nature was mentioned, "yes," said she, "we were all shapen in iniquity, as david testifies." when asked if she had any hope of being saved from sin, she replied, "i am very far from god, yet my only hope is in the wounded side of jesus christ. if penitently i stand beneath the blood dropping from his cross, i hope that my sins, though red like scarlet, may become as white as snow." her views of the way of salvation were not only clear, but beautifully expressed. it was exceedingly refreshing, in that region where they had expected only darkness, thus to find the rays of light struggling through from their associates in another mission; and it gave a delightful foretaste of the time when the voice of one watchman upon those mountain tops should reach to another, and on all sides the eye behold the trophies of immanuel. it was with feelings of peculiar interest that they heard, some years after, that this stranger in sanawar, but, as they fondly hoped, their sister in christ, held fast her confidence in his grace to the end, and so fell asleep in jesus. for a companion picture to the preceding, we turn to the summer of . mr. stocking moved out to gavalan, the native place of mar tohanan, early in the season, and both teachers followed, with thirteen of their pupils, about the middle of june. the village lies near the base of a range of mountains, at the northern end of the plain of oroomiah, forty miles distant from the city. on the east the blue waters of the lake seem to touch the sky, and stretch away to the south in quiet loveliness. sometimes, when reposing in the gorgeous light of sunset, or reflecting the red rays of the full moon, they remind the beholder of the "sea of glass mingled with fire" revealed to the beloved disciple. the breeze from the lake, in the long summer days, is very grateful, and the evening air from the mountains makes sleep refreshing. mar yohanan gave the school free use of two rooms as long as it remained. in the court yard before them a large tent was pitched, that served for dining room, dormitory, and reception room, or diwan khaneh. an adjoining house afforded a comfortable recitation room. here the regular routine of the school went on, and while men from the village found their way to mr. stocking's at the hour of evening prayer, women also came to the school room at the same hour. at the last meeting of this kind before miss fiske returned to the city, nearly forty were present, listening with quiet attention to the words of life. on the sabbath, the sides of the tent were lifted outward from the bottom, and fastened in a horizontal position, so as to admit the air and exclude the sun. the ground beneath was covered with mats, and formed quite a pleasant chapel. in the forenoon, this was thronged with attentive hearers. the children of the boys' school in the village sat close to their teacher. the members of the girls' school could be distinguished from their playmates by the greater smoothness of their hair, the whiteness of their faces, and general tidiness. among the old men, the venerable father of the bishop was very conspicuous. the members of the seminary crowded round their teachers so as to leave more room for others, and still all could not get under the shadow of the wings of the tabernacle. mr. stocking preached in the forenoon, and in the afternoon the people came together again as a sabbath school. each of the pupils of the seminary had a class of women or girls, and seemed to learn how to do good faster than ever before. they visited them at their houses during the week; they sought out the absentees; and it was delightful to go round the school and note the interest of both scholar and teacher. if these were zealous in teaching, those were no less so in learning. the classes, after the introductory services, filled every available corner in the rooms, the tent, the front of the house, and even sat on the low mud wall of the court. with the same variety of character, there was greater diversity of lessons than in schools at home. some studied the old testament, and some the new; others were just learning to read, and those who could not read at all were taught the scriptures orally. one class of armenians was taught in turkish. matters went on very well for two sabbaths, but on the third, women and children had vanished. what was the matter? it had been reported that all this labor was only a preparation to transport them to america, and the simple-minded mothers staid away with their children in great trepidation; but visits from house to house, during the week, dispelled their fears, and next sabbath all were again in their places, and this pleasant labor in gavalan continued till september. chapter viii. early labors for women. first meetings with them.--first convekt.--first lessons.--wild women of ardishai. the teachers of the seminary did not confine their labors to its inmates; they expended both time and toil for adult women as well as for their daughters, and never felt that they gave them too large a proportion of their labors. at first there was a strong feeling among most of the women that they might not worship god along with deacons and readers; and so they could not be persuaded to attend public preaching. but miss fiske found that a few would come to her room at the same hour; so, encouraged by her missionary sisters whose hearts were in the work, but whose family cares prevented their doing it themselves, she visited the women at their houses, to urge them to come in. then, as her own knowledge of the language was as yet imperfect (this was in ), and she wisely judged that listening to a gentleman would sooner prepare them to come in to the regular service, she secured one of the missionary brethren to conduct the meeting. the first day only five attended; but soon she enjoyed the sight of about forty mothers listening to the truth as it is in jesus. on the third sabbath, she was struck with the fixed attention of one of them, and, on talking with her alone, found her deeply convinced of sin. she had not before seen one who did not feel perfectly prepared to die; but this one groaned, being burdened, and seemed bowed to the dust with the sense of her unworthiness. when miss fiske prayed with her, she repeated each petition in a whisper after her, and rose from her knees covered with perspiration, so intensely was she moved: her life, she said, had been one of rebellion against god; and she knew that no prayers, fasts, or other outward observances, had benefited her, or could procure forgiveness. in this state of mind she was directed to christ and his righteousness as her only hope; and though for some time little progress was apparent, at length, as she herself expressed it, "i was praying, and the lord poured peace into my soul." the change in her character was noticed by her neighbors. from being one of the most turbulent and disagreeable of the women in her vicinity, she became noted for her gentleness and general consistency. she has since died, and her last days were full of a sweet trust in her saviour. she was the first inquirer among nestorian women. this meeting was given up as soon as the women found their way to the regular service; but ever since there have been separate meetings for them at other hours. until the revival in , those who conducted these meetings had to labor alone, for there were none of the nestorians to help them. indeed, miss fiske had been in oroomiah more than two years, before women came much to her for strictly religious conversation, or could be induced to sit down to the study of the scriptures. some of her first efforts to interest them in the bible were almost amusing in the difficulties encountered, and the manner in which they were overcome. she would seat herself among them on the earthen floor, and read a verse, then ask questions to see if they understood it. for example: after reading the history of the creation (for she began at the beginning), she asked, "who was the first man?" _answer_. "what do we know? we are women;" which was about equivalent in english to "we are donkeys." the passage was read again, and the question repeated with no better success. then she told them, adam was the first man, and made them repeat the name adam over and over till they remembered it. the next question was, "what does it mean?" here, too, they could give no answer; not because they did not know, for the word was in common use among them; but they had no idea that they could answer, and so they did not, and were perfectly delighted to find that the first man was called _red earth_, because he was made of it. this was enough for one lesson. it set them to thinking. it woke up faculties previously dormant. the machinery was there, perfect in all its parts, but so rusted from disuse, that it required no little skill and patience to make it move at all; but the least movement was a great gain; more was sure to follow. another lesson would take up eve (syriac, _hawa_, meaning _life_). miss fiske would begin by saying, "is not that a pretty name? and would you not like to know that you had a great-great-grandmother called _life?_ now, that was the name of our first mother--both yours and mine." it was interesting to notice how faces previously stolid would light up with animation after that, if the preacher happened to repeat the name of our first parents, and how one would touch another, whispering with childish joy, "didn't you hear? he said adam." such were the women who came to the seminary for instruction; but the teachers also went forth to search out the no less besotted females in the villages; and, as a counterpart to the above, we present an account of labors among the wild women of ardishai, a village twelve miles south-east from oroomiah. when miss fiske had been in oroomiah about one year, mr. stocking proposed a visit to ardishai. so the horses were brought to the gate, one bearing the tent, another the baskets containing mr. stocking's children, and a third miscellaneous baggage; besides the saddle horses. the first night, the tent was pitched on one of the threshing floors of geog tapa; but as american ladies were a novelty in ardishai, the party there, in order to secure a little quiet, had to pitch their tent on the flat roof of a house. it was miss fiske's first day in a large village, and she became so exhausted by talking with the women, that she can never think of that weary saturday without a feeling of fatigue. as the village is near the lake, the swarms of mosquitoes allowed them no rest at night; and morning again brought the crowd with its idle curiosity as unsatisfied as the appetite of more diminutive assailants. about nine o'clock, all went to the church, where mr. stocking preached, while the women sat in most loving proximity to their strange sisters, handling and commenting on their dresses during the discourse. mr. stocking could preach though others talked, and readily raised his voice so as to be heard above the rest. at the close, priest abraham, without consulting any one, rose and announced two meetings for the afternoon; one in another church for men, and a second in this for women, who must all come, because the lady from the new world was to preach. so the news flew through the neighboring villages. the good lady called the priest to account for his doings; but he replied, "i knew that they would come if i said that, and yon can preach very well, for your girls told me so." he was greatly disappointed, however, when he found that his notice left him alone to preach to the men, while mr. stocking preached to some six hundred women, with half as many children. they were a rude, noisy company, not one of them all caring for the truth; and there was no moment when at least half a dozen voices could not be heard besides the preacher's. when he closed, as many as twenty cried out, "now let miss fiske preach." so he withdrew, and left her to their tender mercies. her preaching was soon finished. she simply told them, that when she knew their language better, she would come and talk with them, but she could not talk at the same time that they did, for god had given her a very small voice, and her words would no more mingle with theirs than oil and water. they said, "oil and water never mix; but we will be silent if you will come and preach." months passed on, and she again visited the village. the women remembered her promise, and hundreds came together; but they did not remember to be silent. as soon as she began, they began; and if she asked them to be quiet, each exhorted her neighbor, at the top of her voice, to be still; and the louder the uproar, of course the louder the reproofs. at length miss fiske said, "i cannot say any more, unless you all put your fingers on your mouths." all the fingers went up, and she proceeded: "i have a good story to tell you; but if one takes her finger from her mouth, i cannot tell it." instantly muzzled voices, all round the church, cried, "be still, be still, so that we can hear the story!" some minutes elapsed, and the four hundred women were silent. "once there was an old woman--i did not know her, nor did my father, and i think my grandfather did not; but he told me--" here commenced many inquiries about said grandfather; but again the fingers were ordered to their places, and their owners told that they should hear no more about the woman if they talked about the grandfather. "now, this woman talked in meeting,--i should think she must have been a relative of yours, for ours do not talk in meeting,--and after many reproofs she was forbidden to go to church any more if she continued to do so. she promised very faithfully; but, poor woman, she could not be still; then, as soon as she heard her own voice, she cried out, 'o, i have spoken in meeting. what shall i do? why, i keep speaking, and i cannot stop.' now, you are very much like this woman, and as i think you cannot stop, i must." by this time their fingers were pressed closely on their lips, and no one made a reply. having thus secured silence, miss fiske took the new testament, and read to them of mary, who, she was sure, never talked in meeting; for if she had, jesus would not have loved her so much. she talked to them about fifteen minutes more, and prayed with them, and they went away very still and thoughtful. miss fiske gave this account to the writer, with no idea that he would print it. but he thinks--and the reader will doubtless agree with him--that in no other way could he convey so vivid an idea of woman as she was in persia, or the tact needed to secure a first hearing for the truth. miss fiske was often called to deal with just such rude assemblages, and by varied methods she generally succeeded in securing attention. in subsequent visits to ardishai the number of hearers was never again so large; but they came together from better motives, and, as we shall see, not without the blessing of the lord. in march, , miss rice met nearly three hundred women in the same church, some of them awakened, and a few already hopefully pious. chapter ix. fruits of labor in nestorian homes. usefulness among relatives of pupils.--deacon guwergis.--reformed drunkard and his daughter.--maternal meetings.---early inquirers from geog tapa.--parting address of mr. holladay.--visit to geog tapa.--selby and her closet. having thus glanced at early labors for women in the seminary and in the villages, let us now turn to another field of usefulness among the relatives of the pupils, who came to visit them in school; and here we are at no loss for a notable illustration. in the autumn of , deacon guwergis, of tergawer,--and almost every reader was either priest or deacon,--brought his oldest daughter, then about twelve years of age, and begged for her admission to the seminary. he was known as one of the vilest and most defiantly dissolute of the nestorians, and miss fiske shrunk from receiving the daughter of such a man into her flock. yet, on the ground that, like her master, she was sent not to the righteous, but to the lost, she concluded to receive her. still the father, during his short stay, showed such a spirit of avarice and shameless selfishness,--he even asked for the clothes his daughter had on when she came,--that she rejoiced when he went away. his home was twenty-five miles off, in the mountains, and she hoped that winter snows would soon shield her from his dreaded visits. little did she think that his next coming would result in his salvation. in february he again presented himself at her door in his koordish costume, gun, dagger, and belt of ammunition all complete. he came on saturday, when many of the pupils were weeping over their sins; and the teacher could not but feel that the wolf had too truly entered the fold. he ridiculed their anxiety for salvation, and opposed the work of grace, in his own reckless way. she tried to guard her charge from his attacks as best she could; but they were too divinely convinced of sin to be much affected by what he said. his own daughter, at length, distressed at his conduct, begged him to go alone with her to pray. (the window on the right of the central door of the seminary points out the place.) ho mocked and jeered, but went, confident in his power to cure her superstition. "do you not think that i too can pray?" and he repeated over his form in ancient syriac, as a wizard would mutter his incantation. his child then implored mercy for her own soul, and for her perishing father, as a daughter might be expected to do, just awakened to her own guilt and the preciousness of redemption. as he heard the words "save, o, save my father, going down to destruction," he raised his clinched hand to strike; but, as he said afterwards, "god held me back from it." no entreaties of his daughter could prevail on him to enter the place of prayer again that day. the native teacher, murad khan, then recently converted, took him to his own room, and reasoned with him till late at night. sabbath morning found him not only fixed in his rebellion, but toiling to prevent others coming to christ. at noon miss fiske went to the room where he was. (the two lower windows on the right of the engraving of the seminary mark the place.) he sat in the only chair there, and never offered her a seat; so she stood by him, and tried to talk; but he sternly repelled every attempt to speak of jesus. she then took his hand, and said, "deacon guwergis, i see you do not wish me to speak with you, and i promise you that i will never do it again unless you wish it; but pledge me one thing: when we stand together in judgment, and you are on the left hand, as you must be if you go on in your present course, promise me that you will then testify, that on this twenty-second day of february, , you were warned of your danger." he gave no pledge, but a weeping voice said, "let me pray." the hand was withdrawn, and he passed into the adjoining room, whence soon issued a low voice, that miss fiske could hardly yet believe was prayer. the bell rung for meeting, and she sent her precious charge alone, while she staid to watch the man whose previous character and conduct led her to fear that he was only feigning penitence in order to plunder the premises undisturbed. she staid till a voice seemed to say, what doest thou here, elijah? then went and took her place in the chapel; soon the door opened again very gently, and deacon guwergis entered; but how changed! his gun and dagger were laid aside; the folds of his turban had fallen over his forehead; his hands were raised to his face; and the big tears fell in silence; he sank into the nearest seat, and laid his head upon the desk. after mr. stoddard had pronounced the blessing, miss fiske requested mr. stocking to see deacon guwergis. he took him to his study, and there, in bitterness of soul, the recent blasphemer cried out, "o my sins! my sins! they are higher than the mountains of jeloo." "yes," said mr. stocking, "but if the fires of hell could be out, you would not be troubled--would you?" the strong man now bowed down in his agony, exclaiming, "sir, even if there were no hell, i could not bear this load of sin. i could not live as i have lived." that night he could not sleep. in the morning, miss fiske begged mr. stoddard to see him, and after a short interview he returned, telling her that the dreaded guwergis was sitting at the feet of jesus. "my great sins," and "my great saviour," was all that he could say. he was subdued and humble, and before noon left for his mountain home, saying, as he left, "i must tell my friends and neighbors of sin and of jesus." yet he trembled in view of his own weakness, and the temptations that might befall him. nothing was heard from him for two weeks, when priest eshoo was sent to his village, and found him in his own house, telling his friends "of sin and of jesus." he had erected the family altar, and at that moment was surrounded by a company weeping for their sins. so changed was his whole character, and so earnest were his exhortations, that for a time some looked on him as insane; but the sight of his meekness and forgiving love under despiteful usage amazed them, and gave them an idea of vital piety they never had before. he returned to oroomiah, bringing with him his wife, another child, and brother, and soon found his way to miss fiske's room. as he opened the door, she stood on the opposite side; but the tears were in his eyes, and extending his hand as he approached, he said, "i know you did not believe me; but you will love me--will you not?" and she did love him, and wondered at her own want of faith. in a few days, he was able to tell mr. stocking, with holy joy, that two of his brothers were anxiously seeking the way of life. his own growth in grace surprised every one, and his views of salvation by grace were remarkably clear and accurate. when his daughter returned to school, on the th of march, she was accompanied by one of her father's brothers, who seemed to have cast away his own righteousness, and to rely on christ alone for pardon. as no missionary had conversed with him, mr. stocking felt desirous to know how he had been led into the kingdom, and learned that he had promised deacon guwergis to spend the sabbath with one of the native teachers of the female seminary. this teacher and others prayed with him, till he threw away his dagger, saying, "i have no more use for this," and in tears cried out, "what shall i do to be saved?" he gave no evidence then of having submitted to christ, but in his mountain home he seemed to make a full surrender, and became well acquainted with the mercy seat. the native helpers felt that he was moving heavenward faster than themselves. in april, it was found that as many as nine persons in hakkie, the village of deacon guwergis, gave evidence of regeneration, five of them members of his own family; and the whole village listened to the truth which the zealous deacon constantly taught. he always remembered the school as his spiritual birthplace, and ever loved to pray for it. once, when rising from his knees in the male seminary, where he had been leading in evening devotion, he exclaimed, "o god, forgive me. i forgot to pray for miss fiske's school." so he knelt again and prayed for it. and mr. stoddard said he did not think there was a smile on a single face, it was done with such manifest simplicity and godly sincerity. in june, , miss fiske visited hakkie with mr. and mrs. stocking. it was the first time ladies had been in the mountains, and the good deacon was greatly delighted. labors were then commenced for females there that have been continued ever since. the annexed sketch will give a more vivid idea of the nature of such labors than the most accurate description. one day the party was toiling up a rough ascent, and the deacon, as much at home among the rocks as the wild goats, offered his assistance. the reply was, "we get on very well." at once his eyes filled, and he said, "you once helped me in a worse road; may i not now help you?" and his aid was at once gratefully accepted. at the top of the hill, while the party rested, they heard his voice far off among the clefts of the rocks, pleading for them and their relatives in distant america. [illustration: missionary scene in teegawer.] after his conversion, the deacon devoted himself to labors for souls, especially in the mountains. one might always see a tear and a smile on his face, and he was ever ready, as at first, to speak "of sin and of jesus." he traversed the mountains many times on foot, with his testament and hymn book in his knapsack. in the rugged passes, he would sing, "rock of ages, cleft for me," and at the spring by the wayside, "there is a fountain filled with blood" flowed spontaneously from his lips. he warned every man, night and day, with tears, and pointed them to jesus as their only hope. he rested from his labors march th, , and, as his mind wandered in the delirium of that brain fever, he dwelt much on those days when he first learned the way to christ. he would say, "o, miss fiske was right when she pointed out that way;" and then he would shout, "free grace! free grace!" till he sunk away unconscious. again he would say, "that blessed mr. stocking! o, it was free grace." these were almost his last words. the daughter who prayed with him that first saturday was by his dying bed, and her voice in prayer was the last earthly sound that fell upon his ear. it may strike the reader as strange that a man so notorious for wickedness as deacon guwergis was, should be allowed in the seminary; but oriental notions of hospitality are widely different from ours; and in order to do good to a people, however rude, they must feel that you are their friend. no protection from government can take the place of this feeling of affectionate confidence from the people; and while sufficient help was at hand to repel any overt wickedness, the highest usefulness required that patient love should have its perfect work, and in this case, at least, its labor was not unrewarded. the usefulness of the seminary among the relatives of its pupils was illustrated in another case that occurred about the same time. march d, , the father of one of the girls called and inquired, with tears, if his daughter was troubled for her sins. surprised at such an inquiry from a notorious drunkard, he was exhorted to seek his own salvation. he then told how he had been taught the plague of his own heart, and, as a ruined sinner, was clinging to christ alone. his prayers showed that he was no stranger at the throne of grace. father and daughter spent the evening mingling their supplications and tears before the mercy seat. the daughter had given more trouble than any in school, and several times had almost been sent away. four days later, her mother came, and remained several days, almost the whole time in tears, and hardly speaking, except to pray. her daughter and the pious members of the school were unwilling to let her go till she came to christ, and she seemed to take him for her saviour before she left. she was a sister of priest abraham, and had been so exceedingly clamorous and profane in her opposition to religion, that her brother had for years dreaded to see her. how did he rejoice, when, instead of the customary oath, he found her uttering the praises of her saviour! the sister of her husband had been one of the vainest of the vain, wearing an amount of ornament unusual even for a nestorian; but she no sooner put on the righteousness of christ than she sold her ornaments, and, giving the proceeds to the poor, clothed herself with that modest apparel which becometh women professing godliness. the husband himself, though an illiterate laborer, preached the gospel while at work in the field, and often took two or three of his associates aside to pray with them, and to tell them of christ and his salvation. but these cases must suffice: we can only indicate the ways in which the school became a centre of holy influence, especially for woman; but it is impossible to narrate all the facts. after the revival, the seminary was thronged with visitors, who desired the time to be filled up with religious instruction. that year witnessed a rich ingathering of wives and mothers, brought by their converted husbands and children to be taught the way of salvation. the teacher who received visitors always found enough to do both by day and by night. as soon as there were two praying women in a village, miss fiske and miss rice sought to establish female prayer meetings; and when they visited a village, the women expected to be called together for prayer; and when the women returned the visit, they each sought to be prayed and conversed with alone. this was done also with the communicants generally three times a year. the prayers and remarks of the pious members of the school often gave a high spiritual tone to the weekly prayer meeting. occasionally there were maternal meetings; and on such occasions one teacher met with the mothers, and the other with the children in a separate room. these took the place of the early meetings with women mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, and were very useful. nestorian families have been already described in part, but the absence of the religious element in them can hardly be realized by christians here. they did not believe that a child was possessed of a soul until it was forty days old. this belief affected all their feelings towards children, and their custom of burying unbaptized infants outside of their cemeteries did not serve to correct such impressions. family registers were unknown. in , probably not five nestorians could tell their birthday, and but few knew in what year they were born. miss fiske kept a list of all the children, which was read at every meeting; but at first she could record the birth of only the very youngest. the deceased children were written down in a separate page, and it was sad to see how much they exceeded the number of the living. one childless mother, who had buried eleven, was always present; for she said she wanted to pray for the children of others, though her own were not. they assembled in miss fiske's room, sometimes to the number of thirty, with, such of their little ones as were too small to attend the other meeting, and, seated on the floor around her, were never more happy than when telling their troubles, asking questions, and receiving instructions about family duties, much more specific than could be given on other occasions. now and then she read to them, from english books, facts and truths adapted to their needs. one good man in fairhaven, connecticut, who had heard of this, sent a complete set of the mother's magazine, to be used in that way. so interested were they, that many of them walked regularly three miles and back again, under a burning sun, to enjoy these gatherings; and from a monthly, it had to be changed to a weekly meeting. it sometimes lasted three hours, but never seemed to them too long; and, commenced in , it is still kept up with as much regularity as miss rice's many other duties will allow. it would be interesting to dwell on its results; but a single incident may suffice. one mother, whose husband was not a christian, was very regular in private devotion, but thought she could not offer prayer in the family, till her husband became dangerously sick, when, in the agony of her intercession for him, she vowed that, if god would spare him, she would establish family prayer. so, as soon as he was able to bear it, she gathered her children around his bed, and after they had read the first chapter of matthew, verse about, she led in prayer, and so went on reading the new testament in the morning and the old testament in the evening, till she got through with the whole of the former, before any one of the missionaries knew that she had commenced. the teachers of the seminary enjoyed very much the visits of the early inquirers from geog tapa, in the summer of , most of whom became hopefully pious the following winter. let us look in on one visit made towards the end of may. a pupil announces that two women below wish to see miss fiske; and a middle-aged stranger is shown into her room. in answer to the usual inquiry, "from whence do you come?" she replies, "i have come from geog tapa, for i have heard that you have repented, and i want to know about it." she has walked six miles on purpose to make the inquiry. "i wish that you, too, had repented," calls forth the reply, "alas, i have not! i am on my way to destruction." feeling that the bible was the safest guide for such an inquirer, miss fiske reads appropriate portions, explaining as she reads. the visitor shows a great deal of bible knowledge for one who cannot read, indicating that she had not been inattentive to the faithful instructions of priest abraham and deacon john, and her questions are numerous and intensely practical. among other things, she asked, "is it true, that for one sin adam and eve were cast out of eden?" and on being told that it was so, "there," said she, turning to the unconcerned neighbor, who had come with her, "do you hear that? what will become of you and me, who have sinned so often?" at length prayer was proposed, to which she eagerly and tearfully assented; and though the tongue that commended her to jesus, in that strange language, might have faltered, the heart did not share in the embarrassment. the woman, like the first inquirer, repeated every word of the prayer in a low whisper, as though unwilling to lose a single syllable. the conversation was then resumed till it was interrupted by the entrance of some of the pupils on business. "have you finished?" was the woman's eager inquiry. "i wish very much to hear more of these things." her companion now begged her to go home. "no," was the kind reply; "you may go, but i must stay here to prayers." evening prayers were earlier than usual that evening for her sake, but still she lingered. she had not yet found rest. selby, one of mrs. grant's pupils, then in the seminary, now conversed with her; and as there seemed to be a sympathy between them (selby had recently found peace in believing), they were left by themselves. after supper, selby remained with her an hour or more, that they might pray together, till it was quite dark, and her friends had sent for her repeatedly. she left, having first begged permission to come in to morning prayers. morning came, and before sunrise she was again listening intently to the reading of the word, and, after devotions, left for home, earnestly begging miss fiske to come and spend a week in geog tapa. the seminary was dismissed june th. on that day, several hundreds of the parents and friends of the pupils, in both seminaries, were invited to a simple entertainment, got up in native style. the gentlemen of the mission ate in one room, with the men and boys, and the ladies in another, with their own sex. the confidence and kind feeling manifested by all towards the school was very gratifying. after dinner, the whole company, seated in the court, listened to an address from mr. holladay, then about to return home. he spoke to parents and children on their duties, privileges, and responsibilities: towards the close, he spoke of the almost certainty of never meeting them again till the judgment, and bade them an affectionate farewell. his utterance was often choked, and his hearers wept; and well they might, for in him they parted with a faithful friend. during the exercises, the members of the two schools sang, twice, to the great gratification of their friends. that evening most of the pupils went home, all but a few of the girls carrying with them a copy of the four gospels, in modern syriac, which they had paid for with their needles. miss fiske left for geog tapa on the th of june with mr. stocking, reaching that place as the people were coming out from evening prayers in the church. the first to welcome them were six pupils, residents in the village, who greeted their teacher with a hearty good will. next to them came pareza, the inquirer, changed somewhat in her feelings, but with no loss of religious interest. john, too, was there (the native pastor): he had been busy, day and night, instructing the people, and had taken special care of the pupils, that they might both improve themselves and exert a good influence on others. when mr. stocking asked him about matters in the village, "o sir," said he, "it is a very good time here now; very many love to hear the truth; their hearts are very open. o sir, i have very much hope!" after supper, the villagers poured into the room for a meeting, to the number of one hundred, while some thirty or forty more were unable to get in. this was all the more welcome, as no notice whatever had been given. it was a clear moonlight evening, and the groups outside were distinctly visible, through the latticed side of the room. john commenced with an earnest prayer for a blessing on the evening; asking, in his simplicity, that "the people might run after the word like sheep after salt"--a strange expression to us, but most appropriate and striking there. fixed attention was given to mr. stocking's discourse: then john, who feared that those around the door had not been fed, spoke to them of zaccheus. "the crowd about him," said he, "did not know his feelings; but jesus knew them, and loved him; and so, mothers and sisters"--they, as an inferior class, had to take the lowest places while the men were within--"if you have come here to-night with a broken heart, though we have not seen you, jesus has." he then, with miss fiske's pupils, sung a hymn, and the meeting closed. still, many women lingered; some sitting down by miss fiske, and others in little groups, talking over what they had heard; very different from previous visits, when dress and such things were the most interesting themes of conversation. this was the first meeting in the village in which the missionaries noticed much religious interest. early in the morning, miss fiske's pupils were gathered together for a bible class. the women soon filled the room. the exercise continued all the forenoon, simply because it could not be closed. it was impossible to send away unfed those who hungered for the word. among the women were a few men, one of them the husband of the inquirer. he was asked, "have you and your wife chosen the good part?" he covered his face for a moment; the tears rolled down his cheeks; and then he said, "by the grace of god, i hope we have." his heart was too full to say more. soon after noon, mr. stocking preached in the church, on the barren fig tree, to a crowded assembly. the heat and the multitude made the place very uncomfortable, but the interest deepened till the close. as soon as they were out of the church, many women crowded around miss fiske, some of whom she could look on as truly pious, and more as thoughtful. one, who was the first to be awakened about a year before, seemed now a growing christian. on leaving, she said, "perhaps i shall not see you again till i meet you in heaven." she seemed to be looking forward with humble hope to a sinless home. with others, she had encountered much opposition from her family and friends. she has since entered into rest. on the th, selby visited miss fiske, and in answer to a question about a place for private devotion, "o, yes," said she, "there is a deep hole under our house, like a cellar, and there i go every day to pray." a brief account of her may not here be out of place. in , when she was an infant in her mother's arms, the cholera in five days carried her father and five of his household to the grave. in , she was one of the first pupils of mrs. grant. she learned more rapidly than the rest, and yet was so amiable that she was loved by those whom she excelled. still, she was a stranger to god, and she felt it. when thirteen years of age, her brother took her out of school, replying to her earnest pleadings, to be allowed to remain, "you have been there already too long." at the same time she was forced to marry a boy twelve years of age, with whom she had never spoken. for days previously, tears were her meat and drink; nor was she the only one that wept. after this, the missionaries seldom saw her, till, one cold sabbath in the winter of - , a girl entered the chapel, wrapped, as brides usually are, in a large, white sheet. she was not recognized, of course, till her mother led her forward, saying, "i have brought selby here to-day to listen to the words of god; she loves them and you very much." she was feeble and much depressed, and expressed a strong desire to return to school. her father-in-law consented to her teaching in the primary department, on condition that her husband was received into the boys' seminary, which was done. she now manifested much interest in religion, and one day wept much, and inclined to be alone. the next evening, she went to miss fiske, distressed with a sense of sin. said she, "i have lied, and stolen, and sworn; nor that only, but have lived so long without once loving my kind, heavenly father! when i felt sadly about dying at home, i thought then only of hell; but now my sins--o, how many they are! i never knew before that i was such a sinner." the next day, at her father-in-law's request, she was to spend the sabbath at home. she was very loath to go, but it was not thought best to try to retain her, and she went. there she found neither closet nor christian friend, and the house was full of guests from morning till night, whom, she was required to entertain. yet in the morning she returned with even increased interest in spiritual things. said she, "two or three times i was left alone for a moment, and then i tried to commit my soul to my saviour." those few moments she seemed to value above all price. not long after, she found peace in jesus, who became her chosen theme. no wonder she loved to point others also to the lamb of god, and lead them to the mercy seat. chapter x. geog tapa. deacon murad khan in .--pentecostal sabbath in .--meetings in and .--extracts from journal of yonan in . the village of geog tapa is so prominent, and has been so largely blessed, that, though there is not room for a continuous account of the work in that place, we here give a glimpse of its progress in different years. deacon murad khan, one of the assistants in the seminary, and a native of the place, spent some sabbaths there in may, . he took turns with the other native teacher in this, going saturday, and returning on monday. he tells us that, after morning prayers in the church, pious men met together to pray for a blessing on the day; twelve of their number then went to labor in other villages, the rest remaining to work at home. passing through a vineyard, he found hidden among the vines a youth setting home gospel truth to a group of others about his own age. at their request, he expounded the parable of the ten virgins to them till it was time for forenoon service; then they separated, to spend a few moments in private devotion before entering the church. in , the pious men of the village divided it into districts, and visited from house to house for religious conversation and prayer. meetings were held daily, and well attended. the most abandoned persons were hopefully converted. crimes committed twenty-five years before were confessed, and restitution made. one sabbath in february, mr. stocking and mar yohanan found a large assembly in the house of mar elias, listening to an exhortation from priest abraham. mar yohanan, who had not been there since his conversion a little while before, was then called on, and spoke of himself as the chief of sinners, having led more souls to destruction than any other of his people, and being all covered with their blood. in regard to his flock he said, the fattest he had eaten, the poorest he had cast away, the lame and the sick he had neglected. he begged them no longer to look to their bishops for salvation, but to repent at once and turn to god. priest abraham, then recently awakened, also made a humble confession of his sins as their priest, and besought them, one and all, to attend to the salvation of their souls. in the afternoon, the church was crowded, and a number, unable to gain admission, retired to a school room, where a meeting was conducted by a member of the male seminary. in the church, they sung the hymn, "come, holy spirit, heavenly dove." mar yohanan offered prayer, and mr. stocking preached from the text, "now, then, we are ambassadors for christ," and produced a very deep impression, which was increased by short addresses from the bishop and others. this was known afterwards by the name of the pentecostal sabbath. in , those previously renewed gained new light, and those whose piety was doubtful--to use deacon john's broken english,-were "very much firmed." miss fiske and miss rice spent a day in the village, after the close of their spring term, and had delightful intercourse with about twenty women hopefully pious, and many more inquirers. in the evening, supper was hurried through, and men, women, and children hastened to the house of the pastor. mr. stocking preached there to a crowded assembly of men, while the teachers adjourned to a neighboring house, to meet with the women. their hearts were full at meeting so many for whom they had alternately hoped and feared, now sitting in heavenly places in christ jesus; they remembered seeing their first penitential tears, and could hardly restrain their own for joy. the house was full, and in a silence interrupted only by stifled sobs, they communed together concerning jesus and his grace. it seemed as though god perfected praise that night out of the mouths of babes, by keeping them perfectly still in their mothers' aims; and as the pupils of the seminary belonging to the village, in their prayers, laid mothers, sisters, and friends at the feet of jesus, the place seemed near to heaven. next day, about one hundred and fifty attended another meeting, and it was with difficulty the teachers could tear themselves away. one of the pious mothers could not bear to have her daughter, recently converted in the seminary, leave her sight; and more than once a day they bowed together at the throne of grace. when this mother met miss fiske her feelings were so intense she could only say, "thank god," over and over, and weep. her husband was moved by his child's anxiety for his salvation. once, when she urged him to pray, he replied, "i cannot; but you may pray for me." she at once knelt and interceded for him, with many tears. the gray-headed man knelt also, deeply moved, and tears flowed from eyes not used to weep. when she ceased praying, she rose; but his strength was gone; he could not rise. yet the love of the world was strong within him, and it is to be feared that he resisted the holy ghost. in , miss fiske found about sixty families maintaining family prayer, and hardly a family in which there was not some one that seemed to be a true disciple. john held a prayer meeting sabbath morning with those whom he sent out, two and two, to preach in the neighboring villages, and in the evening they reported what they had done. sabbath school commenced about nine o'clock, and before it opened, almost all were reading or listening to those that read; and then the school continued in session two hours, without a sign of weariness. the number wishing to learn to read was so large that it was difficult to provide for them. men came begging good teachers for their wives, and women came pleading for spelling books for their husbands. after school, at their own request, miss fiske met twenty-one girls, who had been members of her school (twenty of them now teachers in the sabbath school), and gave them a word of counsel and encouragement in their work. at the close of afternoon service, the women who could read staid with her till near sunset, they never so thankful before, and she never more thankful to be with them. the next glimpse we take of geog tapa shall be from a native standpoint. a young man of the village, possessed of more than ordinary abilities, was early taken into the male seminary. his influence over the rest was so great, and so decidedly opposed to religion, that he was about to be sent away, when grace made him the first fruit of the revival in . yonan (for that is his name) was a teacher in the female seminary from till , and, as he was generally accustomed to spend his sabbaths in his native village, on monday morning he handed in to miss fiske a written report of the labors of the previous day; and from, these we now give some extracts:-- "_january th_, . i had a pleasant time in morning family prayer, at which several young persons were present. the sabbath school was followed by a meeting, at the close of which i returned to my room with four young men. i talked with them about two hours, first about coming to church,--for they attend only occasionally,--and in this they promised to do better. i then questioned until i reached their inmost souls. i asked one, 'what is the distance between you and god?' 'my teacher, there is a very great distance between us.' 'is it god's fault, or yours?' 'it is mine.' i then looked on another, noted for his wickedness, and said, 'beloved, did not christ come for you? his stripes, his anguish, his crucifixion,--were they not for you? why, then, treat him so ill? has he left the least thing undone for you?' he admitted the truth, but seemed like a rock. at length i said to them, 'now, satan has provided something or somebody outside the door, to drive these thoughts from your hearts.' one replied, 'true, satan has let down all the nets of the sea of ardishai[ ] for us.' i prayed for them, and they left me, serious. then i prayed for them alone. soon my little sister raheel came in, who is under papal influence. i talked with her about prayer to the saints, and opened to the ten commandments, and began to read; but she did not want to hear. my heart yearned over my poor sister, and i prayed with her. [footnote : lake of oroomiah.] "moses preached in the afternoon about achan, and after that i had my usual meeting with the pious women. guly returned with me for conversation. i think she is a blessed christian. she labors and prays with two of her companions. she told how her cousin ridiculed her, and i encouraged her to go forward, but said, 'if all the world think you a christian, don't rest till you can say, 'i know in whom i have believed."' we prayed together, and o, what a prayer she offered! deacon siyad led the evening meeting. "_january th_. after morning service, i took baba khan and guwergis to my room. the first i had labored with last year, and thought him interested. his wife fears god, and has often asked me to talk with him. he is seldom absent from church or prayer meeting, and often goes out with our young men when they preach. this was my thought in talking with him: 'near the kingdom, but not in it.' i earnestly pressed these questions: what do you think of yourself? what is your dependence for salvation? have you repented? in short, on which side are you? he was troubled; tears ran down his cheeks, and for a time he made no reply. at last he said, 'i cannot tell.' a companion began to answer for him, with the confidence of ignorance, judging christians and finding holes in the coats of the righteous: 'who knows whether a man is a christian? god alone.' i said, 'are there any christians in our village?' 'yes.' 'then you know some as christians?' his words were many, while baba khan's were few. my father here came in, but i prayed with them all, and then went to church, where i preached from the words, 'and thou mourn at the last.' "to-day i conversed with sadee. i found her in the habit of praying with her sisters in christ one by one. i advised her to try and lead some of her unconverted neighbors to christ by her labors and prayers. she promised to do so. we spent more than an hour speaking the language of canaan, and then knelt at the feet of the saviour whom we love. she prayed, spreading out her hands to heaven, as i think the early saints used to do; and it seemed as though god would fill us with blessing in answer to that prayer. she left me alone, and thanking god for these blessed opportunities to labor. "_january st_. after meeting, conversed with munny, daughter of mukdesseh. it was profitable to talk with her. she said that her sainted mother used to say, "when, my heart is cold, i go to christ, and never rise from my knees till he warms it." she has some hope for her husband, and also fear, since he does not forsake wine. she told of a woman for whom she had prayed and labored five or six years, and promised to do so with others. o, what a sweet savor of piety did i receive from her! if we had many such mothers in geog tapa how changed it would be! i cannot write all our pleasant words; they remain for eternity. "_february th_. i took home from sabbath school two young men, for whom i have fears because they drink too much wine. i talked long with them, not as though i would take a pledge from them, or that it is a sin ever to drink at all, for i thought this would not be profitable; but i asked them questions, that they might themselves distinguish what is right; as, 'does wine make you to sin?' they owned that it did. their hearts seemed won to the right, but the work is the lord's. may he save them from this temptation. "in the afternoon, i began to talk with sanum without feeling, but ended in tears. i did not ask questions, but carefully explained the difficulties and the fight of faith, also the special grace of god to his people. when i said to her, 'i want you to enlarge your heart, and take in one more besides the two women whom you now labor with,' she selected a very ignorant one. i am afraid that i do differently, seeking rather an easy work. "_february d_. this afternoon i sent for nargis. i had never thought of her as a christian, but i found that i was greatly mistaken. it is all my own fault. i had seldom met her, and never prayed with her. i commenced: 'do you think yourself a christian?' 'i do.' 'how long have you thought so?' 'about eight years.' 'how is it that i have not known it?' 'yakob was my pastor, and since he left i have had none.' then she told of her awakening, and sufferings for christ's sake, between her betrothal and her marriage. 'i used to go to evening meetings with yakob, and on my return my uncle would take me by the braids of my hair and throw me on the ground, saying, "you go because there are young men there." sometimes i found the door barred against me; then i went to a neighbor's to lodge, or oftener to the stable, and slept in a manger; but i was never afraid, for christ was with me: for a time my betrothed wished to put me away. it was then i found christ, and i have never forsaken him since.' she is now poor and in distress. she attends church and sabbath school, but cannot go to evening meeting, as her two little children keep her at home. she lamented this, not thinking that she could serve christ in the care of these little ones. i told her, 'i preach that prayer and the care of children are equally a duty.' she was greatly comforted: these words seemed like oil poured into the flickering lamp. i gave her the 'green pastures,' and prayed with her. i have great confidence in her piety. "on friday forenoon, i saw martha, the wife of eshoo. i trust she has grace in her heart; and her husband hopes that he is a christian, but looks after her more than himself. she sees him not doing right, and tells him in love; he is not pleased. still, she thinks him a christian. she wished i would talk to them together, that their path might be one. i told her i did not think it best that she should talk much to him, but be very quiet, pray for him, be obedient to him, and hope to win him by her chaste conversation coupled with fear. she received my words well. "_february th._ i talked with moressa. we hoped, seven or eight years ago, that she was a christian; but her husband soon prevented her attending meeting, and so she remained, till lately she came to church again. i did not know that one of the sisters in christ had prayed regularly with her all this while, but supposed that she had gone back to her dead forms, and that god moved me to call her to repentance. but i found her trusting that she had been set in christ's breastplate, the light of which can never go out. i said, 'do you think you love the saviour?' 'yes, as the apple of my eye.' 'are you sure that you have not forsaken him in all these years?' 'i have been very sinful all the time, but do not think i have taken my hand from christ.' my heart was now drawn towards her. i said, 'moressa, forgive me. i have been an unfaithful shepherd. i have not once searched for you. i confess my faults.' 'i have faults. i have been a wandering sheep, forsaking the fold.' 'have you kept up secret prayer during all these years?' 'i have.' i found that she had learned to read at home, and i gave her a testament. i have a good hope for her; but how negligent i have been! there may be many christians unknown." these extracts might be extended; but enough have been given to illustrate the inner workings of nestorian piety, and the labors of those so appropriately called "native helpers." it was such men that paul called his helpers in christ jesus. the women of geog tapa, in a letter to miss fiske, written feb. , thanking her for her labors among them, say, "we often think, what are we more than the women of other nations, that we should have such heavenly blessings? and are ready to cry, blessed is the dust of the land that sends forth such good news, and makes known the way of life to the world." they add, that at their last communion more than eighty souls sat down at the lord's table; and it seemed as if he who sitteth between the cherubim was present in the church. chapter xi. revival in . preparatory work.--sanctified afflictions.--name for revival.--scenes in ihe seminaries in january.--deacon john, sanum, and sarah.--mr. stoddard.--yakob.--yonan.--meeting in the bethel.--priest eshoo.--deacon tamo.--physical excitement and its cure.--artless simplicity of converts.--missionary box.--meetings before vacation.--mr. stoddard's labors.--female prayer meeting.--revival in the autumn. the first revival in oroomiah seemed to burst forth like a fountain in the desert. yet, as such a fountain, though springing full grown from the earth, is connected with unseen arrangements working out that visible result, so was this revival connected with an extended process of preparation. for years there had been a laborious inculcation of divine truth, especially in the seminary. true, there had been few conversions; but those few were an essential part of the preparatory work. the roots of this revival extended back as far as the conversion of deacon john, in . even in those still unconverted, there had been a wonderful preparation of the way of the lord. no one could compare the condition of the places yet unblessed by missionary labor, with those so favored, and not feel this. religious education had made a marked improvement in the appearance of the pupils of both seminaries, in their personal habits, their intelligence, and especially in their knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel. old superstitions had lost their hold; they could no longer trust in fasts and ceremonies, and they had an intellectual understanding of the way of salvation through a redeemer. true, all this did not necessarily involve a spiritual work; but god is pleased to have the way thus prepared for that spirit who sanctifies through the truth. those who had received the most instruction were the first to come to christ, and have since lived the more consistent christian life. then, in the good providence of him who always observes a beautiful order in the manifestations of his grace, other influences tended to the same result. the very delay of the blessing called forth earnest prayer from the husbandmen who were waiting for precious fruit, and had long patience for it, till they received the early and the latter rain. the trials which the missionaries had passed through in also tended to produce that despair of help from themselves which usually precedes blessing. in they numbered sixteen souls; but in , from various causes, they were diminished to ten. these were not discouraged, but remained at their post confident that labors in the lord cannot be in vain. then the persecution under mar shimon shut them up to god as their only hope, while it rid them of some native helpers, who cared chiefly for their own temporal advantage. the army of gideon, on all sides, was being diminished in order to secure obedience to that precept, "he that glorieth, let him glory in the lord." the feeling was general, "all our springs are in god." one of the missionaries said, in the autumn of , "god never formed a soul that christ cannot redeem from the power of sin. i know this people are sunk in sin and degradation; but jesus died to save them, and we may see them forever stars in his crown of rejoicing, if we are only humble and faithful enough to lead them to the saviour." at the time of the revival, dr. and mrs. perkins resided at seir, and dr. and mrs. wright were temporarily with them in that village. mr. breath was in the city, but using the turkish mainly, he never ventured to give religious instruction in syriac; so that mr. stocking and mr. stoddard were the only laborers in oroomiah. they lived on the mission premises already described; and at that time the male seminary occupied a building in the same enclosure. one day in the autumn of , mr. stocking, miss fiske, and deacon john were riding together, when john asked in english, "if we ever have a revival here, what shall we call it?" mr. stocking replied, "let us get it first; then we will find a name;" and when it did come, the pious nestorians at once called it "an awakening." towards the close of december, mr. stocking noticed repeated indications of deep seriousness among the pupils of mr. stoddard, and felt that they were on the eve of a revival. about the same time, deacon john was more active in labor, and earnest in prayer. in the seminaries, the teachers did not think so much of what their pupils were, as of the power of god to make them like himself. they labored in hope, expecting a blessing; but it came sooner than they looked for, and in larger measure. the first monday of the new year, january th, was spent as a day of fasting and prayer; and the missionaries had just begun to pray, when they found that some were praying for themselves. miss fiske went into her school, as usual, at nine o'clock, and, after telling her flock that many prayers were being offered for them that day in a distant land, led their morning devotions, and then sent them into another room to study with a native teacher. sanum and sarah lingered behind the rest; and as they drew near, she asked, "did you not understand me?" they made no reply; and she saw they were weeping. "have you had bad news?" still no reply; but when they got near enough, they whispered, "may we have to-day to care for our souls?" and sarah added, "perhaps next year i shall not be here." there was no private room to give them, but they made a closet for themselves among the fuel in the wood cellar, and there spent that day looking unto jesus; nor did they look in vain. their teacher did not know where they had gone, till, long after one of them had died, the survivor gave her an account of that memorable day. on sabbath evening, january th, the words at the english prayer meeting were few; but the prayers carried the dear pupils and laid them at the feet of jesus. at the close of the meeting, mr. stoddard was lighting his candle to go home, when mr. stocking asked if he saw any indications of interest in his school. there was no reply; but the expressive face, and the candle dropping unnoticed as he held it, showed that thought was busy, and the heart full. at length he said, with deep feeling, "i should expect to see interest if we felt as we ought to feel;" and passed out. all were impressed with his manner, so earnest, yet so humble. he retired to his study, called john, and talked with him on the state of the school. he proposed that they should each day make some one pupil a subject of special prayer and personal effort, and begin that night with yakob of sooldooz. they prayed together for him, and then he said, "john, i want to talk with him to-night; we don't know what may be on the morrow; go and call him." yakob, who had acted badly in meeting that day, came, expecting to be punished; but when mr. stoddard kindly asked him to come and sit down by him, and, taking his hand, said, "have you ever thought that you have a soul to be saved or lost?" he broke down at once. he confessed that the whole school had combined to shut out the subject from their thoughts, but really felt so uneasy, that if one of them should be brought to christ he thought all would follow. then the good man, who was so distressed that day because he could see no impression made by the sermon, thanked god and took courage. not willing to devote monday to yakob alone, he conversed with another of the same name, and he too went away weeping to his closet. the two had been in the recitation room but a little while before their feelings became so intense that they had to ask leave to retire. "it is god!" "it is god!" was whispered from seat to seat; and at noon a group collected to discuss what was to be done. one proposed to rise up against the work, and put it down; but at length yonan of geog tapa said, "i don't want to be a christian; i don't mean to be; but i am afraid to oppose this; we had better let it alone. if it is god's work we cannot put it down, and if it is man's work it will come to nought without our interference." nothing more was said, but before school commenced that afternoon, some of those boys were on their knees in prayer. in the evening, mr. stoddard sent for two leaders in the opposition, very promising scholars, but of late forward in every thing that was evil--one of them this yonan, and as he himself told afterwards: "mr. stoddard said, 'if you do not wish to be saved yourselves, i beg of you, from my inmost soul, not to hinder others;' and eternity so opened up before me, that i was ready to be swallowed up. i longed for some one to speak to me of the way of escape; but no such word was spoken to me that night. i could not sleep, for i was almost sure there was but a step between me and death." late on thursday evening, the other yonan, of ada, came to mr. stoddard in extreme agitation, who conversed with him a while, and then left him there to pray alone. that night he too could not sleep. the years he had spent in sin rose up before him in the light of god, and filled him with anguish; but next morning, in conversing with mr. stoddard, he seemed to find rest in submitting to sovereign mercy. on monday evening, the indications of interest in the female seminary were such, that the teacher invited those disposed to seek salvation at once, to come to her room at five o'clock. before that hour, a number had retired to pray for themselves. just then, mr. stoddard came to the door of the teacher, saying, "i cannot stop; but i wanted you to know that four or five of my boys are much distressed for their sins." this was the first intimation she had of what was taking place in the other school; and she turned away from mr. stoddard to find five of her pupils in the same condition. mr. stoddard came in again, in the course of the evening, to pray and consult; and mr. stocking gave up every thing else to labor with the pupils in both schools. both dr. perkins and dr. wright came down frequently from seir. every day brought out new cases of those who were being taught of god. wednesday evening, at the conclusion of a sermon from mr. stocking, on the words, "behold, i stand at the door and knock," no member of the male seminary seemed willing to leave his seat. after a few words of exhortation, they were dismissed to their rooms; but so intense were their feelings that they came in crowds to the teacher's study, where he preached jesus christ, and forgiveness through his blood, till near midnight; then, fatigued and exhausted, he retired to rest. thursday evening, in the english prayer meeting, mr. stoddard said, "god will assuredly carry forward his own work. let us give ourselves up to labor for him, in pointing these precious souls to christ." after the meeting, the teachers of both seminaries left to engage in that blessed work till midnight. eleven years after, on the same evening, and about the same hour, one was called to see the other pass from earth into the presence of the saviour whom he then set forth so faithfully. no wonder the survivor recalled it in the hush of that parting scene. it is difficult to describe the occurrences of this eventful week. the teachers' rooms were in such demand as closets for the pupils, that they could hardly command them long enough for their own devotions. they were ready to write "immanuel" on every thing around them. the girls were very free to express their feelings, and they had such perfect confidence in their teacher, that often, during the revival, some of them woke her in the morning, standing at her bedside, with some inquiry about the way of life. the two schools hardly knew any thing of each other till friday evening, when they met in a room fitted up for the female seminary the preceding autumn. the first time mr. stoddard entered it after this, he looked round, and said, "may this room be wholly consecrated to the lord forever;" and this evening christ seemed to take possession of it. the boys sat on one side, and the girls on the other; and seldom, perhaps, has there been a company more under the influence of things unseen. it seemed as though god himself spoke that evening through his ministering servants, and this and that one was born there and then. it was in the same room that that last prayer meeting of the teacher with her former pupils was held, july th, . in the engraving, the two upper windows, immediately to the left of the small ones over the central door, belong to this room. at the close of the week, ten of the pupils were trusting in christ; and of the next lord's day it might truly be said, "that sabbath was an high day," for the lord was present, and many strong men bowed before him. priest eshoo had watched the boys; he had watched his own praying sarah; and now he looked within. he had never been known to weep; he scorned such weakness; but when, at the close of the afternoon service, mr. stocking took his hand, saying, "be sure you are on the right foundation," he buried his face in his handkerchief and wept aloud. nor did he weep alone; deacon tamo, too,--whose levity all through the week had been a sore trial to mr. stoddard, so that he had asked, "can it be that god has let him come here to hinder the work?"--now trembled from head to foot. mr. stoddard prayed with him, and as they rose from their knees, tamo looked him in the face, and, with streaming eyes, said, "thank you, thank you for caring for my soul." during the following week, most of the inmates of both seminaries were deeply convinced of sin, and daily some souls seemed to come to the saviour. but some things rendered it apparent that the interest was not all from above. one evening, fifteen or twenty boys were found rolling on the floor, groaning and crying for mercy. measures were taken at once to prevent the repetition of such a scene, and at evening prayers mr. stocking commenced his remarks by asking if any of them had ever seen the nazloo river, at marbeeshoo, near its source. startled by what seemed a very untimely question, a few answered, "yes." "was there much water in it?" wondering what he could mean, the answer was, "no; very little." "did it make much noise?" "yes; a great deal." the catechist went on: "have you seen the same river on the plain?" by this time, every ear was listening, and all replied, "yes." "was it deep and wide?" "yes; it was full of water." "and was it more noisy than at marbeeshoo?" "no; it was very quiet and still." the parable was now applied very faithfully. he said that he had hoped the holy spirit had been teaching them the evil of their hearts; but their noise and confusion that evening showed him that there was no depth to their experience. the effect was wonderful; they hung their heads and quietly dispersed, and from many a closet that night might have been heard the petition, "lord, make me to know my heart, and let me not be like that noisy river." what threatened to be an uncontrollable excitement became at once a quiet but deep sense of guilt. their desires were not less intense, but more spiritual; their consciences were very tender, and their feelings contrite, but subdued and gentle. in this revival, the converts had a great deal of feeling, but no knowledge of the mode in which such feelings find expression in christian lands; and in the freshness and strength of their emotions they yielded to every impulse with an unconscious simplicity that was exceedingly interesting. if they were under conviction of sin, that found immediate and unrestrained utterance. if they thought they were forgiven, that, too, at once found expression. there was a wonderful transparency of spirit that revealed each varying aspect of their feelings, and withal a tendency to undue excitement that needed careful handling. indeed, it was found necessary to watch their social meetings very closely, and sometimes to direct them to pray alone. for three weeks, very few visitors came to the seminary. the time seemed to be given expressly for the benefit of the pupils, and it was like one continual sabbath. every corner was consecrated to prayer, and most of the work was direct effort for the salvation of souls. but after that, visitors began to come, and then the young converts became helpers in christ jesus, even the sight of their devotion turning the thoughts of others to spiritual things. often ten or fifteen women spent the night on the premises; and at such times, all the spare bedding was brought into the great room, which was transformed into a dormitory. the teacher often staid with them till midnight, and then, from her own room, could hear them praying the rest of the night. in connection with this, one incident claims our notice. one day in february, a box arrived from america for the seminary; but so engrossed was the teacher with more important duties, that it was midnight ere she could open it. next morning, all were invited to her room, to see the contents. she told of the kind friends who had sent it, and the love of christ, that constrained to such kindness. they were moved to tears, but not one rose to examine the things, and not a word was spoken, till the proposal was made that the quilts should be kept for the use of their friends who came to hear the word of god. all joyfully agreed to that, and then, after looking at the articles, they returned to pray for their benefactors. the last meetings of the school before the march vacation were called thanksgivings, and fitly, too, for in the two seminaries as many as fifty souls had begun to love the saviour, when they left, the universal cry was, "pray for us." "pray for us in the temptations that await us at home." one little girl said, "did you ever see a new-born lamb cast into the snow and live? and can we live?" thank god, most of the hopeful converts did live, and we trust are to live forever, with the good shepherd who gave his life for their salvation. it does not fall in with the design of this volume to give a complete account of the revival, but we cannot leave it without a word more about the instrumentality of mr. stoddard in connection with that work of grace. he was abundant in preaching. he did not think that the most ordinary sermons are good enough for the mission field; for he knew that the nestorians could discriminate as well as others nearer home, and so wrote out his sermons carefully in english, but in the syriac idiom, noting on a blank page the books consulted in their preparation. he also excelled in labors for individuals. the first inquirer became such while mr. stoddard pressed home upon his conscience his guilt as a sinner against god; and the same is true of many others. after conversing with a person, he always led him to the throne of grace, and then had him present his own offering there; and after such a one had left, he seemed unable to turn his thoughts to any thing else, till again in private he had commended him to god. indeed, he often began to do this before they descended the stairs. he kept a little book, in which he recorded every case, the state in which he found the person, and any subsequent change; and it was noticed that where he began, he continued to labor, not only till there was hope, but even assurance of hope. such labor is as exhausting as it is delightful; and no wonder his strength proved less than his zeal and love. it was a great joy to him when his people could take part in prayer meetings. he divided the thirty converts among them into three circles, and met each of them twice a week: this furnished him a season of refreshment every day, and each of them took part at least once a week. they were thus early initiated into a course of christian activity, and taught that they would lose much themselves, besides failing to do good to others, if they held back. the converts were so rooted and grounded in this truth, that once, when miss fiske was in geog tapa, a brother said to her that she must not leave the village till she had induced a woman to pray with her, whom they all regarded as a christian, but who would not take part in their female prayer meetings; and when she objected to urging her, deacon john replied, "if she was an ordinary christian, we might let her pass; but her position is one of such prominence, that the other women will do just as she does; and so she must do right," miss fiske talked long with the delinquent, but she insisted that she could not do it. the missionary told of her own trials in the matter,--how she had staid away from meeting lest she should be called on, and remained unblessed till she was willing to do her duty. she prayed with her once and again, even a third time, before she consented, saying, "i will not displease god any more in this." so, drawing very close to her instructor, she offered two petitions for herself, and one that her friend might be rewarded for showing her her duty. hannah was soon active in the women's meetings, and is to this day a most useful and consistent christian. another marked feature in mr. stoddard's labors was his tact in setting others to work for christ. he taught his pupils that they must toil as well as pray, and soon after the first converts were brought to christ, definite labor for others was assigned to them, not only among their schoolmates and those who visited the premises, but also in gathering in those not disposed to come to meeting. once, when three fourths of the pupils were hopefully pious, mr. stoddard said, "i must bring in more, just to furnish work for these converts." he himself was happy in his work, because he gave himself wholly to it, without the least reservation; and amid the many trials that marked the years of his residence in persia, he looked beyond them all, to him who not only can give joy in suffering, but, by means of it, bring sinners to the saviour. the hopeful converts in the seminary, after spending the summer of at their own homes, in circumstances of great trial and temptation, returned, all save one, not only retaining their interest in spiritual things, but established in christian character. their friends also testified to their thoughtfulness, prayerfulness, and cheerful obedience at home, and the influence of their piety was happy on others. for a while, in the autumn of , the school was disbanded on account of the cholera. but, contrary to the fears of many, after a separation of two months, all were spared to meet again, though hundreds had fallen on all sides. three weeks afterwards, the christians among them seemed more than usually earnest in prayer for the conversion of the impenitent, and at once the answer came. the first one awakened was moressa, now the wife of yakob, of supergan, and then about fourteen years of age. she had been taken into the family of mrs. grant nine years before, and that of mr. stocking afterwards. she had received much religious instruction, with apparently little effect; but now her convictions were deep, though she did not submit to christ for nearly a week after she felt she was lost. her case deeply enlisted the sympathies of her fellow-pupils, and soon several others passed through a season of deep distress, to rest in the grace of christ. one of these was eneya, sister of oshana, and now the wife of shlemon, in amadia. her widowed mother had fled with her children to oroomiah before the koordish invasion of her native tehoma. few children have so deep a sense of sin as she had, or exercise such implicit trust in the saviour. at that time, her teacher wrote, "may she become a messenger of great good to her countrywomen;" and now, that prayer is being answered in her usefulness in that distant and lonely field of labor. altogether there were seven who seemed at this time to take the lord jesus christ as their god and saviour. chapter xii. first fruits. sarah, daughter of priest eshoo.--martha.--hannah. let us now turn aside to take a nearer view of the first fruits of this revival. the first to ask the way to heaven, to find it, and to enter through the gate into the city, was sarah, or sarra, as the nestorians pronounce it. she was born among the rude mountaineers of gawar, in . her father, eshoo, then a deacon, regarded her at first with the aversion nestorian fathers usually felt towards their daughters; but her strong attachment to him while yet a child, so won his heart, that when the koords overran gawar, in , and the family fled from their smouldering village, he was willing to be seen carrying her on his back, in the same way that his wife bore her younger sister. the family stopped for a time at degala, and subsisted by begging from door to door, lodging at night in a stable. the fine intellect of the self-taught father soon brought him to the notice of the missionaries; and one day mrs. grant, then just about securing her long-cherished desire of a school for girls, asked him, in her winning way, "have you any daughters? and will you not send them to our little school?" the inquiry revived a wish that he had felt while yet in gawar, that his daughter should learn to read; and in the spring of , when he moved from degala to the city, he sent her to the mission school. she had just entered her tenth year--a tall, slender, dark-eyed girl, even then giving indications of her early death, and though often a great sufferer, she applied herself so diligently to study, that she soon became, as she ever continued to be, the best scholar in the school. the ancient syriac bible was the principal text book; and she so far mastered that language as to acquire a knowledge of scripture rarely attained in any land by a child of her years. she was the walking concordance of the school; and her knowledge of the doctrines of the bible was even more remarkable. under the teaching of mrs. harriet stoddard, she had also learned to sing sweetly our sacred music. still, with all her acquirements, she was destitute of grace; and her declining health led her teacher to feel much anxiety for her salvation. on the first monday in , she said to sanum, one of her schoolmates, who, she knew, was thoughtful, "sister, we ought to turn to god. shall we ever find a better time than when so many are praying for us?" they together resolved to spend the day in seeking salvation; and the manner in which they made known this purpose to their teacher, and carried it out, has been already related. (see p. ). from that day, she never seemed to waver. as soon as she found peace for herself, she sought to make others acquainted with her saviour; not forgetting, however, that prayer of the psalmist, "search me, o god, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." feeble as she was, she never shrank from labor. hours every day were spent in her closet, and the rest of her time was sacredly used for christ. she had much to do with the conversion of the twenty schoolmates whom she was permitted to see in christ before she went home; and she did much for the women who came to the seminary. her teacher never knew a young person more anxious to save souls. both pupils and visitors loved to have sarah tell them the way. they said, "we can see it when she tells us." no wonder they saw it, for she seemed to look on it all the time. her teacher depended much on her, and yet often remonstrated with her for such incessant labors. still she felt that she must be about her father's business while the day lasted. her desires for the salvation of her father seemed to commence with her anxiety for herself; and his feelings were soon so tender that he could not answer an inquiry about his own state without tears. sarah was the first to know that he had found peace. his first religious intercourse with her was to tell her that he had found jesus. he had known that she was thoughtful, but was not prepared to find her so full of humble hope and holy joy. next day, when urged by a missionary to labor for the salvation of his family, he replied, "sarah knows the way to heaven better than i do. she can teach me far better than i could her." their previous strong attachment now ripened into christian love. he never felt that his daily bread had been given him, if he had not knelt with her in prayer, and his heart been lifted up by her petitions as well as his own. her mother at first scoffed; but soon she, too, sought the saviour; and her younger daughter, whose evil ways for a time tried sarah sorely, was also afterwards brought into the kingdom. mr. stocking used to call her "the best theologian among the nestorians," and often said, "if i want to write a good sermon, i like to sit down first and talk with sarah, and then be sure that she is praying for me." her attachment to the means of grace was strong. she went to every meeting, even after she could not reach the chapel without help. her emaciated form, her hollow cough, her eye bright with unnatural lustre, all told that she was passing away, but, combined with her sweet singing and heavenly spirit, led her companions sometimes to whisper, as she took her seat in the chapel, "have we not an elizabeth wallbridge among us?"--"the dairyman's daughter," in syriac, had just then issued from the press, and was a great favorite with the nestorians. as early as march, it was seen that she must die. still she clung to the school, and not for nought. she had a mission to fulfil, and her saviour strengthened her for the work to which he called her. as yet, none of the pious nestorians had finished their course. with the converts, victory over death was something heard of, but never witnessed; and sarah was chosen to show them "in what peace a christian can die." perhaps the last days of no young disciple were ever watched with more eager interest. "will christ sustain us to the last? will he be with us through the dark valley? will he come for us and receive us to himself, as he promised?" these were to them momentous questions; and they stood ready to answer them according as the lord supported her. ever since her death they have looked upon the last change from a new point of view. but we must not anticipate. the five months between her conversion and her decease were very precious to all who knew her. she sometimes sat with her teacher and talked an hour at a time on the home of the blessed. she seemed to look in upon its glories, and share its gladness; and then her thoughts turned to the perishing around her, saying, "i would labor a little longer for them, if it is my father's will." the young converts whom she had taught could not bear the thought of her leaving them; but they sought to stay an angel in his course. the dross had been consumed, and the spirit was made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. [illustration: courtyard of the female seminary] about the middle of may, it was felt that she must go home to her father, whose house was near the seminary. it was a beautiful day in a persian summer. the morning exercises were closed. when her teacher told her what they thought, she replied in a whisper, "i think i had better go, but i want to be alone a little before i leave not to return." with weary step she sought the closet where first she found her saviour: it was occupied. perhaps he saw she might think more of the place than was meet; so she spent an hour in another room, and then returned, saying, "i am ready to go now." she went supported by a schoolmate on either side: stopping in the court, she turned to take a last look of the dear home where she had learned of jesus, and, plucking some of the roses that bloomed by her side, passed on. on the preceding page that court is represented, as seen from the adjoining one. she suffered intensely for a few days. her disease forbade her lying down, even at night. but still not a day passed that she did not gather some women about her, and point them to jesus. her teacher visited her frequently, and often found her with her bible open, and several women around her bed, to whom she was explaining it. the praying pupils, too, often knelt with her at the accustomed throne of grace. one saturday in june, her father was asked if he could go to tergawer--twenty-five miles distant--and preach. his reply was, "i will see what sarah says." she said, "go, father, and i will pray for you." sabbath morning came, and her teacher saw that sarah was almost home: she told her so, and once more committed the dear pupil to the saviour who stood by. she had to return to her duties in school, but first said to her mother, "send for me when the master calls for her, for, if i cannot go over jordan with her, i would at least accompany her to the swelling stream." in the afternoon her sufferings became intense; and losing herself for a moment, she said, "call my father." they told her where he was. "o, yes, i remember. don't call him. let him preach; i can die alone." she then said, "call miss fiske;" and her sister started to go. but the dying one remembered that it was the hour for prayer meeting, and beckoned her to return, saying, "she is in meeting now, with my companions. don't call her; i can die alone." perhaps, with that teacher present, her eyes had not so clearly discerned the lord jesus. her sufferings were now so great, she hardly spoke for an hour. then she said, in a clear voice, "mother, raise me, that i may commit my spirit;" for she would never approach her saviour but on her knees. supported, as she had been hundreds of times before, by that mother's strong arms, and in the attitude of prayer, she said, "lord jesus, receive--" and there she stopped: prayer had ended. instead of the closing words of the earthly petition was the opening of the new song in heaven. the saviour did not wait for the close of her petition before he answered it. the teacher had just sat down with her pupils when the door opened, and a messenger said "sarah is asleep!" "yes," thought she, gratefully, "till jesus shall say, 'awake!'" according to eastern custom, sarah was buried that same evening (june th), and the whole school followed her to the grave, which was close to that of mrs. grant. the first fruit of the school appropriately lies by the side of her who planted that tree in the garden of the lord, at the funeral her teacher was just thinking that sarah could help her no more, that her prayers and labors were forever ended, when she looked up, and her eye rested on the evening star looking down upon the grave. it was a pleasant thought that she, too, was a star in glory. she was glad that the first to love christ was the first to go to be with him, and still loves to think, of her as waiting for those who used to pray with her on earth. the christian life of sarah was short; but she did much, for she taught her people how "jesus can make a dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are."[ ] [footnote : for additional foots about sarah, see nestorian biography, pp. - .] after sarah, like stephen among the early disciples, had led the way into the presence of her saviour, blind martha was the next to follow. she was constrained by sickness to leave the school early in the spring of , and go home to her parents in geog tapa. though six miles distant, her schoolmates loved to walk out there to comfort her. they prized no recreation so much as the privilege of going to see her. they read and talked with her about her favorite portions of scripture, prayed with her, and were never allowed to leave without singing "jerusalem, my happy home." at such times, one of them said, "her countenance always showed that her spirit was walking the golden streets." when asked about her health, she uniformly replied, "the lord helps me;" and when urged to speak more particularly, would say, "dear sisters, the lord helps me, and that is enough." when, after five or six of them had prayed in succession, she was asked if she was not wearied, she would reply, "i know that i am weak, but prayer never tires me." so great a privilege was it deemed to be with her, that one morning, when a pious member of the seminary at seir was called to leave the village early, he said, "i cannot go till i have prayed with blind martha, and got from her manna for the road." her companions desired very much to be present when she went home; but this was not permitted. one morning in june, she said, at early dawn, "mother, the day breaks; i think jesus is coming for me now; let me go." but seeing no change in her appearance, her mother lay down again, and, when next she woke, found that jesus had come, and taken her to be with him in his home above. what was that vision of the glory of immanuel that prompted the cry, "mother, the day breaks!" from one who never remembered to have seen the light? she became blind in infancy. a smile remained on her pale face; and well might the sight of him who said, "if i go to prepare a place for you, i will come again and receive you unto myself," leave such a memento of the bliss. little hannah, the youngest member of the school, was suddenly called home the following september, when only eleven years of age. when she first came to christ, her teacher was awakened one morning by her asking at the bedside, "is it wrong to wish to die?" "but why do you want to die?" "that i may go and stay with jesus, and never sin again." this desire never left her. once she said, with tears, "it seems as if i cannot wait so long to go to my saviour;" and at another time, "i fear that i have sinned in not being willing to wait till jesus calls me." before leaving for vacation, each pupil put up her own things in a bundle, to be laid away till her return. as hannah was at work on hers, she said to a girl near her, "perhaps you will open this. i do not think that i ever shall. when you come together in the autumn, i trust that i shall be in the saviour's school above." so strong was the desire awakened in her by him who intended soon to gratify it. while the cholera raged around her in august, she frequently said, "this may be my time to go to my dear saviour;" and repeated it to her mother on the last morning of her life, but went out as usual to her work in the vineyard. about noon she became unwell, and said to a companion, "i am sick; perhaps i shall die soon." "are you willing?" "o, yes, i am not afraid to go to jesus." the disease made rapid progress, and again she said, "i am very sick; i shall die soon: shall we not pray together?" her young friend led in prayer, and then called on her to follow; but her time for prayer was almost finished. she could just say, "bless my dear sister; take me gently through the dark river;" when she sunk exhausted, and was carried to the house. a mother bent over an only daughter, and three loving brothers over an only sister; but they could not keep her back from jesus. she sent for her companions, and they hastened to her bedside. she called for her testament; but her eyesight was failing her, and she returned it, saying, "i can never use it more; but read it more prayerfully, and love the saviour more than i have done." she lingered through the night, and rose with the dawn to her long-desired rest in the presence of her redeemer. it is remarkable that three timid girls should have been chosen to lead the advance of a great multitude of nestorians through the dark valley into the light beyond. no member of the boy's seminary died till three years afterwards; and only two others of this before --a period of eleven years; but infinite wisdom chose, through such weak and timorous ones, to glorify the power of christ to bear his people through the last conflict into everlasting rest. chapter xiii subsequent revivals deacon john studying backsliding in --work in village of seir--wives of siyad and yonan--khanumjan--women at the seminary--geog tapa--degala--a penitent--sin of anger--revival in --miss fiske encouraged--stillness and deep feeling--unable to sing--conversion of missionary children--visit of english ambassador--revival of --letter of sanum the first indication of a work of grace in was seen in the unusual seriousness of deacon john. he had been reading pike's guide to young disciples, and the chapter on backsliding moved him deeply. for a long time, he went mourning his departure from god. one day he was reading aloud in the seminary, when a missionary came in, and wondering to see him there, asked what he was doing. he replied, "i am studying backsliding; and o, sir, i love it very much;" meaning to say that he loved to study the way back to the enjoyment of god. this state of mind was followed by earnest effort for the salvation of others, and the hopefully pious first passed through a season of deep heart-searching and renewed consecration to god. under an awful sense of the violation of covenant vows, for many days some of them did nothing but weep and pray. "how unfaithful have i been to my saviour and to immortal souls!" was the cry on all sides. one whose bible was found blotted with tears, had been converted in , and her grief was on account of her unfaithfulness as a follower of christ. having thus wept bitterly herself, she was well fitted to lead others to the god of all comfort. her labors were unwearied, both in and out of school. indeed, the mission was now so reduced in numbers, that much of the work in this revival was performed by the nestorians, and they proved themselves very efficient. naturally ardent, they preached christ and him crucified with a zeal and faithfulness rarely witnessed in our own land; but their ardor needed careful guiding, for some were, at one time, entirely prostrated by excessive labor. the pupils of the seminary, during a short vacation, seemed like angels of mercy to their families and friends. in geog tapa, their meetings for women every evening had an attendance varying from thirty to one hundred. many of these were glad to learn the way of salvation, even from children. besides this, the older pupils, under the guidance of an experienced native helper, spent much time in personal conversation and prayer with their own sex, as did the members of the other seminary with the men. in the village of seir, the work was very general. in addition to the labors of the pious students in the male seminary there, sanum and moressa labored from house to house among the women. but hear their own account of what they did, in a letter to miss lovell's school at constantinople;-- "what shall we tell you, beloved, of the great love god has shown to our school and people? for two months we have had such delightful days as we never saw in our lives before. the work of the lord has also commenced in the villages, and in many there is great inquiry for the way of life. the servants of god are so full of zealous love, that they preach till their strength and voice give way. but again they go on to preach, for the harvest is great, and the laborers few. how should we, with burning hearts, beg the lord of the harvest to send forth laborers! can we bear, dear sisters, to see the deadly wings of satan's kingdom spread out and destroy those bought by the precious blood of christ? ought we not rather to wrestle like jacob till we see the loving wings of the kingdom of the saviour spread out, and impart life to wounded souls on every side? we hope that your waiting eyes may see greater wonders among your own people than we do here. "now we will tell you about the little village of seir, which contains nineteen houses. god has visited every house; and because the women were much awakened, and had no teacher, the missionaries sent two of us there, not because we were fit for such a work,--for we are deficient in godly knowledge, and every qualification,--but because god sometimes chooses the ignorant and weak to do him service. and what shall we tell you of the wonders god showed us among those poor women? there was no time in which they did not cry, with tears, 'what shall we do?' 'woe unto us!' 'we are lost!' when we asked them to pray in meetings, they prayed as if taught of god. we wondered at them very much. in one house, we found a woman beating her head with both hands, crying, 'o my sins! they are so great! there is no pardon!' we tried to reason with her; but if we took her hands from her head, she beat her breast. she said, 'you told me, when you prayed with me the other day, to go to christ; but he will not receive me, i am such a sinner.' with difficulty we quieted her, and told of the great mercy of the son of david. we prayed with each woman of the village alone, and they with us, fervently and in tears. "in one instance, we heard an old man praying earnestly in the stable, and his wife in the house. we waited till they had finished, before we went in, and there we found an old man, perhaps ninety years old, and his wife, also very aged. we spoke with them of the lowly redeemer, and how he was ready to dwell with them, poor as they were. the tears rolled down their wrinkled faces, and made our own hearts burn within us. the old man prayed with us as if christ stood right before him, and we prayed with them both. "there were meetings several times a day, and when they closed, the voice of prayer might be heard on all sides, in the houses and stables. every family now has morning and evening worship." in this revival, the native helpers were very much interested for the salvation of their unconverted wives. the families of siyad and yonan live in geog tapa, and their first visits home were blessed to the conviction of their companions, who soon came to the school, begging to be allowed to stay and learn the way of life. of course, they were not refused. the wife of siyad had been a frequent visitor there, but such an opposer of religion, that her coming was always dreaded; but now how changed! day by day her convictions deepened, till they were overwhelming. tears were her meat, and prayer her employment, day and night, till, as she said, "the saviour found her," and she was at rest. three children and a daughter-in-law joined her in believing, and it was delightful to see the family, not long after, each in his or her turn, calling on the name of the lord in one of the rooms of the seminary. yonan, the junior teacher of the school, had been married by force two years before, by his wicked father; that, too, when his heart was fixed on another, every way fitted to be his companion. it was a severe trial; but grace triumphed, and his great desire, seemed to be the conversion of the wife thus forced upon him. at midnight, he was often heard interceding for her, and, in the early part of the revival, the answer came. miss fiske will never forget the time when, in an adjoining room, she heard her for the first time praying with her husband. it gave her a new insight into the meaning of that scripture, "they believed not for joy." the new convert was very active among the women in her village; and when her father-in-law forbade social prayer in his house, she took her little company at sunset behind the village church, where even the bleak winds of february did not chill their devotions. khanumjan, the aged mother of john, though past threescore and ten, entered into the work with a zeal that might put to shame many younger women in our own land. she toiled to bring the more aged women right to the cross, taking them one by one into her own closet, that then and there they might accept the saviour. though herself unable to read, she did much for the preachers who went out to the villages, providing food for them on their return, and exhorting them to courage and faithfulness. no wonder she said to a visitor, "three years ago, i saw christ in heaven, and i have seen him there ever since; but now he sits by my side all day long." when she died, she said, over and over again, "i am going after jesus." in this revival, the encouragement to labor for woman was greater than ever before. after the middle of january, the seminary was almost constantly thronged with inquirers. day and night, it was consecrated by the prayers and tears of women seeking their saviour. on friday, and on the sabbath, many from the neighboring villages spent the time there between services. the room was filled with them; and even while they ate, they must have some one speaking to them of jesus. those who did so, often spoke with such tenderness as showed that christ himself was very near. sometimes the women could not eat any thing but the bread of life. at times, the anguish of some for sin was so overpowering, that the question, "can a woman forget her sucking child?" might almost have been answered in the affirmative. in some instances, the scenes that took place were too much for frail nature to bear, and the laborers were ready to ask to be clothed upon with immortality while the lord passed by. those who spent the night in the seminary slept in the large room on the lower floor, between the central door and that on the left, in the engraving; and occasionally the sound of their weeping and praying banished sleep from the rooms above them. yet such hinderance to rest brought a refreshment all its own. in geog tapa, the village ruler was found sitting at the feet of jesus, and going with the preachers from place to place, to give greater weight to their words; and twenty-five young men, though they could not read, yet did what they could with untiring zeal. there was an interesting work in degala, so noted for vice that it was called the sodom of the nestorians. the first converted there was a young man employed in the seminary. he passed through a severe mental conflict before his proud heart yielded; but when it did, he became a living sacrifice to god. one day he came to the teachers, saying, "i have a petition to make; will you receive it?" supposing it to be some pecuniary matter, they replied, "tell us what it is." he at once burst into tears, and covering his face with his garment, said, "my village is lost; my family is perishing, and their blood is on my neck; let me go to-night and beg forgiveness for my wicked example, and urge them to flee from the wrath to come." he obtained his request, and left, sobbing aloud. next morning, he brought his wife and two other women to be instructed. about a week after, deacon tamo found in the village several inquirers, and one woman in agony on account of her sins. she had been notorious for wickedness, and so vile as hardly to find one who would associate with her, though now one of the most lovely christians in any land. the next day, she came to the seminary, and as soon as miss fiske sat down beside her, she threw herself into her lap, crying, "do tell me what to do, or where to go, to get rid of my sins." she was pointed to the lamb of god, and one moment her feet seemed to rest on the rock of ages, and the next a fresh wave of conviction swept her into the raging sea. so she vibrated between life and death. she was asked to pray. in all her life she had not probably heard ten prayers; but her strong crying and tears showed that the holy spirit was her teacher, and the helper of her infirmities. she had learned to pray where her saviour found a cradle--in the manger--cast out and derided by her friends. she was first awakened in the seminary; for one day, as soon as she entered the door, a pupil, then under deep conviction herself, and to whom she was an entire stranger, seized her hand, saying, "my sister, my sister, what are you doing? we are all lost. we must repent, or perish." these words she could not forget, and from that hour sought until she found her saviour, and then bore ill treatment with such meekness as won others also to christ. the desire of the converts for instruction was most affecting. one of them wept bitterly when asked if she was willing to forsake every sin, saying, "what shall i do? i have one sin so strong that i fear i cannot leave it off." "what is it?" "i cannot live without these words of god. my husband will not let me go to hear them, and anger sometimes rises in my heart at this. tell me what to do with this sin." an account of the revival in will be given in the chapter on the prayerfulness of the nestorians. after this were instances of conversion each year, but not so marked, or so general, as in . so we pass over the intervening time to dwell a moment on the revival of . that year, the pupils were very studious, and kind in their feelings towards each other and their teachers; but the winter was nearly over before any additions were made to the now diminished number of believers. the teachers mourned; still the heavens were brass, and the earth iron. christians were lukewarm, and none seemed to have power with god. miss fiske returned from the english prayer meeting sabbath evening, february th, in that desponding state that sometimes follows intense and protracted desire, when its object is not attained. at such times, the sensibilities seem paralyzed, and emotion dies of sheer exhaustion. the pupils had retired; so also had miss rice; and she was left alone. her thoughts brooded over the state of her charge, but she had no strength to rise and carry those precious souls to christ. she could not sleep, and yet so shrunk from the duties of the morrow, that she longed for a lengthening out of the night, rather than the approach of dawn. eleven o'clock struck, and there was a knock at the door. could she open it? must she see another face that night? she did open it, and there stood one of her pupils, not so without feeling as her fainting heart had imagined. struck by the languor of her teacher's looks, she inquired tenderly, "are you very tired?" "no, not very; why do you ask?" "i cannot sleep; our school has been resting on me all day, and i thought perhaps you would help me to pray." the spell was broken; the dry fountain of feeling gushed out afresh, and, with a full heart, she said, "come in, thou blessed of the lord." as an angel from heaven, that dear pupil strengthened her teacher that night, and together they carried the whole household to jesus. when at length she retired, all was sweetly left with christ, and he whispered peace. she could sleep now, and when morning came there was still peace. "could ye not watch with me one hour?" was the word spoken to her as she arose; and hardly had she repeated it at morning prayers, before three, in different parts of the room, were weeping. she said little, for she felt it safer to go and tell jesus their wants and their unworthiness. all day, the feeling in the school was subdued and tender. no one asked, "what shall i do to be saved?" but there was quiet at the table, and quiet in the rooms. the work was done willingly and well, but in silence, and the voice of prayer in the closets was gentle. tuesday passed in almost perfect stillness. no one said even, "pray for me." towards evening, miss fiske said, "if there is one who wants first of all to attend to her eternal interests, i would like to see her at half past eight o'clock." at that hour, her door opened, and one entered alone; then another and another, each alone, till the room was full. she closed the door, but still they came. what were her feelings when she looked round on twenty-three, sitting with their heads bowed down in silence? she said little, for she felt that they wanted to hear god, rather than man, and the parable of the prodigal son that evening seemed to come fresh from the lips of jesus. next day, each lesson was recited in its season, and recited well; but tears blurred many a page, and at recess not a few went to be alone with god. at eleven o'clock, mr. perkins came in as usual to sing with them, "bartimeus" was the first hymn. all began it; but some voices faltered on the first stanza, more on the second, and soon the leader's voice was heard alone. he took up the bible lying on the desk, and saying, "perhaps some wanderer would like now to arise and go to her heavenly father," he too read the portion of the night before, and led in prayer. the teachers had to lengthen the intermission at noon, because they could not bear to summon the pupils so early from their closets. the mission met that afternoon in the seminary. mr. stoddard came down from seir covered with snow, saying, in his pleasant way, as he opened the door, "we have snowed down this time;" but when he learned the state of things, he said, very tenderly, "you must have thought my speech untimely; i did not know god was so near; but my heart is with you, and i hope we both shall have a large blessing." that meeting was almost all prayer, and the weeks that followed it witnessed a work silent but deep. it was characterized by humble contrition, and much simple dependence on christ. most of those twenty-three, before the close of the term, were hoping in his mercy. three missionary children were among the converts in this revival, and their conversion did much good to the nestorians; for, though they had felt their own need of regeneration, they were in doubt about the children of pious parents; but when they saw the children of missionaries weep over sin, and come as lost sinners to the saviour, they understood as never before that the entrance into the kingdom was the same for all. at this time, the english ambassador passed through oroomiah; and though, when he and his suite visited the seminary, there was some apprehension felt as to the effect it might have on the religious interests of the pupils, they not only did themselves credit, in the examination he made of the school, but returned from the interview with their relish for spiritual things undiminished. indeed, the event, which ordinarily would have been more than a nine days' wonder, caused scarce a ripple on the deep current of spiritual emotion. the seminary was again blessed in , and the year following miss fiske returned from seir after the funeral of harriet stoddard to welcome several who had entered the fold of the good shepherd during her absence. the labors of miss rice, who had charge of the school (while she was away,) have also been blessed in each of the four succeeding years. during that time, eighteen of the pupils have been received to the communion. the revival in the winter of - was, however, more interesting and extensive. at one meeting in the male seminary, the young men burst into tears while singing the hymn, "alas, and did my saviour bleed?" and soon after, in the saturday evening meeting, miss rice's whole school were bowed in earnest prayer, and did not move for some time when requested by her to retire for private devotion. on this occasion, mr. cobb writes, "it was my privilege to speak a word to them, and i can truly say that i never saw such a scene before, as, with heads bowed down on their desks, unable wholly to repress their sobs, they listened, and again engaged in prayer." even then, it was only after repeated requests that they went to their own rooms, where many continued their supplications far into the night. the interesting scenes of these awakenings are thus gratefully recalled by sanum, a convert of the first revival, in a letter dated salmas, june th, :-- beloved teacher, miss fiske: i received your priceless letter with many tears of joy, and when i read your loving, motherly counsels, my heart was full; it was drawn to you with inexpressible love; and when you reminded me of those blessed revivals, my eyes were darkened with floods of tears, so that, for a time, i could not read. how can i ever forget the first night that you met me, after the lord had touched my heart, in that blessed room? or how many times you took me by the hand, and led me to the throne of grace? often i was in the dark, and the lord, through you, was pleased to give me rest. can i ever forget, when the hand of the lord rested on me in the death of my dear children,[ ] how many times you came as an angel of peace to wipe away my tears? shall i ever forget the lord's coming among us by the still rain of the holy spirit? or those meetings of the sisters for prayer? or those tearful pleadings in the closets? can i ever forget the fervent supplications and preaching of blessed mr. stocking, and how he begged us to flee from the wrath to come? if i forget these, let my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. [footnote : page ] it is a year, my beloved, since i have been able to go to oroomiah. i have sorrowed greatly to be cut off so long from the supper of our lord, and them that meet around his table. perhaps it is because i am not worthy of the blessing. the lord mercifully grant that i be not cut off from the heavenly supper of the lamb. our work here is much as before. i grieve to say that there are few with whom i can pray, and in the few cases where i can do so, it must be done as by stealth. but there are those with whom i can talk. hoimer and i have a meeting for the women every sabbath, and on other days. every tuesday, hoimer, raheel, and i have a little meeting together, and it is very pleasant, but will be more so when the lord shall increase our number. o that we longing ones might see that day, and our troubled hearts rejoice! during the nineteen years since the seminary was established, it has enjoyed, in all, twelve revivals; and though it is not desirable to count up the results of human labors, it is due to the praise of divine grace to record, that out of those who have been connected with it, as many as two thirds have, in the judgment of charity, been created anew in christ jesus. chapter xiv. dark days. seminary broken up in .--deacon isaac.--persecution by mar shimon.--funeral of daughter of priest eshco.--deacon guwergis.--attempt at abduction of pupil.--peril of school.--mrs. harriet stoddar.--yahya khan.--anarchy.--letter from babilo. the nestorian mission has encountered less opposition than other missions in western asia. yet here, also, they who would live godly in christ jesus have suffered persecution. on june th, , the brothers of mar shimon issued this order: "be it known to you all, ye readers at seir, that if ye do not come to us tomorrow, we will excommunicate you from our most holy church; your finger nails shall be torn out; we will hunt you from village to village, and kill you if we can." miss fiske was spending the summer there with her pupils, and it was not deemed best to provoke further trouble by retaining them. when told of this, they all wept aloud. nor did they weep alone. their teacher, and the family of mr. stocking, in which they lived, could not restrain their tears. it seemed as if the girls would never tear themselves away from their teacher; and when at length they departed, again and again the lamentation arose, "we shall never hear the word of god again." miss fiske laid them at the feet of jesus, trusting that he would bring them back to her, and others with them. a german jew, who was present, said in his broken english, "i have seen much bad to missionaries in other countries, but nothing bad like this, to take little children from words of jesus christ." even deacon isaac, a brother of mar shimon, who was prominent in the act, was ashamed of it. on a visit to the school, eight years afterwards, he asked leave to speak to the pupils, and said, "my young friends, i want you to do all you can to help your teachers, for i once troubled miss fiske, and it has made my life bitter ever since." here the good man broke down, and there was not a dry eye among his hearers; while he added, "i have vowed before god that i will do all that i can to help her as long as i live." and all who know him can testify that he has kept his word, ever since his conversion in . when he first began to be thoughtful, he heard that one of the pupils was in the habit of praying for him. he sent for her, and insisted on her praying with him; and though he was the most intelligent of the nestorians, and possessed of rare force of character, and sarah was more noted for devotion, than for her mental powers, yet he learned from her in a most childlike spirit; and that scripture which says, "a little child shall lead them," found in this case a beautiful illustration. he has been occasionally employed in the school, and always proved a very useful and acceptable teacher. when he bade miss fiske good-bye, in , he said, "you may rest assured that i will do all i can for the women till you come back;" and the next sabbath found him teaching a class of adult females. in our favored land, the grace of god has made it nothing strange for the governor of a state to be a teacher in the sabbath school; but one who has not lived in persia can form no idea of what it is for a brother of mar shimon to teach a class of women. he has great skill in bringing out the meaning of scripture, and is every where exceedingly acceptable as a bible teacher. along with unfeigned piety, he has more real refinement than any of his countrymen, and few nestorians can show kindness with such true delicacy of feeling. the health of miss fiske was so impaired in the spring of , that she reluctantly yielded to the advice of the mission, and went with mr. stocking to erzroom, to meet mr. cochran and family, then on their way to persia. when they returned, they found mr. stoddard's health so seriously affected by long-continued over-exertion, that he only awaited their arrival to leave for trebizond. little did they dream that it was mrs. stoddard's last farewell to the scene of her labors. nor was this all. the patriarch mar shimon, who had long worn the guise of friendship, now threw off the mask. he broke up schools in small and distant villages, and secured the beating of a man by the governor on the charge of apostasy. the female seminary was honored with his special anathema. "has miss fiske taught you this?" was his frequent demand of those who fell into his hands, followed by such reviling as only an oriental could pour forth. on the morning of july th, the infant daughter of priest eshoo, named sarah, after her sainted sister, lay on her death bed; and to punish her father for his preaching, mar shimon forbade her burial in the nestorian graveyard. he collected a mob ready to do his bidding as soon as she should die; but she lingered on, and so disappointed him for that day. next day she died, and at once he anathematized all who should assist in her burial. a pious carpenter, however, forced his way through the mob, and made her coffin. he remained steadfast throughout the storm, replying to every dissuasion of his friends, "i must go forward, even to the shedding of my blood." the missionaries appealed to a former governor, who owned that part of the city, for leave to bury in the cemetery used by the nestorians from time immemorial; but the patriarch paid no attention to his messages, and the child remained unburied. miss fiske wrote, "as we look out on this troubled sea, and sympathize with these afflicted parents, we love to look up and think of the dear child as sweetly resting on the bosom of the saviour. may the sabbath bring us a foretaste of heavenly rest." but it found them still "where storms arise and ocean rolls." the governor sent men to demand the digging of a grave, which the mob would not allow. meanwhile, the profligate mar gabriel craftily suggested that a promise from the priest not to preach any more, might end the trouble. "never," was the prompt reply. "let my dead remain unburied, but i will not go back from the service of the lord." this so enraged the patriarch, that, for the sake of peace, the governor advised to bury the body in one of the villages. the sorrowing parents then locked their house, and leaving their babe alone in its slumbers, went to the chapel. there they found comfort from a sermon on the text, "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of god." about twenty men returned with them to the house. then one bearing the little coffin went before; the rest followed, singing the forty-sixth psalm. even moslems gazed with wonder, as they passed close by the door of the patriarch, and went out of the city gate. the engraving (page ) gives a very good representation of this gate. on the green hill-side at seir the little one was laid to rest, and the father, thanking the company for their kindness, hastened them back, to be in time for the afternoon service. in the mean time, mar shimon sent far and near, forbidding all intercourse with the missionaries. at geog tapa, in the absence of the malis, he ordered an old man, who formerly held that office, to summon the people before him. only a few vagrants obeyed, and these he commanded to break up the schools, and prevent preaching in the church. so, that evening, when john commenced preaching, they proceeded to execute their orders; but, afraid to face the determined people, they deferred the attack till the hearers passed out; and then, like stanch old puritans, hardly noticing them, the congregation wended their way homewards, singing psalms as they went. [illustration: seir gate, oroomiah] the patriarch now excommunicated mar yohanan, and made common cause with the french lazarists. he even wrote a fraternal epistle to the pope, ready for any thing, if he could only crush the mission. his attendants marched about the mission premises with loud threats; pious nestorians were knocked down in the streets; while his brother isaac went to a distant village, to show that he had no sympathy with such iniquity. soon after, the carpenter who made the coffin was severely beaten by his own father for attending a prayer meeting. as the blows fell thick and fast, he cried, "must this come from my own father?" but he remained firm, and next day went to the chapel pale and weak, but filled with holy joy. deacon guwergis, prevented from going to the mountains,--for the koords sided with mar shimon,--fearlessly encountered the revilings of the patriarch in his own house, and told him that he hoped to continue preaching till he died. his countenance must have shone like stephen's, for his persecutor said to one of the attendants, "see how his face glistens. if he is so bold here, what will he be in the mountains?" well might a missionary write, "what a blessing are such men! the sight of them is worth ten thousand times the sacrifices made by us all." though this was vacation, fifteen of the pupils remained in the seminary for protection during the storm; yet even there they were not wholly safe. on the th of august, a messenger came in haste for one of them, saying that her dying brother wished to see her immediately. as the man was her relative, the girl was ready to go at once; but providentially miss fiske learned that the brother was well, and the messenger had been seen last with mar shimon. so he left, chagrined and enraged at his failure. the patriarch had told him to be sure and hide his purpose from that satan, miss fiske, and in case of failure, to take the girl by force. but the teacher had had some experience in guarding her fold, and both she and her pupil were thankful for the deliverance. next day, mar shimon forbade preaching in geog tapa; but if the church was closed, the house-tops remained open. the same day, the school in vizierawa was repeatedly dispersed, but each time reassembled by the teacher. the th of this month was such a day as the mission had never seen before. in the forenoon, the teacher from charbash fled wounded from the servants of mar shimon to the mission premises. scarcely had he entered, when his brother came in, having escaped from similar violence. the moslem owner of the village had to put a stop to the tearing down of their house. miss fiske and miss rice had just sat down to dinner with the school, when the cry, "a man is killed!" was followed by a rush from all parts of the yard. a mob at the gate was trying to break in and seize the native helpers. mar yohanan was wounded, and all was confusion. the teachers exhorted their little flock not to count their lives dear to them, for jesus' sake. happily, they were not called to such a test of discipleship; but the sympathies of the moslems were plainly with mar shimon, and no one knew what a day might bring forth. that tried friend of the mission, e.w. stevens, esq., english consul at tabreez, feared lest the missionaries should fall by the hand of violence. miss fiske writes, "our native friends will doubtless suffer much, and we rejoice to share with them. we hope that fears on our account will not be realized. still there is danger; and we try to be ready for life or death, as our father sees best. though in a land of violence, we are not unhappy; we trust in god, and hope this vine is being pruned that it may bring forth more fruit. we would have all the gracious designs of god fulfilled, even though we should be cast down." the same day came tidings of the death of mrs. stoddard, at trebizond, and miss fiske wrote that night an account of it to her former teacher, at south hadley, adding, "precious sister: she died far away; but my father knows why i might not stand by that dying bed, and i would submit, though my heart bleeds. _our_ homes are sad to-night, and there is many a weeping eye among those for whom she toiled so faithfully. from my first acquaintance with her, she has been to me all that mortal could be. her heart was tenderly alive to the spiritual interests of the dear nestorians; and to them she devoted all her powers. it was she who first taught their daughters to sing the songs of zion. few, probably, have accomplished so much in so short a life. her family, the mission, the seminary, and all about us, shared in her untiring labors. as truly as of dear mrs. grant may it be said of her, 'she hath done what she could.' "like mrs. grant, she was the youngest member of the mission at the time of her death. when she left her native land, some almost regretted that so frail a flower should go forth to encounter the hardships of missionary life; but she did much, and did it well. the seminary in seir still bears the impress she stamped upon it. her memory is not only fragrant today among the nestorians, but it draws them nearer to christ, and renders them more efficient in his service." mar shimon now made common cause with the persian nobility. the english and russian ambassadors had procured the appointment of dawood khan as governor of the christians in oroomiah, in order to protect them from illegal oppression. the nobility of course opposed this; and mar shimon, by promising his aid in the removal of the protector of his own people, secured their cooperation in his wickedness. the converts were now insulted at every turn. they could hardly appear in the street, and the authorities afforded no redress. the missionaries had no earthly friend nearer than mr. stevens at tabreez, who did all he could for them; and the pious natives felt shut up to god as their only refuge. yahya khan, the governor of the province, now wrote urging on mar shimon, and ordered his agent in oroomiah to aid him to the utmost of his power. as yahya khan was brother-in-law to the king, he was able to do the mission much harm at the court; and the patriarch, encouraged by such a coadjutor, set himself with renewed zeal to destroy it; but in september, the prince royal summoned him to tabreez, and the nobility hardly daring to resist the order, he was reluctantly preparing to comply, when news came of the death of the shah, and all was confusion. the missionaries had been praying for help against their dreaded enemy, yahya khan, and lo! his power to harm them perished with his master. the night after the news reached oroomiah, anarchy reigned, and all kinds of crime abounded. five men were killed near the mission premises, and the firing of guns was heard all night long; but though outside were robberies and murders, within that enclosure all was peace. though its inmates knew that the fanatical population would gladly stone them, yet they felt it a privilege to labor on under the care of the keeper of israel. in persia, no king, no government; so besides this anarchy in the city, the koords came down and plundered many villages, burning the houses and driving the people for shelter to oroomiah. these strokes fell most heavily on the moslems, many of whom were robbers themselves. the fear of an attack on seir was at one time so great, that the ladies were sent off, and the gentlemen remained alone to guard the mission premises; but both in seir and the city the houses of the missionaries were thronged by multitudes seeking relief, and each approaching footstep announced some new tale of woe. mar shimon, after the death of the king, prudently retired into turkey, and his servants were put under bonds to keep the peace. the koords, however, drove him back, later in the season, but stripped of his power to persecute. it may sound like the close of a tale of fiction to add, that the next time miss fiske met the patriarch was in gawar, august, , when he rode up to the tents of the missionaries to inquire after their health, before he went to his own. he staid an hour and a half, appearing more free and social than ever before; and when they returned his visit, he came out of his tent to meet them, and treated them with unusual respect, saying, in the course of the interview, "i fear that miss fiske is not happy here: she does not look well." on being assured that she was both well and happy, he said to his attendants, "this lady is happy only as she has a number of nestorian girls around her, eating care[ ] for them, teaching and doing them good." so, when our ways please the lord, he maketh even our enemies to be at peace with us. [footnote: this is the nestorian idiom. we say, "taking care of them."] babilo, the carpenter, who made the coffin for the child of priest eshoo, was taught to read by the younger girls in the seminary after school hours, and thus writes to miss fiske, november th, :-- "i remember how, thirteen years ago, in that trouble with mar shimon, when my father beat me for attending meeting, and men despitefully used me, dear mr. stocking and you comforted me in the great room. i shall never forget your love. give my love to your dear mother, who so loved us that she willingly gave you to the lord, as hannah did samuel. "if you inquire about my work in the city sabbath school,--i teach a class of ten women; three of them, i trust, are christians. when i read your letter to them they greatly rejoiced. i reminded them of the meetings you used to have for them in your room, and their eyes filled with tears. in the afternoon i went to charbash, and read your letter to the eighteen women in my class there. they, too, were very glad. five of them, i trust, are christians. we are now studying second timothy. after the lesson, i question them on old testament history; and then i teach the women and their children to sing." chapter xv. trials. evil influence of homes.--opposition in degala.--asker khan.--poisoning of sanum's children.--redress refused.--inquisitor in school.--troubles at khosrawa.--letters from hoimar. but, aside from open persecution, there is a constant danger arising from the people themselves. the teacher in a christian land can never fully understand the feelings of the missionary teacher. the one sends forth his pupils to meet christian parents, brothers and sisters, who, with more than a teacher's love, lead the young convert by still waters, and establish him in holy feeling; but the flock of the other goes out often into families where every soul would gladly break the bruised reed and quench the smoking flax. he can sympathize with paul in his anxiety in behalf of those for whom he had labored in the gospel. sometimes the pupils of the seminary so dreaded the scenes of home, in vacation, that they preferred to remain in the school. in april, , miss fiske visited the village of degala. as it was a holiday, most of the women had gone out for amusement; but a little company of twelve praying ones gathered around her, and listened in tears while she spoke of jesus and his love. their fervent prayers for neighbors and friends made her feel that a blessing was yet in store for degala. these women suffered all sorts of insult for their attachment to the truth; they were often beaten and driven from their homes by their husbands. while the pupils of the seminary were here, some of their own sex did all they could to annoy them. but read an account of their trials from the pen of sanum, of gawar. she writes to a friend in this country,-- "i had bitter times this vacation, for our neighbors are all very hard-hearted, not listening at all to the words of god. when i opened my testament to read to them, they would shut it, and begin to quarrel about the forms of religion. i entreat you to pray for my village, that i, so unworthy, may see its salvation. "one day, miss fiske went to the village of degala, where is a band of women who greatly love the lord. they gathered about her, and she had a very pleasant time. all these were inquiring what they should do to be saved. she could not stay long with them; but they were so humble that they asked to have some of the girls sent to them. so four of us, though so weak, ventured to go in the name of christ. we found these sisters in great distress, being reviled and beaten by wicked men, for jesus' sake. "we were speaking in an upper room there on a feast day, and the women with us were weeping very much, while others, afraid to come in, seated themselves on the terrace by the window. suddenly a wicked man came with a rod, and drove all those away who were without. poor souls! how my heart burned for them! one, who had not been used to come to meeting, came that day for sport. she wore many ornaments, but as soon as she heard the words of god, her tears began to flow. after meeting, she arose up quickly, and threw aside her ornaments, and followed us wherever we went. we were having a meeting in another house, when a quarrelsome woman entered, having a large stick in her hand, and began to beat her daughter and daughter-in-law, and she carried off her daughter; but the other remained, though sorely bruised, saying, 'i will spill my blood, but will not leave the place of prayer.' the women who fear god wept much because this woman did so. "we went to the sacrament, and there was a company of women who separated themselves from the others, and were weeping in one corner of the church. some very bad women came to them, and said, 'let us rise up and dance, because they are weeping.' another, in anger, took the sacrament from the mouth of one of them, and gave it to her little granddaughter. there was much confusion in the village, and they seemed like those who cried, 'great is diana of the ephesians.' one said, 'i wish neither satan nor god, but only mar shimon.' once, when we were assembled with the women, and moressa was speaking, a wicked man fired a pistol to frighten us. but the women encouraged us, saying, 'go on, and speak louder, that he may hear.' and when he heard my sister speak of the wickedness of man's heart, he cried out, 'those words must have been for me. she must have known that i was there.'" it does not fall within the object of this volume to give any detailed account of the proceedings of asker khan, who for several years sought to wear out the saints of the most high, causing the native helpers to be beaten, fined, and annoyed in many ways, and then arrogantly denying all redress. encouraged in his persecutions by the prime minister, he was able to defy all interference. indeed, during part of the time, the english ambassador was constrained to leave the kingdom, and the russian ambassador, though personally disposed to do all in his power for the mission, was yet officially unable to help. at one time, he gave orders that no school should be opened without his sanction, and that all the teachers must report to him; and in case of disobedience, he threatened them with fines and imprisonment. it may show in what estimation the influence of the female seminary was held by enemies, when we find him issuing his command, "allow no girls to attend your school; schools are for boys alone;" and claiming credit for great forbearance because he did not at once break up the seminary. that which called forth such opposition from enemies was surely not inefficient. there must have been a power for good manifest even to moslem opposers, that taught them where to strike so as most effectually to destroy.' but there was a power above them that said, "thus far, and no farther." "the bush burned with fire, yet it was not consumed." the evil wrought by asker khan was not confined to his own doings. his hostility, in a position so commanding, emboldened every shimei to curse. in ardishai, two or three unprincipled drunkards, with their dissolute bishop (mar gabriel), saved themselves from mohammedan rapacity by taking part against the converts. these last were made examples of, to deter others from attending preaching or sending their children to the schools.' one poor widow, with four children,--a most consistent christian,--was driven from her house by her father-in-law, because she allowed her oldest daughter to attend the village school. as many as thirty families, unable to endure persecution any longer, fled from the village; and priest abraham himself, after suffering much, was compelled to leave, though his congregation was from one hundred and fifty to two hundred every sabbath. in dizza takka, on the evening of april th, , sanum, who graduated in , had arsenic put into the supper which she carried to a neighbor's tandoor (native oven) to be warmed. happily, joseph, her husband, was delayed beyond his usual hour, so that he was uninjured; and the quantity of arsenic was so large, that, by the prompt use of remedies, the mother's life was saved, though her innocent children suffered severely, and, after lingering a few months, both of them died. she rose from weeping over their graves to serve her master more faithfully than ever. but asker khan,--though the arsenic was found at the bottom of the pot, though a portion of the contents, given to a cat, speedily produced convulsions and death, and though a jewess testified that "the neighbor" had recently applied to her husband for arsenic, and no one else had access to the vessel where it was found,--instead of investigating the case, insulted joseph and his friends, and caused his aged father to be beaten; at the same time telling the people of dizza takka to shoot joseph if he went to their village again. such conduct emboldened the enemies of the truth to complain against the more enlightened of their clergy who had renounced many sinful customs, as forsaking the religion of their fathers; and, with blasphemous threats, they were ordered to do the bidding of their accusers. on the st of june, an order from the authorities at tabreez to asker khan was presented to him by the missionaries, which, after a calm recital of the facts in the case of poisoning, proceeded thus: "as the person who did this act is a criminal, and, if unpunished, the affair may lead to the destruction of life, it is necessary that you, high in rank, take the attitude of investigation, and having discovered the criminal, that you punish him, with the knowledge of the americans, and so act that no one, christian or moslem, shall dare to repeat such a crime." this order was obtained through the kind offices of the russian ambassador; but the criminals were only detained a few days, and not pressed at all to a confession. asker khan then proposed, as they had not confessed, that the missionaries should intercede for their release. of course, they refused. then, saying "that if he had known that, beforehand, he would not have touched the matter, and that he could defend himself at tabreez," he dismissed the accused, and it was in vain for the missionaries to prosecute the matter further. indeed, the opposition at this time was more serious than at any previous period, and for a time it seemed as though the seminaries, and especially the female seminary, would be destroyed. in the autumn, a commissioner, sent from teheran to examine into the proceedings of the mission, made an inquisitorial visit, and went all through the building, peeping into the chambers, and making himself and suite every where at home. coming into the recitation room, where most of the girls were engaged in study, he selected, a large, robust pupil, who could speak turkish, and questioned her as follows:-- "are you allowed to follow your own customs?" "we follow all that are good, but not such foolish ones as you would not wish us to follow." "do these ladies let you see your friends?" "certainly; we always see them when they come here, and we go home three times a year, staying, at one time, three months." "what do you do when at home?" "we work in the fields, and do any thing that our friends do. our teachers tell us to help our friends all we can, and are displeased if we do not." "can you work, or have you become ingleez?" (english.) "look at me; i am strong; i can carry very large loads." "what do you do here?" "we study, and learn all wisdom." "are you allowed to use your own books?" "certainly; the principal book of our religion they have printed for us, and we use it more than any other." "but have you not left the books of your fathers?" "the book i spoke of is our sacred book, like your koran, and we use all others that agree with that." "do you fast?" "one day at the beginning of the year, and other days afterwards." "but have you not forsaken some of your church fasts?" "none that are written in that book. i keep all those very carefully." "what! twice in the week?" "no; for that is not required in the book." "but your people do." "yes; not being readers, they do many things that are not written in the book." "would your teachers allow you to fast?" "o, yes; but we don't want to fast more than our book requires." "what are your prayers?" "those taught in the book." then followed questions about dress, employment, and such things, all of which she answered in the same manner. the teacher was very thankful that the master had neither left to her the selection of the witness, nor her preparation for the examination. but the examiner expressed very decided disapproval of female education, and held up their previous condition as their only proper one. the truth was, the moslems were angry that their rayahs were being elevated, and they were specially indignant at the education of women. so the opposition went on. messrs stoddard and wright proceeded to tabreez, and secured orders for redress which, as usual, were counteracted by secret orders to the contrary. the native helpers were now beaten because they were in the employ of the mission: some were thrown into prison, and threatened with being sent to teheran in irons. but when the lord saw that the wrath of man had proceeded far enough, he restrained the remainder thereof. for one of the leading spirits in this onset on the mission fell under the daggers of the koords, and his death at once called off attention from missionary operations to other things. again, in january, , two pious residents at khosrowa, in the province of salmas, were shamefully oppressed; and when application was made for redress, asker khan not only refused to adjudicate the matter, but beat one of the complainants so severely that he was confined to his bed for weeks. still later, after urgent importunity from nestorians and nominal papists, two very able and excellent men, deacons joseph and siyad, were sent to labor in that distant province. on one occasion they entered the village of khosrowa to purchase fuel, and were quietly passing along the street, when a mob stoned them out of the village. shortly after, deacon siyad was expelled from the district so suddenly that he had to leave his wife, merganeeta: she, too, was driven away alone; but holmar, a pious woman residing there, went with her. the first night they spent in a field, and the next day they sought refuge in an armenian village; but, driven from thence, the persecuted wife fled to oroomiah. after long effort, an officer was sent from tabreez to salmas, and ample promises of full redress were given, ending, as usual, in nothing. a mob, headed by a french lazarist and native bishop, rescued the offender, and the officer desisted from further procedure. the reader will be interested in the following extract, from a letter of hoimar to miss fiske, in :-- "i cannot tell you how glad i am to hear that your health is better. o that quickly you might meet us, if the lord will! till death i can never forget your love, nor your reminding your pupils to ask the lord to support a poor, ignorant one like me. i do not believe your thoughts can ever rest about your little company of nestorians. if a mother leaves a nursing child, she cannot rest till she returns to it. if you are far from us in body, i know your spirit is with us. if jonah mourned over the gourd for which he had not labored, how shall not you mourn after those for whom you have labored? "if the breezes did not bring the cry of 'salvation' over the ocean, our desolations would cry out. but thanks to him who favors those that leave their native land to labor among the ignorant. yet what shall this people do? the beast having great iron teeth still reigns here; but it may be the lord will speedily destroy him with the breath of his mouth. i trust that you will ever remember in your prayers one who will remember you in her weakness till death." two years later brought the following, with its graphic delineation of the trials that such as choose the better part may meet with yet for years to come:-- beloved miss fiske: almost every day of this summer has been a bitter day. for my mother had become willing to give raheel (rachel, sister of hoimar) to the papists, and she had prevailed over my father to do the same. and now i will tell you how goliah fell upon the earth, and he that had no weapons overcame; but it was from the power of god. the arrangement had all been made by my parents, and the betrothal feast made ready. sanum and i were in oroomiah, but deacon joseph was in salmas, and we had also this comfort--my oldest brother stood firm, saying, "fear not; till death _i_ stand." raheel also was firm, hoping for help. with entreaties and tears, i asked deacon isaac to go to salmas. he went, but raheel knew it not. she was very sorrowful for only an hour remained to the time fixed for putting the betrothal ring on her finger. the hope of her life seemed to hang on a hair. she went to the vineyard, and prayed god to deliver her; then returned sorrowful to her room. she hears them say, "they have come!" and locks her door. they ask her to open it, bat she opens it not. just then, deacon joseph goes to the window, and, seeing that doacon isaac has come, says, "open; be not afraid." deacon isaac sits down with the papists who have come to the betrothal. my father leaves it with him, and he says, "very well; i have only now come; i must have time to examine into this business. to-morrow i will give you an answer." he talks with my father, saying, "how can you give your daughter to the papists? the missionaries are not willing, our people are not willing, i am not willing; and more than all, the girl is not willing." my father at length said, "she is your daughter, not mine; do as you please." then deacon isaac sent word to the papists, "there is no possibility of your carrying this forward. i have questioned the girl, she is not willing; speak no more about it." the deacon then asked my father to let her go to the city to school again. at first he consented, but finally left it with her mother, who did not let her go. the deacon left displeased. when i heard this, i arose and took mar yohanan's brother, and went to salmas, thinking i might possibly bring raheel. while yet a good way from the village, like canaan's spies, we sent for my oldest brother (who is, as we trust, a christian). he, gave us good news, and said, "raheel is all ready to go to school." as the lord favored eleazar about rebecca, so he favored us; and the next morning my sister and deacon joseph returned to oroomiah, while i remained to meet the wrath of my mother. as soon as raheel was gone, she left, and as yet we know not where she is. truly, great is the power of prayer. so god brought to nought evil counsels, scattered fearful, dark clouds, and caused the light of joy to rise upon us. but i am very sad about my mother, because she has turned away from the fear of god, and is fleeing from life. my father and husband still get intoxicated. i trust that you will multiply your prayers for them; and ask your friends to do the same, and to pray for me, and our village and country. give my love to all your friends. from your lover, hoimar. we shall hear from hoimar again, in connection with the communion. chapter xvi. prayerfulness. language of prayer.--prayer on horseback.--old man in supergan.--mar ogen.---earnestness.--farewell prayer meeting in .--letter from pupil.--spirit of prayer in .--woman who could not pray.--"christ become beautiful."--closet in the manger.--monthly concerts.--prayerfulness in and .--sabbath, january th.--interest continued till close of term.--family meetings.--audible prayer.--answer to mothers' prayers.--connection of revivals with prayer at home. the nestorian converts have been noted for their spirit of prayer. in , the prayers of the hopefully pious in the male seminary were very remarkable. several rooms were appropriated to devotion, and there one might hear the voice of supplication from morning till night. many spent several hours a day in this holy employment; and one needed only to listen to know that their prayers came from the depths of the soul. at one time, they beg that the dog may have a single crumb from the table of his master; again, they are smiting on their breasts by the side of the publican. now they are prodigals--hungry, naked, and far from their father's house; and now they sink in the sea, crying, "lord, save me; i perish!" or, as poor outcast lepers, they come to the great physician for a cure. this one builds on the rock of ages, while the torrents roar around. that one washes the feet of jesus with his tears, and wipes them with the hair of his head; another, as a soldier of the cross, plants its blood-stained banner in the inner citadel of his heart. their ardent feelings found such appropriate expression in their oriental metaphors, that one might learn from children to pray as he never prayed before. on the reopening of the seminary that spring, the first desire of the pupils was to enter their closets and commune with god. riding out one evening, mr. stoddard saw three persons before him on the way to seir. their horses went from one side of the road to the other, at random; and their own heads were uncovered to the cold march wind. at first he took them for dervishes; but on coming nearer he heard the voice of prayer, and found they were nestorians. the eyes of all were reverently closed, and when one finished the other continued their supplications. he turned aside, and left them undisturbed. on another occasion, when john and moses were riding to geog tapa on the same horse, they again engaged in devotion; but as the horse was unruly, they each prayed in turn, while the other held the reins. sometimes the language of their prayers is very broken. mr. stoddard once stood in the church in supergan, twenty miles from oroomiah, while prayers were read in the ancient syriac, and overheard an old man, very ignorant, praying back in the congregation by himself. he had, perhaps, never heard five prayers, in his whole life, in a language he could understand; but reverently, and in a low tone, commingling the memories of old forms with the utterance of new desires, he was saying, "our father in heaven--always going, after satan--o lord jesus christ--hallelujah--forever and ever, amen!" it was incoherent, but comprehensive. he addresses god as his heavenly father. he confesses his sins. he appeals to christ as his only helper. he praises god for his unspeakable gift, and then closes in the usual form. the pious mar ogen, of ishtazin, when in great pain, and hardly able to move, often broke out in words like these: "o lord jesus, thou art the king of glory, the king of kings and lord of lords; thou art great and holy, and merciful. i am a sinner, condemned. my face is black, my bones are rotten. o lord jesus, have mercy upon me, poor, and blind, and naked, and miserable. o lord jesus christ, i am vile. i am lost; but do thou remember me." no language expressed their sense of guilt better than the words, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." in the fervor of their desire for christ, and grace through him, they would say, "blessed saviour, we will cling to the skirts of thy garment, and hope for mercy till our hands are cut off." a common petition was, "o lord, we pray that we may never deny thee, even to the blood of our necks"--most expressive words, in a land where so many criminals are beheaded. one prayed for our country, when he heard of the southern rebellion, thus: "o god, pour peace into that land. permit them not to fight with each other, but with satan and their wicked hearts, and may they fight spiritually to subdue the whole world to christ." during one of the revivals in the female seminary, the prayers of the pupils were exceedingly earnest. a member of the mission, having occasion to open the door of a room where a few of them were together, heard as follows: "we are hanging over a lake of fire, with a heavy load upon our backs, by a single hair, and that is almost broken. we are in a ship burned almost down to the water; the flames are just seizing upon us. o god, have mercy. jesus, son of david, have mercy. o lamb of god, have mercy on us." "no wonder," a missionary wrote, "i sometimes think that it is pleasanter to pray in syriac than in our own language, because i have such fervent-minded ones with whom to pray." the day miss fiske left oroomiah, a large number of women and girls gathered around to bid her farewell. they said, "can we not have one more prayer meeting before you leave?" they were told that they might meet in the school room. "but may it not be in that bethel?" they asked, referring to the teacher's own room. she told them she could not lead their devotions then. their reply was, "you need not do it; we will _carry you_ to-day." seventy were soon assembled in her room. they sung, "blest be the tie that binds," and offered six prayers. one asked that when elijah should go up, they might all see the horsemen and chariot, and all catch the falling mantle; not sit down to weep, or send into the mountains to search for their master, but take up the mantle, go, smite jordan, and, passing over, go to work. she then reminded the saviour that he had promised not to leave them orphans (john xiv. , greek and syriac), and begged him not only to come to them, but to abide with them when their teacher was gone. her thoughts then turned to the departing company, who were to take their long land journey of six hundred miles on horseback. she asked that the sun might not smite them by day, nor the moon by night. theirs was a desert way, and the lord was entreated to spread a table for them through all the wilderness, and, when they should pass over the narrow, precipitous roads, to give his angels charge to keep them in all their ways, and bear them up in their hands, lest they dash a foot against a stone; and when they should go through the rivers, not to let the waters overflow them. the company would lodge by night in tents, and it was asked that the angel of the lord might ever encamp round about the moving tabernacle. borne in mind as they should pass on, first to the steamer, and then to the sailing vessel, she asked that when they should be on the "fire ship," the flame might not kindle upon them; and when on the "winged ship," where the waves would go up to heaven, and down to hell, that he would keep them in the hollow of his hand, and bring them to the desired haven. she then asked that all her teacher's friends might be spared till she should reach them, especially the aged mother, and that when she should fold her daughter in her arms, she might say, like simeon of old, "now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." here she paused, and miss fiske thought she had finished; but soon she added, "may our teacher's dust never mingle with a father's dust, or with a mother's dust; but may she come back to us to mingle her dust with her children's dust, hear the trumpet with them, and with them go up to meet the lord, and be forever with him." nor did their prayerfulness cease after their teacher had left them. there was a pupil in the seminary, who, before conversion, was exceedingly obstinate and rude; but afterwards, in writing to miss fiske, she uses expressions like these: "i remember how you used to put your arms about my neck, and tell me how christ became obedient unto death; not for friends, but for enemies like me. especially do i remember how you spoke of that love which saw a remedy in its own blood, when there was no help for a lost world. at that time i did not understand it, but now i know not how to express my gratitude. i know that you are very happy with your aged mother, though your heart is here; and she is happy, too, that she sees your face. yet these earthly meetings, though so pleasant, are but for a season. but how delightful will be that meeting with the holy angels, with the risen lamb, and with god our father! and if separations are so trying here, what must be those of the last day? may i not then be separated from you. if i should be, i know you will say, 'holy, holy lord god, just art thou, for she has been taught.' we miss you much; but the teacher who is better than any earthly instructor, came and taught us this winter ( - ). the lord jesus has been the gardener of our school. he has come down and watered it with heavenly rain. he has truly fulfilled his promise, 'i will not leave you orphans; i will come to you.' he said, 'wait for the promise of the father.' we waited for his coming, and he turned himself quickly, and we had delightful seasons. our times of prayer were longed for. we prayed more than we did any thing else. when we retire from the school room now, in many places two girls are found praying together. in my village i meet the women together and alone. i also have precious seasons, praying with a company of girls; and i have selected two women to pray with and for till they shall be christians. i hope that they will choose christ for their portion. some of the women of our village, like mary, sit at jesus' feet. one christian mother had an only son, and very wicked, who trod the sabbath under foot, and was wholly given up to his own pleasure. she set apart a day for fasting and prayer in his behalf, and soon the lord met him in his evil way, and now he is a decided christian." but let us leave these general views, and look at this prayerfulness more in the order of its manifestations. during the revival in , two of the pupils spent a whole night in prayer for the conversion of their brothers, first one leading in devotion, and then the other, till morning. like jacob they felt, "we will not let thee go except thou bless us." while the missionaries admired their pious zeal, it is proper to add, that they generally insisted on the observance of regular hours of sleep, as conducive alike to bodily and spiritual health. yet one writes on a similar occasion, "sometimes, in my anxiety, i have gone to their cold closets to persuade them to leave; but the fervor of their prayers has oftener driven me to mine, than it has allowed me to call them from theirs." twice, and even three times, a day, were not enough for them to retire for communion with god. many spent hours every day at the mercy seat. there were but few closets, and this was a great trial to them. often three or four of them might be seen sitting, in tears, waiting their turn to go in to the mercy seat. would that they might have had some of those closets at home that are never entered! at another time, the bible of one of the girls was found on one of their wooden stools, open at the fifty-first psalm, and the page blotted with weeping, as she read it preparatory to retiring for prayer. her teacher could put her finger on no part of those large pages without touching a tear.[ ] still later, when news of the death of munny, of ardishai, by the accidental discharge of a gun, reached miss fiske in america, her first thought was, "dear child, i shall never again break off your communion with jesus;" for she remembered that when once she begged her to leave her closet and get rest for the sabbath, her reply was, "o, i am so sorry that you spoke to me! i was having such a good time with my dear saviour." only a few days before her death, while in the vineyard with her brother, she suddenly clasped her hands, and exclaimed, "blessed mr. stoddard! when shall i see him? and when shall i see my blessed saviour?" [footnote : see page .] a poor woman came to the seminary one day, weeping for her sins, and seated herself on the floor. the teacher was soon at her side, telling her of him who was wounded for our transgressions. she prayed with her, and then asked her to pray for herself. "but i can't pray; i don't know your prayers." "hatoon, don't try to pray like me, or like any body; but just tell god how you feel and what you want." "may i tell god just what is in my heart?" being assured on that point, she fell on her face, weeping aloud, saying amid sobs, "o god, i am not fit even for an old broom to sweep with," and could say no more. this was doubtless the most worthless thing the poor woman could think of in her humble home. but it was not long ere she could join others in their little meetings for prayer; and she still lives, honoring the saviour, whom she loves. she is the mother of two of the most useful graduates of the seminary. again: a pious man brought his wife to spend a few days in the seminary, when she was somewhat thoughtful, and left her nearly a week. let miss fiske describe their meeting. "he came for her at noon, and i was conversing with him in my room, when she passed out from her closet without seeing him. (the small upper window to the left, over the central door, marks the closet.) but he saw her, and reached out his hand, saying, 'my beloved, come here.' she placed her hand in his, looked up in his face, and answered his 'is christ become beautiful?' with a gentle '_i_ think so.' the tears of both fell fast, while he led her, without leave, into my chamber, that they might unite in prayer. but i was glad to have them offer their first _united_ prayers there. it was ever after a more sacred place." miss fiske spent most of the vacation that followed the first revival, in , with mr. stoddard, in the villages, where her pupils aided her much in labors among the people. after a very pleasant evening spent in geog tapa with those who were seeking jesus, hanee, the pupil with whom she staid, came and asked, "would you like to be alone?" it was the first time she had ever been asked such a question by a nestorian, and it awakened feelings similar to those that filled her heart when first she heard the voice of a nestorian woman leading in prayer. to use her own words, "i followed the dear child, and she led me to the best closet she could give me--a manger, where she had spread clean hay; and she said to me, as she turned to leave, 'stay just as long as you like.' you may well suppose it was a precious spot to me. it was my own fault if i did not there meet him who was once laid in a manger for us." the members of the seminary were especially interested in the monthly concert, which was held in oroomiah, on the first monday of the month. on that day they generally wanted two or three meetings; and in it was often difficult to persuade them to study at all. from the rising to the setting sun, the voice of supplication for a dying world continually fell upon the ear. at one time, all united in pleading for a world's redemption; then, in little companies of five or six, they urged the request; and again, each, alone in her closet, still pressed the same petition. previous to , so few of the nestorians knew how to pray, that religious meetings were for instruction rather than prayer; but now it was a delightful privilege to unite with them in pleading for the conversion of the world to christ. never were their petitions so full of unction as when offered for this object. in april, miss fiske's pupils, not satisfied with an extra meeting by themselves, though continued till near sunset, were induced to close it only by the promise of having a similar meeting next day. no wonder their teacher never enjoyed a monthly concert in america as she did that one. it was indeed a rare privilege to unite with such spirits in its observance. the pupils wrote to the seminary, at south hadley--"dear sisters, we love the monthly concert very much. three hours on that day we meet together to pray that the kingdom of god may come among us, and among all the nations of the earth. it is a very sweet day to us, and we love none so well, except the sabbath." in january, , they spent day and night in weeping and prayer, mostly for themselves, as unfit to pray for others. the same was true of the male seminary. the teachers, the older pupils, and deacons john and guwergis spent nearly the whole of one night in prayer; and so burdened were they with the lost condition of their people, and their own unfaithfulness, that almost all of them gave up their former hope in christ, and sought anew for pardon. the voice of praise and prayer was now heard, not only through the day, but frequently during the night. up to january th, only two or three of the unconverted in the seminary showed any concern for salvation. most of them were so careless and trifling, that their teachers were almost heart-broken; but when the retiring bell rung that night, many were so distressed for sin that they could not heed it. the pious were pleading in behalf of those out of christ, and many of these last were crying for mercy. one prayer commenced, "o lord, throw us a rope, for we are out in the open sea, on a single plank, and wave after wave is dashing over us." so they continued till near midnight, when their teachers constrained them to retire. at the beginning of february, the other seminary witnessed a remarkable outpouring of the spirit of prayer. every spare moment of the previous day, and much of the night, had been devoted to fervent intercession by those who feared that the spirit of god was about to leave them. so intense was the feeling, that the ordinary services were suspended, and at once every closet was filled; yet a majority had no place for retirement. one of them proposed prayer in the yard, and there, on that wintry day, for an hour, their earnest cries went up to heaven. all of the careless were deeply moved, and many dated their conversion from that day. the work extended to geog tapa, seir, and other villages. from degala, deacon joseph wrote, "whenever i went home, i found our house a house of mourning. after the lamp was put out at night, i could not sleep for the sounds of prayer and weeping on all sides. in some houses, very young children had heard their parents pray so much, that they also did the same. the women, too, had frequent meetings by themselves. one day i led some men to a place where they could hear women praying within the latticed window of a house, and, trembling, they begged me to teach them also how to come to god." the missionaries avoided all stirring appeals to the passions, among a people so excitable, though the ready performance of every duty manifested the sincerity of the praying pupils, while it made the labors of their teachers pleasant. there was not that agonizing wrestling in prayer on the first monday of that had marked the same day the year before; but the following week was characterized by unusual tenderness in both seminaries, and two of the older pupils of the female seminary found no rest except in their closets. on the evening of the second sabbath in january, miss fiske was not able to attend the prayer meeting, and remained in her room alone. the gentle opening of her door announced that the meeting was over, and a little group passed on hastily, but quietly, to the rooms beyond. she had just risen to follow, when she heard several voices in earnest supplication. she turned to the stairway, and there also the sound of fervent entreaty came up from many closets, while some groped about to light their lamps, or stirred the dying embers of their fires. what meant this simultaneous movement to the mercy seat? there had been nothing unusually exciting in the meeting, and she sat down with the sweet assurance that it was from above. it was late before the suppliants left their closets, and retired in perfect silence; but morning found them resuming the same loved employment, and good news came of similar blessings from the boys' seminary. that week was one of deep solemnity. the pious pupils devoted every leisure moment to prayer. their domestic duties were performed faultlessly, and much earlier than usual, and then they sought their closets. some spent five hours each day of that week in those sacred retreats, and when urged to leave for needed sleep, the reply was, "for weeks we have slept, doing nothing for god and souls. how can we sleep until forgiven?" saturday afternoon, several begged leave to give themselves entirely to prayer for a blessing on the morrow; and never did the teachers more gladly welcome the approach of holy time. a blessed sabbath followed such a preparation day. during morning service, almost all were in tears. at dinner, many seats were vacant. it may seem an exaggeration, but it was literally true, that no voice was heard all that day save the voice of prayer. miss fiske has never known such a sabbath before, nor since. in the afternoon, the feeling was overpowering. there was no request for prayer, but unbroken stillness and the perfect performance of every duty, without a word being said. at the supper table, every face seemed to say, "our meat and drink are not here." some asked to be excused, but at length all were seated; and the scene that followed can never be forgotten. all who were previously interested, and more beside, wept tears of silent sorrow. the blessing was asked, and the steward[ ] began to help them, himself in tears; but no plate was touched, for even the uninterested gazed in silent wonder. their teacher urged them to eat; but one, seizing her hand, said in a voice too low to be overheard, "you would not ask _me_ to eat if you knew my heart." the reply was, "i feel just as sure that the lord would have you eat, as that he would have you pray." they were then besought to eat, so as to have strength to pray. this touched a tender chord, and so succeeded; and then they silently withdrew to make that use of their renovated strength. each hour that night found some at the mercy seat, feeling that to leave off at such a crisis might lessen the blessing. [footnote : yohanan, father of esli. see page .] two months now passed on, each day furnishing new evidence that those prayers were heard. there was less of excitement, but no diminution of interest, to the close of the term. the uniform and sustained prayerfnlness of those months surprised the beholders. the voice of supplication was the latest sound of evening, the watchword of midnight, and the lark song of the dawn. one pupil, nine years of age, after spending two hours in her closet, consented to retire only when allowed to rise and pray if she awoke during the night; and she was sure to wake. about three o'clock every morning, her earnest pleadings roused her teachers from repose. the hours of social prayer were full of tenderness. those who heard the pupils pleading far within the veil, close by the mercy seat, almost forgot that they were yet on earth. the school, their parents and relatives, were all affectionately remembered. the hour always seemed too short, and often closed with such expressions as these: "if we have not been heard here, we will go to our closets, and if not heard there, we will return here, and again go back to our closets, and so continue to plead for these loved ones to the last." these meetings, though varied in character, were always of thrilling interest. now there was an overwhelming sense of sin, as committed against a holy god, and then, as a ray of hope appeared, a weeping voice would implore, as on one occasion, that "the holy one would walk over the hills of judea, find golgotha, and let them live." again, the sight of manifold transgressions prompted the cry, "but we fear our sins have covered golgotha from thy sight, and then are we forever lost." another part of the same prayer contained the entreaty, "lift not the mercy seat from off the holy ark, to look on the law we have broken, but look into jesus' grave, and bid us live." in the daily family prayer meetings every inmate of the room was specially and tenderly remembered. once, when a father had come for his daughter, and miss fiske went to find her, on opening the door she heard a prayer for one who had shown little feeling; and in pleading the sufferings of christ on her behalf, each petition seemed to rise higher, till every face was turned upward, as if to see him; and the one who led in devotion involuntarily stretched out her hands to lay hold of him, saying, "come, lord jesus, and save our perishing sister; but if she will not receive thee in this life we must forever rejoice in her destruction"--a striking illustration of intense spiritual emotion, bringing the heart into sympathy with the whole truth of god. (rev. xix. .) these labors for their impenitent associates, and for those women who came to the seminary, were full of christ. the hour between supper and the evening meeting was usually spent in personal labor from room to room; and the entreaties and prayers, then audible on all sides, made it delightful to be a stranger in a strange land for jesus' sake. it was scarcely less affecting when superstitious grandmothers, worldly mothers, and giddy sisters were prayed with and entreated to come to christ. the audible prayers of the pupils may trouble some readers, but not more than they troubled their teacher. she desired more silent devotion; but mr. stoddard, himself in the habit of praying aloud, looked on it with more favor, and feared to have it checked. soon after his own conversion, a friend remarked to him, "i think you had better not pray quite so loud;" and for days after it he could not pray at all. he had never thought of others while communing with god, and he was troubled that others should think of him. even to the last he continued the practice of praying audibly. miss fiske sometimes spoke to her pupils on the subject. there was one who spent hours daily in her closet, but her teacher heard all she said. so, on a fitting opportunity, she suggested to her, in a gentle way, that she might modify the practice. "i will try to pray in a lower voice," was the reply; "but i never thought of anybody's hearing me." that night her voice was more subdued, but her prayer was very short; and soon after midnight her teacher was awakened by the voice of prayer out on the roof. she stepped out quietly; and there was her pupil wrapped in a blanket, and thanking the lord for such a place to pray. she continued her devotions till near morning; and the kind teacher had no heart to interfere any further. mr. stoddard was much amused with her success; and it may teach all of us, in this matter, to suffer the holy spirit to divide to every one severally as he will. on another occasion, not liking to assume the responsibility herself, and yet fearing for the health of her pupil, who generally spent a long time in fervent devotion, she led the physician to the outside of the door; but he, too, after listening for a while, did not venture to interrupt such communion with god. sarah of tiary was within. meetings were held three days in the week with the women in the neighborhood, and were well attended. the older pupils were allowed to assist in these in order to form habits of doing good for after life; and they did so to edification, both leading in prayer and addressing the beloved mothers--as they called those older than themselves--tenderly and in fitting words. it was of such a work that miss fiske wrote at the time, "we cannot speak confidently of its fruits at this early date, especially as many of our dear charge are so young; but we can say what present appearances are; and while we daily try to obey our saviour's command, 'feed my lambs!' we trust that friends at home will hear no less distinctly the same voice, saying, 'pray for my lambs in persia.' all those whom we regarded as christians have shown themselves most faithful to their master during this season. others, of whom we were less confident, have seemed to pass through a previously untried experience, and, we tremblingly hope, have laid hold of eternal life. the same is true of several never before convicted. among these last is a little girl who was suddenly awakened, with as clear convictions, apparently, as i ever saw in any; and her final trust in christ as implicit. for several days she would say, with tears and sobs, 'i have never yet loved the saviour; but o, i do want to love him now.' her mother is one of the few converted in geog tapa before the first revival. she has suffered almost every thing for christ. often, on returning late from meeting, she has found herself shut out for an hour in a piercing winter wind, before her husband would open the door. at other times she has been beaten, but never denied him who bought her. the pious natives often say that in the conversion of her daughter, she now receives the reward of her years of prayer and faithful endurance. the last days of the term bound the dear pupils very closely to each other, and we trust to christ. when the hour of separation came, a prayer meeting was held in each room, and continued to the last moment. those without hope clung to their praying sisters, with tears and entreaties for prayer. the hopeful converts went forth with a holy, chastened gratitude and trust. we tremble for them among their wicked friends, but rejoice that israel's shepherd will keep his own." their prayer was, "may we not carry to our homes the poison of the second death in our hearts, but bear to them the seeds of eternal life." but the rich blessings bestowed in oroomiah were not all in answer to prayer ascending from that place. there was a connection between them and prayer offered in our own country, of which david would say, "whoso is wise, and will observe it, even he shall understand the loving kindness of the lord." most of the revivals in oroomiah commenced on the day of the monthly concert of prayer, and several on or immediately after the first monday in january--a day specially set apart to prayer for missions. but there was a special centre of prayer for the female seminary in the institution at south hadley; and pious hearts loved to watch the connection between the two. while the two inquirers, on that first monday in , were making closets for themselves with the sticks of wood in the cellar, some of miss lyon's pupils distinctly remember how she said to them that morning, "we must pray more for miss fiske and her school." they did so; and they remember, too, how the good news of the revival cheered them, when it came. the earliest indication of interest, in , was on the first monday in january; and letters afterwards told of special prayer for the school offered that day in south hadley. almost every letter written during the winter of contained similar information. the revival of came suddenly and unexpectedly; but when, on the night of february th, one of the praying pupils could not sleep, because, as she said, "the whole school was resting on her," and at midnight went to her teacher to ask her help in prayer, subsequent letters from america showed, that on that night she wrestled not alone. in , the first inquiry for the way of life was on the last thursday in february, the day of prayer for institutions of learning. miss fiske returned from the february concert of prayer, in , feeling depressed on account of the want of interest in the school, and in half an hour was called to see two of her pupils, who felt that they could not remain the enemies of god. in the first week of february, , meetings were held every evening in the seminary at south hadley to pray for the school in oroomiah; and a letter from miss rice, written that week, says, "god is with us; souls are seeking christ; and i am so strengthened for labor, that i am sure christian friends are praying for us more than they did last month." do christians in this country realize as they ought the connection between their prayers and the blessings bestowed on the opposite side of the globe? do we go to the monthly concert believing that prayer, offered then and there, will, through infinite grace in christ jesus, result in the salvation of souls and the advancement of his kingdom? such facts as these ought surely to increase our faith. well might a missionary say, "i have so often felt sure that i was reaping in answer to the prayers of those far away, that on this subject my heart is full, and my first and last word to friends is, 'pray for us.'" chapter xvii. forerunners. mountain girls in seminaky.--praying sarah.--return to the mountains.--visit of yonan and khamis, in .--of mr. coan, --of yonan, again, .--sarah's letters. but rich as are the benefits conferred on the females of the plain, the influence of the seminary is not confined to persia. it has climbed the rugged steeps of kurdistan, and pours into its wild glens and secluded hamlets the same spiritual blessings. it is delightful to trace the way in which god has led to results, as yet only beginning to appear, among the mountain nestorians. as the seminary could not enter the mountains, providence brought the mountains to the seminary. in , badir khan beg sacked and burned the villages of tiary, and the homeless fugitives who escaped the sword fled to the plains of assyria and azerbijan. towards the close of that year, a miserable group presented themselves at the seminary door for charity, asking for the lady who teaches nestorian girls. the quick eye of the teacher detected three in the company before her, and replied, "silver and gold we have not, but such as we have we will give you--a home for these children." this sent them away sorrowful, for it was not what they wanted. but while the parents retired to the shade of the tall sycamores to debate the matter, the little ones, attracted by kindness in a stranger, staid with their new friend. by and by the parents came back, and, falling on the necks of their children, told them they might stay, till they returned to tiary. the teacher never heard a more gentle and subdued "thank you" than this announcement called forth from those mountain girls. this was the first movement of the school towards the evangelization of kurdistan, and it will be seen how providence led the seminary at seir in the same path. the girls were taken in, washed, and clothed; and though at first they knew no more of good manners than of the alphabet, they made commendable progress in both. better than that, sarah and nazeo became hopefully pious in the revival of , and heleneh three years afterwards. the last days of the spring term, in , as we have seen, were full of interest. the teachers did not understand it then, but now they see that god was preparing his first messengers to the rude mountaineers for the work before them. among a company of praying ones, sarah had long been known as "the praying sarah." she was the pupil whom deacon isaac invited to come and pray[ ] [footnote : see page .] with him; and the strong man bowed before the simple piety of that mountain girl. her mind was not so gifted as many of her associates. she comprehended truth with difficulty, but she prayed with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. at this time an unusual spirit of prayer was imparted to the school. the prospect of vacation, instead of diverting the mind from devotion, seemed to produce intenser earnestness. the voice of prayer fell on the ears of the teachers at all hours, except the most silent watch of the night. after the evening meeting, some spent two hours in their closets, and others of the older pupils could not leave till they had prayed with each one in the school alone. on the last morning of the term, they separated with many tears and fervent supplications. the quiet of the hour seemed a foretaste of the rest of heaven. not a loud voice, heavy step, or harshly shutting door was heard in all the house. all was so sacredly quiet that the still small voice might be heard the more distinctly. the teachers sent out the lambs from the fold with feelings of peculiar anxiety. some were to go into families where every soul would gladly undo in them the work of the spirit; others to villages where not one heart could enter into their feelings as the followers of christ; and as they went forth, their teachers prayed, from full hearts, that the shepherd of israel would himself be to them for a little sanctuary in the places where they went. while their thoughts were on such of their flock as belonged to the plain, the thoughts of god were on those also whom he was about to send forth to a life-long separation from these means of grace. as late as ten o'clock, on the evening after the close of the term, miss fiske heard the voice of prayer for the absent ones, and fearing that the occupant of the closet was transgressing the laws of health, she approached the door, intending to enter, and advise her to retire; but as she listened to her strong crying, with tears, for each of the school by name, she could not find it in her heart to disturb the intercessions of sarah. she was then a great bodily sufferer, but very patient, and for a long time had not spent less than four hours daily in her closet. the next day her disease assumed a serious form, and for more than a week she hovered on the borders of the grave. several times she appeared to have drawn her last breath. but though her sick room seemed to all like the gate of heaven, and though to her the dark valley was all light, and she longed to embrace the messenger who should lead her through, it was not her father's will to call her then. she was at first disappointed at the prospect of coming back to the world; yet still she sweetly said, "thy will be done," as god restored her to health, with its responsibilities and temptations. april came, and a scarcity in the plain, occasioned by locusts, drove the fugitives from tiary back to their mountains. the teachers hoped the girls might remain, and besought their parents to allow them to do so, but in vain. they were only too glad to get their daughters away from influences which in their blindness they abhorred. but god intended through these daughters to lay the foundations of many generations, and build again the old waste places of those mountains. it was hard for them to go. how could they leave their christian home, and the means of grace they had enjoyed so much? it was no less hard for the teachers to think of those lambs as about to be left at the mercy of wolves, in rocky glens, so far away that no cry of distress would ever reach them. yea, even if those loved ones died, long years might pass ere their friends could hear of their death. those were days of sadness, and communion with god was the only comfort of all, and especially of sarah. on the day of their departure, the whole school came together, in the room of the teachers, for the parting prayer. all was silent, till the three asked to go and bid a farewell to their closets. they went, and only he who seeth in secret knows how they prayed. they returned weeping. a few words of comfort were uttered, and the teachers commended them to god. they rose from their knees, but only to kneel again; for one of the pupils proposed that all who would pledge themselves to remember their tiary sisters in every prayer should join hands around them, commend them to the good shepherd, and give to him their pledge. about twenty thus enclosed the departing sisters, and so they continued in prayer until the last moment. as the dear ones passed out, they could not speak, they whispered but one word,--"the promise,"--and so they went. for years after, no prayer was heard within those walls that did not contain a petition for "blessings on our tiary sisters." many a time had her teacher noticed the large folio page of sarah's syriac testament wet with her tears, and after she left, found the whitewash of the wall in her closet furrowed with the same. it opened out of the passage behind the door on the left of the engraving. she did not tell this to the school, lest superstition should attach an idolatrous sacredness to the place; and yet she could not obliterate marks that to her own heart were so full of comfort. sarah had gone but a little way before she pleaded with her parents to stop, and allow her to retire a little from the road for prayer. and so, weeping and praying as they went, these lambs were led into the dark recesses of a den of lions. we shall see persecution raging, pitiless as the mountain storm, and long continued. but we shall also see the hearer of prayer preserving them unharmed; and if we hear more from the others than from sarah, it may be that the revelation of the answers to her prayers is reserved for that day which shall unfold displays of grace too glorious for comprehension here. nothing was heard from them till october, , when yonan and khamis entered those rocky fastnesses to gather tidings of them. they spent the first sabbath of the month in the house of nazee; but she was absent. they say in their journal,-- "we preached three times to large assemblies. they brought us nazee's testament to preach from, and seemed accustomed to the sound of the gospel. in respectful attention to the word, as well as in knowledge, they were far superior to other villages in tiary. this we knew was the result of her teachings. monday we waited her return. she came about noon. how can we express the joy of that meeting! we spent another night there, the most of it in sweet christian conversation with nazee. we were surprised at the respect shown to her, and the restraint felt in her presence. if any chanced to swear, he at once went and asked pardon for thus injuring her feelings. tuesday we had to leave, lest we should be detained by the snow till spring. we longed to pray with her before we left, but custom here forbade it; yet she accompanied us a little on our way, which gave as an opportunity to mingle our prayers and tears together. as we bade her farewell, she said, weeping, 'here is my love for my teachers, for my sisters in the school, for the missionaries, their children, and all that know me. tell them to remember me in their prayers, that god may keep me in this place of temptation.' we left her looking after us, and wiping away her tears, till we were out of sight. "we went that day to the village of the other two. as soon as heleneh saw us, she began to weep, thinking of the past. sarah we did not see; she was in another village, very anxious to come, but her wicked husband, whom she had been forced to marry, would not permit it. we spent the night with heleneh, and preached to a large company. next morning we left, and she too, with tears, begged that all her friends in oroomiah would remember her in their prayers." was sarah prevented from seeing her christian friends, that god might show hereafter how, without even that help, he could answer the prayers of others for her, and her own? the next we hear of them is through mr. coan, who visited tiary in august, . the writer can understand his account of crossing the zab, as the bridge was in the same condition when he crossed it with the late dr. azariah smith, august st, . but hear mr. coan:-- "a toilsome day, over the roughest of roads, brought us opposite chumba. the bridge had been swept away, and fording such a torrent was impossible. two long poplar trees spanned the flood; and we crossed on them, bending under us at every step. nazee was on the bank, ready to greet us. after a few words of salutation and kind inquiry, she hastened to prepare a place for us; and while doing this, the malik took us to his house. she was much disappointed, but followed, anxious to treasure up every word. after supper, we spoke long to the company assembled on the roof. it was affecting to see how eagerly she listened. she staid after the rest, for religious conversation, till near midnight, when she apologized for keeping us up so late. she is cruelly persecuted by her wicked mother and ungodly neighbors; for she is a shining light, by which the dark deeds of the wicked are reproved; and hence their hatred. when mar shimon's attendants come, they treat her with wanton cruelty. some friends in america had sent her several articles of clothing; but her neighbors came together and tore them in pieces before her eyes. she bore it meekly, and only prayed for them. she expected fresh insults because of our visit, but prayed that nothing might separate her from the love of christ. long before day, she again sought to improve every moment for christian conversation. we tried to comfort her: and her eyes filled with tears of gratitude. she received a copy of the gospels with joy. when we left, she followed us, lonely and sad, to the river side. i opened her testament, and pointed to matt. xi. : 'come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden;' but her voice choked, and tears prevented her reading. we kneeled by the roaring zab, and in broken accents commended her to him who will keep her, for his promise is sure." for ten long years we hear nothing of either of the three; till, in september, , yonan--the same who found them in --and another preacher visited the mountains. in a village of tiary, some two thousand people were keeping the feast of the cross--eating, drinking, dancing, and carousing. they sat down among the quietest of the crowd. heleneh came up and saluted them. though she had not seen her teacher for eleven years, she recognized him at once. they talked from morning till near sunset. as they spoke of old friends, yonan asked, "heleneh, do you remember where our lord was crucified?" "on calvary. can i forget _calvary?_" as though grieved that he should think she could forget. yonan gave her a kerchief for the head, saying, "take this, and remember me by it." "shall i remember you by this?" was the reply. "i will remember you in my prayers." "do you pray, heleneh?"--she was the last one converted, and left oroomiah soon after her conversion; so he wanted to know whether she still held on her christian way.--"always," was the answer. they sought a place to pray together; and though they might not go away alone, yet there, in sight, but not in hearing of the crowd, they approached the mercy seat, the spectators little dreaming of the nature of their intercourse. it was delightful to find that she had not forgotten the language or the spirit of devotion. the accompanying sketch of a tiary girl will show how the kerchief is worn. it also exhibits the mode of using the oriental spindle, which is probably a facsimile of the article mentioned by solomon. (prov. xxxi. .) [illustration: a tiary girl] the other two were not at the feast; so, next day, they left to seek them at their homes. nazee was absent, but came home in the morning--a widow with two children. she was delighted, and even her children seemed to recognize in the strangers their mother's friends. she was poor; her house had been burned, and almost all it contained; but a stone was on her testament, and that was saved. they talked long with her, and gave her a copy of the rays of light (the monthly periodical issued by the mission), and a pencil to write to her friends. she gave them letters written ten years before, which she had penned in secret, and carried about with her ever since, waiting an opportunity to send them. the next day, another long journey brought them to the home of sarah; she saw them coming and hastened to meet them; but that very night she had to leave for a distant village: yet not till in answer to prayer they had an opportunity to pray together; and the friends left that village happy; for, as yonan said, they "found her, like the others, having the love of our christ in her heart." that solitary disciple, through those long years of seclusion, never hearing the voice of christian fellowship, or knowing whether her pious friends were alive, or if her sisters still remembered their pledge, was yet kept of god according to his promise; and it is interesting to see that she does not once allude to her persecutions in her letters, but only solicits the prayers of her friends for her relatives and neighbors; and then, while both mr. coan and her teacher testify to her usefulness, with what humility does she allude to herself, and "the very little she has made known of the lord jesus christ." extracts from the letters that she kept so long here follow. the first, to friends in middlebury, vermont, is dated september, , and reads thus:-- "to you, dear friends, i write a letter unworthy and imperfect, in which i make known to you my lost condition and my present abode. know ye that a little more than two years ago i left the seminary, and came with my friends to our country. i did not wish to leave so soon, for i had learned but very imperfectly what the scriptures teach about our lord jesus christ. but my mother was not willing i should remain, for her heart is yet hard and dark. know, then, dear sisters in christ, i dwell in tiary, in the village of chumba, about six days' journey from oroomiah. again, though so far away, know ye, that your letter reached me in may. it was translated and sent to me by mr. perkins, our beloved father, whom we are unworthy to call such. my dear sisters, when i took your letter in my hands and read, my heart longed to fly and sit down by you, and behold your faces in the body; but i said, "the will of the lord, not mine, be done." when i look within myself, and see not a place worthy to cherish gratitude to god for his great mercy and grace, which he hath wrought for us, sinful and unworthy, i liken myself to the slothful servant, who did not the will of his lord. yet, o, my sisters, though i have not done the will of my saviour, i have hope in him that i shall do it, and serve him henceforth so long as i am in this world--fleeting as a dream in the night. though our country has been, in time past, greatly afflicted by the koords, yet god has spared many of us, who had sinned and trodden under our feet the blood of his holy son. but do not marvel that we have sorrow from the scourge god brought upon us for our sins. no. still every day we provoke our maker more and more. then ought we not to mourn over this people, lost and fallen under the yoke of satan? for should you go through all tiary, you would not find one soul that fears the lord, but all bound in fetters not to be loosed. if god do not loose them, quickly will they perish; and not this country only, but many others, sit under the shadow of death and walk in darkness, going to destruction. then, dear sisters, though unworthy, we should increase our painful efforts, and our prayers to god, that speedily his kingdom may come and his will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, that all regions may know him and praise him forever. beloved sisters, i am unworthy to thank you, and still more to thank god, who has disposed you to show such kindness to my poor body, and yet more to my perishing soul, with words so gentle and full of love; yet greatly do i thank you. again, dear friends, i have one request to make--that every time you bow before god, the father of our lord jesus christ, and of all who love him, you will remember me in your prayers, for i am very needy, and there is great danger that my soul will perish forever. remember also my mother, and all my friends, sinners, and on their way to destruction. know ye, further, that i conceal the writing of this because they would not allow me openly to write, for they are very foolish and benighted. accept, then, this poor letter, as a token of friendship and gratitude, in the love of our lord jesus christ. from your unworthy and sinful sister, nazre, of tiary. amen. the following are extracts from another letter to the same persons:-- "though we are far from each other in this evil world, yet i hope that our lord jesus christ will make us pure from sin, and worthy of his kingdom, where we shall see each other with that light which shall not end, in the joy of the holy angels. ah, my friends, how great are our mercies and we how unworthy, but especially i!--unworthy of the gift of the gospel of god, which i have received, that i might make it known to lost souls around me. but know ye, very little have i made known about our lord jesus christ. now, dear friends, i desire to speak of him to lost souls, in the imperfection of my mind. but many do not desire even to hear of the sound doctrine of the lord jesus christ, and yet think to gain heaven, while they practise in this world according to their wicked desires. and for this reason, o my sisters, i beseech you that you will remember this people, lost and fallen under the snares of satan; especially my mother, and brother, and all my friends. but more especially, i beseech you to remember me, a sinner, in your prayers, every time that you bow the knee before god, the father of our lord jesus christ, and the father of all who fear him, and listen to his commandments." accompanying these was the following to dr. perkins, dated october d, :-- "to you, o my spiritual father, mr. perkins, i presume to send two letters, for friends in middlebury. if you please, you will translate them, and send them; but i fear that they will give you much trouble. "again, you wrote me in your letter, that i should teach children to read. now, i am very needy myself of instruction. yet i desire that that might be my employment. but that is a very difficult matter among such a people, of whom you have heard that although there may be here and there one who would walk in this way, yet there is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence therein; so that every one that goeth in it, his foot stumbleth, and quickly he turns back. "again, o friend beloved, though i am unworthy to call you such, yet i beseech you that you remember me always in your prayers. i know that you do remember me, but i desire that you remember me more, for i greatly fear for my perishing soul. greatly do i desire to see you once more in this world, if the lord will." he who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, commissioned these praying souls to prepare his way in the mountains, even as he chose those other three to show forth his grace in death; and they who live to mark the future course of the river of life in those rocky glens will find, we trust, that his strength was made perfect in their weakness. chapter xviii. laborers in the mountains. letter of badal.--account of hannah.--the pit.--'letter of guly and yohanan.--account of sarah.--letters of oshana.--letters and journal of sarah.--letter fkom amadia.--conference of native helpers. besides these, the seminary has sent up other laborers into the same field. at the monthly concert in oroomiah, june, , there were present four graduates, with their husbands, either going there for the first time, or returning to resume their labors. guly, the wife of yohanan, who had already spent one year in little jeloo, was now about to return there with her husband. nargis, the wife of khamis, who had spent the winter laboring alone in the vicinity of amadia, on the turkish side of the mountains, was now with him, going back to gawar. hannah, the wife of badal, who had sent her husband, three days after marriage, to his winter's campaign in the same region, was now accompanying him to the chosen field of his labors; and eneya, the wife of shlemon, his associate, was also expecting to leave in a few days. by the way of introducing the reader to one of these laborers, we subjoin a letter from badal to miss fiske, dated december th, . it is a good specimen of oriental style. "writing to you brings to mind many sweet conversations with you. dwelling on them, my mind is sad. my sighs rise like the swelling stream, and almost carry me away, especially when i look at your garden, where you labored with so much skill to graft in these wild olive plants, cutting off your sleep with watchings by night, that they should not be rooted up by the desert wind. thus you watched them, till they became as noble forest trees that not even the avalanche can overturn. your garden, now, not only gives a shade pleasant to the traveller, but it yields sweet fruits; clouds rise from it that give us the early and the latter rain; they empty themselves,--the plain rejoices, and the barren places become verdant. yes, the vine that you planted has budded, and blossomed, and gives of its fruit to every passer by. come to us, our beloved, open the door of your garden, that the traveller may enter in and be refreshed. you have left many pleasant remembrances in the work of your hands. on every side you have left a picture for our eyes, and the skilful work of your hands (his wife), lo, and behold! it is with me. i cannot be silent. my voice shall be heard as the turtle's; 'behold, your feet are within my doors, and your counsels are ever in my family.' the lord reward you for these pupils, that you have taught to be patient and persevering, so that they truly help us in the work of life. "beloved, give my love to your friends, and ask them, when they go up to shiloh to offer sacrifice, to place me in the censer of their prayers. "we are troubled that as yet we know not the lord's thoughts concerning you,--whether he will allow you to meet your flock again, or says to you as to daniel, 'thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.' like moses, you are gathered to your fathers; but miss rice stands like joshua, commanding the sun not to go down till the sword of the gospel shall triumph. we thank the lord that she is still a judge in israel, so that as yet the sceptre has not departed from judah. "your affectionate friend, badal." there are some things about hannah, and the work of divine grace in her, that demand grateful record. she was the daughter of one of the most intelligent and wealthy nestorians, who placed her in the seminary as early as . she was then quite small, and the teacher objected very much to taking her; but paternal importunity prevailed. as soon as her father turned to go, she began to scream; but he left, saying she must remain, and "learn wisdom." the kind teacher took her in her lap to soothe her; but it was of no use; her bleeding hands bore the marks of the nails of her new protegée for weeks. she called for her father, but he was intentionally out of hearing. the child remained, but learned wisdom very slowly. she had her fits of rage so often, that she was sent home sometimes for weeks, and again for months. she made little progress, either in study or other good, till the winter of , when she seemed to begin to love the truth; yet, though her general deportment was correct, she often showed such a determined will, that her instructors feared she had never said from the heart, "not my will, but thine," and often told her that, if she was a christian, god would, in love, subdue that will. she could not feel her need of this, and thought that they required too much of her. so they were obliged to leave her with god, and he cared for her in an unusual way. the mission premises had formerly been occupied by an oriental bath; and here and there were old pits, once used for carrying off the water, but now covered up, so that no one knew where they were. one evening miss fiske called the girls together, and told them some things she wished they would refrain from. they promised compliance, and went out; but hardly had they gone before their teacher heard the cry, "hannah is in the well!" she ran there, but all was right. then they led her to an opening just before the back door, saying, "the earth opened and swallowed her up." the covering of one of the pits had given way, and she had fallen perhaps twenty feet below the surface. fortunately, as in the case of joseph, there was no water in the pit, and in a few days she was able to resume her place in school, but much more gentle and subdued than ever before. the change was marked by all. months after, in a private interview with her teacher, she gave an account of the whole matter. she said the girls went out, most of them saying, "we will obey our teachers;" but she, stamping her foot, said, "i did right before, and i shall do so again." with these words on her lips, she sunk into the earth. at first she did not know what had happened, but remembered all that had been said, and felt that god was dealing with her. lying there helpless and bruised at the bottom of the pit, she made a solemn vow to god, "never again my will." from that time she was a most lovely example of all that was gentle. she seemed to give up every thing, and "bear all things." her father saw the change, and one day said to her teachers, "i am not a christian; but hannah knows nothing but god's will. if she should die now, i should know she was with christ, she is so like him." her christian character developed beautifully; the school learned of her to be christ-like. she longed to do good, and was ready to make any sacrifice for the good of souls. when badal sought her hand from her father, the latter called her, and said, "hannah, badal the son of the herdsman, wants you to go to the mountains with him, and wants you to live here with him. it shall be as you say." she replied very meekly, "i wish to suffer with the people of god. i choose to go with badal;" and june th, , she left for her mountain home. the parting prayer meeting with those four girls, going as missionaries to the mountains, was one of the pleasantest memories that miss fiske carried away from oroomiah. she left soon after, but often heard from hannah and her companions that she was happy in her life of privation for jesus' sake, and did what she could. she suffered, however, from the change, and was advised to visit oroomiah for her health. it was hoped she might soon recover; but she went only to leave her sweet testimony to the blessedness of knowing no will but god's, and then go home. she sent the following messages to miss fiske from her dying bed: "i love to have god do just as he pleases. i thank you for all your love, and especially for showing me my saviour." she died in december, . having given herself to missionary work among the mountains, it is interesting to know that her little property also went to the same object. in the remarkable revival of benevolence, in oroomiah, in the spring of , her brother gave her inheritance, which had fallen to him, to sustain laborers in the mountains: thus, after her life had been laid down in the work, all her living went to carry it on. let guly introduce herself to the reader by giving her own account of her conversion, in :-- my dear superintendent, miss fiske: i wish now, as far as i can, to describe to you my spiritual state. the first four weeks of the revival i did not realize that i was lost, but afterwards was more burdened; my sins were round about me like dark clouds. one night i went to miss rice to have her pray with me. i did not know how to find christ. she told me; yet all that night i saw no light, but only darkness. i was almost in despair, yet felt that this was from satan. in the morning the sun rose pleasantly, but it was as night to me; for i knew that i had no portion in god. so i continued all that day. i could not read in my class, but went to my room, and vowed not to leave it till i had some token that christ was mine. i brought nothing in my hands save my sins, which were like mountains. i remembered that scripture, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;" and i recalled the promises of god, and that no other could pardon me. with earnest longing, i laid my soul into the hands of jesus. i heartily covenanted to serve him all my life, and sought help from him in prayer. then suddenly i saw light, as if he were at my side; and i did not wish to rise from my knees, so blessed was that communion. from that time i had hope, but sometimes fear i may be deceived. yet daily i find christ more and more precious. though old adam is not dead, yet in the strength of god i will resist him. yes, my dear mother in christ, my guide to the cross, my desire is to please god, and live for him, not for myself. i cannot say that i shall never sin, for i am weak, and my foe is strong; but i will seek help from him who was tempted, and can succor me when tempted. i am most thankful to you that you have been the means of my salvation, and can never forget your love till my tongue is silent in the grave. your affectionate guly, of seir. she and her husband, yohanan, have labored in the mountains ever since their marriage. he writes to miss fiske in february, ,-- "i have not forgotten your pleasant love, and trust i never shall until i die. i hope that, with all your friends here, i shall see you again. as our joy is not full in your absence, may you not rest till you return. "we are now in vizierawa of gawar; for the people of ishtazin, instigated by mar shimon, have cast us out. i had hoped to go to amadia, but was robbed and wounded, in the autumn, by the koords; and before i could recover my goods, it was too late to go so far. so i remain here; and, thanks to god, our labor in the gospel is more pleasant than ever. some of the men wish to hear the whole will of god; and women and girls come to guly to hear his words. a few children also are constant in learning to read. the work of god prospers this year in gawar, and the laborers are more numerous and more faithful." in estimating the zeal and self-denial of these nestorian missionaries, it should be borne in mind that our missionaries there, think it requires as much self-denial for a native of oroomiah to go to the mountains, as for an american to go to oroomiah; and according to the testimony of a native observer, the married graduates of the seminary, in the mountains, are centres of light in that great sea of darkness. besides those already mentioned, oshana and sarah, with shlemon and eneya, are laboring in amadia. this sarah is daughter of priest abraham, of geog tapa, and was one of the earliest pupils of the seminary. when deacon isaac broke it up, in , she was the only pupil who remained. she was hopefully converted in , and while in the seminary was supported by the sabbath school in owego, new york. in , it was proposed that her father labor in ardishai, one of the darkest and most wicked villages of the plain, as one might expect the home of the notorious mar gabriel would be. great opposition was made by the people to his coming among them; and his own wife--not then converted--did much to hinder his going; but sarah did all in her power to encourage him; and a letter of hers on the subject decided him to go. she rejoiced to give up her friends, her pleasant home, and even her privileges, that he might labor in that unpromising field. nor was she by any means idle. she spent all her vacations there, laboring with much acceptance and success; and after she graduated, in , besides her day school through the week, she had a bible class on the sabbath, with the women; and on friday, also, she sent out her pupils, in the afternoon, to invite their mothers and other women to a meeting she held with them in the evening. she thus acquired great influence, and led several to the saviour. her labors were very systematic. she had a plan for conversing personally with one pupil each day, and was noted for her tact and success in efforts with individuals. others might act from impulse, and soon tire; but hers is an activity controlled by principle, and therefore uniform and enduring. very faithful in admonition when admonition is required, she is at the same time noted for gentleness, and thus expresses to miss fiske her delight in laboring for christ: "separated from christian friends, i am sometimes sad; but i am not greater than my master, who left the holy society of heaven to come to earth, and i am glad for a corner where i may labor for such a master. come and spend a sabbath here if you can; if not, pray much and often for these poor women." again speaking of her school, she says, "it is the goodness of god that gives me these little girls. pray for them. i see indications that they will be lovers of the lord. forty or fifty of the women come to meeting, and twenty-two are willing to receive the truth." she was accustomed to study the bible with her father, and in that way also aided him in his labors. but it is time to bring forward her husband, in letters which open up a new department of usefulness, and illustrate the meaning of mar yohanan, when he brought her first pupils to miss fiske, and said, "no man take them from you." the truth was, that the same parents, who at first could not trust their daughters in the seminary for a single night, were now unwilling that they should be united to a husband who did not commend himself to its teachers as a suitable companion for their pupils. but let oshana speak:-- honored lady, miss fiske: i have a petition to lay before your zeal, which is active in doing good to all poor insignificant ones like me. dear lady, whose love is like the waters of the nile, and spreads more than they; for it reaches the sons of the mountains of kurdistan, as well as those of the plain. i am venturing to trouble you more than ever before. this summer, when i went to my country (tehoma), my mother and uncles, who greatly love me, with a natural love, beset me to marry one of the daughters of my country, whomsoever i should please; but i made known to them that i wished, if possible, to take one of the pupils of your school, for i said to them, "if i take one of these who are so wicked, ignorant, immodest, and disorderly, they will embitter my life;"' i entreated of them not to put this yoke of iron on my neck. they listened a little to my petition, from the mercy of god, but made me promise that if it should reach my hand, i would marry this winter. the girl on whom i have placed my eye, to take her, is sarah; because she has the "fear of god, which is the beginning of wisdom," and she has been brought up in all the graces of christianity, and has well learned the holy doctrines; and in the fear of god, and the knowledge she has acquired, she can help me, and strengthen me, in the work of god, on which i have placed my heart for life. and now, to whom shall i look to help me in this matter? i will look to god, the lord of heaven and earth. but he works by instruments. then to whom shall i look, as the instrument to do this work? i am a stranger, poor, and without a name here. my relatives are far away. if i have friends in oroomiah, they cannot do this kindness for me. if i remain silent, silence alone shall i see. now, my lady, i look to you for help; and with confidence shall i do so more than i should to my parents; for you have guided me and my sister better than any nestorians have guided their children. yes, by your hand god will supply my need. now do as you think proper. from your unworthy oshana. p.s. the other letter (enclosed) is for sarah, and on this subject. some time after he was engaged to her, she was very sick, when he wrote as follows; and the reader will notice that the "honored lady" gives place to dear mother, and nourisher of sarah: i have no friend in whose pleasant, pure love i can delight as in sarah, and she is now wasting away on a bed of sickness. my heart is very heavy with sorrow on her account. yes, i am so borne down with trouble, that for three days my tears have not been stayed. i do not say this to boast of my love. i owe her all this. i have a petition to make; which is, that you will do all you can for sarah. but i need not ask this, for i am confident that your kindness, will lead you to do, and cause to be done, all that can be done for her. but will you not let me know whether her sickness increases or diminishes?--if it increases, that my sighs and tears may increase in pleading before the lord for mercy, and if it diminishes, that my thanksgivings may increase before our merciful father in heaven. dear mother, if it is the will of our father in heaven to take sarah to the upper mansions,--though i shall be comforted on account of her being saved from all the bitter misery of this world, and her blessed rest with the saviour, where she can praise his love with her pleasant voice, joined with the sweet songs of angels,--still it will be hard for me. if i live after she has gone, god forbid that i behold her dust, and not long to be her companion in heaven. your unworthy oshana. our next letter is from sarah to miss fiske, written at seir, in , more than two years after her marriage, and gives a good idea of her christian spirit:-- beloved: the good news that you gave us of the revivals in your country, rouses our hearts to warmer zeal. shall we not also prepare the way of the lord? we know, by the gracious visits of god here this winter, that christians there are ever praying for our poor people. for we hear from the preachers who come up to the concert every month, that the work of the lord goes forward in the villages of the plain, and also in the mountains. here in seir, the good work began among the women. i hear them say, "though we have had revivals before, we have never seen a year like this, when the words of god had such deep effect." mrs. cochran and i have good meetings with these women. our congregations make glad the christian heart, and i am particularly happy in laboring for them, one by one. a portion of them, with tearful eyes, are covenanting to be the lord's. we ask the lord to strengthen them in their covenant, and we entreat of you and of your friends to pray for them. our sabbath schools are very pleasant. mr. cochran will tell you how the work goes forward. mrs. cochran has a class of women, and so have i. last sabbath mr. cochran read one of your letters to the congregation, and we learned from it how the work of the lord goes forward in your blessed churches. we praised the lord, and then we entreated him to bless our churches, and make them more spiritual, for we are confident that his grace is sufficient for us all. she visited tehoma, in may, two months after the date of the preceding, with her husband, oshana, and two little children, and gives the following account of their journey:-- "through the favor of our heavenly father, i have made a journey into these mountains, rejoicing in the opportunity to labor for my people. i am very happy that my father and friends brought me on my way in willingness of soul. from the day that i left my own country, in every place that i have entered, until now, my heart has been excited to praise my guide and my deliverer, and i have also been grateful to my teachers who brought me to labor in a desolate vineyard, joyfully, i, who am so weak, and such a great sinner. in all the various circumstances in which i have been, your counsels have been of great benefit to me. "i think you will be glad to know that the gospel door is wide open here. you and your friends will pray that the lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into his harvest. "we left the city of oroomiah, may th. we were ten souls--hormezd, of aliawa, sagoo, of geog tapa, matlub, the tehomian, guly, and little gozel, oshana and his brother, our two little girls, and myself. may th, we reached memikan, and remained there three days. "it was our first sabbath in the mountains. i met that company of women for whom our departed mrs. rhea used to labor. may th, we left memikan, and went up to the tops of the snowy mountains of gawar. the cold was such that we were obliged to wrap our faces and our hands as we would in january. as we descended the mountain, we found it about as warm as february. that night we staid in the deep valley of ishtazin, in the village of boobawa, where yohanan and guly dwell. the people here are very wild and hard. yohanan and guly were not here, having gone to visit khananis. only a few came together for preaching. the people said, 'yohanan preaches, and we revile.' may th, we left boobawa, and soon crossed the river. men had gone before us, and were lying in wait there. they stripped us, but afterwards, of themselves, became sorry, and returned our things. as we were going along this wonderful, fearful river, and beheld the mountains on either side covered with beautiful forests, we remembered mr. rhea, the composer of the hymn, 'valley of ishtazin.' and when filled with wonder at the works of the great creator, we all, with one voice, praised him in songs of joy fitting for the mountains. here the brethren reminded me that our dear miss fiske had trodden these fearful precipices. this greatly encouraged me in my journey. this day we went into many villages, and over many ascents and descents. at evening we reached jeloo, and remained over night in the pleasant village of zeer, which lies in a valley made beautiful by forests, and a river passing through it. they showed great hospitality here, and were eager to receive the word of the lord. may th, we left zeer, and went to bass. it was saturday night, and we remained over the sabbath in the village of nerik. i shall always have a pleasant remembrance of the sabbath we passed there. prom the first moment that we went in till monday morning, we were never alone, so many were assembling to hear the words of the lord. with tearful eyes and burning hearts, they were inquiring for the way of salvation. they would say, 'what shall we do? we have no one to sit among us, to teach us, poor, wretched ones.' truly, a man's heart burns within him as he sees this poor people scattered as sheep without a shepherd. may th, we mounted our mules, and went on our way. half an hour from nerik we came to the village of urwintoos. an honorable, kind-hearted woman came out, and made us her guests. this was oshana's aunt. as soon as we sat down, the house was filled with men and women. they brought a testament themselves, and entreated us to read from that holy book. did not my heart rejoice when i saw how eagerly they were listening to the account of the death of our lord jesns christ! when the men went out, the women came very near to me, entreating for the word of the lord, as those thirsting for water. then i read to them from the book. "there are many sad deeds of wickedness among these mountain nestorians; and when christians hear how anxious they are to receive the words of life, will they not feel for them? we reached tehoma may th. now, from the mercy of god, we are all well and in the village of mazrayee. i am not able to labor for the women here, as i desired, because many of them have gone to the sheep-folds. it is so hot we cannot remain here, and we will go there also, soon. i trust, wherever i am, and as long as i am here, i shall labor for that master who wearied himself for me, and who bought these souls with his blood. "the lord keep and bless you, our beloved, who have been a mother to the nestorian girls, all of whom, with longing hearts are expecting your return. we continually pray him who gave you to us, to restore you again in mercy to our people. if counted worthy, i should greatly rejoice to receive a little note from you." she returned to oroomiah in the spring of , and left again in for amadia. when she went away, her three children had the whooping cough; so she would not go into any of the mission families lest she should spread the disease among the children; but after she was all ready to go, and the heads of her own little flock were peeping out of the saddle-bag contrivance in which they rode, mrs. breath went out to bid her good by. sarah told her how miss fiske had said, when she took her oldest child into her arms for the first time, "'now, sarah, you will not seek for this child a pleasant home upon the plain, as lot did, but rather to do god's will, and then he will give you all things." "i have always remembered it," she added, "and am not willing now to be found seeking my pleasure here." during the long winter of - , no messenger could cross the mountains from oroomiah to amadia; and she thus writes in march, , to miss rice:-- "i did greatly long for the coming of the messenger. we were very sad in not hearing a single word from home. now i offer thanksgivings to him in whose hands are all things, that he has opened a door of mercy, and has delighted us by the arrival of letters. they came to-day. many thanks to you and your dear pupils. the lord bless them, and prepare their hearts for such a blessed work as ours. "give eneya's salutations and mine to all the school. i think they will wish to hear about the work of the lord here. thanks to god, our health has been good ever since we came, and our hearts have been contented and happy in seeing some of our neighbors believing, and with joy receiving the words of life. every sabbath we have a congregation of thirty-five, and more men than women. for many weeks only the men came; but now, by the grace of god, the women come too, and their number is increasing. i have commenced to teach them the life of the lord jesus from the beginning. i have strong hopes that god is awakening one of them. his word is very dear to her. her son is the priest of the village, and a sincere christian. four other young men and five women are, we trust, not far from the door of the kingdom. we entreat you, dear sisters, to pray in a special manner for these thoughtful ones, that they may enter the narrow door of life. "from the villages about us we have a good report. they receive the gospel from oshana and shlemon, who visit them every sabbath. in my journeys through these mountains, i have seen various assemblies of men and women listening to the gospel, poor ones, exclaiming 'what shall we do? our priests have deceived us: we are lost, like sheep on the mountains. there is no one to teach us.' they sit in misery and ignorance. they need our prayers and our help. i verily believe that if we labor faithfully--god help us to labor thus--we shall soon see our church revived, built up on the foundation christ jesus, and adorned for him as a bride for her husband. with tears of joy we shall gaze on these ancient ruins becoming new temples of the lord. soon shall these mountains witness scenes that will rejoice angels and saints. those will be blessed times. let us pray for them, and labor with christ for their coming." our latest news from sarah is, that during the summer of , her little son had died, and she herself was just recovering from a dangerous fever. the joyful anticipations awakened by such a letter from a graduate of the seminary, in ancient amadia, are not diminished by accounts received of a conference of "mountain helpers," held in gawar, from may th to june d, . they came from gawar, jeloo, tehoma and amadia. at the opening of each session, half an hour was spent in prayer; then carefully prepared essays were read on subjects previously assigned, and each topic was afterwards thoroughly discussed. the first subject was, "hinderances to evangelization in the mountains,--such as their ruggedness, deep snows, superstition of the people, and persecution." deacon tamo, in speaking, admitted all these, but said, "for rough roads we have our feet and goats' hair sandals; for deep snows, snow shoes; for the darkness and superstition of the people, we have the light of the truth and the sword of the spirit; and for persecution, we have god's promise of protection and the firman of the sultan." "the faithful pastor's duty to his flock," and "means of securing laborers for the field," were among the topics discussed. their discussions on the subject of benevolence showed that they regarded that duty as binding as any other. they engaged to observe the monthly concert, and take up monthly and also annual collections in their congregations, and apply the proceeds to the support of a laborer in the mountains. on sabbath evening the monthly concert was observed, and after stirring addresses, the contribution amounted to what was for them the very large sum of fifty-two dollars. among the offerings were a horse, an ox, a sheep, a goat, and different articles of jewelry. arrangements were made at the conference for the formation of a protestant community in gawar, in accordance with the firman of the sultan. in all respects the meeting was a rich spiritual festival, and from the spirit its members manifested, and the progress already made, we may hope for extensive and important results before many years have passed away. chapter xix. ebenezers. examination in .--collation and address.--valedictory by sanum. --sabbath school in geog tapa.--examination there in .--prayer meeting and communion at oroomiah, may, .--selby, of gavalan, and letter.--letter from hatoon, of geog tapa. there are occasions, interesting in themselves, that also serve to mark the progress which they promote. such an occasion was the examination of the seminary, june th, . there have been examinations since, but none so marked in their influence for good; none where the teachers felt so much like calling the name of it "ebenezer," and saying, "hitherto hath the lord helped us." the pupils had improved, during the last weeks of the term, more than they had ever done in twice the same length of time, both spiritually and mentally. at the close of the term, their parents and friends, with some of the leading nestorians, were invited to the examination. more than one hundred and sixty spectators, besides the pupils, were crowded into the large recitation room. this had been adorned with a profusion of roses, from the vineyard of mar yohanan, arranged in wreaths and bouquets, with festoons of sycamore leaves, and other devices. the people were delighted,--for, like other persians, they are great admirers of flowers,--and many, on entering, involuntarily exclaimed, "paradise! paradise!" in their various studies, the attainments of the pupils would have reflected honor on a seminary in our own land; but their knowledge of scripture exceeded all besides. even on the details of the tabernacle they rarely faltered; and their compositions showed an intimate acquaintance with bible facts and doctrines. dr. perkins delivered an address, comparing the early days of the mission with that scene, and felicitously answering various objections that had been raised against female education; and, at the close, diplomas were given to three of the oldest pupils. the exercises were pleasantly diversified by a plentiful collation under the arbor in the court behind the seminary, where lambs roasted whole, in the native style, lettuce, cherries, pilav (a preparation of rice), and some cake, prepared by the pupils, were duly discussed. many of the women had never before sat at the same table with men, and it was amusing to witness their awkward embarrassment. some snatched the food from the table by stealth, and ate it behind their large veils, as though it were a thing forbidden. hormezd, the miner of john, now aged and blind, who had been led all the way from geog tapa, said, towards the close of the afternoon, "i wish joshua were here." "and what do you, want of joshua?" "i want him to command the sun and moon to stand still, for the day is altogether too short." as the company dispersed, several old men took miss fiske and miss rice by the hand, saying, with moistened eyes, "will you forgive us that we have done no more for your school?" but the best of all was, some sixty adult women, from different villages, begging for spelling books, that they might commence learning to read. thirty of them did not rest till they could read their bibles. the cause of female education never lost the impulse that it received that day. instead of the valedictory composed for this anniversary, is here subjoined the greater part of the one prepared by sanum, for a like occasion, because it takes a wider range, and is richer in its historical allusions:-- "now that another year is closed, and we are ready to leave each other in peace, it is fitting to review the past, that together we may praise the sweet keeper of israel for the blessings he has poured upon our heads. we fear to try to recount them all, lest we tempt the lord; so we will speak of but a few. "let us renew the wings of our loving thoughts, send them to the years that are past, and see where rests the dust of some of the dear teachers of this school. listen! there comes a voice, 'they are not to be found among the living.' yes, the place of one is empty here, and of another there. then, where are they? thou, o country art a witness that they have pressed thy soil; and you, ye blessed winds, answer us, 'they have gone!' and ye green leaves of time are true witnesses that they lie among the numbered dead. but where shall we find them? they lie far apart. we must visit one that first laid her hand on some of us to bless us (mrs. grant); and though we remember her not, she often embraced us in the arms of love, and carried us before a throne of grace. she was one of the first that left all her friends, and ploughed the mighty waves of ocean, that she might come to oroomiah's dark border. though fierce tempests raged, and heavy waves raised themselves above the ship, her prayers, mingled with love for us, ascended higher still, and overcame all. at the foot of mount ararat she doubtless remembered the bow of promise; and her consolations were renewed, when she thought of it as a prophecy, that a company of the fallen daughters of chaldea should become heirs of glory. she so labored, that her influence is widening from generation to generation. "the lord is rewarding her even to the third and fourth generation. but though she engaged in her work with such holy zeal, her journey was short. some of us had not seen our eighth summer when those lips, on which were written wisdom, were still; and that tongue, on which dwelt the law of kindness, was silent in death. now she rests in our churchyard. she sleeps with our dead, and her dust is mingled with the dust of our fathers, till that day when she shall rise to glory, and a company of ransomed nestorians with her. "but where is that other dear friend of our school [dr. grant], who was the beautiful staff of her support? he encouraged her to labor for us while many of us were yet unborn. his heart was large enough to love every son and daughter of our people. he sowed with many tears, and gave himself for the nestorians. shall we not believe that the fruits of his labors have sprung up among us? then, where is he? let us go silently, silently, and ask that ancient city, nineveh. it will direct us, 'lo, he rests on the banks of the noble tigris.' would that our whisper might reach the ear of the wild arab and cruel turk, that they walk gently by that stranger grave, and tread not on its dust. then, shall we think no more of it? no; with a firm hope we expect that those mountains, on which his beautiful feet rested, shall answer his name in echoes, one to the other; and the persons who saw his faithful example there shall mingle in the flock of his saviour. "but the journey of our thoughts is not finished. we must leave in peace this blessed grave, and go search for one with whom we were well acquainted [mrs. stoddard], and whose gentle, loving example is so graven on the tablet of memory, that it cannot be erased. can we forget her prayers with some of us the week she left us? or how, when she took our hand for the last time, she said, 'the blessing of the lord rest upon you'? we did not then expect that our eyes would no more rest on that lovely face, and our ears no more hear that sweet voice in our dwellings. when we heard of her departure to a world of light, it was hard to believe that she had gone and left us behind. lo, on the shores of the black sea she has laid her down to rest. o ye angry waves, be still, and ye winds of god, fan gently that sacred spot. all our people are indebted to thee, thou blessed one. thou, who didst first teach us to sing the songs of zion, now removed from sin and sorrow, thou art singing with the myriads of the just. we would not call thee back, but rather praise the lord that you and those other dear friends are entered into rest. no, ye are not lost, ye spirits made holy; but as it was necessary that some should come from a distant land to labor here, so ye were necessary to do a greater work in heaven. we believe that ye are doing there more than ye could have done here; yea, that ye form a part of that great cloud of witnesses that encompass us to-day. it is delightful to us to think that ye blessed ones guard us. it is a comfort to our teachers to think that you, who laid these foundations, are still round about us. beloved ones, we would not call you back. cling closely, and more closely, to your saviour, till we, too, through free grace, shall share in your glory. "and now, beloved friends, who with them flew on the wings of the gospel across the ocean to tell us of salvation, we rejoice to-day that the sharp arrows of death have not touched you. ye have been more than fathers and mothers to us. our hearts are full of love to every one of you, o blessed band! but we cannot express it, except with a heavenly tongue. when darkness reigned in the breast of every son of the chaldeans, and no whisper of salvation had fallen on the ear of their daughters, you opened the beauties of the priceless pearl before our eyes, that it should enlighten us with heavenly brightness. we cannot make known all that you have done for us. let it remain till that day of light when the lord shall commend you before his chosen. when we look at our dear teachers, our hearts warm to you with no common love, because you led them to leave the sweet place of their nativity for our sakes. you have been parents to them, wiping away their tears with the soft hand of a mother, and sharing their trials with a father's heart. while you have helped them in every department of their school, the blessing has all been ours. "if on the wings of an eagle we should fly to the extreme north, we should find no such school as this, crowned with blessings, but should see our sisters groaning in bitterness, saying, 'not one ray from the divine sun rises on us in our misery.' if we turn to the south, there we see the daughters of arabia lamenting, 'in all this desert, not one oasis yields the waters of life to quench our burning thirst.' eternity alone will suffice to praise him who sent you, the only heralds of his grace, to us sinners. "but our southern journey is not finished. from one end of africa to the other our sisters lie wrapped in the shadows of death; and if we turn to the east, all the way to china, the daughters cry, 'wretched is our unhappy lot: no cloud of mercy, such as surrounds you, lights up the place of our abode. so on the west, as far as constantinople, our companions in suffering have no school to sound in their ears the blessed name of jesus. "what are we, that the lord should choose us from the midst of such darkness, and send you to us with the message of life? let all nations, with wondering lips, praise the almighty for his grace to us, so worthless. "now that we go from you, we leave with you this our handiwork as a token of gratitude. [a specimen of needlework now among the curiosities at the missionary house in boston.] receive it, though a trifle. the figures on it show what you have taught us in our pleasant school. as we have first of all been taught to sit at the foot of the cross, and neither hope nor glory in anything else, we have made that the foundation. under the cross you have watered us with the showers of divine instruction and prayers, that, like this vine, we might entwine about it and bear pleasant fruit. from this cross we learned, while yet in the bloom of life, like newly-opened flowers, to join together in sweet friendship. above this we have placed a circle around the holy bible, that bright lamp of the lord, that will enlighten us like the sun if we follow its leading--that well of living waters, which will cause us to flourish like the palm tree. thus will our leaf be ever green, and our fruit sweet till the day when the mystery of love shall be revealed, and we dwell in the mansions of the blest. there, joining with all the singers in heavenly places, we shall receive harps and sing glory to our heavenly king, who saved us from everlasting woe. there we shall inherit crowns of gold, and, with myriads of the saints, cast them down before the lamb. if but one of us reach that place, will you deem your labor in vain? god, who rewards even the gift of a cup of cold water, will never forget what you have done to the least of his people, and if the least are on the earth, we are they. now that you send us forth into the world, remember us, we beg you, whenever you bring your sacrifice before the lord. "dear teachers, your acts of kindness have been more than the hairs of our heads; we cannot recount them. we can only ask him, who alone is rich, to reward you from his good treasures, for none but he can meet our obligations to you. each thought that reverts to the past demands a tear of gratitude. o blessed seasons, when god sent down his holy spirit, that through your labors these walls of jerusalem, so long broken down, might be again rebuilt. it is sweet to think that in the hand of christ, you have been the means of the salvation of our souls, which are to live forever. we believe that your prayers and tears are in the golden censer before the throne. now that we go out from under your wings of love, which cannot reach to all your scattered flock, we entreat you to ask the good shepherd to lead us in green pastures and beside the still waters, and keep us under his wings of mercy in our weakness. [her address to the native teachers, bishops, &c., is omitted.] "dear parents, we rejoice exceedingly to see you here, looking on us with eyes of love. no words can express what you have done for us, especially in sending us here to learn of jesus. we trust that it has been, or shall be, a blessing to you also. it is our hope that you will be willing to send your daughters to distant places, to make known eternal life. if you do, great will be your reward from the lord. "and now, sweet sisters, another year have we sat under our own vine and fig tree unmolested. we have tasted the honey and milk of the blessed land, and drank of the waters from the rock. but now the time has come to leave these bowers of knowledge, but not the lessons here learned, nor the counsels of our teachers, nor the sweet whispers of the holy spirit. "dear sisters, let us bear forth with us the light-giving countenance of the saviour, which will scatter all the evil around us as the light dispels the darkness: without this we cannot go. though separated in body, let us be united in fervent prayer. let a conscience made sensitive by grace be our abiding companion. let the tent of abraham teach us that we have no abiding city here; and like him, let our first work be to offer those prayers to god which shall testify that he is ours. and now, before going forth, let us clothe ourselves with the meekness and gentleness of christ. yea, let us take with us all his virtues, being obedient, teaching our dying associates, and leading them one and all to christ. though we part, our love can never be sundered, and we will ask the lord to send his ministering spirits to strengthen our faltering steps, and feed our souls with heavenly manna, so that if we never more see each other here, we may meet in heaven with our sisters who have gone before." the teachers improved the interest awakened by the examination in , to urge their older pupils to labor in the village sabbath schools; and let us look in on their efforts in geog tapa. the children there were divided into ten classes, each with one of the pupils for a teacher. others taught the women who could not read. soon these were joined by both old and young men, who were taught by pupils from the seminary at seir, and as many as forty spelling books were in active use. the children, too, were taught to sing. thus they labored till winter, when the school was put in charge of the village school teachers. in the spring the pupils resumed the work with undiminished zeal. nor did they toil in vain, for the attendance increased from about seventy to four hundred; and some of the teachers testified that they spent there some of the most delightful sabbaths they ever knew. yonan, who superintended the school with moses, had also a class of old women, that increased from six to thirty-seven, whom he taught from the book, well known to our sabbath school children, "line upon line." his own account of it is very interesting. he says, "the women, especially the aged among them, have a habit, when they meet, of engaging in unprofitable conversation, and, both on the way to church and in it, we could not stop it. awakening sermons produced no impression; and though they had heard preaching for fifteen years, they were still very ignorant. but now what i teach them on one sabbath i require them to repeat the next; and so they are obliged to leave off their gossip, and talk over what they have heard, that they may not forget it. these women are so anxious to be taught, that if i am hindered a little longer than usual in arranging the classes, they cry out after me in the church, that all the other classes are being taught, but they forsaken." a class of old men, taught by deacon john, commenced with an attendance of ten, but soon numbered forty. formerly they went to market on the sabbath, or sat sunning themselves in the street, going to hear preaching about half the time; but they became so interested in the exercises, that they were unwilling they should close. they brought others with them, and if one of them was kept away one sabbath, he mourned that the rest had got so far before him. the women carried their books with them when they went out to the vineyards, and at resting time: while others slept, they read. some, who could not afford oil at night, read by moonlight, and when they spun, they fastened the book open on a shelf, so that they could read at the same time. once, when a woman was asked if she could repeat her lesson, she replied, "o, yes; i repeated it over just now while i was milking." the men also took their books out to the fields, that they might improve every spare moment, and one was so earnest that, when waked in the night to attend to the cattle, he read till morning; but his family, finding that he burned so much oil, took care after that to let him sleep. good old mar elias rejoiced to see such a work among his flock; and it was most pleasant to see the large church so crowded by people, seated on the floor, that one could hardly walk about among them. after the teachers had attended to their classes about an hour and a half, the younger scholars repeated the portion of scripture they had learned during the week, and the parents were much pleased to hear their children recite. the daily report of the seminary was introduced into the sabbath school in a way that only orientals could do it. the older members of the school were required to report any cases of swearing, stealing, or quarrelling among the younger ones during the week, who were publicly reproved on the following sabbath. this made the parents more careful to watch over their children, and the children more circumspect in their daily behavior. if any little trouble occurred among them during the week, they said to each other, "let us be careful; sabbath is near;" and though at first some of the people smiled when the children were reproved, it soon became more common for them to weep. after taking an account of the attendance, the children sung, divided into two companies, on opposite sides of the church; and then mar ellas, or some of the elders of the village, addressed the school. yonan closes his account of it by saying, "we have learned in this work more than ever before the value of female education. among our most energetic, faithful teachers are young women who love to sit down before little children, and the ignorant of their own sex, and teach them the way of life." thursday, june st, , was a great day in geog tapa. the forenoon was devoted to the examination of a girls' school, taught by hanee and nargis, graduates of the preceding year, and both belonging in the village. as it was a feast day, a large number were present from the neighboring hamlets. at nine o'clock the examination commenced in the spacious church, which was crowded, the congregation numbering about six hundred in all. the fifty pupils occupied the middle of the church. the studies pursued were ancient and modern syriac, geography, arithmetic, both scripture and secular history, reading and spelling; and in all of them the pupils did credit both to themselves and their teachers. the singing, that day, especially pleased the parents, many of whom exclaimed with wonder, "our daughters can learn as well as our sons." miss fiske rejoiced to see her children's children in the pupils of her first pupil, who gracefully managed her little flock with an easy control. the villages of gavalan, vizierawa, and ardishai, had each a similar school, containing in all one hundred pupils; and each of these schools was as valued a centre of religious influence as of intellectual training. the teachers were in the habit of praying with one of their pupils alone every day, as well as of opening the school with prayer; and friday afternoon was regularly devoted to a religious meeting with the mothers of the pupils. these schools fitted the teachers for usefulness, and the pupils for admission to the seminary, as well as for teachers in the sabbath school; and they furnish a delightful view of the present and prospective usefulness of the seminary among the people. noon came, and the large assembly scattered, to enjoy the hospitality of the village. for the people opened their houses for those in attendance, just as they do with us at the annual meetings of the american board. geog tapa could also boast of its committee of arrangements, in humble imitation of greater things. after a recess of an hour and a half, the people reassembled for the examination of the sabbath school, in a grove behind the church, as that building could not contain the multitude which now numbered more than a thousand. first came a class of men, from twenty to seventy years of age, headed by malik aga bey, the village chief. they had been taught orally by deacon john, and answered questions in old testament history very readily. then followed a class of women, fifty or sixty in number, most of them over forty years of age. these had been taught by yonan, and were quite familiar with the old testament, from the creation to the reign of david. one old blind woman wanted to point out the stopping places of israel in the desert, on the map which hung on one of the tall trees: she had learned their names by heart, and was familiar with their location by touch. next came a class of twenty men, who had recently learned to read; for which they had each received a copy of the new testament. a class of women then followed, numbering twenty-three, who had also been taught to read by the boys and girls in the village schools. mr. stoddard called for the teacher of each woman to step forward; and a copy of the old testament was presented to every one of them, as they stood in a row in front of their pupils. there was one woman who stood without a teacher. mr. stoddard called for hers also, and some one whispered to him that she had been taught by her husband. mr. stoddard thereupon led him out, and, placing his hand on his head, said, before the whole assembly, "all honor to the man who has taught his wife to read!" and presented him also with a bible. one who was frequently present often wept to see women giving a morsel to their infants to quiet them, that they might devote the longer time to their lessons; some of them so intent on the work of learning, that their faces were bathed in perspiration. she used to fill her pocket and reticule with cakes for the little ones, so that their mothers might be more free from interruption. the exercises of that day gave a great impulse to the cause of education in geog tapa. as many as seventy adults were soon poring over their spelling books; and the next summer one half of the adult women were either readers or engaged in the same employment; though previous to the examination of the seminary in , not one in thirty could read, or cared to learn. having given an account of these two interesting occasions, let us now look in on another equally interesting, though of a different kind, that took place in oroomiah, three years later. during the interval, mr. stoddard had entered into rest; and his bereaved widow, dr. perkins and family, and miss fiske, were about to sit down together, perhaps for the last time, with the nestorian converts, at the table of the lord. it was in may, and the day one of the finest of those charming may days in oroomiah. the most of the nestorians who had been admitted to the communion were present; and in distributing the guests among the mission families, it was understood that all who had been connected with the seminary should go there. the object of this was, to gather all the scattered members of the family together once more in the place where prayer had been wont to be made, before they went to the lord's table. as yet, no one knew that their teacher was about to leave them; for she did not wish any thing else to turn away their thoughts from jesus. when they had assembled in the school room, she could not say much, but besought the lord jesus to be the master of the assembly. after singing a hymn, the words "looking unto jesus" were given as the key-note of the meeting. he came and whispered peace, and all felt that they sat together in heavenly places. the eyes of their hearts were opened, so that they realized the fulfilment of the promise, "there am i in the midst of you." they were invited to speak freely of their joys and sorrows, in order that together they might carry them to jesus. the first to speak was hanee, one of the two whom mar yohanan brought to miss fiske at the commencement of the school.[ ] she had, not long before, buried her only child; and holding her hands as though the little one still rested on her arms, she said, "sisters, at the last communion you saw me here with my babe in these arms. it is not here now. i have laid it into the arms of jesus, and come to-day to tell you there is a sweet as well as a bitter in affliction. when the rod is appointed to us, let us not only kiss it, but press it to our lips. when i stood by that little open grave, i said, 'all the time i have given to my babe, i will give to souls.' i try to do so. pray for me." she told but the simple truth; for after the death of her child, she used to bring the women into the room where it died, and there talk and pray with them. since then, she has received another little one, and in the same spirit given it back to christ. when she ceased, the whole company were in tears. the leader could only ask, "who will pray?" and sanum, whose children had died by poison, and who could enter into the feelings of the bereaved mother, knelt down and prayed as very few could pray for mothers left desolate, and for those who still folded their little ones in their arms. there was perfect silence while she pleaded for them, save as the sweet voice of her own babe sometimes added to the tenderness of her petitions. a child in heaven! what a treasure! and what a blessing, if it draw the heart thither also! [footnote : see page .] there was a little pause after the prayer; and, to the surprise of all, the voice of nazloo was heard in another part of the room; for they had supposed her near, if not already entering, the river of death. "sisters," said she, "since seeing you, i have stood with one foot in the grave; and may i tell you that it is a very different thing to be a christian then, from what it is in this pleasant school room. let me ask you if you are sure that you are on the rock christ jesus." a tender prayer followed, the burden of which was, "search us, o lord, and try us, and see if there be any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting." the next to speak was one of the early pupils, who had come many miles that day to be present. she said, "i could think but one thought all the way as i came, and that was, 'freely ye have received, freely give.' we have certainly received freely: have we given any thing? can we not do something for souls? i fear the lord jesus is not pleased with us." they were then asked if they were ready to engage in direct labors for souls, to search them out, and by conversation and prayer seek to lead them to christ. many pledged themselves to the work, and engaged to bring the names of those for whom, they had labored to the next communion, that all together might intercede in their behalf to god. before that time arrived, miss fiske left for america; but the first letter she opened, out of a large parcel that awaited her in boston, was one containing the names of those with whom her pupils had labored and prayed in distant persia. is it strange that, as the slips of paper fell at her feet, her heart was moved? but we cannot dwell longer on the prayer meeting. as many as twelve said a few words, and more than that number led in prayer, during the two hours they were together: from thence all repaired to the dining room,--the three upper windows on the right of the engraving belong to this,--where they did "eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." then it was announced that arrangements had been made for class prayer meetings. it seemed to be just the thing that all longed for, though none had spoken of it; and at once each class went along the familiar passages to the room assigned it, and the voice of prayer arose from nearly every apartment in the building. the chapel bell rung, but it was unnoticed; and each little company had to be separately summoned to church. there, according to previous arrangement, miss fiske led each to a seat, that the communicants might be together, and then herself sat down behind them all. a glance revealed ninety-three sisters in christ before her; and as the services had not yet commenced, her thoughts went back to the day when, asking concerning many of them, "is this one a christian?" "or that one?" "or that other?" the answer came, "you have no sister in christ among them all!" no wonder she now inwardly exclaimed, "what hath god wrought? the lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." there was but one among the ninety-three with whom she had not bowed the knee in prayer, and that same evening, as she was devising methods to get her away from the rest to her room alone, the lord sent her, unexpectedly, to the door; and with her also she enjoyed the privilege of personal religious intercourse and prayer. at the communion, when all stood up to enter into covenant with thirty-nine new converts, six of them pupils of the seminary, there seemed a deeper meaning than ever before in engaging to be the lord's forever. in hanee we have seen the grace bestowed on one of the two whom mar yohanan brought to form the nucleus of the school. the other was selby, of gavalan, his own niece. she became hopefully pious in , when hardly ten years of age. there were very few in whom her teachers took such uniform delight, though they felt some anxiety when she married priest kamo, of marbeeshoo, a cousin of mar shirnon--intelligent and influential, but unconverted. yet she had strong faith that he would become a christian, and soon gained a wonderful influence over him, without compromising in the least her own religious principles. she became his teacher in the bible,--it was a new book to him,--and in her he saw the christian life it described beautifully exemplified. she had just begun to hope that her prayers were answered in his conversion. he was much interested in aiding the evangelists in the mountains, and the mission was hoping great things from him, under the good influence of selby, when he died. her feelings, under this affliction, are thus described by her own pen, in a letter to her teacher, dated marbeeshoo, june th, :-- "it is not because i have forgotten you that i have not written you until now. how can i forget you? and were that possible, i could not forget your instructions. i remember them at all times, by day and by night. they comfort me in sorrow, and strengthen me in anguish. you have taught me the duties of this life, and you have pointed me to the world to come. i remember when you used to take me by the hand, and lead me into your closet, and there pray with me; and my heart fills with mingled joy and sorrow--with joy, that such precious seasons were given me; with sorrow, that they will be mine no more. shall i never see your face again--that face, which bore to us more than a mother's love? you were a perfect mother, because in christ. "i grieve very much that i did not see you before you left; but i believe that the seed you have sown will continue to spring up to the end of the world. you asked me, in your letter, to tell you about my work. i have a greater work than any of my companions, but it is in a place covered with thick darkness, like that of egypt. the people are stiff-necked, wise to do evil, but of god they have no knowledge. temptations surround me as mountains; they rise up about me like the waves of the sea. while kamo lived, i was comforted, for he loved the truth. every day he used to read the scriptures with me, and ask the meaning of each verse. i had hoped he would have paul's zeal in the work of the lord. i had expected that we should have schools in our village after a year or two, and that the places of concourse for idle conversation would become places for reading the scriptures, and for prayer. but it has pleased the lord to give me a great and heavy affliction. he has smitten me with his own rod, making this world a vale of tears. but it is the lord; let him do what he pleaseth. it is all for my profit. "i want to ask you and your friends to pray for me, that i may endure to the end." the feelings of the pupils, after the departure of miss fiske, are graphically expressed in the following letter from hatoon, of geog tapa:-- "my heart longs to tell you of the change in our dear school. our return, after vacation, was much like that of the jews from babylon, when they found their city laid waste, and their temple in ruins. every time they looked on the spot where it had stood, their hearts were crushed. so when we did not see you, and went not to take your hand and be kissed by you,--when we saw not your ready feet coming to the door, to bring in each one and make her happy,--our hearts were broken, and we could not restrain our tears; especially when i remembered the times that the daughters of the church used to meet in your room to mingle our prayers, our tears, and our joys together. these recollections leave an aching void which cannot be filled. it seems to me that the ways of your room mourn, because you come not to the solemn feasts. if jeremiah were here, i think he would say, 'how doth miss fiske's room sit solitary that was full of people! how do the daughters of the oroomiah schools mourn, and their eyes run down with water, because miss fiske is far from them?' these changes show us that this world is as down driven by the wind. perhaps you will reply, in your cheerful way, 'do you feel so? there is much that is pleasant in the world.' i know it; but our school was always such a pleasant place to me. i was so happy in it and its heavenly employments, that not even the death of friends could destroy that joy. but now i seem overshadowed by dark clouds, and sinking in deep mire. yet i will try, in all this, to bow my will to the holy will of him who doeth all things well." chapter xx. compositions. the field of cloves.--the lost soul.--the saved soul.--hannah. it was very important that the pupils should be able to express their own thoughts, readily and correctly, with the pen, and unwearied effort was devoted to this end; but for a long time they seemed incapable of clothing an idea in words. the simplest sentence was copied over and over without the change of a single word; and even when it was expressed for them in other language, they only repeated over that variation of the first. three years were spent in trying to teach them to write their own thoughts, with very little success; but in , the spirit of god secured the result that man had sought in vain. after that, both their ideas and their language were very beautiful. nothing pleased them better than to be allowed to write; and it was matter of grateful remark that those compositions which were penned during a revival were always the best. this was especially true in the awakening of , which was noted for the prevalence of a spirit of meditation and holy communion with god. the pupils at that time came forth from private intercourse with their saviour, to pen some of the sweetest writings in the syriac language. one day that winter, both the teachers wished to attend an examination at seir, and asked them if they would be diligent during their absence. "o, yes," was the reply, "if you will only let us write composition." the following was found on the slate of nazloo, when they returned:-- "the clover field. "we walk out in the country, and the road leads us by a lovely field of clover. we see it in all its modest beauty. there are the green leaves, so regular in their form and outline; the beautiful flowers, so wonderful in their structure; and the sweet fragrance, that regales our senses as we pass. all these are there, but we see not whence they come. no showers descend to make it grow; the earth is parched on all sides. do you inquire for the source of all this loveliness? a tiny rill of water flows gently underneath. no eye sees it. you cannot hear its quiet advance, for it does not murmur as it wears itself out in its work of love. noiseless it hies to each little rootlet. it conveys nourishment to every leaf; not one is overlooked or forgotten. that unseen rill causes these fair blossoms to spring forth. it distils these odors for the enjoyment of all that pass this way. what that streamlet is to the field, prayer is to the christian. we see it not; it is all hid from human eye; but o, the rich fruit that it yields every day in the soul thus made partaker of the life of christ! that also makes the wilderness to rejoice and blossom as the rose." at the annual examination in , sanum read her composition, a translation of which is here inserted:-- "the lost soul. "i have dreamed a dream, dear friends--may i relate it? "in my dream i was wandering about, seeking for earthly pleasures, though my life was crowned with blessings more plentiful than the dew of the morning. my father and mother did every thing they could to bring me to christ. their labors for me were enough to make me weep my last tear, but my hard heart remained unmoved. four times did the holy spirit strive with me, and as often i grieved him away. i broke every promise that i made to serve the lord. "there came a beautiful day in spring. the sun lighted up every thing with gladness. the fields were dressed in green. the trees were in blossom. loved by my friends, surrounded by every thing to make me happy, and rejoicing that so much enjoyment was still in store for me, i was saying to my soul, 'take thine ease,' when suddenly a voice cried, 'this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall be all these?' another voice added, 'these four years heaven and earth have pleaded with you to bring forth fruit to god, but you have refused. your heart has said "i will fix my seat above the stars of heaven." now you must go down to the abyss.' like arrows these words pierced my heart; my strength departed, and others bore me to my home. there my parents were speechless with sorrow. the bed of down was made ready, but it afforded me no rest. i seemed to lie on thorns. then i appeared to faint, though still able to hear their conversation. sobbing aloud, they said, 'sweet child, if you were only a christian, gladly would we go with you to the gates of heaven, hoping soon to meet again; but this is more than we can bear. alas, that one borne in the arms of our love, with whom and for whom we have prayed, must now say that our god is not her god, nor our saviour hers! is there no ray of light for her in the darkness? can we never again point her to jesus?' as i listened in anguish, i cried aloud, 'is there no hope for me?' they replied, 'we will implore mercy for you again and again, and possibly the physician may help you. here he is.' as he came in the recollection of his past faithful warnings made me weep aloud. he said, 'why weep? do you not wish to see me?' 'dear friend, it is not that; but the sight of you recalls your entreaties to come to christ, and my neglect of them. if you can only give me one hour of quiet, i will try to come now.' he saw that the hand of death was on me, and replied, 'what you do you must do quickly.' 'what can i do in such distress?' 'can you not cry, "lord, remember me," like the dying malefactor?' 'those words comforted me once, but now i cannot use them.' 'can you not pray?' 'no. once i would not hear god, and now he will not hear me. o father, mother, friends, pray for me. send for my teacher to pray for me. ask every servant of god to entreat for me while yet i live.' the request went forth. the weeping physician offered supplication at my side. my father and mother seemed to pour forth their last breath in intercession for me. as i turned, i saw my teachers, and conscience arrayed before me every word they had ever spoken to me of christ and heaven. all my own actions were likewise spread out before my eyes. then the whirlwind of my sins swept me away like a tiny leaf, to sink in a sea of anguish. my teacher now cried, 'we had hoped to see our dear pupil passing over to the new jerusalem; but, instead of that, must she dwell among the lost?' a gentle voice then whispered, 'go to jesus; he will not cast you out.' 'to jesus! nay, for knowingly my hands have pierced him. willingly these feet have trampled on his precious blood. i have compelled his spirit to forsake me, and must perish.' "then i saw those whom i had led into sin and encouraged in unbelief, and said to them, 'can you forgive me?' but a voice from heaven replied, 'you cannot be forgiven; for the name of jesus you have set at nought, and there is none other.' then my teacher pressed my hand; she could not speak. i said, 'you have ever shown great love; can you not help me now?' 'dear child, have i not told you that though i love you, yet i have no power to help in this hour or hereafter.' 'o, dreadful thought! must i leave you all, forever? parents, teachers, all! can you do nothing for me?' 'we can only point you to jesus.' 'i have no part in him. i am a demas; and with such agony now, what will be the wrath to come?' i begged all present not to live as i had lived. 'seize the moments that fly swifter than the lightning. there is no place for repentance now: my retribution begins. forget not these words of your lost sister.' i turned to my mother: 'there is no love like a mother's; can that do nothing for me now?' what could she do? 'can no one help me? father, father, i am going; can you do nothing?' "now the light forsook my eyes. o for a few moments more! but even this was denied me; for, as i remembered, 'cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and whose heart departeth from the living god.' "i now heard a voice as of a rushing, mighty wind. trembling seized me, as i discerned four fiends of darkness. i uttered a piercing shriek, and died. then i found myself suspended between heaven and earth. behind me, the world i loved so well had gone forever. before me i saw the ancient of days seated on his throne, his raiment white as snow, his eyes as a flame of fire, his feet like brass glowing in the furnace, and a stream of fire issued from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. brightness radiated from him on all sides. he fixed his eyes on me, glowing with holy indignation, while a two-edged sword proceeded out of his mouth. my sins arose before me. conscience condemned me. i could not look up. the pains of hell gat hold upon me. in a voice unlike all i ever heard before, he said, 'slayer of my son, despiser of my grace, what hast thou done? thou hast set at nought all my counsels.' i longed to flee; but above me stood the judge, below, the abyss. i could give no reply. again he said, 'my covenant thou hast trodden under foot;' and he commanded his servants, 'bind her hand and foot, and cast her into outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. there let her remain till that great day, when all mine enemies shall be trodden in the wine-press of my wrath.' "then a voice from out of the throne said, 'praise our god, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great;' and all cried, like the voice of many waters, 'amen. allelujah.' heaven responded from all sides, 'just and true are thy judgments, thou king of saints.' then satan and his angels clapped their hands; and mocking my misery, they thrust me into the inner prison. "i now found myself associated with cain, judas, jeroboam, and jezebel. i understood what christ meant when he said, 'bind the tares in bundles to burn them,' for i was enclosed by them on all sides, and the flames from them kindled on me. then a voice said, 'judas sold his lord once, but thou many times. cain slew one brother; thou hast brought many to this place of torment.' then all, especially those whom i had led there, cursed me. fallen spirits gloried over me. the evil passions of all the lost were let loose on me. my own wicked feelings were kindled into a flame by the divine wrath. now i understood that scripture, 'they have no rest day nor night.' my ears, that had taken pleasure in evil conversation, were filled with revilings. my tongue, which had set on fire the course of nature, now itself set on fire of hell, i gnawed for pain. i looked up to beg a drop of water; but instead of it came the word, 'daughter, remember.' as i looked up, i got a glimpse of one of my companions in abraham's bosom. once we were together pointed to jesus. now the impassable gulf was between us. hope now fled forever, and that word, 'remember,' brought every moment of my life before me in characters of flaming fire. gladly would i have exchanged this agony for the pangs of death endured a thousand times over, or for all the sufferings of earth till the final conflagration. i cursed my soul, weeping without a tear. why were my associates, once, like me, children of wrath, now in heaven, while i was shut out? ah, they listened to jesus, while i rejected him, and to enjoy a momentary pleasure plunged into all this anguish. i had loved those who now tormented me, and cast aside the loving saviour. no ray of mercy can ever reach me more. no friend will ever love me again. in my madness i sought to flee; but wrath held me rooted to the spot. cloud on cloud rose above me, each inscribed, 'eternity!' a voice cried aloud, 'forever!' and another replied, 'forever and ever!' the waves of fire now rolled over me, and the worm that dieth not seized hold of me. i begged for even the smallest mitigation of misery, and the vials of wrath were poured out upon me. in my anguish i cried, 'roll on, ye eternal ages!' but why? they will be no nearer through. 'o lord, how long?' with an earthquake, that seemed to shake the very throne, came back the reply, 'forever! forever!' i sank down in unutterable agony. then i awoke, and lo, it was all a dream. the darkness of night was yet around me; a cold sweat covered me; and that word, 'forever!' still rang in my ears. friends, this was a dream, and only a drop in the ocean, compared with the terrible reality. let us pray that we may be saved from it through jesus christ our lord." the large audience listened to these vivid delineations, part of the time, in breathless silence; and again the women beat on their breasts with half-suppressed cries for mercy. the reader, as well as they, will find relief from the companion picture by moressa. sanum's was an original conception of her own. the theme of this last was suggested by miss fiske, as a fitting counterpart to the preceding, but the treatment of it was left wholly with the writer. "the saved soul. "while meditating on death, i fell into a sweet sleep, and dreamed a dream which rejoiced my spirit. i cannot refrain from relating it to you, dear christian friends, who are looking forward to the glory that shall be revealed. i dreamed that my heavenly father said to me, 'dear child, heir of my kingdom, you have long enough borne the troubles of this vale of tears; now you shall be freed from them, and come to your heavenly home, to worship me in holiness.' as i listened, sickness came, and i laid me down on my bed of death with this thought: 'one more fruit of sin, and then--heaven.' my poor friends, not understanding this, inquired, with weeping, if i could not possibly recover; but when they saw that i was dying, they gathered round me, to go down with me to the banks of jordan. my soul was exceeding joyful, for the light of the promised land shone on me, and the dread river was quiet, for jesus had said to it, 'peace, be still.' "while in this joyful state, i remembered with sorrow how many years i had refused to acknowledge the prince of life as my king, while he waited with open arms to receive me; and how often, after putting my hand to the plough, i had looked back. my backsliding, my evil example, my neglect of souls, all rose before me like a dark cloud, and i was in agony. but soon a voice said, 'thy sins are forgiven!' and all was light. i said, 'lord, i must praise thee for this forever; but i cannot forgive myself.' yet, though the pains of death were on me, i was comforted to be nearer the land where they sin no more. earthly pleasure now seemed emptiness. the pleasures of heaven filled my thoughts. i said, 'is this death--that which we poor mortals fear?' my friends asked, 'has he no terrors for you?' 'no; none. the king of terrors is to me the chief of joys.' one of my teachers said, 'so you have no fear of him--no sorrow that your body shall lie in the grave!' 'why fear or sorrow, when christ has overcome both death and sin?' my father then asked, 'do you suffer much'?' 'yes; but if i suffered a thousand times more, what would that be to those bitter hours upon the cross. this veil must be rent asunder, though by suffering, before i can see him, whom, even now, i long to behold.' my poor mother interposed, 'but are you willing to leave us?' 'you are all very dear to me; but there is only one who is altogether lovely. when shall i see him as he is, and be filled with his love?' "it was now difficult to speak, but i could bid my friends farewell. i could thank my dear teachers for telling me of christ, and ask their forgiveness for all i had ever done to grieve them. as my weeping mother wiped the cold sweat from my brow, she gently whispered, 'where is my child going?' 'mother,' i replied, 'your poor sinful child is going to that saviour who has been willing to receive her.' his rod and staff then comforted me, till i had passed quite over into the blessed land. and, as i was borne on in my saviour's arms, voices cried, 'welcome, dear sister; you are now made whole--you shall sin no more--enter into rest.' mortal tongue cannot tell what i now saw of the treasures which christ has prepared for the redeemed. he gave me a mansion he had made ready for me, and i found myself gazing on the brightness of the father's glory. what a change had come over me! i was among those without spot, for they had been made white in the blood of the lamb. their voices were one, for all praised the lord. now the glory of the ancient of days filled me with awe. he sat upon a throne of light, with seraphim on the right and cherubim on the left, and i could read the foundations of his throne. legions of bright angels and happy saints were around him. i fell down with them to worship at his feet, when he touched me and raised me up, saying, 'thou art blessed, for thou art redeemed with the blood of my son.' then he clothed me in a heavenly robe, and bade all heaven rejoice, saying, 'this my child was dead, and is alive again, and is saved from everlasting destruction.' "he then revealed to me more fully that mystery of ages--the redeemer standing on the right hand of the father. he stood with open arms, saying, 'come, daughter of my bitter grief, come in peace. i remembered thee on the cross. for thee i drank that cup of agony; thy curse has rested on me, that everlasting joy might dwell in thee.' as he thus spoke, i fell down to worship, and when i looked up, my eyes rested on his pierced hands and wounded side. tears filled my eyes when i remembered that my sins had caused them; but they were tears that jesus wiped away. "when i saw the book of remembrance at his side, i thought, there is the record of my sins; but he opened it, saying, 'fear not; from the day thou first camest to me, they have been blotted out.' he then held out to me the book of life, bidding me to read my name recorded there, and added, 'ages hence, in the great day of account, the world shall know that i have saved thee; and as thou hast not denied me before men, i will confess thy name before my father and before his angels; enter into the full joy of thy lord; inherit the kingdom, prepared for thee from the foundation of the world.' then all the blessed ones cried, 'amen.' their harps were tuned to a new song, and they praised the living god that another soul was rescued from the great adversary. a crown was also placed upon my head, that, with the saints, i might cast it at the feet of the redeemer. "afterwards i was led to our first parent, now for more than five thousand years in paradise, but not walking amid forbidden fruit. still, when he stretched out his hand to the tree of life, he seemed to remember that first sin, and to thank god more than others for the healing of the nations. his bright face glistened with a tear as he took my hand, saying, 'heir of my fallen nature, welcome to this inheritance of the second adam;' and i learned that tears are always wiped from that face when christ brings home his fallen children. "as i turned, i saw the great company of the patriarchs, perfect in holiness, and clothed in light. faithful abraham was there, his faith changed to perfect sight, and rejoicing in his spiritual children. the meek moses was there, adoring the prophet whom god raised up from the midst of israel like unto him. and i beheld isaiah, satisfied with the eternal sight of the glory of which he had a glimpse on earth. jeremiah, too, was no more weeping for the slain of the daughter of his people, and all the holy prophets were clothed upon with immortality, and praising their beloved with holy lips. "while i stood gazing, on them in wonder, my thoughts reverted to my former state. what a glorious change, from a world of sin to a world of holiness--from sinful friends to the friend of sinners. how different these sweet sounds of praise from the rude sounds of earth! i am receiving my reward for every bitter tear of penitence i shed on earth; an age of joy is before me. who am i, that i should be raised from companionship with sin to the society of heaven? my soul at length is at rest. but how? not as rests my poor body in the grave, but in blessedness; for i rest from sin, but not from praise. i rest from suffering, but not from everlasting joy. how sweet to rest, while not ceasing to cry, holy, holy, holy is the lord god almighty! i rest in the bosom of my saviour. my prayers are turned to praise, and my love is perfect. "while these thoughts filled my soul, i thanked the lord with a new song on the golden harp that had been placed in my hands, singing with a loud voice, 'what is my worthiness, o eternal king, that thou hast made me to walk in thy pilgrimage, while millions are shut out from it?' "now a company of the holy ones led me through a street of pure gold, to where the river of water of life proceeded out of the throne of god. they showed me the hidden manna, and the tree of life yielding its twelve fruits, and leaves for the healing of the nations; and beyond, i saw a great company of martyrs who had been slain for the word and for the testimony of jesus christ. they stood beneath the altar, for they were living sacrifices. they were clothed in white, and wore crowns of glory on their heads, and they sang hallelujah to him who had been slain for them, and made them kings and priests forever in his kingdom. "while thus wandering among those holy mansions, i met a spirit crowned with honor,--mary, the mother of our lord. she was specially delighted at seeing me, saying, 'how glad i am that you, from that erring people who trust in me, have found the right way to this blessed place! are there other sisters of like faith, who believe in the only mediator?' when i told her that there were, she embraced me, and led me where i could see the twelve apostles of the lamb. they were all seated round their master, just as they used to be on earth; but no more debating who should be greatest, for now they ascribed all greatness to their king, and dwelt in perfect love. among them i saw peter, zealous still, but with a holy zeal. i heard him ask, 'how long shall those precious souls, redeemed by thy blood, be led astray? may i not fly on the wings of love, and destroy that city of blasphemy on the seven hills, that the glory may be thine?' but jesus looked on him with an eye of love, and said, 'simon, son of jonas, the time is not yet come.' then peter only replied, 'lord, thou knowest. thy will be done.' "while in this joyful state, i walked in the green pastures of life. i went round about the holy city, and counted its towers. they were all of purest gold, and built with skill divine. i looked from the top of one of them, and beheld the sea of glass, and also caught a glimpse of the abyss, enough to see that the enemies of our god were all beneath his feet. i could see some, once my friends among them; but i could say, 'holy and just art thou, o lord god; and o, wonderful grace, that has made such as i to differ.' "but while thus filled with praise, and delighting myself in that ocean of love, i awoke, yet only to say, 'blessed are the dead that die in the lord.' dear friends, let us cleave to christ on earth, until he plants our feet on the mount zion above." the next composition was written by nargis, of geog tapa, in . it is an account of hannah, the mother of samuel, and gives a very good idea of the bible knowledge of the pupils, and their interest in scripture themes. the allusions to the condition of nestorian families, illustrate, and are illustrated by, the statements of chapter i. "about three thousand years ago, the family of elkanah dwelt on the hill of zophim, in palestine. he was a just man, and one that feared god. according to the custom of those days, he had two wives, peninnah and hannah. let us turn our thoughts to hannah, for every memory of her is pleasant. she had no son, on whom she could look as a staff of joy for her old age. yet hannah had a worthy portion in the love of elkanah, which flowed unceasingly like a crystal stream. why was she thus loved? we believe because of the lovely spirit which she had received from that gentleness of the eternal son which maketh great; and, like him, her voice was not heard in the streets. instead of the contentious temper of the women of this age, we find in her a meek and quiet spirit; instead of pride, humility; and instead of anger, patience; she was kind, pleasant, and abounding in other graces. shall not such a woman be praised? "now elkanah took his family to shiloh, to worship and feast before the lord. but the envious peninnah so grieved hannah that she could neither eat nor drink. soon, however, she heard the sweet tones of her husband's voice. was it not like an angel's? saying, 'hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am i not better to thee than ten sons?' when she heard that she arose and ate. love was rewarded by love. she would not grieve elkanah. unlike many in our day, she was obedient to her husband, yielding her will to his, and clothed with humility. they were not only one flesh, but one spirit; and they walked together in the valley of love to that world where love is made perfect. now, after she had shown her love by partaking of the feast,[ ] may we not suppose that she arose and whispered to elkanah to know if he would approve of her intended vow; and did he not reply, 'your vow is mine.' then did she not seek a corner of the court where she might pray? radiant spot, where hannah communed with god! herself a bright light among the women of that age. there, in bitterness of soul, she wept before the lord, and obtained his blessing. she believed that god would grant her request, as he saw best, and gave back her expected son to the lord to be his forever. here was true faith. she left all with god; and though, like her saviour, she prayed the more earnestly: still her voice was not heard. but we hear the voice of eli: 'how long wilt thou be drunken?' 'o eli, eli, why speak to her thus? she was of thy flock, and thou shouldst have distinguished her from other women round about her.' [footnote : in oriental families, anger is shown by refusing to eat, sometimes for several days.] "bright star of that generation! blessed art thou among the daughters of levi. the moving of thy lips is like the voice of the dove. there was a blessing in thy mouth, like the olive leaf of noah's dove, that told of rest from the tossings of the flood; for thy request was about to give rest to the millions of israel. blessed art thou, daughter of zion. thou soughtest not a son for thy own glory, but for the glory of thy god. "what a prayer was hannah's! it brought a deliverer and a prophet to israel, an intercessor and a preacher to the people of god. may the daughters of hannah and the sons of elkanah be multiplied among our people. she is a mirror into which we may look, to learn how to forsake our evil ways. let us, like her, build up the kingdom of our lord jesus christ. "her prayer finished, hannah returned to her house. her sorrow was now turned into joy, and her happy face was like the opening rose of the morning. no wonder she was joyful. the will of the lord was her will, and what evil could befall her? blessed israel, that contains such a praying soul. "time passes on, and the answer to that prayer is a beloved son. the grateful mother calls him samuel--'god heard.' her full heart could give no other name to this child of prayer. she would remember ever, not mine, but god's. and now the childless one folds in her arms a child of the covenant. new joy fills the heart of elkanah. their son was new to them every day; yet not alone as theirs, but his who answered prayer. "the time now draws near for them to go again to shiloh. the happy father does not forget god in his mercies. he appears before the lord with his thank offering;--a noble example to us. he asks hannah to go with him: not in a voice of harsh command, but in love he said, 'will you go?' and it was, doubtless, a gentle voice that answered, 'not now, for then i must bring samuel back with me. he is too small to leave; but when he is weaned, i will bring him, that he may appear before the lord, and there abide forever.' the good elkanah was satisfied, saying, 'only the lord establish his word;' for he had not forgotten the vow. so the happy hannah remained at home another year, and taught the child as a mother only can. "when the time came to go up again to shiloh, samuel was probably three years old. that praying mother did not say, 'he is small; let him stay with me one year longer.' no! with her whole heart she carried him to the house of the lord, to abide there; and she went not up empty, saying, 'it is enough that i give my son;' but in the three bullocks we find the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the peace offering, and in her son the first fruits besides. she was ready to say, 'in all things i am a debtor to the lord.' "nor did she come in pride of spirit, saying to eli, 'you called me drunken, while offering a prayer that god hath heard;' but in all humility she accosts the aged priest, saying, 'i am the woman that stood by thee here, praying;' and then, leading forward the child, 'for this child i prayed, and the lord hath given me my petition, and i have lent him to the lord.' we seem to see little samuel approaching eli reverently; and then turning those speaking eyes to his mother, he says, 'is this my father, of whom you told me, and with whom i am to live?' 'yes, my child, he will be your father.' and now eli places his hand upon the head of samuel, saying, 'blessed art thou, son of a true daughter of levi. the lord bless thee, and make thee a prophet of the most high.' "hannah worships, and returns to her home. her little son asks not to go with her; for he has been taught that he is the lord's, and is to abide in shiloh. what a blessing are praying mothers, training their children for god! "still she does not forget the lord's samuel. every year she goes up to shiloh, with her husband, and as often does she carry for the little prophet a coat, made by a mother's loving hand. she did not say, like some of our mothers, 'if he is in the school of the prophets, let the prophets clothe him;' but she clothed him for the lord's service, and he comforted eli as he was never comforted by his own children. will our mothers follow the example of hannah? should a voice come from the mountains to-day, calling for preachers, would they give their sons to go and save the lost? blessed are those mothers who give their sons to be soldiers of the cross; who, like hannah, lead the way to the throne of grace, and serve god in their households. "the lord helped hannah to pray, and he helped her to write that beautiful song. her words are golden and full of wisdom. it is fitting to call her a mother in israel. deborah sat as judge, but hannah gave a judge and teacher to the people of god. both were bright stars, but where is the people on whom they shone? the chosen people are scattered. deborah, perchance, sleeps under the oak of judgment, and hannah on the hill of zephim. we love to think that her son stood by her dying bed to thank her for all her prayers and instructions, and see her reverently gathered to her people. "we leave thee, mother of the holy prophet. thou hast passed through this valley of humiliation. thy works follow thee, and thy god hath crowned thee with glory and honor. sweet singer of israel, sing on in heaven, for with thy saviour thou canst never sorrow more. who will rise among us to carry forward the kingdom of our christ? such as honor the master here, he will honor when mothers in israel see their sons made kings and priests unto the lord forever." chapter xxi. kind offices. hospitality of nestorians.--kindness of pupils.--bathing feet.--letters of gozel, hanee, sanum of gawar, munny, raheel, and marta.--hoshebo.--raheel to mrs. fiske.--mourning for the dead.--nazloo.--hoshebo's bereavement.--death of missionary children.--letter fbom sarah, daughter of joseph. the foregoing pages have told something of the change that grace has wrought among women in persia. let us now look at some points in that change more carefully. the nestorians are noted for their hospitality. kindness to strangers is regarded as a part of their religion; and if, after bringing out the choicest of their stores, it is said, even in a strange language, "how can i eat this?" or, "who could endure a dish like that?'" the words may be unintelligible, but not so the look and tone of the speaker. yet even such treatment often only calls forth additional efforts to please. a stranger may not relish some of their dishes. yet a spirit of kindness would be careful not to let this appear. in the seminary, the pupils studied how to please, even in the folding of a table napkin; and the kind-hearted steward was perfectly delighted when reminded that the pains he took in the preparation of a meal was so much service to christ, because it strengthened his servants to labor for him. the girls were very kind to each other. when any one was sick, her companions not only readily performed her share of domestic work, but nursed her tenderly besides. if their teachers were ill, they coveted the privilege of attending them by night and by day. it may comfort some timid one to know, that in oroomiah miss fiske never had a missionary sister with her by night in sickness; not that they were backward to come, but the services of the pupils left nothing to be desired. it did good like a medicine to see those girls, once coarse and uncouth, showing even kindness in a way offensive to refined feelings, now move with noiseless step, anticipating every wish. they sought to conform every thing to the home tastes of their teachers; and yet there was nothing of that show of effort that says, "see how much we do for you." they seemed to feel that they could not do too much, or do it well enough. if miss fiske was exhausted and feeble during the day, they might say nothing at the time, and not trouble her even to answer a question; but when they supposed she was ready to retire, there would be a gentle knock on the door, sometimes on more than one door, and then, with a "teacher, you looked tired to-day. shall we come in and bathe your feet? the water is warm, and every thing ready," their loving service would not cease, till every thing was in its place, and they had put out the light after she retired. woman, there, as in the days of our saviour, still bathes the feet of the guest whom she wishes to honor. and sometimes, when stooping over them, she rubs them gently with her loosely-flowing hair--not as a substitute for a towel, but as a token of kindly welcome. this privilege belongs to the oldest daughter of the family; and the custom once liable to perversion, now shines with new beauty, as the expression of christian love. he who once accepted the service in his own person, will hereafter say, to many a daughter of chaldea, "inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." their tender sympathy with the afflicted was not confined to their own household. in january, , miss fiske was absent at seir, assisting in taking care of mr. stoddard in his last illness; and from a number of letters written to her, at that time, by her pupils, we select the following:-- january st, . many of your flock have observed this as a day of fasting and prayer; and all have looked on it as a blessed day. the pleasant voice of prayer has been heard during all its hours, and it seems as if the saviour was about to come among us with great power. i trust that he will work in many hearts by the holy spirit. we greatly desire to have you here; but again, with all our hearts, we wish you to do for the sick one whom we love. yes, if each pupil were to write to you, all would say, we wish you to remain, and do all you can for him; and may he be raised up again to labor for our poor people. give our love to mrs. stoddard, and tell her we are glad to have the one we greatly love, with her at this time. your daughter, gozel. january d, . my heart is drawn towards you all the time; but i thank god that he has given you strength to do for our beloved brother mr. stoddard. i am very much distressed when i think of him, and can only say, "the will of the lord be done." i greatly desired to hear your voice yesterday. it was indeed a blessed day. give my love to mrs. stoddard, and though it is hard for her to bear these bitter pains, tell her to try to trust the lord of our beloved brother. peace be to you, hanek. the next is written by a graduate, who was then on a visit at the seminary:-- january d, . i cannot tell you what great anxiety and anguish i have for mr. stoddard. he has won my whole heart by taking so much pains for my dear companions, and particularly for elisha. i did not think he would be taken from us. this trial seems to me heavier than losing elisha and jonathan (her children, who died by poison), for it is not only a loss to his dear family, but also to this band of stranger missionaries, and a dreadful desolation to our poor people. may the lord see how great is the harvest, and how few the laborers. i cannot write more; my eyes fail because of my tears. give my tenderest love to dear mrs. stoddard. i know her sorrows in such trying days; would that i could help her. from your truly afflicted pupil, sanum. the following was written the day after the death of mr. stoddard, which took place the d of january, and refers to that sad occurrence:-- january d, . what bitter intelligence comes to us these days!--the taking away of those who carried us in the arms of love to the blood-stained cross of christ. truly, my mother, these afflictions fall very heavily on our heads. the guides of our souls are cut off from us. what shall we do? dearly loved sister mrs. stoddard, sorrow and mourning are ours. there is hope that you will soon meet the ornament of your life. but in his school and in ours are those for whom there is no hope that they will ever see him. wounded sister, blessed is the heavenly pilgrim who has spent his life in a strange land, and been a well of living water to many thirsty souls. i know this separation is bitter to you; but there is consolation for you, for it is not eternal. but what shall i say of our poor people? o, how much more than any of you knew we loved that dear brother. it was a quarter past three o'clock this morning when your letter reached us (miss fiske's). i handed it to miss rice, and never saw such a bitter night except that in which my father died. i did not sleep till almost dawn; and when i slept, i saw the loved one standing in miss rice's room, his face shining like the morning star. both his hands were raised to heaven, when suddenly he stooped and looked in my face. i said, "o, you are not dead!" he answered, "no!" and i cried aloud, "o, mr. stoddard is not dead!" and my own voice awoke me. how favored those of you are who see the face of our beloved friend! munny. still later, she writes to her teacher, who was again at seir, during the sickness of harriette stoddard, whose death occurred march th, . though it is a time of anguish, yet, blessed be god, he has given us one to whom we may look for comfort. a thousand thanks to the saviour that he does not chastise us by taking away the holy spirit. though the discipline is bitter, yet it is mingled with love, in that the lord comes by death among his own, and by his spirit to those who have not known him, that he may make them his own also. what grief would the lovers of the lord have, if you now sat by the bedside of a sister of whom we had no evidence that her heart was purified by a saviour's blood? if you are so distressed about one whom you trust your father is taking to rest in the bosom of his son, how would you feel if she were one of those who, as soon as the breath left her body, would dwell with everlasting burnings! how thankful we should be that it is not the bed of one of these! i have never seen such a trying year; but i do not believe it is for the harm of those that fear the lord. it only fulfils the promise, "whom the lord loveth he chasteneth." o that the gentle voice of jesus might be heard, whispering, "daughter, i say unto thee, arise!" who knows but, if our faith were as christ would have it, he would call this sister back to life, though now so near to death! but your father knows what is for your good, and you know that here he often gives anguish to those who love him, that they may be exceedingly joyful with him hereafter. the lord grant that these afflictions do not harden our hearts. i have conversed and prayed with all the younger girls, save two. eleven say that they are resolved to follow christ; but i fear lest the vineyards and the cotton fields do not testify hereafter that they have walked with god. it is very pleasant to me to sit down by them and ask them of their state. yesterday (sabbath) was a delightful day, but it seemed very short. the lord help us in our weakness, and cause the dark clouds to rise from all your friends. the god of consolation heal the wounded spirit of your poor sister, mrs. stoddard. i have never seen the death of the righteous--only by hearing have i heard of it. the lord be with you more and more. munny. others, written during the same period, are as follows:-- sorrower for us, who hast also become as a stranger to us!--now we know your anxious love for us. we have no doubt that he who directs not according to man's thoughts has directed you to be away from us much this year. we had thought that it would be a very pleasant year; but the lord has ordered it as he pleases, and let us say, "his will be done." we know that he does all for our profit. what a comfort this is to us who have given our all to the saviour to do with us as he will! it is very hard to look at your vacant place; but we thank god it is not made vacant by death. though not with us in body, we believe that you are, in spirit, and we rejoice that you can do as few can, for the sick. the lord be with you, who are the second in anguish, and strengthen your weak body. the prayer of your pupils is ever for your life. we have no words with which to comfort you; we can only say, "the saviour, with whom you are better acquainted than we are, give you comfort." what can we say to you, dear mrs. stoddard, who are shrouded in a cloud that is very dark? we know it is very hard for you to look on the great vacancy that is made in your dwelling. but do trust in the lord; he will bring light out of darkness. we feel for you, plunged in a sea of sorrow, in the deep places of sighs. our eyes are every hour upon the door, expecting what we shall hear from harriette; and our prayer is, that if it can be the lord's will, she may be brought back to you; but every letter increases our anxiety. we understand not the lord's dealings this year, except this: we know that he does all things for the profit of our souls. raheel. marta. the writer of the following was at that time a teacher in the seminary, and a striking illustration of the elevating power of a good education. formerly a female who was either lame or deformed was so despised, that she could never hope to be the head of a family: she was doomed to drag through a miserable life, the object of universal neglect. but hoshebo, though a fall in early youth had shattered her ankle, and the ignorance of native surgeons made her a cripple for life, yet because of her education was as much esteemed as before she would have been despised, and is now the wife of meerza, our native helper at saralon. miss fiske might have filled up her school with such, but, with a wise foresight, selected her pupils with an eye to their future usefulness among the people, as well as their own personal advantage. when i understood from miss rice, that you would not meet your loved flock next sabbath, i felt that i could not let all your absence pass without giving you an account of my charge. i have been sitting with them, as i do every saturday evening, to search out their spiritual state; and i have good news to tell you of one for whom you, and also others, have been very anxious--esli, of takka. i noticed her changed all this week; but last night i saw a great breaking down under mr. cochran's preaching. she came out in anguish of soul. i then saw her alone, and found her contrition still increasing. i know this is not evidence that she has passed from death unto life; but i rejoice that she is visited by the holy spirit, and i trust she will become a christian. i am anxious for her and for all the girls of my room. i look for the gentle shower that shall make the withered plants like the fresh springing grass. though you are absent, we know well that you carry every one of your flock in the arms of love to him who can do all things, whether you are far away or near to us. the girls send up many petitions for harriette. we fear much when we recall your former going to seir. how glad should we be to hear of indications that she will recover. peace and love to mrs. stoddard. your affectionate hoshebo. more than a year after this, miss fiske left oroomiah, and at salmas, on her way home, met her dear pupil sanum, the wife of joseph. having no other place for devotion, they retired together to an orchard for the parting prayer. in a subsequent letter, sanum thus beautifully alludes to it:-- "o, the remembrance of that bitter separation! and of those prayers, when the green grass was watered with our tears! how could i have borne it, but for the recollection of him who prayed and wept in the garden of gethsemane, and whose kneeling upon the tender grass was for the comfort of our souls!" the gratitude of the pupils to their teacher extended also to her aged mother. seldom have they written a letter to miss fiske, in america, without its message of kind remembrance to the parent who gave up her daughter, as hannah gave up samuel, to be the lord's; and several wrote letters to her separately. from among these we select the following, written by raheel (rachel), of geog tapa, sept. th, :-- my dear grandmother hannah: though i have never seen you, yet i must write to you, for i love all miss fiske's friends as i do my own, and especially yourself. i want to thank you for all your love to me. blessings have thus reached me which were not given to my early sisters. when it was a great reproach for a girl to learn to read, god had mercy on us in that he poured such love into your heart as made you willing to send your daughter eight thousand miles, by sea and land, to show our people the great mystery that had been previously hidden from their eyes--that there is salvation for women. they used to dwell much on those words of solomon, "one man among a thousand have i found, but a woman among all these have i not found;" but now they see their mistake, and that christ died for women also. many thanks for your patience all these years. i know something of it from the feelings of my own mother, for if she did not see me for five months during term time, she would mourn that she had not seen her daughter for so long. it was certainly a sacrifice for christ to come into this world, and deny himself; and it was also a sacrifice for the father to send his son, when he knew all the sorrows and wounds there were in the cup which he was to drink in this world of sin. you will see your daughter much changed from what she was fifteen years ago; but i am confident that when that day comes, which will be longer than any day we have seen in this world,--when he whom the jews could not bear to hear called king, shall sit upon his throne, judging the world,--then all troubles, sorrows, and separation from friends will appear to the christian as the small dust of the balance; and i think that it will especially seem so to you, when you see a band of nestorian girls on the right hand of the redeemer, whom you, through your daughter, were the means of bringing there. yes, justly might they have been left to dwell with satan forever; but instead of that, they will have joyful life with christ in his kingdom. i can never repay your love; but there is one so rich that he can give you what man cannot, and i ask him to reward you in heaven. is there another miss fiske in your country? we can hardly believe it. i hope that i shall see her again, but it is difficult for me to expect it. it is very pleasant for me to write to friends, and especially to my own dear mother, miss fiske. i should never be weary if i wrote to her every day; but i thought that this time she would like to have me write to you, and i trust that you will live to receive it. please give my love to martha, and also to mrs. stoddard and sarah, and tell them that our hearts are with them. from your granddaughter, whom you have not seen, raheel. no reader of the bible needs any description of oriental mourning for the dead. the rent garments and sackcloth ( sam. iii. ), loud weeping and wailing (ver. ), protracted lamentation as for jacob (gen. . and ), and for moses (deut. xxxiv. ), and the hired mourning women (jer. ix. , and matt. ix. ), were to be found nowhere in greater perfection than among the nestorians. it is very difficult for us, in this land, to realize the force of such habits; but it required much grace to break over them; and even now, when the christian heart grows cold, it is apt to return to the old ways. one day, in , the whole school were going to attend a funeral. when the time came, one of the pupils requested to be excused. "why? are you sick?" "no." "why not go, then?" "i do not wish to tell." but another said, "may i tell you alone?" "it will be a great shame if we do not all weep. we all think we can do it but sarah, and we are afraid her tears will not come; and so, lest she bring reproach upon us, we do not want her to go." the heart of the teacher sunk within her, as she found that she was about to lead a company of mourning women to the funeral. she asked them how they could make themselves weep. "o, when we go to such places, we call to mind all the sad things we ever knew, and so we weep; but if the tears do not come, we leave very quickly." but grace has wrought a great change in this matter also. in the journal of yonan, we find the following entry: "at the close of afternoon service, i had a bible class with the women: this was followed by a prayer meeting. then munny came to see me: she has buried a little child recently. it is a matter of joy to me, that these women can lift up their eyes and see their children with the dear saviour, and feel that they have treasures in heaven. i asked her, 'did you ever do any thing for your little girl that you remember now with gratitude?' 'many times i carried her with me to the stable, and knelt with her upon the straw in the manger, to ask blessings on her.' 'christ was in the manger, and perhaps there your daughter was consecrated to him.'" in another place, we find him asking esli,--the wife of joseph, of whom he had just said, "her little daughter has died recently, and her heart is broken,"--"when your child died, did you weep and wail as your people do?" and she answered, "no." nazloo, of vizierawa, a pupil who hoped she took christ for her saviour in , and graduated in , within less than a year after her conversion was summoned to the death-bed of her uncle; and scarcely had she returned to her studies before she was called to the bedside of her father. for three days she watched with him incessantly, by day and by night. those who were present were greatly moved by her tender care of him. during the whole of his sickness, she never failed to improve every opportunity to point him to christ. even to the last, she begged him to look to the lamb of god and live. and when he died, with his head resting on her hand, though she had no evidence that her efforts were successful, her wonderful calmness, under so severe a stroke, led many to feel that she possessed a source of consolation to which they were strangers. but her cup was not yet full. a few days passed, and she hastened once more to her afflicted home, to find her mother entering the dark valley. others wept aloud, but she pointed the dying one to jesus; and supporting her in her loving arms, she seemed to plant her feet in the cold waters of the river of death, and commit her departing mother into the hands of him who could bear her safely to the other side. so sensible was her mother of the benefit she and hers had received from the school, that when the teacher came in, she beckoned her to her side, and said, with difficulty, "god is not willing i should be a mother to my daughters any longer. i commit them to you: they are yours." she soon fell asleep, as was hoped, in jesus. after this, nazloo was in the school most of the time till her marriage. as a teacher, no one could have been more faithful: her religious experience was very marked, and she labored wisely for souls. she still lives to show how god can make grievous afflictions yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in his people. in this connection, we cannot omit another letter, written by hoshebo to her teacher, in , on the death of her son absalom. it is dated saralon, where she and her husband meerza reside. dear mother: i received your letter just before i received a bitter stroke from the never-erring hand of my heavenly father. many thanks for your loving remembrances of me. i cannot reward you for one of a thousand of the good things that you have shown me, so unworthy. i have many thoughts of you, and of those pleasant days that we passed together in that blessed school. i am very sad when i think that perhaps i may never, in this house of my pilgrimage, see your face, which makes others to be exceeding glad. dear mother: like a daughter distressed, who would find a little rest by falling into the kind arms of her mother, i come to tell you what has pierced the heart of your poor child. it is true that you are so far from me that i cannot lean on your kind breast, and let you lead me in prayer to the father who has afflicted me; but with a feeling like that i write you. beloved, you used to write me that i must take good care of my dear and tender babe, aweshalom. perhaps i did not fully do as you told me. but one thing i know: the lord, who loves little children, was not willing that i should keep him. and i believe that he will take better care of my dear child than i could. you must know that i am deeply wounded and crushed by the death of aweshalom. my tears cease not. his first birth was october , ; his second and spiritual one, april , . his life with us was a pleasant one, and he made our lives very sweet and delightful; but now he has gone to heaven, while we remain on the earth. he lives the new life, while we die daily. he is strong, while i am weak. he has grown beautiful, in the light and image of the saviour, while i am pining away. if you have heard what a child he was, you will not wonder at my sickness since his death. my husband is greatly afflicted in the death of this, our first, our only child. we find no comfort except in casting our wounded souls at the feet of the saviour, who was tempted that he might heal our wounds. it seems, sometimes, as if our comforters were far from us; but our saviour is very near to help and comfort. our work has been as last year. my husband has taught in the seminary at seir, coming here to preach on the sabbath. i have taught a school of eighteen boys and girls here. before vacation, my babe sickened, and rested in jesus. since that time, i have had fever, and am still very weak. five in the village, besides ourselves, are communicants. my father and brother are among them. i trust that my mother and brother's wife will soon unite with us. the work of the lord in the village goes forward better than formerly. i try to talk and pray with the women alone, and they are more ready to have me do it, which makes me to rejoice in the lord. give my loving peace to my dear grandmother hannah. though with the eyes of this mortal body we have not seen each other, nor have i any hope that we shall, the lord her god help me, that we may meet on the blessed hill of zion above. i believe, my mother, that you will remember your weak, unworthy lamb, when you bow before the throne of mercy and grace. perhaps this is the last letter you will receive from me, for death seems very near. receive loving peace from the priest [her husband]. your true daughter, hoshebo. jesus has seemed to be almost bodily present, taking up these lambs in his arms; and the mothers have not feared, for they felt sure that under such a guardian it was well with their children. perhaps bereaved missionary mothers in persia do not realize how much their patient suffering has done for their poor nestorian sisters. the short lives of those twenty missionary children, who lie in persian graves, were a precious offering to christ. they were all missionaries, and did not go home till their work was done. each one had a place to fill among the instrumentalities employed by the master to promote his kingdom in persia. there was no waste in the breaking of those alabaster boxes of precious ointment. nestorian parents looked on, to learn how to lay their children into the arms of jesus, and become more christ-like themselves. no years of mature toil have been more blessed than the years of those thus early called home; and in this truth their bereaved parents may find abundant consolation. there are influences too deep and silent to be fully understood; but they are none the less real and powerful; and the mother who to-day misses the little feet, the loving eyes, and the pleasant voice, which god had lent to gladden her earthly home for a season, may rejoice in the assurance that her loving submission to a father's hand is teaching a lesson to the people whom she loves, such as they could never learn from words. during the revival of , a little child of dr. perkins died; and as the missionaries laid it away, in the hope of a glorious resurrection, it helped them to point others to him who is the resurrection and the life. it was buried on a snowy sabbath day, and the faces of the young converts, who stood in silence around the grave, showed that to them the associations of death were no longer fearful. turning away from the cemetery, mr. stoddard, feeling that he could not be separated from those young disciples even in death, said, "do you not hope that you shall rest here to rise with these to everlasting life?"[ ] little did they who heard him know how soon that cemetery at seir would become more sacred as his own resting place. [footnote : see nestorian biography, page .] before leaving this topic, we insert a letter from sarah, daughter of joseph, a former pupil in the seminary, and the oldest of four sisters. the death of little deborah seemed to draw her heart very closely to her saviour, and she now sleeps by her side, doubtless understanding better the meaning of those arms of love that here she believed "folded her little sister in his own bosom." "what word of fitting love can i write, and how tell you what god has done? we are afflicted, for he has taken from us our dear little deborah. she was only two years and seven months old. we mourn; and yet are comforted; for we know that he who loves little children has taken her into his own arms, that we may love him more and better praise his glorious name. she did not leave us to go to a stranger. the dear saviour, we think, has made her happier than we could; and now we dwell much on this scripture, 'prepare to meet thy god.' deborah was very sick, and suffered much; but when she died, there was a pleasant smile on her little face. then she rested from sorrow, and jesus folded the little iamb in his own bosom." chapter xxii. progress and promise. benevolence, early manifestation of.--progress.--revival of benevolence in april, .--interest of parents for the conversion of their children.--peace in families.--reformed marriages.--ordinations.--communion seasons.--miss rice and miss beach.--conclusion. the pupils were early trained to form habits of self-denying benevolence. in , the day scholars made as many as fifty garments for poor children. early in , when some mountaineers came to beg money for their ragged children, the question was put, "who will give her own clothes and wear poorer ones till she can make others." many responded at once, and she who gave her best dress was deemed the most happy. some even wept because they could not do the same. in a letter written december, , the pupils say, "the last day of the term was monthly concert. we had a good time of prayer, and then a collection, which went up to thirty-two sahib korans--(seven dollars.) we hope this will be increased, and used for sending the gospel to the poor people of the mountains." they were accustomed to devote several hours a week to sewing for some benevolent object. at the close of one term the articles thus prepared were sold for sixteen dollars, and the proceeds sent to aintab to pay for teaching women there to read. the same virtue was assiduously cultivated in the people. deacons john and yonan had for some time been urged to take up a collection at the monthly concert at geog tapa, but they dared not try; not that they did not wish it, but they feared that the people, in their poverty, might take offence at the innovation. at length, on the first sabbath of , john preached on the subject, and a few korans (worth twenty cents each), were contributed. the first sabbath of february it was yonan's turn to preach there. so he prepared himself thoroughly on this subject,--miss fiske had read with him the prize essays on benevolence, published by the american tract society,--and, carrying his map into a crowded church, he spoke at some length about missions in various parts of the world. his account was well received. then bibles were distributed through the church, and the readers were called on to read passages previously selected, showing, first, the antiquity of benevolent contributions; secondly, that the poor were to give as well as the rich; and thirdly, that the blessing of god was promised to the benevolent. the readers were scattered all over the church, and the people listened with great attention. then several spoke on the subject, and the elders of the village gave the work their hearty approval. afternoon came, and as the time for meeting drew near, old and young were eagerly engaged in getting ready their contributions (in geog tapa the monthly concert is held on sabbath afternoon), and as many as two hundred came together. there were remarks and prayers, and while the missionary hymn was being sung at the close, the collection was taken up, amounting, in money and cotton yarn, to more than fifteen korans. one sick boy, who had heard what was going on, rose from his bed, and crept in to deposit his little coin. instead of spending their saints' days in idleness, as had been the custom, many now wrought on those days to earn money for giving, saying to objectors that it was better to labor for the spread of the gospel than to be idle for satan. mr. stoddard attended the march concert, with some idols from india, and so interested the people that the collection amounted to more than twenty-five korans, thus the good work went on. after this the spirit of benevolence steadily increased, and instances of marked self-denial were not wanting. it shows at once their poverty and their disposition to do what they could, that at the monthly concert a basket was passed round along with the contribution box, to receive eggs from the little children and such as were too poor to give any thing else. crosses of ivory or silver were often found among the contributions. one day, a man was seen to take a silver coin out of his purse; and as the missionary went on to describe more of the condition of the heathen world, a second and a third was taken out, and held in readiness for the collection. at another time, a woman, whom she had not seen before, asked for a private interview with one of the ladies of the mission; and when alone, besides requesting prayer that she might become a christian, she took out a gold ornament, the only one of any value that she possessed, which had been handed down as an heirloom in her family for several generations, and said she wanted to give that to send the gospel to others, only no one must know who gave it. the ornament was sold for four dollars and fifty cents, and the woman, in less than a year, became a useful christian. sometimes the amount of interest might be measured by the number of silver coins manufactured into buttons that were found in the contribution box; for when their feelings were aroused, the women cut off the fastenings of their outer garments, and cast them into the lord's treasury. but the most remarkable revival of benevolence occurred in april, ; and we condense the following account of it from a long letter of yonan to miss fiske and mrs. stoddard:-- "the prayers and tears of our missionary friends have, this winter, received a joyful reward from our father in heaven. we were told that the first week in january would be devoted by all christians to prayer for great things, and my heart was never so enlarged before. it seemed as if persia, nominal christendom, and all the heathen were under the power of prayer; as if the christian's measuring-line was stretched round the four corners of the earth. one day the missionaries met, as usual, for prayer in dr. wright's large room. it moved me much, and i said to my companions, 'they are praying for us while we are idle.' they said, 'it is good that we spend this half hour in prayer every day.' we did so. on the sabbath, i went to my village, geog tapa, and mentioned these things to the people at the evening meeting. the lord opened the mouth of abraham, who said, 'brethren, in these places we are always idle--let us meet for prayer half an hour before sunset.' they did so. the clouds over our heads seemed loaded with blessings: still they did not descend. mr. cobb and mr. ambrose had talked with me about commencing in our village to support preachers in the mountains. so did mr. labaree last week. i told him of our poverty. he said, 'i am grieved for that; but begin with some little thing.' "we went to geog tapa the last sabbath in march. john gave notice, as it was the gospel sabbath, [monthly concert is so called], of the contributions for our brothers in india. in his sermon he said that much of our poverty is from our indolence. last year our collection was fifteen tomans. [a toman is about two dollars.] if we had more zeal, we might raise twenty, and that would support a preacher in the mountains. at once guwergis cried out, 'i will give one.' i said, 'we will support one preacher and two schools among ourselves, and if any thing is over, we will send it far away.' priest abraham approved of this. then all the brethren in the congregation began to speak. 'so is good.' 'thus we will do.' john would have stilled them; but i said, 'perhaps god is blessing your preaching; let them speak.' praised be god's name forever; in a moment every obstacle was swept away. had we known that god was so near, we would have bowed our heads before him. now aib khan cried, 'i give one toman;' and 'i,' said priest moses, 'twelve korans;' and another, 'i two monats.' [a monat is seventy-five cents.] moses now took out his pencil to write. the malik said, 'i have often thought that i would put a gold imperial in the box [four dollars and fifty cents]; write that.' i then said, 'my family of eight souls hear preaching all the year, and three or four attend school. i am a debtor; write for me three tomans--it is not too much.' when god pleases, excuses flee away; high prices and oppression were not thought of; we were lords of wealth. moses then said, 'i am troubled that i remain to the last; but we are three brothers in company, and i know not whether they will act through me, or each one for himself.' one brother cried out, 'our agent and i, five korans more.' another man then said, 'i also am at a loss on account of my brother;' and his brother replied, 'four monats.' these things made brotherly love very firm. guwergis now cried out, 'women, where are you? in the wilderness women gave their brazen mirrors.' i said, 'holy women, to-day ends fifteen years of the prayers of christianity among us. speak!' [it was fifteen years since the revival in .] one replied, 'i half a monat;' and 'i a head-dress;' 'i a silver ornament;' 'i my earrings;' and so on. a widow said, 'i have kept my husband's coat till now; i will sell it, and give half the price.' and others made similar responses. isaac, a poor old mountaineer, gave two korans; and another said, 'i have nothing but the mat i sit on: i give that.' it was a new one he had just finished. a mother said, 'i have nothing now, but i will give the work of my hands this winter--a tope [ten yards] of cotton cloth.' a pilgrim said, 'when i was in jerusalem, an armenian and a russian bid against each other, and the russian prevailed, giving five hundred tomans to the greek convent. if they had such zeal for error, we ought to have more for the truth.' and one unaccustomed to come to church gave the fruit and prunings of fifteen rows in his vineyard. [the prunings of the vines are sold for fuel.] we were in the church about four hours. time was given for all to contribute, and then we spent a season in joyful song and pleasant prayer. "the report of what had been done spread quickly through the village, and my mother-in-law sent word that she would give a hundred and twenty-eight pounds of raisins. at evening meeting, the house was full. benjamin said, 'brethren, the teacher of our school was one day explaining the verse, "thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn;" and mr. stoddard, who stood near, added, "but the nestorian oxen eat from the straw of america." that word has worked in my heart ever since. i trust that, hereafter, we will eat our own straw.' that night we lay awake a long time for joy. in the morning, before i was up, my uncle and his wife came and promised a load of wheat [five bushels]; and when passing through the village, a woman put an ornament in my pocket to sell for the cause. "monday we came to the city for the gospel day [the concert is held there on monday], and every one who met us remarked our glad faces. in the meeting, after mr. coan spoke, john opened a bundle of the gifts, and moses described the scenes of the day before. i said, 'one toman led to sixty in our village yesterday: perhaps it will lead to hundreds more. many times the good in the heart of the christian comes up into his mouth, and then goes back; but when the power of god prevails, it not only comes into the mouth, but comes forth and abounds.' priest moses arose, and said, 'as long as a man is sick, it is no shame if he does not walk; but if the blood walks well in his veins, and he becomes fat, and still lies in bed, every one reproaches him. we have grown fat; and how long shall we lie under the quilts?' priest yakob added, 'for twenty-five years we have said, "let the lord go before;" and now that he has come, let us wait no longer, but give.' he gave two tomans, and others followed. mar tohanan's wife gave a toman of ornaments, and almost every girl in school from one koran to three or four. isras, of degala, gave fifteen tomans and a new vineyard that he had recently bought. guwergis, who had already proposed to plough the field the second time, now rose, and opening his hand, said, 'if a man thrust his hand into a pile of gold, and give of it to god, is it a great thing when he has filled his hand with the blood of his son, and given it to us?' sagoo,[ ] of gulpashan, said, 'my father gave each of my two sisters thirty tomans. when hannah died, hers became mine. i give it for the bride's veil; [the kingdom of christ is here spoken of as the bride], also a silver watch.' one who had only two or three sheep promised one of them. my little girl, sherin, had asked, a few days before, for a new dress. she now sent word to me that she would do without it for a year, if i would give the money for the gospel. i cannot fully describe the spirit of the meeting: we went out wondering and congratulating each other at having witnessed such a pleasant sight. at the evening meeting one said, 'i heard in the market what you were doing; i give a gun, the price of which was seven and a half tomans.' some gave for themselves, and others for their wives and children. moses gave four monats for his brother's children. there were tithes and sixths, fifths and fourths, thirds and halves, of crops of hay and grapes. priest abraham said, 'we say a thief will never own a house. did you ever see one that had wealth? we are thieves, and therefore are so poor. we have robbed god. i will give a tithe of my vineyard.' another replied, 'and i of every thing.' and a man, who had before given one quarter of his vineyard, now gave the half. a widow, who had nothing but a cow, pledged a hepta [four pounds] of butter. a poor man, who has a few fruit trees in his yard, promised ten heptas of apricots. guwergis spoke up, 'we have butter: what shall we cook in it for the bride?' a woman answered, 'i give four heptas of rice;' to which her husband added two. [footnote : see page .] "mar elias now kissed us much; he put nineteen korans into john's hand, saying, 'as yet i have not grown indifferent.' and mar yohanan said, with tears, 'the crown of the bride remains for me. i give thirty tomans.' "in our village, besides the tithes, seventy tomans were collected, and in the city two hundred and fifty. i hope the whole will go up to five hundred or more. i stand amazed. i can think nothing but, 'i am a miserable sinner.' the glorious god has gone before us in mercy. for two or three years our village was going down; we were at variance and in trouble; but immanuel has met us with a blessing, a hundred fold beyond our expectation. it is the beginning of a great work for future generations. i know that the joy of heaven is awakened in the joy of blessed mr. stocking and mr. stoddard. i want to fly to them and talk with them about it, but this veil does not allow it. you, too, will want to fly to the people that are so dear to you. i trust that this pouring out of such a spirit will be the door of many blessings. we have had a scarcity for seven years, so that wheat is six times its former price. our people are poor and sorely oppressed. from the depths of their poverty they have given: i never knew them before. if all were christians, what might we not see? perhaps the poor widows and orphans, who have contributed for our good, have been discouraged; but truly their gifts have not been sown in vain among our people. i believe at the last day you will see fruit according to the word of jesus--thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. the time is not far off when every converted nestorian will go to ten mussulmen to teach them the word of god. "pray for us more than ever, for many are the enemies of nehemiah and ruined jerusalem. our hope is in god. he has begun, and he will finish." the pledges then made have since been fulfilled, with very few exceptions, and that not regretfully, but with a heartiness truly affecting to those who knew their poverty. in july, , the mission resolved to furnish no teacher for a school--except in new villages--where a part of his support was not assumed by the people. the barandooz congregation, in the spring of , cheerfully assumed the burden of their schools; and some have also expressed a readiness to aid in the support of their pastors. a number of pupils, in both seminaries, contribute liberally towards their support. in bringing to a close these glimpses of the changes wrought by grace among the nestorians, we must not pass by the number of pious parents who now aid the missionaries by their prayers. while, in the early days of the seminary, its teacher was left to pray alone for her pupils, before she left, in , she rejoiced to know that two thirds of them had either a pious parent, or other member of the family, who prayed for their salvation. one cold morning, in , a pious mother walked three miles through the snow, to inquire if there was any interest in the school. "why do you ask?" replied the teacher. "i have thought of you continually for two or three days; and last night, after falling asleep, thinking about you, i dreamed that god was visiting you by his holy spirit. so, when i awoke, i arose and baked, and hurried here. i am so anxious about my daughter! can i see her?" she was told that her daughter was among the inquirers the evening before, and sank down where she stood, weeping for joy. the heart of the teacher grew strong in the feeling that the mothers were wrestling with her. the mother passed into an adjoining room to see her daughter; and a missionary brother, who came in just then, could not restrain his tears as he listened to her earnest intercessions, saying, "this is more to me than any thing i have seen in persia." after that year, some parents, when they came to the seminary, were never willing to leave till they had prayed with their children. a father once wrote, "yesterday i invited some christian friends to my house, and had three prayers offered for the school; and while praying for you, we felt our own sins very much, and cried to god to save us from their power." nor were the pupils wanting in interest for their impenitent parents. during the long vacation in , hanee, who used to spend several hours a day in prayer for her mother, so pressed her with entreaties to come to the saviour, that one day she roughly replied, "enough! enough! stop your praying and weeping for me: you will weep yourself blind." "o mother," was the beautiful reply, "it seems as though i would gladly become blind, if thereby you might be brought to jesus." perhaps the effects of grace were nowhere more conspicuous than in the effects it produced in those great households already described. let us first look in on the hinderances they occasioned to a life of piety. yonan writes, in his journal of march , , "widow hatoon is a devout woman, and tries to erect the family altar in her house; but it is very difficult. she often collects the readers in the neighborhood on sabbath morning, to read the bible with her family. i asked her, 'do you pray with your children? they have no father; they are left in your hands, and god will require them of you again.' 'i do; but i find it very hard in our house: we are all in one room, our beds very near each other, and there is no separate chamber: when about to retire, i gather them together behind a quilt, and talk and pray with them.'" again he writes, "hatoon, the wife of sarhoosh, is a member of a large family. three of the women in the house, and one of their husbands, fear god; but the older members of the household are very wicked, and even violent in their opposition. she is much troubled about family prayer. while the devout ones engage in worship at one end of the room, the rest, at the other end, talk, laugh, and revile." yet, even in such households, grace reveals its divine power. we find yonan putting this question to a communicant: "do you and m. live pleasantly together?" m. was her sister-in-law, in a household of more than thirty souls. "she is a little quick tempered," was the reply; "but i try not to trouble her, and to have our love perfect that we may be a good example to the rest." yonan prayed with her, and asked if he could do any thing for her relatives. "dear brother in christ," she replied, "in the name of the lord jesus, our precious saviour, i beg you to pray with my husband: it maybe god will bless him." "my sister, god will bless him: this your anguish shall be turned into joy." "my own heart was moved," adds the narrator. "i saw my own love very little, compared with hers, and felt my unworthiness very much." the change in their social condition was beautifully illustrated by a little incident in the seminary, in . one of the older pupils had been betrothed; but when the ring of betrothal was brought, to be placed on her finger, she could not be found. after long search, her gentle voice was heard in the most retired part of the building, imploring the blessing of god to abide with her in that new relation. only those who had seen the rioting and folly common on such occasions could appreciate the change. the marriage of mar yohanan, in , was a step in the work of lifting up woman to her true position. formerly, marriage had been deemed something too unholy for a bishop; and the consequence was the general degradation of the sex. the entrance of the gospel corrected public sentiment on this point; and that act of the bishop only gave expression to the popular conviction that marriage is honorable in all, even the highest and holiest, nurturing some of the loveliest graces of the christian character. the event for a time caused some stir among the enemies of the truth; but it soon died away, and the old ascetic views of piety are passing away with the social degradation in which they had their origin. about the same time yohanan, whom we have seen laboring in the mountains with his estimable wife, was ordained to the work of the ministry without any of the mummeries that had been added to the simple usage of the new testament; the venerable mar elias uniting with the missionaries in the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. two months later, six more of the most pious and best educated young men, who had long deferred ordination through aversion to the old forms, followed his example; among them our mountain friend oshana, deacon john, of geog tapa, and deacon yakob, of sapergan. marriage ceremonies and entertainments have long been improved, and the revelling of former days on such occasions is going into deserved disuse among the more enlightened. in the year , the people of memikan left off keeping their fasts, on the ground that they tended to nullify salvation by grace through jesus christ. formerly this would have brought down on them, the wrath of the patriarch, their village would have been devoted to plunder and the torch, and themselves to death or exile; but now it caused scarce a ripple on the current of events--not that men did not see the drift of things, but they allowed it to have free course. there is another sign of the times that calls for more special mention. other missions in western asia had been forced by persecution to the early formation of churches. they had to provide a fold for the lambs driven from their former shelter. here there had been no such necessity; yet the converts longed for a more spiritual observance of gospel ordinances. the mission had hitherto celebrated the lord's supper by themselves, and with one or two exceptions, no nestorian had witnessed its observance. there had been some thought of admitting them; but nothing had been done, till, in the spring of , three of the converts, who had been reading an english treatise on the subject, asked one of the ladies of the mission to intercede with the gentlemen to allow them to be present. she informed mr. stoddard of their request, and he encouraged them to go forward. the matter was laid before the mission, and it was concluded that a few of those judged most fit for admission to the ordinance should be invited to partake. the first communion to which the converts were admitted was celebrated in september, , in the large room on the lower floor of the female seminary. eleven nestorians partook with the missionaries, and three of them were women, who had graduated there. after the service, some of the men went up stairs and sat down without speaking. miss fiske, not knowing the cause of their silence, and fearing lest they might have been disappointed by the simplicity of our forms, did not venture to allude to the subject, till one of them asked, "is it always, so when you commune, or was this an unusual occasion?" "why, did you not enjoy it?" "not enjoy it! jesus christ himself seemed almost visibly present; it was difficult to realize that it was not the saviour in person who presided at the table. it must have been just such a scene when the ordinance was first instituted in jerusalem; and i could not get rid of the inquiry, 'shall one of us go out like judas and betray him?'" it is a significant fact that those most accustomed to mediaeval forms, when regenerated by the spirit, relish them the least; and the more spiritual they become, the more they crave the simple forms of the new testament, because they draw the least attention to themselves, and fix it most completely on the saviour. in january, , as many as seventy of the converts, after careful examination, were allowed to partake; and once every four months the privilege was renewed, with an accession of from twelve to thirty communicants each time. these were occasions of unusual interest. several days were devoted to religious meetings, and even in midwinter pious people made long journeys, and crossed bleak mountains on the snow, to attend them. one woman, hoimar, of salmas,[ ] travelled sixty miles, through deep snow and piercing cold, to be present at this ordinance in january, . [footnote : see page .] in june of that year, the better to distinguish those entitled to this privilege, before the sacrament all entered together into solemn covenant with god. the whole number received up to that time was two hundred and forty-nine; at the close of , it had swelled to five hundred. as the meetings became too unwieldy, and it was inconvenient for so many to come so far, the ordinance was administered at seir also, in september, ; and here providentially another end was secured, for as dr. wright was then too sick to distribute the elements, some of the natives had to perform that service. in june following, a very interesting communion was observed at memikan; yohanan and his wife crossing a high mountain, even then covered with snow, to bring their little child for baptism. next year, the ordinance was celebrated in every village where there was a sufficient number of hopeful converts to justify its observance. thus has god led his people, step by step, in a way that they knew not, till now there are all the essentials of a church at every place where god has raised up members of the body of christ. they enter into covenant with him and with each other. they keep his ordinances, and grow in grace, in knowledge, and in numbers. they may take one step farther. since this last sentence was written, the converted nestorians have proceeded even to the adoption of a creed and directory for worship. did the limits of this volume allow, it would be pleasant to dwell at length on the labors of miss mary susan rice, who joined miss fiske in november, , and has ever since toiled diligently, and without interruption, at her post. since the return of miss fiske she has entered into all her labors, both thoroughly and successfully. her fifteen years of toil will never be forgotten by those who have been privileged to receive her instructions, both in and out of the seminary. they form an important part of the instrumentalities god has employed to bring woman in persia to the knowledge of her saviour. a mass of her correspondence now lies before the writer, which he has read with much interest; but to quote from it would only be, reproducing scenes already portrayed. it is not necessary to describe the laying of each course of brick in the walls of the spiritual temple. one sentence, however, now arrests my eye, which i must quote, because it shows how the saviour was preparing her for the sole care of the school, that has devolved on her ever since, owing to the protracted illness of miss aura j. beach, who was sent out to her assistance in february, . writing to her predecessor, three years ago, she says, "o, what a relief to roll the burdens, which we cannot bear, upon the strong arm outstretched to help, and feel that, like sinking peter, we shall be sustained amid raging billows!" labor among the nestorians is becoming more assimilated to labor at home. instead of the national peculiarities conspicuous at the outset, different from our own, and prominent because so different, things begin to move in familiar orbits, because they set out from similar conditions and tend to like results. in proportion as the gospel advances in its work, the distinguishing characteristics of a people fall into the background, to give place to those spiritual features common to the work of grace in every land. the river is most picturesque high up among the mountains, while its stream is yet small and many obstacles oppose its course; after it glides out from among the hills into the open plain, it moves with larger volume, but in a more monotonous current, to the sea. may the work of god advance, till this unity of all nations in jesus christ shall every where replace the diversity and hostility under which to-day creation groans, till in the placid surface of such a river of life the saviour shall see his own image reflected, as it is from the sea of glass above! from images provided by the million book project. persia revisited [illustration: h.i.m. nasr-ed-din, the late shah, on the steps of the peacock throne] * * * * * persia revisited ( ) _with remarks on h.i.m. mozuffer-ed-din shah, and the present situation in persia_ ( ) by general sir thomas edward gordon k.c.i.e., c.b., c.s.i. _formerly military attaché and oriental secretary to her majesty's legation at tehran._ author of 'the roof of the world' illustrated * * * * * preface on revisiting tehran last autumn, i was struck with the evidence of progress and improvement in persia, and on returning home i formed the idea of publishing a short account of my journey, with observations and opinions which are based on my previous experiences, and have reference also to what has been recorded by others. in carrying out this idea, i have made use of information given in the well-known books on persia by malcolm, fraser, watson and curzon. 'persia revisited,' as first written, comprised up to chapter vi. of the book; but just as i had finished it for publication, the sad news of the assassination of the shah, nasr-ed-din, was received. i then saw that my book, to be complete, should touch on the present situation in persia, and accordingly i added two chapters which deal with the new shah and his brothers, and the sadr azem and the succession. the illustrations are from photographs by m. sevragine of tehran, with the exception of the likeness of h.i.m. the shah mozuffer-ed-din, and that of h.h. ali asghar khan, sadr azem, which latter, by messrs. w. and d. downey, of ebury street, london, is published by their kind permission. t.e. gordon. _may, ._ contents chapter i. --london to baku --oil-wells and works --persians abroad --caspian steamers --caspian salmon --enzelli lagoon --the jews in persia --resht trade --'my eye' --russian road --the tobacco 'strike,' --collapse of tobacco régie --moulla opposition chapter ii. --the late shah's long reign --his camp life --habits --appearance --persian telegraph intelligence department --farming the revenues --condition of the people --the shoe question --the customs --importation of arms --martini-henry rifles --indo-european telegraph chapter iii. --kasvin grapes --persian wine --vineyards in persia --wine manufacture --mount demavend --afshar volcanic region --quicksilver and gold --tehran water-supply --village quarrels --vendetta --tehran tramways --bread riots --mint and copper coin chapter iv. --religious tolerance in tehran --katie greenfield's case --babi sect --liberal opinions --german enterprise in persia --railways in asia minor --russian road extension --railways to persian frontiers --the karun river --trade development --the kajar dynasty --life titles --chieftainship of tribes --sanctuary --the pearl cannon chapter v. --the military tribes and the royal guard --men of the people as great monarchs --persian sense of humour --nightingales and poetry --legendary origin of the royal emblem --lion and sun --ancient golden eagle emblem --the blacksmith's apron the royal standard chapter vi. --the order of the lion and the sun --rex and dido --dervishes --endurance of persian horses --the shah's stables --the sanctuary of the stable --long-distance races --a country of horses --the _gymkhana_ in tehran --olive industry near resht --return journey --grosnoje oil field --russian railway travelling --improved communication with tehran chapter vii. _the situation in persia_ ( ). i. --shrine of shah abdul azim --death of nasr-ed-din shah --jemal-ed-din in tehran --shiahs and sunnis --islam in persia chapter viii. _the situation in persia_ ( ). ii. --the shah mozuffer-ed-din --his previous position at tabriz --character and disposition --his sons --accession to the throne --previous accessions in the kajar-dynasty --regalia and crown jewels --position of the late shah's two sons, zil-es-sultan and naib-es-sultaneh --the sadr azem (grand vazir) --prompt action on the death of the late shah * * * * * list of illustrations h.i.m. nasr-ed-din, the late shah, on the steps of the peacock throne female pipe-bearer of the anderun persian lady at home armenian mother and children the present shah (when vali-ahd) entering his carriage persian turk of the military tribes a mendicant dervish of tehran a dervish story-teller of tehran h.i.m. mozuffer-ed-din shah h.h. ali asghar khan, sadr-azem * * * * * inscription on the seal of the late shah, shown on the cover. '_el sultan, bin el sultan, bin el sultan, bin el sultan. el sultan, nasr-ed-din shah, kajar_.' '_the king, son of the king, son of the king, son of the king. the king, nasr-ed-din shah, kajar line_.' * * * * * persia revisited chapter i. --london to baku --oil-wells and works --persians abroad --caspian steamers --caspian salmon --enzelli lagoon --the jews in persia --resht trade --'my eye' --russian road --the tobacco 'strike,' --collapse of tobacco régie --moulla opposition. the persians, as a people still nomadic in their habits, and much given to long pilgrimages, have good knowledge of the ways and means of making a journey pleasant. their saying, '_avval rafîk, baad tarîk_' (first a companion, then the road), is one which most travellers can fully appreciate. accordingly, when planning a trip in the autumn of to the land of iran, i cast about for a companion, and was fortunate enough to meet with two friends, both going that way, and who, moreover, like myself, had previously journeyed in persia. we decided to take the odessa route to batoum, and we went by berlin, oderberg, and lemberg. at odessa we found that a less expensive, and more comfortable, though perhaps half a day longer route, lies by warsaw. on that line there are fewer changes, and only one customs examination, whereas by, oderberg there are two examinations, austrian and russian. moreover, through tickets are issued _viâ_ warsaw, a convenience not provided _viâ_ oderberg--fresh tickets and re-booking of luggage being necessary there, and again both at pod voloczyska and voloczyska, on the austrian and russian frontiers. we came in for a crowded train of first-class passengers going from the vienna direction to jalta, a favourite seaside place in the crimea, which has two fashionable seasons--spring and autumn. these people were making for the accelerated mail-steamer, which leaves odessa for batoum every wednesday during the summer service, touching at sebastopol, jalta, and novorossisk. we were making for the same steamer, and found crowded cabins. the mass of luggage to be examined at voloczyska caused much confusion and delay, and it was only by discreetly managed appeals to the working staff that we were able to push our way and pass on, without anything being left behind. there appeared to be orders for very special examination of books and papers at voloczyska, and these were carried out in a foolishly perfunctory manner. in my luggage, the man who searched passed over a bulky tourist writing-case, but carried off to a superior a continental bradshaw, a blank notebook, and a packet of useful paper, notwithstanding my open show of their innocence. the man soon returned with another official, who smiled at the mistake, and good naturedly helped to close up my baggage. we began our journey well by a rapid run to odessa, arriving there on the day of departure of the fast boat, and landing at batoum in six and a half days from london. the steamers on this service are about , tons, , horse-power, with large accommodation for passengers. the cabins are comfortable, and the saloons excellent and well served, and all are lit with the electric light. these boats are, i believe, tyne-built. they are broad of beam, and behave well in bad weather. novorossisk is a growing great port, situated in a very pretty bay. it has lately been joined by railway to the main trunk line connecting with moscow, and passing through rostov. this connection enables it to attract considerable trade from the don and the volga, and also to take much from rostov and taganrog, when the azov approaches are closed with ice. a very fine sea-wall, to give effectual protection to the railway loading-piers, and the shipping generally, is now being completed at a total cost of £ , . novorossisk is said to have the biggest 'elevator' in the world. the scenery all along the coast, from the crimea to batoum, is very fine, and in autumn the voyage is most enjoyable. we left batoum on the night of the day of our arrival. the departure of the through train to baku had been changed from morning to night, and this allowed of travelling by day over that part of the line which before used to be passed at night. we had previously seen tiflis, and therefore did not break our journey. the weather was warm, but not such as to cause discomfort. as we approached tiflis the carriages and buffets became crowded to excess, with townspeople returning from saturday-to-monday holiday, the fine weather having enticed them out to various places along the line. the railway-carriages on the batoum-baku line are very comfortable, and the refreshment-rooms are frequent and well provided, so travelling there is made easy and pleasant. the journey occupies thirty-two hours. we reached baku on september , the ninth day from london, and arranged to leave for enzelli, on the persian coast, the port for tehran, at midnight the next day. through the kindness of a member of the greek house of kousis, theophylactos and co., we were shown over the oil-wells and refineries belonging to m. taghioff, a millionaire of persian origin (the name probably was taghi khan). the story goes that, on becoming wealthy through the oil industry in its early days, he presented the young township with a church, school-house, and hospital, and, in recognition of his generous public spirit, the government gave him a grant of the waste land on which his works now stand, and out of which millions of roubles have come to him from oil-springs. our visit had the appearance of bringing him luck in the form of a new fountain rush. we had seen all the works and wells; none of the latter were flowing, and the usual steam-pumping was going on. we were about to leave, when a commotion at the wells attracted our attention, and we saw the dark fluid spouting up from two to three hundred feet through the open top of the high-peaked wooden roof erected over each of the wells. on hurrying back, we saw the great iron cap, which is swung vertically when the pump is working, lowered and fixed at some height over the mouth of the well, to drive the outward flow down into the hollow all round and out into the ditch leading to the reservoirs. the force of the gush was shown by the roar of the dash against the iron cap, and the upward rush had the appearance of a solid quivering column. the flow was calculated at fifty thousand gallons an hour. the business of refining is generally in the hands of others than the producers; but some of the larger firms--notably the rothschilds, nobel brothers, and taghioff--are both producers and refiners. this means of course, the employment of very, much larger capital. there is a great dash of the gambling element in the oil-well business at baku. large sums are spent in boring operations, and success so often stands off that all available capital is sunk in the ground and swallowed up. even with good signs, it is impossible to foresee the results or the extent of production, and there is also an extraordinary irregularity in the outcome of the separate naphtha-bearing plots. an instance was mentioned to me of a peasant proprietor who had made enough money on which to live sumptuously, but he hungered for more, and engaged in further boring operations. he was on the verge of losing everything, when oil was suddenly struck, and he made a fortune. he laboured hard himself, and literally went to sleep a poor working man, and awoke to find his dream of riches realized. baku has been immensely improved in every way of late, and now has good streets, hotels, and shops. water, which was a great want before, is well supplied from condensers which belong to the town. the rise in the value of house property and building sites within the last ten years has been enormous, and great part of the money thus made has gone to native owners, persians (or tartars, as all mohammedans are called here), and i was told of a plot of building ground with a small house on it, which had been originally bought for roubles, being lately sold for , . the town is growing in size, and new buildings are rising, which give an appearance of prosperity and increasing trade. the harbour is crowded with steamers and sailing vessels, and the wharfs present a busy sight. the loading and unloading is quickly done by steam-cranes and powerful porters, who come in numbers from the persian districts of khalkhal and ardabil. i watched with much interest a gang of these men at work. they were wonderfully quick, quiet, and methodical in their ways, and showed great capacity for handling and carrying heavy weights. baku swarms with persians, resident and migratory. they are seen everywhere--as shopkeepers, mechanics, masons, carpenters, coachmen, carters, and labourers, all in a bustle of business, so different from persians, at home. climate or want of confidence produces indolence there, but here and elsewhere out of persia they show themselves to be active, energetic, and very intelligent. they are in great numbers at all the censes of trade in the adjoining countries--at constantinople, damascus, aleppo, baghdad, tiflis, askhabad, and other towns. most of the new buildings in tiflis were built by persians, and thousands were engaged in the construction of the trans-caspian railway. the permanent workmen now employed on it are largely persians, and askhabad has a resident population of over twelve thousand. there were said to be twenty thousand persians, from the provinces of azerbaijan and hamadan, working last summer on the new railway from tiflis to alexandropol and kars, now being built, and doubtless many of them will permanently settle on the line. it is said that there are half a million thus located and working out of persia, but i think that this is an exaggerated estimate. most of them retain their nationality, for while they grumble loudly in their own country, yet when away they swear by it, and save money steadily to enable them to return home. their nomadic character is the cause of this readiness to seek employment abroad. i was told that in - twenty thousand persian passports were issued from the embassy in constantinople. this would include pilgrims as well as home visitors. it is this love of country (not in the sense, however, of patriotism as understood in the west) which makes a persian cling to his national representative abroad, and willingly pay for frequent registration as a subject who is entitled to protection and permission to return home whenever he may choose. as a rule, the persian abroad always appears in the distinctive national dress--the tall black lambskin cap and the coat with ample skirt of many pleats. i have mentioned the persian porters who are seen at baku; they are also to be found at petrovsk and astrachan, and are generally preferred to the local labourers, who, in common with their class in russia, take a long drink once a week, often unfitting them for their work the following day. the persians are of sober habits, and can be relied upon for regular attendance at the wharfs and loading-stages. they have learnt, however, to take an occasional taste of the _rakivodka_ spirit, and when reminded that they are mohammedans, say that the indulgence was prohibited when no one worked hard. these porters are men of powerful physique, and display very great strength in bearing separate burdens; but they cannot work together and make a joint effort to raise heavy loads, beyond the power of one man. singly, they are able to lift and carry eighteen poods, russian weight, equal to six hundred and forty-eight pounds english. in the newspaper correspondence on the burning armenian question, i have seen allusion made to the poor physique of the armenian people; but as far as my observation goes in persia, russian armenia, and the caucasus, there is no marked difference between them and the local races, and on the railway between baku and tiflis armenian porters of powerful form are common, where contract labour rates attract men stronger than their fellows. though much of the wealth which has come out of the baku oil-fields has been carried away by foreign capitalists, yet much remains with the inhabitants, and the investment of this has promoted trade in the caspian provinces, and multiplied the shipping. there are now between one hundred and eighty and two hundred steamers on the caspian, besides a large number of sailing craft of considerable size, in which german and swedish, as well as armenian and tartar-persian, capital is employed. the volga steam navigation company is divided into two companies--one for the river, and the other for the caspian. the latter owns six large steamers, with cargo capacity of from sixty to eighty thousand poods, liquid measurement, for oil-tank purposes, equalling nine hundred to twelve hundred tons. they have german under-officers, and russian captains. it is likely that the german officers come from the german colonies on the volga, and probably some of the capital also comes from that quarter. this volga steam navigation company was established over fifty years ago by a scotchman, named anderson, and some of the vessels first built are still used on the river as cargo-boats. many of the best steamers on the caspian are officered by swedes and finns, most of whom speak english, acquired whilst serving in english ships sailing to all parts of the globe. the mercury company, which runs the superior steamers and carries the mails on the caspian, has swedish and finn officers, but it is said that they are now to be replaced by russian naval officers as vacancies occur. this company's vessels are well appointed, have good cabins, and are fitted with the electric light. but the best of caspian mail-boats are most uncomfortable in rough weather for all but those whom no motion whatever can affect. owing to the shoal water on all the coast circumference of this sea, the big boats are necessarily keelless, and may be described as but great barges with engines, and when at anchor in a rolling sea their movement is terribly disturbing. we embarked in the _admiral korneiloff_, one of the mercury company's best boats, on the night of september , and arrived at enzelli on the morning of the th. i was amused on the voyage to hear the sailors' version of the story how the caspian became a russian sea, on which no armed persian vessel can sail. the sovereignty of this persian sea was ceded to russia by the treaty of gulistan in , and the sailors say that on the shah being pressed over and over again to consent, and desiring to find some good excuse to do so, a courtier, seeing the royal inclination, remarked that persia suffered sorely from salt soil and water, which made land barren, and that sea-water was of no use for irrigation, nor any other good purpose. the shah on this asked if it were really true that the water of the caspian was salt, and on being assured that it was, he said the russians might have the whole of it. we found an improvement at enzelli in the form of a hotel kept by a greek, with accommodation good enough to be very welcome. we had excellent fresh salmon at breakfast, which reminded me of the doubt that has often been expressed of the true salmon being found in an inland sea. the caspian fish is a genuine salmon of the same habits as the marine species known in europe, with the one sad exception that it will not look at nor touch fly or bait in any form or shape, and therefore gives no sport for the rod. the trout in the upper waters of the streams that the salmon run up, take the fly freely and give good sport, but all attempts by keen and clever fishermen to hook a salmon have failed. the fish are largely netted, and same are sent to tehran packed in ice, while a good business is done in salting what cannot be sold fresh. the existence of salmon in this inland salt sea, which lies eighty-four feet below the level of the ocean, is supposed to be due to its connection with the open sea having been cut off by a great upheaval in the prehistoric time. after breakfast we were confronted with a functionary new to us in persia, one charged with the demand for passports and their examination. he is prepared to provide passports for those arriving without them, and to _visé_ when this has not been previously done. considering the practice in force with persia's near neighbour, and the crowd of deck-passengers always coming and going, it was not likely that this formality as a source of income would fail to be adopted. the linguistic educational qualification for the post is evidently confined to russian, for on finding that i spoke persian, the officer asked me for the information he pretended to seek from the english passports. he acknowledged the farce he was called upon to play, and we proceeded without any farther inquiry. the day was warm, but not oppressively so; the sea-breeze helped the boat across the lagoon and up the pir-i-bazaar stream, and the weather being dry, we reached resht in carriages by the mobarakabad route, without the splashing plunging through a sea of mud which is the general disagreeable experience of the main road. the enzelli lagoon is a swarming haunt of numerous kinds of wild-fowl and fishing birds. conspicuous among the waders in the shallows and on the shore are the pelican and the stork. the place is a paradise to them, teeming with fish and frog food. one of my companions described what he had witnessed in a struggle with a wounded stork in the shallow water of this lagoon. he and a friend were out after wild-duck, and his friend, desiring to bag a giant stork, which looked splendid in his strongly contrasted pure white and deep black plumage, fired, and wounded the bird. his persian servant, with thoughts intent on cooking it, ran, knife in hand, to cut its throat in the orthodox manner, so as to make it lawful for a mohammedan to eat. the bird, on being seized, struggled hard with its captor, and, snapping its elongated bill widely in wild terror, by accident got the man's head jammed between its mandibles. the keen cutting edges of the long strong beak scarified the man's cheeks, and made him scream with pain and with frantic fear that it was _his_ throat which was being cut. his master went to his assistance and released him by wrenching open the stork's bill, but he was so occupied with supporting his swooning servant that time was given for the wounded stork to hurry away in safety, flapping its long wings and snapping its powerful beak, as is the habit of this voiceless bird, with all the appearance of triumph. enzelli is becoming the port of entry, for the north of persia, of tea from india and china. till within a very short time most of the tea for persia, trans-caspia, and russian turkistan so far as samarkand, passed up from bombay by the persian gulf ports. the late reduction in russian railway charges, and the low sea-freights from the east in the oil-steamers returning to batoum, have brought about this change. arrangements have been made for transit to baku of russian-owned tea consigned to persia on special terms of customs drawback, and it is now sold cheaper in resht than in baku, where it has a heavy duty added to the price. the thin muslin-like manufactures of india, in demand in central asia for wear in the hot dry summer, and which found their way there from the persian gulf, are now following the same route as the tea. thus, steam and waterway are competing still more with the camel, to make the longest way round the shortest one in point of time, and the cheapest to the customers' homes. as with tea, so russian beet-sugar is cheaper at enzelli-resht than at baku, owing to the state bounty on export. the consumption of tea and sugar, already large in persia, is certain to increase in the north through this development of russian trade. french beet-sugar continues to compete by way of trebizond to tabriz, but if the experiment now being tried of manufacturing sugar in the vicinity of tehran from beet succeeds, the persians will benefit further by competition. the russian trade in persia is mostly in the hands of armenians, some of whom have amassed considerable wealth. it is only in the west that the jew is regarded as the sample of superior sharpness in the walks of life that call for the exercise of the qualities most necessary in the operation of getting the better of one's neighbour. in the east both the greek and the armenian are ahead of him in this respect, and the popular saying is, 'one greek equals two jews, and one armenian equals two greeks.' but, to the credit of the armenian traders, it should be said that they are bold and enterprising in a newly-opened country, as well as clever in an old one. it may be here mentioned that there is no opening in persia for the native jew; he is there refused the facilities which lead to wealth, and is strictly confined to the poorest occupations. it is not unlikely that the severe treatment of the jews in persia has its origin in the hatred inspired by the conduct of saad-u-dowleh, a jewish physician, who rose to the position of supreme vazir under the king arghoun khan, in . this minister owed his advancement to his pleasing manners and agreeable conversation, and he gained such an ascendancy over his weak royal master as to be allowed to remove all mohammedans from places of trust and profit, and even to carry his persecution to the length of commanding that no one professing that faith should appear at court. the eastern christians were then much more prominent and numerous than they afterwards became, and saad-u-dowleh sank his people's dislike of the nazarene in his greater hate of the mohammedan, so that he employed the former to replace the followers of the arabian prophet whom he dismissed from office and banished from court. the penalty of death was exacted for this persecution, for saad-u-dowleh was murdered almost at the same instant that his sovereign master expired. the silk trade of resht, which has suffered so much for many years from the disease that attacked the silkworms in the caspian provinces, and spread to all the persian silk districts, is now recovering. the introduction of cellular seed has been attended with much success, and there is a rapidly-increasing export of cocoons. the fresh start in this old industry has given an impetus to mulberry-tree cultivation, and waste land is in considerable demand for planting purposes. an attempt is now being made to grow tea on the low hills near batoum. it is not yet known what may be the ultimate chances of success, but already what is being done there is having the effect of suggesting a similar experiment near resht. the conditions of the soil on many of the wooded hill-slopes in the persian caspian provinces, where every gradation of climate and atmosphere can be met with, appear to be well adapted for the tea-plant. the cart-road to kasvin, now being constructed by a russian company, will pass through some of these well-favoured parts, and this will help to draw attention to natural resources which have hitherto been unnoticed. as old persian travellers, we were at once reminded of our return to the land of complimentary address and extravagant phrase by the frequent reply '_chashm_' (my eye!), the simple slang expression known in our country, and which 'trilby' has made better known by its introduction on the stage. the word is an abbreviation of '_ba sar o chashm'_ (by my head and eyes! may my eyes be put out, and my head taken off, if i obey not!). we also heard the similar but less formal reply _chira_? why?--meaning, why not? why should i not do as you desire? i.e. you will be obeyed. we travelled to kasvin, halfway to tehran, over the execrable road which leads from resht. for the first forty miles the landscape was lovely from wooded slopes, green growth and clear running water. the post-houses are just as they were--ill-provided, and affording the very smallest degree of comfort that it is possible for a 'rest-house' to give. they had been in some way improved for the reception of general prince karaupatkin, and his suite, who visited tehran to announce to the shah the accession of h.i.m. nicolas ii.; but no effort to maintain the improvement had been made, except in one place--menzil. the _on dit_ in tehran was, that the successful launching of the russian cart-road enterprise, now fairly well in hand, is entirely due to prince karaupatkin's strong representation on his return to st. petersburg. he is said to have taken the opportunity of telling the shah, in answer as to his journey up, that he was greatly surprised to find the road leading to the capital such a very bad one; whereupon his majesty remarked that the blame lay with his own countrymen, who, after begging for a monopoly concession to construct a good road, had held on to it and done nothing, and they had the right, so long as the contract time allowed, to prevent others from making the road. the russian press, which interested itself in the matter, pointed out that what was wanted to give an impetus to their trade in north persia was good roads, not bounties, and it may be that the interest which is believed to be guaranteed by the government on the road capital will take the place of trade bounties. the money subscribed is sufficient to provide a solidly-built road, and the idea is that it will be aligned so as to be fit for railway purposes in the future. the existing cart-road from kasvin to tehran is but a track, lined out fairly straight over a level bit of high-lying country, with a few bridges over small streams. the distance, ninety-five miles, is comfortably covered in fourteen to eighteen hours in carriages drawn by three horses. the nature of the ground makes this road a good fair-weather one, and as the russian company has rented it from the persian concessionnaire, we may expect to hear of considerable improvements, so as to encourage an increase of the persian waggon traffic which already exists on it. the completion of a system of quick communication between the russian caspian sea base and the capital of persia must attract the practical attention of all who are interested in persian affairs. many of the moullas, in their character as meddlers, are always ready to step forward in opposition to all matters and measures in which they have not been consulted and conciliated. so the russian road from resht was pronounced to be a subject for public agitation by the tabriz mujtahid, mirza javad agha, who, since his successful contest over the tobacco régie, has claimed to be one of the most important personages in persia. this priest is very rich, and is said to be personally interested in trade and 'wheat corners' at tabriz, and as he saw that the new road was likely to draw away some of the tabriz traffic, he set himself the task of stirring up the moullas of resht to resent, on religious grounds, the extended intrusion of europeans into their town. the pretence of zeal in the cause was poor, because the resht moullas are themselves interested in local prosperity, and the agitation failed. a change is coming over the country in regard to popular feeling towards priestly interference in personal and secular affairs. the claim to have control of the concerns of all men may now be said to be but the first flush of the fiery zeal of divinity students, fresh from the red-hot teachings of bigoted moulla masters, who regret the loss of their old supremacy, and view with alarm the spread of liberalism, which seems now to be establishing itself in persia. the unfortunate episode of the tobacco régie in gave the moullas a chance to assert themselves, and they promptly seized the opportunity to champion a popular cause of discontent, and the pity of it was that the enterprise which raised the disturbance was english. this tobacco monopoly had been pictured as a business certain to produce great gains, and the people were thus prepared for the reports which were spread of high prices to be charged on what they regard as almost a necessary of life. the conditions of the country were not fully studied before the monopoly powers were put in force. a suggestion was made that the company's operations should be confined at first to the foreign export, which would have returned a good profit, and that afterwards a beginning should be made at tehran, to prove to the people that the monopoly would really give them better tobacco, and not raise prices, which the company claimed would be the result of their system. but everything was planned on an extensive scale, and so were prospective profits. the picture of a rapid road to fortune had been exhibited, and it was therefore decided that the full right of monopoly should be established at once. an imprudent beginning was made in exercising the right of search in a manner which alarmed some people for the privacy of their homes, a dangerous suggestion in a mohammedan community. the suspicions and fears of all--buyers, sellers, and smokers--were easily worked upon by the priests, ever ready to assert the supremacy of the church over the state. and then the biggest 'strike' i know of took place. mirza hassan, the high-priest of kerbela, the most sacred shrine of the shiah mohammedans, declared tobacco in persia to be 'unlawful' to the true believer, and everyone--man, woman, and child--was forbidden to sell or smoke it. the 'strike' took place on a gigantic scale, a million or two certainly being engaged in it, and steps were taken to see the order from kerbela carried out rigorously. 'vigilance men,' under the moullas' directions, made raids on suspected tea-shops, to find and smash the 'kalian' pipes which form part of the stock-in-trade of these places of refreshment. the shah was faced with the sight of silent and forsaken tea-shops as he passed through the streets of tehran, and he saw the signs of the censuring strike in the rows of empty benches, on which his subjects used to sit at their simple enjoyment of pipes and tea. the interdiction reached the inner homes of all, and even in the _anderuns_ and boudoirs of the highest (all of which are smoking-rooms) it was rigidly obeyed. the priestly prohibition penetrated to the palaces, and royalty found authority set at defiance in this matter. a princely personage, a non-smoker, is said to have long urged and entreated a harem favourite, too deeply devoted to tobacco, to moderate her indulgence in it, but to no effect. on the strike being ordered, she at once joined it, and his highness is reported to have said, 'my entreaties were in vain, my bribes of jewels were refused, yet the priest prevails.' and this was at a place where not long before moullas had been at a discount. [illustration: pipe bearer in a persian anderun] there are now signs of the people resenting the arrogant assumption or power by the moullas, and freeing themselves from their thraldom. there has always been great liberty of opinion and speech in persia, and six hundred years ago the poets khayyam and hafiz took full advantage of this in expressing their contempt for the 'meddling moullas.' not very long ago the donkey-boys in one of the great towns would on occasion reflect the popular feeling by the shout '_br-r-r-o akhoond!_' (go on, priest!) when they saw a moulla pattering along on his riding donkey. _biro_ is persian for 'go on,' and, rolled and rattled out long and loud, is the cry when droves of load-carrying donkeys are driven. the donkey-boy in persia is as quick with bold reply as he is in egypt and elsewhere. there is a story that a high persian official called out to a boy, whose gang of burden-bearing donkeys obstructed his carriage, 'out of the way, ass, you driver of asses!' and was promptly answered, 'you are an ass yourself, though a driver of men!' as a finish to this reference to the tobacco régie in persia, i may mention it is believed that, had the company started as ordinary traders, they, having the command of ready money, would have succeeded well. the commencement made in the centres of tobacco cultivation impressed the peasant producers most favourably; they appreciated the advantages of cash payments, and regretted the cessation of the system, and the governors benefited by the readiness with which the taxes were paid. but the explanation of monopoly, a word which was then unknown in persia, raised the fears of the people, and those who had the money to spare laid in a supply of tobacco before the concession came into force. this was regarded by the poor as proof of the coming rise in price, and they therefore hailed the moullas as their deliverers from the threatened calamity of dear tobacco. the only public debt of persia is that of a loan contracted in order to pay the compensation for cancelment of this concession, and the expenses which had been incurred; but the sale by the government of the foreign export (part of the cancelled concession) very nearly provides for the loan. the société de 'tombac' of constantinople, which bought the monopoly of export, has had difficulties to contend with, caused by a persian combination to buy from the cultivators and sell to the foreign agents. a prominent moulla was named as interested in this business, which was in reality at direct variance with the principles on which the priesthood had declared the original concession to be 'unlawful.' this interference with the free trade conditions existing when the constantinople company made its contract led to a dispute, which ended with a fresh agreement, in which there is said to be a stipulation that, should the persian tobacco régie in its original form be revived at any time, french subjects are to have the first offer. after disposing of the tobacco régie, the triumphant moullas desired to extend their prohibition to all foreign enterprise in persia, and they pronounced against the english bank, which was doing its work quietly, and without detriment to the business of others. but the shah gave them clearly to understand that their pretensions would be permitted no further, and that they were to cease from troubling. they then made an attempt to establish the impression of their power in a visible sign on all men, by commanding discontinuance of the persian fashion of shaving the chin, so that the beard should be worn in accordance with mohammedan custom. again they talked of organizing coercion gangs, to enforce the order on the barbers, under threat of wrecking their shops. at this time a foreign diplomat, during an audience of the shah, on being asked by his majesty, according to his wont, what news there was in the european quarter of the town, mentioned this latest phase of moulla agitation as tending to unsettle men's minds. the shah passed his hand lightly over his shaven chin, and said, with a touch of humour and royal assurance: 'see, i shave; let them talk; they can do nothing.' it is wrong to suppose that the people of persia are dead to all desire for progress, and that their religion is a bar to such desire. it is not so. many of the moullas, it is true, are opposed to education and progress. one frankly said of the people in reference to education, 'they will read the koran for themselves, and what will be left for us to do?' the country is advancing in general improvement, slowly, but yet moving forward; not standing still or sliding back, as some say. the moulla struggles in - to gain the upper hand produced a feeling of unquiet, and the most was made of all grievances, so as to fan the flames of discontent. pestilent priests paraded the country, and did their utmost to excite religious fanaticism against the government. these agitators spoke so loudly and rashly that the ire of the old religious leaders, the higher moullas, men of learning and tranquil temper, who had not joined the party of retrogression, was roused. the knowledge of this emboldened the sober-minded to speak out against the arrogance and conceit of the new self-elected leaders. open expression of opinion led to the criticism, 'these priests will next desire to rule over us.' the nomads, who have always declined to be priest-ridden, also showed that they were ready to resist any attempts to establish a religious supremacy in temporal affairs; and then, by judicious management of rival jealousies and conflicting interests, the shah succeeded in his policy of complete assertion of the royal power. it may be that the moullas were made to understand that, just as the chief priest had risen at a great assembly before nadir shah, and advised him to confine himself to temporal affairs, and not to interfere in matters of religion, so similar sound advice in the reverse order was given for their guidance. chapter ii --the late shah's long reign --his camp life --habits --appearance --persian telegraph intelligence department --farming the revenues --condition of the people --the shoe question --the customs --importation of arms --martini-henry rifles --indo-european telegraph nasr-ed-din shah was the two hundred and fifty-fourth sovereign who had successively ascended the throne of persia. he succeeded his father, mahomed shah, on september , , and would have entered on his jubilee, the fiftieth year of his reign, according to the mohammedan calendar, on may , , had not his life been suddenly cut short by a dastardly assassin on friday, may . this was, i think, the longest reign of any persian monarch that can be ascertained with historical accuracy, except that of shah tamasp, who died a.d. , after occupying the throne for fifty-three years; but this credits him with having begun his reign at the age of ten years. nasr-ed-din shah ascended the throne at the age of seventeen. up to the last his majesty was remarkable as retaining all his physical and mental energies; his health was excellent, due no doubt to his love of nomadic life and its simple habits. he was passionately fond of the chase, and passed much of his time in the saddle. it might well be said of him, as of the ancient persian monarchs, that the royal edicts were written 'at the stirrup of the king,' for his ministers had to follow him into the camp and the hunting-field, and this prevented his court becoming lapped in luxury. large tracts were preserved for him for ibex and moufflon on the mountains, and antelope on the plains, and the hawking of duck or partridge on by-days. this nomadic life, with its hunting habits, encouraged the pleasant, easy manner which attracted his subjects and commanded their confidence. he was an energetic worker, and had full knowledge of all home and foreign affairs. he was superior to all palace intrigues, if any existed, and his ministers were rarely changed. the long continuance in office of his councillors added to the feeling of public security which his own strong personality had given to the country. in appearance nasr-ed-din shah was little changed since , when his figure was a well-known one in europe. he showed the same alertness of step, brightness of look and manner, and smartness of dress, which distinguished him then. in his court he was a striking figure, in marked contrast to those about him, for it must be confessed that all in attendance showed some neglect of appearance which compared unfavourably with the _tout ensemble_ of their sovereign. this may possibly have been a subtle form of flattery, so that the shah alone might catch the eye and be the 'observed of all observers'--'le roi-soleil'--of the land of the lion and the sun. no one probably saw more clearly than the shah that the system of farming out the administration of the provinces from year to year is bad, both for the treasury and the people; but he knew well that reform, to be sure and certain, must be slow and gradual, for change in persia, with its ancient traditions and old memories, cannot be effected at one stroke. he had done much to mitigate the evil of the present system by establishing telegraphic communication with all the centres of provincial government, thus placing himself in close touch with his subjects, even in the most remote parts. gradually the confidence which began in his near neighbourhood had extended throughout the country, and there was a firm belief in the minds of the people that the shah could be approached by all. but it can well be imagined that it takes a desperate case to induce those who are oppressed in distant places to have recourse to such a public mode of communicating grievances as the telegraph. yet the telegraph is so employed at times, the senders of the telegrams giving their names openly, and confidently awaiting the result. the persian telegraph department has a peculiar importance in being the secret agency by which the shah is served with an independent and reliable daily report of all that goes on throughout the country. the system of direct reports of the conduct of governors, by special resident officials, which was established in the days of darius the king, has developed into the present secret service daily telegrams. nominations to all the telegraph appointments are made by the minister in charge of the department, who bears the appropriate title of mukbir-i-dowleh (intelligencer of the state). an instance of the power exercised through this system occurred within my personal knowledge a few years ago. a local dignitary in a distant province fell under the frown of the prince governor, who, actuated by greed, imposed on him a heavy fine for an imaginary offence. the fine was not paid, on which a charge of contumacy was made, and this was punished by the cruel bastinado and imprisonment. the telegraph-master, notwithstanding the fact of the governor being a near relative of the late shah, reported the circumstance in all its details. the telegraph enabled the shah to make his presence felt in distant places, as well as his power, for he was in the habit of occasionally summoning a governor to the office at the other end of the wire, to hear his commands spoken on the spot. in this instance the shah, after personal inquiry, ordered the release of the prisoner, and on being informed some days later that this had not been done, the telegraph-master was directed to take the telegraphic royal command to the prison, and see it instantly obeyed. the official carried out his instructions, and the guards at once set the prisoner free. the system of farming out the provinces gives rise to much grumbling, which perhaps, on close examination, may be found to be without full reason. the real cause of complaint is the absence of fair fixed taxation demands. every village has to pay a tithe of its annual value to the state, and previous to collection the place is visited by one of the provincial officials, and the fullest details of the circumstances of each family are ascertained. the limit of the official robbery which follows is the ability to pay, as measured by the patience of the sufferers. the peasantry are peaceful, frugal, and easily governed, but there is a point beyond which they cannot be pressed without risk of making them turn on the oppressor. they have now learnt the strength of the defence they possess in the power of making their grievances known. no doubt the provincial levy of taxation charges doubles the state tithe, one-half of the whole amount being taken by the governor and the officials; but all this does not mean more than one-fifth of the village income, for the general assessment was made before the existing improvement in the circumstances of the cultivators had taken place more or less all over the country. there was then little demand for products which are now exported and paid for in gold, thus giving a high price in the silver currency of the country. after the provincial taxation, there are local charges, which may possibly add a further or per cent, to the total amount. formerly insecurity and want of confidence confined cultivation and stock-breeding to the barest limits, but it is evident now that the inhabitants can look to enjoy the fruits of their labour, and they are extending their fields of exertion. on the whole, it may be said that the peasantry and labouring classes in persia are fairly well off, and i think their condition can bear a favourable comparison with that of the same classes in other countries. in the course of my journeying in persia, i generally found excellent quarters in the village houses. the rather mean outer appearance of the dwellings conveys the idea of poor accommodation within, but the reality is a pleasing disclosure of plain but well-carpeted rooms, with dados of matting or felt for the backs of the sitters by the wall. i always looked out for village lodgings when travelling off the main roads, and in wintry weather they were very comfortable from their open well-built clay fireplaces giving out heat without the nuisance of smoke. on these occasions i had ample opportunity to observe the every-day life of the people, and i was struck with much which showed that their manners and ways had been favourably touched and turned by a softening civilization of old date. i also there saw clear evidence of the origin of the eastern shoe question, a matter which has often given rise to warm discussion in persia and india; i allude to the removal of shoes on entering the inner rooms of a house. in india it is taken to imply inferiority, and since the establishment of british supremacy the custom has never been complied with by a european except in cases of personal employment in a native state. i remember an instance in point when a sergeant piper of a highland regiment took service with one of the punjab sikh chiefs, to instruct a bagpipe band which the rajah had formed in admiration of scottish highland music. in the contract paper which set forth in detail the duties, pay, and allowances of the instructor, the sergeant expressly stipulated that he should not be required to remove his shoes on entering the rajah's room when a european was present. the origin of the custom of removing the shoes was clearly to avoid soiling the carpets in the house or tent, on which the inmates sat, ate, and slept. felts and rush-mats, no doubt, formed the first floor-coverings for tents and houses; but as arts and manufactures grew in central asia, the pastoral tribes, with whom, there being little or no agricultural work for the women and children, the woollen industries began, introduced carpets with coloured designs, many of the patterns of which are known to be of very old date, and still remain in the hands of certain families as their own carefully-guarded secrets and property. these carpets then became their pictures, framed in felt side-strips, on which people sat, slept, and transacted business. at meals the centre is covered with a cloth, on which the dishes are placed; and i think the carpet is regarded similarly as a well-polished dining-table was in the west in olden days, when the cloth was removed at the end of the courses. at other times it may be supposed that the pretty carpets are their pictures on the floor, just as ours are on the wall; in fact, many carpets of old design are so lovely and delicate that they are hung on the walls of european residents' houses in persia as being too good to be trodden on. in the village houses the peasants always leave their shoes at the inner doors, and when a man arrives in riding-boots, with no intention of staying long, he complies with the object of the custom by sitting on the edge of the carpet, or felt, and tucking his legs underneath him, so that the feet may not touch or soil it. in this there is no question of inferior and superior, for all are socially equal; it is merely a matter of good manners and friendly feeling, just as signified in the west by removal of the hat or cap. it would appear that in the reception of western envoys at the court of persia it was customary to change the boots or shoes for slippers, or to cover them with these; but the practice was generally regarded as derogatory to the dignity of the national representative, and sometimes became the subject of strong protest and resentment. there is reason to believe that the custom always cropped up with every envoy as an annoying cause of heated discussion and disagreeable feeling. on the occasion of the reception of mr. anthony jenkinson, queen elizabeth's envoy at the court of persia in , this shoe question assumed an acute form; and when a pair of the shah's slippers was sent to him to be worn at the interview with his majesty, it is said that what was meant as attention was taken for insult. the interview took place without the slippers being used, and the meeting was not of a cordial character. but besides this shoe difficulty at the court of persia, there was also a divergence of opinion regarding the lower garments, as the tight knee-breeches and hose of the west were considered improper in the east, and it is believed that the roomy turkish _shâlwâr_ trousers were required to be worn as 'overalls' to hide the legs on occasions of royal audience. in connection with this phase of eastern idea, an incident happened with sir douglas forsyth's diplomatic mission to the amir of kashgar in - , which is worth mentioning here. the camp-sergeant with the mission was sergeant rhind, of the nd highlanders, and on the envoy and staff being received at yarkand by the governor of that province, the second highest dignitary in the kingdom, it was understood that, as he was most exacting in the full observance of all formalities, much would depend upon his report of our demeanour, appearance, and general conduct. this governor kept quite a little court, and we accordingly paid our visit in all the show of a dress parade. sergeant rhind attended in kilted uniform, and his appearance attracted considerable shy and sly notice. mahomed yunis, the governor, was a man of severe ideas, and while pretending not to see the highlander, who stood behind us during the interview, he was reported to say after our departure that his costume appeared to be incomplete. some weeks afterwards, on our reaching kashgar, the capital in the north, and preparing for the formal audience of the sovereign, the famous ataligh ghazi, the court master of the ceremonies, appeared suddenly before the appointed time, and announced most peremptorily that the sergeant was to accompany us fully dressed. he explained that the kilt with bare knees was objectionable, and could not be tolerated at the ataligh's court; so the trews had to be substituted for the showy garb of old gaul. the indoor dress worn by persian ladies is not unlike our highland kilt. the shoe question was finally settled in a clause of the turkmanchai treaty of , which is accepted by all the foreign legations. it provides that goloshes or shoe-coverings shall be worn, to be removed before entering the audience-room or going into the shah's presence, and this practice continues at the present time. the 'dragoman' establishments are much more attached to old ideas than turks and persians, and they cling to their presumed monopoly of knowledge of all court and social customs in order to enhance their importance. the persians move with the times, and understand western modes of showing respect; yet i heard it said by a local light that it was a breach of good taste to salute the shah by lifting the hat, and that it offended mohammedan notions of propriety to remove the head-covering in society. accordingly, i once saw some european gentlemen wearing their hats in the reception-room of one of the shah's ministers; but on observing others who were known to be well acquainted with persian feeling entering with hat in hand, they, who were under the guidance of a 'dragoman', adopted the european custom. in fraser's 'persia', we are told that when shah abbas the great received sir dodmore cotton, ambassador from james i., his majesty, 'being desirous of pleasing his guests, drank to the health of the king of england. at the name of his sovereign the ambassador stood up and took off his hat. abbas smiled, and likewise raised his turban in token of respect.' [illustration: persian lady at home.] the farming system which is applied to the customs in persia continues to cause considerable loss to the state. an extension of the same direct control as is exercised in the telegraph department would show most favourable results. under the present short-sighted system the interests of all the contractors lie in suppressing correct information and giving misleading statistics, so that the annual bidding may be kept low. but notwithstanding this, the truth leaks out to indicate that trade in persia is increasing. there are now signs of practical advice at tehran, to consider the establishment of a properly constituted persian control board of customs, by which a well-organized service, under the central authority, may be maintained, and a considerable increase of revenue secured. it may be said that all merchants in persia benefit by the farming system, for under it they can arrange to have their goods passed on payment of a lump sum, and with but the merest show of examination of invoices. in this manner they manage to get consignments through the customs at less than the fixed tariff. on a late rumour of a foreign control of the customs being likely, the russian armenian merchants engaged in trade in the north frankly represented the fact of arrangements being made with the authorities at the ports, to take less than the treaty per cent. on exports and imports, and they urged that the custom was of such old date and long continuance as to make it a fully recognised right. they stated that their trade was established on this basis, and they protested against any change. there can be no doubt that the same custom prevails in the south, and all along the frontier. as the farming contracts are much subdivided, competition operates to reduce rates, so as to induce change of trade routes. thus, i heard of a merchant in central persia, whose communications are with the south, asking a contractor in the north for a quotation of his terms, so as to make it advantageous for him to send his goods that way. in the matter of contraband articles, the farming system lends itself to encourage the passing of what the state forbids, as the middlemen and their servants are tempted to make as much money as possible during the short time of their annual contract engagements. in a country like persia, where pride of arms prevails to keep up the habit of carrying them, there is a steady demand for modern breech-loading rifles. the government is alive to the necessity of preventing the importation of firearms, and from time to time seizures are made of consignments smuggled under the guise of merchandise. with a large nomad and semi-nomad population of warlike and predatory instincts, almost every man of whom lays by money most diligently, bit by bit, for the purchase of a breechloader and cartridges, it is obvious that the interests of government call for the strongest check to the foreign trade in arms; but it may be taken for granted that so long as the customs are farmed out on the present system the supply will be passed in to meet the demand. the favourite weapon is the martini-henry, and there are many thousands in the possession of the nomads and villagers. this rifle, as the peabody-martini, was first introduced into the country during the late turko-russian war, when, being the turkish army weapon, it fell by thousands into the hands of russian soldiers, who sold them to the persian sutlers and pedlars allowed to accompany the troops. the persians had shown their usual energy and enterprise abroad by becoming camp-traders with the russian forces engaged on active service in asia minor, and they sent the captured arms, which they purchased in large numbers, over the border into persia, where they fetched good prices. a profitable trade in cartridges followed the introduction of the new rifle, and judging by the well-filled belts and bandoliers which i saw on the north-western frontier (kurdistan and azerbaijan), the business appears to be a well established one. in the course of time and trade this rifle found its way south to the fighting bakhtiaris, lurs, and arabs, and the general vote in its favour brought about a supply of 'trade' martini-henry arms imported by way of the persian gulf, so that now in persia what is known as the 'marteen' has become the popular arm in private possession. the 'remington' has its possessors and admirers among the karun arab tribes, who get their arms from baghdad and turkish sources. there is a brisk trade in ammunition for the breechloader, and so keen is the desire to secure and supplement the supply that solid-drawn brass cartridge-cases, which admit of being used over and over again, with boxes of caps and sets of reloading apparatus, are now in brisk demand. at kasvin our eyes were refreshed with the sight of the excellently-equipped indo-european telegraph line, which comes in there from tabriz and the north, and passes on to tehran and india. this line, with its wires carried on tall iron standard posts stretching far in a dominating manner over the country, seems to stand forth as a strong witness to the effectual command and control exercised by the shah's government at the present time. on the first establishment of this line there was much conjecture as to the great risk of continued interruption from the mischief of man; and failure to complete the land working at the outset dissatisfied commercial men in england, so that to maintain certain communication the red sea cable was laid. but new land lines were erected which worked equally well as the cable, and the firm insistence by the persian government on heavy damages for all malicious injury gradually developed the perfect security which comes from local interests demanding the fullest protection. the service by this line is now as certain and quick as that of the ocean cable; in fact, i think the average speed of messages between london and calcutta is greater _viâ_ tehran than _viâ_ suez. there was an interesting race last year between the companies to communicate to india the result of the derby, and it was won in a way by the cable line. the messages were simultaneously despatched from epsom, that by tehran reaching bombay five seconds before the other, but as the name of the winning horse only was given correctly, karachi, six hundred miles distant, had to be asked for a repetition of the names of the second and third horses. the cable telegram gave the three names accurately. had karachi been agreed upon as the point of arrival for india, instead of bombay, the indo-european would have won this telegraph race. chapter iii. --kasvin grapes --persian wine --vineyards in persia --wine manufacture --mount demavend --afshar volcanic region --quicksilver and gold --tehran water-supply --village quarrels --vendetta --tehran tramways --bread riots --mint and copper coin. the grape harvest was being gathered at kasvin as we passed through. the place is well known for its extensive vineyards and fine fruit-gardens. its golden grapes have a wide reputation, and these, with the white species, also grown there, are in steady demand for wine manufacture, which is carried on in the town, notwithstanding the greatly disproportionate number of moullas among the inhabitants. large quantities of the grapes are also sent to tehran for wine purposes there. persia keeps up the character for strong wine which it had b.c., when the scythian invaders took to it so eagerly as to establish the saying, 'as drunk as a scythian.' it was said that these hard-headed, deep-drinking, wild warriors were always thirsting for 'another skinful,' and were ever ready to declare that the last was always the best. eighteen hundred years later, hafiz, the merry poet, sang aloud the praises of shiraz wine, which to this day bears a high reputation in persia, a reputation which was royally good in the traditional bygone time long before cyrus, when it appears to have been highly appreciated in the festivities of glorious jamshed, the founder of persepolis. the poet omar khayyam, in moralizing over the ruins of the fallen splendour of that famous place, speaks in fitzgerald's 'rubaiyat': 'they say the lion and the lizard keep the court where jamshed gloried and drank deep.' the persian poet-historian firdausi ascribes to jamshed the discovery of wine in his leisure from kingly duties and scientific pursuits, for to him is attributed the invention of many useful arts, and the introduction of the solar year for measurement of time, the first day of which, when the sun enters aries, he ordered to be celebrated by a splendid festival. it is called nauroz, or new year's day, and is still the greatest festival in persia. this single institution of former days, under a different religion and system of measuring time, has triumphed over the introduction of mohammedanism, and is observed with as much joy and festivity now as it was by the ancient inhabitants of persia. according to moulla akbar's manuscripts, quoted in malcolm's 'history of persia,' jamshed was immoderately fond of grapes, and desired to preserve some which were placed in a large vessel and lodged in a vault for future use. when the vessel was opened, the grapes had fermented, and their juice in this state was so acid that the king believed it must be poisonous. he had some other vessels filled with the juice, and 'poison' written upon each; these were placed in his room. it happened that one of his favourite ladies was afflicted with nervous headaches, the pain of which distracted her so much that she desired death, and observing a vessel with 'poison' written on it, she took it and swallowed its contents. the wine, for such it had become, overpowered the lady, who fell down in a sound sleep, and awoke much refreshed. delighted with the remedy, she repeated the doses so often that the king's 'poison' was all drunk. he soon discovered this, and forced the lady to confess what she had done. a quantity of wine was then made, and jamshed and all his court drank of the new beverage, which, from the circumstance that led to its discovery, is to this day known in persia as _zahr-i-khûsh_, or the pleasing poison. after that the manufacture of wine became a regular industry, and spread from shiraz, where it originated. at the present time the process of manufacture is similar to what it was then, in that the grape-juice is collected in large ali-baba-like jars and buried in the ground. alexander the great is said to have followed the festive example of his royal predecessor, and to have drunk deep in the majestic halls of persepolis. it has been supposed by some that he caused the splendid palaces there to be set on fire in a drunken freak. as a pendant to the story of a lady's discovery, in the time of jamshed, of wine as an efficacious cure for nervous headache, another is told which ascribes to a lady the withdrawal of a royal decree against the sale and use of wine. the shah hussein, on his accession to the throne in , displayed his religious zeal by forbidding the sale of wine, and he ordered the destruction of all the stock of it that was in the royal cellars at ispahan. but his grandmother, by feigning herself ill, and wholly dependent upon wine for cure, not only prevailed upon him to revoke the decree, but also persuaded him to drink some in pure regard to herself, with the result that he fell away from priestly influence and became a tippler. unfortunately for the nation, this grandmother's guidance led shah hussein to ruin by wine and women, and dragged him down to the deep degradation of surrendering persia to the cruel tyranny of the afghan occupation. wood being scarce in persia, and poles, stakes, and sticks for upright and lateral support not being easily procurable, the mode of culture of the vine has come to be by planting in deep broad trenches, with high sloping banks, up and over which the stems and branches run and fall. the trenches are made to lie so as to allow of the bank-slopes having the best exposure. this is the system followed on the flat, but in hilly ground, by means of careful trimming and the assistance of piled stones, the plants are made to develop strong standard stems, with bunchy, bushy tops. i was particularly struck a few years ago with the neat, well-tended vineyards at the village of imâm-zadeh-ismail, in the hills about forty miles north-west of persepolis. almost the whole of the village lands were laid out in vineyards, well walled and beautifully kept. the vines looked as if they were tended by those who understood their culture well, and they appeared to thrive wonderfully on the light soil of the place. surprising energy had been shown in clearing the ground, which was naturally stony; and there was abundant evidence of much patient labour in the garden-like enclosures. vineyards occupied all the flat ground on which the village stood, and they extended up the slopes. hillside clearing was going on all around for further planting of vines, which were seen to flourish there. raisins are largely made there, and i was told by my kashkai conductor (for i was well off the beaten track and required a guide), who seemed to know what he was talking about, that the fresh grapes were used for wine, but not in the village. the religious character of the chief inhabitants of the village, who are sheikhs, and guardians of the holy shrine of the mausoleum of the imam-zadeh-ismail, which lies within its limits, prevents the preparation there of the forbidden fermented juice of the grape. the shrine is endowed with the village lands rent free, and all these lands are devoted to vine cultivation. the vineyards at shiraz have been greatly extended of late years, and particular attention is now paid to the cultivation of the kholar grape, as the best suited for wine. this grape takes its name from the village of kholar, which is within a few miles of the town. tabriz, hamadan, isfahan, and shiraz produce the best wine in persia. red and white are made at all these places; the white wine of hamadan is a sort of strong sauterne, and some of it has quite a delicate flavour; isfahan produces a wine of a port character, and the best shiraz is sometimes like new madeira. all these wines resemble in strength those that are now made in australia. something is wanting in the mode of manufacture to make the wine capable of improvement with keeping, and also of bearing transport. the advent of the russian road will probably lead to the development of kasvin's large area of fruitful vines, and the success which has attended vineyard industry at derbend, on the caspian, may encourage similar enterprise there. as neither law nor custom forbids the manufacture of wine by non-mohammedans, the cultivation of the grape spreads, and the making of wine increases. from this it may be inferred, as there is little export of wine from persia, that all the produce is not consumed by non-mohammedans. as a matter of fact, the religious law which forbids wine to mohammedans is not rigidly observed; in truth, they are not all total abstainers, and the delightful poison, as chronicled by moulla akbar, is known to be a convenient remedy for all manner of moods, ills, and complaints, nervous, imaginary, and real. they have been described as drinking well when they do break the religious law, for they have a saying that 'there is as much sin in a glass as in a flagon.' the persians have never thoroughly accommodated themselves to the creed of their semitic conquerors; they show profound respect for the externals of mohammedanism, and are sincere in their practice of piety and the obligations of religion and charity; but they have always indulged in the fancies and ideas of the great school of free-thinking philosopher sofis, whose observance of the ordinances of severe and joyless life is notedly lax. the weather was lovely as we journeyed over the kasvin plain to tehran, towards the end of september. autumn in the north of persia is a gloriously fine season, almost spring-like in many ways, and, indeed, it is called there the 'second spring.' the landscape then, though nearly barren of verdure, has a beauty of its own in warm soft colours, and the atmospheric effects on the hills and distances, evening and morning, are of wonderfully delicate tones and tints. the prominent feature in the landscape near tehran is the grand cone-shaped mount demavend, about forty miles to the north-east, which shoots up , feet above ocean-level, and overtops all the surrounding heights by , feet or more. it stood out bold, cold, and clear against the blue sky, and looked beautifully white with a fresh covering of new snow, and it was more than usually distinct, from being clear of the cloud-crown it usually wears. in the evening the massive peak presented a splendid appearance, looking as in a white heat from the shine of the setting sun, which, though lost to view below the horizon, yet lighted up the old volcano. demavend has long been asleep, but the great earthquakes of , and in astrabad and kuchan to the eastward, and khalkhal in the north-west, show that its underground fires are still alight. the scene of the last is about one hundred miles north-east of the old volcanic region of afshar, remarkable for its remains of vast 'cinter' cones, formed by the flowing geysers of long, long ago, and which were shattered and scattered by some mighty explosion, when the great geysers boiled up and burst their walls. here is seen the takht-i-sulimân, a ruined fort of very ancient date, which local tradition describes as one of king solomon's royal residences, shared by his queen, belghéiz (of sheba), whose summer throne is also shown on a mountain height above. this ruin incloses a flowing geyser of tepid sea-green water, about feet deep, the temperature of which was ° when i visited the place in . near it is the zindân-i-sulimân (solomon's dungeon), an extinct geyser, feet deep. it shows as a massive 'cinter' cone, feet high, standing prominently up in the plain. this district was visited and fully described by the late sir henry rawlinson, and a further account of it has been given by mr. theodore bent, who, with mrs. bent, went there in . the volcanic district of afshar has long been known for its quicksilver, which from time to time has been found in small quantities. some seven or eight hundred years ago arab miners laboured long in their search for the main cinnabar vein which undoubtedly lies hidden there, and their wide workings in laying open a whole hillside, where signs of cinnabar are still seen, show what great gangs of labourers they must have had at their command. the persian mines corporation in - engaged in operations at the same point, but, after considerable sinking of shafts and driving of galleries into the heart of the hill, they decided to cease work, being disappointed, like their arab predecessors, in not finding quickly what they had traced by clear signs up to its mountain source. a few miles below the site of these cinnabar-mine operations there are ancient gold-washing workings, and within thirty miles are heavy veins of quartz. tehran displays a marked advance in many of the resources of civilization; houses of an improved style are springing up, the roadways are better attended to, and there is a great increase in the number of carriages. the prime minister's new house, near the british legation, is situated in beautiful gardens, set off with pretty lakelets and terraced grounds, which give slopes for flowing waterfalls. these gardens, in common with all in the town, are tenanted every year by nightingales of sweet song. it is now proposed to enclose an adjoining available space to form a people's park, which would be a great place of enjoyment in summer to a people of poetic imagination like the persians, who delight in the green glade with the cool sound of flowing water. the severe cholera epidemic of showed the absolute necessity of an improvement in the rude sanitary system which then existed, and a beginning has been made in the daily careful cleaning of the streets and removal of refuse. but a better and increased water-supply is greatly needed for the town, which is becoming larger every year. people who have money to spend appear to be attracted more than ever to the capital. those who before were content with the provincial towns now build houses in tehran. the superior houses have garden-ground attached, and much tree-planting is done. the demand for water increases, but the supply is not supplemented. years ago the utmost was made of the sources from which water is drawn; no pains have been spared to extract every possible drop of water from the heart of the hills within a considerable distance, and to convey it undiminished by evaporation to the city. this is done by underground channels called _kanats_, which are excavated with great ingenuity and skill, and are marvels of industry. this system prevails all over persia, and existence as well as the fertility of the soil mainly depends on the water-supply thus obtained. the sandy expanse round yezd in the desert of south-eastern persia has been made literally to blossom like the rose by means of these subterranean channels, some of which are tunnelled for a distance of thirty miles. i was there in spring-time, and was then able to see what a wonder-worker water is in persia. the pressing need of more water for tehran has now drawn attention to the proposals of some years ago for increasing the supply. one of these was to divert to the south an affluent of the upper lar, which rises in the elburz range, and flows into the caspian. it was seen that this could be done by cutting a new channel and tunnelling from a point sufficiently high, where the stream runs in an elevated valley between the double ridge of the range. the work would have been similar, but simpler, to what was completed last year in madras, where the upper periyar stream was changed from a western to an eastern flow. the execution of the lar project would be easy, and it would not practically affect the volume of water in the main stream, which receives many tributaries below the proposed point of piercing the watershed. but the lar valley was one of the shah's summer retreats, and a favourite pasture-ground for his brood mares and young stock. it is, moreover, a popular resort of flock-owning nomads, and as the shah's love of camp life there led him to fear injury to the grassy plains and slopes of his favourite highlands, the project was abandoned. there was another scheme to construct a series of reservoirs by means of strong barriers at the foot of the lower ravines of the elburz range, eight miles north of tehran, in which to keep the winter water which comes from the melting snow. the whole mountain-chain is covered with snow each year from top to bottom. in april and may the snow melts, and the precious water flows away where it is not wanted. were this water stored, it would be made available in the succeeding hot months. the sloping plain between the hills and the town is capable, with irrigation, of great fertility, and the construction of these reservoirs would prove a veritable gold-mine. the distribution of water is a most important part of village administration in persia. the work of cutting off and letting on water with most exact observance of time-measurements is carried out by a waterman called _mirab_ (lord of the water) whose office is hereditary, subject, however, to the special judgment of popular opinion. the duties demand a clear head and nimble foot, and the waterman, in hastening from point to point, has to show all the alertness of a street lamplighter. he has to keep a correct count of time, for water is apportioned by the hour, and his memory for all the details of change, sale, and transfer must be good and unchallenged. when he becomes too old, or otherwise incapacitated for the performance of his work with the necessary quickness, he avails himself of the assistance of a son or someone whom he proposes with the village approval to bring up as his successor. the old man is then to be seen going leisurely along the water-courses which issue from the underground channels, accompanied by his young deputy carrying the long-handled persian spade, ready to run and execute his orders. disputes between village and village over _kanat_ water-cuts form the subject of severe fights occasionally, and the saying is that water and women are the main causes of village quarrels in persia. it was a hot day in june, and having been up before daylight so as to start at earliest dawn and avoid the mid-day heat for my whole party, we were all in the enjoyment of afternoon sleep, when the courtyard was invaded by a shouting mob of excited villagers, calling on me to hear their story and bear witness to their wounds. they said they were the tenants of the landlord whose house i was occupying, and they begged me as his guest to make a statement of their case, so that justice might be done. there had been a dispute over an irrigation channel, and the opposing side having mustered strong, they were overpowered by numbers and badly beaten. some of the hurts they had received were ugly to look at, having been inflicted with the long-handled persian spade, the foot-flanges of which make it a dangerous weapon. after a patient hearing, and getting some plaster and simple dressing for their cuts and bruises, they went away satisfied. so much for water as a cause of quarrel, but an instance of the other cause, woman, which had come under my notice shortly before, was more seriously characteristic. it occurred at shamsabad, on the border of the aberkoh desert, between yezd and shiraz. i halted there after the long night journey across the desert, and immediately i was settled in my village quarters, the master of the house in which i lodged asked me to look at the gunshot wounds of one of his young men, and to prescribe and provide in any way i could towards healing them. i asked if any bones were broken, saying that i could do little or nothing in such a case. i was told that they were but flesh wounds, and on the young man coming in, i was shown a ragged long cut between the lower ribs, and a deepish wound in the fleshy part of the leg, which had evidently been made by slugs or buckshot. i prescribed careful cleansing, and the use of lint and lotion, and i gave a supply of the necessary material. i asked how the thing had happened, and the young fellow told me that he and his brother had been treacherously attacked at a water-mill, whilst having the family grain ground, by some aberkoh youths, between whose family and his there was a longstanding blood-feud; that they both had been shot at close quarters, and his brother had died of his wounds two days before. the master of the house, who was also headman of the village, explained that the blood-feud had been carried on for five generations, and had originated in a 'little maid' who, being betrothed in their village, had eloped with a young man of aberkoh. the disappointed bridegroom had afterwards taken his successful rival's life, and the deadly demand of a life for a life had, in accordance with the law of revenge, been made and exacted for the past five generations. he said the elders had hoped the quarrel was nearly dead, as there had been long peace between the parties, but suddenly the hot blood of youth had risen to renew it, and now there was fear of further murder. in that remote district the ancient first principles of natural justice had still strong hold upon the people, and formed, in the absence of established law, the defence of families and communities. the knowledge that a man is considered disgraced who allows the blood of his father or brother to pass unrevenged makes many a murderer in thought pause, and depart from the deed. accordingly, in those lawless parts, as a rule, order reigns, and disputes and differences are discussed by the village 'gray-beards,' who generally are able to arrange a compromise. but in the reckless rage of a lost love the deed is done, which carries its fatal consequences to future generations, as in the case i have mentioned. i told the old village headman, who was really the local judge, that in some of the wild parts of firanghistan there were similar occurrences, and that the best form of reconciliation in the present instance would be 'wife for wife,' the first offending family giving a girl-love to a husband-lover on the other side, and thus finally closing the quarrel in the happiest manner. i said that under such circumstances intermarriages were generally the best means of improving friendship and terminating feuds between families. the tehran street tramways continue to work, though the profit return is small. the company began with graduated fares, but i heard they were considering a minimum general charge, which it was thought would encourage more traffic, especially in the visits of women to one another, as their outdoor dress is unsuited to walking in comfort. the tramway cars have separate compartments for women. the travelling pace is necessarily slow, in order to avoid hurt or harm to people and animals in the crowded thoroughfares. in the east, accidents at the hands of europeans or their employés are not readily understood or easily accepted as such. the tehran tramways company has had its trials in this respect. at one time it was the heavy hurt of a boy, son of a syud, one of the 'pure lineage', a descendant of the family of the prophet, on which the populace, roused by the lashing lamentations of the father, damaged the car and tore up the line. on another occasion a man, in obstinate disregard of warning, tried to enter at the front, and was thrown under the wheels. again the excitable bystanders were worked up to fury and violence, and the governor of the town gave judgment against the company for 'blood-money'. the counter-claim for damage done to the line enabled a compromise to be effected. oriental indifference is the chief cause of the accidents. 'it is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.' for 'offences', the oriental reading is 'accidents'. in all large persian towns there is a numerous class of 'roughs' known as the _kullah-numdah_ (felt-caps; they wear a brown hard-felt low hat without a brim), excitable and reckless, and always ready for disturbance. they are the 'casuals', who live from hand to mouth, those to whom an appeal can be made by the careful working class when the price of bread is run up to famine figure, owing to the 'cornering' of wheat, which of late years has been much practised in persia. the baker used to be the first victim of popular fury in a bread riot, and it is said that one was baked alive in his own oven. but in these times of grain speculation in persia, the people have learnt to look in 'wheat corners' for the real cause of dear bread, and in consequence the bread riots have become more formidable, as was proved lately at tabriz. on a previous occasion the vali ahd (now h.i.m. the shah), who, as governor-general of azerbaijan, resided at tabriz, found himself unable to cope with the difficulty, and abandoned his projected visit to tehran, so as to apply the money he had provided for it to cheapening bread for the people. this practical pocket-sympathy with them secured a popularity which will bring its reward. next to the 'wheat-ring' as a cause of disturbance and riot comes what may be called the 'copper-ring' of tehran, which is likely to produce serious trouble throughout the country. the royal mint in persia is worked on the farming system, the evils of which have now extended to the currency. the low price of copper allows of it being coined at an enormous profit, and advantage has been taken of this to a dangerous extent. the whole country is now poisoned with 'black money,' as the coppers are called, and it is at a heavy discount. this bears cruelly on the labouring classes and all who are paid in copper coin. owing to exchange with europe keeping above silver, that metal cannot be imported and coined, so as to give a gain to the mint-master, who has no idea of sacrificing any of the great profit he has made on copper. no silver has been coined since march, , and this is the mint-master's excuse for sending out copper in great quantities, to take the place of silver. twenty copper shahi go to a kran (present exchange value - / d.), and in the absence of silver employers of labour pay wholly in copper, which for bazaar purposes is at a discount, so much so that, when a purchase is beyond question above a kran in amount, an agreement as to payment in silver or copper is first made, and then the bargaining begins. in a country where money bears a high value, as proved by the fact that accounts are still reckoned in dinars, an imaginary coin, of which one thousand go to a silver kran and fifty to a copper shahi, the depreciation i have mentioned is a very serious affair, for it touches the mass of the people sorely. when travelling off the beaten track in persia, i have always been amused and interested in hearing my head-servant announce loudly in a tone of importance and satisfaction to my village host for the night that i had ordered so many 'thousands' to be given for house-room, fuel, barley, straw, etc. the kran was never mentioned; it was always a 'thousand.'[a] [footnote: a: since the above was written, information has been received that the late shah, about three weeks before his death, promulgated a decree directing the mint coinage of copper to be suspended for a term of five years, and intimating that the customs, post-office and telegraph departments would accept copper coin to a certain amount in cash transactions, at a fixed rate. and, further, arrangements have been made with the imperial bank of persia to purchase, on account of the government, copper coin up to a certain sum, from small _bona-fide_ holders who are in possession of it in the regular course of retail business for the necessaries of life.] chapter iv. --religious tolerance in tehran --katie greenfield's case --babi sect --liberal opinions --german enterprise in persia --railways in asia minor --russian road extension --railways to persian frontiers --the karun river --trade development --the kajar dynasty --life titles --chieftainship of tribes --sanctuary --the pearl cannon. the late shah was always liberal and conciliatory in the treatment of his christian subjects throughout the country, and this is a matter which, at the present time, deserves special notice. in the history of persia many proofs of friendly feeling towards christians are to be found, and the sovereigns appear to have led the popular mind in the way of goodwill to them. shah abbas the great was an example of kind and considerate tolerance, and it was shah abbas ii who said of them, 'it is for god, not for me to judge of men's consciences: and i will never interfere with what belongs to the tribunal of the great creator and lord of the universe.' the western christian missionaries are fully protected in their mission work among the eastern christians in persia on the understanding that they do not actively and directly engage in proselytizing mohammedans. [illustration: armenian mother and children] the american presbyterian is the only mission in tehran, and it carries on its work so smoothly and judiciously that the sensitive susceptibilities of the most fanatical moullas are never roused nor ruffled. they have succeeded well by never attempting too much. they show their desire to benefit all classes and creeds, and during the severe cholera outbreak in the hospital they established in the city for the medical treatment of all comers up to the utmost extent of their accommodation and ability was a powerful and convincing proof of their good work and will. the disease was of a very fatal type, and its deadly ravages called forth a display of devotion and self-sacrifice which deserved and obtained the highest commendation from all persians and europeans. while on this subject, the splendid example set by the governor of the town, the vazir isa khan, should be noticed. he was very wealthy, and did much to relieve the sufferings and wants of the poor who were attacked by the disease. he remained in the city while the epidemic raged, and would not seek safety in flight to the adjoining mountains, as many had done. but, sad to say, he fell a victim at the last, and his wife, who had remained with him throughout, died of the disease two days before him. it will be remembered that in an agitation was raised regarding the reported abduction of an armenian girl, named katie greenfield, by a kurd in persian kurdistan. an attempt which was made to take the girl back to her family caused the couple to cross the frontier into turkish kurdistan, and great excitement among the kurds on both sides of the border was created. the contention grew, and commissioners and consuls, with troops, persian and turkish, took part in it. in the end it was made perfectly clear that the girl had gone off with aziz, the kurd, as the husband of her own choice, and had embraced the mohammedan faith by her own wish. the kurds in persian kurdistan appear to live on friendly terms with their armenian village neighbours, and on this occasion a runaway love-match became the cause of some popular excitement in england, and much trouble and tumult on the perso-turkish frontier. the armenian archbishop in persia, who resides at isfahan, is always a russian subject from the monastery of etchmiadzin, near erivan, the seat of the catholicus, the primate of the orthodox armenian church, and this doubtless has its effect in suggesting protection and security. france also for a longtime past has steadily asserted the right to protect the catholic armenian church in persia, and once a year the french minister at tehran, with the legation secretaries, attends divine service in the chapel there in full diplomatic dress and state, to show the fact and force of the support which the church enjoys. france similarly takes catholic institutions in turkey under her protection, and appears to be generally the catholic champion in the east. the careful observer in tehran cannot fail to be struck with the religious tolerance shown to non-mohammedan persian subjects in the 'shadow of the shah.' amongst these, other than christians, may be mentioned the guebres (parsees) and the jews. persecuted in the provinces, they receive liberal treatment in tehran, and it is to be hoped that the late shah's gracious example will in time be followed by his majesty's provincial governors. the babi sect of mohammedans, regarded as seceders from islam, but who assert their claim to be only the advocates for mohammedan church reform, are at last better understood and more leniently treated--certainly at tehran. they have long been persecuted and punished in the cruellest fashion, even to torture and death, under the belief that they were a dangerous body which aimed at the subversion of the state as well as the church. but better counsels now prevail, to show that the time has come to cease from persecuting these sectarians, who, at all events in the present day, show no hostility to the government; and the government has probably discovered the truth of the babi saying, that one martyr makes many proselytes. the babis aim at attracting to their ranks the intelligent and the learned, in preference to the ignorant and unlearned; and it is believed that now sufficient education whereby to read and write is absolutely necessary for membership. they wish to convince by example, and not by force, and this accounts for the absence of active resistance to the persecutions from which they often suffer most grievously. they say that they desire to return to original mohammedanism, as it first came from the arabian desert, pure and simple, and free from the harsh intolerance and arrogance which killed the liberal spirit in which it was conceived. they deplore the evil passions and fierce animosities engendered by religious differences; they tolerate all creeds having a common end for good, and seek to soften the hearts of those who persecute them, by showing that they but wish for peace on earth and goodwill to all men. they have a widespread organization throughout persia, and many learned moullas and syuds have secretly joined them. they have always been firm in their faith, even unto death, rejecting the offer of life in return for a declaration against the bab, him whom they regard as the messenger of good tidings. an acknowledged authority on the bab, the founder of this creed, has written that he 'directed the thoughts and hopes of his disciples to this world, not to an unseen world.' from this it was inferred he did not believe in a future state, nor in anything beyond this life. of course, among the followers of a new faith, liberal and broad in its views, continued fresh developments of belief must be expected; and with reference to the idea that the babis think not of a hereafter, i was told that they believe in the re-incarnation of the soul, the good after death returning to life and happiness, the bad to unhappiness. a babi, in speaking of individual pre-existence, said to me, 'you believe in a future state; why, then, should you not believe in a pre-existent state? eternity is without beginning and without end,' this idea of re-incarnation, generally affecting all babis, is, of course, an extension of the original belief regarding the re-incarnation of the bab, and the eighteen disciple-prophets who compose the sacred college of the sect. some time ago signs began to appear of a general feeling that the persecution of the babis must cease. many in high places see this, and probably say it, and their sympathy becomes known. at one time a high mohammedan church dignitary speaks regarding tolerance and progress in a manner which seems to mean that he sees no great harm in the new sect. then a soldier, high in power and trust, refers to the massacres of babis in and as not only cruel acts, but as acts of insane folly, 'for,' he said, 'to kill a babi is like cutting down a chenar-tree, from the root of which many stems spring up, and one becomes many.' then a moulla, speaking of the necessity of a more humane treatment of the babis, and others of adverse creeds, says that he looks for the time when all conditions of men will be equally treated, and all creeds and classes be alike before the law. omar khayyam, the astronomer-poet of persia, who wrote about eight hundred years ago, gave open expression to the same liberal-minded views, urging tolerance and freedom for all religious creeds and classes. the last murderous mob attack led by moullas against the babis occurred at yezd in april, . it was probably an outcome of the babi massacre which had taken place at isfahan the previous year, and which, owing to the fiercely hostile attitude of the priests, was allowed to pass unnoticed by any strong public condemnation. on that occasion a party of the sect, pursued by an excited and blood-thirsty mob, claimed the 'sanctuary' of foreign protection in the office of the indo-european telegraph company, and found asylum there. negotiations were opened with the governor of the town, who arranged for a safe conduct to their homes under military escort. trusting to this, the refugees quitted the telegraph-office, but had not proceeded far before they were beset by a furious crowd, and as the escort offered no effectual resistance, the unfortunates were murdered in an atrociously cruel manner. the shah's anger was great on hearing of this shameful treachery, but as the governor pleaded powerlessness from want of troops, and helplessness before the fanaticism of the frenzied mob led by moullas, the matter was allowed to drop. considering the great numbers of babis all over persia, and the ease with which membership can be proved, it strikes many observers as strange that murderous outbreaks against them are not more frequent. the explanation is that, besides the accepted babis, there is a vast number of close sympathizers, between whom and the declared members of the sect there is but one step, and a continued strong persecution would drive them into the ranks of the oppressed. it might then be found that the majority was with the babis, and this fear is a fact which, irrespective of other arguments, enables the influential and liberal-minded moullas to control their headstrong and over-zealous brethren. the isolated outbreaks that do occur are generally produced by personal animosity and greed of gain. just as has been known in other countries where a proscribed religion was practised in secret, and protection against persecution and informers secured by means of money, so in many places the babis have made friends in this manner out of enemies. individuals sometimes are troubled by the needy and unscrupulous who affect an excess of religious zeal, but these desist on their terms being met. occasionally in a settlement of bazaar trading-accounts, the debtor, who is a mohammedan, being pressed by his creditor, whom he knows to be a babi, threatens to denounce him publicly in order to avoid payment. i witnessed an instance of 'sanctuary' asylum being claimed in the stable of one of the foreign legations at tehran by a well-known persian merchant, a babi, who fled for his life before the bazaar ruffians to whom his debtor had denounced him, urging them to smite and slay the heretic. it was believed that the practice of black-mailing the babis was such a well-known successful one at yezd that some of the low mohammedans of the town tried to share in the profits and were disappointed. this, it was said, led to the massacre which occurred there in april, . the babis, notwithstanding divergence of opinion on many points, yet attend the mosques and the moulla teachings, and comply with all the outward forms of religion, in order to avert the anger which continued absence from the congregation would draw upon them from hostile and bigoted neighbours. two of them were suddenly taxed in the musjid with holding heterodox opinions, and were then accused of being babis. the discussion was carried outside and into the bazaar, the accusers loudly reviling and threatening them. they were poor, and were thus unable to find protectors at once. when being pressed hard by an excited mob which had collected on the scene, an over-zealous friend came to their aid, and said, 'well, if they are babis, what harm have they done to anyone?' on this the tumult began, and the ferocity of the fanatical crowd rose to blood-heat. the sympathizer was seized, and as the gathering grew, the opportunity to gratify private animosity and satisfy opposing interests was taken advantage of, and three other babis were added, making six in all who were dragged before the governor to be condemned as members of an accursed sect. the moullas urged them to save their lives by cursing the bab, but they all refused. the wives and children of some of them were sent for so that their feelings might be worked upon to renounce their creed and live, but this had no effect in shaking their resolution. when told that death awaited them, they replied that they would soon live again. when argued with on this point of their belief, they merely said that they could not say how it was to be, but they knew it would be so. they were then given over to the cruel mob, and were hacked to death, firm in their faith to the last. the temptation to make away with others in a similar manner produced two more victims during the night, but these the governor tried to save by keeping them in custody. the brutal mob, however, howled for their blood, and made such an uproar that the weak governor, a youth of eighteen, surrendered them to a cruel death, as he had done the others. these two, like their brethren, refused to curse the bab and live. the moullas have ever been defeated in their efforts to produce recantation from a babi, and it is this remarkable steadfastness in their faith which has carried conviction into the hearts of many that the sect is bound to triumph in the end. the thoughtful say admiringly of them, as the romans said of the christians, whom they in vain doomed to death under every form of terror, 'what manner of men are these, who face a dreadful death fearlessly to hold fast to their faith?' an instance is mentioned of a babi who did recant in order to escape the martyr's death, but he afterwards returned to his faith, and suffered calmly the death he had feared before. the moullas who led the yezd massacre desired to associate the whole town in the crime, and called for the illumination of the bazaars in token of public joy. the order for this was given, but the governor was warned in time to issue a countermand. it was found by the state of public feeling, and told to those in authority, who were able to realize the danger, that, as one-half or more of the shopkeepers were babis, they would not have illuminated, for to have done so would imply approval of the murders and denial of their faith. their determination to refuse to join in the demonstration of joy would have roused further mob fury, and the whole body of babis, impelled by the instinct of self-preservation, would have risen to defend themselves. the late shah was deeply troubled and pained on hearing of this cruel massacre, and removed the governor, who was his own grandson (being the eldest son of his royal highness the zil-es-sultan), notwithstanding the excuses urged in his favour, that the priestly power which roused the mob was too strong for him to act and prevent the murders. it is probable that the government is assured of the peaceful nature of the babi movement as it now exists; and with the orders to put an end to persecution, supported in some degree by popular feeling, we may hope to hear no more of such crimes as were committed at isfahan and yezd in and . the babi reform manifests an important advance upon all previous modern oriental systems in its treatment of woman. polygamy and concubinage are forbidden, the use of the veil is discouraged, and the equality of the sexes is so thoroughly recognised that one, at least, of the nineteen sovereign prophets must always be a female. this is a return to the position of woman in early persia, of which malcolm speaks when he says that quintus curtius told of alexander not seating himself in the presence of sisygambis till told to do so by that matron, because it was not the custom in persia for sons to sit in presence of their mother. this anecdote is quoted to show the great respect in which the female sex were held in persia at the time of alexander's invasion, and which also was regarded as one of the principal causes of the progress the country had made in civilization. the parsees to this day conduct themselves on somewhat similar lines, and though we have not the opportunities of judging of maternal respect which were allowed to the greeks, yet the fact of the same custom being shown in a father's presence at the present time seems to point to the rule of good manners to mothers being yet observed. and we know, from what happened on the death of mohamed shah in , that a capable woman is allowed by public opinion to exercise openly a powerful influence in affairs of state at a critical time when wise counsels are required. the queen-mother at that time became the president of the state council, and cleverly succeeded in conciliating adverse parties and strengthening the government, till the position of the young shah, the late sovereign, was made secure. for a long time russia and england were regarded as the only great powers really interested in the future of persia; but within the last few years it has been observed that turkey, in showing an intention to consolidate her power in the baghdad and erzeroum pashaliks, was likely to be in a position to renew old claims on the persian border. france has also lately increased her interest in persia, and germany has now entered the field of enterprise there in the practical manner of improving the road from khani kin, on the turkish frontier, to tehran, connecting it with a road from baghdad. it will probably be found that this road-scheme belongs to the company under german auspices who are now constructing a railway which is ultimately to connect baghdad with the bosphorus, and part of which is already working. the trunk-line passes by angora, kaisarieh, diarbekr, mardin, and mosul; and a loop-line leaves it at eski shehr, which, going by konia, marasch, and orfa, rejoins it at diarbekr. there was an idea that, as konia is a most promising field for the production of exports, the smyrna lines competed so eagerly for the concession to extend there that the porte was enabled to make terms with the anatolian railway company (to which i have alluded) for the extension to baghdad, which strategically is of great importance. it was said that the strong competition placed the government in the position of the man in the eastern story who went to the bazaar to sell an old camel, and a young cat of rare beauty. the cat was shown off sitting on the camel, and was desired by many purchasers; but there was no bid for the camel. the competition for the cat ran high, and then the owner announced that the one could not be sold without the other, on which the camel was bought with the cat. but as a matter of fact there was no opening for competition for the konia branch. the anatolian railway had preferential rights for what is called the southern or loop line, which i have mentioned as passing through konia, and rejoining the main or northern line at diarbekr. they also have preferential rights of extension to baghdad, and they mean to carry the line there. the smyrna aidin railway has lately had a considerable improvement in its traffic, from the barley of asia minor being in increased demand in addition to its wheat. this means that the material for the beer as well as the bread of the masses elsewhere is found to be abundant and cheap there, and the extension of railway communication in those regions will most probably increase the supply and demand. the same trade in barley has lately sprung up in southern persia and turkish arabia, and for some time past, while the low price of wheat discouraged the existing wheat trade there, it has been found profitable to export barley from the gulf ports. barley is the cheapest grain in persia, where it is grown for home consumption only, being the universal food for horses. owing to want of care with the seed, and the close vicinity of crops, the wheat was often so mixed with barley as to reduce the price considerably, and the question of mixture and reduction was always a very stormy one. when i was at ahwaz, on the karun, in , i saw a machine at work separating the grains, and the arab owners waiting to take away the unsaleable barley, the wheat being bought for export by a european firm there which owned the machine. the arab sellers probably now move to the other side of the machine to carry away the unsaleable wheat, the barley being bought for export owing to the turn of trade. the german group that has obtained the persian road concession has also taken up the old project of an extension of the tehran tramways to the villages on the slopes of the shimran range, all within a distance of ten miles from the town. the court, the city notables, and the foreign legations, with everyone who desires to be fashionable, and can afford the change, reside there during the warm months--june, july, august and september. the whole place may be described as the summer suburb of the capital, and there is great going to and fro. i have already mentioned the russian road now under construction from the caspian sea base to kasvin, with the object of enabling russian trade to command more thoroughly the tehran market. the total distance from the coast to the capital is two hundred miles. there is an old-established caravan track over easy country, from kasvin to hamadan in the south--west, distant about one hundred and fifty miles. it has lately been announced that the russian road company has obtained a concession to convert this track into a cart-road in continuation of that from resht. it is seen that with improved communication russian trade may be made to compete successfully at hamadan, which is only about fifty miles further from the caspian sea base than tehran, and there will also be the advantage of a return trade in cotton from central persia, as armenian merchants now export it to russia from as far south as isfahan and yezd. the german road from baghdad to tehran will be met at hamadan. kermanshah and hamadan, through which the german road will pass, are both busy centres of trade in districts rich in corn, wool, and wine. they are also meeting-points of the great and ever-flowing streams of pilgrims to kerbela _viâ_ baghdad, said to number annually about one hundred thousand. this has been a popular pilgrim route, as well as trade route, for centuries, and with greater facilities on an improved road the traffic is certain to increase. it is said that the alignment of the russian road from resht is to be made in view of a railway in the future. the same will probably be done in the hamadan extension, and it is believed that the german road will be similarly planned. all this would mean that behind the concessions are further promises for the time when railway construction comes. looking into the dim distance, the eye of faith and hope may see the fulfilment of railway communication from india to europe by a connection between the quetta or indus valley line and kermanshah. this brings us to the agreement of between persia and russia to shut out railways till the end of the century. this agreement, when made known, was regarded as proof of a somewhat barbarian policy on the part of russia, unwilling or unable herself to assist in opening up persia and improving the condition of the country. but there is some reason for the idea that the shah himself was ready to meet the russian request, so as to keep back the railway which he feared would soon connect his capital with the caucasus. there was much railway talk in persia in , and russia knew that it would take quite ten years to complete her railway system up to the northern frontiers of persia and afghanistan. the railway now being made from tiflis to alexandropol and kars will probably send out a line down the fertile valley of the aras to julfa, ready for extension across the persian frontier to tabriz, and a branch may be pushed forward from doshakh, or keribent, on the trans-caspian railway, to sarakhs, where russia, persia, and afghanistan meet, to facilitate trade with herat as well as meshed. in the meanwhile also the cart-roads, ready for railway purposes if wanted, from the caspian sea base to kasvin, tehran, and hamadan, will be completed. russia insisted on regarding the opening of the karun to the navigation of the world as a diplomatic victory for england, and a distinct concession to british commerce, which is predominant in the south. she therefore thought out well what to get from the shah in return, to favour her commercial policy in the north, and the ten years' prohibition of railways was the result. russia desires commercial predominance in persia just as england does, and she will use all the influence which her dominating close neighbourhood gives to obtain the utmost favour and facilities for her trade. while russia and england were thus engaged in strong commercial rivalry, germany unexpectedly made her appearance in the western region of central persia, where their competition meets. nor has persia been idle in trading enterprise; her merchants are not only aiming at getting more exclusively into their own hands the interior commerce of the country, but they have established direct relations with firms in foreign countries, and now work in active competition with the european houses which in old days had almost all the export and import trade in their own hands. the introduction of the imperial bank of persia has given an impetus to this new spirit of native enterprise by affording facilities which before were not available on the same favourable terms. the nasiri company, a mercantile corporation of persians, was formed in to trade on the karun, and it commenced operations with two small steamers. later, a third steamer was added, and they are now negotiating for the purchase of a fourth. they have a horse tramway, about one and a half miles long, to facilitate the necessary transhipment of cargo between the upper and lower streams, where the ahwaz rapids break the river navigation. this trading corporation has strong support, and the persian government is earnest in giving it every assistance, so that it may develop into an effectual agency for the revival of the prosperity which made the karun valley in old times what the nile valley is now. messrs. lynch brothers also run a large steamer on the lower karun in connection with a 'stern-wheeler' (nile boat pattern) on the upper stream, and between them and the nasiri company a regular and quick communication is maintained between bombay and shuster. one of the articles of import at the latter place is american kerosene-oil for lamp purposes, to take the place of the shuster crude petroleum, said to have been used there for centuries. this petroleum contains an unusual amount of benzine, and being highly explosive in lamps, the shuster people, who can afford to pay for the safer substance, have taken to american oil. the shuster petroleum-springs belong to a family of syuds in the town, and did not fall within the field of the persian mines corporation. these oil-springs may yet become the object of practical operations should the nasiri company develop the resources of the karun valley. belgium has also taken an active interest in persia lately, the tramway company, and the glass manufactory at tehran, and the beet-sugar factory in the vicinity, having all been established with belgian capital; and holland, who is believed to be seeking an opening in persia, may find her opportunity in the karun valley irrigation works. the creation of strong international interests in persia should have the best effect in strengthening her national independence, developing her natural resources, and introducing good government. and the peaceful succession of the lawful heir to the throne should go far to carry the country forward in the path of progress and prosperity. it is evident that the strong sentiment attaching to the late shah's long and peaceful reign, and the popular feeling of loyalty to him which influenced the people, has had the effect of enforcing the royal will in favour of the heir legitimately appointed by nasr-ed-din shah. [illustration: present shah when entering his carriage.] the reigning family of persia are the hereditary chiefs of the royal kajar tribe, and still preserve the customs of that position. they have not changed the manly habits of a warlike race for the luxury and lethargy which sapped the energies and ruined the lives of so many monarchs of persia. up to the time of the present ruling dynasty the princes of the blood were immured in the harem, where their education was left to women and their attendants, and until the death of the king his destined successor was not known. at that period the son of the lowest slave in the harem was deemed equally eligible to succeed to the throne with the offspring of the proudest princess who boasted the honour of marriage with the sovereign. and similarly as in the west, up to about four hundred years ago, the crown was generally made secure by murder, every actual or possible rival for the throne being blinded or removed from the scene. this was the practice of the soffivean dynasty, which preceded the kajar. but with the change which then took place, this hideous practice disappeared, and usages more congenial to the feelings of the military tribes which support the throne were established. under the late shah the princes of the blood were employed in the chief governments of the country, and exercised all the powers and responsibilities of office. persia may be described as a theocratic democracy under an absolute monarchy. there is no hereditary rank but that of royal birth, and that of the chiefs of the military tribes, who may be regarded as a military aristocracy; but there is a system of life titles which secure to the holders certain privileges and immunities, and are much prized. the titles are nominally descriptive of some personal quality, talent, or trust, such as councillor of the state, confidant of the king, trusted of the sultan; they are also bestowed upon ladies in high position. the name of an animal is never introduced into the title; at least, i have only heard of one instance to the contrary in modern times. an individual of european parentage was recommended to the late shah's notice and favour by his persian patrons, and they mentioned his great wish to be honoured with a title. his majesty, who had a keen sense of humour, observed the suggestive appearance of the candidate for honours, and said, 'well, he is hujabr-i-mulk' (the lion of the country). the new noble was ready with his grateful thanks: 'your sacred majesty, may i be thy sacrifice;' but he added in a subdued tone, 'a lion requires at least a lamb a day.' the shah laughed at the meaning speech, and said, 'let him have it.' the granting of a title does not give any emolument unless specially directed. as a precedent for this title, the shah may have had in his mind the story of ali kuli khan, one of the favourites of shah suliman. during the reign of shah abbas this chief was generally in prison, except when his services were required against the enemies of his country. this had gained for him the name of the lion of persia, as men said that he was always chained except when wanted to fight. the shah can raise whomsoever he chooses from the lowest to the highest position or post, except in the most powerful of the nomad tribes, where the nomination to chieftainship is confined to the elders of the leading families, who generally represent two lines from one head, one being in the opposition when the other is in power. the chieftain of a clan considers himself superior in real rank to the most favoured court title-holder, and the chiefs of the military tribes may be termed the hereditary nobility of persia. the monarch may, by his influence or direct power, alter the succession, and place an uncle in the situation of a nephew, and sometimes a younger brother in the condition of an elder, but the leader of the tribe must be of the family of their chief. the younger sons and nephews are enrolled in the royal guard, and the shah is thus enabled by judicious change and selection to keep his hold upon the tribe. change of chiefs is not always effected peacefully. the wild tribesmen who, in feudal fashion, attach themselves as idle men-at-arms to a popular leader are sometimes disinclined to accept his fall from favour without an appeal to arms. but the royal authority prevails in the end, and the new chiefs rule begins, and lasts just so long as fortune smiles and the shah wills. a marked instance of this was shown in july, , when jehan shah khan-ilbegi was deprived of the chieftaincy of the afshar section of the powerful shahsevend tribe, who range from ardebil to tehran. the famous nadir shah was originally a simple trooper of this tribe, and belonged to the colony of it which was planted at deregez on the turkoman border. the ostensible cause of the chiefs removal from power was that with his own hands he had killed his wife, the sister of his cousin, rahmat-ulla-khan, who was known to be his rival in the tribe for place and power. jehan shah had unjustly accused her of being unfaithful to him, and going to her house, he called her out, and, notwithstanding her appearing with a copy of the sacred koran in her hand, shot her dead while in the act of swearing on the holy book that she was innocent of all guilt. jehan shah than went in search of the tribesman whom he suspected of being her paramour, and killed him also. the matter was reported to the shah, then in camp in irak, who ordered jebam shah to be deprived of the chieftainship, and rahmat-ulla-khan to be appointed ilbegi in his place. it was further ordered that jehan shah should be arrested and sent as a prisoner to tehran. the ihtisham-e-dowleh-kajâr, cousin of the late shah and governor of khamseh, in which province jehan shah was then located with his clan, was directed to carry out the royal commands. much telegraphing had taken place on the subject, and as cipher was not used, jehan shah, by means of money and influence, was able to obtain the fullest information of all that passed, and as he was known to have a numerous personal following armed with peabody-martini rifles, the governor was instructed to act with caution. he accordingly had recourse to stratagem, and gave out that the object of his journey to the tribal quarters was to coerce a section of the tribe which had been giving trouble. he therefore asked jehan shah to assist him, and this gave the chief a good excuse for assembling his men. the prince governor took with him one hundred cavalry and four hundred infantry, but no attention was paid to the ammunition, and they started without a proper supply. rahmat-ulla-khan was fully aware of the governor's real intentions, but the influence and power of the popular chief prevented any partisan gathering against him. he therefore could only depend upon the persian troops to enforce the order of the shah, and was unable to do more than prepare a reception tent and provide a luncheon for the prince and his people, about eight miles in advance of their camp, at a place appointed for the meeting with himself and jehan shah. on approaching this place, these two, with the elders and the tribesmen, went forward for the customary ceremonial reception of the governor. jehan shah dismounted and saluted with the utmost show of respect; but on reaching the tent which had been prepared for them by his rival, he declined to enter and partake of his hospitality, declaring that he preferred to pass on to his own tents, some distance off, his mounted following of fifteen hundred men accompanying him. the governor knew that jehan shah had become dangerous from the devotion of his well-armed followers, and the readiness of the main body of the fierce fighting tribesmen to support him. he had evidently contemplated his arrest and seizure at the place of meeting, but the show of force and feeling in jehan shah's favour was too strong to admit of any such attempt. he therefore decided to declare openly the object of his coming, and after lunch he assembled the elders of the tribe, and summoned jehan shah to his presence, who, however, declined to obey. the prince on this announced his deposition, and the appointment of rahmat-ulla-khan in his place, showing at the same time the shah's written commands. he then appears to have indulged in some violent abuse of jehan shah, and again sent an order to secure his presence. in the meanwhile, that chief had taken counsel with his tribal following, numbering about fifteen hundred, armed with breechloaders, and finding them entirely on his side, and determined to dispute the rule of his rival, he served out cartridges freely, and decided to discuss the matter with the governor. he left most of his men at some distance, and presented himself attended by only a few. the prince informed him of the shah's orders, and after some contentious talk, he held out the royal firman for him or any of those with him to read. on one of the elders moving forward to take the paper, jehan shah suddenly motioned them all back with his hands, and the prince, taking alarm at this appearance of a signal, called out to his guards to seize jehan shah. there was a shout and a rush, and some of jehan shah's men from behind fired over the heads of the soldiers, who, however, returned the fire point-blank, killing and wounding several of the shahsevends. the tribesmen then opened fire in earnest, and the prince with his troops promptly fled. all ran and rode for their lives, pursued by the furious enemy. some of the servants kept with their master, and remounted him twice when the horses he rode were wounded and disabled. the tribesmen are said to have made him a special target, for he was most conspicuous in rich dress, and a third time he and his horse were rolled over together, he receiving two bullet-wounds. he was then seized, partially stripped, and treated with great indignity. the pursuit was kept up to his camp, which was captured and plundered; thirty-five of his men were killed, and fifty wounded. one of the prince's officials, also wounded, was taken with him, and both were kept prisoners for three days. [illustration: persian turk of the military tribes] in the meantime jehan shah, having recovered from his mad fury, trembled at the recollection of his crime, and dreading the vengeance which he saw was certain to follow, he packed up his valuables and fled with a few followers to the caspian coast. he had the intention to escape by steamer to baku, but failing in this, owing to all communication with russian territory having been suspended during the outbreak of cholera then prevailing, he determined to make his way by land across the northern frontier. being closely pursued by a party of persian cavalry, he abandoned all his baggage, and with great difficulty reached tabriz, where he was constrained to take sanctuary in the house of the chief moulla. he died there after enduring existence for about six months under circumstances and with surroundings which must have been supremely hateful to him. i was at tabriz in the end of , while he was there, and i was told by one who had seen him that he was a sad sight then, the hereditary head of the afshar shahsevends, a section of a royal tribe, herding in misery with a crowd of criminals seeking sanctuary in order to avoid the avenger of blood. on the first news of the occurrence the shah ordered the immediate mobilization of the infantry regiments of khamseh and kasvin, and this had the effect of dispersing the tribe, facilitating the work of retribution, and establishing the power of the new chief. this incident had the best political result in aiding the kajar policy of breaking up the ruling families and the cohesion of the dangerous tribes, and asserting fully the authority of the tehran central government. jehan shah had gradually improved and strengthened his position by increasing the superior armament of his tribesmen (who were said to have three thousand breechloaders) and laying in a large supply of cartridges, so that, with his wealth, influence, and popularity, he must have been regarded as dangerously powerful. no doubt the conceited confidence thus produced led him to indulge in the ungovernable rage which wrecked his freedom and ended his life. the tribesmen said that the wife whom he killed was truly innocent; but being themselves men of wild ways and tempestuous temper, they thought he had been harshly judged, and they therefore stood by him to resist his seizure and deportation. as in england four hundred years ago, every place of worship is a sacred refuge; and the dwelling-house of the chief priest gives similar protection. this right of sanctuary continues in force throughout persia; but to benefit by it for any length of time, money is very necessary, for without such aid, or when the supplies fail, starvation steps in to drive the refugee out. while in sanctuary, compromise and arrangement may be effected, so that the fugitive may be allowed to go unmolested, the relatives paying, or becoming 'bail' for, the blood-money or compensation agreed upon. a fugitive from justice, oppression, or revenge often claims the privilege of sanctuary in the house or premises of a local dignitary of influence, whose house would not be unceremoniously entered by pursuers, and this affords time either to meet the demands or accusations made, or to escape to a safer place. at tehran there is a big gun, said to have been brought by nadir shah from delhi, and known as the pearl cannon. it is said to be so called from having had a string of pearls hung on it near the muzzle when it was on show in imperial delhi. this was probably the case, for we know that heavy guns in india were regarded with a degree of respect and reverence almost approaching worship. the gunners of the maharajah runjeet singh, the lion of the punjab, used to 'salaam' to their guns, and to hang garlands of the sweet-scented _champak_ flower, which is used in temples and at festivals, round the muzzles. the pearl cannon occupies a prominent position close to the shah's palace, and has always been recognised as possessing a semi-sacred character, and giving the right of sanctuary to those who touch it and remain by it. i remember a regiment of infantry, represented by three hundred men who were 'off duty' and available for the demonstration, claiming the privilege of this great gun sanctuary after they had assailed the house of their colonel in order to wreak their vengeance on him, as he was suspected of withholding their pay. the officer's servants were warned in time, and closed the courtyard door, so that the rioters were unable to enter; but they relieved their feelings by battering the door with stones and damaging the colonel's carriage, which they found outside. having thus created a great disturbance and excited considerable rumour, they proceeded to the pearl cannon, and gave vent to their grievances in loud cries, which reached the royal palace, on which the shah, nasr-ed-din, was made acquainted with all the facts, and caused the soldiers' wrongs to be redressed. one of the charges against the colonel was that he had managed, by lending money to the men, to gain possession of their village lands by unfair means--for he was a landlord in the same district, and desired to add to his holding. the corps was the lârâjani territorial infantry battalion, and an english resident at tehran, who caught the name as larry-johnny, said the whole incident was 'quite irish, you know.' chapter v. --the military tribes and the royal guard --men of the people as great monarchs --persian sense of humour --nightingales and poetry --legendary origin of the royal emblem --lion and sun --ancient golden eagle emblem --the blacksmith's apron the royal standard. the warlike nomads form a most important part of the military strength of persia, and it has always been the policy of the sovereign to secure their personal attachment to him as the direct paramount chief of each martial clan. in pursuance of this policy, the royal guard, known as gholam-i-shah, or slaves of the king, which protects and escorts the shah in camp and quarters, is mainly composed of bodies of horse furnished from the best and most powerful of the military tribes. these come from all quarters of the empire, and are headed and officered by members of the most influential families, so that they may be regarded as hostages for the loyalty and fidelity of the chiefs. all are changed from time to time, and thus a system of short service prevails, to give as many as possible a term of duty with the royal guard. the term _gholam_, or slave, has always been given as a title to the personal guards, and everyone who is admitted to the corps claims the envied distinction of gholam-i-shah. this guard has a very ancient origin, and service in it is highly prized as giving opportunities of attracting the attention and gaining the favour of the king. the great sovereign sabuktagin, who reigned in the tenth century, was said to have risen from the ranks of the royal guard. all the couriers of the foreign legations at tehran are styled gholam, and the title is accepted as an honourable one, meaning a mounted servant of courage and trust, who is ready to defend to the death all interests committed to his charge. the total strength of 'the guard' is twelve hundred and fifty, of whom two hundred are the élite, called _gholam peshkhidmet_ (personal attendants) and mostly belong to the kajar, the shah's own tribe, with which his majesty always identified himself in the most public manner, and thus made every man proud of his clanship with the king. i here allude to the royal signature, 'nasr-ed-din, shah, kajar.' these superior guardsmen have all the rank of gentleman, and may be called the mounted 'gentlemen at arms' of the guard. they have the customary right of appointment to court and palace posts, such as door-keeper, usher, messenger, etc. their service is for life, and is hereditary, a son succeeding his father, and taking his place in the guard when promotion, age, illness, or death creates a vacancy. they have distinctive horse-trappings with silver neck-straps, breastplates, and headstalls, which pass from father to son, and have become highly prized heirlooms. the shah was most partial to the representative tribesmen of his guard, and his happy characteristics as a king of nomadic taste and camp-like ways, in familiar acquaintance with all about him, were well shown at a military review which i witnessed at tehran some years ago. the review was a special one, held in honour of the swedish officers deputed by king oscar ii. of norway and sweden to convey the high order of the seraphin to his majesty the shah, and as many troops as possible were called in from the surrounding districts to take part in it. the royal guard mustered strong, and when they marched past, the shah stepped forward to the saluting line, so as to be closer to them, and called out to each troop, and named each commander in terms of praise and pleasure. this display of personal knowledge of the men, and acquaintance with their leaders, drew from them a perfect buzz of delight. on this occasion the smart appearance of the bakhtiari horse attracted particular attention. the persian bystanders showed their pride in these popular mounted mountaineers by the admiring exclamation, 'here come the bakhtiaris!' they were very noticeable by their white felt, round, brimless hats, and the good line they preserved when passing. the bakhtiaris (lurs) are the most numerous and powerful of all the military tribes, and are noted for their superior martial qualities both as horse and foot. they are of the most ancient persian descent, and have held the hills and valleys of luristan from time immemorial; while all the other military tribes may be said to be of much later date, and of foreign origin--arab, syrian, turk, and tartar. competent authorities, who have had full opportunity of judging, agree in saying that they are as good material for soldiers as can be found anywhere. i was greatly interested in hearing the shah's prime minister speak in glowing terms of the gallantry of the bakhtiari infantry at the capture of kandahar under nadir shah, who, after subduing them in their own mountains, won them over to serve him loyally and well in his conquering campaigns against afghanistan and india. the grand vizier mentioned the circumstance of the bakhtiari contingent, after one of the many repulses met in the repeated attempts to carry kandahar by storm, having in the evening, when all was quiet on both sides, assaulted without orders and captured a commanding, position in the defences, which they had failed to take during the day. the shouts of the victors roused the resting besiegers, and nadir at once took advantage of the success to carry the citadel and gain possession of the town. as a closing remark concerning these nomad tribes, i may mention that they regard themselves as in every way superior to the settled inhabitants, and express this conceit in their saying, 'one man of the tents is equal to two of the town.' i have mentioned the prerogative of the shah to raise whomsoever he chooses from the lowest to the highest position, except under restrictions in the military tribes. this quite falls in with the democratic spirit which lies dormant among the people, ready to be displayed in willingness to accept a sovereign of signal power who springs from the lower ranks of life. the social equality which islam grants to all men was nothing new to persia in forming ideas regarding a popular leader and elected king. the descent of such a man is deemed of little consequence in the minds of a people who look to personification of power as the right to rule. in fact, with them it is said that the fame of such a man is in proportion to the lowness of his origin. they know of notable instances of the nation being delivered from terrible tyranny and degrading foreign subjection, and being made gloriously great, by men of the people. they point to kawâh, the blacksmith, who headed a revolt against the monstrously cruel usurper king zohâk, using his apron as a banner, and finally overthrew and slew him, and placed faridûn, a prince of the peshdâdian dynasty, on the throne which he might have occupied himself. this blacksmith's apron continued for ages to be the royal standard of persia. in the ninth century, yacub-bin-leis, called the pewterer, as he had worked when young at that (his father's) trade, made his way to the throne by sheer force of strong character and stout courage. he remained the people's hero to the last, was noted for his simple habits, for keeping with his name his trade appellation (suffâri, the pewterer), and for never having been wantonly cruel or oppressive. in the tenth century, when the great sabuktagin rose from soldier to sovereign, we see the principle of selection in preference to hereditary succession practised and accepted by the nation. and the choice was justified by the glory he gave to the persian arms in extending the empire to india, and in the further conquests of his soldier-son, mahmud, who succeeded to his father's throne, and added still more to the greatness of the kingdom, till it reached from baghdad to kashgar, from georgia to bengal, from the oxus to the ganges. when the country was groaning under the afghan yoke, it was the daring spirit of one from the ranks of the people, nadir kuli (shah), who conceived the overthrow of the oppressor and the recovery of persian independence. originally a simple trooper of the afshar tribe, he advanced himself by valour, boldness, and enterprise, and crowned his successes by winning the admiration of the royal leaders and adherents, who on the death of the infant king, abbas iii., son of shah tamasp, elected him to be their king. as such he carried the war into the country of the evicted oppressors, and established the power of the empire from the oxus to delhi, whence he returned with the splendid spoil which yet enriches and adorns the crown of persia. it speaks much for nadir shah's strong character that, having gained such distinction, he did not allow flatterers to find amid the obscurity of his birth the lost traces of great ancestors. he never boasted a proud genealogy; on the contrary, he often spoke of his low birth, and we are told that even his flattering historian had to content himself with saying that the diamond has its value from its own lustre, and not from the rock in which it grows. a characteristic story of this remarkable man is that on demanding a daughter of his vanquished enemy, mahmud shah, the emperor of delhi, in marriage for his son, nasr-ullah, he was met with the answer that for alliance with a princess of the imperial house of timor a genealogy of seven generations was required. 'tell him,' said nadir, 'that nasr-ullah is the son of nadir shah, the son of the sword, the grandson of the sword, and so on till they have a descent of seventy, instead of seven generations.' nadir, the man of action and blood and iron, had the greatest contempt for the weak, dissolute mahmud shah, who, according to the native historian of the time, was 'never without a mistress in his arms and a glass in his hand,' a debauchee of the lowest type, as well as a mere puppet king. in the end the demon of suspicion poisoned the mind of nadir to such an extent that he became madly murderous, and assassination ended his life. the persians say that he began as a deliverer and ended as a destroyer. as a people, the persians are of a happy disposition and bright imagination, doubtless produced by the dry, clear air of their high tableland, which relieves from dullness and depression. they enjoy a joke and laugh heartily, and they are able to see that most things have their comic side. the late shah was quick to show the merry look of appreciation when something amusing was said. at the nauroz court reception of the corps diplomatique all the legations, headed by the turkish embassy, were ranged in a semicircle in front of the shah, and after the congratulatory address was delivered by the sultan's ambassador, his majesty advanced and walked round slowly, pausing to say a few words to each minister. his face lit up with animation when he spoke to one whom he knew to be able to reply in the persian tongue. on one occasion, after speaking with the ottoman ambassador, who is always a persian linguist (persian being an obligatory subject of qualification for the tehran post), he passed on to a minister who was a good persian scholar. further on he found an equally well--qualified colloquial proficient in another; and on finding himself before a well-known very clever diplomatist for whom he had a great personal liking, he smiled and said pleasantly, 'have you learnt any persian yet?' the minister bowed, and, looking duly serious, said in persian, 'i know something.' the minister meant to say that he knew a little, but the word 'something,' as used, could be taken, as in english, to signify 'a thing or two.' such a meaning from the diplomatist who spoke was quite appropriate, and the shah laughed softly and looked much amused. as another instance (but in this case of grim humour) of seeing the comic side, a prince governor of a province, sitting in judgment, ordered a merchant to pay a fine of fifty tomans, but, though well known to be rich, he protested his utter inability to pay, saying he had never seen such a sum of money, and begged for some other punishment which the prince in his wisdom and mercy would command. his highness then suggested a choice of eating fifty raw onions, or eating fifty sticks (the oriental mode of expression when speaking of bastinado strokes), or paying the fifty tomans. persians are fond of raw onions, those they eat being small, and the merchant enjoyed the prospect of thus saving his money. he thought that the punishment had been ordered in ignorance, so, concealing his feeling of happy surprise, and affecting fear, he elected for onions. he struggled hard with them, but could not swallow more than half the number. he was then asked to pay the fine, but he claimed his further choice of the fifty sticks. triced up, he underwent the pain of twenty-five well laid on to the soles of his feet, and then called out that he would willingly pay the fifty tomans to have no more. on this he was cast loose, and the prince said, 'you fool! you had a choice of one of three punishments, and you took all three.' persian servants regard their fixed pay as but a retaining fee, and look for their real wages in perquisites. they show considerable ingenuity and brightness of idea in reasons for purchasing this, that, and the other thing, not really required, but affording opportunities for 'pickings.' a new head-servant, on looking round his master's premises, and seeing no opening for a fresh purchase, at last cast his eye on the fowls, kept to secure a supply of fresh eggs, instead of the doubtful ones bought in the bazaar. he introduced stale eggs into the fowl-house, and on their condition being remarked at breakfast, he gravely explained that he had noticed the hens were old, and it sometimes happened that old hens laid stale eggs, whereas young hens always laid fresh eggs; so he suggested clearing out the fowl-house and restocking it with young poultry. the leisure time the servants have is not always well spent, it is true, but they have ideas of imagination and sentiment, which in some degree is suggestive of refinement. i have seen this shown in their love of singing birds, and their dandy ways of dress; for some of them are very particular as to the cut of a coat and the fit of a hat. i have sometimes been interested in seeing them carefully tending their pet nightingales, cleaning the cages, and decking them out with bits of coloured cloth and any flowers in season. in november i saw quite a dozen cages thus brightened, each with its brisk-looking nightingale occupant, put out in the sunshine in the courtyard; and on asking about such a collection of cages, was told rather shyly, as if fearing a smile at their sentimental ways, that there was an afternoon tea that day in the neighbourhood, to which the nightingales and their owners were going. these singing-bird-parties are held in the underground rooms of houses, which are cool in summer and warm in winter, and i imagine the company and rivalry of a number of birds in the semi-darkness, with glimmering light from the 'kalian' pipes, and the bubbling of water in the pipe-bowls, and the boiling samovar tea-urns, all combine to cheat the birds pleasantly into believing that it is night-time in the spring song-season. the persian poets brought the nightingale much into their songs of praise of earthly joys. the bulbul, of which they wrote and sang, was the european nightingale, which visits persia in spring to sing and love and nest. they pass as far south as shiraz, where they meet the plump little indian bulbul, which is often mistaken for the shiraz poets' singing-bird. the word is applied to both species in india and persia, but the birds are quite different in shape, plumage, and voice. they meet at shiraz, a place which possesses a climate so temperate and equable as to bring together the birds and fruits of the east and west, north and south; for there i saw and heard the indian bulbul and the hoopoe, the european nightingale, the cuckoo, and the magpie, and i know that the fruits range from apples to dates. the nightingale is the favourite pet singing-bird of the persians. i had good information regarding the manner of obtaining them for cage purposes from some small boys who were engaged picking roses in a rose-garden at ujjatabod, near yezd. there are two large rose-gardens in that oasis in the yezd desert, where the manufacture of rose-water and the attar essence is carried on. the gardens are appropriately favourite haunts of the nightingales on their return with the season of gladness from their winter resorts in the woods of the caspian coast. the persian poets tell of the passionate love of the nightingale for the scented rose, and in fanciful figure of speech make the full-blossomed flower complain of too much kissing from its bird-lover, so that its sweetness goes, and its beauty fades far too sadly soon. the boys told me of the number of family pairs, their nests and eggs, and said that they took the young male birds when fully fledged and about to leave the nest, and brought them up by hand at first, till able to feed themselves. there is a great demand in the towns for the young nightingales, which in persia sing well in captivity, so rarely the case with the bird in europe. the shopkeepers like to have their pet birds by them, and in the nesting season they may be heard all over the bazaars, singing sweetly and longingly for the partners they know of by instinct, but never meet. there is much pleasing romance and sentiment in the popular idea regarding the origin of the national emblem, sher o khurshed (the lion and the sun). the following legend concerning it was told to me by the malik-ut-tujjar, or master of the merchants of tehran, a gentleman well versed in persian history, literature, and lore, and who spoke with all the enthusiasm of national pride. when the first monarchy of ajam (persia) was founded by kai uramâs, some five thousand years ago, the sun was in the sign of asad (leo), the highest tower in the heavens, and the lion was therefore taken as the persian emblem, and it so remained without the sun over it, as now shown, till about six hundred years ago. ghazan khan, who then reigned as king, was so attached to his wife, the queen khurshed (the sun), that he desired to perpetuate her name by putting it on the coins he struck; but the ulema objected to a woman's name on the king's coin, whereupon he decided to put her face on a rising sun above the national emblem of the lion, as now seen in the well-known royal arms of persia. the story is that king ghazan's affection for his queen, khurshed, was such that he styled her sham'bu ghazan (the light of ghazan). this may have been the origin of the expression khurshed kullah, or sun-crowned, which i have seen stated is a term that was used to denote the sovereign of an empire, but from the fact of the features and style of dressing the hair shown in the sun-picture being those of a woman, i think the title may be regarded as applied only to queens. catherine ii. of russia, from the magnificence of her court, her beauty and ambition, and her fame in love and war, was known in persia during her lifetime as khurshed kullah, and she is still designated by that title. i would here mention another instance of a mohammedan monarch desiring to publish to his people in the most sovereign manner his high regard for a wife by putting her name on the current coin. the reign of the emperor jehangir, son of akbar the great, the founder of the moghul empire in india and the builder of agra, was chiefly remarkable for the influence exercised over him by his favourite wife, nur mahal, the light of the harem, immortalized by moore in 'lalla rookh.' the currency was struck in her name, and we are also told that in her hands centred all the intrigues that make up the work of oriental administration. she lies buried by the side of her husband at lahore, the capital of the punjab. the subject of ghazan khan's succession to the throne of persia is an unusually interesting one. he was a moghul chief of the line of chengiz khan, and, holding persia in tributary dependence for his sovereign master the khakan, was at the head of one hundred thousand tried tartar warriors. persia was then mohammedan, and the proposal was made to him to join the new faith, and become the king-elect of an independent iran. he consulted his commanders, and then decided to enter islam and become king. his apostasy was followed by the instant conversion of his hundred thousand men, who, with the true spirit of tartar soldiers, followed their leader into the pale of islam, and soon became the active supporters of the faith which they had so suddenly embraced. we can imagine the triumphant joy of the proselytizing priests as they passed down the crowded ranks of the time-hardened, weather-proof warrior sons of the bow and spear, who on june , , paraded at firozkoh, where the tartar host was then encamped, to repeat the mohammedan confession of faith. to them the learning of the arabic words must have been the severest exercise they had ever been called upon to practise, and it is easy to think of the muttered swearing among the puzzled veterans that what was good enough for their leader was good enough for them, and that they were ready to do as he had done, without further talk or ceremony. islam was then most actively aggressive, extending by the argument of smooth speech or sharp sword, as occasion demanded, and the moullas must have regarded with enthusiastic pride the glorious reinforcement they had brought to its armies by the consecration of such a splendid warrior host to the service of their church. ghazan khan was the first of this race of kings from the line of chengiz who threw off all allegiance to tartary by directing that the name of the monarch of that empire should not in future be put on the persian coins. on the coins which he struck, the mohammedan creed, 'there is no god but god, and mohammed is his prophet,' was inscribed instead of the name and titles of the khakan. he had not the courage of his heart's desire to strike his wife's name on the coins, as jehangir did, but he was differently placed, in that, as a fresh convert and a new king by the favour of islam, he felt himself unable to put aside the priests who had bribed him with a crown. malcolm, in remarking on ghazan khan's accession to the throne of persia, says that henry iv. of france similarly changed his creed to secure the crown. ghazan khan reigned about the middle of the thirteenth century, and was known in europe for his supposed readiness to assist in re-establishing the christians in the holy land. he was deemed a wise and just prince, and it is believed that his policy led him to seek the aid of the states of europe in order to improve the position and condition of himself and his kingdom. it is said that pope boniface viii endeavoured by a display of his connection with ghazan khan to excite the christian princes to another crusade, and it was probably this connection with the head of the christian church which led to a general impression among western writers that ghazan khan was not sincere in his conversion to mohammedanism, and was at heart a christian. there is reason to think that the secret spring of his action was to weaken the egyptian empire, which he regarded as hostile and dangerous to himself and persia. it is not clear whether ghazan khan apostatized from the religion of his ancestors or that of the christians, but he is believed to have been attached all his life to the latter faith, though he does not appear to have made a public declaration of his belief in its doctrines. he professed mohammedanism in order to obtain the crown, but his life had been passed in friendship with christians, and in wars with the followers of the faith he adopted. xenophon mentions that the royal emblem of persia from early times was a golden eagle with outstretched wings, resting on a spearhead like the roman eagle, but he makes no allusion to a standard. persian historians tell of a famous standard carried from the mythical time of zohâk to that of the last of the pehlevi kings. their story is that kawâh, a blacksmith, raised a successful revolt against the implacably cruel king zohâk in the earliest time of persian sovereignty, and relieved the country from his terrible tyranny by putting him to death. the victorious blacksmith then placed on the throne faridûn, a prince of the peshdâdian dynasty, who adopted his apron, which had been the standard of revolt, as the royal banner of persia. as such it was said to be richly ornamented with jewels, to which every king, from faridûn to the last of the pehlevi monarchs, added. it was called the durafsh-i-kawâh[ ] (the standard of kawâh), and continued to be the royal standard of persia till the mohammedan conquest, when it was taken in battle by saad-e-wakass, and sent to the khalif omar. malcolm said that the causes which led to the sign of sol in leo becoming the arms of persia could not be distinctly traced, but thought there was reason to believe that the use of this symbol was not of very great antiquity. he said, with reference to it being upon the coins of one of the seljukian dynasty of iconium, that when this family was destroyed by halaku, the grandson of chengiz, it was far from improbable that that prince or his successor adopted this emblematical representation as a trophy of his conquest, and that it has remained ever since among the most remarkable of the royal insignia of persia. he also mentioned the opinion that this representation of sol in leo was first adopted by ghiat-u-dîn-kai-khusru-bin-kai-kobad, a.d., and that the emblem is supposed to have reference either to his own horoscope or that of his queen, who was a princess of georgia. this approaches the legend told by the malik-ut-tujjar of tehran, for the face depicted on sol is that of a woman. [transcriber's note : the original text has durnfsh-i-kawâh. the original farsi is derafsh-i-kaviani. the typesetter must have read an 'a' as an 'n'. durnfsh is otherwise unpronounceable.] chapter vi. --the order of the lion and the sun --rex and dido --dervishes --endurance of persian horses --the shah's stables --the sanctuary of the stable --long distance races --a country of horses --the _gymkhana_ in tehran --olive industry near resht --return journey --grosnoje oil-field --russian railway travelling --improved communication with tehran. the distinguished persian order of the lion and the sun was instituted by fateh ali shah, in honour of sir john malcolm, on his second mission to the court of persia in , in company with pottinger, christie, macdonald-kinneir, monteith, and other british officers, who rendered excellent service to persia in organizing a body of her troops. these officers were followed by others, who in , under sir henry lyndsay bethune, led the troops they had trained against the pretenders who, on the death of fateh ali shah, opposed the succession of the vali ahd (heir-apparent), mohamed shah, father of the late sovereign. the pretenders were defeated by sir lyndsay bethune, and thus england established the stability of the throne of the kajars in the direct line, and carried out the will of the great fateh ali shah, who had appointed his grandson to succeed him after the death of his son, abbas mirza. during all the changes since mohamed shah's accession, persia has always had reason to regard england as a friendly neighbour who has no aggressive designs against her. this feeling must have become conviction on finding that the defeat she suffered in caused her no loss of territory in the south, and the order of the lion and the sun continues to be a signal sign of strong friendship between the two nations. there are two great st. bernard dogs belonging to the british minister at tehran, which, by their leonine appearance and tawny red colour, massive forms and large limbs, have made a remarkable impression on the imaginative persian mind. they are dogs of long pedigree, being son and daughter of two famous class champions. never being tied up, but allowed full freedom, they are perfectly quiet and good-natured, though at first sight, to the nervous, they may look doubtful, if not dangerous. these powerful giant dogs accompany the minister's wife in her walks, and seem to know that they are to guard and protect; showy, gay rex precedes, with his head up and eyes all about, while dido follows, with head down, lioness-like, watchful and suspicious. painful experience has taught the street-scavenger curs, which dash savagely at strange dogs, to slink away at the sight of this pair of champions, and the passers-by, who, as mohammedans, are merciless to dogs, treat them as quite different from the dog they despise, so that they walk along feared and respected by all, man and dog alike. a persian gentleman, riding past with his mounted followers, drew up at the sight of these st. bernards, and said, 'i would give the finest kerman shawl, or the very best persian horse, for a puppy dog of that breed.' [illustration: a mendicant dervish of tehran] some of the mendicant dervishes of tehran are of wild look, with matted locks, and with howling voice go about demanding, not begging, alms. they regard a giver as under some obligation to them, for affording him the means of observance of a duty imposed by religion. these stalk along defiantly, carrying club or axe, and often present a disagreeable appearance. one of them came suddenly by a side-path behind the minister's wife, and followed, yelling out his cry of 'hakk, hakk!' it was almost dark, and he did not see the great dogs, which had gone ahead. his cry and continued close-following steps were disturbing, so i turned and asked him either to go on at once or keep farther back. he frowned at what no doubt he considered my bad taste in objecting to his pleasing and superior presence, and hastened his pace a little to pass, but stopped suddenly on seeing the 'lion-dogs' belonging to the janâb-i-khanum-i-sifarat (the lady excellency of the legation), and asked to be allowed to follow us, saying he would be perfectly quiet. on reaching the legation gate, and seeing his way clear, the dogs having entered, he left, saying gently, 'goodnight; god be with you.' formerly a lady could hardly walk about without some little fear of look or laugh calculated to annoy. this is often the case in a mohammedan country, the meaning being that the figure and face should be shrouded and veiled. but in presence of rex and dido there is no sign of the light look or laugh; on the contrary, there is rather the respectful gesture of, 'the road is free to thee.' the vivid imagination of the persian pictures the group as personifying the imperial arms, the lady with the royal guard, the lion of iran. before the warriors of the mehdi made the term 'dervish' better known, it was commonly understood to signify a beggar. but though the derivation is 'before the door,' yet this does not mean begging from door to door. the dervish originally was a disciple who freed himself from all family ties, and set forth without purse or scrip to tell of a new faith among a friendly people, and to tarry here or there as a welcome guest. in due course he developed into a regular soldier of the church, and as schisms arose and the fires of religious animosities were kindled, various orders of fighting fanatics, calling themselves dervishes, sprang into existence. such were the ismailis, first known as the hassanis, in persia, in the eleventh century, similar in character to the present dervishes of the soudan. in the more favourable sense of the word, the true dervishes of to-day in persia represent the spiritual and mystic side of islam, and there are several orders of such, with members who belong to the highest and wealthiest ranks. in the time of fateh ali shah, the mendicant dervishes, who were then as numerous and profligate in persia as vagrant monks used to be in spain and italy, became such a pest that one of the first acts of his successor, mahomed shah, was to direct that no beggars should be tolerated except the lame, the sick, and the blind, and that all able-bodied men appearing in dervish garb were to be seized for military service. the profession fell out of fashion then, and there are now comparatively few mendicant dervishes to be seen. those that still wear the 'ragged robe' do not all appear to follow the rules of poverty, self-denial, abstinence, and celibacy. one there was, a negro from 'darkest africa,' who attached himself as a charity-pensioner to the british legation in tehran, and was to be seen in all weathers, snow and sunshine, fantastically dressed, chattering and chuckling in real sambo style. he knew that his religious cry of 'ya hoo' was characteristic of him, and he was always ready to shout it out to the 'ingleez,' whose generosity he had reason to appreciate. he had a story of being a prince of fallen fortune, who was kidnapped in central africa, traded and bartered across arabia, and abandoned in north persia. he was known as the black prince. during the cholera epidemic of , he took up his residence under some shady chenar-trees of great age, a recognised resting-place for dervishes, close to the summer-quarters of the english legation at gulhek, in the vicinity of tehran. one day he sat outside the gate and poured forth a pitiable tale of the death of his wife from cholera during the night, and begged for money to pay for her burial. having made his collection, he disappeared at nightfall, leaving his dead partner under the chenar-trees, and it was then discovered that he had possessed two wives, who called him _agha_, or master, and he had departed with the survivor, leaving the other to be buried by strangers. after that he was known as the prince of darkness. the privileged beggars or mendicant dervishes of tehran are not all of the stained, soiled, dust-and-ashes description; some are occasionally seen presenting a pleasing contrast in washed white garments, and of neat appearance. there was one such in tehran, a well-known cheerful old man, who looked as if he could, in quiet company, tell entertaining stones, for recitation is adopted by some of these wandering dervishes as a pleasant means of livelihood, and many of them in the storytelling art show considerable talent, cultivated taste, and retentive memory. but, to be successful, they must be able to indulge in variations of their old stories by the introduction of new incidents which they have heard or invented. one who is known for good style is always welcomed at the many tea-shops and gardens in village and town. [illustration: a dervish story-teller of tehran] in a most unlikely spot, on a long stretch of sand in the yezd desert, i met a well-dressed dervish in clean, cool white clothes, who stopped on perceiving that i was a 'firanghi,' and, gently swaying his neat dervish-dole dish, said quietly, 'charity; alms are as dew-drops from the heavens,' a most appropriate speech in the sandy waterless waste. membership with the higher dervish orders appears to signify and convey something of the character of freemasonry. i know of one highly-placed persian gentleman who is a dervish, and also of a european gentleman of oriental light and learning who has been admitted to the same order. a famous prime minister of persia in past time, haji mirza aghasi, was a well-known but rather eccentric dervish. my knowledge of this was the means, on one occasion, of averting a disagreeable display of violence by a gay sort of madcap, the relative of a post-house master, who had attached himself as groom to the stable establishment. my smart armenian servant, who was equally good as groom or table attendant, had taken off his warm pea-jacket to help in bracing up the loads on my baggage post-horses, which were to be driven loose at a canter, the usual practice when riding post with extra baggage. a powerful, merry-talking groom, who came forward with the horses, picked up the jacket and put it on, saying that the morning was cold. and so it was, for the month was november. when all was ready for a start, my servant asked him for the jacket, but the laughing _diwana_, or eccentric fellow, said it was a gift to him, and refused to part with it. warm words passed, and i intervened and told him to drop his dervish ways and give back the jacket. the _diwana_ became excited, and shouted to all who were standing by that i had called him a dervish, and had hurt his feelings badly. i then told him he was hard to please, as surely a high vazir was good enough to be compared with, for was it not true that the famous haji mirza aghasi was of the noble order of dervishes. he took in slowly what i said, then smiled, and gave back the jacket with a good grace. the persians have a proverb similar to our own regarding giving to beggars, '_avval khesh, baad darvesh_' (first our own, then the beggar. charity begins at home). the ordinary persian horses are small, but very wiry and enduring. in harness they are also capable of very long journeys in light draught, as proved in the carriage service between tehran and kasvin. the distance is about ninety-seven miles, divided into six stages. on arriving at one of these, i found that all the posting horses had been taken by a russian mohammedan merchant who was travelling ahead of me in great style, with five carriages. i had two vehicles, one a carriage for myself, and the other a _tarantass_ for my servant and luggage, each drawn by three horses. there was considerable traffic on the road then, and the horses had only a few hours in the stable between 'turns.' it was night when i arrived at the post-house, and though anxious to go on, i had no option but to remain there till the horses should come back from the next stage. on their return, after three hours' rest and a feed of barley, six took my carriage and waggon to the next post-house, sixteen miles, where again i found an empty stable, the horses which had gone with the party ahead of me not having come back. on inquiring judiciously from the post-house master if the horses which had brought me from the last stage were able to do another, i was told that with an hour's rest and an extra feed they would be ready to go on. and they travelled the second stage well, showing no signs of distress. these horses had done sixteen miles in draught, and sixteen miles in cantering back to their stable during the evening and night; then thirty-two miles in draught with me in the morning, and after a short rest were to return the same distance to their own stable, all in double-quick time. i had the privilege of again seeing what i consider one of the most interesting sights in persia, the stables of his majesty the shah. they contain the very best blood in asia, and comprise the pick of the finest horses in arabia, persia, kurdistan, karadagh, khorasan, and the turkoman country, also the choicest home-breds from the horse-farms belonging to the late shah and his sons, the present shah and the zil-es-sultan, all of them great horse fanciers and breeders. the late shah had three breeding establishments: one in the vicinity of tehran, another near hamadan, and the third at maragha, in azerbaijan, where the pasture is good. in each of these there are said to be about one thousand mares and foals. there is no part of the establishment of a monarch of persia to which more attention is paid than his horses. they are always placed under the care of an officer of high rank, who is styled mir akhor. the mir akhor (master of the horse), mohamed hussein mirza, a prince of royal blood, shows by his intimate knowledge of the history of each horse, and the good condition of all and everything under his care, that he loves his charge well. we were first shown the racing-stud, called _mal-i-shart_ (race-horses), thirteen in number, all in hard condition (the persian expression is, 'as hard as marble'), and showing good bone and much muscle. they were arabs, but not all imported from arabia, some being bred from pure stock in the late shah's establishments. the royal races are held at doshan tepé, six miles from tehran, where there is a soft sand-soil course, said to be a two-mile one, but the correct measurement is one and a half miles. the persians breed and train for long-distance speed and endurance, and the races at doshan tepé are from three to nine miles. the prince pointed out the last winner of the nine-mile race, saying that he ran it in twenty-five minutes. this horse was a well-shaped, warm gray arab, with black points. he, with a darker gray and a chestnut, all arabs of pure breed from nejd, none of which it is said can be obtained except by free gift, or rare capture in war, took the eye most with their make and shape. all were ridden slowly round the yard by their 'feather-weight' jockey-boys, dressed in red racing-jackets and blue breeches, with long, soft leather boots, and coloured handkerchiefs bound tightly round their heads in place of caps. i think these _shart_ horses in the royal stables, which are always kept in galloping-condition, are the outcome of the old days of flight or fight, when it was necessary to be always prepared for raid, attack, or treachery, and so often man's best friend in pressing need was his horse. 'a horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!' after the racing stud came the riding-horses, sixty-two in all: deer-like arabs of the best desert blood of nejd and anizah, and others of a stouter build from the country of the jaf kurds; selected cross-breeds from persian and turkish kurdistan, and bigger-boned animals from the karadagh, the result of a strong strain of good northern blood. there were some long, low, powerful yamut and other breeds from the turkoman country, and some good-looking active small horses from khorasan. from the kashkai breeding-grounds near shiraz were shown some fine big horses of high quality, also neat, stout mixed breeds from the hills and plains of luristan and persian arabistan; and arabs of the best type, bred from 'blood stock' by the shah's sons, also choice specimens from the royal home farms. three gray arabs, favourites of the late shah, were brought out, set off with gold collars, and their points were gone over to show how powerfully safe they were as riding-horses on the hillside and the plain. one of them was said to be getting too old for good work, but he was bursting so with flesh and spirits that he threw out before and let out behind in such vigorous wide-circling style as to scatter the crowd of spectators, _gholams_, guards, and grooms. the most powerful and best-shaped among the riding-horses, in my opinion, were a jaf (kurd) dappled gray, and two big gray turkomans, the latter very deep in the girth, and distinguished by the long, fine neck so common to their class, and rather large but lean heads, showing blood and breeding. the turkomans say that the superior size and strength of their horses over others are due to the rich grass of their pasturelands, i may conclude this short account of the royal stud by mentioning that, as persia is essentially a country of horses and horsemen, every foreign minister on first arrival and presentation to the shah receives the gift of a horse from his majesty's stables. all these horses had their tails plaited or tied up. the persians never cut a horse's tail, but tie it up, which not only improves the animal's appearance, but prevents the tail trailing on the ground, or being whisked about when wet or dirty, to the annoyance of the rider. the tail is only knotted up when the horse is made ready for riding, otherwise it remains loose, to be used for flipping off flies. the stable of the king is deemed one of the most sacred of sanctuaries, and this usage continues in force to the present time. the stables of the foreign legations are also regarded, by reason of the ilchi-envoy representative sovereign character, as affording a similar asylum, and in i was witness to protection being thus claimed in the stable of the british minister. the military tribes of persia have always regarded this sanctuary of the stable with the most superstitious reverence. 'a horse,' they say, 'will never bear him to victory by whom it is violated.' in a persian ms. referred to by malcolm, all the misfortunes of nadir mirza, the grandson of nadir shah, are attributed to his having violated the honour of the stable by putting to death a person who had taken refuge there. the same writer says that the fleeing criminal finds a place of safety at the head of the horse even when tied up in the open air; the fugitive touches the headstall, and is safe so long as he remains there. malcolm again tells us of what is still observed, that it is not unusual for those of the military tribes who desire to show their respect at the funerals of chiefs and soldiers of high reputation to send a horse without a rider, but with arms upon the saddle, to swell the train of the mourning cavalcade. the favourite charger of the departed warrior, carrying his arms and clothes, accompanies the procession; the sheepskin cap he wore is placed on the pommel of his saddle; his scarf sash, or _kumarbund,_ is bound round the horse's neck, and his boots are laid across the saddle. in all this may be seen the origin of similar customs now followed by the most civilized nations, and of the regard in which the horse is held as 'the noble animal.' the late shah had not a single english or european riding-horse in his stables, nor are any such seen in the country except some from russia--heavy, coarse animals, bred in the don districts, and used for carriage purposes. the artillery with the persian cossack brigade at tehran also have a few russian horses. nasr-ed-din had such a high appreciation of arab and eastern horses, of which he was in a position to get the very best, that he found it difficult to understand what he considered the fancy prices paid in england for racing stock. the story is told that when he was shown ormonde at eaton hall, in , and was informed that £ , had been offered for him, he tapped the ground briskly with his cane, and said in a vivacious manner: 'what! £ , offered for him? sell him, sell him now to-day. why, he may be dead to-morrow.' he would have been astonished to hear that ormonde afterwards changed owners at the advanced price of about £ , . in speaking to two friends, competent judges of such matters, about the breeding and training for long-distance races in persia, and the time in which it was said the nine miles had been run, i found that, while one thought the time might be reasonably correct, the other was more than doubtful. i have since then seen in the _journal of the united service institution of india_, , a paper on 'horse-breeding in central asia, translated from the russian of kostenko by w.e.g.,' in which the following details regarding the kirghiz race-meetings and the pace and staying powers of their horses are given. m. kostenko mentions that the details are taken from an article by m. garder in the _voyenni sbornik_ for . he says that among the inner kirghiz horde, races for prizes were instituted by the minister of state domains, beginning with the year . on october of the same year a circular course measuring four miles was made, and the horses ran five times round it. the winner did the miles in minutes and seconds. commencing with , the races were run over a distance of - / miles on a circular course, and of these races detailed information from was obtained. the greatest speed was recorded on october , , when the distance ( - / miles) was done in minutes and seconds. the longest time, on the other hand, was minutes seconds. the chief administration of the state studs did not credit the information sent from the horde, so that in there was sent to the sitting committee a second mètre, for the speed to be followed on it, the circumference of the circle having been previously measured. the president of the committee repotted that the measurement of the course was correct, except that in every versts ( - / miles) it was out - / feet. the deficiency was then made good. accordingly, on october a trial was held, at which the speed was checked with the aid of the second mètre that had been forwarded, and several watches with seconds-hands. these showed the - / miles run in minutes. of nineteen races run over this course, the average time was minutes seconds. in a race was run over another circular course, measuring about - / miles, five times round. the mare that won performed the distance--about miles--in minutes seconds. in the kalmak _uluses_ (groups of nomad tents) of the astrachan government, races of miles have been held. the greatest speed recorded was in , viz., minutes seconds; the longest time was in the same year, viz., minutes. the average time between and , and and , was minutes seconds. the riders in these races are lads of not more than ten or twelve years of age. they are in no way specially trained, as from early age they are always riding, and grow up in good condition for hard exercise. their weights range from four to six stone. the persians are a nation of horsemen still, and most of them can ride well. all the migratory tribes breed horses, and such is the habit of observation of horses in the country, that, as a rule, a man is known by his horse, just as in some parts of england a man is known by his dog. owing to the notice thus taken of a man's horse, a party of nomad brigands who carried off all my baggage-train in were discovered and hunted down. there is a road guard service for all the king's highways in persia, and an annual fixed sum is allowed for its maintenance. officials with influence among the neighbouring nomads farm this service on the main roads, and entertain a certain number of 'black-mail' men for each stage from the various tribal sections to keep watch and ward. the official who farms the road guard service is held liable to pay compensation for losses by robbery, and this stimulates the energies of all to recover stolen property and to keep the highways safe and secure. incidents of robbery occasionally happen, but, all things considered, the system may be said to work fairly well, as instanced in the recovery of my baggage. i had taken a short-cut over the hills to avoid some miles of circuit by the highroad, and on the way i met the relieved governor of luristan returning to tehran, with a long train of well-guarded laden mules. some little distance behind them came three mounted nomads, armed with martini-henry rifles (the common arm now in persia), and showing well-filled cartridge belts. they rode up to me and my party, consisting of a _gholam_ courier and two servants, all mounted. one of the nomads, riding a chestnut mare, while examining me intently, dropped a short stick which he carried, alongside of me, and on dismounting to pick it up, his mare wheeled round towards me, and i saw that she had lost her right eye. we passed on, and shortly rejoined the highroad, and when close to the next halting stage, a post-boy, driving three loose post-horses before him, galloped up to say that he had seen my baggage mules driven off the highroad by five armed nomads. the road guards were called, and on hearing my description of the three men we had met, and that one of them was riding a one-eyed chestnut mare, they at once said, 'kara beg and his sons are in this,' and rode off to follow the trail. almost all my luggage was recovered that night, and kara beg was hunted hard, and disappeared. he had been suspected of several robberies carefully carried out, so that detection was difficult; but in my case it appeared that he had hung on to the rear of the luristan governor's baggage without being able to steal anything, and when disappointment had made his men sore and reckless, they followed up my mules, which had no guard, and carried them off. the tribal road guards knew where to find him and his men, and soon had most of the plundered property back. the recovery was due to identification of his mare. the english national love of sport has lately introduced into tehran the popular _gymkhana_, an institution which hails from india, where it is english enterprise under an indian name. the british legation has started this amusement, and it seems to provide energy for many who had longed for some fresh outdoor exercise, but could not organize it. now, when weather permits, there are weekly gatherings for variety races, tent-pegging, and paper-chases. a very amusing and effective novelty, which i saw there for the first time, was a donkey tug-of-war. this new 'gym' was imported by a sporting young diplomatic secretary, who had lately arrived from cairo, where he had seen it in full exercise. tehran has excellent riding-donkeys for hire, well turned out, and attended by the usual smart-tongued youth. eight donkeys, four a side, heading outwards, all ridden by europeans, mostly english, were engaged in this sport. neither whip nor spur was allowed. the rope was passed along under the right arm, and held as each rider thought best. at the word '_off!'_ heels were brought into fast play on the donkeys' ribs to make them move forward, and the scenes that followed were ludicrous and exciting. riders were pulled off backward, and, still hanging on to the rope, they managed to remount and get again into the pulling line in time to drag off someone on the opposite side, who had lost his balance on the sudden 'go' forward from the lessened strain. this amusement was a highly popular one with the laughing spectators. our travelling-party on the outward journey had separated at tehran, and i travelled back homeward alone. i left tehran in the middle of november, and as there had been a heavy fall of snow some days before, i quite expected to have a cold crossing of the kharzan pass over the elburz range. i did the journey to kasvin comfortably in a carriage, and rode thence to resht in three days. i was unexpectedly fortunate in finding that the bright weather had freed the road over the pass from snow, and i had a perfect day, with still air, for that part of my ride. about halfway between kasvin and resht the road passes through the extensive olive-groves of rudbar, which for many centuries has been the centre of a flourishing olive-oil and soap business. there are about sixty villages in the district engaged in this industry; they possess from eighty to one hundred thousand trees, each yielding on an average from six to nine pounds' weight of fruit a year. the olive as a fruit-tree has been known in persia from a comparatively early period, and it is not surprising to hear the villagers ascribe quite a fabulous age to some of the old trees, just as in italy some olives are credited with an equally astonishing antiquity. to me it has appeared that the habit the olive has of sending up new stems from the root of an old trunk--just as the chenar sycamore does in persia--may have made the old trees become young again, and thus present, to succeeding generations in the villages, the look of the same old trunks. messrs. kousis, theophylactos and co., of baku, have obtained a concession for pressing and refining olive-oil in this district, and i observed the buildings which they are erecting for their business rising on the right bank of the river there. near rudbar commences the thick growth of various hard-wood trees, which flourish well in the damp soil of the caspian slopes and lowlands, and in november their foliage was surpassingly lovely, with many warm tints, from delicate red to deep russet and shades of shot-green and brown. on some of the high, thickly-wooded hills, the different colours ran in well-defined belts, showing where particular kinds of trees had found most favourable soil, and had grasped it to the exclusion of all others. about forty miles from the caspian coast i fell in with rain and mud--such mud as cannot be realized without being seen. i embarked at enzelli on board a small russian steamer, the _tehran_, which had taken the place of one of the usual large vessels employed on the mail-service. the sea was rising as i embarked, and i was lucky in getting on board before the surf on the bar at the mouth of the lagoon became impassable. the steamer had five hundred tons of iron cargo on board, machinery for electric light and other purposes, intended for tehran, but which could not be landed owing to the rolling sea. it was therefore carried back to baku, a second time within a fortnight, for accident had prevented it being landed on the previous voyage. there is always this risk of wind and weather preventing landing at enzelli. proposals have been made to remove the bar sufficiently to allow steamers of eight hundred tons to pass into the lagoon harbour; but the expense of doing this, and keeping up dredgers, would be great--too great, it is thought, to allow of any profitable return. the same landing difficulties are experienced at astara and lenkoran, the places of call between enzelli and baku. should there be any intention of eventually making a railway from the coast to kasvin and hamadan, there to meet a line to baghdad, then it would be the best course in every way to connect resht with baku by a railway along the coast, passing through astara and lenkoran. the coast country is famous for its rice, which could be extensively cultivated, and the resources in forest and fishery produce are great. there would be considerable local traffic as the country opened up, and the through trade in oil from baku would be a paying one. i believe the russians know that it would be cheaper to build a railway along this coast-line of about three hundred miles, with such trade capabilities, than, in the absence of harbours, to erect breakwaters, make sheltered anchorages, and dredge navigation channels. for two-thirds of the distance the line would lie in russian territory. i met at enzelli a foreign artist, whose acquaintance i had formed in tehran, where he made some good pictures of local life and scenery. he was loud in his complaints of the elements--the heavy rain and the awful mud. he had come down the road with a minimum of travelling comforts, and had been rather miserable. on going off to the mail-boat in the steam-launch, he vented his feelings of disgust with persia by spitting over the side towards the land, and saying, 'ach! ach! what a country! 'may i never see it again!' when i reminded him of tehran and its club, he acknowledged that he had enjoyed his stay there, and appreciated the place; but the rain and sea of mud at resht had drowned and smothered all his pleasant memories of persia. the voyage to baku was uneventful. there are two astaras, one persian, the other russian, with the frontier stream between them. the steamer remained part of the night at the former place, and moved in the morning three miles to the anchorage opposite the latter. there the russian customs officers came on board to examine luggage. the first mate of the steamer, a swedish finn, attended the search proceedings, and became much interested in a rusty pistol which was found in the luggage of one of the deck passengers. the question arose, was the pistol loaded? and he undertook to find out. he raised the hammer to full cock, and, placing the muzzle in his mouth, he blew down the barrel, with his finger on the cap nipple, to feel if the air passed through. he naïvely explained to me the certainty of this mode of discovering whether a percussion arm is loaded or not. in this instance the pistol was thought to be loaded, but it was found to be only choked with rust. i had intended to return _viâ_ constantinople, but on arrival at baku i learnt that the damage done to the railway between tiflis and batoum by a storm of unprecedented fury and unusually heavy floods was so extended and bad as to stop all traffic for a long time. i went to oujari, a station one hundred and sixty miles from baku, where i was hospitably entertained by mr. andrew urquhart, a scotch gentleman, established there with a factory and hydraulic presses for the liquorice-root industry, and from there i entered into telegraphic communication with tiflis to ascertain if i could get a carriage to vladikavkas, so as to join the railway and proceed home through russia. there was such a number of passengers detained at tiflis, _en route_ to batoum, and all anxious to go to vladikavkas by road, that i found i should have to wait long for my turn. accordingly, after six days' stay with my hospitable friend, i went back to baku and took steamer to petrovsk, whence i travelled by rail to moscow and st. petersburg on my way to england _viâ_ berlin. a great petroleum field is now being developed near grosnoje, a station on the petrovsk vladikavkas railway, north of the main caucasus range; and an english company has had the good fortune, after venturing much, to find the fountain for which they and others have long looked. after carrying on 'sounding' operations for some time, and sinking several wells, oil was at length 'struck' towards the end of august at a depth of three hundred and fifty feet, and it came up with such force as to reach a height of five hundred feet above ground. the well was on a hillside, and the valley below had been dammed up previously to form a reservoir capable of holding a large supply of oil. but such was the flow from the fountain, that after a few days it rose above the dam, and, although every effort was made to raise and strengthen it, the oil overflowed, and the top of the dyke was carried away. millions of gallons were lost, though on its course down the valley the oil completely filled another reservoir, which had been prepared for the oil of a rival company, but which never came from their own wells. eventually the main flow of oil found its own level in a low-lying piece of ground, about four miles below the broken dam. as the fountain continued to flow with almost undiminished vigour, the governor of grosnoje began to be alarmed at the damage which was being done by this deluge of oil, and he therefore placed four hundred soldiers at the disposal of the english engineer in charge, and by their organized labour he was able to repair the dam, so that the flow of oil was checked. a friend, from whom i received this account, visited the place on november , and saw the fountain still playing to a height of twenty feet, and also the lake of oil which had been formed. the lake was about three hundred and fifty yards long, one hundred and twenty yards wide, and from fifty to sixty feet deep. the fountain was still playing on january , but it shortly afterwards ceased to flow. the same company had another stroke of luck in again 'striking oil' last month at another spot, some little distance from the original fountain, while, strange to say, none of the other companies engaged in prospecting for oil there have as yet succeeded in getting so much as a gallon. all this flow of fortune to the one firm reads very like the luck of gilead beck in the 'golden butterfly.' mr. stevens, h.b.m.'s consul for the consular district of batoum, shows in his report for that the demand for naphtha fuel is increasing in russia at such a rate, owing to it being more and more widely adopted for railways, steamers, factories, and other undertakings using steam-power, that the time appears by no means far distant when the russian home market may be in a position to consume in the shape of fuel almost the entire output of the wells of the caspian, and he adds that probably the supply will even be insufficient to meet the demand. with all this in view, the value of the grosnoje wells, situated as they are on the main line of railway through the heart of russia, is likely to prove very great. i landed in a heavy snowstorm at petrovsk on november , and found the whole country under its winter sheet. since october all railway fares and charges in russia have been greatly reduced, and the policy now appears to be to encourage travelling and traffic, which must result in a general improvement of the minds and condition of the people. railway travelling in russia is now much cheaper than in any other country; a through first-class ticket from the caspian to st. petersburg, seventeen hundred miles, is but £ s., and the other classes are low in proportion. the carriages are comfortable, and the refreshment-rooms excellent. with accurate information as to the sailings from petrovsk to baku and enzelli, one can now go from london to tehran in fourteen days. this, of course, means steady travelling, frequent changes, a saddle-seat for about one hundred miles (which can now be reduced to seventy-five), and some previous experience of rough life, so as to reconcile the traveller to the poor accommodation afforded in a persian post-house. but the russian road, now under construction, will soon change the rough ride into a fairly comfortable carriage-drive, with well-provided post-houses for food and rest. chapter vii. the situation in persia ( ). i. --shrine of shah abdul azim --death of nasr-ed-din shah --jemal-ed-din in tehran --shiahs and sunnis --islam in persia. the famous shrine and sanctuary of shah abdul azim, about five miles from tehran, is a very popular place of pilgrimage with the inhabitants of the town, and its close neighbourhood to the crowded capital makes it a great holiday, as well as religious, resort. this shrine has been specially favoured by many sovereigns, and particularly by those of the present dynasty. on the mohammedan special weekly day of prayer and mosque services, friday, called juma, or the day of the congregation, shah abdul azim is visited by great numbers of people. on friday, may , this sanctuary was the scene of one of the saddest events which has ever happened in persia--the murder within its sacred precincts of nasr-ed-din shah, a monarch who was about to celebrate the jubilee of a reign which will always be remembered, not only for its remarkable length, but also for its peaceful character and general popularity. the proof of this popularity is that nasr-ed-din shah was able to leave his country on three occasions for visits to europe, and returned each time to receive a welcome from his subjects. this in itself is unprecedented in eastern history. i little thought when i had the honour of conversing with him in october last that it was possible that a king so admired and loved by his people, and then looking forward with pride and pleasure to the celebration of his approaching jubilee, should perish in their midst by the hand of an assassin within five days of the event. passing over what in the early years of his reign, through the exigencies of the times and the pitfalls of intrigue, led to the shedding of blood, we see in his later years a reluctance to inflict capital or severe punishment which almost amounted to a serious fault. i remember an instance of this in the case of a notorious highway robber, guilty of many murders, who was spared so long, that it was only on the bad effect of leniency becoming prominently dangerous to traders and travellers that the extreme penalty was sanctioned. i have already mentioned how the people had learnt to put their trust in the late shah's desire to protect them against oppressive government in the provinces, and how he had made himself popular with the military and nomad tribes. the crime which has caused his death will undoubtedly be regarded as sacrilege, both with reference to the life which was taken and the sanctuary which it violated. and the abhorrence of the crime will strengthen what it was intended to end or weaken, viz., the influence and power of the kajar dynasty. with the impressionable persians there will be but one feeling, of shuddering horror that such a thing could be done by one of their own faith, who was a subject of their sovereign. a criminal of the deepest dye can abide with perfect impunity in the mohammedan sanctuary, and the tranquillity of this sacred safety, we are told, brings reflection and repentance to work the redemption of many from evil ways. thus we can understand how horror-struck the nation must be at the thought of the shah being mortally wounded while in the pious act of kneeling in reverence on passing the chain which marks the actual line where the 'bast' or sanctuary begins. the murder is said to have been prompted by the well-known agitator, jemal-ed-din, who, though called an afghan, is really a native of hamadan, in western persia; but having travelled and resided a short time in afghanistan, the term 'afghani' was added to his name. he was well known in tehran in for his vehement and violent public speaking against all western innovations. i have seen it stated that it was owing to him the tobacco monopoly was withdrawn, as he had roused the moullas throughout persia, and wellnigh brought about a revolution. jemal-ed-din no doubt took a strong part at tehran in the agitation, but he was in no way such a prominent leader of it as has been represented. the sudden introduction of systematic labour and excise regulations under foreign direction, by which it was said a few depots were to displace the numerous retail shops and stalls, at once created a hostile army of unemployed small owners of hereditary businesses, who worked on the fears and feelings of the mass of the people. the moullas and guild-masters then took the lead, and brought about the cancelment of the concession. all this i have previously described. it suited well the nature of a stormy petrel like jemal-ed-din to find himself in tehran at that time, and he became an inflammatory public orator of the hottest kind. at first he confined himself to speaking against the tobacco monopoly and all european enterprise, and on his violent speeches being made the subject of some remonstrance, the shah said that the persians had long enjoyed great liberty of speech, and with them words generally took the place of deeds. but this freedom was misunderstood by jemal, who gradually grew bolder, until his revolutionary utterances went beyond all endurance. he scarcely veiled his contempt for the crown, and his opinion that all should combine to rid persia of the rule of the shah and the continuance of the kajar dynasty. he was warned, but would not listen to reason; he was then arrested, and informed of the decision to deport him from persia. on the day of his departure from tehran under escort, he managed to make his escape, and took sanctuary in the same shrine of shah abdul azim where the shah was mortally wounded on may by his follower, mirza mohamed reza. jemal opened negotiations with the government from his asylum, and was finally persuaded to leave persia quietly. it was said that he received generous treatment in the matter of his leaving, but i am aware that he stated he had cause for complaint on this head. we must bear in mind, however, that he was a hot hater of the shah, and a thorough 'irreconcilable.' on quitting persia he went to constantinople, where he appeared to be allowed such free expression of disrespect to his sovereign that the shah addressed a remonstrance to the sultan, who stated in reply that jemal was leaving for some remote place to employ himself in literary work. as a native of hamadan, jemal-ed-din is a persian subject; he is also of the shiah faith, though it is believed that, in order to make things easy for himself, he passes as a sunni where the state religion is of that creed. he was well received by the shah on his visit to tehran in as a man of learning and letters, and it is said that he accepted and enjoyed his hospitality. this, however, did not prevent him plotting against his royal host, and doing his utmost to compass the downfall of the kajar dynasty. he probably saw clearly during his stay in persia then that the shah's authority rested too strongly in the minds of the people, by reason of his long and peaceful reign and mild rule, to give any hope of a successful revolution during his lifetime. and it may have been in this connection that recourse was had to assassination. jemal-ed-din is credited among orientals with a powerful energy and will in working on the enthusiasm of others, and establishing a moral despotism over them. his disciple, mohamed reza, appears to have resembled his teacher in reckless disregard of kindness, and determination to render evil for good. in him a willing hand was apparently found to carry out the first part of jemal-ed-din's programme for the reformation of persia, but the possibility of madness in the act of murder was not foreseen. for the horror of the crime has been so intensified from being committed in the holy shrine of the sainted shah abdul azim, that its object must be defeated in the most complete manner, and the reaction will result in stronger attachment to the throne of the kajars. jemal-ed-din held a brief for the union of sunni and shiah, an idea which from time to time has found favour with some advanced leaders of the former faith. he spoke of the gain to islam in sinking their religious differences, and joining to form one church and one creed. he was said to be very earnest on this point, and he succeeded in planting his opinions in persia, as shown by the subject being still occasionally discussed. but the idea is entirely of foreign growth, and is generally introduced by enthusiasts like jemal-ed-din, who have exchanged their persian national pride of church and state for the ambition to see islam ruling as one power from constantinople to pekin. these visionaries fail to see what thoughtful persian politicians and churchmen know well, that the shiah schism has preserved persia as a nation, for without it the incentive to popular cohesion would long ago have ceased. the annual passion-play to commemorate the murder and martyrdom of the progeny of ali, and the solemn fast-days when their assassins are cursed and reviled, which are observed all over persia, serve to keep alive their patriotism and pride of independence, for with the persians, religion and patriotism are synonymous terms. there is probably no country where church and state are more closely and fortunately bound together than persia. had the sovereignty not been shiah, it would long ago have disappeared between its sunni neighbours. with them the persecution of the 'accursed rafizi,' as they speak of the sect, is the exercise of a holy duty, and their enslavement by sunnis is a meritorious act, giving the heretics an opportunity of benefiting by example, and of rescue from perdition by conversion to the orthodox faith. thus it was that the hazaras and shiah inhabitants of the small principalities on the head-waters of the oxus were sold into sunni slavery, and the purchase of the shiah circassians in the turkish markets was justified on the same grounds. the bitter experience of ages has taught all shiahs that, once helplessly at the mercy of the sunnis, there must be absolute submission on all points. this conviction has buried itself deep in the minds of the persian people, and they now and then are painfully reminded of the savage readiness of their sunni neighbours to emphasize the fact. in a bazaar quarrel in herat between sunni and shiah traders grew to a disturbance, and culminated in some of the latter, persian subjects, being slain and their goods plundered, the moullas solemnly pronouncing their judgment that it was 'lawful' for sunnis to take the lives as well as the property of the heretical shiahs. the shah, on the representation of the meshed religious authorities, addressed a remonstrance to the amir abdul rahman khan, who, being a strong and wise ruler, made reparation. the religious antagonism is very bitter in afghanistan, and were it not for the warlike character and good fighting qualities of the shiah kizzilbash tribe at kabul, their presence at the capital would not be tolerated by the bigoted moullas. the common danger makes the kizzilbashes a united band and dangerous foe, and arms them to be always ready to fight for their lives. they have become a power which it is the policy of the rulers to conciliate, and thus secure their support. but notwithstanding this, the fanatical hatred of the orthodox sunni, as representing both church and state, cannot be suppressed. i was with general sir william mansfield (the late lord sandhurst) when he, being commander-in-chief in india, had a conversation with the amir sher ali of kabul on general subjects, in the course of which the amir, in rather a captious manner, made some sharp remarks on what he called the hostile differences in the christian church; sir william rejoined by referring to the great division in islam between sunni and shiah, and asked if there were many of the latter faith at kabul. a look of displeasure passed over sher ali's face as, half turning towards his people who stood behind him, he said, in a severe tone, 'yes, there are a few of the dogs there, sons of burnt fathers.' the mutual hatred ever existing with sunni and shiah has always worked against very cordial relations between turkey and persia, and once certainly, in the sixteenth century, the fear of persia, then actively hostile on the south-eastern border, benefited austria and russia by deterring the turkish power, in the days of its triumph and strength, from extended aggressive operations north and west of constantinople. accordingly, the reconciliation of sunni and shiah has long been a cardinal point of policy with the porte. while it appears that austria thus benefited in an indirect manner through turkey's fear of persia, it is an interesting coincidence that, from the time the latter extended her diplomatic relations beyond those with russia and england, which, for a considerable period, were the only western powers represented at the shah's court, austria has held a prominently friendly position in persia. austrian officers have long been employed in her army, and the fact of the emperor francis joseph and the late shah nasr-ed-din having ascended their thrones within three months of each other in the same year ( ) was regarded by the latter as an association with himself of the highest honour and amity. and this brings to my recollection a matter connected with the austrian legation at tehran which occurred after the deportation of jemal-ed-din in . mohamed reza, the murderer of the late shah, remained in tehran, and continued the treasonable practices which had been originated by jemal, even to the extent of disseminating his revolutionary opinions by means of printed papers. the press used for printing was a lithographic one, and one of the mirzas employed by the austrian legation having been drawn into jemal's secret society, he was induced to set it up in his own house. the usual informer accomplice was found, or offered himself, for the purpose of betraying his brethren, and the police became so keen on capture that oblivious of the privilege enjoyed by the employé of a foreign legation, they entered the mirza's house and arrested him in the act of printing treasonable papers from the lithographic press. the mirza was carried off to prison before the minister knew of the occurrence, but, on being informed, he promptly made a strong remonstrance against the violation of international privilege. the fullest satisfaction was at once given; the chief of police called and apologized, and the prisoner was released and sent to the legation. the minister conducted his own inquiry, and on undeniable proof of the truth of what was alleged, he dismissed the mirza from his post, and the persian authorities were then free to arrest him. the mirza was kept a prisoner for some time, and was eventually released with mohamed reza and his companions. the tehran telegram of may tells us that mohamed reza continued his old course of public hostility to the government, and was again imprisoned, but once more obtained his release, and was granted a pension by the shah, notwithstanding which he remained discontented, as the 'black-mailer' generally does, greed suggesting that the price paid for silence is inadequate. this lenient treatment of the conspirators was quite characteristic of the later disposition of nasr-ed-din shah, and his averseness to judicial severity. from what is now known regarding the mohammedan revival and church union contemplated by jemal-ed-din, it is obvious that the idea of any connection between babism and the crime at shah abdul azim is out of the question, for the babis of persia and jemal-ed-din's followers have little or nothing in common. i have already told how the former are averse to violent measures, practise no public preaching, and suffer in silence, while the latter we know shout aloud and try to terrorize. when nadir shah accepted the throne, he insisted on the abandonment of the shiah schism and reunion with the sunni faith, and he went to extreme lengths in suppressing the unwillingness of the clergy to accept the arbitrary decree which he issued in proclaiming his mandate. his attempt to bridge the great gulf between the hostile creeds entirely failed, and the persians remained shiahs. freedom of thought and liberty of speech are national characteristics and privileges, and with minds never thoroughly subjected to severe church discipline, the people have been ever ready to indulge in free criticisms on religious and other matters. they had no desire to study a new religion, even at the command of their king, and, judging that any change would be irksome, they sided with the moullas, and without display refused to be sunnis. nadir's devotion to ambition was greater than his love of religion, and his object in trying to drive all into one creed was to remove the obstacles to the progress of his imperial power among the sunnis of india, afghanistan, central asia, and asia minor. on issuing his mandate to form the shiahs into a new branch of the true faith, he intimated to the emperor of constantinople his high aim at general concord among mohammedans. islam, as it was forced on persia, was the faith of foreign conquerors and oppressors, so it never has had the same considerable influence on the people as elsewhere. this, taken with their habits of freedom of thought and love of romance and poetry, inclined them to champion the shiah schism, which, on the fall of the arab power, they adopted for their national church. i refer to this in connection with what is now reported of jemal-ed-din's relations with the chiefs of the state church party at constantinople, for in his preachings in persia there were clear signs of movement towards a great mohammedan revival, which was to restore islam to its old dominant position in the world. chapter viii. the situation in persia ( ). ii. --the shah mozuffer-ed-din --his previous position at tabriz --character and disposition --his sons --accession to the throne --previous accessions in the kajar dynasty --regalia and crown jewels --position of the late shah's two sons, zil-es-sultan and naib-es-sultaneh --the sadr azem (grand vazir) --prompt action on the death of the late shah. among the great families of tartary from whom the chiefs of the royal kajar tribe claim descent, much importance has always been given to the birth of the mother of a candidate for high position. therefore, in the choice of an heir to the throne, persia, as now represented by the kajar dynasty, looks to the claims of the mother as well as the father, and requires royal birth on both sides. for this reason mozuffer-ed-din mirza, the second son of the late shah, his mother being a kajar princess, was preferred to the first-born, sultan masud mirza, known as the zil-es-sultan. it has been customary with the kajars to have the vali ahd, or heir-apparent, at a distance from the capital, and for him to be nominal governor-general of azerbaijan, the richest and most important province of persia. its capital is tabriz, a town of considerable commercial prosperity, through its russian and other foreign trade connections. the mother of mozuffer-ed-din mirza maintained a dignified position of high influence at the court of the late shah until her death, which took place at tehran in may, . during the intrigues and disquieting rumours which at one time prevailed, the strong influence of the mother of mozuffer-ed-din mirza was always present to watch over his interests in the shah's palace, and when she died his friends feared that he had lost his only good protector. but the sadr azem, then known as the amin-es-sultan, rightly interpreting the true feelings of the royal father and the people, promptly filled the vacancy himself, and has now led the nation to act as executors of the will of the departed shah in securing the peaceful succession of the heir whom he appointed. [illustration: h.i.m. mozuffer-ed-din shah, kajar] there has been much speculation regarding the character, abilities, and disposition of mozuffer-ed-din shah. i think the general opinion formed of him by those who have had opportunity of judging is favourable. he is of kindly disposition, and has pleasing manners, and though prudence has demanded that as heir-apparent he should not take a very active part in public affairs, yet there have been occasions on which he showed himself to be a capable ruler. his position made it absolutely necessary that he should avoid all appearance of impatience of subjection to the central government, and he showed considerable tact in never giving cause for suspicion on this point. he was most successful in keeping clear of everything that could offend the susceptibilities of his royal father, and was always regarded as a dutiful son and a loyal subject. his was a most difficult position to fill, and the fact that he filled it to the satisfaction of the shah proves that he possesses the qualities of prudence, patience, and good judgment. mozuffer-ed-din mirza had with him for a long time as kaimakam, or vazir, the well-known amir-i-nizam, who was virtually governor-general of azerbaijan, for the shah held him personally responsible for the administration of the province. he was a man of strong character, and had great influence in azerbaijan. his wealth also added to his importance, and it was not surprising, perhaps, that he considered himself qualified to hold independent opinions. the active resistance to the tobacco monopoly was first shown in tabriz, and he was said to have encouraged opposition to the wishes of the central government. in consequence of this the shah summoned him to tehran in the end of , and early in appointed him to be governor-general of kurdistan and kermanshah, a post which he still holds. on this change taking place, mozuffer-ed-din was directed to assume responsible charge of the northern province, and has continued to exercise it till now. the amir-i-nizam was succeeded as kaimakam by haji mirza abdul rahim, who was formerly persian minister at st. petersburg, and as his predecessor had been minister at paris for some years, the european experiences of these able vazirs no doubt aided the further education of the vali ahd. the association of enlightened companions and ministers gave him opportunities of gaining knowledge which not only informed him on matters of public importance and general interest, but was also calculated to prepare him for the position of sovereign. it has been said of him that he is entirely russian in his inclinations, and considering his long residence at tabriz, within view, as it were, of the great power of russia's vast empire, it would be strange if he had not been strongly impressed with the vital necessity of securing the goodwill of the czar, and we may feel certain that the advice and opinions of the two vazirs i have mentioned were to this effect. but it does not follow that mozuffer-ed-din shah's mind is wholly bent in that one direction. judging from the present as well as the past, he knows well he can believe in england's sincere desire to preserve the same friendly relations with him as existed with his father, and that she wishes to see persia strong, prosperous, and independent. while the amir-i-nizam was at tabriz, his energetic management left nothing for the prince to do, and as, moreover, a policy of caution debarred him from taking a very active part in public affairs, he occupied himself chiefly with the simple amusements of a country gentleman. he was greatly interested in his horse-breeding farms established on the fine pasturelands of maragha, near lake urumia, and made frequent visits there. he is a good horseman and a keen sportsman with gun, rifle, and falcon, just as his father was, and his love of life in the open brought him much in contact with the people in a manner that developed the good-nature for which he is known. he possesses in a large measure the pleasing characteristics of a nomad chief, and on the departure of the amir-i-nizam, his personal qualities, added to the sympathetic exercise of his duties, made his rule popular. while his prominent brothers have benefited pecuniarily to a considerable extent by the positions which they hold, the vali ahd was content to maintain a miniature court on a modest scale, keeping up his dignity in a fitting manner, and showing no desire to amass money. the people were aware of this, and respected him for not taking advantage of his opportunities to enrich himself as others might have done. more than once lately mention has been made in the papers of the large fortune which the zil-es-sultan is said to have acquired at isfahan, and invested in foreign securities. mention may here be made of the first two sons of mozuffer-ed-din shah. the elder is mohamed ali mirza, twenty-four years of age, whose mother is a daughter of mirza taki khan, amir-el-kebir and his wife, who was the favourite sister of the late shah. the second is malik mansur, about fifteen years of age, whose mother is a daughter of ismail mirza, a prince of the reigning kajar family. the latter is spoken of as an engaging and bright-looking youth, and is generally believed to be the favourite son. the other sons are not much known nor mentioned as yet, but it may be said that the succession in the direct line appears to be well assured. naturally the health of the heir-apparent was a matter of great consequence to himself, in the first place in view of his future, and secondly to those who desired to see the nomination to the succession undisturbed, for change would have produced great uncertainty and unrest throughout the country. when i visited tabriz in the end of , there were three physicians attached to the vali ahd's court. one was the hakim bashi, mirza mahmud khan, a persian of superior education and professional training, who was in constant attendance on the prince, and with him were associated the english dr. adcock (who had then been four years in tabriz, and is still with mozuffer-ed-din shah), and an italian doctor, s. castaldi, brother of the wife of the russian consul-general, regarding whom i have no late information. the succession of mozuffer-ed-din shah so far has been peaceful, notwithstanding the fears of many that opposition would appear in the south. this is the first time with the present dynasty that on the death of the shah the vali ahd has found no rival in his path. curzon stated very decidedly in his important work on persia that a contest for the throne was most improbable, and his forecast has proved correct. mozuffer-ed-din shah is the fifth sovereign of the kajar dynasty, which was founded by agha mohamed shah, and i may here remark that the reign of the late shah was just within one year of completing a century of royal rule shared by only three successive sovereigns of this line, a notable fact in an oriental kingdom. fateh ali shah succeeded to the throne in , having been appointed vali ahd by his uncle, agha mohamed shah, who had no family of his own. he was the son of hussein kuli khan (full brother of the shah), governor-general at shiraz, and he was there with his father when called to the throne at tehran. on the death of agha mohamed shah in camp with his army on the northern frontier, general sadik khan, chief of the shekaki tribe in azerbaijan, seized the opportunity to gain possession of the crown jewels and treasure, and quitted the camp with his men; but the rest of the troops marched at the command of the strong prime minister haji ibrahim, to the capital, which by his orders was held by the kajar chief, mirza mohamed khan, for the legitimate heir of the shah. two competitors for the crown appeared in the south, in the persons of fateh ali shah's own father, and a son of zaki khan zend; but both, as well as the shekaki chief who advanced similar claims in the north, and nadir mirza, grandson of the great nadir shah, who had entered khorasan from afghanistan, and raised the standard of revolt, were soon defeated and driven into submission. the shakaki chief was able from his possession of the crown jewels and treasure to make terms for pardon and preferment; but he afterwards broke his oath of allegiance, and rebelled. he was captured and confined in a dungeon, where his life soon ceased. fateh ali shah died in , and was succeeded by his grandson, mohamed shah, son of the capable abbas mirza, who predeceased his father. he was at tabriz, holding the post of nominal governor-general of azerbaijan, which was the customary position assigned to the vali abd, when his grandfather died, and i have in a previous chapter told of the part taken by british officers in defeating the pretenders, who attempted to dispute his right to the throne. these pretenders were his uncles ali mirza, the zil-es-sultan, and hussein ali mirza, governor-general at shiraz, each of whom proclaimed himself king. fateh ali shah died at isfahan while on his way to shiraz to compel the obedience of his son hussein ali mirza, who in expectation of his father's death from age and infirmity had decided to withhold payment of revenue to the crown. the rebellious son advanced with an army, and took possession of the jewels and treasure which his father had brought with him; and his brother, the zil-es-sultan, seized what had been left at tehran, but mohamed shah afterwards regained possession of the whole. nasr-ed-din, son and heir-apparent of mohamed shah, was present at his post of governor-general of azerbaijan when his father died in tehran, and there was an interval of disturbance for the six or seven weeks which passed between the death of the one king and the coronation of the other. during this period revolution prevailed in the towns, and robbery and violence in the country. the son of ali mirza, the zil-es-sultan, the prince-governor of tehran, who had disputed the succession of mohamed shah, issued forth from his retirement in kasvin to contest the crown with his cousin; but the attempt came to an inglorious end. a revolt at meshed with a similar object also failed, and then mirza taki khan, amir-i-nizam, proceeded successfully to consolidate the power of nasr-ed-din shah, whose long reign, and on the whole good rule, have so accustomed the people to peace that the old ways of revolution and revolt on the death of a shah have been forgotten and changed. the regalia and crown jewels of persia mentioned in these changes of royal rule have, by inexplicable good fortune, been preserved from plunder while in the hands of rebels. the crown jewels are in great part a portion of the splendid spoil which nadir shah obtained in the sack of delhi, when it was the capital of the richest empire in the east. on his assassination near meshed, the treasury was seized by the troops, and while a considerable share, including the famous koh-i-nur diamond, which now adorns the english crown, fell to the afghans with nadir's army, the greater part, with the koh-i-nur companion diamond, known as the darya-i-nur (sea of light), was secured by persian soldiers, who hid it all away in khorasan and the adjoining districts. when agha mohamed shah found leisure from his wars and work of firmly establishing his authority, he turned his attention to the recovery of nadirs jewels, and proceeded to meshed, where, by means of cunning and cruelty, he succeeded in wresting from the plunderers of nadir's camp, and others, the rare collection of gems and ornaments now in the royal treasury at tehran. the value of the collection is believed to be very great. the singular preservation of the regalia and crown jewels of persia from plunder while they were in the hands of rebels after the death of agha mohamed shah, and again on the death of fatch ali shah, is most remarkable. a superstitious feeling of fear and respect appears to have kept them from being lost from the crown, or it may be that, on the principle of 'safety in numbers,' every one, with a prospective share of the plunder in view, was a check on his neighbour against theft of that which they thought belonged to all. sultan masud mirza, better known as the zil-es-sultan, the eldest son of the late shah, has generally been regarded as likely to challenge the right of his younger brother to the throne. his ambition and overweening self-confidence combined to make him imprudent in permitting his partisans to speak aloud of his superior qualifications as a successor to his father. the late shah's considerate treatment of him on all occasions also led him to make ill-judged requests for such extended rule in the south that his father said persia was not large enough for two shahs. i think his idea of a viceroyalty in the south came from foolish vanity, and not from any serious thought of semi-independence, as some who heard him speak on this subject supposed. his father always wrote to him as 'my well-beloved first-born,' and up to he allowed him great power and freedom of action. he was fond of 'playing at soldiers,' and he went to work at this amusement with such energy and will that he formed a numerous and very efficient army under well-trained officers, too good, the shah thought, to be quite safe. nasr-ed-din sent an officer whom he could trust to isfahan to bring back a true report on the army there; and such was the zil's self-assurance, that he went out of his way to show him everything, and to make the most of his force. the shah, on learning all, became jealous or suspicious, and ordered the reduction of the troops to the moderate limits really required for provincial purposes. as affairs then stood, the zil, with his well-appointed army, was master of the situation, but he was constrained to submit. he singled out the amin-es-sultan (now the sadr azem) as his enemy at court, and regarded him as the strong adviser who influenced the shah. his relations with tehran then became so strained that the shah summoned him to his presence to have his wishes clearly explained to him. the meeting of father and son did not tend to smooth matters, and the latter, allowing his temper to carry him to extreme lengths, tendered his resignation of the various governments he held, asking only to retain the governorship of isfahan. his request was granted, and from that time he made no secret of his enmity to the prime minister. two or three years later the shah restored to him some of the provinces which he had resigned in , and this enabled, him to carry out more successfully the task which he had set himself, viz., that of amassing money, after his army was broken up. the warlike bakhtiari tribe form the most important part of the military strength under the nominal command of the zil-es-sultan, but he alienated them entirely by his cruel and treacherous murder of their popular chief, hussein kuli khan, in , and the long imprisonment of his son, the equally popular isfendiar khan. now that he has promised allegiance to his brother, mozuffer-ed-din shah, we may regard the peace of the south as assured. the naib-es-sultaneh, kamran mirza, as minister of war, commander-in-chief, and governor of tehran, who was in constant attendance on his father, was also regarded by foolish partisans as a likely successor to the throne, but he himself never entertained the idea. his position as head of the army gives him no real power--in fact, it rather takes from his influence as governor of tehran; for the soldiers look upon him as a costly appendage, for whose pleasures and palaces their pay is clipped. there is really no standing army, in persia as we understand such, except the royal guard and the weak persian cossack brigade at tehran. the artillery and infantry which do all the garrison work are militia regiments, embodied for two years at a time. the conditions are one year's service to two years' leave, and that they serve under their own local chiefs and officers. the administration of regiments is given to ministers, high officials, and others for purposes of emolument or distinction, as the case may be. this system gives the influence over the troops to those who deal with their pay, and not to the commander-in-chief, who is regarded merely as the keeper of the great gate through which the pay passes after toll is taken. the naib-es-sultaneh, equally with his brother, the zil-es-sultan, appears to have a great dislike to the prime minister, whose loyalty to the sovereign and his heir could not fail to create strong jealousy in high places. i shall now finish with a few remarks on the able and sagacious sadr azem, the prime minister, who, by his strong character, resolute will, and prompt action, has proved his loyalty to the crown and his fidelity to the shah. he became prime minister at an unusually early age for such a high position, and this preferment drew upon him the jealousy and envy of many in such a manner as often to cause him great embarrassment. there can be no doubt of his conspicuous energy and talent. his pleasing manner and happy disposition attract adherents and gain for him their best services. in addition to his personal qualities, he has an astonishing knowledge of public affairs, which makes him a most valuable minister. with the people he is deservedly popular, for not only is he liberal and kind, but he understands their feelings and can interpret their minds. [illustration: mirza ali asghar khan, sadr azem (_from a photograph by messrs. w. and d. downey_)] he was beside nasr-ed-din shah in the shrine of shah abdul azim when the assassination took place, and at once brought his majesty back to the palace in tehran. this happened about two o'clock in the afternoon, and the shah breathed his last within four hours afterwards. it appears that the sadr azem immediately grasped the situation, and put himself in telegraphic communication with the vali ahd at tabriz, four hundred miles distant. he then summoned all the ministers, state officials, military commanders, and the most influential people of the city, to the palace, and announced the death of the shah. under his able guidance, the prompt recognition of mozuffer-ed-din mirza as shah, in accordance with the will of his father, was effected. the english and russian legations, as representing the two strongest and chiefly interested european powers, were immediately informed, and the minister of the former, and the charge d'affaires of the latter, were invited to the palace. on their arrival, the sadr azem wired to the vali ahd in their presence the allegiance of the whole party who were there assembled. this was done about four or five hours after the death of nasr-ed-din shah, and the following morning, in consequence of this decisive action, mozuffer-ed-din was publicly proclaimed shah of persia. thus the electric telegraph, which nasr-ed-din shah introduced into persia, has been the means of helping most materially to save the country from the uncertainty which has hitherto always produced revolution and civil war in the interval between the death of one shah and the accession of his successor. the end. the thousand and one days; a companion to the "_arabian nights._" with introduction by miss pardoe. [illustration: p. .] london: william lay, king william street, strand. . introduction. the compiler of the graceful little volume which i have the pleasure of introducing to the public, has conferred an undeniable benefit upon the youth of england by presenting to them a collection of oriental tales, which, rich in the elements of interest and entertainment, are nevertheless entirely free from the licentiousness which renders so many of the fictions of the east, beautiful and brilliant as they are, most objectionable for young and ardent minds. there is indeed no lack of the wonderful in the pages before us, any more than in the arabian and persian tales already so well known: but it will be seen that the supernatural agency in the narratives is used as a means to work out totally different results. there is, in truth, scarcely one of these tales which does not inculcate a valuable moral lesson; as may be seen by reference to "the powder of longevity," "the old camel," and "the story of the dervise abounadar" among several, others. the present collection of eastern stories has been principally derived from the works of different oriental scholars on the continent, and little doubt can be entertained of the genuineness of their origin; while they have been carefully selected, and do honour to the good taste of their compiler. an acknowledgment is also due to him for his adherence to the good old orthography to which we have all been accustomed from our childhood, in the case of such titles as "caliph," "vizier," "houri," "genii," &c.; as, however critically correct and learned the spelling of mr. lane may be in his magnificent version of the "thousand and one nights," and however appropriate to a work of so much research and value to oriental students, it would have been alike fatiguing and out of character to have embarrassed a volume, simply intended for the amusement of youthful readers, by a number of hard and unfamiliar words, difficult of pronunciation to all save the initiated; and for the pleasure of the young requiring translation fully as much as the narrative itself. in one of the tales there will be at once detected a portion of the favourite old story of aladdin's lamp, in the subterranean gem-garden discovered by the handsome youth; while in another, mention is made of the already-familiar legend of the hidden city of ad, so popular among the ancient arabs[ ]; but these repetitions will cease to create any surprise when it is remembered that the professional story-tellers of the east are a wandering race, who travel from city to city, exhibiting their talent during seasons of festivity, in the palaces of the wealthy and the public coffee-houses. those admitted to the women's apartments are universally aged crones, whose volubility is something marvellous; and they are always welcome guests to the indolent beauties, who listen to them for hours together without a symptom of weariness, as they pour forth their narratives in a monotonous voice strangely displeasing to european ears. the men, while reciting their tales, indulge in violent gesticulations and contortions of the body, which appear to produce great delight in their audience. since they generally travel two or three in company; and, save in rare cases of improvisation, their stock of narrative is common to all, it is their ambition so individually to embellish, heighten, and amplify their subject-matter, as to outshine their competitors; and it is consequently to this cause that the numerous variations of the same tale which have reached europe must be attributed. taken altogether, there can be no doubt that the "thousand and one days" merit the warm welcome which i trust awaits them. j. p. london, feb. . contents. i. page hassan abdallah, or the enchanted keys story of hassan story of the basket-maker story of the dervise abounadar conclusion of the story of hassan ii. soliman bey and the three story tellers first story teller second story teller third story teller iii. prince khalaf and the princess of china story of prince al abbas continuation of prince khalaf and the princess of china story of lin-in story of prince khalaf concluded iv. the wise dey v. the tunisian sage vi. the nose for gold vii. the treasures of basra history of aboulcassem conclusion of the treasures of basra viii. the old camel ix. the story of medjeddin x. king bedreddin-lolo and his vizir story of the old slippers story of atalmulc the sorrowful continuation of king bedreddin-lolo and his vizir story of malek and the princess schirine conclusion [illustration] the "thousand and one days;" or, arabian tales. i. the story of hassan abdallah; or, the enchanted keys. theilon, caliph of egypt, died, after having bequeathed his power to his son, mohammed, who, like a wise and good prince, proceeded to root out abuses, and finally caused peace and justice to flourish throughout his dominions. instead of oppressing his people by new taxes, he employed the treasures, which his father had amassed by violence, in supporting learned men, rewarding the brave, and assisting the unfortunate. every thing succeeded under his happy sway; the risings of the nile were regular and abundant; every year the soil produced rich harvests; and commerce, honoured and protected, caused the gold of foreign nations to flow abundantly into the ports of egypt. mohammed determined, one day, to take the census of the officers of his army, and of all the persons in public situations whose salaries were paid out of the treasury. the vizirs, to the number of forty, first made their appearance and knelt in succession before the sovereign. they were, for the most part, men venerable from their age, and some of them had long beards of snowy whiteness. they all wore on their heads tiaras of gold, enriched with precious stones, and carried in their hands long staves as badges of their power. one enumerated the battles in which he had been engaged, and the honourable wounds he had received; another recounted the long and laborious studies he had pursued, in order to render himself master of the various sciences, and to qualify himself to serve the state by his wisdom and knowledge. after the vizirs, came the governors of provinces, the generals, and the great officers of the army; and next to them the civil magistrates, and all who were entrusted with the preservation of the peace and the awarding of justice. behind these walked the public executioner, who, although stout and well-fed, like a man who had nothing to do, went along as if depressed with grief, and instead of carrying his sword naked on his shoulder, he kept it in its scabbard. when he came into the presence of the prince, he threw himself at his feet, and exclaimed, "o mighty prince, the day of justice and of munificence is at last about to dawn on me! since the death of the terrible theilon, under whose reign my life was happy and my condition prosperous, i have seen my occupation and its emoluments diminish daily. if egypt continue thus to live in peace and plenty, i shall run great danger of perishing with hunger, and my family will be brought to misery and ruin." mohammed listened in silence to the complaints of the headsman, and acknowledged that there was some foundation for them, for his salary was small, and the chief part of his profits arose from what he obtained from criminals, either by way of gift, or as a rightful fee. in times of trouble, quarrelling, and violence, he had lived, in fact, in a state of ease and affluence, while now, under the present prosperous reign, he had nothing better than the prospect of beggary before him. "is it then true," exclaimed the caliph, "that the happiness of all is a dream? that what is joy to one, may be the cause of grief to another? o executioner, fear not as to your fate! may it, indeed, please god that, under my reign, your sword,--which is almost as often an instrument of vengeance as of justice,--may remain useless and covered with rust. but, in order to enable you to provide for the wants of yourself and your family, without the unhappy necessity of exercising your fatal office, you shall receive every year the sum of two hundred dinars." in this way all the officers and servants of the palace passed before the notice of the prince; he interrogated each on the nature of his occupation and his past services, on his means of existence, and on the salary which he received. when he found that any one held a situation of a painful and difficult nature, for which he was inadequately remunerated, the caliph diminished his duties and increased his pay; and, on the other hand, when he found the contrary to be the case, he lessened the salary and increased the duties of the office. after having, in this way, performed many acts of wisdom and justice, the caliph observed, among the officers of the civil service, a sheik, whose wrinkled countenance and stooping figure indicated his great age. the caliph called him up, in order to inquire what was his employment in the palace, and the sum which it yielded him. "prince," the old man replied, "my only employment is to take care of a chest that was committed to my charge by your father, the late caliph, and for attending to which he allowed me ten pieces of gold a month." "it seems to me," replied mohammed, "that the reward is great for so slight a service. pray what are the contents of this chest?" "i received it," replied the sheik, "in charge forty years ago, and i solemnly swear to you that i know not what it contains." the caliph commanded the chest to be brought to him, which was of pure gold, and most richly adorned. the old man opened it. it contained a manuscript written in brilliant characters on the skin of a gazelle, painted purple and sprinkled with a red dust. neither the prince, however, nor his ministers, nor the ulemas who were present, could decipher the writing. by the caliph's order, the wise men of egypt were summoned, as well as others from syria, persia, and india, but to no purpose; not one was able to interpret the mysterious characters. the book remained open for a long time, exposed to the gaze of all, and a great reward was offered to any one who could bring forward a person of sufficient learning to read it. some time after this, a savant who had left egypt in the reign of theilon, and had now returned after a long absence, chanced to hear of the mysterious book, and said that he knew what it was, and could explain its history. the caliph immediately admitted him to an audience, and the old man addressed him as follows: "o sovereign ruler, may the almighty prolong your days! only one man can read this book, its rightful master, the sheik hassan abdallah, son of el-achaar. this man had travelled through many lands, and penetrated into the mysterious city of aram, built on columns, from which he brought this book, which no one but himself could read. he made use of it in his experiments in alchemy, and by its aid he could transmute the most worthless metals into gold. the caliph theilon, your father, having learned this, commanded the sage to be brought before him, with a view of compelling him to reveal the secret of his knowledge. hassan abdallah refused to do so, for fear of putting into the hands of the unjust an instrument of such terrible power; and the prince, in a rage, laid hold of the chest, and ordered the sage to be thrown into prison, where he still remains, unless he has died since that time, which is forty years ago." on hearing this, mohammed immediately despatched his officers to visit the prisons, and, on their return, learned with pleasure that hassan was still alive. the caliph ordered him to be brought forth and arrayed in a dress of honour; and, on his appearing in the audience chamber, the prince made him sit down beside him, and begged him to forgive the unjust treatment which his father had caused him to undergo. he then told him how he had accidentally discovered that he was still alive; and at last, placing the mysterious book before him, said, "old man, if this book could make me the owner of all the treasures of the world, i would not consent to possess it, since it only belongs to me by injustice and violence." on hearing these words, hassan burst into tears. "o god," he exclaimed, "all wisdom proceeds from thee! thou causest to arise from the same soil the poisonous and the wholesome plant. every where good is placed by the side of evil. this prince, the support of the feeble, the defender of the oppressed, who has conferred on me the happiness of spending my remaining years in the light of day, is the son of the tyrant who plunged egypt in mourning, and who kept me for forty years in a loathsome dungeon. prince," added the old man, addressing mohammed, "what i refused to the wrath of your father, i willingly grant to your virtues: this book contains the precepts of the true science, and i bless heaven that i have lived long enough to teach it to you. i have often risked my life to become the master of this wonderful book, which was the only article of value that i brought from aram, that city into which no man can enter who is not assisted by heaven." the caliph embraced the old man, and, calling him his father, begged him to relate what he had seen in the city of aram. "prince," replied hassan, "it is a long story, as long, nearly, as my whole life." he then proceeded as follows. [illustration: story of the enchanted keys, p. .] the story of hassan abdallah. i am the only son of one of the richest inhabitants of egypt. my father, who was a man of extensive knowledge, employed my youth in the study of science; and at twenty years of age i was already honourably mentioned among the ulemas, when my father bestowed a young maiden on me as my wife, with eyes brilliant as the stars, and with a form elegant and light as that of the gazelle. my nuptials were magnificent, and my days flowed on in peace and happiness. i lived thus for ten years, when at last this beautiful dream vanished. it pleased heaven to afflict me with every kind of misfortune: the plague deprived me of my father; war destroyed my dear brothers; my house fell a prey to the flames; my richly-laden ships were buried beneath the waves. reduced to misery and want, my only resource was in the mercy of god and the compassion of the faithful whom i met while i frequented the mosques. my sufferings, from my own wretched state of poverty, and that of my wife and children, were cruel indeed. one day when i had not received any charitable donations, my wife, weeping, took some of my clothes, and gave them to me in order to sell them at the bazaar. on the way thither i met an arab of the desert, mounted on a red camel. he greeted me, and said, "peace be with you, my brother! can you tell me where the sheik hassan abdallah, the son of el-achaar, resides in the city?" being ashamed of my poverty, and thinking i was not known, i replied, "there is no man at cairo of that name." "god is great!" exclaimed the arab; "are you not hassan abdallah, and can you send away your guest by concealing your name?" greatly confused, i then begged him to forgive me, and laid hold of his hands to kiss them, which he would not permit me to do, and i then accompanied him to my house. on the way there i was tormented by the reflection that i had nothing to set before him; and when i reached home i informed my wife of the meeting i had just had. "the stranger is sent by god," said she; "and even the children's bread shall be his. go, sell the clothes which i gave you; buy some food for our guest with the money, and if any thing should remain over, we will partake of it ourselves." in going out it was necessary that i should pass through the apartment where the arab was. as i concealed the clothes, he said to me, "my brother, what have you got there hid under your cloak?" i replied that it was my wife's dress, which i was carrying to the tailor. "show it to me," he said. i showed it to him, blushing. "o merciful god," he exclaimed, "you are going to sell it in order to get money to enable you to be hospitable towards me! stop, hassan! here are ten pieces of gold; spend them in buying what is needful for our own wants and for those of your family." i obeyed, and plenty and happiness seemed to revisit my abode. every day the arab gave me the same sum, which, according to his orders, i spent in the same way; and this continued for fifteen days. on the sixteenth day my guest, after chatting on indifferent matters, said to me, "hassan, would you like to sell yourself to me?" "my lord," i replied, "i am already yours by gratitude." "no," he replied, "that is not what i mean; i wish to make you my property, and you shall fix the price yourself." thinking he was joking, i replied, "the price of a freeman is one thousand dinars if he is killed at a single blow; but if many wounds are inflicted upon him, or if he should be cut in many pieces, the price is then one thousand five hundred dinars." "very well," answered my guest, "i will pay you this last-mentioned sum if you will consent to the bargain." when i saw that he was speaking seriously, i asked for time in order to consult my family. "do so," he replied, and then went out to look after some affairs in the city. when i related the strange proposal of my guest, my mother said, "what can this man want to do with you?" the children all clung to me, and wept. my wife, who was a wise and prudent woman, remarked, "this detestable stranger wants, perhaps, to get back what he has spent here. you have nothing but this wretched house, sell it, and give him the money, but don't sell yourself." i passed the rest of the day and the following night in reflection, and was in a state of great uncertainty. with the sum offered by the stranger i could at least secure bread for my family. but why wish to purchase me? what could he intend to do? before next morning, however, i had come to a decision. i went to the arab and said, "i am yours." untying his sash, he took out one thousand five hundred gold pieces, and giving them to me, said, "fear not, my brother, i have no designs against either your life or your liberty; i only wish to secure a faithful companion during a long journey which i am about to undertake." overwhelmed with joy, i ran with the money to my wife and mother; but they, without listening to my explanations, began weeping and crying as if they were lamenting for the dead. "it is the price of flesh and blood," they exclaimed; "neither we nor our children will eat bread procured at such a cost!" by dint of argument, however, i succeeded at length in subduing their grief; and having embraced them, together with my children, i set out to meet my new master. by order of the arab i purchased a camel renowned for its speed, at the price of a hundred drachms; i filled our sacks with food sufficient for a long period; and then, mounting our camels, we proceeded on our journey. we soon reached the desert. here no traces of travellers were to be seen, for the wind effaced them continually from the surface of the moving sand. the arab was guided in his course by indications known only to himself. we travelled thus together for five days under a burning sun; each day seemed longer to me than a night of suffering or of fear. my master, who was of a lively disposition, kept up my courage by tales which i remember even now with pleasure after forty years of anguish; and you will forgive an old man for not being able to resist the pleasure of relating some of them to you. the following story, he said, had been recounted to him by the basket-maker himself, a poor man whom he had found in prison, and whom he had charitably found means to release. the story of the basket-maker. i was born of poor and honest parents; and my father, who was a basket-maker by trade, taught me to plait all kinds of baskets. so long as i had only myself to care for, i lived tolerably well on the produce of my labour; but when i reached twenty years of age, and took a wife, who in a few years presented me with several children, my gains proved insufficient to maintain my family. a basket-maker earns but little; one day he gets a drachm, the next he may get two, or perhaps only half a drachm. in this state of things i and my children had often to endure the pangs of hunger. one day it happened that i had just finished a large basket; it was well and strongly made, and i hoped to obtain at least three drachms for it. i took it to the bazaar and through all the streets, but no purchaser appeared. night came on and i went home. when my wife and children saw me return without any food, they began to cry and to ask for bread, but as i had none to give them, i could only weep with them: the night was long and sorrowful. at daybreak my wife awoke me, saying, "go, and sell the basket at any price you can get for it, were it only half a drachm." i set out, and perambulated the streets and squares, but night came on again without my finding a purchaser. my wife burst out into a great rage. "what!" she said, "do you still bring back this basket? do you wish to see us die with hunger?" i assured her that i had tried every means, but in vain, to sell the basket. she then took some articles of her own, and told me to go and sell them, and procure some bread for the children. i did as she said, and my famished family partook of a miserable repast, which my depressed state of mind prevented me from sharing with them. i slept little that night; and as soon as it was day i performed my devotions, and prayed to god to come to my assistance. i then went out again with my unsaleable basket, with which i made many weary and fruitless rounds through the whole city. at noon, overwhelmed with fatigue and famished with hunger, i sat down at the door of a mosque, where the voice of the muezzim was calling the faithful to prayer. i entered to implore of god's goodness that i might be able, by his assistance, to sell the basket. prayer being ended, the faithful left the mosque, and i found myself alone with a venerable persian, named saadi, who seemed lost in contemplation. rising to go away, he passed near me, and noticing how pale i was, he said, "friend, you are too much addicted to wine, and your health suffers from it." "my lord," i replied, "do not believe it; i have never tasted wine; my weakness and paleness arise from my not having had any food for the last two days." i then related to him my life, my occupation, and my wretched state. whilst listening to me the stranger shed tears; and when i had finished speaking, he said, "god be praised, my brother! for i can put an end to your troubles: take this," putting a purse of gold into my hands; "run to the market, and buy meat, bread, and fruits for the refreshment of yourself and family. what i have given you will last you for a year to come; and in exchange, i only ask you to meet me here, at the same day and hour, every year." so saying, he departed. i could scarcely think but that i had been dreaming; the purse, however, proved that i was indeed awake. i opened it, and found in it a hundred pieces of gold! overjoyed, i ran to the bazaar, and, in pursuance of the orders of the benevolent donor, i purchased enough, not only to satisfy the calls of hunger, but also food of such a nourishing nature, as had never entered my house before. the whole i put into my basket, and hastened to return home. having reached the door, i listened, being curious to know what was going on. my children were uttering lamentations, and their mother was endeavouring to quiet them by repeating, for the hundredth time, her advice, to be quiet, and not to weep, for that their father would be sure to return with something to eat. i then entered the room, exclaiming, that god had heard them, and had sent them a plentiful supply for a long time to come. but when i showed them the purse and its contents, my wife shouted out, "what! have you then killed and robbed some one? are we to become the object of the inquiries and suspicions of the police?" i then related my fortunate meeting with the old man, and while embracing me with tears of joy, and a conscience at ease, my family partook, with me, of a plentiful repast, at the same time invoking blessings on our unknown benefactor. for a whole year i lived happily in this manner. the day fixed upon by the stranger having arrived, i went to the mosque, after having attired myself in a becoming manner. the persian came and seated himself beside me. when prayers were ended, and all the worshippers had departed, he turned towards me and said, with a smiling look, "o my brother! how has the time passed with you since our last interview?" "thanks to your generosity, my lord," i replied, "my life has been spent in a tranquil and happy manner." the stranger then questioned me as to my courage, address, and love of travelling; and to all his questions i replied in a satisfactory manner, and, in my turn, asked him if i could be of any service to him. "noureddin," he replied, "i intend setting out on a journey, and i wish you to accompany me as my servant. i shall employ you in a respectable and becoming manner; and if you show yourself obedient and devoted to my interests, you will have no reason to repent it. the journey will last two months; look, here are thirty dinars; buy provisions, that your family may want for nothing during your absence. in eight days you must bid adieu to your wife and children, and come to meet me here, bringing a supply of rice and dates, and arming yourself with a yatagan, to defend yourself in case of our being attacked." i then went to my wife, and told her what the stranger required of me. "he is our benefactor," she replied; "it is your duty to obey him." i spent the eight days in laying in a store of food for my family and for the journey, and on the appointed day, after embracing my wife and children, i went to the mosque, where i found the persian. the muezzim having proclaimed the hour of prayer, we joined in it; and afterwards i followed him to a desert place, where were two fine horses well harnessed and yoked, which we unloosed and mounted, and then set out on our journey. after having traversed deserts and mountains during a whole month, we arrived at a fertile plain, watered by a fine river, whose peaceful and limpid waters winding about a thick forest, formed it into peninsula: a pavilion, with a golden cupola, seemed to rise out of this mass of verdure, and shone in the sun's rays as if it had been on fire. [illustration: the pavilion with the golden cupola, p. ] the persian now said to me, "noureddin, enter this forest, and give me an account of what you see." i obeyed, but i had scarcely walked an hour, when i saw two huge lions with manes erect. seized with alarm, i drew back, and running away reached my master out of breath, who only laughed at my fears, and assured me that i was needlessly afraid of the monsters. he wanted me to return, but i refused, and he was obliged to come back along with me. having approached the lions, the persian charmed them by some magical words, on which they became as submissive as lambs, remained motionless, and permitted us to pass. we journeyed on for many hours in the recesses of the forest, meeting, to my great dread, with what appeared to be troops of horsemen, sword in hand, and giants, armed with clubs, ready to strike us. all these fantastic beings disappeared at the sight of my master, and we reached at last the pavilion which crowned the forest. my master then said to me, "go, noureddin, to this pavilion; remove the belt of iron chains which fastens the gates, while i go and pray to the great solomon to be propitious to our enterprise." i did as he commanded me; but when i let the chains fall, a frightful noise was heard, which made the earth shake under my feet. more dead than alive, i returned to the persian, who, having finished his prayer, entered the pavilion. at the end of an hour he came out, bringing a book with him written in the sacred language. he began to read it; and when he had finished, with his countenance radiant with delight he exclaimed, "o thrice fortunate saadi! thou possessest at last this holy book,--the sum of wisdom, the mirror of the good and the terror of the wicked! may the perusal of this garden of roses lead the children of adam back to that original innocence from which they have so fatally departed! hearken to these maxims and sentences, worthy to be the guides of mankind from the shepherd to the king:-- 'he who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming his life to them, is like the man who tills his field but never sows any seed therein. 'virtue does not consist in acquiring the riches of this world, but in attaching all hearts by benefits and good offices. 'if you are insensible to the sufferings of the unfortunate, you do not deserve the name of a man. 'it is better to be loaded with chains for having told the truth, than to be freed from them by means of a lie. 'a wicked person that accuses you of licentiousness should be made to blush, in his turn, by your virtues and your innocence. 'man should remember that he is born of the earth, and that his pride will one day come to an end in it. 'crystal is found every where; but nothing is more rare than the diamond, and hence the difference in their value. 'instruction only bears fruit in so far as it is assisted by your own endeavours. 'the discipline of the master is of greater benefit to the child than the indulgence of the father. 'so long as the tree is young it is easy to fashion it as you please; but when it has been permitted to grow, nothing but fire can straighten it. 'woe to the man of might, who devours the substance of the people! at last some dire calamity will, of a surety, overtake him. 'the most awful spectacle at the day of judgment will be, says the prophet, to see pious slaves in paradise, and hard and merciless masters in hell. 'do you ask whether the ant beneath your feet has a right to complain? yes; just as much right as you would have if crushed to atoms by an elephant. 'encouragement towards the wicked is a wrong done to the good; and the severest attack on virtue is to be indulgent to crime. 'the perpetrator of an unjust action dies, but his memory is held in everlasting abhorrence. the just man dies, and his good actions bear fruit unto eternity. 'be assured that thou wilt be rewarded if thine actions are good, whether thou wearest the dress of the dervise or the crown of the king. 'would a king have nothing to fear from his enemies, let him live in peace with his subjects. 'o my brother! the world forsakes us all. fix thy heart on the creator of the universe, and all will be well with thee. 'what signifies it, whether we die in a stable or on a throne? 'at your morning and evening prayer be able to say, almighty god, be pleased to remember thy servant, who has never forgotten thee!' "my ambition is satisfied," resumed the persian, "by the possession of this book; but a fortune of that description would be no fortune to you, noureddin. you stand in need of a material treasure; and this sacred volume tells me where we ought to look for it. quick! mount your steed, and let us proceed so long as solomon favours us." leaping into our saddles, therefore, we set off at full gallop, and entering the desert, journeyed thus for two days and a night. on the evening of the second day we arrived at a city situated on a high mountain, and surrounded with white walls which shone like silver. we passed the night under the trees of an adjoining wood; and next day, having offered up our prayers, looked about for some way of entering the city, the gates of which were shut, and within which there reigned a perfect stillness. my master went round the walls, and in his examination of them he discovered a stone slab, in which was fastened an iron ring. we endeavoured to move the slab, but could not. the persian then ordered me to take the horses and to fasten them to the ring with our sashes; and by this means we succeeded in removing the stone, which discovered the entrance to a subterraneous passage. my master said to me, "noureddin, follow me; by this passage we shall get into the city." on leaving the subterraneous passage we heard a noise like that which might be produced by the loud puffing of the bellows of a forge, and we supposed for a moment that the city was inhabited. this strange noise was nothing else than the hissing of two winged serpents, which advanced towards us at a frightful pace. with the sacred book in his hand the persian advanced to meet them, and with one touch of this talisman laid them prostrate on the ground. this obstacle being overcome, we traversed the whole city, admiring its squares, houses, mosques, and palaces. but what had become of the inhabitants? by what scourge had they been cut off, or what reason had induced them to quit so beautiful a city? how long ago was it inhabited? my mind was lost in conjectures about what seemed so far beyond my comprehension, and my master made no reply to the questions which i addressed to him. at length we stopped at the open railing of some gardens surrounding an enormous palace, which surpassed all that the imagination could conceive. bushy thickets; orchards covered with flowers and fruits; enamelled meads, watered by murmuring streams; parterres planted with the rarest and most variegated flowers, every where met the eye. the persian sat down under the shadow of a tree, opened the book, and commenced reading, and when he had finished ordered me to enter the palace. i reached it by a staircase that could only have been constructed by the hands of genii; it was formed of the most rare and costly marble, as were also the statues which were placed at the sides. after having walked through many spacious and magnificent apartments richly adorned, i entered a subterranean hall, still larger and more splendid. a hundred crystal lustres, brilliant with gold and precious stones, and lit up with thousands of wax-lights, shed a refulgence more dazzling than the day. its walls were covered with paintings, in which the spirit of evil strove in vain for the mastery over the spirit of good, and a long series of the statues of justly-renowned dead princes were ranged all around. vacant pedestals, waiting to receive monarchs still living, whose names were inscribed on them, were also to be seen. in the centre of this subterranean apartment, a throne of gold arose, incrusted with pearls and rubies. on this throne an old man was reposing, with a countenance pale as death, but whose open eyes shone with a supernatural brilliancy. i saluted him respectfully, but he made no gesture. i spoke to him, and he made no reply. seized with astonishment and fear, i returned to my master and told him what i had seen. "god be praised!" he said, "we are now near the end of our enterprise. return, noureddin, to the old man; go up to him fearlessly, and bring to me the chest on which his head rests." i obeyed, and on my return to the subterranean hall i drew near to the throne, to which three silver steps led up. when i placed my foot on the first step the old man stood up; in spite of my surprise i ascended the second step, when, seizing a bow, he placed a keen-pointed arrow in it, and aimed it at me. without any consideration of my benefactor's orders, i jumped backwards and took to flight anew. when the arab saw me, he said, "is this what you promised me? cowardly man, come with me, and you will find inestimable riches!" i then conducted him to the place where the old man was to be found. when my master was near the throne, he ascended the first step, and the old man arose; at the second step he took his bow and arrow; and at the third he shot it at my master, who received it on the sacred book, from which it rebounded as from a steel cuirass, and fell broken on the ground. the old man fell back motionless on the throne, and his eyes ceased to shine. my master then laid hold of the mysterious chest of which he had spoken to me, and took from it the magic key which opened subterranean recesses where heaps of pearls, diamonds, and rubies were deposited. the persian allowed me to take as much as i pleased. i filled my trousers and the folds of my robe and turban with the finest pearls, the largest diamonds, and many other kinds of precious stones. as saadi the wise passed by all these treasures without looking at them, i said to him, "o my lord, why do you leave here all this wealth, and take away with you, as the reward of so many fatigues, an article of so little value? the book of wisdom is now useless; what man is there who does not think himself wise?" "my son," replied the old man, "i am near the end of my career, and my life has been spent in the search after true wisdom. if i have done nothing to improve mankind, god, when i appear before him, will reckon with me not only for the evil i shall have done, but also for the good i may have neglected to do. as for you, who have a wife and children, i approve of your wishing to provide for their future condition." we left the enchanted city and its treasures, which i greatly regretted not being able to carry away. when we reached the open country, i looked back to gaze upon the palace and city, but they had disappeared, at which i expressed my astonishment to my master, who replied, "noureddin, do not seek to fathom the mysteries of knowledge, but be contented to rejoice with me at the success of our journey." we then directed our faces towards bagdad, and at the end of a short time arrived there, without meeting with any thing else worth relating. my family were rejoiced at my return and at the good fortune i had so unexpectedly met with. the old man abode with us for some time, which he employed in reading the gulistan and in giving me useful counsels as to my future conduct. "noureddin," he said, "you are the possessor of great wealth; know how to make a good use of it; always remember the wretched condition in which i found you in the mosque; beware of bad company and pretended friends and flatterers; avoid covetousness, and be charitable toward the poor; remember the uncertainty of riches, and how providence often punishes those who give way to ingratitude and pride." besides his good advice, he would often relate to me instructive histories by way of example, and i shall not tire you too much if i repeat one of them to you. the story of the dervise abounadar. a dervise, venerable from his age, fell ill at the house of a woman who was a widow, and who lived in a state of great poverty in the outskirts of balsora. he was so affected by the care and zeal with which she had nursed him, that at the time of his departure he said to her, "i have noticed that your means are sufficient for yourself alone, and are not adequate for the additional support of your only son, the young mujahid; but if you will entrust him to my care, i will do my utmost to repay through him the obligations which i am under to your care." the good woman received the proposal with pleasure, and the dervise took his departure with the young man, stating, at the same time, that they were to be absent two years on a journey. while travelling in various countries the widow's son lived in opulence with his protector, who gave him excellent instructions, attended to him in a dangerous illness which he had, and, in short, treated him in every respect as if he had been his only son. mujahid often said how grateful he was for such kindness, and the old man's constant reply was, "my son, gratitude is shown by actions, not words; at the proper time and place we shall see how you estimate my conduct towards you." one day, in their journeyings, they reached a place out of the beaten road, and the dervise said to abdallah, "we are now at the end of our travels; i am about to cause the earth to open and allow you to enter a place where you will find one of the greatest treasures in the bosom of the globe; have you courage sufficient to descend into this subterranean recess?" mujahid declared that he might be depended upon for his obedience and zeal. the dervise then lighted a small fire, into which he threw some perfumes, and when he had pronounced some prayers the earth opened, and the dervise said to the young man, "you can now enter; remember that it is in your power to render me a great service, and that the present occasion is perhaps the only one when you can prove to me that you are not ungrateful. do not allow yourself to be dazzled by all the wealth which you will find, but think only of getting possession of an iron chandelier with twelve branches which you will see near a door; lose no time in bringing it to me." the youth promised to attend to all that was required of him, and plunged into the subterraneous recess full of confidence in himself. forgetting, however, what had been so expressly enjoined upon him, while he was busy filling his pockets with the gold and diamonds spread around in prodigious quantities, the entrance by which he had descended was closed. he had, however, the presence of mind to lay hold of the iron chandelier which the dervise had urged him to bring away; and although he was now, by the closing of the entrance, placed in circumstances which were enough to appal a stouter heart, he did not abandon himself to despair. while trying to discover some way of escape from a place which was likely otherwise to be his grave, he saw but too plainly that the opening had been closed upon him on account of his not having strictly followed the dervise's orders; and reflecting on the kindness and care with which he had been treated, he bitterly reproached himself for his ingratitude. at length, after a busy search and much anxiety, he was fortunate enough to discover a narrow passage that led out of this dark cavern. the opening was covered over with briers and thorns, through which he managed to struggle, and thus recovered the light of day. he looked around him every where for the dervise in order to deliver the chandelier to him, but in vain; he was not to be seen. unable to recognize any of the places where he had been, he walked at random, and was very much astonished to find himself, after a short time, at his mother's door, from which he had thought himself at a great distance. in reply to her inquiries respecting the dervise, he frankly told her all that had happened, and the danger he had encountered in order to gratify the fancy of the dervise; and then he showed her the riches with which he was loaded. his mother concluded, on seeing all this wealth, that the dervise only wanted to try his courage and obedience, and that he ought to take advantage of his good luck, adding, that such was no doubt the intention of the holy man. while they gazed on these treasures with avidity, and framed a thousand dazzling projects for spending them, the whole vanished suddenly from their eyes. mujahid then reproached himself again for his ingratitude and disobedience; and looking at the iron chandelier which alone remained of all his treasure, said, "what has happened is just. i have lost what i had no wish to render back; and the chandelier, which i desired to give to the dervise, remains with me,--a proof that it belongs to him, and that the rest was improperly obtained." so saying, he placed the chandelier in the middle of his mother's small house. when night came on, mujahid thought he would put a light in the chandelier, by way of turning it to some use. no sooner had he done this, than a dervise immediately appeared, who, after turning round, vanished, and threw a small coin behind him. mujahid, whose thoughts were occupied all next day with what he had seen the evening before, wished to see what would be the event if he placed a light in each of the twelve branches. he did so, and twelve dervises immediately appeared, who, after wheeling round, also became invisible, each of them at the same time throwing down a small coin. every day mujahid repeated the same ceremony with the same success; but he could only make it occur once in twenty-four hours. the moderate sum with which the dervises supplied him daily was sufficient for the subsistence of himself and his mother, and for a long time this was all that he desired. by and by, however, his imagination began to feast itself with the idea of the riches of the cavern, the sight of those which he had once thought to be safe in his possession, and the schemes which he had formed as to the use to be made of his wealth; all these things had left so deep an impression on his mind, that he found it impossible to rest. he resolved, therefore, if possible, to find out the dervise, and to take him the chandelier, in the hope of obtaining the treasure by bringing to the holy man an article for which he had shown so strong a desire. fortunately mujahid recollected the dervise's name, and the name of the city, magnebi, where he dwelt. he set out on his journey as soon as possible, bidding farewell to his mother, and taking the chandelier with him, which supplied him every evening, after being lit, with the means of supporting himself, without having occasion to resort for assistance to the compassion of the faithful. when he reached magnebi, his first inquiry was after the house where abounadar lodged. he was so well known, that the first person he met could tell him his residence. on arriving at the house, or rather palace, he found fifty porters keeping watch at the door, each of them bearing a wand with a golden apple for its handle. the courts of the palace were crowded with slaves and domestics; indeed, no prince's residence ever displayed greater splendour. mujahid, struck with astonishment and admiration, was reluctant to proceed further. "either," said he to himself, "i have described the person whom i wanted imperfectly, or those to whom i spoke must have wished to make a mock of me, observing that i was a stranger. this is not the residence of a dervise, but of a king." mujahid was in this state of embarrassment when a man came up to him and said, "you are welcome, mujahid; my master, abounadar, has been long expecting you;" and so saying, he conducted him into a magnificent garden, where the dervise was seated. mujahid, struck with the riches which he saw every where around him, would have thrown himself at his feet, but abounadar would not permit him, and interrupted him when he was about to make a merit of bringing back the chandelier which he presented to him, by saying, "you are an ungrateful wretch. do you think to impose upon me? i know all your thoughts; and if you had known the worth of this chandelier, you would never have brought it to me. i shall now make you acquainted with its true use." in each of the branches of the chandelier he now placed a light; and when the dervises had turned round, abounadar gave each of them a blow with a stick, and immediately they were converted into twelve heaps of sequins, diamonds, and other precious stones. "look," he said, "at the use to be made of this wonderful chandelier. my only reason, however, for wishing to place it in my cabinet, was on account of its being a talisman composed by a sage whom i revered; and i shall be always happy to show it to persons who visit me. to prove to you," he continued, "that curiosity is the only reason which induced me to procure the lamp, take the keys of my cellars, open them, and judge for yourself of the extent of my opulence, and say if i should not be the most insatiably avaricious of all men, not to be contented with what i have." mujahid took the keys, and made a survey of twelve magazines so filled with every description of precious stones, that he was unable to tell which of them most deserved his admiration. regret at having restored the chandelier, and at not having discovered its uses, now wrung his heart intensely. abounadar seemed not to perceive this, but on the contrary loaded mujahid with caresses, kept him for some days in his palace, and desired his servants to treat him as they would himself. on the evening before the day fixed for his departure, abounadar said to him, "mujahid, my son, i think, from what has occurred, that you are now cured of the frightful sin of ingratitude; however, i owe you something for having undertaken so long a journey for the purpose of bringing to me an article which i wished to possess. you may now depart; i will detain you no longer. to-morrow you will find at the gate of my palace one of my horses to carry you home. i will make you a present of it, together with a slave who will bring you two camels loaded with gold and precious stones, which you can select for yourself from among my treasures." during the night mujahid was restless and uneasy, and unable to think of any thing except the chandelier and its wonderful qualities. for a long time he said to himself, "it was in my power; abounadar would never have obtained it but for me. what risks did i not encounter in the subterranean cave in order to secure it! why is it that he is now the fortunate owner of this treasure of treasures? is it not owing to my fidelity, or rather folly, in bringing it to him, that he now profits by the trouble and danger i underwent in the long journey i had to make? and what does he give me in return? only two miserable camels loaded with gold and precious stones, when in a moment the chandelier could supply me with ten times as much! it is abounadar who is ungrateful, and not i who am so. what injury shall i do him by taking the chandelier? not any; for he is rich, and wants nothing more." these ideas determined him, at last, to do all in his power to get possession of the chandelier; and it was not difficult to do so. he knew where to find it, and having taken it, he placed it at the bottom of one of his sacks which he had filled with the treasure given to him, and put the sack, along with the others, on the back of one of the camels. his only desire now was to get away, and after having hurriedly bid farewell to the generous abounadar, he took his departure, with his slave and camels. when now at some considerable distance from balsora, he sold his slave, not wishing to retain him as a witness of his former poverty, or of the source of his wealth. he purchased another, and went straight to his mother's house, whom he scarcely noticed, so absorbed was he with his treasures. his first care was to place the camels' luggage in a secure place; and, in his impatience to feast his eyes with solid riches, he placed lights in the chandelier without delay. the twelve dervises made their appearance, and he bestowed on each of them a blow with all his might, being afraid of not complying sufficiently with the laws of the talisman; but he had not noticed that abounadar, when striking them, held his stick in his left hand. mujahid naturally held his in his right hand, and the dervises, instead of being changed into heaps of treasure, drew from beneath their robes formidable bludgeons, with which they all belaboured him so long and so severely, that they left him nearly dead, after which they disappeared, carrying with them the camels and all their burdens, the horse, the slave, and the chandelier. thus, for not being contented with a large fortune honestly acquired, mujahid fell into a state of misery from which he never recovered--a suitable punishment for his ingratitude and avarice. the old man at last took his leave of us, and returned to schiraz, his native place, bearing with him the blessings of all my family. after saadi's departure, i unhappily neglected to follow his good advice. i purchased a new and splendid residence, where i lived in great splendour and luxury. instead of being grateful to heaven for its bounty, i became proud and insolent. i entertained and feasted all the gay companions i could meet with, while i refused to give alms, and drove the needy from my door; in short, i spent my money rapidly, and made the worst possible use of what i had so mysteriously acquired. my treasure soon began to run low; still i lived in the same profuse extravagance, until at last all was spent, and i found that, for some time, i had been living upon credit. the truth could no longer be concealed, and, being unable to meet the demands upon me, i had to sell off the whole of my property. a small sum would have sufficed to release me, so that i might again return to my trade, and, for this purpose, i appealed for assistance to my former friends and companions. not one of these, however, would come forward in my behalf. the produce of the sale of my house and effects was insufficient to pay my debts, and i was consequently thrown into prison, where i have remained for three years, my family, in the mean time, living upon the casual alms of the faithful. the aid you have rendered me will suffice to set me free, and i am now resolved to labour with diligence, in order to repair, as far as possible, my past folly. [illustration: shooting at the enchanted keys, p. ] continuation of the story of hassan abdallah. in this manner our journey was beguiled, and on the sixth day, in the morning, we entered on an immense plain, whose glittering soil seemed composed of silver dust. in the middle of the plain arose a lofty pillar of granite, surmounted by a statue of copper, representing a young man, whose right hand was stretched out open, and to each of whose fingers was suspended a key; the first was of iron, the second of lead, the third of bronze, the fourth of copper, and the fifth of gold. this statue was the workmanship of an enchanter, and each key was a talisman; whoever was led by accident or his own free will into this desert, and became possessed of these keys, inherited the destiny attached to them. the first was the key of calamities, the second of physical sufferings, the third of death, the fourth of glory, and the last of knowledge and wealth. i was ignorant of all these matters; but my master had become acquainted with them from a learned indian, who had also informed him that the keys could only be obtained by shooting them down with arrows. the arab planted his foot near to the column, and then fixing an arrow in his bow, which was of a foreign make, he shot it towards the statue, but, whether from want of skill or intentionally, the arrow did not reach halfway. he then said to me, "hassan, you have now an opportunity of discharging your debt to me, and of purchasing your liberty. you are both strong and skilful; take this bow and arrows, and bring me down those keys." i took the bow, and perceived that it was of persian workmanship, and made by a skilful hand. in my youth, i had accustomed myself to this exercise, and had acquired great reputation in it. desirous of displaying my attainments, i bent the bow with all my strength, and with the first arrow i brought down the first key. overjoyed, i took it up, and presented it to my master. "keep it," he said; "it is the reward of your skill." with a second arrow, i brought down the leaden one. the arab would not touch it, and i took it, and put it in my belt, along with the other. with two other arrows, i brought down two more keys--the copper key and the golden key. my companion took them up, uttering exclamations of delight. "o hassan," he said, "god be praised! blessed be he who trained your arm and practised your eye to such accuracy. i am proceeding happily towards the accomplishment of my object." i was about to aim at the last key--that of death, and had raised my bow for that purpose, but he forbade me, and struck my arm to prevent my shooting. in doing this, he caused the arrow to fall and pierce my foot, producing a painful wound. having dressed it as well as he could, he assisted me to mount my camel, and we thereupon continued our journey. after three days and nights of laborious travelling, we arrived in the neighbourhood of a small wood, where we stopped to spend the night. i set about looking for water, and some refreshing fruits, and particularly some with whose good qualities i was acquainted, but i could find nothing eatable. at last i discovered in the crevice of a rock a small spring, which invited me, by its clear and limpid waters, to refresh myself; but stooping down to drink, i heard the voice of my companion shouting to me not to taste the water, for that it was poisoned. "what matters it," i said, "whether i die of thirst or of poison?" "this water," he said, "comes from the infernal regions, and passes through the mass of sulphur, bitumen, and metals that feed the fires in the centre of the earth; and if you drink, you will in all probability fall a victim to your imprudence." although bitter, the water was so clear and fresh, that without heeding what he said, i drank some of it, and feeling refreshed for the time, i agreed to proceed on our journey, but i had scarcely gone on a hundred paces, when i was attacked by the most racking pains, and with many exclamations and cries to heaven for help, i endeavoured to moderate the speed of my camel, who was following his companion at a brisk pace. my tortures became so great, that i called aloud to the arab, and begged him to stop; he consented, when i dismounted and walked for some time, which partly relieved me. the arab chid me for my disobedience to his commands, and taking out a small phial from his pocket, gave me a few drops of a cordial, which in a short time completely cured me. towards evening we came near a high mountain, where we stopped to take a little rest. the arab said, "god be praised, to-day will not be a fast day with us! by experience i have learned to collect a healthy and refreshing nourishment from a quarter where you would only find poison." he then went to a bush with leaves of a very thick and prickly nature, and having cut off some of them with his sabre, and stript them, of their skins, he extracted from them a yellow and sugary substance, similar in taste to figs, and i partook of the food until i was quite satisfied and refreshed. i was beginning to forget my sufferings, and hoped to pass the night in peaceful slumber, but when the moon arose my master said to me, "i expect you to perform a signal service for me; you have to ascend this mountain, and when at the summit, you must wait for sunrise; then, standing up and turning towards the east, you must offer up your devotions and descend; but take care, and do not allow yourself to be overtaken by sleep, for the emanations which arise from the ground in this place are extremely noxious, and you may suffer severely from them." although overwhelmed with fatigue and pain, i obeyed the arab's orders, remembering that he had given bread to my children; and that, perhaps, should i refuse, he would abandon me in this savage wilderness. i ascended the mountain and reached the summit about midnight. the soil was bare and stony; not a shrub, not a blade of grass was to be found upon it. the extreme cold, together with fatigue, threw me into such a state of torpor that i could not resist lying down on the earth and falling asleep. i awoke at the rising of the sun to fulfil my instructions. i stood up with difficulty; my aching limbs refused to support my body; my head hung down as if made of lead, and i was unable to lift up my paralyzed arms. making a painful effort, and holding myself up towards the east, i invoked the name of god. i then endeavoured to descend the mountain, but it was so steep, and my weakness was so great, that at the first step my limbs tottered under me, and i fell, and rolled down the mountain with frightful rapidity; stones and thorns were the only obstacles to my descent, and they tore my dress and my skin, causing me to bleed at every pore. at length i reached the bottom of the hill, near to where my master was stretched on the ground, tracing lines on it with such attention, that he did not observe in what a state i was. "god be thanked and praised," he said, without noticing me; "we were born under a happy planet; every thing succeeds with us! thanks to you, hassan, i have just discovered what i wanted, by measuring the shadow projected by your head from the summit of the mountain. assist me to dig where i have stuck my lance." he raised his head, and seeing me extended on the earth, motionless, came up to me, and exclaimed, "what! in disobedience to my orders you have slept on the mountain, and imbibed its unwholesome vapours into your blood! do not despair, however, i will cure you;" and he took from his pocket a lancet, with which, before i could offer any resistance, he made small incisions in different parts of my body, from which i bled profusely. he then dressed my wounds and bruises carefully, and i felt a little better. seeing that i was too weak to assist him, he began to dig in the earth himself at the place which he had marked. he soon exposed to view a tomb of white marble, which he opened; it contained some human bones, and a book written in letters of gold on the skin of the gazelle. my master began reading it with attention: at length his pale brow became lit up with pleasure, and his eyes sparkled with delight. "hassan abdallah," he said to me, "this book teaches me the way to the mysterious city; we shall soon enter into aram, built on columns, where no mortal has ever as yet penetrated; it is there that we shall find the principle of earthly riches, the germ of the metallic mines which god has placed in the centre of the earth." "my lord," i replied, "i share with you in your joy; but this treasure is of little or no advantage to me; i would rather, i assure you, be poor and in good health at cairo, than rich and in wretchedness here." "ungrateful man!" he exclaimed; "i am labouring for your advantage as well as for my own, intending to share with you the fruit of our journey, as i have done until now." "true," i said, "but, alas! all the ill fortunes and calamities fall to me." however, after some further assurances on the part of the arab, i became pacified, and the same day, after having laid in a stock of fruits, we reascended our camels, and continued our journey towards the east. we journeyed thus for three days and nights. the fourth day in the morning we perceived in the horizon the appearance of a large mirror, which reflected the sunbeams. on drawing near we saw that it was a river of quicksilver; it was crossed by a bridge of crystal, without balustrades, but so narrow and slippery that no man in his senses would think of attempting to pass it. my master told me to unsaddle the camels, to let them feed at liberty, and to prepare woollen slippers with thick and soft soles for both of us; and having ordered me to walk behind him without looking to the right hand or to the left, he crossed the bridge with a firm step, and i followed him trembling. after we had crossed the river and proceeded for some hours, we found ourselves at the entrance of a gloomy valley. it was surrounded on all sides with black rocks, hard as iron, and here and there on the ground were spread human bones, bleached by time. through the dark foliage of the shrubs which grew there might be seen the undulating and scaly forms of serpents gliding along. i retreated hastily from this den of horror, but could not discover the spot at which i had entered, the rocks seeming every where to rise up like the walls of a great cavern. i began to weep, and said to my companion, "you have led me on to death by the path of suffering and misery; i shall never see my wife and children again. why have you torn me away from my poor but peaceful home?" "hassan," he said to me, "be a man! have patience; we shall soon get out of this horrible place. wait a few moments, and i will show you how we may escape." so saying, he sat down on the ground, and, opening the mysterious book, began turning over the pages and reading in it as calmly as if he had been sitting in his own house. after a short time he called to me, and said, "my friend, call up your courage, your task is easy; you are a skilful marksman; take this bow and arrows; examine the valley until you meet with a huge serpent with a black head, kill him and bring his head and heart to me." "alas!" i said, weeping, "is this indeed a thing so easy for me? why will you not do it yourself? we are too fortunate not to be molested by these monsters; why should we go in search of them?" upon this he started up with a fierce aspect, and, drawing his sword, swore that he would kill me that instant if i did not obey him. "do you see all these bones?" he said. "they are the bones of men who disobeyed me, and who died in consequence by my hand." trembling, i took the bow and arrows, and went among the rocks where the serpents were to be found. selecting one which appeared to me to answer the description given me, i took aim at its head, and, invoking the assistance of heaven, discharged my arrow. the serpent, mortally wounded, sprung up, and twisting and contorting itself in a frightful manner, fell dead on the ground. when i was certain that he was dead, i took my knife, cut off his head, and took out his heart. with these bloody trophies i returned to my master, who received me with a smiling countenance. "forgive me," he said, "for employing threats towards you; in reality i was anxious to save you from a miserable fate. the men to whom these bones belonged died here of hunger by their own fault; they proved deficient in courage, and i was compelled, in spite of myself, to abandon them to their fate." "now," he continued, "come and assist me to make a fire." i collected dry leaves and small branches of trees, of which he made a small heap; then turning an enchanted diamond towards the sun, which was then in its meridian, a ray of light issued from the precious stone which set the materials in a blaze. he next drew from under his robe a small iron vase and three phials; the first, of ruby, contained the elements of winds; the second, of emerald, contained a ray of moonlight; and the third, which was of gold, contained the blood of a phoenix. all these substances he placed in the vase, and added the heart and brain of the serpent. he then opened the book and put the vase on the fire, pronouncing at the same time some words which to me were unintelligible. when he had finished, he uncovered his shoulders, as the pilgrims do at their departure, and dipping a portion of his garment in the mixture, handed it to me, desiring me to rub his back and shoulders with it. as i did so i observed the skin swell out and wings spring forth, which, visibly increasing in size, soon reached the ground. the arab spread them and began to rise in the air. fear of remaining in this doleful place lent me courage, and laying hold with all my might of the end of his girdle, i was borne up along with him, and in a few moments we bade farewell to the black rocks of this fatal valley. presently, as we pursued this aërial tour, we found ourselves soaring above an immense plain, surrounded by a precipice of crystal, tinged with azure and purple. the earth seemed formed of golden dust, and the pebbles upon it looked like precious stones. before us were the lofty walls of a city crowded with magnificent palaces and delicious gardens. lost in admiration of this glorious scene, the arab forgot to keep his wings moving, and we descended rapidly towards the ground, which i of course reached first, he falling upon me. i then perceived his wings gradually diminish, and by degrees wholly disappear. when i noticed this to him, he replied, that, unfortunately, science was limited in its powers; it enabled him to construct wings of great power, but could not avail for their preservation beyond a certain time. "to become the possessor," said he, "of the ingredients which you saw me employ in forming these wings, i have spent thirty years of my life, the lives of many men, and money sufficient for a king's ransom. the wings helped me but for a few moments, long enough, however, for my purpose; they have borne me to glory and fortune. rejoice, hassan abdallah; behold aram, the city built on columns, the mysterious city!" [illustration: the escape of hassan abdallah and the arab from the enchanted valley, p. .] we then approached the walls; they were built of alternate layers of bricks of gold and silver. the battlements were of marble, cut and sculptured by the hands of genii. there were eight gates in the walls,--the number of the gates of paradise; the first was of silver, the second of gold, the third of agate, the fourth of coral, the fifth of pearl, the sixth of topaz, the seventh of emerald, and the eighth of ruby. the arab informed me that this city had been built by the famous enchanter tchedad, the son of aad, who had exhausted upon it all the treasures of earth, sea, and sky. he wanted in his pride to rival the glory of the almighty by this piece of workmanship; but god, to punish him, struck him and his family with lightning at the very instant he and they were solemnly taking possession of the palace. an impenetrable veil hangs over the city ever since, and no one has been able to discover it. we went forward, invoking the name of god; the streets were lined with palaces adorned with columns of marble, agate, and all kinds of costly materials; streams of odoriferous waters embalmed and refreshed the atmosphere; trees of a wondrous form furnished a delicious shelter from the rays of the sun, and in their branches birds of song produced concerts of ravishing sweetness. the very air that one breathed seemed to fascinate the mind, and to lift it up to heaven. the arab, taking me by the hand, conducted me towards the palace of tchedad; its construction, in point of art and splendour of adornment, was unspeakably magnificent. terraces, formed of coloured crystal, were supported on a thousand columns of gold. in the midst of the palace was an enchanted garden, where the earth, breathing of musk, bore fruits and flowers of marvellous richness and beauty. three rivers surrounded the garden, flowing with wine, rose-water, and honey. in the centre of the garden there was a pavilion, whose dome, formed of a single emerald, overshadowed a throne of gold covered with pearls and rubies. on the throne there was a small chest of gold; the arab opened it, and found in it a red powder. "throw away this dust," i said, "and fill the casket with precious stones." "poor fool that you are," he replied; "this dust is the source of all the riches of the world; it is red sulphur. a small portion of it is sufficient to change into gold the basest metals. with it i can build palaces, found cities, purchase the life of men and the admiration of beautiful women. i can even, if i please, cause myself to become prince and king; but i cannot by it prolong my life a single day, or efface an hour from my by-past existence. god alone is great! god alone is eternal!" whilst he thus spoke, i employed myself in collecting precious stones and pearls, filling with them my girdle, pockets, and turban. "unhappy man!" he cried, "what are you doing? you will bring down upon us the vengeance of heaven. we are only permitted to touch this casket; and if we should attempt to carry out of the valley a leaf from one of these trees, or a stone from off the ground, instantaneous death would be our lot." i immediately emptied my pockets, much to my regret, and followed my master, not however without often turning my head aside to look at the incalculable riches spread around me. fearing that i should fall a prey to the seductions of wealth, my master took me by the hand and led me out of the city. we quitted it by the path by which we came, but more slowly than we approached. when we arrived at the crystal precipice it opened before us, and we passed through it; when we had done so, we looked about in vain for the wonderful plain and the city,--they could no longer be seen. we found ourselves on the brink of the river of quicksilver, and crossed the bridge. our camels were feeding on the flowery herbage, and i ran to mine with delight, as to an old friend. after refastening our girths, we mounted and set out on the road to egypt. we were three months in reaching cairo. during all this time i suffered many privations; my health was destroyed, and i endured every kind of evil. from some fatality, the cause of which was unknown to me at the time, i alone was exposed to all the accidents of the journey, while my companion continued in health and comfort, passing safely through every danger. i discovered afterwards that all my misfortunes arose from my having in my possession the enchanted keys. this was one day towards the close of our journey, when the arab confessed to me that he was aware of this fatal quality of theirs, and that it was in order to free himself from it that he purchased me. when i wanted to throw away the accursed keys, he withheld me. "patience and resignation," said he, "and these virtues only, can exhaust their evil influence, and for your own sake i would advise you to keep them to the end. all will turn out eventually for your good." a few days after receiving this communication we arrived at cairo, and i immediately ran to my home, the door of which was open and broken, and the interior occupied by crowds of famished and prowling dogs, who had taken up their abode there. a neighbour, who heard me calling out in an agony of despair, opened her door, and said to me, "hassan abdallah, is that you? well may you be astounded! know that some time after your departure,--that is, about five months ago,--some thieves, knowing that you were absent, and that there was no male slave left to take care of your house, broke into your house during the night, insulted the women, and went off with all the property that you had left. your mother died a few days after, in consequence. your wife, in her destitution, resolved to go to alexandria, to her brother. the caravan which she accompanied was attacked by the arabs of the desert, who, being enraged at the resistance they met with, put all to the sword without mercy." on hearing these sad tidings, i shed many tears, and returning to the arab, accused him with being the cause of all my misfortunes. "god is the author and end of all things," he said to me, and then, taking me by the hand, led me along with him. it appeared that on the same day he had hired a magnificent palace, to this he now compelled me to repair and reside with him; and for my consolation, he told me that he would share with me the treasures of science, and teach me to read in the book of alchemy. here we resided a long time: whenever his costly fancies caused him to be in want of money, he used to have several hundred-weight of lead conveyed secretly to him, and when it was melted he threw some small portions of red sulphur into it, and in a moment the vile metal was changed into the purest gold. in the midst of all this luxury, i continued ill and unhappy; my feeble body was unable to support the weight, or to endure the contact of the rich clothes and the precious stuffs with which i was covered. the most delicate food was served up to me in vain, and the most delicious wines; i only felt disgusted and disinclined towards them all. i had superb apartments, beds formed of sweet smelling and costly woods, and divans of purple; but sleep, in spite of all, was a stranger to my eyes. i called on death, but he refused to come to me. the arab, on the other hand, passed his time in pleasure and feasting. the palace gardens extended to the banks of the nile; they were planted with the rarest trees, brought at a great expense from india, persia, china, and the isles. machines, constructed with great skill, raised the water of the nile, and caused it to fall in fresh and brilliant jets into marble reservoirs, "'mid orange groves and myrtle bowers, that breathed a gale of fragrance round," mingled with the perfume of jasmines and roses; there were silken pavilions, embroidered with gold, and supported on pillars of gold and silver; brilliant lamps, enclosed in globes of crystal, shed over all a light soft and effulgent as that of the moon. there, on each returning night, the arab received his companions, and treated them with the utmost magnificence. his liberality made every one who approached him his friend, and they styled him the great, the magnificent. he would sometimes come to see me at the pavilion, where my illness compelled me to remain, a solitary prisoner. on one such occasion, he paid me his visit after a night of pleasure, early in the morning. he was heated with wine, his face red, and his eyes shining with a strange lustre. he sat down beside me, and taking hold of my hand, began singing, and when he had concluded, shut his eyes, leaned his head on his breast, and appeared to fall asleep. alarmed at length at his unnatural stillness, i leaned over to him; his breathing had ceased, he had expired. perceiving that all help was useless, i began to rummage his pockets, his girdle, and his turban, in the hope of finding the keys of happiness and of wisdom, but could not discover them. i thereupon, in spite of my bad state of health, and without losing a moment, laid hold of the casket containing the book of alchemy and the red sulphur; and considering that i might lawfully regard myself as the legitimate proprietor, i carried it secretly to my former house, which i had previously caused to be rebuilt and provided with new furniture. returning to the palace just as i had left it, i began to cry aloud, and to ask for help; the slaves and servants ran immediately to know what was the matter, and i then sent them to bring the best physician, even the caliph's, if he could be found. when the medical men came they declared that the stranger had died by the will of god. i then gave orders for the funeral. his body, attired in the richest vestments, was placed, exposed to view, in a coffin of aloe-wood, lined with gold. a cloth of a marvellously fine tissue, which had been manufactured for a persian prince, served for a coverlet. fifty servants, all dressed in mourning attire, bore, in turns, the coffin on their shoulders; and every good mussulman who passed by, hastened to lend his assistance, if it were only by a helping hand. a considerable number of women, hired for the purpose, followed the bier, uttering plaintive cries. the keepers of the mosque sung sacred verses, and the crowd repeated, "god is god! there is no god but god! he alone is eternal." in this order, accompanied by numerous friends whom the arab had made by his generosity, we proceeded to the cemetery, southward of the city, and near to the gate of bab-el-masr (the gate of victory). i gave a purse of gold to a skilful architect, with orders to raise a tomb to the memory of my master. returning to the palace, it fell to my lot, of course, to preside at the funeral repast. this painful duty was scarcely over, when i saw some officers from the caliph arrive, who were commanded by his order to take possession of the wealth contained in the palace, and which belonged to him, as a stranger's heir. i was driven away, and left the palace, taking with me, in appearance, nothing but the dress which i wore, but, in reality, the owner of an inestimable treasure. betaking myself to my house, i resolved to live there an unknown and peaceful life, passing the time in the study of the sciences, and only using the red sulphur to impart benefit to others in secret. a curious and jealous neighbour having ascended the terrace of my house one evening, and seen me at work, effecting the transmutation of the lead into gold, told my secret to his wife, who repeated it at the bath, and next morning all cairo was acquainted with it. the report reached the ears of the caliph, theilon, who sent for me, and told me that he knew i possessed the great secret of knowledge, and that if i would share it with him, he would overwhelm me with honours, and associate me with him in rank. i refused to the impious man the distinguished favour which god had denied to him. transported with rage, he caused me to be loaded with chains, and thrown into a gloomy dungeon; and being baffled in his attempts to penetrate my secret, he placed the casket and the book under the care of a person on whose fidelity he could depend, hoping to force the secret from me by the sufferings which he made me endure. in this state i have lived for forty years. by my persecutor's orders, i have been made to undergo all kinds of privations and tortures, and only knew of his death by my being relieved from punishment. this morning, when kneeling on the ground at my devotions, i put my hand on a strange and hard substance. looking at it, i perceived that it was the fatal keys which i had years ago buried under the floor of my dungeon. they were so worn by rust and damp, that they crumbled into powder in my hand, and i then thought that god intended to have pity upon me, and that my afflictions were about to end, either by death or the alleviation of my sufferings. a few moments after, your officers came and set me at liberty. "now, o king!" continued the old man, "i have lived long enough, since i have been permitted to approach the greatest and most upright of monarchs." mohammed, overjoyed at performing an act of justice, thanked heaven for having sent him such a treasure, and being desirous to prove its reality, he caused one thousand hundred-weight of lead to be melted in immense caldrons; and having mixed some of the red powder in the fiery mass, and pronounced over it the magical words dictated to him by the old man, the base metal was instantly changed into pure gold. the caliph, in order to propitiate the favour of heaven, resolved to employ this treasure in the building of a mosque which should transcend by its magnificence every other in the world. he collected architects from all the neighbouring countries, laid before them the plan of a vast edifice, unfettered by the difficulties or expense of its execution. the architects traced out an immense quadrangle, the sides of which faced the four cardinal points of the heavens. at each corner a tower of prodigious height was placed, of admirable proportions; the top of the structure was surrounded with a gallery and crowned with a dome of gilt copper. on each side of the edifice one thousand pillars were raised, supporting arches of an elegant curve and solid construction, and on the arches terraces were laid out with balustrades of gold of exquisite workmanship. in the centre of the edifice an immense pavilion was erected, whose construction was of so light and elegant a nature, that one would have thought it reached from earth to heaven. the vault was inlaid with azure-coloured enamel and studded with golden stars. marbles of the rarest kinds formed the pavement, and the walls consisted of a mosaic formed of jasper, porphyry, agate, mother-of-pearl, sapphires, rubies, and other precious stones. the pillars and arches were covered with arabesques and verses from the koran, carved in relief, and painted. no wood was employed in the building of this wonderful edifice, which was therefore fire-proof. mohammed spent seven years in erecting this celebrated mosque, and expended on it a sum of two millions of dinars. although so old, hassan abdallah recovered his health and strength, and lived to be a hundred years of age, honoured with the esteem and the friendship of the caliph. the mosque built by the caliph mohammed is still to be seen at cairo, and is the largest and the finest of all the mosques of that great city. * * * * * one day, very shortly after the completion of the mosque, the caliph and hassan abdallah were absent for three days on a journey. mohammed communicated to no one but his first vizir his intention; but on his return he assembled his whole court, and informed them that the object of the expedition had been to bury the casket, with the book and the powder, where it was impossible they could ever be discovered. "i have done," added mohammed, "what i could to consecrate this wonderful treasure, but i would not trust even myself any longer with so dangerous a temptation." footnotes: [ ] most of our readers will also recognize in the story of the princess schirine the groundwork of one of hans andersen's beautiful danish tales, "the flying trunk." ii. soliman bey and the three story-tellers. soliman bey, passing one day along a street in cairo, saw three common-looking men seated at the door of a coffee-house and sipping their cup of mocha. from their dull and meaningless looks he conjectured that they were under the influence of haschich[ ]. after looking at them attentively, the bey saluted them, and was pursuing his way, when he suddenly found himself obliged to stop, as a long train of camels, heavily laden, blocked up the street and prevented him from passing on. the bey, having nothing better to do, amused himself by scrutinizing attentively the eaters of haschich, who were old men. a warm discussion seemed to be going on among them; they raised their arms, vied with each other who should cry the loudest, and made the strangest possible grimaces; but owing to the distance at which he stood, he was unable to hear what they said. on his return home, being curious to know the subject of their dispute, he sent his officer to beg these three originals to wait upon him. when they arrived, he said to them, "what were you disputing about, my friends, when i passed you?" "may allah prolong your days!" replied one of them; "we were disputing about which of us it was to whom the salutation belonged that your highness addressed to us, for each of us took that honour to himself." the bey burst out laughing. "i greeted," he said, after a moment's reflection, "him among you who did the greatest number of foolish things while intoxicated by the haschich." "it was i, my lord," they all at once exclaimed. "stop," replied the bey; "let each of you tell me one of the tricks played him by the haschich, and the honour of my greeting shall be his who shall have committed the greatest act of folly; and do you begin," added the bey, pointing to one of the men. the first story-teller. "be it known to you, my lord," said the first story-teller, "that a short time ago i had in my purse a thousand piastres, which were enough for my expenses, and i was contented with my lot. one day, however, i had been taking a walk, and on my return i sat down to rest and chewed a bit of haschich, took my coffee, and lit my pipe; in two or three hours my head began to buzz. i went out again and walked about the streets. in front of a coffee-house i noticed some men collected round an _improvisatore_, who was singing and accompanying himself on the timbrel. i sat down in the circle and asked for coffee. i lighted my pipe and commenced listening. the improvisatore depicted a young girl. oh, how beautiful she was! it was impossible not to love her. compared with her iyleika[ ] was but as a star in the presence of the sun, and ablia[ ] but as the dirt of the street. i was so captivated by his description of the beautiful girl, that when he ceased i gave him all the money i had about me. "next day, at the same hour, while the haschich was boiling in my brain, i ran to the coffee-house, where the improvisatore was commencing the continuation of his yesterday's story. he now told how paladins and padishahs disputed for the possession of my adorable haridée, and how she disdained their love and refused their offers. i became more distracted this time than before, and the improvisatore got from me twice as much as he did the day before. i gave him all that i had, even to the last farthing. "next day i never left my little seat at the _café_. the improvisatore struck his tambourine this time with more vehemence while singing the charms of the beautiful haridée. he then began to relate how haridée was in love with a certain worthless fellow. at this it was impossible to tell what i felt; the hydra of jealousy devoured my heart and poured a maddening poison through my veins. i became as one deprived of all sense and feeling. but stop; the parents have separated the lovers and plunged them in an ocean of tears. i again breathed more freely, and emptied my pockets to fill the purse of the improvisatore. "thus were passed many days in succession. the flame of love and the stings of jealousy tormented me without ceasing. the haschich did its part unremittingly, and threw me at one moment into fire, and at another into ice and snow, hurling me from the height of bliss into the depths of misery. my fortunes fell with me, and i soon became totally destitute. but my thoughts were otherwise taken up than with eating or drinking; my love for haridée had become the only source to me of life and action. in this way, with empty stomach and purse, i went one day to the _café_ after having paid a few paras for a little haschich. i listened--the voice of the improvisatore trembled; in truth he wept, and grief was depicted on his features. "'what has happened?' i asked, drawing near to him. "'poor haridée!' he replied. "'what is the matter? what has taken place?' i exclaimed. "'she is dead!' he muttered. "i wept, i tore my clothes, and fled i scarce knew where. when the first transports of my despair had subsided, i saw pass before my eyes, still under the influence of the haschich, the funeral of haridée. the mournful cry of 'there is no god but god, and mahomet is his prophet,' echoed in my ears, amidst the outcries and the lamentations of the women. i ran like a madman from street to street, while the crowd followed on my path with the coffin of haridée, and the frightful groans and cries burst forth louder and louder on my ears. at length, worn out, and sore all over, i fell down in a state of complete unconsciousness, and when i came to myself, i perceived that i was at the threshold of my own home. i arose, and endeavoured to recal past events, which as they woke up in my memory caused me to feel the utmost surprise. my purse was empty, my heart broken, and the blood was flowing down my face, for in my fall i had cut open my head. after remaining a whole day in the house, i took a small piece of haschich and went to a coffee-house near at hand, where my friend the landlord poured me out a cup of mocha, and gave me a pipe. it was there that i met my two friends, and received from you, my gracious lord, a look, and a nod." "this story is not a bad one," replied soliman bey, "but do not too hastily take to yourself the honour of my greeting; let me hear first what the others have to say." the second story-teller. "know, my lord," replied the second, "that i was formerly a rich and respected merchant, with a beautiful wife and fine children. my life was like a morning of spring-time--clear, peaceful, and balmy. but haschich has ruined the structure of my happiness, and destroyed it from the roof to the foundations. one day when i had imbibed a little of this fatal poison, i was reclining, after the labours of the day, on my sofa, sipping from time to time a mouthful of coffee, and inhaling a whiff of perfumed _latakia_. my wife was occupied at my side in embroidery, and my children were at play in the room, which they made ring again with their shrill voices. at length, my brain becoming overpowered by the vapours of the haschich, the thickening fancies began to chase each other in quick succession, and my imagination at length became morbidly excited. the cries of my children seemed insupportable to me. i ordered them several times to be quiet, but the brats, wild with their games and noise, paid no attention to me. at last i lost patience, laid hold of my stick, and rapped angrily on the floor, ordering them sternly to be quiet. in the midst of this fit of anger, i stopped short, all of a sudden. the floor of my apartment emitted a hollow sound, as if there were a vault beneath it. the haschich suggested to me that there might be hidden treasure down below. 'oh, oh,' i said to myself, 'i must not be in a hurry. if i should discover the treasure in my wife's presence, she will foolishly run and trumpet it about to all our neighbours. what good would that do? let me consider, then, what i shall do to get her away.' intoxicated as i was, there was no need to deliberate long. i darted from my seat, exclaiming, 'woman! thou art separated from me by a triple divorce!'[ ] "my wife became pale as death. she threw aside her embroidery, and rose up. "'what is the matter, my dear husband? what has happened? of what have i been guilty?' "'don't say a word! and hasten this moment to leave the house, with your children.' "'but pray inform me, my lord and master, when and how i have given you any cause of complaint? we have now lived together twelve years in perfect peace and harmony, and never been but on the most affectionate terms; tell me.' "'no more explanations,' i replied; 'here are a thousand _grouches_[ ]. go to your room, and take of the furniture as much as you require, and return to your father's house.' "sadly and sorrowfully she thereupon proceeded to collect her wearing apparel, uttering mournful cries and lamentations, and taking her children with her, left the house. "'now!' i exclaimed, with satisfaction, 'now, i am quite alone.' "'silence, abou-kalif,' whispered the haschich to me; 'don't be in such haste. suppose you find this treasure, who knows but that at the first meeting of haschich-eaters, you will disclose your discovery to all the world. put yourself to the proof beforehand, by some effectual means, and thus find out if your tongue have sufficient self-command to keep still, and not say one word too much.' "faithful to the voice of my inward monitor, i arose, and taking from my chest the sum of five hundred grouches, went to pay a visit to the vali[ ]. "'here,' said i to him, 'take this money, and give me on the soles of my feet five hundred blows with a leathern thong, and, while laying them on, ask me if i have seen, found, or discovered any thing?' "the man was extremely surprised at my request, and refused to comply with it; but the people about him said that my body was my own, and that i was at liberty to dispose of it as i thought proper. 'take his money,' they said to him, 'and give him a hearty flogging.' "the vali, shrugging his shoulders, gave the signal; i was laid on the ground, my feet were tied together, and the lash whistled and sung on my bare feet. at each blow, the question i had suggested was asked, and i replied in the negative. this system of question and answer went on till the last blow. fairly exhausted with the pain, i fell down the moment i attempted to stand up. i therefore crawled along on my knees, and reached my ass, on whose back i managed, somehow or other, to raise myself, and thus reached my home. "a few days' rest having restored me in some measure, i resolved to prosecute my search for the hidden treasure. but the haschich, to which i had not forgotten on that day to pay my usual respects, stopped me in my intention. 'o abou-kalif,' it muttered in my ear, 'you have not yet put yourself sufficiently to the proof. are you now in a fit state to resist all attempts to make you disclose your secret? submit to another trial, my good fellow!' this suggestion was all-powerful, and i submitted forthwith. i drew from my strong-box one thousand grouches, and went to the aga of the janissaries. 'take this money,' i said to him, 'and give me in exchange for it a thousand stripes with a thong on the bare back; asking me between the blows, have you seen any thing? have you found any thing? have you discovered any thing?' the aga did not keep me waiting long for a reply,--and having pocketed the money, bestowed upon me most faithfully the full complement of the lashes desired. "at the conclusion of the whipping my soul seemed hovering on my lips, as if about to leave my mutilated body, which was quite prostrated by the infliction. i was obliged to be carried to my ass, and it was many days before i could set my feet to the ground. when i had recovered a little, i recollected all the details of the strange adventure which had brought upon me the acute anguish that i felt in every part of my body; and the more i reflected on the matter, the more vividly i saw the fatal consequences that would follow from too much confidence in the suggestions inspired by the haschich. i cursed the hateful ideas produced by the vapours of this drug, and promised myself that i would amend my ways, and repair, as far as possible, my injustice to my wife. but at the very moment when this praiseworthy resolution arose in my brain and diffused its odours there, like a fresh-opening flower, my hand, from the strength of habit, sought for the tin box that lay under my pillow, and drew from it a white particle, which i placed in my mouth, as if to mock all the weak efforts of my will. in fact, while my mind was occupied in planning a final rupture with the perfidious hempen-seed, my enemy stole in on me like a midnight robber by night, imposed his yoke, and overthrew completely all my good intentions. unwittingly i found myself again in the power of the enemy. 'well, abou-kalif,' he said, 'arise. the precautions you have taken are sufficiently severe; it is time to set to work, and not allow the favourable moment to escape, otherwise you may repent it.' in this manner spake the delusive poison working within me, and i was wholly in its power, incapable of resistance. i rose from my bed with a frightful pain in my back and sides, dragged myself along towards the mysterious flag-stone, and with my heart beating violently, and my brain cloudy and obscured, i set to work to raise the stone, which speedily yielded to my efforts. in a state of the highest excitement, i sat down on the edge of the cavern with my legs hanging down into it, and my hands leaning on its sides; i scarcely dared to look downwards. the haschich, however, pushed me forwards, and seemed to press on my shoulders. my hands at last yielded, and i fell down. o my sovereign and master, do not ask where i found myself; enough that i felt myself stifled. the noisome matter into which i had fallen up to the chin, being disturbed and agitated, had emitted exhalations which fairly suffocated me. i strove to cry out, but in vain. i fainted, and lost all consciousness. "meanwhile, whilst i, pursued by the fatal influence of the haschich, had fallen over the edge of the precipice, where i was now struggling, my disconsolate wife had begged her father to allow her to make inquiry respecting me. 'i know,' she said, weeping, 'that a sudden attack of madness has seized him, and that the real cause of his sending me away, as well as of all the evil that has just befallen us, is the haschich. let no curse fall upon him. no doubt my husband will change his conduct with regard to me, as i cannot reproach myself with any thing; i will therefore go and see what has happened to him.' 'well, my child, you may go,' replied her father; 'i shall not seek to hinder you.' she went, and knocked at the door, but no one replied. she then inquired of the neighbours if abou-kalif was at home; they said they had not seen him leave the house for the last week. on being told this, she had the door burst open, and, followed by a crowd of neighbours of both sexes, searched for me for a long time in vain. at last, however, i was discovered, half dead and stifled. they pulled me out, cleansed and sweetened me, and attired me in a fresh suit of clothes; after which i left the house to breathe the fresh air and recover myself. it was not long, however, before the haschich regained its old dominion over me, and led me to the coffee-house, where you saw me, and condescended to honour me with your greeting." "not quite so soon," exclaimed the bey, holding his sides with laughter; "your story is also a very good one, but before i award to you the honour of my salutation, i must hear what your other companion has got to say." the third story-teller. "sovereign and master," commenced the third eater of haschich, "no longer ago than a week i was so happy and satisfied with my lot, that in truth i would not have exchanged it even for your own. i had a house filled with every comfort, plenty of money, and a wife who was a miracle of beauty. one day this charming better half of myself, after having passed all the day in the bath, returned from it looking so clean, fresh, and rosy, that my head, where the haschich which i had been taking for the last hour and a half was breeding disorder, became on fire and was lost. my eyes grew intoxicated with my wife, as if i had then beheld her beauty for the first time, and my heart bounded like the holy waves of the nile during a storm. "'dear cousin,' i cried, for she was my cousin as well as my wife, 'how captivating you are to-day! i am over head and ears in love with you again!' "at this instant the haschich suggested to me to divorce her immediately in order to contract a new marriage and taste again the bliss of a first union. no sooner said than done; i pronounced the prescribed phrase, and the next day i celebrated a new marriage with her[ ]. when the festivities were over, i conducted my relations and guests to the door, which, from absence of mind, i had forgotten to shut. "'dear cousin,' said my wife to me when we were alone, 'go and shut the street door.' "'it would be strange indeed if i did,' i replied. 'am i just made a bridegroom, clothed in silk, wearing a shawl and a dagger set with diamonds, and am i to go and shut the door? why, my dear, you are crazy; go and shut it yourself!' "'oh indeed!' she exclaimed; 'am i, young, robed in a satin dress, with lace and precious stones, am i to go and shut the court-yard door? no, indeed, it is you who have become crazy, and not i. come, let us make a bargain,' she continued; 'and let the first who speaks get up and bar the door.' "'agreed,' i replied, and straightway i became mute, and she too was silent, while we both sat down, dressed as we were in our nuptial attire, looking at each other, and seated on opposite sofas. we remained thus for one--two--hours. during this time thieves happening to pass by, and seeing the door open, entered and laid hold of whatever came to their hand. we heard footsteps in the house, but opened not our mouths; the robbers came even into our room, and saw us seated, motionless and indifferent to all that took place. they continued therefore their pillage, collecting together every thing valuable, and even dragging away the carpets from beneath us; they then laid hands on our own persons, which they despoiled of every article worth taking, while we, in the fear of losing our wager, said not a word. "having thus cleared the house, the thieves departed quietly, but we remained on our seats, saying not a syllable. towards morning a police officer came round on his tour of inspection, and, seeing our door opened, walked in. having searched all the rooms and found no one, he entered the apartment where we were seated, and inquired the meaning of what he saw. neither my wife nor i would condescend to reply. the officer became angry, and ordered our heads to be cut off. the executioner's sword was just about to perform its office, when my wife cried out, 'sir, he is my husband, spare him!' "'oh, oh!' i exclaimed, overjoyed and clapping my hands, 'you have lost the wager; go, shut the door.' "i then explained the whole affair to the police officer, who shrugged his shoulders and went away, leaving us in a truly dismal plight. immediately after i went to a coffee-house, where you deigned to honour me with a salutation." * * * * * at the conclusion of this story the bey, who was ready to die with laughter, exclaimed, "this time it is you who are in the right; you are truly entitled to my respects." footnotes: [ ] an intoxicating drug, like opium. [ ] personages who figure in arabian legends. [ ] this is the legal form of pronouncing a divorce among the mahometans. [ ] a small coin, in circulation in turkey, about the value of eighteenpence of our money. it is probably from the same root as the german _groschen_. [ ] the public executioner. [ ] the mahometans may immediately take back the woman whom they had divorced, but a fresh marriage ceremony must take place. iii. the story of prince khalaf and the princess of china. prince khalaf was the son of an aged khan of the nagäi-tartars. the history of his time makes honourable mention of his name. it relates that he surpassed all the princes of the age in beauty, in wisdom, and in valour; that he was as learned as the greatest doctors of his age; that he could fathom the deepest mysteries of the commentaries on the koran; and that he knew by heart the sayings of the prophet: it speaks of him, in short, as the hero of asia and the wonder of the east. this prince was the soul of the councils of his father timurtasch. when he gave advice, the most accomplished statesmen approved it, and could not sufficiently admire his prudence and wisdom. if, moreover, it were necessary to take up arms, he was immediately seen at the head of the troops of the state, seeking out the enemy, engaging them and vanquishing them. he had already won several victories, and the nagäis had rendered themselves so formidable by their repeated successes, that the neighbouring nations did not venture to quarrel with them. such was the prosperous state of affairs in the khan's dominions, when an ambassador from the sultan of carisma arrived at the court of timurtasch, and demanded in the name of his master that the nagäis should henceforth pay him a yearly tribute; he added that in default he would come in person, with an overwhelming force, and compel them to submit, at the same time depriving their sovereign of his crown as a punishment for his refusal. on hearing this arrogant message, the khan immediately assembled his council in order to decide whether to pay the tribute rather than risk a war with so powerful an enemy, or whether to treat his menaces with contempt and prepare to repel the invaders. khalaf, with the majority of the council, were of the latter opinion, and the ambassador being dismissed with a refusal, took his departure for carisma. the khan lost no time in sending deputies to the neighbouring nations, in order to represent to them that it was to their interest to unite with him against the sultan of carisma, whose ambition now exceeded all bounds, and who would undoubtedly exact the same tribute from them if he should succeed in conquering the nagäis. the deputies succeeded in these negotiations; the neighbouring nations and tribes, and amongst them the circassians, engaged to join in the proposed confederation, and to furnish among them a quota of fifty thousand men. on this promise, the khan proceeded to raise fresh troops, in addition to the army which he already had on foot. while the nagäis were making these preparations, the sultan of carisma assembled an army of two hundred thousand men, and crossed the jaxartes at cogende. he marched through the countries of ilac and saganac, where he found abundance of provisions; and had advanced as far as jund, before the army of the khan, commanded by prince khalaf, was able to take the field, in consequence of the circassians and the other auxiliary troops not having been able sooner to join him. as soon as these succours arrived, khalaf marched direct towards jund, but he had scarcely passed jenge kemt, when his scouts informed him that the enemy was close at hand, and was advancing to attack him. the young prince immediately ordered his troops to halt, and proceeded to arrange them in order of battle. the two armies were nearly equal in numbers, and the men who composed them equally courageous. the battle which ensued was bloody and obstinate. the sultan did all that a warrior skilled in the conduct of armies could do; and the prince khalaf, on his side, more than could be expected from so young a general. at one time the nagäi-tartars had the advantage, at another they were obliged to yield to the carismians; at last both parties, alternately victors and vanquished, were obliged by the approach of night to sound a retreat. the combat was to have recommenced in the morning; but, in the mean time, the leader of the circassians went secretly to the sultan, and offered to abandon the cause of the nagäis, provided the sultan would pledge himself, on oath, never to exact tribute from the circassians upon any pretence whatever. the sultan having consented, the treaty was confirmed, and the circassian leader, instead of occupying his place next day in the army of the khan, detached his troops from the nagäis, and took the road back to his own country. this treachery was a terrible blow to prince khalaf, who, seeing himself now much weakened in numbers, would have withdrawn for the time from the conflict; but there was no possibility of retreat. the carismians advanced furiously to the charge, and taking advantage of the ground which allowed them to extend their lines, they surrounded the nagäis on all sides. the latter, notwithstanding that they had been deserted by their best auxiliaries, did not lose their courage. animated by the example of their prince, they closed their ranks, and for a long time firmly sustained the terrible onset of their enemies. at last, however, resistance became hopeless, and khalaf, seeing all hope at an end, thought of nothing but his escape, which he fortunately succeeded in effecting. the moment the sultan was apprised of his flight, he sent six thousand horsemen to endeavour to capture him, but he eluded their pursuit, by taking roads that were unknown to them; and after a few days' hard riding through unfrequented and unknown tracts, arrived at his father's court, where he spread sorrow and consternation, by the disastrous tidings he brought. if this piece of news deeply afflicted timurtasch, the intelligence he next received drove him to despair. an officer who had escaped from the battle, brought word that the sultan of carisma had put to the sword nearly all the nagäis, and that he was advancing with all possible speed, fully resolved to put the whole family of the khan to death, and to absorb the nation into his own kingdom. the khan then repented of having refused to pay the tribute, but he fully recognized the force of the arab proverb, "when the city is in ruins, what is the use of repentance?" as time pressed, and it was necessary to fly, for fear of falling into the hands of the sultan, the khan, the princess elmaze (diamond), his wife, and khalaf, made a selection of all their most precious treasures, and departed from the capital, astracan, accompanied by several officers of the palace, who refused to abandon them in their need, as well as by such of the troops as had cut their way through the ranks of their enemies with the young prince. they directed their march towards bulgaria; their object being to beg an asylum at the court of some sovereign prince. they had now been several days on their journey, and had gained the caucasus, when a swarm of some four thousand suddenly poured down upon them from that range. although khalaf had scarcely a hundred men with him, he steadily received the furious attack of the robbers, of whom numbers fell; his troops, however, were by degrees overpowered and slaughtered, and he himself remained in the power of the bandits, some of whom fell upon the spoil, whilst others butchered the followers of the khan. they only spared the lives of that prince, his wife, and his son, leaving them, however, almost naked in the midst of the mountains. it is impossible to describe the grief of timurtasch when he saw himself reduced to this extremity. he envied the fate of those whom he had seen slain before his eyes, and giving way to despair, sought to destroy himself. the princess burst into tears, and made the air resound with her lamentations and groans. khalaf alone had strength to support the weight of their misfortunes; he was possessed of an indomitable courage. the bitter lamentations which the khan and his wife uttered were his greatest trouble. "oh, my father! oh, my mother!" said he, "do not succumb to your misfortunes. remember that it is god who wills that you should be thus wretched. let us submit ourselves without a murmur to his absolute decrees. are we the first princes whom the rod of justice has struck? how many rulers before us have been driven from their kingdoms, and after wandering about for years in foreign lands, sharing the lot of the most abject of mortals, have been in the end restored to their thrones! if god has the power to pluck off crowns, has he not also the power to restore them? let us hope that he will commiserate our misery, and that he will in time change into prosperity the deplorable condition in which we now are." [illustration: prince khalaf holding back his father, p. .] with such arguments he endeavoured to console his father and mother, and to some extent succeeded; they experienced a secret consolation, and at last allowed themselves to take comfort. "so be it, my son," said the khan, "let us bow to providence; and since these evils which encompass us are written in the book of fate, let us endure them without repining." at these words the royal party made up their minds to be firm under their misfortunes, and proceeded to continue their journey on foot, the robbers having taken their horses. they wandered on for a long time, living upon the fruits they found in the valleys; but at length they entered upon a desert, where the earth yielded nothing upon which they could subsist, and now their courage deserted them. the khan, far advanced in years, began to feel his strength fail him; and the princess, worn out with the fatigue of the journey she had made, could scarcely hold out any longer. in this predicament, khalaf, although wofully tired himself, had no resource but to carry them by turns on his shoulders. at last all three, overwhelmed by hunger, thirst, and weariness, arrived at a spot abounding with frightful precipices. it was a hill, very steep, and intersected with deep chasms, forming what appeared to be dangerous passes. through these, however, seemed to be the only way by which to enter upon the vast plain which stretched out beyond; for both sides of the hill were so encumbered with brambles and thorns, that it was impossible to force a way through. when the princess perceived the chasms, she uttered a piercing cry, and the khan at length lost his patience. he rushed furiously forward. "i can bear this no longer," said he to his son; "i yield to my hard destiny; i succumb to so much suffering. i will throw myself headlong into one of these deep gulfs, which, doubtless, heaven has reserved for my tomb. i will escape the tyranny of wickedness. i prefer death to such a miserable existence." the khan, yielding himself up to the frenzy which had taken possession of him, was on the point of throwing himself down one of the precipices, when prince khalaf seized him in his arms and held him back. "oh, my father!" said he, "what are you doing? why give way to this transport of fury? is it thus that you show the submission you owe to the decrees of heaven? calm yourself. instead of displaying a rebellious impatience of its will, let us endeavour to deserve by our constancy its compassion and favour. i confess that we are in a deplorable state, and that we can scarcely take a step without danger amidst these abysses; but there may be another road by which we can enter the plain: let me go and see if i can find one. in the mean time, my lord, calm the violence of your transports, and remain near the princess; i will return immediately." "go, then, my son," replied the khan, "we will await you here; do not fear that i will any longer give way to despair." the young prince traversed the whole hill without being able to discover any path. he was oppressed with the deepest grief; he threw himself on the ground, sighed, and implored the help of heaven. he rose up, and again searched for some track that would conduct them to the plain. at length he found one. he followed it, returning thanks to heaven for the discovery, and advanced to the foot of a tree which stood at the entrance of the plain, and which covered with its shade a fountain of pure transparent water. he also perceived other trees laden with fruit of an extraordinary size. delighted with this discovery, he ran to inform his father and mother, who received the news with the greater joy, since they now began to hope that heaven had begun to compassionate their misery. khalaf conducted them to the fountain, where all three bathed their faces and their hands and quenched the burning thirst which consumed them. they then ate of the fruits which the young prince gathered for them, and which, in their state of exhaustion from want of food, appeared to them delicious. "my lord," said khalaf to his father, "you see the injustice of your complaints. you imagined that heaven had forsaken us; i implored its succour, and it has succoured us. it is not deaf to the voice of the unfortunate who put their whole trust in its mercy." they remained near the fountain two or three days to repose and recruit their wasted strength. after that they collected as much of the fruit as they could carry, and advanced into the plain, hoping to find their way to some inhabited place. they were not deceived in their expectations; they soon perceived before them a town which appeared large and splendidly built. they made their way to it, and having arrived at the gates, resolved to remain there and wait for night, not wishing to enter the town during the day, covered with dust and perspiration, and with what little clothing the robbers had left them, travel-worn and rent with brambles. they selected a tree which cast a delicious shade, and stretched themselves upon the grass at its foot. they had reposed there some time, when an old man came out of the town and directed his steps to the same place, to enjoy the cool shade. he sat down near them after making them a profound obeisance. they in turn saluted him, and then inquired what was the name of the town. "it is called jaic," replied the old man. "the king, ileuge-khan, makes it his residence. it is the capital of the country, and derives its name from the river which flows through it. you must be strangers since you ask me that question." "yes," replied the khan, "we come from a country very far from here. we were born in the kingdom of chrisnia, and we dwell upon the banks of the caspian sea; we are merchants. we were travelling with a number of other merchants in captchak; a large band of robbers attacked our caravan and pillaged us; they spared our lives, but have left us in the situation in which you see us. we have traversed mount caucasus, and found our way here without knowing where we were directing our steps." the old man, who had a compassionate heart for the distress of his neighbour, expressed his sympathy for their misfortunes, and, to assure them of his sincerity, offered them shelter in his house. he made the offer with such cordiality, that, even if they had not needed it, they would have felt some difficulty in refusing. as soon as night set in he conducted them to his home. it was a small house, very plainly furnished; but every thing was neat, and wore the appearance rather of simplicity than of poverty. as the old man entered he gave some orders in an undertone to one of his slaves, who returned in a short time followed by two boys, one of whom carried a large bundle of men's and women's clothes ready made, the other was laden with all sorts of veils, turbans, and girdles. prince khalaf and his father each took a caftan of cloth and a brocaded dress with a turban of indian muslin, and the princess a complete suit. after this their host gave the boys the price of the clothes, sent them away, and ordered supper. two slaves brought the table and placed upon it a tray covered with dishes of china, sandal, and aloe-wood, and several cups of coral perfumed with ambergris. they then served up a repast, delicate, yet without profusion. the old man endeavoured to raise the spirits of his guests; but perceiving that his endeavours were vain, "i see clearly," said he, "that the remembrance of your misfortunes is ever present to your minds. you must learn how to console yourselves for the loss of the goods of which the robbers have plundered you. travellers and merchants often experience similar mishaps. i was myself once robbed on the road from moussul to bagdad. i nearly lost my life on that occasion, and i was reduced to the miserable condition in which i found you. if you please i will relate my history; the recital of my misfortunes may encourage you to support yours." saying this, the good old man ordered his slaves to retire, and spoke as follows. the story of prince al abbas. i am the son of the king of moussul, the great ben-ortoc. as soon as i had reached my twentieth year, my father permitted me to make a journey to bagdad; and, to support the rank of a king's son in that great city, he ordered a splendid suite to attend me. he opened his treasures and took out for me four camel-loads of gold; he appointed officers of his own household to wait upon me, and a hundred soldiers of his guard to form my escort. i took my departure from moussul with this numerous retinue in order to travel to bagdad. nothing happened the first few days; but one night, whilst we were quietly reposing in a meadow where we had encamped, we were suddenly attacked so furiously by an overwhelming body of bedouin arabs, that the greater part of my people were massacred almost before i was aware of the danger. after the first confusion i put myself at the head of such of the guards and officers of my father's household as had escaped the first onslaught, and charged the bedouins. such was the vigour of our attack, that more than three hundred fell under our blows. as the day dawned, the robbers, who were still sufficiently numerous to surround us on all sides, seeing our insignificant numbers, and ashamed and irritated by the obstinate resistance of such a handful of men, redoubled their efforts. it was in vain that we fought with the fury of desperation; they overpowered us; and at length we were forced to yield to numbers. they seized our arms and stripped off our clothes, and then, instead of reserving us for slaves, or letting us depart, as people already sufficiently wretched, in the state to which we were reduced, they resolved to revenge the deaths of their comrades; and were cowards and barbarians enough to slaughter the whole of their defenceless prisoners. all my people perished; and the same fate was on the point of being inflicted on me, when making myself known to the robbers, "stay, rash men," i exclaimed, "respect the blood of kings. i am prince al abbas, only son of ben-ortoc, king of moussul, and heir to his throne." "i am glad to learn who thou art," replied the chief of the bedouins. "we have hated thy father mortally these many years; he has hanged several of our comrades who fell into his hands; thou shalt be treated after the same manner." thereupon they bound me; and the villains, after first sharing among them all my baggage, carried me along with them to the foot of a mountain between two forests, where a great number of small grey tents were pitched. here was their well-concealed camping ground. they placed me under the chief's tent, which was both loftier and larger than the rest. here i was kept a whole day, after which they led me forth and bound me to a tree, where, awaiting the lingering death that was to put an end to my existence, i had to endure the mortification of finding myself surrounded by the whole gang, insulted with bitter taunts, and every feeling miserably outraged. i had been tied to the tree for some considerable time, and the last moments of my life appeared fast approaching, when a scout came galloping in to inform the chief of the bedouins that a splendid chance offered itself seven leagues from thence; that a large caravan was to encamp the next evening in a certain spot, which he named. the chief instantly ordered his companions to prepare for the expedition; this was accomplished in a very short time. they all mounted their horses, and left me in their camp, not doubting but at their return they would find me a corpse. but heaven, which renders useless all the resolves of men which do not agree with its eternal decrees, would not suffer me to perish so young. the wife of the robber chief had, it seems, taken pity on me; she managed to creep stealthily, during the night, to the tree where i was bound, and said to me, "young man, i am touched by thy misfortune, and i would willingly release thee from the dangers that surround thee; but, if i were to unbind thee, dost thou think that thou hast strength enough left to escape." i replied, "the same good god who has inspired thee with these charitable feelings will give me strength to walk." the woman loosed my cords, gave me an old caftan of her husband's, and showing me the road, "take that direction," said she, "and thou wilt speedily arrive at an inhabited place." i thanked my kind benefactress, and walked all that night without deviating from the road she had pointed out. the next day, i perceived a man on foot, who was driving before him a horse, laden with two large packages. i joined him, and, after telling him that i was an unfortunate stranger, who did not know the country, and had missed my way, i inquired of him where he was going. "i am going," replied he, "to sell my merchandise at bagdad, and i hope to arrive there in two days." i accompanied this man, and only left him when i entered that great city; he went about his business, and i retired to a mosque, where i remained two days and two nights. i had no desire to go forth into the streets; i was afraid of meeting persons from moussul, who might recognize me. so great was my shame at finding myself in this plight, that far from thinking of making my condition known, i wished to conceal it, even from myself. hunger at length overcame my shame, or rather i was obliged to yield to that necessity which brooks no refusal. i resolved to beg my bread, until some better prospect presented itself. i stood before the lower window of a large house, and solicited alms with a loud voice. an old female slave appeared almost immediately, with a loaf in her hand, which she held out to me. as i advanced to take it, the wind by chance raised the curtain of the window, and allowed me to catch a glimpse of the interior of the chamber; there i saw a young lady of surpassing beauty; her loveliness burst upon my vision like a flash of lightning. i was completely dazzled. i received the bread without thinking what i was about, and stood motionless before the old slave, instead of thanking her, as i ought to have done. i was so surprised, so confused, and so violently enamoured, that doubtless she took me for a madman; she disappeared, leaving me in the street, gazing intently, though fruitlessly, at the window, for the wind did not again raise the curtain. i passed the whole day awaiting a second favourable breeze. not until i perceived night coming on, could i make up my mind to think of retiring; but before quitting the house, i asked an old man, who was passing, if he knew to whom it belonged. "it is," replied he, "the house of mouaffac, the son of adbane; he is a man of rank, and, moreover, a rich man and a man of honour. it is not long since he was the governor of the city, but he quarrelled with the cadi, who found means of ruining him in the estimation of the caliph, and thereby caused him to lose his appointment." with my thoughts fully taken up by this adventure, i slowly wandered out of the city, and entering the great cemetery determined to pass the night there. i ate my bread without appetite, although my long fast ought to have given me a good one, and then lay down near a tomb, with my head resting on a pile of bricks. it was with difficulty that i composed myself to sleep: the daughter of mouaffac had made too deep an impression upon me; the remembrance of her loveliness excited my imagination too vividly, and the little food i had eaten was not enough to cause the usual tendency to a refreshing sleep. at length, however, i dozed off, in spite of the ideas that filled my imagination; but my sleep was not destined to be of long duration; a loud noise within the tomb soon awoke me. alarmed at the disturbance, the cause of which i did not stay to ascertain, i started up, with the intention of flying from the cemetery, when two men, who were standing at the entrance of the tomb, perceiving me, stopped me, and demanded who i was, and what i was doing there. "i am," i replied, "an unfortunate stranger, whom misfortune has reduced to live upon the bounty of the charitable, and i came here to pass the night, as i have no place to go to in the town." "since thou art a beggar," said one of them, "thank heaven that thou hast met with us; we will furnish thee with an excellent supper." so saying, they dragged me into the tomb, where four of their comrades were eating large radishes and dates, and washing them down with copious draughts of raki. they made me sit near them, at a long stone that served as a table, and i was obliged to eat and drink, for politeness' sake. i suspected them to be what they really were, that is to say, thieves, and they soon confirmed my suspicions by their discourse. they began to speak of a considerable theft they had just committed, and thought that it would afford me infinite pleasure to become one of their gang; they made me the offer, which threw me into great perplexity. you may imagine that i had no desire to associate myself with such fellows, but i was fearful of irritating them by a refusal. i was embarrassed, and at a loss for a reply, when a sudden event freed me from my trouble. the lieutenant of the cadi, followed by twenty or thirty _asas_ (archers) well armed, entered the tomb, seized the robbers and me, and took us all off to prison, where we passed the remainder of the night. the following day, the cadi came and interrogated the prisoners. the thieves confessed their crime, as they saw there was no use in denying it; for myself, i related to the judge how i had met with them, and, as they corroborated my statement, i was put on one side. the cadi wished to speak to me in private, before he set me free. accordingly, he presently came over to me, and asked what took me into the cemetery where i was caught, and how i spent my time in bagdad. in fact, he asked me a thousand questions, all of which i answered with great candour, only concealing the royalty of my birth. i recounted to him all that had happened to me, and i even told him of my having stopped before the window of mouaffac's house to beg, and of my having seen, by chance, a young lady who had charmed me. at the name of mouaffac i noticed the eyes of the cadi sparkle, with a curious expression. he remained a few moments immersed in thought; then, assuming a joyous countenance, he said, "young man, it depends only on thyself to possess the lady thou sawest yesterday. it was doubtless mouaffac's daughter; for i have been informed that he has a daughter of exquisite beauty. though thou wert the most abject of beings, i would find means for thee to possess the object of thine ardent wishes. thou hast but to leave it to me, and i will make thy fortune." i thanked him, without being able to penetrate his designs, and then by his orders followed the aga of his black eunuchs, who released me from the prison, and took me to the bath. whilst i was there, the judge sent two of his _tchaous_ (guards) to mouaffac's house, with a message that the cadi wished to speak to him upon business of the greatest importance. mouaffac accompanied the guards back. as soon as the cadi saw him coming he went forward to meet him, saluted him, and kissed him several times. mouaffac was in amazement at this reception. "ho! ho!" said he to himself, "how is this, that the cadi, my greatest enemy, is become so civil to me to-day? there is something at the bottom of all this." "friend mouaffac," said the judge, "heaven will not suffer us to be enemies any longer. it has furnished us with an opportunity of extinguishing that hatred which has separated our families for so many years. the prince of bozrah arrived here last night. he left bozrah without taking leave of his father the king. he has heard of your daughter; and from the description of her beauty which he has received, he has become so enamoured of her, that he is resolved to ask her in marriage. he wishes me to arrange the marriage,--a task which is the more agreeable to me, as it will be the means of reconciling us." "i am astounded," replied mouaffac, "that the prince of bozrah should have condescended to confer upon me the honour of marrying my daughter; and that you of all men should be the chosen means of communicating this happiness to me, as you have always shown yourself so anxious to injure me." "let us not speak of the past, friend mouaffac," returned the cadi; "pray let all recollection of what we have done to annoy each other be obliterated in our happiness at the splendid connexion which is to unite your daughter with the prince of bozrah; let us pass the remainder of our days in good fellowship." mouaffac was naturally as good and confiding as the cadi was crafty and bad: he allowed himself to be deceived by the false expressions of friendship that his enemy displayed. he stifled his hatred in a moment, and received without distrust the perfidious caresses of the cadi. they were in the act of embracing each other, and pledging an inviolable friendship, when i entered the room, conducted by the aga. this officer, on my coming out of the bath, had clothed me with a beautiful dress, which he had ready, and a turban of indian muslin, with a gold fringe that hung down to my ear, and altogether my appearance was such as fully to bear out the statements of the cadi. "great prince," said the cadi as soon as he perceived me, "blessed be your feet, and your arrival in bagdad, since it has pleased you to take up your abode with me. what tongue can express to you the gratitude i feel for so great an honour? here is mouaffac, whom i have informed of the object of your visit to this city. he consents to give you in marriage his daughter, who is as beautiful as a star." mouaffac then made me a profound obeisance, saying, "o son of the mighty, i am overwhelmed with the honour you are willing to confer upon my daughter; she would esteem herself sufficiently honoured in being made a slave to one of the princesses of your harem." judge of the astonishment that this discourse caused me. i knew not what to answer. i saluted mouaffac without speaking; but the cadi, perceiving my embarrassment, and fearing lest i should make some reply which would destroy his plot, instantly took up the conversation. "i venture to submit," said he, "that the sooner the marriage contract is made in presence of the proper witnesses the better." so saying, he ordered his aga to go for the witnesses, and in the mean time drew up the contract himself. when the aga arrived with the witnesses, the contract was read before them. i signed it, then mouaffac, and then the cadi, who attached his signature the last. the judge then dismissed the witnesses, and turning to mouaffac said, "you know that with great people these affairs are not managed as with persons of humble rank. besides, in this case you readily perceive that silence and despatch are necessary. conduct this prince, then, to your house, for he is now your son-in-law; give speedy orders for the consummation of the marriage, and take care that every thing is arranged as becomes his exalted rank." i left the cadi's house with mouaffac. we found two mules richly caparisoned awaiting us at the door; the judge insisted upon our mounting them with great ceremony. mouaffac conducted me to his house; and when we were in the court-yard dismounted first, and with a respectful air presented himself to hold my stirrup,--a ceremony to which of course i was obliged to submit. he then took me by the hand and conducted me to his daughter, with whom he left me alone, after informing her of what had passed at the cadi's. zemroude, persuaded that her father had espoused her to a prince of bozrah, received me as a husband who would one day place her upon the throne,--and i, the happiest of men, passed the day at her feet, striving by tender and conciliating manners to inspire her with love for me. i soon perceived that my pains were not bestowed in vain, and that my youth and ardent affection produced a favourable impression upon her. with what rapture did this discovery fill me! i redoubled my efforts, and i had the gratification of remarking that each moment i made advances in her esteem. in the mean time mouaffac had prepared a splendid repast to celebrate his daughter's nuptials, at which several members of his family were present. the bride appeared there more brilliant and more beautiful than the houris. the sentiments with which i had already inspired her, seemed to add new lustre to her beauty. the next morning i heard a knock at my chamber-door; i got up and opened it. there stood the black aga of the cadi carrying a large bundle of clothes. i thought that perhaps the cadi had sent robes of honour to my wife and myself, but i was deceived. "sir adventurer," said the negro in a bantering tone, "the cadi sends his salutations, and begs you to return the dress he lent you yesterday to play the part of the prince of bozrah in. i have brought you back your own old garment, and the rest of the tatters, which are more suited to your station than the other." i was astounded at the application; my eyes were opened, and i saw through the whole malicious scheme of the cadi. however, making a virtue of necessity, i gravely restored to the aga the robe and turban of his master, and retook my own old caftan, which was a mass of rags. zemroude had heard part of the conversation; and seeing me covered with rags, "o heavens!" she exclaimed, "what is the meaning of this change, and what has that man been saying to you?" "my princess," i replied, "the cadi is a great rascal, but he is the dupe of his own malice. he thinks he has given you a beggar for a husband, a man born in the lowest grade, but you are, indeed, the wife of a prince, and my rank is in no way inferior to that of the husband, whose hand you fancy you have received. i am to the full the equal of the prince of bozrah, for i am the only son of the king of moussul, and am heir to the kingdom of the great ben-ortoc; my name is al abbas." i then related my history to her, without suppressing the least circumstance. when i had finished the recital, "my prince," said she, "even were you not the son of a great king, i should love you none the less; and, believe me, that if i am overjoyed to learn the circumstance of your exalted birth, it is but out of regard to my father, who is more dazzled by the honours of the world than i; my only ambition is to possess a husband who will love me alone, and not grieve me by giving me rivals." i did not fail to protest that i would love her, and her alone, all my life, with which assurance she appeared delighted. she then summoned one of her women, and ordered her to proceed with all speed and secrecy to a merchant's, and buy a dress, ready made, of the richest materials that could be procured. the slave who was charged with this commission acquitted herself in the most satisfactory manner. she returned speedily, bringing a magnificent dress and robe, and a turban of indian muslin as handsome, even handsomer, than what i had worn the previous day, so that i found myself even more gorgeously dressed than on the occasion of my first interview with my father-in-law. "well, my lord," said zemroude, "do you think the cadi has much reason to be satisfied with his work? he thought to heap reproaches on my family, and he has bestowed upon it an imperishable honour. he thinks that we are now overwhelmed with shame. what will be his grief when he knows that he has conferred such a benefit upon his enemy? but before he is made aware of your birth, we must invent some means of punishing him for his wicked designs against us. i will take that task upon me. there is in this city a dyer, who has a daughter most frightfully ugly. i will not tell you further," she continued, checking herself. "i will not deprive you of the pleasure of the surprise. i shall only let you know that i have conceived a project which will drive the cadi nearly mad, and make him the laughingstock of the court and the city." she then dressed herself in plain clothes, and covering her face with a thick veil, asked my permission to go out, which i granted her. she went alone, repaired to the cadi's house, and placed herself in one corner of the hall, where the judge gave audience. he no sooner cast his eyes upon her, than he was struck with her majestic figure; he sent an officer to ask who she was, and what she desired. she answered that she was the daughter of an artisan in the town, and that she wished to speak to the cadi on important private business. the officer having borne her answer to the cadi, the judge made a sign to zemroude to approach, and enter his private apartment, which was on one side of the court; she complied, making a low obeisance. when she entered the cadi's private apartment, she took her seat upon the sofa, and raised her veil. the cadi had followed her, and as he seated himself near her, was astonished at her beauty. "well! my dear child," said he, patronizingly, "of what service can i be to you?" "my lord," she replied, "you, who have the power to make the laws obeyed, who dispense justice to rich and poor alike, listen, i pray you, to my complaint, and pity the unfortunate situation in which i am placed." "explain yourself," replied the judge, already moved, "and i swear by my head and my eyes that i will do every thing that is possible, ay, and impossible, to serve you." "know then, my lord," replied zemroude, "that, notwithstanding the attractions which heaven has bestowed upon me, i live in solitude and obscurity in a house, forbidden not only to men, but even to women, so that even the conversation of my own sex is denied me. not that advantageous proposals were at one time wanting for my hand; i should have been married long ago, if my father had not had the cruelty to refuse me to all who have asked me in marriage. to one he says, i am as withered as a dead tree; to another, that i am bloated with unnatural fat; to this one, that i am lame, and have lost the use of my hands; to that one, that i have lost my senses, that i have a cancer on my back, that i am dropsical; in fact, he wishes to make me out a creature not worthy the society of human beings, and has so decried me, that he has at length succeeded in making me the reproach of the human race; nobody inquires about me now, and i am condemned to perpetual celibacy." when she ceased speaking she pretended to weep, and played her part so well that the judge allowed himself to be deceived. "what can be the reason, my angel," said he, "that your father prevents your marrying? what can his motive be?" "i know not, my lord," replied zemroude; "i cannot conceive what his intentions can be; but i confess my patience is exhausted. i can no longer live in this state. i have found means to leave home, and i have escaped to throw myself into your arms, and to implore your help; take pity on me, i implore you, and interpose your authority, that justice may be done to me, otherwise i will not answer for my life." "no, no," replied he, "you shall not die, neither shall you waste your youth in tears and sighs. it only remains with yourself to quit the darkness in which your perfections are buried, and to become this very day the wife of the cadi of bagdad. yes, lovely creature, more fair than the houris, i am ready to marry you, if you will consent." "my lord," replied the lady, "even were not your station one of the most dignified and honourable in the city, i could have no objection to give you my hand, for you appear to be one of the most amiable of men; but i fear that you will not be able to obtain the consent of my father, notwithstanding the honour of the alliance." "don't trouble yourself upon that point," replied the judge, "i will pledge myself as to the issue; only tell me in what street your father lives, what his name is, and what his profession." "his name is ousta omar," replied zemroude; "he is a dyer, he lives upon the eastern quay of the tigris, and in front of his door is a palm-tree laden with dates." "that is enough," said the cadi; "you can return home now; you shall soon hear from me, depend upon my word." the lady, after bestowing a gracious smile upon him, covered her face again with her veil, left the private chamber, and returned to me. "we shall be revenged," she said, laughing gaily; "our enemy, who thought to make us the sport of the people, will himself become so." the judge had scarcely lost sight of zemroude, ere he sent an officer to ousta omar, who was at home. "you are to come to the cadi," said the man, "he desires to speak with you, and he commanded me to bring you before him." the dyer grew pale at these words, he thought that some one had lodged a complaint against him before the judge, and that it was on that account the officer had come to fetch him. he rose, however, and followed in silence, but in great uneasiness. as soon as he appeared before the cadi, the judge ordered him into the same chamber where he had had the interview with zemroude, and made him sit upon the same sofa. the artisan was so astonished at the honour paid him, that he changed colour several times. "master omar," said the cadi, "i am glad to see you; i have heard you spoken very well of this long time past. i am informed that you are a man of good character, that you regularly say your prayers five times a day, and that you never fail to attend the great mosque on friday; besides, i know that you never eat pork, and never drink wine nor date-spirits; in fact, that whilst you are at work one of your apprentices reads the koran." "that is true," replied the dyer; "i know above four thousand _hadits_ (sayings of mahomet), and i am making preparations for a pilgrimage to mecca." "i assure you," replied the cadi, "that all this gives me the greatest pleasure, for i passionately love all good mussulmen. i am also informed that you keep concealed at home a daughter of an age to marry; is that true?" "great judge," answered ousta omar, "whose palace serves as a haven and refuge for the unfortunate who are tossed about by the storms of the world, they have told you true. i have a daughter who is old enough, in all conscience, to be married, for she is more than thirty years old; but the poor creature is not fit to be presented to a man, much less to so great a man as the cadi of bagdad; she is ugly, or rather frightful, lame, covered with blotches, an idiot; in a word, she is a monster whom i cannot take too much pains to hide from the world." "indeed," said the cadi, "that is what i expected, master omar. i was certain that you would thus praise your daughter; but know, my friend, that this blotchy, idiotic, lame, frightful person, in short, this monster, with all her defects, is loved to distraction by a man who desires her for his wife, and that man is myself." at this speech the dyer seemed to doubt whether he were awake; he pinched himself, rubbed his eyes, and then looking the cadi full in the face, said, "if my lord, the cadi, wishes to be merry, he is master; he may make a jest of my child as much as he pleases." "no, no," replied the cadi, "i am not joking, i am in love with your daughter, and i ask her in marriage." the artisan at these words burst into a fit of laughter. "by the prophet," cried he, "somebody wants to give you something to take care of. i give you fair warning, my lord, that my daughter has lost the use of her hands, is lame, dropsical." "i know all about that," replied the judge, "i recognize her by her portrait. i have a peculiar liking for that sort of girls, they are my taste." "i tell you," insisted the dyer, "she is not a fit match for you. her name is cayfacattaddhari (the monster of the age), and i must confess that her name is well chosen." "come, come!" replied the cadi, in an impatient and imperious tone, "this is enough, i am sick of all these objections. master omar, i ask you to give me this cayfacattaddhari just as she is, so not another word." the dyer, seeing him determined to espouse his daughter, and more than ever persuaded that some person had made him fall in love with her upon false representations for fun, said to himself, "i must ask him a heavy _scherbeha_ (dowry): the amount may disgust him, and he will think no more of her." "my lord," said he, "i am prepared to obey you; but i will not part with cayfacattaddhari unless you give me a dowry of a thousand golden sequins beforehand." "that is rather a large sum," said the cadi, "still i will pay it you." he immediately ordered a large bagful of sequins to be brought, a thousand were counted out, which the dyer took after weighing them, and the judge then ordered the marriage contract to be drawn out. when, moreover, it was ready for signature, the artisan protested that he would not sign it except in the presence of a hundred lawyers at least. "you are very distrustful," said the cadi; "but never mind, i will satisfy your wishes, for i don't intend to let your daughter slip through my fingers." he thereupon sent immediately for all the neighbouring doctors, alfayins, mollahs, persons connected with the mosques and courts of law, of whom far more crowded in than the dyer required. when all the witnesses had arrived at the cadi's, ousta omar spoke thus, "my lord cadi, i give you my daughter in marriage, since you absolutely require me to do so; but i declare before all these gentlemen that it is on condition, that if you are not satisfied with her when you see her, and you wish afterwards to repudiate her, you will give her a thousand gold sequins, such as i have received from you." "well! so be it," replied the cadi, "i promise it before all this assembly. art thou content?" the dyer replied in the affirmative, and departed, saying that he would send the bride. he had scarcely left the house before the enamoured judge gave orders to have an apartment furnished in the most splendid manner to receive his new bride. velvet carpets were laid down, new draperies hung up, and sofas of silver brocade placed round the walls, whilst several braziers perfumed the chamber with delicious scents. all was at length in readiness, and the cadi impatiently awaited the arrival of cayfacattaddhari. the fair bride, however, not making her appearance so speedily as his eagerness expected, he called his faithful aga, and said, "the lovely object of my affections ought to be here by this time, i think. what can detain her so long at her father's? how slow the moments appear which retard my happiness!" at length his impatience could brook no longer delay, and he was on the point of sending the aga to ousta omar's, when a porter arrived carrying a deal case covered with green taffeta. "what hast thou got there, my friend," inquired the judge. "my lord," replied the porter, placing the box on the ground, "it is your bride; you have only to take off the covering and you will see what she is like." the cadi removed the cloth and saw a girl three feet and a half high: she had a lank visage covered with blotches, eyes sunk deep in their sockets and as red as fire, not the least vestige of a nose, but above her mouth two horrid wide nostrils like those of a crocodile. he could not look at this object without horror; he hastily replaced the cover, and, turning to the porter, cried, "what am i to do with this miserable creature?" "my lord," replied the porter, "it is the daughter of master omar, the dyer, who told me you had married her from choice." "merciful heavens!" exclaimed the cadi, "is it possible to marry such a monster as that?" at that moment the dyer, who had foreseen the surprise of the judge, arrived. "wretch," said the cadi, "what dost thou take me for? thou certainly hast an amazing amount of impudence to dare to play me such a trick as this. dost thou dare thus to treat me who have it in my power to revenge myself on my enemies; me who, when i please, can put the like of thee in fetters? dread my wrath, wretch! instead of the hideous monster which thou hast sent me, give me instantly thy other daughter, whose beauty is unparalleled, or thou shalt experience what an angry cadi can do!" "my lord," replied omar, "spare your threats, i beg, and don't be angry with me. i swear by the creator of the light that i have no other daughter but this. i told you a thousand times that she would not suit you; you would not believe--whose fault is it?" the cadi at these words felt his soul sink within him, and said to the dyer, "master omar, a damsel of the most exquisite loveliness came here this morning and told me that you were her father, and that you represented her to the world as a perfect monster, indeed so much so, that no one would ask her in marriage." "my lord," returned the dyer, "that girl must have been playing you a trick; you must have some enemy." the cadi bent his head on his bosom, and remained some time in deep thought. "it is a misfortune that was destined to befal me; let us say no more about it; have your daughter taken back home; keep the thousand sequins you have got, but don't ask for any more, if you wish us to be friends." although the judge had sworn before witnesses that he would give a thousand sequins more if omar's daughter did not please him, the artisan did not dare to endeavour to compel him to keep his word, for he knew him to be a most vindictive man, and one who would easily find an opportunity of revenging himself upon any one he disliked, and was, of course, afraid to offend him. he thought it better to be content with what he had received. "my lord," said he, "i will obey you, and relieve you of my daughter, but you must, if you please, divorce her first." "oh! true," said the cadi; "i have not the least objection; be assured that shall soon be done." accordingly, he instantly sent for his naib, and the divorce was made out in due form, after which master omar took leave of the judge, and ordered the porter to bear the wretched cayfacattaddhari back home. this adventure was speedily noised all over the city. every body laughed at it, and warmly applauded the trick which had been played upon the cadi, who could not escape the ridicule in which the whole city indulged at his expense. we carried our revenge still further. by mouaffac's advice, i presented myself before the prince of the faithful, to whom i told my name and related my story. i did not suppress, as you may imagine, the circumstances which put the malice of the cadi in so strong a light. the caliph, after listening to me with the greatest attention, received me very graciously. "prince," said he, "why did you not come at once to me? doubtless you were ashamed of your condition, but you might, without a blush, have presented yourself before my face, even in your wretched state. does it depend upon men themselves to be happy or unhappy? is it not allah that spins the thread of our destiny? ought you to have feared an ungracious reception? no! you know that i love and esteem king ben-ortoc, your father; my court was a safe asylum for you." the caliph embraced me, and conferred on me a _gulute_ (robe of honour) and a beautiful diamond which he wore on his finger. he regaled me with excellent sherbet, and when i returned to my father-in-law's house, i found six large bales of persian brocade, gold and silver, two pieces of damask, and a beautiful persian horse richly caparisoned. in addition, he reinstated mouaffac in the government of bagdad; and as to the cadi, by way of punishment for his malicious attempt to deceive zemroude and her father, he deposed him, and condemned him to perpetual imprisonment, and, to crown his misery, ordered him as a companion in his confinement the daughter of ousta omar. a few days after my marriage, i sent a courier to moussul, to inform my father of all that had happened to me since my departure from his court, and to assure him that i would return shortly, with the lady whom i had married. i waited most impatiently for the return of the courier; but, alas! he brought me back news which deeply afflicted me. he informed me that ben-ortoc having heard that four thousand bedouin arabs had attacked me, and that my escort had been cut to pieces, persuaded that i no longer lived, took my supposed death so much to heart that he died; that prince amadeddin zingui, my cousin-german, occupied the throne; that he reigned with equity; and that, nevertheless, although he was generally beloved, the people no sooner learned that i was still alive, than they gave themselves up to the greatest joy. prince amadeddin himself, in a letter which the courier placed in my hands, assured me of his fidelity, and expressed his impatience for my return, in order that he might restore the crown to me, and become the first subject in my dominions. this news decided me to hasten my return to moussul. i took my leave of the prince of the faithful, who ordered a detachment of three thousand cavalry of his own guard to escort me to my kingdom, and, after embracing mouaffac and his wife, i departed from bagdad with my beloved zemroude, who would almost have died of grief at the separation from her parents, if her love for me had not somewhat moderated the violence of her sorrow. about halfway between bagdad and moussul, the vanguard of my escort discovered a body of troops marching towards us. concluding at once that it was a body of bedouin arabs, i immediately drew up my men, and was fully prepared for the attack, when my scouts brought me word, that those whom we had taken for robbers and enemies were, in fact, troops from moussul, who had set out to meet me, with amadeddin at their head. this prince, on his part, having learned who we were, left his little army to meet me, accompanied by the principal nobles of moussul. when he reached the spot where i was awaiting him, he addressed me in the same tone in which his letter had been couched, submissively and respectfully, whilst all the nobles who accompanied him assured me of their zeal and fidelity. i thought it my duty to show my entire confidence in them, by dismissing the soldiers of the caliph's guard. i had no reason to repent of this step; far from being capable of forming any treacherous design, prince amadeddin did all in his power to give me proofs of his attachment. when we came to moussul, our safe and auspicious arrival was celebrated by gifts to the mosques, abundant alms to the poor, fêtes, and an illumination of the palace gardens with lamps of a thousand different colours. the people in general testified the delight they felt at my return by acclamations, and for a space of three days gave themselves up entirely to great rejoicings. the booths of the itinerant merchants, and the bazaars, were hung within and without with draperies, and at night they were lit up by lamps, which formed the letters of a verse of the koran, so that every shop having its particular verse, this holy book was to be read entire in the city; and it appeared as though the angel gabriel had brought it a second time in letters of light to our great prophet. in addition to this pious illumination, before each shop were placed large dishes, plates of pillau, of all sorts of colours, in the form of pyramids, and huge bowls of sherbet and pomegranate juice, for the passers-by to eat and drink at pleasure. in all the cross streets were to be seen dancers, displaying their graceful evolutions to the sounds of drums, lutes, and tambourines. the different trades formed a procession, consisting of cars decorated with tinsel and many-coloured flags, and with the tools used in their trades; and after traversing the principal streets, defiled to the music of pipes, cymbals, and trumpets, before my balcony, where zemroude was sitting by my side, and after saluting us, shouted at the top of their voices, "blessing and health to thee, apostle of god, god give the king victory." it was not enough for me to share these honours with the daughter of mouaffac, my study was to find out every thing that would afford her any pleasure. i caused her apartments to be adorned with every thing most rare and pleasing to the sight. her suite was composed of twenty-five young circassian ladies, slaves in my father's harem; some sang and played the lute exquisitely, others excelled on the harp, and the rest danced with the greatest grace and lightness. i also gave her a black aga, with twelve eunuchs, who all possessed some talent which might contribute to her amusement. i reigned over faithful and devoted subjects; every day i loved zemroude more and more, and she as ardently reciprocated my attachment. my days passed thus in perfect happiness, till one day a young dervise appeared at my court. he introduced himself to the principal nobles, and gained their friendship by his pleasing and agreeable manners, as well as by his wit and his happy and brilliant repartees. he accompanied them to the chase, he entered into all their gaieties, and was a constant guest at their parties of pleasure. every day some of my courtiers spoke to me of him as a man of charming manners, so that at last they excited in me a desire to see and converse with the agreeable stranger. far from finding his portrait overdrawn, he appeared to me even more accomplished than they had represented him. his conversation charmed me, and i was disabused of an error into which many persons of quality fall, namely, that men of wit and high sentiment are only to be met with at court. i experienced so much pleasure in the company of the dervise, and he seemed so well suited to manage affairs of the greatest importance, that i wished to appoint him my minister, but he thanked me, and told me he had made a vow never to accept any employment, that he preferred a free and independent life, that he despised honours and riches, and was content with what god, who cares for the lowest animals, should provide for him; in a word, he was content with his condition. i admired a man so much raised above worldly considerations, and conceived the greatest esteem for him; i received him with pleasure each time he presented himself at court; if he was among the crowd of courtiers my eyes sought him out, and to him i most frequently addressed myself; i insensibly became so attached to him, that i made him my exclusive favourite. one day during a hunt, i had strayed from the main body of my followers, and the dervise was alone with me. he began by relating his travels, for although young he had travelled extensively. he spoke of several curious things he had seen in india, and, amongst others, of an old bramin whom he knew. "this great man," said he, "knew an infinity of secrets, each more extraordinary than the former. nature had no mystery but what he could fathom. he died in my arms," said the dervise, "but as he loved me, before he expired he said, 'my son, i wish to teach you a secret by which you may remember me, but it is on condition that you reveal it to no one.' i promised to keep it inviolate, and on the faith of my promise he taught me the secret." "indeed!" said i, "what is the nature of the secret? is it the secret of making gold?" "no, sire," replied he, "it is a greater and much more precious secret than that. it is the power of reanimating a dead body. not that i can restore the same soul to the body it has left, heaven alone can perform that miracle; but i can cause my soul to enter into a body deprived of life, and i will prove it to your highness whenever you shall please." "most willingly!" said i, "now, if you please." at that moment there passed by us most opportunely a doe; i let fly an arrow, which struck her, and she fell dead. "now let me see," said i, "if you can reanimate this creature." "sire," replied the dervise, "your curiosity shall soon be gratified; watch well what i am about to do." he had scarcely uttered these words, when i beheld with amazement his body fall suddenly without animation, and at the same moment i saw the doe rise with great nimbleness. i will leave you to judge of my surprise. although there was no room left to doubt what i beheld, i could hardly believe the evidence of my senses. the creature, however, came to me, fondled me, and after making several bounds, fell dead again, and immediately the body of the dervise, which lay stretched at my feet, became reanimated. i was delighted at so wonderful a secret, and entreated the dervise to impart it to me. [illustration: the dervise and the prince, p. .] "sire," said he, "i deeply regret that i cannot comply with your desire; for i promised the dying bramin not to disclose it to any one, and i am a slave to my word." the more the dervise excused himself from satisfying my wishes, the more did i feel my curiosity excited. "in the name of allah," said i, "do not refuse to comply with my entreaties. i promise thee never to divulge the secret, and i swear by him who created us both never to employ it to a bad purpose." the dervise considered a moment, then turning to me said, "i cannot resist the wishes of a king whom i love more than my life; i will yield to your desire. it is true," added he, "that i only gave a simple promise to the bramin. i did not bind myself by an inviolable oath. i will impart my secret to your highness. it consists only in remembering two words; it is sufficient to repeat them mentally to be able to reanimate a dead body." he then taught me the two magic words. i no sooner knew them, than i burned to test their power. i pronounced them, with the intention to make my soul pass into the body of the doe, and in a moment i found myself metamorphosed into the animal. but the delight i experienced at the success of the trial was soon converted into consternation; for no sooner had my spirit entered into the body of the doe, than the dervise caused his to pass into mine, and then suddenly drawing my bow, the traitor was on the point of shooting me with one of my own arrows, when, perceiving his intention, i took to flight, and by my speed just escaped the fatal shaft. nevertheless, he let fly the arrow at me with so true an aim, that it just grazed my shoulder. i now beheld myself reduced to live with the beasts of the forests and mountains. happier for me would it have been if i had resembled them more perfectly, and if in losing my human form, i had at the same time lost my power of reason. i should not then have been the prey to a thousand miserable reflections. whilst i was deploring my misery in the forests, the dervise was occupying the throne of moussul; and fearing that, as i possessed the secret as well as himself, i might find means to introduce myself into the palace, and take my revenge upon him, on the very day he usurped my place he ordered all the deer in the kingdom to be destroyed, wishing, as he said, to exterminate the whole species, which he mortally hated. nay, so eager was he for my destruction, that the moment he returned from the hunting expedition, he again set out at the head of a large body of followers, intent upon the indiscriminate slaughter of all the deer they might meet. the people of moussul, animated by the hope of gain, spread themselves all over the country with their bows and arrows; they scoured the forests, over-ran the mountains, and shot every stag and deer they met with. happily, by this time i had nothing to fear from them; for, having seen a dead nightingale lying at the foot of a tree, i reanimated it, and under my new shape flew towards the palace of my enemy, and concealed myself among the thick foliage of a tree in the garden. this tree was not far from the apartments of the queen. there, thinking upon my misfortune, i poured forth in tender strains the melancholy that consumed me. it was one morning, as the sun rose, and already several birds, delighted to see its returning beams, expressed their joy by their minstrelsy. for my part, taken up with my griefs, i paid no attention to the brightness of the newborn day; but with my eyes sadly turned towards zemroude's apartment, i poured forth so plaintive a song, that i attracted the attention of the princess, who came to the window. i continued my mournful notes in her presence, and i tried all the means in my power to render them more and more touching, as though i could make her comprehend the subject of my grief. but, alas! although she took pleasure in listening to me, i had the mortification to see, that instead of being moved by my piteous accents, she only laughed with one of her slaves, who had come to the window to listen to me. i did not leave the garden that day, nor for several following, and i took care to sing every morning at the same spot. zemroude did not fail to come to the window; and at length, by the blessing of providence, took a fancy to have me. one morning she said to her female attendants, "i wish that nightingale to be caught; let birdcatchers be sent for. i love that bird; i doat upon it; let them try every means to catch it, and bring it to me." the queen's orders were obeyed; expert birdcatchers were found, who laid traps for me, and, as i had no desire to escape, because i saw that their only object in depriving me of my liberty was to make me a slave to my princess, i allowed myself to be taken. the moment i was brought to her she took me in her hand, with every symptom of delight. "my darling," said she, caressing me, "my charming bul-bul, i will be thy rose; i already feel the greatest tenderness for thee." at these words she kissed me. i raised my beak softly to her lips. "ah! the little rogue," cried she laughing, "he appears to know what i say." at last, after fondling me, she placed me in a gold filigree cage, which an eunuch had been sent into the city to buy for me. every day as soon as she woke i began my song; and whenever she came to my cage to caress me or feed me, far from appearing wild, i spread out my wings, and stretched my beak towards her, to express my joy. she was surprised to see me so tame in so short a time. sometimes she would take me out of the cage, and allow me to fly about her chamber. i always went to her to receive her caresses, and to lavish mine upon her; and if any of her slaves wished to take hold of me, i pecked at them with all my might. by these little insinuating ways i endeared myself so much to zemroude, that she often said if by any mishap i were to die, she should be inconsolable, so strong was her attachment to me. zemroude also had a little dog in her chamber, of which she was very fond. one day, when the dog and i were alone, it died. its death suggested to me the idea of making a third experiment of the secret. "i will pass into the body of the dog," thought i, "for i wish to see what effect the death of her nightingale will produce upon the princess." i cannot tell what suggested the fancy, for i did not foresee what this new metamorphosis would lead to; but the thought appeared to me a suggestion of heaven, and i followed it at all risks. when zemroude returned to the room, her first care was to come to my cage. as soon as she perceived that the nightingale was dead, she uttered a shriek that brought all her slaves about her. "what ails you, madam?" said they in terrified accents. "has any misfortune happened to you?" "i am in despair," replied the princess, weeping bitterly; "my nightingale is dead. my dear bird, my little husband, why art thou taken from, me so soon? i shall no more hear your sweet notes! i shall never see you again! what have i done to deserve such punishment from heaven?" all the efforts of her women to console her were in vain. the dervise had just returned from his murderous expedition, and one of them ran to acquaint him with the state in which they had found the queen. he quickly came and told her that the death of a bird ought not to cause her so much grief; that the loss was not irreparable; that if she was so fond of nightingales, and wanted another, it was easy to get one. but all his reasoning was to no purpose, he could make no impression upon her. "cease your endeavours," she exclaimed, "to combat my grief, you will never overcome it. i know it is a great weakness to mourn so for a bird, i am as fully persuaded of it as you can be, still i cannot bear up against the force of the blow that has overwhelmed me. i loved the little creature; he appeared sensible of the caresses i bestowed on him, and he returned them in a way that delighted me. if my women approached him, he exhibited ferocity, or rather disdain; whereas he always came eagerly on to my hand when i held it out to him. it appeared as though he felt affection for me, he looked at me in so tender and languishing a manner, that it almost seemed as though he was mortified that he had not the power of speech to express his feelings towards me. i could read it in his eyes. ah! i shall never think of him without despair." as she finished speaking her tears gushed out afresh, and she seemed as if nothing could ever console her. i drew a favourable omen from the violence of her grief. i had laid myself down in a corner of the room, where i heard all that was said and observed all that passed without their noticing me. i had a presentiment that the dervise, in order to console the queen, would avail himself of the secret, and i was not disappointed. finding the queen inaccessible to reason, and being deeply enamoured of her, he was moved by her tears, and instead of persevering in fruitless arguments, he ordered the queen's slaves to quit the room and leave him alone with her. "madam," said he, thinking that no one overheard him, "since the death of your nightingale causes you so much sorrow, he must be brought to life. do not grieve, you shall see him alive again; i pledge myself to restore him to you; to-morrow morning, when you wake, you shall hear him sing again, and you shall have the satisfaction of caressing him." "i understand you, my lord," said zemroude; "you look upon me as crazed, and think that you must humour my sorrow; you would persuade me that i shall see my nightingale alive to-morrow; to-morrow you will postpone your miracle till the following day, and so on from one day to another; by this means you reckon on making me gradually forget my bird; or, perhaps," pursued she, "you intend to get another put in his place to deceive me." "no, my queen," replied the dervise, "no; it is that very bird which you see stretched out in his cage without life; this very nightingale, the enviable object of such poignant grief; it is that very bird himself that shall sing. i will give him new life, and you can again lavish your caresses upon him. he will better appreciate that delight, and you shall behold him still more anxious to please you, for it will be i myself who will be the object of your endearments; every morning i will myself be his fresh life in order to divert you. i can perform this miracle," continued he; "it is a secret i possess; if you have any doubts upon it, or if you are impatient to behold your favourite reanimated, i will cause him to revive now immediately." as the princess did not reply, he imagined from her silence that she was not fully persuaded he could accomplish what he professed; he seated himself on the sofa, and by virtue of the two cabalistic words left his body, or rather mine, and entered into that of the nightingale. the bird began to sing in its cage to the great amazement of zemroude. but his song was not destined to continue long; for no sooner did he begin to warble than i quitted the body of the dog and hastened to retake my own. at the same time running to the cage, i dragged the bird out and wrung his neck. "what have you done, my lord?" cried the princess. "why have you treated my nightingale thus? if you did not wish him to live, why did you restore him to life?" "i thank heaven!" cried i, without paying any regard to what she said, so much were my thoughts taken up with the feeling of vengeance which possessed me at the treacherous conduct of the dervise, "i am satisfied. i have at length avenged myself on the villain whose execrable treason deserved a still greater punishment." if zemroude was surprised to see her nightingale restored to life, she was not the less so to hear me utter these words with such fierce emotion. "my lord," said she, "whence this violent transport which agitates you, and what do those words mean which you have just spoken?" i related to her all that had happened to me, and she could not doubt that i was truly al abbas, because she had heard that the body of the dervise had been found in the forest, and she was also of course well acquainted with the order which he had given for destroying all the deer. but my poor princess could not recover the shock her sensitive love had sustained. a few days after she fell ill, and died in my arms, literally frightened to death by the imminence of the danger from which she had just been so happily rescued. after i had bewailed her, and erected a splendid tomb to her memory, i summoned the prince amadeddin. "my cousin," said i, "i have no children, i resign the crown of moussul in your favour. i give the kingdom up into your hands. i renounce the regal dignity, and wish to pass the rest of my days in repose and privacy." amadeddin, who really loved me, spared no arguments to deter me from taking the step i proposed, but i assured him that nothing could shake my resolution. "prince," said i, "my determination is fixed, i resign my rank to you. fill the throne of al abbas, and may you be more happy than he. reign over a people who know your merit, and have already experienced the blessings of your rule. disgusted with pomp, i shall retire to distant climes, and live in privacy; there freed from the cares of state, i shall mourn over the memory of zemroude, and recall the happy days we passed together." i left amadeddin upon the throne of moussul, and, accompanied only by a few slaves, and carrying an ample supply of riches and jewels, took the road to bagdad, where i arrived safely. i immediately repaired to mouaffac's house. his wife and he were not a little surprised to see me, and they were deeply affected when i informed them of the death of their daughter, whom they had tenderly loved. the recital unlocked the fountains of my own grief, and i mingled my tears with theirs. i did not stay long in bagdad, i joined a caravan of pilgrims going to mecca, and after paying my devotions, found, by chance, another company of pilgrims from tartary, whom i accompanied to their native country. we arrived in this city; i found the place agreeable, and took up my abode here, where i have resided for nearly forty years. i am thought to be a stranger who was formerly concerned in trade, and whose time is now passed in study and contemplation. i lead a retired life, and rarely see strangers. zemroude is ever present to my thoughts, and my only consolation consists in dwelling fondly upon her memory and her virtues. continuation of the story of prince khalaf and the princess of china. al abbas, having finished the recital of his adventures, thus addressed his guests: "such is my history. you perceive by my misfortunes and your own, that human life is but as a reed, ever liable to be bent to the earth by the bleak blasts of misfortune. i will, however, confess to you that i have led a happy and quiet life ever since i have been in jaic; and that i by no means repent having abdicated the throne of moussul; for in the obscurity in which i now live, i have discovered peaceful and tranquil joys which i never experienced before." timurtasch, elmaze, and khalaf bestowed a thousand flattering encomiums upon the son of ben-ortoc; the khan admired the resolution which had caused him to deprive himself of his kingdom, in order to live in privacy in a country of strangers, where the station which he had filled in the world was unknown. elmaze praised the fidelity he displayed towards zemroude, and the grief he experienced at her death. and khalaf remarked, "my lord, it were to be wished that all men could display the same constancy in adversity which you have done, under your misfortunes." they continued their conversation till it was time to retire. al abbas then summoned his slaves, who brought wax-lights in candlesticks made of aloe-wood, and conducted the khan, the princess, and her son to a suite of apartments, where the same simplicity reigned that characterized the rest of the house. elmaze and timurtasch retired to sleep in a chamber appropriated to themselves, and khalaf to another. the following morning their host entered the chamber of his guests as soon as they were up, and said, "you are not the only unfortunate persons in the world; i have just been informed that an ambassador from the sultan of carisma arrived in the city last evening; that his master has sent him to ileuge-khan, to beg of him not only to refuse an asylum to the khan of the nagäis, his enemy, but if the khan should endeavour to pass through his dominions, to arrest him. indeed, it is reported," pursued al abbas, "that the unfortunate khan, for fear of falling into the hands of the sultan of carisma, has left his capital and fled with his family." at this news, timurtasch and khalaf changed colour, and the princess fainted. the swoon of elmaze, as well as the evident trouble of the father and son, instantly caused al abbas to suspect that his guests were not merchants. "i see," said he, as soon as the princess had recovered her senses, "that you take a deep interest in the misfortunes of the khan of the nagäis; indeed, if i may be permitted to tell you what i think, i believe you are yourselves the objects of the sultan of carisma's hatred." "yes, my lord," replied timurtasch, "we are, indeed, the victims for whose immolation he is thirsty. i am the khan of the nagäis, you behold my wife and my son; we should, indeed, be ungrateful, if we did not discover our position to you, after your generous reception, and the confidence you have reposed in us. i am encouraged even to hope, that by your counsels you will aid us to escape from the danger which threatens us." "your situation is most critical," replied the aged king of moussul; "i know ileuge-khan well, and, as he fears the sultan of carisma, i cannot doubt that, to please him, he will search for you every where. you will not be safe, either in my house or in any other in this city; the only resource left you, is to leave the country of jaic as speedily as possible, cross the river irtisch, and gain, with the utmost diligence, the frontiers of the tribe of the berlas." this advice pleased timurtasch, his wife, and son. al abbas had three horses instantly got ready, together with provisions for the journey, and giving them a purse filled with gold; "start immediately," said he, "you have no time to lose, by to-morrow, no doubt, ileuge-khan will cause search to be made for you every where." they returned their heartfelt thanks to the aged monarch, and then quitted jaic, crossed the irtisch, and joining company with a camel-driver, who was travelling that way, arrived after several days' journey in the territories of the tribe of berlas. they took up their quarters with the first horde they met, sold their horses, and lived quietly enough as long as their money lasted; but, as soon as it came to an end, the misery of the khan recommenced. "why am i still in the world?" he began to exclaim. "would it not have been better to have awaited my blood-thirsty foe in my own kingdom, and have died defending my capital, than to drag on a life which is only one continued scene of misery? it is in vain that we endure our misfortunes with patience; for, in spite of our submission to its decrees, heaven will never restore us to happiness, but leaves us still the sport of misery." "my lord," replied khalaf, "do not despair of our miseries coming to an end. heaven, which decrees these events, is preparing for us, i doubt not, some relief which we cannot foresee. let us proceed at once," added he, "to the principal horde of this tribe. i have a presentiment, that our fortunes will now assume a more favourable aspect." they all three proceeded accordingly to the horde with whom the khan of berlas resided. they entered a large tent which served as a refuge for poor strangers. here they laid themselves down, worn out with their journey, and at a loss at last to know how to obtain even the necessaries of life. khalaf, however, quietly slipt out of the tent, leaving his father and mother there, and went through the horde, asking charity of the passers-by. by the evening he had collected a small sum of money, with which he bought some provisions, and carried them to his parents. when they learned that their son had actually solicited charity, they could not refrain from tears. khalaf himself was moved by their grief, but cheerfully remarked, nevertheless, "i confess that nothing we have yet endured has appeared to me more mortifying than to be reduced to solicit alms; still, as at present i cannot procure you subsistence by any other means, is it not my duty to do it, in spite of the mortification it costs me? but," he added, as though struck with a sudden thought, "there is still another resource--sell me for a slave, and the money you will receive will last you a long time." "what do you say, my son?" cried timurtasch, when he heard these words. "can you propose to us that we should live at the expense of your liberty? ah! rather let us endure for ever our present misery. but if it should come to this, that one of us must be sold, let it be myself; i do not refuse to bear the yoke of servitude for you both." "my lord," said khalaf, "another thought strikes me; to-morrow morning i will take my station among the porters; some one may chance to employ me, and we may thus earn a living by my labour." they agreed to this, and the following day the prince stationed himself among the porters of the horde, and waited till some one should employ him; but unfortunately no one wanted him, so that half the day passed and he had not had a single job. this grieved him deeply. "if i am not more successful than this," thought he, "how am i to support my father and mother?" he grew tired of waiting among the porters on the chance of some person wanting his services. he went out of the encampment and strolled into the country, in order to turn over in his mind undisturbedly the best means of earning a livelihood. he sat down under a tree, where, after praying heaven to have pity on his perplexity, he fell asleep. when he woke he saw near him a falcon of singular beauty: its head was adorned with a tuft of gaudy feathers, and from its neck hung a chain of gold filigree-work set with diamonds, topazes, and rubies. khalaf, who understood falconry, held out his fist, and the bird alighted on it. the prince of the nagäis was delighted at the circumstance. "let us see," said he, "what this will lead to. this bird, from all appearance, belongs to the sovereign of the tribe." nor was he wrong. it was the favourite falcon of almguer, khan of berlas, who had lost it the previous day. his principal huntsmen were engaged at that moment in searching every where for it with the greatest diligence and uneasiness, for their master had threatened them with the severest punishments if they returned without his bird, which he loved passionately. prince khalaf returned to the encampment with the falcon. as soon as the people of the horde saw it, they began to cry out, "ha! here is the khan's falcon recovered. blessings on the youth who will make our prince rejoice by restoring him his bird." and so it turned out, for when khalaf arrived at the royal tent, and appeared with the falcon, the khan, transported with joy, ran to his bird and kissed it a thousand times. then addressing the prince of the nagäis, he asked him where he found it. khalaf related how he had recovered the falcon. the khan then said to him, "thou appearest to be a stranger amongst us; where wast thou born, and what is thy profession?" "my lord," replied khalaf, prostrating himself at the khan's feet, "i am the son of a merchant of bulgaria, who was possessed of great wealth. i was travelling with my father and mother in the country of jaic, when we were attacked by robbers, who stripped us of every thing but our lives, and we have found our way to this encampment actually reduced to beg our bread." "young man," replied the khan, "i am glad that it is thou who hast found my falcon; for i swore to grant to whomsoever should bring me my bird, whatever two things he might ask; so thou hast but to speak. tell me what thou desirest me to grant thee, and doubt not that thou shalt obtain it." "since i have permission to ask two things," returned khalaf, "i request in the first place that my father and mother, who are in the strangers' tent, may have a tent to themselves in the quarter where your highness resides, and that they may be supported during the rest of their days at your highness's expense, and waited on by officers of your highness's household; secondly, i desire to have one of the best horses in your highness's stables and a purse full of gold, to enable me to make a journey which i have in contemplation." "thy wishes shall be gratified," said almguer; "thou shalt bring thy father and mother to me, and from this day forth i will begin to entertain them as thou desirest; and to-morrow, dressed in rich attire, and mounted on the best horse in my stables, thou shalt be at liberty to go wherever it shall please thee. thy modesty, the filial love which is imprinted upon thy features, thy youth, thy noble air, please me; be my guest, come and join my festivities, and thou shalt listen to an arabian story-teller, whose knowledge and imaginative powers instruct and amuse my tribes." the khan and the son of timurtasch presently seated themselves at a table loaded with viands, confectionary, fruit, and flowers; gazelle venison, red-legged partridges, pheasants, and black cock were displayed as trophies of the skill of the hunter king. the arab stationed near the khan awaited his orders. "moustapha," said the khan at length, turning to the arab, "i have been extolling thy knowledge and wit to my guest; surpass thyself, and let him see that i have not exaggerated. he shall give thee a subject; treat it in such a manner as to deserve his praise." "i am curious," said the prince, "to hear of china; i ask thee to instruct me concerning the government of that important kingdom, and to give me an insight into the manners and customs of its people." the arab reflected a moment, and then, prefacing his recital with a few general remarks, proceeded to depict in glowing colours this celestial empire, whose civilization dates back to the remotest ages of the world. he described its extent as equal to one-half of the habitable globe; its population as so numerous that it might be counted by hundreds of millions; he spoke of cities, each of which alone brought a revenue to their crown, which surpassed that of entire kingdoms; of those gigantic works, the canals, whose extent equalled the course of the largest rivers, which traversed the vast empire. and he foretold that a time would come when tartar warriors should scale that very wall which the terror of their arms had caused to be built, and should again reconquer the whole of that wealthy tract. he then began his story as follows. the story of lin-in. a chinese tale. at wou-si, a town dependent upon the city of tchang-tcheou, in the province of kiang-nan, there resided a family in the middle sphere of life. three brothers composed the family; the name of the eldest was lin-in (the jasper); the second lin-pao (the precious); the youngest lin-tchin (the pearl); this last was not yet old enough to marry; the other two had taken wives to themselves. the wife of the first was named wang; the wife of the second yang; and both possessed every grace which can constitute the charm of woman. lin-pao's engrossing passions were gambling and wine; he evinced no inclination to good. his wife was of a similar disposition, and depraved in her conduct; she was very different from her sister-in-law wang, who was a pattern of modesty and propriety. so although these two women lived together on neighbourly terms, there was but little real sympathy between them. wang had a son named hi-eul, that is to say, "the son of rejoicing." he was a child of six years old. one day having stopped in the street with some other children, to look at a great procession in the neighbourhood, he was lost in the crowd, and in the evening did not return to the house. this loss caused the deepest sorrow to his parents. they had handbills posted up, and there was not a street in which they did not make inquiries, but all to no purpose; they could gain no intelligence respecting their darling child. lin-in was inconsolable; and giving way to the grief that overwhelmed him, he sought to fly from his home, where every thing brought back the remembrance of his dear hi-eul. he borrowed a sum of money from one of his friends to enable him to carry on a small trade in the neighbourhood of the city and the adjacent villages, hoping that in one of these short excursions he might be able to recover the treasure he had lost. as his whole thoughts were taken up with his child, he took little pleasure in the circumstance that his trade flourished. he nevertheless continued to pursue it during five years, without making long journeys from home, whither he returned every year to spend the autumn. at length, being utterly unsuccessful in discovering the least trace of his son after so many years, and concluding that he was lost to him for ever, and finding moreover that his wife wang bore him no more children, as he had now amassed a good sum of money, he determined to divert his thoughts from painful recollections by trading in another province. he joined the company of a rich merchant travelling the road he had fixed upon; and the merchant, having observed his aptitude for business, made him a very advantageous offer. the desire of becoming wealthy now took possession of him, and diverted his thoughts from their accustomed channel. within a very short time after their arrival in the province of chan-si every thing had succeeded to their utmost wishes. they found a quick sale for their merchandise, and the profits arising from it was considerable. the payments, however, were delayed for two years in consequence of a drought and famine which afflicted the country, as well as by a tedious illness by which lin-in was attacked. they were detained altogether three years in the province; after which, having recovered his money and his health, he took his departure to return to his own country. he halted one day during his journey near a place named tchin-lieou to recruit his strength, and strolling round the neighbourhood accidentally came upon a girdle of blue cloth, in the form of a long, narrow bag, such as is worn round the body, under the dress, and in which money is usually kept; as he took it up, he found the weight considerable. he retired to a quiet spot, opened the girdle, and found it contained about two hundred täels. at sight of this treasure he fell into the following train of reflection: "my good fortune has placed this sum in my hands; i might keep it and employ it for my own use without fearing any unpleasant consequences. still the person who has dropt it, the moment he discovers his loss, will be in great distress, and will return in haste to look for it. do they not say that our forefathers dared scarcely touch money found in this way; and if they picked it up, only did so with a view of restoring it to its owner? this appears to me a very praiseworthy custom, and i will imitate it, the more so as i am growing old and have no heir. of what benefit would money got by such means be to me?" whilst thus reasoning, he had wandered to some distance from the spot where he had found the money; he now, however, retraced his steps to the place, and waited there the whole day, to be ready in case the owner should return. nobody came, however, and the next day he continued his journey. after five days' travelling, he arrived in the evening at nan-sou-tcheou, and took up his quarters at an inn where several other merchants were staying. the conversation having turned upon the advantages of commerce, one of the company said, "five days ago, on leaving tchin-lieou, i lost two hundred täels, which i had in an inside girdle. i had taken it off, and placed it near me whilst i lay down to sleep, when a mandarin and his cortége chanced to pass by. i hastened to get out of the way for fear of insult, and in my hurry forgot to take up my money. it was only at night, as i was undressing to go to bed, that i discovered my loss. i felt sure that as the place where i lost my money was by the side of a well-frequented road, it would be useless to delay my journey for several days in order to look for what i should never find." every one condoled with him on his loss. lin-in asked him his name and place of abode. "your servant," replied the merchant, "is named tchin, and lives at yang-tcheou, where he has a shop and a large warehouse. may i be so bold in return to inquire to whom i have the honour of speaking?" lin-in told him his name, and said that he was an inhabitant of the town of wou-si. "my shortest road there," added he, "lies through yang-tcheou; and, if agreeable to you, i shall have much pleasure in your company so far." tchin acknowledged this politeness in a becoming manner. "most willingly," said he; "we will continue our journey together, and i esteem myself very fortunate in meeting with such an agreeable companion." the journey was not long, and they soon arrived at yang-tcheou. after the usual civilities, tchin invited his fellow-traveller to his house, and on their arrival there immediately ordered refreshments to be brought. whilst they were discussing their meal, lin-in managed to turn the conversation on the subject of the lost money. "what," he asked, "was the colour of the girdle which contained your money, and of what material was it made?" "it was of blue cloth," replied tchin; "and what would enable me to identify it is, that at one end the letter tchin, which is my name, is embroidered upon it in white silk." this description left no doubt as to the owner. lin-in, therefore, rejoined in a cheerful tone, "if i have asked you all these questions, it was merely because passing through tchin-lieou, i found a belt such as you describe." at the same time producing it, he added, "look if this is yours." "the very same," said tchin. whereupon lin-in politely restored it to its owner. tchin, overwhelmed with gratitude, pressed him to accept the half of the sum which it contained; but his entreaties were in vain, lin-in would receive nothing. "what obligations am i not under to you?" resumed tchin; "where else should i find such honesty and generosity?" he then ordered a splendid repast to be brought, over which they pledged each other with great demonstrations of friendship. tchin thought to himself, "where should i find a man of such probity as lin-in? men of his character are very scarce in these days. what! shall i receive from him such an act of kindness, and not be able to repay him? i have a daughter twelve years old; i must form an alliance with such an honest man. but has he got a son? on this point i am entirely ignorant." "my dear friend," said he, "how old is your son?" this question brought tears into the eyes of lin-in. "alas!" replied he, "i had but one, who was most dear to me. it is now eight years ago since my child, having run out of the house to see a procession pass by, disappeared; and from that day to this i have never been able to learn any thing of him; and, to crown my misfortune, my wife has not borne me any more children." upon hearing this, tchin appeared to think for a moment, then, continuing the conversation, said, "my brother and benefactor, of what age was the child when you lost him?" "about six years old," replied lin-in. "what was his name?" "we called him hi-eul," returned lin-in. "he had escaped all the dangers of the small-pox which had left no traces upon his countenance; his complexion was clear and florid." this description gave the greatest pleasure to tchin, and he could not prevent his satisfaction from displaying itself in his looks and manner. he immediately called one of his servants, to whom he whispered a few words. the servant, having made a gesture of obedience, retired into the interior of the house. lin-in, struck by the questions, and the joy which lit up the countenance of his host, was forming all sorts of conjectures, when he saw a youth of about fourteen years of age enter the room. he was dressed in a long gown, with a plain though neat jacket. his graceful form, his air and carriage, his face with its regular features, and his quick and piercing eyes, and finely arched black eyebrows, at once engaged the admiration and riveted the attention of lin-in. as soon as the youth saw the stranger seated at table, he turned towards him, made a low bow, and uttered some respectful words; then approaching tchin, and standing modestly before him, he said in a sweet and pleasing tone, "my father, you have called hi-eul; what are you pleased to command?" "i will tell you presently," replied tchin, "in the mean time stand beside me." the name of hi-eul, by which the youth called himself, excited fresh suspicions in the breast of lin-in. a secret sympathy suddenly forced itself upon him; and by one of those wonderful instincts of nature which are so unerring, recalled to his recollection the image of his lost child, his form, his face, his air, and manners; he beheld them all in the youth before him. there was but one circumstance that made him doubt the truth of his conjectures, and that was his addressing tchin by the name of 'father.' he felt it would be rude to ask tchin if the youth really were his son; perhaps he might truly be so, for it was not impossible that there might be two children bearing the same name, and in many respects resembling each other. lin-in, absorbed in these reflections, paid little attention to the good cheer placed before him. tchin could read on the countenance of lin-in the perplexing thoughts that filled his mind. an indescribable charm seemed to attract him irresistibly towards the youth. he kept his eyes constantly fixed upon him, he could not turn them away. hi-eul, on his part, despite his bashfulness and the timidity natural to his age, could not help gazing intently upon lin-in; it seemed as though nature was revealing his father to him. at length lin-in, no longer master of his feelings, suddenly broke the silence, and asked tchin if the youth really was his son. "i am not," replied tchin, "really his father, although i look upon him as my own child. eight years ago, a man passing through this city, leading this child in his hand, addressed me by chance, and begged me to assist him in his great need. 'my wife,' said he, 'is dead, and has left me with this child. the impoverished state of my affairs has compelled me to leave my native place, and go to hoaingan to my relations, from whom i hope to receive a sum of money, to enable me to set up in business again. i have not wherewith to continue my journey to that town, will you be so charitable as to lend me three täels? i will faithfully restore them on my return, and i will leave as a pledge all that i hold most dear in the world, my only son; i shall no sooner reach hoaingan, than i will return and redeem my dear child.' "i felt gratified by this mark of confidence, and i gave him the sum he asked. as he left me he burst into tears, and gave every evidence of the grief he felt in leaving his child. i was, however, surprised that the child did not exhibit the least emotion at the separation; as, however, time wore on, and the pretended father did not return, suspicions began to rise, which i was anxious to set at rest. i called the child, and by various questions i put to him, learned that he was born in wou-si, that having one day run out to see a procession pass by, he had strayed too far from home, and lost his way, and that he had been trepanned and carried off by a stranger. he also told me the name of his father and mother; indeed, it is that of your own family. i thus discovered that the fellow, so far from being the father of the poor child, was the identical rascal who had carried him off. not only was my compassion excited, but the boy's pleasing manners had entirely won my heart; i treated him from that time as one of my own children, and i sent him to college with my own son, to study with him. i have often entertained the plan of going to wou-si, to inquire after his family. but business of some kind always prevented me from undertaking the journey, of which, however, i had never fully relinquished the idea; when, happily, a few moments ago, you chanced in the course of conversation to mention your son, my suspicions were aroused, and upon the extraordinary coincidence of your tale, and the circumstances of which i was acquainted, i sent for your child to see if you would recognize him." at these words hi-eul wept for joy, and his tears caused those of lin-in to flow copiously. "a peculiar mark," said he, "will prove his identity; a little above the left knee you will find a small black spot, which has been there from his birth." hi-eul pulled up the leg of his trouser, and showed the spot in question. lin-in, on seeing it, threw himself upon the neck of the child, covered him with kisses, and folded him in his arms. "my child," cried he, "my dear child, what happiness for your father to find you after so many years' absence." it is not difficult to conceive to what transports of joy the father and son delivered themselves up, during these first moments of pleasure. after a thousand tender embraces, lin-in at length tore himself from the arms of his son, and made a profound obeisance to tchin. "what gratitude do i not owe you," said he, "for having received my son into your house, and brought up this dear portion of myself with so much care. but for you we should never have been united." "my kind benefactor," replied tchin, rising, "it was the act of disinterested generosity you practised towards me, in restoring the two hundred täels, which moved the compassion of heaven. it is heaven that conducted you to my house, where you have found him whom you sought in vain for so many years. now that i know that good youth is your son, i regret that i have not treated him with greater consideration." "kneel, my son," said lin-in, "and thank your generous benefactor." tchin was about to return these salutations, when lin-in himself prevented him, overcome with this excess of respect. this interchange of civilities being over they resumed their seats, and tchin placed little hi-eul on a seat by his father's side. then tchin resuming the conversation, said, "my brother (for henceforth that is the title by which i shall address you), i have a daughter twelve years of age, and it is my intention to give her in marriage to your son, in order that the union may cement our friendship more closely." this proposition was made in so sincere and ardent a manner, that lin-in did not feel it right to make the usual excuses that good breeding prescribed. he therefore waived all ceremony, and gave his consent at once. as it was growing late, they separated for the night. hi-eul slept in the same chamber with his father. you may imagine all the tender and affectionate conversation that passed between them during the night. the next day lin-in prepared to take leave of his host, but he could not resist his pressing invitation to remain. tchin had prepared a second day's festivity, in which he spared no expense to regale the future father-in-law of his daughter, and his new son-in-law, and thereby to console himself for their departure. they drank and sang, and gave themselves up fully to the hilarity of the occasion. when the repast was ended, tchin drew out a packet of twenty täels, and looking towards lin-in, said, "during the time my dear son-in-law has been with me, it is possible he may have suffered many things against my wish, and unknown to me; here is a little present i wish to make him, until i can give him more substantial proofs of my affection. i will not hear of a refusal." "what!" replied lin-in, "at a time when i am contracting an alliance so honourable to me, and when i ought, according to custom, to make marriage presents for my son, presents which i am prevented from doing at this moment, only because i am travelling, do you load me with gifts? i cannot accept them; the thought covers me with confusion." "well!" replied tchin, "i am not dreaming of offering _you_ such a trifle. it is for my son-in-law, not the father-in-law of my daughter, that i intend this present. indeed, if you persist in the refusal, i shall consider it as a sign that the alliance is not agreeable to you." lin-in saw that he must yield, and that resistance would be useless. he humbly accepted the present, and making his son rise from table, ordered him to make a profound reverence to tchin. "what i have given you," said tchin, raising him up, "is but a trifle, and deserves no thanks." hi-eul then went into the house to pay his respects to his mother-in-law. the whole day passed in feasting and diversions; it was only at night that they separated. when lin-in retired to his chamber, he gave himself up entirely to the reflections to which these events gave rise. "it must be confessed," cried he, "that by restoring the two hundred täels, i have done an action pleasing to heaven, and now i am rewarded by the happiness of finding my child, and contracting so honourable an alliance. this is, indeed, joy upon joy; it is like putting gold flowers upon a beautiful piece of silk. how can i be sufficiently grateful for so many favours? here are the twenty täels that my friend tchin has given me; can i do better than employ them towards the maintenance of some virtuous bonzes? it will be sowing them in a soil of blessings." the next day, after breakfast, the father and son got ready their luggage, and took leave of their host; they proceeded to the quay, hired a boat, and commenced their journey. they had scarcely gone half a league, ere they came in sight of a scene of terrible excitement; the river was full of struggling people, whose cries rent the air. a bark, full of passengers, had just sunk, and the cries of the unfortunate creatures for help were heart-rending! the people on the shore called loudly to several small boats which were near to come to the rescue. but the hard-hearted and selfish boatmen demanded that a good sum should be guaranteed them, before they would bestir themselves. at this critical moment lin-in's boat came up. the moment he perceived what was going on, he said to himself: "it is a much more meritorious action to save the life of a man, than to adorn the temples and support bonzes. let us consecrate the twenty täels to this good work; let us succour these poor drowning souls." he instantly proclaimed that he would give the twenty täels amongst those who would take the drowning men into their boats. at this offer all the boatmen crowded towards the scene of the disaster, and the river was, in a moment, covered with their boats; at the same time, some of the spectators on shore, who knew how to swim, threw themselves into the water, and, in a few moments, all were saved, without exception. lin-in then distributed amongst the boatmen the promised reward. the poor creatures, snatched from a watery grave, came in a body to return thanks to their preserver. one amongst them, having looked attentively at lin-in, suddenly cried out, "what! is that you, my eldest brother? by what good luck do i find you here?" lin-in, turning towards him, recognized his youngest brother, lin-tchin. then, transported with joy, he exclaimed, clasping his hands, "o wonderful circumstance! heaven has led me hither to save my brother's life." he instantly reached out his hand to him, and made him come into his boat, helped him off with his wet clothes, and gave him others. as soon as lin-tchin had sufficiently recovered, he paid the respects due to an elder brother which good breeding demands from a younger, and lin-in, having acknowledged his politeness, called hi-eul, who was in the cabin, to come and salute his uncle; he then recounted all his adventures, which threw lin-tchin into a state of amazement, from which he was a long time in recovering. "but tell me," said lin-in, at length, "your motive in coming to this country." "it is not possible," replied lin-tchin, "to tell you in a few words the reason of my travels. in the course of the three years which have elapsed since your departure from home, the melancholy news of your death from illness reached us. my second brother made every inquiry, and assured himself that the report was true. it was a thunderbolt for my sister-in-law; she was inconsolable, and put on the deepest mourning. for my part, i could not give credit to the report. after a few days had elapsed, my second brother tried all in his power to induce my sister-in-law to contract a fresh marriage. she, however, steadily rejected the proposal; at length she prevailed upon me to make a journey to chan-si, to ascertain upon the spot what had become of you; and, when i least expected it, at the point of perishing in the water, the very person i was in search of, my well-beloved brother, has saved my life. is not this unexpected good fortune, a blessing from heaven? but believe me, my brother, there is no time to be lost; make all possible haste to return home, and to put an end to my sister-in-law's grief. the least delay may cause an irreparable misfortune." lin-in, overwhelmed at this news, sent for the captain of the boat, and, although it was late, ordered him to set sail, and continue the voyage during the night. whilst all these events were happening to lin-in, wang, his wife, was a prey to the most poignant grief. a thousand circumstances led her to suspect that her husband was not dead; but lin-pao, who by that reported death became the head of the family, so positively assured her that it was true, that, at last, she had allowed herself to be persuaded into that belief, and had assumed the widow's weeds. lin-pao possessed a bad heart, and was capable of the most unworthy acts. "i have no doubt," said he, "of my elder brother's death. my sister-in-law is young and handsome; she has, besides, no one to support her; i must force her to marry again, and i shall make money by this means." he thereupon communicated his plan to yang, his wife, and ordered her to employ some clever matchmaker. but wang resolutely rejected the proposal; she vowed that she would remain a widow, and honour the memory of her husband by her widowhood. her brother-in-law, lin-tchin, supported her in her resolution. thus all the artifices which lin-pao and his wife employed were useless; and, as every time they urged her on the subject it occurred to her that they had no positive proof of his death, "i am determined," said she, at length, "to know the truth; these reports are often false; it is only on the very spot that certain information can be obtained. true, the distance is nearly a hundred leagues. still, i know that lin-tchin is a good-hearted man; he will travel to the province of chan-si to relieve my anxiety, and learn positively if i am so unfortunate as to have lost my husband; and, if i have, he will, at least, bring me his precious remains." lin-tchin was asked to undertake the journey, and, without a moment's hesitation, departed. his absence, however, only rendered lin-pao more eager in the pursuit of his project. to crown the whole, he had gambled very deeply, and, having been a heavy loser, was at his wit's end to know where to obtain money. in this state of embarrassment, he met with a merchant of kiang-si, who had just lost his wife, and was looking for another. lin-pao seized upon the opportunity, and proposed his sister-in-law to him. the merchant accepted the offer, taking care, however, to make secret inquiries whether the lady who was proposed to him was young and good-looking. as soon as he was satisfied on these points, he lost no time, and paid down thirty täels to clinch the bargain. lin-pao, having taken the money, said to the merchant, "i ought to warn you, that my sister-in-law is proud and haughty. she will raise many objections to leaving the house, and you will have a great deal of trouble to force her to do it. now this will be your best plan for managing it. this evening, as soon as it gets dark, have a palanquin and good strong bearers in readiness; come with as little noise as possible, and present yourself at the door of the house. the young woman who will come to the door, attired in the head-dress of mourners, is my sister-in-law; don't say a word to her, and don't listen to what she may say, but seize her at once, thrust her into your palanquin, carry her to your boat, and set sail at once." this plan met with the approbation of the merchant, and its execution appeared easy enough of accomplishment. in the mean time, lin-pao returned home, and, in order to prevent his sister-in-law from suspecting any thing of the project he had planned, he assumed an air of the most perfect indifference, but as soon as she left the room, he communicated his plans to his wife, and, alluding to his sister-in-law, in a contemptuous manner, said, "that two-legged piece of goods must leave this house to-night. however, not to be a witness of her tears and sighs, i shall go out beforehand, and, as it gets dark, a merchant of kiang-si will come, and take her away in a palanquin to his boat." he would have continued the conversation, when he heard the footsteps of some person outside the window, and went hurriedly away. in his haste he forgot to mention the circumstance of the mourning dress. it was doubtless an interposition of providence that this circumstance was omitted. the lady wang easily perceived that the noise she made outside the window had caused lin-pao to break off the conversation suddenly. the tone of his voice plainly showed that he had something more to say; but she had heard enough; for having remarked by his manner that he had some secret to tell his wife when he entered the house, she had pretended to go away, but listening at the window had heard these words distinctly, "they will take her away and put her into a palanquin." these words strongly fortified her suspicions. her resolution was taken at once. she entered the room, and approaching yang, gave utterance to her anxiety. "my sister-in-law," said she, "you behold an unfortunate widow, who is bound to you by the strongest ties of a friendship which has been always sincere. by this long-standing friendship i conjure you to tell me candidly whether my brother-in-law still persists in his design of forcing me into a marriage that would cover me with disgrace." at these words yang at first appeared confused, and changed colour; then, assuming a more confident expression, "what are you thinking of?" she asked, "and what fancies have you got into your head? if there were any intention of making you marry again, do you think there would be any difficulty? what is the good of throwing oneself into the water before the ship is really going to pieces?" the moment the lady wang heard this allusion to the ship, she understood more clearly the meaning of the secret conference of her brother-in-law with his wife. she now suspected the worst, and gave vent to her lamentations and sighs; and yielding to the current of her grief, she shut herself up in her room, where she wept, groaned, and bewailed her hard lot. "unfortunate wretch that i am," cried she, "i do not know what has become of my husband. lin-tchin, my brother-in-law and friend, upon whom alone i can rely, is gone on a journey. my father, mother, and relations live far from hence. if this business is hurried on, how shall i be able to inform them of it? i can hope for no assistance from our neighbours. lin-pao has made himself the terror of the whole district, and every body knows him to be capable of the greatest villany. miserable creature that i am! how can i escape his snares? if i do not fall into them to-day, it may be to-morrow, or at any rate in a very short time." she fell to the ground half dead; her fall, and the violence of her grief, made a great noise. the lady yang, hearing the disturbance, hastened to her room, and finding the door firmly fastened, concluded that it was a plan of her distracted sister-in-law to evade the scheme of the night; she therefore seized a bar which stood by and broke the door open. as she entered the room, the night being very dark, she caught her feet in the clothes of the lady wang, and fell tumbling over her. in her fall she lost her head-dress, which flew to some distance, and the fright and fall brought on a faint, in which she remained for some time. when she recovered she got up, went for a light, and returned to the room, where she found the lady wang stretched on the floor, without motion and almost without breath. at the moment she was going to procure other assistance, she heard a gentle knock at the door. she knew it must be the merchant of kiang-si come to fetch the wife he had bought. she quickly ran to receive him and bring him into the room, that he might himself be witness of what had occurred; but remembering that she had no head-dress, and that she was unfit to present herself in that state, she hastily caught up the one she found at her feet, which was the lady wang's head-dress of mourning, and ran to the door. it was indeed the merchant of kiang-si, who had come to fetch away his promised bride. he had a bridal palanquin, ornamented with silk flags, festoons, flowers, and several gay lanterns; it was surrounded by servants bearing lighted torches, and by a troop of flute and hautboy-players. the whole cortége was stationed in the street in perfect silence. the merchant, having knocked gently and finding the door open, entered the house with some of those who bore torches to light him. upon the lady yang's appearance, the merchant, who spied at a glance the mourning head-dress, which was the mark by which he was to distinguish his bride, flew upon her like a hungry kite upon a sparrow. his followers rushed in, carried off the lady, and shut her into the palanquin, which was all ready to receive her. it was in vain she endeavoured to make herself heard, crying out, "you are mistaken; it is not me you want." the music struck up as she was forced into the palanquin, and drowned her voice, whilst the bearers flew rather than walked, and bore her to the boat. [illustration: the lady yang carried off in the palanquin, p. .] whilst all this was taking place, the lady wang had gradually revived and come to her senses. the great hubbub she heard at the door of the house renewed her fears, and occasioned her the most painful anxiety; but as she found that the noise of music, and the tumult of voices, which had arisen so suddenly died gradually away in the distance, she regained her courage, and after a few minutes summoned up strength to go and inquire what was the matter. after calling her sister-in-law two or three times without effect, the truth began to dawn on her; and after considering the matter carefully, she could only come to the conclusion that the merchant had made a mistake, and had carried off the wrong lady. but now a fresh cause of uneasiness arose; she dreaded the consequences when lin-pao should return and be informed of the mistake. she shut herself up in her room, and after picking up the head-pins, the earrings, and the head-dress, which were lying on the floor, threw herself, quite worn out with fatigue and anxiety, on her couch, and endeavoured to get a little sleep, but she was not able to close her eyes all night. at daybreak she rose and bathed her face, and proceeded to complete her toilet. as, however, she was searching about for her mourning head-dress, some one began making a great noise at the room-door, knocking loudly and crying out, "open the door instantly!" it was, in fact, lin-pao himself. she recognized the voice at once. she made up her mind at once what to do; she let him go on knocking without answering him. he swore, stormed and bawled, till he was hoarse. at length the lady wang went to the door, and standing behind it without opening it, asked, "who is knocking there, and making such a disturbance?" lin-pao, who recognized the voice of his sister-in-law, began to shout still louder: but seeing that his storming had no effect, he had recourse to an expedient which proved successful. "sister-in-law," said he, "i have brought you good news! lin-tchin, my youngest brother, has come back, and our eldest brother is in excellent health; open the door at once!" overjoyed at this intelligence, the lady wang ran to complete her toilet, and in her haste put on the black[ ] head-dress that her sister-in-law had left behind, and eagerly opened the door; but, alas! in vain did she look for her friend lin-tchin; no one was there but lin-pao. he entered her room hurriedly and looked round, but not seeing his wife, and perceiving a black head-dress on the head of his sister-in-law, his suspicions began to be excited in a strange manner. "well! where is your sister-in-law?" he asked roughly. "you ought to know better than i," replied the lady wang, "since you had the whole management of this admirable plot." "but tell me," returned lin-pao, "why don't you still wear a white head-dress? have you left off mourning?" the lady wang forthwith proceeded to relate to him all that had happened during his absence. just at this moment he caught sight through the window of four or five persons hurrying towards his house. to his utter astonishment he perceived that they were his eldest brother lin-in, his youngest brother lin-tchin, his nephew hi-eul, and two servants carrying their luggage. lin-pao, thunderstruck at this sight, and not having impudence enough to face them, ran off by the back-door, and disappeared like a flash of lightning. the lady wang was transported with joy at her husband's return. but who shall describe her ecstasies of joy when her son was presented to her? she could scarcely recognize him, so tall and handsome had he grown. "oh!" cried she, "by what good fortune did you recover our dear child, whom i thought we had lost for ever?" lin-in gave her in detail an account of his adventures; and the lady wang related at length all the indignities she had endured at the hands of lin-pao, and the extremities to which she had been reduced by his scandalous treatment. lin-in lavished on his wife encomiums which indeed her fidelity deserved; after which, reflecting on the whole chain of events by which the present meeting had been brought about, he seemed deeply moved, and remarked, "if a blind passion for wealth had caused me to keep the two hundred täels i found by accident, how should i have ever met with our dear child? if avarice had prevented me from employing the twenty täels in saving those drowning people, my dear brother would have perished in the waves, and i should never have seen him; if by an unlooked-for chance i had not met my kind-hearted brother, how should i have discovered the trouble and confusion that reigned in this house in time to prevent its disastrous consequences? but for all this, my beloved wife, we should never have seen each other again. i recognize the special interposition of providence in bringing about all these things. as to my other brother, that unnatural brother, who has unconsciously sold his own wife, he has drawn upon himself his own terrible punishment. heaven rewards men according to their deserts; let them not think to escape its judgments. "let us learn from this how profitable in the end, as well as good, it is to practise virtue; it is that alone which bestows lasting prosperity upon a house." in due course of time hi-eul brought home his bride, the daughter of tchin. the marriage was celebrated with great rejoicings, and proved a happy one. they had several children, and lived to see a crowd of grandchildren, several of whom became men of learning, and acquired important positions in the state. continuation of the story of prince khalaf and the princess of china. the prince applauded the narrative of the story-teller; and, dinner being over, he prostrated himself a second time before the khan, and, after thanking him for his goodness, returned to the tent, where elmaze and timurtasch were anxiously expecting him. "i bring you good news," said he to them; "our fortune has changed already." he then related to them all that had passed. this fortunate event caused them the greatest pleasure; they regarded it as an infallible sign that the hardness of their destiny was beginning to soften. they willingly followed khalaf, who conducted them to the royal tent and presented them to the khan. this prince received them with courtesy, and renewed to them the promise he had given to their son; and he did not fail to keep his word. he appointed them a private tent, caused them to be waited on by the slaves and officers of his household, and ordered them to be treated with the same respect as himself. the next day khalaf was arrayed in a rich dress; he received from the hand of almguer himself a sabre with a diamond hilt and a purse full of gold sequins; they then brought him a beautiful turcoman horse. he mounted before all the court; and to show that he understood the management of a horse, he made him go through all his paces and evolutions in a manner that charmed the prince and all his courtiers. after having thanked the khan for all his benefits, he took his leave. he then sought elmaze and timurtasch; and after some time spent in desultory conversation, proceeded to unfold to them a scheme which for some days past had been agitating his mind. "i have a great desire," said he, "to see the great kingdom of china; give me permission to gratify that wish. i have a presentiment that i shall signalize myself by some splendid action, and that i shall gain the friendship of the monarch who holds that vast empire under his sway. suffer me to leave you in this asylum, where you are in perfect safety, and where you can want for nothing. i am following an impulse which inspires me, or rather, i am yielding myself to the guidance of heaven." "go, my son," replied timurtasch; "yield to the noble impulse which animates you; hasten to the fortune that awaits you. accelerate by your valour the arrival of that tardy prosperity which must one day succeed our misfortunes, or by a glorious death deserve an illustrious place in the history of unfortunate princes." the young prince of the nagäis, after having embraced his father and mother, mounted upon his beautiful charger, took a respectful leave of the khan, received from the hand of the princess elmaze, who came out of her tent for the purpose, the parting cup, and set out on his journey. historians do not mention that he encountered any thing worthy notice on his route; they only say that, having arrived at the great city canbalac, otherwise pekin, he dismounted at a house near the gate, where a worthy woman, a widow, lived. khalaf reined up his horse here, and on the widow presenting herself at the door, he saluted her and said, "my good mother, would you kindly receive a stranger? if you could give me a lodging in your house, i can venture to say that you will have no cause to regret it." the widow scrutinized him; and judging from his good looks, as well as from his dress, that he was no mean guest, she made him a low bow, and replied, "young stranger of noble bearing, my house is at your service, and all that it contains." "have you also a place where i can put my horse?" "yes," said she, "i have," and called a young slave, who took the horse by the bridle, and led him into a small stable behind the house. khalaf, who felt very hungry, then asked her if she would kindly send and buy something for him in the market. the widow replied, that she had a maiden who lived with her, and who would execute his orders. the prince then drew from his purse a sequin of gold and placed it in the girl's hand, who went off to the market. in the mean time, the widow had enough to do to answer the inquiries of khalaf. he asked her a thousand questions; what were the customs of the inhabitants of the city? how many families pekin was said to contain? and, at length, the conversation fell upon the king of china. "tell me, i pray you," said khalaf, "what is the character this prince bears. is he generous, and do you think that he would pay any regard to a young stranger, who might offer to serve him against his enemies? in a word, is he a man to whose interests i could worthily attach myself?" "doubtless," replied the widow; "he is an excellent prince, who loves his subjects as much as he is beloved by them, and i am surprised that you have never heard of our good king, altoun-khan, for the fame of his justice and liberality is spread far and wide." "from the favourable picture you draw of him," replied the prince of the nagäis, "i should imagine that he ought to be the happiest and most prosperous monarch in the world." "he is not so, however," replied the widow; "indeed, he may be said to be the most wretched. in the first place, he has no prince to succeed him on his throne; a male heir is denied him, notwithstanding all the prayers of himself and his subjects, and all the good deeds he performs to that end. but i must tell you, the grief of having no son is not his greatest trouble; what principally disturbs the peace of his life is the princess tourandocte, his only daughter." "how is it," replied khalaf, "that she is such a source of grief to him?" "i will tell you," replied the widow; "and, indeed, i can speak upon the subject from the very best authority; for my daughter has often told me the story and she has the honour of being among the attendants on the princess." "the princess tourandocte," continued the hostess of the prince of the nagäis, "is in her nineteenth year; she is so beautiful, that the artists to whom she has sat for her portrait, although the most expert in the east, have all confessed that they were ashamed of their efforts; and that the most able painter in the world, and the best skilled in delineating the charms of a beautiful face, could not express those of the princess of china; nevertheless, the different portraits which have been taken of her, although infinitely inferior to the original, have produced the most disastrous consequences. "she combines, with her ravishing beauty, a mind so cultivated, that she not only understands all that is usual for persons in her station to know, but is mistress of sciences suited only for the other sex. she can trace the various characters of several languages, she is acquainted with arithmetic, geography, philosophy, mathematics, law, and, above all, theology, she knows the laws and moral philosophy of our great legislator, berginghuzin; in fact, is as learned as all the wise men put together. but her good qualities are effaced by a hardness of heart without parallel, and all her accomplishments are tarnished by detestable cruelty. "it is now two years ago since the king of thibet sent to ask her in marriage for his son, who had fallen in love with her from a portrait he had seen. altoun-khan, delighted with the prospect of this alliance, proposed it to tourandocte. the haughty princess, to whom all men appeared despicable, so vain had her beauty rendered her, rejected the proposal with disdain. the king flew into a violent rage with her, and declared that he would be obeyed; but instead of submitting dutifully to the wishes of her father, she burst into bitter lamentations, because he showed a disposition to force her to comply; she grieved immoderately, as though it were intended to inflict a great injury upon her; in fact, she took it so much to heart that she fell seriously ill. the physicians, who soon discovered the secret of her complaint, told the king that all their remedies were useless, and that the princess would certainly lose her life, if he persisted in his resolution to make her espouse the prince of thibet. "the king then, who loves his daughter to distraction, alarmed at the danger she was in, went to see her, and assured her that he would send back the ambassador with a refusal. 'that is not enough, my lord,' replied the princess; 'i am resolved to die, except you grant what i ask you. if you wish me to live, you must bind yourself by an inviolable oath never to try to influence my wishes in this matter, and to publish a decree declaring that of all the princes who may seek my hand, none shall be allowed to espouse me who shall not previously have replied, without hesitation, to the questions which i shall put to him before all the learned men in this city; that if his answers prove satisfactory, i will consent to his becoming my husband, but if the reverse, that he shall lose his head in the court-yard of your palace.' "'by this edict,' added she, 'of which all the foreign princes who may arrive at pekin shall be informed, you will extinguish all desire of asking me in marriage; and that is exactly what i wish, for i hate men, and do not wish to be married.' "'but, my child,' said the king, 'if by chance some one should present himself, and reply to your questions?'-- "'ha! i do not fear that,' she said quickly, interrupting him; 'i can put questions which would puzzle the most learned doctors; i am willing to run that risk.' "altoun-khan pondered over what the princess demanded of him. 'i see clearly,' thought he, 'that my daughter does not wish to marry, and the effect of this edict will be to frighten away all lovers. i run no risk, therefore, in yielding to her fancies, no evil can come of it. what prince would be mad enough to face such danger?' "at length the king, persuaded that this edict would not be followed by any bad results, and that the recovery of his daughter entirely depended upon it, caused it to be published, and swore upon the laws of berginghuzin to see that it was observed to the letter. tourandocte, reassured by this oath, which she knew her father dare not violate, regained her strength, and was soon restored to perfect health. "in spite of the decree, the fame of her beauty attracted several young princes to pekin. it was in vain that they were informed of the nature of the edict; and as every body, but particularly a young prince, entertains a good opinion of himself, they had the hardihood to present themselves to reply to the questions of the princess; and not being able to fathom her deep meaning, they perished miserably one after another. "the king, to do him justice, appears deeply afflicted with their sad fate. he repents of having made the oath which binds him; and however tenderly he may love his daughter, he would now almost rather he had let her die than have saved her life at such a price. he does all in his power to prevent these evils. when a lover whom the decree cannot restrain comes to demand the hand of the princess, he strives to deter him from his purpose; and he never consents, but with the deepest regret, to his exposing himself to the chance of losing his life. but it generally happens that he is unable to dissuade these rash young men. they are infatuated with tourandocte, and the hope of possessing her blinds them to the difficulty of obtaining her. "but if the king shows so much grief at the ruin of the unfortunate princes, it is not the case with his barbarous daughter. she takes a pride in these spectacles of blood with which her beauty periodically furnishes the chinese. so great is her vanity, that she considers the most accomplished prince not only unworthy of her, but most insolent in daring to raise his thoughts towards her, and she looks upon his death as a just chastisement for his temerity. "but what is still more deplorable, heaven is perpetually permitting princes to come and sacrifice themselves to this inhuman princess. only the other day, a prince, who flattered himself that he had knowledge enough to reply to her questions, lost his life; and this very night another is to die, who, unfortunately, came to the court of china with the same hopes." khalaf was deeply attentive to the widow's story. "i cannot understand," said he, after she had ceased speaking, "how any princes can be found sufficiently devoid of judgment to come and ask the hand of the princess of china. what man would not be terrified at the condition without which he cannot hope to obtain her? besides, despite what the artists may say who have painted her portrait; although they may affirm that their productions are but an imperfect image of her beauty, my firm belief is that they have added charms, and that their portraits exaggerate her beauty, since they have produced such powerful effects; indeed, i cannot think that tourandocte is so beautiful as you say." "sir," replied the widow, "she is more lovely by far than i have described her to you; and you may believe me, for i have seen her several times when i have gone to the harem to visit my daughter. draw upon your fancy as you please, collect in your imagination all that can possibly be brought together in order to constitute a perfect beauty, and be assured that even then you would not have pictured to yourself an object which could approach the perfections of the princess." the prince of the nagäis could not credit the story of the widow, so overdrawn did he consider it; he felt, nevertheless, a secret pleasure for which he could not account. "but, my mother," said he, "are the questions which the king's daughter proposes so difficult of solution that it is impossible to reply to them to the satisfaction of the lawyers who are judges? for my part, i cannot help thinking that the princes who were not able to penetrate the meaning of her questions, must have been persons of very little ingenuity, if not absolutely ignorant." "no, no!" replied the widow. "there is no enigma more obscure than the questions of the princess, and it is almost impossible to reply to them." whilst they were conversing thus of tourandocte and her lovers, the girl arrived from the market loaded with provisions. khalaf sat down to a table which the widow had prepared, and ate like a man famishing with hunger. whilst thus engaged the night drew on, and they heard shortly in the town the gong of justice. the prince asked what the noise meant. "it is to give notice to the people," replied the widow, "that some person is going to be executed; and the unfortunate victim about to be immolated is the prince of whom i told you, and who is to be executed to-night for not being able to answer the princess's questions. it is customary to punish the guilty during the day, but this is an exceptional case. the king, who in his heart abhors the punishment which he causes to be inflicted upon the lovers of his daughter, will not suffer the sun to be witness of such a cruel action." the son of timurtasch had a wish to see this execution, the cause of which appeared so singular to him. he went out of the house, and meeting a crowd of chinese in the street animated by the same curiosity, he mixed with them, and went to the court-yard of the palace, where the tragic scene was to be enacted. he beheld in the middle of the yard a _schebt-cheraghe_, in other words a very high wooden tower, the outside of which, from the top to the bottom, was covered with branches of cypress, amongst which a prodigious quantity of lamps, tastefully arranged, spread a brilliant light around, and illuminated the whole court-yard. fifteen cubits from the tower a scaffold was raised, covered with white satin, and around the scaffold were arranged several pavilions of taffetas of the same colour open towards the scaffold. behind these two thousand soldiers of the guard of altoun-khan were stationed, with drawn swords and axes in their hands, forming a double rank, which served as a barrier against the people. khalaf was looking with deep attention at all that presented itself to his view, when suddenly the mournful ceremony commenced. it was ushered in by a confused noise of drums and bells, which proceeded from the town, and could be heard at a great distance. at the same moment twenty mandarins and as many judges, all dressed in long robes of white woollen cloth, emerged from the palace, advanced towards the scaffold, and after walking three times around it, took their places under the pavilions. next came the victim, crowned with flowers interwoven with cypress leaves, and with a blue fillet round his head,--not a red one, such as criminals condemned by justice wear. he was a young prince, who had scarcely reached his eighteenth year; he was accompanied by a mandarin leading him by the hand, and followed by the executioner. the three ascended the scaffold; instantly the noise of the drums and bells ceased. the mandarin then addressed the prince in a tone so loud that he was heard by nearly the whole concourse of people. "prince," said he, "is it not true that you were apprised of the terms of the king's edict before you presented yourself to ask the princess in marriage? is it not also true that the king himself used all his endeavours to dissuade you from your rash resolution?" the prince, having replied in the affirmative, "acknowledge, then," continued the mandarin, "that it is by your own fault that you lose your life to-day, and that the king and princess are not guilty of your death." "i pardon them," returned the prince; "i impute my death to myself alone, and i pray heaven not to require of them my blood which is about to be shed." he had scarcely finished these words, when the executioner swept off his head with one stroke of the sword. the air instantly resounded with the noise of the drums and the bells. then twelve mandarins took up the body, laid it in a coffin of ivory and ebony, and placed it upon a litter, which six of them bore away upon their shoulders into the gardens of serail. here they deposited it under a dome of white marble, which the king had ordered to be erected purposely to be the resting-place of all those unfortunate princes who should share the same fate. he often retired there to weep upon the tombs of those who were buried within it, and tried, by honouring their ashes with his tears, in some measure to atone for the barbarity of his child. as soon as the mandarins had carried away the body of the prince who had just suffered, the people and all the councillors retired to their homes, blaming the king for having had the imprudence to sanction such barbarity by an oath that he could not break. khalaf remained in the court-yard of the palace in a state of bewilderment; he noticed a man near him weeping bitterly; he guessed that it was some person who was deeply interested in the execution that had just taken place, and wishing to know more about it, addressed him in these words: "i am deeply moved," said he, "by the lively grief you exhibit, and i sympathize in your troubles, for i cannot doubt that you were intimately acquainted with the prince who has just suffered." "ah! sir," replied the mourner, with a fresh outburst of grief, "i ought indeed to know him, for i was his tutor. o unhappy king of samarcand!" added he, "what will be thy grief when thou shalt be told of the extraordinary death of thy son? and who shall dare to carry thee the news?" khalaf asked by what means the prince of samarcand had become enamoured of the princess of china. "i will tell you," replied the tutor: "and you will doubtless be astonished at the recital i am about to make. the prince of samarcand," pursued he, "lived happily at his father's court. the court looked upon him as a prince who would one day be their sovereign, and they studied to please him as much as the king himself. he usually passed the day in hunting and playing at ball, and at night he assembled secretly in his apartments the distinguished youth of the court, with whom he drank all sorts of liquors. he sometimes amused himself by seeing the beautiful slaves dance, or by listening to music and singing. in a word, his life was passed in a constant round of pleasure. "one day a famous painter arrived at samarcand with several portraits of princesses which he had painted in the different courts through which he had passed. he showed them to my prince, who, looking at the first he presented, said, 'these are very beautiful pictures; i am certain that the originals are under a deep obligation to you.' "'my lord,' replied the artist, 'i confess that in these portraits i have somewhat flattered the sitters; but i crave permission to tell you that i have one far more beautiful than these, which does not approach the original.' saying this, he drew from the case which contained his portraits that of the princess of china. "scarcely had my master looked at it, when not conceiving that nature was capable of producing so perfect a beauty, he exclaimed that there was not in the world a woman of such exquisite loveliness, and that the portrait of the princess of china was more flattering than the others. the artist protested that it was not, and assured him that no pencil could convey an idea of the grace and beauty which shone in the countenance of the princess tourandocte. upon this assurance my master bought the portrait, which made so deep an impression on him, that, leaving the court of his father, he quitted samarcand, accompanied by me alone, and without informing any one of his intentions, took the road for china, and came to this city. he volunteered to serve altoun-khan against his enemies, and asked the hand of his daughter the princess. we were apprized of the severe edict connected with the proposal, but alas! my prince, instead of being dismayed by the severity of the conditions, conceived the liveliest joy. 'i will go,' said he, 'and present myself to answer the questions of tourandocte; i am not deficient in talent or ready wit, and i shall obtain the hand of the princess.' "it is needless to tell you the rest, sir," continued the tutor, sobbing; "you may judge by the mournful spectacle you have beheld that the unfortunate prince of samarcand was unable to answer, as he hoped, the fatal questions of this barbarous beauty, whose delight is to shed blood, and who has already been the means of sacrificing the lives of several kings' sons. a few moments before his death he gave me the portrait of this cruel princess. 'i entrust,' said he, 'this portrait to thee; guard carefully the precious deposit. thou hast but to show it to my father when thou informest him of my sad fate, and i doubt not that when he beholds so beautiful a face, he will pardon my temerity.' but," added the old man, "let any one else who pleases carry the sad news to the king his father; for my part, borne down by the weight of my affliction, i will go far from hence and samarcand, and mourn for my beloved charge. this is what you wished to know; and here is the dangerous portrait," pursued he, taking it from beneath his cloak and throwing it on the ground in a paroxysm of rage; "behold the cause of the sad fate of my prince. o execrable portrait! why had my master not my eyes when he took thee into his hands? o inhuman princess! may all the princes of the earth entertain for thee the same sentiments as those with which thou hast inspired me! instead of being the object of their love, thou wouldest then be their aversion." saying this, the tutor of the prince of samarcand retired full of rage, regarding the palace with a furious eye and without speaking another word to the son of timurtasch. the latter quickly picked up the portrait of tourandocte, and turned to retrace his steps to the house of the widow; but he missed his way in the darkness, and wandered heedlessly out of the city. he impatiently awaited the daylight to enable him to contemplate the beauty of the princess of china. as soon as the approach of dawn furnished him with sufficient light to satisfy his curiosity, he opened the case which contained the portrait. still he hesitated before he looked at it. "what am i about to do?" cried he; "ought i to disclose to my eyes so dangerous an object? think, khalaf, think of the direful effects it has caused; hast thou already forgotten what the tutor of the prince of samarcand has just narrated to thee? look not on this portrait; resist the impulse which urges thee, it is nothing more than a feeling of idle curiosity. whilst thou retainest thy reason thou canst prevent thy destruction. but what do i say? prevent," added he, checking himself; "with what false reasoning does my timid prudence inspire me. if i am to love the princess, is not my love already written in indelible characters in the book of fate. besides, i think that it is possible to look upon the most beautiful portrait with impunity; one must be weak, indeed, to be influenced by the sight of a vain array of colours. never fear; let us scan these surpassing and murderous features without emotion. i will even find defects, and taste the pleasure of criticizing the charms of this too beautiful princess; and i could wish, in order to mortify her vanity, that she might learn that i have looked upon her portrait without emotion." the son of timurtasch had fully made up his mind to look upon the portrait of tourandocte with an indifferent eye. he now casts his eyes on it, he regards it attentively, examines it, admires the contour of the countenance, the regularity of the features, the vivacity of the eyes,--the mouth, the nose, all appear perfect; he is surprised at so rare a combination of perfect features, and although still on his guard, he allows himself to be charmed. an inconceivable uneasiness takes possession of him in spite of himself; he can no longer understand his feelings. "what fire," said he, "has suddenly kindled itself in my bosom! what tumult has this portrait produced in my thoughts! merciful heaven, is it the lot of all those who look upon this portrait to become enamoured of this inhuman princess? alas! i feel but too surely that she has made the same impression upon me, as she did upon the unhappy prince of samarcand; i yield to the charms that wounded him, and far from being terrified by his melancholy fate, i could almost envy his very misfortune. what a change, gracious heaven! i could not conceive a short time ago, how one could be mad enough to despise the severity of the edict, and now i see nothing that frightens me, all the danger has vanished. "no! incomparable princess," pursued he, devouring the portrait with an enamoured gaze, "no obstacle can stop me, i love you spite of your barbarity; and since it is permitted to me to aspire to your possession, from this day i will strive to win you; if i perish in the bold attempt, i shall only feel in dying the grief of not being able to possess you." khalaf, having formed the resolve of demanding the hand of the princess, returned to the widow's house, a journey which cost him no little trouble, for he had rambled to some considerable distance during the night. "ah! my son," exclaimed his hostess, as soon as she beheld him, "i am so glad to see you, i was very uneasy about you, i feared some accident had befallen you; why did you not return earlier?" "my good mother," replied he, "i am sorry to have caused you any uneasiness, i missed my way in the darkness." he then related to her how he had met the tutor of the prince whom they had put to death, and did not fail to repeat to her all that he had told him. then showing her the portrait of tourandocte; "tell me," said he, "if this portrait is only an imperfect likeness of the princess of china; for my part, i cannot conceive that it is not equal to the original." "by the soul of the prophet jacmouny," cried the widow, after she had examined the portrait, "the princess is a thousand times more beautiful, and infinitely more charming than she is here represented. i wish you could see her, you would be of my opinion, that all the artists in the world who should undertake to paint her as she really is, could never succeed. i will not even make an exception in favour of the famous many." "you delight me above measure," replied the prince of the nagäis, "by assuring me that the beauty of tourandocte surpasses all the efforts of the artist's power. how flattering the assurance! it strengthens me in my determination, and incites me to attempt at once the brilliant adventure. oh that i were before the princess! i burn with impatience to try whether i shall be more fortunate than the prince of samarcand." "what do you say, my son?" eagerly asked the widow, "what enterprise are you so rashly planning? and do you seriously think of carrying it into effect?" "yes, my good mother," returned khalaf, "i intend this very day to present myself to answer the questions of the princess. i came to china only with the intention of offering my services to the great king, altoun-khan, but it is better to be his son-in-law than an officer in his army." at these words the widow burst into tears. "ah! sir, in the name of heaven do not persist in so rash a resolution; you will certainly perish if you are bold enough to aspire to the hand of the princess; instead of allowing her beauty to charm you, let it be the object of your detestation, since it has been the cause of so many frightful tragedies; picture to yourself what the grief of your parents will be when they hear of your death; let the thoughts of the mortal grief into which you will plunge them deter you." "for pity's sake, my mother," interrupted the son of timurtasch, "cease to present to my mind such affecting images. i cannot be ignorant, that if it be my destiny to die this day, my sad end will be a source of bitter and inexhaustible grief to my beloved parents; nay, i can conceive their misery being so excessive as to endanger their own lives, for well do i know their extreme affection for me; notwithstanding all this, however, notwithstanding the gratitude with which their love ought to inspire, and indeed does inspire me, i must yield to the passion that consumes me. but, what! is it not in hopes of making them more happy that i am about to expose my life? yes, doubtless, their interest is bound up with the desire that urges me on, and i feel sure that if my father were here, far from opposing my design, he would rather excite me to its speedy execution. my resolution is taken; waste no more time in trying to dissuade me; nothing shall shake my determination." when the widow found that her young guest would not heed her advice, her grief increased. "so it must be, then, sir," continued she; "you will not be restrained from rushing headlong on your destruction. why was it ordained that you should come to lodge in my house? why did i speak of tourandocte? you became enamoured of her from the description i gave of her; wretched woman that i am, it is i who have caused your ruin; why must i reproach myself with your death?" "no, my good mother," said the prince of the nagäis, interrupting her a second time, "you are not the cause of my misfortune; do not blame yourself because i love the princess; i am to love her, and do but fulfil my destiny. besides, how do you know that i shall not be able to reply to her questions? i am not without understanding, and i have studied much; and heaven may have reserved for me the honour of delivering the king of china from the grief with which his frightful oath overwhelms him. but," added he, drawing out the purse which the khan of berlas had given him, and which still contained a considerable quantity of gold pieces, "as my success is after all uncertain, and i may chance to die, i make you a present of this purse to console you for my death. you may sell my horse and keep the money, for it will be of no more use to me, whether the daughter of altoun-khan become the reward of my boldness, or my death be the mournful forfeit of my audacity." the widow took the purse from khalaf, saying, "o my son, you are much mistaken if you imagine that these pieces of gold will console me for your loss. i will employ them in good works, i will distribute a portion among the poor in the hospitals, who bear their afflictions with patience, and whose prayers are consequently acceptable to heaven; the remainder i will give to the ministers of our religion, that they all may pray together that heaven may inspire you, and not suffer you to perish. all the favour i ask you is, not to go to-day and present yourself to answer the questions of tourandocte; wait till to-morrow, the time is not long; grant me that interval to enlist the hearts of the pious in your behalf, and propitiate our prophet in your favour, after that you can do as you think best. i pray you to grant me that favour; i am bold to say that you owe it to one who has conceived so great a friendship for you, that she would be inconsolable if you were to die." indeed khalaf's appearance had made a favourable impression upon her, for, besides being one of the handsomest princes in the world, his manners were so easy and pleasing that it was impossible to see him without loving him. he was moved by the grief and affection the good lady exhibited. "well, my mother," said he, "i will do as you desire me; and i will not go to-day to ask the hand of the princess; but, to speak my sentiments frankly, i don't believe that even your prophet jacmouny will be able to make me forego my determination." the following morning, the prince appeared more determined than ever to demand tourandocte. "adieu, my good mother," said he, to the widow. "i am sorry that you have given yourself so much trouble on my account; you might have spared it, for i assured you yesterday that i should be of the same mind." with these words, he left the widow, who, giving herself up to the deepest sorrow, covered her face with her veil, and sat with her head on her knees, overwhelmed with indescribable grief. the young prince of the nagäis, perfumed with rare scents and more beautiful than the moon, repaired to the palace. he found at the gate five elephants, and, on each side, a line of two thousand soldiers, with helmets on their heads, armed with shields, and covered with plate armour. one of the principal officers in command of the troops, judging from khalaf's air that he was a stranger, stopped him, and demanded his business at the palace. "i am a foreign prince," replied the son of timurtasch. "i am come to present myself to the king, and pray him to grant me permission to reply to the questions of the princess his daughter." the officer, at these words, regarding him with astonishment, said to him, "prince, do you know that you come to seek death? you would have done more wisely to have remained in your own country, than form the design which brings you hither; retrace your steps, and do not flatter yourself with the deceitful hope that you will obtain the hand of the cruel tourandocte. although you may have studied until you have become more learned in science than all the mandarins, you will never be able to fathom the meaning of her ambiguous questions." "accept my heartfelt thanks," replied khalaf; "but, believe me, i am not come thus far to retreat." "go on to your certain death, then," returned the officer, in a tone of chagrin, "since it is impossible to restrain you." at the same moment, he allowed him to enter the palace, and then, turning towards some other officers who had been listening to their conversation, he said, "how handsome and well-grown this young prince is. it is a pity he should die so early." khalaf traversed several saloons, and, at length, found himself in the hall where the king was accustomed to give audience to his people. in it was placed the steel throne of cathay, made in the form of a dragon, three cubits high; four lofty columns, of the same material, supported above it a vast canopy of yellow satin, ornamented with precious stones. altoun-khan, dressed in a caftan of gold brocade upon a crimson ground, was seated on his throne, with an air of gravity which was in admirable keeping with his long moustache and ample beard. the monarch, after listening to some of his subjects, cast his eyes by chance to where the prince of the nagäis stood amongst the crowd; he saw, at once, by his noble bearing and splendid dress, that he was not a man of common birth; he pointed out khalaf to one of his mandarins, and gave an order, in an undertone, to learn his rank, and the reason of his visit to his court. the mandarin approached the son of timurtasch, and told him that the king desired to know who he was, and whether he wished to make any request of the king. "you may tell the king, your master," replied the prince, "that i am the only son of a king, and that i am come to endeavour to merit the honour of becoming his son-in-law." altoun-khan no sooner learned the reply of the prince of the nagäis, than he changed colour; his august countenance became pale as death, he broke up the audience, and dismissed all the people; he then descended from his throne, and, approaching khalaf, "rash young man," said he, "are you aware of the severity of my edict, and of the miserable fate of those who have hitherto persisted in their desire to obtain the hand of the princess my daughter?" "yes, my lord," replied the son of timurtasch, "i know all the danger i incur; my eyes have witnessed the just and severe punishment your majesty inflicted upon the prince of samarcand; but the deplorable end of the audacious youths who have flattered themselves with the sweet, though vain, hope of possessing the princess tourandocte, only stimulates the desire i have of deserving her." "what madness!" rejoined the king; "scarcely has one prince lost his life, than another presents himself to share the same fate; it appears as though they took a pleasure in sacrificing themselves. what blindness! reconsider the step you are taking, and be less prodigal of your blood; you inspire me with more pity than any who have hitherto come to seek their destruction; i feel a growing inclination towards you, and wish to do all in my power to hinder you from perishing. return to your father's kingdom, and do not inflict upon him the pain of learning from strangers' lips the sad intelligence that he will never more behold his only son." "my lord," replied khalaf, "i am overjoyed to hear, from your majesty's own lips, that i have the honour of pleasing you; i draw a happy presage from it. it may be that heaven, touched by the misfortunes caused by the beauty of the princess, will use me as a means of putting an end to them, and securing you, at the same time, tranquillity for the remainder of your life, which the necessity of authorizing these cruel deeds disturbs. can you be sure that i shall not be able to answer the questions that may be put to me? what certainty have you that i shall perish? if others have been unable to fathom the depths of the obscure propositions of tourandocte, is it to be concluded that i cannot penetrate their meaning? no, my lord, their example shall never make me renounce the brilliant honour of having you for a father-in-law." "ah! unhappy prince," replied the king, melting into tears, "you wish to die; all the princes who have presented themselves before you, to answer the fatal questions put by my daughter, used the same language; they all hoped that they could penetrate her meaning, and not one was able to do so. alas! you will be the dupe of your own confidence. once more, my son, let me dissuade you. i love you, and wish to save you; do not frustrate my good intentions by your obstinacy; whatever confidence you may feel, distrust it. you deceive yourself, if you imagine that you will be able to answer upon the spot what the princess may propose to you; you will, it is true, have seven minutes to answer in; that is the rule. but if in that time you do not give a satisfactory reply, and one that shall be approved of by all the doctors and wise men who are appointed the judges, that moment you will be declared worthy of death, and on the following night will be conducted to execution. so, prince, retire; pass the rest of the day in considering what is your duty in reference to the step you propose to take; consult wise persons, reflect well, and to-morrow let me know your determination." when the king had finished speaking, he dismissed khalaf, who immediately quitted the palace, much mortified that he was obliged to wait till the next day, for he was no way daunted by what the king had said. he returned to his hostess without exhibiting the least concern about the danger to which he had determined to expose himself. as soon as he presented himself to the widow, and had related all that had passed at the palace, she began to remonstrate with him afresh, and bring every argument she could think of into play to dissuade him from his enterprise; but her efforts were crowned with no better success, and she had the mortification of seeing that they only inflamed her young guest more, and strengthened him in his resolution. the next day the prince returned to the palace, and was announced to the king, who received him in his cabinet, not wishing any one to be present at their interview. "well, prince," began altoun-khan, "am i to rejoice or grieve at your presence here to-day? what is your determination?" "my lord," replied khalaf, "i am in the same mind as yesterday. before i had the honour of presenting myself then before your majesty, i had thoroughly reflected upon the matter; and i am still prepared to suffer the same punishment as my rivals, if heaven has not otherwise ordained." at these words the king smote his breast, rent his clothes, and plucked the hairs from his beard. "wretched man that i am!" cried he, "that i should have conceived such friendship for him. the death of the others has not caused me half the pain which his will occasion me. ah! my son," continued he, embracing the prince of the nagäis with a tenderness that caused him deep emotion, "yield to my grief, if my arguments are not able to shake thee. i feel that the blow which takes thy life will strike my heart with deadly force. renounce, i conjure thee, the hope of possessing my cruel daughter; thou wilt find in the world plenty of other princesses whom thou mayst gain with more ease and as much honour. why persevere in the pursuit of an inhuman creature whom thou wilt never be able to obtain? remain, if thou wilt, in my court; thou shalt hold the first rank after me; thou shalt have beautiful slaves; pleasures shall follow thee wherever thou goest; in a word, i will look on thee as my own son. desist from thy pursuit of tourandocte. oh! let me at least have the joy of rescuing one victim from the sanguinary princess." the son of timurtasch was deeply moved by the friendship which the king of china exhibited towards him; but he replied, "my lord, let me for pity's sake expose myself to the danger from which you seek to deter me; the greater it is, the more do i feel myself tempted to encounter it. i must avow that even the cruelty of the princess stimulates my love. i feel an inward pleasure in the thought that i am the happy mortal who is to triumph over this proud beauty. for heaven's sake, your majesty," pursued he, "cease to oppose a design which my glory, my repose, my life even render it necessary for me to prosecute; for, truly, i cannot live unless i obtain tourandocte." altoun-khan, perceiving that khalaf was not to be moved, was overwhelmed with affliction. "ah! rash youth," said he, "thy death-warrant is sealed, since thou art still determined to persist in demanding my daughter. heaven is witness that i have done all in my power to inspire thee with rational thoughts. thou rejectest my counsel, and lovest rather to perish than follow it; let us say no more; thou wilt receive the reward of thy mad constancy. i consent to thy undertaking to answer the questions of tourandocte, but i must first pay thee the honour which i am accustomed to bestow upon princes who seek my alliance." at these words he called the chief of his first band of eunuchs; he ordered him to conduct khalaf into the princes' palace, and to assign him two hundred eunuchs to wait upon him. the prince of the nagäis had scarcely entered the palace to which the eunuch conducted him, before the principal mandarins came to salute him, which they did in the following manner: they placed themselves on their knees before him, bowed their heads to the ground, saying one after the other, "prince, the perpetual servant of your illustrious race comes to make his obeisance to you." they then all made him presents and retired. the king, who felt the greatest friendship for the son of timurtasch, and pitied him, sent for the most learned professor of the royal college, and said to him, "there is a new prince, who has come to my court to demand the hand of my daughter. i have spared no pains to induce him to renounce his intention, but without success. i wish thee to exert thine eloquence in endeavouring to make him listen to reason. it is for this i have sent for thee." the professor obeyed. he went to khalaf and entered into a long conversation with him; after which he returned to altoun-khan, and said, "my lord, it is impossible to dissuade this young prince; he will absolutely deserve the princess or die. when i saw the futility of attempting to conquer his resolution, i had the curiosity to try and ascertain whether his obstinacy did not proceed from some other cause than his love. i interrogated him upon several different subjects, and i found him so well informed that i was surprised at his learning. he is a moslem, and appears to me perfectly instructed in all that concerns his religion; in fact, to confess the truth to your majesty, i believe if any prince is capable of replying to the questions of the princess it is he." "o wise man," cried the king, "i am overjoyed at thy report. heaven grant that he may become my son-in-law. from the moment he appeared before me i felt an affection for him; may he be more fortunate than the others who came to this city only to seek a grave." after prayers and sacrifices, the chinese monarch sent his calao to the prince of the nagäis with notice that he was to hold himself in readiness to reply to the princess's questions on the next day, and to tell him that the proper officers would come at the right time to conduct him to the divan; and that the persons who were to compose the assembly had already received orders to attend. notwithstanding his inflexible determination to persevere in this adventure, khalaf did not pass a quiet night; if at one time he dared to trust to his genius, and promise himself success, at another, losing confidence, he represented to himself the shame he should endure if his replies did not please the divan; at another time he thought of elmaze and timurtasch. "alas!" said he, "if i die, what will become of my father and mother?" day surprised him occupied with these conflicting thoughts. presently he heard the ringing of bells and beating of drums. he concluded that this was to call to the council all those who were ordered to attend. then raising his thoughts to mahomet, "o great prophet," said he, "you behold my difficulties and know my doubts. inspire me, and reveal to me whether i must go to the divan, or must confess to the king that the danger terrifies me!" he had scarcely pronounced these words, before he felt all his fears vanish and his confidence return. he rose and dressed himself in a caftan, and mantle of red silk worked with gold flowers, which altoun-khan had sent him, with stockings and slippers of blue silk. when he had finished dressing, six mandarins, booted and dressed in very wide robes of crimson, entered his apartment, and after having saluted him in the same manner as on the previous day, informed him that they came from the king to lead him to the divan. he immediately rose and accompanied them; they traversed a court between a double file of soldiers, and when they arrived in the first council-chamber found more than a thousand singers and players upon instruments, who performing in concert produced a wonderful noise. from thence they advanced into the hall, where the council was sitting, and which communicated with the interior palace. all the persons who were to assist at this assembly were already seated under canopies of different colours arranged round the hall. the mandarins of the highest rank were on one side, the calao with the professors of the college on the other, and several doctors, renowned for their erudition, occupied other seats. in the middle were placed two thrones of gold raised upon triangular pedestals. as soon as the prince of the nagäis appeared, the noble and learned assembly saluted him with gestures of great respect, but without speaking a word; for every body, being in expectation of the king's arrival, preserved the strictest silence. the sun was upon the point of rising. as soon as the first rays of that brilliant luminary were perceived, two eunuchs drew aside the curtains which hung before the door of the inner palace, and immediately the king appeared, accompanied by the princess tourandocte, who wore a long robe of silk and gold tissue, whilst her face was concealed by a veil of the same material. when the king and princess had taken their seats upon their thrones, which they ascended by five steps of silver, two young girls of perfect beauty approached and stationed themselves, one on the side of the king and the other near the princess. they were slaves of the harem of altoun-khan; their faces and necks were exposed; they wore large pearls in their ears; and they stood each with pen and paper, ready to transcribe what the king or the princess might desire. all this time the whole assembly, who had risen upon the entrance of altoun-khan, stood up with great gravity and their eyes half closed. khalaf alone looked about him, or rather looked only at the princess, whose majestic demeanour filled him with admiration. when the powerful monarch of china had ordered the mandarins and doctors to be seated, one of the six nobles who had conducted khalaf, and who stood with him at fifteen cubits' distance from the two thrones, kneeled down and read a petition, which contained the demand of the stranger prince for the hand of the princess tourandocte. he then rose and told khalaf to make three salutations to the king. the prince of the nagäis acquitted himself with so much grace, that altoun-khan could not refrain from smiling and expressing the pleasure he experienced in seeing him. the calao then rose from his place and read with a loud voice the fatal edict, which condemned to death all the rash lovers who should fail to reply satisfactorily to the questions of tourandocte. then addressing khalaf, "prince," said he, "you have just heard the conditions upon which alone the princess's hand is to be obtained. if the sense of danger makes any impression upon you, there is still time to retire." "no, no!" said the prince; "the prize to be carried off is too precious to be lost by cowardice." the king, seeing khalaf ready to reply to the questions of tourandocte, turned towards the princess and said, "my daughter, it is for you to speak; propose to this young prince the questions which you have prepared; and may all the spirits to whom sacrifices were offered yesterday grant that he may penetrate the meaning of your words." tourandocte thereupon said, "i take the prophet jacmouny to witness, that i behold with sorrow the death of so many princes; but why do they persist in desiring to wed me? why will they not leave me to live in peace without making attempts on my liberty? know then, rash young man," added she, addressing khalaf, "that you cannot reproach me if you suffer a cruel death; you have the examples of your rivals before your eyes; you alone are the cause of your own destruction; i do not oblige you to come and ask my hand." "lovely princess," replied the prince of the nagäis, "i am fully alive to all that has been said upon this subject; propound, if you please, your questions, and i will endeavour to unravel their meaning." "well then," said tourandocte, "tell me what creature is that which belongs to every land, is a friend to the whole world, and will not brook an equal?" "madam," replied khalaf, "it is the sun." "he is right," exclaimed all the doctors, "it is the sun." "what is that mother," resumed the princess, "who, after having brought her children into the world, devours them when they are grown up?" "it is the sea," replied the prince of the nagäis; "because the rivers, which draw their sources from the sea, discharge themselves into it again." tourandocte, seeing that the prince gave correct replies to her questions, was so vexed that she resolved to spare no effort to destroy him. exerting all her ingenuity, she next asked, "what tree is that whose leaves are white on one side and black on the other?" she was not satisfied with proposing the riddle alone; the malignant princess, in order to dazzle and confuse him, raised her veil at the same moment, and allowed the assembly to see all the beauty of her countenance, the haughty charms of which were only enhanced by the violence of her emotions. her head was adorned with natural flowers arranged with infinite art, and her eyes shone more brilliantly than the stars. she was as lovely as the sun in all his splendour, when he emerges from a thick cloud. the son of timurtasch, at the sight of this incomparable princess, remained mute and motionless; so much so, that all the divan, who were deeply interested in him, were seized with terror; the king himself grew pale, and thought that the prince was lost for ever. but khalaf, recovering from the surprise that the beauty of tourandocte had caused him, quickly reassured the assembly by resuming, "charming princess, i pray you pardon me if i remained for some moments speechless; i could not behold so much loveliness without being disturbed. have the goodness to repeat the question, for i no longer remember it; your charms have made me forget every thing." "i asked you," said tourandocte, "what tree is that whose leaves are white on one side and black on the other?" "that tree," replied khalaf, "is the year, which is composed of days and nights." this reply was again applauded in the divan. the mandarins and the doctors said that it was correct, and bestowed a thousand praises on the young prince. altoun-khan said to tourandocte, "come, my daughter, confess thyself vanquished, and consent to espouse thy conqueror; the others were not able to reply to even one of thy questions, and this one, thou seest, has answered them all." "he has _not_ gained the victory," angrily retorted the princess, replacing her veil to conceal her confusion and the tears she was not able to repress; "i have others to propose to him. but i will defer them till to-morrow." "no," replied the king, "i will certainly not permit you to propose questions without end: all that i can allow you is to ask him one more, and that immediately." the princess objected, saying that she had only prepared those which had just been answered, and entreated the king, her father, for permission to interrogate the prince on the following day. "i will certainly not grant it," cried the monarch of china, in a rage; "you are only endeavouring to perplex this young prince, while i am eagerly grasping at the prospect of escaping from the frightful oath i had the imprudence to make. ah! cruel one, you breathe nothing but blood, and the death of your lovers is a pleasant sight to you. the queen, your mother, touched by the first misfortunes your cruelty caused, died of grief at having brought into the world so barbarous a child; and i, you know well, am plunged into a state of profound melancholy, which nothing can dissipate, whilst i behold the fatal results of the love i entertained for you; but, thanks to the sun, and the moon, and the spirits who preside in the heavens, and by whom my sacrifices have been regarded with a propitious eye, no more of those horrible executions which have rendered my name execrable shall be committed in my palace. since this prince has answered your questions satisfactorily, i ask all this assembly if it is not right that you should become his wife?" the mandarins and the doctors expressed their assent in murmurs, and the calao took upon himself to speak. "my lord," said he, addressing the king, "your majesty is no longer bound by the oath you made, to execute your severe edict; it is for the princess to fulfil her engagement. she promised her hand to him who should answer her questions correctly; a prince has answered them, to the satisfaction of the whole divan; she must keep her promise, or we cannot doubt that the spirits who preside over the punishment of perjurers will quickly take vengeance upon her." tourandocte kept silence during the delivery of this speech; she sat with her head on her knees, and appeared buried in deep affliction. khalaf, perceiving this, prostrated himself before altoun-khan, and said, "great king, whose justice and goodness have raised the vast empire of china to such prosperity, i beg of your majesty to grant me a favour. i see that the princess is in despair at my having been so fortunate as to reply to her questions; doubtless she would rather it had so happened that i should have deserved death. since she exhibits so strong an aversion to me, that, in spite of her promise, she refuses to become my wife, i will renounce my right to her, on condition that she, on her part, replies correctly to a question which i shall propose." the whole assembly was surprised at this speech. "is this young prince mad," they whispered one to another, "to risk the loss of that for which he perilled his life? does he imagine he can propose a question that will be too difficult for tourandocte to solve? he must have lost his senses." altoun-khan was also amazed at the request which khalaf had the temerity to make. "prince," said he, "have you reflected upon the words which have just escaped your lips?" "yes, my lord," replied the prince of the nagäis, "and i implore you to grant me this favour." "i grant it," returned the king; "but, whatever be the result, i declare that i am no longer bound by the oath i made, and that, henceforth, i will not cause another prince to be put to death." "divine tourandocte," resumed the son of timurtasch, addressing the princess, "you have heard what i said. although the decision of this learned assembly has awarded to me the prize of your hand, although you are mine, i will give you back your liberty, i will yield up possession of you, i will despoil myself of a treasure precious to me above all things, provided you reply at once to a question i shall ask; but, on your part, swear that if you cannot, you will consent willingly to complete my happiness and crown my love." "yes, prince," replied tourandocte, "i accept the conditions, and i take this assembly as witnesses of my oath." all the divan awaited, in breathless suspense, the question that khalaf was to propose to the princess, and there was not one who did not blame the young prince for exposing himself to the risk of losing the daughter of altoun-khan; they were all amazed at his temerity. "lovely princess," said khalaf, "what is the name of that prince who, after suffering a thousand hardships, and being reduced even to beg his bread, finds himself, at this moment, overwhelmed with glory and joy?" "it is impossible," said tourandocte, "for me to reply to that question on the spot, but i promise that to-morrow i will tell you the name of that prince." "madam," cried khalaf, "i asked no time for consideration, and it is not right to grant you any; still, i will grant you your wish; i hope, after that, you will look more favourably on me, and not oppose any further difficulty to your becoming my bride." "she must make up her mind to that," said altoun-khan, "if she cannot reply to the question proposed. let her not think by falling ill, or pretending to do so, that she will thereby escape. even if my rash oath should not bind me to grant him her hand, and she were not his according to the tenor of the edict, i would rather let her die, than send this young prince away. where would it be possible for her to meet with one more perfectly worthy of her?" with these words, he rose and dismissed the assembly. he re-entered the inner palace with the princess, who retired to her own apartments. as soon as the king had left the divan, all the mandarins and doctors complimented khalaf upon his wit and understanding. "i admire," said one, "your ready and easy conception." "no!" said another, "there is not a bachelor licentiate, or doctor even, of greater penetration than you. not one of all the princes who has presented themselves hitherto, in the least degree approached your merit, and we feel the most heartfelt joy at your success." the prince of the nagäis had no light task to perform in thanking all those who pressed round him to congratulate him. at length, the six mandarins who had conducted him to the council-chamber, led him back to the same palace whence they had brought him, whilst the others, together with the learned doctors retired, not without anxiety about the answer which the daughter of altoun-khan would return to the question. the princess tourandocte regained her palace, followed by the two young slaves who enjoyed her confidence. no sooner had she entered into her apartment, than she tore off her veil, and throwing herself upon a couch, gave free vent to the grief and rage which agitated her; shame and sorrow were depicted on her countenance; her eyes already bedimmed with tears, overflowed afresh; she tore off the flowers that adorned her head, and allowed her hair to fall about her in confusion. her two favourite slaves attempted to console her, but she only said bitterly, "leave me, both of you, cease your useless attentions. i will listen to nothing but my despair; leave me alone to pour forth my tears and lamentations. ah! how great will be my confusion to-morrow, when i shall be forced to acknowledge before the whole council, and the wisest doctors of china, that i cannot solve the question. is that, they will say, the transcendent princess who prides herself upon knowing every thing, and to whom the solution of the most difficult enigma presented no difficulty?" "alas!" continued she, "they all take an interest in this young prince. i noticed them grow pale with anxiety when he appeared embarrassed. i saw their faces beaming with joy when he penetrated the meaning of my questions. i shall have the bitter mortification of seeing them again rejoice at my confusion, when i shall have to confess myself conquered. how great will be their delight when i make the degrading avowal, and what agony must i endure in making it." "my princess," said one of her slaves, "instead of afflicting yourself beforehand, instead of picturing to yourself the shame you fear to suffer to-morrow, would it not be better to think of some means of preventing it? is the question the prince has proposed so difficult, that you cannot answer it? with the genius and penetration you possess, can you not accomplish it?" "no," said tourandocte, "it is impossible. he asks me to name the prince who, after suffering a thousand hardships, and being reduced to beg his bread, is, at this moment, overwhelmed with joy and glory? i feel assured that he is himself that prince, but not knowing him, i cannot tell his name." "still, madam," rejoined the same slave, "you have promised to name that prince to-morrow; when you made that promise, you hoped, doubtless, to be able to fulfil it." "i had no hope," replied the princess, "and i only demanded time to die of grief, rather than be obliged to acknowledge my shame, and marry the prince." "the resolution is a violent one," said the other favourite slave. "i know well that no man is worthy of you, but you must allow that this prince possesses singular merits; his beauty, his noble bearing, and his ready wit ought to plead in his favour." "i grant it all," interrupted the princess. "if there is any prince in the world who is worthy of my regards, it is he. indeed, i will not deny it, that i grieved for him, before i put my questions to him; i sighed when i beheld him, and--what has never happened till to-day--i almost hoped he would reply to my questions correctly. it is true that, at the same moment, i blushed at my weakness, but my pride got the better of me, and the apt answers he made excited my abhorrence towards him; all the commendations which the doctors bestowed on him so deeply mortified me, that i then felt, and still feel, the most bitter hatred against him. o unhappy tourandocte, lay thee down and die of vexation and grief, at having found a man, and he a youth, who has been able to load thee with disgrace, and compel thee to become his wife." at these words she redoubled her tears, and in the transport of her rage spared neither her hair nor her clothes. she raised her hands more than once towards her cheeks to tear them, and punish them as the prime authors of the disgrace she had endured; but her slaves, who were watching her frenzy, prevented her. they tried, however, in vain to console her; they could not calm the fury of her agitation. whilst she was in this fearful state of excitement, the prince of the nagäis, charmed with the result, and overwhelmed with joy, delivered himself up to the hope of bearing off his bride the next day. the king, having returned from the council-chamber, sent for khalaf to talk over in private the events which had taken place at the divan. the prince of the nagäis hastened to obey the orders of the monarch, who, after embracing him with great tenderness, said, "ah! my son, release me from the anxiety i am suffering. i fear lest my daughter should be able to answer the question you have proposed. why have you risked the danger of losing the object of your love?" "let not your majesty be under the least apprehension," replied khalaf; "it is impossible that the princess can tell me who the prince is whose name i have asked, for i am that prince, and no one in your court knows me." "this gives me fresh hope," cried the king in a transport of joy; "i confess i was most anxious about you. tourandocte is very shrewd; the subtlety of her wit made me tremble for you; but, thank heaven, you dispel my doubts. however great her facility of penetrating the sense of enigmas, she cannot guess your name. i can no longer accuse you of temerity; and i see what appeared to me a lack of prudence, is an ingenious device you have formed to remove every pretext for my daughter's refusal." altoun-khan, after laughing with khalaf at the question proposed to the princess, prepared to enjoy the diversion of the chase. he dressed himself in a light and close-fitting caftan, and enclosed his beard in a bag of black satin. he ordered the mandarins to hold themselves in readiness to accompany him, and commanded a hunting-dress to be given to the prince of the nagäis. they partook of a slight repast, and then quitted the palace. the mandarins, in open palanquins of ivory inlaid with gold, headed the procession, each carried by six men; two men armed with whips of cord marched before each palanquin, and two others followed with tablets of silver, upon which were written in large characters all the mandarin's titles. the king and khalaf, in an open litter of red sandalwood, carried by twenty military officers, on whose dresses were embroidered in silver the monarch's monogram and badges,--the latter consisting of several figures of animals,--appeared next. after the mandarins, two generals of altoun-khan's army marched on either side of the litter, carrying large fans or umbrellas to ward off the heat, and three thousand eunuchs on foot completed the cortége. when they arrived at the place where the hunters awaited the king with the falcons, the sport began by flying hawks at quails; this diversion lasted till sunset, when the king and the prince, and the persons of their suites, returned to the palace in the same order in which they had left. they found in the court several pavilions of silk of different colours, a great number of small tables, beautifully polished and covered with all sorts of viands ready cut up. as soon as the king had taken his seat, khalaf and the mandarins sat down, each at a little separate table, near which stood another, which served as a buffet. they all began by drinking several bumpers of rice wine before touching the viands; they then proceeded to eat without drinking any more. the banquet ended, the king, altoun-khan, led the prince of the nagäis into a large hall, brilliantly illuminated, and fitted up with seats arranged for seeing some spectacle, and they were followed by all the mandarins. the king appointed each his place, and made khalaf sit near him, upon a large ebony throne, inlaid with gold tracery. as soon as the company had taken their places, singers and musicians entered, who commenced an agreeable concert. altoun-khan was delighted with it. infatuated with the chinese music, he asked the son of timurtasch, from time to time, what he thought of it, and the young prince, out of politeness, gave it the highest rank of all the music in the world. the concert finished, the singers and musicians retired, to make room for an artificial elephant, which having advanced by secret springs into the middle of the hall, vomited forth six vaulters, who began by making some perilous leaps. they were attired in very thin dresses; they had on only drawers of indian cloth, caps of brocade, and light shoes. after they had exhibited their agility and suppleness by a thousand extraordinary performances, they re-entered the elephant, which went away as it came. next, there appeared players, who performed, impromptu, a piece, the subject of which the king chose. when all these diversions were finished, and the night was far advanced, altoun-khan and khalaf rose, to retire to their apartments, and the mandarins followed their example. the young prince of the nagäis, conducted by eunuchs bearing wax candles in gold candelabra, was preparing to taste the sweets of repose as well as his impatience to return to the divan would permit him, when on entering his chamber, he found a young lady, dressed in a robe of red brocade with silver flowers, and adorned with rubies and emeralds; she wore a head-dress of rose-coloured silk, ornamented with pearls and bound by a very light silver border, which only covered the top of her head, and allowed her beautiful hair to escape, which hung down in ringlets, adorned with a few artificial flowers; as to her figure and face it was impossible to see any more beautiful and perfect except that of the princess of china. the son of timurtasch was much surprised at meeting a lady alone, and so beautiful, at midnight in his room. he could not have looked upon her with indifference, had he not seen tourandocte; but as the lover of that princess he had no eyes for any other. as soon as the lady perceived khalaf, she rose from the sofa where she was seated, and upon which she had laid her veil, and after making a low inclination of her head, "prince," said she, "i doubt not that you are surprised to find a woman here; for you cannot be ignorant that it is rigorously forbidden for men and women who inhabit the harem, to have any communication together; but the importance of the matter that i have to communicate to you, has made me disregard all danger. i have had dexterity and good fortune enough to overcome all the obstacles which opposed my design. i have gained the eunuchs who wait upon you. it now only remains for me to tell you what brought me here." khalaf felt interested; he could not doubt but that the lady who had taken so perilous a step, had something to communicate worthy his attention; he begged her to resume her seat on the sofa; they both sat down; and the lady then continued in these terms: "my lord, i believe i ought to begin by informing you that i am the daughter of a khan, one of the tributaries of altoun-khan. some years ago, my father was bold enough to refuse to pay the usual tribute, and, relying too much upon his experience in the art of war, as well as upon the valour of his troops, prepared to defend himself in case he were attacked. what he expected happened. the king of china irritated by his audacity, sent the most experienced of his generals with a powerful army against him. my father, though considerably weaker in numbers, went out to meet him. after a sanguinary battle, which was fought on the banks of a river, the chinese general remained victorious. my father, pierced with a thousand wounds, died during the battle, but before his death, he ordered all his wives and children to be thrown into the river, to preserve them from slavery. those who were charged with the generous, though inhuman order, executed it; they threw me, together with my mother, sisters, and two brothers, whose tender age had kept them with us, into the river. the chinese general arrived at the spot at the very moment when they had cast us in, and when we were about to finish our miserable existence. this mournful and horrible sight excited his compassion; he promised a reward to any of the soldiers who should save any of the vanquished khan's family. several chinese horsemen, in spite of the rapidity of the stream, dashed in, and urged their horses wherever they saw our dying bodies floating. they recovered a few, but their assistance was only of use to me. i still breathed when they brought me to shore. the general took great pains for my recovery, as though the glory acquired by my captivity would bestow a fresh lustre on his victory; he brought me to this city, and presented me to the king, after giving an account of his mission. altoun-khan placed me with his daughter the princess, who is two or three years younger than i am. "although still a child, i could not help reflecting that i had become a slave, and that i ought to have sentiments conformable to my situation. i therefore studied the disposition of tourandocte, and strove to please her, and i succeeded so well by my compliance with her wishes and my attentions, that i gained her friendship. from that time i have shared her confidence with a young person of illustrious birth, whom the misfortunes of her family have reduced to slavery. "pardon, my lord," she continued, "this narrative which does not bear any relation to the subject that has brought me here. i thought it but right to apprize you that i am of noble blood, that you might place more reliance in me; for the important communication i have to make is such, that an ordinary slave might induce you to give but little credence to what she had to say; and i know not, that even i, though the daughter of a khan, shall be able to influence you: would a prince enamoured of tourandocte give credit to what i am about to say of her?" "princess," replied the son of timurtasch, interrupting her, "keep me no longer in suspense, tell me, i pray you, at once what you have to say concerning the princess of china." "my lord," replied the lady, "tourandocte, the barbarous tourandocte has formed a plot to assassinate you!" at these words khalaf, falling back on the sofa, lay for a moment in a state of horror and amazement. the slave-princess, who had foreseen the astonishment of the young prince, said, "i am not surprised that you should thus receive this frightful announcement, and i was right when i doubted that you would believe it." "merciful heaven," cried khalaf, when he recovered from his stupefaction, "did i hear aright? is it possible that the princess of china could be guilty of such an atrocious attempt? how could she conceive so base a project?" "prince," replied the lady, "i will explain to you how she came to take this horrible resolution. when she left the divan this morning, where i had been stationed behind her throne, i saw that she was mortally enraged at what had taken place; she returned into her apartments writhing under the most bitter feelings of mortification and fury; she pondered over the question you asked her for a long time, and not being able to find a suitable answer, she abandoned herself to despair. while she was in the bath, i spared no means, in which i was seconded by the other favourite slave, to calm the violence of her transports; we tried all in our power to inspire her with sentiments favourable to you; we extolled your person and your talents; we represented to her, that she ought to determine to bestow her hand upon you; we pointed out the unseemliness of such immoderate grief; but she imposed silence upon us, with a torrent of injurious words. the most agreeable and handsome make no more impression upon her than the ugliest and most deformed. 'they are all,' said she, 'objects of my contempt, and for whom i shall always entertain the deepest aversion. as regards him who has presented himself last, i entertain a greater hatred towards him than towards the others, and if i cannot rid myself of him by any other means i will have him assassinated.' "i opposed this detestable design," continued the slave-princess, "and laid before her the terrible consequences of such a deed. i represented to her the injury she would inflict upon herself, the despair she would occasion the king, and the just horror that future ages would entertain for her memory. "the other favourite slave supported with all her eloquence the arguments i adduced, but all our persuasions were of no avail; we could not turn her from her purpose. she has entrusted her faithful eunuchs with orders to take your life to-morrow morning as you leave your palace to repair to the divan." "o inhuman princess, perfidious tourandocte," cried the prince of the nagäis, "is it thus you prepare to crown the affection of the unhappy son of timurtasch? has khalaf indeed appeared so hateful to you, that you would rather rid yourself of him by a crime that will dishonour you, than unite your destiny with his? great heaven! how chequered with strange events is my life! at one moment i seem to enjoy happiness that the greatest might envy, at another i am plunged into a whirlpool of misery." "my lord," said the slave-princess, "if heaven ordains that you should suffer misfortunes, it does not will that you should sink beneath their weight, since it warns you of the dangers that threaten you. yes, prince, it is heaven that has doubtless inspired me with the thought of saving you, for i come not only to point out the snare laid for your life, i come also to furnish you with means to escape. by the assistance of some eunuchs who are devoted to me, i have gained over the soldiers of the guard, who will facilitate your flight from the serail. as they will not fail to make a searching investigation, when they know of your departure, and discover that i am the author of it, i am resolved to fly with you, and escape from this court, where i have more than one cause for discontent; my state of bondage makes me hate it, and you make it still more odious to me. "let us waste no time; come, and let to-morrow's sun, when he begins his course, find us far, far from pekin. "in a certain spot in the town," continued she, "horses await us; let us fly, and reach if possible the territory of the tribe of berlas." khalaf replied, "beautiful princess, i render you a thousand thanks for your wish to save me from the danger with which i am encompassed. oh! that i could, to prove my gratitude, deliver you from your slavery, and conduct you in safety to the horde of the khan of berlas your relation. with what pleasure would i place you in his hands! i should thereby repay some of the obligations i lie under to him. but i ask you, princess, ought i thus to steal away from altoun-khan? what would he think of me? he would believe that i came to his court for the sole purpose of carrying you off, and at the very time when i should be flying, only that i might save his daughter from perpetrating a fearful crime, he would be accusing me of violating the laws of hospitality. ah! must i confess it, cruel though the princess of china be, i could never find in my foolish heart to hate her? whatever misfortune may be in store for me, i cannot consent to so ignominious a flight. i acknowledge that charms like yours would amply repay your liberator, and that my days with you might pass in the greatest bliss, but i am not born to be happy, my destiny is to love tourandocte; despite the aversion she feels towards me, i should wear out my days in endless sorrow, were they spent away from her." "well then, ingrate, remain," cried the lady passionately, interrupting him, "and let the spot in which thy happiness is concentrated be sprinkled with thy blood." saying these words, she replaced her veil, and quitted the apartment. the young prince, after the lady had retired, remained upon the sofa in a state of bewilderment. "must i believe," said he, "what i have just heard? can she carry her cruelty thus far? alas! i dare not doubt it, for the slave-princess's expressions of horror at tourandocte's plot were so natural--the risks she ran in coming herself to warn me of it so great, and the feelings she displayed so unquestionable,--that all are pledges of the truthfulness of her words. ah! cruel daughter of the best of kings, is it thus that you abuse the gifts with which heaven has endowed you? o heaven! how couldst thou confer on this barbarous princess so much beauty, or why adorn so inhuman a soul with so many charms?" instead of seeking a few hours' sleep, he passed the night, distracted with the most painful reflections. at length day appeared, the ringing of the bells and beating of drums was again heard, and shortly after six mandarins arrived to conduct him to the council-chamber, as on the preceding day. he traversed the court where the soldiers were arranged in two files: he expected to meet his death at this spot, and that it was here the persons who had been appointed to assassinate him were posted, in order to despatch him as he passed. far from thinking of defending himself or putting himself upon his guard, he walked on like a man prepared to die; he even appeared to chide the delay of his assassins. he passed through the court, however, without any attack being made upon him, and reached the first hall of the divan. "ah! doubtless it is here," thought he, "that the sanguinary order of the princess is to be put in execution." he looked around him on all sides, and thought he saw in every one he surveyed a murderer. he nevertheless advanced and entered the hall where the council was sitting, without receiving the deadly stroke which he thought awaited him. all the doctors and mandarins were already seated under their canopies, and altoun-khan was momentarily expected. "what can be the design of the princess?" thought he. "can she wish to be an eye-witness of my death, and does she desire to have me assassinated before the eyes of her father? can the king be an accomplice in the deed? what am i to think? can he have changed his mind, and issued the order for my death?" whilst his thoughts were occupied with these doubts, the door of the inner palace opened, and the king, accompanied by tourandocte, entered the hall. they took their seats upon their thrones, and the prince of the nagäis stood before them, at the same distance as on the day before. when the calao saw the king seated, he rose, and demanded of the young prince whether he remembered having promised to renounce the hand of the princess if she answered the question which he had proposed. khalaf replied that he did, and again declared that in that event, he would renounce all claim to the honour of being the king's son-in-law. the calao then addressed tourandocte, and said, "and you, great princess, you are aware of the oath that binds you, and of the penalty to which you are subjected if you do not this day declare the name of the prince, which you are required to give." the king, persuaded that she could not reply to the question of khalaf, said to her, "my daughter, you have had ample time to consider the question which was proposed to you; but if you had a whole year to think of it, i believe that in spite of your sagacity you would be obliged, at the end of it, to acknowledge that it is something which even you could not reveal. so, as you cannot guess, yield with good grace to the love of this young prince, and satisfy the wish i feel that he should be your husband. he is worthy of being so, and of reigning with you, after my death, over the people of this mighty empire." "my lord," replied tourandocte, "why do you think that i shall not be able to reply to the question of this prince? it is not so difficult as you imagine. i suffered the shame of a defeat yesterday, but to-day i look forward to the honour of a victory. i will confound this rash young man who has entertained so mean an opinion of my talents. let him put the question, and i will answer it." "madam," thereupon said the prince of the nagäis, "i ask, what is the name of that prince who, after suffering a thousand hardships, and being reduced to beg his bread, finds himself at this moment covered with glory, and overwhelmed with joy?" "this prince," replied tourandocte, "is named khalaf, and he is the son of timurtasch." when khalaf heard his name he changed colour, a dark mist seemed to cover his eyes, and he fell senseless to the ground. the king and all the mandarins, judging from this that tourandocte had answered correctly, and had given the prince's real name, grew pale, and sat in great consternation. after khalaf had recovered from his swoon, through the attentions of the mandarins and the king himself, who had quitted his throne to come to his assistance, he thus addressed tourandocte: "beautiful princess, you are mistaken if you think you have given a fitting answer to my question; the son of timurtasch is not covered with glory, and overwhelmed with joy; he is rather covered with shame, and overwhelmed with grief." "i agree with you," replied the princess, "that at this moment you are not overwhelmed with glory and joy, but you were so when you proposed this question; so, prince, instead of having recourse to vain quibbles, confess honestly that you have lost your right to tourandocte. i therefore can, if i choose, refuse you my hand, and abandon you to the regret of having lost your prize; nevertheless, i will acknowledge to you, and declare here publicly, that i entertain different feelings towards you to what i did. the friendship my father has conceived for you, and your own merit, have determined me to take you for my husband." at these words all etiquette was for a moment forgotten; the council-chamber resounded with shouts of joy. the mandarins and doctors applauded the words of tourandocte. the king approached her, and kissing her, said, "my child, you could not have formed a decision more agreeable to me; by this act you will efface the bad impression you have made upon the minds of my people, and you confer upon your father a joy to which he has long been a stranger, and which hitherto he had hoped for in vain. yes, that aversion you entertained for marriage, that aversion so contrary to nature, robbed me of the sweet hope of seeing princes of my own blood spring from you. happily, that aversion has ceased, and what crowns my wishes is, that you have extinguished it in favour of a young hero who is dear to me. but tell us," added he, "how you have been able to guess the name of a prince who was unknown to you." "my lord," replied tourandocte, "it was not by enchantment that i learned it; it was by perfectly natural means. one of my slaves sought the prince khalaf, and had subtlety enough to rob him of his secret, and i hope he will forgive me for taking advantage of this treachery, since i have made no worse use of it." "ah! charming tourandocte," hereupon cried the prince of the nagäis, "is it possible that you entertain such favourable sentiments towards me? from what a frightful abyss do you draw me, to raise me to the height of bliss! alas, how unjust was i! whilst you were preparing such a glorious fate for me i thought you guilty of the blackest of all treachery. deceived by a horrible fable which darkened my reason, i repaid your good intentions with injurious doubts. oh! what impatience do i feel to expiate my unjust suspicions at your feet." altoun-khan ordered the preparations for the marriage of khalaf and tourandocte to be set on foot, and whilst they were engaged about them he sent ambassadors to the tribe of berlas, to inform the khan of the nagäis of all that had taken place in china, and to beg him to come with the princess his wife. the preparations being concluded, the marriage was celebrated with all the pomp and magnificence which belonged to the high birth of the happy pair. khalaf was raised to the rank of the highest subject, and the king himself made a public declaration that, to mark his sense of the esteem and consideration he entertained for his son-in-law, he should allow him to dispense with the customary obeisances to his bride. during a whole month nothing was seen at the court but feasting and pageants, and in the city nothing but gaiety and rejoicings. the possession of tourandocte did not diminish the love khalaf entertained for her, and the princess, who had hitherto regarded men with so much contempt, could not but love so perfect a prince. some time after their marriage the ambassadors whom altoun-khan had sent to the country of berlas returned, bringing with them not only the father and mother of the king's son-in-law, but also prince almguer, who, to pay honour to elmaze and timurtasch, insisted on accompanying them, with the most distinguished of his nobles, and conducting them to pekin. the young prince of the nagäis, apprized of their arrival, immediately rode out to meet them. he found them nearly at the gate of the palace. the joy he felt on seeing his father and mother, and their transports on seeing him, can be scarcely conceived, much less described. they all three embraced each other over and over again, and the tears they shed drew forth corresponding signs of emotion from the chinese and tartars who were present. after these tender embraces, khalaf saluted the khan of berlas; he expressed to him how deeply he felt his kindness, and more especially his condescension in himself accompanying his parents to the court of china; the prince almguer replied that, being ignorant of the rank of timurtasch and elmaze, he had not shown towards them the respect that was due to them, and thus to atone for any neglect they might have experienced, he thought it his duty to pay them this mark of honour; the khan of the nagäis and his wife the princess, however, paid a high tribute to the attentive kindness of the khan of berlas; they then all entered the palace of the king, to be presented to altoun-khan. they found this monarch awaiting them in the first hall. he embraced them all, one after the other, and received them very graciously; he then conducted them into his cabinet, where, after expressing the pleasure he felt at seeing timurtasch, and his sympathy in his misfortunes, he assured him that he would employ all his power to avenge him on the sultan of carisma. this was no empty offer, for that very day he despatched orders to the governors of the provinces to march with all speed with the soldiers who were in the towns within their jurisdiction, and to take the route to lake baljouta, which was chosen for the rendezvous of the formidable army he proposed to assemble there. for his part, the khan of berlas, who had foreseen this war, and who wished to assist in the re-establishment of timurtasch in his dominions, had, previous to his departure from his tribe, ordered the general of his army to be in readiness to take the field at the first summons. he now commanded him also to repair to lake baljouta with all possible speed. during the time the officers and soldiers who were to compose the army of altoun-khan, and who were dispersed throughout the kingdom, were marching to assemble at the spot indicated, this king spared no pains to express his high consideration for his new guests; he appointed a separate palace to each, with a great number of eunuchs, and a guard of two thousand men. every day some new fête was contrived for their entertainment, and the king's whole attention seemed turned towards affording them pleasure. khalaf, although he had now every day a thousand matters to occupy his attention, did not forget his kind hostess; he remembered with gratitude the solicitude she expressed for him; he sent for her to the palace, and begged tourandocte to receive her amongst her attendants. the hope that timurtasch and elmaze entertained of reascending the throne of the nagäi-tartars, by the assistance of the king of china, insensibly made them forget their past troubles; and when tourandocte gave birth to a beautiful prince, they were quite overwhelmed with joy. the birth of this child, who was named the prince of china, was celebrated in all the cities of this vast empire by public rejoicings. whilst these festivities were taking place, news was brought by couriers, sent by the officers who had orders to collect the army, that all the troops of the kingdom, and those of the khan of berlas, had assembled at lake baljouta. immediately timurtasch, khalaf, and almguer set out for the camp, where they found every thing in readiness, and seven hundred thousand men ready to march; they immediately took the read to kotan, from whence they marched to raschar, and at length entered the dominions of the sultan of carisma. this prince, informed of their numbers, and of the invasion of his territories, by couriers whom the governors of the frontier towns had despatched, far from being alarmed at the number of his enemies, courageously prepared to meet them. instead even of intrenching himself, he had the boldness to take the field himself, at the head of four hundred thousand men, whom he had hastily collected. the armies met near cogendi, where they drew up in battle array. on the side of the chinese, timurtasch commanded the right wing, prince almguer the left, and khalaf the centre. on the other side, the sultan confided the command of his right wing to the ablest of his generals, opposed the prince of carisma to the prince of the nagäis, and reserved the left to himself, where the elite of his cavalry were stationed. the khan of berlas began the attack with the soldiers of his tribe, who, fighting like men who knew the eyes of their master were on them, soon turned the right wing of their enemies; the officer who commanded it, however, succeeded in reforming it almost immediately. meanwhile the right wing, commanded by timurtasch, was not so fortunate; the sultan broke them at the first onset, and the chinese in disorder were on the point of taking flight, in spite of every effort of the khan of the nagäis, when khalaf, informed of what had taken place, confided the care of the centre to an experienced chinese general, and rushed to the assistance of his father at the head of reinforcements. in a short time things assumed a different aspect. the left wing of the carismians was driven back, and in turn routed; the whole of the ranks fell into disorder and were easily broken--the entire wing was put to flight. the sultan determined to conquer or die, and made incredible efforts to rally his soldiers; but timurtasch and khalaf gave them no time, and surrounded them on all sides, whilst prince almguer having defeated the right wing, victory declared in favour of the chinese. there remained but one chance of safety for the sultan of carisma, and that was to cut his way through the ranks of his enemies, and to take refuge with some foreign prince; but he preferred not surviving his defeat to exhibiting amongst the nations his brow despoiled of the diadem; so rushing blindly into the thickest of the carnage, he fell bravely, fighting to the last, and pierced with a thousand mortal wounds, on a heap of slain. the prince of carisma, his son, shared the same fate; two hundred thousand of their troops were killed or made prisoners, the rest seeking safety in flight. the chinese also lost a great number of men; but if the battle had been a bloody one, it was decisive. timurtasch, after thanking heaven for this signal success, despatched an officer to pekin to give an account of the battle to the king of china; he then advanced into zagatay, and seized upon the city of carisma. he made a proclamation in this capital that he would not touch the property, or interfere with the liberty of the carismians; that heaven having made him master of the throne of his enemy, he intended to take possession of it, and that henceforth, zagatay, and the other countries which had been under the sway of the sultan, should acknowledge for their sovereign his son khalaf. the carismians, tired of the harsh rule of their late master, and persuaded that that of khalaf would be milder, submitted readily, and proclaimed as sultan this young prince, with whose merits they were acquainted. whilst the new sultan took all necessary measures to strengthen his position, timurtasch departed with a body of chinese troops with all possible speed to his own dominions. the nagäi-tartars received him like faithful subjects, and were overjoyed to see their legitimate sovereign; but he was not content with regaining his throne; he declared war against the circassians, in order to punish them for their treachery to prince khalaf at jund. instead of trying to appease him by submission, these warlike people speedily collected an army to oppose him. he attacked them, and cut them nearly all to pieces; after which he caused himself to be proclaimed king of circassia, and then returned to zagatay, where he found elmaze and tourandocte, whom altoun-khan had sent to carisma in great state. such was the end of the misfortunes of prince khalaf, who gained by his virtues the love and esteem of the carismians. he reigned long and peacefully over them, and never abated in his love for tourandocte; he had a second son by her, who became afterwards the sultan of carisma. as for the prince of china, altoun-khan brought him up, and chose him for his successor. timurtasch and the princess elmaze passed the rest of their days at astrachan, and the khan of berlas, after having received from them and their children all the tokens of gratitude which his generosity merited, retired to his tribe with the remainder of his troops. footnotes: [ ] the chinese mourning colour is white. iv. the wise dey. chaaban, dey of algiers, being dead, the turkish janissaries bethought themselves of electing a new dey; and their intention was to place in this high station an inert, weak, and indolent man, who would allow them to be their own masters, to act as they pleased either with or without justice, and who would never inflict any punishment upon them. passing through the streets of algiers, they beheld hadgi-achmet, a man of ripe age, seated peaceably at the door of his dwelling, and carefully mending his old slippers, without taking any part either in the outcries, the conversation, or the gossiping going on all around him. hadgi-achmet seemed to them to be just the sort of apathetic man they were in search of, a man who would never interfere with any one, would allow them to do exactly as they pleased, and who, in short, would be but the shadow of a dey. they therefore laid hold of hadgi-achmet, tore him from his work, led him to the divan, and elected him dey in spite of himself. hadgi-achmet, thus forced to assume the reins of government, wisely examined into the duties of his new position, and set himself to fulfil them with as much assiduity and zeal as he had employed in the humbler task of mending his old slippers. he watched over the interests of the country, and over those of justice, and punished severely all misdeeds which came under his observation; having a stern, strange habit of knitting his shaggy eyebrows and flashing his brilliant eyes whenever any thing mean or wicked came under his notice. all this was very displeasing to the turkish janissaries, and to several members of the divan. four of these latter formed a species of plot with the design of bringing hadgi-achmet into contempt in the eyes of the public. now as it was the pleasure of the dey to administer justice himself, and to enquire into the smallest matter that concerned the interests of the people, they thought to render him ridiculous, by begging him one day to judge four distinct matters, unworthy, in their opinion, to occupy the attention of a great ruler. "hadgi-achmet," said one of the members of the divan to the dey, "my lord, here is a culprit who can only be judged by thee, o sun of justice! he is a tunisian merchant, who has established himself a short time since at bab-a-zoun street, not far from the mosque. at first he carried on his trade with tolerable honesty; but by degrees it has been shown that he is nothing better than a rogue, and has cheated a great number of his customers in the weight, the quality, and the value of his goods. thou knowest well the law which condemns such offenders to lose an ear. this man was seized, carried before the cadi, and his rogueries being but too apparent, condemned by the cadi to lose his left ear, the right being reserved in the event of fresh misdemeanors. but when the man's turban was removed, it was discovered that his left ear was already gone. the cadi, being informed of the fact, ordered the right ear to be cut off. to execute this order, they had to pull the hand of the culprit away from his right ear, and when this had been done, it was discovered that the tunisian's right ear was missing as well as the left. the cadi therefore sent to inform me, and i, knowing the pleasure thou takest in resolving grave and important questions, have come to submit this one to thy consummate prudence, to thy glorious justice." hadgi-achmet, having heard these words, knit his brows, his eyes flashed fire upon him who had just spoken, and upon all those who were present at this audience; then, turning towards the man without ears, he said, "since thou hast always been a rogue, and that nothing could reform thee, i condemn thee all thy life long to wear neither turban nor any head-dress whatsoever to conceal the mutilation of thy ears. purchasers, on beholding this mutilation, will shun thee if they are wise, for no one is ignorant that a merchant without ears is nothing else than a rogue." the earless tunisian went sadly away. being compelled to exhibit to every one and at all times the mutilation he had undergone, was a far worse punishment than the loss of five hundred ears, if he had had them. this judgment pronounced, a second member of the divan addressed the dey, "hadgi-achmet, our lord and master, here are two men who are quarrelling upon a question which thou only canst decide by thy profound wisdom. one of these men is the father of a beautiful and promising boy. he had this son and two others. one day, about ten years ago, ibrahim, his neighbour, who was childless, said to him, 'chamyl, give me thy youngest son, i will adopt him; he shall live in my house, inherit my wealth, and be happy. if thou desirest it, i will give thee in exchange for thy son my country-house at boudjaréah; thou knowest that the north breeze is wafted there in the hottest days of summer.' "chamyl consented to give his son, and took the house at boudjaréah in exchange. ormed, the son of chamyl, went to live with ibrahim, who soon loved him very tenderly, whilst ormed, if only out of gratitude, soon became much attached to him. "chamyl has now lost both his other sons, and having become rich, desires to take back ormed, saying, 'this child is henceforth the sole hope of my race, the joy of my heart, and i wish him to become my heir.' "as for ibrahim, he has lost nearly the half of his fortune, but he has not lost the attachment which he bears to his adopted son. on the contrary, his affection continues daily to strengthen for this child, who is endowed with the finest qualities of mind, and with a grateful and affectionate heart. "with whom dost thou decree that ormed shall remain? with his adopted or with his real father?" hadgi-achmet, addressing himself to chamyl, said, "in what does thy fortune consist?" chamyl enumerated his possessions: a house, a ship, several country houses, and merchandise. "can these things be removed?" asked hadgi-achmet. "some of them can," replied chamyl. "and the others," replied hadgi-achmet; "couldst not thou, if necessary, dispose of them, and buy others with the price?" "i could," replied chamyl. "and the affection which thou hadst for thy sons who are dead, couldst thou transfer it, and bestow it upon other children." "ah! that would be impossible," replied chamyl, sorrowfully. "then affection cannot be transferred or exchanged," said hadgi-achmet; "and as it forms part of the heart of man, it is of far higher consequence than material things, is it not?" "yes, my lord," answered chamyl. "so that," continued the dey, "we may say to a man, sell, or give away, thy possessions; but we cannot, without absurdity, say to any one, cease to love him whom thou lovest. for which reason, chamyl, i condemn thee to leave with ibrahim the child whom he loves, and whom thou voluntarily gavest him when thou hadst affection for thy two sons who are no more. as to thy possessions, thou canst bear them whithersoever thou wilt, for riches are not the heart." "but i love my son," cried chamyl, "and i will have him, and him only, for my heir." "ah! thou lovest thy son," rejoined hadgi-achmet. "it may be so, but thou gavest no proofs of it so long as thy two other children were alive. moreover, thou hast taken a house in exchange for thy son; it is exactly the same as if thou hadst sold thy child." "i was poor," murmured chamyl. "a lame excuse," said the dey, "for there are many more poor men than rich men, yet we do not see poor men giving up their children for any gain whatsoever." "no, no! i have not sold my son," cried chamyl, "and my son is mine." "no, thy son is no longer thine," said the dey, "for thou art not a father after my heart, and for ten years thy son has been cared for by the man to whom thou gavest him in exchange for a house. ibrahim has not deserved that the child whom he so tenderly loves should be taken from him, and i order him to be left with him. but since thou wilt have none other than thy son for thine heir, i decree moreover that all thy property shall revert to him after thy death, which is nothing but justice." ibrahim then interposed. "my lord," said he to the dey, "ormed and i have no need of the fortune of chamyl. what allah has left to us is sufficient for our wants. permit chamyl then to preserve the right of choosing for himself an heir among orphans or poor children, of whom he will now probably adopt one." "no," replied the dey, "the man who has been able to calmly select one from among his own children and barter him for a house, can never attach himself to the orphan or the unfortunate. i see no reason to alter the judgment i have pronounced. ormed will have for his inheritance the love of his adopted father and the wealth of his real one." chamyl withdrew, greatly incensed at this judgment, which seemed to him unjust, but which appeared highly equitable to the inhabitants of aldgezaire. a third member of the divan then addressed hadgi-achmet: "all thy words bear the impress of the wisdom which illuminates thee. it suffices to hear thee, in order to know and venerate thee. if we do not abuse thy patience and thy goodness, it is because both are inexhaustible. behold," added he, "a woman veiled, according to the law. she accuses her husband of leaving her to perish with hunger, whilst her husband here maintains that the woman tells an infamous untruth, and that he supplies her with ample means for becoming fat and strong; he adds, that the famished locusts from the desert eat not more voraciously than doth this woman, all the while remaining lean and feeble, as thou seest. the woman persists in asserting that her husband scarcely gives her sufficient to languish on like a dying tree, and she claims thy pity and thy justice." hadgi-achmet, having heard these words, knit his brows, his eyes flashed fire upon him who had just spoken, and upon those present at this audience. then he said, "mahmoud, dost thou declare that thou affordest sufficient nourishment to thy wife?" "yes, my lord," replied mahmoud. "and thou, woman," said the dey, "dost thou still maintain that thy husband leaves thee in want of nourishment?" "yes, my lord," replied the poor starving woman in a faint voice, and extending her transparent hands and long thin arms, in a supplicating manner towards her master and her judge. "art thou poor?" demanded hadgi-achmet of mahmoud. "no, my lord," replied mahmoud, "i could support several wives if i wished, but it pleases me to have only this one in my house." "ah! thou couldst support several wives," replied the dey; "and why then dost thou not give to this one all she desires, even supposing she devoured as voraciously as the famished locusts of the desert?" "i never refuse her any thing," said mahmoud. the poor veiled woman sighed. "well," added hadgi-achmet, "since thou art both rich and generous, i will put thee in the position to repel an accusation so disgraceful to thee as that of leaving the woman whom thou hast espoused to perish of hunger. to which end i order that thy wife shall dwell in my palace in the apartments of my women and receive from thee a pension which will enable her to purchase whatever food she may desire. if at the end of a year of peace and plenty she should still possess that feeble voice and that excessive thinness which inspire my compassion, i shall regard her as inflicted with an incurable malady, and will leave her to go and die beneath thy roof; but if, on the contrary, she regains strength and voice, thou shalt be hung, not only for having violated the law which commands the husband to minister to the support of his wife, but still more for having lied before thy lord and thy judge, who knows and ever will know how to punish those who offend him." having spoken thus, hadgi-achmet cast terrible looks upon all the men present at this audience. mahmoud withdrew only too sure of being hung next year, and every one preserved a gloomy silence which lasted for several minutes. hadgi-achmet meanwhile resumed: "if there remains any other cause for me to judge, let it be declared." then with less self-possession and confidence than his colleagues had displayed, a fourth member of the divan presented himself. "here, my lord," said he, "is a strange affair which occupies us, and which thou alone canst judge. "these two men here present are twin-brothers. they have always loved each other, and have never been separated. their father is just dead. after having deplored his loss, they said to each other: 'the roof of our father's dwelling has sheltered us to this day, let it shelter us still; and let us amicably share all that is left us by our father, arms, vestments, or jewels.' "but all at once an object presented itself which could not be divided, and for the loss of which nothing else would compensate. the article in question is a holy amulet, which it is said bestows wisdom on him who wears it upon his breast beneath his tunic. now the two brothers equally desire wisdom, and both would fain possess the precious talisman left them by their father." hadgi-achmet having heard these words, knit his brows, again his eyes flashed fire, as he said to one of the twins: "mozza, canst thou not yield to thy brother, who so earnestly desires it, the amulet left you both by your father?" "no, my lord," replied mozza, "i could easily reconcile myself to my brother's being richer than myself, but not to his being wiser!" hadgi-achmet turned to the other brother: "farzan, canst thou not yield to thy brother the amulet he wishes to possess?" "no, my lord," replied farzan, "for wisdom not alone bestows upon its possessor the things of the earth, but those also which belong to heaven, and i desire those above all." hadgi-achmet then ordered mozza to place upon his breast beneath his tunic the cherished amulet, which being done, he said to the young man: "i am charmed to find that thou preferrest wisdom to fortune, for wisdom is above all. but dost thou not see that it is wise to be at peace with thy brother, and that to obtain this peace there is no sacrifice too great? to yield to thy brother is the beginning and the end of wisdom; he who yields is ever the best and the wisest. on this ground thou wilt now, i am persuaded, yield cheerfully this amulet to thy brother." "i repeat, my lord," answered mozza, "that i will yield every thing to my brother, slaves, diamonds, house--my entire fortune; but i will never willingly give up this sacred amulet: it is the only heritage i covet." "ah!" said hadgi-achmet, "thou hast not changed thy mind then! well, give me thy father's amulet." mozza reluctantly handed the precious talisman to the dey. "farzan," said the dey, "place this amulet upon thy breast, and beneath thy tunic." farzan obeyed. he had no sooner placed the amulet upon his breast than he felt so lively a joy that he would have embraced his brother had he dared, and his eyes glistened with pleasure. "ah!" said hadgi-achmet, addressing himself to farzan, "i perceive that this amulet has great power over thee. thy heart is opened to wisdom, and thou wilt renounce foolish quarrels, wilt thou not, and yield to thy brother the talisman which he so much desires, and of which he has perhaps greater need than thou?" "i!" cried farzan, "rather would i die than part with my father's amulet! i feel myself capable of plunging my dagger into the bosom of any one rash enough to attempt to tear it from me, whoever he might be." "in truth," rejoined hadgi-achmet, "i see that this amulet is far from bestowing all the wisdom of which you young men deem it capable. on the contrary it only seems to me fit to sow dissensions between you, since notwithstanding you have both worn it upon your breast, you have nevertheless preserved your animosity and unjust pretensions in the dispute in question. for which reason i ordain that this precious talisman, of whose real power we are doubtless ignorant, shall remain in my palace and be restored in ten years' time to whichever of you two shall have given by his conduct the most incontestable proofs of piety and virtue." having heard this sentence, the two brothers sorrowfully withdrew. but they had no sooner crossed the threshold of the palace, than they were reconciled to each other, avowing that the dey had acted with justice, and thenceforth they lived happy and united as before. in the mean time, hadgi-achmet, having delivered these four judgments, knit his brows once more, and turning to the members of the divan, addressed them as follows: "joyfully have i just occupied myself with the smallest things which concern the welfare and repose of my subjects, and i should not regret my time had it been employed in affairs still more trifling. every thing appears of importance to me which in any way relates to the wellbeing of one of those over whom allah has made me sovereign. i nothing doubt that you applaud my conduct, and that you would gladly imitate my zeal in the service of the people. your praises prove it; but i know well that men such as you prefer proving their zeal by actions, rather than by words. i am about therefore to entrust you with a task of great importance to me, since it is for the most interesting class of my subjects, namely, the most unfortunate. i am about to distribute before the ramadan, four sacks of rice among poor old men and widows. an unskilful hand has contrived in filling these sacks with the rice, to spill amongst it a quantity of _oats_. now as i do not wish these poor people to think themselves treated with contempt by receiving rice mixed with oats, i wish that pious hands should carefully sift the rice and extract from it these grains. it is on you i rely for the performance of this duty, which awaits you in one of the halls of my palace. i cannot at this moment be an eye-witness of your zeal in obeying me, and serving the people; but before your task is finished, i will be with you." having spoken these words, the dey caused the members of the divan to be respectfully conducted by his guards to a large hall, where they found four sacks of rice and several baskets. the members of the divan feeling persuaded that this was an affair which more nearly concerned their heads than the sacks of rice, set themselves silently to this unexpected work, whilst the guards remained stationary at the entrance of the hall in which the labour was being carried on. the flight of a musquito might have been heard in this hall where the members of the divan were busily engaged sifting the rice for the poor, all the while vowing to be revenged upon hadgi-achmet, if they ever had the power. towards the evening the members of the divan were joined by hadgi-achmet, who perceiving that one of them had made less progress in his task than his three colleagues, said, "i would not accuse thee of want of zeal: man knows not always what he wishes, nor knows what he can do; i will therefore aid thee in thy task," and he began gravely to assist the four members of the divan in sifting the rice of the poor. the tasks being accomplished, the four sacks of rice were carefully closed. hadgi-achmet thanked his enemies, and caused them to be conducted with the greatest respect to the gates of his palace. these men left to themselves, regarded each other with consternation and shame; they then said, "we would fain have laughed at hadgi-achmet, and it is he who has mocked us. let us henceforth abstain from criticizing his scrupulous exactitude in rendering justice, but let us think only of avenging ourselves." but they sought the opportunity in vain. hadgi-achmet, who had commenced his career by so carefully mending his old slippers, held the reins of power with a strong hand, and whilst other deys in those times almost always met a violent death by steel or poison, he died peacefully in his palace, after having lived many long years. v. the tunisian sage; or, the powder of longevity. selim-ben-foubi had been twenty years engaged in commerce when he inherited a fortune which greatly surpassed his wants and even his desires. as he had lost all his children, his great wealth caused him but little joy, and he felt it even embarrassing to possess so much gold and so many precious things, of which he should never be able to make any use. "i am now fifty," said he, "and were i to live to a hundred, i should not spend half of what i possess. i can only take one meal at a time, dress in a single suit, and sleep in but one bed. hence if i can but rest in peace in a substantial and commodious house, eat as much as i desire, and invite a friend to partake of my repast, that is all i need wish for. i have therefore resolved to give away the half of my fortune during my lifetime, that i may enjoy the pleasure of beholding happiness of my own creating." having formed this generous project, selim nevertheless wished before putting it into execution to take counsel with two of his friends. quitting therefore his country-house at boudjaréah, he repaired to aldgezaire, where in the garden of the grand mosque dwelt usually a sage mufti, a grave and reverend man. seating himself by his side beneath the shade of some flowering pomegranate trees, he thus accosted him: "mehemet, i have come to visit thee in order to open my whole heart to thee and take counsel of thy wisdom. i am suddenly become very rich, as thou knowest, and i have no son to inherit my wealth; is it not too great for a single solitary man? speak, answer me." "that which allah gives should never be despised," replied the sage. "i do not disdain my riches," replied selim, "but i am thinking of sharing them with others, and of keeping only what is necessary to my existence for the remainder of my days." "thou knowest not what the number of thy days will be." "i will suppose that i may enjoy the longest of lives, a hundred years for example, thinkest thou i shall live yet longer?" "allah alone knows." "let us say five hundred," continued selim, "surely that covers all chances; well then, during this long course of years, would it not be more agreeable to me to know that my riches are useful, than to feel that they were hidden in some coffer, where they might become an object of envy to the poor, or tempt the cupidity of the ill-doer?" "may be so," said the mufti. "my thought is a good one then?" "it may be; but will it be good in practice? i cannot say. nothing is more common than to think wisely; nothing more rare than to put wise thoughts into practice." "advise me," said selim, "and i shall then be sure of fulfilling the law, and of doing good. how ought i to distribute the half of my large fortune?" the mufti reflected profoundly, and then replied: "i advise thee first to take at least one year to reflect upon thy project. time is the sun that ripens the thoughts of men. we never repent of having reflected before acting; we often regret not having done so. reflect then, and afterwards come and consult with me." selim quitted the mosque, and repaired to bab-a-zoun street, to the house of his other friend, a moorish merchant, who laboured hard to support himself by his calling. he began thus: "we have been friends and have known each other these ten years, for which reason i come to put to thee this question: 'in what way, thinkest thou, a man who is both rich and beneficent should employ his fortune, in order to be useful?'" the moorish merchant replied: "thou makest a very singular demand of me. i cannot believe that a man can find any difficulty in giving, if he really possess the desire. he may found a mosque, succour the aged, support the widow and the orphan, enrich his friends, if he have any, and the rich are seldom without friends." "but thou," rejoined selim, "if thou hadst aught to give away, what wouldst thou do?" "i? i cannot fancy myself having any thing to give away, seeing that i can scarcely pay the rent of my poor shop, and fill that shop with a few sacks of rice and a little coffee. if i had money, it is very certain that i should begin by buying a house and goods. it is of no use to say to a poor man like me, 'to whom wouldst thou give thy money?' but i repeat to thee there is no lack of good actions to be done. happy he who has only to choose." "thou art right," said selim to his friend; and quitting him, he returned to his country-house at boudjaréah. one of his neighbours, achmet the arab, accosted him upon the road thither; and selim, having stopped to converse with his friend, said to him: "thou art of a ripe age, and art not wanting in experience of the things of this life. tell me then if thou considerest that it would be well for a man who is rich and childless to give away, while still living, the half of his fortune, reserving the other half, upon which to subsist honourably the remainder of his days." achmet replied, "i cannot say whether it is better in the sight of allah to give away or to retain the goods with which he has endowed thee. as for myself, i have nothing to give, for i have a very small fortune, and a great many children; but if i were rich and without heirs, i would bury my gold in some corner of my garden, sooner than bestow it to gratify men who are either wicked or ungrateful, and such they almost all are. this gold would sooner or later be discovered by some one whom allah desired to enrich, and thus i should not be responsible for the use that was made of it." "thy idea is not, perhaps, a bad one," said selim, "and i will certainly reflect upon it." while selim and his neighbour were talking together, a tunisian of miserable aspect approached the spot. this was no other than hussein muley, a physician of tunis. he was already advanced in years, and passed for a man rich in science, but poor in money. selim requested this man to rest himself in his house, and his invitation being accepted, he saluted his neighbour achmet, and conducted his guest into one of the fresh and salubrious halls of his smiling abode. hussein muley, fatigued by two hours' walk under a broiling sun, threw himself upon a divan, whilst fruits and coffee were abundantly served to him. when he had somewhat reposed and refreshed himself, selim said to him in a friendly manner, "i am happy to receive thee at my house, because thou art a wise man, and of good renown in thy profession. thou hast travelled, read, and seen life; thou must of necessity be able to judge wisely of the things which relate to this life. i should therefore be very glad to have thy opinion upon a project which i have formed. i have become very rich by inheritance; and having no children, i think of disposing, while yet living, of a great portion of my wealth. in what way dost thou consider it would be most desirable to employ this wealth?" hussein muley regarded selim with surprise. "thou wouldst give away a great portion of what thou hast," said he. "this is, indeed, a marvellous thing. i have, as thou sayest, travelled, read, and seen life, but never yet have i heard of any man giving away, during his lifetime, the greater part of his fortune." "does that prove that it would be wrong to do so?" demanded selim. "i know not," replied the tunisian, falling into a fit of profound meditation, and looking all the while at the tips of his old slippers, instead of contemplating from afar the ever-changing sea and azure sky. "on what dost thou muse?" at length demanded selim. "i was thinking--i was thinking that if the duration of man's life were longer, it would be better both for those who study science, and for those who are the fortunate possessors of great wealth; it would be equally good for the poor, since they might one day hope to enjoy the fruit of their toils, if they took pains to become rich." "what profits it to meditate so deeply upon a thing which all the reflections of man cannot change?" "i do not regard the prolongation of human existence as impossible. hitherto physicians have most frequently been instrumental in abridging it. my aim is to repair the wrongs they have involuntarily committed. i would have succeeding ages regard my memory with gratitude." "what sayest thou?" cried selim. "thou wouldst change the order of things, the whole course of nature?" "nothing can convince me that we follow the course of nature by dying at sixty or eighty years of age, when men formerly lived hundreds of years. on the contrary, i am certain that we were created to live longer, much longer, and i consecrate all my days, my nights, and my studies to the pursuit of a discovery which is destined to prolong the existence of mankind, and renew the state of things as they were when men married at a hundred years of age, and lived to see their sons' sons grow up and marry in their turn. why, have i often asked myself, should our lives be shorter than those of an oak of the forests, of a serpent, or even of a vulture?" "if we lived as long as an oak," replied selim, "the cedars and the palm trees would still live longer than we." "thou dost but jest, but thy jesting is ill-timed; nothing is more serious than the thought which occupies me. thou thyself, confess now, wouldst thou not be enchanted to see suns succeed suns, and to contemplate for ages to come the wonders of the heavens and the fecundity of the earth?" selim reflected a little, and replied, "man does not love death, it is true; nevertheless life is not so desirable as thou wouldst fain have us believe." "then thou desirest not to prolong thy days upon the earth? for myself, i confess that i desire it greatly; so that besides my days and my nights, i consecrate all that i glean from learned researches to the accomplishment of this great end. i am already upon the track. but unfortunately gold is wanting--this gold which thou despisest, or knowest not how to employ--this gold would in my hands contribute to the happiness of future generations. with gold--with gold you can purchase books of precious value, measure the stars, dig the bowels of the earth, rend metals from her bosom, decompose substances, in short, penetrate into every mystery. yes, gold which heretofore has been unable to bestow a day, nay an hour upon its possessor, gold in my hands would accomplish a wondrous discovery. i should certainly not keep the secret for myself alone, and i should share it first of all with the man whose wealth had helped me to the means of obtaining it." "but shouldst thou discover the means of prolonging my life for many centuries, i should not then be rich enough to give away half of my fortune." "what!" cried the physician of tunis, "is not life preferable to all the riches in the world? and if at this moment it were said to thee, 'thou shalt die, or give up the whole of thy possessions,' wouldst thou not readily yield them to avoid the thrust of a yataghan, or the discharge of a gun in thy breast?" "thou puzzlest me, but i think that in such a case i should give up my property to preserve my life." "thou seest then that life is dear, even to the poor. why not therefore endeavour to prolong thine own? even if my profound science did not succeed, thou wouldst still be rich enough to enjoy an existence of the shorter duration." listening thus to the learned physician, selim fell by degrees into a profound reverie, and the tunisian, instead of continuing his discourse, gave himself up to meditation also; so that both these two men became absorbed in their own dreams in presence of each other, but without communicating their ideas, and allah alone knows of what they were thinking. after long and silent reflection, selim said to hussein muley, "before seeing thee i had intended to bestow while yet alive one-half of my fortune in making others happy. it will, i think, be no change of purpose, if i aid thee in pursuing those learned researches which tend to prolong the life of man. for which reason, hussein muley, i propose at once to present thee with the gold of which thou hast need. come with me." the tunisian, appearing more astonished than rejoiced at these words, gravely arose, followed selim into another apartment in the house, and received from him a little casket filled with pieces of gold. "employ this wisely," said selim, "and communicate to me the result of thy labour." "i will not fail to do so," replied hussein muley. and clasping the precious casket to his breast, he exclaimed, "here then is the means of satisfying my thirst for knowledge, of surmounting all obstacles, of snatching from the past the secret which shall add hundreds of years to the existence of man, and prolong his days to the space of those of his fathers. selim," added he, "thou dost a meritorious action in giving me this. i need not thank thee, because i am going to work for thee as for myself; nevertheless i do thank thee, and with my whole heart." having said these words the learned physician withdrew gravely, and with an air of deep abstraction. selim was not less preoccupied. left to himself, he meditated long and profoundly on long and short lives, and on the prodigies accomplished by science, and he ended by asking himself whether he should confide to the sage mufti, whom he was soon about to see again, what he had done for hussein muley, and his hope of beholding the existence of the human species prolonged to an almost indefinite period. his final resolution was to admit no one to his confidence in the matter, but to await in silence the marvellous discovery of his new friend hussein muley, the physician of tunis. several months passed by without the reappearance of the latter, but when at length he returned to boudjaréah he was yellower, leaner, and more attenuated even than a man who had crossed on foot the mighty desert of sahara. his limbs, in fact, could scarcely support his trembling frame. "well," said selim, "what has befallen thee? art thou sick, or dost thou return to me perishing of hunger?" "no, but i have travelled night and day beneath the pale light of the stars, and the burning rays of the sun, and have often forgotten to take necessary sustenance, so deeply was i absorbed in my studies." "well, and the result?" "alas! i have not yet succeeded as i could desire. thus far have i attained only, that i have secured the power of prolonging our days fifty years." having uttered these words, hussein muley sorrowfully clasped his withered hands upon his breast, and then added: "i know that such a discovery would afford intense joy to any other but myself, but it is far from satisfying me. to live fifty years longer than usual, what is that?" "it is something, nevertheless," replied selim, "and wilt thou tell me what is necessary to be done, in order to add fifty years to one's existence?" "will i tell thee?" cried the tunisian; "i am come expressly for that purpose, and to give thee this powder. it must be taken every morning fasting, for one year, three months, a week, and a day, without fail." "i must write down these directions," said selim. he wrote them down at once, and then asked, "dost thou not think thou shouldst rest satisfied with thy discovery, and begin to live well, and sleep well, in order to enjoy the remaining years of thy life?" "i have no desire to repose yet from my labours. of what account are fifty years added to sixty or eighty, soon to be over for me? no, no, i would live two centuries at the least, to enjoy the fruits of my toil, and make the fortunes of my children, and my children's children. for thou dost not imagine we shall at first give to every one for nothing this magnificent secret, which has cost us so much. it is this secret which will procure us the means of living in splendour to the end of our days. thou canst, for heavy sums of money, dispose of the powder which i shall have composed to whomsoever thou pleasest, while i on my part equally will part with it for gold; and when at length we die, surfeited with life, we will leave our secret to the multitude that survives us." "this arrangement seems to me just, and well conceived. nevertheless, i desire not to sell the powder, but may i bestow it, and at once, upon one or two men whom i esteem highly?" "no, let us not yet draw attention to our happy fortune; let us wait until my discovery shall be completely perfected." "agreed; but i lament to see thee yellow, thin, and attenuated, as thou art." "oh! that is nothing," said the tunisian, striking his forehead with his hands; "do not let my haggard appearance disturb thee. i would rather have nothing but skin upon my bones, and keep my secret to myself. i shall soon regain my flesh and my complexion. no, my health causes me no uneasiness. i merely suffer from anxiety, which arises from not having money sufficient for the prosecution of my studies." "dost thou require much?" demanded selim. "ah! yes, much," replied hussein with a sigh; "and if i fail in procuring it, instead of living fifty years longer than the usual course of things, i will either starve myself to death, or drown myself in the well of my house." "beware of acting thus," said selim. "i can still give thee something; make use of that, and afterwards follow my advice, and sell to some rich man thy powder, in order to meet the expenses of thy lengthened researches." hussein muley appeared to meditate profoundly with his forehead buried in his hands, and seemed not to listen to selim, but it is not improbable that he heard him very well. "thou dost not listen to me," continued selim. "hussein! hussein! i will give thee another little casket of gold; but after this casket i have nothing more to give thee. there will only remain just sufficient for me, during the time that i hope to live, thanks to thy powder. if thou discoverest another still more marvellous, thou wilt give it me, at least for my own use, wilt thou not?" hussein muley seemed suddenly to come to himself, and exclaimed: "oh! i have at length found that of which i was in search! yes, one herb alone is now wanting; i will go in quest of it, were it at the other end of the earth, and i will resolve the great problem which has occupied me for more than thirty years. selim! selim! entrust to my keeping what thou canst still consecrate to the happiness of mankind, and rest assured that thou wilt merit the admiration and the gratitude of ages to come." "i desire neither the one nor the other," replied selim; "i only wish to do a little good, that is all. shall i succeed in my purpose? i will confess to thee, hussein muley, that i have more than once regretted devoting my fortune to a discovery which may prove more fatal than useful to the world; for the world is already peopled enough, and what would it be, if men lived for several centuries? would they not kill each other for want of room?" "do they not already kill each other by sea and by land?" said hussein muley with a strange smile. "come," continued he, "do not disquiet thyself about what will some day happen upon the earth; profit by what fate offers thee, and prolong thy days in peace." having thus spoken, he took the second casket proffered him by selim, put it under his arm, and said in a grave tone: "i am about to undertake a journey into asia. there, near the indies, is a high mountain, mount himalaya--dost thou not know it?" "no," answered selim. "well, nor i either; but i go to cull from its summit, covered with perpetual snows, a plant, which will complete the discoveries i have already made." "i thought that no plant was ever to be found on those mountain tops covered with perpetual snow and frost?" "there grows none, but that of which i have immediate need; i am going in quest of it, and will show it thee on my return." "it is well," said selim, and they separated. hussein muley retreated with rapid strides. selim carefully placed in a small box the powder which he was to take fasting, during one year, three months, a week, and a day, and he began from the very next day to administer to himself this drug, which happily he did not find to be very nauseous to the taste. meanwhile the tunisian set out from aldgezaire with his wife, his children, and several chests, containing no doubt his books, and the papers necessary for his studies; but selim never saw him more. he awaited his return, three, five, ten years, and, as he judged that ten years should suffice to go to asia, and scale the highest mountain there, he began to think that the yellow, thin, and learned tunisian was either dead, or else had taken advantage of his credulity and ignorance. whilst these thoughts occupied his mind, an epidemic broke out in aldgezaire; selim was attacked by it. he therefore begged the wise mufti, who was still alive, to come and visit him; and then with that burst of confidence which seizes men in the hour of danger, he opened his heart to him, and related how he had given two caskets full of gold to hussein muley, in the hope of prolonging the existence of mankind for many centuries. the wise mufti stroked his venerable beard and exclaimed: "selim, selim, thou hast been played upon by a swindler, to whom thou hast imprudently confided thy generous thoughts. this proves the truth of what i one day said to thee, 'with the best intentions we may commit the most foolish actions.'" "ah!" said selim sorrowfully, "my misfortune has been in not spontaneously following the first impulse of my heart, for i had really the wish to do good, but in taking counsel of one and another i have followed the worst i received." "yes," replied the mufti, "thou mightest perhaps have acted wisely in following thy first idea; at the same time, if thou hadst, in accordance with my advice, reflected longer upon thy projects of benevolence, it is certain that thou wouldst not have given thy gold to a cheat who has done nothing but laugh at thy credulity." selim willingly consented to acknowledge his fault. he confessed that it is useless to take the opinion of the wise and learned, if we do not mean to profit by it; then he prostrated himself devoutly before allah, recovered his health by degrees, and caused a large sum of money to be distributed among the poor of the mosques, for he relied no longer on the hundreds of years of existence which were to come to him from mount himalaya, any more than on the powder of longevity. vi. the nose for gold. mohammed and yousouf, young moors, born in aldgezaire, had loved each other from infancy, and increasing years only served to strengthen the bonds of their attachment. besides the happiness they enjoyed in their mutual affection, their friendship tended also to elevate their characters, and make them remarkable, for every body knows that constant friendships are never the lot of vulgar minds. these two young men, therefore, raised themselves above the level of the vulgar herd by the fidelity of their affection; they were cited as models in their native city; people smiled with pleasure on seeing them pass, always together, ever in good humour; and although they were far from being rich, yet their fate was envied by every one. mohammed and yousouf generally dressed alike, and they had recourse to the same trade to gain their living. their only trouble,--there must always be some in this world,--arose from the shops in which they were engaged during the day being separated from each other; evening, it is true, reunited them in the same dwelling, but that was not enough for them. when they married even, they contrived that it should be to each other's relatives. one family established itself on the first floor of the house, the other immediately above, and the two friends continued to love as heretofore, and to rejoice in their common felicity. over and over again, during their long conversations, they would repeat with the reiteration usual to those to whom a subject is dear, some such sentiments as these: "the restless periods of youth, marriage, and commercial affairs have tried our friendship without altering it; it is henceforth secure from all changes; old age will only serve to render us dearer to each other, and we shall leave to our families the record and example of an affection which a future day will doubtless see renewed in our sons." "it is probable," they would often say, "that allah, touched by our friendship upon earth, will reunite us eternally in the paradise of true believers, beneath fresh shades, and by the side of bubbling fountains, surrounded by flowers of sweet perfume." at this prospect of an eternal union, an eternal happiness, both would smile in anticipation, and such expressions as these they were never weary of repeating to each other. these two friends were about thirty years of age, when a lucky chance gave them the opportunity of accomplishing the dearest wish of their hearts, that of occupying together two small shops adjoining each other. an old israelite, without family and without children, had inhabited them for twenty years. in one he slept and ate, not having any other house; in the other he displayed his merchandise; essences, amber, pastilles, necklaces and bracelets for the rich moors, small looking-glasses, and beads of coral for the slaves; all of which he sold at the dearest possible price, as if he had a dozen children to support, and as many of his co-religionists. mohammed and yousouf established themselves with lively satisfaction in these shops, the possession of which they had so long coveted, without at the same time desiring the death of the old jew. they were incapable of a wicked action; but the jew being dead, as they could not restore him to life, they saw no harm in lawfully taking possession of his domicile. this event seemed to complete their happiness. but who can say or know what is really a good or an evil? who can foresee the consequences of things? mohammed one day, while knocking a nail into the partition wall between his shop and that of yousouf, discovered that this wall was hollow, and that it contained some pieces of metal. his first impulse was to call, "yousouf! yousouf! there is gold or silver in our wall;" but the next moment he thought, "i will first assure myself of what this part of the wall contains, and if i really make a fortunate discovery, i shall give yousouf such an agreeable surprise by calling him to partake of it." accordingly he waited until yousouf should be out of the way for an hour or two to give him the opportunity of exploring further into his wall, but it so happened that yousouf was never absent at all for several days following. mohammed then said to his friend: "i fancy that something has been stolen from my shop during the night. i shall sleep there to-night, in order to surprise the thief, if he should reappear." "i shall not leave thee alone here all night," replied yousouf, "but shall sleep also in my shop by the side of thee." mohammed in vain strove to oppose the resolution of his friend; he could not revisit his shop alone in the evening, and for several days following, yousouf seeing that he appeared pensive and uneasy, quitted him less than ever, and said to him with the solicitude of true friendship: "thou seemest sad! thy wife and thy sons, are they ill? regrettest thou what has been taken from thy shop? compensate thyself for thy loss by selecting whatever thou wilt from that which i possess." mohammed thanked yousouf, and replied with a smile: "rest satisfied, i have no grief." he dared not add, "i have no secret," for he had one. in order however to put an end to the feeling of intense anxiety that filled his mind, he came to his shop one night unknown to yousouf, and hastily detaching from the partition wall first one stone, then two or three more, he discovered a hundred spanish doubloons, and eight four-dollar pieces. this was a perfect treasure to mohammed, who had never in his life possessed more than the half of a small house, and the few goods exposed for sale in his shop. "we are rich," said he. "yousouf and i can now purchase a country house by the sea-side, as we have so often wished. our wives and our children will disport themselves in our sight. my son ali, that beautiful child whom i so tenderly love, will be delighted to run among the trees and climb up into their topmost branches. ah! how rejoiced i am, if only for his sake." thus thinking, mohammed took his gold and his silver, replaced, as well as he was able, the stones in his wall, and returned to his home, his mind occupied with delightful visions, and already beholding himself in imagination enjoying the pleasures of a delightful habitation by the sea-shore, with his beautiful ali, that dear child whom he so tenderly loved. during two days he put off from hour to hour the disclosure which he had to make to yousouf; and during those two days he revolved all sorts of ideas in his mind. "if i made the fortune of my son, instead of that of my friend," said he at length to himself, "should i be guilty? is not a son nearer and dearer than all the friends in the world? yes; but then the gold and silver which i have discovered belong by rights as much to yousouf as to myself, for the wall whence i have taken them belongs as much to his shop as to mine." unable to resolve either to share his treasure with his friend or to keep it for himself alone, he took the resolution of carefully concealing it in the chamber in which he slept, and of waiting until the agitation caused in his mind by so important an event should have somewhat subsided, to which end he hastened to secure his newly acquired possession. "reflection is no crime," said he. consequently he gave himself time to reflect, instead of following the first impulse of his heart and remaining faithful to that devotion of friendship which had hitherto constituted his pride and glory, and which still bore the promise of so rich a harvest in the future. he passed all his time then, extended during the heat of the day upon a mat by the side of his merchandise, and with closed eyes feigning to sleep, while in reality he was thinking of nothing but his treasure, and of what he ought to do with it. yousouf meanwhile, impressed with the idea that his friend was sleeping, took every care to guard his slumbers from interruption, thinking as he gently fanned his fevered brow of nothing but mohammed, and what he could possibly invent to divert him and render him happy. one day as yousouf and mohammed were reposing after their labours, an old hump-backed jew with a sallow complexion and an enormous nose accosted yousouf, saying: "was it not here that nathan cohen, the son of david, lived about two years since?" "speak low," replied yousouf to the jew. "my friend is asleep, and i would not that his slumbers should be disturbed." the jew seated himself on the edge of yousouf's little counter, and repeated his inquiry, at the same time lowering the harsh and hollow tones of his voice. "yes, it was here that nathan cohen, the son of david, dwelt," replied the young moor. "ah!" said the old jew, working his large and flexible nostrils, "i was sure of it--that is why i scent gold hidden here." "indeed!" said yousouf, regarding somewhat incredulously the extraordinary nose of his interlocutor. "thou dost well to talk of smelling gold or silver either. thy olfactory nerves are of the strongest no doubt, nevertheless i fear me they are at fault in this dwelling, where gold and silver but seldom make their appearance." "they are not often to be seen here," replied the jew; "i know that full well; they are not heard here either, for the earth conceals them both from sight and sound. but remove them from the envious ground that covers them, and they will dazzle thine eyes and charm thine ears." "indeed!" said yousouf, laughing. "thou art the bearer of good news. how much dost thou demand for thy reward?" "i would have thee share with me all that i shall cause to be discovered in thy house by means of the marvellous sense of smelling with which i am endowed, and at which thou now jestest." "share with thee!" exclaimed yousouf. "oh no, indeed! if i were fortunate enough to discover a treasure, it is with my friend mohammed that i should hasten to share it." "but thou wilt have nothing to share with him if i do not disclose to thee the spot where thy treasure lies concealed." "perhaps so. but if i put any confidence in thy nose, what prevents me from turning my whole shop topsy-turvy, digging up the floor, and pulling down the walls and the shelves?" the jew slowly regarded the ground, the walls, and the shelves, as they were severally named by yousouf; then he said in an ironical manner: "thou wouldst not do much harm if thou wert to demolish all around thee; but to save thyself so much trouble and labour, thou hadst far better give me at least one-third of what i shall discover in thy dwelling. the other two-thirds can be for thyself and thy friend, if thou art fool enough not to wish to keep all for thyself." "ah, it may suit such a man as thou to call him who prefers friendship to money a fool! but in spite of all thy arguments i shall never change, and i shall love mohammed better than all the money in the world." "as you please. it remains to be seen if mohammed would do the same for you." "i have not the slightest doubt of it," replied yousouf. the jew uttered a suppressed laugh. "and i have every doubt of it," said he. "i doubt even _thy_ future disinterestedness, notwithstanding the warmth of thy discourse. yousouf! yousouf! thou hast not yet beheld the dazzling brilliancy of gold! it is the lustre of this metal which charms the eyes and wins the heart of man. once let him see gold before him, and know that he has the power to possess himself of it, and adieu to every other thought. gold! why it is the thing to be most desired in the world. possessed of gold, what can we not enjoy? a fine house, smiling pasturage, blooming gardens, rich stuffs, divans, perfumes, all, in short, that renders life desirable!" "that is very true," replied yousouf. "we can procure many things with gold; but still gold cannot purchase youth, gaiety, friendship, or even a good appetite or sound sleep. leave me then in peace with thy discoveries, and if thou art so skilled in the art of scenting gold, learn also to scan the disposition of him to whom thou addressest thyself." "then thou wilt not consent to give me the third of what i know to be here, hidden though it may be?" "decidedly not," replied yousouf. "i have no faith in thy ridiculous pretensions; moreover, i do not know thee, and have never seen thee either in the public walks, the streets, or elsewhere." "i have just returned from a long journey," replied the old man; "my name is ephraim. when i quitted this city, thou wert but sixteen years of age; my friend nathan cohen, son of david, was then very old: he has been dead, they say, these two years." "and so thou comest to exercise thy sense of smelling in thy accustomed haunt," said yousouf gaily; "and seest thou not then that there is some power in friendship, since it is the memory of a friend that brings thee hither?" "ah! it is not the memory of the past, but hope for the future," replied the old jew. "so long as our friends are alive they may be useful, though that is a thing that very rarely happens; but when they are dead, what is the use of thinking any more of them?" yousouf, wearied out with so much discussion, said at length to ephraim: "come, come, enough of this! leave this place; thy voice will, i am sure, awaken my friend, and prevent him from sleeping, as he delights to do during the heat of the day." "do not let us awaken him," replied the jew, "but let us remove the ground there beneath thy feet. i will hope that a feeling of gratitude may induce thee to bestow upon me a portion of what i shall discover for thee." so saying, the jew drew a long iron pickaxe from beneath his dirty brown tunic, and began to break up the ground around the feet of yousouf. the latter regarded the old man--his prodigious nose inflated by the hope of gain--with a smile of derision. but in a short space of time their eyes were dazzled by a sight of the precious metal. the jew had, indeed, succeeded in disinterring a veritable treasure. "let us now count this gold and silver," said he. they took it, and counted it, and found that yousouf had suddenly become the possessor of five hundred spanish doubloons, and sixty four-dollar pieces. he could scarcely believe his eyes. "well," said the jew, "what sayest thou? have i lied to thee, or deceived myself? come, let us see now what thou art going to give me in reward for my pains." "i will awaken mohammed," said yousouf, "and he and i will certainly give thee something as a recompense." "yousouf!" said the jew, arresting the young moor by the arm, "reflect a moment before awakening thy friend. would it not be better to keep this treasure for thyself and for thy sons? hast thou not children, and are not children much dearer than a friend?" "if i have children," replied yousouf, "mohammed has them also. we loved each other before they were born, and we know how to be good fathers without being faithless friends." at this moment mohammed, who had not awaked, for the very sufficient reason that he had not been asleep, started as if he had been stung by a thousand mosquitoes at once, and rose with a sudden bound. the concluding words of yousouf had awakened a feeling of remorse within his breast. "yousouf! yousouf!" said he to his friend, "i have heard all. yes, every thing, and thy sincere friendship, tried by time and tried by gold, is now the sole treasure i desire." "i know for how long a time thou hast thought thus," replied yousouf. "but since allah has chosen to make us rich, let us not disdain the blessing which he sends. he it was who first inspired us with the wish for these two little shops, and who has bestowed them upon us. it is he who has conducted hither this jew who has been the instrument of our discovering this treasure. let us offer our thanks to allah, and let us give to ephraim that which is meet and right." "be that as thou only wilt," said mohammed with a preoccupied air. "thou art just and righteous, and thy thoughts are pure in the sight of allah." yousouf paid no great heed to this friendly eulogium, but continued gaily: "since thou permittest me to be the sole arbiter in the affair, this is my decision." then, turning towards ephraim: "thou shalt be more or less recompensed," said he, "according to the candour with which thou repliest to my question. come, then, answer me truly, hast thou really, thanks to the singular form of thy nose, so fine a sense of smell as to be able to trace any metal whatever, either under ground or elsewhere?" "yes," said the jew, "i possess this rare faculty, thanks to my nose; and to give thee a farther proof of it, i declare that i can again scent in this spot in the wall a sum of gold and silver, the exact amount of which i cannot enumerate." mohammed turned pale at these words. "in this wall?" said he. "yes. suffer me to make a little hole with this gimlet here, and you will see if i speak falsely." "dig where thou wilt," replied yousouf; "we have no right to prevent thee after the discovery thou hast just made here." the jew instantly set to work at the wall, but it was now his turn to be astonished, for the wall, hollow it is true, was guiltless of gold or silver either. yousouf burst out laughing at the disconcerted and stupified look of the old jew. "never mind," said he, "thy nose has deceived thee for once; but thou must not let that discourage thee. still, hadst thou frankly told me that as a friend of old nathan cohen thou knewest where he had hidden his treasure, in return for thy confidence i should have given thee a quarter of what thou hast found; but since thou hast persisted in assuring me that thy nose is gifted with supernatural powers, i shall give thee much less. besides, with such a nose as thine no one can doubt but thy fortune is made." "ah!" cried the jew, clasping his withered and wrinkled hands, "yousouf! yousouf! since thou art good and just, as mohammed says, take pity on my poverty; it impelled me to deal falsely with thee; i confess it now; and spite of its singular form, my nose has nothing but what is common to other noses. accord then to my tardy sincerity that which thou wouldst at first have given me." yousouf consulted mohammed again, who replied thus: "thou art just and pious; act according to thy own desire." yousouf then counted out to the old jew the fourth part of what he had just found, thus rendering him happy for the remainder of his days. then, finding himself alone with his friend, he began to divide into two equal parts the gold and silver which remained. "give me none! give me none, yousouf!" exclaimed mohammed, "i am no longer deserving of thy friendship." "thou!" said yousouf, "art thou mad? what sayst thou?" "i speak the melancholy truth," cried mohammed; "i have not a noble heart like thine. some time since i discovered in the wall the gold and silver which the jew thought to find there; but instead of saying as thou hast done, 'i will share it with my friend,' i put off from day to day the fulfilment of this sacred duty. ah, yousouf, i am unworthy of thy friendship, and am very unhappy!" yousouf remained silent for a few moments, but soon his brow grew clear, and a pleasing smile diffused itself over his features and illuminated his fine dark eyes. "what man," said he, "is entirely master over his own thoughts? thou didst hesitate, sayst thou, before confiding to me the discovery thou hadst made. that may be, but thou wouldst not have failed to do so at last. thou wouldst never have been able to behold thyself rich, knowing me to be poor, and to sit at a feast whilst i lived upon black bread. thou didst not thoroughly understand the wants and feelings of thy heart: that is all. thou didst not at once perceive wherein lies true happiness, for which reason thou hast caused thyself much uneasiness. it is over now; our friendship has been tried by gold; nothing remains for us but to enjoy the good fortune that has befallen us. let us seek to do so like wise men, and never let us forget to set apart for the poor a portion of that which allah has bestowed upon us." the two friends agreed therefore to give a hundred doubloons to the poor of the great mosque. then with the rest of their treasure they purchased a beautiful country house not far from the sea, on the coast of punta pescada. there they lived happily for many long years, always admired and esteemed for their mutual affection, and for the goodness of their hearts; for, strange to say, their sudden and unexpected change of fortune never served to render them callous to the poor, nor indifferent to the wants and troubles of their fellow-creatures. vii. the story of the treasures of basra. all historians agree that the caliph haroun-al-raschid would have been the most perfect prince of his time, as he was also the most powerful, if he had not so often given way both to anger and to an insupportable vanity. he was always saying that no prince in the world was so generous as himself. giafar, his chief vizir, being at last quite disgusted with his boasting, took the liberty to say to him one day, "oh, my sovereign lord, monarch of the world, pardon your slave if he dares to represent to you that you ought not thus to praise yourself. leave that to your subjects and the crowds of strangers who frequent your court. content yourself with the knowledge that the former thank heaven for being born in your dominions, and that the latter congratulate themselves on having quitted their country to come and live under your laws." haroun was very angry at these words; he looked sternly at his vizir, and asked him if he knew any one who could be compared to himself in generosity. "yes, my lord," answered giafar, "there is in the town of basra a young man named aboulcassem, who, though a private individual, lives in more magnificence than kings, and without excepting even your majesty, no prince is more generous than this man." the caliph reddened at these words, his eyes flashed with anger. "do you know," he said, "that a subject who has the audacity to lie to his master merits death?" "i have said nothing but the truth," replied the vizir. "during my last visit to basra i saw this aboulcassem; i stayed at his house; my eyes, though accustomed to your treasures, were surprised at his riches, and i was charmed with the generosity of his manners." at these words the impetuous haroun could no longer contain his anger. "you are most insolent," he cried, "to place a private individual on an equality with myself! your imprudence shall not remain unpunished." so saying, he made a sign for the captain of his guards to approach, and commanded him to arrest the vizir giafar. he then went to the apartment of the princess zobeide his wife, who grew pale with fear on seeing his irritated countenance. "what is the matter, my lord?" said she; "what causes you to be thus agitated?" haroun told her all that had passed, and complained of his vizir in terms that soon made zobeide comprehend how enraged he was with the minister. this wise princess advised him to suspend his resentment, and send some one to basra to ascertain the truth of giafar's assertion; if it was false, she argued, the vizir should be punished; on the contrary, if it proved true, which she could not believe, it was not just to treat him as a criminal. this discourse calmed the fury of the caliph. "i approve of this counsel, madam," said he, "and will acknowledge that i owe this justice to such a minister as giafar. i will do still more; as any other person i charged with this office might, from an aversion to my vizir, give me a false statement, i will myself go to basra and judge of the truth of this report. i will make acquaintance with this young man, whose generosity is thus extolled; if giafar has told me true, i will load him with benefits instead of punishing him for his frankness; but i swear he shall forfeit his life if i find he has told me a falsehood." as soon as haroun had formed this resolution he thought of nothing but how to execute it. one night he secretly left the palace, mounted his horse, and left the city, not wishing any one to follow him, though zobeide entreated him not to go alone. arriving at basra, he dismounted at the first caravansary he found on entering the city, the landlord of which seemed a good old man. "father," said haroun, "is it true that there is in this city a young man called aboulcassem, who surpasses even kings in magnificence and generosity?" "yes, my lord," answered the landlord; "and if i had a hundred mouths, and in each mouth a hundred tongues, i could not relate to you all his generous actions." as the caliph had now need of some repose, he retired to rest after partaking of a slight refreshment. he was up very early in the morning, and walked about until sunrise. then he approached a tailor's shop and asked for the dwelling of aboulcassem. "from what country do you come?" said the tailor; "most certainly you have never been at basra before, or you would have heard where the lord aboulcassem lives; why, his house is better known than the palace of the king." the caliph answered, "i am a stranger; i know no one in this city, and i shall be obliged if you will conduct me to this lord's house." upon that the tailor ordered one of his boys to show the caliph the way to the residence of aboulcassem. it was a large house built of stone, with a doorway of marble and jasper. the prince entered the court, where there was a crowd of servants and liberated slaves who were amusing themselves in different ways while they awaited the orders of their master. he approached one of them and said, "friend, i wish you would take the trouble to go to the lord aboulcassem and tell him a stranger wishes to see him." the domestic judged from the appearance of haroun that he was no common man. he ran to apprise his master, who coming into the court took the stranger by the hand and conducted him to a very beautiful saloon. the caliph then told the young man, that having heard him mentioned in terms of praise, he had become desirous of seeing him, and had travelled to basra for that purpose. aboulcassem modestly replied to this compliment, and seating his guest on a sofa, asked of what country and profession he was, and where he lodged at basra. "i am a merchant of bagdad," replied the caliph, "and i have taken a lodging at the first caravansary i found on my arrival." after they had conversed for a short time there entered twelve pages bearing vases of agate and rock crystal, enriched with precious stones, and full of the most exquisite beverages. they were followed by twelve very beautiful female slaves, some carrying china bowls filled with fruit and flowers, and others golden caskets containing conserves of an exquisite flavour. the pages presented their beverages to the caliph; the prince tasted them, and though accustomed to the most delicious that could be obtained in the east, he acknowledged that he had never tasted better. as it was now near the hour for dinner, aboulcassem conducted his guest to another room, where they found a table covered with the choicest delicacies served on dishes of massive gold. the repast finished, the young man took the caliph by the hand and led him to a third room more richly furnished than the two others. here the slaves brought a prodigious quantity of gold vases, enriched with rubies, filled with all sorts of rare wines, and china plates containing dried sweetmeats. while the host and his guest were partaking of these delicious wines there entered singers and musicians, who commenced a concert, with which haroun was enchanted. "i have," he said to himself, "the most admirable voices in _my_ palace, but i must confess they cannot bear comparison with these. i do not understand how a private individual can live in such magnificence." amongst the voices there was one in particular the extraordinary sweetness of which attracted the attention of the prince, and whilst he was absorbed in listening to it aboulcassem left the room and returned a moment after holding in one hand a wand, and in the other a little tree whose stem was of silver, the branches and leaves emeralds, and the fruit rubies. on the top of this tree was a golden peacock beautifully executed, the body of which was filled with amber, essence of aloes, and other perfumes. he placed this tree at the caliph's feet; then striking the head of the peacock with his wand, the bird extended its wings and tail, and moved itself quickly to the right and left, whilst at each movement of its body the most odoriferous perfumes filled the apartment. the caliph was so astonished and delighted that he could not take his eyes off the tree and the peacock, and he was just going to express his admiration when aboulcassem suddenly took them away. haroun was offended at this, and said to himself, "what does all this mean? it appears to me this young man does not merit so much praise. he takes away the tree and the peacock when he sees me occupied in looking at them more than he likes. is he afraid i want him to make me a present? i fear giafar is mistaken in calling him a generous man." he was thus thinking when aboulcassem returned accompanied by a little page as beautiful as the sun. this lovely child was dressed in gold brocade covered with pearls and diamonds. he held in his hand a cup made of one single ruby, and filled with wine of a purple colour. he approached the caliph, and prostrating himself to the ground, presented the cup. the prince extended his hand to receive it, but, wonderful to relate, he perceived on giving back the cup to the page, that though he had emptied the cup, it was still quite full. he put it again to his lips and emptied it to the very last drop. he then placed it again in the hands of the page, and at the same moment saw it filling without any one approaching it. the surprise of haroun was extreme at this wonderful circumstance, which made him forget the tree and the peacock. he asked how it was accomplished. "my lord," said aboulcassem, "it is the work of an ancient sage who was acquainted with most of the secrets of nature;" and then, taking the page by the hand, he precipitately left the apartment. the caliph was indignant at this behaviour. "i see how it is," said he, "this young man has lost his senses. he brings me all these curiosities of his own accord, he presents them to my view, and when he perceives my admiration, he instantly removes his treasures. i never experienced treatment so ridiculous or uncourteous. ah, giafar! i thought you a better judge of men." in this manner they continued amusing themselves till sunset. then haroun said to the young man, "oh, generous aboulcassem, i am confused with the reception you have given me; permit me now to retire and leave you to repose." the young lord of basra not wishing to inconvenience his guest, politely saluted him, and conducted him to the door of the house, apologizing for not having received him in a more magnificent style. "i quite acknowledge," said the caliph on returning to his caravansary, "that for magnificence aboulcassem surpasses kings, but for generosity, there my vizir was wrong in placing him in comparison with myself; for what present has he made me during my visit? i was lavish in my praises of the tree, the cup, and the page, and i should have thought my admiration would have induced him to offer me, at least, one of these things. no, this man is ostentatious; he feels a pleasure in displaying his riches to the eyes of strangers. and why? only to satisfy his pride and vanity. in reality he is a miser, and i ought not to pardon giafar for thus deceiving me." whilst making these disagreeable reflections on his minister, he arrived at the caravansary. but what was his astonishment on finding there silken carpets, magnificent tents, a great number of servants, slaves, horses, mules, camels, and besides all these, the tree and the peacock, and the page with his cup? the domestics prostrated themselves before him, and presented a roll of silk paper, on which were written these words, "dear and amiable guest, i have not, perhaps, shown you the respect which is your due; i pray you to forget any appearance of neglect in my manner of receiving you, and do not distress me by refusing the little presents i have sent you. as to the tree, the peacock, the page, and the cup, since they please you, they are yours already, for any thing that delights my guests ceases to be mine from that instant." when the caliph had finished reading this letter, he was astounded at the liberality of aboulcassem, and remembered how wrongly he had judged the young man. "a thousand blessings," cried he, "on my vizir giafar! he has caused me to be undeceived. ah, haroun, never again boast of being the most magnificent and generous of men! one of your subjects surpasses you. but how is a private individual able to make such presents? i ought to have asked where he amassed such riches; i was wrong not to have questioned him on this point: i must not return to bagdad without investigating this affair. besides, it concerns me to know why there is a man in my dominions who leads a more princely life than myself. i must see him again, and try to discover by what means he has acquired such an immense fortune." impatient to satisfy his curiosity, he left his new servants in the caravansary, and returned immediately to the young man's residence. when he found himself in his presence he said, "oh, too amiable aboulcassem, the presents you have made me are so valuable, that i fear i cannot accept them without abusing your generosity. permit me to send them back before i return to bagdad, and publish to the world your magnificence and generous hospitality." "my lord," answered the young man with a mortified air, "you certainly must have had reason to complain of the unhappy aboulcassem; i fear some of his actions have displeased you, since you reject his presents; you would not have done me this injury, if you were satisfied with me." "no," replied the prince, "heaven is my witness that i am enchanted with your politeness; but your presents are too costly; they surpass those of kings, and if i dared tell you what i think, you would be less prodigal with your riches, and remember that they may soon be exhausted." aboulcassem smiled at these words and said to the caliph, "my lord, i am very glad to learn that it is not to punish me for having committed any fault against yourself that you wished to refuse my presents; and now to oblige you to accept them, i will tell you that every day i can make the same and even more magnificent ones without inconveniencing myself. i see," added he, "that this astonishes you, but you will cease to be surprised when i have told you all the adventures which have happened to me. it is necessary that i should thus confide in you." upon this he conducted haroun to a room a thousand times richer and more ornamented than any of the others. the most exquisite essences perfumed this apartment, in which was a throne of gold placed on the richest carpets. haroun could not believe he was in the house of a subject; he imagined he must be in the abode of a prince infinitely more powerful than himself. the young man made him mount the throne, and placing himself by his side, commenced the history of his life. history of aboulcassem. i am the son of a jeweller of cairo, named abdelaziz. he possessed such immense riches, that fearing to draw upon himself the envy or avarice of the sultan of egypt, he quitted his native country and established himself at basra, where he married the only daughter of the richest merchant in that city. i am the only child of that marriage, so that inheriting the estates of both my parents i became possessed on their death of a very splendid fortune. but i was young, i liked extravagance, and having wherewith to exercise my liberal propensities, or rather my prodigality, i lived with so much profusion, that in less than three years my fortune was dissipated. then, like all who repent of their foolish conduct, i made the most promising resolutions for the future. after the life i had led at basra, i thought it better to leave that place, for it seemed to me my misery would be more supportable among strangers. accordingly i sold my house, and left the city before daybreak. when it was light i perceived a caravan of merchants who had encamped on a spot of ground near me. i joined them, and as they were on their road to bagdad, where i also wished to go, i departed with them; i arrived there without accident, but soon found myself in a very miserable situation. i was without money, and of all my large fortune there remained but one gold sequin. in order to do something for a living i changed my sequin into aspres, and purchased some preserved apples, sweetmeats, balms, and roses. with these i went every day to the house of a merchant where many persons of rank and others were accustomed to assemble and converse together. i presented to them in a basket what i had to sell. each took what he liked, and never failed to remunerate me, so that by this little commerce i contrived to live very comfortably. one day as i was as usual selling flowers at the merchant's house, there was seated in a corner of the room an old man, of whom i took no notice, and on perceiving that i did not address him, he called me and said, "my friend, how comes it that you do not offer your merchandise to me as well as the others? do you take me for a dishonest man, or imagine that my purse is empty?" "my lord," answered i, "i pray you pardon me. all that i have is at your service, i ask nothing for it." at the same time i offered him my basket; he took some perfume, and told me to sit down by him. i did so, and he asked me a number of questions, who i was, and what was my name. "excuse me satisfying your curiosity," said i, sighing; "i cannot do so without reopening wounds which time is beginning to heal." these words, or the tone in which i uttered them, prevented the old man from questioning me further. he changed the discourse, and after a long conversation, on rising to depart he took out his purse and gave me ten gold sequins. i was greatly surprised at this liberality. the wealthiest lords to whom i had been accustomed to present my basket had never given me even one sequin, and i could not tell what to make of this man. on the morrow, when i returned to the merchants, i again found my old friend; and for many days he continued to attract my attention. at length, one day, as i was addressing him after he had taken a little balm from my basket, he made me again sit by him, and pressed me so earnestly to relate my history, that i could not refuse him. i informed him of all that had happened to me; after this confidence he said: "young man, i knew your father. i am a merchant of basra; i have no child, and have conceived a friendship for you; i will adopt you as my son, therefore console yourself for your past misfortunes. you have found a father richer by far than abdelaziz, and who will have as much affection for you." i thanked the venerable old man for the honour he did me, and followed him as he left the house. he made me throw away my basket of flowers, and conducted me to a large mansion that he had hired. there i was lodged in a spacious apartment with slaves to wait on me, and by his order they brought me rich clothes. one would have thought my father abdelaziz again lived, and it seemed as if i had never known sorrow. when the merchant had finished the business that detained him at bagdad,--namely, when he had sold the merchandise he brought with him,--we both took the road to basra. my friends, who never thought to see me again, were not a little surprised to hear i had been adopted by a man who passed for the richest merchant in the city. i did my best to please the old man. he was charmed with my behaviour. "aboulcassem," he often said to me, "i am enchanted that i met you at bagdad. you appear worthy of all i have done for you." i was touched with the kindness he evinced for me, and far from abusing it, endeavoured to do all i could to please my kind benefactor. instead of seeking companions of my own age, i always kept in his company, scarcely ever leaving him. at last this good old man fell sick, and the physicians despaired of his life. when he was at the last extremity he made all but myself leave him, and then said, "now is the time, my son, to reveal to you a most important secret. if i had only this house with all its riches to bequeath, i should leave you but a moderate fortune; but all that i have amassed during the course of my life, though considerable for a merchant, is nothing in comparison to the treasure that is concealed here, and which i am now about to reveal to you. i shall not tell you how long ago, by whom, or in what manner it was found, for i am ignorant of that myself; all i know is, that my grandfather, when dying, told the secret to my father, who also made me acquainted with it a few days before his death. but," continued he, "i have one advice to give you, and take care you do not slight it. you are naturally generous. when you are at liberty to follow your own inclinations, you will no doubt be lavish of your riches. you will receive with magnificence any strangers who may come to your house. you will load them with presents, and will do good to all who implore your assistance. this conduct, which i much approve of if you can keep it within bounds, will at last be the cause of your ruin. the splendour of your establishment will excite the envy of the king of basra, and the avarice of his ministers. they will suspect you of having some hidden treasure. they will spare no means to discover it, and will imprison you. to prevent this misfortune, you have only to follow my example. i have always, as well as my grandfather and father, carried on my business and enjoyed this treasure without ostentation; we have never indulged in any extravagance calculated to surprise the world." i faithfully promised the merchant i would imitate his prudence. he told me where i should find the treasure, and assured me that whatever idea i might have formed of its splendour, i should find the reality far exceed my expectations. at last, when the generous old man died, i, as his sole heir, performed for him the last offices, and, taking possession of his property, of which this house is a part, proceeded at once to see this treasure. i confess to you, my lord, that i was thunderstruck. i found it to be, if not inexhaustible, at least so vast that i could never expend it, even if heaven were to permit me to live beyond the age of man. my resolution therefore was at once formed, and instead of keeping the promise i made to the old merchant, i spend my riches freely. it is my boast that there is no one in basra who has not benefited by my generosity. my house is open to all who desire my aid, and they leave it perfectly contented. do you call it _possessing_ a treasure if it must not be touched? and can i make a better use of it than by endeavouring to relieve the unhappy, to receive strangers with liberality, and to lead a life of generosity and charity? every one thought i should be ruined a second time. "if aboulcassem," said they, "had all the treasures of the commander of the faithful, he would spend them." but they were much astonished, when, instead of seeing my affairs in disorder, they, on the contrary, appeared every day to become more flourishing. no one could imagine how my fortune increased, while i was thus squandering it. as the old man predicted, a feeling of envy was excited against me. a rumour prevailed that i had found a treasure. this was sufficient to attract the attention of a number of persons greedy of gain. the lieutenant of police at basra came to see me. "i am," said he, "the daroga, and am come to demand where the treasure is which enables you to live in such magnificence." i trembled at these words, and remained silent. he guessed from my confused air that his suspicions were not without foundation; but instead of compelling me to discover my treasure, "my lord aboulcassem," continued he, "i exercise my office as a man of sense. make me some present worthy of my discretion in this affair, and i will retire." "how much do you ask?" said i. "i will content myself with ten gold sequins a day." "that is not enough--i will give you a hundred. you have only to come here every day or every month, and my treasurer will count them out to you." the lieutenant of police was transported with joy at hearing these words. "my lord," said he, "i wish that you could find a thousand treasures. enjoy your fortune in peace; i shall never dispute your possession of it." then taking a large sum of money in advance he went his way. a short time after the vizir aboulfatah-waschi sent for me, and, taking me into his cabinet, said: "young man, i hear you have discovered a treasure. you know the fifth part belongs to god; you must give it to the king. pay the fifth, and you shall remain the quiet possessor of the other four parts." i answered him thus: "my lord, i acknowledge that i _have_ found a treasure, but i swear to you at the same time that i will confess nothing, though i should be torn in pieces. but i promise to give you every day a thousand gold sequins, provided you leave me in peace." aboulfatah was as tractable as the lieutenant of police. he sent his confidential servant, and my treasurer gave him thirty thousand sequins for the first month. this vizir, fearing no doubt that the king of basra would hear of what had passed, thought it better to inform him himself of the circumstance. the prince listened very attentively, and thinking the affair required investigating, sent to summon me. he received me with a smiling countenance, saying: "approach, young man, and answer me what i shall ask you. why do you not show me your treasure? do you think me so unjust, that i shall take it from you?" "sire," replied i, "may the life of your majesty be prolonged for ages; but if you commanded my flesh to be torn with burning pincers i would not discover my treasure; i consent every day to pay to your majesty two thousand gold sequins. if you refuse to accept them, and think proper that i should die, you have only to order it; but i am ready to suffer all imaginable torments, sooner than satisfy your curiosity." the king looked at his vizir as i said this, and demanded his opinion. "sire," said the minister, "the sum he offers you is considerable--it is of itself a real treasure. send the young man back, only let him be careful to keep his word with your majesty." the king followed this advice; he loaded me with caresses, and from that time, according to my agreement, i pay every year to the prince, the vizir, and the lieutenant of police, more than one million sixty thousand gold sequins. this, my lord, is all i have to tell you. you will now no longer be surprised at the presents i have made you, nor at what you have seen in my house. conclusion of the story of the treasures of basra. when aboulcassem had finished the recital of his adventures, the caliph, animated with a violent desire to see the treasure, said to him, "is it possible that there is in the world a treasure that your generosity can never exhaust? no! i cannot believe it, and if it was not exacting too much from you, my lord, i would ask to see what you possess, and i swear never to reveal what you may confide to me." the son of abdelaziz appeared grieved at this speech of the caliph's. "i am sorry, my lord," he said, "that you have conceived this curiosity; i cannot satisfy it but upon very disagreeable conditions." "never mind," said the prince, "whatever the conditions, i submit without repugnance." "it is necessary," said aboulcassem, "that i blindfold your eyes, and conduct you unarmed and bareheaded, with my drawn scimitar in my hand, ready to cut you to pieces at any moment, if you violate the laws of hospitality. i know very well i am acting imprudently, and ought not to yield to your wishes; but i rely on your promised secrecy, and besides that, i cannot bear to send away a guest dissatisfied." "in pity then satisfy my curiosity," said the caliph. "that cannot be just yet," replied the young man, "but remain here this night, and when my domestics are gone to rest i will come and conduct you from your apartment." he then called his people, and by the light of a number of wax tapers, carried by slaves in gold flambeaux, he led the prince to a magnificent chamber, and then retired to his own. the slaves disrobed the caliph, and left him to repose, after placing at the head and foot of his bed their lighted tapers, whose perfumed wax emitted an agreeable odour. instead of taking any rest, haroun-al-raschid impatiently awaited the appearance of aboulcassem, who did not fail to come for him towards the middle of the night. "my lord," he said, "all my servants are asleep. a profound silence reigns in my house. i will now show you my treasure upon the conditions i named to you." "let us go then," said the caliph. "i am ready to follow you, and i again swear that you will not repent thus satisfying my curiosity." the son of abdelaziz aided the prince to dress; then putting a bandage over his eyes, he said, "i am sorry, my lord, to be obliged to treat you thus; your appearance and your manners seem worthy of confidence, but--" "i approve of these precautions," interrupted the caliph, "and i do not take them in ill part." aboulcassem then made him descend by a winding staircase into a garden of vast extent, and after many turnings they entered the place where the treasure was concealed. it was a deep and spacious cavern closed at the entrance by a stone. passing through this they entered a long alley, very dark and steep, at the end of which was a large saloon, brilliantly lighted by carbuncles. when they arrived at this room the young man unbound the caliph's eyes, and the latter gazed with astonishment on the scene before him. a basin of white marble, fifty feet in circumference and thirty feet deep, stood in the middle of the apartment. it was full of large pieces of gold, and ranged round it were twelve columns of the same metal, supporting as many statues composed of precious stones of admirable workmanship. aboulcassem conducted the prince to the edge of the basin and said to him, "this basin is thirty feet deep. look at that mass of gold pieces. they are scarcely diminished the depth of two fingers. do you think i shall soon spend all this?" haroun, after attentively looking at the basin, replied: "here are, i confess, immense riches, but you still may exhaust them." "well," said the young man, "when this basin is empty i shall have recourse to what i am now going to show you." he then proceeded to another room, more brilliant still, where on a number of red brocaded sofas were immense quantities of pearls and diamonds. here was also another marble basin, not so large or so deep as that filled with gold pieces, but to make up for this, full of rubies, topazes, emeralds, and all sorts of precious stones. never was surprise equal to that of the caliph's. he could scarcely believe he was awake, this new basin seemed like enchantment. his gaze was still fixed on it, when aboulcassem made him observe two persons seated on a throne of gold, who he said were the first masters of the treasure. they were a prince and princess, having on their heads crowns of diamonds. they appeared as if still alive, and were in a reclining posture, their heads leaning against each other. at their feet was a table of ebony, on which were written these words in letters of gold: "i have amassed all these riches during the course of a long life. i have taken and pillaged towns and castles, have conquered kingdoms and overthrown my enemies. i have been the most powerful monarch in the world, but all my power has yielded to that of death. whoever sees me in this state ought to reflect upon it. let him remember that once i was living, and that he also must die. he need not fear diminishing this treasure: it will never be exhausted. let him endeavour so to use it as to make friends both for this world and the next. let him lead a life of generosity and charity, for in the end he must also die. his riches cannot save him from the fate common to all men." "i will no longer disapprove of your conduct," said haroun to the young man on reading these words; "you are right in living as you now do, and i condemn the advice given you by the old merchant. but i should like to know the name of this prince. what king could have possessed such riches? i am sorry this inscription does not inform us." the young man next took the caliph to see another room in which also there were many rarities of even greater value than what he had seen, amongst others several trees like the one he had given the prince. haroun would willingly have passed the remainder of the night admiring all that was contained in this wonderful cavern, but the son of abdelaziz, fearing to be observed by his servants, wished to return before daybreak in the same manner as they came, namely, the caliph blindfolded and bareheaded, and aboulcassem with his scimitar in his hand, ready to cut off the prince's head if he made the least resistance. in this order they traversed the garden, and ascended by the winding stairs to the room where the caliph had slept. finding the tapers still burning, they conversed together till sunrise; the caliph then, with many thanks for the reception he had received, returned to the caravansary, from whence he took the road to bagdad, with all the domestics and presents he had accepted from aboulcassem. two days after the prince's departure, the vizir aboulfatah, hearing of the magnificent gifts that aboulcassem made to strangers when they came to see him, and above all astonished at the regularity of his payments to the king, the lieutenant, and himself, resolved to spare no means to discover the treasure from which he drew such inexhaustible supplies. this minister was one of those wicked men to whom the greatest crimes are nothing, when they wish to gain their own ends. he had a daughter eighteen years of age, and of surpassing beauty. she was named balkis, and possessed every good quality of heart and mind. prince aly, nephew of the king of basra, passionately loved her; he had already demanded her of her father, and they were soon to be married. aboulfatah summoned balkis one day to his presence and said: "my daughter, i have great need of your assistance. i wish you to array yourself in your richest robes, and go this evening to the house of the young aboulcassem. you must do every thing to charm him, and oblige him to discover the treasure he has found." balkis trembled at this speech; her countenance expressed the horror she felt at this command. "my lord," said she, "what is it you propose to your daughter? do you know the peril to which you may expose her? consider the stain on your honour, and the outrage against the prince aly." "i have considered all this," answered the vizir, "but nothing will turn me from my resolution, and i order you to prepare to obey me." the young balkis burst into tears at these words. "for heaven's sake, my father," said the weeping girl, "stifle this feeling of avarice, seek not to despoil this man of what is his own. leave him to enjoy his riches in peace." "be silent, insolent girl!" said the vizir angrily, "it does not become you to blame my actions. answer me not. i desire you to repair to the house of aboulcassem, and i swear that if you return without having seen his treasure, i will kill you." balkis, hearing this dreadful alternative, retired to her apartment overwhelmed with grief; she called her women, and made them attire her in the richest apparel and most costly ornaments, though in reality she needed nothing to enhance her natural beauty. no young girl was less desirous to please than balkis. all she feared was appearing too beautiful in the eyes of the son of abdelaziz, and not sufficiently so to prince aly. at length, when night arrived and aboulfatah judged it time for his daughter to go, he secretly conducted her to the door of the young man's house, where he left her, after again declaring he would kill her if she returned unsuccessful. she timidly knocked and desired to speak to the son of abdelaziz. a slave led her to a room where his master was reposing on a sofa, musing on the vicissitudes of his past life. as soon as balkis appeared aboulcassem rose to receive his visitor; he gravely saluted her, and, taking her hand with a respectful air, seated her on a sofa, at the same time inquiring why she honoured him by this visit. she answered, that hearing of his agreeable manners, she had resolved to spend an evening in his company. "beautiful lady," said he, "i must thank my lucky star for procuring me this delightful interview; i cannot express my happiness." after some conversation supper was announced. they seated themselves at a table covered with choice delicacies. a great number of officers and pages were in attendance, but aboulcassem dismissed them that the lady might not be exposed to their curious looks. he waited on her himself, presenting her with the best of every thing, and offering her wine in a gold cup enriched with diamonds and rubies. but all these polite attentions served but to increase the lady's uneasiness; and at length, frightened at the dangers which menaced her, she suddenly changed countenance and became pale as death, whilst her eyes filled with tears. "what is it, madam?" said the young man much surprised; "why this sudden grief? have i said or done any thing to cause your tears to flow? speak, i implore you; inform me of the cause of your sorrow." "oh, mahomet!" exclaimed balkis, "i can dissimulate no longer; the part i am acting is insupportable. i have deceived you, aboulcassem; i am a lady of rank. my father, who knows you have a hidden treasure, wishes me to discover where you have concealed it. he has ordered me to come here and spare no means to induce you to show it me. i refused to do so, but he has sworn to kill me if i return without being able to satisfy his curiosity. what an unhappy fate is mine! if i was not beloved by a prince who will soon marry me, this cruel vow of my father's would not appear so terrible." when the daughter of aboulfatah had thus spoken, aboulcassem said to her, "madam, i am very glad you have informed me of this. you will not repent your noble frankness; you shall see my treasure, and be treated with all the respect you may desire. do not weep, therefore, or any longer afflict yourself." "ah, my lord," exclaimed balkis at this speech, "it is not without reason that you pass for the most generous of men. i am charmed with your noble conduct, and shall not be satisfied until i have found means to testify my gratitude." after this conversation aboulcassem conducted the lady to the same chamber that the caliph had occupied, where they remained until all was quiet in the dwelling. then blindfolding the eyes of balkis he said, "pardon me, madam, for being obliged to act thus, but it is only on this condition that i can show you my treasure." "do what you please, my lord," answered balkis; "i have so much confidence in your generosity that i will follow wherever you desire; i have no fear but that of not sufficiently repaying your kindness." aboulcassem then took her by the hand, and causing her to descend to the garden by the winding stairs, he entered the cavern and removed the bandage from her eyes. if the caliph had been surprised to see such heaps of gold and precious stones, balkis was still more so. every thing she saw astonished her. but the objects that most attracted her attention were the ancient owners of the treasure. as the queen had on a necklace composed of pearls as large as pigeons' eggs, balkis could not avoid expressing her admiration. aboulcassem detached it from the neck of the princess, and placed it round that of the young lady, saying her father would judge from this that she had seen the treasure; he then, after much persuasion, made her take a large quantity of precious stones which he himself chose for her. the young man then, fearing the day would dawn whilst she was looking at the wonders of the cavern, again placed the bandage over her eyes, and conducted her to a saloon where they conversed together until sunrise. balkis then took leave, repeatedly assuring the son of abdelaziz that she would never forget his generous conduct. she hastened to her father's and informed him of all that had passed. the vizir had been impatiently awaiting his daughter's return. fearing she might not be sufficiently able to charm aboulcassem, he remained in a state of inconceivable agitation. but when he saw her enter with the necklace and precious stones that aboulcassem had given her, he was transported with joy. "well, my daughter," he said, "have you seen the treasure?" "yes, my lord," answered balkis, "and to give you a just idea of its magnitude, i tell you that if all the kings of the world were to unite their riches, they could not be compared to those of aboulcassem. but still, however vast this young man's treasures, i am less charmed with them than with his politeness and generosity." and she then related to her father the whole of her adventure. in the mean time haroun-al-raschid was advancing towards bagdad. as soon as he arrived at his palace he set his chief vizir at liberty, and restored him to his confidence. he then proceeded to relate to him the events of his journey, and ended by asking, "giafar, what shall i do? you know the gratitude of monarchs ought to surpass the pleasures they have received. if i should send the magnificent aboulcassem the choicest and most precious treasure i possess, it will be but a slight gift, far inferior to the presents he has made me. how then can i surpass him in generosity?" "my lord," replied the vizir, "since your majesty condescends to consult me, i should write this day to the king of basra and order him to commit the government of the state to the young aboulcassem. we can soon despatch the courier, and in a few days i will depart myself to basra and present the patents to the new king." the caliph approved of this advice. "you are right," he said to his minister, "it will be the only means of acquitting myself towards aboulcassem, and of taking vengeance on the king of basra and his unworthy vizir, who have concealed from me the considerable sums they have extorted from this young man. it is but just to punish them for their violence against him; they are unworthy of the situations they occupy." he immediately wrote to the king of basra and despatched the courier. he then went to the apartment of the princess zobeide to inform her of the success of his journey, and presented her with the little page, the tree, and the peacock. he also gave her a beautiful female slave. zobeide found this slave so charming that she smilingly told the caliph she accepted this gift with more pleasure than all his other presents. the prince kept only the cup for himself; the vizir giafar had all the rest; and this good minister, as he had before resolved, made preparations for his departure from bagdad. the courier of the caliph no sooner arrived in the town of basra than he hastened to present his despatch to the king, who was greatly concerned on reading it. the prince showed it to his vizir. "aboulfatah," said he, "see the fatal order that i have received from the commander of the faithful. can i refuse to obey it?" "yes, my lord," answered the minister; "do not afflict yourself. aboulcassem must be removed from hence. without taking his life i will make every one believe he is dead. i can keep him so well concealed that he shall never be seen again; and by this means you will always remain on the throne and possess the riches of this young man; for when we are masters of his person we can increase his sufferings until he is obliged to reveal where his treasure is concealed." "do what you like," replied the king; "but what answer shall we send the caliph?" "leave that to me. the commander of the faithful will be deceived as well as others. let me execute the design i meditate, and the rest need cause you no uneasiness." aboulfatah then, accompanied by some courtiers who were ignorant of his intention, went to pay a visit to aboulcassem. he received them according to their rank, regaled them magnificently, seated the vizir in the place of honour, and loaded him with presents without having the least suspicion of his perfidy. whilst they were at table and partaking of the most delicious wines, the treacherous aboulfatah skilfully threw unperceived into the cup of the son of abdelaziz a powder which would render him insensible, and cause his body to remain in a state of lethargy resembling that of a corpse long deprived of life. the young man had no sooner taken the cup from his lips than he fainted away. his servants hastened to support him, but soon perceiving he had all the appearance of a dead man, they placed him on a sofa and uttered the most lamentable cries. the guests, struck with sudden terror, were silent from astonishment. as for aboulfatah, it is impossible to say how well he dissimulated. he not only feigned the most immoderate grief, but tore his clothes and excited the rest of the company to follow his example. he ordered a coffin to be made of ivory and ebony, and while they were preparing it, he collected all the effects of aboulcassem and placed them in the king's palace. the account of the young man's death soon spread abroad. all persons, men and women, put on mourning, and came to the door of the house, their heads and feet bare; old and young men, women and girls, were bathed in tears, filling the air with their cries and lamentations. some said they had lost in him an only son, others a brother or a husband tenderly beloved. rich and poor were equally afflicted at his death; the rich mourned a friend who had always welcomed them, and the poor a benefactor whose charity had never been equalled. his death caused a general consternation. meanwhile the unhappy aboulcassem was enclosed in the coffin, and a procession having been formed, the people, by order of aboulfatah, carried him out of the town to a large cemetery containing a number of tombs, and amongst others a magnificent one where reposed the vizir's father and many others of his family. they placed the coffin in this tomb, and the perfidious aboulfatah, leaning his head on his knees, beat his breast, and gave way apparently to the most violent grief. those present pitied and prayed heaven to console him. as night approached the people returned to the town, but the vizir remained with two of his slaves in the tomb, the door of which he shut and double locked. they lit a fire, warmed some water in a silver basin, and taking aboulcassem from the coffin, bathed him with the warm water. the young man by degrees regained his senses. he cast his eyes on aboulfatah, whom he at once recognized. "ah, my lord," said he, "where are we, and to what state am i reduced?" "wretch!" answered the minister, "know that it is i who have caused your misfortune. i brought you here to have you in my power, and to make you suffer a thousand torments if you will not discover to me your treasure. i will rack your body with tortures--will invent each day new sufferings to render life insupportable: in a word, i will never cease to persecute you until you deliver me those hidden treasures which enable you to live with even more magnificence than kings." "you can do what you please," replied aboulcassem; "i will never reveal my treasure." he had scarcely uttered these words, when the cruel aboulfatah, making his slaves seize the unfortunate son of abdelaziz, drew from his robe a whip made of twisted lion's skin, with which he struck so long and with such violence that the young man fainted. when the vizir saw him in this state, he commanded the slaves to replace him in the coffin, and leaving him in the tomb, which he firmly secured, returned to his palace. on the morrow he went to inform the king of what he had done. "sire," said he, "i tried yesterday, but in vain, to overcome the firmness of aboulcassem; however, i have now prepared torments for him which i think he cannot resist." the prince, who was quite as barbarous as his minister, said, "vizir, i am perfectly satisfied with all you have done. ere long, i hope, we shall know where this treasure is concealed. but we must send back the courier without delay. what shall i write to the caliph?" "tell him, my lord, that aboulcassem, hearing he was to occupy your place, was so enchanted, and made such great rejoicings, that he died suddenly at a feast." the king approved of this advice, and writing immediately to haroun-al-raschid, despatched the courier. the vizir, flattering himself that he should at length be able to force aboulcassem to reveal his treasure, left the town, resolving to extract the secret or leave him to perish. but on arriving at the tomb, he was surprised to find the door open. he entered trembling, and not seeing the son of abdelaziz in the coffin, he nearly lost his senses. returning instantly to the palace, he related to the king what had occurred. the monarch, seized with a mortal terror, exclaimed, "oh, waschi! what will become of us? since this young man has escaped, we are lost. he will not fail to hasten to bagdad, and acquaint the caliph with all that has taken place." aboulfatah, on his part, in despair that the victim of his avarice was no longer in his power, said to the king his master, "what would i now give to have taken his life yesterday! he would not then have caused us such uneasiness. but we will not quite despair yet; if he has taken flight, as no doubt he has, he cannot be very far from here. let me take some soldiers of your guard, and search in all the environs of the town; i hope still to find him." the king instantly consented to so important a step. he assembled all his soldiers, and dividing them into two bodies, gave the command of one to his vizir, and placing himself at the head of the other, prepared with his troops to search in all parts of his kingdom. whilst they were seeking aboulcassem in the villages, woods, and mountains, the vizir giafar, who was already on the road to basra, met the courier returning, who said to him, "my lord, it is useless for you to proceed further, if aboulcassem is the sole cause of your journey, for this young man is dead; his funeral took place some days past; my eyes were witnesses of the mournful ceremony." giafar, who had looked forward with pleasure to see the new king, and present his patents, was much afflicted at his death. he shed tears on hearing the sad news, and, thinking it was useless to continue his journey, retraced his steps. as soon as he arrived at bagdad, he went with the courier to the palace. the sadness of his countenance informed the king he had some misfortune to announce. "ah, giafar!" exclaimed the prince, "you have soon returned. what are you come to tell me?' "commander of the faithful," answered the vizir, "you do not, i am sure, expect to hear the bad news i am going to tell. aboulcassem is no more; since your departure from basra the young man has lost his life." haroun-al-raschid had no sooner heard these words than he threw himself from his throne. he remained some moments extended on the ground without giving any signs of life. at length his eyes sought the courier, who had returned from basra, and he asked for the despatch. the prince read it with much attention. he shut himself in his cabinet with giafar, and showed him the letter from the king of basra. after re-reading it many times, the caliph said, "this does not appear to me natural; i begin to suspect that the king of basra and his vizir, instead of executing my orders, have put aboulcassem to death." "my lord," said giafar, "the same suspicion occurred to me, and i advise that they should both be secured." "that is what i determine from this moment," said haroun; "take ten thousand horsemen of my guard, march to basra, seize the two guilty wretches, and bring them here. i will revenge the death of this most generous of men." "we will now return to the son of abdelaziz, and relate why the vizir aboulfatah did not find him in the tomb. the young man, after long remaining insensible, was beginning to recover, when he felt himself laid hold of by powerful arms, taken from the coffin, and gently laid on the earth. he thought it was the vizir and his slaves come again on their cruel errand. "executioners!" he cried, "put me to death at once; if you have any pity spare me these useless torments, for again i declare that nothing you can do will ever tempt me to reveal my secret." "fear not, young man," answered one of the persons who had lifted him from the coffin; "instead of ill-treating you, we are come to your assistance." at these words aboulcassem opened his eyes, and, looking at his liberators, recognized the young lady to whom he had shown his treasure. "ah, madam!" he said, "is it to you i owe my life?" "yes, my lord," answered balkis; "to myself and prince aly, my betrothed, whom you see with me. informed of your noble behaviour, he wished to share with me the pleasure of delivering you from death." "it is quite true," said prince aly; "i would expose my life a thousand times, rather than leave so generous a man to perish." the son of abdelaziz, having entirely recovered his senses by the help of some cordials they had given him, expressed to the lady and the prince his grateful thanks for the service they had rendered him, and asked how they had been informed he still lived. "my lord," said balkis, "i am the daughter of the vizir aboulfatah. i was not deceived by the false report of your death. i suspected my father in this affair, and, bribing one of his slaves, was informed of all concerning you. this slave is one of the two who were with him in the tomb, and as he had charge of the key he confided it to me for a few hours. i no sooner made this affair known to prince aly than he hastened to join me with some of his confidential domestics. we lost not a moment in coming hither, and, thanks be to heaven, we did not arrive too late." "oh, mahomet!" said aboulcassem, "is it possible so unworthy and cruel a father possesses such a daughter?" "let us depart, my lord," said prince aly; "the time is precious. i doubt not but that to-morrow the vizir, finding you have escaped, will seek you in all directions. i am going to conduct you to my house, where you will be in perfect safety, for no one will suspect me of giving you an asylum." they then covered aboulcassem with a slave's robe, and all left the tomb. balkis proceeded to her father's, and returned the key to the slave, whilst prince aly took the son of abdelaziz to his own palace, and kept him so well concealed, that it was impossible his enemies could discover him. aboulcassem remained some time in prince aly's house, who treated him most kindly, until the king and his vizir, despairing of finding him, gave up their search. the prince then gave him a very beautiful horse, loaded him with sequins and precious stones, and said to him: "you can now safely depart; the roads are open, and your enemies know not what is become of you. hasten to seek a place where you will be secure from harm." the young man thanked this generous prince for his hospitality, and assured him he should ever gratefully remember it. prince aly embraced him, and prayed heaven to protect and watch over him on his journey. aboulcassem then took the road to bagdad, and arrived there in safety a few days afterwards. the first thing he did on entering the city was to hasten to the place where the merchants usually assembled. the hope of seeing there some one he had known at basra, and of relating his misfortunes, was his only consolation. he was vexed at being unable to find this place, and traversing the town, sought in vain for the face of a friend amongst the multitudes he met. feeling fatigued, he stopped before the caliph's palace to rest a little: the page whom he had given to his former guest was then at a window, and the child looking by chance that way, instantly recognized him. he ran to the caliph's apartment. "my lord," he exclaimed, "i have just seen my old master from basra!" haroun put no faith in this report. "you are mistaken," he said; "aboulcassem no longer lives. deceived by some fancied resemblance, you have taken another for him." "no, no, commander of the faithful; i assure you it is he: i am certain i am not mistaken." though the caliph did not believe this assertion, still he wished to fathom the mystery, and sent one of his officers with the page to see the man the boy declared was the son of abdelaziz. they found him in the same place, for, imagining he had recognized his little page, he waited till the child reappeared at the window. when the boy was convinced he was not deceived, he threw himself at the feet of aboulcassem, who raised him, and asked if he had the honour of belonging to the caliph. "yes, my lord," said the child; "it was to the commander of the faithful himself--he it was whom you entertained at basra--it was to him that you gave me. come with me, my lord; the caliph will be delighted to see you." the surprise of the young man at this speech was extreme. he allowed himself to be conducted into the palace by the page and the officer, and was soon ushered into the apartment of haroun. the prince was seated on a sofa. he was extremely affected at the sight of aboulcassem. he hastened towards the young man, and held him long embraced without uttering a word, so much was he transported with joy. when he recovered a little from his emotion he said to the son of abdelaziz: "young man, open your eyes, and recognize your happy guest. it was i whom you received so hospitably, and to whom you gave presents that kings could not equal." at these words aboulcassem, who was not less moved than the caliph, and who from respect had drawn his cloak over his head, and had not yet dared to look up, now uncovered his face, and said: "oh, my sovereign master! oh, king of the world, was it you who honoured your slave's house?" and he threw himself at the feet of haroun, and kissed the floor before him. "how is it," said the prince, raising him, and placing him on a sofa, "that you are still alive? tell me all that has happened to you." [illustration: aboulcassem and the page, p. .] aboulcassem then related the cruelties of aboulfatah, and how he had been preserved from the fury of that vizir. haroun listened attentively, and then said: "aboulcassem, i am the cause of your misfortunes. on my return to bagdad, wishing to repay my debt to you, i sent a courier to the king of basra, desiring him to resign his crown to you. instead of executing my orders, he resolved to take your life. aboulfatah, by putting you to the most frightful tortures, hoped to induce you to reveal your treasures; that was the sole reason he delayed your death. but you would have been revenged. giafar, with a large body of my troops, is gone to basra. i have given him orders to seize your two persecutors, and to bring them here. in the mean time you shall remain in my palace, and be attended by my officers with as much respect as myself." after this speech he took the young man by the hand, and made him descend to a garden, filled with the choicest flowers. there he saw basins of marble, porphyry, and jasper, which served for reservoirs to multitudes of beautiful fish. in the midst of the garden, supported upon twelve lofty pillars of black marble, was a dome, the roof of sandal wood and aloes. the spaces between the columns were closed by a double trellis-work of gold, which formed an aviary containing thousands of canaries of different colours, nightingales, linnets, and other harmonious birds, who mingling their notes formed the most charming concert. the baths of haroun-al-raschid were under this dome. the prince and his guest took a bath, after which the attendants rubbed them with the finest towels, which had never before been used. they then clothed aboulcassem in rich apparel. the caliph conducted him to a chamber where refreshments awaited them, such as roasted fowls and lamb, white soups, pomegranates from amlas and ziri, pears from exhali, grapes from melah and sevise, and apples from ispahan. after they had partaken of these delicacies, and drunk some delicious wine, the caliph conducted aboulcassem to zobeide's apartment. this princess was seated on a throne of gold, surrounded by her slaves, who were ranged standing on each side of her; some had tambourines, others flutes and harps. at that moment their instruments were mute, all being attentively engaged in listening to a young girl whose charming voice rang through the saloon like the warblings of a nightingale. as soon as zobeide perceived the caliph and the son of abdelaziz, she descended from her throne to receive them. "madam," said haroun, "allow me to present to you my host of basra." the young man prostrated himself before the princess. at this moment the vizir giafar was heard returning with the troops, and bringing with him aboulfatah securely bound. as for the king of basra, he was left behind dying of grief and fright at not finding aboulcassem. giafar had no sooner rendered an account of his mission, than the caliph ordered a scaffold to be erected before the palace, to which the wicked aboulfatah was conducted. the people knowing the cruelty of this vizir, instead of being touched with his misfortune, testified the utmost impatience to witness his execution. the executioner was already prepared, sabre in hand, to strike off the guilty man's head, when the son of abdelaziz prostrating himself before the caliph, exclaimed, "oh, commander of the faithful, yield to my prayers the life of aboulfatah! let him live to witness my happiness, to behold all the favours you are conferring upon me, and he will be sufficiently punished." "oh, too generous aboulcassem," replied the caliph, "you, indeed, deserve a crown! happy the people of basra to have you for their king." "my lord, i have one more favour to ask. give to the prince aly the throne you destined for myself. let him reign, together with the lady who had the generosity to avert from me the fury of her father; these two lovers are worthy this honour. as to myself, cherished and protected by the commander of the faithful, i have no need of a crown; i shall be superior to kings." the caliph assented to this proposal, and to recompense prince aly for the service he had rendered the son of abdelaziz, sent him the patents, and made him king of basra; but finding aboulfatah too guilty to accord him liberty as well as life, he ordered the vizir to be shut up in a dark tower for the remainder of his days. when the people of bagdad were informed that it was aboulcassem himself who had begged the life of his persecutor, they showered a thousand praises on the generous young man, who soon after departed for basra, escorted by a troop of the caliph's guards, and a great number of his officers. viii. the old camel. eggadi-ben-yousouf, a merchant at miliana, was a mere lover of gain; he never gave away any thing in alms; his heart was dry as the earth in the hottest days of summer, and never open to pity for the unfortunate. to amass, to amass for ever was the sole desire of eggadi. but in what did his riches consist? none could say, for he concealed them with the utmost care. one day one of his camels having died, he bought to replace it the only camel of ali-bénala, a poor dealer in mats. this camel was the sole heritage of which ali came into possession at the death of his father. he sold it for much less than its value;--eggadi, who was an adept at bargaining, depreciating it in every possible way, especially on account of its extreme age. on his next journey eggadi added this camel to his little caravan. as he was passing a solitary place, he was surprised to see the camel betake itself with hasty steps to a spot at some distance behind some rocks, and on its arrival there kneel down and groan, as camels usually do when they expect to be unloaded. a negro, having run after the animal, brought it back to its place in the caravan. eggadi soon took a second journey on the same road, and on this occasion too the camel sold him by ali-bénala again quitted the rank, and was again observed to kneel down and groan at the same place. this time eggadi followed it, and saw with surprise that the spot at which it stopped was one where no merchant of any country had been ever known to unload his merchandise. he reflected deeply on this circumstance, and in the end resolved to revisit the spot alone with the camel, who, faithful perhaps to some recollection, might, he thought, be the means of disclosing to him some mysterious act, or perhaps the place where a treasure lay concealed. eggadi returned, in short, soon after, to this solitary spot. he had brought with him a spade, and proceeded to dig with care around the camel, who had invariably knelt in the same place. he had scarcely laboured ten minutes ere he discovered traces of another spade; this redoubled his zeal, and soon after, to his intense satisfaction, he came upon some bags of money, then a coffer firmly shut, but which contained, he could not doubt, objects of costly value. he first took the bags, which were filled with good and true spanish doubloons; with these he loaded his camel, who thus had gained nothing but a double burden for his pains; then, having re-covered with stones and sand the precious coffer, which he resolved upon examining another time, he returned with his mind greatly preoccupied, asking himself whether it must not have been the old father of ali-bénala to whom all the wealth he had just discovered formerly belonged. this question, which he could not help addressing to his conscience over and over again, prevented him from fully enjoying the possession of his treasure. although he dearly loved money, yet eggadi to obtain possession of it had never yet plundered the widow and the orphan. the first step in the road to evil is not accomplished without difficulty and without remorse; eggadi painfully experienced the truth of this. "and yet," said he to himself, "i made a fair bargain with poor ali for this very camel which has been the means of my finding a treasure." before going to take possession of the coffer left underground behind the rocks, eggadi, impelled by his conscience, approached the miserable shop where ali carried on the sale of his mats, and said to him: "how comes it, ali, that your father, rich as it is said he was, left you no fortune, only an old camel and a house in ruins?" "ah!" replied ali, "my father was good to the poor. not only did he call every poor man his brother, but assisted him to the utmost of his power. at times, however, i have suspected that my father may have had riches concealed in some spot, and that he intended to bestow them upon me before he died. and i will tell you what led me to suppose so. "a few moments before his death he sent for me, and said: 'i have a great secret to confide to thee. come close to me that my voice may reach thy ear alone: but before our conversation, my son, let us pray to allah to grant us on this solemn day that which is best for us.' "we prayed, and in ten minutes my father was no more. allah, no doubt, judged that that which was best for me was poverty. allah be praised." ali bowed his head profoundly, laying his hand upon his breast. eggadi, much disturbed at the virtuous resignation of ali-bénala, rejoined: "but thinkest thou, that if good fortune befel thee, thou wouldst know how to make good use of it?" "allah alone knows," said ali. "should he ever see fit to make me rich, he will know how to fit me for the change. for myself, i cannot succeed in improving the poverty of my estate. i work incessantly, but nothing succeeds with me. my oxen, if i have any, drown themselves in crossing a torrent; my goods either do not sell or are damaged. i am destined to possess upon this earth nothing but this miserable hut, which has been my only home for ten years, but what matters it, provided i fulfil the law of the prophet? i shall see abraham, in heaven. if at times my poverty renders me uneasy, it is only for the sake of my poor children, who live miserably in a house as open to the wind and the rain as though it were without a roof." "well," said eggadi, "it is certainly not just that such an honest man as thou should be in such a wretched state of poverty." "how! not just!" replied ali. "are there not, then, many honest men who are no richer than myself?" "that may be," said eggadi. "nevertheless, since thy father was rich, it seems to be but just that thou shouldst be so too, and i come to propose to thee to enter into partnership with me. i have two good houses outside the town; one shall be for thy family, the other for mine. we will live as brothers, and unite our children as in the time of the patriarchs." ali remained greatly astonished at such a proposition, coming especially from eggadi-ben-yousouf, who had never had any friendship for him, and who so far from evincing any generosity towards him, had bargained with him for his poor camel like the veriest jew in the world. he therefore remained silent, neither accepting nor refusing the offer, but looking with an abstracted air upon the mats in his miserable dwelling. "well," said eggadi, ashamed at the bottom of his heart at making this show of generosity to one whom he was secretly despoiling, "well, thou dost not reply to me?" "grant me time to imitate the example of my father by invoking allah before taking a resolution," said ali. "allah alone can know whether it will be best for me to keep at once my poverty and the freedom of all my actions, or to accept opulence and with it the necessity of being always of thy opinion; for bringing into our partnership nothing but my two stout arms, i should be an ingrate if i did not yield in every thing to thy wishes." eggadi involuntarily cast down his eyes before this poor man who spoke with so much wisdom. "well," said he again, "reflect till to-morrow, and come to me in the morning under the palm trees in front of my house; i will there await thee." then these two men separated. ali, praying in the mosque, thought he heard his father pronounce these words. "never associate thyself save with him who has no more than thyself, and who already knows the right way. the good are spoilt by associating with the rogue and the miser, whilst neither rogue nor miser is reformed by association with one better than himself." the next morning ali repaired to the palm trees which grew before the house of eggadi, where the latter awaited him uneasy and fatigued after a sleepless night. after the usual mussulman salutation, ali-bénala said to the rich eggadi: "how comes it that thou appearest sad, thou who possessest fine houses, coffers of gold, and merchandise, whilst i, i who have nothing, rise with a joyous heart, and smoke my pipe all day with pleasure, seated on the threshold of my poor shop?" "the weight of business overwhelms me," replied eggadi; "i have great need of some one to share it." "then why not diminish thy transactions, and live in peace?" inquired ali. "no, no, it is impossible to set limits to one's purchases and sales. a fortunate speculation balances an unlucky one. you must accept all if you would grow rich. but come, hast thou decided? wilt thou enter into partnership with me?" "i have reflected and prayed," said ali. "i am very grateful for thy offers, and allah will doubtless recompense thee; but prudence forbids me to accept them. i will never enter into partnership but with one who is as poor as myself." "indeed!" exclaimed eggadi-ben-yousouf, "be no longer then surprised at thy poverty, since thou refusest the opportunity of enriching thyself. the traveller who does not stop beneath the first trees he meets runs the risk of not finding another upon his road, and of performing the whole journey without enjoying their refreshing shade. such a man would have no right to complain of the dust of the roads, or the heat of the sun." "i do not complain," replied ali, "i come, on the contrary, to tell thee that i live and sleep in peace." "it is well, it is well," said eggadi, who had not closed his eyes till the morning, "it is well, remain as thou art. instead of gold pieces, be content to receive rain-drops through thy roof, eat bread when thou hast any, and go fasting oftener; it concerns me no more." "i should be a fool," added he internally, "to trouble myself any longer about the poverty of this man." and he remembered his fine house, where gilded cakes, a delicious repast, and rich and rare fruits awaited him. he ate his meal in company with his sons; then he washed his beard and hands, rose from the table, and called his wife, his daughters, his mother, and his grandmother, and said to them, "women, eat in your turn; this is for you." the women respectfully kissed his hands, and proceeded to make their meal, whilst he went and sat down out of doors, and smoked with his sons, to whom he spoke as follows whilst a negro waited upon him with coffee: "i am about to take another journey. during my absence see to such and such things, and do not forget any of my orders, if you would not run the risk of becoming poor, poor--" he was going to say, "as ali, the seller of mats," but this name excited too keenly his remorse; he could not venture to pronounce it. so that in spite of the good repast of which he had just partaken, eggadi felt ill at ease, for the thought was ever recurring to him, "ali is poor, his father was rich, and it is i who have unjustly taken possession of his father's wealth." meanwhile eggadi had this very moderate relief, he might still enjoy the benefit of a doubt as to whether the father of ali was really the possessor of the discovered treasures. however, the coffer left behind the rocks would doubtless throw a light upon this matter. eggadi proceeded at once in search of this coffer; he opened it, and his eyes, dazzled though they were by the precious objects that met their gaze, were constrained to perceive at the same time a sheet of parchment, upon which the following words were very distinctly inscribed: "all the treasures buried in this spot have been lawfully acquired, or received in heritage by me, mustapha selim. i bequeath them to my only son, ali-bénala, who has ever been a faithful servant of allah, and respectful towards me. may he, and his children, and his children's children inherit and enjoy these possessions, to which i add my benediction." as soon as eggadi had read these words a profound sadness took possession of him, for he could no longer doubt that these hidden riches were the inheritance of ali-bénala. if therefore he appropriated them, he was a despoiler of the poor and the orphan. it would have been so delightful to have been able to keep up the illusion, and to say to himself: "this wealth was without an owner; allah has been pleased to bestow it on me!" but if eggadi had never as yet committed any very culpable actions, he had never done any good ones, and did not merit the protection of heaven. he dared not doubt that by keeping unlawful possession of the property of ali he should incur the wrath of heaven; at the same time he could not bring himself to renounce it. he took the coffer, carried it home, meditating by turns on the uses to which he might turn his great fortune, and on what might be done by way of compromising his conscience for poor ali, his children, and his children's children. arrived at his own house, he placed his treasures in a large chest, which he kept thenceforth in the chamber where he passed his nights. by day, too, this coffer often served him for a seat; whilst scarce a day passed without his opening it, to assure himself that nothing had disappeared. he kept it carefully fastened with the aid of several locks and a master key, of which he never gave up the possession. eggadi contemplated a thousand times these treasures acquired with so little trouble; if we can call that gained with little trouble which is purchased at the price of our peace of mind. and each time after having contemplated them, he would repeat to himself the words of ali, "allah will no doubt recompense thee." "ah! if he recompenses me as i deserve," he could not help reflecting, "he will send me great disasters indeed." pursued by the dread of a heavy chastisement, eggadi became so miserable in the midst of his fine family and his treasures, that he formed the project of quitting his country, where the sight of ali, his humble house and miserable shop, haunted him incessantly. so he adjusted his affairs, collected his merchandise, and then communicated his intention to his children and his servants. but whilst, spurred on by a secret terror, he was hastening the preparations for his departure, allah, on whose will depend all things on earth and in heaven, visited him with a severe fever, accompanied with delirium, during which he spoke incessantly of the old camel of ali, of concealed treasures, and the vengeance of heaven. salmanazar, an old jew doctor, had charge of eggadi; he heard the incoherent ravings of his patient, and immediately divined them to be the result of preceding mental anguish. thanks to the skill acquired by medical science, and still more to the intuition engendered by the desire of self-enrichment, the old jew was not slow in comprehending that there was a secret relating to a treasure unjustly acquired, and he saw no reason, moreover, why he should not be a partaker in the booty. he found means therefore to remove all the attendants, and constituting himself sole guardian of the sick man, seated himself by his bedside and patiently awaited the auspicious moment which should deliver into his merciless keeping a soul harassed by the stings of remorse. this moment at length arrived; eggadi ceased to be delirious, and as though awakening from a painful dream, drew a long breath, and cast looks of inquiry around him. salmanazar, who had been watching for this opportunity, then exclaimed: "eggadi! eggadi! you mussulmans cry, 'god is great,' but you do not believe it, for if you did, how could you dare enrich yourselves at the expense of the poor man and his children? thou art rich, eggadi, and ali is poor." "what sayst thou?" cried the sick man, distending his eyes with terror as dismal recollections thronged upon him. "i say that thou hast a treasure which should not belong to thee, and that this is why thou hast the fever, and why moreover thou wilt die, unless i save thy life by my profound science. restitution must be made; nay, if indeed thou wert to do good with this treasure to poor jews like me, god would perhaps pardon thee, but thou takest care to give us nothing. if i cure thee what will be my profit? a few miserable doubloons, which i shall have all the same if thou diest; for thy sons will give them me, and if they refused to pay me, i should summon them before the cadi. thus, whether thou livest or whether thou diest is much the same to me. nevertheless, if i had a mind i could easily cure thee, and cause thee still to live, that thy days might be long upon the earth. but what profit would this be to me?" "cure me, cure me," cried the sick man, "and i will give thee far more than my sons would give thee, far more than the cadi would grant thee did my children refuse thee payment. i will give thee twenty doubloons; nay, fifty. that would be a fine thing for thee." "it would be a much better thing for thyself," chuckled salmanazar. "of what use will thy doubloons be to thee when thou art dead? i demand five hundred doubloons for curing thee, and i will have them at once, for in an hour's time i shall demand a thousand, and if you then delay deciding there will be no longer any time to choose." "a thousand doubloons!" exclaimed the patient; "i will not even give thee five hundred. if i did,--allah would not pardon me the more, even supposing i really am guilty of what thou suggested." "well, then, thou wilt die," rejoined salmanazar, settling himself again in his chair. the chamber of the sick man was gloomy. a small lamp cast a fitful light upon one corner, while the rest seemed inhabited by nothing but dim shadows. an odour of fever and its remedies pervaded the atmosphere; out of doors,--for it was night,--the dismal cry of the jackals seeking food resounded, whilst the deep baying of the neighbouring dogs was heard without intermission. the weather was windy and tempestuous. all this but served to increase the deep depression which filled the soul of eggadi. he threw a wistful look around his shadow-haunted room; it fell upon the old jew who was watching him askance, his large dark eyes dimmed by ophthalmia, and he asked himself whether the old man with his prominent nose, yellow visage, long, lean and withered arms, habited in a scanty and dirty garment, were not some evil genius come thither to curse him for his crime, and drag him to the bottomless pit of perdition. nevertheless, eggadi contrived to raise himself up in a sitting posture on his bed. he collected all his strength, drew a long breath, sighed feebly, and said: "well, i have decided, salmanazar; give me the remedy which will make my days long upon the earth." "give me first the five hundred doubloons," said salmanazar. "i have them not here," replied the sick man. "tell me where they are, i will go and get them." "that is impossible," said eggadi; "but summon bankala, my black slave, he will bring me the key of my coffer, and the coffer itself which contains my treasures." "well and good," replied salmanazar; and he summoned bankala. eggadi gave some orders to the slave in a language unknown to salmanazar, and he disappeared. he returned shortly with two other slaves, whom he placed like two sentinels by the side of his master's bed. "send away those men," said salmanazar to the sick man. the latter replied, "they are needed to go and bring the coffer as soon as bankala shall have given us the key; he and i alone know where it is hidden." "it is well," said the jew; and he held his peace, looking alternately at the sick man and the two slaves. "what wilt thou do to effect my cure?" began eggadi to inquire of the jew in a doleful tone. "thou shalt see--thou shalt see," replied the latter. and they both awaited the return of the slave with an equal anxiety, which they in vain strove to conceal. bankala made them wait a long time, but when at length he did return, ali, the poor seller of mats, followed upon his footsteps. "arise quickly," had been the summons of the slave to him; "eggadi my master summons thee in the name of allah, and desires to see thee before he dies." ali had hastened to obey. at sight of him the jew trembled. eggadi, on the contrary, felt himself happy and reassured. "come hither, ali," said he; "come and behold a man guilty but repentant. the example of thy virtues did not suffice to bring me back to the path of duty: it was necessary that i should be struck by misfortune. thanks to heaven misfortune has befallen me. ali! ali! it was i who bought of thee the old camel which was left thee by thy father. that camel no doubt aided him in concealing the great wealth he would fain have bestowed upon thee ere he died. i discovered this wealth, and i conceived the iniquitous design of keeping it, instead of restoring it to thee in accordance with the demands of justice. i was on the point of quitting my country to avoid the further sight of thy poverty, the unceasing reproach to my crime, when allah visited me with a terrible malady, and a still more terrible physician. this physician, whom thou there beholdest, having discovered my secret, instead of urging me to the restitution of my ill-acquired fortune, dreamt only of sharing it with me, and threatened me with death if i refused the division of the plunder. "his horrible conduct, his avarice and cruelty combined, have inspired me with horror, and have shown me to what lengths an inordinate love of gold may lead. i have mourned for my fault, and have taken a sudden resolution to repair it. by deceiving this skilful man, i have been enabled to send for thee, and before him i declare that i render thee up joyfully all the treasures which are enclosed in the chest upon which salmanazar is seated." salmanazar started up on hearing these words. how! he had been actually sitting upon the treasure and had not divined it. eggadi continued: "consider, ali, what will be most suitable to bestow upon this jew. he demanded of me five hundred doubloons down, or a thousand in an hour's time, if i desired to live. i think that five hundred blows with a stick should be his recompense; at the same time i am unworthy to judge any man in this world. thou who art just, act towards him as thou thinkest best, but deign, above all things, to grant me thy forgiveness." ali was of course greatly surprised at all he had just heard. he took a moment to collect his thoughts and then said: "eggadi-ben-yousouf, i pardon thee willingly; and to prove it, i say to thee as thou once saidst to me: "let us enter into partnership, let us live as brothers, and unite our children as in the time of the patriarchs. as for salmanazar, let his only punishment be to behold the riches he would have forced thee to share with him, and after having seen them, let him return home without money and without blows." the wish of the wise ali was put into execution. the coffer, the key of which eggadi had about him, was opened; and the jew, though still trembling with the fear of receiving the blows, could not help eagerly regarding the gold and precious stones which were revealed to his cupidity. then he departed, filled with grief at having missed his aim, and at not having been himself the fortunate purchaser of the old camel of ali. this event was engraven on his memory, and caused him to regard with looks of eager anxiety all the old camels whom he chanced to meet. he often stopped before them, and seemed to endeavour to trace in their movements some mysterious sign which might lead to the discovery of hidden treasures. eggadi, having his conscience at ease, regained his health without the aid of any other physician. he became the adopted brother of ali, who insisted on sharing with him his newly-acquired fortune; and these two men, their children, and their children's children, continued to live together wealthy and united. ix. the story of medjeddin. many hundred years ago there lived in the famous city of bagdad a retired merchant named el kattab. the earlier part of his life had been assiduously devoted to commercial pursuits, in the prosecution of which he had made many a long journey, and crossed many a sea. in the course of his wanderings he had not only amassed the wealth he sought, but, what was better, had stored his mind and memory with the treasures of wisdom and general information. the property he had acquired was far from immense, yet it was amply sufficient to enable him to live in a style of substantial comfort and respectability, and to devote himself to the darling object of his declining years, the education and training of his only son. el kattab's beard was grey, yet he had not very long passed the prime of life, and still retained most of the vigour and elasticity of his earlier years. he was wise enough to be content with the quiet enjoyments of a moderate affluence, and had no desire to wear out the rest of his life in the feverish labour of constant acquirement, for the mere sake of amassing a splendid fortune; therein differing from too many of his friends, who seemed to forget in their headlong pursuit of enormous riches, that by the time these might be acquired, life would be nigh spent, and at any rate all its charms gone, unless some higher and nobler object had been substituted for that of mere wealth-getting. the city of mossul had been el kattab's home in his earlier days; but he quitted it, and took up his abode in bagdad, partly in order to be near his friend salek, with whom he had been on the most intimate terms from his youth; partly, too, for the sake of his son's education, as he expected that a residence in the latter city would produce good and lasting impressions on the mind of the young man; for the great city of bagdad was at this time under the rule of the far-famed caliph haroun al raschid, and was the resort of strangers from all parts of the globe; and here artists and sages of all countries mingled with each other. nor had el kattab conceived a vain expectation. his son, whose name was medjeddin, was a young man gifted with good natural abilities, and endowed with a pure and noble heart. he used every opportunity to extend his knowledge and improve his disposition; nor was he deficient in bodily exercises and warlike accomplishments: so that through good discipline he became powerful in body and strong in mind. he was not only, therefore, as was natural enough, the joy and pride of his father, but was loved and esteemed by all who knew him, and was often pointed out by the elders, to others of his own age, as an example worthy of imitation. as the father saw his greatest treasure in the person of his son, so the latter, with all the fervour of a well-directed mind, clung affectionately to his father. some years passed over them in this mutual love, rendered still more delightful by the companionship of their friend salek, and their happiness was full and uninterrupted. it chanced one day that el kattab and salek were taking their accustomed walk in the gardens adjoining the city in front of the gate. the heat of the summer's day had been diminished by a gentle rain, and the two strolled on, in happy conversation, and extended their walk beyond its usual length. they passed the last garden, and wandered on over some green meadow-land, behind a little wood, at the entrance of which stood high palms, whose shadows invited to repose, while a fresh spring gushed from a neighbouring rock, and meandered among the verdant herbage and variegated flowers. the two friends lay down in the shade, and conversed on the perils to which even the most virtuous men are subject, particularly enlarging on the danger of an over-confidence in the rectitude of our own intentions, and on the comparative ease with which a sudden impulse will sometimes hurry even the best of men, who possesses an overweening reliance on his own firmness of purpose, into a false or even fatal step in life. "i have known men," observed salek, "who, although among the best and noblest i have ever met in the course of my life, have been led unawares, by too great self-confidence, into an action which they might easily have avoided by moderate caution, but which has proved the beginning of a long chain of evils, ending at last in their complete ruin." el kattab, on the contrary, maintained that a heart accustomed from early youth to virtue, would not be easily led to commit a serious fault; and even if this should happen, that it would readily find its way back from a slight error to the right road. they continued to talk on these subjects, each endeavouring to confirm his assertions by examples, whilst medjeddin, stretched beside them, listened with attention to their conversation. suddenly he sprang to his feet, and ran quickly up the woody hill, at the foot of which they were reposing. his father and salek looked after him surprised, as they could not comprehend what had occasioned his sudden disappearance. they then saw that a little bird, as white as snow, was flying before him, which he was trying to catch. he was soon lost to their view among the bushes; they called to him to come back; but in vain. they waited for a quarter of an hour, and still medjeddin did not return. growing uneasy about him, they advanced in the direction in which he had disappeared, but could discover nothing. at last the sun set; then salek said, "let us return home: your son is a strong, active young man; he will easily find his way back to the city. perhaps he has gone home some other way, and will be there before us." after much opposition, the father was persuaded to return without his son; but he was still full of anxiety which no arguments could overcome. when they arrived at the city, his friend accompanied him to his house. they entered hastily, and inquired for medjeddin: but he had not returned. salek's cheering suggestions were of no more avail; el kattab would no longer listen to him, but threw himself weeping on his couch. salek rebuked him for this weakness, and represented to him that it might easily have happened that the young man had lost his way in the pursuit of the bird, and could not recover the track all at once. "he has no doubt found a shelter where he will remain till morning," continued he; "he will return here early to-morrow, and will laugh heartily at your fears." when salek was gone, el kattab gave free scope to his feelings. he wept aloud, tore his beard, and dashed himself upon the ground, like a madman. the slaves stood around in motionless astonishment, surprised to see their master exhibiting such passionate emotion; others sought to console him, but fruitlessly; at length they all began to cry and bewail with him for his dear son, who was beloved by them all. after a sleepless night, the afflicted father rose not at all quieted. he wished early in the morning to send messengers in all directions; but salek, who had come to inquire if the lost one had returned home, explained to him how foolish this step would be. "consider," said he, "that your medjeddin has most probably found a night's lodging, and slept better than you. supposing him, therefore, to be at any probable distance, even if he had set out on his way at daybreak, he could hardly be here now: if you send these messengers after him, he may perhaps come home by a shorter path, while they will be searching for him in vain; wait at least till mid-day." el kattab yielded; he appointed the messengers to be ready at noon, and in the meanwhile walked through the gardens and in the country around the city, where they had been on the preceding day. his friend accompanied him, although he pointed out that medjeddin might, in the interval, have reached home while they were walking, and that el kattab was thus perhaps giving himself more trouble than was necessary. "i have yielded to you in the rest," replied el kattab; "let me at least in this instance have my own will, and walk here." they went together to the fountain in the rock near the palms; they climbed the neighbouring heights; they called the name of the lost one in all directions; but no sound was heard in reply. at noon they went home, and asked all they met if they had seen a young man, whom they accurately described. nobody could give them any information about him. el kattab now sent out his messengers in all directions; promising a rich reward to the one who should lead his lost son back to his arms. the messengers returned on the tenth day, and reported that all their researches had been without success. at this the parent's grief knew no bounds. his friend salek remained almost constantly with him, comforting him; and all his friends held a consultation on the possible means of gaining tidings of medjeddin. they agreed that he could not have been killed, for then his corpse would have been found: that he had no cause to conceal himself: that he could not have been attacked by enemies, as he had none: might he, they suggested, in the pursuit of the bird, have been led to the brink of the river, and have thrown himself in, and been carried away by the stream? scarcely had this idea presented itself, ere two messengers were despatched to each side of the river to search, from its junction with the euphrates above balsora to the spot where it flows into the arabian sea, and ascertain if the corpse of medjeddin had been washed ashore. but these messengers also returned to the anxious parent, without having found what they sought. the parent and his friend now gave up medjeddin for lost; el kattab's spirit was broken; grief for his lost son shortened his life; he soon became old: all joy fled from his mind; and his sorrow was only a little alleviated when his faithful friend salek sat by him in the evening, talking with him of his son, relating the virtues by which he had been distinguished, and telling him how it had been his darling wish that this excellent young man should marry his daughter maryam. a few days afterwards the caliph haroun al raschid went, as he was accustomed, in disguise, with his grand vizier giafar, and mesrur his chamberlain, through the streets of bagdad, to see with his own eyes and to hear with his own ears how justice and order were maintained by his servants, and whether his people were happy and prosperous. he had, as usual, chosen the last hour of the evening for this walk, because he thought that at this time he could look deeper into the joys and pleasures of his subjects, as they had then ended their daily toils, and were seeking comfort and repose in the bosoms of their families. in the course of his progress he came to a street remarkable for its peculiar quiet. as he approached a house, before the door of which two men were standing whispering, haroun al raschid addressed them with these words: "why do you whisper, as if you were concerting a crime? is not this street lonely enough, that you cannot hold your discourse aloud? can you tell me why this street is so quiet, as though every inhabitant were dead?" "i can easily tell you, my lord," answered one of the whisperers; "here, in the next house, lives the unfortunate el kattab; and, as usual at this hour, his friend salek is sitting with him to console him. now all the inhabitants of this street respect this man, and wish not to remind him, by any outburst of joy, that happier men than himself live in his neighbourhood." before the caliph could answer him, the man turned away, and entered the house, and the other followed him. "have you ever heard of this unfortunate el kattab before?" asked haroun al raschid of his grand vizier; and as he answered in the negative, the caliph proceeded, "let us make an inspection of the house where this el kattab dwells; perhaps we may discover the cause of his sorrow." they drew near, and saw the light from the inner court shining through a crevice. the caliph applied his eye to the aperture, and after he had watched for some time, beckoned his followers to him, and said, "two grey-headed men are sitting in this court by the light of a lamp, and one seems to be comforting the other; but this latter continues to weep all the more bitterly, the more his companion endeavours to console him: both appear to be of the same rank. i am desirous of knowing what sorrow oppresses the unfortunate el kattab: order him to appear at my palace early to-morrow morning; perhaps it may be in my power to lighten his calamity." the next day the grand vizier executed his commission. el kattab was alarmed when he heard that his presence was required at the palace. he was led into the great hall where the divan usually assembled; but there the attendants left him quite alone. he reviewed the whole of his past life, to see if he had sinned in any way, so as to bring on him the displeasure of the caliph; for he knew that haroun al raschid often, in a mysterious manner, discovered the faults of his subjects, and punished them accordingly. but he could not call to mind any deed of which he felt ashamed, nor any that deserved punishment. whilst he was thus meditating, a curtain was drawn back, and the caliph entered, followed by his vizier and his chamberlain. el kattab rose from the ground, and bowed his head down to the carpet on which the caliph stood. "el kattab," said the caliph, "a heavy weight of grief seems to oppress you; and by the anxiety which your neighbours manifest to show respect for your sorrow, i must consider you as a man of worth: i wish then to know the cause of your despondency; have you any objection to inform me of it before these two witnesses, or would you rather confide to me alone the reason of your tears?" "ruler of the faithful," answered el kattab, "sorrow is great and deep in my soul; but still the cause of it is unworthy to distract for a moment the attention of the caliph from the cares of his kingdom." the caliph replied, "that which fills the heart of the meanest of my subjects with such grief that it consumes his life, is not unworthy of my care. if i am careful for my whole kingdom, this care none the less extends to each individual; and, if i am careful for one, this one is a member of the whole, and thus my care is not lost. but speak, what is the cause of your affliction?" el kattab then recounted the mysterious disappearance of his son; how he had sought for him every where, and how all his messengers had returned home without the least trace of him. "i must therefore weep for him as one that is dead,"--thus he ended his relation; "and in tears perhaps my sorrow might expend itself, if at the same time a spark of hope did not live in my heart, that possibly he is still alive: but ah! where? this spark of hope keeps the wound in the father's heart always open." "you have, indeed, real cause for grief," answered the caliph, "and i comprehend that the uncertainty of your son's fate must be as terrible to bear, as would be the mournful certainty of his death. you did wrong in not applying to me before; my power extends not only over believers, but also into foreign lands: other kings and rulers i have as my servants, whose eyes see for me, whose ears hear for me, and whose hands perform what is necessary in order to do my pleasure. that which was not possible to yourself, your friends, and your servants to accomplish, may perhaps prove easy for me. now go home, and believe that you shall obtain news of your son, if he live on the earth, in any land where my power can reach." with these words he dismissed him, after he had first inquired the marks by which his lost son might be recognised. when el kattab was sitting again with his friend salek in the evening, he related to him the gracious and comforting words of the caliph. salek perceived that hope was revived in his friend's heart, and that he confidently trusted to find his son. he thought it his duty, therefore, to damp somewhat this hope, and said, "beloved friend, i have once heard a speech, which sunk deeply in my memory: it is, 'trust not in princes; they are but men.' in truth, the mightiest on earth are subject to destiny. if the caliph have influence in distant lands, it must still be within a comparatively confined and narrow limit; whilst what is in the farthest regions of the earth, as well as what is but a span distant, are all equally under the control of all-governing fate, even from the meanest slave to the ruler of the faithful." haroun al raschid meanwhile resolved to do all he could to fulfil the hope he had raised in el kattab's heart. he gave a commission to all his servants in the kingdom, high and low, and to his ambassadors in the neighbouring kingdoms, and even sent into distant lands, with the princes of which he was on terms of friendship, at the same time despatching messengers with the charge to search for medjeddin with all diligence, giving them a description by which they might recognise him if they found him. but week after week, and month after month passed away; even a whole year elapsed, without any intelligence being received either of the life or death of the lost one. so that all hope of finding him deserted the father for ever. medjeddin, meantime, had not perished--none of the accidents suggested by his father's advisers had befallen him; he still lived, but in such complete concealment that it was impossible for any one to discover him. he had followed the snow-white bird till evening, without clearly knowing why: he was induced to think he could catch the curious creature, particularly as it flew at such a moderate height from the ground, and at the same time so slowly. the tardiness of its flight made him conjecture that it must have hurt one of its wings; several times he succeeded in getting quite close to it, but just as he stretched out his hand to seize it, the bird again raised its wings, and flew a little in advance. medjeddin now felt himself tired, and would have given up the pursuit, but the bird also seemed fatigued; he approached it, but again the bird flew a little farther off. in this chase he climbed a hill, and soon after found himself in a narrow meadow-valley, down which he ran; twilight came, but the snow-white colour of the bird still lighted him on. at last the pursued bird perched in a thicket; he hastened to it, but when he closed his hand to seize his prisoner, it flew away, leaving only one of its tail-feathers tightly grasped in his hand: still he saw it through the twilight flying before him, and still he hastened after it. the bird seemed now to quicken its pace; but as he had so nearly caught it once, he continued the pursuit with more eagerness; he ran through the high grass, with his strained sight fixed on this glimmering white object, he saw nothing else. thus he came unexpectedly on a small but deep pool of water, which lay across his path; he jumped in, swam across, and tried to climb the other side, but it was so steep that he fell in with some of the crumbling earth: the water closed over his head, and he lost all consciousness. when he came to himself, he found himself lying on the turf, and a tall, grey-headed man of strange appearance by him, clothed in a long black robe reaching to his ancles, and fastened by a glittering girdle of a fiery colour. instead of a turban, he wore a high pointed cap on his head, with a tassel of the same hue as the girdle. "has your life returned to you?" he asked: "you deserved to be suffocated in the mud. come, we must go farther before daylight quite leaves us." with these words the stranger raised him from the ground, passed his left arm round his body, and flew with him through the air with the speed of an arrow. medjeddin again soon lost recollection, and did not know how long he remained in this condition. he awoke at last as from a deep sleep; and looking around, the first thing he observed was a cage of gold wire, hanging from the ceiling by a long golden chain, and within was the snow-white bird he had so long followed. he found himself alone with this bird in a hall, the roof of which was supported on pillars of white marble, and the walls were built of smooth pale-green stones. the openings which served as windows were protected by lattices so skilfully contrived with winding tracery, that even the white bird could have found no space to pass through, even if it had escaped from the cage. beside one wall stood a crystal urn; and from this fell a stream of clear water, which passing over the curved brim of the urn, was received in a white basin beneath, from which it disappeared unseen. whilst he was observing this, and wondering what had happened to him, and how he came there, suddenly the old man in the black robe entered from behind a curtain. he carried a small golden box in his hand, and approached him with these words: "you have now caught the white bird, and have it safe in a cage; in this box is food for it, and there is water; take diligent care of it, and mind that it does not escape." as he said this he disappeared. medjeddin now arose and walked round the hall: he looked through the windows, and ascertained that he must be in a foreign land, as the forms of the mountains and trees were quite different from any he had before seen. the hall seemed to be high in the air, as if it were the upper story of a lofty tower. no other edifice was to be seen, and from the windows he could not distinguish what shrubs and plants bloomed beneath. he drew the curtain aside, and discovered a doorway; but there was a thick metal door which he could not open. he was now very much embarrassed, for he began to feel hungry, and could find nothing that would serve him for food. he examined the walls to see if he could discover any concealed outlet; he tried to open the lattices, that he might put his head out, and see if there were any body beneath, to whom he might cry out. there was no door; he could not open the lattices; and as far as he could strain his sight in every direction, he could see nobody: he threw himself in despair on the pillow, wrung his hands, and wept, and cried: "i am then imprisoned--imprisoned in a dungeon where splendour and riches are lavished around! of what avail is it that these walls are built of precious stones? that this lattice is of fine gold, that this cage is of gold, and hangs on a golden chain? i am as much a prisoner behind golden lattices as i should be behind a grating of iron." then he rose and shouted through the lattices, in hopes that his voice might be heard, and aid brought; but nobody appeared, and no one answered him. when he again threw himself weeping on his couch, after these useless efforts, he observed that the white bird fluttered restlessly in its prison, and pecked at the golden dish for its food, without finding any. "poor brother in misfortune," said medjeddin, "you shall not suffer want; i will take care of you; come, i will bring you what you want." he took the pans from the cage, filling one with water from the urn, and the other with grain from the gold box which the old man had given him. scarcely had he hung the last on the cage, when, on turning round, he saw a table behind him covered with costly viands. he was astonished, and could not understand how this had happened; still it was not long before he attacked the meats with the zest of a young man who had fasted nearly all day. although these viands were altogether different from those he had been accustomed to taste in his father's house, they all appeared excellent. he ate till he was fully satisfied, and then took from the table a golden cup, and quenched his thirst with pure water from the urn. after this he threw himself on a couch and fell asleep. when he awoke he felt strong and well. he arose and began to make another tour of the hall, and he then observed that the table with the meats had disappeared. this was a disappointment, as he had thought to make a good supper of the remainder. he did not allow this, however, to trouble him much, as he now felt pretty sure that he was not to die of hunger. he next proceeded to scrutinise his prison more closely: he examined all anew, pillars, walls, and floor; but could no where find a crevice or a fissure: all was fast and whole. his view from the windows did not allow him to make any further discovery; he only saw that he was very far above the earth, and in a spacious valley; mountains were to be seen in the distance, with curiously-pointed summits. as soon as he had completed this examination, and found there was nothing to occupy him, he turned his attention to the white bird in the cage. here was still life; and if the cage was narrow, yet the prisoner could hop about on the different perches. soon it remained still and gazed at him with its bright eyes, which seemed as if sense and speech lay in them, the interpretation only was wanting. night put an end to these reflections. next morning he observed that the bird again wanted food. he filled its seed-pan with grain from his golden box, and gave it fresh water from the urn. scarcely had he done this, when the table covered with meats again stood in the same place as the day before. this day passed like the former, and the following in the same manner; medjeddin wept and mourned, took care of the little bird, fed it, and was every time rewarded in the same manner with the table covered with dishes as soon as he had filled the bird's seed-pan. he could not perceive who brought the table, nor how it disappeared. it always came whilst he stood beside the cage with his back turned, and without any noise. on the ninth day the old man suddenly appeared to him, and said, "to-day is a day of rest for you; you have performed your duty during the preceding days in giving the bird its food, you may now amuse yourself in the garden till evening." he led him through a door into a narrow passage, at the end of which they descended twenty steps; he then opened a small metal trap-door, and then medjeddin descended twenty steps more: they next came to a similar door, and descended twenty more steps to a third, and so on, till, after passing the ninth door, they found themselves in the open air. "remain here till you are called," said the old man, who went back into the building through the same doors, which he shut after him. medjeddin was very curious to examine more closely the building in which he had been imprisoned: he therefore went round it, and narrowly observed it. it was a tower of nine stories, each about fifteen feet in height. the tower was nine-sided, with a window in the third side of each story, so arranged that no window was directly over another, and that consequently only three altogether appeared in each side of the tower from bottom to top. this distribution of regularity and order reigned throughout the whole building. the walls were made of large pieces of gold, quite as smooth as glass; and these were so skilfully put together that, even when closely looked at, the joints could not be discovered. the lattices of the windows were all of gold, like those in the upper hall, and the lower doors through which he had passed were of a yellow metal, inclining to green. all these considerations were not calculated to lessen his conviction that no man could possibly find him out in such a prison. suddenly a new hope awoke in him: "i am no longer shut up in the tower," said he to himself; "here i am in the open air, in a garden: i can clamber and jump like a monkey; i may possibly find some outlet from this garden, by which i can escape." he immediately turned from the tower, and hastened through the gardens, seeking freedom; but he soon discovered that this hope was vain. he found the gardens surrounded on all sides by a lofty wall, constructed of the same materials, and quite as glassy, as the tower. after making the whole circuit of the garden, he at length found a gate, consisting of a grating of strong iron bars, polished to the highest degree of smoothness, and so close together, that he could scarcely pass his arm through. he tried to climb it by holding by the upper bars with his hands; but his feet slipped on the smooth iron, and he hurt his knee so much, that he lost his hold and fell backwards on the earth. he next examined the grating closely to see if there were no means of escape; but all was in vain: every where the bars were high, thick, and like polished glass. sorrowfully he wandered round the garden; the sun's rays darting down scorched up the grass, and he sought some shade where he might screen himself from their influence. he lay down on a mossy bank, and meditated anew on his fate. besides his own grief at his imprisonment, the thought of his father's sorrow at his loss pained him. the exhaustion consequent on tears and loud lamentations, joined with the noontide heat, at last caused him to fall into a deep sleep. when he awoke, the table covered with meats was again before him; he ate, and wandered again mournfully through the garden, meditating whether he could not make a ladder from the trees around him, to aid him in his escape over the grating. but there was something wanting for this work; he had not even a dagger or a knife. as he thus thought, the old man appeared, and said, "evening is drawing on; follow me in." he led him again to the upper room of the tower, and locked the metal door upon him. there was no change observable in his prison, only the bird seemed harassed and mournful; it sat quiet and still on the lowest perch, its plumage was rough, and its eyes dull. "poor creature," said medjeddin, "what is the matter? are you ill?" it seemed as if the bird was affected by these sympathising questions, but it soon sank again into its former dejection. he mused long upon this. the next day and the following ones passed like the former; but on the ninth the old man again appeared, led him into the garden, and at night conducted him back into the hall. he took care of the bird; and as soon as he had given it food and water, he always found the table covered with meats behind him. in the intervals he stood at the lattice of one of the three windows looking on the plain below, earnestly hoping to catch sight of some person to free him from his captivity. in such monotonous employment many months passed away: every ninth day the old man appeared, and gave him leave to walk in the garden; but he did not derive much amusement from his strolls in this narrow enclosure. in the mean time he asked the old man many times the reason of his imprisonment, and how long it was to last. no answer was vouchsafed but these words: "every man has his own fate; this is thine." one day the old man appeared and led him into the garden as usual; but he had not been there more than a quarter of an hour, when he returned, called him in, and then quickly retired with marks of disquietude. medjeddin also remarked that the white bird, which he had learnt to love more every day, sat at the bottom of its cage, more mournful than it usually was after the old man's visit. he drew near, and observed a little door in the cage which he had never before seen. he examined it closely, and found a fine bolt which passed into a ring of gold wire. these were made so skilfully, and worked into the ornamental parts of the cage so cunningly, that nobody could have discovered them if his attention had not been drawn to them by design or accident. medjeddin pushed back the bolt and opened the door; the bird started up as if some sudden joy had seized it, hopped out, and as soon as it touched the floor was transformed, and in its stead a young maiden stood before medjeddin, clothed in a white silk robe; beautiful dark locks streamed over her neck and shoulders, and a thin fragrant veil fell over them, confined by a fillet set with precious stones; her finely-formed countenance was as white as ivory, relieved by the softest shade of the rose. surprised and astonished, medjeddin started back and said, "by the beard of the prophet, i conjure you to tell me whether you are of human race, or whether you belong to the genii?" "i am a helpless maiden," said she, "and implore you to deliver me from the hands of this cruel magician; i will reward you handsomely for it: know, i am the only daughter of omar, king of zanguebar; and this wicked enchanter has cunningly carried me off from my father's palace, and shut me up in this cage. he has one son, as ugly as night, whom he wishes me to take for my husband. every ninth day he comes, brings his son with him, and praises his excellent qualities. this he has done regularly for many months past, tormenting me at every visit for my consent to this odious union; and he now threatens me with cruel tortures if i give it not by the next new moon. on that day he will have kept me a year in imprisonment, and longer than a year he says he will not continue to entreat: then will the time of my punishment begin; i conjure you therefore to help me." at these words she burst into a flood of tears. "noble maiden," answered medjeddin, "how willingly would i free you! but, alas, i am as helpless as yourself, and cannot even free myself. but tell me how is it? you say the enchanter brings his hateful son with him--why, then, have i never seen him?" "he always sends you away when he comes," answered the princess. "but even then," pursued medjeddin, "the son could not conceal himself from me on the stairs, or in the narrow passage." "quite true," she answered, "but he carries him in his pocket." "what," exclaimed medjeddin in astonishment, "in his pocket!--how can that be?" the princess informed him that the young man became on the occasion of each visit a white bird, like herself: that the enchanter put him into the cage with her, and that she felt such a dislike to him that she always fluttered about the cage to avoid getting near him; but that he, with the pertinacious obstinacy of a brutal affection, would follow her and settle confidingly near her. "you must," she continued, "have remarked how tired and mournful i always was on the ninth day when you returned." medjeddin, astonished at this explanation, assured her of his willingness to free her, but bewailed his helplessness. the princess, however, would not give up hopes of their success. "it seems to me," said she, "a good omen that the enchanter has to-day received a message which caused him to leave so early, and in such haste that he did not securely close the cage, and that you returned so early to-day from the garden; this day is my birthday, the only day i can be delivered from the magician's power; on any other day i should still have remained a dumb bird, even if you had freed me from my cage; only on this day has my touching the floor had power to restore me to my natural form; the enchantment lies in the cage." medjeddin instantly seized the cage, exclaiming, "if it be so, we will break the enchantment." he threw the cage to the ground, stamped on it with his feet till it was quite flat, and its shape no longer distinguishable, then he rolled it together, and threw it into a corner of the hall. at this moment a frightful noise like thunder resounded through the air. the whole building shook as with a furious tempest, the doors flew open with a crash, the curtains were drawn aside, and the magician stood before them with a countenance full of anger. "ah," cried he, "weak worms, what have you presumed to do? how did you learn to break my charm in this manner? who bid you destroy the cage?" medjeddin was so terrified he could answer nothing. the enchanter then turned to the maiden and cried, "and you, you thought this miserable worm could defend you against my power: i will show you how useless it is to oppose me." he felt in the pocket of his black robe, and pulled out thence a small box; this he opened, and a white bird flew out and perched on the table. he then took a smaller box from his girdle and opened it,--it was filled with grains of millet; from these he took one, and laid it before the bird, who had scarcely eaten it before such a distorted man stood in its place, that both medjeddin and the princess screamed aloud. his head was large and thick, his eyes red and dark, his nose small and quite flat, his lips thick and blueish red, his chin broad and projecting, and on his head grew a few stiff white hairs; a hump grew out in front, and a similar one behind; his shoulders were quite drawn up, and his head so jammed between them that his ears could not be seen. the upper part of his body was so unwieldy, and his legs so weak and thin that it was wonderful how they supported him; he tottered about incessantly, balancing himself first on one leg, then on the other. "come forward, my son," said the enchanter to this deformed creature; "behold, there is your bride; she does not wish to wait till the new moon which i fixed upon for your betrothal: to-day she has effected her own change by the help of this friend. go, my son, give your bride a kiss, and then thank this young man." the deformed creature approached the princess with a horrible fiendish laugh; she averted her face with disgust, and stretched out her arms to motion him away. but by this time medjeddin's courage had returned: resolving to venture all, he stepped before the princess and gave the deformity such a blow that he reeled and fell backwards. his head struck in the fall on the corner of the pedestal of one of the marble pillars with such violence, that his skull was broken: a stream of blood flowed from the wound, and the monster gave a hollow groan. medjeddin thought of nothing but the father's rage and revenge, and gave up his life for lost. but the enchanter stood quite confounded as he observed his son's mortal wound, and appeared stupified with horror and amazement. presently he threw himself down beside him, examined the injury, and wrung his hands, forgetting his revenge in his sorrow. medjeddin quickly seized the hand of the princess, and led her through the door and down the stairs: all the doors were open, and they found their way without any obstacle into the garden. soon they stood before the grating of the iron gate, which was closed. "of what use is our flight?" said medjeddin despondingly; "we are still as much as ever in the power of the enchanter; and even if we were on the other side of the gate, and concealed in the deepest cavern, he would discover us by his knowledge, and wreak his vengeance on us." "i am of a different opinion," said the princess; "i know many of the things on which the superior power of this magician depends, and i believe that if we could only get out of this place, we should be safe." they went on a little further, and came to a spot where a number of trees had been uprooted by the hurricane; one of these lay overturned with its summit resting on the top of the wall, and its boughs and branches hanging far over the other side. at this sight the young man rejoiced; he climbed quickly on to the trunk, pulling the princess after him, and guiding her with great care and tenderness into the top of the tree. they then clambered over the wall in spite of a formidable row of spikes, and let themselves down on the other side by the overhanging branches of the tree. these did not quite reach to the ground, but near enough for them to leap down; they let go accordingly, and fell gently to the earth; then jumping up, they proceeded as rapidly as the strength of the princess and the difficulties of the way would allow them, through thickets, underwood, and plains studded with prickly plants, towards the distant mountains. after the two fugitives had continued their flight for several hours without looking back on the scene of their imprisonment, the princess felt her strength exhausted, and that she could go no further; she begged her companion, therefore, to stop and rest for a short time. medjeddin sought a place free from bushes, and clad with moss and long grass; they seated themselves there, and medjeddin entreated the princess to relate her history. she was too much exhausted at first, but after a short pause recovered her strength and commenced thus: "my early history is very simple. i am called jasmin, the only daughter of the sultan of zanguebar. my mother was brought over the wide-stretching sea, from beyond arabia and mount caucasus, and was sold to him as a slave. soon attracted by her beauty and manners, he raised her to the dignity of wife. my earliest youth was spent in happy sports under my mother's eyes, who died, however, before i had passed the age of childhood, as the change from the mild climate of her land to the heat of my father's shortened her days. my father loved me as his greatest treasure, and confided me to a careful nurse. every evening i passed several hours with him, as soon as he was released from the cares of government, and one whole day in each week he devoted to conversation with me. on that day we always went together in a light bark to a neighbouring promontory, where he had a beautiful palace and gardens. the air there was cooler and more refreshing, the trees and shrubs were clothed with fresher green than in the shut-up garden in the capital, and we passed the whole day in the open air. in the mean time i had outgrown childhood, and was beloved by a prince, the son of a neighbouring king, to whom i was betrothed, and who was to succeed my father in his kingdom. this prince, whose name was mundiana mesoud, often accompanied us in these visits to the castle on the promontory. "it happened one day, as we were sitting on a terrace by the sea, that a foreign ship anchored just below us. a stranger caused himself to be landed in a little boat, and asked us permission to appear before us, as he had many costly wares to offer for sale. i was desirous to see his wares, and begged my father to admit him. the man laid many costly trinkets of gold and precious stones before us; and my father bought some which pleased me the most. i remarked that the merchant watched me closely, but he did this with such evident pleasure that my vanity ascribed it to his admiration of my charms, and found no harm in it. whilst he showed his goods, he let fall some words which intimated that he had left his most precious articles behind in the ship; he had there, he said, many curious birds, particularly a snow-white bird which was the most beautiful of all creatures of this kind. he managed thus to excite my curiosity so much that i begged my father to allow me to go with the stranger to his ship to see these rarities. my father was weak enough to comply with this unreasonable wish. a suitable train ought to have accompanied me, but the stranger prevented this; he said his boat had only room in it for three people, and that he should not like to show his wares if many strangers came into his ship. 'they are only things fit for the royal princess,' he said; 'there is no fear that i should expose her to danger. i can never forget that a powerful king has entrusted his only daughter to my care. however, the prince may accompany you as a watchful protector.' we accompanied the merchant to the ship; there we found an immense number of extraordinary things and unknown animals. in the place where in other ships the rowers sat, were great apes; on high on the mast sat an eagle; in the cabins were many large and small cages of smooth ebony with thick gold bars, behind which moved a confused multitude of animals. "my desire was now directed to the snow-white bird, about which i made inquiry. he showed it me high up in a sort of box; and as i could not see it distinctly, he took it out and placed it in my hand. 'the most wonderful circumstance,' said he, 'connected with this bird is, that, being a native of a far distant country, when removed to this it can only remain a few days alive, but i have found the corn of life of which i give it some grains each week, and it is then refreshed for nine days.' we asked for the corn of life, of which we had never heard; and he opened a little box and took out three grains. he gave me one to give the bird, the other i was to try, and the third prince mesoud. when i offered the grain to the bird, it refused it; and when i pressed my hand closer, drew back, lost its balance and fell down with outspread wings. i hastened to it, picked it up perhaps somewhat roughly, and as it tried to escape, i held some of its tail-feathers fast, so that it lay fluttering in my hand. i was very much frightened, and the merchant seemed so also. he soon laughed, however, with a sort of malicious joy, and said that i should swallow the corn, because it would prevent the flight of the frightened prisoner; he said the same to the prince; and we swallowed the grains at the same moment. i felt a wonderful transformation pass over me, and found that i was changed into a snow-white bird; and when i looked towards the prince, in his stead i saw a black bird. upon this the stranger, who was no other than the enchanter, seized me, and shut me up in the golden cage which you have trodden to pieces. the apes began to ply the oars, and the ship moved with unusual swiftness over the sea. i still saw my father and the attendants on the terrace, and could distinguish their gestures of wonder as they saw the ship depart; i believed even that i heard their voices calling us back. but what could i do in my cage? the black bird flew to the promontory; and from that moment i have neither heard nor seen any thing of prince mesoud. "when my home was far in the distance, and even the summit of the mountains which overhung it could no longer be distinguished, the enchanter rose with my cage high in the air, leaving his ship behind, and bore me into the hall of the tower. how he brought the other white bird, i do not know; i only know that he took it out of his pocket and put it into the cage. 'now you have a companion,' said he. as i took him for a real bird, i considered myself, though unfortunate, superior to him, and drew myself back into a corner. but the bird came nearer and followed me round the cage. at last i lost patience, and pecked his eyes. when the enchanter saw this, he took out a little box and took from it a grain which he laid before the bird, who picked it up immediately. it was then changed into a man, the same ugly wretch you saw in the tower. he desired me, as i have already told you, to take that deformity for my husband; and promised me that, on my consent, i should be immediately restored to my proper form, and assured me that otherwise i should always remain as a bird, except on my birthday. it was also part of my enchantment to be obliged to allure you here. i have now no other wish than to return to my father in zanguebar, because i know he is living in great affliction." this relation vividly reminded medjeddin of his own father; he knew, from the great love he had always shown him, that he must have pined for his loss, and his mournful countenance and bowed-down form presented themselves before his mind. "princess," said he, "your desire cannot be greater than mine. still, i swear to you, that i will not return to my father till i have safely conducted you to your native land, or have seen you safe into the hands of those who will bring you to your father; if i do not, may heaven not grant my father life to receive this joy!" they journeyed on with renewed vigour. but evening was drawing near, and it was necessary to find a resting-place for the night; fortune was favourable; they soon found a nook overhung by a large and lofty bush. medjeddin broke away the boughs, so as to form a hedge which fenced round a small spot in which he concealed the princess, leaving only a narrow entrance, before which he lay down to watch. night passed without danger. however anxiously medjeddin strove against sleep in order to watch over his companion, it at last weighed down his eyelids; and they both awoke with the first rays of the sun. they wandered the whole day, resting occasionally; at every step the journey became more hazardous; the thickets became thicker and higher; they were often obliged to creep between the boughs, and their clothes hung in rags. on the fourth day they reached the foot of the mountains. there they found cultivated land and human habitations. medjeddin inquired where they were, and asked the way to the sea. the people told them the name of the country, which was unknown to medjeddin and to the princess jasmin, and added, that on the other side of the high mountains lay a large flat land, bordering on the sea. they received this information with great joy, and, tired and footsore as they were, addressed themselves, without loss of time, to the task of crossing the mountains, and at last, after a wearisome journey, during which they had seen the sun rise and set seven times, they arrived at the flat country and the sea-coast of which they had been told. a ship lay ready at anchor; and when they inquired its destination, the steersman answered, "we are going to zanguebar, to fetch a cargo of cinnamon." to medjeddin's question where they came from, and the name of the land where they were, he received for answer, "that the ship belonged to a merchant of balsora, and that it had been cast on these unknown shores by a violent storm." when the princess perceived that the ship was going towards her native land, she was very much rejoiced. she took one of the precious stones out of the fillet on her forehead, and gave it for the passage money of herself and her companion. the following morning they weighed anchor, and, after a prosperous voyage, reached the very same place where the enchanter's ship had formerly lain at anchor, when he carried off the princess. they were landed in a small boat, and jasmin led her deliverer through the beautiful leafy walks of the imperial gardens. in this way they came to a terrace, from which they could see the ship. instead of pressing hastily forwards, they concealed themselves behind a bush, for on the terrace sat a venerable and noble-looking man, with the profoundest melancholy stamped on his features; he was looking seawards, and the vessel had just caught his eye; a flood of tears ran down his face, "ah!" cried he, "it was just so on the day that my sorrows began! there lay the ship of the robber; there landed the boat which carried away my beloved daughter and her betrothed. it was even at the same hour of the day. i have sent messengers into all the neighbouring lands; i have caused the opposite sea-coasts to be searched; but all has been in vain. i must die, and never see my child again." he pronounced these words aloud, and covered his face, as he bowed himself forward on his hands. the princess jasmin was rushing towards him, but medjeddin held her back, and said, "let me first prepare him for your arrival, for otherwise joy may kill him." and he came forward, and bowed himself before the sorrowing old man. the king then said, "who are you? are you a beggar, and do you need any gift? it shall be given you; go to my palace." medjeddin stood up and answered, "from my appearance, you might well take me for a beggar, o great king omar. but know that under these ragged clothes is concealed a magician, who is able to change your tears into smiles, your sobs into transports of joy." "can any man on earth do this?" asked omar. "i have only to speak three words," answered the other, "and it will happen. are you strong enough to support the highest joy that your heart can feel or conceive?" at these questions, a ray of hope kindled in the soul of the mourning father. "what is it? who are you who can promise this?" asked he; and, on medjeddin repeating his question, he answered, "i think so," regarding him, at the same time, with eager looks. "approach, princess jasmin," cried the youth; and she sprang forward into her father's open arms. medjeddin's promise was indeed fulfilled; the aged monarch's tears were changed into smiles of joy. their embrace continued long. at last omar raised himself, beckoned medjeddin to approach, and said, "you are indeed a magician such as i have never seen before. by your words you have changed the mournful course of my life into the brightest sunshine. i will not now ask you who you are, and what i have to thank you for, nor inquire what chance brought you to my daughter; i shall only give myself up to joy at her return." they went back to the capital in the king's barge, and soon the joyful news of the unexpected reappearance of the princess spread every where. crowds assembled at the palace to ascertain if the news were true, and the princess at length went out of the principal gate of the palace, and showed herself at the head of the flight of steps which led up to it. then arose a shout of joy from ten thousand voices, and loud wishes for her health and happiness. the next day, after the king had heard from his daughter the history of her imprisonment, and of the devotion with which medjeddin had watched over her and when medjeddin had in turn narrated his history omar became very thoughtful, and caused his council to assemble, to deliberate how they should reward him. "if he were not so young," said some of them "he might be made grand vizier, the next in dignity to the king, or be appointed governor of a province. but his youth prevents his being placed over the people next to the king." after longer consultation, the eldest of the councillors rose, and said, "omar, my king and lord, the youth has certainly performed a great service to you and the princess jasmin; it seems to me, therefore, that his reward ought to come from you. it is fitting that the king, having received from him a great benefit in his family, should reward him from his family. were i in such a case, i would constitute him mundiana, and give him for a wife the daughter whom he has restored." the whole assembly were of the same opinion, and the king gave them to understand that this was also his wish. "i am old," said he, "and can easily perceive that the cares of this land will soon need other hands to support them. i shall be much pleased to see my daughter with so good a husband. the prince mundiana mesoud, whom i had before chosen, has disappeared; and this youth, although of lower birth, is of noble soul, and will soon, under my guidance, acquire the necessary experience to enable him to promote justice and order in my kingdom." he did not delay, but immediately caused medjeddin to be called. a costly band of gold and silver was fastened round his forehead, and the king then said, "i herewith appoint you mundiana;" and the assembled councillors immediately added their congratulations. medjeddin expressed his gratitude in becoming terms, but inquired, smiling, what was the precise nature of the dignity conferred on him. the eldest councillor stepped forward and said, "this name points out the highest post of honour which the king can bestow. you are found worthy of this honour, and no other lives who bears the title, because the mundiana prince mesoud has disappeared." an elephant covered with costly trappings was now brought in by its keeper, and upon it was a richly ornamented seat. on this the new officer was placed, and led through the streets. heralds went before him, and cried aloud, "listen to what omar makes known to all people. this youth has restored to him his dearest jewel, which he had lost. in gratitude, the king has nominated him mundiana, and has appointed his daughter jasmin for his wife. to-morrow the betrothal will be celebrated; and every body is invited to the court of the palace to partake of the general joy." medjeddin hardly knew how all this had come about. he had received clothes and rich arms as a present from the king, and the king so highly favoured him, that he was not only to be husband of the princess jasmin, but was to succeed omar on the throne, and to reign over that beautiful and rich land. in his happiness he forgot his early life, his father's sorrow, and even his playfellow maryam and his father's faithful friend salek, and thought no more of his home or his father-land. the next day his betrothal with the princess was celebrated with great pomp. the princess had willingly yielded to her father's wish, without manifesting any particular joy, although, she felt a very sincere friendship for her intended husband, and treated him with great respect and attention, as she did not forget in her prosperity how much she had owed to him in the time of misfortune. the first days and weeks after the ceremony of betrothal were devoted to recreation and amusement, after which he was formally introduced by the king to the council, and instructed in the business of the state. the king and councillors had soon reason to wonder at the acuteness of his judgment in difficult cases, and above all, at his quick perception of right and order. throughout the country, the justice and wisdom of the king's future son-in-law were praised, and it was hoped that fortune would permit him to rule over the land. a whole year had now elapsed, and the day was fast approaching when he was to marry the princess and ascend the throne. one day, as usual, he sought his betrothed, the princess jasmin, in her apartments. he happened to enter very rapidly after his announcement by the attendant, and saw the princess hastily wiping her eyes; and as he drew nearer, he perceived the traces of her tears. sympathising with her, he asked the cause of her grief; she tried to avoid answering him, but as he continued to urge her, she at last said, "i dare tell you why these tears flow, because you are good and compassionate, and will not consider it a crime that i have a feeling and constant heart. you know that i was formerly beloved by prince mesoud, the son of the neighbouring king; i related to you that this prince was changed into a black bird by the enchanter, and flew from the ship to the promontory of the island where our country seat was situated. now i must tell you that i grieve so much the more about this prince's fate, as from my own change i can compassionate his mournful condition. i could not repress the desire to ascertain his fate, and i have obtained certain news of his present condition, by the secret knowledge of a certain wise man. i have learned that he still lives in his new form, and that he has flown away, from fear of the machinations of the demon hunter, called among us dolda waldas, and is now in far distant regions; and that it is ordained by fate that he shall never regain his human form if i give my hand to another husband. sorrow at his mournful destiny has drawn these tears from my eyes, the traces of which you observed." this narrative made a deep impression on medjeddin; he discovered that jasmin had acceded to her father's wish only from gratitude and filial obedience, whilst her affections were still fixed on the absent prince. he saw that he could purchase the good fortune of being the husband of the noble princess, and son-in-law of the great king omar, and after him king of zanguebar, only by the misfortunes of prince mesoud. he asked himself if this were right, and was obliged to confess that justice and honour were opposed to it. he saw that the intoxication of good fortune had hitherto blinded him. then the remembrance of his father came before him, and his imagination pictured him pining away at the uncertainty of his son's fate. he bitterly reproached himself for his long forgetfulness, and for not having sent an embassy to announce his safe arrival in zanguebar. scarcely had these thoughts and feelings arisen in his breast, than he made up his mind: he went to the king, told him all, and begged him to let him go and fulfil a son's duty to a father whom he had too long neglected. omar sighed deeply at these disclosures of his expected son-in-law; he proposed to send a ship to bring his father, so that he might spend the rest of his life in sharing his son's good fortune and companionship. upon this medjeddin declared to him, with determination, that he could never be his son-in-law or successor to the throne. "i cannot purchase such good fortune at another's expense," said he; "it was otherwise before i knew the decision of fate; but now that i know that the prince mesoud must, through my happiness, always remain in his present condition, if i thus take away the possibility of his ever returning to his human form, i should be in the highest degree culpable, if i did not voluntarily give up my good fortune." all the persuasions and arguments of omar were useless. the councillors also, and the grand vizier and the governors of the provinces, begged him to continue in the land, and to take still more share in the government. he remained firm in his resolution; he promised the princess, who was astonished at his honourable spirit, that, as soon as he had seen and comforted his father, he would seek information about prince mesoud from all the sages and magicians of his native land, and that he would try all means to restore him to his former condition. as he was determined to set out, the king gave him costly presents, including many precious stones from his treasury, and provided him with a ship, and all necessaries for the voyage. the heavens seemed to favour the resolution of the returning son: the finest weather and most favourable winds seconded his journey, and the ship anchored in the harbour without accident. he took some servants, bought some camels, which he loaded with the king's presents, and so went through balsora along the river to bagdad. one beautiful evening he came near the city, and recognised the very place where he had lain at the feet of his father and salek, and listened to their conversation; their last discourse there returned to his memory. "well," said he to himself, "my own experience has indeed proved how true it is that it is easy for a man to be seduced from virtue into one false step, if he be not watchful, but relies on his own power: i thought that my heart was sure to be always right, and neglected the practice of weighing carefully each action beforehand. in this manner have i so much forgotten my love for my father, and had nearly committed a great wrong, having been about to sacrifice to my vanity, in the intoxication of good fortune, the happiness of the princess and her betrothed. and you, my father, were also right when you maintained that a heart accustomed to virtue from early years would only for a short time wander from the right road. i have myself experienced the truth of these words, and i therefore thank you with tears that you brought me up to what was good." as he spoke, he espied a small solitary hut where the palm-trees used to stand. a venerable man, much marked by sorrow, appeared at the door; he stood still before the threshold, and regarded the youth with astonishment; the young man gazed earnestly at him. then suddenly recognising the features of the old man, he threw himself on his knees before him, seized his hand, and covered it with kisses. "my father," cried he, "is it so indeed? have you become so much altered in the course of so few years? that is my fault. father, forgive your offending son, who forgot you in the height of prosperity." el kattab extended his other hand to him, blessed him, and said: "rise up, my son, rise; he who feels repentance is forgiven." he rose and threw himself into his father's arms. when he looked up again, he saw a man approaching, accompanied by a maiden, whose features he recognised. it was salek and his daughter maryam, medjeddin's playfellow. after welcoming him, they sat down, and medjeddin related to them all that had happened to him since the memorable evening. he related, truly and candidly, how he had forgotten his father, and nearly fallen into greater crimes, because he had been blinded by fortune, by greatness, and by honours. as they were sitting and conversing, they observed three birds coming up from a distance, and who seemed to be chasing one another. they soon perceived that one of them was a black bird flying in great fright from a large hawk. it was obvious that the hawk would soon have seized his prey, had he not been pursued in turn by a larger bird, to avoid which, he was often compelled to dart from side to side: at last they came to close conflict. the pursued black bird fell into medjeddin's lap; the hawk, struck by his pursuer, fell to the ground at their feet, and was, by the strong hooked bill and sharp claws of his adversary, soon killed and torn to pieces. scarcely had this taken place, when the conqueror changed into a venerable-looking sage. he turned to medjeddin, who was quite astonished, and said: "dip quickly your forefinger in the blood of this slain bird, and anoint with it the beak of the black one." medjeddin obeyed immediately; and scarcely had he touched the black bird's beak with the blood, ere it was transformed, and a handsome youth in kingly dress stood before them. "guess who this is," said the genius. "the prince mesoud?" asked medjeddin. the genius answered, "it is he!" and as he stood looking at the young prince with astonishment, added, "you do not perceive how and why all this has happened. i could explain to you all these mysteries; but to what purpose? it is not necessary for weak men to know the threads by which their fates are linked together: suffice it to know that it was necessary for you to perform all this, that you might be tried: you are found worthy, and heaven rewards you with maryam, the early companion of your youth, now to be your wife." then medjeddin turned towards maryam, and looked inquiringly at salek, her father. this latter said, "with joy i listen to the will of fate; the highest wish of my heart will now be fulfilled." "know," continued the genius, "that the slain bird was the enchanter who transformed the princess jasmin and the prince mesoud. they were also to pass through trials; thus it was decreed by fate. because the enchanter only fulfilled the will of fate from selfish motives, and carried his revenge beyond it, and contrary to it, the king of the genii commanded me to slay him." with these words he disappeared from their sight. they returned now in happy union to the city; and el kattab, who had built his hut at the edge of the wood to be always near the place of his sorrow, dwelt again in his house with his children. the prince proceeded to zanguebar in the same ship that had brought medjeddin. he was received there with great joy, and was soon married to his early love. but medjeddin's name lived long in their memory, and in that of all the inhabitants of that island. when the caliph haroun al raschid heard of medjeddin's return, he had him called before him, and made him relate his history. the caliph was so pleased with him that he took him into his palace, and gave him an important post in his court. his history he caused to be inscribed in the records of his kingdom. and when giafar, his aged vizier, expressed a wish to end his life in quietness, the caliph raised medjeddin to the grand viziership; and he continued long in this office, to the pleasure of his friends and the happiness of the people, by whom he was greatly beloved. viii. the story of king bedreddin-lolo and his vizir atalmulc. the city of damascus is one of the most populous and flourishing cities of the east, and to this capital of a rich kingdom travellers and caravans arrive from all the countries of the world. its sovereigns bear the title of "prince of the believers," and their person is sacred. bedreddin-lolo, king of damascus, had for his grand vizir a man celebrated in history for his goodness. this minister, whose real name was aswad, but whose great virtues had acquired for him the surname of atalmulc[ ], was in every way worthy of the high name he had so obtained; uniting to an indefatigable zeal for the king's service a vigilance that nothing could deceive, a penetrating and capacious mind, and a disinterestedness that was universally admired. but he was surnamed the "sorrowful" vizir, because he appeared to be always plunged in a profound melancholy. whatever he did at court was performed in a grave and serious manner, and he never smiled at the wittiest remark that was made in his presence. one day the king entertained this vizir and sedif-elmuloak, his favourite, and related to them, laughing immoderately all the while, the following misfortunes that happened to a rich old miser. the old pair of slippers. there was at bagdad a merchant very notorious for his avarice, and his name was abou-cassem-tambouri. although he was enormously rich, his clothes were constantly in rags and tatters, and his turban, made of coarse stuff, was so dirty that its colour could no longer be distinguished. of all his garments, however, his slippers were the most remarkable; the soles were kept together by large, clumsy nails, and the upper leathers were pieced in every direction. the famous ship argo was not made up of a greater number of separate fragments. during the ten years of their existence as slippers, the cleverest cobblers of bagdad had exerted their utmost skill to tag together their remains, and had only succeeded by adding piece on piece, by which means they had become so heavy, that they had passed into a proverb; and when any one wished to describe something weighty, the slippers of cassem were always the object of comparison. one day, when this merchant was taking a walk in the great bazaar of the city, a proposal was made to him to buy a considerable quantity of glass; he agreed to the offer, because it was an advantageous one; and having heard a few days afterwards, that a perfumer who had fallen into difficulties had nothing left but some rose-water, which he would of course be obliged to sell as speedily as possible, cassem took advantage of the poor man's misfortune, and purchased it at less than half its value. this successful stroke of business had put him into good humour, and instead of giving a great feast, according to the custom of eastern merchants, when they have made an excellent bargain, he thought it better to take a bath, a luxury which he had not enjoyed for a long time. whilst he was taking off his clothes, one of his friends, or at least one who pretended to be a friend--for it is a rare thing for a miser to have one--remarked to him that his slippers made him the laughing-stock of the whole city, and that he certainly ought to purchase a new pair. "i have long thought of doing so," replied cassem; "but my old ones are not so very bad, and will last me for some time even yet." while talking, he stripped off his clothes, and entered the bath. at this juncture the cadi of bagdad came also to take one. cassem, having finished his bath before the judge, went into the first apartment, where he found his clothes, but not his slippers, which had disappeared, and in their place was a new pair, which our miser was convinced were a present from the man who had made him such a friendly remonstrance about them. with that he made no more ado, but put the new pair on his own feet, thus sparing himself the pain of buying new ones, and left the bath overjoyed with his prize. when the cadi had finished his bath, his slaves looked about in vain, for their master's slippers, and finding only a wretched pair, which were immediately recognized as cassem's, the police ran after the supposed sharper, and brought him back with the stolen goods upon his feet. the cadi, after having exchanged the slippers, sent cassem to prison; and, as he was well known to be rich as well as avaricious, he was not allowed to come out of prison until he had paid a handsome fine. on returning home the afflicted cassem threw his slippers, in a rage, into the tigris, which flowed beneath his windows. a few days after, some fishermen, drawing up a net heavier than usual, found in it cassem's slippers. the nails, with which they had been patched, had broken the meshes of the net. the fishermen, out of spite to cassem and his slippers, threw them into his room by the open window, and in their passage they struck the bottles containing the rose-water, and knocking them down, the bottles were broken and the water totally lost. the grief and wrath of cassem on seeing this may easily be conceived. he cursed his slippers, and tearing out the hair from his beard, vowed that they should cause him no more mischief; and so saying, he took a spade, and digging a hole in his garden, buried them there. one of his neighbours, however, who had borne him a grudge for a long time, perceived him turning up the earth, and ran and told the governor that cassem had dug up a treasure in his garden. this was enough to excite the cupidity of the officer, and he sent forthwith for cassem. in vain our miser declared that he had not found money, that he was only employed in burying his slippers. the governor had calculated on his bribe, and the afflicted cassem could only regain his liberty by paying down a second large sum. our friend, in an extremity of despair, consigned his slippers to shitan[ ], and went and threw them into an aqueduct at some distance from the city, thinking that this time he should hear no more of them. but as though the evil spirit he had invoked was determined to play him a trick, the slippers somehow found their way just to the very pipe of the aqueduct, by this means preventing the flowing of the water. the persons who had the care of the aqueduct having gone to ascertain the cause of the stoppage, and to remove it, carried cassem's slippers to the governor of the city, declaring them to be the cause of all the injury. their unfortunate owner was thrown again into prison, and condemned to pay a larger fine than before. the governor who had punished the offence, and who pretended to be indebted to no one for any thing, returned cassem's precious slippers to him again most faithfully; and cassem, in order to free himself from all the evils which they had brought upon him, resolved to burn them. as they were saturated with water, he first of all put them out to dry in the sun on the terrace of his house. but cassem's evil genius had not yet quite done with his tricks, and the last which he played him was the worst of all. a neighbour's dog prowling along the terrace on the housetops spied out the slippers, and, darting at them, carried off one of them. as, however, the dog was playing with it, and tossing it about, he contrived to let it fall off the terrace on to the head of a woman who happened to be passing below. the fright and the violence of the blow together, made the poor woman quite ill; and her husband having carried his complaint before the cadi, cassem was condemned to pay a fine proportionate to the misfortune of which he had been the cause. going home, he took up his slippers, and returned to the cadi with them in his hands. "my lord," he exclaimed with a vehemence which excited the judge's laughter, "my lord, look at the fatal cause of all my troubles! these abominable slippers have at length reduced me to poverty; be pleased now to issue a decree, in order that the misfortunes which they will, no doubt, still continue to occasion, may not be imputed to me." the cadi could not refuse to comply with this request, and cassem learned, at great expense, the danger there is in not changing one's slippers often enough. * * * * * the vizir listened to this story with such a serious countenance that bedreddin was astonished. "atalmulc," he said, "you are of a strange disposition; you seem always sad and melancholy. during ten years that you have been in my service i have never seen the slightest sign of pleasure on your countenance." "may it please your majesty," replied the vizir, "you need not be surprised at it; all have their secret sorrows; there is no man on earth who is exempt from them." "your remark is surely untrue," replied the king. "do you mean to say that all men have some secret anxiety preying on their minds, because you appear in that state? do you really believe this to be the truth?" "yes, your majesty," replied atalmulc; "such is the condition of all the children of adam; our bosoms are incapable of enjoying perfect ease. judge of others by yourself. is your majesty quite contented?" "oh, as to me," exclaimed bedreddin, "that is impossible! i have enemies to deal with--the weight of an empire on my hands--a thousand cares to distract my thoughts, and disturb the repose of my life; but i am convinced that there are in the world a vast number of persons whose days run on in unruffled enjoyment." the vizir atalmulc, however, pertinaciously adhered to what he had stated, so that the king, seeing him so strongly attached to his opinion, said to him: "if no one is exempt from vexation, all the world, at any rate, is not like you, wholly overcome by affliction. you have made me, however, very curious to know what it is that has rendered you so pensive and sorrowful; tell me therefore the reason of your melancholy." "i shall comply with your majesty's wish," replied the vizir, "and reveal the cause of my secret cares to you, by relating the history of my life." the history of atalmulc, surnamed "the sorrowful vizir," and the princess zelica. i am the only son of a rich jeweller of bagdad. my father, whose name was cogia abdallah, spared no expense in my education; having from my earliest infancy hired masters, who taught me the various sciences, philosophy, law, theology, and more particularly the different languages of asia, in order that they might be useful to me in my travels, if i should ever make any in that part of the world. shortly after this my father died, and when the funeral ceremony, which was magnificent, was over, i took possession of all his immense property. instead of giving myself up to the pursuit of pleasure, i resolved to devote myself to my father's profession. being well versed in the knowledge of precious stones, i had reason to believe that i should succeed in business, and accordingly i went into partnership with two merchant jewellers of bagdad, friends of my father, who were about to undertake a trading expedition to ormus. at basra we hired a vessel, and embarked on our enterprise from the bay which bears the name of that city. our companions on board were agreeable; the ship wafted by favourable winds glided swiftly through the waves. we passed the time in festive mirth, and our voyage promised to end as pleasantly as we could desire, when my two associates gave me a startling proof that they were not the honourable characters i had supposed. we were just at the end of our voyage, and being in good spirits on that account, we held a sort of farewell feast, and did ample justice to some exquisite wines which we had laid in at basra. for my part, being in the highest spirits, i made copious libations, and, on retiring to rest, lay down on a sofa, without taking off my clothes. in the middle of the night, while i was buried in profound slumber, my partners took me up in their arms, and threw me over-board through the cabin window. death would seem inevitable under the circumstances, and in truth it is still impossible for me to imagine how i was fortunate enough to survive such a catastrophe. the sea was running high at the time, but the waves, as if heaven had commanded them to spare me, instead of overwhelming me, bore me to the foot of a mountain, and cast me violently on shore. as soon as i recovered the shock, i found myself safe and sound on the beach, where i passed the remainder of the night in thanking god for my deliverance, at which i could not sufficiently wonder. at break of day i clambered up with great difficulty to the top of the mountain, which was very steep, and met there with some peasants of the neighbourhood, who were occupied in collecting crystal, which they afterwards sold at ormus. i related to them the danger in which my life had been placed, and my escape seemed miraculous to them, as well as to myself. these worthy people took pity on me, gave me part of their provisions, which consisted of honey and rice, and as soon as they had finished gathering their crystal, acted as my guides to the great city of ormus. i put up at a caravansary, where the first object that met my eyes was one of my associates. his surprise was great at seeing a man whom he no doubt believed to be safely housed in some marine monster's stomach, and he ran off instantly to find his companion, in order to acquaint him with my arrival, and to plan how they should receive me. they soon settled as to their course of proceeding, and, returning to the place where i was, they took no notice of me, and studiously conducted themselves as though they had never seen me before. "o traitors!" i exclaimed, "heaven frustrated your murderous intentions, and in spite of your cruelty i am still alive; give me back instantly all my precious stones; i will no longer associate with such vile wretches." on hearing these words, which ought to have overwhelmed them with shame and remorse, they had the impudence to reply: "o thief and rogue! who are you, and where do you come from? what precious stones do you speak of that we have belonging to you?" so saying, they set on me, and gave me several blows with a stick. i threatened to complain to the cadi, but they anticipated me by going to that judge themselves. bowing down before him, after having previously taken care to present him with some valuable brilliants, which no doubt belonged to me, they said to him: "o lamp of justice! light which dispels the darkness of deceit! we have recourse to you. we are poor strangers, come from the ends of the earth to trade here; is it right that a thief should insult us, and will you permit that he should deprive us by an imposture of what we have acquired at the risk of our lives, and after running a thousand dangers?" "who is the man of whom you make this complaint?" asked the cadi. "my lord," they replied, "we do not know him, we never saw him before this morning." at this moment i presented myself before the judge, to make my own complaint, but as soon as they saw me they exclaimed: "here is the man--here is the wretch, the arrant thief! he is even impudent enough to venture into your palace, and show himself before you, the very sight of whom ought to frighten the guilty. great judge, condescend to protect us." i now approached the cadi, in order to address him, but having no presents to make to him, i found it impossible to get him to listen to my story. the calm and unmoved aspect with which i spoke to him, proceeding from the testimony of a good conscience, was thought by the cadi's prejudiced mind to arise from impudence, and he ordered his archers to convey me instantly to prison, an order which they lost no time in executing. so that while i, an innocent man, was loaded with chains, my partners departed, not only unpunished but in triumph, and well persuaded that a new miracle would require to be wrought to deliver me from the hands of the cadi. and, indeed, my escape from my present difficulty might not have been of so fortunate a nature as that from drowning, had not an incident occurred which showed the goodness of heaven still visibly displayed on my behalf. the peasants who had brought me to ormus, having heard by chance that i had been put in prison, moved with compassion, went to the cadi, and told him in what way they had fallen in with me, together with all the details which they had heard from myself on the mountain. this recital began to open the eyes of the judge, and caused him to regret that he had not listened to me. he forthwith resolved to investigate the matter; and first of all sent to the caravansary to inquire for the two merchants, but they had hastily decamped, and returned on board the ship, which had put to sea; for in spite of the bias of the cadi in their favour they had taken the alarm. their rapid flight effectually convinced the judge that i had been committed to prison unjustly, and he gave orders to set me at liberty. such was the termination of the partnership i had entered into with the two honest jewellers. as one saved from drowning, and the hands of justice, (or rather injustice,) i might well have considered myself eminently bound to return thanks to the almighty. my situation, however, was such as to render me rather indifferent as to what might happen to me; for i was without money, without friends, without credit, and reduced either to subsist on charity, or to perish of hunger. i quitted ormus, without knowing what would become of me, and walked in the direction of the prairie of lar, which is between the mountains and the persian gulf. on arriving there, i met a caravan of merchants from hindostan, who were setting out for schiras, and, joining myself to them, i gained a subsistence by rendering myself useful on trifling occasions. on our arrival at schiras, where the shah tahmaspe held his court, i stopped for some time in that city. one day, when returning from the great mosque to the caravansary where i lodged, i saw an officer of the king of persia, richly dressed and very handsome; looking at me attentively, he came up to me and said, "young man, from what country do you come; for i see you are a stranger, and evidently not in a very prosperous condition?" i replied, that i came from bagdad, and that his conjecture was but too well founded. i then related my history more at length, to which he listened attentively, and with much feeling for my misfortunes. he next asked me how old i was; and when i told him that i was nineteen years of age, he desired me to follow him, and walking before me proceeded to the king's palace, which i entered along with him. conducting me into a very elegant apartment, he asked me, "what is your name?" i replied, "aswad;" he then asked many other questions, and being satisfied with my replies, said at last: "aswad, your misfortunes have affected me greatly, and i wish to assist you as a father: i am the capi-aga[ ] of the king of persia; there is now a place vacant for a new page, and i have appointed you to it. you are young and handsome, and i cannot make a better choice, for there is not one among the present pages who surpasses you in good looks." i thanked the capi-aga for his kindness, and he forthwith took me under his command, and caused me to be equipped in the dress of a page. i was made acquainted with my duties, which i soon learned to discharge in such a manner as to gain the esteem of the zuluflis[ ], and to confer honour on my protector. there was a rule that no page of the twelve chambers should, under pain of death, remain in the gardens of the seraglio after a certain hour, when the women were accustomed occasionally to walk there. the same rule extended to all the officers of the palace and the soldiers of the guard. being in the gardens one evening quite alone, and musing on my misfortunes, i became so lost in thought that i did not perceive that the proper time for men to leave the gardens was already past: knowing that no time was to be lost, i quickened my pace in order to enter the palace, when just as i was turning the corner of one of the walks, a lady appeared before me. she was of a majestic stature, and in spite of the darkness i could see that she was both young and beautiful. "you are in a great hurry," she remarked; "what can it be that obliges you to walk so fast?" "i have very good reasons for doing so," i replied, "and if you belong to the palace, as doubtless you do, you cannot be ignorant of them. you know that men are forbidden to appear in the gardens after a certain hour, and that whoever breaks this rule suffers death." "you have been rather slow in remembering the rule," replied the lady, "for the hour is long past; however, on another account you may thank your stars you have loitered, for if you had not, you would not have met with me." "how unfortunate for me that i should have mistaken the time," i exclaimed, thinking only that i had placed my life in danger. "don't reproach yourself," said the lady; "if you do, i shall feel offended. you ought to look on your misfortune to be rather a source of congratulation. it is very true that the danger in which you are placed presents ideas disagreeable enough, but it is not quite so certain that you will be beheaded, for the king is a good prince, who may be induced to forgive you. who are you?" "i am one of the pages," i replied. "indeed!" she exclaimed, "you make very wise observations for a page; the grand vizir could not make better. well, don't distress yourself about what may happen to-morrow, the events of which are hidden from you, and are only known to heaven, which has perhaps even now prepared a means of escape for you. leave then the future to take care of itself, and think only of the present. if you knew who i am, and the great honour conferred upon you by this adventure, instead of poisoning the precious moments by bitter reflections, you would esteem yourself the most fortunate of mortals." by such animating language the lady at length dispelled my fears: the idea of the punishment which threatened me vanished from my mind as i abandoned myself to the flattering ideas which she held out to me, and i proceeded somewhat over ardently to ingratiate myself with my companion. the next moment, however, as if at a signal from her, i found myself surrounded by ten or a dozen women who had concealed themselves close by, in order to listen to our conversation. it was easy now to see that the woman who had played me this trick was laughing at me. i supposed she was one of the female slaves of the princess of persia who was desirous of having a little amusement at my expense. all the other women ran quickly to her assistance, and, bursting into laughter, began to surround me, and to joke with me. one remarked that i was of a lively character, and well fitted for an amusing companion. "if i should ever walk all alone at night," said another, "i hope i shall meet with somebody quite as clever as this page." their pleasantries put me quite out of countenance, while every now and then they laughed outrageously, and i felt as ashamed as if they had rallied me for being too bashful. they even made themselves merry at my having permitted the hour for leaving the gardens to escape me, and said that it would be a pity if i were to die on that account; and that i well deserved to live since i was so devoted to the service of the ladies. the first one then, whom i had heard addressed as cale-cairi, said to another, "it is for you, my princess, to determine respecting his lot: is it your wish that he should be abandoned to his fate, or shall we lend him our assistance?" "he must be saved from the danger he is in," replied the princess: "i give my consent for him to live; and, indeed, to the end that he may remember this adventure of his for a long time to come, we must make it still more agreeable to him; let him come to my apartments." when i entered the chamber of zelica begum--for such was her name, and she was the princess of persia--she inquired my name, and how long i had been a page. when i had satisfied her curiosity on these points she said: "well, aswad, make yourself at home, and forget that you are in an apartment which is forbidden to be entered by any man: forget that i am zelica: speak to us as if you were with a party of young ladies, the daughters of plain citizens of schiras: look attentively at all these young women, and tell me frankly which one among us all you like best." although zelica's slaves were perfectly beautiful, and the princess herself might be considered to have a just claim to the preference, my heart decided at once in favour of the charming cale-cairi; but concealing sentiments which would seem to cast zelica into the shade, i said to her that she ought not to place herself in the same rank with the others, or contend with her slaves for the possession of my heart, for that her beauty was such that wherever she was seen, all eyes must be directed to her, and her alone. while speaking thus, however, i could not resist looking at cale-cairi in a way which would make her think that my language had been dictated by courtesy alone, and not by the real feelings of my breast. zelica noticing this, said, "aswad, you flatter me too much: you must be more candid: i am certain that you have not spoken your real sentiments, and you must really answer me truly in reply to my question: open your inmost soul to us: we all beg you to do this, and you cannot confer a greater pleasure both on myself and all my slaves." yielding at last to their urgent requests, i threw off my timidity, and addressing myself to zelica, i said: "i will then endeavour to comply with your highness's wishes: it would be difficult to decide which of the exquisitely beautiful assemblage before me is the most beautiful, but i will avow to you that the amiable cale-cairi is the lady for whom the inclinations of my heart plead the most strongly." zelica, instead of being offended by my boldness, replied: "i am well pleased, aswad, that you have given the preference to cale-cairi; she is my favourite, and that is sufficient to prove that your taste is not bad. you do not know the full worth of the fair lady whom you have chosen: we unite in owning that she excels us all." the princess and her slaves now began to banter cale-cairi on the triumph which her charms had achieved--and she received all their witticisms in very good part. zelica then ordered a lute to be brought, and placing it in cale's hands, said to her, "show your lover what you can do with it," and she played upon it in a style which enchanted me, accompanying it at the same time with her voice in a song which indicated that when a lover has made choice of a suitable object, he ought to love that dear one for ever. an old slave at length came to inform us that daylight was approaching, and that there was no time to be lost, if it were intended that i should quit the apartments in safety. zelica then told me to follow the slave, who led me through many galleries, and by many windings and turnings, until we reached a little gate of which she had the key; and on the door being opened, i went out, and as it was now daylight, i saw that i was no longer in the palace. a few hours after i rejoined my companions. eight days after this, an eunuch came to the door of the king's apartments, and said that he wished to speak with me. i went to him and inquired what he wanted. "is not your name aswad?" he asked. i replied that it was. he then put a note into my hands, and went away. the letter stated that if i felt inclined to pay a visit to the gardens of the seraglio next night, and would be at the same place as before, i should there see a lady who was very sensibly touched with the preference i had given to her over all the princess's women. although i suspected that cale-cairi had taken a fancy to me, i had no idea of receiving such a letter as this from her. intoxicated with my good luck, i asked leave from the oda-baschi to pay a visit to a dervise--who was a countryman of my own, and who had just arrived from mecca. leave being granted me, i ran, or rather flew, to the gardens of the seraglio, as soon as night was come. if, on the first occasion time fled too swiftly and surprised me into stopping after the hour for leaving the gardens, it seemed now too slow in bringing me the promised pleasure, and i thought the hour of retreat would never come. it did come, however, and i could see, shortly afterwards, approaching the place where i was concealed, a lady whom i recognized by her stature and air to be cale-cairi. transported with delight, i drew near, and throwing myself at her feet, i remained for some time prostrate on the ground without speaking a word, so completely had i lost all self-possession. "rise, aswad," she said, "i am enraptured at having inspired you with such feelings towards me, for i will confess to you that for my part i have not been able to resist a friendly regard for you. your youth, good looks, and lively and brilliant wit, but more than all, perhaps, your preferring me to other ladies of great beauty, have endeared you to me. my conduct proves this sufficiently; but, alas! my dear aswad," she added, sighing, "i scarcely know whether i ought to be proud of the conquest i have made, or rather to regard it as an event which will embitter the whole course of my life." "but, madam," i replied, "why give way to such gloomy presentiments at the very time when your presence brings me such delight?" "it is not," she replied, "a foolish fear that now, at such a moment as this, causes me annoyance and disturbs the pleasure of our meeting; my fears are only too well founded, and you are ignorant of the cause of my grief. the princess zelica loves you, and when she has freed herself, as she will do soon, from the splendid bondage in which she is held, she will inform you of your happiness. when she confesses to you that you are dear to her, how will you receive such a glorious avowal? will your love for me hold out against the honour of having the affections of the first princess in the world?" "yes, charming cale-cairi," i said, interrupting her; "i would prefer you even to zelica. were it to please heaven that you should have even a still more formidable rival, you would see that nothing could shake the constancy of a heart that is devoted to you." "unhappy aswad!" exclaimed the lady, "whither does your love carry you? what a fatal assurance you are giving me of your fidelity! you forget that i am a slave of the princess of persia. if you were to repay her kindness by ingratitude you would draw down her anger upon us both, and we should perish. better it were that i should yield you up to so powerful a rival; it would be the only means of saving ourselves." "no, no," i replied hastily; "there is another means which i should rather choose in my despair, and that would be to banish myself from the court altogether. after my retreat you would be safe from the vengeance of zelica, and you would regain your peace of mind: by degrees you would forget the unfortunate aswad, who would retire into the deserts to seek for rest in his misfortunes." i spoke with such deep feeling and truth that the lady was herself overcome with my grief, and said: "cease, aswad, to yield to a needless affliction. you are mistaken; your merits are such that it would be wrong to keep you longer in the dark. i am zelica herself, and not her slave. that night when you came to my apartment i personated cale-cairi, and you supposed my attendant to be myself." zelica then called one of her women, who ran to her from amidst some cypress trees where she was concealed, and i perceived that she was the slave whom i supposed to be the princess of persia. "aswad," said the princess to me, "you now see the true cale-cairi; i give her back her name and take my own: i have no wish to disguise myself any longer. although your love is greater than your ambition, i am certain that it will be a source of new pleasure to you to know that the lady who loves you is a princess." we passed nearly the whole night in walking about and conversing, and daylight would no doubt have found us in the gardens, had not cale-cairi, who was with us, taken care to inform us that it was time to withdraw. it was needful then that we should separate, but before i parted from zelica the princess said to me: "adieu, aswad! do not forget me. we shall see each other again, and i will soon let you know how dear you are to me." i threw myself at her feet to thank her for so flattering a promise, after which cale-cairi took me out by the same winding passages as before, and i then left the seraglio. beloved by the august princess whom i idolized, and forming an enchanting image of what she had promised me, i abandoned myself to the most pleasing fancies that the mind could depict, when an unlooked-for event deprived me all on a sudden of my proud hopes. i had heard a report that the princess zelica was ill, and two days afterwards the rumour of her death was circulated in the palace. i was unwilling to give credit to this fatal intelligence, and refused to do so until i saw preparations going for the funeral ceremony. i did not see the whole of it, because excessive grief threw me into a succession of dangerous fainting fits which lasted for a long time. one of the officers of the palace gave directions for me to be carried into the pages' room, where great care was taken of me; my limbs were rubbed with a balm of exceeding virtue, and in spite of my overwhelming misery, such was the progress i made, that in two days my strength was restored. a stay in schiras, however, having become insupportable, i secretly left the court of persia three days after the interment of my beloved princess. overwhelmed with grief, i walked all night without knowing whither i was going or where i ought to go. next morning, having stopped to rest myself, a young man approached who was dressed in a very extraordinary manner. coming up to me he saluted me and presented me with a green branch which he held in his hand, and after having civilly made me accept it, he began to recite some persian verses to induce me to bestow my charity upon him. as i had no money i could not give him any. thinking that i was ignorant of the persian language he recited some arabic verses, but seeing that he had no better success this way than the other, and that i did not do what he wanted, he said to me, "brother, i cannot persuade myself that you are deficient in charity, but rather in the means wherewith to exercise it." "you are right," i said, "i have not a farthing in the world, and i know not even where to shelter my head." "unfortunate man," he exclaimed, "what a sad plight you are in; i really pity you, and wish, moreover, to assist you." i was not a little astonished to be thus addressed by a man who had been asking alms of me a moment before, and i supposed that the assistance he offered was merely that of his prayers, when he went on to say: "i am one of those merry fellows they call fakirs; and i can tell you, that though we subsist entirely on charity, we fare none the less sumptuously for that, as we have discovered the secret of exciting the compassion of well-meaning people by an appearance of mortification and penance which we well know how to impart to ourselves. it is true there are a few fakirs fools enough to be really what they seem, and who lead a life of such austerity as sometimes to go ten whole days without the least nourishment. but we are a little less rigorous than these ascetics; we make no pretensions to the reality of their virtues, only to the appearance of them. will you become one of our fraternity? i am now on my way to meet two of them at bost; if you have a fancy to make the fourth, you have but to follow me." "i am afraid," i replied, "that not being accustomed to your religious exercises i shall acquit myself but clumsily." "pray don't trouble yourself," he broke in, "on that head; i repeat to you that we are not fakirs of the austere order; in short, we have really nothing of the fakir about us but the dress." although i guessed from what the fakir had told me, that he and his companions were in reality three libertines in disguise, i nevertheless did not hesitate to join them; for besides being reckless from sheer misery, i had not learned among the pages of the court many lessons of scrupulousness on the score of morality. as soon as i had signified to the fakir my consent, he set out with me at once for bost, feeding me on the road with abundance of dates, rice, and other good things, which people presented to him in the towns and villages through which we passed; for the moment his little bell and his peculiar cry became heard, the good mussulmans came running to him with provisions from all quarters. in this way we arrived at the large town of bost; we made our way to a small house in the suburbs, where the two other fakirs resided. they received us with open arms, and appeared delighted with my resolution of joining them. they soon initiated me into their mysteries; that is to say, they showed me how to perform their antics. as soon as i was well instructed in the art of imposing on the populace, they sent me into the town to present respectable citizens with flowers or branches, and to recite verses to them. i always returned home with some pieces of silver, which enabled us to live merrily enough. i passed nearly two years with the fakirs, and should have lived there much longer had not the one who had induced me to join them, and whom i liked the best, proposed to me to travel. "aswad," said he one day, "i am sick of this town; i begin to long to roam a little. i have heard wonderful accounts of the city of candahar; if you will accompany me we will put the truth of these reports to the test." i consented at once, for i had a curiosity to see some new country, or rather, i was impelled by that superior power which guides our destinies. accordingly we both quitted bost, and passing through many cities of segestan without stopping, we reached the noble city of candahar, surrounded with its strong fortifications. we betook ourselves to a caravansary, where our dresses, the most commendable thing about us by the way, procured us a kind and hearty reception. we found the inhabitants of the city in a great bustle, as they were going to celebrate the feast of giulous on the following day. we learned that at court they were no less busy, as every one was anxious to show his attachment for the king firouzshah, who had earned by his justice the love of all good men, and still more by his rigour the fear of the wicked. the fakirs going where they please without hindrance, we proceeded next day to court to witness the festival, which however had few charms for the eyes of a man who had seen the giulous of the king of persia. whilst we were attentively watching what passed, i felt myself pulled by the sleeve, and turning round, perceived close to me the very eunuch who, in the shah's palace, had been the bearer of cale-cairi's, or rather zelica's letter. "my lord," he whispered, "i recognized you at once in spite of your strange dress; but indeed, though i flatter myself i am never mistaken, i am not quite sure whether on the present occasion i ought not to doubt the evidence of my own eyes. is it possible that it is you i have met here?" "and pray," i asked in reply, "what are you doing at candahar, and why have you left the court of persia? can the death of the princess zelica have driven you away as it did me?" "that," replied he, "is exactly what i cannot tell you at this moment, but i will amply satisfy your curiosity if you will meet me here to-morrow alone at the same hour. i have a few things to tell you which will astonish you, and which--let me add--concern you not a little." i promised to return alone to the same spot the following day, and took care to keep my word. the eunuch was there, and coming up to me, proposed that we should leave the palace and seek some place better adapted for conversation. we accordingly went out into the city, and after traversing several streets, stopped at last at the door of a good-sized house, of which he had the key. we entered, and i observed suites of apartments magnificently furnished, delicious carpets and luxurious sofas, whilst through the windows i perceived a garden beautifully laid out, with a delightful piece of water in the middle, bordered with variegated marble. "my lord aswad," said the eunuch, "i trust the house pleases you." "i am delighted with it," i replied. "i am glad to hear you say so," he returned, "for i yesterday took it, just as you see it, for _you_. you will next want slaves to wait on you. i will go and purchase some whilst you take a bath." so saying, he conducted me to a chamber, where i found baths all ready. "in heaven's name," i exclaimed, "tell me for what purpose you have brought me here, and what the news is you have promised to tell me." "at the proper time and place," he rejoined, "you shall learn all; for the present be content to know that your lot is materially changed since i met you, and that i have my orders for every thing i am doing." as he spoke, he assisted me to undress--a process which did not take long--i entered the bath and the eunuch left me, enjoining patience. all this mystery furnished ample food for conjecture, but i wearied myself fruitlessly in endeavouring to fathom it. schapour left me a long time in the bath, and my patience was beginning to be exhausted, when he returned, followed by four slaves, two of whom carried towels and garments, and the others all sorts of provisions. "i beg your pardon, my lord," said he, "i am extremely sorry i have kept you waiting so long." at the same time the slaves placed their bundles on the sofas and proceeded to wait on me: they rubbed me with towels of the finest texture, and then dressed me in rich garments, with a magnificent robe and turban. "what on earth is all this to end in?" said i to myself; "and by whose orders can it be that this eunuch treats me in such a manner?" my impatience to be enlightened became so lively that i could not conceal it. schapour soon perceived it, and said: "it is with the deepest regret that i see you so restless and uneasy, but i cannot yet relieve you. even supposing i had not been expressly forbidden to say a word, or even supposing that i betrayed my trust, and told you every thing i am now concealing from you, i should not succeed in tranquillizing you in the least; anxieties still more harassing would take the place of those which now worry you--you must wait till night, and you shall then learn all you desire to know." though i would not but augur well from what the eunuch said, yet it was impossible to help being for the rest of the day in a state of cruel suspense. i really believe that the expectation of evil causes less real suffering than that of some great pleasure. the night however came at last, and the slaves proceeded to light up the whole house, and particularly the principal apartment, with wax candles. in this apartment i took my seat with schapour, who, to assuage my impatience, kept saying to me, "they will be here in a moment--have but a little more patience." at last we heard knocking at the door, the eunuch went himself to open it, and returned with a lady whom, the moment she raised her veil, i recognized as cale-cairi. my surprise was extreme, for i believed her to be at schiras. "my lord aswad," said she, "however astonished you may be to see me, you will be much more so when you hear the story i have to tell you." at these words schapour and the slaves quitted the apartment, leaving me alone with cale-cairi; we both sat down on the same sofa, and she commenced her narration as follows: "you recollect well, my lord, that night on which zelica made herself known to you, nor can you yet have forgotten the promise she made you on leaving. the following day i asked her whether she had come to any resolution what course to pursue in the matter; i represented to her the absurdity of a princess of her rank dreaming of exposing herself to disgrace and death for the sake of a mere page; in short, i used every effort to overcome her passion; and you may well pardon me for doing so, as all my reasoning served but to strengthen her attachment. when i saw i was utterly unable to prevail with her, 'madam,' i said at length, 'i cannot contemplate without shuddering the danger into which you are rushing, but since no consideration seems powerful enough to detach you from your lover, we must endeavour to contrive some plan for you to meet without endangering either your life or his. i have thought of one which would doubtless be gratifying to your affection, but it seems to me so daring that i hardly like to propose it.' "'let me hear it at once, cale-cairi,' said the princess; 'whatever it may be, pray do not keep it from me.' "'if you put it in practice,' replied i, 'you must make up your mind to quit the court and live as though you had been born to the humblest lot in life. you must renounce all the honours of your rank. do you love aswad sufficiently to make so great a sacrifice?' "'_do_ i love him?' returned she, drawing a deep sigh. 'ah! the very humblest lot with him would please me far more than all the pomp and luxury with which i am now surrounded. only point out to me what i can do in order to enjoy his society without constraint and without impropriety, and i am ready to do it without a moment's hesitation.' "'well, madam,' i replied, 'since i perceive it is useless to endeavour to overcome your attachment, i will do all in my power to favour it. i am acquainted with the properties of a herb of singular power. one leaf of it placed in your ear will in an hour bring on so lethargic a sleep that you will appear quite dead; they will then perform the funeral rites, and carry you to your tomb, from which at nightfall i can easily release you--'" here i interrupted cale-cairi, "great heavens!" i exclaimed, "is it possible that the princess zelica did not die after all--what then has become of her?--" "my lord," said cale-cairi, "she is still alive. but pray listen patiently to my story, and you will learn all that you desire to know. my mistress," she continued, "threw herself into my arms with joy, so clever did my plan appear to her; presently, however, she began to perceive many difficulties connected with the rites and observances usual at funerals. i removed all her doubts, and thus we set about the execution of our plan. "zelica complained of a terrible pain in her head, and went to bed. the next morning i spread a report that she was dangerously ill; the royal physician was sent for; it was no difficult matter to deceive him. he sent some remedies which of course were never taken. from day to day the princess's illness increased; and as soon as, in my judgment, her last moments ought to approach, i placed in her ear a leaf of the herb i have mentioned. i immediately after ran to the shah, and told him the princess had but a few moments to live, and desired anxiously to speak to him. he came to her at once, and, observing that, as the herb began its work, her face changed rapidly, he was deeply moved, and began to weep. "'my lord,' said his daughter, in faint accents, 'i implore you, by the love you have always borne me, to order my last wishes to be carried out to the letter. my wish is, that when i am dead, no one but cale-cairi shall be permitted to wash my body, and that none of my other slaves shall share that honour with her. i also beg that none but she shall watch my tomb the first night, that no tears but hers shall fall on it, and that her prayers alone shall ascend to the prophet, to avert from me the assaults of evil spirits.' "shah tahmaspe promised his daughter that i alone should perform for her these last sad duties. "'but this is not all, my lord,' continued she; 'i also implore you to give cale-cairi her liberty the moment i am no more, and to give her, with her freedom, presents worthy of yourself and of the affection she has always evinced towards me.' "'my child,' replied the shah, 'make yourself perfectly easy on all the matters you have commended to my notice; should it be my misfortune to lose you, i swear that your favourite slave, loaded with presents, shall be at liberty to go whither she pleases.' "he had hardly done speaking when the herb completed its work. zelica lost all consciousness, and her father, supposing her to be dead, retired to his own apartments in deep grief. he gave orders that i alone should wash and embalm the body, which i pretended to do, and then wrapping it in a white cloth, laid it in the coffin. the princess was then carried in great pomp to the tomb, where by the shah's express orders i was left alone for the first night. i made a careful survey all round, to assure myself that no one was on the watch, and, not having discovered any one, i roused my mistress at once from her sleep in the coffin, made her put on a dress and veil i had concealed under my own, and we both repaired to a spot where schapour was in waiting. the faithful eunuch conducted the princess to a small house which he had taken, and i returned to the tomb to pass the remainder of the night. i made up a bundle to represent the corpse, covered it with the same cloth in which i had previously wrapped zelica, and placed it in the coffin. the next morning the princess's other slaves came to take my place, which i took care not to leave without previously indulging in all the expressions of inconsolable grief usual on such occasions. a faithful account of this exhibition of woe was duly carried to the king's ear, who was induced by it to make me presents far beyond what he had determined on. he ordered me ten thousand sequins out of his treasury, and granted me permission, the moment i asked it, to quit the court and carry with me the eunuch schapour. i immediately proceeded to join my mistress, and congratulate her on the complete success of our stratagem. next day we sent the eunuch to the royal apartments with a note asking you to come and see me. but one of your attendants told him you were ill, and could see no one. three days after we sent him again; he brought back word that you had left the palace, and that no one knew what had become of you. we caused search to be made for you all through the city; schapour left nothing undone in order to discover you; and when at last we gave up the search in despair and left schiras, we took the road to the indus, because we thought it just possible that you might have turned your steps in that direction;--and, stopping at every town on our route, we set on foot the most careful inquiries, which nevertheless proved entirely useless. "one day, on our road from one city to another, though we were travelling with a caravan, a vast horde of robbers surrounded us, and, in spite of a vigorous defence, swept down the merchants and plundered their goods. of us, of course, they soon made themselves masters, robbed us of our money and jewels, carried us to candahar, and sold us to a slave merchant of their acquaintance. this merchant had no sooner secured zelica, than he resolved to show her to the king of candahar. firouzshah was charmed the moment he saw her, and asked her whence she came. she told him ormus was her native place, and answered the prince's other inquiries in a similar manner. in the end he purchased us, and placed us in the palace of his wives, where the handsomest apartments were assigned to us. passionately though she is loved by the king of candahar, she cannot, nevertheless, forget you; and, though he sighs at her feet, he has never succeeded in obtaining the slightest proof of any return of attachment. no one ever saw any thing like the joy she exhibited yesterday when schapour informed her he had met with you. she was quite beside herself all the rest of the day. she ordered schapour instantly to engage a furnished house for you, to conduct you there to-day, and to suffer you to want for nothing. i am now here by her orders to inform you of the several things i have communicated, and to prepare you to see her in the course of to-morrow night. we shall leave the palace unobserved, and let ourselves in here by a small door in the garden wall, of which we have had a key made for us." as she uttered these last words the favourite slave of the princess of persia rose and quitted the apartment, in order to return to her mistress, and schapour accompanied her. i could do nothing all that night but think of zelica, my love for whom seemed to return with tenfold ardour. sleep never approached my eyelids, and the following day seemed a century. at last, as i almost began to think i should fall a victim to the agonies of suspense, i heard a knocking at the door; my slaves ran to open it, and the next moment i saw my princess entering the room. how shall i describe the feelings which her presence excited in me! and for her part what was her delight to see me once more! i threw myself at her feet and for some time could do nothing but embrace them without uttering a syllable. at length she forced me to rise, and seating me next her on the sofa, "aswad," said she, "i render thanks to heaven for reuniting us; let us now hope that the goodness of providence will not stop here, but will remove the new obstacle which hinders our union. in expectation of the arrival of that happy hour we will live here in contentment; and if circumstances prevent our meeting unconstrainedly, we can at least enjoy the consolation of hearing daily news of each other, as well as of occasional secret interviews." in such conversation we passed the greater part of the night. next day, in spite of the happy thoughts which now filled my mind, i did not forget the fakir in whose company i had come to candahar; and picturing to myself his uneasiness at not knowing where i was, i determined to go and find him out. i met him by accident in the street and we embraced each other. "my friend," said i, "i was on my way to your caravansary to inform you of what has happened to me, and to set your mind at ease. no doubt i have occasioned you some uneasiness." "that is true enough," replied he; "i was in no small trouble about you. but what a change! what clothes are these you appear in? you seem to have been in luck. whilst i was worrying myself about what had become of you, you were passing your time, as it seems to me, pleasantly enough." "i confess it, my dear friend," replied i; "and i can assure you, moreover, that i am a thousand times happier than it is possible for you to conceive. i want you not only to be witness of my good fortune, but to profit by it as well. quit your caravansary and come and live with me." so saying, i led him to my house and showed him all over it. he admired the rooms and the furniture amazingly, and every now and then would exclaim, "o heaven! what has aswad done more than other men to deserve such an accumulation of good fortune?" "what, now, fakir," asked i, "do you view my happy condition with chagrin? it seems to me that my good fortune is positively annoying to you." "on the contrary," returned he, "it affords me the liveliest satisfaction; so far from envying my friends' happiness, i am never so happy as when i see them flourishing." as he concluded this speech he embraced me ardently, the better to persuade me of the sincerity of his words. i believed him sincere, and acting towards him myself in the most perfect good faith, betrayed myself without the least mistrust into the hands of the most envious, the most cowardly, and the most treacherous of men. in this way we continued to live for some time. schapour or cale-cairi brought me daily intelligence of my beloved princess, and an occasional stolen interview elevated me to the seventh heaven of happiness. the fakir expressed the liveliest interest in the progress of my attachment, and i confided to him, as to my bosom friend, every particular of my life. one day, as i was reposing on a sofa and dreaming of zelica, i was aroused by a great noise in my house. i rose in order to ascertain the cause, and to my great dismay, found that it was occasioned by a body of firouzshah's own guards. "follow me," said the officer in command; "our orders are to conduct you to the palace." "what crime have i committed?" asked i; "of what am i accused?" "we have not been informed," replied the officer; "our orders are merely to carry you before the king; we know nothing about the cause: but i may tell you for your comfort, that if you are innocent you have nothing whatever to fear, for you have to do with a prince of the strictest justice, who never lightly condemns any one who is brought before him. he requires the most convincing proofs before he will pass an adverse sentence; but it is true at the same time that he punishes the guilty with the utmost rigour, so that, if you are guilty, i pity you." there was no help for it; i was obliged to follow the officer. on my way to the palace i said to myself, "firouzshah has no doubt discovered my correspondence with zelica; but how can he have learned it?" as we crossed the court-yard of the palace i observed that four gibbets had been erected there. i made a shrewd guess at their destination, and apprehended that this kind of death was the least part of the punishment i had to expect from the wrath of firouzshah. i raised my eyes to heaven and prayed that at least the princess of persia might be saved from this. we entered the palace; the officer who had charge of me conducted me into the king's apartment. that prince was there, attended only by his grand vizir and the fakir. the moment i perceived my treacherous friend i saw that i had been betrayed. "it is you, then," said firouzshah to me, "who has secret interviews with my favourite. wretch! you must be bold indeed to dare to trifle with me! speak, and reply exactly and truly to my questions:--when you came to candahar, were you not told that i was a severe punisher of criminals?" i replied that i was informed of it. "well," he continued, "since you knew that, why have you committed the greatest of all crimes?" "sire," i answered, "may your majesty's days last for ever. you know that love gives courage to the dove: a man possessed by a violent passion fears nothing: i am ready to be a victim to your just wrath; and as to any tortures that may be reserved for me i shall not complain of your severity, provided you grant a pardon to your favourite. alas! she was living peacefully in your palace before i came here, and would soon have been contented with rendering a great king happy, while gradually forgetting an unfortunate lover whom she never thought to see again. knowing that i was in this city, her former attachment returned. it was i that separated her from your affection, and your punishment should fall on me alone." while i was thus speaking, zelica, who had been sent for by the king's order, entered the apartment, followed by schapour and cale-cairi, and hearing the last words i uttered, ran forward and threw herself at the feet of firouzshah. "great prince!" she exclaimed, "forgive this young man: it is on your guilty slave, who has betrayed you, that your vengeance ought to fall." "traitors that you both are!" exclaimed the king "expect no favour either of you: die! both of you. this ungrateful woman only implores my kindness in behalf of the rash man who has offended me; while his sensibilities are only alive to the loss of her whom he loves; both of them thus parading in my very sight their amorous madness; what insolence! vizir!" he cried, turning to his minister, "let them be led away to execution. hang them up on gibbets, and after their death, let their carcasses be thrown to the dogs and the vultures." the officers were leading us away, when i resolved on one more desperate effort to save the princess. "stop, sire!" i shouted at the top of my voice, "take care what you do, and do not treat with ignominy the daughter of a king! let your jealousy even in its fury have respect to the august blood from which she has sprung!" at these words firouzshah appeared thunderstruck, and then addressing zelica, he inquired, "who then is the prince who is your father?" the princess looked at me with a proud countenance, and said: "alas! aswad, where was your discretion? how is it that you have told what i wished to conceal, if it were possible, even from myself? i should have had the consolation in death of knowing that my rank was a secret, but in disclosing it, you have overwhelmed me with shame. learn then who i am," she continued, addressing herself to firouzshah; "the slave whom you have condemned to an infamous death is the daughter of shah tahmaspe!" she then related her whole story, without omitting the slightest circumstance. when she had concluded her recital, which increased the king's astonishment, she said to him, "now i have revealed a secret which it was my intention to bury in my own breast, and which nothing but the indiscretion of my lover could have wrung from me. after this confession, which i make with extreme humiliation, i beg that you will instantly give orders for my immediate execution. this is the only favour i now ask of your majesty." "madam," replied the king, "i revoke the order for your death: i have too great a love for justice not to honour your faithfulness: what you have told me makes me look upon you in a different light; i have no complaint to make against you, and i set you at liberty. live for aswad, and may the happy aswad live for you! schapour also and your friend have life and liberty granted to them. go, most faithful lovers, and may you pass the rest of your days in the enjoyment of each other's society, and may nothing interrupt the course of your happiness. as for you, traitor," he continued, turning to the fakir, "you shall be punished for your treason, for your base and envious heart, which could not endure to see the happiness of your friend, and led you to deliver him up yourself to my vengeance. miserable wretch! you shall yourself be the victim of my jealousy!" while this villain was being led to the gallows, zelica and i threw ourselves at the feet of the king of candahar, and bathed them with tears of gratitude and joy. we assured him that we should ever retain a grateful sense of his generous goodness. and at length we left his palace, accompanied by schapour and cale-cairi, with the intention of taking up our lodging at a caravansary. we were just about to enter, when an officer sent by the king accosted us. "i come," he said, "from my master, firouzshah, to offer you a lodging: the grand vizir will lend you a house of his, situated at the gates of the city, where you will be very commodiously lodged. i will be your conductor thither, if you will allow me, and will take the trouble to follow me." we accompanied him, and soon arrived at a house of imposing appearance, and elegant architecture: the interior corresponded to the outside appearance. every thing was magnificent, and in good taste. there were more than twenty slaves, who told us that their master had desired them to supply us with every thing that we wanted, and to treat us as they would himself all the time that we remained in the house. here my marriage with the princess was duly celebrated, though with the strictest privacy. two days after we received a visit from the grand vizir, who brought an immense quantity of presents from the king. there were bales of silk and cloth of india, with twenty purses, each containing a thousand sequins of gold. as we did not feel ourselves quite at our ease in a house which was not our own, and as the king's bounty enabled us to go elsewhere, we joined ourselves to a great caravan of merchants, who were proceeding to bagdad, where we arrived without encountering any disaster. we took up our lodgings at my own house, where we remained for a few days after our arrival, for the purpose of recovering ourselves from the fatigue of our long journey. i then went into the city and visited my friends, who were astonished to see me, as they had been told by my associates on their return, that i was dead. as soon as i knew that they were at bagdad, i hastened to the grand vizir, threw myself at his feet, and related their perfidious conduct towards me. he gave orders for their immediate arrest, and commanded them to be interrogated in my presence. "is it not true," i asked them, "that i awoke when you took me up in your arms, that i asked what you intended doing with me, and that without replying you threw me out through the porthole of the ship into the sea?" they replied that i must have been dreaming, and that i must certainly have thrown myself into the sea when asleep. "why then," said the vizir, "did you pretend not to know him at ormus?" they replied that they had not seen me at ormus. "traitors!" he replied, eyeing them with a threatening aspect, "what will you say, when i show you a certificate from the cadi of ormus, proving the contrary?" at these words, which the vizir only made use of to put them to the proof, my associates turned pale and became confused. the vizir noticed their altered looks, and bade them confess their crime, that they might not be compelled to do so, by being put to the torture. they then confessed every thing and were conveyed to prison, until the caliph should be informed of the matter, and give his orders respecting the kind of death which they were to undergo. in the mean time, however, they contrived to make their escape, either by bribing their guards, or deceiving their vigilance, and concealed themselves so carefully in bagdad, that all search after them proved ineffectual. their property, however, was confiscated to the caliph, excepting a small part which was bestowed upon me, by way of some compensation for the robbery. after this all my ambition consisted in living a quiet life with the princess, with whom i was perfectly united in love and affection. my constant prayer to heaven was, that such a state of felicity might be continued to us; but alas! how vain are the wishes and hopes of man, who is never destined to enjoy unruffled repose for a long time, but whose existence is continually disturbed by contending cares and sorrows! returning home one evening from partaking of an entertainment with some friends, i knocked at the door of my house, but could get no one to admit me, although i knocked loudly and repeatedly. i was surprised at this, and began to form the gloomiest conjectures. i redoubled my knocks at the door, but no slave came to admit me. what can have happened? i thought; can this be some new misfortune that has befallen me? such were my surmises. at the noise i made several neighbours came out of their houses, and being as astonished as myself at none of the domestics appearing, we broke open the door, and on entering found my slaves lying on the floor, with their throats cut, and weltering in their blood. we passed from them to zelica's apartment, and here another frightful spectacle presented itself, for we found both schapour and cale-cairi stretched lifeless on the ground, bathed in their blood. i called on zelica, but received no reply. i searched every room and corner in the house, but without finding her. such a blow was too much for me, and i sank back in a swoon in the arms of my neighbours. happy would it have been for me had the angel of death at that moment borne me away; but no! it was the will of heaven that i should live to see the full horror of my fate. when my neighbours by their attentions had succeeded in recalling me to life, i asked how it was possible that so terrible a slaughter could have taken place in my house, and not the slightest sound of it have been heard by them. they replied that they were as astonished as i was at the circumstance. i then ran to the cadi, who despatched his nayb[ ] into all the surrounding country with all his asas[ ], but their inquiries were fruitless, and every one formed his own conjecture respecting this horrible tragedy. as for myself, i believed, as well as many others, that my former partners were the perpetrators of the crime. my grief was so intense that i fell ill, and continued in a languishing state at bagdad for a long time. when i recovered i sold my house, and went to reside at mossoul, carrying with me the wreck of my fortune. i adopted this course because i had a relation there of whom i was extremely fond, and who belonged to the household of the grand vizir of the king of mossoul. my relation received me very cordially, and in a short time i became known to the minister, who, thinking that he saw in me good business talents, gave me some employment. i endeavoured to discharge effectively the duties entrusted to me, and i had the good fortune to succeed. his satisfaction with me daily increased, and i became insensibly initiated into the most secret state affairs, the weight of which i even assisted him to bear. in a few years this minister died, and the king, who was perhaps too partial to me, appointed me to his place, which i filled for two years, to the satisfaction of the king, and the contentment of the people. to mark, also, how much he was pleased with my conduct as minister, he first gave me the name of atalmulc. and now envy soon began to be excited against me. some of the chief nobles became my secret enemies, and plotted my ruin. the better to secure their ends, they instilled suspicions respecting me into the mind of the prince of mossoul, who, being influenced by their unfavourable insinuations, asked the king, his father, to deprive me of power. the king at first refused, but yielded at last to the urgent requests of his son. i thereupon left mossoul, and came to damascus, where i had soon the honour of being presented to your majesty. i have now related to you, sire, the history of my life, and the cause of the deep grief in which i seem to be buried. the abduction of zelica is ever present to my mind, and renders me insensible to every kind of pleasure. if i could learn that she was no more in life, i might, perhaps, lose the recollection of her, as i did before; but the uncertainty of her fate brings her ever back to my memory, and constantly feeds my grief. continuation of the story of king bedreddin-lolo and his vizir. when the vizir atalmulc had concluded the recital of his adventures, the king said to him: "i am no longer surprised at your melancholy, for you have, indeed, good reason for it; but every one has not, like you, lost a princess, and you are wrong in thinking that there is not one man in the world who is perfectly satisfied with his condition." for the purpose of proving to his grand vizir that there are men in this state, the king of damascus said, one day, to his favourite seyf-elmulouk, "go into the city, walk before the shop of the artisans, and bring me here immediately the man who seems the gayest of the gay." the favourite obeyed, and returned to bedreddin in a few hours. "well," said the monarch, "have you done what i commanded you?" "yes, sire," replied the favourite, "i passed in front of several shops, and saw all descriptions of workmen who sung while at their various occupations, and seemed quite contented with their lot. i noticed one among them, a young weaver, named malek, who laughed with his neighbours till i thought he would have split his sides, and i stopped to have some chat with him. 'friend,' i said, 'you appear to be very merry.' 'yes,' he replied, 'it is my way: i don't encourage melancholy.' i asked his neighbours if it was true that he was of such a happy turn of mind, and they all assured me that he did nothing but laugh from morning till night. i then told him to follow me, and i have brought him to the palace. he is now at hand: does your majesty wish him to be introduced to your presence?" "by all means," replied the king, "bring him here, for i wish to speak with him." seyf-elmulouk immediately left the king's cabinet and returned in an instant, followed by a good-looking young man, whom the favourite presented to the king. the weaver threw himself down at the monarch's feet, who said to him, "rise, malek, and tell me truly if you are as happy as you seem to be: i am told you do nothing but laugh and sing the live-long day while at your work: you are thought to be the happiest man in my dominions, and there is reason to believe that such is really the case. tell me whether or not this is a correct judgment, and if you are contented with your condition. this is a matter that i am concerned to know; and i desire that you will speak without disguise." "great king," replied the weaver, standing up, "may your majesty's days last to the end of the world, and be interwoven with a thousand delights, unmixed with the slightest misfortune. excuse your slave from satisfying your curiosity. if it is forbidden to lie to kings, it must also be owned that there are truths that we dare not reveal. i can only say that a false idea is entertained respecting me: in spite of my laughter and songs, i am perhaps the most unfortunate of men. be contented with this avowal, sire, and do not compel me to relate my misfortunes to you." "i am resolved to have them," replied the king. "why should you be afraid to tell them? are they not creditable to you?" "of this your majesty must judge," replied the weaver. "i had resolved to keep them to myself, but since it is necessary i will proceed with my story." the weaver then began as follows:-- the story of malek and the princess schirine. i am the only son of a merchant of surat, who left me at his death considerable wealth, most of which i squandered away in a very short time. i was nearly at the end of my property, when one day a stranger, who was going to the island of serendib, happened to be dining with me. the conversation turned on voyages and travels: some who were present praised the advantages and the pleasure attending them, and others expatiated on their dangers. among the guests there were a few persons who had travelled extensively, and who gave us detailed accounts of their experience in this adventurous kind of life. between their accounts of the strange and curious scenes which they had witnessed and of the dangers which they had encountered, my mind was kept in suspense, as i conceived a strong desire to travel, and yet felt afraid of the accompanying risks. after listening to all that was related, i remarked: "it is impossible to hear your striking account of the pleasure experienced by you in travelling over the world without feeling a strong wish to travel also; but the dangers to which a traveller is exposed deprive me of all inclination for visiting foreign countries. if it were possible," i added, smiling, "to go from one end of the earth to the other, without meeting with any bad accident by the way, i would leave surat to-day." these words excited universal laughter, but the stranger before alluded to remarked: "o malek! if you have a desire to travel, and if nothing prevents you but the fear of encountering robbers and other dangers, i will teach you whenever you have a mind, a method of travelling at your pleasure, and without peril, from one kingdom to another." i thought he was joking, but after dinner he took me aside, and told me that he would pay me a visit the following morning and show me something extraordinary. he was true to his word, for the next day he came to see me, and said, "i mean to keep my promise, but some days must elapse before you can see the effect, for what i have to show you is a piece of workmanship which cannot be constructed in a day. send therefore for a carpenter; let one of your slaves go for him, and let them both return with planks and other materials according to this list." i immediately complied with his request. when the slave and the carpenter returned, the stranger directed the latter to construct a box in the form of a bird, six feet in length and four in breadth, the upper part open, so as to admit a man to sit in it. the artisan immediately set to work, and the stranger on his part was not idle, for he made or brought from his lodging several parts of the machine, such as wings, wheels, and springs. for several days the carpenter and he worked together, and afterwards the former was dismissed, while the stranger spent one day in putting together the machinery and finishing the work. at length on the sixth day the box was finished, and covered with a persian carpet. i observed that in this box there were several apertures, as well to admit air as to serve for look-outs. at the stranger's desire i then ordered some of my slaves to carry it into the country, whither i followed with the stranger. when we arrived at the spot he said to me, "send away your slaves and let no one be here but ourselves. i do not wish to have other persons present beside yourself to see what i am about to do." i ordered my slaves to return home, while i remained alone with the stranger. i was very anxious to know what he intended to do with this machine, and eagerly watched his movements. he removed the carpet, and stepped inside. in a moment the box began to ascend above the earth and soared into the sky with incredible swiftness, carrying him rapidly to a great distance in the clouds; before i had recovered from my astonishment he was down again on the ground. i cannot express to you my amazement at witnessing this miracle of art. "you behold," said the stranger to me, as he stepped out of the machine, "a very quiet carriage, and you must admit that in travelling in it there is no fear of being robbed on the journey. this is the method i spoke of, and i now make you a present of the machine to be employed by you if ever you should take a fancy to visit foreign countries. do not suppose that there is any magic or black art in what you have seen: it is neither by cabalistic words nor by virtue of a talisman that the box rises above the earth: its motion is produced merely by an ingenious adaptation of machinery. i am perfectly conversant with the mechanical arts, and know how to construct other machines quite as surprising as this one." i thanked the stranger for such a rare gift, and as a mark of my gratitude presented him with a purse of sequins. i then requested him to instruct me how to set the machine in motion. "it is very easily done," he said, and requested me to step into the box along with him: he then touched a spring and we immediately mounted up into the air; when there, he next showed me how to steer the machine. "by turning this screw," he said, "you will go to the right, and that other screw will take you to the left; by touching this spring you will ascend, and the same operation applied to another spring will cause you to descend." i wanted to make the experiment myself: i turned the screws and touched the springs, and the machine, obedient to my hand, went whither i pleased; i quickened its movements, or slackened them, just as i wished. after having taken several turns in the air, we directed our flight towards my house and alighted in the garden. we reached home before my slaves, who were astonished beyond measure when they found we had returned. i shut up the box in my room, where i watched it more carefully than any heap of gold; and the stranger departed as well satisfied with me as i was with him. i continued to amuse myself in the society of my friends until i had eaten and drunk all my fortune--was compelled to borrow money, and eventually got over head and ears in debt. as soon as it was known in surat that i was a ruined man, i lost all credit; no one would trust me, and my creditors being impatient to get their money, sent me summonses to pay them. finding myself almost penniless, and consequently exposed to all kinds of insults and mortifications, i had recourse to my machine, and dragging it out one night from my room into the open air, i stepped into it, taking with me some provisions and the little money i had left. i touched the spring which caused the machine to ascend; and then moving one of the screws, i turned my back upon surat and my creditors, without any fear of their sending the officers after me. i put on as much propelling power as possible all night, and it seemed to me that my flight was swifter than the winds. at daybreak i looked out of one of the apertures in the carpet to see whereabouts i was. i could see nothing but mountains, precipices, a barren country, and a frightful desert. wherever i looked i could discover no signs of human habitations. during all that day and the following night i continued my aërial tour, and next day i found myself above a very thick wood, near which was a fine city situated in an extensive plain. i stopped here in order to take a view of the city, as well as of a magnificent palace which i saw at some distance from it at the extremity of the plain. i was extremely anxious to know where i was, and began to ponder in what way i could satisfy my curiosity, when i observed a peasant at work in a field. i descended in the wood, left my box there, and going up to the labourer, asked the name of the city. "young man," he replied, "it is easy to see that you are a stranger, since you do not know that this is the renowned city of gazna, where the just and valiant king bahaman resides." "and who lives," i asked, "in the palace at the end of the plain?" "the king of gazna," he replied, "has built it in order to keep his daughter, the princess schirine, shut up there; for the princess's horoscope declares that she is threatened with being deceived by a man. bahaman, for the purpose of evading this predicted danger, has erected this palace, which is built of marble, and surrounded by a deep ditch. the gate is formed of indian steel, and while the king himself keeps the key, a numerous body of troops keep watch round it day and night to prevent any man from gaining entrance. the king goes once a week to see his daughter, and then returns to gazna. schirine's only companions in the palace are a governess and a few female slaves." i thanked the peasant for his information, and directed my steps towards the city. when i was near to it, i heard the noise of an approaching multitude, and soon espied a vast crowd of horsemen magnificently attired, and mounted on very fine horses richly caparisoned. i perceived in the midst of this splendid cavalcade a tall individual, with a crown of gold on his head, and whose dress was covered with diamonds. i concluded that this person was the king of gazna, going to visit the princess his daughter; and, in fact, i learned in the city that my conjecture was correct. after having made the circuit of the city, and somewhat satisfied my curiosity, i bethought me of my machine; and although i had left it in a spot which seemed to promise security, i became uneasy on its account. i left gazna and had no peace of mind until i reached the place where i had left the box, which i found quite safe. i then became tranquil, and partook with a good appetite of the food which i had brought with me, and as night was coming on, i resolved to pass it in the wood. i had reason to hope that a profound sleep would soon overpower me, for latterly my debts, as well as the general complication of my affairs, had naturally caused me much uneasiness and many sleepless nights: but my wishes were in vain, i could not sleep; for what the peasant had told me respecting the princess schirine was constantly present to my mind. the more i thought of her and her peculiar situation, the more did i become possessed with the desire of effecting an interview; at length my inclinations became ungovernable, and i resolved to convey myself to the roof of the princess's palace and endeavour to obtain an entrance into her chamber. "perhaps," thought i, "i may have the happiness to please her, perhaps to dispel the _ennui_ she must suffer under: perhaps even i may be the mortal whose fortunate audacity was foretold by the astrologers." i was young and consequently thoughtless, and i was not deficient in courage, or such a scheme would not have occurred to me. however, having formed the rash resolution, i instantly proceeded to execute it. i raised myself up in the air and steered my machine in the direction of the palace: the night was as dark as i could wish. i passed without being seen over the heads of the soldiers, who were dispersed around the palace fosse, keeping watch, and descended on the roof near a spot where i saw a light; quitting my box i then slipped in at a window which had been left open to admit the cool night breeze. the room was furnished with the utmost magnificence; and i saw, reposing in slumber on a sofa, a young lady who, from the splendour and luxury with which she was surrounded, i could not doubt was the princess schirine herself. i gazed for some time on her and found her to be of such dazzling beauty as exceeded the highest idea i had formed of her. i drew nearer in order to gaze upon her more intently: i could not, without an overwhelming emotion of rapture, contemplate such charms. i was quite overcome; and hardly knowing what i was about, knelt down beside her to kiss one of her beautiful hands. she awoke at that instant, and seeing a man near her, though in an attitude of respect which need have excited no alarm, uttered a cry which soon brought her governess, who slept in an adjoining room. "help, mahpeiker!" exclaimed the princess: "here is a man! how was it possible for him to get into my room? you must surely have admitted him, and are an accomplice in his crime." "i his accomplice!" exclaimed the governess: "the bare idea is an insult to me! i am as astonished as you can be, to see here this rash young man. besides, if i had even been inclined to favour him in his bold attempt, how was it possible for me to deceive the vigilance of the guards who keep watch around the palace? you know also that there are twenty gates of burnished steel to be opened before any person can get in here; the seal royal is on every lock, and the king, your father, keeps the keys. i cannot imagine how this young man has been able to overcome all these obstacles." all this time i remained kneeling, overwhelmed with confusion: the governess's long speech, however, gave me time to collect my thoughts, and it occurred to me that i would endeavour to persuade them that i was a being of a superior order. "beautiful princess," i said to schirine, rising from my knee and making her a profound obeisance, "do not be surprised at seeing me here. i am not a lover who lavishes gold, and resorts to nefarious tricks to accomplish his wishes; far be from me any unworthy intention: i have not a wish at which your virtuous mind need be ashamed. know then that i am the king of the genii: for a long time i have been aware of your singular position, and could not without pitying you see you condemned to pass your best days in a prison. i am come here to throw myself at your feet, and to ask you in marriage from bahaman: as my bride it will be in my power to shield you from the danger alluded to by the prediction which has terrified your father. deign, therefore, beautiful princess, to look kindly on my suit, and then let both your father and yourself be at rest respecting your future fate, which cannot fail to be both glorious and happy; for as soon as the news of your marriage is spread abroad in the world, all the kings of the earth will stand in awe of the father-in-law of so powerful a monarch, and every princess will envy your fate." schirine and her governess looked at each other during this speech as if desirous of consulting together whether they should give credit to it. i confess i had reason to believe that they would give no heed to such a fable, but women are fond of the wonderful, and both mahpeiker and her mistress believed me. after passing the greater part of the night in delightful conversation with the princess of gazna and her governess, i left her apartment before daybreak, promising to return next day. i lost no time in getting into my machine, and ascended to a great height that i might not be seen by the soldiers. i alighted in the wood, left the box there, and went into the city, where i purchased a stock of provisions for eight days, magnificent robes, a turban of indian woof surrounded with a golden circlet, darting forth rays of light, and a rich girdle. at the same time i did not forget the costliest perfumes and essences. i spent all my money in these purchases without troubling my head about the future; for i thought that after such a pleasant adventure as had befallen me, i should never more want for any thing. i remained all day in the wood employed in dressing and perfuming myself with the utmost care and attention. when night came on, i entered the machine and set off for the roof of schirine's palace, where i introduced myself into her apartment as before, and spent another delightful evening in conversation with the princess and her attendant. i left the palace when night was waning, for fear lest my imposture should be discovered. i returned next day, and always conducted myself so cleverly that the princess and mahpeiker had not the least idea that i was an impostor. true it is that the princess by degrees had acquired such a fondness for me that, on this account, she gave a more ready belief to what i said; for love is blind and, when such feelings exist in favour of a person, his sincerity is never doubted. i, too, had become deeply enamoured of the beautiful princess, and more than once regretted the imposture i was practising on her; but what was i to do? to discover it was certain destruction, and i could not summon up courage to undeceive her. after some days had elapsed, the king of gazna, attended by some of his officers, paid his weekly visit to his daughter's palace, and finding the gates securely fastened, and his seal on the locks, said to the vizirs who accompanied him: "every thing goes on as well as possible: so long as the palace gates continue in this state i have little fear of the evil with which my daughter is threatened." he went up to her apartment alone and unannounced, and at seeing him she could not help betraying some emotion, which he noticed and required to know the reason of. his curiosity added to her perplexity; and, finding herself at last compelled to satisfy him, she related all that had taken place. your majesty may conceive the astonishment of king bahaman when he learned that, without his knowledge, a proposal of marriage had been made by the king of the genii. but he was not so easily duped as his daughter. suspecting the truth, he exclaimed: "alas! my child, how credulous you are! o heaven! i see that it is hopeless to endeavour to avoid the misfortunes destined for us; the horoscope of schirine is fulfilled; some villain has deceived her!" so saying, he left the princess's room in a state of great agitation, and went over all the palace, from the top to the bottom, searching every where, and strictly examining all the attendants, but i need hardly say without success, for he found no trace of any stranger, nor the slightest circumstance to lead to the supposition that bribery had been resorted to, which increased his astonishment. "by what means," he said, "can any person, however ingenious and daring, enter this fortress? to me it is inconceivable." he resolved to get at the truth of the matter somehow, but being desirous of setting to work prudently, and of speaking himself alone, in the first instance, and without witnesses, to the pretended genius, he sent back his vizirs and courtiers to gazna. "withdraw," he said to them, "and i will remain alone at the palace this night with my daughter; and do you return here to-morrow." they all obeyed the king's orders: they returned to the city, and bahaman set about questioning the princess afresh until night drew on. he asked her if i had eaten with her. she replied that i had not, for that she had in vain offered me refreshments, and that she had not seen me either eat or drink any thing since i came to her. "tell me the whole occurrence again," he said, "and conceal nothing." schirine related to him her story all over again, and the king, who was attentive to her recital, weighed every circumstance of it carefully. night had now set in; bahaman seated himself on a sofa, and ordered tapers to be lit and to be placed before him on the marble table. he then drew his sabre, to be employed, if necessary, in wiping out with my blood the insult he conceived to have been offered to his honour. he sat thus, expecting me every moment; and the idea of seeing me appear instantaneously probably agitated him not a little. that night it happened that the atmosphere was highly charged with electric matter. a brilliant flash of lightning darted across the sky before him and made him start. approaching the window at which schirine had told him i should enter, and observing the heavens to be on fire with vivid flashes, his imagination was excited, although nothing was taking place but what was quite natural: he thought he saw in the clouds fanciful forms, among which was prominently conspicuous that of a venerable old man, such as the prophet is represented to us. as he gazed he forgot to reflect that these meteors arose merely from exhalations of an inflammable nature that exploded in the air, and came to regard them as brilliant lights announcing to the world the descent of the king of the genii. in such a state of mind the king was disposed to receive me as really bearing the character to which i pretended, and therefore when i appeared at the window, instead of exhibiting the fury he had contemplated, he was overcome with respect and fear; he dropped his sabre, and, falling at my feet, kissed them, and said, "o great king! what am i, and what have i done to deserve the honour of being your father-in-law?" from these words i could guess what had passed between the king and the princess, and discovered that the worthy monarch was almost as easily imposed upon as his daughter. we sat down together on the sofa and conversed. i now formally renewed to him my suit for the hand of the princess. he believed all i told him, and feeling delighted at the prospect of being allied to me, again prostrated himself at my feet in sign of gratitude for my kindness. i raised him up, embraced him, and assured him of my protection, for which he could not find language sufficiently strong to thank me. it was arranged that the marriage should take place the following day. i stopped with schirine and her father for a few hours, but however pleased i might be with our interview, i did not forget how time was flying; i was apprehensive of daylight surprising us, and of my box being seen on the roof of the palace. i therefore made haste to leave in good time and to reseat myself in the machine. the following day, on the return of the vizirs and great officers of state, a magnificent banquet was prepared at the palace, and immediately on my arrival in the evening the marriage was celebrated with great pomp and rejoicing. a month had nearly passed during which i continued to be looked on and treated as the king of the genii, and i was leading a most agreeable life, when there arrived in the city of gazna an ambassador from a neighbouring monarch to demand schirine in marriage. on being admitted to an audience, and detailing the object of his embassy, bahaman said to him: "i am sorry that i am unable to give my daughter in marriage to the king, your master, for i have already bestowed her hand on the king of the genii." from such a reply the ambassador supposed that king bahaman had lost his senses; he therefore took leave and returned to his master, who also at first thought bahaman was mad, but on reconsidering the answer began to look on the refusal as a studied insult; he therefore raised troops, and forming a large army, entered the kingdom of gazna in a hostile manner. this king, whose name was cacem, was more powerful than bahaman, who also was so slow in preparing to oppose his enemy that he could not prevent him from making great progress. cacem defeated some troops which opposed him, and advancing rapidly towards the city of gazna, found the army of bahaman intrenched in the plain before the castle of the princess schirine. the design of the irritated lover was to attack bahaman in his intrenchments; but as his troops had need of rest, and he had only arrived that evening in the plain after a long forced march, he delayed his attack until the following morning. the king of gazna, having been informed of the numbers and valour of cacem's soldiers, began to tremble for the result. he assembled his privy council and asked for their advice, when one of its members spoke in the following terms: "i am astonished that the king should appear to be at all uneasy on this occasion. what alarm can all the princes of the world, to say nothing of cacem, occasion to the father-in-law of the king of the genii? your majesty need only address yourself to him, and beg his assistance, and he will soon confound your enemies. it is his duty to do this, indeed, since it is on his account that cacem has come to disturb the quiet of your majesty's subjects." this speech did not fail to inspire king bahaman with confidence. "you are right," he said to the courtier; "i shall at once go and beg of him to repulse my proud enemy, and i venture to hope that he will not reject my supplication." so saying, he went to visit his daughter, and said to her: "schirine, to-morrow at daybreak it is cacem's intention to attack us, and i am afraid he will carry our intrenchments. i wish to entreat of the king of the genii that he would undertake our defence. let us unite our prayers that he would be favourable to us." "my lord and father," replied the princess, "there will be no great difficulty in engaging the king on our side; he will soon disperse the enemy's troops, and all the kings of the world will learn, at cacem's expense, to respect you." "but," resumed king bahaman, "night is coming on, and still the king of the genii does not appear; can he have forsaken us?" "no, no, my father," replied schirine; "do not fear that he will fail us in time of need. he sees the army which is now besieging us, and is perhaps at this moment preparing to carry disorder and terror into all its ranks." and this, in fact, was what i was desirous of doing. i had watched during the day cacem's troops; i had observed their arrangement, and taken particular notice of the head-quarters of the king. i collected a quantity of stones and pebbles, both large and small, with which i filled my box, and at midnight i mounted aloft. advancing towards the tents of cacem, i easily discovered that in which the king was reposing. it was very lofty, richly adorned with gilding, and in the form of a dome, supported on twelve columns of painted wood, fixed deep in the ground; the spaces between the columns were intertwined with branches of different kinds of trees, and towards the summit there were two windows, one at the east, and another at the south side. all the soldiers around the tent were asleep; and this circumstance permitted me to descend near one of the windows without being perceived. through it i saw the king lying on a sofa, with his head supported on a satin cushion. rising a little in my box, i hurled a large stone at cacem; i struck him on the forehead, and wounded him dangerously; he uttered a cry, which soon awoke his guards and officers, who, running up to him, found him covered with blood, and almost insensible. immediately loud cries were heard, and the alarm was communicated to the whole quarter, every one asking what had happened. a report was soon circulated that the king was wounded, and it was not known by whom the blow had been struck. whilst the culprit was being searched for, i ascended high up among the clouds, and discharged from an immense height a shower of stones on the royal tent and all near it. the stones cut through the silk of the tent, and severely wounded the attendants; many of the soldiers who surrounded it, too, were very badly hit, and began to cry out that stones were being rained down on them from heaven. the news soon spread, and to confirm it i scattered my stony artillery in all directions. terror took possession of the army; both officers and soldiers thinking that the prophet was enraged with cacem, and that his anger was too evidently declared by this miraculous interference. in short, bahaman's enemies took to flight in a panic, and with such precipitation, that they abandoned their tents and baggage to their foes, crying out, "we are lost; heaven is destroying us!" when day dawned the king of gazna was not a little surprised to find, that, instead of advancing to the attack, the enemy was in full retreat. seeing this, however, he pursued the fugitives with his best troops, who made prodigious carnage, and took prisoner cacem himself, whose wound prevented his making a sufficiently speedy flight. "why," asked bahaman, when his enemy was brought before him, "why have you advanced into my dominions against all right and reason? what provocation have i given you for making war against me?" "bahaman," replied the vanquished monarch, "i thought you had refused me your daughter out of contempt for me, and i thirsted to be revenged upon you. i believed the story of the king of the genii being your son-in-law to be a mere pretext. i have now, however, good reason to be sure of its truth, for it is he who has wounded me and dispersed my army." when the pursuit was ended bahaman returned to gazna with cacem, who, however, died of his wound the same day. the spoil was divided, and it was so considerable, that even the common soldiers returned home laden with booty; and prayers were offered up in all the mosques thanking heaven for having confounded the enemies of the state. when night arrived, the king repaired to the princess's palace. "my daughter," he said, "i have come to thank the king of the genii for a success i owe entirely to him. the courier whom i despatched to you has informed you of all that he has done for us, and i am so profoundly grateful for it, that i am dying with impatience to embrace his knees." this satisfaction was soon granted him. i entered schirine's room by the usual window, and there, as i indeed expected, i found him. "o great king!" he exclaimed, "language is wanting to express to you what i feel on this occasion. read yourself in my countenance the full measure of my gratitude." i raised up bahaman, and kissed his forehead. "prince," i said to him, "could you possibly think that i would refuse to help you in the embarrassing situation in which you were placed on my account? i have punished the proud cacem who intended to make himself master of your kingdom, and to carry off schirine, to place her among the slaves of his seraglio. no longer fear that any potentate on the earth will dare to make war against you; but if any one should be so bold, be assured that i will rain a fiery shower upon his troops, which will reduce them to ashes." after having again assured the king of gazna that i would take his kingdom under my protection, i related how the enemy's army had been terrified at seeing stones showered down upon their camp. bahaman, for his part, repeated to me what cacem had told him, and then took his departure, leaving schirine and myself to ourselves. the princess was as sensible as her father of the important service i had rendered to the country, and manifested the greatest gratitude, caressing me a thousand times over. two days after the interment of cacem, on whom, although a foe, a magnificent funeral was bestowed, the king of gazna commanded that rejoicings should take place in the city for the defeat of the enemy's troops. i thought that a festival prepared in my honour ought to be signalized by some wonderful prodigy; and for this purpose i purchased in gazna some combustible materials. with these i manufactured fireworks, which i let off at as great a height as possible, while the people in the streets were celebrating their victory with great rejoicings. my pyrotechnic display was very successful; and as soon as daylight appeared i left my machine, and went into the town to have the pleasure of hearing what people said about me. i was not deceived in my expectations. a thousand extravagant accounts were current among those who had been spectators of my display. some said that the king of the genii had illuminated the whole heavens expressly to show his satisfaction with the festival; and others asserted that they had even seen him in the sky, surrounded by a blaze of meteors. all these speeches amused me exceedingly. but alas! while i was indulging in these pleasurable sensations, my box--my dear machine--the instrument by which i had worked all my wonders--was burning to ashes in the wood. a spark, which i had not perceived, had set fire to it in my absence, and consumed it, and in this state i found it on my return. a father who enters his house, and finds his only son pierced with a thousand mortal wounds, and lying bathed in his blood, could not suffer more than i did on this occasion. i tore my hair and garments, while the wood resounded with my cries and lamentations; i even wonder that i did not lay violent hands upon myself in the paroxysm of my despair. however, by degrees i became calmed, and reflecting that there was no help for my disaster, i at the same time perceived that some resolution must be formed immediately. only one course seemed open to me, and that was to seek my fortunes elsewhere. leaving, therefore, bahaman and schirine, doubtless in the deepest distress about me, i left the city of gazna, and falling in with a caravan of egyptian merchants, returning to their own country, i joined myself to them, and travelled to grand cairo, where i became a weaver in order to gain a subsistence. i lived there for some years and afterwards came to damascus, where i have followed the same occupation. in appearance i am very well satisfied with my condition, but in reality i am not at all happy, i cannot forget my former fortunate condition, schirine is ever present to my thoughts, and although i would wish to banish her from my recollection, and in truth make every effort to do so, yet the attempt, as painful as useless, merely causes me constant uneasiness. i have now, may it please your majesty, performed what you required of me. i know very well that you do not approve the deceit i practised towards the king of gazna and the princess schirine, for i have perceived oftener than once, that my story was repugnant to your feelings and that your piety shuddered at my sacrilegious audacity. but be pleased to remember that you demanded a true account from me, and condescend to forgive the confession i have made of my adventures, in consideration of the necessity i was under of obeying you. conclusion. the king of damascus made a suitable reply, and dismissed the weaver, whose story afforded a new argument in favour of the grand vizir's opinion that there is no man who is perfectly happy: however, the king would not desist. "atalmulc," he said, "with the exception of yourself, there is no man approaches me but with a smiling countenance; it cannot be that not one of all these is perfectly happy; i shall ask my generals, courtiers, and all the officers of my household. go, vizir, and summon them all into my presence in succession." he had the patience to speak to them all individually, and they all made the same reply; namely, that they were not exempt from grief. one complained of his wife, another of his children; the poor accused their poverty as the cause of all their misfortunes, and the rich either did not enjoy good health, or laboured under some other source of affliction. bedreddin having questioned so many persons, not one of whom was contented with his lot, came at last to be of the same mind with atalmulc, and was obliged to admit to his favourite vizir that perfect felicity is not to be looked for in the present life; that every lot and every station has its cares, its anxieties, and its misfortunes; and that we approach the condition of complete happiness only as we conscientiously discharge those duties which our position daily and hourly requires of us. [illustration] the end. footnotes: [ ] a gift to the kingdom. [ ] the devil. [ ] captain of the door of the king's chamber. [ ] the officer in command of the pages. [ ] lieutenant. [ ] archers. gilbert and rivington, printers, st. john's square, london. * * * * * william lay's _catalogue_ of attractive and entertaining works by popular authors. london: william lay, king william street, strand. . * * * * * the amusing library for home and rail. the object is to provide a choice supply of books of light reading, entirely free from objectionable matter, and which may be indiscriminately used by young and old. great care has been bestowed in the selection; and it is hoped that the works contained in this series will be found adapted in every respect for the perusal of all who desire a sound and healthy imaginative literature, free from everything immoral on the one hand, or controversial on the other. the volumes, while issued at a price which brings them within the reach of all, yet possess sufficient attractions of typography and embellishment to fit them for the drawing-room table and for presents to friends. 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"_i am not sure_," says rogers, "_that i would not rather have written the betrothed than all scott's novels_." "it has every quality that a work of fiction ought to have."--_heir of redcliffe._ * * * * * [illustration] the adventures of jules gerard, the "lion-killer" of northern africa, during his ten years' campaigns among the lions of algeria; including the details of more than forty encounters, adventures, and episodes, and a variety of interesting sketches of arab life. new edition, enlarged, and profusely illustrated, containing a complete and concise history and description of algeria, with maps, sections, and numerous illustrations of arab and french colonial life and manners; and further enriched with numerous new engravings illustrative of m. gerard's startling adventures among the lions of north africa. fcap. vo, s. d., cloth. the amusing library edition may still be had, price s. boards; s. d. cloth. also a cheap edition, s., boards. * * * * * popular tales and sketches. by mrs. s. c. hall. containing eighteen beautiful tales by this most popular authoress. _s._ boards; _s._ _d._ cloth. tales of france. romantic historical, and domestic. _s._ boards; _s._ _d._ cloth. 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[_nearly ready._ the following is an enumeration of the principal points which distinguish this dictionary:-- i. all those words are excluded which, however much they are in place in a large dictionary, like that of johnson or webster, or the french dictionary of the academy, are yet totally useless to ordinary readers. ii. the space thus saved is occupied by matter really useful to the student or traveller, such as-- ( .) the various meanings and uses of words in different connections, so as at once to point out the particular term required. ( .) commercial and travelling expressions, especially those recently introduced; also technical words in general use. ( .) a selection of the most useful idioms and phrases. 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[illustration: church of mar shalita, kochanes. _frontispiece, vol. ii._] journeys in persia and kurdistan including a summer in the upper karun region and a visit to the nestorian rayahs by mrs. bishop (isabella l. bird) honorary fellow of the royal scottish geographical society author of 'six months in the sandwich islands' 'unbeaten tracks in japan,' etc. in two volumes--vol. ii. with portrait, maps, and illustrations london john murray, albemarle street list of illustrations in volume ii. church of mar shalita, kochanes _frontispiece_ stone lion and guide _page_ karun at pul-i-ali-kuh _to face page_ killa bazuft " fording the karun " sar-i-cheshmeh-i-kurang " zard kuh range " aziz khan yahya khan a twig bridge tomb of esther and mordecai kurd of sujbul[=a]k hesso khan a syrian family designs on tombs at kochanes _to face page_ syrian cross syrian priest and wife a syrian girl rock and citadel of van _to face page_ kurds of van a hakkiari kurd letter xvi ali-kuh, _june _. two days before we left chigakhor fierce heat set in, with a blue heat haze. since then the mercury has reached ° in the shade. the call to "boot and saddle" is at . . black flies, sand-flies, mosquitos, scorpions, and venomous spiders abound. there is no hope of change or clouds or showers until the autumn. greenery is fast scorching up. "the heaven above is as brass, and the earth beneath is as iron." the sky is a merciless steely blue. the earth radiates heat far on into the night. "man goeth forth to his work," not "till the evening," but in the evening. the ilyats, with their great brown flocks, march all night. the pools are dry, and the lesser streams have disappeared. the wheat on the rain-lands is scorched before the ears are full, and when the stalks are only six inches long. this is a normal persian summer in lat. ° n. the only way of fighting this heat is never to yield to it, to plod on persistently, and never have an idle moment, but i do often long for an edinburgh east wind, for drifting clouds and rain, and even for a chilly london fog! this same country is said to be buried under seven or eight feet of snow in winter. on leaving chigakhor we crossed a low hill into the seligun valley, so fair and solitary a month ago, now brown and dusty, and swarming with ilyats and their flocks, and lake albolaki has shrunk into something little better than a swamp. a path at a great elevation above a stream and a short rocky ascent brought us to the top of the pass above naghun, a wall of rock, with an altitude of feet, and a very stiff zigzag descent upon isfandyar khan's garden, where the heat made a long halt necessary. the view from the naghun pass of the great ardal valley is a striking one, though not so striking as one would suppose from the altitude of the mountains, which, however, do not nearly reach the limit of perpetual snow, though the kuh-i-kaller, the kuh-i-sabz, the great mass of the kuh-i-gerra, the range of the kuh-i-dinar, and the kuh-i-zirreh are all from , to , feet in height. even on the north side the range which we crossed by the gardan-i-zirreh exceeds feet. the karun, especially where it escapes from the ardal valley by the great tang-i-ardal, is a grand feature of the landscape from the naghun pass. on leaving naghun we were joined by aziz khan, a petty chief, a retainer of isfandyar khan, who has been deputed to attend on the agha, and who may be useful in various ways. between naghun and ardal, in an elevated ravine, a species of _aristolochia_, which might well be mistaken for a pitcher-plant, was growing abundantly, and on the ardal plain the "sweet sultan" and the _ferula glauca_ have taken the place of the _centaurea alata_, which is all cut and stacked. a hot and tedious march over the ardal plateau, no longer green, and eaten up by the passage of ilyat flocks, brought us to the village of ardal, now deserted and melancholy, the great ibex horns which decorate the roof of the ilkhani's barrack giving it a spectral look in its loneliness. the night was hot, and the perpetual passing of ilyats, with much braying and bleating, and a stampede of mules breaking my tent ropes, forbade sleep. it was hot when we started the next morning, still following up the ardal valley and the karun to kaj, a village on bare hummocks of gravel alongside of the karun, a most unpromising-looking place, but higher up in a lateral valley there was a spring and a walled orchard, full of luxuriant greenery, where we camped under difficulties, for the only entrance was by a little stream, leading to a low hole with a door of stone, such as the afghans use for security, and through which the baggage could not be carried. the tents had to be thrown over the wall. there was little peace, for numbers of the kaj men sat in rows steadily staring, and there were crowds of people for medicine, ushered in by the _ketchuda_. four miles above ardal is a most picturesque scene, which, though i had ridden to it before, i appreciated far more on a second visit. this is the magnificent gorge of the tang-i-darkash warkash, a gigantic gash or rift in the great range which bounds the ardal and kaj valleys on the north, and through which the river, on whose lawn-like margin the camps were pitched at shamsabad, find its way to the karun. a stone bridge of a single arch of wide span is thrown across the stream at its exit from the mountains. above the bridge are great masses of naked rock, rising into tremendous precipices above the compressed water, with roses and vines hanging out of their clefts. below, the river suddenly expands, and there is a small village, now deserted, with orchards and wheatfields in the depression in which the darkash warkash finds its way across the kaj valley, a region so sheltered from the fierce sweep of the east wind, and so desirable in other respects, that it bears the name of bihishtabad, the _mansion of heaven_. geographically this _tang_ has a great interest, for the water passing under the bridge is the united volume of the water system to which three out of the four districts known as the chahar mahals owe their fertility, and represents the drainage of square miles. it will be remembered that we entered the chahar mahals by the kahva rukh pass, and crossed that portion of them lying between kahva rukh and the zirreh pass, which is politically, not geographically, a portion of the bakhtiari country, and is partially christian. i started at five the next morning to follow the left bank of the karun for nearly a whole march, sometimes riding close beside it among barley-fields, then rising to a considerable height above it. it is occasionally much compressed between walls of conglomerate, and boils along furiously, but even where it is stillest and broadest, it is always deep, full, and unfordable, bridged over, however, at a place where there are several mills. an ascent from it leads to the village of rustam-i, where the people were very courteous and put me on the road to ali-kuh, a village not far from the river, at the foot of a high range very much gashed by its affluents, one of which is very salt. ali-kuh is quite deserted, and every hovel door is open. there is nothing to tempt cupidity. the people, when they migrate to the high pastures, take all their goods with them. there was not a creature left behind who could tell me of a spring, and it was a tiresome search before i came, high upon the hillside, on a stream tumbling down under willows over red rock, in a maze of campanulas and roses. the first essential of a camping-ground is that there should be space to camp, and this is lacking; my servants sleep in the open, and my bed and chair are propped up by stones on the steep slope. scorpions, "processional" caterpillars, earwigs, and flies abound. it is very pretty, but very uncomfortable. the stream is noisy, and a rude flour mill above has the power, which it has exercised, of turning it into another channel for irrigation purposes. there are some large ilyat camps above, and from these and from rustam-i the people have been crowding in. the wild flowers about ali-kuh are in great profusion just now, the most showy being hollyhocks--white, pink, and mauve, which affect the cultivated lands. three parasitic plants are also abundant, one of them being the familiar dodder. showy varieties of blue and white campanulas, a pink mallow, a large blue geranium, chicory, the blue cornflower, and the scarlet poppy all grow among the crops. in the course of a day's expedition to the summit of the ali-kuh pass large ilyat camps abounded, and the men were engaged in stacking the leaves and the blossoming stalks of the wild celery for fodder later in the season. these flower-stalks attain a height of over six feet. these, and the dried leaves of the _centaurea alata_, which are laid in heaps weighted down with stones, are relied upon by the nomads for the food of their flocks on the way down from the summer to the winter pastures, and much of their industry, such as it is, is spent in securing these "crops." this ali-kuh pass, feet in altitude, is on the most direct route from isfahan to the bazuft river, but is scarcely used except by the ilyats. it is in fact horribly steep on the ali-kuh side. the great bakhtiari ranges on its south-west side, and a deep valley below, closed by the great mass of amin-i-lewa, are a contrast to the utterly shadeless and mostly waterless regions of persia proper which lie eastwards, blazing and glaring in the summer sunshine. there is a little snow and some ice, and the snow patches are bordered by a small rosy primula, delicate white tulips, and the violet _penguicula_ so common on our moorlands. mares with mule foals were grazing at a height of over feet. the khan of rustam-i, married to a daughter of the ilkhani, "called." he is very intelligent, has some idea of conversation, and was very pleasant and communicative. he says the "bakhtiaris love fighting, and if there's a fight can't help taking sides, and if they have not guns fight with stones," and that "one bakhtiari can beat ten persians"! i asked him if he thought there would be fighting at chigakhor, and he said it was very likely, and he and his retainers would take the ilkani's side. he showed me with great pleasure a bullet wound in his ankle, and another in his head, where a piece of the skull had been removed. he wishes that "the english" would send them a doctor. "we would gladly receive even a _kafir_," he said. mirza politely translated this word christian. he says they "suffer so much in dying from want of knowledge." i explained to him the virtues of some of their own medicinal herbs, and he at once sent his servant to gather them, and having identified them he wrote down their uses and the modes of preparing them. with the khan was his prim little son, already, at ten years old, a bold rider and a good shot, the pale auburn-haired boy whom his grandmother, the ilkhani's principal wife, offered me as a present if i would cure him of deafness, debility, and want of appetite! i gave him a large bottle of a clandestinely-made decoction of a very bitter wormwood, into which i put with much ceremony, after the most approved fashion of a charlatan, some tabloids of _nux vomica_ and of permanganate of potash. when i saw him at the fort of chigakhor he was not any better, but since, probably from leading a healthier life than in ardal, he has greatly improved, and being strong is far less deaf, and consequently the virtues of wormwood have forced themselves on the khan's attention. the boy had suffered various things. he had been sewn up in raw sheepskins, his ears had been filled with fresh clotted blood, and he had been compelled to drink blood while warm, taken from behind the ear of a mare, and also water which had washed off a verse of the koran from the inside of a bowl. it transpired that the khan, who is a devout moslem and a _mollah_, could not allow his son to take my medicine unless a piece of paper with a verse of the koran upon it were soaked in the decoction. i asked him why the bakhtiaris like the english, and he replied, "because they are brave and like fighting, and like going shooting on the hills with us, and don't cover their faces." he added after a pause, "and because they conquer all nations, and do them good after they have conquered them." i asked how they did them good, and he said, "they give them one law for rich and poor, and they make just laws about land, and their governors take the taxes, and no more, and if a man gets money he can keep it. ah," he exclaimed earnestly, "why don't the english come and take this country? if you don't, russia will, and we would rather have the english. we're tired of our lives. there's no rest or security." it may well be believed that there are no schools, though some deference is paid to a _mollah_, which among the bahktiaris means only a man who can write, and who can read the koran. these rare accomplishments are usually hereditary. the chiefs' sons are taught to read and write by _munshis_. a few of the highest khans send their sous to tihran or isfahan for education, or they attend school while their fathers are detained as hostages in the capital for the good behaviour of their clans. there they learn a few words of french and english, along with pure persian and arabic, and the few other branches of the education of a persian noble. they are fine manly boys, and ride and shoot well from an early age. but the worst of them is that they never are "boys." they are little men, with the stiffness and elaboration of manner which the more important khans have copied from the persians, and one can never fancy their abandoning themselves to "miscellaneous impulses." [illustration: stone lion and guide.] _killa bazuft, bazuft valley, june ._--a few days ago we left the last village of the region behind, to enter upon a country not laid down in any maps. it is a wild land of precipitous mountain ranges, rising into summits from , to , feet high, enclosing valleys and gorges or cañons of immense depth, some of them only a few feet wide, a goodly land in part, watered by springs and streams, and green with herbage and young wheat, and in part naked, glaring, and horrible. it is very solitary, although at times we come upon bakhtiaris in camp, or moving with their flocks, much darker in complexion and more uncivilised in appearance than those of ardal and its neighbourhood. from these camps aziz khan procures guides, milk, and bread. the heat increases daily, and the hour of getting up is now . . there are many forlorn burial-grounds, and their uncouth stone lions, more or less rudely carved, are the only permanent inhabitants of the region. wheat and barley grow in nearly all the valleys, and clothe the hill-slopes, but where are the sowers and the reapers, and where are the barns? cultivation without visible cultivators is singularly weird. although the bakhtiaris expend great labour on irrigation, their methods of cultivation are most simple. they plough with a small plough with the share slightly shod with iron; make long straight furrows, and then cross them diagonally. they do not manure the soil, but prevent exhaustion by long fallows. after they come up to the mountains they weed their crops carefully, and they look remarkably clean. in reaping they leave a stubble five or six inches long. there is a good deal of spade husbandry in places where they have no oxen, or where the arable patches are steep. the spades are much longer than ours, and the upper corners of the sides are turned over for three inches. a spade is worked by two men, one using his hands and one foot, and the other a rope placed where the handle enters the iron, with which he gives the implement a sharp jerk towards him. in the higher valleys they grow wheat and barley only, but in the lower rice, cotton, melons, and cucumbers are produced, and opium for exportation. they plough and sow in the autumn, and reap on their return to their "yailaks" the following summer. their rude water mills, and the hand mills worked by women, grind the wheat into the coarse flour used by them. it appears from the statements of the _mollah-i-murtaza_, aziz khan, an intelligent son of chiragh ali khan, and others, that the tenure of arable lands is very simple and well understood. "from long ago" certain of such lands have been occupied by certain tribes, and have been divided among families. some of the tribes possess documents, supposed to secure these rights, granted by ali mardan khan, the bakhtiari king of persia, in the anarchical period which followed the death of nad[=i]r shah. those of them who are without documents possess the lands by right of use. nearly all the tribes have individual rights of tillage, and have expended much labour on their lands in irrigation and removing stones. a fee for the use of these lands is paid to the ilkhani every year in money or cattle. for pasturage there is only the right of "use and wont," and the grazing is free. for camping-grounds each tribe has its special "use and wont," subject to change by the order of the ilkhani, but it was out of quarrels concerning these and the pasture lands that many of the feuds at present existing arose. we left ali-kuh in a westerly direction, followed and crossed the karun, left it at its junction with the duab, ascended this short affluent to its source, crossed the gardan-i-cherri at an elevation of feet, and descended feet into the bazuft or rudbar valley, where the camps now are. the road after leaving ali-kuh, where the slopes were covered with pink and white hollyhocks, keeps along a height above the karun, and then descends abruptly into a chasm formed of shelves of conglomerate, on the lowest of which there is just room for a loaded mule between the cliffs and the water at the narrowest part. shadowed by shelf upon shelf of rock, the river shoots through a narrow passage, as though impatient for its liberation from an unnatural restraint, and there is what i hesitate to call--a bridge. at all events there is a something by which men and beasts can cross the chasm--a rude narrow cradle of heavy branches, filled with stones, quite solid and safe, resting on projections of rock on either side. the karun, where this pul-i-ali-kuh crosses it, is only nine feet six inches in width. i found the zigzag ascent on the right bank a very difficult one, and had sundry falls. [illustration: karun at pul-i-ali-kuh. _to face p. , vol. ii._] two hours more brought us to the junction of the karun and duab ("two rivers") above which the former is lost to view in a tremendous ravine, the latter coming down a green valley among high and mostly bare mountains, on a gravelly slope of one of which we camped, for the purpose of ascending a spur of a lofty mountain which overhangs the karun. on such occasions i take my mule, suleiman, the most surefooted of his surefooted race, who brings me down precipitous declivities which i could not look at on my own feet. after crossing the duab, a green, rapid willow-fringed river, by a ford so deep as to be half-way up the bodies of the mules, and zigzagging up a steep mountain side to a ridge of a spur of kaisruh, so narrow that a giant might sit astride upon it, a view opened of singular grandeur. on the southern side of the ridge, between mountains of barren rock, snow-slashed, and cleft by tremendous rifts, lying in shadows of cool gray, the deep, bright, winding duab flows down the green valley which it blesses, among stretches of wheat and mounds where only the forgotten dead have their habitation,--a silver thread in the mellow light. on the northern side lies the huge tang-i-karun, formed by the magnificent mountain kaisruh on its right bank, and on the left by mountains equally bold, huge rock-masses rising feet perpendicularly, and topped by battlements of terra-cotta rock, which took on vermilion colouring in the sunset glow. through this mighty gorge the karun finds its way, a green, rapid willow-fringed stream below the ridge, and visible higher up for miles here and there in bottle-green pools, everywhere making sharp turns in its stupendous bed, and disappearing from sight among huge piles of naked rock. even on this splintered ridge, at a height of feet, there were tulips, celery in blossom, mullein, roses, legions of the _fritillaria imperialis_, anemones, blue linum, and a wealth of alpine plants. there also are found in abundance the great umbelliferous plants--_ferula glauca_, _ferula candelabra_, and the _ferula asafoetida_. the latter i have never seen elsewhere, and was very much rejoiced to procure some of its "tears," though the odour will cling to my gloves till they are worn out. hadji had heard that it is found in one or two places in the bakhtiari country, but up to this time i had searched for it in vain. there also for the first time i found the _astragalus verus_, the gum tragacanth of commerce. the ordinary tragacanth bush, the "goat's thorn," the _astragalus tragacantha_, which is found everywhere on the arid hillsides, produces a gummy juice but no true gum, and its chief value is for kindling fires. following up the duab, through brush of tamarisk, _hippophae rhamnoides_, and indian myrtle, above the cultivated lands, and passing burial mounds with their rude stone lions with their sculptured sides, we camped in a valley at the foot of the gardan-i-cherri and kuh-i-milli, close to the powerful spring in the hillside which is the source of the stream, where there was abundant level ground for three camps. the next evening karim, the man who so nearly lost his arm some time ago, was carried past my tent fainting, having been severely kicked in the chest by the same horse that lacerated his arm. "i _am_ unlucky," he murmured feebly, when he came to himself in severe pain. i have crossed the gardan-i-cherri twice, and shall cross it a third time. it marks a great change in the scenery, and the first intimation of possible peril from the tribesmen. the ascent from the east, which is extremely rugged and steep, is one of feet in three and a half miles. near the top were many ilyats camping without their tents, a rough-looking set, with immense flocks, and on the summit the agha, who was without his attendants, met some men who were threatening both in speech and gesture. from the top there is a wonderful view into an unknown land. the ranges are heavily wooded, and much broken up into spurs and rounded peaks. between the great range, crossed at a height of feet by the cherri pass, and a wall-like range of mighty mountains of white limestone with snow on them hardly whiter than themselves, lies the bazuft valley, feet below, and down upon it come sharp forest-covered spurs, often connected by sharp ridges of forest-covered rocks cleft by dark forest-filled ravines, with glimpses now and then of a winding peacock-green river, flowing at times through green lawns and slopes of grain, at others disappearing into gigantic cañons--great forest-skirted and snow-slashed mountains apparently blocking up the valley at its higher end. at the first crossing all lay glorified in a golden veil, with indigo shadows in the rifts and white lights on the heights. the first part of the descent is fearfully rough, a succession of ledges of broken rock encumbered here and there with recently dead horses or mules, and the whole downward course of feet is without a break, the climate getting hotter and hotter as one descends. at feet the oak forests begin. this oak bears acorns nearly three inches long, which are ground and made into bread. all other vegetation is dried and scorched, and the trees rise out of dust. in this forest we came upon a number of ilyats, some of whom were lying under a tree, ill of fever, and aziz khan insisted that then and there i should give them quinine. at the bottom of this unalleviated descent there is a shady torrent, working a rude flour mill; a good deal of wheat speckled with hollyhocks, white campanulas, and large snapdragons; some very old tufa cones, and below them level lawns, eaten bare, fringed with oaks, with dry wood for the breaking; and below again the translucent, rapid, peacock-green, beautiful bazuft. but not even the sound of the rush of its cool waters could make one forget the overpowering heat, °, even in the shade of a spreading tree. i know not which is the more trying, the ascent or the descent of the feet of ledges and zigzags on the southern face of the gardan-i-cherri. the road is completely encumbered with stones, and is being allowed to fall into total disrepair, although it is the shortest route between isfahan and shuster. things are undoubtedly deteriorating. the present ilkhani is evidently not the man to get and keep a grip on these turbulent tribesmen. i notice a gradual weakening of his authority as the distance from ardal increases. when hussein kuli khan, the murdered father of isfandyar khan, was ilkhani, he not only built substantial bridges such as those over the karun in the tang-i-ardal and at dupulan, but by severe measures compelled every tribe using this road in its spring and autumn migrations to clear off the stones and repair it. as it is, nearly all our animals lost one or more of their shoes on the descent. the ascent and descent took eight hours. some of the cliffs on the right bank of the bazuft are of gypsiferous rock, topped with pure white gypsum, resting on high, steep elevations of red and fawn coloured earths, with outcrops of gravel conglomerate. yesterday was spent in a very severe expedition of twenty-four miles from mowaz to the lofty plateau of gorab, mostly through oak forest, crossing great cañons feet deep and more, with almost precipitous sides, descending upon the awful gorge through which the bazuft passes before it turns round the base of the kuh-i-gerra, the monarch of this mass of mountains. the ascents and descents were endless and severe as we crossed the mountain spurs. it was a simple scramble up and down rock ledges, among great boulders, or up or down smooth slippery surfaces. even my trusty mule slipped and fell several times. often the animals had to jump up or down ledges nearly as high as their chests, and through rifts so narrow as only just to admit the riders. in some places it was absolutely necessary to walk, and in attempting to get down one bad place on my own feet i fell and hurt my knee badly--a serious misfortune just at present. after twelve miles of a toilsome march the guide led us up among the boulders of a deep ravine to the treeless plateau of gorab, an altitude of feet, where the air was fresh and cool. the scenery is on a gigantic scale, and the highly picturesque bazuft is seen passing through magnificent cañons of nearly perpendicular rock, and making sharp turns round the bases of lofty spurs, till after a course of singular beauty it joins the karun at shalil. it is glorious scenery, full of magnificence and mystery. this beautiful ab-i-bazuft, which for a long distance runs parallel with the karun within fifteen or eighteen miles of it, is utterly unlike it, for the karun is the most tortuous of streams and the bazuft keeps a geographically straight course for a hundred miles. springs bursting from the mountain sides keep it always full; it passes nearly ice-cold among lawns and woods, and its colour is everywhere a pure peacock-green of the most exquisite tint, contrasting with the deep blue-green of the karun. shuster is only seven marches off, and in the direction in which it lies scorched barren hills fill up the distance, sinking down upon yellow barren plains, softened by a yellow haze, in which the imagination sees those vast alluvial stretches which descend in an unbroken level to the shat-el-arab and the persian gulf. many a lofty range is seen, but the eye can rest only on the huge gerra mass, with the magnificent snowy peak of dalonak towering above all, bathed in a heavenly blue. the shelter-tent was pitched till the noonday heat moderated. abbas ali and mehemet ali were inside it, and i was reading _ben hur_ aloud. aziz khan was lying half in and half out, with a quizzical look on his face, wondering at a woman knowing how to read. not a creature had been seen, when as if by magic nine or ten lurs appeared, established themselves just outside, and conversed with aziz. i went on reading, and they went on talking, the talk growing disagreeably loud, and aziz very much in earnest. half an hour passed thus, the agha, who understood their speech, apparently giving all his attention to _ben hur_. i did not hear till the evening that the topic of the talk was our robbery, with possible murder, and that aziz was spending all his energies on dissuading them, telling them that we are guests of the ilkhani and under the protection of the shah, and that they and their tribe would be destroyed if they carried out their intention. they discovered that his revolvers were not loaded--he had in fact forgotten his cartridges, and one said to the others, "don't give him time to load." while the tent was being packed, i sat on a stone watching the lurs, dark, handsome savages, armed with loaded clubbed sticks, and the agha was asking them about the country, when suddenly there was a _mêlée_, and the semblance of an attack on him with the clubs. he seemed to shake his assailants off, lounged towards his mule, took his revolver from the holster, fired it in the air, and with an unconcerned, smiling face, advanced towards the savages, and saying something like calling attention to the excellences of that sort of firearm, fired two bullets close over their heads. they dread our arms greatly, and fell back, and molested us no further. till later i did not know that the whole thing was not a joke on both sides. aziz says that if it had not been for the agha's coolness, all our lives would have been sacrificed. in returning, the agha, walking along a lower track than we were riding upon, met some lurs, who, thinking that he was alone, began to be insolent, and he heard them say to each other, "strip him, kill him," when their intention was frustrated by our appearance just above. after crossing the serba torrent with its delicious shade of fine plane trees, the heat of the atmosphere, with the radiation from rock and gravel, was overpowering. i found the mercury at ° in my shady tent. aziz khan now pays me a visit each evening, to give me such information as is attainable regarding the people and locality, and, though he despised me at first, after moslem fashion, we are now very good friends. he is a brave man, and made no attempt to magnify the danger at gorab, merely saying that he was devoutly thankful that we had escaped with our lives. he remonstrated with me for pitching my tent in such a lonely place, quite out of sight of the other camps, but it was then too dark to move it. he said that there was some risk, for the lurs had declared they would "rob us yet," but he should watch all night. i knew he would, for the sake of his arab mare! this morning, soon after leaving mowaz, the sahib's guide galloped up, saying that his master had been robbed of "everything" the night before, and was without the means of boiling water. orders were given for the camps to close up, for no servants to ride in advance of or behind the caravan, and that no ilyats should hang about the tents. although the bakhtiari lurs are unified under one chief, who is responsible to the shah for the security of the country, and though there has been a great improvement since sir a. h. layard's time, the advance, i think, is chiefly external. the instincts and traditions of the tribes remain predatory. possibly they may no longer attack large caravans, but undoubtedly they rob, when and where they can, and they have a horrid habit of stripping their victims, leaving them with but one under garment, if they do not kill them. they have a gesture, often used by aziz khan in his descriptions of raids, which means stripping a man to his shirt. the word used is skin, but they are not such savages as this implies. the gesture consists in putting a finger into the mouth, slowly withdrawing it, and holding it up with a look of infinite complacency. aziz admits with some pride that with twenty men he fell upon a rich caravan near shiraz, and robbed it of £ . [illustration: killa bazuft. _to face p. , vol. ii._] to-day's march has been mainly through very attractive scenery. we crossed the ab-i-mowaz, proceeded over slopes covered with wheat and flowers, and along a rocky path overhanging the exquisitely tinted bazuft, forded the ab-i-nozi, at a place abounding in tamarisks bearing delicate, feathery pink blossoms, and ascended to upland lawns of great beauty, on which the oaks come down both in clumps and singly, as if planted. the views from this natural park are glorious. besides the great ranges with which i have become familiar, the safid-kuh, or "white mount," on the right bank of the river, at present deserves its name, its snows descending nearly to the forests which clothe its lower heights. a deep chasm conceals the tabarak stream up to the point of its foamy junction with the bazuft, which emerges on the valley by an abrupt turn through a very fine cañon. we crossed the pure green waters by a broad ford, and camped on the right bank on a gravel plateau above it, on which is killa bazuft, a large quadrangular stone fort with round towers at the corners, an arcaded front, a vaulted entrance, and rooms all round the quadrangle. it is now ruinous. some irrigated land near it produces rice and mosquitos. the sahib's camp is pitched here. he has been badly robbed, both of clothing and cooking-pots, and was left without the means of cooking any food. _dima, june ._--we retraced our steps as far as the source of the duab, crossed into the shamisiri valley, and by a low pass into the karun valley, forded the karun by a strong deep ford, crossed a low range into the zarin valley, where are some of the sources of the zainderud, from thence marched to the tang-i-ghezi, through which the zainderud, there a vigorous river, passes into the chahar mahals, went up the kherson valley, crossed gargunak, and by a very steep and rugged descent reached this camp, a place of springs, forming the upper waters of the zainderud. these days have been severe, the heat great, and the incidents few. the ascent of the gardan-i-cherri was difficult. the guide misled us, and took us through a narrow rift in the crest of a ridge on broken ledges of rock. we camped at a height of feet in the vicinity of snow. the new arrangement, which is necessary for safety, does not increase comfort, for the arab horses, noisy, quarrelsome fellows, are in camp, and the mules shake their bells and sneeze and bray at intervals all night. the descent of feet into the shamisiri valley, over bare gravel chiefly, was a very hot one. it is a wide, open valley with stony hills of no great height enclosing it, with much green sward along the river banks, above which, running to a great height on the hillsides, are stretches of irrigated wheat. so far as i have yet seen, the wheat is all "bearded." it is a most smiling valley; so cultivated, indeed, and so trim and free from weeds are the crops, that one naturally looks for neat farm-houses and barns. but one looks in vain, for except the ruins of some armenian villages there are no traces of inhabitants, till night comes, when the glimmer of camp fires here and there high up on the hillsides shows the whereabouts of some migratory families. i start so early as to get in to the camping-ground about nine now, and the caravan, two hours later, comes in with mules braying, bells ringing, horses squealing for a fight, servants shouting. then the mules roll, the tent-pegs are hammered down, and in the blazing, furnace-like afternoons the men, who have been up since a.m., take a prolonged siesta, and a solemn hush falls on the camp. after the gorab affair i loaded my revolver, and now sleep with it under my pillow, carry it in my holster, and never have it out of my reach. i _think_ i should only fire it in the air if i were attacked, but the fact of being known to be armed with such a weapon is more likely than anything else to prevent attack. no halt is now made on the march. the sick people who appeared at shamisiri, from no one knows where, were difficult and suspicious, and so they have been since. the dialect of persian has somewhat changed, and aziz khan now interprets the strange accounts of maladies to mirza, and he interprets to me. when they crowd almost into the tent, aziz, when appealed to, pelts them with stones and beats them with a stick, and they take it very merrily. he thinks that i have appliances in the "leather box" for the cure of all ills, and when he brings blind people, and i say that i cannot do anything for them, he loses his temper. no matter where we camp, dark, handsome men spring up as if by magic, and hang about the fires for the rest of the day. from among these the guides are usually selected. numbers of "patients" appear everywhere, and the well assemble with the sick round my tent. at berigun the people were very ignorant and obstinate. after spending a whole hour on two men, and making medicines up for them, they said they would have the "feringhi's ointment," but "nothing that goes down the throat." another said (and he had several disciples) that he would not take the medicine "for fear it should make him a christian." one man, who has fever, took away four quinine powders yesterday for four days, and came back to-day deaf and giddy, saying that i have killed him. he had taken them all at once! it is very pleasant to see how very fond the men are of their children, and how tender and loving they are to their little girls. the small children are almost always pretty, but by three years old the grace and innocence of childhood are completely lost, and as in persia there are no child faces; indeed, the charm of childhood scarcely survives the weaning-day. if they are sick the fathers carry them for miles on their backs for medicine, and handle them very gently, and take infinite pains to understand about the medicine and diet. even if both father and mother come with a child, the man always carries it, holds it, is the spokesman, and takes the directions. several men have offered me mares and cows if i will cure their children. all the "patients" ask finally, "what must i eat, and not eat?" the bakhtiaris have often asked me whether it is unwholesome to live so much as they do on cheese and sour milk. they attribute much of their dyspepsia to their diet. they live principally on _mast_ or curdled milk, buttermilk, cheese, _roghan_ or clarified butter, _n[=a]n_, a thin leavened cake, made of wheat or acorn flour, bannocks of barley meal, celery pickled in sour milk, _kabobs_ occasionally, and broth flavoured with celery stalks and garlic frequently. they never use fresh milk. they eat all fruits, whether wild or cultivated, while they are quite unripe. almonds are eaten green. they hunt the ibex and shoot the francolin and the bustard, and make soup of them. they are always on the hills after game, and spare nothing that they see. i have seen them several times firing at red-legged partridges sitting on their nests. they use eggs considerably, boiling them hard. alcohol in any form is unknown among them, and few, except the khans, have learned the delights of tea and coffee. buttermilk, pure water, and _sharbat_, when they can get lime-juice, are their innocent beverages. the few who drink tea use it chiefly to colour and flavour syrup. they eat twice in the day. though their out-of-doors life is healthy and their diet simple, they rarely attain old age. a man of sixty is accounted very old indeed. the men are certainly not polite to their wives, and if they get in their way or mine they kick them aside, just as rough men kick dogs. [illustration: fording the karun. _to face p. , vol. ii._] we have been marching through comparatively lowland scenery, like the chahar mahals, from which we are not far. at shamisiri, except for the fine peak of dilleh, there are no heights to arrest the eye. the hills on the north side are low, gravelly, and stony, with perpendicular outbreaks of rock near their summits. to the south they are of a different formation, with stratification much contorted. the next march was over low stony hills, with scanty herbage and much gum tragacanth, camel thorn, and the _prosopis stephaniana_, down a steep descent into the karun valley, where low green foot-hills, cultivated levels, and cultivation carried to a great altitude on the hillsides refresh the tired eyes. the karun, liberated for a space from its imprisonment in the mountains, divides into several streams, each one a forcible river, winds sinuously among the grass, gleams like a mirror, and by its joyous, rapid career gives animation to what even without it would be at this season a very smiling landscape. crossing the first ford in advance of the guide, we got into very deep water, and _screw_ was carried off his feet, but scrambled bravely to a shingle bank, where we waited for a native, who took us by long and devious courses to the left bank. the current is strong and deep, and the crossing of the caravan was a very pretty sight. we halted for sunday at berigun, an eminence on which are a ruinous fort, a graveyard with several lions rampant, and a grove of very fine white poplars, one of them eighteen feet in circumference six feet from the ground. a sea of wheat in ear, the karun in a deep channel in the green plateau, some herbage-covered foot-hills, and opposite, in the south-west, the great rocky, precipitous mass of the zard kuh range, with its wild crests and great snow-fields, made up a pleasant landscape. the heat at this altitude of feet, and in the shade, was not excessive. the next day's march was short and uninteresting, partly up the karun valley, and partly over gravelly hills with very scanty herbage and no camps, from which we came down abruptly into the elevated plain of cheshmeh zarin (the golden fountain) at a height of feet, the plain being about five miles by two and a half. receding hills with some herbage upon them border the plateau, and the zard kuh, though at some distance, apparently blocks up the western end. a powerful spring bursts from under a ridge of rock half-way down the plain, and becomes at once a clear gentle stream, fifty feet broad, which passes through the level green sward in a series of turns which are quite marvellous. smooth sward, green barley, many yoke of big oxen ploughing up rich black soil, dark flocks of thousands of sheep and goats, asses, mares, mules, cows, all feeding, large villages of black tents, one of them surrounding the white pavilion of a khan, saddle-horses tethered, flocks being led to and fro, others being watered, laden asses arriving and departing, butter being churned, and carpets being woven, form a scene of quiet but busy industry which makes one feel quite "in the world." this stream is one of the chief sources of the zainderud. from this cheerful camping-ground we marched over low hills, forded the zainderud several times, and came upon several ilyat camps on low, rich pasture lands. these nomads had no tents, but dwelt in booths without fronts, the roofs and backs being made of the tough yellow flowering stalks of the celery. the path follows the left bank of the river, there a full, broad stream, flowing through the tang-i-ghezi, through rounded hills, and scenery much like that of the cheviots. at the tang-i-ghezi we camped, and this morning crossed a low hill into a heavily-grassed valley watered by the kherson, ascended a shoulder of gargunak, and halted at aziz khan's tents, where the women were very hospitable, bringing out cows' milk, and allowing themselves to be photographed. an unpleasant _contretemps_ occurred to me while we were marching through some very lonely hills. if mirza rides as he should, behind me, his mule always falls out of sight, and he is useless, so lately i have put him in front. to-day i dropped a glove, and after calling and whistling to him vainly, got off and picked it up, for i am reduced to one pair, but attempt after attempt to get on again failed, for each time, as i put my hand on the saddle, _screw_ nimbly ran backwards, and in spite of my bad knee i had to lead him for an hour before i was missed, running a great risk of being robbed by passing lurs. when mirza did come back he left his mule in a ravine, exposed to robbers, and aziz khan was so infuriated that he threatened to "cut his throat." aziz despises him as a "desk-bred" man for his want of "out-doorishness," and mimics the dreamy, helpless fashion in which he sits on his mule, but mirza can never be provoked into any display of temper or discourtesy. from aziz's camp we had a very steep and rugged descent to this place, cheshmeh dima, where we have halted for two days. three streams, the head-waters of the zainderud, have their sources in this neighbourhood, and one of them, the dima, rises as a powerful spring under a rock here, collects in a basin, and then flows away as a full-fledged river. the basin or pool has on one side a rocky hill, with the ruins of a fort upon it, and on the three others low stone walls of very rude construction. the lurs, who soon came about us, say that the ruined fort was the pleasure palace of a great king who coined money here. the sides of the valley are dotted with camps. opposite are the large camp and white tent of chiragh ali khan, a chief who has the reputation of being specially friendly in his views of england. the heat yesterday was overpowering, and the crowds of bakhtiari visitors and of sick people could hardly be received with benevolent equanimity. this great heat at an altitude of feet is most disappointing. these head-waters of the zainderud, rising in and beautifying the zarin, kharba, and dima valleys, unite before reaching the tang-i-ghezi, from which they pass to isfahan, and are, as has been stated before, eventually lost in a swamp. this is the most watery region i have seen in persia. besides the gushing, powerful springs which form vigorous streams at the moment of their exit from the mountain sides, there are many moist, spongy places in the three valleys, regularly boggy, giving out a pleasant _squish_ under a horse's tread, and abounding in plants associated in my ideas with highland bogs, such as the _drosera rotundifolia_, which seems to thrive on a small red fly unknown to me. these waters and swampy places occupy a small area, just within the outer range, below the southern slopes of the kuh-i-rang. from this place i made an expedition of thirty miles up a very fine valley, much of which is irrigated and cultivated, by an ascent of feet to the gal-i-bard-i-jamal, a pass , feet in altitude, with a tremendous descent into an apparent abyss, from whose blue depths rise the imposing mass of the kuh-i-shahan, and among other heights faidun, a striking peak of naked rock, superimposed on a rocky ridge. at this height the air was really cool, and it was an escape from the heat of dima. this region seems much disturbed. we heard of bloodshed two days ago, and to-day in the kharba valley of fighting among the kuh-i-shahan mountains with the loss of twelve lives, and horsemen passed us armed with long guns and swords on their way to tribal war. i fear i shall have to return to isfahan. things are regarded as looking very precarious farther on, and every movement, retrograde or forward, is beset with difficulties. i. l. b. letter xvii camp gal-i-gav, kuh-i-rang, _july _. from dima we ascended to high tablelands, having the snowy zard kuh ever in sight, one nameless peak being at present pure white, and descended into and crossed the shorab, a fertile valley, on one side of which is the famous cleft called kar kanun, an artificial gash across a spur of the kuh-i-rang of the same name. after winding among mountains we descended on the karun, whose waters, clear, rapid, and peacock-green, fertilise a plain of fine flowery turf lying at the base of hills, with another branch of the karun between them and the zard kuh. it is a lovely plain, bright and smiling, contrasting with the savage magnificence of the zard kuh, which comes down upon it with its peaks, chasms, and precipices, and glittering fields of unbroken snow. it was given up to mares and foals, but green platforms high above, and little hollows in the foot-hills were spotted with ilyat tents, and in the four days which we spent there the camps were never free from ilyat visitors. the sahib came in the first evening with one man badly hurt, and another apparently in the first stage of rheumatic fever. a small tent was rigged for this poor fellow, who was in intense pain and quite helpless, with a temperature of °, and every joint swollen. the usual remedies had no effect on him. i had had a present of a small quantity of _salol_, a newish drug, with directions for its use, and his master hadji undertook to make him take it regularly, and hot tea when he fancied it, and at the end of twenty-two hours he was not only free from fever but from pain, and was able to mount a mule.[ ] there are two definite objects of interest close to the plain of chaman kushan, the reputed source of the karun and the great artificial cleft of kar kanun. i visited the first on a misty day, which exaggerated the height of the mountains, and by filling their chasms with translucent blue atmosphere gave a rare loveliness to the whole, for it must be said that the beauties of persian scenery are usually staring, hard, and unveiled. the fords of two or three rivers, including the karun, some steep ascents and descents, a rough ride along a stony slope of the zard kuh, and the crossing of a very solid snow-bridge took us to the top of a cliff exactly opposite the powerful springs in which the karun has its reputed origin. over this source towers the mighty range of the zard kuh,--a colossal mountain barrier, a mass of yellow and gray limestone, with stupendous snow-filled chasms, huge precipices, and vast snow-fields, treeless and destitute of herbage except where the tulip-studded grass runs up to meet the moisture from the snow-fields. it is the birthplace of innumerable torrents, but one alone finds its way to the sea. these springs are in a lateral slit in a lofty limestone precipice below a snow-field, at one end of which, as if from a shaft, the most powerful of them wells up, and uniting with the others in a sort of grotto of ferns and mosses pours over a ledge in a sheet of foam, a powerful waterfall, and slides away, a vigorous river of a wonderful blue-green colour, under a snow-bridge, starting full fledged on its course. the surroundings of this spring are wild and magnificent. a few bakhtiaris crept across the lower part of the face of rock, and perched themselves above it. the roar of the water, now loud, now subdued, made wild music, and the snow-bridges added to the impressiveness of the scene. [illustration: sar-i-chesmeh-i-kurang _to face p. , vol. ii._] of course the geographical interest of this region is engrossing.[ ] this remarkable spring, called by the bakhtiaris sar-i-cheshmeh-i-kurang ("the head source of the kurang"), and until this journey held to be the real source, is not, however, the actual birthplace of the karun or kurang, which was afterwards traced up to its headwaters in the magnificent kuh-i-rang.[ ] a few words on this, the one real river of which persia can boast, and which seems destined to play an important part in her commercial future, will not be out of place. from its source it is a powerful and important stream, full, deep, and flowing with great velocity for much of its upper course between precipices varying in height from to feet. it is a perennial stream, fordable in very few places, and then only in its upper waters. varying in width usually from fifty to a hundred yards, it is compressed at the pul-i-ali-kuh into a breadth of about nine feet. the steepness and height of its banks make it in general useless for irrigation purposes, but some day it may be turned to account as a great "water power." its windings, dictated by the singular formation of the mountain ranges (for i reject the idea of it having "carved" its channel), are almost phenomenal. after flowing south-east for a hundred miles from its source, it makes an acute bend, flows for fifty miles to the south-west, and then making another fantastic turn it flows in an exactly opposite direction to that of its earlier course, proceeding north-west to shuster for a hundred miles. it is calculated that the distance from the kuh-i-rang to shuster as the crow flies is seventy-five miles, but the distance travelled by the waters of the karun is miles, with an aggregate fall of feet. besides being fed on its journey through the bakhtiari country by many mountain-side fountain springs of pure fresh water, as well as by salt streams and springs, it receives various tributaries, among the most important of which are the ab-i-bazuft and a stream which, though known locally under various names, may be called from the chigakhor basin in which it rises the ab-i-chigakhor, which makes a course of ninety miles to get over a distance of twenty; the darkash warkash flowing in from the chahar mahals near ardal, the dinarud rising in the fair valley of gorab, and the ab-i-cherri or duab. this mountain range, the zard kuh, in whose steep side at a height of over feet the sar-i-cheshmeh-i-kurang wells up so grandly, is rather a series of rock summits and precipices than a range of mountains. in late june its naked shelves and battlements upbore great snow-fields, and its huge rifts or passes--the gil-i-shah, nearly , feet in altitude, and the pambakal, , --were full of snow. but even in four days it melted rapidly, and probably by august little remains except a few patches, in the highest and most sunless of the rifts. it is only on the north side that the snow lasts even into july. [illustration: zard kuh range. _to face p. , vol. ii._] the marked features of this range are its narrow wall-like character, its ruggedness on both sides, its absence of any peaks rising very remarkably above the ordinary jagged level of the barrier, its lack of prominent spurs, and its almost complete nakedness. it is grand, but only under rare atmospheric conditions can it be termed beautiful. its length may be about thirty miles. it runs from north-west to south-east. some of its highest summits attain an elevation of , feet. its name is a corruption of sard kuh, "cold mountain." after fording various snow streams and taking a break-neck goat track, we reached the great snow pass of gil-i-shah, by which the bakhtiaris come up from the shuster plains on the firm snow in spring, returning when the snow is soft in autumn by a very difficult track on the rocky ledges above. in the mist it looked the most magnificent and stupendous pass i had ever seen, always excepting the entrance to the lachalang pass in lesser tibet, and an atmospheric illusion raised the mountains which guard it up to the blue sky. i much wished to reach the summit, but in a very narrow chasm was fairly baffled by a wide rift in a sort of elevated snow-bridge which the mule could not cross, and camped there for some hours; but even there nomads crowded round my tent with more audacity in their curiosity than they usually show, and mirza heard two of them planning an ingenious robbery. the heat was very great when i returned, ° in the shade, but rest was impossible, for numbers of mares and horses were tethered near my tent, and their riders, men and women, to the number of forty, seized on me, clamouring for medicines and eye lotions. i often wonder at the quiet gravity of mirza's face as he interprets their grotesque accounts of their ailments. a son of chiragh ali khan came to tell me that the "feringhi ointment" had cured a beautiful young woman of his tribe of an "abscess in her nose"! an instance of real benefit hardly consoles for many failures, and any cure increases the exhausting number of "patients." on one day on that plain there was no rest between eleven and five. small events occurred tending to show that the good order which the ilkhani's government secures is chiefly round the centre of rule. stories of tribal disputes with violence, and of fights arising out of blood feuds came in daily, and recent sword cuts and bullet wounds were brought to the _hak[=i]m_. one day there was a disturbance in camp owing to a man attacking hassan for preventing a woman from entering my tent in my absence. i learned very soon after coming into this country that the bakhtiaris are dangerously sensitive about their women, although the latter are unveiled and have an amount of latitude unusual in the east. i have more than once cautioned my servants on this point, for any supposed insult to a female relative of a bakhtiari would have by custom to be wiped out in blood. this extreme sensitiveness has its good side, for even in the midst of the tribal wars and broils which are constantly occurring female honour is always secure, and a woman can travel safely alone through the wildest regions; a woman betraying her husband would, however, almost certainly be put to death. one night the camps were threatened by robbers, upon whom aziz khan fired. solitary as is now the general aspect of the surrounding country, it must have been crowded with workmen and their food providers within the last two centuries, for in the beginning of the seventeenth century shah abbas the great, the greatest and most patriotic of modern persian kings, in his anxiety to deliver isfahan once for all from the risk of famine, formed and partly executed the design of turning to account the difference in level (about feet) between the karun and zainderud, and by cleaving an intervening mountain spur to let the waters of the one pass into the other. the work of cleaving was carried on by his successors, but either the workmen failed to get through the flint which underlies the free-stone, or the downfall of the sufari dynasty made an end of it, and nothing remains of what should have been a famous engineering enterprise but a huge cleft with tool marks upon it in the crest of the hill, "in length yards, in breadth fifteen, and fifty feet deep."[ ] above it are great heaps of quarried stones and the remains of houses, possibly of overseers, and below are the remnants of the dam which was to have diverted the karun water into the cleft. on a cool, beautiful evening i came down from this somewhat mournful height to a very striking scene, where the peacock-blue branch from the sar-i-cheshmeh unites with the peacock-green stream from kuh-i-rang, the dark, high sides of their channels shutting out the mountains. both rivers rush tumultuously above their union, but afterwards glide downwards in a smooth, silent volume of most exquisite colour, so deep as to be unfordable, and fringed with green strips of grass and innumerable flowers. on emerging from the ravine the noble mass of the zard kuh was seen rose-coloured in the sunset, its crests and spires of snow cleaving the blue sky, and the bright waters and flower-starred grass of the plain gave a smiling welcome home. the next march was a very beautiful one, most of the way over the spurs and deeply-cleft ravines of the grand kuh-i-rang by sheep and goat tracks, and no tracks at all, a lonely and magnificent ride, shut in among mountains of great height, their spurs green with tamarisk, salvias, and euphorbias, their ravines noisy with torrents, bright springs bursting from their sides with lawn-like grass below, and their slopes patched with acres of deep snow, on whose margin purple crocuses, yellow ranunculuses, and white tulips were springing. but the grand feature of the march is not the mighty kuh-i-rang on the right, but the magnificent zard kuh on the left, uplifting its snow-fields and snow-crests into the blue of heaven, on the other side of an ever-narrowing valley. at the pass of gal-i-gav, , (?) feet in altitude, where we have halted for two days, the zard kuh approaches the kuh-i-rang so closely as to leave only a very deeply cleft ravine between them. from this pass there is a very grand view, not only of these ranges, but of a tremendous depression into which the pass leads, beyond which is the fine definite mountain kuh-i-shahan. this pass is the watershed between the karun and ab-i-diz, though, be it remembered, the latter eventually unites with the former at band-i-kir. all is treeless. the kuh-i-rang is the only "real mountain" seen on the journey hitherto. it is unlike all others, not only in its huge bulk and gigantic and far-reaching spurs, but in being _clothed_. its name means the "variegated mountain." it has much devonshire red about it, but clad as it is now with greenery, its soil and rock ribs cannot be investigated. it is a mountain rich in waters, both streams and springs. it is physically and geographically a centre, a sort of knot nearly uniting what have been happily termed the "outer" and "inner" ranges of the bakhtiari mountains, and it manifestly divides the country into two regions, which, for convenience' sake, have been felicitously termed the bakhtiari country and upper elam, the former lying to the south-east and the latter to the north-west of this most important group of peaks, only just under , feet, which passes under the general name kuh-i-rang. a prominent geographical feature of this region is that from this point south-eastwards the valleys rim parallel with the great ranges, and are tolerably wide and level, carrying the drainage easily and smoothly, with plenty of room for the fairly easy tracks which usually run on both banks of the rivers. the reader who has followed the geographical part of my narrative will, i hope, have perceived that the openings through the outer and inner ranges in the region previously traversed are few and remarkable, the tang-i-ghezi and the tang-i-darkash warkash piercing the outer, and the tang-i-dupulan the inner range. the kuh-i-rang is the definite water-parting and the originating cause of two drainage systems, and it may be seen from the map, as was beautifully obvious from the summit of one of the peaks over , feet in height, that it marks a singular change in the "lie of the land," inasmuch as the main drainage no longer runs parallel to the main ranges, but cuts them across, breaking up upper elam into a wild and confused sea of mountains, riven and gashed, without any attempt at uniformity. this cutting through the ranges at right angles by rivers which somehow must reach the sea, probably through channels formed by some tremendous operations of nature, presents serious obstacles to the traveller, and must effectually prevent commerce flowing in that direction. the aspect of upper elam as seen from the kuh-i-rang is of huge walls of naked rock, occasionally opening out so as to give space for such a noble mountain as the kuh-i-shahan, with tremendous gorges or cañons among them, with sheer precipices and feet high, below which blue-green torrents, crystalline in their purity, rage and boom, thundering on their way to join the ab-i-diz. the valleys are short, and elevated from to feet, and the tracks dignified by the name of roads pass along them and at great altitudes on the sides of the main ranges, but are compelled continually to make dips and ascents of many thousand feet to reach and emerge from the fords of the rivers which dash through the magnificent rifts and cañons. to the south-east of the kuh-i-rang the formation is orderly and intelligible; to the north-west all is confusion and disorder, but a sublime confusion. two great passes to the north and south of this magnificent mountain are the only ways of communication between the region of upper elam and the bakhtiari country. the northern pass was ascended from dima. the kharba, one of the head-streams of the zainderud, rises on it and fertilises a beautiful valley about fourteen miles in length. that pass, the gal-i-bard-i-jamal (the pass of jamal's stone), the stone being a great detached rock near the summit, and the gal-i-gav (the cattle pass) on the southern side, are both over , feet in altitude. they are seldom traversed by the natives, and only in well-armed parties, as both are very dangerous. the kuh-i-rang must now be regarded as the true birthplace of the zainderud and the karun, though their sources have hitherto been placed in the zard kuh. a tributary of the ab-i-diz, and locally considered as its head-water, rises also in the kuh-i-rang. [illustration: aziz khan.] aziz khan, who had gone to his tents, has returned with a very nice young servant and another mare, and with him noise and "go." he has such a definite personality, and is so energetic in his movements, that the camps are dull without him. he is a fearful beggar. he asks me for something every day, and for things he can make no possible use of, simply out of acquisitiveness. he has got from me among many other things a new embroidered saddle-cloth, a double-bladed knife, an indian _kamarband_, many yards of silk, a large pair of scissors, bracelets for his wife and daughter, and working materials, and now he has set his heart on a large combination knife, which is invaluable to me. "what use is that knife to a woman?" he asks daily. now he says that i have given him many things but i have never given him money, and he must have a purse of money. "why can you do so much more than our women?" he often asks. his astonishment that i can read, and yet more that i can write, is most amusing. "can many women in your country write?" he asked. "can your queen read and write? can she embroider as you do?" at first he thought that i only pretended to write, but was convinced when i sent a letter to the ilkhani. he usually appears when a number of sick people come, interprets their dialect into good persian for mirza, and beats and pelts them with stones when they crowd too closely, but they do not care. sometimes when i say that nothing that i have can do a sick person any good he begs "for my sake" that i will try, and when i still decline he goes away in a tantrum, cursing, and shaking his wide _shulwars_ with an angry strut, but is soon back again with fresh demands. he spreads his prayer-carpet and goes through his devotions thrice a day, but somehow "aziz khan praying" seems to suggest some ludicrous idea, even to his co-religionists. "feringhis don't fear god," he said to me; "they never worship." i told him he was wrong, that many are very devout. he said, "does ---- pray?" mentioning a european. i said "most certainly," and he walked away with the sneering laugh of a fiend. he is a complete child of nature. he says what he thinks, and acts chiefly as he pleases, but withal there is a gentlemanliness and a considerable dignity about him. i think that his ruling religion is loyalty to isfandyar khan, and consequent hatred of the ilkhani and all his other enemies. going through a pantomimic firing of an english rifle he said, "i hope i may shoot the shah with this one day!" "for what reason?" i asked. "because he murdered isfandyar khan's father, and i hate him." i asked him if he liked shooting, and he replied, "i like shooting men!" he has done a good deal of fighting, and has been shot through the lung, arm, and leg, besides getting sword cuts, and he takes some pride in showing his wounds. i think he is faithful. mirza says that he has smoothed many difficulties, and has put many crooked things straight, without taking any credit to himself. his most apparent faults are greed and a sort of selfish cunning. there are many camps about the gal-i-gav, and crowds, needing very careful watching, are always about the tents, wanting to see feringhi things, most of the people never having seen a feringhi. it is a novel sight in the evenings when long lines of brown sheep in single file cross the snow-fields, following the shepherds into camp. this gal-i-gav on the kuh-i-rang marks a new departure on the journey, as well as the establishment of certain geographical facts. it will be impossible for the future to place the source of the karun in the zard kuh range, for we followed the stream up to the kuh-i-rang, or to indulge in the supposition that the mountains which lie to the north-west are "covered with eternal snow," which in this latitude would imply heights from , to , feet. it is indeed a disappointment that, look where one may over the great area filled up by huge rock barriers and vast mountains, from the softer ridges bounding the fiery persian plains to the last hills in which the inner range descends upon the great alluvial levels of khuzistan, not a peak presents itself in the glittering snowy mantle which i have longed to see. snow in forlorn patches or nearly hidden in sunless rifts, and the snow-fields of the zard kuh will remain for a time, but eternal snow is--nowhere, and it does not appear that the highest of the peaks much exceeds , feet, either in upper elam or the bakhtiari country. great difficulties are ahead, not only from tracks which are said to be impassable for laden animals, but from the disturbed state of the country. from what i hear from aziz khan and from the guides who have come up here, i gather that the power of the ilkhani, shaky enough even nearer ardal, all but dwindles away here, and is limited to the collection of the tribute, the petty khans fighting among themselves, and doing mainly what is right in their own eyes. it is somewhat of a satisfaction to me that it is impossible now to go back, and that a region absolutely unexplored lies ahead, doubtless full, as the previously untraversed regions have been, of surprises and interests. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] for the benefit of other travellers i add that the dose of _salol_ was ten grains every three hours. i found it equally efficacious afterwards in several cases of acute rheumatism with fever. i hope that the general reader will excuse the medical and surgical notes given in these letters. i am anxious to show the great desire for european medical aid, and the wide sphere that is open to a medical missionary, at least for physical healing. [ ] a few geographical paragraphs which follow here and on p. are later additions to the letter. [ ] although the correct name of this river is undoubtedly kurang, i have throughout adopted the ordinary spelling _karun_, under which it is commercially and politically known. [ ] _six months in persia._--stack. letter xviii camp gokun, _july _. a descent of feet brought us into the grand and narrow gorge of the sahid stream, with willow, walnut, oak, maple, pear, and crab along its banks, knotted together by sprays of pink roses, with oaks higher up, and above them again overhanging mountains of naked rock, scorched, and radiating heat. quite suddenly, after a steep ascent, there is a view of a steep slope below, where a lateral ravine comes down on the sahid, green with crops of wheat and barley, poplars, willows, and a grove of fine walnuts, and more wonderful still, with an _imamzada_ in good repair, and a village, also named sahid, in which people live all the year. the glen is magnificent, and is the one spot that i have seen in persia which suggests switzerland. it is a steep and difficult descent through a walnut grove to the village, and before i knew it i was on the roof of a house. the village is built in ten steps up the steep hillside, the posts which support one projecting roof resting on the back of the roof below. the people were timid and suspicious, gave untrue replies to questions at first, said we were "doing talisman to take their country," and consulted in aziz's and mirza's hearing how they might rob us. it was even difficult to get them to bring fodder for the horses. they were fanatical and called us _kafirs_. some of the women have never been out of their romantic mountain-walled hole, in which they are shut up by snow for four months every winter. ten families live there, each one possessing a step. they said they owned sixty-five goats and sheep, five cows, and seven asses; that they sell their wheat, and salt from a salt spring at the back of the hill, and that their food is chiefly acorn flour made into bread, curds, and wild celery. this bread is made from the fruit of the _quercus ballota_, which is often nearly three inches long. the acorns are not gathered, but picked up when they fall. the women bruise them between stones to expel the bitter juices. they are afterwards reduced to flour, which is well washed to remove the remaining bitterness, and dried in the sun. it is either made into thin cakes and baked, or is mixed into a paste with buttermilk and water and eaten raw. the baked cakes are not very unpalatable, but the paste is nauseous. acorn flour is never used from choice. the grain is exchanged for blue cottons and tobacco. it is not possible to imagine a more isolated life. tihran and isfahan are names barely known to these people, and the shah is little more to them than the czar. near the _imamzada_ of sahid is a burial-ground, rendered holy by the dust of a _pir_ or saint who lies there. it has many headstones, and one very large gray stone lion, on whose sides are rude carvings of a gun, a sword, a dagger, a powder-flask, and a spear. on a few low headstones a peculiar comb is carved, denoting that the grave is that of a woman. to several stones long locks of hair are attached, some black and shining, others dead-looking and discoloured. it is customary for the bakhtiari women to sacrifice their locks to the memory of their husbands and other near male relatives. i think that they have a great deal of conjugal and family affection, though their ways are rough, and that they mourn for their dead for a considerable time. on one grave a young woman was rocking herself to and fro, wailing with a sound like the highland coronach, but longer and more despairing. she was also beating her uncovered bosom rhythmically, and had cut her face till the blood came. so apparently absorbed was she in her grief that she took no notice of a feringhi and an indian. she had been bereaved of her husband for a year, his life having been sacrificed in a tribal fight. the next two days were occupied in what might well be called "mountaineering" on goat tracks; skirting great mountain spurs on shelving paths not always wide enough for a horse's two feet alongside of each other, with precipitous declivities of or feet; ascending on ledges of rock to over feet, then by frightful tracks descending or but to climb again; and at every descent always seeing in front dizzy zigzags surmounting the crest of some ragged ridge, only, as one knows, to descend again. _screw_ nearly fell over backwards with me once and again, and came down a smooth face of rock as mules sometimes come down a snow slide in switzerland. i was told that i should "break my neck" many times, that no bakhtiari had ever ridden over these tracks, or ever would, but my hurt knee left me no choice. these tracks are simply worn by the annual passage of the nomads and their flocks. they are frightful beyond all description. the worst paths in ladak and nubra are nothing to them. occasionally we traversed deep ravines with noisy torrents where the shade was dense, and willows, ash, walnut, cherry, elm, plum, and oak were crowded together, with the _juniperus excelsa_ in rifts above. with a moist climate it would be a glorious land, but even where the scenery is finest there is always something lacking. there is no atmosphere. all is sharp, colourless, naked. even many of the flowers are queer, and some are positively ugly. many have thorns, some are leather-like, others woolly, a few sticky. inconspicuous flowers and large leathery leaves are very common. the seed-vessels of some are far prettier than the flowers, and brighter in colour. in several the calyx grows after the corolla has withered, and becomes bright pink or orange, like a very gay but only partially-opened blossom. _umbelliferæ_ predominate this month. _compositæ_ too are numerous. all, even bulbs, send down their roots very deep. after leaving camp yesterday and crossing a high pass we descended into the earth's interior, only to ascend a second pass by a steep zigzag. suddenly a wall of rock appeared as if to bar progress, but on nearing it a narrow v-shaped slit was seen to afford a risky passage, offering no other foothold than smooth shelving rock on the inside for a number of yards, with a precipice above on the right and below on the left. ledges of slippery rock led up to it, and _screw_ was jumping and scrambling up these when the guides howled to me to stop, and i was lifted off somehow. the white arab was rolling and struggling in the v, _screw_ following lost his footing, and the two presented a confusion of hoofs and legs in the air and bodies struggling and rolling through the slit till they picked themselves up with cut legs. the guides tried vainly to find some way by which the caravans which followed much later might avoid this risk, and the agha went down the pass which had been so laboriously ascended to give directions for its passage. the _charvadars_ on reaching the difficulty made attempts to turn it but failed; some loads were taken off and carried by men, and each mule struggled safely through with one man at his head, and one or two supporting him by his tail. the passage of the v took the caravan an hour, but meantime there was the enjoyment of the sight of a confused mass of mountains, whitish precipitous ranges, sun-lit, with tremendous ravines between them, lying in the cool blue shadows of early morning; mountains with long straight summits, mountains snow-covered and snow-slashed, great spires of naked rock, huge ranges buttressed by huge spurs herbage-covered, with outcrops of barren rock,--a mighty, solitary, impressive scene, an uplifted wilderness without a camp. the descent of feet from this summit consists of any number of zigzag tracks on the narrow top of the narrow ridge of one of the huge rocky buttresses of gartak, both sides being precipitous. even on the horse i was dizzy, and he went down most unwillingly, not taking any responsibility as to finding the safest way, and depending solely on my eye and hand. mirza, being hampered with the care of his own mule, was useless, and otherwise i was alone. these thready zigzags ended on what appeared to be a precipice, from the foot of which human voices came up, shouting to me to dismount. i did so, and got down, hanging on to _screw's_ bridle, and letting myself down over the ledges by my hands for another hour, having to be careful all the time to avoid being knocked down by his slips and jumps. i could hardly get him to face some of the smooth broken faces of rock. a slide of gravel, a snow-bridge, worn thin, over a torrent, and some slippery rock ledges to scramble over by its side led to a pathless ascent through grass and bushes. the guides and aziz roared to me from a valley below, by which roars i found my way down a steep hillside to the gokun, a mountain river of a unique and most beautiful blue-green colour, abounding in deep pools from which it emerges in billows of cool foam. i forded it by a broad ford where crystal-green water glides calmly over brown and red pebbles, with a willow-shaded margin, and as i crossed a flock of long-bearded goats swam and jumped from rock to rock from the other side, the whole scene an artist's dream. this valley has magnificent pasturage, hay not yet "sun cured," long grass, and abundant clover and vetches brightened by a profuse growth of a small _helianthus_. the march over the gokun pass and down to the gokun river is the worst i ever made. had the track been in ladak or lahoul it would have been marked on the government maps "impassable for laden animals." yet hadji's splendid mules, held at times by both head and tail, accomplished it, and only minor disasters occurred. one mule had his head gashed, mirza had a bad fall, and broke my milk bottle, hassan, leading his own horse, fell twenty feet with the animal and cut his arm, the ridge pole of my tent was broken, and is with difficulty bandaged so as to hold, and some of the other baggage was damaged. hadji grumbles politely, and says that "in all time loaded mules were never taken over such tracks," and i believe him. aziz says that i must be "tired of life," or i should never ride over them, and certainly _screw_ carried me at the peril of his life and mine. the camps are pitched for sunday at an altitude of feet, high above the river--mine under the befriending shade of a colossal natural sphinx, so remarkable that two photographs and a sketch by mirza were taken of it. it confronted us in a startling way, a grand man's head with a flowing wig and a legal face, much resembling the photographs of lord chancellor hatherley. the mules have been poorly fed for the last few days, and it is pleasant to see them revelling in the abundant pasturage. after this tremendous nine hours' march they came in quite cheerily, cock o' the walk leading the caravan, with his fighting face on, shaking his grand mane, and stamping as if he had not walked a mile. the sunday has been a very quiet one, except for the fighting of the horses, which seem intent on murdering each other, the fussiness of aziz about a cut which his mare got yesterday, and for which he expects my frequent attention, and the torment of the sand-flies, which revel in the heat which kills the mosquitos. _kalahoma, july ._--on monday it was a pretty march from the shadow of the sphinx through a well-irrigated and cultivated valley with many camps, and by a high pass, to the neighbourhood of the kuh-i-shahan, on which i rested for some hours at a height of , feet, the actual summit being somewhat higher. on its north-east side the view was hideous, of scorched, rolling gravel hills and wide scorched valleys, with two winding streams, and some patches of wheat surrounding two scorched mud villages. the descent to camp kamarun, a deep ravine with a rapid mountain stream, was blessed by a shower, which cooled the air, and resulted in the only grand, stormy, wild sunset that i have seen for months. this valley is blocked at the east end by gargunaki, on the west by the kala kuh, and the rocky ranges of faidun and the kuh-i-shahan close in its sides. long, long ago tradition says a certain great chief had eleven sons. they quarrelled and divided into hostile factions of four and seven, forming the still hostile groups of the chahar lang and the haft lang of to-day. for some time past the ruling dynasty has been of the haft lang division; aziz also belongs to it, and we have been almost entirely among its tribes hitherto. this ancient feud, though modified in intensity, still exists. at this camp we were among tribes of the chahar lang, and there was reason to apprehend robbery and a night attack; so careful arrangements were made, and the men kept guard by turns. the following day's march, which was also pretty, included a long descent through a cultivated valley, with willows, plums, and walnuts growing along a stream, and a steep ascent and descent to the two villages of masir on well-cultivated slopes, belonging to taimur khan, the chief of the powerful magawe tribe, to whom the villagers pay what they call a moderate "rent" in sheep, goats, and grain. they are of the chahar lang, and deny that they are under the ilkhani's rule. they had a fight with a tribe of the haft lang ten days ago, killed twelve men, had seven killed and wounded, and took some guns and horses. these, however, they have restored at the command of the ilkhani, which contradicts their assertion. they have a burial-ground with several very white lions rampant upon it, of most noble aspect, boldly carved, and with the usual bas-reliefs on their sides. the camps were on a gravelly slope with a yellow glare, and the mercury reached °. the presence of villages in this country always indicates a comparatively warm climate, in which people can live throughout the winter. the scripture phrase, "maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice," has come to bear a clear and vivid meaning. in this country, in this fiery latitude, life is merely a struggle from the time the sun has been up for two hours until he sinks very low. "there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." one watches with dismay his flaming disc wheel into the cloudless sky, to blaze and scintillate mercilessly there for many terrible hours, scorching, withering, destroying, "turning a fruitful land into a desert," bringing eye diseases in his train. with sunset, but not much before, comes a respite, embittered by sand-flies, and life begins to be possible; then darkness comes with a stride and the day is done. among the many people who came to the _hak[=i]m_ was a man who had received a severe sword cut in the recent fight. i disliked his expression, and remarked on it to mirza. on the next day's march, though there were twelve men with the caravan, this man seized and made off with the handsome chestnut horse karun, which was being led. the horse had a sore back and soon kicked off his rider and was recovered. on the same march mujid was attacked, and under the threat of being stripped was obliged to give up all the money he had on his person. on the same day some women clamorously demanded bracelets, and when i did not give them two took hold of my bridle and one of my foot, and were dragging me off, when on mirza coming up they let me go. marching among lower hills and broader valleys, irrigated and cultivated, with much wood along the streams and scattered on the lower slopes, we passed the inhabited villages of tarsa and sah kala, surrounded by patches of buckwheat, vetches, and melons, and with much provision of _kiziks_ for fuel on their roofs, and camped by the richly-wooded river guwa, in a grove of fine trees, crossing its vigorous torrent the next morning by a wicker bridge, the pul-i-guwa. a long ascent among oaks, where the views of mountains and ravines were grand, an upland meadow where i found a white bee orchis, and a steep ascent among stones, brought us to the top of a pass feet in altitude. on its south-west side there is a very striking view of gorges of immense depth and steepness, through which the guwa finds its way. to the north-east the prospect is of a very feeble country, which we entered by a tiresome gravelly descent, very open, composed of low hills with outcrops of rock at their summits, irrigated rolling valleys and plains, with deep rifts indicative of streams, and some magawe villages. our route lay across the most scorched and gravelly part of the upper slopes of a wide valley, scantily sprinkled with blue _eryngiums_ and a woolly species of _artemisia_, a very repulsive region, where herds of camels, kept for breeding purposes, were grazing. on the other side of this valley a spur of the fine mountain jalanda projects, and on it are the two villages and fort of kalahoma, the residence of taimur khan. we halted below the hill while a spring was being searched for, and i was sitting on horseback eating my lunch, a biscuit in one hand and a cup in the other. i have mentioned the savagery of the horses, and especially of _hak[=i]m_, who has become like a wild beast. he was standing fully four horse-lengths away from me, with his tail towards me, and the guide had let go his bridle, when there was a roar or squeal, and a momentary vision of glaring wild-beast eyes, streaming mane, and open mouth rushing down upon me and towering above _screw's_ head, and the next thing i remember is finding myself on the ground with my foot in the stirrup and three men lifting me up. i was a good deal shaken, and cut my arm badly, but mounted again, and though falling on my head has given me a sickish headache for two days, i have not absolutely required rest, and in camp there is no use in "making a fuss"--if indeed there ever is. i shall not have pleasant memories of this camp. the tents were scarcely pitched before crowds assembled for medicine. i could get no rest, for if i shut the tent the heat was unbearable, and if i opened it there was the crowd, row behind row, the hindmost pushing the foremost in, so that it was p.m. before i got any food. yesterday morning at six i was awakened by people all round the tent, some shaking the curtains and calling "_hak[=i]m! hak[=i]m!_" and though i kept it shut till eleven, and raised the mercury to ° by doing so, there was no rest. from eleven o'clock till p.m., except for one hour, when i was away at the khan's, i was "seeing patients," wishing i were a real instead of a spurious _hak[=i]m_, for there was so much suffering, and some of it i knew not how to relieve. however, i was able (thanks to st. mary's hospital, london) to open three whitlows and two abscesses, and it was delightful to see the immediate relief of the sufferers. "god is great," they all exclaimed, and the bystanders echoed, "god is great." i dressed five neglected bullet wounds, and sewed up a gash of doubtful origin, and with a little help from mirza prepared eye-lotions and medicines for seventy-three people. i asked one badly-wounded man in what quarrel he had been shot, and he replied that he didn't know, his khan had told him to go and fight. in the afternoon several very distressed people were brought from an armenian village ten miles off, and were laid by those who brought them at the tent door. at five the crowd was very great and the hubbub inconceivable, and mirza failed to keep order in the absence of aziz khan, who had gone on a pilgrimage to a neighbouring _imamzada_. the mercury had never fallen below °. i had been standing or kneeling for six hours, and had a racking headache, so i reluctantly shut up my medicine chest and went by invitation to call on the khan's wives, but the whole crowd surrounded and followed me, swelling as it moved along, a man with a mare with bad eyes, which had been brought ten miles for eye-lotion, increasing the clamour by his urgency. "khanum! khanum!" (lady) "chashma!" (eyes) "shikam!" (stomach) were shouted on all sides, with "_hak[=i]m! hak[=i]m!_" the people even clutched my clothing, and hands were raised to heaven to implore blessings on me if i would attend to them. the whole village of kalahoma was out, thronging, pressing, and almost suffocating me, and the khan's servants who came to meet me did not or could not disperse the people, though every man holds his life at the khan's disposal. these villages, which are surrounded by opium fields, are composed of the rudest of human habitations, built of rough stones, the walls being only five feet high. there is much subterranean room for cattle. the stacks of such winter fodder as celery and _centaurea alata_, and those of _kiziks_ for fuel, are larger than the dwellings. the latter are of conical form, and many of them are built on the house roofs. taimur khan's fort and _serai_ are in the midst of all this, and are very poor and ruinous, but the walls are high, and they have a _balakhana_. as i approached the ladies came out to meet me, veiled in white cotton _chadars_. the principal wife took my hand and led me through a hole in the wall, not to be called a doorway, into a courtyard littered with offal and piled with stacked animal fuel, and up some high dilapidated steps, into a small dark room, outside of which are a very small "lobby" and a blackened ladder against the wall, leading to the roof, on which the ladies sleep in the hot weather. some poor rugs covered the floor, and there were besides some poor cotton-covered bolsters. everything, even the dress of the ladies, indicated poverty. the dark hot room was immediately packed with a crowd of women, children, and babies, all appallingly dirty. it was a relief when the khan was announced in the distance, and they cleared out like frightened sheep, leaving only the four wives, who stood up at his approach, and remained standing till he was seated. no "well-bred" khan would pay me a visit in his _andarun_ without sending first with his "homage" to know if i would receive him, nor did taimur khan violate this rule or the other of remaining standing until i asked him to be seated. he is a tall, very melancholy-looking man, with a turkish cast of face, and is dressed in the usual persian style. after a few ordinary commonplaces he talked politics and tribal affairs, _apparently_ frankly, but who can say if truthfully? he knows that i have letters from the prime minister, and he hoped that i might do him some good at tihran. as soon as important subjects superseded trifles, the wives relapsed into complete indifference, and stared into vacancy. his tribe, the magawe, is estimated at families, and has been powerful. taimur khan is a staunch adherent of the ilkhani, but at this point there is a change as to the tribute, half of which is paid to the ilkhani and half to the governor of burujird. he has many grievances, and complains most bitterly that he and his tribe are being ground into poverty by exactions which, he asserts, have this year raised the tribute from to _tumans_. he asks me to do something to help him, adding that his house is in ruins, and that he is so oppressed that he cannot build a new one, or have any surroundings suitable to his rank. i said that i could only send his statements to the british "vakil" in tihran, and he at once asked how many horses he should present him with. i replied that the "vakil" would not accept anything, and that he had lately declined a superb diamond setting in which the shah desired to send him his picture. the khan raised his hands, with the exclamation "god is great!" isfandyar khan and taimur khan were at war some years ago, and fought from mountain to mountain, and taimur khan was eventually captured, taken to burujird, and sent to isfahan, where he was kept in irons for some years, the redoubtable aziz khan being one of his captors. this accounts for the disappearance of aziz on "pilgrimage" to a neighbouring _imamzada_, and the consequent dulness of the camp. among a people at once simple and revengeful, it is not unlikely that such severities may bear their legitimate fruit if an occasion presents itself, such as the embroilment of persia with any other power. another khan who was thrown into prison and irons by the zil-es-sultan expressed himself strongly on the subject. "five years," he said, holding out his muscular wrists, on which the marks of fetters are still visible, "i wore the chains. can i forget?" the bakhtiaris do not love the persians, and are held, i think, by a brittle thread. i have written of the extreme poverty of the surroundings of the khaja taimur or taimur khan. it is not a solitary instance. throughout this journey i am painfully impressed with the poverty of the tribesmen. as compared with the wealth of those farther south when visited by sir a. h. layard and the baron de bode, their condition is one of destitution. the ilkhani and ilbegi have fine studs, but few of the khans have any horses worth looking at, and for some time past none at all have been seen except a few belonging to the chiefs, and the men either walk or ride very small asses. their cattle are few and small and their flocks insignificant when compared with those of the arab tribes west of the tigris. their tents and furnishings are likewise extremely poor, and they live poorly, many of them only able to procure acorn flour for bread, and this though they grow a great deal of grain, and every yard of land is cultivated if water is procurable. the hospitality which those two travellers mention as a feature of the character of the more southerly bakhtiaris does not exist among these people. they have, in fact, little to be hospitable with. they all speak of better days in the times of their fathers, when they had brood mares and horses to ride, much pastoral wealth and plenty of _roghan_, and when their women could wear jewels and strings of coins. on this point i believe them, though there may possibly be exaggeration in taimur khan's statements. persia has undoubtedly tightened her grip upon them, and she is sucking their life-blood out of them. this becomes very evident now that we have reached a point where the government of burujird comes in, with the infinite unrighteousness of persian provincial governors. it is not the tribute fixed by the amin-es-sultan which these khans complain of, but the rapacious exactions of the local governors. there is a "blood feud" between taimur khan and aslam khan, the chief of the zalaki tribe, on whose territory we shall enter to-day. a nephew of taimur killed a relation of aslam, and afterwards taimur sheltered him from legitimate vengeance. just now the feud is very active, and cattle-lifting and other reprisals are going on. "blood feuds" are of three degrees, according to the nature of the offence. in the first a man of the one tribe can kill a man of the other wherever he finds him. in the second he harries his cattle and goods. in the third he simply "boycotts" him and refuses him a passage through his territory. the bakhtiaris have often been called "bloodthirsty." i doubt whether they are so, though life is of little account, and they are reckless about spilling blood. they have a great deal of family devotion, which in lesser degree extends to the members of their tribe, and a bakhtiari often spares the life of a man who has aggrieved him owing to his fear of creating a blood feud, which must be transmitted from father to son, and which must affect the whole tribe. as a deterrent from acts of violence it acts powerfully, and may account for the singular bloodlessness of some of the tribal fights. few men, unless carried away by a whirlwind of fury, care to involve a tribe in the far-reaching consequences alluded to, and bad as the custom of blood feuds is, i think there can be no doubt that it acts as a curb upon the passions of these wild tribesmen. "there is blood between us and them," is a phrase often heard. punishments are simple and deterrent, well suited to a simple people. when a homicide is captured he is handed over to the relatives of the slain man, who may kill him, banish him, fine him, or pardon him. in point of fact, "blood-money" is paid to the family of the deceased person, and to save his life from their vengeance a homicide frequently becomes a mendicant on the other side of the mountains till he can gain the required sum. moslem charity responds freely to a claim for alms to wipe out a blood stain. the ilkhani has a right to fine a homicide. "blood for blood" is a maxim very early inculcated. the present feud between the magawe and the zalaki tribes is of the first degree. it is undoubtedly a part of the truly oriental policy of persia to foment tribal quarrels, and keep them going, with the object of weakening the power of the clans, which, though less so than formerly, is a standing menace to the central government. on reaching camp after this visit i found a greater crowd than ever, and as "divers of them came from far," i tried to help them till nine o'clock, and as aziz had returned the crowding was not so severe. he said, "you're very tired, send these people away, you've done enough." i answered that one had never done enough so long as one could do more, and he made a remark which led me to ask him if he thought a _kafir_ could reach paradise? he answered "oh no!" very hastily, but after a moment's thought said, "i don't know, god knows, _he doesn't think as we do_, he may be more merciful than we think. if kafirs fear god they may have some paradise to themselves, we don't know." i. l. b. letter xviii (_continued_)[ ] camp kala kuh, _july _. the call to "boot and saddle" was at three, and i was nearly too tired to pack in the sultry morning air. the heat is overpowering. khaja taimur no doubt had reasons for a difficulty in providing guides, which caused delay. the track lay through pretty country, with abounding herbage, to the village and _imamzada_ of makhedi. there the guide said he dared not go any farther for fear of being killed, and after some time another was procured. during this delay a crowd of handsome but hardship-aged women gathered round me, many of them touching the handkerchiefs on their heads and then tapping the palms of their hands, a significant sign, which throughout persia, being interpreted, means, "give me some money." the agha is in the habit of gathering the little girls about him and giving them _krans_ as from his own children, a most popular proceeding usually; but here the people were not friendly, and very suspicious. even the men asked me clamorously, "why does he give them money? it's poisoned, it's cursed, it's to make them blind." however, avarice prevailed over fear. the people rarely see money, and it is not used as a medium of exchange, but they value it highly for paying the tribute and as ornaments for the women. barter is the custom, and with regard to "tradesmen," whether in camps or villages, it is usual for each family to pay so much grain annually to the blacksmith, the carpenter, the shoemaker--_i.e._ the man who makes compressed rag or leather soles for _ghevas_ and unites the cotton webbing ("upper") to the sole--and the _hammam_ keeper, in the rare cases where there is one. they were cutting wheat on july there at an altitude of feet. where there are only camps the oxen tread it out at once on the hard soil of the fields, but where there is a village the sheaves are brought in on donkeys' backs to a house roof of sun-dried clay, and are there trodden out, the roofs being usually accessible from the slope above. we descended to a deep ford, crossed the river ab-i-baznoi (locally known as kakulistan, or "the curl," from its singular windings), there about sixty feet wide, with clear rapid water of a sky-blue tint, very strong, and up to the guide's waist, and entered a steep-sided stony valley, where the heat was simply sickening. there the second guide left us, saying he should be killed if he went any farther, but another was willing to succeed him. after a steep ascent we emerged on a broad rolling upland valley, deeply gashed by a stream, with the grand range of the kala kuh on the south side, and low bare hills on the north. it is now populous, the valley and hillsides are spotted with large camps, and the question at once arose, "hostile or friendly?" i was riding as usual with mirza behind me, when a man with a gun rushed frantically towards me from an adjacent camp, waving his gun and shouting, "who are you? why are you in our country? you're friends of khaja taimur, you've given him presents, we'll rob you"! with these and many similar words he pursued us, and men started up as by magic, with long guns, running alongside, the low spurs became covered with people in no time, and there was much signalling from hill to hill, "a-hoy-hoy-hoy-hoy," and sending of messengers. mirza pacified them by saying that we are friends of isfandyar khan, and that i have presents for aslam khan, their chief; but soon the shout of "feringhis" was raised, and from group to group along the knolls swelled the cry of "feringhis! feringhis!" mixed with a few shouts of _kafir_; but without actual molestation we reached a steep and uncomfortable camping-ground, padshah-i-zalaki, at an altitude of feet, with an extensive view of the broad green valley. before we halted aslam khan, a very fine-looking man, and others met us, and performed feats of horsemanship, wheeling their horses in small circles at a gallop, and firing pantomimically over their left shoulders and right flanks. the sahib came in later, so that our party was a tolerably strong one. the first thing the people did was to crowd into the shelter-tent and lie down, staring fixedly, a thing which never happened before, and groups steadily occupied the tops of the adjacent spurs. after my tent was pitched the people assembled round it in such numbers, ostensibly desiring medicine, that the khan sent two _tufangchis_ to keep order among them, and karim, whose arm is now well, was added as a protection. the agha ordered that the people should sit in rows at the sides and take their turn, one at a time, to come into the verandah, but no sooner were he and aziz khan out of sight than they began to crowd, to shout, and to become unmanageable, scuffling and pushing, the _tufangchis_ pretending to beat them with the barrels of their guns, but really encouraging them, and at length going away, saying they could not manage them. karim begged me to stop giving medicine, for he was overpowered, and if he opposed them any more there would be a fight. they had said that if he "spoke another word they would kill him." they were perfectly good-humoured all the time, but acted like complete savages, getting under the _flys_, tugging at the tent ropes, and trying to pull my blankets off the bed, etc. at last the hindmost gave a sudden push, sending the foremost tumbling into the tent and over me, upsetting a large open packet of sulphate of zinc, just arrived from julfa, which was on my lap. i left the tent to avoid further mischief, but was nearly suffocated by their crowding and tugging my dress, shouting "_hak[=i]m! hak[=i]m!_" the sahib, who came to the rescue, and urged them in persian to depart, was quite powerless. in the midst of the confusion the khan's wives and daughter came to visit me, but i could only show them the crowd and walk, followed by it, in the opposite direction from the tent, till i met the agha, whose presence restored order. that night nearly all hadji's _juls_ or mule blankets and a donkey were stolen. the zalakis are a large and powerful tribe, predatory by habit and tradition. aslam khan himself directed certain thefts from which we suffered, and quoted a passage from the koran not only to extenuate but to warrant depredations on the goods of "infidels." sunday was spent in the hubbub of a crowd. i was suffering somewhat from a fall, and yet more from the fatigues of kalahoma, and longed for rest, but the temperature of the tent when closed was °, and when open the people crowded at the entrance, ostensibly for medicine, but many from a pardonable and scarcely disguised curiosity to see the "feringhi _hak[=i]m_," and hear her speak. in the afternoon, with mirza and karim as a guard, i went somewhat reluctantly to the khan's camp to return the abortive visit of the ladies. this camp consists of a number of black tents arranged in a circle, the khan's tents only distinguishable from the rest by their larger size. mares, dogs, sheep, goats, and fireholes were in the centre, and some good-looking horses were tethered outside. the khan's mother, a fine, buxom, but coarse-looking woman, met me, and took me to an open tent, fully forty feet long, the back of which was banked up by handsome saddle-bags. bolsters and rugs were laid in the middle, on which the four legitimate wives and several inferior ones, with a quantity of babies and children crawling about them, were seated. among them was a very handsome jewish-looking girl of eighteen, the khan's daughter, pleasing in expression and graceful in manner. she is married to a son of taimur khan, but he does not care for her, and has practically discarded her, which adds insult to the "blood feud" previously existing. after i entered the tent the whole camp population, male and female, crowded in, pressing upon us with clamour indescribable. the khan's mother slapped the wives if they attempted to speak and conducted herself like a ruling virago, occasionally shrieking at the crowd, while a _tufangchi_ with a heavy stick belaboured all within his reach, and those not belaboured yelled with laughter. the senior lady beckoned mirza to lean towards her, and told him in a whisper that her handsome granddaughter is hated and despised by her husband, and has been sent back with a baby a year old, he having taken another wife, and that she wanted me to give her a "love philtre" that would answer the double purpose of giving her back his love and making her rival hateful in his eyes. during this whispered conference as many as could reach leant close to the speakers, like the "savages" that they are. i replied that i knew of no such philtres, that if the girl's beauty and sweetness could not retain her husband's love there was no remedy. she said she knew i had them, and that i kept them, as well as potions for making favourite wives ugly and odious to their husbands, in a leather box with a gold key! then many headaches and sore eyes were brought, and a _samovar_ and tea, and i distributed presents in a babel in which anything but the most staccato style of conversation was impossible. when i left the crowd surged after me, and a sharp stone was thrown, which cut through my cloak. later, aslam khan, his brothers, and the usual train of retainers called. he is a very fine-looking man, six feet high, with a most sinister expression, and a look at times which inspired me with the deepest distrust of him. his robber tribe numbers souls, and he says that he can bring armed horsemen into the field. he too asked for medicine for headache. not only is there a blood feud between him and khaja taimur, but between him and mirab khan, through whose valley we must pass. in the evening the khan's mother returned with several women, bent on getting the "love philtre." at night hadji, who was watching, said that men were prowling round the tents at all hours, and a few things were taken. on monday morning early all was ready, for the three caravans from that day were to march together, and i was sitting on my horse talking with the sahib, waiting for the agha to return from the khan's camp, when he rushed down the slope exclaiming, "there's mischief!" and i crossed the stream and watched it. about twenty men with loaded sticks had surrounded mujid, and were beating him and finally got him down. i leapt back to my own camp, where hassan and karim were taking a parting smoke, and ordered them to the rescue. the soldier rushed into the _mêlée_, armed with only a cane, which was broken at once, and the bakhtiaris got him by his thick hair, and all but forced him down; but he fought like a bulldog, and so did hassan, who was unarmed and got two bad cuts. dashed too into the fray hadji hussein, who fought like a bull, followed by his muleteers and by abbas ali, who, being early knocked down, hung on to a man's arm with his teeth. the sahib, who was endeavouring to make peace, was untouched, possibly because of his lineage and faith, and he yelled to mirza (who in a fight is of no account) to run for the agha, whose presence is worth fifty men. meanwhile a number of zalakis, armed, two with guns and the rest with loaded sticks, crowded round me, using menacing gestures and calling me a _kafir_, on which i took my revolver out of the holster, and very slowly examined the chambers, though i knew well that all were loaded. this had an excellent effect. they fell back, and were just dispersing when over the crest of the hill cantered aziz khan, followed by the agha, who, galloping down the slope, fired a revolver twice over the head of a man who was running away, who, having stolen a sheep, and being caught in the act by mujid, had begun the fray. aslam khan followed, and, the men say, gave the order to fire, but recalled it on finding that one of his tribesmen had been the aggressor. i thought he took the matter very coolly, and he almost immediately told mirza to ask me for a penknife! after this we started, the orders being for the caravans to keep well together, and if we were absolutely attacked to "fire." after ascending a spur of the kala kuh we left the track for an ilyat camp on a steep hill among oaks and pears, where i had promised to see a young creature very ill of fever. among the trees was a small booth of four poles, roofed with celery stalks, but without sides or ends, and in this, on a sheepskin, was a heap out of which protruded two white wasted arms. i uncovered the back of a head which turned slowly, and revealed, in a setting of masses of heavy shining hair, the white face of a young girl, with large brilliant eyes and very beautiful teeth. her pulse was fluttering feebly, and i told the crowd that death was very near, for fear they should think i had poisoned her with the few drops of stimulant that she was able to swallow. even here the death penalty sometimes follows the joy of maternity. she died in the evening, and now nothing remains of the camp but a heap of ashes, for these people always at once leave the camping-ground where a death has occurred. meanwhile the agha was making friends with the people, and giving _krans_ to the children, as is his habit. scarcely had we left when he found that he had been robbed of a fine pair of binocular glasses, almost a necessity under the circumstances. english rifles, binoculars, and watches are all coveted by the bakhtiaris. aziz khan became very grave, and full of dismal prophecies regarding the remainder of the journey. after this divergence the scenery was magnificent. the kala kuh range is certainly finer than the zard kuh. it is more broken up into peaks of definite outline, and is more deeply cut by gorges, many of them the beds of torrents, densely wooded. in fact it is less of a _range_ and more of a _group_. the route lay among huge steep mountains of naked rock, cut up by narrow, deep, and gigantic clefts, from whose depths rise spires of rock and stupendous, almost perpendicular cliffs. green torrents flecked with foam boom through the shadows, or flash in the sunlight, margined wherever it is possible by walnuts, oaks, lilacs, roses, the _lastrea dilatata_, and an entanglement of greenery revelling in spray. a steep zigzag descent through oak and pear trees brought us to the vigorous torrent ab-i-sefid (white water), one of many of the same name, crossed by a natural bridge of shelving rock, slippery from much use. one of the arabs so nearly fell on this that i dismounted, and just as i did so abbas ali's mule fell on his side, and _screw_ following did the same, breaking several things in the holster. after crossing a deep ravine abbas ali sprang back down the steep to it, and the sahib, who was behind, also ran down with three men to what was evidently a disaster. mirza's mule had fallen over twenty feet, rolling over him three times with its load, hurting his knee badly. the sahib said he never saw so narrow an escape from a broken neck. the loss of a bottle containing a quart of milk was the chief damage. a little farther up three men were tugging _hak[=i]m_ up to the track by the tail. it was a very steep ascent by stony broken zigzags and ledges to the fairly level top of a spur of the kala kuh range, with a high battlemented hill behind, at the back of which dwell robber hordes, and many seyyids, who pay no tribute, and are generally feared. at this open, breezy height of feet the camps have been pitched for three days, and of the many camping-grounds which we have hitherto occupied i like it the best, so lofty is it, so lonely, so mysterious and unexplored. it has a glorious view of tremendous wooded ravines, down which green waters glide or tumble, of small lawn-like plateaux among woods, and of green peaks in the foreground, and on the other side of the narrow, sinuous valley, several thousand feet below, there is a confused mass of mountains, among which the snow-slashed southern faces of the peaks of the zard kuh and the grand bulk of a mountain of the faidun range, are the most prominent. five thousand feet below, reached by a remarkable track, is basnoi, a lonely depth, with successive terraces of figs, pomegranates, and walnuts, dense woods, and a luxuriant undergrowth of long grass and ferns. among them are the remains of an ancient road of good width and construction, and of a very fine bridge of small blocks of carefully-dressed stone, with three arches, now ruined, with fine piers and stone abutments, the centre arch having a span of sixty feet. the roadway of the bridge is gone, and a crazy wicker framework is suspended in its place. the bakhtiaris attribute these relics of an extinct civilisation to shapur, one of the three kings of that name who reigned in the third and fourth centuries. all these green waters fall into the ab-i-diz. before sunset heads of men and barrels of guns were seen over the rocky cliff behind us. we had been warned against the outlaw tribes of that region, and had been told that they were preparing to rob the camp that night with thirty men, and had declared that if they failed they would dog us till they succeeded. this news was brought by aslam khan's brother in the afternoon. i asked aziz with how much i should reach burujird, and he answered, "it's well if you take your life there." this and a whole crop of other rumours, magnified as they passed from man to man, produced a novel excitement in the lonely camps. hadji buried his money, of which he had a large sum, and lay down upon it. rifles and revolvers were cleaned and loaded, swords and knives sharpened, voices were loud and ceaseless, and those who were slightly hurt in the morning's fray recounted their adventures over and over again. all dispositions for safety were carefully made before night. hassan, who has a horse, and large property in good clothes, wanted a revolver, but was wisely refused, on the ground that to arm undisciplined men indiscriminately would be to run a great risk of being ourselves shot in any confusion. there were then four men with rifles, five with revolvers, and aslam khan's brother and two _tufangchis_ with guns. about eight the bakhtiari signal-call was several times repeated, and i wondered if it were foe or friend, till aziz's answering signal rang out loud and clear, announcing that it was "friends of isfandyar khan." shortly i heard, "the plot thickens," and the "friends" turned out to be another brother of aslam khan, with four _tufangchis_ and a promise of eight more, who never arrived. according to these men reliable information had been received that khaja taimur, our friend of kalahoma, was sending forty men to rob us on aslam khan's territory in order to get him into trouble. this arrival increased the excitement among the men, who piled tamarisk and the gum tragacanth bush on the fires most recklessly, the wild, hooded _tufangchis_ and their long guns being picturesque in the firelight. i am all but positively sure that the rumour was invented by aslam khan, in order to show his vigilant care of guests, and secure from their gratitude the much-coveted possession of an english rifle. hadji came to my tent, telling me "not to be the least afraid, for they would not harm a lady." the agha has a resource for every emergency, the sahib is cool and brave, and besides that, i strongly suspected the whole thing to be a ruse of aslam khan, whom i distrust thoroughly. at all events i was asleep very early, and was only disturbed twice by aziz calling to know if my servants were watching, and was only awakened at five by the sahib and the agha going past my tent, giving orders that any stranger approaching the camp was to be warned off, and was to be fired upon if he disregarded the warning. a blissfully quiet day followed the excitement of the night before. the men slept after their long watch, and the fighting horses were at a distance. the agha did not return, and for a day and night i was the only european in camp. aziz khan, with an english rifle, a hundred cartridges, and two revolvers in his belt, kept faithful watch, and to "make assurance doubly sure" i walked through the camp twice during the night to see that the men on guard were awake. before midnight there was a frightful "row" for two hours, which sounded as if fifty men were taking part in it. i have often wondered at the idiotic things that hassan does, and at the hopelessly dazed way in which he sometimes stands. now it has come out that he is smoking more and more opium, and has been supplying karim with it. mujid, who was formerly the agha's cook, has been promoted to be _major-domo_, rules the caravan on the march, heads it on a fine horse, keeps accounts, and is generally "confidential." karim resents all this. he lately bought a horse because he could not bear to ride a baggage mule when the other man was well mounted, and being that night mad with opium, and being armed both with rifle and revolver, with which he threatened to kill mujid, it was only by the united and long-continued efforts of all the men that bloodshed was prevented. the next day hassan destroyed his opium pipe, and is trying to cure himself of the habit with the aid of morphia, but he complains of "agony in the waist," which is just the fearful craving which the disuse of the drug causes. the agha encountered very predatory lurs in the lower regions. a mule was stolen by two lurs, then robbed from them by three, who in their turn were obliged to surrender it to some passing ilyats, from whom he recovered it. while he was resting at night he was awakened by hearing some lurs who had joined them discussing the practicability of robbing him, but when one told the others that he had found out that "the feringhi has six shots," they gave it up. at this camp we are only a few days' march from classic ground, the ancient elam with its capital of susa, and the remains of so fine a bridge, with the unusual feature, still to be distinctly traced, of level approaches, the adjacent ruins, and the tradition of an old-world route, a broad road having followed the river-bed to the plains of lower elam, all point to an earlier and higher civilisation. overlooking the bridge on the left bank of the ab-i-basnoi a large square enclosure, with large stone slabs inside, was found, which had probably been used for a cistern, and outside there were distinct traces of an aqueduct. the "sang niwishta" (inscribed stone), which has been talked about for a hundred miles, and promised to be a great discovery, was investigated by a most laborious march, and turned out a great disappointment. it was to be hoped, indeed it might have been expected, that a journey through these, till now unexplored, regions would have resulted in the discovery of additional records of the past carved in stone, but such is not the case. still, it is something to have learned that even here there was once a higher civilisation, and that in its day there was great traffic along the basnoi road, and that every route through this upper elam, whether from north, west, or east, from the persian highlands to the plains of arabistan, and the then populous banks of the kerkhah, must have passed through the great gap below pul-i-kul. the gokun, sahid, guwa, and any number of other streams fall into this ab-i-basnoi, which is the channel for the drainage of far-off faraidan, and after a full-watered course joins the ab-i-burujird, which drains the plain of silakhor, the two forming the ab-i-diz, on which the now famous town of dizful (lit. pul-i-diz or bridge of diz) is situated. _gardan-i-gunak, july ._--on july we retraced our steps to padshah-i-zalaki, and camped on a height above aslam khan's tents on ground so steep that the tent floor had to be cut into steps with a spade. aslam khan and others came to meet us, again performing feats of horsemanship. no sooner were the tents pitched than the crowd assembled, and it was another noisy and fagging day. among the things taken from my tent were an umbrella, knife, scissors, and most of my slender stock of underclothing. the scissors and cotton were taken by a young sister-in-law of the khan, while i was attending to a terrible hurt outside. it turns out that aslam khan has got the agha's binocular, and that he told his men to acquire a small but very powerful telescope which he coveted. my milk bottle in a leather sling-case has a likeness to it, and this morning as i was giving a woman some eye-lotion her son withdrew this, almost under my eyes! the khan's face is a most faithful reproduction of that of judas in leonardo da vinci's "last supper." he is so fine-looking that one is surprised that he should condescend to do small mean things. i sent him the knife he asked for, and soon he called and asked for a bigger one. he passed off his handsome daughter, the wife of taimur khan's son, as his wife, in order to get, through her, a travelling-clock which he coveted. they brought a woman to me who might have been produced from a london slum, ophthalmia in one eye, the other closed up and black, and behind it and through her nose a deep wound, gaping fully an inch, blood caked thick and black all over her face and matting her hair, her upper lip cut through, and two teeth knocked out--a regular hospital case. her brother, they said, had quarrelled with her and had thrown stones at her only the day before, but they had already filled up the wounds with some horrible paste. i asked sardah khan why the khan did not have the man thrashed for such a brutality, and he replied that no one would touch him, as he had killed three men last winter. i spent two hours upon the poor creature, and the relief was so great that her gratitude was profuse, and the blessings invoked manifold. it was a great pleasure to me. but many things were taken out of the tent while i sat outside attending to her. the khan's brothers, _tufangchis_ with their long guns, seyyids with their green turbans and contemptuous scowl, women, and children were all pressing upon me, hindering and suffocating me in a temperature of nearly °. they seem to have no feeling for pain or shrinking from painful spectacles, and rather to enjoy the groans of the sufferer. each time a piece of stone was taken out of the wounds they exclaimed "god is great!" occasionally, when the crush interfered with what i was doing, a man beat them with his gun, or aziz khan threw stones at them, but it was useless. the people tell our men that _kafirs_ have never before entered their valley, and that if we were not under the shah's protection they would take all that we have. i imagine that the difficulties are far greater than i know, for the agha, who minimises all danger, remarked last night that this is a most anxious time, and that he should be most thankful to get every one out of the country, for it was impossible to say what a day might bring forth. all idea of my returning to julfa is now abandoned. bad as it is it is safer to go on. as the welcome darkness fell the hillsides near and far blazed with fires, and aslam khan's camp immediately below was a very picturesque sight, its thirty-one tents forming a circle, with the khan's two tents in the middle, each having a fire in front. supper was prepared in large pots; the men ate first, then the women, children, and dogs. the noise suggested pandemonium. the sheep and goats bleated, the big dogs barked, the men and women shouted and shrieked all together, at the top of their voices, rude musical instruments brayed and clanged,--it sounded diabolical. doubtless the inroad of the feringhis was the topic of talk. savage life does not bear a near view. its total lack of privacy, its rough brutality, its dirt, its undisguised greed, its unconcealed jealousies and hatreds, its falseness, its pure selfishness, and its treachery are all painful on a close inspection. the following morning early we came up to the gunak, the narrow top of a pass in the kala kuh range with an altitude of , feet, crossing on the way a steep and difficult snow-slide, and have halted here for two days. marching with the caravan is a necessary precaution, but a most tedious and fatiguing arrangement. no more galloping, only a crawl at "caravan pace," about two and a half miles an hour for five, six, or seven hours, and though one is up at . it is fully five before the mules are under way, and meantime one is the centre of that everlasting crowd which, on some pretext or other, asks for medicine. if no ailment can be produced at present, then the request is, "give me something from the leather box, i've a cough in the winter," or an uncovered copper bowl is brought, the contents of which would evaporate in a fortnight in this climate, with the plaint, "i've a brother," or some other relative, "who has sore eyes in spring, please give me some eye-lotion." nothing is appreciated made from their own valuable medicinal herbs. "feringhi medicine" is all they care for, and in their eyes every feringhi is a _hak[=i]m_. i have often wondered that the moslem contempt for women does not prevent even the highest chiefs from seeking a woman's medical help, but their own _hak[=i]ms_, of whom there are a few, though i have never seen any, are mostly women, and the profession is hereditary. the men, they say, are too unsettled to be _hak[=i]ms_. some of these women are renowned for their skill as bullet extractors. if a father happens to have any medical knowledge he communicates it to his daughter rather than to his son. aziz's grandmother learned medicine from a native indian doctor in fars, and his mother had a repute as a bullet extractor. a woman extracted the three bullets by which he has been wounded. the "fees" are very high, but depend entirely on the cure. a poor man pays for the extraction of a bullet and the cure of the wound from fifteen to twenty _tumans_ (from £ to £ : s.), a rich man from forty to sixty. in all cases they only give medicine so long as they think there is hope of recovery, and have no knowledge of any treatment which can alleviate the sufferings of the dying. when death seems inevitable they stuff the nose with a paste made of aromatic herbs. they dress wounds with an astringent paste made from a very small gall-nut found on one species of oak. for dyspeptic pains and "bad blood" they eat bitumen. for snake-bite, which is common, they keep the bitten person moving about and apply the back part of live hens to the wound till the hens cease to be affected, or else the intestines of a goat newly killed. for rheumatism, headache, and debility they have no remedies, but for fever they use an infusion of willow bark, which is not efficacious. they have great faith in amulets and charms, and in chewing and swallowing verses of the koran in case of illness. they are rigid "abstainers," and _arak_ is not to be procured in the bakhtiari country. this partly accounts for the extreme and almost startling rapidity of the healing of surgical wounds. ophthalmia, glaucoma, bulging eyeballs, inflamed eyes and eyelids, eczema, rheumatism, dyspepsia, and coughs are the prevailing maladies, and among men, bad headaches, which they describe as periodical and incapacitating, are common. the skin maladies and some of the eye maladies come from dirt, and the parasites which are its offspring. among the common people the clothes are only washed once a year, and then in cold water, with the root of a very sticky soap wort. they attribute all ailments but those of the skin and eyes to "wind." rheumatism doubtless comes from sleeping in cotton clothing, and little enough of it, on the damp ground. there are no _sages femmes_. every woman is supposed to be able to help her neighbour in her hour of need. maternity is easy. the mother is often at work the day after the birth of her child, and in less than a week regains her usual strength. possession by bad spirits is believed in, and cowardice is attributed to possession. in the latter case medicine is not resorted to, but a _mollah_ writes a text from the koran and binds the paper on the coward's arm. if this does not cure him he must visit a graveyard on the night of the full moon, and pass seven times under the body of one of the sculptured lions on the graves, repeating an arabic prayer. this pass gives a little rest. it is solitary, cold (the mercury ° at p.m.), and very windy. i appreciate the comparatively low temperature all the more because the scenery beyond the zalaki valley, in which scorched valleys and reddish rocky ranges are repeated _ad nauseam_, lies under a blazing sun and in a hot dust haze like that of the indian plains. the ridge is only just wide enough for the camps, and falls down in abrupt descents to the source of the ab-i-sefid. tremendous precipices and the naked peaks of the kala kuh surround us, and to the east the zard kuh and the long straight-topped range of the kuh-i-gokun (or kainu?), deeply cleft, to allow of the exit of the ab-i-gokun, wall in the magnificent prospect, woods and streams and blue and violet depths suggesting moisture and coolness. the ridge has a remarkably rich alpine flora. life is now only a "struggle for existence" on the lower altitudes, with their heat and hubbub; there is no comfort or pleasure in occupation under feet. here there are only the sick people of the camps to attend to. the guides and guards all need eye-lotion, one bad wound needs dressing, and the khan's brother has had fever severely, which is cured, and he offers me as a present a boy of five years old. aslam khan's face of judas is not for nothing, but his brother is beautiful, and has the face of st. john. i. l. b. footnote: [ ] from kalahoma for the rest of the route the predatory character of the tribes, the growing weakness of the ilkhani's authority, the "blood feuds" and other inter-tribal quarrels, and the unsettled state of the feili lurs, produced a general insecurity and continual peril for travellers, which rendered constant vigilance and precautions necessary, as well as an alteration of arrangements. letter xix camp shuturun, _july _. after that uplifted halt, which refreshed the europeans but did not suit the health of the attendants, we descended, crossed the zalaki valley and a low ridge, with populous camps, into the valley of the mauri zarin, where the nomads were busy harvesting, forded the river, and proceeded up its left bank to a dusty level on which a deep ravine opens, _apparently_ blocked up by a castellated and nearly inaccessible rock of great height. at this place, where the badush joins the mauri zarin, we were obliged to camp close to some ilyat tents, which involved crowds, many demands, much noise, and much vigilance. we were then in the territory of mirab khan, the chief of the isawand tribe, between whom and aslam khan there is a blood feud, with most deadly enmity. he sent word that he was not well, and asked the agha to go to see him, which he did, telling him that the _hak[=i]m_ would also visit him. later, taking mirza and two guides, i forded and followed up the ab-i-arjanak for two miles by a most remarkable cañon. the lower part of its sides is steep and rocky, though not too steep for the growth of tamarisk scrub and much herbage, but above are prodigious conglomerate cliffs, and below, the river, which narrows to a stream, is concealed by enormous masses of conglomerate rock. this cleft must be fully feet below the heights which surround it. a ridge runs across it at arjanak, and the river passes underground. the village and "diz"[ ] of mirab khan are reached by a frightfully steep ascent. arjanak has been built for security on some narrow ledges below these colossal walls. it is a mere eyrie, a collection of rude stone hovels, one above the other, among which the khan's house is distinguishable only by its _balakhana_ and larger size. the paths on the dusty hillside are so narrow and shelving that i needed a helping hand as well as a stick to enable me to reach a small, oblong, rug-covered platform under some willow trees, where mirab khan received me, with a very repulsive-looking seyyid scribe seated by him in front of a _samovar_ and tea equipage, from which he produced delicious tea, flavoured with lime-juice. the khan was courteous, _i.e._ he rose, and did not sit down till i did. he is a most deplorable-looking man, very tall and thin, with faded, lustreless gray eyes, hollow, sallow cheeks, and a very lank, ugly, straight-haired beard, light brown in the middle. he and khaja taimur look more like decayed merchants than chiefs of "tribes of armed horsemen." i was very sorry for him, for he evidently suffers much, but then and afterwards he impressed me unfavourably, and i much doubt his good faith. he said he heard i should spend two or three days at arjanak, and all he had was mine. he was not "like some people," he said, "who professed great friendship for people and then forgot all about them. when i make a friendship," he said, "it is for ever." i asked him if his tribe was at peace. "peace," he replied sententiously, "is a word unknown to the bakhtiaris." in fact he has more than one blood feud on hand. he complained bitterly of the exactions of persia, and added the conjecture, expressed by many others, that england would shortly occupy luristan, and give them equity and security. another khan of some power said to me that if england were to occupy south-west persia, he would help her with horsemen, and added, "an english fleet at basrah, with an english army on board, would be the best sight which bakhtiari eyes could see."[ ] i had to hear the long story of the khan's complicated maladies, to look at many bad eyes, and at the wounds of a poor fellow suffering from snake-bite, who was carried on another man's back, and to promise to bring up my medicine chest the following day, the fame of the "leather box" having reached arjanak. on my way i had called at the _haram_, and the ladies accompanied me to the _durbar_, conduct which i think was not approved of, as they told me the next morning that they must not go there. after the agha returned, the three wives and many other women clustered timidly round me. two of them are very bright and pretty, and one, a persian, very affectionate in her manner. she held my hand all the time. there was also a handsome daughter, with a baby, the discarded wife of a son of the next khan. in winter, they said, they amuse themselves by singing, and playing with their children, and by making a few clothes, and the persian embroiders boys' caps. aziz khan has been irrepressible lately. his arab mare is his idol, not because she is a lovable animal and carries him well, but because she is valuable property. he fusses about her ceaselessly, and if he were allowed would arrange the marches and the camping-grounds with reference solely to her well-being. she is washed from her nose to the tip of her tail every evening, clothed, and kept by the camp-fire. she is a dainty, heartless, frivolous creature, very graceful and pretty, and in character much like a selfish, spoilt woman. unfortunately, in one of the many attempted fights among the horses, _screw_ kicked her on the chest and fore-leg a few days ago, which has made a quarrel between hadji, _screw's_ owner, and aziz. now aziz is making me a slave to his animal. that night, after a tiring day, i was sleeping soundly when i was awakened by aziz saying i must come to his mare or he would stay behind with her the next day. this is his daily threat. so i had to bring her inside my tent, and sleepily make a poultice and bandage the hurt. i have very little vaseline, and after putting it twice on the slight graze on her chest, which it cured, i said, when he asked for it a third time, that i must keep the rest for men. "oh," he said, "she's of more value than ten men." lately he said, "i don't like you at all, you give me many things, but you don't give me money; and i don't like the agha, he doesn't give me half enough. i'm going back to-morrow, and then you'll be robbed of all your things, and you'll wish you had given them to me." when i do anything, such as opening a whitlow, which he thinks clever, he exclaims, "may god forgive your sins!" this, and "may god forgive the sins of your father and mother!" are ejaculations of gratitude or surprise. one day when i had been attending to sick people for four hours, i asked him which was the more "meritorious" act, attending to the sick or going on pilgrimage? he replied, "for a _kafir_ no act is good," but soon added, "_of a truth god doesn't think as we do_, i don't know." yesterday he came for plaster, and while i cut it he saw a padlock pincushion with a mirror front on my bed, and said, "you've given me nothing to-day, you must give me that because my mare kicked me." but i like him. he is a brave fellow, and with a large amount of the mingled simplicity and cunning of a savage has a great deal of thought, information, and ability, and a talk with him is worth having. mirab khan had promised that not only guides but his son would accompany the agha, but when i arrived at his eyrie the next morning it was evident that something was wrong, for the agha looked gloomy, and mirab khan uncomfortable, and as i was dressing the wound of the snake-bitten man, the former said, "so far as i can see, we are in a perfect hornets' nest." neither son nor guides were forthcoming. it was necessary to use very decided language, after which the khan professed that he had withheld them in order to compel us to be his guests, and eventually they were produced. i called again on the ladies, who received me in a sort of open stable, horses on one side and women on the other, in a crowd and noise so overpowering that i was obliged to leave them, but not before i had been asked for needles, scissors, love philtres, etc. polygamy, besides being an atrocious system, is very hard on a traveller's resources. i had brought presents for four legitimate wives, but not for the crowd of women who asked for them. each wife wanted to get her present unknown to the others. later they returned my visit, and were most importunate in their requests. when i went to say farewell to the khan i found him on his knees, bowing his forehead to the earth upon a mecca prayer-stone, and he concluded his prayers before he spoke--not like many of us, who would jump up ashamed and try to seem as if we never demeaned ourselves by an act of devotion. his village, diz arjanak, has a diz, or stronghold, with a limited supply of water. it is the _raison d'être_ of his residence there. this diz consists of a few shelves or cavities, chiefly artificial, scooped out in the face of the perpendicular cliff above the village. they are only attainable by a very difficult climb, have no internal communication, and would not hold more than people. in one cavity there is a small perennial spring. the largest recess is said to be twelve feet deep by about twenty long, and has a loop-holed breastwork across the entrance. in case of attack the khan and the people provision this hiding-place, and retire to it, believing it impregnable. mirab khan on this and a later occasion complained, and apparently with good reason, of grinding exactions on the part of persia. the isawands, like the magawes and zalakis, pay their tribute partly to burujird and partly to the ilkhani. the sum formerly fixed and paid was _tumans_. it was raised to , which was paid for two years. now, he says, this year's demand ( ) is for . we left diz arjanak rather late in the afternoon, ascended a valley which opens out beyond it, forded the green bright waters of the mauri zarin, and crossed beautiful open hillsides and elevated plateaux on its right bank till we lost it in a highly picturesque gorge. some miles of very pleasant riding brought us to a rocky and dangerous path along the side of a precipice above the river badush, so narrow as to involve the unloading of several mules, and a bad slip and narrow escape on the part of mine. the scenery is singularly wild and severe. crossing the badush, and ascending a narrow ravine through which it flows, we camped at its source at the junction of two wild gullies, where the sahib, after sundry serious risks, had already arrived. we did not see a single camp after leaving arjanak, and were quite unmolested during a halt of two nights; but it is an atmosphere of danger and possible treachery. camp badush, at a height of feet, though shut in by high mountains, was cool--a barren, rocky, treeless spot. a great deal of bituminous shale was lying about, which burned in the camp-fires fairly well, but with a black heavy smoke and a strong smell. the limestone fragments which lay about, on being split, emitted a powerful odour of bitumen. farther up the gully there is a chalybeate spring, and the broken fragments of the adjacent rocks are much stained with iron. after a restful halt we retraced our route by a low path which avoided the difficult precipices above the badush, forded it several times, crossed a low pass, descended to the valley of the mauri zarin, forded the river, and marched for some miles along its left bank, till the valley opened on great grassy slopes, the skirts of the rocky spurs which buttress the grand mountain shuturun, the "camel mountain," so called from its shape. it was a very uninteresting march, through formless gravelly hills, with their herbage all eaten down, nothing remaining but tamarisk scrub and a coarse yellow salvia. there were neither camps nor travellers; indeed, one need never look for camps where there is no herbage. this is a charming camping-ground covered with fine turf, damp, i fear, and some of the men are "down" with fever and rheumatism. there is space to see who comes and who goes, and though the altitude is only feet, last night was quite cool. ischaryar, aziz khan's devoted young servant, the gentlest and kindest bakhtiari i have seen, became quite ill of acute rheumatism with fever, and felt so very ill and weak that he thought he was going to die. i sent some medicine to him, but he would not take it, saying that his master had spoken unkindly to him, and he had no wish to live. however, this morbid frame of mind was overcome by firm dealing, and aziz attended to him all night, and salol, etc., are curing him. he is the one grateful creature that i have seen among these orientals, and his gratitude is in return for a mere trifle. we were fording a stream one hot day, and seeing him scooping up water with difficulty in his hands, i took out my mug for him. ever since he has done anything that he can for me. he brings tasteful little bouquets of flowers, gathers wild cherries, and shows the little courtesies which spring from a kindly nature. he said several times to mirza, "it isn't only that the _khanum_ gave me the cup, but she took trouble for me." it may be imagined what a desert as to grateful and kindly feeling i am living in when this trifle appears like an oasis. hard, cunning, unblushing greed is as painful a characteristic of the bakhtiaris as it is of the persians. hassan is now "down with fever" and the opium craving, and one of the _charvadars_ with fever. the cold winds of gunak were too much for them. all day shots have been heard among the near mountains. the hajwands, a powerful tribe, and the abdulwands are fighting about a recent cutting off of a cow's tail, but the actual cause of the feud is deeper, and dates farther back. aziz khan wants us to return to diz arjanak, fearing that we may become implicated, and the agha is calling him a coward, and telling him to ride back alone. bang! bang! the firing is now close and frequent, and the dropping shots are varied by straggling volleys. with the glasses i can see the tribesmen loading and firing on the crests of the near hills. a great number are engaged. one tribe has put up a stone breastwork at our end of the valley, but the enemy is attacking the other. p.m.--an hour ago mirab khan arrived with a number of armed horse and footmen. before he left he spent, i may say wasted, nearly an hour of my time again on his maladies, and again wrote down the directions for his medicines. volleys fired very near startled him into departing, and he rode hastily back to arjanak, fearing, as he said, an attack. nominally, he armed the guides and the men he left behind, but one of the guns has neither caps nor powder, and another has only three caps. all the animals have been driven in. p.m.--a man with grimy arms bare to the elbow has just run down to the agha's camp from the conflict. he says that his people, who are greatly inferior to the hajwands in numbers, thought it was the camp of the shah's revenue collector, and sent him to ask him to mediate. the agha expressed his willingness to become a mediator on certain conditions. there is much excitement in camp, all the men who are well crowding round this envoy, who is guilty of saying that fifty men are to attack our camps to-night. . p.m.--the agha, with the sahib and aziz khan, three brave men mounted and armed with rifles and revolvers, went to mediate. i went to a knoll in the valley with some of our men, above which on either side were hills occupied by the combatants, and a large number of tribesmen crowned the crest of a hill lying across the ravine higher up. the firing was frequent, but at long range, and i was near enough to see that only one man fell. our party rode on till they reached the top of a low ridge, where they dismounted, reconnoitred, and then passed out of sight, being fired on by both parties. the tribesmen kept on firing irregularly from the hill crests, occasionally running down the slopes, firing and running into cover. the sahib's _tufangchi_, who is of cheragh ali's tribe, asked me, "is this the way they fight in your country," i asked him if he would not like to be fighting? and he replied, "yes, if it were my quarrel." the sun was very bright, the sky very blue, and the smoke very white as it drifted over the lonely ravine and burst in clouds from the hill-tops. i saw the combatants distinctly without a glass, and heard their wild war-shouts. what a matter for regret is this useless tribal fighting, with its dreary consequences of wailing women and fatherless children! "why don't the english come and take us? why don't the english come and give us peace?" are surely the utterances of a tired race. after sunset the agha returned, having so far succeeded in his mission that the headmen have promised to suspend hostilities for to-morrow, but still shots are fired now and then. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] a "diz" is a natural fort believed to be impregnable. [ ] to english people the bakhtiaris profess great friendliness for england, and the opinion has been expressed by some well-informed writers that, in the event of an english occupation of the country, their light horse, drilled by english officers, would prove valuable auxiliaries. i am inclined, however, to believe that if a collision were to occur in south-west persia between two powers which shall be nameless, the bakhtiari horsemen would be sold to the highest bidder. letter xx lake irene, _july _. yesterday we marched through narrow defiles and along hillsides to this lake, without seeing a tent, a man, or even a sheep or goat, following a stream which bears several names and receives several torrents which burst, full grown, from powerful springs in the mountain sides--a frequent phenomenon in this country--from its source till its entrance into this lake. its two sides differ remarkably. on the right bank rise the magnificent ranges which form shuturun, broken up into precipices, deep ravines, and peaks, all rocky and shapely, and absolutely denuded of soil. the mountains on the left bank are great shapeless masses of bare gravel rising into the high but blunt summit of the sefid kuh, with only occasional outcrops of rock; here and there among the crevices of the rocky spurs of shuturun the _juniperus excelsa_ plants itself; otherwise, on the sun-scorched gravel only low tamarisk bushes, yellow salvias, a few belated campanulas, and a very lovely blue _trichodesma mollis_ remain. on reaching the top of a very long ascent there was a unique surprise, for below, walled in by precipitous mountain sides, lies a lake of wonderful beauty, owing to its indescribable colour. wild, fierce, and rocky are the high mountains in which this gem is set, and now verdureless, except that in some places where their steep sides enter the water willows and hawthorns find scanty roothold. where the river enters the lake there is a thicket of small willows, and where it leaves it its bright waters ripple through a wood of cherry, pear, plum, and hawthorn. a broad high bank of gravel lies across a part of its lower end, and all seemed so safe and solitary that i pitched my camp here for sunday at an unusual distance from the other camps. "things are not what they seem." two armed hajwands visited the camps, shots were heard at intervals this morning, and in the night some of the watch said they saw a number of men advancing towards us from under the bushes. i heard the sharp crack of our own rifles twice, and the agha and sahib calling on every one to be on the alert; the mules were driven in, and a great fire was made, but nothing came of it. to-night mirab khan's guides, who have been with us for some days, have gone back, journeying at night and hiding in caves by day for fear of being attacked. this lovely lake, having no native name, will be known henceforward geographically as lake irene. its waters lie in depths of sapphire blue, with streaks and shallows of green, but what a green! surely without a rival on earth! were a pea transparent, vivid, full of points and flashes of interior light, that would be the nearest approach to the colour, which changes never, while through the blazing hours the blue of the great depths in the centre has altered from sapphire to turquoise, and from turquoise to lapis-lazuli, one end and one side being permanently bordered round the margin with liquid emerald. the mountains have changed from rose to blue, from blue to gray, from gray to yellow, and are now flushing into pink. it is a carnival of colour, before the dusty browns and dusty grays which are to come. _camp sarawand, july ._--to-day's march has been a change from the grand scenery of the bakhtiari mountains to low passes and gravelly spurs, which sink down upon a plain. a blazing hillside; a mountain of gravel among others of similar ugliness, sprinkled with camel thorn and thistles; a steep and long descent to a stream; ripe wheat on some irrigated slopes; above these the hundred hovels of the village of sarawand clinging one above another to the hillside, their white clay roofs intolerable in the fierce light; more scorched gravel hills breaking off abruptly, and then a blazing plain, in a mist of dust and heat, and low hills on the farther side seen through a brown haze, make up the view from my tent. the plain is silakhor in persia proper, and, _nolens volens_, that heat and dust must shortly be encountered in the hottest month of the year. meanwhile the mercury is at ° in the tent. outside is a noisy crowd of a mixed race, more persian than lur, row behind row. the _ketchuda_ said if i would stand outside and show myself the people would be pacified, but the desired result was not attained, and the crushing and pushing were fearful--not that the people here or elsewhere are ever rude, it is simply that their curiosity is not restrained by those rules which govern ours. the agha tried to create a diversion by putting a large musical box at a little distance, but they did not care for it. i attempted to give each woman a card of china buttons, which they like for sewing on the caps of their children, but the crush was so overpowering that i was obliged to leave it to aziz. then came the sick people with their many woes and wants, and though now at sunset they have all gone, aziz comes in every few minutes with the laugh of a lost spirit, bringing a fresh copper bowl for eye lotion, quite pleased to think of my annoyance at being constantly dragged up from my writing. _camp parwez, july ._--we left early in the morning, _en route_ for the fort of yahya khan, the powerful chief of the pulawand tribe, with a tall, well-dressed, and very respectable-looking man, bagha khan, one of his many fathers-in-law, the father of the present "reigning favourite," as guide. it was a very pretty track, pursuing sheep-paths over steep spurs of parwez, and along the narrow crests of ridges, always with fine views. on reaching an alpine valley, rich in flowers, we halted till the caravan approached, and then rode on, the "we" that day being the guide on foot, and the agha, the sahib, aziz khan, mirza, and myself on horseback in single file. three men looked over the crest of a ridge to the left and disappeared abruptly, and i remarked to mirza that this was the most suspicious circumstance we had yet seen. there was one man on the hill to the right, with whom the guide exchanged some sentences in patois. the valley opened out on the stony side of a hill, which had to be crossed. as we climbed it was crested with a number of men with long guns. presently a number of shots were fired at us, and the reloading of the guns was distinctly seen. the order was given to "scatter" and proceed slowly. when the first shot was fired bagha khan, who must have been well known to all his tribesmen, dodged under a rock. then came an irregular volley from a number of guns, and the whistle and thud of bullets over and among us showed that the tribesmen, whatever were their intentions, were in earnest. to this volley the agha replied by a rifle shot which passed close over their heads, but again they reloaded rapidly. we halted, and aziz khan was sent up to parley with them. no one could doubt his courage after that solitary ascent in the very face of the guns. karim cantered up, anxious to fight, mujid and hassan, much excited, dashed up, and we rode on slowly, hadji and his _charvadars_ bringing up the caravan as steadily as if there were no danger ahead. not a man showed the "white feather," though most, like myself, were "under fire" for the first time. when we reached the crest of the pass such a wild lot crowded about us, their guns yet hot from firing upon us. such queer arms they had--one gun with a flint lock a century old, with the "tower mark" upon it, loaded sticks, and long knives. with much talking and excitement they accompanied us to this camping-ground.[ ] the men varied considerably in their stories. they were frightened, they said, and fired because they thought we were come to harm them. at first i was sorry for them, and regarded them as merely defending their "hearths and homes," for in the alpine valley behind the hill are their black tents, their families, their flocks and herds--their world, in fact. but they told another story, and said they took us for a party of hajwands. this was untenable, and the agha told them that they knew that hajwands do not ride on english saddles, and carry white umbrellas, and march with big caravans of mules. to me, when they desired my services, they said that had they known that one of the party was a _hak[=i]m_ they never would have fired. later, from hadji and others i have heard what i think may be the true version of the affair. they knew that the party was a small one--only three rifles; that on the fifteen baggage-animals there were things which they specially covet, the value of which rumour had doubtless magnified a hundredfold; and that we had no escort. behind were a number of the sarawand men, and the pulawands purposed, if we turned back or showed the "white feather" in any way, to double us up between the two parties and rob the caravan at discretion. the agha was obliged to speak very severely to them, telling them that firing on travellers is a grave offence, and deserves as such to be represented to the governor of burujird. i cannot acquit the demure-looking guide of complicity in this transaction. at this height of feet there is a pleasant plain, on which our assailants are camped, and our camps are on platforms in a gully near the top of parwez. it is all very destitute of springs or streams, and we have only snow-water, and that only during the hot hours of the day, for ourselves and the animals. the tribes among which we are now are powerful and very predatory in their habits. their loyalty to the ilkhani is shadowy, and their allegiance to the shah consists in the payment of tribute, which cannot in all cases be exacted. indeed, i think that both in tihran and isfahan there is only imperfect information as to the attitude of the bakhtiari lurs. their unification under the rule of the ilkhani grows more and more incomplete as the distance from isfahan increases, and these tribes, which are under the government of burujird nominally, are practically not under the ilkhani at all. blood feuds, predatory raids, khans at war with each other, tribal disputes and hostilities, are nearly universal. it is not for the interest of persia to produce by her misrule and intrigues such a chronic state of insecurity as makes the tribes desire any foreign interference which will give them security and rest, and relieve them from the oppressive exactions of the persian governors. on a recent march i was riding alone in advance of the caravan when i met two men, one mounted, the other on foot. the pedestrian could not have been passed anywhere unnoticed. he looked like a sicilian brigand, very handsome and well dressed, walked with a long elastic stride, and was armed with a double-barrelled gun and two revolvers. he looked hard at me, with a jolly but not unfriendly look, and then seeing the caravan, passed on. this was jiji, a great robber khan of the hajwand tribe, whose name inspires much fear. afterwards he met aziz khan, and sent this picturesque message: "sorry to have missed you in my own country, as i should have liked to have left you standing in your skins." i went up the kuh-i-parwez with bagha khan, the guide of whom i have such grave suspicions, in the early morning, when the cool blue shadows were still lying in the ravines. parwez, which on this side is an uninteresting mountain of herbage-covered gravelly slopes, falls down feet to the holiwar valley on the other in a series of tremendous battlemented precipices of dark conglomerate rock. the level summit of parwez, though about , feet in altitude, is as uninteresting as the shapeless slopes by which we ascended it, but this dip on the southern side is wonderful, and is carried on to the gap of bahrain, where it has a perpendicular scarp from its summit to the river of feet, and as it grandly terminates the outer range, it looks like a glorious headland abutting on the silakhor plain. as a panoramic view it is the finest i have had from any mountain, taking in the great shuturun range--the wide cultivated plain of silakhor, with its many villages; the winding ab-i-diz, its yellow crops, hardly distinguishable from the yellow soil and hazy yellow hills whose many spurs descend upon the plain--all merged in a haze of dust and heat. the eye is not tempted to linger long upon that specimen of a persian summer landscape, but turns with relief to the other side of the ridge, to a confused mass of mountains of great height, built up of precipices of solid rock, dark gray, weathered into black and denuded of soil, a mystery of chasms, rifts, and river-beds, sheltering and feeding predatory tribes, but unknown to the rest of the world. the chaos of mountain summits, chasms, and precipices is very remarkable, merging into lower and less definite ranges, with alpine meadows at great heights, and ravines much wooded, where charcoal is burned and carried to burujird and hamadan. among the salient points of this singular landscape are the mighty shuturun range, the peak of kuh-i-kargun on the other side of the silakhor plain, the river which comes down from lake irene, the holiwar, with the fantastic range of the kuh-i-haft-kuh (seven peaks) on its left bank, descending abruptly to the ab-i-zaz, beyond which again rises the equally precipitous range of the kuh-i-ruhbar. near the holiwar valley is a mountain formed by a singular arrangement of rocky buttresses, surmounted by a tooth-like rock, the tuk-i-karu, of which the guide told the legend that in "ancient times" a merchant did a large trade in a tent at the top of it, and before he died buried his treasure underneath it. a very striking object from the top is the gorge or cañon, the tang-i-bahrain, by which the ab-i-burujird leaves the plain of silakhor and enters upon its rough and fretted passage through ravines, for the most part inaccessible except to practised ilyat mountaineers. "had i come up to dig for the hidden treasure of tuk-i-karu?" the guide asked. "was i seeking gold? or was i searching for medicine plants to sell in feringhistan?" the three days here have been rather lively. the information concerning routes has been singularly contradictory. there is a path which descends over feet to the holiwar valley, through which, for certain reasons, it is desirable to pass. some say it is absolutely impassable for laden mules, others that it can be traversed with precautions, others again that they would not take even their asses down; that there are shelving rocks, and that if a mule slipped it would go down to ----. hadji with much force urges that we should descend to the plain, and go by a comparatively safe route to khuramabad, leave the heavy baggage there, and get a strong escort of _sowars_ from the governor for the country of the pulawands. there is much that is plausible in this plan, the sahib approves of it, and the agha, with whom the decision rests, has taken it into very careful consideration, but i am thoroughly averse to it, though i say nothing. hadji says he cannot risk his mules on the path down to the holiwar valley. i could have filled pages with the difficulties which have been grappled with during the last few weeks of the journey as to guides, routes, perils, etc., two or three hours of every day being occupied in the attempt to elicit truth from men who, from either inherent vagueness and inaccuracy or from a deliberate intention to deceive, contradict both themselves and each other, but on this occasion the difficulties have been greater than ever; the order of march has been changed five times, and we have been obliged to remain here because the agha has not considered that the information he has obtained has warranted him in coming to a decision. yesterday evening the balance of opinion was definitely against the holiwar route, and hadji was so vehemently against it that he shook a man who said it was passable. this morning the sahib with a guide and abbas ali examined the road. the sahib thought it was passable. abbas ali said that the mules would slip off the shelving rocks. all day long there have been lur visitors, some saying one thing, and some another, but a dream last night reconciled hadji to take the route, and the agha after carefully weighing the risks all round has decided upon it. all these pros and cons have been very interesting, and there have been various little incidents. i have had many visitors and "patients" from the neighbouring camp, and among them three of the men who fired upon us. the trifle of greatest magnitude was the illness of aziz's mare, the result of a kick from _screw_. she had an enormous swelling from knee to shoulder, could not sleep, and could hardly eat, and as she belongs partly to isfandyar khan, aziz khan has been distracted about her, and has distracted me by constant appeals to me to open what seemed an abscess. i had not the courage for this, but it was done, and the cut bled so profusely that a pad, a stone, and a bandage had to be applied. unfortunately there was no relief from this venture, and aziz "worrited" me out of my tent three times in the night to look at the creature. besides that, he had about twenty ailing people outside the tent at a.m., always sending to me to "come at once." he was told to wash the wound, but he would do nothing till i went out with my appliances, very grudgingly, i admit. the sweet animal was indeed suffering, and the swelling was much increased. a number of men were standing round her, and when i told aziz to remove the clot from the wound, they insisted that she would bleed to death, and so the pros and cons went on till aziz said, "the _khanum_ shall do it, these feringhi _hak[=i]ms_ know everything." to be regarded as a _hak[=i]m_ on the slenderest possible foundation is distressing, but to be regarded as a "vet" without any foundation at all is far worse. however, the clot was removed, and though the wound was three inches long there was still no relief, and aziz said solemnly, "now do what you think best." very gradual pressure at the back of the leg brought out a black solid mass weighing fully a pound. "god is great!" exclaimed the bystanders. "may god forgive your sins!" cried aziz, and fell at my feet with a genuine impulse of gratitude. he insists that "a pound of flesh" came out of the swelling. the wound is now syringed every few hours, and aziz is learning how to do this, and to dress it. the mare can both eat and sleep, and will soon be well. this evening aziz said that fifteen _tumans_ would be the charge for curing his mare, and that, he says, is my present to him. he told me he wanted me to consider something very thoroughly, and not to answer hastily. he said, "we're a poor people, we have no money, but we have plenty of food. we have women who take out bullets, but in all our nation there is no _hak[=i]m_ who knows the wisdom of the feringhis. your medicines are good, and have healed many of our people, and though a _kafir_ we like you well and will do your bidding. the agha speaks of sending a _hak[=i]m_ among us next year, but you are here, and though you are old you can ride, and eat our food, and you love our people. you have your tent, isfandyar khan will give you a horse of pure pedigree, dwell among us till you are very old, and be our _hak[=i]m_, and teach us the wisdom of the feringhis." then, as if a sudden thought had struck him, he added, "and you can cure mules and mares, and get much money, and when you go back to feringhistan you'll be very rich." in nearly every camp i have an evening "gossip" with the guides and others of the tribesmen, and, in the absence of news from the larger world, have become intensely interested in bakhtiari life as it is pictured for me in their simple narratives of recent forays, of growing tribal feuds and their causes, of blood feuds, and of bloody fights, arising out of trivial disputes regarding camping-grounds, right of pasture, right to a wounded bird, and things more trivial still. they are savages at heart. they take a pride in bloodshed, though they say they are tired of it and would like to live at peace, and there would be more killing than there is were it not for the aversion which some of them feel to the creation of a blood feud. when they do fight, "the life of a man is as the life of a sheep," as the persian proverb runs. mirza says that among themselves their talk is chiefly of guns and fighting. the affairs of the mountains are very interesting, and so is the keen antagonism between the adherents of the ilkani and those of isfandyar khan. sometimes the conversation takes a religious turn. i think i wronged aziz khan in an earlier letter. he is in his way much more religious than i thought him. a day or two ago i was asking him his beliefs regarding a future state, which he explained at much length, and which involve progressive beatitudes of the spirit through a course of one hundred years. he laid down times and seasons very definitely, and was obviously in earnest, when two magawe men who were standing by broke in indignantly, saying, "aziz khan, how dare you speak thus? these things belong to god, the judge, he knows, we don't--we see the spirit fly away to judgment and we know no more. god is great, he alone knows." apparently they have no idea generally of a future except that the spirit goes either to heaven or hell, according to its works in the flesh. some say that they are told that there is an intermediate place called _barjakh_, known as the place of evil spirits, in which those who have died in sin undergo a probation with the possibility of beneficent results. on asking what is meant by sin the replies all have the same tendency,--cowardice, breaches of the seventh commandment (which, however, seem to be so rare as scarcely to be taken into account, possibly because of the death penalty attaching to them), disobedience to a chief when he calls on them to go to war, fraternising with sunnis, who are "accursed," betraying to an enemy a man of their own tribe, and compassing the death of another by poison or evil machinations. on being asked what deeds are good, bravery is put first, readiness to take up a tribal quarrel, charity, i.e. kindness to the poor, undying hatred to the caliph omar, shown by ostracising the sunnis, hatred of _kafirs_, and pilgrimages, especially to mecca. death in battle ensures an immediate entrance into heaven, and this is regarded as such a cause of rejoicing that not only is the _chapi_ or national dance performed at a fighting man's grave, but if his death at a distance has been lawful, _i.e._ if he has been killed in fighting, they put up a rude temporary cenotaph with his gun, cap, knife, pipe, and other things about it, and dance, sing, and rejoice. otherwise their burial rites are simple. the corpse is washed seven times in water, certain arabic formulas for the repose of the soul are recited, and the body, clothed and wrapped in a winding-sheet, is carried by four men to the burying-place on a bier extemporised out of tent-poles, and is buried in a shallow grave. it is not customary now to rejoice at the graves of women or old men, unless the latter have been distinguished warriors. so far as i can learn, even in the case of the deaths of fighting men, when the _chapi_ is danced at the grave, the women keep up the ordinary ceremonial of mourning, which is very striking. they howl and wail, beating their breasts rhythmically, keeping time with their feet, tearing their hair and gashing their faces with sharp flints, cutting off also their long locks and trampling upon them with piteous cries. this last bitter token of mourning is confined to the deaths of a husband and a first-born son, and the locks so ruthlessly treated are afterwards attached to the tombstone. mourning for a husband, child, or parent lasts a year, and the anniversary of the death is kept with the same ceremonies which marked the beginning of the period of mourning. in the case of a great man who has died fighting, the women of his tribe wail and beat their breasts on this anniversary for many subsequent years. nothing is buried with the corpse, and nothing is placed on the grave, but it is the universal custom to put a stone at the head of the body, which is always buried facing mecca-wards. to this position they attach great importance, and they covet my compass because it would enable them at any point to find the position of the kiblah. a comb or distaff rudely carved on a woman's headstone, and the implements of war or hunting on that of a man, are common, and few burial-places are without one or more of the uncouth stone lions to which frequent reference has been made. the graveyards are very numerous, and are usually on small elevations by the roadside, so that passers-by, if they be hadjis, may pray for the repose of the soul. it must be understood that prayer consists in the repetition of certain formulas in arabic, which very few if any of these people understand.[ ] as to the great matter of their religion, on which i have taken infinite trouble to gain information, i can come to no satisfactory conclusion. i think that they have very little, and that what they have consists in a fusion of some of the tenets of islam with a few relics of a nature worship, not less rude than that of the ainos of yezo and other aboriginal tribes. they are shiahs, that is, they hate the sunnis, and though the belief in persia that they compel any one entering their country to swear eternal hatred to omar is not absolutely correct, this hate is an essential part of their religion. they hold the unity of god, and that mohammed was his prophet; but practically, though they are not ali ilahis, they place ali on as high a pedestal as mohammed. they are utterly lax in observing the precepts of the koran, even prayer at the canonical hours is very rarely practised, and then chiefly by seyyids and hadjis. it has been said that the women are devout, but i think that this is a mistake. many of them have said to me, "women have no religion, for women won't live again." those of the khans who can read, and who have made pilgrimages to mecca, such as the hadji ilkhani, khaja taimur, and mirab khan, observe the times of prayer and read the koran, and when they are so engaged they allow of no interruption, but these are remarkable exceptions. pilgrimages and visits to _imamzadas_ are lightly undertaken, either for the accumulation of merit, or to wash away the few misdeeds which they regard as sin, or in the hope of gaining an advantage over an enemy. they regard certain stones, trees, hill-tops, and springs as "sacred," but it is difficult to define the very vague ideas which they attach to them. i am inclined to think that they look on them as the abodes of genii, always malignant, and requiring to be propitiated. in passing such places they use a formula equivalent to "may god avert evil," and it is common, as in nubra and ladak, to hang pieces of rag on such trees and stones as offerings to the _genius loci_. they regard certain places as possibly haunted by spirits, always evil, and never those of the departed; but this can scarcely be termed a belief, as it is lightly held, and quite uninfluential, except in preventing them from passing such places alone in the darkness. the opinions concerning god represent him chiefly as a personification of a fate, to which they must bow, and as a judge, to whom, in some mysterious way, they must account after death. earthly justice appears to them as a commodity to be bought and sold, as among the persians, or as it is among themselves, as severity solely, without a sentiment of mercy; and i have asked them often if they think that anything will be able to affect the judgment of the judge of all, in case it should go against them. usually they reply in the negative, but a few say that ali, the lieutenant of god, will ask for mercy for them, and that he will not be refused. of god as a moral being i think they have little conception, and less of the creator as an object of love. of holiness as an attribute of god they have no idea. their ejaculation, "god is good," has really no meaning. charity, under the term "goodness," they attribute to god. but they have no notion of moral requirements on the part of the creator, or of sin as the breaking of any laws which he has laid down. they concern themselves about the requirements of religion in this life and about the future of the soul as little as is possible, and they narrow salvation within the limits of the shiah sect. after mohammed and ali they speak of moses, abraham, and jesus as "prophets," but of moses as a lawgiver, and of jesus as aught else but a healer, they seem quite ignorant. and so they pass away, generation after generation, ignorant of the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man, of the love to god and man which is alone the fulfilling of the law, and of the light which he, who is the resurrection and the life, has shed upon the destiny of the human spirit. generally i find them quite willing to talk on these subjects; but one man said contemptuously, "what has a _kafir_ to do with god?" the women know nothing, and, except among the sons of the leading khans, there is no instruction in the koran given to the children. if i have interpreted their views correctly they must be among the most ignorant of the races bound by the faith of islam. _khuramabad, august ._--leaving the camp on parwez, and skirting the gravelly slopes on the north side of its ridge, a sudden dip over the crest took us among great cliffs of conglomerate, with steep gravelly slopes below, much covered with oaks growing out of scorched soil. grooves, slides, broken ledges, and shelving faces of rock have to be descended. one part is awfully bad, and every available man and some passing bakhtiaris (who wanted to be paid in advance for their services) went back to help the animals. the _charvadars_ shouted and yelled, and the horses and some of the mules were taken by their heads and tails, but though nearly every man had a fall, horses, asses, mules, and a sheep which follows _hak[=i]m_ got over that part safely. it was a fine sight, thirty animals coming down, what looked from below, a precipice, led by hadji leading cock o' the walk, shaking his tasselled head, and as full of pride and fire as usual, and the mules looking wisely, choosing their way, and leaping dexterously upon and among the rocks. it is not a route for laden animals, but personally, as i had two men to help me, i did not find it so risky or severe as the descent of the gokun pass. below these conglomerate precipices are steep and dangerous zigzags, which i was obliged to ride down, and there we were not so fortunate, for hadji's big saddle-mule slipped, and being unable to recover herself fell over the edge some hundred feet and was killed instantaneously. the descent of the southern face of parwez, abrupt and dangerous most of the way, is over feet. the track proceeds down the holiwar valley, brightened by a river of clear green water, descending from lake irene. having forded this, we camped on its left bank on a gravelly platform at the edge of the oak woods which clothe the lower spurs of the grand kuh-i-haft-kuh, with a magnificent view of the gray battlemented precipices of parwez. the valley is beautiful, and acres of withered flowers suggested what its brief spring loveliness must be, but its altitude is only feet, and the mercury in the shade was °, the radiation from the rock and gravel terrible, and the sand-flies made rest impossible. at midnight the mercury stood at °. there were no bakhtiaris, but two or three patches of scorched-up wheat, not worth cutting, evidenced their occasional presence. among these perished crops, revelling in blazing soil and air like the breath of a furnace, grew the blue _centaurea_ and the scarlet poppy, the world-wide attendants upon grain; and where other things were burned, the familiar rose-coloured "sweet william," a white-fringed _dianthus_, and a gigantic yellow mullein audaciously braved the heat. no one slept that night because of the sand-flies and the need for keeping a vigilant watch. indeed, the tents were packed shortly after sunset, and in a hot dawn we ascended to a considerable height above the valley, and then for many miles followed a stream in a wooded glen, where willows, planes, vines, rank grass, and a handsome yellow pea grew luxuriantly, looped together continually by the fragile _clematis orientalis_. all that country would be pretty had it moisture and "atmosphere." the hillsides are covered with oaks and the _paliurus aculeatus_ on their lower slopes, rising out of withered flowers. all else is uncut sun-cured hay, and its pale uniform buff colour is soft, and an improvement on the glare of bare gravel. delays, occasioned by the caravan being misled by the guide, took us into the heat of the day, and before the narrow valley opened out into the basin surrounded by wooded spurs of hills in which khanabad stands, it was noon. men and animals suffered from the heat and length of that march. in the middle of this basin there is a good deal of cultivation, and opium, wheat, cotton, melons, grapes, and cucumbers grow well. rice has already succeeded wheat, and will be reaped in november. kalla khanabad, the fort dwelling of yahya khan, with terraces of poplars, mulberries, pomegranates, and apricots below it, makes a good centre of a rather pretty view. leaving it on the right we turned up a narrow valley with a small stream and irrigation channels, and close to a spring and some magnificent plane trees camped for sunday on a level piece of blazing ground where the mercury stood at ° on both days. this spot was remarkable for some very fine _eryngiums_ growing by the stream, with blossoms of a beautiful "french blue," the size of a seville orange. the khan's son, a most unprepossessing young man, called on me, and i received him under the trees, a number of retainers armed with long guns standing round the edge of the carpet. he was well dressed, but a savage in speech and deportment. as to the dress of the bakhtiaris, the ordinary tribesmen wear coarse cotton shirts fastening at the side, but generally unfastened, blue cotton trousers, each leg two yards wide, loose at the bottom and drawn on a string at the top, webbing shoes, worsted socks if any, woollen girdles with a kashmir pattern, and huge loose brown felt coats or cloaks with long sleeves, costing from fifteen to twenty-five _krans_ each, and wearing for three or four years. the khans frequently have their _shulwars_ of black silk, and wear the ordinary persian full-skirted coat, usually black, but "for best" one of fine blue or fawn cloth. all wear brown or white felt skull-caps, and shave their heads for a width of five inches from the brow to the nape of the neck, leaving long side-locks. the girdle supplies the place of pockets, and in it are deposited knives, the pipe, the tobacco-pouch, the flint and steel, and various etceteras. every man carries a long smooth-bore gun slung from his left shoulder, or a stout shillelagh, or a stick split and loaded at one end (the split being secured with strong leather), or all these weapons of offence and defence at once. these very wide _shulwars_, much like the "divided garment," are not convenient in rough walking, and on the march a piece of the hem on the outer side is tucked into the girdle, producing at once the neat effect of knickerbockers. the men are very well made. i have never seen deformity or lameness except from bullet wounds. they are not usually above the middle height, though that is exceeded by the men of the zalaki tribe. they are darker than the persians. as a general rule they have straight noses, with very fully expanded nostrils, good mouths, thin lips, straight or slightly curved eyebrows, dark gray or black eyes, hazel in a few instances, deeply set, and usually rather close together, well-developed foreheads, small ears, very small feet, and small hands with tapering fingers. the limbs below the knee are remarkably straight and well-developed, and the walk is always good. it is not easy to say how the women are made, as their clothing gives no indications of form. they are long-limbed, and walk with a firm, even, elastic stride. they are frequently tall, and except when secluded are rarely stout. their hands and feet are small. their figures are spoilt (if they ever had any) by early maternity and hard work. at twenty a woman looks past forty. many, perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say most, of them have narrowly escaped being handsome. fine eyes, straight noses, and well-formed mouths with thin lips are the rule. the hair is always glossy and abundant, and the teeth of both sexes are white, regular, and healthy-looking, though toothache is a painfully common ailment. the women's dress in the "higher classes" is much like that worn by the ordinary persian women, with the exception of what i have elsewhere called "balloon trousers," but the hard-working tribesmen's wives are clothed in loose blue cotton trousers drawn in at the ankles, short open chemises, and short open jackets. a black or coloured kerchief covers the head, the ends hanging down behind or in front. they wear loose woollen shoes with leather soles. the dress is not pretty or picturesque, and is apt to be dirty and ragged, but it suits their lives and their hard work. both sexes stain the finger-nails and the palms of the hands with henna, and all wear amulets or charms suspended round the neck, or bound on the upper part of the arm. these consist of passages from the koran, which are written on parchment in very small characters, and are enclosed in cases of silver or leather. at night they merely take off the outer garment where they have two. the scanty ablutions are very curious. each family possesses a metal jug of rather graceful form, with a long spout curiously curved, and the mode of washing, which points to an accustomed scarcity of water, is to pour a little into the palm of the right hand, and bathe the face, arms, and hands with it, soap not being used. they conclude by rinsing the mouth and rubbing the teeth either with the forefinger or with the aromatic leaf of a small pink salvia. i called by appointment on the khan's wives, sixteen in number. an ordinary tribesman marries as many wives as he can afford to house and keep. poverty and monogamy are not allied here. women do nearly all the work, large flocks create much female employment, and as it is "contrary to bakhtiari custom" to employ female servants who are not wives, polygamy is very largely practised. on questioning the guides, who are usually very poor men, i find that they have two, three, and even four wives, the reverse of what is customary among the peasants of turkey and persia proper. the influence of a chief increases with the number of his wives, as it enlarges his own family connections, and those made by the marriages of his many sons and daughters. large families are the rule. six children is the average in a monogamous household, and the rate of infant mortality is very low. the "fort" is really picturesque, though forlorn and dirty. it is built on the steep slope of a hill, and on one side is three stories in height. it has a long gallery in front, with fretwork above the posts which support the roof, round towers at two of the corners, and many irregular roofs, and steep zigzags cut in the rock lead up to it. the centre is a quadrangle. when i reached the gateway under the tower many women welcomed me, and led me down a darkish passage to the gallery aforesaid, which has a pretty view of low hills, with mulberries and pomegranates in the foreground. this gallery runs the whole length of the fort, and good rooms open upon it. it was furnished with rugs upon the floor, and two long wooden settees, covered with checked native blankets in squares of indian yellow and madder red. i had presents for the favourite wife, but as one man said this was the favourite, and another that, and the hungry eyes of sixteen women were fixed on the parcels, i took the safer course of presenting them to the khan for the "ladies of the _andarun_." yahya khan sent to know if it would be agreeable to me for him to make his salaam to me, a proposal which i gladly accepted as a relief from the curiosity and disagreeable familiarity of the women. there was a complete rabble of women in the gallery, with crawling children and screaming babies--a forlorn, disorderly household, in which the component parts made no secret of their hatred and jealousy of each other. i pitied the khan as he came in to this babel of intriguing women and untutored children--of women without womanliness and children without innocence--the lord and master of the women, but not in any noble sense their husband, nor is the house, or any polygamous house, in any sense a home. the wife who, i was afterwards told, is the "reigning favourite" sat on the same settee as her lord, and he ignored the whole of them. her father, bagha khan, asked me to give into his care the present for her, lest it should make the other wives jealous. yahya khan rules a large part of the pulawand tribe, families, and aspires to the chieftainship of its subdivisions, among which are the bosakis, hajwands, isawands, and hebidis, numbering families.[ ] [illustration: yahya khan.] he is a tall, big, middle-aged man with a very wide mouth, and a beard dyed auburn with henna--very intelligent, especially as regards his own interests, and very well off, having built his castle himself. he asked me if i thought england would occupy south-west persia in the present shah's lifetime? which has the stronger army, england or russia? why england does not take afghanistan? did i think the zil-es-sultan had any chance of succeeding his father? but several times reverted to what seemed uppermost in his mind, the chances of a british occupation of southern persia, a subject on which i was unwilling to enter. he complained bitterly of persian exactions, and said that the demand made on him this year is exactly double the sum fixed by the amin-es-sultan. it is not easy to estimate the legitimate taxation. probably it averages two _tumans_, or nearly fifteen shillings a family. the assessment of the tribes is fixed, but twenty, forty, and even sixty per cent extra is often taken from them by the authorities, who in their turn are squeezed at tihran or isfahan. every cow, mule, ass, sheep, and goat is taxed. horses pay nothing. in order to get away from perilous topics, which had absolutely no interest for the women. i told him how interested i was in seeing all his people clothed in blue manchester cottons, though england does not grow a tuft of cotton or a plant of indigo. i mentioned that the number of people dependent on the cotton industry in britain equals the whole population of persia, and this made such an impression on him that he asked me to repeat it three times. he described his tribe as prosperous, raising more wheat than it requires, and exporting _tumans'_ worth of carpets annually. it is curious that nomadic semi-savages should not only sow and harvest crops, and make carpets of dyed wool, as well as goats-hair rugs and cloth, horse-furniture, _kh[=u]rjins_, and socks of intricate patterns, but that they should understand the advantages of trade, and export not only mules, colts, and sheep, but large quantities of charcoal, which is carried as far as hamadan; as well as _gaz_, gall-nuts, tobacco, opium, rice, gum mastic, clarified butter, the skins of the fox and a kind of marten, and cherry sticks for pipes. certainly the women are very industrious, rising at daylight to churn, working all day, weaving in the intervals, and late at night boiling the butter in their big caldrons. they make their own clothes and those of their husbands and children, except the felt coats, sewing with needles like skewers and very coarse loosely-twisted cotton thread. they sew backwards, _i.e._ from left to right, and seem to use none but a running stitch. everywhere they have been delighted with gifts of english needles and thread, steel thimbles, and scissors. when it is remembered that, in addition to all the "household" avocations which i have enumerated, they pitch and strike tents, do much of the loading and unloading of the baggage, and attend faithfully to their own offspring and to that of their flocks and herds, it will be realised that the life of a bakhtiari wife is sufficiently laborious. we were to have left that burning valley at p.m., and when i returned at dusk from the fort the tents were folded and the loads ready for a moonlight march, but yahya khan sent to say that for the ostensible reason of the path being greatly obstructed by trees we could not start till daylight! later he came with a number of tribesmen and haggled noisily for two hours about the payment of an escort, and the sheep a day which it would require. it was not a comfortable night, for the sand-flies were legion, and we did not get off till . , when we were joined by yahya khan and his son, who accompanied us to the pul-i-hawa. the path from kalla khanabad runs at a considerable elevation on wooded hillsides and slopes of shelving rock, only descending to cross some curious ribs of conglomerate and the streams which flow into the ab-i-diz. there are frequent glimpses of the river, which has the exquisite green colour noticeable in nearly all the streams of this part of luristan. at a distance of a few miles from khanabad the valley, which has been pretty wide, and allows the river to expand into smooth green reaches, narrows suddenly, and the ab-i-diz, a full, strong stream, falls in a very fine waterfall over a natural dam or ledge of rock, which crosses it at its broadest part, and is then suddenly compressed into a narrow passage between cliffs and ledges of bituminous limestone, the lowest of which is a continuation of the path which descends upon it by some steep zigzags. below this gorge the river opens out into a smooth green stretch, where it reposes briefly before starting on a wild and fretted course through deep chasms among precipitous mountains, till it emerges on the plains above dizful. these limestone cliffs exude much bitumen, and there is a so-called bituminous spring. our men took the opportunity of collecting the bitumen and rolling it into balls for future use, as it is esteemed a good remedy for dyspepsia and "bad blood." at the narrowest part of its channel the river is crossed by a twig bridge wide enough for laden animals, supported on the left bank by some tree-stems kept steady by a mass of stones. in the middle it takes a steepish upward turn, and hangs on to the opposite cliff at a considerable elevation. the path up from it to the top of the cliff is very narrow, and zigzags by broken ledges between walls of rock. for loaded animals it is a very bad place, and the caravan took an hour and a half to cross, though only four mules were unloaded, the rest being helped across by men at their heads and tails. several of them fell on the difficult climb from the bridge. it would be bad enough if the roadway of osiers were level, but it shelves slightly to the south. that gorge is a very interesting break in an uninteresting and monotonous region, and the broad fall above the bridge is not without elements of grandeur. the altitude of the river over which the pul-i-hawa hangs is only feet, the lowest attained on this journey. [illustration: a twig bridge.] the popular nomenclature is adopted here, but it would be more accurate to call this stream the ab-i-burujird, and to defer conferring the name of ab-i-diz upon it till the two great branches have united far below this point. these are the ab-i-burujird, rising to the west of burujird, which with the tributaries which enter it before it reaches the tang-i-bahrain, drains the great plain of silakhor, and the ab-i-basnoi, a part of which has been referred to under its local name of kakulistan, or "the curl," which drains the upper part of the persian district of faraidan, and receives the important tributaries of the guwa and the gokun before its junction with the ab-i-burujird. a tributary rising in the kuh-i-rang has been locally considered the head-water of the ab-i-diz. leaving the ab-i-diz, the path pursues valleys with streams and dry torrent-beds, much wooded with oak and hawthorn, with hills above, buff with uncut sun-cured hay, magnificent pasturage, but scantily supplied with water. the _belut_, or oak, grows abundantly in these valleys, and on it is chiefly collected the deposit called _gaz_, a sweetish glaze upon the leaf, which is not produced every year, and which is rather obscure in its origin. when boiled with the leaves it forms a shiny bottle-green mass, but when the water is drained from them and carefully skimmed, it cools into a very white paste which, when made up with rose-water and chopped almonds, is cut into blocks, and is esteemed everywhere. it is mentioned by diodorus siculus.[ ] the unwatered valleys are wooded with the _paliurus aculeata_ chiefly, and the jujube tree (_zizyphus vulgaris_), which abounds among the bakhtiari mountains. the heat was frightful, and progress was very slow, owing to the low projecting branches of trees, which delayed the baggage and tore some of the tents. in places the path was farther obstructed by a species of liana known in new zealand as "a lawyer," with hooked thorns. we passed by the steep ledgy village of shahbadar, on the roofs of which i rode inadvertently, till the shouts of the people showed me my error, and encamped on the only available spot which could be found, a steep, bare prominence above a hollow, in which is a spring surrounded by some fine plane trees. the shahbadar people live in their village for three winter months only, and were encamped above us, and there were two large camps below. men from each of them warned us to beware of the others, for they were robbers, and there was a great deal of dexterous pilfering, which reduced my table equipments to a copper mug, one plate, and a knife and fork. my _shuldari_ was torn to pieces, and pulled down over me, by a lively mule which cantered among the tent ropes. the afternoon, with the mercury at °, was spent in entertaining successive crowds, not exactly rude, but full of untamed curiosity. i amused them to their complete satisfaction by letting them blow my whistle, fill my air-cushion, and put the whalebones into my collapsible basins. one of milward's self-threading needles, which had luckily been found in my carpet, surprised them beyond measure. every man and woman insisted on threading it with the eyes shut, and the _ketchuda_ of one camp offered to barter a sheep for it. they said that my shabby tent, with its few and shabby equipments, was "fit for god!" the camps passed on that day were constructed of booths made of stems of trees with the bark on, the roofs being made of closely-woven branches with the leaves on. these booths are erected round a square with mat walls, and face outwards, a sort of privacy being obtained by backs of coarse reed mats four feet high, and mat divisions between the dwellings. the sheep, goats, and cattle are driven into the square at night through a narrow entrance walled with mats. since leaving the karun very few horses have been seen, and the few have been of a very inferior class. even yahya khan, who has the reputation of being rich, rode a horse not superior to a common pack animal. the people we have been among lately have no horses or mares, the men walk, and the loads are carried on cows and asses. in the greater part of this country i have not seen a mule, with the exception of some mule foals on a high pass near ali-kuh. the bakhtiaris breed mules, however, and sell them in isfahan in the spring, but rarely use them for burden. they breed horses in some places, exporting the colts and keeping the fillies. their horses are small and not good-looking, but are wiry and enduring, and as surefooted as mules. in fact they will go anywhere. one check on the breeding of good horses is that, when a man has a good foal, he is often compelled to make a present of it to any superior who fancies it. the horses are shod, as in persia proper, with thin iron plates covering nearly the whole hoof, secured by six big-headed nails. reared in camps and among children, they are perfectly gentle and scarcely require breaking. a good bakhtiari horse can be bought for £ or £ . a good mule is worth from £ to £ . asses are innumerable, and are used for transporting baggage, equally with oxen and small cows. a good donkey can be bought for s. the goats are very big and long-haired. the sheep, which nearly always are like the goats brown or black, and very tall, are invariably of the breed with the great pendulous tails, which sometimes weigh nearly eight pounds. they give a great deal of milk, and it is on this, not on cows' milk, that the people rely for the greater part of their food, their cheese, curds, _mast_, and _roghan_. the goat-skins are invaluable to them. they use them for holding water and milk, and as churns for their butter. they make all their tents, their tent carpets, and their sacks for holding wool of goat's-hair, woven on rude portable looms. the female costume changed at shahbadar. the women now wear loose garments like nightgowns, open to the waist, and reaching from the neck to the feet, and red trousers, tight below the knee, but rarely visible below the outer dress. their notion of ornament consists in having a branch or frond tattooed up the throat. these tribes breed cattle extensively. one camp possessed over young beasts. the calves are nourished by their mothers up to two years old. they have a few white angora goats of great beauty, but the majority are black and are valued chiefly for their milk and for their long coarse hair. a march through fierce heat at a low level brought us at noon to the village of imamzada-i-mamil. the road, after continuing along the same wooded valley, which in a happier climate would be called a glen, emerges on scenery truly "park-like," softly-outlined hills covered with buff grass, and wooded on their gently-curved slopes with oak and hawthorn, fringing off into clumps and single trees. smooth broad valleys, first of buff pasture, and then of golden wheat or green maize, lie among the hills. all is soft and lowland, and was bathed that day in a dreamy blue heat haze. not a mountain rose above the gently-curved hills which were painted in soft blue on the sky of the distant horizon. the natural wood ceased. the surroundings underwent an abrupt change. is it a change for the better, i wonder? three months and a week have been spent in zigzagging among some of the loftiest mountains and deepest valleys of persia, and they now lie behind, among the things that were. in fact, khuramabad, from which i write, is not only out of the bakhtiari country, but the bakhtiari lurs are left behind, and we are among the fierce and undisciplined tribes of the feili lurs. the baggage animals were not dubious, as i am, as to the advantages of the change. when we reached the open, cock o' the walk threw up his beautiful head, knocked down the man who led him, and with a joyous neigh set off at a canter, followed by all the mules and horses, some cantering, some trotting, regardless of their loads, and regardless of everything, proceeding irresponsibly, almost knocking one out of the saddle by striking one with the sharp edges of _yekdans_ and tent poles, till they were headed off by mounted men, after which some of them rolled, loads and all, on the soft buff grass. this escapade shows what condition they are in after three months of hard mountain work. reaching the village at noon, we halted till moonrise at midnight on an eminence with some fine plane and walnut trees upon it above a stream which issues from below an _imamzada_ on a height, and passes close to a graveyard. possibly this contaminates the water, for there has been a great outbreak of diphtheria, which has been very fatal. it is quite a small village, but thirteen children suffering from the most malignant form of the malady, some of them really dying at the time, were brought to me during the afternoon, as well as some people ill of what appeared to be typhoid fever. one young creature, very ill, was carried three miles on her father's back, though i had sent word that i would call and see her at night. she died a few hours later of the exhaustion brought on by the journey. the mercury that afternoon reached ° in the shade. soon after midnight the mules were silently loaded, and we "stole silently away," to ride through the territory of the powerful sagwands, a robber tribe, and reached this place in eight hours, having done twenty-two and a half miles. it was a march full of risk, through valleys crowded with camps, and the guide who rode in front was very much frightened whenever the tremendous barking of the camp dogs threatened to bring robbers down on us in the uncertain light. the caravan was kept in steady order, and the rearguard was frequently hailed by the leader. nothing happened, and when day broke we were in open russet country, among low, formless gravelly hills, with the striking range of rocky mountains which hems in khuramabad in front, under a hazy sky. later, fording the kashgan, i got upon the burujird caravan road, along which are telegraph poles, and on which there was much caravan traffic. recrossing the kashgan, but this time by a good two-arched bridge of brick on stone piers, the yafta kuh came in sight, and khuramabad with its green gardens, its walls of precipitous mountains, and its ruined fort on an isolated and most picturesque rock in the centre of the town--a very striking view. khuramabad, before the fourteenth century, was called diz siyah, or the black fort, and was the capital of the atabegs, the powerful kings who reigned in luri-kushuk from a.d. to about a.d. . sir h. rawlinson does not regard any of its remains as earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century. the camps are outside the town, on a stretch of burning gravel, with some scorched pasture beyond it, on which are ilyat camps, then there are divers ranges of blackish and reddish mountains, with pale splashes of scorched herbage when there is any at all. behind my tent are a clump of willows, an irrigating stream, large gardens full of fruit trees and melons, and legions of mosquitos. circumstances have changed, and the surroundings now belong to the showy civilisation of persia. as i was lying under the trees, quite "knocked up" by the long and fatiguing night march and the great heat, i heard fluent french being spoken with a good accent. the _hak[=i]m_ of the governor had called. cavalcades of persians on showy horses gaily caparisoned dashed past frequently. ten infantrymen arrived as a guard and stacked their arms under the willows, and four obsequious servants brought me trays of fruit and sweetmeats put up in vine leaves from the governor. melons are a drug. the servants are amusing themselves in the bazars. it is a bewildering transition. the altitude is only feet, and the heat is awful--the heat of the indian plains without indian appliances. when the men took up stones with which to hammer the tent pegs they dropped them "like hot potatoes." the paraffin candles melt. milk turns sour in one hour. even night brings little coolness. it is only heat and darkness instead of heat and light. i was too much exhausted by heat and fatigue to march last night, and rested to-day as far as was possible, merely going to pay my respects to the governor of luristan, the nizam-ul-khilwar, and the ladies of his _haram_. the characteristics of this official's face are anxiety and unhappiness. there was the usual persian etiquette--attendants in the rear, scribes and _mollahs_ bowing and kneeling in front, and tea and cigarettes in the pretty garden of the palace, of which cypresses, pomegranates, and roses are the chief features. mirza was not allowed to attend me in the _andarun_, but a _munshi_ who spoke a little very bad french and understood less stood behind a curtain and attempted to interpret, but failed so signally that after one or two compliments i was obliged to leave, after ascertaining that a really beautiful girl of fourteen is the "reigning favourite." the women's rooms were pretty, and the women themselves were richly but elegantly dressed, and graceful in manner, though under difficulties. after a visit to the ruined fort, an interesting and picturesque piece of masonry, i rode unmolested through the town and bazars. khuramabad, the importance of which lies in its situation on what is regarded as the best commercial route from shuster to tihran, etc., is the capital of the feili lurs and the residence of the governor of luristan. picturesque at a distance beyond any persian town that i have seen, with its citadel rising in the midst of a precipitous pass, its houses grouped round the base, its fine bridge, its wooded gardens, its greenery, and the rich valley to the south of the gorge in which it stands, it successfully rivals any persian town in its squalor, dirt, evil odours, and ruinous condition. two-thirds of what was "the once famous capital of the atabegs" are now "ruinous heaps." the bazars are small, badly supplied, dark, and rude; and the roads are nothing but foul alleys, possibly once paved, but now full of ridges, holes, ruins, rubbish, lean and mangy dogs, beggarly-looking men, and broken channels of water, which, dribbling over the soil in the bazars and everywhere else in green and black slime, gives forth pestiferous odours in the hot sun. the people slouch about slowly. they are evidently very poor, and the merchants have the melancholy apathetic look which tells that "trade is bad." the feili lurs, who render the caravan route to dizful incessantly insecure, paralyse the trade of what should and might be a prosperous "distributing point," and the persian government, though it keeps a regiment of soldiers here, is unsuccessful in checking, far less in curing the chronic disorder which has produced a nearly complete stagnation in trade. i am all the more disappointed with the wretched condition of khuramabad because the decayed state of its walls is concealed by trees, and it is entered by a handsome bridge feet wide and long, with twenty-eight pointed arches of solid masonry, with a fine caravanserai with a tiled entrance on its left side. the bala hissar is a really striking object, its pile of ancient buildings crowning the steep mass of naked rock which rises out of the dark greenery and lofty poplars and cypresses of the irrigated gardens. this fort, which is in ruins, encloses within its double walls the wali's palace and other official buildings, and a fine reservoir, feet by , fed by a vigorous spring. in the gardens by the river, north of the fort, are some remains of the walls and towers of the ancient atabeg capital, and there are also ruins of an aqueduct and of an ancient bridge, of which ten arches are still standing. the most interesting relic, however, is a round tower sixty feet high in fairly good preservation, with a kufic inscription round the top. it is said that there are houses in khuramabad, which would give it a population of over . it has been visited by several englishmen for purposes of trade or research, and it has doubtless made the same impression upon them all as it does upon me. _burujird, august ._--a night march of twenty-two miles through perilous country brought us in blazing heat to an encampment of seyyids of the bairanawand tribe, fine-looking men, showing in their haughty bearing their pride in their illustrious lineage, but not above depriving us during the night of many useful articles. their camp had three streets of tents, in front of which oxen were treading out wheat all day long. these seyyids have much wealth in mares and oxen. again we started at moonrise for what was regarded as a dangerous march, a party of sagwands having gone on ahead, with hostile intentions, it was said. however, nothing happened, and nothing was heard except the shouts of our own _charvadars_ and the pandemonium made by the simultaneous barking of huge dogs in the many camps we passed but could not see. we rode through cultivated valleys full of nomads, forded the placid bawali, and at dawn were at the foot of the grand pass of handawan, feet in altitude, which is ascended by steep zigzags over worn rock ledges, and the dry boulder-strewn bed of a torrent. a descent of feet and a long ride among large formless hills took us to a narrow gorge or chasm with a fine mountain torrent, and thence to the magnificent tang-i-buzful, from which we emerged with some suddenness on the slopes of the low foot-hills on the north side of the plain of burujird or silakhor. this very rich plain, about thirty miles long by from six to eight broad, has been described as "waterlogged," and the level of the water is only a foot below the surface. certainly very numerous springs and streams rise along the hill slopes which we traversed and flow down into the plain, which is singularly flat, and most of it only relieved from complete monotony by the villages which, to the number of , are sprinkled over it, many of them raised on artificial mounds, at once to avoid the miasma from the rice-fields and as a protection from the lurs. above the south-eastern end rises the grand bulk of shuturun kuh, with a few snow-patches still lingering, and towards the other lies the town of burujird, the neighbourhood of which for a few miles is well planted, but most of the plain is devoid of trees. it is watered by many streams, which flow into the burujird river and the kamand-ab, which uniting, leave the plain by the magnificent tang-i-bahrain. the first view, on emerging from the buff treeless mountains, was very attractive. the tall grass of the rich marshy pastures rippled in the breeze in wavelets of a steely sheen. brown villages on mounds contrasted with the vivid green of the young rice. towards burujird, of which nothing but the gilding of a dome was visible, a mass of dark greenery refreshed the eyes. the charm of the whole was the contrast between the "dry and thirsty land where no water is" and abundant moisture, between the scanty and scorched herbage of the arid mountains and the "trees planted by the rivers of water," but i confess that the length and overpowering fatigue of that thirty-three miles' march, much of it in blazing heat, following on three nights without sleep, soon dulled my admiration of the plain. hour after hour passed on its gravelly margin, then came melon beds, files of donkeys loaded with melons in nets, gardens of cucumbers and gourds, each with its "lodge," irrigation channels, dykes, apricot and mulberry orchards, lanes bordered with the graceful _elægnus_, a large and busy village, where after a very uncertain progress we got a local guide, and then a low isolated hill, crowned by a dwelling arranged for security, and a liberally planted garden, a platform with terraced slopes and straight formal walks, a terrace with a fine view, and two tanks full of turtles (which abound in many places) under large willows, giving a pleasant shade. between them i have pitched my tents, with the lines of an old hymn constantly occurring to me-- "interval of grateful shade, welcome to my weary head." burujird, one and a half mile off, and scarcely seen above the intervening woods, gives a suggestion of civilisation to the landscape. in the sunset, which is somewhat fiery, shuturun and the precipices of the tang-i-bahrain are reddening. the last three marches have been more severe than the whole travelling of the last three months. happy thought, that no call to "boot and saddle" will break the stillness of to-morrow morning! i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] this untoward affair ended well, but had there been bloodshed on either side, had any one of us been killed, which easily might have been, the world would never have believed but that some offence had been given, and that some high-handed action had been the cause of the attack. i am in a position to say, not only that no offence was given, but that here and everywhere the utmost care was taken not to violate bakhtiari etiquette, or wound religious or national susceptibilities; all supplies were paid for above their value; the servants, always under our own eyes, were friendly but reserved; and in all dealings with the people kindness and justice were the rule. i make these remarks in the hope of modifying any harsh judgments which may be passed upon any travellers who have died unwitnessed deaths at the hands of natives. there are, as in our case, absolutely unprovoked attacks. [ ] see appendix a. [ ] i am inclined to estimate the bakhtiari population at a higher figure than some travellers have given. i took forty-three men at random from the poorest class and from various tribes, and got from them the number of their families, wives and children only being included, and the average was eight to a household. [ ] book xvii. c. viii. letter xxi burujird, _aug. _. a week has glided away since i sent my last diary letter, with only two events of direct personal interest, one being that i have bought a young, powerful little bakhtiari horse, which has been in camp since we left the karun river, a dark bay, with black points, big feet, a big ugly head, and big flopping ears, but otherwise passably good-looking, an unsuspicious animal, brought up in tent life, with children rolling about among his feet, and as yet quite ignorant that man can be anything but his friend. i intend to look after his well-being, but not to make a pet of him. the other event occurred on the morning after our arrival, and took the place of the "boot and saddle" call, for i was awakened very early by a hubbub round my tent, the interpretation of which was that a packing case in three compartments, containing my cooking utensils, remaining table equipments, and stores, had been carried off before daylight, deposited in an adjacent plantation, broken open, and emptied. thus i was left with nothing, and have been unable to get anything in the bazars here except two cooking pots and a tin teapot of unique construction made to order. the few other things which i still regard as absolute necessaries, a cup, plate, knife, fork, and spoon, have been lent me by the agha. all my tea is gone, the worst loss of all. later in the day hassan came in a quiet rage, saying that he would leave for isfahan at once, because mirza had accused him of not keeping an efficient watch, and shortly afterwards mahomet ali and his handsome donkey actually did leave.[ ] burujird bears a very bad reputation. here, last year, a young english officer was robbed of his tents and horses, and everything but the clothes he wore. the governor, on hearing of the theft, said i should not have "camped in the wilderness," the "wilderness" being a beautifully kept garden with a gardener (who was arrested) and a house. for the last week a guard of six soldiers has watched by day and night. the news received from the bakhtiari country is rather startling. mirab khan, who looked too ill and frail for active warfare, sent a messenger with a letter to khaja taimur, urging him to join him in an attack on aslam khan. the letter was intercepted by this "judas," and now the country from kalahoma to khanabad is in a flame. serious troubles have broken out in this plain, all the khans of the sagwand tribe having united to rise against the payment of a tribute which they regard as heavy enough to "crush the life out of the people." the _h[=a]kim_ has telegraphed for troops, and the governor of luristan is said to be coming with men. a "tribute insurrection," on a larger or smaller scale, is a common autumnal event. the khans complain of being oppressed by "merciless exactions." they say that the tribute fixed by the shah is "not too much," but that it is doubled and more by the rapacity of governors, and that the people are growing poorer every year. they complain that when they decline to pay more than the tribute fixed by the amin-es-sultan, soldiers are sent, who drive off their mares, herds of cattle, and flocks to the extent of three, four, and five times the sum demanded. these few words contain the substance of statements almost universally made. there is probably another side, and they may be true in part only. the tribesmen of silakhor state that they had protested and appealed in vain before they decided on resistance. every khan with whom i have conversed has besought me to lay his case before the "english vakil" at tihran. this widely-diffused belief in england as the redresser of wrongs is very touching, and very palatable to one's national pride. all these people have heard of the way in which the cultivators in india have been treated, of "land settlements" and english "settlement officers," and they say, "england could make everything right for us." so she could, "and she would"! as the governors pay large sums for offices from which they are removable at the shah's pleasure, and as the lower officials all pay more or less heavily for their positions, we may reasonably infer that all, from the highest to the lowest, put on the screw, and squeeze all they can out of the people, over and above the tribute fixed at tihran. near views of oriental despotisms are as disenchanting as near views of "the noble savage," for they contain within themselves the seeds of "all villainies," which rarely, if ever, fail of fructification. mirza karim khan, the governor of burujird, called a few days ago, a young harassed-looking man, with very fine features, but a look of serious bad health. he complained so much that the agha asked his attendant, a very juvenile _hak[=i]m_, speaking a little scarcely intelligible french, if he would object to the governor taking something from the famous "leather box," and the effect was so magical that the next day he looked a different man. an arrangement was made for returning the visit, and he received us in a handsome tent in a garden, with the usual formalities, but only a scribe and the _hak[=i]m_ were present. a _sowar_, sent from burujird with a letter to the sahib, was undoubtedly robbed of his horse, gun, and some of his clothing _en route_. very quietly the governor denied this, but as he did so i saw a wink pass between the scribe and _hak[=i]m_. it was a pitiable sight,--a high official sitting there, with luxuries about him, in a city with its walls, embankments, and gates ruinous, the brickwork in the palace gardens lying in heaps, his province partially disturbed, the people rising against what, at the least, are oppressive exactions, raising an enormous tribute, from which there is no outlay on province or city, government for the good of the governed never entering into his (as rarely into any other oriental) mind. this evening he has made a farewell visit on the terrace, attended by the _hak[=i]m_. aziz khan stood on the edge of the carpet, and occasionally interjected a remark into the conversation. i have before said that he has a certain gentlemanliness and even dignity, and his manner was neither cringing nor familiar. the _hak[=i]m_, however, warned him not to speak in presence of the governor, a restraint which, though very different from the free intercourse of retainers with their chiefs among the bakhtiari, was in strict accordance with the proprieties of persian etiquette. aziz stalked away, shaking his wide _shulwars_, with an air of contempt. "this governor," he afterwards said, "what is he? if it were isfandyar khan, and he were lying down, my head would be next to his, and twenty more men would be lying round him to guard his life with ours." it seems as if burujird were destitute of cavalry, at least of men who can be spared, though it has been stated that a whole cavalry regiment is in garrison.[ ] the governor promised three escorts; my modest request was for one _sowar_, and a very unmilitary-looking horseman has arrived for me, but now, within an hour of marching, the others are without even one! attended by the _hak[=i]m_ and an escort, we rode yesterday through burujird. to write that a third of it is in ruins is simply to write that it is a persian town. it has crumbling mud walls, said to be five miles in circumference, five gates in bad repair, and a ditch, now partially cultivated. it is situated in lat. ° ' n, and its long. is ° ' e. its elevation is feet [bell]. its population is estimated at from , to , , and includes a great many seyyids and _mollahs_. it has a persian telegraph office and post office, neither of them to be depended upon, six large and very many small mosques, a number of mosque schools, thirty-three public baths, and six caravanserais. it manufactures woollen goods, carpets, and the best _arak_ to be found in persia. it also produces dried fruits and treacle made from grapes. the bazars are large, light, and well supplied with european goods, russian and english cottons in enormous quantities, austrian kerosene lamps of all descriptions and prices, russian mirrors, framed coloured engravings of the russian imperial family, russian _samovars_, tea-glasses and tea-trays, russian sewing and machine cotton, american sewing machines, russian woollen cloth, fine and heavy, russian china, and russian sugar-loaves, to the sale of which several shops are exclusively devoted. persian manufactures are chiefly represented by heavy cottons, dyed and stamped at isfahan, carpets, saddles, horse and mule furniture, copper cooking utensils, shoes of all makes, pipes, _kalians_, rope, ornamented travelling trunks, _galon_, gimps, tassels of silk and wool, and "small wares" of all kinds, with rude pottery, oil jars, each big enough to contain a man, great water-jars, small clay bowls glazed roughly with a green glaze, guns, swords, pistols, long knives, and the tools used by the different trades. altogether the bazars look very thriving, and they were crowded with buyers. possibly the people have rarely if ever seen a feringhi woman, and they crowded very much upon me, and the escort drove them off in the usual fashion, with sticks and stones. though much of burujird lies in ruins it has a fair aspect of prosperity and some very good houses and new buildings. the roads are cobbled with great stones, and are certainly not worse than those of the older parts of tihran. water is abundant. nature evidently intends burujird to be a prosperous city. the pasturage of the plain is magnificent, and the rich soil produces two crops a year. all cereals flourish. wheat and barley ripen in july. seven sorts of grapes grow, and ripen in august and september, and some of the clusters are finer than any of our hothouse produce. water and musk melons, tobacco, maize, gourds and cucumbers, beans, the _bringal_ or egg plant, peas, flax and other oil seeds, rice and cotton, apricots, walnuts, pomegranates, and peaches testify to the excellence of the soil and climate. not only is burujird in the midst of an exceptionally fine agricultural district, but it is connected by caravan routes with the best agricultural and commercial regions of persia to the north, east, and west by easy roads, never snow-blocked, or at least they never need be if there were traffic enough to keep them open. it is only miles from rich kirmanshah, from the fertile district which surrounds hamadan, from sultanabad, the most important carpet-producing region of western persia, and rich besides in grain and cotton, from kûm, on the main road from isfahan to tihran, something about from tihran, and only from ahwaz. these routes are all easy, though, so far as i know them, very badly supplied with caravanserais, except on the main road between the two capitals. the southern road, leading through khuramabad to dizful and shuster, has no great natural difficulties, though part of it lies through a mountainous region. some blasting and much boulder-lifting would, according to colonel bell, remedy the evils of the fifty miles of it which he regards as bad. but, apart from this, the shuster-burujird route, the most _natural_ route for north and south-western persian commerce to take to and from the sea, is at present useless to trade from its insecurity, as the feili lurs, through whose territory it passes, own no authority, live by robbery when they have any one to rob, and are always fighting each other. there are no regular _charvadars_ in burujird, and many and tedious have been the difficulties in the way of getting off. up to last night i had no mules, and hadji said mournfully, "when you learn what other _charvadars_ are like, you'll think of me." i have taken leave of aziz khan with regret. he echoes the oft-repeated question, "why does not england come and give us peace? in a few years we should all be rich, and not have to fight each other." "stay among us for some years," he said, "and you will get very rich. what have you to go back to in feringhistan?" he asked me for a purse, and to put some _krans_ in it for his children, but not to give him any money. he said that when he asked for money and other things he was only in fun. i do not know whether to believe him. mirza and my caravan started this morning, and now, p.m., i am leaving with the _sowar_, with the mercury at °, for the first march of a journey of miles. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] i have since heard that this youth was an accomplice of a burujird man in this theft, and of an armenian in a robbery of money which occurred in berigun. [ ] throughout the part of persia in which i have travelled i have observed a most remarkable discrepancy between the numbers of soldiers _said_ to garrison any given place, and the number which on further investigation turned out to be actually there. it is safe to deduct from fifty to ninety per cent from the number in the original statement! letter xxii hamadan, _aug. _. it was as i thought. the _sowar_ sent with me was only a harmless peasant taken from the plough, mounted on his own horse, and provided with a government gun. the poor fellow showed the "white feather" on the first march, and i was obliged to assert the "ascendency of race" and ride in front of him. the villagers at once set him down as an impostor, and refused him supplies, and as his horse could not keep up with mine, and the road presented no apparent perils, i dismissed him at the end of three days with a _largesse_ which gladdened his heart. he did not know the way, and the afternoon i left burujird he led me through ploughed fields and along roadless hillsides, till at the end of an hour i found myself close to the garden from which i started. the early part of the first march is over great bare gravelly slopes without water. then come irrigation and villages. the hills have been eaten nearly bare. nothing remains but a yellow salvia and the beautiful _eryngium cæruleum_. there, as in the bakhtiari country, the people stack the _centaurea alata_ for winter fodder. the road is good, and except in two places a four-wheeled carriage could be driven over it at a trot. the camping-ground was outside deswali, an unwalled village of houses, with extensive cultivated lands and a "well-to-do" aspect. the people raise cereals, melons, cucumbers, grapes, and cotton, but in bad seasons have to import wheat. there, as at every village since, the _ketchuda_ has called upon me, and some of these men have been intelligent and communicative, and have shown such courtesies as have been in their power. it is an unusual, if not an unheard-of, thing for a european lady, even if she knows persian, to travel through this country without a european escort; but there has been no rudeness or impertinent curiosity, no crowding even; the headmen all seemed anxious for my comfort, and supplies at reasonable rates have always been forthcoming. the heat at deswali was overpowering, the mercury in my tent standing for hours on th august at °, the temperature in the shade being °. it is vain to form any resolution against making a pet of a horse. my new acquisition, "_boy_," insisted on being petted, and his winning and enticing ways are irresistible. he is always tethered in front of my tent with a rope so long as to give him a considerable amount of liberty, and he took advantage of this the very first day to come into the tent and make it very apparent that he wanted me to divide a melon with him. grapes were his next _penchant_, then cucumber, bread, and biscuits. then he actually drank milk out of a soup plate. he comes up to me and puts his head down to have his ears rubbed, and if i do not attend to him at once, or cease attending to him, he gives me a gentle but admonitory thump. i dine outside the tent, and he is tied to my chair, and waits with wonderful patience for the odds and ends, only occasionally rubbing his soft nose against my face to remind me that he is there. up to this time a friendly snuffle is the only sound that he has made. he does not know how to fight, or that teeth and heels are of any other use than to eat and walk with. he is really the gentlest and most docile of his race. the point at which he "draws the line" is being led. he drags back, and a mulish look comes into his sweet eyes. but he follows like a dog, and as i walk as much as i can i always have him with me. he comes when i call him, stops when i stop, goes off the road with me when i go in search of flowers, and usually puts his head either on my shoulder or under my arm. to him i am an embodiment of melons, cucumbers, grapes, pears, peaches, biscuits, and sugar, with a good deal of petting and ear-rubbing thrown in. every day he becomes more of a companion. he walks very fast, gallops easily, never stumbles, can go anywhere, is never tired, and is always hungry. i paid £ : s. for him, but he was bought from the bakhtiaris for £ : s. as a four-year-old. he is "up to" sixteen stone, jumps very well, and is an excellent travelling horse. redundant forelocks and wavy manes, uncut tails carried in fiery fashion, small noses, quivering nostrils, small restless ears, and sweet intelligent eyes add wonderfully to the attractiveness of the various points of excellence which attract a horse-fancier in persia. a persian horse in good condition may be backed against any horse in the world for weight-carrying powers, endurance, steadiness, and surefootedness, is seldom unsound, and is to his rider a friend as well as a servant. generally speaking, a horse can carry his rider wherever a mule can carry a load, and will do from thirty to forty miles a day for almost any length of time. the clothing of horses is an important matter. even in this hot weather they wear a good deal--first a _parhan_ or shirt of fine wool crossed over the chest; next the _jul_, a similar garment, but in coarser wool; and at night over all this is put the _namad_, a piece of felt half an inch thick, so long that it wraps the animal from head to tail, and so deep as to cover his body down to his knees. a broad surcingle of woollen webbing keeps the whole in place. the food does not vary. it consists of from seven to ten pounds of barley daily, in two feeds, and as much as a horse can eat of _kah_, which is straw broken in pieces about an inch and a half long. while travelling, barley and _kah_ are mixed in the nose-bag. no hay is given, and there are no oats. it is customary among the rich to give their horses an exclusive diet of barley grass for one month in the spring, on which they grow very fat and useless. old horses are fed on dough-balls made of barley-flour and water. a grape diet is also given in the grape-producing regions in the autumn instead of _kah_. _boy_ eats ten pounds of grapes as a mere dessert. i admire and like the persian horse. his beauty is a constant enjoyment, and, ferocious as he is to his fellows, he is gentle and docile to man. i cannot now recall having seen a vicious horse in seven months. on the whole they are very well cared for, and are kindly treated. the sore backs of baggage horses are almost inevitable, quite so, indeed, so long as the present form of pack-saddle stuffed with _kah_ is used. mares are not ridden in persia proper. the march from deswali to sahmine is a pretty one, at first over long buff rolling hills and through large elevated villages, then turning off from the kirmanshah road and descending into a broad plain, the whole of which for several miles is occupied by the trees and gardens of the eminently prosperous village of sahmine, whose families, though they pay a tribute of _tumans_ a year, have "nothing to complain of."[ ] i was delighted with the oasis of sahmine. it has abundant water for irrigation, which means abundant fertility. its walnut trees are magnificent, and its gardens are filled with noble fruit trees. the wheat harvest was being brought in, and within the walls it was difficult to find a place to camp on, for all the open spaces were threshing-floors, piled with sheaves of wheat and mounds of _kah_, in the midst of which oxen in spans of two were threshing. that is, they drew machines like heavy wood sleds, with transverse revolving wooden rollers set with iron fans at different angles, which cut the straw to pieces. a great heap of unbound sheaves is in the centre, and from this men throw down the stalked ears till they come up to the bodies of the oxen, adding more as fast as the straw is trodden down. a boy sits on the car and keeps the animals going in a circle hour after hour with a rope and a stick. the foremost oxen are muzzled. the grain falls out during this process. on a windy day the great heaps are tossed into the air on a fork, the straw is carried for a short distance, and the grain falling to the ground is removed and placed in great clay jars in the living-rooms of the houses. all the villages are now surrounded with mounds of _kah_ which will be stored before snow comes. the dustiness of this winnowing process is indescribable. i was nearly smothered with it in sahmine, and on windy days each village is enveloped in a yellow dust storm. sahmine, though it has many ruinous buildings, has much building going on. it has large houses with _balakhanas_, a khan's fort with many houses inside, a square with fine trees and a stream, and a _place_ with a stream, where madder-red dyers were at work, and there are five small mosques and _imamzadas_. the gardens are quite beautiful, and it is indeed a very attractive village. the people also were attractive and friendly. after the _ketchuda's_ official visit the khan's wives called, and pressed me very hospitably to leave my tent and live with them, and when i refused they sent me a dinner of persian dishes with sweetmeats made by their own hands. the _kabobs_ were quite appetising. they are a favourite persian dish, made of pieces of seasoned meat roasted on skewers, and served very hot, between flaps of very hot bread. each bit of meat is rubbed with an onion before being put on the skewer, and a thin slice of tail fat is put between every two pieces. the cooks show great art in the rapidity with which they rotate a skewer full of _kabobs_ over a fierce charcoal fire. in the evening, at the _ketchuda's_ request, i held a "reception" outside my tent, and it was a very pleasant, merry affair. several of the people brought their children, and the little things behaved most graciously. it is very pleasant to see the devotion of the men to them. i told them that in england many of our people are so poor that instead of children being welcome they are regarded ruefully as additional "mouths to feed." "ah," said the _ketchuda_, a handsome seyyid, "your land is then indeed under the curse of god. we would like ten children at once, they are the joy of our lives." other men followed, expatiating on the delights of having children to pet and play with on their return from work. sahmine not only dyes and prints cottons, but it exports wheat, barley, opium, cotton, and fruit, and appears a more important and prosperous place than daulatabad, the capital of the district. the fine valley between sahmine and daulatabad is irrigated by a _kanaat_ and canals, and is completely cultivated, bearing heavy crops of wheat, cotton, tobacco, opium, _bringals_, and castor oil. the wheat is now being carried to the villages on asses' backs in great nets, lashed to six-foot poles placed in front and behind, each pole being kept steady by a man. the heat on that march was severe. a heavy heat-haze hung over the distances, vegetation drooped, my mock _sowar_ wrapped up his head in his _abba_, the horses looked limp, the harvesters slept under the trees, the buffaloes lay down in mud and water. even the greenery of the extensive gardens in and around daulatabad scarcely looked cool. daulatabad is a walled city of souls, has a fort, and is reputed to have a large garrison. the bazars, which contain shops, are indifferent, and the five caravanserais wretched. it and its extensive gardens occupy the eastern extremity of a plain, and lie very near the steep rocky mountain sard kuh, through which, by the tang-i-asnab, the tihran road passes. another road over the shoulder of the mountain goes to isfahan. the plain outside the walls has neither tree nor bush, and was only brought into cultivation two years ago. the harvest was carried, and as irrigation had been suspended for some weeks, there was nothing but a yellow expanse of short thin stubble and blazing gravel. there was no space for camping in any available garden, and an hour was spent in finding a camping-ground with wholesome water on the burning plain before mentioned. i camped below a terraced and planted eminence, on which a building, half fort and half governor's house, has so recently been erected that it has not had time to become ruinous. it is an imposing quadrangle with blank walls, towers with windows at the corners, and a very large _balakhana_ over the entrance. a winding carriage-drive, well planted, leads up to it, and there is a circular band-stand with a concrete floor and a fountain. the most surprising object was a new pair-horse landau, standing under a tree. barracks are being built just below the house. while my tent was being pitched, the governor's _aide-de-camp_, attended by a cavalry escort, called, and with much courtesy offered me the _balakhana_, arranged, he said, in european fashion. the governor was absent, but this officer said that it would be his wish to offer me hospitality. as i felt quite unable to move he sent a skin of good water, some fruit, and a guard of four soldiers. it was only a.m. when the tents were pitched, and the long day which followed was barely endurable. the mercury reached ° inside my tent. the servants lay in a dry ditch under a tree in the governor's garden. _boy_ several times came into the shade of my verandah. the black flies swarmed over everything, and at sunset covered the whole roof of the tent so thickly that no part of it could be seen. the sun, a white scintillating ball, blazed from a steely sky, over which no cloud ever passed. the heated atmosphere quivered over the burning earth. i was at last ill of fever, and my recipe for fighting the heat by ceaseless occupation failed. it was a miserable day, and at one time a scorching wind, which seemed hot enough to singe one's hair, added to the discomfort. "as the hireling earnestly desireth the shadow," so i longed for evening, but truly the hours of that day were "long drawn out." the silence was singular. even the buzzing of a blue-bottle fly would have been cheerful. the sun, reddening the atmosphere as he sank, disappeared in a fiery haze, and then the world of daulatabad awoke. parties of persian gentlemen on fiery horses passed by, dervishes honoured me by asking alms, the governor's _major-domo_ called to offer sundry kindnesses, and great flocks of sheep and goats, indicated by long lines of dust clouds, moved citywards from the hills. sand-flies in legions now beset me, and the earth, which had been imbibing heat all day, radiated it far into the morning. i moved my bed outside the tent and gave orders for an early start, but the _charvadar_ who was in the city over-slept himself, and it was eight the next day before i got away, taking mirza with me. the heat culminated on that day. since then, having attained a higher altitude, it has diminished.[ ] the road to jamilabad ascends pretty steadily through undulating country with small valleys among low hills, but with hardly any villages, owing to the paucity of water. the fever still continuing, i found it difficult to bear the movement of the horse, and dismounted two or three times and lay under an umbrella by the roadside. on one of these halts i heard mirza's voice saying in cheerful tones, "madam, your horse is gone!" "gone!" i exclaimed, "i told you always to hold or tether him." "i trusted him," he replied sententiously. "never trust any one or any horse, and least of all yourself," i replied unadvisedly. i sent him back with his horse to look for _boy_, telling him when he saw him to dismount and go towards him with the nose-bag, and that though the horse would approach it and throw up his heels and trot away at first, he would eventually come near enough to be caught. after half an hour he came back without him. i asked him what he had done. he said he saw _boy_, rode near him twice, did not dismount, held out to him not the nose-bag with barley but my "_courier bag_," and that _boy_ cantered out of sight! for the moment i shared aziz khan's contempt for the "desk-bred" man. mirza is so good that one cannot be angry with him, but it was very annoying to hear him preach about "fate" and "destiny" while he was allowing his horse to grind my one pair of smoked spectacles into bits under his hoofs. i only told him that it would be time to fall back on _fate_ and _destiny_ when, under any given circumstances, such as these, he had exhausted all the resources of forethought and intelligence. my plight was a sore one, for by that time i was really ill, and had lost, as well as my horse and saddle, my food, quinine, writing materials, and needle-work. i got on the top of the baggage and rode for five hours, twice falling off from exhaustion. the march instead of being thirteen miles turned out twenty-two, there was no water, poor mirza was so "knocked up" that he stumbled blindly along, and it was just sunset when, after a series of gentle ascents, we reached the village of jamilabad, prettily situated on the crest of a hill in a narrow valley above a small stream. to acquaint the _ketchuda_ with my misfortune, and get him to send a capable man in search of the horse, promising a large reward, and to despatch hassan with a guide in another direction, were the first considerations, and so it fell out that it was p.m. before i was at rest in my tent, where i was obliged to remain for some days, ill of fever. the next morning a gentle thump, a low snuffle, and a theft of some grapes by my bedside announced that _boy_ was found, and by the headman's messenger, who said he met a seyyid riding him to hamadan. the saddle-cloth was missing, and all the things from the holsters, but after the emissary had been arrested for some crime the latter were found in his large pockets. hassan returned late in the afternoon, having been surrounded by four _sowars_, who, under the threat of giving him a severe beating, deprived him of his watch. when i was so far better as to be able to move, i went on to mongawi, a large walled village at an elevation of feet, camped for two days on an adjacent slope, and from thence rode to yalpand by a road on a height on the east side of a very wild valley on the west of which is elwend, a noble mountain, for long an object of interest on the march from kirmanshah to tihran. a great number of the mountains of persia are ridges or peaks of nearly naked rock, with precipices on which nothing can cling, and with bases small in proportion to their elevation. others are "monstrous protuberances" of mud and gravel. mount elwend, however, has many of the characteristics of a mountain,--a huge base broken up into glens and spurs, among which innumerable villages with their surroundings of woods and crops are scattered, with streams dashing through rifts and lingering among pasture lands, vine-clothed slopes below and tawny grain above, high summits, snow-slashed even now, clouds caught and falling in vivifying showers, indigo colouring in the shadows, and rocky heights for which purple-madder would be the fittest expression. in one of the loveliest of the valleys on the skirts of elwend lies the large walled village of yalpand on a vigorous stream. for two miles before reaching it the rugged road passes through a glen which might be at home, a water-worn ledgy track, over-arched by trees, with steep small fields among them in the fresh green of grass springing up after the hay has been carried. trees, ruddy with premature autumnal tints and festooned with roses and brambles, bend over the river, of which little is visible but here and there a flash of foam or a sea-green pool. the village, on a height above the stream, has banks of orchards below and miles of grain above, and vineyards, and material plenty of all sorts. it was revelling in the dust storm which winnowing produces, and the _ketchuda_ suggested to me to camp at some distance beyond it, on a small triangular meadow below a large irrigation stream. hardly were the tents pitched when, nearly without warning, elwend blackened, clouds gathered round his crest and boiled up out of his corries, and for the first time since the middle of january there were six hours of heavy rain, with hail and thunder, and a fall of the mercury within one hour from ° to °. the coolness was most delicious. hadji hussein's prophecy that after i left him i should "know what _charvadars_ are" was not fulfilled on this journey. i had one young man with me who from having performed the pilgrimage to kerbela bears the name of "kerbelai" for the rest of his life. he owns the fine and frisky animals he drives, and goes along at a good pace, his long gun over his shoulder, singing as he goes. blithe, active, jolly, obliging, honest, kind-hearted, he loads as fast as three ordinary men, and besides grooming and feeding his animals well, he "ran messages," got the water and wood, and helped to pitch and strike the tents, and was as ready to halt as to march. hassan and mirza are most deliberate in their movements; nothing can hurry them, not even the risk of being flooded out of their tents; and when the storm came on kerbelai snatched the spade from them and in no time trenched my tent and dug a channel to let the water out of the meadow. the next day was cloudless, and the sky, instead of having a whitish or steely blue, had the deep pure tint so often seen on a june day in england. the heat returned, and it was a fatiguing and dusty march into hamadan, still mainly on the skirts of elwend, among villages surrounded by vineyards. after pursuing a by-road from jamilabad i joined the main road, two miles from hamadan, and the number of men on good horses, of foot passengers, and of asses laden with fruit and vegetables, indicated the approach to a capital as plainly as the wide road, trenched on both sides and planted with young willows. the wall as is usual is of crumbling, rain-eaten, sun-dried bricks, and a very poor gateway admits the traveller into a network of narrow alleys, very ruinous, with infamous roadways, full of lumps, holes, slimy black channels, stout mangy dogs, some of them earless, tailless, and one-eyed, sleeping in heaps in the hot sun, the whole overwhelmingly malodorous.[ ] it was no easy matter to find the way to the american mission house, even though the missionary _hak[=i]m_ is well known and highly esteemed, and i rode through the filthy alleys of the city and its crowded bazars for more than an hour before i reached the armenian quarter. the people were most polite. there was no shouting or crushing in the bazars, and in some cases men walked with me for some distance to show me the way, especially when i asked for the _khanum's_ house. indeed they all seemed anxious to assist a stranger. many of the children salaamed, as i thought, but i have since heard that they are fond of using to a christian a word which sounds just like _salaam_, but which instead of meaning _peace_ is equivalent to "may you be for ever accursed!" on reaching the mission house i found it shut and that the missionaries were in the country, and after sending word that i had arrived i spent some hours in an armenian house, where the people showed extreme hospitality and kindness. they put a soft quilt down on the soft rugs, which covered the floor of a pretty whitewashed room, with many ornaments, chiefly russian, and, finding that i was ill, they repeatedly brought tea, milk, and fruit instead of the heavy dinner which was at once cooked. the sight of several comely women dressed in shades of red, with clean white _chadars_, going about household avocations, receiving visitors and gracefully exercising the rites of hospitality in a bright clean house festooned with vines, was very pleasant to a dweller in tents. it is not armenian custom for a daughter-in-law to speak in the presence of her mother-in-law, or even to uncover her mouth, or for young women to speak in presence of their elders. a wife cannot even address her husband in the presence of his mother, except in a furtive whisper. owing to the custom of covering the mouth, which shows no symptom of falling into disuse, i did not see the face of a girl matron who, judging from her eyes, nose, and complexion, was the comeliest in the room. towards evening, as i lay trying to sleep, i was delightfully startled by a cheery european voice, and a lady bent over me, whose face was sunshine, and the very tone of her voice a welcome. goodness, purity, love, capacity to lead as well as help, true strength, and true womanliness met in the expression of her countenance. her spotless cambric dress, her becoming hat with its soft white _pagri_, the harmonious simplicity of her costume, and her well-fitting gloves and shoes were a joy after the slovenliness, slipshodness, and generally tumbling-to-pieces look of oriental women. the faith hubbard school, one of the good works of the american presbyterian mission, was close by, and in half an hour miss ---- made me feel "at home." blessed phrase! i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] on this journey of miles from burujird to the turkish frontier near urmi, i never heard one complaint of the tribute which is paid to the shah. all complaints, and they were many, were of the exactions and rapacity of the local governors. [ ] north of daulatabad, the route of last winter from nanej to kûm, the winter route from kangawar to tihran, was crossed. although it is a "beaten track" for caravans, so far as i know the only information concerning it consists in two reports, not accessible to the public, in the possession of the indian authorities. [ ] hamadan is the fourth city in the empire in commercial importance. she has a prince governor, villages in the district, raises revenue to the amount of , _tumans_, of which only , are paid into the imperial treasury, and, as the ancient ecbatana, the capital of the median kings, she has a splendid history, but the few lines in which i recorded my first impressions are not an exaggeration of the meanness and unsavouriness of her present externals. letter xxiii hamadan, _sept. _. i came for four days, and have been here nearly three weeks, which i would willingly prolong into as many months if the winter were not impending. illness, the non-arrival of luggage containing winter clothing from tihran, and the exceeding difficulty of finding a _charvadar_ willing to go to urmi by the route i wish to take, have all detained me. for some time i was unable to leave the house, and indeed have been out very little, and not outside the city at all. i am disappointed both with hamadan and its autumn climate. it stands at an elevation of feet [schindler], and on the final slope of the kuh-i-hamadan, an offshoot of mount elwend, overlooking a plain about fifteen miles long by nine broad, populous and cultivated, bounded on the other side by low gravelly hills. at this altitude, and with autumn fairly begun, coolness might be expected, but the heat, which a fortnight ago seemed moderating, has returned in fury, with that peculiar faintness about it which only autumn gives. mount elwend attracts masses of clouds, and these tend to hang over the town and increase the stagnation of the air, about which there is a remarkable closeness, even in this high situation overlooking the plain. intermittent fever and diphtheria are prevailing both in the city and the adjacent villages. not only is the air close and still, but the sun is blazing hot, and the mercury only varies from ° in the day to ° at night. brown dust-storms career wildly over the plain, or hang heavily over it in dust clouds, and the sand-flies are abundant and merciless. in the winter the cold is intense, and the roads are usually blocked with snow for several weeks. water is abundant, and is led through open channels in the streets. the plain too is well supplied, and the brown villages, which otherwise would be invisible on the brown plain, are denoted by dark green stains of willow, poplar, and fruit trees. the town itself has fine gardens, belonging to the upper classes, but these are only indicated by branches straying over the top of very high walls. my first impressions have received abundant confirmation. important as a commercial centre as hamadan doubtless is, it is as ruinous, filthy, decayed, and unprosperous-looking a city as any i have seen in persia. "ruinous heaps," jagged weather-worn walls, houses in ruins, or partly ruined and deserted, roofs broken through, domes from which the glazed tiles have dropped off, roadways not easy by daylight and dangerous at night, water-channels leaking into the roads and often black with slime, and an unusual number of very poor and badly-dressed people going about, are not evidences of the prosperity which, in spite of these untoward appearances, really exists. the high weather-worn mud walls along the alleys have no windows, in order that the women may not see or be seen by men. a doorway with a mounting-block outside it, in "well-to-do" houses, admits into a vaulted recess, from which a passage, dimly lighted, conducts into the courtyard, round which the house is built, or into the house itself. these courtyards are planted with trees and flowers, marigolds and autumnal roses being now in the ascendant. marble basins with fountains, and marble walks between the parterres, suggest coolness, and walnuts, apples, and apricots give shade. the men's and women's apartments are frequently on opposite sides of the quadrangles, and the latter usually open on _atriums_, floored with white marble and furnished with rugs and brocaded curtains. i have only seen the women's apartments, and these in the houses of rich traders and high officials are as ornamental as the exteriors are repulsive and destitute of ornament. gilding, arabesques in colour, fretwork doors and panelling, and ceilings and cornices composed of small mirrors arranged so as to represent facets, are all decorative in the extreme. these houses, with the deep shade of their courtyards, the cool plash of their fountains, and their spacious and exquisitely-decorated rooms, contrast everywhere with the low dark mud hovels, unplastered and windowless, in which the poor live, and which the women can only escape from by sitting in the heaped and filthy yards on which they open, and which the inhabitants share with their animals. the contrast between wealth and poverty is strongly emphasised in this, as in all persian cities, but one must add that the gulf between rich and poor is bridged by constant benevolence on the part of the rich, profuse charity being practised as a work of merit by all good moslems. the bazars are shabby and partially ruinous, but very well supplied with native produce and manufactures, english cottons, russian merchandise, and "knick-knacks" of various descriptions. the presence of foreigners in the town, although they import many things by way of baghdad, has introduced foreign articles of utility into the bazars, which are not to be found everywhere, and which are commending themselves to the people, "peek and frean's" biscuits among them. the display of fruit just now is very fine, especially of grapes and melons. the best peaches, which are large and of delicious flavour, as well as the best pears, come from the beautiful orchards of jairud, not far from kûm. the saddlery and caravan equipment bazars are singularly well supplied, as indeed they should be, for hamadan is famous for leather, and caravans loaded with hides for its tanneries are met with on every road. the bark and leaves of the pomegranate are used for tanning. besides highly ornamental leather for book-bindings and women's shoes, the tanners prepare the strong skins which, after being dyed red, are used for saddles, coverings of trunks, and bindings for _kh[=u]rjins_. hamadan is also famous for _namads_ or felts, which are used as carpets and horse-coverings, and as greatcoats by the peasants as well as by the lurs. a good carpet felt of hamadan manufacture is an inch thick, but some made at yezd reach two inches. for rich men's houses they are made to order to fit rooms, and valuable rugs are laid over them. the largest i have seen is in the palace of the minister of justice at tihran, which must be fully a hundred and twenty feet by eighty feet, and formed fourteen mule-loads; but sixty by forty feet is not an uncommon size, and makes eight mule-loads. these carpet _namads_, the most delicious of floor-coverings, are usually a natural brown, with an outline design in coloured threads or in a paler shade of brown beaten into the fabric. _namads_, owing to their bulk and weight, are never exported. the best, made at hamadan, are about s. the square yard. chairs spoil them, and as it is becoming fashionable among the rich men of the cities to wear tight trousers, which bring chairs in their train, the manufacture of these magnificent floor-coverings will probably die. the felt coats, which protect equally from rain and cold, are dark brown and seamless, and cost from s. to s. they have sleeves closed at the end to form a glove, and with a slit below the elbow through which the hand can be protruded and used. these coats are cloak-like, the sleeve is as long as the coat, and they are often worn merely suspended from the neck. hamadan is also famous for copper-work, and makes and dyes cottons. the tanneries and the dye-works between them create a stench which is perceptible for miles. the neighbourhood produces much wine, white like hock, and red like claret, both being harsh and the first heady. the armenians are the chief makers and sellers of wine. i wish i could add that they are the only people who get drunk, but this is not the case, for from the prince governor downwards, among the rich moslems, intemperance has become common, and even many young men are "going to wreck with drink," sacrificing the virtue to which moslems have been able to point with pride as differentiating them from so-called christians. i was unable to return the prince governor's visit and courtesies in accordance with the etiquette for a european lady traveller, because of the helpless condition in which he and a party of convivial friends were found by the messenger sent by me to ask him to appoint an hour for my visit. raisins, treacle, and _arak_ are also manufactured. the rich prefer _cognac_ to _arak_. it is spirit-drinking rather than wine-drinking which is sapping the life of the moslems of hamadan. it is singular that in this ecbatana, the capital of greater media, there should be so very few remains of an ancient greatness and splendour. just outside the town a low eminence called musala is pointed out as the site of the palace of the median kings, but even this is doubtful. coins of an ancient date are both dug up and fabricated by the jews. only two really interesting objects remain, and the antiquity of one of these is not universally accepted. the tomb of queen esther and her uncle mordecai is the great show-place of hamadan, and is held in much veneration by the jews of turkey and persia, who resort to it on pilgrimage. the jews are its custodians. [illustration: tomb of esther and mordecai.] this tomb consists of an outer and inner chamber, surmounted by a mean dome about fifty feet in height. the blue tiles with which it was covered have nearly all dropped off. the outer chamber, in which there are a few tombs of jews who have been counted worthy of burial near the shrine, is entered by a very low door, and the shrine itself by one still lower, through which one is obliged to creep. the inner chamber is vaulted, and floored with blue tiles, and having been recently restored is in good order. under the dome, which is lighted with the smoky clay lamps used by the very poor, are the two tombs, each covered with a carved wooden ark, much defaced and evidently of great antiquity. there is an entrance to the tombs below these arks, and each is lighted by an ever-burning lamp. there is nothing in the shrine but a hebrew old testament and a quantity of pieces of paper inscribed with hebrew characters, which are affixed by pilgrims to the woodwork. the tombs and the tradition concerning them are of such great antiquity that i gladly accept the verdict of those who assign them to the beautiful and patriotic queen and her capable uncle. on the dome is this inscription: "on thursday the th of the month adar in the year of the creation of the world the building of this temple over the tombs of mordecai and esther was finished by the hands of the two benevolent brothers elias and samuel, sons of ismail kachan." the other object of interest, which has been carefully described by sir h. rawlinson and sir h. layard, is specially remarkable as having afforded the key to the decipherment of the cuneiform character. it is in the mountains above hamadan, and consists of two tablets six feet six inches by eight feet six inches (layard) cut in a red granite cliff which closes the end of a corrie. there are other tablets near them, carefully prepared, but never used. the three inscriptions are in parallel columns in the three languages spoken in the once vast persian empire--persian, median, and babylonian, and contain invocations to ormuzd, and the high-sounding names and titles of darius hystaspes and his son xerxes. amidst the meanness, not to say squalor, of modern hamadan, no legerdemain of the imagination can re-create the once magnificent ecbatana, said by the early greek writers to have been scarcely inferior to babylon in size and splendour, with walls covered with "plates of gold," and fortifications of enormous strength; the capital of arbaces after the fall of nineveh, and the summer resort of the "great king," according to xenophon. the jews are supposed to number from to souls, and are in the lowest state of degradation, morally and socially. that bad act of sarah in casting out "the bondwoman and her son" is certainly avenged upon her descendants. they are daily kicked, beaten, and spat upon in the streets, and their children are pelted and beaten in going to and from the school which the americans have established for them. redress for any wrongs is inaccessible to them. they are regarded as inferior to dogs. so degraded are they that they have not even spirit to take advantage of the help which american influence would give them to get into a better position. the accursed vices of low greed and low cunning are fully developed in them. they get their living by usury, by the making and selling of wine and _arak_, by the sale of adulterated drugs, by peddling in the villages, and by doing generally the mean and dishonest work from which their oppressors shrink. many of them have become moslems, the law being that a convert to islam can take away the whole property of his family. a larger number have, it is believed, joined the secret sect of the _b[=a]bis_. i never heard such a sickening account of degradation as is given of the hamadan jews by those who know them best, and have worked the most earnestly for their welfare. there are a number of armenians in hamadan, and several villages in the district are inhabited exclusively by them. there are also villages with a mixed persian and armenian population. they all speak persian, and the men at least are scarcely to be distinguished from persians by their dress. they are not in any way oppressed, and, except during occasional outbreaks of moslem fanaticism, are on very good terms with their neighbours. they live in a separate quarter, and both gregorians and protestants exercise their religion without molestation. they excel in various trades, specially carpentering and working in metals. their position in hamadan is improving, and this may be attributed in part to the high-class education given in the american high school for boys, and to the residence among them of the american missionaries, who have come to be regarded as their natural protectors. the population of hamadan is "an unknown quantity." it probably does not exceed , , and has undoubtedly decreased. seyyids and _mollahs_ form a considerable proportion of it, and it is one of the strongholds of the _b[=a]bis_. it is usually an orderly city, and european ladies wearing gauze veils and properly attended can pass through it both by day and night. several parts of it are enclosed by gates, as at canton, open only from sunrise to sunset, an arrangement which is supposed to be conducive to security. i. l. b. letter xxiv hamadan, _sept. _. i am visiting the three lady teachers of the faith hubbard boarding school for girls, and the visit is an oasis on my journey. it is a most cheerful house, a perfect hive of industry, each one being occupied with things which are worth doing. i cannot say how kind and how helpful they have all been to me, and with what regret i am leaving them. the house is large, plain, airy, and thoroughly sanitary, very well situated, with an open view over the hamadan plain. it is closely surrounded by the houses of the armenian quarter, and all those domestic operations which are performed on the roofs in hot weather are easily studied, such as the drying of clothes and herbs, the cleaning of heads, the beating of children, the bringing out of beds at night, and the rolling them up in the morning, the "going to bed" of families much bundled up, the performance of the very limited ablutions which constitute the morning toilette, and the making and mending of clothes, the roof being for many months both living-room and bedroom. at sunset, as in all persian towns, a great hush falls on hamadan. only people who have business are seen in the streets, the bazars are closed, and from sunset to sunrise there would be complete silence were it not for the yelping and howling of the scavenger dogs and the long melancholy call to prayer from the minarets. if it is necessary to go out at night a person of either sex is preceded by a servant carrying a lantern near the ground. these lanterns have metal tops and bottoms, and waxed, wired muslin between, which is ingeniously arranged to fold up flat. they are usually three feet long, but may be of any diameter, and as your consideration is evidenced by the size of your lantern there is a tendency to carry about huge transparencies which undulate very agreeably in the darkness. this is the moharrem or month of mourning, for hassan and houssein, the slain sons of ali, who are regarded by the shiahs as the rightful successors of the prophet and as the noblest martyrs in the calendar. during this period the whole persian community goes into deep mourning, and the streets and bazars are filled with black dresses only. in this month is acted throughout the empire the _tazieh_ or passion play, which has for its climax the tragic deaths of these two men.[ ] i arrived in hamadan on what should have been the first day of moharrem, but there had been a difference of opinion among the _mollahs_ as to the date, and it was postponed to the next day, for me a most fortunate circumstance, as no christian ought to be seen in the streets at a time when they are filled with excited throngs frenzied by religious fanaticism. on the following day the quiet of the city was interrupted by singular cries, and by children's voices, high pitched, singing a chant so strange and weird that one both longs and dreads to hear it repeated. the christians kept within their houses. business was suspended. bands of boys carrying black flags perambulated the town, singing one of the chants of the passion play. as night came on it was possible to feel the throb of the excitement of the city, and till the small hours the march of frenzied processions was heard, and the loud smiting on human breasts and the clash of the chains with which the dervishes beat themselves, were intermingled with a united rhythmic cry of anguish--_ah houssein! wai houssein!_ (o houssein! woe for houssein!) _ya houssein! ya hassan!_ and in the flickering light of the torches black flags were waving, and frenzied men were seen beating their bare breasts. in some of the cities these processions are a sickening spectacle. throngs move along the streets, escorting large troops of men either stripped to their waists or wearing only white shirts which expose the bosom. beating their breasts with their right hands in concert till they make them raw, gashing themselves on their heads with daggers, streaming with blood, and maddened by religious frenzy, they pass from street to street, and the yell rises from all quarters, _ya houssein! wai houssein!_ occasionally men drop down dead from excitement, and others, falling from loss of blood, are carried away by their friends. it is at the end of the month of mourning that these processions, called _testeh_, increase so much in frenzy and fanaticism as to be dangerous to the good order of cities, clashing with each other, and sometimes cutting their way through each other with loss of life. to join in a _testeh_ is to perform a "pious act," and atones for sin committed and to be committed. the _tazieh_ or passion play itself, acted in splendour before the shah, is repeated everywhere throughout persia, lasting from ten to twelve days, the frenzy with which the different incidents are received culminating on the last day, when the slaughter of houssein is represented. on the whole the _tazieh_ is among the most remarkable religious phenomena of our age. under the rule of the present prince governor complete religious toleration exists in hamadan, and the missionaries have a fair field, though it must never be forgotten that a _proselytising_ christian, rendering honour to christ as god, by his mere presence introduces a disturbing element into a moslem population. in consequence of this tolerant official spirit there are a few moslem girls among the sixty boarders here. in addition there are a large number of day pupils. the girls live in native fashion, and wear native dresses of red cotton printed with white patterns, white _chadars_, and such ornaments as they possess. they sit on the floor at their meals, at each of which one of the ladies is present. they have excellent food, meat once a day in summer and twice in winter, bread, tea, soup, curds, cheese, melons, cucumbers, pickles, and gourds. the winter supplies are now being laid in, and caravans of asses are arriving daily with firewood, cheeses, and melons. the elder girls cook, and all the washing, making, and mending are done at home, each elder girl in addition having a small family of young ones under her care. the only servant is the _bheestie_ or water-carrier. the dormitories, class-rooms, eating-room, and _hammam_ are large and well ventilated, but very simple. a plain but thorough education of the "national school" type is given, in combination with an industrial training, fitted for girls whose early destiny is wifehood and maternity. some of the teachers are men, but the religious instruction, on which great stress is laid, is given by the ladies themselves, and is made singularly interesting and attractive. music and singing are regarded as among the recreations. the discipline is perfect, and the dirtiest, roughest, lumpiest, and most refractory raw material is quickly transformed into cleanliness, brightness, and docility, partly by the tone of the school and the influence of the girls who have been trained in it, but chiefly by the influence of love. the respect with which the office of a teacher is regarded in the east allows of much more _apparent_ familiarity than would be possible with us. out of school hours the ladies are accessible at all times even to the youngest children. many a little childish trouble finds its way to their maternal sympathies, and they are just as ready to give advice about the colour and making of dolls' clothes as about more important matters. the loving, cheerful atmosphere of an english home pervades the school. i write english rather than american because the ladies are prince edward islanders and british subjects. some of the girls who have been trained here are well married and make good wives, and the school bids fair to be resorted to in the future by young men who desire companionship as well as domestic accomplishments in their wives. the ordinary uneducated armenian woman is a very stupid lump, very inferior to the persian woman. of the effect of the simple, loving, practical, christian training given, and enforced by the beauty of example it is easy to write, for not only some of the girls who have left the school, but many who are now in it show by the purity, gentleness, lovingness, and self-denial of their lives that they have learned to follow the master, a lesson the wise teaching of which is, or should be, i think, the _raison d'être_ of every mission school. christianity thus translated into homely lives may come to be the disinfectant which will purify in time the deep corruption of persian life. the cost of this school under its capable and liberal management is surprising--only £ : s. per head per annum! its weak point (but at present it seems an inevitable blemish) is, that the board and education are gratuitous. there is a high school for boys, largely attended, under the charge of mr. watson, the clerical missionary, with an armenian principal, karapit, educated in the c.m.s. school in julfa, a very able man, and he is assisted by several teachers. there is also a large school of jewish girls, who are often maltreated on their way to and from it. there are a flourishing medical mission and dispensary under dr. alexander's charge, with a hospital nearly finished for the more serious cases. there is another dispensary at sheverin, and both there and here the number of patients is large. a small charge is made for medicines. mirza sa'eed, a medical student of mature years and remarkable capacities, occasionally itinerates in the distant villages, and, being a learned scholar in the koran, holds religious disputations after his medical work is done. he was a moslem, and having embraced christianity preaches its doctrines with much force and enthusiasm. he is popular in hamadan, and much thought of by the governor in spite of his "perversion." he also gives addresses on christianity to the patients who assemble at the dispensary. any person is at liberty to withdraw during this religious service, but few avail themselves of the permission. miss ---- speaks on christianity to the female patients at sheverin, and befriends them in their own homes. the day's work here begins at six, and is not over till p.m. an english class for young men is held early, after which people on business and visitors of all sorts and creeds are arriving and departing all day, and all are welcome. on one day i counted forty-three, and there were many more than these. the upper class of persian women announce their visits beforehand, and usually arrive on horseback, with attendants to clear the way. no man-servant must enter the room with tea or anything else during their visits. the armenian women call at all hours, and the jewish women in large bands without previous announcement. tea _à la russe_ is provided for all, and ibrahim goes to the door and counts the shoes left outside in order to know how many to provide for. "_khanum_," he exclaimed one day after this inspection, "there are at least twenty of them!" some call out of politeness or real friendliness, others to see the _tamasha_ (the sights of the house), many from the villages to talk about their children, and some of the jewish women, who have become _b[=a]bis_, ask to have the new testament read to them in the hope of hearing something which they may use in the propagation of their new faith. a good many women have called on me out of politeness to my hostesses. persian gentlemen invariably send the day before to know if a visit can be conveniently received, and on these occasions the ladies always secure the _chaperonage_ of one of the men missionaries. the _concierge_ has orders not to turn any one away, and it is a blessing when sunset comes and the stream of visitors ceases. all meet with a genial reception, and the ladies usually succeed not only in lifting the conversation out of the customary frivolous grooves, but in awaking more or less interest in the religion which they are here to propagate. they are missionaries first and everything else afterwards, and miss ----, partly because of her goodness and benevolence to all, and partly because of an uncompromising honesty in her religious beliefs which the people thoroughly appreciate, has a remarkable influence in hamadan, and is universally respected. her jollity and sense of humour are a great help. she thoroughly enjoys making people laugh. i have never been in any place in which the relations with moslems have been so easy and friendly. the _sartip_ reza khan told me it would be a matter of regret to all except a few fanatics if the ladies were to leave the city. from the prince governor downwards courtesy and kindness are shown to them, and their philanthropic and educational work is approved in the highest quarters, though they never blink the fact that they are proselytisers.[ ] there is an armenian protestant congregation with a native pastor and a fine church, and nothing shows more plainly the toleration which prevails in hamadan than the number of moslems to be seen every sunday at the morning service, which is in persian. in this church total abstinence is a "term of communion," and unfermented wine is used in the celebration of the eucharist. this wine is very delicious, and has the full flavour and aroma of the fresh grape even after being three years in bottle. it is not boiled, as much "unfermented wine" is here, but the grapes are put into a coarse bag, through which the juice drops without pressure. the gluten being retained by the bag, fermentation does not take place, and a bottle of the juice, even if left without a cork, retains its excellence till it dries up. _hamadan, september ._--"_revenons à nos moutons_"--the _moutons_ in this instance being my travelling arrangements. three roads go to urmi from hamadan, one, the usual caravan route _viâ_ tabriz, the commercial capital of persia, and round the north end of lake urmi, very long, but safe; another called the "kurdistan route," which no _charvadar_ will take by reason of its danger; and a third by sujbul[=a]k, the capital of persian kurdistan, twenty marches, only five of which are reported as risky. i decided on the last, but it was only two days ago that i was able to get a _charvadar_ willing to undertake the journey. "it is too late," they say, "there are robbers on the road," they "don't know the way," or "provender is dear," or "snow will come on" before they can return. kerbelai, the excellent fellow who brought my loads from burujird, wished to go, and i engaged him gladly, but afterwards his father came and declared he could not let him go, for he did not know the way, and would be robbed. another man was engaged, but never reappeared. soon after i came a tall, well-dressed rich turk, the owner of sixty mules, applied for the engagement, and we think that by certain underhand proceedings, familiar to the persian mind, he has driven off other competitors, and made himself my last resource. i engaged him on saturday, and the mules and mirza went off this morning. an agreement was drawn up in persian and english placing five mules _under my absolute control_, to halt or march as i desire, at thirteen pence a day each so long as i want them, with two men, "handing over the mules and men" to me till i reach urmi, which arrival is to suit my own convenience. this was read over twice, and the turk sealed it in presence of four witnesses. all his other mules are going with loads to urmi, and this accounts for his great desire to send the five with me. i have expressly stipulated that i am to have nothing to do with the big caravan, but am to take my own time. this turk has good looks and plausible manners, and the animals have sound backs, but i distrust him. the servant difficulty, which threatened to keep me here indefinitely, is also adjusted. hassan left me when i arrived, being unwilling to go to the north of persia so late, and he bought a new opium pipe, saying that he cannot bear the pain and craving of being without it. he was a fair travelling servant for a persian, not unreasonably dishonest, and i am sorry to lose him. in the attempt to replace him a maze of lies, fraud, and underhand dealing has been passed through. i have at last engaged johannes, a strong-looking young armenian, speaking turkish and persian besides armenian. he has never served europeans, but has learned baking and the wine trade. he looks much of a cub. for appearance sake i have armed him with a long gun. he and mirza are alike incompetent to make any travelling arrangements or overcome any difficulties, to discover where escorts are needed and where they may be dispensed with, or to meet any emergencies, and as persian will be considerably replaced by turki _en route_ mirza will be of less and less use as an interpreter. i cannot get any recent information about the route, and very little at all. i see endless difficulties ahead, and a prospect of illustrating in my own experience the _dictum_ often dinned into my ears, that "no lady ought to travel alone in persia." this will be my last opportunity of posting a letter for nearly a month. the persian post is only exceeded in unreliability by the persian telegraph. to register letters is the only way of securing their safe arrival, and it is necessary to send a trustworthy man to the post offices, who, after seeing the effacing stamp put upon the postage stamp, will further insist upon seeing the postmaster put the letters in the bag. in tihran the europeans make much use of the legation bags, and the merchants prefer to trust their letters to private _gholams_ rather than to the post, while at isfahan people are often glad to send their letters by the monthly telegraph _chapar_ rather than run a postal risk. however, a foreign letter, registered, is pretty safe. the telegraph is worse; you often have to bribe the telegraph clerk to send the message, and unless you see it sent it will probably be destroyed. of five messages sent by me from hamadan one was returned because the british agent in isfahan was "not known" (!), two were slower than letters sent the same day, the fourth took a week, and of the fifth there is "no information." even in this important commercial city the post office is only open for a short time on two days in the week. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] for a detailed and most interesting account of these remarkable representations the reader is referred to mr. benjamin's _persia and the persians_, chap. xiii. [ ] since i returned i have been asked more than once, "what are the results of missions in hamadan?" among those which appear on the surface are the spiritual enlightenment of a number of persons whose minds were blinded by the gross and childish superstitions and the inconceivable ignorance into which the ancient church of s. gregory the illuminator has fallen. the raising of a higher standard of morals among the armenians, so that a decided stigma is coming to be attached to drunkenness and other vices. the bringing the whole of the rising generation of armenians under influences which in all respects "make for righteousness." the elevation of a large number of women into being the companions and helps rather than the drudges of men. the bestowing upon boys an education which fits them for any positions to which they may aspire in persia and elsewhere, and creates a taste for intellectual pursuits. the introduction of european medicine and surgery, and the bringing them within the reach of the poorest of the people. the breaking down of some moslem prejudices against christians. the gradually ameliorating influence exercised by the exhibition of the religion of jesus christ in purity of life, in ceaseless benevolence, in _truthfulness_ and _loyalty to engagements_, in kind and just dealing, in temperance and self-denial, and the many virtues which make up christian discipleship, and the dissemination in the city and neighbourhood of a higher teaching on the duties of common life, illustrated by example, not in fits and starts, but through years of loving and patient labour. letter xxv gaukhaud, _sept. _. this is a difficult journey. the road is rarely traversed by europeans, the marches are long, and i am really not well enough to travel at all, not having been able to shake off the fever. cooler days and cold nights are, however, coming to the rescue. my hamadan friends gave me a _badraghah_ (a parting escort)--miss c. m----, mr. watson, pastor ovannes and his boy, all on horseback; mrs. watson and her baby on an ass; several servants on foot, and miss m---- and mrs. alexander in a spidery american buggy with a pair of horses; dr. alexander, a man six feet two inches high and very thin, "riding postilion" on one of them to get the buggy over difficult places; ibrahim, the ladies' _factotum_, with a gun slung behind him, following on horseback. two of the ladies and the native pastor stayed at night. it was not a pleasant return to camp life, for johannes is quite ignorant of it, and everything was at sixes and sevens. nor was the first morning pleasant, for the head _charvadar_, sharban, came speaking loud with vehement gesticulation, saying that if i did not march with the big caravan and halt when it did, they would only give me one man, and added sundry other threats. miss m---- scolded him, reminding them of their agreement, and ibrahim told them that if they violated it in the way they threatened they would have to "eat more wood than they had ever eaten in their lives on going back to hamadan." ("eating wood" is the phrase for being bastinadoed.) a squabble the first morning is a usual occurrence, and miss m---- thought it would be all right, and advised me to go on to kooltapa, the first stage put down by the _charvadars_. cultivation extends over the eight miles from hamadan to bahar. there are streams, and willows, and various hamlets with much wood, and bahar is completely buried in orchards and poplars. it is a place of people, and has well-built houses, small mosques, and _mollahs'_ schools. it makes _gelims_ (thin carpets), and grows besides wheat, barley, cotton, and oil seeds, an immense quantity of fruit, which has a ready market in the city. miss m---- and pastor ovannes escorted me for the first mile, and, meeting the caravan on their way back, gave sharban a parting exhortation. as soon as they were out of sight he sent back one man, and, in spite of mirza's remonstrances, drove my _yabus_ with the big caravan--a grievance to start with, as his baggage animals were so heavily loaded that they could not go even two miles an hour, and i have taken five, though i only need three, in order to get over the ground at three miles an hour. i am obliged to have johannes with me, as comparatively little persian is spoken by the common people along this road. beyond bahar the road lies over elevated table-lands, destitute of springs and streams, and now scorched up. one or two small villages, lying off the track, and some ruinous towers on eminences, built for watching robbers, scarcely break the monotony of this twenty-four miles' march. at three, having ascended nearly feet, we reached the small and very poor walled village of kooltapa, below which are some reservoirs, a series of pools connected by a stream, and the camping-ground, a fine piece of level sward, much of which was already occupied by two turkish caravans, with horses in each, and a man to every ten. the loads were all carefully stacked, covered with rugs, and watched by very large and fierce dogs. i lay down in the _shuldari_, feeling really ill. four o'clock, five o'clock, sunset came, but no caravan. johannes was quite ill, but went to the village to hire a _samovar_, and to try to get tea and supplies. there was neither tea nor _samovar_, and no supplies but horse food and some coarse cheese and blanket bread, too sour and dirty to be eaten. long after dark they brought a little milk. _boy_ was locked up in a house, and i rolled myself in his blanket and the few wraps i had with me, and, making the best of circumstances, tried to sleep; but it was too cold, and the position too perilous, and johannes, who had loaded his gun with ball, overcome with fatigue, instead of watching was sound asleep. at eleven mirza's voice, though it said, "madam, these _charvadars_ won't do for you, they are wicked men," was very welcome. they had stopped half-way, and four of them, including sharban's father, had dragged him off his horse with some violence, and had unloaded it. he appealed to the village headman, who, after wrangling with them for some hours, persuaded them to let him have a mule, and come to kooltapa with the servants' tent, my bed, and other comforts, and sent two armed guides with him. the larger tent was pitched and i went to bed, and not having the nettings which hang from the roof of my cabul tent, and are a complete security against mere pilferers, i put all i could under the blankets and arranged the other things within reach of my hand in the middle of the tent. i also burned a light, having learned that kooltapa is a dangerous place. at midnight the turkish caravans started with noise inconceivable, yells of _charvadars_, shouts of village boys, squeals of horses, barking of big dogs, firing of guns, and jangling of sets of bells, all sobering down into a grandly solemn sound as of many church steeples on the march. i went out to see that all was right, found my servants sleeping heavily and had not the heart to awake them, found the mercury a degree below the freezing point, and lay down, covering my head with a blanket, for the shivering stage of fever had come on. the night was very still, and after some time i heard in the stillness the not uncommon noise of a dog (as i thought) fumbling outside my tent. i took no notice till he seemed getting in, when i jumped up with an adjuration, saw the floor vacant, and heard human feet running away. i ran out and fired blank cartridge several times in the direction of the footsteps, hoping that the flashes would reveal the miscreant, but his movements had been more agile than mine. mirza ran into the village and informed the _ketchuda_, but he took it very quietly and said that the robbers were turks, which was false. i offered a large reward, but it was useless. when daylight came and i investigated my losses i found myself without any of the things which i have come to regard as indispensable. my cork helmet, boots, gloves, sun umbrella, stockings, scanty stock of underclothing, all my brushes, towels, soap, scissors, needles, thread, thimble, the strong combination knife which aziz coveted and which was used three or four times every day, a large silk handkerchief a hundred years old which i wore as a protection from the sun, my mask, revolver case, keys, pencils, paint brushes, sketches, notes of journeys, and my one mug were all gone. if anything could be worse, my gold pen, with which i have written for the last eighteen years, had also disappeared. furthermore, to relieve the tedium of the long wait during the pitching of my tent, and of the hour's rest which i am obliged to take on my bed after getting in, i was "doing" a large piece of embroidery from an ancient irish pattern, arabesques on dark, apricot-coloured coarse silk in low-toned greens, pinks, and blues, all outlined in gold. this work has been a real pleasure to me, and i relied on it for recreation for the rest of my journey. gone too, with all the silks and gold for finishing it! now i have nothing to do when the long marches are over, and as i can scarcely write with this pen and have also lost my drawing materials, a perspective of dulness opens out before me. if sharban had not disobeyed orders and stayed behind with my tent all this would not have happened. i now realise what it is to be without what to a european are "the necessaries of life," and i can scarcely replace any of them for three weeks. the caravan came in at nine, and i soon got into my tent and spent much of the day in making a head-cover by rolling lint and wadding in handkerchiefs and sewing them up into a sort of turban with a leather-needle and packthread obtained from mirza. i was able to get from a villager a second-hand pair of _ghevas_,--most serviceable shoes, with "uppers" made of stout cotton webbing knitted here by the women and among the bakhtiaris by the men, and with soles of rag sewn and pressed tightly together and tipped with horn. these and the "uppers" are connected with very stout leather brought to a point at the toe and heel. _ghevas_ are the most comfortable, and for dry weather and mountain-climbing the most indestructible of shoes. thus provided i have to face the discomfort caused by the other losses as best i may. "it's no use crying over spilt milk!" the day before, when the _charvadars_ pulled mirza off his mule and he threatened them with the agreement, they replied that it was false that they had made any agreement except to take me to urmi in twenty days, and that they were not afraid of the prince governor of hamadan, "for he is always asleep, and the feringhi is _only a khanum_." i sent to them that i wished to leave kooltapa at noon. they replied that they were not going to move. i was in their power, for they had received advance pay for seven days, and i said no more about moving. however, at noon i sent mirza to read the agreement to them, and sharban and his father could not deny the authenticity of the seal, and a superior villager, who could read, testified that mirza had read it correctly. they then saw that they had put themselves into a "tight place," and sent that they desired to humble themselves, saying, "your foot is on our eyes," a phrase of humility. i took no notice of them all day, but at sunset sent for sharban, and telling mirza not to soften down my language, spoke to him in few words. "you have broken your agreement, and you will have to take the consequences. your conduct is disgraceful and abominable, so cowardly that you don't deserve to be called a man, it is only what one would expect from a _pidar sag_. do you mean to keep your agreement or not?" he began to whine, and threw himself at my feet, but i reluctantly assumed a terrific voice, and saying "_khamosh! bero!_" (be silent! begone!), shut the tent. _bijar, september ._--no persian ever believes your word, and these poor fellows did not believe that i had letters to the governors _en route_. they are now terribly frightened, and see that a feringhi, even though "_only a khanum_," cannot be maltreated with impunity. when i arrived here, even before i sent my letter of introduction, the governor sent a _farash-bashi_ with compliments and offers of hospitality, and afterwards a strong guard. then sharban piteously entreated that i would not take him before the governor, and would not make him "eat wood," and his big caravan at last has chimed away on its northward journey to be seen no more. thus, by acting a part absolutely hateful to me, the mutiny was quelled, and things are now going on all right, except that sharban avails himself of small opportunities of being disobliging. i do sincerely detest the cowardliness of the oriental nature, which is probably the result of ages of oppression by superiors. it is so vexing that the policy of trust which has served me so well on all former journeys has to be abandoned, and that one of suspicion has to be substituted for it. i am told by all europeans that from the shah downwards no one trusts father, brother, wife, superior, or inferior. every one walks warily and suspiciously through a maze of fraud and falsehood. if one asks a question, or any one expresses an opinion, or tells what passes for a fact, he looks over each shoulder to see that no one is listening.[ ] a noble persian said to me, "lying is rotting this country. persians tell lies before they can speak." almost every day when one is wishing to be trustful, kind, and considerate, one encounters unmitigated lying, cowardly bluster, or dexterously-planned fraud, and the necessity of being always on guard is wearing and repulsive. here is another specimen of the sort of net which is woven round a traveller. at kooltapa, after the theft, i sent to the _ketchuda_ for a night-watchman, and he replied that he could not give one without an order, and that as he knew only turki, my letter in persian from the prince governor of hamadan was nothing to him. later, a _sowar_, who said he was also a "road-guard," came and said that he only was responsible for the safety of travellers, and that i could not get a watchman from the _ketchuda_, as no one could pass the gates after sunset without his permission. i already knew that there were no gates. he said he was entitled to five _krans_ a night for protecting the tents. (the charge is one _kran_, or under exceptional circumstances two.) i told him we were quite capable of protecting ourselves. late in the evening an apparently respectable man came and warned us to keep a good look-out, as this _sowar_ and another had vowed to rob our tents out of revenge for not having been employed. these men, acting as road-guards, are a great terror to the people. they levy blackmail on caravans and take food for their horses and themselves, "the pick of everything," without payment. the people also accuse them of committing, or being accessory to, the majority of highway robberies. the women who came to condole with me on my losses accused these men of being the thieves, but it was younger feet which clattered away from my tent. sharban, thoroughly subdued for the time, and his servant watched, and to show that they were awake fired their guns repeatedly. the nightly arrangement now is to secure a watchman from the _ketchuda_; to walk round the camp two or three times every night to see that he is awake, and that _boy_ is all right; to secure the _yekdan_ to my bed with a stout mule-chain, and to rope the table and chair on which i put my few remaining things also to the bed, taking care to put a tin can with a knife in it on the very edge of the table, so that if the things are tampered with the clatter may awake me. after leaving kooltapa, treeless country becomes bushless, and nothing combustible is to be got but animal fuel. manure is far too precious for this purpose to be wasted on the fields. men with asses follow caravans and collect it in bags. the yards into which the flocks and herds are driven at night have now been cleaned out, and in every village all the women are occupied in moulding the manure into _kiziks_ or cakes fully a foot long and four inches thick. these, after being dried in the sun, are built up into conical stacks, often exceeding twenty feet in height, and are plastered with a layer of the same material. the making of this artificial fuel is one of the most important industries of persia, and is exclusively in the hands of women. the preparation of the winter stock takes from six to fourteen weeks, and is very hard wet work. the fuel gives out a good deal of heat, but burns fast. its combustible qualities are increased by an admixture of cut straw. at this season, between the colossal black stacks of fuel and the conical piles of winter "keep" upon the roofs, the villages are almost invisible. the march to gaukhaud was over twenty miles of rolling scorched table-lands--baked mud, without inhabitants. gaukhaud and the villages for fifty miles farther are unwalled, but each house, with its cattle-yard and upper and underground folds, has a massive mud wall sloping slightly inwards, with an entrance closed by a heavy wooden gate, strengthened with iron. the upper sheep-folds have thick stone doors three feet square. each house is a fortress, and nothing is to be seen above its walls but a quantity of beehive roofs and a number of truncated cones of winter fodder on a central platform. the female costume is also different. the women, unveiled, bold-faced, and handsome in the meg merrilees style, wear black sleeveless jackets vandyked and tasselled, red skirts, and black handkerchiefs rolled round their heads. little persian is spoken or even understood, and everything indicates that the limit of persia proper, _i.e._ the persia of persians, has been passed. gaukhaud is a village of houses, grows wheat, barley, grapes, and melons; and though a once splendid caravanserai on a height is roofless and ruined, and the village has no better water than an irrigation ditch, it is said to be fairly prosperous. the march to babarashan is for twenty miles along a featureless irrigated valley about a mile wide, with grass and stubble, several beehive villages, and mud hills never over feet high on either side. crossing a brick bridge over a trifling stream, and passing through the large village of tulwar, where men who were burying a corpse politely laid fried funeral-cakes flavoured with sesamum on my saddle-bow, we ascended over low scorched hills, much ploughed for winter sowing, to the beehive village of babarashan, of houses, abundantly supplied with water, where we camped close to some tents of the kara tepe and a large caravan. the dust blown across the camp from the threshing-floors was obnoxious but inevitable. the "sharp threshing instruments having teeth" are not used in this region, but mobs of animals, up to a dozen, tied together, oxen, cows, horses, and asses, are driven over the wheat. i am finding the disadvantages of having an untrained servant. johannes that evening ran hither and thither without method, never finished anything, spent an hour in bargaining for a fowl, failed to get his fire to burn, consequently could not cook or make tea, and i went supperless to bed. the same confusion prevailed the next morning, but things have been better since. no life is so charming as camp life, but incompetent servants are a great drawback. another uninteresting march of twenty miles over high table-lands and through a valley surrounded by mud hills, with quaint outcrops of broken rock on their summits, and a pass through some picturesque rocky hills brought us into a basin among mountains, in which stands the rather important town of bijar in the midst of poplars, willows, apricots, and vines. bijar is said to have inhabitants. it has a governor for itself and the surrounding district, and a garrison of a regiment of infantry and _sowars_ to keep the turbulent frontier kurds in order. it has ruinous mud walls, no regular bazars, only shops at intervals; fully a third is in ruins, and most of the houses and even the governor's palace are falling into decay. it is, however, accounted a thriving place, and is noted for _gelims_ and carpenters' work. it has four caravanserais, hardly habitable, however, seven _hammams_, and a few mosques and _mollahs'_ schools. it has an air of being quite out of the world. i have been here two days, and as foreigners are very rarely seen, the greater part of the population has strolled past my tent. i camped as usual outside the walls, near a small spring, and soon a _farash-bashi_ came from the governor, with a message expressive of much annoyance at my having "camped in the wilderness when i was their guest, and they would have given me a safe camping-ground in the palace garden." mirza took my introduction to him, and he sent a second message saying that the next three marches were "very dangerous," and appointed an hour for an interview. soon eight infantrymen, well uniformed and set up, with rifles and fixed bayonets, arrived and mounted guard round my tent, changing every six hours. this completed sharban's discomfiture. various difficulties arose on sunday, and much against my will i had to call on the governor. he received me in a sort of _durbar_. a great number of men, litigants and others, crowded the corridors and reception-rooms. he looked bloated and dissipated, and seemed scarcely sober. he sat on cushions on the floor, with a row of scribes and _mollahs_ on his right, and many _farashes_ and soldiers stood about the door. seyyids, handsome and haughty, glanced at me contemptuously, and the drunken giggle of the khan and the fixed scowl of the motionless row of scribes were really overpowering. tea was produced, but the circumstances were so disagreeable that i did not wait for the conventional third cup. the khan said that the ladies are in the country a few miles off, and hoped i would visit them, that some marches on the road are unsafe, and that he would give me a letter which would be useful in procuring escorts after i left his jurisdiction, and he has since sent it. he was quite courteous, as indeed all persians of the upper classes are, but i hope never again to pass through the ordeal of calling upon a moslem without a european escort. later, the principal wife of the military commander of the district called with a train of shrouded women, followed by servants bringing an abundant dinner, with much fruit. she came to ask me to take up my quarters in the very handsome house which is her husband's, very near my tent. after a good deal of intelligent conversation she asked if i had a husband and children, and on my replying in the negative she expressed very kindly sympathy, but added, "there are things far worse, things which can never be where, as among you, there is only one wife. one may have a husband and children, and yet, god knows, be made nearly mad by troubles," and she looked as if indeed her sorrows were great. doubtless a young wife has been installed as favourite, or there is a divorce impending. _takautapa, september ._--this is a great grain-growing region, and by no means unprosperous, but it only yields one crop a year, the land is ploughed immediately after harvest, and the irrigation is cut off until sowing-time. consequently nothing can exceed the ugliness of the aspect of the country at this time. there is not one redeeming feature, and on the long marches there is rarely anything to please or interest the eye. on the march from bijar there was not a green thing except some poplars and willows by a stream, not a blade of grass, not a green "weed,"--nothing but low mud hills, with their sides much ploughed and the furrows baked hard, and unploughed gravelly stretches covered sparsely with scorched thistles. eight miles of an easy descent of feet brought us to the kizil uzen, a broad but fordable stream, on the other side of which is salamatabad, a village consisting chiefly of the large walled gardens and houses of the governor of bijar. a little higher up there is a solid eight-arched stone bridge, over feet long. this kizil uzen is one of the most important streams in north persia. it drains a very large area, and after a long and devious course enters the caspian sea under the name of the sefid rud. eleven miles from this place i crossed the lofty crest of the ridge which divides the drainage basins of the kizil uzen and urmi. a number of _sowars_ came out and escorted me through a gateway down a road with high walls and buildings on both sides to an inner gateway leading to the khan's _andarun_. here we all dismounted, but the next step was not obvious, for the heavy wooden gate which secludes the _andarun_ was strongly barred, and showed no symptoms of welcome. an aged eunuch put his melancholy head out of a hole at the side, and said that the ladies were expecting me and that food was ready for the animals and the servants, but still the gate moved not. i asked if mirza could go with me to interpret, the _sowars_ suggesting that he could be screened behind a curtain, quite a usual mode of disposing of such a difficulty. the eunuch returned, and with him the khan's mother, a fiendish-looking middle-aged woman, who looked through the peep-hole, but on seeing a good-looking young man drew back, and said very definitely that no man could be admitted, especially in the absence of the khan. all the men were warned off, and the door was opened so as just to allow of my entrance and no more. the principal wife received me in a fine lofty room with fretwork windows opening on a courtyard with a fountain in it and a few pomegranates, and a crowd of persian, kurdish, and negro women, with all manner of babies. the lady is from tihran, and her manners have some of the ease and polish of the capital. it is still the moharrem, and she was enveloped in a black _chadar_, and wore as her sole ornament a small diamond-studded watch as a locket. her mother-in-law, who, like many mothers-in-law in persia, fills the post of _duenna_ to the establishment, frightened me by the expression of her handsome face and her sneering, fiendish laugh. it must be admitted that there was much to amuse her, for my slender stock of badly-pronounced persian is the persian of muleteers rather than of polite circles, and she mimicked every word i uttered, looking all the time like one of michael angelo's "fates." the room was very prettily curtained, and furnished with russian materials, they told me, and the lithographs, the photographs and their frames, and the many "knick-knacks" which adorned the tables and recesses were all russian. they showed me several small clocks and very ingenious watches, all russian also. they said that the goods in the shops at bijar are chiefly russian, and added, "the english don't try to suit our taste as the russians do." the principal lady expressed a wish for greater liberty, though she qualified it by saying that men who love their wives could not let them go about as the english ladies do in tihran. dinner had been prepared, a huge persian dinner, but they kindly allowed me to take tea instead, and produced with it _gaz_ (manna) and a cake flavoured with asafoetida. when i came to an end of my persian, and they of their ideas, i said farewell, and was followed to the gate by the mocking laugh of the _duenna_. the _sowars_ asserted that the next _farsakh_ was "very dangerous," so we kept together. wild, desolate, rolling, scrubless open country it is, the spurs of the kurdish hills. the _sowars_ were very fussy and did a great deal of galloping and scouting, saying that bands of robber horsemen are often met with on this route, who, being sunnis, would rejoice in attacking shiahs. doubtless they magnified the risk in order to enhance the value of their services. in the early afternoon we reached the kurdish village of karabul[=a]k, sixty mud hovels, on the flaring mud hillside, the great fodder stacks on the flat roofs alone making the houses obvious. the water is very bad and limited in quantity, and of milk there was none. the people are very poor and unprosperous, and a meaner set of donkeys and oxen than those which were treading out the corn close to my tent i have not seen. though most of the inhabitants are kurds, there are some persians and turks, and each nationality has its own _ketchuda_. towards evening the _sowars_ came to me with the three _ketchudas_, who, they said, would arrange for a guard, and for my escort the next day. i did not like this, for the _sowars_ had good double-barrelled guns, and were in persian uniform, and had been given me for three days, but there was no help for it. the _ketchudas_ said that they could not guarantee my safety that night with less than ten men, and i saw in the whole affair a design on my very slender purse. a monetary panic set in before i reached hamadan: the sovereign had fallen from thirty-four to twenty-eight _krans_, the jews would not take english paper at any price, i could not cash my circular notes, and it was only through the kindness of the american missionaries that i had any money at all, and i had only enough for ordinary expenses as far as urmi. i told them that i could only pay two men, and dismissed the _sowars_ with a present quite out of proportion to the time they had been with me. during these arrangements the hubbub was indescribable, but the men were very pleasant. three hours later the _sowars_ returned, saying that after riding eight miles they had met a messenger with a letter from the khan, telling them to go on another day with me. i asked to see the letter, and then they said it was a verbal message. they had never been outside of karabul[=a]k! i tell this in detail to show how intricate are the meshes of the net in which a traveller on these unfrequented roads is entangled. later, ten wild-looking kurds with long guns, various varieties of old swords, and long knives, lighted great watch-fires on either side of my tent, and put _boy_ between them. this pet likes fires, and lies down fearlessly among the men, close to the embers. a little below my camp was a solitary miserable-looking melon garden with a low mud wall. at midnight i was awakened by the loud report of several guns close to my tent, and confused shouts of men, with outcries of women and children. the watchmen saw two men robbing the melon garden, shot one, and captured both. i gave a present to the guards in the morning, and the _ketchudas_ took half of it. the march to jafirabad is over the same monotonous country, over ever-ascending rolling hills, with small plateaux among them, very destitute of water, and consequently of population, the village of khashmaghal, with houses, and two ruined forts, being the one object of interest. on the way to jafirabad is the small village of nasrabad, once a cluster of semi-subterranean hovels, inhabited by thieves. some years ago the present shah halted near it on one of his hunting excursions, and observing the desolation of the country, and water running to waste, gave money and lands to bribe a number of families to settle there. there are now sixty houses surrounded by much material wealth. the shah still divides _tumans_ yearly among the people, and takes a very small tribute. nasr-ed-din has many misdeeds to answer for, many despotic acts, and some bloodshed, but among the legions of complaints of oppression and grinding exactions which i hear in most places, i have not heard one of the tribute fixed by him--solely of the exactions and merciless rapacity of the governors and their subordinate officials. jafirabad, a village of houses in the midst of arable land, has one of those camping-grounds of smooth green sward at once so tempting and so risky, and we all got rheumatism in the moist chilliness of the night. the mercury is still falling slowly and steadily, and the sun is only really hot between ten and four. jafirabad is a prosperous village, owned, as many in this region are, by the governor of tabriz, who is merciful as to tribute. everything was wet, even inside my tent. it was actually cold. in the yellow dawn i heard mirza's cheerful voice saying, "madam, they think your horse is dead!" the creature had been stretched out motionless for two hours in the midst of bustle and packing. i told them to take off his nose-bag, which was nearly full, but still he did not move. i went up to him and said sharply, "come, get up, old _boy_" and he struggled slowly to his feet, shook himself, and at once fumbled in my pockets for food, thumping me with his head as usual when he failed to find any. he was benumbed by sleeping on the damp ground in the hoar-frost. the next night he chose to sleep under the verandah of my tent, snoring loudly. he has became quite a friend and companion. the _sowars_ finally left me there, and i was escorted by the _ketchuda_, a very pleasant intelligent man of considerable property, with his two retainers. the next stage has the reputation of being "very dangerous," and many people anxious to go to the next village joined my caravan. my tents were guarded by eight wild-looking village kurds, armed with clubbed sticks and long guns. i asked the _ketchuda_ if two were not enough, and he said that i should only pay for two, the others were there for his satisfaction, that two might combine to rob me, but that more would watch each other, and that the robbers of this region do not pilfer in ones and twos, but swoop down on tents in large parties. the next march is chiefly along valleys among low hills. the _ketchuda_ did much scouting, not without good reason, and we all kept close together. a party of well-mounted men rode down upon us and joined us. mirza sidled up to me, and in his usual cheery tones said "madam, these are robbers." they were men of a well-known band, under one hassan khan. they spoke persian, and mirza kept me informed of what they were saying. they said they had been out a night and a day without success, and they must take my baggage and horse--they wanted horses badly. the _ketchuda_, to whom they were well known, remonstrated with them, and the parley went on for some time, they insisting, and he threatening them with the regiment from bijar, but all he said was of no use, till he told them that i was the wife of the governor of tabriz, that i had been paying a visit to hamadan, and was then going to be the guest of the ladies of hadji baba, governor of achaz, that i had been committed to him, and that he was answerable for my safety. "you know i am a man of my word," was the conclusion of this brilliant lie, which served its purpose, for they said they knew him, and would not rob me _then_. they rode with us for some miles, in fact the leader, a sinister-looking elderly man, in a turban and brown _abba_ like an arab, rode so close to me that the barrel of his gun constantly touched my saddle. they carried double-barrelled guns besides revolvers. on coming to a part of the country where the _ketchuda_ said the road became safe, i sent the caravan on with the servants, the band having gone in another direction, and halted for two hours. riding on again, and turning sharply round a large rock, there they all were, dismounted, and rushed out upon us. a _mêlée_ ensued, and as i then had only two men they were two to one, and would certainly have overpowered my escort had not several horsemen appeared in the distance, when they mounted and rode away. one of the horses was scratched, and i got an accidental cut on my wrist. they believed that i had a considerable sum of money with me. the _ketchuda_ of takautapa said that they had robbed his village of some cattle a few days before. takautapa is a village of thirty-five houses, with two shops, and a gunsmith who seemed to drive a "roaring trade." for three days i have scarcely seen an unarmed man. shepherds, herdsmen, ploughmen, travellers, all carry arms. mirza went to the governor of achaz, six miles off, with my letter from the governor of bijar, and he was most courteous. he sent his secretary to ask me to spend a day or two at his house, and told him, in case i could not, to remain for the night to arrange for my comfort and safety, an order very efficiently carried out.[ ] he sent word also that if i could not accept his hospitality i was still to be his guest, and not to pay for anything--a kindness which, for several reasons, i never accept. he added, that though the road was safe, he should send three _sowars_ "to show the _khanum_ honour," and they had received strict orders not to accept any present. the men who attempted to rob my caravan spent the night here, and, as they had robbed them before, the villagers were very glad of the protection of the governor's scribe and my _sowars_. _sujbul[=a]k, october ._--having been "courteously entreated," i sent on the caravan and servants at daybreak, and, having the _sowars_ with me, was able to make the march to geokahaz at a fast pace. the _sowars_ were three wild-looking kurds, well mounted, and in galloping _boy_ had to exert himself considerably to keep up with them, and they obviously tried to force his pace. the day was cool, cool enough for a sheepskin coat, and the air delightful. the halcyon season for persian travelling has come, the difficulties are over, and the fever has left me. brown, bare, and bushless as are the rolling hills over which the road passes, it would be impossible not to enjoy the long gallops over the stoneless soil, the crisp, bracing air, the pure blue of the glittering sky, and the changed altitude of the sun, which, from having been my worst foe is now a genial friend. true, the country over which i pass is not interesting, but, as everywhere in persia, craggy mountains are in sight, softened by a veil of heavenly blue, and the country, though uninteresting, suggests pleasant thoughts of fertility, an abundant harvest, and an industrious and fairly prosperous people.[ ] turki is now almost exclusively spoken. the whole of that day's route was an ascent, and the halting-place was nearly feet in altitude. i crossed the sarakh river by a three-arched brick bridge, and afterwards the gardan-i-tir-machi, from which there is an extensive view, and reached geokahaz by a rough path on the hillside frequently dipping into deep gulches, now dry. the wettest of these is close to the village, and is utilised for a flour-mill. springs abound, and as persian soil brings forth abundantly wherever there is water, the village, which is kurdish, confessed to being extremely prosperous. its seven threshing-floors were in the full tide of winnowing with the fan, and so complete is the process that nothing but the wheat is left on the firm, hardened gypsum floor, recalling the baptist's words, "whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor." the wheat was everywhere being gathered "into the garner"--the large upright clay receptacles holding twenty bushels each with which every house is supplied. this village of only houses owns sheep and goats, horses and mares, and head of cattle, and its tribute is only _tumans_. it and very many other villages belong to haidar khan, governor of achaz, of whom the villagers speak as a lenient lord. apricot and pear orchards abound, and on a piece of grass in one of these i found my camp most delectably pitched. the _ketchuda_ and several other men came to meet me; indeed, the _istikbal_ consisted of over twenty kurdish horsemen. the village was absolutely crowded with men and horses, pilgrims being lodged there for the night. the road at intervals all day had been enlivened by long files of well-mounted men in bands of each on their way to the shrines of kerbela, south of babylon, to accumulate "merit," receive certificates, and be called _kerbelai_ for the remainder of their lives. superb-looking men in the very prime of life most of them are, cheerful and ruddy, wearing huge black sheepskin caps shaped like mushrooms, high tan-leather boots, gaily embroidered, into which their full trousers are tucked, and brown sheepskin coats covering not only themselves but the bodies of their handsome fiery horses. a few elderly unveiled women were among them. they ride mostly on pads with their bedding and clothing under them, and their _kalians_ and cooking utensils hanging at the sides. all are armed with guns and swords. i met over of them, most of them russian subjects, and those who had occasion to pass in front of my tent vindicated their claim to be the subjects of a civilised power by bowing low as often as they saw me. they are really splendid men, and had many elements of the picturesque. the who halted in geokahaz were under the command of a seyyid who, before starting, beat about for recruits, and levied from them about five _krans_ per head. on the journey he receives great honour as a descendant of the prophet. he has a baggage mule and a tent, and the "pilgrims" under his charge gratefully cook his food, wait on him, groom his animal, water the dusty ground round his tent, shampoo his limbs, keep the flies from him, and are rewarded for the performance of all menial offices by being allowed to kiss his hand. on his part he chooses the best stations and the most fortunate days for starting, and he pledges himself to protect his flock from the woful plots of malignant genii and the effects of the evil eye. on the journey he both preaches and recites tales. the seyyid in charge of this party was a man of commanding _physique_ and deadly pallor of countenance. as frigid as marble, out of which his statuesque face might well have been carved, he received the attention paid to him with the sublime indifference of a statue of buddha. the odour of an acknowledged sanctity hung about him, and pride of race and pride of asceticism dwelt upon his handsome features. he spent the evening in preaching a sermon, and, by a carefully-arranged exhibition of emotion, studied to perfection, wound up his large audience to a pitch of enthusiasm. the subject was the virtues of houssein, and what preacher could take such a text without enlarging finally upon the martyrdom of that "sainted" man? then the auditors wept and howled and beat their breasts, and long after i left the singular scene, trained "cheers" for the prophet, for ali, and for the martyred hassan and houssein, led by the seyyid, rang out upon the still night air. at midnight, and again at four, a solitary bell-like voice proclaimed over the sleeping village, "there is but one god, and mohammed is his prophet, and ali is his lieutenant"; and voices repeated grandly in unison, "there is but one god, holy and true, and mohammed is his prophet, and ali is his lieutenant." the addition of the words "holy and true" to the ordinary formula is very striking, and is, i believe, quite unusual. the seyyid preached in persian, and the pilgrims speak it. in such caravans a strictly democratic feeling prevails. all yield honour to the seyyid, but otherwise all are equal. no matter what the social differences are, the pilgrims eat the same food, lodge in the same rooms, sit round the same bivouac fire, and use towards each other perfect freedom of speech--a like errand and a like creed constituting a simple bond of brotherhood. geokahaz is the first kurdish village in which i have really mixed with the people. i found them cordial, hospitable, and in every way pleasant. the _ketchuda's_ wife called on me, and later i returned the visit. each house or establishment has much the same externals, being walled round, and having between the wall and house an irregular yard, to which access is gained by a gate of plaited osiers. within are very low and devious buildings, with thick mud walls. the _atrium_, an alcove with plastered walls, decorated with circles and other figures in red, is the gathering-place of the men, with their guns and pipes. it is necessary to stoop very low to enter the house proper, for the doorway is only three feet high, and is protected by a heavy wooden door strengthened by iron clamps. the interior resembles a cavern, owing to the absence of windows, the labyrinth of rooms not six feet high, the gnarled, unbarked trees which support the roofs, the dimness, the immense thickness of the mud walls, the rays of light coming in through protected holes in the roof, the horses tethered to the tree-trunks, and the smoke. the "living-room" is a small recess, rendered smaller by a row of clay receptacles for grain as high as the roof on one side, and a row of oil-jars, each large enough to hold a man, on the other. a fire of animal fuel in a hole in the middle of the floor emitted much pungent smoke and little heat. a number of thick wadded quilts were arranged for me, and tea was served in russian glass cups from a russian _samovar_. the wife was handsome, and never in any country have i seen a more beautiful girl than the daughter, who might have posed for a madonna. they told me that for the five months of winter the snow comes "as high as the mouth," and that there is no egress from the village. the men attend to the horses and stock, and the women weave carpets, but much of the time is spent by both in sleep. accompanied by this beautiful girl, who is graceful as well as beautiful, and an old servant, i paid many visits, and found all the houses arranged in the same fashion. i was greatly impressed by their scrupulous cleanliness. the floors of hardened clay are as clean as sweeping can make them, and the people are clean in dress and person. the women, many of whom are very handsome, are unveiled, and do not even wear the _chadar_. the very becoming head-dress is a black coronet, from which silver coins depend by silver chains. a red kerchief is loosely knotted over the back of the head, on which heavy plaits of hair are looped up by silver pins. this girl passed with me through the crowds of strange men unveiled, with a simplicity and maidenly dignity which were very pleasing. it was refreshing to see the handsome faces, erect carriage, and firm, elastic walk of these kurdish women after the tottering gait of the shrouded, formless bundles which pass for persian women. the men are equally handsome, and are very manly-looking. these kurdish villagers are sunnis, and are on bad terms with their neighbours, the shiahs, and occasionally they drive off each other's cattle. on leaving this pleasant place early next morning the _ketchuda_ and a number of men escorted me for the first _farsakh_, and with my escort of _sowars_ increased by four wild-looking "road-guards," riding as it seemed good to them, in front or behind, sometimes wheeling their horses at a gallop in ever-narrowing circles, sometimes tearing up and down steep hills, firing over the left shoulders and right flanks of their horses, lunging at each other with much-curved scimitars, and singing inharmonious songs, we passed through a deep ravine watered by a fine stream which emerges through gates of black, red, and orange rock into a long valley, then up and up over long rolling hills, and then down and down to a large ilyat camp beside a muddy and nearly exhausted stream, where they feasted, and i rested in my _shuldari_. two or three times these "road-guards" galloped up to shepherds who were keeping their flocks, and demanded a young sheep from each for the return journey, and were not refused. the peasants fear these men much. they assert that, so far from protecting caravans and travellers, they are answerable for most of the robberies on the road, that they take their best fowls and lambs without payment, and ten pounds of barley a day for their horses, and if complaints are made they quarter themselves on the complainant for several days. for these reasons i object very strongly to escorts where they are not absolutely needed for security. i pay each man two _krans_ a day, and formerly gave each two _krans_ daily as "road money" for himself and his horse, but finding that they took the food without paying for it, i now pay the people directly for the keep of the men and horses. even by this method i have not circumvented the rapacity of these horsemen, for after i have settled the "bill" they threaten to beat the _ketchuda_ unless he gives them the money i have given him. the ilyat women from the camp crowded round me with a familiarity which, even in savages, is distressing, a contrast to the good manners and unobtrusiveness of the women of geokahaz. on the way to sanjud, a kurdish village in a ravine so steep that it was barely possible to find a level space big enough for my tent, there is some very fine scenery, and from the slope of kuh surisart, on the east side of the gardan-i-mianmalek, the loftiest land between hamadan and urmi, the view is truly magnificent. the nearer ranges stood out boldly in yellow and red ochre, in the valleys indigo shadows lay, range beyond range of buff-brown hills were atmospherically glorified by brilliant cobalt colouring, and the hills which barred the horizon dissolved away in a blue which blended with the sky. in that vast solitude the fine ruins of the fortress palace of karaftu, where the fountain still leaps in the deserted courtyard, are a very conspicuous object. from the mianmalek pass there is a descent of feet to the sea of urmi, and the keen edge of the air became much blunted ere we reached sanjud. nearly the whole of the road from hamadan has been extremely solitary. we have not met or passed a single caravan, and on this march of seven hours we did not see a human being. yet there are buff-brown villages lying in the valleys among the buff-brown hills, and an enormous extent of country is under tillage. in fact, this region is one of the granaries of persia. sanjud is a yellow-ochre village of eighty houses built into a yellow-ochre hillside, above which rises a high hill of red mud. it is not possible to give an idea of the aspect of the country at this season. sheep and goats certainly find pickings among the rocks, but the visible herbage has all been eaten down. the thistles and other fodder plants have been cut and stacked in the villages. most of the streams are dry, and the supplies of drinking water are only pools, much fouled by cattle. the snows which supply the sources of the irrigation channels have all melted, and these channels are either dry or stopped. there has scarcely been a shower since early april, and for nearly six months the untempered rays of the persian sun have been blazing upon the soil. the arable land, ploughed in deep furrows, has every furrow hardened into sun-dried brick. villages of yellow or whitish baked mud, supporting on their dusty roofs buff stacks of baked fodder, are hardly distinguishable from the baked hillsides. the roads are a few inches deep in glaring white dust. over the plains a brown dust haze hangs. this rainless and sun-scorched land lives by the winter snows, and the snowfall of the zagros ranges is the most interesting of all subjects to the cultivator of western persia. if the country were more populous, and the profits of labour were secure, storage for the snow-water would be an easy task, and barren wastes might sustain a prosperous people; for the soil, when irrigated, is prolific, and the sun can always be relied upon to do his part. the waste of water is great, as considerably more than half the drainage of the empire passes into _kavirs_ and other depressions. the average rainfall on the central plateau is estimated by sir oliver st. john at five inches only in the year. my arrival at sanjud was not welcome. the _ketchuda_ sent word that he was not prepared to obey the orders of the _sartip_ of achaz. i could buy, he said, what i could get, but he would furnish neither supplies nor guards for the camp. i did not wonder at this, for a traveller carrying an official letter is apt to be palmed off on the villagers as a guest, and is not supposed to pay for anything. i went to see the _ketchuda_, and assured him that i should pay him myself for all supplies, and a night's wages to each watchman, and the difficulty vanished. many of the handsome village women came to see me. the _ketchuda_ made me a feast in his house, and when i bade him farewell in the morning he said solemnly, "we are very glad you have been our guest, we have suffered no loss or inconvenience by having you, we should like to be protected by the great english nation." this polite phrase is frequently used. the persian kurds impress me favourably as a manly, frank, hospitable people. the men are courteous without being cringing, and the women are kind and jolly, and come freely and unveiled to my tent without any obtrusiveness. the _ketchuda_ sent eight guards to my camp at night, saying it was in a very dangerous place, and he did not wish his village disgraced by a stranger being robbed so near it. he added, however, that six of these men were sent for his own satisfaction, and that i was only to pay for the two i had ordered. my journey, which is through a wild and little frequented part of persia, continues to be prosperous. the climate is now delightful, though at these lower altitudes the middle of the day is rather hot. it was a fertile and interesting country between sanjud and sain kala, where i halted for sunday. the road passes through the defiles of kavrak, along with the deep river karachai, from the left bank of which rises precipitously, at the narrowest part of the throat, the fine mountain baba ali. a long valley, full of cultivation and bearing fine crops of cotton, a pass through the red range of kizil kabr, and a long descent brought us to a great alluvial plain through which passes the river jagatsu on its way to the dead sea of urmi. broad expanses of shingle, trees half-buried, and a number of wide shingly water-channels witness to the destructiveness of this stream. a severe dust storm rendered the end of the march very disagreeable, as the path was obliterated, and it was often impossible to see the horses' ears. in winter and spring this jagatsu valley is completely flooded, and communication is by boats. there are nearly villages in the district, peopled almost entirely by kurds and turks, and there are over nomad tents. the jagatsu is celebrated for its large fish. when the storm abated we were close to sain kala, a picturesque but ruinous fort on a spur of some low hills, with a town of houses at its base. in the eastern distance rises the fine mountain pira mah, and between it and sain kala is a curious mound--full of ashes, the people said--a lofty truncated cone, evidently the site of an _atash-kardah_, or fire-temple. this town is in the centre of a very fertile region. its gardens and orchards extend for at least a mile in every direction, and its melons are famous and cheap--only d. a dozen just now. it is a thriving and rising place. a new bazar is being built, with much decorative work in wood. the junction of the roads to tabriz from kirmanshah and hamadan, with one route to urmi, is in the immediate neighbourhood, and the place is busy with the needs of caravans. it looks much like a chinese malay settlement, having on either side of its long narrow roadway a row of shops, with rude verandahs in front. among the most prominent objects are horse, mule, and ass shoes; pack-saddles, _khurjins_, rope, and leather. fruiterers abound, and melons are piled up to the roofs. russian cottons and austrian lamps and mirrors repeat themselves down the long uncouth alley. the camping-ground is outside the town, a windy and dusty plain. here my eight guards left me, but the _ketchuda_ shortly called with a message from the _sartip_ commanding a detachment of soldiers and the town, saying that a military guard would be sent before sunset. sain kala is in the government of sujbul[=a]k, and its people are chiefly kurds with an admixture of turks, a few persians, mainly officials, and the solitary jew dyer, who, with his family, is found in all the larger villages on this route. an embroidery needle was found sticking in my _dhurrie_ a few days ago, and i had the good fortune not only to get some coarse sewing-cotton but some embroidery silks at sain kala, and having a piece of serge to work on, and an outline of a blue centaurea, i am no longer destitute of light occupation for the mid-day halt. truly "the sabbath was made for man"! apart from any religious advantages, life would be very grinding and monotonous without the change of occupation which it brings. to stay in bed till eleven, to read, to rest the servants, to intermit the perpetual _driving_, to obtain recuperation of mind and body, are all advantages which help to make sundays red-letter days on the journey; and last sunday was specially restful. in the afternoon i had a very intelligent visitor, a _hak[=i]m_ from tabriz, sent on sanitary duty in consequence of a cholera scare--a flattering, hollow upper-class persian. he introduced politics, and talked long on the relative prospects of russian or english ascendency in asia. england, he argued, made a great mistake in not annexing afghanistan, and his opinion, he said, was shared by all educated persians. "you are a powerful nation," he said, "but very slow. the people, who know nothing, have too much share in your government. to rule in asia, and you are one of the greatest of asiatic powers, one must not introduce western theories of government. you must be despotic and prompt, and your policy must not vibrate. see here now, the shah dies, the zil-i-sultan disputes the succession with the crown prince, and in a few days russia occupies azirbijan with , men, captures tihran, and marches on isfahan. meanwhile your statesmen talk for weeks in parliament, and when russia has established her _prestige_ and has organised persia, then your fleet with a small army will sail from india! bah! no country ruled by a woman will rule in asia." in the evening the _ketchuda_ and two other persian-speaking kurds hovered so much about my tent that i invited them into the verandah, and had a long and pleasant talk with them, finding them _apparently_ frank and full of political ideas. they complained fiercely of grinding exactions, which, they said, "keep men poor all their lives." "the poorest of men," they said, "have to pay three _tumans_ (£ ) a year in money, besides other things; and if they can't pay in money the tax-gatherer seizes their stock, puts a merely nominal value upon it, sells it at its real value, and appropriates the difference." they did not blame the shah. "he knows nothing." they execrated the governors and the local officials.[ ] if they keep fowls, they said, they have to keep them underground or they would be taken. at the shah's death, they said, persia will be divided between russia and england, and they will fall to russia. "then we shall get justice," they added. i remarked that the english and the kurds like each other. they said, "then why is england so friendly with turkey and persia, which oppress us, and why don't travellers like you speak to the sultan and the shah and get things changed." they said that at one time they expected to fall under english rule at the shah's death, "but now we are told it will be russia." after a long talk on local affairs we turned to lighter subjects. they were much delighted with my folding-table, bed, and chair, but said that if they once began to use such things it would increase the cost of living too much, "for we would never go back to eating and sleeping among the spiders as mohammedans do." they said they had heard of europeans travelling in persia to see mines, to dig among ruins for treasure, and to collect medicinal herbs, but they could not understand why i am travelling. i replied that i was travelling in order to learn something of the condition of the people, and was interested likewise in their religion and the prospects of christianity. "very good, it is well," they replied; "islam never recedes, nor can christianity advance." footnotes: [ ] apparently it was always thus, for on a tablet at persepolis occurs a passage in which the vice of lying is mentioned as among the external dangers which threatened the mighty empire of the medes and persians. "says darius the king: may ormuzd bring help to me, with the deities who guard my house; and may ormuzd protect this province from slavery, from decrepitude, _from lying_; let not war, nor slavery, nor decrepitude, _nor lies_ obtain power over this province." [ ] i have very great pleasure in acknowledging a heavy debt of gratitude to persian officials, high and low, for the courtesy with which i was uniformly treated. it is my practice in travelling to make my arrangements very carefully, to attend personally to every detail, and to give other people as little trouble as possible, but in persia, when off the beaten track, the insecurity of some of the roads, the need of guards at night when one is living in camp, and the frequent insubordination and duplicity of _charvadars_ render a reference to the local authorities occasionally imperative; and not only has the needed help been given, but it has been given _courteously_, and i have always been treated as respectfully as an english lady would expect to be in her own country. [ ] the general verdict of travellers in persia is, that misrule, heavy taxation, the rapacity and villainy of local governors, and successive famines have reduced its small stationary population to a condition of pitiable poverty and misery, and this is doubtless true of much of the country, and of parts of it which i have traversed myself. but i can only write of things as i found them, and on this journey of miles from hamadan to urmi i heard comparatively little grumbling. many of the villages are contented with their taxation and landlords, in others there are decided evidences of prosperity, and everywhere there is abundance of material comfort, not according to our ideas, but theirs. as to _clothing and food_, the condition of the cultivators of that part of western persia compares favourably with that of the _rayats_ in many parts of india. but just taxation and a complete reform in the administration of justice are needed equally by the prosperous and unprosperous parts of persia. [ ] the truth is that since persia broke the power of the kurds ten years ago, at the time of the so-called kurdish invasion, she has kept a somewhat tight hand over them, and her success in coercing them indicates pretty plainly what turkey, with her fine army, could do if she were actually in earnest in repressing the disorder and chronic insecurity in turkish kurdistan. letter xxv (_continued_) the following morning the _sartip_ turned out in my honour all the road-guards then in sain kala to the number of twelve to escort me to the castle of muhammad jik, a large village, the residence and property of the _naib sartip_. this was the wildest escort i have had yet. these men were dressed in full kurdish finery, and besides guns elaborately inlaid with silver and ivory, and swords in much-decorated scabbards, they carried daggers with hilts incrusted with turquoises in their girdles. they went through all the usual equestrian performances, and added another, which consists in twirling a loaded and clubbed stick in a peculiar manner, and throwing it as far ahead as possible while riding at full gallop, the one who picks it up _without dismounting_ being entitled to the next throw. very few succeeded in securing it in the regulation manner, and the scrimmage for this purpose was often on the point of becoming a real fight. they worked themselves up to a pitch of wild excitement, screamed, yelled, shouted, covered their horses with sweat and foam, nearly unhorsed each other, and used their sharp bits so unmercifully that the mouth of every horse dripped with blood. after they received _bakhsheesh_ they escorted me two miles farther "to honour the _khanum_," fired their guns in the air, salaamed profoundly, and with shrieks and yells left me at a gallop. the village of muhammad jik has a well-filled bazar and an aspect of mixed prosperity and ruin. the castle, a large, and, at a distance, an imposing pile, a square fort with flanking towers, is on an eminence, and has a fine view of the alluvial plain of the jagatsu, studded with villages and cultivated throughout. here, for a rarity, the _seigneur_ lives a stately life among those who are practically his serfs in good old medieval fashion. large offices are enclosed within an outer wall, and are inhabited by retainers. rows of stables sheltered a number of fine and well-groomed horses from the sun. bullocks were being brought in from ploughing; there were agricultural implements of the best persian type, fowls, ducks, turkeys, angora goats; negroes and negresses, grinning at the stranger; mounted messengers with letters arriving and departing; scribes in white turbans and black robes lounging--all the paraphernalia of position and wealth. it was nearly nine, and the great man had not risen, but he sent me a breakfast of tea, _kabobs_, cracked wheat, curds, _sharbat_, and grapes. the courtyard is entered by a really fine gateway, and the castle is built round a quadrangle. the _andarun_ and its fretwork galleries are on one side, and on another is what may be called a hall of audience, where the _sartip_ hears village business and decides cases. he offered me a few days' hospitality, paid the usual compliments, said that no escort was needed from thence to sujbul[=a]k, where my letter to the governor would procure me one if "the roads were unsettled," hoped that i should not suffer from the hardships of the journey, and offered me a _kajaveh_ and mule for the next marches. a level road along the same prosperous alluvial plain leads to kashava, a village of houses embosomed in fruit trees and surrounded by tobacco and cotton. it has an old fort, a very fine spring, and a "resident proprietor," who, as soon as he heard of my arrival, sent servants with melons and tea on silver trays, stabled my horse, and provided me with a strong guard, as the camping-ground was much exposed to robbers. such attentions, though pleasant, are very expensive, as the greater the master the greater are the expectations of the servants, and the value of such a present as melons must be at least quadrupled in _bakhsheesh_. while halting the next day the horses eagerly ate the stalks and roots of a strongly-scented bulb which lay almost on the surface of the ground, and were simultaneously seized with a peculiar affection. their hair stood out from their bodies like bristles, and they threw their heads up and down with a regular, convulsive, and apparently perfectly involuntary motion, while their eyes were fixed and staring. this went on for two hours, _boy_ following me as usual; but owing to this most distressing jerk, over which he had no control, he was unable to eat the dainties which his soul loves, and which i hoped would break up the affection--a very painful one to witness. after the attack both animals perspired profusely. the water literally ran off their bodies. the jerks gradually moderated and ceased, and there were no after effects but very puffy swellings about the throat. both had barley in their nose-bags, but pawed and wriggled them off in order to get at this plant, a species of _allium_. when _boy_ was well enough to be mounted we descended into an immense plain, on which were many villages and tracks. this plain of hadji hussein is in fact only another part of the alluvial level of the jagatsu, which, with a breadth of from four to ten miles, extends for nearly forty miles, and is fertile and populous for most of its length. at the nearest village all the men were busy at the threshing-floor, and they would not give me a guide; at the next the _ketchuda_ sent a young man, but required payment in advance. after crossing the plain, on which villages occur at frequent intervals on gravelly islands surrounded by rich, stiff, black soil, we forded the broad jagatsu and got into the environs of, not an insignificant village, as i expected, but an important town of people. a wide road, planted and ditched on both sides, with well-kept irrigated gardens, shaded by poplars, willows, and fruit trees, runs for a mile from the river into the town, which is surrounded by similar gardens on every side, giving it the appearance of being densely wooded. the vineyards are magnificent, and the size and flavour of the grapes quite unusual. melons, opium, tobacco, cotton, castor oil, sesamum, and _bringals_ all flourish. miandab is partly in ruins, but covers a great extent of ground with its houses, of which are inhabited by jews and twenty by armenians. people of five tribes are found there, but unlike sain kala, where sunnis and shiahs live peaceably, the mussulmans are all shiahs, no sunni having been allowed to become a permanent inhabitant since the kurdish attack ten years ago, when sunnis within the city betrayed it into the hands of their co-religionists. it has several mosques, a good bazar with a domed roof, a part of which displays very fine copper-work done in the town, and a garrison of men. i saw the whole of miandab, for my caravan was lost, and an hour was spent in hunting for it, inquiring of every one if he had seen a caravan of four _yabus_, but vainly, till we reached the other side, where i found it only just arrived, and the men busy tent-pitching in a lonely place among prolific vineyards. sharban had lost the way, and after much marching and counter-marching had reached the ford of the jagatsu, which i had been told to avoid, where the caravan got into deep strong water which carried the _yabus_ off their feet, and he says that they and the servant were nearly drowned. mirza had to go back into the town to obtain a guard from an official, as the camping-ground was very unsafe, and it was p.m. before dinner was ready. the next day i was ill, and rode only twelve miles, for the most part traversing the noble plain of hadji hussein, till the road ascends by tawny slopes to the wretched village of amirabad--seventeen hovels on a windy hill, badly supplied with water. partly sunk below ground, this village, at a short distance off, is only indicated by huge stacks of the _centaurea alata_ and tall cones of _kiziks_, which, being neatly plastered, are very superior in appearance to the houses which they are intended to warm. the western side of the great plain was studded with ilyat camps of octagonal and umbrella-shaped tents with the sides kept out by stout ribs. great herds of camels, and flocks of big fat-tailed sheep, varying in colour from vandyke brown to golden auburn, camels carrying fodder, and tribesmen building it into great stacks, round which, but seven feet off, they place fences of a reed which is abundant in swampy places, gave life and animation. ilyat women brought bowls of milk and curds, and offered me the hospitality of their tents. as i passed through a herd of grazing camels, an ancient, long-toothed, evil-faced beast ran at _boy_ with open mouth and a snarling growl. poor _boy_ literally gasped with terror (courage is not his strong point) and dashed off at a gallop; and now whenever he sees camels in the distance he snorts and does his best to bolt to one side, showing a cowardice which is really pitiable. it was very cold when i left amirabad the next morning at . , and hoar-frost lay on the ground. the steadiness with which the mercury descends at this season is as interesting as its steady ascent in the spring, and its freedom from any but the smallest fluctuations in the summer. the road to sujbul[=a]k passes over uplands and hill-slopes, tawny with sun-cured grass, and after crossing some low spurs, blue with the lovely _eryngium cæruleum_, descends into a long rich valley watered by the river sanak. this valley, in which are situated inda khosh and other large villages, is abundantly irrigated, and is cultivated throughout. well planted with fruit trees, it is a great contrast to the arid, fiery slopes which descend upon it. long before reaching sujbul[=a]k there were indications of the vicinity of a place of some importance, caravans going both ways, asses loaded with perishable produce, horsemen and foot passengers, including many fine-looking kurdish women unveiled, and walking with a firm masculine stride, even when carrying children on their backs. a few miles from the town two _sowars_ met me, but after escorting me for some distance they left me, and taking the wrong road, i found myself shortly on a slope above the town, not among the living but the dead. such a city of death i have never seen. a whole hour was occupied in riding through it without reaching its limits. fifty thousand gravestones are said to stand on the reddish-gray gravel between the hill and the city wall, mere unhewn slabs of gray stone, from six inches to as many feet in height, row beyond row to the limit of vision-- , people, they say, are buried there. there is no suggestion of "life and immortality." weird, melancholy, and terribly malodorous, owing to the shallowness of the graves, the impression made by this vast cemetery is solely painful. the tombs are continued up to the walls and even among the houses, and having been much disturbed there is the sad spectacle of human skulls and bones lying about, being gnawed by dogs. the graveyard side of sujbul[=a]k is fouler and filthier than anything i have seen, and the odours, even in this beautiful weather, are appalling. the centre of each alley is a broken channel with a broken pavement on each side. these channels were obviously constructed for water, but now contain only a black and stagnant horror, hardly to be called a fluid, choked with every kind of refuse. the bazars are narrow, dark, and busy, full of russian commodities, leather goods, ready-made clothing, melons, grapes, and pop-corn. the crowds of men mostly wore the kurdish or turkish costume, but black-robed and white-turbaned seyyids and _mollahs_ were not wanting. sujbul[=a]k, the capital of northern persian kurdistan, and the residence of a governor, is quite an important _entrepôt_ for furs, in which it carries on a large trade with russia, and a french firm, it is said, buys up fur rugs to the value of several hundred thousand francs annually. it also does a large business with the kurdish tribes of the adjacent mountains and the turkish nomads of the plains, and a considerable trade in gall-nuts. it has twenty small mosques, three _hammams_, some very inferior caravanserais, and a few coffee-houses. its meat bazar and its grain and pulse bazars are capacious and well supplied. it has a reputed population of souls. kurds largely predominate, but there are so many turks that the turkish government has lately built a very conspicuous consulate, with the aspect of a fortress, and has appointed a consul to protect the interests of its subjects. there are armenians, who make wine and _arak_, and are usurers, and gold and silver smiths. the jews get their living by money-lending, peddling drugs, dyeing cotton goods, selling groceries, and making gold and silver lace. there is a garrison, of men nominally, for the town and district are somewhat turbulent, and a conflict is always imminent between the kurds and turks, who are sunnis, and the small persian population, which is shiah. the altitude of sujbul[=a]k is feet. here i have come upon the track of ida pfeiffer, who travelled in the urmi region more than forty years ago, when travelling in persia was full of risks, and much more difficult in all respects than it is now. [illustration: kurd of sujbul[=a]k.] the sanak, though clear and bright, is fouled by many abominations, and by the ceaseless washing of clothes above the town; there are no pure wells, and all people who care about what they drink keep asses constantly bringing water from an uncontaminated part of the river, two miles off. even the governor has to depend on this supply. sujbul[=a]k looks very well from this camp, with the bright river in the foreground, and above it, irregularly grouped on a rising bank, the façade, terraces, and towers of the governor's palace, the fort-like turkish consulate, and numbers of good dwelling-houses, with _balakhanas_ painted blue or pink, or covered with arabesques in red, with projecting lattice windows of dark wood, and balconies overhanging the water. this shingle where i am encamped is the rotten row of the town, and is very lively this evening, for numbers of kurds have been galloping their horses here, and performing feats of horsemanship before the admiring eyes of hundreds of promenaders, male and female, most of the latter unveiled. as all have to cross the ford where the river is some inches above a man's knees, the effect is grotesque, and even the women have no objection to displaying their round white limbs in the clear water. the ladies of the governor's _andarun_ sent word that food and quarters had been prepared for me since noon, but i excused myself on the plea of excessive fatigue. this message was followed by a visit from the governor's foster-mother, an unveiled jolly woman, of redundant proportions, wearing remarkably short petticoats, which displayed limbs like pillars. a small woman attended her, and a number of kurd men, superbly dressed, and wearing short two-edged swords, with ebony hilts ornamented with incrustations of very finely-worked filigree silver. these weapons are made here. the lady has been to mecca, and evinces much more general intelligence than the secluded women. she took a dagger from one of the attendants, and showed me with much go how the thrusts which kill are made. all were much amused with _boy's_ gentle ways. he had been into the town for supplies, and, as usual, asked me to take off his bridle by coming up and putting his ears under my chin, when, if i do not attend to him at once, he lifts his head and gives me a gentle push, or rubs his nose against my cheek. the men admired his strong, clean limbs, which are his best points. last night i heard snoring very near me, and thinking that the watchmen were sleeping under the _flys_, i went out to waken them, and found the big beast stretched out fast asleep in the verandah of the tent, having retired there for warmth. i accompanied my visitors to the ford, followed by _boy_, to their great amusement, as it was to mine to see the stout lady mount nimbly on a kurd's back, and ride him "pickaback" through the water! this has not been a comfortable afternoon. the governor has been out all day hunting, and his deputy either at the bath or a religious function. milk can only be got in the jewish quarter, where smallpox is prevailing; the sanak water is too foul to be used for tea, and no man will go two miles so late for a pure supply. johannes, who is most disobedient as well as incompetent, has brought no horse food, and poor _boy_ has been calling for it for two hours, coming into my tent, shaking the bag in which the barley is usually kept, and actually in his hunger clearing the table of melons and grapes. these, however, are only among the very small annoyances of travelling. p.m.--the governor has returned, and has sent a guard of twenty-five soldiers, with an invitation to visit the ladies before i start to-morrow. i. l. b. letter xxvi turkman, _oct. _. rising very early on friday morning to keep my appointment with the ladies of the governor of sujbul[=a]k, as well as to obtain a letter from him, i reached the palace entrance a little after sunrise, the hour agreed upon. the walls and gateway are crumbling, the courtyard is in heaps, the glass windows of the façade and towers are much broken, the plaster is mangy--a complete disappointment. the kurdish guard slept soundly at the entrance; only a big dog, more faithful than man, was on the alert. the governor was not yet awake, nor the ladies. it would be an "intolerable crime," the sentry said, to waken them. he looked as if he thought it an "intolerable crime" that his own surreptitious slumbers had been disturbed. it is contrary to persian etiquette to waken persons of distinction till they please. i waited at the entrance for half an hour and then reluctantly departed, very sorry not to give the ladies the opportunity they ardently desired of seeing a european woman. they had sent word that they had only once in their lives seen one! the march to the poor village of mehemetabad was over uninteresting low rounded hills and through a valley without habitations, opening upon a fine plain, at the south-east end of which the village stands. the camping-ground was a green fallow near some willows and a stream. after marching for some hours under a glittering sky and a hot sun over scorched, glaring yellow soil, a measure of greenness just round the tent is most refreshing to eyes which are suffering from the want of the coloured glasses which were ground under a _yabu's_ hoofs a fortnight ago. the khan of the village was very courteous, and sent a tray of splendid grapes, and six watchmen. buffalo bulls of very large size were used there for burden. buffaloes are a sure sign of mitigated aridity, for they must bathe, _i.e._ lie down in water three times daily, if they are to be kept in health, and if the water and mud are not deep enough for this, boys go in along with them and pour water over them with a pannikin. in these regions they are almost exclusively used for burdens, draught, and milk, and everywhere their curved flat horns and sweet, calm, silly faces are to be seen above the water of the deep irrigation ditches. the buffalo, though usually mild enough to be driven by small children, has an uncertain temper, and can be roused to frightful ferocity. in persian kurdistan, if not elsewhere, this is taken advantage of, and in the spring, when the animals are in good condition after the winter's rest, the people have buffalo fights, in which cruel injuries would be inflicted were it not for the merciful provision of nature in giving these animals flat incurved horns.[ ] as i sat at my tent door a cloud of dust moved along the road towards the village, escorting an indefinite something which loomed monstrously through it. i have not seen a cart for nine months, and till the unmistakable creak of wooden wheels enlightened me i could not think what was approaching. actually every village on these plains has one or more buffalo-carts, with wooden wheels without tires, and hubs and axles of enormous size and strength, usually drawn by four buffaloes. a man sits on the front of the cart and drives with a stick, and a boy _facing backwards_ sits on the yoke between the two foremost beasts. he croons a perpetual song, and if this ceases the buffaloes stop. for every added pair (and on the next plain i saw as many as six yoke) there is an additional boy and an additional song. this apparition carried a light wooden frame, which was loaded to a preposterous height with the strong reeds which are used to support the mud roofs, heavily weighted as these are with stacks of fodder. one would think one was in the heart of the bakhtiari country and not on a caravan route, from the difficulty of getting any correct guidance as to the road, distance, safety, or otherwise, etc. sharban has never been this way, and is the prey of every rumour. between his terror of having to "eat wood" on his return, and his dread of being attacked and robbed of his _yabus_, he leads an uneasy life, and when, as at mehemetabad, there is no yard for his animals, he watches all night in the idea that the guards are the "worst robbers of all." i think he has all the mussulman distrust of arrangements made by a woman! hitherto the guards have been faithful and quiet. i always ask them not to talk after p.m., and i have not once been disturbed by them; and when i walk as usual twice round the camp during the night i always find them awake by their big watch-fires. the village khan, an intelligent man, spent some time with me in the afternoon. the fields of his village are not manured at all, and the yield is only about tenfold. willows are grown for the sake of the osiers, which are a necessity, and not for fuel, and the whole of the manure is required for cooking and heating purposes. he said that his village becomes poorer annually owing to the heavier exactions of the officials and the larger sums demanded to "buy off robbers." the latter is a complaint often made in the villages which are near the turkish frontier, a boundary which from all accounts needs considerable "rectification." the people say that kurds cross the border, and that unless they bribe them they drive off their sheep and cattle and get over it again safely, but i doubt the truth of these statements. i got away at sunrise for a march of nominally fourteen miles, but in reality twenty-four. sharban not only stated the distance falsely but induced others to do the same thing, and when he passed me at midday, saying the halting-place was only two miles ahead, he went on for twelve miles, his desire being to rejoin that bugbear, the "big caravan," which he heard had reached urmi. the result is that i have had to rest for two days, and he has gained two days' pay, but has lost time. after some serious difficulties in crossing some swampy streams and a pitiable display of cowardice on _boy's_ part, we embarked on the magnificent plain of sulduz, where johannes, with a supreme self-confidence which imposed on me, took the wrong one of two tracks, and we rode west instead of east, to within a few hours' journey of a pass into turkey through the magnificent range of the zibar mountains, which even at this advanced season are in some places heavily patched with last winter's snow. to regain the caravan route we had to cross the greater part of this grand plain, which i had not then seen equalled in persia for fertility and population. it possesses, that crown of blessings, an abundant water supply, indeed so abundant that in the spring it is a swamp, and the spring sowing is delayed till may. it has several large villages, slightly raised and well planted, a few of them with the large fortified houses of resident proprietors overtopping the smaller dwellings. evidences of material prosperity meet the eye everywhere, a prosperity which needs to be guarded, however, for every shepherd, cowherd, ploughman, and buffalo-driver goes about his work armed. large herds of mares with mule foals, of big fat cattle, and of buffaloes, with plenty of mud to wallow in, stacks of real hay and of fine reeds, buffalo carts moving slowly near all the villages carrying the hay into security, grass uncut and unscorched, eighteen inches high, a deep, black, stoneless soil, impassable at certain seasons, towering cones of animal fuel, for export as well as use, an intensely blue sky above, a cool breeze, and the rare sight of cloud-shadows drifting over waving grass and flecking the cobalt sides of the zibar mountains, combined to form a picture i would not willingly have missed, impatient as i was for the first view of the sea of urmi. beyond there are low stony hills, which would be absolutely bare now but for the _eryngium cæruleum_ and the showy spikes of a great yellow mullein, a salt lake, most of which is now a salt incrustation, mimicking ice from beneath which the water has been withdrawn, but with an odour which no ice ever has, then a gradual ascent to a windy ridge, and then--the dead sea of urmi or urumiya. dead indeed it looked from that point of view, and dead were its surroundings. it lay, a sheet of blue, bluer even than the heavens above it, stretching northwards beyond the limits of vision, and bounded on the east, but very far away, by low blue ranges, seen faintly through a blue veil. on the west side there are mountains, which recede considerably, and descend upon it in low rounded buff slopes or downs, over which the track, keeping near the water, lies. there was not a green thing, not a bush, or house, or flock of sheep, or horseman, or foot passenger along the miles of road which were visible from that point. the water lay in the mocking beauty of its brilliant colouring, a sea without a shore, without a boat, without a ripple or flash of foam, lifeless utterly, dead from all time past to all time to come. dead, too, it is on closer acquaintance, and its odour, which can be discerned three miles off, is that odour of corruption known to science as sulphuretted hydrogen. now and then there is a shore, a shallow bay or inlet, in which the lake, driven by the east wind, evaporates, leaving behind it a glaring crust of salt, beyond which a thick, bubbly, blackish-green scum lies on the blue water. in such places only the expressive old-fashioned word _stench_ can describe the odour, which was strong enough nearly to knock over the servants and _charvadars_. no description can give an idea of the effluvium which is met with here and there beside this great salt lake, which has a length of eighty miles and an average breadth of twenty-four. a few miles from dissa the lake-water is brought into tanks and evaporated, and many donkeys were being loaded with the product, which, like all salt which is sold in persia, is impure, and for european use always requires a domestic and tedious process of purification. after a solitude of several miles villages appear, lying off the road in folds of the hills, which gradually recede so far as to leave a plain some miles broad and very fertile. at the end of an eleven hours' march we reached the important village of dissa, with large houses and orchards, abundant water, a detachment of soldiers as a garrison, a resident proprietor's house, to which in his absence i was at once invited by his wife, and so surrounded by cultivation that a vacant space could only be found for the camp in a stubble-field. the caravan had only just come in, and there was neither fuel nor drinking water within easy reach. i was so completely worn out that i was lifted off the horse and laid on the ground in blankets till the camp was in order late at night. sharban, knowing that his deception was discovered, had disappeared with his _yabus_ without helping as usual to pitch my tent. mirza, always cheerful and hard-working, though always slow, and johannes did their best, but it is very hard on servants who are up before five not to bring them in till sunset, when their work is scarcely over till near midnight, and has to be done in the dark. the next day there were a succession of dust storms and half a gale from noon to sunset, but my tent stood it well, and the following day this was repeated. these strong winds usually prevail in the afternoon at this season. _urmi, october ._--a march over low and much-ploughed hills, an easy descent and a ford brought us down upon the plain of urmi, the "paradise of persia," and to the pleasant and friendly hamlet of turkman, where i spent the night and made the half-march into urmi yesterday morning. this plain is truly "paradise" as seen from the hill above it, nor can i say that its charm disappears on more intimate acquaintance. far from it! i have travelled now for nine months in persia and know pretty well what to expect--not to look for surprises of beauty and luxuriance, and to be satisfied with occasional oases of cultivation among brown, rocky, treeless hills, varied by brown villages with crops and spindly poplars and willows, contrasting with the harsh barrenness of the surrounding gravelly waste. but beautiful urmi, far as the eye can reach, is one oasis. from turkman onwards the plain becomes more and more attractive, the wood-embosomed villages closer together, the variety of trees greater. irrigation canals shaded by fruit trees, and irrigation ditches bordered by reeds, carry water in abundance all through the plain. swampy streams abound. fair stretches of smooth green sward rejoice the eye. big buffaloes draw heavy carts laden with the teeming produce of the black, slimy, bountiful soil from the fields into the villages. wheat, maize, beans, melons, gourds, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, capsicum, chilis, _bringals_, lady's fingers, castor-oil (for burning), cotton, madder, salsify, scorzonera, celery, oil-seeds of various sorts, opium, and tobacco all flourish. the orchards are full of trees which almost merit the epithet noble. noble indeed are the walnuts, and beautiful are the pomegranates, the apricots, the apples, the peach and plum trees, and glorious are the vineyards with their foliage, which, like that of the cherry and pear, is passing away in scarlet and gold. nature has perfected her work and rests. it is autumn in its glories, but without its gloom. men, women, and children are all busy. here the wine-press is at work, there girls are laying clusters of grapes on terraces prepared for the purpose, to dry for raisins; women[ ] are gathering cotton and castor-oil seeds, little boys are taking buffaloes to bathe, men are driving and loading buffalo-carts, herding mares, ploughing and trenching, and in the innumerable villages the storehouses are being filled; the herbs and chilis are hanging from the roofs to dry, the women are making large cakes of animal fuel (of which they have sufficient for export), and are building it into great conical stacks, the crones are spinning in the sun, and the swaddled infants bound in their cradles are lying in the fields and vineyards, while the mothers are at work. this picture of beauty, fertility, and industry is framed by the kurdistan mountains on the one side, and on the other by long lines of poplars, through which there are glimpses of the deep blue waters of the urmi sea. these kurdistan mountains, a prolongation of the taurus chain, stern in their character, and dwarfing all the minor ranges, contrast grandly with the luxuriant plains of sulduz and urmi. as i passed northwards the villages grew thicker, the many tracks converged into a wide road which was thronged with foot passengers, horsemen, camel and horse caravans, and strings of asses loaded with melons and wood. farther yet the road passes through beautiful orchards with green sward beneath the trees; mud walls are on both sides, and over them droop the graceful boughs and gray-green foliage of an _elægnus_, with its tresses of auburn fruit. at the large village of geog-tapa a young horseman overtook me, and said in my native tongue, "can you speak english?" he proved to be a graduate of the american college at urmi, and a teacher in _shamasha khananeshoo's_ school (known better to his supporters in england as deacon abraham). he told me that i was expected, and shortly afterwards i was greeted by the son of the oldest missionary in urmi, dr. labaree. the remaining four miles were almost entirely under the shade of fine trees, past the city walls and gates, put into tolerable repair after the kurdish invasion ten years ago, and out into pretty wooded country, with the grand mountains of the frontier seen through the trees, where a fine gateway admitted us into the park in which are the extra-mural buildings of the american presbyterian mission, now more than half a century old. these are on high ground, well timbered, and the glimpses through the trees of the mountains and the plain are enchanting. through the kindness of my friends at hamadan, who had written in advance, i am made welcome in the house of dr. shedd, the principal of the urmi college.[ ] within two hours of my arrival i had the pleasure of visits from canon maclean and mr. lang of the english mission, and from dr. labaree and the ladies of the fiske seminary, the english, french, and american missionaries being the only european residents in urmi. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] while i was sleeping in a buffalo stable in turkey two buffaloes quarrelled and there was a terrible fight, in which the huge animals interlocked their horns and broke them short off, bellowing fearfully. it took twenty men with ropes, or rather cables, two and a half inches in diameter, which are kept for the purpose, to separate them; and their thin skins, sensitive to insect bites and all irritations, were bleeding in every direction before they could be forced apart. [ ] christian women and girls share the work of the fields with the men. [ ] it is a pleasant duty to record here the undeserved and exceeding kindness that i have met with from the american, presbyterian, and congregational missionaries in persia and asia minor. it is not only that they made a stranger, although a member of the anglican church, welcome in their refined and cultured homes, often putting themselves to considerable inconvenience in order to receive me, but that they ungrudgingly imparted to me the interests of their work and lives, helping me at the cost of much valuable time and trouble with the complicated and often difficult arrangements for my farther journeys, showing in every possible way that they "know the heart of a stranger," being themselves "strangers in a strange land." specially, i feel bound to acknowledge the kindness and hospitality shown to me by the presbyterian missionaries in urmi, who were aware that one object of my journey through north-west persia was to visit the archbishop of canterbury's assyrian missions, which work on different and, i may say, opposite lines from their own. notes on protestant missions in urmi[ ] a sketch of urmi would present few features of general interest if it did not embrace an outline of the mission work which is carried on there on a large scale, first by the numerous agents, lay and clerical, male and female, of the american presbyterian board of foreign missions, and next by the english mission clergy and the sisters of bethany, who form what is known as "the archbishop of canterbury's mission to the assyrian christians." besides these there is a latin mission of french lazarists, aided by sisters of st. vincent de paul, which has been at work in urmi and on the plain of salmas for forty years. urmi, the reputed birthplace of zoroaster, and in past ages the great centre of fire worship, was made the headquarters of the american mission to the nestorians in , which, with the exception of the c.m.s. mission in julfa, was the only protestant mission in persia up to the year . at present there are four ordained american missionaries, several ladies, and a medical missionary working in urmi. under their superintendence are thirty ordained and thirty-one licentiate pastors, ninety-three native helpers, and three bible-women. the number of nestorians or syrians employed as teachers in the college and the fiske seminary for girls, as translators, as printers, and as medical assistants, is very considerable. the whole plain of urmi, with its innumerable villages, and the eastern portion of the kurdish mountains, with its syrian hamlets, are included within the sphere of mission work. this mission has free access to syrians, armenians, and jews, but for moslems there can be no public preaching or teaching, nor can a moslem openly profess christianity, or even frequent the syrian services, without being a marked man. hence, while all opportunities are embraced of conversation with mohammedans, and of circulating the bible among them, the mission work is chiefly among nominal christians. the americans own a very large amount of property at urmi. the fiske seminary--a high school, in which a large number of girls receive board as well as education--is within the city walls, as well as some of the houses of both clerical and lady missionaries. about a mile outside they have acquired a beautiful and valuable estate of about fifteen acres, plentifully wooded and watered, and with some fine avenues of planes. on this are the large buildings of the urmi college, the professors' houses, the dispensary, and the medical mission hospitals for the sick of both sexes. a very high-class education is given in the urmi college, and in addition to the general course there are opportunities for both theological and medical education. last year there were students, of which number eighteen graduated. the education given is bringing about a result which was not anticipated. the educated syrian and armenian young men, far from desiring generally to remain in their own country as pastors and teachers, and finding no opportunities of "getting on" otherwise, have of late been seized with a craze for leaving persia for america, russia, or any other country where they may turn their education to profitable account. it is hardly necessary to add that the admirable training and education given in the fiske seminary do not produce a like restlessness among its "girl graduates." the girls marry at an early age, make good housewives, and are in the main intelligent and kindly christians. possibly the education given in the urmi college is too high and too western for the requirements of the country and the probable future of the students. at all events similar regrets were expressed in urmi, as i afterwards heard, regarding some of the american mission colleges in asia minor. the missionaries say that the directly religious results are not so apparent as could be desired, that the young men are not ready to offer themselves in any numbers for evangelistic work, and that the present tendency is to seek secular employment and personal aggrandisement. though this secular tendency comes forward strongly at this time, a number of evangelistic workers scattered through persia, turkey, and russia[ ] owe their education and religious inspiration to the teachings of the urmi college. at present a few of the young men have banded themselves together to go forth as teachers and preachers with the object of carrying the gospel to all, without distinction of nationality. the hopefulness of this movement is that it is of native origin, and that the young men are self-supporting. a capable syrian physician and a companion are also preaching and healing at their own cost, only accepting help towards the expense of medicines. the medical mission at urmi, with its well-equipped dispensary and its two admirable hospitals, is of the utmost value, as such missions are all the world over. dr. cochrane, from his courtesy and attention to the niceties of persian etiquette, is extremely acceptable to the persian authorities, and has been entrusted by them more than once with missions involving the exercise of great tact and ability. he is largely trusted by the moslems of urmi and the neighbourhood, and mixes with them socially on friendly and easy terms. he and some of the younger missionaries were born in persia, their fathers having been missionaries before them, and after completing their education in america they returned, not only with an intimate knowledge of etiquette and custom, as well as of syriac and persian, but with that thorough sympathy with the people whom they are there to help and instruct, which it is difficult to gain in a single generation, and through languages not acquired in childhood. dr. cochrane has had many and curious dealings with the kurds, the dreaded inhabitants of the mountains which overhang the beautiful plain of urmi, and a kurd, who appears to be in perpetual "war-paint," is the gatekeeper at the dispensary. one of the most singular results of the influence gained over these fierce and predatory people by the "missionary _hak[=i]m_" occurred in , when obeidullah khan, with , kurds, laid siege to urmi. six months previously, at this khan's request, dr. cochrane went up a three days' journey into the mountains, where he remained for ten days, during which time he cured the khan of severe pneumonia, and made the acquaintance of several of the kurdish chiefs. before the siege began obeidullah khan sent for dr. cochrane, saying that he wished to know his residence and who his people were, so as to see that none of them suffered at the hands of his men. not only this, but he asked for the names of the christian villages on the plain, and gave the _hak[=i]m_ letters with orders that nothing should be touched which belonged to them. the mission families were assembled at the college, and christians, with their cattle and horses, took refuge in the college grounds, which were close to the kurdish lines. the siege lasted seven weeks, with great loss of life and many of "the horrors of war," as time increased the fury of both kurds and persians. but obeidullah kept his word, and for the sake of the _hak[=i]m_ and his healing art, not only was not a hair on the head of any missionary touched, but the mixed multitude within the gates and the herds were likewise spared. mrs. cochrane, the widow of the former medical missionary, superintends the food and the nursing in the hospitals, and i doubt whether the most fanatical kurd or persian moslem could remain indifferent to the charm of her bright and loving presence. the profession of dr. cochrane opens to him homes and hearts everywhere. all hold him as a friend and benefactor, and he has opportunities, denied to all others, of expounding the christian faith among moslems. a letter from him is a safe-conduct through some parts of the kurdish mountains, and the mere mention of his name is a passport to the good-will of their fierce inhabitants. the work of the mission is not confined to the city of urmi. among the villages of the plain there are eighty-four schools, taught chiefly in syriac, seven of which are for girls only. the mission ladies itinerate largely, and are warmly welcomed by moslem as well as christian women, and even by those families of kurds who, since their defeat in , have settled down to peaceful pursuits, some of them even becoming christians. in fifty years the american missionaries have gained a very considerable and wide-spread influence, not only by labours which are recognised as disinterested, but by the purity and righteousness of their lives; and the increased friendliness and accessibility of the moslems of urmi give hope that the purer teachings of christianity and the example of the life of our lord are regarded by them with less of hostility or indifference than formerly. the history of the mission is best given in the words of dr. shedd, one of its oldest members.[ ] the communicants of the "evangelical syriac church," which might be termed, from its organisation and creed, the _presbyterian syriac church_, numbered in and in . apart from the results of christian teaching and example, there can be, i think, no doubt that the residence of righteous foreigners in urmi for over half a century has had a most beneficial effect on the condition of the nestorians. at the time when the first american missionaries settled in urmi the yoke of islam was hardly bearable. the christians were oppressed and plundered, their daughters were taken by violence, and they were scarcely allowed to practise the little religion left to them. the persian government, sensitive as it is to european opinion, has gradually remedied a state of matters upon which the reports of the missionaries were justly to be dreaded, and at the present time the christians of urmi and the adjacent plain have comparatively very little to complain of. at the same time the syriac church was at its lowest ebb, absolutely sunk in ignorance and superstition. it had no exposition of the bible, and all worship was in the ancient syriac tongue, then as now "not understanded of the people." it had no books or any ability to establish schools. bibles were scarce, and a single copy of the psalms could not be bought for less than s. the learned nuns and deaconesses of the early days were without successors. women were entirely neglected, and it was regarded as improper for the younger among them to be seen at church. in urmi not a woman could read, and in the whole nestorian region they were absolutely illiterate, with the exception of the patriarch's sister and two or three nuns. the translation of the bible into modern syriac, a noble work, now undergoing revision; the college; the female seminary; the translation and publication of many luminous books; the circulation of a periodical called _rays of light_, together with fifty years of intercourse with men and women whose chief aim is the religious and intellectual elevation of the people among whom they dwell, have wrought a remarkable change, though that the change is menaced with perils, and is not an absolutely unmixed good, cannot be gainsaid. it is for the future to decide whether the reform movement in umri or elsewhere could survive in any strength the removal of the agency which inaugurated it, and whether a church without a ritual and with a form of government alien to the genius of the east and the traditions of the fathers, can take root in the affections of an eminently conservative people. the mission, founded by the present archbishop of canterbury at the request of the _catholicos_ of the east, mar shimun, the patriarch of the syrian church, arrived in urmi in the autumn of . at the time of my visit it consisted of five mission priests, graduates of oxford and cambridge universities, and an ordained syrian, four of whom were at the headquarters in urmi, one in the kurdish mountains, and one on the urmi plain. four sisters of bethany arrived in the spring of for the purpose of opening a boarding-school for girls and instructing the women. it is hardly necessary to say that the lines on which the anglican and american missions proceed are diametrically different, and the modes of working are necessarily in opposition. the one is _practically_ a proselytising agency, and labours to build up a presbyterian church in persia; the other purposes to "bring back an ancient church into the way of truth, and so prepare it for its union with its mother church, the orthodox church of the east." the objects of the latter and its ecclesiastical position are stated briefly in the note below.[ ] the actual work to be done by the mission is thus summed up by its promoters: "the work of the mission is in the first place to train up a body of literate clergy; secondly, to instruct the youth generally in both religious and secular knowledge; and thirdly, to print the very early liturgies and service-books, to which the assyrians are much attached, which have never been published in the original, and of which the very primitive character is shown by their freedom from doubtful doctrine. the mission in no way seeks to anglicanise the assyrians on the one hand, nor, on the other, to condone the heresy which separated them from the rest of christendom or to minimise its importance." the english clergy are celibates, receive no stipends, and live together, with a common purse, each receiving £ per annum for personal expenses. it is not a proselytising mission. it teaches, trains, and prints. it has one high school at urmi for boys under seventeen, and two upon the urmi plain, but the work to which these may be regarded as subsidiary is the urmi upper school for priests, deacons, and candidates for holy orders. in these four establishments there are about pupils, mostly boarders. there are also seventy-two village day-schools, and the total attendance last year was--boys , girls . seventy-six deacons and young men above seventeen are in the upper school at urmi. the education given in the ordinary schools is on a level with that of our elementary schools. in the school of st. mary and st. john, which contains priests, deacons, and laymen, some being mountaineers, the subjects taught are holy scripture, catechism, scripture geography, universal history, liturgy, preaching, english, persian, osmanli turkish, arithmetic, and old syriac.[ ] preaching is taught practically. a list of subjects on a systematic theological plan has been drawn up, and each week two of the deacons choose topics from the list and write sermons upon them. in the mission clergy drew up a catechism containing between and questions, with "scripture proofs," which the scholars in all their schools are obliged to learn by heart. the boys of the urmi high school and of the upper school board in the mission house, and are under the constant supervision of the clergy. their food and habits of living are strictly oriental. all imitations of western manners and customs are forbidden, the policy of the mission being to make the syrians take a pride in their national customs, which as a rule are adapted to their circumstances and country, and to look down upon those who ape european dress and manners. denationalisation is fought against in every possible way. a year and a half ago work among women was begun by four ladies of the community of the sisters of bethany. the position of syrian women, in spite of its partial elevation by means of the fiske seminary, is still very low, and within the old church there is an absolute necessity for raising it, and through it the tone of the home life and the training of children. these ladies have thirty boarders in their school between the ages of eight and sixteen, a previous knowledge of reading acquired in the village schools being a condition of admission. the daily lessons consist of bible teaching, the catechism before referred to, ancient and modern syriac, geography, arithmetic, and all branches of housework and needle-work. due regard is paid to syrian customs, and the picturesque syrian costume is retained. since these ladies have acquired an elementary knowledge of syriac they have been itinerating in the urmi villages, holding bible classes, giving instruction, and distributing medicines among the sick. the ignorance and superstition of the christian women are almost past belief. one great difficulty which the "sisters" have to encounter arises from the early marriages of the girls, child-brides of eleven and twelve years old being quite common. it may reasonably be expected that the presence and influence, the gentleness and self-sacrifice of these refined and cultured christian ladies will tell most favourably upon their pupils, and strengthen with every month of their residence in urmi. the moslems understand and respect the position of voluntarily celibate women, and speak of them as "those who have left the world." the mission clergy of late have striven to instruct the adult syrian population of the urmi plain by preaching among them systematically, explaining in a very elementary manner the principles of christianity, and their application to the life of man. they have also set up a printing press, and have already printed in syriac type a number of school books, the catechism, the _liturgy of the apostles_, the most venerable of the syrian liturgical documents, the _second_ and _third liturgies_, the _baptismal office_, ancient and modern syriac grammars, and a lectionary. it is the earnest hope of the promoters of this mission that if this ancient oriental church, once the first mission agency in the world, can be reformed and enlightened, she may yet be the means of evangelising the two great sects of moslems by means of missionaries akin to them in customs, character, and habits of thought--"orientals to orientals." the subject of christian missions in persia is a very interesting one, and many thoughtful minds are asking whether christianity is likely to be a factor in the future of the empire? as things are, no direct efforts to convert moslems to christianity can be made, for the death penalty for apostasy is not legally abolished, and even if it were, popular fanaticism would vent itself upon proselytes. it must be recognised that the christian missionary is a disturbing element in persia. he is tolerated, not welcomed, and tolerated only while his efforts to detach people from the national faith are futile. missions have been in operation in persia for more than fifty years, and probably at the present time there are over seventy-five missionaries at work in the country. if the value of their work were to be judged of by the number of moslem converts they have made it must be pronounced an _absolute failure_. the result of the impossibility of making any direct attack upon islam is that these excellent men and women are at present ostensibly engaged in the attempt to purify the faith and practice of the syrian and armenian churches, to enlighten their members religiously and intellectually, and to christianise the jews, waiting patiently for the time when an aggressive movement against islam may be possible. in the meantime the holy scriptures are being widely disseminated; the preacher of christianity itinerates among the villages, the christian religion is greatly discussed, and missionary physicians, the true pioneers of the faith, are modifying by their personal influence the opposition to the progress of the missionaries with whom they are associated. on the whole, and in spite of slow progress and the apparently insurmountable difficulties presented by hostility or indifference, i believe that christian missions in persia, especially by their educational agencies and the circulation of the bible, are producing an increasing under-current, tending towards secular as well as religious progress, and are gaining an ever-growing influence, so that, lamentably slow as the advance of christianity is, its prospects cannot justly be overlooked in considering the probable future of persia.[ ] footnotes: [ ] the name of the town and lake is spelt variously urmi, urumi, urumiya, ourmia, and oroomiah. the moslems call it urumi, and the christians urmi, to which spelling i have adhered. [ ] at the present time, when the persecution of the _stundists_ in russia is attracting considerable attention, it may interest my readers to hear that one of the earliest promoters of the _stundist_ movement was yacub dilakoff, a syrian, and a graduate of the old american college. he went to russia thirty years ago, and was so horrified at the ignorance and gross superstition of the peasantry that he studied russian in the hope of enlightening them, and to aid his purpose became an itinerant hawker of bibles. the "common people heard him gladly," and among both the orthodox and the lutherans prayer unions were formed, from which those who frequented them received the name by which they are known, from _stunde_, hour. dilakoff, whom the _stundists_ love to call "our bishop," has been thrown into prison several times, but on his liberation began to teach among the sect of the _molokans_ in the crimea and on the volga with such success that sixteen congregations have been formed among them. his zeal has since carried him to the _molokan_ colonies on the amoor, where he has been preaching and teaching for three years with such remarkable results as to have received the title of "a modern apostle." [ ] in twenty-eight years after its establishment a conference of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, all of whom had received ordination in the old church, with preachers, elders, and missionaries, met and deliberated. "this conference adopted its own confession, form of government, and discipline----at first very simple. some things were taken from the canons and rituals of the old church, others from the usages of protestant churches. the traditions of the old church were respected to some extent; for example, no influence has induced the native brethren to remit the diaconate to a mere service in temporalities. the deacons are a preaching order." of the subsequent history of this church the same authority writes as follows:---- "the missionaries in were welcomed by the ecclesiastics and people, and for many years an honest effort was made to reform the old body" (the syrian church) "without destroying its organisation. this effort failed, and a new church was gradually formed for the following reasons---- "( ) _persecution._ the patriarch did all in his power to destroy the evangelical work. he threatened, beat, and imprisoned the teachers and converts, and made them leave his fold. ( ) _lack of discipline._ the converts could no longer accept unscriptural practices and rank abuses that prevailed, and it became evident that there was no method to reform them. at every effort the rent was made worse. ( ) _lack of teaching._ the converts asked for better care, and purer and better teaching and means of grace than they found in the dead language, rituals, and ordinances of the old church. "the missionaries were slow in abandoning the hope that the nestorian church would become reformed and purified; but their hope was in vain, their efforts therefore have been not to proselytise, but to leaven the whole people with christian truth. the separation was made in no spirit of hostility or controversy. there was no violent disruption. the missionaries have never published a word against the old church ecclesiastics or its polity. "the ordination of the old church has always been accepted as valid. the missionaries and the evangelical bishops have sometimes joined in the ordination services, and it would be difficult to draw the line when the episcopal ordination ceased and the presbyterian began in the reformed body. "the relation of the presbyterian mission work to the old ecclesiastics is thus something different from that found among any other eastern christians. the patriarch in office fifty years ago was at first very friendly to the missionaries, and personally aided in superintending the building of mission houses. subsequently he did all in his power to break up the mission. the patriarch now in office has taken the attitude of neutrality, with frequent indications of fairness and friendliness toward our work. "the next in ecclesiastical rank is the mattran (syriac for metropolitan), the only one left of the twenty-five metropolitans named in the thirteenth century. the present incumbent recently made distinct overtures to our evangelical church to come to an understanding by establishing the scriptural basis of things essential, and allowing liberty in things non-essential. he fails, perhaps, to understand all the scriptural issues between us, but he has a sincere desire to walk uprightly and to benefit his people. "of the bishops, three have been united with the reform, and died in the evangelical church. the three bishops in kurdistan are friendly, and give their influence in favour of our schools. "a large majority of the priests or presbyters of the old church, in persia at least, joined the reform movement, and as large a proportion of the deacons. in all, nearly seventy of the priests have laboured with the mission as teachers, preachers, or pastors, and more than half of these continue, and are members of our synod. in some places the reform has gathered nearly all the population within its influence. in many places it is not unusual to find half the population in our winter services. on the other hand, there are many places where the ecclesiastics are immoral and opposed, and ignorance and vice abound, and the reform moves very slowly." [ ] "by god's help: ( ) to raise up and restore a fallen eastern church to take her place again amongst the churches of christendom. ( ) to infuse spiritual life into a church which the oppression of centuries has reduced to a state of weakness and ignorance. ( ) to give the chaldæan or assyrian christians (_a_) a religious education on the broad principles of the holy catholic and apostolic church; (_b_) a secular education calculated to fit them for their state of life, the common mistakes and dangers of over-education and of europeanising education being most carefully guarded against. ( ) to train up the native clergy, by means of schools and seminaries, to be worthy to serve before god in their high vocation, and to rise to their responsibilities as leaders and teachers of the people in their villages. ( ) to build schools, of which at present there are none, owing to the extreme poverty and misery of the people. ( ) to aid the patriarch and bishops by counsel, by encouragement, and by active support. ( ) to reorganise the chaldæan church upon her ancient lines, to set in motion the ecclesiastical machinery now rusty through disuse, and to revive religious discipline amongst clergy and laity. ( ) to print the ancient chaldæan service-books. they are now only in ms., and the number of copies is totally insufficient for the supply of the parish churches." [ ] "_old syriac_ as a lesson means reading portions of holy scripture, and translating them into modern syriac." [ ] the absolute fact, however, is that christian nations have not shown any zeal in communicating the blessings of christianity to persia and southern turkey. england has sent two missions--one to baghdad, the other to julfa. america has five mission stations in northern and western persia, but not one in southern turkey or arabia. the populous shores of the persian gulf, the great tribes of the plains of the tigris and euphrates, the ilyats of persia, the important cities of shiraz, yezd, meshed, kashan, kûm, kirmanshah, and all southern, eastern, and western persia (excepting hamadan and urmi), are untouched by christian effort! propagandism on a scale so contemptible impresses intelligent moslems as a sham, and is an injury to the christianity which it professes to represent. letter xxvii urmi, _oct. _. very few european travellers visit urmi and its magnificent plain, the "paradise of persia," though it is only miles from tabriz. gardens come up to the city walls, and the plain, about fifty miles long by eighteen broad, is cultivated throughout, richly wooded, very populous, and bounded on the east not by a desert with its aridity, but by the blue waters of the urmi sea, and on the west by the magnificent mountains of kurdistan. the city is some miles to the west of the lake. urmi is on the whole very pretty and in good repair. the christian quarter is almost handsome, well built and substantial, and the houses are generally faced with red bricks. the bazars are large and well supplied, and trade is active. the walls and gateways are in good repair, and so is the deep ditch, which can be filled with water, which surrounds them. every gate is approached by an avenue of noble _elægnus_ and other fruit trees. the gardens within the walls are very fine, and orchards and vineyards, planes and poplars testify to the abundance of water and the excellent method of its distribution. the altitude is stated at feet. the estimate of the population varies from , to , . though the sea of urmi receives fourteen rivers, some of them by no means insignificant, and has no known outlet, it recedes rather steadily, leaving bare a soil of exceeding richness, and acres of dazzling salt. it has very few boats, and none suited for passenger traffic. its waters are so salt that fish cannot live in them. the antiquarian interests of urmi consist in the semi-subterranean syrian church of mart-mariam, said to have been built by the magi on their return from bethlehem! a tower and mosque of arab architecture seven centuries old, and some great mounds outside the walls, from sixty to one hundred feet in height, composed entirely of ashes, marking the site of the altars at which the rites of one of the purest of the ancient faiths were celebrated. as the birthplace of zoroaster, and for several subsequent ages the sacred city of the fire worshippers and the scene of the restoration of the mithraic rites, urmi must always remain interesting. the christian population of the city is not very large, though it is estimated that there are , syrian christians in the villages of the plain. the city syrians are mostly well-to-do people, who have come into urmi to practise trades. the best carpenters, as well as the best photographers and tailors, are syrians, and though in times past the moslems refused to buy from the christians on the ground that things made by them are unclean, the prejudice is passing away. there is a deputy-governor called the _serperast_, whose duty it is to deal with the christians. the office seems to have been instituted for their protection at the instigation of the british government, but the europeans regard it simply as a means of oppression and extortion, and desire its abolition. canon maclean goes so far as to say, "the multiplication of judges in persia means the multiplication of injustice, and of the number of persons who can extort money from the unfortunate people." the _serperast_ depends chiefly for his living and for keeping up a staff of servants on what he can get out of the christians in the way of fines and bribes, and consequently he foments quarrels and encourages needless litigation on all hands, the syrians being by all accounts one of the most litigious of peoples. i write of the christians of urmi and its plain as syrians because that is the name by which they call themselves. we know them at home as _nestorians_, but this is a nickname given to them by outsiders, and i know of no reason why we should use a nomenclature which attaches to a nation the stigma of an ancient "heresy." they are sometimes called chaldæans,[ ] and the present archbishop of canterbury has brought into currency the term "assyrians," which, however, is never used by themselves, or by any orientals in speaking of them. the moslems apply the name nasara (nazarenes) solely to the syrian christians. they claim that christianity was introduced among them by the magi on their return from bethlehem. the highest estimate of their numbers is , , and of these more than , are in turkey. the persian syrians inhabit the flat country, chiefly the plains of urmi and salmas, where the fertile lands are most carefully cultivated by their industry. in my last letter i remarked upon the prosperity and garden-like appearance of the urmi plain. its , syrian inhabitants usually live in separate villages from the kurds, persians, and armenians, and are surrounded on all sides by moslems of the shiah sect. the landlords or aghas of their villages are generally moslems, who govern their tenants in something of feudal style. land is a favourite investment in persia, and owing to the industrious habits of the syrians, the "agha-ship" of their villages commands a high price. the aghas often oppress the peasants, but the tenure of houses is fairly secure, and according to canon maclean, to whom i am indebted for my information, a system much like the scotch feuing system (though without feu charters) is in force. if a man wishes to build a house he takes a present of a few sugar-loaves or a few _krans_ with him, and applies to an agha for a site. after it is granted he pays an annual ground rent of s. d., but he can build his house as he pleases, and it cannot be taken from him so long as he pays his ground rent. moreover, he can sell the house and give a title-deed to the purchaser, with the sole restriction that the new possessor must become a vassal of the agha. in addition to the payment of the ground rent, the tenant is taxed annually by the agha for every female buffalo s., for every cow s., and for every ewe and she-goat d., after they have begun to bear young. the agha also receives from each householder annually two fowls, a load of _kiziks_, some eggs, three days' labour or the price of it, and a fee on every occasion of a marriage. each house pays also a tax of d. a year and gives a present of firewood to the _serperast_ of urmi, the mussulman governor of the christians. in his turn the agha pays to the shah from a third to a half of the total taxation. a village-house, even when built of sun-dried bricks, rarely costs more than £ , and often not the half of that sum.[ ] the great feature of a syrian dwelling is what is called emphatically "the house"; the combined living-room, bedroom, smoking-room, kitchen, bakery, and workroom of one or more families. this room cannot possess a _balakhana_, as its openings for light and air are in the roof. a stable, store-rooms, and granary are attached to it. vineyards are the chief reliance of the syrians of the urmi plain, their produce, whether as grapes, raisins, or wine, being always marketable. they are held on the same tenure as the houses, and as long as the vine-stocks remain in the ground, and the ground rent, which is s. a year for the _tanap_, a piece of ground yards square, is paid, the tenant cannot be evicted. where vineyards are sub-let for a year a fair rent is from s. to s. a _tanap_. if a tenant buys a property from an agha the yearly taxation is s. a _tanap_; grass fields and orchards are held on the same tenure as vineyards, and at the same rent. with ploughed land the case is different. if the tenant provides the seed, etc., he gives the agha a third of the produce, and if the agha provides seed the tenant returns two-thirds. the tenant of ploughed land may be changed annually. this paying the rent in kind is going on just now in every village, and the aghas secure themselves against dishonesty by requiring that the grain shall be threshed on their floors. in addition, their servants watch night and day by turns, in an erection similar to the "lodge in a garden of cucumbers" or melons, an arbour of boughs perched at a height of seven or eight feet upon four poles. the landlord's _nasr_ appears at intervals to take away his master's share of the grain. it is all delightfully primitive. the arrangements sound equitable, the taxes are moderate, and in some respects the christians are not more victimised by their landlords than are their mohammedan neighbours. the people acknowledge readily that as regards oppression they are much better off than they were, and that in this respect the presence of the american missionaries in urmi has been of the greatest advantage to them, for these gentlemen never fail to represent any gross case of oppression _which can be thoroughly substantiated_ to the governor of urmi, or in the last resort to the governor of azerbijan. the oppressions exercised by the aghas consist in taking extra taxes, demanding labour without wages, and carrying off christian girls for their _harams_. the laws which affect christians specially and injuriously are-- . that the evidence of a christian is not received against a mussulman. . that if any member of a christian family becomes a moslem, he or she becomes entitled to claim the whole property of the "house," which as often as not consists of two or three families. the apostatising member of a household is usually a girl, who either falls in love with or is carried off by a young mohammedan, who declares truly or falsely that she has embraced his creed. a good governor is careful in these matters, and in some cases gives the girl only her share of the family property, but a bad governor may at any time carry out the law, or use it as a means for extorting ruinous bribes.[ ] every christian man above the age of sixteen pays a poll tax of s. annually for exemption from military service, but from this impost the headman of a village, who is at once its tax-gatherer and its spokesman, is free. he ranks next to the priest, and is treated by the villagers with considerable respect. i have found the syrian _kokhas_ as polite and obliging as the persian _ketchudas_. although the persian government has been tolerably successful in subduing the kurds within its territory, the christians of the slopes of the urmi plain are exposed to great losses of sheep and cattle from kurdish mountaineers, who (it is said) cross the turkish frontier, and return into turkey with their booty.[ ] the american and english missionaries do not paint the syrians _couleur de rose_, though the former during their long residence in the country must have lifted up several hundreds to the blessings of a higher life, and these in rising themselves must have exercised an unconscious influence on their brethren. since i came i have seen several women whose tone would bear comparison with that of the best among ourselves, and who owe it gratefully to the training and influence of the fiske seminary. i like the women much better than the men. the christians complain terribly of the way in which "justice" is administered, and doubtless nothing can be worse, but the europeans say that the people bring much of its hardship upon themselves by their frightful litigiousness, and their habit of going to law about the veriest trifles. intense avarice seems to be a characteristic of the syrians of the persian plains, and they fully share with other orientals in the failings of untruthfulness and untrustworthiness. they are said to be very drunken as well as grossly ignorant and superstitious, and the abuses and unutterable degradation of their church perpetuate all that is bad in the national character. the women are spoken of as chaste, and some of the worst forms of vice are happily unknown among the syrians, though they are practised by the moslems around them. their hospitality, their sufferings for the faith, and their family attachment are justly to be reckoned among their virtues, but on the whole i think that the extraordinary interest attaching to them, and which i feel very strongly myself, is due rather to their past than to their present. on this plain the dress of the men is much assimilated to that of the persians, but the women wear their national costume. the under-garment is a coloured shirt, over which is worn a sleeved waistcoat of a different colour, and above this is an open-fronted coat reaching to the knees. loose trousers, so full as to look like a petticoat, are worn, and frequently an apron and a heavy silver belt are added. the head-dress is very becoming, and consists of a raised cap of cloth or silk, embroidered or jewelled, with a white muslin veil over it and the head, but the face is exposed, except in the case of married women, who draw a part of the veil over the mouth. it is not proper that the hair should be seen. there is something strikingly biblical about their customs and speech. at dinner at geog-tapa i noticed that it is a mark of friendship for a man to dip a piece of bread (a sop) into the soup and give it to another, a touching reminiscence. a priest is greeted with "hail, master," a teacher is addressed as "rabban," the salutation is "peace be with you," and such words as _talitha cumi_ and _ephphatha_ occasionally startle the ear in the midst of unintelligible speech, suggesting that the aramaic of our lord's day was very near akin to the old syriac, of which the present vernacular is a development. as among the moslems, pious phrases are common. a syrian receiving a kindness often replies, "may god give you the kingdom of heaven," and when a man makes a purchase, or enters on a new house, or puts on a new garment, it is customary to say to him, "may god bless your house, your garment," etc. a child learning the letters of the alphabet is taught to say at the close, "glory to christ our king." a copyist begins his manuscript by writing within an ornamental margin, "in the strength of our lord jesus christ we begin to write," and a man entering on a piece of work honours the apostolic command by saying, "if the lord will i shall accomplish it."[ ] my friends tell me that i shall find the syrians of the mountains a different people, and a mountaineer is readily recognised in the streets by the beauty and picturesqueness of his dress. the eight days in urmi have been a very pleasant whirl, a continual going to and fro between the college and the fiske seminary, the english clergy house and the sisters' house, receiving syrian visitors at home and holding a reception for them in the city, calling on the governor, visiting the english upper school, where deacons, in the beautiful syrian costume, with daggers in their girdles, look more like bandits than theological students, and spending a day at geog-tapa, where i saw shamasha khananeshoo's (deacon abraham's) orphanage, dined with him and his charming wife, and a number of other syrians in syrian style, and went to the crowded geog-tapa church, where the part of the floor occupied by the women looked like a brilliant tulip-bed. here, in the middle of the service, the _qasha_ or priest said that the people, especially the women, were very anxious to know for what reason i was travelling, to which evidence of an enlightened curiosity i returned a reply through an interpreter, and reminded them of the glories of their historic church and its missionary fervour. geog-tapa (_cerulean hill_) possesses one of the largest of the zoroastrian mounds of ashes. it is a pity that these are not protected, and that the villagers are allowed to carry away the soil for manure, and to break up the walls and cells (?) which are imbedded in them for building materials. this vandalism has brought to notice various curious relics, such as earthenware vessels of small size and unique shape, and a stone tomb containing a human skeleton, with several copper spikes from four to five inches long driven into its skull. in another mound, at some distance from this one, a large earthen sarcophagus was discovered, also containing a skeleton with long nails driven into its skull. deacon abraham's work is on the right lines, being conducted entirely by syrians. it is most economically managed, and the children are trained in the simple habits of syrian peasants. the religious instruction is bright and simple. the boys receive an elementary education, a practical training in agriculture on some lands belonging to the orphanage, and in various useful handicrafts. as much of the money for the support of this work is raised in england, it is satisfactory to know that the accounts are carefully audited by the american missionaries. the days have flown by, for, in addition to the social whirl, i have been occupied in attempts, only partially successful, to provide myself with necessaries for the journey, and in an endeavour, altogether unsuccessful, to replace johannes by a trustworthy servant. the kind friends here have lent me a few winter garments out of their slender stock, and have helped me in every way. it has been most difficult to get _charvadars_. the country on the other side of the frontier is said to be "unsettled," no persians will go by the route that i wish to take, and two sets of kurds, after making agreements to carry my loads, have disappeared. various syrians have come down from the mountains with stories of kurdish raids on their sheep and cattle, but as such things are always going on, and the impression that "things are much worse than usual" does not rest on any ascertained basis, my friends do not advise me to give up the journey to kochanes, and i am just starting _en route_ for trebizond. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] a name usually applied to the roman uniats at mosul. [ ] the mode of building mud houses was described in letter vi. vol. i. p. . [ ] dr. labaree, whose experience stretches back for thirty years, writes of the races under persian rule in the province of azerbijan in the following terms: "the nestorians and armenians of persia in common with their mohammedan neighbours suffer from the evil forms of society and government which have been bequeathed to them from the earliest dawnings of history. landlordism in its worst forms bears sway. the poor _rayat_ or tenant must pay his landlord one-half or two-thirds of all the produce of his farm. aside from his poll tax he must pay a tax on his house, his hayfields, and his fruit trees, and on all his stock with the exception of the oxen with which he tills the soil. but this is not all. he is virtually at the mercy of his agha, which translated literally means master, a word which most correctly describes the relation of the landlord to his peasants. by law he may require from each of his _rayats_ three days of labour without pay. in reality he makes them work for him as much as he sees fit. he helps himself to what he pleases whenever he makes them a visit. he sells them grain and flour above the market price. he ties them up and beats them for slight offences. and to all this and much else must the poor peasant submit for fear of worse persecutions if he complains. in these respects moslem, christian, and jew suffer alike." [ ] later, i heard the same accusation brought against the persian kurds by a high official in constantinople. [ ] the national customs of the syrians are endless, and in many ways very interesting. they are treated very fully in a scarce volume called _residence in persia among the nestorians_, by dr. justin perkins. farewell impressions of persia in the letters by which this chapter is preceded few general opinions have been expressed on persia, its government, and its people, but now that i contemplate them with some regard to perspective, and have reversed some of my earlier and hastier judgments, i will, with the reader's permission, give some of the impressions formed during a journey extending over nine months, chiefly in the western and south-western portions of the empire. on the pillared plain of persepolis, on the bull-flanked portals which tower above the hall of xerxes, the palace of darius, and the stairways with the sculptured bas-reliefs, which portray the magnificence, the military triumphs, and the religious ceremonial of the greatest of the persian monarchs, runs the stately inscription: "i am xerxes the king, the great king, the king of kings, the king of the many-peopled countries, the upholder of the great world, the son of darius the king, the achæmenian"; and on the tablets on the rock of besitun is inscribed in language as august the claim of darius the mede to a dominion which in his day was regarded as nearly universal. the twenty-four centuries which have passed since these claims were made have seen the ruin of the palace-temples of persepolis, the triumph of islam over zoroastrianism, the devastating sweep of the hordes of taimurlane and other semi-barbaric conquerors, the destruction of ancient art and frontiers, and the compression of the empire within comparatively narrow limits. still, these limits include an area about thrice the size of france, the sovereign has reassumed the title of king of kings, persia takes her own place--and that not a low one--in the comity of nations, and the genuine persians retain vitality enough to compel the allegiance of the numerically important tribes included within their frontiers, though scarcely more than , soldiers are with the colours at any given time. still, under a land system fourteen centuries old, persia produces cereals enough for home consumption with a surplus for export; her peasants are thrifty and industrious, and their methods of tillage, though among the most ancient on earth, are well adapted to their present needs and the conditions of soil and climate. her merchants are able and enterprising, and her sagacious liberality in the toleration of christians and jews has added strength to her commercial position. though she has lost the high order of civilisation which she possessed centuries before christ, she has in no sense relapsed into barbarism, and on the whole good order and security prevail. the condition of modern persia has to be studied along with that of the configuration of the country. the traveller through khorasan and seistan, from the gulf to yezd, or from bushire to tihran, views it as a sparsely-peopled region--a desert with an occasional oasis, and legitimately describes it as such. the traveller through the "bakhtiari mountains," and from burujird through western persia up to the sea of urmi, seeing the superb pasturages and perennial streams of the zard-kuh, the sabz-kuh, and the kuh-i-rang, and the vast area of careful cultivation, sprinkled with towns and villages, which extends from a few miles north of burujird to the walls of urmi and far beyond, may with equal fidelity describe it as a land of abounding waters, a peopled and well-watered garden. the direction of my journey has been fully indicated. it is only from the descriptions of others that i know anything of the arid wastes of eastern persia or of the moist and malarious provinces bordering on the caspian sea, with their alluvial valleys and rice grounds, and their jungle and forest-covered mountains, or of the verdureless plains and steppes of kerman and laristan. persia proper, the country which has supplied the race which has evinced such a remarkable vitality and historic continuity, may be described as a vast plateau from to feet in altitude, extending on the east into afghanistan, on the north-west into armenia, and overlooking the caspian to the north, and the persian gulf and the vast levels of mesopotamia to the south and south-west. to reach this platform from the south, lofty ranges, which include the _kotals_ of shiraz, must be crossed. from the tigris valley on the west it is only accessible by surmounting the zagros chain and lesser ranges; and to attain it from the north the traveller must climb the rocky pathways of the elburz mountains. this great "iranian plateau," except in eastern persia, is intersected both by mountain ranges and detached mountain masses, which store up in their sunless hollows the snowfall on which all persian agriculture depends, the rainfall being so scanty as to be of little practical value. thus the possibility of obtaining supplies of water from the melting snows dictates the drift of population, and it seems unlikely that the plains of eastern persia, where no such supplies exist, were ever more populous than now. it was otherwise with parts of central persia, now lying waste, for the remains of canals and _kanaats_ attest that a process of local depopulation has been going on. it is the configuration of the country rather than anything else which accounts for the unpeopled wastes in some directions, and the constant succession of towns and populous villages in others. of the population thus distributed along hill slopes and on the plains at the feet of the ranges, there is no accurate record, and the total has been variously estimated at from six to nine millions. estimates of the urban and village populations were in most cases supplied to me by the persian local officials, but from these i am convinced that it is necessary to make a very liberal deduction. general schindler, a gentleman for some years in the persian government service, who has travelled over a great part of persia with the view of ascertaining its resources and condition, in the year estimated its population at , , . in his analysis the christian and the bakhtiari and feili lur populations are, according to present information, greatly under-estimated. if i may venture to hazard an opinion, after travelling over a considerable area of western persia, it would be that the higher estimate is nearest the mark, for the natural increase in time of peace, as accepted by statists, is three-quarters per cent per annum, and persia has had peace and freedom from famine for very many years.[ ] the country population consists of _rayats_ or permanent cultivators, and ilyats or nomadic pastoral tribes. coal-fields and lead and iron may hereafter produce commercial centres, but the industry of persia at present may be said to be nearly altogether agricultural. the settled peasant population, so far as i am able to judge, is well fed and fairly well clothed, and the habitations suit the climate. the people are poor, but not with the poverty of europe--that is, except in famine years, there is no scarcity of the necessaries of life, with the single exception of fuel. the wages of the agricultural labourer vary from d. a day with food to d. without; a skilled mason earns s. d., a carpenter s. d. men-servants get from s. to £ per month, nominally without board, but with _modakel_ and other pickings; female servants much less. prices are, however, low. clothing, tea, coffee, and sugar cost about the same as in europe. the cotton worn by the poor is very cheap. wheat, which is sold by weight, costs at harvest-time from s. d. to s. per load of lbs. i have been told by several cultivators that a man can live and bring up an average family on something under £ a year. i did not see anything like "grinding poverty" in the villages. if it existed, the old and helpless could scarcely be supported by their relatives, and the women, in spite of the seclusion of custom and faith, would be compelled to work in the fields, a "barbarism" which i never saw in persia among moslems. in both town and country the working classes appeared to me to be as comfortable and, on the whole, as happy as people in the same condition in life in most other countries, with the exception, and that not a small one, of their liability to official exactions. the peasants are grossly ignorant, hardy, dirty, bigoted, domestic, industrious, avaricious, sober, and tractable, and ages of misrule have developed in them many of the faults of oppressed oriental peoples. of the country outside of the district in which they live they usually know nothing, they detest the local governors, but to the shah they willingly owe, and are ready to pay, a right loyal allegiance. my impression of the persians of the trading and agricultural classes is that they are thoroughly unwarlike, fairly satisfied if they are let alone, unpatriotic, and apparently indifferent to the prospect of a russian "occupation." their bearing is independent rather than manly; their religious feelings are strong and easily offended; their sociability and love of fun come out strongly in the freedom of their bazars. europeans do not meet with anything of the grovelling deference to which we are accustomed in india. if there be obsequiousness in stereotyped phraseology, there is none in manner. we are treated courteously as strangers, but are made to feel that we are in no wise essential to the well-being of the country, and a european traveller without introductions to the provincial authorities finds himself a very insignificant person indeed. governors and the governed are one. they understand each other, and are of one creed, and there is no ruling alien race to interfere with ancient custom or freedom of action, or to wound racial susceptibilities with every touch. even the traditional infamies of administration are expected and understood by those whom they chiefly concern. the rich men congregate chiefly in the cities. it is very rare to find any but the poorer khans, aghas or proprietors of villages, men little removed from the peasants around them, living on their own properties. the wealthy _seigneur_, the lord of many villages, resides in tihran, kirmanshah, or isfahan; pays a _nasr_, who manages his estate and fleeces his tenants, and spends his revenues himself on urban pleasures. the purchase of villages and their surrounding lands is a favourite investment. this system of absenteeism not only prevents that friendly contact between landowner and peasant which is such a desirable feature of proprietorship, but it leaves the villages exposed to the exactions of the _nasr_, and without a semblance of protection from the rapacious demands of the provincial authorities. it is noteworthy that fortunes made in trade are seeking investment in land. the upper classes in persia appear to me to differ widely from orientals, as they are supposed to be, and often really are. they love life intensely, fill it with enjoyment, and neither regard existence as a task to be toiled through nor as a burden to be got rid of. handsome, robust, restless, intelligent, imaginative, accumulative, vivacious, polished in manner and speech, many of them excellent linguists, well acquainted with their own literature, especially with their poets; lavish, alike in expenditure on personal luxuries and in charity to the poor; full of artistic instincts, and loving to surround themselves with the beautiful, inquisitive, adaptable; addicted to sport and out-of-doors life, untruthful both from hereditary suspiciousness and excess of courtesy--the persian gentleman has an individuality of his own which is more nearly akin to the french or russian than to the oriental type. my impressions of the morals both of the persian peasantry and the bakhtiari lurs are, as to some points, rather favourable than the reverse, and i think and hope that there is as much domestic affection and fidelity as is compatible with a religion which more or less effectually secures the degradation of woman. the morals of the upper classes are, i believe, very easy. in various carefully written papers, one of them at least official, very painful glimpses have been given incidentally into the state of persian upper-class morality, and undoubtedly the intrigues of the _andarun_ are as unfavourable to purity as they are to happiness. for the traveller the greater part of persian territory is absolutely safe. i have ridden on horseback through it at every season of the year, in some regions without an escort, in others with persian or kurdish guards supplied by the local authorities, and was never actually the victim of any form of robbery, except the pilfering from an unguarded tent. though travelling with only an indian servant, i found the provincial authorities everywhere courteous, and ready to aid my journey by every means within their power, though in persia as elsewhere i never claimed, and indeed never received, any special favour on the ground of sex. a few darker shadows remain to be put in. there is no education truly so called for persians, except in tihran, and under the existing system the next generation is not likely to be more enlightened than the present. all the towns and the larger villages possess mosque schools, in which the highest education bestowed is a smattering of arabic and a knowledge of the tales of _saadi_. the persian characters are taught, and some attention is paid to caligraphy, for a man who can write well is sure to make a fair living. the parrot-like reading of the koran in arabic is the _summum bonum_ of the teaching. very few of the boys in the village schools learn to write, but if a clever lad aspires to be a _mirza_ or secretary he pays great attention to the formation of the persian characters, and acquires that knowledge of compliment, phrase, and trope which is essential to his proposed calling. pleading, waiting, and the elements of arithmetic are usual among the bazar class and merchants, but with the rest the slight knowledge of reading acquired in childhood is soon forgotten, and the ability to repeat a few verses from the koran and a few prayers in arabic is all that remains of the mosque school "education." school discipline is severe, and the rope and pulley and bastinado are used as instruments of punishment. a few young men in the cities, who are destined to be _mollahs_, _hak[=i]ms_, or lawyers, proceed to the _medressehs_ or colleges, where they acquire a thorough knowledge of arabic, do some desultory reading, and "hang on" to their teachers, at whose feet they literally sit on all occasions, and after a few years have been spent in rather a profitless way they usually find employment. government _employés_, courtiers, the higher officers in the army, diplomats, and sons of wealthy khans receive the rudiments of a liberal education in the college at tihran, where they frequently acquire a very creditable knowledge of french. the admirable schools established by the american and english missionaries at urmi, tihran, tabriz, hamadan, and julfa affect only the armenians and syrians and a few jews and zoroastrians. outside of these there is neither intellectual nor moral training, and even the simplest duties of life, such as honesty, truthfulness, and regard for contract, are never inculcated. it may be supposed that in conformity with the moslem axiom, "not to open the eyes of a woman too wide," the bulk of persian women are not thought worthy of any education at all. a few of the daughters of rich men can read the koran, but without comprehending it, and can both read and recite poetry. throughout the country, law, that is the _urf_ or unwritten law, a mass of precedents and traditions orally handed down and administered by secular judges--is not held in any respect at all, and while the rich can override it by bribery, the poor regard it only as a commodity which is bought and sold, and which they are too poor to buy. the other department of persian law, the _sh[=a]hr_, which is based upon the koran, and is administered by religious teachers, takes cognisance chiefly of civil cases, and its administration is nearly as corrupt as that of the _urf_. law, in the sense in which we understand it, as the avenger of wrong and the sublimely impartial protector of individual rights and liberties, has no existence at all in persia. the curse of the country is venal mal-administration. it meets one at every turn, and in protean shapes. there is no official conscience, and no public opinion to act as a check upon official unscrupulousness. of government as an institution for the good of the governed there is no conception. the greed, which is among the most painful features of persian character, finds its apotheosis in officialism. from the lowest to the highest rounds of the official ladder unblushing bribery is the _modus operandi_ of promotion. it is very obvious that the shah himself is the government. he is an absolute despot, subject to no controlling influences but the criticisms of the european press, and the demands of the european legations. he is the sole executive. his ministers are but servants of the highest grade, whose duties consist in carrying out his orders. the lives and properties of all his subjects are held only at his pleasure. his sons are but his tools, to be raised or degraded at his will, and the same may be said of the highest personages in the empire. the shah is the state,--irresponsible and all-powerful. nasr-ed-din is a most diligent ruler. no pleasures, not even the chase, to which he is devoted, divert his attention from business. he takes the initiative in all policy, guides with a firm hand the destinies of persia, supervises every department, appoints directly to all offices of importance, and by means known to absolute rulers has his eyes in every part of his dominions. he is regarded as a very able man,--his european travels have made him to some extent an enlightened one. his reign of forty-two years has been disfigured, especially in its earlier portion, by some acts which we should regard as great crimes, but which do not count as such in oriental judgment; neither are the sale of offices, the taking of bribes under the disguise of presents, the receiving of what is practically _modakel_, or exactions upon rich men, repugnant in the slightest degree to the oriental mind. remembering the unwholesome traditions of his throne and dynasty, we must give him full credit for everything in which he makes a new departure. surrounded by intrigue, hampered by the unceasing political rivalry between england and russia, thwarted by the obstructive tactics of the latter at every turn, and with the shadow of a russian occupation of the northern provinces of the empire looming in a not far distant future, any step in the direction of reform taken by the shah involves difficulties of which the outer world has no conception, not only in braving the antagonism of his powerful neighbour, and her attempted interference with the internal concerns of persia, but in overcoming the apathy of his people and the prejudices of his co-religionists. as it is, under him persia has awakened partially from her long sleep. the state of insecurity described by the travellers of thirty and forty years ago no longer exists. far feebler than turkey, persia, through the resolute will of one man, has eclipsed turkey altogether in suppressing brigandage, in subduing the kurds and other nomadic tribes, in securing safety for travellers and caravans even on the remoter roads, and in producing tolerable contentment among the armenian and nestorian populations. under him the authority of the central government has been consolidated, the empty treasury has been filled, the semi-independence of the provincial governors has been broken, persia has been re-created as a coherent empire, certain roads have been made, posts and telegraphs have been inaugurated, an imperial bank with branches in some of the principal towns has been formed, foreign capital has been encouraged or at least permitted to enter the country, a concession for the free navigation of the karun has been granted, and the _nasiri_ company, the most hopeful token of native progress, has received imperial favour. but under all this lies the inherent rottenness of persian administration, an abyss of official corruption and infamy without a bottom or a shore, a corruption of heredity and tradition, unchecked by public opinion or the teachings of even an elementary education in morals and the rudiments of justice. there are few men pure enough to judge their fellows or to lift clean hands to heaven, and power and place are valued for their opportunities for plunder. in no part of persia did i hear any complaint of the tribute levied by the shah. it is regarded as legitimate. but in most districts allegations concerning the rapacity and exactions of the provincial governors were universal, and there is unfortunately great reason for believing them well founded. the farming of the taxes, the practical purchase of appointments, the gigantic system of bribery by which all offices are obtained, the absence of administrative training and supervision, the traditions of office, and the absolute dependence of every official on the pleasure of a sovereign surrounded by the intrigues of an oriental court, are conditions sufficient to destroy the virtue of all but the best of men. where all appointments are obtained practically by bribery, and no one has any security in the tenure of an office of which slander, bribery, or intrigue at court may at any moment deprive him, it is natural that the most coveted positions should be those in which the largest perquisites can be made, and that their occupants should feel it their bounden duty to "make hay while the sun shines,"--in other words, to squeeze the people so long as there is anything left to squeeze. the great drawback of the persian peasant's life is that he has no security for the earnings of labour. he is the ultimate sponge to be sucked dry by all above him. every official squeezes the man below him, and the highest is squeezed by the crown. little, if any, of the revenue drawn from the country is spent on works of public utility, and roads, bridges, official buildings, fortifications, and all else are allowed to fall into disrepair. in downright english the administration of government and law is execrable, and there can be little hope of a resurrection for persia until the system under which she is impoverished be reformed or swept away. but who is to cleanse this augean stable? who will introduce the elementary principles of justice? are tools of the right temper to work with to be found among the men of this generation? is the dwarfing and narrowing creed[ ] of islam to be replaced or in any way to be modified by christianity? it looks very much as if the men to initiate and carry out administrative and financial reforms are not forthcoming, and that, unless the shah is willing to import or borrow them, the present system of official corruption, mendacity, bribery, and obstruction may continue to prevail. the inherent weakness of persia lies in her administrative system rather than in her sparse population and paucity of fuel and water, a paucity arising partly out of misgovernment. in the felt evils of this system, and in the idea that law, equitable taxation, and security for the earnings of labour are distinctively european blessings, lies a part of the strength of russia in persia. i have elsewhere remarked upon the indifference with which russian annexation is contemplated. a reformed system of administration, by giving the persian people something to live for and die for, would doubtless evoke the dormant spirit of patriotism, and render foreign conquest, or acquisition without conquest, a less easy task. after living for ten months among the persian people, and fully recognising their faults, i should regret to see them absorbed by the "white czar" or any other power. a country which for more than years has maintained an independent existence, and which possesses customs, a language, a civilisation, and a nationality of its own, and works no injury to its neighbours, has certainly a _raison d'être_. my early impressions of persia were of effeteness and ruin, but as i learned to know more of the vitality, energy, and industry of her people, and of the capacities of her prolific soil, i have come to regard her resurrection under certain circumstances as a possibility, and cordially to echo the wish eloquently expressed by the marquis of salisbury on the occasion of the shah's last visit to england: "we desire above all things that persia shall not only be prosperous, but be strong,--strong in her resources, strong in her preparations, strong in her alliances,--in order that she may pursue the peaceful path on which she has entered in security and tranquillity." i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] on this subject there can be no better authority than the hon. george n. curzon, m.p., who after careful study has estimated the total population of persia at over nine millions. [ ] in _the caliphate, its rise, decline, and fall_, a valuable recent work, its author, sir w. muir, k.c.s.i., dwells very strongly on the narrowing influence of islam on national life, and concludes his review of it in the following words: "as regards the spiritual, social, and dogmatic aspect of islam, there has been neither progress nor material change. such as we found it in the days of the caliphate, such is it also at the present day. christian nations may advance in civilisation, freedom, and morality, in philosophy, science, and the arts, but islam stands still. and thus stationary, so far as the lessons of its history avail, it will remain." in a chapter at the end of his book he deals with polygamy, servile concubinage, temporary marriages, and the law of divorce, as cankering the domestic life of mohammedan countries, and _infallibly neutralising all civilising influences_. letter xxviii kochanes, _oct. _. the kurdish _katirgis_ turned out very badly. they came at twelve instead of eight, compelling me to do only a half-day's march. then they brought six horses instead of the four which had been bargained for, and said they would "throw down the loads" if i did not take them. each night they insisted on starting the next morning at daybreak, but no persuasions could get them off before eight. they said they could not travel with a christian except in broad daylight. they would only drive a mile an hour, and instead of adhering to their contract to bring me here in four days, took four to come half-way. on the slightest remonstrance they were insolent and violent, and threatened to "throw down the loads" in the most inconvenient places, and they eventually became so mutinous that i was obliged to dismiss them at the half-way halt at the risk of not getting transport any farther.[ ] the "throw on the road" from urmi was a very large one, and consisted of nearly all the english and american mission clergy and two syrians, all on screaming, biting, kicking horses. it was a charming ride through fruitful country among pleasant villages to anhar. the wind was strong and bracing. clouds were drifting grandly over the splendid mountains to the west, the ranges to the north were glorified by rich blue colouring, purple in the shadows; among mountains on the east the urmi sea showed itself as a turquoise streak, and among gardens and vineyards in the middle distance rose zoroastrian cones of ashes, and the great mound, which tradition honours as the scene of the martyrdom of st. george. when all my kind friends left me, and i walked alone in the frosty twilight on the roof of my comfortable room in the _qasha's_ house, and looked towards the wall of the frontier mountains through which my journey lay, i felt an unwonted feeling of elation at the prospect before me, which no possible perils from kurds, or from the sudden setting-in of winter could damp, and thus far the interest is much greater even than i expected. the next morning i was joined by _qasha_ ----, a syrian priest, a man of great learning and intelligence, a turkish subject and landed proprietor, who knows everybody in this region, and speaks english well. he is fearfully anxious and timid, partly from a dread of being robbed of his splendid saddle mule, and partly from having the responsibility of escorting an english lady on a journey which has turned out full of peril. on the long ascent from anhar a bitter wintry wind prevailed, sweeping over the tattered thistles and the pale belated campanulas which alone remain of the summer flora, but the view from the summit was one of rare beauty. the grandly drifting clouds of the night before had done their work, and had draped the kurdish mountains half-way down with the first snows of winter, while the valley at their feet, in which merwana lies, was a smiling autumn scene of flowery pasturage and busy harvest operations under the magic of an atmosphere of living blue. merwana is a village of houses, chiefly christian, though it has a kurdish _ketchuda_. it is a rich village, or was, being both pastoral and agricultural. the slopes are cultivated up to a great height, and ox sleds bring the sheaves to the threshing-floor. the grain is kept in great clay-lined holes under ground, covered with straw and earth. i write that the village _was_ rich. lately a cloud of kurds armed with rifles swooped down upon it towards evening, drove off sheep, and killed a man and woman. the villagers appealed to government, after which hesso, a redoubtable kurdish chief in its pay, went up with a band of men to marbishu, a christian village in turkey, drove off sheep, and offered to repay merwana with the stolen property. as matters now stand of the poorest of the sheep have been restored to marbishu, merwana loses all, and hesso and his six robber brothers have gained . the sole hope of the plundered people of both villages is in the intercession of dr. cochrane with the governor of azerbijan.[ ] as i reached merwana at a.m., and the _katirgis_, after raging for an hour, refused to proceed, i took mirza and _qasha_ bardah, the priest under whose hospitable roof i lodged, with me, and went up the valley to ombar, the abode of hesso, with the vague hope of "doing something" for the poor people. the path lay among bright streams and flowery pastures, the sun was warm, the air sharp, the mountains uplifted their sunlit snows into a heaven of delicious blue, the ride was charming. hesso's village, consisting of a few very low rough stone houses, overshadowed by great cones of _kiziks_, is well situated on a slope above a torrent issuing from a magnificent cleft in the mountain wall, at the mouth of which is a square keep on a rock. [illustration: hesso khan.] hesso's house is just a "but and a ben," with a door which involves stooping. its rough stone walls are unplastered, and the only light admitted comes from a hole in the roof, which serves to let out the smoke. i confess to a feeling of trepidation when i asked to see the kurdish chief, and i felt the folly of my errand. a superbly-dressed kurd took us into a room dense with tobacco smoke, which, from its darkness, the roughness of its walls, and the lowness of its rude roof, resembled a cave rather than a house. yet hesso receives £ a year from the persian government, and has apparently unlimited opportunities for plunder. there were some coarse mats on the floor, and a _samovar_ with some russian glass tea-cups. two persian officials and a number of well-armed and splendidly-dressed kurds, with jewelled _khanjars_ and revolvers in their girdles and rifles by their sides, sat or reclined against the wall. hesso himself leaned against a roll of bedding at the upper end of the room, and space was made for us on the floor at his left hand. a superb stage brigand he looked, in fitting surroundings, the handsomest man i have seen in persia, a large man, with a large face, dark prominent eyes, a broad brow, a straight nose, superb teeth, a fine but sensual mouth, a dark olive complexion, and a false smile. a jewelled kurdish turban with much crimson, a short jacket and full trousers of a fine cream-coloured woollen fabric, an embroidered silk shirt, socks of an elaborate pattern, a girdle of many yards of kashmir stuff, with eight knots, one above another, in the middle, and a _khelat_ or coat of honour of rich kerman brocade formed his striking costume. in his girdle he wore a _khanjar_, with an ebony hilt and scabbard ornamented with filigree gold knobs incrusted with turquoises, attached to the girdle by a silver chain two yards long, of heavy filigree balls, a beautiful piece of work. hesso's brothers, superb men, most picturesquely dressed, surrounded him. the kurds who handed round the tea and the jewelled _kalians_ looked fantastic brigands. the scene was a picture. of course my errand failed. i could not speak about the sheep through the priest of the robbed village, and hesso said that he could not speak on any "political" subject before the persians who were present. the conversation was not animated, and _qasha_ bardah was very nervous till hesso turned round, and with an awakened expression of face asked how it was that "england had allowed turkey to grow so feeble that her frontier and armenia are in a state of anarchy"? hesso's handsome face is that of a villain. he does not look more than thirty. he has well-mounted marksmen at his disposal. the father of this redoubtable kurdish chief died in prison, where he was confined by order of the shah, and the son revenged himself by harrying this part of the shah's dominions, and with sixty men, including his six brothers, successfully resisted a large persian force sent against him, and eventually escaped into turkey, doing much damage on his way. hesso on arriving in kerbela obtained a letter from the sheikh, or chief _mollah_ there, saying that he offered his submission to the shah, and went to tihran, where after seeing the shah's splendour he said that if he had known it before, he would not have been in rebellion. before this the persians took a strong castle from the kurds, and garrisoned it with an officer and a company of soldiers. up to it one day went hesso boldly, keeping the six men who went with him out of sight, and thumped upon the gate till it was opened, saying he was a bearer of despatches. he first shot the sentry dead, and next the officer, who came to see what the disturbance was about. meantime the six men, by climbing on each other's shoulders, scaled the castle wall, and by confused shouts and dragging of the stone roller to and fro over the roof they made the garrison believe that it was attacked by a large force, and it surrendered at discretion. the lives of the soldiers were spared, but they were marched out in their shirts, with their hands above their heads. the merwana threshing-floor was guarded at night by ten men. the following morning we were to have started an hour before daylight, but the _katirgis_ refused to load, and the kurdish _ketchuda_, with his horsemen, declined to start till an hour after sunrise, because he could not earlier "tell friends from foes." the ground was covered with hoar-frost, and the feathery foliage of the tamarisk was like the finest white coral. turning into the mountains, we spent nine hours in a grand defile, much wooded, where a difficult path is shut in with the marbishu torrent. the kurds left us at bani, when two fine fellows became our protectors as far as a small stream, crossing which we entered turkey. at a kurdish semi-subterranean village, over which one might ride without knowing it, a splendidly-dressed young khan emerged from one of the burrows, and said he would give us guards, but they would not go farther than a certain village, where two of his men had been killed three days before. "there is blood between us and them," he said. after that, for five hours up to marbishu, the scenery is glorious. the valley narrows into a picturesque gorge between precipitous mountains, from to feet above the river, on the sides of which a narrow and occasionally scaffolded path is carried, not always passable for laden mules. many grand ravines came down upon this gorge, their dwarf trees, orange, tawny, and canary-yellow, mingled with rose-red leafage. the rose bushes are covered with masses of large carnation-red hips, the bramble trailers are crimson and gold, the tamarisk is lemon-yellow. nature, like the dolphin, is most beautiful in dying. the depths were filled with a blue gloom, the needle-like peaks which tower above glittered with new-fallen snow, the air was fresh and intoxicating--it was the romance of travel. but it soon became apparent that we were among stern and even perilous realities. a notorious robber chief was disposed to bar our passage. his men had just robbed a party of travellers, and were spread over the hill. they took a horse from johannes, but afterwards restored it on certain conditions. farther on we met a number of kurds, with thirty fat sheep and some cattle, which they were driving off from marbishu. then the _katirgis_ said that they would go no farther than the village, for they heard that robbers were lying in wait for us farther on! in the wildest part of the gorge, where two ravines meet, there is fine stoneless soil, tilled like a garden; the mountains fall a little apart--there are walnuts, fruit trees, and poplars; again the valley narrows, the path just hangs on the hillside, and i was riding over the roofs of village houses for some time before i knew it. the hills again opened, and there were flourishing breadths of turnips, and people digging potatoes, an article of food and export which was introduced by the missionaries forty years ago. the glen narrowed again, and we came upon the principal part of marbishu--rude stone houses in tiers, burrowing deeply into the hills, with rock above and rock below on the precipitous sides of a noisy torrent, crossed by two picturesque log bridges, one of the wildest situations i have ever seen, and with a wintry chill about it, for the sun at this season deserts it at three. rude, primitive, colourless, its dwellings like the poorest cowsheds, its church like a canadian ice-house, clinging to mountain sides and spires of rock, so long as i remember anything i shall remember marbishu. steep narrow paths and steep rude steps brought us to a three-sided yard, with a rough verandah where cooking and other operations were going on, and at the entrance we were cordially welcomed by _qasha_ ishai, the priest. after ascertaining that it would be very dangerous to go farther, i crossed the river to the church, which is one of the finest in the country, and a place of pilgrimage. the village is noted for its religious faithfulness. the church is said to be years old--a low, flat-roofed, windowless stone building. either it was always partially subterranean, or the earth has accumulated round it, for the floor is three feet below the ground outside. the entrance is by a heavy door two feet six inches high. inside it is as nearly dark as possible. two or three circular holes at a great height in the enormously thick wall let in as many glimmers, but artificial light is necessary. there are several small ante-chapels. in two are rude and ancient tombs of ancient bishops, plain blocks of stone, with crosses upon them. in another is a rough desk, covered with candle droppings, on which the _liturgy of the apostles_ lay open, and on it a cross, which it is the custom to kiss. a fourth is used for the safe keeping of agricultural implements. two are empty, and one of these serves the useful purpose of a mortuary chapel. the church proper is very small and high. the stone floor has been worn into cavities by the feet of worshippers; the walls, where not covered with lengths of grimy printed cotton, are black with the candle smoke of ages. the one sign of sacred use is a rude stone screen at the east end, at openings in the front of which the people receive the eucharist. behind this is the sanctuary, into which the priest alone, and he fasting, may enter. old brass lamps and candelabra, incrusted with blackened tallow, hang from the roof, and strings of little bells from wall to wall, which are plucked by each recipient of the sacred elements as he returns to his "stand." in this gloomy vault-like building prayers are said, as in all nestorian churches, at sunrise and sunset by the priest in his ordinary clothing, the villagers being summoned by the beating of a mallet on a board.[ ] the church is a place of refuge when a kurdish attack is expected. nine years ago the people carried into it all their movables that they valued most, believing it to be secure, but the kurds broke in in force and took all they wanted. the few sacred treasures of the village and the eucharistic leaven are hidden in an elevated recess in the wall. the graveyard, which contains only a few flat slabs imbedded in the soil, is the only possible camping-ground; but though it is clean and neat, it looked so damp and felt so cold that i preferred to accept a big room with walls six feet thick in the priest's house, even though it overhangs the torrent with its thunder and clash. many a strange house i have seen, but never anything so striking as the dwelling of _qasha_ ishai. passing through the rude verandah, and through a lofty room nearly dark, with a rough stone dais, on which were some mattresses, and berths one above another, i stumbled in total darkness into a room seventy feet by forty, and twenty feet or more high in its highest part. it has no particular shape, and wanders away from this lofty centre into low irregular caverns and recesses excavated in the mountain side. parts of the floor are of naked rock, parts of damp earth. in one rocky recess is a powerful spring of pure water. the roofs are supported on barked stems of trees, black, like the walls, wherever it was possible to see them, with the smoke of two centuries. ancient oil lamps on posts or in recesses rendered darkness visible. goat-skins, with the legs sticking out, containing butter, hanging from the blackened cross-beams, and wheat, apples, potatoes, and onions in heaps and sacks, piles of wool, spinning-wheels, great wooden cradles here and there, huge oil and water jars, wooden stools, piles of bedding, ploughs, threshing instruments, long guns, swords, spears, and gear encumbered the floor, while much more was stowed away in the dim caverns of the rock. i asked the number of families under the roof. "seven ovens," was the reply. this meant seven families, and it is true that three generations, seventy-two persons, live, cook, sleep, and pursue their avocations under that patriarchal roof. the road is a bad one for laden beasts, and very dangerous besides, and the few travellers who visit kochanes usually take the caravan route from urmi _viâ_ diza, and the fact of an english person passing through marbishu with a letter to the turkish authorities was soon "noised abroad," and i was invited to spend the evening in this most picturesque house. all the inmates were there, and over a hundred of the villagers besides; and cooking, baking, spinning, carding wool, knitting, and cleaning swords and guns went on all the time. there were women and girls in bright red dresses; men reclining on bedding already unrolled on the uneven floor, or standing in knots in their picturesque dresses leaning on their long guns, with daggers gleaming in their belts; groups seated round the great fire, in the uncertain light of which faces gleamed here and there in the dim recesses, while the towering form of _qasha_ ishai loomed grandly through the smoke, as the culmination of the artistic effect. the subject discussed was equally interesting to the syrians and to me,--the dangers of the pass and the number of guards necessary. we talked late into the night, and long before i left the female and juvenile part of the family had retired to their beds. again i heard of hesso's misdeeds, of the robbery of sheep; of the driving off on the previous morning of thirty sheep which they were about to barter for their winter supply of wheat; of the oppressive taxation, _liras_ (nearly £ ) on houses; of the unchecked depredations of the kurds, which had increased this summer and autumn, leaving them too poor to pay their taxes; of a life of peril and fear and apprehension for their women, which is scarcely bearable; of the oppression of man and the silence of god. underlying all is a feeling of bitter disappointment that england, which "has helped the oppressed elsewhere, does nothing for us." they thought, they said, "that when the english priests came it was the beginning of succour, and that the lord was no longer deaf, and our faces were lightened, but now it is all dark, and there is no help in god or man." i now find myself in the midst of a state of things of which i was completely ignorant, and for which i was utterly unprepared, and in a region full of fear and danger, in which our co-religionists are the nearly helpless prey of fanatical mountaineers, whose profession is robbery. [illustration: a syrian family.] looking round on the handsome men and comely women, who would greet the sunrise with christian prayer and praise, and whose ancestors have worshipped christ as god for fourteen centuries in these mountain fastnesses, i wondered much at my former apathy concerning them. it is easier to _feel_ them our fellow-christians on the spot than to put the feeling into words, but writing here in the house of their patriarch, the _catholicos_ of the east, i realise that the cross signed on their brows in baptism is to them as to us the symbol of triumph and of hope; that by them as by us the eucharistic emblems are received for the life of the soul, "in remembrance of christ's meritorious cross and passion"; that through ages of accumulating wrongs and almost unrivalled misery, they like us have worshipped the crucified nazarene as the crowned and risen christ, that to him with us they bend the adoring knee, and that like us they lay their dead in consecrated ground to await through him a joyful resurrection. there were five degrees of frost during the night, and as i lay awake from cold the narratives i had heard and the extraordinary state of things in which i so unexpectedly found myself made a very deep impression on me. there, for the first time in my life, i came into contact with people grossly ignorant truly, but willing to suffer "the loss of all things," and to live in "jeopardy every hour" for religious beliefs, which are not otherwise specially influential in their lives. my own circumstances, too, claimed some consideration, whether to go forward, or back to urmi. it is obvious from what i hear that the bringing my journey to erzerum to a successful issue will depend almost altogether on my own nerve, judgment, and power of arranging, and that at best there will be serious risks, hardships, and difficulties, which will increase as winter sets in. after nearly coming to the cowardly decision to return, i despised myself for the weakness, and having decided that some good to these people might come from farther acquaintance with their circumstances, i fell asleep, and now the die is cast. we were ready at daybreak the next morning, but for the same reasons as those given at merwana did not start till seven for an eleven hours' march. i took two armed horsemen and six armed footmen, all fine fellows used to the work of reconnoitring and protecting. three of them scouted the whole time high up on the sides of the pass, not with the purposeless sensational scouting of persian _sowars_, but with the earnestness of men who were pledged to take us safely through, and who live under arms to protect their property and families. after five hours of toiling up the drinayi pass, taking several deep fords, and being detained by a baggage horse falling fifty feet with his load, we crossed the summit, and by a long descent through hills of rounded outlines covered with uncut sun-cured hay, reached the plain of gawar, where the guards left us. on the way we passed the small christian hamlet of eyal, which was robbed of its sheep with the sacrifice of the shepherd's life the following night. at the village of yekmala on the plain the kurdish _katirgis_ by a shameful exaction got us into great trouble, and there was a fight, in which johannes's gun was wrested from him, and some of my things were taken, the kurds meantime driving off their animals at a fast trot. the aspect of affairs was so very bad and the attack on my men so violent that i paid the value of the kurdish depredations, and we got away. a little farther on the _katirgis_ were extremely outrageous, and began to fulfil their threat of "throwing down their loads," but i persuaded _qasha_ ----, who was alarmed and anxious, to leave them behind, and they thought better of it. the mountain-girdled plain of gawar is a paradise of fertility, with abundant water, and has a rich black soil capable of yielding twenty or thirtyfold to the cultivator. on it is the town of diza, chiefly armenian, which is a turkish customs station, a military post, and the residence of a kaimakam. there are over twenty christian as well as some moslem villages on gawar, and a number of kurdish hamlets and "castles" on the slopes and in the folds of the hills above it. the sun was sinking as we embarked on the plain, and above the waves of sunset gold which flooded it rose the icy spires and crags of the glorious jelu ranges and the splintered kanisairani summits. the plain has an altitude of over feet, and there was a sharp frost as we dismounted at the village of pirzala and put up at the house of the _malek_ david, having been eleven and a half hours in the saddle. after consulting with him and other village worthies i dismissed the _katirgis_ and paid them more than their contract price. the next morning they swore by the prophet's beard, and every other sacred thing, that they had not been paid, and when payment was proved by two respectable witnesses, they were not the least abashed. poor fellows! they know no better and are doubtless very poor. i was glad to get rid of their sinister faces and outbreaks of violence, but for some days it was impossible, being harvest-time, to obtain transport to kochanes, though i was able to leave pirzala for other villages. the next day mists rolled down the mountains, and a good cold english rain set in, in which i had a most pleasant ride to diza, which was repeated the following day in glorious weather, the new-fallen snow coming half-way down the mountain sides. i was surreptitiously on turkish soil, and it was necessary to show my passport to the diza officials, get a permit to travel, and have my baggage examined. ishu, the present _malek_ of the plain, through whom all business between the christians and the government is transacted, accompanied us to the mutessarif of julamerik. diza is an unwalled town on an eminence crowned by barracks. the garrison of men was reduced to six during the summer. the kurds evidently took the reduction as a hint to them to do what they liked, and they have mercilessly ravaged and harried the plain for months past.[ ] an official assured me that , sheep have been driven off from the gawar christian villages between the middle of june and the th of october, partly by the nomad herkis. there are now sixty soldiers at diza, and the mutessarif of julamerik is there, having come down to capture abdurrahman bey, one of the great oppressors of the christians,--an attempt rendered abortive (it is said) by a bribe given by the bey to the commanding officer of the troops. i was interested in my first visit to a turkish official. his room was above a stable, with a dark and difficult access, and the passages above were crowded with soldiers. the mutessarif sat on a divan at the upper end of a shabby room, an elderly man much like mr. gladstone, very courteous and gentlemanly, with plenty of conversation and _savoir-faire_. he said that the letter i carry is "a very powerful document," that it supersedes all the usual formalities, that my baggage would not even be looked at, and that i should not require a _teskareh_ or permit. by his advice i called on the kaimakam, and in each room a soldier brought in delicious coffee. the kaimakam was also very courteous, and talked agreeably and intelligently, both taking the initiative, as etiquette demands. in this and in the general tone there was a marked difference between persian and turkish officialdom. the persian governor is surrounded by civilians, the turkish by soldiers, and in the latter case the manner assumed by subordinates is one of the most profound respect. the sealing of my passport took a considerable time, during which, with _qasha_ ----, i paid several visits, was regaled with armenian cookery, tried to change a _mejidieh_ at the treasury, but found it absolutely empty, and went to see a miracle-working new testament, said to be of great antiquity, in an armenian house. it was hanging on the wall in a leather bag, from which depended strings of blue and onyx beads. sick people come to it even from great distances, as well as the friends of those who are themselves too ill to travel. the bag can only be opened by a priest. the power of healing depends on a sum of money being paid to the priest and the owners. the sick person receives a glass bead, and is forthwith cured. on gawar plain i lodged in the village houses, either in semi-subterranean hovels, in which the families live with their horses and buffaloes, or in rooms over stables. very many sick people came to me for medicines, and others with tales of wrong for conveyance to "the consul" at erzerum. no one seemed to trust any one. these conversations were always held at night in whispers, with the candle hidden "under a bushel," the light-holes filled up with straw, the door barred or a heavy stone laid against it, and a watch outside. the gawar christians are industrious and inoffensive, and have no higher aspiration than to be let alone, but they are the victims of a kurdish rapacity which leaves them little more than necessary food. their villages usually belong to kurdish aghas who take from them double the lawful taxes and tithes. the herkis sweep over the plain in their autumn migration "like a locust cloud," carrying off the possessions of the miserable people, spoiling their granaries and driving off their flocks. the kurds of the neighbouring slopes and mountains rob them by violence at night, and in the day by exactions made under threat of death. the latter mode of robbery is called "demand." the servants of a kurdish bey enter and ask for some jars of oil or _roghan_, a kashmir shawl, women's ornaments, a jewelled dagger, or a good foal, under certain threats, or they show the owner a bullet in the palm of the hand, intimating that a bullet through his head will be his fate if he refuses to give up his property or informs any one of the demand. in this way (among innumerable other instances) my host at ----,[ ] a much-respected man, had been robbed of five valuable shawls, such as descend from mother to daughter, four handsome coats, and _krans_ in silver. in the last two years ten and fifteen loads of wheat have been taken from him, and four four-feet jars filled with oil and _roghan_. four hundred and fifty sheep have likewise been seized by violence, leaving him _with only fifteen_; and one night while i was at his house fifty-three of the remaining village sheep, some of which were his, were driven off in spite of the guards, who _dare not fire_. i was awakened by the disturbance, and as it was a light night i saw that the kurds who attacked the sheepfold were armed with modern guns. the _reis_ of that village and this man's brother have both been shot by the kurds. testimony concurred in stating that the insecurity of life and property has enormously increased this summer, especially since the reduction of the diza garrison; that "things have grown very much worse since the erzerum troubles;" that the kurds have been more audacious in their demands and more reckless of human life; and that of late they have threatened the christians _as such_, saying that the government would approve of "their getting rid of them." very little of any value, the people said, was left to them, and the extreme bareness of their dwellings, and the emptiness of their stables and sheepfolds, while surrounded with possibilities of pastoral and agricultural wealth, tend to sustain their statements. "the men of government," they all said, "are in partnership with the kurds, and receive of their gains. this is our curse." many women and girls, especially at charviva and vasivawa, have been maltreated by the kurds. a fortnight ago a girl, ten years old, going out from ----, to carry bread to the reapers, was abducted. it became known that two girls in ---- were to be carried off, and they were hidden at first in a hole near ----. their hiding-place last week was known only to their father, who carried them food and water every second night. he came to me in the dark secretly, and asked me to bring them up here, where they might find a temporary asylum. daily and nightly during the week of my visit gawar was harried by the kurds, who in two instances burned what they could not carry away, the glare of the blazing sheaves lighting up the plain. the people of gawar express great anxiety for teachers. the priests and deacons must work like labourers, and cannot, they say, go down to urmi for instruction. a priest, speaking for two others, and for several deacons who were present, said, "beseech for a teacher to come and sit among us and lighten our darkness before we pass away as the morning shadows. we are blind guides, we know nothing, and our people are as sheep lost upon the mountains. when they go down into the darkness of their graves we know not how to give them any light, and so we all perish." this request was made in one of the large semi-subterranean dwellings, which serve for both men and beasts in kurdistan. the firelight flickered on horses and buffaloes, receding into the darkness, and the square mud-platform on which we sat was framed by the long horns and curly heads of mild-eyed oxen. i answered that it would be very difficult to raise money for such an object in england. "but england is very rich," the priest replied. i looked round, and the thought passed across my mind of him "who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor," whose life of self-denial from the stable at bethlehem to the cross on calvary is the example for our own, and whose voice, ringing down through ages of luxury and selfishness, still declares that discipleship involves a love for our brethren equal to his own. yes, "england is very rich," and these syrians are very poor, and have kept the faith through ages of darkness and persecution. this plain, the richest in kurdistan, is also most beautiful. in winter a frozen morass, it is not dry enough for sowing till may, and even june. this accounts for the lateness of the harvest. the jelu mountains, the highest in central kurdistan,--a mass of crags, spires, and fantastic parapets of rock, with rifts and abysses of extraordinary depth,--come down almost directly upon it. there is no wood. the villages are all alike, surrounded just now by piles of wheat and straw on their threshing-floors, with truncated cones of fodder, and high smooth black cones of animal fuel. these are often the only signs of habitations. one may ride over the roofs without knowing that houses are below. being entirely baffled by the difficulty of obtaining transport, i went on to gahgoran, and put up at the house of the parish priest, where the subterranean granary allotted to me was so completely dark that i sat all day in the sheepfold in order to be able to write and work, shifting my position as the sun shifted his. a _zaptieh_ had been sent from diza, who guarded me so sedulously that _qasha_ ---- dared not speak to me, lest the man should think he was giving me information. gahgoran was full of strangers. the patriarch had come down from kochanes, and occupied the only room in the village, whither i went to pay my respects to him. the room was nearly dark, and foggy with tobacco smoke, but a ray of light fell on mar gauriel, bishop of urmi, a handsome full-bearded man in a nestorian turban, full trousers, a madder-red frock with a bright girdle in which a _khanjar_ glittered, and a robe over all, a leader of armed men in appearance. i had met him in urmi, and he shook hands and presented me to mar shimun, a swarthy gloomy-looking man. in his turn he presented me to mar sergis, bishop of jelu, a magnificent-looking man with a superb gray beard, the _beau-ideal_ of an oriental ecclesiastic. _maleks_ and headmen of villages sat round the room against the wall, not met for any spiritual conclave but for stern business regarding the taxes, for the patriarch is a salaried official of the turkish government. all rose when i entered, and according to a polite custom stood till i sat down. they held out no hope of getting baggage animals, and i returned to the sheepfold. it was a long day. the servants did not arrive till night, and kochanes receded hourly! many people came for medicine, and among them a very handsome man whose house was entered by kurds a month ago, who threatened him with death unless he surrendered his possessions. after this he and his brothers fled and hid among the wheat, but fearing to be found and killed, they concealed themselves for a fortnight in the tall reeds of a marsh. he is now subject to violent fits of trembling. "my illness is fear," the poor fellow said. three hundred sheep had been taken from him and twenty-five gold _liras_; his grass had been burned, "and now," he said, "the oppressor hazela bey says, 'give me the deeds of your lands, if not i will kill you.'" he had been a _malek_, and was so rich that he entertained travellers and their horses at all times. now his friends have to give him wheat wherewith to make bread. the house of _qasha_ jammo has granaries at each side of the low door, a long dark passage leading into a subterranean stable with a platform for guests, and a living-room, on a small scale, like the one at marbishu. a space was cleared in the granary for my bed among wheat, straw, ploughs, beetles, starved cats, osier graintubs coated with clay, six feet high, and agricultural gear of all sorts. it was a horrid place, and the door would not bolt. after midnight i was awakened by a sound as if big rats were gnawing the beams. i got up and groping my way to the door heard it more loudly, went into the passage, looked through the chinks in the outer door, and saw a number of kurds armed with guns. i retreated and fired my revolver in the granary, which roused the dogs, and the dogs roused the twenty strangers who were receiving the priest's hospitality. in the stable were fourteen horses, including my own two, and several buffaloes. the kurds had dug through the roof of the granary opposite mine, and through its wall into the stable, and were on the point of driving out the horses through the common passage when the hardy mountaineers rushed upon them. the same night, though it was light and clear, another house in gahgoran was dug into, and a valuable horse belonging to a man in the patriarch's train was abstracted. a descent was also made on the neighbouring village of vasivawa, which has suffered severely. eight _zaptiehs_ employed by the villagers at a high price to watch the threshing-floor, and my own _zaptieh_ escort, were close at hand. horses having at last been obtained from a kurdish bey, i left on tuesday, the gahgoran people being stupefied with dismay at the growing audacity of the kurds. the mountain road was very dangerous, but i travelled with mar gauriel and his train, thirteen well armed and mounted men, besides armed servants on foot. the ice was half an inch thick, but the sun was very hot. the mountain views were superb, and the scenery altogether glorious, but the passes and hillsides are not inhabited. we were ten hours on the journey, owing to the custom of frequent halts for smoking and talking. in the afternoon a party of syrians with some unladen baggage mules came over the crest of a hill, preceded by a figure certainly not syrian. this was a fair-complexioned, bearded man, with hair falling over his shoulders, dressed in a girdled cassock which had once been black, tucked up so as to reveal some curious nether garments, syrian socks, and a pair of rope and worsted shoes, such as the mountaineers wear in scaling heights. on his head, where one would have expected to see a college "trencher," was a high conical cap of white felt with a _pagri_ of black silk twisted into a rope, the true tyari turban. this was mr. browne, one of the english mission clergy, who, from living for nearly four years among the syrians of the mountains, helping them and loving them, has almost become one of them. he was going to diza to get winter supplies before his departure for one of the most inaccessible of the mountain valleys, but with considerate kindness turned back to kochanes with me, and remains here until i leave. this fortunate _rencontre_ adds the finishing touch to the interest of this most fascinating kurdistan journey. crossing the kandal pass, we descended on the hamlet of shawutha, superbly situated on a steep declivity at the head of a tremendous ravine leading to the zab, blocked apparently by mountains violet-purple against a crimson sky, with an isolated precipitous rock in the foreground, crowned by an ancient church difficult of access. below the village are fair shelving lawns, with groups of great walnut trees, hawthorn, and ash, yellow, tawny, and crimson--a scene of perfect beauty in the sunset, while the fallen leaves touched the soft green turf with ruddy gold. the camping-grounds were very fair, but the villagers dared not let me camp. the kurds were about, and had exacted a ewe and lamb from every house. owing to the influx of strangers, it was difficult to get any shelter, and i slept in a horse and ox stable, burrowed in the hillside, the passage to the family living-room, without any air holes, hot and stifling, and used my woollen sheets for curtains. the village is grievously smitten by the "cattle plague." in telling me of the loss of "four bulls" within three days, my host used an expression which is not uncommon here, "by the wealth of god, and the head of mar shimun." yesterday we descended feet, alongside of a torrent fringed with scarlet woods, and halted where the shawutha, kochanes, and diz valleys meet at the fords of the zab, here known as "the pison, the river of eden." the zab, only fordable at certain seasons, is there a fast-flowing dark green river, fully sixty yards wide, deep enough to take the footmen up to their waists, and strong enough to make them stagger, with a lawn bright with autumnal foliage below the savage and lofty mountains on its right bank. from the zab we ascended the gorge of the kochanes water by a wild mountain path, at times cut into steps or scaffolded, and at other times merely a glistening track over shelving rock, terminating in a steep and difficult ascent to the fair green alp on which kochanes stands at the feet of three imposing peaks of naked rock--quhaibalak, qwarah, and barchallah. thus i beheld at last the goal of my journey from luristan, and was not disappointed. glorious indeed is this kurdistan world of mountains, piled up in masses of peaks and precipices, cleft by ravines in which the ashirets and yezidis find shelter, every peak snow-crested, every ravine flaming with autumn tints; and here, where the ridges are the sharpest, and the rock spires are the most imposing, on a spur between the full-watered torrents of the terpai and the yezidi, surrounded on three sides by gorges and precipices, is this little mountain village, the latest refuge of the head of a church once the most powerful in the east. kochanes consists of a church built on the verge of a precipice, many tombs, a grove of poplars, a sloping lawn, scattered village houses and barley-fields extending up the alp, and nearly on the edge of a precipitous cliff the patriarch's residence, a plain low collection of stone buildings, having an arched entrance and a tower for refuge or defence. the houses of his numerous relations are grouped near it. everything is singularly picturesque. the people, being afraid of an attack from the kurds, would not suffer me to pitch my tent on their fair meadow, and sulti, the patriarch's sister, has installed me in a good room in the house, looking across the tremendous ravine of the terpai upon savage mountains, the lower skirts of which are clothed with the tawny foliage of the scrub oak, and their upper heights with snow. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] i have since heard that these kurds, a short time afterwards, betrayed some christian travellers into the hands of some of their own people, by whom they were robbed and brutally maltreated. [ ] i give the story as it was repeatedly told to me. it was a very shady and complicated transaction throughout. [ ] dr. cutts, in his interesting volume, _christians under the crescent in asia_, gives the following translation of one of the morning praises, which forms part of the daily prayer. the earlier portion is chanted antiphonally in semi-choirs-- "_semi-choir-- st._ at the dawn of day we praise thee, o lord: thou art the redeemer of all creatures, give us by thy mercy a peaceful day, and give us remission of our sins. "_ d._ cut not off our hope, shut not thy door against our faces, and cease not thy care over us. o god, according to our worthiness reward us not. thou alone knowest our weakness. "_ st._ scatter, o lord, in the world love, peace, and unity. raise up righteous kings, priests, and judges. give peace to the nations, heal the sick, keep the whole, and forgive the sins of all men. "_ d._ in the way that we are going may thy grace keep us, o lord, as it kept the child david from saul. give us thy mercy as we are pressing on, that we may attain to peace according to thy will. the grace which kept the prophet moses in the sea, and daniel in the pit, and by which the companions of ananias were kept in the fire, by that grace deliver us from evil. "_whole choir._--in the morning we all arise, we all worship the father, we praise the son, we acknowledge the holy spirit. the grace of the father, the mercy of the son, and the hovering of the holy spirit, the third person, be our help every day. our help is in thee. in thee, our true physician, is our hope. put the medicine of thy mercy on our wounds, and bind up our bruises that we be not lost. without thy help we are powerless to keep thy commandments. o christ, who helpest those who fulfil thy will, keep thy worshippers. we ask with sighing, we beseech thy mercy, we ask forgiveness from that merciful one who opens his door to all who turn unto him. every day i promise thee that to-morrow i will repent: all my days are past and gone, my faults still remain. o christ, have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me." [ ] about christmas in constantinople i had an opportunity of laying the state of the gawar christians and the reduction of the garrison of diza before his highness kiamil pasha, then grand vizier. he appeared deeply interested, and said that it was the purpose of his government to send troops up to the region as soon as the roads were open. since then i have heard nothing of these people, but to-day, as this sheet is going to press, i have received the following news from dr. shedd of urmi: "you will be glad to know that gawar is very much changed for the better. the turkish governor has been removed, and another of far better character and ability has the post. the kurdish robbers have been arrested, and their leader, abdurrahman bey, killed."--_november _, . [ ] the complaints to which i became a listener were made by _maleks_, bishops, priests, headmen, and others. exaggerations prevail, and the same story is often told with as many variations as there are narrators. i cannot vouch for anything which did not come under my own observation. some narratives dissolved under investigation, leaving a mere nucleus of fact. those which i thought worthy of being noted down--some of which were published in the _contemporary review_ in may and june in two papers called _the shadow of the kurd_--were either fortified by corroborative circumstances, or rest on the concurrent testimony as to the main facts of three independent narrators. in some cases i was asked to lay the statements before the british consul at erzerum, with the names of the narrators as the authority on which they rested, but in the greater number i was implored not to give names or places, or any means of identification. "we are in fear of our lives if we tell the truth," they urged. sometimes i asked them if they would abide by what they told me in the event of an investigation by the british vice-consul at van. "no, no, no, we dare not!" was the usual reply. under these circumstances, the only course open to me is to withhold the names of persons and places wherever i was pledged to do so, but as a guarantee of good faith i have placed the statements, confidentially, with the names, in the hands of her majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs. letter xxix kochanes, _oct. _. after two days the patriarch arrived from gahgoran with nearly forty persons. to realise what this house is like, one must go back four centuries, to the mode of living of the medieval barons of england. mar shimun is not only a spiritual prince, but the temporal ruler of the syrians of the plains and valleys, and of the ashirets or tribal syrians of the mountains of central kurdistan, as well as a judge and a salaried official of the turkish government. he appoints the _maleks_ or lay rulers of each district, where the office is not hereditary, and possesses ecclesiastical patronage. for over four centuries the patriarch has been of the family of shimun, which is regarded as the royal family; and he is assisted in managing affairs by a "family council." kochanes is thus the ecclesiastical and political metropolis of the syrian nation, and the innumerable disputes which arise among the people of this region are brought here for judgment and arbitration. it is a crowded life. from sunrise to sunset the pavement outside the rude hall of entrance, the great room, like that at marbishu, where sulti presides, and the guest-chambers, are always thronged with men waiting to be received by the patriarch, sleeping on the big settle in the hall, or cleaning swords and guns, or wrestling, performing feats of horsemanship, playing chess, and eating. sixty persons more or less are guests here. every one coming into the valley is received, and horses are stabled while men are fed. outside, sheep and fowls are being continually killed, two or three sheep being required daily; mules are departing for diza for stores, or are returning with flour and sugar; oxen are bringing in hay, and perpetual measuring and weighing are going on. the cost of provisioning such an army of guests is enormous, and presses heavily on the patriarch's slender resources. intrigues are rife. in some ways every man's hand is against his fellow, and the succession to the patriarchate, although nominally settled, is a subject of scheming, plotting, rivalries, and jealousies. then there are various appointments, secular and spiritual, to be wrangled for, the difficult relations with turkey to be managed, and such a wavering policy to be shaped towards rome and american presbyterianism as shall absolutely break with neither. among the guests who come and go as they please, unquestioned, are refugees from the barbarities of the kurds, among the most pitiable of whom is mar ----, bishop of ----, bereft under threat of death of his episcopal seal, and a fugitive from his diocese, which is almost destroyed by violence and exactions. few hours pass in which some fresh tale of bloodshed, or the driving off of flocks, or the attacking of travellers, or the digging into houses, is not brought up here. a piteous state of alarm prevails. mar shimun, naturally feeble and irresolute, and his family council are helpless. his dual position aggravates his perplexities. counsels are divided and paralysed. no one knows where to turn for help on earth, and "the lord is deaf," some of the people say. on entering the house by an archway, where the heavily-bossed door stands always open, a busy scene is to be witnessed in the hall, which is roughly paved with irregular slabs of stone. on the rude stone settle men are sitting or sleeping, or a carpenter is using it as his bench, or a sheep is being cut up on it. at the end of a passage is the "house," a high, big, blackened room, with shelving floors of earth and rock, ovens in the floors, great _quaraghs_ holding grain, piles of wood, men sawing logs, huge pots, goat-skins of butter hanging from the rafters, spinning-wheels, a loom, great roughly-cut joints of meat, piles of potatoes, women ceaselessly making blankets of bread, to be used as tablecloths before being eaten, preparations for the ceaseless meals involved by the unbounded hospitality of the house, and numbers of daggered serving-men, old women, and hangers-on. this room is only lighted from the doors and from a hole in the roof. nearly opposite is a low dark lobby, from which opens my room, sixteen feet square, with walls three feet thick, and mar shimun's room, about the same size, which serves him for sleeping, eating, reception-room, and office. on the same side of the hall are two guest-rooms, now packed to their utmost capacity, and a large room in which ishai, the patriarch's half-brother, a young man of exceeding beauty, lives, with his lovely wife, asiat, and their four children. in a ruinous-looking tower attached to the main building mr. browne has his abode, up a steep ladder. below there are houses inhabited by the patriarch's relations, one of whom, marta, is a dignified and charming woman, and the mother of mar auraham, the patriarch-designate, whose prospective dignity is the subject of much intrigue. the presiding genius of the patriarch's household is his sister sulti, a capable woman of forty, who has remained unmarried in order to guide his house, and who rules as well as guides. when she sleeps i know not. she is astir early and late, measuring, weighing, directing, the embodiment of proverbs chap. xxxi. no little brain-power must be required for the ordering of such a household and the meeting of such emergencies as that of to-day, when twenty jelu men arrived unexpectedly. the serving-men all look like bandits. the medieval jester is in existence here, shlimon, a privileged person, who may say and do anything, and take all manner of liberties, and who, by his unlimited buffooneries, helps the patriarch and his family through the dulness of the winter days. he and another faithful fellow, said to be equally quick with his tongue and his dagger, are mar shimun's personal servants. at fixed hours the latter carries food to his lord in tinned copper bowls on a large round tray, knives and forks not having penetrated to kochanes. the routine of the day is as follows. the patriarch rises very early, and says prayers at dawn, after which those who have the _entrée_ are served with pipes and coffee in his room, and talk _ad libitum_. business of all sorts follows; a _siesta_ is taken at mid-day, then there is business again, and unlimited talk with unlimited smoking till five, when the patriarch goes to prayers at church, after which everybody is at liberty to attend his _levée_, and talking and smoking go on till or p.m. it is a life without privacy or quiet. the affairs of the mountains, litigation, tribal feuds, the difficulty of raising the tribute, the gossip of the village, and just now, above all else, the excesses of the kurds, form the staple of conversation, as i understand from _qasha_ ----, who, as a personal friend, spends much of the day in the patriarch's room. in winter, when kochanes is snowed up, chess and the pranks and witticisms of the jester fill up the time. the curious little court, the rigid etiquette, the clank of arms, the unbounded hospitality, and the political and judicial functions exercised by the patriarch, with the rude dwelling and furnishings, combine to re-create the baronial life as it might have been lived in roslin or warkworth castles. though i had half-seen mar shimun at gahgoran, i was only formally presented after his arrival here. it is proper for a woman to cover her head before him, and i put on my hat and took off my shoes. his room is well paved, the plaster is newly coloured, and there is a glazed window with a magnificent prospect. there were rugs at one end, on which the patriarch was seated, with two chairs at his left hand. he rose to receive me, and, according to custom, i kissed his hand. he took my letter of introduction, and put it under a cushion, as etiquette demanded, and asked me to be seated. on the floor along the walls were bishops, priests, deacons, jelu and tyari mountaineers, lowlanders from urmi, and men of the shimun family, all most picturesquely dressed and smoking long wooden pipes. on each subsequent occasion, when i paid my respects to him, he was similarly surrounded. mr. browne acted as interpreter, but nothing but very superficial conversation was possible when there was the risk that anything said might be twisted into dangerous use. mar shimun is a man about the middle height, with large dark eyes, a sallow complexion, a grizzled iron-gray beard, and an expression of profound melancholy, mingled with a most painful look of perplexity and irresolution. he cannot be over fifty, but the miseries and intrigues around him make him appear prematurely old. when i approached the subject of the anarchy of the country he glared timidly and fearfully round, and changed the subject, sending me a message afterwards that _qasha_ ---- and kwaja shlimon, a chaldæan educated in paris, are in possession of all that he could tell me, and would speak for him. he and his family are very proud both of ancestry and position. within limits his word is law; a letter from him is better than any government passport or escort through the nearly inaccessible fastnesses of the ashirets; "by the head of mar shimun," and "by the house of mar shimun" are common asseverations, but he and his are exposed constantly to indignities and insults from minor turkish officials and from kurdish chiefs, and the continual disrespect to his person and office is said to be eating into his soul. he wears a crimson _fez_ with a black _pagri_, a short blue cloth jacket with sleeves wide at the bottom and open for a few inches at the inner seam, blue cloth trousers of a sailor cut, a red and white striped satin shirt, the front and sleeves of which are very much _en évidence_, and a crimson girdle, but without the universal _khanjar_. this is the man who is the head at once of a church and nation, the temporal and spiritual ruler of the syrian people, the hereditary patriarch, the _catholicos_ of the east, whose dynastic ancestors ranked as sixth in dignity in the catholic church in its early ages. it was not, however, till the early part of the fifth century, when the church of the east threw in her lot with nestorius, after his condemnation in by the council of ephesus for "heretical" views on the nature of our lord, that the _catholicos_ of the east assumed the farther title of patriarch. as i look on mar shimun's irresolute face, and see the homage which his people pay to him, i recall the history of a day when this church, which only survives as an obscure and hunted remnant, planted churches and bishoprics in persia, central asia, tartary, and china; its missionaries, full of zeal and self-sacrifice, brought such legions into its fold that in the sixth century the ecclesiastical ancestor of this patriarch, then resident at baghdad, ruled over twenty-five metropolitical provinces extending from jerusalem to china; and when in the fourteenth century it was not only the largest communion in christendom, but outnumbered the whole of the rest of christendom, east and west, roman, greek, and other churches put together. it is truly a marvel not only that baghdad, edessa, and nisibis possessed nestorian schools of divinity and philosophy, but that christian colleges, seminaries, and theological schools flourished in samarcand, bokhara, and khiva! how this huge church melted away like snow, and how the tide of christianity ebbed, leaving as a relic on its high-water mark within the chinese frontier a stone tablet inscribed with the nestorian creed, and how taimurlane pursued the unfortunate christian remnant with such fury that the _catholicos_ himself with a fugitive band was forced to fly into these mountains, are matters of most singular historic interest. most fascinating indeed is it to be here. each day seems but an hour, so absorbing are the interests, so deep the pathos, so vivid the tableaux, so unique the life in this hamlet of kochanes, on its fair green alp at a height of feet among these wild mountains of kurdistan, musical with the sound of torrents fed by fifty snow-drifts, dashing down to join "the pison, the river of eden" (as the patriarch calls the zab), on its way to the classic tigris. the afternoon i arrived, sulti, marta, asiat, and several other women courteously visited me, and the next day i returned their visits in their simple pleasant houses. these formalities over, i have enjoyed complete liberty, and have acquainted myself with the whole of kochanes, and with many of the people and their interests, and have had small gatherings of men in my room each evening, _qasha_ ---- or mr. browne interpreting their tales of strife or wrong. "fear is on every side," the fear of a people practically unarmed, for their long guns, some of them matchlocks, are of no use against the rifles of the kurds, _nor dare they fire in self-defence_. travelling is nearly suspended. a company of people whose needs call them to urmi dare not run the risk of the journey till they can go down with mar gauriel and his large escort. it is evident that the patriarch and his people hoped for a british protectorate as one result of "the archbishop of canterbury's mission," and that they are bitterly disappointed that their condition is growing worse. "how can we listen to teaching," say some of them, "when we have no rest? how can we believe in god when he lets these things happen to us? the almighty is deaf, and we cease to pray. can we hear teaching when the wolf is on us by night and day? if we let go the cross we might be rich and safe. night by night we ask, 'shall we see the morning?' for our oppressors wax fiercer daily." mar ----, bishop of ----, mentioned previously as a fugitive from his diocese, is a fine, pleasant-looking middle-aged man, more like a sailor than an ecclesiastic. late one night, in a whisper, with a trusty watch at the door, he told his story, through _qasha_ ----, in the following words: "i fled, fearing for my life, because many times i had spoken against the oppressions. the kurds have carried away most of the sheep and goats, besides taking all they wished to have, and they entered through the houses, plundering everything, and burning two in ----. their words are 'give or die.' i petitioned government regarding the oppressions, and mohammed bey came, and by threat of death he got my seal, and wrote in my name a letter, saying it was all false, there were no oppressions, and he was a very good man, and he signed it with my seal, and it went to stamboul. my seal has now been for one year in the hands of mohammed bey, who has killed about thirty christians in berwar. three months ago i fled to save my life. "seventeen years the oppressions have begun; but it was ten years ago when we could easily keep ourselves and raise our bread--now we cannot. in ----, five years ago, all had plenty of dress and bread, and every family kept two cows and two hundred or more of sheep. but now, when i visited them, i would shame to look at the female persons, so naked were they, and so did they hide themselves for shame in the dark parts of their houses, for their dress was all in pieces, so that their flesh was seen. i was thirsty and asked for milk, and they made reply, 'oh, we have not a cow, or a sheep, or a goat: we forget the taste of milk!' and most of their fine fields were gone out of their hands by oppressions, for they could no longer find money wherewith to pay taxes, and they sold them for a vile price. "k---- was the best village in sopana, and more wealthy than any village of kurds or christians. there i went and asked for some milk. they said, 'never a goat, or a sheep, or a cow have we.' i ask of all the families their condition, and they make reply, with many tears, 'all that we have has left our hands, and we fear for our lives now. we were rich, now we have not bread to eat from day to day.' seventeen years ago the village of b---- had fifty families of wealthy villagers, but now i only find twelve, and those twelve could scarcely find bread. i had asked bread, but i could not find it. by day their things were taken by force out of their houses: at night their sheep and cattle were driven off. they could keep nothing. our wheat, our sheep, our butter is not our own. the chief, mohammed bey, and his servants ask of us, saying, 'give, or we will kill you.'" this is a sample of innumerable tales to which i listen daily. some are probably grossly exaggerated, others, and this among them, are probably true in all essential particulars. daily, from all quarters, men arrive with their complaints of robbery and violence, and ask the patriarch to obtain redress for them, but he is powerless. [illustration: designs on tombs at kochanes. _to face p. , vol. ii._] my favourite walk is down the fair green lawn outside the village, on which is a copse of poplars, with foliage of reddening gold. beside it, on the verge of the precipitous heights above the terpai, is a bold group of rocks, on which the church dedicated to mar shalita is built. the ruins of a former church, dedicated to mart mariam, are higher up the alp. below the rocks are a great number of tombstones, with incised ornaments upon them bearing the general name of crosses. the church has nothing specially ecclesiastical in its appearance. it has some resemblance to a keep with out-buildings, and its irregular form seems to have been dictated by the configuration of the rock. it has no windows, and the cruciform slits at a great height look like loopholes. it is indeed the ultimate refuge of the patriarch and the villagers in case of a descent of the kurds. i walked all round it, through the poplar grove, with its mirthful waters, among the tombs, and back by the edge of the ravine to the west side without finding a door. in truth the only entrance is up a rude and very steep ladder, about ten feet high, with a rude door at the top six inches thick, but only three feet high. how old and infirm people get up and down i cannot tell. so difficult is the access that i was glad to avail myself of the vigorous aid of mar gauriel, who, having visited england, is ready on all occasions with courteous attentions to a lady. the reason of the low doors is said to be that all may bow their heads on entering the house of god, and that the moslems may not stable their cattle in the church. the entrance harmonises with the obvious pervading motive of the design, which is _inaccessibility_. [illustration: syrian cross.] the door opens into a small courtyard, partly protected by a wooden roof. at its farther end, in a recess in its massive wall, is a small altar. its west wall is pierced so that the approach can be commanded. in this courtyard the daily prayers are frequently said during the warm weather. a few steps lead from this into a building of two stories, a rude little house in fact, once occupied by one of the patriarchs, and latterly by the late rabban yonan, a holy man, almost a hermit, whose reputation for sanctity has extended far beyond the limits of kurdistan. removing our shoes, we entered the church through a sort of porch, the lintel of which is ornamented with bas-reliefs consisting of a cross in knot-work and side ornaments of the same, very rudely executed. the threshold is elevated, and the lintel of the door only three feet four inches high, so that the worshipper must bend again before entering. it was a gloomy transition from the bright october sunshine to the dark twilight within, and even with the aid of candles the interior was only dimly seen. it consists of a nave, about thirty-four feet long, with a sanctuary, and a sacristy which also serves as the baptistery, at the east end. the nave is lofty and without seats. the worshippers stand during divine service, even the aged and infirm only rest by leaning on their cross-handled staffs. in the nave, below the screen of the sanctuary, are three altars. on one, the "altar of prayers," the anthem books are laid; on another, the "altar of the gospels," is a copy of the gospels wrapped in a cloth, on which is a cross, which it is customary to kiss; on the third there is also a cross. a very thick wall separates the nave from the eastern chamber, which in its turn is divided unequally into two parts. this wall is pierced by a narrow chancel arch, and there is a narrow platform behind the altars of prayer, etc., ascended by three steps, at which the people receive the eucharistic elements. through the arch is dimly seen the altar, over which is a stone canopy, or _baldachino_, supported on four pillars. in the sacristy is a narrow but deep font, in which the infant is baptized by being dipped in the water up to the knees at the name of the father, up to the waist at the name of the son, and wholly immersed at the name of the holy ghost, the priest repeating, "thou art baptized in the name of the father, amen, and of the son, amen, and of the holy ghost, amen." before the rite the infant's forehead is anointed with oil in the church, and it is completely anointed in the baptistery before being plunged into the font. every infant has two god-parents, who act as sponsors at its subsequent marriage. these persons by undertaking this office are placed in a relationship of affinity close enough to be a bar to marriage. after the baptism the child is confirmed in the nave with oil and the imposition of the priest's hands, and after being very tightly bound up in its swaddling clothes is handed to the god-parents. infant communion is the rule of the church, but the elements are rarely received at the time of baptism. baptism is only valid when celebrated by a priest and in a consecrated church. private baptisms are unlawful, but there is a form of prayer appointed for use if a child is dangerously ill, during which the priest signs a basin of water with the sign of the cross, saying, "in the strength of our lord may this water be of blessing in the name," etc. the mother afterwards bathes the child in the water, and if it dies they "trust it to the mercy of god." if it recovers it must be taken to church to be baptized in the usual manner. the holy communion, the _kourbana_, ought by rule to precede baptism in the very early morning, and the baptismal rite ought to be administered on the eighth day, but it is often postponed till the annual village festival, at which the _kourbana_ is always celebrated.[ ] the whole interior of the church of kochanes is covered by a plain vaulted stone roof. at the west end of the nave is a row of oblong stone tombs, four feet high, in which several of the patriarchs are buried; and a steep narrow stone stair leads from these to a small door high up in the north wall, which gives access to a small chamber in which the priest prepares and bakes the bread for the holy communion. the flour for this purpose is preferably of wheat which has been gleaned by girls. it is ground in a hand-mill and is mixed with "holy leaven," handed on from sacrament to sacrament. the bread is made into round cakes, a quarter of an inch thick and two and a half inches in diameter, which are stamped with a cross. great importance is attached to the elements, and the water used for mixing with the sacramental wine is always brought from the purest spring within reach.[ ] on one side of this upper chamber, at a height of four feet, there is the mouth of a sort of tunnel which runs between the flat exterior roof and the vaulted ceiling of the nave. this is used for concealing the liturgies and the other poor valuables of the church in times of peril. secret as this hiding-place is, the kurds discovered it some years ago, and carried off and destroyed whatever of value had been hidden, including a _firman_ and a knife which (it is said) were given by mohammed to a former _catholicos_, and which are now in stamboul. the general arrangement of the church is a pathetic protest against chronic insecurity and persecution. the interior, and especially the sanctuary, are as black as smoke can make them, although very few candles are ordinarily used, the clergy holding rolls of thin wax taper in their hands when they require light on the liturgies and gospel. there is little architectural ornament except some sculptured stones, and two recesses with scallop-shell roofs at the sides of the chancel arch. the church is in good repair, for if any rain gets into a sacred building it has to be reconsecrated. towards five o'clock the sounding-board is beaten, and the patriarch, the two bishops, and some other men, all in secular dress, saunter down to evening prayers, which are usually said by the patriarch himself, and consist of a few prayers, a short lesson, and some psalms. the custom is for the people on entering to kiss the cross, the gospels, and the patriarch's hand, and to lay their daggers in the church porch. clerical vestments are not worn at these services. the liturgies and gospels are magnificent specimens of caligraphy, and the syriac characters are in themselves beautiful. it is appointed that the whole psalter be recited in three days, and though i imagine that some abridgment is made, the priests and people, contrary to rule, are apt to sit on the floor during the antiphonal singing of the psalms, owing to their extreme length. the chanting is very discordant, as each man adopts the key which suits himself. the "kiss of peace" is an interesting and decorous feature of the daily worship, and is always given at the beginning, even if it should be omitted at the close. on entering the church the priest crosses himself and kisses the cross, which always lies on the altar on the north side, saying, "glory be to god in the highest." after this the people come forward and kiss first the cross and then the priest's hand, and each passing on touches the hands of those who before him have kissed the sacred emblem and raises his own hand to his lips. it is the custom always to kiss the hand of a bishop or priest on meeting him in the road or elsewhere and the salutation is performed in a reverential manner. the church furniture and vestments show the great poverty of the people. the altar cloth is figured white cotton. two tarnished and battered candlesticks stand on the altar, and a very sordid cross in the recess behind it. the chalice is a silver bowl, tarnished, almost blackened, by neglect, and the paten is a silver tray in the same state. there are a bronze censer, an antique, with embossed scripture figures upon it, and a branched lamp-stand surmounted by a bird, both of the rudest construction, and greatly neglected. dust and cobwebs of ancient date, droppings from candles and bits of candle wicks offend western eyes in the sacristy and elsewhere. the clerical dress is very simple and of the poorest materials. the priest wears an alb, a girdle, and a stole crossed over the breast, and at the _kourbana_ a calico square with crosses in coloured cotton sewn upon it, thrown over the shoulders, and raised at times to cover the head, or to form a screen between him and the congregation. the deacon wears an alb or "church shirt" with coloured cotton crosses on the breast and back, a blue and white girdle, and a stole which is crossed over the right shoulder and has its ends tucked into the girdle. the only difference in the dress of a bishop is that he wears a stole reaching to the ankles and not crossed upon the breast. the ordinary attire of the clergy and laity is the same, and the same similarity pervades their occupations. even bishops may be seen hard at work in the fields. the sanctuary is held in great reverence, and mar gauriel, who is more like a jolly sailor than a priest, put on a girdle and stole before entering it when he showed it to me. strange to say, the priests and deacons officiating at the holy communion retain their shoes and remove their turbans. the graves round the church are very numerous, and are neatly kept. one burial has taken place since i came. the corpse, that of a stranger, was enclosed in a rough wooden coffin, and the blowing of horns, beating of drums, carrying of branches decorated with handkerchiefs and apples, and the wailing of the women and other demonstrations of grief, such as men jumping into the grave, beating their breasts and uttering cries of anguish, distressing scenes which are usual at syrian funerals, were consequently absent. the burial service is very striking and dramatic, and there are different "orders" for bishops, priests, deacons, laymen, women, and children. the whole, if recited at full length, takes fully five hours! besides prayers innumerable both for the departed and the survivors, there are various dialogues between the mourners and the departed, and between the departed and the souls of those already in hades.[ ] in spite of the perils around, "marrying and giving in marriage" go on much as usual. mar gauriel, bishop of urmi, has come up on nothing less important than a matrimonial errand, to ask for the hand of the patriarch's niece, a small child of eight years old, the daughter of ishai and asiat, for his nephew, a boy of fourteen. girls may marry at twelve, and the beautiful asiat, the child's mother, is only twenty. i was invited to tea when the proposals were made in a neutral house, where mr. browne interpreted the proceedings for me. mar gauriel, handsomely dressed in red, with a _khelat_ or "coat of honour" given him by the shah over his usual clothes, looked as blithe and handsome as a suitor should. he sat on one side of the floor with a friend to help his suit, and on the other were seated sulti, asiat, and the child. conversation was general for a time; then the bishop, with a change of face which meant business, produced a small parcel, and laid on the floor, with a deliberate pause between the articles, carbuncle and diamond rings, gold-headed pins, gold bracelets, a very fine pink coral necklace, with a gold and turquoise pendant, and finally a long chain of hollow balls of massive filigree silver, beautiful enough to "fetch" any woman. the mother and aunt sat rigidly, assumed stony faces, and would not admire. but mar gauriel had other weapons in his armoury, and produced from a large bundle articles of dress of full size, among which were constantinople gauze gowns sprigged with gold, a green silk gown covered with embroidery, and lastly a sort of coat of very rich cloth of gold, a costly thing. the child's eyes sparkled at this. the bishop looked up from it at the two women, but a look of contempt alone flitted across their stony faces. then he began his plea, which was loud and eloquent. he said he could get a hundred brides for his nephew, who would be good workers, but the daughter of asiat should be a princess, and have servants to wait upon her, and have nothing to do. he said he would wait four years for her, he only wanted a promise. he was not tactful. he set forth the advantages of an alliance with himself too strongly for a suitor. the house of mar shimun is very proud and its connection is courted by all, and the ladies were obdurate and literally frowned on his plea, looking with well-acted contempt upon the glittering display on the floor. two days later the patriarch himself rejected mar gauriel's suit, saying, "it would be a shame for the house of mar shimun--it would be a shameful example to betroth so young a girl." there the matter must rest, for a time at least. an actual marriage is arranged, and this time the bride, sanjani, is a handsome and very attractive girl of fourteen years old, with a strong will and individuality. she has been several times to see me, and i have become quite interested in her. yesterday a number of men were seen descending the dizzy zigzags which lead from jelu down the mountain on the other side of the terpai ravine, and later, after a few shots had been fired, a party of jelu mountaineers superbly dressed came up into kochanes, also on a matrimonial errand. some of these men are quite blond. they came on behalf of a youth of high position in jelu, and the bargaining was keen, for the girl is of the house of mar shimun. eventually they gave twenty _liras_, a mule, a gun, thirty sheep, and a revolver for her, as well as presents to the negotiators. she wept most bitterly at the prospect of leaving kochanes. the money is spent on the _trousseau_, and the bride's parents give a present to the bridegroom. shortly after the betrothal, mar sergis, bishop of jelu, arrived, with fifty jelu men, the young bridegroom, and some matrons. the bishop, who is a grand-looking man, was dressed in a robe, red _shulwars_, and a turban; the other men were in silks and gold embroideries, and carried jewelled _khanjars_, revolvers, and long guns with the stocks curiously inlaid with ivory and silver. as they climbed up through the bushes of the ravine they simulated an attack by skirmishers, firing guns and revolvers. a few kochanes men fired as if in defence, but most of the people decided not to show this "sign of joy," because news had come that the kurds had driven off the sheep of the father of asiat. so with this feint of attack and capture the brilliant throng reached the top of the ascent, mar sergis and others riding mules, musicians playing a drum and flageolets, and five or six men with drawn swords in their right hands and leather shields on their left arms escorting the bridegroom to the hospitalities of the patriarch's house. the roofs were crowded with villagers, but the bride was hidden in her father's house. the father had beaten her on her head with a long wooden spoon, and she was lying down! on that and the two following evenings there was dancing in the house late into the night, and the days were spent in feasting, sword-dances, and masquerading. it is regarded as a very "good" marriage for sanjani. the marriage ceremony, which is private, was performed in the church at sunrise on the fourth day. there were present mar sergis the bridegroom's uncle, the bridegroom, "the bridegroom's friend," and sanjani and her mother, who were preceded to the church by a fifer. the marriage service, which took half an hour, was performed at the west end of the nave. at the conclusion wine and water (but not as a eucharistic symbol), mixed with a little earth from the church precincts, were administered to the married couple. the ring is used as with us. the most curious part of the ceremony is that while the service or "blessing," as it is called, is proceeding, the groomsman holds up a light wooden frame, to which fruits are attached. this is also hung over the bridegroom's head at the father-in-law's house, and is carried with him when he goes out to dance. it is broken on the last day of the feasting, and the pair and their friends eat the fruit. the festivities were prolonged for three days more, after which the bride, with music and firing of guns, was taken away in charge of the matrons to her husband's house in jelu, where there were to be rejoicings and feastings for other seven days. as the bride's procession passes, the bridegroom, attended by his young men-friends, takes his place on a roof, with a store of apples beside him, which, after signing himself with the cross, he throws among the crowd, the hitting of the bride being regarded as a sign of good luck. bishops are not allowed to marry, but to priests after their ordination both first and second marriages are permitted. the law of divorce is very lax, even according to the church canons, and canon maclean says that the practice is very bad, and that it is a great temptation to the bishops, several of whom are very poor, to grant divorces for the sake of the fees. friday was a severe fast in the patriarch's household, as in all others. the fasts of the syrian church, it has been said, "can only be described as prodigious." a syrian fast means serious self-denial, for it involves not only abstinence from meat, but from fish, honey, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and all animal products, and the syrian eats nothing but rice cooked in walnut oil, raisins, walnuts, treacle, beans, plain potatoes, and bread. all wednesdays and fridays in the year this strict _regimen_ is adhered to, and the members of the old church also fast for fifty days in lent, and twenty-five in advent, and keep the very severe three days' fast of the ninevites. most adults keep also the fast of st. mary, the first fourteen days of august. no religious observance is more rigidly adhered to by the nation than these severe and prolonged abstinences, and it is difficult for the syrians to believe in the piety of any who do not, by the same methods, mortify the body and bring it into subjection. mar auraham, son of marta, a man of twenty-six, patriarch-designate, and a bishop without a diocese, has returned, and spent part of yesterday evening in my room. he looks delicate, but has a bright, intelligent, charming face, and his conversation was thoughtful and interesting. he really cares about his church and its discipline, is regarded as honourable and straightforward in a marked degree, and as preferring the spiritual to the temporal interests of his nation. he is apparently a warm friend of the english mission, and if he should succeed to the chair of mar shimun great progress might be expected; but intrigues are surging round him, and the patriarchal family is not without its ambitions, to which he may possibly be sacrificed. the succession to the patriarchate and episcopate is the subject of a peculiar arrangement, which makes these offices practically hereditary. in the mar shimun family there has been provided for more than three centuries a regular succession of youths called _nazarites_, who have never eaten meat or married, and whose mothers ate no meat for many months before they were born. one of these is chosen by the patriarch as his successor, and then some of the disappointed youths take to eating meat like other men. at the present time, though mar auraham has been designated, there are one or two boy-relatives of the patriarch who are being brought up not to eat meat. the same prohibition applies to a bishop. he also usually has one or more _nazarites_, frequently nephews or cousins, who have been brought up by him not to eat meat, one of whom, if there be more than one, he chooses as his successor. if he neglects to make a choice, the bishopric at his death falls like a fief to the patriarch, who has an enormous diocese, while three of the bishops have only a few villages to look after. bishops, priests, and deacons are very poor. occasionally a church has a field or two as an endowment, or the villagers contribute a small sum annually, or plough the priest's fields, or shear his sheep, but the fees given for baptisms, marriages, and other occasional offices would be his sole dependence unless he followed some secular calling. in some places there is a plethora of supernumerary priests, and it is shrewdly said that these obtain holy orders from the bishops for the sake of the loaves of sugar paid as fees. there are great abuses connected with ordination. one of the present bishops was consecrated when quite a young boy, and deacons are often ordained at sixteen, and even much earlier. mar auraham must have been consecrated before he was twenty. the only qualification for ordination is the ability to read old syriac. the gaily-dressed and fully-armed young mountaineers whom i have seen as representing the diaconate look far more like bandits than deacons. in one large village there are at present fifty deacons and fifteen priests attached to one church!! [illustration: syrian priest and wife.] the _kourbana_ cannot be celebrated without the assistance of a deacon. it is almost entirely confined to the great festivals and the feast of the patron saint of each village. after the making of the bread with the "holy leaven," and certain preliminaries by the clergy, the congregation comes into church, summoned by blows on the wooden sounding-board. the men stand in front, the women behind, all taking off their shoes and kissing the cross. when the elements are to be received the priest advances to the door of the sanctuary, and a deacon, completely enveloped by the curtain before the entrance, holds the paten while the priest gives the bread to the men first, then to the women and to the little children, held up either by father or mother. the adults receive the cup in order from the deacon, who passes it through a hole in a wall about six feet high, which runs parallel with the wall of the sanctuary, but at a little distance from it. on leaving the church after communion each person takes a piece of ordinary bread from a tray near the door. the priests and deacons communicate after the people when the sanctuary veil has again been drawn. the eucharist is always celebrated at or before daybreak, except in the case of certain fast days and at funerals, when it is considered a devotional act to fast till mid-day. during parts of the communion service one deacon swings a censer and another "clangs" a cymbal. the _kourbana_ as celebrated in the syrian villages reminds me both of the great communion gatherings of the scottish highlands and the church service which, in my childhood, ushered in the revelry of the village wake or feast. the festivals which, as in england, fall on the feast of the patron saint of the village are the great gaieties of syrian life, and even the kurd cannot altogether overshadow them. after the celebration of the _kourbana_ at dawn, when the crowds are frequently so great that the church is filled by several successive congregations of communicants, the day is spent in visiting, and in every house fruit, sweetmeats, and tea are provided for all comers, and _arak_, if it be obtainable, forms a part of the entertainment. dances and games are kept up all day, and at its close many are drunk and disorderly. these are the occasions when fighting with the moslems is apt to take place. men and women, of course, dance separately, and the women much in the background. the dancing, as i have seen it, is slow and stately. a number of either sex join hands in a ring, and move round to slow music, at times letting go each other's hands for the purpose of gesticulation and waving of handkerchiefs. it is not unlike the national dance of the bakhtiaris. the women not only keep in retirement on this but on all occasions. they never sit at meat with the men, but take their food afterwards in private--indeed, i strongly suspect that they eat the leavings of their superiors. it is not, however, only the women who occupy a subordinate position. young men treat not only their fathers but their elder brothers with extreme respect; and when there are guests at table the sons do not sit down with the fathers, but wait on the guests, and take their own meals, like the women, afterwards. the syrians call easter "the great feast" and christmas "the little feast." at the former, eggs coloured red are lavishly bestowed. the festival of the epiphany also receives great honour, but it is curious that a people who believe that they owe their christianity to the wise men should not keep this feast so much in commemoration of them as of our lord's baptism. so much does the latter view preponderate, that the urmi christians call it by a name which means "the new waters." here in the mountains, however, it is called "the brightness." during the night before the celebration of the _kourbana_ on the feast of the epiphany it is customary to plunge into frozen pools! "one lord, one faith, one baptism" they hold with us, and it is of great interest to recognise this fact in the midst of many superstitions and even puerilities. it is impossible by any language to convey an idea of the poverty and meanness, the blackness and accumulations of dust, the darkness and the gloom of the syrian churches, of which this one is a favourable specimen, typifying, i fear, too truly the gross ignorance, indifference, and superstition in which bishops, priests, and people are buried. and yet they are "faithful unto death." my daily wonder is that people who know so little will for that little suffer the loss of all things. apostasy would be immediate emancipation from terror and ruin, but it is nearly unknown. their churches are like the catacombs. few things can be more pathetic than a congregation standing in the dark and dismal nave, kissing the common wooden cross, and passing from hand to hand the kiss of peace, while the priest, in dress like their own, with girdle and stole of the poorest material, moves among the ancient liturgies in front of the dusty sanctuary, leading the worshippers in prayers and chants which have come down from the earliest ages of christianity; from the triumphant church of the east to the persecuted remnant of to-day. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] for the correction of my very imperfect investigations into the religious customs of the syrians, i am indebted to a very careful and learned paper by canon maclean, _some account of the customs of the eastern syrian churches_, originally published in the _guardian_, and now to be obtained at the office of "the archbishop of canterbury's mission to the assyrian christians, deans yard, westminster." [ ] a singular legend is told regarding the origin of the sacred leaven and the sacred oil. the syrians say that as our lord went up out of the jordan after his baptism john the baptist collected in a phial the baptismal water as it dropped from his sacred person, giving it before his death to st. john the evangelist. at the last supper (the legend runs) our lord gave to john two loaves, putting it into his heart to preserve one. at the cross, when this same apostle saw the "blood and water," he took the phial from his bosom and added the water from the pierced side to the water of baptism, dipping the loaf at the same time in the blood. after the day of pentecost the disciples, before going forth to "disciple" the nations, ground john's blood-dyed loaf to powder, mixed it with flour and salt, divided it among themselves, and carried it forth to serve as leaven for ever for the bread of remembrance. in like manner they took of the mingled water of the phial, and mixing it with oil of unction, divided it, and preserved it for the perpetual sanctification of the waters of baptism. [ ] a portion of one of the latter follows:-- _the newly dead._--"hail, my brethren and friends who sleep. open the door that i may enter in and see your ranks." _those in hades._--"come, enter and see how many giants are sleeping here, and have been made dust and rust and worms in the bosom of sheol. come, enter and see, o child of death, the race of adam: see and gaze where thy kind dwells. come, enter and see the abundance of the bones and their commingling. the bone of the king and the bone of the servant are not separated. come, enter and see the great corruption we are dwelling in." _the mourners._--"wait for the lord, who will come and raise you by his right hand." translations of the liturgies are to be found in dr. badger's valuable book, _the nestorians and their rituals_. letter xxix (_continued_) who is or is not in this house it is hard to say. mirza tells me that there are guests to-day! among them are a number of tyari men, whose wild looks, combined with the splendour of their dress and arms, are a great interest. their chief man has invited me to visit their valley, and they say if i will go to them they will give me "a fine suit of clothes." i need it much, as doubtless they have observed! their jackets are one mass of gold embroidery (worked by jews), their shirts, with hanging sleeves, are striped satin; their trousers, of sailor cut, are silk, made from the cocoons of their own silkworms, woven with broad crimson stripes on a white ground, on which is a zigzag pattern; and their handsome jack-boots are of crimson leather. with their white or red peaked felt hats and twisted silk _pagris_, their rich girdles, jewelled daggers, and inlaid pistols, they are very imposing. female dress is very simple. these tyari men come from one of the wildest and most inaccessible valleys of central kurdistan, and belong to those ashirets or tribal syrians who, in their deep and narrow rifts, are practically unconquered by the turks and unmolested by the kurds, and maintain a fierce semi-independence under their _maleks_ (lit. kings) or chiefs. they are wild and lawless mountaineers, paying taxes only when it suits them; brave, hardy, and warlike, preserving their freedom by the sword; fierce, quarrelsome among themselves, and having little in common with the _rayahs_ or subject syrians of the plains except their tenacious clinging to their ancient church, with its liturgies and rites, and their homage to our lord jesus as divine. they and their priests, many of whom cannot even read, are sunk in the grossest ignorance. they love revenge, are careless of human life, and are wilder and more savage than their nominal masters. it is among these people, who purchase their freedom at the cost of absolute isolation, that mr. browne is going to spend the coming winter, in the hope of instructing their priests and deacons, to whom at present guns are more than ordinances. he has been among them already, and has won their good-will. [illustration: a syrian girl.] these ashirets, of whom the tyari guests are specimens, are quite unlike the syrian lowlanders, not only in character but in costume and habits. as they have naturalised numbers of kurdish words in their speech, so their dress, with its colour, rich materials and embroideries, and lavish display of decorated and costly arms, is almost altogether kurdish. if report speaks truly their fierce tribal feuds and readiness with the dagger are kurdish also. their country is the country of the hunted. its mountains rise nearly perpendicularly to altitudes of over , feet, and the valleys, such as tyari, tkhoma, baz, diz, and jelu, are mere slits or gashes, through which furious tributaries of the greater zab take their impetuous course. above these streams the tribes have built up minute fields by raising the lower sides on stone walls a few feet above the rivers, the upper being the steep hill slope. so small are these plots that it is said that the harvest of some of them would only fill a man's cap! occasionally heavy floods sweep away the rice and millet cultivation of a whole district, and the mountaineers are compelled to depend for their food entirely on the produce of their flocks. if they could sustain themselves and their animals altogether within their own fastnesses, they would be secure from molestation either from kurds or turks, for the only possible entrances to their valleys are so narrow and ruggedly steep as scarcely to be accessible for a pack-horse, and ten men could keep any number at bay. but unfortunately the scanty herbage of their mountains is soon exhausted, and they have to feed their flocks outside their natural fortifications, where the sheep are constantly being carried off by the kurds, who murder the shepherds and women. the mountaineers are quick to revenge themselves; they carry off kurdish sheep, and savage warfare and a life under arms are the normal condition of the ashirets. the worst of it is, that they are disunited among themselves, and fight and spoil each other as much as they fight the kurds, even at times taking part with them against their christian brethren. travellers are scarcely safer from robbery among them than among the kurds, but fierce, savage, and quarrelsome as they are, and independent both of turk and kurd, they render a sort of obedience to mar shimun, who rules them, through their _maleks_. there is not only enmity between tribe and tribe, but between village and village, and, as in parts of the bakhtiari country, guides refuse to conduct travellers beyond certain spots, declaring that "blood" bars their farther progress. besides the kurdish and ashiret inhabitants of these mountains of kurdistan there are yezidis, usually called devil-worshippers, and a few jews and armenians. probably there is not a wilder population on the face of the earth, or one of whose ideas, real beliefs, and ways europeans are so ignorant. what, for instance, do we really know of the beliefs which underlie the religious customs of the kizilbashes and yezidis, and of the christianity to which these semi-savage ashirets are so passionately attached? if i were to leave mr. browne unnoticed i should ignore the most remarkable character in kochanes. clothed partly as a syrian and living altogether like one,--at this time speaking syriac more readily than english; limited to this narrow alp and to the narrower exile of the tyari valley; self-exiled from civilised society; snowed up for many months of the year; his communications even with van and urmi irregular and precarious; a priest without an altar; a teacher without pupils; a hermit without privacy; his time at the disposal of every one who cares to waste it; harassed by turkish officialism and obstruction, and prohibited by the porte from any active "mission work," it yet would be hard to find a sunnier, more loving, and more buoyant spirit. he has lived among these people for nearly four years as one of themselves, making their interests completely his own, suffering keenly in their persecutions and losses, and entering warmly even into their most trivial concerns, till he has become in fact a syrian among syrians. he sits on the floor in native fashion; his primitive and unpalatable food, served in copper bowls from the patriarch's kitchen, is eaten with his fingers; he is nearly without possessions, he sleeps on the floor "among the spiders" without a mattress, he lives in a hovel up a steep ladder in a sort of tower out of repair--syrian customs and etiquette have become second nature to him. he has no "mission work" to report. he is himself the mission and the work. the hostility of the turkish government and the insecurity of the country prevent him from opening schools, he cannot even assemble a few boys and teach them their letters; he got a bit of land and the stones for erecting a cottage, but is not allowed to build; his plans are all frustrated by bigotry on one side and timidity on the other, and he is even prevented from preaching by the blind conservatism of the patriarchal court. it has not been the custom to have preaching at kochanes. "sermons were dangerous things that promoted heresy," the patriarch said. but mr. browne is far from being idle. people come to him from the villages and surrounding country for advice, and often take it. they confide all their concerns to him, he acts effectively the part of a peacemaker in their quarrels, he is trusted even by the semi-savage chiefs and priests of the mountain tribes, and his medical skill, which is at the service of all, is largely resorted to at all hours of the day. silenced from preaching and prohibited from teaching, far better than a sermon is his own cheery life of unconscious self-sacrifice, truth, purity, and devotion. this example the people can understand, though they cannot see why an englishman should voluntarily take to such a life as he leads. his power lies in his singular love for them, and in his almost complete absorption in their lives and interests. his room is most amusing. it is little better than a kerry hovel. he uses neither chair, table, nor bed; the uneven earthen floor is covered with such a litter of rubbish as is to be seen at the back of a "rag and bone" shop, dusty medicine bottles predominating. there is a general dismemberment of everything that once was serviceable. the occupant of the room is absolutely unconscious of its demerits, and my ejaculations of dismay are received with hearty laughter.[ ] humbly following his example, i have become absorbed in the interests of the inhabitants of kochanes, and would willingly stay here for some weeks longer if it were not for the risk of being blocked in by snow on the armenian highlands. the cattle plague is very severe, in addition to other misfortunes. the village has already lost of its herd, and i seldom go out without seeing men dragging carcasses to be thrown over the cliff. the people believe that the men will die next year. my future journey and its safety are much discussed. if i had had any idea of the "disturbed" state of the region that i have yet to pass through i should never have entered turkey, but now i have resolved to go _viâ_ bitlis to erzerum. if the road is as dangerous as it is said to be, and if the rumours regarding the state of the christians turn out to have much truth in them, the testimony of a neutral observer may be useful and helpful. at all events the risk is worth running. my great difficulty is that _qasha_ ---- must leave me here to return to urmi with mar gauriel's escort, and that i have no competent man with me in case of difficulty. mirza not only does not speak turkish, but has no "backbone," and johannes, besides having the disadvantage of being an armenian, is really half a savage, as well as disobedient, bad-tempered, reckless, and quarrelsome. he fought with a turk at yekmala, and got me into trouble, and one of his first misdemeanours here was to shoot the church doves, which are regarded as sacred, thereby giving great offence to the patriarch. it is most difficult to get away. the julamerik muleteers are afraid of being robbed on the route i wish to take, and none of them but a young kurd will undertake my loads, and though he arrived last night the _zaptiehs_ i applied for have failed me. they were to have been here by daylight this morning, and the loads were ready, but nine o'clock came without their appearance. i wanted to take armed men from kochanes, but mar shimun said that twelve christians would be no protection against the kurds, and that i must not go without a government escort, so things were unpacked. late this evening, and after another messenger had been sent to julamerik, one _zaptieh_ arrived with a message that they could not spare more, and the people protest against my leaving with such insufficient protection. another difficulty is the want of money. owing to the "boom" in silver in persia, and the semi-panic which prevailed, the utmost efforts of my friends in urmi could only obtain £ for a £ note, and this only in silver _mejidiehs_, a turkish coin worth about s. as no money is current in the villages change cannot be procured, and on sending to julamerik for small coins, only a very limited quantity could be obtained--russian _kopecks_ locally current at half their value, turkish coins the size of a crown piece, but so debased that they are only worth s., a number of pieces of base metal the size of sixpences, and "groats" and copper coins, miserably thin. it took me an hour, even with mr. browne's help, to count s. in this truly execrable money. the julamerik _shroff_ sent word that the english sovereign is selling at s. only. so, owing to these delays, i have had another day here, with its usual routine of drinking coffee in houses, inviting women to tea in my room, receiving mountaineers and others who come in at all hours and kiss my hand, and smoke their long pipes on my floor, and another opportunity of walking in the glory of the sunset, when the mountain barriers of beautiful kochanes glow with a colouring which suggests thoughts of "the land which is very far off." good mr. browne makes himself one with the people, and is most anxious for me to identify everybody, and say the right thing to everybody--no easy task, and as i hope and fear that this is my last evening, i have tried to "leave a pleasant impression" by spending it in the great gathering-place, called pre-eminently the "house"! mirza says that the people talk of nothing but "guns, kurds, the harvest, and the local news," but the conversation to-night had a wider range, and was often very amusing, taking a sombre turn only when the risks of my journey were discussed, and the possible misconduct of my kurdish _katirgi_. ishai, who describes him as "a very tame man" (not at all my impression of him), has told him that "if he gives any trouble the house of mar shimun will never forget it." nothing could exceed the picturesqueness of the "house" to-night. there were doubtless fifty people there, but the lamps, which look as old as the relentless sweep of taimurlane, hanging high on the blackened pillars, only lighted up the central group, consisting of sulti and marta in the highest place, the english priest in his turban and cassock, the grotesque visage of shlimon the jester, and the beautiful face and figure and splendid dress of ishai the patriarch's brother, as proud as proud can be, but sitting among the retainers of his ancient house playing on a musical instrument, the hereditary familiarity of serf and lord blending with such expressions of respect as "your foot is on my eyes," and the favourite asseveration, "by the head of mar shimun." the blackness in which the lofty roof was lost, the big ovens with their busy groups, the rows of men, half-seen in the dimness, lounging on natural ledges of rock, and the uphill floor with its uncouth plenishings, made up such a picture as the feudalism of our own middle ages might have presented. my letter[ ] from the turkish ambassador at tihran was sent to julamerik this afternoon, and has produced another _zaptieh_, and an apology! i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] in the winter of and the spring of every effort was made by fikri pasha, the turkish governor of this district, but a kurd by race, to dislodge mr. browne from his position in the mountains. "soldiers were continually sent to inquire into his plans; he was accused of practising without a diploma as a medical man, because he gave a few simple remedies to the natives in a country destitute of physicians, and his position became well-nigh intolerable when he found that his host, mar shimun, was being insulted and punished for harbouring him, and that the native christians were being made to suffer for his residence among them. the patriarch, however, stood firm. 'your presence here,' said he to mr. browne, 'may save us from a massacre; and as for these troubles we must put up with them as best we can.' these words were verified a few months afterwards."--mr. athelstan riley's _report on the archbishop of canterbury's mission to the assyrian christians_, . [ ] translation of a letter given to the author by his excellency the turkish ambassador to the court of tihran. "among the honoured of english ladies is mrs. bishop. on this tour of travel she has a letter of recommendation from the exalted government of england, issued by the english embassy in tihran, and earnest request is made that in her passage through the imperial territory she be well protected. as far as _zaptiehs_ are necessary let them be given for her safety, all necessary provision for her most comfortable travel be perfected, and all her requests from the high government of the osmanlis be met. "that all courtesy and attention be shown to this distinguished lady, this letter is given from the embassy at tihran." as various statements purporting to be narratives of attacks made upon me in turkey have appeared in russian and other papers, i take this opportunity of saying that they are devoid of any foundation. i was never robbed while in the dominion of his majesty the sultan: courtesy was shown me by all the turkish officials between the persian frontier and erzerum, and efficient escorts of steady and respectful _zaptiehs_ were readily supplied. letter xxx kotranis, kurdistan, _oct. _. here, in one of the wildest of mountain hamlets, i hoped to indulge in the luxury of my tent, and it was actually unrolled, when all the village men came to me and with gestures of appeal besought me not to pitch it, as it would not be safe for one hour and would "bring trouble upon them." the hamlet is suffering terribly from the kurds, who are not only robbing it of its sheep and most else, but are attempting to deprive the peasants of their lands in spite of the fact that they possess title-deeds. this berwar-lata valley has been reduced from a condition of pastoral wealth to one of extreme poverty. kotranis, and bilar a little lower down, from which the best hones are exported, are ruined by kurdish exactions. the christians sow and the kurds reap: they breed cattle and sheep and the kurds drive them off when they are well grown. one man at ---- a few miles off, had sheep. he has been robbed of all but sixty. this is but a specimen of the wrongs to which these unhappy people are exposed. the kurds now scarcely give them any respite in which "_to let the sheep's wool grow_," as their phrase is. kotranis is my last syrian halting-place, and its miseries are well fitted to leave a lasting impression. it is included in the _vilayet_ of van, in which, according to the latest estimates, there are , syrian christians. the _rayahs_ either own the village lands or are the dependants or serfs of a kurdish agha or master. in either case their condition is deplorable, for they have practically no rights which a kurd or turk is bound to respect. in some of their villages they have been robbed till they are absolutely without the means of paying taxes, and are beaten, till the fact is established beyond dispute. they are but scantily supplied with the necessaries of life, though their industry produces abundance. squeezed between the rapacity and violence of the kurds and the exactions of the turkish officials, who _undoubtedly connive at outrages so long as the victims are christians_, the condition of these syrians is one of the most pitiable on earth. they have no representatives in the cities of europe and asia, and no commercial instincts and habits like the armenians. they have the oriental failings of untruthfulness and avarice, and the cunning begotten by centuries of oppression, but otherwise they are simple, grossly ignorant, helpless shepherds and cultivators; aliens by race and creed, without a rich or capable man among them, hemmed in by some of the most inaccessible of mountain ranges, and by their oppressors the kurds; without a leader, adviser, or friend, rarely visited by travellers, with no voice which can reach europe, with a present of intolerable bondage and a future without light, and yet through all clinging passionately to the faith received by tradition from their fathers. as i have no lodging but a dark stable, i am utilising the late afternoon, sitting by the village threshing-floor, on which a mixed rabble of animals is treading corn. some buffaloes are lying in moist places looking amiable and foolish. _boy_ is tied to my chair. the village women knit and stare. two of the men, armed with matchlock guns, keep a look-out for the kurds. a crystal stream tumbles through the village, over ledges of white quartz. below, the valley opens and discloses ranges bathed in ineffable blue. the mountain sides are aflame with autumn tints, and down their steep paths oxen are bringing the tawny gold of the late harvest on rude sledges. but the shadow of the kurd is over it all. i left english-speaking people so lately that i scarcely realise that i am now alone in central kurdistan, in one of the wildest parts of the world, among fierce predatory tribes, and a ravaged and imperilled people. i bade the patriarch farewell at six this morning, and even at that early hour men were seated all round his room. after shaking hands with about thirty people, i walked the first mile accompanied by mr. browne, who then left me on his way to seek to enlighten the wild tribesmen of the tyari valley. from the top of the kamerlan pass, above kochanes, the view was inconceivably beautiful. on the lovely alp on which the village stands a red patch of autumnal colouring flamed against the deep indigo and purple mountains of diz and shawutha, which block up the east end of the lofty valley; while above these rose the jelu ranges, said to be from , to , feet in altitude, bathed in rich pure blue, snow-fields on their platforms, new-fallen snow on their crests, indigo shadows in their clefts and ravines,--a glorious group of spires, peaks, crags, chasms, precipices, rifts, parapets, and ridges perfect in their beauty as seen in the calm coloured atmosphere in which autumn loves to die. higher up we were in vast solitudes, among splintered peaks and pasturages where clear streams crashed over rock ledges or murmured under ice, and then a descent of feet by steep zigzags, and a seven hours' march in keen pure air, brought us through rounded hills to this village. _van, november ._--there was a night alarm at kotranis. a number of kurds came down upon the threshing-floor, and the _zaptiehs_ were most unwilling to drive off the marauders, saying that their only orders were to protect me. the kurds, who were at least ten to one, retired when they saw the government uniforms, but the big dogs barked for the rest of the night. the next day's march occupied eleven hours. it was very cold, "light without heat," superb travelling weather. one _zaptieh_ was a moslem, the other an armenian, and there were strong differences of opinion between them, especially when we halted to rest at a christian village, and the kurdish _katirgi_ took several sheaves of corn from a threshing-floor without paying for them. the moslem insisted that he should not pay and the christian that he should, and it ended by my paying and deducting the sum from his _bakhsheesh_. the _zaptiehs_ are usually men who have served five years with the colours. in eastern asia minor they are well clothed in dark blue braided uniforms, and have ulsters in addition for cold weather. they provide their own horses. their pay is eighty piastres a month, with rations of bread for themselves and of barley for their animals, but the pay is often nine months in arrear, or they receive it in depreciated paper. they are accused of being directly or indirectly concerned in many robberies, and of preying on the peasantry. they are armed with snider rifles, swords, and revolvers. from the top of a high pass above kotranis there was a final view of the jelu mountains, and the remainder of the day was spent among hills, streams, and valleys, with rich fertile soil and abundant water, but very thinly peopled. a very ingenious plough has taken the place of the primitive implement hitherto used. the share is big and heavy, well shod with iron, and turns up the soil to a great depth. the draught is from an axle with two wheels, one of them two feet in diameter and the other only ten inches. the big wheel runs in the last furrow, and the little one on the soil not yet upturned, the axle being level. some of these ploughs were drawn by eight buffaloes, with a boy, singing an inharmonious tune, seated facing backwards on each yoke. after the ploughing, water is turned on to soften the clods, which are then broken up by the husbandmen with spades. there is a great charm about the scenery as seen at this season, the glorious colouring towards sunset, the fantastic forms and brilliant tints of the rocks, and the purity of the new-fallen snow upon the heights; but between kotranis and van, except for a little planting in the "valley of the armenians," there is scarcely a bush. if i had warm clothing i should regard the temperature as perfect, nearly ° at noon, and falling to about ° at night. after a severe march, a descent and a sudden turn in the road brought us in the purple twilight to merwanen, the chief village of norduz, streamily situated on a slope--a wretched village, semi-subterranean; a partly finished house, occupied by a newly arrived _kaimakam_ and a number of _zaptiehs_, rising above the miserable hovels, which, bad as they are, were all occupied by the _kaimakam's_ attendants. _zaptiehs_, soldiers, kurds, and villagers assured me that there was no room anywhere, and an officer, in a much-frogged uniform, drove my men from pillar to post, not allowing us standing room on the little dry ground that there was. i humbly asked if i could pitch my tent, but a rough negative was returned. a subterranean buffalo stable, where there was just room among the buffaloes for me to lie down in a cramped position, was the only available shelter, and there was none for the servants. i do not much mind sharing a stable with _boy_, but i "draw the line" at buffaloes, and came out again into the frosty air, into an inhospitable and altogether unprepossessing crowd. then there was a commotion, with much bowing and falling to the right and left, and the _kaimakam_ himself appeared, with my powerful letter in his hand, took me into the unfinished house, at which he had only arrived an hour before, and into a small room almost altogether occupied by two beds on the floor, on one of which a man very ill of fever was lying, and on the other an unveiled kurdish beauty was sitting. the _kaimakam_, though exceedingly "the worse of drink," was not without a certain dignity and courtesy. he apologised profoundly for the incivility and discomfort which i had met with, and for his inability to entertain me "with distinction" in "so rough a place," but said that he would give up his own room to so "exalted a personage," or if i preferred a room outside it should be made ready. of course i chose the latter, with profuse expressions of the gratitude i sincerely felt, and after a cup of coffee bade him good-night. the room was the justice or injustice room over the _zaptieh_ barracks, and without either door or glazed windows, but cold and stiff as i was after an eleven hours' march, i was thankful for any rest and shelter. shortly my young kurdish _katirgi_, a splendid fellow, but not the least "tame," announced that he must leave me in order to get the escort of some _zaptiehs_ back to julamerik. he said that "they all" told him that the road to van was full of danger, and that if he went on he would be robbed of his mules and money on the way back. no transport however, was to be got, and he came on with me very pluckily, and has got an escort back, at least to merwanen. in the morning the _kaimakam_ rose early to do me honour, but was so tipsy that he could scarcely sit upright on his chair on a stone dais amidst a rabble of soldiers and scribes. we were all benumbed with cold, and glad that the crossing of an expanse of frozen streams rendered walking a necessity. a nine hours' march through mountains remarkable for rocky spires and needles marvellously coloured, and for the absence of inhabitants, took us to the armenian village of khanjarak, finely situated in a corrie upon a torrent bank; but it is so subterranean, and so built into the hillside, that a small square church and conical piles of _kiziks_ are the only obvious objects, and i rode over the roofs without knowing what was underneath. all the women and children, rabbit-like, came out of their holes, clothed in red rags, and some wore strings of coins round their heads. the men were dressed like kurds, and were nearly as wild-looking. they protested against my tent being pitched. they said the kurds were always on the watch, and would hack it with their swords in half an hour to get at its contents, that they had only three matchlock guns, and that the kurds were armed with rifles. i felt that i could scarcely touch a lower depth in the matter of accommodation than when they lodged me in a dark subterranean stable, running very far back into the hill, with a fire of animal fuel in the middle giving off dense and acrid fumes. a recess in this, with a mud bench, was curtained off for me, and the rest of the space was occupied by my own horses and baggage mules, and most of the village asses, goats, cows, calves, and sheep. several horses belonging to travellers and to my own escort were also there, and all the _zaptiehs_, servants, travellers, and _katirgis_ were lodged there. there were legions of fleas revelling in a temperature which rose to ° at midnight, though there were ° of frost outside. in the part of the roof which projected from the hill there were two holes for light, but at night these were carefully closed with corks of plaited straw. the wretched poverty of the people of this place made a very painful impression on me. they _may_ have exaggerated when they told me how terribly they are oppressed by the kurds, who, they say, last year robbed them of sheep and this year of , twenty-five and some cattle having been driven off a few days before, but it is a simple fact that the night of my visit the twenty-four sheep for which there was no room in the stable were carried away by a party of well-armed kurds in the bright moonlight, the helpless shepherds not daring to resist. it is of no use, they say, to petition the government; it will not interfere. the kurds come into their houses, they say, and terrify and insult their women, and by demands with violence take away all they have. they say that the money for which they have sold their grain, and which they were keeping to pay their taxes with, was taken by the kurds last week, and that they will be cruelly beaten by the _zaptiehs_ because they cannot pay. their words and air expressed abject terror.[ ] their little church is poorer than poverty itself, a building of undressed stone without mortar, and its length of thirteen feet includes the rude mud dais occupied by the yet ruder altar. its furniture consists of an iron censer, an iron saucer containing oil and a wick, and an earthen flagon. there are no windows, and the rough walls are black with candle smoke. the young man who showed the church took a gospel from the dais, kissing the cross upon it before handing it to me, and then on seeing that i was interested went home and brought a ms. of st. matthew's gospel, with several rudely-illuminated scenes from our lord's life. "christos," he said with a smile, as he pointed to the central figure in the first illustration, and so on as he showed me the others, for in each there was a figure of the christ, not crowned and risen, but suffering and humiliated. next morning, in the bitter cold of the hour before sunrise, the clang of the mallet on the sounding-board assembled the villagers for matins, and to the christ crowned and risen and "sitting on the right hand of power" they rendered honour as divine, though in the midst of the grossest superstition and darkness, and for him whom they "ignorantly worship" they are at this moment suffering the loss of all things. their empty sheepfold might have been full to-day if they had acknowledged him as a prophet and no more.[ ] leaving this wretched hamlet, where the unfortunate peasants are as avaricious as they are poor and dirty, and passing a kurdish village with a stone fort picturesquely situated, we crossed a pass into a solitary valley, on which high rounded hills descend in harmonised buffs and browns, both hills and valleys covered with uncut hay. the _zaptiehs_ said that this was a specially dangerous place, and urged the caravan to its utmost speed. we met three armenian _katirgis_ in their shirts. they complained most bitterly that they had been robbed an hour before of five mules with their equipments, as well as of their clothing and money. the ascent and the very tedious descent of the kasrik kala pass brought us into the large and fertile plain of haizdar, the "plain of the armenians," sprinkled with armenian villages, and much cultivated. mirza and one _zaptieh_ had gone back for a blanket which had been dropped, and after halting in an orchard till i was half-frozen i decided to proceed without them, having understood that we could reach van in three hours. i started my party by signs, and after an hour's riding reached a village where johannes spoke fluently in an unknown tongue, and the _zaptieh_ held up five fingers, which i learned too late meant that van was five hours off. i thought that they were asking for instructions, and at every pause i repeated _van_. after a brief consultation we went up among the hills, the young kurdish _katirgi_ jumping, yelling, singing, and howling, to keep his mules at a trot, the _zaptieh_ urging them with his whip, and pointing ominously at the fast sinking sun. on we clattered with much noise, nor did we slacken speed till we gained a high altitude among desert solitudes, from which we looked down upon the dead sea of van, a sheet of water extending in one direction beyond the limits of vision, lying red and weird, with high mountains jutting into it in lofty headlands hovered over by flame-coloured clouds. high up along the mountain side in a wavy line lay the path to van in the deepening shadows, and the _zaptieh_, this time holding up three fingers, still urged on the caravan, and the kurd responded by yells and howls, dancing and jumping like a madman. just as it was becoming dark, four mounted men, each armed with two guns, rode violently among the mules, which were in front of me, and attempted to drive them off. in the _mêlée_ the _katirgi_ was knocked down. the _zaptieh_ jumped off his horse, threw the bridle to me, and shouldered his rifle. when they saw the government uniform these kurds drew back, let the mules go, and passed on. the whole affair took but a few seconds, but it was significant of the unwillingness of the kurds to come into collision with the turks, and of the power the government could exercise in the disturbed districts if it were once understood that the marauders were not to be allowed a free hand. after this attack not a word was spoken, the bells were taken off the mules, the _zaptieh_, as fine and soldierly a man as one could wish to see, marched in front, quiet and vigilant, and so in a darkness in which i could not see my horse's ears we proceeded till, three hours later, the moon rose as we entered van. it was one of the _eeriest_ rides i ever made, and i had many painful reflections on having risked through ignorance the property of my faithful kurdish _katirgi_. the first light of van was a welcome sight, though after that there was a long ride to "the gardens," a large wooded suburb chiefly inhabited by armenians, in which the american missionaries live. dr. reynolds, the medical missionary, has given me a most hospitable welcome, though his small house is more than full with new arrivals from america. i wanted to re-engage my jolly _katirgi_ for bitlis, but he went back at once with the _zaptieh_, and after the obvious perils of the road it would not have been fair to detain him. visitors are scarce here. van does not see more than one non-official european in three years. the vice-consul says that he should have doubted the sanity of any one who had proposed to travel from urmi to van by the route i took, but now that the journey is safely over i am glad that no one at urmi knew enough to dissuade me from it. the vice-consul and all the mission party are as kind as they can be, and van is for me another oasis. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] i must ask my readers to believe that i crossed the turkish frontier without any knowledge of or interest in the "armenian question;" that so far from having any special liking for the armenians i had rather a prejudice against them; that i was in ignorance of the "erzerum troubles" of june , and of yet more recent complications, and that the sole object of my journey by a route seldom traversed by europeans from urmi to van was to visit the patriarch of the nestorians and the kochanes station of the archbishop of canterbury's assyrian church mission, and that afterwards i travelled to erzerum _viâ_ bitlis only to visit the american missionaries there. so far as i know, i entered turkey as a perfectly neutral and impartial observer, and without any special interest in its christian populations, and it is only the "inexorable logic of facts" which has convinced me of their wrongs and claims. [ ] in another village, a young man in speaking of their circumstances said: "we don't know much, but we love the lord jesus well enough to die for him." letter xxxi van,[ ] armenia, _nov. _. van and its surroundings are at once so interesting and picturesque that it is remarkable that they are comparatively seldom visited by travellers. probably the insecurity of the roads, the villainous accommodation _en route_, and its isolated position account for the neglect.[ ] here as elsewhere i am much impressed with the excellence of the work done by the american missionaries, who are really the lights of these dark places, and by their exemplary and honourable lives furnish that _moral model_ and standard of living which is more efficacious than preaching in lifting up the lives of a people sunk in the depths of a grossly corrupted christianity. the boys' and girls' schools in van are on an excellent basis, and are not only turning out capable men and women, but are stimulating the armenians to raise the teaching and tone of their own schools in the city, with one of which i was very greatly pleased. the creation of churches, strict in their discipline, and protesting against the mass of superstitions which smother all spiritual life in the national armenian church, is undoubtedly having a very salutary effect far beyond the limited membership, and is tending to _force reform_ upon an ancient church which contains within herself the elements of resurrection. great honour is due to dr. reynolds for the way in which, almost single-handed, he has kept the valuable work of this mission going for years, and now that colleagues have arrived a considerable development may be hoped for. i have confessed already to a prejudice against the armenians, but it is not possible to deny that they are the most capable, energetic, enterprising, and pushing race in western asia, physically superior, and intellectually acute, and above all they are a race which can be raised in all respects to our own level, neither religion, colour, customs, nor inferiority in intellect or force constituting any barrier between us. their shrewdness and aptitude for business are remarkable, and whatever exists of commercial enterprise in eastern asia minor is almost altogether in their hands. they have singular elasticity, as their survival as a church and nation shows, and i cannot but think it likely that they may have some share in determining the course of events in the east, both politically and religiously. as orientals they understand oriental character and modes of thought as we never can, and if a new pentecostal _afflatus_ were to fall upon the educated and intelligent young men who are being trained in the colleges which the american churches have scattered liberally through asia minor, the effect upon turkey would be marvellous. i think most decidedly that reform in turkey must come through christianity, and in this view the reform and enlightenment of the religion which has such a task before it are of momentous importance. islam is "cabined, cribbed, confined." its forms of belief and thought and its social and political ideas remain in the moulds into which they were run at its rise. expansion is impossible. the arrogance which the koran inculcates and fosters is a dead weight on progress. if the turk had any disposition to initiate and carry out reforms his creed and its traditions would fetter him. islam, with its fanaticism, narrowness, obstructiveness, and _grooviness_ is really at this moment the greatest obstacle to every species of advance both in turkey and persia, and its present activity and renewed proselytising spirit are omens of evil as much for political and social progress as for the higher life of men. the mission houses and schools are on fairly high ground more than two miles from van, in what are known as "the gardens," where most of the well-to-do armenians and turkish officials reside. these gardens, filled with vineyards and all manner of fruit trees, extend for a distance of five miles, and being from two to three miles wide their mass of greenery has a really beautiful effect. among them are many very good houses, and the roads and alleys by which they are intersected are well planted with poplars and willows, shading pleasant streams which supply the water for irrigation. the view from the roof is a glorious one. looking west over the gardens, which are now burning with autumn tints, the lofty crests of the huge crater of nimrud dagh are always visible across the lake of van, intensely blue in the morning, and reddening in the sunsets of flame and gold. in the evenings too, the isolated rock on which the castle of van is built bulks as a violet mass against the sinking sun, with a foreground of darkening greenery. the great truncated cone of the sipan dagh looms grandly over the lake to the north; to the east the rocky mass of the varak dagh, with white villages and monasteries in great numbers lying in its clefts and folds, rises precipitously to a height of , feet; and to the south the imposing peaks of ardost, now crested with snow, and mount pelu, projecting into the lake, occupy prominent positions above the lower groups and ridges. the town of van is nearly a mile from the lake, and is built on an open level space, in the midst of which stands a most picturesque and extraordinary rock which rises perpendicularly to a height of about feet. it falls abruptly at both extremities, and its outline, which colonel severs bell estimates at yards in length, is emphasised by battlemented walls, several towers, and a solitary minaret rising above the picturesque irregularity of the ancient fortifications. admission to the interior of the castle is refused, consequently i have not seen the chambers in the rock, supposed to have been the tombs of kings. the most celebrated of the cuneiform inscriptions cut on tablets smoothed in the rock is on the south side in an inaccessible position, and was with difficulty copied by the murdered traveller schulz with the aid of a telescope. it is well seen from below, looking, as has been remarked, like an open copy of a newspaper. like the tablets of persepolis and mount elwend, it relates in august language the titles and deeds of xerxes. the founding of van is ascribed to semiramis, who, according to armenian history, named it shemiramagerd, and was accustomed to resort to its gardens, which she had herself planted and watered, to escape from the fierce heat of the summer at nineveh. the well of semiramis and other works attributed to her bring her name frequently into conversation--indeed she is mentioned as familiarly as queen elizabeth is among us! [illustration: rock and citadel of van. _to face p. , vol. ii._] the town, which is walled, is not particularly attractive, but there is one very handsome mosque, and a very interesting armenian church, eleven centuries old, dedicated to st. peter and st. paul. the houses are mean-looking, but their otherwise shabby uniformity is broken up by lattice windows. the bazars are poorly built, but are clean, well supplied, and busy, though the trade of van is suffering from the general insecurity of the country and the impoverishment of the peasantry. it is very pleasant that in the van bazars ladies can walk about freely, encountering neither the hoots of boys nor the petrifying islamic scowl. [illustration: kurds of van.] fifty years ago venetian beads were the only articles imported from europe. now, owing to the increasing enterprise of the armenians, every european necessary of life can be obtained, as well as many luxuries. peek and frean's biscuits, moir's and crosse and blackwell's tinned meats and jams, english patent medicines, coats' sewing cotton, belfast linens, berlin wools, jæger's vests, and all sorts of materials, both cotton and woollen, abound. i did not see such a choice and abundance of european goods in any bazar in persia, and in the city of semiramis, and beneath the tablet of xerxes, there is a bazar devoted to armenian tailors, and to the clatter of american sewing machines stitching yorkshire cloth! one of these tailors has made a heavy cloth ulster for me, which the american ladies pronounce perfect in fit and "style!" the armenians, with their usual industry and thrift, are always enlarging their commerce and introducing new imports. better than this, they are paying great attention to education, and several of their merchants seem to be actuated by a liberal and enlightened spirit. it is, however, to usury not less than to trade that they owe their prosperity. the presence of europeans in van, in the persons of the missionaries and vice-consuls, in addition to the admirable influence exerted by the former, has undoubtedly a growing tendency towards ameliorating the condition of the christian population. in the _vilayet_ of van it is estimated by colonel severs bell that the christians outnumber the moslems by , , the entire population being estimated at , . in the city of van, with a population estimated by him at , , the christians are believed to be as to .[ ] the formalities required for turkish travelling are many and increasing, and from ignorance of one of them johannes has been arrested, and mirza marched to the consulate by the police. i have been obliged to part with the former and send him back to hamadan, as it would not be safe to take the risky journey to erzerum with such an inexperienced and untrustworthy servant. through mr. devey's kindness i have obtained an interpreter and servant in murphy o'rourke, a british subject, but a native of turkey, and equally at home in english, turkish, and armenian, though totally illiterate. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] van may be considered the capital of that part of kurdistan which we know as armenia, but it must be remembered that under the present government of turkey armenia is a prohibited name, and has ceased to be "a geographical expression." cyclopædias containing articles on armenia, and school books with any allusions to armenian history, or to the geography of any district referred to as armenia, are not allowed to enter asia minor, and no foreign maps which contain the province of armenia are allowed to be used in the foreign schools, or even to be retained in the country. of the four millions of the armenian race , , are subjects of the sultan, and with few exceptions are distinguished for their loyalty and their devotion to peaceful pursuits. the portion of armenia which lies within the turkish frontier consists for the most part of table-lands from to feet in elevation, intersected by mountain ranges and watered by several rivers, the principal of which are the euphrates, the tigris, and the aras. of its many lakes the dead sea of van is the principal, its dimensions being estimated at twice the area of the lake of geneva, and at eighty miles in length by twenty-five in breadth. from its exquisitely beautiful shores rise the two magnificent extinct volcanoes, the sipan dagh, with an altitude of over , feet, and the nimrud dagh, with a crater five miles in diameter and feet in depth, the top of its wall being over feet in height. the armenians claim an antiquity exceeding that of any other nation, and profess to trace their descent from haik, the son of togarmah, the grandson of japhet, who fled from the tyranny of belus, king of assyria, into the country which in the armenian tongue is known by his name, as _haikh_ or _haizdani_. it may be said of the armenians that the splendour and misery of their national history exceed those of any other race. their national church claims an older than an apostolic foundation, and historically dates from the third century, its actual founder, s. gregory the illuminator, having been consecrated at cæsarea as bishop of armenia in the second year of the fourth century. in the fifteenth century a schism brought about by jesuit missionaries resulted in a number of armenians joining the church of rome, and becoming later a separate community known as the "catholic armenian church." within the last half-century, under the teaching of the american missionaries, a reformed church has arisen, known as the protestant armenian church, but with these exceptions the race and the national church may be regarded as one. the armenians have had no political existence since the year , but form an element of stability and wealth in turkey, russia, and persia, where they are principally found. their language is regarded by scholars as an off-shoot of the iranian branch of the indo-germanic group of languages. their existing literature dates from the fourth century, and all that is not exclusively christian has perished. translations of the old and new testaments dating from the fifth century are among its oldest monuments, and the dialect in which they are written, and in which they are still read in the churches, known as old armenian, is not now understood by the people. during the last century there has been a great revival of letters among the armenians, chiefly due to the _mekhitarists_ of venice, and a literature in modern armenian is rapidly developing alongside of the study and publication of the works of the ancient writers. [ ] it has, however, received due attention both from scholars and antiquaries, and among the popularly-written accounts of it are very interesting chapters in sir a. h. layard's _nineveh and babylon_, and in a charming volume by the rev. h. f. tozer, _turkish armenia and eastern asia minor_. [ ] an estimate by mr. devey, her britannic majesty's vice-consul at van, gives a population of only , for the whole _vilayet_. letter xxxii bitlis, _nov. _. i arrived here two days ago, having ridden the ninety miles from van in three and a half days. dr. reynolds accompanied me, and as we had a couple of _zaptiehs_ on good horses we deserted the caravan, and came along at as good a pace as the mountainous nature of the road would allow. the early winter weather is absolutely perfect for travelling. all along i am quite impressed with the resemblance which the southern shores of lake van bear to some of the most beautiful parts of the italian riviera--italian beauty seen under an italian sky. travellers lose a great deal by taking the easier route round the north shore of the lake. the first day's half march ended at angugh, an armenian village on the river hashal, on the plain of haizdar or haigatsor, where the people complained of some armenian women having been despoiled of their jewels by some kurds during the afternoon. the views are magnificent _en route_, especially of the christian village of artemid, on a spur on a height, with a moslem village in gardens below, with green natural lawns sloping to the lake. at angugh i was well accommodated in a granary on a roof, and as there was no room for my bed, found a comfortable substitute in a blanket spread upon the wheat. the next day's march was through exquisitely beautiful scenery, partly skirting deep bays on paths cut in the rock above them, among oaks and ferns, and partly crossing high steep promontories which jut out into the lake. a few villages, where strips of level ground and water for irrigation can be obtained, are passed, and among them the village of vastan, the "seat of government" for the district, and a turkish telegraph station, but in the eleventh century the residence of the armenian royal family of ardzrauni. art aids nature, and there are grand old monasteries on promontories, and kurdish castles on heights, and flashing streams and booming torrents are bridged by picturesque pointed arches. there are monasteries in this region, and the towers of st. george at the mountain village of narek, high on a rocky spur above one of the most beautiful of the many wooded valleys which descend upon the lake of van, lend an air of medieval romance to a scene as fair as nature can make it. nearly all the romantic valleys opening on the lake are adorned with one or more villages, with houses tier above tier in their rocky clefts, and terrace below terrace of exquisite cultivation below, of the vivid velvety green of winter wheat. these terraces often "hang" above green sward and noble walnut trees. occasionally the villages are built at the feet of the mountains, on small plateaux above steep-sided bays, and are embosomed in trees glowing with colour, from canary-yellow to crimson and madder-red, and mountains, snow-crested and forest-skirted tower over all. lake van, bluer than the blue heavens, with its huge volcanic heights--sipan dagh, nimrud dagh, and varak dagh, and their outlying ranges--its deep green bays and quiet wooded inlets; its islets, some like the bass rock, others monastery-covered; its pure green shadows and violet depths; its heavy boats with their v-shaped sails; and its auburn oak-covered slopes, adds its own enchantment, and all is as fair as fair can be. though the state of things among the christians is not nearly so bad as in some of the syrian valleys, the shadow of the kurd is over this paradise. the armenians complain of robbery with violence as being of constant occurrence, and that they have been plundered till they are unable to pay the taxes, and it is obvious that travellers, unless in large companies, are not safe without a government escort. in each village the common sheepfold is guarded from sunset to sunrise by a number of men--a heavy burden on villagers whose taxation should ensure them sufficient protection from marauders. in one of the fairest bays on this south side of the lake is the island rock of akhtamar, crowned with a church and monastery built of red sandstone. the convent boat, which plies daily to the mainland for supplies, is available for travellers. eleven monks with their pupils inhabit the rock. it is a very ancient foundation, dating from a.d. , and the church is attributed to the armenian king kakhik, who reigned in the tenth century. it is a cruciform building, with a hexagonal tower and a conical terminal at the intersection of the cross. the simple interior is decorated with some very rude pictures, and a gilded throne for the patriarch stands at the east end. this patriarchate of akhtamar, the occupant of which has at times claimed the title of _catholicos_, was founded in by an archbishop of akhtamar who declared himself independent of the _catholicos_ of the armenian church who resides in echmiadzin, but at the present time he has only a few adherents in the immediate neighbourhood of van, and has the reputation of extreme ignorance, and of being more of a farmer than an ecclesiastic. he was at haikavank, at the fine farm on the mainland possessed by the convent, but we had not time to call. plain as is the interior of the church of akhtamar, the exterior is most elaborately ornamented with bas-reliefs, very much undercut. three of the roofs rest on friezes on which birds and beasts in singularly vigorous action are portrayed, and there are besides two rows of heads in high relief, and a number of scripture subjects very boldly treated, in addition to some elaborate scroll-work, and bands of rich foliage. on this remarkable rock dr. reynolds and his family took refuge a few years ago, when it was apprehended that van would be sacked by the kurds. the vivid colouring of the lake is emphasised by a line of pure white deposit which runs round its margin, and vivacity is given to its waters by innumerable wild fowl, flamingoes, geese, ducks, pelicans, cormorants, etc. from a reedy swamp near it ducks rose in such numbers as literally to darken the air. carbonate of soda and chloride of sodium are obtained from the lake water by evaporation, but it is not nearly so salt as that of the sea of urmi. not very far from the south shore a powerful fresh-water spring bubbles up in the midst of the salt water. the only fish known of is a species said to be like a small herring. these are captured in enormous quantities in the spring as they come up into the streams which feed the lake. on the last two nights at undzag and ghazit i had my first experiences of the turkish _odah_ or village guest-house or _khan_, of which, as similar abodes will be my lodgings throughout my journey to erzerum, i will try to give you an idea. usually partially excavated in the hillside and partly imbedded in the earth, the _odah_ is a large rambling room with an irregular roof supported on rough tree-stems. in the centre, or some other convenient place, is a mud platform slightly raised; in the better class of _odahs_ this has a fireplace in the wall at one end. round this on three sides is a deep manger, and similar mangers run along the side walls and into the irregular recesses, which are lost in the darkness. the platform is for human beings, and the rest of the building for horses, mules, oxen, asses, and buffaloes, with a few sheep and goats probably in addition. the _katirgis_ and the humbler class of travellers sleep among the beasts, the remainder, without distinction of race, creed, or sex, on the enclosed space. light enters from the door and from a few small holes in the roof, which are carefully corked up at night, and then a few iron cups of oil with wicks, the primitive lamp in general use, hanging upon the posts, give forth a smoky light. in such an _odah_ there may be any number of human beings cooking, eating, and sleeping, and from twenty to a hundred animals, or more, as well as the loads of the pack-horses and the arms of the travellers. as the eye becomes accustomed to the smoke and dimness, it sees rows of sweet ox faces, with mild eyes and moist nostrils, and wild horse faces surrounding the enclosure, and any number more receding into the darkness. ceaseless munching goes on, and a neigh or a squeal from some unexpected corner startles one, or there is a horse fight, which takes a number of men to quell it. each animal is a "living stove," and the heat and closeness are so insupportable that one awakes quite unrefreshed in the morning in a temperature of °. the _odah_ is one of the great features of travelling in eastern asia minor. i dined and spent the evenings in its warmth and cheeriness, enjoying its wild picturesqueness, but at undzag i pitched my small tent at the stable door, and at ghazit on the roof, and braved the cold in it. _boy_ is usually close to me, eating scraps from my dinner, and gently biting the back of my neck when he thinks that i am forgetting his presence. he amuses all the men everywhere by his affectionateness, and eating out of my hand, and following me like a dog. i never saw so gentle and trustworthy a creature. his hair has grown very long, thick, and woolly, and curls in parts like that of a retriever. his sweet ways have provided him with a home after his powerful legs and big feet have trudged with me to trebizond, for my hosts here, who are old and somewhat frail, have taken such a fancy to his gentleness and winsomeness that he is to return to them when the roads open in the spring. it was a grand ride from undzag over lofty mountain passes to the exquisitely-situated village of ghazit, built in a deep _cul de sac_ above the lake. terraces, one above another, rise from the lake shore, so beautifully cultivated as to realise emerson's description of the appearance of english soil, "tilled with a pencil instead of a plough." a church stands on a height, and the village, almost hidden among magnificent walnuts, is crowded upon a terrace of green sward at the foot of a semicircle of mountains which wall it in from the world. the narrow village road, with its low, deep-eaved stone houses, was prettily brightened by colour, for all the women were dressed more or less in red, and wore high red coronets with dependent strings of coins, and broad aprons, reaching from the throat to the feet, of coarse dark blue cotton, completely covered with handsome patterns worked in cross-stitch in silk. fine walnut trees are one of the specialities of this part of turkey. they provide much of the oil which is used during the long fasts which both armenians and syrians observe, and they develop very large woody excrescences or knots, the grain and mottling of which are peculiarly beautiful. these are sought for by buyers for paris houses even in the remote valleys of kurdistan for use in the making and veneering of furniture, especially of pianos. fortunately the removal of this growth does not kill the tree, and after a time the bark grows over much of the uncovered portion of the trunk, only a scar being left. at sunset that evening sheep were driven into the village sheepfold just below the roof on which my tent was pitched, and it was a very picturesque scene, men pushing their way through them to find their own sheep by ear-mark, women with difficulty milking ewes here and there, big dogs barking furiously from the roofs above, and all the sheep bleating at once. in winter they are all housed and hand fed. the snow lies six feet deep, and ghazit can communicate neither with bitlis nor van. it is the "milk of the flocks" which is prized. cows' milk is thought but little of. i made my supper of one of the great articles of diet in turkey, boiled cracked wheat, sugar, and _yohoort_, artificially soured milk, looking like whipped cream. i was glad to escape to my tent from the heat and odours of the _odah_, even though i had to walk over sheep's backs to get up to the roof. i had a guard of two men, and eight more armed with useless matchlock guns watched the sheepfold. i was awakened by a tremendous noise, the barking of infuriated dogs close to me, the clashing of arms and the shouts of men, mixed up with the rapid firing of guns not far off on the mountain side, so near, indeed, that i could see the flashes. it was a kurdish alarm, but nothing came of it. a village which we passed a few hours later was robbed of sheep, however. leaving beautiful ghazit before the sun rose upon it the next morning, we spent some hours in skirting the lake, and in crossing elevated passes and following paths along hillsides covered with oaks, the russet leaves of which are being cut for winter "keep." the dwarf juniper is also abundant. after crossing a pass on the top of which are graves covered with heavy stone slabs with inscriptions on their sides, and head-stones eight feet high inscribed with epitaphs in kufic or early arabic, we descended upon the great plain of rahwan, separated from the plain of mush only by a very low ridge, which, however, is a remarkable water-parting, dividing the drainage systems of the tigris and the euphrates. on this solitary plain there are the ruins of a magnificent building, known as "the persian khan," built of large blocks of hewn stone. parts of it are still available for shelter during snowstorms. it has courtyards with stately entrances, domes, arches, and vaulted chambers, and is a very striking object. two other _khans_ are placed as refuges in the valley nearer bitlis. shortly afterwards we reached the meeting-place of three valleys and three roads, leading respectively to the plain of mush, the lake of van, and bitlis. it is in this neighbourhood that the eastern source of the tigris is situated, and here there is also the great interest of coming upon one of the landmarks on the retreat of the ten thousand. scholars appear to agree in general that this gallant band must have come up by these eastern sources of the tigris, for then, as now, the only practicable entrance into armenia from the karduchi territory, the modern kurdistan, was by this route.[ ] the march was very long and fatiguing, and as we were compelled to rest for two hours at the beautifully-situated village of toogh, evening was coming on with a gray sky and a lurid sunset before we left the rahwan plain, after which we had a ride of more than three hours down the wild and stony bitlis valley before we reached our destination. if i had made this march in spring, when herbage and flowers drape the nakedness of the rocky and gravelly mountains and precipices, it would not have made such an impression upon me as it did, but seeing the apparently endless valley for ever winding and falling to the south, with two bars of lurid light for ever lying across what never proved to be its opening, and the higher peaks rising snow-crested into a dark and ominous-looking sky, i think it one of the weirdest and wildest rides i ever took. the infant tigris is rapidly augmented by a number of streams and torrents. the descent was like taking leave of the bright upper world to go down into some nether region, from which there would be no exit. the valley, at times narrowing into a ravine, is hemmed in by sterile mountains, so steep as not to afford sites for villages. there are parapetless ancient arches of stone, flung across torrents which have carved hideous pathways for themselves through hideous rocks, scoriæ, and other signs of volcanic action, rough gulches, with narrow paths hanging on their sides, and in spite of many climbs upwards the course is on the whole downwards. darkness settled upon the valley long before lights, in what looked like infinite depths, and straggling up remarkable heights, trees, stone walls, and such steep ups and downs that it felt as if the horses were going to topple over precipices, denoted that we had entered bitlis. then came a narrow gateway, a flagged courtyard choked with mules and men, a high house with heavily-barred windows, a steep outside stair, and at the top sweet faces and sweet voices of european women, and lights and warm welcomes. _bitlis, november ._--this is the most romantically-situated city that i have seen in western asia. the dreamy impressions of height and depth received on the night of my arrival were more than realised the following morning. even to the traveller arriving by daylight bitlis must come as a great surprise, for it is situated in a hole upon which the upper valley descends with a sudden dip. the bitlis-chai or eastern tigris passes through it in a series of raging cataracts, and is joined in the middle of the town by another torrent tumbling down another wild valley, and from this meeting of the waters massive stone houses rise one above another, singly, and in groups and terraces, producing a singularly striking effect. five valleys appear to unite in bitlis and to radiate from a lofty platform of rock supported on precipices, the irregular outlines of which are emphasised by walls and massive square and circular towers, the gigantic ruins of bitlis castle. the massiveness of the houses is remarkable, and their courtyards and gardens are enclosed by strong walls. every gate is strengthened and studded with iron, every window is heavily barred, all are at a considerable height, and every house looks as if it could stand a siege. there is no room to spare; the dwellings are piled tier above tier, and the flagged footways in front of them hang on the edges of precipices. twenty picturesque stone bridges, each one of a single arch, span the tigris and the torrents which unite with it. there are ancient ruins scattered through the town. it claims immense antiquity, and its inhabitants ascribe its castle and some of its bridges to alexander the great, but antiquarians attribute the former either to the saracens or to the days when an ancient armenian city called paghesh occupied the site of the present bitlis. it seems like the end of the world, though through the deep chasms below it, through which the tigris descends with great rapidity to the plains, lies the highway to diabekir. suggestions of the ancient world abound. the lofty summits towering above the basin in which this extraordinary city lies are the termination of the taurus chain, the niphates of the ancients, on the highest peak of which milton localised the descent of satan.[ ] remote as bitlis seems and is, its markets are among the busiest in turkey, and its caravan traffic is enormous for seven or eight months of the year. its altitude is only feet, and the mercury in winter rarely falls to zero, but the snowfall is tremendous, and on the rahwan plain snow frequently lies up to the top of the telegraph poles, isolating the town and shutting up animals in their stables and human beings in their houses for weeks, and occasionally months, at a time. bitlis produces a very coarse, heavy cotton cloth which, after being dyed madder red or dark blue, is largely exported, and is used for the embroidered aprons which the armenian women wear. it also exports _loupes_, the walnut whorls or knots of which i have written before, oak galls, wax, wool, and manna, chiefly collected from the oak. the bitlis people, and even some europeans, regard this as a deposit left by the aromatic exhalations which the wind brings in this direction from arabia, and they say that it lies on any plant without regard to its nature, and even on the garments of men. the deposit is always greatest in dry years. in addition to the white manna, obtained by drying the leaves and allowing the saccharine matter to fall off--and the green, the result of steeping the leaves in water, which is afterwards strained, there is a product much like golden syrup, which is used for the same purposes. bitlis is one of the roughest and most fanatical and turbulent of turkish cities, but the present governor, raouf pasha, is a man of energy, and has reduced the town and neighbourhood to some degree of order. considerable bodies of troops have been brought in, and the garrison consists of men. these soldiers are thoroughly well clothed and equipped, and look remarkably clean in dress and person. they are cheery, soldierly-looking men, and their presence gives a little confidence to the christians. the population of bitlis is estimated at , , of which number over , are kurds. both men and women are very handsome, and the striking kurdish costume gives a great brilliancy and picturesqueness to this remarkable city. the short sleeveless jackets of sheepskin with the black wool outside which the men are now wearing over their striped satin vests, and the silver rings in the noses of the girls give them something of a "barbarian" look, and indeed their habits appear to be much the same as those of their karduchi ancestors in the days of xenophon, except that in the interval they have become moslems and teetotallers! here they are sunnis, and consequently do not clash with their neighbours the turks, who abhor the kurds of the mountains as kizilbashes. the kurdish _physique_ is very fine. in fact i have never seen so handsome a people, and their manly and highly picturesque costume heightens the favourable effect produced by their well-made, lithe, active figures. the cast of their features is delicate and somewhat sharp; the mouth is small and well formed; the teeth are always fine and white; the face is oval; the eyebrows curved and heavy; the eyelashes long; the eyes deep set, intelligent, and roving; the nose either straight or decidedly aquiline, giving a hawk-like expression; the chin slightly receding; the brow broad and clear; the hands and feet remarkably small and slender. the women when young are beautiful, but hard work and early maternity lead to a premature loss of form, and to a withered angularity of feature which is far from pleasing, and which, as they do not veil, is always _en évidence_. the poorer kurds wear woollen socks of gay and elaborate patterns; cotton shoes like the _gheva_ of the persians; camlet trousers, wide at the bottom like those of sailors; woollen girdles of a kashmir shawl pattern; short jackets and felt jerkins without sleeves. the turban usually worn is peculiar. its foundation is a peaked felt cap, white or black, with a loosely-twisted rope of tightly-twisted silk, wool, or cotton wound round it. in the girdle the _khanjar_ is always seen. over it the cartridge belt is usually worn, or two cartridge belts are crossed over the chest and back. the girdle also carries the pipe and tobacco pouch, a long knife, a flint and steel, and in some cases a shot pouch and a highly-ornamented powder horn. the richer kurds dress like the syrians. the under-garment, which shows considerably at the chest and at the long and hanging sleeves, is of striped satin, either crimson and white or in a combination of brilliant colours, over which is worn a short jacket of cloth or silk, also with long sleeves, the whole richly embroidered in gold. trousers of striped silk or satin, wide at the bottom; loose medieval boots of carnation-red leather; a girdle fastened with knobbed clasps of silver as large as a breakfast cup, frequently incrusted with turquoises; red felt skull-caps, round which they wind large striped silk shawls, red, blue, orange, on a white or black ground, with long fringed ends hanging over the shoulders, and floating in the wind as they gallop; and in their girdles they carry richly-jewelled _khanjars_ and pistols decorated with silver knobs, besides a number of other glittering appointments. the accoutrements of the horses are in keeping, and at marriages and other festivities the head-stalls, bridles, and breast-plates are completely covered with pendent silver coins. the dress of the women is a foil to that of their lords. it consists of a blue cotton shirt; very wide trousers, drawn in at the ankles; a silver saucer on the head, from which chains depend with a coin at the end of each; a square mantle hanging down the back, clasped by two of its corners round the neck, and many strings of coins round the throat; a small handkerchief is knotted round the hair, and in presence of a strange man they hold one end of this over the mouth. the turks in bitlis are in a small minority, and the number of armenian christians is stated at from to . the old church has a large monastery outside the town and several churches and schools. the protestant armenians have a substantial church edifice, with a congregation of about , and large boarding-schools for boys and girls. the population is by far the wildest that i have seen in any asiatic city, and is evidently only restrained from violence by the large garrison. it is not safe for the ladies of this mission to descend into the moslem part of the city, and in a residence of more than twenty years they have never even passed through the bazars. the missionaries occupy a restricted and uncertain position, and the armenian christians are subject to great deprivations and restraints, and are distrusted by the government. of late they have been much harassed by the search for arms, and christian gunsmiths have been arrested. even their funeral ceremonies are not exempt from the presence of the police, who profess to believe that firearms are either carried in the place of a corpse or are concealed along with it. placed in the midst of a preponderating and fully-armed kurdish population, capable at any moment of being excited to frenzy against their faith, they live in expectation of a massacre, should certain events take place which are regarded as probable within two or three years. it was not to see the grandeur and picturesqueness of bitlis that i came here so late in the season, but to visit the american missionaries, especially two ladies. my hosts, mr. and mrs. knapp, have returned from a visit to america to spend their last days in a country which has been their home for thirty years, and have lately been joined by their son, who spent his boyhood in bitlis, and after graduating in an american university has come back, like so many sons of missionaries, to cast in his lot with a people to whom he is bound by many links of sympathy, bringing his wife with him. the two misses ----, who are more than half english, and are highly educated and accomplished, met mr. and mrs. knapp long ago in a steamer on the mediterranean, and decided to return with them to this dangerous and outlandish place, where they have worked among the women and girls for twenty-three years, and are still full of love and hope. the school for girls, in which fifty boarders are received in addition to fifty day pupils, has a _kindergarten_ department attached to it. the parents of all are expected to contribute in money or in kind, but their increasing poverty is telling on their ability to do so, and this winter the supply of food contributed by them is far short of the mark. the tastefulness and generosity of these ladies have produced as bright and beautiful a schoolroom as could be found anywhere, and ivy trained round the windows, growing plants, and pictures which are not daubs give a look of home. with them "love is the fulfilling of the law"--love in every tone, look, and touch, and they have that true maternity of spirit which turns a school into a family, and trains as well as educates. they are now educating the children, and even grandchildren, of their earliest pupils, and have the satisfaction of seeing how very much their school has effected in permeating the household and social relationships of the armenian women with the tone of christian discipleship, so that one would scarcely hear from the lips of any of their married pupils the provoking question, "we are only women, what can we do?" many of them have gone to homes in the roughest and wildest of mountain villages, where they sweeten village life by the gentle and kindly ways acquired in the bitlis school. these ladies conduct a mothers' meeting, and i thought that the women were much developed in intelligence and improved in manner as compared with the usual run of armenian women. on being asked to address them, i took their own words for my text, "we are only women," etc., and found them intelligent and sympathetic. these ladies have endured great hardships, and their present position is one of continual deprivation and frequent risk. one of them was so severely stoned in bitlis that she fell unconscious from her horse. in the winter miss ---- itinerates among the armenian villages of the mush and rahwan plains and the lake shore, travelling over the crust of the enormously deep snow in a hand-sled drawn by a man, braving storms which have nearly cost her her life, sleeping and living for a month or more at a time chiefly in _odahs_, and fearlessly encountering the very roughest of kurds and others in these dim and crowded stables. the danger of village expeditions, and the difficulty of obtaining _zaptiehs_ without considerable expense, have increased of late, and the mush plain especially has been ravaged all the summer and autumn by the kurds, with many barbarities and much loss of life, so that travelling for christians even in companies has been dangerous. caravans have lately been attacked and robbed, and in the case of one large mixed caravan the christians were robbed but the moslems were unmolested. a traveller was recently treacherously murdered by his _katirgis_, and miss ----, having occasion to employ the same men a few days ago, saw and heard them rehearse his dying agonies more than once for the amusement of kurds on the road. luxury is unknown in this mission house. it is so small that in order to receive me the ladies are sleeping in a curtained recess in the kitchen, and the reception-room for the natives is the eating and living room of the family. among them all there is a rare devotion, and lives spent in cheerful obedience to god and in loving service for man have left on their faces the impress of "the love which looks kindly and the wisdom which looks soberly on all things." the mission has had a severe struggle. the life on this mountain slope above the fanatical city is a very restricted one,--there is nothing of what we are accustomed to regard as "necessary recreation," and a traveller is not seen here above once in two or three years. all honour to those who have courage and faith to live such a life so lovingly and cheerfully! i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] it does not present any difficulty to me that xenophon omits all mention of the lake of van, for a range of hills lies between it and the road. i have travelled over the track twice, and failed to see anything in the configuration of the country which would have led me to suppose that the region to the eastward was anything but a continuity of ranges of hills and mountains, and if the ten thousand took the route from the eastern head-waters of the tigris to the murad-chai at the farther end of the plain of mush, directing all their investigations and inquiries in a westerly direction, there are very many chances against their having been informed, even by their prisoners, of the existence of the sea of van. [ ] _paradise lost_, iii. , "nor stayed, till on niphates' top he lights." letter xxxiii pikhruz, _nov. _. i was indeed sorry to leave the charming circle at the mission house and the wild grandeur of bitlis, but a certain wan look in the sky and peculiar colouring on the mountains warned my friends that winter might set in any day, and dr. reynolds arranged for _katirgis_ and an escort, and obtained a letter from the governor by means of which i can procure additional _zaptiehs_ in case of need. my turkish _katirgi_, moussa, is rich, and full of fun and jollity. he sings and jokes and mimics mirza, rides a fine horse, or sprawls singing on its back, and keeps every one alive by his energy and vitality. my loads are very light, and his horses are strong, and by a peculiar screech he starts them off at a canter with no other object than the discomfiture of mirza, who with all his good qualities will never make a horseman. unluckily he has a caravan of forty horses laden with ammunition for the government on the road, so things may not be always so smooth as they are now. descending by a track more like a stair than a road, and crossing the tigris, my friends and i performed the feat of riding through some of the bazars, even though mr. knapp and i had been pelted with stones on an open road the day before. there was no molestation, for the people are afraid of the _zaptiehs'_ swords. bitlis is busy, and it is difficult to get through its crowded markets, low, narrow, and dark as they are, the sunbeams rarely entering through their woven roofs. the stalls were piled with fruits, roots, strange vegetables, red home-dyed cottons, gay gear for horses, daggers and silver chains such as kurds love, gay kurdish clothing, red boots with toes turned up for tying to the knees, pack-saddles, english cottons ("_mankester_"), mostly red, and pipes of all kinds. there was pottery in red and green, huge earthen jars for the storage of water, brooms, horse-shoes, meat, curds, cheeses, and everything suited to the needs of a large and mixed population, and men seated in the shops plied their curious trades. emerging into the full sunlight on the waggon road to erzerum, we met strings of girls carrying water-jars on their backs from the wells, and long trains of asses and pack-bullocks bringing in produce, mixed up with foot passengers and kurds on showy horses. bitlis rejoices in abundant streams, wells, fountains, and mineral springs, some strongly chalybeate, others resembling the vichy waters. the grandly picturesque city with its piled-up houses, its barred windows suggestive of peril, its colossal ruins, its abounding waters, its bridges, each one more remarkable than the other, its terraced and wooded heights and the snow-crested summits which tower above them, with their cool blue and purple shadows, disappeared at a turn of the road, and there too my friends left me to pursue my perilous journey alone. the day was superb, and full of fine atmospheric effects. as we crossed the rahwan plain the great mountains to the west were enshrouded in wild drifting mists, through which now and then peaks and ledges, white with recent snow, revealed themselves, to be hidden in blackness the next moment. over the plain the blue sky was vaulted, and the sun shone bright and warm, while above the mountains to the south of lake van white clouds were piled in sunlit masses. after halting at tadvan, a pleasant village among streams, fountains, gardens, and fruit trees, we skirted the lake along pleasant cultivated slopes and promontories with deep bays and inlets to gudzag, where i spent the evening in an _odah_, retiring to sleep in my small tent, pitched in the village, where a big man with a gun, and wearing a cloak of goatskin reaching to his feet, kept up a big fire and guarded me till morning. the water froze in my basin during the night. the _odah_ was full of armenians, and murphy interpreted their innumerable tales of wrong and robbery. "since the erzerum troubles," so the tales ran, "the kurds kill men as if they were partridges." on asking them why they do not refuse to be robbed by "demand," they replied, "because the kurds bring big sticks and beat us, and say they will cut our throats." they complained of the exactions of the _zaptiehs_ and of being tied to the posts of their houses and beaten when they have not money wherewith to pay the taxes. starting at sunrise on the following morning i had a very pleasant walk along the sweet shore of the lake, while water, sky, and mountains were blended in a flood of rose and gold, after which, skirting a wooded inlet, on the margin of which the brown roofs of the large village of zarak were scarcely seen amidst the crimson foliage, and crossing a low range, we descended upon a plain at the head of a broad bay, on the farther side of which, upon a level breezy height, rose the countless monoliths and lofty mausoleums of akhlat, which i had made a long detour to see. the plain is abundantly watered, and its springs were surrounded with green sward, poplars, and willows, while it was enlivened by numerous bullock-carts, lumbering and creaking on their slow way with the latest sheaves of the harvest. after winding up a deep ravine we came upon a great table of rock scarped so as to be nearly perpendicular, at the base of which is a stone village. on the other side is a fine stream. i had purposed to spend the night at akhlat, but on riding up the village street, which has several shops, there was a manifest unfriendliness about its turkish inhabitants, and they went so far as to refuse both lodgings and supplies, so i only halted for a few hours. few things have pleased me more than akhlat, and the dreamy loveliness of the day was altogether propitious. i first visited the kharaba-shahr or "ruined city." the table rock is honeycombed with a number of artificial chambers, some of which are inhabited. several of these are carefully arched. a very fine one consists of a chamber with an arched recess like a small chancel, and a niche so resembling a piscina at one side that one involuntarily looks for the altar. these dwellings are carefully excavated, and chisel marks are visible in many places. outlining this remarkable rock, and above these chambers, are the remains of what must have been a very fine fortress, with two towers like those of the castle of bitlis springing from below the rock. the whole of it has been built of hewn red sandstone. the walls have been double, with the centre filled up with rough stones and mortar, but not much of the stone facing remains, the villages above and below having been built of it. detached pieces of masonry, such as great masses of walls, solitary arches, and partially-embedded carved fragments extend over a very large area, and it is evident that investigators with time and money might yet reap a rich reward. excavators have been recently at work--who or what they were i could not make out, and have unearthed, among other objects of interest, a temple with the remains of a dome having a cornice and frieze, and two small circular chambers, much decorated, the whole about twenty-five feet long. akhlat kalessi, or the castle of akhlat, stands on the sea-shore, on which side it has no defences. it is a fortress with massive walls, with round and square towers at intervals, and measures about paces from the water to the crest of the slope, and about across. the enclosure, which is entered by two gates, contains two ancient mosques solidly built, and a few houses among fruit trees, as well as some ruins of buildings. the view of the sipan dagh from this very striking ruin is magnificent. there are many circassian villages on the skirts of the sipan dagh, and their inhabitants bear nearly as bad a reputation as that of the kurds. they are well armed, and defy the local government. they are robbers and pilferers, and though they receive, or did receive, an allowance raised by a tax on the general community, they wring what they please out of the people among whom they live. a mile from akhlat, on a table-land of smooth green sward high above the silver sea, facing southwards, with a glorious view of the mountains of central kurdistan whitened with the first snows of winter, lies in an indescribable loneliness--the city of the dead. the sward is covered though not crowded with red sandstone monoliths, from six to fourteen feet in height, generally in excellent preservation. each has a projecting cornice on the east side with carved niches, and the western face is covered with exquisite tracery in arabesques and knot-work, and inscriptions in early arabic. on the graves are either three carved stones arranged on edge, or a single heavy hewn stone with a rounded top, and sides decorated with arabesques. few of these beautiful monoliths have fallen, but some are much time-worn, and have a growth of vivid red or green lichen upon them. besides these there are some lofty _turbehs_ or mausoleums, admirably preserved and of extreme beauty. the form is circular. the sepulchre is a closed chamber, with another above it open half-way round on the lake side, and a colonnade of very beautiful pillars supports round arches, above which are five exquisitely-carved friezes. the whole is covered with a conical roof of carved slabs of red stone, under which runs an arabic inscription. each of these buildings is decorated with ornament in the saracenic style, of a richness and beauty of which only photography could give any adequate representation. close to the finest of these _turbehs_ is an old mosque with a deeply-arched entrance, over which is a recess, panelled and carved like one in the finest of the rock chambers. the lintels of the door are decorated with stone cables. mirza counted more than monoliths. as i sketched the finest of these beautiful mausoleums some _mollahs_ came up and objected to the proceeding, and moussa urged me to desist, as the remainder of the march was "very dangerous," he said, and must be "got over" in full daylight. this phrase "very dangerous," as used in armenia, means that there is a serious risk of having the baggage and horses driven off, and the men stripped to a single garment. such things are happening constantly, and even moussa ceases his joking when he speaks of them.[ ] the remaining march was over great solitary sweeps of breezy upland to pikhruz, an armenian village of houses, which has an intelligent protestant teacher with sixty boys in his school. the villagers possess sheep, and have not been much harassed by the kurds. they employ kurdish shepherds and four night watchmen, two of whom are kurds. the head-dresses of the women are heavy with coins, and they wear stomachers and aprons so richly embroidered that no part of the original material is visible. the _khan_ is an exceptionally bad _odah_, and is absolutely crowded with horses, oxen, and men, and dim with the fumes of animal fuel and tobacco. it is indeed comically wretched. the small space round the fire is so crowded with _zaptiehs_, _katirgis_, and villagers that i have scarcely room for my chair and the ragamuffin remains of my baggage. murphy is crouching over a fire which he is trying to fan into a state in which it will cook my unvarying dinner--a fowl and potatoes. moussa is as usual convulsing the company with his stories and jokes, and is cracking walnuts for me; the schoolmaster is enlarging to me on that fruitful topic--"the state of things," the sabres and rifles of my escort gleam on the blackened posts, the delectable ox and horse faces wear a look of content, as they munch and crunch their food, the risk of sleeping in a tent is discussed, and meanwhile i write spasmodically with the candle and ink on a board on my lap. i am fast coming to like these cheery evenings in the _odahs_, where one hears the news of the country and villages. the _khanji_, the man who keeps the guest-house, provides fire, light, horse-food, and the usual country diet at so much per head, and obtains the daily fowl, which costs about d., and is cooked while warm. milk can be got from one of the cows in the stable. my expenses for food and lodging are from s. to s. a night. _matchetloo, november ._--one of the most unpleasant parts of the routine of the journey is the return to the _odah_ at a.m. after a night in the fresh air, for the atmosphere is so heated and foul as almost to knock one down. the night frosts are sharp, and as we start before sunrise we are all glad to walk for the first hour. the night in my tent at pikhruz was much disturbed, and i realised that it is somewhat risky for me to have my servants out of hearing in the depths of a semi-subterranean dwelling. the village dogs raged at times as though the kurds were upon them, and every half-hour the village guards signalled to each other with a long mournful yell. i was awakened once by a confusion of diabolical sounds, shots, shrieks, roars, and yells, which continued for some time and then died away. in the morning the guards said that the kurds had attacked a large caravan on the plain below, but had been repulsed, and that men on both sides had been wounded. the following day's march by the silver sheet of the kuzik lake, alive with ducks, divers, and other water fowl, was very charming. snow had fallen heavily, and the sipan dagh and the nimrud dagh were white more than half-way down their sides. from the summit of a very wild pass we bade adieu to the beautiful sea of van, crossed a plain in which is a pretty fresh-water lake with several villages and much cultivation on its margin, and, after some hours of solitary mountain travelling, came down upon the great plain of norullak, sprinkled with large villages, very fertile, and watered by the murad-chai, the eastern branch of the euphrates. i was to have had an easy march of five hours, and to have spent sunday at shaoub in the comfortable house of a protestant pastor with an english-speaking wife, but the _zaptiehs_ took the wrong road, and as twilight came on it was found that shaoub had been left hours behind. i have been suffering very much from the fatigue of the very long marches, and only got through this one by repeatedly lying down by the roadside while the _zaptiehs_ went in search of information. after it was quite dark and we were still astray, news came that shaoub was occupied by turkish soldiers, and that there were neither supplies nor accommodation, and after two more hours of marching and counter-marching over ploughed lands and among irrigation ditches, we emerged on the erzerum road, six inches deep in dust, forded a river in thick darkness, got very wet, and came out upon the large village of yangaloo, a remarkable collection of ant-hills rather than houses, with their floors considerably below the ground. the prospects in this hummocky place were most unpromising, and i was greeted by moussa, who, on finding that shaoub was full of troops, had had the wits to go on to yangaloo, with the information that there was "no accommodation." a womanly, christian grip of my arm reassured me, and i was lodged for sunday in the protestant church, the villagers having arranged to worship elsewhere. a building forty feet long with small paper-covered windows under the eaves was truly luxurious, but the repose of sunday morning was broken by loud and wearisome noises, lasting for several hours, which received a distressing explanation. i was informed by the priests and several of the leading men of the village that yangaloo for some time past had suffered severely from the kurds, and that just before a heavy demand for taxes had been made by the government, the three days' grace usually granted having been refused. the local official had seized the flax seed, their most profitable crop, at half-price, and had sold it for full price, his perquisite amounting to a large sum. fifteen _arabas_, each one loaded with seven large sacks of "linseed," were removed in the morning. the people were very friendly. all the "brethren" and "sisters" came to kiss hands, and to wish that my departure "might be in great peace," and on sunday evening i was present at a gathering of men in a room with the door carefully bolted and guarded, who desired me to convey to "the consul" at erzerum, with the attestation of the names of the priests of the old and reformed churches, certain complaints and narratives of wrong, which represented a condition of living not to be thought of without grief and indignation, and not to be ignored because it is partially chronic. yangaloo is a typical armenian village, its ant-hill dwellings are half-sunk, and the earth which has been excavated is piled up over their roofs and sides. the interior of each dwelling covers a considerable area, and is full of compartments with divisions formed by low clay walls or by the posts which support the roof, the compartments ramifying from a widening at the inner end of a long dark passage. in yangaloo, as in other villages on the plains, the earth is so piled over the houses as to render them hardly distinguishable from the surrounding ground, but where a village burrows into a hill-side only a small projection needs an artificial roof. the people live among their live stock; one entrance serves for both, and in winter time the animals never leave the stables. the fireplace or _tand[=u]r_ is in the floor, but is only required for cooking purposes, as the heat and steam of the beasts keep the human beings comfortably warm. from two to five families live in every house, and the people are fairly healthy.[ ] all the male members of a family bring their brides to live under the parental roof, and one "burrow" may contain as many as three generations of married couples with their families. on becoming an inmate of her father-in-law's house, each armenian bride, as in the country districts of persia, has to learn the necessity of silence. up to the day of the birth of the first child she is the family drudge, and may not speak to any one but her husband, and not to him in the presence of his parents. maternity liberates her tongue; she may talk to her child, and then to the females of the household; but she may not speak freely till some years of this singular novitiate have passed by. she then takes a high place in the house, and eventually rules it if she is left a widow. the armenian women are veiled out of doors, but only in deference to the moslems, who regard an uncovered head as the sign of a bad woman. the girls are handsome, but sheepish-looking; their complexions and eyes are magnificent. sunday was windy, with a gray sky, and the necessity of getting over the ghazloo pass before the weather absolutely broke was urged upon me by all. on the plain of norullak, not far from yangaloo, i forded the euphrates,--that is, the murad-chai, a broad, still, and deep river, only fordable at certain seasons. the fine mountain bijilan is a landmark in this part of the country. leaving the euphrates we ascended for some hours through bleak uninteresting regions to kara kapru, and on the road passed thirty well-armed kurds, driving a number of asses, which the _zaptiehs_ said had been driven off from two christian villages, which they pointed out. i was interested in the movements of some mounted men, who hovered suspiciously about my caravan, and at one time galloped close up to it, but retired on seeing the government uniforms, and were apparently "loafing about" among the valleys. the _zaptiehs_ said that they were notorious robbers, and would not go home without booty. towards evening they reappeared with several bullocks and asses which they had driven off from the village of ----, the headman of which came to me in the evening and asked me to report the robbery to "the consul," adding that this was the third time within a week that his village had been robbed of domestic animals, and that he dared not complain. at kara kapru, the best-looking armenian village i have seen, while i was looking for an _odah_, moussa, in spite of murphy and the _zaptiehs_, dashed off with his horses at full speed, and never stopped till he reached ghazloo, three hours farther on. this barbarous conduct was occasioned by his having heard that two of his forty horses ahead had broken down, and he hurried on to replace them with two of mine! i was so tired and in so much pain that i was obliged to lie down on the roadside for a considerable time before i could proceed, and got a chill, and was so wretched that i had to be tied on my horse. it was pitch dark, the _zaptiehs_ continually lost the way, heavy rain came on, and it was p.m. when we reached ghazloo, a village high up on a hill-slope, where mirza and murphy carried me into a small and crowded stable, and later into my tent, which was pitched in the slime at the stable door. moussa was repentant, borrowed a _kajaveh_, and said he would give me his strong horse for nothing! torrents of rain fell, changing into sleet, and sleet into snow, and when the following day dawned dismally my tent was soaked, and standing in slush and snow. my bed was carried into the stable, and i rested while the loading was going on. suleiman, my special _zaptieh_, said that the _khanji_ was quadrupling the charges, and wanted me not to pay him anything. the _khanji_ retorted that i gave the _zaptieh_ money to pay, and that he gave only a few coppers to the people--a glaring untruth, for murphy pays everything in my presence. thereupon suleiman beat the _khanji_ with his scabbarded sword, on which the man struck him, and there was a severe fight, in the course of which the combatants fell over the end of my bed. so habituated does one become to scenes of violence in this country that i scarcely troubled myself to say to murphy, "tell them to fight outside." it was a severe day's march over the bingol dagh, and i know little about the country we passed through. we skirted a bleak snowy hillside, first in rain and then in a heavy snowstorm, made a long ascent among drifting snow clouds, saw an ass abandoned by a caravan shivering in the bitter wind, with three magpies on its back picking its bleeding wounds, and near the summit of the ghazloo pass encountered a very severe "blizzard," so severe that no caravan but my own attempted to face it, and sixty conscripts _en route_ for bitlis in charge of two officers and some cavalry turned back in spite of words and blows, saying, "we may be shot; better that than to die on the hillside"! poor fellows, they are wretchedly dressed, and many of them have no socks. the "blizzard" was very awful--"a horror of great darkness," a bewildering whirl of pin-like snow coming from all quarters at once, a hurricane of icy wind so fearful that i had to hold on by the crupper and mane to avoid being blown out of the saddle; utter confusion, a deadly grip at my heart, everything blotted out, and a sense of utter helplessness. indeed i know of no peril in which human resources count for so little. after reaching the summit of the pass the risk was over, but we were seriously delayed in forcing a passage through the drift, which was fully seven feet deep. the men were much exhausted, and they say that "half an hour of it would have finished them." all landmarks were lost in the storm, and after some hours of struggling through snow, and repeatedly losing the way, the early darkness compelled us to take refuge in a kurdish village of bad repute on a bleak mountain side. the _odah_ was not only the worst i have yet seen, but it was crammed with handsome, wild-looking kurds, and with the conscripts who had turned back at the pass, some of whom were suffering from fever, and with cavalrymen and their horses, every man trying to get near the fire. i cannot say that any of them were rude, indeed the kurds did their best for what they supposed to be my comfort. i spent the evening among them, but slept in my tent outside, in two feet of snow, yards from the stable, in spite of the protestations of the _zaptiehs_. in fact i trusted to kurdish watchmen, who turned out faithful, and when an attempt was made to rob my tent in the night they sprang on the robbers, and after a struggle got two of them down and beat them with their guns, both sides yelling like savages. when i left the _odah_ for the tent two kurds gripped my arms and led me to it through the deep snow. it was better to run some risk than to be suffocated by the heat and overpowering odours of the stable, but it was an eerie place. _november ._--the weather considerably delayed my farther progress. the days were severe, and the nights were spent in a soaked tent, pitched in slush or snow. mist and snow concealed the country, and few travellers were stirring. we marched with the powder caravan for the sake of the escort and for its services in beating the track, and moussa and his men watched at night. the going was very bad, and both moussa and i fell down hill slopes with our horses, but the animals luckily alighted on their feet. moussa's jollity was very useful. he is a capital mimic, and used to "take off" mirza in the _odahs_ at night, and as murphy lost no opportunity of showing up the poor fellow's want of travelling _savoir-faire_, he would have had a bad time but for his philosophical temperament and imperturbable good-nature. i suffered very much from my spine, but the men were all kind, and tried to make things easy for me, and the _zaptiehs_ were attentive and obliging. kurdistan is scarcely a "geographical expression," and colloquially the word is used to cover the country inhabited by the kurds. they are a mysterious people, having maintained themselves in their original seats and in a condition of semi-independence through all the changes which have passed over western asia, though they do not exceed numerically two and a quarter millions of souls. such as they were when they opposed the retreat of the ten thousand they seem to be still. war and robbery are the business of kurdish life. [illustration: a hakkiari kurd.] one great interest of this journey is that it lies through a country in which kurds, turks, and armenians live alongside each other--the kurds being of two classes, the tribal, who are chiefly nomads, owning no law but the right of the strongest; and the non-tribal or settled, who, having been conquered by turkey, are fairly orderly, and are peaceable except in their relations with the christians. the strongholds of the tribal kurds are in the wild mountains of kurdistan, and especially in the hakkiari country, which is sprinkled with their rude castles and forts. an incurable love of plunder, a singular aptitude for religious fanaticism, a recklessness as to the spilling of blood, a universal rapacity, and a cruel brutality when their passions are roused, are among their chief vices. the men are bold, sober, and devoted to their kinsmen and tribe; and the women are chaste, industrious, and maternal. under a firm and equitable government, asserting vigorously and persistently the supremacy of law and the equal rights of race and creed, they would probably develop into excellent material. the village turk, as he is described by europeans well acquainted with him and speaking his language, and as i have seen him on a long journey, is a manly, hospitable, hard-working, kindly, fairly honest fellow, domestic, cheerful, patriotic, kind to animals, usually a monogamist, and usually also attentive to his religious duties. the christians, who, in this part of kurdistan, are all armenians by race, live chiefly on the plains and in the lower folds of the hills, and are engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits. my letters have given a faithful representation of them as dwelling with their animals in dark semi-subterranean hovels. the men are industrious, thrifty, clannish, domestic, and not given to vices, except that of intoxication, when they have the means and opportunity, and the women are hardworking and chaste. both sexes are dirty, hardy, avaricious, and superstitious, and ages of wrong have developed in them some of the usual faults of oppressed oriental peoples. they cling desperately to their historic church, which is represented among the peasants by priests scarcely less ignorant than themselves. their bishops constitute their only aristocracy. they are grossly ignorant, and of the world which lies outside the _sandjak_ in which they live they know nothing. the sultan is to them a splendid myth, to whom they owe and are ready to pay a loyal allegiance. government is represented to them by the tax-gatherer and his brutalities. of justice, the most priceless product of good government, they know nothing but that it is a marketable commodity. with the armenian trading communities of the cities they have slender communication, and little except nationality and religion in common. as a rule, they live in villages by themselves, which cluster round churches, more or less distinguishable from the surrounding hovels, but there are also mixed villages in which turks and armenians live side by side, and in these cases they get on fairly well together, though they instinctively dislike each other, and the turk despises his neighbour both for his race and creed. the armenians have not complained of being maltreated by the turkish peasants, and had there been any cause for complaint it would certainly have reached my ears. on this journey hundreds of stories have been told to me by priests of both the old and protestant churches, headmen, and others, of robbery by demand, outrages on women, digging into houses, killing, collectively and individually, driving off sheep and cattle, etc., etc.[ ] on the whole, the same condition of alarm prevails among the armenians as i witnessed previously among the syrian _rayahs_. it is more than alarm, it is _abject terror_, and not without good reason. in plain english, general lawlessness prevails over much of this region. caravans are stopped and robbed, travelling is, for armenians, absolutely unsafe, sheep and cattle are being driven off, and outrages, which it would be inexpedient to narrate, are being perpetrated. nearly all the villages have been reduced to extreme poverty by the carrying off of their domestic animals, the pillage, and in some cases the burning, of their crops, and the demands made upon them at the sword's point for every article of value which they possess, while at the same time they are squeezed for the taxes which the kurds have left them without the means of paying. the repressive measures which have everywhere followed "the erzerum troubles" of last june,--the seizure of arms, the unchecked ravages of the kurds, the threats of the kurdish beys, who are boldly claiming the sanction of the government for their outrages, the insecurity of the women, and a dread of yet worse to come,--have reduced these peasants to a pitiable state. the invariable and reasonable complaint made by the christians is, that though they are heavily taxed they have no protection from the kurds, or any advantage from the law as administered in kurdistan, and that taxes are demanded from them which the kurds have left them without the means of paying. they complain that they are brutally beaten when they fail to produce money for the payment of the government imposts, and they allege with great unanimity that it is common for the _zaptiehs_ to tie their hands behind them, to plaster their faces with fresh cow-dung, and throw pails of cold water at their eyes, tie them to the posts of their houses and flog them severely. in the village of ----, which has been swept bare by the kurds, the people asserted that the _zaptiehs_ had tied twenty defaulters together, and had driven them round and round barefooted over the thistles of the threshing-floor, flogging them with their heavy whips. my _zaptiehs_ complain of the necessity they are under of beating the people. they say (and i think correctly) that they can never know whether a man has a hoard of buried money or not without beating him. they tell me also that they know that half the peasants have nothing to pay their taxes with, but that unless they beat them to "get what they can out of them" they would be punished themselves for neglect of duty. on the plains to the west and north-west of the lake of van, where the deep, almost subsoil, ploughing and carefully-constructed irrigation channels testify to the industry of a thrifty population, great depredations are even now being committed, and though later the intense cold and tremendous depths of snow of the armenian highlands will proclaim the "truce of god," the kurds are still on the alert. nor are their outrages confined to small localities, neither are they the result of "peculiar local circumstances," but from the persian frontier near urmi, along a more or less travelled road of several hundred miles, there is, generally speaking, no security for life, traffic, or property, and i hear on good authority that on the other side of erzerum, even up to the russian frontier, things are if possible worse. i have myself seen enough to convince me that in the main the statements of the people represent accurately enough the present reign of terror in armenia, and that a state of matters nearly approaching anarchy is now existing in the _vilayet_ of erzerum. there is no security at all for the lives and property of christians, law is being violated daily, and almost with perfect impunity, and peaceable and industrious subjects of the porte, taxed to an extent which should secure them complete protection, are plundered without redress. their feeble complaints are ignored, or are treated as evidence of "insurrectionary tendencies," and even their lives are at the mercy of the increased audacity and aroused fanaticism of the kurds, and this not in nearly inaccessible and far-off mountain valleys, but on the broad plains of armenia, with telegraph wires above and passable roads below, and with a governor-general and the fourth army corps, numbering , seasoned troops, within easy distance! i have every reason to believe that in the long winter evenings which i have spent in these sociable _odahs_, the peasants have talked to me freely and frankly. there are no reasons why it should be otherwise, for my _zaptiehs_ are seldom present, moussa is looking after his horses in distant recesses, quite out of hearing, and my servants are christians. if the people speak frankly, i am compelled to believe that the armenian peasant is as destitute of political aspirations as he is ignorant of political grievances; that if he were secured from the ravages of moslem marauders he would be as contented as he is loyal and industrious; and that his one desire is "protection from the kurds" and from the rapacity of minor officials, with security for his life and property. not on a single occasion have i heard a wish expressed for political or administrative reform, or for autonomy. the armenian peasants are "of the earth, earthy," and the unmolested enjoyment of material good is their idea of an earthly paradise. with regard to the kurds, they have been remorseless robbers for ages, and as their creed scarcely hesitates to give the appropriation of the goods of a _kafir_ a place among the virtues, they prey upon the syrian and armenian peasants with clear consciences. to rob them by violence and "demand," month after month and year after year, till they have stripped them nearly bare, to cut their throats if they resist, to leave them for a while to retrieve their fortunes,--"_to let the sheep's wool grow_," as their phrase is,--and then to rob them again, is the simple story of the relations between kurd and christian. they are well armed with modern rifles and revolvers. i have rarely seen a kurd with an old-fashioned weapon, and i have _never_ seen a christian with a rifle, and their nearly useless long guns have lately been seized by the government. the kurds hate and despise the turks, their nominal rulers; but the islamic bond of brotherhood is stronger than the repulsion either of hatred or contempt, and the latent or undisguised sympathy of their co-religionists in official positions ensures them, for the most part, immunity for their crimes, for the new code, under which the evidence of a christian has become nominally admissible in a court of law, being in direct opposition to the teaching of the koran, to the practice of centuries, to kurdish fanaticism, and to the strong religious feelings and prejudices of those who administer justice, is practically, so far as the christians are concerned, a dead letter.[ ] i am writing in an _odah_ in the village of harta, after a wild mountain ride in wind, sleet, and snow. the very long marches on this journey have been too much for me, and i made a first and last attempt to travel in a _maffir_ or covered wooden pannier, but the suffering was so great that i was glad to remount my faithful woolly _boy_. we had a regular snowstorm, in which nothing could be seen but the baggage horses struggling and falling, and occasional glimpses of caverned limestone cliffs and precipitous slopes, with a foamy torrent at a tremendous depth below. on emerging from the pass, moussa, suleiman, and i came at a good pace through the slush to this _odah_, and i arrived so cold that i was glad to have to rub my horse dry, and attend to him. murphy describes him thus: "that's a strange horse of yours, ma'am; if one were to lie down among his legs he'd take no notice to hurt one. when he comes in he just fills hisself, then he lies down in the wettest place he can find, and goes to sleep. then he wakes and shakes hisself, and hollers, he does, till he gets his grub"--an inelegant but forcible description of the excellences of a travelling horse. _boy_ is truly a gentle pet; it afflicts me sorely to part with him. a few nights ago as i took some raisins to him in a dark recess of the stable, my light went out, and i slipped and fell among the legs of some animal. not knowing whether it was a buffalo or a strange horse i did not dare to move, and said, "is this you, my sweet _boy_?" a low pleasant snuffle answered "yes," and i pulled myself up by the strong woolly legs, which have carried me so sturdily and bravely for several hundred miles. the christians appear not to have anything analogous to our "family worship," but are careful in their attendance at the daily prayers in church, to which they are summoned before dawn, either by loud rappings on their doors or the striking of a wooden gong or sounding-board. the churches differ very little. they usually have an attempt at an outer courtyard, the interior of the edifice is generally square, the roof is supported by two rows of poplar pillars, and the rough walls are concealed by coarse pictures and dirty torn strips of printed cotton. dirty mats or bits of carpets cover the floor, racks are provided for the shoes of the worshippers, and if there is not a gallery a space is railed off for the women. the prayers are mumbled by priests in dirty vestments, while the women knit and chatter. candle-grease, dust, and dirt abound. there is such an air of indifference about priests and people that one asks what motive it is which impels them to leave their warm stable dwellings on these winter mornings to shiver in a dark and chilly church. they say, "we will tread the paths our fathers trod; they are quite good enough for us." two nights ago, in an _odah_ full of men, the kurdish _khanji_, at the canonical hour, fell down on his forehead at prayer in the midst of us, all daggers, pistols, and finery as he was. in which case is the worship most ignorant, i wonder? i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] akhlat was a place of immense importance in ancient days, and its history epitomises the vicissitudes of armenia; abulfeda, bakani, deguignes, ritter, and finlay in his _history of greece_ are among the best-known authorities on its history, and mr. tozer in his work on _turkish armenia_, p. , etc., gives an interesting popular sketch of the way in which it was conquered and reconquered by saracens, greeks, kurds, turks, khoarasmians and georgians, till eventually the turks reconquered it from the kurds. its ancient armenian name of khelat is altogether unknown to its present inhabitants. [ ] xenophon in his _anabasis_ describes the armenian dwellings of his day thus:-- "their houses were underground, the entrance like the mouth of a well, but spacious below; there were passages dug into them for the cattle, but the people descended by ladders. in the houses were goats, sheep, cows, and fowls, with their young. all the cattle were kept in fodder within the walls." i have not seen the entrance by a well, but have understood that it still exists in certain exposed situations. xenophon mentions buried wine, and it is not unlikely that the deep clay-lined holes in which grain is stored in some of the villages are ancient cellars, anterior to the date when the karduchi became moslems and teetotallers. [ ] it was not possible to ascertain the accuracy of these narratives, and though many of them appeared to be established by a mass of concurrent and respectable testimony, i forbear presenting any of them to my readers, especially as the report presented to parliament in january (_turkey_, no. ) not only gives, on british official authority, a mass of investigated facts, but states the case of the armenian peasantry in language far stronger than any that i should have ventured to use. [ ] in a minute by the late mr. clifford lloyd (_turkey_, no. , - , p. ) the condition of the christian peasant population of kurdistan is summarised thus:-- "their sufferings at present proceed from three distinct causes-- " . the insecurity of their lives and properties, owing to the habitual ravages of the kurds. " . the insecurity of their persons and the absence of all liberty of thought and action (except the exercise of public worship). " . the unequal status held by the christian as compared with the mussulman in the eyes of the government." letter xxxiv erzerum, _dec. _. i left harta in a snowstorm without the caravan, and wherever the snow was well beaten got along at a good pace, passing on the right the fortress of hassan-kaleh, with several lines of fortifications and a town at its base, which, with the surrounding district, consumes, it is said, an amount of strong drink equal in value to its taxation. the adjacent pasin plain, watered by the araxes, has suffered severely from the kurds. a short time ago all its christian villages were plundered, and _at least_ horses, asses, sheep, and head of cattle, nearly the whole pastoral wealth of the people, were carried off by these marauders, while the moslem villages were exempt from their attacks. after winding among uninteresting hills crowned with forts, along valleys in which military posts occur at frequent intervals, and making a long ascent, the minarets and grim fortifications of the unhappy town of erzerum loomed through the snow-mist; the city itself lying on a hill slope above a very extensive plain at a height of over feet. it was a solemn scene. the snow was deep and was still falling, the heavens were black, and swirls of mist driven by a strong wind blotted out at times the surrounding mountains. a dead calm followed, and snow clouds hung suspended over the city. my first impression of erzerum was of earthworks of immense size extending for miles, with dismounted guns upon them looking very black in the snow; of a deep ditch, and a lofty rampart pierced by a fine granite tunnel; of more earthworks, and of forts crowning all the heights directly above the city, and of many flags drooping on their staffs. between the fortifications and the town there is a great deal of open ground sprinkled with rifle pits, powder magazines, and artillery, cavalry, and infantry barracks, very solidly built and neatly kept up. after passing through cemeteries containing thousands of gravestones, we abruptly entered the principal street, wide and somewhat european-looking, in which are some of the consulates and the protestant armenian church and schools. the houses in this street are very irregular, and most of them have projecting upper fronts. i was received with the utmost kindness at the american mission house, where it has seemed likely that i might be detained for the winter! i understood that when i reached erzerum i should be able to drive to trebizond in a _fourgon_, so i sent murphy to van on _boy_, and thought with much satisfaction of the ease of the coming journey. then i was ill, and afterwards found that the _fourgons_ were long rough waggons without springs, in which one must lie or sit on the top of the baggage, and that i should never be able to bear the jolting. there was another heavy snowstorm, and winter set in so rigorously that it was decided that driving was out of the question, and that i must hire a horse. after the matter had been settled thus, murphy and _boy_, both in very bad case, were found in a low part of the town, and though murphy asserts that he encountered kurds near hassan-kaleh who robbed him of everything, it is not believed that he ever passed through the city gate. he looks a pitiable object, and his much-frogged uniform, and the blanket, revolver, and other things that i had given him are all gone. in spite of his fatal failing, i have re-engaged him, and shall again ride my trusty pet. the vali, ignoring my official letter, has insisted on a number of formalities being complied with, and though the acting-consul has undertaken all the formal arrangements, the delays have been many and tiresome. there are two bugbears on the trebizond road,--the kop and zigana mountains, which are liable to be blocked by snow. as compared with persian towns, erzerum looks solid and handsome, and its uncovered bazars seem fairly busy. the through traffic between trebizond and tabriz, chiefly in british goods, is very heavy. the custom house is in sight from my windows, and in one day i have counted as many as laden camels passing through it, besides horse and mule caravans. there are about persians in the city, and the carrying trade is mainly in their hands. the present population is estimated at from , to , . the armenians are not very numerous, but their enterprise as traders gives them an importance out of proportion to their numbers. the armenian cathedral, the "pair of minarets," the "single minaret," and the castle, which stands on a height in the middle of the city, and contains a small saracenic chapel, are the chief "sights." nothing is talked about but "the troubles,"[ ] and the european consuls, who possess trustworthy information, confirm my impressions of the seriousness of the present latitude allowed to the kurds. the turkish government has just taken a step which is regarded as full of hazard. certain kurdish beys were summoned to erzerum, nominally for the purpose of being reprimanded for their misdeeds; but they were allowed to enter the gates with a number of armed followers, and afterwards went to erzingian, where, from the hands of zeki pacha, the commander of the fourth army corps, they received commissions as officers of irregulars. the christians (but i hope erroneously) regard this step as a menace, and the kurds appear to think that it gives them license to maraud. these beys, after receiving their commissions, went through the christian quarter of the erzingian bazars, making gestures as of cutting throats, and saying to the christian merchants, "your time has come now; hitherto we have not had the co-operation of the government, but we have it now." it remains to be seen whether the porte will succeed in bringing these men and their wild followers under the conditions of military discipline. the excitement following upon the "troubles" last june has only partially subsided, and i learn from the europeans that the state of suspicion, fear, distrust, and repression within the city has undergone little diminution. every day brings fresh reports of robbery and outrage, and for murders of well-known christians no arrests are being made.[ ] trade among the armenians is suffering, for those merchants whose transactions are with kurdish districts dare not collect their debts for fear of losing their lives. arrests of christians on frivolous and worthless pretexts are being made daily, armenian houses are being searched continually, and individuals are being imprisoned for long terms of years for having books in their possession containing references to the past history of armenia, and the government is, or affects to be, in constant dread of an insurrectionary rising among the christians. the accounts from the country districts are so very bad that one of the ablest and best-informed of the european consuls, a very old resident in asia minor, remarked indignantly, "it's no longer a question of politics but of humanity." one of the most interesting sights in erzerum is the sanassarian college, founded and handsomely endowed by the liberality of an armenian merchant. the fine buildings are of the best construction, and are admirably suited for educational purposes, and the equipments are of the latest and most complete description. the education and the moral and intellectual training are of a very high type, and the personal influence of the three directors, who were educated in germany and england, altogether "makes for righteousness." the graduation course is nine years. the students, numbering , wear a uniform, and there is no distinction of class among them. they are, almost without exception, manly, earnest, and studious, and are full of enthusiasm and _esprit de corps_. much may be hoped for in the future from the admirable moral training and thorough education given in this college, which is one of the few bright spots in armenia. i have seen erzerum under very favourable circumstances, for, since the last snowstorm, the weather has been magnificent, and everything that is untidy or unsightly has an unsullied covering. the winter sunsets reddening the white summits of the deveh boyun and other lofty ranges, and the absolute purity of the whiteness of the plain, between thirty and forty miles long and from ten to twenty broad, which lies below the city, exercise a witchery which the scorching heats of summer must utterly destroy. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] the reader will recollect that the "erzerum troubles" so frequently referred to consisted of riot and bloodshed following upon a search for arms which was made under the floors of the armenian cathedral and the sanassarian college, on the strength (it is said) of an anonymous telegram in june . the lucid account given of this deplorable affair and of the subsequent inaction of the local government by her britannic majesty's consul-general for kurdistan, in the "white book," to which allusion has been made, should be studied by all who are interested in the so-called "armenian question." [ ] in a despatch in the "white book" (_turkey_, no. , - ) mr. clifford lloyd sums up the condition of things in kurdistan thus: "in a country such as this is, lawlessness is to be expected; _but unfortunately in nearly every instance armed and ungoverned kurds are the aggressors, and unarmed and unprotected armenian christians the victims_." letter xxxv trebizond, _dec. , _. the journey from erzerum to trebizond in the winter season occupies from ten to twelve days, and involves a transition from an altitude of feet to the sea-level, and from treelessness, aridity, and severities of cold to forests and moisture, a temperate climate, and the exquisite greenness of the slopes which descend upon the black sea. there is a well-made waggon road, carefully engineered, for the whole distance, with stone bridges in excellent repair; many of the _khans_ are tolerable, supplies can be procured, and the country is passably safe. i left erzerum on the d of december, escorted by my kindly hosts as far as elijeh, having an armenian _katirgi_, who in every respect gave me the greatest satisfaction, and the same servants as before. the mercury fell rapidly the following night, was ° below zero when i left elijeh for ashkala the next morning, and never rose above ° during the whole day. the road follows the western branch of the euphrates, the frat, a reedy and winding stream. the horsemen and foot passengers were mostly muffled up in heavy cloaks with peaked hoods, and the white comforters which wrapped up their faces revealed only one eye, peering curiously out of a cavern of icicles. icicles hung from the noses and bodies of the horses, it was not possible to ride more than half an hour at a time without being benumbed, and the snow was very deep for walking. after crossing the euphrates twice by substantial stone bridges, i halted at ashkala, a village of _khans_, at a clean but unfinished _khan_ on the bank of the river, and in a room with unglazed windows and no possibility of making a fire experienced a temperature of ° below zero. my dinner froze before i could finish it, the stock of potatoes for the journey, though wrapped in a fur cloak inside my _yekdan_, was totally spoilt, and my ink froze. the following day was cloudy and inclined to snow rather than frost, and the crossing of the much-dreaded kop dagh was managed without difficulty in five hours, in snow three feet deep. there is a refuge near the summit, but there are no habitations on the ascent or descent. it is a most dangerous pass, owing to the suddenness and fury of the storms, and only last winter sixty fine camels and ten drivers perished there in a blizzard. my _zaptieh_ was left behind ill at the refuge, and i made the remainder of the journey without an escort. the kop dagh, feet in altitude, forms the watershed between the euphrates valley and the black sea, and on such an afternoon as that on which i crossed it, when wild storms swept over successive mountain ranges, and yet wilder gleams lighted up the sinuous depression which marks the course of the frat, the view from its lofty summit is a very striking one. it was dark when i reached the very miserable hamlet on the western side of the kop, and as earlier caravans had taken up the better accommodation, i had to content myself with a recess opening out of a camel stable. the camels sat in circles of ten, and pleasant family parties they looked, gossiping over their chopped straw, which, with a ball of barley-meal dough in the morning, constitutes their slender but sufficient diet. nothing gives a grander idea of the magnitude and ramifications of commerce than the traffic on the road from erzerum to trebizond. during eleven days there has scarcely been a time when there has not been a caravan in sight, and indeed they succeed each other in a nearly endless procession, the majority being composed of stately mountain camels, gaily caparisoned, carrying large musical bells, their head-stalls of crimson leather being profusely tasselled and elaborately decorated with cowries and blue beads. the leader of each caravan wears a magnificent head-dress covering his head and neck, on which embroidery is lavishly used in combination with tinsel and coloured glass, the whole being surmounted by a crown with a plume set between the ears. there is one driver to every six animals; and these men, fine, robust, sturdy fellows, are all dressed alike, in strong warm clothing, the chief feature of which is a great brown sheepskin cap of mushroom shape, which projects at least nine inches from the head. the road is a highway for british goods. the bales and packing cases are almost invariably marked with british names and trade marks. the exception is russian kerosene, carried by asses and horses, of which an enormous quantity was on the road. i was glad to leave kop khané at daybreak, for caravan bells jingled, chimed, tolled, and pealed all night, and my neighbours the camels were under weigh at a.m. the road descends gently down the wide valley of the tchoruk, the ancient acampsis, and then ascends to baiburt, a town with a population of about , souls, being christians. it is very picturesquely situated at the junction of two or three valleys, the houses rise irregularly as at bitlis tier above tier, and the resemblance is heightened by a great reddish-yellow rock which rises in the centre, the long and varied contour of which is followed by the walls of a fortress imposing even in its ruins, round and square towers cresting the remarkable eminence. a handsome military college on a height, wide streets lined by well-built houses with projecting upper stories, and well-supplied and busy markets, in which an enormous quantity of mutton is exposed for sale, are among the chief features of this very striking town. a domiciliary visit from a courteous chief of police, who assured me that an escort was not needed, and re-sealed my passports, was my only contact with turkish officialism between erzerum and trebizond. after leaving baiburt i diverged a little, in spite of very deep snow, to visit the ruined armenian ecclesiastical edifices at varzahan, a village from which a mountain road to trebizond passing near the greek monastery of sumelas branches from the main road. the most interesting and best-preserved of these buildings is an octagonal chapel of a very elaborate design, with remains of a circle of slender shafts, a very fine west window, round arches, and some curious designs in fresco. in another a pointed arch, and a fragment of a blind arcade with niches on its outer face, remain, along with some very carefully-executed cable and twisted moulding. it was truly refreshing to come upon such very beautiful relics of christian art in so wild a country. these edifices are attributed to the eleventh or twelfth century. in an ancient and adjacent cemetery there are several monumental stone rams, very much like the stone lions of the bakhtiari country. i quite broke down on that march, and was obliged to bribe the turkish occupants of a most miserable hovel to vacate it for me, and on the following day was only able to ride three hours to getchid. the sky was grim and threatening, and the snow deep, and when after a long ascent we descended into a really magnificent defile, so narrow that for a long distance the whole roadway is blasted out of the rock, a violent snowstorm came on, with heavy gusts of wind. there were high mountains with a few trees upon them dimly seen, walling in the wildest and most rugged part of the defile, where some stables offered a shelter, and i was glad to be allowed to occupy the wood house, a damp excavation in the mountain side! no words can convey an impression of the roughness of asia minor travelling in winter! it was lonely, for the stable where the servants were was a short distance off, and the _khanji_ came several times to adjure me to keep the bolt of the door fastened, for his barley was in my keeping, and there was a gang of robbers on the road! i fell asleep, however, but was awakened at midnight by yells, shouts, tramplings, and a most violent shaking of my very insecure door. it was the turkish post, who, being unable to get into the stable, was trying to bring his tired horses into my den for a little rest! fine fellows these turkish mail riders are, who carry the weekly mail from trebizond into the interior. the post drives two horses loaded with the mail bags in front of him at a gallop, urging them with yells and his heavy whip, the _zaptieh_ escort galloping behind, and at this pace they dash up and down mountains and over plains by day and night, changing at short intervals, and are only behind time in the very worst of weather. snow fell heavily all night, and until late in the afternoon of the following day, but we started soon after seven, and plodded steadily along in an atmosphere of mystery, through intricate defiles, among lofty mountains half-seen, strange sounds half-heard, vanishing ravines and momentary glimpses of villages on heights, fortress-crowned precipices, suggestive of the days of genoese supremacy, as in the magnificent gorge of kala, and long strings of camels magnified in the snow-mist, to the kala village, with its dashing torrent, its fine walnut trees, and its immense camel stables, in and outside of which camels were taking shelter from the storm. we pushed on, however, during that day and the next, through the beautiful and populous gumushkhané valley to kupru bridge, having descended almost steadily for five days. the narrow valley of the kharshut is magnificent, and on the second day the snow was only lying on the heights. the traveller is seldom out of sight of houses, which are built on every possible projection above the river, and on narrow spurs in wild lateral ravines, and wherever there are houses there are walnut, pear, apple and apricot trees, with smooth green sward below, and the walnut branches often meet over the road. the houses are mostly large, often whitewashed, always brown-roofed, and much like swiss _châlets_, but without the long slopes of verdure which make switzerland so fair. instead of verdure there is the wildest rock and mountain scenery, a congeries of rock-walls, precipices, and pinnacles, and the semblance of minarets and fortresses, flaming red, or burnt sienna, or yellow ochre, intermingled with bold fronts of crimson and pale blue rock, the crimson cliffs looking in the rain as if torrents of blood were pouring over them. the roadway has been both blasted out of the rock and built up from the river. far up picturesque ravines oxen were ploughing the red friable soil on heights which looked inaccessible; there was the velvety greenness of winter wheat; scrub oak and barberry find root-hold in rocky rifts, and among crags high up among the glittering snows contorted junipers struggle for a precarious existence. the road was enlivened by local as well as through traffic, and brightened by the varied costumes of turks, greeks, armenians, and lazes. the latter do not resemble the turks in physiognomy or costume. all of them carry rifles and sabres, and two daggers in their girdles, one of which always has a cloven hilt. they are on their way to their native province of lazistan with droves of horses, and are much dreaded by both the _katirgis_ and _khanjis_ on the road for their marauding habits. the turkish government has a very difficult task in ruling and pacifying the number of races which it has subjugated even in asiatic turkey. between the arabs of the chaldæan plains and the lazes of the shores of the black sea i have met even in my limited travels with sabeans, jews, armenians, syrians, yezidis, kurds, osmanlis, circassians, and greeks, alien and antagonistic in creed and race, but somehow held together and to some extent governed by a power which is, i think, by no means so feeble as she is sometimes supposed to be. the kharshut is crossed at kupru bridge by a very fine stone arch. this village, at the foot of the zigana mountain, is entirely composed of inferior _khans_, food shops, and smiths' shops. the clang of hammers lasted late into the night, for the road was reported as "icy," and more than horses and mules were having their shoes roughed for the passage of the zigana mountain. i arrived late in the evening, when all the _khans_ were full, and had to put up in a hovel, the door of which was twice attempted during the night by a band of lazes, about whose proceedings stephan, my _katirgi_, had been very suspicious. after the servants and _katirgis_, roused by my whistle, had rushed out of an opposite stable upon the marauders, i lay awake for some time trying to realise that my ride of miles was nearly at an end, and that european civilisation was only five days off; but it was in vain. i felt as if i should _always_ be sleeping in stables or dark dens, _always_ uttering the call to "boot and saddle" two hours before daylight, _always_ crawling along mountain roads on a woolly horse, _always_ planning marches, _always_ studying asiatic character, and _always_ sinking deeper into barbarism! from the summit of the zigana mountain to trebizond is a steady descent of twelve hours. the ascent from kupru bridge occupied five hours and a half. it was a much more serious affair than crossing the kop dagh, for the snowstorm had lasted for three days, the snow was from four to nine feet deep on the summit, and the thawing of its surface at the lower altitudes, succeeded by keen frost, had resulted in the production of slopes of ice, over which i had to walk for two hours, as _boy_ could scarcely keep on his feet. the early snow has a witchery of its own, and it may be that the zigana mountain and the views from it are not so beautiful as i think them, but under the circumstances in which i saw them, i was astonished with the magnificence of the scenery, and with the vast pine forests which clothe the mountain sides. villages of _châlets_, with irregular balconies, and steep roofs projecting from two to six feet, are perched on rocky heights, or nestle among walnuts with a blue background of pines, above which tower spires and peaks of unsullied snow; ridges rise into fantastic forms and mimicries of minarets and castles; pines, filling gigantic ravines with their blue gloom, stand sentinels over torrents silenced for the winter; and colossal heights and colossal depths, an uplifted snow world of ceaseless surprises under a blue sky full of light, make one fancy oneself in switzerland, till a long train of decorated camels or a turbaned party of armed travellers dissipates the dream. the last hour of the ascent was very severe. the wind was strong and keen, and the drifting snow buffeted us unmercifully. the mercury fell to ° below zero, and the cold was intense. murphy complained of "trembles" in his knees and severe pain in his legs, and when we reached the summit was really ill. the drift was not only blinding and stinging but suffocating. i was quite breathless, and felt a chill round my heart. i could not even see _boy's_ neck, and he cowered from the blast; but just as all things were obliterated i found myself being helped to dismount in the shelter of a camel stable full of lazes, but was so benumbed that i could not stand. some _zaptiehs_ had the humanity to offer me the shelter of a hovel nearly buried in the snow, and made a fire and some coffee, and i waited there till the wind moderated. it came in such fierce gusts as actually to blow two of the baggage horses over on their sides. murphy was really ill of fever for two days from the cold and exposure. the altitude of the pass is about feet. the first part of the descent was made on foot, for the snow had drifted on the road to a height of fully twenty feet, leaving only a path of shelving ice on the brink of a precipitous slope. earlier in the day twenty laden camels had gone over, and were heaped in the ravine below, not all dead. the road dips with some suddenness into a deep glen, dark with pine and beech forests; large rhododendrons and the _azalea pontica_ forming a dense undergrowth. long gray lichen hung from the branches, christmas roses and premature primroses bloomed in sheltered places, the familiar polypody and the _asplenium adiantum nigrum_ filled every crevice, soft green moss draped the rocks, there was a delicious smell of damp autumn leaves, and when we reached the greek village of hamzikeuy clouds were rolling heavily up the valley from the not far distant ocean. the two days which followed were easy and pleasant, through a prosperous and peopled valley brightened by the rushing waters of the surmel, the ancient pyxites. orchards and tillage beautify the lower slopes of the mountains, the road is excellent, the homesteads are in good repair, the people are bright and cheery-looking, and greek villages with prominent churches on elevated spurs add an element of christian civilisation to the landscape. the exceeding beauty of natural forests, of soft green sward starred with the straw-coloured blossoms of the greater hellebore, of abounding ferns and trailers, of "the earth bringing forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit after his kind," of prosperous villages with cheerful many-windowed houses and red-tiled deep-eaved roofs, can only be fully appreciated by the traveller who has toiled over the burning wastes of persia with their mud villages and mud ruins, and across the bleak mountains and monotonous plateaux of the armenian highlands, with their ant-hill dwellings, and their poverty-stricken population for ever ravaged by the kurd. "tilled with a pencil," carefully weeded, and abundantly manured, the country looks like a garden. the industrious greek population thrives under the rule of the osmanlis. travellers on foot and on horseback abound, and _khans_ and _cafés_ succeed each other rapidly. when the long descent alongside of the surmel was accomplished, the scenery gradually became tamer, and the look of civilisation more emphasised. the grass was if possible greener, the blossoming hellebore more abundant, detached balconied houses with their barns and outhouses evidenced the security of the country, the heat-loving fig began to find a place in the orchards, the funereal cypress appeared in its fitting position among graves, and there was a briny odour in the air, but, unfortunately for the traveller, the admirable engineering of the modern waggon road deprives him of that magnificent view of the ocean from a height which has wrung from many a wanderer since the days of the ten thousand the joyful exclamation, "_thalatta! thalatta!_" the valley opened, there was a low grassy hill, beyond it, broad yellow sands on which the "stormy euxine" thundered in long creamy surges, and creeping up the sides of a wooded headland, among luxuriant vegetation, the well-built, brightly-coloured, red-roofed houses of the eastern suburb of trebizond, the ancient trapezus.[ ] it was the journey's end, yet such is the magic charm of asia that i would willingly have turned back at that moment to the snowy plateaux of armenia and the savage mountains of kurdistan. i. l. b. footnote: [ ] the itineraries will be found in appendix b. appendix a among the prayers recited by the hadjis are those with which the pilgrims circle the kaaba at mecca, a translation of which was given by canon tristram in a delightful paper on mecca contributed to the _sunday at home_ volume for . the following is a specimen:-- "o god, i extend my hands to thee: great is my longing towards thee. accept thou my supplication, remove my hindrances, pity my humiliation, and mercifully grant me thy pardon. "o god, i beg of thee that faith which shall not fall away, and that certainty which shall not perish, and the good aid of thy prophet mohammed--may god bless and preserve him! o god, shade me with thy shadow in that day when there is no shade but thy shadow, and cause me to drink from the cup of thy prophet mohammed--may god bless him and preserve him!--that pleasant draught after which is no thirst to all eternity." appendix b itineraries with approximate distances from baghdad to kirmanshah. miles orta khan yakobieh wiyjahea sheraban kizil robat khanikin kasr-i-shirin sir-i-pul-zohab myan tak kirrind harunabad mahidasht kirmanshah --- from kirmanshah to tihran.[ ] besitun sannah kangawar phaizalpah hamilabad nanej dizabad saruk ahang garang siashan jairud taj khatan kûm shashgird. aliabad husseinabad tihran --- from tihran to isfahan. miles husseinabad aliabad shashgird kûm passangham sinsin kashan kuhr[=u]d soh murchehkhurt gez isfahan --- from isfahan to burujird. the actual distance travelled, about miles. from burujird to hamadan. deswali sahmine daulatabad jamilabad mongawi yalpand hamadan -- from hamadan to urmi. miles bahar kooltapa gaukhaud babarashan bijar karabulak jafirabad takautapa ½ geokahaz sanjud sain kala ½ kashawar miandab amirabad sujbul[=a]k mehemetabad dissa turkman urmi --- from urmi to van. hours anhar merwana ½ marbishu pirzala gahgoran shawutha kochanes kotranis merwanen khanjarak van miles. from van to bitlis. hours angugh . undzak . ghazit bitlis miles. from bitlis to erzerum. gudzag pikhruz yangaloo ghazloo ama . matchetloo herta erzerum miles (?) from erzerum to trebizond. elijeh ½ ashkala ½ kop khané ½ baiburt ---- bridge ½ getchid gumush khané kupru bridge hemizkeuy ¾ atli killessi trebizond miles by measurement. footnote: [ ] probably the distance by this route is over-estimated, as it is the computation of the _charvadars_. index a ab-i-arjanak, ii. ab-i-baznoi, ii. , ab-i-bazuft, ii. ab-i-burujird, ii. , ab-i-diz, ii. , ab-i-khonsar or abi kûm, i. , , ab-i-kirrind, i. ab-i-mowaz, ii. ab-i-nozi, ii. ab-i-sefid, ii. ab-i-zaz, ii. _abba_, arab dress, i. abdul azim, i. , ---- rahim, i. ; hospitality, ; family history, ; _ménage_, , ; courtesy, abraham, deacon, ii. agha hassan, i. ahang garang, i. ahwaz, i. , aimarah, i. ; prison, akabah-i-holwan, i. akhlat, ii. ; rock chambers, ; castle, ; monoliths, ; _turbehs_ or mausoleums, akhtamar, island rock of, ii. ; church, alexander, dr., ii. ali-ilahis, i. , ali-kuh, ii. , ; wild-flowers, ; pass, aliabad, caravanserai of, i. , amin-es-sultan, or prime minister, i. , amin-i-lewa, ii. amir-i-panj, i. - ; character, ; _andarun_, ; on the education and position of english women, amirabad, ii. angugh, ii. anhar, ii. arabs, improvement of, i. ; condition, ; costume, ; tattooing, _arak_, i. ardal, i. , , ; ii. ; valley, i. ; castle, ; _andarun_, - ardost, peaks of, ii. arjanak, ii. arjul, alpine meadow, i. armenian houses, i. , ; women, ; churches, - ; pictures, ; long fasts, ; superstitions, ; costume, , ; needle-work, ; banquet, ; church, ; characteristics of, ii. ; condition, ; brides, ; in kurdistan, - ; ruins, artemid, ii. ashirets, the, ii. ashkala, ii. aslam khan, ii. aurugun, i. b baba ali mountain, ii. b[=a]b[=a] yadg[=a]r, tomb of, i. babarashan, ii. b[=a]bis, sect of the, i. badush, ii. bagh-i-washi, i. baghdad, i. ; church mission at, ; impressions of, ; population, ; bazars, ; cafés, ; trade, , ; "fish of tobias," ; bricks, ; schools at, , ; dispensary, ; boils, bahar, ii. baiburt, ii. bakhtiari country, the general description of, i. - ; women, ; hair-dyes, ; costume, ; dying man, - ; politics, ; punishments, ; entertainment, ; _haram_, ; marriage customs, ; _chapi_, national dance, ; conceit, ; camping-ground, ; tents, ; hospitality, ; diseases, ; education, ii. ; methods of cultivation, ; paternal tenderness, ; diet, ; sensitiveness, ; poverty, ; "blood feuds," ; tribal feuds, ; tribesmen, ; burial rites, ; graveyards, ; religion, - ; men's costume, ; women's, ; polygamy, ; population, _note_; taxation, ; exports, ; animals, baldiji, moslem village, i. bani, ii. barchallah, ii. basnoi, ii. basrah, i. , ; climate, ; date industry, ; inhabitants, bawali, ii. bazuft or rudbar valley, ii. , beladruz, i. bell, colonel s., on van, ii. , berigun, ii. berwar-lata valley, ii. besitun range, i. , ; village, , bideshk, i. bihishtabad, the _mansion of heaven_, ii. bijar, ii. , bijilan mountain, ii. bilar, ii. bingol dagh, ii. bitlis, ii. , ; trade, ; population, ; christian mission at, ; school, ; mineral springs, ; valley, blizzards, i. , , , ; ii. boka, i. "boy," a pet horse, ii. bread-making, persian, i. browne, mr., ii. , - bruce, dr., i. , , , ---- mrs., i. buffaloes, ii. burujird, town of, ii. ; "tribute insurrection," ; population, ; manufactures, ; prosperity, ; plain of, bushire, i. ; commerce of, c canals, i. caravan, fate of a, i. caravans, i. ; ii. ; collision of, i. , caravanserai, dirt of a, i. - carmelite monks, french, i. carpets, persian, i. _chadar_, i. chahar bagh bridge, i. ---- mahals or four districts, i. , chaharta, i. chaldæan plains, i. challeh kuh, peak of, i. chalonitis, i. chaman kushan, plain of, ii. _chapi_, bakhtiari dance, i. charmi village, i. charzabar pass, i. cherri pass, ii. cheshmeh-i-charzabar torrent, i. chesmeh-i-gurab, i. ---- zarin, plain of, ii. chigakhor, i. ; plain of, ; patients, ; "season," ; fort, child-life, persian, i. chiraz, i. christian missions at baghdad, i. ; at bitlis, ii. ; at erzerum, ; at hamadan, , result of, _note_; at julfa, i. ; at tihran, ; at urmi, ii. - , history of, , results, ; at van, _note_ "christians of st. john," i. cochrane, dr., ii. ctesiphon, ruins of, i. curzon, mr. g., letter to the _times_, i. ; on julfa, d dalonak, peak of, ii. darkash warkash, i. dastagird, i. dastgird, i. "date boils," i. ---- palms, i. daulatabad, ii. "david's fort," i. dead, mode of carrying, i. , dehnau village, i. demavend, cone of, i. , "demon wind," the, i. dervishes, i. - "desert," the, i. deswali, ii. deveh boyun, ii. dilakoff, yacub, ii. _note_ dilleh, peak of, ii. dima, ii. , dinarud river, i. dissa, ii. diyalah, i. , diz arjanak, ii. diza, ii. ; reduction of the garrison, ; first visit to a turkish official, dizabad, i. ; ruins of, dizful or bridge of diz, ii. drinayi pass, ii. duab river, ii. duashda imams, i. dukkani-daoud or david's shop, i. , dupulan, i. ; pass, e elam, upper, ii. elburz mountains, i. , elijeh, ii. elwend, mount, ii. england, native opinions of, i. , , , ; ii. , , , , erzerum, ii. ; christian mission at, ; trade, ; "sights," ; "troubles," ; sanassarian college, esther and mordecai, tomb of, ii. etiquette, code of, i. euphrates, ii. , eyal, hamlet of, ii. ezra, tomb of, i. f faidun, ii. fao, i. fath' ali shah, i. fatima, shrine of, i. - ; pilgrimages to, feraghan, plain of, i. ; carpets, ; salt lake, fire-worshippers, i. fraser, mr. baillie, _travels in kurdistan_, i. frat, the, ii. g gaberabad, caravanserai of, i. gahgoran, ii. ; night alarm, gal-i-bard-i-jamal pass, ii. , gal-i-gav pass, ii. , gamasiab river, i. , gandaman, plain of, i. ; village, gardan-i-cherri, ii. , gardan-i-gunak, ii. gardan-i-rukh, i. gardan-i-tak-i-girreh, i. gardan-i-tir-machi, ii. gardan-i-zirreh, i. garden of eden, i. gargunak, ii. gartak, ii. gas khana marsh, i. gates, language of, i. gaukhaud, ii. , gawar, plain of, ii. ; request for teachers, geog-tapa, ii. ; church, ; orphanage, geokahaz, ii. ; cleanliness, getchid, ii. gez, i. , ghazit village, ii. ghazloo pass, ii. ; village, gil-i-shah pass, ii. givr, i. gokun, ii. ; river, _gopher_, a, i. gorab, plateau of, ii. ; serious incident, gudzag, ii. gulabek, i. gumushkhané valley, ii. gurab plain, i. gur[=a]ns, the, i. guwa river, ii. h hadji hussein, plain of, ii. haizdar or haigatsor plain, ii. , _hak[=i]ms_, female, ii. ; remedies, ; diseases, hamadan, ii. , ; ruinous condition, ; bazars, ; _namads_ or felts, ; intemperance, ; tomb of esther and mordecai, ; tablets, ; degradation of the jews, ; inhabitants, , ; faith hubbard school, ; medical mission at, ; visitors, ; christian mission at, ; travelling arrangements, hamilabad, i. , ; a diseased crowd, hamrin hills, i. hamzikeuy, greek village, ii. handawan, pass of, ii. harta village, ii. harunabad, i. hashal river, ii. hassan-kaleh, fortress of, ii. hassan khan, ruined fort, i. hesso khan, a kurdish chief, ii. ; costume, holiwar valley, ii. , holwan, i. , , horses, arab, i. . ---- bakhtiari, ii. ---- persian, i. ; clothing, ; ii. ; food, "hospital sunday," i. husseinabad, i. , , i ilyat villages, i. , ; camps, , ; ii. , ; costume, i. ; familiarity, ii. imamzada-i-mamil, ii. imamzada torrent, i. imam kuli khan, ilkhani, i. inda khosh, ii. indo-european telegraph line, i. inn, turkish, i. irene, lake, ii. , isfahan, i. ; bridges, ; dyed fabrics, ; _medresseh_, armoury, ; trade, ; _farhang_ newspaper, ; manufactures, ; climate, isfandyar khan, ilbegi, i. ; _haram_, - j jabali-besitun range, i. , jafirabad, ii. jagatsu river, ii. jairud, i. ; fruit exported, jalanda mountain, ii. jamilabad village, ii. jan mir, sheikh, i. jehanbin, i. jelu ranges, ii. , julfa, i. , ; "alleys," ; society, ; history, ; church missions at, ; schools, : mission house, ; picnics, ; "city of waters," ; preparations for journey, - k _kabobs_, persian dish, ii. kahva rukh, i. , ; patients, ; nocturnal robbery, kaisruh mountain, ii. kaj, ii. _kajawehs_ or panniers, i. kala kuh, ii. , kalahoma, ii, , ; patients, kalhurs, the, i. _kalian_, or water pipe, i. kalla khanabad, ii. kamand-ab, ii. kamarun, ii. kamerlan pass, ii. _kanaats_, i. kandal pass, ii. kangawar, i. kanisairani summits, ii. kar kanun, ii. kara kapru, ii. karabul[=a]k, kurdish village, ii. karachai river, ii. karaftu, fortress palace of, ii. karasu river, i. , _karsi_ or platform, i. karun river, i. , , ; ii. , ; trade on, i. , ; its tributaries, ii. kashan, i. ; telegraph station, ; manufactures, ; _reflêt_ tiles, kashava, ii. kashgan, ii. kasr-i-kajar, i. kasr-i-shirin, i. ; ruins of, ; romantic legends, _note_ kasrik kala pass, ii. kasseinabad, i. _katirgis_ or muleteers, i. kavir or great salt desert, i. , kavrak, defiles of, ii. kazimain, i. kerbela, "dead march," i. , ; pilgrims to, ii. - kerkhah, i. _ketchuda_ or headman, i. ; duties, khana mirza plain, i. khanjarak, ii. ; poverty, ; church, khannikin, i. ; _haram_, , ; trade, ; peasant life, - kharba valley, ii. khariji village, i. kharshut valley, ii. ; village, khashmaghal village, ii. kherson valley, ii. khosroe parviz, legend, i. _note_ khuramabad, ii. , ; dirt and squalor, ; bala hissar fort, killa bazuft, ii. , kirmanshah, i. ; population, ; street, ; inhabitants, ; customs, ; punishment, forms of, ; reception by the governor, ; the citadel, ; code of etiquette, , of pipes, ; rugs, ; carpet-weaving, ; soldiers, ; lanterns, ; horses, kirrind, i. , ; plain of, ; valley, kizil kabr, red range of, ii. ---- robat, i. ; dirt and discomfort, ---- uzen stream, ii. knapp, mr. and mrs., ii. kochanes, ii. , ; mar shimun the patriarch, - ; church, - ; cattle plague, kooltapa, ii. ; robbery, kop dagh, ii. ---- khané, ii. kornah, i. kotranis, ii. _kourbana_, celebration of the, ii. _kufas_ or _gophers_, i. kuh-i-bozah, i. kuh-i-dinar, ii. kuh-i-gerra, ii. kuh-i-haft kuh, ii. kuh-i-hassan, i. kuh-i-kaller, i. kuh-i-milli, ii. kuh-i-nassar, i. kuh-i-paran, i. kuh-i-rang, ii. kuh-i-sabz, i. kuh-i-shahan, ii. kuh-i-sukhta range, i. kuh-i-zirreh, ii. kuh-shah-purnar, i. kuh sufi, i. kuh surisart, ii. kuhr[=u]d, i. ; exports, ; valley, ; pass of, kûm, i. , ; telegraph line and post-office, ; fatima, shrine of, ; the dead, source of wealth, ; industries, ; "holy" city, ; theological college, ; ruinous condition, kunak, i. kupru bridge, ii. kurdish houses, i. ; ii. ; women, kurds, depredations of the, ii. ; robbery and violence, , , , ; costume, - ; _physique_, ; description of, ; outrages, ; remorseless robbers, kut-al-aimarah, i. kuzik lake, ii. l labaree, dr., ii. _note_ lahdaraz, i. land, cultivation of, i. lanterns, persian, i. ; ii. layard, sir a. h., _early adventures_, i. _note_; on ali-ilahism, ; on the bakhtiaris, lazes, the, ii. legation, the british, at tihran, i. letter from the turkish ambassador, ii. libasgun, i. lodgings for travellers, i. luri-buzurg, the, i. - lurs, bakhtiari, i. - ; external improvement, ii. lurs, feili, i. - lyne, mr. and mrs., i. m mahidasht, i. ; plain of, ; river, makhedi, ii. mar shimun, the syrian patriarch of kochanes, ii. - marbishu, ii. ; church, ; _qasha_ ishai's dwelling, margil, i. martaza, ilyat encampment, i. masir, ii. matchetloo, ii. mauri zarin valley, ii. mehemetabad, ii. _meron_ or holy oil, i. merwana, ii. merwanen village, ii. miandab, ii. mianmalek pass, ii. mirza taghi, murder of, i. missionaries, female, life, i. - ---- medical, i. , , ; ii. , missions. _see_ christian _modakel_, i. mohammerah, i. moharrem, or month of mourning, ii. money, difficulty of procuring, ii. mongawi village, ii. mowaz, ii. muhammad jik, ii. murad-chai river, ii. murcheh khurt, i. , muschir-u-dowleh, i. ; his mosque, ; college, hospital, ; palace, ; _andarun_, mush, plain of, ii. myan tak hamlet, i. n naghun village, i. ; pass, ii. nahrwan canal, i. nal shikan pass, i. _namads_ or felts at hamadan, ii. names, i. nanej, i. ; female curiosity, ; ceremonials on the birth of a child, , narek village, ii. nasrabad, i. ; ii. nimrud dagh, ii. _no ruz_ or new year, festival of, annual ceremony, i. , norduz, ii. norullak, plain of, ii. o _odah_, turkish guest-house, ii. odling, dr. and mrs., i. ombar, ii. orta khan, first camping-ground, i. p padshah-i-zalaki, ii, ; disorderly crowd, ; attack, ; thefts, ; savage life, pai-tak, i. pambakal pass, ii. pamir desert, "the roof of the world," i. parwez, ii. , , ; under fire, pasbandi pass, i. pasin plain, ii. "pass of the angel of death," i. passangh[=a]m, i. peasant's house, persian, i. ; flat roofs, pedlars, i. pelu, mount, ii. persia, bibliography of, i. , , , , , , , , , , , ; ii. , , , , , , , , , , , , ---- farewell impressions of, ii. - ; condition, ; population, ; condition of the working classes, ; independence, ; characteristics of the upper classes, ; morals, ; education, ; law, ; shah, a despotic ruler, ; official corruption, persian frontier, i. ---- lady, costume of a, i. , ; amusements, pharipah, i. pigeon towers, i. pikhruz, ii. , pipes, etiquette of, i. - pira mah mountain, ii. piru, precipice of, i. , pirzala, ii. polygamy, i. post stations, i. potter, dr., i. pul-i-hawa, ii. pul-i-kaj[=u], i. pul-i-kala, i. pul-i-wargun, i. q quhaibalak, ii. qwarah, ii. r rahwan, plain of, ii. ramazan, fast of, i. rawlinson, sir h., on ali-ilahism, i. ; on the rock sculptures, ; on besitun antiquities, ; on the bakhtiaris, reynolds, dr., ii. rhages or rhei, ancient city of, i. , riji, i. riz, i. ; pigeon towers, ; lack of privacy, "road beetle," i. ---- guards, escort of, ii. , ross, colonel, i. rugs. _see_ carpets russia, native opinions of, i. ; ii. , rustam-i village, ii. s sabz kuh, i. sabzu ravine, i. ; river, ; valley, safid-kuh, or "white mount," ii. sah kala, ii. sahid stream, ii. ; village, ; burial-ground, sahmine, ii. ; buildings, ; exports, sain kala, ii. ; trade, ; inhabitants, salamatabad village, ii. sanak river, ii. , "sang miwishta," ii. sanginak mountain, i. sanjud, ii. sannah, i. , ; a diseased crowd, sar-i-cheshmeh-i-kurang, ii. , sarakh river, ii. sarawand, ii. ; noisy crowd, saripul-i-zohab, i. ; history of, saruk, i. ; carpets, ; climate, ; peasants' houses, ; flat roofs, sassoon, sir a., i. schindler, general, on the population of persia, ii. scribe, persian, i. seleucia, i. seligun, valley of, i. ; ii. ; lake, i. serba torrent, ii. seyyids, the, i. ; ii. shah, palace of the, at tihran, i. ; _haram_, ; hunting grounds, ; gardens, ; treasure house, ; peacock throne, ; presentation to, ; description of, ; despotic ruler, ii. shahbadar village, ii. shalamzar, i. ; eye diseases, _shamal_, i. , shamisiri valley, ii. shamran, twin peaks of, i. shamsabad village, i. ; river, shashgird, caravanserai of, i. , shat-el-arab, the, i. , shawutha, hamlet of, ii. shedd, dr., ii. sheraban, i. shiahs, the, i. shimran hills, i. , , shiraz, i. shorab valley, ii. shurishghan, legends, i. _note_ shuster, ii. shuturun, ii. ; mountain, siashan, i. silakhor, plain of, ii. , sinsin, i. sipan dagh, ii. , snow scene, i. soh village, i. ; telegraph testing station, , _sowars_, the, i. stone lions, i. sujbul[=a]k, ii. , ; cemetery, ; trade, ; consulate, ; inhabitants, sulduz, plain of, ii. sultan ibrahim, i. sunnis, the, i. surmel, the, ii. sutton, dr. and mrs., i. , , , syrians, characteristics of the, ii. ; costume, ; pious phrases, ; baptism, ; clerical dress, ; burial rites, ; marriage customs, ; fasts, ; episcopal succession, ; _kourbana_, ; dancing, ; condition of, t tabarak, stream, ii. tadvan village, ii. taimur khan, ii. taj khatan, i. ; bread-making, tak-i-girreh, pass of, i. tak-i-kasr, palace of, i. takautapa, ii. , takt-i-bostan, rock sculptors of, i. _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ or fire-hole, i. tang-i-ardal, gorge, i. tang-i-bahrain, ii. tang-i-buzful, ii. tang-i-darkash warkash, ii. tang-i-ghezi, ii. tang-i-karun, ii. taug-i-wastagun, i. tarsa, ii. _tazieh_ or passion play, i. , ; ii. tchoruk, ii. terpai torrent, ii. threshing, mode of, ii. tigris, river, i. , , , , ; ii. ; navigation of, i. tihran, i. ; arrival at, ; aspects of, ; population, ; bazars, ; horse furniture, ; foreign goods, , ; european quarter, ; christian mission at, ; dispensary, hospital, ; modern improvements, ; imperial bank, ; squares, ; citadel or ark, ; freight of goods, ; society, ; museum, ; telegraphic centre, tiles, i. toogh village, ii. "tower of silence," i. travelling equipments, i. , , , trebizond, ii. , tuk-i-karu, ii. tulwar village, ii. tur, i. , _turbehs_ or mausoleums, ii. turkish house, i. turkman, hamlet of, ii. , twig bridge, ii. u undzag, ii. urmi, the "paradise of persia," ii. ; protestant missions at, - ; the fiske seminary, ; college, ; medical mission, ; siege, ; schools, , ; history of the mission, ; results, ; anglican mission, ; sisters of bethany, ; population, ; antiquarian interests, ; syrians or assyrians, ; inhabitants, ; tenure of houses, ; of lands, ; laws injurious to christians, ii. urmi, dead sea of, ii. , v v-shaped slit, difficult passage of the, ii. van, ii. , _note_; christian mission at, ; schools, ; the "gardens," ; castle, ; church, ; increasing trade, ---- dead sea of, ii. ---- lake, ii. varak dagh, ii. varzahan village, ii. vastan village, ii. vignau, m. du, i. w walnut trees, ii. water supply of persia, i. , wells, colonel, i. , wiyjahea caravanserai, i. wolff, sir h. drummond, i. writing, a fine art, i. y yakobiyeh, i. , yalpand village, ii. yangaloo, armenian village, ii. yekmala, ii. yezd, i. yezidi torrent, ii. yezidis, the, ii. z zab river, ii. zagros, gates of, i. zainderud river, i. , , ; ii. ; process of rinsing, i. _zalabi_, bakhtiari eatable, i. _zaptiehs_, ii. zarak village, ii. zard kuh range, ii. , , zarin valley, ii. zibar mountains, ii. zigana mountain, ii. zobeideh valley, i. the end _printed by_ r. & r. clark, _edinburgh_. behind the veil in persia and turkish arabia an account of an englishwoman's eight years' residence amongst the women of the east by m. e. hume-griffith with narratives of experiences in both countries by a. hume-griffith, m.d., d.p.h. with illustrations and a map philadelphia j. b. lippincott company london: seeley & co. ltd. i dedicate this book to my husband in loving remembrance of eight happy years - preface i have endeavoured in this book to give some account of that inner life of the east of which a traveller, however keen-sighted and intelligent, seldom gains more than a passing glimpse. in a residence of eight years in persia and turkish arabia i have become intimate with a large circle of friends whose life is passed behind the veil, and as the wife of a medical missionary i have had unusual opportunities of winning their confidence and becoming acquainted with their thoughts. of direct missionary effort i have said very little, but i hope that the picture i have given may arouse interest in lives spent amongst surroundings so different from our own. it is impossible for any one, however unversed in politics, who has lived so long in mesopotamia, not to be deeply interested in the future of the country. while all europe has been filled with astonishment at the bloodless revolution in turkey, we who have become familiar with its inner life are touched with a feeling of admiration and something akin to awe. whatever misgivings there may be as to the permanence of this reformation we hope and trust that it will endure. of one imminent change the effect is likely to be far-reaching. the new government has secured the services of sir william wilcox as their adviser in great irrigation schemes. irrigation in mesopotamia will change the whole face of the country; vast stretches of desert will be transformed into a garden, ruined villages will be restored, a new kingdom may be born, and babylon possibly rebuilt. mosul, practically on the site of ancient nineveh, will become easy of access from europe by means of the baghdad railway and the restored navigation of the tigris. its waste places may be filled with corn, and the city be crowned once more with some of its ancient glory. i should like to take this opportunity of thanking all those who have kindly allowed me to use their photographs, amongst them the rev. c. h. stileman, dr. saati of mosul, and the publishing department of the church missionary society. i am indebted to professor brown's valuable book entitled "a year amongst the persians" for information on the babi religion, and to sir a. h. layard's classical work on the excavations of nineveh, which i have frequently had occasion to consult. m. e. h.-g. contents part i chapter i early impressions page start for persia--arrival at isphahan--departure for kerman--the land of the lion and the sun--a rainy day and its effects--eclipse--locusts--sand-storms--land of cats--modes of conveyance--inhabitants chapter ii kerman short history of kerman--its overthrow--city of beggars--story of the fort--the jackal's "tale of woe" chapter iii persian industries carpet-making--how to tell a good carpet--how to make a carpet--the cry of the children--shawl manufactures--calico-printing--brass-work--agricultural industries--water disputes--kanâts--poppy crops--wheat and corn--tobacco-growing chapter iv the climate of persia resht, teheran, isphahan--dryness of atmosphere--cellars--roof life--children attacked by jackals--chequered history of work in kerman chapter v holidays in persia how to ensure a prosperous journey--natanz--astonishment of natives at sight of hairpins--pulivagoon--mahoon--aliabâd--prince under canvas--visit from a persian princess--a persian deer hunt chapter vi social life in persia kerman--house-hunting and building--white ants--housekeeping in kerman--servant question--truth v. falsehood--abdul fateh--bagi--recreations--some exciting rides--persian etiquette--dinner at the governor's chapter vii the women of persia home life--anderoon, women's quarters--jealousy in the anderoon--anderoon of khan baba khan--two days in an anderoon--h.r.h. princess hamadané sultané--visit to the anderoon of h.r.h. the zil-es-sultan chapter viii more about persian women costumes--wedding festivities--wedding dinner--kindness of persian husbands--story of brutality--divorce--aids to beauty--degradation and cruelty of women chapter ix some points in the moslem faith fasts and feasts--seyyids, dervishes, mullahs--legends of the drowning mullah, and the yard-square hole chapter x other religious sects the báb and babism--short sketch of life of the báb--his imprisonment and execution--parsees, or zoroastrians--persecutions of parsees in seventh century--sacred writings of parsees, zendavesta--fire-worshipping--fire temples--holy fire--parsee wedding--costume of women--death customs--burial customs chapter xi desert delights songs of the desert--sunsets, sunrises, mirages--illness in the desert--mehman khanehs, caravanserais--chappa khanehs--lost in the desert--its cruelties and sadness chapter xii persian medical missions the need of them--work in isphahan--the "little devil" transformed into a boy--amputation--brothers in adversity--h.r.h. zil-es-sultan as a patient--fanaticism overcome chapter xiii pioneer medical mission work in kerman waiting for drugs and instruments--native assistant proves a broken reed--first operation in kerman--an anxious moment--success--doctrine of "savab" convenient to the moslem--fanaticism tempered with prudence--opium slaves--persian therapeutics--persian quacks and their methods--sure way of curing cancer--hysteria chapter xiv medical mission work in yezd a hospital--a friendly governor--a suspicious case--superstition--the opium habit--a case of cataract--we return to england part ii chapter i the city of nineveh the fast of jonah--the bridge of boats--traditions as to ancient history of mosul--elkos, birthplace of nahum the prophet--shurgât--climate of mosul--cultivation and industries--importance of mosul chapter ii the people of mosul population--moslems--christians--chaldeans--nestorians--jacobites --arabs--kurds--jews--yezidees--recreations--warfare of the slingers--hammam ali--the recreation ground of mosul men and women chapter iii the river tigris ancient historical interest--garden of eden--origin of name unknown--swiftness--sources--navigation--keleqs--bathing, fishing, washing--crossing rivers chapter iv the children of mosul spoiling process--despair of the parents--the "god" of the hareem--death by burning--festivities at birth of boy--cradles and cradle songs--school life--feast in honour of a boy having read the koran through--"only a girl"--girl life--girl victims of naseeb--marriage chapter v the moslem women of mosul beauty behind the veil--types of beauty--my dear old friend of years of age--aids to beauty described--pretty children--beauty tainted with sin--imprisonment of women--peeps into some hareems--warm receptions--a visit from the ladies of a select hareem--love the magic key to open hearts chapter vi moslem family life no home life--women equal with the beasts--evils of divorce--naseeb--the will of god--truth and falsehood--honesty prevalent--a thief caught--swearing and anti-swearing--fighting--hair-tearing and biting--hammam, the ladies' club chapter vii customs of mosul wedding ceremonies--great expense to parents--method of procedure--funeral customs--customs at birth--some other customs chapter viii dreams and visions ezekiel's vision by the river chebar--our vision by the river khabour--rivers identical--"a wheel within a wheel"--babylonish emblem of divinity--origin of the cherubim--dream of a woman suffering from cataract--effect of dream on her character--watch and chain recovered by means of a "faked" dream--illustration of the doctrine of kismet or naseeb--"ghosts" in our compound--atmosphere of ghosts bad for fowls chapter ix manners and superstitions in mosul characteristics of inhabitants of mosul--social habits--love of drink--an effectual cure--gambling--tel kaif: a story of uncle goro--the angel of death, and other titles--difficulties over name and age--some superstitions--effect of scent on women--birds of good omen--thieves--sheep-killing--sheikh matti--an angel's visit--medical superstitions--cure for hydrophobia chapter x the yezidees gratitude to the english--persecutions--"devil-worshippers"--sun and fire worship--priesthood--a visit to sheikh Âdi--peacock wands--a sacred shrine chapter xi travelling in the desert monotony of desert travelling--a puppy and a kitten tragedy--accident by the river euphrates--riots in mosul--robberies and murder excited by love of gold chapter xii the pleasures of desert travelling desert blossoms as a rose--flowers of the desert--arabs, their occupation and women--arab dancing--robbers of the desert--an army of , --five hundred armed men--false alarms--lost in the desert--delights and disturbances of travelling chapter xiii pioneer medical mission work in mosul (nineveh) winning the confidence of the people--native surgery--difficulties to be overcome--backward patients--encouraging work--prevalent diseases--lunatics--possible future of mesopotamia list of illustrations page the author and her husband in bakhtian costume frontispiece persian conveyances a halt for lunch a novel drying ground persian mode of irrigation a "chimney" of yezd a korsi or heating contrivance house-building in persia persian shops scene from the roof of our house at kerman a street in kerman the mosque gate, city of kerman a mountain pass a caravanserai a very ancient bridge a typical street in baghdad using the x rays in julfa hospital a ward in the julfa hospital opium making the rich beggar types of persian jews the water square our home in nineveh a bridge of boats the bridge of boats over the frozen tigris a picnic party mutrar paulus, syrian roman catholic bishop dr. hume-griffith's study in mosul our drawing-room in julfa a group of persian girls the camera in mosul tired of play at a picnic an itinerant cook preparing kabobs bread-making a mosul bride a wonderful vision travelling in winter part i "so, after the sore torments of the route, toothache and headache, and the ache of mind, and huddled sleep and smarting wakefulness, and night and day, and hunger sick at food, and twenty-fold relays, and packages to be unlocked, and passports to be found, and heavy well-kept landscape--we are glad because we entered (persia) in the sun." d. g. rossetti. behind the veil in persia and turkish arabia chapter i early impressions start for persia--arrival at isphahan--departure for kerman--the land of the lion and the sun--a rainy day and its effects--eclipse--locusts--sand-storms--land of cats--modes of conveyance--inhabitants. "'tis the sight of a lifetime to behold the great shorn sun as you see it now across eight miles of undulant gold that widens landward, weltered and rolled with patches of shadow and crimson stains." lowell. "shadow maker, shadow slayer, arrowing light from clime to clime." lord tennyson. our life in persia extended over a period of three years, dating from the spring of to that of . it was with great joy i heard the news, early in february of , that my husband had been appointed by the church missionary society to open medical work in kerman, and that we were to start almost at once. within a month we were married, had bought our outfit, bid sorrowful farewells to our relations and friends, and started for the romantic land of persia. from london to isphahan took us just nine weeks, as we were delayed by illness for some weeks both in russia and in the persian desert. however, on th may we entered the beautiful city of isphahan, to find a warm welcome awaiting us from friends there. this place will always have a very warm corner in my heart, for it was there we made our first home. the doctor in charge of the work at julfa (the christian quarter of isphahan) having left on furlough, my husband was asked to remain there till his return, which he accordingly did. it was not till the following spring that we left for kerman. thus our first impressions of this land of light and darkness were gathered from isphahan and its neighbourhood. there is no after time so full of interest to those who live abroad as the first year spent in a new life and country, gleaning fresh ideas, seeing new sights, gaining experiences often dearly bought, but which must be purchased ere the newcomer can settle down to life in the east with any comfort or peace of mind. the native servants love to obtain posts with fresh comers, knowing that for the first few months, at any rate, they will have an exceedingly good time, being able to make a huge medâqal (profit) from the unsuspecting feringhi. i sigh to think of the many ways in which we were cheated those first few months of our life in persia, but no one breathed a word to us, realising that our eyes would be opened only too soon, and that experience was the most effectual teacher. it is a strange fact that all housekeepers new to the land think their servants are perfect till they find out, perhaps when too late, their foolish delusion. from the very first my heart went out in affection to the dear moslem women, and now, after eight years spent amongst them, i can truly say that my love has deepened, and my sympathies become enlarged, for these charming but, alas, too often unhappy followers of mohammed. our knowledge of persia extends especially to three cities, in each of which we spent a year. isphahan, as we have seen, was our first home, then came a year at kerman, a distance of some miles separating the two cities. finally we spent a very happy year at yezd, that city of sand, situated midway between isphahan and kerman. of each of these cities we shall hear more in other chapters. persia has well been called the land of the lion and the sun. certainly the latter name is well deserved, for the sun is almost always shining, and without the brilliant sunshine we should hardly recognise it as the land of persia. the symbol of the lion and the sun originated in the days when the zoroastrians were the inhabitants of the land. the sun, being the emblem of the fire worshippers, was taken as their national badge. the lion was added later because ali, the grandson of mohammed, was called "the lion of god." the woman's face in the sun was inserted some years later by one of the persian kings as a tribute to his favourite wife. the sunshine of persia forms one of its greatest attractions. even in winter the dull, cloudy days are few and far between. when by chance a rainy day does come, the people are so surprised and taken aback that they seem paralysed for the time being, and are unable to go about their usual business. the remembrance of our first experience of a rainy day still lingers in my memory. we had awakened one morning much later than usual to find the sky clouded over and the rain coming down in torrents. i was surprised to find that we had not been called as usual, but imagined the servants had forgotten to do so. upon entering the dining-room, what was my surprise to find no preparations for a meal. calling the servant, i asked him why breakfast was not ready. at this he seemed quite hurt, as he answered, "but, khanum (lady), it is raining!" this fact was to his mind quite sufficient reason for everything. as long as the rain lasted the servants could be prevailed upon to do nothing except crouch over the fire and shiver! the moment the rain ceased and the sun once more shone out they resumed their normal state. this constant sunshine is a great boon to the beggars and poor, helping to make life endurable for them; they need very little clothing, as a rule, to enable them to keep warm. so long as they can lie and bask in the sunshine, picking up bread enough to sustain life, they trouble very little about working or earning money. there is only one place where there is very little sunshine, and that is in the hearts and lives of the people. especially, perhaps, is this true in the case of the women of the land, as we shall see presently. a persian gentleman once visited england, and on his return to his native country was questioned by his friends as to which was the better land to live in. his reply was to the effect that in england the houses were grander, the scenery more beautiful, but that there was no sunshine! this lack, to his mind, far outweighed all the other advantages which might belong to england, and his friends decided that, after all, persia was the better country to live in. when there happens to be a cloudy day or night in summer, the result is anything but cooling, for the air becomes terribly oppressive, it is almost impossible to breathe, and during the night it is quite useless to think of or hope for sleep till the clouds have rolled away. the natives are very much alarmed when an eclipse of the sun takes place, as they are afraid they are going to lose their benefactor. once, while we were in yezd, the sun was eclipsed. suddenly hundreds of guns and cannons were fired off from all parts of the town. we ran out to see what had happened, and were met by our frightened servants carrying their guns, who told us that an enormous fish was trying to swallow the sun, and that they hoped, by making a terrific noise, to frighten it away! great was their joy and relief when the shadow began to pass from the sun. sand-storms are terrible trials in persia. quite suddenly, without any warning, the light disappears, clouds upon clouds of dust come rushing in. before you have time to shut all the doors and windows, everything in the house is covered with a fine white dust. sand-storms are disagreeable and trying to the patience when they find you in the house, but when you are caught in a heavy sand-storm out in the desert, it is often a source of great danger. if riding, the only possible thing to do is to dismount, cover your head and face as well as possible, turn your back to the storm, and hope for the best. at other times the light is obliterated in the daytime by a swarm of locusts passing overhead. till i saw this myself i could hardly believe it was possible for these little insects to obscure the light of the sun as they did. one day in kerman we were just ready to set off for a ride, when suddenly the light vanished, and i thought a fearful thunderstorm was about to burst upon us. on looking up we saw what appeared to be a huge black cloud hovering overhead: presently this descended and resolved itself into myriads of flying insects. as some fell to the earth we found them to be locusts from two to three inches long. the natives were dreadfully alarmed lest they should settle on their fields, as it was springtime, and the ground was already green with promise of harvest. had the locusts settled, it would have meant ruin and starvation to many. fortunately, they passed over that time. we have seen that persia is a land of sunshine, we must not forget that it is also a land of cats. i was amused the other day to see how differently two people can see the same thing. in the course of a conversation with a friend who was for some years in persia, i asked him if he did not admire the persian cats very much. "never saw one," was his answer, and he maintained that the whole time he was in persia he never saw a long-haired cat. my experience was quite the reverse, for i hardly remember ever seeing an ordinary short-haired one during the three years we were in persia. we had some beautiful white ones, but they were very delicate, and generally came to an untimely end. we tried to take one to kerman, but it met with a sad death when only half way there. cats are exported on quite a large scale to india and other places. they are taken to the coast by horse-dealers, who tether them in much the same way as they do their horses. one of the late shahs is said to have been very devoted to cats, and always took one with him when he travelled, a special baggage animal being reserved for the cage of this favourite pet. there are many ways of journeying in persia, and the would-be traveller can take his choice according to his own ideas of comfort and convenience. to my mind the most pleasant way of all is to have your own horses for riding, and thus be able to set your own pace and not have to be bound down to the slow, wearying, never-changing rate of the caravan. for those who do not care for, or are not strong enough for riding, there are many conveyances. here, again, the traveller has quite a large choice of good things. first of all there is the "kajâvah." this consists of two cage-like boxes, suspended one on each side of the animal: the interior of these boxes sometimes boasts of a little low seat, but as a rule is innocent of any such luxury. two people of about the same weight must sit on each side, or the result is disastrous. i remember once being with a large caravan. in one of these kajâvahs was travelling a government official and his wife. he was very tiny, she was quite the reverse, the result being that the little man was generally up in the air while the opposite side of the kajâvah was weighed down nearly to the ground. they tried all manner of experiments in their endeavour to strike the balance, gathering stones and depositing them in the lighter side, tying bags of fuel, &c., to the outside of the kajâvah, but all of no avail. at last, in disgust and anger, the woman jumped out without giving her husband any warning: the result to onlookers was ludicrous! the wife refused all that day again to enter the kajâvah, preferring to walk, till one of the muleteers offered her a seat on the top of one of the baggage mules. the little man was soon balanced with stones picked up by the wayside, and travelled for the rest of that day in peace and comfort. at the end of the stage, however, his wife would not speak to him or cook his dinner for him! and the man (who was quite the reverse of an ordinary moslem man) came to one of my husband's assistants, begging him to act as mediator. in this case the man and woman seem to have exchanged places as regards character, the wife being decidedly the master, and he, poor man, looked as if he hardly dared call his soul his own. even amongst moslems there doubtless are some strong-minded women. i have travelled many miles in one of these kajâvahs, finding them very comfortable and restful, after riding for hours. my husband had a pair specially made for me, with seats inside, and nicely cushioned: these always went with us on our journeys in persia, so that, when i tired of riding, i could rest awhile. while i was not using them our servants had to take my place, a favour they did not always appreciate. when travelling by night, i have slept for hours at a stretch in one of these kajâvahs, the steady measured walk of the mule favouring slumber. sometimes, however, the monotony is broken by the mule suddenly dropping on to its front knees, and you find yourself deposited on the ground, shot out like an arrow from its bow. if this form of conveyance does not appeal to the traveller then there is the "takhtiravan." this is a most luxurious mode of conveyance, and is, as a rule, only used by invalids or high-class moslem ladies. it consists of a box, with doors and windows, measuring about six or seven feet by four in length and five in height. the top is covered with heavy felt or some material which will keep out the sun or the rain, according to which season of the year you are travelling in. inside is placed a mattress with plenty of cushions: the whole is built on shafts which are slung between two mules, one in front and one behind. the motion is rather like that of a rolling ship, and, unless the occupant is a good sailor, the experience is not always a pleasant one. i once travelled for a week in one of these conveyances, and on arriving at our destination found my back was a mass of bruises. the takhtiravan is very good for night travelling, as you can lie flat down and sleep, provided the animals keep in step and the road is good. on an uneven road the sensation is not too comfortable. we once had a never-to-be-forgotten week of torture in a springless wagon; it really was too terrible. oh, the jolting, the jarring, and the bone shaking! each day the misery increased, till every bone in our bodies was bruised and aching, and every nerve racked to its utmost. i should not recommend this mode of conveyance to any one contemplating a journey in persia. when we first went to the land of the lion and the sun, carriages were very scarce and very expensive south of teheran. now they are becoming much more generally used, at any rate as far as isphahan. when we left kerman in we drove to yezd in a carriage kindly lent to us by one of the kerman native gentlemen. albeit the wheels came off occasionally and various other accidents took place, still it was a very luxurious way of travelling, comparatively speaking. then, when we finally left persia in , we drove from isphahan to teheran in a private carriage belonging to a friend who lent it to us for the journey; so that i fully expect by now that travelling by carriage has become quite the ordinary mode of journeying in persia. the last part of that drive into teheran has left a vivid remembrance on my mind. it was a saturday, and we were very desirous of reaching teheran that night, otherwise it meant spending sunday at a village near the city, as we did not like travelling on that day. so we determined to push on at all costs. to add to our difficulties it began to pour with rain soon after starting in the morning, and continued a steady drench the whole day. long before we reached the end of our stage we were both wet through to the skin. sunset found us still some twenty miles out of teheran, and, the horses beginning to show signs of fatigue, we perforce had to rest them for a while. when we were within five miles or so of the city, we found the road all flooded, and it was difficult to know where the road ended and the ditch began which ran parallel to the road on both sides. it was by then pitch dark, so there was nothing to be done but let the horses take their own way, hoping their instincts would lead them and us safely. all went well till we were within sight of the lights of teheran, when suddenly smash went the carriage, and down fell the horses into a deep ditch. one poor horse (our own, which we were taking to teheran to sell) never moved, and we thought he was dead. i jumped down from the dogcart and landed in the ditch nearly up to my waist in water! the lamps had gone out, and we were in total darkness. we called and called for help but no one came, so my husband and i walked on a little to see if we could find any one to help, leaving the horses and carriage in charge of the driver, who was half beside himself with fear. presently we came across a little wayside coffee-house, and found some men who were willing to go and help extricate the poor horses from their dangerous position, while we walked on to the gate of the city and waited in the porter's lodge. after about an hour the carriage came along, the horses looking none the worse for their escapade. our kind friends of the american mission were waiting up, and had prepared hot baths and hot drinks for us, knowing that if we did arrive that night at all we should be in a terrible plight. thanks to their kindness and thoughtfulness, we suffered no harm from our damp and adventurous drive. the inhabitants of persia are: moslems, the persians of to-day; zoroastrians (parsees), the persians of yesterday; armenians, and jews. of the two former i will not speak now, as we shall make their acquaintance a little later. a few words will suffice for armenians and jews. the former were brought from julfa in armenia many years ago by some former shah on account of their industry and workmanship. he gave them a suburb of isphahan to live in, and very soon a large armenian settlement sprang up. julfa of persia is about three miles from isphahan. here all the armenians live, and until quite lately the europeans also, as it was not considered safe for them to reside in isphahan. however, of late years this is all changed, most of the europeans now having houses in isphahan. the armenians are very clever workmen in all crafts and trades. also to their shame be it said that they are the wine and spirit makers for the isphahanis. a true moslem is not allowed to make or drink wine. thanks to the armenians, however, the temptation is ever at hand ready for him, with plenty of opportunities afforded him of indulging in secret. the armenians make very good assistants for hospital work, some of them turning out quite good doctors. one young fellow was with my husband for two years. after we left he went to india, where he took a medical course, and is now a fully qualified doctor practising in india. they have plenty of "push" in them, and once they make up their minds to get on, no obstacle is too great for them to overcome. the jews of persia are a miserably poor, degraded class of people. their lot is a very hard one; despised and oppressed by the moslems, hated and cursed by all, their life is not enviable. they are to be found everywhere, in isphahan, yezd, kerman, and many other cities. my heart often ached for these poor, wretched people as they flocked to the dispensaries. fortunately for them, there is a mission amongst the jews in persia which helps in no small way to brighten the lives of the poor, downtrodden people. we have taken a fleeting glance at the land of the lion and the sun; we must now try and become more intimately acquainted with some of its towns and their inhabitants. chapter ii kerman short history of kerman--its overthrow--city of beggars--story of the fort--the jackal's "tale of woe." "a little red worm--the gard'ner's special dread." v. fane. the first view we had of kerman was a very picturesque one. we had been travelling for about twenty days, and on easter eve reached a lovely garden some four or five hours' ride from kerman, and here we decided to stay for easter day. early on monday morning we started for the last stage of our journey. just as the sun was rising we came to the top of a hill, and there away in the distance lay the city of kerman, the city towards which our hopes and thoughts had been tending for so long, as it was the goal to which we had been pressing for the past twelve months, and which we fondly hoped was to have been our home for many years; but god ordered otherwise. kerman is a very interesting old city, having passed through many vicissitudes and seen many changes during its varied and chequered history. it is also a very pretty place, especially as seen from a short distance, surrounded on three sides by the eternal mountains, with their ever-changing shades and shadows, and forming a magnificent background to the city nestling at their feet. on the fourth side the desert stretches away to yezd and isphahan. kerman is said to have derived its name from a persian word kerm, meaning a worm, and the legend connected with it is as follows. the princess who founded the city was one day walking with her followers over the site of the future town, and plucked an apple from a tree: upon eating it she found to her disgust and annoyance a worm at its core. as she threw it away in anger, she declared that the new city should be called kerm-an, a worm. kerman is certainly a very ancient city: the inhabitants claim that it was a large town in the time of solomon. whether this is so i do not know. the first time it is mentioned in history is by herodotus. alexander is said to have marched his army through kerman on his way to india, and cyrus passed that way on his return from india. perhaps few places have suffered more at the hands of invaders than kerman. it has been sacked at least six times, and in the city was almost entirely destroyed by agha mohammed khan. the city was bravely defended by the prince-governor, who was one of the last of the zend dynasty; he sustained a long and severe siege, till two-thirds of his troops had perished from starvation, and then the city was betrayed treacherously into the hands of the enemy and its brave defenders obliged to flee, only to meet with a cruel death some two years later from the hands of the same oppressor. this incarnation of cruelty, agha mohammed khan, gave the city over to the will of his soldiers, who resembled their leader in cruelty and barbarity. there was no compassion in his heart, and he would listen to none of the entreaties of the unfortunate inhabitants for mercy, nor would he withdraw his troops from the city till he had received a gift of twenty thousand pairs of human eyes. when these were brought to him, he insisted on counting them over himself to see if the number was correct, and is reported to have said to the trembling man who carried the baskets piled high with these awful trophies: "it is a good thing the number is correct; if it had not been, your eyes would have gone to make up the exact number." the city never recovered from this terrible blow, and to-day kerman is a byword among persians for its poverty and extraordinary number of beggars. if you were to ride through the bazaars you would be struck by the tremendous number of beggars, all holding out their hands, beseeching you for the love of god to give them a copper. there is a quaint saying among the beggars which one hears very often; it is as follows:-- "khuda guft, 'beddeh,' shaitan guft, 'neddeh'" (god says, "give"; satan says, "don't give"). just outside kerman are the remains of two old fortresses, the larger of which is called the galah i doukhta, or the fort of the maiden, doubtless on account of the story connected with it. these fortresses were built on small hills, and so alike are they in formation and colour to the soil that it is difficult to see where the castle begins and the hill ends. between these two old fortresses lie the ruins of ancient kerman. this city was the last to fall under the moslem sway in its invasion of persia, and the legend connected with it is interesting. the city was surrounded on all hands by the moslem invaders, and it seemed as if the enemy would be obliged to retreat, as its defenders had withdrawn themselves into the castles or fortresses already mentioned. these had been well provisioned for a long siege in case of need, and also were connected with the outer world by means of underground passages, known only to those in the castles. all, perhaps, might have gone well but for the fact that there lived in the fortress a beautiful woman--alas! as treacherous as beautiful. she was the idolised daughter of the king of the castle; nothing was too good for this loved and spoilt beauty. her father showered gifts upon her--gold, jewellery, silks, all were hers; and it is said that just before the siege began her father had planned and designed a beautiful garden for her, such as never had been seen before. being so loved and such a favourite of all, she was allowed to roam at will within the castle walls, and often beguiled the time by watching the besiegers who lay far below in the plain. one day her attention was attracted by a handsome arab general, who always seemed to be foremost in all that was going on, leading his men into the most dangerous and exposed parts. where the arrows fell fastest and most often, there this arab prince was sure to be seen, always brave and courageous. his bravery, added to his good looks, so appealed to this spoilt and petted woman that she immediately fell in love with him. day by day this love increased, till her whole soul was afire with all the abandon of an eastern love, and she felt that nothing could or should keep her from her hero. "love" soon found means of communicating with the object of its affection, for love is stronger than barred or barricaded fortresses. by some means, known only to herself and one other, she gave this arab to understand that if only he would promise to marry her, she would deliver the castle into his hands. the eastern as well as the western agree that "all is fair in love and war," so this general of the east consented to this plan, and agreed to accept victory at the hands of treachery. accordingly, all was arranged satisfactorily to both parties, and one dark, moonless night the deed was done. the lady of the castle, the idolised and beloved of all, became the betrayer of her people. after all had retired to rest that night, and the sentinels were lost in the dense darkness, she stealthily crept out of the castle, safely passed the sleeping men supposed to be on guard, and opened the secret gate to her lover and his soldiers--the enemies of her father and her country. a terrible massacre ensued, in which the father was slain, fortunately dying without the knowledge of his daughter's base action. the prince-general had given strict orders to his men that on no account was the girl to be touched during the attack on the castle, but that she was to be conducted to a place of safety till all was over. at last, in the early hours of the morning, the general had time to think of his ward. tired out with his work of bloodshed and slaughter, but rejoicing in his unexpected victory, he sent for the girl to find out the reason of her willingness to thus betray her own people and land into the hands of the enemy. when brought into his presence he was amazed at the beauty and loveliness of the girl before him, and his heart went out in great love and admiration towards her. she, still thinking only of her own wicked infatuation, was congratulating herself that now her heart's desire was to be granted her, and she would soon become the wife of the man so long idealised and idolised. but alas! for her fair hopes. the general, notwithstanding her beauty, desired to find out what her motive was for doing as she had done, and so he plied her with questions. "was she very unhappy?" "was her father very cruel to her?" or "had she done this to avenge herself for some wrong?" to all these she replied in the negative. "then, in the name of wonder, what was your reason for sacrificing father, home, country and all?" cried the general. "for love of you," answered the now frightened girl, and she then told him how kind her father had been to her, how he had done all in his power to make her happy, and how nothing was ever denied her that he could possibly procure, but assured him that all this was as nothing to her compared to the great love which she felt towards him, her lover, and ended by beseeching him, now that she had sacrificed all for him, not to cast her away. at this the general was so disgusted and enraged with her, that he determined that she must die, and cast about in his mind for some means of death worthy of her selfishness and wickedness, "for," said he, "you are not a woman, you are a fiend, and therefore must die." he therefore ordered his men to bind her with cords, face downwards, on to the back of a wild horse, and to turn horse and its rider into the desert. this order was carried out amidst heartrending cries and entreaties for mercy from the girl, but to all the general paid no heed, declaring that she was only suffering a just death for the abominable behaviour to her own people. the soldiers followed the horse for some distance into the desert to prevent its returning, and thus perished the beautiful traitress of kerman. i may say here that this form of death is not unknown even now in persia, and i heard a story of a man who treated his wife in much the same way, only the idea was perhaps a little more diabolical. he was angry with her for some reason, and desired to rid himself of her, so he caught a cow, and kept it shut up without water for some days. then he bound his wife under the body of the animal and sent it off. of course the cow made for the nearest stream, and we can imagine better than describe the fate of the poor woman. the kerman of to-day is a large walled-in city of about forty thousand souls. this wall is pierced by some dozen gates, some of which are in good repair, but others are fast falling into ruin. in fact, most of the buildings in kerman, as well as other parts of persia, are "kharab shodeh"--that is, either in ruins, or fast falling into that state. the "kharab" buildings outside the town are the abode of jackals, hyænas, owls, and other creatures of the desert. the story of how the jackals came to be inhabiters of the desert is told by the kermanis with great gusto, and they quite sympathise with them in their banishment from the civilisation of town life. when in kerman our house was outside the city, so we had the full benefit of the cries and wailings of these jackals, and at first it used to make me feel quite creepy, but after a time we became more accustomed to the weird music of the night, and missed the evening concerts when absent from kerman. sometimes the jackals would come right up into our garden, at other times their howling would come from the desert, like the far-away cry of a soul in torment, or the wailing of the banshee; but all night and every night the wailing, wailing went on, always crying for what they had not and never could have--never satisfied, and always letting people know the fact! the story of the dispute between the jackals and the dogs of kerman was told me soon after our arrival there. it is said that, in olden days, the jackals were the domesticated pets of the inhabitants of the town, and lived quite happily and contentedly in their respective homes, always enjoying security and peace within the closed gates, while the dogs had to be content to be dwellers of the desert and ruins, outside the walls of the city. one day the dogs awoke to the fact that the jackals had much the better time of it, and they did not see why this unequal state of things should remain. they were tired of being always outsiders, always short of food, and exposed to all the chances of wind and weather--so they resolved to make a great effort to obtain a position inside the gates, where there was plenty of everything. being socialists, they believed in the maxim of "share and share alike," so they called a committee to consider by what means they could oust the jackals from their comfortable quarters and install themselves in their places. after due thought and much discussion, they determined to send some leading representatives to the city to interview the jackals. this they accordingly did, telling them that many of the dogs had been ill, and the doctor had ordered change of air for three days. would not the noble jackals allow their humble neighbours the dogs to exchange places with them just for three days, in order that the invalids might have a chance of recovering their strength and health. at the same time they enlarged upon the beauties of the desert air, which they said would be so good for those who had been cooped up in the stifling city for so long. the jackals, after long and careful consideration, agreed to this proposition, arranging to leave their comfortable homes for three days only, at the expiration of which time all were to return to their original places. the next night the change was accomplished, and in the morning the people were all surprised to see dogs where the night before there had been jackals. however, they did not object very much. at the end of the three nights, the jackals came to the gates of the city and demanded admission, longing to return to their own haunts and homes, having found three days in the desert quite enough, there being no comparison between the comforts of the town and the dreariness and cold of the outside life. the dogs appreciated the change so much that they answered, "no, thank you, we prefer to stay where we are, and do not wish ever to return to the desert." so the poor jackals saw that they had been fooled, and went away sad and sorrowful, and every night since then have come howling for admission to the gates, and on the dogs answering "no," they go away wailing. and that is the reason why every night we can hear the howling and wailing of these disappointed creatures. and they will probably go on howling and wailing till the end of time, for the dogs are never likely to wish to return to the desert life. such is the legend of the jackals and the dogs of kerman. chapter iii persian industries carpet-making--how to tell a good carpet--how to make a carpet--the cry of the children--shawl manufactures--calico-printing--brass-work--agricultural industries--water disputes--kanâts--poppy crops--wheat and corn--tobacco-growing. saying in persia--"one plum gets colour by looking at another." "do ye hear the children weeping, o my brothers, ere the sorrow comes with years; they are leaning their young heads against their mothers, and that cannot stop their tears; ... the child's sob in the silence curses deeper than the strong man in his wrath." e. b. browning. the subject of the industries of persia is such an extensive one that i cannot even attempt to discuss it here at any great length. i only wish to describe a few of the manufactures and industries which came under our notice while in persia. by far the most interesting of them all, to my mind, are the carpet manufactories to be found in many parts. very few europeans live for any length of time in persia or other carpet-manufacturing countries without being affected by the carpet craze. they may try to fight against it, but they are almost sure to succumb, sooner or later! when choosing a carpet the first thing to do is to make sure that the colours are fast. this is done by moistening a handkerchief or small piece of white cloth and rubbing the carpet. if the slightest tinge of colour comes off, the carpet is not a good one. so much depends upon the nature and durability of dyes used. in olden days, the only dyes used were indigo, madder, and vine leaves. from these three ingredients they were able to mix and make most delicate and artistic shades, all of which were "fast" colours. now, however, the aniline dyes are so commonly used that it is difficult to find a carpet in which all the colours are permanent. europeans are often deceived when buying carpets, but natives seldom! when the latter invests in a carpet he expects it to last the whole of his lifetime, and not only of his life, but also of that of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and perchance be more valuable at the end of that period than the day he purchased it. as a rule he realises his expectations. when a native buys a new carpet the first thing he does with it is to put it down in the bazaars for all the traffic to pass over it. the more muddy and filthy the shoes of the passers-by, the greater will be the beauty of the carpet afterwards, provided the colours are fast. this statement may perhaps refer more especially to syria and turkish arabia, but i believe it is also true of persia. i have, myself, often seen carpets laid down in this way in the bazaars of damascus, beyrout, baghdad, and mosul. i could never quite make up my mind to allow our carpets to be subjected to this treatment, though my husband always assured me it was the only way for the carpets to acquire that beautiful silky gloss, so dear to the heart of the carpet-lover. as a matter of fact that gloss is maintained by the native custom of leaving the shoes at the door. the constant walking upon the carpet with bare or stockinged feet tends to bring about this desirable finish: whilst, on the other hand, our barbarous custom of wearing dirty shoes in a room is not so good for the carpet, nor are tables and chairs great carpet-improvers. before the time of exporting carpets from persia in any great number only good carpets were made, but now the demand is so great that to keep up the supply a good deal of shoddy work is manufactured and sent out of the country. to be a good judge of a carpet you need to be quite an expert. many things have to be taken into consideration. first the dyes, as we have already seen; then the number of stitches to the inch must be counted, and it is said that a good carpet contains about , stitches to the square foot, while some of the better ones have as many as , . another point to notice is to see whether both ends are the same width. this is done by doubling the carpet: if the ends do not coincide it is not a well-made carpet. then, again, it should lie perfectly flat on the floor, otherwise it will crease in a very short time, and be worthless. my husband had a beautiful kerman carpet given to him once: it was valued at £ , and, but for the fact that it does not lie flat on the floor, would be worth a good deal more. as it is, we have to keep it hanging on the wall, where it cannot get "rucked" or creased. prices vary, of course, according to the size and make of the carpets. very fair ones, the size of an ordinary hearthrug, can be had from £ , s. to £ or £ . silk ones cost a great deal more, but are worth the money. a small silk rug can be bought for £ , but they can be obtained any price up to £ or £ . a mixture of wool and silk is now made to suit the european market, but is not so durable as the pure silk ones. it is generally acknowledged that the kurdistan carpets are the best: they are the most expensive, being about £ the square yard. the chief attraction of these lies in the fact that they are alike on both sides, and are very smooth and fine. next to these come those made at kerman, the design being quite different to those of kurdistan. in the kerman carpets it is not at all uncommon to find figures of men and animals, sometimes almost life size. whilst in kerman we visited one or two of the carpet manufactories, and were very much interested in watching the process. all carpets are, of course, made without machinery of any kind. the warp is stretched on a loom, which is merely a frame. the woof consists of short threads woven and knotted by hand without the aid of a shuttle. when a row is finished it is pressed tightly to the rest of the web by means of a comb inserted into the warp. the "pile" is regulated by the amount clipped off. for a velvet pile the woof is clipped very close, till a perfectly smooth, even surface is obtained. the weaver does not see the pattern as he works, as he sits with the reverse side of the web towards him. the looms are generally kept in an underground vaulted room, often with water running through the centre. at each loom three or four workers sit, according to the size of the carpet. sometimes the workers consist of one man and two children, and occasionally the owner uses boys and girls only for the weaving, one man acting as overseer to the children. i sat on the high stool by the side of a tiny girl whose fingers were working away so fast i could hardly follow her movements. the overseer was walking up and down the room, calling out instructions to the workers. to me it sounded a horrible, incoherent jumble, but the children seemed to understand it perfectly. the overseer held in his hand a paper, from which he was apparently reading out instructions. not having a very thorough knowledge of the persian language, it was impossible to follow, but as far as i could make out it was something as follows: to no. . three blue threads, one white, two green; no. . four yellow, one white; and so on, each child repeating after the "master" the instructions given. as it was all said in a high-pitched monotone, the result was confusing and deafening, but there the little weavers sit, day in, day out, week after week, in this damp, gloomy cellar, kept hard at it by the unrelenting overseer. the children are taken on as "weavers" when very young, some even starting when five or six years old. their hours of work are from sunrise to sunset in the summer, and until two or three hours after sunset in the winter, and they are paid at the enormous rate of about d. a day, sometimes starting with even less, whilst learning the work. the consequence of this abominable sweating system is that to-day there are hundreds of little children in kerman, from eight to nine years of age, confirmed cripples from rheumatism and other diseases. from sitting so long in one position, while still of tender years, amid such damp surroundings, their little feet and hands become knotted and deformed. they can no longer earn their daily bread, so perforce must help to swell the great multitude of beggars who throng the streets and bazaars of kerman. i once saw a little girl about seven years old sitting by the roadside just outside our house. on asking her why she was sitting there all alone, her reply was, "mother sent me to my work (carpet-weaving), but my feet hurt me so, i can't walk." she was waiting there whilst a companion in work and sorrow ran to try and find some one who would carry her friend to the workroom. when we think of the sufferings of these hundreds of poor innocent children, do not our hearts ache with sadness for them? surely the "cry of the children" of kerman will go up to god, and he will have mercy. in the meantime, because people want cheap persian carpets, these little martyrs must be willing to sacrifice childhood's happy days, health, aye, and often life itself, on the altar of cheapness. major (now colonel) phillott, then acting british consul in kerman, was so horrified at what he saw of the state of these little sufferers, that he determined to start a loom of his own, employing men only to do the weaving. this he accordingly did, finding, of course, that the expense was enormous, as men's wages were so much higher than the children's, and also that they would not consent to such long hours. so long as children are to be had for a mere nominal wage, so long will the weavers use them, caring nothing for their sorrows, only bent on making money--the god of the persian. a soft kind of felt carpet is also made in persia, specially in isphahan and yezd. these are called namads. the materials used are wools of all kinds, chiefly camel's hair. the colour is a light ochre shade of brown, and there is generally a pattern woven in the centre of different colours, red predominating. some of these namads are an inch or more in thickness, and are delightfully soft for walking on. they make a splendid foundation in a room for laying carpets on. there is yet another kind of rug much used, called the galeem. these are much cheaper than carpets, and are suitable for rough use, such as travelling. they wash well, but do not improve with use as carpets do, having no pile. there are still shawl-manufactories to be seen in kerman, though they are rapidly on the decrease. the best kind of shawl sells for fifty tumans (about £ ) each, but there are others less expensive, which resemble the famous cashmere shawls of india. these "shawls" are given as coats of honour by the governor or other high official, and are sought after and valued by all. they are woven in much the same manner as the carpets, and are made from the under hair of a special kind of white goat called "koork," which is only found in the neighbourhood of kerman. the silks of persia are very pretty and durable. they are woven principally at yezd, kashan, and resht. the latter place is noted, too, for its patchwork and embroidery. this work consists of tiny pieces of cloth pieced together into some floral or other design. i had two or three pieces of this work given me by a persian gentleman of high rank. one is a study in red, and the other consists chiefly of black and green, enlivened here and there by bright patches of other colours. another rather interesting industry to be seen in isphahan is the calico-printing; this is done by means of blocks, and, as a rule, one design covers the whole piece. these prints are used very much as curtains, table-cloths, &c., and have the advantage of being inexpensive. the natives often use them as shrouds for the dead, for which purpose special ones are manufactured, bearing suitable quotations from the koran. during the summer in isphahan the bed of the river may be seen covered with these prints, laid out to dry in the sun after having gone through the process of dyeing and "blocking." space forbids my mentioning all the many other articles manufactured in persia--the brass-work of isphahan, copper-work of kashan, silver of both isphahan and shiraz, mosaic also from shiraz. but enough has been said to show that the persians are a very clever and artistic race of people, and considering the primitiveness of their methods and implements, the results are astonishingly beautiful and charming. the agricultural industries of persia, too, are considerable--the water supply necessary for these being a fruitful source of quarrelling and fighting, which sometimes leads even to murder. the labourers whose duty it is to look after the watering of the crops are armed with long spades, for the purpose of digging trenches and clearing a way for the water, &c. in a dispute these spades become very formidable weapons, and many a broken head have they caused. often when riding in the desert we have met a company of these men returning from their labours, each carrying his murderous-looking implement on his shoulder, and in the gloaming they resembled an army of soldiers marching. the water supply is very often conducted into a town or village from the mountains by means of kanâts, or long underground passages. pits are dug at a distance of about feet apart, each one being connected with the other by a subterranean passage, and so on till the place is reached where the water is needed. sometimes these tunnels extend for many miles, and as the mouth of each pit is surrounded by mounds of earth thrown up, it gives the appearance of a succession of huge mole-hills running across the country. great loss of life is associated with the sinking of these shafts from the constant falling in of the sides; on this account very high wages are given to compensate for probable loss of life. one of the principal crops around isphahan is that of the poppy. it is a beautiful sight to see field after field of these lovely white flowers, stretching away for miles, maybe. how sad to think that such beauty should lead to misery, wretchedness, and degradation! when the poppy is ripe, the "head" is scratched at sunset with a kind of comb in three places; from these gashes the opium oozes out. it is then collected in the morning before sunrise, dried, and rolled into cakes ready either for use in the country or for export. it is calculated that about cases of opium, each case containing some cakes, are exported from persia every year. although the growth of opium enriches those directly concerned, yet it tends to impoverish the country; for the ground which before was cultivated with wheat and corn is now required for the poppy, thus making grain much dearer. there is also a large quantity of tobacco grown in persia, which is used for the "kalian" (or water-pipe) and cigarette smoking. the best kind is grown in the neighbourhood of shiraz. wheat and barley are largely grown, and are always reaped with the sickle. the land is very fertile, and with very little trouble a good crop is obtained, provided the water supply is good. it has been said of persia that "it is only necessary to tickle the land and it will laugh into blossom." chapter iv the climate of persia resht, teheran, isphahan--dryness of atmosphere--cellars--roof life--children attacked by jackals--chequered history of work in kerman. "the climate's delicate, the air most sweet." shakespeare. when speaking of the climate of persia, cyrus is supposed to have said, "people perish with cold at one point, while they are suffocated with heat at another," and this may be applied equally well to the climate of persia to-day, for every town has a different climate according to its height above sea-level. when we land on persian soil from the caspian we find ourselves some feet below sea-level, consequently the climate is very damp, and vegetation is profuse. the rainfall in resht is so great that the wells are often overflowing, rain falling during quite two-thirds of the year. always having thought of persia as a very dry, parched land, our surprise was very great on reaching resht, the port on the caspian, to see such lovely forests of trees, and flowers in abundance, both wild and cultivated. primroses, anemones, periwinkles, cyclamen, and many other kinds of flowers, all were in bloom as we drove through resht on our way to isphahan. the ferns, too, were splendid, maiden-hair and ox-tongue being especially beautiful. with all these homelike flowers and ferns around us, we could hardly realise that we were not driving through some dear devonshire lane in old england. but as we mounted, higher and ever higher over the elburz mountains, we soon lost this english type of scenery. the climate became dry and warm, till by the time we reached teheran we were thankful indeed for the shelter of the comfortable quarters of our american friends, who extended to us the most hospitable kindness during our stay in that city. the climate of teheran is very good; its winters are pleasantly cold, and the summer heat is not so overpoweringly great as in other places. then, too, there are lovely summer gardens near at hand, whither the residents can retire during the warm months of the year. and for those who love the mountain heights there is the beautiful and picturesque mount demavend, rising some , feet above sea-level. this mountain adds greatly to the beauty of teheran, both as regards its scenery and climate. it stands as a sentinel guarding the valley in which teheran lies, and has an ever-changing beauty of its own, with its eternal snows catching and reflecting all the radiant hues of the rising and setting sun. it also forms a most valuable health resort and summer retreat for all the heat-wearied ones of the neighbourhood. this is the highest mountain in persia, but there are many others from , to , feet high, so, if necessary, a cool climate is to be found at all times of the year. once over the elburz, the whole of persia is a high plateau land, till we descend once more to the shores of the persian gulf. isphahan has a very pleasant climate; the winters are cold and bright, and it is possible to enjoy sitting out in the sunshine most of the winter months. the mornings and evenings are cold, but the days are delightful during the sunshine. the atmosphere here, as elsewhere in persia, is very dry, and one's skin gets very cracked and "chapped," not from the cold, but from the dryness of the air. this is the cause, too, of much "nerve" trouble amongst the europeans, especially, perhaps, with the ladies. in the winter the natives warm themselves and their rooms by means of a "korsi" (literally, a chair). this "korsi" is a contrivance for giving warmth at a minimum cost. a hole is dug in the floor of the room in which the whole family live. into this hole is put a clay or iron firepan full of lighted charcoal: above this, the "korsi," a wooden frame varying in size according to the number of the family, is placed, and over all is spread a large "lahaf" or padded quilt. all round the "korsi" are placed soft mattresses and cushions, and here the family pass the time eating, sleeping, talking; the "korsi" acting as a dining-table and the "lahaf" as a covering by day and night. this arrangement is very unhealthy, but the natives love it, and the more friends and relations they can gather round the "korsi" the happier they are. the summers at isphahan are rather warm, but there are many places near by, which are cool, pleasant, and within easy distance for those whose business keeps them in the vicinity of the town during the hot season. there is always plenty of ice to be had during the summer here--perhaps not always of the cleanest, but still good enough for the purpose of cooling fruits and drinks. the native method of making ice is rather clever. a "yakh khaneh" or ice-house is generally situated outside the town or near some running water: a trench is dug some two or three feet deep, and a wall from twenty to forty feet is built facing north and south, thus shielding the trench from all rays of the sun. as soon as frost sets in, an inch or two of water is let into the trench: this freezes during the night, and the next day more water is diverted into the hole, on top of the ice. this is repeated several days in succession, till about a foot or more of ice is formed. this is then broken up and stored in deep caverns or wells for use during the summer. the process is continued as long as the frost lasts, and thus there is generally enough to keep the town supplied with ice during the great heat. well-to-do persians have their own "yakh khanehs," and others use them for a means of livelihood. if the supply runs short before the hot season is over, frozen snow is brought from the mountains; but this is very expensive, as it has to be brought such a long distance. yezd has a much warmer "hot season" than isphahan, and the heat is much more trying and of longer duration. the houses are essentially summer houses. the winters being shorter and much less severe, little attention is paid to the comforts necessary for cold weather, but everything is considered which will add to the coolness and airiness of the houses. as a traveller approaches yezd he cannot fail to be struck by the number of tall "chimneys" rising from the city, and he almost fancies he is approaching some large manufacturing town, and speculates perhaps as to the nature of the manufactures possible in such a sandy city of the desert. but as he draws nearer he sees there is no smoke rising from these "chimneys," and so concludes that, after all, they are not for manufacturing purposes. what, then, is the purpose of all those tall, square, chimney-like buildings, appearing from the roofs of nearly all the dwelling-places of yezd? they are air shafts, built with the hope of bringing a little cool air into the houses during the hot season, when the atmosphere below is so stifling that it seems impossible to breathe. these structures are called "bâd geers," or "wind-catchers." there was a very large one connected with the house in which we lived in yezd, and even on the hottest days, some air was always to be felt coming from the "bâd geer." it was so arranged in our house that after the air had been caught and brought down by means of the chimney, it passed over a "hoze" (tank of water), and in this way was cooled before circulating through the house. another aid to bearing the heat in yezd is the custom of spending the middle part of the day underground in cellars. some of these cellars are quite palatial, the walls and floors being made from the famous yezd marble, which closely resembles alabaster. one such i remember very well: it was a room about feet by feet, very lofty, and lit from the top by windows on a level with the ground above. in the centre of this room was a "hoze" (water tank), of which the persians are so fond, and rising from the water was a fountain capable of playing to the height of feet; a large bowl turned upside down had been fixed on the ceiling to catch the spray and prevent it from becoming damp. here the inmates of the house took their mid-day siesta, and very charmingly cool it was compared to the upstairs world. some cellars are not at all healthy, and, if slept in during the day, the sleepers are very liable to contract malaria or some other fever. when dry and well ventilated no harm seems to come from this custom of retiring underground during the great heat of the day, and certainly a good cellar is a great boon to a european, and a great blessing when the thermometer registers in the shade upstairs, while in the cellar it rarely goes above or degrees. scorpions, centipedes, tarantulas, and suchlike creatures have a good time in yezd. the climate agrees with them, and they thrive and enjoy life to an alarming extent. one day my husband killed three scorpions within the hour, two of which were the poisonous black kind. tarantulas abounded inside the house and out. they always seemed to make a point of running across my path during prayer times; to say the least it is very disconcerting to see one of these creatures glide softly past you with the evident intention of seeking shelter under your skirt! our cat always used to make a dart directly he saw any of these tarantulas, just to draw our attention to them, but he would never kill one. from life in the cellar we pass to life on the roof. this was often the most enjoyable part of the day. it is lovely, when the heat of the day is over, to lie and watch the stars, knowing that the same stars were watching over our loved ones in the homeland. sleeping on the roof had its disadvantages as well as its attractions and advantages. one great disadvantage is the fact that the sun wakes you up so early; another, the talking and singing which goes on all round you from the adjoining roofs, often make it difficult to sleep. in addition there is this very serious drawback, that often the jackals visit the roofs of the houses at night, seeking for something wherewith to appease their hunger, and if they cannot find anything else to satisfy them will attack sleeping children. on several occasions poor little mites have been brought to the hospital terribly mutilated and torn by the jackals, some just slightly bitten on the face, others so mauled and eaten as to be quite unrecognisable. one especially sad case i remember; the poor mother was wild with grief, for her child, a baby of only a few weeks old, had been almost eaten up by these abominable creatures. life on the roof begins soon after sunset. it is very interesting to watch, from a height, roof-life springing into existence. first one and then another will bring out the family bedding, spread it on the floor of the roof or on low wooden benches, and then sit and chat till dinner-time. very often the evening meal is eaten on the roof, and shortly after the family retires to rest. a moslem takes great pains to have his roof well shielded from the gaze of onlookers, and if he is at all suspicious that he is overlooked he will immediately raise his wall. this being the case, the roofs in a moslem quarter are generally very much shut in by high walls, which keep out the air and make the nights much less bearable. the climate of kerman is almost perfect for those who can stand it. situated about feet above the sea, surrounded on all sides by mountains and deserts, the result is a delightful bracing air and invigorating climate. in kerman there is no need of resting in cellars by day or sleeping on roofs by night. indeed the climate would be hard to beat anywhere. the winters are charming, bright and cold, with snow-covered mountains always in view. for a month or two in the summer it becomes fairly hot, when flies and mosquitoes nearly drive one wild, but it is generally possible to get away for a little time, and during the remainder of the year the climate is all that could be desired. and yet it seems strange that in spite of all this europeans have found it difficult to live there. our mission in its infancy had a very chequered career, owing to the breaking down in health of its missionaries. the first to open the work there was a mr. carless, a clergyman of the church of england. he went there a young man in the vigour of youth, and at the end of three years, having gained the love and admiration of moslem and parsee alike, he was laid in a solitary grave away in the desert, in a valley surrounded by hills. after a short time his work was taken up by a mr. and mrs. blackett, but the latter was able to remain only a few short months, at the end of which time she returned to england, broken down and shattered in health. then my husband was appointed to open medical mission work there. unfortunately, before the year was out, we too had to leave, this time on account of my health. during our stay there an english engineer came to seek for artesian wells. after two or three months he contracted fever and died at our house, and he too is resting in that quiet spot amongst the mountains by the side of mr. carless. on our leaving, another doctor was appointed to take my husband's post, but his stay in kerman was not even as long as ours had been. and so it seemed as if the work there could not be carried on, but fortunately this chapter of accidents has now come to an end, for our missionaries have been living and working there for some three or four years. all agree, too, in saying that the climate is a very healthy one, provided the people living there have sound hearts! chapter v holidays in persia how to ensure a prosperous journey--natanz--astonishment of natives at sight of hairpins--pulivagoon--mahoon--aliabâd--prince under canvas--visit from a persian princess--a persian deer-hunt. "if all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work." shakespeare. in a climate such as has been described in the foregoing chapter, it is necessary for the sake of health to get away during a part of the hot season. fortunately there are suitable places near at hand to each of the large cities, so it is no very difficult matter to get away for a few weeks. the difficulties lie rather in reaching these places, and in transporting all one's belongings--at least all those that are absolutely necessary--to the place chosen. after having decided upon the desirability of having a holiday, the next thing is to fix a day of departure. this sounds easy to say. yes, it is quite a simple matter for you to say, "we will start on such and such a day," but you are perhaps reckoning without considering your muleteer. on the morning appointed you rise early, see that everything is in readiness, and then sit down to wait for the baggage animals to arrive. time goes on, the sun begins to get hot, and no sign of the muleteer or mules, so by-and-by you send your servant to investigate matters, and he brings back with him the muleteer, who smiles sweetly and says, "ensha'allah farda (to-morrow, god willing) we will start on our journey." his mules have gone to a village, and will be back "ensha'allah farda." we can console ourselves that very likely the same thing will occur again on the next day. it is always "farda" with these people, so we must try to possess our souls in patience, and hope for the best. persians are never in a hurry, and cannot understand why it should make any difference whether we start "to-day" or "to-morrow." oh, those endless "fardas"! how tired we got of them before we had been very long in the land. but it is good to learn patience, and the sooner you have mastered this lesson well, the happier will you be living in the east. preparing for a holiday in persia is rather a different matter to starting off at home for the seaside or elsewhere. everything has to be taken--pots and pans, tables, chairs, beds and bedding--in fact, everything that is necessary for four or five weeks' stay in a house where nothing is provided but the bare walls. it is wonderful what a number of things are necessary even for a short stay, in the so-called simple life. the natives are very superstitious about many things when starting on a journey. for instance, it is very unlucky, in their eyes, to proceed if any of the party happens to sneeze on the point of starting. they would much rather postpone the start for a more propitious occasion, than disregard this bad omen. i heard of one man who insisted on continuing his journey in spite of the warning given in the form of a sneeze, and the consequence was he fell off his mule and broke his leg! the natives also are careful to have a good supply of copper coins ready when starting on a journey, to give to the beggars. whenever we left home our servants always distributed freely to the poor who were living around, to ensure a blessing on our journey, but they never forgot to put the amount down in the daily account! while in persia we had some very enjoyable holidays, but as i could not endure the altitude we were never able to go to the mountains, which of course make the ideal summer resorts. however, we managed to find some very pretty and fairly cool places in the plains or on slightly elevated ground. our first holiday in persia was spent in a very pretty little village called natanz. i had been taken ill on our way to isphahan, and the lady doctor who came out to meet us suggested our going for a week or so to this little village before entering isphahan. spring was already well advanced, and it is difficult to recruit in the hot season. natanz is a picturesque little village, slightly off the general route, so that the natives had not then become very much used to feringhis staying with them, and our coming caused no little excitement. we arrived there about twelve o'clock one night, and were conducted to our room by an admiring throng, and this throng continued to "admire" for the whole time we were there. the windows of our room were composed of lattice work only, so all interested could always have a good view of our movements. on waking in the morning there were our faithful followers to be seen with their faces flattened against the trellis work, waiting for us to wake, and see what we were going to do next! at times this interest shown on the part of the inhabitants was a trifle embarrassing, but as often as they were driven away by our servant just as often did they return again whenever his back was turned. for the first day or two i did not leave the room, but when i felt stronger i used to sit in a chair outside the window reading or writing. the moment my husband left me the women all swarmed round like bees, full of curious questions. unfortunately at that time i was not able to talk to them, not knowing the language, but i could make out what they were saying to a great extent from their gestures. my fountain pen was a cause of great amusement and astonishment, as were also my hairpins. the delight of some of the women on being presented with a hairpin was very funny. they seemed to think i stuck them into my head, as into a pincushion. at first the women were rather shy, as they could not be quite sure whether i was a man or a woman, but one of them came and peeped under my hat and seeing i had long hair concluded i was a woman. my husband received a visit from the governor of the village, who was very delighted to see an english hakeem. we were quite sorry when our little holiday in natanz was over, but being anxious to push on to isphahan, did not care to prolong our stay longer than was necessary. our next holiday was in the summer of the same year . this time we went only a few hours' drive out of isphahan to a place called pulivagoon. it was a very pretty little village, and a nice house, belonging to the zil es sultan, had been lent to us for a month. the house was built practically on the river, as our windows hung right over the water, and the sound of its rushing torrent reminded us of the lapping of the waves on the seashore in dear old england. there were some lovely woods near by, to which we often used to take our tea, and pass the time pleasantly paddling, bathing, and fishing in the river. the following year we were at kerman, and went for our holidays to a lovely garden about nine hours' ride from the city. mahoon lies very high; it must be at least feet above sea-level. the climate is beautiful, but the altitude proved too high for me to enjoy it much. we had a very tiring ride from kerman; starting one day soon after noon we rode for three or four hours, then had a refreshing cup of tea under the shadow of a large spreading tree. but we could not afford to linger, for we still had a good half of our journey before us, so once more we mounted our respective steeds, hoping to reach our destination about nine o'clock, but alas for our hopes! nine o'clock came and went, and still we seemed no nearer; ten o'clock, and still no sign of our village. it was now pitch dark, and we were all very tired and hungry, and i was so dead beat that i could hardly sit upright on my animal. my husband rode close by my side, to be in readiness in case i should fall off in my sleep. to the oft-repeated question, "how much farther?" the answer always came, "ensha'allah--only half-an-hour." oh, those half-hours, how wearisome they became! i did so wish that they would say two hours or three hours for a change, for the everlasting half-hour was so tantalising. our servants told me afterwards that they said this to keep up my spirits, as they thought, if they told the truth about the distance, "the khanum's heart would melt within her." at last, just after midnight, we heard a very energetic coo-ing ahead of us, and knew that at last we were within sound of rest and food. it was so dark that we could not find the path leading to the garden, and our animals went floundering about over great boulders of stones or stumbling into ditches, and of course all in the wrong direction, till some one met us and conducted our tired party into the house. here we found that our baggage animals, with bagi and the other servants, had not yet turned up, though they had started an hour or two before us. they did not arrive till morning, so there was nothing for it but to lie down on bare boards and go to sleep supperless. the only drinking vessel to be found was a saucepan, from which we had a most refreshing drink of water and retired to our luxurious couch, sleeping as well and as soundly as if we were lying on beds of softest down. we were awakened about eight o'clock next morning by the sound of bells, and knew that our belated caravan had come in. while they were settling disputes and unpacking we strolled off into the garden to dip our faces into the cool water that was flowing through the grounds. it was, or rather had been, a magnificent garden, but, like everything else in persia, was even then fast falling into decay. there was water in abundance, flowing on both sides, and fountains playing on the top terrace and also at the foot of the garden. the whole garden was built in a series of terraces, and steps led from one level to the next. the houses and gardens had been built by h.h. farman farma, at one time governor of kerman, and must have cost a great deal of money. we took up our quarters in the house at the top of the garden, and after a few days our consul came out from kerman and occupied the lower one. we spent a very enjoyable month here, riding, shooting, bathing, &c. my husband opened a dispensary for the villagers, to which he went two mornings each week, and the people appreciated this very much, as i do not think they had ever had an english doctor amongst them before. we much enjoyed the use of the persian "hammam" (bath) while there. it comprised a series of rooms built a little way off from the house; each room was built of marble and blue tiles. the first or outer room was simply for resting in, having a fountain in the centre; passing through this, you entered a large vaulted room, which was used for a dressing-room and "cooling-down" place; from this you passed to the actual hammam, which was a large tank of water about feet by feet, and from to feet deep, shelving gradually in depth from the edge. this had not been used for some years apparently, but my husband had it cleaned out and filled with fresh water, and we were very thankful for it during the hot weather. at first we tried taking our afternoon siesta in the outer or resting-room, but found it too feverish; however, we were able to sit in it during the early part of the day, and generally had our persian lesson there, as it was easier to work in the cool. we always made our holidays a time for language study, as my husband rarely could find time for it while at work in the city, and we both longed to be able to speak persian properly. i must say the natives were always wonderfully good and patient over our mistakes, and never laughed, however terrible and feeble our attempts at conversation might be. unfortunately, just as we were beginning to feel our way in persian a little, we had to start learning a new language, so to a great extent we have forgotten our persian. our last holiday in persia was spent in aliabâd, a dear little village about ten hours' drive from yezd. h.r.h. the jalal el dowleh (nephew of the late shah) kindly lent us a house there, and as it was rather a small one, he erected a large tent in the garden for us, which did duty as dining and sitting-room combined. the jalal also kindly lent us one of his carriages to drive from yezd to aliabâd. the first part of the way the road was very good. we left yezd just before sunset, reaching our half-way place shortly before midnight. here we had to rest the horses till morning, so we spent the night in a garden by permission of the owner. spreading a rug on the ground, and using two of the carriage cushions as pillows, we spent a very comfortable night, and awoke in the early morning fresh and ready for the second part of our journey. we were off before sunrise, as we wished to reach our destination before the great heat of the day began. i shall never forget that drive. for the greater part of the way there was not even a semblance of a road, and the whole path was strewn with huge stones and boulders; it was a marvel to me how the carriage ever got safely over them. but oh, the jolting and the shaking! driving up the pyramids would be smooth and easy compared to the horrors of that road! we repented often of having accepted the kind offer of the carriage, as the saddle is much more preferable on such roads. however, all things come to an end to those who have patience; so at last this memorable drive ended, and we were very thankful, about ten o'clock, to see the trees of our village rising on the horizon. we found the little house very comfortably arranged and breakfast waiting for us in the tent, as our servants had pushed on instead of resting during the night. aliabâd contained, i suppose, some fifty houses, all of which were occupied by moslems of rather a fanatical type. it was surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills, and this gave it a rather shut-in feeling at times. after sunset, too, it was very chilly and damp, as there were so many gardens lying under water at that time, this being the usual method of irrigation. i wanted to make the acquaintance of the village women, so i let it be known that i should generally be in the garden during the morning, and should welcome all who came to see me. in this way i saw most of the women, but they were not very responsive on the whole. it was here, sitting in the garden one morning, that i tried to learn from them how to "tell the beads" according to the moslem method, but i found it too intricate and difficult. i managed, however, to master one very simple method of trying the beads for good or ill fortune. this was as follows: holding the rosary before you in both hands, you separate a certain number of the beads; then, closing your eyes, you "tell" them, repeating the mystic words "adam, eve, satan," until the last bead is reached. if this happens to be "adam," the luck is sure to be of the best; if "eve," the result is neutral, and the beads must be counted again; while "satan" indicates the worst of fortune, and would absolutely prevent any one from undertaking any contemplated action. it was no uncommon sight to see the women counting their beads and mumbling to themselves, "adam, hava, shaitan (adam, eve, satan), adam, hava, shaitan," before making up their minds as to whether they should drink their medicine or not. or perhaps some patient has been advised an operation, and he is trying his beads to see whether the doctor's advice is to be taken or not. it is a strange thing that, when they very badly want to do a thing, they can generally make it come to "adam," or else they keep on repeating the words till it does come to the lucky name, and then they are happy. when we had been in aliabâd some days the prince-governor of yezd brought his "anderoon" to the same village. of course there was no accommodation for them in the village, so they erected a town for themselves. it sprang up in one night, and looked in the morning as if a large company of soldiers had suddenly come along and fixed their camp. the ladies' quarters consisted of about twenty large tents, and were enclosed by a huge canvas wall, quite shutting them off from the outside world. the prince had his reception tents and others outside the wall, but quite near to it. a day or two after their arrival the princess sent down her carriage for me, with a request that i would go and see her, which i gladly did, and found her surrounded by all her home comforts, and dressed, as usual, in some lovely silk costume. after this she always sent for me about three times a week, and we had walks and talks together. whenever we came to a garden, she and her ladies always gathered the cucumbers and onions and ate them, thoroughly enjoying the impromptu picnic, and never giving a thought to the poor unfortunate owner, who dared not voice a remonstrance, however much his garden was stripped of its produce. a eunuch or two always went before when the princess walked out, to warn off any of the dreaded menkind who happened to be about. one day the prince gave permission for his wife to come and call upon me. this was the first time she had ever been allowed to pay a visit. i was sorry we were not in our own house, as i should have liked to show her an english home. however, we made the place as tidy and home-like as possible for her reception. my husband had to be banished, and also all the men-servants. bagi (our woman servant) prepared all the refreshments, but the princess's own servants handed them to her, as bagi was a parsee, and it would have meant defilement for a moslem to take food from a despised follower of zoroaster. the prince spent most of his time hunting, and my husband went with him on several occasions. the sport did not seem to be very exciting, from all accounts. the jalal would take with him about thirty to forty of his followers, and form a kind of cordon round the spot where the gazelles were known to be; they then gradually closed in, each rider knowing and keeping his own position. at last the gazelles would be sighted, and all would gallop madly towards the spot, and shoot as they got within range. we were kept so well supplied with venison during those holidays that i felt i never wanted to taste it again! quite near to aliabâd there were some large caves in which the natives had stored frozen snow, so that even in the height of summer we were able to have a large block of ice every day. altogether our time at this little village was very enjoyable, and we were quite sorry when our holiday was over and we had to return to the broiling heat of yezd. chapter vi social life in persia kerman--house-hunting and building--white ants--housekeeping in kerman--servant question--truth v. falsehood--abdul fateh--bagi--recreations--some exciting rides--persian etiquette--dinner at the governor's. "society is no comfort to one not sociable." shakespeare. the social life of europeans in persia differs very much according to the town lived in. in some parts much life and gaiety are to be found, and in others this element is conspicuous by its absence. in teheran, where we have our legation, of course social life is at its height. at isphahan, too, there is quite a large european community. when we were there in and there must have been at least fifty europeans, and very happily and sociably all lived together. from isphahan we went to kerman, where for some five or six months we were the only foreigners, but in spite of having none of our own countrymen to call upon or visit, we were very happy. after a time a british consul was appointed, and we felt quite gay, and i at once started a european "at home" day, and every wednesday our consul was a most regular visitor. he was always very homesick, and liked anything that helped to remind him of dear old england. on one occasion we actually mustered four englishmen to dinner, as two travellers happened to be passing through at the same time, one of whom was mr. savage landor, who entertained us with most harrowing accounts of his time amongst the thibetans. just before we left two english ladies arrived, so the social life at kerman began to grow, and to-day it boasts of quite a number of europeans, consisting of consuls of various nations, as well as missionaries, bank and telegraph employees. when we arrived at kerman we found great difficulty in choosing and leasing a house. many were only too anxious to show us their houses, and to assure us that all their property belonged to us, to do what we liked with; but when it came to making definite arrangements it was quite a different matter. so long as it was only "talk" the various would-be landlords were willing to promise everything and anything, but it was quite another question when suggestions were made as to the desirability of committing those promises to paper. at last we settled on a house outside the town, which possessed a nice large garden, but the house itself only consisted of about two rooms, and these were in a very tumble-down and filthy condition. the landlord (a parsee) promised to build according to our plans, and to spend the whole of the first three years' rent in making improvements and additions to the house. the consequence of this delightful arrangement was that during the greater part of our time in kerman building operations were going on, and only just as we were leaving was the work completed and the house made inhabitable. but in the end a very fairly comfortable house was built, and has been occupied ever since, i believe, by our c.m.s. missionaries. our garden was very large, but only half of it had been cultivated; the further end we had hoped to have made into a tennis court, but unfortunately we had to leave before it was possible to do so. all the bricks used for building were made from the earth of the garden. the process is simplicity itself. water is mixed with the earth till it becomes a thick mud, then it is stamped into the required shape by means of a wooden block, and then left in the sun to dry. sometimes straw is mixed with the mud, when it is necessary to have very strong bricks. directly we moved into our house i found to my horror that it was infested with white ants. this was my first experience of these wretched little creatures, and i hope it may be my last. they are disturbers of one's peace of mind, for once they are settled in a house it is impossible to get rid of them, and the only thing to hope for is that by continually waging war against them you may keep them slightly in subjection. i remember so well the day i first made the acquaintance of these noxious things. i had with much difficulty succeeded in finishing our drawing-room, and considering all things i may be forgiven if i confess to having felt a certain amount of pride as i looked at the result of my labours. certainly it was not too luxurious; but it was comfortable and "homey." alas! my pride soon had a fall. after a day or two my husband had need of some book, and upon taking it from the shelf found it eaten half through! i then began to hunt about, and found the room was swarming with these abominations, under the carpets, behind the pictures, cosily ensconced in books--everywhere they were having a right royal time. from that moment almost to the day we left, i never ceased to hunt and destroy these ubiquitous ants. we were having two new rooms built, and i said to my husband, "one comfort is that the ants cannot be in the new rooms;" but, alas, my hopes were vain! the builders had used an old piece of wood for a beam on which the ceiling rested, and this was infested with white ants, and so in a very short time they had that room, too, to revel in. i tried all manner of things to get rid of them, but found the most successful remedy was pouring petroleum down the holes from which they came. this drove them away from that hole, but they only burrowed a little further, seeking for a new outlet. nothing could or can destroy them. as long as the queen ant remains they can never be exterminated. an english engineer who came to kerman told me that, when he was living in india, he was building a house, and before he laid the foundations he offered large rewards for all queen ants found in the grounds near, for, said he, "this is the only way to ensure freedom from these pests." he also told me that one night he left his evening shoes out in his room, and in the morning the leather was eaten half away. i can quite believe this now, after having seen for myself their tremendous digestive powers. one of our missionaries had to leave kerman quite suddenly while we were there. before leaving he packed all his most valued books into tin-lined cases and had them soldered down, thinking they would be safe against the intrusions of white ants. shortly after his departure we suspected these wretches of being at work amongst the books, and so came to the conclusion we had better open and see. there, sure enough, they were, and busily they had been engaged too, for like "mother hubbard who went to the cupboard," when we went to the box we found it bare! if not quite, almost so; for, with the exception of a few stout leather covers, all trace of mr. blackett's valuable library was gone! such are the literary instincts of white ants. but indeed nothing comes amiss to their tastes--books, boots, pictures, carpets, clothes, papers--all vanish under the business-like efforts of these horrible creatures. what with white ants and bad servants to contend and combat with, housekeeping in kerman was enough to turn one's hair grey! the struggle was unequal, and i generally got the worst of it. to begin with, the servants we had brought with us from isphahan refused to stay in such an out-of-the-world spot as kerman, so no sooner had we begun to unpack than first one and then another declared his intention of going, until we were left stranded. then began the joys of servant-hunting. in some parts of persia this is not a difficult task, but in kerman it was practically impossible to find a decent servant, or one that knew anything about his work. the chief drawback to kerman domestics is the fact that they are all opium-smokers. the native saying in kerman is, "that every fourth man out of three" is an opium-smoker. although this may be a slight exaggeration, yet it was decidedly hard to find any one who was not addicted to this terrible habit. awful specimens presented themselves as "cooks," but one look at them was enough! at last a veritable "uriah heep" offered his valuable services to us; he came armed with wonderful credentials and menu cards. these latter he claimed to have successfully negotiated when in the employ of some frenchman, but i have grave doubts as to the veracity of this statement. on the strength of these menus we thought we could not do better than engage him; so he came, and proved himself to be a most aggravating specimen of humanity, specially formed, i believe, to try the patience and tempers of poor unsuspecting foreigners. nothing ever put him out or ruffled his sweet amiability. how i wished it would, and that he would depart in wrath and anger at my repeated complaints against him! but no, nothing of the kind; he came to stay, and stay he did, till he bade us an affectionate and touching farewell on our departure from kerman. his money accounts were always atrociously high, but so cleverly did he manage them that i could rarely detect him cheating, and at last i gave it up as a hopeless task, concluding the game was not worth the candle. when we were alone his cooking was passable--at least it was generally eatable; but if ever we had friends to dinner he always managed to surpass himself with some act of stupidity or wickedness, i never could make out which it was. on one occasion the english consul and one or two others were dining with us. we had safely reached the "sweet" stage, and i was just beginning to congratulate myself that this time, at any rate, our lovely cook was not going to disgrace himself or play any trick. just then a "chocolate cream" was handed round. it looked all right. the consul took some, tasted it, and promptly laid down his fork; his example was followed by others. i hastily called the "boy" to bring me some, and on tasting it found to my horror that the chocolate cream was highly flavoured with naphthalene! we had lately received a box from home; in it was some of this useful stuff for destroying moths; doubtless the cook thought it was a nice and specially delicate flavouring for puddings! on another occasion i had been experimenting on some dessert dish, which necessitated part of the ingredients soaking for an hour or two over a slow fire. i put everything ready, and left strict injunctions with "uriah" that he was to touch nothing, and so i left. shortly after, feeling rather uneasy as to the welfare of my concoction, i returned to the kitchen, just in time to see the wretched man pouring my "dream of delight" down the sink! i confess to having been guilty then for the first and last time of boxing a servant's ears; but really was the provocation not great? another of our "treasures" was a man called neamat 'allah. he was a splendid "show man," but no good for work of any kind. he shone when visitors came, as he felt the dignity of his sahib depended in a great measure on him. then there was an awful boy, rustem. i did my best to make him into a decent parlour-maid, but utterly failed. although only about eighteen years of age, he was a confirmed slave to the opium habit. his chief forte was smashing crockery and telling lies. of course we never expected our servants to speak the truth, but this boy seemed the most incorrigible of all. one day he said to me, after i had been trying to instil into his mind some idea as to why we should speak the truth, "well, khanum, what is the use of my speaking the truth, for if i did you would not believe me, and would only say it was a lie?" this is true, i am afraid, to a great extent, for after being deceived so often one gets sceptical about the possibility of a native speaking the truth, especially if he is an opium-smoker too. and yet sometimes they look at you so innocently, with such an air of injured righteousness, that you begin to wonder if after all they are not for once speaking the truth; but, alas, the wonder soon passes! shortly before leaving kerman we were fortunate enough to secure the services of a real treasure in the person of an indian. he came to kerman with his master, mr. patrick duncan, whose object was to sink artesian wells, but unfortunately he died before his work was completed. his man, abdul fateh, was heartbroken at the death of his master, as he had been with him for many years. he begged my husband to engage him, and very gladly we did so, and he proved a great comfort to us all our time in persia, acting as "pishkhedmat" (chief servant), not only being good and honest himself, but keeping the others up to their work, and not allowing them to cheat us too much. before leaving the subject of servants i must say just a word about our woman servant; she was such a dear little body--a parsee. we called her bagi, which means a female servant. she had been with miss sykes for a time, so knew a little about feringhi ways. she was a picturesque figure, waddling about the house in her big baggy trousers and her gaily coloured overall reaching to her knees, while on her head she wore the usual number of coverings, in compliance with the zoroastrian idea that a woman's head must be well covered! it is a great "shame" for a parsee woman to be seen with her head uncovered. one day bagi had been washing her hair, and the doctor happened to see her in passing before she had replaced her many coverings. she came to me in great distress to know what was she to do. the sahib had seen her with her head uncovered! the recreations of kerman are confined almost entirely to horse riding. there are many very good picnic places near by, and an excellent stretch of desert for a canter or gallop, but not so good as the desert outside yezd. when we first went to kerman i was told that i must on no account ride through the bazaars, as no englishwoman had ever been seen in them. i might ride outside the town and view the bazaars from a safe distance, but this did not fall in with my ideas at all, and as soon as we were fairly settled down in our house i asked my husband to take me to see the bazaars. so one afternoon we started off to try the experiment, taking with us two servants, one to walk in front and one behind, my husband and i riding our horses. i will not say that as we entered the dark, dreary-looking archways leading to the bazaars my heart did not beat a little faster than usual, as i thought of all the horrible things which had been told me as to what might happen when first an englishwoman was seen in the open bazaar. after a few minutes, however, i saw there was nothing to fear, for beyond a good stare and a few curses from some of the people, nothing happened. i had, of course, taken the precaution of wearing a thick veil. my second ride through these same bazaars was much more exciting. it was during the time of the passion play in the month of mohurram, referred to in another chapter. as we were riding quietly along we suddenly came across the whole company of excited, maddened creatures returning to their homes after the play was over. the crowd was headed by about a hundred men, whose garments were streaming with blood, their heads and faces covered with gashes of all sorts and sizes. in their hands they held and waved frantically their swords or daggers. our servants were fearfully alarmed, and hurriedly turned our horses' heads into a narrow passage, and hoped the crowd would not notice us. but unfortunately they did, and with a wild cry of "feringhi! feringhi!" they immediately formed up just in front of the opening to our passage and began their wild dance for our benefit. it was rather a gruesome sight in the dimly-lighted bazaars to see a hundred or more naked swords flashing, blood on everything and everybody, men yelling, shouting, cursing, and dancing. we were not sorry when in a few minutes they took it into their heads to move on, thinking, no doubt, that they had paid great honour to the feringhis by this exhibition for their special benefit. after this experience i felt there certainly was no longer any need for fear, and since then we have all ridden and walked quite freely in and through the bazaars. only once was i spat upon in persia, and that was in yezd. persians have often been called the frenchmen of the east. they certainly are a most courteous and polite people, outwardly at all events, and are masters in the art of paying compliments to one another. but to a novice it is no light matter to know just the right amount of flattery to deal out, as it is almost as bad a mistake to give any one a great deal too much flattery as not to give him enough. the art lies in knowing just what is due to each person, according to the rank of life he occupies. when you wish to visit any one it is not polite to send word to say, "i am coming." you must couch your message in much more flowery language, such as, "i want to honour myself by coming to see your nobleness." the answer will be "bis'millah--please bring your tashrif (dignity)." there is great etiquette, too, over the kalian-smoking and tea-drinking, each one deprecatingly suggesting that his neighbour should partake first and the other declining the honour with a sweeping bow; but every one knows who is entitled to the first whiff of the kalian or the first cup of tea, and no one would dare to think of defrauding him of his right. it seems such a pity that persians of high class are gradually falling into european ways, for they do not suit these frenchmen of the east half so well as their own manners and customs. while we were in kerman the governor was one who had lived in europe a good deal, and liked everything done à la feringhi; he much enjoyed english afternoon teas, home-made cakes, &c. soon after our arrival there an invitation came from the governor for dinner the following week. on the evening appointed a carriage came for us and drove us to the "arg," as the house of the governor is called. we found a splendid dinner waiting for us, served in french style, about twenty courses of excellently cooked dishes. after dinner we were amused by persian musicians and singers. we were entertained by the nephew of the governor, who apologised for the absence of his uncle, who, he said, was suffering from a bad attack of fever which prevented his presiding at the table. we heard afterwards that the real reason of his non-appearance was not fever, but a fear of being laughed at. he knew how things ought to be done according to european fashion, and was afraid that he had not all the necessaries to carry out a dinner successfully, and so preferred not to show himself. however, when he saw how splendidly the first dinner-party went off he decided to give another, so in about a week's time we received a second invitation to dinner. this time the governor himself took the head of the table, and did the honours of it well, too. he certainly had nothing to be ashamed of, for everything was served in perfect french style. from the soup to the dessert, with all the intermediary courses, everything was dished up in perfect taste and on good china. the glass and table decorations would not have disgraced a european table. the governor of yezd, on the other hand, preferred to hold more to his own traditions, and i have much enjoyed a meal there with his family, served and eaten in true persian style. chapter vii the women of persia home life--anderoon, women's quarters--jealousy in the anderoon--anderoon of khan baba khan--two days in an anderoon--h.r.h. princess hamadané sultané--visit to the anderoon of h.r.h. the zil-es-sultan. "the more your prayers to me, the more will your wives be in paradise." from life of al-jazuli. "women are weak, as you say, and love of all things to be passive, passive, patient, receptive, yea, even of wrong and misdoing, even to force and misdoing, with joy and victorious feeling, patient, passive, receptive; for that is the strength of their being, like to the earth taking all things and all to good converting." a. h. clough. whilst in persia i had a good many opportunities of becoming well acquainted with some of the moslem women, especially in kerman, as there i was for some time the only englishwoman, and naturally the women liked to see as much of me as possible, in order to see and hear about life amongst the feringhis. the persian women are much more volatile and genial than their arab sisters, but on the whole i prefer the latter, perhaps because i have had so much more to do with them. the persian lady is ready, the moment she sees you, to shower compliments upon you and to tell you how much she loves you, while her more austere sister of arabia takes time to consider whether you are a person to be trusted or not; and if after a time she does give you her love, it is something worth the having. when i first went to persia i found the questions of the women most disconcerting, but after a time, if their conversation became too objectionable, i always told them it was not our custom to talk on such subjects, and they generally took the hint, at any rate for the time being. when in kerman i started an "at home" for moslem ladies, and in this way i got to know some of them very well, and also by visiting them in their homes. they quite liked the idea of an "at home" day, and i well remember our first one. about twenty ladies came, each one attended by a slave or two and a small boy to guard their shoes, which of course they left at the door. it was quite a business unrobing all these ladies from their black silk "chuddars," and arranging each lady in her respective place, according to the honour due to her. we had in our drawing-room a long divan, about feet by , occupying the whole of one end of the room, and cushioned according to eastern ideas. on this about twelve of the ladies seated themselves and looked very comfortable and at ease, while the rest sat on chairs arranged round the room, and looked most uncomfortable and uneasy. by-and-by i noticed first one foot being tucked up and then another, till most of the ladies were sitting native fashion on their chairs, and it looked so curious i could hardly keep from smiling. after all were settled, and their chuddars and veils carefully folded up and put aside by the slaves, then the kalian or water-pipe was brought in, each slave preparing the pipe for her own mistress. i had arranged that my woman-servant, bagi, should hand round tea, but the ladies were horrified at the idea of taking tea which had been poured out by a parsee, as they believed it would make them unclean for i don't know how long; so my poor bagi had to take a back seat and see others take her place. my next "at home" day i was wiser, and secured the services of the mother of our syce, who was a moslem, as i did not like to see a strange woman doing the honours of the tea-table. amongst the ladies that day was the wife of one of the ex-governors of kerman, and the good lady did not let any one forget that fact! they were always most interested in seeing and hearing all about feringhi life, and were specially interested in photographs and pictures. one lady said to me directly she was seated, "i want to see a picture of jesus christ;" and on my showing her one, she most reverently kissed it and put it to her forehead. they much enjoyed listening to our little organ, and one lady was so delighted that she gave her husband no peace till he bought her one, and then nothing would satisfy her but i must go and teach her how to play. as her instrument arrived from teheran with half its notes missing, it is easy to imagine that her musical talent (?) was somewhat put to the test. however, she was very proud of her instrument, and quite happy playing with one finger an accompaniment to some weird persian song. of "home life" in persia there is none; there is no word in their language for "home," and so it plays no part in their lives. life in the home varies very much according to the rank of the husband. the poorer wives and village women are blessed by being obliged to work, but the better class have absolutely nothing to do, from morning till night, but smoke, drink tea, and talk scandal. the poorer wife is certainly the better off of the two, for she has to rise early in the morning to get her husband his early cup of tea before he goes off to work; then she has the house to look after and the children to think of and sew for; and last, but not least, the evening meal of pillau or kabob to cook ere her lord and master returns from his labours; while her less fortunate neighbour has nothing to do but to talk of the latest scandal of the anderoon, and then to pay a visit to another anderoon to tell and receive the latest news there. the anderoon is that part of the house which is given up to the women, and is as a rule the best part of the house, for there the men of the house retire when their work is done, to be waited on and fussed over by the womenfolk. when a man is well off and has more than one wife, he generally keeps them in separate compounds; but often two will be living together in the same anderoon, and as a rule they do not love each other very much. the great and chief causes of jealousy in the anderoon are the children, or rather lack of children. for instance, a young bride is brought to her husband's house, and for a time she is the pet and favourite of her husband, and all is well; but if as time passes no child comes to cheer her heart, then the husband soon tires of his new plaything and looks about for a new and prettier one, till one sad day the poor young wife hears that her husband is about to bring home another to share her life and home. we can imagine what rage and jealousy will burn in her heart, and how she will hate the new inmate of the anderoon, and especially if after a time her enemy becomes the mother of a boy. then her hatred reaches a climax, and it is by no means uncommon for her to have recourse to the "cup of coffee" either for herself or her enemy. that "cup of coffee" is a most useful (?) institution in persia, as it is often very difficult to detect the poison hidden therein. it is impossible for us even to think of the miseries through which some of these poor women pass; and if we see how unhappiness and wretchedness is fostered in an anderoon containing two wives, how much more miserable and awful must be the life when the number of wives is multiplied by two or even more. but while there are many unhappy anderoons, yet as "the exception proves the rule" in most cases so it does here. for i remember one home in which two wives were living in apparent peace and happiness; but here, again, there was reason for their unity, as neither of them had any children, and so there was no cause for jealousy. their husband was an aristocratic old man of about seventy years of age, and he had taken these two young wives to cheer his old age. he had a little son by one of his many former wives, of whom he was passionately fond, and this boy was very ill for some months, suffering from heart disease. his two young wives nursed this boy day and night in a most devoted manner, and apparently really loved the boy, and were very sorry when he died. it was owing to this boy's illness that we had the opportunity of spending two days in the anderoon of khan baba khan, and very pleasant and interesting days they were too. it was the year that we were in kerman, and we had just gone away for our summer holiday to that lovely garden of mahoon, when one day a very urgent messenger came to my husband from khan baba khan begging him to go and see his boy, who was very ill. the old man had sent his carriage for us, with instructions to his man to drive the doctor straight to his garden, situated some sixteen miles on the other side of kerman, where the boy had been taken ill. as soon as we were ready we started off, but could only reach kerman that night, where we rested, and the next day arrived at the garden of the khan. it was a very pretty garden, with plenty of trees and running water. on our arrival we were ushered into the room prepared for us, and in a few minutes the poor little invalid was brought in, and even then he seemed to have the mark of death on his face; but he was a very self-willed boy, and every one had to humour him in everything, as the fits of temper which he indulged in were very dangerous for him in his weak state of health. while the doctor was examining and prescribing for the invalid in another room the two ladies came to see me, and brought a very appetising dinner; chickens cooked to perfection and pillaus formed the staple part of the meal. the ladies then retired, and my husband and i thoroughly enjoyed our first meal taken together in a persian anderoon. after dinner my husband again visited the patient, and the ladies came to prepare our room for the night. this was quite an elaborate undertaking. first of all, a huge mosquito net was fixed up by attaching the four corners to tapes and nailing them to the wall. the underneath part of the net rested on the floor; on this the mattresses were placed, so that once you were inside the net you were in what seemed like a good-sized room. in fact, during the next two days we used to sit inside the net reading or writing, as outside there was no respite from the plague of mosquitoes and sandflies. sleeping on the floor is very comfortable; in fact, i don't quite see the need of bedsteads, unless the room is infested with rats or other creeping creatures! the next two days passed very pleasantly; whenever my husband went out of the room, almost simultaneously i would hear a voice at the window asking permission to enter, and the ladies would come in for a chat. we became great friends, and this friendship lasted till we left kerman some months later, and then the khan lent us his carriage to drive to yezd, as he wished to express his gratitude for all my husband had done for his boy. unfortunately the boy even then was past human aid, and after two or three months of suffering he died. i have always been glad of these two days actually spent in a persian home, as it enabled me to see what their everyday life really was; but as i have said, this was quite an exceptionally happy anderoon, with none of the wrangling and quarrelling generally connected with the homes of persian women. while in yezd i met and soon became very friendly with a most charming persian lady. she was a daughter of one of the late shahs, and thus was a princess in her own right; her husband was a nephew of the late shah, so she was doubly connected with persian royalty. h.r.h. princess hamadané sultané was in many ways quite unlike the majority of persian ladies. she was a strong-minded, clever woman, and was very anxious that her children should be brought up in european fashion. these children certainly had a very good time compared with other persian children, as their mother refused to let them become little women before they had passed out of childhood's days, and although they were then nine and ten years old were generally playing with their dolls or other toys brought from paris for their amusement. the princess very much wished her children to learn english, but i suggested that she should learn it herself first and then teach it to her children. to this she gladly consented, and so twice a week i used to go up and give her lessons. she quickly got over the a b c stage, as she had some slight knowledge of french, and took a great delight in picking out the words of an easy english reader, and in a very short time she greeted me in very quaint broken english: "good morning; i hope you are well." unfortunately, i had to leave my interesting pupil at this stage, as we were leaving persia for england, and i never saw her again; but i have heard that she continued her english lessons for some time. i do not think i ever knew any one with so many dresses as this princess had; every time i saw her she appeared in a different costume, and always in rich silks, satins, or brocades. i asked her once if she knew how many gowns she possessed, and she confessed that she had no idea, and added that it would not be at all right for me to see her more than once in the same dress! and i certainly never did, although i was visiting her twice weekly for some months. this good lady exercised a very great influence over her husband (a most unusual thing in persia), partly, perhaps, on account of her social position and also because she possessed a large amount of property in her own right. before she came to live with her husband in yezd she said she would only come with the understanding that she was to be the only wife, and i believe the prince kept to the agreement as long as she was with him. but he must have found it very hard, for i have heard that before his wife came no girl dared be out after dusk, so afraid were they of the prince and his courtiers. one day i was visiting in the anderoon in company with the lady doctor who was attending one of the children, and lunch was announced; so the prince made us sit down with them and partake of the mid-day meal. after lunch the prince amused himself by vaccinating all the children he could lay hands on (not his own, but those of the servants). the children did not seem to see the joke quite so much as the prince did! they were much too frightened to run away, and stood trembling in their shoes waiting for their turn to come. at that time, too, no one in the anderoon dared say they had toothache, for if they did immediately the prince would call for his forceps, and out would come a tooth. perhaps it might happen to be the offender, but just as likely it would be an innocent tooth which had never given its owner a moment's pain! i shall never forget the delicious coffee which was always served when visiting at this house. it was a mixture, i believe, of coffee and chocolate; and i have never tasted anywhere such coffee. i asked the princess to give me the recipe, but my make never came up to the original, and i think perhaps they did not mean it to! the princess was very fond of sending to paris for boxes of goods on approval, and it was rather amusing to be there when the things arrived. sometimes most beautiful parisian blouses would come, quite unsuitable for her; but she loved to try them on and then put them away, never, perhaps, to be looked at again. i have very pleasant memories of my friendship with princess hamadané, and have as a yâd gari (remembrance) a lovely silver tray of persian work, which she presented to me on our leaving yezd; also the photographs of her three children--two girls and a boy. it is quite impossible to tell of all the interesting visits paid to different anderoons; but i should like to mention some visits paid to the anderoon of the zil-es-sultan, a brother of the late shah. he was then governor of isphahan, and my husband at that time was taking charge of the medical work there for a year. the governor one day sent his carriage, with the request that the english doctor would go to see one of his wives, and also bring his wife with him; so we went, and had a very pleasant three-mile drive from julfa to isphahan. arriving at the palace, we were met by the chief eunuch and conducted to the anderoon, into a large room surrounded by glass mirrors. here in a far corner, seated on the ground, was "something" covered with what looked like a large white sheet. this "something" turned out to be one of the ladies of the anderoon, who was suffering from dimness of sight. she was one of the prince's favourite wives, and so he had taken the trouble to allow her to see the doctor. after a great deal of palaver she consented to lift a corner of her chuddar, and, while shielding the other part of her face, to uncover her eyes. her husband was very anxious for her eyes to be thoroughly examined, and he ordered a dark room to be speedily prepared, so that the examination should be as complete as possible. while we were waiting for the room and lamp to be ready the prince took out a little pocket-mirror from his waistcoat and carefully looked to see if his hair was in perfect order, and then, having satisfied himself that all was as it should be, he entered into conversation with my husband over the state of his wife's eyes. another day i paid quite an informal friendly visit to two or three of his wives. each wife had a separate compound to herself, and her own set of servants and slaves, and no wife was allowed to visit another without special permission from the chief eunuch or from the prince himself. that afternoon two or three had asked for and received permission to drink tea in the house to which we had been invited, so we had quite a nice little tea-party, and a very gay one too so far as the costumes were concerned; but the subject of dress being so stupendous, we will leave it for another chapter. chapter viii more about persian women costumes--wedding festivities--wedding dinner--kindness of persian husbands--story of brutality--divorce--aids to beauty--degradation and cruelty of women. "women are made by men: the nations fade that hold their women slaves: the souls of men that pave their hell-ward path with women's souls lose immortality." john davidson. the indoor costume of the persian women is not at all pretty or graceful. it consists of a short, loose jacket, generally made of some gaily coloured material, and in the case of rich women of bright brocaded silk or velvet, and a very short skirt, just the length of a ballet dancer's. in fact their dress is an exact copy of the parisian ballet dancer. many years ago all the women wore those picturesque baggy trousers, with long flowing garments over them, but while one of the late shahs was visiting europe he saw the ballet dancer, and his fancy was so taken by the costume, that on his return he ordered all the inmates of the royal harem to adopt the same dress; and as royalty always sets the fashion for the country, in a short time all the moslem women of persia had adopted this hideous fashion. i remember so well the first time i saw this costume; it was the evening of the day on which we first arrived in isphahan. after dinner miss stuart (the bishop's daughter) and i were walking on the roof of their house, when suddenly a woman appeared on the other side of a wall and began chattering with miss stuart. i felt inclined to look the other way, thinking the good lady had forgotten to complete her toilet, but seeing that miss stuart did not seem surprised, i supposed it was all right, and so began to feel more at ease; but certainly the first sight of these costumes is rather alarming, especially if the woman is not wearing the long stockings, as they generally do, but often leave off in very hot weather. on their heads they wear a square of white muslin, and flowing down their backs, and attached by a pin to their hair, is a long, graceful chuddar, generally made of a pretty muslin or silk; and as the women walk about the house, these chuddars flow behind, and look very graceful indeed. the ladies do not like the fashion of the short skirts, and many were the requests made to me to cut out dresses such as i was wearing, and if i had wished, i could have had my time in kerman fully occupied in cutting out dresses according to european fashion; but with the exception of pleasing two or three of my special friends, i always told them i had no time for dressmaking, but would always be pleased to lend them patterns. so ashamed were some of the women of their short skirts, that they would often take their long, flowing chuddars from their heads and wrap them round their waists, giving the appearance of a draped skirt. the outdoor costume of the persian women is much more becoming than the indoor, though it is decidedly hot in the warm weather. it is made up of three pieces; the big voluminous trousers which slip over the feet and cling closely to the shape of the foot, but above the ankle fall full and baggy; over these are worn the large black chuddar, the poor wearing black calico and the rich silk; and then, covering the face, is the veil. this veil is a long strip of white calico with open work for the part covering the eyes, and fastened together at the back of the head by brass, silver, or gold and jewelled clasps, according to the rank of the wearer. through the open work part of the veil the woman is able to find her way about, and see all that there is to be seen, while no one can see the face behind the veil. to see a group of persian ladies decked out in their silks and satins is a sight not easily forgotten. there is nothing these women love more than some festivity at their own or a friend's house, which gives them an opportunity of showing off their finery, and also of meeting all their acquaintances, and having a good "gufti goo" (chat). i was often invited when in kerman upon these occasions, but found, if i accepted all invitations, my time would be taken up with going to betrothal feasts, weddings, &c., and so i used to look in for a few minutes and then excuse myself. on one occasion i went to a wedding at the house of one of the chief mullahs of the town. i was asked to go at sunrise, but did not put in an appearance till about nine o'clock. when i arrived, all the guests had been there already some hours; it was certainly a very pretty sight. two large compounds were given up to the entertainment of the bride's party, while the bridegroom was holding his reception in another house. as i entered the door leading into the anderoon, i could but stand and admire the scene before me. quite two hundred ladies were present, each one dressed in gorgeous silks and satins, and all wearing the graceful chuddar falling from the head. the majority of these chuddars were of silk--indian, japanese, or persian silks, all vying with each other in their brilliancy and beauty. some were rainbow silks, all colours merging into each other; then again, others were gaily flowered, and others "shot" or lustre silks--the whole forming a wonderfully harmonious and striking picture, and i longed for a camera that might give a true representation, both in colour and vivacity, of this butterfly scene before me. to add to the gayness of their attire, each married lady was wearing a spray or wreath of flowers in her hair, and many carried or wore bouquets of roses. the whole effect was charming, and formed a marvellous study of colour, gracefulness, and eastern beauty. we have kept our hostess waiting quite a long time while we have been admiring her guests, but now we must hasten to pay our respects to her, and take our seat amongst this gay throng. i was alone that day, being the only european woman in the town; but it will be much more pleasant if my readers will come with me in imagination to that wedding feast. we are ushered into a large room full of gay ladies, who immediately all rise from the ground as we enter, and salaam us. it is rather difficult to know which is our hostess amongst so many, so we must be impartial in our salutations, and pray god that "their kindnesses may never grow less," or "their hands never pain them," &c. then we all take our seats, and conversation is resumed. the ladies will begin with a series of questions, such as-- "how old are you?" "have you a mother?" "why do you not black your eyebrows?" "are you happy?" "is your husband kind to you?" "do you like him?" "how much did your dress cost?" and so on, like a group of children--and when you think they have finished, they will begin again. after a short interval tea is handed round. tea, did i say? well, it is dignified by that name, but in reality persian tea is not much more than sweetened water coloured with a drop of tea. to begin with, the cups are very tiny, generally made of glass. they are first filled up with three or four lumps of sugar, then a teaspoonful of tea is poured over these, and water added until the cup is full, and the result is--persian tea! however, it is rather pleasant to drink, and helps to pass the time. after a short interval more tea is handed round, and then glasses of sherbet, made from juices of different fruits, and then, for a change, coffee is served. about noon, just as i am afraid we are all feeling very tired and sleepy, a welcome change comes; a stirring and commotion begins in the courtyard, women rush about with enormous trays on their heads and carrying all kinds of dishes: this is but a prelude to dinner being announced. two large rooms are laid out for dinner; in each room about one hundred guests sit down. i was taken in by the mother of the bridegroom, so we will all pass in under her protection. (the mother of the bride is not in evidence on these occasions, being supposed to be overwhelmed with grief at losing her daughter.) the "table" is the ground, so we must gracefully (?) sit on our heels. on the "table" are over two hundred different dishes--pillaus, chillaus, chicken, kabobs, vegetables, fruits--all laid out in tempting array. the hostess having pronounced the moslem benediction, "bismi'llah" (in the name of god), all the guests fall to work in real earnest: very little talking is done, eating being the business of the moment. spoons and forks were provided for me, but i preferred to do as they did, and so ate with my fingers, though it requires a good deal of practice to do it neatly and gracefully. as a mark of respect and honour, the hostess from time to time breaks off pieces of meat from her portion and places them on my plate, and once as a special mark of favour placed a dainty morsel of chicken in my mouth. i hope my readers have enjoyed their dinner as much as i have, for to my mind a persian feast is a most delectable entertainment. after dinner we all washed our hands in a basin brought round for the purpose, the water being poured from an ewer on to our hands by a servant. then we all retired to our reception-room of the morning, and again tea and sherbet were handed round, and the kalian or water-pipe was much in request, each lady taking a whiff and passing the long tube to her neighbour. but where is the poor little bride all this time? we have neither seen nor heard her all day long, and yet the feast is supposed to be in her honour. all through the long, hot june day she has been cooped up in a tiny room, and as sunset approaches her friends and relations go to dress her and to decorate her from head to foot with jewellery and finery. into her hair is woven a quantity of golden thread, so that in the distance it looks like a mass of gold, and must be very heavy on the poor tired little head. she is brought out into a large room, and seated on a chair in the middle of it; then every one goes up to her, and after kissing her, says, "may you be blessed." the poor little mite (she might be thirteen years old, but hardly looks it) seems absolutely wretched and miserable, and when food is brought to her refuses to eat. just at sunset she is taken to her husband's house in a closed carriage, and our hearts must ache as we think of what is in store for her. even if her husband is kind to her at first, yet she has nothing much to look forward to but misery and degradation, and if by chance she goes to an anderoon already containing two or three wives, then may god take pity on her, for her fate will be a sad one. as soon as a man marries a girl she is absolutely his property, and he may do exactly as he pleases with her; there is no redress for the poor unfortunate girl. if the man is a brute and half kills his wife no one dare say a word to him, or if perchance there is one brave enough, he will only be told that "the girl is his wife, and he can do as he likes with his own," and so it is no wonder if the shadow of the future lies darkly on the faces of those poor little children, as they leave their mother's home as brides to go out into the unknown which lies before them. i remember a poor little girl who was brought to the hospital in julfa, while we were there. she had been married to a brutal man, when about eleven years old. being very unhappy with him, she often used to run away and take refuge with her mother, who lived in a village a mile or two away from her husband's house. on many occasions he had beaten her severely for some childish fault, and each time she had fled to her mother, and stayed with her till her husband came and carried her off again by force. this went on for some time, till the poor child's life was nothing but wretchedness and misery. one day she displeased her husband by not cooking the dinner to his liking, and he was so enraged with her that he behaved in the following abominable manner. first of all he saw that the windows of his house were barricaded and the door locked: then he stripped the trembling, frightened child, and deliberately poured paraffin oil all over her body, and finally set a light to her and left her to her fate, taking care to lock the door after him, as he went out. the neighbours, hearing the girl's screams, rushed to the house, but the doors being locked and the windows fastened much precious time was wasted. when they finally smashed open the window it was only to find the child a mass of flames. they picked her up and rushed wildly with her into the street, and dropped her into the nearest stream to quench the flames! it was a marvellous thing to think that after all this there was any life left in the poor child. the neighbours took her to her mother, who plastered all her wounds with red earth and left her lying in the corner of the room for some ten days. then, taking the advice of some friends, they procured a cradle and lifted the poor wee child into it, and hoisted the cradle and its occupant on the back of a donkey, and took her some five days' journey to julfa. they had heard of the mission hospital through some of their villagers, who had been treated there, and so they brought this little victim of persian cruelty to the lady doctor, who took her in, dressed her wounds, and laid her in a clean, comfortable bed. all that human love and kindness could do was done to alleviate her sufferings, but nothing could save her life, and after three days she passed away--a martyr indeed to the creed of islam, which enables and allows men to treat their women as something lower than the beasts of the field. ought not the cries of distress and agony from the poor women of persia so to rouse us, their sisters in england, that we shall determine to do all that lies in our power to lighten their burdens and to bring some rays of light into the dark lives of our eastern sisters? one thing which adds greatly to the misery of these women is the ease with which their husbands can divorce them. a wife never knows from day to day whether or no her lord may not divorce her. often for most trivial matters a man will cast away his wife. this being the case, the woman will lie and deceive her husband in order to escape divorcement. if the wives of persia could only be raised to the level of true womanhood i believe they would become good wives and mothers, but while they are what they are, how can there be any hope for them? there is nothing but utter darkness till the true light shines into their lives, and then and then only will the day break for these downtrodden, degraded beings. the persian ladies are great beauty specialists, and bestow a good deal of attention upon their complexion and general make-up. they do not believe in beauty unadorned, for even when quite young they use the rouge-pot very freely, and often use it to great advantage too! i have often known a girl who was quite ordinary-looking, sallow and dark in complexion, but when dressed for her wedding i hardly recognised her, so changed was she by all the numerous "aids" to beauty. her cheeks were now a lovely rose tint, and her eyebrows darkened and lengthened till they almost met in the middle, and the edges of her eyelids were also blackened with "kola," and really the effect was very good. they also spend much time and trouble in dyeing their hair with henna, not only from a fear of grey hair, but also because the dull red tint produced by henna is the fashionable colour. the persian lady has very little in her life to elevate or refine her mind, and so we cannot wonder if at times we see in her many revolting characteristics. when we think of all she has to endure, and how little happiness comes to her lot, our wonder is that she retains even a semblance of womanhood. should we be any better under like circumstances? if a woman is treated continually as if she was nothing but a beast of burden, is it to be wondered at that in some cases her nature becomes almost as the beasts of the field? weird stories are told of the extremities to which women have been driven, and the cruelties which they have perpetrated. the following is one which i heard when in persia. it was in the days when famine was rampant throughout the land. there was a certain man of high position who collected and stored all the corn he could gather, and then refused to sell at anything but famine prices; finally he was arrested and sent to teheran, where he was tried and condemned to death. the shah could not determine on the manner of death to be ordered for this rascal, but at last decided to hand the unfortunate man over to the mercies of the royal anderoon to be put to death by them. the ladies and women servants consulted together, and decided to keep the wretch in their quarters and kill him by inches, day by day. the method they chose was to cut him to pieces with scissors till he died! i cannot vouch for the truth of this story, and i trust it is not true, but i give it to you as i heard it. but one thing i know to be true, and that is, when a persian woman is once roused to anger, jealousy, and passion, there is hardly anything too dreadful for her to contemplate doing, in her longing for revenge. chapter ix some points in the moslem faith fasts and feasts--seyyids, dervishes, mullahs--legends of the drowning mullah, and the yard square hole. "religion's all or nothing." r. browning. there are five things which every true mohammedan must either believe or do. the first is the declaration of their faith or "kalimat." "i declare that there is no god but god, and mohammed is his apostle;" "la allaha il allah wa mohammed rasool allah," this is the all-important witness, and must be continually recited by all true believers. secondly, moslems are bound to repeat prayers five times a day--at daybreak, noon, shortly before sunset, during twilight, and an hour after dark. i do not say all moslems do repeat prayers at each of these times, but that is their rule, and those who consider themselves good moslems adhere most righteously to these set times for prayers. needless to say, it is but a form of words and position, any slight error in posture taking away all the benefit to be derived from the prayer. often in persia women have said their prayers in our drawing-room, if the call to prayer sounded while they were visiting me. living in the east, one gets very fond of the call to prayer, heard from some neighbouring minaret. the first sound that catches the ear at daybreak is "allah, allaho akhbar" (god is most great), repeated four times. "la allaha il allah wa mohammed rasool allah"--this is said twice, and then other calls and invocations, always finishing up with the final declaration of "allah, allaho akhbar." there is a great difference in the way this call to prayer is chanted, some men having most melodious voices, others harsh and grating; but wherever a true moslem may be when he hears this call, he lays aside his work at once and begins to repeat his prayers, bowing, prostrating, touching the ground with his forehead, &c., till the duty is finished, when he returns to his work, perhaps to his cheating and his lying, for this repetition of prayers has no effect on his life or manner of living. thirdly, all good moslems are supposed to give voluntarily to the mullahs a tithe of all they possess, also alms to the poor. in the koran we read, "prayer carries us half way to god, fasting brings us to the door of his palace, but giving of alms procures admission." in many cases the mullahs are provided for entirely by the freewill offerings of the people, all gifts being sent anonymously. fourthly, every true believer is expected to undertake, if at all possible, a pilgrimage, preferably to mecca, but if that is out of the question then to kerbela or meshed. the former, of course, brings the greatest merit, and men and women will do all they can to perform this pilgrimage. on their return they are treated with great respect, and looked up to as little gods. they generally think so much of themselves after having performed this wonderful act of self-denial that they become quite unbearable to their friends. there is an arabic proverb which shows the effect this pilgrimage to mecca is supposed to have on the pilgrim. it is as follows: "if your friend has been to mecca, trust him not. if he has been there twice, avoid him. but if he has made the pilgrimage three times, then flee from him as you would from satan himself." women often undertake these pilgrimages, spending weeks or months it may be over the journey, but resting for ever afterwards in the great glory and honour resulting from it. the fifth point to be observed by moslems is that of fasting during the month of ramadan. this lasts for thirty days, and is a real hardship for the poorer people when the fast falls during the summer, as from sunrise to sunset not a morsel of food or drop of water may pass their lips--or, as the koran expresses it, from "the time you can distinguish between a white thread and a black, then keep the fast until night." for the rich and idle it is no great effort, for they simply feast and revel all night and sleep by day, but for the servants and labouring class it comes harder, as they must work by day and cannot sleep properly at night. children are always very anxious to begin fasting, and often little mites of five or six will tell you with great pride that they are keeping the fast. they generally start by fasting for half days, and how proud they are, and how they gloat over other children who have not yet begun this work of devotion! perhaps what the people who fast miss more than anything else during ramadan is their smoking: they are such slaves to this habit, both men and women, that it is almost life to some of them, and they find it very hard to go without. when the cannon booms forth the hour of sunset, giving the prophet's permission to his faithful ones to break their fast, generally the first thought, after moistening their lips with water, is that now they may enjoy their smoke, either of a cigarette or kalian. mohurram is the month of mourning, when all the country mourns for hassain and hussein, the martyred sons of ali, who are looked upon by the shiahs as the rightful successors of the prophet. during this season the majority of the people go into deep mourning, and the bazaars are sometimes draped in black. it is in this month that the great passion play of persia is enacted, and while in kerman we were fortunate enough to have an opportunity of witnessing this "tazieh," as the passion play is called. it certainly was a sight worth seeing at least once in a lifetime. the tenth day of this month of mohurram is the one set aside for this festival, and is kept as a general holiday, so that all might go to see the great spectacle enacted on that day in memory of the death of hassain and hussein, the two grandsons of mohammed. the governor of kerman had kindly invited us to view the performance from his house, and accordingly that morning at about eight o'clock he sent his carriage for us, and we were driven through the packed bazaars till we arrived at his house, or "arg," as the governor's residence is called in kerman. we were at once admitted by a private entrance, and ushered into a large verandah, which had been set apart for the use of feringhis. as my husband and i were the only europeans in the city at that time, we had it to ourselves. here, before the commencement of the play, we were regaled with tea, coffee, jam, bread, cheese, and cakes. looking out, the sight was a wonderful one. in front of us was a large garden in which i suppose some , people were gathered. at one end of the garden was a large "hoze" or tank of water, over which was spread a huge awning, and near by a large pulpit from which the mullahs preached to the people, and tried to rouse their feelings to a high pitch of excitement. one man was specially successful in doing this, causing the women to wail wildly and beat their breasts frantically, and the men to smite their heads. after a delay of about an hour, the performance began with a long procession, which entered the garden at the far end and wound in and out till it had traversed the whole garden. this procession represented the family travelling as captives after the death of hassain and his brother. first of all came six gaily decorated camels, with men riding upon them, beating drums and making a tremendous noise. then came more camels carrying the tent furniture and other goods, followed by horses and mules laden with heavy loads. after these came four stretchers borne by men, on which lay four dead bodies (figures stuffed) representing hassain and his three brothers, who perished from want of water, which had been cut off from them by their enemies. on each dead body sat a dove, supposed to be mourning. then came a horrible sight, one which i never wish to see again. about a hundred madly excited men dressed in long white robes, armed with swords, were slashing their heads until the blood was streaming down their faces on to the robes, white, alas, no longer! as they reached the tank of water they formed into a line all round it, and kept up for some length of time a horrible kind of war dance. it was a ghastly sight. the dancers looked more like demons than men. one poor man fainted from loss of blood, and had to be carried away, and a little boy of about eight years of age also collapsed. it was bad enough to see grown men cutting themselves, but to see the little children being wounded in this way was terrible. this is, of course, looked upon as a work of great merit. the more numerous and deeper the gashes, the greater the merit they accrue to themselves. the wild dance was continued till a sign was given to the dancers by the governor, that he had seen enough to satisfy him. then they all lined up in front of the verandah where the governor was sitting, and demanded that five notorious prisoners should be released from the prison close by. he at once acceded to their request, as it was the custom at this festival for the governor to release from the prison any prisoners who are interceded for by these wild, fanatical dancers. after this ghastly sight came a motley crowd of men and children on horses, all beating their breasts or heads. some of the riders were so tiny that they had to be held on to their steeds by men-servants. then came another body on a bier, with a man dressed in a lion's skin, embracing and fondling the dead body. it looked so weird to see the pseudo-lion kissing and hugging the remains of its late friend and master, and expressing in various ways great sorrow and anguish over its loss. after this came several batches of boys stripped to the waist, all beating their breasts. it was really a very pretty sight, for the boys kept such perfect time, one boy acting as leader, like a group of children performing gymnastic exercises. as their hands simultaneously clapped their breasts, there was a sharp report, at which they all shouted "hassain! hussein! hassain! hussein!" the whole proceeding was an interesting but sad spectacle, which i shall never forget. the clash of swords, the beating of drums, the weird wailing of the women, accompanied by their spasmodic shrieks, the shouting and yelling of the fanatical mob, all contributed to the making up of one of the most notable scenes of eastern life. and yet it made one's heart ache to watch this crowd of human beings for whom christ died, and who as yet know nothing of him, but are only anxious to obtain merit for themselves by taking part in these gruesome religious performances. all over persia "religious men" are much looked up to and respected. of these the dervish is one very much to the fore. he is a religious mendicant, having taken a vow either for a certain time or permanently. the vow is not a very strict one, only consisting of poverty and obedience to a chief, to whom a portion of the alms received must be paid. these dervishes wander from place to place, chanting, singing, and begging. the natives do not like to refuse them anything, from fear more than love, perhaps, as it is considered meritorious to give alms to these religious people. they generally dress in dirty white, wear their hair long, and carry an axe or club, more often than not beautifully chased and inlaid, also the well-known dervish bowl, which is made from a huge nut, carved and decorated. often these dervishes will come and seat themselves in the courtyard and begin their monotonous chant, and it is very difficult to get them to move, as the servants will never use force, and their reiterated requests to "move on" meet with no success whatever till the dervish is satisfied that he has extracted all the "backsheesh" likely to be forthcoming. the seyyids are another class of people much respected in the country. they claim to be the direct descendants of the prophet mohammed, and are allowed many privileges on account of this. they wear a green turban or waistband, to be known of all men. looked upon as a religious body, the natives are afraid to offend them in any way. then there are the "mullahs," or priests of the islamic faith. they exercise a great deal of power over the people, but are not, as a rule, loved by them over much. the persians are shiah mohammedans, whilst the arabs and turks are sunnis. as the former know very little arabic, the reading of the koran is to them an unknown tongue, and they regard their "mullahs" as "sacred men," able to interpret the "holy book." thus the shiah priest gains great influence, not to say considerable wealth, in persia, and the shah himself fears the influence of the priesthood. the sunnis, on the other hand, know arabic, as a general rule, and many of them are able to consult the koran for themselves, the result being that the "mullah" gains but little influence compared to the "shiah" priest, and is often quite poor. briefly, the shiah priesthood is comparable with that of the roman catholic church of christendom, while "sunni" mullahs do not claim, or would claim in vain, any such authority, thus more nearly resembling the "status" of church of england clergy. the result is obvious: persia is a priest-ridden country; in "sunni" lands the people are freer, and dare think for themselves. it is a well-known fact that a persian mullah will exact the uttermost farthing from his followers, but will never lend a helping hand to them in their need. for instance, if a man dies without an heir, his property according to law goes to the poor, but unfortunately it has to be done through a medium, and that medium is the mullah. he promptly pockets the property and gives its supposed value (valued, mark you, by himself) to the poor. we can imagine what a large percentage the poor receive of that property. here is a story which was told us in kerman, illustrating how loath the mullahs are to give anything away. the scene is a large pool of water, in it a mullah struggling to reach the bank, and in danger of drowning. a passer-by, seeing his distress, runs to his aid and cries, "give me your hand, oh my lord, and i will pull you out." "no, indeed," answers the mullah, "i have never yet given anything to any one, and i certainly will not begin now." the kindly passer-by, not liking to leave the mullah in his sad condition, tries to think of another way out of the difficulty. suddenly a bright idea strikes him, and running to the priest, he calls out, "will you take my hand, then, oh my lord?" "gladly," says the mullah, and allows himself to be drawn out of his perilous position. another rather good story is told, showing the meanness of the priests. a man had agreed to pay a workman eight krans ( s. d.) for digging a hole one yard square. at the end of the day the workman had only dug a hole half a yard square, so the master went to a mullah to ask him how much he ought to pay the workman. "why, of course," says the mullah, "half the sum agreed upon, that is, four krans." after deliberating awhile he said, "no, two krans is enough," and this decision he gave as final, although he impressed upon the man that one kran was all he could legally claim, as he had scientifically only done one-eighth of his work! in the next chapter we shall see a little of another religious sect, which is fast becoming a power in persia. chapter x other religious sects other religious sects--the báb and babism--short sketch of life of the báb--his imprisonment and execution--parsees, or zoroastrians--persecutions of parsees in seventh century--sacred writings of parsees, zendavesta--fire-worshipping--fire temples--holy fire--parsee wedding--costume of women--death customs--burial customs. "how many crimes have in religion's name been wrought." lucretius. "too oft religion has the mother been of impious act and criminal." lucretius. the founder of babism was a native of shiraz, by name mirza ali muhammed, born in ; it was not till that he publicly proclaimed himself to be the báb or gate, through which all who wished for peace and happiness might pass into the inner chambers of mysticism and sacred mysteries. he soon gathered a large following around him, and in an astonishingly short time the fame of the báb was noised abroad throughout the length and breadth of persia. at first the government and mullahs paid little attention to this new religion, thinking and believing it to be only a passing fancy of the people, but in its second year it took such rapid strides that they began to be alarmed, and to look about for means of checking its progress. the báb was placed in prison, and his followers were forbidden, on pain of death, to teach or discuss their new religion. soon afterwards, however, the báb escaped, and fled to isphahan, where the governor of that city protected him for some months, but on the death of the governor the báb was again cast into prison. during his imprisonment he was not idle, for he wrote many books, setting forth his doctrines, and exhorting his followers to remain firm to their new faith in the face of all opposition and persecution. while the báb was busy in prison, his followers were also busy, preaching and teaching, and by all means trying to extend the doctrines of their leader, and so great was the opposition and strife raised that the government decided that the báb must forfeit his life as a means of putting a stop once and for all to this new and dangerous sect. accordingly the báb was brought from tabriz, where he had been imprisoned, and after a mock trial was sentenced to death. on the day appointed for his execution an enormous crowd gathered to witness his end--many from curiosity, and also many from love and pity for the youthful martyr, who to the last maintained the calmness and courage which had characterised his whole term of imprisonment. to make the lesson more emphatic, it was decided that two of the báb's chief disciples were to be executed with him. one of these at the last moment recanted, and so was allowed to go free. it was said that his recantation arose not from cowardice or fear of death, but from a special revelation given to him, whereby he was commanded to recant in order to be able to carry away all books and papers belonging to the báb, and deposit them in a safe place: however that may be, it is known that after an interval of two years he too became a martyr. efforts were made to entice the other disciple to recant, but all proved unavailing, and he and his master the báb were suspended, by ropes placed under their arms, to a beam placed a few feet from the ground. as they hung thus the disciple was heard to say, "master, art thou satisfied with me?" and then the order was given to fire. when the smoke cleared away the body of the disciple was found to be riddled with bullets, but no báb was visible. what had happened? had a miracle been performed, and an angel been sent to rescue him from the hand of his persecutors? this was the thought of some, and, indeed, a miracle had been performed, for in spite of the many bullets which had been aimed at him not one had touched the báb, but had only brought him deliverance by severing the ropes which bound him, so that he fell to the ground unhurt. at first it seemed as if the multitude would have pity on the unfortunate man, and spare him a second attempt, but these feelings were only of short duration, and the báb was again dragged forth from his hiding-place, where he had taken refuge, and was a second time suspended. a fresh batch of soldiers had to be told off for the execution, as the first company absolutely refused to fire again. this time there was no intervention, and in a second or two the body of the young martyr of shiraz was pierced with bullets. the bodies were cast out to the jackals, but were afterwards recovered and buried in teheran by the order of the new báb, mirza yahya. this event took place in , and in spite of persecutions, oppositions, and cruelties, the babis continued to grow in number and strength, and to-day they form a very large and important community throughout persia. in fact, by the very barbarity of the persecutors their own end was defeated, for all the people were astonished at the heroism and fortitude displayed by the martyrs. professor brown [ ] says, "often have i heard persians who did not themselves belong to the proscribed sect tell with admiration how suleymán khan, his body pierced with well-nigh a score of wounds, in each of which was inserted a lighted candle, went to his execution singing with exultation." the effect of such courage and heroism was only to stir up more people to be disciples of the báb, as the following story shows. during the persecutions in yezd, a young man went to scoff and jeer, but when he saw with what courage the martyrs endured torture, and met death, he called out, "i am a babi, kill me too." while we were in yezd the babis were keeping very quiet, but, nevertheless, a great work was going on amongst them, but none dared say, "i am a babi." a year or two after our departure from persia we heard of terrible cruelties and persecutions enacted against these suffering people, but in spite of all, their number continues to grow and increase throughout the whole land of persia, and to-day the babis are stronger and more numerous than ever before. the parsees of persia are another most interesting and important sect: they live chiefly in yezd and kerman. they are a people within a people, living in persia, and with the persians, yet keeping quite distinct from the present inhabitants of the land. only a few thousand of this large and influential body of people, who up till the seventh century were the inhabitants of the land, now remain in persia. when the armies of mohammed conquered persia, most of these people fled to india; others preferred to adhere to the new religion, while a few remained faithful to their old belief, and refused either to flee to a new and strange country, or to change their creed, and so they remain till this day a distinct people, following their own customs, and holding to their own religion amidst a new and domineering nation. the founder of the parsee religion was one called zoroaster. very little is known of his life; his birthplace is uncertain, though it is known he lived for many years in bactria of eastern persia, and it is probable that it was in this place that he thought out the idea, from which in later years he constructed his religious system. the priests of this religion were the "magi" of the old and new testament, and it is very likely that at least one of the "wise men of the east" who went to offer their adoration to the new-born king was from these parsees of persia. the date of zoroaster is very uncertain too. it is known, however, that in the sixth century b.c., when cyrus was king, the zoroastrian religion was firmly established in western persia. some historians give him a date between and b.c. the sacred writings of the parsees are called the zendavesta, and are said to be inspired by god through one of their priests. this priest, having cleansed and bathed himself in the most careful manner, lay down to sleep clothed in pure white linen. he is said to have fallen into a deep sleep, from which he did not awake for seven days; at the end of which time he awoke and recited the faith of the zoroastrians, while priests in waiting committed the whole to writing. in this way was the zendavesta reduced to the form of a book. while fire-worshipping forms a large part of their religion, it is quite a mistake to suppose it comprises the whole, for zoroaster laid down many laws concerning morality and the duties and destiny of man. the parsees of to-day, as seen in kerman and yezd, are a fine race; their commercial ability is very much above that of the ordinary persian, and they are a much cleaner and more moral set of people than their conquerors. they regard fire as something sacred, as being the symbol of their god, and nothing will induce them to treat fire lightly. for instance, we could never persuade our parsee servants to blow out a candle; and smoking is prohibited on account of their religious principles, though nowadays many do smoke in secret. their habits of cleanliness and continual personal ablutions have perhaps contributed to make them the healthy race they are to-day. a good parsee will wash many times a day, always before and after praying, as well as on many other occasions. all parsees wear a girdle round their waists, twisted into three knots in a most complicated and intricate way. whenever they wash they must take this off, and after their ablutions are over they replace the girdle, repeating certain prayers for each knot. these three knots represent the threefold cord, which is not easily broken, of good thoughts, good words, good deeds. there are said to be some thirty or forty fire temples still existing in yezd, and in these the holy fire is always burning; the light is never allowed to go out, it being the work of the priests to keep it continually bright and trimmed. the office of priesthood descends from father to son, and besides attending to the religious needs of the people, the priest is also supposed to look after their temporal necessities, especially in the case of poverty-stricken families. parsee women have a much freer life than their persian sisters; they go about the streets quite openly, never veiling their faces, and altogether enjoy a much better position than the mohammedan women. in some cases the women are even allowed to eat with the men of the house--a great concession indeed! the children are bright, and in many cases clever. when seven days old an astrologer is consulted as to the future of the infant; and when seven years old a boy is blessed by the priest, who invests him with the sacred girdle, at the same time throwing upon the child's head portions of fruit, spices, and drops of perfume. girls are married when quite young, and the astrologer is again consulted on this important matter. when in yezd we were invited to a parsee wedding, and a very interesting sight it was. the invitation--which was written in letters of gold, and arrived some days before the date fixed for the ceremony--was acknowledged and accepted by us with much pleasure, as we were anxious to see something of the customs of these interesting people. when the day arrived we arrayed ourselves in gala attire, and set out to the house of the bride. it was just midnight when we arrived, and already the guests, some hundreds of them, had been feasting for hours--in fact, i might say "days," for this was the seventh and last day of the wedding festivities, and many of the guests had been present each day. they all looked thoroughly worn-out and tired. a room had been set apart for the europeans to dine in, and just after midnight a most sumptuous dinner was served, consisting of about a dozen courses. when this had been satisfactorily disposed of we dispersed to visit the different rooms occupied by the guests, my husband remaining with the men, while i and another english lady sought out the bride to give her our salaams and good wishes. the confusion was terrible--drums beating, cymbals clashing, women dancing and singing, children yelling and crying, and amid it all, seated upon the ground, sat the poor little bride-elect. no one seemed to be taking much notice of her, every one apparently aiming to amuse herself in the most noisy way possible. by-and-by a large, silk-covered cushion was brought out from a back room, and on this the bride was placed, and covered entirely with a large silk shawl. i wondered what was going to happen next, when suddenly a group of men appeared at the door. these were the representatives of the bridegroom, who came to ask formally for the hand of the bride. they came and stood in front of the covered-up bride, and called in a loud voice, "oh, my daughter, will you consent to be the bride of this man?" (naming the bridegroom). this was repeated six times amidst a silence which could be felt, all listening for the answer of the bride. on their repeating the question the seventh time, a very timid "balli" (yes) was heard coming from the region of the shawl, upon which the commotion started again with redoubled vigour, in the excitement caused by the acceptance on the part of the bride of her bridegroom. of course this was a mere form, as everything had been arranged long beforehand. i shocked one good old lady by asking what would happen if the bride had said "no" instead of "yes" to the oft-repeated question! after receiving this very satisfactory answer to their inquiries the men went off, and the women began to prepare the bride for the last and most important part of the programme--viz. that of taking her to the home of the bridegroom. they covered her with a large silk chuddar, and over her head threw a thick shawl, so that the poor girl could see nothing, and had to be led and supported on each side by her proud relatives. the distance between the two houses might perhaps have taken five minutes to walk in an ordinary way, but that night we took quite an hour. the procession was headed by two "vakeels" (agents), who were bargaining the whole way as to the dowry of the bride. every now and then they would come to a standstill, and the bride's vakeel would refuse to go a step further till more money had been paid, and after a great deal of shouting, gesticulating, and wrangling, the bridegroom's vakeel would end by throwing some coins into the other's hand, and then the procession would proceed for a few steps till blocked once more, while the whole process of bargaining was gone through again. fireworks were going off the whole time, and were apparently laid along the route, for every now and then we were startled by having a rocket fly up from beneath our feet. about every twenty yards or so we came across huge bonfires of dried faggots right in our path, and the whole procession had to wait till these had died down before they could pass on. arriving at the door of the bridegroom's house, a final and most exciting scene took place between the two vakeels, the one threatening even then to take the bride away, and the other, getting more wildly angry every minute, declaring he did not want the bride, and would not pay a "para" ( / d.) more for her, and ending up by giving the sum bargained for. if we had not known it was all part of the ceremony, we might have expected the two men to come to blows; but it all ended happily, and we trooped into the new home of the bride. then came a long time of weary waiting, during which my sympathies went out to the tired, frightened bride; but just as we thought there was nothing more to wait for, three interesting scenes took place. the first was the actual marriage ceremony, in which a priest read many long prayers from a book, and then tied the couple together with a silk thread and pronounced a blessing upon them. the second scene took place in the open courtyard, in the centre of which was burning the sacred fire placed on a pedestal. the priest and parents of the bride and bridegroom now joined hands with the happy couple and walked in solemn single file round and round the fire, the priest chanting the whole time; this was done seven times, and then all retired quietly, leaving the fire burning in the court. to the third and final scene only a favoured few were admitted; fortunately i was amongst that number. into the room prepared for the newly-married couple the little wife was now led, and for the first time the coverings were taken from her head and face. she was placed on a huge silk-covered mattress, then the husband came and took his seat by her side: both of them were looking thoroughly miserable! one of the women then brought a copper basin and ewer filled with milk, and the bridegroom proceeded to wash his wife's feet in milk, and she in her turn washed his hands. this done, we all bade farewell to the newly-married couple and the wedding ceremony was at an end. hastily saying good-bye to our host and hostess, and expressing our good wishes for the welfare and happiness of the young people, we made our way homewards, to find it was not very far off dawn, but having thoroughly enjoyed our first experience of a parsee wedding ceremony. the costume of the parsee women is rather quaint and pretty; it consists of very baggy trousers gathered in at the ankle. these trousers are often made of very pretty pieces of embroidery joined together. as soon almost as a girl can sew she begins to embroider strips of brightly-coloured materials in order to have them ready for her wedding trousseau. over these garments they wear a loose shirt reaching to just below the knees; this is also made of strips of different coloured materials, or in the case of a bride is also embroidered. then comes the head-dress: it is far beyond my powers to say of how many pieces this is composed, or as to how they are arranged. the number of coverings on their heads is legion! first comes a little tight cap fitting closely over the head and ears. over this is arranged in a most marvellous way some six or seven different pieces of calico or linen, the top one of all generally being a very bright calico, a mixture of red and yellow being the favourite pattern. the men are obliged to wear dowdy colours as a mark of submission to the powers that be. for the same reason also they are not allowed to ride through the bazaars, and if a parsee is riding outside the city and meets a moslem he promptly has to dismount and walk till he has passed his more fortunate neighbour; then he may resume his riding. this is, i believe, the case even if the moslem be a poor man and the parsee a flourishing merchant. to pass from life to death. a parsee when he is dying sends for the priest, who anoints him with sacred juice, repeats some verses from the "avesta," and prays for a safe crossing of the "bridge" and admission into paradise. as soon as the breath has left the body, a dog is brought in from the street to ascertain if life is really extinct. this idea originated evidently from the old zoroastrian idea that the evil spirit is expelled from a dead body by means of a "four-eyed dog" being brought in and made to look at the dead, the extra "two" eyes being represented by two black spots over the brow of the dog. the body is then placed on a bier and carried to the towers of silence, or "dakhmehs," by men specially set apart for that purpose. these men are looked upon as unclean from their contact with the dead, therefore only those whose work it is to do so will touch the body, the cleansing necessary after defilement from contact with the dead being so exacting and laborious. on arriving at the dakhmeh, prayers are recited by the priests and the body laid on an iron grating, so that when the vultures and other birds of prey have done their horrible work, the bones fall down and are safe from molestation by dogs and jackals. the dakhmehs, always some distance from the town, are built in a circular shape, some of the largest being or so feet in diameter. they are generally built on rising ground, and form a landmark for many miles around. prayers for the dead are said for three or four days after the death, and holy fire is kept burning in the house of the deceased during the whole of that time, as the soul is not supposed to leave the body till the fourth day after death. the better-class parsees "mourn" for a year after the death of a near relative; that is, they keep up certain ceremonials for that length of time, and offer flowers and fruits on behalf of their dead. the parsees have a governing body called the anjiman. this consists of a number of leading men, representatives of each class of society. the persian government acknowledges the anjiman, and accepts one of its number to act as its representative. chapter xi desert delights songs of the desert--sunsets, sunrises, mirages--illness in the desert--mehman khanehs, caravanserais--chappa khanehs--lost in the desert--its cruelties, and sadness. "the desert wide lies round thee like a trackless tide in waves of sand forlornly multiplied." f. w. faber. to a lover of the desert a journey across its boundless tracts is always full of interest and delight. it is strange what an attraction the desert has for some people, and stranger still is the fact that this magnetic power increases as time passes, and instead of wearying of the wilderness, they love it more and more. and any one who has once heard the call of the desert is always longing to answer that call, and to fly once more, as a needle to its magnet, to that great, wondrous world. for it is a world of its own, this great, boundless ocean of sand--a world altogether different from any other part of god's earth. i once heard an address on "the desert," and the speaker said that he did not think it possible for any one with an uneasy conscience to bear the solitariness of the desert. be this as it may, one thing is sure: no one can live and travel in the desert without feeling the majestic presence of god. everything speaks of him, the great sea of sand, the flowers springing into blossom at his word, the tiny lizard darting across your path, and other countless creatures, all finding life and sustenance in the desert, each telling of the wonderful creator who watches over and cares for all. the songs of the desert, too, are fascinating; songs which, heard elsewhere, would seem incongruous and lacking in harmony. the camel or mule bells, booming out in the silence of the night, remind one of home and loved ones. often have i been awakened in the night by the sound of the caravan bells, and for a moment thought they were the bells of the dear old church in devonshire. then, again, the crooning songs of the muleteer, as he trudges along hour after hour, have a peculiar charm, which grows on one wondrously after a while. and what can be said of the marvellous mirages--visions which come as messengers of hope and leave us victims of despair? for who has not experienced relief and joy at the sight of some beautiful mirage, resembling the welcome sight of a village with trees and water, all apparently within easy reach of the weary traveller, but which in a moment of time vanish, leaving blank disappointment behind. and where can be seen such glorious sunset effects as in the desert? especially when, as is so often the case in persia, the desert is surrounded by mountains and hills, which catch the after glow, and reflect all those indescribable shades of crimson, gold, and blue, all merging into a beatific and not easily forgotten vision. but to come to the more practical side of desert life. travelling in the desert is not all a path of roses, but, given good health, fine weather, and pleasant company, it is a very enjoyable way of passing two or three weeks. on the other hand, i know of nothing more wretched than being overtaken by illness when far away in the desert. then you feel how utterly alone and helpless you are, for it is impossible to travel on, and at the same time well-nigh impossible to stay where you are! we have had this experience more than once during our many travels, and found it not at all pleasant. once i was taken ill in this way, and the only place to be found as shelter was a filthy stable, full of rats, cockroaches, and other horrible creatures. if you wish thoroughly to enjoy a journey across the desert, you must choose your time well and wisely. the best time is the early spring, before the great heat begins. if it is essential to travel during the summer, all the stages have to be done by night, and this is much more tiring, as it is seldom possible to sleep during the day owing to the pest of flies, mosquitoes, and other lively companions. the rest-houses of persia are of three grades or kinds, viz. "mehman khanehs," "chappa khanehs," and caravanserais. the first of these three are found between resht and teheran. they are supposed to be run after the plan of a european hotel! beds are supplied, and sometimes a tooth-brush and comb! the traveller is shown into a room in which the beds are kept ready for all passers-by: it is not thought necessary to change the bedding too often! the furniture consists of a washstand, table, and couple of chairs, and everything is as dirty as can be. i much prefer the ordinary caravanserai, which is found all over persia. these are generally built by a wealthy man who wishes to do some "good deed," to make a name for himself, and gain merit in paradise. a caravanserai is not the cleanest spot on earth! but after travelling a little you get used to a certain amount of dirt, and are very much surprised if by chance you come across a fairly clean rest-house. these caravanserais are built, as a rule, in the form of a square, the sides of which are occupied by rooms leading off the courtyard, the centre being the resting-place of mules, donkeys, horses, and all other kinds of animals. at the end of the stage you fix on the cleanest of these rooms, and your servant sweeps all the accumulated dirt and dust of ages into one corner, thus raising a cloud of dust and disturbing the peace of myriads of "pilgrims of the desert." after waiting a few minutes to allow the dust to settle a little, you then furnish your room for the night by spreading a rug on the filthy floor, and setting up your travelling beds, chair, tables, &c. as likely as not, there will be no door to the room, so you knock in a couple of nails and fasten a curtain over the doorway to keep out the prying eyes of your too near and inquisitive neighbours. then you begin to think about your evening meal, and your servant goes off to bargain and wrangle over some unfortunate fowl, the result being that in about an hour's time your dinner is ready, and shortly after you very thankfully retire to rest, hoping for the best. the chappa khanehs, or post-houses, are often a trifle cleaner than the caravanserai. here the animals are kept for the post, and any one travelling "chappa" is supposed to find fresh relays of horses at each of these places, but very often the number is short, and the poor, wretched, underfed animal has to do duty for a second stage: a "stage" is anything from fifteen to thirty miles. my husband once rode "chappa" from yezd to kerman, a distance of miles, in / days, to attend an english doctor who was very ill with typhoid fever. it was very hard and rough riding; the roads were bad, the horses worse, some of the animals being blind, others lame, while the majority of them were so over-worked and badly fed that it seemed impossible that they could ever do the stage. a doctor once riding in this way to visit a european, is said to have arrived at one of these post-houses, and finding no horse, demanded a mule. on this beast he made the next stage, to be told on arrival that there was only a donkey available. nothing better presenting itself, he accepted this mount, and in time reached the next stage, where he was met with the comforting announcement that the only animal at liberty was a cow! history seems uncertain after this point, so we will draw a veil over it! sometimes these caravanserais and chappa khanehs are the only signs of life to be seen at the end of a stage. there they stand, alone, surrounded on all hands by vast stretches of desert, and form a landmark for miles around. one such i remember very well, as each time we passed that way it seemed to have become more lonely and desolate. visible from a distance of farsakhs ( miles), it made the stage seem very long! the atmosphere is so rarefied that distant objects appear near, and the buildings, which were in reality miles away, looked quite close at hand. in this chappa khaneh we were once guilty of inscribing our names on its already well-filled walls. some years after a lady was visiting us in mosul, and told us she had read our names in that far-distant chappa khaneh. it is not a very pleasant sensation to be lost in a desert. only once did this experience befall us, and then we were glad when it was over. we were on our way from yezd to kerman, and had reached the second stage out. we had arranged with our muleteer to start at a certain hour that morning, but when we came down from the "bala khaneh" (upstairs room) where we had been sleeping, we found no signs of our caravan being ready to start. after loitering about for some time, we decided not to wait any longer, but to ride on ahead. this was quite contrary to our usual custom, as we always found it wiser to see the caravan off first, otherwise the muleteers dawdled half the morning away. however, we thought this once we would alter our plans, as the dawn was even then breaking, and we knew that in a very short time the sun would be scorchingly hot. so off we went, telling our servant to follow as soon as possible. we received minute instructions as to which direction we were to take, and thought we could not possibly mistake our road. outside the town, on the edge of the desert, we came to two roads, one leading straight ahead, the other branching to the left. we decided to take the former, thinking it looked more trodden, thereby showing more signs of traffic. so we went gaily on. my husband occasionally remarked, "i hope we are on the right road," and i always lightly answered, "oh yes, i am sure we are," as i pointed out to him the fact that we were following the same path along which another caravan had evidently passed a few hours before. howbeit we were not on the right road, as we very soon found to our cost. by this time the sun was blazing down upon us, and we began to wonder why our servants and caravan had not caught us up. time went on, and not a sign of life was to be seen. standing in our stirrups, we scanned the horizon, but nothing could we see but the scorching sand. we then began seriously to think that we had taken the wrong turning and were lost. lost in the desert, without a drop of water or a scrap of food! pleasant thoughts these were as companions! we could not go back: to go forward was worse than useless. after considering a little as to the best thing to be done, we decided to gallop on till we came to a small hill to be seen in the distance. this we accordingly did, and as we neared the summit saw to our great thankfulness a tiny speck on the horizon in the direction from which we had come. this "speck" soon developed into a moving object, and by-and-by we could see the figure of a man and horse galloping hard. as the horse and rider came nearer, our thankfulness was indeed great to see that the rider was our own servant, george. if ever we had cause for thankfulness it was then, and we certainly said, and felt from our very hearts, "alhamd' llillah" (praise be to god!), and vowed we would never stray away again from our caravan unless we were quite sure of our road. our man was so delighted to see us safe and sound that he wept for joy. after a long delay the caravan had at last started from the chappa khaneh just as the sun was rising, and set out upon its way. they were all surprised to think we had gone so far, but concluded at first that we had galloped on in order to reach the lunching-place before the great heat. on arriving at the spot, however, great was their dismay to find we had not yet arrived. our servant immediately rode back to the village to make inquiries. on his way he met a man who told him he had seen us riding off in the opposite direction. george immediately took the path indicated, with the result already told. by the time we regained our caravan we were well-nigh worn out with heat and thirst, having been under the blazing sun without food or water for most of the hottest hours of the day, but very thankful to be on the right track once more. one thing that saddens a european traveller during a journey in persia is to see the cruel way in which the muleteer often treats his animals. the sufferings of these poor beasts are terrible. i often longed to be able to thrash the muleteer for his cruelty to a poor, long-suffering little donkey. bowed down, maybe, under a load twice his own size, the poor ass does his best to keep up with the other animals, but only receives kicks and hard knocks for his pains. the wretched creature is urged on and on by having a steel or iron instrument run into some horribly sore place by his kind and compassionate owner. often have i seen a mule or donkey stumble and fall beneath its enormous load, unable to raise itself, till its master with blows and curses comes to lend a hand. again and again will this happen, till at last the poor beast can go no further, and is left to its fate. death is the kindest master some of these suffering creatures possess. i remember once seeing a mule unloaded, and the sight under the pack-saddle was enough to make one's heart ache. a deep wound about twelve inches long was exposed to view, just under the arch of the saddle, where all the heaviest pressure and friction came. the owner then heated till red hot a long wire rod, passing it through and through this wound till the poor creature was nearly mad with pain and agony. the next day a boy was ordered to ride this wretched beast, but the stench from the wound was so great, and the flies attracted by it so numerous, that he could not endure it, and asked to be given another animal. this request was granted, but the poor brute of a mule had to pay the penalty by receiving an extra load upon his poor wounded back. at the first town we came to, the muleteer sold this mule, doubtless to some one who would work the last particle of strength out of him. poor burdened beasts of the desert! one can only hope for them a speedy end to their troubles, and rest hereafter. another sad sight to be seen in the desert sometimes, are brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim has been walled up alive. this is a horrible method of inflicting capital punishment. the victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness; then if the executioner is merciful he will cement quickly up to the face, and death comes speedily. but sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks, and in this case the torture is cruel and the agony prolonged. men bricked up in this way have been heard groaning and calling for water at the end of three days. at other times the victim is placed in the pillar head first, and in this way he is walled up. the first time i saw these pillars was in the desert outside yezd, and i could hardly believe the awful tales which were told me of the cruelties perpetrated; but alas, they were all too true! it is sad that the beauty of the desert should be desecrated by such things. chapter xii persian medical missions [ ] the need of them--work in isphahan--the "little devil" transformed into a boy--amputation--brothers in adversity--h.r.h. zil-es-sultan as a patient--fanaticism overcome. "what restless forms to-day are lying, bound on sick beds, waiting till the hour come round that brings thy foot upon the chamber stair, impatient, fevered, faint, till thou art there, the one short smile of sunshine to make light the long remembrance of another night." h. e. hamilton king. "medical missions" need no apology or excuse. even in the comparatively few years that have elapsed since their commencement, they have abundantly justified their existence, both from the missionary standpoint, and also as philanthropic agencies. if this be true for purely pagan lands, it applies even more accurately to work in mohammedan countries. medical missionary work is, without doubt, the golden key that unlocks the door of the heart of the most fanatical moslem, be he persian, arab, kurd, or yezidee (devil worshipper). i write this deliberately, after eight years' experience in persia, palestine, and mesopotamia. but in this book it is not meant specially to emphasise the missionary aspect of our life in these distant lands, but more to give a slight glimpse of native life as we found it, and the following, therefore, must be taken as notes from a doctor's diary, covering a period of eight years' work in persia and mesopotamia. the year found us at isphahan. we were living in julfa, the armenian suburb of that great city, and i had temporary charge of the c.m.s. medical mission. the hospital at that period was simply a native house that had been adapted, more or less, for the requirements of a dispensary and hospital. there was no lack of work, patients coming from isphahan itself, and from all the country round about. soon after settling down to the routine work, a little persian boy was brought to me from an outlying village by his father. he was about twelve years of age, and his face was badly disfigured from a "hare-lip." the persians believe that this congenital malformation is the mark left by the foot of the evil one, so this poor boy was known in his village by the unenviable title "little devil," and had been a good deal tormented by his playfellows. he was admitted to hospital, operated upon successfully, and after some ten days' careful treatment the dressing was finally removed, and i handed the boy a mirror that he might look for the first time upon his "new" face. as i watched his countenance while he regarded himself steadfastly in the glass, i was amply repaid for the time and trouble spent, by his look of joy, incredulity, and amazement. tears of joy rolled down his face as he kissed my hand, and murmured brokenly, "i am no longer a little devil, i am no longer a little devil!" he could go back to his village now gladly, no longer fearing to join in the games of his comrades, and i feel sure he afterwards often posed as a hero in his little village, as, the centre of an admiring throng, he recounted the details of his visit, treatment, and cure at the mission hospital. in all mohammedan lands, doctors always find it extremely difficult to persuade their patients to submit to amputation. however hopeless a condition the injured limb may be in, many would rather die than enter paradise maimed. some perhaps fancy that after death, when the prophet mohammed comes to conduct them over that fragile bridge that leads to the "realm of the blest," he would indignantly repudiate the claims of an armless or legless disciple! however that may be, the fact remains that many a poor patient dies who might, by timely amputation, have recovered and lived for many years. but curiously enough, soon after our arrival in julfa, i admitted, within a few days of each other, two persians suffering from diseases of the legs necessitating amputation, and both, after much persuasion, agreed to the operation being performed. both were men, and had been admitted to different wards, but as after-events proved, neither knew of the other's presence in the hospital: both thus believed that he was the only mohammedan doomed to pass the rest of his life bereft of one leg, with the possible risk of non-admittance hereafter to the moslem paradise. the two amputations were duly performed, on different days; the amputated limbs being at once handed to the relatives for decent interment. both patients made good recoveries, their progress being somewhat retarded by their continual lamentation over their irreparable loss. in due course of time, crutches were provided, and the two men were encouraged to practise walking with their aid. a day or two later i was standing at the door of the operation theatre, which opened into a corridor, with which both the men's wards communicated. suddenly the doors of each ward opened simultaneously, and on the threshold stood these two men, leaning on their crutches, their faces a perfect picture as they beheld each other. remember that, in some curious manner, neither had heard of the presence of the other in the hospital, and both firmly believed that he was the only mohammedan that had ever submitted to the indignity of losing a limb, and lo and behold, here was a brother in affliction! crutches were hurled on one side, and the two men, hopping across the corridor, excitement lending them the needed strength, fell into each other's arms, rolling over and over on the floor, weeping, condoling, exclaiming, while we watched the scene, highly amused, but also feeling inclined to weep in sympathy. the governor of isphahan was h.r.h. zil-es-sultan (shadow of the king), elder brother of the late shah. in former years he had been much more powerful, and practically ruled over southern persia, but his enemies in teheran roused the suspicions of the shah against him. he was summoned to the capital, and there kept a prisoner in his house, but ultimately allowed to return to isphahan shorn of his former power. the zil-es-sultan had his own private physician, but would often call in the english doctor either for himself or his household; in this way i made his acquaintance, and, like most europeans who have come in contact with him, admired both his shrewdness and ability. he always proved himself a good friend to the english mission, and later i got to know much more intimately his eldest son, h.h. jalal-el-dowleh, who was the able governor of yezd, a city some three hundred miles eastward of isphahan. soon after reaching julfa, i was sent for by the governor to examine his eyes. i found him in a garden outside the city, which he had just had constructed for a summer residence. he received me cordially, and, after the business part of the interview was over, chatted freely, telling me of all he had undergone at the hands of other physicians. a few years before, he had become alarmed about the state of his eyesight, and became possessed with the idea that he was gradually going blind. he believed himself to be suffering from a very hopeless eye disease, very prevalent in persia, known as "black cataract" (glaucoma), and despite the assurance to the contrary given by dr. carr (the english doctor) and others, he persisted in sending for two eye specialists, one from paris, the other from london. both had thoroughly examined his sight, and had confirmed dr. carr's assurances that there was no disease, but his fears had put him to considerable expense, as both the specialists were treated right royally. laughingly he told me how much he had dreaded the interview with the london specialist, and how the fateful day had at last come. the doctor had merely lightly placed his fingers on the eye, felt the tension, and then had smilingly assured his royal highness that there was no fear of glaucoma, a subsequent careful examination confirming this verdict. "and to think," pathetically added the governor, "that i had spent all those thousands of pounds for nothing!" of course i at once suggested that to have had all his fears of blindness so happily set at rest more than compensated for any expense that he might have incurred, but he remained unconvinced. during the year we remained in isphahan i had many opportunities of being received by the governor. he always treated me with the same kindness, and upon our departure for kerman, presented me with a large signed photograph of himself. isphahan is a great city that has passed through many vicissitudes: at one time it was the capital of persia. its population to-day is probably about , . as in all shiah (mohammedan) lands, the priests (mullahs) possess great power. the moslem archbishops are termed "mujtiheds." in each persian city there are generally two mujtiheds, one official (sheikh-es-islam), the other elected by the people, and the latter, as a rule, possessed the greater influence. in the popular mujtihed was the eldest of three brothers, all mullahs. his power was very great--too great for the taste of the shah, if one may credit rumour. only a few days after our arrival, a carriage was sent for me, from the second brother of this mujtihed, who for many weeks had been anxiously looking forward to the arrival of an english "hakim," as he was suffering from a troublesome disease which might at any time develop serious symptoms. all these isphahan mullahs had proved themselves hostile to the presence of foreigners, and on more than one occasion they had endeavoured, by preaching against them in the mosques, to inflame the populace and cause a riot. at the patient's house i was joined by another doctor (dr. aganoor), who was also the english vice-consul, and to whom we were indebted for many acts of kindness during our stay in isphahan. the mullah was really his patient, and i was called in for consultation as to the advisability of operating. we were ushered into a large room with a fountain playing in the centre, and there we found the patient, supported by both his brothers, besides innumerable friends. we sat in solemn conclave for over an hour, discussing the pros and cons of the case, and then, having decided upon the course of treatment, we took our departure. some days later we were again sent for, and found our patient in great pain, and the whole house crowded with his innumerable friends, who had hurriedly come together at the rumour of his approaching death. our patient was in a very excited state, angrily refusing the consolation offered by his disciples and friends, and violently shouting, "a thousand tomans (£ ) to any one who can take away this pain." then, as he felt an extra bad twinge, "ten thousand tomans to any one who will cure this pain" (about £ ). however, we soothed him, injected a little morphia, assured him there was no immediate danger, and as the sedative commenced to work, and the pain disappeared, with it went all thought of rewarding his benefactors: on the contrary, he took extra trouble to explain how poor a man he really was, and that it was due to the malice of his enemies that rumour reputed him wealthy. however, to cut a long story short, by means of a simple operation, and much patient care and attention on the part of dr. aganoor, he ultimately made a good recovery, and was really grateful, using his influence afterwards rather to restrain than augment the anti-european fanaticism of his other two brethren. later a nephew of the chief mujtihed, himself a mullah, actually consented to come into hospital to undergo an urgently needed operation, and this proving successful, gained for us another staunch friend from priestly quarters, whose friendship stood us in good stead on another occasion which might have ended rather differently, but for his intervention. a few months had elapsed: rumours still reached us from the city of occasional attempts made to stir up the fanaticism of the people against us, the chief offender being the third and youngest brother of the mujtihed before mentioned. one day dr. aganoor and i were both sent for in a great hurry. we heard that the whole city was in an uproar, that this fanatical mullah had been poisoned, some said "by order of the shah," others that the governor had asked him to a feast, and as he returned, ere reaching home, the symptoms had started; others that the women of his "anderoon" (quarter of the house in which no man but the husband may enter) had given him "oil of bitter almonds" by mistake. on approaching the house we found a crowd round the door, and the house itself packed with disciples and friends of the great man. we were hurriedly shown into a large hall, with marble pillars and floor, densely crowded with a mass of human beings, all engaged in watching the last gasps of the poor mullah, who was lying on a pile of carpets stretched on the marble floor. we learnt to our dismay that he had been unconscious for four hours, and apparently precautions had been taken that the english doctors should not be called in until that amount of time had elapsed. before that intent, silent, fanatical crowd, we did all that could be done to save the life of the man who had been our bitter enemy, taking turns to perform artificial respiration, &c., but all in vain, for, as in my turn i worked the dying man's arms, he took his last breath, and i whispered dr. aganoor that all was over. it was getting towards midnight. julfa was three miles distant, and we were alone in the midst of that fanatical crowd. well did my colleague know that once the intimation was given that the end had come, the scene would baffle description; the whole city would be roused, and our lives might even be in danger; knowing these things, he whispered me to go on performing artificial respiration while he got ready to go. so i went on with my task, working the dead man's arms until all was ready for our instant departure. then reverently folding his hands on his breast, i drew over his face the coverlet, as an intimation that all was over. i never again wish to hear such a yell as then arose from the throats of that great throng. doors were flung open, the mob from without rushed into the room, women poured in belonging to the dead man's household, shrieking, wailing, tearing their clothes and hair. some of them made a wild rush at us as they passed, and it really looked a bit serious, for already amidst the uproar we could detect occasional cries of "the feringhis have poisoned him." to my relief, amidst the excited throng i noticed the face of my old friend the mujtihed's nephew, who had been an in-patient in the hospital, and when he noticed that i had observed him, he beckoned us to follow him. we obeyed gladly, and he led us away by a private passage, which finally emerged into a public square a long distance from the dead man's house. there our good samaritan left us, promising to send us our horses and servants, whom we had left waiting outside the patient's house. as we waited for them to come, we could hear the sound of cries from all parts of the city, followed by wailing of women, and the scurrying of many feet, as all flocked to the quarter where the holy man's body lay. at last our servants and animals arrived, and we made haste to escape, reaching home after midnight, thankful to god for preserving us from what might have proved a very dangerous position. next day we heard that the whole city had gone into mourning; all the bazaars were shut, and the shops draped with black, and this mourning was kept up five whole days. rumours were persistently circulated that the english doctors had poisoned the mullah, but no one really believed it, and i was able to attend the city dispensary as usual, even during the funeral ceremonies, and patients rather increased than diminished, some of the dead man's relatives even coming for treatment. so ended priestly opposition; the chief mujtihed himself was frightened at the mode of his brother's death, and kept very quiet, for fear, perhaps, that a similar accident might happen to him. his surviving brother and relatives were now quite friendly, and a few years later dr. carr was able to obtain ground and build an excellent hospital in isphahan itself, welcomed alike by officials and priests. there is also an excellent women's hospital (c.m.s.), in charge of dr. emmeline stuart, who has for many years given her life to work amongst moslem women, and whose name is held dear by many a poor persian village woman, who has found relief and loving care at her hands, and those of her staff. chapter xiii pioneer medical mission work in kerman [ ] pioneer medical mission work in kerman--waiting for drugs and instruments--native assistant proves a broken reed--first operation in kerman--an anxious moment--success--doctrine of "savab" convenient to the moslem--fanaticism tempered with prudence--opium slaves--persian therapeutics--persian quacks and their methods--sure way of curing cancer--hysteria. "charms for lovers, charms to break, charms to bind them to you wholly, medicines fit for every ache, fever and fanciful melancholy." r. bridges. we had been appointed to open a medical mission in this city, and as soon as our temporary residence in isphahan was finished, proceeded to our original destination. we arrived at kerman early in , and received a hearty welcome from the only other european there--the rev. a. r. blackett, also of the church missionary society. two houses were secured, both outside the city wall; in one we took up our residence, while the other was made into a dispensary, and small temporary hospital. unfortunately we arrived before our supply of drugs and surgical instruments, so we had to do our best with the very small stock of medicines borrowed from our stations in isphahan and yezd. however, patients began to come in large numbers, and the out-patient department was soon in full swing. we had brought with us from isphahan two armenians to act as assistants, one for dispensing, the other (a man who had been employed in the mission for many years) to interpret and help generally in the work. i had hoped much from this last-named assistant, and had relied upon him greatly for advice and help, as he had been in kerman before, and knew the people; but i soon found him a "broken reed." he was married and had a large family, which he had been obliged to leave behind in isphahan, and very soon he began to show signs of home-sickness. then he commenced to imagine himself ill, and developed symptoms of different ailments. in the first place he one day came to me with a woeful face, and besought me to carefully examine his chest, for he was convinced he was developing phthisis. after being reassured on this point, he became absolutely sure that he had heart disease; next his kidneys troubled him, and so on, until he became a confirmed hypochondriac, and completely useless for work. one day i remember his coming to me imploring that i would inject morphia to relieve him of the intense pain from which he was suffering. i gravely took the hypodermic syringe, and carefully injected distilled water, and the pain disappeared with lightning rapidity! however, i had to send him home, and i believe that, once safely reunited to his family, he at once lost all his symptoms, and was able to resume his old work at the hospital. in the meanwhile my surgical patients were clamouring for operations, more especially those afflicted with cataract. i had opened another dispensary in the city itself, and many poor blind people had come for treatment. it went to one's heart to have to send them away day after day with the same disheartening story. "the instruments have not yet come; until they arrive, nothing can be done." i fear that many commenced to think that the english doctor was a fraud, and that his excuses concerning the instruments resembled those framed by their own "hakims" to hide their own ignorance. at last the boxes actually arrived. they had to be brought by caravan from bushire (the port in the persian gulf) to kerman, viâ shiraz and yezd, a distance of some eight hundred miles, taking a couple of months. we admitted our first in-patient, a well-known merchant in the city, who had been blind for three years with cataract. the persian surgeons also operate for this disease, using the old eastern operation known as "couching." an incision is made into the white of the eyeball (without any anæsthetic), then a thick, blunt probe is worked into the interior of the eye, directed so as to dislocate the lens. if successful, the lens drops back into the posterior chamber of the eye, and the patient "sees," but alas, the vision obtained is, in ninety-eight cases out of a hundred, only temporary! twenty-four hours later, inflammation of the eye supervenes, and the sight is gone, and the eye lost. needless to say, the operator obtains his fee either before the operation is done, or during the few hours that his patient is rejoicing in his newly found vision; then if he is wise he disappears from the town, and resumes his practice elsewhere. however, during eight years' practice in the east, and having had the opportunity of examining thousands of eyes, i can remember two cases only where this operation had been done and there had been no subsequent inflammation, but the great majority of eyes are lost. well, we had our first kerman cataract patient, and it seemed to us as though the whole future of the little pioneer medical mission depended upon the success or failure of that operation. the day fixed for the operation arrived: a persian doctor practising in the city had requested leave to be present, no doubt on behalf of the many friends of the patient, to report particulars and see fair play. the patient was brought in, looking exceedingly nervous. after a short prayer (a practice almost invariably adopted in medical missionary hospitals, and much appreciated by the patient, even though he be a fanatical moslem), the operation was started. i am afraid we were all unduly nervous, the possible consequences for good or ill to the mission assuming undue proportions. at any rate everything went wrong; the cocaine (used as the anæsthetic) would not work, the old man could not keep his eye still, and would look up when he was told to look down. i was only able to complete the incision, and that with the greatest difficulty; and fearing to proceed further, the patient getting more and more excited, i had reluctantly to postpone the operation for a couple of days. we all felt very depressed, except, perhaps, the persian "hakim," who doubtless greatly relished the failure of the english doctor. however, two days later we tried again, the persian hakim once more being amongst the spectators. much prayer had been offered up that this time there might be no hitch. everything at first went well; the patient lay quite quietly, moved his eye exactly as he was told, the cocaine proved satisfactory, the incision was remade, and other preliminary steps in the operation disposed of: then came the hitch. in the european method of operating for cataract, the opaque lens is extruded from the eye by gentle pressure, through the incision first made. well, when the time came for the lens to be extruded, it would not budge! i tried all possible means of extraction without success (afterwards i discovered that adhesions had formed between the lens and the curtain of the eye, as a result of the first operation). the perspiration ran down my face, as i realised what this second failure meant, not so much for my own reputation, but the hindrance it would prove to the success of the work i loved. i glanced at my wife: she was looking very anxious. i looked at my assistants: their faces were pictures of dismay. they had seen me before in isphahan do many a cataract, and could not imagine what had gone wrong. the persian doctor looked particularly happy: he smiled as he politely expressed his sorrow that i was experiencing any difficulty in bringing the operation to a successful issue. it certainly was an awkward fix--perhaps the most awkward that i have ever been in; but as i lifted up my heart in silent prayer to god, asking for guidance, the thought flashed into my mind, "the man has both eyes blind: you have failed with the one; do the other at once, and it will prove successful." gently covering the eye that had proved a failure, i explained matters to the patient, obtained his permission, thoroughly cleansed his other eye, and proceeded to operate, meeting with no difficulty and easily extracting the lens, to the palpable disappointment of my persian medical friend, and was overjoyed to find that the patient old man had obtained exceedingly good vision. after a week the patient went back to his friends, seeing well, and full of gratitude for all the kindness and care he had received. i saw him some months later, and inquired whether he cared to let me have another try at the eye that had proved unsuccessful; but he refused, saying he was an old man, and had obtained good sight with the one, and did not need to see with the other. of course the result of this first operation had been anxiously awaited by many, and since it proved successful, we soon had our little temporary hospital full, and had no further trouble in getting in-patients. i have described this case rather fully, avoiding technical terms as far as possible, as it illustrates fairly well the difficulties and responsibilities met with and tackled by pioneer workers, be they missionary or official. the persians (especially the kermanis) have a great idea of doing "savabs" (good works), hoping to reap their reward hereafter. this is common to the west as well as the east; but the kermanis in addition hold a convenient doctrine, namely, the appropriation of the savabs of infidels for themselves! at least one of the chief mullahs in kerman surprised me somewhat by the cordial reception he accorded me; but later said, "how glad he was that i had come to kerman and was doing such 'good works' amongst the sick and poor, as hereafter god would credit the true moslems with all the savabs done by infidels, who of course could derive no benefit at all from their performance." as kerman is a city proverbial amongst the persians for its great wickedness, i could understand the old mullah's satisfaction, as doubtless he felt that many of their savab accounts were rather low and needed a trifle of "credit," which might with advantage be obtained from the savabs of an infidel doctor! once yearly the persians celebrate the death of the martyrs hassain and hussein, as has already been described in a previous chapter. we had a good opportunity of witnessing this persian passion play while in kerman. the sword-dancers, clad in white garments, work themselves up into a frenzy, gashing their heads with the swords and sometimes inflicting severe wounds. a true believer is supposed to have his self-inflicted wounds healed spontaneously through the agency of hazrati ali (grandson of the prophet mohammed); but i was a little amused by the appearance of several of these devotees at my out-patient clinique some days previous to the "celebration," all of them begging for a little english ointment to keep by them for use in case miraculous healing should be delayed. as has been already mentioned, the curse of kerman is opium; everybody smokes or eats it--generally the former. the native doctors are partly responsible, as they recommend the drug as a "cure-all"; but even the cultured kermani smokes opium, possibly to relieve the monotony of his life! cases of poisoning repeatedly occur, and some of these we were called upon to treat. our dispensary had a small garden attached to it, and when the mission had gained the confidence of the people it was no uncommon sight to see several opium patients being treated at the same time in this garden. the treatment used, though somewhat vigorous, proved very effective. a man would arrive at the dispensary, escorted by an excited throng of relatives. on inquiry we would find that he had taken a big dose of opium to end his life: afterwards repenting, he had confessed to his relatives, and they had at once brought him to the english doctor. the treatment began with the administration of a strong emetic followed by repeated doses of strong coffee; then he would be handed over to the care of an attendant, with instructions to walk him round and round the garden and prevent his going to sleep. the native assistants and the patient's friends, armed with sticks, carried out these instructions, and at the first signs of languor exhibited by the unfortunate man he would be beaten and kept effectually awake! one day i was summoned in haste to the house of an influential kermani; his only son, a child of two years, had been poisoned with opium. it is a common practice in kerman for mothers to keep their babies from crying by giving them a little opium to suck. this boy's mother had given him a big lump by mistake, and grew alarmed when she found that all her attempts to wake him were ineffectual! on arriving at the house with my assistant, we had considerable difficulty in making our way into the courtyard, as it was thronged with all the relatives and friends; the neighbouring houses were crowded, a great multitude thronging the flat roofs, which commanded a good view of the courtyard belonging to the patient's father. on examining my little patient i found him nearly dead, exhibiting all the symptoms of an overdose of opium. however, for over an hour we worked away, washing out the child's stomach, injecting strong coffee, &c., all in the open air before the excited multitude, and gradually the little patient showed signs of recovery. when he had come completely round and was crying vigorously, there was great rejoicing. thinking the opportunity too good a one to be lost, i asked my assistant to tell the father that god had heard prayer and restored him his child, and that we would now like him to join with us and thank god for answering our prayers, if he would tell the crowd what we intended doing. although the father was a mullah, and had the reputation of being very fanatical in his hatred of christians, he at once consented to our proposition, announcing to the crowd our intention. during the short thanksgiving prayer every head was bowed and not a sound of protest heard, while christian and moslem alike returned thanks to the great god who had heard and answered prayer. medical missions had once again won a triumph over moslem fanaticism, and the scowls and threatening looks which had greeted our arrival were replaced by cordial thanks and vehement expressions of gratitude! persian therapeutics are very simple, dating back to the time of hippocrates. all diseases are divided into two classes--hot and cold--to be treated accordingly with hot or cold remedies. all foods are similarly classified. with this knowledge, plus a few persian medical books and an appropriate turban, the native quack sets up as a doctor. his impudence and native wit are inexhaustible; he will cheer his patients with extracts from hafiz or ferdosi (the great persian poets), talk learnedly of vapours, and have a specific for every mortal ailment. the quack physician is amusing, and probably confines himself to fairly harmless compounds; but the persian surgeon is a man to be avoided at all costs. of course, i am only here speaking of quacks; in teheran there is a good medical school, and many of the graduates from that school proceed to paris or berlin, and return fully qualified to exercise their profession; but they also have to compete with these native quacks. i remember one case of a poor man brought to the dispensary with a big swelling on the left knee, which prevented his straightening the leg. careful examination convinced me that the case was one of malignant cancer of the thigh bone, and that nothing could be done but amputation. this was explained to the patient and his father, who indignantly rejected the proposed operation. i lost sight of the man, but some weeks later one of my assistants asked me if i remembered the case; on my replying in the affirmative, he informed me that the patient had since died. it seems after leaving the dispensary the father had taken his son (a young man twenty years old) to a native surgeon (who combined the exercise of his profession most appropriately with the trade of a butcher) and asked his advice, saying the english doctor had advised amputation of the leg; but he had refused, as the swelling caused little pain, and all his son wanted was to be able to straighten his leg so that he might once again walk. "oh," replied the butcher, "that's easily done; that english doctor knows nothing; i will cure him." so he got the father and other men to hold the unfortunate youth firmly and some other helper to seize the leg; then seizing a huge slab of stone in both his hands, he brought it down with all his force on the bent knee. the leg was straightened ... and needless to add, the poor patient only survived a few days. my wife has written quite sufficient about the persian women to enable her readers to appreciate the monotony of their lives behind the veil. this is more especially true of the upper classes, who have no need to work for their living. in kerman the usual result is that many of these poor women suffer from hysteria. i have often been called in to treat some of these patients, and have found them develop almost all the varying types of that curious disease; but one of the most interesting cases i ever remember occurred in kerman. i had been treating the unmarried daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the city, and had prescribed for her some simple bismuth mixture, as she had complained of indigestion. two days later her brother came galloping his horse to the dispensary, and demanded to see me immediately. he was greatly excited, and said that his sister had been taking the medicine i had prescribed for her and had suddenly gone blind. this was in the early days of the medical mission, and i was especially anxious to win the confidence of the people, so did not at all appreciate this complication. i assured the brother that i would return with him at once, and informed him that the medicine could not possibly have caused the blindness; but he was not at all appeased. upon reaching the house i found all the family distracted with grief, and not at all inclined to be cordial. moreover, they had called in a native eye-doctor, who had gravely announced that the blindness was most certainly due to the patient having taken the infidel's medicine! in order to reassure the parents i bade them bring the bottle of medicine, and, finding there were still two or three doses left, called for a glass, poured out the remainder, and drank it. this seemed to reassure them partially, so they allowed me to examine the girl. she was a nervous, highly-strung patient, and i had expected to find that she had been malingering; but to my surprise, upon thorough examination i convinced myself that she had really gone blind. examination of the interior of the eyes showed no disease, and upon inquiry, finding that she was the subject of periodical hysterical attacks, i ventured to predict to the parents that with suitable care and supervision the girl would regain her sight. they were still inclined to be sceptical, but ten days later i heard that my prediction had come true and that she was quite cured. similar cases of hysterical loss of vision are on record, but are exceedingly rare. barely had we managed to get the little medical mission well started when circumstances connected with my wife's health arose that forced us to leave at a moment's notice the people we had learnt to love. fortunately the work was not given up; another doctor succeeded me, and now there is a flourishing medical mission with two hospitals, one for men and the other for women patients, with a lady doctor and nurse; while the influence exerted by that mission is felt throughout the whole of the great kerman province, which stretches eastwards to the border of beloochistan, and is bounded on the south by the persian gulf. chapter xiv medical mission work in yezd [ ] a hospital--a friendly governor--a suspicious case--superstition--the opium habit--a case of cataract--we return to england. "by medicine life may be prolonged.... with the help of a surgeon he may yet recover." shakespeare. the last of our three years' sojourn in persia was spent in yezd. here there was already a small mission hospital, all the pioneer work having been done by dr. white of the c.m.s. a wealthy parsee merchant had presented the site for a hospital in the form of an old caravanserai (an eastern inn). this had been gutted and made into a nice little hospital, with an out-patient department. dr. white being on furlough, the doctor taking his place in yezd exchanged with me, as it was hoped that my wife would be able better to stand the lower altitude of yezd than the heights of kerman. yezd is an island city in a sea of sand. the waves, driven by the winds, surge against the city walls and threaten to engulf the whole place. at some parts of the wall, the drifted sand reaches almost to the level of the wall itself. the governor of yezd during the time we lived there was h.r.h. jalal-el-dowleh, the eldest son of the prince-governor of isphahan (the zil-es-sultan). the jalal-el-dowleh had the reputation, like his father, of being a strong man, and ruled with a firm hand. he had already proved a good friend to the mission, and was accustomed to pay a state visit once yearly to the hospital, where, after being entertained at the doctor's house, he would proceed to make a very thorough tour of inspection, and before leaving would hand the english doctor a sealed envelope containing the munificent sum of £ as a donation. during our stay in yezd we saw a good deal of the governor, and i had to add to my duties those of court physician. in yezd, as in other persian cities, there are many quacks, who not unnaturally resent the presence of a european doctor. i had not been long in the city before i made the acquaintance of some of these gentry, in a somewhat dramatic manner. early one morning i was hurriedly called to the house of the chief native doctor, as his brother had been taken seriously ill. on entering the patient's room, i found it crowded with his friends, the patient himself lying upon a mattress placed on the ground. one glance at the patient sufficed: he was dead, and had apparently been so for some hours. when i announced the fact to the brother, he became very angry, and assured me that i was mistaken. he begged me to pour some medicine down the man's throat, or to do something to rouse him, as he had only fainted! upon further inquiry, i found that he had been poorly for some days, and his brother had been treating him. my suspicions were aroused, as the brother and his friends crowded round me, imploring that english medicines should be tried, and after further careful examination only served to confirm my first opinion, i refused absolutely to comply with their entreaties, and left the house with my assistant. the brother and some of his friends pursued us, offering large fees if only we would give some medicine, absolutely refusing to accept my verdict. it is a necessary custom in persia and the east generally, to bury a dead body within a few hours of death, but we heard that the brother refused to allow this corpse to be buried for three whole days, alleging that the english doctor was mistaken: however, in the end they were obliged to bury him. the native doctor was strongly suspected of having poisoned his brother, and this doubtless accounted for the urgent manner in which he begged me to pour something down the dead man's throat, so that he could accuse me of being responsible for his death. all persians are superstitious, and are great believers in goblins and 'jinns.' one day a young man was brought to me suffering from an acute attack of chorea (st. vitus' dance). he was well educated, and had been employed as a clerk in a merchant's office: now he was unable to hold a pen in his hand, and exhibited all the symptoms of the disease in a very marked degree. he was promptly admitted to hospital, and discharged cured in a few weeks. according to his own statement the cause of the attack was as follows. he had gone for a walk in the desert outside the city after his day's work was over, and had wandered on further than usual. suddenly he came across an old well, and round the well were numbers of hideous dwarf-like goblins pelting each other with stones. when they saw him they crowded round laughing, jeering, pulling his clothes, and then began to pelt him with stones. he turned and fled, running the whole way back to the city, and to this shock he attributed the commencement of his symptoms. in my last chapter i referred to the prevalence of the opium habit in kerman, but we found many addicted to it also in yezd. so much was this the case, that i started admitting some of those who expressed a desire to give up the habit into the hospital, submitting them to a special treatment, with very good results. it was a curious sight to see these patients grouped together in the ward, smoking their carefully weighed out amount of opium, which was gradually reduced day by day, until they could go without altogether. the opium habit is in truth a curse, but upon one occasion i really believe it greatly helped to save a man's life. it happened in this way. a well-known merchant in yezd was found in his house apparently sleeping. his women-folk, unable to rouse him, became alarmed, and sent for me. i found the patient unconscious, exhibiting every symptom of belladonna poisoning. an excited crowd, as usual, collected, watching us as we tried every possible means of saving the poor fellow's life. strychnine and morphia had been injected, cold water poured on his face, all without avail: there was no sign of returning consciousness. a happy thought struck me. turning to some of the men in the crowd, i asked whether they were opium-smokers. three or four somewhat shamefacedly acknowledged that they did a little, so i ordered them to bring a pipe and a little of the drug. then i made them sit round the patient's body, take the pipe in turn, and as they smoked, puff out the smoke into the patient's face, occasionally blowing it into his nostrils, and down his throat. i confess that i had but little hope of any good result, but what was my delight and surprise, after about a quarter of an hour's perseverance in the treatment, to see unmistakable signs of recovery in the patient's face. his widely dilated pupils began to contract, and soon he returned to consciousness and was able to sit up. on the following day i found him quite well, and thoroughly enjoying the sensation that his marvellous recovery had made in the city. hundreds of people had been to see him, and i am a little afraid that the value of the opium as a "cure-all" was not diminished by the incident! we had quite a number of cataract patients in the hospital, many coming several days' journey for operation. a small hospital for women had been started, and a lady doctor had been sent to take charge. the first case admitted was an old lady with cataract. when the day arrived for the operation, everything went well at first, but in the middle of the operation the patient started up screaming. she said she had seen a snake, and she thought it was going to bite her. her vision cost her dearly, the operation necessarily being spoilt, and the eye lost, but unfortunately it also kept away other patients suffering from the same disease, but only for a short time, the lady doctor soon winning their confidence, and finding more work on her hands than she could comfortably get through. after a very happy year in yezd, my wife's health still remaining unsatisfactory, we were obliged to leave persia, and return to england for a short rest. both of us were grieved at having to leave a country and people that we had learnt to love, and amongst whom we had hoped to spend our lives. medical missions in persia have already worked wonders, breaking down opposition, winning friends even amongst the most fanatical. here is not the place to speak of results, neither would it be wise to do so, but i would like once for all definitely and decisively to repudiate the oft-quoted statement, often made, unfortunately, by christians who should be better informed, "that it is impossible for a mohammedan to become a christian." with god all things are possible! part ii chapter i the city of nineveh the city of nineveh--the fast of jonah--the bridge of boats--traditions as to ancient history of mosul--alkosh, birthplace of nahum the prophet--shurgât--climate of mosul--cultivation and industries--importance of mosul. "a ruin, yet what ruin! from its mass walls, palaces, half cities have been reared. heroes have trod this spot--'tis on their dust ye tread." byron. "nineveh, an exceeding great city of three days' journey." the ancient city of nineveh, the former capital of the assyrian empire, is situated on the eastern bank of the river tigris. little is to be seen to-day of the once famous city but huge mounds of earth which cover the site of this historical and interesting place. there are two principal mounds, separated from each other by a small rivulet. the larger of these is called kouyunjik, the smaller nabbi eunice. the former contains the ruins of the palace of sennacherib, before whom jonah stood and delivered his message; but nothing now remains to tell of its former glory and wealth. when we first visited the spot over three years ago, there was one huge man-headed lion remaining, and a few pieces of sculpture representing fish swimming in water, &c. but now even these have disappeared, for about eighteen months ago the turkish government sold all the visible remains of nineveh for the enormous sum of two turkish liras ( s.)! the buyer grinding everything to powder, including the huge statue, for purposes of building! nineveh is best seen to-day at the british museum or the louvre, paris, as both of these places contain many interesting and valuable remains of that city. nineveh was closed to excavators about four years ago, but it is hoped that investigations will be renewed again in the near future, as there still remain thirteen rooms of the palace to be examined. the other and smaller mound, known as nabbi eunice (prophet jonah), was once the site of a church named after the prophet, on account of the tradition that he preached upon that spot. the church stands to this day, but is used as a mosque, as it now belongs to the moslems, who venerate the place as being the tomb of the prophet. they accept the whole story of jonah's mission to nineveh and the adventures he encountered en route, as we have it recorded in holy scripture. it is an interesting fact, too, that year by year the inhabitants of mosul, christians and moslems alike, keep in remembrance the three days of fasting and repentance mentioned in the book of jonah. the fast is still kept for three days, by some very strictly, while others keep it from sunset to sunset, only eating once a day. every one may please herself as to the severity of her fasting, but almost all join in the remembrance of those three memorable days in the history of nineveh. "herself" is used advisedly, as it is especially kept by women who are seeking some particular gift from god, and they will often fast absolutely for the three days, not even allowing a drop of water to touch their lips. they hope by so doing that god will hear their prayers, even as he answered the petitions of the ninevites of old. the memory of jonah is perpetuated, too, in mosul by parents naming their boys after the prophet, eunice being quite a favourite name amongst christians, moslems, and jews. the tomb of jonah is guarded very zealously by the mohammedans against the christians, and it is very difficult for the latter to gain admission to the interior of the building. a friend staying with us in mosul was very anxious to see the tomb, so we rode over to nabbi eunice one day, but the mullah in charge politely but firmly refused us permission to enter beyond the portal! kouyunjik is now a favourite place for picnics from mosul, and in the early spring a day spent amongst the old ruins of nineveh is very delightful. it is too hot in summer, as there is no shade. from the top of the mounds we have a beautiful view of mosul, with the tigris in the foreground and the mountains stretching away on either side. it is not considered safe for any one to wander about alone on the mounds; the natives will never go there alone after dusk. some years ago two europeans who were passing through mosul visited nineveh by themselves. as they were rambling over the old remains, one said to his companion, "i am going round there," indicating a projecting piece of marble. his companion waited and waited, and as his friend did not return went in search of him, but not a sign of him could be seen. after seeking in every possible place without success, he returned to mosul to institute a search party, but all efforts proved fruitless, and to this day nothing has been discovered as to the fate of this man. whether he fell down some disused shaft or was carried off by arabs is not known, and probably will always remain a mystery. mosul is connected with nineveh by an old bridge of boats, which probably existed in the days of jonah. there are twenty-one or twenty-two of these old-fashioned flat-bottomed boats, fastened together by heavy chains, a platform of wood being laid from boat to boat and the whole covered with earth. this part of the bridge is movable, and is connected at one end with the mainland by a permanent stone bridge consisting of thirty-three arches. in the spring, when the rush of water is very strong consequent upon the snow melting in the mountains, it is loosened at one end and allowed to swing with the current. sometimes, however, the river rises suddenly, carrying the bridge away and playing havoc with the banks. when this takes place it is very difficult to replace the bridge. often for weeks together the bridge is not open, and all traffic across the river has to be conveyed by boats, the owner of the ferries reaping a golden harvest. the toll of the bridge is taken by a man who rents it from the government. he is said to be one of the richest men in mosul. foot passengers are allowed to pass freely, but all four-footed beasts have a small charge levied on them ranging from a halfpenny to twopence, and carriages are charged half a mejideh ( s. d.). as some thousands of camels, mules, and donkeys are continually passing to and fro, it is no wonder that the toll-collector is a rich man. i am not at all fond of riding across this bridge; it is not very wide, and camels jostle you on one side with their huge burdens, donkeys and mules vie with each other in trying to pass on the other, quite oblivious of the fact that there is no room; while underneath the river rushes madly on. altogether, i always heave a sigh of relief when the opposite bank is safely reached. there are many traditions as to the probable origin of mosul, but its true early history is involved in obscurity. the following has been gleaned from some of the many traditions circulated amongst its inhabitants. mosul is said to have been built some four thousand years ago, and was then a small village consisting of a few houses built of mud. this village was believed to be the fourth village built after the flood. about four days' journey from mosul there is a mountain called judy, on which the ark is supposed to have rested after the flood. the natives living near this mountain say it must be mount ararat, because close by grows the only olive tree for miles around! and also they have in their possession enormous wooden nails said to have been used in the construction of the ark! these nails were found on the mountain many years ago. at the foot of this mountain lies a village which claims to have the honour of being the first built after the flood. quite near by is another small town called jezirah, which is said to have been the second village to spring into existence, while some village in egypt takes the third place, and mosul the fourth! if these traditions are to be trusted, then mosul has indeed a right to be termed ancient. some years ago omar el khattab the calipha conquered jerusalem and damascus, and then turned his attention to mosul. he sent down one of his chiefs named eyath, son of ghoonum, to besiege mosul, with orders to convert the city to mohammedanism at all costs, if necessary at the point of the sword. many of the inhabitants at that time were parsees, belonging to the old fire-worshipping religion; others were called "charamika," but no trace of their belief has been found. these and many others were converted to mohammedanism by the strong argument of the sword. in the twelfth century mosul had a sovereignty of its own, a brother of the sultan of damascus then reigning over this province. in it withstood the armies of the famous saladin, who was a native of a town some five days' ride from mosul. in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it suffered defeat from the hands of its enemies, and in nadir shah of persia bombarded the town for forty days. since then mosul has suffered much from time to time through various causes--from the cruelties of some of its governors, from a famine caused by the crops being utterly destroyed by locusts, and also from the plague which visited it in and left the town almost a desert. it is stated that , people perished at that time from this terrible scourge. the walls surrounding mosul are very old. they were built, in the first instance, about years ago by a man named marvan, one of the kings of a tribe called "umayya." they were repaired years ago by hadji hussein pasha, one of the abdul jaleel family. they are now in many places fast falling into ruin, and are in great need of restoration. these walls are pierced by about twelve gates, which are shut at sunset or soon after. about five hours' journey from mosul is the little village of elkosh, believed by many to have been the birthplace of the prophet nahum, and also the scene of his life-work and burial. this village, now inhabited by chaldeans, is reverenced by moslems and christians alike, but more especially is it looked upon as a holy place by the jews. there is a synagogue in which is supposed to lie the tomb of the prophet; to this the jews flock for the yearly pilgrimage, having done so from time immemorial. kalah shurgât is another interesting place, situated two days' journey from mosul. it consists of an old assyrian ruin, said to be the remains of the ancient city of asshur. the germans have been excavating there for some years, and are doing it very thoroughly. the whole ground floor of the palace and temple are laid bare, and are in a wonderful state of preservation. one of the excavators pointed out to us the "bathroom" of the palace, running through which was a mono-rail, evidently having been constructed for the purpose of conveying water from the reservoir to the bath. this tram-line must have been one of the first ever invented! it was simply a groove cut in the marble floor, on which probably a one-wheeled trolley ran. the climate of mosul is a very variable one, the summers being excessively hot and the winters cold. during the hot months all the inhabitants sleep at night on their roofs, starting about the st of june, and continuing to do so for five months, or till the first rains come. many of the houses are provided with "sirdâbs" or underground rooms, for use during the middle part of the day. the marble from which most of the houses are built retains the heat of the sun so long that they do not cool down in the evenings; on account of this, as the summer wears on, the houses become almost unbearable with accumulated heat. for this reason we generally try to go away somewhere for a month's holiday in august or september. there are no cool places near mosul, and to find a suitable summer retreat it is necessary to go three or four days' journey. for two years we only went to a large house about three miles from mosul, kindly lent us by a patient of my husband's. here the heat was intense during the day, but the evenings were delightfully cool as a rule, for the river ran at the foot of the garden. the winters in mosul are often very cold. two years ago the tigris was nearly frozen over, and for three days the only water we could obtain was from melted snow. the cold was so severe that men died as they sat at their work. while such cold weather lasted it was impossible to keep the patients in the hospital, as having no stoves in the wards we were not able to warm them sufficiently. but this was a record winter, there having been no such frost for one hundred and fifty years. spring and autumn are beautiful seasons in mosul, especially, perhaps, the former. during march, april, and part of may the land for many miles around mosul is green with waving corn--a refreshing sight for weary eyes. when the grass is about a foot in height, all the inhabitants pitch tents outside the town and spend their days there. those who have horses tether them in front of their tents, and allow them to eat grass to their hearts' content. a friend lent us a tent last year, and for a month or six weeks we enjoyed the luxury of green scenery! every day some of our congregation were able to get out, each of us taking our turn at providing afternoon tea. it was such a relief to get away from the heat of the city walls, and to enjoy, if only for a short time, the lovely fresh air of the corn-fields! the autumn days are very pleasant too, but as a rule this season is only too short. the summers last till the rains begin, and then almost at once cold weather sets in. the most trying part of the whole year comes towards the end of summer, when the clouds "come up." it is very marvellous the way the natives can tell, almost to a day, when to expect the first clouds. they generally last from ten to twelve days, and the relief is great when they depart. on the whole the climate of mosul seems to be a healthy one. at certain times of the year malarial fever is very prevalent, but, "alhamd'llillah!" neither of us have ever contracted it. the highest degree of heat registered in the coolest part of our house is °, but the average heat of the three hottest months is about ° to °. three to four months of this kind of heat is generally quite enough! the land round mosul is cultivated to a great extent, corn being the chief product. the success of the crops, however, is entirely dependent upon the winter and spring rains. should the rainfall be great, the harvest is abundant; but if the season is a dry one, then the result is disastrous. mr. layard speaks of one such occasion when, during the whole of the winter and spring, no rain fell. as a consequence of this, the crop failed and famine ravaged the land. this famine is still spoken of in mosul as something never to be forgotten, and many events are marked as dating from "the famine." some are not ashamed to own that they made their fortunes during that awful time, by storing corn and then selling it at famine prices; while others, who had been prosperous merchants till that year, were then rendered penniless, and have never been able to retrieve their fortunes. there are a few rude wheels constructed along the banks of the tigris for the purpose of irrigation; but as these are highly taxed by the local government, they are by no means general. this mode of raising water is very simple but expensive, as it requires the labour of several men and at least two animals, either oxen or mules. gardens near the town are irrigated in this way, either by drawing water from the river or from deep wells, but the great stretch of land sown with corn is dependent for its nourishment on the rainfall. cotton is also grown and exported. melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes are cultivated very largely, and as the river recedes in the summer, the moist bed is sown with water-melon seeds, which flourish splendidly in the damp soil. fruit is largely grown in the mountains, and brought down on donkeys. apricots are very abundant; cherries, plums, peaches are less plentiful. the best apples are brought from damascus; they look good, but are flavourless. grapes are very largely cultivated, and are brought to great perfection. the large black kind are very delicious; there is also a white grape which has a very sweet flavour. vegetables of all kinds are grown in the gardens near mosul: beans, peas, spinach, carrots (red), beetroot, onions, artichokes, as well as many other varieties. potatoes are brought from persia, and sometimes suffer so much from the long journey that they are only fit to be thrown away when they reach mosul. last winter several hundreds of sacks of potatoes were thrown into the river at mosul, as they had been frostbitten on the journey from persia, and so were useless. "manna" is found in the mountains, and is collected and sent to mosul, where it is made into a sweetmeat called "halawwi." the industries of mosul are chiefly spinning and weaving. a very strong kind of cotton cloth is woven, also calico and woollen goods. many years ago this industry was much larger than it is at present, and in those days mosul gave its name to muslin, a fabric exported by the french from that town in the last century. weaving is done by men, while the women do the spinning and dyeing of the cotton or wool. weaving is a very favourite occupation, as the weaver can do just as much or as little as he likes, being paid accordingly. for this reason a man who is inclined to be lazy would much rather be a weaver than a servant. furs are largely exported from mosul. the skin of the fox is most common, but there is another fur much resembling the sable which is highly prized amongst the natives, a coat lined with this fur costing something like £ . some years ago furs could be bought quite cheaply in mosul, but the merchants finding a good market for their goods in europe, the prices soon went up, and now even fox is becoming expensive. the industries of mosul are not what they were, but we trust better days are coming, when the old prosperity of the town will be renewed and increased. the three great questions now under consideration with regard to the land of mesopotamia will have great influence on the future of mosul. the first is the navigation of the tigris from baghdad to mosul. this, when an accomplished fact, will make a great difference in the export and import trade of the city. the baghdad railway will also greatly increase the importance of mosul, for the line running through it will bring the east in close touch with the near west. perhaps the most important subject of all in connection with the future of mosul is that of the irrigation of mesopotamia, which, once accomplished, will turn the whole of that vast desert into a garden. the means to be employed for this end are simply the reviving of the old assyrian method of irrigation. this method consisted in the digging of canals to intersect the land between the rivers tigris and euphrates. maps of these same canals are still to be seen in the british museum and other places, and are of great interest. these great canals, made in the prosperous days of the assyrian empire, are now choked up, after having been in use for many centuries by the inhabitants of the country. layard, in his "discoveries at nineveh," says, "herodotus describes the extreme fertility of assyria and its abundant harvests of corn, the seed producing two and three hundred-fold"; and adds later, "but in his day the assyrians depended as much upon artificial irrigation as upon the winter rains. they were skilful in constructing machines for raising water, and their system of canals was as remarkable for its ingenuity as for the knowledge of hydraulics it displayed." since the result of irrigation in those ancient days was two to three hundred-fold, surely if carried out to-day with the additional knowledge of modern science and experience the ground would yield an even larger return. it has been estimated that £ , , would be sufficient to reopen all the old canals of mesopotamia, with the certainty that the land thus irrigated would yield an abundant profit. "ensha'allah," this much-talked-of scheme will soon be carried out, and mesopotamia become once more "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and of honey." chapter ii the people of mosul population--moslems--christians--chaldeans--nestorians--jacobites --arabs--kurds--jews--yezidees--recreations--warfare of the slingers--hammam ali--the recreation ground of mosul men and women. "... the world is great, but each has but his own land in the world." a. c. swinburne. the population of mosul has been estimated to be anything between sixty and eighty thousand people. if the whole "vilayet" is included the number will be something like a million and a half. these people are made up of many different nationalities and tribes, each retaining its own leading characteristics, whilst many have a language peculiar to themselves. the inhabitants of mosul are chiefly arabs, of whom by far the larger part are mohammedans. these of course form the strong religious element in the city, as they are the conquerors of the land. this is a fact, too, which they take care never to lose sight of. in the market, the mosque, and the street, the mohammedan is always proclaiming by look, word, and deed that he is the master. a christian finds himself at a great disadvantage in the market, for when buying from a moslem he is not allowed to handle the food, and must purchase his goods to a great extent on trust. in all mosques, which once were christian churches, it is customary for the mullah to preach with a naked sword in his hand. this is done in order to remind the people that the mohammedan religion was propagated by the sword, and must, if necessary, be retained by the same means. in the streets the difference is very marked between the two, the mohammedan behaving as if the whole place belonged to him, while the christians, and more especially the jews, always appear as if they were apologising for their very existence. the moslems are the rulers, and they make their power felt. an amusing instance illustrating this feeling occurred a short time ago. a little moslem boy was walking through the street on his way to our house when, apparently without any provocation, a christian girl began to revile him as he passed. the boy instantly turned on the girl and gave her a thrashing. i did not hear anything of this for some days, and then only in an indirect way. some one told me that the boy had received a severe beating from the master of the school which he was attending, and on asking the reason of the punishment was told the foregoing story. i am very fond of the boy, he is such a dear, bright little chap, with great wondering eyes. upon hearing the history of his encounter with the girl, i sent for the boy, and tried to tell him how wrong it was for a man to strike a woman. "but," said the boy, quite innocently, "she was a christian!" thus early in life is instilled into the young mind of the moslem his inherent right to act the tyrant. on the other hand, it is a strange truth that moslems very often prefer to have christian servants in their houses, as they find they are more faithful. in many hareems the "slaves," or girls who have been bought for life, are very often children of christian parents, who have been willing for a few pounds to sell their girls. the reverse of this is also true, that christian families often find that a moslem servant is more trustworthy than one of their own religion. a few months ago i heard of a little black boy in mosul, whose mother, a moslem negress, was anxious to find him a home. we offered to take the boy and bring him up, but the mother absolutely refused our offer, as we were christians, and she was afraid her boy might become the same, as he was then only one year old, and had not yet learnt to hate the christians! there are some , to , christians in mosul, who are said to date their conversion back to the time of st. adday, who was a disciple of st. thomas; others migrated from baghdad to mosul at the time of the caliphas. these christians have remained firm to the religion of their forefathers in spite of much persecution and many trials. to-day in mosul there are many different sects of christians to be found, viz. the chaldean, syrian, nestorian, jacobite, armenian, and greek. the chaldeans in mosul now entirely belong to the romish church, having been admitted to that body about a hundred years ago by means of the dominican mission who started work amongst these ancient christians. they have their own bishop and archbishop, the patriarch making mosul his headquarters since . the nestorians are the true chaldeans, and repudiate the name nestorian. they live amongst the mountains, have resisted all efforts of the romish church, and remain true to the faith of their fathers. they, in common with the other christians, date their christianity from the time of the apostles as the converts of st. thomas. they refuse to accept nestorius, the patriarch of constantinople, as their founder, saying that he was a greek, while they were syrians. they assert that "he did not even know our language, and so how could he have propagated his doctrines among us?" and they also declare that their religion was an established fact long before nestorius was born. they have their own patriarch, who resides near van, a distance of ten days from mosul. they regard the pope and his followers with feelings of great hatred, and are said to curse him and his forefathers regularly every day. in answer to a message from the pope urging reconciliation with rome, the patriarch sent the following answer: "i shall never become a roman catholic, and should you ever induce my people to do so, i would sooner become a dervish or a mullah than degrade myself by an alliance with the pope." the patriarch of the nestorians is not allowed to marry; he is also compelled to be a strict vegetarian. when it is thought advisable to nominate a successor to the archbishopric, the wife of a near relative (if possible, a brother) of the then patriarch is chosen as the possible mother of the future dignitary. she is set apart as holy till the birth of her child, her diet meanwhile being strictly vegetarian. if the child proves to be a boy, he is solemnly dedicated to god from his birth, and is never allowed to touch meat or flesh of any kind. should the child unfortunately be a girl, the choice has to be made again, and great is the disappointment of the mother, the honour of being the mother of a patriarch being much coveted and prized. in these people suffered a terrible massacre at the hands of the kurds; , of them are said to have perished, and after being hunted from place to place the patriarch finally fled for refuge to the english consulate at mosul. the jacobite section of the christian church in mosul is a small one, and so far remains firm to its old faith, resisting all attempts by the church of rome to effect a union. it, too, has its own bishop in mosul, but the patriarch resides in mardin, where he has many thousands of adherents. he pays periodical visits to his scattered flock in mosul and the surrounding country. they trace the origin of their name to one jacob baradæus, a reformer who arose in the sixth century, and refusing to follow the lead of the other syrians in joining the romish church, continued in the old faith, which has since been called by his name (an alternative name being the old syrian church). the population of mosul also consists of arabs, kurds, yezidees, and jews. the arabs are the original inhabitants of the desert, who date their descent back to the time of shem, the son of noah. they are divided into many tribes, of which the most important in mesopotamia is that of the great shammar clan, who are to be found in all parts. there are three classes of arabs, namely, those who have settled down in one place and become town arabs, such as the inhabitants of mosul: the wandering tribes of the desert or bedouins, who live in tents and whose occupation is sheep farming: a third class of arabs are the robbers of the desert, who subsist solely by plunder, and roam the desert seeking for a livelihood by any means that may come to their hand. the wandering tribes find it very hard to settle down to a fixed abode after the free life of the desert, and they prefer often to suffer pain and inconvenience rather than spend a few days or weeks beneath a roof and within the walls of a hospital. a story is told of a bedouin lady of the seventh century, whose husband rose afterwards to be one of the caliphs. when taken to damascus to live in luxury and state, she pined for the freedom of the desert, and gave utterance to her loneliness in the following verses:-- "a tent with rustling breezes cool delights me more than palace high, and more the cloak of simple wool than robes in which i learned to sigh. the crust i ate beside my tent was more than this fine bread to me; the wind's voice where the hill-path went was more than tambourine can be." [ ] arab women have come to the hospital from time to time, but they always long to return to their desert life, and are impatient at the restraints of town life. the kurds are a warlike people inhabiting the mountains round mosul. they are the descendants of the wild people of the mountains mentioned by xenophon as the karduchi, who so severely harassed the greeks during their retreat. in later years they were known as the parthians, who opposed the romans. from this people came the celebrated saladin, the opponent of richard coeur de lion in the crusading days. the kurds have been compared to the old scottish highlanders, who were noted for their devotion to their chiefs. a well-known writer, in speaking of this trait in the character of these people, says that once he heard the following story: "a chieftain having died, one of his followers, who was standing on the roof of his house when the news of his master's death was brought to him, exclaimed, 'what! is the beg dead? then i will not live another moment,' and immediately threw himself from the roof and was dashed to pieces." a few of these kurds are nestorians, but the majority of them are moslems, and are a very fierce-looking set of people. they carry as a rule large daggers in the waistband, and are quite capable of using them when necessary. we once had a servant who was a kurd, and although as a rule a peaceable man, he often longed to be off when he heard of any fighting going on in his country. he used to boast to the other servants of the many people he had robbed and murdered! but said of course he would never harm us, as we were in the place of father and mother to him. we are quite hoping to secure his services again on our return to mosul. there are about two thousand jews in mosul, who date their descent from the time of the captivity. when cyrus issued his decree allowing all jews to return to their native land, about fifty thousand of those living in mesopotamia joyfully availed themselves of this permission, but a few preferred to remain in their adopted land, and their descendants are there to this day. in spite of much persecution, they have remained firm in their belief. mohammed quite hoped at first that the jews would easily be converted to mohammedanism. he therefore instructed all his followers to turn their faces towards the temple at jerusalem when praying, but before many months he saw that his hopes in this direction were doomed to disappointment. he therefore withdrew his former instructions, and ordained that in future all mohammedans should turn to the ka'aba at mecca when engaged in prayer. the jews in mosul are looked down upon and despised by christian and moslem alike. in the dispensary it is sad to see with what loathing the jews are treated. the scornful way in which the word "yahudi" (jew) is hurled at these people is enough to make one's heart ache for them. if there is anything degrading to be done, a jew is the only one to be found willing to do it. the jews are the shoe-blacks of mosul. it being considered very degrading to clean boots and shoes, the jew undertakes this task, receiving payment at the rate of about / d. a pair. it is a wonderful sight to see all these different nationalities--moslems, christians, jews, kurds, arabs, devil worshippers--all sitting down together in the waiting-room of the dispensary while waiting their turn to see the doctor. it reminds one of the picture of peace, in which the artist depicts the lion, the leopard, and the wolf living in harmony with the lamb. i am afraid the resemblance is only superficial, for in the hearts of that rude miscellaneous throng there is little of peace, and much of anger, wrath, jealousy, hatred, and murder. the dwellers in the desert and mountain would scorn the idea of passing the time in recreations of any kind, but the town gentlemen much enjoy a little relaxation from their arduous (?) labours. riding and racing are much in vogue in mosul. just outside one of the gates is a long, level stretch of land, uncultivated, which is used by the sporting part of the population for racing. betting is not a part of the programme. any one who possesses a horse is at liberty to enter it for the races; and every thursday afternoon a large conclave of people may be seen watching the performance with great interest. horse dealers who have horses for sale race their animals with the hope that they will carry off the palm, in which case the value of the horse is considerably raised. a few of the mosul men go in for hunting, but it is not a favourite pastime. my husband sometimes goes with some of the begs, who are fond of hawking. the boys much enjoy slinging, and some of them are quite experts at it, at times their aim being rather too accurate. the spring is the season for slinging, and hundreds of boys may be seen outside the town on a fine day armed with these instruments of torture. they line up along the walls of the city, and take aim at every passer-by. this is somewhat disconcerting, especially when some little boy takes a shot at your horse's head or tail, a game of which the animal does not at all approve. or sometimes the boys form armies, each opposing side being composed of an equal number of slingers. they stand at a distance of about fifty yards apart and commence warfare in real earnest. it is rather a terrible ordeal to have to run the gauntlet of these two opposing armies. the stones seem to whizz round one's head in a most alarming manner; but although my mare has received a few stray shots of which she much disapproved, yet i have fortunately never actually been hit. occasionally boys become so vicious in their excitement that the government here has to put a stop to their "wars" for a time, as they do so much injury to one another. a form of recreation which is indulged in by all the mosul people is that of paying a yearly visit to a hot sulphur spring. this spring is situated about twelve miles from mosul on the baghdad road, and is called hammam ali. a small village has grown up around the spring, but cannot furnish anything like the accommodation needed for the thousands of visitors who flock there in the early summer. to meet this need, small booths are built of dried grass, each family renting one for the time of their visit. two years ago it was estimated that ten thousand people from mosul were there at one time, all congregated together without any proper accommodation, or any sanitary arrangements; the consequence was that disease and sickness were very prevalent amongst them, and many went seeking health, and found death. last year a similar number were as usual gathered at hammam ali, when one evening a lighted match was carelessly thrown down, with the result that in a few minutes many of these booths were a mass of flames. several children were burnt to death and two women. the next day the exodus from the place was universal. we were staying then at a house midway between mosul and hammam ali, and watched the procession of people returning, a steady stream from morning till night. after a day or two, however, the sad episode was forgotten, and visitors began to flock back again. we once saw this celebrated place. it was on our way to mosul, and we arrived late one night at hammam ali, minus our tent. the villagers kindly offered us the use of the hammam (bath) for the night, so we made a tour of inspection, but decided to decline their offer with thanks. the place was damp, dirty, and malodorous. we preferred to pass the night in a stable, which looked a trifle more inviting, although full of rat-holes. in the morning i paid a visit to the hammam, as it was a ladies' bathing day, and found the bath crowded with women and children, packed in like sardines in a box! the water was very hot, and i wondered the women could stand so long in it. some of them looked rather as if they had been boiled. here were women and children, apparently healthy, bathing in the same water as others suffering from all manner of skin diseases and other horrible things. however, they all looked perfectly happy and contented; and i would not grudge these poor creatures any little pleasure which might help to brighten their lives. we shall see in the following chapters how little brightness they possess, and, on the other hand, how much of sadness and sorrow. chapter iii the river tigris the river tigris--ancient historical interest--garden of eden-- origin of name unknown--swiftness--sources--navigation--keleqs --bathing, fishing, washing--crossing rivers. "the softly lapsing river, it whispers in its flow, of dear days gone for ever, those days of long ago." p. b. marston. the river tigris, on the banks of which mosul is situated, is a noble stream. though inferior in length to its sister the euphrates, yet it is no mean rival, either in antiquity or historical fame. they share together the distinction of having on their banks the romantic spot reputed to be the paradise of adam and eve. the garden of eden is situated, according to the tradition of the country, near the junction of the euphrates and tigris. when we passed that way on our journey from busrah to baghdad, the land was flooded by the spring rains, so we saw nothing of the beauties of paradise. the tigris can also claim, in common with the euphrates, an interesting connection with some of the ancient kingdoms of the world, extending back to early post-diluvian times. near by, the assyrian empire built its towns of splendour and strength. daniel records visions seen upon its banks, cyrus is said to have marched his troops along its shores, alexander overthrew the armies of the medes and persians near its basin, while in the plain of nineveh the dynasty of the ommiade caliphs was destroyed and supplanted by that of the abassides. the origin of its name is unknown, but it is thought that the swiftly-flowing character of the river gave rise to its name. hence the old scriptural name hiddekel, signifying "swift or quick." owing to its wealth of fertilising power, it is sometimes called by the arabs "nahar-as-salam," the river of peace. at all times the tigris is a swift river, but the velocity with which it travels differs according to the season of the year, the swiftest time of all being in the spring, when the snows from all the surrounding mountains melt and rush down to the river, causing it often to overflow its banks, and increasing its impetuosity to a great extent. at this time it is possible to travel on the river from mosul to baghdad in forty-eight hours, while in the late summer or autumn it takes at least ten or twelve days. when flowing at its fastest rate, the tigris is said to be swifter than the danube. the course of the river is a very winding one, extending for about miles. its breadth varies very much. at mosul it is a little less than feet, at baghdad about , while in one place where another river flows into it, the width amounts to over feet. the sources of the tigris are at an altitude about feet above sea-level, but the greater part of its fall is accomplished at its commencement, by the time it reaches mosul the elevation above sea-level is only feet, the remainder of its course, a distance of about miles, being made by easy descent. with a very little trouble the river could easily be made navigable as far up as mosul, the chief hindrance to this being obstructions in the river which could be removed by dynamite or other explosives. a day's journey from mosul by water there is a large dam stretching right across the river, believed to have been built by darius with the intent to prevent alexander from penetrating his dominions by means of the river. when the tigris is full this is not an insurmountable barrier even as it exists now. during the summer and autumn the water is very shallow, and steamers would find it difficult to reach mosul, but a little engineering could render the river navigable at all seasons. once or twice steamers have reached mosul, thereby causing great excitement amongst the natives. for the last thirty years it has been the talk of mosul that "steamers are coming," but they have not yet started. we heard a year ago that two steamers had been chartered for plying between mosul and baghdad, and were only awaiting a firman from the sultan, but so far nothing has been seen of them. pending the inauguration of steamers, the natives still continue to use the same method of river transport as existed in the days of abraham and jonah. this consists of a raft-like construction, and is employed for both passenger and goods traffic. it is composed of a number of sheep or goat skins inflated and fastened close together, upon which cross-bars of wood are laid and bound firmly in place. the skins are examined daily and when necessary reinflated; great care must be taken to keep them moist, for if they become dry they are liable to burst. the raft is manned by one or two natives, whose only work is to guide the "keleq," as the raft is called, to keep it in the middle of the stream, away from all dangerous rocks and shoals. for this purpose a rough kind of oar is used, made from the branch of a tree, with palm branches at the end forming the blade. the keleq floats down the river with the current, the passengers amusing themselves with singing and reciting stories. when a european travels, a little hut is built for his convenience. a light framework of lath is run up, just large enough to hold a travelling bedstead and chair; this is covered with felt or water-proof sheeting and placed upon the raft. on arrival at baghdad the whole is sold for about half its original price. the owner of the keleq sells the planks of wood forming the floor of the raft, packs up carefully his skins, and returns by land to mosul, as the current is too strong to allow of his return the same way as he came. he is then ready to be hired for another journey. in good weather a journey on a raft is a very pleasant mode of travelling. it has many advantages over caravaning by land. there is no need of the early morning or midnight scramble preparatory to the start. the owner simply ties up after sunset, and as soon as dawn appears he quietly slips the rope, and off the raft glides, while the passenger is still sweetly slumbering, unconscious of any movement. in summer, however, the river is the happy hunting-ground of flies and mosquitoes, the result being that rest and sleep are impossible either by day or night. in a storm, too, the keleq is not a very secure place of refuge. an english lady travelling from mosul to baghdad was once caught in a hurricane and her keleq blown about in such a way that she expected every minute to find herself precipitated into the river, while her little hut and all its contents were saturated through and through with water. a raft is a good target for the arabs whose villages lie along the banks of the river. an englishman once placed his bicycle, which he was taking home, on the top of his hut, thinking to keep it out of harm's way. the arabs, seeing this extraordinary-looking machine, at once came to the conclusion that it was a maxim gun or some such deadly weapon. they immediately opened fire, and continued shooting till the raft was out of sight--fortunately with no serious result. the french consul at mosul was also attacked by arabs when travelling on a keleq. for seven hours they kept up an active fusilade, both parties making good use of their guns. the merchants of mosul use these rafts for exporting their goods to baghdad and other places. after the harvest enormous keleqs may daily be seen leaving mosul, loaded heavily with wheat and corn. all goods for the south are exported in this way. for these large commercial rafts, about three to four hundred skins are used, while others contain from fifty to two hundred, according to the size of raft and number of passengers. a european travelling alone would need about one hundred and fifty to two hundred skins to make a fairly comfortable raft. natives often use a single inflated skin for travelling down the river, sometimes even going as far as baghdad on one. this latter feat a man has been known to accomplish in twenty-four hours. it is by no means as easy as it looks, to balance yourself on a skin; when bathing we have often tried, but found it very difficult. the arabs use these skins as ferry-boats when the river is unfordable. they take off their garments and tie them round their head as a turban, so that when they reach the opposite side their clothes are quite dry. in a village near mosul i have seen women crossing the river in this way, many of them carrying a child on her back in addition to a large bundle of clothes which she has been washing in the river. the arabs, both men, women, and children, are quite at home in the river--swimming as easily as ducks, and playing all manner of games in the water; it is quite interesting to watch them from a distance. the women do not take off their long loose garment, but just hold the skirt of it in their teeth if it impedes their swimming. last summer we were staying for a time at a castle quite near the river, about an hour's ride from mosul; while there we bathed almost every day, a small wood running to the edge of the water acting as a convenient dressing-place. the owner of the castle gave notice to all the villagers that the wood was "hareem" each afternoon, so we were always quite private. i engaged the services of an arab woman to teach me to swim whenever my husband could not be there. she could swim like a fish herself, but had no idea of teaching any one else; however, before our holidays were over i had mastered the art. she would make me put one hand on her shoulder and then call out: "now, kick"--that was the sum total of her instructions, "kick"! the river is considered very dangerous for bathing unless you know it well. shortly before we were there last year, an arab woman had been drowned. she was a good swimmer, and was swimming in deep water, when suddenly she called out that she was drowning, and before any one could go to her rescue she sank, and was quickly carried down the stream by the current; when the body was recovered life was quite extinct. for a few days the women were too frightened to bathe in that place, thinking that death was due to something in the water; but when we arrived a fortnight later they had apparently quite recovered from their fright, and were bathing as usual. another day we were watching the men playing in the water, when suddenly a black object appeared in the distance floating down the stream; it looked like the head of a baby. as it approached the place where the men were bathing, one of our servants swam out to see what it was, and found to his horror it was the body of a man. he brought it to the bank, and every one rushed to view the corpse. then came the question as to who would bury it; no one was willing to do this, although the body was that of an arab, and all the onlookers were also arab villagers. we offered backsheesh to any one who would dig the grave, but no one volunteered, and suggested pushing the body out into the current again to be carried to baghdad, as the easiest way of settling the matter. finally a mullah passed by, and seeing the body, ordered some men to bury it at once. we were very thankful, as we could not bear to think of the poor body floating down the stream, or being left exposed on the banks of the river. we watched some men dig a very shallow grave, and the body was laid to rest, the mullah reciting some moslem prayers ere it was covered with earth and stones. as one sees such scenes as this taking place, it is not pleasant to think that this same river forms our sole water supply for drinking and all domestic purposes! if we take a walk down the river to the place where the water-carriers fetch the water, we shall have all the more reason thoroughly to enjoy our water! there hundreds of women are to be seen washing their clothes, men and boys enjoying a swim, horses, mules, and donkeys revelling in the mud; while not at all unlikely a few dead dogs or cats may be seen floating around! all congregate in this favourite spot. this being the case, it is not surprising that often our water resembles mud much more than water when brought to the house. needless to say, all our drinking-water is filtered and boiled before using. the water is brought from the river in skins on the back of donkeys or mules, at the rate of s. d. a hundred skins. it seems so absurd to be paying in this way for water when, with a comparatively speaking small outlay, it could easily be conveyed to each house by means of pipes from the river running close by. this has been done by an energetic vali in damascus, and the result is enviable. the tigris cannot be said to contain a great or varied supply of fish, but there are two or three kinds to be found, which help to vary the housekeeping monotony of everlasting mutton and chicken. a very large fish called "bis" is the best kind, as the meat is tender and mild, while the bones are few; the others seem to be all bones, and are hardly worth eating, besides being absolutely flavourless. fishing is carried on from the bridge by the fish-sellers. a line is generally used, baited with melon or pieces of flesh. sometimes poison is thrown into the river in order to kill the fish, which then float on the top of the water and are easily caught. in the summer it is very risky buying fish in the bazaar, as it so soon becomes stale; so if i want to be quite sure of having fresh fish, i send a servant down to the bridge to see a fish caught and then bring it home. as a matter of fact, i fancy he does not at all like sitting in the sun waiting, so often beguiles the time by sitting in the coffee-house situated on the banks of the river; and then, having allowed an hour or two to elapse, returns empty-handed, saying: "there are no fish in the river to-day." rivers without bridges are a great trial of patience when journeying; it takes such a long time to transport everything, and the crossing generally takes place at the end of a stage when every one is tired, and--shall i confess it?--often cross too. the waiting in the burning sun while the boats are fetched, the weary bargaining, and all the usual trials of patience become exaggerated out of their due proportions when you know that just across the water is the resting-place for the night--so near and yet so far! and as you sit on the wrong side of the river waiting, waiting, it is difficult to feel restful and at peace with all men. i long often to be able to do as the animals do, i.e. swim over. a small charge is made for the transport of each animal, so the muleteer often prefers to swim over himself, taking his animals with him. there is as a rule only one ferry-boat, so that you have to take your turn; and as each passage takes about an hour, a great deal of patience is often needed. the ferry-boat is a large flat-bottomed, antediluvian-looking construction, and you wonder how ever it can bear the weight of all that is put upon it. when a carriage is to be transported the horses are first unharnessed, then the vehicle is lifted bodily on to the boat, with all its contents, the passengers and horses finding standing-room as best they can. when you get to the other side your troubles are not over, for on starting to put up the tent you find one of the poles has been left behind on the other side; so there is nothing to do but to sit still and continue the waiting process. or perhaps you think a cup of tea would help while away the time, only to find that the charcoal has not yet arrived! so there is only one thing to do, and that is to wait till everything is safely landed; then you can begin to prepare for the long-delayed rest. chapter iv the children of mosul spoiling process--despair of the parents--the "god" of the hareem--death by burning--festivities at birth of boy--cradles and cradle songs--school life--feast in honour of a boy having read the koran through--"only a girl"--girl life--girl victims of naseeb--marriage. "the household must weep for forty days on the birth of a girl." arabic proverb. "is it all forgot? all schooldays' friendship, childhood's innocence?" shakespeare. "where children are not, heaven is not." a. swinburne. the children of mosul have on the whole a very good time. from their earliest days they are allowed to do pretty much as they like, and only when the process of spoiling is completed, and the child has become a terror to all, do the parents realise that it is far easier to spoil a child than to "unspoil" him, once the deed is done. this method, or rather lack of method, of bringing up the children, is a great cause of trouble and sorrow in after years both to the parents and to the children themselves, but yet they never seem to profit by their experiences, for they still continue to say that it is a great "aib" or shame to deny a child anything he may want. although this spoiling process is carried on with both boys and girls in the earlier years of their lives, it is brought to perfection in their treatment of the boys. i remember a pretty little child called jamila (beautiful); she was so fair and pretty that she was known by many as "the english child." when she was about three years old she became very ill, and the mother brought her to my husband, who prescribed for her, but said that the chief part of the treatment lay in the diet. on no account was solid food to be given for at least three or four days. the mother looked in despair when she heard this, as she said, "jamila will cry if she cannot have her meat and bread and pillau!" a day or two later i was calling at the house, and saw that jamila was looking very ill, and asked the mother what the child had been eating. "oh," she said, "poor little child, i had to give her meat and bread, for she tore her hair and clothes in her anger, on my refusing to give them to her, and so, how could i deny them to her?" and sure enough, while i was there, jamila began to cry for bread, and on her mother refusing, threw herself on the ground in a paroxysm of anger, beating her head and face with her clenched fist, till she was quite blue and black in the face. the mother ran at once and brought bread and meat, and gave to the child, who immediately recovered her equanimity of mind and temper. then again, i have seen a room full of people all in despair over a child of perhaps two or three years old, who refuses to drink his medicine ordered by the doctor. the father begins the performance by solemnly taking the glass containing the medicine up to the child, and saying to him, "oh, my beloved, will you take this medicine?" "no," says the child, and pushes it away. the father looks round on the audience for signs of wonder and astonishment at the marvellous doings of the child. then perhaps the uncle has a try, and meets with like success; then the mother, the aunts, and a few friends all beseech the child to take the medicine, saying, "for my sake, for the sake of your father, your mother, &c., take this," but, of course, all are unsuccessful, and they all shake their heads and say, "i told you so, he will not take it," and it being a "khatiya" (sin) to force a child to do anything against his will, the child, of course, gains the victory in this as in everything else. if you suggest pouring the medicine down the child's throat by force, the parents and friends will put you down as being a monster of cruelty. if there happens to be only one boy in the hareem, he becomes almost like a little god to all the women folk. a small friend of mine was in this position, and although a very jolly little boy, was fast becoming unbearable in his actions towards his grandmother, mother, and aunts. he was only about eight years old, but one day he was calling on me with his aunt, whom i loved very much, when, without the smallest provocation, he suddenly took up a stick and gave his aunt two or three hard cuts across her shoulders with it, and then ran laughing out of the room. i did not say anything to the boy, but presently my husband came in to lunch, and i asked him to give the boy a beating, and told him what he had done. so we went to hunt for the boy, and found him hiding behind his grandmother, who besought us not to touch the darling boy. my husband gave the boy a very slight whipping, and told him if ever he did such a thing again, he would give him something to remember! the boy was so astonished at being chastised, that to this day he has been a changed boy, and much more bearable in his home life. another instance of the way the boys are spoilt. a woman and her daughter, a little girl of about eight years, were sitting in their verandah one day behind a pile of cotton which had just been "fluffed" by the man whose work it is to fluff cotton. the son of the woman, a boy of seven, thought it would be great fun to set a light to this cotton, which he promptly did by throwing a lighted match into the midst of it, with the result that his mother and sister were burnt to death. i called at the house some days after, and found the boy who had done this deed quite a hero in the eyes of the women folk, and far from being blamed and punished, on the contrary they were fondling and caressing him more than ever. i told them i thought the boy was so pleased with all the attention he was receiving, that very likely he would do the same thing again if he had the opportunity. let me give you a short sketch of a child's life, in order that you may see for yourself something of their everyday life. as we are talking of eastern children, we must begin with the boy, as he is so much more important a personage than a mere girl. a boy's birth is celebrated by great rejoicings and feastings, and if the family is a well-to-do one, at least two sheep will be slain and cooked and given to the poor. our next-door neighbours were rejoicing over the birth of a boy a short time ago, and they thought it necessary to sacrifice three sheep, and for two days the poor were coming with their little dishes and pots to carry away portions of the meat. i went to see this ceremony, and it was very interesting. apparently no questions were asked, the only recommendations necessary being poverty and need. also hundreds of loaves of bread were given away at this time. if we go to the hareem to admire and pay our homage to the little king, we must be careful not to praise him too much, or, if we do, we must qualify our praise by saying "mash'allah," which will counteract any evil influence. we shall find the baby boy swathed up tightly in his swaddling clothes, his eyebrows and eyelids pencilled with native cosmetics, and very likely a beauty spot on his forehead; his little head will be covered with a little silk cap, over which a handkerchief will be wrapped, and on the cap will be seen some coins and blue beads, to avert the dreaded evil eye. we shall find him very probably strapped tightly into a cradle made of brightly-painted wood; the baby is laid on the top of the little mattress, which is level with the sides of the cradle, and then strapped down. as he grows out of his first cradle he will be given another and larger one, and much more comfortable, in which he need not be strapped, as the sides are high enough to prevent his falling out; a cord is attached to the cradle, so that his mother can swing him gently while she sits and spins or does anything she has to do. it is very quaint to listen to their monotonous chant as they rock the cradle, and very often they sing to the swing of the cradle, "allah ho, allah hi, allah ho, allah hi," "he is god, he is living, he is god, he is living." the first time of shaving a boy's head is looked upon as a very important day, and the barber must be careful to leave a little tuft of hair on the top of the head, by which he can be pulled up into heaven, otherwise he might get left behind. when the boy is about five, he will probably be sent to school. he is then dressed as a miniature man, in white knickerbockers, shirt, coloured vest, and silk or cloth "zeboon," a loose garment reaching to the ankles; on his head, of course, will be the inevitable red fez, adorned with charms to bring him good luck and keep off evil. arrived at the school, our little friend will seat himself on the ground, and his education will begin by learning the a b t (alef, bey, tey), the a, b, c, of the arabic language. after he has mastered the alphabet, and can write a few words, then the koran will be started, and the boy will be kept hard at this, each day learning a short portion till a chapter is known perfectly by heart. all the boys in the school may be reciting different portions of the koran at the same time, and in a sing-song tone, so that, as you pass up and down the streets, it is easy to recognise these seats of learning for the young. i have often peeped into some of these schools, and watched the boys, all seated on the ground, swaying themselves backwards and forwards, repeating the koran in a loud, monotonous voice. when a boy has been through the koran once, a great feast is made in his honour. he is decked out in grand new garments, generally of silk and embroidery, and men dancers are engaged for a day or more, according to the means of the parents. the son of a friend of mine in mosul had just completed this part of his education, and his mother sent word to know if the dancers might come and dance before us in our compound. we thought this might be rather trying, as they would probably have stayed all day, so i sent a message thanking her for the honour, but saying i would prefer to come to her house to see the "tamash" (sight), as i only had a limited time to give to it. so at the time appointed i went, accompanied by a woman servant and a man, as i thought there would probably be a great commotion. on arriving at the door of the house, it seemed hopeless even to think of getting in, as the courtyard was full of men, dancing, shouting, yelling, whirling and slashing naked swords and daggers. the court was a very small one, and my first thought was to turn and fly, but the hostess was a very dear friend of mine, and i did not like to disappoint her, so i sent the man-servant in front to open a passage in the crowd and followed hard after him, and felt very thankful when we reached a room safely. the women were gathered there looking out of the windows at the fun. but this did not seem to please the dancers, for they called repeatedly for the "khatoun" (lady) to come and watch them, and some even followed me into the room, thereby throwing the women into a state of panic and fright. the men were so wildly excited that they hardly knew what they were doing. stripped to the waist, they flourished their swords and yelled, then jumped high into the air, then crouched on the ground and again leapt into the air, all the time pointing the daggers or swords either at their own hearts or some one else's. to add to the general excitement, other men were beating drums and playing on a weird kind of stringed instrument. after receiving their "backsheesh" they departed, for which i was not sorry. the boy in whose honour all this is taking place is very happy and delighted, and thinks now he is a man, and so, as he is leaving his childhood behind him, we too will leave him and pass on to the much less important subject (from an eastern standpoint) of the childhood of a girl. "only a girl"--"only a girl." these are the words which generally follow the announcement of the birth of a girl. poor little mite, her entrance into the world is not a cause of great joy or rejoicing, and from her earliest days, i think, this lies as a shadow upon her; for to my mind there is a sadness and pathos about the little girls quite different to the masterful looks and ways of the boys, the lords of creation. as it is a part of the moslem's creed to bow in submission to the will of god, so the parents now, as always, say, "it is god's will" ("al allah"), and bow their heads in submission to this new yoke put upon them. of course there are exceptions, and some love their little daughters very much, but taken as a rule, girls are not welcome--certainly not more than one. if the parents of the girl baby are well-to-do, perhaps they may sacrifice one sheep, but the feastings and almsgiving are done in a much quieter way and with as little ostentation as possible; and if you visit the mother it is not necessary to say very much about the new arrival as it is "only a girl," and it is not well to make the poor mother feel too sad. so the little girl starts her life, with not too much love and attention. if she happens to be well and strong she will thrive apace in spite of all, but if she is at all inclined to be weak or delicate, the chances are that she will be neglected until it is too late for human aid, and then perhaps, as a conscience salve, she will be taken to the doctor by the mother or some other relative. how many of these little victims have been brought when too late to my husband i should not like to say. directly the doctor sees a child suffering from some terribly neglected disease he at once says, "a girl, of course! if the child had been a boy you would have brought him long ago." and so, alas, it is true of many cases. it is a convenient way of getting rid of some of a too numerous family of girls, and then the mothers and relations will piously clasp their hands and say, "it is the will of god." the will of god, indeed! this so-called submission to the will of god, or "kismet" or "naseeb," as the turk and arab call it, is often responsible for a great deal of neglect by mothers of their little girls. for instance, there was such a nice-looking young widow who used to come and see me. she had two children, both girls, the elder about five years of age, and the younger nearly three. this younger child was a perfectly beautiful child--just like a lovely wax doll; indeed, so much did she resemble a doll that she was often called "l'abbi," which means a doll. her sweet little face had a complexion which any english mother might have been proud of, and her large brown eyes were full of life and fun, while her dear little golden curls falling over her forehead and forming a halo round her head gave her an appearance of a little cherub. i found out very soon that this child had the beginnings of a terrible disease in her, which, if attended to at once, might be cured, but which neglected would mean certain and sure death. i spoke to the mother about it, and implored her to bring the child to the hospital for treatment; but no, she would not listen; she simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "naseeb, al allah. if the child is to die, she will die; if it is written she is to live, she will live," and nothing i could say would induce her either to bring the child or to let us have her to take care of; and i heard afterwards from a neighbour that the mother wanted the little girlie to die, so that she might be free to marry again, as no man would take a wife who already was burdened with two girls. instances of this kind might be multiplied by the hundred, showing how girl life is neglected, under the blasphemous idea that it is "naseeb." as a rule it is not considered at all necessary to send a moslem girl to school, but quite lately the turkish authorities have opened some schools for girls in mosul, and have sent women teachers from constantinople, so this is a step in the right direction. i visited one of these schools, and was very much struck by the happier looks of the girls compared with the faces of the same girls in their own homes. they are taught to read and write and, of course, to recite the koran. also, we were shown some very pretty pieces of silk embroidery which the girls had just finished, and really some were quite artistic and pretty. these schools are free, the teachers being paid by government, and, therefore, girls of all classes sit side by side. the pasha's daughter and the daughter of the pasha's slave may both attend the same school and mix quite freely and happily together. for the first seven or eight years of a girl's life she may go unveiled and run about pretty freely with only a silk scarf on her head, but when she reaches the age of nine or thereabout a great change takes place in her life. she is prohibited from going out, except occasionally with the mother or other relations, and then she must be closely veiled. poor children, i do so often pity them--they so soon leave their childhood behind them and become women before they come to girlhood. of course the great aim and object of parents is to marry the girls as soon as possible to the man who can offer the highest price for her; but the subject of weddings is so extensive that we must leave it for another chapter. only i will say here that i think the reason girls are looked upon more or less as a nuisance is because they cost so much to get married; for if a father has three or four girls to marry, he needs to be a rich man. from the time the girl is four or five years old he begins loading her with gold and jewellery, so that by the day she comes to be of a marriageable age she shall have a good supply to offer to her would-be husband. chapter v the moslem women of mosul beauty behind the veil--types of beauty--my dear old friend of years of age--aids to beauty described--pretty children--beauty tainted with sin--imprisonment of women--peeps into some hareems--warm receptions--a visit from the ladies of a select hareem--love the magic key to open hearts. "women are worthless creatures, and soil men's reputations." arabic proverb. "as i told you always, her beauty and her brain go not together." shakespeare. it has often been said that there is very little beauty to be seen behind the veil in turkish arabia. i certainly do not agree with this statement, for i have seen some very beautiful faces amongst the mohammedan women of mosul. there is beauty, too, to suit all tastes: the winsome blonde, with her pale blue eyes and fair hair; the striking brunette, peeping from behind her veil with laughing brown eyes, which at times are as full of pathos as those of a faithful collie which has lost its master. i think the chief attraction of eastern women lies in their eyes. one face comes to my mind as i write. it is not a pretty face in the ordinary sense of the word, but the eyes are wonderful, revealing a soul full of sadness, a longing for something not attainable: eyes that might make you weep as you feel them fixed upon you in unspeakable yearning for love. another type of face is the bright, vivacious one, seen chiefly amongst young unmarried women--marriage in the east generally having the effect of taking all brightness out of a face or a life. there is also many a sweet face to be seen in mosul. perhaps these could not be called beautiful except for the sweetness. one such i can see now as my memory takes me back a few months. a dear face is pressed close to mine, and with pleading blue eyes and such a sweet, expressive mouth which utters words such as these: "khatoun, i cannot go--i cannot leave you. will you let me live always with you?" if only you knew the history of this woman, you would wonder that her face could bear such a sweet look, or, indeed, how she managed to endure life at all. beauty of the east is all too fleeting as a rule, a woman of thirty years of age being quite passée. nevertheless, there are some very fine-looking old ladies in mosul. one dear friend of mine is proud of the fact that she has reached the grand age of ! her face still retains some of its former beauty. her daughter is a young woman of nearly ninety, her grand-daughter can boast of seventy years, while as to her great-grandchildren, they are countless! this old lady came one day to the dispensary for medicine, as she wished to be "made strong" enough to take a journey consisting of six hours' riding to a hot-water spring outside mosul, a place to which she had been in the habit of going regularly for the last years or so! she was also quite distressed because her skin was rough, and asked the doctor to give her some medicine to make it smooth again. even at she was capable of thinking of and longing for a renewal of her lost beauty. aids to beauty are much sought after by the ladies of mosul, as they do not at all approve of becoming "old." it is quite a rare sight to see a white-haired woman. the moment grey hairs commence to appear they have recourse to henna, a dye much in request by easterns of both sexes. freckles are a cause of much sorrow of heart to mosul ladies. one girl, who was really very pretty, was brought constantly to the dispensary by her mother, who implored my husband to eradicate the freckles with which her daughter's face was covered, as, if they were not removed, she might never get a proposal of marriage. however, a man was forthcoming who apparently did not object to freckles, for shortly before leaving mosul i received an invitation to this girl's wedding-feast. there are some very pretty children in mosul, some dark, others fair, with blue eyes and curly hair. however, this latter style of beauty is not as a rule admired. mothers have a great horror lest their children should have curly hair. if a child possesses it, the women try by all means in their power to straighten out the curls, sometimes even coming to ask for medicine for this purpose. very often, however, the children lose a great deal of their beauty when five or six years old. perhaps it is because their souls at that age become tainted with knowledge of evil, and this knowledge is reflected on their faces. it is heartrending to see pretty little children listening open-mouthed to some horrible tale of sin and wickedness told by a member of the hareem. it is true there is beauty behind the veil, but, alas! it is beauty tainted with the blackness of sin. how can lives be beautiful when the souls within are dead?--as dead as sin and sorrow can make them. boys and girls grow up amidst surroundings which soon soil their souls; the "innocency of childhood," so dear to the hearts of english parents, is unknown in a moslem hareem. many and many a time have i interrupted a conversation consisting of things which should not be spoken of, by pointing out to the women some boys or girls sitting near by, listening with evident delight to their unclean talk. sometimes they would desist, but as a rule would only laugh, saying: "what does it matter? they know all about it!" oh! the pity and horror of it--young lives spoilt and contaminated almost before their feet have started on the difficult and perilous walk through life. is it any wonder that these children grow up with diseased minds and deadened souls? then they in their turn become the parents of another generation, to whom they teach the same soul-destroying creeds. there is no hope for the children of mohammedan lands until the mothers have learnt a little of the meaning of pure life and conversation. there is no hope for the women while the men are what they are. the whole system is one of degradation and vice. when mohammed, acting under what he declared to be a revelation from allah, introduced the use of the veil, he swept away for ever all hope of happiness for moslem women. by means of the veil he immured them for ever in a living grave. "imprisoned for life" is the verdict written against each moslem woman as she leaves childhood behind her. before the days of mohammed the arabs were in the habit of burying alive yearly a certain number of new-born girls; surely the fate of these innocents was better than that of the millions of women to-day who are buried alive behind the veil. "ensha' allah" (god willing), in the near future the same power which raised british women to hold the position they now do will also penetrate through the prison bars of the hareems of mohammedan lands and set free the prisoners. an enlightened mohammedan gentleman once said: "the only hope for our women is christianity." god grant that their "only hope" may not be denied them. how often i have said to these women, "alhamd-'llillah (thank god), i am not a moslem woman!" and the heartfelt answer has always been, "yes, indeed, you may thank god; but it is naseeb" (fate). the longer i live amongst moslem women the more my heart yearns with love and pity for them, and the more thankful i am that their lot is not mine. let us now peep into some of the many hareems of mosul. there are some into which i should blush with shame to take my readers, on account of the conversations we might hear; but we will choose some where, in all probability, we shall see and hear nothing objectionable. our first visit shall be to a near neighbour of ours. the house is a large one, the owner holding a high social position in the town. as we enter the outside gates we see a large reception-room, in which the master of the house is sitting holding court. we must not look that way, as we are in native costume; so, pulling our veils a little closer, we hurry on till we reach the door of the hareem. this is always kept locked; upon knocking, it is opened by a native girl or woman, who immediately kisses our hands or dress, then ushers us into the presence of the khatoun. in this case the head lady of the hareem has been a widow for some years, and is still wearing her black mourning dress. she rises from her place amongst the cushions on the floor as we enter and salaams low, bidding us welcome to her house, at the same time indicating our seats by her side. we arrange ourselves as comfortably as possible, sitting cross-legged in true arab fashion. by-and-by the daughter-in-law comes in--a frail, delicate-looking woman, and with her a little girl, her only child. she is sad because she has no boy, and is afraid her husband will divorce her on this account. since leaving mosul i have heard that her fears on this point were not groundless, for her husband has since divorced her and taken another wife in her place. the usual coffee is handed round by one of the many women servants, and our hostess is very much surprised that we will not join her in smoking a cigarette. sometimes there are a dozen or so women living in the same hareem, wives of brothers, and it is often difficult to know who is who. the relationships are sometimes most perplexing. even to this day there are houses which i visit frequently, but have not yet mastered the intricate "connections" of the various members of the hareem. here is another hareem, quite different from the last one we visited. my special friends in this house are two young girls who are not yet married. they are such dear, bright girls, and as i enter throw their arms round my neck and bid me welcome in a most demonstrative way. if i am expected i always find a meal ready, and if my visit is unannounced, a woman is always despatched to the nearest "sook" (market) to buy an impromptu meal. they are poor people, and i always beg them not to do this, but they never listen to my entreaties. the meal consists sometimes of "kabobs," i.e. meat minced and pressed round iron skewers and grilled over a charcoal fire; this is placed on a plate and garnished with sliced raw onions and bitter herbs. another time a sheep had been killed, and our meal consisted of the "interiors," dished in a most tempting manner. sometimes salads form the principal dish; but whatever the meal consists of, it is always served with love, and is consequently thoroughly appreciated. this house seems always to be full of women, all more or less related. if i get mixed up, as i sometimes do, in the relationship of those present, and show my ignorance of their names, they are quite hurt, and exclaim: "what, you have forgotten me?" "was i not in the hospital for a week?" or, "did i not bring so-and-so to see you?" if they have seen me once, they are quite surprised if i cannot remember all about them, and often i have to resort to stratagem to find out their names without exposing my forgetfulness. while we sit and talk the girls are all busily engaged in crotcheting caps. these are sold in the sook at about six-pence a dozen, cotton included. in certain "mahullahs" (quarters) of the town you will see all the women doing this work; in another part of the town they are all occupied with knitting socks, in another cigarette-making is the fashion. each mahullah seems to have its own style of work for the women, to which it adheres more or less. in one house where i visit, a basin of delicious "lebban" is always set before me. we all sit on the floor round a diminutive table about five inches high, and each one being provided with a wooden spoon dips out the lebban from the central dish. this lebban makes a delicious food in the hot weather. it is made something after the same manner as "junket," only lebban is more tart and acid. eaten with grated cucumbers, it makes a very refreshing salad. fortunately for me, i can eat and, as a rule, thoroughly enjoy native food. in fact, i often prefer it to our own, for almost all attempts at european cookery by native cooks are decided failures. my husband, on the other hand, cannot indulge in this respect, the excessive fat used being too much for his digestive powers. but to return to our ladies. not only do i visit in the hareems of the towns, but the hareems very often pay me a visit at our house. the poorer class of women come very freely, and they know that they are always welcome. we have a room specially set apart for women visitors, so that they may feel quite safe from any men servants who might happen to be about. the higher-class ladies do not come so frequently, the idea being that the more strictly they keep to their own hareem, the more select and important will they become in the eyes of the people. there is one family in mosul who boast that their hareem have never visited any other house. so strictly have the ladies been kept in seclusion, that they were not even allowed to go to the "hammam" (bath) till quite lately. now, however, they are allowed the luxury of once a month walking a hundred yards or so to the nearest bath. after becoming acquainted with the ladies of this hareem i was very anxious to obtain permission for them to come and visit me. they did not at all hold out any hope that their lords and masters would allow such an unheard-of proceeding. one day, however, my husband told the head of the house that i was very anxious for the ladies of his hareem to come and see me. to the great surprise of all he acquiesced, only stipulating that the visit should be kept as secret as possible. the ladies were very excited, and for days beforehand were talking about the proposed visit and making preparations for it. on the day fixed the way had to be cleared of all menkind. the doctor was banished from the house for the whole afternoon, the men servants were given a holiday, and all doors through which a stray man might happen to wander were carefully bolted and barred. at the hour appointed a woman servant arrived to know if all was ready. when she had satisfied herself that no men were visible, nor could become so unexpectedly, she returned to fetch the ladies. they arrived in all the glory of black silk chuddars, which judy (our woman servant) carefully removed and folded up. the two older ladies were quite simply dressed in print or muslin, but the young wife was decked out in one of her many bridal costumes, and looked very charming. she was then only about sixteen years of age, but was the mother of two pretty children, a girl and a boy. they were all so delighted to be allowed out for the first time in their lives. we began by eating cucumbers and water-melons, followed by tea, coffee, and english biscuits and cakes. these latter they much appreciated, asking permission to carry away some for other members of the hareem to taste. after refreshments had been partaken of they were very anxious to see all over the house. as we went from room to room it was so funny to hear their remarks. the bedroom seemed to take their fancy most of all, as they could not see why we needed a room specially for sleeping in. they were very charmed with our little harmonium, and listened with great delight while i played and sang to them some of our old english hymns translated into arabic. one of the ladies trying to play could not understand why it would not "speak" for her, and upon my moving the pedals was overjoyed to find that she could "make music." their delight at everything was just like that of little children on finding a new toy. their visit lasted about three hours, and they went away promising to come again soon. this hareem is a most exceptionally happy one. there is only one wife in it, the two elder ladies being sisters-in-law to the bride, and unmarried. they all seem to live together in peace and happiness. unfortunately, this is only the exception, which always goes to prove the rule, that hareems are not the abode of peace. how can there be peace when the heart is full of jealousy and hatred? one such case comes to my mind. there are two brothers living in one house, one of them being married. after some years of married life had passed and they remained childless, he took another wife, and the first one was thrown into misery and despair. shortly after this we were awakened one night by hearing most fearful shrieks and yells coming from this house. the following day we heard that the two wives had been quarrelling and fighting, as usual, till at last the husband took the first wife and turned her forcibly out of doors. fortunately, her mother's house was near by, to which she went, and where she remains to this day. it has been said, and unfortunately too often truly said, that love has no part in the life of a moslem woman; and yet it is also true that they are, as a rule, a most loving and lovable set of people. it is because they have so little love and kindness in their own lives that, when it does come to them, their hearts are ready to overflow in response. perhaps the arab women are slow to give their love and trust, but when once given it is sure and lasting. often these women have said to me, "why do you love us, khatoun?" they cannot understand that any one should care for them. such an idea is outside the range of their experience altogether. one of the first sentences i learnt in the arabic language was, "ana ahubkum" (i love you all), and this is one of the most useful and necessary phrases to be learnt. love is the magic key which opens a way to the hearts of the moslem women, and which brings forth much fruit in return. it is sad to think that these women, who are endowed with such great possibilities of loving, should be condemned to live their lives, aye, and die too, without one spark of love to brighten and cheer them through the weary years of their lives. sad, too, that their favoured sisters of england should be content that these things should remain so. who is to tell them of love if we do not? they know nothing of the god of love, who looks in pity and compassion on their stricken lives. they only know of a god who is inexorably hard and unfeeling, who holds the destiny of each life in his hand, and against whom it is no use repining, for "what is written is written." mohammed says in the koran, "the noblest of you in the sight of god is he who most doth fear him." truly has it been said that the god of the mohammedans is an oriental despot. chapter vi moslem family life no home life--women down-trodden--evils of divorce--naseeb--the will of god--truth and falsehood--honesty prevalent--a thief caught--swearing and anti-swearing--fighting, hair-tearing, and biting--hammams, the ladies' club. "the heart of a woman is given to folly." arabic proverb. "may allah never bless womankind." quotation from moslem author. "the very god! think, abib, dost thou think? so, the all-great, were the all-loving too-- so, through the thunder comes a human voice saying, 'oh, heart i made, a heart beats here! face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself! thou hast no power nor mayst conceive of mine, but love i gave thee, with myself to love, and thou must love me, who have died for thee.'" r. browning. there is no "home life," such as we understand the term, in mosul. the word "beit" (house) is the only one in the arabic language used for describing a home. it would indeed be mockery to call such by the sacred name so dear to the hearts of english people. in a book lately published in cairo the author, a well-known and clever moslem writer, says: "man is the absolute master and woman the slave. she is the object of his sensual pleasures, a toy as it were with which he plays whenever and however he pleases. knowledge is his, ignorance is hers. the firmament and the light are his, darkness and the dungeon are hers. his is to command, hers is blindly to obey. his is everything that is, and she is an insignificant part of that everything." this being the sentiment of every moslem man, is it any wonder that there is no happiness or mutual regard in the family life? the men look upon the women, and treat them, as little better than brutes; then when they become so, turn and revile them. they keep their heels firmly planted on women's necks and then dare them to rise. a man may be as vile as he likes himself, but the moment he suspects one of his hareem of misconduct there is nothing but death, or mutilation which is worse than death, for the offender. a woman once came to the hospital who always insisted on keeping her face entirely covered with the exception of the eyes; i soon found that the reason of this was because her nose and lips were missing. these members had been cut off in a rage by an infuriated son-in-law, who declared that this woman had intrigued with his wife in allowing another man to enter the hareem in his absence. this is a husband's ordinary method of wreaking revenge on any of his women folk whom he suspects of being false to him. this, or death. the facility with which a man is able to divorce his wife is a great source of trouble to the women. they never feel secure in the hearts of their husbands, knowing that at any moment he may tire of them and send them adrift. when a woman is divorced she returns as a rule to her mother's house; but should she have no relation at hand to whom she can appeal for protection, her condition is deplorably sad. a man may divorce his wife in a fit of anger and receive her back the next day if he so desire; this may occur twice, but if he pronounces the fatal words "i divorce thee" three times the divorced wife may not be taken back till she has been married to another man for a time and he also has divorced her; then her former husband may marry her again if he wishes. this is one of the good (?) laws of mohammed the prophet, and needs no comment. when a woman is divorced the husband can claim the children if he desires; if not, the wife is allowed to retain them. should she marry again the poor children are often left to look after themselves as best they can. as a rule the new husband does not wish to bear the expense of the children belonging to his wife's former husband. if, however, he should consent, and the two families are brought up together, the result is generally not conducive to peace of mind. one of our servants in mosul had a little boy five years of age; having divorced the boy's mother, he looked about for another wife, and finally selected one who had already been divorced and was the mother of a boy four years old. the two boys now live together, and are a fruitful source of friction between husband and wife. a short time ago the mother came to our compound early in the morning looking dishevelled and angry, saying that her husband had turned her out of the house at midnight, refusing to admit her again. on inquiring into the matter we found that the root of the quarrel lay in the fact that the man was jealous of his wife's treatment of her own boy, declaring that he had only married her to look after his boy. he divorced her; but acting on our suggestion forgave, and reinstated her in his hareem. a short time ago a woman came to me in great distress with her tale of sorrow. i had known her for some months, and loved her very much. she was the mother of two fine boys and a girl. when the girl was about eighteen months old the mother became very ill. the doctor attended her for some days, but finally gave up all hope of her recovery. as a last resource, however, some stringent means were used which, with god's blessing, proved successful, and the woman began to recover. so near death had she been, that the neighbours came to the house inquiring what time the funeral would take place! the husband, a "mullah" (priest), never came near her the whole time of her illness, and the first news the poor woman heard on her recovery was that he intended taking another wife, doubtless thinking that, after such a severe illness, she would not be of much use to him for some long time. as soon as she could walk she came to tell me her trouble, and to ask me what i should advise her to do. i told her that, if i were in her place, i should leave the man altogether. this, she said, she could not do, as it would mean separation from her children. finally, she concluded that there was nothing else to do but to go back to her husband and submit to his will. this she did, and i saw her there before we left; but such a different face greeted me to the sweet one of old. misery, discontent, and anger were depicted there instead of content and happiness. up to the time of her illness she had been in the habit of frequently coming to see me: now her husband forbade her to do so any more. the week before we left, however, she turned up again with a bad abscess on her leg, for which she gave continual praise to god, saying repeatedly, "alhamd'llillah. god sent me this bad leg in order that i may come to you"--her husband not objecting to her coming to the hospital to be treated, but only when she came to the house without any apparent reason. a moslem woman has very little hope of gaining paradise. old pictures by mohammedan artists always represent hell as being full of women. their hope of gaining paradise rests a great deal on the will of their husbands. some holy men say, "i don't want my wives in heaven. i prefer those provided by god for all good moslems from amongst the angels." yet, if you question the women about their hope for the future life, they all fervently express the belief that, eventually, they will have a place in paradise afforded them. poor, blind, misguided moslem women of mosul and other mohammedan lands! how my heart aches for them! will no one heed the cry of anguish and despair which goes up from their midst? as we think of their lives our cry can only be, "how long, o lord, how long will these things be?" women are great believers in the doctrine of naseeb or fatalism. to everything that comes to them they bow their heads in submission and say, "naseeb" (fate). this doctrine often leads to great neglect of children and invalids, the women excusing themselves by saying, "maktoob" (it is written). it often rouses our indignation to hear this oft-quoted word misapplied as an excuse for wrongdoing or selfish desires. for instance, parents will enter into negotiations for the marriage of their daughter with a man known to be an evil liver; then, when the girl is suffering, maybe, for their sins, say piously, "naseeb--min allah" (from god). "min allah" indeed! "min shaitan" (from satan) would be more correct! then, again, it is somewhat annoying to be told it is "the will of god" that your horse should develop a cough, because the groom neglected to cover him when standing in the rain; or, when your best china tea-set is smashed, you would rather not be told it is "naseeb"! albeit this is an annoying doctrine to the european at times, yet it certainly helps the eastern woman to bear her troubles and trials, and it is good for her to have this at command, for she has nothing else to aid her. to sorrow, loss, bereavement, and all the ills that human nature is subject to, the moslem answers always "naseeb," or, "it is the will of god." should their children die, or the locusts destroy the crop, it is "naseeb." is the weather hot or cold, dry or moist, the remark is always the same, "naseeb." if the river water is filthy and they choose to drink it, thus contracting typhoid or one of the hundred other ills consequent on drinking such water, they have only to assure themselves that it is "naseeb," and there remains nothing more to be said or done. it is easier to say "naseeb" than to take the trouble to filter or boil the water for drinking. in a thousand ways this belief in fatalism is convenient to the lazy or careless ones, a help to the over-burdened and weary, who know no other succour or helper in time of need or sorrow, while it is, in some cases, a blasphemous libel on god, blaming him for what is really a sin wilfully indulged in. as in persia, so in mosul, truth plays little part in the characters of some of the people. they have not yet learnt to value god's gift as expressed by the poet browning-- "god's gift was that man should conceive of truth and yearn to gain it." it is strange how even the most enlightened find it difficult to speak the truth always, and correspondingly easy to tell an untruth. a boy was once found out in a fault (quite a trivial one), but, when questioned, he absolutely denied all knowledge of it, until he was confronted by one who had been an eye-witness of the whole scene. then only did he confess, adding, "i said with my lips i did not do it, but in my heart i confessed." what can be said to people whose mind is capable of evolving such ideas? we often had to complain of dishonesty amongst the hospital women servants, especially of the cook for petty thefts, such as eating the patients' food, thus causing them to go on short commons, unless i was there to see that each one had his or her proper quantity. one day i was crossing the compound before superintending the distribution of the evening meal to the in-patients, when, as i approached the kitchen, i distinctly saw the cook helping herself most liberally to the food out of the pot. on remonstrating with her, she indignantly denied that she had ever tasted a morsel, until i made her open her mouth and reveal to the amused onlookers proof positive of her lies. even then she was not ashamed, but only laughed at the idea of the "khatoun" finding her out. a woman will bring a child to the dispensary and swear that it is her child, all the time knowing that the real mother is waiting outside, too ashamed to be seen coming to the poor people's dispensary, but not wishing to pay the usual doctor's fee. or some lady from a high-class hareem will dress in her servant's clothes and come to the dispensary, posing as a poor woman who cannot afford a piastre ( d.) for her medicine! you get so tired of always hearing lies that you begin to feel it is no use to question people at all. i do not wish to imply that there is no truth to be found in mosul; but it certainly is a rare and, when found, precious virtue. it is a sad fact, too, that the natives do not trust or believe each other, knowing that, given the opportunity, a brother will cheat a brother or a son his father. every one is suspicious of his neighbour. on the whole the people are honest, at least with the exception of the many trifling pilferings always to be expected amongst the servants. some of them are rather fond of "eating money" entrusted to their care. we had two or three servants who were good at this. they would come to me every day with their accounts, receive payment for same, but instead of handing over the money to the shopkeeper would calmly appropriate it for themselves, till one day the baker or butcher leaves a message at the door politely asking to be paid for past favours. then the culprit is sent for, and acknowledges having "eaten the money." another servant once tried to steal some dolls from a box lately received from england for distribution amongst the in-patients of the hospital. he had helped me unpack the box and carry the contents to the storeroom, pending the arrival of christmas day. a few days after i was passing this room, and hearing a rustling inside looked to see what it was, but seeing the door still locked thought i must have imagined the noise. but just as i was passing on the rustling became more distinct, and i went nearer to examine more closely the door, and found that, while the lock was still intact, the door had been lifted bodily off its hinges and then carefully replaced! calling my husband, we entered the room and found a poor frightened man trying to hide himself under the pile of paper and sacking which had been removed from the box. he was absolutely shaking with fear, thinking that he would be bastinadoed (beaten on the feet with sticks) or imprisoned. he declared at first that he had come for some string, which he had noticed on a shelf, to mend my saddle; but finally confessed that the dolls had been the object of his visit. about six small ones were found in his pockets; he had wanted them for his children. we told him that if he had only asked he should have had one given him. i shall never forget his astonishment when my husband told him to choose the one he liked best and take it to his little girl. he wept for joy and gratitude. swearing is very largely indulged in by men and women alike; it seems to come as naturally to them as swimming to a duck. originally the words "wallah," "yallah," "billah," were used as swear expressions; but are now looked upon more as ejaculations equivalent to our "good gracious!" "goodness!" &c.; the real swear words being "wallahi," "billahi," &c. some of the women cannot keep the expression wallah out of their conversation, though i try hard to persuade them to do so. for instance, a visitor comes; you remark to her on the extreme heat. "wallah," comes the answer, "it is hot!" or you inquire after some member of her family. "wallah, she is very ill," is the reply. i was visiting one day in a moslem house, and the old mother-in-law said to me, "what has happened to x.?" mentioning her daughter-in-law; "she never swears now!" i was indeed thankful for this unexpected tribute to that woman's efforts. we started an anti-swearing society amongst a few of the women; it was quite funny to see how they endeavoured to keep back the old familiar words which had been on their lips since childhood. one little boy joined with the women, and he found it hardest of all; but when we left he was still persevering. he learnt the ten commandments by heart, so whenever i heard him use a swear word i made him repeat the third commandment. the women are terribly fond of couching their denials in the form of oaths, as "may my hand be broken," "may i become blind," "may my interior become dried up if i did such and such a thing!" it makes me shiver sometimes to hear them swearing to a lie in this way; and i often tell them that if god only took them at their word, they would be stricken blind many times over. it is not an unknown thing for women to resort occasionally to fighting as a pastime, but i am thankful to say i have not seen much of it. a woman came to the dispensary once with a fearful-looking hand: the thumb was about six times its normal size and had become gangrenous. my husband said the only possible cure was amputation; to this the woman would not consent. she said that a short time before she had been fighting with another woman, who had bitten her thumb in her fury. i asked this woman what she had done to her opponent. "oh," she said, "i only pulled out her hair!" another woman once brought me quite a handful of hair to show, which she declared her husband had just pulled out of her head in his anger; while he at the same time exhibited several ugly wounds on his hand caused by his wife's teeth! the man vowed he would divorce her, refusing to listen to any suggestions as to forgiveness, saying, "what would my neighbours say of me if i kept for my wife a woman who would do that?" pointing to the bites on his hand. however, in the end he did consent to take her back, being on the whole an amicably disposed man. can we wonder that these things should happen when neither the men nor the women have ever learnt to control their passions? we have glanced at the lives of the moslem women of mosul. can we say that they lead an ennobling, beautiful life? are the home influences such as to foster a happy, peaceful spirit? on the contrary, we have seen that a woman deserves our pity and sympathy for all the sorrow she has to endure. have we not seen that at birth she is unwelcome, as a child uncared-for and untaught, as a young woman imprisoned behind the veil, as a wife unloved, as a mother unhonoured; and when her weary life draws to a close she knows that she will go to her grave unmourned. such in brief outline is the life of a moslem woman. a woman's one place of recreation is the hammam. it is indeed a kind of ladies' club; here she throws away for the time being all her home worries and troubles, enjoying thoroughly her few hours of liberty. as a rule the bath takes at least two hours, and often half a day, if the woman has no special demands on her time. she generally goes in the morning, taking with her a complete change of raiment, a mat to sit upon in the cooling chamber, and plenty of towels, also some food to be partaken of after the exertions of the bath are over. i once went to one of these hammams, but the heat was so intense that i could only stand it for a few minutes. i often wonder how ever the women can exist in such great heat for so long; i suppose it is because they are used to it. many illnesses date from a visit to the hammam; but still they would not give it up for any consideration, thinking it quite impossible to take a bath in the house. certainly the turkish bath is much cleaner than the persian one. in the latter a large tank is used, and as it costs a good deal to warm up, the water is not changed very often. in the turkish hammam each person has a tap for herself, from which flows presumably clean water. as a matter of fact sometimes this water has already been used, but only in the cheaper hammams. the most expensive baths have river water brought up for the purpose; in the others well water is used, and as this is brackish and very hard it is impossible to use soap, for it will not lather; therefore a special kind of earth is used, which is said to be very good for washing the hair with. when judy, our woman servant, returns from the bath, she always comes and gives me a kiss, this being their custom, and we exchange the salutations usual upon any one returning from the hammam. chapter vii customs of mosul wedding ceremonies--great expense to parents--method of procedure--funeral customs--customs at birth--some other customs. "the bridegroom's doors are open wide, and i am next of kin; the guests are met, the feast is set; may'st hear the merry din." s. t. coleridge. we have seen that a wedding is a very expensive matter in mosul, especially to parents who possess three or four daughters; for unless the necessary gold, jewellery, and clothing are forthcoming as a dowry, the marriage will never take place. for this reason a man with a number of daughters will begin saving for their marriage portion and expenses while the girl is yet a baby, and the mothers will often commence gathering together clothing even before the child is betrothed, so that they may be better prepared for the expensive event when it does take place. then, too, not only is there the outlay for the dowry and clothing, but also for the feasting of some hundreds, it maybe, of guests during the seven days following the marriage. a man of very fair means in mosul once told me that the marriage of his daughters cost him at least £ each, and as he had seven daughters the sum total required was not small. if this man with a good income found it hard work to produce the necessary cash, how much harder is it for those who have no settled income, or whose earnings are small. for instance, a native christian whom we respected and liked very much had two daughters; both were betrothed and ready to be married. he was earning about £ a month, and had a wife and six children to support--how could he provide all the necessary gold and other ornaments for his girls? and yet, if he did not, in all probability his daughters would never be married. there was only one way out of the difficulty, and that was to borrow at high interest, crippling himself for many years to come, perhaps for the rest of his life. instances might be multiplied, but i think enough has been said to show that girls are expensive luxuries in mosul as regards their weddings! now as to the "preparations" for the great and eventful day. when a man makes up his mind to be married, or his parents decide in their minds that it is high time their son should take to himself a wife, many are the consultations which take place, and great is the importance of the women folk concerned. they are never so happy as when arranging for a marriage, loving the mystery and secrecy of it; for it would never do for a fond mother to offer the hand of her dear son in marriage to the mother of a possible bride and be refused. the shame and ignominy would be too great; so the mother and other female relations of the would-be bridegroom have to go very carefully to work in selecting the girl and in making any proposal for marriage. before the actual "asking" is done, the way has to be prepared by very careful hints and indirect inquiries as to the girl's health, accomplishments, and dowry. if all proves satisfactory, then a formal proposal is made. the matter having gone so far, a refusal is very unusual, and, if given, is considered a great insult. i heard of one young man who threatened to murder all the relations of a girl for whom he had made proposals of marriage upon her parents refusing to accept his offer. i have often been asked by moslem women to suggest some girl as a suitable bride either for their brother or son. on mentioning some girls whom i knew, their answers were something as follows: "oh, but she has a white patch on her eye," or "she is too poor," or "she has a bad temper," or "she is not pretty." their idea of beauty is that of a white, pasty, fat face, without a vestige of colour, except that which art applies! of course, the man never sees the girl till the day of betrothal, and in the case of moslems not till the actual marriage takes place. the old custom amongst the christians of marrying a girl against her will is still extant in some villages. sometimes it happens that a girl persists in her dislike to marry, even till the priest has arrived to tie the knot: in this case the father would bind the girl's arms and legs till the marriage ceremony was completed, when she was released, it being useless then for further resistance on her part. this is done even now in some villages near mosul when the girl proves obstinate. as a rule, though, they accept their fate as "naseeb," knowing it is little or no use to struggle against custom. how often my heart aches for some poor child who is bound to a man old enough to be her grandfather or great-grandfather sometimes. alas, too often old in sin as well as years! when the day of the marriage approaches, invitations are sent out to all friends and relations for the specified days of feasting. first comes the day for taking the bride to the bath--this is considered a great function; then follows a week of excitement, dancing, singing, feasting, all forming part of the great event. all thoroughly enjoy themselves, even those who have to work the hardest in preparing the food. the guests are expected to remain from morning till sunset. three meals are provided each day, the morning one consisting of bread, cream, butter, fruit, &c.; the midday meal is a substantial one of meat, cooked in various ways, rice, chicken, and vegetables according to the season. the evening meal is also a very heavy one, causing the guests to depart perfectly satisfied both with their dinner and themselves. during the whole of the week the poor bride has to sit in the reception room on a cushion specially prepared for brides, and takes no part in the surrounding gaieties. each day she appears in a fresh silk dress, and is often covered with golden jewellery. she is not supposed to speak till spoken to, and the guests do not take much notice of her beyond the usual kiss of salutation. at meal times she is "fed" by her relations, a bride being supposed to be too overcome to help herself or eat without assistance. after the days of feasting are over, the bride takes her place in the house as "servant" to her mother-in-law. in a moslem house the youngest and latest bride always becomes the servant of all for the first year of married life, or till another and younger one is brought to the home. much depends on the mother-in-law's character as to the happiness or otherwise of the inmates of the hareem. if they wish, they can make the lives of the young wives perfectly miserable, or the reverse. the same custom of feasting for a certain number of days takes place too in connection with funerals. the guests who come to mourn sit in solemn silence all day long; their mourning does not lessen their appetite, however, for they thoroughly enjoy their "feast" of sorrow. after a death, the "wailers" are brought in. i went once to a christian house of mourning to see these wailing women. it was a ghastly sight. the professional wailers sat on the ground in the centre of the relations and guests, and worked themselves and others into such a frenzy that i thought some would have fainted from exhaustion; slapping their knees, tearing their hair and clothes, till they resembled maniacs more than women. a short time ago a very sad and sudden death took place in mosul in a house very close to us. we were awakened one night, while sleeping on the roof, by hearing the terrible wailing sounds coming from our neighbour's house. at the same time a messenger arrived in great haste, asking my husband to go at once to see the patient, as his relatives were not sure if he was dead or only in a fit. he had been out during the night to some moslem religious function, and died quite suddenly on his return. the wailing went on in the hareem for seven days, and was terrible to hear. the sound of the weird wailing of some hundred women is perfectly indescribable, always ending up with a piercing shriek which seems to rend the air and freeze one's blood. being friends and neighbours, i paid daily visits to the mourners during that week, but did not sit amongst the guests, preferring to spend the time with the sisters of the deceased in a quiet room above the din and uproar of the courtyard. the wailing has such a hopeless sound, as of a lost soul in anguish. one longed for them to know of jesus the living one, and of the time when partings shall be no more. after death has visited a family, the whole house in which the departed one lived is not swept for three days: this is because they believe that the angel of death is still hovering near, and they fear lest, while they are sweeping, others of the household may be swept from the house by the angel. so the house becomes very dirty, the carpets covered with cigarette ash and ends, but nothing can be touched till the third day is safely passed. amongst the christians it is also the custom after the death of a relative, not to go to the hammam (bath) for six months, and for the men to go unshaven for at least six weeks. the women are very particular about not going to the hammam while mourning, as i found to my sorrow. our woman servant judy lost her father just before she entered our service, and she allowed a whole year to elapse before she could be prevailed upon to go to the bath. they are very particular, too, about wearing "deep" clothing--that is, dresses of some dark colour, not necessarily black. i am sure that the custom of burying a few hours after death is often the cause of many people being buried alive. i have often been regaled by an old woman with horrible stories of how some friends of hers have just escaped being buried alive. for those who providentially escape being entombed alive one is thankful; but what of the many who most certainly are condemned to this awful fate. it is too terrible to contemplate. in a land where no medical certificates are required, and where the body is carried to the cemetery almost before it is cold, how can it be otherwise? but to proceed to other and more pleasing customs--let us pass from death to life. when a child is born in mosul, whether moslem or christian, the first idea of the parents is to protect the child from the baneful influence of the evil eye. the usual custom is to thread a gall, and suspend it round the neck of the infant. moslems enclose a portion of the koran in a little bag, and fasten that round the arm of the child or sew it on to the cap. the custom of wearing charms to avert the evil eye is very prevalent, and deeply rooted in the minds of the mosul people. the kissing of hands is a very pretty custom. children are all taught to do this even before they can speak or walk. servants are always very anxious to kiss your hands after they have done something especially annoying or irritating. they make a grab for your hand, and kiss it before you realise what they are doing. in this way they secure your forgiveness before the fault is confessed. i am getting more wary now, and prefer to hear first what they have done before letting them kiss my hand. it is also a sign of gratitude. upon receiving any backsheesh or present, the recipient is always ready to kiss your hand. sometimes, when riding through the city, i have had my hand grasped and kissed by some passer-by who has been an in-patient in the hospital, and wished to show his gratitude in this way. it requires a great deal of gratitude or love for a man to kiss a woman's hand, so, when by chance it does occur, i feel very much honoured indeed. there is one custom which is often the cause of a great deal of heartburning, even as it was in the days of haman and mordecai. it is usual for a host or hostess to rise from their seat upon the arrival of each guest--that is, if they desire to do honour to that person. as a rule this custom is most carefully adhered to, but it lends itself admirably to any one wishing to be rude to his guest or to shame him before his friends. fortunately, this is not often the case, but when it does happen one feels very uncomfortable. there is one dear old lady in mosul, who thinks it beneath her dignity to rise to a feringhi. but, perhaps, it is excusable for her as she is a hadji--that is, one who has made the pilgrimage to mecca, and, consequently, is treated as an exalted being by all her friends and relations. a rather quaint and pleasing custom in mosul is that of sending trays containing a dinner all ready cooked and dished to new-comers, or to those returning after a long period of absence. we did not know of this custom when first we went to mosul, so were very surprised at sunset on our second day after arrival to see two or three men coming into the compound carrying huge trays on their heads. they explained that their master, a moslem merchant, had sent this meal, with many salaams and good wishes. it was a dinner large enough for twenty people, so we gathered together all we could find on the premises, assistants, catechist, and others, who had been kindly helping us to settle down. spreading some persian carpets in the courtyard, we sat down and thoroughly enjoyed our first arab meal in mosul. when any one is leaving the place or starting on a journey, it is customary for the people to send in large trays containing sweetmeats, cakes, and other eatables suitable for taking with you on the road. when we were leaving mosul, we received quite a large number of these trays--so many, indeed, that at the end of our fourteen days of desert we still had a good many of their contents remaining. some of these were made of almonds pounded and mixed with sugar; others were made from puff pastry sandwiched with honey: these latter were especially nice. distributing food to the poor as a mark of gratitude and thankfulness is another of mosul's good customs. after recovering from a dangerous illness, it is usual to make and distribute a large quantity of bread, baked in a special way, and flavoured with caraway seeds. the birth of a son and heir is also celebrated by a generous and lavish distribution of meat and bread. when starting on a journey, too, it is usual to give away to the poor either money or food. on every occasion of life which calls for gratitude to god, this custom of presenting offerings to the poor is carried out. one dear woman, a friend of mine, went even further than this. it was thought at one time that we should be leaving mosul for good, the mission being withdrawn. providentially, this was over-ruled, and when the news arrived from england that the mission was to be kept on, great were the rejoicings amongst the people. the woman mentioned above immediately desired to show her thankfulness to god in a very special way, so spent one whole day in making a large supply of small loaves of bread, not to distribute to the poor, but to feed the hungry, starving dogs of the streets. this by a moslem woman was, indeed, a work of love, dogs being looked upon as unclean beasts. surely she "that loveth much shall be forgiven much." coffee-making and drinking is associated very much with life in mosul. it is the custom there to give every one who comes to the house a cup of arab coffee. this meant sometimes for us giving at least cups in a day. not only those who come as social visitors receive the coffee, but also all who come to the house on whatever pretext, whether for meetings, classes, or what not. at feast times one servant is always told off to do nothing else but prepare the coffee for the guests. on each of the great feasts, such as christmas and easter, it is the custom for every one to call, moslems and christians alike. at christmas the feast lasts for three days, and at easter a week, the whole of which time coffee must be ready to be handed at once to every caller; also a tray of sweets, consisting of turkish delight, almond sugar, and other mosul-made confections. when a house is "mourning," bitter coffee is given to all callers for six months, and on the first day of each feast for a whole year. i do not think i have ever visited a moslem house, however poor, without receiving either a cup of coffee or some sweets. i often beg them not to make preparations for me, but they always insist, as their hospitable instincts are very strong. indeed, more often than not, they set before me not only coffee or sweets, but meat, fruit, and lebban (sour milk). a true arab of the desert takes about an hour to make a cup of coffee. first of all the coffee has to be roasted, then ground to powder, and, lastly, boiled. the arabs never sweeten their coffee, sugar not being a commodity of the desert. i once heard the recipe for making arab or turkish coffee. perhaps some readers may like to try their hand at making it. first roast the coffee to a rich brown, neither too light nor too dark, then grind it to a soft powder. now comes the art of making good coffee. half-fill the pot with cold water; bring it to boiling point. throw in a handful of powdered coffee; allow it to boil; shake down and bring it to the boil again. repeat this process three times, and the coffee is ready. specially note: never wash the pot! needless to say, this last injunction i do not carry out, but the servants quite believe in that part of the recipe. it is only with great difficulty i can persuade them to wash out the coffee-pot occasionally. in summer, this reluctance on their part often leads to serious complications. the kitchen, as may be supposed, is not a very cool place during the hot season, consequently it suffers continually from a plague of flies. dead flies are often served up in puddings and other dishes, to act presumably as an appetiser! then eating requires a great effort. the coffee-pot seems to serve as a trap for many of these flies, attracted no doubt by the sugar, and there they find a coffee grave. suddenly a visitor is announced, and the message is conveyed to the kitchen to "send coffee at once." the cook seizes the pot, never looking to see how many victims are struggling in the dregs at the bottom, adds a little freshly-ground coffee, boils it up, and sends it in to the visitor served in dainty little cups. the visitor takes one sip, and...! i will draw a veil over the sequel. a mouthful of dead flies is not a very palatable drink. my feelings may be better imagined than described. sometimes a guest does not approve of the way the coffee is made (even when minus flies); if so, she is not shy, and does not hesitate to hand it back with a grimace, saying to your servant: "what horrid coffee! why do you not make better?" and often demands another cup properly made. a visit to the bread-makers may not be out of place here. it is the custom amongst some of the people to bake bread once a month, sufficient to last that length of time. baking-day is a day to be dreaded. the process begins soon after midnight, when the woman arrives to prepare the flour and "set" the dough for rising. the whole of that day every woman on the premises is pressed into service--one to make the dough into little cakes, another gives it a preliminary roll, then hands it to her neighbour, who uses a smaller roller, and finally hands it on to some one else to finish it off. when completed, the bread is about as thin as note-paper and as large round as a child's wooden hoop. the bread is now ready to be baked. the fuel used for heating the oven is chopped straw and goats' dung, which is burnt till the required heat is obtained; then these large thin pieces of bread are plastered to the sides of the oven, and removed as they are browned to an exact nicety. this bread is very nice when fresh and crisp; when stale, it is generally soaked in water before being brought to the table. we do not make our bread in this way. i tried it once for the hospital in-patients, but found it took far too much time. the daily baking is much more suitable when from thirty to forty people have to be fed daily. chapter viii dreams and visions ezekiel's vision by the river chebar--our vision by the river khabour--rivers identical--"a wheel within a wheel"--babylonish emblem of divinity--origin of the cherubim--dream of a woman suffering from cataract--effect of dream on her character--watch and chain recovered by means of a "faked" dream--illustration of the doctrine of kismet or naseeb--"ghosts" in our compound--atmosphere of ghosts bad for fowls. "o dreamer, dream thy dream, and dream it true. sir lewis morris. "did not heaven speak to men in dreams of old?" lord tennyson. "... the vision of my soul has looked upon its sun and turns no more to any lower light." sir lewis morris. dreams and visions have a great influence on the eastern mind. they believe most firmly that god often speaks by means of these agencies, using them as a warning of impending danger, or as a voice of instruction. ezekiel was no exception to this rule, for we read in the words of his prophecy, "that the heavens were opened, and i saw visions of god." this vision was given to him as he stood by the river chebar in the land of the chaldeans. the river chebar is none other than the khabour, over which we have passed more than once in our "journeyings oft." when on our way back to england we crossed this river, and as we sat near its banks, even as ezekiel did of old, we too were vouchsafed a "vision of god." we had travelled through a weary stretch of waterless desert that day, and were rejoicing in the fact that our camping-ground for the night was by the banks of a river--the chebar. only those who have journeyed for days through a parched-up desert land can tell the joy with which a river is sighted. we experienced something of that joy on the evening when we saw water for the first time for two or three days. we pitched our camp as close to the river as possible, and, sitting at our tent door, prepared to enjoy to the full the beauties before us. looking up i saw in front of me a glorious sight. i quickly called my husband, and together we stood and watched this wonderful vision. the sun was sinking as a ball of fire behind the river, when suddenly from its centre there arose beautiful prismatic lights. these gradually resolved themselves into the form of a huge wheel, each spoke of the wheel being of a different colour, merging gradually and almost imperceptibly into the next, as in the rainbow. within this "wheel" was another and smaller one, also composed of the same prismatic hues. the outer circle of each wheel was formed by a band of bright opaque light. on the top of these wheels was a visionary form resembling the beginning of another wheel, but it was too indistinct for me to say what definite shape it possessed. at either side of these wheels was a large wing, as it were overshadowing the wheels; these were also of a bright white. the whole formed a most wonderful and never to be forgotten sight, and we felt indeed that this was a vision of god. while in mosul my husband had received a letter from a gentleman in england, asking him to keep a look-out for any such phenomenon as this. on reaching home it was interesting to find on good authority that the sight we had seen on the banks of the khabour was one of historical interest. the form of the wheels is almost identical with the emblem which the babylonians adopted to represent divinity. on the same authority i learnt, too, that in all probability a vision similar to this was the origin of the cherubims. it is believed by an expert on the subject that the whole of the "vision" is caused by atmospheric influences, the sun acting on the particles of frost in the air, thus forming the prismatic colours. be this as it may, the result was truly marvellous, and we were thankful that we had been privileged to see "the heavens open," revealing this vision of god. the whole spectacle could not have lasted more than five minutes, but the sky retained its blaze of colour for about a quarter of an hour after; then darkness covered the heavens. the natives of mosul are great believers in dreams, and accept them as good or bad omens. a short time ago a moslem woman came to the dispensary suffering from double cataract. she had been quite blind for many years, and was very anxious for an operation, saying if only she could have enough sight to sweep the compound she would be satisfied, as then she could earn her livelihood. the doctor, after examining her eyes, told the woman that he could not promise her a good result from the operation, as her eyes were not healthy. however, as she was absolutely blind, it was worth while to try, and perhaps she might see sufficiently afterwards to find her way about. accordingly she was admitted to the hospital to await her time for operation. she was a very affectionate woman, and seemed to be gifted with great powers of intuition. when i went to the door of the ward, even before i spoke, she always called out, "there's my khatoun!" sometimes i crept in quietly just to see if she would know i was present; she almost invariably did, and sitting up in bed would listen intently, and then say to one of the other patients, "is not the khatoun here?" then when she felt my hand, she would grasp it and say, "i knew it, i knew it; i felt here" (pointing to her heart) "that my khatoun was in the room!" she was such an excitable woman that my husband feared that she would do something foolish either at the time of the operation or after. he warned her that if she did not keep quiet she might lose her eye altogether; but as the fateful day approached she became more and more nervous. one morning, however, she appeared quite calm, and hastened to tell us the reason of her peace of mind. during the night she had seen a vision which had quieted all her fears and made her trustful and believing. in her dream she seemed to be walking in the desert, where she met a mullah, who immediately began to revile and curse her. while he was thus engaged the woman saw a form coming towards her which she knew to be that of our lord (jesus the living one, as he is called in arabic). he began to speak gently to the woman, asking her why she was weeping; she replied by telling our lord that the mullah had been cursing her. in her dream she then saw (although blind) that our lord turned to the mullah and rebuked him for cursing the woman. then turning to the wondering woman, he said, "do not weep, my daughter, for the english doctor is going to give you sight in a few days," and then he left her. she awoke firmly convinced that this was a special revelation from god through jesus our lord to assure her that her eyesight was to be restored. from that time she was perfectly calm and quiet, and remained so the whole time she was in the hospital. the day before the operation she was again warned that she might not see any better after; but she smiled and said, "to-morrow i shall see!" her faith was rewarded, as the operation was successful, and after two or three weeks she went out with very good vision in one eye, and she is waiting for our return to have the other operated upon. my husband was once travelling "chappa" (post) in persia from yezd to kerman, when one evening he found to his great sorrow that he had lost his gold watch and chain. both were very valuable to him on account of their associations, so he was very sad at the thought of losing them. the same night he met another englishman who was returning to yezd. he told him of his loss, and asked him to make inquiries along the road, offering a reward to any one who would bring back his watch and chain. his friend promised to do all he could, and, calling his servant, explained to him about the loss, and told him to keep a sharp look-out for any news of the lost goods. this servant was a very smart man. the next morning they met a camel caravan on the road to kerman, and the servant went up to the driver and said to him-- "oh, my noble brother, may your kindness never grow less; my sleep has been troubled last night by dreams of you." "estakfarullah!" (god forbid), says the camel-driver. "why was my lord's sleep disturbed by dreams of me, who am not worthy?" "yes; i saw in my dream that you stooped and picked up something." "then your dream was wrong," hastily interposed the camel-driver, "for i have picked up nothing." "and lo! in my dream," continued the wily servant, "i saw that the thing which you picked up was worthless, only a cheap thing which will bring you no gain." the camel-driver here looking sad, the servant continued: "but the owner of that worthless thing is very anxious to find it, as although of no value in money, yet he cherishes it as a thing he loves." "but i told you," repeats the camel-driver, "that i never picked up anything." "then in my dream," continues the servant, carefully ignoring the reiterated denial of the camel-driver, "i saw you glance at this useless object in your hand and then place it inside your aba" (cloak). "no, no," cries the driver, "i never picked it up." "so if you will let me show you where it is, i can relieve you of this worthless object." after a little more parleying of this sort, the camel-driver produces my husband's watch and chain, and receives in return a small backsheesh. the servant, highly delighted with himself and his sagacity, smiled as he pockets in imagination the promised reward of five tomans (£ ). the camel-driver confessed afterwards that he was so taken aback at the idea of his deeds being revealed in a dream to this man that he would not have kept the watch at any cost. needless to say the "dream" was only a faked one, manufactured to work on the superstitious mind of the simple camel-driver. in mosul the chief of the seyyids once told the doctor a story relating to a remarkable dream. it was as follows. two men once called on a mullah to question him regarding a matter which had been troubling them. the cause of their dispute was this. on going to their work each day these men passed a ladder leaning against a wall. one of the two always avoided going under lest it should fall and kill him; while the other said, "no, i will not run from danger, for whatever allah has decreed must be. if it is written that i am to be killed by the ladder, i shall be." so the two friends, after having spent much time in arguing this knotty question, decided to lay the matter before a mullah and leave the decision to him. the mullah listened to them both, but told them that such a serious question needed much thought. he appointed a day for them to return and hear his verdict. after their departure the mullah fell into a sleep, and in his sleep he dreamed. in the dream he beheld a beautiful boy, the son of a king whom his soul loved exceedingly; then later he met a stranger, who told him that he (the mullah) was to cause the death of the boy he loved so much. the mullah, filled with indignation, repudiated the idea, saying that he loved the boy too much to do him any harm. "nevertheless," said the stranger, "it must be, for allah has decreed that the boy is to meet his death through you, and what is written is written." the old mullah returned to his house troubled and sad at heart, but determined that he would do nothing that could in any way bring disaster to the boy. still dreaming, the mullah received a summons to visit the young prince. remembering the words of the stranger, he took with him nothing that could in any way injure the boy, contenting himself by taking with him one gift only--an apple. the boy received the mullah in his beautiful island home, and the two enjoyed some blissful hours of converse together. finally, ere saying farewell, the old man with extended hands presented the apple to the boy, who gladly accepted it, and proposed eating it at once. the mullah, taking a penknife from his inner pocket, peeled the apple, and returned it on the point of the knife to the young prince, who, boylike, grasped it eagerly. in taking the apple the point of the knife pricked the finger of the lad, with the result that blood poisoning set in, and in a short time the beautiful boy lay dead. the mullah in his sorrow wept aloud, and as he wept he awoke. with humble heart and head bowed in submission, he gave glory to allah. on the day appointed the two men returned to hear the verdict of the wise mullah. he received them kindly, but sorrowfully, assuring them that it made not the slightest difference whether they walked under the ladder or not. "for," said the old man, "if it is written that you are to be killed by a ladder falling upon you, it must be so, you cannot escape. what allah has written must be fulfilled. his designs cannot be frustrated." this doctrine, taught to the old mullah by means of his dream, is very prominent in the minds of all moslems to-day. when in persia we had an indian servant who was a mohammedan. he told us that three times on successive nights our lord had appeared to him in a dream, in the form of an old man with a long white beard. so struck was he with the persistency of the dream, that he went to an english clergyman, asking to be taught the christian religion. the women in mosul have often told me of wonderful things which they declared were going to happen to me, as had been revealed to them in dreams. even now i receive letters from some of these women in which they say, "we see you every night in our dreams." the first women in-patients in our so-called hospital in mosul had to be content with a kind of outhouse for their ward. the only place we could find for them which would be hareem was a large room which we used as a wood-house. this my husband had whitewashed and thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. the first unfortunate woman to be put in this ward (?) was a very quiet, gentle moslem woman, who came for an operation. her mother came with her to look after her, and these two were alone in their none too comfortable quarters. two or three days after the operation, these women declared that in the night a huge form of dragon-like appearance rose from the ground at their side! some weeks later this ward was occupied by a little jewish girl who had been terribly burnt, her mother and grandmother looking after her. there were also two or three other women in the ward. one morning very early, word was brought to us that all the inmates of that room had been terribly frightened in the night. on going out to see what had happened, we found them all lying in the passage, having carried their bedding out of the room. they were looking very unhappy and frightened, and requested to be allowed to leave the hospital at once, saying they would not pass another night in that awful place. then they all began to recount their experiences of the night at the same time, so it was with great difficulty we could find out what really had happened. it seems that soon after midnight they were talking to one another, when suddenly they saw two soldiers sitting on the edge of their bedsteads. terribly alarmed, they asked the men however they came to be there--did they not know it was "hareem"? at first the soldiers remained silent, but afterwards told the women that they had come from a village about twelve miles off. that they had been told in a dream to come to the beit hakeem engelisi (house of the english doctor). in obedience to this command they had come. then, as suddenly as they had arrived, they disappeared. the women, of course, were all fearfully alarmed, some believing that they were real soldiers, others that they were genii in the form of soldiers. they immediately left the room, carrying their bedding with them, and spent the rest of the night in fear and trembling. the next morning we made a very careful examination of the roof, to see if by any possible means soldiers could have entered our compound. we found that next door was the house of the head of the soldiers, and it was possible that some of his guard might have found their way over the walls and down to our house. nothing, however, was ever proved; but no one could ever be induced to use that room again, the women declaring that it was haunted by evil spirits. finally, we made it into a hen-house; but the fowls and turkeys all sickened and died, so there evidently was something very wrong with the atmosphere of that room! our first attempt at a women's ward was certainly a failure, but "it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good," and so good came out of this evil. as the women would not use the haunted (?) room, other accommodation had to be found, so we gave up our house for them, while we moved into the one next door--the room which was neither good for human beings nor for feathered fowls being now used as a wood-house. once when travelling in the desert, a spot was pointed out to us as being the abode of jinns and genii. this spot is much abhorred by the muleteers, as they believe that any one camping on that ground is liable to be overtaken by a terrible death. the enchanted ground is encircled by some landmarks, and it is said that any one going to sleep within that magic circle will at once be visited by the jinns inhabiting the spot, who will immediately come and suck his blood till he is dead. chapter ix manners and superstitions in mosul characteristics of inhabitants of mosul--social habits--love of drink--an effectual cure--gambling--tel kaif: a story of uncle goro--the angel of death and other titles--difficulties over name and age--some superstitions--effect of scent on women--birds of good omen--thieves--sheep-killing--sheikh matti--an angel's visit--medical superstitions--cure for hydrophobia. "nothing has more effect upon the mob than superstition." quintus curtius. "to be superstitious is a crime." anon. "sickness and sorrow come and go, but a superstitious soul hath no rest." r. burton. the natives of mosul are, as a rule, a very simple-hearted folk. they are easily amused, easily taken in, and as easily roused to passion. they are, on the whole, good-tempered and patient, and, considering the absolute lack of self-control in their method of bringing up, they give way far less to their passions than might be expected. they dearly love social habits, and spend much time in company, telling and listening to stories, smoking, and drinking coffee. unfortunately, they do not confine their drink to coffee, and these social habits often lead to a great deal of drinking. arak is the favourite refreshment at these times, and is indulged in by both christian and moslem alike. it is a pure spirit, and is made by the christians and jews of mosul, and sold by them to the moslems. no ceremony is complete without the arak bottle. at weddings, funerals, dinner parties, at each and every season of life, it is thought necessary to provide this fire-water. i am sorry to say that the women also drink, but not to such an extent as the men. it is, of course, considered a great sin for a moslem to drink either wine or spirit, as both have been forbidden in the koran: but their love for the arak is stronger in many cases than their love of the koran. a mosul moslem woman told me a short time ago that she did not think there was one moslem man in mosul who did not drink either wine or arak. i hope this is an exaggeration, but the tendency to be less ashamed of the drinking habit and to indulge in it more freely is growing more and more. it is sad to think that the christians of the city are the manufacturers and vendors of spirit and wines, and that they are responsible for introducing them into mosul. a story is told of a sultan of turkey who, desirous of putting a stop to the ever-increasing drink traffic, made a law by which every moslem found the worse for drink should be cast into prison. the first morning after the new law had come into action, a moslem was found drunk lying in the street, incapable of walking to his home. he was immediately taken to prison, and allowed to sleep off the effects of the drink. when he awoke, great was his surprise to find himself in the interior of a prison. on being taken before the judge, he pleaded "not guilty," and said that he had been suffering for some days from a terrible pain in his tooth, and yesterday had gone to the hakeem (doctor) to obtain medicine to relieve the pain. the doctor had told him that the best cure for his pain was to drink a little brandy, so he had followed his advice, with the result that he fell asleep and only awoke to find himself in prison. the judge then commiserated the man on having such bad pain, but assured him it was easily remedied. calling to one of his servants, he ordered him to go at once and fetch the barber, who acted as dentist to all such sufferers. the prisoner assured his excellency the judge that it really did not matter, the pain was better. "but," said the judge sympathetically, "it may come back." the barber was brought and told to examine the man's mouth. finding no sign of decay, he assured the judge that the teeth were sound. the judge began to revile the dentist, saying, "you call yourself a dentist and do not know which is the tooth causing this man pain. find it, and pull it out at once." trembling, the dentist took his forceps and extracted a back tooth. "let me see," cried the judge. "why, that is not rotten; what do you mean by pulling out a good tooth? pull the rotten one out at once." then the dentist again operated on his unwilling victim, and a second time the judge upbraided him for not drawing the right tooth, and ordered him to go on till he had found the one that was decayed. the wretched prisoner, feeling he could not bear to lose any more teeth, called out that it was all a lie: he never had had any toothache, and only drank brandy because he loved it, and promised never to touch it again. the judge smilingly bade his prisoner begone, warning him, however, that next time he offended all his teeth might have to come out. closely associated with drinking is the gambling habit. this too, alas! is very prevalent in mosul. in almost every house card-playing forms the chief pastime both in the hareem and amongst the men, and, as a rule, they play for money. enormous sums of money are lost and won in this way, and, unfortunately, those in good positions are the ones who profit most by this gambling habit. one lady was the possessor of many beautiful jewels, diamonds, pearls, &c., and i was told that she had won them all by gambling. we are always very glad to take part in the social customs of the people when neither drinking nor gambling is part of the programme, and i, at least, certainly very much enjoy a dinner served à l'arabe, with its attendant native entertainment. the after-dinner story-telling is very amusing when you have mastered the language sufficiently to be able to follow the drift of the tale. shortly before leaving, we gave a farewell dinner to some of our friends, and, after dinner, entertained them with fireworks, while one of the guests amused us all by recounting stories, some of which were very interesting. one was as follows:-- "there is a village near mosul called tel kaif, in which all the inhabitants are christians. they are a very original set of people, differing altogether from the christians of mosul in language, dress, and customs. they consider they are quite the most clever and important people under the sun, and this idea is apparent in all their actions. many years ago there lived in tel kaif a very clever and wise man called uncle goro. if any one was in trouble he immediately went to this man for advice; if any were sorrowful, it was to uncle goro they looked for consolation; were any sick, again it was uncle goro alone who could heal them. in fact, uncle goro was looked upon by the admiring villagers as their one hope and stay in times of need. one day a cow belonging to the village felt very thirsty. now, the water supply of tel kaif is not very good, the villagers being dependent upon a large pool of rain-water, which sometimes dries up during the long-continued season of drought. doubtless this cow did not approve of drinking dirty rain-water, so, while seeking for other means of slaking her thirst, she espied near the doorway of a house a large earthen water-pot. into this she looked longingly, but her horns at first prevented her from reaching the water. however, after a little careful manipulation and perseverance, she managed to insert her head into the jar. when she had satisfied her thirst, she tried to withdraw her head, but found she could not, so there it had to remain, while the bewildered villagers looked on in helpless astonishment. at last they decided to appeal to their wise man, so one went off in search of him. when he arrived on the spot and beheld the cow with her head in the water-jar, he considered thoughtfully for a while, and then gave his advice in the following learned manner. "oh, my children," he cried, "here is such a simple matter, and yet you could not find a way out of the difficulty. i am surprised that my fellow-men should be so ignorant." then they all crowded round uncle goro, beseeching him out of his great wisdom to tell them what to do. "first," said uncle goro, "you must cut off the cow's head, then break the water-pot and take out the head!" this brilliant suggestion was at once put into practice, the owner of the cow being the only one who was not quite so sure of the exceeding greatness of the wisdom of uncle goro. when the deed was accomplished and the head extricated from its awkward position, the old man stood and proudly addressed the assembled crowd who had flocked to hear his words of wisdom. "my beloved children," said he, "a day will come when your old uncle goro will die, and then what will you do when you have no one to settle such difficult matters as these for you? pray to god that your uncle goro may long be spared to advise and counsel you." a rather pretty custom exists in mosul which gives people titles according to their work, or any special characteristics belonging to them. for example, the butcher is called "the father of meat"; the baker, "the father of bread." in the hospital, when i am giving orders for the diet list, we hardly ever speak of the patients by name, but according to their disease, as "aboo" (father) liver abscess, "aboo-mai-abiyud" (father of cataract). one of the assistants in the hospital was named "the angel of death" by a poor little girl who was brought to the doctor a mass of burns. it was the duty of this assistant to dress the terrible wounds of the child every day, and though as gentle as a woman, he necessarily pained her a great deal--hence the term "angel of death." the women are designated in the same way as the men, only substituting "mother" for "father," as "em haleeb," milk-woman; "em saba' saba'een," mother of seventy-seven (or centipede), this last simply referring to a girl suffering from hysteria. this was an interesting case which was in the women's hospital for some weeks. the patient was a young woman about sixteen years of age. she was under the delusion that she had swallowed a "saba' saba'een" (a horny centipede, measuring some seven or eight inches, common in mosul). she declared she could not eat anything, for every time she swallowed, the saba' saba'een opened its mouth and ate the food just partaken of! she absolutely refused to touch anything of her own accord, so we had to force food down her throat. two or three women would hold her hands and feet while i fed her with a spoon. as time went on she became worse instead of better, and was always beseeching my husband to operate on her and take out the saba' saba'een. after a time he consented to give her an anæsthetic and operate. on the day appointed she was taken to the theatre and given a whiff of chloroform, while the doctor made a slight incision in her skin. this was stitched up, and she was shown her wound and assured that the doctor had cut her and found nothing. after this she was much happier, and was soon well enough to leave the hospital. women never know their age in mosul. on dispensary days each woman is required to give her name and age. the first difficulty is over the name. many do not know their surnames at all. when asked, "what is your father's name?" they say, "how do i know?" and then add with a laugh, "say bint abdulla" (daughter of a servant of god). abdulla is often a very convenient name when the parentage is uncertain. with regard to their age, women are quite hopeless. i have often seen an old lady, bent double with the weight of many years, come into the dispensary. "well, mother, how old are you?" i ask her. "how old am i? how do i know, my daughter?" "do you think you are fifteen?" "well, i may be." "are you twenty yet?" "perhaps i am," replies the fair damsel of eighty. "i know i was born two years before the year that the locusts ate all the corn." as to how many years ago the locusts destroyed the crop she has not the remotest idea. or another woman will come, certainly not more than twenty or twenty-five, the mother of a baby in arms. on being asked her age she replies, "about sixty"! the natives never have any idea when their birthdays are, but keep their name-days instead. thus amongst the christians all johns will keep the feast of st. john as their feast-day, and so on. parents have a convenient way of forgetting the date of the birth of their daughters. a girl who is not betrothed will remain twelve or thirteen for much more than one year; for when she has passed fourteen or fifteen years she is no longer considered young, and not very likely to be betrothed at all if her real age is known. the natives of mosul are very superstitious; more especially, perhaps, is this true of the women. one curious superstition they have with regard to scent. now an odour which is filthy and dangerous, such as may be felt in most of the houses, is not at all injurious from their standpoint, but a sweet-smelling scent is an abomination to the women. if by any chance i have been using anything in the way of scent (though as a rule i am very careful not to), the first thing i see on entering a room is that the women all immediately apply their handkerchiefs to their olfactory organs. at first this custom appears, to say the least, not too polite; but when you realise \ what it means to them, you understand and excuse them. they firmly believe that a sweet smell brings sickness and sorrow--that it is equally fatal to mothers and young children--hence the great fear of anything in the way of scent. one day our reception-room was full of women who had come to visit me. suddenly a visitor was announced (a native of the country, but not of mosul); immediately all the women crowded into one corner, burying their heads in their chuddars. i could not make out what had disturbed them till i discovered that the new-comer was strongly scented. she was left severely alone by all the others, who kept as far away as possible from her, some even leaving the room, fearing lest evil should overtake them. another day i went to visit a little patient of my husband's in whom he took a great interest. this little boy was the spoilt darling of his parents, the father especially idolising him, watching over him carefully lest any harm should befall him. great was his consternation and distress when it was found that an operation was necessary to save the life of the boy. when the little chap was convalescent i went to see him. after talking to the mother some time in another room, she suggested our going to see the boy. no sooner had i appeared at the threshold of the door, when the boy buried his face in his hands, calling out, "oh, you smell, you smell!" i assured both the mother and the boy that i had no scent of any kind on me, but the boy would not be pacified, and continued crying out, "go away--you smell!" as he was still weak, i thought i had better depart, as excitement was bad for him. when visiting amongst the women it is better not to use scented soap, as they detect even that sometimes! birds have a good many superstitions connected with them. last year, while we were waiting for the decision of our committee regarding the future of the mission in mosul, some women informed me that "good news was coming." good news meant to them that the mission was to be kept on. on asking how they knew, they told me they had just heard a bird singing which is supposed never to raise his voice except as the harbinger of good tidings. storks are looked upon as omens of good luck. these birds return every spring to mosul, hatch their eggs, and migrate in early autumn. the natives of mosul always hail their return with great joy, especially if they nest on their roofs. some will even go so far as to put baskets on the roofs, hoping that the storks will be attracted by them and make them their home for the summer. they agree with longfellow in his love of storks, as expressed in his poem-- "by god in heaven as a blessing, the dear white stork was given." if there had been any truth in this superstition, we ought to have been very prosperous; for at one time we had no less than three families of storks on our roof. personally i think they are not altogether too desirable, for when sleeping on the roof they are apt to become very noisy companions. i do not think i like to be laughed at by these birds. in the early morning they stand close by one's bed, throw back their heads till they rest on their backs, and then laugh aloud at the idea of any one sleeping when once dawn has appeared. the common name for storks in mosul is "the thieves," as they sometimes steal small articles of clothing hanging out to dry, such as handkerchiefs; and no one would ever dare to go to the nest to hunt, lest they should disturb the birds and cause them to fly away. these birds are rather a convenience sometimes for the washerwoman: when blouses disappear it is easy to lay the blame on the "thieves." they are almost as useful as the proverbial "cat." our servant judy is a little woman full of queer superstitious ideas. while in mosul i received the sad news of the death of my father: poor judy was so distressed lest by over-much mourning i should tempt god to take my husband too. as dressmaking is rather primitive in mosul i decided to have some things dyed black. judy would not hear of such a thing, saying that only widows must wear dyed clothes, and that if i wore dyed dresses for my father, she was sure something would happen to my husband. another thing she never would do, and that is to step over our feet! in the summer evenings we used to sit in our verandah, which was rather narrow, and if by chance we should place our feet on a hassock in front of us there remained no room for any one to pass. i could not make out why judy would never pass that way when it was necessary to enter the room at our back. at last she told me that if she stepped over our feet, she would be in danger of "cutting our life," and that if we died it would be her fault. after this i often tried to make her step over my feet, by blocking her pathway, but she never would, so strong was her belief that by so doing she would cut short my life! it is surprising how ignorantly superstitious some of the better-class people are. a wife of a very wealthy christian merchant in mosul had a child who suffered terribly from sore eyes. she brought him to the dispensary for some time, but finding that the treatment pained the child and made him cry, ceased to bring him. we heard afterwards that she had resorted to the following superstitious method of healing. a sheep was bought, killed, and opened: while the blood was still hot the head of the child was inserted into the middle of the sheep's body and allowed to remain there about fifteen minutes. could any treatment be more revolting and disgusting than this? and yet these people, rich and influential members of mosul society, really believed that by doing this their child's eyes would be cured. needless to say it had not the desired effect, and months afterwards they again brought the child to the dispensary, and having learnt their lesson by experience, were content to leave the child in the english hakim's hands, with the result that after a couple of months' daily treatment the eyes were quite healed. i do not know what virtue is supposed to exist in the killing of the sheep or goat, but it is a custom very much in vogue in mosul. on our return from beyrout, after having been absent three months, a live goat was brought out into the desert to meet us, and the moment we alighted from our carriage this poor creature was slaughtered right under our eyes. in persia the custom amongst the armenians at a wedding feast was for a sheep to be killed just as the bride and bridegroom were stepping over the threshold of their new home. it was not considered lucky if the bride did not put her foot into the blood as she passed. in mosul, too, i believe a sheep is sometimes slaughtered at weddings in this way, but i have never seen it done. when a wife is desirous of becoming a mother, there are various superstitious methods to which she may resort, but perhaps the favourite one of all is that connected with sheikh matti. this is a monastery situated some twelve hours' ride from mosul, on the side of a lonely mountain. the woman makes a pilgrimage to this place, and is then told that she must spend a night in the solitary chapel there. while she sleeps an angel will visit the building, and if her request is to be vouchsafed her, will place an apple by her head. if the angel desires to be especially kind to the woman, he will place two, or even three apples near her, the number of apples indicating how many children god is going to honour her with. strange to say, these angel visits do not take place unless provoked by a fair amount of backsheesh! there are a good many superstitions regarding medical treatment of diseases and accidents, but these, i believe, are fast dying out in the face of european learning and skill. the people are learning by experience how much better are the english methods than their own. for instance, it used to be the common custom for those suffering from fever to go to the mullah, who would lay his hands on the patient's head while reading a few verses from the koran. if the fever did not go at once, well, it was the fault of the fever, not of the mullah. i fancy fever patients are beginning to prefer english medicines rather than to trust to the laying on of hands by the mullah. when any one has been bitten by a mad dog, which, considering the number of street dogs, is of very rare occurrence, he goes at once to a sheikh, who will give him an antidote. this consists of a date from which the stone has been taken, and into which the sheikh has spat two or three times to fill up the gap caused by the removal of the stone. upon eating this, the man is supposed to be free from all fear of the development of hydrophobia. these are merely a few of the superstitious customs found in mosul to-day. had we time or space they might be multiplied many times over, but enough, i trust, has been said to awaken love and sympathy in our hearts for these simple folk, whose minds are so easily influenced and guided by these useless and often degrading "heart-chilling superstitions, which can glaze even pity's eye with her own frozen tears." coleridge. chapter x the yezidees gratitude to the english--persecutions--"devil-worshippers"--sun and fire worship--priesthood--a visit to sheikh Âdi--peacock wands--a sacred shrine. "whoever thou art, if thy need be great, in the name of god, the compassionate and all-merciful one-- for thee i wait." whittier. the yezidees, or, as they are commonly called, "devil-worshippers," are a very remarkable tribe living in the near vicinity of mosul. very little is really known as to their religious beliefs, and whether they worship the devil or only fear him, has never yet been discovered by europeans. these curious people are very favourably disposed towards the english, as many years ago the british representative in mosul was able to assist them very materially. the mohammedans have always been very bitter against this people, and have done all in their power to exterminate them. a former pasha at one time captured the high priest of the yezidees, whose name was sheikh naser; he somehow managed to escape, substituting in his place a priest under him in authority. the priest never revealed this fact, and bore with resignation the tortures and imprisonment inflicted upon him. the yezidees applied to mr. rassam, who was the british vice-consul at mosul, and he obtained the release of the priest by paying a large sum as ransom money. this debt was faithfully repaid, and since that time the yezidees have cherished very grateful memories of the english. many years ago these yezidees were a very powerful tribe. they had two principal strongholds, one in the mountains lying to the west of mosul, and the other only twenty-four hours' journey to the north. by means of continual attacks and massacres at the hands of the kurds, their population has been reduced considerably, only about one-third remaining of their original number. mohammedans are always very bitter against any sect which is supposed to have no "book." the yezidees, coming under this category, receive little mercy from them, and for centuries have been exposed to persecutions from these their oppressors. of late years the yezidees have seen the uselessness of rebelling against their fate, and, acknowledging their defeat, are patiently bearing their misfortunes. these so-called devil-worshippers recognise one supreme being, but apparently do not offer any prayers directly to him. the name of god is often on their lips in the form of oaths, but that of the evil spirit is never to be heard. so far do they carry this superstition, that not only will they not use the word shaitan (satan), but any word beginning with "sh" is also shunned by them. then, again, such a veneration have they for satan, that it is prohibited amongst the yezidees to utter any word containing the letter sh (shin), being the first letter of the arabic word for satan. thus they have to find other words to express such commonly spoken of objects as the sun, river, water-melon, &c., as they each begin with the prohibited letter. layard, in his travels amongst them, tells of one instance illustrating this superstition. he was standing in the midst of a large crowd of yezidees gathered to take part in their yearly feast, when he espied a boy climbing a tree at the apparent risk of his neck. he says, "as i looked up i saw the impending danger, and made an effort by an appeal to the chief to avert it. 'if that young sheit--' i exclaimed, about to use an epithet generally applied in the east to such adventurous youths. i checked myself immediately, but it was too late; half the dreaded word had escaped." he goes on to say that the effect was instantaneous, a look of horror spreading over the faces of all present. fortunately for him, he was a favourite amongst the yezidees, and so they allowed it to pass. so great is the horror of this letter, that they have often killed those who use it wilfully. when speaking of the devil they do so reverently, calling him the "mighty angel." the symbol of their religion is the "malek el taous," a peacock, and is held in great reverence by them. satan is said to be the head of the angelic host, and he is supplied with seven archangels, who minister to him and exercise great influence over the world; they are gabriel, michael, raphael, azrail, dedrail, azrapheel, and shemkeel. our lord is also counted amongst the angels, though not one of these seven, and is acknowledged to have taken upon himself the form of man. they, in common with the mohammedans, do not believe in his crucifixion; but declare that he ascended to heaven just before that event took place, some saying that the angel gabriel took our lord's place on the cross, while others say judas was the real victim. they are looking forward to the second coming of christ and also to the reappearance of the imam; this latter being also the mohammedan's hope. their patron saint is one called sheikh Âdi, who is supposed to have lived many years before mohammed; but very little is known of his history. they reverence the sun, and are in the habit of kissing the object on which its first rays fall. fire as a symbol is also connected with their worship, the disciples frequently passing their hands through the flame, kissing them, and then rubbing them over their faces. they have four orders of priesthood, which is hereditary, and consists of the pirs, sheikhs, cawals, and the fakirs. the pirs (from a persian word meaning old man) are the most reverenced next to their great sheikh or head of the sect. these are believed to possess the power not only of interceding for their adherents, but also of curing disease and insanity. they are supposed to lead a life of great sanctity, and are in consequence much looked up to by the people. the sheikhs come next in order of rank. these are supposed to know a little arabic, as their work is to write the hymns which are chanted at their religious services. they guard the tomb of sheikh Âdi, bring fuel to keep up the holy fire, and provisions to those who dwell within the shrine. the third rank of priesthood is perhaps the most active of all. these are called cawals or preachers, and it is their duty to go from village to village teaching the doctrines of the yezidees. they are all musicians, being taught to sing when very young; they also perform on the flute and tambourine, both of these instruments being looked upon as holy. before and after playing they often kiss their instruments, and pass them to the audience for them to do likewise. they dress as a rule in white and wear black turbans, while the sheikhs always wear nothing but white. they are generally venerable-looking men with long beards. they act as emissaries for the sheikh, and yearly go forth and collect the revenues. their emblem of office is a wand, on the top of which is perched a brazen peacock, and they boast with pride that never have their enemies been able to capture one of these staves. they relate how on one memorable occasion a priest, being chased through the desert by arabs, in the heat of the pursuit stopped his mare, descended, and buried the precious badge of office; then, marking the exact site for future reference, resumed his flight. having escaped with his life, six months later he managed to recover the buried staff, creeping down by night into the desert from his mountain shelter. now why should they place such a high value on these emblems? a possible solution was given me by the rev. dr. st. clair tisdall, who recalled to my mind an old mohammedan tradition that it was the peacock who admitted satan into the garden of eden. this would strengthen the suspicion that the yezidees really do worship the evil one. the lowest order in the priesthood are called fakirs. these wear coarse dresses of black or dark-brown canvas, which reach only as far as the knees. their office is to perform all the menial work connected with the tomb of sheikh Âdi, sweeping and cleaning the sacred buildings, trimming and lighting the holy lamps. these lamps are offerings made by pilgrims who have visited the tomb in times of danger or sickness. a yearly sum is subscribed for the oil necessary for the lamps and for the support of the priests. at sunset each evening these lamps are lit, and give the appearance of a multitude of stars glittering on the side of the mountain; for not only are the lamps placed in the shrine and walls of the courtyard, but they are also scattered about on rocks and ledges and in the dark corners of the woods. as the priest goes from lamp to lamp lighting each one, men and women pass their hands through the flame and smear their foreheads, and those who have children do the same to them. this reverence for fire reminds one of the parsees of persia, whom these people in many ways resemble. unfortunately i was unable to visit these interesting villages, but i hope to do so on a future occasion. we had intended to spend a month amongst them during the summer of , the sheikh having extended a cordial invitation to us. my husband accordingly went up to reconnoitre, and see if there was any place possible either to stay in or to pitch our tent. he found, however, that it was hardly a suitable place for a summer holiday, as the climate was not very satisfactory, besides which it was difficult to find a place for the tents; so we decided we would not go that year at any rate. both my husband and the men with him were quite ill for a few hours after visiting sheikh Âdi, so they were not anxious to return. the natives say that this illness is caused by drinking the water, but that the effect passes off after a few days, when one has become accustomed to the water. my husband, however, much enjoyed his visit amongst these strange people, and in writing of that time he says:-- "these interesting people dwell in the mountains round about mosul, the ancient nineveh. they are ruled over by a sheikh, who claims to be able to put some ten thousand armed horsemen in the field. on account of their suspected devil-worship they are detested by moslems and christians alike. the turks have more than once endeavoured to exterminate them; but, entrenched in their mountain fastnesses, they are very hard to overcome. "when in mosul their sheikh called on me and asked me to pay him a visit up in his mountain home. thus i was able to see their homes for myself, also the sacred shrine, hidden away in the mountains, where their reputed founder (sheikh Âdi) lies buried, from whom it derives its name. "the yezidees, like the druses of mount lebanon, are very reluctant to discuss their religion, and it is said that death is the penalty for any one among them who reveals the truth concerning what they worship. "on paying a visit to their sacred shrine (sheikh Âdi), i found it hidden in the hollow of thickly-wooded mountains, and composed of two large compounds, the inner compound containing the shrine in a church-like building with a newly-built steeple. on the right side of the entrance porch is the figure of a huge serpent graven in the stone of the building, with its head uppermost. this serpent is kept blackened daily with charcoal by the two or three old monks who live in the shrine. upon inquiring the meaning of this symbol, the monk told me it was graven there to remind the worshippers to remove their sandals from off their feet, as the ground around the shrine is holy. if any should be careless or wicked enough to disobey, it was said that they would be bitten on the heels by some of the snakes that were said to infest the place. "the steeple rises immediately from the room in the church that once contained the body of their founder, sheikh Âdi. this sheikh was a great mohammedan teacher who many centuries ago used to preach and teach in damascus. he gathered around him many disciples, and it is said he was accustomed to vary the monotony of his teaching by drawing a circle on the ground, and, placing therein himself and some favourite disciple, would enable the latter to hear and understand the teaching of another famous mullah speaking in far-away baghdad. "this sheikh Âdi some years before his death retired to this place in the mountains, two days' journey from mosul, and there he was visited by many, as his fame spread abroad, and in this place he died and was buried. the yezidees claim that, ere he died, he forsook mohammedanism and instituted a new religion. the moslems, however, reverence his memory, and say that the yezidees, after his death, started a new religion of their own. "in the church there was to be seen a pool of water, said by them to be used as a baptistery, and little else but bare walls. my guide assured me it used to look very different, but fifteen years previously the turks had captured the place and destroyed all they could lay hands on. on the roof near the steeple are two stones, facing east and west, said to be used as prayer-stones, the yezidees praying as the first ray of the rising sun appears, and as the last ray of the setting sun departs, and use these stones as indicators. this, again, is interesting, as (according to dr. tisdall) it is a curious fact that mohammedan tradition avers that it is alone at these two times daily that the devil has power to intercept the prayers of the faithful, and they are, therefore, to be scrupulously avoided by all true moslems. "the yezidees are loath to venture into the city, but a few have already commenced to attend the mission dispensary. they are easily recognised by their costume, and by the fact that no yezidee is allowed to wear any garment exposing the breast. one of these patients informed me that when he wanted to worship he went to the priest (cawal), paid him a small fee, and was placed in a small room, the filthier the better, and made to sit on the floor. the priest would then sit in front of him and make him imagine himself to be in paradise (the eastern idea of paradise--lovely garden, flowing stream, trees laden with fruit, houris, &c.). if (and it is a big 'if') his statement was true, it would point to their priests having some knowledge of hypnotism, but the yezidees will say anything to mislead an inquirer. "we had a little yezidee boy in hospital with his mother. he had been successfully operated upon for stone, but developed jaundice and gradually sank. one evening, ere his mother took him back to her village, a message was brought to us imploring my wife and me to wash our hands in the water our servant brought us; the same water was then to be given by the yezidee mother to her dying boy that he might drink and live! "one longs to be able to tell them of him who is the water of life: but they have a language of their own, and understand but little arabic. "will not my readers pray that the mosul mission may be strengthened and properly equipped; that the gospel may be preached to these poor yezidees, as well as to their mohammedan neighbours; and that they may learn to love him who alone has power to cast out devils?" chapter xi travelling in the desert monotony of desert travelling--a puppy and a kitten--tragedy--accident by the river euphrates--riots in mosul--robberies and murder excited by love of gold. "of moving accidents by flood and field, of hairbreadth 'scapes.... the shot of accident, nor dart of chance could neither graze nor pierce...." shakespeare. travelling in the desert is apt to become rather monotonous when each day goes by with nothing to mark it from the preceding one, so that when some event out of the common does take place it is quite exhilarating. for instance, once during our mid-day halt, which happened to be on the site of a newly-deserted arab encampment, we heard a cry, and looking about found a wee puppy about two days old. this puppy afforded us amusement for at least two days, much to the amazement of our muleteers. we wrapped it in flannel, placed it in the sunshine to try and instil some warmth into its chilly body, and presently we had the satisfaction of hearing its wailing gradually cease as the sunshine penetrated the flannel. we managed to keep life in the poor little beast for two or three days, but, as milk is scarce in the desert, it was impossible to feed it properly. one evening we arrived at an arab encampment, and thought it would be kinder to leave the poor puppy with one of the arabs, who are supposed to be fond of dogs. so we persuaded our servant to take the puppy and deposit it in one of the tents. he did so very reluctantly, thinking he might be shot at for venturing near after dusk. however, he crept up quietly and placed the puppy just inside one of the tents. immediately the owner demanded who was there, but aboo (our servant) fled without waiting to answer. we heard the arab using some strong language, and then, catching sight of the poor puppy, he took it up and threw it out into the desert. we could hear the little thing squealing and crying, so my husband went to rescue it once more from an untimely end. he found it on top of a rubbish heap, brought it back to our tent, and we tried again to warm and soothe it. the next day, however, the little spark of remaining life was quenched. so the short story of this little forsaken waif ended in a sad tragedy, and my husband undertook the dismal duty of committing its body to the deep waters of the river. another day one of our escort galloped up with great excitement to show us a kitten he had just found in the desert--the poor little mite was so thankful to see a human being again, and had evidently been left behind in much the same manner as the puppy when the arab tribe was migrating. these are small episodes of the desert which help to break the monotony. i may perhaps be allowed to misquote the well-known lines of s. gregory:-- "a little thing is a little thing, but 'excitement' in little things is a great thing"--in the desert. on one occasion we passed an arab lying on his back and covered with his aba, the native cloak worn by all classes. we heard afterwards that it was a case of murder; that the man had been dead three days, and only then had been found by his sons, who were out searching for their father. hastily covering him with one of their cloaks, they had rushed off to try and find the murderer and avenge their father's blood. we met them soon afterwards, and they told the whole story to our escort. in the preceding chapters we have seen how often the cry of "wolf, wolf!" was raised when there was no wolf, till we began to think that the much-talked-of robbers of the desert did not exist at all, or, if they did exist, would not dare to touch a european caravan. however, we soon learnt to our cost that this was not the case. two years ago we were travelling from mosul to aleppo, and had almost reached our destination when we met with the following adventure. having reached the end of our stage one day, we had encamped within a stone's throw of the river euphrates, just outside the town of beridjik. our tent was pitched beneath a lovely spreading tree, under which ran a sparkling stream on its way from the mountains to the river. we thought what an ideal camping-ground it made, and apparently the same thought entered the minds of some others, only from a different standpoint. all round us were signs of the industry of the villagers in the form of huge stacks of corn freshly reaped, now waiting for the threshing time to begin. ere we retired for the night we were strolling by the stream and amongst the corn, where we noticed two men sitting in the field, who gave us the evening salutations as we passed by. we did not attribute any importance to this fact, as it is not unusual for the villagers to set watchmen to guard their corn during harvest time and afterwards, till the grain is safely housed. so, committing ourselves to the care of him who never slumbers or sleeps, we retired to our tent, hoping for a good night's rest to prepare us for the journey of the morrow. our "ideal camping-ground" i found to have at least one great disadvantage--a disadvantage common to all grounds which are used by flocks of goats and sheep for their resting-places. that night these "pilgrims of the desert" were particularly active, and gave me no peace or chance of sleep till the early hours of the morning; then at last, worn-out with the unequal warfare, i fell asleep. i could not have been sleeping long when i was awakened by a movement on the part of my camp bedstead. sleepily i decided in my mind that our donkey had loosened his tether and was trying to pay us a friendly visit. often in the night some animal would get loose, and rub himself against our tent ropes till he had succeeded in rooting up one peg, when he would go and practise on another. thinking this was the case now i promptly fell asleep again, only to be reawakened in a short time by the same sensation. this time i was quite awake, and in an instant flashed my electric torch round the tent, just in time to see a man decamping by the door. i roused my husband (whose sleep is never disturbed by pilgrims of the night), and told him what had happened. he immediately rushed out and gave the alarm to the camp. unfortunately it was a very dark night, and nothing could be seen a yard ahead, so the robbers had ample opportunity for beating a retreat. our tent was some little way from the village, so my husband returned to the tent to put on some more garments before going to interview the head-man of the village, who is always supposed to be responsible for the safety of caravans. when he came to look for his clothes, the only article he could find was one shoe, the thieves having cleared the tent of everything available, even to our tooth-brushes! not only did they clear off everything from the tent, but also emptied a large box which was standing outside the tent, and also took a large valise containing my husband's portmanteau and my "hold-all." had they been content with these, we should never have known of their nocturnal visit till the morning; but in their desire to secure the small carpet which lay in the middle of the tent, they awoke me, hence the movement of my bed which twice disturbed my sleep. we felt there was nothing to be done till daybreak, so retired once more to rest. as soon as dawn appeared some of the caravan party rode off in different directions to see if they could find any trace of the thieves, but of course they had disappeared long ago under cover of the darkness. the search party, however, brought back a few garments picked up along the road, which the thieves had evidently dropped in their hurry when the alarm was given. our escort, a soldier from beridjik, was sent back to the town to notify the government officials of the robbery. in a short time the governor of the place rode out with six or seven other officials, all evidently much disturbed in their minds lest they should get into disgrace for allowing any harm to come to a european caravan. the first thing the governor did was to send for the head-man of the village and have him bound and beaten. i was so sorry for the poor man, who had a flowing white beard. i could not bear to witness his beating, so retired to the tent, and tried to shut out the sound as well as the sight of the old man's sufferings. as a matter of fact i do not think the beating was a very severe one, but the victim made the most of it. this proving of no avail, they all set out for the neighbouring villages, and spent the whole of that day and the next scouring the country for the thieves, returning each day at sunset and renewing the search early next morning. my husband accompanied them the first day, and was very much amused by the behaviour of some of the villagers at sight of the officials. at some villages they would find nothing but women, the men all having fled at the news that soldiers were coming. they found plenty of other stolen goods buried in the ground of the huts, but none of our belongings. in one village a man confidentially whispered to one of the soldiers that he knew where the stolen goods were. on being told to lead the way to the place, he led them all to a large field in which were some hundred or more large corn-stacks, and said that the goods were in one of those. i expect he much enjoyed his little joke, for after turning over a dozen or so of these ricks under the scorching sun, the soldiers gave up the task as hopeless. all efforts proving unavailing, we had perforce to proceed on our journey, managing as best we could till we reached aleppo, where we were able to replenish that which was most lacking in our wardrobe. the fame of our adventure preceded us to jerusalem, where a month or two later we heard a most exaggerated account of our state when we entered aleppo. my husband went at once to our consul on reaching aleppo, laying before him the whole story. fortunately for us, mr. longworth was a most energetic and painstaking man, having great influence with the government officials. he asked us to write out an estimate of our losses, which he presented to the vali, assuring us he would either make the government pay full compensation or produce the lost goods. after six months of endless work and worry, mr. longworth sent my husband a telegram saying that compensation to the full amount had been given. we were very thankful to our consul for his unceasing energy in the matter, and sent him our very grateful thanks. thus happily ended no. of our chapter of accidents. when we think of what "might have been" that night with those wild men of the desert in our tent while we were sleeping, our hearts go up with great thankfulness to god, who ever watches over his children, and who can keep them as safely in the deserts of mesopotamia as in the homeland. the two men we had noticed sitting amongst the corn had probably been hired for the purpose of robbing us, but the real culprit was suspected afterwards to have been one of the leading men of beridjik--in fact we were told that he was a member of the "town council." doubtless he wished to procure for himself and his hareem some european clothing, without the expense of buying it. another peril from which in god's mercy we were delivered had its origin in mosul. the vali, in obedience to orders from constantinople, endeavoured to register every woman in mosul. to accomplish this it was necessary to find out the number and "write" a list of every woman in each house. moslems and christians alike rose in revolt at the idea of their women being "written," as it appeared to them contrary to all the laws of god and mohammed that such a thing should be. the whole town was in an uproar, the shops were shut, no business was done in the sook (bazaar), and men congregated everywhere, talking angrily and making ugly threats. this went on for five days; such a thing had never been known before. sometimes, in times of trouble, work has been suspended for three days, but no one could remember the sook being shut for such a length of time as five days. the christians began to be very much alarmed for their safety, as it was rumoured that, unless the vali gave way, at the expiration of the fifth day a general massacre of christians would take place. the french convent was guarded by soldiers; our agent wired to the consul-general at baghdad for a like guard for the english, which happily, however, was not needed. when my husband was in the house i did not feel at all nervous, but if he was called out to see a patient after dark i certainly felt very anxious till he returned; for all around us was heard the continual firing of guns and pistols, and i pictured to myself the possibilities and probabilities of some of those stray bullets. "alhamd'llillah!" nothing happened, and we realised again once more that the traveller's god is able to keep, as expressed in those incomparable words commonly known as the traveller's psalm. on the evening of the fifth day the governor recalled his order for the names of the women to be written, and all was quiet once more, at least outwardly. for some time, however, a feeling of unrest was abroad, several murders taking place that week, one of which still remains wrapt in mystery. a moslem enticed a jew into the country on the pretext of having some work for him to do; he then made the man dig a grave; after which he stabbed him, and threw the body into the grave made by the victim's own hands. the reason of the murder is unknown. one evening we were having dinner, when in rushed my husband's chief assistant, in a great state of excitement, to say that his brother had been stabbed in the sook, and they had brought him to our outer compound. my husband immediately went out and found the young man with a wound in his thigh. had it been a little higher up the result would probably have been fatal, but happily it was a comparatively trivial wound, and a few stitches and a week's rest soon put him right again; but naturally daoud (the name of the victim) was very much alarmed, and it was some time before he quite recovered his nerve and could walk through that sook again. it seemed such an absolutely meaningless assault, that we could only hope it was a case of mistaken identity. daoud had been an assistant for over a year, and as far as he knew had not a single enemy in the town. matters of private dispute and jealousy are often settled by means of the revolver. an armenian doctor, a short time ago, was shot when riding home from visiting a case. he was passing under a dark archway, when suddenly he heard bullets whizzing and became aware that he was the target. his horse was so badly hit that he was afraid it could not recover, but fortunately he himself escaped with only a slight graze or two. he attributed the motive of this attack to private grudges borne against him by some of his professional brethren. there is in mosul an armenian woman, whose husband was a doctor who had been celebrated for one special kind of operation. on his death his widow thought she might as well continue her husband's practice, as she had often assisted him with the operations. accordingly she set herself up amongst the many quack doctors of mosul. many of her operations were successful, while the results of a still greater number remain in obscurity. her charges were tremendous; no matter how poor her patient, she would do nothing till a very large fee had been paid. in this way she made a rich harvest while no european doctor was in the city, but after our arrival i am afraid her income was considerably lessened. upon our departure from mosul i imagine she again started her lucrative profession of grinding money out of the poor, for we heard not long ago that she had been stabbed five times while walking in the streets one evening. robberies are very common in mosul. almost every evening may be heard on all hands sounds of shooting, telling of houses being visited by robbers. fortunately, so far, they have not favoured us with a visit, and i sincerely hope they never will. one evening we were sitting quietly in the verandah when a woman came rushing in from the women's hospital compound, saying that there were three men on the roof. we all rushed out, armed with anything we could lay hands on, and made a dash for the roof on which the men had been seen, but no sign of them could be found. one of our servants climbed on to the top of the wall connecting our house with our neighbour's, flashing his lantern all round in his endeavours to see any trace of the supposed thieves. excited voices were at once heard asking "who is there?" "why do you throw a light here?" &c.; and the lantern-bearer found to his horror that he was illuminating with his lamp the whole of the hareem of our next-door neighbour, who were all sleeping on the roof, the time being summer. his descent was much quicker than his ascent, as he was in deadly fear of being shot by the irate owner of the hareem. as a rule thieves only think it worth while to go after gold. silver is not accounted of any value in mosul. the natives, especially perhaps the christians and jews, always have a great deal of gold in their houses, and in consequence live in terror of the robbers coming to relieve them of it. shortly before we left i heard of a very sad case of robbery and murder. a young christian girl, who had just been married, was awakened one night by a man roughly forcing the gold bracelets from her wrist, holding at the same time a revolver at her head, and telling her if she made a sound he would shoot her dead. for a time she suffered in silence, but an extra sharp wrench from the rough hands of her tormentor made her cry out in pain. her cry roused her husband, and he immediately made a dash for the robber, who calmly turned the revolver at the man's head and shot him dead. thus the bride of only a few days' duration was left a widow. another day two women belonging to one of the leading christian families were returning from an early service at their church, when they were attacked by a moslem man, who tore the gold coins from their heads and necks. the terrified women could hardly reach their own homes, so stunned were they by the harsh treatment of the robbers. the strange sequel to this story is, that after a few days a parcel arrived at the house to which the women belonged, which on being opened was found to contain all the gold which had been wrested from them a few days before. another lady in mosul, also a christian, was the proud possessor of a most valuable set of jewels. one day everything disappeared. she neither saw nor heard a robber, but evidently one must have gained admission to the house, for all her jewels were taken; and to this day she has never had a clue as to their fate. i often say to the women in mosul who sometimes commiserate me on having no gold: "which is better--to have gold for the robbers to get, or to have none and be able to go to rest with a quiet mind?" i think most of them would prefer to have the gold and risk the rest, so devoted are they to it and all jewellery. every woman, except the very poor, has on her marriage, gold coins for her head, gold chains for her neck, a golden band for her waist, gold bracelets for the arms, and the same for her ankles. is it any wonder that these form attractions which prove too strong for the average robber to resist? i was once visiting at the house of a poor jewess. she was telling me how poor she was, as her "man" was ill and could not work; but i said, "i expect you have gold?" "oh yes, of course," was the answer; and going to a cupboard she pulled out a secret drawer and showed me her store of gold coins and bangles, valued at about £ . before putting away her "gods," she asked me if i thought her hiding-place was secure enough against the invasion of robbers. these people certainly lay up for themselves treasures where thieves break through and steal, the result being that when their "treasures" are taken they are left disconsolate. having nothing better to live for, are they not worthy of our love and pity? chapter xii the pleasures of desert travelling desert blossoms as a rose--flowers of the desert--arabs, their occupation and women--arab dancing--robbers of the desert--an army of ten thousand--five hundred armed men--false alarms--lost in the desert--delights and disturbances of travelling. "truth is truth: too true it was, gold! she hoarded and hugged it first, longed for it, leaned o'er it, loved it-- alas! till the humour grew to a head and burst, and she cried at the final pass. talk not of god, my heart is stone! nor lover nor friend--be gold for both! gold i lack, and, my all, my own...." r. browning. "o that the desert were my dwelling-place." byron. it can with all truth be said that in springtime the desert of mesopotamia blossoms as a rose. two years ago we travelled from mosul to aleppo by the northern route viâ mardin, diabekir, and orfa. we left mosul about the th june, just as the harvest had all been gathered in and the earth had once more resumed its parched-up appearance for another summer. no sooner had we left the neighbourhood of mosul behind us than we were surrounded again on all sides by fields of waving corn, in many instances still green, and this continued the whole way to aleppo; the harvest becoming later as we travelled north. where the land was not cultivated the wild flowers were a perfect delight, and the desert air was filled with their sweetness. in one place the effect of these flowers was peculiarly enchanting. as far as the eye could see, the fields were covered with hollyhocks of all hues, the different shades being grouped together; thus a vast expanse of red hollyhocks would be succeeded by a field of white ones, these again changing to a delightful mauve. i have never anywhere seen such a wealth of wild flowers as we saw in that so-called desert journey from mosul to mardin. to try to enumerate the countless tiny flowers of the desert would be futile; they go very near to rival in number and beauty the wild flowers of palestine. once we were sitting in a field waiting for our caravan, and my husband said he would see how many different kinds of flowers he could pick without moving. in a minute or two he had gathered over a dozen, all within arm's reach. in that field alone there must have been at least a hundred varieties of flowers. as we approached aleppo the flowers became scarcer, and fruit-trees took their place. one day i was riding on the top of the pack mule, when suddenly the animal (who had only one eye) stumbled, and i was deposited on the ground before i realised what had happened. feeling rather hot and bruised, i looked about for a place to rest in. fortunately we were near an orchard, so finding a delightfully shady tree, we decided to make this our lunching-ground. as we sat and rested ripe apricots fell from the tree into our laps. the owner of the orchard informed us we could eat as many as we liked--for a consideration! but desert travelling is not all as pleasant as this. were we to retrace our steps a month or two later we should see no beautiful flowers or waving corn-fields, nothing but burnt-up desert land. the direct route from mosul to aleppo lies through land almost entirely desert. for two whole days nothing is to be seen save an occasional arab encampment, and sometimes not even that. the arabs of mesopotamia belong as a rule to the great shammar tribe. they wander up and down the country living in black tents made from camel or goats' hair. when wishing to seek pastures new they migrate from one place to another with all their flocks and herds, the tending of which forms one of their chief occupations. the arab women are most industrious: in addition to the ordinary cares of the family, they fetch the water, carrying it home from the well or river in large jars balanced on their heads; they drive the flocks to pasture, milking them night and morning; they spin the wool of the sheep and goat, and weave it into cloth for the men's garments or for the tent canvas. in fact, there is hardly anything the arab woman does not do, while her lord and master passes the time in scouring the country on horseback, or settling quarrels with his neighbours. arabs of different tribes are very quick to go to war against each other, and will fight for the merest trifle, though blood is rarely shed, the consequences of a blood feud being so dreaded. with the arab it must be blood for blood, and once blood has been shed, there can be no rest till vengeance has been satisfied. the arabs are very proud of their horses, as they have every reason to be, a true arab horse being a lovely creature. as a rule they do not shoe their horses at all. one day two men from an encampment near mosul were walking along when they saw something on the road which attracted their attention. picking it up, they examined it very carefully, turned it over and over, but could not come to any satisfactory conclusion regarding it. the object under discussion was a horseshoe, but as neither of them had ever seen such a thing before they could not guess its use. after discussing it gravely for some time one arab said to the other, "of course i know what it is. this is an old moon which has fallen down from heaven!" the arabs are very hospitable people, and were often profuse in their invitations for us to eat with them. i have once or twice joined the women in sitting round a big cauldron full of "borghol" (crushed corn boiled with plenty of fat) and dipping with them into the one dish, and thoroughly enjoyed it. when you have a desert appetite it is possible to enjoy anything. once my husband and i accepted an invitation to a meal with an arab, and were regaled with chicken boiled with a green vegetable called "barmiya," and pillau. our host would not eat with us, but employed himself brushing the flies away from the food as we ate. the arab dance is a very weird performance to watch. the men and women all join hands, and shuffle with their feet, at the same time working every muscle of the body in a most grotesque fashion. as they warm to the dance they get very much excited, yelling and shouting in a frantic manner. these arabs are the dreaded robbers of the desert, and our guard always impressed upon us, when travelling, what a dangerous set of people they were. every speck on the horizon is magnified into a probable arab; and if by chance one is met in the desert, the excitement is great. on one occasion we were riding in a very lonely spot when suddenly an arab horseman rode into view. immediately our gallant guard swooped down upon the unfortunate man, asking him what he meant by spying upon our movements, for they did not think it possible that he would be there alone if it were not for that object. the arab assured us he had no such intentions, but had only come to meet a friend whom he believed to be in our caravan. however, our escort would not credit his story, so took him prisoner till we had safely passed the dangerous part, and then allowed him to return. we could not help wondering whether, if there had been twenty arabs instead of one, our guard would have been so brave. another time we were crossing a huge track of waterless desert, said to be infested with marauding arab tribes, when suddenly we saw the escort becoming highly excited, waving their guns about, preparatory to galloping off. before we had time to ask what it was all about they were off. we were then driving in a carriage, so making inquiries from our driver were assured it was nothing, only he pointed ominously to a long black line seen far away in the distance. our servant assured us this was the shadow of the mountain, but this was only said to reassure us in case we felt alarmed. the "black line" appeared to be steadily advancing, every moment becoming more and more like a huge army of mounted men marching straight for us. our driver, thinking, no doubt, of the probable capture of his horses by the robbers, lashed up the poor beasts into a gallop, urging them on ever faster and faster till they could go no quicker. our servant, who was sitting on the box-seat, made valiant attempts to draw off our thoughts from the impending danger, as he thought the "khatoun" would be much frightened. but the "khatoun" was not to be blindfolded, and much preferred to see and know what was going on. by this time the "army" had assumed enormous proportions, for as each section appeared in sight, another one loomed behind, away in the distance. already in my mind i resignedly (?) bade farewell to all the contents of our boxes, as i pictured the arabs ruthlessly breaking them open and spreading the contents on the ground for inspection and division. we soon saw that we must give up the race, for every moment brought us nearer our dreaded enemies; till just as we reached the top of a small rise in the ground we came face to face with our "army of soldiers." "alhamd'llillah!" they were nothing more alarming than a huge cavalcade of about , camels being taken to water in companies of , each company being in charge of a drover, the order and regularity with which they walked giving the impression that they were regiments of mounted soldiers. i fancy the alarm of the guards and driver was only assumed for our benefit, for on our return journey they began the same story at the identical spot, and there again, sure enough, was the steady advancing line; but this time we were wiser, and could laugh at our would-be alarmists. another time we had just crossed a river at the end of a long day's march, and were enjoying a well-earned rest and cup of tea, when our escort came up in great distress of mind to say that he had just heard that a band of armed men had that morning crossed the river with the avowed intention of lying in wait for the feringhi caravan and attacking it. we were getting used to alarms of this kind, and at first only laughed at their anxious faces; but they were so persistent in their entreaties that we should not remain on that side of the river, that we began to think that perhaps, after all, this time they might have foundation for their fears. so we made a compromise to the effect that, if they wished, we would pack up and move on to some village, although we were very tired. so with this they had to be content, and it was arranged that at midnight we were to start. however, just before turning in for a short rest, the guard again made their appearance, this time to say they had considered that it would not be at all safe to travel by night, and that we had better wait till daylight, adding in the usual way: "but do not be afraid; we will watch all night long." so we all retired very thankfully to rest. it was a very hot night, and being unable to sleep i went outside the tent door for a little air, and found our gallant guard all fast asleep and snoring. in the morning they assured us that they had never closed their eyes all night, but had sat up watching for robbers!! we had experienced once in persia the pleasant sensation of being lost when alone in the desert. in the turkish-arabian desert we, in company with the whole caravan, were once lost, and spent many weary hours wandering about seeking for our right road in vain. it was a day or two after leaving diabekir; our escort, reduced to one soldier as the road was considered fairly safe, was quite sure he knew the way. our muleteer and servants had never travelled that road before, so we were completely in the hands of one man; but as he seemed quite sure, we did not trouble about it, knowing that these men are always on the road acting as escort. but we soon found that we were trusting to a broken reed, so far as his knowledge as a guide was concerned. we started one day on what we supposed to be a short stage, but to our surprise it seemed to lengthen out into a longer one than usual, till we began to despair of ever reaching the end. at last, when sunset was a thing of the past, we began to suspect that our guide was not too sure of his where-abouts; and this suspicion soon changed to certainty when we suddenly found ourselves on the top of a steep bank, down which it was impossible for the animals to climb. our clever guide then confessed that he did not know where we were. it was now quite dark, and we had been riding since early morning, so felt pretty tired; but our muleteer said it was quite out of the question to stay where we were, as there was no water for the animals, and the hills with which we were surrounded were known to be full of robbers. so we wandered on and on and on, listening in vain for some sound of habitation and hearing none, longing even to hear the joyful sound of the barking of dogs or croaking of frogs, telling of life and water; but our longings were not to be realised that night. at last, about ten o'clock, we said we could not possibly go any further; so, amidst much discontent and fear on the part of the men, we dismounted and declared our intention of staying where we were till dawn. the animals were all tethered, and we all sat round in a circle, so that if the robbers came we should be able to show a good front. the men appeared to be quite frightened, and declared they would not sleep, but each would take his turn at watching. we were too sleepy to care much whether the robbers came or not, so wrapping ourselves in blankets we were soon fast asleep. awaking about half-an-hour later, i looked out to see how the "watchers" were getting on, and saw that they were all fast asleep, covered up in their abas or long cloaks. i soon followed their example and slept till morning, no robbers having come in the night to disturb our slumbers. we discovered that we had wandered a good distance out of our way, but found the right path soon after nine o'clock, and very thankful we all were to obtain water to drink--the animals more so than any of us, perhaps. travelling in the desert is very pleasant if the stage is not a very long one. to start about sunrise or a little after, ride three or four hours, then have a lunch of bread and melons, and finish up with another three hours' ride, makes a very pleasant picnic; but when the stage takes twelve or thirteen hours to do, the pleasure becomes a burden. at the end of a short stage it is delightful to sit outside our tent and enjoy the cool breeze of the desert, and watch the stars peeping out one after the other. sometimes, however, the weather is not such as to allow of this form of enjoyment. when we were coming home in , in crossing the desert we came in for some tremendously heavy thunderstorms. one night we were simultaneously awakened by a tremendous gust of wind which threatened to bring down the tent. we sprang up and clung to the poles; but thinking the whole structure was bound to fall, and preferring to be outside, i forsook my pole to which i had been clinging, and rushed out into the pouring rain. my husband went to call some of the men, and found them all happily asleep in the carriage: with great difficulty he awoke them, and together they made secure all the tent-pegs. by this time the great fury of the storm was over, and we crept inside the tent, wet, cold, and miserable. wonderful to say, neither of us caught cold after our adventure. the next morning we spread all our wet bedding, &c., in the sun to dry; and just as it was nearly ready, down came another storm and soaked everything again. such are some of the joys of travelling in the desert. chapter xiii pioneer medical mission work in mosul (nineveh) [ ] winning the confidence of the people--native surgery--difficulties to be overcome--backward patients--encouraging work--prevalent diseases--lunatics--possible future of mesopotamia. "... my soul is full of pity for the sickness of this world; which i will heal, if healing may be found!" sir e. arnold. it is often thought that in the east, whenever an english doctor arrives at a city, patients throng to him from all quarters. this is only partially true, at least in the near east. if medicine and attendance are granted free indiscriminately, doubtless at first crowds will attend the out-patient department, many coming merely out of curiosity. if good work is to be done, it is better to make some charge, however small, exempting only the very poor. this principle has, i believe, been adopted by all our medical missionaries, and fees thus earned go to help in making the work self-supporting. the european doctor in persia or turkey has first to win the confidence of the people, and this is sometimes no easy matter. on our arrival in mosul we rented a house in the centre of the city, which had two compounds. we lived in the inner compound, and made the outer into a dispensary and small hospital. at first everything looked rather hopeless, the house being an old one and nearly in ruins. however, we made a big stable into a waiting-room for the patients; other rooms were patched up and transformed into consulting-room, dispensary, operating theatre, and wards, all of a most primitive kind. in this great city of , to , people our staff consisted of my wife and me and two native assistants, who had been trained in our baghdad medical mission. there was no lack of physicians in the city, but excluding two or three turkish army doctors, and one or two others with constantinople diplomas, the rest were quacks of the most pronounced type. nearly every old lady in the city thinks herself competent to treat diseases of the eye, the barbers are the surgeons, bone-setters abound, hereditary physicians are by no means scarce. these latter inherit "herbal prescriptions" from their forefathers, and though now forbidden to practise by the turkish government, yet contrive to visit many houses as a "friend" after dark, and earn enough for a livelihood. the dominicans (who have a large mission in mosul) also give away many medicines, and have now a qualified native doctor. but though there is much "physicking" in mosul, but little surgery is done, and that gives the opportunity for the european doctor to step in. arab surgery is of the crudest description. let one sample suffice. a poor arab woman was brought to the dispensary, soon after we started work, by her father. she complained of not being able to breathe through her nose. on examining her throat i found that the upper air passage had become shut off from the back of the throat as a result of old inflammation. upon further inquiry i elicited the following history. two years before, the patient had developed a bad sore throat. her father took her to the native surgeon, who had the poor woman's mouth held forcibly open, while he proceeded to cure the sore throat by rubbing it with a red-hot flattened piece of iron! gradually we commenced to win the confidence of the people: they came in ever-increasing numbers to the dispensary. gathered together in the waiting-room would be a crowd composed of many different nationalities--christians, moslems, jews, kurds from the mountains, bedouins from the desert, yezidees (the so-called devil-worshippers), a motley throng, listening quietly and without interruption to the reading and exposition of the gospel, ere passing one by one through the doctor's consulting-room, for the treatment of their multitudinous diseases. the medical missionary is called upon to do his best to cure every ailment; he must be ready to accept heavy responsibilities, there are no "specialists" to consult, often he is without the help of any trained nurse, and in pioneer work, at least, he has no properly equipped hospital, and must perforce perform most serious operations under the worst possible conditions. in addition to all this, in lands under mohammedan rule there is always the risk of a riot if a patient should die in a christian hospital, especially on the operating table. yet despite all these drawbacks, it is a grand life, revealing to a man his own utter weakness, and making him rely more and more upon his god. soon we were able to commence admitting in-patients, being forced to limit admission to surgical cases. at first there was considerable difficulty in getting the patients to come on the actual day fixed for the operation; each one was anxious for his neighbour to be the first. finally i was compelled to threaten to put a black mark against the name of any patient who had agreed to come in for operation and then failed to put in an appearance, adding that that patient would have to wait a long time before having a chance offered a second time. this had the desired effect, a woman needing a small eyelid operation being the first to brave the terrors of the feringhi hospital. in due course, instruments and dressings all having been prepared, the patient, in a condition of mortal terror, was led into the operating room, and induced to lie on the table. but alas, her fears gained the mastery, and she instantly jumped up, ran out of the room, and disappeared from the dispensary. this was not encouraging, but a few days later a little jew boy suffering from vesical stone (a very common disease in mosul, especially amongst children) was brought to the hospital by his father. we persuaded him to enter the hospital with his boy, and thus finally gained our first in-patient. the stone having been removed, and the boy making a good recovery, we had no further difficulty in getting in-patients. our six wooden beds soon all had occupants, then we added six more beds; finally, obtaining a neighbouring house for our own residence, we made our old house (the inner compound) into a small hospital for women and children. thus we were able to accommodate twenty-four patients, and as each had at least one friend, we often had over fifty people resident on the premises. it is this in-patient work that gives the most encouraging opportunities to the medical missionary. there in his little hospital he has patients of all creeds, lying side by side; many have been relieved or cured by operation, and will listen gratefully to all the teaching they can get. each patient before the operation hears the doctor pray a short prayer, asking god to bless the operation and cause it to be successful. day after day, week after week, he receives instruction, and gains an entirely new idea of what christianity really is, and when he leaves the mission hospital and returns to his home, whether in the city or in a distant mountain village, all his old bitter opposition to christianity has disappeared, and often he will send other patients for treatment to the english mission. the following statistics, for two years only, may prove interesting, as showing the far-reaching influence of even a badly equipped, undermanned medical mission:-- total attendance of out-patients , operations performed { major} { minor} total number of in-patients number of villages and towns, excluding mosul, from which patients have come to the dispensary this last item is especially interesting; excluding mosul (from which naturally most of our patients are drawn), different towns and villages (some as many as ten days' journey) have sent us patients, and yet the work is barely started! to illustrate the effect of a medical mission in disarming opposition, i may add that, in , when it was feared that, owing to the need for retrenchment, the society would have to close the work in mosul, a petition, signed by most of the prominent mohammedan residents, including the chief mullahs, was brought to me, asking that i would remit it at once to the society. it was a request that the medical mission should not be withdrawn, as it had been such a boon to the inhabitants of the city. in a very wonderful manner god heard and answered our prayers, and the mission is not to be closed, but rather it is hoped to equip it more thoroughly. the operations most frequently called for in mosul are those for "cataract" and vesical stone, but patients come with many other diseases, both surgical and medical. the city is full of phthisis; the insanitary conditions under which the vast majority of the inhabitants live favour its rapid dissemination. smallpox and typhoid fever are very common, and once these diseases have been definitely diagnosed, neither the patient nor his friends will permit any further medical treatment. for the latter disease the patient is kept on fairly strict diet until he "perspires." this to the native mind denotes the end of all possible danger, so he is then pressed to eat anything and everything, with disastrous results. malaria, dysentery, hepatic abscesses are also rife; there have also been epidemics of cholera and plague, but not of late years. once the projected baghdad railway (which will pass through mosul) is an accomplished fact, we may expect the importation of plague from the south, unless the most stringent precautions are taken. the bedouin arab can rarely be persuaded to stop in the city; after the freedom of life in the desert, he feels stifled within the four walls of a house. ere leaving mosul i had a curious demonstration of this fact. an old blind arab was brought to me by his son, suffering from double cataract. i told him that by means of a simple operation he might once again be able to see, but that he would have to stay in the hospital for a few days. he indignantly refused, saying he would rather remain blind the rest of his life than sleep beneath a roof. in vain did his son plead with him, and finding that i would not operate at once and allow him to be treated as an out-patient, the old man went sorrowfully away. every in-patient admitted had to bring a friend to help to nurse him, as we had no proper hospital equipment and no trained nurse. only twice in the three years did i break this rule, both times with disastrous results. the first was a poor old man from a village some days' journey from mosul. he was poor and friendless, also blind with "cataract"; reluctantly i allowed myself to be influenced by his pathetic pleadings, and admitted him without any one to look after him. prior to his admission he had been bitten on the calf of one leg by a dog, and complaining of pain from this wound, we dressed it with a simple boracic fomentation. unfortunately this dressing was forgotten and left on the leg. the eye was in due course operated upon successfully, and the patient received the usual strict injunction to lie still for twenty-four hours. at the first dressing everything seemed all right; two days later i found to my sorrow that the eye had suppurated, and that there was no hope of saving the vision. the strictest inquiry was at once instituted, but for some time we could discover no clue as to how the eye had become infected; then the truth came out. it appeared that the second night after the operation the old man commenced to feel a slight pricking pain in the eye that had been operated upon (not an uncommon symptom after "cataract" extraction, with no bad significance as a rule). the pain seemed similar to that which he had felt in his leg, which had been relieved by the application of the boracic fomentation. the patient reasoned thus with himself: "it is night time, i had better not call for the doctor; but the medicine on my eye is evidently doing no good, while that put on my leg cured a similar pain to this at once, so i had better take off this bandage from my eye and replace it with the one on my leg"! this he had proceeded to do, and consequently lost his newly acquired sight. the other case was somewhat similar, but the patient was a fanatical moslem priest, whom i afterwards found out was a well-known "majnoon" (madman). he also had been admitted alone, and we had but little trouble with him until after the operation (also for "cataract") had been performed. a few hours later my assistant came running to me, and said: "doctor, that old cataract patient declares that he must and he will say his prayers. we have done our best to prevent him, but in vain." now a mohammedan, before he prays, performs certain ablutions, which include washing his hands and face; so i at once ran up to the ward, but, alas! we arrived too late. the old priest had taken off his bandage, washed his face and hands, said his prayers, and was quite unable to understand why the hakim sahib should be angry! we gave the poor old man some lotion and a shade for his eye, and sent him back to his home (as he lived in mosul), refusing to accept any further responsibility. some weeks later my assistant met the old priest in the bazaar, quite pleased with himself, for he had actually obtained sufficient sight to find his way about alone. fortunately the majority of the patients are more reasonable, and quickly learn to submit more or less to "hospital regulations." children sometimes proved troublesome, especially boys, when accompanied by a crowd of relations. i remember one morning, when making my daily round, coming across a group of people surrounding a little boy six years of age. he had been ordered a dose of castor oil, and had made up his obstinate little mind that he would not take the nasty stuff. being a boy, and only son and heir, he had been spoilt most royally. father, mother, aunt, grandmother, and friends each in turn tried persuasion, varied by gentle threats, all in vain. he beat and (i am sorry to say) cursed the women, his mother included, and sullenly refused to accept the medicine from his father, despite sundry promises of sweets, money, &c. after watching the scene with some amusement i stepped forward, took the cup containing the obnoxious castor oil, and forcibly administered the dose without regarding the boy's shrieks and tears. then i read the parents a little lecture upon the evil result of spoiling their children, which i fear had but scant result. often do i feel ashamed as i note how patiently pain and diseases are borne by these poor people. it is always "the will of god," and therefore there is no use complaining, and little use rebelling. time after time have i had to gently break the news to some poor patient, who may have come long distances to see the english doctor, that his blindness could not be cured by operation, being caused by what is popularly known as black cataract (glaucoma). a few (usually women) would go away weeping, but the vast majority both of men and women would quietly respond, "alhamd'llillah" (praise be to god), with but little sign of emotion. so far as i know there is but one asylum for cases of mental diseases in the whole of the turkish empire, and that one is at asfariyeh, near beyrout, and belongs to an english society. the usual method of dealing with lunatics in mosul is, if they are apparently harmless, that they are allowed to wander about freely and treated kindly; but once they develop symptoms of mania they are treated as wild beasts, put into a dark room, and chained to a wall. but we possess a specialist in "mental diseases" in mosul, belonging to an old mohammedan family, who has a great reputation for the treatment of "lunatics." in the courtyard of his house he has had dug several deep wells, and beside each well is placed a large tub, having a hole in the bottom which communicates with the well. the poor madman is made to work from sunrise to sunset, drawing water from the well and pouring it into the perforated tub, being told that he may leave off when he has filled the tub. if he refuses to work, he is unmercifully beaten. several cures are said to have resulted from this treatment. there is nothing so potent as the in-patient work of a hospital in overcoming opposition. amongst our numerous "cataract" patients was an arab from singar (a mountainous district near mosul). he came armed with a perfectly unnecessary introduction, in the shape of a letter from one of the chief mohammedans in the city. after he had regained his sight and had left the hospital, ere returning to his mountain home he went to this "big" moslem to thank him. he found himself the centre of a large and curious throng, who questioned him severely upon his experiences in the "christian" hospital. some of the more fanatical (it was in the early days of the mission) did not scruple to speak against the hospital and the english hakim; but, like the man in st. john's gospel, this arab was not afraid to testify of what had been done for him, "for," said he, "you can say what you like--one thing i know, before i was blind, now i can see." but enough--i fear to tire my readers; but ere closing i would like just to refer to the possible future of mesopotamia. one thing is certain, a few years more will exhibit great changes. i have already referred to the baghdad railway. as i write it is rumoured that the german government have at last obtained a further concession from the sultan of turkey, which will allow them to continue the line another five hundred miles, piercing mount taurus and reaching near to the city of mardin (some ten days' journey north of mosul). when this is accomplished the rest of the work is quite simple. the line from mardin to baghdad (passing through mosul) should present no difficulties, and mosul (with the ruins of nineveh) will become easy of access from europe. in the next place there is the question of the navigation of the tigris. ere long there is no doubt that boats will be allowed to come up the river from baghdad to mosul, and possibly on up to diabekir ( - miles north of mosul). this will mean an enormous increase in trade, both in imports and exports. finally, there is that fascinating problem of the irrigation of the mesopotamian desert. the remains of old canals are still visible, and it needs nothing but an energetic government willing to spend a comparatively small sum, plus the services of a capable engineer, to transform the whole of that desert between the two great rivers euphrates and tigris into a veritable garden of eden, even as it must have been in the days of old, when huge armies were able to find sufficient provender for man and beast throughout the whole of that vast region. the "finale" of that great province, containing the ruins of so many ancient cities, has not yet been written; and there are many signs which tend to suggest to the thoughtful observer that, ere another century has passed, mesopotamia may once again take its place, and that no mean position, amongst the kingdoms of the earth! notes [ ] "a year amongst the persians." [ ] by dr. a. hume-griffith. [ ] by dr. a. hume-griffith. [ ] by dr. a. hume-griffith. [ ] extract from "the literary history of the arabs," by r. a. nicholson, m.a. [ ] by dr. a. hume-griffith. transcriber's note single characters following '^' or mutiple characters following '^' enclosed within '{ }' denote superscript text. hyphenation has been standardised. work issued by the hakluyt society. description of the coasts of east africa and malabar. a description of the coasts of east africa and malabar in the beginning of the sixteenth century, by duarte barbosa, a portuguese. translated from an early spanish manuscript in the barcelona library with notes and a preface, by the hon. henry e. j. stanley. london: printed for the hakluyt society. johnson reprint corporation johnson reprint company ltd. fifth avenue, new york, n.y. berkeley square house, london, w x ba _landmarks in anthropology_, a series of reprints in cultural anthropology _general editor_: weston la barre first reprinting , johnson reprint corporation printed in the united states of america _note to thirty-fifth publication of the hakluyt society, "description of the coasts of east africa and malabar."_ this volume was published by the hakluyt society as the work of duarte barbosa on the authority of ramusio, for neither the three spanish mss. of barcelona and munich, nor the portuguese ms., give his name; it is probable that barbosa contributed a largo part of it, for damian de goes refers his readers for an account of malabar and its religion and customs to a book by duarte barbosa, who is stated to have spoken the language of malabar with great correctness, and who resided a long time in that country; yet the authorship must be ascribed to magellan, for i have just seen, in the possession of don pascual de gayangos, another spanish ms. which states at the top of the first page,--"este libro compuso fernando magallanes portugues piloto lo qual el vio y anduvo." "this book was composed by the portuguese fernando magellan the pilot, the things narrated in which he saw and visited." this heading is in the same writing as the rest of the ms., which is clear handwriting of the sixteenth century, and like that of the second part of the ms. no of the munich library. the ms. of mr. gayangos appears to be part of a larger book, since its second leaf is numbered (the corner of the first is worn off), and the last is numbered , and ends with the description of the lequeos. the _epitome de la biblioteca oriental, occidental, nautica y geografica_ of d. antonio de leon pinelo, madrid, , mentions, at p. a work of magellan's under the following heading: _fernando de magallanes, efemerides, or diary of his navigation_, a ms. which existed in the possession of antonio moreno, cosmographer of the house of trade, according to don nicolas antonio. the translator. _madrid, february ._ errata. page iii, line , _for_ "dearer," _read_ "clearer." " " , " "atuxsia," " "atauxia." " , " , " "albejas," " "mussels." " , " , " "laced," " "placed." " , " , " "antoridade," " "autoridade." " , " , " "they burn," " "they burn it." " , " , " "et d'aller," " "est d'aller." note to pp. - .--see pages - of _the travels of ludovico de varthema_ hakluyt society, and notes, also mr. r. major's able introduction to the _early voyages to terra australis, now called australia_. this passage, written about five years later than when varthema wrote, is a fuller statement than varthema's: and taking the two together, there can be little doubt that the information they contain was based on actual knowledge of australia. council of the hakluyt society. sir roderick impey murchison, k.c.b., g.c.st.s., f.r.s., d.c.l., corr. mem. inst. f., hon. mem. imp. acad. sc. petersburg, etc., etc., president. rear-admiral c. r. drinkwater bethune, c.b.}vice-presidents. the rt. hon. sir david dundas, m.p. } rev. g. p. badger, f.r.g.s. j. barrow, esq., f.r.s. rear-admiral r. collinson, c.b. sir henry ellis, k.h., f.r.s. general c. fox. r. w. grey, esq. john winter jones, esq., f.s.a. john w. kaye, esq. his excellency the count de lavradio. thomas k. lynch, esq. r. h. major, esq., f.s.a. sir william stirling maxwell, bart., m.p. sir charles nicholson, bart. major-general sir henry c. rawlinson, k.c.b. viscount strangford. william webb, esq. allen young, esq., r.n.r. clements r. markham, esq., f.s.a., honorary secretary. translator's preface. the spanish manuscript from which this volume has been translated is in the handwriting of the beginning of , full of abbreviations, and without punctuation or capital letters at the beginnings of sentences or for the proper names, which adds much to the difficulty of reading it. it contains eighty-seven leaves. the handwriting more resembles an example of the year than those dated and , given at p. of the "escuela de leer letras cursivas antiguas y modernas desde la entrada de los godos en españa, por el p. andres merino de jesu christo, madrid, ." this work was translated into spanish from the original portuguese in , at vittoria, by martin centurion, ambassador of the community of genoa, with the assistance of diego ribero, a portuguese, cosmographer and hydrographer to his majesty charles v. there are reasons (as will be shewn in the notes) for supposing that the spanish translation, probably this copy and not the portuguese original, assisted the compilers of the early atlases, especially that of abraham ortelius, of antwerp, , other editions of which were published in succeeding years.[ ] the similarity of the orthography of this manuscript and of that of the names in maps as late as that of homann, nuremberg, , shews how much geography up to a recent period was indebted to the portuguese and spaniards. it may also be observed that from their familiarity at that time with the sounds of arabic, the proper names are in general more correctly rendered in european letters, than used to be the case in later times. this ms. is in the barcelona library and is there catalogued "viage por malabar y costas de africa, : letra del siglo xvi." it was supposed to be an original spanish work, for the statement of its having been translated is in the body of the ms., no part of which can be read without more or less difficulty. this work is not a book of travels as the title given in the catalogue, though not on the ms., indicates; it is rather an itinerary, or description of countries. it gives ample details of the trade, supplies, and water of the various seaports mentioned in it. it contains many interesting historical details, some of which, such as the account of diu, the taking of ormuz, the founding of the portuguese fort in calicut, their interruption of the indian trade to suez by capturing the indian ships, the rise of shah ismail, etc., fix pretty nearly the exact date at which this narrative was composed as the year . two other ms. copies of this work are preserved in the royal library at munich: the first of these, no. of the catalogue of that library, is in a handwriting very similar to that of the barcelona ms., and apparently of the same period. it consists of one hundred and three leaves, and is stated to have proceeded from the episcopal library of passau. this ms. does not contain the appendix respecting the prices of the precious stones. the other ms. no. , is of fifty-three leaves, and is written in two handwritings, both of which are much rounder and clearer than that of no. ; the catalogue states that this ms. came from the library of the jesuits of augsburg. there are several verbal differences between the two mss., and perhaps no. agrees more exactly with the barcelona ms. the two munich mss. frequently write words such as rey with a double r, as _rrey_, which does not occur in the barcelona ms., where, however, words begin with a large r, which is also used for a double r in the middle of a word. the piracies of the portuguese are told without any reticence, apparently without consciousness of their criminality, for no attempt is made to justify them, and the pretext that such and such an independent state or city did not choose to submit itself on being summoned to do so by the portuguese, seems to have been thought all sufficient for laying waste and destroying it. this narrative shows that most of the towns on the coasts of africa, arabia, and persia were in a much more flourishing condition at that time than they have been since the portuguese ravaged some of them, and interfered with the trade of all. the description of the early introduction of the cultivation and weaving of cotton into south africa by the arab traders will be read with interest; and the progress then beginning in those regions three hundred and fifty years ago, and the subsequent stand still to which it has been brought by the portuguese and by the slave-trade to america, may be taken as supporting the views lately put forward by captain r. burton and others at the anthropological society. the greater part of this volume was printed in italian by ramusio in in his collection of travels (venetia, nella stamperia de' giunti), as the narration of duarte barbosa, and a large part of this work must have been written by barbosa; and a portuguese manuscript of his was printed at lisbon in in the "collecção de noticias para a historia e geografia das nações ultramarinas." this manuscript of barbosa's, however, is much less full than this spanish ms. of barcelona, or than the italian version of ramusio, and the lisbon editors have added from ramusio translations of the passages which were wanting in their ms. these publications do not contain the number of leagues between one place and another which are given in the spanish translation. that the portuguese manuscript printed at lisbon in belongs to barbosa, stands only on the authority of ramusio, who gives an introduction by odoardo barbosa of the city of lisbon, which is not to be found either in the barcelona ms. or in the portuguese ms., and which has been translated from the italian of ramusio and published in the lisbon edition. the introduction to the lisbon edition states that the portuguese ms. is not an autograph ms., and that the account of barbosa is bound up along with other papers. this introduction refers to the passages in the portuguese ms. which are not to be found in ramusio, and says it may be doubted whether these were additions posterior to the work of duarte barbosa. it had occurred to me that this work might be attributed to the famous navigator magellan, and that it must have been through him that it found its way to charles the fifth's court: there are several reasons for this supposition, and some difficulties in the way of it; i will, however, follow sr. larrañaga's advice, and state both sides of the question. duarte barbosa, cousin of magellan, alvaro de mezquita, estevan gomez, juan rodrigues de carvalho were portuguese employed by spain along with magellan[ ] in the fleet which sailed on the st september , from san lucar de barrameda to brazil and the straits which bear the name of that admiral. now the _panorama_ or spanish version of the _univers pittoresque_ states (page ): "it was at that time, although it has not been possible to ascertain exactly the year, when the illustrious viceroy of the indies sent francisco serrano to the moluccas, a friend, and also, as it is believed, a relation of magellan, the same person who by reason of the exact and precise data which he furnished to the celebrated navigator deserved later to see his name inscribed amongst those of other notable persons, whose fame will last as long as history endures." * * * * * "at the beginning of the same century duarte barbosa also proceeded to the moluccas, and cruised among those countries for the space of sixteen years, collecting interesting notes, which although they were not published till three centuries after the event, are not on that account the less admirable and precious; these reports were published in lisbon in a work which bears the following title: _collecção de noticias para a historia e geografia das nações ultramarinas_; those reports which relate to barbosa are contained in the second volume." now this barcelona ms. contains in an appendix the voyage of three portuguese, a spaniard, and five malays, whose captain was francisco serrano, to the moluccas in the year : this supplies the date of his voyage which the above quoted paragraph says could not be ascertained, and this account is not in ramusio's collection, and there is every reason to suppose that it was as yet unpublished. in addition to what has been said by the writers of the _panorama_ and _univers pittoresque_, in which statement they follow the rd decade of the "asia" of barros, lib. v. cap. :-- "we wrote before how francisco serrão wrote some letters from the maluco islands where he was, to fernão de magalhães, on account of being his friend from the time when both were in india, principally at the taking of malaca:" it was to be expected that barbosa and serrano would furnish their information to magellan, whether as the head of their family, or as the portuguese who had been longest at the spanish court, and through whom they might hope for advancement and further employment, such as duarte barbosa obtained with the fleet which discovered the straits of magellan. magellan returned to europe in . duarte barbosa probably did not return till , since he is said to have remained sixteen years in the indian ocean, and in that case he could not have returned before --however, it is said in the introduction to the lisbon edition that he is the son of diego barbosa, named in the decades as having sailed in with the first fleet with joão de nova: the same introduction also says that the time of his departure to and return to india are unknown. ramusio's edition of barbosa's narrative says the writing of it was finished in ; it does not, however, mention any facts which occurred later than the year . there is reason to suspect that ramusio obtained his copy from the same source as the barcelona manuscript, because the name of the precious stone zircon is spelled differently, giagonza, jagonza, and gegonza, and this difference of orthography coincides in the same places in the spanish manuscript and in ramusio. ramusio gives an appendix containing the prices of precious stones and of spices, but has not got the voyage to the moluccas of francisco serrano. the only reason i can conjecture for this not having reached ramusio is, that it was a confidential paper, on account of the rivalry of spain and portugal with regard to those islands; and it is stated in history that serrano increased the distances so as to enable magellan to persuade the spaniards that the moluccas were more to the eastward, and that they fell within the demarcation of territories assigned by the pope to castille. this account of francisco serrano's voyage, and of his remaining behind married at maluco, was either written by the spaniard who accompanied him, or was translated by some other person than diego ribero and the genoese ambassador centurione, since all the points of the compass which in the body of the work are indicated by the names of winds, are here described by their names, as este, sudoeste, etc. tramontana, greco, maestro, siloque, are all spanish terms, but are less literate than the names of the points of the compass, and seem to be owing to the genoese translator, to whom they would be familiar. it must be observed that the handwriting and paper of the narrative and two appendices of the barcelona ms. are identical, and the leaves are numbered consecutively, so that there is no reason for supposing that the whole papers were not originally, as they now are, placed together. ramusio in various parts of the narrative leaves a blank with the words, _here several lines are wanting_; this may be owing to passages having been struck out for political reasons. the portuguese edition has a short passage not in the spanish ms., the only apparent motive for its omission being that it was to the glorification of the portuguese. since so large a portion of the present volume is contained in the portuguese manuscript of barbosa printed at lisbon, it would be natural to follow ramusio in attributing the work to him: at the same time it is not easy to understand how barbosa, who was in the indian ocean at the time, should have confounded the two naval actions at diu in and , which he relates as one only, although the portuguese were beaten in the first and victorious in the second. it is also difficult to imagine that one person visited all the places described in this volume, even in the space of sixteen years, at a period when travelling was slower than at present: and the observations on the manners and customs show a more intimate knowledge than what could be acquired by touching at a port for a few days only. this work is that of no ordinary capacity; it shews great power of observation, and also the possession by the writer of great opportunities for inquiry into the manners and habits of the different countries described. it could hardly have been drawn up by an ecclesiastic, there is too great an absence of condemnation of idolatrous practices, and the deficiencies of st. thomas's christians are too lightly spoken of. an ecclesiastic would not have been so indifferent to their mode of communion and to the sale of the sacraments, which caused many to remain unbaptized. the scanty mention of albuquerque and of goa, and its being the sort of political memorandum which a person in magellan's position, seeking service from spain, and desirous of pushing the spanish government to eastern as well as western enterprise, would be likely to write; the commercial details, which are not those of a merchant, but rather of a soldier, for the prices given chiefly relate to provisions, horses and elephants, things useful in war, whilst the prices of jewels and spices, drawn up in a business-like manner, are in an appendix and not referred to in the narrative,--all these circumstances seem almost to justify the conclusion that this volume was drawn up by magellan, or under magellan's guidance, for the purpose of being laid before charles v, at the time that magellan was seeking the command which he received a short time later. this volume derives additional value from the numerous passages in which it runs parallel to the _lusiad_, so that the two confirm one another, and this prose description serves as a commentary to camoens. several passages descriptive of the customs of the nairs of malabar in this work present very forcibly the connection between plato and the hindus. the travels of varthema, a former publication of the hakluyt society, gave evidence of the good administration of india especially in regard to justice in olden times; similar testimony will be found in this volume. the expedient of the king of narsinga for correcting his high officials, without either removing them or lowering them in the eyes of those they had to rule, has not, i believe, been before narrated. though suttee has been so often described, the account of it in these pages possesses much interest and novelty, probably from having been written by an eye-witness, before that institution was disturbed by european influence. an allusion to the english longbow as to a weapon in actual use, gives an appearance of antiquity to this narrative even greater than that which belongs to its date. the orthography of the manuscript is not always uniform, therefore where a name is spelt in two different ways, i have left them as they are given. i have altered the original spelling of the names of only a few familiar places, and have retained the portuguese expressions of moor and gentile, which mean mussulman and heathen, one of which has survived up to the present time in southern india as moorman. any further observations i may have to make on this manuscript will be found in the notes. i wish to express my thanks to sr. d. gregorio romero larrañaga, the head of the barcelona library, and to the other gentlemen of his department, for the cordial manner in which they have supplied me with the contents of their library, and for their assistance in discussing doubtful points. london, october , . [illustration: facsimile of handwritten manuscript.] [illustration: facsimile of handwritten manuscript.] preface. (translated from the portuguese edition, lisbon, .) i, duarte barbosa, a native of the very noble city of lisbon, having navigated for a great part of my youth in the indies discovered in the name of the king our lord, and having travelled through many and various countries neighbouring to the coast, and having seen and heard various things, which i judged to be marvellous and stupendous, and which had never been seen nor heard of by our ancestors, resolved to write them for the benefit of all, as i saw and heard of them from day to day, striving to declare in this my book the towns and limits of all those kingdoms to which i went in person, or of which i had trustworthy information; and also which were kingdoms and countries of the moors and which of the gentiles, and their customs. neither have i left in silence their traffic, the merchandise which is met with in them, the places where they are produced, nor whither they are transported. and besides what i saw personally, i always delighted in inquiring of the moors, christians, and gentiles, as to the usages and customs which they practised, and the points of information thus gained i endeavoured to combine together so as to have a more exact knowledge of them, this being always my special object, as it should be of all those who write on such matters; and i am convinced that it will be recognized that i have not spared any diligence in order to obtain this object, as far as the feeble extent of the power of my understanding allows of. it was in the present year of that i finished writing this my book. description of the east indies and countries on the seabord of the indian ocean in .[ ] the cape of st. sebastian after passing the cape of good hope. having passed the cape of good hope in a north-easterly direction, at cape san sebastian, there are very fair mountain lands, and fields, and valleys, in which there are many cows and sheep, and other wild animals; it is a country inhabited by people who are black and naked. they only wear skins with the fur of deer, or other wild animals, like some cloaks in the french fashion, of which people the portuguese, up to the present time, have not been able to obtain information, nor to become acquainted with what there is in the interior of the country. they have no navigation, neither do they make use of the sea, neither have the moors of arabia and persia, or the indies, ever navigated as far as this, nor discovered them, on account of the strong currents of the sea, which is very stormy. islands of the great uciques.[ ] having passed cape san sebastian towards the north-east for india, there are some islands close to the mainland to the east, which are called the great uciques; in which, on the side towards the mainland there are a few small towns of moors, who deal with the people of the continent, and they provision themselves from them. in these uciques much amber is found of good quality, which the moors collect and sell in other places, and likewise many pearls and small seed pearls are found in the sea in beds (crusts), which they cannot gather or fish up, and whenever they do get them out they boil them, and extract the said pearls and seed pearls dingy and burnt, and there is no doubt that there are many and good ones, if they knew how to extract them, as is done in sael, cochoromandel, and in barahe,[ ] which will be mentioned hereafter. the little vciques islands in rivers. having passed the vciques grandes towards sofala, a fortress which the king of portugal made there, and where there is much gold, at xvii or xviii leagues from it there are some rivers, which make between their branches, islands, called the little vciques, in which there are some villages of the moors, who also deal with the gentiles of the mainland in their provisions, which are rice, millet, and meat, and which they bring in small barks to sufala.[ ] sofala. having passed the little vciques, for the indies, at xviii leagues from them there is a river which is not very large, whereon is a town of the moors called sofala,[ ] close to which town the king of portugal has a fort. these moors established themselves there a long time ago on account of the great trade in gold which they carry on with the gentiles of the mainland: these speak somewhat of bad arabic (garabia), and have got a king over them, who is at present subject to the king of portugal.[ ] and the mode of their trade is that they come by sea in small barks which they call zanbucs (sambuk), from the kingdoms of quiloa, and mombaza, and melindi; and they bring much cotton cloth of many colours, and white and blue, and some of silk; and grey, and red, and yellow beads, which come to the said kingdoms in other larger ships from the great kingdom of cambay, which merchandise these moors buy and collect from other moors who bring them there, and they pay for them in gold by weight, and for a price which satisfies them; and the said moors keep them and sell these cloths to the gentiles of the kingdom of benamatapa who come there laden with gold, which gold they give in exchange for the before mentioned cloths without weighing, and so much in quantity that these moors usually gain one hundred for one. they also collect a large quantity of ivory, which is found all round sofala, which they likewise sell in the great kingdom of cambay at five or six ducats the hundred weight, and so also some amber, which these moors of sofala bring them from the vciques. they are black men, and men of colour--some speak arabic, and the rest make use of the language of the gentiles of the country. they wrap themselves from the waist downwards with cloths of cotton and silk, and they wear other silk cloths above named, such as cloaks and wraps for the head, and some of them wear hoods of scarlet, and of other coloured woollen stuffs and camelets, and of other silks. and their victuals are millet, and rice, and meat, and fish. in this river near to the sea there are many sea horses, which go in the sea, and come out on land at times to feed. these have teeth like small elephants, and it is better ivory than that of the elephant, and whiter and harder, and of greater durability of colour. in the country all round sofala there are many elephants, which are very large and wild, and the people of the country do not know how to tame them: there are also many lions, ounces, mountain panthers, wild asses, and many other animals. it is a country of plains and mountains, and well watered. the moors have now recently begun to produce much fine cotton in this country, and they weave it into white stuff because they do not know how to dye it, or because they have not got any colours; and they take the blue or coloured stuffs of cambay and unravel them, and again weave the threads with their white thread, and in this manner they make coloured stuffs, by means of which they get much gold. kingdom of benamatapa. on entering within this country of sofala, there is the kingdom of benamatapa, which is very large and peopled by gentiles, whom the moors call cafers. these are brown men, who go bare, but covered from the waist downwards with coloured stuffs, or skins of wild animals; and the persons most in honour among them wear some of the tails of the skin behind them, which go trailing on the ground for state and show, and they make bounds and movements of their bodies, by which they make these tails wag on either side of them. they carry swords in scabbards of wood bound with gold or other metals, and they wear them on the left hand side as we do, in sashes of coloured stuffs, which they make for this purpose with four or five knots, and their tassels hanging down, like gentlemen; and in their hands azagayes, and others carry bows and arrows: it must be mentioned that the bows are of middle size, and the iron points of the arrows are very large and well wrought. they are men of war, and some of them are merchants: their women go naked as long as they are girls, only covering their middles with cotton cloths, and when they are married and have children, they wear other cloths over their breasts. zinbaoch.[ ] leaving sofala for the interior of the country, at xv days journey from it, there is a large town of gentiles, which is called zinbaoch; and it has houses of wood and straw, in which town the king of benamatapa frequently dwells, and from there to the city of benamatapa there are six days journey, and the road goes from sofala, inland, towards the cape of good hope. and in the said benamatapa, which is a very large town, the king is used to make his longest residence; and it is thence that the merchants bring to sofala the gold which they sell to the moors without weighing it, for coloured stuffs and beads of cambay, which are much used and valued amongst them; and the people of this city of benamatapa say that this gold comes from still further off towards the cape of good hope, from another kingdom subject to this king of benamatapa, who is a great lord, and holds many other kings as his subjects, and many other lands, which extend far inland, both towards the cape of good hope and towards mozambich. and in this town he is each day served with large presents, which the kings and lords, his subjects, send to him; and when they bring them, they carry them bareheaded through all the city, until they arrive at the palace, from whence the king sees them come from a window, and he orders them to be taken up from there, and the bearers do not see him, but only hear his words; and afterwards, he bids them call the persons who have brought these presents, and he dismisses them. this king constantly takes with him into the field a captain, whom they call sono, with a great quantity of men-at-arms, and amongst them they bring six thousand women, who also bear arms and fight. with these forces he goes about subduing and pacifying whatever kings rise up or desire to revolt. the said king of benamatapa sends, each year, many honourable persons throughout his kingdoms to all the towns and lordships, to give them new regulations, so that all may do them obeisance, which is in this manner: each one of the envoys comes to a town, and bids the people extinguish all the fires that there are in it; and after they have been put out, all the inhabitants go to this man who has been sent as commissary, to get fresh fire from him in sign of subjection and obedience; and, whoever should not do this is held as a rebel, and the king immediately sends the number of people that are necessary to destroy him, and these pass through all the towns at their expense: their rations are meat, rice, and oil of sesame.[ ] river zuama. leaving sofala for mozambich, at forty leagues from it, there is a very large river, which is called the zuama;[ ] and it is said that it goes towards benamatapa,[ ] and it extends more than leagues. in the mouth of this river there is a town of the moors, which has a king, and it is called mongalo.[ ] much gold comes from benamatapa to this town of the moors, by this river, which makes another branch which falls at angos, where the moors make use of boats (almadias), which are boats hollowed out from a single trunk, to bring the cloths and other merchandise from angos, and to transport much gold and ivory. angoy. after passing this river of zuama, at xl leagues from it, there is a town of the moors on the sea coast, which is called angoy,[ ] and has a king, and the moors who live there are all merchants, and deal in gold, ivory, silk, and cotton stuffs, and beads of cambay, the same as do those of sofala. and the moors bring these goods from quiloa, and monbaza, and melynde, in small vessels hidden from the portuguese ships; and they carry from there a great quantity of ivory, and much gold. and in this town of angos there are plenty of provisions of millet, rice, and some kinds of meat. these men are very brown and copper coloured; they go naked from the waist upwards, and from thence downwards, they wrap themselves with cloths of cotton and silk, and wear other cloths folded after the fashion of cloaks, and some wear caps and others hoods, worked with stuffs and silks; and they speak the language belonging to the country, which is that of the pagans, and some of them speak arabic. these people are sometimes in obedience to the king of portugal, and at times they throw it off, for they are a long way off from the portuguese forts. mozambique island. having passed this town of anguox, on the way to india, there are very near to the land three islands, one of which is inhabited by moors, and is called mozambique.[ ] it has a very good port, and all the moors touch there who are sailing to sofala, zuama, or anguox. amongst these moors there is a sheriff, who governs them, and does justice. these are of the language and customs of the moors of anguox, in which island the king of portugal now holds a fort, and keeps the said moors under his orders and government. at this island the portuguese ships provide themselves with water and wood, fish and other kinds of provisions; and at this place they refit those ships which stand in need of repair. and from this island likewise the portuguese fort in sofala draws its supplies, both of portuguese goods and of the produce of india, on account of the road being longer by the mainland. opposite this island there are many very large elephants and wild animals. the country is inhabited by gentiles, brutish people who go naked and smeared all over with coloured clay, and their natural parts wrapped in a strip of blue cotton stuff, without any other covering; and they have their lips pierced with three holes in each lip, and in these holes they wear bones stuck in, and claws, and small stones, and other little things dangling from them. island of quiloa. after passing this place and going towards india, there is another island close to the mainland, called quiloa,[ ] in which there is a town of the moors, built of handsome houses of stone and lime, and very lofty, with their windows like those of the christians; in the same way it has streets, and these houses have got their terraces, and the wood worked in with the masonry, with plenty of gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much water. this island has got a king over it, and from hence there is trade with sofala with ships, which carry much gold, which is dispersed thence through all arabia felix, for henceforward all this country is thus named on account of the shore of the sea being peopled with many towns and cities of the moors; and when the king of portugal discovered this land, the moors of sofala, and zuama, and anguox, and mozambique, were all under obedience to the king of quiloa, who was a great king amongst them. and there is much gold in this town, because all the ships which go to sofala touch at this island, both in going and coming back. these people are moors, of a dusky colour, and some of them are black and some white; they are very well dressed with rich cloths of gold, and silk, and cotton, and the women also go very well dressed out with much gold and silver in chains and bracelets on their arms, and legs, and ears. the speech of these people is arabic, and they have got books of the alcoran, and honour greatly their prophet muhamad. this king, for his great pride, and for not being willing to obey the king of portugal, had this town taken from him by force, and in it they killed and captured many people, and the king fled from the island, in which the king of portugal ordered a fortress to be built, and thus he holds under his command and government those who continued to dwell there. island of mombaza. passing quiloa, and going along the coast of the said arabia felix towards india, close to the mainland there is another island, in which there is a city of the moors, called bombaza,[ ] very large and beautiful, and built of high and handsome houses of stone and whitewash, and with very good streets, in the manner of those of quiloa. and it also had a king over it. the people are of dusky white, and brown complexions, and likewise the women, who are much adorned with silk and gold stuffs. it is a town of great trade in goods, and has a good port, where there are always many ships, both of those that sail for sofala and those that come from cambay and melinde, and others which sail to the islands of zanzibar, manfia, and penda, which will be spoken of further on. this monbaza is a country well supplied with plenty of provisions, very fine sheep, which have round tails, and many cows, chickens, and very large goats, much rice and millet, and plenty of oranges, sweet and bitter, and lemons, cedrats, pomegranates, indian figs, and all sorts of vegetables, and very good water. the inhabitants at times are at war with the people of the continent, and at other times at peace, and trade with them, and obtain much honey and wax, and ivory. this king, for his pride and unwillingness to obey the king of portugal, lost his city, and the portuguese took it from him by force, and the king fled, and they killed and made captives many of his people, and the country was ravaged,[ ] and much plunder was carried off from it of gold and silver, copper, ivory, rich stuffs of gold and silk, and much other valuable merchandize. melinde. after passing the city of mombaza, at no great distance further on along the coast, there is a very handsome town on the mainland on the beach, called melinde,[ ] and it is a town of the moors, which has a king. and this town has fine houses of stone and whitewash, of several stories, with their windows and terraces, and good streets. the inhabitants are dusky and black, and go naked from the waist upwards, and from that downwards they cover themselves with cloths of cotton and silk, and others wear wraps like cloaks, and handsome caps on their heads. the trade is great which they carry on in cloth, gold, ivory, copper, quicksilver, and much other merchandise, with both moors and gentiles of the kingdom of cambay, who come to their port with ships laden with cloth, which they buy in exchange for gold, ivory, and wax. both parties find great profit in this. there are plenty of provisions in this town, of rice, millet, and some wheat, which is brought to them from cambay, and plenty of fruit, for there are many gardens and orchards. there are here many of the large-tailed sheep, and of all other meats as above; there are also oranges, sweet and sour. this king and people have always been very friendly and obedient to the king of portugal, and the portuguese have always met with much friendship and good reception amongst them.[ ] island of san lorenzo.[ ] opposite these places, in the sea above the cape of the currents,[ ] at a distance of eighty leagues, there is a very large island, which is called san lorenzo, and which is peopled by gentiles, and has in it some towns of moors. this island has many kings, both moors and gentiles. there is in it much meat, rice, and millet, and plenty of oranges and lemons, and there is much ginger in this country, which they do not make use of, except to eat it almost green. the inhabitants go naked, covering only their middles with cotton cloths. they do not navigate, nor does any one do so for them; they have got canoes for fishing on their coast. they are people of a dark complexion, and have a language of their own. they frequently are at war with one another, and their arms are azagayes, very sharp, with their points very well worked; they throw these in order to wound, and carry several of them in their hands. they are very well built and active men, and have a good method of wrestling. there is amongst them silver of inferior quality. their principal food is roots, which they sow, and it is called yname,[ ] and in the indies of spain it is called maize. the country is very beautiful and luxuriant in vegetation, and it has very large rivers. this island is in length from the part of sofala and melinde three hundred leagues, and to the mainland there are sixty leagues. penda, manfia, and zanzibar. between this island of san lorenzo and the continent, not very far from it, are three islands, which are called one manfia, another zanzibar, and the other penda;[ ] these are inhabited by moors; they are very fertile islands, with plenty of provisions, rice, millet, and flesh, and abundant oranges, lemons, and cedrats. all the mountains are full of them; they produce many sugar canes, but do not know how to make sugar. these islands have their kings. the inhabitants trade with the mainland with their provisions and fruits; they have small vessels, very loosely and badly made, without decks, and with a single mast; all their planks are sewn together with cords of reed or matting, and the sails are of palm mats. they are very feeble people, with very few and despicable weapons. in these islands they live in great luxury, and abundance; they dress in very good cloths of silk and cotton, which they buy in mombaza of the merchants from cambay, who reside there. their wives adorn themselves with many jewels of gold from sofala, and silver, in chains, ear-rings, bracelets, and ankle rings, and are dressed in silk stuffs: and they have many mosques, and hold the alcoran of mahomed. pate. after passing melinde, and going towards india, they cross the gulf (because the coast trends inwards) towards the red sea, and on the coast there is a town called pate,[ ] and further on there is another town of the moors, called lamon;[ ] all these trade with the gentiles of the country, and they are strongly-walled towns of stone and whitewash, because at times they have to fight with the gentiles, who live in the interior of the country. brava. leaving these places, further on along the coast is a town of the moors, well walled, and built of good houses of stone and whitewash, which is called brava. it has not got a king; it is governed by its elders,[ ] they being honoured and respectable persons. it is a place of trade, which has already been destroyed by the portuguese, with great slaughter of the inhabitants, of whom many were made captives, and great riches in gold, silver, and other merchandise were taken here, and those who escaped fled into the country, and after the place was destroyed they returned to people it. magadoxo.[ ] leaving the before-mentioned town of brava, on the coast further on towards the red sea, there is another very large and beautiful town, called magadoxo, belonging to the moors, and it has a king over it, and is a place of great trade in merchandise. ships come there from the kingdom of cambay and from aden with stuffs of all sorts, and with other merchandise of all kinds, and with spices. and they carry away from there much gold, ivory, beeswax, and other things upon which they make a profit. in this town there is plenty of meat, wheat, barley, and horses, and much fruit; it is a very rich place. all the people speak arabic; they are dusky, and black, and some of them white. they are but bad warriors, and use herbs with their arrows to defend themselves from their enemies. afuni.[ ] having passed the district and town of magadoxo, further on along the coast is another small town of the moors, called afuni, in which there is abundance of meat and provisions. it is a place of little trade, and has got no port. cape guardafun. after passing this place the next after it is cape guardafun,[ ] where the coast ends, and trends so as to double towards the red sea. this cape is in the mouth of the strait of mecca, and all the ships which come from india, that is to say, from the kingdom of cambay, of chaul, dabul, baticala, and malabar, ceylon, choromandel, bengal, sumatra, poggru, tanaseri, malacca, and china, all come to meet at this cape, and from it they enter into the before-mentioned red sea with their merchandise for aden, berbera, and zeyla, and guida, the port of mecca, for which ships the ships of the king of portugal sometimes go and lie in wait and take them with all their riches. met. in doubling this cape of guardafun, towards the inner part of the red sea, there is, just near the said cape, a town of the moors called met,[ ] not very large, where there is plenty of meat; it is of little trade. barbara. further on, on the same coast, is a town of the moors called barbara;[ ] it has a port, at which many ships of adeni and cambay touch with their merchandise, and from there those of cambay carry away much gold, and ivory, and other things, and those of aden take many provisions, meat, honey, and wax, because, as they say, it is a very abundant country. zeyla. having passed this town of berbara, and going on, entering the red sea, there is another town of the moors, which is named zeyla,[ ] which is a good place of trade, whither many ships navigate and sell their cloths and merchandise. it is very populous, with good houses of stone and whitewash, and good streets; the houses are covered with terraces, the dwellers in them are black. they have many horses, and breed much cattle of all sorts, which they make use of for milk, and butter, and meat. there is in this country abundance of wheat, millet, barley, and fruits, which they carry thence to aden. dalaqua. after continuing along the coast from the town of zeyla, there is another place of the moors, called dalaqua,[ ] the seaport which is most made use of by the abaxins[ ] of the country of prester john. and all round this place there are much provisions, and much gold comes there from the country of prester john. masava savaquin[ ] and other places. leaving dalaqua for the interior of the red sea, there are massowa, suakin, and other towns of the moors; and this coast is still called arabia felix, and the moors call it barra ajan,[ ] in all which there is much gold which comes from the interior of the country of prester john, whom they call abexi. all these places on this coast trade with the country with their cloths and other merchandise, and they bring from it gold, ivory, honey, wax and slaves; and sometimes they are at war with them, for they are christians, and they capture many of them; and such captives are much valued by the moors, and amongst them are worth much more money than other slaves because they find them sharp and faithful, and well-built men in body, and when they turn moors, they become greater emperors than the original moors. these moors of arabia felix are all black[ ] and good fighting men; they go bare from the waist upwards, and from thence downwards they cover themselves with cloths of cotton; and the more honourable men amongst them wear their cloths over them like almalafas,[ ] and the women are covered in the same way:[ ]... kingdom of prester john. leaving these towns of the moors and entering into the interior of the country, the great kingdom of prester john is to be found, whom the moors of arabia call abexi;[ ] this kingdom is very large, and peopled with many cities, towns, and villages, with many inhabitants: and it has many kings subject to it and tributary kings. and in their country there are many who live in the fields and mountains, like beduins: they are black men, very well made: they have many horses, and make use of them, and are good riders, and there are great sportsmen and hunters amongst them. their provisions are flesh of all kinds, milk, butter, and wheaten bread, and of these things there is a great abundance. their clothes are of hides because the country is wanting in cloths; and there is a law amongst them by which certain families and ranks of persons may wear cloths, and the rest of the people may wear only hides well dressed and tanned. amongst them there are men and women who have never drunk water, but only milk, which greatly supports them, and quenches the thirst, on account of its being more healthy and substantial, and there is great abundance of it in the country. these people are christians of the doctrine of the blessed saint bartholomew, as they say; and their baptism is in three kinds, of blood, fire, and water: that is to say, that they circumcise themselves, and mark themselves on the temples and forehead with fire, and also in water, like the catholic christians. many of them are deficient in our true faith, because the country is very large, and whilst in the principal city of babel malech, where prester john resides, they may be christians, in many other distant parts they live in error and without being taught; so that they are only christians in name. babel melech. in the interior of this country is the great city of babel melech,[ ] where prester john holds his residence. the moors call him the great king of the habeshys: he is christian, and lord of many extensive countries and numerous people, with whom he makes subject many great kings. he is very rich, and possesses more gold than any other prince. this prester john holds a very large court, and he keeps many men at arms continually in his pay, whom he takes about with him. he goes out very rarely from his dwelling; many kings and great lords come to visit him. in this city a great feast takes place in the month of august, for which so many kings and nobles come together, and so many people that they are innumerable: and on this day of the feast in august they take an image out of a church, which is believed to be that of our lady, or that of st. bartholomew, which image is of gold and of the size of a man; its eyes are of very large and beautiful rubies of great value, and the whole of it is adorned with many precious stones of much value, and placing it in a great chariot of gold, they carry it in procession with very great veneration and ceremony, and prester john goes in front of this car in another gold car, very richly dressed in cloth of gold with much jewellery. and they begin to go out thus in the morning, and go in procession through all the city with much music of all sorts of instruments, until the evening, when they go home. and so many people throng to this procession, that in order to arrive at the car of the image many die of being squeezed and suffocated; and those who die in this wise are held as saints and martyrs; and many old men and old women go with a good will to die in this manner. suez. leaving this country of prester john and the coast of the sea of arabia felix, and turning to the other part of the red sea, which is also called arabia, and the moors call it barra arab, there is a village, a seaport called suez,[ ] and thither the moors of guida, the port of mecca, bring all the spices, drugs, precious stones, seed pearl, amber, musk, and other merchandise of great value from the parts about india; and from there they load them on camels to carry them by land to cairo, and from cairo other merchants carry them to alexandria; and from there the venetians and other christians usually export them. and this trade now, in a great measure, ceases on account of the portuguese, whose fleets prohibit the navigation of the moors from india to the red sea.[ ] and the great sultan, lord of cairo, who loses most by this, ordered a fleet to be built in the port of suez, for which he had the wood and artillery, and other equipments transported by land, in which much money was expended; and this fleet was of ships and galleys, in order to pass with it to india and there forbid the portuguese from cruising. and when this fleet was built many people of different nations went with it to the first india, which is the kingdom of cambay; and the captain of it was amir uçen,[ ] and with this fleet they met that of portugal in front of a city named dyu, and there they fought vigorously, and many people were killed, and at last the moors, turks, and mamelukes were conquered and all their fleet was taken and part of it burned, and on this account and several other victories which the portuguese gained over the before-mentioned moors, they lost their navigation in the red sea, and the said port of suez remains without the trade in spices. mount sinai. near the said city of suez there is in the country of arabia on the red sea, the mountain of sinai, where lies the blessed saint catharine in a church, in which there are christian friars, under the lordship of the sultan, to which building the devout of all christian countries come in pilgrimage, and the chief part of those that throng thither are from the country of prester john and armenia, babilonia, constantinople, and jerusalem. eliobon and medina. having passed mount sinai, which the moors call tur, along the coast of the red sea going out of it, there is a village of the moors, a seaport called eliobon,[ ] and it is a port where they disembark for medina, which is another town of the moors, up the country at three days' journey from the port, and the body of mahomed is buried in it. guida port of meca. leaving the port of eliobon to go out of the red sea, there is a town of the moors, called guida, and it is the port of mecca, whither the ships used to come every year from india with spices and drugs, and they returned thence to calicut with much copper, quicksilver, vermillion, saffron, rose-water, scarlet silks, camelots, tafetans and other goods, of stuffs used in india, and also with much gold and silver; and the trade was very great and profitable. and from this port of guida these spices and drugs were transported in small vessels to suez, as has been already said. meca. at one day's journey up the country from the port of guida is the great city of meca, in which there is a very large mosque, to which all the moors from all parts go in pilgrimage, and they hold for certain that they are saved by washing with the water of a well which is in this mosque: and they carry it away from there in bottles to their countries as a great relic. in the aforesaid guida port of mecca a fortress has been lately built by emir hussein, the moorish captain of the ships of the sultan, which the portuguese destroyed in india: this captain when he saw himself defeated, did not dare return to his country without performing some service to his king, and he decided on begging of the king of cambay (who is called sultan mahamud) assistance in money, and so also from the nobles and merchants of his kingdom and from other moorish kings, in order to construct this fortress, saying: that since the portuguese, (whom they call franks) were so powerful, it would not be wonderful if they were to come into this port and were to go and destroy the house of mahomet. and these moorish kings and people hearing his petition, and seeing the power of the king of portugal, it seemed to them that this might come to pass, and thus all gave him great gifts, by means of which he loaded three ships with spices and other merchandise, and went with them to the red sea, and arrived at guida, where he sold them, and with the money he made the said fortress, and during the time that he was building it, the portuguese were making another inside the town of calicut,[ ] and the king of calicut begged the captain major of the king of portugal to give him permission to send then a ship laden with spices to mecca. and this permission was given him, and the ship was sent. and there went in it as captain an honourable person of the moors named califa, and he arrived at guida the port of mecca, where he came on shore very well dressed out, along with his people, and he found emir hussein building his fortress, and was asked by him news of the portuguese. and this califa answered him, telling him how they were in great peace at calicut, and making a handsome fortress. and emir hussein asked him, how dare you come to mecca being a friend of the portuguese? califa answered him, i am a merchant and am unable to do anything, but you who are a captain of the great sultan if you go to india to turn them out of it, how came you to leave them there, and to make a fortress here? at which emir hussein was much put out, and ordered califa immediately, and well dressed as he was, to take stones and mortar, he and his people, and help to build the fortress: and he made him work for the space of an hour.[ ] and califa related this in calicut later when he returned there.[ ] jazan, hali, alhor. leaving jiddah the port of mekkah, to go out of the red sea there are three towns of the moors, which have got kings over them, one is called jazan,[ ] another hali, and the other alhor; in these there are many horses and plenty of provisions. this king does not obey the sultan nor any other king whatever; he holds many countries under him in which he has many towns with many sea ports, from which the moorish merchants used to export a few horses to india in their merchant ships, because there they are worth a good deal. hodeyda, maha, babel mende. having passed these places and kingdom, there are three places further on the coast which belong to the kingdom of aden; the one they call hodeyda, the other maha,[ ] the other babelmende, which is in the mouth of the strait of the red sea where the ships enter it, and at this place the ships take pilots as far as jiddah, who live by it. island of camaron. in the sea of these other places, there is a small island called camaron,[ ] inhabited by moors, in which the ships were accustomed to take refreshments when they passed by it to jiddah. this island was ravaged by alonso de alboquerque, captain of the king of portugal; and he staid there for some days repairing his fleet in order to leave the red sea, for the season did not allow him to go as far as jiddah, to which he wished to arrive. adem. coming out of the red sea by babelmendel, which is in the straits, as has been said, towards the open sea, further on the coast there are several towns of moors, which all belong to the kingdom of aden, and having passed these villages you arrive at the town of aden, which belongs to the moors, and has a king over it. it is a very handsome city, with very large and fine houses, and a place of much trade, with good streets, and surrounded with a strong wall in their fashion. this city is on a point between a mountain and the sea; and this mountain ridge on the side of the main land is a precipitous rock, in such manner that on that side it has no more than one entrance, and on the top of this ridge, where the town is, there are many small towers, which look very pretty from the sea. inside the city there is no water at all, and outside of the gate towards the main land there is a building to which they make water come in pipes from another mountain at some little distance from there, and between one ridge and the other ridge there was a great plain. in this city there are great moorish merchants, and many jews.[ ] they are white men, a few of them black, they dress in cloth of cotton, silk, scarlet wool, and camelots. their clothes are long robes, and they wear caps on their heads, and with low shoes on their feet. their victuals are plenty of meat, wheaten bread, and rice which comes from india: there is plenty of fruit as in our parts, and there are in this place many horses and camels. the king is always in the interior of the country, and he maintains his governor in this city. many ships, great and small, come there from many parts; that is to say, from jiddah, whence they bring them much copper and quicksilver, and vermillion, coral, cloths of wool and silk. and they take from here in return spices, drugs, cotton cloths, and other things from cambay, with provisions and other goods. many ships also touch there from zeyla and berbera with provisions and other goods, and carry away from there stuffs from cambay, alaquequas,[ ] and large and small beads perforated for stringing, with which they trade in arabia felix, and in the country of prester john. some ships from ormuz likewise touch there to trade, and also from cambay, whence they bring much cotton stuff, spices, drugs, jewels and pearls, alaquequas, spun cotton, and unspun; and they take from these madder, opium, raisins, copper, quicksilver, vermillion, rose-water which they make there, woollen and silk stuffs, coloured stuffs from mecca, and gold in ingots or coined, and thread and camelots. and these ships of cambay are so many and so large, and with so much merchandise, that it is a terrible thing to think of so great an expenditure of cotton stuffs as they bring. there come likewise to this port of aden many ships from chaul and dabul, and from bengal and the country of calicut; they used to come there with the before-mentioned goods and with a large quantity of rice and sugar, and cocoa-nuts which grow on the palm trees, and which are like nuts in flavour, and with the kernels[ ] they make drinking cups. there also arrive there ships from bengal, samatra, and malaca, which bring much spices and drugs, silks, benzoin, alacar,[ ] sandal-wood, aloes-wood, rhubarb, musk, and much cotton stuffs from bengal and mangala,[ ] so that it is a place of as much trade as there can be in the world, and of the richest merchandise. the fleet and armament of the king of portugal came to this city, and took and burned in its harbour several ships laden with much merchandise, and several empty ships, and it made an assault to enter the town, and mounted the walls with scaling ladders, which broke with the weight of the many people on them; so that the portuguese went out again, and abandoned the town: and at this entry the moors defended themselves very vigorously, and many of them died, and some of the christians. kingdom of fartach. having passed the said kingdom of aden, going out of the strait towards the east, there is another kingdom of the moors about twenty-five leagues off, near the sea, it has three or four towns on the coast, and they are called xebech, diufar,[ ] and fartach.[ ] these moors have got a king over them and are very good fighting men: they have got horses which they make use of in war, and good arms with short blades; the said king is subject to the king of aden and is his servant. cape fartach and the island of sacotora. in this country and kingdom there is a cape which is called cape fartach, where the coast turns and makes a bend towards the said sea between north-east and east,[ ] and between this cape and that of guardafun, is the mouth of the strait of mecca, which runs north-west and south-east,[ ] and it is xl leagues in width, where all the ships pass for those voyages and to the red sea. above cape guardafun, to the north-east by east, twenty-seven leagues off, is an island called sacotora, with very high mountains, it is inhabited by dusky people, who are said to be christians; but they are deficient in the teaching of the christian law and baptism, and have got only the name of christians: they have in their chapels crosses, +.[ ] it was in former times a country of christians, and the christian doctrine was lost there on account of christian navigation having ceased there; and the moors say that this was an island of amazons, who later in the course of time mixed with men, and something of this appears to be the case, since there the women administer property and manage it, without the husbands having a voice in the matter. these people have a language of their own; they go without clothes, and only cover their nakedness with cotton cloths and skins: they have many cows and sheep, and date palms. their victuals are meat, milk, and dates. in this island there is much dragon's blood[ ] and aloes of socotra. and the moors of fartach built in it a fortress, to subjugate them, and turn them moors; and some of those that lived around the fortress were moors, and served the moors of the fort like their slaves, both in their persons and property. a fleet of the king of portugal arrived at this island, and took this fortress by force of arms from the moors of fartach, fighting with them: and they defended themselves much more vigorously than any men of these parts; so that they never would give themselves up, and all died in the fight, for none of them escaped; so that they are very good and daring fighting men. the captain of this fleet left troops and artillery in this fortress in order to keep it in the name of the king of portugal. and quite near to this island of sacotora there are two other islands inhabited by coloured people and blacks, like the people of the canary islands, without law or knowledge, and they have no dealings with any other people. in these two islands much amber and of good quality is found, and many shells of the valuable and precious kind in the mine, and much dragon's blood and aloes of socotra; and there are large flocks of sheep and oxen. diufar. leaving cape fartach towards the coast of the open sea to the north-east by east, going along the coast l leagues off is a town of the moors and seaport called diufar,[ ] a city of the kingdom of fartach, in which the moors of cambay trade in cotton stuffs, rice, and other goods. xeher.[ ] further on from this place, in the direction of the same wind, at xx leagues off, along the same coast, is another town of the moors, called xeher; it also belongs to the kingdom of fartach, and is very large; it has a large trade in the stuffs, which the moors of cambay, chaul, dabul, and baticala, and the country of malabar, bring in their ships to this port and town of xeher; these are coarse and fine cotton stuffs, with which they clothe themselves; granates on strings and several other jewels of small value, much rice, sugar, and spice of all kinds, cocoa-nuts, and other goods, which they sell there to the merchants of the country, who carry them from there to aden and all this part of arabia. and the importers afterwards employ the money in horses for india: these are very large and very good, and each one of them in india is worth five or six hundred ducats. and they also take from there much wormwood,[ ] which grows in that country. and in the interior of the country all the people are beduins: in this country there is much wheat and plenty of meat and dates, grapes, and all other fruits which are in our parts. and all the ships which sail from india for the red sea, and having been delayed cannot arrive in good time[ ] with their merchandise at the place of their destination, remain to sell them in this port of xeher, and from there they go to india along the coast to cambay. and so this port is large and of much trade at all times. this king of fartach is, with the whole of his kingdom, in obedience to the king of aden, because he holds a brother of his a prisoner. the wormwood which grows in this country of xeher is carried from here to all the world, and the ships of this place load[ ] the said wormwood, which is there worth a hundred and fifty maravedis the hundred weight. fasalhad. having passed this town of xeher, along the coast there are other small towns, and beduins in the interior of the country. this coast lasts as far as cape fasalhat, which is xxv leagues from xeher, between north-east and east, where the kingdom and rule of the king of ormuz begins. at this cape there is a fortress which the king of ormuz holds there which is called cor: and from there the coast begins to bend inwards towards ormuz. kingdom of ormuz. after passing this cape of fasalhat along the coast to the north-east, there are many towns and castles of the kingdom of ormuz in arabia, fifty leagues to the north-east, and then twenty-five leagues to the east, and as much again to the north-east and north, and then it makes a bay to the north-west for twelve leagues, and turns to the north-east twenty-five leagues as far as cape refalcate,[ ] and then it turns to the north-west, making bays until madea, which are eighty-six leagues off, and from there it trends to the north-east by north thirty leagues until cape mocondon,[ ] which is at the mouth of the sea of persia, which is twelve leagues in width, and on this sea also further on, this rule and lordship continue to extend, and there are in it many towns and forts; and islands which are in the midst of the said sea of persia, inhabited by moors. these places belonging to this kingdom are the following. in the beginning of this kingdom on the coast outside of this sea of persia, is:-- first calhat,[ ] a very large town of handsome houses, and well situated; the inhabitants are rich nobles and merchants: it is forty-four leagues from cape fasalhat. thirty-two leagues further on there is another small place called tybi, which has good water with which the ships navigating all this coast provide themselves. twenty-five leagues further on is another small place called daxnia, also a seaport. thirty leagues further on is another large place which is a very good town of much trade in merchandise, which is called curiat,[ ] in which, as well as in the others in the neighbourhood, there is plenty of meat, wheat, dates, and other fruit in abundance: there are plenty of horses, which are bred in the country, and they are very good, and the moors of ormuz come to buy them for exportation to india. leaving this town of curiat, at twelve leagues along the coast is another place with a fortress which is called sar,[ ] which the king of ormuz keeps there. having doubled the cape of resalcate, the coast turns to the sea of persia. forty leagues further on from this cape is another town upon the coast itself called mazquate. it is a large town, and of very honourable people, and of much trade in merchandise, and a place of great fisheries: they catch large fish there, which they export dried and salted to other parts. going along the coast further on to the sea of persia there is at a distance of ten leagues another place called sohar.[ ] leaving this town of sohar, further inland from the coast, at fourteen leagues off is another fortress of the king of ormuz called rosach; and with these fortresses this king is better able to keep all this country in subjection. having passed the fortress of rosach, there is another fortress called nahel twelve leagues off. twelve leagues further on is another place they call madeha; it is a small place, of few inhabitants, inside the mouth of the sea of persia, thirty leagues to the south-west.[ ] further on, there is a large place of many inhabitants called corfasan,[ ] around which and the other neighbouring places are many very agreeable country houses belonging to the chief men and most honoured of the moors of ormuz, who come during certain months of the year there to repose, and to collect their provisions, and enjoy their fruit. fifteen leagues further on there is another place on the coast, called dadena. as much again further on to the south-west, another place called daba. further on, on the coast to the south-west by west, at a distance of lxxxv leagues, is another very large town called julfar,[ ] where there are many very respectable people, and many merchants and sailors. and there they fish up many large pearls and seed pearls, which the merchants of the city of ormuz come there to buy, to carry them to india and other parts. this place is one of much trade, and produces a great deal to the king of ormuz. further along the coast of the persian sea, in the before-mentioned inner part, are three other places belonging to the king of ormuz: raçolhiman,[ ] which is a good town, at a distance of twenty-four leagues, and another beyond this, called melquehoan,[ ] and six leagues further on there is a fortress called calba,[ ] which the king maintains to defend his country from the bedouins, who live in the interior of the country, and who are governed by sheikhs; and at times they go against these towns of the kingdom of ormuz, and make war upon them, and sometimes they make them rebel against the king. this king of ormuz possesses, besides these places already mentioned, on the coast of arabia, many other towns in the country of persia, on the sea-coast, and in the midst of the persian sea many islands inhabited by moors, in which he has many large towns, very rich and handsome, all of which are named separately further on, and afterwards the island and city of ormuz and its customs are mentioned. on this coast the king of ormuz has a town called baha,[ ] in which he maintains his governors. having passed this place, further along the coast is another place called dexar. further on another place called xahen. further on another place called ygun.[ ] further on another place called el-guadun. further on another place called nabani,[ ] from which place they carry much water to drink to ormuz, because there is no drinkable water there; and from this and all those other places they carry to ormuz all its supplies. further on is another place called guan-meda, and from there further on there are also some other places belonging to the king of ormuz, which are the following--lefete, quesebi,[ ] and from here further on the coast turns to the north-west by north as far as the mouth of the river eufrates, and it begins here to be a wide estuary. berohu,[ ] caljar, xuza, mohimasim,[ ] lima,[ ] gorbaz, alguefa, carmon.[ ] which lasts two hundred and forty leagues, and then bazera, a castle of sophi. at the entrance of the river eufrates the land turns to the sea in a southerly direction eighty leagues, and then returns as much again to the north, and after that turns again to the south, when there begin these towns--cohomo, barque guex,[ ] ganguan, basido,[ ] goxtaque, conch, conga, ebrahemi,[ ] and as far as this there are one hundred and sixty-five leagues, and after that xenase,[ ] menahao xamile, leytam, bamtani, doani,[ ] and from this point the coast trends to the east for a distance of thirty leagues as far as lorom.[ ] between these places there are many large towns with much trade, and very respectable inhabitants, and great merchants; and many castles, which the king of ormuz maintains for the defence of his country, and they are all on the coast of the persian sea. they are places abundantly supplied with meat and wheaten bread, barley, vines, and all other things which are found in our parts, and many dates; and the inhabitants of these towns are white, and very polite people; they dress in long clothes of silk and cotton stuffs and camelots; and this is a very rich country. the islands of the kingdom of ormuz. in the mouth of this sea of persia there are the following islands belonging to the king of ormuz. cuyx, andrany,[ ] baxeal, _quiro_,[ ] _lar_,[ ] cojar,[ ] tomon,[ ] _firror_ guolar, melugan,[ ] gory, queximi,[ ] baharem.[ ] these two islands of queximi and baharem are large; and queximi has eight inhabited towns and has plenty of provisions. baharem has a large town of many moors, important and honourable personages. and it is distant from lorom to the north-east xxxiv leagues, and to the island of queximi fifty leagues of channel; and between it and the mainland from two to four leagues; and after that the coast turns between north-east and east, until the island of ormuz for xxxv leagues, of which island mention is made lower down.[ ] merchants from many parts reside in this island, and it is situated in the middle of this sea, and many ships with great merchandise sail to it; and here and in the neighbourhood much seed pearl and many pearls are produced, and they fish them on the island itself, from which there is a great profit to the inhabitants; and the king draws from this island and from all the others large revenues. the merchants of ormuz go to this island of baharem to buy the pearls and seed pearl for india and other parts where they find it profitable, and for the kingdom of narsinga; and also those of persia and arabia go there to buy them, and in all this sea of persia these pearls are found, but not in such quantity as in this island of baharem. country of sheikh ismail. after passing these countries along the coast of persia, there are many towns, places, and villages of the moors, very handsome and rich enough. from here further on it is no longer the country of the king of ormuz, but belongs to other lords, of whom we do not possess so much information, except that xeque yzmael[ ] subjugates and governs them. he is a moor, and a young man, who in a short time has subjugated these parts, and a great part of persia and arabia, and many kingdoms and lordships of the moors, not being a king nor the son of a king, except that he was only a sheikh of the house and lineage of aly, the brother-in-law[ ] of mahomed; and, being poor, he united with other young moors, and they took up the habit of going without clothes, which is a custom amongst them; they abandoned their property, honours, and clothes, and only covered themselves with skins of goats, and leopards, and deer with the fur, which many are in the habit of carrying, and they mark their arms and breasts with many scars of burns; and they carry heavy iron chains, and in their hands some weapons, different from those of other people, such as small battle-axes of much workmanship, and iron maces; they go as pilgrims, and do not sustain themselves except by alms; and to such people, wherever they go, much honour and entertainment is shown by the other moors; and they always go shouting and crying out in the villages the name of mahomet. so this sheikh ismail took this habit, and determined to shout and cry out for aly, whilst he took no heed of mahomed. many people began to collect round him, so that he began soon to take towns and to grant property to the persons who flocked to him, and were with him at a conquest; and, in case they took nothing, he decided on making some hoods of scarlet wool, of ample dimensions, and ordering them to be worn by the persons who followed him;[ ] thus he collected many people, and with them he went on taking many towns, and making war in many parts; and he did not choose to be called king, but the leveller of property, who took from those who had much, and gave to those who had little; neither did he choose to rest in any place. but all that he conquered he gave away and distributed to those who followed and obeyed him; whenever he found any very rich people whose riches did not profit any one, he took them away and distributed them amongst honourable people and the poor; and to the owners of the property he left a share equal to that which he gave to each one of the others; this he did many times, on which account they called him the equaller. this king sent ambassadors to all the moorish kings to persuade them to wear those coloured hoods, and if they did not choose to accept them, he sent to challenge them, and to say that he would come against them, to take their country, and make them believe in aly. he sent this embassy to the great sultan of cairo and to the grand turk, who gave him a hostile answer and made a league against him. as soon as sheikh ismail saw their answers he determined to go against the grand turk, and he went against him with large forces, horse and foot, and the turk came out to receive him, and they had a great battle,[ ] in which the grand turk was the conqueror, on account of the quantity of artillery which he brought with him, which sheikh ismail did not bring, and he only fought with his men with the strength of their arms. they killed there many of his people, and he took to flight, and the turk followed him, killing many of his troops, until he left him within persia, when he returned thence to turkey. this was the first time that this sheikh ismail was routed, for which he said that he wished to return to turkey with greater power and provided with artillery. this king ruled over a part of babilonia, and armenia, and persia, and a large part of arabia, and of india, near to the kingdom of cambay. his design was to get into his hands the house of mekkah. this sheikh sent an embassy with many presents to the captain of the king of portugal, who was exercising his functions in india, and asked him to agree to peace and friendship. and the portuguese captain-major received this embassy and presents, and in return sent another embassy.[ ] at the extremity of this sea of persia there is, as has been said, a fortress called basera, inhabited by moors, in subjection to sheikh ismail, at which there comes out from the mainland to the sea a very large and beautiful river of good fresh water, which is called frataha.[ ] this is said to be one of the four rivers which flow out of the terrestrial paradise, which river is the eufrates, and these moors say it has sixty thousand branches, and that one of the principal ones comes out at the kingdom of dahulcino, in which is the first india, which we call the river indus; and the river ganges is the other branch, which comes out in the second india to the sea; and the nile, which is another branch, which comes through the country of prester john, and waters cairo.[ ] island and city of ormuz. on coming out of the sea and strait of persia, in its mouth there is a small island, in which is the city of ormuz, which is small and very handsome, and with very pretty houses, lofty, of stone, whitewash, and mortar, covered with terraces, and because the country is very hot, they have fans made in such a manner that they make the air come from their summits to the lower part of the houses and rooms. it is a very well situated town, which has very good streets and squares. outside of this city, in the island itself, there is a small mountain, which is entirely of rock salt and sulphur; this salt is in great lumps, and very white and good: they call it indian salt, because nature produces it there; and the ships which come there from all parts take this salt as ballast, because in all other parts it is worth much money. the inhabitants of this island and city are persians and arabs, and they speak arabic and another language which they call persian. they are very white, and good-looking people, of handsome bodies, both men and women; and there are amongst them black and coloured people also, who are from the country of arabia. and the persians, who are very white, are fat and luxurious people, who live very well. they are very voluptuous, and have musicians with various instruments. there are among them very rich merchants, and many ships, because they have a good port, and they trade in many kinds of goods, which are imported there from many parts, and exported thence to other parts of india. they bring there all sorts of spices, drugs, precious stones, and other goods, such as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, long pepper, aloes-wood, sandal-wood, brasil-wood, balsam, tamarinds, indian saffron, beeswax, iron, sugar, rice, cocoa-nuts, rubies, sapphires, giagonzas,[ ] amethysts, topazes, chrysolites, hyacinths, porcelain, benzoin; and upon all these goods much money is made, and many stuffs from the kingdom of cambay, chaul, dabul, and bengala, which are called sinabasos, chautars, mamonas, dugasas, soranatis, which are kinds of stuffs of cotton very much valued amongst them for caps and shirts, which are much made use of by the arabs and persians, and people of cairo, aden, and alexandria. they also bring to this city of ormuz, quicksilver, vermillion, rose-water, brocade and silk stuffs, scarlet woollens, coarse camelots, and silk. and from china and catuy they bring to this city by land much fine silk in skeins, and very rare musk and rhubarb;[ ] and they bring from babilonia very fine torquoises, and some emeralds, and very fine lapis lazuli from acar. and from baharem and julfar they bring much seed pearl and large pearls, and many horses from arabia and persia, of which they carry away to india every year as many as five or six hundred, and at times a thousand; and the ships which export these horses load much salt, dates, and raisins, and sulphur, and of the other goods which the indians are pleased with. these moors of ormuz are very well dressed, with very white, long, and fine cotton shirts, and their fine drawers[ ] of cotton, and above that, very rich silk clothes and camelots, scarlet cloth, and very rich gauzes, with which they wrap their waists[ ], and they wear in their girdles daggers and knives, ornamented with gold and silver, and some heavy short swords, all adorned with gold and silver, according to the rank of the wearers: and large round shields, richly garnished with silk, and in their hands they carry turkish bows, painted with gold and very pretty colours, and their cords are of silk. these bows are of stiff wood and of buffaloe's horn; they carry very far, and these people are very good archers; their arrows are slender and well worked. others carry in their hands iron maces, well wrought and elegant; others again, battle-axes of various patterns and of very good temper, and inlaid or enamelled.[ ] they are very agreeable and polite people, and very civil in their mutual relations. their food is of very good meats, very well cooked, wheaten bread, and very good rice, and many other dishes very well prepared, and many kinds of conserves, and preserved fruits, and others fresh: that is to say, apples, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, figs, almonds, melons, radishes, salads, and all the other things which there are in spain; dates of many kinds, and other eatables and fruits not used in our parts. they drink wine of grapes in secret, because their law forbids it them; and the water which they drink is flavoured with pistachio nuts, and set to cool, for which purpose they employ and seek many methods for cooling and preserving it cool. and all the noblemen and honourable merchants always take, wherever they go, both in the streets and public places, and on the road, a page with a bottle of water, which is covered underneath with silver, or with a silver cup, as much for state and show as for use and comfort. all these people possess gardens and farms, to which they go to enjoy themselves for some months of the year.[ ] this city of ormuz is, as has been said, very rich and well supplied with everything in the way of provisions, but everything is very dear, because it is brought by sea from the towns of arabia and persia, for in the island there is nothing that can be made use of except salt; neither have they water to drink, for they bring it each day in boats from the mainland or other neighbouring islands. but for all that, the squares are full of all sorts of things, and everything is sold by weight, and with great order and regulation. and they give a very proper punishment to whoever falsifies the weights or sells above the regulation price; and they also sell cooked and roasted meat by weight, and so with all other cooked victuals; and all these so well arranged and so clean that many people do not have cooking done in their houses, but eat in the squares. the king is always in this city of ormuz, in which he has some beautiful palaces, and a fortress, where he has his residence, and where he keeps his treasury; and there he holds all his court, and out of it provides governors or judges for all his states and lordships. but it is his council that does everything; and he does not meddle with any affair, but only amuses himself, neither would it have been in his power to do otherwise; for if he wished to govern in person, and wished to be free and exempt like other kings, immediately they would put his eyes out, and would put him in a house with his wife, and maintain him there miserably; and they would raise up another son of his as king, or some one else more fitting for it, of his lineage, in order that his council may govern all his kingdoms and territories peacefully in his name. and with respect to all the other heirs of the kingdom, as they grow up and become persons able to command and govern, if it should appear to the council that they desire to meddle with the government, they take them and put their eyes out also, and put them also in a house; so that there are always ten or twelve of these blind men, and those who reign live with this fear before them.[ ] they give food there to them and to their wives and children. this king has many men-at-arms, and many gentlemen who guard and serve him, and they receive very good pay and rations, and are always at the court with their arms; and they send some to the frontiers on the mainland whenever they are required. they make gold and silver money in this city; the gold coins are called sarafin, and are worth three hundred maravedis, and most of them are halves, which are worth a hundred and fifty, a round coin like ours,[ ] and with moorish letters on both sides, and about the size of a fanon of calicut, with moorish letters, and it is worth fifty-five maravedis; they call these tanga, and they are of very fine silver, and of the standard of twelve dinars.[ ] there is a large quantity of this money, both gold and silver, and much of it goes out to india, where it has much currency. there came a portuguese fleet to this kingdom of ormuz, and its captain-major was alfonso de alborquerque, who attempted to come to an understanding with this kingdom of ormuz, but the moors would not agree, and on that account this captain began to make war upon the whole kingdom at all the seaports, and he did them much injury, and at last he came and touched at the port of ormuz with his fleet, and there was a great battle there, with many and great ships full of many and smart well-armed men. and the said captain routed the fleet of the moors, and killed many of them, and sunk many of their ships, and took and burned many which were moored in the harbour, drawn up by the wall of the city. and when the king and the governors of the country saw such great destruction of their people and ships, without being able to assist them, they offered peace to the before-mentioned captain, who accepted it under the condition that they should let him make a fortress at one extremity of the city; and they agreed, and this began to be done; and the work having commenced, the moors repented again, and did not choose that more should be built; and then the portuguese began again to make war upon them, and they did them so great damage, and slaughtered so many people, that they made them tributary to the king of portugal to the amount of fifteen thousand serafins of gold each year. some years from that time the king and governors of ormuz sent an ambassador with offers of services and letters to the king of portugal, and the before-named captain returned with his answer and a good fleet to the city of ormuz,[ ] and there they received him very peacefully in this city, and at once gave him permission and a place in which to built the fortress, which on a former occasion the portuguese had begun to build: and he ordered it to be built at once, very large and magnificent. at this time the king, who was a moor, and very young, and in the power of the governors, and so ruined that he did not dare do anything of himself, found the means to inform the captain-major secretly of the little liberty he enjoyed, and that the governors kept him like a prisoner, and that they had forcibly taken the government which belongs to others who were accustomed to exercise it, and that it appeared that they were exchanging letters with sheikh ismail in order to give him the kingdom. the captain-major kept this very secret, and determined to have an interview with the king; and they agreed that this interview should be in some large houses near the sea. on the day on which the interview was to take place, the captain-major entered the houses with ten or fifteen captains, leaving his people well arranged, and all concerted as was most convenient. so the king and his principal governor came there with many people, and the king and the governor entered the houses with ten or twelve honourable moors, and the door was well shut and guarded. then the captain-major ordered them to kill the governor[ ] with their daggers in his presence and that of the king: and he said to the king, "have no fear, sir, for i do this to make you absolute king." however those who were without heard the noise, and began to raise a disturbance, that it to say, the relations, servants, and friends of the said governor, who were many in number, and all came armed, so that it was necessary for the captain-major to take the king by the hand; they went up on to the roof, both of them armed, in order that the king might speak thence to the moors, and might pacify them; so he spoke to them, but could do nothing with them. they, on the contrary, required that he should confide to them his brother and lord: and they went thence to establish themselves in the king's palace, saying they would make another king. the captain-major wished to lay hands upon them, and thus they remained a great part of the day, and the king sought how to turn them out, and the captain-major determined to kill them by force or to drive them out, as they did not choose to go out of the fortress. so when the moors saw that the captain-major, with the king, was determined to attack them, they resolved to give the fortress to the king; and when they gave it up, the king commanded that they should be banished immediately, they and their families; and this was done, and they went to the mainland. the captain-major conducted the king from these houses to the palace in triumph and honourably, and with many people, both of ours and of his, and entrusted him to the other governor who was so before. he then committed to him his palaces and the city very freely, and told the governor to serve the king very honourably, and to leave him to govern his country at his pleasure, and only give him advice, as happens with other moorish kings: and thus he put him at liberty. he then left in the fortress that was built a captain and many men of portugal, and ships, in order to favour this king, who does nothing without the advice of the captain of the fort. and he is in submission to the king of portugal, with all his kingdoms and territories. after the captain-major had put everything in quiet and order, and under his command, he then had banished by the public crier, and turned out of the island all the paiderastoi, with a warning that if they returned there again they would be burned, at which the king showed great satisfaction. he likewise ordered all the blind kings who were in the city to be taken, and there were thirteen or fourteen of them, and put in a large ship, and he sent them to india, and they were landed at goa, where he gave orders for them to be maintained at the expense of his revenues, so that they might end their days there, and not cause any disturbance in the kingdom of ormuz, and be in peace and quietness. diulcindi. leaving the kingdom of ormuz, from the mouth of the sea of persia the coast goes to the south-east for a hundred and seventy-two leagues as far as diulcinde,[ ] entering the kingdom of ulcinde,[ ] which is between persia and india. it is a kingdom, and has a moorish king over it, and most of the inhabitants of the country are moors, and there are some gentiles subject to the moors. this king has an extended rule over the country in the interior, and few seaports. they have many horses. on the eastern side this country is bounded by the kingdom of cambay, and on the west by persia. it is in obedience to sheikh ismail. the moors are white and coloured; they have a language of their own, and also speak that of the persians and of arabia. there is much wheat and barley in this country, and plenty of meat. it is a level country, with little timber. they make little practice of navigating the sea; they possess extensive sea-beaches, where there are great fisheries, and they catch large fish, which they dry and salt, both for consumption in the country and for exportation in small vessels to other kingdoms. in this country they give dried fish to their horses to eat. a few ships which sail to this country from india, bring rice, sugar, and some spices, timber, planks, and indian canes, which are as thick as a man's leg. and in all this trade they make much money; and from this place they carry away cotton, horses, and cloth. a great river comes into the sea through this kingdom; it comes through the middle of persia, and they say that it comes out of the river eufrates. along this river there are many large and rich towns of moors. it is a very fertile and fruitful land, and very abundant in provisions. kingdom of guzerat, in india. leaving the kingdom of ulcinde, in the same direction, at a distance of fifty leagues, the traveller enters the first[ ] india, in the great kingdom of guzarat, which kingdom had belonged to king darius. and the indians have long histories of him and of king alexander. this kingdom has many cities and towns in the interior of the country, as well as ports along the sea; and very much shipping. it has many merchants and shipowners, both moors and gentiles. the king, and the men-at-arms, and nobles of the country were all gentiles formerly, and now they are moors, since the moors conquered the country in war, and hold the gentiles subject to them, and molest them and treat them ill. there are three qualities of these gentiles, that is to say, some are called razbutes, and they, in the time that their king was a gentile, were knights, the defenders of the kingdom, and governors of the country; they used to carry on war, and even now there remain some towns of them in the mountains, which have never chosen to pay obedience to the moors, but, on the contrary, make war upon them; and the king of cambaya is not sufficiently powerful to destroy them or subject them. they are very good knights and great archers, and they have many other kinds of arms with which they defend themselves from the moors, without owning any king or lord to govern them. the others are called banians, and are merchants and traders. these live amongst the moors, and trade with them in their goods. they are men who do not eat meat nor fish, nor anything that has life; neither do they kill anything, nor like to see it killed, because their idolatry forbids it them; and they observe this to such an extreme that it is something marvellous. for it often happens that the moors bring them some worms or little birds alive, saying they intend to kill them in their presence; and they ransom them, and buy them to set them flying, and save their lives for more money than they are worth. and in the same way, if the governor of the country has got a man to be executed, these banians unite together and buy him from the officers of justice, that he may not die; and frequently they sell him to them. and in the same manner the moors who beg for alms, when they want alms from these people, take great stones and strike themselves with them on the shoulders and the breast, and on their stomachs, as if they were going to kill themselves with them, and they receive alms not to do it, and to go away in peace. and others bring knives and stab themselves in the arms and legs before them, in order to extract alms; and others come to their doors to decapitate rats and snakes and other reptiles, and they give them money not to do it, so that they are very ill-treated by the moors. if these people meet with a band of ants in the road, they hasten out of the road, and go and look for a place to pass without treading upon them. they likewise sup in the daytime because they do not light candles at night, in order that the mosquitoes and other insects may not come and die in the flame; and if of necessity they must have a candle, they keep them in lanterns of paper, or of stuff dipped in gum, so that no living thing can get there to suffer. if these people have lice they do not kill them, and if they worry them very much, they send to fetch some men whom they have amongst them, also gentiles, whom they esteem of holy lives, like hermits, and who live in much abstinence for the love of their idols, and these people pick out their insects, and all those that they extract they put in their own heads, and they nourish them on themselves and on their flesh for the service of their idols. and so this law of not killing anything is held in great observance. on the other hand, they are great usurers and falsifiers of weights and measures, and merchandise, and coin; and liars and cheats. these gentiles are brown people, well built and of good proportions, smart in their dress, and delicate and temperate in their food. their victuals are milk, butter, sugar, rice, preserves of many kinds, many fruits, bread, vegetables, and field herbs; they all have gardens and orchards wherever they live, and many pools of water where they bathe twice every day, both men and women; and having ended their washing, they hold the belief that they are pardoned for all the sins which they have committed up to that time. they wear the hair very long like the women in spain, and they wear it gathered on the top of the head, and made into a band which is much adorned, and upon this a cap to fasten it; and they always wear many flowers stuck into their hair, and sweet smelling things. they also anoint themselves with white sandal mixed with saffron and other scents; they are much given to fall in love. they go bare, only covering themselves from the waist downwards with very rich silk stuffs; they wear embroidered shoes of very good leather, well worked, and some short silk skirts, and other short ones of cotton, with which they cover their bodies. they do not carry arms, only some small knives garnished with gold and silver, for two reasons: one because they are persons who make little use of arms, the other because the moors forbid it to them. they use many ear-rings of gold and jewellery in the ears, and many rings, and belts of gold and jewellery upon the cloths with which they gird themselves. the women of these gentiles have very pretty, delicate faces, and well made bodies, a little dark. their dress is silk stuff like their husbands' as far as the feet, and jackets[ ] with narrow sleeves of silk stuff, open at the shoulders, and other silk cloths with which they cover themselves in the manner of morisco almalafas; their heads bare, the hair gathered up upon the head; they wear thick ankle rings of gold and silver on the legs, and rings on their toes, and large coral beads on their arms, with beads of gold filigree, and gold and silver bracelets; and round their necks, necklaces of gold and jewellery, fitting closely; they have large holes pierced in their ears, and in them rings of gold or silver large enough for an egg to pass through them. they are modest women, and when they go out of their houses they are much covered up with their wraps over their heads. the other set of people are called bramans, and are priests and the persons who administer and direct the idolatry; they have very large houses of prayer, some of them with revenues, others are maintained by alms. in these they keep many idols: some of stone, some of wood, and other of copper. in these houses and monasteries they always perform many ceremonies to their gods; they make feasts for them magnificently, with instruments and songs, and with many lights of oil, and they have bells in our fashion. these bramans have got images which represent the holy trinity: they pay much honour to the number three, and in trine make their adoration to god, whom they confess to be the true god, creator, and maker of all things, which are three things in one sole person; and they say that there are many other gods governed by him, in which they also believe. these bramans, wherever they find our churches, enter willingly into them, and adore our images; and they always ask for santa maria, our lady, like men who have some knowledge of her. and as they see our manner of honouring the churches, they say that there is no great difference between them and us. these bramans go bare from the waist upwards; they wear upon their shoulder a thread of three threads, which is a sign by which they are known to be bramans. they are men who also do not eat anything which receives death, nor do they kill anything. they hold it to be a great ceremony to wash their bodies, and say that they wash on that account. these bramans, and also the banians, marry in our fashion, with one woman only, and only once. they make great feasts at their weddings, which last many days, and there are many people assembled at these very well dressed and decked out. these festivities are magnificent. for the most part they are married when very young, both men and women, and on the day of the betrothal, and of the wedding, the couple are both of them seated on a platform,[ ] very much bedizened with gold and jewellery and precious stones, and in front of them is a small table with an idol covered with flowers, and many lighted oil lamps all round it; and both of them have to remain there with their eyes fixed on that idol from the morning until the evening, without eating or drinking, or speaking to anybody during that time. the people make great rejoicings over them with their instruments and songs and dances; they let off many cannons, rockets and other fireworks to divert themselves. and if the husband dies the woman does not marry again, and so also does the husband should the wife die. and the children are his rightful heirs; and bramans must be sons of bramans, amongst whom there are some of a lower rank who serve as messengers and travellers, and they go in security to all parts without any one vexing them in any way. even if there should be war or thieves, they always pass safely. these are called _pater_. of the king and the lords of guzarat, which is of the kingdom of cambay. the king of guzarat is a great lord, both in revenue and people, and extensive and rich territory. he is a moor, as also are his men-at-arms, as has been said. he has a large court of many knights, and he is the lord of many horses and elephants, which are brought for sale to this kingdom from the country of malabar and ceylon. and with the horses and elephants he makes war upon the gentiles of the kingdom of guzarat who do not pay obedience to him, and upon some other kings with whom at times he is at war. and they make wooden castles on the top of the elephants, which hold four men, who carry bows and guns, and other weapons, and fight thence with the enemy. and the elephants are so well trained, that they know how to take part in the battle, and with their tusks wound the men and horses so severely, that in a very short time they put any array into confusion. but they are so timid, and subject to pain when wounded, that they take to flight at once, and put one another into confusion, and rout their own side. this king has four or five hundred of these at his residence, very large and fine. they buy them for one thousand five hundred ducats each, at the seaports where the malabars bring them for sale. and they make war much with the horses bred in the country, for it has a wonderful quantity; and the moors and gentiles of this kingdom are bold riders, ride small saddles,[ ] and use whips. they carry very thick round shields, edged with silk, and two swords each man, a dagger, and a turkish bow, with very good arrows; and some carry steel maces, and many of them coats of mail, and others tunics quilted with cotton. and the horses have housings and steel head pieces, and so they fight very well and are light in their movements; and they are so supple in their saddles that they can play on horseback at the choga[ ] or at any other game. they have amongst them the game of the jerid, as in spain. these moors are white, and of many countries: both turks and mamelukes, arabs, persians, khorasanys, turkomans, and from the great kingdom of dily, and others born in the country itself. these people come together there on account of the country being very rich, and well supplied; and the king gives good pay and rations, and regularly paid. these people are very well dressed, with very rich stuffs of gold, silk, cotton, and goats' wool, and all wear caps on their heads, and their clothes long, such as morisco shirts and drawers, and leggings to the knee of good thick leather, worked with gold knots and embroidery; and their swords are borne in their girdles, or in the hands of their pages. they are richly ornamented with gold and silver. their women are very white and pretty, also very richly decked out. they may marry as many as they like and are able to maintain, to honour the sect of mahomed; and so there are many of them who have three or four or five wives, and of all of them they have sons and daughters. and these moors of cambay speak many languages, that is to say, arabic, persian, turkish,[ ] and guzaraty. they eat wheaten bread, rice, meat of all kinds, leaving aside pork, which is against their law. they are luxurious people, who live well and spend much money. they always go with their heads shaved, and the women with very fine hair. when they go out of their houses, they go on horses, or in cars, and so covered up that nobody can see them. they are very jealous men, and can unmarry themselves when they please, on paying to the wife a certain sum of money (which is promised when they marry them), if at any time they repent of it; and the women have also the same liberty. this king of cambay has been king since a short time only, and his father was called sultan mahomed, who was brought up from a child and nourished with poison, for his father desired that he should so be brought up in order that it should not be possible to kill him with poison; for the moorish kings of these parts often have one another killed by poison. and this king began to eat it in such a small quantity that it could not do him any harm, and from that he went on increasing this kind of food in such manner that he could eat a great quantity of it; for which cause he became so poisonous that if a fly settled on his hand it swelled and immediately fell dead. and many wives with whom he slept died at once of his poison, which he was unable to leave off eating, for he feared if he did not use it, to die soon after; as we see by experience with the opium which the indians eat, for if they leave off eating it they die immediately, that is, if they begin as children to eat it in such a small quantity that it can do them no harm, for some length of time, and then increasing the quantity by degrees until they remain accustomed to it. this anfion is cold in the fourth degree, and on account of being so cold it kills. we call it opio, and the women of india when they wish to kill themselves in any case of dishonour or of despair, eat it with oil of sesame, and so die sleeping without feeling death. city of champaver.[ ] this king possesses great cities in his kingdom, and especially the city of champaver, where he resides continually, with all his court. this city is to the north of guzerat, eighty leagues inland. it is a very fertile country: of abundant provisions, wheat, barley, millet, rice, peas and other vegetables, and many cows, sheep, goats, and plenty of fruit, so that it is very full of all things; and it has in its neighbourhood many hunting grounds, and deer and other animals, and winged game. and this country possesses dogs and falcons for the chase, and tame leopards for hunting all sorts of game. and the king for his pastime keeps many animals of all kinds, which they send to find and bring up. this king sent a ganda[ ] to the king of portugal, because they told him that he would be pleased to see her. andavat. leaving this city and going further inland there is another city called andavat, which is larger than the said city of champaver, and it is very rich, and well supplied. the former kings used always to reside in this city. these towns are walled, and embellished with good streets and squares, and houses of stone and whitewash, with roofs in our fashion; and they have large courts, and much water in wells and pools. they make use of horses, donkeys, mules, camels and carts, and have fine rivers, with plenty of fresh water fish, and many orchards and gardens. there are also in this kingdom, inland, many cities, towns and villages, in which the king keeps his governors and collectors of his revenue. if these commit a fault he summons them, and after having heard them he bids them drink a cup of poison, with which anyone dies immediately; and in this way he chastises them, so that they are in great fear of him. patemxi. the places which this king has on the sea coast are these. firstly, leaving the kingdom of ulcinde for india at a distance of thirty-seven leagues, is a river, on the shore of which there is a great city called patemxi, a good seaport, very rich, and of great trade. in this city many silk stuffs are made, coloured with much embroidery, which are used over the whole of india, malacca, bengal, and also many cotton stuffs. to this port come many indian ships laden with cocoa nuts, sugar of palms which they call xagara[ ], and from there they carry away a great quantity of cloth and much cotton, horses, wheat, and vegetables, by which much money is made. their voyage, with the delays, is of four months. suratimangalor. passing by this city, further on the coast to the east and south, at fifteen leagues distance, there is another town of commerce, which has a very good port, and is called suratimangalor, where also many ships from malabar touch, for horses, wheat, rice, cotton cloths, vegetables and other goods which are of use in india. and they bring cocoa nuts, hurraca[ ] (which is something to drink), emery, beeswax, cardamums, and all sorts of spices, in which trade and voyage great profit is made in a short time. duy. fifty leagues further along the coast, towards the south, there is a promontory, and joining close to it is a small island, which contains a very large and fine town, which the malabars call diuixa[ ], and the moors of the country call it diu. it has a very good harbour, and is a port of much trade in merchandise, and of much shipping from malabar, baticala, goa dabul and cheul; and the people of diu sail to aden, mekkah, zeyla, barbara, magadoxo, brava, melinde, mombaza, xer[ ], ormuz, and all parts of the kingdom. and the malabars bring hither rice, cocoa nuts, jagara, wax, emery, iron, and sugar from baticala, and all the spices that can be got in india and malacca; and from chaul and dabul they bring a large quantity of cotton stuffs, which they call _beyranies_, and caps for women, which are carried from this place to arabia and persia. and they load at this port for the return voyage cotton cloths of the country and silk stuffs, horses, wheat, vegetables, sesame, cotton, oil of sesame, and opium, both that which comes there from aden, and that which is made in the kingdom of cambay, which is not so fine as that of aden; and they export many coarse camlets and silk stuffs made in this kingdom of cambay, and thick carpets,[ ] taffeta, scarlet cloth, and of other colours. they also export the spices and things brought to them from india, by the people of the country, to aden, ormuz, and all parts of arabia and persia, so that this town is the chief emporium of trade which exists in all these parts. this town gives such a large sum of money as revenue to the king, for the loading and unloading of such rich goods, that it is a subject of marvel and amazement; for they also bring to it from mekkah much coral, copper, quicksilver, vermillion, lead, alum, madder, rose-water, saffron, and much gold and silver coined and uncoined. the king keeps a moorish governor in this place called melquiaz; an old man, and a very good gentleman, discreet, industrious, and of great information, who lives with great order and regularity in all his affairs. he makes much artillery, and has many rowing barges, very well arranged, small and very light, which are called talayas.[ ] he has had constructed in the port a very strong and fine bulwark, in which he has very good artillery, with many lombards,[ ] and he always keeps with him many men-at-arms, to whom he pays very good appointments. they are very well armed. he is always on his guard, and is very apprehensive of the power of the king of portugal.[ ] he shows great honour and attention to the ships and people of portugal who come to his port. the people of his country are kept in very good order, and governed with much justice and good treatment; he dispenses many favours and presents to voyagers and strangers in his country. a large fleet of the great sultan[ ] of sailing ships and row galleys arrived at this port, well equipped, with large crews and a good armament; its captain was emir hussein. he came to reinforce himself in this port with the assistance of the king of cambay and the before-mentioned governor meliquiaz, and from thence to go to calicut, to fight with the portuguese, and turn them out of india. he was for some time in the port making many preparations, and the portuguese fleet came there to seek for them, of which don francisco de almeyda, viceroy of india, was the captain major. and the moors put out to sea to meet them, and the two fleets fought in the entrance of this roadstead vigorously, and many people were killed and wounded on both sides; and at the end the moors were beaten and captured with great slaughter, and the portuguese took their ships and galleys, with all their arms and heavy artillery. they captured there many moors, and the said emir hussein escaped, and left his fleet to suffer as has been told; and when meliquiaz, who assisted and favoured them with his guard-boats and forces, saw the havoc, he at once sent messengers to the before-mentioned viceroy to seek peace of him, and he sent many provisions and refreshments and other presents as a sign of peace.[ ] gogari. further on after this the coast begins to make a bend into cambay towards the north, in which bend are several seaports of the same king, and towns of great trade. one of these is guogari, at a distance of twenty-five leagues (from diu), which is a very large town and a good port, where they always load many ships from malabar and other parts of india; and many other ships bound for mekkah and aden. at this place all sorts of merchandise are dealt in, as at diu. barbesy. another is called barbesy, a seaport twelve leagues further on to the north, in which stretch of coast are several seaports of the king of cambay. all sorts of goods are traded in for all parts, and the dues upon them produce very much to the king, who has in each of these two places his custom houses, and all are well supplied with provisions. buendari. further on, to north-west by north, there is another place in the mouth of a small river which is called guendari, twenty leagues distant from barbesy. and it is a very good town, a seaport of the same trade, because further up that river is the great city of cambay. there arrived there many zambucos,[ ] which are small vessels of the malabar country, with areca (nuts), spices, wax, sugar, cardamums, emery, ivory, and elephants:[ ] and these goods are sold there very well. and from there they carry away cotton, sesame, thread, wheat, peas, horses, alaquequas, and many other goods. the navigation of these places is very dangerous, especially for ships with keels which draw much water, because in this gulf which the coast here makes, the ebb and flow is so great, that in a very short space of time the sea leaves uncovered four or five leagues of dry land, and in some places less; and it is expedient for those who go in there to take country pilots, because, when the tide runs down, they may know how to remain in pools of deep water[ ] such as there are there, and sometimes they make mistakes and remain upon rocks, where they are lost. city of cambay. entering this river of guendari, to the north-east is the great city of cambay, inhabited by moors and gentiles. it is a very large city of handsome houses of stone and whitewash, very lofty, with windows, and covered with roofs in the spanish fashion; it has very good streets and squares, and is situated in a rich, fertile, and pretty country, full of abundant provisions. there are in it rich merchants and men of great property, both moors and gentiles; and there are many workmen and mechanicians of subtle workmanship of all sorts, after the fashion of flanders, and all very cheap. they make there many cloths of white cotton, fine and coarse, and other woven and coloured fabrics of all kinds; also many silk fabrics, of all kinds and colours; and camlets of silk and velvets of all colours, both smooth and fluffy, coloured tafetans, and thick alcatifas. the inhabitants of this city are all white, both men and women, and there are many people from outside living in it who are very white and very well dressed, and of luxurious lives, much given to pleasure and amusement. they are very much accustomed to wash themselves; they eat very well, and always go perfumed and anointed with sweet smelling things. they wear in their hair, both men and women, many jessamine and other flowers that grow amongst them. they have many musicians, and various kinds of instruments and songs. there are always carts with oxen and horses going about the city, of which they make use for everything; and they go in these with rich mattrasses, shut up and well fitted up with their windows, after the manner of cabins; furnished and ornamented with silk stuffs, and the seats within with cushions and pillows of silk and stamped kid skins:[ ] and with their waggoners. men and women go in these to see amusements and diversions, or to visit their friends, or wherever they wish, without being known, and they see all that they wish. and they go singing and playing on instruments in these same waggons for their amusement. and these people possess many orchards and gardens, where they go to take their ease, and where they grow much fruit and vegetables for the sustenance of the gentiles, who do not eat meat nor flesh. in this city a very large quantity of ivory is employed in very delicate works, well known in commerce, like inlaid works of gold, and things made by turning, and handles of knives and daggers, bracelets, games of chess and chess-boards. there are also great artists with the turning lathe, who make large bedsteads, and they make beads of great size, brown, yellow, blue and coloured, which they export to all parts. there are also great lapidaries, and imitators of precious stones of all kinds, and makers of false pearls which seem real. so also there are very good silversmiths of very skilful workmanship. in this city they make very delicate cushions, and pretty ceilings (or canopies) of bedsteads, of delicate workmanship and paintings, and quilted clothes for wearing. there are many moorish women who produce very delicate needlework. they work there too in coral alaquequas and other stones. limadura. leaving this city of cambay there is a town inland called limadura, where there is a stone with which they make aquequas, for making beads for berberia. it is a stone white as milk, and has some red in it, and with fire they heighten the colour, and they extract it in large blocks. in these places there are great artists who manufacture and pierce these beads in various fashions, oval, octagonal, round, and of other shapes; and with this stone they make rings, buttons, and knife handles. and the cambay merchants go there to buy them, and they harden[ ] them to take them away to sell in the red sea, from whence they are in the habit of arriving in our parts by way of cairo or alexandria: and they also carry them throughout all arabia, persia, and nubia, and now they take them to india, because our people buy them. they also find in this town much chalcedony, which they call _babagore_. they make beads with it, and other things which they wear about them, so that they touch the skin, as they say that it is good for chastity. these stones are of little value there, for there are many of them. ravel. returning to the towns on the sea, and passing gandar, to the east there is a good river twenty leagues further along the coast, and on this side of it there is a good town of the moors, called ravel,[ ] built of very pretty houses and squares. it is a rich and agreeable place, because the moors of this town trade with their ships at malacca, bengal, tarvasery, pegu, martaban, and samatara, in all sorts of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin, porcelain, and all other valuable merchandise. they possess very large and fine ships, so that those who would wish to get chinese articles, will find them there more completely than in any other part, and at very fair prices. the moors of this place are white and well dressed, and very rich. they have very pretty wives, and in the furniture[ ] of their houses they have many china vases of different shapes, and they keep them in glass cupboards very well arranged. these women are not secluded like those of other moors and other places, but go about the city in the daytime attending to their business, with the face uncovered as in our parts. surati. having passed this river of ravel, at twenty leagues to the south is a city called surat, at the mouth of a river. this also is a city of very great trade, in all classes of merchandise. many ships of malabar and all other parts sail thither continually, and discharge and take in goods, because this is a very important seaport, and there are in it very vast quantities of merchandise. moors, gentiles, and all sorts of people live in this city. its custom-house, which they call the divana,[ ] produces a very large revenue for the king of guzarat: and until now malaguioy, a gentile, commands in, and governs it, as lord of it. and he is the greatest nobleman in all india, and he gave orders to kill the king of guzerat for some gossip which they reported respecting him. denvy.[ ] after leaving the town of surat, at ten leagues along the coast to the south, there is place called denvy, of moors and gentiles, also of great trade, where many merchant ships from malabar and many other parts always take in cargo. baxay. having passed this town of dendi, twenty leagues further on to the south[ ] is another town of moors and gentiles, a good seaport, which also belongs to the king of guzarat, in which much goods are exchanged; and there is a great movement of the shipping which comes there from all parts, and many zambucs from the malabar country laden with areca, cocoas, and spices, which they delight in, and they take thence others which are used in malabar. tanamayambu. twenty-five leagues further on the coast is a fortress of the before named king, called tanamayambu, and near it is a moorish town, very pleasant, with many gardens, and very fertile--a town of very great moorish mosques, and temples of worship of the gentiles. it is nearly at the extremity of the kingdom of cambay or guzarat, and it is likewise a seaport, but of little trade. and there are in this port small vessels of rovers like watch boats, which go out to sea, and if they meet with any small ship less strong than themselves, they capture and plunder it, and sometimes kill their crews. kingdom of dacani. on coming out of this kingdom of guzarat and cambay, towards the south and the inner parts of india, is the kingdom of dacani, which the indians call decani. the king is a moor, and a large part of his people is gentile. he is a great lord, and possesses many subjects and an extensive territory, which stretches far inland. it has very good seaports, of great trade in the goods used on the mainland, and they are the following places: cheul. leaving the kingdom of cambay, along the coast towards the south, at eight leagues distance, there is a fine large river, and on it is a place called cheul,[ ] not very large, of handsome houses, which are all covered with thatch. this place is one of great commerce in merchandise, and in the months of december, january, february and march there are many ships from the malabar country and all other parts, which arrive with cargoes. that is to say, those of malabar laden with cocoa nuts, arecas, spices, drugs, palm sugar, emery, and there they make their sales for the continent and for the kingdom of cambay; and the ships of cambay come there to meet them laden with cotton stuffs, and many other goods which are available in malabar, and these are bartered for the goods which have come from the malabar country. and on the return voyage they fill their ships with wheat, vegetables, millet, rice, sesame, oil of sesame, of which there is much in this country; and these malabars also buy many pieces of fine muslin[ ] for women's head dress, and many beyranies, of which there are plenty in this kingdom. a large quantity of copper is sold in this port of cheul, and at a high price, for it is worth twenty ducats the hundred weight, or more, because in the interior money is made of it, and it is also used throughout the country for cooking pots. there is also a great consumption in this place of quicksilver and vermilion for the interior, and for the kingdom of guzarat, which copper, quicksilver and vermilion is brought to this place by the malabar merchants, who get it from the factories of the king of portugal; and they get more of it by way of the mekkah, which comes there from diu. these people wear the beyranies put on for a few days nearly in the raw state, and afterwards they bleach them and make them very white, and gum them to sell them abroad, and thus some are met with amongst them which are torn. in this port of chaul there are few inhabitants, except during three or four months of the year, the time for putting in cargo, when there arrive merchants from all the neighbourhood, and they make their bargains during this period, and despatch their goods, and after that return to their homes until the next season, so that this place is like a fair in those months. there is a moorish gentleman as governor of this place, who is a vassal of the king of decani, and collects his revenues, and accounts to him for them. he is called xech, and does great service to the king of portugal, and is a great friend of the portuguese, and treats very well all those that go there, and keeps the country very secure. in this place there is always a portuguese factor appointed by the captain and factor of goa, in order to send from this place provisions and other necessaries, to the city of goa, and to the portuguese fleets; and at a distance of about a league inland from cheul is a place where the moors and gentiles of the cities and towns throughout the country come to set up their shops of goods and cloths at cheul during the before-mentioned months; they bring these in great caravans of domestic oxen, with packs like donkeys, and on the top of these long white sacks placed crosswise, in which they bring their goods; and one man drives thirty or forty beasts before him. damda. having passed this place, cheul, at twelve leagues further on along the coast to the south towards malabar is another town and seaport, also belonging to the kingdom of dacani, called damda; where there enter and go out many moorish ships, both guzaratis and malabaris, with cloth and other goods, as at cheul. mandabad. five leagues further on is a river called mandabad, on which is a town of moors and gentiles, of the same kingdom of decani; likewise a seaport. many ships from various parts congregate at this harbour to buy stuffs, particularly from the malabar country. and they bring there many cocoa-nuts, arecas, and also a few spices, copper and quicksilver: for the merchants of the country buy all these goods. dabul. having left this place, mandabad, and going along the coast to malabar and the south, at eight leagues distance is another fine large river, at the mouth of which is a large town of moors and gentiles, belonging to the same kingdom of decani. it is called dabul,[ ] and in the mouth of the river near this same town there is a rampart, with artillery to defend the entrance of the river. this town of dabul has a very good harbour, where there always congregate many moorish ships from various parts, and especially from mekkah, aden, and ormuz with horses, and from cambay, diu, and the malabar country. it is a place of very great trade in all sorts of merchandise; there are in it very respectable moors and gentiles, and guzarati merchants. much copper, quicksilver, and vermilion is sold here for the interior of the country: a great quantity of country fabrics are brought to this town down the river for embarcation in the ships, and also much wheat and vegetables of all sorts. the custom-house of this port produces much money, and the collectors take the dues there for the lord of the town. and this town is pretty and well situated, but its houses are covered with thatch, and it also has very beautiful mosques. higher up this river, on either bank there are many pretty towns, plentifully supplied, and owning much cultivated land and flocks. a fleet of the king of portugal arrived at this city, of which the viceroy was the captain, and landed his people on the shore for the purpose of taking and destroying this town.[ ] and the moors put themselves on the defensive, and fought very courageously with the portuguese. in the fight many moors and gentiles died, and at last the portuguese took this city by assault, making a great slaughter of the inhabitants, and plundering and burning the city, in which much wealth and merchandise were burned, and at the same time several ships which were lying in the river. and those who escaped thence returned later to restore this city, so that now it is already inhabited as before. singuycar. ten leagues further on from this river, along the coast southwards, is another river called singuycar, upon which is a town of much commerce and merchandise. and many ships from divers parts put in there; and it is a town of moors and gentiles, and belongs to the kingdom of dacani. river dobetala. twelve leagues further along the coast, to the south, is another river called dobetela; and there are along its course several small places, with very pretty gardens and orchards, where they gather a great quantity of betel; this is a leaf which they eat, and it is put on board small vessels, and carried away for sale in other towns and seaports. we call this betel indian leaf, and it is as large as a leaf of the plantain,[ ] and about of the same pattern; and it grows like ivy, and climbs up other trees by means of poles placed for that purpose: it does not give any fruit or seed. it is a very favourite leaf, and all the indians both men and women eat it both day and night in their houses, in the streets, and on the road, and in their beds. they always go about eating this leaf, which they mix with some small fruits called arecas, and the leaf is smeared with moistened lime, which is made with sea-shells, and the shells of oysters and mussels. and these three things being added together, they eat this betel, not swallowing more than the juice; and it colours the mouth and makes the teeth brown: and they say that it is good for drying and purging the stomach, and for preserving the brain, and it drives out flatulence, and quenches thirst: so that it is very much esteemed among all indians, and in general use from this place further on throughout india. there are great quantities of it, and it is one of the principal revenues which the kings of the country possess. the moors and arabs and persians call it tanbul. after passing this river of betala, further along the coast are other small places and seaports, likewise belonging to the kingdom of dacani, in which small vessels from malabar enter to take on board inferior rice and vegetables which are found there: and one of them is called arapatani, and another munaryni.[ ] banda. after leaving these places, about six leagues along the coast southwards is a river, upon which is a town of moors and gentiles called banda, in which there are many merchants who trade on the continent with the merchants whom the malabars bring thither. and many ships come there from many parts on account of its being a good harbour, and there is a great exportation of goods and provisions from the interior of the country. many ships fill here with rice, coarse millet, and other vegetables that are profitable to them; and they bring to this place cocoa-nuts, pepper, and other spices and drugs which have a good sale there, because thence they ship them for diu, aden, and ormuz. and leaving this place, between it and goa there is another river called bardes, on which there are other towns which are not of much trade. guoa. leaving these places, there are twenty leagues of coast southwards as far as a cape, which must be doubled to enter goa; and after that ten leagues to the north-west, then ten more to the east, and south-south-west twenty leagues, then seventeen leagues to the north-west, as far as the cape rama. and in this gulf there are many small islands, the chief of which is goa. there is a large river which issues by two branches into the sea, between which is formed the island of the city of goa, which belonged to the kingdom of decani, and was a lordship of itself along with other towns in the neighbourhood; and the king gave it to a vassal of his, a great lord called vasabaxo, who was a very good knight, and on account of his being very distinguished and skilful in warlike matters, this lordship of goa was given him, in order that he might carry on war thence with the king of narsinga, as he always did until his death. this city then remained to his son, sabaym delcani, and it was inhabited by many moors, respectable men, and foreigners, white men and rich merchants, and several of them are very good gentlemen. there are also many great gentile merchants, and others, gentlemen and cultivators, and men-at-arms. it was a place of great trade in merchandise. it has a very good port, to which flocked many ships from mekkah, aden, ormuz, cambay, and the malabar country. and the before mentioned sabaym delcani resided much in this place, and he kept there his captain and men-at-arms, and no one entered or went out of this island and city, either by sea or by land, without his permission; and all those who entered there were registered with all their signs and particulars, and from whence they came; and so, with this precaution and arrangement, they allowed them to return. this town was very large, with goodly edifices and handsome streets and squares, surrounded by walls and towers. there is a very good fortress in it, and in the environs many gardens and orchards of fine trees and fruits, and many pools of good water. there were many mosques and houses of worship of the gentiles. the country all round was very fruitful and well cultivated, and enjoyed much produce both from sea and land. this sabaym, as soon as he knew that the portuguese viceroy had routed the rumes[ ] and the fleet of the great sultan before diu, immediately sent to call the rumes, knights, and other people of the sultan, who having escaped thence, arrived, leaving their captain in the kingdom of guzarat. and this sabaym delcani received them very well, and determined on putting all india at their disposition for their assistance, and to refit them again with the aid of all the moors and kings of india, in order to again carry on war against the portuguese. they then collected together much money and began to build in this city of goa very large ships, and handsome galleys and brigantines, all after the manner and fashion of ours, and likewise to prepare much artillery of brass and iron, and all other munitions of maritime war. and the moors were so expeditious in this that they had got a large part of the fleet made, and vast magazines of munitions for the fleet; and they already went out with guard boats and rowing galleys, to take the sambuks which passed by, because they carried portuguese safe-conducts. and alfonso de albuquerque, who was then captain-major in india, had information of all this, and determined to go and seek them, and drive them from their design. he therefore collected the most that he could of a fleet of ships, caravels, and galleys, and with these entered the before mentioned river, and attacked the city of goa[ ] and took it. upon which many great things occurred, which i say nothing about, in order not to be more prolix. he captured many people, and all the ships and galleys of the rumes, and he burned some of them; and the city submitted to the commands of the king of portugal, as it now is. and he fortified it with several castles. this city is inhabited by portuguese, moors and gentiles; and the fruits of the earth and provisions now produce a yearly revenue to the king of portugal of twenty thousand ducats, without the port, which has much trade in merchandise of malabar, cheul, dabul, cambay and diu. they sell there many horses for other parts, at two, three and four hundred ducats each, according to their quality, and upon each the king of portugal levies forty ducats as duty; and although they pay less dues than in the time of the moors, this harbour produces much revenue to the king of portugal.[ ] in this kingdom of decani there are many great cities, and many other towns within the country inhabited by moors and gentiles. it is a country very well cultivated, and abundantly supplied with provisions, and it has an extensive commerce, which produces much revenue to the king, who is called mahamuza, and is a moor; and he lives very luxuriously, and with much pleasure, in a great city inland, which is called mavider. this king holds the whole of his kingdom, divided amongst moorish lords, to each one of whom he has assigned cities, towns, and villages; and these lords govern and rule, so that the king does not give any orders in his kingdom, nor does he meddle except in giving himself a pleasant life and amusement. and all these lords do obeisance to him, and bring him the revenue, with which they have to come into his presence. and if any one of them were to revolt or disobey, the others go against him and destroy him, or reduce him again to obedience to the king. these lords frequently have wars and differences among one another, and it happens that some take villages from others; but afterwards the king makes peace, and administers justice between them. each one has many horsemen, very good archers with the turkish bow, white people, of good figures. their dress is of cotton stuffs, and they wear caps on their heads. they give large pay to the soldiers: they speak arabic, persian and the decani language, which is the natural language of the country. these moorish lords take tents of cotton cloth into the field, in which they dwell when going on a journey, or to war. they ride a small saddle, and fight tied to their horses. they carry in their hands very long light lances, with four-sided iron points, very strong, and three palms in length. they wear tunics quilted with cotton, which they call _laudes_, and some wear tunics of mail, and their horses caparisoned; some carry iron maces and battle-axes, two swords and a buckler, turkish bows supplied with many arrows, so that each man carries offensive weapons for two persons. many of these take their wives with them to the wars; they make use of pack oxen, on which they carry their chattels when they travel. they are frequently at war with the king of narsinga, so that they are at peace but for a short time. the gentiles of this kingdom of decani are black, well made and courageous; most of them fight on foot, and some on horseback: and these foot soldiers carry swords and shields, bows and arrows, and are very good archers. their bows are long, after the fashion of englishmen. they go naked from the waist upwards, and wear small caps on their heads; they eat all meats except cow; they are idolaters, when they die their bodies are burned, and their wives burn themselves alive with them voluntarily, as will be related further on. cintacola. seventeen leagues further along the same coast to the south-east, and towards malabar, there is another river called aliga,[ ] which separates the kingdom of decani from the kingdom of narsinga, and at the mouth of the river on the top of a hill is a fortress, cintacola;[ ] and it belongs to the zabayo, for the defence of his country. in it he continually keeps horse and foot soldiers. here the said kingdom of decani comes to an end at its southern portion, and the northern part ends at cheul; and from one place to the other along the coast there are eighty leagues. kingdom of narsinga. beyond this river commences the kingdom of narsinga, which contains five very large provinces, with a language of their own. one province is along the coast, and is called tulinat; another has the name of legni, which confines with the kingdom of tisa; another is canari, in which is the great city of visenagar,[ ] and the other is chomendel,[ ] a kingdom which they call tamul. this kingdom of narsinga is very rich and well supplied with provisions, and is very full of cities and large townships; and all the country is very fertile and brought into cultivation. the province of tulinat contains many rivers and seaports, in which there is much trade and shipping bound for all parts, and many rich merchants dwell in them. between the others there is a very large river called mergeo, from which is produced a large quantity of inferior rice for the common people, which the malabars come here to buy, with their sambuks, in exchange for cocoa nuts, oil, and jagra, which are much used in this country. honor. having passed this river aliga,[ ] and going along the coast to the south-east, there is another river, at ten leagues distance, with a good town near the sea, called honor,[ ] and the malabars call it povaran; many of them come to this place to fetch cargoes of inferior brownish rice, which is their peculiar food: and they bring cocoa nuts, oil and jagra, and wine of the palm trees, from which grow the cocoa nuts. batecala. ten leagues further along this coast to the south is another small river, with a large town called baticala,[ ] of very great trade in merchandise, inhabited by many moors and gentiles, very commercial people. and at this port congregate many ships from orguz, to load very good white rice, sugar in powder, of which there is much in this country, for they do not know how to make it in loaves; and it is worth at the rate of two hundred and forty maravedis the arroba.[ ] they likewise load much iron, and these three kinds of goods are what are chiefly shipped at this place: and also some spices and drugs, which the malabars import. there are many myrobalans of all sorts, and very good preserves are made with them, which the ships of ormuz, which traffic at this place, export for the arabs and persians. they used each year to bring to this port many horses and pearls, which were there sold for the whole kingdom of narsinga, and now they take them all to the city of goa, on account of the portuguese. some ships are also laden at this place for aden, risking themselves, although it is forbidden them by the portuguese. many malabar ships and sambuks also come to this port to take in rice, sugar, and iron; and they bring cocoa nuts, palm sugar, cocoa nut oil, and palm wine, in return for these things, and spices and drugs, concealed from the portuguese who prohibit them. this town produces much revenue to the king. its governor is a gentile; he is named damaqueti. he is very rich in money and jewels. the king of narsinga has given this place and others to a nephew of his, who rules and governs them, and lives in great state and calls himself king, but he is in obedience to the king his uncle. in this kingdom they make a great practice of duelling, for on account of anything they at once challenge one another, and the king at once grants them a field and arms, and appoints a time for killing each other, and gives them seconds, who back up each his own man. they go to fight one another bare from the waist upwards, and from the waist downwards wrapped in cotton cloths drawn tightly round, and with many folds, and with their arms, which are swords, bucklers and daggers.[ ] and the king appoints them of equal length. they enter the lists with great pleasure, first saying their prayers, and in a very few passes they kill each other in the presence of the king and many people, without any one speaking except the seconds, of whom each encourages his own man. this town of baticala pays a yearly tribute to the king of portugal; much copper is also sold in it each year, which is taken into the interior of the country to make money, and cauldrons and other pans which they use. there is also sold there much quicksilver, vermilion, coral, alum and ivory. this town is situated in level country, it is very populous, and not walled; it is surrounded with many gardens, very good estates, and very fresh and abundant water. there is in this place gold coin called pardan,[ ] and it is worth three hundred and twenty maravedis; and there is another silver coin called _dama_, worth twenty. the weights are called bahars, and each bahar is equal to four quintals of portugal.[ ] mayandur. having passed baticala, at ten leagues towards the south is another small river, on which there is a town called mayandur, under the jurisdiction of baticala, in which much rice is gathered of a good quality, which is shipped at baticala. the people of this town sow it principally in certain watery valleys, which they plough with oxen and with buffaloes, two and two, in couples, with their ploughs after our fashion, and they put the rice for seed in some hollow irons placed in the ploughshare, which entering the earth ploughing it and making a furrow, leave behind the seed in it, because otherwise they would not be able to sow it on account of the quantity of water; and on dry land they sow it by hand. they gather the harvest twice every year from this watery land, and it is of four sorts of rice. the first they call girazat, which is the best; the second jani bazal,[ ] the third camagar, and the fourth pachari: each one has its price, and there is a great difference between one and the other. bacavor bazalor. there are two small rivers ten leagues further along the coast to the south, and on both of them towns, one of which is called bacavor, and the other basalor;[ ] both belong to the kingdom of narsinga. in these also there is much rice of good quality, which is there shipped for all parts: and many ships come from malabar, and sambuks great and small, which take this rice on board in sacks of a fanega[ ] each, which is worth from one hundred and fifty to two hundred maravedis each fanega, according to its goodness. ships also put in here from ormuz, aden, xeher, and many other places, to take in cargo for canaor and calicut. they also ship there much rice in exchange for copper, cocoa nuts, jagra, oil of cocoa nuts, for the malabars maintain themselves with scarcely anything else but rice, since the country of malabar is small and very populous: so full of inhabitants, that it may almost be said that all the country is one single city from the mountain deli to coulam. mangalor. having left these places, at ten leagues distance there is another large river towards the south, along the sea-shore, where there is a very large town, peopled by moors and gentiles, of the kingdom of narsinga, called mangalor.[ ] there many ships always load brown rice, which is much better and more healthy than the white, for malabar, for the common people, and it is very cheap. they also ship there much rice in moorish ships for aden, also pepper, which henceforward the earth begins to produce, but little of it, and better than all the other which the malabars bring to this place in small vessels. the banks of this river are very pretty, and very full of woods and palm trees, and are very thickly inhabited by moors and gentiles, and studded with fine buildings and houses of prayer of the gentiles, which are very large, and enriched with large revenues. there are also many mosques, where they greatly honour mahomed. cunbala. ten leagues further along the same coast to the south, is another town of the gentiles, of the kingdom of narsinga, which is called cunbala. in it also much brown and very bad rice is harvested, which the malabars go to buy there, and load it in their vessels for the lowest people amongst them, and of the mahaldiu islands, which are across from malabar, because it is very cheap, and the people poor; and they sell it there in exchange for thread for making cordage for ships. this thread is made of a covering and integument which grows upon the cocoa nuts of the palm trees, and a great quantity of it is produced; and in that place it is a great article of commerce with all parts. this town of cunbala has a lord to rule and govern it for the kingdom of narsinga, and it is frontier to the kingdom of cananor: because here the kingdom of narsinga comes to an end along the coast of this province of tulinat. of the customs and greatness of this kingdom of narsinga in the interior of the country. leaving this sea coast, and going inland into the kingdom of narsinga, at twelve or fifteen leagues distance there is a very high mountain range, precipitous and difficult of ascent, which stretches from the beginning of this kingdom to cape comeri,[ ] which is beyond the malabar country; and the before-mentioned province of tulinat is at the foot of this range, between it and the sea. and the indians say that in former times all these low grounds were sea, which reached to the said range, and that in process of time the sea uncovered it, and swelled it up in other parts, and to the foot of those mountains. there are many traces of things of the sea, and all the low ground is very level like the sea, and the mountain chain is very craggy, and seems to rise to the heavens; and it is not possible to ascend, except in a few parts, and with difficulty, which is a cause of great strength to the malabars, for were it not for the difficulty of entering their country on account of the roughness of these mountains, the king of narsinga would already have conquered them. this range is peopled in several parts, with good towns and villages, very luxuriant in water and delicious fruit: and in it there are many wild boars, and large and fine deer, many leopards, ounces, lions, tigers, bears, and some animals of an ashy colour, which look like horses, very active, and which cannot be caught.[ ] there are serpents with wings, which fly, very venomous, so that their breath and looks kill whatever person places himself very near them, and they always go amongst the trees. there are also many wild elephants, and many stones of gegonzas,[ ] amethysts, and soft sapphires, are found in the rivers where they are deposited. they carry them from the mountains to sell them in the malabar towns, where they are wrought. after passing this mountain range, the country is almost entirely plain, very fertile and abundantly supplied in the inland districts, which belong to the kingdom of narsinga, in which there are many cities and villages and forts, and many large rivers run through it. there is in this country much cultivation of rice and other vegetables, with which they maintain themselves, and many cows, buffaloes, pigs, goats, sheep, asses, and diminutive ponies, all of which they make use of; and they carry their goods by means of buffaloes, oxen, asses, and ponies, and do their field work with them. almost all the villages are of gentiles, and among them are a few moors; some of the lords of these villages are of these last, to whom the king of narsinga has granted the villages, and others are his, and he keeps his governors and tax collectors in them. bijanaguer. forty-five leagues from these mountains inland, there is a very large city which is called bijanaguer, very populous and surrounded on one side by a very good wall, and on another by a river, and on the other by a mountain. this city is on level ground, the king of narsinga always resides in it. he is a gentile and is called raheni: he has in this place very large and handsome palaces, with numerous courts in which are many mounds, pools of water with plenty of fish, gardens of shrubs, flowers, and sweet-smelling herbs. there are also in the city many other palaces of great lords who live there. and all the other houses of the place are covered with thatch, and the streets and squares are very wide: they are constantly filled with an innumerable crowd of all nations and creeds; for, besides many moorish merchants and traders, and the gentile inhabitants of the country who are very rich, an infinite number of others flock there from all parts, who are able to come, dwell, trade, and live very freely and in security, without anyone molesting them, or asking or requiring of them any account of whence they come, or in what creed they live, whether they be moors, christians, or gentiles; and each one may live according to any creed, or as he pleases. there is an infinite trade in this city, and strict justice and truth are observed towards all by the governors of the country. in this city there are very many jewels which are brought from pegu and celani, and in the country itself many diamonds are found, because there is a mine of them in the kingdom of narsinga and another in the kingdom of dacani. there are also many pearls and seed-pearls to be found there, which are brought from ormus and cael; and all these jewels and pearls are much esteemed among them, because they adorn themselves much with them, and on that account a great quantity are poured in. in this city they wear many silks and inferior brocades, which are brought from china and alexandria, and much scarlet cloth, and of other colours, and much coral worked into round beads; and they import copper, quicksilver, vermilion, saffron, rose-water, much anfiani which is opium, sandal and aloes wood, camphor, musk, because the inhabitants of this country are much in the habit of anointing themselves with these perfumes. there is also a great consumption in this place, and in the whole kingdom, of pepper, which is brought from malabar on oxen and asses. the money is of gold, and is called parda, and is worth three hundred maravedis;[ ] it is coined in certain cities of this kingdom of narsinga, and throughout all india they use this money, which passes in all those kingdoms; its gold is a little inferior. this coin is round, and made in a mould. some of them have some indian letters on one side, and two figures on the other of a man and a woman, and others have nothing but the lettering on one side. customs of this kingdom of narsinga and of its inhabitants. this king constantly resides in the before-mentioned palaces, and very seldom goes out of them: he lives very luxuriously and without any labour, because he discharges it all upon his governors. he and all the dwellers in this city are gentiles, coloured men and nearly white, of long and very smooth black hair; they are well proportioned men, of features and ----[ ] similar to our own, and so likewise are the women. the costume of the men is from the waist downwards with many folds and very tight, and a short shirt which reaches half way down the thigh, made of white cotton stuff, silk, or brocade, open down the front, small caps on their heads, and the hair gathered up on the top, some caps of silk or brocade, and their sandals on their bare feet, cloaks of cotton stuff or silk on their arms, and their pages with their swords behind them, and their bodies anointed with white sandal, aloes-wood, camphor, musk, and saffron; all ground together with rose-water. they bathe every day, and after bathing, anoint themselves. they wear small gold chains and jewels round their necks, and bracelets on their arms, and rings on their fingers of very valuable jewels, and also many jewels in their ears of pearls and precious stones. and they take a second page who carries for them a slender canopy with a long handle with which to shade them and protect them from the rain. these shades are of silk stuff, much ornamented with gold fringes, and some of them have jewels and seed-pearls, and made in such a manner that they shut up and open; and some of these cost three or four hundred gold pieces, according to the quality of the persons. the women wear a cloth of very fine white cotton, or of silk of pretty colours, which may be about six cubits long; they gird themselves with part of this cloth from the waist below, and the other end of the cloth they cast over the shoulder and the breasts, and one arm and shoulder remain uncovered; on their feet sandals of gilt and well-worked leather; their heads bare, only their hair combed, and they put a plait of it over their heads, and in this many flowers and scents; and in the nostrils a small hole on one side, and in it a gold thread with a drop, either a pearl, or a ruby, or a sapphire drilled with a hole; their ears also are bored and in them they wear many gold rings with pearls and precious stones; and jewel necklaces round their throats, bracelets on their arms of the same fashion, and also strings of fine round coral on their arms, many rings with precious stones on their fingers; and girt over their clothes with belts of gold and jewels; and rings of gold on their legs; so that for the most part these are very rich and well-dressed people. they are great dancers; they sing and play on various instruments; they are taught to tumble and to perform many feats of agility. they are pretty women, and of a grand presence. these people marry in our manner; they have a marriage law, but the great men marry as many women as they can maintain, and the king has with him in his palaces many wives, daughters of the great lords of his kingdom; and, besides these, he has many others as concubines, and others as serving women who are chosen throughout the kingdom as the most beautiful. and all the attendance on the king is done by women, who wait upon him within doors; and amongst them are all the employments of the king's household: and all these women live and find room within these palaces, which contain apartments for all. they bathe every day in the pools of water, they sing and play on their instruments, and in a thousand ways amuse the king: and he goes to see them bathe, and from thence sends to his chamber the one that pleases him most; and the first son that he has from any of these, inherits the kingdom. amongst them there is so much envy and rivality for the preference of the king, that sometimes they kill themselves with poison. this king has a house in which he meets with the governors and his officers in council upon the affairs of the kingdom; and there all the great men of the realm go to see him with great gifts; and he dispenses great favours and likewise great punishments to those that deserve them. these great men, his relations and those of great lineage, when they do anything ill-done or prejudicial to his service, are summoned to him; and they have to come immediately: and they come in very rich litters on men's shoulders, and their horses are led by the bridle before them, and many horsemen go in front of them. they get down at the door of the palace and wait there with their trumpets and musical instruments, until word is brought to the king, and he commands them to come to his presence; and if they do not give a good excuse and account of themselves and of the evil of which they are accused, he commands them to be stripped and thrown on the ground, and there bids them to receive many stripes. if such a person were a near relation of the king's or a very great personage, the king himself scourges him with his own hand, and after he has been well beaten, the king orders very rich garments to be given him from his own clothes chests, and then directs him to be reconducted to his litter, and carried with great honour and great clang of musical instruments and festivity to his abode. many litters and many horsemen always stand at the door of this palace: and the king keeps at all times nine hundred elephants and more than twenty thousand horses, all which elephants and horses are bought with his money: the elephants, at the price of fifteen hundred to two thousand ducats each, because they are very great and well-fitted for war, and for taking about with him continually for state. and the horses cost from three to six hundred ducats each, and some of the choicest for his personal use, nine hundred or a thousand ducats. these horses are distributed amongst the great lords who are responsible for them, and keep them for the gentry and knights to whom the king bids them to be given: and he gives to each knight a horse and a groom and a slave girl, and for his personal expenses four or five pardaos of gold per month, according to who he is; and, besides that, each day's provisions for the horse and groom; and they send to the kitchen for the rations both for the elephants and horses. the kitchens are very large and numerous, they contain many cauldrons of copper, and several officials who cook the food of the elephants and horses; which, it must be said, is rice, chick-peas, and other vegetables. in all this there is much order and arrangement, and if the knight to whom the king has given a horse cares for it and treats it well, they take away that one and give him another and a better one; and if he is negligent, they take his away and give him another that is worse. and thus all the king's horses and elephants are well fed and cared for, at his cost: and the grandees, to whom he gives a great quantity of them, act in the same manner with their knights. these horses live but a short time; they are not bred in this country, for all of them are brought there from the kingdom of ormuz and that of cambay, and on that account, and for the great need of them, they are worth so much money. this king has more than a hundred thousand men, both horse and foot, to whom he gives pay: and fully five or six thousand women, to whom also he gives pay. and wherever there is war, according to the number of men-at-arms whom he sends there, he likewise sends with them a quantity of women; because they say that it is not possible to bring together an army, nor carry on war well, without women. these women are like enchantresses, and are great dancers; they play and sing, and pirouette. and whenever the king's officers take and enrol any man, they strip him and look what marks he has got on his body, and measure what his stature is, and set it all down in writing, and from whence he comes, and the names of his father and mother: and so he remains enrolled with all these particulars in the pay books. and after being enrolled, it is with difficulty that he can again obtain permission to go to his country; and if he flies and is taken, he runs great danger, and is very ill treated. among these men-at-arms there are many knights, who arrive there from many parts to take service, and these do not cease to live in their creeds. in this kingdom there are three sects of gentiles, and each one of them is distinguished from the others, and their customs are different. in the first place, the king and the grandees, and lords and chief people of the men-at-arms, can marry more than one wife, especially the grandees, who can maintain them: their children are their heirs. the wives are bound to burn themselves and to die with their husbands when they decease, because when the people die, their bodies are burned, both of men and women. and the wives burn themselves alive with them to honour them, in this manner: that is to say, if she is a poor woman of little rank, when the body of the husband is borne out to be burned in an open space outside the city, where there is a great fire, and whilst the body of the husband is being consumed, the wife casts herself, of her own will, into the fire, and burns there with him. and if she is some honourable woman, and of much property, and whether she be a young woman of beautiful presence, or old, when her husband dies, the relations all go to the before mentioned open space, and make a wide grave as deep as a man's height, and fill it with sandal and other wood, and place the dead body within and burn it; and his wife, or wives, weep for him, and then, should she desire to honour her husband, she asks for a term of a certain number of days to go and be burnt with him. and they bid all her relations, and those of her husband, come and do her honour, and give her a festal reception. and in this manner all collect together, and entertain and pay court to her, and she spends what she possesses among her relations and friends, in feasting and singing, in dances and playing on musical instruments, and amusements of jugglers. and when the term fixed has ended, she dresses herself in her richest stuffs, and adorns herself with many precious jewels, and the rest of her property she divides amongst her children, relations, and friends, and then mounts a horse, with a great sound of music, and a large following. the horse must be grey, or very white if possible, for her to be seen better. and so they conduct her through the whole city; paying court to her as far as the place where the body of her husband was burned; and in the same grave they place much wood, with which they light a very great fire, and all round it they make a gallery with three or four steps, whither she ascends with all her jewels and robes; and when she is upon the top she takes three turns round it, and raises her hands to heaven, and worships towards the east three times. and having ended this, she calls her relations and friends, and to each she gives a jewel of those which she wears: and all this with a very cheerful demeanour, not as though she were about to die. and after she has given them away, and there only remains a small cloth with which she is covered from the waist downwards, she says to the men, "see, gentlemen, how much you owe to your wives, who, whilst enjoying their freedom, burn themselves alive with their husbands." and to the women she says, "see, ladies, how much you owe to your husbands, for in this manner you ought to accompany them even in death." and when she has concluded uttering these words, they give her a pitcher full of oil, and she places it on her head and says her prayer, and takes three more turns and worships to the east, and casts the pitcher of oil into the pit where the fire is: and she springs into it, after the pitcher, with as much good will as though she were jumping into a pool of water. and the relations have ready for this occasion many pitchers and pots full of oil and butter, and dry wood, which they immediately throw in, so that so great a flame is at once kindled, that she is suddenly reduced to ashes. and afterwards they collect these ashes, and cast them into flowing rivers. all perform this in general, and if any women do not choose to do this, their relations take them, shave their heads, and turn them out of their houses and families with disgrace. and so they wander through the world as lost ones. and those of this sort to whom they may wish to show favour, are sent to the houses of prayer of the idols, to serve and gain for that temple with their bodies, if they are young women. and of these houses there are many, which contain fifty or a hundred women of this sort; and others, who of their own accord, being unmarried, place themselves there.[ ] these have to play and sing, for certain hours of the day, before their idols, and the rest of the time they work for themselves. so also when the king dies, four or five hundred women burn themselves with him in the same manner, and they throw themselves suddenly into the pit and fire where they burn the body of the king: for the pit and fire are very large, and a great quantity can be burned in it, with great abundance of wood, sandal, brasil, eagle wood, aloes wood, and much oil of sesame and butter to make the wood burn well. so great is the haste of those who wish to burn themselves first, that it is something wonderful, and many men, confidants of the king, burn themselves with him. these people eat meat, fish, and all other viands, only cow is forbidden them by their creed. there is another sect of gentiles who are called bramans, who are priests and directors of the houses of prayer. these do not eat meat or fish, they marry only one wife, and if she dies they do not marry again: their children inherit their property. they wear over the shoulder three threads as a sign of being bramans. these do not die for any cause, or crime which they may commit; they are very free and easy, and are very much venerated amongst the people. they enjoy amongst them large alms from the kings, lords, and honourable people, with which they maintain themselves; and many of them are rich, and others live in the houses of prayer which there are about the country, after the manner of monasteries. these temples also have great revenues. these people are great eaters, and do no work except in order to eat: and they at any time go eight leagues to satisfy themselves with food, which they can eat on the road. their food is rice, butter, sugar, vegetables, and milk. in this country there is another sect of people, who are like bramans: they wear round their necks hung with silk cords and wrapped in coloured cloth, a stone of the size of an egg, and they say that it is their god. these people are much venerated and honoured in this country; they do them no harm for any offence which they may commit, out of reverence for that stone, which they call tabaryne.[ ] neither do these people eat flesh nor fish; they go safely in all countries, and they transport from one kingdom to another much merchandise and money of the merchants, on account of their greater security from thieves. and there are some of them who deal in merchandise with their tani bar ine round their necks. these likewise marry only one woman, and if they die before their wives, they bury these alive in this manner.[ ] it must be said, that they make a grave for her a little deeper than she is tall, and put her in it standing, and while she is quite alive they throw in earth all around her, and press it down with their feet until she is walled in with earth much pressed down, which reaches to her neck, and then they put some large stones above her, and leave her there alive covered with earth until she dies; and on this occasion they perform great ceremonies for them. the women of this country are so enterprising and idolatrous, that they do marvellous things for the love of their idols, in this manner. there are amongst them young girls who desire to marry some man for whom they have a liking, and one of these will promise her idol to do it a great service if she should marry such a one whom she wishes for. and if she marries that one, she then says to him, i have to make a feast for such a god, and i have to offer my blood before i deliver myself to you. and so they appoint a day for celebrating that feast. and she takes a large waggon with oxen, and they fix it in a very high crane, such as those with which they draw water, and they fasten it to an iron chain with two iron hooks, and she comes out of her house with great honour, accompanied by all her relations and friends, men and women, with much singing and playing of instruments, and many dancers and jesters; and she comes wrapped very tightly round the waist with her white stuffs, covered from the waist to the knees, the rest bare, and at the door of her house, where the car stands, they lower the crane, and stick the two hooks into her in the loins between the skin and the flesh, and put into her left hand a small round shield, and a little bag with lemons and oranges. they then raise the crane with great shouting and sound of instruments, firing guns, and making other festal demonstrations: and in this manner the car begins its march on the way to the house of the idol to which the promise was made, and she goes suspended by those hooks fastened into her flesh, and the blood runs down her legs. and she continues to sing and shout for joy, and to strike upon the shield, and to throw oranges and lemons to her husband and to her relations, who go with her in this manner to the door of the said house of prayer, where they take her down, and cure her, and deliver her to her husband; and she gives at that place great alms to the bramans and offerings to the idols, and a great feast to as many as accompanied her. there are other persons also who offer the virginity of their daughters to an idol, and as soon as they are ten years of age they take her to a monastery and the house of prayer of that idol, with great honour, and accompanied by her relations, entertaining her like one that is going to be married. and outside of the monastery, at the door, there is a bench of hard black stone, square, of half a man's height, and surrounded with wooden steps, with many oil lamps placed on the steps, which are lit at night.[ ] * * * * * this king of narsinga is frequently at war with the king of dacani, who has taken from him much of his land; and also with another gentile king of the country of otira,[ ] which is the country in the interior. and he always sends his captains and troops to this war, and on some occasions, if of necessity, he goes to the war in person; and as soon as it is determined on, he goes out to the country, on a certain day, on an elephant or in a litter, very richly adorned with gold and jewels, accompanied by many knights and horse and foot-men: and many elephants go before him, all covered with scarlet cloth and silk, and much bedizened and dressed out as for a feast. and as they go through the fields they bring the king a horse, on which he rides, and a bow and an arrow, which he shoots towards the part where he intends to go and make war. and they name the day of his setting out, and this news immediately runs throughout all the kingdom. he then pitches his tents and camp in the country, and there remains until the appointed term of days is accomplished for his departure. when this is concluded he orders the city to be set on fire, and directs it all to be burned except the royal palaces, castles, houses of prayer, and those of some of the grandees which are not covered with thatch, in order that all may go to the war to die with him, and with his wives and children, whom he has with him in the wars. in order that these may not take to flight he directs large pay to be given to all: in the first place, to the enchanting single women, who are numerous, and who do not fight, but their lovers fight for love of them very vigorously. and it is also said that many men come from all the other kingdoms to this king's camp for the love of these women,[ ] amongst whom there are many very honourable ones, great confidantes of the king, who come of great houses, and are very rich. each one of them keeps seven or eight pretty waiting women, who are given to them by their mothers to bring them up, and put them in the court enrolled on the pay list. they hold this service in great honour, and it is but a short time since one of them died who had no son nor heir, and left the king for her heir; and he gathered from the inheritance sixty thousand gold pardaos, besides twelve thousand which he gave to a waiting woman of his, whom he had brought up from a girl: which is not to be wondered at for the great wealth of the kingdom. in this kingdom jewels are esteemed as treasure by the king and also by the rich, who buy them at large prices. the people of this kingdom are great hunters both of flying game and wild beasts. there are many small hacks, and very good ones to go. hotisa. having passed the said kingdom of narsynga inland, there is next another kingdom called hotisa,[ ] which confines with it on one side, and on another with the kingdom of bengal, and on the other with the kingdom of dely: and it is inhabited by gentiles. the king is also a gentile, very rich and powerful, who has many foot soldiers; he is frequently at war with the kingdom of narsinga, from which he has taken lands and villages; and the king of narsinga has taken others from him: so that they are rarely at peace. of the customs of these people i have little information, on account of their being placed so much in the interior of the country. it is only known that in that country there are very few moors, and that they are almost all gentiles and very good fighting men. kingdom of dely. having passed this kingdom of otisa, more inland there is another great kingdom, which is called dely, of many provinces, and of large and rich cities of great trade. this kingdom is of the moors, and has a moorish king, a great lord; and in former times this kingdom was of the gentiles, of whom there are still many who live amidst the moors, with much vexation. and many of them nobles and respectable people, not to be subject to the moors, go out of the kingdom and take the habit of poverty, wandering the world; and they never settle in any country until their death; nor will they possess any property, since they lost their lands and property, and for that go naked, barefooted, and bareheaded; they only cover their nakedness with coverings[ ] of brass, in this manner: it must be said, that they wear belts of moorish brass of pieces fitted together, of four fingers in breadth, carved with many images of men and women, sculptured and shining: and they wear it so tight that it makes their guts rise high up; and from the girdle below the hips there comes a bandage of the same brass, and in front it forms a sort of braguette, which comes and fastens in the girdle in front with its fastenings: all very tight. besides this, they carry very heavy chains round their necks, and waists, and legs; and they smear all their bodies and faces with ashes. and they carry a small brown horn at their necks, after the fashion of a trumpet, with which they call and beg for food at the door of any house where they arrive: chiefly at the houses of kings and great lords and at the temples; and they go many together, like the gipsies.[ ] they are accustomed to stop very few days in each country. these people are commonly called jogues, and in their own speech they are called zoame, which means servant of god. they are brown, very well made and proportioned, of handsome faces; they wear their hair without ever combing it, and made into many plaits, wound round the head. and i asked them many times why they went in this fashion. and they answered me, that they wore those chains upon their bodies as penance for the sin which they committed for allowing themselves to be captured by such bad people as the moors, and that they went naked as a sign of dishonour, because they had allowed their lands and houses to be lost, in which god brought them up; and that they did not want more property since they had lost their own, for which they ought to have died; and that they smeared themselves with ashes in order to remind themselves perpetually that they were born of earth and had to return again to the earth, and that all the rest[ ] was falsehood. and each one of them carries his little bag of these ashes with him; and all the gentiles of the country honour them greatly, and receive from them some of these ashes, and put it on their heads,[ ] shoulders, and breasts, making a few lines with it. and throughout all the country the gentiles are in the habit of doing this. and so also throughout all india among the gentiles, many of them turn jogues; but most of them are from the kingdom of dely. these jogues eat all meats and do not observe any idolatry, and they mingle with all kinds of people: neither do they wash like other gentiles, except when the wish to do so comes to them. in this kingdom of dely there are many very good horses, which are born and bred there. the people of the kingdom, both moors and gentiles, are very good fighting men and good knights, armed with many kinds of weapons; they are great bowmen, and very strong men; they have very good lances, swords, daggers, steel maces, and battle-axes, with which they fight; and they have some steel wheels, which they call chacarani, two fingers broad, sharp outside like knives, and without edge inside; and the surface of these[ ] is of the size of a small plate. and they carry seven or eight of these each, put on the left arm; and they take one and put it on the finger of the right hand, and make it spin round many times, and so they hurl it at their enemies, and if they hit anyone on the arm or leg or neck, it cuts through all. and with these they carry on much fighting, and are very dexterous with them. this king of dely confines with tatars, and has taken many lands from the king of cambay; and from the king of dacan, his servants and captains, with many of his people, took much, and afterwards in time they revolted and set themselves up as kings. in this kingdom of dely there are some trees, the root of which is called baxarague,[ ] and it is so poisonous that any one who eats it dies at once; and its fruit is called nirabixy,[ ] and it is of such virtue that it extinguishes all poison, and gives life to any one poisoned with the said root or with other poisons. these jogues, who come from the kingdom of dely, carry this root and fruit; some of them give it to some indian kings; and so likewise they carry with them sometimes rhinoceros' horn and pajar stone, which possess great virtue against all poisons. and this stone, pajar, is grey and soft, of the size of an almond; and they say that it is found in the head of an animal: it is greatly esteemed amongst the indians.[ ] country of malabar. having passed the province of tulynate, which is of the kingdom of narsinga, along the coast of the sea, which province begins from cinbola near the mountain dely, and ends at the cape of conmery, which is a distance of seventy leagues along the coast towards the south and south-east. and there begins the country of malabar, which was governed by a king who was called sernaperimal,[ ] who was a very great lord. and after that the moors of mekkah discovered india, and began to navigate near it, which was six hundred and ten years ago; they used to touch at this country of malabar on account of the pepper which is found there. and they began to load their ships with it in a city and seaport, coulom,[ ] where the king used frequently to be. and so for some years these moors continued their voyages to this country of malabar, and began to spread themselves through it, and became so intimate and friendly with the said king, that they made him turn moor, and he went away with them to die at the house of mekkah, and he died on the road. and before he set out from his country, he divided the whole of his kingdom of malabar amongst his relations; and it remained divided amongst them and their descendants as it now is. and when he distributed the lands, he abandoned those that he gave, never to return to them again; and at last, when he had given away all, and there did not remain anything more for him to give, except ten or twelve leagues of land all round the spot from which he embarked, which was an uninhabited beach, where now stands the city of calicut. and at that moment he was accompanied by more moors than gentiles, on account of having given to the latter almost all that he possessed, and he had with him only one young nephew, who waited on him as a page, to whom he gave that piece of land; and he told him to get it peopled, especially that very spot whence he embarked. and he gave him his sword and a chandelier, which he carried with him for state. and he left an injunction to the other lords, his relations to whom he had made grants of lands, that they should obey him, only leaving exempt the king of coulam and the king of cavanor:[ ] so that he instituted three kings in the country of malabar, and commanded that no one should coin money except the king of calicut. and so he embarked at the same place where the city of calicut was founded; and the moors held this time and place in much veneration, and would not after that go and load pepper any more in any other part since the said king embarked there after becoming a moor and going to die at mekkah. this city of calicut is very large, and ennobled by many very rich merchants and great traffic in goods. this king became greater and more powerful than all the others: he took the name of zomodri,[ ] which is a point of honour above all other kings. so that this great king of malabar did not leave more kings than these three: that is to say, the zomodry, who was named cunelava-dyri, and the king of culaon, who was named benate-diry, and the king of cananor, who was named coletry.[ ] and there are many other lords in the country of malabar, who wish to call themselves kings; and they are not so, because they are not able to coin money, nor cover houses with roofs under penalty of all the others rising up against whomsoever should do such a thing, or of having to destroy them. and these kings of culam and cananor afterwards struck money for a certain time in their countries without having the power of doing so. in all the country they use one language, which is called maleama, and all the kings are of one sect, and almost of the same customs. in these kingdoms of malabar there are eighteen sects of gentiles, each one of which is much distinguished from the others in so great a degree that the ones will not touch the others under pain of death or dishonour or loss of their property: and all of them have separate customs in their idol-worship, as will be set forth further on. customs of the said kingdoms and country of malabar. in the first place, the kings of malabar are, as has been said, gentiles, and honour their idols: they are brown, almost white, others are darker; they go naked from the waist upwards, and from the waist downwards are covered with white cotton wraps and some of them of silk. sometimes they clothe themselves with short jackets open in front, reaching halfway down the thigh, made of very fine cotton cloth, fine scarlet cloth, or of silk and brocade. they wear their hair tied upon the top of their heads, and sometimes long hoods like galician casques, and they are barefooted. they shave their beards and leave the moustaches[ ] very long, after the manner of the turks. their ears are bored, and they wear in them very precious jewels and pearls set in gold, and on their arms from the elbows upwards gold bracelets, with similar jewels and strings of very large pearls. at their wrists over their clothes they wear jewelled girdles three fingers in width, very well wrought and of great value. and on their breasts, shoulders, and foreheads, they make marks by threes with ashes, which they wear in accordance with the custom of their sect, saying that they do it to remind themselves that they have to turn to ashes: for when they die they burn their bodies, and so this ceremony continues among them. and many use it mixed with sandal wood, saffron, aloes wood, and rose water, all this ground up. when they are in their houses they always sit on high benches, and in houses without stories; these benches are very smooth, and are slightly smeared once every day with cow dung. and they keep there a stand very white and four fingers high, and a cloth of brown wool undyed, after the manner of a carpet of the size of a horsecloth[ ] folded in three folds; and upon this they sit, and they lean upon pillows, round and long, of cotton, silk, or fine cloth. and they also sit on carpets of cloth of gold and silk; but they always keep under them, or near them, that cloth of brown wool, on account of their sect, and for state. and frequently they happen to be lying on couches and cushions of silk and very fine white sheets, and when any one comes to see them, they bring him this brown woollen cloth and put it near him, and when he goes out, a page carries the cloth folded before him for state and ceremony. and likewise he always keeps a sword near him, and when he changes from one spot to another, he carries it in his hand naked, as they always keep it. these kings do not marry, nor have a marriage law, only each one has a mistress, a lady of great lineage and family, which is called nayre, and said to be very beautiful and graceful. each one keeps such a one with him near the palaces in a separate house, and gives her a certain sum each month, or each year, for expenses, and leaves her whenever she causes him discontent, and takes another. and many of them for honour's sake do not change them, nor make exchanges with them; and they seek much to please their king, for that honour and favour which they receive. and the children that are born from these mistresses are not held to be sons, nor do they inherit the kingdom, nor anything else of the king's; they only inherit the property of the mother. and whilst they are children, they are favoured by the king like children of other people whom he might be bringing up; but not like his own, because since they are men, the children are not accounted for more than as children of their mothers.[ ] the king sometimes makes grants of money to them, for them to maintain themselves better than the other nobles. the heirs of these kings are their brothers, or nephews, sons of their sisters, because they hold those to be their true successors, and because they know that they were born from the body of their sisters. these do not marry, nor have fixed husbands, and are very free and at liberty in doing what they please with themselves. in this wise the lineage of the kings of this country, and the true stock, is in the women: that is to say, if a woman[ ] gives birth to three or four sons and two or three daughters, the first is king, and so on, all the other brothers inherit from one another; and when all these have died, the son of the eldest sister, who is niece of the king, inherits, and so also his other heirs after him; and when these have deceased, the children of the next sister. and the kingdom always goes in this way to brothers, and nephews sons of sisters, and if by good or evil fortune these women happen not to give birth to male children, they do not consider them as capable of inheriting the kingdom; and these ladies, in such a case, all unite in council and institute some relation of theirs as king, if they have one, and if there is none, they name any other person for this office. and on this account the kings of malabar are old men when they succeed to reign, and the nieces or sisters from whom has to proceed the lineage of the kings are held in great honour, guarded and served, and they possess revenues for their maintenance. and when one of these is of age to bring forth, on arriving at from thirteen to fourteen years, they prepare to make festivity and entertainment for her, and to make her enceinte. and they summon some young man, a nobleman and honourable person, of whom there are many deputed for this. and they send to fetch him that he may come for this purpose. and he comes, and they give him a great entertainment, and perform some ceremonies, and he ties some gold jewel to the neck of the damsel, and she wears it all her life in sign of her having performed those ceremonies, in order to be able to do with herself whatever she chooses; because, until the performance of this ceremony, she could not dispose of herself. and the before mentioned youth remains with her for some days, very well attended to, and then returns to his land. and she sometimes remains in the family way, and sometimes not, and from this time forth for her pleasure she takes some braman, whomsoever she likes best, and these are priests among them, and of these she has as many as she likes. this king of calicut, and so also the other kings of malabar, when they die, are burned in the country with much sandal and aloes wood; and at the burning all the nephews and brothers and nearest relations collect together, and all the grandees of the realm, and confidantes of the king, and they lament for him and burn him. and before burning him they keep him there when dead for three days, waiting for the assembling of the above mentioned persons, that they may see him if he died of a natural death, or avenge his death if any one killed him, as they are obliged to do in case of a violent death. and they observe this ceremony very rigidly. after having burned him, all shave themselves from head to foot, excepting the eyelashes, from the prince, the heir to the throne, to the smallest child of the kingdom: that is, those who are gentiles, and they also clean their teeth, and universally leave off eating betel for thirteen days from that time; and if in this period they find any one who eats it, his lips are cut off by the executioner. during these thirteen days the prince does not rule, nor is he enthroned as king, in order to see if in this time any one will rise up to oppose him; and when this term is accomplished, all the grandees and former governors make him swear to maintain all the laws of the late king, and to pay the debts which he owed, and to labour to recover that which other former kings had lost. and he takes this oath, holding a drawn sword in his left hand, and his right hand placed upon a chain lit up with many oil wicks, in the midst of which is a gold ring, which he touches with his fingers, and there he swears to maintain everything with that sword. when he has taken the oath, they sprinkle rice over his head, with many ceremonies of prayer and adoration to the sun, and immediately after certain counts, whom they call caymal,[ ] along with all the others of the royal lineage, and the grandees, swear to him in the same manner to serve him, and to be loyal and true to him. during these thirteen days one of the caymals governs and rules the state like the king himself: he is like an accountant-general of the king, and of all the affairs of the kingdom. this office and dignity is his by right and inheritance. this person is also the chief treasurer of the kingdom, without whom the king cannot open or see the treasury; neither can the king take anything out of the treasury without a great necessity, and by the counsel of this person and several others. and all the laws and ordinances of the kingdom are in the keeping of this man. no one eats meat or fish in these thirteen days, nor may any one fish under pain of death. during that period large alms are given from the king's property, of food to many poor people, and to bramans; and when the thirteen days are ended, all eat what they please, except the new king, who observes the same abstinence for one year, neither does he shave his beard, nor cut a hair of his head nor of his body, nor his nails: and he says prayers for certain hours of the day, and does not eat more than once a day. and before he eats he has to wash himself, and after washing, he must not drink anything until he has eaten. this king is always in the city of calicut, in some very large palaces which he possesses outside of the city, and when the year of this mourning is accomplished, the prince who is to succeed him, and all those of the royal family and all the other grandees and nobles of the country, come to see him, and to perform a ceremony, which takes place at the end of the year, in honour of the death of his predecessor: at which great alms are given, and much money is spent in giving food to many bramans and poor people, and to all those who come to visit him, and to their retinues, so that more than a hundred thousand people are assembled there. and on this occasion he confirms the prince as the heir, and likewise the others as his successors step by step. and he confirms to all the lords their estates, and he confirms or changes as he sees fit the governors and officers who were under the former king. and he then dismisses them, and sends each to his duties, and he sends the prince to the estates which are assigned to him. and he must not re-enter calicut until the king dies; and all the other successors may go and come to the court, and reside with the king. when the before mentioned crown prince departs, after he has left calicut, and on passing the bridge of a river, he takes a bow in his hand and shoots an arrow towards the residence of the king, and then says a prayer with uplifted hands in the manner of prayer, and then goes on. this prince, when he comes to visit the king at the said feast and ceremony, brings all his nobles with him, and his instruments of music, which are kettle-drums,[ ] drums of many shapes, trumpets, horns, flutes, small brass plates,[ ] and lutes;[ ] these come making a great harmony, and the nobles in front, all drawn up in order, as they regulate processions here. that is to say, the bowmen in the van, next the lancers, after them the bearers of sword and buckler. and the king issues from the palaces and places himself at a great door, on foot, and there he stands looking at all these people who come up to him with great reverence, and do as though they worshipped him. all retire after a while, and so he remains for the space of two hours, until all have done, and the prince appears at a considerable distance[ ] with a drawn sword in his hand, which he brandishes as he advances, with his face raised up, and eyes fixed upon the king. and on seeing him, he worships him and throws himself with his face upon the ground, and with outstretched arms; and he lies thus for a short time, then gets up again, and goes forward very slowly brandishing his drawn sword in his hand, and with his eyes still fixed upon the king, and at half way he does the same thing again, and the king looks at him fixedly, without making any movement, and the prince gets up again, and so arrives where the king stands: and there he again throws himself on the ground in front of him. the king then goes forward two steps and takes him by the hand, and raises him up, and so they enter both together into the palaces. the king then sits on his dais, and the prince with all the other heirs, stand in front with their drawn swords in their right hands, and their left hands placed upon their mouths out of respect, withdrawn a little from the king's dais. they speak there to the king with much reverence, without speaking to one another, and if it is necessary for one to say anything to another, they speak so softly that no one hears them: so much so, that there are two thousand men before the king in the palace, and no one hears them; and they may not spit or cough before the king. this king of calicut keeps many clerks constantly in his palace, they are all in one room, separate and far from the king, sitting on benches, and there they write all the affairs of the king's revenue, and his alms, and the pay which is given to all, and the complaints which are presented to the king, and, at the same time, the accounts of the collectors of taxes. all this is on broad stiff leaves of the palm tree, without ink, with pens of iron: they make lines with their letters, engraven like ours. each of these clerks has great bundles of these leaves written on, and blank, and wherever they go they carry them under their arms and the iron pen in their hand: in this way they are known to all people as scribes of the palace. and among these there are seven or eight who are great confidants of the king, and the most honoured, and who always stand before him with their pens in their hand, and writings under their arm, ready for the king's orders to do anything, as he is in the habit of doing. these clerks always have several of these leaves subscribed[ ] by the king in blank, and when he commands them to despatch any business, they write it on those leaves. these accountants are persons of great credit, and most of them are old and respectable: and when they get up in the morning and want to write anything, the first time that they take the pen and the leaf in their hand, they cut a small piece off it with the knife which is at the end of the pen, and they write the names of their gods upon it and worship them towards the sun with uplifted hands; and having finished their prayer, they tear the writing and throw it away, and after that begin writing whatever they require. this king has a thousand waiting women, to whom he gives regular pay, and they are always at the court, to sweep the palaces and houses of the king: and this he does for state, because fifty would be enough to sweep. these women are of good family, they come into the palace to sweep and clean twice every day, and each one carries a broom and a brass dish with cow dung dissolved in water; and all that they sweep, after having swept it, they smear it with their right hand, giving a very thin coating, which dries immediately. and these women do not all serve, but take turns in the service; and when the king goes from one house to another, or to some temple, on foot, these women go before him with these dishes of the said cow dung, spilling it on the road by which he has to pass. and these thousand women give a great feast to the king when he newly comes to the throne, after he has finished his year of mourning and abstinence. it is fitting to know that all the thousand assemble together, both the old and the young ones, in the king's house, very much adorned with jewellery, gold belts, pearls, and many bracelets of gold, and many rings with precious stones, and ankle rings of gold on their legs, and dressed from the waist downwards with very rich silk stuffs, and others of very fine cotton, and from the waist upwards bare, and anointed with sandal and perfumes, and their hair wreathed with flowers, and rings of gold and precious stones in their ears, the feet bare, as they always are accustomed to be. and they have there all sorts of musical instruments, and many guns and other fireworks of various kinds. many nobles who accompany them come there very smart and gay, and are their admirers: and seven or eight elephants covered with silk housings and small bells in great quantity hanging to them, and large chains of iron suspended from their backs. and the ladies take an idol for their protector,[ ] and put it on the top of the biggest elephant, and a priest who carries it in his arms sits on the back of the elephant. so they set out in procession with their music and rejoicing, and much firing of guns, going along a very broad street to a house of prayer. there they lower the idol which is to be seen with another which is in that temple, and they perform to them great ceremonies, and many people assemble to see and adore those idols, and pay honour to their images. these thousand women have each got a brass dish full of rice, and on the top of the rice lamps full of oil, with many lighted wicks, and between the chandeliers are many flowers. and at nightfall they set out from the temple with their idol for the king's palace, where they have to place it; and all come in procession before the idol which is set upon the elephant, in bands of eight, with the before mentioned salvers, and many men accompany them with oil, with which they replenish the lamps. and the nobles, their admirers, go along with them, talking to them with much courtesy; and they remove the perspiration from the ladies' faces, and from time to time put into their mouths the betel, which both men and women are constantly eating; and they fan them with fans, because their hands are fully occupied with the salvers. and all the instruments are sounding, and there is a great firing of rockets, and they carry some burning shrubs, so that it is a very pretty sight. also at night some gentlemen go in front of the idol inflicting wounds with their swords upon their own heads and shoulders, and shouting like madmen, and foaming at the mouth like persons possessed: and they say that the gods enter into them and make them do this. many tumblers and buffoons also go along performing feats of agility, and the governors and chief men of the city go there to direct and arrange that procession, which is conducted with much order until it arrives at the king's palace, where it disperses. this king is for the most part sitting on his dais, and sometimes his confidential advisers are there, rubbing his arms and legs, or his body, and a page with a napkin round his neck full of betel, which he gives him to chew, and sometimes it is kept in a gilt and coloured casket edged with silver, and at times in a gold plate, and the page gives it to him leaf by leaf, smeared with a little lime of sea shells diluted with rose water, like a sauce, which he keeps in a small box[ ] of gold; and he also gives him areca, which is a small fruit, cut into pieces, and he chews it all together; and it colours his mouth, and what he spits is like blood. and another page holds in his hand a large gold cup, into which he spits the juice of that leaf which he does not swallow, and he washes his mouth from time to time, so that he is almost always munching these leaves. his manner of eating is that no one sees him eat: only four or five servants wait upon him. first of all, when he wishes to eat, he bathes in a pool of water which he has in his palaces, very clean and prettily kept; and there, when undressed, he performs his ceremonies and worships three times to the east, and walks three times round, and plunges three more times under the water, and after that dresses in clean clothes, each time fresh washed; and then he goes and sits in the place which he has appointed for eating, the ground having been swept, or on a very low, round stand. there they bring him a large silver tray, and upon it are many small silver saucers, all empty. and they are set before him on the ground upon another low stand: and the cook comes, who is a braman, and brings a copper pot with cooked rice, which is very dry and entire, and with a spoon they take it out, and make a pile of it in the middle of the said large tray; afterwards they bring many other pans with divers viands, and put portions of them into the small saucers. he then begins to eat with the right hand, taking handfuls of the rice without a spoon, and with the same hand he takes some of all the dishes and mixes it with the rice; and with his left hand he must not touch anything of what he eats; and they set near him a silver pitcher of water; and when he wants to drink, he takes it with the left hand, and raises it in the air, and pours the water into his mouth in a small jet; thus he drinks without the pitcher touching his mouth;[ ] and the viands which they give him, both of flesh and fish, or vegetables and herbs, are done with so much pepper, so that no one from our parts could endure them in his mouth. and he never cleans his right hand, nor uses a napkin or cloth for that, whilst eating, until he has done eating, when he washes his hand. and if, during his meals, there should be present with him any honourable bramans, in his confidence, he bids them eat there apart from himself on the ground; and they set before them leaves of the indian fig-tree, which are very large and stiff, a leaf for each man, and upon these they set food before them, the same as for the king; and he who is not going to eat there goes away, because no one else may be where the king eats; and when he has ended his meal, the king returns to his dais, and is almost always chewing betel. whenever the king goes out of the palace to amuse himself, or to pray to some idol, all his gentlemen are summoned who are in waiting, and also the minstrels, and they carry the king in a litter, which is borne by men, and is covered with silk stuffs and jewels. many jugglers and tumblers go before the king, with whom he amuses himself, and he stops frequently to look at them, and praises the one who performs best. and one braman carries a sword and shield, and another a long gold sword, and another a sword in his right hand, which the king of all malabar, who went to die at mekkah, left behind him; and in his left hand a weapon which is like a fleur-de-lis. and on each side go two men with two fans, very long and round, and two others with two fans made of white tails of animals, which are like horses, and which are much valued amongst them, set on gold spears; these men fan the king, and close to them is a page with a gold pitcher full of water, and on the left side another with a silver one; and a page with a napkin, for when the king wishes to clean his nose, or if he touch his eyes or mouth, they pour water and wash his fingers, and the other gives him the napkin to dry them; they also carry vases, in which the king spits the betel. his nephews, governors, and other lords go along with him, and all accompany him with their swords drawn and shields. and a great quantity of buffoons, musicians, tumblers, and musqueteers firing guns accompany the king; and if he goes by night, they carry four large chandeliers of iron full of oil with many lighted wicks. on the fashion of justice in the kingdom of malabar. in the said city of calicut there is a governor, whom they call talaxe, a gentleman appointed by the king,[ ] who has under him five thousand gentlemen, to whom he pays their salaries from the revenue, which is assigned for that purpose. this person administers justice in the city of calicut, and gives an account of everything to the king. and justice is administered according to the qualities of the persons, because there are divers sects and laws amongst them; that is to say, of gentlemen, chetres, guzurates, brabares, who are very honourable people; and thence downwards there are also divers sects of low and base people who are all serfs of the king, or of the other lords and governors of the country. and if any of these low people commits a robbery, concerning which a complaint has been made to the king or to the governor, they send to take the robber, and if they find the thing stolen in his hands, or if he confess that he did it, if he is a gentile, they take him to a place where they carry out executions, and there they set some high posts with sharp points and a small stand, through which passes one of those points; and there they cut off his head with a sword, and spit him through the back and the pit of the stomach, and that point comes out about a cubit, and on it they also spit his head. and they tie ropes to his legs and arms, and fasten them to four posts, so that the limbs are stretched out and the body on its back upon the stand. and if the malefactor is a moor, they take him to a field, and there kill him by stabbing him; and the stolen property is appropriated to the governor without its owner recovering anything; because their law so disposes, doing justice on the thief. and if the stolen property is found and the thief escapes, it is for a certain number of days in the charge of the governor; and if during that time they do not catch the thief, they return the stolen goods to its owner, a fourth part of it, however, remaining for the governor; and if the thief denies the robbery, they keep him eight days in prison, making his life uncomfortable, to see if he will confess, and throwing him his food; and when the eight days are passed without his confessing, they call the accuser, and he is told that the accused does not confess, and they ask him if he requires them to take his oath or let him go. if the accuser then requires the accused to swear, they make him wash and commend himself to his gods, and eat no betel, and cleanse his teeth from the blackness caused by the betel, in order that he may swear next day, and that he may prepare himself for it. next day they take him out of prison, and take him to a pool of water where he washes, performing his ceremony, and from there they take him to a house of prayer where his idols are kept, before which he takes his oath in this manner. it must be known that, if he is a gentile, they heat a copper-pot full of oil until it boils, and they throw in a few leaves of trees, and with the great heat of the pot the leaves fly out, and this is in order that the parties may see that the oil is hot and boiling; and then two scribes come near, and take the right hand of the accused and look if he has any wound of itch or other disease, and write down in what condition his hand is, in the presence of the party. then they bid him look at the idol, and say three times "i did not commit this theft of which i am accused, nor do i know who did it," and then put his two fingers up to the middle joints in the oil which is boiling upon the fire; and he does so; and they say that if he did not commit the theft, that he does not burn himself, and that if he did it, he burns his fingers. [and then the scribes, and governor and party, look at him again, and the scribes write down the condition in which his hand is, and they tie it up with a cloth whether it is burned or not, and put seals on the fastenings of the cloth, and send him back to prison. and three days later, all return to the same place where the oath was taken, and they untie his hand before the governor and party, and if they find it burned they kill him, but first give him so many torments that they make him confess where he has got the stolen property, or that he did it. and even if he does not confess, all the same he suffers the penalty because his hand was burned; and if they find his hand not burned, then they let him go, and he who accused him pays a certain sum as a fine to the governor. and they have the same method for him who kills another, or for him who kills a cow, or raises his hand in anger against bramans or noblemen. and this is to be understood as amongst the gentile peasants and low people. and if it is a moor who does such things, he passes through the same examinations, only that instead of putting his fingers in oil, they make him lick with his tongue a red-hot axe, and if he does not burn himself he remains free, and if he burns his tongue he suffers death. and if any of the common people, whether gentiles or moors, commit other offences for which they do not deserve death, they punish them with a pecuniary penalty for the governor, and this produces much revenue to him; and he lays hold of vagabonds as slaves, and he has the power of selling them, and sells them without any opposition whatever, at a price of from four to five ducats. the nobles enjoy exemption and the privilege, that they cannot be taken and put in irons for anything which they do. and if a noble were to rob or kill any one, or kill a cow, or were to sleep with a woman of low caste, or of the bramans, or if he eat or drank in the house of a low caste man, or spoke ill of his king--this being established by his own words--they call three or four honourable gentlemen in whom the king places confidence, and he bids them go and kill this noble wherever they may meet with him, and they give them a warrant[ ] signed by the king for them to kill him without penalty. they then kill him with daggers or spears, or shoot him with arrows, because at times these men who are accused are such that before being put to death, they wound two or three of the slaughterers, if they have been forewarned. and after he is dead they lay him on his back and place that king's warrant upon his breast. and if they kill him in the country they leave him there, and no one comes near him, so that the fowls and dogs devour him. and if they kill him in the city, the people of the street where he lies dead go and beg the king to order his removal; and the king gives the orders, sometimes as a favour, sometimes with a fine.[ ]] and if any noble comes to the king or to the governor, and complains to him of any other noble who has robbed or murdered or done any other evil deed, the governor reports it to the king, and the king gives orders to summon the accused, and if he absents himself they hold him guilty, and he is ordered to be executed in the same manner without further investigation. and if he presents himself, they summon the accuser, and examine both of them together. and the accuser takes a small branch of a tree or green herbs in his hand, and says, such a one did such a thing; the other one takes another branch, and denies it. the king then bids them return eight days thenceforward to the house of the governor to take oath and prove that which each one asserts; and so they depart, and return on the day fixed to the house of the governor, where the accused swears in the manner already described with boiling butter, and having concluded taking the oath, they tie up his fingers as has been said, and both of them are detained in a house under a guard, so that neither of them can run away. and on the third day they untie his fingers, and clear up the truth, and if they find the fingers burned, they kill the accused; and not finding them injured, they kill the accuser. and if the accused is not of as great value, they do not kill the accuser, on whom in such case they inflict a pecuniary penalty and that of banishment. and if such a noble was accused of a great robbery of the king's property, they have him imprisoned in a close room and well guarded, and conduct him thence to take the oath. in this kingdom of calicut there is another governor, who is like the chief justice of all the kingdom, with the exception of the city of calicut. this chief justice is called coytoro tical carnaver; he has his lieutenants in all the villages, to whom he farms the administration of justice: that is to say, the fines, not capital penalties. and people come to this chief justice for any injury, and he gives an account of it and reports to the king, and renders justice in the manner followed at calicut. in this kingdom of calicut no women ever die by sentence of law for any offence whatever; they are only subject to pecuniary penalties. and if any woman of nayr family should offend against the law of her sect, and the king know of it before her relations and brothers, he commands her to be taken and sold out of the kingdom to moors or christians. and if her male relations or sons know of it first, they shut her up and kill her with dagger or spear wounds, saying that if they did not do so they would remain greatly dishonoured. and the king holds this to be well done. section of the bramans and their customs. the gentile bramans are priests all of one lineage, and others cannot be priests, but only their own sons. and when these are seven years old, they put round their necks a strap two fingers in width of an animal which they call cressua-mergan,[ ] with its hair, which is like a wild ass; and they command him not to eat betel for seven years, and all this time he wears that strap round the neck, passing under the arm, and when he reaches fourteen years of age they make him a braman, removing from him the leather strap round his neck, and putting on another of three threads, which he wears all his life as a mark of being a braman. and they do this with much ceremony and festivity, just as here at the first mass,[ ] and from this time forward he may eat betel. they do not eat flesh nor fish, they are much reverenced and honoured by the indians, and they are not executed for any offence which they may commit: but their chief, who is like a bishop, chastises them in moderation. they marry only once, and only the eldest brother has to be married, and of him is made a head of the family like a sole heir by entail,[ ] and all the others remain bachelors, and never marry. the eldest is the heir of all the property. these bramans, the elder brothers, keep their wives very well guarded, and in great esteem, and no other man can approach them; and if any of the married ones die, the person who becomes widowed does not marry again. and if the wife commits adultery, the husband kills her with poison. these young men who do not marry, nor can marry, sleep with the wives of the nobles, and these women hold it as a great honour because they are bramans, and no woman refuses them. and they must not sleep with any woman older than themselves. and these live in their houses and estates, and they have great houses of prayer, in which they do service as abbots, and whither they go to recite their prayers at fixed times of the day, and worship their idols and perform their ceremonies. and these temples have their principal doors to the west, and each temple has three doors, and in front of the principal gate, outside of it, is a stone of the height of a man, with three steps all round it, and in front of that stone inside the church is a small chapel, very dark, inside of which they keep their idol, of gold, silver, or metal, and three lamps burning. and no one may enter there except the minister of that church, who goes in to set before the idol flowers and scented herbs, and they anoint it with sandal and rose water, and take it out once in the morning, and another time in the evening with sound of trumpets and drums, and horns. and he who takes it out first washes thoroughly, and carries it on his head with the face looking backwards, and they walk with it three times in procession round the church, and certain wives of the bramans carry lighted lamps in front, and each time that they reach the principal door, they set the idol on that stone and there worship it, and perform certain ceremonies; and having ended the three turns with music and rejoicing, they again place it in the chapel, and each day they do this twice, by day and at night. and around this church there is a stone wall, between which and the church they walk in the before mentioned procession, and they carry over the idol a very lofty canopy upon a very long bamboo for state as for kings. they place all the offerings upon the stone before the principal gate of the temple, and twice a day it is washed, and they set cooked rice upon it to feed the crows twice a day with great ceremony. these bramans greatly honour the number trine: they hold that there is a god in three persons, and who is not more than one. all their prayers and ceremonies are in honour of the trinity, and they, so to say, figure it in their rites, and the name by which they call it is this, berma besnu maycereni, who are three persons and one sole god,[ ] thus they confess him to be from the beginning of the world. they have no knowledge or information of the coming of jesus christ. they believe many more vain things, which they speak of. these people each time that they wash put some ashes upon their heads, foreheads and breasts, in token that they have to turn again into ashes; and when they die they have their bodies burned. when the wife of a braman is in the family way, as soon as the husband knows it he cleans his teeth, and eats no more betel nor trims his beard, and fasts until his wife gives birth to her child. the kings make great use of these bramans for many things, except in deeds of arms. only bramans can cook the king's food, or else men of the king's own family, and so all the king's relations have this same custom of having their food cooked by bramans. these are the messengers who go on the road from one kingdom to another, with letters and money and merchandise, because they pass in safety in all parts, without any one molesting them, even though the kings may be at war. these bramans are well read in the law of their idolatry, and possess many books, and are learned and masters of many arts: and so the kings honour them as such. section of the nairs of malabar, who are the gentry, and their customs. in these kingdoms of malabar there is another sect of people called nairs, who are the gentry, and have no other duty than to carry on war, and they continually carry their arms with them, which are swords, bows, arrows, bucklers, and lances. they all live with the kings, and some of them with other lords, relations of the king, and lords of the country, and with the salaried governors; and with one another. and no one can be a nair if he is not of good lineage. they are very smart men, and much taken up with their nobility. they do not associate with any peasant, and neither eat nor drink except in the houses of other nairs. these people accompany their lords day and night; little is given them for eating and sleeping, and for serving and doing their duty; and frequently they sleep upon a bare bench to wait for the person whom they serve, and sometimes they do not eat more than once a day; and they have small expenses for they have little pay. many of them content themselves with about two hundred maravedis[ ] each month for themselves and the servant that attends to them. these are not married nor maintain women or children; their nephews the sons of their sisters are their heirs. the nair women are all accustomed to do with themselves what they please with bramans or nairs, but not with other people of lower class under pain of death. after they are ten or twelve years old or more, their mothers perform a marriage ceremony for them in this manner. they advise the relations and friends that they may come to do honour to their daughters, and they beg some of their relations and friends to marry these daughters, and they do so. it must be said they have a small gold jewel made, which will contain half a ducat of gold, a little shorter than the tag of a lace, with a hole in the middle passing through it, and they string it on a thread of white silk; and the mother of the girl stands with her daughter very much dressed out, entertaining her with music and singing, and a number of people. and this relation or friend of hers comes with much earnestness, and there performs the ceremony of marriage, as though he married with her, and they throw a gold chain round the necks of both of them together, and he puts the above mentioned jewel round her neck, which she always has to wear as a sign that she may now do what she pleases.[ ] and the bridegroom leaves her, and goes away without touching her nor having more to say to her, on account of being her relation; and if he is not so, he may remain with her if he wish it, but he is not bound to do so if he do not desire it. and from that time forward the mother goes begging some young men, "que le desvirguen aquella hija, porque lo an entre sy por cosa sucia y casi vileza a desvirgar mugeres." and after she is already a woman the mother goes about seeking who will take her daughter to live with him. but when she is very pretty three or four nairs join together and agree to maintain her, and to live all of them with her; and the more she has the more highly is she esteemed, and each man has his appointed day from midday till next day at the same hour, when the other comes; and so she passes her life without anyone thinking ill of it. and he who wishes to leave her, does so whenever he pleases, and goes to take another. and if she takes a dislike to any of them she dismisses him. the children which she has remain at the expense of the mother and of the brothers of the mother, who bring them up, because they do not know the fathers, and even if they should appear to belong to any persons in particular, they are not recognised by them as sons, nor do they give anything for them. and it is said that the kings made this law in order that the nairs should not be covetous, and should not abandon the king's service.[ ] these nairs, besides being all of noble descent, have to be armed as knights by the hand of the king, or lord with whom they live, and until they have been so equipped they cannot bear arms nor call themselves nairs, but they enjoy the freedom and exemption and advantages of the nairs in many things. in general when these nairs are seven years of age they are immediately sent to school to learn all manner of feats of agility and gymnastics for the use of their weapons. first they learn to dance, and then to tumble, and for that purpose they render supple all their limbs from their childhood, so that they can bend them in any direction. and after they have exercised in this, they teach them to manage the weapons which suit each one most. that is to say bows, clubs, or lances; and most of them are taught to use the sword and buckler, which is of more common use among them. in this fencing there is much agility and science. and there are very skilful men who teach this art, and they are called panicars;[ ] these are captains in war. these nairs when they enlist to live with the king, bind themselves and promise to die for him; and they do likewise with any other lord from whom they receive pay. this law is observed by some and not by others; but their obligation constrains them to die at the hands of anyone who should kill the king or their lord: and some of them so observe it; so that if in any battle their lord should be killed, they go and put themselves in the midst of the enemies who killed him, even should those be numerous, and he alone by himself dies there: but before falling he does what he can against them; and after that one is dead another goes to take his place, and then another: so that sometimes ten or twelve nayrs die for their lord. and even if they were not present with him when he was killed, they go and seek him who killed him, or the king who ordered him to be killed: and so one by one they all die. and if anyone is in apprehension of another man, he takes some of these nairs, as many as he pleases, into his pay; and they accompany and guard him; and on their account he goes securely, since no one dares to molest him; because if he were molested they and all their lineage would take vengeance on him who should cause this molestation. these guards are called janguada:[ ] and there are some people who sometimes take so many of these nairs, and of such quality, that on their account they no longer fear the king, who would not venture to command the execution of a man who was guarded by these, in order not to expose many nairs to danger for it. and even if the nairs were not in his company when the man they guard was killed, they would not any the less revenge his death. these nayrs live outside the towns, separate from other people, on their estates which are fenced in. they have there all that they require; they do not drink wine. when they go anywhere they shout to the peasants that they may get out of the way where they have to pass; and the peasants do so, and if they did not do it the nayrs might kill them without penalty. if a young man of family who is very poor meets a rich and respectable peasant, one favoured by the king, he makes him get out of the road in the same manner, as if he were a king. these nayrs have great privileges in this matter, and the nayr women even greater with the peasants, and the nairs with the peasant women. this, they say, is done to avoid all opportunity of mixing their blood with that of peasants. and if a peasant were by misfortune to touch a nayr lady, her relations would immediately kill her and likewise the man that touched her, and all his relations. when these nayrs order any work to be done by the peasants, or buy anything of them which they take, being between man and man, they are not exposed to any other penalty on touching one another than the not being able to enter their houses without first washing themselves and changing their clothes for others that are clean. and likewise as regards the nair women and the peasant women: these practices are more observed in the country. no nair woman ever enters the towns under pain of death except once a year, when they may go for one night with their nayrs wherever they like. on that night more than twenty thousand nair women enter calicut to see the town, which is full of lamps in all the streets, which the inhabitants set there to do honour to the nairs, and all the streets are hung with cloth. and the nair women come in to see the houses of their friends and of their husbands, and there they receive presents and entertainment, and are invited to eat betel: and it is held to be a great politeness to receive it from friends. some of them come wrapped up,[ ] and others uncovered; and the women relations of the kings and great lords come also to see the city on this night, and to walk about it, looking at the property of the great merchants, from whom they receive presents, in order that they may favour them with the king. those nayrs whom the king has received as his, he never dismisses however old they may be; on the contrary, they always receive their pay and rations, and he grants favours to whoever has served well. and if some years should pass without their being paid, some four or five hundred of the aggrieved rise up, and go in a body to the palace, and send word to the king that they are going away dismissed, to take service with another king, because he does not give them food. then the king sends to beg them to have patience, and that he will send and pay them immediately. and if he does not immediately give them a third part of what is due, and an order for the payment of the rest, they go away to another king, wherever it appears to them that they can best suit themselves; and they engage with him, and he receives them willingly, and gives them food for thirteen days before he has them enrolled for pay. and during this time this king sends to inquire of their king if he intends to send and pay them; and if he does not pay them, then he receives them in his pay, and gives them the same allowances which they had in their own country, from which and from their king in such a case they remain disnaturalized. and many undertake, but few perform this, because their king grants them a remedy, and holds it to be a great disgrace should they go away. when these nayrs go to the wars their pay is served out to them every day as long as the war lasts; it is four taras per day each man, which are worth five maravedis each,[ ] with which they provide for themselves. and during the time that they are at war, they may touch any peasant, and eat and drink with them in their houses, without any penalty. and the king is obliged to maintain the mother and family of any nayr who may die in the war, and those persons are at once written down for their maintenance. and if these nayrs are wounded, the king has them cured at his expense, besides their pay, and has food given them all their lives, or until they are cured of their wounds. these nayrs show much respect to their mothers,[ ] and support them with what they gain, because besides their allowances, most of them possess houses and palm trees and estates, and some houses let to peasants, which have been granted by the king to them or to their uncles, and which remain their property. they also have much respect for their elder sisters, whom they treat as mothers. and they do not enter into a room with those that are young girls, nor touch them nor speak to them, saying that it would give occasion to sin with them, because they are younger and have less understanding, which could not happen with the elder ones, on account of the respect they have for them. these nair women every month set themselves apart in their houses for three days without approaching anyone; at which time a woman has to prepare her food in separate pots and pans. and when the three days are ended, she bathes with hot water which is brought there, and after bathing dresses in clean clothes, and so goes out of the house to a pool of water and bathes again, and again leaves those clean clothes, and takes other fresh ones, and so returns home, and talks with her mother and sisters and the other people. and the room where she was for those three days is well swept and wetted, and plastered with cow dung, because otherwise no one would dwell there. these women when they are confined, three days afterwards are washed with hot water, and after getting up from their confinement they bathe many times each day from head to foot. they do no business, eat the bread of idleness, and only get their food to eat by means of their bodies: because besides each one having three or four men who provide for them, they do not refuse themselves to any braman or nayr who pays them. they are very clean and well dressed women, and they hold it in great honour to know how to please men. they have a belief amongst them that the woman who dies a virgin does not go to paradise.[ ] section of the brabares who are merchants of the kingdom of malabar, of their customs and sect. in this kingdom of calicut, and in all the other malabar kingdoms, there is a sect of gentile merchants who are called amongst them brabares, who trafficked also before foreign persons came to port or navigated in these seas. these still deal, especially in the interior, in all sorts of goods, and collect all the pepper and ginger from the nayrs and cultivators, and frequently buy them in advance in exchange for cotton stuffs, and other goods which come from beyond the sea. these people are also great changers, and gain much upon coin. they enjoy such freedom in this country that the kings cannot sentence them to death, but the chief men of these brabares assemble together in council, and having arrived at the knowledge that the offender deserves death, they kill him, the king having information thereof: and if the king knows first of the offence before them, he informs them of it, and they kill him with dagger or lance thrusts. for the most part they are very rich people, and possess in the country many estates inherited from old times. they marry only one wife in our fashion, and their sons are their immediate heirs; and when they die their bodies are burned, and their wives accompany the body weeping for him: and she takes from her neck a small gold jewel which he gave her when he married her, and she throws it into the fire upon him, and then returns to her house, and never more can be married, however young she may be. and if she were to die before her husband he has her burned, and may marry again. these people are of as pure lineage as the nairs, men and women, and they may touch one another. section of the cujaven, who are potters and workers of clay. there is another sect of people among the indians of malabar, which is called cujaven, and which is only separated from the nayrs on account of a fault which they committed.[ ] for this reason they remained as a separate sect. their business is to work at baked clay, and tiles for covering houses, with which the temples and royal buildings are roofed; and by law no other persons may roof their houses except with palm branches. their idolatry and their idols are different from those of the others; and in their houses of prayer they perform a thousand acts of witchcraft and necromancy; they call their temples pagodes, and they are separate from the others. their descendants cannot take any other sect nor any other occupation. in their marriages they follow the law of the nayrs. the nayrs may cohabit with their women, provided that they do not re-enter their houses without washing themselves from that sin, and putting on a change of clean garments. section of the washermen. in this country there is another sect of gentiles whom they call manatamar,[ ] and their business is only to wash the clothes of the bramans, kings, and nayrs; and they live by this business, and they cannot adopt other employments, nor can their descendants. the men are those that wash, and they wash in their houses in large tanks and reservoirs which they have got for this purpose. they have constantly in their houses such a large quantity of clothes to wash, both of their own and of strangers, that they hire out many of them day by day to the nayrs who have not got their own, and they pay so much a day for them when clean; and so each day they return them the dirty ones, and fetch away clean clothes. and the clothes have to be suitable to each person. they wash for a great many people for money, so that they serve all with cleanliness, and they all gain their livelihoods very sufficiently. their lineage does not mix with any other, neither can any other with theirs; only the nayrs can have mistresses from amongst the women of this lineage, with the condition that each time that they approach them, they have to bathe themselves and change their garments before entering their houses. these washermen have got idolatries of their own, and their houses of prayer are separate, and they believe in many extravagant things. they marry like the nairs, their brothers and nephews inherit their property, and they do not recognise their sons. section of the weavers of the malabar country. there is another set of gentiles, still lower, whom they call chalien, who are weavers and have no other business except to weave cloths of cotton, and some of silk, which are of little value, and are used by the common people. and these also have a sect and form of idolatry apart. their lineage does not mix with any others; only the nairs may have mistresses amongst the women of these people, so that they do not enter their houses without bathing and changing their clothes, whenever they have visited them. many of these are sons of nairs, and so they are very fine men in their figures; and they bear arms like the nayrs and go to the wars, and fight very well. in marriages they have the law of the nairs, and their sons do not inherit. their wives have the power of doing what they please with themselves with the nairs, or with other weavers: and they cannot mix with any other lineage under pain of death.[ ] section of low people: zivil tiver. of low people zevil tiver,[ ] there are eleven sects, which no respectable people touch under pain of death: and between each other there is a great difference and separation, and one family does not mix with another. the best of these are labourers, whom they call tiver. their principal employment is to till the palm trees, and gather their fruits; and to carry everything for hire from one point to another, because they are not in the habit of transporting them with beasts of burden, as there are none: and they hew stone, and gain their livelihood by all kinds of labour. some of them learn the use of arms, and fight in the wars when it is necessary. they all carry a staff in their hand of a fathom's length as a sign of their lineage. most of them are serfs of the nayrs, to whom the king of the country gives them, in order that their masters may be supported by their labour, and these protect and shew favour to these slaves. these people have an idolatry of their own, and believe in their idols. their nephews are their heirs, and their sons do not inherit, because the wives whom they marry get their livelihood with their bodies, and give themselves to the moors, natives of the country, and also to foreigners of all kinds; and this very publicly, and with the knowledge of their husbands who give them opportunities for so doing. they make wines in the country, and they alone can sell it. they take much care not to touch other people lower than themselves; and live separate from other people. of this sect sometimes two brothers have one wife only and both of them live with her. moguer. i find another sect of people still lower, moguer, which they call moguer,[ ] who are almost like the tivers, but they do not touch one another. these are the people who transport the king's property from one place to another when he moves. there are very few of these in the country, they have a sect of their own, and have no law of marriage; their wives are public for all, and for strangers. these people for the most part get their living at sea, they are mariners and fishermen. they have a separate idolatry: they are slaves of the kings and nayrs and bramans. there are some of them very rich men who have got ships with which they navigate, for they gain much money with the moors. their nephews are their heirs, and not their sons, because they do not marry. they take care not to touch other people lower than themselves. these people live in separate villages: their women are very pretty, and whiter than others of this country, because they are for the most part daughters of foreigners who are white: they are very smartly dressed and adorned with gold. canion. there is another lower set of gentiles called canion. their business is to make shields and shades[ ]: they learn letters and astronomy, and some of them are great astrologers, and they foretell many future things, and form very accurate judgments upon the births of men. kings and great persons send to call them, and come out of their palaces to the gardens and pleasure grounds to see them and ask them what they desire to know: and these people form judgments upon these things in a few days, and return to those that asked of them, but they may not enter the palaces, nor may they approach the king's person on account of being low people. and the king is then alone with them. they are great diviners, and pay great attention to times and places of good and bad luck, which they cause to be observed by these kings and great men, and by the merchants also: and they take care to do their business at the times which these astrologers advise them, and they do the same in their voyages and marriages. and by this means these men gain a great deal. they reckon the months, seasons, signs and planets as we do, except that they have months of twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two days: and their first month of the year is april. from may till the middle of october they have their winter, and during this time it rains much in that country, and there are frequent storms, without any cold: and from the middle of october till the end of april is the summer, of great heat and little wind. and on the coast there are many land breezes, and frequent changes in the sea breezes. they navigate their ships in the summer, and in the winter they draw them up on shore, and cover them up on account of the heavy falls of rain. ajare. another lower lineage amongst these gentiles is called ajare. their business is that of quarry men and carpenters, and others are blacksmiths, carvers of metals, and silversmiths. these are all of a sect different from the idolatry of the other people. these people marry and their sons inherit their property and employments which they teach them from their childhood. they are slaves of the king and the nairs, and very skilful in their business. mucoa. there is another lower sect of gentiles called mucoa, who are fishermen and mariners, without other business. they sail in ships of moors and gentiles, and are quite at home on the sea: they also live in separate villages. they are great thieves, and shameless: they marry and their children inherit, and their wives sleep with whom they like without their thinking ill of it. they have a separate sect and form of idolatry, and are also slaves of the king and the nayrs of the country. they do not pay any duty on the fresh fish which they sell, and if they dry it they pay four per cent. duty: and the fresh fish is very cheap. this is the chief food in use amongst the indians, for they are people who eat very little meat on account of the country being very populous[ ] and of few flocks. there are some of these fishermen who are very rich and well supplied, they have large houses and property. the king takes them when he pleases, and puts much pressure on them because they are slaves. betua. there is another lower sect of gentiles called betua. their business is to make salt, to plough and sow rice, and they do not live by anything else: they have houses in the country apart from the roads where respectable people pass. these people have a form of idolatry of their own: they also are slaves of the king and of the nayrs. they live very miserably: the nayrs make them keep far aloof from them, and speak to them from a great distance: they have no intercourse with other people. they are married and their children inherit. paneu. there is another sect even lower of these people, called paneu,[ ] who are great practisers of witchcraft, and they do not gain their living by anything else than charms. they visibly speak with devils who put themselves within them, and make them do awful things. when any king falls ill of fevers or any other illness, he immediately sends to call these men and women; of whom the most accomplished charmers come with their wives and children. twenty-two families establish their dwellings at the gate of the palace of the king, or house of the person who is suffering, and has sent to call them: and there they set up a tent of coloured cloth in which they all place themselves. and there they paint their bodies with colours, and make crowns of painted paper and cloth, and other inventions of many sorts, with plenty of flowers and herbs, and great bonfires, and lighted lamps, and kettle-drums, trumpets, horns, and lutes, which they sound; and in this manner they come out of the tent two and two, with their swords in their hands, shouting and jumping, and running about the place or the court of the palace, and they jump upon one another's backs, and go on this way for some time, sticking one another with knives, and pushing one another naked and barefooted into the fire, until they are tired; and so they come out both men and boys two and two together to do the same thing again: and the women shout and sing with a great noise. and they go on this way for two or three days, night and day, always performing together, and they make rings of earth, and lines of red ochre and white clay, and spread upon them rice and flowers of various colours, and put lights all round, and go on this way until the devil, for whose service they do all this, enters into one of them, and makes him say what the king is suffering from, and what must be done to cure him. and then they tell it to the king, and he remains satisfied and gives them many presents, and does what they tell him, either as to making offerings to their idols, or any other matter which they enjoin him to do. and so he gets well by the work of the devil, to whom they all belong. these also live separated from intercourse with the nayrs and respectable people, and do not touch any other sect. they are great hunters and archers: they kill many boars and stags upon which they maintain themselves. they are married and their children inherit. renoleni. there is another sect of people still lower, who are called renoleni,[ ] who live in the mountains very poorly and miserably. and they have no other occupation than bringing wood and grass to the city for sale, to support themselves. and these people have no intercourse with any others, nor others with them, under pain of death; and they go naked, covering only their middles, many of them do so with only leaves of trees, and some with small and very dirty cloths. they marry and their children are their heirs. the women wear much brass on their ears, necks, arms, and legs, in bracelets, rings, and beads. puler. there is another lower sect of gentiles called puler.[ ] these are held as excommunicated and accursed; they live in swampy fields and places where respectable people cannot go: they have very small and abject huts, and plough and sow the fields with rice, they use buffaloes and oxen. they do not speak to the nairs, except from a long way off, as far as they can be heard speaking with a loud voice. when they go along the road they shout, so that whoever comes may speak to them, and that they may withdraw from the roads, and put themselves on the mountains. and whatever woman or man should touch these, their relations immediately kill them like a contaminated thing: and they kill so many of these pulers until they are weary of it, without any penalty. these low people during certain months of the year try as hard as they can to touch some of the nair women, as best they may be able to manage it, and secretly by night, to do harm. so they go by night amongst the houses of the nayrs to touch women, and these take many precautions against this injury during this season. and if they touch any woman, even though no one see it, and though there should be no witnesses, she, the nair woman herself, publishes it immediately, crying out, and leaves her house without choosing to enter it again to damage her lineage. and what she most thinks of doing is to run to the house of some low people, to hide herself, that her relations may not kill her as a remedy for what has happened, or sell her to some strangers as they are accustomed to do. and touching is in this manner, that even if there is no contact from one person to another, yet by throwing anything, such as a stone or a stick, if the person is hit by it, he remains touched and lost. these people are great charmers, thieves, and very vile people. pareni.[ ] there is yet another sect of people among them still lower, who live in desert places, called pareni. these likewise do not converse with any one. they are looked upon as worse than the devil, and as altogether condemned:[ ] so that by looking at them only they consider themselves as defiled and excommunicated, which they call contaminated. they support themselves on yname, which is like the root of the maize which is found in the island of antilla, and on other roots and wild fruits, and they cover themselves with leaves and eat the flesh of wild animals. and with these ends the diversity of the sects of the gentiles, which are in all eighteen, each one by itself: they live without intercourse or intermarriage of one with another. other kinds of people. in these kingdoms of malabar, besides the races of the kings and gentiles and natives of the country, there are other foreign people who are merchants and traders in this country, in which they possess houses and estates; and they live like natives of the country, and observe their own sect and customs, which are the following. chetis. some of these are called chetis,[ ] who are gentiles, natives of the province of cholmender, which will be mentioned further on. for the most part they are brown men, and some of them are almost white; they are tall and stout. these people are considerable merchants and changers, they deal in precious stones of all sorts, and in seed pearl, coral, and other valuable merchandise; and in gold, silver, either bullion or coined, which is a great article of trade amongst them, because they rise and fall many times. they are rich and respected, and live very decently; they have very good houses in streets set apart for themselves; and also their temples and idols are different from those of the country. they go bare from the waist upwards, and have cotton cloths many cubits in length wrapped round them; on their heads they wear small caps, and very long hair gathered up inside the caps; their beards shaved, and a few pinches of ashes with sandal and saffron, on their heads, breasts, and arms. they have holes in their ears, so large that they would almost hold an egg, full of rings of gold and jewelry, and many gold rings with jewels on their fingers, and round their waists gold belts, some of them studded with precious stones. they also carry with them continually large bags in which their scales and weights are kept, and their money, and jewels and pearls. and their sons as soon as they have passed the age of ten do the same, and go about changing small coin. they are great clerks and accountants, and make out all their accounts on their fingers: they are great usurers, so much so that from one brother to another they do not lend a real without gain. they are very orderly people in their food and expenditure; they keep account of everything, and are very subtle in their dealings. their language differs from that of the malabars, like that of castilians and portuguese. they marry in our fashion, and their children are their heirs: and if their wives become widows, they never marry again, however young they may be; but if the husband becomes a widower he may marry again. should the wife commit adultery the husband may kill her with poison. and these people have their own jurisdiction, and the king cannot have anything to say in their deeds and faults; they do justice amongst one another, with which the king is well-satisfied. when they die their bodies are burned. they eat all flesh except cow. guzurates. there is another sect of gentile merchants in the city of calicut, which they call guzarates, who are natives of the kingdom of cambay, whose customs have already been related; and they observe them in this city as in their own country. they are men who possess ships, and trade in spices, drugs, cloth, copper, and other kinds of merchandise from this place to the kingdom of cambay, and that of decan, where they have other correspondents; and they at the same time are correspondents of others. they have very good houses in separate streets, and their temples and idols different from the others, and many large and small bells in our fashion. the king shows them great honour and favour, and is much pleased with them because they give him much revenue from their trade. some of them also live in the city of cananor, and others in cochin; and so also in other ports of malabar. but in general most of them reside in calicut. mapuler. in all this said country of malabar there are a great quantity of moors, who are of the same language and colour as the gentiles of the country. they go bare like the nairs, only they wear, to distinguish themselves from the gentiles, small round caps on their heads and their beards fully grown. so that it appears to me that these people are a fifth part of all the inhabitants that there are in this country. they call these moors mapulers, they carry on nearly all the trade of the seaports: and in the interior of the country they are very well provided with estates and farms. so that if the king of portugal had not discovered india this country would have had a moorish king: because many of the gentiles turned moors for any offence which they received amongst one another: and the moors did them great honour, and if they were women they immediately married them. these people have many mosques in the country in which they also unite in council. pardesy. there were other foreign moors in calicut, whom they call pardesy. these are arabs, persians, guzarates, khorasanys, and decanys: they are great merchants, and possess in this place wives and children, and ships for sailing to all parts with all kinds of goods. they have among them a moorish governor who rules over and chastises them, without the king meddling with them. and before the king of portugal discovered the country they were so numerous and powerful in the city of calicut, that the gentiles did not venture to dispute with them. and after that the king of portugal made himself master there, and these moors saw that they could not defend it, they began to leave the country, and little by little they went away from it, so that very few of them remain. and at the time that they prospered in their trade, without any exaggeration, they made ships in this city of a thousand and of eleven hundred bahars bulk, which make four quintals each.[ ] these ships are with keels like ours and without any nails, because they sew the planks with mat cords, very well pitched, and the timber very good. the upper works are of different patterns from ours, and without decks,[ ] with divisions in which they used to stow much pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, long pepper, sandal and brazil wood, lac, cardamoms, myrabolans, tamarinds, bamboos,[ ] and all sorts of jewels and pearls, musk, amber, rhubarb, aloes-wood, many fine cotton stuffs, and much porcelain. and in this manner ten or twelve ships laden with these goods sailed every year in the month of february, and made their voyage to the red sea: and some of them were for the city of aden, and some for jiddah the port of mekkah, where they sold their merchandise to others, who transported them thence in other smaller vessels to turkey and to suez, and thence by land to cairo, and from cairo to alexandria. and these ships returned laden with copper, quicksilver, vermilion, coral, saffron, coloured velvets, rose-water, knives, coloured camlets, scarlet and other coloured cloths, gold and silver, and other things, and they returned to calicut from august to the middle of october of the same year that they sailed. these moors were very well dressed and fitted out, and were luxurious in eating and sleeping. the king gave to each one a nair to guard and serve him, a chety scribe for his accounts, and to take care of his property, and a broker for his trade. to these three persons such a merchant would pay something for their maintenance, and all of them served very well, and when the merchant bought spices the sellers gave him for each farazola of ginger, which is of twenty-five pounds, three or four pounds of it for them; and so of some other goods, which duties the merchant collects to pay these officials of his. [_here follow eleven lines in the lisbon edition, saying_:--these are white men and very gentlemanlike and of good appearance, they go well dressed, and adorned with silk stuffs, scarlet cloth, camlets and cottons: their head-dress wrapped round their heads. they have large houses and many servants: they are very luxurious in eating, drinking, and sleeping; and in this manner they prospered until the portuguese came to india: now there are hardly any of them, and those that there are do not live at liberty. hitherto i have spoken at length of all the sects, and different kinds of people of malabar, and of some set apart in calicut: now i will relate the position of each kingdom by itself, and how the said country of malabar is divided.] [_here follows in the ms. no. of the munich royal library...._ section of the manner in which the country of malabar is divided, and of that which grows in it. you must know that from cunbala, country of the king of narsynga, towards the south and along the coast to the kingdom of cananor, and within it there is a town called cotcoulam, and on the sea-shore a fortress in which is a nephew of the king of cananor, as guardian of the frontier. and further on there is a river called nira-pura, in which is a good town, and seaport, of moors and gentiles, and of trade and navigation: in this town resides the said nephew, who at times rises up in rebellion: and the king goes to overthrow him with large forces, and puts him down under his authority. after passing this place along the coast is the mountain dely, on the edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst of low land: all the ships of the moors and gentiles that navigate in this sea of india, sight this mountain when coming from without, and make their reckoning by it. when they are going away the ships take in much good water and wood.... after this at the foot of the mountain to the south is a town called marave, very ancient and well off, in which live moors and gentiles and jews: these jews are of the language of the country, it is a long time since they have dwelt in this place. there is much fishery in the neighbourhood of this mountain of dely: which at sea is seen at a great distance by the ships that are trying to make it. further on along the coast is a river in which is a handsome town entirely of moors, and all round many gentiles, and at the entrance is a small hill on which is a fortress in which the king of cananor constantly resides. it contains very good wells and which are very capacious. this city is called balapatan, at four leagues from it is a city of moors and gentiles, very large, and of much trade with the merchants of the kingdom of narsynga; this town is called eah paranco, in which much copper is expended. cananor. coming to the sea, and passing this town of balapatan, in which the king lives, towards the south is a very good town called cananor.] cananor. on the sea coast near the kingdom of calicut towards the south is a city called cananor, in which there are many moors and gentiles of many kinds, who are all merchants, and possess many large and small ships. they trade in all sorts of goods, principally with the kingdom of cambay and ormuz, colan, dabul banda, goa, ceylon, and the maldiu islands. in this city of cananor the king of portugal has a fortress and a factory and very peaceable trade, and all round the fortress a town of christians of the country, married with their wives, who were baptized after the fortress was made, and each day some are baptized. ciecate. having passed the said city along the coast towards the south, there is a town of moors, natives of the country, which also possesses much shipping, named ciecate.[ ] [_here ramusio says_: some lines are wanting here.] tarmapatan. having passed beyond this place, there is a river which makes two arms, and near it a large town of moors, natives of the country, and very rich, great merchants who likewise possess much shipping. it is called tarmapatam, and has many and very large mosques; it is the last town of the kingdom of cananor on the side of calicut. these moors when they receive any injury from the king of cananor, immediately rise up, and withdraw their obedience until the king goes in person to remove the injury, and to cajole them. [_here the lisbon edition adds_: and if the portuguese had not discovered india, this town would already have a moorish king of its own, and would convert all malabar to the sect of mahomed.] cotaogato. at four leagues higher up the said river there is another city of moors, very large, rich, and of much trade, which deals with the people of narsinga by land, and is called cotaogato.[ ] description of what grows in this kingdom of cananor. very good pepper grows in this kingdom of cananor, but there is not much of it; much ginger is also produced in it, which is not of a very good quality, called _hely_ because it is near the mountain dely. there grow also much cardamoms, myrobolans, bamboos, zerubs,[ ] and zedoary.[ ] there are in this country, especially in the rivers, very large lizards which eat men, and their scent when they are alive smells like civet. and throughout the country in the brushwood there are two kinds of venomous serpents, some which the indians call murcas, and we call hooded snakes,[ ] because there is something like an hood on their heads. these kill with their bite, and the person bitten dies in two hours, though he sometimes lasts two or three days. many mountebanks carry some of these alive in earthen jars, and charmed so that they do not bite, and with them they gain money, putting them round their necks, and exhibiting them. there is another kind of more venomous serpents, which the indians call mandal, and these kill suddenly by their bite, without the persons bitten being able to speak any more, nor even make any movement. of many towns and cities of the kingdom of calicut which possess shipping. leaving the kingdom of cananor towards the south, on the further side of the river of tarmapatam, there is a town of moors of the country, called terivangaty, which has shipping; and beyond that there is another river on which there is another large place, also belonging to moors, great merchants and shippers, which is called mazery; and beyond mazery there is another town also of the moors, which is called chemonbay, which also possesses shipping. and the country inland of these three places is thickly peopled by nairs, good men who do not obey any king, and they have got two nair lords who govern them, the before-mentioned moors are under their rule. pudopatani, first town of the kingdom of calicut. having passed these places there is a river called pudopotani on which is a good town of many moorish merchants, who own many ships; here begins the kingdom of calicut. tircore. further along the coast to the south south-east, is another village of the moors called tircore. pandareni. further on south south-east is another moorish place, which is called pandarani, in which also there are many ships. capucad. further on to south south-east is another town, at which there is a small river, which is called capucad, where there are many country-born moors, and much shipping and a great trade of exporting the goods of the country. in this place many soft sapphires are found on the sea beach. calicut. having passed the said place at two leagues further to the south and south-east, is the city of calicut, where the king of portugal has a very good fortress, made with the good will of the king of calicut, after that the portuguese had routed him; and they have there their principal fortress. chalyani. beyond this city, towards the south is another city, which is called chaliani, where there are numerous moors natives of the country and much shipping. purpurangari. further on there is another city of the king of calicut, called purpurangari, inhabited by moors and gentiles who deal much in merchandise. paravanor and tanor. further on in the same direction are two places of moors five leagues from one another. one is called paravanor and the other tanor, and inland from these towns is a lord to whom they belong; and he has many nairs, and sometimes he rebels against the king of calicut. in these towns there is much shipping and trade, for these moors are great merchants. pananx. having passed these towns along the coast to the south there is a river on which is another city of moors, amongst whom a few gentiles live, and it is called pananx.[ ] the moors are very rich merchants and own much shipping. the king of calicut collects much revenue from this city. chatna. there is another river further on called chatna,[ ] and higher up the stream there are many gentile villages, and much pepper comes out by this river. crangolor. further on there is another river which divides the kingdom of calicut from the country of cochin, and on this side of the river is a place called crongolor,[ ] belonging to the king of calicut. the king of cochin has some rights in this place. there live in it gentiles, moors, indians, and jews, and christians of the doctrine of saint thomas; they have there a church of saint thomas and another of our lady, and are very devout christians, only they are deficient in doctrine, of which more will be said hereafter, because from this place further on as far as cholmender there dwell many of these christians. of what is gathered in this kingdom of calicut. in the kingdom of calicut, as has been said, there grows much pepper on trees like ivy, which climbs up the palms and other trees, and poles, and makes clusters; and much very good ginger of the country,[ ] cardamoms, myrobolans of all kinds, bamboo canes, zerumba, zedoary, wild cinnamon; and the country produces this though covered with palm trees higher than the highest cypresses: these trees have clean smooth stems without any branch, only a tuft of leaves at the top amongst which grows a large fruit which they call tenga: by this they make profit, and it is a great article of trade, for each year more than four hundred ships are laden with it for many parts. we call these fruits cocoas: these trees give their fruits the whole year without any intermission; and there are others which support the people of malabar, so that they cannot suffer famine even though all other provisions should fail them: because these cocoas, both green and dry, are very sweet and agreeable, and they give milk, like that of almonds. now each of these cocoas when green has inside it a quart[ ] of water very fresh, savoury, and cordial; it is very nourishing, and when they are dried that water congeals inside in a white fruit the size of an apple, which is very sweet and delicious: they eat the cocoa also when dry. they make much oil of these cocoas in presses as we do, and with the rind which these cocoa-nuts have close to the marrow, they make charcoal for the silversmiths, who do not work with any other charcoal. and with another husk which it has outside the first, which makes many threads, they weave cordage, which is a great article of trade; and from these trees they make wine with the sap, which is like spirits, and in such great quantities, that many ships are laden with it. with the same wine they make very good vinegar, and they also make very sweet sugar, which is yellow like honey, and is a great article of trade in india. with the leaves of the tree they make mats of the size of the leaf, with which they cover all their houses instead of with tiles: and with the tree they also make wood for their houses and for other services, and firewood.[ ] and of all these things there is so great abundance that ships are laden with them. there are other palm trees of other kinds, and shorter, from which the leaves are gathered upon which the gentiles write. there are other palms, slender and very lofty, and of very clean stems, upon which grow clusters of fruit the size of walnuts (which the indians eat with the betel, which we call folio indio), and they call areca. it is much esteemed among them and is very acid: there is such a quantity of it that they fill many ships with it for cambay and the kingdom of decan, and many other parts, after drying and packing it. kingdom of cochin. having passed the town of crongolor, the extremity of the kingdom of calicut, towards the south extends the kingdom of cochin, in which also there is much pepper. it possesses a very fine large river where many and great ships enter, both portuguese and moorish. and within it is a large city inhabited by moors and gentiles, who are chetis and guzaratys, and jews natives of the country. the moors and chetis are great merchants and own many ships, and trade much with chormandel, cambay, cheul, and dabul, with areca, cocoas, pepper, and jagara, which is sugar of palm trees. the king of portugal has a very good fortress at the mouth of this river, all round which is a large village of portuguese and christians, natives of the country, who were baptised since the portuguese have inhabited the country; and every day many more are converted. and there are likewise many of the above-named christians of the doctrine of saint thomas, who come there from culan and other gentile places, where they are accustomed to live. in this fortress and town of cochin there is much machinery and apparatus for caulking and refitting ships, and also galleys and caravels, with as much perfection as in our parts. and much pepper is put on board at this place, and spices and drugs which come from malacca and which are transported every year to portugal. this king of cochin has but a small country, and he was not a king before the portuguese went there, because all the kings of calicut when newly come into power, had the custom of entering cochin and depriving the king of his state and taking possession of it, and afterwards they restored it to him again for life. the king of calicut observed this as a law, and the king of cochin used to give him a tribute of elephants, and so he returned to calicut. and the king of cochin could not coin money, nor roof his houses with tiles, under pain of losing his state. and now since the portuguese went there, the king of portugal made him exempt from all this; so that he lords it absolutely and coins money according to his custom. porca. beyond this kingdom of cochin towards the south, the kingdom of coulam is entered; between these kingdoms there is a place which is called porca, it belongs to a lord. in this place dwell many gentile fishermen who have no other business than to fish in the winter, and in summer to plunder at sea the property of whoever is weaker than themselves: they have small vessels like brigantines, good rowers, and they assemble in numbers with bows and arrows, and go in such a crowd all round any ship that they find becalmed, that they make it surrender by discharging arrows, and take the vessels or ships and put the people safe on shore; and what they steal they divide with the lord of the country, and so they maintain themselves. they call these vessels catur. kingdom of coulam. having passed this place the kingdom of coulam commences, and the first town is called caymcolan in which dwell many gentiles, moors, and indian christians of the before-mentioned doctrine of saint thomas. and many of these christians live inland amongst the gentiles. there is much pepper in this place, of which there is much exportation. the city of coulam. further on along the same coast towards the south is a great city and good seaport, which is named coulam, in which dwell many moors and gentiles, and christians. they are great merchants and very rich, and own many ships, with which they trade to cholmendel, the island of ceylon, bengal, malaca, samatara, and pegu: these do not trade with cambay. there is also in this city much pepper. they have a gentile king, a great lord of much territory and wealth, and of numerous men at arms, who for the most part are great archers. at this city, withdrawn a little from it, there is a promontory in the sea where stands a very great church which the apostle st. thomas built miraculously before he departed this life.[ ] it must be known that on arriving at this city of coulan where all were gentiles, in a poor habit, and going along converting some poor people to our holy faith he brought with him a few companions natives of the country, although they were very few: and while he was in this city, one morning there was found in this port of coulam a very large piece of timber which had been stranded on the sea-beach, and news of it was immediately brought to the king. he sent many people and elephants to draw it out upon dry land, but they could never move it; and the king himself went in person to it later, and they were unable to draw it out. and as soon as st. thomas saw them despair of the timber, he went to the king, and said to him: "if i were to draw out this timber would you give me a piece of land upon which to build a church with it, to the praise of our lord god, who sent me here." and the king laughed at him, and said to him: "if you see that with all my power it cannot be dragged out, how do you hope to draw it out." and saint thomas answered him: "to draw it out by the power of god, which is greater." the king immediately ordered all the land which he asked for this purpose to be given to him. and when it was granted to him, by the grace of the lord, he went alone to the timber, and tied a cord to it, with which he began to draw it on shore without anyone assisting him. and the timber followed behind him as far as the place where he wished to build the church. the king seeing such a miracle commanded that they should let him do what he pleased with the timber and the land which had been given him; and that he should be shewn favour, because he held him to be a holy man. but he did not choose to turn christian, and many people became converted to our holy faith. and the said apostle whom they call martoma,[ ] called many carpenters and sawyers of the country, and began to have the timber worked, and it was so large that it was sufficient by itself for the building of the whole church. and it is a custom amongst the indians that when the workmen or any persons are going to set to work, the master of the work gives them at midday a certain quantity of rice to eat, and at night he gives to each man a small coin of inferior gold called fanam.[ ] and st. thomas at midday took a measure full of sand, and gave to each of these workmen his measure, which turned into very good rice, and at night he gave to each one a little bit of the wood which he was hewing, and they turned into fanams; so that they went away well satisfied, and so the said apostle finished the church of coulam. and when those people saw these miracles and many others which our lord did by this glorious saint, many indians turned to the christian faith, through the whole kingdom of coulam, which reaches to the frontier of ceylon, so that there are more than two thousand houses of christians scattered throughout the country among the gentiles; and they have a few churches, but most of them are deficient in teaching and some of them wanting in baptism. and when the king of the indians saw so great a change he feared that if he gave more opportunity for it, the said christians would multiply so much that they would be able to rise and possess the country. and so he began to persecute the said st. thomas, who withdrew himself to cholmendel, and then to a city which was called muylepur,[ ] where he received martyrdom, and there he is buried, as will be mentioned hereafter. and so the christians remained in the kingdom of coulam with the before mentioned church which st. thomas built, and with others about the country. this church was endowed by the king of coulam with the revenue from the pepper, which remains to it to this day. these christians had not any christian doctrine amongst them, nor were they baptized, only they held and believed the faith of christ in a gross manner. and at a certain period they held a council amongst them and sent men about the world to study the christian doctrine, and manner of baptism; these men reached armenia, where they found many greek christians and a patriarch who governed them, who seeing their good intention sent with them a bishop and six priests to baptize them and administer the sacraments and perform divine service, and indoctrinate them in the christian faith. and these remain there for five or six years and then are relieved for an equal period of time, and so on. and in this manner they improved themselves somewhat. these armenians[ ] are white men; they speak arabic, and have the sacred scriptures in chaldean, and recite the offices in that language in our fashion. they wear tonsures on their heads the opposite of ours; that is to say, that, where ours shave they wear hair, and where we have the hair they shave it. they go dressed in white shirts and caps on their heads, barefooted, and with long beards; they are very devout people, and say mass on altars like ours with a cross (+) in front of them. and he who says mass is in the middle of the altar, and those who assist him are at the sides. they communicate with salt bread instead of a wafer, and they consecrate of that bread enough for all that are in the church, and they give it to all of them divided like blessed bread.[ ] each one who communicates goes to receive it at the foot of the altar with his hand.[ ] the wine is in this manner, because there is no wine in india; they take raisins which come from mekkah and ormuz, and put them for a night in water; and on the next day when they have to say mass they squeeze them and with the juice they say their mass. these priests baptize for money,[ ] and go away from this country of malabar very rich when they return to their own country. and many remain unbaptized for want of money. tirinangoto. further on along the same coast towards the south, is a town of moors and gentiles called tirinamgoto, which also possesses shipping. the town and territory belong to a lord, a relation of the king of coulam; it is abundantly supplied with provisions, rice and meat. cape of comory. [further along the coast is the cape of comery where the malabar country finishes; but the kingdom of coulam reaches thirty leagues further, as far as a city which is called cael.][ ] [at this cape comory there is an ancient church of christians, which was founded by the armenians, who still direct it, and perform in it the divine service of christians and have crosses on the altars. all mariners pay it a tribute, and the portuguese celebrate mass there when they pass. there are there many tombs, amongst which there is one which has written on it a latin epitaph: "hic jacet cataldus gulli filius qui obiit anno...."][ ][ ] archipelago of isles. opposite this country of malabar, forty leagues to the west in the sea, there is an archipelago of isles, which the indians say amount to twelve thousand; and they begin in front of the mountain dely, and extend southwards. the first are four small flat islands, which are called malandiva; they are inhabited by malabar moors, and they say that they are from the kingdom of cananor. nothing grows in them, except palm trees (cocoa-nut), with the fruit of which and rice brought them from malabar, they maintain themselves. these islands make much cordage of palm trees, which they call cayro (coir). islands of palandiva. over against panam, cochin, and coulam, to the west and south-west, at a distance of seventy-five leagues are other islands, of which ten or twelve are inhabited by moors, brown and small in stature, who have a separate language and a moorish king who resides in an island called mahaldiu.[ ] and they call all these islands palandiva. the inhabitants are ill-formed and weak, but are very ingenious and charming. their king is elected by some moorish merchants, inhabitants of cananor, and they change him when they please. these persons receive tribute of him every year in cordage and other produce of the country. they go there to load their ships without money, because the people of the country, with or against their will, have to give these said moors whatever they wish. there is much fish in these islands, of which they prepare much dried,[ ] which is a great article of trade. and as ballast for the ships which take on board these things, they carry away sea-snails, which are worth a good deal in many parts, and in some, especially cambay, they serve as small change. many fine cotton cloths are manufactured in these islands, and others of silk and gold, which are worth a good deal amongst the moors. they gather much amber in these islands, of a good quality and in large pieces, white, grey, and brown; and i asked several of these moors various times how the amber was produced: they hold that it is the droppings of birds, and say that in this archipelago in the uninhabited islands there are some large birds which perch on the rocks near the sea, and there void that amber, which becomes refined by exposure to the air, the sun and the rain, until some storms arise and gales of wind, which drive the sea waves over the rocks, and this bird-dung is torn off the rocks in large and small pieces, and so carried out to sea, where it floats till they meet with it, or it is cast up on some beach, or that some whales swallow it. and they say that what is found of a white colour, and which they call ponabar, has been in the sea only for a short time, and this they value most highly amongst themselves; and that the other which is found of a greyish colour, and which they name puambar, has been, they say, in the sea for a long time, and has taken that colour from floating about in the water; this also is very good, but not equal to the white; and what they find of a brown colour and bruised, has been swallowed, they say, by whales, and turned brown in their bodies, and that it has such a quality that the whale cannot digest it, and they eject it whole just as they swallowed it; this they call minabar, and it is that which among them has least value. in these isles of maldiva they construct many large ships of palm tree, sewn together with matting, for there is no other wood there. some of these sail to the mainland, and are ships with keels and of much tonnage; they also construct there other small rowing vessels, like brigantines and _fustas_, very pretty and good for rowing, which they use to go from one island to another; and they likewise cross over to the malabar country. many moorish ships touch at these islands from china, malacojana, malaca, samatra, bengala, ceylan, and peygu, on their passage to the red sea: and there they take in water and refreshments for their voyage. sometimes they arrive so shattered that they unload their cargo there, and they let it be lost. many of these ships get lost amongst these islands because they do not venture to come to the malabar coast from fear of the portuguese. island of ceylam. leaving these islands of mahaldiva further on towards the east, where the cape of comory is doubled, at thirty-eight leagues from the cape itself, there is a very large and beautiful island which the moors, arabs, persians, and our people call ceylam,[ ] and the indians call it ylinarim. it is a rich and luxuriant land, inhabited by gentiles, and ruled by a gentile king. many moors live in the seaports of this island in large quarters, and all the inhabitants are great merchants. there are fifty leagues of channel towards the north-east from the said cape until passing the island of maylepur.[ ] both moors and gentiles are well-made men, and almost white, and for the most part stout, with large stomachs, and luxurious. they do not understand, nor possess arms, they are all given to trade and to good living. they go bare from the waist upwards, and below that cover themselves with good cloths of silk and cotton, caps on their heads, and the ears pierced with large holes in which they wear many gold rings and jewellery, so much that their very ears reach to their shoulders: and many rings and precious jewels on their fingers; they wear belts of gold richly adorned with precious stones. their language is partly malabar and partly of cholmendel, and many malabar moors come to live in this island on account of its being so luxuriant, abundant, and very healthy. men live longer here than in other parts of india. they have a great deal of very good fruit; and the mountains are full of sweet and sour oranges of three or four kinds, and plenty of lemons and citrons, and many other very good fruits which do not exist in our parts, and they last all the year. and there is plenty of meat and fish, little rice, for most of it comes from cholmendel, and it is their chief food; much good honey and sugar brought from bengal, and butter of the country. all the good cinnamon grows in this island upon the mountains, on trees which are like laurels. and the king of the country orders it to be cut in small sticks, and has the bark stripped off in certain months of the year, and sells it himself to the merchants who go there to buy it, because no one can gather it except the king. there are likewise in this island many wild elephants which the king orders to be caught and tamed; and they sell them to merchants of cholmendel, narsynga, and malabar, and those of the kingdoms of decam and cambay go to those places to buy them. these elephants are caught in this manner: it must be known that they have got other elephants with which they manage it, and they fasten them with chains in the mountains and woods where they are bred; and at the foot and all round a tree near the elephant they make three or four very large pits, covered over with slender poles, and they strew earth on the top, so that nothing appears: and the wild elephants seeing the female come to her, and fall into these pits, where they keep them seven or eight days half-dead of hunger, and so many men watch them by day and night, always speaking to them so as not to let them sleep, until they tame and render them domestic, giving them their food with their hands. and after they have got them broken in and tame, they take them with strong chains, and by degrees throw so much earth and branches into the pit that the elephant gradually rises until he comes out of the pit, and then they tie him to some tree and keep him some days watching, with fire, and men who always talk to him, and give him food in moderation until they make him domestic and obedient. and in this way they catch them male and female, great and small, and sometimes two at once in one pit. they make great merchandise of them, and they are worth much, because they are much valued by the kings of india for war and for labour, and they become as domestic and quick at understanding as men. the very good ones are worth in the malabar country and in cholmendel from a thousand to one thousand five hundred ducats, and the others from four to six hundred ducats according as they may be, but in the island they are to be had for a small price. and all have to be brought and presented to the king. there are also many jewels in this island, rubies which they call manica, sapphires, jacinths, topazes jagonzas,[ ] chrysoliths, and cat's eyes, which are as much esteemed amongst the indians as rubies. and all these stones are all gathered in by the king, and sold by himself. and he has men who go and dig for them in the mountains and shores of the rivers, who are great lapidaries and who are good judges in those matters: so much so that if they have a few handfuls of earth brought them from the mountain, at once on seeing it they know if it is of rubies or of any other stones, and where it comes from. and the king sends them to look there, and after they have brought them he orders to set aside each kind, and pick out the good ones, and he has them worked to have them sold when cut, which he does himself to foreigners; and the other inferior ones he sells at once to the country merchants. these rubies which grow here, for the most part, are not of so brilliant a colour as these which grow in ava and capelam, of which mention will be made further on; and some which come out perfect in colour are much more highly prized by the indians than those of paygu, because they say that they are stronger. and in order to make them of a deeper colour they put them into the fire. these lapidaries whom the king has near him, on seeing a stone before it is cut, say: this ruby will endure so many hours of fire, and will remain very good. and the king risks it, and orders it to be put in a very strong charcoal fire for that space of time which the lapidary has mentioned to him: and if it endures it without danger, it comes out more perfect in colour, and is worth very much. and all the other stones are found and worked in the same manner: and some stones are found which are half ruby and half sapphire, and others half topaze and half sapphires, and also cat's eyes. the king has a great treasure of these jewels, for whenever he meets with any very good stone he puts it in his treasury. close to this island of ceylam in the sea there is a sand-bank covered with ten or fifteen fathoms of water, in which a very great quantity of very fine seed pearls are found, small and great, and a few pearls: and the moors and gentiles go there from a city which is called sael, belonging to the king of coulam, to fish for this seed pearl, twice a year by custom, and they find them in some small oysters, smoother than those of our parts. and the men plunging under the water, where they remain a considerable time, pick them up: and the seed pearl is for those who gather them, and the large pearls are for the king, who keeps his overseer there, and besides that they give him certain duties upon the seed-pearl. the king of ceylan is always in a place called columbo, which is a river with a very good port, at which every year many ships touch from various parts to take on board cinnamon and elephants. and they bring gold and silver, cotton and silk stuffs from cambay, and many other goods which are saffron, coral, quicksilver, vermilion which here is worth a great deal; and there is much profit on the gold and silver, because it is worth more than in other parts. and there come likewise many ships from bengal and cholmendel, and some from malaca for elephants, cinnamon and precious stones. in this island of ceylan there are four or five other harbours and places of trade which are governed by other lords, nephews of the king of ceylan, to whom they pay obedience, except that sometimes they revolt. in the middle of this island is a very lofty mountain range in which is a very high stone peak, and upon it a pool of spring water, and on this stone there is the form of a man's foot,[ ] which the indians say is the footmark of father adam, whom they call adam baba. and from all those parts and kingdoms the moors come in pilgrimage, saying that father adam went up from there to heaven, and they go in the habit of pilgrims, with chains of iron, and clothed with skins of leopards, lions, and other wild animals, and on their arms and legs they inflict wounds continually along the road to keep up open sores, saying that they do that for the service of god, and honour of mahomed and adam baba. and some of them go well provided with money which they carry hidden to spend it on the jewels of ceylon. before they arrive at this mountain where adam's footstep is, they go through swampy land, through valleys full of water, and by the banks of water, and they have five or six leagues to go with water to the waist, and all carry knives in their hands to rid themselves of the leeches which fasten on their legs, and which are innumerable. and on arriving at the mountain they make the ascent of it, and they cannot mount up to the pinnacle except by ladders of iron chains,[ ] which it has put round it, of a great thickness. and on the top of it they wash with the water of that pool, and perform their prayer: and they say that with that they remain free and pure of all sin. the said island of ceylon is very near the mainland, and between it and the continent are some banks which have got a channel in the midst, which the indians call chylam,[ ] by which all the malabar sambuks pass to cholmendel. and every year many are lost upon these banks because the channel is very narrow: and in the year that the admiral of portugal went the second time to india, so many ships and sambuks of malabar were lost in those shallows, that twelve thousand indians were drowned there, who were coming with provisions, and were determined on driving the portuguese fleet away from india, without allowing it to take any cargo. quilacare, of the kingdom of colam. leaving the island of ceylon and returning to the mainland, after doubling cape comory at twenty leagues to the north-east, is the country of the king of colam and of other lords, who live in it subject to him. and the first place is named quilacare, in which country there are many and great towns of gentiles and several harbours, where dwell many moors born in the country. they perform their voyages in small vessels which they call champana.[ ] the malabar moors come to these towns to trade and to bring cambay goods, which are worth a good deal there, and a few horses. and they take in rice and cloths for malabar. and in this province of quilacare there is a gentile house of prayer, in which there is an idol which they hold in great account, and every twelve years they celebrate a great feast to it, whither all the gentiles go as to a jubilee. this temple possesses many lands and much revenue: it is a very great affair. this province has a king over it, who has not more than twelve years to reign from jubilee to jubilee. his manner of living is in this wise, that is to say: when the twelve years are completed, on the day of this feast there assemble together innumerable people, and much money is spent in giving food to bramans. the king has a wooden scaffolding made, spread over with silken hangings: and on that day he goes to bathe at a tank with great ceremonies and sound of music, after that he comes to the idol and prays to it, and mounts on to the scaffolding, and there before all the people he takes some very sharp knives, and begins to cut off his nose, and then his ears, and his lips, and all his members, and as much flesh off himself as he can; and he throws it away very hurriedly until so much of his blood is spilled that he begins to faint, and then he cuts his throat himself. and he performs this sacrifice to the idol, and whoever desires to reign other twelve years and undertake this martyrdom for love of the idol, has to be present looking on at this: and from that place they raise him up as king. sael. having left quilacare, further along the coast, at ten leagues to the north-east, is another town called Çael,[ ] which belongs to the king of colam: it is inhabited by gentiles and great moorish merchants, and is a seaport where many ships touch every year from malabar, cholmendel, and bengala. they deal in all kinds of goods from all parts at this place. the chetis of this city are great lapidaries and artists for setting[ ] pearls, which fishery belongs to the king of sahel, who has farmed it for many years forward to a very rich moorish merchant, who is almost as important in the country as the king. and this person administers justice amongst the moors, without the king's mixing himself up in it. those who fish up the pearls, as has been said, fish all the week for themselves, and on the friday for the owner of the boat; and all of them together fish at the end of the season during which they are there a whole week for this moor. the king of colam lives always near this city, and is very rich and powerful on account of his many men at arms, who are very good bowmen. he always has in his guard four or five hundred women, trained from girls to be archers: they are very active. he sometimes is at war with the king of narsinga, who wishes to take his country, but he defends himself very well. chormendel. twelve leagues further on the coast turns to the north, the country is called cholmender,[ ] and it extends seventy or eighty leagues along the coast. in it there are many gentile cities, towns and villages, and it belongs to the king of narsinga; it is a land abounding in rice, meat and wheat, and all sorts of vegetables, because it is a country which has very beautiful plains. and many ships of malabar come here to load rice, and they bring goods from cambay to this country, that is to say, copper, quicksilver, vermilion, pepper and other goods. and throughout all this cholmender much spice and drugs, and goods of malaca, china, and bengal are to be met with, which the moorish ships bring here from those parts, since they do not venture to pass to malabar from dread of the portuguese. and although this country is very abundantly provided, yet if it should happen any year not to rain it falls into such a state of famine that many die of it, and some sell their own children for a few provisions, or for two or three fanoes, each of which will be worth thirty-six maravedis. and in these times the malabars carry rice and cocoa nuts to them, and return with their ships laden with slaves, and all the chetis, gentile merchants, who live throughout india, are natives of this country of cholmender; they are very sharp, great accountants, and dexterous merchants. and many country-born moors, mercantile and seafaring men, live in the seaports. maylepur. further along this coast, which makes a bend to the north-west and then turns to the north-east, having left the cholmendel country, at a distance of twelve leagues there is a city almost uninhabited and very ancient, which is called maylepur; in former times it was a considerable place of the kingdom of narsinga. in this city is buried the body of the apostle st. thomas, in a small church near the sea. and the christians of cuolam, who are of his doctrine, say that when st. thomas left cuolam, on being persecuted by the gentiles, he went with a few companions to that country, and settled in this city of maylepur, which at that period was twelve leagues distant from the sea, which later eat away the land, and came in upon it. and there he began to preach the faith of christ, to which he converted some, whilst others persecuted and wished to kill him, and he separated himself from the people, and went about frequently among the mountains. and one day as he wandered about in that manner, a gentile hunter, with a bow, saw many peacocks together upon the ground in that mountain, and in the midst of them one very large and very handsome standing upon a stone slab; this hunter shot at it, and sent an arrow through its body, and they rose up flying, and in the air it turned into the body of a man. and this hunter stood looking until he saw the body of the said apostle fall. and he went to the city where he related that miracle to the governors, who came to see it, and they found that it was indeed the body of st. thomas, and then they went to see the place where he had been wounded, and they saw two impressions of human feet marked on the slab, which he left impressed when he rose wounded.[ ] and when the governors of the country saw so great a miracle, they said this man was holy, and we did not believe him; and they took him and buried him in the church where he now is, and they brought the stone upon which he left the said footmarks, and they placed it close to his grave; and they say that on burying him they could never put his right arm in the tomb, and it always remained outside; and if they buried him entirely, next day they found the arm above the earth, and so they let it be. the christians, his disciples and companions who built the said church, and the gentiles already held him for a saint, and honoured him greatly. he remained thus with his arm outside of the grave for a long time, and they say that many people came there from many quarters in pilgrimage,[ ] and that some chinese came also, who wished to cut off his arm and carry it away as a relic, and that when they were about to strike at it with a sword, he withdrew his arm inside, they say, and it was never seen again. so he remains still in that hermitage, very humbly, and lighted up by the grace of god, because the moors and gentiles light him up, each one saying that he is something belonging to them. and the house and church are ordered in our fashion, with crosses on the altar, and at the top of the vault a great wooden cross, and peacocks for a device: this church is much deteriorated. all round it there is much brushwood, and a poor moor takes care of that building and begs alms for it, and for the lamp, which still continues burning. the christians of india still go there as pilgrims, and carry away thence as relics some little pellets of earth of the tomb of this blessed apostle. palecate. further on this coast goes forty-three leagues to the north-east and twelve leagues to the north, there is another city of the kingdom of narsinga, inhabited by moors and gentiles, great and rich merchants, it is called palecate,[ ] and is a harbour at which many moorish ships touch, coming from divers parts with all kinds of goods. it also has much trade with the interior of the kingdom, and they sell there many jewels which are brought from peygu, especially rubies and spinel-rubies of a good quality, and much musk. these jewels may be had for very little there, by whoever knows how to buy well. the king of narsynga keeps his governors in this city, and collectors of his revenues. in this place they make many good coloured cotton stuffs which are worth much in malaca, peigu, and samatra, also in the kingdom of guzurate and malabar they are much valued for the clothing both of moors and gentiles. copper, quicksilver, vermilion, opium, and many cambay goods fetch a good price, so also scarlet cloth, coral, saffron, velvets from mekkah, and rose water. the mountain of diguirmale. having passed this city of palecate further along the coast which trends to north-east by north as far as marepata, a distance of a hundred and forty leagues, in which there are many other places belonging to the kingdom of narsynga, as far as the kingdom of horisa. kingdom of orissa. further on after passing marepata, along the coast which trends from hence to north-east by east, the kingdom of horisa commences. it is of the gentiles, very good fighting men, and the king is frequently at war with the king of narsynga, and is powerful in the numbers of his foot soldiers. the greater part of his country is withdrawn from the sea, and has few seaports and little trade. his territory extends seventy leagues along the coast as far as the river ganges, which they call guenga,[ ] and on the other side of this river commences the kingdom of bengala, with which he is sometimes at war. and all the indians go in pilgrimage to this river to bathe in it, saying that with this they all become safe, because it issues from a fountain which is in the terrestrial paradise. this river is very great and magnificent, it is studded on both banks with opulent and noble cities of the gentiles. between this river and the eufrates are the first and the second india, a territory very abundant and well provided, very healthy and temperate, and from this river further on to malaca is the third india, according as the moors say. bengal. having passed the river ganges, along the coast twenty leagues to north-east by east and twelve leagues to the south-west, and then twelve leagues to the east until reaching the river paralem,[ ] is the kingdom of bengala, in which there are many towns, both in the interior and on the sea-coast. those of the interior are inhabited by gentiles, subject to the king of bengal, who is a moor; and the seaports are inhabited by moors and gentiles, amongst whom there is much trade in goods and much shipping to many parts, because this sea is a gulf which enters towards the north, and at its inner extremity there is a very great city inhabited by moors which is called bengala,[ ] with a very good harbour. its inhabitants are white men and well formed. many foreigners from various parts live in this city, both arabs and persians, abyssinians[ ] and indians, who congregate here on account of the country being very fertile and of a temperate climate. they are all great merchants, and own large ships of the same build as those of mekkah, and others of the chinese build which they call jungos, which are very large and carry a very considerable cargo. with these ships they navigate to cholmender, malabar, cambay, peigu, tarnasari, samatra, ceylon, and malaca; and they trade in all kinds of goods, from many places to others. there is much cotton in the country, and sugar cane plantations, and very good ginger and much long pepper. they manufacture many kinds of stuffs, extremely fine and delicate, coloured for their own use, and white for trade to all parts; they call them saravetis, and they are excellent for women's head gear, and much valued for that purpose: the arabs and persians make caps of this stuff, in such great quantities, that every year they fill several ships with them for different places. and they make others which they call mamuna, and others duguza, and others chautar, and others called topan and sanabafos which are the most valued for their shirts, and which are very durable. they are all of the length of twenty cubits, very little more or less, and in this city they are all at a low price. they are spun by a man with a wheel and woven. white sugar of very good quality is made in this city, but they do not know how to join it to make loaves, and so they pack it up in powder in stuff covered over with raw hide, well sewn up. they load many ships with it and export it for sale to all parts. and when these merchants were accustomed to go freely and without dread to the parts of malabar and cambay with their ships, the quintal of this sugar was worth two ducats and a half in malabar, and a good sinabafo was worth two ducats, and a piece of muslin for women's caps three hundred maravedis; and a chautar of the best quality six hundred maravedis. and those who brought them gained much money. they likewise make many preserves in this city of bengal, very good ones of ginger, and of oranges, lemons and other fruits which grow in the country. there are also in this country many horses, cows and sheep, and all other meats in great abundance, and very extremely large hens. the moorish merchants of this city go into the interior of the country and buy many gentile children of their fathers and mothers, or of others who steal them, and castrate them, cortandole todo de manera que quedan rasos como la palma de la mano. some of them die of it, and those who recover they bring them up very well, and sell them as merchandise for twenty or thirty ducats each to the persians, who value them much as guards to their wives and houses.[ ] the respectable moors of this city go dressed in long morisco shirts reaching to the instep, white and of slight texture, and underneath some cloths wrapped round below the waist, and over the shirt a silken sash round the waist, and a dagger set with silver; they wear many jewelled rings on their fingers, and fine cotton caps on their heads. they are luxurious people, who eat and drink a great deal, and have other bad habits. they bathe frequently in large tanks which they have in their houses: they have many servants, and have each of them three or four wives, and as many more as they can maintain. they keep them very much shut up and very richly dressed and adorned with silks and jewels set in gold; they go out at night to visit one another and to drink wine, and hold festivals and marriage feasts. they make various kinds of wine in this country, chiefly of sugar and palm trees, and also of many other things. the women are very fond of these wines, and are much accustomed to them. they are great musicians both in singing and playing on instruments. the men of the common people wear short white shirts half way down the thigh, and drawers, and very small head wraps of three or four turns; all of them are shod with leather, some with shoes, others with sandals, very well worked, sewn with silk and gold thread. the king is a great lord and very rich, he possesses much country inhabited by gentiles, of whom every day many turn moors, to obtain the favour of the king and governors. this king possesses more territory further on the before named gulf, inhabited by moors and gentiles, both inland and on the sea coast, which turns to the south. kingdom of berma. having passed the kingdom of bengala, along the coast which turns to the south, there is another kingdom of gentiles called berma.[ ] in this there are no moors, nor are there sea ports which can be made use of for trade in merchandise. the people of this kingdom are black men and go naked, for they only cover their middles with cotton cloths. they have their idolatries and houses of prayer. they frequently are at war with the king of peigu. we have no further information respecting this country because it has no shipping. it is only known that it borders on the kingdom of bengala on one side, and on the kingdom of peigu on the other. and it has a gulf in the middle which enters the country in a direction north-east by east forty leagues, and is fourteen leagues wide at the mouth and twenty leagues wide further in, and in the middle of it is a large island which is thirty-six leagues long and from four to ten leagues broad. ere can guy.[ ] inland of this kingdom of berma towards the north is another kingdom of gentiles, very large and which has no sea ports. it also borders on the kingdom of bengal and the kingdom of ava, and it is called ere can guy. the king and people of this kingdom are gentiles. it is said that this king possesses many cities and towns, and horses and elephants. these elephants are brought from the kingdom of peigu. these people are brown men, naked from the waist upwards, and wrapped round below the waist with cotton and silk cloths; they use many ornaments of gold and silver. they venerate idols and have large houses of prayer. this king is very rich in money, and powerful from the number of his men at arms: he is often at war with his neighbours, and some of them obey him against their wills, and render him tribute. he lives in great luxury, and possesses very good houses in all the towns where he resides, which have got many pools of water, green and shady gardens, and good trees. they have also got many women at their caprice, and have no law of marriage. in twelve towns of his kingdom he has twelve first-rate palaces in which he has many women brought up; that is, in each of these cities he has a governor who each year takes twelve girls born in that year, daughters of persons of the highest rank and the prettiest to be found; and he has them carefully brought up at the expense of the king, in these palaces, up to the age of twelve years; they are very well dressed, and taught thoroughly to dance and sing and play on musical instruments; in this way each palace constantly contains many of them of tender age. and at the end of the year the governor conducts to the king at whatever place he may be at, twelve damsels of the age of twelve years. the king orders them to be well dressed and to have the name of each one written on their clothes, and the next morning he orders them to be sent up to a terrace in the sun, and there remain fasting until midday. and they perspire so much with the heat of the sun that their clothes become damp, and then the king orders them to be taken to a room where they change their clothes. and the damp garments which they have thrown off are all carried to the king, who smells them, and those which do not smell bad he keeps for himself, and those which smell bad from the perspiration he makes a present of to those of his courtiers who are there present, as also the damsels who had worn them, who are known by the names written on the clothes. the other damsels whose clothes did not smell ill from the perspiration the king keeps for himself.[ ] and thus he is always accustomed to do, and in this way they bring to him from all these twelve cities a hundred and forty-four girls, whom he distributes in the manner above described. and he has many amusements in the way of hunting, games, music, feasting and other things. peygu. returning to the sea coast, after passing the kingdom of berma, towards the south and south-east, there is another kingdom of gentiles, very wealthy, well supplied with everything, and of great trade in merchandise by sea. it is called peygu,[ ] and extends seventy-five leagues. this kingdom has three or four sea ports in which are many moorish and gentile inhabitants, who are very great merchants. and the actual city of peigu is seven or eight leagues distant from the sea,[ ] on the arm of a very great river which runs through this kingdom, and comes from some very high mountains. during certain months of the year there is so great an increase of water, that the river leaves its bed and irrigates a large extent of land, from which a great deal of rice is gathered. they ship from these ports a great quantity of provisions in vessels which have three or four high masts, which they call jungos, for malaca, samatara, and other parts, and amongst other things much rice is shipped, and cane sugar, brown and loaf. many moorish ships from different parts assemble at these ports of peigu, and bring thither much cloth of cambay and palacate, coloured cottons and silks, which the indians call patola, which are worth a good deal there; they also bring opium, copper, scarlet cloth, coral in strings, in branches, and polished, quicksilver, vermilion, rose water, and a few drugs from cambay. in this kingdom they ship very fine lac which grows there. there is much trade in cloves and mace and other chinese goods, and musk and rubies, which come thither from inland from a city called ava, of which mention will be made hereafter. the people of this kingdom go undressed, they only cover their middles. they are not warlike, and possess few weapons, and those wretched ones. they are very voluptuous, y traen en los capirotes de sus miembros unos cascaveles redondos cosydos soldados entre la carne y el cuero por hazerselos mayores, algunos traen tres, y algunos cinco, y algunos syete, y dellos de oro y de plata, y otros de metal, los quales les van sonando de que andan y an lo por mucha gentileza y las mugeres huelgan mucho con ellos y no quieren hombres que no los tengan, y los que mas honrados son, esos los traen mas y mayores. (_the lisbon edition continues_: e nom diga mais deste costume pola desonestidade.)[ ] the king is called the king of the white elephant, and in this kingdom there are very high mountains where many wild elephants are bred; and they have a rule to catch one every day, and the king orders food to be sent them and has them brought up. he has a great quantity of them which he sells to merchants who come there to buy them, to take them to pelecate, whence they go on to narsynga, malabar and cambaya. there are likewise many small horses which go at an amble, which they make great use of; they also have horses on which they ride à la bastarda,[ ] and with these and the elephants, and infantry, they carry on war. there are also many sheep and swine, wild and domestic in this kingdom, and the people are great sportsmen and hunters. martavan. in this same kingdom of peygu towards malaca, there are three or four seaports, of which i do not know the name, amongst them is one very good sea port called martaban,[ ] which is seventy-five leagues to the south south-east from the before-mentioned gulf. many ships touch at it, and trade there and stow provisions and other goods, especially lac of a very good quality, which grows in the country itself; and the moors of persia and india call it lucomartaban. and it also grows in the country of narsinga, but not so good as this: they say of this lac that it is gum of trees, others say that it grows on the slender branches of the trees, just as in our parts the berries grow. and this explanation appears the most natural. and so they bring it in small sticks, which naturally cannot produce so much gum. in this town of martaban very large and beautiful porcelain vases are made, and some of glazed earthenware, of a black colour, which are highly valued amongst the moors, and they export them as merchandise, and they also carry away from this country much benjuy in large loaves. ava. inland beyond this kingdom of peigu between the kingdom of daran cangui and the kingdom of dansiam, to the east there is another kingdom of gentiles which has a king who resides in a very great and opulent city called ava,[ ] eight days' journey from the sea; a place of rich merchants, in which there is a great trade of jewels, rubies, and spinel-rubies, which are gathered in this kingdom. many foreign merchants flock thither from many parts to buy these jewels, and likewise much musk which is found there. and the king commands all to be gathered for himself, and sells it himself to the merchants of the country who sell it to the foreign merchants. the merchants bring there for sale quicksilver, vermilion, coral, copper, saffron, rose-water, opium, scarlet cloth, coloured velvet from mekkah, and many other things from the kingdom of cambay, and the jewels and musk are sold here at a low price in exchange for these goods. these rubies and spinel-rubies are found in the mountains and banks of rivers, by making many holes, and mines where they find these spinel-rubies; and on the surface of the earth and underneath it the rubies are found. the men of the country are very skilful lapidaries who know and cut them well. the musk is found in some small white animals, like gazelles, and they have teeth like elephants, but small. these animals are born with sorts of tumours under the belly and the breast, and these ripen, and after they are mature and have formed like matter, they have so much itching in them that they go to rub themselves against the trees, and the drops which fall from these tumours are of the best and most excellent musk, and the hunters, who pursue them with dogs and nets and other snares, follow their tracks by the smell, and they find these grains of fine musk, and by following them they catch them alive, and bring them to houses appointed for that purpose, where they entirely cut off these tumours with the skin, and they let them dry. these are the genuine musk pouches, of which very few are exported, because they falsify them, and they do it in this way. it must be known that on taking it from the living animal, they place many leeches on the wounds, and allow them to gorge themselves with blood, and when full they put them in the sun to dry, and of these they put so many that the animal falls dead without any blood, and afterwards they skin it, and with the skin they make several counterfeit pouches, which look like the real ones. having pounded the leeches and reduced them to powder; with the powder they make grains in their hands, and add one weight of good musk taken from the real pouches, to a hundred of this blood of the leeches, and having mixed up the whole, they fill with it the counterfeit pouches, and they look very good. and they also esteem it in these parts as very fine, because the merchants through whose hands it passes adulterate it still further. the real musk is so strong that on putting it to the nostrils it causes the blood to issue. in this kingdom there are many elephants, horses and men devoted to war: and it is a country well supplied with provisions. capelan. further inland than the said kingdom of ava, at five days' journey to the south-east is another city of gentiles which has a ruler who is subject to the said king of ava. this city is called capelan,[ ] and all round it are likewise found many and excellent rubies, which they bring to sell at the city and fair of ava, and which are better than those of ava. kingdom of ansiam. having passed the kingdom of peigu, further along the coast to the south south-east towards malaca, eighty-seven leagues from martaban towards malaca, and further on in the country is the kingdom of ansiam,[ ] which is of the gentiles. and the king is a gentile and a great ruler, and inland his borders are from this coast unto the other side, which is the coast of china: and he has seaports on both sides. he is the lord of many people both horse and foot, and of many elephants. and he does not allow any moor to bear arms in his country. and from the kingdom of peigu as far as a city which has a seaport, and is named tanasery,[ ] there are a hundred leagues. in this city there are many moorish and gentile merchants, who deal in all sorts of goods, and own ships, with which they navigate to bengal, malaca, and other parts. in the inland parts of this kingdom there grows much good benjuy, which is a resin of trees which the moors call luban javi,[ ] and it is of two kinds, that is to say, one which does not smell except in the fire, and the other of much scent, of which the good and genuine storax is made in the levant, before extracting from it the oil, which in the levant is extracted from it. and many ships of moors and from other parts congregate at this port of tanasary, and bring them copper, quicksilver, vermilion, scarlet cloth, silks, coloured velvets from mekkah, saffron, coral, wrought and in strings, rose-water from mekkah in little bottles of tinned copper, and it is sold by weight with the bottle; opium, cambay stuffs, and all these goods fetch a high price at this place. queda, town of the kingdom of ansyam. having left this town of tanasery further along the coast towards malaca there is another seaport of the kingdom of ansiam, which is called queda,[ ] in which also there is much shipping, and great interchange of merchandise. and many ships of the moors and from other parts come there. very good pepper grows in the country, which they carry to malaca, and thence to china. this king of ansiam has three other sea ports between malaca and tenasery, of which i do not know the names, and he possesses many cities, towns, and other villages. throughout the country in the interior the people are gentiles, and moors do not enter there, and if at any time any moor goes there to trade with them, they do not permit him to carry arms. there is much gold in this kingdom which is collected in the country, particularly in the lordship of pani[ ], which is beyond malacca towards china, and has always belonged to the kingdom of siam, until now that it has risen up against it, and does not obey it, but has rather placed itself in subjection to the king of malacca. and so likewise in this kingdom of siam, there is another lordship and country of gentiles, in subjection to it, which is called sara hangor,[ ] in which there is much tin, which they carry to the city of malacca as merchandise, and hence they carry it to all parts. the king and people of the kingdom of ansyam, who are gentiles, greatly honour their idols, and have many customs different from those of the other nations. they go naked from the waist upwards, and some wear small jackets of silk stuffs. the country is very well supplied with provisions, flesh of domestic and wild animals, and rice. they have many horses of a small breed, and much fruit of various qualities. the men are great hunters and sportsmen. in the interior of the country towards china, there is another kingdom of gentiles which is in obedience to him, (the king of siam) and there, when a relation or a friend dies, they eat him roasted before a great fire in the middle of a field, where they set up three poles stuck in the earth, and between them a chain with two hooks of iron, and they bring the body of the man who has died of illness or of any other death, and they hang him up there by the hams, roasting him, and his children and relations are there bewailing him, and after he is well roasted they take wine in cups, and they have knives with which they all cut from the body and eat of it, weeping all the while, and they drink their wine; and the nearest relations begin first to eat, and in this manner they finish eating him, and leave only the bones, which they burn afterwards; and they say that they give such a burial to their relations on account of their being of their own flesh, and that they cannot be any where better buried than in their bodies.[ ] and in all the kingdom of ansyam they burn the dead bodies, because that is the custom of all the gentile countries. kingdom and city of malacca. the said kingdom of ansyane throws out a great point of land into the sea,[ ] which makes there a cape, where the sea returns again towards china to the north; in this promontory is a small kingdom in which there is a large city called malaca; and in former times it belonged to the kingdom of ansyam. and the moors of the town and foreign moors, established their trade in this city, in which they increased so much in wealth, that they revolted with the country and caused the neighbouring inhabitants to turn moors, and they set up a moorish king over them, without paying further obedience to the said king of ansyam. many moorish merchants reside in it, and also gentiles, particularly chetis, who are natives of cholmendel: and they are all very rich and have many large ships, which they call jungos. they deal in all sorts of goods in different parts, and many other moorish and gentile merchants flock thither from other countries to trade; some in ships of two masts from china and other places, and they bring thither much silk in skeins,[ ] many porcelain vases, damasks, brocades, satins of many colours, they deal in musk, rhubarb, coloured silks, much iron, saltpetre, fine silver, many pearls and seed pearl, chests, painted fans, and other toys, pepper, wormwood,[ ] cambay stuffs, scarlet cloths, saffron, coral polished and rough, many stuffs of palecate, of coloured cotton, others white from bengal, vermilion, quicksilver, opium and other merchandise, and drugs from cambay; amongst which there is a drug which we do not possess and which they call puchô, and another called cachô, and another called magican, which are gall nuts, which they bring from the levant to cambay, by way of mekkah, and they are worth a great deal in china and java. there also come thither many ships from java, which have four masts, very different from ours, and of very thick wood. when these become old they fish[ ] them with other new planks, and in this manner they carry three or four coverings of planking one above the other; and the sails are of woven osiers,[ ] and the cordage of the same. these bring much rice, meat of cows, sheep, pigs and deer, dried and salted, many chickens, garlic and onions. they also bring thither many weapons for sale, that is to say, lances, daggers and swords, worked with inlaid metal and of very good steel, they bring likewise cubebs and a yellow die which they call cazunba, and gold which is produced in java. they bring their wives and children in these ships, and there are some mariners whose wives and children never leave the ship to go on shore, nor have any other dwelling, but there are born and die. from this place many ships sail to the molucca islands, which will be mentioned further on, to ship cloves, and they carry there as merchandise cambay cloths, and all sorts of cottons, silks, and other stuffs of palacate and bangala, quicksilver, tin, copper unwrought and wrought into bells, and in a coin which they bring from china, like ceutis[ ] of portugal, pierced in the middle, pepper, porcelain, garlic and onions, with other things and drugs from cambay; and they traffic much in them. so they navigate in these ships to other islands which are scattered over all the sea, that is to say, to timor, whence they bring white sandal, which the indians make great use of; and they carry to them iron, hatchets, knives, swords, cloths of palacate and cambay, copper, quicksilver, vermilion, tin and lead, little beads from cambay of all sorts. and in exchange for these things they carry away the before named sandal, honey, wax, slaves; and at the isles of bandam they ship nutmeg and mace. these islands supply themselves with goods from cambay. these ships also fetch pepper from samatra, silk in skeins, benjuy, and fine gold; and from other islands they fetch camphor and aloes wood; and they also navigate to tanasery, peygu, bengala, palecate, cholmender, malabar, cambay, and aden, with all kinds of goods, so that this city of malaca is the richest trading port and possesses the most valuable merchandise, and most numerous shipping and extensive traffic, that is known in all the world. and it has got such a quantity of gold that the great merchants do not estimate their property, nor reckon otherwise than by bahars of gold, which are four quintals each bahar. there are merchants among them who will take up singly three or four ships laden with very valuable goods, and will supply them with cargo from their own property. they are very well made men, and likewise the women, they are of a brown colour, and go bare from the waist upwards, and from that downwards cover themselves with silk and cotton cloths, and they wear short jackets half way down the thigh of scarlet cloth, and silk, cotton or brocade stuffs; and they are girt with belts, and carry daggers in their waists wrought with rich inlaid work, these they call querix.[ ] and the women dress in wraps of silk stuffs, and short shirts much adorned with gold and jewellery, and have long beautiful hair. these people have many mosques, and when they die they bury their bodies. their children inherit from them. they live in large houses, and have their gardens and orchards, and pools of water outside the city for their recreation. they have got many slaves who are married with wives and children. these slaves live separately and serve them when they have need of them. these moors who are named malayos are very polished people, and gentlemen, musical, gallant, and well proportioned. the chety merchants from cholmendel are for the most part stout and corpulent. they also go bare from the waist upwards. in this city there are also many people from java dwelling in it; they are small stout men, whose breasts and faces are long and ill formed. they are moors and go bare from the waist upwards, and wear cloths ill put on from the waist downwards. they wear nothing on their heads, and their hair is curled with art, and some of them are shaved. they are ingenious and subtle in all their work, and very cunning and treacherous, and of little truth, daring in all mischief, and unto death. they have very good arms and fight valiantly. there are some of them who if they fall ill of any severe illness, vow to god that if they remain in health they will of their own accord seek another more honourable death for his service,[ ] and as soon as they get well they take a dagger in their hands and go out into the streets and kill as many persons as they meet, both men, women and children, in such wise that they go like mad dogs, killing until they are killed. these are called amuco. and as soon as they see them begin this work, they cry out saying, amuco, amuco,[ ] in order that people may take care of themselves, and they kill them with dagger and spear thrusts. many of these javans live in this city with wives and children and property. this city possesses very good water and fruit, and is very healthy. other provisions are brought from outside. the king of malaca has got much treasure, and a large revenue from the duties which he collects. to him the lord of pam made himself tributary, who was a ruler in the kingdom of ansyam, and he raised himself up against it. in this country of pam much gold of inferior quality is found. this country of malaca was discovered by diego lopez de sequeyra, a portuguese gentleman, and after it was discovered the moors of the country took certain portuguese and merchandise by stratagem,[ ] and killed some, on account of which alfonso de alborquerque, captain general of the king of portugal in the indies, moved his fleet, and went against malaca to avenge this event, and he attacked and took it by assault, and drove out the king of malaca, notwithstanding that the moors made a vigorous defence with artillery, spears, arms, guns, and arrows, and with elephants armed with wooden castles, in which were good soldiers with their weapons. so that the merchants and traders of this city surrendered into subjection to the king of portugal, without any vexations being done to them. and the portuguese immediately built a handsome fortress in this city, which entirely commands the town and all its trade, as it was before. much spoil was taken in this city, and great wealth from those who had fled. the ruler of pam, the lord of a gold mine, on knowing that malaca was in subjection to the king of portugal, at once sent an ambassador to this captain major general, offering obedience to the king of portugal. archipelago of malaca. in front of the before named island of samatra across the gulf of the ganges, are five or six small islands, which have very good water and ports for ships, they are inhabited by gentiles, poor people, they are called niconbar,[ ] and they find in them very good amber, which they carry thence to malaca and other parts. island of samatra. having passed these islands near the cape of malaca, about twenty leagues to the south[ ] there is a large and very beautiful island which is called samatara,[ ] which has in circumference seven hundred leagues reckoned by the moors, who have sailed all round it: and it has many seaports and kingdoms of moors and gentiles. the moors live in the seaports, and the gentiles in the interior of the country. the principal kingdom of the moors is called pedir.[ ] much very good pepper grows in it, which is not so strong or so fine as that of malabar. much silk is also grown there, but not so good as the silk of china. another kingdom is called birahem,[ ] and another paser,[ ] and another campar,[ ] another andraguide,[ ] another manancabo,[ ] where much fine gold is collected, which is taken thence to malaca, most of it in dust; and another kingdom called haru, of gentiles, who eat human flesh, and any person whom they can catch, they eat him without any mercy. and it also contains many other kingdoms of gentiles in the interior of the country. in some parts of this island there grows much benjuy, pepper, and long pepper, camphor, and some ginger, and wax. many ships sail to this island for these goods. cloths and goods from cambay are worth a good deal in it, and so also coral, quicksilver, rose-water, dried fish from maldiu. these moors are very disloyal, and often kill their kings and set up others who are more powerful. the king of portugal has a fortress in this island, and trade. and having passed samatara towards java there is the island of sunda,[ ] in which there is much good pepper, and it has a king over it, who, they say, desires to serve the king of portugal. they ship thence many slaves for china. java major. further on than this said island towards the western quarter and the south[ ] there are many islands small and great, amongst which there is one very large which they call java the great;[ ] it is one hundred and twenty leagues distant from the cape of malaca to the south south east, and it is inhabited by many gentiles and moors. and in its seaports there are many towns and villages and large settlements of moors, with moorish kings. but they are all obedient to the king of the island, who is a gentile, and lives in the interior of the country, and is a great lord called patevdara,[ ] and sometimes some rebel against him, and afterwards he again subjugates them. some of these moorish rulers and inhabitants of java desire to serve the king of portugal, and others are ill affected towards him. they say that this island is the most abundant country in the world. there is in it much good rice, and various meats of all kinds, domestic and wild, they make in this place much dried and salted flesh for many parts. there grows in this island pepper, cinnamon, ginger, bamboos, cubebs, and gold. its inhabitants are short and stout in stature with broad faces.[ ] most of them go bare from the waist upwards, others wear silk clothes down to the middle of the thigh, and their beards thin;[ ] the hair shaven on the top and curled upwards, they wear nothing on their heads, and say that nothing must be on their heads, nor anything whatever, and if any person ware to put his hand upon their head they would kill him: and they do not build houses with stories, in order that they may not walk over each other's heads. they are very proud men, liars and treacherous; very ingenious as carpenters and masons, and very good artillerymen. they make in this country many guns and long muskets, and many other fireworks. and in all other parts they are much esteemed for this and as artillerymen. they have got many ships and great navigation, and many rowing galleys. they are great corsairs and mariners, and they make many kinds of arms of good temper and of good steel, wrought with very pretty inlaid work of gold and ivory: they are great sorcerers and necromancers, and they make arms in certain places and hours, and they say that those cannot die by steel who wear them, and that they kill by drawing blood: and others of which they say that those who bear them cannot be conquered. and they say that there are arms which they employ eight or ten years to complete, watching for places, hours and minutes, disposed for these effects: and the kings prize and take great care of these. they are great sportsmen and hunters, they have plenty of horses and many good hunting dogs, and birds of prey for the chase. when they go to hunt they take their wives with them in handsome carts with canopies and curtains; and the kings and great lords also go in those carts, which are drawn by horses when they go hunting. the ladies are white and very pretty in figure and of pleasing countenances though rather long; they sing well, are polished in manner, and are very industrious workwomen. java minor. further out to sea five leagues to the east of the said island of java major is another island also very well supplied with provisions of all kinds, inhabited by gentiles, with a gentile king, and a language of its own. a few moors subjects of the gentile king live in the seaports. this island is called amongst them sumbava, and the moors, arabs, and persians call it java minor.[ ] and after passing the said island there is another small island called oçare, and a fire always burns in the centre of it. they go much on horseback and are hunters, and the women take much care of the flocks. timor. having passed these islands of java major and minor, forty-two leagues distant from java minor to the east south-east there are many other islands great and small, inhabited by gentiles and by a few moors, amongst which there is an island called timor,[ ] which has a gentile king, and a language of its own. much white sandal grows there, and those who go for it carry as goods to this island iron hatchets, large and small, knives and swords, stuffs from cambay and palecate, porcelain, small beads of all kinds, tin, quicksilver and lead. they also ship in this island honey, wax, slaves, and some silver which is found in these islands. islands of bandan. fifteen leagues more to the north-north-west there are five other islands almost close together, which make a pool between them into which ships enter. and they enter there on two sides, and these are called the bandan islands,[ ] they are inhabited by moors and gentiles, and in three of them there grows much nutmeg and mace upon trees like laurels, whose fruit is the nutmeg, and upon the nutmeg is the mace like a flower, and above this there is another thick rind: and in these islands one quintal of mace is worth as much as seven of nutmeg, for there is such a quantity of the nutmeg that they burn it, so that it is almost worth nothing. and to purchase this mace and nutmeg the merchants carry the following goods: cotton and silk stuffs of all kinds from cambay, drugs from guzerat, copper, quicksilver, lead and tin; and some coloured caps[ ] with long pile, which they bring from the levant, and bells from java which are worth each one of the large ones twenty bahars of mace, and each bahar is four quintals. from this island of bandam to maluco, which is towards the north, there are many islands inhabited and uninhabited, in these they keep as treasure very large metal bells; ivory, cambay silk stuffs which they call patolas, and very fine porcelain. there is no king in these islands, nor do they obey any one: on some occasions they obey the king of maluco. dandon.[ ] a hundred leagues further on to the north-east towards maluco, there are many other islands peopled by gentiles, they are called the dandon islands, each one has a king and a language of its own. in these islands there are many rowing boats which go out to rob one another, and make prisoners, whom they kill, or ransom for cambay stuffs, which are highly valued amongst them; and each man labours to obtain such a quantity of these cloths that when placed upon the ground the bundle would rise to the height of a man's stature; and those who have as much as that consider themselves as free, since the ransom of those who are captured is not greater than this quantity. islands of maluco, which are five. beyond these islands twenty-five leagues towards the north-east there are five islands one before the other, which are called the islands of maluco,[ ] in which all the cloves grow, and they are of gentiles and moors. their kings are moors, and the first of them is called bachan, the second maquian, which contains a very good harbour, the third is called motil, the fourth tidory, and the fifth ternaty,[ ] in which there is a moorish king who is called sultan benarra sorala. he was king of all these islands of cloves, and now all the four have revolted, and have each got a king of their own. the hills in these five islands are all of cloves, which grow on trees like laurel, which has its leaf like that of the arbutus, and it grows like the orange flower, which in the beginning is green and then turns white, and when it is ripe it turns coloured, and then they gather it by hand, the people going amongst the trees, and they put it to dry in the sun, where it turns brown, and if there is no sun they dry it with the smoke, and after it is very dry they sprinkle it with salt water for it not to crumble, and that it may preserve its virtue. and there are such quantities of these cloves that they never can finish gathering them, so that they let much of it be lost. and the trees from which they do not gather it for three years, after that become wild, so that their cloves are worth nothing. every year the people of malaca and java come to these islands to ship cloves, and they bring as merchandise, quicksilver, vermilion, stuffs from cambay, bengal and palecate, drugs from cambay, some pepper, porcelain, large metal bells which are made in java, dishes of copper and tin. the cloves are worth very little in these islands, so as to be almost for nothing. this king of maluco is a moor, and almost a gentile; he has a moorish wife, and three or four hundred gentile damsels whom he keeps in his house, and he has of many of them gentile sons and daughters, and only the children of the moorish women become moors. he is served by humpbacked women, whom he orders to have their spines bent from childhood, for state and show; and he may have eighty or a hundred of these, who always go with him and serve him as pages; some give him betel, others carry his sword, and they render all other services. in these islands there are many coloured parrots, of very splendid colours; they are tame, and the moors call them nure,[ ] and they are much valued amongst them. island of celebe.[ ] having passed these islands of maluco to the west of motil and machian, at a distance of a hundred and thirty leagues, there are other islands to the west, from which sometimes there come white people, naked from the waist upwards, and they wear cloths round them made of straw, and have a language of their own. they bring some ill made boats to ship cloves in the before mentioned islands, and copper, tin and cambay stuffs. they bring for sale very long and broad swords of one edge and other manufactures of iron,[ ] and much gold. these people eat human flesh, and if the king of maluco has any person to execute they beg for him to eat him, just as one would ask for a pig, and the islands from whence they come are called celebe.[ ] bangaya.[ ] at no great distance from this island to the west-south-west, at thirty-six leagues off, is another island of gentiles which has a gentile king over it. the inhabitants of it are accustomed to saw off their teeth at the roots of the gums. it is called bangaya,[ ] there is much iron in it, which they carry to all parts. solor. seventy-five leagues further on to the north-east in the direction of china is a very large island and well supplied with various provisions, which is called solor,[ ] it is inhabited by gentiles, almost white men, and well made; they have a gentile king and a language of their own. in this island there is much gold, which is found in the earth; and all round this island the moors gather much seed pearl and fine pearls of perfect colour and not round. borney. beyond this island to the north more towards china is another island also very well supplied with provisions, inhabited by gentiles, who have a gentile king and a language of their own. in this island much camphor for eating is gathered, and the indians value it highly. it is worth its weight in silver, and some of it even more. they bring it made into powder in tubes of cane; and it is worth a great deal in narsinga, malabar, and decan.[ ] this island is called borney.[ ] champa. having passed this island thirty leagues to the west towards the country of ansiam and china, there is another great island of gentiles, which is called champa,[ ] which has a king and a language of its own; and many elephants which are bred there, and they carry them to many places. there also grows in it aloes wood which the indians call eagle, and calambuco; it must be said that the very fine calambuco and the other eagle wood is worth at calicut a thousand maravedis the pound.[ ] between these islands there are many other islands inhabited by gentiles, and others uninhabited amongst which there is one in which there are many diamonds which the people of the country collect and export for sale to many parts but they are not such nor so fine as those of narsynga. china. leaving these islands which are many, almost unnumbered, of all of which the names are not known; and they are towards the north and in the direction of china, and there is not much information about them; it is only known that after passing the kingdom of ansyam and other kingdoms, there is the kingdom of china, which they say is a very extensive dominion, both along the coast of the sea and in the interior of the country; it is a country of gentiles, and it possesses many islands in the sea also inhabited by gentiles, subject to it, in which the king of china keeps his governors and officers of his appointment. this king always resides in the interior of the country in very large and good cities. no foreigner enters within the kingdom, they can only trade in the sea ports, and in the islands; and if any ambassador from another kingdom comes to it by sea, he first gives information of it in order that he may enter, and afterwards the king bids him be conducted to where he is staying. the inhabitants of the country are white men, tall, well-made and gentlemen; and so likewise the women. they have got only one defect, that their eyes are very small, and on their chins they have three or four hairs and no more; the smaller their eyes are, so much the prettier they think them; and the same as regards the women. they are very smartly dressed, clothed in silk and cotton and woollen stuffs, and their costumes are like those of germans; they are shod with soft leather boots[ ] and shoes, like the people of a cold country. they have a language of their own, and the tone of it is like that of germans. they eat on high tables like ourselves, with their napkins, and for as many as may be there to eat, they set before each one a plate, a small roll, and a knife, and a silver cup; they do not touch the food which they are going to eat with their hands, but eat it with little pinchers of silver or wood, and they hold in their left hand the dish or porcelain in which they eat, brought very close to the mouth, and with those pinchers they eat very quickly. they prepare various kinds of viands, and eat all meats, and wheaten bread. they drink several kinds of wine, and many times during their meals. they also eat the flesh of dogs which they hold to be good meat. they are men of truth and[ ] good gentlemen: they are great merchants of all sorts of goods. they make much porcelain in the country, and very good, which is a great article of commerce for all parts. they make them of sea snail shells well ground and with the whites and shells of eggs, and of other materials, of which they make a dough, which they put under the earth to ripen and mature itself, for a space of eighty or a hundred years, and they leave this mass as a treasure and inheritance, because as the time approaches for working it so it becomes more valuable, and in this way they leave it to their sons and grandsons;[ ] and after the time has arrived they work it into vases of all patterns, and after they are made they enamel and paint them. there also grows and is produced in this country of china much very good silk, of which they make a great quantity of stuffs; that is to say, damasks of all colours, satins of several kinds, and brocade. there is much rhubarb in this country, and much musk, very fine silver, seed pearl, and pearls that are not very round. they also make many other very pretty gilded things in this country; that is to say, very rich chests and trays of gilt wood, salt dishes, fans, and other delicate works of ingenious men. they are also great navigators in very large ships which they call jungos, of two masts, of a different make from ours, the sails are of matting, and so also the cordage. there are great corsairs and robbers amongst those islands and ports of china. they go with all these goods to malaca, where they also carry much iron, saltpetre and many other things, and for the return voyage they ship there samatra and malabar pepper, of which they use a great deal in china, and drugs of cambay, much anfiam, which we call opium, wormwood, levant gall nuts, saffron, coral wrought and unwrought, stuffs from cambay, palecate and bengal, vermilion, quicksilver, scarlet cloth, and many other things. in this country of china the pepper is worth fifteen ducats the quintal, and more according to the quantity they carry there, which pepper they buy in malaca at four ducats the quintal. many of these chinese take their wives and children continually in the ships in which they live without possessing any other dwelling. this china borders on tartary towards the north, and it is a thousand leagues distant to the north-north-west from the malucos. lequeos. opposite this country of china there are many islands in the sea, and beyond them at a hundred and seventy-five leagues to the east there is one very large which they say is the mainland, from whence there come each year to malaca three or four ships like those of the chinese, of white people whom they describe as great and wealthy merchants. they bring much gold in bars, silver, silk and many very rich silk stuffs, much very good wheat, beautiful porcelain and other merchandise. and they ship pepper and other things which they carry away. these islands are called lequeos,[ ] the people of malaca say that they are better men, and greater and wealthier merchants, and better dressed and adorned, and more honourable than the chinese. there is not much information about these people up to the present time, because they have not come to india since the king of portugal possesses it.[ ] finis. an end was made of transferring this book from its original in the portuguese language, translated into castilian language, in vitoria, the emperor and king of spain residing there, on the first day of march, of the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-four years, by min. cinturion,[ ] ambassador of the community of genoa, with the interpretation of diego ribero, portuguese, cosmographer of his majesty, and master of the sailing charts. account of the rubies, where they grow, of their variety, and of how they are sold in the malabar country. firstly, the rubies grow in the third india, and are for the most part gathered in a river which is called peygu, and these are the best and the finest, which the malabars call nir puco. those which are sold for the prices written below must be very good, without any blemish: and in order to know their fineness the indians put the point of their tongue upon them, and that which is the coldest and hardest is best: and in order to see its purity they take it up with wax by the finest point, and so look at it by the light, by which they see any blemish which it may have got. they are found in very deep caves which there are amongst the mountains. and in this river and country of peygu they clean them, but do not work them, for they take them to other parts to be worked, principally in palecate and the country of narsynga. in calicut and the whole malabar country, eight fine rubies of the weight of one fanam are worth ten fanaes[ ] x fs. four rubies of the said weight in perfection xx fanaes xx fs. two weighing one fanam xl fs. one weighing one fanam l fs. one weighing three quarters of a fanam xxx fs. one weighing a fanam and a quarter lxxv fs. one weighing a fanam and a half is worth c fs. one which should weigh a fanam and three quarters cl fs. a ruby which weighs two fanaes is worth cc fs. one which should weigh two fanoes and a quarter ccl fs. one of two and a half ccc fs. one of two and three quarters and a half cccc fs. one of three fanoes ccccl fs. one of three fanoes and a quarter d fs. one of three and a half dl fs. one of three and three quarters dc fs. one of three fanoes three quarters and a half dcxxx fs. one of four fanoes dclx fs. one of four fanoes and a quarter dcc fs. one of four fanoes and a half dcccc fs. one of five fanoes iu fs. , one of five fanoes and a half iucc fs. , one of six fanoes iud fs. , they are usually worth these prices if they are perfect, and those which should not be perfect, or may have any spots, or have not got a good colour are worth much less, according to the choice of the buyer. a fanam weighs something more than two carats of our parts, and eleven fanoes and a quarter are a mitigal,[ ] and six mitigals and a half make an ounce, and each fanan is worth here a real of silver.[ ] account of the spinel rubies. there is another kind of rubies which we call spinel rubies, and the indians call them carapuch, which are produced in the same country of peygu, where the fine rubies grow, and they find them in the mountains near the surface of the ground. these are not so fine nor of so bright a colour as the rubies, but they have rather the colour of scarlet: and those which are perfect in colour and pure, are worth half less than the rubies. account of other rubies of ceylon. in the second india there is an island called ceylan, where many rubies are found, which the indians call manica, most of these do not reach the perfection of the others in colour, because they are red, and pale, and ruddy.[ ] they are very hard and very cold, and, those which are found in all their perfection of colour are very highly valued amongst them. and the king of that island has them found, and keeps the perfect ones for himself, which he sells with his own hand: and when the lapidaries clean them if they find one very white they put it by his orders into the fire for a certain number of hours, and if it endures the fire and comes out sound it remains of a brighter colour. such a stone is of great value, and those of this kind which the king of narsynga can get into his hands, he orders them to be bored with a very fine hole on the underneath side so that the hole reaches to the centre, and they do not pass it, because the stone can no longer leave the kingdom, and that it may be known that it has been tried in the fire. and so also these are worth more than those of peygu. their prices are the following if they are perfect in colour and purity:-- one which weighs a carat, which is half a fanam, is worth in calicut thirty fanoes xxx fs. one of two carats lxxv fs. [ ] one of three carats cl fs. one of three carats and a half cc fs. one of four carats ccc fs. one of four carats and a half cccl fs. one of five carats cccc fs. one of five carats and a half ccccl fs. one of six carats dxxx fs. one of six carats and a half dlx fs. one of seven carats dcxxx fs. one of seven carats and a half dcclx fs. one of eight carats very good and tried in the fire is worth dccc fs. such a one of eight carats and a half dcccc fs. such a one of nine carats iuc fs. , such a one of ten carats iuccc fs. , one of eleven carats of this kind iudc fs. , one of twelve carats nu fs. , one of fourteen carats mu fs. , one of sixteen carats viu fs. , account of the balasses, where they grow and what they are worth in calicut. these balasses are of the class of rubies but not so strong as them, their colour is rosy and some are almost white, they are found in balaxayo[ ] which is a kingdom of the mainland near peygu and bengal. the moors bring them out of that country to all parts; that is to say, the good and picked ones, cut or uncut, they clean and work them in calicut, and they are sold for the prices of spinel rubies. those which are not good, and are bored, are bought by the moors of mekkah and aden for the whole of arabia, where they are accustomed to take them. account of the diamonds of the old mine. these diamonds are gathered in the first india in a kingdom of moors called decan, and they carry them thence to all parts. there are other diamonds which are not so good; some are white and are said to be of the new mine which is in the kingdom of narsynga; these are worth less by a third in calicut and the country of malabar, than those of the old mine; and they are worked in the kingdom of narsynga itself. and those of the old mine are not worked in india. they likewise make false diamonds in india with white rubies, topazes and sapphires, which look like fine gems and these are found in ceylon, and they only differ from diamonds in the colour which they have by nature. and some of these stones are found half of which have the colour of the ruby and the other of the colour of the sapphire, and others of the colour of the topaze, and some of them have got all these colours mixed. they bore these stones with two or three very fine threads through them, and they remain as cats' eyes. and with the stones which turn out white they make a great quantity of small diamonds which cannot be distinguished from the other genuine ones, except by the touch[ ] and by those who have much acquaintance with them. eight fine diamonds which weigh a manjar[ ] are worth xxv or xxx fs. six weighing one manjar xl fs. four weighing one manjar lx fs. two weighing one manjar lxxx fs. one weighing one manjar c fs. one weighing a manjar and a quarter clxv fs. one of one and a half clxxx fs. one of one and three quarters ccxx fs. one of one and three quarters and a half cclx fs. one of two manjars cccxx fs. one of two and a quarter ccclx fs. one of two and a half ccclxxx fs. one of two and three quarters if in full perfection ccccxx fs. one of this said perfection of three manjars ccccl fs. one of three manjars and a half cccclxxx fs. one of four manjars dl fs. one of five manjars dccl fs. one of six manjars dcccc fs. one of seven manjars iucc fs. , one of eight manjars iucccc fs. , these go on increasing in price in proportion, and each manjar weighs two taras and two-thirds, and two taras make a carat even weight, and four taras weigh a fanam. account of the sapphires. the best and most genuine sapphires are found in ceylon, they are very strong and fine, and those which are in all perfection, and purity, and of a fine blue colour, are worth the following prices. one which weighs a carat two fanaes ii fs. one weighing two vi fs. one weighing three carats x fs. one weighing four carats xv fs. one weighing five carats xviii fs. a weight of six xxv fs. one of seven xxxv fs. one of eight carats l fs. one of nine lxv fs. one of ten carats lxxv fs. a sapphire weighing eleven carats is worth xc. fs. one of twelve cxx fs. one perfect in purity and colour weighing thirteen carats cxxxv fs. one of fourteen carats clx fs. one of sixteen two hundred fanoes cc fs. one of eighteen ccl fs. one of twenty ccc fs. one weighing a mitical which is xi fanams and a quarter cccl fs. there is also in ceylam another kind of sapphires, which are not so strong, which they call quirin genilam,[ ] and they are of a darker colour. these are worth much less, however good they may be, for one of the above-mentioned is worth as much as thirteen of these. in the kingdom of narsynga in a mountain above bancanor and mangalor there is another kind of sapphires softer and inferior in colour, which they call cringanilan;[ ] they are somewhat whitish; these are worth very little, so much so that the most perfect of them which weighs twenty carats will not be worth a ducat. their colour is also somewhat yellow. there is another sort of sapphires which are found on the sea beach of the kingdom of calicut in a place called capucad,[ ] the indians call these carahatonilam, they are very blue and cloudy and do not glitter, except setting them in the light.[ ] they are soft and break like glass. an opinion is held by some who say that in former times there was by the sea of this capurad the house of a king and that its windows were of blue glass, and that the sea having covered it over the pieces of glass are thrown up ashore; but they are very large, and on the other hand they seem to be glass. these are worth very little among them. account of the topazes and of their prices in calicut. the natural topazes are found in ceylon which the indians call pur ceraga, it is very hard stone and very cold and heavy like the ruby and sapphire, because all three are of one kind. its perfect colour is yellow like beaten gold, and when their colour is perfect and pure, whether they be great or small, in calicut they are worth their weight in fine gold, and this is their price usually; and if the colour is not so perfect they are worth their weight in gold of fanams which is less by half, and if it is almost white they are worth much less, and they make small diamonds of them. account of the turquoises, and of their prices in malabar. the true turquoises are found in niexer[ ] and quirimane,[ ] country of sheikh ismail, in mines and dry ground,[ ] and they are found upon black stones, and the moors detach them there in small pieces, and bring them thence to ormuz, whence they are sent out to many countries by sea. the indians call them peyrosa. it is a soft stone and of little weight, and not very cold; and in order to know that it is good and true, by day it will seem to you of a blue colour, and at night by candle light it turns green; and those which are not so perfect, do not change from one appearance. if this stone is pure and of a fine colour, underneath at its base it will have brown stone upon which it grew, and if any little vein or point were to come out above the black stone itself, then it is known as very genuine indeed, and of greater value, because it is a sign of being a true turquoise, and for greater certainty putting upon it a little virgin lime, white and moistened like ointment, the lime will appear coloured. and when they have this perfection they are worth the following prices:-- if the turquoise is of the said perfection and weighs a carat, it will be worth in the malabar country xv fs. one of two carats xl fs. one of four carats xc fs. one of six carats cl fs. one of eight carats cc fs. one of ten carats ccc fs. one of twelve carats ccccl fs. one of xiiij carats dl fs. they take no account of the larger ones, from their being light pieces of much bulk. the moors and guzuratys wear the large ones. account of the hyacinths. the hyacinths are produced in ceylan, and are soft yellow stones, and those which are of a stronger colour are the best; most of them have within some grains which impair their beauty, and those which have not got them, and are pure, in perfection of this colour, are worth little in calicut where they arrange them; one which weighs a fanam is not worth more than three fanams, and one of xviij fanams is not worth more than xvi fanams. there are also other gems, cat's eyes, chrysoliths, and amethists, of which no other distinction is made on account of their being of little value, and so also with regard to the jagonzas.[ ] account of the emeralds. the emeralds are produced in the country of babilonia, which the indians call maredeygua;[ ] and they likewise grow in many other parts; they are green stones of a good colour and pretty; they are light and soft, and many counterfeits are made of them which resemble them, but looking at them in the light they show the counterfeit and some little globules such as all glass makes; and if they were genuine they would not show any. but the sight of them would give great satisfaction and the good ones shew rays inside them like of the sun, and being touched by a touchstone leaves on it a copper colour. and the real emerald is such that they are worth the same as diamonds in calicut, and something more, not according to the weight but the size, because the diamond is much heavier than it. there are likewise other emeralds which are green stones, and these are not so much valued, but the indians make use of them in jewellery. these do not leave a copper colour on the touchstone.[ ] summary account of the spices, where they grow, and what they are worth in calicut, and where they are exported to. pepper grows in all malabar, firstly in the kingdom of calicut, and there it is worth from two hundred to two hundred and thirty fanoes the bahal, which weighs four quintals of the old weight of portugal at which all spice is sold in lisbon: and they pay twelve fanoes per bahar duty for taking it out of the country to the king of calicut; and those who buy it are used to take it to cambay, persia, aden, mekkah, from whence they also transport it to cayro, and thence to alexandria. and now they give it to the king of portugal at the rate of iiijulx ( , )[ ] the bahar, with the duties, which are cxciij fanoes ( ) and / , on account of so great a variety of merchants no longer resorting there to buy it, and on account of the agreement which the king of portugal made with the kings and moors and merchants of the country of malabar. much pepper also grows in sumatra which is an island near malaca, and it is larger and better looking than that of the malabar country: but this pepper is not so fine nor so strong as that. this pepper is carried to bengal and china and java, and some of it is carried to mekkah without the knowledge of the portuguese, who do not allow it to be taken. it is worth to maravedis the quintal of portugal, in this case of the new weight. and between the new and the old one in portugal there is a different of two ounces per pound. account of the cloves. the cloves grow in an island beyond java called maluco, and from thence they bring it to malacca, and from there to calicut and all the malabar country. each bahar is worth in calicut and fanoes, and if it is clean of husks and sticks, at seven hundred fanoes, and xviiij fanoes per bahar are paid as export duty. at maluco where it grows it is worth from one to two ducats the bahar; according to the multitude of buyers who go for it. in malacca the bahar of these cloves is worth as much as fourteen ducats the bahar according to the demand of the merchants. cinnamon. good cinnamon grows in the island of ceylam, and in the county of malabar there grows a very inferior quality; the good sort is worth little in ceylam, and in calicut it is worth three hundred fanoes the bahar, new and very choice. beledyn ginger. beledyn[ ] ginger grows at a distance of two or three leagues all round the city of calicut, and the bahar is worth lx[ ] fanoes, and sometimes fifty, they bring it to the city for sale, from the mountains and estates. the indian merchants buy it in detail and collect it together, and then in the season for loading ships they sell it to the moors at prices from ninety to a hundred and ten fanoes; its weight is the greater weight.[ ] ely ginger. the ely ginger grows in the mountain dely as far as cananor, and is smaller and not so white, nor so good. the bahar in cananor is worth forty fanoes, and six fanoes duty is paid per bahar, and it is sold without being packed.[ ] green ginger for conserves. in bengal there is also much ginger of the country and there they make with it a large quantity of preserves with sugar, very well made; and they bring it in martaban jars to sell at malabar, and the farazola, which is twenty-two pounds, is worth xiiij and xv or xv; fanoes. and that which is now preserved with sugar in calicut is worth xxv fanoes the farazola on account of sugar being dear there. green ginger for making preserves is worth three quarters of a fanam the farazola[ ] in calicut. account of the drugs and spices in calicut and all the malabar country. lac of martaban, very good, is worth the farazola, which is twenty-two pounds and six ounces and a half of portugal, of xvj ounces to the pound xviij fanoes lac of the country, the farazola xij fs. coarse camphor in loaves of lxx to eighty fanoes the farazola lxxx fs. very good borax[ ] in large pieces at xxx, xl, or l fs. the farazola xl fs. camphor for anointing the idols at the rate of one fanam and a half the mitical, six and a half of which make an ounce i fm. & a half - / camphor for eating and for the eyes at iij fs. the mitical iij fs. eagle wood at cccl and cccc fs. the farazola ccclxxv fs. genuine aloe-wood, and very choice black and heavy is worth i fs. the farazola iu fs. , musk in powder of good quality, the ounce xxxvi fs. xxxvi fs. benjuy each farazola lx and the very good lxx fs. lxv fs. fresh tamarinds at iij fs. the farazola iij fs. sweet flag[ ] the farazola xij fs. indigo, coarse and heavy, which contains sand, seventeen to twenty-two fs. the farazola xx fs. encienzo the best when in grain is worth v fs. encienzo[ ] in paste and inferior is worth iij fs. very good amber is worth ij to iij fs. the mitical iij fs. mirobolans in sugar conserve are worth from sixteen to xxv fs. the farazola xx fs. coloured sandal v and vi fs. the farazola vi fs. spikenard, fresh and good, from xxx to xl fs. the fa. xl fs. white sandal, and of a lemon colour xl to lx fs. the farazola, it grows in an island called timor fs. nutmeg x and xi fs. the farazola, it comes from bandam, where the bahar is worth viij or x fs. xi fs. mace from xxv to xxx fs. the farazola, this also comes from bandan, where it is worth fs. the bahar. xxx fs. good herb lonbreguera[ ] at xv fs. the farazola xv fs. turbiti,[ ] at xiij fs. the farazola xiij fanoes zerumba is worth the farazola ij fs. zedoary is worth the farazola i fm. serapine gum[ ] is worth the farazola xx fs. socotra aloes are worth the farazola viij fs. cardamums in grain at xx fs. xx fs. rhubarb, there is much of it in the malabar country, and what comes from china by malaca is worth cccc to d fs. the farazola ccccl mirobolans, ynblicos, are worth, the farazola ij fs. mirobolans, belericos, are worth, the farazola i fm. mirobolans of a citron colour and quebulos which are one kind ij fs. mirobolans yndos, which are from the same trees as the citron coloured, are worth iij fs. tutty,[ ] the farazola xxx fs. china cubela,[ ] which grows in java, is given there at a low price without weight or measure, by eye. opium is worth the farazola in calicut, and comes from aden, where they make it, it is worth from cclxxx to cccxx fs. ccc fs. another opium which is prepared in cambay is worth from cc to ccl fs. the farazola ccxxv fs. account of the weights of portugal and of the indies. in portugal. a pound of the old weight contains xiiij oz. a pound of the new weight contains xvi oz., eight quintals of the old weight make seven quintals of the new, and each quintal of the new weight is of cxxviij pounds of xv oz., each old quintal is three quarters and a half of a new quintal, and is of cxxviij pounds of xiiij oz. each. indies. a farazola is xxij pounds of xvi oz. and vi oz. / more. twenty farazolas are one bahar. one bahar is four old quintals of portugal.[ ] all spices and drugs and anything which comes from india is sold in portugal by old weight, at present all the rest[ ] is sold by new weight. voyage which juan serano made when he fled from malaca, with three portuguese and cristoval de morales of seville, in a caravel which he stole in malaca, in which he put certain malay mariners, natives of malaca, about the year of our lord jesus christ one thousand five hundred and twelve years.[ ] in the name of god: we left the city of malaca in a caravel with five malay mariners and pilots; the captain was fran^{co} serano, with three other christians, who in all were nine; the mariners, natives of malaca; the christians, three portuguese and a castilian. in the year one thousand five hundred and twelve we sailed to the city of pegu, and this city is on the mainland, and not very far from the sea, more on this side of malaca, east (and) west[ ] of the island care ca faya, north (and) south, with the malacca channel and island quendan, it must be said, the river higher up towards the east passes close by it: this river is very large and clear, by it enters and goes forth the merchandise, which many christians traffic with; these are clothed in camlets and bocasi.[ ] they believe in one only true god. they are natives of these parts these married christians. they trade with upper and lower india. the king of this country is an idolater; he uses another dress, which reaches from his head to his feet, full of gold rings and jewellery and seed pearl. these stones are brought from the kingdom of pegu itself, about three days' journey inland. in this country, when the husbands die, their wives burn themselves and throw themselves into the fire. this king of pegu is continually at war with some other powerful king, who may be the king of camboja, siam, or conchin chinan. leaving pegu and the bar of the river and continuing to the south-west, inclining to the south south-west,[ ] we arrive at the island samatra, for so is named a city of this northern part, as i will relate further on, at a port which is very large and called pedir. it is near the extremity of the island, placed more to the north, which looks to the north west.[ ] the harbour of pedir is very large and the city very populous, the best of the island, which the malay pilots said had a circuit of two hundred and fifty leagues, according as we can collect from their day's journey and our day's run.[ ] we gathered from the position of the country and sayings of the pilots and ancient geographers that this island is traprobana, in which there are four idolatrous kings. the wives of the natives of the country burn themselves when their husbands are dead, as in pegu and in malabaria. the people are white; they have wide foreheads, the eyes greyish and round, the hair long, the nose flat; they are small in stature. much silk is produced in this island, and grows of itself on the mountains, in which there are many trees of storax and benjuy some way inland; and if it is not brought so much hither, the reason is that they use it there, for they all anoint themselves: many various kinds of lignum aloes grow in the mountains. having left pedir and gone down the northern[ ] coast, i drew towards the south and south-east[ ] direction, and reached to another country and city which is called samatra, in which we saw many merchants; and in a single quarter we counted five hundred changers, besides other quarters where there were many others. there are innumerable silk workshops. the people are all dressed in cotton. they navigate with vessels made of a certain wood which looks like canes: they call them juncos in malay language: they carry three masts and two helms: when they pass any stiff gulf, the wind being contrary they hoist other sails, and they are raised on the second mast, and so they make their voyage. the houses of this city of samatra and its island, which are all named from it, as i said speaking of pedir, are of stone and lime, low and covered with shells of tortoises or turtles. each one of these shells covers as much as two or three bucklers; they are painted of their natural colour like ours. from here we stood to the east until the bandan islands, and we found near this, which gives name to the others, twenty islands. it is a dry country which bears fruit; some of these islands are inhabited, the people are like the peasants of malabaria and calicut, who are called poliares and gicanales,[ ] they are of a low way of living, and coarse intelligence. a profitable commodity is found in bandan, namely nutmeg, which grows here in great quantity and kinds. thence we departed to other islands standing to the north-east and east-north-east[ ] through many channels as far as the islands of malut. in them grows much cloves, they are five in all, the largest of them is smaller than bandan. the maluquese people are very wretched, and worth little, they are very beastly, and of a brutal mode of living, they do not differ from animals in their customs but only in possessing the human face. they are whiter than other races of these islands. the cloves grow in another island which is smaller, and is called tidory, the tree on which it grows is like the box or buxo. when the cloves are ripe on the trees they stretch cloaks or sheets on the ground and sweep the tree, and the inhabitants gather the most they can. the country is of earth clay and sand; it is so near the line that the north star cannot be seen, and then they sail by certain stars which the orientals are accustomed to. and having departed from here to another second isle, there we the four christians and some malays remained; and there the king of maluco shewed great honour to fran^{co} serano, the before-named captain, and married him with honour to his daughter, and to the others who wished to go he gave permission to go and see the city and island of java. on the road we found an island which is called borney, which is fifty leagues from maluco, and it is somewhat larger than maluco, and much lower. its people adore idols, they are rather white, and go dressed with shirts like those of sailors, and in face they are like the people of the city of cayro: they dress in camlets. from this island we went to another and took other mariners. tn this country there grows much camphor, because there are many trees in which it grows, and from there we set out to the island of zaylon, at which we arrived in three days; and so the mariners whom we took in borney carried a map for navigating, and they had a needle and loadstone, and a chart in which they had many lines and strokes at which we were greatly amazed[ ], and spoke to them of it in the malay language: and the north star having disappeared from us in those countries the mariners told us that they guided themselves throughout all that region by five stars, principally by one star opposite to the north to which they continue to navigate, and for this they always carry a needle and loadstone because that stone always follows the north, towards which they continue to sail, and it never turns away from the north, and they look on it on that account; and the mariners of borneo told us that in that part of that island there was a people which used the contrary stars opposite to the north, for their navigation; and which seemed to be almost the antipodes of tropia and sarmatia, and that this people inhabited in the frigid zone near the antarctic pole, which appeared in that country not to have more than four hours of daylight; for the country is very cold to a wonderful degree, on account of the climate being like that which exists near the arctic pole. having left this island, we went to the island of java, in which we found four kinds of kings, who follow different rites, all idolators, who worship idols, others the sun, others the moon, and others worship the cows, and things to eat, and others worship the devil. there are other races which go dressed with cloaks and bornusses of silk and camlet. there are in this java some who sell their parents when they see that they are old and decrepit, to another nation, who are called canibals or anthropophagi, who are pagans, and likewise brothers sell their brothers when they are sick: when their recovery is despaired of they bring them out into the market-place and sell them to those caribs, saying that man's flesh is brought up with so much care and luxury, that it would not be in reason that the earth should consume it. note to pp. - .--see pages - of _the travels of ludovico de varthema_ hakluyt society, and notes, also mr. r. major's able introduction to the _early voyages to terra australis, now called australia_. this passage, written about five years later than when varthema wrote, is a fuller statement than varthema's: and taking the two together, there can be little doubt that the information they contain was based on actual knowledge of australia. note to description of precious stones. i have read with great interest the passages of the manuscript relating to precious stones, and i have admired their conscientious appreciation and exactness in details. a doubt was raised with respect to stones of combined colours; they do exist, but are by no means valued in europe. the proportions of the prices in regard to weights, are still very exact as to the indian market, and uncut stones. experiments similar to those here described have been made in europe, and chiefly in germany, to heighten the colour of gems, rubies especially, by exposing them to fire, but their success has been so hazardous, nay costly, that speculation has been unwilling to expose itself to so much risk. jargon-corindon or circon was much used in the sixteenth century, and is now without value: it has the merit of possessing the hardness of the sapphire. henry capt, , rue du rhône, geneva. jeweller. note to page . the munich ms. no. , like the barcelona ms., has: "y las naos de alli se enpeguen el dicho yncenso el qual le vale alli de ciento cinquenta [=mrs] el quintal." but the munich ms. no. has: "e las naos desta costa son _embreadas_ en el e vale el quintal de ciento o ciento y cinquenta reaes en la tierra en donde nace." so that the meaning of the passage is that the ships are caulked or pitched with this herb or gum. note to page . the munich ms. no. is like the barcelona ms., but the ms. no. gives this list of places:--"lefete, quesebey, tabla, beroho, cal, cor, juza, mohymacim, lima, horbaz, alguefa, carmoni, cohmobarque, conch, conga, ebrahemi, xenaa, menacio, xamyle, leytan, bamtani, doam, loram," and leaves out the words which in the other two mss. follow after the names of _quesebi_, _carmoni_, and _ebrahemi_. from this ms. no. it is clear how _tabla_ got into the maps. note to page . devadachi, femmes des pagodes, servantes des dieux. chap. . ce sont ordinairement les tisserants qui vouent leurs filles aux pagodes, les parents ne leur demandent pas pour cela leur consentement, ils n'attendent pas même qu'elles soient en age de le donner, puisqu'ils les destinent au service des dieux dès qu'elles commencent de naître: ils ont grand soin de les préparer à cet état par un continuel exercice de la danse, du chant, et des jeux; il y a un maître exprès de ces exercises, qui enseigne les jeunes filles que l'on a destinées et devouées aux pagodes, et qui les dirigent dans les cérémonies: lorsqu' elles sont devenues devadashi, c'est à dire servantes des dieux, lorsqu' elles ont atteint l'âge de ou ans, leurs pères vont convier toutes les castes de venir assister à la consécration de leurs filles. on les conduit solemnellement à la pagode, devant d'y entrer elles donnent à tout le monde des marques de leur habileté dans la danse, dans le chant, et dans le jeu, et selon qu'on est content d'elles on leur fait des présents, ensuite elles entrent dans la pagode, elles se prosternent devant les dieux. les brahames qui sont là présens, les font relever, allors le prêtre offre la fille aux dieux, en leur disant, seigneurs voilà une fille que je vous offre, daignez la prendre pour votre servante. le brahame officiant met dans la main de la fille un peu de tirouniron, et un peu de l'eau qui a servi à laver l'idole: elle delaye tout cela ensemble, et elle s'en met au front pour marquer qu'elle se devoue d'elle-même avec joye pour être toute sa vie la servante des dieux. cette cérémonie suppose que c'est à la pagode de siva qu'elle se devoue particulièrement, car si c'est à la pagode de vishnou elle se met le tirounamam[ ] et on lui fait boire un peu de l'eau dans laquelle il y a quelques feuilles de toulachi qui est une espèce de basilic. ensuite soit que ce soit dans l'une ou dans l'autre pagode, le brahamme officiant delaye dans un bassin de cuivre un peu de sandale avec de l'eau qui a servi à l'idole, et il en jette avec les doigts sur la fille. cela marque la consécration parfaite. il met au col une guirlande qui a servi à l'idole pour luy témoigner qu'elle est agréable aux dieux et qu'ils l'ont prise sous leur protection: le brahamme luy dit qu'elle est présentement devadashi, et qu'il l'exhorte à se comporter en digne servante des dieux, après cela elle se prosterne devant l'idole: le brahamme la fait relever et ordonne à ses parents de l'aller conduire dans une maison particulière qui est proche la pagode, les parents y donnent du bethel aux conviez et regalent toutes les devadachis. toutes celles qui sont ainsi consacrées aux pagodes ne peuvent jamais se marier, ny elles ne peuvent plus retourner à leurs familles, ny en hériter. elles font profession d'etre publiques à tout le monde, et les malabares croyent qu'il y a du mérite d'habiter avec les servantes des dieux. elles n'ont point parmy elles de supérieures; chacune fait son menage separément si elles veulent on tire leur subsistance des revenus de la pagode, mais ce n'est pas ce qui les enrichit beaucoup; le commerce charnel qu'elles entretiennent avec tout le monde leur est bien plus lucratif, et celles qui font ainsi fortune ont grand soin de se bien habiller et de s'orner de pendants d'oreilles, de colliers et d'anneaux d'or, et de cercles d'argent aux bras et aux pieds l'employ des devadashis est d'aller trois fois le jour à la pagode, c'est à dire le matin vers le midi et le soir, qui sont les temps que ce font les sacrifices et les cérémonies de la pagode, elles y dansent et chantent, et font des jeux pour le divertissement des dieux; elles font la même chose aux processions, et aux mariages. "tout est odieux et criminel dans la condition de ces devadashis, la cruauté des pères qui forcent la liberté de leurs enfants, l'impiété des pères qui prostituent leurs filles." the above extract is taken from a manuscript in the royal library, munich, no. (gall. ), called la religion des malabares; it is supposed to have been written between and , and to have belonged to the missions etrangères; later it was presented by the abbé clément to the library of the oratoire st. honoré. the ms. contains pages and three parts. the first is an exposition of christian doctrine; the second of the malabar religion; the third sets forth the doctrinal differences between the christians and hindus, and shows how to proceed in arguing with the latter. the whole tenour of the book is, however, chiefly an attack on the jesuits, whom it accuses of laxity, and of having sought to multiply the number of christians rather than to secure the truth. it reproaches them with allowing christian malabars to play musical instruments in the pagodas, and pagan malabars to play their instruments in christian churches, and with having allowed various idolatrous ceremonies to have become perpetuated under a fresh dedication. this tenour of the ms. is the cause stated in a manuscript note by abbé clément, for the book having been removed from the missions étrangères when the credit of the jesuits prevailed, and caused the departure from that establishment of the missionaries who were hostile to that body. from this work marriage seems to have been more general amongst the malabars than would be supposed from the account of the early portuguese voyagers in which much stress is laid upon the absence of marriage amongst the nairs. this missionary in treating of divorce amongst the malabars says the husband retains the children, if there are any, and the wife returns to the husband the _taly_ which she had round her neck (probably the jewel which has been mentioned in the text;) and she resumes her dower if she brought any at her marriage. amongst other objectionable practices of the jesuits, blamed in this work, is the having adopted the malabar name of sarounasouren (signifying lord of all) for the true god, since sarunasuren is properly applied to siva because he is the first human form which carsa (or the most subtle of the five elements) took on forming the world; whilst the true god is neither carsa nor siva, and sarunasuren is the name of an idol. carsa is further described as supreme intelligence, the soul of the universe, and the most subtle of the five elements, water, fire, earth, air, and wind, and is said to have taken a human form which he called shiva; and as shiva was to disappear into sattyaloguen or the most perfect heaven, he transformed himself into another human figure which he named roudra, and also in others called vishnou and broumha. carsa filled these three persons with intelligence, in order that they might remain in the world with men. _section de la divinité des malabars et de leur fausse trinité._ maycereni, the name of the third person of the indian trinity given in the text, does not appear in this work, and may be an epithet of rudra. the following is one of the most remarkable passages in this manuscript, and is much in accordance with m. e. burnouf's recent publications in the revue des deux mondes. "et comme ils ne rendent en particulier aucun culte extérieur à carsa, ils croyent le dédommager suffisament par celui qu'ils rendent à tous les dieux; on voit par là combien l'erreur aveugle l'esprit des hommes qui s'éloignent du vray dieu. il n'est personne qui ne convienne que la cause est plus noble que son effet. si donc ils supposent que ces dieux sont les effets de la puissance de carsa, pourquoi leurs rendent-ils plus de culte qu'à ce dieu, qu'ils disent être le principe de toute chose. n'est-ce pas faire de carsa un dieu chimérique?" p. . the reader may see in mr. frank's book on the kabbala, with respect to the adam kadmon, how much hindu ideas, and especially the hindu theory of the formation of the world, had penetrated into syria, and corrupted the jews, before the christian era. index. abyssinia, aden, afuni, albuquerque, amber, andavat, angoxe, ava, bacavar, bahrein island, banda, bandan islands, , banians' aversion to destroy life, barbesy, basalor, baticala, baxay, bengal, betel, bijanagur, ; its just administration, bramans, their customs, brava, its republic, bueneo, buendari, burmah, calicut, camaran island, cambay, , cananor, , , cannibals, , celebes, ceylon, chalderan, battle of, champa, champaver, chaul, china, , chittagong, cinnamon, cintacola, cloves, , coinage of ormuz, ; baticala, ; narsinga, comorin cape, its church, dabul, dalaqua, damda, decan, delhy, denvy, diquirmale mountain, diu, battle of, duels in southern india, elephants, their price, ; way of catching, erecanguy, ; mode of selection of damsels by the king, fartak country, , gandos, hill tribes of central india, guardafun, goa, goyari, guzerat, , hindu marriages, ; trinity, horses, their price, , ; fed on dried fish, ; on cooked grain, hussein, admiral, , humpbacked maids of honour, idolatrous rites, ismail shah, his rise and policy, , , java, jiddah, - joghis, , , junks, keddah, kulam, , ; king's guard of women, lapidaries, ceylon, limadura, madagascar, , magadoxo, malabar, malaca, maldive islands, ; division of by the king, ; customs, ; king's coronation oath, ; his funeral ceremonies, ; clerks and writing, ; king's waiting women, ; their festival on king's accession, _ib._; king's customs, ; justice, malays, mandabad, manfia, mangalor, marepata, martaban, maylepur, encroachments of the sea, medina, mekkah, , melinda, , mokhah, moluccas, mombaza, , monomotapa, , mozambique, , musk, adulteration of it, nairs, ; customs, narsinga, ; council, ; king's household, ; punishment of high officers, ; army, _ib._; vivandières, ; enlistment, ; king's method of carrying his subjects to the wars, nestorians, nicobar islands, onor, orissa, , ormuz, _et seq._; council, ; blind kings, ; council put down by albuquerque, pahang, palecate, pardan coins, patemshi, pearl fishery, pegu, pepper, its price, , porcelain manufacture, portuguese piracy, , , prester john, price of drugs, , , ; eagle-wood, ; elephants, ; horses, , ; pepper, , ; rice, ; rubies, ; spices, , , quicksilver trade, , quilacare, self-immolation of its king, quiloa, , rajputs, ravel, rice, kinds of, rubies, , sael, self-torture by girls, shehir, , , siam, sinai, mount, socotra, its christians, ; its amazons, sofala, ; cotton cultivation, suez, sumatra, sunda, surat, suratimangalor, suttee, taborine, sacred stone worn by joghis, tanasery, thomas, st., his miracles, , , ; his death, ; his christians, tree which produces poison and the antidote, ucique islands, , , voyage of francisco serrano from malacca, weights, portuguese and indian, zanzibar, zeyta, zimbao, zuama, london: t. richards, , great queen street. footnotes: [ ] i have been informed by mr. winter jones that diego ribero drew up a map of the world in , of which sprengel wrote an account in , called, Über j. ribero's alteste weltcharte. he gives the western hemisphere only, the eastern hemisphere has been published by the vte. santarem. this might be the means by which the orthography and errors of this work passed into the maps of ortelius. [ ] the portuguese are scarcely justified in their censure of magellan for serving spain, after the neglect he had met with at the hands of the king of portugal, since disnaturalisation was a custom of the country frequently practised at that period: and it is the necessary complement of naturalisation. [ ] here the barcelona manuscript begins. [ ] insula bocicas, deg. s. lat., just n. of c. s. sebastian, homann's atlas, nuremberg, . [ ] probably bahrein. [ ] cujus rex quitove, atlas, . reg. munica cujus rex chicanga. [ ] cefala, ortelius. [ ] lusiadas, canto v, stanza . ethiopes são todos, mas parece, que com gente melhor communicavam: palabra alguma arabia se conhece entre a linguagem sua, que fallavam: e com panno delgado, que se tece de algodão, as cabeças apertavam, com outro, que de tint azul se tinge, cada hum as vergonhosas partes cinge. [ ] zimbro, ortelius, zimbaon, atlas, . sedes regia. [ ] ajonjo (agiongoli) plant with a viscous substance. ajonjoli sesame plant. ajonjera, carlina aqualis bruised in water makes birdlime. [ ] zuama, ortelius. [ ] vê do benomotapa o grande imperio, de selvatica gente, negra e nua, onde gonçalo morte e vituperio padecerá pela fé sancta sua: nasce por este incognito hemispherio o metal, porque mais a gente sua vê que do lago, donde se derrama o nilo, tambem vindo está cuama, camoens, canto x, stanza . [ ] the old maps have a kingdom of mongale stretching n. from the r. zuama. [ ] angoches, deg. s. lat., homann. [ ] mozambique, ortelius. [ ] quiloa, ortelius. [ ] mombaza, ortelius. [ ] camoens confirms the author's statement of the flourishing condition of mombaza, and of its devastation by the portuguese. canto x, stanzas , -- ambos darâo com braço forte armado a quiloa fertil aspero castigo, fazendo nella rei leal e humano, deitado forá o perfido tyranno. tambem farâo mombaça, que se arrea de casas sumptuosas e edificios, co'o ferro e fogo seu queimada e fea em pago dos passados maleficios. [ ] melinde, ortelius. [ ] melinde hospicio gazalhoso e charo. camoens, canto x, stanza . [ ] lusiade, canto x, stanza -- de sâo-lourenço vê a ilha affamada, que madagascar he d'alguns chamada. [ ] cabo dos corrientes, ortelius. [ ] yname, in portuguese, inhame. root in the form of a gourd, composed of two bulbs, which grow one above the other, the larger one below the smaller one. it is cut into slices and eaten instead of bread. it throws out very large leaves, without fruit. the ancients erroneously called it fava Ægyptia, others have called it arum egyptium, which bahuino, in his historia universal das plantas, does not approve of. bluteau, dict., coimbra, . ñame--genus of monocotyledonous plants of the family of the dioscoreas. dico. encyclopedico, madrid, . the "maize" mentioned in the text must be a mistake of the author or of the translators: it should be yams. [ ] penda and zenzibar, ortelius. [ ] pato, ortelius, homann. [ ] lamon, ortelius. [ ] brava, ortelius. the german atlas of adds respubl. to the name of brava. [ ] the river of this place is called mecadesso in the german atlas, which shows the arabic origin of the name; in ortelius magadazo. [ ] orfuni, in atlas of . [ ] guardafun, ortelius. [ ] met, ortelius, and the atlas of . [ ] barbara, ortelius. [ ] zeila, ortelius. [ ] dalacca, ortelius. [ ] abyssinians, habeshin in arabic. [ ] saachem, ortelius. [ ] berr ajem. the spelling of this name is a proof that the spanish j still had the value of the english j and the arabic jim. [ ] this refers to the sawahily of abyssinia, not to the people of arabia, and applies to them. [ ] almalafa, a cloak, plaid, old spanish, not in dictionaries, from arabic. [ ] "estas cosen a sus hijas sus naturas quando son chiquitas dexandoles solamente un meadero y asi las traen cosidas fasta que son en hedad de casar y las entregan a sus maridos y estonces les cortan la carne questa soldada como sy nacieron asy." the portuguese edition states that barbosa knew this by experience. [ ] habeshy, abyssinian. [ ] babel mandel, ortelius. [ ] zues, ortelius. [ ] camoens thus describes the interruption by the portuguese of the indian voyages to the red sea. canto ix, stanzas and :-- gidá se chama o porto, aonde o trato de todo o roxo mar mais florecia, de que tinha proveito grande, e grato o soldão, que esse reino possuïa. daqui os malabares, por contrato dos infieis, formosa companhia de grandes naos pelo indico oceano especiaria vem buscar cada anno. por estas nãos os mouros esperavam, que, como fossem grandes e possantes, aquellas, que o commercia lhe tomavam, com flammas abrazassem crepitantes: neste socorro tanto confiavam, que já não querem mais dos navegantes, senão que tanto tempo alli tardassem, que da famosa meca as naos chegassem. and canto x, stanza :-- barbará se teme do mal, de que o emporio zeila geme. [ ] hussein. [ ] eliobon, atlas of ortelius and iambut or yembo. [ ] voyages and travels by r. kerr, vol. ii, p. . letter from merchants of spain to their correspondents respecting a treaty of peace and league between the kings of portugal and calicut. we have been informed by those who were on board the fleet which sailed from lisbon to india in may, , and returned on the th december, , that the king of calicut has concluded a peace with our sovereign on the following conditions.... that our king, if so inclined, may build a fort at calicut, and shall be supplied with a sufficient quantity of stones, lime, and timber for that purpose. [ ] probably admiral hussein had heard of monçaide, the spy of vasco de gama, of whom camoens says:-- estava para dar ao gama aviso e merecer por isso o paraiso. este, de quem se os mouros naô guardavam, por ser mouro, como ellos, antes era participante em quanto machinavam. canto ix, stanzas and . [ ] the above anecdote of the fortitude and perseverance of mir hussein after his defeat, is new; and seems conclusive as to this ms. having remained unpublished, and almost unread; since, the _panorama_ (or spanish version of the _univers pittoresque_) _historia de portugal_, por m. fernando denis, conservador de la biblioteca de santa jenoveva: traducida por una sociedad literaria, barcelona, imprenta del fomento, ; says at p. :-- "this battle, as simon goulard relates it, brought the power of the mussulmans of egypt to an end, and so convinced of this was melek-jaz that he hastened to conclude a peace with the portuguese. mir-hosein, who had manifested such distinguished valour and such profound knowledge in this struggle, fearing the inconstancy of melek-jaz, who might have given him up to almeida, went off hurriedly to the kingdom of cambay, and later removed himself to upper hindustan: but the historians lost his trace here and never again make any mention of the chief of the confederation of the rumys." [ ] jizan. [ ] mocha. [ ] camaran, ortelius. [ ] or indians. [ ] alaquequa is an indian stone which stops the flow of blood; alaquequas are glass beads. dictionary of v. salva, paris, . [ ] the cocoa-nut shell is within a very thick husk, and so maybe called a kernel. [ ] lac. [ ] mangala, fortress of sumatra, in the country of lampong, on the shore of the tulang-buvang, nine leagues and two-thirds from the mouth of that river. _geographical dictionary_, barcelona, . [ ] dhafar. [ ] fartach, ortelius, fartaque, atlas of . [ ] greco y levante, n.e.e., gregal, grech, n.e. wind, still used in catalan. [ ] mastro y soroco, mistral & sirocco. [ ] marked with a cross thus in the ms. [ ] sangre de dragon. [ ] dolfar, ortelius. [ ] shehir, one of the chief seaports of hadramant. zehar, ortelius. [ ] enciencio, antient for ajenjo, absinthe; perhaps the kat or katta, a very expensive leaf of a shrub. [ ] this refers to the monsoon; if it is unfavourable the ships cannot get up the red sea. [ ] this word is illegible, it reads _se enpegen_. [ ] probably an error of the pen for ras al gat. [ ] cape mussendom, in ortelius and the german atlas of also mocandon, here it is evident that the cedilla of the c has been forgotten, and the error has been perpetuated. Ç is often used for s in old manuscripts. [ ] in the german atlas there is a place called kellat, and another close by called calajute; calata, ortelius. [ ] curiate in ortelius and the german atlas. [ ] this may be read sar, or sari. [ ] soar ortelius, sohar in the german atlas (map of persia). [ ] lebeche or leveche, s.w. wind. [ ] in the german atlas corscan, there is also another place there inland a long way off called orfacan, both these seem to be corruptions of the name in the text khor fakan. [ ] julphar or giotoffar in the german atlas. [ ] roccalima in the atlas of abraham ortelius, antwerp, : the ras el khyma of captain felix jones's chart. [ ] probably amulgowein of captain f. jones. [ ] calba, ortelius. [ ] baha, ortelius. [ ] iguir in ortelius, . [ ] naban, ortelius, . [ ] quesibi, ortelius. [ ] berou, ibidem. [ ] moy macina, ortelius, . [ ] lima, ortelius. [ ] carmon, ortelius. this list of towns is thus introduced without anything to connect it with the narrative; they would apparently be places on the shat el arab, between the sea and basrah, but from the atlas of ortelius it is clear that they are intended to follow after quesebi, from which word to "estuary" should be read in a parenthesis: from the entire absence of punctuation and capital letters in the ms. there is great difficulty in ascertaining always the correct meaning. this passage seems to show that those who made the early maps had had a copy of this ms. under their eyes. "quesebi: y dende aqui adelante da vuelta la costa a maestro y tramontana hasta la boca del rio eufrates y comiença en esa vuelta una tabla berohu caljar," et cetera. the word _tabla_ can hardly as here placed mean a list, and one of its meanings, dead water, or water without a current, in speaking of a river, seems here most applicable. ortelius, however, followed by the german atlas of , has got _tabla_ as a town between quesibi and berou, in which case the sense of comienza and una would be imperfect. as the word _tabla_ is spanish, and in portuguese is _tabula_, it would appear that this spanish translation and not the portuguese original has been made use of for the ancient atlases. this view is confirmed by there being no such place as tabla in captain f. jones's chart. ramusio's edition has tabla between quesibi and berohu. [ ] gues, ortelius, on the persian shore. [ ] gues, before named, re-appears as cuez, basida, costaque, conga, which are placed on the arabian shore: gonga also appears on the persian shore in ortelius's atlas, . [ ] braimu, ortelius. [ ] denaze, ibid. [ ] doan, ibid., on persian shore. [ ] laron, ibid. [ ] andrani, ortelius. [ ] quaro, ibid. [ ] lar, ibid. [ ] coiar, ibid. [ ] tome, ibid. [ ] mulugan, ibid. [ ] quezimi, ibid. [ ] baharem, ibid. besides these islands, ortelius has got gicolar and ficor, which names might have been made out of the above list from this very ms. by reading differently the names which are written in italics. [ ] here there appears to be a gap in the ms. of three quarters of a line. [ ] shah ismail, king of persia, contemporary of the writer of this ms. and founder of the shiah rite as at present existing. [ ] son-in-law. this account is like that of ramusio and differs somewhat from the portuguese. [ ] the origin of the kizilbashes. [ ] chalderan, rd rejeb , or august . vicente rocca, in his history of the turks, printed at valencia , says that the corpses of many persian women who had accompanied their husbands in disguise, were found after the battle, and that sultan selim ordered them to receive an honourable burial. [ ] this embassy came to albuquerque when he was at ormuz the last time, the envoy sent by albuquerque was fernan gomez. san roman hist. de la india, pp. , and - . valladolid, . [ ] frat, with a persian termination. [ ] with respect to this geography of the four rivers of paradise, see m. renan's remarks on the persian traditions, in his hist. des langues semitiques, pp. - . paris, . [ ] zircon or jargon, a stone of which false diamonds are made. [ ] reubarbaro. [ ] sarahueles, serwal or shalwar. [ ] almaizar. [ ] atauxsia, moorish workmanship of inlaying metals. [ ] this description of persian customs is very exact. [ ] the jewish traveller pedro teixeira (or teireira, according to rodriquez de castro, biblica, rabinica esp.) at the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, wrote a history of persia, translated from mirkhond, and a "journey from the east indies to italy overland," antwerp, jerome verdassen. teixeira wrote the first part of this work in portuguese, and afterwards translated it into spanish, adding the second part. both were translated into french by c. cotolendi in , and printed at paris under the title of "voyages de teixeira, ou l'histoire des rois de perse." he died at verona. teixeira says: "it was a custom much in use, both formerly and in later times among the kings of persia and harmuz, in order to assure themselves of those whom they might have reason to fear, and who commonly were their relations. and even this day may be seen at harmuz, on a hill near the hermitage of santa lucia, at a little more than a mile from the city, the ruins of some towers, in which the kings placed their relations who had been blinded for this reason. the method which they used for depriving them of sight was this: they took a brass basin, and heating it in the fire as much as possible, passed it two or three or more times before the eyes of the person they intended to blind; and without other lesion of the eyes they lost their sight, the optic nerves being injured by the fire, but the eyes remaining as limpid and clear as before." amador de los rios, estudios sobre los judios de españa, p. . madrid, . ramusio has translated to blind "cavar gli occhi," which in this case would not apply. [ ] this observation is owing to the moorish coins of the almohade dynasty having been square, which gave rise to the spanish saying of spendthrifts: "my money rolls, as it is not moorish." [ ] the standard of modern spanish silver coin is eleven dinars, or dineros. [ ] the portuguese force is said to have consisted of fifteen hundred portuguese and six hundred indian soldiers; this took place in . panorama or univers pittoresque. according to san roman hist. de la india oriental in the beginning of , albuquerque's force consisted of sail, portuguese, and malabars. [ ] this governor's name was rais hamid; one account says so many daggers were drawn against him that the portuguese wounded one another's hands: the other governor mentioned later was named rais nordim, i.e., nureddin. [ ] in ortelius's map of asia dulcinda is some way up a river; in the german atlas of no trace of it appears. [ ] ulcinde, camoens, canto x, stanza . [ ] or hither. [ ] cogecillos. [ ] or gallery. [ ] a la bastarda. [ ] the chaugan, persian game of hockey on horseback. [ ] urdu perhaps is meant by the writer. [ ] campanero in ramusio, champanel in portuguese edition. [ ] gandos, people of hindustan, established in the mountainous parts of the province of ganduana: they live by the chase and the produce of their flocks, and, contrary to the custom of other indians, eat fowls and bury their dead. the women are obese, and stronger than the men; they wear a dress all of one piece, paint all their body, and become bald in the prime of life. ganduana, between deg. and deg. n. lat. and deg. and deg. e. long. diccionario encic., madrid, gaspar y roig, . [ ] jagri. [ ] arrak. [ ] this name might also be read dvuxa or dimxa. [ ] shehir. [ ] this word alcatifa might also mean velvets, at least that is its meaning in arabic and wallachian; in modern spanish it means a fine carpet. [ ] coast guards, watch boats. [ ] kind of artillery. [ ] this passage seems to fix the date of this work as previous to , since in that year the portuguese made themselves masters of diu, in which they built a fortress in . (diccion. geog. universal, barcelona, .) [ ] of egypt. [ ] this author seems to have confused the account of two naval battles, reducing them to one; the above account, as far as the description of the meeting of the hostile fleets, refers to the battle in , in which the portuguese, commanded by lorenzo son of francisco de almeyda, were routed and lorenzo slain. melik az saved twenty prisoners alive from lorenzo's ship, which would not strike, treated them well, and wrote to condole with the father, francisco de almeyda, for the death of his son. almeyda prepared a fleet of nineteen sail to avenge his son's death, when albuquerque arrived to supersede him; he had been sent from europe in . in spite of this almeyda sailed for diu, where emir hussein, instead of waiting for him, put out to sea against the advice of melik az and was defeated. vasco pereyra, captain of the ship that carried admiral hussein's ship by boarding, was killed, and his lieutenant, tavora, took emir hussein's ship, killing or capturing all those who did not save themselves by swimming ashore. the captured ships were richly laden, and almeyda distributed all the spoil amongst his crews. (this action was fought on the rd february, .) melik az sued for peace after this defeat. his proposals were received with arrogance and a demand for the surrender of emir hussein: this melik az refused, but gave up all his portuguese prisoners. almeyda accepted this, but cut the heads off all his moorish prisoners in cool blood at cananor. panorama, india, pp. - , barcelona, ; translation of the univers pittoresque. the same work in the volume on portugal, speaking of the first battle of diu, merely says, "mir hosein routed the portuguese, and don lorenzo lost his life," p. . camoens thus describes the second battle of diu, in his th canto, stanzas , . e logo, entrando fero na enseada de dio, illustre em cercos e batalhas, fará espalhar a fraca e grande armada de calecut, que remos tem por malhas: a de melique yaz acautelada, co 'os pelouros que tu, vulcano, espalhas, fará ir ver o frio e fundo assento, secreto leito do humido elemento. mas a de mir-hocem, que, abalroando, a furia esperará dos vingadores, verá bracos, e pernas ir nadando, sem corpos, pelo mar, de seus senhores: raios de fogo irão representando no cego ardor os bravos domadores: quanto alli sentirão olhos, e ouvidos, he fumo, ferro, flammas e alaridos. the last speech of don lorenzo d'almeida is given in the following words in a ms. belonging to the duke of gor, at granada, which describes the voyages to india from to ; it differs a little from that given in the second decade: "dom lourenzo lhe disse snõres companheiros e irmaos, minha vida he acabada que este mundo me tinha emprestada e minha alma ira dar conta ao snõr deos que a fez. en vos mando, e muito rogo que tomandonos meliquiaz sobre si como diz aventureis as vidas em sua palavra, porque de o nõ fazerdes tao certas aqui tendes as mortes se ds' nõ acodir cõ sua m[=i]a (misericordia) que lhe pezo que aja cõ minha alma, que em suas sanctas mãos encomendo: e deu a alma," f. v. don lorenzo said to them: "gentlemen, companions and brothers, my life which this world had lent me is ended, and my soul will go to give an account to the lord god who made it. i charge you, and beg much of you, that as melikiaz will take us on his own responsibility, as he says, that you adventure your lives upon his word, because if you do not do so, you have before you certain death, unless god succour you with his mercy: which i pray him to have with my soul, which i commend into his holy keeping." and he gave up his spirit. [ ] sambuks, arab undecked boats. [ ] this may have been intended for ivory of elephants, it would seem difficult to get an elephant into a sambuk. [ ] _pozos_, wells, hollows. [ ] guadamecil, _aluta celata_. [ ] this word is very clearly _enyertan_, which is an old word meaning to freeze, to congeal, to make _yerto_--hard: so that this stone would be like the chinese soap stone, which is soft and easily carved when first extracted. _ensartan_ would apply, meaning to string beads, but the writing does not admit of it. [ ] ravel in ortelius's map of india, . [ ] axuar, the household furniture which a wife has to bring to her husband on her marriage. [ ] the writer had forgotten that _aduana_ (custom-house) and _divan_ are the same word. [ ] or denby. [ ] mezzo giorno, the italian, instead of medio dia, a slip of the writer, the genoese envoy. [ ] chaul, ortelius, . [ ] beatilla, bétille in french. [ ] dabul, ortelius, . [ ] this was done by don francisco de almeyda on his way to diu in the beginning of . [ ] llanten, _plantago_. the leaf is chewed, not eaten, and assists the digestion. [ ] munacem in ramusio, and muruary in the portuguese edition. [ ] _rumys._ turks are so called east of turkey. these turks may have served in the egyptian fleet, but did not belong to the ottoman forces, as egypt was not united to the ottoman empire till later in . traz este vem noronha, cujo auspicio de dio os rumes feros affugenta, dio, que o peito e bellico exercicio de antonio da sylveira bem sustenta. camoens, canto x, stanza . [ ] february th, , or on the th february according to san roman; albuquerque was driven out of goa, and reconquered it on the th november . [ ] san roman says that the revenue of sabayo was five hundred thousand ducats; and that goa produced much more in the hands of the king of portugal (p. ). [ ] aliga r., german atlas, . [ ] cintacola, ortelius, . [ ] bisinagar, ortelius. [ ] cholmandel, ortelius. [ ] in the italian and portuguese editions mergeo. [ ] onor, ortelius. [ ] batticalla, ortelius. [ ] quarter of a hundredweight. [ ] gomio, this word is intended, perhaps, for gumia, a kind of dagger, a marocco word not arabic; these words are neither of them to be found in the old dictionaries. the dagger is not mentioned in the italian or portuguese editions. [ ] pardao, an indian coin worth reis coined at goa by the portuguese, with the figure of king sebastian. dict. of p. raphael bluteau, lisbon, . [ ] bahar, an indian weight varying from - / quintals to quintals - / arrobas. [ ] or jauibasal, these names are variously spelled in the italian and portuguese editions. [ ] bacanor and barsalor, german atlas. [ ] fanega-- bushels or lbs. french. [ ] mangalor, ortelius. [ ] cape comori, ortelius. [ ] the nil gau or blue cow. [ ] ramusio coincides with this ms. in writing giagonzas on a former occasion, and on this gegonzas. [ ] the abbreviation is [=m] [=mrs]; this might stand for ccc or three hundred, the value given by ramusio. [ ] filosañias, may be intended for physiognomy. it is so translated by ramusio. [ ] the arab travellers of the ninth century mention this. [ ] tambarme in ramusio. [ ] this is the probable origin of the story in sinbad the sailor. the arabian nights are not entirely fiction, as is usually supposed: the story of seif el muluk refers to facts in the malay annals, and describes the people, country, and winds about sumatra. [ ] "y sobre el dicho palo esta una piedra de altura de un cobdo y en el medio un agujero en el qual meten un palo agudo y arman las gradas paramentadas con paños de seda para que la gente de fuera no vea el secreto de dentro y la madre de la moza con algunas otras mugeres entran en aquel lugar despues de hechas muchas cerimonias y alli sobre aquel palo agudo rompen la moza su virginidad y deraman la sangre sobre aquella piedra." [ ] apparently orissa. [ ] compare plato's views on this subject:-- "but if a soldier highly distinguishes himself and gains himself credit, ought he not, think you, in the first place, while the army is still in the field, to be crowned with a garland by each of the youths and children in turn among his comrades in arms?" "yes, i think so." "but i suppose you will hardly extend your approbation to my next proposition?" "what is that?" "that he should kiss and be kissed by them all." "most certainly i do; and i would add to the law, that during the continuance of the campaign, no one whom he has a mind to kiss be permitted to refuse him the satisfaction; in order that, if any soldier happens to entertain an admiration for either a male or female comrade, he may be the more stimulated to carry off the meed of valour." "good, i replied; and we have already said that a brave man will be allowed to enter into marriage relations more frequently than others will, and to exercise more than the usual liberty of choice in such matters, so that as many children as possible may be obtained from a father of this character."--republic of plato, book v, § , p. . translation by davies and vaughan, cambridge, . [ ] orissa: in this ms. it is clearly a _t_, but _t_ and _r_ are easily confounded in the handwriting of this period. [ ] bragueros de laton. [ ] eyicianos. [ ] lo al, old expression for lo demas. [ ] the chulias or people of southern india do this always. [ ] or--these on being opened. [ ] baxana in ramusio, and braechagua in the lisbon edition. [ ] nirabixi in ramusio and miralexy in lisbon edition. [ ] people in the east carry stones of this description, which are said to draw out the venom from the bite of a serpent. [ ] camoens addresses the king of malabar as: "o nobre successor de perimal" canto viii, stanza . [ ] this agrees with the account of the arab travellers of the ninth century. paris, langles. [ ] cananor. [ ] called zamorin in other works, and samorim by camoens. [ ] ramusio calls them cunelanadyri, benatederi, and coletri; the lisbon edition, maly couadary, benatady, cobertorim. [ ] mostasos: old word, before introduction of bigotes from the german soldiers, and still used in majorca. [ ] repostero: a cloth marked with the arms of a grandee for putting over a beast of burden, or hanging in a doorway,--a portière. [ ] no valen mas de que ser hijos de sus madres. [ ] sister of the king, apparently, from what follows. [ ] ramusio, caimaes; lisbon edition, cahimal. [ ] atabal. [ ] cymbals. [ ] sistra. [ ] of a cross-bow shot. [ ] sygnadas. [ ] valedor. [ ] buxen, not in the dictionaries: buxeta, a small casket for perfumes to put in the pocket, so called because made of bux or box; anglicè, box. [ ] if the writer had been a spaniard, especially from catalonia, he would have added here, "in our fashion." this way of drinking extends into roussillon, and this custom was not introduced by the arabs. [ ] hidalgo por el rey: an expression meaning a modern noble, not one whose origin is anterior to the spanish monarchy: here it may imply official position only. ramusio, talassen; lisbon edition, talixe. [ ] albalá, from alberat, letters patent, brevet, warrant, letter for drawing pay. this word is in little use in castile, but is common in valencia and aragon. spanish, latin, and arabic dict., fr. francisco cañes. madrid, . [ ] this part is wanting in ramusio, who says a little lower down, "here several lines are wanting." [ ] or it may be read ciessua; ramusio, cressuamengan; lisbon edition, cryuamergam. [ ] that is, the first mass said by a new priest. [ ] como mayorazgo. [ ] see cardinal wiseman's lectures with regard to this subject, also the work of another catholic author, where this hindu doctrine is termed an _adumbration_. the abbé huc is opposed to the above-mentioned divines, and calls this a _counterfeit of satan_. unless his theory, or another alternative, be adopted, it must be assumed, since the brahminical books were contemporary with david, perhaps with moses, that the hindus were more favoured than the chosen people of israel: which is impossible. "il faut ajouter que la science brâhmanique n'a pas été étrangère au développement du génie grec, l'une des sources de notre civilisation, ni à la formation du christianisme, religion de tout l'occident." m. emile burnouf, la civilisation chrétienne en orient, revue des deux mondes, er juin, , pp. , ; see also pp. , . [ ] this may be estimated from the value of rice, to maravedis the bushels or lbs. see above. [ ] the explanation of this ceremony is to be found in plato:-- "we said, you remember, that the children ought to be the issue of parents who are still in their prime." "true." "and do you agree with me that the prime of life may be reasonably reckoned at a period of twenty years for a woman, and thirty for a man?" "where do you place these years?" "i should make it the rule for a woman to bear children to the state from her twentieth to her fortieth year: and for a man, after getting over the sharpest burst in the race of life, thenceforward to beget children to the state until he is fifty-five years old." "doubtless," he said, "in both sexes, this is the period of their prime both of body and mind." "if, then, a man who is either above or under this age shall meddle with the business of begetting children for the commonwealth, we shall declare his act to be an offence against religion and justice; inasmuch as he is raising up a child for the state, who, should detection be avoided, instead of having been begotten under the sanction of those sacrifices and prayers, which are to be offered up at every marriage ceremonial by priests and priestesses, and by the whole city, to the effect that the children to be born may ever be more virtuous and more useful than their virtuous and useful parents, will have been conceived under cover of darkness by aid of dire incontinence." "you are right." "the same law will hold should a man, who is still of an age to be a father, meddle with a woman, who is also of the proper age, _without the introduction of a magistrate; for we shall accuse him of raising up to the state an illegitimate, unsponsored, and unhallowed child_." "you are perfectly right." "but as soon as the women and the men are past the prescribed age, we shall allow the latter i imagine to associate freely with whomsoever they please, so that it be not a daughter, or mother, or daughter's child, or grandmother; and in like manner we shall permit the women to associate with any man, except a son or a father." republic, book v, sect. . davis and vaughan's translation, p. . "explicemus jam tandem, quam nam florentem ætatem in utroque sexu existimemus, mulierem porro florenti esse ætate arbitramur, si a vigesimo ætatis suæ anno usque ad quadragesimum generationi incumbat, virum autem a trigesimo usque ad quinquagesimum quintum operam suam in gignendo civitati præbere præcipimus, in hoc enim annorum cursu et robur corporis, et prudentiæ vim sexus utriusque consistere certum est. si quis igitur vel senior vel junior his generationes eas, quæ ad publicum civitatis commodum ordinatæ sunt, attigerit profanum et illegitimum hoc esse censebimus, quasi civitati foetum largiatur, qui si latuerit non sacrificiorum vel præcationum fiat inauguratione, quas tamen in singulis nuptiis cum universâ civitate peragent sacerdotes, ut ex bonis meliores et ex utilibus utiliores semper enascantur vota concipientes; sed id fiat sub tenebris ex vehementis cujusdam incontinentiæ libidine, eadem autem lex etiam erit servanda, si quis eorum qui et in ætate sunt apta ad matrimonium contrahendum, non assentiente tamen magistratu ad mulieres ætate nubiles accesserit, hunc enim statuemus edere civitati spurium profanum, et illegitimum partum; ubi vero et mulieres, et viri statutum generationi tempus pertransierint, _immunes a lege faciemus ut possint cum quacumque libuerit commisceri_; præter quam cum filia et matre et filiis filiarum ac matris ascendentibus; _et parem concedemus quoque libertatem mulieribus, ut possint cum quovis conjungi_, præter quam cum filio, vel patre, et ascendentibus, vel descendentibus ex his, quæ omnia, ubi mandaverimus curabimus, ne partus ullus omnino ex hujusmodi coitibus ortus in lucem proferatur, quod si proferetur sic expositus sit perinde ac quasi nulla ei adsint alimenta." plato's republic, book v. translation of john sozomenus, venice, . [ ] plato perhaps got this idea as well as others from india: "consider, then, i continued, whether the following plan is the right one for their lives and their dwellings, if they are to be of the character i have described. in the first place no one should _possess any private property_, if it can possibly be avoided: secondly, _no one should have a dwelling or storehouse into which all who please may not enter_; whatever necessaries are required by temperate and courageous men who are trained to war, they should receive by regular appointment from their fellow-citizens, as wages for their services, and the amount should be such as to leave neither a surplus on the year's consumption nor a deficit...; but whenever they come to possess lands and houses and money of their own, they will be householders and cultivators instead of guardians, and will become hostile masters of their fellow-citizens rather than their allies." republic, book iii, sect. . davis and vaughan's translation, pp. , . "itaque adiutores communes habere filios et uxores summopere expedit, quæ et consentiunt omnino iis quæ superius a nobis dicta sunt, diximus enim _hos neque domos proprias habere debere; neque terram possidere, vel aliud quidpiam in bonis adnumerare_: sed a cæteris enutritos hanc quasi custodiæ mercedem accipere, quam et in communi positam consumant, si re vera custodes futuri sunt; ut et quæ prius a nobis dicta sunt, et quæ nunc etiam dicuntur efficiant ipsos veros custodes, et ne rempublicam in partes dividant; sed ut uno potius animo de propriis judicantes, et ad id tendantes omnes, uno eodemque et doloris et voluptatis sensu afficiantur." platonis de rebuspublicis, liber quintus. a joanne sozomeno, venetiis, . "etenim plato cum multas regiones lustrasset, et mores hominum varios inspexisset, ac sui temporis respublicas contemplatus abundé fuisset, nec non antiquorum philosophorum ac legumlatorum monumenta studiosissime perquisivisset, senior tandem factus, politias quidem omnes nihil aliud esse intelligens, nisi concordem quandam in societate civili regulam, ac ordinem quo eædem continerentur." joannes sozomenus lectoribus. [ ] or it might be pasicars. [ ] ramusio, _sanguada_. not in lisbon edition. [ ] enbarbatadas. [ ] that is maravedis a day, about three times the peace allowance. see p. . ramusio says cas a day, which are maravedis; the lisbon edition has taras a day. [ ] though the nairs were deprived of their fathers, it appears that they retained their own family relations: the "divine plato!" however, goes beyond his hindu teachers, and would have reduced men altogether to the condition of brutes. he says: "but how are they to distinguish fathers and daughters, and the relations you described just now?" "not at all, i replied; only all the children that are born between the seventh and tenth month from the day on which one of their number was married, are to be called by him, if male, his sons, if female, his daughters; and they shall call him father, and their children he shall call his grandchildren; these again shall call him and his fellow-bridegrooms and brides, grandfathers and grandmothers; likewise all shall regard as brothers and sisters those that were born in the period during which their own fathers and mothers were bringing them into the world; and as we said just now, all these shall refrain from touching one another. but the law will allow intercourse between brothers and sisters, if the lot chances to fall that way, and if the delphian priestess also gives it her sanction." republic, book v, § . davies and vaughan's translation, p. . "at dices quomodo patres, et filiæ, ac cæteræ hujusmodi personæ, inter quas interdicta est conjunctio, cognoscent se invicem; siquidem, ut dictum superius est _post editos partus permiscendi sunt in ovili foetus omnes, ut neque mater, quæ genuit, vel proprium filium a ceteris dignoscat_? verum tamen non est difficile hanc solvere difficultatem, etenim quicumque nascentur partus, a quo primum die quis sponsus factus fuerit post decimum mensem vel post septimum, hos omnes filios suos nominabit, et foeminas pari modo filias, et illi vice versa ipsum patrem appellabunt, eosque qui ex his nascentur filios filiorum vocabit; illi è contra hos et avos, et avias, eos verò omnes, qui eodem tempore nati fuerint, quo matres ipsorum generabant, sorores, ac fratres nuncupabunt; quæ servata regula quod modò dicebamus a mutuo hi concubitu abstinebunt; fratres autem ac sorores, si sors ita tulerit, et annuerit pithiæ oraculum, lex cohabitare permittet: talis erit itaque nobis constituenda, inter custodes nostros communitas mulierum et filiorum." de rebuspubl., liber quintus. [ ] this legalised disorder appears to be exaggerated, but it is the natural consequence and result of the carrying out of plato's theories with regard to the destruction of family among the nairs or military caste. it is singular that the author of such extravagant abominations should have found acceptance because he wrote in the hellenic language. "such are the main features of plato's republic, in reference to his guardians. they afford a memorable example of that philosophical analysis, applied to the circumstances of man and society, which the greek mind was the first to conceive and follow. plato lays down his ends with great distinctness as well as the means whereby he proposes to attain them. granting his ends, the means proposed are almost always suitable and appropriate, whether practicable or otherwise." grote's plato, vol. iii, p. . [ ] "if one of the soldiers deserts his rank or throw away his arms, or is guilty of any such act of cowardice, must we not degrade him to the rank of an artisan, or an agricultural labourer?" "decidedly." republic, book v, sect. . davis and vaughan's translation, p. . "existimo autem imprimis ego eum, qui ordinem deseruevit, vel arma abjecerit, vel tale quid ex ignavia commiserit, in opificum aut agricolarum ordinem amandandum esse." platonis de rebuspubl., liber quintus. [ ] ramusio, manantamar; lisbon edition, mainatos. [ ] plato explains the object of this regulation: "itaque sacra deinceps connubia quam maxime fieri poterit efficiemus: erunt autem sacra constituenda, quæ utilissima fuerint, utilissima verò erunt, si lege marium cum feminis conjunctiones præscribantur, et tale quid in his conjunctionibus observetur, quale in propagatione ceterorum animalium ab iis observatum videmus, quibus id est propositum, ut quam generosi partus edantur, etenim licet sæpe sæpius animadvertere eos qui vel canes venatorios alunt, vel generosas aves enutriunt, et si generosas omnes existiment, eximias tamen ac præstantissimas quasdam e reliquarum numero eligere, ex quibus præcipue progenies suscipiatur." de rebuspubl., liber quintus. * * * * * "oportet enim ut ex hactenus dictis constitit optimos viros cum optimis mulieribus sæpissime congredi, deteriores verò cum deterioribus per raro, et illorum quidem editos partus nutrire, horum verò nequaquam: si modo præstantissimum sit futurum ovile." de rebuspubl., liber quintus. "it follows from what has been already granted, that the best of both sexes ought to be brought together as often as possible, and the worst as seldom as possible, and that the issue of the former unions ought to be reared, and that of the latter abandoned, if the flock is to attain to first-rate excellence." republic, bk. v, sect. . davis and vaughan's translation, p. . [ ] as no explanation of zevil is given, it is possible that it is a slip of the pen for _e vil_ and vile. ramusio, tiberi; lisbon edition calls them tuias; in the portuguese this caste is called tiar and _civel_ or rustic by antiphrasis, which has been mistaken by the translators for an indian word. [ ] repeated thus in the manuscript. [ ] or hats. [ ] apretada or hard pressed. [ ] ramusio, paneru; lisbon edition, panceni. [ ] ramusio, revoler; lisbon ed., revoleens. [ ] ramusio, puler; lisbon, poleas. [ ] ramusio, pareas; lisbon, parcens. [ ] dañados de todo, this might be intended for dañosos, hurtful in every way; the word occurs before and is translated contaminated, but hurtful or noxious would make a better reading. [ ] ramusio, cheliis; lisbon, chatis. [ ] about two hundred tons. [ ] cubiertas. [ ] caña fistola. [ ] ramusio, crecati; munich ms. , crecate. [ ] ramusio, capogato; lisbon ed., quategatam. [ ] or ezerubs. [ ] root of ginger and other plants used in medicine. [ ] culebras de sombrero, a shade, canopy, hood, hat. [ ] ramusio, pananie; lisbon edit., pananee; munich ms. , panane, , pananx. [ ] ramusio, catua; lisbon, chatua; munich, and , chatua. [ ] caranganor, ortelius: cranganor, homannus: it was taken by the portuguese in . [ ] beledy: arabic word no longer in use. [ ] cuartillo, fourth part of an azumbre, equal to litres and . . [ ] notwithstanding the extreme value and utility of these trees, as here described, some thousands of them were lately cut down to make way for sugar canes, and in spite of the remonstrances of the inhabitants, by a european who had got the loan of some land for a term of years, in one of the comoro islands. the loss to the islands was still greater from the fact that they depend chiefly on their own resources, being out of the regular track of trading vessels. [ ] here ramusio adds: "which the christians of the country affirmed to me was described in their books, which they preserve with great veneration." camoens puts this event, as well as the tomb of st. thomas at mailapur. canto x, stanza . olha que de narsinga o senhorio tem as reliquias santas, e bemditas do corpo de thomé, varão sagrado que a jesu christo teve a mão no lado. . aqui a cidade foy, que se chamava meliapor, formosa, grande e rica: os idolos antiguos adorava, como inda agora faz a gente inica: longe do mar naquelle tempo estava quando a fé, que no mundo se publica, thomé vinha pregando, e ja passara provincias mil do mundo, que ensinara. . chegado aqui pregando, e junto dando a doentes saude, a mortos vida, a caso traz hum dia o mar vagando hum lenho de grandeza desmedida: deseja o rei, que andava edificando, fazer delle madeira, e não duvida poder tira-lo a terra com possantes forças d'homens, de engenhos, de elefantes. . era tão grande o pezo do madeiro, que, só para abalar-se, nada abasta; mas o nuncio de cristo verdadeiro menos trabalho em tal negocio gasta: ata o cordão, que traz por derradeiro no tronco, e facilmente o leva, e arrasta para onde faça hum sumptuoso templo, que ficasse aos futuros por exemplo. . sabia bem que se com fé formada mandar a hum monte surdo, que se mova, que obedecerá logo á voz sagrada; que assi lho ensinou christo, e elle o prova: a gente ficou disto alvoroçada, os brãhmenes o tem por cousa nova vendo os milagres, vendo a sanctidade, hão medo de perder autoridade. . são estes sacerdotes dos gentios, em quem mais penetrado tinha inveja, buscam maneiras mil, buscam desvios, com que thomé, não se ouça, ou morto seja. o principal, que ao peito traz os fios, hum caso horrendo faz, que o mundo veja, que inimiga não ha tão dura, e fera, como a virtude falsa da sincera. . hum filho proprio mata, logo accusa de homicidio thomé, que era innocente: dà falsas testemunhas, como se usa, condemnaram-no á morte brevemente: o sancto, que não vê melhor escusa, que appellar para o padre omnipotente, quer diante do rei, e dos senhores, que se faça hum milagre dos maiores. . o corpo morto manda ser trazido, que resuscite, e seja perguntado quem foi seu matador, e será crido for testemunho o seu mais approvado: viram todos o moço vivo erguido em nome de jesu crucificado: da graças a thomé, que lho deo vida, e descobre seu pai ser homicida. . este milagre fez tamanho espanto, que o rei se banha logo na agua santa, e muitos após elle: hum beija o manto, outro louvor do deos de thomé canta. os brahmenes se encheran de odio tanto, com seu veneno os morde inveja tanta, que, persuadindo a isso o povo rudo, determinam mata-lo em fin de tudo. . hum dia, que pregando ao povo estava, fingiram entre a gente hum arruido: ja christo neste tempo lhe ordenava que, padecendo, fosse ao ceo subido, a multidão das pedras, que voava, no sancto dá já a tudo offerecido: hum dos maos, por fartarse mais depressa, com crua lança o peito lhe atravessa. . choraram-te, thomé, o gange e o indo; chorou-te toda a terra, que pizaste; mais te choram as almas, que vestindo se hiam da sancta fé que lhe ensinaste. [ ] mar thomas is syriac for st. thomas; this word must have been introduced by the nestorians or armenians, as they are called here, though st. thomas may have carried the word there himself in speaking of others, as of mar elias. [ ] ancient coin equal to two reals vellon or sixpence. [ ] mailapur, a league and two-thirds south of madras, seat of a catholic bishop and two churches, was taken by the portuguese in and by the french in . [ ] these were nestorians, who call themselves in mesopotamia esky chaldany, old chaldæans. in archbishop alexander menezes held a conference at culam, for the purpose of uniting the roman catholics and nestorians. [ ] blessed bread, is bread in little pieces distributed in churches on great feast days. [ ] it is hardly necessary to state that this is absolutely opposed to catholic practice. [ ] selling the sacraments, canonically a great offence: it was condemned by the th canon of the council of elvira, a.d. . [ ] this passage is translated in the lisbon edition from ramusio; the next paragraph is not to be found in either of them. [ ] it is vexatious that the date should be wanting; it is probable, however, that this was an italian and an overland traveller, for if not he could not have been buried more than fifteen years, and a fresh tomb would have hardly called for notice from the writer. [ ] this passage is not in the italian or portuguese edition of barbosa. it is in the ms. no. of the munich library, and the date is also wanting; in the munich ms. no. this paragraph is entirely wanting, as in ramusio. [ ] this group is called maldivar in ortelius, and is there stated to contain seven or eight thousand isles. one of the islands is called y^a de ilheos, or island of small islands, the second word being portuguese and apparently not understood by the compiler of the atlas. [ ] muxama or mojama, preserved tunny fish. [ ] "vês corre a costa celebre indiana para o sul até o cabo comori, já chamado cori, que taprobana (que ora he ceilão) defronte tem de si." os lusiadas, canto x, stanza . [ ] there is something wrong here; for, from cape comorin to maylepur is more than double fifty leagues; the direction of the compass and length of the channel, make it probable that the island of manar was intended instead of maylepur. [ ] jargon or zircon is a stone having a superficial resemblance to a diamond. milburn's oriental commerce, p. . possibly this stone may be connected with the jarkna stein mentioned in the edda, and supposed by grimm to be the opal. in ramusio the spelling is the same as in this ms. the whole of this passage is much shortened in the lisbon edition. [ ] "olha em ceylão, que o monte se alevanta tanto, que as nuvens passa, ou a vista engana os naturaes tem por cousa sancta, por a pedra em que està á pegada humana." lusiadas, canto x, . [ ] the ascent is still performed in the same manner, and is difficult in windy weather. [ ] chilao in ortelius's map of asia, the portuguese way of writing chilam. [ ] comp. malay sampan. [ ] cael in ortelius and homannus, the cedilla has been omitted in another part of this work. [ ] maestros: this may also mean dealers. [ ] cholmandel, ortelius. [ ] this story is evidently of hindu origin, since the peacock is respected by the hindus. it also in some measure confirms the antiquity of the establishment of christianity in india, which from this story must have been established before the arrival in india of any of the nestorian priests: since they came from a country where the peacock is associated with the devil, especially amongst the devil-worshiping yezidys, who have got a peacock for an idol, which was seen and described by mr. layard. many of their superstitions come down from the manichees of the second century. besides this, i have seen an arabic description of animals written in syria, in which the peacock is described as the first creature expelled out of paradise, on account of its pride. this idea and the yezidy love for it, probably have a common origin. [ ] romeria: this word here translated pilgrimage, means a visit to a shrine or holy place, and is inferior to peregrinage: it implies a shorter distance, and is equivalent to ziaret. [ ] paleacate, ortelius. [ ] guenga, ortelius; it should be gunga. "ganges, no qual os seus habitadores morrem banhados, tendo por certeza, que inda que sejão grandes peccadores, esta agua sancta os lava, e da pureza."--lusiad. x, . [ ] in ortelius there is a place called aralem, east of bengala. [ ] bengala, ortelius, and on the same spot in homannus chatigan; in our maps chittagong, which name was changed by the moghuls in to islam abad. "vê cathigão cidade das melhores de bengala provincia; que se preza de abundante; mas olha, que está posta para o austro de aqui virada a costa."--lusiad. x, stan. . [ ] abasis. [ ] the employment of eunuchs was forbidden by the prophet, since their employment induced people to supply the demand. hidayah, vol. iv, p. . [ ] verma, ortelius and ramusio. [ ] aracangil, lisbon edit. [ ] here ramusio adds: "and they say that by this trial they know which of them are healthy and of a good temperament." [ ] pegu, ortelius and ramusio. [ ] the dicco. geogo. universal, barcelona, states the distance at twelve leagues, as this work is chiefly translated from french authorities, these distances would agree, and the river deposit may have increased the distance. [ ] this is also related by nicolo conti, india in the fifteenth century, hakluyt society. [ ] saddle between _à la gineta_, a high saddle and short stirrups, and _à la brida_, long stirrups and hardly any saddle at all. [ ] martabam, ortelius. [ ] ava, ortelius. [ ] capelan, ortelius, near the mouth of the river menam. [ ] sian, ortelius. [ ] tanazaru, ortelius. [ ] java frankincense, in arabic. [ ] queda, ortelius; keddah, malay state tributary to siam, it derives its name from the arabic, a cup. ramusio and lisbon edit., quedaa. "olha tavay cidade, onde começa de syão o largo imperio tão comprido tenessary, queda, que he so cabeça das que pimienta aly tem produzido; mays avante fareys que se conheça malaca, por emperio ennobrecido, onde toda a província domar grande, suas mercadorias ricas mande."--lusiadas, x, stanza . [ ] paam, ortelius; pahang, now an independent malay state. [ ] not in ortelius; salangore, an independent malay state. [ ] "vé nos remotos montes outras gentes que gueos se chamão de selvages vidas; humana carne comem, mas a sua pintão com ferro ardente, usança crua." lusiade, stanza . [ ] "mas na ponta da tierra gingapura veràs, onde o caminho às naos se estreyta, de aqui tornando a costa à cynosura se encurva, e para a aurora se endereyta. ves pam, patàne reynos, e alongura de syão, que estes, e outros mays sogeyta. olha o rio menão, que se derrama do grande lago, que chiamay se chama." lusiade, x, stanza . [ ] the lisbon edition has _sulia_, and explains the word in a note as translated above. [ ] encienço is the old word for ajenjo, absinthe, or it may be the old form of incenso, incense. [ ] the english word to _fish_ a mast or fishing rod, comes from the spanish word used here, fajar; anciently pronounced as the catalan faixar, to wrap or wind a sash, to swathe. [ ] rattan. [ ] small coins, three ceutis make one blanca, an ancient coin. escuela de leer letras antiguas, p. : not in the dictionaries. [ ] kris. [ ] this passage fixes the hindu origin of running amok, which from this seems to have been connected with the worship of shiva or bhowani. now it would be difficult to get any other explanation than that of _adet_, custom. [ ] the barcelona ms. has plainly amuco, which is correct. ramusio has amulos, and the lisbon edition guanicio. [ ] thirty men according to other accounts. [ ] nicobar, ortelius' map of asia, and nicovan in map of india; ramusio, navacar. [ ] medio _giorno_, italian. [ ] samotra and sumatra, ortelius. [ ] pedir, ortelius. [ ] biraen, ortelius, on the north-west coast. [ ] pasem and pazer, ortelius; passam, homannus. [ ] camper, ortelius and homannus, between siuk and jambi. [ ] amdaragui, ortelius; andragari, homannus; east coast. [ ] menancabo, ortelius, south-west coast. [ ] sunda, ortelius. [ ] ramusio has here translated south-east, the lisbon edition has south-west. [ ] java maior, ortelius. it is still called java major by the arabs. [ ] ramusio, palevdora; lisbon, pateudru. [ ] they look very like crim tatars. [ ] raydas. [ ] java minor, ortelius, now bali, the inhabitants are still pagans; the island sumbawa also in ortelius is not the same as java minor, but apparently the one here called oçare, as it contains a great volcano. here ramusio says some lines are wanting; he calls the island oçare, nucopora. [ ] timor, ortelius:-- "aly tambien timor, que o lenho manda sandalo salutifero, e cheyroso. olha a sunda tão larga, que humabanda esconde para o sul difficultuoso. a gente do sertão, que as torras anda, hum rio diz que tem miraculoso, que por onde elle so sem outro vae converte em pedra o pao que nelle cae." lusiad. x, stanza . [ ] bandan, ortelius:-- "olha do bandá asilhas que se esmaltão da varia cor, que pinta o rosco fruto, as aves, variadas, que aly saltão, da verde noz tomando seu tributo. olha tambem borneo, onde não faltaõ lagrimas, no licor qualhado, e enxuto, das arvores, que camphora he chamado com que da ilha o nome he celebrado." lusiad., . [ ] chapel is also the same as chapin, a slipper or sandal. [ ] ramusio, ambon; lisbon, andam. [ ] molucos, ortelius. [ ] bachian, machian, motir, tidore, tarenate, ortelius; bluteau's dictionary names them bachan, maquien, moutel, tidor, ternate, and says they were anciently named seque, mara, moutil, duco, gape. the only remaining possession of the portuguese in the malay archipelago is dili in the island of timor. [ ] nury is the real name of molucca parrots, which has been changed to loro and lori. ramusio calls them mire, and the lisbon ed. noire. [ ] this section is not in the lisbon ms. [ ] the bugis of celebes still make the best krises. [ ] celebes, ortelius. [ ] this section is not in the lisbon ms. [ ] ramusio and the lisbon ed., tendaya. banguey island, north of borneo, deg. min. n. lat. and deg. min. e. long.; - / leagues long and - / broad: it is desert. geographical dict., barcelona, . [ ] the island now called solor is in another direction e. of the island flores, deg. min. s. lat. and deg. min. e. long. [ ] ramusio stops here and says several lines are wanting. [ ] borneo, ortelius. [ ] champa, ortelius and homannus, the southern portion of cochin china next to cambodia; it is not an island as here stated. [ ] ramusio says three hundred maravedis, the lisbon ms. says thirty or forty pardoes. [ ] borceguies--the turkish mest. [ ] there is a _no_, not, here in the manuscript, which seems to be put in by mistake; the spanish idiom does not allow of adding another negative at the beginning of the sentence; the one negative alone makes nonsense, and is contrary to what has been said above. [ ] a french missionary, quoted in the "dictionnaire de la conversation," does not believe this story, which he assumes to be invented for the sake of increasing the value of the porcelain. [ ] the liu kiu islands. lequio major and minor, y^{a.} fermosa, and reix magas, form a group in ortelius: in homannus formosa is in its proper place, and the group is called lequeyo or riukiu islands. [ ] here the lisbon edition says that the manuscript of duarte barbosa ends, and that what follows about the precious stones has been translated from the italian of ramusio: this appendix about precious stones is wanting in the munich ms. no. . [ ] martin centurion according to the munich ms. no. , where the name is given in full. [ ] fano, fanam, fanão--a weight for weighing rubies, according to bluteau = quilat or carat; according to the dicco. enciclopedico, madrid, , and the encyclopedie of diderot and d'alembert = to carats of venice. also a coin equal to two spanish reals or twenty portuguese reis, or ten of which made a cruzado. the author has said in another place that it is equal to thirty-six maravedis. the following table of coins will be useful with reference to the prices named in this work. ducado = maravedis. dobla = " florin = " real = " these maravedis were worth double those of the present time, in which a real contains maravedis, so that a fanam would be worth reals or half a peseta = d. the author of the escuela de leer letras antiguas, from which these figures are taken, has added lists of prices at different times as guides to the value of coins. in , law of don john i. fanega of wheat maravedis. ditto barley " ditto oats " cubit of french cloth " ditto flanders or english cloth " day's wages from november to march " ditto ditto march to november " each yoke for ploughing all day " a servant by the year " a maid ditto " for grinding a fanega of wheat " a thousand tiles " ditto bricks " a fanega of mortar " ditto lime " an ox " a calf " a pound of mutton " a hare " a rabbit " a fowl " a goose " a pigeon " a partridge " these maravedis were worth - / actual maravedis, or about d. each. in the fanega of wheat was fixed at maravedis. ditto ditto of barley " " these maravedis were worth two of the actual ones. , a fanega of wheat = reals. [ ] a miskal. [ ] a real de plata means two reals vellon, or actual reals of the present time. [ ] son bermejos y deslavados, y encarnados. [ ] in ramusio. [ ] balassia in ramusio. [ ] toque or proof. [ ] equal to a carat and a third. [ ] these two names must be the same word kringa-nila; blue stone, perhaps. in ramusio, quiniganilam. [ ] capucar in ramusio. [ ] a jour. [ ] exer in ramusio. [ ] kerman. chiraman, ortelius. [ ] in the ms. the passage reads _as mina y tierra seca_. [ ] the _times_ reviewer of mr. emmanuel's book _on precious stones_, april , , is in error in saying that "the zircon is known in trade as the jacinth or hyacinth". the jargon, corindon or circon, which was much used in the xvi^{th} century, is not held in any estimation at the present time; it has the merit of possessing the hardness of the sapphire. [ ] mar deignan in ramusio. [ ] i have been informed by mr. capt, jeweller, of geneva, that the proportions of the prices of precious stones, according to their weight, are still very exact for uncut stones in the indian market, and that the general accuracy of the details given in this ms. is very great. with respect to the doubts which had been expressed as to the stones of combined colours, they do exist, but are held in no estimation in europe. experiments have been made in europe, and especially in germany, for the purpose of deepening the colour of precious stones, particularly rubies, by the process here mentioned; but success was so hazardous, and so costly, that speculators would no longer incur the risks of it. [ ] in ramusio. [ ] beledin, of the country, local; arabic. ramusio has not translated it. [ ] xl in ramusio. [ ] el peso del es el mayor. this may refer to the old and new weights, or it may mean that this ginger is heavier than the other ginger. [ ] syn enbarar. [ ] faratela, indian weight equal to seven and a quarter pounds. encicloped. dict., madrid, . [ ] atincar, anglicè tincal, when refined, borax. [ ] calamo aromático, also called acoro, a kind of aquatic plant used in medicine. [ ] this may be either incense or wormwood. incenso in ramusio. [ ] lombriguera, southernwood, wormwood: artemisia abrotanum. [ ] turbith, convolvulus turpethum; its root is used as a purgative, and it comes from india and ceylon. [ ] gum from the giant fennel: also called sagapeno, is known in commerce as yellowish white drops of a strong aromatic smell something like garlic; is used for diachylum. [ ] atulia, a sublimate of calamine. [ ] probably cubebs. [ ] or four hundredweight english. [ ] lo al, old spanish. [ ] this voyage is not in ramusio nor in the lisbon edition, and apparently has been hitherto unpublished. the munich ms., no. , gives the date , but is the correct reading. [ ] leste o este. [ ] surat glaized cotton stuff. [ ] sudueste and su sudueste, these terms have not been ever used in the body of the book. [ ] norueste. [ ] singaduras for singladuras, portuguese singradura, derived by bluteau from french cingler, and that from the german segelen. [ ] setentrional. [ ] del sur al sueste. [ ] or colayres and giravales according to another reading. [ ] les nordeste. [ ] this passage important. los marineros q. tomamos en borney llevaban carta de marear e trayan una aguja y piedra yman e una carta en q. trayan muchas rayas e lineas de lo qual nos espantamos mucho. see the pillars of hercules, by d. urquhart with respect to the phenician compass. [ ] line across the forehead. transcriber's note: inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. obvious typographical errors have been corrected. italic text is denoted by _underscores_. two of the letters are entitled "letter xiv." macrons (straight lines above the characters) are represented as [=a], [=e], [=i], and [=u]. journeys in persia and kurdistan [illustration: mrs. bishop (isabella l. bird).] journeys in persia and kurdistan including a summer in the upper karun region and a visit to the nestorian rayahs by mrs. bishop (isabella l. bird) honorary fellow of the royal scottish geographical society author of 'six months in the sandwich islands' 'unbeaten tracks in japan,' etc. in two volumes--vol. i. with portrait, maps, and illustrations london john murray, albemarle street to the untravelled many, these volumes are cordially dedicated works by mrs. bishop. "miss bird's fascinating and instructive work on japan fully maintains her well-earned reputation as a traveller of the first order, and a graphic and picturesque writer. miss bird is a born traveller, fearless, enthusiastic, patient, instructed, knowing as well what as how to describe. no peril daunts her, no prospect of fatigue or discomfort disheartens or repels her."--_quarterly review._ i. unbeaten tracks in japan, including visits to the aborigines of yezo and the shrines of nikko and isé. with illustrations. crown vo. s. d. ii. a lady's life in the rocky mountains. with illustrations. post vo. s. d. iii. the hawaiian archipelago: six months among the palm groves, coral reefs, and volcanoes of the sandwich islands. with illustrations. crown vo. s. d. iv. the golden chersonese and the way thither. with map and illustrations. crown vo. s. john murray, albemarle street. preface the letters of which these volumes are composed embrace the second half of journeys in the east extending over a period of two years.[ ] they attempt to be a faithful record of facts and impressions, but were necessarily written in haste at the conclusion of fatiguing marches, and often in circumstances of great discomfort and difficulty, and i relied for their correction in the event of publication on notes made with much care. unfortunately i was robbed of nearly the whole of these, partly on my last journey in persia and partly on the turkish frontier,--a serious loss, which must be my apology to the reader for errors which, without this misfortune, would not have occurred. the bibliography of persia is a very extensive one, and it may well be that i have little that is new to communicate, except on a part of luristan previously untraversed by europeans; but each traveller receives a different impression from those made upon his predecessors, and i hope that my book may be accepted as an honest attempt to make a popular contribution to the sum of knowledge of a country and people with which we are likely to be brought into closer relations. as these volumes are simply travels in persia and eastern asia minor, and are _not a book on either country_, the references to such subjects as were not within the sphere of my observation are brief and incidental. the administration of government, the religious and legal systems, the tenure of land, and the mode of taxation are dismissed in a few lines, and social customs are only described when i came in contact with them. the ilyats, or nomadic tribes, form a very remarkable element of the population of persia, but i have only noticed two of their divisions--the bakhtiari and feili lurs. the antiquities of persia are also passed over with hardly a remark, as well as many other subjects, which have been "threshed out" by previous writers with more or less of accuracy. i make these omissions with all the more satisfaction, because most that is "knowable" concerning persia will be accessible on the publication of a work now in the press, _persia and the persian question_, by the hon. george n. curzon, m.p., who has not only travelled extensively in the country, but has bestowed such enormous labour and research upon it, and has had such exceptional opportunities of acquiring the latest and best official information, that his volumes may fairly be described as "exhaustive." it is always a pleasant duty to acknowledge kindness, and i am deeply grateful to several friends for the help which they have given me in many ways, and for the trouble which some of them have taken to recover facts which were lost with my notes, as well as for the careful revision of a portion of my letters in ms. i am indebted to the indian authorities for the materials for a sketch map, for photographs from which many of the illustrations are taken, and for the use of a valuable geographical report, and to mr. thistleton dyer, director of the royal botanic gardens at kew, for the identification of a few of my botanical specimens. in justice to the many kind friends who received me into their homes, i am anxious to disclaim having either echoed or divulged their views on persian or turkish subjects, and to claim and accept the fullest responsibility for the opinions expressed in these pages, which, whether right or wrong, are wholly my own. it is from those who know persia and kurdistan the best that i am sure of receiving the most kindly allowance wherever, in spite of an honest desire to be accurate, i have fallen into mistakes. the retention, not only of the form, but of the reality of diary letters, is not altogether satisfactory either to author or reader, for the author sacrifices the literary and artistic arrangement of his materials, and however ruthlessly omissions are made, the reader is apt to find himself involved in a multiplicity of minor details, treated in a fashion which he is inclined to term "slipshod," and to resent the egotism which persistently clings to familiar correspondence. still, even with all the disadvantages of this form of narrative, i think that letters are the best mode of placing the reader in the position of the traveller, and of enabling him to share, not only first impressions in their original vividness, and the interests and enjoyments of travelling, but the hardships, difficulties, and tedium which are their frequent accompaniments! for the lack of vivacity which, to my thinking, pervades the following letters, i ask the reader's indulgence. they were originally written, and have since been edited, under the heavy and abiding shadow, not only of the loss of the beloved and only sister who was the inspiration of my former books of travel, and to whose completely sympathetic interest they owed whatever of brightness they possessed, but of my beloved husband, whose able and careful revision accompanied my last volume through the press. believing that these letters faithfully reflect what i saw of the regions of which they treat, i venture to ask for them the same kindly and lenient criticism with which my travels in the far east and elsewhere were received in bygone years, and to express the hope that they may help to lead towards that goal to which all increase of knowledge of races and beliefs tends--a truer and kindlier recognition of the brotherhood of man, as seen in the light of the fatherhood of god. isabella l. bishop. _november , ._ footnote: [ ] i left england with a definite object in view, to which others were subservient, but it is not necessary to obtrude it on the reader. list of illustrations in volume i. mrs. bishop (isabella l. bird) _frontispiece_ a gopher _page_ a turkish frontier fort _to face page_ lodgings for travellers persian bread-making the shrine of fatima a dervish castle of ardal imam kuli khan the karun at dupulan _to face page_ ali jan armenian women of libasgun wall and gate of libasgun _to face page_ a perso-bakhtiari cradle a dastgird tent _to face page_ glossary _abambar_, a covered reservoir. _agha_, a master. _andarun_, women's quarters, a _haram_. _arak_, a coarse spirit. _badg[=i]r_, wind-tower. _badragah_, a parting escort. _balakhana_, an upper room. _bringals_, egg plants. _chapar_, post. _chapar khana_, post-house. _chapi_, the bakhtiari national dance. _charvadar_, a muleteer. _far[=a]sh_, _lit._ a carpet-spreader. _farsakh_, from three and a half to four miles. _gardan_, a pass. _gaz_, a sweetmeat made from manna. _gelims_, thin carpets, drugget. _gheva_, a summer shoe. _gholam_, an official messenger or attendant. _h[=a]kim_, a governor. _hak[=i]m_, a physician. _hammam_, a turkish or hot bath. _ilyats_, the nomadic tribes of persia. _imam_, a saint, a religious teacher. _imamzada_, a saint's shrine. _istikbal_, a procession of welcome. _jul_, a horse's outer blanket. _kabob_, pieces of skewered meat seasoned and toasted. _kafir_, an infidel, a christian. _kah_, chopped straw. _kajawehs_, horse-panniers. _kalian_, a "hubble-bubble" or water-pipe for tobacco. _kamarband_, a girdle. _kanaat_, an underground water-channel. _kanat_, the upright side of a tent. _karsi_, a wooden frame for covering a fire-hole. _katirgi_ (turkish), a muleteer. _ketchuda_, a headman of a village. _khan_, lord or prince; a designation as common as esquire. _khan_ (turkish), an inn. _khanjar_, a curved dagger. _khanji_ (turkish), the keeper of a _khan_. _khanum_, a lady of rank. _khurjins_, saddle bags. _kizik_, a slab of animal fuel. _kotal_, _lit._ a ladder, a pass. _kourbana_ (syriac), the holy communion. _kran_, eightpence. _kuh_, mountain. _lira_ (turkish), about £ . _malek_ (syriac, _lit._ king), a chief or headman. _mamachi_, midwife. _mangel_, a brazier. _mast_, curdled milk. _medresseh_, a college. _mirza_, a scribe, secretary, or gentleman. an educated man. _modakel_, illicit percentage. _mollah_, a religious teacher. _munshi_, a clerk, a teacher of languages. _namad_, felt. _nasr_, steward. _odah_ (turkish), a room occupied by human beings and animals. _piastre_, a turkish coin worth two-pence-halfpenny. _pirahan_, a chemise or shirt. _pish-kash_, a nominal present. _qasha_ (syriac), a priest. _rayahs_, subject syrians. _roghan_, clarified butter. _samovar_, a russian tea-urn. _sartip_, a general. _seraidar_, the keeper of a caravanserai. _sharbat_, a fruit syrup. _shroff_, a money-changer. _shuldari_ (_shooldarry_), a small tent with two poles and a ridge pole, but without _kanats_. _shulwars_, wide trousers. _sowar_, a horseman, a horse soldier. _takch[=a]h_, a recess in a wall. _taktrawan_, a mule litter. _tand[=u]r_, an oven in a floor. _tang_, a rift or defile. _tufangchi_, a foot soldier, an armed footman. _tuman_, seven shillings and sixpence. _vakil_, an authorised representative. _vakil-u-dowleh_, agent of government. _yabu_, a pony or inferior horse. _yailaks_, summer quarters. _yekdan_, a mule or camel trunk, made of leather. _yohoort_ (turkish), curdled milk. _zaptieh_ (turkish), a _gendarme_. letter i basrah, asiatic turkey, _jan. , _. a _shamal_ or n.w. wind following on the sirocco which had accompanied us up "the gulf" was lashing the shallow waters of the roadstead into reddish yeast as we let go the anchor opposite the sea front of bushire, the most important seaport in persia. _the_ persian man-of-war _persepolis_, officered by germans, h.m. ship _sphinx_, two big steamers owned in london, a british-built three-masted clipper, owned and navigated by arabs, and a few arab native vessels tugged at their anchors between two and three miles from the shore. native _buggalows_ clustered and bumped round the trading vessels, hanging on with difficulty, or thumped and smashed through the short waves, close on the wind, easily handled and sailing magnificently, while the residency steam-launch, puffing and toiling, was scarcely holding her own against a heavy head sea. bushire, though it has a number of two-storied houses and a population of , , has a most insignificant appearance, and lies so low that from the _assyria's_ deck it gave the impression of being below the sea-level. the _shamal_ was raising a sand storm in the desert beyond; the sand was drifting over it in yellow clouds, the mountains which at a greater or less distance give a wild sublimity to the eastern shores of the gulf were blotted out, and a blurred and windy shore harmonised with a blurred and windy sea. the steam-launch, which after several baffled attempts succeeded in reaching the steamer's side, brought letters of welcome from colonel ross, who for eighteen years has filled the office of british resident in the persian gulf with so much ability, judgment, and tact as to have earned the respect and cordial esteem of persians, arabs, the mixed races, and europeans alike. of his kindness and hospitality there is no occasion to write, for every stranger who visits the gulf has large experience of both. the little launch, though going shorewards with the wind, was tossed about like a cork, shipping deluges of spray, and it was so cold and generally tumultuous, that it was a relief to exchange the shallow, wind-lashed waters of the roadstead for the shelter of a projecting sea-wall below the governor's house. a curricle, with two fiery little arab horses, took us over the low windy stretch of road which lies behind bushire, through a part of the town and round again to the sea-shore, on which long yellow surges were breaking thunderously in drifts of creamy foam. the residency, a large persian house, with that sort of semi-fortified look which the larger eastern houses are apt to have, is built round courtyards, and has a fine entrance, which was lined with well-set-up men of a bombay marine battalion. as is usual in persia and turkey, the reception rooms, living rooms, and guest rooms are upstairs, opening on balconies, the lower part being occupied by the servants and as domestic offices. good fires were a welcome adjunct to the genial hospitality of colonel ross and his family, for the mercury, which for the previous week had ranged from ° to °, since the sunrise of that day had dropped to °, and the cold, damp wind suggested an english february. even the residency, thick as its walls are, was invaded by sea sand, and penetrated by the howlings and shriekings of the _shamal_ and the low hiss at intervals of wind-blown spray. this miserable roadstead does a large trade,[ ] though every bale and chest destined for the cities of the interior must be packed on mules' backs for carriage over the horrible and perilous _kotals_ or rock ladders of the intervening mountain ranges. the chief caravan route in persia starts from bushire _viâ_ shiraz, isfahan, kashan, and kûm, to tihran. a loaded mule takes from thirty to thirty-five days to isfahan, and from isfahan to tihran from twelve to sixteen days, according to the state of the roads. bushire does not differ in appearance from an ordinary eastern town. irregular and uncleanly alleys, dead mud walls, with here and there a low doorway, bazars in which the requirements of caravans are largely considered, and in which most of the manufactured goods are english, a great variety in male attire, some small mosques, a marked predominance of the arab physiognomy and costume, and ceaseless strings of asses bringing skins of water from wells a mile from the town, are my impressions of the first persian city that i have ever seen. the persian element, however, except in officialism and the style of building, is not strong, the population being chiefly composed of "gulf arabs." there are nearly fifty european residents, including the telegraph staff and the representatives of firms doing a very large business with england, the persian gulf trading company, messrs. hotz and company, messrs. gray, paul, and company, and the british india steam navigation company, which has enormously developed the trade of the gulf. bushire is the great starting-point of travellers from india who desire "to go home through persia" by shiraz and persepolis. _charvadars_ (muleteers) and the necessary outfit are obtainable, but even the kindness of the resident fails to overcome the standing difficulty of obtaining a persian servant who is both capable and trustworthy. having been forewarned by him not to trust to bushire for this indispensable article, i had brought from india a persian of good antecedents and character, who, desiring to return to his own country, was willing to act as my interpreter, courier, and sole attendant. grave doubts of his ability to act in the two latter capacities occurred to me before i left karachi, grew graver on the voyage, and were quite confirmed as we tossed about in the residency launch, where the "young persian gentleman," as he styled himself, sat bolt upright with a despairing countenance, dressed in a tall hat, a beautifully made european suit, faultless tan boots, and snowy collar and cuffs, a man of truly refined feeling and manners, but hopelessly out of place. i pictured him helpless among the _déshabillé_ and roughnesses of a camp, and anticipated my insurmountable reluctance to ask of him menial service, and was glad to find that the same doubts had occurred to himself. i lost no time in interviewing hadji,--a gulf arab, who has served various travellers, has been ten times to mecca, went to windsor with the horses presented to the queen by the sultan of muscat, speaks more or less of six languages, knows english fairly, has some recommendations, and professes that he is "up to" all the requirements of camp life. the next morning i engaged him as "man of all work," and though a big, wild-looking arab in a rough _abba_ and a big turban, with a long knife and a revolver in his girdle, scarcely looks like a lady's servant, i hope he may suit me, though with these antecedents he is more likely to be a scamp than a treasure. the continuance of the _shamal_ prevented the steamer from unloading in the exposed roadstead, and knocked the launch about as we rejoined her. we called at the telegraph station at fao, and brought off dr. bruce, the head of the church missionary society's mission at julfa, whose long and intimate acquaintance with the country and people will make him a great acquisition on the tigris. "about sixty miles above the bar outside the shat-el-arab" (the united tigris and euphrates), "forty miles above the entrance to that estuary at fao, and twenty miles below the turkish port of basrah, the present main exit of the karun river flows into the shat-el-arab from the north-east by an artificial channel, whose etymology testifies to its origin, the haffar" (dug-out) "canal. when this canal was cut, no one knows.... where it flows into the shat-el-arab it is about a quarter of a mile in width, with a depth of from twenty to thirty feet. "the town of mohammerah is situated a little more than a mile up the canal on its right bank, and is a filthy place, with about inhabitants, and consists mainly of mud huts and hovels, backed by a superb fringe of date palms."[ ] in the rose flush of a winter morning we steamed slowly past this diplomatically famous confluence of the haffar and shat-el-arab, at the angle of which the persians have lately built a quay, a governor's house, and a large warehouse, in expectation of a trade which shows few signs of development. a winter morning it was indeed, splendid and invigorating after the ferocious heat of the gulf. to-day there has been frost! the shat-el-arab is a noble river or estuary. from both its persian and turkish shores, however, mountains have disappeared, and dark forests of date palms intersected by canals fringe its margin heavily, and extend to some distance inland. the tide is strong, and such native boats as _belems_, _buggalows_, and dug-outs, loaded with natives and goods, add a cheerful element of busy life. we anchored near basrah, below the foreign settlement, and had the ignominy of being placed for twenty-four hours in quarantine, flying the degrading yellow flag. basrah has just been grievously ravaged by the cholera, which has not only carried off three hundred of the native population daily for some time, but the british vice-consul and his children. cholera still exists in turkey while it is extinct in bombay, and the imposition of quarantine on a ship with a "clean bill of health" seems devised for no other purpose than to extract fees, to annoy, and to produce a harassing impression of turkish officialism. after this detention we steamed up to the anchorage, which is in front of a few large bungalows which lie between the belt of palms and the river, and form the european settlement of margil. a fever-haunted swamp, with no outlet but the river; canals exposing at low water deep, impassable, and malodorous slime separating the bungalows; a climate which is damp, hot, malarious, and prostrating except for a few weeks in winter, and a total absence of all the resources and amenities of civilisation, make basrah one of the least desirable places to which europeans are exiled by the exigencies of commerce. it is scarcely necessary to say that the few residents exercise unbounded hospitality, which is the most grateful memory which the stranger retains of the brief halt by the "river of arabia." this is the dead season in the "city of dates." an unused river steamer, a large english trader, two turkish ships-of-war painted white, the _mejidieh_, one of two english-owned steamers which are allowed to ply on the tigris, and the _assyria_ of the b.i.s.n. co., constitute the fleet at anchor. as at bushire, all cargo must be loaded and unloaded by boats, and crowds of native craft hanging on to the trading vessels give a little but not much vivacity. october, after the ingathering of the date harvest, is the busiest month here. the magnitude of the date industry may be gathered from the fact that in , , tons of dates were exported from basrah, , in boxes, and the remainder in palm-leaf mats, one vessel taking tons. the quantity of wood imported for the boxes was tons in cut lengths, with iron hooping, nails, and oiled paper for inside wrapping, brought chiefly from england. a hundred trees can be grown on an acre of ground. the mature tree gives a profit of s., making the profit on an acre £ annually. the governor of mohammerah has lately planted , trees, and date palms to the number of , have been recently planted on persian soil. it is said that there are varieties of dates, but only a few are known to commerce. these great sombre date forests or "date gardens," which no sunshine can enliven, are of course artificial, and depend upon irrigation. the palms are propagated by means of suckers taken from the female date. the young trees begin to bear when they are about five years old, reach maturity at nine, and may be prolific for two centuries. mohammed said wisely, "honour the palm, it is your paternal aunt." one soon learns here that it not only provides the people with nutritious food, but with building materials, as well as with fuel, carpets, ropes, and mats. but it is the least beautiful of the palms, and the dark monotonous masses along the river contrast with my memories of the graceful coco palm fringing the coral islands of the pacific. i left the _assyria_ with regret. the captain and officers had done all that intelligence and kindness could do to make the voyage an agreeable one, and were altogether successful. on shore a hospitable reception, a good fire, and new year's day come together appropriately. the sky is clear and cloudless, and the air keen. the bungalows belonging to the european firms are dwelling-houses above and offices below, and are surrounded by packing-yards and sheds for goods. in line with them are the consulates. the ancient commercial glories of basrah are too well known to need recapitulation. circumstances are doing much to give it something of renewed importance. the modern basrah, a town which has risen from a state of decay till it has an estimated population of , , is on the right bank of the river, at some distance up a picturesque palm-fringed canal. founded by omar soon after the death of mohammed, and tossed like a shuttlecock between turk and persian, it is now definitely turkish, and the great southern outlet of chaldæa and mesopotamia, as well as the port at which the goods passing to and from baghdad "break bulk." a population more thoroughly polyglot could scarcely be found, turks, arabs, sabeans, syrians, greeks, hindus, armenians, frenchmen, wahabees, britons, jews, persians, italians, and africans, and there are even more creeds than races. _s.s. mejidieh, river tigris, jan. ._--leaving basrah at p.m. on tuesday we have been stemming the strong flood of the tigris for three bright winter days, in which to sit by a red-hot stove and sleep under a pile of blankets have been real luxuries after the torrid heat of the "gulf." the party on board consists of dr. bruce, mr. hammond, who has been for some months pushing british trade at shuster, the assistant quartermaster-general for india, a french-speaking jewish merchant, the hon. g. curzon, m.p., and mr. swabadi, a hungarian gentleman in the employment of the tigris and euphrates steam navigation company, a very scholarly man, who in the course of a long residence in southern turkey has acquainted himself intimately with the country and its peoples, and is ever ready to place his own stores of information at our disposal. mr. curzon has been "prospecting" the karun river, and came on board from the _shushan_, a small stern-wheel steamer with a carrying capacity of tons, a draught when empty of inches, and when laden of from to . she belongs to the messrs. lynch brothers, of the tigris and euphrates s.n. co. they run her once a fortnight at a considerable loss between mohammerah and ahwaz. her isolated position and diminutive size are a curious commentary on the flourish of trumpets and _blether_ of exultation with which the english newspapers announced the very poor concession of leave to run steamers on the karun between the shat-el-arab and ahwaz. [since this letter was written, things have taken rather a singular turn, and the development of trade on the karun has partly fallen into the hands of a trading corporation of persians, the _nasiri_ company. by them, and under their representative partner, haja mahomad, a man of great energy, the formidable rapids at ahwaz are being circumvented by the construction of a tramway yards long, which is proceeding steadily. a merchants' caravanserai has already been built on the river bank at the lower landing-place and commencement of the tramway, and a bakery, butchery, and carpentry, along with a _café_ and a grocery and general goods stores, have already been opened by men brought to ahwaz by h. mahomad. a river face wall, where native craft are to lie, is being constructed of hewn stone blocks and sections of circular pillars, remains of the ancient city. the _nasiri_ company has a small steamer, the _nasiri_, plying on the lower karun, chiefly as a tug, taking up two arab boats of twenty-seven tons each, lashed alongside of her. on her transference at the spring floods of this year to the river above ahwaz, the _karun_, a steam launch of about sixty tons, belonging to the governor of mohammerah, takes her place below, and a second steamer belonging to the same company is now running on the lower stream. poles from zanzibar have been distributed for a telegraph line from mohammerah to ahwaz. the messrs. lynch have placed a fine river steamer of tons on the route; but this enterprising firm, and english capitalists generally, are being partially "cut out" by the singular "go" of this persian company, which not only appears to have strong support from government quarters, but has gained the co-operation of the well-known and wealthy sheikh mizal, whose personal influence in arabistan is very great, and who has hitherto been an obstacle to the opening of trade on the karun. a great change for the better has taken place in the circumstances of the population, and villages, attracted by trade, are springing up, which the _nasiri_ company is doing its best to encourage. the land-tax is very light, and the cultivators are receiving every encouragement. much wheat was exported last year, and there is a brisk demand for river lands on leases of sixty years for the cultivation of cotton, cereals, sugar-cane, and date palms. persian soldiers all have their donkeys, and at ahwaz a brisk and amusing competition is going on between the soldiers of a fine regiment stationed there and the arabs for the transport of goods past the rapids, and for the conveyance of tramway and building materials. this competition is enabling goods to pass the rapids cheaply and expeditiously. one interesting feature connected with these works is the rapidly increased well-being of the arabs. in less than a year labour at _kran_ ( d.) a day has put quite a number of them in possession of a pair of donkeys and a plough, and seed-corn wherewith to cultivate government lands on their own account, besides leaving a small balance in hand on which to live without having to borrow on the coming crop at frightfully usurious rates. until now the sheikhs have been able to command labour for little more than the poorest food; and now many of the very poor who depended on them have started as small farmers, and things are rapidly changing. the careful observer, from whose report on persia to the foreign office, no. , i have transferred the foregoing facts, wrote in january : "it was a sight to see the whole arab population on the river banks hard at work taking advantage of the copious rain which had just fallen; every available animal fit for draught was yoked to the plough--horses, mules, bullocks, and donkeys, and even mares, with their foals following them up the furrows." this, which is practically a persian opening of the trade of the karun, is not what was expected, however much it was to be desired. after a journey of nine months through persia, i am strongly of opinion that if the empire is to have a solid and permanent resurrection, it must be through the enterprise of persians, aided it may be by foreign skill and capital, though the less of the latter that is employed the more hopefully i should regard the persian future. the _nasiri_ company and the messrs. lynch may possibly unite, and the new road company may join with them in making a regular transport service by river and road to tihran, by which england may pour her manufactured goods even into northern persia, as this route would compete successfully both with the baghdad and trebizond routes. already, owing to the improved circumstances of the people, the import of english and indian cotton goods and of sugar has increased; the latter, which is french, from its low price, only ½d. a pound in the gulf, pushing its way as far north as sultanabad. unfortunately the shadow of russia hangs over the future of persia.] at present two english and four turkish boats run on the tigris. they are necessarily of light draught, as the river is shallow at certain seasons and is full of shifting sand-banks. the _mejidieh_ is a comfortable boat, with a superabundance of excellent food. her saloon, state-rooms, and engines are on the main deck, which is open fore and aft, and has above it a fine hurricane deck, on the fore part of which the deck passengers, a motley crowd, encamp. she is fully loaded with british goods. the first object of passing interest was kornah, reputed among the arabs to be the site of the garden of eden, a tongue of land at the junction of the tigris and euphrates. the "garden of eden" contains a village, and bright fires burned in front of the mat-and-mud houses. women in red and white, and turbaned men in brown, flitted across the firelight; there was a mass of vegetation, chiefly palms with a number of native vessels moored to their stems, and a leaning minaret. a frosty moonlight glorified the broad, turbid waters, kornah and the euphrates were left in shadow, and we turned up the glittering waterway of the tigris. the night was too keenly frosty for any dreams of paradise, even in this classic chaldæa, and under a sky blazing down to the level horizon with the countless stars which were not to outnumber the children of "faithful abraham." four hours after leaving kornah we passed the reputed tomb of ezra the prophet. at a distance and in the moonlight it looked handsome. there is a buttressed river wall, and above it some long flat-roofed buildings, the centre one surmounted by a tiled dome. the tigris is so fierce and rapid, and swallows its alluvial banks so greedily, that it is probable that some of the buildings described by the hebrew traveller benjamin of tudela as existing in the twelfth century were long since carried away. the tomb is held in great veneration not only by jews and moslems but also by oriental christians. it is a great place of jewish pilgrimage, and is so venerated by the arabs that it needs no guard.[ ] hadji brought my breakfast, or as he called it, "the grub," the next morning, and i contemplated the son of abraham with some astonishment. he had discarded his turban and _abba_, and looked a regular uncivilised desert ishmaelite, with knives and rosaries in his belt, and his head muffled in a _kiffiyeh_, a yellow silk shawl striped with red, with one point and tassels half a yard long hanging down his back, and fastened round his head by three coils of camel's-hair rope. a loose coat with a gay girdle, "breeks" of some kind, loose boots turned up at the toes and reaching to the knees, and a striped under-garment showing here and there, completed his costume. the view from the hurricane deck, though there are no striking varieties, is too novel to be monotonous. the level plains of chaldæa, only a few feet higher than the tigris, stretch away to the distant horizon, unbroken until to-day, when low hills, white with the first snows of winter, are softly painted on a pure blue sky, very far away. the plains are buff and brown, with an occasional splash, near villages as buff and brown as the soil out of which they rise, of the dark-green of date gardens, or the vivid green of winter wheat. with the exception of these gardens, which are rarely seen, the vast expanse is unbroken by a tree. a few miserable shrubs there are, the _mimosa agrestis_ or st. john's bread, and a scrubby tamarisk, while liquorice, wormwood, capers, and some alkaline plants which camels love, are recognisable even in their withered condition. there are a few villages of low mud hovels enclosed by square mud walls, and hamlets of mat huts, the mats being made of woven sedges and flags, strengthened by palm fronds, but oftener by the tall, tough stems of growing reeds bent into arches, and woven together by the long leaves of aquatic plants, chiefly rushes. the hovels, so ingeniously constructed, are shared indiscriminately by the arabs and their animals, and crowds of women and children emerged from them as we passed. each village has its arrangement for raising water from the river. boats under sail, usually a fleet at a time, hurry downstream, owing more to the strong current than to the breeze, or are hauled up laboriously against both by their arab crews. the more distant plain is sparsely sprinkled with clusters of brown tents, long and low, and is dotted over with flocks of large brown sheep, shepherded by arabs in _kiffiyehs_, each shepherd armed with a long gun slung over his shoulder. herds of cattle and strings of camels move slowly over the brown plain, and companies of men on horseback, with long guns and lances, gallop up to the river bank, throw their fiery horses on their haunches, and after a moment of gratified curiosity wheel round and gallop back to the desert from which they came. occasionally a stretch of arable land is being ploughed up by small buffaloes with most primitive ploughs, but the plains are pastoral chiefly, tents and flocks are their chief features--features which have changed little since the great sheikh abraham, whose descendants now people them, left his "kindred" in the not distant ur of the chaldees, and started on the long march to canaan. reedy marshes, alive with water-fowl, arable lands, bare buff plains, brown tents, brown flocks, mat huts, mud and brick villages, groups of women and children, flights of armed horsemen, alternate rapidly,--the unchanging features are the posts and wires of the telegraph. the tigris in parts is wonderfully tortuous, and at one great bend, "the devil's elbow," a man on foot can walk the distance in less than an hour which takes the steamer four hours to accomplish. the current is very strong, and the slow progress is rendered slower at this season of low water by the frequent occurrence of sand-banks, of which one is usually made aware by a jolt, a grinding sound, a cessation of motion, some turns astern, and then full speed ahead, which often overcomes the obstacle. some hours' delay and the floats of one paddle-wheel injured were the most serious disasters brought about; and in spite of the shallows at this season, the tigris is a noble river, and the voyage is truly fascinating. not that there are many remarkable objects, but the desert atmosphere and the desert freedom are in themselves delightful, the dust and _débris_ are the dust and _débris_ of mighty empires, and there are countless associations with the earliest past of which we have any records. aimarah, a rising turkish town of about people, built at a point where the river turns at a sharp angle to the left, is interesting as showing what commerce can create even here, in less than twenty years. a caravan route into persia was opened and aimarah does a somewhat busy trade. flat-faced brick buildings, with projecting lattice windows, run a good way along the left bank of the river, which is so steep and irregular that the crowd which thronged it when the steamer made fast was shown to great advantage--osmanlis, greeks, persians, sabeans, jews of great height and superb _physique_, known by much-tasselled turbans, and a predominating arab element. we walked down the long, broad, covered bazar, with a broken water channel in the middle, where there were crowds, solely of men, meat, game, bread, fruit, grain, lentils, horse-shoes, pack saddles, manchester cottons, money-changers, silversmiths, and scribes, and heard the roar of business, and the thin shouts of boys unaccustomed to the sight of european women. the crowds pressed and followed, picking at my clothes, and singing snatches of songs which were not complimentary. it had not occurred to me that i was violating rigid custom in appearing in a hat and gauze veil rather than in a _chadar_ and face cloth, but the mistake was made unpleasantly apparent. in moslem towns women go about in companies and never walk with men. we visited an enclosed square, where there are barracks for _zaptiehs_ (gendarmes), the kadi's court, and the prison, which consists of an open grating like that of a menagerie, a covered space behind, and dark cells or dens opening upon it, all better than the hovels of the peasantry. there were a number of prisoners well clothed, and apparently well fed, to whom we were an obvious diversion, but the guards gesticulated, shouted, and brandished their side-arms, making us at last understand that our presence in front of the grating was forbidden. after seeing a large barrack yard, and walking, still pursued by a crowd, round the forlorn outskirts of aimarah, which include a sabean village, we visited the gold and silversmiths' shops where the sabeans were working at their craft, of which in this region they have nearly a monopoly, not only settling temporarily in the towns, but visiting the arab encampments on the plains, where they are always welcome as the makers and repairers of the ornaments with which the women are loaded. these craftsmen and others of the race whom i have seen differ greatly from the arabs in appearance, being white rather than brown, very white, _i.e._ very pale, with jet-black hair; large, gentle, intelligent eyes; small, straight noses, and small, well-formed mouths. the handsome faces of these "christians of st. john" are very pleasing in their expression, and there was a dainty cleanliness about their persons and white clothing significant of those frequent ablutions of both which are so remarkable a part of their religion. the children at aimarah, and generally in the riparian villages, wear very handsome chased, convex silver links, each as large as the top of a breakfast cup, to fasten their girdles. the reedy marshes, the haunts of pelicans and pigs, are left behind at aimarah, and tamarisk scrub and liquorice appear on the banks. at kut-al-aimarah, a small military post and an arab town of sun-dried bricks on the verge of a high bank above the tigris, we landed again, and ragamuffin boys pressed very much upon us, and ragamuffin _zaptiehs_,[ ] grotesquely dressed in clothes of different european nationalities, pelted them with stones. to take up stones and throw them at unwelcome visitors is a frequent way of getting rid of them in the less civilised parts of the east. a _zaptieh_ station, barracks, with a large and badly-kept parade ground, a covered bazar well supplied, houses with blank walls, large _cafés_ with broad matted benches, asafoetida, crowds of men of superb _physique_, picturesque arabs on high-bred horses, and a total invisibility of women, were the salient features of kut-al-aimarah. big-masted, high-stemmed boats, the broad, turbid tigris with a great expanse of yellowish sand on its farther shore, reeds "shaken with the wind," and a windy sky, heavily overcast, made up the view from the bank. there were seen for the first time by the new-comers the most venerable boats in the world, for they were old even when herodotus mentions them--_kufas_ or _gophers_, very deep round baskets covered with bitumen, with incurved tops, and worked by one man with a paddle. these remarkable tubs are used for the conveyance of passengers, goods, and even animals. [illustration: a gopher.] before leaving we visited the arab khan or sheikh in his house. he received us in an upper room of difficult access, carpeted with very handsome rugs, and with a divan similarly covered, but the walls of brown mud were not even plastered. his manner was dignified and courteous, and his expression remarkably shrewd. a number of men sitting on the floor represented by their haughty aspect and magnificent _physique_ the royalty of the ishmaelite descent from abraham. this khan said that his tribe could put fighting men into the field, but it was obvious that its independence is broken, and that these tribal warriors are reckoned as osmanli irregulars or bashi bazouks. the khan remarked that "the english do not make good friends, for," he added, "they back out when difficulties arise." on board the steamer the condition of the arabs is much discussed, and the old residents describe it as steadily growing worse under the oppression and corruption of the osmanli officials, who appear to be doing their best to efface these fine riparian tribes by merciless exactions coming upon the top of taxation so heavy as to render agriculture unprofitable, the impositions actually driving thousands of them to seek a living in the cities and to the persian shores of the gulf, where they exchange a life of hereditary freedom for a precarious and often scanty subsistence among unpropitious surroundings. still, the arab of the desert is not conquered by the turks. footnotes: [ ] according to the returns for , the british tonnage entering the bushire roadstead was , out of , tons, and the imports from british territory amounted to a value of £ , out of £ , . the exports from bushire in the same year amounted to £ , , that of opium being largely on the increase. among other things exported are pistachio nuts, gum, almonds, madder, wool, and cotton. regarding gum, the wars in the soudan have affected the supply of it, and persia is reaping the benefit, large quantities now being collected from certain shrubs, especially from the wild almond, which abounds at high altitudes. the drawback is that firewood and charcoal are becoming consequently dearer and scarcer. the gum exported in was cwts., as against , in , but the value was more than the same. the imports into bushire, as comparing with , have increased by £ , , and the exports by £ , . the value of the export of opium, chiefly to china, was £ , , as against £ , in . [ ] "the karun river," hon. g. curzon, m.p., _proceedings of r.g.s._, september . [ ] sir a. h. layard describes the interior of the domed building as consisting of two chambers, the outer one empty, and the inner one containing the prophet's tomb, built of bricks covered with white stucco, and enclosed in a wooden case or ark, over which is thrown a large blue cloth, fringed with yellow tassels, the name of the donor being inscribed in hebrew characters upon it.--layard's _early adventures_, vol. i. p. . [ ] a year later in kurdistan, the _zaptiehs_, all time-expired soldiers and well set up soldierly men, wore neat, serviceable, dark blue braided uniforms, and high riding-boots. letter i (_continued_) baghdad, _jan. _. the last day on the tigris passed as pleasantly as its predecessors. there was rain in the early morning, then frost which froze the rain on deck, and at a.m. the mercury in my cabin stood at °. in the afternoon the country became more populous, that is, there were _kraals_ of mat huts at frequent intervals, and groups of tents to which an external wall of mats gave a certain aspect of permanence. increased cultivation accompanied the increased population. in some places the ground was being scratched with a primitive plough of unshod wood, or a branch of a tree slightly trimmed, leaving a scar about two inches deep. these scars, which pass for furrows, are about ten inches apart, and camel thorn, tamarisk, and other shrubs inimical to crops stand between them. the seed is now being sown. after it comes up it grows apace, and in spite of shallow scratches, camel thorn, and tamarisk the tilth is so luxuriant that the husbandmen actually turn cattle and sheep into it for two or three weeks, and then leave it to throw up the ear! they say that there are from eighteen to thirty-five stalks from each seed in consequence of this process! the harvest is reaped in april, after which water covers the land. another style of cultivation is adopted for land, of which we saw a good deal, very low lying, and annually overflowed, usually surrounding a nucleus of permanent marsh. this land, after the water dries up, is destitute of vegetation, and presents a smooth, moist surface full of cracks, which scales off later. no scratching is needed for this soil. the seed is sown broadcast over it, and such of it as is not devoured by birds falls into the cracks, and produces an abundant crop. all this rich alluvial soil is stoneless, but is strewn from seleucia to babylon with fragments of glass, bricks, and pottery. artificial mounds also abound, and remains of canals, all denoting that these fertile plains in ancient days supported a large stationary population. of all that once was, this swirling river alone remains, singing in every eddy and ripple-- "for men may come and men may go, but i go on for ever." as we were writing in the evening we were nearly thrown off our chairs by running aground with a thump, which injured one paddle wheel and obliged us to lie up part of the night for repairs near the ruins of the ancient palace of ctesiphon. seleucia, on the right bank of the river, is little more now than a historic name, but the palace of tak-i-kasr, with its superb archway feet in height, has been even in recent times magnificent enough in its ruin to recall the glories of the parthian kings, and the days when, according to gibbon, "khosroes nushirwan gave audience to the ambassadors of the world" within its stately walls. its gaunt and shattered remains have even still a mournful grandeur about them, but they have suffered so severely from the barbarous removal of the stones and the fall of much of the front as to be altogether disappointing. soon after leaving ctesiphon there is increased cultivation, and within a few miles of baghdad the banks of the river, which is its great high road, become populous. "palatial residences," in which the women's apartments are indicated by the blankness of their walls, are mixed up with mud hovels and goat's-hair tents; there are large farmhouses with enclosures for cattle and horses; date gardens and orange groves fringe the stream, and arrangements for drawing water are let into its banks at frequent intervals. strings of asses laden with country produce, companies of horsemen and innumerable foot passengers, all moved citywards. the frosty sun rose out of an orange sky as a disc of blood and flame, but the morning became misty and overcast, so that the city of the arabian nights did not burst upon the view in any halo of splendour. a few tiled minarets, the blue domes of certain mosques, handsome houses,--some of them european consulates, half hidden by orange groves laden with their golden fruitage,--a picturesque bridge of boats, a dense growth of palms on the right bank, beyond which gleam the golden domes of kazimain and the top of zobeide's tomb, the superannuated british gun-boat _comet_, two steamers, a crowd of native craft, including _kufas_ or _gophers_, a prominent custom-house, and decayed alleys opening on the water, make up the baghdad of the present as seen from the _mejidieh's_ deck. as soon as we anchored swarms of _kufas_ clustered round us, and swarms of officials and _hamals_ (porters) invaded the deck. some of the passengers had landed two hours before, others had proceeded to their destinations at once, and as my friends had not come off i was alone for some time in the middle of a tremendous babel, in which every man shouted at the top of his voice and all together, hadji assuming a deportment of childish helplessness. certain officials under cover of bribes lavished on my behalf by a man who spoke english professed to let my baggage pass unopened, then a higher official with a sword knocked hadji down, then a man said that everything would be all right if i would bestow another gold _lira_, about £ , on the officers, and i was truly glad when kind captain dougherty with dr. sutton came alongside in the _comet's_ boat, and brought me ashore. the baggage was put into another of her boats, but as soon as we were out of sight it was removed, and was taken to the custom-house, where they insisted that some small tent poles in a cover were guns, and smashed a box of dates in the idea that it was tobacco! the church mission house, in which i am receiving hospitality, is a "native" house, though built and decorated by persians, as also are several of the consulates. it is in a narrow roadway with blank walls, a part of the european quarter; a door of much strength admits into a small courtyard, round which are some of the servants' quarters and reception rooms for moslem visitors, and within this again is a spacious and handsome courtyard, round which are kitchens, domestic offices, and the _serdabs_, which play an important part in eastern life. these _serdabs_ are semi-subterranean rooms, usually with arched fronts, filled in above-ground with latticework. they are lofty, and their vaulted roofs are supported in rich men's houses on pillars. the well of the household is often found within. the general effect of this one is that of a crypt, and it was most appropriate for the divine service in english which greeted my arrival. the cold of it was, however, frightful. it was only when the holy communion was over that i found that i was wearing hadji's revolver and cartridge belt under my cloak, which he had begged me to put on to save them from confiscation! in these vaulted chambers both europeans and natives spend the hot season, sleeping at night on the roofs. above this lower floor are the winter apartments, which open upon a fine stone balcony running round three sides of the court. on the river side of the house there is an orange garden, which just now might be the garden of the hesperides, and a terrace, below which is the noble, swirling tigris, and beyond, a dark belt of palms. these rooms on the river front have large projecting windows, six in a row, with screens which slide up and down, and those which look to the courtyard are secluded by very beautiful fretwork. the drawing-room, used as a dormitory, is a superb room, in which exquisitely beautiful ceiling and wall decorations in shades of fawn enriched with gold, and fretwork windows, suggest oriental feeling at every turn. the plaster-work of this room is said to be distinctively persian and is very charming. the house, though large, is inconveniently crowded, with the medical and clerical mission families, two lady missionaries, and two guests. each apartment has two rows of vaulted recesses in its walls, and very fine cornices above. it is impossible to warm the rooms, but the winter is very short and brilliant, and after ulsters, greatcoats, and fur cloaks have been worn for breakfast, the sun mitigates the temperature. i. l. b. letter ii baghdad, _jan. _. baghdad is too well known from the careful descriptions given of it by eastern travellers to justify me in lingering upon it in detail, and i will only record a few impressions, which are decidedly _couleur de rose_, for the weather is splendid, making locomotion a pleasure, and the rough, irregular roadways which at other seasons are deep in foul and choking dust, or in mud and pestilential slime, are now firm and not remarkably dirty. a little earlier than this the richer inhabitants, who have _warstled_ through the summer in their dim and latticed _serdabs_, emerge and pitch their tents in the plains of ctesiphon, where the men find a stimulating amusement in hunting the boar, but it is now the "season" in the city, the liveliest and busiest time of the year. the cholera, which is believed to have claimed victims, has departed, and the wailing of the women, which scarcely ceased day or night for a month, is silent. the jewish troubles, which apparently rose out of the indignation of the moslems at the burial within the gates, contrary to a strict edict on the subject, of a rabbi who died of cholera, have subsided, and the motley populations and their yet more motley creeds are for the time at peace. in the daytime there is a roar or hum of business, mingled with braying of asses, squeals of belligerent horses, yells of camel-drivers and muleteers, beating of drums, shouts of beggars, hoarse-toned ejaculations of fakirs, ear-splitting snatches of discordant music, and in short a chorus of sounds unfamiliar to western ears, but the nights are so still that the swirl of the tigris as it hurries past is distinctly heard. only the long melancholy call to prayer, or the wail of women over the dead, or the barking of dogs, breaks the silence which at sunset falls as a pall over baghdad. under the blue sunny sky the river view is very fine. the river itself is imposing from its breadth and volume, and in the gorgeous sunsets, with a sky of crimson flame, and the fronds of the dark date palms mirrored in its reddened waters, it looks really beautiful. the city is stately enough as far as the general _coup-d'oeil_ of the river front goes, and its river _façade_ agreeably surprises me. the tigris, besides being what may be called the main street, divides baghdad into two unequal parts, and though the city on the left bank has almost a monopoly of picturesque and somewhat stately irregularity in the houses of fair height, whose lattices and oriel windows overhang the stream from an environment of orange gardens, the dark date groves dignify the meaner buildings of the right bank. the rush of a great river is in itself attractive, and from the roof of this house the view is fascinating, with the ceaseless movements of hundreds of boats and _kufas_, the constant traffic of men, horses, asses, and caravans across the great bridge of boats, and the long lines of buildings which with more or less picturesqueness line the great waterway. without the wearisomeness of sight-seeing there is much to be seen in baghdad, and though much that would be novel to a new-comer from the west is familiar to me after two years of eastern travel, there is a great deal that is really interesting. the _kufas_ accumulating at their landing, freighted with the products of the upper tigris, the transpontine city, in which country produce takes the foremost place; the tramway to kazimain constructed during the brief valiship of midhat pasha, on which the last journey of the day is always performed at a gallop, _coûte que coûte_; the caravans of asses, each one with a huge fish, the "fish of tobias," hanging across its back; the strings of the same humble animal, carrying skins of water from the river throughout the city; the tombs, the mosques, the churches, the great caravans of mules and camels, almost monopolising the narrow roadways, arabs and osmanlis on showy horses, persians, turks, arabs, jews, armenians, chaldæans, in all the variety of their picturesque national costumes, to which the niggardly clothing of a chance european acts as an ungraceful foil; persian dead, usually swaddled, making their last journey on mule or horseback to the holy ground at kerbela, and the occasional march of horse or foot through the thronged bazars, are among the hourly sights of a city on which european influence is scarcely if at all perceptible. turkish statistics must be received with caution, and the population of baghdad may not reach , souls, but it has obviously recovered wonderfully from the effects of war, plague, inundation, and famine, and looks busy and fairly prosperous, so much so indeed that the account given of its misery and decay in mr. baillie fraser's charming _travels in kurdistan_ reads like a story of the last century. if nothing remains of the glories of the city of the caliphs, it is certainly for turkey a busy, growing, and passably wealthy nineteenth-century capital. it is said to have a hundred mosques, twenty-six minarets, and fifteen domes, but i have not counted them! its bazars, which many people regard as the finest in the east outside of stamboul, are of enormous extent and very great variety. many are of brick, with well-built domed roofs, and sides arcaded both above and below, and are wide and airy. some are of wood, all are covered, and admit light scantily, only from the roof. those which supply the poorer classes are apt to be ruinous and squalid--"_ramshackle_," to say the truth, with an air of decay about them, and their roofs are merely rough timber, roughly thatched with reeds or date tree fronds. of splendour there is none anywhere, and of cleanliness there are few traces. the old, narrow, and filthy bazars in which the gold and silversmiths ply their trade are of all the most interesting. the trades have their separate localities, and the buyer who is in search of cotton goods, silk stuffs, carpets, cotton yarn, gold and silver thread, ready-made clothing, weapons, saddlery, rope, fruit, meat, grain, fish, jewellery, muslins, copper pots, etc., has a whole alley of contiguous shops devoted to the sale of the same article to choose from. at any hour of daylight at this season progress through the bazars is slow. they are crowded, and almost entirely with men. it is only the poorer women who market for themselves, and in twos and threes, at certain hours of the day. in a whole afternoon, among thousands of men, i saw only five women, tall, shapeless, badly-made-up bundles, carried mysteriously along, rather by high, loose, canary-yellow leather boots than by feet. the face is covered with a thick black gauze mask, or cloth, and the head and remainder of the form with a dark blue or black sheet, which is clutched by the hand below the nose. the walk is one of tottering decrepitude. all the business transacted in the bazars is a matter of bargaining, and as arabs shout at the top of their voices, and buyers and sellers are equally keen, the roar is tremendous. great _cafés_, as in cairo, occur frequently. in the larger ones from a hundred to two hundred men are seen lounging at one time on the broad matted seats, shouting, chaffering, drinking coffee or _sharbat_ and smoking _chibouks_ or _kalians_. negro attendants supply their wants. these _cafés_ are the clubs of baghdad. whatever of public opinion exists in a country where the recognised use of words is to "conceal thought," is formed in them. they are centres of business likewise, and much of the noise is due to bargaining, and they are also manufactories of rumours, scandals, and fanaticism. the great caravanserais, such as the magnificent khan othman, are also resorts of merchants for the display and sale of their goods. europeans never make purchases in the bazars. they either have the goods from which they wish to make a choice brought to their houses, or their servants bargain for them, getting a commission both from buyer and seller. the splendour of the east, if it exists at all, is not to be seen in the bazars. the jewelled daggers, the cloth of silver and gold, the diaphanous silk tissues, the brocaded silks, the rich embroideries, the damascened sword blades, the finer carpets, the inlaid armour, the cunning work in brass and inlaid bronze, and all the articles of _vertu_ and _bric-à-brac_ of real or spurious value, are carefully concealed by their owners, and are carried for display, with much secrecy and mystery, to the houses of their ordinary customers, and to such european strangers as are reported to be willing to be victimised. trade in baghdad is regarded by europeans and large capitalists as growing annually more depressed and unsatisfactory, but this is not the view of the small traders, chiefly jews and christians, who start with a capital of £ or upwards, and by buying some cheap lot in bombay,--gay handkerchiefs, perfumery, shoes, socks, buttons, tin boxes with mirror lids, scissors, pocket-knives, toys, and the like,--bid fair to make small fortunes. the amount of perfumery and rubbish piled in these ramshackle shops is wonderful. the trader who picks up a desert arab for a customer and sells him a knife, or a mirror box, or a packet of candles is likely to attract to himself a large trade, for when once the unmastered pastoral hordes of al jaz[=i]ra, trak, and stram[=i]ya see such objects, the desire of possession is aroused, and the refuse of manchester and birmingham will find its way into every tent in the desert. the best bazars are the least crowded, though once in them it is difficult to move, and the strings of asses laden with skins of water are a great nuisance. the foot-passenger is also liable at any moment to be ridden down by horsemen, or squeezed into a jelly by the passage of caravans. it is in the meat, vegetable, cotton, oil, grain, fruit, and fish bazars that the throngs are busiest and noisiest, and though cucumbers, the great joy of the turkish palate, are over, vegetables "of sorts" are abundant, and the slant, broken sunbeams fall on pyramids of fruit, and glorify the warm colouring of melons, apples, and pomegranates. a melon of lbs. weight can be got for a penny, a sheep for five or six shillings, and fish for something like a farthing per pound, that is the "fish of tobias," the monster of the tigris waters, which is largely eaten by the poor. poultry and game are also very cheap, and the absolute necessaries of life, such as broken wheat for porridge, oil, flour, and cheese, cost little. cook-shops abound, but their viands are not tempting, and the bazars are pervaded by a pungent odour of hot sesamum oil and rancid fat, frying being a usual mode of cooking in these restaurants. an impassive turk, silently smoking, sits cross-legged on a platform at each turkish shop door. he shows his goods as if he had no interest in them, and whether he sells or not seems a matter of indifference, so that he can return to his pipe. it is not to him that the overpowering din is owing, but to the agitated eagerness of the other nationalities. the charm of the bazars lies in the variety of race and costume and in the splendid _physique_ of the greater number of the men. the european looks "nowhere." the natural look of a moslem is one of _hauteur_, but no words can describe the scorn and lofty pharisaism which sit on the faces of the seyyids, the descendants of mohammed, whose hands and even garments are kissed reverently as they pass through the crowd; or the wrathful melancholy mixed with pride which gives a fierceness to the dignified bearing of the magnificent beings who glide through the streets, their white turbans or shawl head-gear, their gracefully flowing robes, their richly embroidered under-vests, their kashmir girdles, their inlaid pistols, their silver-hilted dirks, and the predominance of red throughout their clothing aiding the general effect. yet most of these grand creatures, with their lofty looks and regal stride, would be accessible to a bribe, and would not despise even a perquisite. these are the _mollahs_, the scribes, the traders, and the merchants of the city. the bedouin and the city arabs dress differently, and are among the marked features of the streets. the under-dress is a very coarse shirt of unbleached homespun cotton, rarely clean, over which the sheikhs and richer men wear a robe of striped silk or cotton with a kashmir girdle of a shawl pattern in red on a white ground. the poor wear shirts of coarse hair or cotton, without a robe. the invariable feature of arab dress is the _abba_--a long cloak, sleeveless, but with holes through which to pass the arms, and capable of many adaptations. it conceals all superabundance and deficiency of attire, and while it has the dignity of the _toga_ by day it has the utility of a blanket by night. the better-class _abba_ is very hard, being made of closely-woven worsted, in broad brown and white or black and white perpendicular stripes. the poorest _abba_ is of coarse brown worsted, and even of goat's-hair. i saw many men who were destitute of any clothing but tattered _abbas_ tied round their waists by frayed hair ropes. the _abba_ is the distinctive national costume of the arabs. the head-gear is not the turban but a shawl of very thick silk woven in irregular stripes of yellow and red, with long cords and tassels depending, made of the twisted woof. this handsome square is doubled triangularly, the double end hangs down the back, and the others over the shoulders. a loosely-twisted rope of camel's-hair is wound several times round the crown of the head. when the weather is cold, being like all orientals very sensitive in their heads, they bring one side of the shawl over the whole of the face but the eyes, and tuck it in, in great cold only exposing one eye, and in great heat also. most moslems shave the head, but the arabs let their hair grow very long, and wear it in a number of long plaits, and these elf-locks mixed up with the long coloured tassels of the _kiffiyeh_, and the dark glittering eyes looking out from under the yellow silk, give them an appearance of extreme wildness, aided by the long guns which they carry and their long desert stride. the arab moves as if he were the ruler of the country, though the grip of the osmanli may be closing on him. his eyes are deeply set under shaggy eyebrows, his nose is high and sharp, he is long and thin, his profile suggests a bird of prey, and his demeanour a fierce independence. the arab women go about the streets unveiled, and with the _abba_ covering their very poor clothing, but it is not clutched closely enough to conceal the extraordinary tattooing which the bedouin women everywhere regard as ornamental. there are artists in baghdad who make their living by this mode of decorating the person, and vie with each other in the elaboration of their patterns. i saw several women tattooed with two wreaths of blue flowers on their bosoms linked by a blue chain, palm fronds on the throat, stars on the brow and chin, and bands round the wrists and ankles. these disfigurements, and large gold or silver filigree buttons placed outside one nostril by means of a wire passed through it, worn by married women, are much admired. when these women sell country produce in the markets, they cover their heads with the ordinary _chadar_. the streets are narrow, and the walls, which are built of fire-burned bricks, are high. windows to the streets are common, and the oriel windows, with their warm brown lattices projecting over the roadways at irregular heights, are strikingly picturesque. not less so are latticework galleries, which are often thrown across the street to connect the two houses of wealthy residents, and the sitting-rooms with oriel windows, which likewise bridge the roadways. solid doorways with iron-clasped and iron-studded doors give an impression of security, and suggest comfort and to some extent home life, and sprays of orange trees, hanging over walls, and fronds of date palms give an aspect of pleasantness to the courtyards. the best parts of the city, where the great bazars, large dwelling-houses, and most of the mosques are, is surrounded by a labyrinth of alleys, fringing off into streets growing meaner till they cease altogether among open spaces, given up to holes, heaps, rubbish, the slaughter of animals, and in some favoured spots to the production of vegetables. then come the walls, which are of kiln-burned bricks, and have towers intended for guns at intervals. the wastes within the walls have every element of decay and meanness, the wastes without, where the desert sands sweep up to the very foot of the fortifications, have many elements of grandeur. baghdad is altogether built of chrome-yellow kiln-dried bricks. there are about twenty-five kilns, chiefly in the hands of jews and christians in the wastes outside the city, but the demand exceeds the supply, not for building only, but for the perpetual patchings which houses, paths, and walls are always requiring, owing to the absorption of moisture in the winter. bricks at the kilns sell for s. per thousand twelve inches square, and s. per thousand seven inches square. they are carried from the kilns on donkeys, small beasts, each taking ten large or twenty-five small bricks. unskilled labour is abundant. men can be engaged at d. a day, and boys for d. this afternoon, in the glory of a sunset which reddened the yellow waste up to the distant horizon, a caravan of mules, mostly in single file, approached the city. each carried two or four white bales slung on his sides, or two or more long boxes, consisting of planks roped rather than nailed together. this is the fashion in which thousands of persian moslems (shiahs or "sectaries") have been conveyed for ages for final burial at kerbela, the holiest place of the shiahs, an easy journey from baghdad, where rest the ashes of ali, regarded as scarcely second to mohammed, and of houssein and hassan his sons, whose "martyrdom" is annually commemorated by a passion play which is acted in every town and village in persia. to make a pilgrimage to kerbela, or to rest finally in its holy dust, or both, constitutes the ambition of every shiah. the sunnis, or "orthodox," who hate the shiahs, are so far kept in check that these doleful caravans are not exposed to any worse molestation than the shouts and ridicule of street arabs. the mode of carrying the dead is not reverent. the _katirgis_, who contract for the removal, hurry the bodies along as goods, and pile them in the yards of the caravanserais at night, and the mournful journey is performed, oftener than not, without the presence of relations, each body being ticketed with the name once borne by its owner. some have been exhumed and are merely skeletons, others are in various stages of decomposition, and some are of the newly dead.[ ] outside the walls predatory arabs render the roads unsafe for solitary travellers, and at times for feeble caravans; but things in this respect are better than they were. visits to the armenian and chaldæan churches, to the mosque of abdel kader, with its courts thronged by afghan pilgrims, and to the jewish quarter, have been very interesting. there are said to be , jews here, and while a large proportion of them are in poverty, on the whole they are an influential nationality, and some of them are very rich. through the liberality of sir albert sassoon a jewish high school has been opened, where an admirable education is given. i was extremely pleased with it, and with the director, who speaks french fluently, and with the proficiency in french of the elder students. he describes their earnestness and energetic application as being most remarkable. the french carmelite monks have a large, solid "mission church" or cathedral with a fine peal of bells, and a very prosperous school attached, in which are boys belonging to all the many creeds professed in baghdad. the sisters of st. joseph have a school for girls, which turkish children are not slow to avail themselves of. the sisters find a remarkable unhandiness among the women. few, if any, among them have any idea of cutting out or repairing, and rich and poor are equally incapable of employing their fingers usefully. the people here are so used to the sight of europeans that it is quite easy for foreign ladies to walk in this quarter only attended by a servant, and i have accompanied mrs. sutton on visits to several armenian houses. the armenians are in many cases wealthy, as their admirably-designed and well-built houses testify. the christian population is estimated at , and its wealth and energy give it greater importance than its numbers warrant. one of the houses which we visited was truly beautiful and in very good taste, the solidity of the stone and brickwork, the finish of the wood, and the beauty of the designs and their execution in hammered iron being quite remarkable. the lofty roofs and cornices are elaborately worked in plaster, and this is completely concealed by hundreds or thousands of mirrors set so as to resemble facets, so that roof and cornices flash like diamonds. this is a persian style of decoration, and is extremely effective in large handsome rooms. superb carpets and divans and tea tables inlaid with mother-of-pearl furnish the reception and smoking rooms, and the bedrooms and nurseries over which we were taken were simply arranged with french bedsteads and curtains of nottingham mosquito net. as in other eastern houses, there were no traces of occupation, no morning room or den sacred to litter; neither was there anything to look at--the opposite extreme from our overloaded drawing-rooms--or any library. cigarettes and black coffee in minute porcelain cups, in gold filigree receptacles, were presented on each occasion, and the kind and courteous intention was very pleasing. the visits which i paid with dr. sutton were very different. he has worked as a medical missionary here for some years, and his unaffected benevolence and quiet attention to all suffering persons, without distinction of race or creed, and his recent extraordinary labours by night and day among the cholera-smitten people, have won for him general esteem and confidence, and he is even allowed to enter moslem houses and prescribe for the women in some cases. the dispensary, in which there is not half enough accommodation, is very largely attended by people of all creeds, and even moslem women, though exclusively of the poorer classes, avail themselves of it. yesterday, when i was there, the comfortable seats of the cheerful matted waiting-room were all occupied by armenian and chaldæan women, unveiled and speaking quite freely to dr. sutton; while a few moslem women, masked rather than veiled, and enveloped in black sheets, cowered on the floor and scarcely let their voices be heard even in a tremulous whisper. i am always sorry to see any encroachment made by christian teachers on national customs where they are not contrary to morality, and willingly leave to eastern women the _pardah_ and the veil, but still there is a wholesomeness about the unveiled, rosy, comely, frank faces of these christian women. but--and it is a decided but--though the women were comely, and though some of the armenian girls are beautiful, every one has one or more flattish depressions on her face--scars in fact--the size of a large date stone. nearly the whole population is thus disfigured. so universal is it among the fair-skinned armenian girls, that so far from being regarded as a blemish, it is viewed as a token of good health, and it is said that a young man would hesitate to ask for the hand of a girl in marriage if she had not a "date mark" on her face. these "date boils," or "baghdad boils," as they are sometimes called, are not slow in attacking european strangers, and few, if any, escape during their residence here. as no cause can reasonably be assigned for them, so no cure has been found. various remedies, including cauterisation, have been tried, but without success, and it is now thought wisest to do nothing more than keep them dry and clean, and let them run their natural course, which lasts about a year. happily they are not so painful as ordinary boils. the malady appears at first as a white point, not larger than a pin's head, and remains thus for about three months. then the flesh swells, becomes red and hard and suppurates, and underneath a rough crust which is formed is corroded and eaten away as by vitriol. on some strangers the fatal point appears within a few days of their arrival. in two years in the east i have not seen any european welcomed so cordially as dr. sutton into moslem homes. the _hak[=i]m_, exhibiting in "quiet continuance in well-doing" the legible and easily-recognised higher fruits of christianity, while refraining from harsh and irreverent onslaughts on the creeds of those whose sufferings he mitigates, is everywhere blessed.[ ] to my thinking, no one follows in the master's footprints so closely as the medical missionary, and on no agency for alleviating human suffering can one look with more unqualified satisfaction. the medical mission is the outcome of the living teachings of our faith. i have now visited such missions in many parts of the world, and never saw one which was not healing, helping, blessing; softening prejudice, diminishing suffering, making an end of many of the cruelties which proceed from ignorance, restoring sight to the blind, limbs to the crippled, health to the sick, telling, in every work of love and of consecrated skill, of the infinite compassion of him who came "not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." in one house dr. sutton was welcome because he had saved a woman's life, in another because a blind youth had received his sight, and so on. among our visits was one to a poor moslem family in a very poor quarter. no matter how poor the people are, their rooms stand back from the street, and open on yards more or less mean. it is a misnomer to call this dwelling a house, or to write that it _opens_, for it is merely an arched recess which can never be shut! in a hole in the middle of an uneven earthen floor there was a fire of tamarisk root and animal fuel, giving off a stinging smoke. on this the broken wheat porridge for supper was being cooked in a copper pot, supported on three rusty cannon-balls. an earthenware basin, a wooden spoon, a long knife, a goat-skin of water, a mallet, a long hen-coop, which had served as the bed for the wife when she was ill, some ugly hens, a clay jar full of grain, two heaps of brick rubbish, and some wadded quilts, which had taken on the prevailing gray-brown colour, were the plenishings of the arch. poverty brings one blessing in turkey--the poor man is of necessity a monogamist. wretched though the place was, it had the air of home, and the smoky hole in the floor was a fireside. the wife was unveiled and joined in the conversation, the husband was helping her to cook the supper, and the children were sitting round or scrambling over their parents' knees. all looked as happy as people in their class anywhere. it is good to have ocular demonstration that such homes exist in turkey. god be thanked for them! the man, a fine frank-looking turk, welcomed dr. sutton jovially. he had saved the wife's life and was received as their best friend. who indeed but the medical missionary would care for such as them and give them of his skill "without money and without price"? the hearty laugh of this turk was good to hear, his wife smiled cordially, and the boys laughed like their father. the eldest, a nice, bright fellow of nine, taught in the mosque school, was proud to show how well he could read arabic, and read part of a chapter from st. john's gospel, his parents looking on with wonder and admiration. among the christian families we called on were those of the dispenser and catechist--people with very small salaries but comfortable homes. these families were living in a house furnished like those of the rich armenians, but on a very simple scale, the floor and daïs covered with persian carpets, the divan with turkish woollen stuff, and there were in addition a chair or two, and silk cushions on the floor. in one room there were an intelligent elderly woman, a beautiful girl of seventeen, married a few days ago, and wearing her bridal ornaments, with her husband; another man and his wife, and two bright, ruddy-cheeked boys who spoke six languages. all had "date marks" on their faces. after a year among moslems and hindus, it was startling to find men and women sitting together, the women unveiled, and taking their share in the conversation merrily and happily. even the young bride took the initiative in talking to dr. sutton. of course the christian women cover their faces in the streets, but the covering is of different material and arrangement, and is really magnificent, being of very rich, stiff, corded silk--self-coloured usually--black, heliotrope, or dark blue, with a contrasting colour woven in deep vandykes upon a white ground as a border. the silk is superb, really capable of standing on end with richness. such a sheet costs about £ . the ambition of every woman is to possess one, and to gratify it she even denies herself in the necessaries of life. the upper classes of both moslem and christian women are rarely seen on foot in the streets except on certain days, as when they visit the churches and the mosques and burial-grounds. nevertheless they go about a great deal to visit each other, riding on white asses, which are also used by _mollahs_ and rich elderly merchants. all asses have their nostrils slit to improve their wind. a good white ass of long pedigree, over thirteen hands high, costs as much as £ . as they are groomed till they look as white as snow, and are caparisoned with red leather trappings embroidered with gold thread and silks, and as a rider on a white ass is usually preceded by runners who shout and brandish sticks to clear the way, this animal always suggests position, or at least wealth. women of the upper classes mounted on these asses usually go to pay afternoon visits in companies, with mounted eunuchs and attendants, and men to clear the way. they ride astride with short stirrups, but the rider is represented only by a shapeless blue bundle, out of which protrude two yellow boots. blacks of the purest negro type frequently attend on women, and indeed consequence is shown by the possession of a number of them. of the georgian and circassian _belles_ of the harams, a single lustrous eye with its brilliancy enhanced by the use of _kohl_ is all that one sees. at the bottom of the scale are the arab women and the unsecluded women of the lower orders generally, who are of necessity drudges, and are old hags before they are twenty, except in the few cases in which they do not become mothers, when the good looks which many of them possess in extreme youth last a little longer. if one's memories of baghdad women were only of those to be seen in the streets, they would be of leathery, wrinkled faces, prematurely old, figures which have lost all shape, and henna-stained hands crinkled and deformed by toil. baghdad is busy and noisy with traffic. great quantities of british goods pass through it to persia, avoiding by doing so the horrible rock ladders between bushire and isfahan. the water transit from england and india, only involving the inconvenience of transhipment at basrah, makes baghdad practically into a seaport, with something of the bustle and vivacity of a seaport, and caravans numbering from , to , laden mules are employed in the carriage of goods to and from the persian cities. a duty of one per cent is levied on goods in transit to persia.[ ] the trade of baghdad is not to be despised. the principal articles which were imported from europe amounted in to a value of £ , , and from india to £ , , while the exports from baghdad to europe and america were valued in the same year at £ , , and to india by british india company steamers only at £ , . in looking through the consular list of exports, it is interesting to notice that , cwts. of gum of the value of £ , were exported in . neither the indian postage stamps nor ours should suffer from the partial failure of the soudan supply. liquorice roots to the value of £ were exported in , almost solely to america, to be used in the preparation of quid tobacco and "fancy drinks"! the gall nuts which grow in profusion on the dwarf oaks which cover many hillsides, were exported last year to the value of £ , , to be used chiefly in the production of ink, so closely is commerce binding countries one to the other. two english firms have concessions for pressing wool and making it into bales suitable for shipment. there are five principal english firms here, three french, and six turkish, not including the small fry. there are five foreign consulates. the carriage of goods is one of the most important of persian and turkish industries, and the breeding of mules and the manufacture of caravan equipments give extensive employment; but one shudders to think of the amount of suffering involved in sore backs and wounds, and of exhausted and over-weighted animals lying down forlornly to die, having their eyes picked out before death. the mercury was at ° at breakfast-time this morning. fuel is scarce and dear, some of the rooms are without fireplaces, and these good people study, write, and work cheerfully in this temperature in open rooms, untouched by the early sun. the preparations for to-morrow's journey are nearly complete. three mules have been engaged for the baggage--one for hadji, and a saddle mule for myself; stores, a revolver, and a _mangel_ or brazier have been bought; a permit to travel has been obtained, and my hosts, with the most thoughtful kindness, have facilitated all the arrangements. i have bought two mule _yekdans_, which are tall, narrow leather trunks on strong iron frames, with stout straps to buckle over the top of the pack saddle. on the whole i find that it is best to adopt as far as possible the travelling equipments of the country in which one travels. the muleteers and servants understand them better, and if any thing goes wrong, or wears out, it can be repaired or replaced. i have given away _en route_ nearly all the things i brought from england, and have reduced my camp furniture to a folding bed and a chair. i shall start with three novelties--a fellow-traveller,[ ] a saddle mule, and an untried saddle. it is expected that the journey will be a very severe one, owing to the exceptionally heavy snowfall reported from the zagros mountains and the persian plateau. the persian post has arrived several days late. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] i heard that the shah had prohibited this "dead march" to kerbela, on account of the many risks to the public health involved in it, but nearly a year later, in persian kurdistan, i met, besides thousands of living pilgrims, a large caravan of the dead. [ ] six months later a bakhtiari chief, a bigoted moslem, said to me at the conclusion of an earnest plea for european medical advice, "yes, jesus was a great prophet; _send us a hak[=i]m in his likeness_," and doubtless the nearer that likeness is the greater is the success. [ ] the entire trade of baghdad is estimated at about £ , , , of which the persian transit trade is nearly a quarter. the persian imports and exports through baghdad are classified thus: manufactured goods, including manchester piece goods, and continental woollens and cottons, to loads. indian manufactures, loads. loaf sugar, chiefly from marseilles, loads. drugs, pepper, coffee, tea, other sugars, indigo, cochineal, copper, and spelter, loads. the persian exports for despatch by sea include wool, opium, cotton, carpets, gum, and dried fruits, and for local consumption, among others, tobacco, _roghan_ (clarified butter), and dried and fresh fruits, with a probable bulk of from , to , loads. [ ] i had given up the idea of travelling in persia, and was preparing to leave india for england, when an officer, with whom i was then unacquainted, and who was about to proceed to tihran on business, kindly offered me his escort. the journey turned out one of extreme hardship and difficulty, and had it not been for his kindness and efficient help i do not think that i should have accomplished it. letter iii[ ] yakobiyeh, asiatic turkey, _jan. _. whether for "well or ill" the journey to tihran is begun. i am ashamed to say that i had grown so nervous about its untried elements, and about the possibilities of the next two months, that a very small thing would have made me give it up at the last moment; but now that i am fairly embarked upon it in splendid weather, the spirit of travel has returned. much remained for the last morning,--debts to be paid in complicated money, for indian, turkish, and persian coins are all current here; english circular notes to be turned into difficult coin, and the usual "row" with the muleteers to be endured. this disagreeable farce attends nearly all departures in the east, and i never feel the comfortable assurance that it means nothing. the men weighed my baggage, which was considerably under weight, the day before, but yesterday three or four of them came into the courtyard, shouting in arabic at the top of their loud harsh voices that they would not carry the loads. hadji roared at them, loading his revolver all the time, calling them "sons of burnt fathers," and other choice names. dr. bruce and dr. sutton reasoned with them from the balcony, when, in the very height of the row, they suddenly shouldered the loads and went off with them. two hours later the delightful hospitalities of dr. and mrs. sutton were left behind, and the farewell to the group in the courtyard of the mission house is a long farewell to civilisation. rumours of difficulties have been rife, and among the various dismal prophecies the one oftenest repeated is that we shall be entangled in the snows of the zagros mountains; but the journey began propitiously among oranges and palms, bright sunshine and warm good wishes. my mule turns out a fine, spirited, fast-walking animal, and the untried saddle suits me. my marching equipment consists of two large holsters, with a revolver and tea-making apparatus in one, and a bottle of milk, and dates in the other. an afghan sheepskin coat is strapped to the front of the saddle, and a blanket and stout mackintosh behind. i wear a cork sun-helmet, a gray mask instead of a veil, an american mountain dress with a warm jacket over it, and tan boots, scarcely the worse for a year of himalayan travel. hadji is dressed like a wild ishmaelite. captain dougherty of h.m.s. _comet_ and his chief engineer piloted us through the narrow alleys and thronged bazars,--a _zaptieh_, or gendarme, with a rifle across his saddle-bow, and a sheathed sabre in his hand, shouting at the donkey boys, and clearing the crowd to right and left. through the twilight of the bazars, where chance rays of sunshine fell on warm colouring, gay merchandise, and picturesque crowds; along narrow alleys, overhung by brown lattice windows; out under the glorious blue of heaven among ruins and graves, through the northern gateway, and then there was an abrupt exchange of the roar and limitations of the city of the caliphs for the silence of the desert and the brown sweep of a limitless horizon. a walled eastern city has no suburbs. it is a literal step from a crowded town to absolute solitude. the contrast is specially emphasised at baghdad, where the transition is made from a great commercial city with a crowded waterway, to an uninhabited plain in the nudity of mid-winter. a last look at gleaming domes, coloured minarets, and massive mausoleums, rising out of an environment of palms and orange groves, at the brick walls and towers of the city, at the great gate to which lines of caravans were converging from every quarter, a farewell to the kindly pilots, and the journey began in earnest. the "desert" sweeps up to the walls of baghdad, but it is a misnomer to call the vast level of rich, stoneless, alluvial soil a desert. it is a dead flat of uninhabited earth; orange colocynth balls, a little wormwood, and some alkaline plants which camels eat, being its chief products. after the inundations reedy grass grows in the hollows. it is a waste rather than a desert, and was once a populous plain, and the rich soil only needs irrigation to make it "blossom as the rose." traces of the splendid irrigation system under which it was once a garden abound along the route. the mid-day and afternoon were as glorious as an unclouded sky, a warm sun, and a fresh, keen air could make them. the desert freedom was all around, and the nameless charm of a nomadic life. the naked plain, which stretched to the horizon, was broken only by the brown tents of arabs, mixed up with brown patches of migrating flocks, strings of brown camels, straggling caravans, and companies of arab horsemen heavily armed. an expanse of dried mud, the mirage continually seen, a cloudless sky, and a brilliant sun--this was all. i felt better at once in the pure, exhilarating desert air, and nervousness about the journey was left behind. i even indulged in a gallop, and except for her impetuosity, which carried me into the middle of a caravan, and turning round a few times, the mule behaved so irreproachably that i forgot the potential possibilities of evil. still, i do not think that there can ever be that perfect correspondence of will between a mule and his rider that there is between a horse and his rider. the mirage was almost continual and grossly deceptive. fair blue lakes appeared with palms and towers mirrored on their glassy surfaces, giving place to snowy ranges with bright waters at their feet, fringed by tall trees, changing into stately processions, all so absolutely real that the real often seemed the delusion. these deceptions, continued for several hours, were humiliating and exasperating. towards evening the shams disappeared, the waste purpled as the sun sank, and after riding fifteen miles we halted near the mud village of orta khan, a place with brackish water and no supplies but a little brackish sheep's milk. the caravanserai was abominable, and we rode on to a fine gravelly camping-ground, but the headman and some of the villagers came out, and would not hear of our pitching the tents where we should be the prey of predatory hordes, strong enough, they said, to overpower an officer, two _zaptiehs_, and three orderlies! being unwilling to get them into trouble, we accepted a horrible camping-ground, a mud-walled "garden," trenched for dates, and lately irrigated, as damp and clayey as it could be. my _dhurrie_ will not be dry again this winter. the mules could not get in, the baggage was unloaded at some distance, and was all mixed up, and hadji showed himself incapable; my tent fell twice, remained precarious, and the _kanats_ were never pegged down at all. the _dhurrie_ was trampled into the mud by clayey feet. baggage had to be disentangled and unpacked after dark, and the confusion apt to prevail on the first night of a march was something terrible. it opened my eyes to the thorough inefficiency of hadji, who was so dazed with opium this morning that he stood about in a dream, ejaculating "_ya allah!_" when it was suggested that he should bestir himself, leaving me to do all the packing, groaning as he took up the tent pegs, and putting on the mule's bridle with the bit hanging under her chin! the night was very damp, not quite frosty, and in the dim morning the tent and its contents were wet. tea at seven, with baghdad rusks, with a distinctly "native taste," two hours spent in standing about on the damp, clayey ground till my feet were numb, while the men, most of whom were complaining of rheumatism, stumbled through their new work; and then five hours of wastes, enlivened by caravans of camels, mules, horses, or asses, and sometimes of all mixed, with their wild, armed drivers. the leader of each caravan carries a cylinder-shaped bell under his throat, suspended from a red leather band stitched with cowries, another at his chest, and very large ones, often twenty-four inches long by ten in diameter, hanging from each pack. every other animal of the caravan has smaller bells, and the tones, which are often most musical, reach from the deep note of a church bell up to the frivolous jingle of sleigh bells; jingle often becomes jangle when several caravans are together. the _katirgis_ (muleteers) spend large sums on the bells and other decorations. among the loads we met or overtook were paraffin, oranges, pomegranates, carpets, cotton goods, melons, grain, and chopped straw. the waste is covered with tracks, and a guide is absolutely necessary. the day has been still and very gloomy, with flakes of snow falling at times. the passing over rich soil, once cultivated and populous, now abandoned to the antelope and partridge, is most melancholy. the remains of canals and water-courses, which in former days brought the waters of the tigris and the diyalah into the fields of the great grain-growing population of these vast levels of chaldæa and mesopotamia, are everywhere, and at times create difficulties on the road. by road is simply meant a track of greater or less width, trodden on the soil by the passage of caravans for ages. on these two marches not a stone has been seen which could strike a ploughshare. great ancient canals, with their banks in ruins and their deep beds choked up and useless, have been a mournful feature of rather a dismal day's journey. we crossed the bed of the once magnificent nahrwan canal, the finest of the ancient irrigation works to the east of the tigris, still in many places from twenty-five to forty feet deep and from to feet in breadth. for many miles the only permanent village is a collection of miserable mud hovels round a forlorn caravanserai, in which travellers may find a wretched refuge from the vicissitudes of weather. there is a remarkable lack of shelter and provender, considering that this is not only one of the busiest of caravan routes, but is enormously frequented by shiah pilgrims on their way from persia to the shrines of kerbela. after crossing the nahrwan canal the road keeps near the right bank of the diyalah, a fine stream, which for a considerable distance runs parallel with the tigris at a distance of from ten to thirty miles from it, and falls into it below baghdad; and _imamzadas_ and villages with groves of palms break the line of the horizon, while on the left bank for fully two miles are contiguous groves of dates and pomegranates. these groves are walled, and among them this semi-decayed and ruinous town is situated, miserably shrunk from its former proportions. we entered yakobiyeh after crossing the diyalah by a pontoon bridge of twelve boats, and found one good house with projecting lattice windows, and a large entrance over which the head and ears of a hare were nailed; narrow, filthy lanes, a covered bazar, very dark and ruinous, but fairly well supplied, an archway, and within it this caravanserai in which the baggage must be waited for for two hours. this first experience of a turkish inn is striking. there is a large square yard, heaped with dirt and rubbish, round which are stables and some dark, ruinous rooms. a broken stair leads to a flat mud roof, on which are some narrow "stalls,"--_rooms_ they cannot be called,--with rude doors fastening only from the outside, for windows small round holes mostly stuffed with straw near the roof, for floors sodden earth, for fireplaces holes in the same, the walls slimy and unplastered, the corners full of ages of dusty cobwebs, both the walls and the rafters of the roof black with ages of smoke, and beetles and other abominations hurry into crannies, when the doors are opened, to emerge as soon as they are shut. a small hole in the wall outside each stall serves for cooking. the habits of the people are repulsive, foul odours are only hybernating, and so, mercifully, are the vermin. while waiting for the "furniture" which is to make my "unfurnished apartment" habitable, i write sitting on my camp stool with its back against the wall, wrapped up in a horse-blanket, a heap of saddles, swords, holsters, and gear keeping the wind from my feet. the afghan orderly smokes at the top of the stair. plumes of palms and faintly-seen ridges of snowy hills appear over the battlements of the roof. a snow wind blows keenly. my fingers are nearly numb, and i am generally stiff and aching, but so much better that discomforts are only an amusement. snow is said to be impending. i have lunched frugally on sheep's milk and dates, and feel everything but my present surroundings to be very far off, and as if i had lived the desert life, and had heard the chimes of the great caravans, and had seen the wild desert riders, and the sun sinking below the level line of the desert horizon, for two months instead of two days. yakobiyeh is said to have houses. it has some small mosques and several caravanserais, of which this is the best! it was once a flourishing place, but repeated ravages of the plague and chronic official extortions have reduced it to decay. nevertheless, it grows grain enough for its own needs on poorly irrigated soil, and in its immense gardens apples, pears, apricots, walnuts, and mulberries flourish alongside of the orange and palm. _kizil robat, jan. ._--it was not very cold at yakobiyeh. at home few people would be able to sit in a fireless den, with the door open, on a january night, but fireless though it was, my slender camp equipage gave it a look of comfort, and though rats or mice ate a bag of rusks during the night, and ran over my bed, there were no other annoyances. hadji grows more dazed and possibly more unwilling every day, as he sees his vista of perquisites growing more limited, and to get off, even at nine, i have to do the heavy as well as the light packing myself. there was a great "row," arising out of an alleged delinquency of the _katirgis_ concerning payment, when we left yakobiyeh the following morning. the owners of the caravanserai wanted to detain us, and the archway was so packed with a shouting, gesticulating, scowling, and not kindly crowd, mostly armed, that it was not easy for me to mount. the hire of mules always includes their fodder and the keep of the men, but in the first day or two the latter usually attempt to break their bargain, and compel their employer to provide for them. so long as arabic is spoken hadji acts as sole interpreter, and though soldiers and _zaptiehs_ were left with him he was scared at being left behind with the baggage. the people stormed and threatened at the top of their voices, but doubtless it was not so bad as it sounded, for we got through the bazars without molestation, and then into a perplexing system of ancient water-courses whose high broken banks and deep waterless beds intersect each other and the road. in contrast to this magnificent irrigation system there are modern water-channels about a foot wide, taken from the river diyalah, which, small as they are, turn the rich deep soil into a "fruitful field." after these glimpses of a prosperity which once was and might be again (for these vast alluvial plains, which extend from the zagros mountains to the euphrates and up to the syrian desert, are capable with irrigation and cultivation of becoming the granary of western asia), the road emerges on a level and somewhat gravelly waste, on which after a long ride we were overtaken by a _zaptieh_ sent by the persian agent in yakobiyeh, to say that the baggage and servants were being forcibly detained, but shortly afterwards with a good glass the caravan was seen emerging from the town. the country was nearly as featureless as on the preceding day, and on the whole quite barren; among the few caravans on the road there were two of immense value, the loads being the best description of persian carpets. there were a few families on asses, migrating with all their possessions, and a few parties of arab horsemen picturesquely and very fully armed, but no dwellings, till in the bright afternoon sunshine, on the dreariest stretch of an apparently verdureless waste, we came on the caravanserai of wiyjahea, a gateway with a room above it, a square court with high walls and arched recesses all round for goods and travellers, and large stables. a row of reed huts, another of arab tents, and a hovel opposite the gateway, where a man with two guns within reach sells food, tobacco, and hair ropes, make up this place of horror. for, indeed, the only water is a brackish reedy pool, with its slime well stirred by the feet of animals, and every man's hand is against his brother. we proposed to pitch my tent in a ruined enclosure, but the headman was unwilling, and when it was suggested that it should be placed between the shop and the caravanserai, he said that before sunset all the predatory arabs for ten miles round would hear that "rich foreigners were travelling," and would fall upon and plunder us, so we must pitch, if at all, in the filthy and crowded court of the caravanserai. the _balakhana_, or upper room, was too insecure for me, and had no privacy, as the fodder was kept in it, and there was no method of closing the doors, which let in the bitterly cold wind. we arrived at p.m., and long before sunset a number of caravans came in, and the courtyard was full of horses, mules, and asses. when they halted the loads were taken off and stacked in the arched recesses; next, the great padded pack-saddles, which cover nearly the whole back, were removed, revealing in most cases deep sores and ulcers. then the animals were groomed with box curry-combs, with "clatters" like the noise of a bird-scarer inside them. fifty curry-combs going at once is like the din of the cicada. then the beasts were driven in batches to the reedy pool, and came flying back helter-skelter through the archway, some fighting, others playing, many rolling. one of them nearly pulled my tent over by rolling among the tent ropes. it had been pitched on damp and filthy ground in a corner of the yard, among mules, horses, asses, dogs, and the roughest of rough men, but even there the damp inside looked like home. after this brief hilarity, the pack-saddles, which serve as blankets, were put on, the camels were made to lie down in rows, most of the mules and horses were tethered in the great stable, where they neighed, stamped, and jangled their bells all night, and others were picketed in the yard among the goats and donkeys and the big dogs, which wandered about yelping. later, the small remaining space was filled up with sheep. it was just possible to move, but no more, and sheep and goats were even packed under the _flys_ of my tent. the muleteers and travellers spread their bedding in the recesses, lighted their fires of animal fuel, and cooked their food. at sunset the view from the roof was almost beautiful. far away, in all directions, stretched the level desert purpling in the purple light. very faintly, on the far horizon to the north-east, mountain ranges were painted in amethyst on an orange sky. horsemen in companies galloped to tents which were not in sight, strings of camels cast their long shadows on the purple sand, and flocks of big brown sheep, led by armed shepherds, converged on the reedy pool in long brown lines. the evening air was keen, nearly frosty. the prospects for the night were not encouraging, and on descending the filthy stair on which goats had taken up their quarters, i found the malodorous, crowded courtyard so blocked, that shepherds, with much pushing, shouting, and barking of big dogs, with difficulty made a way for me to pass through the packed mass of sheep and goats into the cold, damp tent, which was pitched on damp manure, two or three feet deep, into which heavy feet had trampled the carpet. the uproar of _katirgis_ and travellers went on for another two hours, and was exchanged later for sounds of jangling bells, yelping and quarrelling dogs, braying asses, bleating sheep, and coarsely-snoring men. at p.m. the heavy gates, clamped with iron, were closed and barred, and some belated travellers, eager to get in from the perils of the outside, thundered at them long and persistently, but "the door was shut," and they encountered a hoarse refusal. the _seraidar_ said that horses and mules, besides camels and asses, sheep, and over men were lodged in the caravanserai that night. the servants were in a recess near, and hadji professed that he watched all night, and said that he fired at a man who tried to rob my tent after the light went out, but i slept too soundly to be disturbed, till the caravans and flocks left at daybreak, after a preliminary uproar of two hours. it was bitterly cold, and my tent and its contents were soaked with the heavy dew, nearly doubling their weight. i started at a.m., before the hoar-frost had melted, and rode with the _zaptieh_ over flat, stoneless, alluvial soil, with some irrigation and the remains of some fine canals. there are villages to be seen in the distance, but though the soil is rich enough to support a very large population, there are no habitations near the road except a few temporary reed huts, beside two large caravanserais. there was little of an interesting kind except the perpetual contrast between things as they are and things as they were and might be. some large graveyards, with brick graves, a crumbling _imamzada_, a pointed arch of brick over the nahrud canal, a few ass caravans, with a live fowl tied by one leg on the back of each ass, and struggling painfully to keep its uneasy seat, some cultivation and much waste, and then we reached the walled village of sheraban, once a town, but now only possessing houses. passing as usual among ruinous dwellings and between black walls with doors here and there, by alleys foul with heaps of refuse, and dangerous from slimy pitfalls, in the very foulest part we turned into the caravanserai, its great courtyard reeking with filth and puddles, among which are the contaminated wells from which we are supposed to drink. the experience of the night before was not repeated. there were fairly good rooms, mine looking into a palm garden, through a wooden grating, cold truly, but pleasant. i fear we may never have such "luxury" again. i remarked to my fellow-traveller that our early arrival had fortunately given us the "choice of rooms," and he replied, "choice of pig-styes,--choice of dens!" but my experience at wiyjahea has deprived me of the last remnants of fastidiousness! i walked through the ruinous, wretched town, and its poor bazar, where the very fine _physique_ of the men was in marked contrast with their wretched surroundings, and gives one the impression that under honest officials they might be a fine people. they are not genial to strangers, however. there was some bad language used in the bazar, and on the roads they pass one in silence at the best, so unlike the tibetans with their friendly _tzu_. at sheraban one of the muleteers forced his way into my room, and roughly turned over my saddle and baggage, accusing me of having taken his blanket! hadji is useless under such circumstances. he blusters and fingers his revolver, but carries no weight. indeed his defects are more apparent every day. i often have to speak to him two or three times before i can rouse him from his opium dream, and there is a growing inclination to shirk his very light work when he can shift it upon somebody else. i hope that he is well-meaning, as that would cover a multitude of faults, but he is very rough and ignorant, and is either unable or unwilling to learn anything, even how to put up my trestle bed! open rooms have sundry disadvantages. in the night a cat fell from the roof upon my bed, and was soon joined by more, and they knocked over the lamp and milk bottle, and in the darkness had a noisy quarrel over the milk. the march of eighteen miles here was made in six hours, at a good caravan pace. the baggage animals were sent off in advance, and the _zaptieh_ led a mule loaded with chairs, blankets, and occupations. i ride with the _zaptieh_ in front of me till i get near the halting-place, when m---- and his orderly overtake me, as it might be disagreeable for a european woman to enter a town alone. the route lies over treeless levels of the same brown alluvial soil, till it is lifted on a gentle gravelly slope to a series of low crumbling mounds of red and gray sandstone, mixed up with soft conglomerate rocks of jasper and porphyry pebbles. these ranges of mounds, known as the hamrin hills, run parallel to the great kurdistan ranges, from a point considerably below baghdad, nearly to mosul and the river zab. they mark the termination in this direction of the vast alluvial plains of the tigris and euphrates, and are the first step to the uplifted iranian plateau. arid and intricate ravines, dignified by the name of passes, furrow these hills, and bear an evil reputation, as arab robbers lie in wait, "making it very unsafe for small caravans." a wild, desolate, ill-omened-looking region it is. when we were fairly within the pass, the _zaptieh_ stopped, and with much gesticulation and many repetitions of the word _effendi_, made me understand that it was unsafe to proceed without a larger party. we were unmolested, but it is a discredit to the administration of the province that an organised system of pillage should be allowed to exist year after year on one of the most frequented caravan routes in turkey. there were several companies of armed horsemen among the ranges, and some camels browsing, but we met no caravans. from the top of the descent there was a striking view over a great brown alluvial plain, watered by the beladruz and the diyalah, with serrated hills of no great height, but snow-covered; on its east side a silent, strange, weird view, without interest or beauty as seen under a sullen sky. there are no villages on this march, but ancient canals run in all directions, and fragments of buildings, as well as of brick and pottery, scattered over the unploughed surface, are supposed by many to mark the situation of dastagird, the residence of khosroe parviz in the seventh century. i have no books of reference with me, and can seldom write except of such things as i see and hear. farther on a multitude of irrigation ditches have turned a plain of dry friable soil into a plain of mud, through which it was difficult to struggle. then came a grove of palms, and then the town or village of kizil robat (red shrine), with its _imamzada_, whose reputation for sanctity is indicated by the immense number of graves which surround it. the walls of this decayed and wretched town are of thick layers of hardened but now crumbling earth, and on the east side there is an old gateway of burned brick. there are said to be houses, which at the lowest computation would mean a population of , but inhabited houses and ruins are so jumbled up together that one cannot form any estimate. so woe-begone and miserable a place i never saw, and the dirt is appalling even in this dry weather. in spring the alleys of the town are impassable, and people whose business calls them out cross from roof to roof on boards. pools of filthy water, loathsome ditches with broad margins of trodden slime full of abominations, ruins of houses, yards foul with refuse, half-clothed and wholly unwashed children, men of low aspect standing in melancholy groups, a well-built brick bazar, in which manchester cottons are prominent, more mud and dirt, some ruinous caravanserais, and near the extremity of the town or village is the horrible one in which i now am, said to be the best, with a yard a foot deep in manure and slush, in the midst of which is the well, and around which are stables and recesses for travellers. at first it seemed likely that i should fall so low as to occupy one of these, but careful investigation revealed a ruinous stair leading to the roof, up which were two rooms, or shall i say three?--an arched recess such as coals are kept in, a small room within it, and a low wood hole. the open arch, with a _mangel_ or iron pan of charcoal, serves as the "parlour" this january night, m---- occupies the wood hole, and i the one room, into which hadji, with many groans and ejaculations of "_ya allah!_" has brought up the essential parts of my baggage. the evening is gray and threatening, and low, snow-covered hills look grimly over the bare brown plain which lies outside this mournful place. _khannikin, jan. ._--this has been a hard, rough march, but there will be many worse ahead. rain fell heavily all night, converting the yard into a lake of trampled mud, and seemed so likely to continue that it was difficult to decide whether to march or halt. miserable it was to see mules standing to be loaded, up to their knees in mud, bales of tents and bedding lying in the quagmire, and the shivering indian servants up to their knees in the swamp. in rain steadily falling the twelve animals were loaded, and after the usual scrimmage at starting, in which the _bakhsheesh_ is often thrown back at us, we rode out into a sea of deep mud, through which the mules, struggling and floundering, got on about a mile an hour. after a time we came to gravel, then relapsed into deep alluvial soil, which now means deep mire, then a low range of gravelly hills on which a few sheep and camels were browsing on artemisia and other aromatic herbs gave a temporary respite, then again we floundered through miles of mud, succeeded by miles of gravel and stones. the rain fell in torrents, and there was a cold strong wind to fight against. there was that amount of general unpropitiousness which is highly stimulating and inspiriting. when noon came, there was not a rock or bush for shelter, and turning our backs to the storm we ate our lunch in our saddles. there was nothing to look at but brown gravel, or brown mud, brooded over by a gray mist. so we tramped on, hour after hour, in single file, the _zaptieh_ leading, everything but his gun muffled in his brown _abba_, splashing through mud and water, the water pouring from my hat and cloak, the six woollen thicknesses of my mask dripping, seeing neither villages nor caravans, for caravans of goods do not travel in such rain as this. then over a slope we went down into a lake of mud, where the _aide-de-camp_ of the governor of khannikin, in a fez and military frock-coat and trousers, with a number of bashi bazouks or irregulars, met m---- with courtesies and an invitation. from the top of the next slope there was a view of khannikin, a considerable-looking town among groves of palms and other trees. then came a worse sea of mud, and a rudely cobbled causeway, so horrible that it diverted us back into the mud, which was so bottomless that it drove us back to the causeway, and the causeway back to the mud, the rain all the time coming down in sheets. this causeway, without improvement, is carried through khannikin, a town with narrow blind alleys, upon which foul courtyards open, often so foul as to render the recent ravages of cholera (if science speaks truly) a matter of necessity. the mud and water in these alleys was up to the knees of the mules. not a creature was in the streets. no amount of curiosity, even regarding the rare sight of a frank woman, could make people face the storm in flimsy cotton clothes. where the road turns to the bridge a line of irregular infantry was drawn up, poorly dressed, soaked creatures, standing in chilly mud up to their ankles, in soaked boots reaching to their knees. these joined and headed the cavalcade, and i fell humbly in the rear. poor fellows! to keep step was impossible when it was hard work to drag their feet out of the mire, and they carried their rifles anyhow. it was a grotesque procession. a trim officer, forlorn infantry, wild-looking bashi bazouks, europeans in stout mackintoshes splashed with mud from head to foot, mules rolling under their bespattered loads, and a _posse_ of servants and orderlies crouching on the top of baggage, muffled up to the eyes, the asses which carry the _katirgis_ and their equipments far behind, staggering and nearly done up, for the march of seventeen miles had taken eight and a half hours. an abrupt turn in the causeway leads to the holwan, a tributary of the diyalah, a broad, rapid stream, over which the enterprise of a persian has thrown a really fine brick bridge of thirteen heavily-buttressed arches, which connects the two parts of the town and gives some dignity and picturesqueness to what would otherwise be mean. on the left bank of the holwan are the barracks, the governor's house, some large caravanserais, the custom-house, and a quarantine station, quarantine having just been imposed on all arrivals from persia, giving travel and commerce a decided check. after half a mile of slush on the river bank we entered by a handsome gateway a nearly flooded courtyard, and the governor's house hospitably engorged the whole party. the fully-laden mules stuck in the mud a few miles off, and did not come in for two hours, and in spite of covers everything not done up in waterproof was very wet. the servants looked most miserable, and complained of chills and rheumatism, and one of the orderlies is really ill. we cannot move till the storm is over. the rain falls heavily still, the river is rising, the alleys are two feet deep in slush, travel is absolutely suspended, and it is not possible without necessity to go out. it was well indeed that we decided to leave the shelterless shelter of kizil robat. nothing can exceed the wretchedness of khannikin or any turkish town in such rain as this. would that one could think that it would be washed, but as there are no channels to carry off the water it simply lodges and stagnates in every depression, and all the accumulations of summer refuse slide into these abominable pools, and the foul dust, a foot deep, becomes mud far deeper; buried things are half uncovered; torrents, not to be avoided, pour from every roof, the courtyards are knee-deep in mud, the cows stand disconsolately in mud; not a woman is to be seen, the few men driven forth by the merciless exigences of business show nothing but one eye, and with "loins girded" and big staffs move wearily, stumbling and plunging in the mire. after some hours the flat mud roofs begin to leak, water finds out every weak place in the walls, the bazars, only half open for a short time in the day, are deserted by buyers, and the patient sellers crouch over _mangels_, muffled up in sheepskins, the caravanserais are crammed and quarrelsome; the price of fodder and fuel rises, and every one is drowned in rain and wretchedness. even here, owing to the scarcity of fuel, nothing can be dried; the servants in their damp clothes come in steaming; hadji in his misshapen "jack-boots," which he asserts he cannot take off, spreads fresh mud over the carpets whenever he enters; i shift from place to place to avoid the drip from the roof--and still the rain comes down with unabated vigour! footnote: [ ] i present my diary letters much as they were written, believing that the details of travel, however wearisome to the experienced traveller, will be interesting to the "untravelled many," to whom these volumes are dedicated. letter iii (_continued_) the house consists of two courtyards, with buildings round them. the larger and handsomer is the _haram_ or women's house, which is strictly enclosed, has no exterior windows, and its one door into the men's house is guarded by a very ancient eunuch. the courtyard of this house is surrounded partly by arched _serdabs_, with green lattice fronts, and partly by a kitchen, bakery, wood-house, _hammam_ or hot bath, and the servants' quarters. the _haram_ has a similar arrangement on the lower floor. a broad balcony, reached by a steep and narrow stair, runs round three sides of the upper part of this house. there are very few rooms, and some of them are used for storing fruit. the wet baggage is mostly up here, and under the deep roof the servants and orderlies camp, looking miserable. the _haram_ has a balcony all round it, on which a number of reception and living rooms open, and though not grand or elaborately decorated, is convenient and comfortable. the turkish host evidently did not know what to do with such an embarrassing guest as a european woman, and solved the difficulty by giving me the guest-chamber in the men's house, a most fortunate decision, as i have had quiet and privacy for three days. besides, this room has a projecting window, with panes of glass held in by nails, and there is not only a view of the alley with its slush, but into the house of some poor folk, and over that to the holwan, sometimes in spate, sometimes falling, and through all the hours of daylight frequented by grooms for the purpose of washing their horses. some shingle banks, now overflowed, sustain a few scraggy willows, and on the farther side is some low-lying land. there may be much besides, but the heavy rain-clouds blot out all else. my room is whitewashed, and is furnished with persian rugs, austrian bent-wood chairs, and a divan in the window, on which i sleep. lamps, _samovars_, and glasses are kept in recesses, and a black slave is often in and out for them. otherwise no one enters but hadji. i get my food somewhat precariously. it is carved and sent from table at the beginning of meals, chiefly pillau, curry, _kabobs_, and roast chicken, but apparently it is not etiquette for me to get it till after the men have dined, and it is none the better for being cold. the male part of the household consists of the governor and his brother-in-law, a moslem judge, and the quarantine doctor, a cretan, takes his meals in the house. the governor and doctor speak french. my fellow-traveller lives with them. the night we arrived, the governor in some agitation asked me to go and see his wife, who is very ill. the cholera has only just disappeared, and the lady had had a baby, which died of it in three days, and "being a boy her heart was broken," and "something had come under her arm." so i went with him into the _haram_, which seemed crowded with women of various races and colours, peeping from behind curtains and through chinks of doors, tittering and whispering. the wife's room is richly carpeted and thoroughly comfortable, with a huge charcoal brazier in the centre, and cushions all over the floor, except at one end, where there is a raised alcove with a bed in it. on this the lady sat--a rather handsome kurdish woman, about thirty-five, dressed in a silk quilted jacket, and with a black gauze handkerchief round her head, and a wadded quilt over her crossed legs. she was supported by a pile of pillows. since then i have been sent for to see her several times every day, and found her always in the same position. there is surely something weird about it. she says she sits there all night, and has not lain down for two months. a black slave was fanning her, and two women, shrouded in veils of tinselled gauze, sat on the bed combing her luxuriant hair. she is not really beautiful at all, but her husband assures me constantly that she is "_une femme savante_." she has property and the consideration which attaches to it. she was burning with fever and very weak. i had scarcely returned to my room when my host sent again, begging that i would go back and see the doctor. i found that it was expected that i should persuade the lady to consent to have the abscess, or whatever it is, reopened. the room was full of women and eunuchs, and the chief eunuch, an elderly arab, sat on the bed and supported her while the doctor dressed the wound, and even helped him with it. her screams were fearful, and five people held her with difficulty. her husband left the room, unable to bear her cries. quite late i was sent for again, and that time by the lady, to know if i thought she would die. it appears that her brother, the judge, remains here to see that she is not the victim of foul play, but i don't like to ask to whom the suspicion points, or whether our host, although the civil governor, keeps him here that he may not be suspected in case his rich wife dies. except for the repeated summonses to the sick-room, a walk on the slime of the roof when the rain ceases for a time, and on the balcony of the _haram_ when it does not, and a study of the habits of my neighbours over the way, it is very dull. i have patched and mended everything that gave any excuse for either operation, have written letters which it is not safe to post, and have studied my one book on persia till i know it throughout, and still the rain falls nearly without cessation and the quagmires outside deepen. so bad is it that, dearly as orientals love bazars and _hammams_, hadji refuses leave to go to either. i remarked to him that he must be glad of such a rest, and he replied in his usual sententious fashion: "they who have to work must work. god knows all." i fear he is very lazy, and he has no idea of making one comfortable or of keeping anything clean. he stamps the mud of the courtyard into the carpets, and wipes my plates without washing them, with his shirt. he considers that our host has attained the height of human felicity. "what is there left to wish for?" he says. "he has numbers of slaves, and he's always buying more, and he's got numbers of women and eunuchs, and everything, and when he wants money he just sends round the villages. god is great! _ya allah!_" khannikin, being the nearest town to the persian frontier, should be a place of some importance. it is well situated at an altitude of feet among groves of palms, on both banks of the holwan, and having plenty of water, the rich alluvium between it and yakobiyeh is able to support its own population, though it has to import for caravans. most of the persian trade with baghdad and thousands of shiah pilgrims annually pass through it. it is a customs station, and has a regiment of soldiers. nevertheless, it is very ruinous, and its population has diminished of late years from to about (exclusive of the troops), and of this number a fifth have been carried off by cholera within the last few weeks. it has no schools, and no special industries. the stamp of decay rests upon it. exactions, crushing hope out of the people, the general insecurity of property, and the misrule which has blighted these fine asiatic provinces everywhere, sufficiently explain its decadence. the imposition of quarantine on arrivals from persia has all but stopped the supply of charcoal, and knowing the scarcity in the house, i am going without a fire, as most of the inhabitants are doing. a large caravanserai outside the walls is used as a quarantine station, and three others are taken as lazarettos. out of these arrangements the officials make a great deal of money in fees, but anything more horrible than the sanitary state of these places cannot be conceived. the water appears to be the essence of typhoid fever and cholera, and the unfortunate _détenus_ are crowded into holes unfit for beasts, breathing pestiferous exhalations, and surrounded by such ancient and modern accumulations of horrors that typhus fever, cholera, and even the plague might well be expected to break out. yesterday, for a brief interval, hills covered with snow appeared through rolling black clouds, and a change seemed probable, but rain fell in torrents all night; there is a spate in the river, and though we were ready to start at eight this morning, the _katirgis_ declined to move, saying that the road could not be travelled because of the depth of the fords and the mud. the roof, though a good one, is now so leaky that i am obliged to sleep under my waterproof cloak, and the un-puttied window-frames let in the rain. early this morning a gale from the south-west came on, and the howling and roaring have been frightful, the rain falling in sheets most of the time. sensations are not wanting. one of the orderlies is seriously ill, and has to be left behind under medical care till he can be sent to india,--the second man who has broken down. a runner came in with the news that all caravans are stopped in the zagros mountains by snow, which has been falling for five days, and that the road is not expected to be open for a fortnight. later, the persian agent called to say that on the next march the road, which is carried on a precipice above the river, has slid down bodily, and that there are fifteen feet of water where there should be only two. of course this prolonged storm is "exceptional." the temperature is falling, and it is so cold without a fire that though my bed is only a blanket-covered dais of brick and lime, dripped upon continually, in a window with forty draughts, i am glad to muffle myself up in its blankets and write among wraps. the governor, recognising the craze of europeans for exercise, sent word that m---- might walk in the balcony of the _haram_ if i went to chaperon him, and this great concession was gladly accepted, for it was the only possible way of getting warm. the apparition of a strange man, and a european, within the precincts of the _haram_ was a great event, and every window, curtain, and doorway was taken advantage of by bright dark eyes sparkling among folds of cotton and gauze. the enjoyment was surreptitious, but possibly all the more keen, and sounds of whispering and giggling surged out of every crevice. there are over thirty women, some of them negresses. some are kurds and very handsome, but the faces of the two handsomest, though quite young, have something fiendish in their expression. i have seldom seen a _haram_ without its tragedies of jealousy and hate, and every fresh experience makes me believe that the system is as humiliating to men as it is to women. the _haram_ reception-rooms here are large and bright, with roofs and cornices worked daintily in very white plaster, and there are superb carpets on the floors, and divans covered with damascus embroidery in gold silk on cream muslin. each day the demands for my presence in the sick-room are more frequent, and though i say that i can scarcely aspire to be a nurse, they persist in thinking that i am a _haki[=i]m_, and possibly a useful spy on the doctor. i have become aware that unscrupulous jealousy of the principal wife exists, and, as is usual in the east, everybody distrusts everybody else, and prefers to trust strangers. the husband frequently asks me to remove what seems a cancerous tumour, and the doctor says that an operation is necessary to save the lady's life, but when i urge him to perform it, and offer a nurse's help, he replies that if she were to die he would be at once accused of murder, and would run a serious risk. the governor to-day was so anxious that i should persuade the lady to undergo an operation that he even brought hadji into the room to interpret what i said in arabic. his ceaseless question is, "will she die?" and she asks me the same many times every day. she insists that i shall be present each day when the wound is dressed, and give help, lest the doctor without her leave should plunge a knife into the swelling. these are most distressing occasions, for an hour of struggle and suffering usually ends in delirium. this afternoon, however, she was much freer from pain, and sent for me to amuse her. she wore some fine jewels, and some folds of tinselled gauze round her head, and looked really handsome and intelligent. her husband wished that we could converse without his imperfect interpreting, and repeated many times, "she is a learned woman, and can write and read several languages." the room was as usual full of women, who had removed their veils at their lord's command. i showed the lady some tibetan sketches, but when i came to one of a man the women replaced their veils! when i showed some embroidery, the governor said he had heard that the queen of england employed herself with her needle in leisure hours, but that it is not _comme il faut_ here for ladies to work. it seems that the making of sweetmeats is the only occupation which can be pursued without loss of dignity. is it wonderful that intolerable _ennui_ should be productive of the miserable jealousies, rivalries, intrigues, and hatreds which accompany the system of polygamy? the host, although civil governor of a large district, also suffers from _ennui_. the necessary official duties are very light, and the accounts and reports are prepared by others. if money is wanted he makes "an exaction" on a village, and subordinates screw it out of the people. justice, or the marketable commodity which passes for such, is administered by a _kadi_. he clatters about the balconies with slippered feet, is domestic, that is, he spends most of the day in the _haram_, smokes, eats two meals of six or seven courses each, and towards evening takes a good deal of wine, according to a habit which is becoming increasingly common among the higher classes of moslems. he is hospitable, and is certainly anything but tyrannical in his household. the customs and ways of the first turkish house i have visited in would be as interesting to you as they were to myself, but it would be a poor return for hospitality to dwell upon anything, unless, like the difficulties regarding the illness of the principal wife, it were a matter of common notoriety. it is a punishable act in persia, and possibly here also, to look into a neighbour's house, but i cannot help it unless i were to avoid the window altogether. wealth and poverty are within a few feet of each other, and as moslems are charitable to a degree and in a manner which puts us to shame, the juxtaposition is advantageous. my neighbour's premises consist of a very small and mean yard, now a foot deep in black mire, a cow-shed, and a room without door or windows, with a black uneven floor, and black slimy rafters--neither worse nor better than many hovels in the western isles of scotland. a man in middle life, a woman of dubious age, two girls from eight to ten years old, and a boy a little older are the occupants. the furniture consists of some wadded quilts, a copper pot, an iron girdle, a clay ewer or two, a long knife, a wooden spoon, a clay receptacle for grain, two or three earthenware basins, glazed green, and a wicker tray. the cow-shed contains--besides the cow, which is fed on dried thistles--a spade, an open basket, and a baggage pad. a few fowls live in the house, and are disconcerted to find that they cannot get out of it without swimming. the weather is cold and raw, fuel is enormously dear, work is at a standstill, and cold and _ennui_ keep my neighbours in bed till the day is well advanced. "bed" consists of a wadded quilt laid on the floor, with another for a covering. the man and boy sleep at one end of the room, the woman and girls at the other, with covered heads. none make any change in their dress at night, except that the man takes off the _pagri_ of his turban, retaining only a skull cap. the woman gets up first, lights a fire of tamarisk twigs and thistles in a hole in the middle of the floor, makes porridge of some coarse brownish flour and water, and sets it on to warm--to _boil_ it, with the means at her disposal, is impossible. she wades across the yard, gives the cow a bunch of thistles, milks it into a basin, adds a little leaven to the milk, which she shakes in a goat skin till it is thick, carries the skin and basket to the house, feeds the fowls from the basket, and then rouses her lord. he rises, stretches himself, yawns, and places himself cross-legged by the fire, after putting on his _pagri_. the room is dense with pungent wood smoke, which escapes through the doorway, and only a few embers remain. the wife hands him an earthen bowl, pours some porridge into it, adds some "thick milk" from the goat skin, and stands before him with her arms crossed while he eats, then receives the bowl from his hands and kisses it, as is usual with the slaves in a household. then she lights his pipe, and while he enjoys it she serves her boy with breakfast in the same fashion, omitting the concluding ceremony, after which she and the girls retire to a respectful distance with the big pot, and finish its contents simultaneously. the pipe over, she pours water on her lord's hands, letting it run on the already damp floor, and wipes them with her _chadar_. no other ablution is customary in the house. poor as this man is, he is a hadji, and having brought from mecca a "prayer stone," with the prophet's hand upon it, he takes it from his girdle, puts it on the floor, bows his forehead on it, turning mecca-ward, and says his prayers, repeating his devotions towards evening. the first day or two he went out, but the roads now being almost impassable, he confines himself to the repairing of a small dyke, which keeps the water from running into the room, which is lower than the yard, and performs its duty very imperfectly, the soak from the yard and the drip from the roof increasing the sliminess hourly. these repairs, an occasional pipe, and much sleep are the record of this man's day till an hour before sunset, when the meal of the morning is repeated with the addition of some cheese. the children keep chiefly in bed. meanwhile the woman, the busy bee of the family, contrives to patter about nearly all day in wet clothing, carrying out rubbish in single handfuls, breaking twigs, cleaning the pot, and feeding the cow. the roof, which in fine weather is the scene of most domestic occupations, is reached by a steep ladder, and she climbs this seven times in succession, each time carrying up a fowl, to pick for imaginary worms in the slimy mud. dyed yarn is also carried up to steep in the rain, and in an interval of dryness some wool was taken up and carded. an hour before sunset she lights the fire, puts on the porridge, and again performs seven journeys with seven fowls, feeds them in the house, attends respectfully to her lord, feeds her family, including the cow, paddles through mire to draw water from the river, and unrolls and spreads the wadded quilts. by the time it is dark they are once more in bed, where i trust this harmless, industrious woman enjoys a well-earned sleep. the clouds are breaking, and in spite of adverse rumours it is decided _coûte que coûte_ to start to-morrow. for my own part i prefer the freedom even with the "swinishness" of a caravanserai to receiving hospitality for which no fitting return can be made. i. l. b. letter iv saripul-i-zohab, _jan. _. the rain at last ceased, and after the _katirgis_ had squabbled for an hour over the baggage, we got off at ten, two days ago, very grateful for shelter and hospitality under such untoward circumstances. six bashi bazouks and two _zaptiehs_ on foot in ragged and incongruous uniforms escorted us to the turkish frontier. the streets were in a terrible condition, and horse and footmen, after an attempt to march in pairs, fell perforce into a floundering and disorderly single file, the footmen occasionally pulling themselves out of mud holes by the tails of the horses. outside the town there was an expanse of mud and flooded water-channels which broke up the last attempt at a procession, and led to a general _sauve qui peut_. the mire was tenacious and up to the horses' knees, half the mules were down with their loads, hadji rolled into the mud, my capable animal snorted and struggled, some went on banks and some took to streams, the asses had to be relieved of their loads, and the air was full of shouts and objurgations, till after much delay the forlorn rabble all struggled to the _terra firma_ of a gravelly slope, splashed from head to foot. the road crosses low, rolling, gravelly hills, with an occasional outcrop of red sandstone, and ascends on the whole. the sun was bright, but the wind was strong and very cold. the bashi bazouk escort was altogether harum-scarum and inconsequent, careering in circles, and firing at birds (which they never hit) from the saddle, and when we reached some low hills bearing a bad reputation, the officer, in order to represent danger and his vigilant care, threw them out in all directions scouting for robbers, till we came to a steepish hill crowned by a round tower with a mushroom top, a few ruinous mud buildings, and a tattered tent. here the escort formed into one line, and the ragged garrison into another, with an officer facing them, and were photographed as they shivered in the biting wind. this tower is a turkish frontier fort. soon afterwards the persian frontier is crossed, the hills increase considerably in size, and mud was exchanged for firm, rough gravel. a feature of the otherwise featureless landscape is the frequent occurrence of towers like martello towers, on hill-tops, placed there for the shelter of the guards who formerly kept a look-out for robbers. in the uninteresting gravel lie pebbles of jasper and agate, emerald green, red, yellow, and purple. the first object of the slightest interest in this new country was a village of ilyats, built of reed screens, with roofs of goat's-hair cloth, and with small yards with reed walls in front. the women, who wore full trousers and short jackets, were tall, somewhat striking-looking, and unveiled. their hair hung down in long plaits, and they wore red handkerchiefs knotted at the back of the head. there an escort of four persian _sowars_ joined us. the type of face was that with which we are familiar on sasanian coins and sculptured stones, the brow and chin receding considerably, and the nose thin and projecting, the profile suggesting a beak rather than a human face, and the skin having the appearance of being drawn so tightly over the bones as to force the eyes into singular prominence. [illustration: a turkish frontier fort.] a six hours' march ended at the wildly-situated village of kasr-i-shirin, high on the right bank of the holwan, with a plantation of dates on the left bank and considerable cultivation in the valley. it has only eighty houses of the most wretched construction, rivalled in height and size by middens, the drainage of which wastes itself on the wretched roadway. a caravanserai of the most miserable description, a square fort with a small garrison, and some large graveyards with domed tombs and curious obelisks, are the salient features of this village. its wretched aspect is accounted for by its insecurity. it has been destroyed by robber tribes as often as there was anything worth destroying, and it has been so tossed to and fro between turkey and persia as not to have any of the special characteristics of either empire. we stopped short of the village, at a great pile of building on a height, in massiveness and irregularity resembling a german medieval castle, in which a letter had secured accommodation. it has been unoccupied since its owner, jan mir, a sheikh of a robber tribe, and the terror of the surrounding neighbourhood, was made away with by the persian government. the accommodation consisted of great, dark, arched, vaulted rooms, with stone-flagged floors, noble in size, but needing fifty candles and huge log fires to light up and warm their dark recesses, and gruesome and damp with one candle and a crackle of twigs. they were clean, however, and their massive walls kept out the cold. the village is at an elevation of feet, and the temperature has greatly changed. the interest of kasr-i-shirin is that it lies among masses of ancient rubble, and that the slopes which surround it are completely covered with hewn and unhewn stones of all sizes, the relics of a great city, at the western extremity of which the present wretched hamlet stands.[ ] the walls, which are easily traced, enclose an irregular square, the shortest front of which is said to be three miles long. they are built of roughly-hewn blocks of gray and red sandstone, and very hard mortar or concrete. the blocks are so huge in many places as to deserve the often misused epithet cyclopean. within this enclosure are remains of houses built of water-worn round stones, which lie in monstrous heaps, and of a large fort on an eminence. in another direction are the ruins of an immense palace of quadrangular form, with only one entrance, and large underground rooms now nearly choked up. there are remains of what must have been very fine archways, but as the outer coating of hewn stone and all the decorations have fallen off, leaving only the inner case of rough rubble and concrete, the architectural forms are very badly defined, and the aspect of what must once have been magnificent is now forbidding and desolate. the remains of an aqueduct cut in the rock, and of troughs and stone pipes by which water was brought into the palace and city, from a distance of fifteen miles, are still traceable among the desolations, but of the beautiful gardens which they watered, and with which khosroe surrounded the beautiful shirin, not a trace remains. there was a pale sunset, flushing with pale pink distant leagues of sodden snow, and right across a lurid opening in a heavy mass of black clouds the great ruined pile of the palace of khosroe the magnificent stood out, a dismal commentary on splendour and fame. the promise of the evening was fulfilled the next day in windy rain, which began gently, but afterwards fell in persistent torrents, varied by pungent swirls of sleet and snow. leaving the gash through cliffs with curious stratification in white and red, formed by the holwan, the day was spent in skirting or crossing low hills. the mud was very deep and tenacious, and the rate of progress barely two miles an hour. there were no caravans, travellers, or population, and no birds or beasts. the rain clouds hung low and heavy, mists boiled up from among the folds of the hills, the temperature fell perceptibly. it was really inspiriting for people protected by good mackintoshes. after riding for six hours the rain changed into sleet and wet snow, blotting out the hills and creating an unnatural twilight, in which we floundered in mud up to the mules' knees into the filthiest village i have ever seen, a compound of foul, green ditches, piles of dissolving manure, mud hovels looking as if they were dissolving too, reed huts, and an ilyat village, grouped round the vilest of caravanserais, the entrance to which was knee-deep in mire. to lodge in it was voted impossible, and the escort led us in the darkening mist and pelting sleet to an adjacent mud hamlet as hopeless-looking on the other side of the bridge, where, standing up to the knees of the mules in liquid manure, we sought but vainly for shelter, forded the holwan, and returned to the caravanserai through almost impassable slush. it was simply loathsome, with its stench, its foulness, and its mire, and was already crowded and noisy with men and beasts. there was a great courtyard with arched recesses all round, too abominable to be occupied, too exposed and ruinous, even had they been cleaned, to give shelter from the driving sleet. the last resource was to pass through an archway into the great, lofty mule stable, on both sides of which are similar recesses or mangers, about ten feet by seven and about eight feet high. the stable was of great size and height with a domed roof. probably it runs half-way round the quadrangle at the back of the uninhabitable recesses. there were at least four hundred mules in this place, jangling their great bells, and crowds of _katirgis_, travellers, and _zaptiehs_, all wet and splashed over their heads with mud, some unloading, others making fires and feeding their mules, all shouting when they had anything to say, the babel aggravated by the clatter of the rattles of a hundred curry-combs and the squeals of fighting horses. [illustration: lodgings for travellers.] the floor was deep with the manure of ages and piled with bales and boxes. in the side recesses, which are about the height of a mule's back, the muleteers camped with their fires and their goods, and laid the provender for their beasts in the front. these places are the mangers of the eastern caravanserai, or _khan_, or inn. such must have been the inn at bethlehem, and surely the first step to the humiliation of "the death of the cross" must have been the birth in the manger, amidst the crowd and horrors of such a stable. the odour was overpowering and the noise stunning, and when our wet, mud-covered baggage animals came in, adding to the din, there was hardly room to move, far less for the roll in which all mules indulge when the loads are taken off; and the crush resulted in a fight, and one mule got his fore-feet upon my "manger," and threatened to share it with me. it was an awful place to come to after a six hours' march in rain and snow, but i slid off my mule into the recess, had it carpeted, put down my chair, hung a blanket up in front, and prepared to brave it, when the inhabitants of this room, the one place which has any pretensions to being a room in the village, were bribed by an offer of six _krans_ (about four shillings) to vacate it for me. its "pretensions" consist in being over a gateway, and in having a door, and a square hole looking on the street; a crumbling stair slippery with mud leads up to it. the roof leaks in every direction, and the slimy floor is full of pools, but it is luxury after the caravanserai stable, and with one waterproof sheet over my bed and another over myself i have fared well, though the door cannot be shut, and the rest of the party are in the stable at an impassable distance. our language happily has no words in which the state of this village can be described. in front of this room is a broken ditch full of slimy greenish water, which hadji took for my tea! there has been a slight snowfall during the night, and snow is impending. we have now reached a considerable altitude, and may expect anything. hadji has just climbed the stair with groans of "_ya allah_," and has almost wailed out, "colonel says we go--god help us." _kirrind, jan. ._--from saripul-i-zohab we are taking the most southerly of the three routes to kirmanshah traversed by sir h. rawlinson in .[ ] a sea of mud varied by patches of sodden snow, walls of rock with narrow passes, great snow-covered mountains, seen spectrally for a minute at a time through swirling snow-clouds, black tents of nomads, half-drowned villages, and a long, cold, steep ascent, among scrub oaks and dwarf ash, to snow which was not melting, and the hospitalities of a kurdish village, comprise the interests of the march from saripul to myan tak, so far as they lie on the surface, but in various ways this part of kurdistan has many interests, not to be absolutely ignored even in a familiar letter. here the ilyats, who are supposed to constitute a fifth of the rural population of persia, are met with in large numbers, and their brown flocks and herds are still picking up a scanty subsistence. the great chief of this, the gur[=a]n tribe, holds the region on an annual payment to the persian government, gives grain to his tribesmen, and receives from them, of corn one-half, and of rice two-thirds of the crop. these people sow their grain in early spring, and then move up with their flocks to the mountain pastures, leaving behind only a few men to harvest the crops. they use no manure, this being required for fuel, and in the case of rice they allow a fallow of at least seven years. there are very few cultivators resident upon these lands, but ilyat camps occur frequently. the region is steeped in history. the wretched village of saripul is the calah of asshur and the halah of the israelitish captivity,[ ] and gave to the surrounding country the name of chalonitis, which we have on our old maps. a metropolitan see in the fifth century a.d., soon after the institution of the nestorian hierarchy, it was called calah, halah, and holwan. if the diyalah be the ancient gyndes, noteworthy for the singular delay of cyrus on his march to babylon, and saripul the ancient holwan, and if in addition to the numerous chaldæan and sasanian remains there are relics of semiramis and of the fire-temples of the magi, the crowd of historic associations is almost too much for one day, and i will return to the insignificant details of the journey. we left at nine, crossed the holwan by a four-arched brick bridge, and in falling snow and deep mud rode over fairly level ground till we came to an abrupt range of limestone rock, with a natural rift, across which the foundations of a wall still remain. the clouds were rolling low, and the snow was driving wildly, so as to make it impossible to see the sculptured tablet described by rawlinson and layard, on which a high-priest of the magi is represented, with one hand raised in benediction, and the other grasping a scroll, the dress being the pontifical robe worn by the zoroastrian priests, with a square cap, pointed in front, and lappets covering the mouth. above this is a tomb with an ornamented entrance. we were now among a very strange and mysterious people, of whose ancestry and actual beliefs very little is known. they are ali-ilahis, but europeans often speak of them as "davidites," from their special veneration for king david. this tomb in the rift is called dukkani-daoud, or david's shop, and the people believe that he still dwells there, and come on pilgrimages and to offer animals in sacrifice from all parts of kurdistan. he is believed to work as a smith, and the _katirgis_ say that he makes suits of fine armour. a part of the tomb which is divided from the rest by a low partition is believed to be a reservoir containing the water which he uses to temper his metal. a great mound with some building in the centre, on the right of the road near this gorge, though properly it bears another name, is called by the people "david's fort." jewish traditions abound, specially concerning david, who is regarded by the tribes as their great tutelar prophet. the gur[=a]ns and kalhurs, who are the nomadic inhabitants of this district, are of a very marked type of physiognomy, so israelitish indeed that, taken along with certain traditions of their origin, their jewish names, and their veneration for david, they have been put forward as claimants to the dignity of being the "lost tribes." the great hebrew traveller of the twelfth century, to whom i have referred before, believed that the whole of the ali-ilahis were jews, and writes of synagogues in the zagros mountains, and of , jewish families in the neighbourhood. as we shall be for some days among these people, i will abbreviate sir h. rawlinson's sketch of their tenets. he considers that ali-ilahism bears evident marks of judaism, mixed up with moslem, christian, and sabæan legends. the ali-ilahis believe in incarnations of the godhead in a series; among them benjamin, moses, elias, david, jesus christ, ali and salman his tutor, the imam houssein and the haft[=a]n (or seven bodies), the chief spiritual guides in the early ages of islam, "and each, worshipped as a deity, is an object of adoration in some locality of kurdistan." the tomb of one of these, b[=a]b[=a] yadg[=a]r, is their holy place, and this was regarded as the dwelling of elijah at the time when the arabs invaded persia. all these incarnations are regarded as of one and the same person. all that changes is the bodily form of the divine manifestation. there are degrees in the perfection of the development, and the most perfect forms are benjamin, david, and ali. practically, however, the metaphysical speculations involved in this creed of successive incarnations are unknown, and the imam ali, the cousin of mohammed, is the great object of worship. though professing mohammedanism the ali-ilahis are held in great horror by "believers," and those of this region lie under the stigma of practising unholy rites as a part of their religion, and have received the name of "chiragh sonderan," the putters-out of lights.[ ] this accusation, sir a. h. layard observes, may be only a calumny invented, like many another, to justify persecution. passing through the rift in the dukkani-daoud range which has led to this digression, we entered an ascending valley between the range through which we had passed and some wild mountains covered with snow, which were then actively engaged in brewing a storm. farther on there was irrigation and cultivation, and then the wretched village of pai tak, and the ruins of a bridge. there, the people told us, we must halt, as the caravanserai at the next place was already full, and we plunged about in the snow and mud looking for a hovel in which to take shelter, but decided to risk going on, and shortly began the ascent of the remarkable pass known as "the gates of zagros," on the ancient highway between babylonia and media, by which, in a few hours, the mountain barrier of zagros is crossed, and the plain of kirrind, a part of the great iranian plateau, is reached. this great road, which zigzags steeply up the pass, is partly composed of smoothed boulders and partly of natural rock, somewhat dressed, and much worn by the continual passage of shod animals. it is said to be much like a torrent bed, but the snow was lying heavily upon it, filling up its inequalities. dwarf oaks, hawthorn, ash, and other scrub find root-hold in every crevice. all that may be ugly was draped in pure white, and looking back from the surrounding glitter, the view of low ranges lying in indigo gloom was very striking. on the ascent there is a remarkable arch of great blocks of white marble, with a vaulted recess, called the "tak-i-girreh," "the arch holding the road," which gives the popular name of gardan-i-tak-i-girreh (the pass of tak-i-girreh) to the ascent, though the geographers call it akabah-i-holwan (the defile of holwan). after the deep mud of the earlier part of the march it was a pleasure to ride through pure, deep, powdery snow, and to find the dirt of the village of myan tak, a kurdish hamlet situated on a mountain torrent among steep hills and small trees, covered with this radiant mantle. the elevation of the pass is feet, but myan tak is at a lower altitude an hour farther on. the small and ruinous caravanserai was really full of caravans detained by the snowstorm, and we lodged in a kurdish house, typical of the style of architecture common among the settled tribes. within a wide doorway without a door, high enough for a loaded mule to enter, is a very large room, with a low, flat mud roof, supported on three rows of misshapen trunks of trees, with their branches cut off about a foot from the stem, all black and shiny with smoke. mud and rubble platforms, two feet high, run along one side and one end, and on the end one there is a clay, beehive-shaped fireplace, but no chimney. under this platform the many fowls are shut in at night by a stone at the hole by which they enter. within this room is a perfectly dark stable of great size. certainly forty mules, besides asses and oxen, were lodged in it, and the overflow shared the living-room with a number of kurds, _katirgis_, servants, dogs, soldiers, and europeans. the furniture consisted of guns and swords hanging on the walls. the owner is an old kurd with some handsome sons with ruddy complexions and auburn hair. the big house is the patriarchal roof, where the patriarch, his sons, their wives and children, and their animals, dwell together. the women, however, had all been got rid of somehow. the old kurd made a great fire on the dais, wood being plentiful, and crouched over it. my bed was pitched near it, and enclosed by some reed screens. with chairs and a table, with routes, maps, writing materials, and a good lantern upon it, an excellent dinner of soup and a leg of mutton, cooked at a bonfire in the middle of the floor, and the sight of all the servants and _katirgis_ lying round it, warm and comfortable, and the knowledge that we were above the mud, the clouds of blinding smoke which were the only drawback scarcely affected the cheerfulness and comfort of the blazing, unstinted fire. the doorway gave not only ample ventilation but a brilliant view of snow, and of myriads of frosty stars. it was infinitely picturesque, with the fitful firelight falling on the uncouth avenues of blackened tree-stumps, on big dogs, on mild-eyed ox faces and long ass ears, on turbaned indian heads, and on a confused crowd of turks, kurds, and persians, some cooking, some sleeping, some smoking, while from the black depth beyond a startling bray of an ass or the abortive shriek of a mule occasionally proceeded, or a stray mule created a commotion by rushing in from the snow outside. i slept comfortably, till i was awakened early by various country sounds--the braying of an ass into my ear (for i was within a few inches of the stable), the crowing of cocks, and some hens picking up crumbs upon my bed. the mules were loaded in the living-room. the mercury was only ° at a.m., and under cloudless sunshine the powdery snow glittered and crackled. there were difficulties ahead, we heard. the road heavily blocked with snow was only just open, and the persian post, which should have passed forty-eight hours before, had not been heard of, showing that the snow is very deep farther on. it was beautiful, that uplifted, silent world of snow and mountains, on whose skirts for some miles grew small apple and pear trees, oak, ash, and hawthorn, each twig a coral spray. in the deepest depression, among great rocks, now masses of snow, tumbles a now partially arrested stream, gleaming with icicles, one of the head-waters of the holwan. after getting through this picturesque forest of scrub, the road emerges on the plateau of the kirrind valley, the greatest altitude of which is about feet. it is said to be irrigated and fertile. it is now, as i describe it, a wide valley, without a tree or bush, a rolling plain of snow from two to three feet deep, marked only by lines made by birds' feet and the beating of the tips of birds' wings, the track across it a corrugated trench, wide enough for one mule, the sun brilliant, the sky blue, the surface of the snow flashing light from millions of crystals with a glitter not to be borne, all dazzling, "glistering," silent,--a white world and a blue heaven, with a sun "shining in his strength,"--light without heat. it has been a tremendous day's march, only fourteen miles in seven and a half hours of severe toil! the _katirgis_ asked us to keep together in case of difficulties with caravans. difficulties indeed! a mild term! i was nearly smashed. i little knew what meeting a caravan in these circumstances meant till we met the first sixty animals, each laden with two heavy packing-cases. the question arises who is to give way, and who is to drive his heavily-laden beasts off the track, to struggle, flounder, and fall in three feet of snow, not to get up again without being unloaded, and even then with difficulty. the rub came on a bank near a stream where there was a deep drift. i decided to give way, but nothing would induce my mule to face the snow. an orderly was in front and hadji behind. down the track came sixty animals, loaded with their great packing-cases. they could not and would not give way, and the two caravans came into collision. there were mules struggling and falling, loads overturned, muleteers yelling and roaring, hadji groaning "god help us!" my mule, a new one, a big strong animal, unused to a bit, plunging and kicking, in the middle of a "free fight." i was struck hard on my ankle by a packing-case and nearly knocked off. still, down they came, in apparently endless hordes; my mule plunged her bridle off, and kicked most violently; there were yells all round. my snow spectacles were knocked off and lost, then came another smash, in which i thought a bone was broken. fearing that i should be laid up with a broken limb for weeks in some horrible caravanserai, and really desperate with the danger and confusion, i called over and over again to hadji to get off and pull my mule into the snow or i should be killed! he did not stir, but sat dazed on his pack moaning "god help us!" till he, the mule, and the load were rolled over in the drift. the orderly contrived to get the bridle on my mule, and to back his own in front of me, and as each irrepressible animal rolled down the bank he gave its load a push, which, nicely balanced as these loads are, made it swerve, and saved me from further damage. hadji had rolled off four times previously, and the last i saw of him at that time and of the caravan was a man, five mules, and their loads buried in the snow. the personal results to me of what is euphemistically called a "difficulty," are my blue glasses gone, a number of bruises, a badly-torn riding-skirt, and a bad cut, which bled profusely, and then the blood froze. a number of caravans snowed up for several days were _en route_, and there were many similar encounters, and donkeys and mules falling with their loads and rolling into the deep snow, and _katirgis_ coming to blows over the right-of-way. if a donkey is forced off the track it goes down at once. i unfortunately caught my foot in the pack of one and rolled it over, and as it disappeared in the snow its pack and saddle fell over its head and displayed the naked vertebræ of its poor back. this kirrind valley must be fully twenty miles long by from two to five broad, but there was only one village inhabited and two in ruins. as we floundered along in the snow with our jaded animals, two well-armed men on fine horses met and joined us, sent by the _agha_ abdul rahim, son of the british agent at kirmanshah, whose guests we are to be. following them was a _taktrawan_ or litter for me, a wooden box with two side doors, four feet high, six feet long, and three feet wide. at each end are long shafts, and between each pair of shafts a superb mule, and each mule has a man to lead him. i could never use such a thing except in case of a broken limb, but i am very grateful to abdul rahim for sending it fifty-six miles. the temperature fell with the sun; the snowy hills took on every shade of rose and pink, and in a universal blush of tender colouring we reached kirrind. all of a sudden the colour died out, the rose-flushed sky changed to blue-gray, and pallid wastes of unbroken snow stretching into the gray distance made a glorious winter landscape. we are now fairly in for the rigours of a persian winter. kirrind, the capital of the kirrind kurds, is either grotesquely or picturesquely situated in and around a narrow gap in a range of lofty hills, through which the ab-i-kirrind rushes, after rising in a spring immediately behind. the gap suggests the word jaws, and in these open jaws rise one above another flat-roofed houses straggling down upon the plain among vineyards, poplars, willows, fruit-trees, and immense walnuts and gardens. there are said to be houses, but many of them are ruinous. the stream which bursts from the hills is divided into innumerable streamlets, which must clothe these gardens with beauty. a _far[=a]sh_ riding on ahead had engaged a house, so we avoided the horrors of the immense caravanserai, crammed to-night with storm-bound caravans. the house is rough, but has three adjoining rooms, and the servants are comfortable. a fire, with its usual accompaniment of stinging smoke, fails to raise the temperature of my room to the freezing-point, yet it is quite possible to be comfortable and employ oneself. _mahidasht, jan. ._--my room at kirrind was very cold. the ink froze. the mercury fell to ° below zero in it, and outside in the sun was only ° at . . there was a great babel at starting. some men had sold four chickens for the high price of s. each, the current price being d., and had robbed the servants of two, and they took one of the mules, which was sent after us by an official. slipping, floundering, and falling in the deep snow, and getting entangled among caravans, we rode all day over rolling levels. the distance seemed interminable over the glittering plains, and the pain and stiffness produced by the intense cold were hard to bear, and it was not possible to change the cramped position by walking. the mercury fell to °, as with tired animals we toiled up the slope on which harunabad stands. a very large caravanserai and a village of sixty houses occupy the site of a town built by harun-al-raschid on the upper waters of the kerkhah. it has the reputation of being one of the coldest places in persia, so cold that its ilyat inhabitants desert it in winter, leaving two or three men who make a business of supplying caravans. usually people come out of the villages in numbers as we arrive, but we passed group after group of ruinous hovels without seeing a creature. we obtained awfully cold rooms at a great height above a bazar, now deserted. i write "awfully" advisedly, for the mercury in them at sunset was ° below zero, the floors were plaster, slippery with frozen moisture, the walls were partly wood, with great apertures between the planks; where they were mud the blistered plaster was fringed with icicles. later the mercury sank to °, and before morning to ° below zero, and the hot water froze in my basin before i could use it! we were to have started at eight, as there was no possible way of dividing the nine hours' march, but when the time came the _katirgis_ said it was too cold to rope the loads, a little later that we could only get half-way, and later that there was no accommodation for mules half-way and that we must go the whole way! at nine the mercury was at ° below zero, and the slipperiness was fearful. the poor animals could scarcely keep on their feet. we have crossed two high passes, nal shikan (the horse-shoe breaking pass) and the charzabar pass, in tremendous snow, riding nine hours, only dismounting to walk down one hill. at the half-way hamlet i decided to go on, having still a lingering prejudice against sharing a den with a quantity of human beings, mules, asses, poultry, and dogs. on one long ascent we encountered a "blizzard," when the mercury was only ° above zero. it was awful. the men covered their heads with their _abbas_ and turned their backs to the wind. i got my heavy mackintosh over everything, but in taking off three pairs of gloves for one minute to button it the pain of my hand was literally excruciating. at the summit the snow was four feet deep, and a number of mules were down, but after getting over the crest of the nal shikan pass and into the zobeideh valley it became better. but after every descent there was another ascent to face till we reached the pass above the cheshmeh-i-charzabar torrent, in a picturesque glen, with a village and some primitive flour mills. below this height lies the vast and fertile plain of mahidasht, one expanse of snow, broken by mud villages looking like brown islands, and the truncated cone of goree, a seat of the ancient fire-worship. in the centre of the plain is an immense caravanserai with some houses about it. when this came into sight it was only five miles off, but we were nearly three hours in reaching it! the view was wonderful. every speck on the vast plain was seen distinctly; then came a heavy snow blink, above which hovered ghosts of snow mountains rising into a pale green sky, a dead and lonely wilderness, looking as if all things which lived and moved had long ago vanished from it. those hours after first sighting the village were very severe. it seemed to grow no nearer. i was half-dead with the journey of twenty-two miles at a slow foot's pace, and was aching and cramped from the intense cold, for as twilight fell the mercury sank to ° below zero. the indian servants, i believe, suffered more than i did, and some of the _katirgis_ even more than they. at last by a pointed brick bridge we crossed the little river of mahidasht, and rode into the house of the headman, who is a sort of steward of abdul rahim, our future host, the owner of many villages on this plain. the house is of the better class of kurdish houses, with a broad passage, and a room on each side, at the end a great, low, dark room, half living-room, half stable, which accommodates to-night some of the mules, the muleteers, the servants, and the men of the family. beyond this again is a large stable, and below-ground, reached by a sloping tunnel, is the sheep-fold. one room has neither door nor window, mine has an outer and inner door, and a fire of live embers in a hole in the floor. the family in vacating the room have left their goods behind,--two plank beds at one end heaped with carpets and felts, a sacking cradle hanging from the roof, two clay jars five feet high for storing grain, and in the _takchahs_, or recesses of the walls, _samovars_ or tea-urns, pots, metal vases, cartridge belts, and odds and ends. two old guns, an old sword, and a coarse coloured print of the russian imperial family are on the wall. i was lifted from the mule to my bed, covered with all available wraps, a pot of hot embers put by the bed, my hands and feet rubbed, hot syrup coloured with tea produced in russian glasses, and in two hours i was able to move. the caravan, which we thought could not get through the snow, came in three hours later, men and mules thoroughly knocked up, and not till nine could we get a scanty dinner. it has been a hard day all round. the _far[=a]shes_ in the kitchen are cursing the english sahibs, who will travel in the winter, wishing our fathers may be burned, etc., two of the muleteers have been howling with pain for the last two hours, and i went into the kitchen to see the poor fellows. in a corner of the big room, among the rough trunks of trees which support the sooty roof, the muleteers were lying in a heap in their big-sleeved felt coats round a big fire, about another the servants were cooking their food, the _far[=a]shes_ were lying round another, and some of the house people about a fourth, and through smoke and flame a background of mules and wolf-like dogs was dimly seen, a gleam now and then falling into the dark stable beyond, where the jaded baggage animals were lying in heaps. mahidasht is said to be one of the finest and most fertile plains in persia, seventy-two miles long by fifteen broad, and is irrigated throughout by a small stream swarming with turtles. its population, scattered over it in small villages, is estimated--over-estimated probably--at . at a height of feet the winters are severe. the snow is nearly three feet deep already, and more is impending. the mercury in my room fell to ° below zero before midnight, but rose for a gray cloudy day. the men and animals were so done up that we could not start till nearly eleven. the march, though not more than sixteen miles, was severe, owing to the deep snow and cold wind. five miles over the snowy billows of the mahidasht plain, a long ascent, on which the strong north wind was scarcely bearable, a succession of steep and tiresome ridges, many "difficulties" in passing caravans, and then a gradual descent down a long wide valley, opened upon the high plateau, on which kirmanshah, one of the most important cities in persia, is situated. trees, bare and gaunt, chiefly poplars, rising out of unsullied snow, for two hours before we reached it, denoted the whereabouts of the city, which after many disappointments bursts upon one suddenly. the view from the hill above the town was the most glorious snow view i ever saw. all around, rolled to a great height, smooth as the icing of a cake, hills, billowy like the swell of the pacific after a storm--an ocean of snow; below them a plateau equally unsullied, on the east side of which rises the magnificently precipitous besitun range, sublime in its wintry grandeur, while on the distant side of the plateau pink peaks raised by an atmospheric illusion to a colossal height hovered above the snow blink, and walled in the picture. snow was in the air, snow clouds were darkening over the besitun range; except for those pink peaks there were no atmospheric effects; the white was very pallid, and the gray was very black; no illusions were possible, the aspect was grim, desolate, and ominous, and even before we reached the foot of the descent the huge peaks and rock masses of besitun were blotted out by swirls of snow. kirmanshah, approached from the south-west, added no elements of picturesqueness to the effect. a ruinous wall much too large for the shrunken city it encloses, parts of it lying in the moat, some ruinous loopholed towers, lines of small domes denoting bazars below, a few good-looking houses rising above the insignificant mass, gardens, orchards, vineyards, and poplars stretching up the southerly hollow behind, and gardens, now under frozen water, to the north, made up a not very interesting contrast with the magnificence of nature. we circled much of the ruinous wall on thin ice, turned in between high walls and up an alley cumbered with snow, dismounted at a low door, were received by a number of servants, and were conducted through a frozen courtyard into a handsomely-carpeted room with divans beside a blazing fire, a table in the centre covered with apples, oranges, and sweetmeats, and the large jubilee photograph of queen victoria hanging over the fireplace. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] another interest, however, is its connection with many of the romantic legends still told of khosroe parviz and his beautiful queen, complicated with love stories concerning the sculptor farhad, to whom the persians attribute some of their most famous rock sculptures. one of the most romantic of these legends is that farhad loved shirin, and that khosroe was aware of it, and promised to give her to him if he could execute the impossible task of bringing to the city the abundant waters of the mountains. farhad set himself to the herculean labour, and to the horror of the king nearly accomplished it, when khosroe, dreading the advancing necessity of losing shirin or being dishonoured, sent to inform him of her death. being at the time on the top of a precipice, urging on the work of the aqueduct, the news filled him with such ungovernable despair that he threw himself down and was killed. [ ] the pashalik of zohab, now persian territory, is fully described by major rawlinson in a most interesting paper in _the journal of the royal geographical society_, vol. ix. part , p. . [ ] gen. x. ; kings xviii. ; chron. v. . [ ] see sir a. h. layard's _early adventures_, vol. i. p. . letter v kirmanshah, _jan. _. this hospitable house is the residence of the british agent or _vakil_ for kirmanshah, in whose absence at tihran, his son, abdul rahim, performs the duties of hospitality in a most charming manner, as if though a very busy man he had nothing else to do but carry out the wishes of his guests. his hospitality is most unobtrusive also, and considerate. if such a wish is expressed as to visit the sculptures of the takt-i-bostan, or anything else, everything is quietly and beautifully arranged; a landau-and-four with outriders, superb led saddle-horses, and arrangements for coffee are ready outside the walls, with the host as _cicerone_, ready to drive or ride at the pleasure of his guests. the rooms in which he receives europeans are on the opposite side of the courtyard from the house, and have been arranged according to european ideas. the family history, as usually told, is an interesting one. they are arabs, and the grandfather of our host, hadji khalil, was a trusted _katirgi_ in the employment of sir henry rawlinson, and saved his life when he fell from a scaffolding while copying the besitun inscriptions. his good qualities, and an honesty of character and purpose rare among orientals, eventually placed him in the important position of british _vakil_ here, and he became a british subject, and was succeeded in his position by his son, agha hassan, who is now by virtue of singular business capacities the wealthiest man in this province and possibly in persia, and bears the very highest character for trustworthiness and honour.[ ] abdul rahim is a very fine-looking man, with noticeable eyes, very large and prominent. he has a strong sense of humour, which flits over his face in an amused smile. he and his father are very large landowners, and are always adding land to land, and are now the owners of the magnificent sculptures and pleasure-grounds of the takt-i-bostan. they are bankers likewise, and money-lenders, merchants on a large scale, and have built a very fine caravanserai, with great brick warehouses for the use of traders. agha hassan travels _en prince_, driving to tihran and back in an english landau with four horses and a number of outriders and attendants, and his son entertains visitors in the same way, mounting even the outriders and pipe-bearers on well-bred arabs. when he walks in the city it is like a royal progress. everybody bows low, nearly to the ground, and his purse-bearer follows, distributing alms among the poor. i mention all this because it is a marvel in persia, where a reputation for wealth is the last thing a rich man desires. to elevate a gateway or to give any external sign of affluence is to make himself a mark for the official rapacity which spares none. the policy is to let a man grow quietly rich, to "let the sheep's wool grow," but as soon as he shows any enjoyment of wealth to deprive him of his gains, according to a common persian expression, "he is ripe, he must be squeezed." the _vakil_ and his son are the only men here who are not afraid to show their wealth, and for the simple reason that it cannot be touched, because they are british subjects. they can neither be robbed, squeezed, nor mulcted beyond the legitimate taxation by persian officials, and are able to protect the property of others when it is entrusted to their keeping. british protection has been in fact the making of these men. the _ménage_ is simple. the dining-room is across the frozen courtyard. the meals are served in european fashion, the _major-domo_ being an ancient man, "born in the house," who occasionally inserts a remark into the conversation or helps his master's memory. the interpreter sits on the floor during meals. i breakfast in my room, but lunch and dine with our host, who spends the evening in the _salon_; sherbet is provided instead of wine. abdul rahim places me at the head of the table, and i am served first! the interpreting is from persian into hindustani, and _vice versâ_. our host expresses almost daily regret that he cannot talk with me on politics! kirmanshah, which is said to be a favourable specimen of a persian town, is absolutely hideous and uninteresting. it is really half in ruins. it has suffered terribly from "plague, pestilence, and famine," and from the awful rapacity of governors. it once had , houses, but the highest estimate of its present population is , . so severely have the town and province been oppressed that some years ago three-quarters of the inhabitants migrated, the peasants into turkey, and the townspeople into the northern province of azerbijan. if a governor pays , _tumans_ (£ , ) to the shah for an appointment, of which he may be deprived any day, it can scarcely be expected of oriental, or indeed of any human nature, that he will not make a good thing of it while he has it, and squeeze all he can out of the people. the streets are very narrow, and look narrower just now, because the snow is heaped almost to the top of the mud walls, which are not broken up as in turkish towns by projecting lattice windows, but are absolutely blank, with the exception of low-arched entrances to the courtyards within, closed by heavy, unpainted wooden doors, studded with wooden nails. the causeways, on which, but for the heaps of slippery snow two men might walk abreast, have a ditch two or three feet wide between them, which is the roadway for animals. there are some open spaces, abounding in ruinous heaps, others where goods are unloaded, surrounded with warehouses, immense brick bazars with domed roofs, a citadel or _ark_, where the governor lives, a large parade ground and barracks for men, mosques of no pretensions, public baths, caravanserais, brick warehouses behind the bazars, public gardens, with fountains and avenues of poplars, a prison, and some good houses like this one, hidden behind high mud walls. although the snow kindly veils a good deal of deformity, the city impresses one as ruinous and decayed; yet it has a large trade, and is regarded as one of the most prosperous places in the empire.[ ] the bazars are spacious and well stocked with european goods, especially with manchester cottons of colours and patterns suited to oriental taste, which loves carnation red. there are many jews, otherwise the people are shiah moslems, with an increasing admixture of the secret sect of the _b[=a]bis_. in some respects the shiahs are more fanatical than the sunnis, as, for instance, it is quite possible to visit a mosque in turkey, but here a christian is not allowed to cross the threshold of the outer gate. certain customs are also more rigidly observed. a persian woman would be in danger of death from the mob if she appeared unveiled in the streets. when i walked through the town, though attended by a number of men, the _major-domo_ begged me to exchange my gauze veil for a mask, and even when i showed this deference to custom the passing through the bazars was very unpleasant, the men being decidedly rude, and inclined to hoot and use bad language. even the touch of a christian is regarded as polluting, and i nearly got into trouble by handling a "flap-jack," mistaking it for a piece of felt. the bazars are not magnificent. no rich carpets or other goods are exposed to view for fear of exactions. a buyer wanting such things must send word privately, and have them brought to his house. justice seems to be here, much as in turkey, a marketable commodity, which the working classes are too poor to buy. a man may be kept in prison because he is too poor to get out, but justice is usually summary, and men are not imprisoned for long terms. if prisoners have friends, the friends feed them, if not they depend on charity, and charity is a moslem virtue. there is no prison here for women. they are punished by having their heads shaved, and by being taken through the town on asses. various forms of torture are practised, such as burning with hot irons, the bastinado, and squeezing the fingers in a vice. the bastinado is also most extensively used as a punishment. yesterday by appointment we were received by the governor of the province. riding through the slippery snow-heaped alleys is not what europeans would think of, and our host with his usual courtesy humoured the caprice by walking with us himself, preceded by six _far[=a]shes_ (lit. carpet-spreaders) and followed by his purse-bearer casting money to the poor, and a train of servants. the citadel, or governor's residence, like all else, is forlorn, dirty, and ruinous in its approaches, which are long vaulted corridors capable of much adornment. crowds of soldiers, _mollahs_, dervishes, and others were there to see the visit, which was one of ceremony. the palace and government offices are many-windowed, well-built brick-and-tile buildings, arranged round a large _place_ with trees and fountains. two little fellows in scarlet uniform were at the entrance, and the lobby upstairs was crowded with persian and negro servants, all in high, black lambskin caps, tight black trousers, and tight coats with full skirts. the governor received us in a very large, lofty, vacant-looking room, and shook hands. i never saw a human being more nearly like an ape in appearance, and a loud giggle added to the resemblance. this giggle and a fatuous manner are possibly assumed, for he has the widespread reputation of being a very able man, shrewd in business and officially rapacious, as was his father before him. the grotesque figure, not more than five feet high, was dressed in a black astrakan cap, a coat of fine buff russian kerseymere with full skirts, and tight trousers of the same, and an under-coat of rich, kerman silk brocade, edged with costly fur. he made a few curt remarks to his foreign guests, and then turned to abdul rahim, and discussed local affairs for the remainder of a very long visit. a table covered with exquisite-looking sweetmeats was produced, and we were regaled with tea _à la russe_ in russian glasses, ice-cream, and _gaz_. then young, diminutive, raw-looking soldiers in scarlet coats and scarlet trousers with blue stripes marched into the courtyard, and stood disconsolately in the snow, and two bands brayed and shrieked for an hour. then _kalians_ were smoked, and coffee was handed round, the cups being in gold filigree holders incrusted with turquoises. this was the welcome signal for the termination of a very tedious visit. the reception-room is a dismal combination of persian and european taste, invariably a failure. the carpets are magnificent, but the curtains are common serge bordered with white cotton lace, and the tea-table with its costly equipments was covered with a tawdry cretonne cover, edged with some inferior black cotton lace. the lofty walls of plain plaster of paris have their simplicity destroyed by some french girandoles with wax grapes hanging from them. the governor returned the visit to-day, arriving on horseback with fully forty mounted attendants, and was received in a glass room on the roof, furnished with divans, tables covered with beautiful confectionery, and tea and coffee equipages. the conversation was as local as yesterday, in spite of our host's courteous efforts to include the strangers in it. the governor asked if i were going to tihran to be _hak[=i]m_ to the shah's _haram_, which our host says is the rumour in kirmanshah! during such visits there are crowds of attendants in the room all the time pouring out tea, filling _kalians_, and washing cups on the floor, and as any guest may be a spy and an enemy, the conversation is restricted to exaggerated compliments and superficial remarks. everything is regulated by an elaborate code of etiquette, even the compliments are meted out by rule, and to give a man more than he is entitled to is understood to be intended as sarcasm. the number of bows made by the entertainer, the distance he advances to meet his guest, and the position in which he seats him are matters of careful calculation, and the slightest mistake in any particular is liable to be greatly resented by a superior. the persian is a most ceremonious being. like the japanese he is trained from infancy to the etiquette of his class, and besides the etiquette of class there is here the etiquette of religion, which is far more strict than in turkey, and yields only when there is daily contact, as in the capital, between moslems and christians. thus, a moslem will not accept refreshments from a christian, and he will not smoke a pipe after a christian even if he is his guest, and of equal or higher rank. the custom is for a visitor, as in the case of the governor, to announce his visit previously, and he and his train are met, when he is the superior, by a mounted servant of the recipient of the honour, who precedes him to the door, where the servants are arranged according to their rank, and the host waits to take his hand and lead him to a seat. on entering the room a well-bred persian knows at once what place he ought to take, and it is rare for such a _fiasco_ as that referred to in luke xiv. to occur. refreshments and pipes are served at regulated intervals, and the introduction of a third cup of tea or coffee and a third _kalian_ is the signal for the guest to retire. but it is necessary to ask and receive permission to do so, and elaborate forms of speech regulated by the rank of the visitor are used on the occasion. if he is of equal or superior rank, the host, bowing profoundly, replies that he can have no other wish than that of his guest, that the house has been purified by his presence, that the announcement of the visit brought good luck to the house, that his headache or toothache has been cured by his arrival, and these flowery compliments escort the ordinary guest to the door, but if he be of superior rank the host walks in advance to the foot of the stairs, and repeats the compliments there. the etiquette concerning pipes is most elaborate.[ ] _kalians_ are invariably used among the rich. the great man brings his own, and his own pipe-bearer. the _kalian_ is a water pipe, and whatever its form the principle is the same, the smoke being conducted to the bottom of a liberal supply of water, to be sucked up in bubbles through it with a gurgling noise, as in the indian "hubble-bubble." this water-holder is decanter-shaped, of plain or cut glass, with a wide mouth; the fire-holder, as in the case of the governor's pipe, is often a work of high art, in thin gold, chased, engraved, decorated with _repoussé_ work, or incrusted with turquoises, or ornamented with rich enamel, very costly, £ or even £ being paid by rich men for the decoration of a single pipe-head. between this and the water-holder is a wooden tube about fourteen inches long, from one end of which an inner tube passes to the bottom of the water. a hole in the side of the tube admits the flexible smoking tube, more used in turkey than in persia, or the wooden stem, about eighteen inches long. the fire-holder is lined with clay and plaster of paris. besides these there is the wind-guard, to prevent the fire from falling or becoming too hot, usually of silver, with dependent silver chains, and four or six silver or gold chains terminating in flat balls hang from the fire-holder. the _kalian_ is one of the greatest institutions of persia. no man stirs without it, and as its decoration gives an idea of a man's social position, immense sums are lavished upon it, and the pipe-bearer is a most important person. the lighting is troublesome, and after all there seems "much ado about nothing," for a few whiffs exhaust its capacities. the tobacco, called _tumbaku_, which is smoked in _kalians_ is exceptionally poisonous. it cannot be used the first year, and improves with age, being preserved in bags sewn up in raw hide. unless it is moistened it produces alarming vertigo. when the _kalian_ is required, about three-quarters of an ounce is moistened, squeezed like a sponge, and packed in the fire-holder, and morsels of live charcoal, if possible made from the root of the vine, are laid upon it and blown into a strong flame. the pipe-bearer takes two or three draws, and with an obeisance hands it with much solemnity to his master. abdul rahim smokes three or four pipes every evening, and coffee served with the last is the signal for his departure. a guest, if he does not bring his own pipe and pipe-bearer has a _kalian_ offered to him, but if the host be of higher rank any one but an ignoramus refuses it till he has smoked first. if under such circumstances a guest incautiously accepts it, he is invariably mortified by seeing it sent into the ante-room to be cleaned and refilled before his superior will smoke. if it be proper for him to take it, he offers it in order of rank to all present, but takes good care that none accept it till he has enjoyed it, after which the attendant passes it round according to rank. in cases of only one _kalian_ and several guests, they smoke in order of position, but each one must pay the compliment of suggesting that some one else should smoke before himself. the etiquette of smoking is most rigid. i heard of a case here in which a _mollah_, who objected to smoke after a european, offered it to one after he had smoked it himself--so gross a piece of impertinence that the other called the pipe-bearer, saying, "you can break that pipe to pieces, and burn the stick, i do not care to smoke it," upon which the _mollah_, knowing that his violation of etiquette merited this sharp rebuke, turned pale and replied, "you say truly, i have eaten dirt." the lower classes smoke a coarse turkish tobacco, or a persian mild sort looking like whitish sawdust, which is merely the pounded leaf, stalk, and stem. the pipe they use and carry in their girdles has a small iron, brass, or clay head, and a straight cherry-wood stick, with a very wide bore and no mouthpiece, and it is not placed in the teeth but is merely held between the lips. smoking seems a necessity rather than a luxury in persia, and is one of the great features of social life. kirmanshah is famous for its "rugs," as carpets are called in this country. there are from twenty-five to thirty kinds with their specific names. aniline dyes have gone far to ruin this manufacture, but their import is now prohibited. a persian would not look at the carpets loosely woven and with long pile, which are made for the european market, and are bought just now from the weavers at s. the square yard. a carpet, according to persian notions, must be of fast colours, fine pile, scarcely longer than utrecht velvet, and ready to last at least a century. a rug can scarcely be said to have reached its prime or artistic mellowness of tint till it has been "down" for ten years. the permanence of the dyes is tested by rubbing the rug with a wet cloth, when the worthless colours at once come off. among the real, good old persian carpets there are very few patterns, though colouring and borders vary considerably. a good carpet, if new, is always stiff; the ends when doubled should meet evenly. there must be no creases, or any signs on the wrong side of darning or "fine-drawing" having been resorted to for taking out creases, and there must be no blue in the white cotton finish at the ends. carpets with much white are prized, as the white becomes primrose, a colour which wears well. our host has given me a rug of the oldest persian pattern, on a white ground, very thin and fine. large patterns and thick wool are comparatively cheap. it is nearly impossible to say what carpets sell at, for if one has been made by a family and poverty presses, it may be sold much under value, or if it is a good one and they can hold on they may force a carpet fancier to give a very high price. from what abdul rahim says, the price varies from s. to s. a square yard, the larger carpets, about fourteen feet by eight feet, selling for £ .[ ] abdul rahim took me to see carpet-weaving, a process carried on in houses, hovels, and tents by women and children. the "machinery" is portable and marvellously simple, merely two upright beams fixed in the floor, with a cross-beam near the top and bottom, round which the stout cotton or woollen threads which are the basis of the carpet are stretched. the wools are cut in short lengths and are knotted round two threads, according to the pattern, which, however elaborate, the weaver usually carries in her head. after a few inches have been woven in this simple way the right side is combed and the superfluous length cut off with rough scissors. nothing can be more simple than the process or more beautiful than the result. the vegetable dyes used are soft and artistic, specially a madder red and the various shades of indigo. a soft turquoise blue is much used, and an "olive green," supposed to be saffron and indigo. the dull, rich tints, even when new, are quite beautiful. the women pursue this work chiefly in odds and ends of time, and in some cases make it much of a pastime. men being present they were very closely veiled, and found great difficulty in holding on the _chadars_ and knotting the wool at the same time. after taking tea in the pleasant upper room of the carpet-weaver's house, we visited the large barracks and parade ground. the appearance of the soldiers could not possibly impress a stranger favourably. they looked nothing better than "dirty, slouching ragamuffins," slipshod, in tattered and cast-off clothes of all sorts, on the verge of actual mendicancy, bits of rusty uniform appearing here and there amongst their cotton rags. the quarters are not bad. the rank and file get one and a half pounds of bread daily and five rupees a month nominally, but their pay is in arrears, and they eke it out by working at different trades. these men had not been drilled for two months, and were slovenly and unsoldierly to a degree, as men must be who have no proper pay, rations, instruction, clothing, or equipments. the courtesy of the host leaves nothing unthought of. in returning from a long stroll round the city a wet place had to be crossed, and when we reached it there were saddle-horses ready. on arriving at dusk in the bazar several servants met us with lanterns. the lantern is an important matter, as its size is supposed to indicate the position of the wearer. the persian lantern has a tin or iron top and bottom, between which is a collapsible wired cylinder of waxed muslin. the light from the candle burning inside is diffused and soft. three feet long and two feet wide is not an uncommon size. they are carried close to the ground, illustrating "thy word is a lamp unto my path," and none but the poor stir out after dark without a lantern-bearer in front. our lanterns, as befits the _vakil's_ position, are very large. there is something biblical in the progress of abdul rahim through the streets, always reminding me of "greetings in the market-place," and "doing alms to be seen of men,"--not that i think our kind host sins in either direction. "peace be with you," say the people, bending low. "to you be peace," replies the agha. a wish having been expressed to visit the rock-sculptures of the takt-i-bostan, a winter picnic was quietly arranged for the purpose. there was a great snowstorm on the night we arrived, succeeded by intense frost and clear blue skies,--glorious canadian winter weather. outside the wall an english landau, brought in pieces from baghdad, awaited us, with four arab horses, two of them ridden. there were eleven outriders and some led horses, and a turki pipe-bearer rode alongside the carriage with two cylinders of leather containing _kalians_ in place of holsters, on one side, behind a leather water-bottle, and on the other a brazier of lighted charcoal hanging by chains much below the horse's body. another pipe-bearer lighted the _kalian_ at intervals and handed it into the carriage to his master. some of the horsemen carried rifles and wore cartridge-belts. reaching the karasu river we got out into deep mud, were ferried over in a muddy box hauling on a rope, and drove to the takt-i-bostan, where several tanks of clear water, a house built into the rock, a number of kurds on fine horses, the arched recesses in the rock which contain the sculptures, and the magnificent range of the jabali-besitun formed a very striking scene. sir h. rawlinson considers these sculptures the finest in persia, and regards them as the work of greek artists. the lower of the two bas-reliefs at the back of the main recess is a colossal figure of a king on horseback, "the staff of whose spear is as a weaver's beam." on the sides of the recess, and, like the equestrian figure, in very high relief and very much undercut, are scenes from the chase of a most spirited description, representing a king and court mounted on elephants, horses, and camels, hunting boars, stags, and other animals, their enthusiasm in the pursuit being successfully conveyed by the art of the sculptor. in the spandrels of the archway of the main recess are carved, winged female figures. in the smaller arch, also containing a bas-relief, is a pehlevi inscription.[ ] there is a broad stone platform in front of the arch, below which flows direct from the mountain a great volume of water, which replenishes the tanks. the house, which also contains a tank fed by the same living water, the mountain and its treasures, the tanks, and some miles of avenues of willows, have been bought by the _vakil_, and his son laughingly says that he hopes to live to see a time when cook will give "tourist excursion tickets" by rail to the takt-i-bostan! coffee and _kalians_ were served to the kurds in the arch, and mounting the horses we rode to a country house belonging to our host in the midst of large rose gardens, and with a wonderful view of the magnificent besitun range, of the rolling snowy hills on which kirmanshah and its plantations lay like a black splotch, and of this noble plain, six miles long from north to south, and thirty from east to west, its absolutely unbroken snow gleaming like satin, and shadows lying upon it in pure blue. many servants and a large fire awaited us in that pleasant bungalow, as well as coffee and sweetmeats, and we stayed there till the sinking sun flushed all the surrounding hills with pink, and the gray twilight came on. i rode a splendid arab, with a neck "clothed with thunder," a horse to make one feel young again, with his elastic stride and pride of bearing, but indeed i "snatched a fearful joy," for the snow was extremely slippery, and thirteen arab horses in high condition restrained to a foot's pace had belligerent views of their own, tending to disconcert an unwary rider. we crossed the karasu by a deep and devious ford up to the girths, and had an exhilarating six miles' ride by moonlight in keen frost, the powdery snow crackling under the horses' feet. it was too slippery to enter the town on horseback, but servants with lanterns awaited us at the gates and roaring fires and dinner were ready here, after a delightful expedition. i dined alone with our host, hadji, who understands and speaks english fairly well, acting as interpreter. abdul rahim at once plunged into politics, and asked very many intelligent questions about english politics and parties, the condition and housing of our working classes, and then about my own family and occupations. he is a zealous moslem, and the pious phrases which sit so oddly on hadji come very naturally from his lips. in reply to a sketch of character which i gave him he said: "what god does is good. he knows, we submit. he of whom you speak laid up great treasure for another life. whoso loves and befriends the poor is acceptable to god. one day we shall know all. god is good." he said he had been too busy to learn english, but that he understands a great deal, and added, with a roguish gleam lighting up his whole face, and a very funny laugh, "and i hear what m---- says." he has seen but very few english ladies, and it shows great quickness of apprehension that he should never fail in the respectfulness and quiet courteous attentions which would be shown to a lady by an english host. even after india, the quantity of servants employed in such a household as this is very impressive. besides a number who are with the _vakil_ in tihran, there are the _nazr_ or steward, who under the master is supreme, cooks and their assistants, table servants, _far[=a]shes_, who are sweepers and message-runners, in any number, pipe-bearers, coffee and ice-makers, plate-cleaners, washermen, lamp-cleaners, who are also lantern-bearers, a head groom, with a groom for each horse under him, and a number more, over forty in all, receiving, if paid at the usual rate of wages in kirmanshah, which is a cheap place, from sixty _krans_ a month down to twenty, the _kran_ being now about d. these wages do not represent the actual gains of a servant, for he is entitled to perquisites, which are chiefly in the form of commissions on things bought and sold by his master, and which are regarded as legitimate if they do not exceed per cent. it is of no use to fight again this "_modakel_," or to vex one's soul in any way about it. persians have to submit to it as well as europeans. hadji has endeavoured to extract from to per cent on purchases made by him for me, but this is thought an outrage. this _modakel_ applies to all bargains. if a _charvadar_ (no longer a _katirgi_) is hired, he has to pay one's servant per cent on the contract price. if i sell a horse, my servant holds out for a good price, and takes his per cent, and the same thing applies to a pair of shoes, or a pound of tea, or a chicken, or a bottle of milk. the system comes down from the highest quarters. the price paid by the governor of a province to the shah is but the shah's _modakel_, and when a governor farms the taxes for , _tumans_ and sells them for , , the difference is his _modakel_, and so it goes on through all official transactions and appointments, and is a fruitful source of grinding oppression, and of inefficiency in the army and other departments. the servant, poor fellow, may stop at per cent, but the shah's servant may think himself generous if he hesitates at per cent. i have heard it said that when the late shah was dying he said to the present sovereign: "if you would sit long upon the throne, see that there is only one spoon among ten men," and that the system represented by this speech is faithfully carried out. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] i had the pleasure of seeing agha hassan at the british legation at tihran. he is charming, both in appearance and manner, a specimen of the highest type of arab good breeding, with a courteous kindliness and grace of manner, and is said to have made a very favourable impression when he went to england lately to be made a c.m.g. both father and son wear the arab dress, in plain colours but rich materials, with very large white turbans of damascus embroidery in gold silk, and speak only arabic and persian. [ ] a journey of nine months in persia, chiefly in the west and north-west, convinced me that this aspect of ruin and decay is universal. [ ] the reader curious as to this and other customs of modern persia should read dr. wills's book, _the land of the lion and the sun_. [ ] a rug only eight feet by five feet was given me by a persian in tihran, which was valued for duty at erzerum at £ the square yard, with the option of selling it to the custom-house at that price, which implies that its value is from s. to s. per yard. it has a very close pile, nearly as short and fine as velvet. [ ] for the sasanian inscriptions, vide _early sasanian inscriptions_, by e. thomas. the great work published by the french government, _voyage en perse_, paris, , by messieurs flandin et coste, contains elaborate and finely-executed representations of these rock sculptures, which are mostly of the time of the later sasanian monarchs. letter vi kirmanshah, _feb. _. on january there was a tremendous snowfall, and even before that the road to hamadan, which was our possible route, had been blocked for some days. the temperature has now risen to °, with a bitter wind, and much snow in the sky. the journey does not promise well. two of the servants have been ill. i am not at all well, and the reports of the difficulties farther on are rather serious. these things are certain,--that the marches are very long, and without any possibility of resting _en route_ owing to mud or snow, and that the food and accommodation will be horrible. hadji is turning out very badly. he has fever now, poor fellow, and is even more useless than usual. abdul rahim does not like him to interpret, and calls him "the savage." he does no work, and is both dirty and dishonest. the constant use of pious phrases is not a good sign either of moslem or christian. i told him this morning that i could not eat from so dirty a plate. "god is great," he quietly answered. he broke my trestle bed by not attending to directions, and when i pointed out what he had done, he answered, "god knows all, god ordains all things." it is really exasperating. it is necessary to procure an additional outfit for the journey--a slow process--masks lined with flannel, sheepskin bags for the feet, the thick felt coats of the country for all the servants, additional blankets, _kajawehs_ for me, and saddle-horses. the marches will frequently be from twenty to thirty miles in length, and the fatigue of riding them at a foot's pace when one cannot exchange riding for walking will be so great that i have had a pair of _kajawehs_ made in which to travel when i am tired of the mule. these panniers are oblong wooden boxes, eighteen inches high, with hoops over them for curtains. one hangs on each side of the mule on a level with his back, and they are mounted, _i.e._ they are scrambled into from the front by a ladder, which is carried between them. most women and some men travel in them. they are filled up with quilts and cushions. the mule which is to carry them is a big and powerful animal, and double price is charged for him. horses are very good and cheap here. a pure arab can be bought for £ , and a cross between an arab and a kurdish horse--a breed noted for endurance--for even less. but to our thinking they are small, never exceeding fifteen hands. the horses of the kirmanshah province are esteemed everywhere, and there is a steady drain upon them for the indian market. the stud of three horses requires a groom, and abdul rahim is sending a _sowar_, who looks a character, to attend us to tihran. a muleteer, remarkable in appearance and beauty, and twelve fine mules have been engaged. the _sowar_ and several other men have applied to me for medicine, having fearful coughs, etc., but i have not been fortunate enough to cure them, as their maladies chiefly require good feeding, warm bedding, and poultices, which are unattainable. it is pitiable to see the poor shivering in their thin cotton clothes in such weather. the men make shift with the seamless felt coats--more cloaks than coats, with long bag-like sleeves tapering to the size of a glove but with a slit midway, through which the hands can be protruded when need arises. the women have no outer garment but the thin cotton _chadar_. i have tried to get a bed made, but there is no wood strong enough for the purpose, and the bazars cannot produce any canvas. _sannah, feb. ._--yesterday we were to have started at nine, but the usual quarrelling about loads detained us till . , so that it was nearly dark when we reached the end of the first stage of a three weeks' journey. from the house roof the prospect was most dismal. it was partly thawing, and through the whiteness of the plain ran a brown trail with sodden edges, indicating mud. the great mass of the jabali-besitun, or behistun, or behishtan, though on the other side of the plain, seemed actually impending over the city, with its great black rock masses, too steep to hold the snow, and the besitun mountain itself, said to be twenty-four miles away, looming darkly through gray snow clouds, looked hardly ten. our host had sent men on to see if the landau could take me part of the way at least; but their verdict was that the road was impassable. after much noise the caravan got under way, but it was soon evident that the fine mules we had engaged had been changed for a poor, sore-backed set, and that the fine saddle-mule i was to have had was metamorphosed into a poor weak creature, which began to drop his leg from the shoulder almost as soon as we were outside the walls, and on a steep bridge came down on his nose with a violent fall, giving me a sharp strain, and fell several times afterwards; indeed, the poor animal could scarcely keep on his legs during the eight hours' march. hadji rode in a _kajaweh_, balanced by some luggage, and was to keep close to me, but when i wanted to change my broken-down beast for a pannier he was not to be seen, then or afterwards, and came in late. the big mule had fallen, he was bruised, the _kajawehs_ were smashed to pieces, and were broken up for firewood, and i am now without any means of getting any rest from riding! "it's the pace that kills." in snow and mud gallops are impossible, and three miles an hour is good going. an hour from kirmanshah the road crosses the karasu by a good brick bridge, and proceeds over the plain for many miles, keeping the besitun range about two miles on the left, and then passes over undulating ground to the besitun village. two or three large villages occur at a distance from the road, now shut in, and about eight miles from besitun there are marble columns lying on the ground among some remains of marble walls, now only hummocks in the snow. the road was churned into deep mud by the passage of animals, and the snow was too deep to ride in. my mule lost no opportunity of tumbling down, and i felt myself a barbarian for urging him on. hills and mountains glistened in all directions. the only exception to the general whiteness was piru, the great rock mass of besitun, which ever loomed blackly overhead through clouds and darkness, and never seemed any nearer. it was very solitary. i met only a caravan of carpets, and a few men struggling along with laden asses. it was the most artistic day of the whole journey, much cloud flying about, mountains in indigo gloom, or in gray, with storm clouds round their heads, or pure white, with shadows touched in with cobalt, while peaks and ridges, sun-kissed, gleamed here and there above indigo and gray. not a tree or even bush, on them or on the plain, broke the monotony after a summer palace of the shah, surrounded by poplars, was passed. there is plenty of water everywhere. as the sun was stormily tinging with pink the rolling snow-clouds here and there, i halted on the brow of a slope under the imposing rock front of besitun to wait for orders. it was wildly magnificent: the huge precipice of piru, rising feet from the level, the mountains on both sides of the valley approaching each other, and behind piru a craggy ravine, glorified here and there by touches of amber and pink upon the clouds which boiled furiously out of its depths. in the foreground were a huge caravanserai with a noble portal, a solitary thing upon the snow, not a dwelling, but offering its frigid hospitality to all comers; a river with many windings, and the ruinous hovels of besitun huddled in the mud behind. an appalling view in the wild twilight of a winter evening; and as the pink died out, a desolate ghastliness fell upon it. as i waited, all but worn out by the long march, the tumbling mule, and the icy wind, i thought i should like never to hear the deep chimes of a persian caravan, or see the huge portal of a persian caravanserai any more. these are cowardly emotions which are dispelled by warmth and food, but at that moment there was not much prospect of either. through seas of mud and by mounds of filth we entered besitun, a most wretched village of eighteen hovels, chiefly ruinous, where we dismounted in the mixed snow and mud of a yard at a hovel of three rooms vacated by a family. it was a better shelter than could have been hoped for, though after a fire was made, which filled the room with smoke, i had to move from place to place to avoid the drip from the roof. hadji said he was ill of fever, and seemed like an idiot; but the orderly said that the illness was shammed and the stupidity assumed in order not to work. i told him to put the mattress on the bed; "pour water on the mattress," he replied. i repeated, "put--the--mattress--on--the--bed," to which he replied, "put the mattress into water!" i said if he felt too ill for his work he might go to bed. "god knows," he answered. "yes, knows that you are a lazy, good-for-nothing, humbugging brute"--a well-timed objurgation from m----, which elicited a prolonged "_ya allah!_" but produced no effect, as the tea and _chapatties_ were not relatively but absolutely cold the next morning. the next day dawned miserably, and the daylight when it came was only a few removes from darkness, yet it was enough to bring out the horrors of that wretched place, and the dirt and poverty of the people, who were a prey to skin diseases. many readers will remember that sir h. rawlinson considers that there are good geographical and etymological reasons for identifying besitun with the baghistan, or place of gardens of the greeks, and with the famous pleasure-grounds which tradition ascribes to semiramis. but of these gardens not a trace remains. a precipitous rock, smoothed at its lower part, a vigorous spring gushing out at the foot of the precipice, two tablets, one of which, at a height of over feet, visible from the road but inaccessible, is an achæmenian sculpture portraying the majesty of darius, with about a thousand lines of cuneiform writing, are all that survive of the ancient splendours of besitun, with the exception of some buttresses opposite the rock, belonging to a vanished sasanian bridge over the gamasiab, and some fragments of other buildings of the sasanian epoch. these deeply interesting antiquities have been described and illustrated by sir h. rawlinson, flandin and coste, and others. it has been a severe day. it was so unpromising that a start was only decided on after many pros and cons. through dark air small flakes of snow fell sparsely at intervals from a sky from which all light had died out. gusts of icy wind swept down every gorge. huge ragged masses of cloud drifted wildly round the frowning mass of piru. now and then the gusts ceased, and there was an inauspicious calm. i rode a big mule not used to the bit, very troublesome and mulish at first, but broken in an hour. a clear blink revealed the tablets, but from their great altitude the tallest of the figures only looked two feet high. there is little to see on this march even under favourable circumstances. a few villages, the ruined fort of hassan khan, now used as a caravanserai, on a height, the windings of the gamasiab, and a few canals crossed by brick bridges, represent its chief features. impressions of a country received in a storm are likely to be incorrect, but they were pleasurable. everything seemed on a grand scale: here desolate plateaus pure white, there high mountains and tremendous gorges, from which white mists were boiling up--everything was shrouded in mystery--plain prose ceased to be for some hours. the others had to make several halts, so i left the "light division" and rode on alone. it became dark and wild, and presently the surface of the snow began to move and to drift furiously for about a foot above the ground. the wind rose to a gale. i held my hat on with one half-frozen hand. my mackintosh cape blew inside out, and struck me such a heavy blow on the eyes that for some time i could not see and had to trust to the mule. the wind rose higher; it was furious, and the drift, not only from the valley but from the mountain sides, was higher than my head, stinging and hissing as it raced by. it was a "blizzard," a brutal snow-laden north-easter, carrying fine, sharp, hard-frozen snow crystals, which beat on my eyes and blinded them. after a short experience of it my mule "turned tail" and needed spurring to make him face it. i fought on for an hour, crossed what appeared to be a bridge, where there were a few mud hovels, and pressed on down a narrower valley. the blizzard became frightful; from every ravine gusts of storm came down, sweeping the powdery snow from the hillsides into the valley; the mountains were blotted out, the depression in the snow which erewhile had marked the path was gone, i could not even see the mule's neck, and he was floundering in deep snow up to the girths; the hiss of the drift had increased to a roar, the violence of the storm produced breathlessness and the intense cold numbness. it was dangerous for a solitary traveller, and thinking that m---- would be bothered by missing one of the party under such circumstances, i turned and waited under the lee of a ruinous mud hovel for a long, long time till the others came up--two of the men having been unhorsed in a drift. in those hovels there were neither accommodation nor supplies, and we decided to push on. it was never so bad again. the wind moderated, wet snow fell heavily, but cleared off, and there was a brilliant blue heaven with heavy sunlit cloud-wreaths, among which colossal mountain forms displayed themselves, two peaks in glorious sunlight, high, high above a whirling snow-cloud, which was itself far above a great mountain range below. there were rifts, valleys, gorges, naked, nearly perpendicular rocks, the faces of mountains, half of which had fallen down in the opposite direction, a snow-filled valley, a winding river with brief blue stretches, a ruined fort on an eminence, a sharp turn, a sudden twilight, and then another blizzard far colder than the last, raging down a lateral ravine, up which, even through the blinding drift, were to be seen, to all seeming higher than mountains of this earth, the twin peaks of shamran lighted by the sun. i faced the blizzard for some time, and then knowing that hadji and the cook, who were behind me, would turn off to a distant village, all trace of a track having disappeared, i rode fully a mile back and waited half an hour for them. they were half-frozen, and had hardly been able to urge their mules, which were lightly laden, through the snow, and hadji was groaning "_ya allah!_" the blizzard was over and the sky almost cloudless, but the mercury had fallen to °, and a keen wind was still blowing the powdery snow to the height of a foot. i sent the two men on in front, and by dint of calling to them constantly, kept them from getting into drifts of unknown depth. we rode up a rising plateau for two hours--a plateau of deep, glittering, blinding, trackless snow, giving back the sunshine in millions of diamond flashings. through all this region thistles grow to a height of four feet, and the only way of finding the track was to look out for a space on which no withered thistle-blooms appeared above the snow. this village of sannah lies at an altitude of about feet, among poplar plantations and beautiful gardens, in which fine walnut trees are conspicuous. though partly ruinous it is a flourishing little place, its lands being abundantly watered by streams which run into the gamasiab. it is buried now in snow, and the only mode of reaching it is up the bed of a broad sparkling stream among the gardens. the _sowar_ met us here, the navigation being difficult, and the "light division" having come up, we were taken to the best house in the village, where the family have vacated two rooms, below the level of a yard full of snow. the plateau and its adjacent mountains were flushed with rose as we entered sannah, and as soon as the change to the pallor of death came on the mercury raced down to zero outside, and it is only ° in the room in which i am writing. there is a large caravanserai at the entrance to sannah, and i suspect that the _sowar_ in choosing private quarters bullies the _ketchuda_ (headman) and throws the village into confusion, turning the women and children out of the rooms, the owners, though they get a handsome sum for the accommodation, having to give him an equally handsome _modakel_. after nearly nine hours of a crawling pace and exposure to violent weather, i suffered from intense pain in my joints, and was dragged and lifted in and put into a chair. i write "put," for i was nearly helpless, and had to take a teaspoonful of whisky in warm milk. while the fire was being made two women, with a gentle kindliness which won my heart, chafed my trembling, nearly frozen hands with their own, with kindly, womanly looks, which supplied the place of speech. i lay down under a heap of good blankets, sorry to see them in thin cotton clothes, and when i was less frozen observed my room and its grotesquely miserable aspect, "the savage" never taking any trouble to arrange it. there are no windows, and the divided door does not shut by three inches. a low hole leads into the granary, which is also the fowl-house, but the fowls have no idea of keeping to their own apartment. two sheep with injured legs lie in a corner with some fodder beside them. a heap of faggots, the bed placed diagonally to avoid the firehole in the floor, a splashed tarpaulin on which hadji threw down the saddle and bridle plastered with mud, and all my travelling gear, a puddle of frozen water, a plough, and some ox yokes, an occasional gust of ashes covering everything, and clouds of smoke from wood which refuses to do anything but smoke, are the luxuries of the halt. the house is full of people, and the women come in and out without scruple, and i am really glad to see them, though it is difficult to rouse hadji from his opium pipe and coffee, and his comfortable lounge by a good fire, to interpret for them. the day's experiences remind me of the lines-- "bare all he could endure, and bare not always well." but tired and benumbed as i am i much prefer a march with excitements and difficulties to the monotony of splashing through mud in warm rain. _hamilabad, feb. ._--the next morning opened cloudless, with the mercury at °, which was hardly an excuse for tea and _chapatties_ being quite cold. i was ready much too early, and the servants having given out that i am a _hak[=i]m_, my room was crowded with women and children, all suffering from eye diseases and scrofula, five women not nearly in middle life with cataract advanced in both eyes, and many with incurved eyelids, the result of wood smoke. it was most painful to see their disappointment when i told them that it would need time to cure some of them, and that for others i could do nothing. could i not stay? they pleaded. i could have that room and milk and eggs--the best they had. "and they lifted up their voices and wept." i felt like a brute for leaving them. the people there showed much interest in our movements, crowding on the roofs to see our gear, and the start. the order of march now is--light division, three mules with an orderly, hadji, and the cook upon them, the two last carrying what is absolutely necessary for the night in case the heavy division cannot get on. m---- and an orderly, the _sowar_, abbas khan, another who is changed daily, the light division and i, sometimes start together; but as the others are detained by work on the road, i usually ride on ahead with the two servants. to write that we all survived the march of that day is strange, when the same pitiless blast or "demon wind," blowing from "the roof of the world"--the pamir desert, made corpses of five men who started with a caravan ahead of us that morning. we had to climb a long ascending plateau for feet, to surmount a pass. the snow was at times three feet deep, and the tracks even of a heavy caravan which crossed before us were effaced by the drift in a few minutes. a sun without heat glared and scintillated like an electric light, white and unsympathetic, out of a pitiless sky without a cloud. as soon as we emerged from sannah the "demon wind" seized on us--a steady, blighting, searching, merciless blast, no rise or fall, no lull, no hope. steadily and strongly it swept, at a temperature of °, across the glittering ascent--swept mountain-sides bare; enveloped us at times in glittering swirls of powdery snow, which after biting and stinging careered over the slopes in twisted columns; screeched down gorges and whistled like the demon it was, as it drifted the light frozen snow in layers, in ripples, in waves, a cruel, benumbing, blinding, withering invisibility! the six woollen layers of my mask, my three pairs of gloves, my sheepskin coat, fur cloak, and mackintosh piled on over a swaddling mass of woollen clothing, were as nothing before that awful blast. it was not a question of comfort or discomfort, or of suffering more or less severe, but of life or death, as the corpses a few miles ahead of us show. i am certain that if it had lasted another half-hour i too should have perished. the torture of my limbs down to my feet, of my temples and cheekbones, the anguish and uselessness of my hands, from which the reins had dropped, were of small consequence compared with a chill which crept round my heart, threatening a cessation of work. there were groans behind me; the cook and hadji had rolled off into the snow, where hadji was calling on him "who is not far from every one of us." m---- was on foot. his mask was frozen hard. he was using a scientific instrument, and told his orderly, an afghan, a smart little "_duffadar_" of a crack indian _corps_, to fasten a strap. the man replied sadly, "i can't, sahib." his arms and hands were useless. my mask was frozen to my lips. the tears extorted from my eyes were frozen. i was so helpless, and in such torture, that i would gladly have lain down to die in the snow. the mercury fell to °. after fighting the elements for three hours and a half, we crossed the crest of the pass at an altitude of feet, to look down upon a snow world stretched out everywhere, pure, glistering, awful; mountains rolling in snowy ranges, valleys without a trace of man, a world of horror, glittering under a mocking sun. hadji, with many pious ejaculations, gasped out that he was dying (in fact, for some time all speech had been reduced to a gasp); but when we got over the crest there was no more wind, and all the benumbed limbs resumed sensation, through an experience of anguish. the road to kangawar lies through a broad valley, which has many streams. among the mountains which encompass it are the kuh-i-hassan, boka, the kuh-i-paran, and the kuh-i-bozah. i rode on with the two servants, indulging in no higher thoughts than of the comfort i should have in lying down, when just in front of me hadji turned a somersault, my alpenstock flying in one direction and the medicine chest in another, while he lay motionless, flat on his back with all his limbs stretched out, just as soldiers who have been shot lie in pictures. in getting to him my mule went down in a snow-drift, out of which i extricated him with difficulty. i induced hadji, who said his back was broken, and was groaning and calling on allah, to get up, and went on to secure his mule, which had the great pack-saddle under its body, and was kicking with all its might at my bed and "hold-all," which were between its hind legs, and succeeded in catching and holding it till hadji came up. i told him to unfasten the surcingle, for the animal was wild with the things among its legs, and he wrung his hands and beat his breast, exclaiming, "god is great! god knows i shall never see bushire again!" and was quite helpless. seeing a caravan of asses approaching, i rode on as fast as i could to the well-situated little town of kangawar, expecting him to follow shortly. at present the entrance into kangawar is up the bed of a stream. we had been promised good accommodation there, and the town could evidently afford it, but abbas khan had chosen something very wretched, though it was upstairs, and had an extensive snow view. crumbling, difficult stairs at each end of a crumbling mud house led to rooms which barely afforded a shelter, with a ruinous barn between, where the servants, regardless of consequences, kept up a bonfire. a man shovelled most of the snow out of my room, and tried to make a fire but failed, as neither he nor i could stand the smoke produced by the attempt. this imperfect shelter had a window-frame, with three out of its four wooden panes gone, and a cracked door, which could only ensure partial privacy by being laid against the posts from the outer landing, which was a flat roof. the wall was full of cracks big enough for a finger, through which the night wind rioted in a temperature ° below zero. there was nothing to sit upon, and i walked up and down for two hours, half-frozen, watching the straggling line of the caravan as it crawled along the valley, till the sunset flush changed into the chill blue-gray of twilight. hadji arrived with it, having broken his girth after i left him. there was not much comfort after the severe march, owing to the draughts and the smoke, but one is always hungry and sleepy, and the hybernation of the insects makes up for any minor discomforts. it was so cold that some water in a cup froze before i could drink it, and the blanket over my face was hard frozen. kangawar was full of mourning. the bodies of two men and a boy, who had perished on the plain while we were struggling up the pass, had been brought in. this boy of twelve was "the only son of his mother and she was a widow." he had started from kangawar in the morning with five asses laden with chopped straw to sell for her, and had miserably perished. the two men were married, and had left families. kangawar is a town of a thousand people built below a high hill, on some natural and artificial mounds. some traditions regarding semiramis are localised there, and it is supposed to be on the site of pancobar, where she erected a temple to anaitis or artemis. ruins of a fortress, now snow-buried, occupy the crest of a hill above the town, and there are other ruins, regarded by antiquaries as grecian, representing a temple or palace, "a vast building constructed of enormous blocks of dressed stone." of these remains i saw nothing but some columns and a pilaster, which are built into the miserable mud walls of a house near the bazar. at night the muleteers were beseeching on their knees. they said that they could not go on, that the caravan which had attempted to leave kangawar in the morning had put back with three corpses, and that they and their mules would perish. in the morning it was for some time doubtful whether they could be induced or bribed to proceed. the day was fine and still, but they said that the snow was not broken. at last they agreed to start if we would promise to return at the first breath of wind! every resource against cold was brought out and put on. one eye was all that was visible of the servants' faces. the _charvadars_ relied on their felt coats and raw sheepskins, with the fur inside, roped round their legs. there is danger of frost-bite even with all precautions. in addition to double woollen underclothing i put on a pair of thick chitral socks over two pairs of woollen stockings, and over these a pair of long, loose afghan boots, made of sheepskin with the fur inside. over my riding dress, which is of flannel lined with heavy homespun, i had a long homespun jacket, an afghan sheepskin coat, a heavy fur cloak over my knees, and a stout "regulation" waterproof to keep out the wind. add to this a cork helmet, a fisherman's hood, a "six-ply" mask, two pairs of woollen gloves with mittens and double gauntlets, and the difficulty of mounting and dismounting for a person thus _swaddled_ may be imagined! the persians are all in cotton clothes. however, though they have no "firesides," and no cheerful crackle and blaze of wood, they have an arrangement by which they can keep themselves warm for hours by the expenditure of a few handfuls of animal fuel. the fire hole or _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ in the middle of the floor is an institution. it is circular, narrows somewhat at the top and bottom, has a flue leading to the bottom from the outside, and is about three feet deep and two in diameter. it is smoothly lined with clay inside. over this is the _karsi_ or platform, a skeleton wooden frame like an inverted table, from two to five feet square, covered with blankets or a thickly-wadded cotton quilt, which extends four or five feet beyond it. cushions are placed under this, and the women huddle under it all day, and the whole family at night, and in this weather all day--the firepot in the hole giving them comfortable warmth both for sleeping and waking. they very rarely wash, and the _karsi_ is so favourable for the development of vermin that i always hurry it out of the room when i enter. so excellent and economical is the contrivance, that a _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ in which the fire has not been replenished for eighteen hours has still a genial heat. it was a serious start, so terribly slippery in the heaped-up alleys and uncovered bazars of kangawar that several of the mules and men fell. outside the town was a level expanse of deep, wrinkled, drifted, wavy, scintillating snow, unbroken except for a rut about a foot wide, a deep long "mule ladder," produced by heavily-laden mules and asses each stepping in its predecessor's footsteps, forming short, deep corrugations, in which it is painful and tedious for horses or lightly-laden animals to walk. for nine hours we marched through this corrugated rut. leaving on the left the summer route to tihran _viâ_ hamadan, which is said to have been blocked for twenty days, we embarked upon a glittering plain covered with pure snow, varying in depth from two feet on the level to ten and fifteen in the drifts, crossed by a narrow and only slightly beaten track. ere long we came on solemn traces of the struggle and defeat of the day before: every now and then a load of chopped straw thrown away, then the deep snow much trampled, then the snow dug away and piled round a small space, in which the _charvadars_ had tried to shelter themselves from the wind as the shadows of death fell, then more straw, and a grave under a high mound of snow; farther on some men busy burying one of the bodies. the air was still, and the sun shone as it had shone the day before on baffled struggles, exhaustion, and death. the trampling of the snow near the track marked the place where the caravan had turned, taking three out of the five bodies back to kangawar. the fury with which the wind had swept over the plain was shown by the absolute level to which it had reduced the snow, the deep watercourses being filled up with the drifts. after crossing a brick bridge, and passing the nearly buried village of husseinabad, we rode hour after hour along a rolling track among featureless hills, till in the last twilight we reached the village of pharipah, a low-lying place ("low-lying" must never be understood to mean anything lower than feet) among some frozen irrigated lands and watered gardens. i arrived nearly dead from cold, fatigue, and the severe pains in the joints which are produced by riding nine hours at a foot's pace in a temperature of °. my mule could only be urged on by spurring, and all the men and animals were in a state of great fatigue. my room was very cold, as much of one side was open to the air, and a fire was an impossibility. except for the crossing of a pass with an altitude of feet, the next day's route was monotonous, across plains, among mountains, all pure white, the only incidents being that my chair was broken by the fall of a mule, and that my mule and i went over our heads in a snow-drift. the track was very little broken, and i was four hours in doing ten miles. hamilabad is a village of about sixty mud hovels, and in common with all these mountain hamlets has sloping covered ways leading to pens under the house, where cattle, sheep, and goats spend much of the winter in darkness and warmth. i have a house, _i.e._ a mud room, to myself. these two days i have had rather a severe chill, after getting in, including a shivering lasting about two hours, perhaps owing to the severe fatigue; and i was lying down with the blankets over my face and was just getting warm when i heard much buzzing about me, and looking up saw the room thronged with men, women, and children, just such a crowd as constantly besieged our blessed lord when the toilsome day full of "the contradiction of sinners against himself" was done, most of them ill of "divers diseases and torments," smallpox, rheumatism, ulcers on the cornea, abortive and shortened limbs, decay of the bones of the nose, palate, and cheek, tumours, cancers, skin maladies, ophthalmia, opaque films over the eyes, wounds, and many ailments too obscure for my elementary knowledge. nothing is more painful than to be obliged to say that one cannot do anything for them. i had to get up, and for nearly two hours was hearing their tales of suffering, interpreted by hadji with brutal frankness; and they crowded my room again this morning. all i could do was to make various ointments, taking tallow as the basis, drop lotion into some eyes, give a few simple medicines, and send the majority sadly away. the _sowar_, abbas khan, is responsible for spreading my fame as a _hak[=i]m_. he is being cured of a severe cough, and comes to my room for medicine (in which i have no faith) every evening, a lean man with a lean face, lighted with a rapacious astuteness, with a _kaftan_ streaming from his brow, except where it is roped round his shaven skull, a zouave jacket, a skirt something like a kilt, but which stands out like a ballet dancer's dress, all sorts of wrappings round his legs, a coarse striped red shirt, a double cartridge-belt, and a perfect armoury in his girdle of pistols and knives. he is a wit and a rogue. dogs, deprived of their usual shelter, shook my loose door at intervals all night. this morning is gray, and looks like change. _nanej, feb. ._--it was thawing, and the march here was very soft and splashy. the people are barbarous in their looks, speech, manners, and ways of living, and have a total disregard of cleanliness of person, clothing, and dwellings. whether they are actually too poor to have anything warmer than cotton clothing, or whether they have buried hoards i do not know; but even in this severe weather the women of this region have nothing on their feet, and their short blue cotton trousers, short, loose, open jackets, short open chemises, and the thin blue sheet or _chadar_ over their heads, are a mere apology for clothing. the journey yesterday was through rolling hills, enclosing level plains much cultivated, with villages upon them mostly at a considerable distance from the road. i passed through two, one larger and less decayed than usual, but fearfully filthy, and bisected by a foul stream, from which people were drinking and drawing water. near this is a lofty mound, a truncated cone, with some "cyclopean" masonry on its summit, the relics of a fire temple of the magi. another poorer and yet filthier village was passed through, where a man was being buried; and as i left hamilabad in the morning, a long procession was escorting a corpse to its icy grave, laid on its bedding on a bier, both these deaths being from smallpox, which, though very prevalent, is not usually fatal, and seldom attacks adults. indeed, it is regarded as a childish malady, and is cured by a diet of melons and by profuse perspirations. a higher temperature had turned the path to slush, and made the crossing of the last plain very tedious. this is an abominable village, and the thaw is revealing a state of matters which the snow would have concealed; but it has been a severe week's journey, and i am glad of sunday's rest even here. it is a disheartening place. i dismounted in one yard, in slush up to my knees, and from this splashed into another, round which are stables, cowsheds, and rooms which were vacated by the _ketchuda_ and his family, but only partially, as the women not only left all their "things" in my room, but had a _godown_ or storehouse through it, to which they resorted continually. i felt ill yesterday, and put on a blister, which rendered complete rest desirable; but it is not to be got. the room filled with women as soon as i settled myself in it. they told me at once that i could not have a fire unless i had it under the _karsi_, that the smoke would be unbearable. when i asked them to leave me to rest, they said, "there's no shame in having women in the house." m---- came an hour later and cleared the room, but as soon as he went away it filled again, and with men as well as women, and others unscrupulously tore out the paper panes from the windows. this afternoon i stayed in bed feeling rather ill, and about three o'clock a number of women in blue sheets, with a very definite leader, came in, arranged the _karsi_, filling the room with smoke, as a preliminary, gathered themselves under the quilt, and sat there talking loudly to each other. i felt myself the object of a focused stare, and covered my head with a blanket in despair. then more women came in with tea-trays, and they all took tea and sat for another hour or two talking and tittering, hadji assuring me that they were doing it out of kindness, because i was not well, and they thought it dull for me alone! the room was again cleared, and i got up at dark, and hearing a great deal of whispering and giggling, saw that they had opened the door windows, and that a crowd was outside. when i woke this morning a man was examining my clothes, which were hanging up. they feel and pull my hair, finger all my things, and have broken all the fine teeth out of my comb. they have the curiosity without the gracefulness of the japanese. this is a house of the better sort, though the walls are not plastered. a carpet loom is fixed into the floor with a half-woven carpet upon it. some handsome rugs are laid down. there are two much-decorated marriage chests, some guns and swords, a quantity of glass teacups and ornaments in the recesses, and coloured woodcuts of the russian imperial family, here, as in almost every house, are on the walls. there is great rejoicing to-night "for joy that a man is born into the world," the first-born of the _ketchuda's_ eldest son. in their extreme felicity they took me to see the mother and babe. the room was very hot, and crowded with relations and friends. the young mother was sitting up on her bed on the floor and the infant lay beside her dressed in swaddling clothes. she looked very happy and the young father very proud. i added a small offering to the many which were brought in for luck, and it was not rejected. a sword was brought from my room, and with it the _mamaché_ traced a line upon the four walls, repeating a formula which i understood to be, "i am making this tower for miriam and her child."[ ] i was warned by hadji not to look on the child or to admire him without saying "mashallah," lest i should bring on him the woe of the evil eye. so greatly is it feared, that precautions are invariably taken against it from the hour of birth, by bestowing amulets and charms upon the child. a paragraph of the koran, placed in a silk bag, had already been tied round the infant's neck. later, he will wear another bag round his arm, and turquoise or blue beads will be sewn upon his cap. if a visitor admires a child without uttering the word _mashallah_, and the child afterwards falls sick, the visitor at once is regarded as answerable for the calamity, and the relations take a shred of his garment, and burn it in a brazier with cress seed, walking round and round the child as it burns. persian mothers are regarded as convalescent on the third day, when they go to the _hammam_ to perform the ceremonies required by moslem law. a boy is weaned at the end of twenty-six months and a girl at the end of twenty-four. if possible, on the weaning day the child is carried to the mosque, and certain devotions are performed. the weaning feast is an important function, and the relations and friends assemble, bringing presents, and the child in spite of his reluctance is forced to partake of the food. at the earliest possible period the _mamaché_ pronounces in the infant's ear the shiah profession of faith: "god is god, there is but one god, and mohammed is the prophet of god, and ali is the lieutenant of god." a child becomes a moslem as soon as this _kelemah islam_ has been spoken into his ear; but a ceremony attends the bestowal of his name, which resembles that in use among the buddhists of tibet on similar occasions. unless the father be very poor indeed, he makes a feast for his friends on an auspicious day, and invites the village _mollahs_. sweetmeats are solemnly eaten after the guests have assembled. then the infant, stiffened and mummied in its swaddling clothes, is brought in, and is laid on the floor by one of the _mollahs_. five names are written on five slips of paper, which are placed between the leaves of the koran, or under the edge of the carpet. the first chapter of the koran is then read. one of the slips is then drawn at random, and a _mollah_ takes up the child, and pronounces in its ear the name found upon it, after which he places the paper on its clothes. the relations and friends give it presents according to their means, answering to our christening gifts, and thereafter it is called by the name it has received. among men's names there is a preponderance of those taken from the old testament, among which ibrahim, ismail, suleiman, yusuf, and moussa are prominent. abdullah, mahmoud, hassan, raouf, baba houssein, imam are also common, and many names have the suffix of ali among the shiahs. fatmeh is a woman's name, but girl-children usually receive the name of some flower or bird, or fascinating quality of disposition or person. the journey is beginning to tell on men and animals. one of the arab horses has had a violent attack of pain from the cold, and several of the men are ailing and depressed. _dizabad, feb. ._--nanej is the last village laid down on any map on the route we are taking for over a hundred miles, _i.e._ until we reach kûm, though it is a caravan route, and it does not appear that any europeans have published any account of it. just now it is a buried country, for the snow is lying from one to four feet deep. it is not even possible to pronounce any verdict on the roads, for they are simply deep ruts in the snow, with "mule ladders." the people say that the plains are irrigated and productive, and that the hills pasture their sheep and cattle; and they all complain of the exactions of local officials. there is no variety in costume, and very little in dwellings, except as to size, for they are all built of mud or sun-dried bricks, within cattle yards, and have subterranean pens for cattle and goats. the people abound in diseases, specially of the eyes and bones. the salient features of the hills, if they have any, are rounded off by snow, and though many of them rise to a great height, none are really impressive but mount elwand, close to hamadan. the route is altogether hilly, but the track pursues valleys and low passes as much as possible, and is never really steep. yesterday we marched twenty-four miles in eight hours without any incident, and the "heavy division" took thirteen hours, and did not come in till ten at night! there are round hills, agglomerated into ranges, with easy passes, the highest feet in altitude, higher summits here and there in view, the hills encircling level plains, sprinkled sparsely with villages at a distance from the road, denoted by scrubby poplars and willows; sometimes there is a _kanaat_ or underground irrigation channel with a line of pits or shafts, but whatever there was, or was not, it was always lonely, grim, and desolate. the strong winds have blown some of the hillsides bare, and they appear in all their deformity of shapeless mounds of black gravel, or black mud, with relics of last year's thistles and euphorbias upon them. so great is the destitution of fuel that even now people are out cutting the stalks of thistles which appear above the snow. as the hours went by, i did rather wish for the smashed _kajawehs_, especially when we met the ladies of a governor's _haram_, to the number of thirty, reclining snugly in pairs, among blankets and cushions, in panniers with tilts, and curtains of a thick material, dyed turkey red. the cold became very severe towards evening. the geographical interest of the day was that we crossed the watershed of the region, and have left behind the streams which eventually reach the sea, all future rivers, however great their volume, or impetuous their flow, disappearing at last in what the americans call "sinks," but which are known in persia as _kavirs_, usually salt swamps. near sunset we crossed a bridge of seven pointed arches with abutments against a rapid stream, and passing a great gaunt caravanserai on an eminence, and a valley to the east of the bridge with a few villages giving an impression of fertility, hemmed in by some shapely mountains, we embarked on a level plain, bounded on all sides by hills so snowy that not a brown patch or outbreak of rock spotted their whiteness, and with villages and caravanserais scattered thinly over it. on the left, there are the extensive ruins of old dizabad, and a great tract of forlorn graves clustering round a crumbling _imamzada_. as the sun sank the distant hills became rose-flushed, and then one by one the flush died off into the paleness of death, and in the gathering blue-grayness, in desolation without sublimity, in ghastliness, impressive but only by force of ghastliness, and in benumbing cold, we rode into this village, and into a yard encumbered with mighty piles of snow, on one side of which i have a wretched room, though the best, with two doors, which do not shut, but when they are closed make it quite dark--a deep, damp, cobwebby, dusty, musty lair like a miserable eastern cowshed. i was really half-frozen and quite benumbed, and though i had plenty of blankets and furs, had a long and severe chill, and another to-day. m---- also has had bad chills, and the afghan orderly is ill, and moaning with pain in the next room. hadji has fallen into a state of chronic invalidism, and is shaking with chills, his teeth chattering, and he is calling on allah whenever i am within hearing. the chilly dampness and the rise in temperature again may have something to do with the ailments, but i think that we europeans are suffering from the want of nourishing food. meat has not been attainable for some days, the fowls are dry and skinny, and milk is very scarce and poor. i cannot eat the sour wafers which pass for bread, and as hadji cannot boil rice or make flour porridge, i often start in the morning having only had a cup of tea. i lunch in the saddle on dates, the milk in the holsters having been frozen lately; then is the time for finding the value of a double peppermint lozenge! snow fell heavily last night, and as the track has not been broken, and the _charvadars_ dared not face it, we are detained in this miserable place, four other caravans sharing our fate. the pros and cons about starting were many, and abbas khan was sent on horseback to reconnoitre, but he came back like noah's dove, reporting that it was a trackless waste of snow outside. it is a day of rest, but as the door has to be open on the snow to let in light, my hands are benumbed with the damp cold. still, a bowl of edwards' desiccated soup--the best of all travelling soups--has been very reviving, and though i have had a severe chill again, i do not mean to succumb. i do not dwell on the hardships, but they are awful. the soldiers and servants all have bad coughs, and dwindle daily. the little orderly is so ill to-day that we could not have gone on even had the track been broken. _saruk, feb. ._--unladen asses, followed by unladen mules, were driven along to break the track this morning, and as two caravans started before us, it was tolerable, though very deep. the solitude and desolation were awful. at first the snow was somewhat thawed, but soon it became immensely deep, and we had to plunge through hollows from which the beasts extricated themselves with great difficulty and occasionally had to be unloaded and reloaded. as i mentioned in writing of an earlier march, it is difficult and even dangerous to pass caravans when the only road is a deep rut a foot wide, and we had most tedious experience of it to-day, when some of our men, weakened by illness, were not so patient as usual. abbas khan and the orderly could hardly sit on their horses, and hadji rolled off his mule at intervals. as the _charvadars_ who give way have their beasts floundering in the deep snow and losing their loads, both attempt to keep the road, the result of which is a violent collision. the two animals which "collide" usually go down, and some of the others come on the top of them, and to-day at one time there were eight, struggling heels uppermost in the deep snow, all to be reloaded. this led to a serious _mêlée_. the rival _charvadar_, aggravated by hadji, struck him on the head, and down he went into the snow, with his mule apparently on the top of him, and his load at some distance. the same _charvadar_ seized the halters of several of our mules, and drove them into the snow, where they all came to grief. our _charvadar_, whose blue eyes, auburn hair and beard, and exceeding beauty, always bring to mind a sacred picture, became furious at this, and there was a fierce fight among the men (m---- being ahead) and much bad language, such epithets as "son of a dog" and "sons of burnt fathers" being freely bandied about. the fray at last died out, leaving as its result only the loss of an hour, some broken surcingles, and some bleeding faces. even hadji rose from his "gory bed" not much worse, though he had been hit hard. there was no more quarrelling though we passed several caravans, but even when the men were reasonable and good nature prevailed some of the mules on both sides fell in the snow and had to be reloaded. when the matter is not settled as this was by violence, a good deal of shouting and roaring culminates in an understanding that one caravan shall draw off into a place where the snow is shallowest, and stand still till the other has gone past; but to-day scarcely a shallow place could be found. i always give place to asses, rather to avoid a painful spectacle than from humanity. one step off the track and down they go, and they never get up without being unloaded. when we left dizabad the mist was thick, and as it cleared it froze in crystallised buttons, which covered the surface of the snow, but lifting only partially it revealed snowy summits, sun-lit above heavy white clouds; then when we reached a broad plateau, the highest plain of the journey, feet in altitude, gray mists drifted very near us, and opening in rifts divulged blackness, darkness, and tempest, and ragged peaks exposed to the fury of a snowstorm. snow fell in showers on the plain, and it was an anxious time, for had the storm which seemed impending burst on that wild, awful, shelterless expanse, with tired animals, and every landmark obliterated, some of us must have perished. i have done a great deal of snow travelling, and know how soon every trace of even the widest and deepest path is effaced by drift, much more the narrow rut by which we were crossing this most exposed plateau. there was not a village in sight the whole march, no birds, no animals. there was not a sound but the venomous hiss of snow-laden squalls. it was "the dead of winter." my admirable mule was ill of cold from having my small saddle on him instead of his great stuffed pack-saddle, the _charvadar_ said, and he gave me instead a horse that i could not ride. such a gait i never felt; less than half a mile was unbearable. i felt as if my eyes would be shaken out of their sockets! the bit was changed, but in vain. i was obliged to get off, and m---- kindly put my saddle on a powerful kirmanshah arab. i soon found that my intense fatigue on this journey had been caused by riding mules, which have no elasticity of movement. i rode twenty miles to-day with ease, and could have ridden twenty more, and had several canters on the few places where the snow was well trodden. i was off the track trying to get past a caravan and overtake the others, when down came the horse and i in a drift fully ten feet deep. somehow i was not quite detached from the saddle, and in the scrimmage got into it again, and a few desperate plunges brought us out, with the horse's breastplate broken. when we reached the great plateau above this village, a great blank sheet of snow, surrounded by mountains, now buried in white mists, now revealed, with snow flurries drifting wildly round their ghastly heads, i found that the arab, the same horse which was so ill at nanej, was "dead beat," and as it only looked a mile to the village i got off, and walked in the deep snow along the rungs of the "mule ladders," which are so fatiguing for horses. but the distance was fully three miles, with a stream to wade through, half a mile of deep wet soil to plunge through, and the thawed mud of a large village to splash through; and as i dared not mount again for fear of catching cold, i trailed forlornly into saruk, following the men who were riding. can it be said that they rode? they sat feebly on animals, swaddled in felts and furs, the _pagri_ concealing each face with the exception of one eye in a blue goggle; rolling from side to side, clutching at ropes and halters, moaning "_ya allah!_"--a deplorable cavalcade. saruk has some poplars, and is surrounded by a ruinous mud wall. it is a village of houses, and is famous for very fine velvety carpets, of small patterns, in vivid vegetable dyes. at an altitude of feet, it has a severe climate, and only grows wheat and barley, sown in april and reaped in september. all this mountainous region that we are toiling through is blank on the maps, and may be a dead level so far as anything there is represented, though even its passes are in several cases over feet high. _saruk, feb. ._--the circumstances generally are unfavourable, and we are again detained. the afghan orderly, who is also interpreter, is very ill, and though he is very plucky it is impossible for him to move; the cook seems "all to pieces," and is overcome by cough and lassitude; abbas khan is ill, and his face has lost its comicality; and in the same room hadji lies, groaning and moaning that he will not live through the night. even m----'s herculean strength is not what it was. i have chills, but in spite of them and the fatigue am really much better than when i left baghdad, so that though i exercise the privilege of grumbling at the hardships, i ought not to complain of them, though they are enough to break down the strongest men. i really like the journey, except when i am completely knocked up, or the smoke is exceptionally blinding. the snow in this yard is lying in masses twelve feet high, rising out of slush i do not know how many feet deep. it looks as if we had seen the last of the winter. the mercury is at ° now. it is very damp and cold sitting in a room with one side open to the snow, and the mud floor all slush from the drip from the roof. the fuel is wet, and though a man has attempted four times to light a fire, he has only succeeded in making an overpowering smoke, which prefers hanging heavily over the floor and me to making its exit through the hole in the roof provided for it. the door must be kept open to let in light, and it also lets in fowls and many cats. my _dhurrie_ has been trampled into the slush, and a deadly cold strikes up through it. last night a man (for hadji was _hors de combat_) brought in some live embers, and heaped some gum tragacanth thorns and animal fuel upon them; there was no chimney, and the hole in the roof was stopped by a clod. the result was unbearable. i covered my head with blankets, but it was still blinding and stifling, and i had to extinguish the fire with water and bear the cold, which then was about °. later, there was a tempest of snow and rain, with a sudden thaw, and water dripped with an irksome sound on my well-protected bed, no light would burn, and i had the mortification of knowing that the same drip was spoiling writing paper and stores which had been left open to dry! but a traveller rarely lies awake, and to-day by keeping my feet on a box, and living in a mackintosh, i am out of both drip and mud. such a room as i am now in is the ordinary room of a persian homestead. it is a cell of mud, not brick, either sun or kiln dried. its sides are cracked and let in air. its roof is mud, under which is some brushwood lying over the rafters. it has no light holes, but as the door has shrunk considerably from the door posts, it is not absolutely dark. it may be about twelve feet square. every part of it is blackened by years of smoke. the best of it is that it is raised two feet from the ground to admit of a fowl-house below, and opens on a rough platform which runs in front of all the dwelling-rooms. with the misfitting door and cracked sides it is much like a sieve. i have waited to describe a persian peasant's house till i had seen more of them. the yard is an almost unvarying feature, whether a small enclosure with a low wall and a gateway closed at night by a screen of reeds, or a great farmyard like this, with an arched entrance and dwelling-rooms for two or three generations along one or more of the sides. the house walls are built of mud, not sun-dried brick, and are only one story high. the soil near villages is mostly mud, and by leading water to a given spot, a pit of mortar for building material is at once made. this being dug up, and worked to a proper consistency by the feet of men, is then made into a wall, piece after piece being laid on by hand, till it reaches a height of four feet and a thickness of three--the imperative tradition of the persian builder. this is allowed a few days for hardening, when another layer of similar height but somewhat narrower is laid upon it, _takchahs_ or recesses a foot deep or more being worked into the thickness of the wall, and the process is repeated till the desired height is attained. when the wall is thoroughly dry it is plastered inside and outside with a mixture of mud and chopped straw, and if this plastering is repeated at intervals, the style of construction is very durable. the oven or _t[=a]nd[=u]r_ is placed in the floor of one room, at least, and answers for cooking and heating. a peasant's house has no windows, and the roof does not project beyond the wall. all roofs are flat. rude rafters of poplar are laid across the walls about two feet apart. in a _ketchuda's_ or a wealthier peasant's house, above these are laid in rows peeled poplar rods, two inches apart, then a rush mat, and then the resinous thorns of the tragacanth bush, which are not liable to decay; but in the poorer houses the owner contents himself with a coarse reed mat or a layer of brushwood above the rafters. on this is spread a well-trodden-down layer of mud, then eight or ten inches of dry earth, and the whole is thickly plastered with mixed straw and mud. a slight slope at the back with a long wooden spout carries off the water. such a roof is impervious to rain except in very severe storms if kept in order, that is, if it be plastered once a year, and well rolled after rain. few people are so poor as not to have a neatly-made stone roller on their roofs. if this is lacking, the roof must be well tramped after rain by bare feet, and in all cases the snow must be shovelled off. these roofs, among the peasantry, have no parapets. they are the paradise of dogs, and in hot weather the people take up their beds and sleep there, partly for coolness and partly because the night breeze gives freedom from mosquitos. in simple country life, though the premises of the peasants for the sake of security are contiguous, there are seldom even balustrades to the roofs, though in summer most domestic operations are carried on there. fifty years ago persian law sanctioned the stoning without trial or mercy of any one caught in the act of gazing into the premises of another, unless the gazer were the king. upon the courtyard stables, barns, and store-rooms open, but so far i notice that the granary is in the house, and that the six-feet-high clay receptacles for grain are in the living-room. looking from above upon a plain, the poplars which surround villages where there is a sufficiency of water attract the eye. at this season they are nothing but a brown patch on the snow. the villages themselves are of light brown mud, and are surrounded usually by square walls with towers at the corners, and all have a great gate. within the houses or hovels the families are huddled irregularly, with all their appurtenances, and in winter the flocks and herds are in subterranean pens beneath. in summer the animals go forth at sunrise and return at sunset. the walls, which give most of the villages a fortified aspect, used to afford the villagers a degree of protection against the predatory turkomans, and now give security to the flocks against lur and other robbers. every village has its _ketchuda_ or headman, who is answerable for the taxes, the safety of travellers, and other matters. _siashan, feb. ._--the men being a little better, we left saruk at nine on the th, i on a bright little baghdadi horse, in such good case that he frequently threw up his heels in happy playfulness. the temperature had fallen considerably, there had been a fresh snowfall, and the day was very bright. the arab horses are suffering badly in their eyes from the glare of the snow. if i had not had such a lively little horse i should have found the march a tedious one, for we were six hours in doing eleven and a half miles on a level! the head _charvadar_ had gone on early to make some arrangements, and the others loaded the animals so badly that hadji and the cook rolled off their mules into the deep semi-frozen slush from the packs turning just outside the gates. we had three mules with us with worn-out tackle, and the loads rolled over many times, the riders, who were too weak to help themselves, getting bad falls. as each load, owing to the broken tackle, took fifteen minutes to put on again, and the men could do little, a great deal of hard, exasperating work fell on m----. after one bad fall in a snowdrift myself, i rode on alone with one mule with a valuable burden. this, turning for the fourth time, was soon under his body, and he began to kick violently, quite dismaying me by the bang of his hoofs against cases containing scientific instruments. it was a droll comedy in the snow. i wanted to get hold of his halter, but every time i went near him he whisked round and flung up his heels, till i managed to cut the ragged surcingle and set him free, when i caught him in deep snow, in which my horse was very unwilling to risk himself. soon after leaving saruk, which, as i mentioned before, is famous for very fine carpets, we descended gently upon the great plain of feraghan, perhaps the largest carpet-producing district of persia. these carpets are very fine and their patterns are unique, bringing a very high price. this plain has an altitude of about feet, is miles in length by from to in breadth, is officially stated to have villages upon it, all agricultural and carpet producing, and is considerably irrigated by streams, which eventually lose themselves in a salt lake at its eastern extremity. it is surrounded by hills, with mountain ranges behind them, and must be, both as to productiveness and population, one of the most flourishing districts in persia. we were to have marched to kashgird, but on reaching the hamlet of ahang garang i found that abbas khan had taken quarters there, saying that kashgird was in ruins. hadji, who had allowed himself to roll off several times, was moaning and weeping on the floor of my room, groaning out, with many cries of _ya allah_, "let me stay here till i'm better; i don't want any wages; i shall be killed, oh, killed! oh, my family! i shall never see bushire any more!" though there was much reason to think he was shamming, i did the little that he calls his "work," and left him to smoke his opium pipe and sleep by the fire in peace. i was threatened with snow-blindness in one eye; in fact i saw nothing with it, and had to keep it covered up. one of the _charvadars_ lay moaning outside my room, poor fellow, taking chlorodyne every half-hour, and another had got a bad foot from frost-bite. they have been terribly exposed, and the soft snow at a higher temperature has been worse for them than the dry powdery snow at a low temperature, as it soaks their socks, shoes, and leggings, and then freezes. making liebig's beef tea warms one, and they like it even from a christian hand. the afghan orderly bore up bravely, but was very weak. indeed the prospect of getting these men to tihran is darkening daily. my room, though open to the snow at one end, was comfortable. the oven had been lighted twelve hours before, and it was delightful to hang one's feet into the warm hole. there were holes for light in the roof, and cold though it was, so long as daylight lasted these were never free from veiled faces looking down. in order to become thoroughly warm it was necessary to walk long and briskly on the roof, and this brought all the villagers below it to stare the stare of vacuity rather than of curiosity. a snow scene is always beautiful at sunset, and this was exceptionally so, as the long indigo shadows on the plain threw into greater definiteness the gleaming, glittering hills, at one time dazzling in the sunshine, at another flushed in the sunset. the plain of feraghan as seen from the roof was one smooth expanse of pure deep snow, broken only by brown splashes, where mud villages were emphasised by brown poplars, the unbroken, unsullied snow, two feet deep on the level and any number in the drifts, looking like a picture of the arctic ocean, magnificent in its solitude, one difficult track, a foot wide, the solitary link with the larger world which then seemed so very far away. things went better yesterday on the whole, though the mercury fell to zero in the night, and i was awakened several times by the cold of my open room, and when a number of people came at daylight for medicines my fingers were so benumbed that i could scarcely measure them. what a splendid field for a medical missionary loving his profession this plain with its villages would be, where there are curable diseases by the hundred! many of the suffering people have told me that they would give lodging and the best of their food to any english doctor who would travel among them. the loads were well balanced yesterday, and hadji only pulled his over once and only rolled off once, when abbas khan exclaimed, "he's not a man; why did allah make such a creature?" we got off at nine, the roofs being crowded to see us start. fuel is very scarce at ahang garang. for the cooking and "parlour" fire, the charge was forty-five _krans_, or about twenty-eight shillings! probably this included a large _modakel_. for a room from two to four _krans_ is expected. through m----'s kindness i now have a good horse to ride, and the difference in fatigue is incredible. we embarked again on the vast plain of snow. it was a grim day, and most ghastly and desolate this end of the plain looked, where the waters having done their fertilising work are lost in a salt lake, the absolutely white hills round the plain being emphasised by the blue neutral tint of the sky. for the first ten miles there was little more than a breeze, for the last ten a pitiless, ruthless, riotous north-easterly gale, blowing up the snow in hissing drifts, as it swept across the plain with a desolate screech. the coverings with which we were swaddled were soon penetrated. the cold seemed to enter the bones, and to strike the head and face like a red-hot hammer, stunning as it struck, the tears wrung from the eyes were frozen, at times even the eyelids were frozen together. the frozen snow hit one hard. hands and feet were by turns benumbed and in anguish, terrific blasts loaded with hard lumps of snow came down from the hills, snow was drifting from all the white ranges above us; on the more exposed part of the track the gusts burst with such violence as to force some of the mules off it to flounder in the deep snow; my arab was struck so mercilessly on his sore swollen eyes that at times i could scarcely, with my own useless hands, induce him to face the swirls of frozen snow. swifter and more resistless were the ice-laden squalls, more and more obliterated became the track, till after a fight of over three hours, and the ceaseless crossing of rolling hills and deep hollows, we reached the top of a wind-bared slope feet in altitude and saw this village, looking from that distance quite imposing, on a hill on the other side of a stream crossed by a brick bridge, with a ruined fort on a height above it. it promised shelter--that was all. below the village there was an expanse of snow, sloping up to pure white hills outlined against an indigo depth of ominous-looking clouds. while m---- went up a hill for some scientific work, i followed the orderly, who could scarcely sit on his horse from pain and weakness, into the most wretchedly ruinous, deserted-looking village i have yet seen, epitomising the disenchantment which a near view of an eastern city brings, and up a steep alley to a ruinous yard heaped with snow-covered ruins, on one side of which were some ruinous rooms, their backs opening on a precipice above the river, and on the north-east wind. i tumbled off my horse, abbas khan, the least sick of the men, with benumbed hands breaking my fall. the severe cold had stiffened all my joints. we could scarcely speak; the bones of my face were in intense pain, and i felt as if the cold were congealing my heart. with abbas khan's help i chose the rooms, the worst we have ever had. the one i took for myself has an open-work door facing the wind, and it is impossible to have a fire, for the draught blows sticks, ashes, and embers over the room. the others are worse. it is an awful night, blowing and snowing; all the men but two are _hors de combat_. the poor orderly, using an afghan phrase, said, "the wind has played the demon with me." he has a fearful cough, and hæmorrhage from the lungs or throat. the cook is threatened with pleurisy. it may truly be called "hospital sunday." the day has been chiefly spent in making mustard poultices, which m---- is constantly crossing the yard in three feet of snow to put on, and protectors for the chests and backs, preparing beef tea, making up medicines, etc. surely things must have reached their worst. out of seven men only one servant, and he an indian lad with a fearful squint and eyes so badly inflamed that he can hardly see where he puts things down, is able to do anything. two of the _charvadars_ are lying ill in the stable. mustard plasters, dover's powders, salicylate of soda, emetics, poultices, clinical thermometers, chlorodyne, and beef tea have been in requisition all day. the cook, the afghan orderly, and hadji seem really ill. at eight this morning groans at my door took me out, and one of the muleteers was lying there in severe pain, with the hard fine snow beating on him. later i heard fresh moaning on my threshold, and found hadji fallen there with my breakfast. i got him in and he fell again, upsetting the tea, and while i attended to him the big dogs ate up the _chapatties_! he had a good deal of fever, and severe rheumatism, and on looking at his eyes i saw that he was nearly blind. he lost his blue glasses some days ago. i sent him to bed in the "kitchen" for the whole day, where he lay groaning in comfort by the fire with his opium pipe and his tea. he thinks he will not survive the night, and has just given me his dying directions! afterwards m---- came for the thermometer and chlorodyne, and remarked that my room was "unfit for a beast." the truth is i share it with several very big dogs. it did look grotesquely miserable last night--black, fireless, wet, dirty, with all my things lying on the dirty floor, having been tumbled about by these dogs in their search for my last box of brand's meat lozenges, which they got out of a strong, tightly-tied-up bag, which they tore into strips. on going for my fur cloak to-day, these three dogs, who, i believe, would take on civilisation more quickly than their masters, were all found rolled up under it, and lying on my bed. the mercury in the "parlour" with a large fire cannot be raised above °. in my room to-night the wet floor is frozen hard and the mercury is °. this is nothing after ° and ° below zero, but the furious east wind and a singular dampness in the air make it very severe. yesterday, before the sky clouded over, there was a most remarkable ring or halo of prismatic colours round the sun, ominous of the storm which has followed. this place standing high without shelter is fearfully exposed; there is no milk and no comfort of any kind for the sick men. we have decided to wrap them up and move them to kûm, where there is a persian doctor with a european education; but it is a great risk, though the lesser of two. i have just finished four protectors for the back and chest, three-quarters of a yard long by sixteen inches wide, buttoning on the shoulders, of a very soft felt _namad_ nearly half an inch thick--a precaution much to be commended. i think that hadji, though in great pain, poor fellow, is partly shamming. he professed this evening to have violent fever, and the thermometer shows that he has none. even the few things which i thought he had done for me, such as making _chapatties_, i find have been done by others. it is a pity for himself as well as for me that he should be so incorrigibly lazy. _taj khatan, feb. ._--yesterday we had a severe march, and owing first to the depth of the snow, and then to the depth of the mud, we were seven hours in doing twenty-one miles. the wind was still intensely cold--bitter indeed. there are few remarks to be made about a country buried in snow. the early miles were across the fag end of the dazzling plain of feraghan, which instead of being covered with villages is an uninhabited desert with a salt lake. then the road winds among mountains of an altitude of and feet and more, its highest point being feet, where we began a descent which will land us at tihran at a level under feet. snowy mountains and snowy plains were behind--bare brown earth was to come all too soon. winding wearily round low hills, meeting caravans of camels to which we had to give way, and of asses floundering in the snow, we came in the evening to a broad slope with villages, poplars, walnuts, and irrigated lands, then to the large and picturesquely situated village of givr on a steep bank above a rapid stream, and just at dusk to the important village of jairud, also on high ground above the same river, and surrounded by gardens and an extraordinary number of fruit trees. the altitude is feet.[ ] i had a _balakhana_, very cold, and was fairly benumbed for some time after the long cold march. a great many people applied for medicine, and some of the maladies, specially when they affect children, make one sick at heart. hadji is affecting to be stone deaf, so he no longer interprets for sick people, which creates an additional difficulty. we left this morning at ten, descended feet, and suddenly left the snow behind. vast, gray, and grim the snow-covered mountains looked as they receded into indigo gloom, with snow clouds drifting round their ghastly heads and across the dazzling snow plains in which we had been floundering for thirty days. it is strange to see mother earth once more--rocky, or rather stony hills, mud hills, mud plains, mud slopes, a brown world, with a snow world above. two pink hills rise above the brown plain, and some toothed peaks, but the rest of the view is simply hills and slopes of mud and gravel, bearing thorns, and the relics of last year's thistles and wormwood. the atmospheric colouring is, however, very fine. [illustration: persian bread-making.] this is a large village with beehive roofs in, and of, mud. a quagmire surrounds it and is in the centre of it, and the crumbling houses are thrown promiscuously down upon it. it is nearly the roughest place i have seen, and the worst accommodation, though abbas khan says it is the best house in the village. my room has an oven in the floor, neatly lined with clay, and as i write the women are making bread by a very simple process. the oven is well heated by the live embers of animal fuel. they work the flour and water dough, to which a piece of leaven from the last baking has been added, into a flat round cake, about eighteen inches in diameter and half an inch thick, place it quickly on a very dirty cushion, and clap it against the concave interior of the oven, withdrawing the cushion. in one minute it is baked and removed. a sloping hole in the floor leads to the fowl-house. the skin of a newly-killed sheep hangs up. a pack saddle and gear take up one corner, my bed another, and the owner's miscellaneous property fills up the rest of the blackened, cracked mud hovel, thick with the sooty cobwebs and dust of generations. the door, which can only be shut by means of a wooden bolt outside, is six inches from the ground, so that fowls and cats run in and out with impunity. behind my bed there is a doorless entrance to a dark den, full of goat's hair, bones, and other stores. in front there is a round hole for letting in light, which i persistently fill up with a blanket which is as persistently withdrawn. there is no privacy, for though the people are glad to let their rooms, they only partially vacate them, and are in and out all the time. outside there is mud a foot deep, then a steep slope, and a disgusting green pool, and the drinking water is nauseous and brackish. the village people here and everywhere seem of a very harmless sort. _kûm, ash wednesday, ._--it was really very difficult to get away from taj khatan. the _charvadar_ came on here, leaving only two men to load twelve mules. m---- practically had to load them himself, and to reload them when the tackle broke and the loads turned. hadji and the cook were quite incapable, the afghan orderly, who seemed like a dying man, was left behind; in fact there were no servants and no interpreters, and the groom was so ill he could hardly sit on a horse. the march of twenty-five miles took fully eight hours, but on the arab horse, and with an occasional gallop, i got through quite comfortably, and have nothing to complain of. the road lies through a country of mud hills, brown usually, drab sometimes, streaked with deep madder red, and occasionally pale green clay--stones, thistles, and thorns their only crop. [i passed over much of this country in the spring, and though there were a few flowers, chiefly bulbs, and the thorns were clothed with a scanty leafage, and the thistles and artemisia were green-gray instead of buff, the general aspect of the region was the same.] there was not a village on the route, only two or three heaps of deserted ruins and two or three ruinous mud _imamzadas_, no cultivation, streams, or springs, the scanty pools brackish, here and there the glittering whiteness of saline efflorescence, not a tree or even bush, nothing living except a few goats, picking up, who knows how, a scanty living,--a blighted, blasted region, a land without a _raison d'être_. then came low mud ranges, somewhat glorified by atmosphere, higher hills on the left, ghastly with snow which was even then falling, glimpses far away to the northward of snowy mountains among heavy masses of sunlit clouds, an ascent, a gap in the mud hills, some low peaks of white, green, and red clay, a great plain partly green with springing wheat, and in the centre, in the glow of sunset, the golden dome and graceful minarets of the shrine of fatima, the sister of reza, groups of trees, and the mud houses, mud walls, and many domes and minarets of the sacred city of kûm. descending, we trotted for some miles through irrigated wheat, passed a walled garden or two, rode along the bank of the abi khonsar or abi kûm, which we had followed down from givr, admired the gleaming domes and tiled minarets of the religious buildings on its bank, and the nine-arched brick bridge which spans it, and reached a sort of hotel outside the gates, a superior caravanserai with good, though terribly draughty guest-rooms upstairs, furnished with beds, chairs, and tables, suited for the upper class of pilgrims who resort to this famous shrine. to have arrived here in good health, and well able for the remaining journey of nearly a hundred miles, is nothing else than a triumph of race, of good feeding through successive generations, of fog-born _physique_, nurtured on damp east winds! there is an air of civilisation about this place. the rooms have windows with glass panes and doors which shut, a fountain in front, beyond that a garden, and then the river, and the golden shrine of fatima and its exquisite minarets. my door opens on a stone-flagged roof with a fine view of the city and hills--an excellent place for taking exercise. so strong is mohammedan fanaticism here that much as i should like to see the city, it would be a very great risk to walk through it except in disguise. m---- borrowed a _taktrawan_ from the telegraph clerk and sent it back with two horses to taj khatan for the orderly, who was left there very ill yesterday morning, under abbas khan's charge, the khan feeling so ill that he lay down inside it instead of riding. hadji gave up work altogether, so i unpacked and pitched my bed, glad to be warmed by exercise. near p.m. abbas khan burst into the "parlour" saying that the _taktrawan_ horses were stuck in the mud. he evidently desired to avoid the march back, but two mules have been sent to replace the horses, and two more are to go to-morrow. the orderly was so ill that i expect his corpse rather than himself. this morning hadji, looking fearful, told me that he should die to-day, and he and the cook are now in bed in opposite corners of a room below, with a good fire, feverish and moaning. it is really a singular disaster, and shows what the severity of the journey has been. the persian doctor, with a european medical education, on whom our hopes were built, when asked to come and see these poor men, readily promised to do so; but the princess, the shah's daughter, whose physician he is, absolutely refuses permission, on the ground that we have come through a region in which there is supposed to be cholera! i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] this custom, supposed to be an allusion to our lord and his mother, is described by morier in his _second journey in persia_. [ ] jairud exports fruit to kûm and even to tihran, and in the autumn i was interested to find that the best pears and peaches in the hamadan market came from its luxuriant orchards. letter vii kÛm, _feb. _. at five yesterday afternoon abbas khan rode in saying that the _taktrawan_, with the orderly much better, was only three miles off. this was good news; a mattress was put down for him next the fire and all preparations for his comfort were made. snow showers had been falling much of the day, there was a pitiless east wind, and as darkness came on snow fell persistently. two hours passed, but no _taktrawan_ arrived. at . abbas khan was ordered to go in search of it with a good lantern; , , o'clock came without any news. at . , the man whose corpse i had feared to see came in much exhausted, having crawled for two miles through the mire and snow. the _sowar_, who pretended to start with the lantern, never went farther than the coffee-room at the gate, where he had spent an unconscientious but cheery evening! in the pitch darkness the _taktrawan_ and mules had fallen off the road into a gap, the _taktrawan_ was smashed, and a good white mule, one of the "light division," was killed, her back being broken. this was not the only disaster. hadji had lain down on the borrowed mattress and it had taken fire from the live ashes of his pipe and was burned, and he was a little scorched. the telegraphist was to have started for isfahan the next morning with his wife and child in the litter, in order to vacate the house for the new official and his family, and their baggage had actually started, but now they are detained till this _taktrawan_ can be repaired. in the meantime another official has arrived with his goods and a large family, a most uncomfortable situation for both parties, but they bear it with the utmost cheerfulness and good nature. last night i made hadji drink a mug of hot milk with two tablespoonfuls of brandy in it, and it worked wonders. this morning, instead of a nearly blind man groping his way about with difficulty, i beheld a man with nothing the matter but a small speck on one eye. it must have been snow-blindness. he looks quite "spry." it is not only the alcohol which has cured him, but that we are parting by mutual consent; and feeling sorry for the man, i have given him more than his wages, and his full demand for his journey back to bushire, with additional warm clothing. m---- has also given him a handsome present. i fear he has deceived me, and that the stone deafness, feebleness, idiocy, and the shaking, palsied gait of a man of ninety--all but the snow-blindness--have been assumed in order to get his return journey paid, when he found that the opportunities for making money were not what he expected. it is better to be deceived twenty times than to be hard on these poor fellows once, but he has been exasperating, and i feel somewhat aggrieved at having worked so hard to help a man who was "malingering." the last seen of him was an active, erect man walking at a good pace by the side of his mule, at least forty years thrown off. [he did not then leave kûm, but being seized with pleurisy was treated with great kindness by mr. lyne the electrician, and afterwards by the amin-es-sultan (the prime minister), who was visiting kûm, and who, thinking to oblige me, brought him up to tihran in his train!] those who had known him for years gave a very bad account of him, but said that if he liked he could be a good servant. it is the first time that i have been unfortunate in my travelling servant. the english telegraph line, and a post-office, open once a week, are the tokens of civilisation in kûm. a telegraphic invitation from the british minister in tihran, congratulatory telegrams on our safety from tihran, bushire, and india, and an opportunity for posting letters, make one feel once more in the world. the weather is grim, bitterly cold, with a strong north-east wind, raw and damp, but while snow is whitening the hills only rain and sleet fall here. the sun has not shone since we came, but the strong cold air is invigorating like our own climate. taking advantage of it being friday, the mohammedan day of rest, when most of the shops are closed and the bazars are deserted, we rode through a portion of them preceded by the wild figure of abbas khan, and took tea at the telegraph office, where they were most kind and pleasant regarding the accident which had put them to so much inconvenience. kûm is on the beaten track, and has a made road to tihran. almost every book of travels in persia has something to say upon it, but except that it is the second city in persia in point of sanctity, and that it thrives as much by the bodies of the dead which are brought in thousands for burial as by the tens of thousands of pilgrims who annually visit the shrine of fatima, and that it is renowned for fanaticism, there is not much to say about it. situated in a great plain, the gleam of its golden dome and its slender minarets is seen from afar, and the deep green of its orchards, and the bright green of the irrigated and cultivated lands which surround it, are a splash of welcome fertility on the great brown waste. singular toothy peaks of striated marl of brilliant colouring--red, blue, green, orange, and salt peaks very white--give a curious brilliancy to its environment, but this salt, which might be a source of wealth to the city, is not worked, only an ass-load or two at a time being brought in to supply the necessities of the market. [illustration: the shrine of fatima.] the shrine of fatima, the sister of reza the eighth imam, who sleeps at meshed, is better to kûm than salt mines or aught else. moslems, though they regard women with unspeakable contempt, agree to reverence fatima as a very holy and almost worshipful person, and her dust renders kûm a holy place, attracting tens of thousands of pilgrims every year, although, unlike pilgrimages to meshed and kerbela, kûm confers no lifelong designation on those by whom it exists. its estimated population is , souls, and at times this number is nearly doubled. pilgrimage consists in a visit to the tomb of fatima, paying a fee, and in some cases adding a votive offering. vows of abstinence from some special sin are frequently made at the shrine and are carefully registered. the dead, however, who are annually brought in thousands to be buried in the sacred soil which surrounds the shrine, are the great source of the wealth of kûm. these corpses travel, as to kerbela, on mules, four being lashed on one animal occasionally, some fresh, some decomposing, others only bags of exhumed bones. the graves occupy an enormous area, of which the shrine is the centre. the kings of the kajar dynasty, members of royal families, and saints are actually buried within the precincts of the shrine. the price of interments varies with the proximity to the dust of fatima from six _krans_ to one hundred _tumans_. the population may be said to be a population of undertakers. death meets one everywhere. the ab-i-khonsar, which supplies the drinking water, percolates through "dead men's bones and all uncleanness." vestments for the dead are found in the bazars. biers full and empty traverse the streets in numbers. stone-cutting for gravestones is a most lucrative business. the _charvadars_ of kûm prosper on caravans of the dead. there is a legion of gravediggers. kûm is a gruesome city, a vast charnel-house, yet its golden dome and minarets brighten the place of death. the dome of fatima is covered with sheets of copper plated with gold an eighth of an inch in thickness, and the ornament at the top of the dome, which is of pure gold, is said to weigh lbs. the slender minarets which front this _imamzada_ are covered with a mosaic of highly-glazed tiles of exquisite tints, in which an azure blue, a canary yellow, and an iridescent green predominate, and over all there is a sheen of a golden hue. the shrine is inaccessible to christians. i asked a persian doctor if i might look in for one moment at the threshold of the outer court, and he replied in french, "are you then weary of life?"[ ] my indian servant, an educated man on whose faithful though meagre descriptions i can rely, visited the shrine and describes the dome as enriched with arabesques in mosaic and as hung with _ex votos_, consisting chiefly of strips of silk and cotton. the tomb itself, he says, is covered with a wooden ark, with certain sacred sentences cut upon it, and this is covered by a large brown shawl. round this ark, which is under the dome, kerman, kashmir, and indian shawls are laid down as carpets. this open space is surrounded with steel railings inlaid with gold after the fashion of the _niello_ work of japan, and the whole is enclosed with a solid silver fence, the rails of which are "as thick as two thumbs, and as high as a tall man's head." this _imamzada_ itself is regarded as of great antiquity. two persian kings, who reigned in the latter part of the seventeenth century, are buried near the beautiful minarets, which are supposed to be of the same date. there are many mosques and minarets in kûm, besides a quantity of conical _imamzadas_, the cones of which have formerly been covered with glazed blue tiles of a turquoise tint, some of which still remain. it was taken by the afghans in , and though partially rebuilt is very ruinous. it has a mud wall, disintegrating from neglect, surrounded occasionally by a ditch, and at other times by foul and stagnant ponds. the ruinousness of kûm can scarcely be exaggerated. the bazars are large and very busy, and are considerably more picturesque than those of kirmanshah. the town lives by pilgrims and corpses, and the wares displayed to attract the former are more attractive than usual. there are nearly shops, of which forty-three sell manchester goods almost exclusively. coarse china, and pottery often of graceful shapes with a sky-blue glaze, and water-coolers are among the industries of this city, which also makes shoes, and tans leather with pomegranate bark. the ab-i-khonsar is now full and rapid, but is a mere thread in summer. the nine-arched bridge, with its infamously paved roadway eighteen feet wide, is an interesting object from all points of view, for while its central arch has a span of forty-five feet, the others have only spans of twenty. the gateway beyond the bridge is tawdrily ornamented with blue and green glazed tiles. after seeing several of the cities of persia, i am quite inclined to give kûm the palm for interest and beauty of aspect, when seen from any distant point of view. that it is a "holy" city, and that a pilgrimage to its shrine is supposed to atone for sin, are its great interests. its population is composed in large proportion of _mollahs_ and _seyyids_, or descendants of mohammed, and as a whole is devoted to the reigning shiah creed. it has a theological college of much repute, established by fath' ali shah, which now has students. the women are said to be very devout, and crowd the mosques on friday evenings, when their devotions are led by an _imam_. the men are fanatically religious, though the fanaticism is somewhat modified. no wine may be sold in kûm, and no jew or armenian is allowed to keep a shop. kûm, being a trading city, manufactures a certain amount of public opinion in its business circles, which differs not very considerably from that which prevails at kirmanshah. the traders accept it as a foregone conclusion that russia will occupy persia as far as isfahan on the death of the present shah, and regard such a destiny as "fate." if only their religion is not interfered with, it matters little, they say, whether they pay their taxes to the shah or the czar. to judge from their speech, islam is everything to them, and their country very little, and the strong bond of the faith which rules life and thought from the pillars of hercules to the chinese frontier far outweighs the paltry considerations of patriotism. but my impression is that all orientals prefer the tyrannies and exactions, and the swiftness of injustice or justice of men of their own creed and race to good government on the part of unintelligible aliens, and that though persians seem pretty comfortable in the prospect of a double occupation of persia, its actual accomplishment might strike out a flash of patriotism. probably this ruinous, thinly-peopled country, with little water and less fuel, and only two roads which deserve the name, has possibilities of resurrection under greatly changed circumstances. of the two occupations which are regarded as certain, i think that most men, at least in central and southern persia, would prefer an english occupation, but every one says, "england talks and does not act," and that "russia will pour , troops into persia while england is talking in london." i. l. b. footnote: [ ] i spent two days at kûm five weeks later, and saw the whole of it in disguise, and in order to attain some continuity of description i put my two letters together. letter viii caravanserai of aliabad, _feb. _. twelve hours and a half of hard riding have brought us here in two days. no doctor could be obtained in kûm, and it was necessary to bring the sick men on as quickly as possible for medical treatment. it was bitterly cold on the last day, though the altitude is only feet, and it was a tiresome day, for i had not only to look over and repack, but to clean the cooking utensils and other things, which had not been touched apparently since we left baghdad! this is a tedious part of the journey, a "beaten track" with few features of interest, the great highway from isfahan to tihran, a road of dreary width; where it is a made road running usually perfectly straight, with a bank and a ditch on each side. the thaw is now complete, and travelling consists of an attempt to get on by the road till it becomes an abyss which threatens to prove bottomless, then there is a plunge and a struggle to the top of the bank, or over the bank to the trodden waste, but any move can be only temporary, the all-powerful mire regulates the march. the snow is nothing to the mud. frequently carcasses of camels, mules, and asses, which have lain down to die under their loads, were passed, then caravans with most of the beasts entangled in the miry clay, unable to rise till they were unloaded by men up to their knees in the quagmire, and, worst of all, mules loaded with the dead, so loosely tied up in planks that in some cases when the mule flounders and falls, the miserable relics of humanity tumble out upon the swamp; and these scenes of falling, struggling, and even perishing animals are repeated continually along the level parts of this scarcely passable highroad. our loads, owing to bad tackle, were always coming off, the groom's mule fell badly, the packs came off another, and half an hour was spent in catching the animal, then i was thrown from my horse into soft mud. cultivation ceases a short distance from kûm, giving place to a brown waste, with patches of saline efflorescence upon it, on which high hills covered partially with snow send down low spurs of brown mud. the water nearly everywhere is brackish, and only just drinkable. after crossing a rapid muddy river, nearly dry in summer, by a much decayed bridge of seven or eight low arches, we reached _terra firma_, and a long gradual ascent and a series of gallops brought us to the large caravanserai of shashgird, an immense place with imposing pretensions which are fully realised within. in the outer court camels were lying in rows. a fine tiled archway leads to an immense quadrangle, with a fine stone _abambar_ or covered receptacle for water in the middle. all round the quadrangle are arched recesses or mangers, each with a room at the back, to the number of eighty. at two of the corners there are enclosed courtyards with fountains, several superior rooms with beds (much to be avoided), chairs, mirrors, and tables fairly clean--somewhat dreary luxury, but fortunately at this season free from vermin. that caravanserai can accommodate men in rooms, and mules. to-day's long march, which, however, has had more road suitable for galloping, has been over wild, weird, desolate, god-forsaken country, interesting from its desolation and its great wastes, forming part of the kavir or great salt desert of persia, absolutely solitary, with scarcely a hamlet--miles of the great highway of persia without a living creature, no house, no bush, nothing. later, there were some vultures feasting on a dead camel, and a mule-load of two bodies down in the mud. some miles from shashgird, far from the road, there is a large salt lake over which some stationary mists were brooding. beyond this an ascent among snow clouds along some trenched land where a few vines and saplings have been planted leads to a caravanserai built for the accommodation of state officials on their journeys, where in falling snow we vindicated our origin in the triumphant west by taking lunch on a windy verandah outside rather than in the forlorn dampness of the inside, and brought a look of surprise even over the impassive face of the _seraidar_. when we left the snow was falling in large wet flakes, and the snow clouds were drifting wildly among the peaks of a range which we skirted for a few miles and then crossed at a considerable height among wonderful volcanic formations, mounds of scoriæ, and outcrops of volcanic rock, hills of all shapes fantastically tumbled about, chiefly black, looking as if their fires had only just died out, streaked and splotched with brilliant ash--orange, carmine, and green--a remarkable volcanic scene, backed by higher hills looking ghastly in the snow. after passing over an absolutely solitary region of camel-brown plains and slopes at a gallop, m---- a little in front always, and abbas khan, the wildest figure imaginable, always half a length behind, the _thud_ of the thundering hoofs mingling with the screech of the cutting north wind which, coming over the snowy elburz range, benumbed every joint, on the slope of a black volcanic hill we came upon the lofty towers and gaudy tiled front of this great caravanserai, imposing at a distance in the solitude and snow clouds, but shabby on a nearer view, and tending to disintegrate from the presence of saltpetre in the bricks and mortar. there are successions of terraces and tanks of water with ducks and geese upon them, and buildings round the topmost terrace intended to be imposing. the _seraidar_ is expecting the amin-es-sultan (the prime minister) and his train, who will occupy rather a fine though tawdry "suite of apartments"; but though they were at our service, i prefer the comparative cosiness of a small, dark, damp room, though with a very smoky chimney, as i find to my cost. _british legation, tihran, feb. ._--the night was very cold, and the reveille specially unwelcome in the morning. the people were more than usually vague about the length of the march, some giving the distance at twenty-five miles, and others making it as high as thirty-eight. as we did a good deal of galloping and yet took more than seven hours, i suppose it may be about twenty-eight. fortunately we could desert the caravan, as the caravanserais are furnished and supply tea and bread. the baggage mules took ten hours for the march. the day was dry and sunny, and the scenery, if such a tract of hideousness can be called scenery, was at its best. its one charm lies in the solitude and freedom of a vast unpeopled waste. the "made road" degenerates for the most part into a track "made" truly, but rather by the passage of thousands of animals during a long course of ages than by men's hands. this track winds among low ranges of sand and mud hills, through the "pass of the angel of death," crosses salt and muddy streams, gravelly stretches, and quagmires of mud and tenacious clay, passing through a country on the whole inconceivably hideous, unfinished, frothy, and saturated with salt--the great brown desert which extends from tihran to quetta in beloochistan, a distance of miles. on a sunny slope we met the prime minister with a considerable train of horsemen. he stopped and spoke with extreme courtesy, through an interpreter, for, unlike most persians of the higher class, he does not speak french. he said we had been for some time expected at tihran, and that great fears were entertained for our safety, which we had heard at kûm. he is a pleasant-looking man with a rather european expression, not more than thirty-two or thirty-three, and in spite of intrigues and detractors has managed to keep his hazardous position for some years. his mother was lately buried at kûm, and he was going thither on pilgrimage. after the usual compliments he bowed his farewells, and the gay procession with its brilliant trappings and prancing horses flashed by. the social standing of a persian is evidenced by the size of his retinue, and the first of the shah's subjects must have been attended by fully forty well-mounted men, besides a number of servants who were riding with his baggage animals. shortly after passing him a turn among the hills brought the revelation through snow clouds of the magnificent snow-covered chain of the elburz mountains, with the huge cone of demavend, their monarch, , feet[ ] in height, towering high above them, gleaming sunlit above the lower cloud-masses. swampy water-courses, a fordable river crossed by a broad bridge of five arches, more low hills, more rolling desert, then a plain of mud irrigated for cultivation, difficult ground for the horses, the ruins of a deserted village important enough to have possessed two _imamzadas_, and then we reached the husseinabad, which has very good guest-rooms, with mirrors on the walls. this caravanserai is only one march from tihran, and it seemed as if all difficulties were over. abbas khan and the sick orderly were sent on early, with a baggage mule loaded with evening dress and other necessities of civilisation; the caravan was to follow at leisure, and m---- and i started at ten, without attendants, expecting to reach tihran early in the afternoon. it is six days since that terrible ride of ten hours and a half, and my bones ache as i recall it. i never wish to mount a horse again. it had been a very cold night, and for some time after we started it was doubtful whether snow or rain would gain the day, but after an hour of wet snow it decided on rain, and there was a steady downpour all day. the elburz range, which the day before had looked so magnificent when fifty miles off, was blotted out. this was a great disappointment. an ascent of low, blackish volcanic hills is made by a broad road of gray gravel, which a torrent has at some time frequented. thorns and thistles grow there, and skeletons of animals abound. everything is grim and gray. from these hills we descended into the kavir, a rolling expanse of friable soil, stoneless, strongly impregnated with salt, but only needing sufficient water to wash the salt out of it and to irrigate it to become as prolific as it is now barren. it is now a sea of mud crossed by a broad road indicated by dykes, that never-to-be-forgotten mud growing deeper as the day wore on. hour after hour we plunged through it, sometimes trying the road, and on finding it impassable scrambling through the ditches and over the dykes to the plain, which after offering firmer foothold for a time became such a "slough of despond" that we had to scramble back to the road, and so on, hour after hour, meeting nothing but one ghastly caravan of corpses, and wretched asses falling in the mud. at mid-day, scrambling up a gravel hill with a little wormwood upon it, and turning my back to the heavy rain, i ate a lunch of dates and ginger, insufficient sustenance for such fatigue. on again!--the rain pouring, the mud deepening, my spine in severe pain. we turned off to a caravanserai, mostly a heap of ruins, the roofs having given way under the weight of the snow, and there i sought some relief from pain by lying down for the short thirty minutes which could be spared in the _seraidar's_ damp room. it was then growing late in the afternoon, all landmarks had disappeared in a brooding mist, there were no habitations, and no human beings of whom to ask the way. the pain returned severely as soon as i mounted, and increased till it became hardly bearable. ceaseless mud, ceaseless heavy rain, a plain of mud, no refuge from mud and water, attempts to gallop were made with the risk of the horses falling into holes and even _kanaats_. m---- rode in front. not a word was spoken. a gleaming dome, with minarets and wood, appeared below the shimran hills. unluckily, where two roads met one looked impassable and we took the other, which, though it eventually took us to tihran, was a _détour_ of some miles. in the evening, when i was hoping that tihran was at hand, we reached the town of shah abdul azim, built among the ruins of an ancient city, either rhages or rhei. the gilded dome is the shrine of abdul azim, and is a great place of pilgrimage of the picnic order from tihran. the one railroad of persia runs from the capital to this town. as we floundered in darkness along wide roads planted with trees, there was the incongruity of a railway whistle, and with deep breathing and much glare an engine with some carriages passed near the road, taking away with its harsh western noises that glorious freedom of the desert which outweighs all the hardship even of a winter journey. it was several miles from thence to the gate of tihran. it was nearly pitch dark when we got out of abdul azim and the rain still fell heavily. in that thick rainy darkness no houses were visible, even if they exist, there were no passengers on foot or on horseback, it was a "darkness which might be felt." there was a causeway which gave foothold below the mud, but it was full of holes and broken culverts, deep in slime, and seemed to have water on each side not particular in keeping within bounds. it was necessary to get on, lest the city gates should be shut, and by lifting and spurring the jaded horses they were induced to trot and canter along that road of pitfalls. i have had many a severe ride in travelling, but never anything equal to that last two hours. the severe pain and want of food made me so faint that i was obliged to hold on to the saddle. i kept my tired horse up, but each flounder i thought would be his last. there was no guidance but an occasional flash from the hoofs of the horse in front, and the word "spur" ringing through the darkness. after an hour of riding in this desperate fashion we got into water, and among such dangerous holes that from that point we were obliged to walk our horses, who though they were half dead still feebly responded to bit and spur. we reached the dimly-lighted city gate just as half of it was shut, and found abbas khan waiting there. the caravan with the other sick men never reached tihran till late the next morning. at the gate we learned that it was two miles farther to the british legation, and that there was no way for me to get there but on horseback. one lives through a good deal, but i all but succumbed to the pain and faintness. inside the gate there was an open sea of liquid mud, across which, for a time, certain lights shed their broken reflections. there was a railway shriek, and then the appearance of a station with shunting operations vaguely seen in a vague glare. then a tramway track buried under several inches of slush came down a slope, and crowded tramway cars with great single lamps came down the narrow road on horses too tired to be frightened, and almost too tired to get out of the way. then came a street of mean houses and meaner shops lighted with kerosene lamps, a region like the slums of a new american city, with _cafés_ and saloons, barbers' shops, and european enormities such as gazogenes and effervescing waters in several windows. later, there were frequent foot passengers preceded by servants carrying huge waxed cambric lanterns of a chinese shape, then a square with barracks and artillery, a causewayed road dimly lit, then darkness and heavier rain and worse mud, through which the strange spectacle of a carriage and pair incongruously flashed. by that time even the courage and stamina of an arab horse could hardly keep mine on his legs, and with a swimming head and dazed brain i could hardly guide him, as i had done from the gate chiefly by the wan gleam of abbas khan's pale horse; and expecting to fall off every minute, i responded more and more feebly and dubiously to the question frequently repeated out of the darkness, "are you surviving?" just as endurance was on the point of giving way, we turned from the road through a large gateway into the extensive grounds which surround the british legation, a large building forming three sides of a quadrangle, with a fine stone staircase leading up to the central door. every window was lighted, light streamed from the open door, splashed carriages were dashing up and setting down people in evening dress, there were crowds of servants about, and it flashed on my dazed senses that it must be after eight, and that there was a dinner party! arriving from the mud of the kavir and the slush of the streets, after riding ten hours in ceaseless rain on a worn-out horse; caked with mud from head to foot, dripping, exhausted, nearly blind from fatigue, fresh from mud hovels and the congenial barbarism of the desert, and with the rags and travel-stains of a winter journey of forty-six days upon me, light and festivity were overwhelming. alighting at a side door, scarcely able to stand, i sat down in a long corridor, and heard from an english steward that "dinner is waiting." his voice sounded very far off, and the once familiar announcement came like a memory out of the remote past. presently a gentleman appeared in evening dress, wearing a star, which conveyed to my fast-failing senses that it was sir h. drummond wolff. it was true that there was a large dinner party, and among the guests the minister with thoughtful kindness had invited all to whom i had letters of introduction. but it was no longer possible to make any effort, and i was taken up to a room in which the comforts of english civilisation at first made no impression upon me, and removing only the mackintosh cloak, weighted with mud, which had served me so well, i lay down on the hearthrug before a great coal fire till four o'clock the next morning. and "so the tale ended," and the winter journey with its tremendous hardships and unbounded mercies was safely accomplished.[ ] i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] the altitude of demavend is variously stated. [ ] i remained for three weeks as sir h. drummond wolff's guest at the british legation, receiving from him that courtesy and considerate kindness which all who have been under his roof delight to recall. i saw much of what is worth seeing in tihran, including the shah and several of the persian statesmen, and left the legation with every help that could be given for a long and difficult journey into the mountains of luristan. notes on tihran[ ] it is a matter of individual taste, but few cities in the east interest me in which national characteristics in architecture, costume, customs, and ways generally are either being obliterated or are undergoing a partial remodelling on western lines. an eastern city pure and simple, such as canton, niigata, or baghdad, even with certain drawbacks, forms a harmonious whole gratifying to the eye and to a certain sense of fitness; while cairo, tokio, lahore, and i will now add tihran, produce the effect of a series of concussions. tihran--set down on a plain, a scorched desert, the sublimity of which is interfered with by _kanaats_ or underground watercourses with their gravel mounds and ruinous shafts--has few elements of beauty or grandeur in its situation, even though "the triumphant barbarism of the desert" sweeps up to its gates, and the scored and channelled shimran range, backed by the magnificent peak, or rather cone, of demavend, runs to the north-east of the city within only ten miles of its walls. the winter with its snow and slush disappeared abruptly two days after i reached tihran, and as abruptly came the spring--a too transient enjoyment--and in a few days to brownness and barrenness succeeded a tender mist of green over the trees in the watered gardens, rapidly thickening into dark leafage in which the _bulbul_ sang, and nature helped by art spread a carpet of violets and irises over the brown earth. but all of verdure and greenery that there is lies within the city walls. outside is the unconquerable desert, rolling in endless shades of buff and brown up to the elburz range, and elsewhere to the far horizon. situated in the most depressed part of an uninteresting waste in lat. ° ´ n. and long. ° ´ e., and at an altitude of feet, the climate is one of extremes, the summer extreme being the most severe. for some weeks the heat is nearly insupportable, and the legations, and all of the four hundred europeans who are not bound to the city by a fate which they execrate, betake themselves to "yailaks," or summer quarters on the slopes of the adjacent mountains. entering tihran in the darkness, it was not till i saw it coming back from gulahek, the "yailak" of the british legation, when the mud was drying up and the willows were in their first young green, that i formed any definite idea of its aspect, which is undeniably mean, and presents no evidences of antiquity; indeed, it has no right to present any, for as a capital it only came into existence a century ago, with the first king of the present kajar dynasty. the walls are said to be eleven miles in circuit, and give the impression of being much too large, so many are the vacant spaces within them. they consist chiefly of a broad ditch, and a high sloping rampart without guns. twelve well-built domed gateways give access to the city. these are decorated with glazed tiles of bright colours and somewhat gaudy patterns and designs, representing genii, lions, and combats of mythical heroes. above the wall are seen tree-tops, some tile-covered minarets, the domes of two mosques, and the iron ribs of a roofless theatre in the shah's garden, in which under a temporary awning the _tazieh_ or passion play (elsewhere referred to) is acted once a year in presence of the shah and several thousand spectators. entering by a gateway over which is depicted a scene in the life of rustem, the achilles of persia, or by the sheikh abdul azim gate, where the custom-house is established and through which all caravans of goods must reach tihran, the magnitude of the untidy vacant spaces, and the shabby mud hovels which fringe them, create an unfavourable impression. then there are the inevitable ruinousness, the alleys with broken gutters in the centre, the pools of slime or the heaps of dust according to the weather, and the general shabbiness of blank walls of sun-dried bricks which give one the impression, i believe an unjust one, of decay and retrogression. i never went through those mean outskirts of tihran which are within the city walls without being reminded of a man in shabby clothes preposterously too big for him. the population is variously estimated at from , to , souls. it varies considerably with the presence or absence of the court. the streets and bazars are usually well filled with people, and i did not see many beggars or evidences of extreme poverty, even in the jewish quarter. on the whole it impressed me as a bustling place, but the bustle is not picturesque. it is framed in mean surroundings, and there is little variety in costume, and much sober if not sad colouring. in "old" tihran the alleys are crooked, dirty, and narrow, and the bazars chiefly frequented by the poor are very mean and untidy; but the better bazars, whether built as some are, round small domed open spaces, or in alleys roofed with low brick domes, are decidedly handsome, and are light, wide, clean, and in every way adapted for the purposes of buying and selling. european women, even though unattended, can walk through them quite freely without being mobbed or stared at. the best bazars are piled with foreign merchandise, to the _apparent_ exclusion of native goods, which, if they are of the better quality, must be searched for in out-of-the-way corners. indeed, if people want fine carpets, _curios_, rich embroideries, inlaid arms, and kerman stuffs, they must resort to the itinerant dealers, who gauge the tastes and purchasing powers of every european resident and visitor, and who may be seen at all hours gliding in a sort of surreptitious fashion round the legation compounds, conveying their beautiful temptations on donkeys' backs. it is chiefly in the fine lofty saddlery bazar and some small bazars that native manufactures are _en évidence_. all travelling is on horseback, and the persian, though sober in the colours of his costly clothing, loves crimson and gold in leather and cloth, embroidered housings and headstalls, and gorgeous saddle-covers for his horse. the usual saddle is of plain wood, very high before and behind, and without stuffing. a thick soft _namad_ or piece of felt covers the horse's back, and over this are placed two or more saddle-cloths covered with a very showy and often highly ornamental cover, with tasselled ends, embroidered in gold and silks and occasionally with real gems. the saddle itself is smoothly covered with a soft ornamental cover made to fit it, and the crupper, breastplate, and headstall are frequently of crimson leather embroidered in gold, or stitched ingeniously with turquoise beads. the mule, whether the pacing saddle-mule worth from £ to £ , much affected by rich persians in tihran, or the humbler beast of burden, is not forgotten by the traders in the great saddlery bazar. rich _charvadars_ take great pride in the "outfit" of their mules, and do not grudge twenty _tumans_ upon it. hence are to be seen elaborate headstalls, breastplates, and straps for bells, of showy embroidery, and leather stitched completely over with turquoise beads and cowries--the latter a favourite adornment--while cowried headstalls are also ornamented with rows of woollen tassels dyed with beautiful vegetable dyes. in this bazar too are found _khurjins_--the great leather or carpet saddle-bags without which it is inconvenient to travel--small leather portmanteaus for strapping behind the saddles of those who travel _chapar_, _i.e._ post,--cylindrical cases over two feet long which are attached in front of the saddle--decorated holsters, the multifarious gear required for the travelling pipe-bearers, the deep leather belts which are worn by _chapar_ riders, the leathern water-bottles which are slung on the saddles, the courier bags, and a number of other articles of necessity or luxury which are regarded as essential by the persian traveller. in most of the bazars the shops are packed to the ceiling with foreign goods. it looks as if there were cottons and woollen cloth for the clothing of all persia. i saw scarcely any rough woollen goods or shoddy. the persian wears superfine, smooth, costly cloth, chiefly black and fawn, stiff in texture, and with a dull shine upon it. the best comes exclusively from austria, a slightly inferior quality from germany, and such cloth fabrics as are worn by europeans from england and russia. the european cottons, which are slowly but surely displacing the heavy durable native goods, either undyed, or dyed at isfahan with madder, saffron, and indigo, are of colours and patterns suited to native taste, white and canary yellow designs on a red ground predominating, and are both of russian and english make, and the rivalry which extends from the indian frontier, through central asia, is at fever-heat in the cotton bazars of tihran. it does not appear that at present either side can claim the advantage. in a search for writing paper, thread, tapes, and what are known as "small wares," i never saw anything that was not russian. the cheap things, such as oil lamps, _samovars_, coarse coloured prints of the russian imperial family in tawdry frames, lacquered tin boxes, fitted work-boxes, glass teacups, china tea-pots, tawdry lacquered trays, glass brooches, bead necklaces, looking-glasses, and a number of other things which are coming into use at least in the south-west and the western portions of the empire, are almost exclusively russian, as is natural, for the low price at which they are sold would leave no margin of profit on such imports from a more distant country. a stroll through the tihran bazars shows the observer something of the extent and rapidity with which europe is ruining the artistic taste of asia. masses of rubbish, atrocious in colouring and hideous in form, the principle of shoddy carried into all articles along with the quintessence of vulgarity which is pretence, goods of nominal utility which will not stand a week's wear, the refuse of european markets--in art philistinism, in most else "brummagem," without a quality of beauty or solidity to recommend them--are training the tastes and changing the habits of the people. one squarish bazar, much resorted to for glass and hardware and what the americans call "assorted notions," is crammed with austrian glass, kerosene lamps of all sizes in hundreds, chandeliers, etc. the amount of glass exhibited there for sale is extraordinary, and not less remarkable is the glut of cheap hardware and worthless _bijouterie_. it is the lowther arcade put down in tihran. kerosene and candles may be called a russian monopoly, and russia has completely driven french sugar from the markets. in the foreign town, as it may be called, there are two or three french shops, an american shop for "notions," and a german chemist. the european quarter is in the northern part of tihran, and is close to vacant and airy spaces. there are the turkish embassy, and the legations of england, france, germany, russia, italy, belgium, austria, and america, and a dutch consulate-general, each with its persian _gholams_ who perform escort duty. their large and shady compounds, brightened by their national flags, and the stir and circumstance which surround them, are among the features of the city. the finest of all the legation enclosures is that of england, which is beautifully wooded and watered. the reception-rooms and hall of the minister's residence are very handsome, and a byzantine clock tower gives the building a striking air of distinction. the grounds contain several detached houses, occupied by the secretaries and others. a very distinct part of the foreign quarter is that occupied by the large and handsome buildings of the american presbyterian mission, which consist of a church occupied at stated hours by a congregation of the reformed armenian church, and in which in the afternoons of sundays dr. potter, the senior missionary, reads the english liturgy and preaches an english sermon for the benefit of the english-speaking residents, very fine boarding-schools for armenian girls and boys, and the houses of the missionaries--three clerical, one medical, and several ladies, one of whom is an m.d. outside this fine enclosure is a medical missionary dispensary, and last year, in a good situation at a considerable distance, a very fine medical missionary hospital was completed. the boys' and girls' schools are of a very high class. to my thinking the pupils are too much europeanised in dress and habits; but i understand that this is at the desire of the armenian parents. the missionaries are not allowed to receive moslem pupils; but besides armenians they educate jewish youths, some of whom have become christians, and a few guebres or zoroastrians. i do not think that the capital is a hopeful place for missionary work. the presence of europeans of various creeds and nationalities complicates matters, and the fine, perhaps too fine, mission buildings in proximity to the houses of wealthy foreigners are at so great a distance from the moslem and jewish quarters, that persons who might desire to make inquiries concerning the christian faith must be deterred both by the space to be traversed and the conspicuousness of visiting a mission compound in such a position. the members of the mission church last year were altogether armenians. the education and training given in the schools are admirable. indications of the changes which we consider improvements abound in tihran. there are many roads accessible to wheeled vehicles. there are hackney carriages. a tramway carrying thousands of passengers weekly has been laid down from the _maidan_ or central square to one of the southern gates. there are real streets paved with cobble stones, and bordered with definite sidewalks, young trees, and shops. there is a railroad about four miles long, from the city to the village of sheikh abdul azim. there are lamp-posts and fittings, though the light is somewhat of a failure. there is an organised city police, in smart black uniforms with violet facings, under the command of count monteforte, an italian. soldiers in europeanised uniforms abound, some of them, the "persian cossacks," in full russian uniforms; and military bands instructed by a french bandmaster play european airs, not always easily recognisable, for the pleasure of the polyglot public. all ordinary business can be transacted at the imperial bank, which, having acquired the branches and business of the new oriental bank, bids fair to reign supreme in the commercial world of persia, the shah, who has hitherto kept his hoards under his own eye, having set an example of confidence by becoming a depositor. european tailors, dressmakers, and milliners render a resort to europe unnecessary. there are at least two hotels where a european may exist. about five hundred european carriages, many of them russian, with showy russian horses harnessed _à la russe_, dash about the streets with little regard to pedestrians, though an accident, if a european were the offender, might lead to a riot. the carriages of the many legations are recognisable by their outriders, handsomely-dressed _gholams_. but even the european quarter and its newish road, on which are many of the legations, some of the foreign shops, and the fine compound and handsome buildings of the imperial bank, has a persian admixture. some of the stately houses of official and rich persians are there, easily recognisable by their low closed gateways and general air of seclusion. many of these possess exquisite gardens, with fountains and tanks, and all the arrangements for the out-of-doors life which persians love. in the early spring afternoons the great sight of the road outside the british legation is the crowd of equestrians, or rather of the horses they ride. however much the style of street, furniture, tastes, art, and costume have been influenced by europe, fortunately for picturesque effect the persian, even in the capital, retains the persian saddle and equipments. from later observation i am inclined to think very highly of the hardiness and stamina of the persian horse, though at the time of my visit to tihran i doubted both. such showy, magnificent-looking animals, broken to a carriage which shows them to the best advantage, fine-legged, though not at the expense of strength, small-eared, small-mouthed, with flowing wavy manes, "necks clothed with thunder," dilated nostrils showing the carmine interior, and a look of scorn and high breeding, i never saw elsewhere. the tail, which in obedience to fashion we mutilate and abridge, is allowed in persia its full development, and except in the case of the shah's white horses, when it is dyed magenta, is perfectly beautiful, held far from the body like a flag. the arched neck, haughty bearing, and easy handling which easterns love are given by very sharp bits; and a crowd of these beautiful animals pawing the ground, prancing, caracoling, walking with a gait as though the earth were too vulgar for their touch, or flashing past at a gallop, all groomed to perfection and superbly caparisoned, ridden by men who know how to ride, and who are in sympathy with their animals, is one of the fascinations of tihran. creeping along by the side-walk is often seen a handsome pacing saddle-mule, or large white ass, nearly always led, carrying a persian lady attended by servants--a shapeless black bundle, with what one supposes to be the outline of a hand clutching the enshrouding black silk sheet tightly over her latticed white mask: so completely enveloped that only a yellow shoe without a heel, and a glimpse of a violet trouser can be seen above the short stirrups. another piece of orientalism unaffected by western influence is the music performed daily at sunset in the upper stories of some of the highly-decorated tiled gateways which lead into and out of the principal squares. this is evoked from drums, fifes, cymbals, and huge horns, and as the latter overpower all the former, the effect is much like that of the braying of the colossal silver horns from the roofs of the tibetan _lamaserais_. many people suppose that this daily homage to the setting sun is a relic of the ancient fire or sun worship. two great squares, one of them with a tank in the middle with a big gun at each corner, artillery barracks on three sides, and a number of smooth-bore twenty-four-pounder guns on the fourth, are among the features of tihran. in this great _maidan_ there are always soldiers in multifarious uniforms lounging, people waiting for the tram-cars, and royal footmen, whose grotesque costumes border on the ridiculous. they are indeed a fitting accompaniment to the royal horses with their magenta tails and spots, for they wear red coats with ballet-dancer skirts and green facings, green knee-breeches, white stockings, and tall stiff erections resembling a fool's cap on the head, topped by crests suggestive of nothing but a cock's comb. a gateway much ornamented leads from the artillery square, or _maidan topkhaneh_, by a short road shaded with trees to the citadel or ark, which is an immense enclosure, rather mangy and unprepossessing in its exterior, which contains the palace of the shah, the arsenal, certain public offices, the royal colleges, etc. over the gateway floats rather grandly the royal standard, bearing the lion and the sun in yellow on a green ground. the shah's palace is very magnificent, and the shady gardens, beautifully kept, with their fountains and tanks of pale blue tiles, through which clear water constantly moves, are worthy of a royal residence. from the outside above the high wall the chief feature is a very lofty pavilion, brilliantly and elaborately painted, with walls inclining inwards, and culminating in two high towers. this striking structure contains the _andarun_ or _haram_ of the sovereign and his private apartments. this hasty sketch exhausts those features of tihran which naturally arrest the stranger's attention. there is no splendour about it externally, but there is splendour within it, and possibly few european residences can exceed in taste and magnificence the palaces of the minister of justice (the _muschir-u-dowleh_), the _naib-es-sultan_, the _zil-es-sultan_, and a few others, though i regret that much of the furniture has been imported from europe, as it vexes the eye more or less with its incongruity of form and colouring. the current of european influence, which is affecting externals in tihran, is not likely now to be stemmed. eastern civilisation is doomed, and the transition period is not beautiful, whatever the outcome may be. so much for what is within the walls. that which is outside deserves a passing notice as the environment of the capital. the sole grandeur of the situation lies in the near neighbourhood of the shimran mountains--a huge wall, white or brown according to the season, with some irrigated planting near its base, which is spotted with villages and the _yailaks_ not only of the numerous legations but of rich europeans and persians. otherwise the tameless barbarism of a desert, which man has slashed, tunnelled, delved, and heaped, lies outside the city walls, deformed by the long lines of _kanaats_--some choked, others still serviceable--by which the city is supplied with water from the mountains, their shafts illustrating the scriptural expression "ruinous heaps." in the glare of the summer sun, with the mercury ranging from ° to ° in the shade, and with the heated atmosphere quivering over the burning earth, these wastes are abandoned to carcasses and the vultures which fatten on them, and travelling is done at night, when a breeze from the shimran range sends the thermometer down from ° to °. curving to the south-west of tihran, the mountains end in a bare ridge, around the base of which, according to many archæologists, lie vestiges of the ancient city of rhages, known in later days as rhei. a tomb of brick with angular surfaces, sacred to the memory of an ancient and romantic attachment, remains of fortifications, and the parsee cemetery on a ledge overlooking these remains, break the monotony of the waste in that direction. this cemetery, or "tower of silence," a white splash on the brown hillside, is visible from afar. the truncated cones which in many places mark seats of the ancient zoroastrian worship have been mentioned here and there, but it is only in tihran and yezd that the descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers are found in such numbers as to be able to give prominence to their ancient rites of sepulture. probably throughout persia their number does not exceed . their head resides in tihran. they bear a good character for uprightness, and except in yezd, where they weave rich stuffs, they are chiefly agriculturists. they worship firelight and the sun on the principles symbolised by both, they never use tobacco, and it is impolite to smoke in their presence because of the sacredness of fire. their belief has been, and is, that to bury the dead in the earth is to pollute it; and one among the reasons of the persecution of the early christians by the zoroastrians was their abhorrence of the desecration of the ground produced by the modes of christian burial. this "tower of silence" near tihran is a large round edifice of whitewashed mud and stone. on the top of it, a few feet below the circular parapet, the dead are laid to be devoured by birds and consumed by exposure to the elements. the destiny of the spirit is supposed to be indicated by the eye which is first devoured by the fowls of the air, the right eye signifying bliss. in a northern direction, to which the eye always turns to be refreshed by the purity of the icy cone of demavend, or to watch the rosy light deepening into purple on the heights of shimran, are palaces and country seats in numbers, with a mass of irrigated plantations extending for twenty miles, from van[=e]k on the east to kamarani[=e]h on the west. these are reached by passing through the shimran gate, the most beautiful of the outer gates, tiled all over with yellow, black, blue, and green tiles in conventional designs, and with an immense coloured mosaic over the gateway representing rust[=e]m, persia's great mythical hero, conquering some of his enemies. on the slopes of the hills are palaces and hunting seats of the shah, beginning with the imposing mass of the kasr-i-kaj[=a]r, on a low height, surrounded by majestic groves, in which are enormous tanks. palaces and hunting seats of ministers and wealthy men succeed each other rapidly, a perfect seclusion having been obtained for each by the rapid growth of poplars and planes, each dwelling carrying out in its very marked individuality a deference to persian custom, and each if possible using running water as a means of decoration. many of these palaces are princely, and realise some of the descriptions in the _arabian nights_, with the beauty of their decorated architecture, the deep shade of their large demesnes, the cool plash of falling water, the songs of nightingales, and the scent of roses--sensuous paradises in which the persian finds the summer all too short. beyond this enchanting region, and much higher up on the mountain slopes, are the hunting grounds of the shah and his sons, well stocked with game and rigidly preserved; for the shah is a keen sportsman, and is said to prefer a free life under canvas and the pleasures of the chase to the splendid conventionalities of the court of tihran. the two roads and the many tracks which centre in the capital after scoring the desert for many miles around it, are a feature of the landscape not to be overlooked, the meshed, resht, bushire, and tabriz roads being the most important, except the route from baghdad by kirmanshah and hamadan, which in summer can be travelled by caravans in twenty-eight days, and by which many bulky articles of value, such as pianos, carriages, and valuable furniture, find their way to tihran.[ ] these are some of the features of the environments of tihran. a traveller writing ten years hence may probably have to tell that the city has extended to its walls, that western influence is nearly dominant in externals, and possibly that the _concessionaires_ who for years have been hanging about the palace in alternations of hope and despondency have made something of their concessions, and that goods reach the capital in another way than on the backs of animals. footnotes: [ ] a volume of travels in persia would scarcely be complete without some slight notice of the northern capital; but for detailed modern accounts of it the reader should consult various other books, especially dr. wills' and mr. benjamin's, if he has not already done so. [ ] there are _only_ two roads, properly so called, in persia, though in the summer wheeled carriages with some assistance can get from place to place over several of the tracks. these two are the road from kûm to the capital, formerly described, and one from kasvin to the capital, both under miles in length. goods are everywhere carried on the backs of animals. the distance between bushire and tihran is miles. the summer freight per ton is £ the winter do. the distance between tihran and resht on the caspian is miles. the summer freight per ton is £ - / the winter do. - / from the caspian to the persian gulf the summer freight per ton is £ the winter do. inclusive of some insignificant charges. the time taken for the transit of goods between bushire and tihran is forty-two days, and between resht and tihran twelve days. the cost per ton by rail, if taken at indian rates, between the gulf and the caspian, would be £ : : . on these figures the promoters of railway enterprise in persia build their hopes. letter ix british legation, tihran, _march _. three weeks have passed quickly by since that terrible ride from husseinabad. the snow is vanishing from the shimran hills, the spring has come, and i am about to leave the unbounded kindness and hospitality of this house on a long and difficult journey. it is very pleasant to go away carrying no memories but those of kindness, received not only from europeans and americans, but from persians, including the amin-es-sultan and the muschir-u-dowleh. it is impossible to bear away other than pleasant impressions of tihran society. kindness received personally always sways one's impressions of the people among whom one is thrown, and even if i had any unfavourable criticisms to make i should not make them. society, or rather i should say the european population, is divided into classes and knots. there are the eleven american missionaries, whose duties and interests lie apart from those of the rest of the community, the diplomatic body, which has a monopoly of political interests, the large staff of the indo-european telegraph, married and single, with colonel wells at its head, and the mercantile class, in which the manager and _employés_ of the imperial bank may be included. outside of these recognised classes there is a shifting body of passing travellers, civil and military, and would-be _concessionaires_ and adventurers, besides a few europeans in persian employment. from four to five hundred europeans is a large foreign settlement, and it is a motley one, very various in its elements, "and in their idiosyncrasies, combinations, rivalries, and projects is to be found an inexhaustible fund of local gossip," writes mr. curzon in one of his recent brilliant letters to the _times_, "as well as almost the sole source of non-political interest." outside of the diplomatic circle the relations of england and russia with each other and with the shah afford a topic of ceaseless interest. england is just now considered to be in the ascendant, so far as her diplomacy is concerned, but few people doubt that russian policy will eventually triumph, and that north persia at least will be "absorbed." one or two specially pleasant things i must mention. sir h. drummond wolff kindly wrote asking permission from the shah for me to see his museum, _i.e._ his treasure-house, and we, that is the minister, the whole party from the legation, and dr. odling of the telegraph staff and mrs. odling, went there yesterday. there was a great crowd outside the palace gates, where we were received by many men in scarlet. the private gardens are immense, and beautifully laid out, in a more formal style than i have hitherto seen, with straight, hard gravel walks, and straight avenues of trees. the effect of the clear running water in the immense tanks lined with blue tiles is most agreeable and cool. continuous rows of orange trees in tubs, and beds of narcissus, irises, and tulips, with a wealth of trellised roses just coming into leaf, are full of the promise of beauty. these great pleasure gardens are admirably kept, i doubt whether a fallen leaf would not be discovered and removed in five minutes. the great irregular mass of the palace buildings on the garden front is very fine, the mangy and forlorn aspect being confined to the side seen by the public. the walls are much decorated, chiefly with glazed and coloured tiles geometrically arranged, and the general effect is striking. the "museum," properly the audience chamber, and certainly one among the finest halls in the world, is approached by a broad staircase of cream-coloured alabaster. we were received by the grand vizier's two brothers, and were afterwards joined by himself and another high official. the decorations of this magnificent hall are in blue and white stucco of the hard fine kind, hardly distinguishable from marble, known as _gatch_, and much glass is introduced in the ceiling. the proportions of the room are perfect. the floor is of fine tiles of exquisite colouring arranged as mosaic. a table is overlaid with beaten gold, and chairs in rows are treated in the same fashion. glass cases round the room and on costly tables contain the fabulous treasures of the shah and many of the crown jewels. possibly the accumulated splendours of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, basins and vessels of solid gold, ancient armour flashing with precious stones, shields studded with diamonds and rubies, scabbards and sword hilts incrusted with costly gems, helmets red with rubies, golden trays and vessels thick with diamonds, crowns of jewels, chains, ornaments (masculine solely) of every description, jewelled coats of mail dating back to the reign of shah ismaël, exquisite enamels of great antiquity, all in a profusion not to be described, have no counterpart on earth. they are a dream of splendour not to be forgotten. one large case contains the different orders bestowed on the shah, all blazing with diamonds, a splendid display, owing to the european cutting of the stones, which brings out their full beauty. there are many glass cases from two to three feet high and twelve inches or more broad, nearly full of pearls, rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, flashing forth their many-coloured light--treasures not arranged, but piled like tea or rice. among the extraordinarily lavish uses of gold and gems is a golden globe twenty inches in diameter, turning on a frame of solid gold. the stand and meridian are of solid gold set with rubies. the equator and elliptic are of large diamonds. the countries are chiefly outlined in rubies, but persia is in diamonds. the ocean is represented by emeralds. as if all this were not enough, huge gold coins, each worth thirty-three sovereigns, are heaped round its base. at the upper end of the hall is the persian throne. many pages would be needed for a mere catalogue of some of the innumerable treasures which give gorgeousness to this hall. here indeed is "oriental splendour," but only a part of the possessions of the shah; for many gems, including the dar-i-nur or sea of light, the second most famous diamond in the world, are kept elsewhere in double-locked iron chests, and hoards of bullion saved from the revenues are locked up in vaults below the palace. if such a blaze of splendour exists in this shrunken, shrivelled, "depopulated" empire, what must have been the magnificence of the courts of darius and xerxes, into which were brought the treasures of almost "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them"? since seeing this treasure-house i think that many of the early descriptions of wealth, which i have regarded as oriental hyperbole, were literal, and that there was a time in persia, as in judea, when "silver was not accounted of." and to come down from the far off-glories of darius, xerxes, and khosroe and the parthian kings, there have been within almost modern times persian sovereigns celebrated among other things for their successful "looting" of foreign kingdoms--shah abbas the great, and nadir shah, who scarcely two hundred years ago returned from the sack of delhi with gems valued at twenty millions of our money. after we had seen most of what was to be seen the vizier left us, and we went to the room in which stands the celebrated peacock throne, brought by nadir shah from delhi, and which has been valued at £ , , . this throne is a large stage, with parapets and a high fan back, and is reached by several steps. it is entirely of gold enamel, and the back is incrusted with rubies and diamonds. its priceless carpet has a broad border, the white arabesque pattern of which is formed of pearls closely stitched. you will think that i am lapsing into oriental exaggeration! while we were admiring the beautiful view of the gardens from the windows of this room, hassan ali khan, better known as "the nawab," suggested that we should retire, as the shah is in the habit of visiting and enjoying his treasures at a later hour. however, at the foot of the stairs on the threshold of the vestibule stood the shah, the "king of kings," the "asylum of the universe," and that his presence there was not an accident was shown by the fact that the grand vizier was with him. sir henry advanced, attended by "the nawab," and presented me, lifting his hat to the king, who neither then nor when he left us made the slightest inclination of his head. hassan ali khan, in answer to a question, mentioned some of my travels, and said that with his majesty's permission i wished to visit the bakhtiari country.[ ] the king pushed up his big horn spectacles and focused his eyes, about which there is something very peculiar, upon me, with a stare which would have been disconcerting to a younger person, asked if i were going to travel alone in his dominions, and if fitting arrangements had been made; if i had been in pekin, and had visited borneo and the celebes; said a few other things, and then without a bow turned round abruptly and walked down the garden with the amin-es-sultan. this accidental and informal presentation was a very pleasant incident. the shah is not what i expected from his various portraits. his manner (though he was said to be very affable on this occasion) has neither eastern nor western polish. he is a somewhat rough-looking man, well on in middle life, rather dark in complexion, and wearing a thick dark moustache, probably dyed, as is the custom. the long twisted moustache conceals the expression of his mouth, and the spectacles with thick horn rims that of his eyes. he was very simply dressed. the diamond aigrette and sword with jewelled hilt with which pictures and descriptions have familiarised us were absent, and this splendid monarch, the heir of splendour, and the possessor of fabulous treasures, wore the ordinary persian high cap of astrakan lambskin without any ornament, close-fitting dark trousers with a line of gold braid, a full-skirted coat of dull-coloured kerman silk brocade, loose and open, under which were huddled one or more coats. a watch-chain composed of large diamonds completed his costume. he did not wear gloves, and i noticed that his hands, though carefully attended to, were those of a man used to muscular exercise, strong and wiry. as the sovereign and his prime minister walked away, it was impossible not to speculate upon coming events: what will happen, for instance, when nasr-ed-din, possibly the ablest man in the country which he rules, and probably the best and most patriotic ruler among oriental despots, goes "the way of all the earth"? and again, whether ali askar khan, who has held his post for five years, and who at thirty-two is the foremost man in persia after the king, will weather the storm of intrigue which rages round his head, and resist the undermining influence of russia? i have had two interesting conversations with him, and he was good enough to propose success to my journey at a dinner at the legation; and though, as he does not speak french, the services of an interpreter were necessary, he impressed me very favourably as a man of thought, intelligence, and patriotism. he made one remark which had a certain degree of pathos in it. after speaking of the severe strictures and harsh criticisms of certain recent writers, which he said were very painful to persians, he added, "i hope if you write you will write kindly, and not crush the aspirations of my struggling country as some have done." this amin-es-sultan, the faithful or trusted one of the sovereign, the grand vizier or prime minister, the second person in the empire, who unites in his person at this time the ministries of the treasury, the interior, the court, and customs, is of humble antecedents, being the son of a man who was originally an inferior attendant on the shah in his hunting expeditions, and is the grandson of an armenian captive. certain persons of importance are bent upon his overthrow, and it can only be by the continued favour and confidence of the shah that he can sustain himself against their intrigues, combined with those of russia. my visit to the palace terminated with the sight of another throne-room opening upon the garden in which a few days hence, with surroundings of great magnificence, the shah will receive the congratulations of the diplomatic corps, and afterwards give a general audience to the people. this is an annual ceremony at the festival of no ruz when the persian new year begins, at the time of the spring solstice, and is probably a relic of the zoroastrian worship, though the modern persians, as mohammedans, allege that it is observed to celebrate the birthday of the prophet's mother.[ ] some hours after the close of a splendid ceremony in the audience chamber, chiefly religious, at which the shah burns incense on a small brazier, he descends to the garden, and walking alone along an avenue of royal guards, with the crown of the kaj[=a]rs, blazing with jewels, carried in front of him, he seats himself on an alabaster throne, the foreign ministers having been received previously. this throne is a large platform, with a very high back and parapets of bold stone fretwork, supported on marble lions and other figures, and is ascended by three or four steps. the populace, which to the number of many thousands are admitted into the garden, see him seated on his throne, their absolute master, the lord of life and death. a voice asks if they are content, and they say they are. a hymn of congratulation is sung, a chief of the kaj[=a]r tribe offers the congratulations of the people of persia, the hakim of the people hands the king a jewelled _kalian_, which he smokes, and showers of gold fall among the populace. the british minister is understood to be at this time the most powerful foreigner in persia; and as we drove through the crowd which had assembled at the palace gates, he was received with all oriental marks of respect. all my intercourse with persians here has been pleasant, and if i mention one person particularly, it is owing to a certain interest which attaches to himself and his possible future, and because some hours spent at his splendid palace were among the pleasantest of the many pleasant and interesting ones which i shall hereafter recall. yahia khan, minister of justice and commerce, whose official title is muschir-u-dowleh, was formerly minister of foreign affairs, but forfeited the confidence of the british government in supposed connection with the escape of ayoub khan, and being suspected of russian proclivities, which he denies, lost his position. he speaks french perfectly, is credited with very great abilities, and not only has courteous and charming manners, but thoroughly understands the customs of europe. as the possessor of one of the most magnificent palaces in persia, married to the shah's sister, his son, a youth of eighteen, married to a daughter of the vali-'ahd, the heir-apparent, and as the brother of mirza hussein khan--for long grand vizier and _sipah salar_, or commander-in-chief, whose gorgeous mosque, scarcely finished, the finest mosque built in late years by any but a royal personage, adjoins his house, yahia khan is in every way an important personage. he is the fourth husband of the shah's sister, who has had a tragic life and is a very accomplished woman. her first husband, mirza taghi, when prime minister, attempted reforms which would have tended to diminish the hideous corruption which is the bane of persian officialism, and consequently made many enemies, who induced the shah, then a young man, to depose him. worse than deposition was apprehended, and as it was not etiquette to murder a husband of a royal princess in her presence, his wife, who loved him, watched him night and day with ceaseless vigilance for some weeks. but the fatal day at last came, and a good and powerful man, whose loss is said to have been an irreparable one to persia, was strangled by the shah's messengers, it is said, in the bath. her son, who has married the shah's grand-daughter, is courteous like his father, but is apparently without his force. the muschir-u-dowleh invited me to breakfast, along with general gordon and hassan ali khan. the _dejeûner_ was altogether in european style, except that in the centre of the table, among lilies and irises, a concealed fountain sent up jets of rose-water spray. sèvres and dresden porcelain, the finest damask, and antique and exquisitely beautiful silver adorned the table. the cooking was french. the wines and liqueurs, an innovation on moslem tables now common, but of recent date, were both french and persian. the service was perfection. the host conversed both thoughtfully and agreeably, and expressed himself remarkably well in french. afterwards we were invited to go over the palace and its grounds, which are remarkably beautiful, and then over the magnificent mosque. shiah mosques are absolutely tabooed to christians; but as this has not yet been used for worship, our entrance was not supposed to desecrate it. when quite finished it will be one of the most magnificent buildings dedicated to religious use in the world, and its four tile-covered minarets, its vast dome, and arches and façades in tiled arabesques and conventional patterns and exquisite colouring, show that the persian artist when adequately encouraged has not lost his old feeling for beauty. besides the mosque there is a fine building, the low roof of which is supported by innumerable columns, all of plain brick, resembling a crypt, which will be used for winter worship. in addition, a lavish endowment has provided on the grounds a theological college and a hospital, with most, if not all, of the funds needed for their maintenance; and on every part of the vast pile of buildings the architect has lavished all the resources of his art. no houses are to my thinking more beautiful and appropriate to the climate and mode of living than those of the upper classes of persians, and the same suitability and good taste run down through the trading classes till one reaches the mud hovel, coarse and un-ideal, of the workman and peasant. my memory does not serve me for the details of the muschir-u-dowleh's palace, which, though some of the rooms are furnished with european lounges, tables, and chairs in _marqueterie_ and brocade, is throughout distinctively persian; but the impression produced by the general _coup d'oeil_, and by the size, height, and perfect proportion of the rooms, galleries, staircases, and halls, is quite vivid. the rooms have dados of primrose-coloured yezd alabaster in slabs four feet high by three broad, clouded and veined most delicately by nature. the banqueting hall is of immense size, and the floor is covered with a dark fawn _namad_ three-quarters of an inch thick, made, i understood, in one piece eighty feet long by fifty broad. the carpets are the most beautiful which can be turned out by persian looms, and that is saying a great deal. the roofs, friezes, and even the walls of this house, like those of others of its class, have a peculiarity of beauty essentially persian. this is the form of _gatch_ or fine stucco-work known as _ainah karee_. i saw it first at baghdad, and now at tihran wonder that such beautiful and costly decoration does not commend itself to some of our millionaires. arches filled with honeycomb decoration, either pure white or tastefully coloured and gilded, are among the architectural adornments which the alhambra borrowed from persia. my impression is that this exquisite design was taken from snow on the hillsides, which is often fashioned by a strong wind into the honeycomb pattern. but the glory of this form of decoration reaches its height when, after the _gatch_ ceiling and cornice or deep frieze have been daringly moulded by the workman into distinct surfaces or facets, he lays on mirrors while the plaster is yet soft, which adhere, and even at their edges have scarcely the semblance of a joining. sometimes, as in the new summer palace of the shah's third son, the naib-es-sultaneh, the whole wall is decorated in this way; but i prefer the reception-rooms of yahia khan, in which it is only brought down a few feet. immense skill and labour are required in this process of adornment, but it yields in splendour to none, flashing in bewildering light, and realising the fabled glories of the palaces of the _arabian nights_. one of the _salons_, about sixty feet by fifty, treated in this way is about the most beautiful room i ever saw. the persian architect also shows great art in his windows. he masses them together, and by this means gives something of grandeur even to an insignificant room. the beauty of the designs, whether in fretwork of wood or stone, is remarkable, and the effect is enhanced by the filling in of the interstices with coloured glass, usually amber and pale blue. so far as i have seen, the persian house is never over-decorated, and however gorgeous the mirror-work, or involved the arrangement of arches, or daring the dreams in _gatch_ ceilings and pillars, the fancy of the designer is always so far under control as to give the eye periods of rest. under the palace of the muschir-u-dowleh, as under many others, is a sort of glorified _serdab_, used in hot weather, partly under ground, open at each end, and finished throughout with marble, the roof being supported on a cluster of slender pillars with capitals picked out in gold, and the air being cooled by a fountain in a large marble basin. but this _serdab_ is far eclipsed by a summer hall in the palace of the shah's third son, which, as to walls and ceiling, is entirely composed of mirror-work, the floor of marble being arranged with marble settees round fountains whose cool plash even now is delicious. the large pleasure gardens which surround rich men's houses in the city are laid out somewhat in the old french style of formality, and are tended with scrupulous care. i did not see the _andarun_ of this or any house here, owing to the difficulty about an interpreter, but it is not likely that the ladies are less magnificently lodged than their lords. the _andarun_ has its own court, no one is allowed to open a window looking upon it, it is as secluded as a convent. no man but the master of the house may enter, and when he retires thither no man may disturb him. to all inquirers it is a sufficient answer to say that he is in the _andarun_. to the shah, however, belongs the privilege of looking upon the unveiled face of every woman in persia. the domestic life of a moslem is always shrouded in mystery, and even in the case of the shah "the fierce light that beats upon a throne" fails to reveal to the outer world the number of wives and women in his _andarun_, which is variously stated at from sixty to one hundred and ninety. it is not easy in any eastern city to get exactly what one wants for a journey, especially as a european cannot buy in the bazars; and the servant difficulty has been a great hindrance, particularly as i have a strong objection to the regular interpreter-servant who has been accustomed to travel with europeans. i have now got a persian cook with sleepy eyes, a portion of a nose, and a grotesquely "hang-dog" look. for an interpreter and personal attendant i have an educated young brahmin, for some years in british post-office service in the gulf, and lately a teacher in the american school here. he speaks educated english, and is said to speak good persian. he has never done any "menial" work, but is willing to do anything in order to get to england. he has a frank, independent manner and "no nonsense about him." taking him is an experiment.[ ] i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] some of the bakhtiari khans or princes, with their families, are kept by the shah as hostages in and round tihran for the loyalty of their tribes, the conquest of these powerful nomads not being so complete as it might and possibly will be. [ ] on the eve of the day, the last of a festival of ten days, the common people kindle rows of bonfires and leap over them; and, though not on the same day, but on the night of the th of february, sacred in the armenian church as the day of the presentation of our lord in the temple, large bonfires are lighted on the mud roofs of the armenians of the persian and turkish cities, and the younger members of the households dance and sing and leap through the flames. meanwhile the moslems close their windows, so that the sins which the christians are supposed to be burning may not enter. whether these "beltane fires" are a relic of the ancient fire worship or of still older rites may be a question. among the christians the custom is showing signs of passing away. [ ] an experiment i never regretted. mirza yusuf was with me for nine months, and i found him faithful, truthful, and trustworthy, very hard-working, minimising hardships and difficulties, always cheerful, and with an unruffled temper, his failings being those of a desk-bred man transplanted into a life of rough out-doorishness. letter x kÛm, _march _. this so far is a delightful journey. all the circumstances are favourable. a friend who was sending his servants, horses, and baggage to isfahan has lent me a thoroughbred, and with a trustworthy young soldier as my escort i do not trouble myself about the caravan at all, and get over much of the ground at a gallop. the roads have nearly dried up, the country looks cheerful, travellers are numerous, living and dead, the sun is bright but the air is cool and bracing, and the insects are still hybernating, mirza yusuf is getting into my "ways," and is very pleasant. i did not think that i could have liked persian travelling so well. a good horse and a good pace make an immense difference. it is not the custom for european ladies to travel unattended by european gentlemen in persia, but no objection to my doing so was made in the highest quarters, either english or persian, and so far there have been no difficulties or annoyances. i left the british legation at noon four days ago. the handsome arab, with a sheepskin coat rolled on the front of the saddle, holsters, and persian housings, looked like a life-guardsman's horse. i nearly came to grief as soon as i got out of the legation gate; for he would not stand my english snaffle, and reared and threw himself about, and my spur touching him as he did so made him quite wild, and i endured much apprehension all through tihran, expecting to find myself on the rough pavement; but i took off the offending spur, and rode him on the sharp bit he is used to, and when we were outside the gate he quietened down, and i had a long gallop. how different it all looks! no more floundering through mud! the trees of abdul azim are green. caravans are moving fast and cheerily. even the dead on their last journey look almost cheerful under the sunny skies. we did not reach husseinabad till long after dark. it was so unspeakably dark that my horse and i fell off the road into deep water, and we passed the caravanserai without knowing that we were near it. the usual disorder of a first night was somewhat worse than usual. the loads were mixed up, and the servants and _charvadars_ were quarrelling, and i did not get my dinner till ten; but things are all right now, and have been since the following morning, when i assumed the reins of government and saw the mules loaded myself, an efficient interpreter making my necessary self-assertion intelligible. though the spring has set in, most of the country between this and tihran looks a complete desert. in february it was a muddy waste--it is now a dusty waste, on which sheep, goats, and camels pick up a gray herbage, which without search is not obvious to the human eye, and consists mostly of wormwood and other bitter and aromatic plants. off the road a few tulips and dwarf irises coming up out of the dry ground show the change of season. i came for some distance on one day by a road which caravans avoid because of robbers. it crosses a reddish desert with a few salt streams and much saline efflorescence, a blasted region without a dwelling or patch of cultivation. yet a four-mile gallop across one part of it was most inspiriting. as the two arabs, excited by the pace, covering great spaces of ground with each powerful stride, dashed over the level gravel i thought, "they'll have fleet steeds that follow"; but no steed or rider or bird or beast was visible through all that hungry land. we passed also close to a salt lake on the kavir, seen in the distance on the former journey, near which are now pitched a quantity of ilyat tents, all black. the wealth of these nomads is in camels, sheep, and goats. though the camps, five in number, were small, they had over camels among them. where four weeks ago there was deep mud there is now the glittering semblance of unsullied snow, and the likeness of frost crystals fills the holes. _miles_ of camels loaded with cotton march with stately stride in single file, the noble mountain camel, with heavy black fur on neck, shoulder, fore-arm, and haunch, and kindly gentle eyes, looking, as he is, the king of baggage animals, not degraded by servitude, though he may carry lbs. some of the sights of the road were painful. for instance, just as i passed a caravan of the dead bound for kûm a mule collided with another and fell, and the loosely-put-together boxes on its back gave way and corpses fell out in an advanced stage of decomposition. a camel just dead lay in a gully. on a ledge of rock above it seven gorged vultures (not the bald-headed) sat in a row. they had already feasted on him to repletion. i passed several dead camels, and one with a pleading pathetic face giving up the ghost on the road. yesterday i rode in here from the magnificent caravanserai of shashgird, sixteen miles in three hours before lunch, and straight through the crowded bazars to the telegraph office unmolested, an afghan camel-driver's coat, with the wool outside, having proved so good a disguise that the _gholam_ who was sent to meet me returned to his master saying that he had not seen a lady, but that a foreign soldier and _sahib_ had come into kûm. when my visit was over and i had received from mr. lyne the route to isfahan, and such full information about rooms, water, and supplies as will enable me to give my own orders, and escape from the tyranny of the _charvadars_, having sent the horses to the caravanserai i disguised myself as a persian woman of the middle class in the dress which mrs. lyne wears in the city, a thick white _crêpe_ veil with open stitch in front of the eyes, a black sheet covering me from head to foot, the ends hanging from the neck by long loops, and held with the left hand just below the eyes, and so, though i failed to imitate the totter and shuffle of a persian lady's walk, i passed unnoticed through the long and crowded streets of this fanatical city, attended only by a _gholam_, and at the door of my own room was prevented from entering by the servants till my voice revealed my identity. twice to-day i have passed safely through the city in the same disguise, and have even lingered in front of shops without being detected. mr. and mrs. lyne have made the two days here very pleasant, by introducing me to persians in whose houses i have seen various phases of persian life. on reaching one house, where mrs. lyne arrived an hour later, i was a little surprised to be received by the host in uniform, speaking excellent french, but without a lady with him. he had been very kind to hadji, who, he says, is rich and has three wives. the poor fellow's lungs have been affected for two years, and the affection was for the time aggravated by the terrible journey. he talked a good deal about persian social customs, especially polygamy. he explained that he has only one wife, but that this is because he has been fortunate. he said that he regards polygamy as the most fruitful source of domestic unhappiness, but that so long as marriages are made for men by their mothers and sisters, a large sum being paid to the bride's father, a marriage is really buying "a pig in a poke," and constantly when the bride comes home she is ugly or bad-tempered or unpleasing and cannot manage the house. "this," he said, "makes men polygamists who would not otherwise be so. "then a man takes another wife, and perhaps this is repeated, and then he tries again, and so on, and the house becomes full of turmoil. there are always quarrels in a polygamous household," he said, "and the children dispute about the property after the father's death." had he not been fortunate, and had not his wife been capable of managing the house, he said that he must have taken another wife, "for," he added, "no man can bear a badly-managed house." i thought of the number of men in england who have to bear it without the moslem resource. a lady of "position" must never go out except on fridays to the mosque, or with her husband's permission and scrupulously veiled and guarded, to visit her female friends. girl-children begin to wear the _chadar_ between two and three years old, and are as secluded as their mothers, nor must any man but father or brother see their faces. some marry at twelve years old. "la vie des femmes dans la perse est très triste," he said. the absence of anything like education for girls, except in tihran, and the want of any reading-book but the koran for boys and girls, he regards as a calamity. he may be a pessimist by nature: he certainly has no hope for the future of persia, and contemplates a russian occupation as a certainty in the next twenty years. after a long conversation i asked for the pleasure, not of seeing his wife, but the "mother of his children," and was rewarded by the sight of a gentle and lovely woman of twenty-one or twenty-two, graceful in every movement but her walk, exquisitely refined-looking, with a most becoming timidity of expression, mingled with gentle courtesy to a stranger. she was followed by three very pretty little girls. the husband and wife are of very good family, and the lady has an unmistakably well-bred look. though i knew what to expect in the costume of a woman of the upper classes, i was astonished, and should have been scandalised even had women only been present. the costume of ladies has undergone a great change in the last ninety years, and the extreme of the fashion is as lacking in delicacy as it is in comfort. however, much travelling compels one to realise that the modesty of the women of one country must not be judged of by the rules of another, and a lady costumed as i shall attempt to describe would avert her eyes in horror by no means feigned from an english lady in a court or evening-dress of to-day. the under garment, very much _en évidence_, is a short chemise of tinselled silk gauze, or gold-embroidered muslin so transparent as to leave nothing to the imagination. this lady wore a skirt of flowered silver brocade, enormously full, ten or twelve yards wide, made to stand nearly straight out by some frills or skirts of very stiffly starched cotton underneath, the whole, not even on a waistband round the waist, but drawn by strings, and suspended over the hips, the skirts coming down to within a few inches of the knee, leaving the white rounded limbs uncovered. the effect of this exaggerated _bouffante_ skirt is most singular. white socks are worn. over the transparent _pirah[=a]n_, or chemise, she wore a short velvet jacket beautifully embroidered in gold, with its fronts about ten inches apart, so as to show the flowered chemise. her eyebrows were artificially curved and lengthened till they appeared to meet above her nose, her eyelashes were marked round with _kohl_, and a band of blue-black paint curving downwards above the nose crossed her forehead, but was all but concealed by a small white square of silk _crêpe_, on the head and brow and fastened under the chin by a brooch. had she been in another house she would have worn a large square of gold-embroidered silk, with the points in front and behind, and fastened under the chin. under the _crêpe_ square there was a small skull-cap of gold-embroidered velvet, matching her little zouave jacket, with an aigrette of gems at the side. her arms were covered with bracelets, and a number of valuable necklaces set off the beauty of her dazzlingly white neck. persian ladies paint, or rather smear, but her young pure complexion needed no such aids. her front hair, cut to the level of her mouth, hung down rather straight, and the remainder, which was long, was plaited into many small glossy plaits. contrary to custom, it was undyed, and retained its jet-black colour. most persian ladies turn it blue-black with indigo, or auburn with _henna_, and with the latter the finger-nails and palms of the hands are always stained. her jewellery was all of solid gold; hollow gold and silver ornaments being only worn by the poor. she wore a chain with four scent caskets attached to it exhaling attar of roses and other choice perfumes. she was a graceful and attractive creature in spite of her costume. she waited on her husband and on me, that is, she poured out the tea and moved about the room for hot water and _bonbons_ with the feeble, tottering gait of a woman quite unaccustomed to exercise, and to whom the windy wastes outside the city walls and a breezy gallop are quite unknown. the little girls were dressed in the style of adults, and wore tinselled gauze _chad[=a]rs_ or _chargats_. after seeing a good deal of home life during some months in persia, i have come to the conclusion that there is no child life. swaddled till they can walk, and then dressed as little men and women, with the adult tyrannies of etiquette binding upon them, and in the case of girls condemned from infancy to the seclusion of the _andarun_, there is not a trace of the spontaneity and nonsense which we reckon as among the joys of childhood, or of such a complete and beautiful child life as children enjoy in japan. there does not appear to be any child talk. the persian child from infancy is altogether interested in the topics of adults; and as the conversation of both sexes is said by those who know them best to be without reticence or modesty, the purity which is one of the greatest charms of childhood is absolutely unknown. parental love is very strong in persia, and in later days the devotion of the mother to the boy is amply returned by the grown-up son, who regards her comfort as his charge, and her wishes as law, even into old age. when tea was over the host retired with the remark that the ladies would prefer to amuse themselves alone, and then a princess and another lady arrived attended by several servants. this princess came in the black silk sheet with a suggestion of gold about its border which is the street disguise of women of the richer classes, and she wore huge bag-like violet trousers, into which her voluminous skirts were tucked. she emerged from these wrappings a "harmony" in rose colour--a comely but over-painted young woman in rose and silver brocade skirts, a rose velvet jacket embroidered in silver, a transparent white muslin _pirah[=a]n_ with silver stars upon it, and a _chargat_ of white muslin embroidered in rose silk. she and the hostess sat on a rug in front of a fire, and servants now and then handed them _kalians_. the three little girls and the guest's little girl were in the background. the doors were then fastened and a number of servants came in and entertained their mistresses. two sang and accompanied themselves on a sort of tambourine. tea was handed round at intervals. there was dancing, and finally two or three women acted some little scenes from a popular persian play. by these amusements, i am told, the women of the upper classes get rid of time when they visit each other; and they spend much of their lives in afternoon visiting, taking care to be back before sunset. after a long time the gentle hostess, reading in my face that i was not enjoying the performances, on which indeed unaccustomed english eyes could not look, brought them to a close, and showed me some of her beautiful dresses and embroidered fabrics. putting on my disguise and attended by a servant i walked a third time unrecognised and unmolested through the crowded bazars, through the gate and across the bridge, when a boy looked quite into my shroud, which i was not perhaps clutching so tightly as in the crowd, and exclaiming several times _kafir_, ran back into the city. i did not run, but got back to the "hotel" as fast as possible. it is very noisy, and my room being on the ground floor, and having three doors, there is little peace either by day or night. thirteen days from the _no ruz_ or new year, which was march , are kept as a feast before the severe fast of the ramazan, and this city of pilgrims is crowded, and all people put on new clothes, the boys being chiefly dressed in green. to-morrow i begin my journey over new ground. i. l. b. letter xi kashan, _march _. i have seen the last of kûm and hotels and made roads for many months. so much the better! i had to ride the whole length of the bazars and the city, a mile and a half, but the camel-driver's coat served again as a disguise, and i heard no remarks except from two boys. indeed i am delighted to find that the "foreign soldier" who rides in front of me attracts so much curiosity that i pass in his wake unnoticed. the ruinous condition of kûm is fearful. once outside the houses and bazars which surround the shrine of fatima, the town is mostly rubbish and litter, with forlorn, miserable houses created out of the rubbish, grouped near festering pools; broken causeways infamously paved, full of holes, heaps of potsherds, bones obtruding themselves, nothing to please and everything to disgust the eye and sadden the spirit, religious intolerance, a diminished population, and desolation. the pottery bazar, abounding in blue glazed ware of graceful shapes, and a number of shrines of saints, are the only objects of interest. the domes of the latter were once covered with blue tiles, but these have nearly all peeled off, leaving the universal mud--a mud so self-asserting everywhere that persia may be called the "great mud land." the cherry and apricot trees are in full bloom, but as yet there is little greenery round kûm, and the area of cultivation is very limited. i am now on the road which, with the exception of that from tihran to resht, is best known to travellers,[ ] but i cannot help sketching it briefly, though the interests are few considering the distance travelled, miles from tihran to isfahan. i now see persia for the first time; for traversing a country buried in snow is not seeing it. it would be premature to express the opinion that the less one sees of it the more one is likely to admire it. i have been _en route_ for a week under the best possible circumstances--the nights always cool, the days never too warm, the accommodation tolerable, the caravan in excellent working order, no annoyances, and no grievances. the soldier who attends me arranges everything for my comfort, and is always bright and kind. i have no ambition to "beat the record," but long gallops on a fine arab horse turn marches of from twenty-two to thirty miles into delightful morning rides of from three and a half to four and a half hours, with long pleasant afternoons following them, and sound sleep at night. these are my halcyon days of persian travelling; and yet i cannot write that persia is beautiful. it is early spring, and tulips and irises rise not out of a carpet of green but, to use the descriptive phrase of isaiah, "as a root out of a dry ground," the wormwood is dressed in its gray-green, the buds of the wild dwarf-almond show their tender pink, the starry blossom of the narcissus gleams in moist places, the sky is exquisitely blue, and shining cloud-masses fleck the brown hillsides with violet shadows. where there is irrigation carpets of young wheat cover the ground; but these, like the villages, occur only at long intervals, for the road passes mainly through a country destitute of water, or rather of arrangements for storing it. as to natural trees there are none, and even the bushes are few and unlovely, chiefly camel thorn and a rigid and thorny tamarisk. beyond kûm there is no made road. a track worn by the caravans of ages exists,--sometimes parallel ruts for a width of half a mile, sometimes not two yards wide, and now and then lapsing into illegibility. there are large and small caravanserais of an inferior class along the route, and _chapar khanas_ at intervals. water is often bad and sometimes brackish. it is usually supplied from small brick _abambars_, or covered reservoirs. milk is hard to obtain, often impossible; at some places fowls can be bought for eightpence each, and "flap jacks" everywhere. except the snowy cone of demavend, with purple ranges curtaining his feet, no special object of admiration exists; the plains are reddish, yellowish, barren, gravelly, or splotched with salt; the ranges of hills, which are never far off (for persia is a land of mountains), are either shapeless and gravelly, or rocky, rugged, and splintered, their hue reddish and purplish, their sides scored by the spring rush of wasted torrents, their aspect one of complete desolation, yet not without a certain beauty at this season--rose-flushed in the early morning, passing through shades of cobalt and indigo through the day, and dying away at sunset in translucent amethyst against a sky of ruddy gold. but, take away the atmospheric colouring--which the advancing heat will abolish--and the plain english of the route is this, that in every direction, far as the eye can reach, the country is a salt waste or a gravelly waste, with a few limited oases of cultivation on the plains and in the folds of the hills, always treeless, except round a few of the villages, where there are small groves of poplars and willows. the villages are clusters of mud hovels, scarcely distinguishable from the wastes, and many of them are ruined and deserted, oppressive exactions or a failure of water being common reasons for a migration. these dismal ruins are shapeless heaps of mud, the square towers of the square walls alone retaining any semblance of form. long lines of choked _kanaats_, denoted by their crumbling shafts, attest the industrious irrigation of a former day. tracks wind wearily among shrunken villages, or cross ridges of mud or gravel to take their unlovely way over arid stony plains. unwatered tracts of land, once cultivated, as the _kanaats_ show, but now deserts of sand and stones, send up gyrating clouds of gritty dust. such is persia between its two capitals; and yet i repeat that in cool weather, and on a good horse, the journey is a very pleasant one. most european men ride _chapar_, that is, post; but from what i see of the _chapar_ horses, i would not do it for the sake of doubling the distance travelled in the day, and therefore cannot describe either its pleasures or tortures from experience. on certain roads, as from tihran to shiraz, there are post stations (_chapar khana_) with horses and men at distances of from twenty to twenty-five miles, with a charge of one _kran_ (eightpence) per _farsakh_ (four miles) for each horse engaged, an order having been previously obtained from a government official. besides your own horse you have to take one for the _shasgird chapar_, or post-boy, who has to take the horses back, and one for the servant. the two latter carry the very limited kit, which includes a long cotton bag, which, being filled with chopped straw at night, forms the traveller's bed. the custom is to ride through all the hours of daylight whenever horses are to be got, doing from sixty to ninety miles a day, always inspired by the hope of "cutting the record," even by half an hour, and winning undying fame. the horses, which are kept going at a canter so long as they can be thrashed into one, are small and active, and do wonders; but from the strain put upon them, bad feeding, sore backs, and general dilapidation and exhaustion, are constantly tumbling down. several times i have seen wretched animals brought into the yards, apparently "dead beat," and after getting some chopped straw and a little barley thrashed into a canter again for twenty-five miles more, because the traveller could not get a remount. they often fall down dead under their riders, urged by the heavy _chapar_ whip to the last. riding _chapar_, journeying in a _taktrawan_ or litter, or in a _kajaweh_, or riding caravan pace, by which only about thirty miles a day can be covered, are the only modes of travelling in persia, though i think that with capable assistance a carriage might make the journey from tihran as far as kashan. i lodge in the _chapar khanas_ whenever i can. they consist of mud walls fourteen feet high, enclosing yards deep in manure, with stabling for the _chapar_ horses on two sides, and recesses in their inner walls for mangers. the entrance is an arched gateway. there are usually two dark rooms at the sides, which the servants occupy and cook in, and over the gateway is the _balakhana_, an abortive tower, attained by a steep and crumbling stair, in which i encamp. the one room has usually two doors, half-fitting and non-shutting, and perhaps a window space or two, and the ashes of the last traveller's fire. such a breezy rest just suits me, and when my camp furniture has been arranged and i am enjoying my "afternoon tea," i feel "monarch of all i survey," even of the boundless desert, over which the cloud shadows chase each other till it purples in the light of the sinking sun. if there is the desert desolation there is also the desert freedom. the first halt was delicious after the crowds and fanaticism of kûm. a broad plain with irrigated patches and a ruinous village was passed; then came the desert, an expanse of camel-brown gravel thickly strewn with stones, with a range of low serrated brown hills, with curious stratification, on the east. a few caravans of camels, and the _haram_ of the governor of yezd in closely-covered _kajawehs_, alone broke the monotony. before i thought we were half-way we reached the _abambars_, the small brown caravanserai, and the _chapar khana_ of passangh[=a]m, having ridden in three hours a distance on which i have often expended eight. cool and breezy it was in my room, and cooler and breezier on the flat mud roof; and the lifting of some clouds in the far distance to the north, beyond the great sweep of the brown desert, revealed the mighty elburz range, white with new-fallen snow. at sinsin the next evening it was gloriously cold. there had been another heavy snowfall, and in the evening the elburz range, over a hundred miles away, rose in unsullied whiteness like a glittering wall, and above it the colossal cone of demavend, rose-flushed. the routine of the day is simple and easy. i get the caravan off at eight, lie on the floor for an hour, gallop and walk for about half the march, rest for an hour in some place, where mahboud, the soldier, always contrives to bring me a glass of tea, and then gallop and walk to the halting-place, where i rest for another hour till the caravan comes in. i now know exactly what to pay, and by giving small presents get on very easily. there were many uncomfortable prophecies about the annoyances and rudenesses which a lady travelling alone would meet with, but so far not one has been fulfilled. how completely under such circumstances one has to trust one's fellow-creatures! there are no fastenings on the doors of these breezy rooms, and last night there was only the longitudinal half of a door, but i fell asleep, fearing nothing worse than a predatory cat. the last two days' marches have been chiefly over stony wastes, or among low hills of red earth, gray gravel, and brown mud, with low serrated ranges beyond, and farther yet high hills covered with snow, after which the road leaves the hills and descends upon a pink plain, much of the centre of which is snow-white from saline efflorescence. the villages kasseinabad, nasrabad, and aliabad are passed on the plain, with small fruit trees and barley surrounding them, and great mud caravanserais at intervals, only remarkable for the number of camels lying outside of them in rows facing each other. in the fresh keen air of evening the cone of demavend was painted in white on the faint blue sky, reddening into beauty as the purple-madder shadows deepened over the yellow desert. tea made with saltish water, and salt sheep's milk, have been the only drawbacks of the six days' march. not far from kashan we entered on a great alluvial plain formed of fine brown earth without a single stone--a prolific soil if it had water, as the fruit trees and abundant crops of young wheat round the villages show. so level, and on the whole so smooth, is this plain that it possesses the prodigy of a public conveyance, an omnibus with four horses abreast, which makes its laborious way with the aid of several attendants, who lift the wheels out of holes, prevent it from capsizing, and temporarily fill up the small irrigation ditches which it has to cross. its progress is less "by leaps and bounds" than by jolts and rolls, and as my arab horse bounded past i wondered that six men could be found to exchange the freedom of the saddle for such a jerky, stuffy box. five hundred yards from the gate of kashan there is a telegraph station of the indo-european line, where m. du vignau and his wife expected me, and have received me with great kindness and hospitality. the electricians at these stations are allowed to receive guests in what is known as the "inspectors' room," and they exercise this liberty most kindly and generously. many a weary traveller looks back upon the "inspectors' room" as upon an oasis in the desert of dirt; and though i cannot class myself just now with "weary travellers," i cordially appreciate the kindness which makes one "at home," and the opportunity of exchanging civilised ideas for a few hours. i must not go beyond kashan without giving a few words to the persian section of the indo-european telegraph line, one of the greatest marvels of telegraph construction, considering the nature of the country which the line traverses. tihran is the centre of telegraphic control, and the residence of colonel wells, r.e., the director, with a staff of twenty telegraphists, who work in relays day and night, and a medical officer. julfa is another place of importance on the line, and at shiraz there is another medical officer. the prompt repair of the wires in cases of interruption is carefully arranged for. at suitable places, such as kûm, soh, kashan, and other towns or villages from fifty to eighty miles apart, there are control or testing stations, each being in charge of a european telegraphist, who has under him two persian horsemen, who have been well trained as linesmen. at stated hours the clerks place their instruments in circuit, and ascertain if all is right. if this testing reveals any fault, it can be localised at once, and horsemen are despatched from the control stations on either side of it, with orders to ride rapidly along the line until they meet at the fault and repair it. as the telegraph crosses passes such as kuhr[=u]d, at an altitude of over feet, the duties of both inspectors and linesmen are most severe, full not only of hardship but of danger in terrible winter storms and great depths of snow, yet on their ceaseless watchfulness and fidelity the safety of our indian empire may some day depend. the skill brought to bear upon the manipulation of this government line from the gulf, and throughout the whole system of which it is a part, is wonderful. messages from any part of the united kingdom now reach any part of india in less than an hour and a half, and in only about one word in two hundred does even the most trifling mistake occur in transmission, a result all the more surprising when it is remembered that the telegrams are almost entirely either in code or cypher, and that over are transmitted in the course of a day. among these are the long despatches continually passing between the viceroy of india and the india office on vitally important subjects, and press telegrams of every noteworthy event. the "exhaustive summary" of indian news which appears weekly in the _times_, accompanied by a commentary on events, is an altogether un-padded telegram, and is transmitted with punctuation complete, and even with inverted commas for quotations.[ ] the english staff, numbering from fifty to sixty men, is scattered along a line of miles. some of them are married, and most occupy isolated positions, so far as other europeans are concerned. it is the universal testimony of englishmen and persians that the relations between them have been for many years of the most friendly character, full of good-will and mutual friendly offices, and that the continual contact brought about by the nature of the duties of the electricians has been productive not of aversion and distrust, but of cordial appreciation on both sides. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] it is new to me, however, and may be new to a large proportion of the "untravelled many" for whom i write. [ ] major-general sir r. murdoch smith, k.c.m.g., late director of the persian section of the indo-european telegraph, read a very interesting paper upon it before the royal scottish geographical society on december , ,--a _sketch of the history of telegraphic communication between the united kingdom and india_. letter xi (_continued_) kashan is one of the hottest places on the great persian plateau, but has the rare luxury of a good water supply brought from a reservoir some distance off in the kuhr[=u]d mountains. it has a much-diminished population, said now to number , souls. much of it is in ruins, and much more is ruinous. it has a thriving colony of jews. it is noted for its silks and velvets; but the modern productions are regarded by judges as degenerate. it is still famous for its work in copper and for its great copper bazar. silk produced at resht is brought here to be spun and dyed. then it is sent to sultanabad to be woven into carpets, and is brought back again to have the pile cut by the sharp instruments used for cutting velvet pile, and the finished carpets are sent to tihran for sale. they are only made in small sizes, and are more suitable for _portières_ than for laying on the floor. the colouring is exquisite, and the metallic sheen and lustre are unique. silk carpets are costly luxuries. the price of even a fairly good one of very small size is £ , the silk alone costing £ . kashan is a great place for _curio_ buyers, who enlist the jews in their service. there are some valuable antiques in this house--embroideries, carpet squares in silk, glass whose greenish colour and grace of form remind me of venetian glass, enamels on porcelain, tiles, metal inlaying and damascening, pierced brasswork, and many other articles of _vertu_, the art of making which is either lost or has greatly degenerated. it is unaccountable, but it is certain that the secret of producing the higher types of beauty in various arts, especially the keramic, died out more than one hundred and fifty years ago, and that there are no circumstances of that date to account for its decease, except that it is recorded that when the afghan conqueror mahmoud destroyed isfahan he massacred the designers of _reflêt_ tiles and other keramic beauties, because they had created works which gave great umbrage to the sunni sect to which he belonged. these _reflêts_, for which collectors give fabulous sums, are intrinsically beautiful, both in the elegant conceptions of their designs and the fantastic richness of their colouring. there are designs in shades of brown on a lapis-lazuli ground, or in blue and green on a purple or umber ground, some of them star-shaped, with a pure white border composing the rest of the square, on which are inscribed phrases from the koran. looked at from above or frontwise, one exclaims, "what a beautiful tile!" but it is on turning it to the light that one's stereotyped phrases of admiration are exchanged for silence in presence of a singular iridescence which transfigures the tile, making it seem to gleam from within with golden purples and rosy gold. the mosaic tiles are also beautiful, especially where the mosaic is on a lapis-lazuli or canary-yellow ground, neither of them reproducible at this day; and this also refers to other shades of blue, and to various reds and browns of exceeding richness, the art of making which has been lost for a century. but enough of art! possibly there may be a resurrection for persian art; but in the meantime aniline dyes, tawdry european importations, and western models without either grace or originality are doing their best to deprave it here, as elsewhere. roads from tihran, gulpaigan, yezd, and isfahan meet here, and it is something of what the americans call "a distributing point," but it is a most uninviting place, in situation and general aspect, and its unsightly mud ruins, as in other persian cities, are eloquent of nothing but paralysis and retrogression. _murcheh khurt, palm sunday, march ._--three very pleasant marches, equal to seventy-six miles, have brought me here, and now isfahan is only two days off, and it will end my palmy days of persian travelling. the first day's march from kashan was only seven _farsakhs_ (the _parasang_ of xenophon), twenty-eight miles, but it is equivalent to thirty-five, owing to the roughness of the road and the long ascent. there was scarcely any ground for galloping, the way was lost once, and the march took over eight hours. the track, for only in places did it attain to the dignity of a bridle-road, lay for hours over a stony desert, and then entered the mountains, where i halted for an hour at the once magnificent caravanserai of gaberabad, in a romantic situation, but falling fast into ruins, and deserted for no reason, so far as i could make out, but that people used to be robbed and have their throats cut there. beyond it the scenery became very wild, and the rocks and mountains highly coloured and snow-patched, and after ascending along the side of a stream and up a causewayed sort of stair past the reservoir which supplies kashan with water, we entered the rising valley of kuhr[=u]d, where the snow came nearly down to the road, and every slope was terraced and every level cultivated, and young wheat was springing and fruit orchards flourished, with green sward under the branches, and great poplars in picturesque groups towered above the lower woods. we lost the way in the snow, and then took to the pebbly river as the safest track, and had an hour of fumbling in water and snow under apple and pear trees for the halting-place. the twilight of a frosty evening was coming on when we reached the village of kuhr[=u]d-- houses in terraces on a mountain side, and clustering round a fort on a projecting spur. it is surrounded and interpenetrated by groves of walnut, apricot, cherry, peach, plum, apple, pear, poplar, and vine, with roses climbing over everything and planted in rows like vines, and through it passes a fair, bright stream of living water, a stream "whose waters fail not," turning the mountain valley into an oasis. but at that altitude of something like feet, the buds are only just swelling, and the crimson catkins of the hazels were the only reminder of spring. it is the one place that i should care to revisit. the snow was piled in great heaps in the village and against the wall of the very wretched, ruinous _chapar khana_ in which i sought rest and shelter. mahboud went up to the loft over the gateway, and came down looking dejected, mustering english enough to say, "no, no, mem sahib!" i actually had to occupy one of the two gateway rooms, an inferior stable, without the smallest window hole, and no door except two unconnected boards with which one could cover a part of the doorway. even when these were not put up a candle was necessary. it was freezing hard, but one could not have a fire because there was no smoke-hole. the walls were slimily and inkily black from the smoke of the fires of people who were less particular than i am. the dust and rubbish of the floor were swept into one corner. if one wanted a place to store boxes in, and looked into that room, one would exclaim dubiously, "well, it _might_ do for glass and china!" mahboud put a rug on the floor and brought a bowl of delicious milk, and with an inverted saddle for a pillow i rested quite comfortably, being too tired to be impatient, till mirza yusuf arrived with my luxuries, and the news that the caravan could not get in for another hour, for that several of the mules had fallen and the loads were slipping round constantly. indeed it was ten before i had dinner. it is very fortunate to have an attendant always cheerful, never fussy, caring nothing for personal comfort, and always ready to interpret. the _ketchuda_ called with the usual proffer of service, "i am your sacrifice," etc., and induced me to buy some of the specialties of kuhr[=u]d, rose-water in bottles without corks, and a paste made of rose-water, pounded walnuts, and sugar. the rose-water is not very clear, but it has much of the overpowering, lingering odour of attar of roses. kuhr[=u]d seems prosperous. besides exporting large quantities of rose-water and walnut paste formed into blocks and done up in white skins, it sends wheat and fruit in abundance to kashan. freedom, good sleep, and satisfactory travelling make up for all annoyances but vermin, and these are still hybernating. in that precarious privacy i slept soundly, and got the caravan off at eight the next morning--a glorious winter morning, the icy roads and the snow-covered valley glittering with frost crystals. we lost the way again among the pretty orchards, then got into a valley between high mud mountains, whose shapelessness is now judiciously concealed by snow from one to three feet deep, through which a track has been broken a foot wide. it is six miles from kuhr[=u]d to the summit of the kuhr[=u]d pass, which is over feet, and it grew very cold and gray, and ragged masses of cloud swept angrily round the mountain-tops. on the steepest part of the ascent it was extremely slippery, and the horses not being roughed slipped badly, and i was just fearing an accident to my borrowed horse and planning some method of dismounting when down he came on his nose and then on the side of his head, and fell several times again in his struggles to get up, his feet slipping from under him. when he did succeed in getting on his legs i was convinced that he had cut his knees, and slipped off him somehow to examine them; but my fears were groundless, and i had great difficulty in getting out of the drift into which i had descended, which was nearly up to my shoulders. his nose was bleeding a little, but that was all. there was no way of remounting on a path a foot wide between walls of snow, and besides i was afraid of another accident, so i slipped the snaffle rein over his head and led him. it was horribly slippery, and having nails in my boots i fell several times just under his feet, but the sweet creature always stopped when i fell. from the top there was a truly fearful view of "blackness, darkness, and tempest," inky mists, white mountain-tops showing momentarily through them to be lost again, and great sheets of very deep snow. soon the gathering storm burst, a "blizzard" in which the snow was quite blinding, snow drifting and hissing as it went by, the wind tempestuous, mountains, valleys, path obliterated, even the soldier in front of me constantly lost to sight. an hour of this and i could walk no more, and somehow scrambled into the saddle. at the foot of the descent the sky cleared, the sun shone, and we picked up the caravan, which had had rather a hard time. the succeeding route was through an absolutely uninhabited and uninhabitable country, clay and mud hills, purple, red, gray, pink, brown, an utter desolation, till we came in sight of the good-sized and at a distance imposing-looking village of soh in a keen wind with frequent snow showers. soh is a telegraph testing station. the electrician was absent, but had kindly left directions that i was to be received, and i found a most comfortable guest-room quite ready. a little later an englishman riding _chapar_ to isfahan threw a packet of english letters in at my door--a delightful surprise, which made havoc of the rest of the evening. the desolation of this part of the route may be judged of from the fact that except the village of kuhr[=u]d there is not an inhabited house for forty-six miles. the country traversed reminds me much of the least interesting part of the route from lesser tibet into kulu. yesterday morning there was ice, and the roads were very slippery on the gradual descent from the plain which opens out after passing bideshk, the _chapar_ station, an hour from soh. the twenty-four miles' ride over this gravelly waste, quite uninhabited, was very pleasant, as it was possible to gallop much of the way, and besides the beauty of the atmospheric colouring the mirage occurring in most remarkable forms rendered monotony impossible. there were no caravans on the road, but i met several dervishes, and there is one here to whom i have given what he demanded--a night's lodging. he carries a large carved almsholder; and the panther skin on his shoulders, the knotted club, and his lean, hungry, fanatical face give him a dangerous look. all i have seen on this march have worn long matted bushy hair, often covering their shoulders, an axe in the girdle, and peculiar turbans decorated with phrases from the koran. they are the "mendicant friars" of persia, and are under vows of poverty. some are said to be learned; but they object to discussing religious matters with infidels, and almost nothing is known as to their beliefs. they hold universally the sanctity of idleness, and the duty of being supported by the community. the lower classes hold them in reverence, and the upper, though they are apt to loathe them, treat them with great respect, for fear of laying themselves open to the charge of laxity in religious matters. [illustration: a dervish.] many of them deal in charms, and are consulted as astrologers. some are professed tellers of stories, to which i am told no european could degrade himself by listening, but which are most palatable to a village audience; and at this moment this unwelcome guest of mine has a crowd listening to a narrative partly told and partly acted. they are credited with many vices, among the least of which are hazy ideas as to mine and thine, opium and bhang smoking to excess, and drunkenness. they have recognised heads or chiefs, to whom they show great deference. one of their vows is that of obedience; and besides paying to the chief a part of the alms they receive, he gives them orders as to the houses they are to infest, and though the nuisance is not so common as formerly, a dervish at the door is still a sign of being great or rich, or both. their cries, and their rude blasts on the buffalo horn, which is a usual part of their equipment, are most obnoxious. in the larger towns, such as kûm and kirmanshah, there are shops for the sale of their outfit--the tiger and panther skins, the axes, the knotted clubs, the almsbowls, etc. some are respectable, and enjoy much consideration, and i hope that many even of those whom a careful writer has called "disgusting vagabonds" are not humbugs; but the presumption is so much the other way that i am always glad when the ground admits of galloping past them, otherwise the dervish comes forward, with his knotted club much _en évidence_, with many compliments and good wishes, or else silently extends his almsholder, ejaculating _huk_ ("my right"). i usually have the means of appeasing, if not of satisfying him, but on the rare occasions when i have had no money the yells and maledictions have been awful. the light and profane use of the divine name is universal. the dervishes curse, but every one uses the name _allah_ wherever they can bring it in. the _ya allah_, as an expression of fatigue, or discontent, or interest, or nothing, is heard all day, and the boy who drives a cow, or a team, or a mule in a caravan, cries _ya allah_ incessantly as an equivalent of "go along," and the gardener pushing his spade into the ground, the chopper with every blow of the axe, the labourer throwing up bricks, ejaculates the same. _mashallah_, _inshallah_, interlard all conversation. when men are building, the perpetual sing-song of phrases such as these is heard, "brother, in god's name toss me a brick," the other replying, "brother, in god's name here is a brick." the vocabulary of abuse is also very large, and often involves serious reflections on the female relatives of the person abused. i hear such harmless phrases as "son of a burnt father," "son of a dog," "offspring of a pig," etc., on all occasions. murcheh khurt is a large village with a good deal of cultivation about it, a mosque or more, a _hammam_, a _chapar khana_, and a caravanserai. here again i found that the smart foreign soldier attracted all the notice, and that before the people ceased to wonder at him i had passed them. the _chapar khana_ was full of men, so i have had to sink to the level of a recessed den with a manger in front in a ruinous caravanserai crowded with persian travellers, muleteers, mules, horses, and asses, and the courtyard half-choked with ruins. i had not seen the inside of one of these dens before. travellers have exhausted the vocabulary of abuse upon them; possibly they deserve it in the "vermin season"; but there is nothing worse than a square and perfectly dark room, with unplastered walls blackened by the smoke and cobwebs of ages, and a door which will not fasten. the air is cool and the sky blue, and sitting at the open door is very pleasant. mahboud and two of the servants caught cold at kuhr[=u]d and are ill, and my arab has a chill too. he is a very stupid horse. his gentle eyes never change their expression, and his small ears rarely move. he has little sense or affection, but when he is patted his proud neck takes on a loftier arch. gentle as he is to people he is a brute to other horses. he would like to fight every one of them, to stand on his hind-legs and grapple them round the shoulders with his fore-feet and bite their necks, roaring and squealing all the time. he and mahboud's horse are inveterate enemies, and one of the few difficulties of the journey is the keeping them from a regular stand-up fight. this village is an oasis in the desert. i have been through its gates, barely wide enough to admit an ass loaded with brushwood, with the _seraidar_ and mirza, walked through its narrow alleys, and inadvertently stumbled into a mosque where a great crowd of women were listening to a story of one of the twelve imams told by a _mollah_, looked down upon it and over the adjacent country from a house roof, visited several houses, in which some of the inmates were ill and desired "feringhi medicine," had a long conversation with the _ketchuda_, who came to see me to ask for eye lotion, and with the _seraidar_, and altogether have had quite a pleasant day. _chapar khana, gez._--i am sitting in one of the three doorless doorways of my loft, grieving that the journey is just over, and that this is the last night of the exhilarating freedom of the desert. i rode twenty-four miles before one o'clock to-day, over a level uncultivated plain, bordered as usual by ranges of mountains. in fact, while i write of levels and plains it must be understood that persia is chiefly a land of hills rising from a table-land from feet to feet in altitude, and that the traveller is rarely, if ever, more than fourteen or fifteen miles from mountains from to feet above the plain from which they rise, crowned by demavend, whose imposing summit is , feet above the sea. the hills beyond isfahan have assumed lofty proportions, and some of the snowy mountains of luristan are to be seen in the far distance. it is nearly an unmitigated waste between murcheh khurt and gez, destitute even of tufts of wormwood; but the latter part of the march is through a stoneless alluvial desert of dry friable soil, soft springy galloping ground which water would turn into a paradise of fertility; and water there has once been, for not far from the road are the remains of some _kanaats_. the questions naturally arise in a traveller's mind, first, what becomes of the enormous amount of snow which falls on the mountains; and next, how in a country so arid as the plateaus of central asia water for irrigation, and for the basins and fountains which abound in rich men's houses, is obtained. wells, unless the artesian borings shortly to be begun in the tihran desert should be successful, are all but unknown, except for supplying drinking water, and there are scarcely any reservoirs, but ingenuity has devised a plan of subterranean water-channels, which besides their other advantages prevent loss by evaporation. tihran has thirty-five of them, and the water which they distribute is naturally expensive, as the cost of making them is great. it is on the slope of a hill that the spring is found which is the original source of supply; this is tapped at some depth, and its waters are led along a tunnel about four feet high by two feet wide lined with baked pottery where the ground is soft, and having a slight fall to the next spring or well, which may be from twenty-five to even sixty yards off. as the labourers dig they draw up the earth and arrange it in a circle round the shaft, and as they come to water they draw up the mud and pour it on the top of the earth, where it dries and hardens, and below, the water is conducted as a running underground stream across great plains, its progress marked by mounds which have been compared to ant-hills and craters, but to my thinking are more like the shafts of disused mines. hundreds of these _kanaats_ are seen, ruined and dry, and are the resort of porcupines and jackals. to construct a _kanaat_ may call a village or series of villages into being. the letting it fall to ruin is one cause of deserted villages. those which are not lined require annual repairs, which are now going on, but frequently the complete fall of the roof destroys the fall of the water, and the tunnel becomes irreparable. the peasants are obliged to buy the water, for they cannot steal it, and the making of a _kanaat_ is often a lucrative speculation. pigeons live in them, and many of them are full of fish, which foreigners amuse themselves by poisoning by throwing a mixture of _cocculus indicus_ with dough down the wells, when the poisoned but wholesome fish rise to the surface. they usually recover when they are left in the water. dr. wills describes them as having a muddy taste. the _kanaats_ are a feature of persia. ever since leaving kûm all the dry and hard parts of the road have been covered with the industrious "road beetle," which works, like the ant, in concert, and carries on its activities at all seasons, removing from the road to its nest all the excreta of animals, except in regions where even animal fuel is so exceptionally scarce that boys with asses and ponies follow caravans for the same purpose. these beetles hover over the road on the wing, and on alighting proceed to roll the ball towards the nest, four or five of them standing on their hind-legs and working it forwards, or else rolling it with their heads close to the ground. their instinct is wonderful, and they attract the attention of all travellers. they are about the size of a small walnut. otherwise there is little of animated life to be seen on this route. no day has had fewer noticeable objects. two or three _abambars_, several caravanserais in absolute ruins, and a magnificent one in partial ruins are its record. gez consists of this post-house and a decaying caravanserai. from the roof as i write i watch the grooming of a whole row of _chapar_ horses. as each pad is removed there is a horrid revelation of wounds, deep ulcers, sores often a foot long, and in some cases the white vertebræ of the spine are exposed. these are the wretched animals which often carry men from fourteen to seventeen stone who ride fifty miles in a day. it is hard enough even with extreme carefulness to keep the back of a horse all right on a continuous journey, but i never before saw animals ridden in such a state. they wince pitifully when their pads are put on again. the desert is all around, purpling in the sunset, sweeping up to low broken ridges, and to some higher hills in the north-west covered with new-fallen snow. that the waste only requires water to make it prolific is apparent, for below these walls wheat is growing luxuriantly in some deep pits, irrigated from a dirty ditch out of which the drinking water comes. nothing can be got, except by sending to a village a mile away. four of the men are ill, one with inflammation of the eyes, another with an abscess, and a third, a very strong man, with something like bilious fever, and a _charvadar_ with malarial fever. the strong man's moans often become howls. he insists that he shall die to-night. these two afternoons have been much taken up with making poultices and medicines, and i shall be glad for the poor fellows to reach isfahan and the care of a competent doctor. _julfa, april ._--i daresay this journey seems longer to you than it did to me. it was very pleasant, and its goal is pleasant, and a most kind welcome and the refinement of cultured english people go far to compensate for the loss of the desert freedom and the easy stride of the arab horse. i started the caravan at nine yesterday, with two men with bandaged eyes, and other two hardly able to sit on their mules; mahboud, who is really more seriously ill than any of them, keeping up his pluck and capableness to the last. the man who threatened to die at gez was very much better the next morning. soon after leaving gez the country changes its aspect, the road becomes very bad, and passes through nine miles of rich cultivation--wheat, barley, opium, and vegetables growing abundantly; orchards are numerous, villages with trees and gardens succeed each other rapidly, water abounds, and before the gate of isfahan is reached, domes and minarets rising among cypresses, planes, and poplars indicate the remains of the former capital of persia. inside the shabby gateway the road to julfa lies among rows of mean mud houses, heaps of ruins, and shabby provision bazars; and that mile or more of isfahan was the one disagreeable part of the journey. it was about the last day of the holidays, and the bazars, alleys, and open spaces were full of men in gay attire, and companies of shrouded women were moving along the quieter roads. it was too warm for the sheepskin coat which had served me so well at kûm, and i had dressed with some regard to european sensibilities. the boys began to shout "a feringhi woman! a nazarene woman!" and then to call bad names; then men began to make up fiendish laughs,[ ] and the howls and outcries gathered strength as i went on at the inevitable foot's pace, spitting being quite common, poor mahboud constantly turning to me a perturbed wretched face, full of annoyance at the insults of his co-religionists, which it would have been dangerous to resent. it was a bad half-hour. before passing the residence of the amir-i-panj (the commander of ) near the julfa gate the uproar died away, and once through the gate and in the _chahar bagh_ (four gardens) there was peace. a bad road of cobble stones, with a double avenue of once magnificent planes, some once ornamental tanks, very high walls, pierced by storied gates, ornamented with wild designs on plaster in flaring colours, above which a blue dome is a conspicuous object, leads to a handsome bridge of thirty-three arches, with a broad level roadway, and corridors for foot passengers on either side, over the zainderud, then came fields with springing wheat, a few houses, a narrow alley, and two or three miles from isfahan the gate of its armenian suburb, julfa. at once on crossing the bridge there was a change. ruddy, cheery-looking unveiled women in red gowns, and pure white _chadars_ completely enveloping their persons, moved freely about, and the men wore neither the becoming turban nor the ominous scowl of islam. in the quaint narrow streets were churches with open vestibules, through which pictures of the thorn-crowned christ and of sweet-faced madonnas were visible; priests in black robes and women in white glided along the narrow roads. there was the fresher, purer air of christianity, however debased and corrupted. in the low-browed churches divine honours are paid to a crowned and risen christ, and the white-robed women have been baptized into his name. never again will the julfa alleys be so peaceful and lovable as yesterday, when they offered a haven from the howling bigots of isfahan. dr. bruce has not returned from baghdad, but mrs. and miss bruce welcomed me very kindly, and i am already forgetting my unpleasant reception. i. l. b. footnote: [ ] i can imagine now what a hellish laugh that was with which "they laughed him to scorn." i was a month in julfa, but never saw anything more of isfahan, which is such a fanatical city that i believe even so lately as last year none of the ladies of the european community had visited it, except one or two disguised as persian women. letter xii julfa, _april _. mr. george curzon wrote of julfa: "the younger julfa is a place wholly destitute of superficial attractions, consisting as it does of a labyrinth of narrow alleys closed by doors and plentifully perforated with open sewers. life there is 'cabined, cribbed, confined' to an intolerable degree, and it is a relief to escape from its squalid precincts." i dare not write thus if i would! it is now the early spring. the "sewers" are clear rapid streams, margined by grass and dandelions, and shaded by ash trees and pollard willows in their first flush of green. the "narrow alleys" are scrupulously clean, and there is neither mud nor dust. if i go up on the roof i see a cultivated oasis, gardens prolonged indefinitely concealing the desert which lies between them and the bold mountain ranges which surround this lofty and breezy plain. every breeze is laden with the delicious odour of the bean blossom. a rapid river spanned by noble bridges hurries through the oasis it has helped to create, and on its other side the domes and minarets of isfahan rise out of masses of fine trees, and bridges and mosques, minarets and mountains, are all seen through a most exquisite pink mist, for hundreds of standard peach trees are in full bloom, and look where one may everything is _couleur de rose_. i quite admit that julfa consists of a "labyrinth of alleys." i can never find my way about it. one alley with its shady central stream (or "sewer"), its roughly paved paths on either side, its mud walls pierced by low doors, is very much like another, and however lucky one may be in "happening on" the right road, it is always a weary time before one escapes from between mud walls into the gardens and wheatfields, to the blossoming beans, and the exquisite wild-flowers among the wheat. as to the "cabined, cribbed, confined" life, i can give no testimony from personal knowledge. all life in european settlements in the east appears to me "cabined, cribbed, confined," and greatly devoid of external interests. perhaps julfa is deficient in the latter in an eminent degree, and in a very small foreign community people are interested chiefly in each other's affairs, sayings, and doings. lawn tennis, picnics, and dinner parties are prevalent, the ordinary etiquette of european society prevails, and in all cases of need the residents are kind to each other both in life and death. the european society is divided into three circles--the missionaries, the mercantile community, and the telegraph staff. the british agent, mr. aganoor, is an armenian.[ ] no christians, armenian or european, live in isfahan, and it is practically _défendu_ to european women. this transpontine restriction undoubtedly narrows the life and interests of julfa. it is aggravating and tantalising to be for ever looking at a city of , or , people, the fallen capital of the sufari dynasty, and never be able to enter it. this christian town of julfa has a certain accessible historic interest. shah abbas, justly surnamed the great, conceived the sagacious project of introducing among his persian subjects at isfahan--then, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, a magnificent capital--the christian habits of trading, sagacity, and thrift, for then as now the armenians had commercial dealings with china, india, and europe, and had imported several arts into persia. this project he carried out in truly despotic fashion by moving almost the whole population of julfa on the araxes, on the modern russo-persian frontier, to the banks of the zainderud, making over to it the best lands in the neighbourhood of isfahan. many years later the new julfa was a place with twenty-four churches, great prosperity, and an estimated population of , . its agriculturists were prosperous market-gardeners for the huge city of isfahan, and it had likewise a great trading community, and was renowned for the making of jewellery and watches. it has now a dwindling population of about , chiefly elderly men, women, and girls, the young men, after receiving a good education in the church mission and other schools, flying from its stagnation to india, java, and even europe. the twenty-four churches are reduced to twelve, and these with the vast cemetery in the desert at the base of kuh sufi are its chief objects of interest, apart from those which are human and living. _april ._--the peach blossoms have long since fallen, but perhaps i still see julfa _couleur de rose_, even after three weeks, so very great is the kindness under this roof, and so fully is my time occupied with various interests, and the preparations for a difficult journey. this, as you know, is the church mission house. dr. bruce has been here for twenty years, and until lately, when the archbishop of canterbury's mission to the assyrian christians began its work at urmi, near the turkish frontier in the north-west, this was the only english mission in the empire. it was contemplated as a mission to the mohammedans, but in this respect has been an apparent failure. it is true that much prejudice has been disarmed, and, as i have heard from some leading mohammedans, dr. bruce's zeal and good works have won their respect. a large part of the bible has been translated into persian and very widely circulated through the adjacent country by means of colporteurs of the british and foreign bible society. his preaching of christianity is listened to respectfully, and even with interest, wherever he itinerates, and moslems daily call on him, and show much friendliness, but the results, as results are usually estimated, are _nil_--that is, no mohammedans openly profess christianity. there is actual though not legal toleration, but moslem children may not attend a mission school, and a moslem who becomes a christian loses his means of living, and probably his life is sacrificed to fanaticism. in consequence of these difficulties, and certain encouragements in another direction, the _ostensible_ work of the mission is among armenians. dr. bruce has not been afraid of incurring the stigma of being a proselytiser, and has a large congregation of armenians worshipping after the english form, ninety-four being communicants of the church of england. on easter eve there was an evening communion, and the great row of women kneeling at the rail in the pure white robes which cover them from head to foot, and then moving back to their places in the dim light, was very picturesque and beautiful. good works have been added one after another, till the mission is now a very large establishment. the c.m.s. has been liberal to this, its only persian agency, and dr. bruce, having private means, has generously expended them largely on missionary work in julfa. the chief features of the compounds are the church, which is both simple and ecclesiastical in its exterior and interior, and the library adjoining it, where dr. bruce works at the translation of the old testament into persian and the revision of the new, aided by a _munshi_, and where through much of the day he is receiving moslems, some of whom come to inquire into christianity, others for religious disputations, and a third and numerous class out of mere friendliness. the latter are generally invited into the mission house, and are regaled with coffee and _kalians_, in orthodox persian fashion. among the latter visitors has been the amir-i-panj, who came to ask me to call on his wife, accompanied by a general of cavalry, whose name i cannot spell, and who speaks french remarkably well. among the other buildings are those of the medical mission, which include a roomy courtyard, where the animals which carry the patients are tethered, rooms for the doctor, a well-arranged dispensary and consulting-room, with waiting-rooms for both sexes, and rooms above in which serious surgical cases are received for treatment, and where at present there are eleven patients, although just now there is no european doctor, and they are being treated by the native assistants, most kindly helped by dr. scully of the telegraph staff. this hospital and dispensary are largely taken advantage of by moslems, who highly appreciate this form of christian benevolence. the boys' school, with pupils, has been a great benefit to julfa. the head-master, mr. johannes, was educated in england and was formerly a master of the nassik school in india. this school provides the education of one of our best middle-class schools, and the teaching is thorough. _smattering_ would be infinitely despised by teachers and pupils. in this thorough fashion latin, french, the first four books of euclid, and algebra are taught to the young men of the upper form. the boys have a large playground, with a great tank for bathing, and some of the equipments of a gymnasium, a vaulting pole, parallel bars, etc. the girls' schools, containing girls, have their own courtyard, and they need enlarging, though the process has been more than once repeated. mrs. aidin, an english teacher, is at their head, and exercises that strong influence which love and firmness give. the girls are a mass of red, a cool red, without yellow, and when they disperse they enliven the julfa alleys with their carnation dresses and pure white _chadars_. the education is solid and suitable, and special attention is given to needlework. besides these there is an orphanage, begun for the benefit of those whose parents died in the famine, in which are twenty boys. outside are many other works, a bible house, from which colporteurs at intervals proceed on journeys, a young men's christian association, or something like it, etc. etc. now as to the mission house itself, which has to accommodate dr., mrs., and miss bruce, mr. carless, a clerical missionary, and two english lady missionaries. so much has been written lately about the "style of living" of missionaries, their large houses, and somewhat unnecessary comfort in general, that i am everywhere specially interested in investigating the subject, having formed no definite opinion on the question whether living as natives or living as europeans is the more likely mode of producing a salutary impression. the mission house here is a native building, its walls and ceilings simply decorated with pale brown arabesques on a white ground. there are a bedroom and parlour, with an ante-room between giving access to both from the courtyard, a storeroom, and a kitchen. across the court are servants' quarters and a guest-room for natives. above these, reached by an outside stair, are a good room, occupied by mr. carless as study and bedroom, and one small guest-room. another stair leads to two rooms above some of the girls' school premises, having enclosed alcoves used as sleeping and dressing rooms. these are occupied by two ladies. one room serves as eating-room for the whole mission party, at present six in number, and as drawing-room and workroom. books, a harmonium, persian rugs on the floor, and just enough furniture for use constitute its "luxury." there are two servants, both of course men, and all the ladies do some housework. at present the only horse is the dispensary horse, a beast of such rough and uneven paces that it is a penance to ride him. the food is abundant, well cooked, and very simple. the life, all round, is a very busy one. visitors are never refused at any hour. the long flat mud roofs from which one can see the gardens and the hills are used for exercise, otherwise some of the party would never have anything better than mud walls for their horizon, and life in courtyards is rather depressing for europeans. i have told facts, and make no comments, and it must be remembered that both dr. bruce and miss v----, a lady of rare devotion who has lately arrived,[ ] are to a certain extent "honorary" missionaries, and have the means, if they had the desire, of surrounding themselves with comforts. this is about the twenty-third mission circle with which i have become acquainted during the last eight months, and i see in nearly all the same difficulties, many of them of a nature which we can hardly realise at home. women coming to the east as missionaries are by far the greatest sufferers, especially if they are young, for eastern custom, which in their position cannot be defied with advantage, limits free action and abridges all the comforts of independence. thus a woman cannot take a walk or a ride or go to a house without a trusty man-servant in attendance on her, and this is often inconvenient, so she does not go out at all, contenting herself with a walk on the roof or in the courtyard. the wave of enthusiasm on which a lady leaves her own country soon spends its force. the interest which has centred round her for weeks or even months is left behind. the enthusiastic addresses and farewell meetings, the journey "up the country" with its excitement and novelties, and the cordial welcome from the mission circle to which she is introduced, soon become things of the past. the circle, however kind, has its own interests and work, and having provided her with a _munshi_, necessarily goes on its own way more or less, and she is left to face the fearful difficulties of languages with which ours has no affinity, in a loneliness which is all the more severely felt because she is usually, for a time at least, one nominally of a family circle. unless she is a doctor or nurse she can do nothing till she has learned the language, and the difficulty of learning is increased by the loss of the flexible mind and retentive memory which are the heritage of extreme youth. the temptation is to "go at it" violently. then come the aching head, the loss of sleep, the general lassitude and nervousness, and the self-questionings as to whether she was right in leaving her fruitful work in england. then, instead of realising the truth of the phrases used at home--"multitudes flocking as the doves to their windows"--"fields white unto the harvest," etc.--she finds that the work instead of seeking her has to be made by her most laboriously, and oftentimes the glowing hope of telling of the redeemer's love and death to throngs of eager and receptive listeners is fulfilled in the drudgery of teaching sewing and the rudiments of english during the first year. it is just this first year under which many women succumb. then how many of the failings and weaknesses of the larger world must be epitomised in a mission group exposed, as mr. heyde of kyelang feelingly said, "to the lowering influence of daily contact with a courteous and non-repulsive heathenism and mohammedanism"! missionaries are not likely to possess, as they certainly are the last to claim, superior sanctity, and the new-comer, dreaming of a circle in all respects consecrated, finds herself among frictions, strong differences as to methods of working, not always gently expressed, and possible jealousies and criticisms, and an exaggeration of the importance of trifles, natural where large events are rare. a venerable american missionary in turkey said, "believe me, the greatest trial of missionaries is missionaries." the small group is frequently destitute of social resources outside itself, it is cut off from friendly visits, services, lectures, music, new books, news, and the many recreative influences which all men regard as innocent. the life-work seems at times thrown away, the heat, the flies, and the mosquitos are depressing and exhausting, and in the case of young women, especially till they can use the language colloquially, there is little if any outside movement. is it wonderful that supposed slights, tiffs, criticisms which would be utterly brushed away if a good walk in the open or a good gallop were possible, should be brooded over till they attain a magnitude which embitters and depresses life? a man constantly finds the first year or two very trying till he has his tools--the language--at command, and even men at times rub each other the wrong way, but a man can take a good walk or a solitary gallop, or better still, a week of itinerating among the villages. people speak of the dangers and privations of missionary life. i think that these are singularly over-estimated. but the trials which i have alluded to, and which, with the hot climates and insufficient exercise, undermine the health of very many female missionaries, cannot be exaggerated, and demand our deep sympathy. i do not think that the ordinary pious woman, the successful and patient worker in district visiting, bible classes, mothers' meetings, etc., is necessarily suited to be a foreign missionary, but that a heart which is a well-spring of human love, and a natural "enthusiasm of humanity" are required, as well as love to the master, the last permeating and sanctifying the others, and giving them a perennial freshness. fancy g. g---- grumbling and discontented and magnifying unpropitious trifles, when her heart goes out to every chinawoman she sees in a perfect passion of love![ ] with the _medical_ missionary, whether man or woman, the case is different. the work seeks the worker even before he is ready for it, claims him, pursues him, absorbs him, and he is powerful to heal even where he is impotent to convert. i have been to the hospital to see a woman from the kuhr[=u]d mountains, who was brought here to undergo an operation. she had spent all her living on native physicians without result, and her husband has actually sold his house to get money to give his wife a last chance of recovery. fifteen years ago this man nearly took dr. bruce's life. now, he says, "the fruits of christianity are good." daily the "labyrinth of alleys" becomes denser with leafage, and the sun is hot enough to make the shade very pleasant, while occasional showers keep the greenery fresh. indeed it is warm enough in my room to make the cool draught from the _b[=a]dg[=i]r_ very pleasant. these wind-towers are a feature of all persian cities, breaking the monotony of the flat roofs. letters can be sent once a week from isfahan, and there is another opportunity very safe and much taken advantage of, the "telegraph _chapar_," a british official messenger, who rides up and down between bushire and tihran at stated intervals. the persian post is a wretched institution, partaking of the general corruption of persian officialism, and nowhere, unless _registered_, are letters less safe than in tihran.[ ] i shall send this, scrappy as it is, as i may not be here for another week's mail. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] since my visit mr. preece, then, and for many previous years, the superintending electrician of this section of the indo-european telegraph, has been appointed consul, the increasing dimensions of english interests and the increasing number of resident british subjects rendering the creation of a consulate at isfahan a very desirable step. [ ] a few weeks later she died, her life sacrificed, i think, to over-study of a difficult language, and the neglect of fresh air and exercise. [ ] these sentences were written nearly a year ago, but many subsequent visits to missions have only confirmed my strong view of the very trying nature of at least the early period of a lady missionary's life in the east, and of the constant failure of health which it produces; of the great necessity there is for mission boards to lay down some general rules of hygiene, which shall include the duty of riding on horseback, for more rigorous requirements of vigorous _physique_ in those sent out, and above all, that the _natural characteristics_ of those who are chosen to be "epistles of christ" in the east shall be such as will not only naturally and specially commend the gospel, but will stand the wear and strain of difficult circumstances. [ ] nearly all my non-registered letters to england failed to reach their destination. letter xiii julfa, _april _. each day has been completely filled up since i wrote, and this is probably the last here. my dear old cabul tent, a _shuldari_, also indian, and a servants' tent made here on a plan of my own, are pitched in one of the compounds to exercise the servants in the art, and it really looks like going after many delays. a few festivities have broken the pleasant monotony of life in this kindly and hospitable house--dinner parties, european and armenian; a picnic on the kuh sufi, from which there is a very fine panoramic view of the vast plain and its surrounding mountains, and of the immense ruins of isfahan and julfa, with the shrunken remains of both; and a "church picnic." from kuh sufi is seen how completely, and with a sharp line of definition, the arid desert bounds the green oasis of cultivated and irrigated gardens which surround the city, and which are famous for the size and lusciousness of their fruit. from a confusion of ruinous or ragged walls of mud, of ruined and modern houses standing complacently among heaps of rubbish, and from amidst a greenery which redeems the scene, the blue tiled dome of the masjid-i-shah, a few minarets, and the great dome of the medresseh, denuded of half its tiles, rise conspicuously. long lines of mud streets and caravanserais, gaunt in their ruin, stretch into the desert, and the city once boasting of , inhabitants and a splendid court survives with a population of less than , at the highest estimate. the "church picnic" was held in a scene of decay, but people, with all the women but three in red, enlivened it. it was in the grounds of the old palace of haft dast, in which fatteh ali shah died, close to one of the three remarkable bridges of isfahan, the pul-i-kaj[=u]. these bridges are magnificent. their construction is most peculiar, and their roadways being flat they are almost unique in persia. the pul-i-kaj[=u], though of brick, has stone piers of immense size, which are arched over so as to form a level causeway. on this massive structure the upper bridge is built, comprising a double series of rooms at each pier with doorways overlooking the river, and there are staircases and rooms also in the upper piers. the chahar bagh bridge is also quaint and magnificent, with its thirty-three arches, some of them very large, its corridors for foot passengers, and chambers above each pier, each chamber having three openings to the river. these bridges have a many-storied look, from their innumerable windows at irregular altitudes, and form a grand approach to the city. as at first, so now at last the most impressive thing to me about the zainderud next to its bridges is the extent to which rinsing, one of the processes of dyeing, is carried on upon its shingle flats. isfahan dyed fabrics are famous and beautiful, heavy cottons of village make and unbleached cottons of manchester make being brought here to be dyed and printed. there is quite a population of dyers, and now that the river is fairly low, many of them have camped for the season in little shelters of brushwood erected on the gravel banks. for fully half-a-mile these banks are covered with the rinsers of dyed and printed calicoes, and with mighty heaps of their cottons. hundreds of pieces after the rinsing are laid closely together to dry, indigo and turquoise blue, brown and purple madder, turkey red and saffron predominating, a vile aniline colour showing itself here and there. some of the smaller dyers have their colour vats by the river, but most of the cotton is brought from isfahan, ready dyed, on donkeys' backs, with the rinsers in attendance. along the channels among the shingle banks are rows of old millstones, and during much of the day a rinser stands in front of each up to his knees in water. his methods are rough, and the cotton must be good which stands his treatment. taking in his hands a piece of soaked half-wrung cotton, from fifteen to twenty yards long, he folds it into five feet and bangs it on the millstone with all his might, roaring a tuneless song all the time, till he fails from fatigue. the noise is tremendous, and there will be more yet, for the river is not nearly at its lowest point. when the piece has had the water beaten out of it a boy spreads it out on the gravel, and keeps it wet by dashing water over it, and then the process of beating is repeated. the coloured spray rising from each millstone in the bright sunshine is very pretty. each rinser has his watchdog to guard the cottons on the bank, and between the banging, splashing, and singing, the barking of the dogs and the shouts of the boys, it is a noisy and cheery scene. i have heard that certain unscrupulous english makers were in the habit of sending "loaded" cottons here, but that the calico printers have been a match for them, for the calico printer weighs his cloth before he buys it, washes and dries it, and then weighs it again. a man must "get up very early" if he means to cheat a persian. the patterns and colours are beautiful. quilts, "table-cloths" (for use on the floor), and _chadars_ are often things of exquisite beauty. indeed i have yielded to temptation, and to gratify my own tastes have bought some beautiful "table-cloths" for bakhtiari women, printed chiefly in indigo and brown madder on a white ground. the temptations are great. i really need many things both for my own outfit and for presents to the bakhtiaris, and pedlars come every day and unpack their tempting bundles in the small verandah. no europeans and no women of the upper classes can enjoy the delights of shopping in persia, consequently the pedlar is a necessary institution. here they are of the humbler sort. they have learned that it is useless to display rich turkestan and feraghan carpets, gold and silver jewellery, inlaid arms, stuffs worked with gold thread, or any of the things which tempt the travelling feringhi, so they bring all sorts of common fabrics, printed cambrics, worthless woollen stuffs, and the stout piece cottons and exquisitely-printed cotton squares of isfahan. at almost any hour of the day a salaaming creature squatting at the door is seen, caressing a big bundle, which on seeing you he pats in a deprecating manner, looks up appealingly, declares that he is your "sacrifice," and that with great trouble and loss he has got just the thing the _khanum_ wants. if you hesitate for one moment the bundle is opened, and on his first visit he invariably shows flaring manchester cottons first; but if you look and profess disgust, he produces cottons printed here, strokes them lovingly, and asks double their value for them. you offer something about half. he recedes and you advance till a compromise is arrived at representing the fair price. but occasionally, as about a table-cloth, if they see that you admire it very much but will not give the price asked, they swear by allah that they will not abate a fraction, pack up their bundle, and move off in well-simulated indignation, probably to return the next day to offer the article on your own terms. mrs. bruce has done the bargaining, and i have been only an amused looker-on. i should prefer doing without things to the worry and tedium of the process of buying them. the higher class of pedlars, such as those who visit the _andaruns_ of the rich, go in couples, with a donkey or servant to carry their bundles. i mentioned that the amir-i-panj had called and had asked me to visit his wife. i sent a message to say that my entrance into isfahan had been so disagreeable that i should be afraid to pass through its gates again, to which he replied that he would take care that i met with no incivility. so an afternoon visit was arranged, and he sent a splendid charger for me, one of the finest horses i have seen in persia, a horse for mirza yusuf, and an escort of six cavalry soldiers, which was increased to twelve at the city gate. the horse i rode answered the description--"a neck clothed with thunder,"--he was perfectly gentle, but his gait was that of a creature too proud to touch the earth. it was exhilarating to be upon such an animal. the cavalry men rode dashing animals, and wore white astrakan high caps, and the _cortège_ quite filled up the narrow alley where it waited, and as it passed through the chahar bagh and the city gate, with much prancing and clatter, no "tongue wagged" either of dervish or urchin. at the entrance to the amir's house i was received by an _aide-de-camp_ and a number of soldier-servants, and was "conducted" into a long room opening by many windows upon a beautiful garden full of peach blossom, violets, and irises; the table was covered with very pretty confectionery, including piles of _gaz_, a favourite sweetmeat, made of manna which is chiefly collected within eighty miles of isfahan. coffee was served in little cups in filigree gold receptacles, and then the amir-i-panj appeared in a white uniform, with a white lambskin cap, and asked "permission to have the honour of accompanying me to the _andarun_." persian politeness is great, and the amir, though i think he is a turk and not a persian, is not deficient in it. such phrases as "my house is purified by your presence, i live a thousand years in this visit," etc., were freely used. this man, who receives from all a very high character, and whom moslems speak of as a "saint," is the most interesting moslem i have met. in one sense a thoroughly religious man, he practises all the virtues which he knows, almsgiving to the extent of self-denial, without distinction of creed, charity in word and deed, truth, purity, and justice. i had been much prepossessed in his favour not only from dr. bruce's high opinion of him but by the unbounded love and reverence which my interpreter has for him. mirza yusuf marched on foot from bushire to isfahan, without credentials, an alien, and penniless, and this good man hearing of him took him into his house, and treated him as a welcome guest till a friend of his, a moslem, a general in the persian army, also good and generous, took him to tihran, where he remained as his guest for some months, and was introduced into the best persian society. from him i learned how beautiful and pure a life may be even in a corrupt nation. when he bowed to kiss the amir's hand, with grateful affection in his face, his "benefactor," as he always calls him, turned to me and said, "he is to me as a dear son, god will be with him." the garden is well laid out, and will soon be full of flowers. the amir seemed to love them passionately. he said that they gave rest and joy, and are "the fringes of the garment of god." he could not cut them, he said, "their beauty is in their completeness from root to petals, and cutting destroys it." a curtained doorway in the high garden wall, where the curtains were held aside by servants, leads into the court of the _andarun_, where flowers again were in the ascendant, and vines concealed the walls. the son, a small boy, met us and kissed my hand. mirza had told me that he had never passed through this wall, and had never seen the ladies, but when i proposed to leave him outside, the amir said he would be welcome, that he wished for much conversation, and for his wife to hear about the position and education of women in england. the beautiful reception-room looked something like home. the pure white walls and honeycombed ceiling are touched and decorated with a pale shade of blue, and the ground of the patterns of the rich carpets on the floor is in the same delicate colour, which is repeated in the brocaded stuffs with which the divans are covered. a half-length portrait of the amir in a sky-blue uniform, with his breast covered with orders, harmonises with the general "scheme" of colour. the _takchahs_ in the walls are utilised for vases and other objects in alabaster, jade, and bronze. a tea-table covered with sweetmeats, a tea equipage on the floor, and some chairs completed the furnishing. the amir stood till his wife came in, and then asked permission to sit down, placing mirza, who discreetly lowered his eyes when the lady entered, and never raised them again, on the floor. she is young, tall, and somewhat stout. she was much rouged, and her eyes, to which the arts of the toilet could add no additional beauty, were treated with _kohl_, and the eyebrows artificially extended. she wore fine gray socks, white skin-fitting tights, a black satin skirt, or rather flounce, embroidered in gold, so _bouffante_ with flounces of starched crinoline under it that when she sat down it stood out straight, not even touching the chair. a chemise of spangled gauze, and a pale blue gold-embroidered zouave jacket completed a costume which is dress, not clothing. the somewhat startling effect was toned down by a beautiful constantinople silk gauze veil, sprigged in pale pink and gold, absolutely transparent, which draped her from head to foot. i did not get away in less than two hours. the amir and mirza, used to each other's modes of expression, found no difficulties, and mirza being a man of education as well as intelligence, thought was conveyed as easily as fact. the lady kept her fine eyes lowered except when her husband spoke to her. the chief topics were the education and position of women in england, religion, politics, and the future of persia, and on all the amir expressed himself with a breadth and boldness which were astonishing. how far the amir has gone in the knowledge of the christian faith i cannot say, nor do i feel at liberty to repeat his most interesting thoughts. a sunni, a liberal, desiring complete religious liberty, absolutely tolerant to the _b[=a]bis_, grateful for the kindness shown to some of them by the british legation, and for the protection still given to them at the c.m.s. house, admiring dr. bruce's persevering work, and above all the medical mission, which he regards as "the crown of beneficence" and "the true imitation of the life of the great prophet, jesus," all he said showed a strongly religious nature, and a philosophical mind much given to religious thought. "all true religions aim at one thing," he said, "to make the heart and life pure." he asked a good deal about my travels, and special objects of interest in travelling, and was surprised when i told him that i nearly always travel alone; but after a moment's pause he said, "i do not understand that you were for a moment alone, for you had everywhere the love, companionship, and protection of god." he regards as the needs of persia education, religious liberty (the law which punishes a moslem with death for embracing christianity is still on the statute-book), roads, and railroads, and asked me if i had formed any opinion on the subject. i said that it appeared to me that security for the earnings of labour, and equal laws for rich and poor, administered by incorruptible judges, should accompany education. i much fear that he thinks incorruptible judges a vision of a dim future! the subject of the position of women in england and the height to which female education is now carried interested him extremely. he wished his wife to understand everything i told him. the success of women in examinations in art, literature, music, and other things, and the political wisdom and absolutely constitutional rule of queen victoria, all interested him greatly. he asked if the women who took these positions were equally good as wives and mothers? i could only refer again to queen victoria. an oriental cannot understand the position of unmarried women with us, or dissociate it from religious vows, and the amir heard with surprise that a very large part of the philanthropic work which is done in england is done by women who either from accident or design have neither the happiness nor the duties of married life. he hopes to see women in persia educated and emancipated from the trammels of certain customs, "but," he added, "all reform in this direction must come slowly, and grow naturally out of a wider education, if it is to be good and not hurtful." he asked me what i should like to see in isfahan, but when i mentioned the prison he said he should be ashamed to show it, and that except for political offences imprisonment is not much resorted to, that persian justice is swift and severe--the bastinado, etc., not incarceration. afterwards i paid a similar visit to the house of mirza yusuf's other "benefactor," also a good and charitable man, who, as he speaks french well, acted as interpreter in the _andarun_. a few days later the amir-i-panj, accompanied by general faisarallah khan, called on dr. bruce and on me, and showed how very agreeable a morning visit might be made, and the following day the amir sent the same charger and escort for me, and meeting him and dr. bruce in the chahar bagh, we visited the _medresseh_, a combined mosque and college, and the armoury, where we were joined by two generals and were afterwards entertained at tea in the standard room, while a military band played outside. the amir had ordered some artificers skilled in the brass-work for which isfahan is famous to exhibit their wares in one of the rooms at the armoury, and in every way tried to make the visit more agreeable than an inspection of the jail! he advises me not to wear a veil in the bakhtiari country, and to be "as european as possible." the armoury, of which he has had the organising, does not fall within my province. there are many large rooms with all the appliances of war in apparently perfect order for the equipment of men. with equal brevity i pass over the _medresseh_, whose silver gates and exquisite tiles have been constantly described. decay will leave little of this beautiful building in a few years. the tiles of the dome, which can be seen for miles, are falling off, and even in the halls of instruction and in the grand mosque under the dome, which are completely lined and roofed by tiles, the making of some of which is a lost art, one may augur the approach of ruin from the loss or breakage here and there. in the rooms or cells occupied by the students, who study either theology or law, there are some very fine windows executed in the beautiful tracery common to persia and kashmir, but the effect of beauty passing into preventible decay is very mournful. isfahan too i barely notice, for the best of all reasons, that i have not seen it! though a fourth part of it is in ruins, and its population is not an eighth of what it was in the days of shah abbas, it is a fairly thriving commercial emporium with an increasing british trade. indeed here russian commercial influence may be said to cease, and that of england to become paramount. it is the paradise of manchester and glasgow cottons: woollen goods come from austria and germany, glass from austria, crockery from england, candles and kerosene represent russia. our commercial supremacy in isfahan cannot be disputed. i am almost tired of hearing of it. opium, tobacco, carpets from the different provinces, and cotton and rice for native consumption, are the chief exports. opium is increasingly grown round the city, and up the course of the zainderud. of the cases exported, worth £ a case, three-fourths go to china. its cultivation is so profitable and has increased so rapidly to the neglect of food crops that the prince governor has issued an order that one part of cereals shall be sown for every four of the opium poppy. the cotton in the bazars, through which one can walk under cover for between two and three miles, is of the best quality, owing to the successful measures taken by the calico printers to defeat the roguery of the cheating manufacturers. all the european necessaries and many of the luxuries of life are obtainable, and the isfahan bazars are the busiest in persia except those of tabriz. it is only fair to this southern capital to say that if one can walk over two miles under the roofs of its fine bazars, one can ride for many miles among its ruins, which have desolation without stateliness, and are chiefly known for the production of the excellent wild asparagus which is used lavishly on european tables at this season. the "persian versailles," the palace of forty pillars, each pillar formed of shafts enriched with colour and intricate work, and resting on a marble lion, the shaking minarets, the masjid-i-shah with its fine dome of peacock-blue tiles, all falling into premature decay, remain to attest its former greatness; the other noble palaces, mosques, caravanserais, and _medressehs_ are ruinous, the superb pleasure gardens are overgrown with weeds or are used for vetches and barley, the tanks are foul or filled up, the splendid plane trees have been cut down for fuel, or are dragging out a hollow existence--every one, as elsewhere in persia, destroys, no one restores. the armoury is the one exception to the general law of decay. yet isfahan covered an area of twenty-four miles in circumference, and with its population of , souls was until the seventeenth century one of the most magnificent cities of the east. its destruction last century by an afghan conqueror, who perpetrated a fifteen days' massacre, and the removal of the court to tihran, have reduced it to a mere commercial centre, a "distributing point," and as such, its remains may take a new lease of life. it has a newspaper called the _farhang_, which prints little bits of news, chiefly personal. its editor moves on european lines so far as to have "interviewed" me! there are manufactures in isfahan other than the successful printing and dyeing of cottons; viz., earthenware, china, brass-work, velvet, satin, tents, coarse cottons, glass, swords, guns, pistols, jewellery, writing paper and envelopes, silk brocades, satins, gunpowder, bookbinding, gold thread, etc. the plateau on which isfahan stands, about seventy miles from east to west and twenty from north to south, and enclosed by high mountains with a striking outline, lies feet above the sea. the city has a most salubrious climate, and is free from great extremes both of heat and cold. the zainderud, on whose left bank it is situated, endows much of the plain with fertility on its way to its undeserved doom in a partially-explored swamp. this christian town, called a suburb, though it is really two and a half miles from isfahan, is a well-built and well-peopled nucleus. it is not mixed up with ruins as isfahan is. they have a region to themselves chiefly in the direction of the kuh sufi. my impression of it after a month is that it is clean and comfortable-looking, mr. curzon's is that it is "squalid." i prefer mine! it is a "city of waters." streams taken from a higher level of the zainderud glide down nearly all its lanes, shaded by pollard mulberries, ash, elm, and the "sparrow-tongue" willow, which makes the best firewood, and being "planted by the rivers of water," grows so fast that it bears lopping annually, and besides affording fuel supplies the twigs which are used for roofing such rooms as are not arched. the houses, some of which are more than three centuries old, are built of mud bricks, the roofs are usually arched, and the walls are from three to five feet thick. all possess planted courtyards and vineyards, and gardens into which channels are led from the streams in the streets. these streams serve other purposes: continually a group of armenian women may be seen washing their clothes in them, while others are drinking or drawing water just below. the lanes are about twenty feet wide and have narrow rough causeways on both sides of the water-channel. it is difficult on horseback to pass a foot passenger without touching him in some of them. great picturesqueness is given to these leafy lanes by the companies of armenian women in bright red dresses and pure white robes, slowly walking through them at all hours of daylight, visions of bright eyes and rosy cheeks. i have never yet seen a soiled white robe! long blank mud walls, low gateways, an occasional row of mean shops, open porches of churches, dim and cool, and an occasional european on foot or horseback, and groups of male armenians, whose dress so closely approaches the european as to be without interest, and black-robed priests gliding to the churches are all that is usually to be seen. it sounds dull, perhaps. many of the houses of the rich armenians, some of which are now let to europeans, are extremely beautiful inside, and even those occupied by the poorer classes, in which a single lofty room can be rented for twopence a week, are very pretty and appropriate. but no evidence of wealth is permitted to be seen from the outside. it is only a few years since the armenians were subject to many disabilities, and they have even now need to walk warily lest they give offence. as, for instance, an armenian was compelled to ride an ass instead of a horse, and when that restriction was relaxed, he had to show his inferiority by dismounting from his horse before entering the gates of isfahan. they were not allowed to have bells on their churches, (at easter i wished they had none still), but now the _egglesiah wang_ (the great church) has a fine campanile over feet high in its inner court. the ancient mode of announcing the hours of worship is still affectionately adhered to, however. it consists of drumming with a mallet on a board hanging from two posts, and successfully breaks the sleep of the neighbourhood for the daily service which begins before daylight. the armenians, like the rich persians, prudently keep to the low gateways, which, with the absence of windows and all exterior ornament, give the lanes so mean an aspect, and tend to make one regard the beauty and even magnificence within with considerable surprise. in england a rich man, partly for his own delectation, and partly, if he be "the architect of his own fortune," to impose his position ocularly on his poorer neighbours, displays his wealth in all ways and on most occasions. in persia his chief pleasure must be to hoard it and contemplate it, for any unusual display of it in equipages or furnishings is certain to bring down upon him a "squeeze," at tihran in the shape of a visit from the shah with its inevitable consequences, and in the provinces in that of a requisition from the governor. for a man to "enlarge his gates" is to court destruction. poor men have low gates, which involve stooping, to prevent rich men's servants from entering their houses on horseback on disagreeable errands. christian churches have remarkably low doors elsewhere than in julfa, to prevent the moslems from stabling their cattle in them. rich men affect mean entrances in order not to excite the rapacity of officialism, according to the ancient proverb, "he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction" (proverbs xvii. ). only royal gates and the gates of officials who represent royalty are high. the armenian merchants have, like the europeans, their offices in isfahan. the rest of the people get their living by the making and selling of wine, keeping small shops, making watches and jewellery, carpentering, in which they are very skilful, and market-gardening; they are thrifty and industrious, and there is very little real poverty. the selling of wine does not conduce to the peace of julfa. a mixture of sour wine and _arak_, a coarse spirit, is very intoxicating, and persians, when they do drink, drink till they are drunk, and the abominable concealed traffic in liquor with the moslems of the town is apt to produce disgraceful brawls. wine can be bought for fourpence a quart, but the upper classes make their own, and it costs less than this. wines are both red and white, and one red wine is said to be like good chianti. the armenians tipple and also get drunk, priests included. it is said that some of the jars used in fermenting are between and years old. the excellent education given in the c.m.s. schools has had the effect of stimulating the armenian schools, and of producing among the young men a large emigration to india, batavia, constantinople, and even england. only the dullards as a rule remain in julfa. some rise high in persian and even in turkish employment. the armenian women are capital housewives and very industrious. in these warm evenings the poorer women sit outside their houses in groups knitting. the knitting of socks is a great industry, and a woman can earn s. a month by it, which is enough to live upon. in julfa, and it may be partly owing to the presence of a european community, the christians have nothing to complain of, and, so far as i can see, they are on terms of equality with the persians. however, isfahan is full of religious intolerance which can easily be excited to frenzy, and the arrogance of the _mollahs_ has increased since the fall from almost regal state of the zil-i-sultan, the shah's eldest son, into the position of a provincial governor, for he curbed them somewhat, and now the restraint is removed. however, it is against the jews and the _b[=a]bis_, rather than the christians, that their hostility is directed. a few weeks ago some _b[=a]bis_ were peaceably returning to a neighbouring village, when they were attacked, and seven of their number were massacred under atrocious circumstances, the remainder taking refuge for a time in the british telegraph office. several of both sexes who escaped are in concealment here in a room in the hospital compound, one of them with a broken jaw. the hiding of these _b[=a]bis_ has given great umbrage to the bigots of isfahan, though the amir-i-panj justified it on all grounds, and about the time i arrived it was said that a thousand city fanatics purposed to attack the mission premises. but at one of the mosques there is a _mollah_, who with gamaliel-like wisdom urged upon them "that if moslems were killed nothing would happen, but if a single european were killed, what then?"[ ] i cannot close this letter without a few words on the armenian churches, some of which i visited with mr. and dr. aganoor, and others with dr. bruce. the ceremony representing the washing of the disciples' feet on the armenian holy thursday was a most magnificent one as regards the antique splendour and extreme beauty of the vestments and jewels of the officiating bishop, but the feet, which are washed in rose-water and anointed, are not, as in rome, those of beggars, but of neophytes costumed in pure white. incense, embroideries, crowds of white-robed women, and other accessories made the function an imposing one. the cathedral, a part of the monastery, has a narrow winding approach and a thick door, for ecclesiastics were not always as safe as they are now. in the outer court is the campanile before mentioned. the floor is paved with monumental slabs, and among the graves are those of several europeans. piles of logs look as if the julfa carpenters seasoned their wood in this court! the church is divided by a rail into two compartments. the dome is rich with beaten gold, and the dado is of very fine tiles, which produce a striking effect. the embroideries and the carpets, some of which are worth fabulous sums, are between two and three centuries old. the vestments and ornaments of the priests are very fine, and suggest the attire of the aaronic priesthood. it is a striking building, and the amount of gold and colour, toned into a certain harmony by time, produces a gorgeous effect. the outer compartment has a singular interest, for years ago its walls were decorated with religious paintings, on a large scale, of events in bible history, from the creation downwards. some are copies, others original, and they are attributed to italian artists. they are well worth careful study as representing the conceptions which found favour among the armenian christians of that day. they are terribly realistic, but are certainly instructive, especially the illustrations of the miracles and parables. in one of the latter a man with a huge beam sticking out of one eye is represented as looking superciliously with the other at a man with an insignificant spike projecting. the death of dives is a horrible representation. his soul, in the likeness of a very small nude figure, is represented as escaping from the top of his head, and is being escorted to the entrance of the lower regions by a flight of small black devils. the idea of the soul emerging from the top of the head is evidently borrowed from the moslems. our lord is, i think, everywhere depicted as short, dark, and dark-haired, with eyebrows much curved, and a very long upper lip, without beauty or dignity, an ordinary oriental workman. _the_ picture of the cathedral is an enormous canvas, representing the day when "before him shall be gathered all nations." the three persons of the trinity are there, and saints and angels are portrayed as worshipping, or as enjoying somewhat earthly but perfectly innocent delights. in this the conception is analogous to those celebrated circular pictures in which the buddhistic future is unrolled, and which i last saw in the monasteries of lesser tibet. the upper or heavenly part is insignificant and very small, while the torments of the lost in the lower part are on a very large scale, and both the devils and the nude human sufferers in every phase of anguish have the appearance of life size. the ingenuity of torment, however, is not nearly so great, nor are the scenes so revolting as those which oriental imagination has depicted in the buddhist hells. a huge mythical monster represents the mouth of hell, and into his flaming and smoking jaws the impenitent are falling. does any modern armenian believe that any of those whose bones lie under the huge blocks of stone in the cemetery in the red desert at the foot of kuh sufi have passed into "this place of torment"? the other church which claims one's interest, though not used for worship, is that of st. george, the hero of the fraudulent contract in bacon, as well as of the dragon fight, to whom the armenians as well as ourselves render singular honour. this church is a great place for "miracles" of healing, and cells for the sick who come from a distance are freely provided. in a covered court are some large stones in a group, one of them evidently the capital of a column. two of them have cavities at the top, and the sick kneel before them, and as the voluble women who were there told us, "they first pray to god and then to the stones," and finally pour water into these cavities and drink it. the cure is either instantaneous or occurs at any time within fifteen days, and in every case the patient hears the voice of st. george telling him to go home when it is complete. these stones, according to the legend told by the women and popularly believed by the uneducated, took it into their heads to come from etchmiadzin in armenia, the residence of the _catholicos_, in one night, and deposited themselves where the church now stands. seven times they were taken into faraidan, eighty miles from julfa, and as often returned, and their manifest predilection was at last rewarded by a rest of centuries. there were a number of sick people waiting for healing, for which of course fees are bestowed. the armenians, especially the women, pay great attention to the externals of their religion. some of its claims are very severe, such as the daily service before daylight, winter and summer, and the long fasts, which they keep with surprising loyalty, _i.e._ among the poor in towns and in the villages. for at least one-sixth of the year they are debarred from the use of meat or even eggs, and are permitted only vegetable oils, fruits, vegetables, and grain. spirits and wine, however, are not prohibited. i really believe that their passionate attachment to their venerable church, the oldest of all national churches, is fostered by those among them who have ceased to believe its doctrines, as a necessity of national existence. i doubt very much whether the "reformed" congregations, which have been gathered out here and elsewhere, would survive the withdrawal of foreign aid. rather, i think, they would revert to the original type. superstitions without number are mixed up with their beliefs, and are countenanced by the priests. the _meron_ or holy oil used in baptism and for other purposes has the stamp of charlatanism upon it. it is made in etchmiadzin. rose leaves are collected in an immense vat, which is filled with water, and at a set time the monks and nuns form a circle round it, and repeat prayers till "fermentation" begins. they claim that the so-called fermentation is a miracle due to the prayers offered. oil, probably attar of roses, rises to the surface, and this precious _meron_ is sent to the armenian churches throughout the world about once in four or five years. in persia those who bear it are received with an _istikbal_ or procession of welcome. it is used not only in baptism and other rites but at the annual ceremony of washing the cross at christmas, when some of it is poured into the water and is drunk by the worshippers. in the villages they make a paste by mixing this water and oil with earth, which is made into balls and kept in the houses for "luck." if a dog licks a bowl or other vessel, and thus renders it unclean, rubbing it round with one of these balls restores it to purity. at a village in faraidan there is an ancient new testament, reputed to be of the sixth century. to this ms. people come on pilgrimage from all quarters, even from fars, tihran, and armenia, to be healed of their diseases, and they make offerings to it, and practically render it worship. to go and pray on a newly-made grave is a remedy for childlessness much resorted to by childless wives. when two boys fight, and one of them is hurt, or when any one is injured by a dog or by a tree falling, they wash the damaged person in water, and then throw the water over the boy, dog, or tree which has been the cause of the injury, believing that in this way the mischief is transferred. when any one is ill of fright and the cause is not known, the nuns come to the house, and pour wax into a basin of boiling water, noting the form it takes, such as a snake, a dog, or a frog. in a case lately they went out and killed a snake, for the thing whose form the wax takes ought to be killed; but as this might often be difficult or unsuitable, they compromise the matter by throwing the water (not boiling, i hope) over the nearest dog or toad, or anything else which is supposed to be the culprit. on the first monday in lent the women wash their knitting needles for luck in a stream which runs through julfa. the children educated in the mission schools laugh at these and many other superstitions. the dress of the armenian women is very showy, but too much of a _huddle_. red is the dominant colour, a carnation red with white patterns sprawling over it, they wear coloured trousers concealed by a long skirt. the visible under-garment is a long, "shaped" dress of turkey red. over this is worn a somewhat scanty gown of red and white cotton, open in front, and very short-waisted, and over this a plain red pelisse or outer garment, often quilted, open in front, gashed up the sides, and falling below the knees. of course this costume is liable to many modifications in the way of material, and embroidered jackets, heavily trimmed with jewellery and the like. as fashion is unchanging the acquisition and hoarding of garments are carried to a great extent. there are two marked features of armenian dress, one, the massive silver girdle made of heavy chased-silver links four inches long by two deep, often antique and always of antique design, which falls much below the waist in front, and is used to confine the ends of the white sheet which envelops an armenian woman out of doors, so that it may hang evenly all round. the other is a skull-cap of embroidered silk or cloth, placed well back on the head above the many hanging plaits in which the hair is worn, with a black velvet coronet in front, from which among the richer women rows of coins depend. this, which is very becoming to the brilliant complexion and comely face below it, is in its turn covered by a half handkerchief, and over this is gracefully worn, when not gracelessly clutched, a _chadar_ or drapery of printed cambric or muslin. a white band bound across the chin up to the lips suggests a broken jaw, and the _tout ensemble_ of the various wrappings of the head a perennial toothache. i. l. b. footnote: [ ] i have written nothing about this fast-increasing sect of the _b[=a]bis_, partly because being a secret sect, i doubt whether the doctrines which are suffered to leak out form really any part of its esoteric teaching, and partly because those europeans who have studied the _b[=a]bis_ most candidly are diametrically opposed in their views of their tenets and practice, some holding that their aspirations are after a purer life, while others, and i think a majority, believe that their teachings are subversive of morality and of the purity of domestic life. letter xiv julfa, _april _. you will be tired of julfa though i am not. i fully expected to have left it a fortnight ago, but unavoidable delays have occurred. my caravan and servants started this morning, and i leave myself in a few hours. upon my horse i have bestowed the suggestive name of _screw_. he is fairly well-bred, big-headed, big-eared, small-bodied, bright bay, fine-coated, slightly flat-footed, and with his fore hoofs split in several places from the coronet nearly to the shoe. he is an undoubted _yabu_, and has carried loads for many a day. he has a long stride, shies badly, walks very fast, canters easily, and at present shows no tendency to tumble down.[ ] i have had pleasant rides alone, crossing the definite dividing line between the desert and the oasis of cultivation and irrigation, watching the daily development of the various crops and the brief life of the wild flowers, creeping through the green fields on the narrow margins of irrigating ditches, down to the pul-i-kaj[=u], and returning to the green lanes of julfa by the bright waters of the zainderud crimsoning in the setting sun. for in the late cool and breezy weather, not altogether free from clouds and showers, there have been some gorgeous sunsets, and magnificent colouring of the depth and richness which people call tropical, has blazed extravagantly; and from the violet desert to the indigo storm-clouds on the still snow-patched kuhr[=u]d mountains, from the vivid green of the oasis to the purple crags in dark relief against a sky of flame, all things have been new. two sundays witnessed two incidents, one the baptism of a young moslem in a semi-private fashion, who shortly afterwards renounced christianity, and the other that of a respectable mohammedan merchant in isfahan, who has long pleaded for baptism, presenting himself at the altar rails at the holy communion, resolved that if he were not permitted to confess christ as divine in one way he would in another. he was passed over, to my great regret, if he be sincere, but i suppose the rubric leaves no choice.[ ] i have written little about my prospective journey because there has been a prolonged uncertainty about it, and even now i cannot give any definite account of the project, except that the route lies through an altogether mountainous region, in that part of the province of luristan known in persia colloquially as the "bakhtiari country," from being inhabited by the bakhtiari lurs, chiefly nomads. the pros and cons as to my going have been innumerable, and the two people in persia who know the earlier part of the route say that the character of the people makes it impossible for a lady to travel among them. on the other hand, i have the consent and help of the highest authorities, persian and english, and shall not go too far, but shall return to isfahan in case things should turn out as is feared. the exploration of a previously unexplored region will be in itself interesting, but whether there will be sufficient of the human interests, which i chiefly care for, i doubt; in that case the journey will be dull. at all events i shall probably have to return here in two months,[ ] but such a journey for myself and two servants in such a region requires extensive preparations, and i have brought all my own travelling "dodges" into requisition, with a selection of those of other people. it is considered desirable to carry stores from isfahan for forty days, except flour and rice, which can be obtained a week's march from here. at the british legation i was kindly supplied with many tins of preserved meat, and milk, and jam, and besides these i am only taking a quantity of edwards' desiccated soup, portable and excellent, twelve pounds of tea, and ten pounds of candles. the great thing in planning is to think of what one can do without. two small bottles of saccharin supply the place of forty pounds of sugar. two _yekdans_ contain my stores, cooking and table utensils and personal luggage, a waterproof bag my bedding, and a divided packing-case, now empty, goes for the flour and rice. everything in the _yekdans_ is put up in bags made of the coarse cotton of the country. the tents and tent-poles, which have been socketed for easier transport on crooked mountain paths, and a camp-bed made from a kashmiri pattern in tihran, are all packed in covers made from the gunny bags in which sugar is imported, and so are double sets of large and small iron tent-pegs. presents for the "savages" are also essential, and i have succeeded in getting thimbles, many gross of small china buttons which, it is said, they like to sew on children's caps, needles, a quantity of russian thread, a number of boxes with mirror tops, two dozen double-bladed knives, and the same number of strong scissors, kashmir _kamarbands_, gay handkerchiefs for women's heads, isfahan printed "table-cloths," dozens of bead bracelets and necklaces, leather purses and tobacco pouches, and many other things. i take three tents, including a _shuldari_, five feet square, and only weighing ten pounds. my kit is reduced to very simple elements, a kettle, two copper pots which fit into each other, a frying pan, cooking knife and spoon, a tray instead of a table, a chair, two plates, a teacup and saucer, a soup plate, mug, and teapot, all of course in enamelled iron, a knife, fork, and two spoons. this is ample for one person for any length of time in camp. for this amount of baggage and for the sacks of flour and rice, weighing lbs., which will hereafter be carried, i have four mules, none heavily laden, and two with such light loads that they can be ridden by my servants. these mules, two _charvadars_, and a horse are engaged for the journey at two _krans_ ( d.) a day each, the owner stipulating for a _bakhsheesh_ of fifty _krans_, if at the end i am satisfied. this sum is to cover food and all risks. the animals are hired from a well-known _charvadar_, who has made a large fortune and is regarded as very trustworthy; dr. bruce calls him the "prince of _charvadars_." he and his son are going on the "trip." he has a quiet, superior manner, and when he came to judge of the weight of my loads, he said they were "very good--very right," a more agreeable verdict than muleteers are wont to pass upon baggage.[ ] the making of the contract with hadji involved two important processes, the writing of it by a scribe and the sealing of it. the scribe is one of the most important persons in persia. every great man has one or more, and every little man has occasion for a scribe's services in the course of a year. he is the trusted depositary of an infinity of secrets. he moves with dignity and deliberation, his "writer's inkhorn" pendent from his girdle, and his physiognomy has been trained to that reticent, semi-mysterious expression common to successful solicitors in england. writing is a fine art in persia. the characters are in themselves graceful, and lend themselves readily to decoration. the old illuminated mss. are things of beauty; even my contract is ornamental. the scribe holds the paper in his left hand, and uses a reed pen with the nib cut obliquely, writing from right to left. the ink is thick, and is carried with the pens in a _papier-maché_ inkhorn. hadji tells me with much pride that his son, abbas ali, can write "and will be very useful." sealing is instead of signing. as in japan, every adult male has his seal, of agate or cornelian among the rich, and of brass or silver among the poor. the name is carefully engraved on the seal at a cost of from a half-penny to s. a letter. tihran is celebrated for its seal-cutters. no document is authentic without a seal as its signature. hadji took the contract and applied it to his forehead in token of respect, touched the paper with his tongue to make it moist and receptive, waved it in the air to rid it of superfluous moisture, wetted his fingers on a spongy ball of silk full of indian ink in the scribe's inkstand, rubbed the ink on the seal, breathed on it, and pressed it firmly down on the paper, which he held over the forefinger of his left hand. the smallest acts in persia are regulated by rigid custom. the remaining portion of my outfit, but not the least important, consists of a beautiful medicine chest of the most compact and portable make, most kindly given to me by messrs. burroughes and wellcome, containing fifty small bottles of their invaluable "tabloids," a hypodermic syringe, and surgical instruments for simple cases. to these i have added a quantity of quinine, and dr. odling at tihran gave me some valuable remedies. a quantity of bandages, lint, absorbent cotton, etc., completes this essential equipment. among the many uncertainties of the future this appears certain, that the bakhtiaris will be clamorous for european medicine. i have written of my servants. mirza yusuf pleases me very much, hassan the cook seems quiet, but not active, and i picture to myself the confusion of to-night in camp, with two men who know nothing about camp life and its makeshifts! whatever the summer brings, this is probably my last letter written from under a roof till next winter. i am sorry to leave julfa and these kind friends, but the prospect of the unknown has its charms. i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] _screw_ never became a friend or companion, scarcely a comrade, but showed plenty of pluck and endurance, climbed and descended horrible rock ladders over which a horse with a rider had never passed before, was steady in fords, and at the end of three and a half months of severe travelling and occasional scarcity of food was in better condition than when he left julfa. [ ] he has since been baptized, but for safety had to relinquish his business and go to india, where he is supporting himself, and his conduct is satisfactory. [ ] i never returned, and only at the end of three and a half months emerged from the "bakhtiari country" at burujird after a journey of miles. [ ] hadji hussein deserves a passing recommendation. i fear that he is still increasing his fortune and has not retired. the journey was a very severe one, full of peril to his mules from robbers and dangerous roads, and not without risk to himself. with the exception of a few orientalisms, which are hardly worth recalling, he was faithful and upright, made no attempt to overreach, kept to his bargain, was punctual and careful, and at burujird we parted good friends. he was always most respectful to me, and i owe him gratitude for many kindnesses which increased my comfort. it is right to acknowledge that a part of the success of the journey was owing to the efficiency of the transport. notes on the "bakhtiari country" or luri-buzurg in introducing the following journal of a summer spent in luri-buzurg or greater luristan by a few explanatory notes, i desire to acknowledge the labours of those travellers who have preceded me over some of the earlier portions of the route, and my obligations to those careful explorers of half a century ago, who turned the light of modern research upon the antiquities of lower elam and the condition of its modern inhabitants, and whose earnestness and accuracy the traveller in upper elam and the bakhtiari country may well desire to emulate.[ ] for the correction of those portions of my letters which attempt to describe a part of mountainous luristan previously unexplored, i am deeply indebted to a recent unpublished geographical report, to which any geographical interest which they may possess is altogether due. for the customs and beliefs of the bakhtiaris i have had to depend entirely on my own investigations, made through an intelligent and faithful interpreter, whose desire for accuracy was scarcely exceeded by my own. the accompanying sketch map represents an area of , square miles, lying, roughly speaking, between lat. ° and ° n., and between long. ° and ° e., and covering a distance of miles from the khana mirza to khuramabad. the itinerary covers a distance of about miles, a journey of three and a half months, chiefly in the region of the upper karun and its affluents, among which must be included the head-waters of the ab-i-diz. during this time the karun was traced, wherever the nature of its bed admitted of it, from the gorge of dupulan, below which several travellers have investigated and reported its extraordinary windings, up to the sar-cheshmeh-i-kurang, its reputed source, a vigorous fountain spring with an altitude of feet in the steep limestone face of the north-eastern side of the zard kuh range, and upwards to its real source in the kuh-i-rang or "variegated mountain." the ab-i-diz was found to carry off the water of a larger area than had been supposed; the north-west branches, the ab-i-burujird and the kamandab, which drain the well-watered plain of silakhor, almost yielding in importance to the guwa and gokun, which, uniting to form what, for convenience' sake, was termed the ab-i-basnoi, receive the drainage of the upper part of faraidan, an important district of persia proper. a lake of marvellously coloured water, two and a half miles long by one mile wide, very deep, and with a persistent level, was found to occupy a hollow at the inner foot of the grand mountain shuturun, and this, having no native name, was marked on the map as lake irene. the bakhtiari mountains are chains of precipitous parallel ranges, generally running north-west and south-east, the valleys which divide them and carry off their waters taking the same directions as far as the kuh-i-rang, where a remarkable change takes place, noticed in letter xvii. this great mountain region, lying between the lofty plateau of central persia and the plains of khuzistan, has continuous ranges of singular steepness, but rarely broken up into prominent peaks, the kuh-i-rang, the kuh-i-shahan, the shuturun kuh, and dalonak being detached mountains. the great ranges of the kuh-i-sukhta, the kuh-i-gerra, the sabz kuh, the kala kuh, and the zard kuh were crossed and recrossed by passes from to , feet in altitude; many of the summits were ascended, and the deep valleys between them, with their full-watered, peacock-green streams, were followed up wherever it was possible to do so. the magnificent mountain kuh-i-rang was ascertained to be not only a notable water-parting, but to indicate in a very marked manner two distinct mountain systems with remarkable peculiarities of drainage, as well as to form a colossal barrier between two regions which, for the sake of intelligible description, were called "upper elam" and the "bakhtiari country." the same authority, for the same purpose, designated the two main and highest chains of mountains by the terms "outer" and "inner" ranges, the former being the one nearest the great persian plateau, the latter the chain nearest to the khuzistan plains. the conjectural altitudes of the peaks in this hitherto unexplored region have been brought down by some thousands of feet, and the "eternal snow" with which rumour had crested them has turned out a myth, the altitude of the highest summit being estimated at only a trifle over , feet. the nearly continuous ranges south-east of the kuh-i-rang are pierced for the passage of water by a few remarkable rifts or _tangs_--the outer range by the tang-i-ghezi, the outlet of the zainderud towards isfahan, and the tang-i-darkash warkash, by which the drainage of the important districts of the chahar mahals passes to the karun, the inner range being pierced at the tang-i-dupulan by the karun itself. north-west of the kuh-i-rang the rivers which carry the drainage of certain districts of south-west persia to the sea pierce the main mountain ranges at right angles, passing through magnificent gorges and chasms from to feet in depth. among the mountains, but especially in the formation south-east of the kuh-i-rang, there are many alpine valleys at altitudes of from to feet, rich summer pastures, such as gurab, chigakhor, shorab, and cheshmeh zarin. some of the valleys are of considerable width, many only afford room for narrow tracks above the streams by which they are usually watered, while others are mere rifts for torrents and are inaccessible. among the limestone ranges fountain springs are of frequent occurrence, gushing out of the mountain sides with great volume and impetuosity--the perennial sources of perennial streams. much of the country is absolutely without wood, producing nothing fit even for fuel but the _astragalus verus_ and the _astragalus tragacantha_. this is especially the case on the outer slopes of the outer range, which are formed of rocky ribs with a covering of gravel, and are "barren, treeless, waterless, and grassless." from the same crest to the outer slopes of the inner range, which descend on khuzistan, there are splendid pasturage, abundant water, and extensive forests in the deep valleys and on the hill slopes.[ ] the trees, however, can rarely be defined as "forest trees." they are small in girth and are usually stunted and wizened in aspect, as if the conditions of their existence were not kindly. flowers are innumerable in the months of may and june, beginning with the tulip, the iris, the narcissus, and a small purple gladiolus, and a little later many of the hillsides above an altitude of feet are aflame with a crimson and terra-cotta _fritillaria imperialis_, and a carnation-red anemone, while the margins of the snow-fields are gay with pink patches of an exquisite alpine primula. chicory, the dark blue centaurea, a large orange and yellow snapdragon, and the scarlet poppy attend upon grain crops there as elsewhere, and the slopes above the upper karun are brilliant with pink, mauve, and white hollyhocks. but it must be admitted that the chief interest of many of the flowers is botanical only. they are leathery, woolly, thorny, and sticky, adapted rather for arid circumstances than to rejoice the eye. among the economic plants observed were the _centaurea alata_, which grows in singular abundance at a height of from to feet, and is cut and stacked for fodder; a species of celery of very strong flavour, which is an important article of food for man and beast, and the flower-stalks of which, six feet high, are woven into booths by some of the tribes; the blue linum, red madder, the _eryngium cæruleum_, which is cut and stacked for fodder; a purple garlic, the bulbs of which are eaten; liquorice, and the _ferula asafetida_ in small quantities. it is a surprise to the traveller to find that a large area is under cultivation, and that the crops of wheat and barley are clean, and up to the persian average, and that the removal of stones and a laborious irrigation system are the work of nomads who only occupy their _yailaks_ for five months of the year. it may be said that nearly every valley and hill-slope where water is procurable is turned to account for grain crops. no part of the world in this latitude is fuller of streams and torrents, but three only attain to any geographical dignity--the zainderud, or river of isfahan, which after a course full of promise loses itself ignominiously in a partially-explored swamp; the karun, with its bakhtiari tributaries of the ab-i-bazuft, the darkash warkash, the ab-i-sabzu, and the dinarud; and the ab-i-diz, which has an important course of its own before its junction with the karun at bandakir. none of these rivers are navigable during their course through the bakhtiari mountains. they are occasionally spanned by bridges of stone or wickerwork, or of yet simpler construction. with the exception of the small area of the outer range, which contains the head-waters of the zainderud, the bakhtiari country proper consists of the valleys of the upper karun and its tributaries. the tracks naturally follow the valleys, and are fairly easy in their gradients to the south-east of the kuh-i-rang. to the north-west, however, being compelled to cross rivers which pierce the ranges at right angles to their directions, ascents and descents of several thousand feet are involved at short intervals, formed of rock ladders, which may be regarded as "impassable for laden animals." the so-called roads are nothing better than tracks worn in the course of centuries by the annual passage of the nomads and their flocks to and from their summer pastures. in addition to the tracks which follow the lie of the valleys, footpaths cross the main ranges where foothold can be obtained. there are but two bridle tracks which deserve mention as being possible for caravan traffic between isfahan and shuster, one crossing the god-i-murda at a height of feet and the karun at dupulan, the other, which considerably diminishes the distance between the two commercial points, crossing the zard kuh by the cherri pass at an altitude of feet and dropping down a steep descent of over feet to the bazuft river. these, the gurab, and the gil-i-shah, and pambakal passes, which cross the zard kuh range at elevations of over , feet, are reported as closed by snow for several months in winter. in view of the cart-road from ahwaz to tihran, which will pass through the gap of khuramabad, the possible importance of any one of these routes fades completely away. the climate, though one of extremes, is healthy. maladies of locality are unknown, the water is usually pure, and malarious swamps do not exist. salt springs produce a sufficiency of salt for wholesome use, and medicinal plants abound. the heat begins in early june and is steady till the end of august, the mercury rising to ° in the shade at altitudes of feet, but it is rarely oppressive; the nights are cool, and greenery and abounding waters are a delightful contrast to the arid hills and burning plains of persia. the rainfall is scarcely measurable, the snowfall is reported as heavy, and the winter temperatures are presumably low. there are few traces of a past history, and the legends connected with the few are too hazy to be of any value, but there are remains of bridges of dressed stone, and of at least one ancient road, which must have been trodden by the soldiers of alexander the great and valerian, and it is not impossible that the rude forts here and there which the tribesmen attribute to mythical heroes of their own race may have been built to guard greek or roman communications. the geology, entomology, and zoology of the bakhtiari country have yet to be investigated. in a journey of three months and a half the only animals seen were a bear and cubs, a boar, some small ibex, a blue hare, and some jackals. francolin are common, and storks were seen, but scarcely any other birds, and bees and butterflies are rare. it is the noxious forms of animated life which are abundant. there are snakes, some of them venomous, a venomous spider, and a stinging beetle, and legions of black flies, mosquitos, and sand-flies infest many localities. this area of lofty ranges, valleys, gorges, and alpine pasturages is inhabited by the bakhtiari lurs, classed with the savage or semi-savage races, who, though they descend to the warmer plains in the winter, invariably speak of these mountains as "their country." on this journey nearly all the tribes were visited in their own encampments, and their arrangements, modes of living, customs, and beliefs were subjects of daily investigation, the results of which are given in the letters which follow. their own very hazy traditions, which are swift to lose themselves in the fabulous, represent that they came from syria, under one chief, and took possession of the country which they now inhabit. a later tradition states that a descendant of this chief had two wives equally beloved, one of whom had four sons, and the other seven; and that after their father's death the young men quarrelled, separated, and bequeathed their quarrel to posterity, the seven brothers forming the haft lang division of the bakhtiaris, and the four the chahar lang.[ ] the haft lang, though originally far superior in numbers, weakened their power by their unending internal conflicts, and in , when sir a. h. layard visited a part of luristan not embraced in this route, and sojourned at kala-i-tul, the power and headship of mehemet taki khan, the great chief of their rivals the chahar lang, were recognised throughout the region. the misfortunes which came upon him overthrew the supremacy of his clan, and now (as for some years past) the haft lang supply the ruling dynasty, the chahar lang being, however, still strong enough to decide any battles for the chieftainship which may be fought among their rivals. time, and a stronger assertion of the sovereignty of persia, have toned the feud down into a general enmity and aversion, but the tribes of the two septs rarely intermarry, and seldom encamp near each other without bloodshed. the great divisions of the bakhtiaris, the haft lang, the chahar lang, and the dinarunis, with the dependencies of the janiki garmsir, the janiki sardsir, and the afshar tribe of gunduzlu, remain as they were half a century ago, when they were the subject of careful investigation by sir a. h. layard and sir h. rawlinson. the tribes (as enumerated by several of the khans without any divergence in their statements) number , families, an increase in the last half-century. taking eight to a household, which i believe to be a fair estimate, a population of , would be the result.[ ] a few small villages of mud hovels at low altitudes are tenanted by a part of their inhabitants throughout the winter, the other part migrating with the bulk of the flocks; and families of the two great janiki divisions are _deh-nishins_ or "dwellers in cities," _i.e._ they do not migrate at all; but the rest are nomads, that is, they have winter camping-grounds in the warm plains of khuzistan and elsewhere, and summer pastures in the region of the upper karun and its affluents, making two annual migrations between their _garmsirs_ and _sardsirs_ (hot and cold quarters). though a pastoral people, they have (as has been referred to previously) of late years irrigated, stoned, and cultivated a number of their valleys, sowing in the early autumn, leaving the crops for the winter and early spring, and on their return weeding them very carefully till harvest-time in july. they live on the produce of their flocks and herds, on leavened cakes made of wheat and barley flour, and on a paste made of acorn flour. in religion they are fanatical moslems of the shiah sect, but combine relics of nature worship with the tenets of islam. the tribes, which were to a great extent united under the judicious and ambitious policy of mehemet taki khan and hussein kuli khan, nominally acknowledge one feudal head, the ilkhani, who is associated in power with another chief called the ilbegi. the ilkhani, who is appointed by the shah for a given period, capable of indefinite extension, is responsible for the tribute, which amounts to about two _tumans_ a household, and for the good order of luri-buzurg. the bakhtiaris are good horsemen and marksmen. possibly in inter-tribal war from , to , men might take the field, but it is doubtful whether more than from to could be relied on in an external quarrel. the khan of each tribe is practically its despotic ruler, and every tribesman is bound to hold himself at his disposal. as concerns tribute, they are under the government of isfahan, with the exception of three tribes and a half, which are under the government of burujird. they are a warlike people, and though more peaceable than formerly, they cherish blood-feuds and are always fighting among themselves. their habits are predatory by inclination and tradition, but they have certain notions of honour and of regard to pledges when voluntarily given.[ ] they deny persian origin, but speak a dialect of persian. conquered by nadir shah, who took many of them into his service, they became independent after his death, until the reign of mohammed shah. though tributary, they still possess a sort of _quasi_ independence, though persia of late years has tightened her grip upon them, and the shah keeps many of their influential families in tihran and its neighbourhood as hostages for the good behaviour of their clans. of the feili lurs, the nomads of luri-kushak or the lesser luristan, the region lying between the ab-i-diz and the assyrian plains, with the province of kirmanshah to the north and susiana to the south, little was seen. these tribes are numerically superior to the bakhtiaris. fifty years ago, according to sir h. rawlinson, they numbered , families. they have no single feudal chieftain like their neighbours, nor are their subdivisions ruled, as among them, by powerful khans. they are governed by _tushmals_ (lit. "master of a house") and four or five of these are associated in the rule of every tribal subdivision. on such occasions as involve tribal well-being or the reverse, these _tushmals_ consult as equals. sir h. rawlinson considered that the feili lur form of government is very rare among the clan nations of asia, and that it approaches tolerably near to the spirit of a confederated republic. their language, according to the same authority, differs little from that of the kurds of kirmanshah. unlike the bakhtiaris, they neglect agriculture, but they breed and export mules, and trade in carpets, charcoal, horse-furniture, and sheep. in faith they are ali ilahis, but are grossly ignorant and religiously indifferent; they show scarcely any respect to mohammed and the koran, and combine a number of ancient superstitions and curious sacrificial rites with a deep reverence for sultan ibrahim, who under the name of _b[=a]b[=a] buzurg_ (the great father) is worshipped throughout luri-kushak. for the tribute payable to persia no single individual is responsible. the sum to be levied is distributed among the tribes by a general council, after which each subdivision apportions the amount to be paid by the different camps, and the _rish-sefid_ (lit. gray-beard) or head of each encampment collects from the different families according to their means. the task of the persian tax-collector is a difficult one, for the tribes are in a state of chronic turbulence, and fail even in obedience to their own general council, and the collection frequently ends in an incursion of persian soldiers and a government raid on the flocks and herds. many of these people are miserably poor, and they are annually growing poorer under persian maladministration. the feili lurs are important to england commercially, because the cart-road from ahwaz to tihran, to be completed within two years, passes partly through their country,[ ] and its success as the future trade route from the gulf depends upon their good-will, or rather upon their successful coercion by the persian government. footnotes: [ ] the writers who have dealt with some of the earlier portions of my route are as follows: henry blosse lynch, esq., _across luristan to ispahan--proceedings of the r.g.s._, september . colonel m. s. bell, v.c., _a visit to the karun river and kûm--blackwood's magazine_, april . colonel j. a. bateman champain, r.e., _on the various means of communication between central persia and the sea--proceedings of the r.g.s._, march . colonel h. l. wells, r.e., _surveying tours in south-western persia--proceedings of r.g.s._, march . mr. stack, _six months in persia_, london, . mr. mackenzie, _speech--proceedings of r.g.s._, march . the following among other writers have dealt with the condition of the bakhtiari and feili lurs, and with the geography of the region to the west and south-west of the continuation of the great zagros chain, termed in these notes the "outer" and "inner" ranges of the bakhtiari mountains, their routes touching those of the present writer at khuramabad: sir h. rawlinson, _notes of a march from zohab to khuzistan in --journal of the r.g.s._, vol. ix., . sir a. h. layard, _early adventures in persia, susiana, and babylonia, including a residence among the bakhtiari and other wild tribes_, vols., london, . baron c. a. de bode, _travels in luristan and arabistan_, vols., london, . w. f. ainsworth (surgeon and geologist to the euphrates expedition), _the river karun_, london, . general schindler travelled over and described the isfahan and shuster route, and published a map of the country in . [ ] among the trees and shrubs to be met with are an oak (_quercus ballota_), which supplies the people with acorn flour, the _platanus_ and _tamariscus orientalis_, the jujube tree, two species of elm, a dwarf tamarisk, poplar, four species of willow, the apple, pear, cherry, plum, walnut, gooseberry, almond, dogwood, hawthorn, ash, lilac, alder, _paliurus aculeatus_, rose, bramble, honeysuckle, hop vine, grape vine, _clematis orientalis_, _juniperus excelsa_, and hornbeam. [ ] in persian _haft_ is seven, and _chakar_ four. [ ] this computation is subject to correction. various considerations dispose the ilkhani and the other khans to minimise or magnify the population. it has been stated at from , to , souls, and by a "high authority" to different persons as , and , souls! [ ] sir. h. rawlinson sums up bakhtiari character in these very severe words: "i believe them to be individually brave, but of a cruel and savage character; they pursue their blood-feuds with the most inveterate and exterminating spirit, and they consider no oath or obligation in any way binding when it interferes with their thirst for revenge; indeed, the dreadful stories of domestic tragedy that are related, in which whole families have fallen by each other's hands (a son, for instance, having slain his father to obtain the chiefship--another brother having avenged the murder, and so on, till only one individual was left), are enough to freeze the blood with horror. "it is proverbial in persia that the bakhtiaris have been obliged to forego altogether the reading of the _f[=a]htihah_ or prayer for the dead, for otherwise they would have no other occupation. they are also most dexterous and notorious thieves. altogether they may be considered the most wild and barbarous of all the inhabitants of persia."--"notes on a march from zohab to khuzistan," _journal of the r.g.s._, vol. ix. probably there is an improvement since this verdict was pronounced. at all events i am inclined to take a much more favourable view of the bakhtiaris than has been given in the very interesting paper from which this quotation is made. [ ] a report to the foreign office (no. ) made by an officer who travelled from khuramabad to dizful in december , contains the following remarks on this route. "as to the danger to caravans in passing through these hills, i am inclined to believe that the lurs are now content to abandon robbery with violence in favour of payments and contributions from timid traders and travellers. they hang upon the rear of a caravan; an accident, a fallen or strayed pack animal, or stragglers in difficulty bring them to the spot, and, on the pretence of assistance given, a demand is made for money, in lieu of which, on fear or hesitation being shown, they obtain such articles as they take a fancy to. "the tribes through whose limits the road runs have annual allowances for protecting it, but it is a question whether these are regularly paid. it can hardly be expected that the same system of deferred and reduced payments, which unfortunately prevails in the persian public service, should be accepted patiently by a starving people, who have long been given to predatory habits, and this may account for occasional disturbance. they probably find it difficult to understand why payment of taxes should be mercilessly exacted upon them, while their allowances remain unpaid. it is generally believed that they would take readily to work if fairly treated and honestly paid, and i was told that for the construction of the proposed cart-road there would be no difficulty in getting labourers from the neighbouring lur tribes." letter xiv kahva rukh, chahar mahals, _may ._ i left julfa on the afternoon of april , with miss bruce as my guest and mr. douglas as our escort for the first three or four days. the caravan was sent forward early, that my inexperienced servants might have time to pitch the tents before our arrival. green and pleasant looked the narrow streets and walled gardens of julfa under a blue sky, on which black clouds were heavily massed here and there; but greenery was soon exchanged for long lines of mud ruins, and the great gravelly slopes in which the mountains descend upon the vast expanse of plain which surrounds isfahan, on which the villages of low mud houses are marked by dark belts of poplars, willows, fruit-trees, and great patches of irrigated and cultivated land, shortly to take on the yellow hue of the surrounding waste, but now beautifully green. passing through pul-i-wargun, a large and much wooded village on the zainderud, there a very powerful stream, affording abundant water power, scarcely used, we crossed a bridge feet long by twelve feet broad, of eighteen brick arches resting on stone piers, and found the camps pitched on some ploughed land by a stream, and afternoon tea ready for the friends who had come to give us what persians call "a throw on the road." i examined my equipments, found that nothing essential was lacking, initiated my servants into their evening duties, especially that of tightening tent ropes and driving tent pegs well in, and enjoyed a social evening in the adjacent camp. the next day's journey, made under an unclouded sky, was mainly along the zainderud, from which all the channels and rills which nourish the vegetation far and near are taken. a fine, strong, full river it is there and at isfahan in spring, so prolific in good works that one regrets that it should be lost sixty miles east of isfahan in the gas-khana, an unwholesome marsh, the whole of its waters disappearing in the _kavir_. many large villages with imposing pigeon-towers lie along this part of its course, surrounded with apricot and walnut orchards, wheat and poppy fields, every village an oasis, and every oasis a paradise, as seen in the first flush of spring. on a slope of gravel is the bagh-i-washi, with the remains of an immense enclosure, where the renowned shah abbas is said to have had a menagerie. were it not for the beautiful fringe of fertility on both margins of the zainderud the country would be a complete waste. the opium poppy is in bloom now. the use of opium in persia and its exportation are always increasing, and as it is a very profitable crop, both to the cultivators and to the government, it is to some extent superseding wheat. leaving the greenery we turned into a desert of gravel, crossed some low hills, and in the late afternoon came down upon the irrigated lands which surround the large and prosperous village of riz, the handsome and lofty pigeon-towers of which give it quite a fine appearance from a distance. these pigeon-towers are numerous, both near isfahan and in the villages along the zainderud, and are everywhere far more imposing than the houses of the people. since the great famine, which made a complete end of pigeon-keeping for the time, the industry has never assumed its former proportions, and near julfa many of the towers are falling into ruin. the riz towers, however, are in good repair. they are all built in the same way, varying only in size and height, from twenty to fifty feet in diameter, and from twenty-five to eighty feet from base to summit. they are "round towers," narrowing towards the top. they are built of sun-dried bricks of local origin, costing about two _krans_ or d. a thousand, and are decorated with rings of yellowish plaster, with coarse arabesques in red ochre upon them. for a door there is an opening half-way up, plastered over like the rest of the wall. two walls, cutting each other across at right angles, divide the interior. i am describing from a ruined tower which was easy of ingress. the sides of these walls, and the whole of the inner surface of the tower, are occupied by pigeon cells, the open ends of which are about twelve inches square. according to its size a pigeon-tower may contain from to , or even , pairs of pigeons. these birds are gray-blue in colour. a pigeon-tower is a nuisance to the neighbourhood, for its occupants, being totally unprovided for by their proprietor, live upon their neighbours' fields. in former days it must have been a grand sight when they returned to their tower after the day's depredations. "who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" probably referred to a similar arrangement in palestine. the object of the towers is the preservation and collection of "pigeon guano," which is highly prized for the raising of early melons. the door is opened once a year for the collection of this valuable manure. a large pigeon-tower used to bring its owner from £ to £ per annum, but a cessation of the great demand for early melons in the neighbourhood of isfahan has prevented the re-stocking of the towers since the famine. our experiences of riz were not pleasant. one of the party during a short absence from his tent was robbed of a very valuable scientific instrument. after that there was the shuffling sound of a multitude outside the tent in which miss bruce and i were resting, and women concealed from head to foot in blue and white checked sheets, revealing but one eye, kept lifting the tent curtain, and when that was laced, applying the one eye to the spaces between the lace-holes, whispering and tittering all the time. hot though it was, their persevering curiosity prevented any ventilation, and the steady gaze of single eyes here, there, and everywhere was most exasperating. it was impossible to use the dressing tent, for crowds of boys assembled, and rows of open mouths and staring eyes appeared between the _fly_ and the ground. vainly miss bruce, who speaks persian well and courteously, told the women that this intrusion on our privacy when we were very tired was both rude and unkind. "we're only women," they said, "_we_ shouldn't mind it, we've never seen so many europeans before." sunset ended the nuisance, for then the whole crowd, having fasted since sunrise, hurried home for food. the great fast of the month of ramazan began before we left julfa. moslems are not at their best while it lasts. they are apt to be crabbed and irritable; and everything that can be postponed is put off "till after ramazan." much ostentation comes out in the keeping of it; very pious people begin to fast before the month sets in. a really ascetic moslem does not even swallow his saliva during the fast, and none but very old or sick people, children, and travellers, are exempt from the obligation to taste neither food nor water, and not even to smoke during daylight, for a whole month. the penance is a fearful one, and as the night is the only time for feasting, the persians get through as much of the day as possible in sleep. welcome indeed is the sunset. with joy men fill their pipes and drink tea as a prelude to the meal eaten an hour afterwards. hateful is the dawn and the cry an hour before it, "water! oh, water and opium!"--the warning to the faithful to drink largely and swallow an opium pill before sunrise. the thirst even in weather like this, and the abstention from smoking, are severer trials than the fasting from food. the persian either lives to smoke, or smokes to live. although travellers are nominally exempt from the fast from water at least, pious moslems do not avail themselves of the liberty. hadji hussein, for instance, is keeping it as rigidly as any one, and, like some others, marches with the end of his _pagri_ tucked over his mouth and nose, a religious affectation, supposed to prevent the breaking of the fast by swallowing the animalculæ which are believed to infest the air! beyond riz, everywhere there are arid yellow mountains and yellow gravelly plains, except along the zainderud, where fruit-trees, wheat, and the opium poppy relieve the eyes from the glare. we took leave of the zainderud at pul-i-kala, where it is crossed by a dilapidated but passable and very picturesque stone bridge of eight arches, and the view from the high right bank of wood, bridge, and the vigorous green river is very pretty. little enough of trees or greenery have we seen since. this country, like much of the great iranian plateau, consists of high mountains with broad valleys or large or small plateaux between them, absolutely treeless, and even now nearly verdureless, with scattered oases wherever a possibility of procuring water by means of laboriously-constructed irrigation canals renders cultivation possible. water is scarce and precious; its value may be gathered from the allusions made by the persian poets to fountains, cascades, shady pools, running streams, and bubbling springs. such expressions as those in scripture, "rivers of waters," "a spring of water whose waters fail not," convey a fulness of meaning to persian ears of which we are quite ignorant. the first inquiry of a persian about any part of his own country is, "is there water?" the second, "is the water good?" and if he wishes to extol any particular region he says "the water is abundant all the year, and is sweet, there is no such water anywhere." the position of a village is always determined by the water supply, for the people have not only to think of water for domestic purposes, but for irrigating their crops, and this accounts for the packing of hamlets on steep mountain sides where land for cultivation can only be obtained by laborious terracing, but where some perennial stream can be relied on for filling the small canals. the fight for water is one of the hardest necessities of the persian peasant. a water famine of greater or less degree is a constant peril. land in persia is of three grades, the wholly irrigated, the partially irrigated, and the "rain-lands," usually uplands, chiefly suited for pasturage. the wholly irrigated land is the most productive. the assessments for taxes appear to leave altogether out of account the relative fertility of the land, and to be calculated solely on the supply of water. a winter like the last, of heavy snow, means a plenteous harvest, _i.e._ "twelve or fourteen grains for one," as the peasants put it; a scanty snowfall means famine, for the little rain which falls is practically of scarcely any use. the plan for the distribution of water seems to be far less provocative of quarrels than that of some other regions dependent on irrigation, such as ladak and nubra. where it is at all abundant, as it is in this zainderud valley, it is only in the great heats of summer that it is necessary to apportion it with any rigidity. it is then placed in the hands of a _mirab_ or water officer, who allows it to each village in turn for so many days, during which time the villages above get none, or the _ketchudas_ manage it among themselves without the aid of a _mirab_, for the sad truth, which is applicable to all persian officialism, applies in the _mirab's_ case, that if a village be rich enough to bribe him it can get water out of its turn. the blessedness of the zainderud valley is exceptional, and the general rule in the majority of districts is that the water must be carefully divided and be measured by "_tashts_," each _tasht_ being equivalent to the use of the water supply for eleven minutes. "this space of time is estimated in a very ancient fashion by floating a copper bowl with a needle hole in the bottom in a large vessel of water. the _tasht_ comes to an end as the bowl sinks. the distribution is regulated by the number of _tashts_ that each man has a right to. if he has a right to twenty he will receive water for three and three-quarter hours of the day or night every tenth day." land without water in persia is about as valuable as the "south lands" were which were given to caleb's daughter. so far as i can learn, the persian peasant enjoys a tolerable security of tenure so long as he pays his rent. a common rate of rent is two-thirds of the produce, but on lands where the snow lies for many months, even when they are "wet lands," it is only one-third; but this system is subject to many modifications specially arising out of the finding or non-finding of the seed by the owner, and there is no uniformity in the manner of holding land or in assessing the taxes or in anything else, though the system established years ago is still the basis of the whole.[ ] the line between the oasis and the desert is always strongly marked and definite. there is no shading away between the deep green of the growing wheat and the yellow or red gravel beyond. the general impression is one of complete nakedness. the flowers which in this month bloom on the slopes are mostly stiff, leathery, and thorny. the mountains themselves viewed from below are without any indication of green. the usual colouring is grayish-yellow or a feeble red, intensifying at sunset, but rarely glorified owing to the absence of "atmosphere." it is a very solitary route from pul-i-kala, without villages, and we met neither caravans nor foot passengers. the others rode on, and i followed with two of the bakhtiari escort, who with rustem khan, a minor chief, had accompanied us from julfa. these men were most inconsequent in their proceedings, wheeling round me at a gallop, singing, or rather howling, firing their long guns, throwing themselves into one stirrup and nearly off their horses, and one who rides without a bridle came up behind me with his horse bolting and nearly knocked me out of the saddle with the long barrel of his gun. when the village of charmi came in sight i signed to them to go on, and we all rode at a gallop, the horsemen uttering wild cries and going through the pantomime of firing over the left shoulders and right flanks of their horses. the camps were pitched on what might be called the village green. charmi, like many persian villages, is walled, the wall, which is much jagged by rain and frost, having round towers at intervals, and a large gateway. such walls are no real protection, but serve to keep the flocks and herds from nocturnal depredators. within the gate is a house called the fort, with a very fine room fully thirty feet long by fifteen high, decorated with a mingled splendour and simplicity surprising in a rural district. the wall next the courtyard is entirely of very beautiful fretwork, filled in with amber and pale blue glass. the six doors are the same, and the walls and the elaborate roof and cornices are pure white, the projections being "picked out" in a pale shade of brown, hardly darker than amber. the following morning miss bruce left on her return home, and mr. douglas and i rode fourteen miles to the large village of kahva rukh, where we parted company. it is an uninteresting march over formless gravelly hills and small plains thinly grassed, until the gardan-i-rukh, one of the high passes on the isfahan and shuster route, is reached, with its extensive view of brown mountains and yellow wastes. this pass, feet in altitude, crossing the unshapely kuh-i-rukh, is the watershed of the country, all the streams on its southern side falling into the karun. it is also the entrance to the chahar mahals or four districts, lar, khya, mizak, and gandaman, which consist chiefly of great plains surrounded by mountains, and somewhat broken up by their gravelly spurs. beyond, and usually in sight, is the snow-slashed kuh-i-sukhta range, which runs south-east, and throws out a spur to chigakhor, the summer resort of the bakhtiari chiefs. the chahar mahals, for persia, are populous, and in some parts large villages, many of which are armenian and georgian, occur at frequent intervals, most of them treeless, but all surrounded by cultivated lands. the armenian villages possess so-called relics and ancient copies of the gospels, which are credited with the power of working miracles.[ ] the chahar mahals have been farmed to the ilkhani of the bakhtiaris for about , _tumans_ (£ ) a year, and his brother, reza kuli khan, has been appointed their governor. thus on crossing the kahva rukh pass we entered upon the sway of the feudal head of the great bakhtiari tribes. we camped outside the village, my tents being pitched in a ruinous enclosure. the servants are in the habit of calling me the _hak[=i]m_, and the report of a frank _hak[=i]m_ having arrived soon brought a crowd of sick people, who were introduced and their ailments described by a blue horseman, one of the escort. his own child was so dangerously ill of pneumonia that i went with him to his house, put on a mustard poultice, and administered some dover's powder. the house was crammed and the little suffering creature had hardly air to breathe. the courtyard was also crowded, so that one could scarcely move, all the people being quite pleasant and friendly. i saw several sick people, and was surprised to find the village houses so roomy and comfortable, and so full of "plenishings." it was in vain that i explained to them that i am not a doctor, scarcely even a nurse. the fame of burroughes and wellcome's medicine chest has spread far and wide, and they think its possessor _must_ be a _hak[=i]m_. the horseman said that medicine out of that chest would certainly cure his child.[ ] i was unable to go back to the tea which had been prepared in the horseman's house, on which he expressed great dismay, and said i must be "enraged with him." persians always use round numbers, and the _ketchuda_ says that the village has persian houses, and more, inhabited during the winter by ilyats. it has mud walls with towers at intervals, two mosques, a clear stream of water in the principal street, some very good houses with _balakhanas_, and narrow alleys between high mud walls, in which are entrances into courtyards occupied by animals, and surrounded by living-rooms. the only trees are a few spindly willows, but wheat comes up to the walls, and at sunset great herds of cattle and myriads of brown sheep converge to what seems quite a prosperous village. _may ._--yesterday, sunday, was intended to be a day of rest, but turned out very far from it. after the last relay of "patients" left on saturday evening, and the last medicines had been "dispensed," my tent was neatly arranged with one _yekdan_ for a table, and the other for a washstand and medicine stand. the latter trunk contained some english gold in a case along with some valuable letters, and some bags, in which were _krans_, for four months' travelling. this _yekdan_ was padlocked. it was a full moon, the other camps were quite near, all looked very safe, and i slept until awakened by the sharpness of the morning air. then i saw but one _yekdan_ where there had been two! opening the tent curtain i found my washing apparatus and medicine bottles neatly arranged on the ground outside, and the trunk without its padlock among some ruins a short distance off. the money bags were all gone, leaving me literally penniless. most of my store of tea was taken, but nothing else. two men must have entered my tent and have carried the trunk out. of what use are any precautions when one sleeps so disgracefully soundly? when the robbery was made known horsemen were sent off to the ilkhani, whose guest i have been since i entered his territory, and at night a khan arrived with a message that "the money would be repaid, and that the village would be levelled with the ground!" kahva rukh will, i hope, stand for many years to come, but the stolen sum will be levied upon it, according to custom. the people are extremely vexed at this occurrence, and i would rather have lost half the sum than that it should have happened to a guest. in addition to an escort of a khan and four men, the ilkhani has given orders that we are not to be allowed to pay for anything while in the country. this order, after several battles, i successfully disobey. this morning, before any steps were taken to find the thief, and after all the loads were ready, officials came to the camps, and, by our wish, every man's baggage was unrolled and searched. our servants and _charvadars_ are all moslems, and each of them took an oath on the koran, administered by a _mollah_, that he was innocent of the theft. _ardal, may ._--i left rather late, and with the blue horseman, to whom suspicion generally pointed, rode to shamsabad, partly over gravelly wastes, passing two mixed moslem and armenian villages on a plain, on which ninety ploughs were at work on a stiff whitish soil. shamsabad is a most wretched mud village without supplies, standing bare on a gravelly slope, above a clear quiet stream, an affluent of the karun. this country has not reached that stage of civilisation in which a river bears the same name from mouth to source, and as these streams usually take as many names as there are villages on their course, i do not burden my memory with them. there is a charming camping-ground of level velvety green sward on the right bank of the river, with the towering mass of jehanbin (sight of the world), , feet high, not far off. this lawn is feet above the sea, and the air keen and pleasant. the near mountain views are grand, and that evening the rare glory of a fine sunset lingered till it was merged in the beauty of a perfect moonlight. after leaving shamsabad the road passes through a rather fine defile, crosses the shamsabad stream by a ten-arched bridge between the kuh-i-zangun and the kuh-i-jehanbin, and proceeds down a narrow valley now full of wild flowers and young wheat to khariji, a village of fifty houses, famous for the excellent quality of its opium. from khariji we proceeded through low grassy hills, much like the south downs, and over the low but very rough pasbandi pass into an irrigated valley in which is the village of shalamzar. i rode through it alone quite unmolested, but two days later the sahib, passing through it with his servants, was insulted and pelted, and the people said, "here's another of the dog party." these villagers are afflicted with "divers diseases and torments," and the crowd round my tent was unusually large and importunate. in this village of less than fifty houses nearly all the people had one or both eyes more or less affected, and fourteen had only one eye. between shalamzar and ardal lies the lofty gardan-i-zirreh, by which the kuh-i-sukhta is crossed at a height of feet. the ascent begins soon after leaving the village, and is long and steep--a nasty climb. the upper part at this date is encumbered with snow, below which primulas are blooming in great profusion, and lower down leathery flowers devoid of beauty cover without adorning the hillside. two peasants went up with me, and from time to time kindly handed me clusters of small raisins taken from the breasts of dirty felt clothing. on reaching the snow i found rustem khan's horse half-buried in a drift, so i made the rest of the ascent on foot. the snow was three feet deep, but for the most part presented no difficulties, even to the baggage animals. at the summit there were no green things except some plants of _artemisia_, not even a blade of grass, but among the crevices appeared small fragile snow-white tulips with yellow centres, mixed with scarlet and mauve blossoms of a more vigorous make. at that great height the air was keen and bracing, and to eyes for months accustomed to regions buried in dazzling snow and to glaring gravelly wastes, there was something perfectly entrancing about the view on the bakhtiari side. though treeless, it looked like paradise. lying at the foot of the pass is the deep valley of seligun, feet high, with the range of the kuh-i-nassar to the south, and of the kuh-shah-purnar to the north--green, full of springs and streams, with two lakes bringing down the blue of heaven to earth, with slopes aflame with the crimson and terra-cotta _fritillaria imperialis_, and levels one golden glory with a yellow ranunculus. rich and dark was the green of the grass, tall and deep on the plain, but when creeping up the ravines to meet the snows, short green sward enamelled with tulips. great masses of naked rock, snow-slashed, and ranges of snow-topped masses behind and above, walled in that picture of cool serenity, its loneliness only broken by three black tents of ilyats far away. so i saw seligun, but those who see it a month hence will find only a brown and dusty plain! the range we crossed divides the chahar mahals from the true bakhtiari country, a land of mountains which rumour crests with eternal snow, of unexplored valleys and streams, of feudal chiefs, of blood feuds, and of nomad tribes moving with vast flocks and herds. mehemet ali, a new and undesirable acquisition, was loaded with my _shuldari_, and we clambered down the hillside, leading our horses amidst tamarisk scrub and a glory of tulips, till we reached the level, when a gallop brought us to the camps, pitched near a vigorous spring in the green flower-enamelled grass. that halt was luxury for man and beast. later the air was cool and moist. the sun-lit white fleeces which had been rolling among the higher hills darkened and thickened into rain-clouds, drifting stormily, and only revealing here and there through their rifts glimpses of blue. a few flocks of sheep on the mountains, and the mules and horses revelling knee-deep in the juicy grass, were the sole representatives of animated life. it was a real refreshment to be away from the dust of mud villages, and to escape from the pressure of noisy and curious crowds, and the sight of sore eyes. towards evening, a gallop on the arabs with the bakhtiari escort took us to the camp of the lately-arrived ilyats. orientals spend much of their time in the quiet contemplation of cooking pots, and these nomads were not an exception, for they were all sitting round a brushwood fire, on which the evening meal of meat broth with herbs was being prepared. the women were unveiled. both men and women are of quite a different type from the persians. they are completely clothed and in appearance are certainly only semi-savages. these tents consisted of stones rudely laid to a height of two feet at the back, over which there is a canopy with an open front and sides, of woven goat's-hair supported on poles. such tents are barely a shelter from wind and rain, but in them generations of ilyats are born and die, despising those of their race who settle in villages. there were great neutral-tint masses of rolling clouds, great banks of glistering white clouds, a cold roystering wind, a lurid glow, and then a cloudy twilight. _hak[=i]m_ threw up his heels and galloped over the moist grass, the bakhtiaris, two on one horse, laughed and yelled--there was the desert freedom without the desert. it was the most inspiriting evening i have spent in persia. truth compels me to add that there were legions of black flies. in the early morning, after riding round the south-east end of the valley, we passed by the lake seligun or albolaki, banked up by a revetment of rude masonry. the wind was strong, and drove the foam-flecked water in a long line of foam on the shore. red-legged storks were standing in a row fishing. cool scuds of rain made the morning homelike. then there was a hill ascent, from which the view of snowy mountains, gashed by deep ravines and backed by neutral-tint clouds, was magnificent, and then a steep and rocky defile, which involved walking, its sides gaudy with the _fritillaria imperialis_, which here attains a size and a depth of colouring of which we have no conception. in this pass we met a large number of ilyat families going up to their summer quarters, with their brown flocks of sheep and their black flocks of goats. their tents with all their other goods were packed in convenient parcels on small cows, and the women with babies and big wooden cradles were on asses. the women without babies, the elder children, and the men walked. whatever beauty these women possessed was in the meg merrilees style, with a certain weirdness about it. they had large, dark, long eyes, with well-marked eyebrows, artificially prolonged, straight prominent noses, wide mouths with thin lips, long straight chins, and masses of black hair falling on each side of the face. their dress consisted of enormously full dark blue cotton trousers, drawn in at the ankles, and suspended over the hips, not from the waist (the invariable custom in persia), and loose sleeved vests, open in front. the adult women all wear a piece of cotton pinned on the head, and falling over the back and shoulders. the men had their hair in many long plaits, hanging from under felt skull-caps, and wore wide blue cotton trousers, white or printed cotton shirts over these, and girdles in which they carried knives, pipes, and other indispensables. all wore shoes or sandals of some kind. these men were very swarthy, but the younger women had rich brunette complexions, and were unveiled. some bad horse-fights worried the remainder of the march, which included the ascent of an anemone-covered hill, feet high, from which we got the first view of the ardal valley, much cultivated, till it narrows and is lost among mountains, now partly covered with snow. in the centre is a large building with a tower, the spring residence of the ilkhani, whose goodwill it is necessary to secure. through a magnificent gorge in the mountains passes the now famous karun. a clatter of rain and a strong wind greeted our entrance into the valley, where we were met by some horsemen from the ilkhani. the great ardal plateau is itself treeless, though the lower spurs of the kuh-i-sabz on the south side are well wooded with the _belut_, a species of oak. there is much cultivation, and at this season the uncultivated ground is covered with the great green leaves of a fodder plant, the _centaurea alata_, which a little later are cut, dried, and stacked. the rivers of the plateau are the karun and sabzu on the south side, and the river of shamsabad, which brings to the karun the drainage of the chahar mahals, and enters the valley through a magnificent _tang_ or chasm on its north side, called darkash warkash. the village of ardal is eighty-five miles from isfahan, on the shuster caravan route, and is about from shuster. its altitude is feet, its long. ° ´ e. and its lat. ° n. on arriving here the grandeur of the ilkhani's house faded away. except for the fortified tower it looks like a second-rate caravanserai. the village, such as there is of it, is crowded on a steep slope outside the "palace." it is a miserable hamlet of low windowless mud hovels, with uneven mud floors, one or two feet lower than the ground outside, built in yards with ruinous walls, and full of heaps and holes. it is an _olla podrida_ of dark, poor, smoky mud huts; narrow dirt-heaped alleys, with bones and offal lying about; gaunt yelping dogs; bottle-green slimy pools, and ruins. the people are as dirty as the houses, but they are fine in physique and face, as if only the fittest survive. there is an _imamzada_, much visited on fridays, on an adjacent slope. the snow lies here five feet deep in winter, it is said. when we arrived the roofs and balconies of the ilkhani's house were crowded with people looking out for us. the agha called at once, and i sent my letter of introduction from the amin-es-sultan. presents arrived, formal visits were paid, the ilkhani's principal wife appointed an hour at which to receive me, and a number of dismounted horsemen came and escorted me to the palace. the chief feature of the house is a large audience-chamber over the entrance, in which the chief holds a daily _durbar_, the deep balcony outside being usually thronged by crowds of tribesmen, all having free access to him. the coming and going are incessant. [illustration: castle of ardal.] the palace or castle is like a two-storied caravanserai, enclosing a large untidy courtyard, round which are stables and cow-houses, and dens for soldiers and servants. in the outer front of the building are deep recessed arches, with rooms opening upon them, in which the isfahan traders, who come here for a month, expose their wares. passing under the ilkhani's audience-chamber by a broad arched passage with deep recesses on both sides, and through the forlorn uneven courtyard, a long, dark arched passage leads into a second courtyard, where there is an attempt at ornament by means of tanks and willows. round this are a number of living-rooms for the ilkhani's sons and their families, and here is the _andarun_, or house of the women. on the far side is the fort, a tall square tower with loopholes and embrasures. a cerberus guards the entrance to the _andarun_, but he allowed mirza to accompany me. a few steps lead up from the courtyard into a lofty oblong room, with a deep cushioned recess containing a fireplace. the roof rests on wooden pillars. the front of the room facing the courtyard is entirely of fretwork filled in with pale blue and amber glass. the recess and part of the floor were covered with very beautiful blue and white grounded carpets, made by the women. the principal wife, a comely wide-mouthed woman of forty, advanced to meet me, kissed my hand, raised it to her brow, and sat down on a large carpet squab, while the other wives led me into the recess, and seated me on a pile of cushions, taking their places in a row on the floor opposite, but scarcely raising their eyes, and never speaking one word. the rest of the room was full of women and children standing, and many more blocked up the doorways, all crowding forward in spite of objurgations and smart slaps frequently administered by the principal wife. the three young wives are bakhtiaris, and their style of beauty is novel to me--straight noses, wide mouths, thin lips, and long chins. each has three stars tattooed on her chin, one in the centre of the forehead, and several on the back of the hands. the eyebrows are not only elongated with indigo, but are made to meet across the nose. the finger-nails, and inside of the hands, are stained with henna. the hair hangs round their wild, handsome faces, down to their collar-bones, in loose, heavy, but not uncleanly masses. among the "well-to-do" bakhtiari women, as among the persians, the hair receives very great attention, although it is seldom exhibited. it is naturally jet black, and very abundant. it is washed at least once a week with a thin paste of a yellowish clay found among the zard-kuh mountains, which has a very cleansing effect. but the women are not content with their hair as it is, and alter its tinge by elaborate arts. they make a thick paste of henna, leave it on for two hours, and then wash it off. the result is a rich auburn tint. a similar paste, made of powdered indigo leaves, is then plastered over the hair for two hours. on its removal the locks are dark green, but in twenty-four hours more they become a rich blue-black. the process needs repeating about every twenty days, but it helps to fill up the infinite leisure of life. it is performed by the bath attendants. in justice to my sex i must add that the men dye their hair to an equal extent with the women, from the shining blue-black of the shah's moustache to the brilliant orange of the beard of hadji hussein, by which he forfeits, though not in persian estimation, the respect due to age. some of the ilkhani's children and grand-children have the hair dyed with henna alone to a rich auburn tint, which is very becoming to the auburn eyes and delicate paleness of some of them. the wives wore enormously full black silk trousers, drawn tight at the ankles, with an interregnum between them and short black vests, loose and open in front; and black silk sheets attached to a band fixed on the head enveloped their persons. they have, as is usual among these people, small and beautiful hands, with taper fingers and nails carefully kept. the chief wife, who rules the others, rumour says, was also dressed in black. she has a certain degree of comely dignity about her, and having seen something of the outer world in a pilgrimage to mecca viâ baghdad, returning by egypt and persia, and having also lived in tihran, her intelligence has been somewhat awakened. the bakhtiari women generally are neither veiled nor secluded, but the higher chiefs who have been at the capital think it _chic_ to adopt the persian customs regarding women, and the inferior chiefs, when they have houses, follow their example. my conversation with the "queen" consisted chiefly of question and answer, varied by an occasional divergence on her part into an animated talk with mirza yusuf. among the many questions asked were these: at what age our women marry? how many wives the agha has? how long our women are allowed to keep their boys with them? why i do not dye my hair? if i know of anything to take away wrinkles? to whiten teeth? etc., if our men divorce their wives when they are forty? why mr. ---- had refused a bakhtiari wife? if i am travelling to collect herbs? if i am looking for the plant which if found would turn the base metals into gold? etc. she said they had very dull lives, and knew nothing of any customs but their own; that they would like to see the agha, who, they heard, was a head taller than their tallest men; that they hoped i should be at chigakhor when they were there, as it would be less dull, and she apologised for not offering tea or sweetmeats, as it is the fast of the ramazan, which they observe very strictly. i told them that the agha wished to take their photographs, and the hadji ilkhani along with them. they were quite delighted, but it occurred to them that they must first get the ilkhani's consent. this was refused, and one of his sons, whose wife is very handsome, said, "we cannot allow pictures to be made of our women. it is not our custom. we cannot allow pictures of our women to be in strange hands. no good women have their pictures taken. among the tribes you may find women base enough to be photographed." the chief wife offered to make me a present of her grandson, to whom i am giving a tonic, if i can make him strong and cure his deafness. he is a pale precocious child of ten, with hazel eyes and hair made artificially auburn. when the remarkably frivolous conversation flagged, they brought children afflicted with such maladies as ophthalmia, scabies, and sore eyes to be cured, but rejected my dictum that a copious use of soap and water must precede all remedies. among the adults headaches, loss of appetite, and dyspepsia seem the prevailing ailments. love potions were asked for, and charms to bring back lost love, with special earnestness, and the woful looks assumed when i told the applicants that i could do nothing for them were sadly suggestive. there could not have been fewer than sixty women and children in the room, many, indeed most of them, fearfully dirty in dress and person. among them were several negro and mulatto slaves. when i came away the balconies and arches of the ilkhani's house were full of men, anxious to have a good view of the feringhi woman, but there was no rudeness there, or in the village, which i walked through afterwards with a courtesy escort of several dismounted horsemen. after this the ilkhani asked me to go to see a man who is very ill, and sent two of his retainers with me. it must be understood that mirza yusuf goes with me everywhere as attendant and interpreter. the house was a dark room, with a shed outside, in a filthy yard, in which children, goats, and dogs were rolling over each other in a foot of powdered mud. crowds of men were standing in and about the shed. i made my way through them, moving them to right and left with my hands, with the recognised supremacy of a _hak[=i]m_! there were some wadded quilts on the ground, and another covered a form of which nothing was visible but two feet, deadly cold. the only account that the bystanders could give of the illness was, that four days ago the man fainted, and that since he had not been able to eat, speak, or move. the face was covered with several folds of a very dirty _chadar_. on removing it i was startled by seeing, not a sick man, but the open mouth, gasping respiration, and glassy eyes of a dying man. his nostrils had been stuffed with moist mud and a chopped aromatic herb. the feet were uncovered, and the limbs were quite cold. there was no cruelty in this. the men about him were most kind, but _absolutely ignorant_. i told them that he could hardly survive the night, and that all i could do was to help him to die comfortably. they said with one clamorous voice that they would do whatever i told them, and in the remaining hours they kept their word. i bade them cleanse the mud from his nostrils, wrap the feet and legs in warm cloths, give him air, and not crowd round him. under less solemn circumstances i should have been amused with the absolute docility with which these big savage-looking men obeyed me. i cut up a blanket, and when they had heated some water in their poor fashion, showed them how to prepare fomentations, put on the first myself, and bathed his face and hands. he was clothed in rags of felt and cotton, evidently never changed since the day they were put on, though he was what they call "rich,"--a great owner of mares, flocks, and herds,--and the skin was scaly with decades of dirt. i ventured to pour a little sal-volatile and water down his throat, and the glassy eyeballs moved a little. i asked the bystanders if, as moslems, they would object to his taking some spirits medicinally? they were willing, but said there was no _arak_ in the bakhtiari country, a happy exemption! the agha's kindness supplied some whisky, of which from that time the dying man took a teaspoonful, much diluted, every two hours, tossed down his throat with a spoon, allah being always invoked. there was no woman's gentleness to soothe his last hours. a wife in the dark den inside was weaving, and once came out and looked carelessly at him, but men did for him all that he required with a tenderness and kindness which were very pleasing. before i left they asked for directions over again, and one of the ilkhani's retainers wrote them down. at night the ilkhani sent to say that the man was much better and he hoped i would go and see him. the scene was yet more weird than in the daytime. a crowd of men were sitting and standing round a fire outside the shed, and four were watching the dying man. the whisky had revived him, his pulse was better, the fomentation had relieved the pain, and when it was reapplied he had uttered the word "good." i tried to make them understand it was only a last flicker of life, but they thought he would recover, and the ilkhani sent to know what food he should have. at dawn "death music," wild and sweet, rang out on the still air; he died painlessly at midnight, and was carried to the grave twelve hours later. when people are very ill their friends give them food and medicine (if a _hak[=i]m_ be attainable), till, in their judgment, the case is hopeless. then they send for a _mollah_; who reads the koran in a very loud sing-song tone till death ensues, the last thirst being alleviated meantime by _sharbat_ dropped into the mouth. camphor and other sweet spices are burned at the grave. if they burn well and all is pure afterwards, they say that the deceased person has gone to heaven; if they burn feebly and smokily, and there is any unpleasantness from the grave, they say that the spirit is in perdition. a bakhtiari grave is a very shallow trench. the watchers were kind, and carried out my directions faithfully. i give these minute details to show how much even simple nursing can do to mitigate suffering among a people so extremely ignorant as the bakhtiaris are not only of the way to tend the sick, but of the virtues of the medicinal plants which grow in abundance around them. a medical man itinerating among their camps with a light hospital tent and some simple instruments and medicines could do a great deal of healing, and much also to break down the strong prejudice which exists against christianity. here, as elsewhere, the _hak[=i]m_ is respected. going in that capacity i found the people docile, respectful, and even grateful. had i gone among them in any other, a christian feringhi woman would certainly have encountered rudeness and worse. the ilkhani, who has not been in a hurry to call, made a formal visit to-day with his brother, reza kuli khan, his eldest son lutf, another son, ghulam, with bad eyes, and a crowd of retainers. the hadji ilkhani,--imam kuli khan, the great feudal chief of the bakhtiari tribes, is a quiet-looking middle-aged man with a short black beard, a parchment-coloured complexion, and a face somewhat lined, with a slightly sinister expression at times. he wore a white felt cap, a blue full-skirted coat lined with green, another of fine buff kerseymere under it, with a girdle, and very wide black silk trousers. he is a man of some dignity of deportment, and his usual expression is somewhat kindly and courteous. he is a devout moslem, and has a finely-illuminated copy of the koran, which he spends much time in reading. he is not generally regarded as a very capable or powerful man, and is at variance with the ilbegi, who, though nominally second chief, practically shares his power. in fact, at this time serious intrigues are going on, and some say that the adherents of the two chiefs would not be unwilling to come to open war. [illustration: imam kuli khan.] the greatest men who in this century have filled the office of ilkhani both perished miserably. the fate of sir h. layard's friend, mehemet taki khan, is well known to all readers of the _early recollections_, but it was possibly less unexpected than that of hussein kuli khan, brother of the present ilkhani, and father of the ilbegi isfandyar khan. this man was evidently an enlightened and able ruler; he suppressed brigandage with a firm hand, and desired to see the mohammerah-shuster-isfahan route fairly opened to trade. he went so far as to promise mr. mackenzie, of one of the leading persian gulf firms, in writing, that he would hold himself personally responsible for the safety of caravans in their passage through his territory, and would repay any losses by robbery. he agreed to take a third share of the cost of the necessary steamers on the karun, and to furnish mules for land transport between shuster and isfahan.[ ] it appears that persian jealousy was excited by his enterprising spirit; he fell under the displeasure of the zil-es-sultan, and in was put to death by poison while on his annual visit of homage. the present ilkhani, who succeeded him, warned possibly by his brother's fate, is said to show little, if any, interest in commercial enterprise, and to have made the somewhat shrewd remark that the english "under the dress of the merchant often conceal the uniform of the soldier." in the shah relented towards hussein kuli khan's sons, the eldest of whom, isfandyar khan, had been in prison for seven years, and they with their uncle, reza kuli khan, descended with their followers and a small persian army upon the plain of chigakhor, where they surprised and defeated the hadji ilkhani. his brother, reza, was thereupon recognised by the shah as ilkhani, and isfandyar as ilbegi, with the substance of power. another turn of the wheel of fortune, and the brothers became respectively ilkhani and governor of the chahar mahals, and their nephew is reinstated as ilbegi.[ ] the ilkhani's word is law, within broad limits, among the numerous tribes of bakhtiari lurs who have consented to recognise him as their feudal head, and it has been estimated that in a popular quarrel he could bring from to , armed horsemen into the field. he is judge as well as ruler, but in certain cases there is a possible appeal to tihran from his decisions. he is appointed by the shah, with a salary of _tumans_ a year, but a strong man in his position could be practically independent. it can scarcely be supposed that the present ilkhani will long retain his uneasy seat against the intrigues at the persian court, and with a powerful and popular rival close at hand. it is manifestly the interest of the shah's government to weaken the tribal power, and extinguish the authority and independence of the principal chiefs, and the oriental method of attaining this end is by plots and intrigues at the capital, by creating and fomenting local quarrels, and by oppressive taxation. it is not wonderful, therefore, that many of the principal khans, whose immemorial freedom has been encroached upon in many recent years by the tihran government, should look forward to a day when one of the western powers will occupy south-west persia, and give them security. the _hadji_ ilkhani, for the people always prefix the religious title, discussed the proposed journey, promised me an escort of a horseman and a _tufangchi_, or foot-soldier, begged us to consider ourselves here and everywhere as his guests, and to ask for all we want, here and elsewhere. his brother, reza kuli khan, who has played an important part in tribal affairs, resembles him, but the sinister look is more persistent on his face. he was much depressed by the fear that he was going blind, but on trying my glasses he found he could see. the surprise of the old-sighted people when they find that spectacles renew their youth is most interesting. another visitor has been the ilbegi, isfandyar khan. though not tall, he is very good-looking, and has beautiful hands and feet. he is able, powerful, and ambitious, inspires his adherents with great personal devotion, and is regarded by many as the "coming man." he was in tihran when i was in julfa, and hearing from one of the ministers that i was about to visit the bakhtiari country, he wrote to a general of cavalry in isfahan, asking him to provide me with an escort if i needed it. i was glad to thank him for his courtesy in this matter, and for more substantial help. before his visit, his retainer, mansur, brought me the money of which i had been robbed in kahva rukh! this man absolutely refused a present, saying that his liege lord would nearly kill him if he took one. isfandyar khan welcomed me kindly, regretting much that my first night under bakhtiari rule should have been marked by a robbery. he said that before his day the tribesmen not only robbed, but killed, and that he had reduced them to such order that he was surprised as well as shocked at this occurrence. i replied that it occurred in a persian village, and that in many countries one might be robbed, but in none that i knew of would such quick restitution be made. in cases of robbery, the ilkhani sends round to the _ketchudas_ or headmen of the camps or villages of the offending district, to replace the money, as in my case, or the value of the thing taken, after which the thief must be caught if possible. when caught, the headmen consult as to his punishment, which may be the cutting off of a hand or nose, or to be severely branded. in any case he must be for the future a marked man. i gather that the most severe penalties are rarely inflicted. i hope the fine of _krans_ levied on kahva rukh may stimulate the people to surrender the thief. i agreed to forego _krans_, as isfandyar khan says that his men raised all they could, and the remaining sum would have to be paid by himself. after a good deal of earnest conversation he became frivolous! he asked the agha his age, and guessed it at thirty-five. on being enlightened he asked if he dyed his hair, and if his teeth were his own. then he said that he dyed his own hair, and wore artificial teeth. he also asked my age. he and lutf and ghulam, the ilkhani's sons, who accompanied him, possess superb watches, with two dials, and an arrangement for showing the phases of the moon. having accepted an invitation from the ilbegi to visit him at naghun, a village ten miles from ardal, accompanied by lutf and ghulam, we were ready at seven, the hour appointed, as the day promised to be very hot. eight o'clock came, nine o'clock, half-past nine, and on sending to see if the young khans were coming, the servants replied that they had "no orders to wake them." so we europeans broiled three hours in the sun at the pleasure of "barbarians"! during the ramazan these people revel from sunset to sunrise, with feasting, music, singing, and merriment, and then they lie in bed till noon or later, to abridge the long hours of the fast. "is it such a fast that i have chosen?" may well be asked. the noise during the night in the ilkhani's palace is tremendous. the festivities begin soon after sunset and go on till an hour before dawn. odours agreeable to bakhtiari noses are wafted down to my tent, but i do not find them appetising. an eatable called _zalabi_ is in great request during the ramazan. it is made by mixing sugar and starch with oil of sesamum, and is poured on ready heated copper trays, and frizzled into fritters. masses of eggs mixed with rice, clarified butter, and jams, concealing balls of highly-spiced mincemeat, _kabobs_, and mutton stewed with preserved lemon juice and onions are favourite dishes at the ilkhani's. besides the music and singing, the "court" entertains itself nightly with performing monkeys and dancing men, besides story-tellers, and reciters of the poetry of hafiz. it is satisfactory to know that the uproarious merriment which drifts down to my tent along with odours of perpetual frying, owes none of its inspiration to alcohol, coffee and _sharbat_ being the drinks consumed. we rode without a guide down the ardal valley, took the worst road through some deep and blazing gulches, found the sun fierce, and the treelessness irksome, saw much ploughing, made a long ascent, and stopped short of the village of naghun at a large walled garden on the arid hillside, which irrigation has turned into a shady paradise of pear, apricot, and walnut trees, with a luxurious undergrowth of roses and pomegranates. the young khans galloped up just as we did, laughing heartily at having slept so late. all the village men were gathered to see the feringhis, and the ilbegi and his brothers received us at the garden gate, all shaking hands. certainly this khan has much power in his face, and his dignified and easy manner is that of a leader of men. his dress was becoming, a handsome dark blue cloak lined with scarlet, and with a deep fur collar, over his ordinary costume. so much has been said and written about the bakhtiaris being "savages" or "semi-savages," that the entertainment which followed was quite a surprise to me. two fine canopy tents were pitched in the shade, and handsome carpets were laid in them, and under a spreading walnut tree a _karsi_, or fire cover, covered with a rug, served as a table, and cigarettes, a bowl of ice, a glass jug of _sharbat_, and some tumblers were neatly arranged upon it. iron chairs were provided for the european guests, and the ilbegi, his brothers, the ilkhani's sons, and others sat round the border of the carpet on which they were placed. there were fully fifty attendants. into the midst of this masculine crowd, a male nurse brought the ilbegi's youngest child, a dark, quiet, pale, wistful little girl of four years old, a daintily-dressed little creature, with a crimson velvet cap, and a green and crimson velvet frock. she was gentle and confiding, and liked to remain with me. after a long conversation on subjects more or less worth speaking upon, our hosts retired, to sleep under the trees, leaving us to eat, and a number of servants brought in a large _karsi_ covered with food. several yards of blanket bread, or "flapjacks," served as a table-cloth, and another for the dish-cover of a huge _pillau_ in the centre. cruets, plates, knives and forks, iced water, russian lemonade, and tumblers were all provided. the dinner consisted of _pillau_, lamb cutlets, a curried fowl, celery with sour sauce, clotted cream, and sour milk. the food was well cooked and clean, and the servants, rough as they looked, were dexterous and attentive. after dinner, by the ilbegi's wish, i paid a visit to the ladies of his _haram_. naghun rivals the other villages of the tribes in containing the meanest and worst permanent habitations i have ever seen. isfandyar khan's house is a mud building surrounding a courtyard, through which the visitor passes into another, round which are the women's apartments. both yards were forlorn, uneven, and malodorous, from the heaps of offal and rubbish lying under the hot sun. i was received by fifteen ladies in a pleasant, clean, whitewashed apartment, with bright rugs and silk-covered pillows on the floor, and glass bottles and other ornaments in the _takchahs_. at the top of the room i was welcomed, not by the principal wife, but by a portly middle-aged woman, the khan's sister, and evidently the duenna of the _haram_, as not one of the other women ventured to speak, or to offer any courtesies. a chair was provided for me with a _karsi_ in front of it, covered with trays of _gaz_ and other sweetmeats. mirza and a male attendant stood in the doorway, and outside shoals of women and children on tip-toe were struggling for a glance into the room. several slaves were present, coal-black, woolly-headed, huge-mouthed negresses. the fifteen ladies held their gay _chadars_ to their faces so as to show only one eye, so i sent mirza behind a curtain and asked for the pleasure of seeing their faces, when they all unveiled with shrieks of laughter. the result was disappointing. the women were all young, or youngish, but only one was really handsome. the wives are brunettes with long chins. they wore gay _chadars_ of muslin, short gold-embroidered jackets, gauze chemises, and bright-coloured balloon trousers. three of the others wore black satin balloon trousers, black silk jackets, yellow gauze vests, and black _chadars_ spotted with white. these three were literally moon-faced, like the representations of the moon on old clocks, a type i have not yet seen. all wear the hair brought to the front, where it hangs in wavy masses on each side of the face. they wore black silk gold-embroidered skull-caps, set back on their heads, and long chains of gold coins from the back to the ear, with two, three, or four long necklaces of the same in which the coins were very large and handsome. one wife, a young creature, was poorly dressed, very dejected-looking, and destitute of ornaments. her mother has since pleaded for something "to bring back her husband's love." the eyebrows were painted with indigo and were made to meet in a point on the bridge of the nose. each had one stained or tattooed star on her forehead, three on her chin, and a galaxy on the back of each hand. before mirza reappeared they huddled themselves up in their _chadars_ and sat motionless against the wall as before. after tea i had quite a lively conversation with the khan's sister, who has been to basrah, baghdad, and mecca. besides the usual questions as to my age, dyeing my hair, painting my face, etc., with suggestions on the improvement which their methods would make on my eyes and eyebrows, she asked a little about my journeys, about the marriage customs of england, about divorce, the position of women with us, their freedom, horsemanship, and amusements. she said, "we don't ride, we sit on horses." dancing for amusement she could not understand. "our servants dance for us," she said. the dancing of men and women together, and the evening dress of englishwomen, she thought contrary to the elementary principles of morality. i wanted them to have their photographs taken, but they said, "it is not the custom of our country; no good women have their pictures taken, we should have many things said against us if we were made into pictures." they wanted to give me presents, but i made my usual excuse, that i have made a rule not to receive presents in travelling; then they said that they would go and see me in my tent at chigakhor, their summer quarters, and that i could not refuse what they took in their own hands. they greatly desired to see the agha, of whose imposing _physique_ they had heard, but they said that the khan would not like them to go to the garden, and that their wish must remain ungratified. "we lead such dull lives," the khan's sister exclaimed; "we never see any one or go anywhere." it seems that the slightest development of intellect awakens them to the consciousness of this deplorable dulness, of which, fortunately, the unawakened intelligence is unaware. as a fact, two of the ladies have not been out of the ardal valley, and are looking forward to the migration to the chigakhor valley as to a great gaiety. they asked me if i could read, and if i made carpets? they invariably ask if i have a husband and children, and when i tell them that i am a widow and childless, they simulate weeping for one or two minutes, a hypocrisy which, though it proceeds from a kindly feeling, has a very painful effect. their occupation in the winter is a little carpet-weaving, which takes the place of our "fancy-work." they also make a species of _nougat_, from the manna found on the oaks on some of their mountains, mixed with chopped almonds and rose-water. when i concluded my visit they sent a servant with me with a tray of this and other sweetmeats of their own making. the party in the garden was a very merry one. the bakhtiaris love fun, and shrieked with laughter at many things. this jollity, however, did not exclude topics of interesting talk. during this time _karun_, a handsome chestnut arab, and my horse _screw_ had a fierce fight, and karim, a beloochi, in separating them had his arm severely crunched and torn, the large muscles being exposed and lacerated. he was brought in faint and bleeding and in great pain, and will not be of any use for some time. the agha asked the ilbegi for two lads to go with him to help his servants. the answer was, "we are a wandering people, bakhtiaris cannot be servants, but some of our young men will go with you,"--and three brothers joined us there, absolute savages in their ways. a cow was offered for the march, and on the agha jocularly saying that he should have all the milk, the ilbegi said that i should have one to myself, and sent two. he complained that i did not ask for anything, and said that i was their guest so long as i was in their country, and must treat them as brothers and ask for all i need. "don't feel as if you were in a foreign land" he said; "we love the english." i. l. b. footnotes: [ ] the readers interested in such matters will find much carefully-acquired information on water distribution, assessments, and tenure of land in the second volume of the late mr. stack's _six months in persia_. [ ] some of the legends connected with these objects are grossly superstitious. at shurishghan there is a "holy testament," regarding which the story runs that it was once stolen by the lurs, who buried it under a tree by the bank of a stream. long afterwards a man began to cut down the tree, but when the axe was laid to its root blood gushed forth. on searching for the cause of this miracle the gospels were found uninjured beneath. it is believed that if any one were to take the testament away it would return of its own accord. it has the reputation of working miracles of healing, and many resort to it either for themselves or for their sick friends, from northern persia and even from shiraz, as well as from the vicinity, and vows are made before it. the gifts presented to it become the property of its owners. [ ] and so it did, though it was then so ill that it seemed unlikely that it would live through the night, and i told them so before i gave the medicine, lest they should think that i had killed it. [ ] _proceedings of r.g.s._, vol. v. no. , new series. [ ] i am indebted for the information given above to a valuable paper by mr. h. blosse lynch, given in the _proceedings of the r.g.s._ for september . letter xv ardal, _may _. the week spent here has passed rapidly. there is much coming and going. my camp is by the side of a frequented pathway, close to a delicious spring, much resorted to by ilyat women, who draw water in _mussocks_ and copper pots, and gossip there. the ilyats are on the march to their summer quarters, and the steady tramp of their flocks and herds and the bleating of their sheep is heard at intervals throughout the nights. sometimes one of their horses or cows stumbles over the tent ropes and nearly brings the tent down. servants of the ilkhani with messages and presents of curds, celery pickled in sour cream, and apricots, go to and fro. sick people come at intervals all day long, and the medicine chest is in hourly requisition. the sick are not always satisfied with occasional visits to the _hak[=i]m's_ tent: a man, who has a little daughter ill of jaundice, after coming twice for medicine, has brought a tent, and has established himself in it with his child close to me, and a woman with bad eyes has also pitched a tent near mine; at present thirteen people come twice daily to have zinc lotion dropped into their eyes. the fame of the "tabloids" has been widely spread, and if i take common powders out of papers, or liquids out of bottles, the people shake their heads and say they do not want those, but "the fine medicines out of the leather box." to such an extent is this preference carried that they reject decoctions of a species of _artemisia_, a powerful tonic, unless i put tabloids of permanganate of potash (condy's fluid) into the bottle before their eyes. they have no idea of the difference between curable and incurable maladies. many people, stone blind, have come long distances for eye-lotion, and to-night a man nearly blind came in, leading a man totally blind for eight years, asking me to restore his sight. the blind had led the blind from a camp twenty-four miles off! octogenarians believe that i can give them back their hearing, and men with crippled or paralysed limbs think that if i would give them some "feringhi ointment," of which they have heard, they would be restored. some come to stare at a feringhi lady, others to see my tent, which they occasionally say is "fit for allah," and the general result is that i have very little time to myself. the ardal plateau is really pretty at this season, and i have had many pleasant evening gallops over soft green grass and soft red earth. the view from the tent is pleasant: on the one side the green slopes which fall down to the precipices which overhang the karun, with the snowy mountains, deeply cleft, of the region which is still a geographical mystery beyond them; on the other, mountains of naked rock with grass running up into their ravines, and between them and me billows of grass and wild flowers. a barley slope comes down to my tent. the stalks are only six inches long, and the ears, though ripe, contain almost nothing. every evening a servant of the ilkhani brings three little wild boars to feed on the grain. farther down the path are the servants' and muleteers' camps, surrounded by packing-cases, _yekdans_, mule-bags, nose-bags, gear of all kinds, and the usual litter of an encampment. the men, whether indian, persian, beloochi, or bakhtiari, are all quiet and well-behaved. the motto of the camps is "silence is golden." hadji hussein is quiet in manner and speech, and though he has seven muleteers, yells and shouts are unknown. there is something exciting in the prospect of travelling through a region much of which is unknown and unmapped, and overlooked hitherto by both geographical and commercial enterprise; and in the prospective good fortune of learning the manners and customs of tribes untouched by european influence, and about whose reception of a feringhi woman doleful prophecies have been made. _tur, may ._--the last day at ardal was a busy one. several of the khans called to take leave. i made a farewell visit to the ilkhani's _haram_; people came for medicines at intervals from a.m. till p.m.; numberless eye-lotions had to be prepared; stores, straps, ropes, and equipments had to be looked to; presents to be given to the ilkhani's servants; native shoes, with webbing tops and rag soles, to be hunted for to replace boots which could not be mended, and it was late before the preparations were completed. during the night some of my tent ropes were snapped by a stampede of mules, and a heavy thunderstorm coming on with wind and rain, the tent flapped about my ears till dawn. it was very hot when we left the next morning. the promised escort was not forthcoming. the details of each day's march have been much alike. i start early, taking mirza with me with the _shuldari_, halt usually half-way, and have a frugal lunch of milk and biscuits, read till the caravan has passed, rest in my tent for an hour, and ride on till i reach the spot chosen for the camp. occasionally on arriving it is found that the place selected on local evidence is unsuitable, or the water is scanty or bad, and we march farther. the greatest luxury is to find the tent pitched, the camp bed put up, and the kettle boiling for afternoon tea. i rest, write, and work till near sunset, when i dine on mutton and rice, and go to bed soon after dark, as i breakfast at four. an hour or two is taken up daily with giving medicines to sick people. there are no villages, but camps occur frequently. the three young savages brought from naghun are very amusing from the savage freedom of their ways, but they exasperate the servants by quizzing and mimicking them. the cows are useless. between them they give at most a teacupful of milk, and generally none. either the calves or the boys take it, or the marches are too much for them. in the ilyat camps there is plenty, but as it is customary to mix the milk of sheep, goats, and cows, and to milk the animals with dirty hands into dirty copper pots, and almost at once to turn the milk into a sour mass, like whipped cream in appearance, by shaking it with some "leaven" in a dirty goat-skin, a european cannot always drink it. indeed, it goes through every variety of bad taste. the camps halt on sundays, and the men highly appreciate the rest. they sleep, smoke, wash and mend their clothes, and are in good humour and excellent trim on monday morning, and the mules show their unconscious appreciation of a holiday by coming into camp kicking and frolicking. the baggage animals are fine, powerful mules and horses, with not a sore back among them. the pack saddles and tackle are all in good order. the caravan is led by a horse caparisoned with many bells and tassels, a splendid little gray fellow, full of pluck and fire, called cock o' the walk. he comes in at the end of a long march, arching his neck, shaking his magnificent mane, and occasionally kicking off his load. sometimes he knocks down two or three men, dashes off with his load at a gallop, and even when hobbled manages to hop up to the two arabs and challenge them to a fight. these handsome horses have some of the qualities for which their breed is famous, and are as surefooted as goats, but they are very noisy, and they hate each other and disturb the peace of the camp by their constant attempts to fight. my horse, _screw_, can go wherever a mule can find foothold. he is ugly, morose, a great fighter, and most uninteresting. the donkeys and a fat retriever are destitute of "salient points." hadji hussein, the _charvadar_, has elevated his profession into an art. on reaching camp, after unloading, each muleteer takes away the five animals for which he is responsible, and liberates them, with the saddles on, to graze. after a time they drive them into camp, remove the saddles, and groom them thoroughly, while the saddler goes over the equipments, and does any repairs that are needed. after the grooming each muleteer, having examined the feet of his animals, reports upon them, and hadji replaces all lost shoes and nails. the saddles and the _juls_ or blankets are then put on, the mules are watered in batches of five, and are turned loose for the night to feed, with two muleteers to watch them by turns. hadji, whose soft voice and courteous manners make all dealings with him agreeable, receives his orders for the morrow, and he with his young son, abbas ali, and the rest of the muleteers, camp near my tent, cook their supper of blanket bread with _mast_ or curds, roll their heads and persons in blankets, put their feet to the fire, and are soon asleep, but hadji gets up two or three times in the night to look after his valuable property. at a.m. or earlier, the mules are driven into camp, and are made fast to ropes, which are arranged the previous night by pegging them down in an oblong forty feet by twenty. nose-bags with grain are put on; and as the loads are got ready the mules are loaded, with hadji's help and supervision. no noise is allowed during this operation. after an hour or more the caravan moves, led by cock o' the walk, usually with two men at his head to moderate his impetuosity for a time, with a guide; and hadji on his fine-looking saddle mule looks after the safety of everything. he is punctual, drives fast and steadily, and always reaches the camping-ground in good time. when he gets near it he dismounts, and putting on the air of "your most obedient servant," leads in cock o' the walk. he is really a very gentlemanly man for his position, but is unfortunately avaricious, and though he has amassed what is, for persia, a very large fortune, he wears very poor clothes, and eats sparingly of the poorest food. he is a big man of fifty, wears blue cotton clothing and a red turban, is very florid, and having a white or very gray beard, has dyed it an orange red with henna. my servants have fallen fairly well into their work, but are frightfully slow. all pitch the tents, and hassan cooks, washes, packs the cooking and table equipments, and saddles my horse. mirza yusuf interprets, waits on me, packs the tent furnishings, rides with me, and is always within hearing of my whistle. he is good, truthful, and intelligent, sketches with some talent, is always cheerful, never grumbles, is quite indifferent to personal comfort, gets on well with the people, is obliging to every one, is always ready to interpret, and though well educated has the good sense not to regard any work as "menial." mehemet ali, the "superfluity," is a scamp, and, i fear, dishonest. the servants feed themselves on a _kran_ ( d.) a day, allowed as "road money." sheep are driven with us, and are turned into mutton as required. really, they follow us, attaching themselves to the gray horses, and feeding almost among their feet. my food consists of roast mutton, rice, _chapatties_, tea, and milk, without luxuries or variety. life is very simple and very free from purposeless bothers. the days are becoming very hot, but the nights are cool. the black flies and the sand-flies are the chief tormentors. on leaving ardal we passed very shortly into a region little traversed by europeans, embracing remarkable gorges and singularly abrupt turns in ravines, through which the karun, here a deep and powerful stream, finds its way. a deep descent over grassy hills to a rude village in a valley and a steep ascent took us to the four booths, which are the summer quarters of our former escort, rustem khan, who received us with courteous hospitality, and regaled us with fresh cow's milk in a copper basin. he introduced me to twelve women and a number of children, nearly all with sore eyes. there is not a shadow of privacy in these tents, with open fronts and sides. the carpets, which are made by the women, serve as chairs, tables, and beds, and the low wall of roughly-heaped stones at the back for trunks and wardrobe, for on it they keep their "things" in immense saddle-bags made of handsome rugs. the visible furniture consists of a big copper bowl for food, a small one for milk, a huge copper pot for clarifying butter, and a goat-skin suspended from three poles, which is jerked by two women seated on the ground, and is used for churning butter and making curds. a steep ascent gives a superb view of a confused sea of mountains, and of a precipitous and tremendous gorge, the tang-i-ardal, through which the karun passes, making a singularly abrupt turn after leaving a narrow and apparently inaccessible cañon or rift on the south side of the ardal valley. a steep zigzag descent of feet in less than three-quarters of a mile brings the path down to the karun, a deep bottle-green river, now swirling in drifts of foam, now resting momentarily in quiet depths, but always giving an impression of volume and power. large and small land turtles abound in that fiercely hot gorge of from to feet deep. the narrow road crosses the river on a bridge of two arches, and proceeds for some distance at a considerable height on its right bank. there i saw natural wood for the first time since crossing the zagros mountains in january, and though the oak, ash, and maple are poor and stunted, their slender shade was delicious. roses, irises, st. john's wort, and other flowers were abundant. the path ascends past a clear spring, up steep zigzags to a graveyard in which are several stone lions, rudely carved, of natural size, facing mecca-wards, with pistols, swords, and daggers carved in relief on their sides, marking the graves of fighting men. on this magnificent point above the karun a few hovels, deserted in summer, surrounded by apricot trees form the village of duashda imams, which has a superb view of the extraordinary and sinuous chasm through which the karun passes for many miles, thundering on its jagged and fretted course between gigantic and nearly perpendicular cliffs of limestone and conglomerate. near this village the pistachio is abundant, and planes, willows, and a large-leaved clematis vary the foliage. leaving the river at this point, a somewhat illegible path leads through "park-like" scenery, fair slopes of grass and flowers sprinkled with oaks singly or in clumps, glades among trees in their first fresh green, and evermore as a background gray mountains slashed with snow. in the midst of these pretty uplands is the ilyat encampment of martaza, with its black tents, donkeys, sheep, goats, and big fierce dogs, which vociferously rushed upon _downie_, the retriever, and were themselves rushed upon and gripped by a number of women. the people, having been informed of our intended arrival by reza kuli khan, had arranged a large tent with carpets and cushions, but we pitched the camps eventually on an oak-covered slope, out of the way of the noise, curiosity, and evil odours of martaza. water is very scarce there, three wells or pools, fouled by the feet of animals, being the only supply. i rested on my _dhurrie_ under an oak till the caravan came up. it was a sweet place, but was soon invaded, and for the rest of the day quiet and privacy were out of the question, for presently appeared a fine, florid, buxom dame, loud of speech, followed by a number of women and children, all as dirty as it is possible to be, and all crowded round me and sat down on my carpet. this _khanum shirin_ is married to the chief or headman, but being an heiress she "bosses" the tribe. she brought up bolsters and quilts, and begged us to consider themselves, the whole region, and all they had as _pishkash_ (a present from an inferior to a superior), but when she was asked if it included herself, she blushed and covered her face. after two hours of somewhat flagging conversation she led her train back again, but after my tent was pitched she reappeared with a much larger number of women, including two betrothed girls of sixteen and seventeen years old, who are really beautiful. these maidens were dressed in clean cotton costumes, and white veils of figured silk gauze enveloped them from head to foot. they unveiled in my tent, and looked more like _houris_ than any women i have seen in the east; and their beauty was enhanced by the sweetness and maidenly modesty of their expression. i wished them to be photographed, and they were quite willing, but when i took them outside some men joined the crowd and said it should not be, and that when their betrothed husbands came home they would tell them how bold and bad they had been, and would have them beaten. although these beauties had been most modest and maidenly in their behaviour, they were sent back with blows, and were told not to come near us again. the agha entertained the _khanum shirin_ for a long time, and the conversation was very animated, but when he set a very fine musical box going for their amusement the lady and the rest of the crowd became quite listless and apathetic, and said they much preferred to talk. when their prolonged visit came to an end the _khanum_ led her train away, with a bow which really had something of graceful dignity in it. the next morning her husband, the _mollah-i-martaza_, and his son, mounted on one horse, came with us as guides, and when we halted at their camp the _khanum_ took the whip out of my hand and whipped the women all round with it, except the offending beauties, who were not to be seen. the _mollah_ is a grave, quiet, and most respectable-looking man, more like a thriving merchant than a nomad chief, though he does carry arms. he is a devout moslem, and is learned, _i.e._ he can read the koran. in a short time the woodland beauty is exchanged for weedy hills and slopes strewn with boulders. getting other guides at an ilyat camp, we ascended sanginak, a mountain feet high, from the top of which a good idea of the local topography is gained. the most striking features are the absence of definite peaks and the tremendous gorges and abrupt turns of the karun, which swallows in its passage all minor streams. precipitous ranges of great altitude hemmed in by ranges yet loftier, snow-covered or snow-patched, with deep valleys between them, well grassed and often well wooded, great clefts, through which at some seasons streams reach the karun; mountain meadows spotted with the black tents of ilyats, and deserted hovels far below, with patches of wheat and barley, make up the landscape. these hills are covered with celery of immense size. the leaves are dried and stacked for fodder, and the underground stalks, which are very white, are a great article of food, both fresh and steeped for a length of time in sour milk. after resting in some ilyat tents, where the people were friendly and dirty, we had a most tiresome march over treeless hills covered with herbs, and down a steep descent into the gurab plain, on which a great wall of rocky mountains of definite and impressive shapes descends in broken spurs. my guide, who had never been certain about the way, led me wrong. no tents were visible, the nomads i met had seen neither tents nor caravan. two hours went by in toiling round the bases of green hills, and then there was the joyful surprise of coming upon my tent pitched, the kettle boiling, the mules knee-deep in food, close by the chesmeh-i-gurab, a copious spring of good water, of which one could safely drink. this gurab plain, one of very many lying high up among these luristan mountains, is green and pretty now--a sea of bulbs and grass, but is brown and dusty from early in june onwards. it is about four miles long by nine or ten broad, and is watered by a clear and wonderfully winding stream, which dwindles to a thread later on. the nomads are already coming up. the rest was much broken by the critical state of karim's arm, which was swelled, throbbing, and inflamed all round the wound inflicted by _karun_ on may , and he had high fever. it was a helpless predicament, the symptoms were so like those of gangrene. i thought he would most likely die of the hot marches. it was a very anxious night, as all our methods of healing were exhausted, and the singular improvement which set in and has continued must have been the work of the great physician, to whom an appeal for help was earnestly made. the wound is daily syringed with condy's fluid, the only antiseptic available, and has a drainage tube. to-day i have begun to use eucalyptus oil, with which the man is delighted, possibly because he has heard that it is very expensive, and that i have hardly any left! yesterday i had the amusement of shifting the camps to another place, and hadji was somewhat doubtful of my leadership. on arriving at the beautiful crystal spring which the guide had indicated as the halting-place for sunday, i found that it issued from under a mound of grass-grown graves, was in the full sun blaze, and at the lowest part of the plain. the guide asserted that it was the only spring, but having seen a dark stain of vegetation high among the hills, i halted the caravan and rode off alone in search of the water i hoped it indicated, disregarding the suppressed but unmistakably sneering laughter of the guide and _charvadars_. in less than a mile i came upon the dry bed of a rivulet, a little higher up on a scanty, intermittent trickle, higher still on a gurgling streamlet fringed by masses of blue scilla, and still higher on a small circular spring of very cold water, with two flowery plateaux below it just large enough for the camps, in a green quiet corrie, with the mountains close behind. hadji laughed, and the guide insisted that the spring was not always there. a delightful place it is in which to spend sunday quietly, with its musical ripple of water, its sky-blue carpet of scilla, its beds of white and purple irises, its slopes ablaze with the _fritillaria imperialis_, and its sweet, calm view of the green gurab plain and the silver windings of the dinarud. above the spring is the precipitous hill of tur, with the remains of a rude fort on its shattered rocky summit. two similar ruins are visible from tur, one on a rocky ledge of an offshoot of the kuh-i-gerra, on the other side of the dinarud valley, the other on the crest of a noble headland of the sanganaki range, which is visible throughout the whole region. the local legend concerning them is that long before the days of the parthian kings, and when bows and arrows were the only weapons known, iron being undiscovered, there was in the neighbourhood of gurab a king called faruk padishah, who had three sons, salmon, tur, and iraj. it does not appear to be usual among the bakhtiaris for sons to "get on" together after their father's death, and the three youths quarrelled and built these three impregnable forts--killa tur, the one i examined, killa iraj, and killa salmon. the beautiful valley was evidently too narrow for their ambition, and leaving their uncomfortable fastnesses they went northwards, and founded three empires, salmon to the golden horn, where he founded stamboul, tur to turkistan, and iraj became the founder of the iranian empire. killa tur is a stone building mostly below the surface of the hill-top, of rough hewn stone cemented with lime mortar of the hardness of concrete. the inner space of the fort is not more than eighty square yards. the walls are from three to six feet thick. _chigakhor, may ._--the last twelve days have been spent in marching through a country which has not been traversed by europeans, only crossed along the main track. on leaving the pleasant camp of tur we descended to the gurab plain, purple in patches with a showy species of garlic, skirted the base of the tur spur, and rode for some miles along the left bank of the dinarud, which, after watering the plain of gurab, sparkles and rushes down a grassy valley bright with roses and lilies, and well wooded with oak, elm, and hawthorn. this river, gaining continually in volume, makes a turbulent descent to the karun a few miles from the point where we left it. this was the finest day's march of the journey. the mountain forms were grander and more definite, the vegetation richer, the scenery more varied, and a kindlier atmosphere pervaded it. in the midst of a wood of fine walnut trees, ash, and hawthorn, laced together by the tendrils of vines, a copious stream tumbles over rocks fringed with maiden-hair, and sparkles through grass purple with orchises. this is the only time that i have seen the one or the other in persia, and it was like an unexpected meeting with dear friends. crossing the dinarud on a twig bridge, fording a turbulent affluent, which bursts full fledged from the mountain side, and ascending for some hours through grassy glades wooded with oak and elm, we camped for two days on the alpine meadow of arjul, scantily watered but now very green. oak woods come down upon it, the vines are magnificent, and there is some cultivation of wheat, which is sown by the nomads before their departure in the late autumn, and is reaped during their summer sojourn. there are no tents there at present, yet from camps near and far, on horseback and on foot, people came for eye-lotions, and remained at night to have them dropped into their eyes. the next morning i was awakened at dawn by mirza's voice calling to me, "madam, hadji wants you to come down and sew up a mule that's been gored by a wild boar." awfully gored it was. a piece of skin about ten inches square was hanging down between its forelegs, and a broad wound the depth of my hand and fully a foot long extended right into its chest, with a great piece taken out. i did what i could, but the animal had to be left behind to be cured by the mollah-i-martaza, who left us there. another misfortune to hadji was the loss of the fiery leader of the caravan, cock o' the walk, but late at night he was brought into camp at dupulan quite crestfallen, having gone back to the rich pastures which surround the chesmeh-i-gurab. the muleteer who went in search of him was attacked by some lurs and stripped of his clothing, but on some men coming up who said his master was under the protection of the ilkhani, his clothes and horse were returned to him. the parallel ranges with deep valleys between them, which are such a feature of this country, are seen in perfection near arjul. some of the torrents of this mountain region are already dry, but their broad stony beds, full of monstrous boulders, arrest the fury with which at times they seek the karun. one of these, the imamzada, passes through the most precipitous and narrow gorge which it is possible to travel, even with unloaded mules. the narrow path is chiefly rude rock ladders, threading a gorge or chasm on a gigantic scale, with a compressed body of water thundering below, concealed mainly by gnarled and contorted trees, which find root-hold in every rift. where the chasm widens for a space before narrowing to a throat we forded it, and through glades and wooded uplands reached arjul, descending and crossing the torrent by the same ford on the march to dupulan the next day. owing to the loss of two baggage animals and the necessary re-adjustment of the loads, i was late in starting from arjul, and the heat as we descended to the lower levels was very great, the atmosphere being misty as well as sultry. passing upwards, through glades wooded with oaks, the path emerges on high gravelly uplands above the tremendous gorge of the karun, the manifold windings of which it follows at a great height. from the first sight of this river in the ardal valley to its emergence at dupulan, just below these heights, it has come down with abrupt elbow-like turns and singular sinuosities--a full, rapid, powerful glass-green volume of water, through a ravine or gorge or chasm from to feet in depth, now narrowing, now widening, but always _the_ feature of the landscape. it would be natural to use the usual phrase, and write of the karun having "carved" this passage for itself, but i am more and more convinced that this is not the case, but that its waters found their way into channels already riven by some of those mighty operations of nature which have made of this country a region of walls and clefts. [illustration: the karun at dupulan.] a long, very steep gravelly descent leads from these high lands down to the karun, and to one of the routes--little used, however--from isfahan to shuster. it is reported as being closed by snow four months of the year. the scenery changed its aspect here, and for walls and parapets of splintered rock there are rounded gravelly hills and stretching uplands. the three groups of most wretched mud hovels which form the village of dupulan ("two bridge place") are on an eminence on the left bank of the karun, which emerges from its long imprisonment in a gorge in the mountains by a narrow passage between two lofty walls of rock so smooth and regular in their slope and so perfect a gateway as to suggest art rather than nature. this river, the volume of which is rapidly augmenting on its downward course, is here compressed into a width of about twenty yards. at this point a stone bridge, built by hussein kuli khan, of one large pointed arch with a smaller one for the flood, and a rough roadway corresponding to the arch in the steepness of its pitch, spans the stream, which passes onwards gently and smoothly, its waters a deep cool green. below dupulan the karun, which in that direction has been explored by several travellers, turns to the south-west, and after a considerable bend enters the levels above shuster by a north-westerly course. near the bridge the karun is joined by the sabzu, a very vigorous torrent from the ardal plain, which is crossed by a twig bridge, safer than it looks. the camps were pitched in apricot orchards in the sabzu ravine, near some _elægnus_ trees, which are now bearing their sweet gray and yellow blossoms, which will be succeeded by auburn tresses of a woolly but very pleasant fruit. dupulan has an altitude of only feet, and in its course from the kuh-i-rang to this point the karun has descended about feet. though there was a breeze, and both ends of my tent and the _kanats_ were open, the mercury was at ° inside, and at a.m. at ° outside (on may ). there were no supplies, and even milk was unattainable. the road we followed ascends the dupulan pass, which it crosses at a height of feet. the path is very bad, hardly to be called a path. the valley which it ascends is packed with large and small boulders, with round water-worn stones among them, and such track as there is makes sharp zigzags over and among these rocks. _screw_ was very unwilling to face the difficulties, which took two hours to surmount. the ascent was hampered by coming upon a tribe of ilyats on the move, who at times blocked up the pass with their innumerable sheep and goats and their herds of cattle. once entangled in this migration, it was only possible to move on a few feet at a time. it straggled along for more than a mile,--loaded cows and bullocks, innumerable sheep, goats, lambs, and kids; big dogs; asses loaded with black tents and short tent-poles on the loads; weakly sheep tied on donkeys' backs, and weakly lambs carried in shepherds' bosoms; handsome mares, each with her foal, running loose or ridden by women with babies seated on the tops of loaded saddle-bags made of gay rugs; tribesmen on foot with long guns slung behind their shoulders, and big two-edged knives in their girdles; sheep bleating, dogs barking, mares neighing, men shouting and occasionally firing off their guns, the whole ravine choked up with the ascending tribal movement. half-way up the ascent there is a most striking view of mountain ranges cleft by the great chasm of the karun. the descent is into the eastern part of the ardal valley, over arid treeless hillsides partially ploughed, to the village of dehnau, not yet deserted for the summer. fattiallah khan expected us, and rooms were prepared for me in the women's house, which i excused myself from occupying by saying that i cannot sleep under a roof. i managed also to escape partaking of a huge garlicky dinner which was being cooked for me. the khan's house or fort, built like all else of mud, has a somewhat imposing gateway, over which are the men's apartments. the roof is decorated with a number of ibex horns. within is a rude courtyard with an uneven surface, on which servants and negro slaves were skinning sheep, winnowing wheat, clarifying butter, carding wool, cooking, and making cheese. the women's apartments are round the courtyard, and include the usual feature of these houses, an _atrium_, or room without a front, and a darkish room within. the floor of the _atrium_ was covered with brown felts, and there was a mattress for me to sit upon. the ruling spirit of the _haram_ is the khan's mother, a comely matron of enormous size, who occasionally slapped her son's four young and comely wives when they were too "forward." she wore a short jacket, balloon-like trousers of violet silk, and a black coronet, to which was attached a black _chadar_ which completely enveloped her. the wives wore figured white _chadars_, print trousers, and strings of coins. children much afflicted with cutaneous maladies crawled on the floor. heaps of servants, negro slaves, old hags, and young girls crowded behind and around, all talking at once and at the top of their voices, and at the open front the village people constantly assembled, to be driven away at intervals by a man with a stick. a bowl of cow's milk and some barley bread were given to me, and though a remarkably dirty negress kept the flies away by flapping the milk bowl with a dirty sleeve, i was very grateful for the meal, for i was really suffering from the heat and fatigue. a visit to a _haram_ is not productive of mutual elevation. the women seem exceedingly frivolous, and are almost exclusively interested in the adornment of their persons, the dress and ailments of their children, and in the frightful jealousies and intrigues inseparable from the system of polygamy, and which are fostered by the servants and discarded wives. the servile deference paid by the other women to the reigning favourite before her face, and the merciless persistency of the attempts made behind her back to oust her from her position, and the requests made on the one hand for charms or potions to win or bring back the love of a husband, and on the other for something which shall make the favourite hateful to him, are evidences of the misery of heart which underlies the outward frivolity. the tone of fattiallah khan's _haram_ was not higher than usual. the ladies took off my hat, untwisted my hair, felt my hands, and shrieked when they found that my gloves came off; laughed immoderately at my bakhtiari shoes, which, it seems, are only worn by men; put their rings on my fingers, put my hat on their own heads, asked if i could give them better hair dyes than their own, and cosmetics to make their skins fair; paid the usual compliments, told me to regard everything as _pishkash_, asked for medicines and charms, and regretted that i would not sleep in their house, because, as they said, they "never went anywhere or saw anything." they have no occupation, except occasionally a little embroidery. they amuse themselves, they said, by watching the servants at work, and by having girls to dance before them. they find the winter, though spent in a warm climate, very long and wearisome, and after dark employ female professional story-tellers to entertain them with love stories. at night the elder lady sent three times for a charm which should give her daughter the love of her husband. she is married to another khan, and i recalled her as the forlorn-looking girl without any jewels who excited my sympathies in his house. marriages are early among these people. they are arranged by the parents of both bride and bridegroom. the betrothal feast is a great formality. the "settlements" having been made by the bridegroom's father and mother, they distribute sweetmeats among the members of the bride's family, and some respectable men who are present tie a handkerchief round the head of the bride, and kiss the hands of her parents as a sign of the betrothal. the engagement must be fulfilled by the bride's parents under pain of severe penalties, from which the bridegroom's parents are usually exempt. but, should he prove faithless, he is a marked man. it appears that "breach of promise of marriage" is very rare. the betrothal may take place at the tenderest age, but the marriage is usually delayed till the bride is twelve years old, or even older, and the bridegroom is from fifteen to eighteen. the "settlements" made at the betrothal are paid at the time of marriage, and consist of a sum of money or cattle, mares, or sheep, according to the circumstances of the bridegroom's parents. it is essential among all classes that a number of costumes be presented to the bride. after the marriage is over her parents bestow a suit of clothes on her husband, but these are usually of an inferior, or, as my interpreter calls them, of a "trivial" description. a bakhtiari marriage is a very noisy performance. for three days or more, in fact as long as the festivities can be afforded, the relations and friends of both parties are assembled at the tents of the bride's parents, feasting and dancing (men and women on this occasion dancing together), performing feats of horsemanship, and shooting at a mark. the noise at this time is ceaseless. drums, tom-toms, reeds, whistles, and a sort of bagpipe are all in requisition, and songs of love and war are chanted. at this time also is danced the national dance, the _chapi_, of which on no other occasion (except a burial) can a stranger procure a sight for love or money. it is said to resemble the _arnaoutika_ of the modern greeks; any number of men can join in it. the dancers form in a close row, holding each other by their _kamarbands_, and swinging along sidewise. they mark the time by alternately stamping the heel of the right and left foot. the dancers are led by a man who dances apart, waving a handkerchief rhythmically above his head, and either singing a war song or playing on a reed pipe. after the marriage feast the bride follows her husband to his father's tent, where she becomes subject to her mother-in-law. the messenger, after looking round to see that there were no bystanders, very mysteriously produced from his girdle a black, flattish oval stone of very close texture, weighing about a pound, almost polished by long handling. he told me that it was believed that this stone, if kept in one family for fifty years and steadily worn by father and son, would then not only turn to gold, but have the power of transmuting any metal laid beside it for five years, and he wanted to know what the wisdom of the feringhis knew about it. i went up to my camp above the village and tried to rest there, but the buzz of a crowd outside and the ceaseless lifting of curtains and _kanats_ made this quite impossible. when i opened the tent i found the crowd seated in a semicircle five rows deep, waiting for medicines, chiefly eye-lotion, quinine, and cough mixtures. these daily assemblages of "patients" are most fatiguing. the satisfaction is that some "lame dogs" are "helped over stiles," and that some prejudice against christians is removed. after this fattiallah khan, with a number of retainers, paid a formal visit to the agha, who kindly sent for me, as i do not receive any but lady visitors in my tent. the khan is a very good-looking and well-dressed man of twenty-eight, very amusing, and ready to be amused. he was very anxious to be doctored, but looked the opposite of a sick man. he and isfandyar khan were in arms against the ilkhani two years ago, and a few men were shot. he looked as if he were very sorry not to have killed him. the bakhtiaris have an enormous conceit of themselves and their country. it comes out in all ways and on all occasions, and their war stories and songs abound in legends of singular prowess, one bakhtiari killing twenty persians, and the like. they represent the power of the shah over them as merely nominal, a convenient fiction for the time being, although it is apparent that persia, which for years has been aiming at the extinction of the authority of the principal chiefs, has had at least a partial success. at such interviews a private conversation is impossible. the manners are those of a feudal _régime_. heaps of retainers crowd round, and even join in the conversation. a servant brought the khan a handsome _kalian_ to smoke three times. he also took tea. a great quantity of opium for exportation is grown about dehnau, and the khan said that the cultivation of it is always increasing. from dehnau the path i took leads over gravelly treeless hills, through many treeless gulches, to the top of a great gorge, through which the sabzu passes as an impetuous torrent. the descent to a very primitive bridge is long and difficult, a succession of rocky zigzags. picturesqueness is not a usual attribute of mud villages, but the view from every point of chiraz, the village on the lofty cliffs on the other side of the stream, is strikingly so. they are irregularly covered with houses, partly built on them and partly excavated out of them, and behind is a cool mass of greenery, apricot orchards, magnificent walnut and mulberry trees, great standard hawthorns loaded with masses of blossom, wheat coming into ear, and clumps and banks of canary-yellow roses measuring three inches across their petals. groups of women, in whose attire turkey red predominated, were on the house roofs. wild flowers abounded, and the sides of the craggy path by which i descended were crowded with leguminous and umbelliferous plants, with the white and pink dianthus, and with the thorny _tussocks_ of the gum tragacanth, largely used for kindling, now in full bloom. as i dragged my unwilling horse down the steep descent, his bridle was taken out of my hands, and i was welcomed by the brother of fattiallah khan, who, with a number of village men escorted me over the twig bridge, and up to an exquisite halting-place under a large mulberry tree, where the next two hours were spent in receiving visitors. it is evident that these fine orchards must have been the pleasure-ground of some powerful ruler, and the immense yellow roses are such as grow in one or two places in kashmir, where they are attributed to jehangir. the track from chiraz for many miles follows up the right bank of the sabzu at a great height, descends occasionally into deep gulches, crosses the spurs of mountains whose rifts give root-hold to contorted "pencil cedars," and winds among small ash trees and hawthorns, or among rich grass and young wheat, which is grown to a considerable extent on the irrigated slopes above the river. it is a great surprise to find so much land under cultivation, and so much labour spent on irrigation channels. some of these canals are several miles in length, and the water always runs in them swiftly, and the right way, although the "savages" who make them have no levels or any tools but spades. mountains, much scored and cañoned by streams, very grand in form, and with much snow still upon them, rise to a great height above the ranges which form the sabzu valley. from chaharta, an uninteresting camping-ground by the river, i proceeded by an elevated and rather illegible track in a easterly direction to the meeting of two streams, forded the sabzu, and camped for two days on the green slope of sabz kuh, at a height of feet, close to a vigorous spring whose waters form many streamlets, fringed by an abundance of pink primulas, purple and white orchises, white tulips, and small fragrant blue irises. lahdaraz is in the very heart of mountain ranges, and as the ilyats have not yet come up so high, there were no crowds round my tent for medicine, but one sick woman was carried thither eleven miles on the back of her husband, who seemed tenderly solicitous about her. on monday i spent most of the day feet higher, in most magnificent scenery on an imposing scale of grandeur. the guide took us from the camp through herbage, snow, and alpine flowers, up a valley with fine mountains on either side, terminating on the brink of a gigantic precipice, a cloven ledge between the kuh-i-kaller and a stupendous cliff or headland, sultan ibrahim, over , feet, which descends in shelving masses to an abyss of tremendous depth, where water thunders in a narrow rift. the sabz kuh, or "green mountain" range, famous for the pasturage of its higher slopes, terminates in sultan ibrahim, and unites at its eastern end with the kuh-i-kaller, a range somewhat higher. on the east side of this huge chasm rises another range of peaks, with green shelves, dark rifts, and red precipices, behind which rise another, and yet another, whose blue, snow-patched summits blended with the pure cool blue of the sky. in the far distance, in a blue veil, lies the green-tinted plain of khana mirza, set as an emerald in this savage scenery, with two ranges beyond, and above them the great mountain mass of the riji, whose snowy peaks were painted faintly on a faint blue heaven. that misty valley, irrigated and cultivated, with villages of the janiki tribe upon it, is the only fair spot in the savage landscape. elsewhere only a few wild flowers and a gnarled juniper here and there relieve the fierce, blazing verdurelessness of these stupendous precipices. never, not even among the himalayas, have i seen anything so superlatively grand, though i have always imagined that such scenes must exist somewhere on the earth. a pair of wild sheep on a ledge, a serpent or two, and an eagle soaring sunwards represented animate nature, otherwise the tremendous heights above, the awful depths below, the snowy mountains, and the valley with its smile, were given over to solitude and silence, except for the dull roar of the torrent hurrying down to vivify the khana mirza plain. after leaving lahdaraz the path followed the course of the sabzu through grass and barley for a few miles. then there is an abrupt and disagreeable change to yellow mud slopes and high mud mountains deeply fissured, the scanty herbage already eaten down by ilyat flocks--a desolate land, without springs, streams, or even ilyat tents. then comes a precipice at an altitude of feet, through a cleft in which, the tang-i-wastagun, the road passes, and descends to the plain of gandaman as something little better than a sheep track on a steep hillside above a stream. the heat was fierce. a pair of stout gardening gloves does not preserve the hands from blistering. spectacles with wire gauze sides have to be abandoned as they threaten to roast the eyes. in this latitude, °, the heat of the sun at noon is tremendous. at the precipice top i crept into a hole at the base of a rock, for "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," till the caravan staggered up. it was difficult to brave the sun's direct rays. he looked like a ball of magnesium light, white and scintillating, in the unclouded sky. on crossing the tang-i-wastagun we left behind the bakhtiari country proper for a time, and re-entered the chahar mahals, with their mixed village population of persians and armenians. the descent from the tang-i-wastagun is upon a ruined armenian village with a large graveyard. the tombstones are of great size, ten feet long by three feet broad and three feet high, sarcophagus-shaped, and on each stone are an armenian epitaph and a finely-engraved cross. the plain of gandaman or wastagun is a very large one, over feet in altitude, and is surrounded mainly by high mountains still snow-patched, but to the north by low rocky hills. much of it is irrigated and under cultivation, and grows heavy crops of wheat and barley. the pasturage is fine and abundant, and the people breed cattle and horses. the uncultivated slopes are now covered with red tulips and a purple _allium_, and even the dry gravel added largely to the daily increasing botanical collection. [illustration: ali jan.] the camps were pitched on green turf near three springs, a quiet place, but there was little rest. we were hardly settled before there was a severe fight among the horses, my sour-tempered _screw_ being the aggressor. this was hardly quieted when there was a sharp "scrimmage" between the _charvadars_ and the agha's three young savages, in which one of them, ali jan, was badly beaten, and came to me to have a bleeding face and head dressed. after that the people began to come in from the villages for eye-washes and medicines. they have no bottles, nor have i, and the better-off bring great copper jugs and basins for an ounce or two of lotion! a very poor old woman much afflicted with ophthalmia said she had three sisters all blind, that she had nothing for lotion, nothing in the world but a copper cooking pot, and she cried piteously. i had nothing to give her, and eventually she returned with an egg-shell, with the top neatly chipped off. it is the custom to raise the hands to heaven and invoke blessings on the _hak[=i]m's_ head, but i never received so many as from this poor creature. the ride to the village of gandaman, where we halted for two days, was an agreeable one. after being shut up among mountains and precipices, space and level ground to gallop over are an agreeable change, and in the early morning the heat was not excessive. the great plain was a truly pastoral scene. wild-looking shepherds with long guns led great brown flocks to the hills; innumerable yokes of black oxen, ploughing with the usual iron-shod, pointed wooden share, turned over the rich black soil, making straight furrows, and crossing them diagonally; mares in herds fed with their foals; and shepherds busily separated the sheep from the goats. close to the filthy walled armenian village of kunak there is a conical hill with a large fort, in ruinous condition, upon it, and not far off are the remains of an armenian village, enclosed by a square wall with a round tower at each corner. this must have been until recently a place of some local importance, as it is approached by a paved causeway, and had an aqueduct, now ruinous, carried over the river on three arches. not only the plain but the hill-slopes up to a great height are cultivated, and though the latter have the precariousness of rain-lands, the crops already in ear promise well. crossing a spur which descends upon the north side of the plain, we reached gandaman, a good-looking walled moslem village of houses, much planted, chiefly with willows, and rejoicing in eight springs, close together, the overflow of which makes quite a piece of water. it has an _imamzada_ on an eminence and is fairly prosperous, for besides pastoral wealth it weaves and exports carpets, and dyes cotton and woollen yarn with madder and other vegetable dyes. the mountain view to the south-west is very fine. i was in my tent early, but there was little rest, for crowds of people with bad eyes and woful maladies besieged it until the evening. at noon a gay procession crossed the green camping-ground, four mares caparisoned in red trappings, each carrying two women in bright dresses, but shrouded in pure white sheets bound round their heads with silver chains. the _ketchuda_ of the armenian village of libasgun, two miles off, accompanied them, and said that they came to invite me to their village, for they are christians. then they all made the sign of the cross, which is welcome in this land as a bond of brotherhood. cleanly, comely, large-eyed, bright-cheeked, and wholesome they looked, in their pure white _chadars_, gay red dresses, and embroidered under-vests. they had massive silver girdles, weighing several pounds, worn there only by married women, red coronets, heavy tiaras of silver, huge necklaces of coins, and large filigree silver drops attached down the edges of their too open vests. their heavy hair was plaited, but not fastened up. each wore a stiff diamond-shaped piece of white cotton over her mouth and the tip of her nose. they said it was their custom to wear it, and they would not remove it even to eat english biscuits! they managed to drink tea by veiling their faces with their _chadars_ and passing the cup underneath, but they turned their faces quite away as they did it. they had come for the day, and had brought large hanks of wool to wind, but the headman had the tact to take them away after arranging for me to return the visit in the evening. he seemed an intelligent man. libasgun, with its houses, is, according to his account, a prosperous village, paying its tax of _tumans_ (£ ) a year to the amin-ud-daulat, and making a present only to the ilkhani. it has sheep and goats, besides mares and cattle. it has an oil mill, and exports oil to isfahan. the women weave carpets, and embroider beautifully on coarse cotton woven by themselves, and dyed indigo blue and madder red by their gandaman neighbours. this man is proud of being a christian. among the armenians christianity is as much a national characteristic as pride of race and strict monogamy. he remarked that there are no sore eyes in libasgun, and attributed it to the greater cleanliness of the people and to the cross signed in holy oil upon their brows in baptism! i rode to this village in the late afternoon, and was received with much distinction in the _balakhana_ of the _ketchuda's_ house, where i was handed to the seat of honour, a bolster at the head of the handsomely-carpeted room. it soon filled with buxom women in red, with jackets displaying their figures, or want of figures, down to their waists. from the red velvet coronets on their heads hung two graduated rows of silver coins, and their muslin _chadars_ were attached to their hair with large silver pins and chains. magnificent necklaces of gold coins were also worn. [illustration: armenian women of libasgun.] forty women sat on the floor in rows against the wall. each had rosy cheeks, big black eyes, and a diamond-shaped white cloth over her mouth. the uniformity was shocking. they stared, not at me, but at nothing. they looked listless and soulless, only fit to be what they are--the servants of their husbands. when they had asked me my age, and why i do not dye my hair, the conversation flagged, for i could not get any information from them even on the simplest topics. hotter and hotter grew the room, more stolid the vacancy of the eyes, more grotesque the rows of white diamonds over the mouths, when the happy thought occurred to me to ask to see the embroidered aprons, which every girl receives from her mother on her marriage. two mountains of flesh obligingly rolled out of the room, and rolled in again bringing some beautiful specimens of needlework. this is really what is known as "russian embroidery," cross stitch in artistic colours on coarse red or blue cotton. the stomachers are most beautifully worked. the aprons cover the whole of the front and the sides of the dress. the mothers begin to embroider them when their daughters are ten. the diamond-shaped cloth is put on by girls at eight or nine. the women would not remove it for a moment even to oblige a guest. the perpetual wearing of it is one of their religious customs, only prevailing, however, in some localities. they say that when our lord was born his mother in token of reverence took a cloth and covered her mouth, hence their habit. when the _ketchuda_ arrived he found the heat of the room unbearable and proposed an adjournment to the lower roof, which was speedily swept, watered, and carpeted. an elaborate banquet had been prepared in the hope that the agha would pay them a visit, and they were much mortified at his non-appearance. the great copper basins containing the food were heaped together in the middle of the carpets, and the guests, fifty in number, sat down, the men on one side, and the women on the other, the wives of the _ketchuda_ and his brothers serving. there were several _samovars_ with tea, but only three cups. a long bolster was the place of honour, and i occupied it alone till the village priests arrived,--reverend men with long beards, high black head-dresses, and full black cassocks with flowing sleeves. all the guests rose, and remained standing till they had been ceremoniously conducted to seats. i found them very agreeable and cultured men, acquainted with the varying "streams of tendency" in the church of england, and very anxious to claim our church as a sister of their own. this banquet was rather a gay scene, and on a higher roof fully one hundred women and children dressed in bright red stood watching the proceedings below. i proposed to see the church, and with the priests, most of the guests, and a considerable following of the onlookers, walked to it through filthy alleys. this ancient building, in a dirty and malodorous yard, differs externally from the mud houses which surround it only in having two bells on a beam. the interior consists of four domed vaults, and requires artificial light. a vault with a raised floor contains the altar and a badly-painted altar-piece representing the b. v.; a rail separates the men, who stand in front, from the women, who stand behind. a liturgy and an illuminated medieval copy of the gospels, of which they are very proud, are their only treasures. they have no needlework, and the altar cloth is only a piece of printed cotton. nothing could well look poorer than this small, dark, vacant building, with a few tallow candles without candlesticks giving a smoky light. they have two daily services lasting from one to two hours each, and mass on sunday is protracted to seven hours! the priests said that all the men, except two who watch the flocks, and nearly all the women are at both services on sunday, and that many of the men and most of the women are at both daily services, one of which, as is usual, begins before daylight. there is no school. the fathers teach their boys to read and write, and the mothers instruct their girls in needlework. after visits to the priests' houses, a number of villagers on horseback escorted me back to gandaman. the heat of those two days was very great for may, the mercury marking ° in the shade at a.m. one hundred and thirteen people came for medicines, and in their eagerness they swarmed round both ends of the tent, blocking out all air. the ailments were much more varied and serious than among the bakhtiaris. [illustration: wall and gate of libasgun.] the last march was a hot and tedious one of eighteen miles, along an uninteresting open valley, much ploughed, bounded by sloping herbage-covered hills, surmounted by parapets of perpendicular rock. after passing the large moslem village of baldiji, we re-entered the bakhtiari country, ascended to the bakhtiari village of dastgird, descended to the plain of chigakhor, skirted its southern margin, and on its western side, on two spurs of the great kuh-i-kaller range, with a ravine between them, the camps were pitched. in two days most of the tents were blown down, and were moved into two ravines with a hill between them, on which the sahib on his arrival pitched his camp. my ravine has a spring, with exactly space for my tent beside it, and a platform higher up with just room enough for the servants. a strong stream, rudely brawling, issuing from the spring, disturbs sleep. there is no possibility of changing one's position by even a six-feet stroll, so rough and steep is the ground. mirza bringing my meals from the cooking tent has a stick to steady himself. at first there was nothing to see but scorched mountains opposite, and the green plain on which the ravine opens, but the _hak[=i]m's_ tent was soon discovered, and i have had "patients"! before i am up in the morning they are sitting in rows one behind another on the steep ground, their horses and asses grazing near them, and all day they come. one of the chiefs of the janiki tribe came with several saddle and baggage horses and even a tent, to ask me to go with him to the great plain of khana mirza, three days' march from here, to cure his wife's eyes, and was grieved to the heart when i told him they were beyond my skill. he stayed while a great number of sick people got eye-lotions and medicines, and then asked me why i gave these medicines and took so much trouble. i replied that our master and lord not only commanded us to do good to all men as we have opportunity, but himself healed the sick. "you call him master and lord," he said; "he was a great prophet. _send a hak[=i]m to us in his likeness._" i have heard so much of chigakhor that i am disappointed with the reality. there are no trees, most of the snow has melted, the mountains are not very bold in their features, the plain has a sort of lowland look about it, and though its altitude is feet, the days and even nights are very hot. the interest of it lies in it being the summer resort of the ilkhani and ilbegi, a fact which makes it the great centre of bakhtiari life. as many as tents are pitched here in the height of the season, and the coming and going of khans and headmen with tribute and on other business is ceaseless. the plain, which is about seven miles long by three broad, is quite level. near the south-east end is a shallow reedy mere, fringed by a fertile swampiness, which produces extraordinary crops of grass far out into the middle of the level. near the same end is a rocky eminence or island, on which is the fortress castle of the ilkhani. the "season" begins in early june, when the tribes come up from the warm pastures of dizful and shuster, to which they return with their pastoral wealth in the autumn, after which the plain is flooded and frozen for the winter. at the north end are the villages of dastgird and aurugun and a great deal of irrigated land producing wheat. except at that end the plain is surrounded by mountains; on its southern side, where a part of the sukhta range rises into the lofty peak of challeh kuh, with its snow-slashes and snow-fields, they attain an altitude of , or , feet. it is not easy, perhaps not possible, to pass through the part of the bakhtiari country for which we are bound, without some sort of assistance from its feudal lords, a responsible man, for instance, who can obtain supplies from the people. therefore we have been detained here for many days waiting for the expected arrival of the ilkhani. a few days ago a rumour arrived, since unhappily continued, that things were in confusion below, owing to the discovery of a plot on the part of the ilkhani to murder the ilbegi. stories are current of the number of persons "put out of the way" before he attained his present rank for the second time, and it is not "bakhtiari custom" to be over-scrupulous about human life. no doubt his nephew, the ilbegi, is a very dangerous rival, and that his retainers are bent on seeing him in a yet higher position than he now occupies. a truce has been patched up, however, and yesterday the ilkhani and isfandyar khan arrived together, with their great trains of armed horsemen, their _harams_, their splendid studs, their crowds of unmounted retainers, their strings of baggage mules and asses laden with firewood, and all the "rag, tag, and bobtail" in attendance on oriental rulers. following them in endless nocturnal procession come up the tribes, and day breaks on an ever-increasing number of brown flocks and herds, of mares, asses, dogs, black tents, and household goods. when we arrived there were only three tents, now the green bases of the mountains and all the platforms and ravines where there are springs are spotted with them, in rows or semicircles, and at night the camp fires of the multitude look like the lights of a city. each clan has a prescriptive right to its camping-ground and pasture (though both are a fruitful source of quarrels), and arrives with its _ketchuda_ and complete social organisation, taking up its position like a division of an army. when in the early morning or afternoon the tribe reaches the camping-ground, everything is done in the most orderly way. the infants are put into their cradles, the men clear the ground if necessary, drive the pegs and put up the poles, and if there be wood--of which there is not a stick here--they make a fence of loose branches to contain the camp, but the women do the really hard work. their lords, easily satisfied with their modicum of labour, soon retire to enjoy their pipes and the endless gossip of bakhtiari life. [illustration: a perso-bakhtiari cradle.] after the ground has been arranged the tents occupy invariably the same relative position, whether the camp is in a row, a semicircle, a circle, or streets, so that the cattle and flocks may easily find their owners' abodes without being driven. the tents, which are of black goats' hair cloth, are laid out and beaten, and the women spread them over the poles and arrange the rest, after which the inside is brushed to remove the soot. in a good tent, reed screens are put up to divide the space into two or more portions, and some of the tribes fence round the whole camp with these screens, leaving one opening, and use the interior for a sheepfold. the small bushes are grubbed up for fuel. the women also draw the water, and the boys attend to the flocks. many of the camps, however, have neither fences nor environing screens, and their inmates dwell without any attempt at privacy, and rely for the safety of their flocks on big and trustworthy dogs, of which every camp has a number. when they move the bulk of the labour again falls on the women. they first make the baggage into neat small packages suited for the backs of oxen; then they take up the tent pegs, throw down the tents, and roll them up in the reed screens, all that the men undertake being to help in loading the oxen. it is only when a division halts for at least some days that this process is gone through. in fine weather, if a tribe is marching daily to its summer or winter camping-grounds, the families frequently sleep in the open. the chief's tent is always recognisable by its size, and is occasionally white. i have seen a tent of a wealthy khan fully sixty feet long. a row of poles not more than ten feet high supported the roof, which was of brown haircloth, the widths united by a coarse open stitch. on the windward side the roof was pinned down nearly to the top of a loosely-laid wall of stones about three feet high. the leeward side was quite open, and the roof, which could be lowered if necessary, was elevated and extended by poles six feet high. if the tent was sixty feet long, it was made by this arrangement twenty feet broad. at the lower end was a great fire-hole in the earth, and the floor of the upper end was covered with rugs, quilts, and pillows, the household stuff being arranged chiefly on and against the rude stone wall. the process of encamping for a camp of seventy tents takes about two hours, and many interruptions occur, especially the clamorous demands of unweaned infants of mature years. de-camping the same number of tents takes about an hour. a free, wild life these nomads lead, full of frays and plots, but probably happier than the average lot. below the castle is the great encampment of the chiefs, brown tents and white bell tents, among which the tall white pavilion of the ilkhani towers conspicuously. the ilkhani and ilbegi called on me, and as they sat outside my tent it was odd to look back two years to the time when they were fighting each other, and barely two weeks to the discovery of the plot of the dark-browed ilkhani to murder his nephew. the ilkhani's face had a very uncomfortable expression. intrigues against him at tihran and nearer home, the rumoured enmity of the prime minister, the turbulence of some of the tribes, the growing power of the adherents of isfandyar khan, and his own baffled plot to destroy him must make things unpleasant. several of the small khans who have been to see me expect fighting here before the end of the summer. the ilkhani had previously availed himself of the resources of my medicine chest, and with so much benefit that i was obliged to grant a request which deprived me of a whole bottle of "tabloids." in the evening i visited the ladies who are in the castle leading the usual dull life of the _haram_, high above the bustle which centres round the ilkhani's pavilion, with its crowds of tribesmen, mares and foals feeding, tethered saddle horses neighing, cows being milked, horsemen galloping here and there, firing at a mark, asses bearing wood and flour from ardal being unloaded--a bustle masculine solely. isfandyar khan, with whose look of capacity i am more and more impressed, and lutf received us and led us to the great pavilion, which is decorated very handsomely throughout with red and blue _appliqué_ arabesques, and much resembles an indian _durbar_ tent. a brown felt carpet occupied the centre. the ilkhani, who rose and shook hands, sat on one side and the ilbegi on the other, and sons, khans, and attendants to the number of , i daresay, stood around. we made some fine speeches, rendered finer, doubtless, by mirza; repeated an offer to send a doctor to itinerate in the country for some months in , took the inevitable tea, and while the escorts were being arranged for i went to the fort. it is the fortress of the haft lang, one great division of the bakhtiari lurs, which supplies the ruling dynasty. the building is a parallelogram, flanked by four round towers, with large casemates and a keep on its southern side. it has two courtyards, surrounded by stables and barracks, but there is no water within the gates, and earthquakes and neglect have reduced much of it to a semi-ruinous condition. over the gateway and along the front is a handsome suite of well-arranged balconied rooms, richly decorated in persian style, the front and doors of the large reception-room being of fretwork filled in with amber and pale blue glass, and the roof and walls are covered with small mirrors set so as to resemble facets, with medallion pictures of beauties and of the chase let in at intervals. the effect of the mirrors is striking, and even beautiful. there were very handsome rugs on the floor, and divans covered with kashan velvet; but rugs, divans, and squabs were heaped to the depth of some inches with rose petals which were being prepared for rose-water, and the principal wife rose out of a perfect bed of them. these ladies have no conversation, and relapse into apathy after asking a few personal questions. again they said they wished to see the agha, of whose height and prowess many rumours had reached them, but when i suggested that they might see him from the roof or balcony they said they were afraid. again they said they had such dull lives, and regretted my departure, as they thought they might come and see my tent. i felt sorry for them, sorrier than i can say, as i realised more fully the unspeakable degradation and dulness of their lives. a perfect rabble of dirty women and children filled the passages and staircase. on one of my last evenings i rode, attended only by mirza, to the village of dastgird to see two women whose husband desired medicines for them. this village is piled upon the hillside at the north end of the valley and a traveller can be seen afar off. i had never visited any of the camps so slenderly escorted, and when i saw the roofs covered with men and numbers more running to the stream with long guns slung behind their backs and big knives in their girdles, i was much afraid that they might be rude in the absence of a european man, and that i should get into trouble. at the stream the _ketchuda_, whose wives were ill, and several of the principal inhabitants met me. they salaamed, touched their hearts and brows, two held my stirrups, others walked alongside, and an ever-increasing escort took me up the steep rude alley of the village to the low arch by which the headman's courtyard--all rocks, holes, and heaps--is entered. dismounting was a difficulty. several men got hold of _screw_, one made a step of his back, another of his knee, one grasped my foot, two got hold of my arms, all shouting and disputing as to how to proceed, but somehow i was hauled off, and lifted by strong arms up into the _atrium_, the floor of which was covered with their woven rugs, across which they led me to an improvised place of honour, a _karsi_ covered with a red blanket. a brass _samovar_ was steaming hospitably on the floor, surrounded by tea-glasses, trays, and sugar. the chief paid me the usual persian compliment, "your presence purifies the house;" men crowded in, shrouded women peeped through doorways; they served me on bended knees with tea _à la russe_, and though they shouted very loud, and often all together, they made me very cordially welcome. they send their flocks with some of their people to warmer regions for the winter, but the chief and many families remain, though the snow is from seven to nine feet deep, according to their marks on a post. i rode to the camp where the wives were, with the khan and a number of men on foot and on horseback, a messenger having been sent in advance. in the village the great sheep-dogs, as usual, showed extreme hostility, and one, madder than the rest, a powerful savage, attacked me, fixing his teeth in my stirrup guard, and hanging on. the khan drew a revolver and shot him through the back, killing him at once, and threatened to beat the owner. _screw_ was quite undisturbed by the incident. the power of the _ketchuda_ or headman of a group of families is not absolute even in this small area. his duties are to arrange the annual migrations, punish small crimes summarily, to report larger crimes to the khan, to collect the tribute, conjointly with the khan, and to carry out his orders among the families of his group. private oppression appears to be much practised among the _ketchudas_, and under the feeble rule of imam kuli khan to be seldom exposed. the _ketchuda's_ office, originally elective, has a great tendency to become hereditary, but at any moment the ilkhani may declare it elective in a special case. though the offices of ilkhani and ilbegi are held only annually at the pleasure of the shah, and the _ketchudas_ are properly elective, the office of khan or chief is strictly hereditary, though it does not necessarily fall to the eldest son. this element of permanence gives the khan almost supreme authority in his tribe, and when the ilkhani is a weak man and a khan is a strong one, he is practically independent, except in the matter of the tribute to the shah. it was in curbing the power of these khans by steering a shrewd and even course among their feuds and conflicts, by justice and consideration in the collection of the revenues, and by rendering it a matter of self-interest for them to seek his protection and acknowledge his headship, that sir a. h. layard's friend, mohammed taki khan, succeeded in reducing these wild tribes to something like order, and hussein kuli khan, "the last real ruler of the bakhtiaris," pursued the same methods with nearly equal success. but things have changed, and a fresh era of broils and rivalries has set in, and in addition to tribal feuds and jealousies, the universally-erected line of partisanship between the adherents of the ilkhani and ilbegi produces anything but a pacific prospect. these broils, and the prospects of fighting, are the subjects discussed at my tent door in the evenings. [illustration: a dastgird tent.] the dastgird encampment that evening was the romance of camp life. on the velvety green grass there were four high black canopies, open at the front and sides, looking across the green flowery plain, on which the ilkhani's castle stood out, a violet mass against the sunset gold, between the snow-streaked mountains. there were handsome carpets, mattresses, and bolsters; _samovars_ steaming on big brass trays, an abundance of curds, milk, and whey, and at one end of the largest tent there were two very fine mares, untethered, with young foals, and children rolling about among their feet. i was placed, as usual, on a bolster, and the tent filled with people, all shouting, and clamouring together, bringing rheumatism ("wind in the bones"), sore eyes, headaches ("wind in the head"), and old age to be cured. the khan's wife, a handsome, pathetic-looking girl, had become an epileptic a fortnight ago. this malady is sadly common. of the people who have come for medicines here thirteen per cent have had epileptic fits. they call them "faintings," and have no horror of them. eye diseases, including such severe forms as cataract and glaucoma, rheumatism, headaches, and dyspepsia are their most severe ailments. no people have been seen with chest complaints, bone diseases, or cancer. in the largest tent there was a young mother with an infant less than twenty-four hours old, and already its eyebrows, or at all events the place where eyebrows will be, were deeply stained and curved. at seven or eight years old girls are tattooed on hands, arms, neck, and chest, and the face is decorated with stars on the forehead and chin. though children of both sexes are dearly loved among these people, it is only at the birth of a son that there is anything like festivity, and most of the people are too poor to do more even then than distribute sweetmeats among their friends and relations. the "wealthier" families celebrate the birth of a firstborn son with music, feasting, and dancing. at the age of five or six days the child is named, by whispering the divine name in its ear, along with that chosen by the parents. after a long visit the people all kissed my hand, raising it to their foreheads afterwards, and the khan made a mounting block of his back, and rode with me to the main path. it was all savage, but the intention was throughout courteous, according to their notions. it became pitch dark, and i lost my way, and should have pulled _screw_ over a precipice but for his sagacious self-will. one of the finest sights i have seen was my own camp in a thunderstorm, with its white tents revealed by a flash of lightning, which lighted for a second the black darkness of the ravine. the next morning the khan of dastgird's servants brought fifteen bottles and pipkins for eye-lotions and medicines. in spite of the directions in persian which mirza put upon the bottles, i doubt not that some of the eye-lotions will be swallowed, and that some of the medicines will be put into the eyes! _june ._--the last evening has come after a busy day. the difficulties in the way of getting ready for the start to-morrow have been great. the iron socket of my tent-pole broke, there was no smith in the valley, and when one arrived with the ilkhani, the ilkhani's direct order had to be obtained before he would finish the work he had undertaken. i supplied the iron, but then there was no charcoal. i have been tentless for the whole day. provisions for forty days have to be taken from chigakhor, and two cwts. of rice and flour have been promised over and over again, but have only partially arrived to-night. hassan has bought a horse and a cow, and they have both strayed, and he has gone in search of them, and mirza in search of him, and both have been away for hours. of the escorts promised by the ilkhani not one man has arrived, though it was considered that the letter to him given me by the amin-es-sultan would have obviated any difficulty on this score. an armed sentry was to have slept in front of my tent, and a _tufangchi_ was to have been my constant attendant, and i have nobody. of the escort promised to the agha not one man has appeared. in this case we are left to do what general schindler and others in tihran and isfahan declared to be impossible, viz. to get through the country without an escort and without the moral support of a retainer high in the ilkhani's service. whether there have been crooked dealings; or whether the ilkhani, in spite of his promises, regards the presence of travellers in his country with disfavour; or whether, apprehending a collision, both the ilkhani and ilbegi are unwilling to part with any of their horsemen, it is impossible to decide. i. l. b. end of vol. i _printed by_ r. & r. clark, _edinburgh_. [transcriber's note: bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.] our little persian cousin the little cousin series (trade mark) each volume illustrated with six or more full-page plates in tint. cloth, mo, with decorative cover, per volume, cents list of titles by mary hazelton wade (unless otherwise indicated) =our little african cousin= =our little alaskan cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little arabian cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little armenian cousin= =our little australian cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little brazilian cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little brown cousin= =our little canadian cousin= by elizabeth r. macdonald =our little chinese cousin= by isaac taylor headland =our little cuban cousin= =our little dutch cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little egyptian cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little english cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little eskimo cousin= =our little french cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little german cousin= =our little greek cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little hawaiian cousin= =our little hindu cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little hungarian cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little indian cousin= =our little irish cousin= =our little italian cousin= =our little japanese cousin= =our little jewish cousin= =our little korean cousin= by h. lee m. pike =our little mexican cousin= by edward c. butler =our little norwegian cousin= =our little panama cousin= by h. lee m. pike =our little persian cousin= by e. c. shedd =our little philippine cousin= =our little porto rican cousin= =our little russian cousin= =our little scotch cousin= by blanche mcmanus =our little siamese cousin= =our little spanish cousin= by mary f. nixon-roulet =our little swedish cousin= by claire m. coburn =our little swiss cousin= =our little turkish cousin= l. c. page & company new england building, boston, mass. [illustration: "he carried it home on his shoulder." (_see page ._)] our little persian cousin by e. cutler shedd _illustrated by_ diantha w. horne [illustration] boston l. c. page & company _mdccccix_ _copyright, _ by l. c. page & company (incorporated) _entered at stationers' hall, london_ _all rights reserved_ _first impression, july, _ _electrotyped and printed at the colonial press: c. h. simonds & co., boston, u. s. a._ preface persia is mostly a tableland, from which rise many high mountains. in the winter come storms of snow and rain; in the spring the ground is green with grass and bright with many flowers; but in the late summer and fall it is dry and hot. over the mountains wander the kurds, who live in tents, and drive with them the great flocks of goats and sheep whose milk gives them food and from whose wool they weave their clothing and rugs. in many of the valleys are villages. here live the busy persian peasants, who have brought the water in long channels from its bed in the valleys to water their fields and orchards. where plenty of water is found there are towns and cities. over two thousand years ago the kings of the persians were the most powerful in the world, and ruled all the country from india to europe. some of them helped the jews, as is told in the books of ezra and nehemiah in the old testament. two of them tried to conquer greece, but the brave greeks defeated their armies in the famous battles of marathon and salamis. many years later the greeks themselves under alexander the great invaded persia and won its empire. but the persians afterwards regained the power, and for five centuries held their own against the armies of the roman emperors. suddenly great armies of arabs poured out from the wide desert land of arabia, eager to conquer the world, and to bring others to accept the new religion taught by their prophet, muhammad. thousands of them entered persia. they induced the persians to forsake their own religion, called fire worship, and to become muhammadans. six hundred years passed, when new and more terrible invaders spread over the land. these were armies of horsemen armed with bows, who came in thousands from the wide plains of siberia. they were the ancestors of the turks. they destroyed a great many villages and cities, and killed tens of thousands of the persians. even yet, after more than five hundred years, one may see in persia ruins made by them. a great many turks still live in northern persia. the persians are now a weak and ignorant nation; but the most progressive of them are trying to secure good schools and to improve their country in other ways. contents chapter page i. karim arrives ii. karim's relatives and home iii. karim goes exploring iv. the evil eye strikes karim v. karim at work and play vi. a trip to the city vii. karim's religion viii. karim's good fortune ix. karim leaves home x. karim goes to market xi. karim at the palace xii. sohrab and rustem xiii. new opportunities xiv. two important events xv. among the kurds xvi. rumours of war xvii. sheikh tahar xviii. a battle and what came of it xix. farewell to karim list of illustrations page "he carried it home on his shoulder" (_see page _) _frontispiece_ "he was so fat that her back often ached" "here karim sat all day" "dada and karim started very early" "the sun rose when they were half way over" the governor's palace "putting the paper on his knee as he sat on the floor" a kurdish shepherd sheikh tahar and his horsemen karim and his bride our little persian cousin chapter i karim arrives every one in the house of abdullah was smiling on the day when a boy was born. even ashak the donkey, as he was bringing big bundles of wheat from the field, did not get half as many pokes as usual from the nail pointed stick that took the place of a whip, and was actually let alone for a whole afternoon to eat the dead grass and crisp thistles by the roadside. old bajee, who was caring for the baby, ran as fast as she could to be the first to tell the news to abdullah, calling out all the way, "good news! a boy! a boy!" "praise be to god!" exclaimed abdullah, and gave her a piece of silver money worth half a dollar. laughing from joy she clutched this tight in her fist, and almost touched the ground with her forehead as she bowed to him. she had never owned half a dollar at one time except twice before in her life. abdullah hurried to the little shop around the corner and bought a loaf of sugar and some tea, and the tea urn, or samovar, was soon steaming. his neighbours--all men--came to congratulate him. some brought raisins as a present, some melons. one brought another small loaf of sugar. "may his foot be blessed!" they said. (they meant the baby's foot.) "this is light to your eyes!" "may you be the father of eight boys and no girls!" said abdullah, "praise be to god!" and gave them all small tumblers of tea that was nearly boiling and as sweet as sugar could make it. meantime the women were coming to see the baby. old bajee had rubbed him all over with salt; then she had tied a dark handkerchief over his eyes and wrapped him up in strips of cotton cloth and a little quilt. he was now lying by his mother. she was thinking about the evil eye,--an evil spirit or fairy who was always trying to do bad things,--and looked anxiously at the baby's arm. "where is the charm, bajee?" she asked. "yes," said a neighbour, "he needs a charm at once, for he is so very pretty." "oh, don't say that," exclaimed the mother; "the evil eye will hurt him if you do. bring the charm." bajee brought a piece of paper on which the mullah (or preacher) had written a prayer asking the angels to keep the evil eye away, and putting this in a tiny bag she tied it to the baby's right arm. "that prayer will frighten the evil eye," she said. all this seemed very interesting to almas. how delightful it was to have a baby brother. she wondered why her uncle mashaddi had not seemed greatly pleased when a baby girl had come to his house two weeks before. no one had even called to congratulate him. but now her father was getting up a dinner party, and they were roasting a whole lamb for it, and cooking, oh! so many other delicious things. she could smell the onions even from the street, so she asked her grandmother for something good. grandmother laughed and said, "the front door cried for three days when you were born. but god gave you to us, and we are not sorry." then she gave almas a big piece of bread with rice and meat heaped upon it, and some omelet mixed with molasses. meantime mother was sleeping with baby by her side. her last words had been, "bajee, be sure to keep the light burning, so that the evil spirits will be afraid and not get the baby." when baby was just a week old, the preacher, whom they called the mullah, came to give him a name. he brought the holy book which was their bible, and which they called the koran. no one in that village believed in jesus christ in the way in which christians do, but were in religion what we call muhammadans. the mullah stood over the baby and read out of this koran in a loud, sing-song voice. baby was frightened, and cried. the mullah did not stop, but next made a long prayer in words which no one else could understand, because he was speaking in arabic, the holy language which muhammad, the prophet who had composed the koran, had spoken. then he called out, "your name is karim!" almas thought it was quite a funny sight to see his long red beard wagging back and forth while he made such strange sounds, and so she broke into a laugh, at which her father turned and struck her. she went out crying softly. she did not like the mullah. why had he come to frighten baby? he had not named her little cousin. old bajee had shouted in her ear, "your name is fatima!" and that was all. after this karim was laid in a very narrow cradle without any sides, and long strips of cloth were wrapped around and around him and under the bottom of the cradle. his arms were tied down, and a calico curtain kept the light out. he lay in this dark little place nearly all the time for the first six months, generally asleep. although abdullah was very proud of him, he hardly noticed him for over a month, because the evil spirits would wonder what he was looking at and come to see. once a day baby's mother would build the fire for cooking, and the room would fill with smoke, because there was no chimney, but only a hole in the middle of the ceiling. at first he cried every time, for the smoke made his eyes smart with pain. his mother put some medicine upon them when she saw how red they had become, and asked bajee what the matter was. "how can i tell?" said bajee. "babies always have sore eyes." when the curtain was loose and it was not too dark the flies came to visit him. there seemed to be hundreds of them, and they walked all over his face and even into his mouth, but were especially fond of his red eyes and gathered in black rows around them. he winked and winked, but they did not care. then he would begin to cry. after a while mother would come to fix the curtain and rock the cradle, or perhaps--and this was the best of all--she would undo the wrappings and take him in her arms for a few minutes, singing, "my dear baby! my sweet baby! you are my father! and the father of my father!" she meant that she thought as much of him as of her grandfather, and every one always talked as if people cared more for a grandfather than for any one else. chapter ii karim's relatives and home one day karim's mother, whom he was now learning to call "nana," said to father abdullah, "master, your boy--may his eyes have light!--is now five months old, and ought to come out of his cradle. buy some calico, and i will make another shirt for him. do not buy red or any bright colour, so that the evil eye may not think him too pretty and so become jealous and strike him." she made the shirt so short that his fat brown legs were bare to the knee. when he could crawl around in the house sister almas watched him. it was too dark for him to see much, for all the light came from the door, when that was open, and from the hole, about a foot square, in the middle of the ceiling, where the smoke at last went out. the door was so low that nana had to stoop every time she went through it. the walls were black from the smoke, which karim now found poured out each morning from a hole in the floor about as big as a large barrel. nana did the cooking with the fire which she kept burning in this hole. one afternoon karim looked down, and found that its bottom was all bright with light which came from glowing red lumps. it was the prettiest thing he had ever seen, and he grasped the edge and leaned away over to see still better. just then almas screamed and jerked him back by his foot so suddenly that the skin of his hands was scratched by the rough edge. of course he cried. nana came running in, and snatching him up exclaimed between her sobs, "awý! my precious! he might have fallen in!" then she struck almas, so that she, too, cried. after this karim had to be satisfied with the bright light shining in through the hole above his head, and with the two round trays which, leaning against the wall, shone like polished silver until at last the smoke darkened them. they remained so until the next year, when a man came from the city and polished them over again. in the daytime there were large piles of bedclothes tightly rolled up near the cradle. a few rugs lay folded beside them. there were no tables or chairs or bedsteads, and the floor was simply the hard earth. in the corner were a few green bowls, and some wooden spoons and copper plates. these were the dishes for the meals. just across from the door stood a wooden chest, half as high as the room. this was where all the flour was put in the autumn, when abdullah had packed it down carefully by stamping upon it with his bare feet. near it was a door opening into darkness, through which karim was afraid to crawl. when he tired of these things, he looked at the chickens,--an old rooster dressed in red and black, but without any tail (he had never had any), and two or three clucking old biddies in sober gray, besides a half dozen others, hungry looking, half grown, with long legs. like the flies, they came into the house whenever the door was open. if nana left any food standing even for a minute she had to cover it. they came at meal time as regularly as if they had been invited, and fought with each other for the scraps of bread or bits of gristle that abdullah threw away. several times the rooster snatched the piece of bread which karim was eating right out of his hand; but when he laid the bread down to crow for the biddies, one of the half grown chickens caught it up and ran around the room with it, chased by all of his hungry brothers. the family got up every morning when it was just beginning to become light. all but karim were busy nearly the whole of the day. when the sun was two or three hours high--no one had a clock--abdullah came in for breakfast. at meal time nana brought the large tray that took the place of a table, and abdullah set it upon the floor and laid upon it two or three sheets of bread which looked a good deal like brown paper, and was as thick as heavy pasteboard. it was made of whole wheat flour and tasted very good. nana poured the soup out of a small kettle into one of the green bowls. sometimes the soup was mixed with pieces of meat and onions, and was red with pepper; sometimes it was made of curded milk and greens. there were also onions and salted cheese and red peppers for side dishes, with cucumbers and melons and other fruits in summer. abdullah sat down on the floor upon his heels and ate alone, until karim was old enough, when he always ate with "dada," as he called his father, while nana and almas waited upon them. they never dreamed of eating with dada, for that would have been very impolite, but when he had finished they sat down and ate what was left. there were no knives and forks--what were fingers made for?--and no plates or tumblers, for all ate out of the same bowl and drank from the same water jug. between meals nana was very busy. first came the milking of the cow; then the bedclothes must be rolled up and the stable cleaned out, and there was sweeping and churning to be done. the water must be brought upon her back in a heavy jar from the spring. in winter the cotton and wool was spun into yarn and knit into bright coloured socks, and in summer she helped abdullah gather the cotton or the tobacco, and worked in the orchard or wheat-field. in the fall she swept up the leaves which fell from the trees growing on the edges of the streams and carried them home on her back to be stored for kindling. while nana was working she usually went barefoot. she had large black eyes, and she made them bright by putting a powder into them. she painted a black streak across her eyebrows to make them darker. her black hair, hanging in long braids down her back, was banged in front, and was covered by a large handkerchief which she wore all the time. very carefully, once a month, she dyed her hair and coloured with red the tips of her finger and toe nails. because she was careful about all these things and was somewhat fleshy and had red cheeks, her neighbours thought her beautiful; that is, the women thought so. the men hardly ever saw her face, because she always drew something over it whenever any man except dada came near. the men never asked him, "how is your wife and little girl?" which would have insulted him, but always said, "how is your boy?" and sometimes, perhaps, "how is the mother of your boy?" still dada was really proud of her, but of course he was careful not to let her see it, "for," he said, "she is a woman, and must be kept under." he seldom called her by any sweet name, but when he wanted to praise her called her simply "the mother of karim," and thought that, alone, was enough. chapter iii karim goes exploring in pleasant weather nana tied karim upon almas' back and sent her out of doors to carry him around. he was so fat that her back often ached, yet when a woman asked her if she was not tired she exclaimed, "why, of course not! he is my brother." however, they were all so anxious to see him walking that he soon became bow-legged. [illustration: "he was so fat that her back often ached."] he now found what was to be seen out of doors. the yard was small, and there was no grass in it, nothing but the bare earth. when it rained the cattle tramped it into a deep black mud, which made a splendid place to sit in and play. across the yard was the door of the stable, where the donkey and the cow and two buffalos lived with a few goats. in front was a wall six feet high. just before the front door of the house was a small porch, where the big dog and the chickens spent the most of their time. the calves came there, too, and the dog, but he never dared to come into the house. nana explained that he was "unclean," and the mullah said that it was a wicked thing to allow "unclean" animals to come into the living rooms. karim liked to hit the dog, who always let him do just what he wanted. one day when nana was away, suddenly a fierce barking and snarling was heard, mixed with shouts. almas ran out to find that a stranger had stepped into the yard, and that the dog had caught him by the ankle and would not let go, although the man was hitting hard with his heavy walking stick. almas was then only eight years old, but she put her foot on the dog's neck and raised her fist. the dog growled angrily before he obeyed her and slunk away. some neighbours now came running in. "did you not know better than to enter a yard when no one was in sight?" said they to the stranger. then mashaddi had almas cut off some hairs from the shaggy neck of the dog. he took these hairs into the house and burned them, and brought the ashes to the stranger, who seemed very grateful. "thanks to you, if god will, the wound will heal very fast," he said, as he sprinkled the ashes on it and wrapped it around with an old piece of cloth. "not even a doctor could give me better medicine than this." the cat was allowed to come into the house, and was often there at dinner time with the chickens. sometimes almas petted her a little, and nana threw her some food once in a while, but even they tried to hit her if she got in their way. she spent the most of the day hiding under the piles of fuel and in the dark stable in the hay. the dogs were anxious to chase her, and the boys were making bets as to who could hit her oftenest. abbas was bragging because he had done it twice, for she was hard to hit, because she had practised dodging all of her life. the door which opened into the dark from the family living room led to the store room. karim often followed his mother when she went in, holding a lighted wax dip. there were no old trunks with newspapers and letters, because no one of the family had even seen a newspaper and no one but dada had ever learned to read. instead, there were big wooden shovels, plows, sickles and a pickax. in the autumn grapes hung in long clusters from the ceiling. the baskets and jars were carefully covered, but nana used to open them for karim if he cried hard enough, and let him feel and taste what was in them. most of the baskets were full of raisins. two held red peppers. some jars held salted cheese, and some were filled with butter, which felt very cool and soft. the pickled cucumbers tasted good, and best of all was the molasses. one day nana had just taken the heavy cover off from the molasses jar, when she found that she had forgotten a dish. she went out to get it, and karim was left alone. he pulled the molasses ladle out of the jar and tried to get its bowl to his lips, all dripping as it was. it was half as long as he, and somehow hit him fairly in the eyes, filling them with molasses instead of his mouth. he screamed and ran through the door, dropping the ladle as he went. nana ran quickly to karim. "my darling," she cried, "light of my eyes! did the molasses hurt my darling? we shall beat the jug. see!" and she took the broom and started for the store room. just then almas appeared in the door. "why did you not watch karim?" nana cried angrily. "we shall whip you, too! see"--she added to karim--"shall we whip this naughty girl because she let the molasses hurt you?" "no," said karim, picking up a stick, "it was the jug. we shall whip it." "wonderful!" exclaimed nana, "how kind he is to his sister." karim felt very much grown up as he thrashed the jug, while nana laughed proudly because he showed so much spirit, and almas looked on with smiles because it was the jug that was being whipped, and not herself. the jug was the only one that did not care. chapter iv the evil eye strikes karim karim at this time happened to have only the shirt that he was wearing. he had never had more than two at one time, and one had dropped to pieces from age the week before. nana had not found time as yet to finish a new one. the shirt was a dirty brown, although if one could have examined the seams he would have found that it had once been a dark red with black stripes. now, with the molasses streaks, it looked fairly black. nana decided that it must be washed at once, for dada might not like to see his son looking so very dirty, so she took him with her to the pool when she went for water that morning. she washed the shirt thoroughly, while he stood beside her shivering in the cool breeze. when at last it looked somewhat cleaner she wrung the water from it as well as she could, and put it back upon him to dry. karim fairly howled with cold as he trotted along by her side, and when they reached home, to comfort him, she gave him two cucumbers and some of the raisins that he liked so well. that afternoon he began to cough severely, and his head was very hot. nana pulled at her hair in her anxiety. "the evil eye has struck him!" she exclaimed. "the charm fell off from his neck when i washed his shirt, and i did not notice it for some time. the evil eye must have struck him then. why did i not keep him dressed in fatima's clothes, so that the evil eye would think him a girl, and not notice him? or rub his face with ashes, so that he would look ugly? awý! what can i do?" "get up," said grandmother, "run to the mullah, and have him write another charm; perhaps it will frighten the evil eye away." nana did so. said the mullah, as he gave her the roll of paper, "if there are twenty evil spirits in your son, they will all run away when you tie this prayer around his neck. it is worth fifty cents." nana began to cry. "what can i do, o holy man?" she said, "i have only twenty-seven cents, and my son will die." "take comfort, my daughter," replied the mullah, "i am god's servant, and he is merciful. the twenty-seven cents are enough." but that night karim nearly choked in his coughing. dada looked very anxious. "women are donkeys," he said, "and so are mullahs. i will go for the barber." the barber looked grave. "see the black blood. i will take it out, and he will get well." he cut a vein with his razor, and caught the blood in a bowl, but karim became worse. the next morning dada hurried to the best doctor in the village. he looked at the boy a long time. "bring me this afternoon," he said, "fifty cents, and that hen with a white tail"--he pointed to the largest of the old biddies--"and with its blood and a mouse's eye i will make a medicine which will cure him. if it does not, take back your money." when he had gone bajee and some other women came to see nana. "my uncle once was sick like this," said bajee, "and an old woman told grandmother to take a rooster and cut it in two, and tie the warm, bleeding pieces upon his breast. that made him well." "my brother," said an old woman, "was cured of a cough by lying in the oven for the whole of one morning." so karim spent the afternoon lying upon the warm ashes in the hole where the cooking was done, with the bleeding body of the old rooster pressed tightly against his chest, while the charms were still about his neck and the doctor's medicine at hand. that evening he was much better. nana insisted that he was cured because of the mullah's charm; grandmother believed in the dead rooster, while dada went to thank the doctor and give him a lamb for a present. it was some days before karim was himself again, and as he was fretful his grandmother amused him with stories. here is one of them. the others were very similar to this. the fox and the wolf a fox started to travel to the city of mashad, because he knew that he was a wicked fox, and such a good man was buried in that city that simply visiting his grave was enough to make one good. on the way he met a wolf, who asked him where he was going. he replied, "i am a wicked fox and am going to mashad to be made good." the wolf said, "i am very bad, too, and ought to go there. let me go with you." they went on together, and after a while met a bear. "where are you going?" he asked, and when they had told him he wished to go with them. as they made their journey they came to a country where there was nothing to eat. they all became very hungry; so hungry that the fox and the bear dropped behind, as the three were walking, and, suddenly jumping upon the wolf when he did not expect it, caught him with their teeth in the neck and killed him. then they each took a part of the body and began to eat. the bear ate until nothing but bones was left, but the fox took some of his meat while the bear was not looking and hid it in a dark corner of a cave near by. after a while they both began to feel hungry again, for the wolf had been so lean that there was not much of a meal to be made off of him. the fox went into the corner of the cave where he had hidden the meat, and soon the bear heard him smacking his lips very loudly. he was very much surprised, and asked, "what can you have found to eat?" "o bear," said the fox, "i was so hungry that i have pulled out my left eye, and am eating it, and you cannot think how good it tastes." "that is quite an idea!" said the bear, and he pulled out his own left eye, and ate it. but he was soon very hungry again. then he heard the fox in the corner once more smacking his lips very loudly, and he exclaimed, "what on earth can you be eating now?" "o bear," said the fox, "i was so hungry that i pulled out my other eye and am eating it." "how smart the fox is to think of such things!" thought the bear, and he pulled out his own right eye and ate it. then the fox got a long pole, and taking hold of one end he told the bear that if he would take hold of the other end he would lead him (since he was blind) to a place where he would find plenty to eat. but he led him to the edge of a very high rock. "o bear," he said, "there is a large, fat sheep right in front of you. now jump!" the bear jumped, and fell so hard upon the stones below that it killed him. then the fox ate the body of the bear, and it made him strong enough to go on and reach mashad, where he visited the grave of the holy man and so was made good. chapter v karim at work and play the village where karim lived lay at the mouth of a little valley. down this valley ran a stream of sparkling water that came out of the ground about a quarter of a mile above the village. this was not a spring, but a "kareez," for beyond it could be seen a long line of pits, joined at the bottom by an underground channel, through which the water ran. the road lay by their side, and in two places the path divided, a part passing on each side of a pit. once while karim lay flat on the ground looking over the smooth sides at the water trickling across the bottom of the pit, he asked, "doesn't any one ever fall in?" [illustration: "here karim sat all day."] "why should he?" replied dada. "can't you see the hole plainly enough?" "but suppose it was dark?" "at night honest men are in bed, and robbers know the roads. but if god wills that a man shall fall in, why, he will fall in, and cannot help himself. it is fate." the stream ran down the valley past an orchard of apricot and cherry trees. by its side were willow trees, with short, thick trunks, and a row of poplars, that seemed to karim the tallest trees he could think of. then it ran into the village pond. twice a week all the water was let out of this pond, to be used in watering the fields, but it soon filled up again. when karim was seven years old dada began to send him here with his cousin, ali, to wash the two big black indian buffalos which he and mashaddi used for plowing. it was hard to say who enjoyed it the most, the buffalos, who dearly loved the water, or the boys, who rode upon their broad backs, and splashed and swam about during the warm summer evenings as long as they pleased. dada soon gave karim other work as well. he took him to the field and lifted him up upon the yoke between the buffalos. here karim sat all day, to keep the yoke by his weight from pressing against the throats of the buffalos as they slowly drew the plow back and forth across the field. next dada sent him to watch the cows as they grazed in the open meadow in the lowland, or among the dried grasses on the hillside. here he spent whole days with the other boys, going swimming and playing "marbles." for marbles they used the bones from the joints of sheep's legs. the next year, in early summer, dada told him to keep the birds away from the cherries and apricots in the little orchard, by shouting and clapping two boards together. at first this was great fun, but he became very tired of it in a few days, and his voice grew hoarse and rough. then came harvest time, and he went out to the hot field and carried water to the reapers, and rode upon the straw cutter or swept up the grain upon the smooth threshing floor until he was so tired that he could hardly stand. about this time he fell sick again. his head ached and he was hot with fever. the doctor wrote a prayer with the blood of a lamb, and nana burned the paper and poured the ashes into a cup of water which she made karim drink, but it did no good. he lay on the floor on a thin mattress dressed in his every-day, dirty clothes, and the flies kept settling on his eyes and mouth. nana and grandmother were as kind as they knew how to be. they took great pains to get the tongue of a starling, for a woman said that this would cure him, but, instead, he became worse. at last he broke out with the smallpox. "all have the smallpox," said grandmother, when she saw this; "what can we do?" some of the neighbours brought their young children to see him. "they must all have this sickness," was their reason, "and it is best that they have it now, when they are young." in this way fatima caught the disease, and died. hers was a dreary little funeral. the house was filled with the noise of the sobs and wailing of her mother, who was nearly frantic with grief, and with the cries of a few of her friends. no one thought of flowers, and there was no music. as the funeral was that of a girl, only three men walked behind the body when mashaddi carried it to the grave. of course no women went with him, for that was not the custom. soon after karim got over the smallpox he began to go to school for a part of the year. he was proud of this, because a great many of the boys were too poor to go to school. as for the girls, of course people never sent them. what would be the use? "teach a girl! you might as well try to teach a cat," they thought. the teacher was the mullah. on the first day of school he and his eight pupils came to karim's home to welcome him. all were dressed better than usual. karim looked very gay in a brand new coat of bright blue. dada met the teacher with a present of three chickens. then the boys marched to the school in a straggling line, the teacher at the head, the older boys chanting in a loud voice a song they had been taught, and the three youngest carrying the chickens dangling by the legs. the school house was the mosque, or muhammadan church. the room was large and bare. straw mats covered the floor. there were no blackboards or maps or desks; indeed, most of the boys had never even seen a lead pencil. the mullah sat upon his heels on a rug by the window with a long stick in his hand. the boys sat upon the mats, facing him. "you must come to school before breakfast," said the mullah. "if any one eats any food before coming to his lessons i shall pull out his ears." if a boy was at all tardy he exclaimed, "you silly animal, hah! have you been eating, and so are late?" "oh no, indeed i did not eat anything!" "put out your tongue!" once karim's breath smelled of onions, and the mullah gave him so sharp a tap that he felt it for an hour. they studied a little arithmetic, but spent most of the time learning to write the persian language, and to read from the koran. as the koran was printed in the arabic language, which none of the boys knew, at first they did not understand what it meant, although the mullah explained a great many things to them. it was very important to learn to recite a good many chapters from this holy book, even if one could not understand what he recited. no one could pray to god in a way that was pleasing, the mullah said, unless he repeated in his prayer parts of these chapters, which the holy prophet muhammad long ago had brought down from heaven. studying the persian language was more interesting work. in a short time karim was given stories to read which told of the wonderful deeds of king solomon, who talked with the birds and made the spirits of the air obey him. he also read other interesting stories, very much like those to be found in the "arabian nights' tales." while they were studying the boys all swayed their bodies forwards and back and read from their books in a loud sing-song tone. if a boy became tired he did not dare to stop. karim did so once, but a stroke from the mullah's stick and his question, "son of a dog, why are you not studying?" made him yell out with the loudest. he soon learned not to ask questions. once when there had been a slight earthquake shock he asked what it was that had made the earth shake. "the ox," said the mullah, "which holds up the earth upon his twenty-one horns has become angry, and is shaking his horns." "what is he angry at?" asked karim. "god knows, and he has not told us," said the mullah. "i wonder what the ox stands upon," added karim, after a minute. "if it were right for us to know god would have told us," was the answer. "such questions are irreverent, and fools ask them. pray to god to forgive you, and then begin your study again." when karim was eleven years old almas was married. the friends of the bridegroom came to the house, and were given a good dinner. almas was so bundled up that no one could recognize her. then they put her on a horse, and in a noisy procession led her off to her new home. she now lived in a village ten miles away, and karim saw her only two or three times a year. he missed his sister for a long time, because she had always waited upon him so carefully. as the wedding occurred a little before the great festival of "norooz," that helped him forget his loss. "norooz," or the festival for the new year, came in the early spring, when everyone was glad that winter had gone. mashaddi said that the world came to life then. a few days before the festival karim's head was shaved, and the nails of his fingers and toes were coloured red. he was given a new suit of clothes exactly like dada's in cut, and when dressed in them looked like a little old man. "but then," said nana, "he is almost grown up now, and ought to look so." she arranged plates full of nuts, raisins, dried apricots, quinces, figs, dates and candy (there must be seven kinds of food, and their names must each begin with an s) and karim took these as presents to the mullah and to a few other friends. dada bought some sugar, tea, tobacco and candy, and all was ready. the festival lasted for a week. on the first day dada and karim (now that he was old enough) sat upon their heels in the room to receive callers. each caller, as he entered, bowed low and said, "peace be to you! may the festival be a happy one." "may you be fortunate," replied dada. "how is your health?" asked the caller. "praise be to god, we are well." then, sitting down, they talked together, and took turns smoking from the water-pipe. after the third cup of tea had been served the caller rose and said good-bye. the greatest fun was on tuesday evening, when the roofs of the village were alight with blazing pin wheels, roman candles, small volcanoes and rockets. children's day was also a lively time. several of the young men of the village dressed up as clowns. they had some musicians with cymbals with them, and went about saying and doing absurd things. karim and his school mates dressed themselves up like robbers, with beards made of cotton, and canes for spears, and went to the mullah's house. [illustration: "dada and karim started very early."] "give us some money, or we will rob you!" they shouted. he laughed, and gave them enough to buy a plenty of candy. chapter vi a trip to the city one evening dada said, "shahbaz has just come from the city, and says that they are paying twenty-five shahis a batman for wheat. if god is willing, i and karim will get hussain's donkeys, and take in our wheat to sell to-morrow." early next morning each donkey was loaded with two of the black sacks of wheat, excepting one donkey, which was saddled and carried two empty jars, for dada intended to buy some molasses in the city. to the saddle was fastened a jug of water and a red handkerchief filled with bread and cheese. none of the animals had on a bridle. dada and karim started very early, going as fast as one could walk, and taking turns at riding the saddled donkey. [illustration: "the sun rose when they were half way over."] the road lay over a dry and sandy plain six miles wide, which it took nearly three hours to cross. the sun rose when they were half way over, and soon there was only the deep blue sky and blazing sun above, and the hot, parched ground, with bare, rugged mountains in the distance. the only green place in sight was that made by the trees around their own village, now looking like a dark band against the yellow hills. karim looked back later, and was astonished to see what appeared like a large lake, bordered by many trees, instead of the village and the plain. he called to dada, who hardly looked around, but said, "the evil spirits do this to deceive you." then, for an hour more, they climbed a slope up the mountain-side. it was tiresome work, and dada had to grunt "uh! uh!" at the donkeys harder than ever, and prod them with the nail pointed stick. a few stunted bushes were growing among the bare rocks and thirsty gullies. one small tree was passed, half covered by tattered bits of cloth tied to its branches. dada carefully tore off a faded strip from his ragged coat, and fastened it to a twig. "there is no water," he said, "and yet this tree is always green. it is a spirit who does this. let us give him an offering of respect." karim felt afraid, and did the same. at last they went down a steep slope into a valley. here was a spring of cold water. around it were willow trees, and near by melon and cucumber patches, and an orchard of mulberries and apricots. they unloaded the donkeys and for a shahi bought a melon from the man who was in charge. they then untied the handkerchief and sat down on the ground to eat. after the meal they stretched themselves at full length under the trees, and were lulled to sleep by the deep "boom, boom" of the bells that swung from the necks of some camels who had just passed with their heavy loads. in an hour dada waked karim and they started again. soon the road grew wider. all of the streams were now spanned by bridges, while on every side were vineyards and orchards. they met many people, and many droves of donkeys, and at last entered a long avenue bordered by willow trees. at its end was the gate of the city. in front of the gate the road crossed a ditch forty feet wide and in some places half full of water covered with a thick green scum, where the frogs were singing cheerily. behind this was a wall, half in ruins, with broken down towers here and there. inside the city gate the street was about fifteen feet wide, and one could not see anything on either side except high walls of dried earth, with here and there a gate or a narrow alley. there was a narrow sidewalk, but people did not seem to care much whether they used it or walked in the middle of the street. in a few minutes they had passed more donkeys than there were in the whole of their village. some carried baskets of grapes, some looked like moving piles of yellow straw, and a few were loaded with dripping lumps of ice carried in black bags. some were dragging poles whose ends were for ever getting under one's feet. one had a dead sheep strapped to its back. these were small, mouse coloured, half starved donkeys, like the one on which karim had been riding, without any ambition or pride, but jogging along because their drivers would prod them if they stopped. they passed a few larger donkeys as well, with handsome saddles, ridden by well dressed men in long brown robes and white turbans, who were mullahs, or by women who were so bundled up that one could not see even their eyes. in a corner was a group of beggars sitting in the dirt, dressed in rags. some of them were holding up the stumps of their arms, or pointing to their blinded eyes. "give me money for food!" was their cry. "may god bless your sons! for the prophet's sake, give me a shahi!" it was a pitiful sight, yet very few paid any attention to them. at a turn of the crooked street karim and dada came upon three shops. the goods of one were spread upon a platform next to the sidewalk, and the shopkeeper sat upon his heels behind within reach of everything. dead sheep were hung up by their legs before another shop, and a dead ox was lying upon the sidewalk upon its own hide, spread flat on the ground. at the third a blacksmith was shoeing a horse, and everyone had to dodge by with an eye upon the horse's heels. fifteen or twenty people were gathered around a man with long, uncombed hair and fierce, wild eyes who carried a small ax in his hand, and was waving it about and talking loudly in a singsong tone, while a boy was going around with a carved cocoanut shell, asking for shahis. dada said that he was a "darvish" or holy man who was telling stories about the saints. suddenly two horsemen appeared, shouting, "khabardar! khabardar!" the blacksmith dropped the shoe and gave the horse a blow that sent him against the wall, and the holy man with his audience spread in a row along the side of the street. dada in a great hurry crowded the donkeys down one of the alleys. they were none too soon, for almost at once a large crowd of blue coated horsemen armed with guns turned the corner. their horses pranced and snorted, while the men cursed some of the people because they could not squeeze themselves flatter against the wall. one of them struck a man, who did not even say a word in return. and now there came something more wonderful than even karim's grandfather had "seen in a dream," as he told nana later. it was drawn by two spirited horses, which no one was riding, but a man held them back by long straps, and they went wherever he guided them. the thing itself was a great box of polished black colour, with a door, and with soft cushioned seats inside, upon which were sitting two splendidly dressed men. this box was carried on wheels that seemed much too light to support it, and which made no noise at all as they went around. the only wheels karim had ever seen before had no spokes, and were each almost as heavy as a man, and creaked so that they could be heard a quarter of a mile away. he was so astonished that he did not notice that every one bowed low until he felt a sharp blow from behind, and a "bow low, you fool!" then he bobbed so quickly that his hat rolled off into the road. no one moved to get it, and in silent misery he watched one of the horses crush it. it was a new hat, and dada bought him only one new hat each year. when the horsemen had all passed he picked the hat up. there was a hole in the soft crown, and it was stained with mud. as he was wiping it off dada came up, so angry that he struck him with his stick. some boys who saw this laughed at him. dada did not comfort him at all, but exclaimed, "i have a fool for a son! why do you stand gaping like a donkey at the wagon of the governor? if that man had not made you bow to the governor, and to the prince riding with him, some of the horsemen might have noticed it. then we both would have been seized, and probably beaten. all my wheat would have been taken from me, and perhaps i would have had to pay some money to keep from being put into prison." chapter vii karim's religion sometimes karim went to the mosque with dada in the early morning on friday. the mullah had told him, "the prophet muhammad has advised that every one should bathe on friday and then come on foot to the mosque to prayers, and be reverent during the service. god will give a great reward to the person who does this." the mosque was a plain building, with one large room and a porch in front. the room was bare, except for a few mats and a small pulpit. when any one entered he took off his shoes as a mark of respect, but kept on his hat. during the service those present repeated aloud with the mullah prayers and chapters from the koran. then the mullah preached a short sermon. the mullah got up early every morning in the week and went upon the roof of the mosque. here, as the day was breaking, in a very loud and musical voice he chanted the "call to prayer." this was in the arabic language, so that karim for a long time did not know what it meant, although he had heard it so often that he could repeat most of it by heart. but at school he learned that it meant, "god is most great! god is most great! i declare that there is no god but god, and that muhammad is the messenger of god. come to prayer! come to the refuge! god is most great! prayer is better than sleep. god is most great!" in school karim had also been taught the creed, "i testify that there is no god but god. i testify that muhammad is the prophet of god, and that ali is the ruler appointed by god." although he had been taught these things, the mullah said that he was still a boy, and that boys were not expected to do all that god commanded. but when karim was thirteen years old the mullah said, "you have reached the age when the recording angel begins to write down in his book whatever you do, whether it is good or bad, so you must begin carefully to perform good deeds, that they may help to save you from the evil deeds you will do, and thus permit you to enter heaven. i have taught you the prayers that you ought to say each day, and the way in which you must wash yourself before saying them." karim felt quite proud to be thought so old, and began to copy abdullah, who was more careful about his prayers than many of his neighbours. abdullah bought for his son a little rug and a bit of dried clay that came from the holy city mecca, where the prophet muhammad had lived. each morning, at the time of the call, karim repeated his prayers, standing, and kneeling just as dada did, and touching his forehead to the bit of clay when he bowed. somewhat later came the month of ramadan. during this month it was against the law for him to eat or drink anything, or even to smoke a pipe, from dawn until late in the evening. of course it was very hard to obey this rule, but it was thought wicked to disobey it. what made it harder was that karim had to work during the morning. in the afternoon he slept some, and longed for the sun to set. as soon as he heard the crack of the gun that announced the time when it was right to take food he hurried into the house. here was a good meal, all steaming hot, prepared by nana. how they all did eat! dada always sent some of the food to bajee, the poor widowed woman who lived down the street. whenever a beggar appeared, he fed him, too. "we must give alms," he said, "if we wish to enter heaven, for our holy prophet has so commanded." at the close of the month came the great week of mourning, or muharrem. when karim was still a little boy nana had taken him with her to the mosque each day during this week. they had sat outside in the street and listened to the mullah as he told the sacred story of the death of the holy husain. he explained how the rightful ruler had been ali, after the death of the prophet muhammad, long ago, because ali was the prophet's son-in-law, having married his daughter fatima. but wicked men had made umar the ruler instead of ali, and even yet the people of turkey, and the turkmans, and many who lived in india and africa believed that umar was a holy man. when ali died his sons hassan and husain should have become rulers. hassan soon died; the men of the city kufa then promised to honour husain if he should come to them. husain believed them, and came from the city mecca with his family, guarded only by a few warriors. but when he came near kufa no one came to help him. instead, the wicked governors of that city actually dared to come out with a great many soldiers and attack him, although he was the grandson of the prophet muhammad. the men with husain were too few to conquer, yet he did not surrender, because he was the grandson of the prophet and the rightful ruler, and none of his warriors ran away, but together they died fighting bravely against their wicked enemies. as the mullah told in his sermons how husain was killed, first some women began to moan, and later all burst into loud sobs, while the tears streamed down their faces. the most devout caught these tears in little long necked bottles, to keep them for medicine. "god is pleased with us because we weep for husain," nana explained, "and because of our tears for husain he gives us all the good things that come to us during the year. and the mullah says that if we weep for our lord husain the martyr god will take away all our sins." "in the cities," added dada, "they have processions in memory of our lord husain." "i saw the processions in the city last year," broke in mashaddi. "they were wonderful. first came men bearing the two black banners of the mosque. then followed others playing funeral music on drums and fifes. after them walked the mullahs and holy men. then came a long line of men and boys, marching two by two. they were beating their breasts in time with the music, and chanting a dirge that was so strangely stirring and yet so full of tears that i can never forget it. indeed, i found myself running out to join the marchers, while my eyes were blinded with weeping. there were two little girls and a woman on horseback, with straw on their heads and collars of wood on their necks. they represented, you know, the wife and children of husain, who were captured by his enemies when he had been killed. boys walked alongside, throwing straw into the air. the woman's collar represented iron fetters, and the straw was a sign of grief. "in some of the other processions there were men beating their breasts with chains, and crying out as they marched, 'awý! hassán! awý! husaín!' after them came some men with white cloths spread over their shoulders. they carried swords in their hands, and as they marched they cut their faces so that the blood ran down." "why did they cut themselves?" asked karim. "because it is a very holy thing to do," replied dada, "almost as holy as to visit the grave of our lord husain at the city kerbella." "i saw a boy on horseback," continued mashaddi, "with a dagger in his hand, and his face was bloody from the cuts he was giving himself. how they can do it i cannot see. god gives them the power to forget their pain. sometimes friends walk alongside with sticks in their hands to dull the blows, and so keep them from injuring themselves too much. but they say that if a man dies from his cuts god takes him straight to heaven." chapter viii karim's good fortune one evening dada asked karim, "how would you like to travel, as mashaddi did, who was once a soldier of the shah, and was blessed by a visit to the sacred shrine of the holy imam reza when the shah sent his regiment to mashad to frighten the turkmans. wouldn't you like to be called 'mashaddi,' too?" "it would be splendid," replied karim. "only yesterday mashaddi was telling me about this shrine. the room inside is just covered with gold and silver and bright stones, and splendid rugs. the blessings the imam gives to those who visit it cannot be counted. "but the mullah says that the tomb of the imam's sister, fatima, in the city kum is almost as holy, and it is much nearer. the dome of its roof is covered with flashing gold, and inside is a silver gate, with tiles of such beautiful colours that he can't describe them. and mashaddi has seen the palace of the shah at teheran, too. he says that he saw a throne covered over with carved gold, and everywhere in this gold are set flashing emeralds and rubies and other precious stones. mashaddi called it the 'peacock throne,' and said that the great nadir shah brought it from india when he went to that country with an army to fight the great mogul! "but i cannot travel,--the shah isn't asking for soldiers now." "that is so," said dada. "but the mullah has taught you how to behave before khans (noblemen). our agha (master) is coming here in a few weeks, and i am going to take you to call upon him." "our agha is a kind master," broke in nana. "it happened the last time he came that he passed abbas' field when he was tying up the sheaves. of course abbas hurried to put a sheaf in the road before him as a present. the agha threw two silver coins into the sheaf for abbas! that is a good deal better than the copper shahis one usually gets." "he is a just man," added dada. "he doesn't eat up all that the poor have, like the master of hissar. the people there can never pay all that man wants, especially since the poor harvest seven years ago. that man had his servants put some wheat in each house. of course the people cooked and ate it--poor things, they were hungry. then he told them that because they had eaten up his wheat they owed him money for it. the interest they pay each year is one fifth of what they owe. but he cannot get it from most of them, although his ferashes (officers) have thrashed the men so that they went limping about for two weeks. our agha takes only what is due, one tenth of the crop, and his servants don't take very much, either. ahmad was the only man he had bastinadoed last year, and ahmad was trying to cheat him. he said that he had no money, when really he did have some buried in a bowl in a corner of his house." "they say that our agha may even become the governor," added shahbaz, who had just come in. "i heard in the city last week that the shah had given him the title 'the good fortune of the state.'" "may god so will!" said dada. "he will be as good a governor as rashid khan, the 'glory of the king's court.' when he was governor a woman could walk safely from here to the city with a purse full of gold in her hand. i remember that once i saw the heads of two thieves stuck on the tops of poles before his house. he cut off the hands of a lot of rascals, too. but it isn't so now. only last week some kurds stole five cows from the herd of hissar. the foolish boys had taken the animals up into the hills, where no men were near." "karim has learned to read our language, and to behave properly," said grandmother. "perhaps he will find grace in the eyes of the agha, so that he may want him as a servant." "o dada, do you think that could be?" cried karim. "i shall beg this of the agha," said dada, "and the mullah has promised to help me. if god will, we shall find favour, and all our faces will be made white with joy." on the next day a horseman arrived, to announce that the agha himself would come within a week. when the horseman reached the door of abdullah's house, abdullah met him with low bows, and said, "this is no longer my house, but yours. i am your servant." the rider got off his horse and went into the house. here nana had ready as tasty a supper as she could cook. the next day the "white beards" (old men who manage village affairs) came to call. they brought two large trays piled high with apples, grapes and pears, with a coat of blue broadcloth, and one toman in money. now for three days everyone was busy. the agha's house was swept, carpets were put down, and plenty of food made ready for cooking. most important of all, the money tax was collected. this must be paid to the agha because he was the master of the village. abdullah was the "kedkhoda" or village head. sometimes the taxes made him and the white beards very anxious, for all the money must be collected. but this year the harvest had been a good one, and only three men told abdullah that they could not pay what was expected. the white beards were much displeased. they said, "you will make our faces black before our agha. we shall have to tell him, 'these three men only did not pay.' what he will do god knows. our agha has many ferashes." the three men cried, and their wives screamed and tore their hair. they offered to pay one half, or three quarters, but the white beards only replied, "we must leave it to the agha." finally, on the day before the agha arrived, the last shahi due was paid to abdullah. the master looked very much pleased the next afternoon, when abdullah and the white beards, with many bows, offered him the taxes in full, with a present of ten tomans and three large baskets of grapes besides. "you have made my face white," he said. "and you, kedkhoda; in all of my villages i have no one better than you. you have made my eyes to shine; speak, then, that i may make your face white. what wish have you?" "o agha!" replied abdullah, "what we have done is nothing, it is dirt, and we are as the dirt under your feet. and yet, since you have stooped to notice me, and have filled my mouth with sugar by your words, i have indeed a request, that i shall make, since you so command. "i have a son. he is a worthless boy, indeed, and yet he has studied long with our mullah, and has read the holy koran, and the books of the poets. if he could live with you, if only to sweep the straw for your horse's stall, why, then, indeed you would lift my head to the clouds and fill my mouth with laughing." "is he with you?" asked the agha. "let him enter." the man at the door called karim, who was waiting outside, dressed in a new blue broadcloth coat. as he entered he bowed low, and then stood at the end of the room, politely covering his hands in his coat-sleeves. "what is your name?" asked the agha. "thanks to god, your servant's name is karim." "which of our poets have you read?" "a few of the pearls of wisdom of sheikh sa'adi have lodged in my skull, thanks to the thumpings of our mullah." "indeed," added abdullah, proudly, "he is not stupid. if it please you, he can recite well." "it is well," said the agha. "let me hear you, my lad." so karim recited a poem, in a sing-song voice, as he had been trained by the mullah. as he closed the agha rubbed his hands with pleasure. "this is wonderful! who would have expected such knowledge in a village peasant? you say that the mullah taught you. he shall have a reward for such faithful service. and you," he added, turning to abdullah, "your request is granted. nasr'ullah, my groom, will find a place for your son with him." [illustration: the governor's palace.] chapter ix karim leaves home when the agha went back to the city to become its governor karim bade good-bye to his parents and went with him. he was one of the stable boys for nasr'ullah the groom. he now lived on the grounds of the governor's palace. one entered these grounds through large gates of wood. the gateway was faced with bright red brick arranged in pretty patterns. then came a large court yard, paved with stone, and surrounded with rooms for nasr'ullah and those who helped him. in one of these karim slept. a large doorway near by led to a long line of stalls, where twenty riding horses were kept, with their saddles, saddle cloths and bridles hanging ready for use at a half hour's notice. from this court yard a small gate way opened into another and larger yard. here were broad walks paved with flat stones and bordered with little plots of green grass, rose bushes and small beds of bright yellow and red flowers. a few mulberry trees gave a pleasant shade. there were two great stone rimmed tanks full of water. around this court yard were many rooms. the reception room was large, with white walls and windows of stained glass. its floor was covered with richly coloured carpets. the tea room had soft divans along the walls, with wide windows to catch the breeze. there were also rooms for the governor's son, ardashir khan, and for the mirza (secretary) who taught him, and for the servants. beyond were the kitchens, where the men in charge always kept tea and food ready, because no one could tell just when a visitor might come with his attendants. in all about fifty men had work to do about the palace. all of them were given their meals, and many slept there. behind the great court yard was another yard, almost as large, into which karim never entered, as it was reserved for the ladies of the governor's family, and for the women and girls who served them. the court yard was shaded by tall chenars (a kind of sycamore), and had in it streams of water, plots of grass, rose bushes, flower beds, and a grape arbour. in the branches of the chenars, thirty feet above the ground, were two nests of the "hajji legleg," or stork. this bird was called "hajji," or "pilgrim," because storks fly away each fall and always return to their nests in the spring. they were never disturbed, because they were said to bring good luck. they reminded karim of his own village, where two pairs of storks had made their nests for years. he had heard of one village where there were twenty or thirty nests, on the trees, walls, and even on the roofs of the houses. he had often watched the parent storks, one at a time, brooding over the blue eggs or feeding their young. father stork used to feed the mother while she was sitting, dropping from his bill into hers such tidbits as live frogs or snakes captured from the little swamps near the river, and around the ponds. as soon as the three or four young storks had hatched the father and mother took turns in their work. one stayed at home and guarded the children, while the other hunted for food. when the hunter came in sight of the nest he made a great noise clapping with his bill, for storks have no call, and his mate answered him. the young storks made a low sound something like a kitten's mews as they sat with their long bills wide open, waiting for breakfast to drop in; they spent much time, too, leaping up and down in their nests like jacks-in-the-box, exercising their wings. chapter x karim goes to market karim's first work was to help take care of the horses. it was not always easy, for they were splendid animals, high spirited and vicious, and ready to break away, if possible, in order to get into a fierce fight with each other. after karim learned to ride, he asked nasr'ullah if he could not be one of the attendants of ardashir khan, the agha's son, on his horseback rides. "i can let you have a horse," said nasr'ullah, "but i have no good saddle to spare. the khan is very particular." "may i go if i get a new saddle?" asked karim, eagerly. "if god will, i am willing," said nasr'ullah. so karim got his money and started to the shops or "bazaars." he went down the narrow street and past the graveyard, with its rude slabs of untrimmed stone, and on to the bazaars. here the street was roofed over by a row of little domes, with round openings above for light and air. it was crowded with people. there were women wrapped in shapeless masses of blue cloth, with faces carefully covered; long robed "sayids" with green turbans on to show that they were descendants of the prophet muhammad; peasants passed in old and ragged coats; city men in blue broadcloth and tall black hats, and kurds from the mountains, wearing bright coloured coats, baggy trousers, and wide red belts, in which were thrust big daggers. here, in a corner, sat a man roasting "kabobs," bits of meat which he deftly wrapped in flaps of bread and sold. the purchasers took them in their fingers and ate them at once. here were shops where a dozen men were making a great noise hammering out brass vases, bowls and tea urns. just beyond were the shops of the saddle makers. there karim saw just the saddle he wanted. he stepped to the edge of the shop and looked at it. the shop keeper looked up from the strap he was cutting. "peace be to you," said karim. "peace be to you," replied the shop keeper, eyeing karim's good coat and new hat. "with god's blessing have you come. i can see by your looks that you are a good rider and know good saddles. let me show you this one. it is fit for king solomon himself." "i am looking for a saddle," replied karim, feeling pleased, "and it must be a good one, suited to an attendant of ardashir khan, the son of the governor. but i am not as rich as king solomon, and cannot buy saddles fitted for him." "indeed, may i be your sacrifice!" cried the shop keeper. "this saddle is a very poor gift, but take it, for you are a servant of our good governor, whom i hope god will bless. it is a present. my eyes for it, just command me, and it's yours." "o no," said karim, "of course i could not rob you so. i shall buy it, and pay you good money. what's your price?" "no!" insisted the shop keeper, "take it. it is yours, with god's blessing." "i cannot," said karim. "i will buy it. what is your price?" the shop keeper looked disappointed. "if you won't take the saddle as a present," he said, "you must name your own price. i can _sell_ nothing to the servant of our governor, whom i hope god will bless. name a price, my soul; anything, and it is yours." "since you say i must name a price," said karim, feeling rather at sea, "i will give one toman." "what!" screamed the shop keeper, "only one toman for a saddle fit for the hero rustem! what pack horse's saddle would cost so little? ten tomans could not buy it." "fit for rustem, indeed!" said karim, scornfully. "my master's mule driver would be ashamed to ride on it. see how the leather is worn, here, and here, and here. one toman is too much, but my master is generous, and so i must be. take eleven krans, and thank god." "this is the way you servants of the khans laugh at my beard, and grind the faces of us who are poor. the leather alone of this saddle cost more than eleven krans. if i sold it for seven tomans, i would be giving it away." "your beard indeed saves you," said karim, "for it is long, and i must treat you with respect. for the sake of your beard i'll offer fifteen krans." "it is plain you are a country bumpkin, and do not know what saddles are worth," said the shop keeper. "ask any one of these merchants here, and he will tell you that if i sell the saddle for six tomans i shall lose money. but our governor, your master, is a good man. for his sake take it for five and a half." in reply karim offered two tomans. the shop keeper came down to five. they kept on disputing in this way until at last karim bought the saddle for three tomans. he carried it home on his shoulder, and began to brag to the other servants about his bargain. but the groom laughed at him. "the shop keeper was right," he said, "you are a bumpkin. why did you tell him you were a servant of the governor? they sell saddles like this in the bazaars every day for two tomans." chapter xi karim at the palace nasr'ullah was true to his promise, for he saw that karim was large for his age, and had already learned how to manage horses. ardashir khan, the agha's son, was very fond of riding, and was often in the saddle. sometimes there was simply a ride across country to the hills, made gay by feats of horsemanship. the young khan and his friends, with their servants, rode madly at full speed in small circles, or pretended to get into a fight and fired their guns when at full run. at other times there was a party to hunt quail or partridge with the aid of falcons and dogs. but one of the pleasantest excursions was to a garden-house, surrounded by tall trees and grassy lawns. here the young khans, in a cool porch beside a pool of clear water, drank the tea prepared by their servants, and smoked the pipe, while they enjoyed each other's jokes and stories. one story of which no one seemed to tire, if it was well told, was about the disappointments of the lovers leila and majnoun. the story of leila and majnoun leila was the beautiful daughter of a chieftain who camped with his followers in tents, and wandered over the country, going wherever he could find water and grass for his flocks of sheep. once he stopped near a village where dwelt a noble young man, majnoun. leila lived a freer life than the women and girls who were in the villages, and was allowed to wander over the hillsides with uncovered face; in this way she happened to meet majnoun. they fell deeply in love with each other, and often met among the lonely hillside rocks. leila's father did not know of this, or he would have been displeased, for majnoun was not a chieftain, like himself. one day majnoun was astounded to find the place empty where the chief's tent had been. it seemed hopeless to find him, for no one knew in which direction he had gone, but majnoun did not give up. he left his father's house and wandered through all the neighbouring region, searching for the encampment. although his search was in vain, he loved leila so that he could not give up, but wandered in all directions searching eagerly for her. the weeks lengthened to months, and the months to years, but still he could not find her. meantime leila was as much distressed as was majnoun. but it was impossible for her to search, for she was a woman, and must remain at home. all she could do was to weep in secret and sing songs or compose little verses that told of her grief. after a time the chief of another tribe, who had heard of leila's beauty, came with many horsemen and splendid presents to ask her father if he might marry her. her father was much pleased, but poor leila was heart broken. when her father heard that she was unwilling to be married he became angry. "my daughter is of age," he said, "and her suitor is wealthy and of high rank. what more can she want? she must be married to the chief." so the wedding was celebrated with a great deal of expense, and every one was very happy except the bride. there was now no hope for leila, but she could not forget her lover. long years passed, and she heard nothing of majnoun. yet she did not forget him. she used to wander alone over the mountain side near her husband's tents, singing of her disappointment. one day she heard her song answered by a well remembered voice, singing, like her, of a long lost love. and so at last they had found each other. but it was a very sad meeting. leila was too honourable to disgrace her husband and herself by running off with majnoun, and he was too noble to wish her to do so. they could only express their grief in song, and then bid farewell to each other for ever. after karim had become well acquainted with the governor's servants he persuaded musa, who had charge of such matters, to allow him to be one of the men who waited upon the agha when he had callers. karim stood at the door with hands covered until it was time to bring in the tea or "kalian," or water pipe, in which the smoke was drawn first through water and then through a long tube to cool it. karim brought it in and silently placed it before a guest, who took a few whiffs, and then passed it to the man next him. this man did the same, and in this way the pipe was passed along the whole line of guests, sitting against the walls on either side of the governor. the tea was served in little tumblers. it was made with plenty of sugar, and was so hot that the guest made a noise when drinking it, drawing in air to keep from scalding his mouth. the governor usually treated his guests very politely, although he did not rise as they entered, because he was of higher rank than they. when he wished to show very great honour to a caller he beckoned to him to come and sit by his side. he kissed him on both cheeks, and asked him quickly, "is your health good? is your appetite good? are you healthy, and fat? your coming is delightful. your arrival is most pleasant. you have come on my eyes." but he was not always so gracious. once a very rich khan called, bringing a letter which he wished to present. it happened that he was very near-sighted, and usually wore glasses. but to wear glasses when calling on the governor would have been impolite, so he took them off before entering. it was an amusing sight to see his eyes rolling as he walked up the carpet trying to pick out the governor from among the callers who were seated by him. to have given the letter to the wrong man would have been a great insult. luckily, he made no mistake, and, bowing low, handed the governor the letter. the governor opened and read it, then tore it up and threw it out of the window, and began to converse again with the other callers. meantime the khan stood patiently waiting, for to speak without being first spoken to was impolite, and to leave without permission an insult. at last he said to the governor, "with your permission, may i be excused?" "you were excused before you came," replied the governor. so the khan managed to get away, backing all the way to the door (to turn around would be improper), and bowing again and again. chapter xii sohrab and rustem the governor's mirza (or secretary) was very friendly with karim, and allowed him to read his books. he had a fine copy of the "shah nameh" or "book of kings," by the great poet firdousi. it was very large, and full of stirring poetry describing the wonderful deeds of kings and heroes who lived long ago. the greatest of them was rustem. at eight years of age he was as strong as any hero of that time. this is one of the famous stories that karim most enjoyed. the story of sohrab and rustem rustem once went on a hunting trip that led him to the boundaries of persia. becoming tired after a long day's chase, he lay down to sleep, leaving his splendid horse rakush to graze near by. some tartar robbers, creeping up, led away the horse. rustem, when he awoke, followed the hoofprints until he arrived at the kingdom of samengan. its king came to meet the hero, and promised to give back his horse if he became his guest. while here rustem met the king's daughter, the princess tamineh. they fell in love and were married with great splendour. it was not possible for rustem to live long with his bride, because he was needed by his lord, the king of persia. he was compelled to leave tamineh before he could even see the baby that was born. but he sent them a splendid present. the baby was a boy, and tamineh said to herself, "if rustem hears that his child is a boy he will send for him, and leave me desolate." so she told the messenger who brought the present that the child was a girl. tamineh named her son sohrab. as he grew up he became very strong and brave. when he was ten years old she told him that his father was rustem, but added, "if you let this be known rustem's enemies will try to kill you, for he is hated by many warriors here, because he has beaten them in battle." when sohrab was fourteen years old he was as strong as the greatest warrior. he now declared that he intended to conquer kaoos, the king of persia, and to make rustem king in his stead. king afraysiab, who was a great enemy of the persians, heard of this plan. he thought to himself, "sohrab is the only hero strong enough to meet rustem. if i can keep him from recognizing rustem perhaps he will kill him as a foe." so he sent word to sohrab that he would join with him in the war. but secretly he told his generals, human and bahman, that they should not permit sohrab to recognize rustem, and that if they could they should bring the two together in battle. when the armies met, these generals arranged with king kaoos that two champions, one for each side, should meet in single combat. the king selected his greatest hero, rustem, as the champion for the persians. sohrab, of course, was chosen by afraysiab's generals to fight against him. sohrab suspected that his foe was rustem, and when they met begged him to tell his name, but rustem refused. twice they fought, and twice sohrab conquered. but he was moved by a strange love for his foe, and, though victor, spared his life. and now the third and last day of the struggle arrived. as sohrab was putting on his armour he looked at the persian hero, and said to human, "see how strong and brave my foe appears! just such a man as my mother said that rustem is. he surely is rustem." "not at all," replied human, "i know rustem's appearance well. that horse, it is true, looks like rakush, but is less strong and beautiful." the champions now approached each other. sohrab, again in doubt, spoke, "let us sit here as friends, for my heart is drawn to you. be as generous as i am, and tell me who you are! say, are you rustem, whom i long to know?" "away with your excuses!" cried rustem. "we meet to fight. i claim the struggle." "old man," said sohrab, "you refuse to listen to me. then take care for yourself!" each now tied his horse, tightened his belt, and rubbed his arms and wrists in angry excitement, for the struggle was to be by wrestling. and now the heroes meet and clasp; in the terrible strain they seem like raging elephants. the ground grows black with the blood and sweat that drops from their straining bodies. sohrab threw himself forward with a sudden spring and seized his enemy around the belt. rustem, feeling his strength give way, fell heavily to the ground. sohrab leaned over to kill him, but rustem cried out, "hold! do you not know the law? it gives the beaten man a second chance." this was a crafty lie. sohrab believed it. he left his foe, and went proudly back to the cheering ranks of his friends. careless he waited, and made no preparation for the next fight. but rustem went to a stream, and bathed his limbs, and prayed for the strength that once had been his. the two then met again. sohrab scornfully exclaimed, "you dare to meet me, do you? are you looking for a death with honour, because you have been beaten so often? but you care not, old man, for the truth, and perhaps you have another trick to try. twice already have i spared you just because you are old." "you are young and haughty," replied rustem, "but perhaps my aged arm will yet subdue your pride." then they rushed to the fight, tugging and bending, and twisting their great limbs, until rustem with a mighty effort grasped sohrab. bending his back, he hurled him to the ground. but he knew that he was not strong enough to keep him there, so he quickly drew his dagger and stabbed him. sohrab writhed in pain as he said, "do not now boast in your pride; i have brought this upon myself. fate ordered that you should kill me. o, if only i could have seen my father! my mother told me how to recognize him, and i sought for him. my only wish is to see him, and here i die alone! but do not hope to escape him! wherever you flee, rustem in sorrow and anger will pursue you." rustem shook with horror at these words. his brain reeled; at last with a groan he cried, "prove you are mine! for i am rustem!" sohrab stared wildly at him, and said, "if you are rustem, you have indeed a cruel heart, else you would have known me long ago. take from my arm its coat of mail, and see there the golden bracelet you left with my mother." rustem tore off the mail; at the sight of the gleaming bracelet he fell to the ground, crying, "by my own hand my son, my son is killed!" lying in the dust, with groans, in his despair he tore his hair and clothing. meantime the sun had set, and rakush, forgotten by his master, started for the camp and entered the ranks of the waiting persians. they saw the empty saddle, and in fear galloped to the battle ground. the dying sohrab heard the tramp of their horses, and said, "let peace come from my death. beseech king kaoos to spare the tartar army, for they are not to blame. i am to blame. i sought to find you. and how often did i look for my father rustem, and how sure i felt that you were he. but you denied it, and yet i could not kill you. now fate has disappointed all my hopes, and stained your hands with my life blood." the soldiers approached, and horror came upon them as they saw the agony of rustem. "here ends the war," he said to them; then, looking at his dying son, he groaned, "oh what a curse has come upon a parent's head!" in his despair he drew his weapon, to kill himself, but the persian captains seized his arm. then, arousing, he exclaimed to the chief gudurz, "hasten! hasten to king kaoos, and beg of him the medicine he has that yet will save my son! remind him of my deeds for him, and entreat that he send it for my sake." gudurz galloped to the king, but the cruel king replied, "can i forgive that shameless boy, who scorned me with my army, and sought my throne? only a fool would save the life of such a foe." gudurz returned with this bitter message. rustem then left his dying son, and hastened himself to the king. but while he was yet on the way a messenger brought word that sohrab was dead. chapter xiii new opportunities often the governor had dinner parties for his friends. these were always a delight to karim, who helped to make the room ready. first the servants spread upon the richly woven carpet a coloured cloth that covered the entire centre of the long room. along the edges of this cloth a man next spread the large flaps of thin whole wheat bread. then the centre was filled with all kinds of good things to eat. there were large plates heaped high with pilav, well buttered and mixed with bits of orange and spices, and topped with pieces of well cooked chicken. near by in other dishes were bits of mutton in spiced gravies. the yellow curry, in saucers, was placed near the rice, all ready to be mixed with it. other dishes held cold rice, cooked in milk and sugar until it was almost solid. often there were large dishes of cucumbers, tomatoes, or apples, with their centres cut out and filled with spiced meats and thoroughly cooked. there were side dishes of sweet preserves, and of red peppers. the guests left their shoes at the door, and sat down on the floor next to the table cloth. each rested on his heels, flattening out the instep. he was careful not to move his legs at all during the meal, no matter how tired they became, because that would suggest that he was not enjoying the entertainment. each guest was also careful to sit further from the governor than other guests of higher rank. if he did not, the guest whose place he had taken would probably have disgraced him by making him get up and change his seat. when the eating began every one was busy. each tore off little pieces of bread, and with their help took the meat or rice from the dishes. there were no separate plates, or knives or forks. once in a while the governor with his own hand poked a piece of food into the mouth of the guest who sat next to him. this was a great compliment. the servants went softly about in stocking feet, seeing that the dishes were kept full. when all had eaten enough, the table cloth was cleared, and sherbet, or sweetened water, was brought in, with plates of candy and small sweet cakes. karim carried around a pitcher of water, while another servant went with him, carrying a basin and towel. each guest washed his hands. by this time many in the room were laughing and chatting. sometimes the conversation was kept up for several hours, until tea and the kalian had been passed around. meantime the servants, in another room, were having a splendid feast with the food left by the guests. so much was cooked that there was always plenty to spare. when they finished eating, the dishes were passed out to the hostlers; lastly, the hostlers passed on the scraps to the beggars waiting at the gate, so that nothing was lost. one day, when karim was sitting alone in the mirza's room, a stranger entered. "peace be to you," said karim. "may you have peace. is not the mirza in?" "he has been called by the agha--whose life god will lengthen!--and is very busy." "has he no time, then, to write a letter for me? do you know of any one who can compose a good letter?" "indeed," replied karim, who wanted to show what he knew, "the mirza, when i help him, says that my writing is second only to his. if my letter does not please you, come again when the mirza is not busy. what is your need?" "yesterday," said the man, "a merchant sent me some splendid pomegranates. he has made my face to shine, and i wish to thank him. i wish also to beg him to send me some more." karim opened the pen case, and took out a reed pen, which he sharpened and smoothed. then he took a roll of paper, trimmed it with the scissors, and rubbed its edges with saffron. putting the paper on his knee as he sat on the floor he began to write, pushing the pen across the paper from right to left. [illustration: "putting the paper on his knee as he sat on the floor."] when he was through he read the letter to the man. "that is just the kind of letter i want," he said. "very well," said karim, "i shall seal it. where is your seal?" he took the man's seal, engraved on a bit of agate, and after wetting it with the thick ink, pressed it on the paper. then he folded the letter and handed it to the man, who thanked him many times, and offered him ten shahis in payment. when karim told the mirza what he had written the latter said, "you have learned quickly from me how to compose well. let me keep on teaching you, and you will become almost as skilful as i." this is a translation of the letter that karim composed: "my kind, honourable and respected master, whose honour i hope may last: "just when my weak mind was planning to ask you about the state of your health, which is so important to us, the noble, famous and wise sayid ibrahim (i hope that his life may be lengthened!) unexpectedly gave me your kind letter. when i opened the letter it seemed to me that i was uncorking a bottle of rose-water. when its perfume of love reached the nose of my soul, because it brought me the news of your good health, i was as full of joy as i could be. and by showing me your favour, that is, by sending me the pomegranates, you have made me very glad. i hope that you will always gladden my heart with this kind of favour, each year sending me the happy news of your own good health. my longing eye is all the time looking up the street. "i wish this letter to carry some sign of my love, so i am sending you with it a pair of gloves. wear them, please, for the sake of remembering me. "rashid." chapter xiv two important events karim used to go back several times a year to spend a week or two with abdullah and nana. they were always delighted to see him and to hear of his new life, and much pleased with the presents he brought. on one of these visits nana asked him whether he did not wish to become betrothed. karim at once felt very bashful, but at last told his mother whom he was thinking of, and she promised to speak to abdullah about it. she did so that very afternoon. "master," she said, "you know that your son is now fifteen years old, and ought to be betrothed. he told me this morning that he wishes us to ask shahbaz if he will not let him marry his daughter kadija." "k'choo!" sneezed dada, and then blinked at the sun, for good luck. both waited quietly for a minute, and then nana exclaimed, "awý! what bad luck! god has shown us that we should not ask for kadija." "there are other girls," said dada, and after a long talk that evening with karim they decided to ask suleiman for his daughter. next morning dada started out to ask mashaddi to tell his mother to see suleiman about this. on the way he greeted husain. "peace be to you." "may you have peace," replied husain. "where are you going?" "what luck!" muttered dada, and went back home again. "why have you come back so soon?" asked grandmother in surprise. "that fool husain asked me a question that brings bad luck," said dada, "so of course i came back to start out over again. a person cannot be too careful at a time like this." "we seem to be having bad luck about it all," replied grandmother. "i had hoped that kadija was the right girl, but of course, since you sneezed only once, she--" "k'chee! k'choo!" broke in nana. "praise be to god!" exclaimed grandmother. "we were talking of kadija, and nana sneezed twice. you know that means the best of luck. let us ask for her." shahbaz was much pleased when mashaddi's mother told him what abdullah was hoping for. when abdullah learned this he sent rice and meat and butter to shahbaz' house, and later came himself with mashaddi and a few other friends, carrying as presents, among other things, a ring and a pair of shoes, and a large tray covered with candy, with a red handkerchief spread over the top. "peace be to you, my brothers," said shahbaz. "may you have peace," replied abdullah. "i have come to ask whether you are willing to marry the light of your eyes, your daughter kadija, to my son karim." "you show me so much more honour than i can possibly deserve in asking this," said shahbaz, politely, "that i am too much overcome to trust myself to answer you. i must ask my mother and my brother about it." he went in to ask them, and came back in fifteen minutes, all smiles. "my daughter is like a pair of shoes to your son," he said. "praise be to god!" exclaimed abdullah, and sent the ring in to kadija, who of course was keeping out of sight of the men. her grandmother put it upon the girl's finger, thus showing that she was now betrothed to karim. then the men all sat down to a dinner cooked from the food abdullah had sent. after this abdullah was careful to send a present to shahbaz once in a while--a chicken, or a lamb, or a toman or two. it would have been more improper than ever for karim to visit kadija, now that they were betrothed. as she did not know how to read he could not send her notes, but had to trust that nana or grandmother would tell kadija what he wished her to know. this was very hard to bear whenever he was at home on a visit, but there was no help for it. one day the mirza said, "karim, you know about that dog of a kurd, sheikh tahar, who captured the governor's soldiers among the mountains, coming on them while they were asleep, and who robbed the village of dizza. now he has sent a letter to the governor in which he asks that some one be sent to talk with him and make peace. the governor is going to send abbas khan. he wants a mirza to go with him. i have taught you to compose and write well. i am old; why should i trot about among the mountains to please that dog of a kurd? the work will be an honour to you. let me recommend you." so it came about that a few days later karim was riding over the plain towards the mountain pass with abbas khan and his forty horsemen. each man carried a breech-loading gun, with a pistol at the pommel and a dagger in his belt. the road passed over the flat plain, by a river, now running quietly below high banks in its wide and stony bed, for it was late in the summer. in the spring, after the rains, the bed was filled from bank to bank with an angry torrent of muddy water. crossing a bridge, with arches of red brick, and small towers at either end, built by a rich man as a good deed, to help him enter heaven when he died, they entered the village where they were to stop for the night. the kedkhoda and village white beards met them with many bows. almost every house had one or more guests that night. karim and the major who commanded the forty horsemen were together in a room that had a rude framework of poles along one side. from its top stretched downwards a long line of woollen threads of different colours. on the little stools in front, the women of the house sat while hour after hour for days at a time they patiently wove in and out the coloured wool thread that slowly built up a beautiful persian carpet. none of these women had ever read a book telling how to weave, or had ever seen a pattern of the bright figures they wove into the rug. they had learned the patterns by practice under the direction of their mothers. their mothers had learned them in the same way. and now the girls were sitting before the loom and learning by practice to weave the same patterns. a small boy told them some interesting news. "people say," he said, "that the king of the fleas lives in this village with half the fleas of the plain. we don't mind them, but many travellers can't sleep." karim laughed at this. he had never bothered himself much about such little things, but before morning he was quite ready to believe the boy. chapter xv among the kurds [illustration: a kurdish shepherd.] they started early the next morning. the road first led through a plain, between rice fields flooded with water from a large ditch. next it wound past vineyards with bunches of white and purple grapes, and fields of glistening wheat stubble. then, passing up a long valley, they crossed uplands covered with thick rich grass, quite different from the bare hills so often seen. in the distance grazed large flocks of sheep, guarded by kurdish shepherds, stern, wild-looking men, with baggy trousers and jackets of many colours, and large peaked felt hats. each had several daggers in his belt. they were followed by dogs as large and almost as fierce as wolves. beyond, on entering a little valley, they suddenly came upon the tents of an encampment of kurds. the tents were of thick black felt, long and irregular in shape, and held up by a great many poles. the flaps were partly open for the air. there was not much to be seen inside; rugs here and there lay on the ground, and bedding was rolled in large bundles. a few dishes and kettles were near the hearth, and here and there hung large sheep skins sewed into a rounded shape and filled with milk ready to be churned. on the poles hung guns and daggers, and bridles for the horses, with the saddles and saddle-cloths beneath. the horses themselves were grazing near by, each tethered by his leg with a rope to a stake. when the persians appeared the women and children rushed into the tents, from which they looked out on the party, the dogs barked fiercely, and the few men who were lounging around with their guns handy scowled darkly when they replied to the major's "peace be with you." they stopped for the night in a village at the foot of a small cliff, on whose crest were the ruined walls of a castle. karim walked up to see it. the wall, of cobble stone, had once been about twelve feet high and went around that part of the crest not protected by the cliff. within were the tumbled walls of houses, and three large cracked cisterns, meant to catch rain water. on the farther side was the arched opening to an underground passage, whose round top here and there had been uncovered by the rains, so that he traced it stretching down the brown hillside to a spot below covered with green grass. near him, in the wall, was a gateway, protected by a tower of cut stone. near this tower was a strange recess that seemed cut into the rock. the village boys with karim said that this was a holy place, because the prophet ali had been there. he had been flying through the air when going home from a visit to a holy shrine, and had stopped to rest. as he leaned back against the rock he pushed it in and so made the recess. he was able to do such a wonderful thing because he was a very holy man. that evening karim heard the story of the destruction of the castle. here it is: about fifty years before, the castle was the home of a kurdish chief, or sheikh, who gave a great deal of trouble to the governor in the city. he robbed the villages and the caravans, and never paid taxes or gave any presents to the governor. the governor did not have enough soldiers to punish the sheikh, so at last the ruler of the province came with an army and besieged the castle. he placed guards on all sides, so that no one could go in or come out. he put a cannon on a large white stone on the hillside opposite, and fired at the castle. this troubled the sheikh very much, but still he did not surrender. so the persians called the peasants who lived in the villages near by and asked them how the sheikh was able to get water to drink. some peasants told about the secret passage down to water, but as it was carefully covered no one knew just where to find it. so the persian ruler took a mule, and ordered that for several days it be given plenty of food, but no water to drink. in this way the mule became very thirsty. then the ruler ordered his men to lead it slowly around the castle. when the mule had been led almost all the way around it suddenly stopped and began pawing the ground, because it smelled water. here the persians dug into the earth, and found the secret passage way. then the sheikh in the castle called his men together, with their wives and children, who were with them. he told them that there was no more hope, for they had no water, but that they must not fall alive into the hands of the cruel persians. still, he said, he would not ask them to kill their own wives and children. he would let these surrender if they wished to, but not a man must surrender. the women cried out that they would rather die than be taken prisoners. and so they rushed with their children to the cliff and threw themselves over it to death--all except one, whose clothes broke the fall. the men opened the castle gate, and, rushing out, fought fiercely until all had been killed by their foes. chapter xvi rumours of war the next day for three hours they climbed up a rocky valley, and then crossed a high ridge, from whose summit they saw a plain at the foot of snow capped mountains. "those mountains," said abbas khan, "are sheikh tahar's fort. whenever we beat him in a fight he hides among their rocks. what can we do?" going down the steep slopes in zigzags, they crossed some low hills, and entered the plain. a village lay on its edge, at the foot of some hills. the top of one of these hills was surrounded by a high adobe wall. the people of this village looked very wretched; they were wearing clothes that were in rags and tatters. the houses were without window or door frames, and as one peered through the gaping doors he saw nothing but the bare floors. no cattle or sheep could be seen. this was the village that sheikh tahar had robbed. next morning the kedkhoda told the story to abbas khan. karim, as mirza, wrote down what was said. "the kurds," said the kedkhoda, "had told some of us that they were going to rob us. at first we did not believe it. but three days before the great attack forty of them suddenly came down upon our shepherds, who were pasturing our two thousand sheep on the hills. the ten shepherds came running for help to the village. we hurried out, thirty of us, but it was too late. the next day some men told us that the kurds were planning to attack us within two days. the white beards talked it over, and we decided to carry everything that we could into the walled fort on the hill. we were busy doing this all the next day, until the ground inside was covered with boxes, bundles, plows, yokes, piles of wheat, jars, and everything else we had. we drove in the few cattle and sheep we had left, with our geese and chickens and donkeys. that evening our watchmen saw many kurds on a hill near by. the next morning there seemed to be hundreds of them. they got on that hilltop yonder, which, as you see, is higher than the fort, and fired at us. we all crowded up beneath the wall nearest to them, where they could not hit us with their bullets. then the kurds came up to the wall, yelling like devils, and threw stones over its top. they came tumbling so thick that we could hardly stay next to the wall at all--but to move away meant to be shot. we had guns, but what use were they? if we had killed any of the kurds they would have killed us later. we had no water, and what help could come to us? so one of our old men crept to the gate to try and talk with them; they shot him dead. another climbed a ladder against the wall near the place where some men from a near by village were throwing stones at us--he knew them well--to beg them to speak for us to the kurds; he fell over with a bullet in his head. so we just opened the gate and let them in. they rushed through it like a lot of wolves, with yells of joy, and began at once to snatch at everything they could. they took everything, boxes of clothing, the wedding outfits of our brides, the head-dresses of our women, with the strings of money on them, the cows and sheep and wheat. if they could not unlock a box they smashed it open. they made us take off our shoes and coats and give them up. at last, when there was not anything else left, they formed in two long lines outside the gate, and made us all pass one by one between. if anyone saw something one of us had that he wanted he snatched it. and so we got away, and ran to our houses, weeping, and some of us bleeding from wounds. there we found everything stripped bare, as you see. now we have nothing left but these houses, and they are all empty." all the men of the village in the room now burst out crying, and the women outside sobbed and wailed and pulled at their hair. "do not weep," said abbas khan. "the governor will command the people in the other villages to give you food and clothes, and will send you wheat to plant in your fields. he will surely punish the kurds, because they have laughed at his beard, and he is a lion among men." the next day they rode across the plain to a large village. the roofs of the houses here were little above the surface of the ground. in the house where karim spent the night the animals lived in the same room with the men, and so helped to keep it warm. he found it hard to sleep. two lambs shut under a large basket bleated pitifully for a long time. next some animal startled him from a doze by beginning to lick his hand. very early in the morning the rooster in the room began to crow, and kept it up at intervals until dawn. worst of all, he could only grumble to himself and not wring the rooster's neck, even though he was the servant of the governor. he did not dare to make trouble, because the villagers here, unlike those near the city, were not much afraid of the governor, and not at all afraid of a fight. chapter xvii sheikh tahar that afternoon ten kurds rode into the village. their three leaders were gaily dressed in baggy red trousers and blue and crimson jackets. they wore broad crimson sashes, and red silk streamers floated from their turbans. all were armed with rifles and several daggers apiece, while three carried long lances as well. abbas khan met them at the door of the house where he was staying, and the leaders followed him inside, where they sat together on the cushions at one end, while a row of well armed persians sat around the walls. outside, in the yard, four kurds stood by the horses. the persian soldiers gathered around them, and as one kurd could speak the persian language a lively conversation soon began. "our agha is very angry," said one, "and will never rest until your chief has eaten dirt before him." "wallah!" said the kurd, "if he wants him to eat dirt, let him catch him." "but your chief knows well that he cannot fight with the persians," was the reply. "because he has trapped a few sons of dogs when they were asleep does he think he can face the cannon and horsemen our agha will send against him? wah! if he is wise he will eat a mouthful of dirt now, instead of many handfuls later. is he stronger than was ismail agha?" "we all know of ismail agha," replied the kurd. "my cousin's wife's uncle was there when he was killed. your general came with his horsemen to the foot of the hill where the agha's castle was built. he sent up two khans to ask him to come down. the khans swore by all that was holy that no harm would come to him, and said that they themselves would stay at the castle gate as hostages if he went. he was an honest man and believed them. he rode down the hill with only ten horsemen with him. after a while the kurds at the castle gate heard the sound of guns. the two persian khans--sons of liars--with faces full of joy exclaimed, 'peace has been made. they are shooting off their guns for joy. let us ride down and join in the celebration.' we kurds are honest fellows; we did not shoot them, but turned to mount our horses--and they galloped off and left us. the kurds pursued, but only to meet the agha's ten horsemen coming at breakneck speed with the news that ismail agha was dead. the general had received him very politely, but as he turned to mount his horse after the talk was over a persian shot him from behind. but sheikh tahar will not be caught in that way." the major now interrupted, saying, "but our agha does not fight in that way. he does not use tricks. he has cannon, and horsemen, and he fights in the open." "i know you have cannon," said the kurd, "yet still we do not fear. by tricks you win. but they will not succeed against sheikh tahar. do you know the story of the kurdish fox and the persian fox? "once these two foxes met. the kurdish fox said to the persian fox, "'how many tricks do you know?' "the persian fox replied, 'i know twenty-six. how many do you know?' "'i know only one,' said the kurdish fox, 'but it is all i need.' "they walked on together until the persian fox saw a piece of meat and snapped at it. he found himself caught in a trap. "'my brother!' he cried in distress, 'what can i do? come and help me!' "'why do you want help?' said the kurdish fox, 'use your twenty-six tricks.' "'really, my brother,' said the persian fox, 'not a single one of them is of any use against this trap.' "'well, then,' said the kurdish fox, 'i will tell you the one trick that i know. to-morrow the owner of the trap will come. you must pretend to be dead. i shall lie down near at hand, and also pretend to be dead. he'll take your foot out of the trap. you must still pretend to be dead. he'll see me; then he'll drop you and come to get me. then you jump up and run, and i'll run, too. so we'll both be free.' "so the one trick of the kurdish fox was better than the twenty-six tricks of the persian fox." the next day abbas khan ordered all to be ready to ride out to meet sheikh tahar, who had promised to come down for a talk. everyone was busy, seeing that the rifles were ready for use, the pistols loaded, and the saddle girths strong; the horses were given a good breakfast; in short, everything was put in order, for no one knew just what they might have to do,--talk, fight, or run away. about noon all was ready, and they started. the cavalrymen amused themselves and kept up their courage by galloping in great circles. [illustration: sheikh tahar and his horsemen.] as they approached the mountain, the kurdish horsemen came in sight from behind a hill; they, too, were galloping in all directions and brandishing their spears. as they drew nearer both sides gathered into close groups, and rode on in silence. there were about seventy-five men with sheikh tahar. most of these were on horseback, dressed in baggy red trousers, wide red sashes, with scarlet and blue jackets, and wide turbans of red silk. each man was a sort of walking arsenal, with long lines of cartridges, a martini henry rifle, and silver hilted daggers or swords. but some of the footmen were dressed in very ragged clothes and two of them carried old flintlock guns. when the parties were a few hundred feet apart both stopped. after a few minutes abbas khan with five persians rode forward. on the other side sheikh tahar with five of the gayest clothed kurds also rode forward. the sheikh was a young man, with a heavy moustache and piercing, cruel eyes. when they met all twelve dismounted. some persian grooms and kurdish footmen ran forward and led the horses off a little distance. one man spread a carpet on the ground. on this the two leaders sat down. they seemed very glad to see each other, for they kissed one another on the cheeks several times. after some conversation the servants brought tea, which they drank together. karim noticed that two tea urns and two sets of tumblers were used, and that each leader was careful to have his tea made and poured into his own glass by his own man. then they stood up, kissed each other again, bowed low, and each edged carefully away to his own company, while every man in sight kept his rifle cocked. on the way back karim asked the major what the sheikh had said. he replied, "sheikh tahar said that he knew how just a man our agha was, and how full of mercy, and how brave. he loved him so much that when he found out from the prisoners he had captured that they were the agha's soldiers he could not keep the tears from his eyes. he had not fought the persian soldiers because he hated them, but because they had attacked him. why did the persians believe the lies that sheikh rakhim had told? sheikh rakhim was his enemy, and had killed ten of his men. he had revenged himself by killing fifteen men in return. sheikh rakhim for this reason had told lies to the persians and had persuaded them to send soldiers against him. "then abbas khan asked him why he had attacked and robbed the village. he said that the people of that village had killed two of his men the year before. besides, they had helped sheikh rakhim's men, who were really the enemies of the persians, although they pretended to be their friends. abbas khan said that he was delighted to hear this from sheikh tahar's own lips. he said that our agha had sent soldiers against him because the ruler of the province had believed the lies told by sheikh rakhim. but the ruler now had learned what a mistake he had made. our agha was anxious to see sheikh tahar and give him the honour he deserved. would he not come down to the plain, near the city, and meet the agha, and be honoured by him? "sheikh tahar replied that he did not deserve such honour, but if his good friend the governor commanded, it was his part to obey, and he would be pleased to come if he could. but his brothers were very angry because the persians had killed some of their men. he was afraid that he could not persuade them to let him come down. he would come if he could, for he loved the agha." "do you think he will come?" asked karim. "god knows," said the major. "i only know that abbas khan is a big liar, but that sheikh tahar is a bigger one." chapter xviii a battle and what came of it the next day abbas khan with his company started again for the city, which they reached after a quiet journey. the mirza read karim's reports, and changed them where necessary, so that they would be in proper form. then he read them to the governor. "the agha was very angry," he told karim afterwards, "when i read how the village was robbed, and he had me write a letter to sheikh tahar saying that if he did not come to the city within a week he would send up an army against him." eight days later all was astir about the palace, for the agha had ordered four thousand men with four cannon to the mountains. karim did not go with them. however, the major told him afterwards about the fight. "when we reached the plain at the foot of the mountains," he said, "sheikh rakhim came to our general. he had four hundred men with him, and declared that every one of the four hundred had taken an oath to capture sheikh tahar either dead or alive. he also said that he knew where the sheikh was hiding. our general gave him a fine horse for a present. "two days later we advanced from the village toward a mountain. we saw sheikh rakhim's kurds galloping around at the foot of the mountain, and heard their guns. between us and them was a large building. our general told us to attack it, because sheikh tahar was inside it. so we spread out in a long irregular line, and went slowly ahead, shooting at the building all the while. they brought up one of the cannon, too, and boomed away, but somehow the gunners did not seem able to hit the building. it took us an hour to get close to it, and we kept shooting at it until its walls were full of bullet marks, and some of the soldiers had no ammunition left. but not a shot, or any sound or movement, came in reply. finally, when we were quite near, the general ordered us to charge. my heart was in my throat, but i just shut my eyes and ran forward to the wall, thinking every step would be my last. but i heard nothing, and so, rushing to the door, i kicked it open, and looked in. i saw no one inside. others came up, and we rushed in, and looked into all the corners, but the house was empty. not a sign of a kurd, not even an empty cartridge shell, could we find. that was all there was of the battle. "we waited up there a week longer, but no one could tell us where sheikh tahar was. so we have come home again." a few months after this karim bade good-bye to his friends at the palace, and went back to his home to prepare for his wedding. the agha sent him a fine piece of persian shawl, and a handsome present of money, and the mirza and nasr'ulla gave him a farewell dinner. he had an equally pleasant welcome when he reached his father's house the next evening, for everyone was delighted to see him. here soon all were active in preparing for the wedding. kadija busied herself with embroidering nearly twenty small caps, and knitting over a dozen pairs of red and yellow socks, which were to be given to karim's friends. abdullah and nana made a trip to the city with the parents and uncle of kadija to buy her wedding dresses. since karim paid for them kadija's parents spent just as much money as abdullah allowed, and of course he did not like to object at such a time. they bought a skirt of bright green silk, another of yellow satin, and three of bright coloured calico, with one jacket made of persian shawl, and another of damascus silk. karim accompanied his parents to the city, and went to the palace to call upon the mirza. he was surprised to find the court yard full of kurds. the mirza was very glad to see him, but could not entertain him long. "come again another day," he said, "and i will invite our friends in to have some tea with you. just now we are busy entertaining your old friend sheikh tahar." "how is that?" asked karim in astonishment. "i thought that the governor had sworn that he would never rest until the sheikh was brought to him in chains." "so he has," replied the mirza, "and you remember how he sent up an army to capture him, and how the sheikh escaped only by making himself so small that no one could see him. but what can the agha do? this kurdish fox, when he ran away from the agha's cannon, went down to the city of kerbella, and there he made so many prayers at the grave of the holy martyr husain that the chief mullah of kerbella gave him a letter which explained how holy a man he had become, and how wrong it would be for anyone to injure him. he came back with this letter, and what can one do? all the mullahs and people would be angry if the governor did not respect it. the ruler of the province has telegraphed that the sheikh is pardoned for what he did, and now the agha is giving him a great dinner, and i must be off to write an order making him the governor of six villages, including the one he robbed. and a gold star is being sent to him by the shah, and a title, 'the sword of the kingdom.' our agha hopes that this will keep him from giving more trouble. gold stars to pin on one's breast are cheaper than fighting. the ammunition the soldiers wasted on that empty house cost the price of fifty stars and twenty dinners." chapter xix farewell to karim as the time for karim's wedding approached, the man who studied the skies was asked by abdullah to find out what day would be the best for the wedding. "the stars show me," he said, "that it must not occur upon the first day or upon the middle day of the month, or for three days after the full moon. these days will be sure to bring bad luck." the mullah then went to the house of shahbaz. kadija stood behind a curtain, so that he could not see her--for that was the custom. he read some verses from the koran, and then made a prayer. after this he asked, "kadija, daughter of shahbaz, are you willing to marry karim, the son of abdullah?" "yes," she whispered from behind the curtain. "very well," said the mullah, "since you yourself say that you are willing, no one can now object." and he thrust a paper, stating this, under the curtain. the wedding celebration lasted three days, and was held in abdullah's house. there was plenty to eat, and plenty of music, made by a fife and drum for the boys and young men to dance by in the yard; the girls and women danced inside the house. everybody in the village came to congratulate abdullah, and to take dinner. from all the villages near by the beggars swarmed outside in the dust of the street; they, too, were given something to eat. on the last day karim's friends came on horseback to shahbaz' house to take away the bride to the house of abdullah. each carried a chicken as a present. her mother threw a thick red veil over kadija, so that no one could see her, and they led her out and placed her upon a horse. then the procession started, a man walking on either side of kadija to keep her from falling, while another led the horse. the crowd began to shout and yell, and to fire off guns and pistols. [illustration: karim and his bride.] the noisy procession first went to the house of the mullah, who scattered raisins for good luck over kadija's head. then they passed on to the house of a khan, the agha's tax collector, who happened to be in the village. he threw copper shahis into the street, and laughed heartily at the boys when they fell over each other trying to pick them up. and so at last they reached abdullah's house, where karim, standing upon the roof, tried to hit his bride with three red apples, which he threw while the crowd cheered. lastly the men took kadija from the horse and she was led into the house. this completed the ceremony. here, for the first time since they had become engaged to be married, karim spoke to his bride. the end. the little colonel books (trade mark) _by annie fellows johnston_ _each vol., large mo, cloth, illustrated, per vol._ $ . =the little colonel stories= (trade mark) being three "little colonel" stories in the cosy corner series, "the little colonel," "two little knights of kentucky," and "the giant scissors," put into a single volume. =the little colonel's house party= (trade mark) =the little colonel's holidays= (trade mark) =the little colonel's hero= (trade mark) =the little colonel at boarding school= (trade mark) =the little colonel in arizona= (trade mark) =the little colonel's christmas vacation= (trade mark) =the little colonel, maid of honour= (trade mark) =the little colonel's knight comes riding= (trade mark) =mary ware: the little colonel's chum= (trade mark) _these ten volumes, boxed as a ten-volume set_ $ . =the little colonel= (trade mark) =two little knights of kentucky= =the giant scissors= =big brother= special holiday editions each one volume, cloth decorative, small quarto, $ . new plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page drawings in color, and many marginal sketches. =in the desert of waiting=: the legend of camelback mountain. =the three weavers=: a fairy tale for fathers and mothers as well as for their daughters. =keeping tryst= =the legend of the bleeding heart= =the rescue of princess winsome=: a fairy play for old and young. =the jester's sword= each one volume, tall mo, cloth decorative $ . paper boards . there has been a constant demand for publication in separate form of these six stories, which were originally included in six of the "little colonel" books. =joel: a boy of galilee=: by annie fellows johnston. illustrated by l. j. bridgman. new illustrated edition, uniform with the little colonel books, vol., large mo, cloth decorative $ . a story of the time of christ, which is one of the author's best-known books. =the little colonel good times book= uniform in size with the little colonel series. $ . bound in white kid (morocco) and gold . cover design and decorations by amy carol rand. the publishers have had many inquiries from readers of the little colonel books as to where they could obtain a "good times book" such as betty kept. mrs. johnston, who has for years kept such a book herself, has gone enthusiastically into the matter of the material and format for a similar book for her young readers. every girl will want to possess a "good times book." =asa holmes=: or, at the cross-roads. a sketch of country life and country humor. by annie fellows johnston. with a frontispiece by ernest fosbery. large mo, cloth, gilt top $ . "'asa holmes; or, at the cross-roads' is the most delightful, most sympathetic and wholesome book that has been published in a long while."--_boston times._ =the rival campers=: or, the adventures of henry burns. by ruel perley smith. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . a story of a party of typical american lads, courageous, alert, and athletic, who spend a summer camping on an island off the maine coast. =the rival campers afloat=: or, the prize yacht viking. by ruel perley smith. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . this book is a continuation of the adventures of "the rival campers" on their prize yacht _viking_. =the rival campers ashore= by ruel perley smith. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "as interesting ashore as when afloat."--_the interior._ =jack harvey's adventures=: or, the rival campers among the oyster pirates. by ruel perley smith. illustrated $ . "just the type of book which is most popular with lads who are in their early teens."--_the philadelphia item._ =prisoners of fortune:= a tale of the massachusetts bay colony. by ruel perley smith. cloth decorative, with a colored frontispiece $ . "there is an atmosphere of old new england in the book, the humor of the born raconteur about the hero, who tells his story with the gravity of a preacher, but with a solemn humor that is irresistible."--_courier-journal._ =famous cavalry leaders.= by charles h. l. johnston. large mo. with illustrations $ . biographical sketches, with interesting anecdotes and reminiscences of the heroes of history who were leaders of cavalry. "more of such books should be written, books that acquaint young readers with historical personages in a pleasant informal way."--_n. y. sun._ =famous indian chiefs.= by charles h. l. johnston. large mo, illustrated $ . in this book mr. johnston gives interesting sketches of the indian braves who have figured with prominence in the history of our own land, including powhatan, the indian cæsar; massasoit, the friend of the puritans; pontiac, the red napoleon; tecumseh, the famous war chief of the shawnees; sitting bull, the famous war chief of the sioux; geronimo, the renowned apache chief, etc., etc. =billy's princess.= by helen eggleston haskell. cloth decorative, illustrated by helen mccormick kennedy $ . billy lewis was a small boy of energy and ambition, so when he was left alone and unprotected, he simply started out to take care of himself. =tenants of the trees.= by clarence hawkes. cloth decorative, illustrated in colors $ . "a book which will appeal to all who care for the hearty, healthy, outdoor life of the country. the illustrations are particularly attractive."--_boston herald._ =beautiful joe's paradise:= or, the island of brotherly love. a sequel to "beautiful joe." by marshall saunders, author of "beautiful joe." one vol., library mo, cloth, illustrated $ . "this book revives the spirit of 'beautiful joe' capitally. it is fairly riotous with fun, and is about as unusual as anything in the animal book line that has seen the light."--_philadelphia item._ ='tilda jane.= by marshall saunders. one vol., mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $ . "i cannot think of any better book for children than this. i commend it unreservedly."--_cyrus townsend brady._ ='tilda jane's orphans.= a sequel to 'tilda jane. by marshall saunders. one vol., mo, fully illustrated, cloth decorative, $ . 'tilda jane is the same original, delightful girl, and as fond of her animal pets as ever. =the story of the graveleys.= by marshall saunders, author of "beautiful joe's paradise," "'tilda jane," etc. library mo, cloth decorative. illustrated by e. b. barry $ . here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and triumphs, of a delightful new england family, of whose devotion and sturdiness it will do the reader good to hear. =born to the blue.= by florence kimball russel. mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . the atmosphere of army life on the plains breathes on every page of this delightful tale. the boy is the son of a captain of u. s. cavalry stationed at a frontier post in the days when our regulars earned the gratitude of a nation. =in west point gray= by florence kimball russel. mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "singularly enough one of the best books of the year for boys is written by a woman and deals with life at west point. the presentment of life in the famous military academy whence so many heroes have graduated is realistic and enjoyable."--_new york sun._ =from chevrons to shoulder straps= by florence kimball russel. mo, cloth, illustrated, decorative $ . west point again forms the background of a new volume in this popular series, and relates the experience of jack stirling during his junior and senior years. =the sandman: his farm stories= by william j. hopkins. with fifty illustrations by ada clendenin williamson. large mo, decorative cover $ . "an amusing, original book, written for the benefit of very small children. it should be one of the most popular of the year's books for reading to small children."--_buffalo express._ =the sandman: more farm stories= by william j. hopkins. large mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $ . mr. hopkins's first essay at bedtime stories met with such approval that this second book of "sandman" tales was issued for scores of eager children. life on the farm, and out-of-doors, is portrayed in his inimitable manner. =the sandman: his ship stories= by william j. hopkins, author of "the sandman: his farm stories," etc. large mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $ . "children call for these stories over and over again."--_chicago evening post._ =the sandman, his sea stories= by william j. hopkins. large mo, decorative cover, fully illustrated $ . each year adds to the popularity of this unique series of stories to be read to the little ones at bed time and at other times. =the doctor's little girl= by marion ames taggart, author of "pussy-cat town," etc. one vol., library mo, illustrated $ . a thoroughly enjoyable tale of a little girl and her comrade father, written in a delightful vein of sympathetic comprehension of the child's point of view. =sweet nancy= the further adventures of the doctor's little girl. by marion ames taggart. one vol., library, mo, illustrated $ . in the new book, the author tells how nancy becomes in fact "the doctor's assistant," and continues to shed happiness around her. =the christmas-makers' club= by edith a. sawyer. mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . a delightful story for girls, full of the real spirit of christmas. it abounds in merrymaking and the right kind of fun. =carlota= a story of the san gabriel mission. by frances margaret fox. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by ethelind ridgway $ . "it is a pleasure to recommend this little story as an entertaining contribution to juvenile literature."--_the new york sun._ =the seven christmas candles= by frances margaret fox. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by ethelind ridgway $ . miss fox's new book deals with the fortunes of the delightful mulvaney children. =pussy-cat town= by marion ames taggart. small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors $ . "anything more interesting than the doings of the cats in this story, their humor, their wisdom, their patriotism, would be hard to imagine."--_chicago post._ =the roses of saint elizabeth= by jane scott woodruff. small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by adelaide everhart $ . this is a charming little story of a child whose father was caretaker of the great castle of the wartburg, where saint elizabeth once had her home. =gabriel and the hour book= by evaleen stein. small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by adelaide everhart $ . gabriel was a loving, patient, little french lad, who assisted the monks in the long ago days, when all the books were written and illuminated by hand, in the monasteries. =the enchanted automobile= translated from the french by mary j. safford. small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by edna m. sawyer $ . "an up-to-date french fairy-tale which fairly radiates the spirit of the hour,--unceasing diligence."--_chicago record-herald._ =o-heart-san= the story of a japanese girl. by helen eggleston haskell. small quarto, cloth decorative, illustrated and decorated in colors by frank p. fairbanks $ . "the story comes straight from the heart of japan. the shadow of fujiyama lies across it and from every page breathes the fragrance of tea leaves, cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums."--_the chicago inter-ocean._ =the young section-hand:= or, the adventures of allan west. by burton e. stevenson. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . mr. stevenson's hero is a manly lad of sixteen, who is given a chance as a section-hand on a big western railroad, and whose experiences are as real as they are thrilling. =the young train dispatcher.= by burton e. stevenson. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "a better book for boys has never left an american press."--_springfield union._ =the young train master.= by burton e. stevenson. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "nothing better in the way of a book of adventure for boys in which the actualities of life are set forth in a practical way could be devised or written."--_boston herald._ =captain jack lorimer.= by winn standish. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . jack is a fine example of the all-around american high school boy. =jack lorimer's champions:= or, sports on land and lake. by winn standish. square mo, cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "it is exactly the sort of book to give a boy interested in athletics, for it shows him what it means to always 'play fair.'"--_chicago tribune._ =jack lorimer's holidays:= or, millvale high in camp. by winn standish. illustrated $ . full of just, the kind of fun, sports and adventure to excite the healthy minded youngster to emulation. =jack lorimer's substitute:= or, the acting captain of the team. by winn standish. illustrated $ . on the sporting side, this book takes up football, wrestling, tobogganing, but it is more of a _school_ story perhaps than any of its predecessors. =captain jinks:= the autobiography of a shetland pony. by frances hodges white. cloth decorative, illustrated $ . the story of captain jinks and his faithful dog friend billy, their quaint conversations and their exciting adventures, will be eagerly read by thousands of boys and girls. the story is beautifully written and will take its place alongside of "black beauty" and "beautiful joe." =the red feathers.= by theodore roberts. cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "the red feathers" tells of the remarkable adventures of an indian boy who lived in the stone age, many years ago, when the world was young. =flying plover.= by theodore roberts. cloth decorative. illustrated by charles livingston bull $ . squat-by-the-fire is a very old and wise indian who lives alone with her grandson, "flying plover," to whom she tells the stories each evening. =the wreck of the ocean queen.= by james otis, author of "larry hudson's ambition," etc. cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "a stirring story of wreck and mutiny, which boys will find especially absorbing. the many young admirers of james otis will not let this book escape them, for it fully equals its many predecessors in excitement and sustained interest."--_chicago evening post._ =little white indians.= by fannie e. ostrander. cloth decorative, illustrated $ . "a bright, interesting story which will appeal strongly to the 'make-believe' instinct in children, and will give them a healthy, active interest in 'the simple life.'" =marching with morgan.= how donald lovell became a soldier of the revolution. by john l. veasy. cloth decorative, illustrated $ . this is a splendid boy's story of the expedition of montgomery and arnold against quebec. cosy corner series it is the intention of the publishers that this series shall contain only the very highest and purest literature,--stories that shall not only appeal to the children themselves, but be appreciated by all those who feel with them in their joys and sorrows. the numerous illustrations in each book are by well-known artists, and each volume has a separate attractive cover design. each vol., mo, cloth $ . _by annie fellows johnston_ =the little colonel= (trade mark.) the scene of this story is laid in kentucky. its heroine is a small girl, who is known as the little colonel, on account of her fancied resemblance to an old-school southern gentleman, whose fine estate and old family are famous in the region. =the giant scissors= this is the story of joyce and of her adventures in france. joyce is a great friend of the little colonel, and in later volumes shares with her the delightful experiences of the "house party" and the "holidays." =two little knights of kentucky= who were the little colonel's neighbors. in this volume the little colonel returns to us like an old friend, but with added grace and charm. she is not, however, the central figure of the story, that place being taken by the "two little knights." =mildred's inheritance= a delightful little story of a lonely english girl who comes to america and is befriended by a sympathetic american family who are attracted by her beautiful speaking voice. by means of this one gift she is enabled to help a school-girl who has temporarily lost the use of her eyes, and thus finally her life becomes a busy, happy one. =cicely and other stories for girls= the readers of mrs. johnston's charming juveniles will be glad to learn of the issue of this volume for young people. =aunt 'liza's hero and other stories= a collection of six bright little stories, which will appeal to all boys and most girls. =big brother= a story of two boys. the devotion and care of stephen, himself a small boy, for his baby brother, is the theme of the simple tale. =ole mammy's torment= "ole mammy's torment" has been fitly called "a classic of southern life." it relates the haps and mishaps of a small negro lad, and tells how he was led by love and kindness to a knowledge of the right. =the story of dago= in this story mrs. johnston relates the story of dago, a pet monkey, owned jointly by two brothers. dago tells his own story, and the account of his haps and mishaps is both interesting and amusing. =the quilt that jack built= a pleasant little story of a boy's labor of love, and how it changed the course of his life many years after it was accomplished. =flip's islands of providence= a story of a boy's life battle, his early defeat, and his final triumph, well worth the reading. _by edith robinson_ =a little puritan's first christmas= a story of colonial times in boston, telling how christmas was invented by betty sewall, a typical child of the puritans, aided by her brother sam. =a little daughter of liberty= the author introduces this story as follows: "one ride is memorable in the early history of the american revolution, the well-known ride of paul revere. equally deserving of commendation is another ride,--the ride of anthony severn,--which was no less historic in its action or memorable in its consequences." =a loyal little maid= a delightful and interesting story of revolutionary days, in which the child heroine, betsey schuyler, renders important services to george washington. =a little puritan rebel= this is an historical tale of a real girl, during the time when the gallant sir harry vane was governor of massachusetts. =a little puritan pioneer= the scene of this story is laid in the puritan settlement at charlestown. =a little puritan bound girl= a story of boston in puritan days, which is of great interest to youthful readers. =a little puritan cavalier= the story of a "little puritan cavalier" who tried with all his boyish enthusiasm to emulate the spirit and ideals of the dead crusaders. =a puritan knight errant= the story tells of a young lad in colonial times who endeavored to carry out the high ideals of the knights of olden days. _by ouida_ (_louise de la ramee_) =a dog of flanders= a christmas story too well and favorably known to require description. =the nurnberg stove= this beautiful story has never before been published at a popular price. _by frances margaret fox_ =the little giant's neighbours= a charming nature story of a "little giant" whose neighbors were the creatures of the field and garden. =farmer brown and the birds= a little story which teaches children that the birds are man's best friends. =betty of old mackinaw= a charming story of child life. =brother billy= the story of betty's brother, and some further adventures of betty herself. =mother nature's little ones= curious little sketches describing the early lifetime, or "childhood," of the little creatures out-of-doors. =how christmas came to the mulvaneys= a bright, lifelike little story of a family of poor children with an unlimited capacity for fun and mischief. =the country christmas= miss fox has vividly described the happy surprises that made the occasion so memorable to the mulvaneys, and the funny things the children did in their new environment. * * * * * transcriber's note: punctuation errors repaired. inconsistencies in spelling retained except where noted. page , "pleasantes" changed to "pleasantest" (of the pleasantest excursions) with the persian expedition [illustration: the road to birkandi.] with the persian expedition by major m. h. donohoe late army intelligence corps illustrated london edward arnold (_all rights reserved_) to the memory of my comrades of the imperial and dominion forces who, in the concluding year of the great war, gave their lives for the world's freedom in persia and transcaucasia. {v} preface no one can be more alive than i am to the fact that of the making of war books there is no end, nor can anyone hear mentally more plainly than i do how, at each fresh appearance of a work dealing with the world tragedy of the past five years, weary reviewers and jaded public alike exclaim, "what? yet another!" why, then, have i added this of mine to the already so formidable list? well, chiefly because in the beginning of fate and the war office sent me into a field of operations almost unknown and unheeded of the average home-keeping briton--viz., that of north-west persia, in the land lying towards the caucasus and the caspian sea; and my experiences there led me into bypaths of the great war so unusual as to seem well worth describing, quite apart from the military importance of the movements of which they were but a minute part. however, in the latter aspect, too, i hope my book will serve as a useful footnote to the history of the gigantic struggle now happily ended. the story of the persian campaign needed to be told, and i am glad to add my humble quota to the recital. it is the story of a little force operating far {vi} away from the limelight, unknown to the people at home, and seemingly forgotten a great part of the time even by the authorities themselves. it was to this force--commanded by general dunsterville, and hence known to those who knew it at all as "dunsterforce"--that i was attached, and it is about it that i have written here. i have tried to make clear what the "dunsterforce" was, why it was sent out, and how far it succeeded in accomplishing its mission. in order to do this i have been obliged to treat rather fully both of local geography and politics. for here we had no clear-cut campaign in which all the people of one country were in arms against all the people of another country. no! it was a very mixed-up and complicated business, as anyone who troubles to read what i have written will readily see. then, again, it was a war waged distinctly off the beaten track. during its progress we came across tribes to whom great britain was as some legendary land in another solar sphere--tribes to whom the aeroplane and the automobile were undreamed-of marvels--tribes, finally, whose habitat and modes of life and thought are almost as unknown to the average european as his are to them. for this reason i have devoted some space to descriptions of places and people as i saw them. a word should perhaps be said as to how and why i happened to be there at all. {vii} war has figured very largely in my life. for the past twenty years, as special correspondent of the _daily chronicle_, i have been privileged to be present at most of the world's great upheavals, both military and political. from july, , on, for some eighteen months, i followed the fortunes of the entente armies in the field as a war chronicler, first in serbia, next in belgium, and afterwards in italy and greece--a poor journalistic lazarus picking up such crumbs of news as fell from the overladen table of dives, the censor. but i was not happy, because i felt i was not doing my "bit" as effectively as i might; so i followed the example of millions of other citizens of the empire and joined the army. detailed to the intelligence corps, i was sent first to roumania, then to russia. escaping from the "red terror" in petrograd, i finally found myself one day embarking for the remote land of iran as special service officer with "dunsterforce"--at which point this chronicle begins. the author. paris, _october_, . {ix} contents chapter i the start of the "hush-hush" brigade a mystery expedition--tower of london conference--from flanders mud to eastern dust--an imperial forlorn hope--some fine fighting types--the amphibious purser--in the submarine zone--our japanese escort chapter ii egypt to the persian gulf afloat in an insect-house--captain kettle in command--overcrowding and small-pox--the s.s. _tower of babel_--a shark scare--koweit chapter iii the city of sinbad arrival at basra--a city of filth--transformation by the british--introducing sport to the natives--the arabs and the cinema chapter iv at a persian wedding visit to the sheikh of mohammerah--a persian banquet chapter v up the tigris to kut work of the river flotilla--thames steamboats on the tigris--the waterway through the desert--the renaissance of amarah--the river's jazz-step course--the old kut and the new--in townshend's old headquarters--turks' monument to short-lived triumph {x} chapter vi bagdad arabian nights and motor-cars--the old and the new in bagdad--"noah's dinghy"--bible history illustrated--at a famous tomb-mosque chapter vii early history of dunsterville's force jealousy and muddle--the dash for the caspian--holding on hundreds of miles from anywhere--a -mile raid that failed--the cockpit of the middle east--some recent politics in persia--how our way to the caspian was barred chapter viii off to persia au revoir to bagdad--the forts on the frontier--customs house for the dead--a land of desolation and death--a city of the past--an underground mess--methods of rifle thieves chapter ix through mud to kirind a city of starving cave-dwellers--an american woman's mission to the wild--a sect of salamanders--profiteering among the persians--a callous nation--wireless orders to sit tight--awaiting attack--the "mountain tiger" chapter x kirind to kermanshah pillage and famine--a land of mud--the chikar zabar pass--wandering dervishes--poor hotel accommodation--a "hunger battalion"--a city of the past {xi} chapter xi a city of famine in ancient hamadan--with dunsterville at last--his precarious position--"patriots" as profiteers--victims of famine--driven to cannibalism--women kill their children for food--trial and execution--famine relief schemes--deathblow to the democrats--"stalky" chapter xii dunsterville strikes afresh official hindrances--a fresh blow for the caucasus--the long road to tabriz--a strategic centre--a turkish invasion--rising of christian tribes--a local joan of arc--the british project chapter xiii the race for tabriz a scratch pack for a great adventure--wagstaff of persia--among the afshars--guests of the chief--capture of zinjan--peace and profiteering chapter xiv capture of mianeh armoured car causes consternation--reconnoitring the road--flying column sets out--an easy capture at the gates of tabriz--tribesmen raid the armoured car--and have a thin time--turks get the wind up chapter xv life in mianeh training local levies--a city of parasites and rogues--a knave turns philanthropist--turks getting active--osborne's comic opera force--jelus appeal for help--an aeroplane to the rescue--the democrats impressed--women worried by aviator's "shorts"--skirmishes on the tabriz road--reinforcements at last {xii} chapter xvi the fight at tikmadash treachery of our irregulars--turkish machine gun in the village--headquarters under fire--native levies break and bolt--british force withdrawn--turks proclaim a holy war--cochrane's demonstration--in search of the missing force--natives mutiny--a quick cure for "cholera"--a turkish patrol captured--meeting with cochrane--a forced retreat--our natives desert--a difficult night march--arrival at turkmanchai--turks encircling us--a fresh retirement chapter xvii evacuation of mianeh we have a chilly reception--our popularity wanes--preparation for further retirement--back to the kuflan kuh pass--our defensive position--turks make a frontal attack--our line overrun--gallantry of hants and worcesters--pursuit by turks--armoured cars save the situation--prisoners escape from turks--persians as fighters chapter xviii crushing a plot anti-british activities--headquarters at hamadan--plans to seize ringleaders--midnight arrests--how the governor was entrapped chapter xix the first expedition to baku kuchik khan bars the road--turk and russian movements--kuchik khan's force broken up--bicherakoff reaches baku--british armoured car crews in russian uniforms--fighting around baku--baku abandoned--captain crossing charges six-inch guns {xiii} chapter xx the new dash to baku treachery in the town--jungalis attack resht--armoured cars in street-fighting--baku tires of bolshevism--british summoned to the rescue--dunsterville sets out--position at baku on arrival--british officers' advice ignored--turkish attacks--pressing through the defences--baku again evacuated chapter xxi the turks and the christian tribes guerrilla warfare--who the nestorian and other christian tribes are--turkish massacres--russian withdrawal and its effect--british intervention chapter xxii in kurdistan the last phase--dunsterforce ceases to exist--the end of turkish opposition--off to bijar--the kurdish tribes--raids on bijar--moved on by a policeman--governor and poet chapter xxiii the end of hostilities types of empire defenders--local feeling--dealing with kurdish raiders--an embarrassing offer of marriage--prestige by aeroplane--anniversary of hossain the martyr--news of the armistice--local waverers come down on our side of the fence--releasing civil prisoners--farewell of bajar--down country to the sea and home appendix the work of the dunsterforce armoured car brigade index {xv} list of illustrations the road to birkandi ... _frontispiece_ british-trained persian police hÔtel d'europe at resht stone bridge at siah rud typical persian village persian transport darius inscriptions at bisitun caravanserai, bisitun drilling jehus at hamadan road near rudbar north gate of kasvin drilling armenians at baku group of staffords at baladadar station six-inch howitzer in action at baku general view of scene following the armenian retirement harvesting in persia _map ... facing page_ [illustration: map] { } with the persian expedition chapter i the start of the "hush-hush" brigade a mystery expedition--tower of london conference--from flanders mud to eastern dust--an imperial forlorn hope--some fine fighting types--the amphibious purser--in the submarine zone--our japanese escort. scarcely had dawn tinged the sky of a february day in when there crept out of the inner harbour of taranto a big transport bound for alexandria. it was laden with british and dominion troops. all were for service overseas. there were units for india and egypt, a contingent of nursing sisters for east africa, and a detachment of sappers for aden. the transport stealing noiselessly towards the open sea was the p. and o. liner _malwa_, and, as a precaution against submarine attack, she had been so extensively and grotesquely camouflaged by dockyard artists in black and white that some of her own crew coming alongside on a dark night had difficulty in recognizing her. the _malwa_, too, had on board the members of a military expedition, surely one of the most { } extraordinary that ever crossed the sea to fight the battles of the empire in distant lands. our official designation was the "dunsterville" or "bagdad party"; but war office cynics, and the damsel who sold us our patent filters and tommy cookers at the military equipment stores in london, knew us as the "hush-hush" brigade. and the "hush-hush" brigade we were privileged to remain. this nickname met us in alexandria, followed us to cairo and distant basra, and preceded us to the city of the caliphs on the shores of the muddy-brown tigris. on the eve of the departure from england of the main body for the italian port of embarkation, a heart-to-heart talk between general sir william robertson and the members of the bagdad party had taken place at the tower of london. the veil of official secrecy was drawn ever so little aside, and, allowed a peep behind, we beheld a field of military activity with a distinctly eastern setting. men who had been "over the top" in flanders heard with a joyous throb of expectation that the next time they went into the line would be probably somewhere in persia or the caucasus. they were as happy as children at the prospect, finding it a welcome relief from muddy tramps through the low-lying lands of the western front, the dull grey skies, the monotony of life in flooded trenches under incessant bombardment, varied only by an occasional rush across no-man's land to get at the hun throat. we were going from mud to dust, but hurrah! anyway. { } on that february morning, as the _malwa_ slipped past taranto town and into the roadstead where lay her japanese destroyer escort, the roll-call of the bagdad party showed a strength of officers and n.c.o's. this was to be the nucleus of a force which we hoped would combat and overthrow bolshevism, make common cause with armenians, georgians, and tartars, raise and train local levies, and bar with a line of bayonets the further progress of turk and german by way of the caspian sea and russian turkestan towards the gates of india. with few exceptions our party consisted of dominion soldiers gathered from the remote corners of the empire. there were anzacs and springboks, canadians from the far north-west, men who had charged up the deadly shell-swept slopes of gallipoli, and those who had won through at vimy ridge. they were, in fact, a hardened band of adventurous soldiers, fit to go anywhere and do anything, men who had lived on the brink of the pit for three years and had come back from the valley of the shadow of death. the war office needed the raw material for a desperate enterprise. it was found by brigadier-general byron, himself an able and experienced soldier with a brilliant south african fighting reputation. he went across to flanders and picked out the cream of the fighting men from the south african contingent and from the magnificent australian and canadian divisions. i do not recall a single officer { } or n.c.o. who had not won at least one decoration for bravery. we had with us, too, a small party of russian officers who, fleeing from the red terror when their army broke and melted away, remained loyal to the entente, and volunteered for the caucasus, where they hoped to prove to the bolsheviks that the cause of russian national and military honour was not entirely lost. our russian allies for the caucasus were mostly young men, enthusiastic and keen soldiers, endowed with the splendid fighting spirit of the old russian army such as i knew it in the early spring campaign of in bukovina, when it fought with empty rifles and stood up to the encircling austrians in those terrible february days that preceded and followed the evacuation of czernowitch. on the _malwa_, i remember, we had with us captain bray, an anglo-russian who had been a liaison officer in london, and spoke english like an englishman. then there was a colonel who had been earmarked for death when his regiment mutinied and went "red" at viborg in finland. scantily clad, he had escaped his would-be assassins, fleeing bare-footed into the darkness of the finnish winter night. after many hairbreadth escapes he had gained swedish territory and safety. [illustration: british trained persian police.] there was also captain george eve, an anglo-russian mining engineer, who came from south america to enlist, and who, because of his accent and foreign appearance, had been arrested more than { } once in the front line in flanders on suspicion of being a german spy dressed in british uniform. colonel smiles of the armoured car section was another interesting figure. a descendant of smiles of "self-help" fame, he had won the d.s.o. and the cross of st. george while fighting with the locker-lampson unit in russia. where practically every second man had a record of thrilling deeds behind him it is difficult to individualize, but a word must be given to colonel warden, d.s.o., of the canadian contingent. "honest john" was the affectionate nickname bestowed upon him by the ship's company, who found a special fascination in his childlike simplicity of character combined with exceptional soldierly qualities. another refreshingly original type was colonel donnan, the c.o. of the party. apart from other things, his physical qualities seemed to mark him out for the important post he occupied. they were calculated to strike terror into any hun or other heart. a veritable sandow, his burly thick-set figure, black bristling moustache, and dark piercing eyes were valuable assets for the man whose task was to discipline such a mixed company as ours, and the nurses affected an exaggerated terror of them, well knowing (the minxes!) that they were but the outworks of the fortress behind which was entrenched the colonel's kind heart--outworks apt to go down like ninepins when assailed by a woman's tearful pleadings. { } colonel donnan is one of the strong, silent englishmen who have done so much in an unostentatious way to push the interests of the british empire in the far-off places of the earth. a great orientalist, he has passed through many eastern lands in disguise, bringing back precious fruits of his labours in a store of information, both military and political, gathered in his journeyings. the _malwa_ boasted an amphibious purser named milman. for three and a half years, ever since the war began, he had been sailing up and down the seas from london to rio, and from bombay to liverpool, and he knew from personal contact the summer and winter temperature of the mediterranean sea better than did any meteorologist from collected data. in fact, he had been torpedoed so many times that he had begun to look upon it as part of the routine of his daily life. he possessed a life-saving suit, his own improved design, which was at once the wonder and admiration of all who inspected it. it was of rubber, in form not unlike a diving dress, with a hood which came over the head of the wearer and was made fast under the chin. in front were two pockets, which always remained ready rationed with a spirit-flask, some sandwiches, and a pack of patience cards. it was the purser's travelling outfit when he was overboard in the mediterranean or elsewhere and waiting to be hauled on board a rescue boat. occasionally when, in harbour, time hung heavily on his hands, this amphibious purser would clothe { } himself in his rubber suit, slip over the ship's side, and go off for an outing. once in port said, while gently floating off on one of these aquatic excursions, he was sighted by the port guardship, and a picket-boat was sent to fish him out under the impression that he was dead. "this bloke is a gonner all right!" said one of the crew, as he reached for him with a boathook. then the "corpse" sat up and said things. so did the spokesman of the astonished crew when, having recovered from the shock, he found his voice again. milman was a cheery optimist. nothing ever perturbed him. he was a recognized authority on "silver fish" (_i.e._, torpedoes) and cocktails, was an excellent raconteur, and possessed all the suavity and tact of a finished diplomat. when nervous ladies worried the doctor and cross-examined him as to the habits and hunting methods of hun submarines, he invariably passed them on to the purser, and always with the happiest results; for, under the spell of milman's racy talk, they soon forgot their fears. the second day out from taranto brought us well within the submarine danger zone. we changed course repeatedly, for wireless had warned us of the proximity of the dreaded sea pirate. the _tagus_, our fellow transport, proved herself a laggard; she was falling behind and keeping station badly, and the commodore of our japanese escort was busy hurling remonstrances at her in the morse code. { } our three japanese destroyers made diligent and efficient scouts. they gambolled over the blue waters of the mediterranean like so many sheepdogs protecting a moorland flock. now one or another raced away to starboard, then to port, then circled round and round us, took station amidships, or dropped astern. their tactics, perhaps one should say their antics, must have been extremely baffling, even exasperating, to any enemy submarine commander lying low in the hope of bagging the _malwa_ or the _tagus_. nothing seemed to escape the keen-eyed sailors of the mikado's navy. experience had taught them the value of seagulls as submarine spotters. endowed with extraordinary instinct and eyes that see far below the surface of the sea, the resting gulls detect a submarine coming up anywhere in their vicinity, take fright, and hurriedly fly away. whenever the gulls gave the signal--and there were many false alarms--a japanese destroyer would race to the spot in readiness for herr pirate; but he never appeared. however, the hun was not always so cautious. there was great rejoicing on board the _malwa_ when the wireless told us that west of us, in the malta channel, japanese vigilance had been rewarded, transports saved from destruction, and two enemy submarines sent to the bottom. it was all the work of a few minutes. whether the enemy failed to sight the destroyers, or whether they intended to chance their luck and fight them, is not quite clear. at all { } events, submarine no. popped up dead ahead of one destroyer and was promptly rammed and sunk. submarine no. met with an equally unmistakable end. it had already singled out a transport for attack, when a second japanese destroyer engaged it at seven hundred yards' range and blew its hull to pieces. nevertheless it was an anxious time for us on the _malwa_ living in hourly dread of being torpedoed. the nursing sisters professed to treat the danger with scorn; they were courageous and cheery souls, and would unhesitatingly have faced death with the equanimity of the bravest man. ten in the forenoon and five in the afternoon were the hours of greatest peril, when submarine attacks might be specially expected. everyone "stood to" at these hours, wearing the regulation lifebelt, and ready to take to the boats if the ship were hit and in danger of sinking. colonel donnan, c.o. ship, was a strict disciplinarian. he enhanced the somewhat piratical ferocity of mien with which nature had gifted him by always carrying his service revolver buckled on and ready for any emergency, and the nursing sisters professed to be in great trepidation each time at inspection parade when he ran his critical eye over their life-saving equipment. of course knots sometimes went wrong, and the strings of the life-belt were tied the incorrect way; but volunteers were never lacking to adjust the erring straps and to see that they sat on a pretty pair of { } shoulders in the manner laid down in regulations, while the ferociously tender-hearted c.o. smiled approval. on the fourth day after leaving taranto the _malwa_ steamed into alexandria harbour. everyone was in the highest spirits. we had escaped the submarine peril, and the period of nervous tension while waiting in expectancy of a bolt from the deep was happily over. it was a glorious spring day; the warm, radiant sun of egypt gave us a fitting welcome. the stay in alexandria of the bagdad party was short. orders came through from headquarters that we were to proceed to suez by rail as soon as possible to join a waiting troopship there. that night there were many tender leave-takings in quiet secluded nooks on the upper deck of the _malwa_. during our four days' journey from taranto the australians on board had proved themselves to be as deadly effective in love as they are in war. but now had come the parting of the ways, with the pain and bitterness of separation. perhaps a kindly fate may reunite some of these sundered ones, but for many that can never be. at least three of those bright, cheery australian lads sleep in soldiers' graves beneath the soil of persia, far from their own south land and from the girls to whom they plighted their troth that last night in the harbour of alexandria beneath the starry egyptian sky. general byron, his orderly officer, and myself left the same evening for cairo en route for suez. next { } day we had time to obtain a fleeting glimpse of the pyramids, take tea at shepheards', and be held to ransom by an energetic british matron who ordered us to "stand and deliver" in the name of some philanthropic institution which had not the remotest connection with the war or any suffering arising out of the war. the general furnished the soft answer that turneth away wrath, and with that, plus a small contribution for supplying wholly unnecessary blankets to the aboriginal inhabitants of some tropical country, we were allowed to retain the remainder of our spare cash and to continue our journey in the land of egypt. { } chapter ii egypt to the persian gulf afloat in an insect-house--captain kettle in command--overcrowding and small-pox--the s.s. _tower of babel_--a shark scare--koweit. forty-eight hours after disembarking at alexandria we were steaming down the gulf of suez on board a second transport bound for the persian gulf. it would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that between the vessel which brought us across the mediterranean and the one that was now carrying us towards the portals of the middle east. the latter was a decrepit steamer, indescribably filthy, which had been running in the china trade for a quarter of a century. though favoured by the mildest of weather, the old tub groaned in every joint as she thumped her way down the red sea towards the indian ocean. long overdue for the scrap-heap, when the war broke out she was turned into a transport, and thenceforth carried cargoes of british troops instead of chinese coolies. her decks and upper works were thickly encrusted with dirt, the careful hoarding of years; and a paint-brush had not touched her for generations. her cabins were so many entomological museums where insect life { } flourished. in the worm-eaten recesses of the woodwork lurked colonies of parasites gathered from every corner of the globe, fighting for the principle of self-determination of small nations. the bathroom door, held in place by a single rusty hinge, hung at a drunken angle, and the inflow pipe of the bath was choked with rust. at night, as you slept in your bunk, playful mice, by way of establishing friendly relations, would nibble at your big toe, and a whole family of cockroaches would attempt new long-distance-sprinting records up and down the bedclothes. the captain of the ship was a sharp-featured ferret-eyed individual who sometimes wore a collar. no one knew his exact nationality, but he bore a tolerable resemblance to cutcliffe hyne's immortal "captain kettle." indeed, he was said to cultivate this resemblance by every means in his power. he had a pointed, unshaven chin; he wore a much-faded uniform cap tilted over one ear. on the bridge you would see him with hands thrust deep in his trouser pockets and chewing a cigar. as master of a tramp, he had nosed his way into almost every port in both hemispheres. he had traded from china to peru, and along the pacific coast of america. in his wanderings he had acquired a yankee accent and a varied and picturesque polyglot vocabulary which, when the floodgates of his wrath were opened, he turned with telling effect upon his lascar crew or his european officers. he was a man of moods and { } strange oaths, a good seaman with a marked taste for poker and magazine literature of the cheap sensational kind. such, then, was our ship, and such its skipper! when we had arrived at suez, where we embarked, there were several cases of smallpox amongst its lascar firemen. the embarkation officer had feared infection, and had hesitated to send us on board; but he was overruled by a higher authority somewhere in egypt or england. there was no other transport available, it was said; the units for india and for persia were urgently needed; and, smallpox or no smallpox, sail we must--and did. the ship was terribly overcrowded. the indian troops "pigged it" aft; the british troops were accommodated in the hold; and those of the officers who were unable to find quarters elsewhere unstrapped their camp bed and slept on deck. fortunately it was the cool season in the red sea; the days were warm, but not uncomfortably so; and the nights were sharp and bracing, the head-wind which we carried with us all the way to aden keeping the thermometer from climbing beyond the normal. once clear of suez everybody settled down to work, a very useful relief to the discomforts of life on an overcrowded transport. youthful subalterns joining the indian army set themselves to study hindustani grammars and vocabularies with the valiant intention of acquiring colloquial proficiency before they even sighted bombay. members of the { } bagdad party, stimulated by this exhibition of industry, tackled persian and russian. we had two officers who offered themselves as teachers of the language of iran--lieutenant akhbar, a native-born persian whose english home was at manchester, and captain cooper of the dorsets, who had studied oriental tongues in england, and had been wounded at gallipoli in a hand-to-hand fight with the turks. for russian also there was no lack of teachers, the russian officers, captain eve, and i taking charge of classes. in my own section, elementary russian, i had twenty-two n.c.o.'s as eager and willing pupils. the majority were australians, and, although dismayed at first by the bizarre appearance of the unfamiliar characters, and the seemingly unsurmountable difficulties of what one anzac aptly described as "this upside-down language," they put their backs into it with very remarkable results, plodding away at their lessons hour after hour with unwearying zeal. some had picked up a smattering of "na poo" french on the western front; a few spoke french fairly well; but the majority knew no foreign language at all; yet the quick alert australian brain captured the entire russian alphabet in forty-eight hours after beginning the preliminary assault. i have sometimes thought since that to the gods on high our ship must have appeared a sort of floating tower of babel, so intent on speaking strange tongues were each and all. before we reached the indian ocean, one of the { } ship's officers disappeared in a mysterious manner. he was missed from the bridge at midnight and, although diligent search was made, no trace of him was ever found, and it had to be assumed that he had jumped or fallen overboard. our goanese stewards who were christians looked upon this incident with the greatest misgivings. knowing the superstitions of the lascar crew, they secretly felt that the missing officer had been thrown overboard by some of them to placate a huge shark that had been following the ship for days. the lascars have a great dread of such company at sea. to their untutored minds this voracious brute following a vessel foretells death to someone on board; so better a sacrificial victim than perhaps one of themselves! personally, i do not think for a moment that lascar superstition was responsible for the disappearance of the missing man, nor that these people are given to the propitiation of the man-eaters of the red sea. but when, two nights later, one of the lascars vanished as mysteriously as had the ship's officer, and this too in calm weather, it looked as if some evil spirit had found a place on board. stewards and crew now became terrified. the former would not venture alone on the deck at night, and the lascars, sorely puzzled over the fate of their comrade, went about their work in fear and trembling. this dread of the mysterious and the unseen became contagious and affected others outside the ship's company. subalterns who had been sleeping { } on hammocks slung close to the ship's rail and whose courage had been proved on many a field, now decided that, shark worship or no shark worship, they would be safer elsewhere, and transferred themselves to the 'tween decks. anyhow, the sea demon must by this time have been satisfied, for we lost no more of our personnel. we arrived off koweit in the gulf of persia on march st, seventeen days after leaving suez. koweit, or kuwet, is an important seaport on the arabian side at the south-west angle of the persian gulf, about eighty miles due south of basra, our port of destination. kuwet is the diminutive form of kut, a common term in irak for a walled village, and the port lies in the south side of a bay twenty miles long and five miles wide. seen through our glasses it did not seem a prepossessing place, for the bare stony desert stretched away for miles behind the town. yet only by accident had it escaped greatness. in general chesny, who knew these parts by heart, recommended it as the terminus of his proposed euphrates valley railway; and, when the extension of the anatolian railway to bagdad and the gulf was mooted, koweit was long regarded as a possible terminus. but the war altered all that, and it is doubtful now if koweit, which lives by its sea commerce alone, will even achieve the distinction of becoming the terminal point of a branch line of the railway which is destined to link up two continents. { } the turks and germans have long had their eyes open to the great possibilities of koweit. the former in attempted a military occupation, but were warned off by the british, and abandoned their efforts to obtain a foothold in this commercial outpost of the gulf, while the ruling sheikh was sagacious enough to be aware of the danger of turkish absorption, and to avert it by placing his dominions under the protection of great britain. the german-subsidized hamburg-amerika line made an eleventh hour attempt to capture the trade of the gulf, and in the months immediately preceding the war devoted special attention to koweit and basra trade, carrying freight at rates which must have meant a heavy financial loss. it was all part of the german weltpolitik to oust us from these lucrative markets of the middle east, and to secure for german shipping a monopoly of the gulf carrying trade. with the german-controlled bagdad railway approaching completion, one shudders to realize what would have been our fate economically, if the sea-borne trade of basra and koweit had passed under the flag and into the hands of the enterprising hun. basra lies about eighty miles to the north of koweit. it is here that the shatt el arab (literally the river of the arabs, or, otherwise, the commingled euphrates and tigris) empties itself into the persian gulf. vessels with a greater draught than nineteen feet cannot easily negotiate the bar. our own transport was bound for bombay, so it was with a feeling { } of thankfulness that we quitted her for ever and were transferred to a british india liner, the _erinrupy_, which since the beginning of the war has been used as a hospital ship. she was spick and span, and the general air of cleanliness was so marked after the filthy tub that had conveyed us from suez that we trod her decks and ventured into her cabins with an air of apologetic timidity. it was half a day's run up river to basra. next morning we were speeding along with the swirling brown waters of the shatt el arab lapping our counter, the land of iran on our right, and that of irak on our left. it grew warmer, and there was a good deal of moisture in the air. the low flat shores, cut up by irrigation canals, were covered by date-palm groves. dhows and other strange river craft, laden with merchandise, dotted the surface of the brown waters, and the glorious green of the foreshores was a welcome relief to eyes tired of the arid sterility of the arabian shore. a few miles below basra we steered a careful course, passing the sunken hulls of two turkish gunboats which the enemy had submerged in the fairway in the hope of blocking the river channel and preventing the victorious british maritime and war flotillas from reaching basra. like most other operations undertaken by the turks the effort was badly bungled, and the channel was left free to our ships. { } chapter iii the city of sinbad arrival at basra--a city of filth--transformation by the british--introducing sport to the natives--the arabs and the cinema. basra or busra, the bastra of marco polo, and for ever linked with the adventures of sinbad the sailor, is one of the most important ports of asiatic turkey, and sits on the right bank of the shatt el arab a short distance below the confluence of the tigris and the euphrates. it is built on low-lying marshy land where the malarial mosquito leads an energetic and healthy life. basra proper is about a mile from the river, up a narrow and malodorous creek, and when the tide is out the mud of this creek cries out in strange tongues. the natives, however, seem to thrive upon its nauseating vapours. it is at once the source of their water supply and the receptacle for sewerage. in this delectable spot, as indeed throughout asiatic turkey and persia, sanitary science is still unborn, and the streets are the dumping-ground for refuse. the long, narrow bellem, with its pointed prow, in general appearance not unlike a gondola, is the chief means of communication between the shatt { } el arab and basra itself. if the tide is low, the arab in charge poles up or down stream, and when you arrive at your destination you generally pick your way through festering mud to the landing-place. one's first feelings are of wonder and bewilderment that the entire population has not long ago been wiped out by disease. going up and down stream at low tide i have seen arab women rinsing the salad for the family meal side by side with others dealing with the family washing. then the bellem boy, thirsty, would lean over the side of the craft, scoop up a handful or two of the water, and drink it. as successors to the dirty and lazy turk the british in occupation of basra have set themselves to remedy this state of affairs, but it is uphill work. manners and customs of centuries are not easily laid aside, and your asiatic sniffs suspiciously at anything labelled sanitary reform, while the very mention of the word hygiene sounds to him like blasphemy against the abominations with which he loves to surround himself. the turk never bothered his head whether the inhabitants lived in unhealthy conditions. when an epidemic broke out and carried off a certain proportion of the population, the turkish governor would bow his head in meek resignation before the inscrutable will of allah. the architecture of basra is of a distinctly primitive type. the houses are built chiefly of sun-dried bricks, and the roofs are flat, covered with mud laid { } over rafters of date-wood and surrounded by a low parapet. basra had been used as the british base for the advance against the turks on the tigris. from here had been rationed the army and the guns that reconquered kut and opened the difficult road to bagdad. the magician's wand of the british soldier-wallah wrought wonders in the place. malarial swamps were filled in, and hospitals and administrative buildings erected. wharves equipped with giant cranes sprang into being on the quayside, and, as we were landed, the busy river scene, with fussy tugs towing huge laden barges, and the quayside packed with transports, irresistibly recalled some populous port in the antipodes or britain itself, rather than the seaside capital of a vilayet in asiatic turkey. that basra had a great future in store for it as a shipping centre was early recognized by major-general sir george mcmunn, who for some time held the post of inspector-general of lines of communications at basra. he was one of those rare soldiers with a genius for organization and a capacity for bringing to bear upon big problems a wide range of outlook, and he was never hampered by those military trammels which often mar the professional soldier and make a good general an exceedingly bad civil administrator. so general mcmunn set to work to give basra an impetus along the path of commercial progress. he planned a model city { } which was to include residential and business sites, electric tramways, modern hotels, and public parks. it was a stupendous undertaking, but mcmunn accomplished much in the face of great financial difficulties. he endowed basra with a first-class hotel run by a chef and an hotel staff recruited from london, installed electric light, gave the evil-smelling town a vigorous spring-cleaning, and with stone quarried in arabia buried beneath stout paving the slimy mud of some of the basra streets. ashar which fronts the shatt el arab is really the business centre of basra. its bazaars running parallel with basra creek are dark, evil-smelling, and over-crowded by human bipeds who swarm about ant fashion, and are born, live, and die in these purlieus. in the course of an hour during the busy part of the day you can count on meeting representatives of all the races and creeds of asia in the streets and bazaars of ashar or lower basra. here ebbs and flows the flotsam of the east--jews, arabs, armenians, kurds, persians, chaldeans (merchants or traffickers these!), and coolies from india, burma, and china, with wanderers from the remote khanates of russian turkestan, the latter in quaint headdress and wearing sheepskin coats whose vicinity is rather trying to sensitive noses when the thermometer is well above eighty in the shade. general byron, with major newcombe of the canadian contingent, captain eve, some other members of our party, and myself were quartered in { } the old turkish cavalry barracks, while the remainder went into camp at makina, two miles out. the turks, it is true, were gone never to return, but in the honeycombed recesses of the crumbling dust-covered walls of ashar barracks their troopers had left behind many old friends who, from the very first, displayed an envenomed animosity towards us, and attacked british officers and men with a vigour which the turkish army itself had never excelled. every night raiding parties, defying alike our protective mosquito nets and the poison-gas effect of keating's, found their way into our beds; and every morning we would crawl from between the sheets bearing visible marks of these night forays. it is always said, and generally believed, that the british signalize their occupation of a country by laying down a cricket pitch and building a church. they did all these things and more at basra. there was a garrison church, a simple building with a special care for the temperature of a gulf sunday. there were several sports clubs, and one at makina, which might be called the suburb of ashar, had good tennis courts. beyond, in the desert, was a racecourse where the local derby and grand national were run off. the ordinary native of iran and of the "land of the two rivers" has not hitherto shown any marked taste for either mild or violent physical exercise. but basra, i found, was a noted exception to this, and youth of the place were badly bitten by the { } sports mania. as the doctors would say, "the disease spread with alarming rapidity, and spared neither young nor old." after a few weeks devoted to picking up points as spectators at "soccer" matches, a native team would secure possession of a rather battered football and start work, "basra mixed" trying conclusions with "ashar bazaar," for example. the rules were neither rugby nor association, but a local extemporization of both; and the dress was not the classic costume of the british football field, but a medley of all the garbs of asia. stately arabs in long flowing robes, suffering from the prevailing sports fever, would forget their dignity to the extent of running after a football and trying to kick it. chaldean christian would mingle in the scrum with jew and mussulman. individual players sometimes received the kick intended for the ball. off the field this would have led to racial trouble and perhaps bloodshed, but as a rule these slight departures from the strict football code were accepted in the best possible spirit, being regarded no doubt as part of the game itself. of course things did not always run so smoothly. sometimes the ball was entirely lost sight of, and lay lonely and isolated in some corner of the field, while the players would resolve themselves into a sort of pan-asian congress on the ethics of games in general. everyone spoke at once and in his own tongue. on such occasions a passing british soldier would be summoned to assist at the deliberations, { } and in "na poo" arabic would straighten out the tangle. then play would be resumed, everybody bowing to the superior wisdom of the soldier sahib, and accepting his decision unquestioningly. the youth of basra, more precocious than their elders, converted the streets of ashar into a playing-ground where tip-cat, bat and ball, marbles, diabolo, and sundry other forms of juvenile recreation found eager devotees at all hours of the day in narrow streets generally crowded with army transport. the cinema also exercised a great influence on the native mind. never quite understanding its working, he accepted it all philosophically as part of the travelling outfit of that strange race of infidels from far away who had chased the turks from the shores of the arabian sea, who seemed to be able to make themselves into birds at will, and who rushed over the roadless desert in snorting horseless carriages. men such as these were capable of anything, and when the first cinema film arrived, the arabs filled to overflowing the ramshackle building which served as a theatre. in basra i often went to the cinema, not so much for the show itself as to watch the joy with which that primitive child of nature, the arab, followed the mishaps and triumphs of the hero through three reels. how they were moved to tears by his sufferings! and how they shouted with joy when the villain of the piece was hoist by his own petard and his career of rascality abruptly and fittingly terminated! { } one thing, i found on talking to some of these native onlookers, puzzled their minds exceedingly, and that was the morals and manners of european women as shown on the screen. the arab is a fervent stickler for the conventionalities, and it was a great shock to his religious scruples to see women promenading in low-necked dresses with uncovered faces, frequenting restaurants with strange men not their husbands, and imbibing strong drink. "the devil must be kept busy in faringistan raking all these shameless creatures into the bottomless pit!" said one arab to me, when i asked him what he thought of the cinema. it was useless to seek to explain that cinema scenes did not represent the real life of the englishman or the american, and that all our women do not earn their living as cinema artists. in basra i never saw a mohammedan woman frequenting a cinema performance. even had she won over her husband's consent to such an innovation, public opinion would veto her presence there, and she would not be permitted to look upon this devil's machine illustrating foreign "wickedness." { } chapter iv at a persian wedding visit to the sheikh of mohammerah--a persian banquet. a few miles below basra, on the persian shore, at the point where the karun river joins the shatt el arab, are the semi-independent dominions of the sheikh of mohammerah. his territory is part and parcel of the moribund persian empire, but the sheikh has long held independent sway, and has ruled his little kingdom with oriental grandeur and benevolent despotism. he is a firm and convinced friend of the british, and even at the darkest hour of our military fortunes in the gulf, when it seemed as if we might be driven from the lower tigris itself, the sheikh was proof against turkish intrigue and the corrupting influence of hun gold. his excellency the khazal khan, k.c.s.i., k.c.i.e., to give him his full title, like most persian potentates in the tottering, crumbling empire of iran, where the writ of the present "king of kings" does not run beyond the walls of teheran, held undisputed sway over his little state, and his authority was enforced by a nondescript army of retainers. but he was a { } generous host, a firm friend, and an unforgiving enemy. one week-end while at basra i was one of a few british officers invited to assist at the elaborate festivities which precede a persian marriage. the contemplated matrimonial alliance was intended to unite the family of the sheikh and that of haji reis, his grand vizier or prime minister. in the small party that dropped down the river on one of his majesty's gunboats, were the admiral of the station, one or two generals, the political officer, the liaison officer between the indian government and the ruler of mohammerah, and my friend akhbar, a persian from manchester who had joined up early in the war. as we dropped down stream past the palace, a salute was fired in our honour by the sheikh's artillery-men with a couple of old six-pounders. an antediluvian persian gunboat dipped her ensign as we steamed past. it was the first time i had seen a warship or indeed any other vessel flying the persian flag, and i regarded her with interest. akhbar, who despite his british uniform and his long residence amongst us, remained always an ardent persian, professed to be very much hurt by some chance observations of mine directed at the river gunboat and the persian navy in general. the palace was a rectangular building, with stuccoed front, standing back from the water and approached by a winding stone staircase. on landing we were received by the chief dignitaries of the { } place with the grand vizier at their head. there was much bowing and salaaming, and it was here that i first made acquaintance with that elaborate code of official and social ceremony which surrounds every act of one's life in persia. a guard of honour from the sheikh's household troops made a creditable attempt to present arms as we stepped ashore. more soldiers lined the stairway leading to the reception room. they wore a variety of uniforms, and were armed with everything in the way of rifles, from antiquated sniders to modern mausers and lee-enfields. like most of the irregulars that we encountered in persia afterwards, they fairly bristled with bandoliers stuffed full of cartridges. a persian on the war-path, be he tribal chief or simple armed follower, is generally a walking arsenal. he is full of lethal weapons which nearly always include a rifle of some kind and a short stabbing sword with an inlaid hilt. he often displays a mauser pistol as well, and usually carries enough ammunition hung round him to equip a decent-sized small-arms factory. the sheikh himself received us in the main reception hall, which was covered with rare persian carpets, any single one of which would be worth a small fortune in london. the prime minister and his son, we found, spoke excellent english, and the former, who was wearing the conventional frock coat of the occident, but no shirt collar, presented each visitor in turn to our arab host, a man just past { } middle life with all the stately grace and dignity of his bedouin forebears. he was dressed in native costume; his manners were easy and full of charm. he had a dark, olive-tinted face, black beard and wonderful lustrous black eyes. a strict adherent of the shi'ite sect, and an abstainer from strong drink himself, he was, nevertheless, not averse to supplying it to his western guests. the grand vizier during his sojourn in europe had evidently studied our customs and civilization _au fond_. apart from a knowledge of the english language and literature, he had brought back with him a fine and discriminating taste in the matter of aperitifs, knew to a nicety the component parts of a martini cocktail, and was a profound connoisseur of scotch whisky. our party had few dull moments with the grand vizier as cicerone, and our admiration for his versatility rose by leaps and bounds. the dinner was _à la fourchette_. it is not always so in hospitable persia where, as a rule, host and guests sit in a circle on the floor and help themselves with the aid of their fingers. here everything had been arranged in european fashion, and the long table was topped by a rampart of specially prepared dishes with a lavishness that was truly oriental. it is a persian custom to supply five times more food than one's guests can possibly consume. what remains becomes the perquisite of the servants of the household. according to persian etiquette a son may not sit { } down in the presence of his father, so the bridegroom-elect had no place at the board, and his active participation in the banquet was limited to carrying out the duties of chief butler and waiting upon the guests. it was hot and exhausting work, in the intervals of which he liberally helped himself from a black bottle which stood on a table behind the grand vizier's chair. barefooted servitors passed nimbly along the table, and saw to it that their master's guests wanted for nothing. a plate was emptied only to be speedily replenished. we saw nothing of the bride-to-be. she played but a minor part in the evening's entertainment. nor were any other women of the household to be seen. at one end of the banqueting hall was a heavily curtained aperture. occasionally this was furtively drawn aside an inch or two, and a woman's veiled face would appear for an instant, and as quickly disappear. it was the private view allowed to the bride and her girl friends. the menu was inordinately long. dish succeeded dish, and eat we must unless we wished to cause dire offence to our host. he himself, seated at the middle of the table, ate sparingly and drank but water, his air of quiet impassivity giving place to a smile from time to time as he listened to some persian _bon mot_ or other from one of his neighbours. the sheikh excelled as a host. no sooner was the banquet at an end than he told us that a display of { } fireworks had been arranged in our honour. seats had been placed for the visitors on the long veranda at the back of the palace and facing the extensive grounds. no persian feast is held to be complete without a pyrotechnic display of some kind, and that organized for our pleasure would have done credit to the best efforts of brock or pain. there were catherine-wheels, rockets, and welcoming mottoes in persian and english which flared up merrily, until the whole grounds were one blaze of light. the retainers entered fully into the spirit of the affair. clad in fireproof suits, they were hung round with squibs which were set alight, and then the human catherine-wheels carried out an astonishing series of somersaults, to the intense delight of the native portion of the audience. an english gunnery instructor, aided by native workmen with material from the sheikh's arsenal, had been responsible for the pyrotechnic part of the entertainment. in the meantime the banqueting hall had been cleared, and presently we were conducted thither, where, to the strains of a persian orchestra, native dancing boys showed their skill in a series of emotional and highly sensuous gyrations. these youths were of a distinctly effeminate appearance in their long flowing persian robes, and there was a look of brazen abandon in their more than suggestive evolutions as they whirled round and round on the floor. { } to these succeeded a quartette of armenian girls in bright-hued raiment and low-necked dresses, their bare bosoms covered with cheap jewellery, their hair and costumes studded with glittering sequins, and their ankles encircled by gilt metal bracelets giving them an air of tawdriness and unspeakable vulgarity. their movements were graceful, with a certain artistic crudeness. to the clash of cymbals, and with a jingling of their sequins and anklets, two would whirl round the dancing hall, until sheer physical exhaustion compelled them to seek a temporary respite on a divan; whereupon they would be succeeded on the floor by the other pair who had been awaiting their turn. this dancing by relays went on until the early hours of the morning, and we began to be alarmed lest it should continue for the duration of the war. etiquette forbade us to leave, so we did our best and stuck it out to the end. in the tobacco-laden atmosphere, with the temperature distinctly sultry, and the windows hermetically sealed i made a desperate but ineffectual attempt to fight off drowsiness. at last i succumbed and dreamt that i was in the paradise of mahomet listening to the music of the houris entertaining some of the newly arrived faithful. i woke with a start, for someone had prodded me in the ribs and told me it was time to go, and by a swift transition i found myself back at mohammerah and our party bidding adieu to our kindly host and his grand vizier. { } it was too dark to attempt the passage of the river back to basra, so we crossed over to the house of mr. lincoln of the british consulate on the right bank of the karun river and spent the remainder of the night under his hospitable roof. { } chapter v up the tigris to kut work of the river flotilla--thames steamboats on the tigris--the waterway through the desert--the renaissance of amarah--the river's jazz-step course--the old kut and the new--in townshend's old headquarters--turks' monument to short-lived triumph. our stay at ashar barracks was of brief duration. a week after landing in basra we received orders from general headquarters to proceed to bagdad immediately, but steamer accommodation was limited, and it was found impossible to embark the whole of our party at once. however, a compromise was effected with the local embarkation officer, and place was found on an up-river steamer for our first contingent, consisting of general byron, twenty-four other officers (of whom i was one), and forty n.c.o's. our transport was an antiquated paddle steamer, broad of beam, and the whole of her one deck was packed with troops bound for up-river like ourselves. in addition, she towed, moored on either side, two squat barges filled with troops and supplies. the navigation of the tigris, even in peace time, { } when the river is unencumbered, is a hazardous undertaking. its lower reaches are flat and winding, and when it is in flood the banks are submerged. the stream follows an erratic course, occasionally striking out on an entirely fresh one, and the search for the new channel is often attended with disaster for the daring river mariner. yet up and down the stream between kut and basra british seamen have zigzagged their way by sheer pluck and perseverance, dumping down men and supplies at the advanced base with unfailing regularity. the admirable part played by these river skippers of the tigris has never been told, and so has never been properly appreciated by their countrymen at home. day and night they toiled to hurry up the needed reinforcements to the hard-pressed battle line in mesopotamia, and to feed the army that was driving the turk from the "land of the two rivers." drawn from all parts of the empire, they worthily represented the pluck, courage, and unyielding tenacity of the british race. had it not been for the river skippers of the tigris, shy, unostentatious men, sparing of speech and indifferent to praise, the mesopotamian campaign must have ended abortively; kut could never have been retaken, and the turks would still have been in bagdad. the despatches of victorious generals in mesopotamia have been full of references to valuable aid and service rendered by units and individuals, but, it seems to me, they have entirely overlooked the { } great contribution of the men of the tigris river flotilla, who have apparently been left without reward or recognition. in the waterway of the shatt el arab itself, and before we entered the tigris proper, we passed scores of river craft. there were dhows laden to the gunwale with river produce being carried swiftly down by the current towards basra market. here was an antiquated sternwheeler with her lashed barges alongside, like an old woman with parcels tucked under her arms, going to the base to load up supplies. and, most wonderful of all, here was a london county council steamer, the _christopher wren_, which had abandoned the thames for the tigris and the carrying of happy trippers from blackfriars to kew for the transporting of mr. thomas atkins and his kit part of the long river journey towards bagdad. some of the tommies on our steamer eyed her enviously. here was a touch of the far-distant homeland under eastern skies! there was a suspicion of a tear in some sentimental eyes, but the wag of the party scored a laugh when he megaphoned with his hands to the skipper of the wren, "i'm for battersea, i am!" a number of these l.c.c. boats had come out from london under their own steam, making the long voyage to the gulf and basra through the bay of biscay and across the mediterranean and red seas, buffeted by wind and wave, but without losing any of their personnel or suffering any material { } damage. it was a triumph of seamanship and british pluck. the banks of the tigris, and indeed of the euphrates, at certain seasons of the year are surely the most desolate places on the habitable earth. the date-palm plantations of the shatt el arab are succeeded by a monotonous landscape of dull brown desert stretching away as far as the eye can see. to our right, as we wound and twisted our way up river, we occasionally caught a glimpse of the snow-clad mountains of persia. dotted here and there along the banks are arab villages, which seemed to be a conglomeration of goats, sheep, and dusky-brown naked children, all thrown confusedly into the picture. by way of variation, now and then we swept past a desert oasis, where stood a few stunted palm-trees near which a tribe of nomads had set up their black tents of goat's-hair and were spending a week-end on the river bank before trekking afresh into the heart of the desert. your real arab nomad is essentially a child of nature. he spends his life in the wilderness and has a rooted objection--nay, it is, in truth, a positive terror--to visiting any town, big or little. he has an undefinable dread of venturing within a walled city, apparently regarding it in much the same way as a wild bird would regard an iron-barred cage. any restriction of movement is irksome to him. he loves the free life of the desert, with its limitless possibilities, its far-stretching horizon, and its absence { } of streets and houses. he is of the tribe of ishmael, destined to wander on and on, ever remote from the haunts of his fellow-man. the semi-nomad, on the other hand, is less intractable, and does not chafe so much under the yoke of western civilization. he is frugal, sober, and thrifty. we passed hundreds of his tribe who live on the banks of the tigris, cultivating a patch of arable land, and using a wooden plough which must have been old-fashioned even in the days of that earliest recorded agriculturist, cain. we groped a tedious way along the sinuous tigris, missing by a foot or two a down-river steamer and its lashed barges, making fair headway against the swirling waters which swept past us with the speed of a millstream. the current carried us from side to side, first bumping one bank, and then cannoning against the opposite one, until it seemed as if the stout lashings of our captive barges must be torn away. where the river was especially narrow, we would tie up to the bank and give right-of-way to a convoy going down stream. at night, too, we would either tie up or anchor inshore, and at daylight would be off again. in the bright clear atmosphere it was possible to see objects many miles distant. ofttimes we would catch sight of a steamer away to our right or left, looking for all the world as if she were making an overland trip and was stuck fast in the middle of the waterless desert. but the seeming mystery was { } explained by the winding course of the river, which can only be likened to a series of figures of eight. it took us about thirty hours to reach amarah, which lies on both banks of the tigris and, by reason of its position, had become an important coaling-centre on the lower part of the stream. there was an air of bustle and activity about the place, for british organization had descended upon it and rudely awakened it from the sleep of centuries. british military and native police controlled the town, and kept the more mischievous of the unruly arab elements in order. a swing-bridge had been thrown across the river to carry vehicular traffic. river steamers were moored at the quays, taking in or discharging cargo, and indian and arab coolies sweated in the sun as they hurried along with great burdens on their backs. our way to camp led through the bazaar, which may, i think, lay claim to be one of the filthiest and most malodorous in all the "land of the two rivers." it had rained heavily the previous night, and now the unpaved roadway through the main bazaar was a foot deep in liquid mud. the average native was wholly unconcerned and, while we picked our steps carefully, mentally consigning amarah and its abominable streets to perdition, barefooted arab women, wearing anklets of silver, with a pendant through one nostril, and in their finest raiment, would plod contentedly through this mire as if it were a rose-bestrewn path. tiny mites with no more clothing than a { } string of beads gave each other mud baths with the joy and enthusiasm of children sporting in the sea at some european watering-place. still, if amarah disgusted us with its muddy streets and evil-smelling bazaars, it had some compensating advantages, amongst them its british officers' club. in a desert of dirt and discomfort this was a veritable oasis, with its excellent cuisine, and smoking and reading rooms provided with the latest three-months-old newspapers and magazines. it stands on the river front, and from its roof-garden a fine panorama opens at one's feet. in the foreground are the busy river and the crowded quayside, and on the opposite bank the white tents of the british camps blend with the dark green of the date-palms. still farther beyond, as a background to the picture, is the dun-brown of the desert wastes. a wet camp is at all times an abomination, and our first night at amarah was not a pleasant experience. the transit camp is on a sort of peninsula, and a few hours' rain converted it into a lake of mud. we were housed in huts whose shape recalled a miniature crystal palace, and whose semi-circular sides and roof were thatched with palm netting. in the hut which i shared with major newcombe and captain eve, during the early hours of the morning a heavy shower poured through the roof as if it were a sieve. in the darkness there was a scramble over the muddy floor in quest of waterproof sheets and raincoats with which to set up a second line of defence for { } our leaky roof. afterwards we all laughed heartily at the experience, but at the time we were inclined to be wrathful, for an unexpected and unlooked-for shower-bath in bed at a.m., even on active service, may ruffle the mildest of tempers. from amarah to kut we went by river, the journey occupying three days. the military-constructed railway which has since been opened does the journey in ten or twelve hours. our steamer, no. , was a comfortable one of her class for tigris river travelling. indeed in this part of the world she would be listed as de luxe, inasmuch as she possessed cabin accommodation and actually had a bathroom. the trip itself was but a slight variation of the monotonous river journey to amarah. there were the same flat stretches of country now and again relieved by a few palm-trees; the white tents of a british river guard, a link in this long-drawn-out line of communications; or some arab village with its grouping of dilapidated palm-roofed huts, its barking curs, and its mud-brown naked children. occasionally down by the banks there was a fringe of green where some native cultivator, aided by the water from an irrigation canal, was rearing a hardy spring crop. as on its lower reaches, the river pursued a devious path across the face of the country until one grew giddy with attempting to follow its windings. the tigris is a most impulsive stream; it obeys no will but its own, and is as erratic as any river of its size in the world. however, as kut is approached on the { } up journey, it broadens out into noble proportions, swift and deep, and for a few miles behaves rationally, abandoning its geographical jazz-step over the mesopotamian plains. kut--the scene of townshend's immortal stand, with his handful of troops diminished daily by famine and disease, holding off to the last a powerful enemy--is situated at the end of a tongue of land at a point where the tigris, taking a mighty sweep, mingles its waters with those of the shatt el hai. but a new kut, a british kut, a town of tents and wooden huts and galvanized iron buildings, has sprung into being three miles below the tottering walls of turkish kut, and about two miles from townshend's advanced trench line. in british kut there are rough wooden piers, hastily built, it is true, where the river steamers moor, few attempting the difficult passage from kut to bagdad. kut is also an important railway junction, for the troops bound up river were disembarked here, and stepped from the steamer deck into the waiting troop-trains. we went up river in a motor launch, general byron, major newcombe, captain eve, and myself, to visit townshend's famous stronghold. it was with a feeling of emotion that we disembarked at the old stone pier of kut, and made our way along its broken unpaved streets, past its crumbling wall, to the centre of the town. the route led through the main business centre--it could hardly be called a bazaar--where merchants and money-changers plied { } their trades, and a blind beggar in rags sat under the lee of a wall, with the sun shining full on his sightless eye-sockets, droning a supplication for alms. the wave of red war had passed and repassed over kut, leaving it scorched and maimed. turk and briton had fought for supremacy round and about it, but that was more than a year ago, and kut now dozed sleepily in the hot afternoon sun, beginning already to forget the past and, with the calm philosophic indifference of the east, accepting as a predestined part of its daily life the standard of britain which had replaced the crescent of the turk. the arab policemen who guarded its unkempt streets were serving their new masters faithfully, and those we passed, spick and span in spotless khaki and tarbooshes, by their alert and soldierly bearing gave unmistakable evidence of having graduated from the school of that efficient, exacting, and most conscientious of mortals, the british drill instructor. presently, guided by a staff officer from the base headquarters, we came to the house of the hero of kut. it was an unpretentious dwelling, flat-roofed, and built of sun-dried bricks, with nothing much to distinguish it from its hundreds of neighbours. descending a steep flight of steps, we came to the serdab or underground apartment common to most mesopotamian houses, where the occupants hide for shelter during the hottest hours of the blistering summer day. the room was bare of adornment--a few chairs, a divan, and a table covered with official { } papers--that was all. it was now the home of the local political officer, but it had changed little, if any, since its former illustrious occupant walked out of it and up those stone steps--his proud spirit unbroken, his heart heavy, but his courage undimmed--to pass a captive into the hands of the turks. none of our party could lay any special claim to be sentimental but, standing there in the narrow underground room with its hallowed associations, where a very gallant british general, the foe without and disease and hunger within--he, too, alas! another victim of high-placed incompetency--planned and schemed during those dark days of the siege to break the throttling grip of the turk, we felt we were upon holy ground, and every one of us, moved by a common emotion, raised our hands to our caps in salute. it was our tribute of admiration and respect for townshend and his heroes--for the men who perished so nobly, no less than for their comrades maimed and broken who survived the fall of kut, many of them, unhappily, only to pass anew through the gate of suffering and to end their lives as prisoners in the hands of a brutal, ungenerous enemy to whom honour and compassion are meaningless terms. it was not every day that the turks could boast such a victory as kut, or that they found themselves with a british general and a starving british force surrendering to their arms. short-lived as was their triumph, they lost no time in celebrating it by setting up a commemorative monument. this stands on the { } tigris' bank close to british kut and the landing pier, and is in the form of an obelisk of unhewn stone on a plinth of corresponding material fenced in by an iron railing. a few obsolete cannon, the muzzles facing outwards, are grouped round the base of the monument. an inscription in turkish records the fall of kut and the capture of townshend and his men which, it recounts, was accomplished by the grace of allah and the prowess of the besieging turkish army. the next stage of our journey from kut to bagdad was a short one. a night in a troop-train, and sunrise the following morning saw us being dumped down at hinaida camp on the outskirts of the city of the caliphs. { } chapter vi bagdad arabian nights and motor-cars--the old and the new in bagdad--"noah's dinghy"--bible history illustrated--at a famous tomb-mosque. who has not heard and read of bagdad, of its former glory and its greatness? i set foot in it for the first time on march th, , the day after the arrival of our little party at hinaida transit camp on the left bank of the tigris. as i tramped across the dusty hinaida plain towards the belt of palm groves which veils the city on the east, i had visions of haroun al raschid, and fancied myself coming face to face with the wonders of the "arabian nights." it was with something of a shock, then, that on entering the city i encountered khaki-clad figures, and saw ford vans and motor lorries tearing wildly along the streets. in the main thoroughfare, hard by british headquarters, a steam roller was travelling backwards and forwards over the freshly metalled roadway, completing the work of an indian labour corps; farther on, a watering cart labelled "bagdad municipality" was busily drowning the fine-spun desert dust that { } had settled thickly on the newly born macadamized street. here was an arab café, with low benches on the inclined plane principle like seats in a theatre, where the occupants sipped their mocha from tiny cups, or inhaled tobacco-smoke through the amber stem of a hubble-bubble, watching the passing show, and betimes discussing the idiosyncrasies of the strange race of unbelievers that has settled itself down in the fair city which once had been the pride of islam. truly a city of contrasts! cheek by jowl with the arab café was an eating-house full of british soldiers. the principal street runs parallel with the river and, as one proceeded, it was possible to catch glimpses of pleasant gardens running down to the water's edge and embowering handsome villas--gardens where pomegranates, figs, oranges, and lemons grew in abundance. the oriental readily adapts himself to changing circumstances, and unhesitatingly abandons the master of yesterday to follow the new one of to-day. already traces of the ottoman dominion were being obliterated. the turkish language was disappearing from shop signs to be replaced by english or french, with, in some cases, a total disregard of etymology, such choice gems as "englisch talking lessons," "stanley maude wash company" (this over a laundry), "british tommy shave room," showing at all events a praiseworthy attempt to wrestle with the niceties of the english language. bagdad as i saw it in the first days following my { } arrival struck me as a place whose remains of faded greatness still clung about it. no one could deny its claim to a certain wild beauty which age, dirt, and decay have not been able wholly to eliminate. the glory of the river scene is unsurpassable. to see bagdad at its best one must view it from the balcony of the british residency (now general headquarters). here, as you look down upon the river, the old bridge of boats connecting with the western bank is on your right, and handsome villas where flowers grow in profusion, the residences of former turkish officials or wealthy citizens, adorn the foreshore. the river is broad and majestic, and strange craft dot its surface. here is a kufa, in itself a link with antiquity, a circular boat of basketware covered with bitumen, sometimes big enough to hold ten men and two or three laden donkeys. its cross-river course is decidedly eccentric. propelled by crudely fashioned paddles wielded by sturdy oarsmen, its progress from shore to shore is leisurely and cumbersome as, caught into the eddying current, it twirls slowly, with a rotatory movement, like the dying motion of some giant spinning-top. the cheerful thomas atkins promptly christened the kufa "noah's dinghy," and lost no time in getting afloat therein. some of the australians at hinaida camp organized a kufa regatta, the course being across river and back, a distance of about two miles. a waterproof sheet was attached as a sail { } by one enterprising anzac, but even that did not help to accelerate very appreciably the snail-like progress of his aquatic tub. local tradition avers that sinbad the sailor came spinning down from bagdad to basra in a kufa, when he signed on at the gulf port for his first ocean voyage. who knows? kufas are depicted on some of the old assyrian monuments. a close relative surely to the kufa is the kellik or mussik raft of the upper tigris. constructed of a square framework of wood buoyed by inflated goat-skins, it is widely utilized as a cargo carrier on these inland waterways. piled high with hay and a miscellaneous collection of live-stock, it will waddle off down river with a crew of three or four, and half a dozen or so passengers. sometimes the cargo shifts, or the goat-skin bladders become deflated, and the kellik, down by the nose or stern, grows more unwieldy than ever. a little mishap of this kind never bothers the crew. they steer for some convenient point on the river-bank where the water is shallow, unhitch the defective skins, and inflate them afresh with the unaided power of their own lungs. the cargo righted, and the trim of their cumbersome raft restored, they will push off into midstream and continue their venturesome journey, logging a steady two knots. but on an upstream trip it is another story. then the laden or empty kellik has to be towed, and hard work it is to make headway when the river is in { } flood and racing down to meet its brother, the euphrates, on their joint way to the gulf. going upstream the kellik keeps as close in shore as possible. two men in the boat keep her from going aground, while a couple of others yoke themselves to a towline and move along the margin of the stream much like the canal bargees in holland. but on the tigris there is no well-defined towing path, and the course resolves itself into a kind of zigzag cross-country obstacle race, and the agility and dexterity with which these muscular native rivermen harnessed to the towline of a heavily laden raft will negotiate sunken ground, canal ditches, tumble-down village walls, and a few other natural hazards on a stretch of tigris' river-bank, is extraordinary to behold. the life of a galley slave in carthage must have been a soft snap indeed compared with that of the dark-skinned toilers who tug at an up-river kellik under the full force of a mesopotamian sun. bagdad as a city takes us back to the horizon rim of the world's history. there still clings to it an air of musty antiquity and prehistoric dirt which the efforts of its new masters, the british, with pick-and-shovel sanitary science, and other new-fangled inventions of western civilization, have not entirely eradicated. the beardless invaders from over the seas have sought to scrape clean its ancient bones, to straighten out the kink in its narrow, tortuous, and evil-smelling streets, and to let the light of day and a little wholesome fresh air penetrate into the { } gloom and dampness of its rabbit-warren of a bazaar. staid, solemn-looking citizens, with the green turban of mecca enveloping their venerable heads, whose ancestors probably drifted in here when overland travel was resumed after the flood, have looked on in pious horror while festering slum areas have been laid low by british pickaxes. these hadjis, fervent believers in tradition, and uncompromising opponents of innovation, have caressed their beards thoughtfully when confronted with the new order of things, and come to the philosophic conclusion that, as kipling has it, "allah created the english mad, the maddest of all mankind." biblical history is no longer vague and shadowy, but takes on a new meaning and an added significance to anyone who explores old bagdad with eyes to see. as i wandered through its bazaars in quest of antiquities and bargains in bric-à-brac and rare damascened weapons, i often forgot the primary object of my visit while strolling silently about contentedly studying the hastening crowds who elbowed and fought their way along the narrow streets, or watching the complacent shopkeepers who sat cross-legged in their narrow, cell-like shops, haggling over prices with some prospective buyer. it was like throwing biblical romance and biblical tragedy on a cinema screen, only that now it lived and was real flesh and blood. here were the descendants of the jews of the captivity--shrewd-looking, sharp-featured merchants, traffickers in gold and silver, { } dealers in antiquities, a living link between that very remote yesterday and the modern to-day, amassing much wealth in the land of their perpetual exile, carrying on unbrokenly the religion and traditions of judaism--in dress, manners, customs, and speech as unchanged and unchanging as on the day when the heavy hand of the babylonian oppressor smote their forbears and they were led away into slavery. and here, too, now competing in commercial rivalry with the sons of abraham, are lineal descendants of assyrians, chaldeans, medes, persians, and of those other warring races who between them made history in the long ago. the descendants of the jews of the captivity have never wandered far afield, and it would even seem that they have preferred exile to repatriation. bagdad formed part of babylonia, and a three hours' train journey to hilleh on the euphrates will land the bagdad jew of an archæological turn of mind amidst the ruins of ancient babylon. the jew venerates bagdad as a sort of lesser zion. it was long the seat of the exilarch, and is still the rallying centre of eastern judaism. monuments and tombs of the mighty ones of the chosen race are scattered over lower mesopotamia. there is the reputed tomb of ezra on the shatt el arab near korna, that of ezekiel in the village called kefil, while the prophet daniel has a holy well bearing his name at hilleh near the ruins of babylon. but the chief place of pious pilgrimage for bagdad jews lies { } in a palm grove an hour's journey from the city on the euphrates road. here is said to be buried joshua, son of josedech, a high priest towards the end of the captivity period. western bagdad, on the right bank of the tigris, always recognizing and rendering a somewhat sullen obedience to the sway of the turkish sultan, is separated from eastern bagdad by much more than the deep waters of the river. its inhabitants for the most part are mohammedans of the shi'ite sect, as opposed to the orthodox or sunni creed of the turks. the shias may be described as islamic dissenters, and their cult is the state religion of persia. ethnologically and politically they are closer akin to iran than to turkey, and their eyes are more frequently turned to teheran than to istambul. in western bagdad they have their own mosques, their own bazaars, and their own shrines, and lead lives more or less isolated from their asiatic brethren on the opposite side of the river. during a visit to the famous shi'ite mosque and shrine at kazemain, a suburb of the western city, i found that the people, while outwardly friendly and polite, were much more fanatical than the average sunni mussulman, and were inclined to resent any attempt on the part of a giaour like myself to see the interior of their mosques and shrines. i had for companions general byron and lieutenant akhbar, the latter a professing shi'ite. we crossed by the new pontoon swing bridge which now connects the { } two shores, superseding the old bridge of boats of turkish days. the houses are huddled together, and are squat and meanly built, with the low encircling walls and roofed parapets of sun-dried mud so common to persian villages. the streets are barely wide enough for two pedestrians to pass abreast, and are full of holes or covered with garbage. as for the inhabitants, they were miserably clad, and the few women whom we chanced to encounter in our path hastily stepped aside and, turning from us, made a furtive effort to veil themselves by covering the upper part of their faces with a dirty piece of rag produced from the voluminous folds of a sleeve-pocket. we did not tarry here very long. quitting this waterside hamlet we drove three miles to kazemain itself, passing en route the terminus of the bagdad-anatolian railway, that great link of steel in the chain of german world-expansion the completion of which, under the existing concession, would have been commercially and economically fatal to us in western asia. the tomb-mosque of kazemain is one of the architectural landmarks of bagdad. its twin domes and its four lofty minarets, all overlaid with gold, are visible for miles as the traveller approaches bagdad from the west. when the rays of the noonday sun strike on these gilded cupolas and graceful tapering columns it enhances their beauty a hundredfold, and throws into bold relief all their harmony and { } symmetry. it recalled to me vividly, but in a minor degree, some of the wonder and the glory of that other great monument of an eastern land--the taj mahal at agra. but while the one is secular and commemorative of earthly love, the other has a deeply religious significance, for in the imposing mosque of kazemain are buried musa ibn ja'far el kazim and his grandson, ibn ali el jawad, the seventh and ninth of the successors of ali, the son-in-law of mahomet, and recognized by the shias as the rightful caliphs of islam. as a centre of pilgrimage for shi'ite moslems, kazemain ranks second after kerbela, the tomb of hosain the martyr; and from the point of view of sanctity, kazemain is considered to take even higher place than either samarra or nejef, the other two shi'ite shrines in the vilayet of bagdad. the customary crowd of beggars, maimed, halt, and blind, whined to us as we alighted before the great gate of kazemain mosque. three or four small boys, who had stolen a free ride by clinging to the back of the automobile while it crawled dead slow through the gloomy, winding streets of the bazaar, now demanded a pishkash (the persian equivalent of backsheesh). mollahs, sayyeds, and other reputed holy men, springing apparently from nowhere, formed a ring around us, deeply interested in our dress, our speech, the colour of our hair, and our beardless faces. more especially was the wondering attention of the crowd concentrated on akhbar, himself a native persian, holding the king's commission and wearing { } the king's khaki. "what manner of man is this?" asked the puzzled onlookers. "is he infidel or true believer? for, by the beard of the prophet, he speaks our holy tongue as well as we do ourselves!" now there intervened an elderly personage in the abba or flowing robes affected by the better class of persian, with a green kamarband indicating his claim to lineal descent from the prophet. the new-comer, whose hair and beard were plentifully dyed with henna--a never-failing sign, i was assured, of virtue and virility--offered to go in search of the mujtahid or chief priest. he returned presently with that important functionary, who salaamed, but looked at us coldly and suspiciously, i thought. a whispered colloquy now took place between himself and akhbar. he had no doubt as to the heterodoxy of the general and myself, but, on the other hand, at first he was not convinced of the orthodoxy of akhbar, this professed believer clad in infidel garb. all akhbar's impassioned pleading failed to move him. akhbar himself might enter freely, but as for the two unbelievers, they must not set foot within the jealously guarded portals of the holy place. up to this point the negotiations had been singularly free from anything even remotely connected with coin of the realm. i think it was the mujtahid himself who, in his most winning manner, hinted that "blessed is he that giveth," and that even the dole of an unbeliever might win merit in the sight { } of allah. we gave accordingly, whereupon the mujtahid, out of the kindness of his heart, and by way of requiting our generosity, said he would enable us to see something of the shi'ite "holy of holies." with himself as guide we were led by a circular route to a caravanserai for pilgrims which stood close to the high wall of the mosque. the place was untenanted, but, mounting by a flight of rickety stairs to the flat and somewhat unstable roof, we were able to overlook the interior courtyard of the mosque, to note its gilt façade, and to watch the worshippers performing their ablutions at the fountain in the centre of the courtyard. with this we had to be content. the shrine down to recent days had been a sanctuary for criminals fleeing from justice, but the turkish overlords, it is said, when a fugitive happened to be of sufficient importance, were able by cajolery and bribery to override sanctuary and secure the man they wanted. in consequence, kazemain lost its popularity with fugitive law-breakers. the populace at the termination of our visit gave us a hearty send-off, and the beggars, whose persistence and persuasiveness it was difficult to resist, having relieved us of sundry krans and rupees, called down the blessing of allah on our heads. the sunni moslems have many imposing places of worship in bagdad. the mosque of marjanieh is noted for its very fine arabesque work, bearing considerable resemblance to the ornamentations on the { } mosque at cordova, in spain. there is also the mosque of khaseki, which is believed to have been once a christian church. its roman arch, with square pedestals and its spirally-fluted columns, reveal an architectural school that is not oriental. outside the walls of the western city is the reputed site of the tomb of zobeide, the wife of haroun al raschid. the eroding hand of time has dealt heavily with this once splendid mausoleum, but its curiously-shaped pineapple dome is still intact, and survives proudly amongst the ruin and decay of a dead-and-gone civilization. niebuhr, the german traveller who visited this tomb in the middle of the eighteenth century, says he discovered an inscription setting forth that it was the site of the ancient burying-place of zobeide, but that about , ayesha khanum, wife of a governor of bagdad, was also given sepulture there. doubt is thrown upon the historical accuracy of niebuhr by many scholars, and there is a legend that zobeide was buried at kazemain. { } chapter vii early history of dunsterville's force jealousy and muddle--the dash for the caspian--holding on hundreds of miles from anywhere--a -mile raid that failed--the cockpit of the middle east--some recent politics in persia--how our way to the caspian was barred. bagdad is not a pleasant place of residence when the sherki, or south wind, blows, and when at noonday the shade temperature is often degrees fahr. for europeans, work is then out of the question, and it is impossible to venture abroad in the scorching air. there is nothing for it but a suit of the thinnest pyjamas and a siesta in the serdab or underground room which forms part of most bagdad houses. the local equivalent of a punkah is usually to be found here, and this helps to make life just bearable during the hot season. at headquarters and administrative branches there was a welcome cessation of labour from tiffin time until after the great heat of the day. but the late sir stanley maude, when in chief command at bagdad, demanded a very full day's work from his staff, and suffered no afternoon siesta. he set the example himself, and on even the hottest days was absent from his desk only during meal hours. maude, { } splendid soldier and genial gentleman that he was, boasted of an iron constitution which was impervious alike to mesopotamian heat and mesopotamian malaria. the cool weather had already set in when the bagdad party took up its abode under canvas at hinaida. we found already there an earlier contingent which had been gathered together from units serving in mesopotamia and salonika. no one knew quite what to do with us, and general headquarters was seemingly divided in mind as to whether we should be treated as interlopers, and interned for the duration of the war, or left severely alone to work out our own salvation, or damnation, as we might see fit. the latter view carried the day, and our welcome in official quarters was therefore distinctly chilling. the difficulty chiefly arose, it appears, because general dunsterville, the leader of our expedition, had been given a separate command, and was independent of the general commanding-in-chief in mesopotamia. jealousy was created in high quarters. there was a spirited exchange of telegrams with the war office, in which such phrases as "quite impossible of realization," "opposed to all military precedent," are said to have figured prominently. in february, in the middle of the rainy season, and while the snow still lay thick upon the persian mountain passes, general dunsterville had collected some motor transports and, taking with him a handful of officers, had made a dash for the caspian sea. { } his intention was to seize and hold enzeli, the persian port on the caspian, in order either to bluff or to beat the russian bolsheviks there into submission, and to use it as a base for operations against baku, which had become a stronghold of german-turkish-bolshevik activity. after untold difficulties, one party crossed the rain-sodden persian uplands, hewed a road over the snow-covered assadabad pass for their ford cars, and, although severely tried by cold and hunger, succeeded in reaching hamadan. leaving a small band of men there to keep the unfriendly persian population in check, dunsterville pushed on for kasvin, and thence to resht, a few miles from enzeli, brushing aside the stray bands of armed marauders that sought to bar his progress. the goal was in sight, but, unsupported, and without supplies, and hundreds of miles from his small party at hamadan, he found himself unable to hold on. his enemies were numerous and well-armed. awed at first by the appearance of this handful of british officers who had unconcernedly motored into their midst after a seven-hundred-mile raid across mesopotamia and persia, the bolsheviks and their german-subsidized persian auxiliaries were for temporizing--nay, they even invited the british general to a conference to discuss the situation; and, in the hope of arriving at the basis of an understanding, dunsterville accepted the invitation to confer with them. { } in the meantime his enemies had not been idle. their spies were quick to report that no british reinforcements were arriving. dunsterville's numerical weakness was apparent, and the drooping spirits of the bolshevik council revived. it had been cowed into inaction, but now it grew bold, and its attitude became menacing. the british general was presented with an ultimatum demanding his immediate withdrawal on pain of capture and death. there was no help for it. withdraw dunsterville must, and did. the ford cars carrying the daring raiders sped away from the bazaar of resht and back to hamadan, and through streets crowded with armed and hostile ruffians ripe for any crime. this, briefly, was the situation in the early days of march. dunsterville had leaped and failed. he was back at hamadan, holding on tenaciously, with a small body of officers and n.c.o.'s, no men, lacking supplies, from which he was separated by hundreds of miles of roadless country made doubly impassable by rain and melting snow, and threatened with extermination by unfriendly tribesmen who, wolf-like, were baying round him, eager yet afraid to strike. [illustration: hotel d'europe at resht.] but, one will ask, what were dunsterville and his force doing in persia at all? and why had britain, who had gone to war with germany because the latter had overrun neutral belgium, and who had professed so much horror for germany's aggression, why had she, of all nations, violated persian neutrality, { } invaded persian territory, and ignored persian protests? the answer is simply that we entered persia to defend persian rights as much as to defend our own cause and the cause of the allies. the territory of the shah had been devastated by contending armies of turks and russians. it had been swept by fire and sword; and now those twin handmaidens of ruthless war, famine and disease, were abroad in the land of iran, slaying indiscriminately such of the wretched helpless populace as had escaped the fury and the sword of turk and muscovite. persia, by reason of its geographical boundaries--its frontiers being coterminous with those of russia and turkey--had in the early part of the great world struggle become the cockpit of the middle east. the weak, emasculated government of the shah, a mere set of marionettes, hopped about on the political stage of a corrupt capital. it had no will of its own; and, even if it had, the constitutional advisers of the "king of kings" had no means of enforcing it. hating russia politically, and perhaps not without reason, coquetting with turkey because of the common religious bond of islamism, persia herself very early in the war failed to observe the obligations which neutrality imposed upon her. she aided and abetted the emissaries of the central powers. hun gold was the charm at which her gates flew open to admit prussian drill-instructors, whose business was to organize and train the wild tribes of the south-west for raids against our vulnerable right { } flank in mesopotamia. the "volunteers of islam," a body of fanatical mollahs with a leavening of turkish military officers and of bespectacled professors of german kultur, were recruited round lake van in turkish armenia. they had for their object the preaching of a holy war in afghanistan against britain, and the setting alight of our indian north-west territory. the "volunteers of islam," moving across the persian frontier, established their base in persian kermanshah preparatory to turning their faces eastward in the long trek to herat and the scene of their islamic and anti-british crusade. they were destined never to behold the mountain passes of their "promised land," for, valour outrunning their discretion, these militants of islam and potsdam, while engaged in the final preparations for the journey to afghanistan, were foolish enough to throw in their lot with a mesopotamian frontier tribe which was thirsting to distinguish itself in battle against the british. the combat duly took place, and the insolent tribesmen were punished for their foolhardiness. in fact, they found extinction, instead of the looked-for distinction; and many "volunteers of islam" were also given sepulture by the vultures, the _concessionaires des tombeaux_ in these parts. as for the survivors, they readily abandoned kermanshah for the greater security offered by the armenian highlands. after the russian military collapse in the winter of , followed by the bolshevist triumph and the { } signing of the shameful treaty of brest litovsk, the germans and their infamous allies, the followers of lenin and trotsky, lost no time in making themselves masters of the caucasus. tiflis fell, and arrayed itself under the red banner of national shame; armenians, georgians, and tartars, all victims of turkish misrule, but hating each other more cordially than they collectively hated the osmanli oppressor, wrangling over their respective claims to independent nationhood, varied by the absorbing passion of slitting each other's throats, were all too busy to seek to make common cause against the bolshevik wolf when it appeared before their fold in the guise of a german lamb. would that all these nationless peoples of the caucasus, who with so much vehemence are always pleading their own inalienable right to self-determination, possessed military gifts commensurate with their brilliant, perfervid, never failing oratory! if they could fight only half as well as they can talk, what unrivalled soldiers they would be! the bolsheviks and their german masters and paymasters, coming down the railway line from tiflis, speedily possessed themselves of baku and its oil wells. immediately opposite baku, and on the eastern shore of the caspian sea, is krasnovodsk, the terminus of the transcaspian railway, that important strategic line which links up the khanates of russian turkestan, connects, on the one hand, samarkand with orenburg and the main _reseau_ of { } russian railways, and, on the other, bifurcates and comes to a dead stop--resembling the extended jaws of a pincers--within hailing distance of the afghan frontier. once masters of the caspian littoral and of the russian gunboats which patrolled its waters, the bolsheviks and their german allies were free to use the transcaspian railway, and to menace india seriously by way of afghanistan. at all events, they lost no time in invading persia from the sea by way of enzeli. here they found eager sympathisers and willing auxiliaries in the persian democrats, a political party with considerable influence and following in resht itself and throughout the persian provinces of gilan and mazandaran. the democrats laid claim to represent the intelligentza of north-eastern persia. their profession of political faith was, broadly, "persia for the persians," the abolition of all foreign meddling in persian affairs, and the ending of the russian and british spheres of influence. but it was against the british that their virulent hatred and political conspiracies were chiefly directed. while they feared the british, they despised the russians. as one of the leaders of this "young persia movement" said to me when we had a heart-to-heart talk in kasvin, "to our sorrow we find that the british are honest and incorruptible, therefore they are dangerous. should they decide to stay here, we could never hope to turn them out. on the other hand, to our joy we recognize that neither the russians nor the { } turks possess these high moral attributes, consequently there was always the hope that some day we might be able to escort the last of them to the frontier." the "young persia" representative put his case concisely, fairly, and without any tinge of political jaundice. none better than he realized the impotency of the vacillating teheran government to enforce its paper protests against the violation of persian neutrality. its only military instrument was a ragged, unpaid, undisciplined rabble, which international courtesy has been wont to designate an army. the persian democrats therefore linked up with the bolsheviks. but it would be erroneous to assume that their ranks were recruited entirely from disinterested patriots, inspired by the highest altruistic ideals, burning to rid their country of the foreigner--be he briton, turk, or russian--in order that persia might be free to work out her own political salvation in her own way and without interference from anybody. some there were in the ranks of the democrats actuated only by love of country, as they conceived it, who, with noble resolve in their hearts, trod the financially unremunerative path which led to the goal of political glory. there was always plenty of elbow-room and never any overcrowding on this road. the great majority of the democrats, as i found them, put pul (_i.e._, money) before patriotism, and for them a turkish lira, or a twenty-mark piece, had an irresistible attraction. { } with the downfall of russia as a military power, her army, which had pushed down through persia in order to effect a junction with the british in mesopotamia, rapidly retreated, and as rapidly disintegrated, smitten by the deadly plague of bolshevism. discipline and organization were at an end; obedience was no longer rendered to army chief, corps commander, or regimental officer, but to the soldiers' own "red committee"--usually with a sergeant at its head--which, besides usurping the functions of generalissimo, became the supreme war council of the army, giving an irrevocable decision upon everything from high strategy to vulgar plundering. now two russian generals, named bicherakoff and baratof, appeared on the troubled stage of persian politics. from the debris of an army they had gathered round them the odds and ends of stray russian regiments, bands of irregulars from transcaucasia, and cossacks from the don and the terek--stout fighting men of the mercenary type, whose trade was war and whose only asset was their sword. both bicherakoff and baratof were loyal to the cause of imperial russia and her allies, and refused to bend the knee to lenin and trotsky. they were willing to make war on our side as subsidized auxiliaries. in short, these heterogeneous cohorts were for sale; they possessed a certain military value, and the british taxpayer bought them at an inflated price, and also their right, title, and interest, if any, in the abandoned motor lorries, machine-guns, and { } military stores of all kinds which littered the track of the retreating, disorganized russian army. the british military treasure-chest also honoured a proportion of the russian requisition notes which had been given to the extent of millions of roubles in exchange for persian local supplies, and which the persian holders knew full well would never be liquidated by any bolshevik government in petrograd or elsewhere. our friends, the russians, having sold us their supplies for the common cause, made some difficulty about handing them over. the soldiers, it was said, claimed that war material was national property, and objected to its appropriation unless they, representing so many national shareholders, were each paid on a cash basis a proper proportion of the purchase price. this was a deadlock that was never satisfactorily adjusted. our new russian allies also offered to sell us the miles of road from kasvin to hamadan which had been constructed by a russian company, and was being maintained by a system of tolls levied upon goods and passengers. but the price was so formidable that, if we had closed with the bargain, the british exchequer would have needed the wealth of golconda to complete the transaction. bicherakoff and his volunteers concentrated at kasvin, at the junction of the roads leading to resht and the caspian in the north, to tabriz in the north-west, to teheran in the south-east, and to hamadan { } and kermanshah in the south-west. here they imposed an effective barrier against the flowing tide of bolshevism coming from the caspian, and it was hoped that they might be able to keep open the road from kasvin to resht and enzeli. the distance from kasvin to resht is about eighty miles. half-way, at manjil, there is a road bridge over the kizil uzun river, and the country beyond is covered with thick jungle, which fringes the roadway on both sides. about the time the russians were sitting down in kasvin awaiting developments, there appeared in the jungle country a redoubtable leader named kuchik khan, who was destined to exercise considerable influence on the military situation in the region of the caspian. kuchik khan was a persian of a certain culture and refinement of manner, endowed with courage, personal magnetism, and great force of character. he possessed, moreover, no little knowledge of european political institutions and of the science of government as practised in the west. the personification of militant "young persia," he proclaimed himself an apostle of reform. preaching the doctrine of persian nationalism in the broadest sense, he declared that he was the uncompromising enemy alike of misrule within and interference from without. recruits, attracted by good pay and the prospects of loot, flocked to his standard from amongst the harassed and overtaxed peasant population, and were soon licked into tolerable military shape by { } german and turkish officers. rifles, machine-guns, ammunition, military equipment, and money were also forthcoming from german sources. his army, which had its own distinctive uniform, grew rapidly, and it was not long before kuchik khan found himself strong enough to bid defiance to teheran and its feeble government. he set up as a semi-independent ruler, and had his own council of political and military advisers. kuchik khan's tax-gatherers collected and appropriated the shah's revenues in gilan and in part of mazandaran, and his power became paramount from manjil to the caspian sea. the jungalis, as his followers were called, under german instruction became proficient in trench warfare. selecting a good defensive position, they dug themselves in along the manjil-resht road, and their advanced outposts held the bridge head at manjil itself. [illustration: stone bridge at siah rud which is the probable place of attack from any of the jungle tribes. it was at this point that the hants suffered casualties.] kuchik khan, as persians go, was relatively honest, and was possibly inspired by patriotic zeal; but this did not prevent his becoming a pliant and very useful military asset in the hands of the enemies of the entente powers. at their behest he bolted and barred the door giving access to the caspian and for the british, at all events, labelled it, "on ne passe pas!" { } chapter viii off to persia au revoir to bagdad--the forts on the frontier--customs house for the dead--a land of desolation and death--a city of the past--an underground mess--methods of rifle thieves. it was not until the beginning of april ( ) that the intermittent rainfall practically ceased, and allowed a contingent of the weatherbound dunsterville party to turn their faces towards hamadan, where our general and his small force were said to be in dire straits. the advanced base near baqubah on the diala river, north-east of bagdad, where some of our unit were under canvas, was a quagmire; and the road beyond the persian frontier was reported to be impassable for man, motor, or animal transport. but four consecutive days of fine weather effected a transformation. the heat of the sun converted the liquid mud of the plains into half-baked clay, and the road itself showed a hard crust upon its surface. no time was lost in setting out for persia. the force from the advanced base began its march at daylight on april . baggage and transport were cut down to the lowest possible limits, and general { } byron and i moved ahead of the column in a ford van. on the first night we reached the headquarters of general thompson, commanding the th division operating on the diala. next morning, the weather still promising fair, we were off betimes, and, in spite of road difficulties, at ten o'clock reached the motor transport depot at khaniquin, the last town on the turkish side. after a brief halt to enable us to swop our somewhat war-worn car for a more efficient one, we started again, and, within an hour of pulling up at khaniquin, had crossed the frontier into persia. as we approached the boundary of the crumbling ottoman empire at this point, the road wound round a low hill. on an eminence above stood a tumble-down martello tower which once had held a turkish guard; and on a corresponding height on the other side were the ruins of a persian fort. from these vantage points the two asiatic empires, both now crumbling in decay, had for centuries jealously watched each other, quarrelling over a mile or two of disputed territory with all the vehemence of their oriental blood. near khaniquin, on the turkish side, we saw what had once been the quarantine and customs stations. it was here that the corpse caravans, coming from the interior of persia and bound for kerbela, one of the holy places of the shi'ite sect, halted and paid customs dues. it is the pious wish of every persian { } to be buried at kerbela, near the shrine of hossain the martyr. the town is in the vilayet of bagdad, and in pre-war days the turks derived a very handsome revenue from tolls levied on dead persians who were being transported to their last resting-place beside the waters of the euphrates. it was a gruesome but lucrative traffic for the living, whether customs officials or muleteers. these caravans of dead, by reason of the absence of anything approaching proper hygienic precautions, probably also carried with them into asiatic turkey a varied assortment of endemic diseases. when persians whose testamentary dispositions earmarked them for the last pilgrimage to kerbela died, they were buried for a year. at the end of this period they were exhumed, enveloped in coarse sacking, lashed two by two on the back of a mule, and carried to their new resting-place, accompanied by bands of sorrowing friends and relatives. we were now well over the frontier, and found ourselves in a land of desolation and death. our way lay past ruined and deserted villages, many of the inhabitants of which had been blotted out by famine. beyond a few persian road guards in british pay, or an occasional native labour corps road-making under the protection of a detachment of indian infantry, the country seemed destitute of life. on the other side of the frontier i had heard a good deal as to the appalling economic conditions of persia, and of the shortage of food; but now, { } brought face to face with the terrible reality, i understood for the first time its full significance. men and women, shrivelled and huddled heaps of stricken humanity, lay dead in the public ways, their stiffened fingers still clutching a bunch of grass plucked from the roadside, or a few roots torn up from the fields with which they had sought to lessen the tortures of death from starvation. at other times a gaunt, haggard figure, bearing some resemblance to a human being, would crawl on all fours across the roadway in front of the approaching car, and with signs rather than speech plead for a crust of bread. hard indeed would be the heart that could refuse such an appeal! so overboard went our ration supply of army biscuit, bit by bit, on this our first day in the hungry land of the shah! at kasr-i-shirin, where we made a short halt, we were soon surrounded by a starving multitude asking for food. one poor woman with a baby in her arms begged us to save her child. we gave her half a tin of potted meat and some biscuits, for which she called down the blessing of allah on our heads. her maternal solicitude was touching, for, although it was evident that she was suffering from extreme hunger, no food passed her lips until her baby had been supplied. the western slopes of kasr-i-shirin are covered with the remains of a great city. the outline of extensive walls can be traced amidst the debris of masonry. masses of roughly hewn sandstone strew { } the ground. within the ancient enclosure are heaps of tumble-down masonry, all that exists of the houses that formerly stood there. some little distance away are traceable the ruined outlines of a splendid palace with spacious underground apartments and beautiful archways, once the residence of some acharmenian or sasanian monarch. the remains of a rock-hewn aqueduct, with reservoir, troughs, and stone pipes, which brought water to this city of antiquity from a distance of twelve miles, are still to be seen. from kasr-i-shirin onwards there was a gradual descent to the bottom of the pai tak pass. it is three miles to the top of the pass, and there is a difference in altitude of about fifteen hundred feet. whatever else they may be, persians are not roadmakers. formerly the only way to scale pai tak was by following a mule track which wound round the sparsely wooded slopes of the hill. but now british military engineers had done some useful spade work there; an excellent road had been built with easy gradients, and pai tak was negotiable for ford cars, and even for heavily laden peerless lorries. the view from the top was superb. on either side of the plateau towered snow-capped mountains. we found in possession, under colonel mathews, a british force consisting of the th hants. the colonel himself was absent; but the officers of the battalion gave us a hearty welcome, and fixed us up with quarters for the night. the senjabi tribesmen round about were troublesome, { } and their leader, ali akhbar khan, incited by german propagandists, seemed bent upon coming into collision with the british. it was bitterly cold at surkhidizeh on the top of the pai tak pass, and we enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the hants' mess quarters. this was an underground circular apartment, cut out of the earth, into which you descended by a flight of wooden steps. the top was roofed with canvas, tent fashion. rifle thieves were active in the camp at surkhidizeh. wandering kurdish tribesmen showed special daring in this form of enterprise. scarcely a night passed without the hants' camp being raided for arms. british rifles brought enormous prices when sold to the senjabi and other of the lawless nomads whose happy hunting-ground is the "no man's land" in the neighbourhood of the turko-persian frontier. here a man was socially valued solely by the arms he carried. he might be in rags as far as raiment was concerned, but the possession of a . lee enfield, or a german mauser, marked him as a man of some distinction and importance in the country, one who might be expected to do big things, and with whom it was well to be on friendly terms. the average nomad whom i came across is not renowned for physical courage, and in daylight he will think twice before attacking even a single british soldier; yet these selfsame tribesmen would { } unhesitatingly raid a british bivouac nightly, and face the possibility of death, in order to pilfer a couple of rifles. rifle raiding possessed for them a kind of fascination. the raiders often failed and paid the penalty with their lives, but the attempts were never abandoned for long. one method was for a brace of snipers to fire on the sentry and on the guard, so creating a diversion. a couple of their fellows, with their bodies well oiled, naked save for a loin-cloth, and carrying each a long knife, would meanwhile crawl into the camp at a place remote from the point of disturbance, and snatch a rifle or two from beside the sleeping soldiers. if caught, they used their knives, and invariably with fatal effect. even if detected the raiders usually got away, for in the darkness and confusion it was difficult to fire upon them without incurring the risk of hitting one of your own people. i was aroused from a sound sleep the first night at surkhidizeh by the noise of rifle firing, followed by an infernal hullabaloo. unbuttoning the tent flap, and rushing into the open, i found that the rifle snatchers had been busy again. a native had wriggled through the barbed-wire enclosure and, with the silence of a red indian, had entered a tent occupied by men of the hants battalion. the soldiers slept with the sling of the rifle attached to the waistbelt. cutting through this without disturbing the owner, the thief had bolted with the weapon. on leaving, he fell over some of the sleeping { } occupants, who were aroused and sought to grab him, but in the darkness and confined space of the bell-tent, they missed the thief and grasped each other's throats. the sentry fired, but failed of his mark. the remainder of the guard and some indian units also loosed off a few rounds, but without success. the night favoured the enterprise. it was pitch dark. the raider's friends, from the cover of some dead ground in the neighbourhood, sniped the camp intermittently for the next hour or two, until everybody grew exasperated, and wished that persia with its marauding bands, and the whole middle east question were sunk in the deep sea. { } chapter ix through mud to kirind a city of starving cave-dwellers--an american woman's mission to the wild--a sect of salamanders--profiteering among the persians--a callous nation--wireless orders to sit tight--awaiting attack--the "mountain tiger." next day we set out for kirind, about fifteen miles from surkhidizeh, where a platoon of the hants held an advanced post. after passing sar mil and its ruined fort, we dipped down into a valley bordered by high hills, where grew dwarf oaks, with a background of mountains whose snow-topped peaks glistened in the warm spring sunshine. our way lay over a black cotton-soil plain, and the road looked as if it had recently been furrowed by a giant plough. it was hard going for the ford cars, and our difficulties were increased when rain presently overtook us. half an hour's downpour will convert any persian road into a morass, and that between surkhidizeh and kirind is no exception to the rule. the fords for once were baffled. the leading car could get no grip on the slippery soil; its front wheels revolved aimlessly, then by a mighty exertion moved forward a few yards, only to come to an abrupt stop, up to its front axle in a slimy { } mud-hole. we temporarily jettisoned everything, and pulled it out with a tow rope and the united efforts of a dozen friendly natives who were not averse from a little physical labour for a pecuniary reward. there was no getting rid of the glutinous mud. it adhered to one's boots and clung to one's garments with a persistency that was irritating and ruinous to the temper. the fifteen miles' journey occupied four hours, and we were "bogged" seven times before the cars finally got clear and gained the roughly paved causeway which, skirting kirind village, led to the british military post. [illustration: typical persian village.] kirind itself is a straggling and typical group of persian mud-houses. it clings haphazardly to both sides of a steep, narrow gorge, closed at one end by a perpendicular wall of jagged limestone rock, which rises sheer for a thousand feet. beneath this frowning rock-barrier nestles a village abominably and indescribably filthy, inhabitated by an elf-like people in whom months of semi-starvation had bred something of the sullen ferocity of a pack of famishing wolves. there was in their eyes the glint of the hunted wild animal. they fled at our approach--men, women, and children--diving into dark, noisome, underground dens which exhaled a horrible effluvium, or else bolting like so many scared wild-cats for some lair high up amongst the limestone ridges. some of the fugitives whom we rounded up and spoke to compassionately answered with a terrified snarl, as if dreading we should do them injury. yet it { } was chiefly the turk, that zealous propagandist of the tenets of islam, whose rapacity and cruelty had driven this fellow moslem race to the borderland of primitive savagery. amid all the horror and misery of this desert of human despair we found a christian angel of pity, isolated, working single-handed, striving to alleviate the terrible lot of the starving people. the angel was an american woman, miss cowden, of the presbyterian mission. years before she had given up home, country, and friends in obedience to a higher call, and was devoting her life and her energies to the betterment of the temporal lot of the unhappy, underfed, persian children. she had learned their language, and moved from village to village alone and unattended, carrying out her great work of charity, and content to live in some dirty hovel. a vocation surely demanding sublime self-abnegation, and calling, i should think, for the highest attributes of faith and courage! i hold no brief for foreign missionaries in general. i know that their proselytizing methods have been the subject of severe criticism in the public press and on the lecture platform. all the more reason, therefore, why i should tell of a work which is being done so unobtrusively, without hope of earthly recompense, and well beyond the range of the most powerful "big bertha" of the cinema world. the kirindis for the most part belong to the curious religious sect called aliullahis, about { } whose beliefs and rites many strange legends circulate. one of these concerns their immunity from injury by fire, and recalls the "fire walkers" of the tongan islands. aliullahian devotees, it is said, will enter a kind of oven and stay there while fire is heaped around it, making it red-hot. then, covering their heads with the burning cinders, they cry, "i am cold," and pass out unhurt. another ceremony consists in lifting bars of red-hot iron out of the fire with their bare hands, their skin showing no signs of burning. their religion seems to be a strange mixture of mohammedanism and judaism, with doctrines from various other esoteric faiths grafted on to it. thus they number amongst their prophets benjamin, moses, elia, david, and jesus christ, and they have also a saint of peculiar efficacy in intercession named ali. some investigators into their creed maintain that ali and daoud (david) are one and the same person; others think that ali is so high up in the spiritual hierarchy as only to be invoked through daoud. in any case, their prayer before battle is, "o daoud, we are going to war. grant that we overcome our enemy!" they then sacrifice some animal, usually a sheep, which is roasted whole. the high priest prays over the carcass and distributes the flesh in small portions to those present. communion in this sacrament appears to inspire the aliullahian with absolute confidence in the success of any undertaking it precedes. { } another of their beliefs is that of a successive incarnation of the deity in the greatest of their spiritual guides, seven of whom are clubbed together under the name of "haft-tan." when in mohammedan cities, they outwardly conform to the tenets taught by the prophet of the crescent, but secretly they continue the practice of their own mystic rites. they bury their dead without prayer (after keeping the unembalmed corpse six days), but turn his head to face kerbela, as do the mussulmans. they are recognizable from their long moustaches, since the shiahs are not allowed to have hair so long as to pass the upper lip. some authorities proclaim them the remnant of the samaritans who, as related in kings xvii. and , were carried into captivity by hoshea, king of assyria; and rawlinson, in his writings on persia, speaks of a rock-tomb which they regard as a place of special sanctity. they call it, he says, dukka-ni-daoud (david's shop), because they believe that the jewish monarch was a smith by trade. we stayed two nights in kirind village. our quarters were a couple of rooms above a stable which sheltered a sundry collection of goats, sheep, two consumptive donkeys and their charvadars, some stray hens, and two or three pariah dogs. crossing a dirty courtyard, where filth had accumulated for years, we climbed a broken stairway, and were at home. the flat roof of the stable was our promenade; { } but, since it was full of holes, which were generally concealed by a thin layer of sun-dried mud, great caution was needed to prevent a sudden and undignified descent into the menagerie below. our rooms opened on to the roof of the stable. we slept on the floor, and, as it was cold, our persian servant bought some green wood and made a fire in the only fireplace available, which consisted of a small cavity in the mud floor. a hole in the upper roof supplied ventilation, and served the purposes of a chimney. it was here that the governor paid an official call upon general byron. he sent a servant to announce his coming, and presently arrived accompanied by a retinue of unkempt, hungry-looking officials, all wearing the chocolate-coloured sugar-loaf hat peculiar to persians. the governor himself was a fat, pompous individual, with a drooping moustache, unshaven face, and no collar. we wondered at first whether the stubble on his chin was due to slothfulness, or was a sign of mourning. we discovered it was the latter, a brother of his having died recently through over-participation in food at some local festivity. to look at the portly form of the governor made it quite evident that everybody was not going hungry in kirind. as he sat cross-legged on the floor, his fingers interlaced in front of his breast, and twirling his thumbs, he looked exactly what he was--the personification of hopeless incapacity and lethargy. "what ashes are fallen on my head!" he moaned aloud, by way of expressing sorrow for the { } death of so many of the villagers from starvation. yet he himself had done nothing to lessen the ravages of famine in the district, and was content to see the wretched inhabitants die, without moving a finger to help them. his attitude was typical of officialdom throughout this starving land. the governor was a landowner, and probably, like others of his class whom i came across later in kermanshah and hamadan, had plenty of grain hidden away waiting for the day when the british commissariat, in order to feed starving persians, would come and buy it at inflated prices, thus enriching a gang of hoarding, avaricious rascals. when general byron spoke of what the british were doing elsewhere in the way of feeding the famine-stricken, the governor's eyes brightened, and scenting the possibility of an advantageous commercial deal in cornered wheat, he replied with a fervent "mash-allah!" (praise be to god!) the suggestion that thieving local bakers who had been profiteering at the expense of the starving population might be taught a salutary lesson by having their ears nailed to their bakehouse doors, or otherwise dealt with under some equally benign persian enactment, seemed to find favour in the eyes of the governor, for he answered, "inshallah!" (please god!) this governor, who had so suddenly developed a keen interest in the local food problem, was afterwards present at a full-dress parade of miss cowden's { } starvelings. the recipients of mission charity were of both sexes, and varied from toddlers of three to their elders of ten or twelve years. all they had in the way of clothing was a piece of discoloured rag, or a section of a tattered gunny bag, fastened round the loins. physical suffering long endured was indelibly stamped on their shrunken features and on their emaciated frames. each was given a substantial chunk of freshly baked chipattee, or unleavened bread, and they were desired to eat it then and there to prevent its being pilfered from their feeble hands by hungry adult prowlers outside the mission buildings. they made no demur, and ate ravenously. bread is the staple diet, and generally the only article of food, of the persian poor; and this daily free distribution must have been the means of preserving the lives of many hundreds of kirind children. charity in the anglo-saxon meaning of the word seems to find no home in the breast of the average persian; and each day there was a fight between local cupidity, as represented by the kirind bakers, and foreign generosity as exemplified by the american mission, which was spending its funds freely in order that these unhappy children of an alien race might have bread and live. here, as elsewhere during my wanderings through iran, i was painfully impressed by the appalling callousness and indifference exhibited by the ordinary persian towards the sufferings of his own people. he would not lift a hand to help a dying man, and dead, would leave { } him to the tender mercies of the dogs and vultures rather than trouble to give him burial. one morning, while preparing for a further move eastward towards kermanshah, a wireless message, transmitted in haste from surkhidizeh, ordered us to sit tight and await developments and reinforcements. we were warned that the senjabis were restless, and might any night swoop down on our slenderly-garrisoned post. ali akhbar khan, who was the pendragon of the senjabis and various stray allied bands of nomadic robbers in these parts, was said to be watching us from his eyrie up in the snow-capped hills. his martial ardour had been stimulated to the verge of action by german gold and german rifles, and the promise of much loot when our weak force had been duly annihilated. to the careful, calculating akhbar, and to the wild tribesmen who had flocked to his standard at the very first mention of the word "unlimited loot," the capture of the kirind post must have seemed the softest of soft things. to look our way and resist temptation was like flying in the face of providence. how that dear old bandit's mouth must have watered in anticipation of securing a fine haul of rifles, ammunition, and transport animals! all that stood between akhbar khan and the realization of his project was a platoon of the th hants under lieutenant gow, a lewis gun, a dozen persian irregulars of doubtful fighting quality, and a very unformidable barrier of two rows of { } barbed wire. the camp was on the edge of a narrow plateau facing the road. in the rear, where this latter became merged in the hills, the smooth slope was like a toboggan run, and the alert senjabis, if they so wished, might have slid from their hill-top sangars down on to the field of battle. but they held aloof; their day was not yet. we spent an anxious night. everybody was under arms waiting for the threatened attack. morning ended our period of suspense and brought the looked-for reinforcements--a squadron of the th hussars under captain pope, a couple of guns, an additional platoon of the hants, as well as the dunsterville contingent which had originally set out from baqubah. the "mountain tiger," as ali akhbar khan was called in the imaginative and picturesque vocabulary of the district, had hesitated, and missed his chance. the reinforcing party was very much disappointed at akhbar's display of irresolution and his reluctance to fight. some amongst the bolder spirits contemplated calling upon him in his mountain lair. but that was not to be. when the "tiger" did spring later on, and sought to cut up a british column, he received the lesson of his life. but our party was not there to share in the glory of his undoing. { } chapter x kirind to karmanshah pillage and famine--a land of mud--the chikar zabar pass--wandering dervishes--poor hotel accommodation--a "hunger battalion"--a city of the past. from kirind to kermanshah, our next stage, is about sixty miles. for the most part it is dreary, barren country, with a few isolated villages astride the line of march. the whole land had been skinned bare of supplies by turk and russian, and it was now in the throes of famine. there was a good deal of similarity in the methods of these successive invaders. they commandeered unscrupulously and without payment, and what they could not consume or carry off they destroyed. there was no seed wheat, and consequently no crops had been sown. many tillers of the soil had fled for their lives; those who had remained were dying of hunger in this war-ravaged region. the arable land which is noted for its fertility was forlorn and neglected; no plough had touched its soil since the passing of the war storm, and its abandoned furrows were temporarily tenanted by wandering crows struggling to gain a precarious livelihood. it was desolation and ruin everywhere. { } this was the country into which we, too, now, in our turn adventured. armed robbers roamed from hill to plain and back again, holding up and looting passing caravans, preying upon the miserable inhabitants in the remote villages, and relieving them of anything in the nature of food and live-stock that the greedy maw of turk and russian had inadvertently overlooked. little wonder that the terrified wayside inhabitants fled pell-mell at the approach of our column! it took some persuasion to assure them that they would not be "bled" afresh, nor put to the sword. not unnaturally, they had reason to dread the exactions of a third invader, and both effort and time were needed to convince them that our intentions were not hostile, but friendly. when confidence was at last restored, the glad tidings of our exemplary behaviour sped ahead of us from village to village, carried by that mysterious agency which in the east lends wings to any news of import, and in speed rivals wireless telegraphy. so it was that on our further progress ragged and cringing peasants, all semblance of manhood driven out of them by hunger and oppression, would crawl forth into the light of day from some dark hovel to beg, firstly for their lives, and secondly for a morsel of bread. we granted the one without question, but were not always able to comply with the second demand. from kirind our progress was slow. the first day, { } sunday, april th, we barely covered ten miles, arriving at khorosabad late in the afternoon, where we bivouacked under the lee of the hills. the road beyond was a kind of hog's back strewn with limestone boulders which proved too difficult for the laden ford cars. to add to our troubles the weather broke in the evening, and it rained steadily throughout the night, so that our camping-ground became a swamp. the hussars' horses suffered from exposure, while the men themselves were wet through and inclined to be grumpy. in the morning, as the weather showed signs of mending, the march was resumed; but the ford convoy had to be left behind in charge of an escort to wait until the road became passable. the infantry units marched through twelve miles of mud to harunabad, the next stage on the journey. it tried the men's endurance to the utmost. the road was simply an unmetalled track across the plain; there was no foothold in the saturated soil, and at each step a pound or two of clay adhered to one's boots, necessitating frequent halts to scrape them clean. the persian muleteers were more fortunate. they marched barefoot, and their movements were not handicapped by the encumbering dead weight of adhesive earth. [illustration: persian transport.] harunabad does not differ essentially from any other village in south-western persia. dirt and decay have laid their twin grip upon its crooked streets, its tottering mud walls, and ruinous habitations. { } the inhabitants were as hungry as any other of their class in persia, and they crowded round the bivouac cookhouses snatching eagerly at any morsel of food that was thrown to them. general byron, captain eve, lieutenant akhbar, and i lighted on a couple of rooms in a disused caravanserai, and the local governor, who seemed to bother less about backsheesh than the average of his fellows, procured us some mutton and firewood. two of his servitors who had brought the supplies were demanding an exorbitant price--the middleman's profit. the governor, happening to arrive on the scene while the haggling was proceeding, beat the grasping pair soundly in our presence, and promised them a dose of the bastinado on the morrow. thoroughly abashed by their drubbing, and terrified by the prospect of a fresh one next day, they fell upon their knees, begging for mercy and forgiveness. the general successfully pleaded on their behalf, and they showed their gratitude by kissing his hands, before taking themselves out of range of the still wrathful eye of the governor. the night was cold, with a tinge of frost in the air. we sat round the fire after supper drying our sodden garments and removing the encrustations of persian mud which had settled thickly upon them. sleep came to us easily after the fatigues of the day, and it was with a feeling of deep personal resentment that we heard the hussars' trumpeter sound the reveille. { } most transport mules are longsuffering animals, but they rebel occasionally. the persian variety was inclined to be peevish, when it came to early rising and taking afresh upon its sturdy back the burden of the day. those of our supply convoy, when prodded into activity before sunrise, rarely failed to make their displeasure felt by a vigorous protest lodged at random in some part of a charvadar's anatomy. on the morning of our departure from harunabad the mules showed themselves especially intractable. it could hardly have been because of any deep-rooted affection for the locality itself. however, at the cost of much profanity and shouting on the part of the muleteers, during which grave aspersions were cast upon the character of the mules' ancestors, the rebellious beasts were cowed into submissiveness and our column was soon floundering anew in the mud of the persian wilderness. a wind from the north blew across our path and sent the menacing rain-clouds scurrying to the right-about. the sun, too, unveiled its face, as if half-ashamed of its tardiness, and speedily dispelled the curtain of white mist which arose from the sodden earth. the air was keen and invigorating, but tempered by the warm breath of spring. men and horses and transport mules responded to the gladsome call of nature in her most beneficent mood. british soldier and persian charvadar each sang the wild songs of his native land, telling invariably of { } some fair, beauteous maiden whom the sentimental songster had left behind somewhere in england or iran. to the ears of one riding on in advance, as i happened to be that day, this flow of song blending with the deep note of the jingling mule-bells made sweetest music. four hours' march brought the head of the column to the top of the chihar zabar pass. the road went sheer down the reverse slope, cutting across an immense plain carpeted with the deepest emerald green. here wild flowers grew in abundance--crocuses, daffodils, daisies, violets, and a species of indigenous primrose, a woof of rich, glorious colouring in the warp of green. this "promised land," the work of nature's own brush, stretched away from my very feet till it mingled with the grey-blue of the distant horizon. what a pleasing contrast to the dreary, desolate lowlands we had so lately traversed! it was a most welcome prospect to eyes tired of looking upon dull, monotonous landscapes. to me it was the fairest sight i had yet seen in the land of iran. while i was revelling in the beauty of the scene, there appeared on the summit of the pass, coming from this valley of enchantment, three men whose dress and appearance excited my curiosity. they were sturdily built, and dressed in black, skirted coats, fastened at the waist by a girdle from which was suspended a sword and satchel. their beards were no longer than that permitted by the precepts of { } the koran. they were without head-covering of any kind, and their long hair fell free and untrammelled on their shoulders. the trio wore shoes of moroccan leather with pointed, turned-up toes and silver buckles. each carried a small silver-headed axe at the "slope," as a cavalry trooper does a sabre. as they approached, my first feeling was one of alarm, and my hand instinctively sought my revolver holster. seeing this, the foremost raised his hand in friendly salutation, and greeted me with, "peace be upon thee, o stranger!" they proved to be wandering dervishes who begged their way from end to end of persia, and to judge by their raiment and their general well-to-do appearance, it must be a profitable occupation. these dervishes, amongst the persians of all classes, have a great reputation for sanctity. the rich help them liberally, and even the very poor will not turn a deaf ear to their request for aid. one of them chattered away like a magpie, recounting adventures which were not always of the kind one is prone to associate with the austerity of a religious order. they had come on foot from meshed in eastern persia to teheran, hamadan, and kermanshah, and were now bound for kerbela and the shi'ite holy places in the vicinity of bagdad. the burdens of life sat lightly on their shoulders, and the destroying hand of care had left no traces upon their merry, laughing faces. they were a cheery trio, { } forgetful of yesterday, unmindful of to-morrow, and living only for to-day. they were full of a pleasant inquisitiveness, and withal as simple as children. "were there dervishes across the big water in faringistan (europe), and had the man-birds (aviators) come to bagdad?" they asked. i told them they would see plenty of "man-birds" and "wonder-houses" (cinemas) down yonder in bagdad, but that an itinerant persian dervish would be a _rara avis_ amongst our benighted folk, not one, so far as i knew, having yet shed the light of his countenance upon our slow-going old western world. with a small cash contribution oh my part towards the expenses of their journey, and on theirs the formal invocation of the blessing of allah upon my head, the dervishes and i exchanged cordial adieux, and parted company on the summit of the chihar zabar. our next halting-place was at mahidast, a walled town which stands in the midst of an immense plain seventy miles long by ten broad. it is one of the most fertile tracts in persia, and grows great crops of wheat and barley for the market of kermanshah. as for mahidast itself, it consists of a few dirty streets, unpaved and evil-smelling, and a hundred houses, the greater number of which are in ruins. its inhabitants are chiefly kalhur-kurds, semi-nomads, who migrate in winter with their flocks to the neighbourhood of khaniquin and mandali. mahidast is a great resort of pilgrims on the way { } to and from kerbela, and in the main street stands a vast caravanserai built by that industrious architect-ruler, shah abbas. i rode inside the great doorway of shah abbas' hostelry hoping to find quarters here, but my nose was in revolt at once. a stagnant pool covered with green slime, where myriads of mosquitoes and flies were undergoing a course of field training, occupied the centre of the courtyard, and this was flanked by festering heaps of garbage amongst which lean, hungry-looking dogs were fossicking for an evening meal. turning in disgust from the loathsome spot, i encountered a farrash (messenger) come from the naib-ul-hukumeh, or deputy governor, the latter had heard of our arrival, and sent to conduct us to quarters near his own dwelling. our abode proved to be a smaller caravanserai, its living-rooms adjoining the stables and looking out on a manure heap. the deputy governor himself turned up presently, and in the usual flowery persian speech bade general byron welcome, and assured him that supplies of forage and fuel would be forthcoming. he hinted that, as the prowling kurds of the district were keen horse-fanciers, and not always able to discriminate between the niceties of _meum_ and _tuum_, it would be advisable to mount a stable guard. for this purpose he sent us eight truculent-looking rascals, fairly bristling with weapons, who watched over our horses while we sought to snatch a few hours' repose. { } sleep we found to be out of the question. our sleeping-bags, the latest of their kind from london, had no chance against the incursions of the nimble mahidast flea, or his bigger parasitical brethren, whom pilgrim caravans had brought from the remote corners of persia. emerging angry and unrefreshed from an unequal combat, we quitted mahidast at an early hour. the major portion of the inhabitants were present to see us off, and incidentally to demand a pishkash for services--chiefly imaginary--rendered us during our sojourn. akhbar paid off the fuel and forage vendors, and ransomed our horses from the stable guard for a substantial sum in krans. he next gave a considered decision in respect to the claim of the deputy governor and his numerous retinue. the former modestly demanded an amount which would have provided him with a comfortable life annuity, pointing out that, as our throats were unsevered and our purses untouched, we could afford to be generous, and reward his protecting zeal. i did not wait for the end of the negotiations, but i heard afterwards that akhbar, whose temper had been sorely tried, consigned the deputy governor to _jahannam_, and effected a compromise with his insistent retainers for the equivalent of ten shillings. it is an eighteen-mile march to kermanshah from mahidast. the road was harder, and it was easier travelling for the horses and transport animals. there was a good deal of traffic too. we passed numerous caravans, the first being one of tobacco { } and general merchandise bound for bagdad. to this a number of pilgrims had attached themselves for safety, and had hired an armed convoy to protect them against plundering kurds and, in a minor sense, the exactions of the persian road guards. these latter were supposed to police the route, and had posts along the road. by way of recompense they were allowed to levy baj (toll) upon travellers. but their rapacity was boundless. they were said to stand in with the freebooters of the district, and woe betide the simple traveller or merchant who, journeying without armed retainers, fell into their hands! him they fleeced unmercifully, and if the victim were inclined to protest against this bare-faced spoliation, he might always be sure of receiving a sound beating in addition. so much for persian road guards and their methods! the british sought to remedy these abuses by subsidizing local chiefs to protect a section of road, but the chiefs took the cash and stuck to it, while the guards still dipped deeply into the pockets or into the bales of merchandise of those who came their way. it was considered a lucrative post, that of road guard, and much sought after by gentlemen who hated the attendant risks of ordinary highway robbery, and preferred the easier and surer means of growing rich by levying toll in a quasi-official capacity. presently we met a corpse-caravan bound for kerbela with its lugubrious freight. a contingent of road guards had gathered round like so many { } human vultures, and there was much haggling between themselves and angry relatives of the defunct as to what a dead persian ought or ought not to pay to pass free and unhindered over this section of the long and thorny road that led to the holy of holies of the shi'ite moslem. on the banks of a stream by the roadside was a "hunger battalion" resting. its members, men and boys, were in a state of semi-nudity; their few garments hung in tattered rags about their wasted bodies, and all looked to be in the last stage of physical exhaustion from starvation. for some the end had clearly come. they were incapable of further effort, and lay waiting for a merciful death to cut short their sufferings. others there were who still clung despairingly to the enfeebled thread of life. they crouched on the ground, gnawing frantically at a handful of roots or coarse herbs with which they sought to assuage the terrible pangs of unsatisfied hunger. a little apart from the main body was a small group crooning a mournful dirge: it was the funeral requiem of a man whom famine had killed. the body was being prepared for burial and, before committal to earth, was being washed in the stream which supplied a near-by village with drinking water. we divided some food amongst the sorely stricken survivors of the hunger battalion. it was all we could give. they were thankful, and one man said that he and five companions had originally started { } from hamadan, where the people were dying by hundreds daily, in the hope of crossing the frontier to khaniquin or kizil robat, at either of which places they might get work and food in the british labour corps. of the six who had set out on this quest he was the sole survivor. kermanshah is a very old persian city, and was known to writers and travellers from the earliest christian times. it once was a flourishing industrial and commercial centre, but much of its prosperity and glory have been dimmed by a succession of political and economic vicissitudes. the town itself has a certain military importance. it is close to the turkish frontier, and is equidistant from bagdad, ispahan, teheran, and tabriz. during the war turks and russians occupied it in turn, and the turks had a consul and a consular guard here until their army was chased out of the province. outside the town itself the nomadic and semi-nomadic population consists chiefly of kurds, and kurdi is the language of the people as distinct from the merchants. cereals are extensively grown, but, owing to the lack of communications, the cost of transporting grain to bagdad or teheran was triple its local market value, and it was a profitless enterprise. the grain rotted in kermanshah while people died of hunger in adjoining provinces. the chief trade route in western persia passes through kermanshah, and it is also an important market for transport mules, which are bred in the { } district. in pre-war days as many as , pilgrims passed through kermanshah each year on their way to and from kerbela and the other shi'ite shrines in the vilayet of bagdad. the bazaars were well stocked with british and foreign goods, and the local traders were reputed to be wealthy. but the war and the coming of the turks were fatal to kermanshah and its commerce; the shops were closed, and the wealthier merchants hid their cash and valuables and sought asylum elsewhere. kermanshah suffered much during the civil war of - . in july of it was occupied in the name of the ex-shah, muhammad ali, by a force of irregulars under salar-ud-dauleh, the ex-shah's brother. in the following february the government troops reoccupied kermanshah, and the troops of the dethroned shah were driven out. but a fortnight later salar-ud-dauleh, aided by a large force of kurds, was back again; the town was plundered, and the governor appointed by the constitutionalists had his legs cut off and was burnt alive. for the next few months the redoubtable salar and his military opponent, farman farma, hunted each other in turn up and down western persia until the shah's rebellion was finally subdued. i found the streets of the town narrow and tortuous. the zarrabiha street and that leading from the darvaseh sarab to the chal hassan khan are about the only two possible for carriages. in the feizabad quarter, which is remote from the bazaars, are the { } houses of the wealthy classes, with their immense courtyards, high walls, and beautifully kept gardens. by contrast, the houses of the poor look despicably mean, being simply a collection of mud hovels into which the light of day penetrates with difficulty. the rain overtook us afresh at kermanshah, and we had to stay there for three days weatherbound. the hussars and the remainder of the column bivouacked on a hill near the british consulate. it was far from agreeable. the tents were already soaking wet after the downpour at khorosabad, and had had no time to dry. general byron went to stay with the kennions. colonel kennion was political officer and consul, and his wife, a very charming and energetic lady, who held in her hands most of the threads of the political happenings in persia, worked hard all day in the office ciphering and deciphering despatches. in the evening she entertained her husband's guests and graced a hospitable table. the foreign colony of kermanshah was not a large one. besides the kennions, there were the russian consul and his wife, a french consul, mr. and mrs. stead of the american presbyterian mission, and mr. hale, local manager of the imperial bank of persia. hale has travelled widely in persia, and knew its elusive and nimble-witted people better than most englishmen. he was an excellent raconteur, and i spent pleasant evenings in his company { } laughing over stories of adventure which irresistibly called to mind that great exponent of persian drollery, "hadji baba." leaving our horses behind to be brought on by the marching column, general byron and six officers, including myself, moved by motor convoy from kermanshah on april nd. with luck we hoped to reach hamadan in two days. it is twenty-two miles to bisitun bridge and the crossing of the gamasiab, a tributary of the kara river. the brick bridge over the stream had been destroyed by the retreating russians. it had not yet been repaired, and we were to be faced with the difficult problem of getting the ford cars across to the eastern bank of the gamasiab. the recent rains had done their worst for the road track which led over the great plain of kermanshah, and the soil had been converted into a kind of pulpy clay which the passage of recent caravans had churned into puddle. the laden cars bravely struggled through it, sinking occasionally to the axles in the treacherous mire. finally, we crawled out of this bog and struck a patch of hard road which led to the village of bisitun, where we halted to allow the other bogged cars to join up. beyond the straggling village of thirty houses or so the great rock of bisitun rises perpendicularly from the level plain. bisitun is famous for the inscriptions and tablets of darius found here. it lies on the highway from ecbatana to babylon, and was thus chosen by various { } monarchs as a fitting place for the record of their exploits. it is to british pluck, tenacity, and will-power that the world owes its definite and detailed knowledge of the darius inscriptions. that "king of kings," as he proudly styles himself, saw to it that the written account of his greatness should be at a height corresponding with his fame, and had it placed feet above the ground on the wall of a dizzily perpendicular cliff. to climb this rock near enough to read what persian workmen chiselled there five hundred years before the christian era is the dangerous and difficult undertaking accomplished by rawlinson. the bas-relief tablets and inscriptions on bisitun's famous cliff wall have all but one object--to glorify darius hystaspes ("the great king, the king of kings, king of persia, king of the provinces"), and to give the lie to any of his enemies or rivals who dared to proclaim themselves monarchs also. ("this gaumata the magian lied: thus did he speak: 'i am bardiya; son of cyrus, i am king!'") grandiloquently the names of the countries over which darius ruled are set forth. they number twenty-three. a persian alexander the great was this "king of kings." [illustration: darius inscriptions at bisitun.] the bas-relief vividly portrays his conquest of the lesser chieftains from whom he wrested their kingdoms. his foot is on the prostrate form of the most formidable of these, gaumata, while the others are shown tied together by their necks, a sorry company { } of defeated royalties. darius is depicted as physically towering above the men of his day, a giant in every way. over him hovers the godhead, auramazdn, or ormuzd, who, holding a circlet of victory in one hand, with the other points out the mighty monarch as the wearer-designate. the whole is in a marvellous state of preservation, thanks to the conscientious work of the craftsmen who laboured at it so many thousand years ago. after first smoothing the surface of the rock, they filled in every tiny crevice or crack with lead. then they chiselled deeply, and with astonishing accuracy, each character, finally coating the whole with a silicious varnish, a protection against climatic ravages which has stood the test imposed upon it while countless generations of mankind have come and gone. when we reached the gamasiab, we found the stream in flood, and a six-knot current swirling through the brick arches of the damaged bridge. there was a great gap in the central span, the latter running to a point almost like a gothic arch. gangs of workmen were busy repairing it, under lieutenant goupil, r.e. captain goldberg, of the armoured car section, had preceded us to bisitun. goldberg, who had ripped roads through east african jungle to get within shooting distance of the hun, claimed that in his service lexicon there was no such word as fail, and that wherever a transport mule could pass in persia { } he would take his lighter cars. at bisitun he was as good as his word. the animals of the transport were ferried across on crudely constructed rafts to which were attached inflated goatskins to give additional buoyancy. they were of the type of the mussik raft of the tigris, and the scheme worked successfully. but it was a tricky business when it came to ferrying motor-cars over. our own fords were emptied of their contents, and a single car was lashed on a raft which was then man-hauled across a hundred yards of stream to the other bank. sometimes one of the guide-ropes gave way, and the raft and its burden, caught by the swift current, would go gyrating down stream until it was lassooed by pursuing coolies on a second raft. at other times the wheel-lashings would part in transit, and the raft would "nose dip" at a dangerous angle. then the persian labour coolies, with wild shouts and cries, would jump into the water and restore the equilibrium of the water-logged raft by clinging to its stern. all our cars were in this manner safely carried over without serious mishap, and the stores and baggage were brought on coolies' backs across the wrecked bridge itself. on the eastern bank the fords were reloaded and the party got under way once more. we spent the night at kangavar, a big village at the eastern end of the bisitun gap, and at the junction of the hamadan qum and daulatabad roads, fifty-five miles from kermanshah. kangavar reposes at the foot of a lofty, snow-capped mountain, and is { } built on a series of natural and artificial mounds which rise corkscrew fashion from the plain. here are the ruins of a large temple or palace whose history is lost in antiquity. that profound scholar and archæologist, rawlinson, thinks that kangavar is the chavon of diodorus, where, according to the sicilian historian, semiramis built a palace and laid out a paradise. there also existed at kangavar a celebrated temple of anaitis, whose lascivious cult was once widespread in this ancient land. we were hospitably entertained by the representative of the deputy governor, who is noted for his pro-british sympathies. the sheikh, our host, furnished us with quarters within his own residence, a wonderful walled enclosure big enough to hold a battalion, and laid out with beautiful gardens and fountains. in the trees the laqlaqs (storks) nested, and down by the cool splashing fountains a peacock in all the beauty of fully displayed plumage strutted proudly. we were seven officers to supper, but our host, in accordance with the lavishness required by persian hospitality, prepared enough food for four times our number. his multitude of retainers looked on while we ate, and what remained of the feast passed to them by right of custom. it was with considerable misgivings that we heard that the shorter road to hamadan over the great asadabad pass, nearly eight thousand feet high, was closed by snow. we accordingly took the longer { } and lower road by way of parisva and tasbandi which skirts the alvand mountain range. the cars bogged incessantly in the low, flat country, but going over the parisva pass, where the gradients are steep and great boulders strew the route, our progress was also very slow. the cars had to be manhandled, being towed and pushed by peasants collected from the neighbouring fields. there were several "lame ducks" in the convoy, and before evening a number had broken down altogether and had to be temporarily abandoned by the roadside in charge of an armed guard. [illustration: caravanserai, bisitun.] night had already fallen when the leading cars crawled into hamadan, having taken fourteen hours to cover a journey of about ninety-five miles. weary and travel-stained, we reported at british headquarters, and to our joy found that everyone was well, and that the dunsterville garrison, overawing the turbulent section of the population, was still in possession of this isolated post in the heart of persia. { } chapter xi a city of famine in ancient hamadan--with dunsterville at last--his precarious position--"patriots" as profiteers--victims of famine--driven to cannibalism--women kill their children for food--trial and execution--famine relief schemes--death blow to the democrats--"stalky." hamadan stands at a height of six thousand feet at the foot of the alvand range, which is covered with snow for ten months in the year. in summer, when the tender shoots of the growing corn are pushing above the earth, and the trees are blossom-laden, "every prospect pleases." the reverse of the medal is presented after a brief acquaintance with hamadan's people, and one sadly recalls that "only man is vile." it is said that modern hamadan occupies the site of one of the ancient ecbatanas of the greeks, of which there were seven, and that it was the treasure city of the achæmenian kings, the place taken and plundered by alexander the great when he was "strafing" the eastern world. however that may be, very few ancient remains have been brought to light. on a hill outside the town are the ruins of a { } citadel, and a carved stone lion of venerable aspect and crude workmanship crouches by the roadside not far from the british hospital compound. this lion may once have adorned the façade of an achæmenian palace, but he has fallen from royal greatness to plebeian utility; for it is popularly believed that he exercises a protective influence against cholera, smallpox, plague, and kindred ills; and persian mothers bring their children and seat them on his stone back to obtain immunity from disease. famine is evidently not included, or so many children would not have succumbed during the hunger days of the spring and early summer of , before that never-failing talisman, the british commissariat, exorcised the famine fiend. in hamadan, too, is buried the celebrated philosopher and physician of bokhara, abu ali ibn sina, better known as avicenna, the legend of whose fondness for eleventh-century wine and women has come down through all the ages, obscuring whatever reputation he may have possessed as a healer or thinker. the jews of hamadan, and they are numerous, point with pride to the site of the tombs of esther and mordecai. it is very uncertain whether either of these personages who figure so prominently in the book of esther is buried here. within an insignificant-looking, weather-worn, stucco-covered shrine in the grip of decay, are two wooden sarcophagi covered with faded paint and bearing gilt inscriptions in hebrew of verses from the book of esther. { } the rabbi in charge, a sallow-faced man with a long white beard, who had seen generations of gentiles come and go while he kept watch and ward here, assured me that the tomb of this heroine of the jewish race, who stooped to amatory conquest that her people might live, as well as that of her shrewd relative, the opportunist mordecai, were of unquestionable authenticity. i will leave it at that. the arrival of our small party in hamadan at the beginning of may added a hundred or so additional rifles to the unwelcome and uninvited skeleton force already there. as i related in a previous chapter, general dunsterville, after falling back from resht, established himself in hamadan, his available fighting force being a handful of officers and a baker's dozen of n.c.o's. he was in the midst of a more or less hostile population of about , , one-fourth of whom were turks or of turkish origin and sympathies, the remainder being persian, with a small sprinkling of jews and armenians. yet he sat there unharmed while the asiatic world wondered. his position was precariousness itself. the full virulence of political animosity was focussed upon him and his dangerously thin khaki line. i am convinced that no assurance company, however speculative, would have considered him a "safe life" during those dark and doubtful days, when he was barricaded within the british compound, alternately waiting for the inglorious but picturesque death so fervently promised him by the local democrats, or { } watching for the reinforcements which dribbled fitfully from bagdad and over persian plain and mountain. hamadan was at once the foyer of turkish espionage and of persian intrigue. the moribund association of local democrats, merchants and grain-growers, had been largely galvanized into anti-british activity by kuchik khan, whose army of jungalis still barred the road from manjil to the caspian sea. the hamadan democrats were "pure patriots," who talked glibly in the local tea-houses of the blessing of political freedom, cursed the british as mischievous, evil-minded interlopers, and called upon allah to bless their deliberations and rid them of the british oppressor. incidentally, they would meet in secret conclave and decree a further increase in grain prices, which meant a substantial gain to themselves. supplies were refused to the british except at very exorbitant rates; the profiteers waxed fat and became more insolent; and the poor of hamadan were left to die of hunger, victims of persian cupidity and persian indifference. pamphlets, inflammatory in tone, and bearing the imprimatur of the principal democratic club, were distributed broadcast in the streets, and from these the victims of famine had at all events the ante-mortem satisfaction of learning that it was the british who were deliberately starving them to death in order that these beardless intruders might the more easily overrun the whole land of persia. { } if a persian democrat be valorous in speech, he is fortunately discreet in deeds. an ukase would go forth from kuchik khan that there was to be a truce to temporizing, and that the dunsterforce must be sent without delay to the jehannam of unbelievers. "by allah, it will be accomplished!" would be the prompt reply. then the fearless democrats, always careful never to risk their own skins unduly, would hire some half-starved fedais or irregulars, who for a kran or two would fire a few shots into british headquarters, or, under cover of dusk and a sand-bank, snipe some solitary officer or soldier of our force. whereat there would be much rejoicing in democratic circles, and the club would sit up late drinking arak. meanwhile the hunger mortality in hamadan was increasing. bread, the chief, indeed the only, article of diet of the poor, was at krans a batman (roughly, the equivalent of ten shillings for lbs.), and the wheat combine saw to it that the price increased rather than decreased. on may th mr. mcdouell, the british consul, officially computed that the daily deaths from starvation were two hundred. hamadan was a city of horrors. the unburied victims of famine--men, women, and children--were lying in the streets and in the fields adjoining british headquarters. the kashish or priest of the shi'ite mosque, who received a fee of about twopence for officiating at the funerals of those buried in _forma pauperis_, admitted that the daily interment-roll was { } one hundred and sixty during the first fortnight of may. the hunger-enfeebled survivors became herbivorous, eating the grass in the fields like so many animals. a short course of this diet proved as fatal as the want of bread, for it invariably caused peritonitis and a lingering, agonizing death. but there was worse to come. the foodless people, driven crazy by their sufferings, now resorted to eating human flesh. cannibalism was a crime hitherto unknown in persia, and no punishment exists for it under persian law. the offenders were chiefly women, and the victims children stolen from the doorsteps of their homes, or snatched up haphazard in the bazaar purlieus. mothers of young children were afraid to leave them while they went to beg for bread, lest in their absence they should be kidnapped and eaten. i never went into the bazaar or through the narrow, ill-paved streets without a feeling of sickly horror at the sight of the human misery revealed there. children who were little better than human skeletons would crowd round to beg for bread or the wherewithal to purchase it, and in parting with a few coppers to them, one could not help shuddering and wondering if they, too, were destined, sooner or later, to find their way into the cooking-pot. the persian governor one day awoke from his habitual lethargy and roused the local police, who set out on the track of the child-eaters. a series of domiciliary visits brought to light fragments of human bones and rags of clothing. they arrested { } eight women, who confessed that they had kidnapped, killed, and eaten a number of children, pleading that hunger had driven them to these terrible crimes. on the following day, may th, a yet more horrifying case of cannibalism was discovered. two women, mother and daughter, were caught red-handed. they had killed the daughter's eight-year-old child, and were cooking the body, when the police interrupted the preparations for this horrible feast. the half-cooked remains were removed in a basket, and an indignant crowd of well-fed democrats followed the wretched offenders to the police-station, threatening them with death. some of the people, who did not share the noble view of the democrats that the poor should starve rather than that cornered wheat should be released, went to the telegraph office with the intention of informing the weak and incapable teheran government of the true state of affairs. but the democrats would have none of that; it might upset their carefully laid schemes for enrichment at the expense of the flesh and blood of their fellows. there was no telling what effect a telegraphed protest might have upon the supineness of the shah's cabinet ministers. those administrative sluggards might be goaded into some action bordering on interference with the policy of the hamadan democrats, which heaven forbid! so democrat emissaries picketed the persian telegraph office, and pitched into the street any of their adversaries who { } questioned their right to impose an arbitrary censorship. thus was made manifest the "benign rule" of the "friends of persia" in all its callous disregard for the first principles of humanity. on the following day there was the sequel to the case of child murder by mother and daughter, when these two unfortunates paid the cruel penalty imposed by persian law for killing one's own offspring--that of being stoned to death. the "execution" took place in front of the hamadan telegraph office. the condemned women, already on the borderland of death from hunger, were staked down in two shallow pits near where heavy stones were plentiful. then the police, reinforced by a willing mob, armed themselves with heavy boulders and pounded the flickering life out of their emaciated frames, silencing for ever their unavailing cries for pity and mercy. it was a revolting spectacle, and although their crime was an abominable one, no one not a persian could repress a feeling of compassion for the wretched creatures who, made desperate by hunger, had become so dead to all human instinct as to kill and be prepared to eat their own flesh and blood. other women were apprehended and executed for child murder. it was reported that there was plenty of wheat stored in private houses, and it was urged that severe measures should be taken against the hoarders. the men were still eating their evening meal of grass, flavoured with a little salt. one of the favourite trysting-places of the democrat { } stalwarts was the football-ground near the hospital compound. nearly every afternoon in fine weather, when the ground was not being used for play, they sat there cross-legged--in their brown and black loose-fitting robes, resembling so many clucking hens on a roost--discussing and planning the overthrow of the british, while hundreds of their own people lay dying around them of starvation. in hamadan, to add to our other difficulties, we were greatly troubled with professional mendicants, whose ages varied from six to sixty, and whose energy and begging zeal were unbounded. in time we got to know them, chiefly, i think, because of their physical fitness. they were always in the pink of condition, sound in wind and limb, and could run a mile in pursuit of a likely dole without turning a hair, while their vigorous lung power would have done credit to a "cheap jack" auctioneer. i always did, and always shall, admire the wonderful patience and clemency exercised by dunsterville when faced with the democratic organization, which aimed at nothing short of wiping out both himself and his force in hamadan, if not by a _tour de force_, then by starvation. they were always inciting the populace to rise and finish us. but hungry men have little stomach for blood-letting, and although those in hamadan found it difficult enough to exist owing to the food shortage, they were in no hurry to abridge their unhappy days by flinging themselves on british bayonets. { } the hun or the turk would have ended this intolerable situation long ago by decorating hamadan lamp-posts with the dangling bodies of local democrats; but dunsterville was forbidden to embark upon any strong measures. our own minister in teheran, sir charles marling, kept warning us that we were neutrality-breakers, and wondering whether the persian government, even by the exercise of all his (the minister's) diplomatic skill, could ever be induced to forgive us. sir charles, who has since been transferred to some other sphere of usefulness, was always quick to grasp and expound the persian official point of view. i often wonder if he ever busied himself with attempting to understand that of the british concerning the occupation of hamadan and kasvin. one of the contributory causes of the hamadan famine was the insane behaviour of the russian army when in occupation of the town and district. they destroyed the growing crops of wheat and barley, and wantonly wasted the grain they were unable to consume or carry off. the hamadan harvest is not ripe for gathering until about the first week in july, so the british, in may, were faced with the problem of feeding a starving population for some sixty days. it was not incumbent upon them to do so, but both pity and policy coincided in indicating the necessity for combating the evil of food shortage that was so rapidly thinning out the population. with the approval of the british government a { } scheme of famine relief was inaugurated by general dunsterville. labour gangs were formed, and under the supervision of our officers the starving multitude was set to work road-making. in about the first week three thousand offered themselves for employment, and were enrolled. nominally, only the able-bodied were supposed to be eligible, but judging by the human wrecks that one saw in the labour corps few of this category existed in hamadan. the road-makers, at the beginning, were paid four krans per diem (a kran is, at war-exchange, the equivalent of a franc), and it was stipulated that they should provide themselves with a spade or mattock and a basket in which to carry away the loosened earth. a number, it is true, did present themselves armed with the narrow-bladed bilm or spade of the persian agricultural labourer, but there were hundreds who heroically tackled the job equipped with nothing more efficacious than wooden rice-spoons. still, no one kicked at this, and the rice-spoon wielders did their "bit," or attempted to do it to the best of their enfeebled ability. our object was rather to be content with some colourable imitation of a _quid pro quo_ for cash disbursements, than to exact a stiff day's labour from people wholly incapable of performing it. in our blissful ignorance of persian psychology, we fondly imagined at first that the equivalent of £ a day paid out in wages to roadmakers would sensibly alleviate the prevailing distress. but we { } did not reckon upon persian avarice, selfishness, and untrustworthiness of character. the price of bread, somewhat to our surprise, did not fall. in fact it became dearer than ever. the bakers saw to that. money was beginning to circulate more freely; the very poor were no longer empty-fisted; so up went the price of bread with a bound! in short, it was found that the more we distributed in famine relief the lower fell the purchasing power of the kran. another thing, too, that militated against the successful working of the "all cash" scheme of assistance was that it did not to any extent ameliorate the pitiable lot of the women and children. the men did not always bother to buy bread for their starving dependents, preferring to dissipate their earnings in a nightly carouse in an opium den--the local equivalent to a british gin palace. an unpleasant element of "graft" was also brought to light. no persian for very long can keep his itching fingers from other people's money. the native foremen of the road gangs were not an exception to the rule, and for a brief period they made a lucrative income by trafficking in labour tickets. first they issued spurious ones to their friends and relatives, none of whom had done a stroke of work; they even sought, somewhat clumsily to be sure, to counterfeit the official stamp which each ticket bore on its face. they rubbed some indian ink on the reverse side of a two-kran piece, and with this stamped the forged tickets, adding a few pencil strokes _à la { } fantasie_ by way of giving a finishing touch of verisimilitude. as the tickets entitled the bearers to draw four krans when presented nightly at the pay office, the thieving foremen were in a fair way to becoming rich by the time the fraud was discovered. the same individuals were also in the habit of coercing their hapless underlings into selling their tickets for a kran or two. these were then resold to a middleman, who cashed them at their full face value. but a liberal application of the bastinado worked wonders, and speedily rendered such dishonest practices highly unpopular. still, it was felt that some radical alteration was necessary if we were to get full value for, and the hamadan poor full benefit from, the money that was being expended on their behalf. general byron, a level-headed practical soldier, and very wise in worldly knowledge, who at this time was second in command to general dunsterville, now took over control of famine relief work. he decided upon an alteration of the existing system of doles in favour of one consisting of a free distribution in food supplemented by payment in cash of two krans instead of four. bread alone was deemed to be insufficient, and it was felt that the starving people who toiled daily road-making required some more nourishing food. after overcoming many difficulties, official as well as unofficial, and silencing the usual group of objectors who vowed that it could not be done, the { } general opened soup kitchens at several centres, and fed as many as , hungry people per day. the recipients were delighted and grateful. but it was now that the local democrats, who throughout had stood aloof from the movement for succouring their starving brethren, reached their high-level of political strategy. it was not at all to their liking that the detested british interloper was filling the empty stomachs of the people gratis. in such circumstances they could not be expected to revolt and join hands with the democrats, and besides, if this free distribution of food were not stopped, it would be a bad day for the wheat-trust and inflated grain prices. so they set to work and issued broadcast handbills warning the poor against partaking of british soup, on the ground that it was heavily flavoured with poison. it was part of another "deep-laid plot," they said, to kill off all the hamadani whom the ravages of famine had so far overlooked. the average persian peasant is an ignorant and gullible individual as a rule, but this time the democrats overshot the mark and their assertions were too much even for persian credulity. the hungry people came and ate. the second and succeeding days they came in thousands. barricades and armed soldiers were required to prevent their storming the distribution centres and carrying off all the available supply. and, to the dismay and horror of all good democrats, not a single one died from poisoning. this was the deathblow to the prestige of the democratic { } movement. it lost its grip on the people. there is nothing a persian, or indeed any oriental, hates so much as being made to look ridiculous; and the democrats became the target for quip and jest in the bazaars of hamadan, until in rage they plucked their beards and tore their garments, exclaiming, in accents of sorrow and humiliation, "alas, what ashes have fallen on our heads to-day!" but they rallied in their last ditch, and made an eleventh-hour attempt to avert the consequences of the moral defeat which had overtaken them. kuchik khan, the "robin hood" of the caspian marches, yielding to democratic pleadings, and in the hope possibly of discrediting british famine relief work, sent fifteen mule-loads of rice to hamadan to be sold for the benefit of the poor. but kuchik's agents had seized the rice without payment from growers living in his "protected area," so he was able to play the merry game of robbing the persian peter in order to comfort the persian paul. the artifice was too thin. hamadan was not deluded. the british were _de facto_ masters of the situation. they had conquered the people of hamadan not by the sword and halter of the turk who had preceded them, but by a modern adaptation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. by a _ruse de guerre_ the grain owners were induced to disgorge some of their hoarded stocks. telegrams purposely written _en clair_ which passed between bagdad and hamadan made it appear that large { } supplies of wheat were being forwarded from mesopotamia, whereupon the local hamadan hoarders rushed into the market and sold readily at daily diminishing rates, until something like normal prices were reached once more. and so the bottom fell out of the wheat ring. private foreign effort closely co-operated with the military in the distribution of food and the relief of the famine-stricken. dr. funk and mr. allen of the american presbyterian mission, mr. mcmurray of the imperial bank of persia, and mr. edwards, local manager of the persian carpet factory, amongst them spent considerable sums of money and devoted a great deal of time to this work of charity. mr. mcmurray is a man possessing much business acumen and financial ability, and as expert adviser to the british in occupation at hamadan he was able to render very great services to his country. too modest to seek reward or recompense of any kind, he nevertheless had an honour thrust upon him. it was a minor class of a minor decoration which a grateful government in england somewhat grudgingly, it seems, bestowed upon him in generous recognition of his zealous labour in the common cause of empire. so now, should he attend a public function at home, and the question of precedence arise, he will probably find himself ranking next after some lady typist from the war office, who can write shorthand and spell with tolerable accuracy. to be { } an unofficial briton working for britain abroad is a very serious handicap for the briton concerned. the government of the empire sees to that. i have never been able to discover exactly why it is, but the handicap holds good all the way from tokio to teheran, and from salonika to archangel. should you desire to acquire merit, and you happen to be the possessor of a name that betokens pure british ancestry, hide it, and let it be inferred that the cradle of your race is somewhere in palestine or the middle east. then your path is easy. the india office will pat you on the back, and the british foreign office will ecstatically fold you to its bosom. mcmurray's bungalow was the chief trysting-place for the british officers in hamadan. it stands within the great walled enclosure or compound where many members of the british and american colonies had made their homes. it was a city within a city, fringed with trees and pleasant pathways, and bordered by flower-beds. mrs. mcmurray was always "at home" to her compatriots from about a.m. to p.m. daily. while she fed starving persians, she also gave luncheons and dinners to british officers. rarely were there fewer than six of the latter billeted under her hospitable roof. the eaglets of the r.a.f., and especially the fledglings still without their second wing, found her an admirable foster-mother, who counselled them in health and nursed them in illness, and was always a sympathetic amanuensis when { } fevered brows and unsteady hands attempted to grapple with the problem of inditing a "line or two" for home to catch the outgoing mail. dunsterville, as he was popularly called, was a frequent visitor at the bungalow. the original of kipling's "stalky," he rode easily and without straining on the anchor of his reputation. he is keen-witted, with an illimitable fund of dry, racy humour, and no drawing-room was ever dull when the general was having his fling. as a retailer of _bon mots_ the g.o.c. had no compeer in hamadan. his shafts were never envenomed, and his victims laughed as heartily as anybody else, as, for instance, once when rations were running low and cannibalism was in vogue among the poor of the city, dunsterville, turning to a very youthful a.d.c. whose cheeks were the colour of a ripe apple, said in his droll way, "i shall never starve, my lad, while you are about!" one of his _obiter dicta_ was that every british officer in persia should be compelled to pass a qualifying examination in "hadji baba"--the oriental gil blas--for he would then know more about the persians, their manners and customs, than could be acquired by months of travel and unaided observation. "stalky" had no fear of personal danger. he was an optimist who always saw a diamond-studded lining to the blackest of clouds. it is related of him { } that at his fateful interview with the bolsheviks on the occasion of his raid on resht he told the "red committee" so many amusing stories in their own mother-tongue that they quite forgot the principal business of the evening, which was to sentence him (dunsterville) to death. { } chapter xii dunsterville strikes afresh official hindrances--a fresh blow for the caucasus--the long road to tabriz--a strategic centre--a turkish invasion--rising of christian tribes--a local joan of arc--the british project. by the middle of may dunsterville began to feel his feet. reinforcements were trickling in, officers and n.c.o's., but no fighting men, and always in the _petits paquets_ so beloved by the parsimonious-minded officials who sat at general headquarters down in bagdad. dunsterville's own position was not an enviable one. his path was beset by difficulties of every description, and, much against his wish, he found himself engaged in a kind of triangular duel with british officialdom at home and abroad. first the minister in teheran, and apparently also the foreign office, were wringing their hands in despair, asking what he was doing in persia at all, and urging him to "move on" towards the caucasus. next there was bagdad, who, deeply incensed that dunsterville had an independent command, and was in direct communication with the war office, never lost a chance of putting a retarding spoke in his wheel, { } even going to the extent of telegraphing up the line that no member of "dunsterforce" was to be furnished with supplies from the military canteens. then, finally, there was the war office, who had sent him to persia in the first instance because it was the most direct route to the centre of bolshevik activities in the caucasus. for some time they continued to support him against the pretensions of bagdad, but ultimately they yielded, and dunsterville and his force became subordinate to the bagdad command. of course, there were, in addition, the malcontents amongst the persians, notably the democrats and their turkish-german sympathizers, who had more than a passing interest in all this bickering and wrangling. they, too, were anxious that a british force should not sit down indefinitely in persia. at last it was determined to do something and to strike a fresh blow for the caucasus; but the initiative no longer rested with dunsterville. it had passed to bagdad. new difficulties arose immediately. how were the caucasus to be reached--by the caspian sea and thence by steamer to baku? or overland from northwards, through the province of azarbaijan to tabriz and railhead? the direct route to the caspian from hamadan was not possible, because kuchik khan and his jungalis still held the manjil-resht section of the road, and dunsterville unaided was not then strong enough to turn them out. true, there were the russian auxiliaries under bicherakoff, but these valued allies { } were making ready for an offensive in their own leisurely fashion, and were not to be "speeded up" by any known methods of british hustling. from hamadan to tabriz by way of zinjan is about three hundred miles. the route for the most part lies over difficult and mountainous country, where supplies are scarce or hard to procure. the wild and scattered tribesmen are not noted for extreme friendliness. zinjan itself is miles from hamadan in a northerly direction. the next important stage on the road to tabriz is mianeh, eighty-five miles north-west of zinjan. from mianeh, tabriz itself is distant about one hundred miles. tabriz, the ancient tauris, and capital of the province of azarbeijan, is the largest city in the persian empire, and the most important commercial centre in all iran. it is the residence of the valiahd, or heir-apparent to the persian throne. it occupies much the same position in north-western persia as does meshed in the north-eastern part of the country. marco polo visited it during his long overland trek to far cathay, and found it a fair city, full of busy merchants and wealthy citizens. but for the british, seeking to arrive within fighting distance of the turks, germans, and russian bolsheviks overrunning the caucasus, tabriz had its own special military importance. it was a point of great strategic value. julfa, on the russian-persian frontier, and ninety miles from tabriz, is the terminus of the trans-caucasian railway which runs to tiflis, { } the caucasian capital and main british objective. tiflis is miles from tabriz. the railway from the former city continues west to poti and batum, the shipping ports on the black sea, and east (also from tiflis junction) to baku and its oilfields on the caspian sea. from julfa, connecting with the trans-caucasian railway, a russian company had built a branch line to tabriz, and an extension to sharaf khane on the eastern shore of lake urumia. on the lake itself was a fleet of russian-owned steamers, which maintained communication between the railhead at sharaf khane and urumia city, famous as the legendary birthplace of zoroaster, which is on the western shore of the lake, and about twenty-five miles from sharaf khane. when the russian army, stricken by the deadly plague of bolshevism, retreated northwards towards tiflis, they accommodatingly left behind at sharaf khane, for the use of the first comer, their fleet of lake steamers, hundreds of guns of heavy and medium calibre, dumps of shells and small-arms ammunition, thousands of serviceable rifles, and quantities of other military stores. the turkish frontier line, passing about forty-five miles west of urumia, continues due north to its junction with the territorial boundaries of russia and persia on the perpetual snow-clad summit of the greater mount ararat. the region round lake van having been cleared of potential enemies--the { } russians had retired, and the armenians were put to the sword--the turks, swinging eastward, lost no time in crossing the frontier and violating persian territory. they pleaded military exigencies for the step they had taken, and turned a very deaf and unsympathetic ear to the mere paper remonstrances of the persian government. but in the invaded territory they met with severe and unexpected opposition, not from their own islamic kindred, but from hated and despised infidels of the christian sect. urumia is the centre of a thickly populated christian district, and the headquarters of french, armenian, american, russian, and british religious missions to the nestorian christians. these latter, with few exceptions, inhabit the plains and lowlands; but in the bleak, almost inaccessible mountain regions, live and thrive some brave and warlike tribes who are also nestorian christians, and who are generically known as jelus. they had suffered much from religious persecution at the hands of kurd, persian, and turk, and over and over again in their mountain eyries, with rifles in their hands, they had put up a brave fight against the moslem oppressor in defence of hearth and home and the temples of their faith. nestorians and jelus once more made common cause against the common turkish enemy. already warned by the fate of the hapless armenians, they were under no delusion as to what would befall them should the osmanli triumph--it meant extermination, root and branch. { } badly equipped and badly armed, but heroically led, the combined jelu army took the field under agre petros, generalissimo, and mar shimon, the nestorian patriarch. with the latter went his sister, surma khanin, who fought in the ranks of the christian army, and whose lion-like bravery and devotion under enemy fire speedily led to her being known as the nestorian jeanne d'arc. a force of turkish regulars belonging to the th division, plundering and burning as it went, on may th was surprised by the jelus on the river barandoz, south of urumia, and cut to pieces, the victors capturing the guns and greater part of the supplies. thus came to naught the turkish plan for the taking of urumia by means of a combined attack from the south and from salmas in the north! the captured artillery and supplies gave the jelus a new lease of military life, and they were able for some time afterwards to keep the turk at bay. everyone realized that, without military help from the british, the urumia christians must be overwhelmed by the turks sooner or later. this, then, was briefly the situation towards the middle of may. the turk, battered and bruised after his encounter with the jelus, was pulling himself together for another and more carefully prepared spring. he hung around khoi, whence he threatened urumia on the western shore of the lake, and sharaf khane and its rich booty of russian guns and military stores on the eastern shore. { } while the turk was probably inwardly debating whether he should not bring matters to a climax by descending on tabriz to possess himself of the persian end of the trans-caucasian railway and the russian military stores at sharaf khane all at one swoop, some official folk in remote bagdad and remoter london were discussing between themselves with great earnestness and energy whether it would not be possible and practicable to forestall him by marching a column from hamadan to occupy tabriz, seize the railhead, establish a base for operations against tiflis and the caucasus generally, and stretch out a helping hand to the sorely pressed nestorian-jelu army on the other side of lake urumia. [illustration: drilling jelus at hamadan.] the british minister in teheran got wind of the project and jumped upon it heavily. the persians would not like it; it would offend their susceptibilities; they were almost certain to be annoyed, and diplomatic complications, etc., etc., were sure to follow. it is a little way british ministers sometimes have. they become over-zealous and over-cautious, ever dreading a hair-breadth departure from the narrow limits of the conventional protocol. there followed a good deal of official wobbling and indecision. first the "ayes" had it, then the "noes," and meanwhile much precious time was wasted. ultimately, some strong man somewhere--it is rumoured that he lives down whitehall way--got a firm grip of the problem, and flung his weight into the scale on the side of the "ayes"; and the { } "noes," including the far-seeing minister, were routed. the word "go" was given in hamadan, and then began the great olympian race--the goal tabriz, with turk and briton pitted one against the other. { } chapter xiii the race for tabriz a scratch pack for a great adventure--wagstaff of persia--among the afshars--guests of the chief--capture of zinjan--peace and profiteering. on may st a small british column left hamadan for the north-west of persia. it was anything but a formidable fighting force as far as numerical strength was concerned. it comprised fifteen british officers, one french officer, and about thirty-five british n.c.o's. the whole party was armed with rifles and some also carried swords, infantry or cavalry pattern, which had been dug out of the ordnance store at the last moment. even as our equipment was varied, so was there certainly something distinctly quixotic about our saddlery and our chargers. of the latter, some were a fresh issue by the remount department, and ranged from heavy limber horses to light 'walers. then there were persian "rosinantes," bare-boned and razor-backed. the humble persian mule and humbler donkey were also impressed into the service of carrying some british officer or sergeant forward on the great adventure. for adventure it certainly was. our orders were { } to march on zinjan, where a few hundred turks were said to be holding a post, defeat or disperse them, raise and train persian levies, and, with these auxiliaries to aid us in the fighting line, push on to tabriz, and, if possible, dispose of any turks who might be inclined to dispute our entry into the capital of azarbaijan. we had a lewis gun, but no artillery. we had a medical officer, but scant medical and surgical stores; no ambulance or stretchers, but a couple of dhoolies, to each of which a mule was harnessed fore and aft. baggage and supplies were cut down to a minimum, for the column, if such it could be termed, was to be self-supporting, and to live on the country, not always an easy task in the starving land of persia. this british forlorn hope was led by major wagstaff of the indian army, an officer who had spent years in persia attached to the south persia rifles, and had an intimate knowledge of the persian as a fighter and as an intriguer. wagstaff spoke the language of the country with great fluency, and knew all the tribes from fars to azarbaijan with the intimacy of an ethnological connoisseur. i remember that he held the persian in high esteem, believed him to be courageous to a certain extent, honest according to his lights, and altogether possessing the makings of a soldier. but then wagstaff was born an optimist! our route lay due north from hamadan to zinjan, where it was intended that we should cut in on the { } main tabriz road that runs from teheran by way of kasvin. the turks, too, had been active in this district lately. small reconnoitring parties of them were said to have made their way down through azarbaijan to the neighbourhood of mianeh and zinjan, in quest of supplies and military information. in a sense they were operating on favourable ground, for a large proportion of the inhabitants of azarbaijan are of turkish origin. they belong to the same race as the turks on the north side of the araxes (russian-persian frontier) who occupy the valley from julfa to erivan, and with whom those in azarbaijan have blood ties. the afshari is one of the powerful turkish tribes known as kizil bashis, which settled in persia in the seventeenth century, and at the present day more than a quarter of the descendants of the afshari live in azarbaijan. it was to smash the growing power of these newcomers from across the persian border that shah abbas organized the tribesmen in north-eastern azarbaijan, who were known as shahsavans--"shah loving." but their loyalty did not last long. they soon turned their arms against their royal master, and joined the russians in the campaign of , forming an enduring alliance with their tribal enemies, whom they ultimately absorbed into their bosom. the shahsavans are a turbulent crew, well aware of their strength and fighting value, and have from time to time terrorized the persian government. in they revolted in the vicinity { } of ardabil, and it took a combined persian-russian force of five thousand men and a four months' campaign to suppress them. after six days' march we were in the country of the afshar tribe, one of the five main branches of shahsavans, which is credited with being able to put a thousand mounted and armed men in the field. the chief of the afshars, jahan, shah jahan, we found sojourning in one of his villages called karasf. a day's march from this village we were met by a messenger from the amir afshar, as he is generally called, who invited us to make a detour and break our journey at karasf. it was at the close of a hot, dusty afternoon that we reached the amir's abode, very tired after a long march. the amir's headman bade us welcome, and announced that we were to be the guests of his master during our stay. the customary sacrificial offering of sheep was made in our honour, and our horses were led away by native mihtaran or syces. as for ourselves, we were installed in a spacious caravanserai with a retinue of servants to wait upon us. the amir afshar proved an admirable host, and supplies were forthcoming in abundance from the many villages in his domains. ascertaining that several members of the party were poorly mounted, he sent us six horses, the very best of his blood stock. the amir lives in semi-regal style, and, as paramount chief of the afshar tribe, is lord of his people and the arbiter of the lives { } and fortunes of about five thousand tribal families, who render him unswerving, unquestioning obedience. here was ancient feudalism in the heart of the twentieth-century persian empire! although owing a nominal allegiance to the "king of kings" in teheran, the amir apparently did not bother his head very much about party intrigues or the trend of national politics at the court of the shah. he did his own intriguing, and did it exceptionally well. a man of extraordinary ability and political shrewdness, he first coquetted with the turks and then with the british, adroitly playing one off against the other in the great game of politics. too careful to commit himself irrevocably to one side or the other while the great world war was still undecided, this oriental vicar of bray nevertheless contrived to maintain a cordial and unbroken friendship with both turk and briton. if a turkish emissary, backing up his persuasive pleadings with a bag of gold, besought him to put an end to neutrality and to place his resources and his small army of irregulars at the service of his blood relatives, the amir always accepted the gold cheerfully, and fervently wished success to the turkish arms. then the british, not to be outdone by the turk, would ask, as a guarantee of his good faith, for fifty or a hundred armed levies from amongst his tribesmen. the amir invariably agreed in principle, but he would point out that no self-respecting afshari could fight at his best unless equipped with a british rifle. the latest pattern { } army rifle would be forthcoming to the number required, but then a border foray would always be staged about the same time, and the wily amir would plead, and with some show of reason, that he needed every sowar he had to prevent his territory being overrun by his powerful and unscrupulous tribal neighbours. still, for all that, during the darkest of the famine days, he kept the british commissariat well supplied with grain, and that, too, at a reasonable price. our host was usually "at home" to distinguished visitors from four to five a.m. he sent to say that the state of his health forbade his receiving us at the more conventional hour of noon. the amir, i learned afterwards, was a confirmed opium-eater, his daily dose of the drug being far in excess of the quantity consumed by our own candid de quincey. he was an old man, verging on eighty, but although his physical health was indifferent, his mental energies were unimpaired. he rarely ventured abroad, and spent his days and nights in the privacy of his apartment, abandoning himself to the full enjoyment of his enthralling passion of opium-eating. at daylight he was usually recovering from his latest dose of the drug. then he would partake of a little food, see callers, read his letters, and depart for dreamland again, carried thither on the wings of the insidious and baneful poppy extract. one morning at dawn the members of the wagstaff mission paid a ceremonial call on the amir. { } fortunately we were accustomed to early rising. we were conducted to his presence with considerable ceremony, and found him reclining on the floor of a large apartment covered with rare persian rugs. there was little else in the way of furniture in the place. i saw before me an old man with shrivelled, sunken features, piercing black eyes, and a grey beard growing on a face the colour of yellow parchment. a long, thin, bony hand was held out for us to shake in turn, the amir excusing himself from rising on account of physical weakness. he bade us welcome in a quavering, piping voice. whatever else may have been his infirmities, it soon became clear that he had a remarkably alert brain. the most recent phases of the european war, the varying fortunes of the participants engaged therein, the latest tit-bit of scandal from teheran, and the pretensions of the turks to territorial occupation of azarbaijan and possible aggrandizement at the expense of persia, all these topics drew from the aged but mentally virile potentate pungent and sagacious criticism. he talked high strategy with all the assurance of a field-marshal, and gleefully told how he had politically out-manoeuvred the wily, calculating turk in a recent little _affaire à deux_. while he spoke he ran his hand idly through a pile of correspondence, read and unread, opened and unopened, which littered the floor beside him. letter-filing has evidently not reached any high standard at karasf. { } i think we all fell under the spell of our host's well-informed mind and his world-wide interests, and when he asked if there had been any cabinet changes recently in london, and whether lloyd george was still chief minister of our king, we felt that the march of contemporary events, rapid indeed as they can be sometimes, had failed to outstrip the keen alertness of the overlord of karasf. on may th, having previously exchanged adieux with our kindly host, we set out from karasf. the weather was now oppressively hot, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to march during the noon-day heat. we accordingly moved off earlier, and usually contrived to take the road about sunrise daily, halted at noon for an hour or so, and then on again, finishing the day's march early in the afternoon in the welcome shade of some garden on the outskirts of a village and close to a good water-supply. a day's trek from karasf took us beyond the confines of the amir's territory. couriers whom he had despatched in advance of us warned his local headmen of our coming, and we lacked nothing in the way of supplies. we crossed rough, broken country, wound over mountain passes, and down into pleasant valleys beyond. our advent, it was clear, caused much excitement in the countryside, but the people, while they sometimes held aloof, were never unfriendly. we were passing through a country less { } ravaged by starvation than the region close to hamadan. food was more plentiful, and the "hunger battalion," with its suffering members, was not to be seen in the persian north-west. we were also gradually losing touch with persian as a spoken language. it was being supplanted by turki, the dialect of turkish-persian spoken by the peasant classes in the province of azarbaijan. as we rode north we were sensible of this linguistic change. first the peasants we met in the village spoke persian and understood turki; farther north persian was understood, but not spoken with any fluency; until, north and north-west of zinjan, turki entirely ousts the native persian, the latter as a spoken language in many cases being quite unknown to the villagers. so far we had seen nothing of any hostile turks. a body of their cavalry and a few infantry were reported to be at zinjan, but the villagers told us they had not come farther south, or anywhere in the neighbourhood of our own line of march. a few robber bands occasionally quitted their mountain lairs and descended into the plain, taking us for some peaceful merchant caravan, probably unarmed, and therefore an easy prey for these wild freebooters of the hills. but, on reconnoitring closer and discovering their mistake, they did not tarry, and turning about, went off into the hills as fast as their wiry ponies could carry them. { } on the afternoon of may th we arrived within ten miles of zinjan, and camped on a bare and desolate sand tract close to the main road. a persian tea-house, with its walls crumbling to ruins, stood by the wayside. tea there was none, and the occupier had disappeared, leaving his establishment to the care of the wild dogs and prowling hill robbers that nightly infested it. it was empty now, and abominably filthy, so i sat outside under the lee of the tea-house wall which afforded a little protection from the scorching heat, holding a very tired horse, and waiting for the sun to take himself from off the hot plain in order that we might seek both rest and refreshment. at daylight on may st we broke camp early and moved cautiously forward in the hope of surprising the turkish force in zinjan, leaving the baggage and stores behind under a guard. our total striking force was thirty all told, half of which was under major wagstaff and the remainder under captain osborne, nd king edward's horse. zinjan is a town of , inhabitants, shut in by high hills on the east and west, between which lies an immense plain traversed by the zinjaneh rud. on both banks of this river are beautiful gardens enclosed by walls of baked brick. if the turks meant to make a stand here, they had found an admirable defensive position, and one from which it would take a couple of battalions to dislodge them. osborne's party worked round to the west and north { } in order to threaten the retreat of the enemy, while wagstaff and his small band, including myself, halted under cover of a garden wall to the south of the town. some persian charvadars coming out of the town volunteered the information that the turks holding zinjan, whose numbers were variously estimated at from two to three hundred, were already in flight, and galloping away northwards as hard as they could go. the news of our approach must have reached them early. no doubt our numerical strength had been magnified tenfold by the imaginative native spy who had carried the intelligence of our advance. this information decided wagstaff. in a moment we had flung ourselves into the saddles and, with a wild british cheer that shook sleepy folk out of their beds, we dashed across the stone bridge spanning the river and so into zinjan. we rode first for the bazaars, hoping to round up in that quarter some stray turks who had overstayed their leave when the town was being evacuated. but we found none. if our sudden arrival failed to surprise the turks, it certainly alarmed the inhabitants of zinjan. panic seized them. in the bazaars the women and children fled at our approach, and the shopkeepers, trembling in every limb, made frantic efforts to bolt and bar their premises. finding that the new-comers neither robbed nor maltreated anyone, the bazaar lost its { } attack of "nerves," and recovered its habitual calm. business instincts got the better of physical fear. shutters came down with a run, and as a slight token of local appreciation, and in honour of our coming, all bazaar prices were immediately, and by universal consent, increased one hundred per cent. { } chapter xiv capture of mianeh armoured car causes consternation--reconnoitring the road--flying column sets out--an easy capture at the gates of tabriz--tribesmen raid the armoured car--and have a thin time--turks get the wind up. zinjan having thus passed into our hands without the firing of a shot, the wagstaff column established its headquarters in a garden villa a mile north of the town, near the junction of the road to mianeh. the indo-european telegraph company had an office in zinjan, and we were speedily in communication with kasvin, eighty miles to the south-east. osborne's small party soon turned up, having failed to round up any turks. indeed, the latter bolted from zinjan with amazing celerity, so much so that their commandant, major ghalib bey, left behind some of his papers and personal effects. during our march on zinjan, dunsterville headquarters had moved up from hamadan to kasvin in order the more effectively to co-operate with bicherakoff and his russian volunteers in the impending operations against kuchik khan and his jungalis, who were holding the manjil-resht road. a few hours after we had taken peaceable possession { } of zinjan, lieutenant pierpont, with a light armoured car mounting a machine-gun and a ford convoy bringing supplies for our force, arrived from kasvin. the car, as it lumbered through the narrow bazaar streets, scraping its way round sharp corners where there was scarcely room to swing a cat, visibly impressed the susceptible native mind, and damped the pro-turkish enthusiasm of the militant local democrats. its presence exercised a salutary moral influence, and although there were mutterings of discontent at our unceremonious seizure of the town, the stodgy barrel of the machine-gun peeping from the turret of the armoured car was in itself sufficient to overawe all the anti-british hotheads of zinjan. on the morning following our arrival in zinjan major wagstaff sent me off with the armoured car to reconnoitre the road towards mianeh. i had with me lieutenant pierpont, who was in charge of the car and its crew of three, and lieutenant poidebard of the french army, who was attached to our column. in addition to the car there were a couple of ford vans carrying spare petrol and stores for the journey. official road reports in our possession covering the section of the route between zinjan and mianeh were indefinite and even conflicting. the road ahead was in places reputed to be "good for wheeled transport," but whether it was passable for an armoured car was highly problematical. our first day's journey was devoid of thrill. we forded the shallow waters of the zinjan rud and one { } of its tributary streams, towed the car in places with the two fords as tugs, and at others built a plank bridge to carry it over deep mud holes. at the village of nik be, or nikhbeg, which is about thirty miles from our starting-point, the inhabitants fled in terror at the sight of the strange iron-clad monster moving down the village high street. the very dogs took fright and set out for some remote part of azerbaijan with their tails between their legs. even the usually placid transport donkey was not proof against the prevailing infection of fear, and kicking his load free, he betook himself elsewhere. the general impression appeared to be that the evil one himself had dropped in for a morning call. in five minutes from our entry into the village not a human face was to be seen, and a silence as of death itself reigned everywhere. presently we dug out some of the terrified villagers from various subterranean hiding-places and prevailed upon them to inspect the "monster" at close range. finding it now stood the test well, and that it behaved in a rational way, they grew bolder, and patted its khaki-painted sides affectionately, as one would stroke a dog of dubious friendliness. on the succeeding day, by dint of a good deal of spade work, we reached jamalabad, about fifteen miles from mianeh, where the road approaches the baleshkent pass. the ascent to the pass from the jamalabad side is about three miles from the village, and the road mounts abruptly at a very sharp angle. { } on the reverse slope it zigzags down the side of a gorge which made one giddy to look at. it required the united efforts of fifty sturdy villagers from jamalabad to push the car to the top of the pass, but, even if we could have negotiated the descent in safety, it was doubtful if we should ever have been able to climb back by the precipitous corkscrew ascent. to be caught by the turks at the bottom of the pass unsupported would mean disaster for the expedition, so very reluctantly we turned the armoured car's head for zinjan. we learned that there were turks in mianeh, but none of those who had quitted zinjan in such haste before the advance of the wagstaff column had come along the jamalabad road. pierpont, who was in charge of the car, was a mild-mannered youth, but of a very warlike disposition, and was much disappointed that we had not had a brush with his old enemy, the turk. down mesopotamia way he once charged an infantry position and engaged in "close action" by laying his armoured car alongside a front-line trench, where he speedily closed the account of its defenders with machine-gun fire. another swift stroke now placed us in possession of mianeh and brought us eighty miles nearer tabriz. captain osborne, taking with him a small detachment from wagstaff's force, as well as a contingent of hastily recruited persian irregulars, was despatched from zinjan over the recently reconnoitred { } route. he had a convoy of ford vans, took with him the armoured car under lieutenant pierpont, and pushed forward rapidly, negotiating the difficult baleshkent and the still more difficult kuflan kuh passes. the kuflan kuh at its highest point is , feet, and the ascent on the south side and descent on the north side are very difficult for ordinary wheeled transport. this is especially so on the south slope, which, in a series of short, sharp gradients rises , feet in two miles. by the aid of a good deal of native labour the armoured car was safely taken over the formidable kuflan kuh, and duly made its appearance in mianeh. the turks were reported to have had a small post here, but when osborne's party entered mianeh the enemy had already withdrawn towards the north-west. the premises of the indo-european telegraph company, which had a stout wall and a compound, were selected as british headquarters. leaving a part of his slender command here to hold the place until wagstaff and his main body could come up, osborne with the armoured-car patrol and a few british n.c.o's pushed along the tabriz road, crossed the shibley pass twenty miles south-east of tabriz, and reconnoitred up to the gates of the city itself. it was a hazardous and daring undertaking, but it would have succeeded, and we could easily have won the race to tabriz and so checkmated the less enterprising turks, had a few companies of { } british troops been available to hurry to the support of osborne. but one cannot very well expect the equivalent of a sergeant's guard to perform the work of a battalion, and to hold a city of , inhabitants whose attitude was doubtful from the point of view of friendship. so osborne had to fall back slowly towards mianeh. the armoured car had by this time used up all the spare tyres and inner tubes, and, when the retirement over the shibley pass began, it was going on bare rims. its mobility was impaired, and, while it could still fight, it certainly could not run, and its tyreless progress over the mud and boulders which pass for a road in azerbaijan was slow and painful. the limping car looked an easy prey to turk or prowling robber hordes. so thought a band of two hundred shahsavan tribesmen, as they rode down from the hills one morning on one of their periodical forays. they had watched the car from afar, and noted its limping gait and its helplessness. in that corner of upper azerbaijan, from the tabriz road east to ardabil and the caspian sea, and north towards the russian frontier, there roam free and unhampered a score or so of sub-tribes of the shahsavan clan, wild and lawless rascals for the most part, but not wanting in courage or in that rude chivalry common to the asiatic hillmen. the shahsavani handle a rifle skilfully. pillaging is for them both a livelihood and a distraction. they are the recognized tax-gatherers of the tabriz road, and { } will rob a fat caravan, or disarm and strip the shah's cossacks, with equal impunity. and now the tribesmen got their lesson. the car stood on the roadside while lieutenant pierpont and his men were preparing breakfast. approaching to within eight hundred yards, the raiders opened out, and charged to the accompaniment of wild yells. then the machine-gun in the turret of the immobile car spoke up in reply. it sprayed the charging horsemen with lead; they broke and fled; but, reforming, came on anew. the gun spat more leaden hail, and this time the tribesmen had had enough; they fled in disorder, and ever afterwards gave a very wide berth to all such devilish contrivances as armoured cars and machine-guns. the turks now grew seriously alarmed at our temerity in threatening to snatch tabriz from their impending grasp. it was the door to the caucasus and to one of the turkish main theatres of military operations. it was a prize worth having, and for the turks the possession of the capital of azerbaijan was of scarcely less vital importance than it was for the british themselves. kuchik khan had already effectively barred the gate to resht and shut us off from the caspian on the east; now the turk was completing the "bottling-up" process, for he was closing the door of tabriz in our face and getting in the way of our reaching tiflis in the north. [illustration: road near rudbar. the two large rocks in the foreground represent one attempt of the jungalies to block the road.] during the first week in june the turks bestirred themselves and began their campaign of close and { } active co-operation with kuchik khan. turkish troops hurriedly moved on tabriz from the neighbourhood of khoi and the direction of julfa. ali elizan pasha, who designated himself "commander of the ottoman army in the province of azerbaijan," issued a flamboyant proclamation addressed to his dear persian brethren and co-religionists asking them to rally to his standard and to make common cause with his army of liberation which was pledged to free persia from the thraldom of the infidel. so the turks moved in, and were welcomed by the persian officials and by the valiahd or heir-presumptive with manifestations of joy, and the entente consuls and citizens of the entente countries moved out as fast as slow-moving persian transport could carry them. once in tabriz, the turks did not let the grass grow under their feet. they were bent on giving us a roland for our oliver. they assiduously cultivated the good graces of the local persian democrats, actively identified themselves with the ittahad-i-islam, or pan-islamic movement, and set about the recruiting and training of local levies with which to harry us in azerbaijan. the turks also formally notified the teheran government that it was their intention to extend their occupation to the persian capital, so as to complete the spiritual and political resurrection of the shah's empire. mahmud mukhtar pasha, a turkish military leader of some renown, entered tabriz on june th, gave { } his blessing to the pan-islamic propagandist movement, and promised the militants amongst the democrats that there would soon be no british left in azerbaijan or elsewhere in persia to trouble the peace of mind of those patriots. the good work was furthered by such zealous democrats and turkophiles as hadji bilouri, mirza ismael noberi, and the sheikh mehamet biabari, who contrived to combine piety with politics for a cash consideration. the turks, while lavish with oratory, were niggardly with money. in short, they were bad paymasters, happily for the british; otherwise the latter would not have been in azerbaijan as long as they were. they enrolled fedais or native levies, but forgot to pay them, whereupon the levies deserted and took service with the british down mianeh way, arguing, logically enough, if crudely, that turkish promises would not buy bread, and that the money of the infidel was better than none at all. the turks, too, by their rapacity early estranged popular feeling. they commandeered right and left without payment, and in the bazaar, at the point of the pistol, they compelled merchants and money-changers to accept their depreciated paper currency at an inflated rate of exchange as against persian krans. { } chapter xv life in mianeh training local levies--a city of parasites and rogues--a knave turns philanthropist--turks getting active--osborne's comic opera force--jelus appeal for help--an aeroplane to the rescue--the democrats impressed--women worried by aviator's "shorts"--skirmishes on the tabriz road--reinforcements at last. when the wagstaff mission finally reached mianeh from zinjan it began to collect grain supplies, by purchase, and set to work to raise and train irregulars. although the persian hates drill and discipline, there was no dearth of recruits for the local army. the pay was good, about £ a month with rations and uniform, which meant affluence to the average persian villager, who was usually too poor to buy enough bread to keep himself alive. mianeh, which is rightfully credited with being the most unhealthy spot in north-western persia, has a population of about , . it is the chosen home of a poisonous bug (argas persicus) whose bite produces severe fever and occasionally death. there is also a set of parasites, human this time, whose sting is very deadly in a financial sense. they are the merchants' and grain-growers' guilds, { } and they were always attempting to dip deep and dishonestly into the british treasure chest. it would be doing this delectable spot no injustice to say that, in proportion to its population, it can boast a greater percentage of unchained rogues than any other town in the whole province of azerbaijan. one of these knaves turned "philanthropist" once. he begged the mission to start relief works to help the starving poor of mianeh, and offered to supply the british with spades for excavation work at cost price. the spades were paid for and the relief work started--and about a week later it was accidentally discovered that the "philanthropist" was collecting two krans a day as spade hire from the dole of the starving peasants! on another occasion he induced a too-confiding officer to sanction the payment of a sum of money for rendering less malodorous the streets of this pestiferous town. the money was drawn, and then its recipient discovered that the people were partial to noxious vapours, and had conscientious objections to any interfering and misguided foreigner meddling with their pet manure heap. so nothing was done, but the money disappeared. such is morality as practised in this corner of the shah's dominions! the telegraph compound which, during our occupation of mianeh, served as wagstaff's headquarters, stood on the brink of a knoll overlooking the main street leading to the bazaar quarter. on the face of a corresponding eminence opposite, and divided { } by a bend of the road, was the local potter's field, where friendless peasants and penniless wanderers from afar who had paid the great debt of nature within the inhospitable walls of mianeh were interred (when the lazy townsfolk found time to give them sepulture) in a hastily dug and shallow grave. in the meantime the defunct ones were wont to be dumped down on a rude bier and left there, sometimes for a whole day, under the fierce rays of a mid-june sun. mianeh was as uncomfortable for the dead as it was unhealthy for the living. truly, few persians seem to possess any olfactory sensitiveness. they would pass the potter's field hourly, showing no concern at the repulsiveness that must have assailed their eyes and noses. news filtered down the road from tabriz that the turks there were displaying great activity. they were daily being reinforced, and made no secret of their intention to attempt, when sufficiently strong, the task of chasing the british from azerbaijan. they established posts on the tabriz road southwards as far as haji agha, about sixty miles from mianeh. the answer to all these turkish preparations for breaking our slender hold upon azerbaijan was for wagstaff urgently to ask for reinforcements and especially mountain guns. in the meantime he sent osborne back up the tabriz road, with all the fighting men that could be spared, to watch the enemy and to attempt to prevent his breaking farther south. { } osborne's chief reliance was placed on the few british n.c.o.'s who accompanied him. beyond these, all he had to stem any turkish advance was about half a squadron of newly enrolled irregular horse and a couple of platoons of native levies who had been taught the rudiments of musketry and elementary drill. their appearance, at all events, was very warlike, not to say terror-inspiring, and, like some of the wild tribes of polynesia, they relied chiefly on the effectiveness of their make-up when on the "war-path" to bring about the discomfiture of their enemies. the sowars were unusually awe-inspiring, hung about as each was with two or three bandoliers studded with cartridges. each carried a rifle, a sword of antique design, and a short stabbing blade. the naib, or lieutenant, who commanded them, was equally formidable from the point of view of arms and equipment. he had a tulwar shaped like a reaping-hook, and a mauser pistol, the butt of which was inlaid with silver. the tactics of the sowar levies were something in the nature of a compromise between a "wild west" show and _opéra bouffe_. they would gallop at full speed up a steep hill, brandishing their rifles over their heads and yelling fiercely the while. it was always a fine spectacular display with a dash of earl's court realism thrown in. the rifles of the sowars had a habit of going off indiscriminately during these moments of tense excitement when they { } were riding down an imaginary and fleeing enemy, and the british officers who watched their antics found it expedient in the interests of a whole skin to remain at a respectful distance from the manoeuvring, or--should one say, performing?--sowars. swagger and braggadocio were the principal fighting stock-in-trade of the levies and their persian officers. they were always clamouring to be led without delay against the turks in order that we might have an opportunity of witnessing what deeds of valour they would perform under enemy fire. the time did come, and our brave auxiliaries found themselves in the front line with a turkish battalion about to pay them a morning call--and we realized more fully than ever that the hundred-years-old dictum of that incomparable humorist, hadji baba, still held good, "o allah, allah, if there were no dying in the case, how the persians would fight!" the turks having outstripped us in the race to tabriz, a belated attempt was made early in july to get in touch with the sorely pressed jelus in urumia and stretch out to them a succouring hand. they had sent us a despairing appeal for help. their ammunition was running out; their available supplies were nearly exhausted; and they were on the verge of a military collapse. the turks threatening urumia had offered terms if the jelus laid down their arms, but, fearing treachery if they accepted, the war council of the jelus refused the enemy offer, advising unabated resistance, and urging that an { } attempt should be made by the whole army to break out towards the south and march in the direction of bijar and hamadan, in order that they might find safety behind the british lines. lieutenant pennington, a youthful afrikander airman who was noted for his coolness and daring, was despatched from kasvin on july th. he was to fly to urumia carrying a written assurance of speedy british aid for the beleaguered garrison there. pennington made a rapid non-stop flight to mianeh, covering the distance from kasvin in a little over two hours. he spent a day at mianeh, where he carried out a series of useful demonstrations intended to impress the local democrats. they had never seen an aeroplane before, and were rather vague as to its offensive potentialities. moreover, they had been inclined to be scornful of our want of military strength so glaringly revealed at mianeh. but now, at all events, the democrats were duly impressed by pennington and his machine. they argued that, if one aeroplane could come from kasvin in a couple of hours, so could a whole flotilla, and armed with death-dealing bombs. not altogether ignorant of the doctrine of consequences, the democrats realized the value of oratorical discretion; so for a while they put a curb on their poisonously anti-british tongues. meanwhile pennington continued his aerial journey to turkish-menaced urumia, the city by the lake shore, where a christian army was sheltering and wondering anxiously whether it was succour or the { } sword that awaited it. within two hours of leaving mianeh, the intrepid airman was crossing over lake urumia heading for the western shore. he dropped low on approaching the city itself, and his unexpected appearance brought consternation to the inhabitants. aeroplanes were unknown in those parts. they felt that this visitor from the clouds could hardly be a friend; therefore he was presumably a foe. reasoning thus, the jelus lost no time in blazing away a portion of their already slender stock of ammunition in the hope of bringing him down. the aviator had many narrow escapes, and so had his machine. he landed with a few bullet holes through his clothing, but his aeroplane, happily, had not been "hulled," or he would have been immobilized at urumia. as he alighted, the jelus rushed up to finish him off, for they were not noted for being over-merciful to turks falling into their hands. but seeing that he was english, they embraced him as a preliminary, and then carried him shoulder-high into the city. he was the hero of the hour. the people were delirious with joy, and women crowded round and insisted on kissing the much-embarrassed aviator. as the weather was very hot, pennington was wearing the regulation khaki shorts. one nestorian woman, after gazing compassionately at the airman's bare, sunburnt legs, and noting the brevity of his nether garment, shook her head sadly and said she had not realized till then that the british, too, were feeling the effects of the war and were suffering from a { } shortage of clothing material. there was a whispered consultation with some sister-nestorians, and a committee was formed to remedy the shortcomings of pennington's kit. the women ripped loose their own skirts and, arming themselves with needles and cotton, pleaded to be allowed to fashion complete trousers for the aviator, or at least to be permitted to elongate by a yard or so the pair of unmentionables he was wearing. the youth blushed furiously, and was at great pains to explain that there was still khaki in england, and that it was convenience, and not any scarcity of material, that had caused the ends of his trousers to shrink well above his knees. pennington flew back from urumia, and it was arranged that the jelus with their women and children were to march south by way of ushnu and sain kaleh to meet a british relieving force moving up from hamadan and bijar. early in august osborne had several brushes with the turks on the tabriz road. the enemy flooded our lines with spies, chiefly persians from tabriz, and pushed reconnoitring patrols as far south as haji agha, forty miles from tabriz. in these road skirmishes our persian levies behaved with their characteristic unsteadiness. once they were fired upon by hidden infantry at seven hundred yards, they forgot their promised display of valour, their courage oozed out at their boots, and they promptly bolted. an aerial reconnaissance revealed detachments of cavalry, artillery, and infantry marching { } south along the tabriz road, but headquarters in bagdad refused to attach any importance to this concentration, and for the moment were deaf to wagstaff's reiterated demand for reinforcements, and especially for a mountain gun or two. captain osborne and his party now dug themselves in at tikmadash, about fifty miles from mianeh and a corresponding distance from tabriz, and fixed his headquarters in a serai close to the village which commanded the tabriz road. there was a supporting british post at karachaman not far from the main tabriz road and fourteen miles to the south-east. wagstaff's repeated pleadings with "high authority" at last began to bear fruit. it was a generally accepted military axiom out in mesopotamia and persia that, if you were insistent enough in your demands for an extra platoon or two, with a gun or an aeroplane thrown in, you were either given the goods, or dubbed a "flannel-footed fool" and relegated to the cold shades of official oblivion. it was generally the latter. when wagstaff, therefore, heard that he had been given a whole squadron of th hussars, a platoon of the th hants, and a platoon of ghurkas, as well as a section of a howitzer battery and a couple of mountain guns, his habitual soldierly calm deserted him, and he almost wept for joy on the neck of his adjutant, debonair "bobby" roberts of the th devons. "c" squadron of the th hussars had made a { } forced march from kasvin. its ranks had been thinned by fever, and it barely mustered eighty sabres when it rode over the kuflan kuh pass to mianeh. it had but two officers, lieutenants jones and sweeney, fit for service. but there was no respite. fever-racked troopers and leg-weary horses, after a night's halt at mianeh, started on a fifty-mile march to tikmadash, where a handful of british were holding up a turkish force already numbering nearly a thousand and growing daily. the tired infantry who had "legged it" all the way from kasvin were also pushed north in the wake of the cavalry. { } chapter xvi the fight at tikmadash treachery of our irregulars--turkish machine-gun in the village--headquarters under fire--native levies break and bolt--british force withdrawn--turks proclaim a holy war--cochrane's demonstration--in search of the missing force--natives mutiny--a quick cure for "cholera"--a turkish patrol captured--meeting with cochrane--a forced retreat--our natives desert--a difficult night march--arrival at turkmanchai--turks encircling us--a fresh retirement. the turks came against osborne at tikmadash on september th. for days previously they had been carefully preparing for the attack. overnight they sent into the village, unperceived by the british, an infantry detachment which fraternized with the inhabitants and also with a small party of our irregulars who were on observation duty there. the treacherous irregulars said nothing of the presence of the turks in their midst, and made common cause with them at once. towards midnight the turks smuggled in a machine-gun, which they subsequently mounted on the flat roof of the dwelling of a persian official. at daylight the turks, from cover of the village itself, opened a violent machine-gun fire on the headquarters of osborne, which were in a serai a short distance on { } the mianeh side of tikmadash village. all the officers, some eight or ten in number, lived here. there were two doors to the serai on two different sides of the building. both these exits were sprayed with machine-gun fire. there was nothing for it but to open the door and run the gauntlet. it was like coming within the vortex of a hail-storm, yet, surprising to relate, few were hit. beyond the weak units of the th hussars, the hants, and the ghurkas, osborne had nothing to depend upon in this critical hour save levies recruited in mianeh and elsewhere who, in spite of their boastings, were always fire-shy. they took up a position this morning at tikmadash, but it was clear from the beginning that their hearts were not in the business. after firing some shrapnel into the position, the turks stormed it with two thousand infantry. the shell fire had already stampeded the persians, but their british officers, captains heathcote, amory, and trott of the devons, and hooper of the royal west kents, by dint of persuasion and threats, temporarily stopped the disorderly flight, and induced the wavering men to follow them back into the line. but a few more shells from the turkish gun, which burst with telling accuracy, finished the resistance of the levies. osborne had no artillery, the mountain battery section from mianeh not having yet arrived. this time the portion of the line held by the levies { } doubled up like a piece of paper. panic seized them, and they fled with all the swiftness of hunted animals, throwing away their rifles as they ran. the hants, ghurkas, and hussars were now all that was left to cover the retirement. the turks were working round both flanks and, had the british hung on, the whole force would have been surrounded and killed or captured. some of the british soldiers were so incensed at the cowardice of the persians that they turned their rifles against the fugitives and shot them in their tracks. when a retirement was seen to be inevitable, the charvadars were ordered to load up the stores and medical supplies at the serai. in the midst of their preparations the levies broke and fled. this decided the charvadars, who showed themselves to be as arrant cowards as the rest of their race. cutting away the lashings securing the loads on the transport mules, they jumped on the animals' backs and galloped panic-stricken to the rear. captain john, of the indian medical service, who had worked like a trojan attending to the wounded under fire, now collected three or four british n.c.o's. and sought to rally the runaway charvadars, or at least to recapture some of the transport mules. as well might dame partington have tried to mop back the waves of the atlantic. john, however, did succeed in moving the british wounded, but all the officers' kits, medical supplies, and ammunition fell into the hands of the enemy. { } the sadly diminished and battered british force withdrew to karachaman, preceded by the fleeing native levies, who magnified the extent of our reverse, and as they ran spread panic amongst the villages on our line of retreat. eight days before the turks hit us at tikmadash, news had filtered through to mianeh that the enemy was becoming active in eastern azerbaijan. raiding parties of turkish cavalry had penetrated to sarab, eighty miles east of tabriz, and stray bands of tribal levies who had taken service under the turkish flag were reported farther east towards ardabil and the caspian littoral. they distributed proclamations broadcast announcing a jehad or holy war against the british, and calling upon the people to rally to the banner of the ittahad-i-islam, or pan-islamic movement, and so make an end of the infidel occupation of persia. the hapless villagers themselves had little choice in the matter; compulsion was drastically applied, and a village that showed hesitation, or evinced any apathy in embracing the tenets of the political-cum-religious and turkish-controlled ittahad-i-islam, was laid waste, its inhabitants maltreated, or sometimes put to the sword. the turks further showed their contempt for persian authority by seizing the telegraph office at sarab and kicking out the detachment of persian cossacks who held the place in the name of the shah and did police duty in the district. these cossacks, in common with the rest of their brigade, were under { } the command of a russian officer. he evidently harboured some extraordinary view as to his duty towards the shah's government, for he accepted with meek submissiveness the imperative orders of the turks to take himself and his command out of eastern azerbaijan without any unnecessary delay. the persian cossacks, the "paid protectors of the poor," to give them one of their official designations, rarely "protected" anybody unless as a financial investment, and their brutality and greed for illicit gain caused them to be as much dreaded by the persian peasant and bazaar shopkeeper as were those brutal, plundering ruffians, the turkish bashi-bazouks whom the senior partner in the pan-islamic firm had let loose in upper azerbaijan. to counteract enemy activity round sarab and ardabil a small mounted force was despatched from our post at karachaman under captain basil cochrane of the th hussars. cochrane had with him about forty british enlisted sowars of khalkhal shahsavans. moving across the mountains, he boldly rode into sarab. the turks, assuming his to be but the advance guard of a large british force, scattered at his approach. the governor and the townsfolk welcomed him effusively, and promised him military support. but persian promises are not always redeemable, as we had already found to our cost. turkish cavalry were advancing afresh and threatening his rear, so cochrane, who was fifty miles as the crow flies from the nearest british post, { } had to let go his hold on sarab, and retire towards the south. then a veil of silence enshrouded his movements; and at mianeh headquarters it was feared that he had been cut off and killed with his whole party. i had just come back from a long trek, and had stretched my weary self out on a camp bed and gone fast to sleep, booted and spurred, when someone shook me vigorously. i awoke and found it was wagstaff, chief of the mission, with orders for me to take out a mounted party and go in search of cochrane. i mustered the available sowars of the station, about fifty in all. they were recruited from the shahsavan tribesmen, and we had had hitherto no reason to suspect their fidelity. but immediately they divined that trouble was brewing and that they might get a "dusting" from the turk, they decided that mianeh was a healthier place than sarab, and mutinied to a man. neither threats nor persuasion could move them. having, so to speak, thrown in their hands, they dismounted from their shaggy, fleet-footed hill ponies, and stood sullenly with folded arms, refusing obedience to all orders. leaving wagstaff to deal with the mutinous sowars, i collected about a dozen of my own persian police, and with these and two british n.c.o's., sergeants calthorpe, r.f.a., and saunders of the th hussars, set off on my mission. we marched the greater part of the night, and early next day reached turkmanchai on the tabriz { } road, twenty-five miles north-west of mianeh. here i impressed ten sowars of ours who, feigning illness and suffering from "fire-shyness," had stolen out of the trenches at tikmadash. our route from turkmanchai lay nearly due north towards the foothills of the lofty bazgush range and the country of the khalkhal sub-tribe of shahsavans. we bivouacked for the night in the prosperous village called benik suma, which stands in the middle of an arboreal-cloistered dale watered by a shallow but swift-running mountain stream. supplies were plentiful, and the hand of famine had not touched this secluded persian hamlet, which nestled so cosily beneath the glorious foliage of oak and chestnut. when the march was resumed in the morning, it was found that four of the "malingerers" from turkmanchai had deserted overnight. my little command did not seem at all easy in its mind at the prospect of having a brush with the enemy, and every hour that brought us nearer to the hill country an increasing number of sowars reported sick and begged to be allowed to fall out. at first i was puzzled by the spread of this sudden malady, for the symptoms were identical in each case--severe abdominal pains; but presently the mystery was explained. i encountered on the road a persian cossack who had ridden in from the sarab district, and had come across the mountains that lay ahead of us. he volunteered the information that in a village about twenty miles distant he had { } seen a turkish cavalry patrol. our sowars on hearing this looked very glum, and four of them at once complained of violent illness. they rolled on the ground in pretended agony, artfully simulating an acute cholera seizure. this time, and without much difficulty, i diagnosed the disease as being that of pure funk, or what is commonly known in military parlance as "cold feet." while sympathizing with the sufferers, i gravely told them that i had instructions to shoot off-hand any of my command who became cholera-stricken, and to burn their bodies in order to prevent the disease spreading. the result was little short of magical. the "severe pains" disappeared, and the patients made such a wonderful recovery that within half an hour they were able to mount their horses and turn their faces towards sarab once more. and the "epidemic" did not reappear. we entered the mouth of the gloomy chachagli pass in the bazgush range. horsemen afar off had hovered on our flanks and reconnoitred us carefully, but the distance was too great to tell whether they were enemy irregulars or simply roving shahsavans in search of plunder, who would impartially despoil, provided the chances were equal, briton, turk, or persian. the chachagli pass, a trifle over , feet, must surely be the most difficult to negotiate in the whole of the middle east. the road or track from the southern entrance of the pass follows a narrow { } valley shut in by a high gorge. a huge mass of limestone rock, parting company with some parent outcrop several thousand feet above our heads, has fallen bodily into the shallow stream which rushes down the pass, damming up its waters momentarily. the stream is angry, but not baffled, at this clumsy effort to bar its path. gathering volume and strength, and mounting on the back of the impeding boulder, it dives off its smooth surface with all the energy and vim of a miniature niagara, and goes on its way humming a merry note of rejoicing. after traversing the stream repeatedly, the road tilts its nose in the air and mounts sharply. with just enough room for sober-going mules to pass in single file, it skirts the brink of a precipice until the top is reached. the rocks radiated a torrid heat that september morning, and the sun struck across our upward path. it was difficult climbing, for there is not in all the chachagli pass enough tree shade to screen a mountain goat. on the north side of the summit the road descends just as abruptly; the track is narrow and rugged, and it requires careful going to avoid toppling over the unramped side and down into the rock-studded bed of the stream. it was nearing sunset on the evening of september nd, and my small force was preparing to bivouac for the night, when two sowars who had been foraging in a village to the west came galloping with news of the enemy. they had learned that a party of { } turkish irregulars had halted in a hamlet three miles away. we moved in the direction indicated and found the information was correct. the enemy horsemen, believing themselves secure, had neglected to mount a guard. they had off-saddled and were sleeping peacefully in the shade of a mud-walled compound when we burst into the place and surprised them. they were ten in all. rudely disturbed in their siesta, they surrendered without firing a shot. the prisoners comprised two turkish n.c.o's., six sowars, and two agents of the ittahad-i-islam. they had evidently been "billposting" and recruiting, for their saddlebags contained letters addressed to turkish sympathizers in the district and also the red armlets worn as a distinguishing badge by the newly enrolled fedais who undertook to fight under the crescent-flag of the osmanli. my own sowars were greatly elated over this minor success. their spirits rose accordingly, and they now professed to regard the fighting turk with disdain, and to be prepared to match themselves single-handed against a whole troop of the enemy. but it was all mere bombast. the prisoners were sent down to mianeh with an escort of six of these "valorous" levies. on the way they, though, of course, unarmed, overpowered the guard, took the arms and horses, and escaped. at daylight next morning, september rd, the march northwards was resumed. our advanced { } guard was fired upon by some armed horsemen, who retired. following them up, we found that they were some of cochrane's scouts who had mistaken us for turks. cochrane himself i came across two hours later. with his little force he had retreated without loss from sarab, and had taken up a snug defensive position on the brow of a wooded eminence, where he placidly awaited whatever fate might send him first--the attacking turk, or the succouring british. the tribesmen were friendly towards us, and, attracted by the prospect of good pay, were offering themselves freely as recruits. making due allowance for the fighting instability of our levies, we felt we were strong enough to hold on, and if the worst came to the worst, and we were outnumbered, capable of putting up a running fight with the enemy. but the end bordered on the dramatic, and came with an abruptness that neither of us had foreseen. as related in a previous chapter, osborne was heavily attacked at tikmadash on the morning of september th, and the news of his retreat and the advance of the turks along the tabriz road did not reach cochrane and myself until a.m. on the morning of the th. it was a ticklish situation. go forward we could not, and our only way back was over the gloomy fastness of the chachagli pass. the turks, we knew, were advancing rapidly, and we mentally saw them already astride our one line of retreat and ourselves trapped at the south exit of the pass. { } there was no time to be lost. so, destroying our surplus stores, and with grim faces, we set off in the darkness of the night. our levies surmised that something had gone wrong with the british, and fear gripped their hearts. they deserted wholesale and without waiting to bid us adieu. there was a picket of fifteen persians and a british sergeant in a village a mile to our front. the sergeant alone reported back. his command had "hopped it" when they realized that danger threatened. five miles behind us on the crest of the ridge there was an observation post of thirty irregulars with a naib or native lieutenant and two british n.c.o's. the naib had the previous evening vaunted his personal prowess, and assured cochrane and myself that no turks would pass that way except over his lifeless body. but when we reached his post in the blackness of the night, we discovered that the gallant naib had fled none knew whither, and taken all his men with him. we never saw him again. the two n.c.o's. had mounted guard alternately, and we found them cursing persian irregulars and persian perfidy with a degree of vigour and a candour that did adequate justice to their own private view of the situation. cochrane is an afrikander born, and as resourceful and plucky a soldier as ever donned khaki. used to night marching on the veldt, he led the advanced guard of our party through the intricate, labyrinthian windings of the chachagli pass where a single false step meant death. it was nerve-straining work, this { } night march in the darkness, with men, horses, and transport mules following each other in blind procession and groping for a foothold on the narrow causeway. that mysterious dread of the unseen and the unknown, ever present on such occasions as these, clutched with a tenfold force the timorous hearts of the native levies who had survived the earlier stampede at the beginning of the retreat. their teeth chattered, and their trembling fingers were always inadvertently pressing triggers of loaded rifles, which kept popping off and heightening the nerve tension. we got clear of the pass shortly after daylight. fortunately the turks were not there to intercept our march. with the passing of the long night vigil, and the coming of the dawn, gloom was dispelled; life assumed a rosier tint, and the levies recovered some of their lost spirits and waning courage. once free of the imprisoning hills, and out on the broad plateau that dipped southwards to intersect the tabriz road, we headed straight for turkmanchai. once we rode into a village as fifty well-mounted horsemen, disturbed like a covey of frightened birds, bolted out at the other end. we found that they were shahsavan robbers, who looked upon our party as potential enemies. turkish cavalry in extended order were visible on the skyline as we gained the shelter of turkmanchai. we reached this spot in the nick of time. osborne's force had been compelled to evacuate karachaman, { } the position occupied after tikmadash, and his sorely pressed command was now trickling into turkmanchai with the turks at their heels. turkmanchai village is at the base of a steep hill. at its summit the road from tabriz squeezes through a narrow-necked pass. here the hants and the ghurkas took up a position in order to arrest the turkish advance. a section of a mountain battery had arrived overnight. the turkish cavalry appeared in column of route, out of rifle fire as yet, and blissfully ignorant of our possession of artillery. the cavalry made an admirable target. two well-directed shells burst in the midst of the astonished horsemen. their surprise was complete, and wheeling they opened out and galloped wildly for cover. the impromptu salvo of artillery set them thinking, and they did not trouble us again that day. to hold turkmanchai was impossible. we had stopped the turks in front, but they were working round our flanks, and it was only a question of hours when we should be isolated and cut off from mianeh. we were outnumbered by fully ten to one, and the flanking parties of cavalry which the enemy threw out were alone larger than the british combined force of regulars and irregulars. a fresh retirement was decided upon, and on the morning of september th we evacuated turkmanchai. the wounded and the sick were removed in transport carts, and two hours after midnight the head of the column moved slowly off in the darkness. { } i was in charge of the advanced guard, and found myself in command of a varied assortment of persian irregulars, some of whom had "distinguished" themselves at tikmadash and karachaman and had been "rounded up" by british troops during the retreat. they were a motley crew, and what infinitesimal amount of pluck they ever possessed had long ago evaporated. in the advanced guard it was difficult to restrain their impetuosity. they dashed off at top speed as if they were riding a fifty-mile derby race to mianeh. but their one impelling motive was to place as many miles as possible of dusty road between themselves and the oncoming turks before daylight. by dint of threats of summary punishment they were brought to heel and ultimately held in leash. silence it was impossible to impose, short of some form of gagging, and they chattered like a cageful of monkeys, utterly heedless of the danger of betraying our presence to the enemy. then, too, their superheated imagination saw turks growing on every bush. "osmani anja!" "osmani anja!" (the turks are there!) they would cry, indicating some village donkey or goat taking a hillside stroll. fortunately for us, the turks showed themselves to be singularly lacking in energy, and were not keen on risking a night attack in unknown country, or they might have ambushed the advanced guard half a dozen times before it got clear of the danger zone. with our persian "braves" to rely upon, there { } would surely have been a "regrettable incident" to record officially. the turks waited for daylight, and then they attacked the main body and the rearguard, but were beaten off, and the column extricating itself reached mianeh in safety. { } chapter xvii evacuation of mianeh we have a chilly reception--our popularity wanes--preparation for further retirement--back to the kuflan kuh pass--our defensive position--turks make a frontal attack--our line overrun--gallantry of hants and worcesters--pursuit by turks--armoured cars save the situation--prisoners escape from turks--persians as fighters. mianeh, pampered, spoon-fed mianeh, which had grown fat on british bread and comparatively wealthy on british money, gave the retreating column a chilly reception. the bazaar looked at us askance, and the democrats spat meaningly in our direction and muttered a malediction upon our heads. there was joy in the eyes of the people which they took no pains to conceal. the news of the turkish success, much magnified in passing from mouth to mouth and village to village, had preceded our arrival, and the barometer of bazaar sentiment, always a sure gauge of persian public opinion, had veered round to "stormy." and "stormy" it was to be. it was felt that the sands of the british glass had run out. the attitude of the people underwent a sudden change { } from cringing supplication to one of thinly veiled hostility. fawning officials, who had battened upon our liberality and profited by our largesse, now fell over themselves in their efforts to sponge the slate clean and write upon it a persian improvised version of the "hymn of hate." they threw the full weight of their mean souls into the job. in the bazaar they buzzed about like so many poisonous gadflies, and in order to curry favour with their new masters-to-be they incited the people to anti-british demonstrations, and beat and imprisoned humble folk whose friendship for our nation was disinterested and had not been offered on the local commercial basis of so many krans per pound. with one exception, all the district notables--who had always been reiterating their professions of friendship, and to whom we had paid large sums as subsidies for faithless, turn-tail levies, or as purchase price for grain--went over to the enemy. our mianeh police, my own command, or those of them who were persians, followed the general example and ran off to join the turks. there was one notable exception. four kurds who belonged to the police and who could not be intimidated or cajoled, stood firm and refused to be carried off by the wave of desertion, and they remained to guard the mission premises. after turkmanchai we did not tarry long in mianeh. preparations were at once made for a further retirement. the turks were coming on { } slowly and methodically, and apparently in no immediate hurry to hustle us out of mianeh. the long and, in a sense, rapid marches of the previous five days during hot weather had told upon the turkish infantry, and now the advancing enemy had cried a halt in order that his tired troops might enjoy a brief repose. our next defensive position was the kuflan kuh or qaplan kuh (the panthers' hill) pass, which lies five miles south-east of mianeh. the main range of the kuflan kuh runs roughly from east to west, and the tabriz-zinjan road passes over its crest at a height of about five thousand feet. at the end of the mianeh plain, and some two miles from the village itself, there is a solid brick bridge over the karangu river. once the river is crossed, coming from mianeh, the rise begins gradually, and the foothills of the pass are met with a mile or so from the river bank. the ascent from the northern or mianeh end is very difficult, and the road mounts between two perpendicular walls of rock. the gradient is steep, and the outer edge of the roadway was wholly unprotected until a british labour corps took the job on hand and interposed a coping-stone barrier between the exposed side of the road and the abyss below. the same workers also plugged up some of the gaping holes in the roadway which had existed from time immemorial. on sunday, september th, the whole of major wagstaff's force bade farewell without regret to { } mianeh, marched across the karangu, and placed the formidable barrier of the kuflan kuh between itself and the advancing enemy. wagstaff established his headquarters in a ruined caravanserai near the stone bridge which spans the kizil uzun river at the southern entrance to the pass. all the stores of wheat and barley which had been accumulating in mianeh were destroyed before evacuation, and the rearguard crossed the karangu without molestation either from the turks or from their new allies, the mianehites, who were hourly showing themselves more hostile to the retiring british. [illustration: north gate, kasvin.] headquarters at kasvin now began to be alarmed at the uninterrupted southward advance of the turks, for, if zinjan fell, kasvin might be expected to follow, and our line of communications from hamadan towards the caspian would be cut. general dunsterville himself was away in baku, fighting bolsheviks and turks. some weeks earlier, with the help of bicherakoff and his russians, he had rooted out kuchik khan from his jungle fastness, and opened the road from manjil to resht and the caspian sea. wagstaff was accordingly ordered to hold the kuflan kuh at all costs, but what he was to hold it with was not quite clear, inasmuch as his total dependable fighting strength of hants, ghurkas, and th hussars did not exceed bayonets and sabres, the few remaining levies being a negligible quantity. he had been given a machine-gun detachment, a { } mountain battery section, two field guns, and a howitzer. his main position was on a line of low hills extending for about three miles below the northern face of the pass, and commanding the approaches from the mianeh plain and the brick bridge across the karangu. the guns were on the reverse or southern slope of the pass, whence by indirect fire they could make it unpleasant for an enemy crossing the karangu bridge or fording the shallow river itself. a platoon of the worcesters arrived to reinforce our attenuated line, and colonel matthews of the th hants took over command on the th. the turks had now occupied mianeh in force, and during the ensuing two days were busy preparing for an offensive movement. they pushed a considerable body of infantry down to the cultivated fields bordering the north bank of the karangu. here, amongst the boundary ditches, topped with low bushes, they found a certain amount of ready-made cover, and they subjected our advanced posts on the right to a harassing fire. these were held by levies with a stiffening of british officers and british n.c.o's. the persians, as usual, became "jumpy" whenever turkish bullets hummed in their immediate vicinity, and as they were utterly lacking in elementary fire-control they were a source of vexatious perplexity to their british officers and sergeants. one officer, in despair at their utter unreliability under fire, pleadingly suggested that they might be withdrawn { } altogether, and himself left with two british sergeants to hold the post. even after making due allowance for the complete worthlessness of our persian auxiliaries, we hesitated to believe that the turks would commit themselves to a frontal attack on the kuflan kuh. given a sufficiency of reliable troops, it would have been an admirably strong defensive position, and any enemy who came "butting" against it with lowered head would have found the experiment a costly one. but the turks had seemingly gauged the measure of our strength and our weakness more accurately than we had ourselves, for, eschewing anything in the nature of new-fangled turning movements, they came at us in the good old-fashioned way, and by the most direct route. the attack was delivered after breakfast on september th, and on the part of the enemy there was no sign of hurry or confusion. two thousand infantry, highly trained and admirably handled, belonging to one of their crack caucasian divisions, crossed the river in extended order and flung themselves against our line. the shock of contact was first felt on the right, where the persians were in position. these latter promptly broke and fled in utter disorder, all attempts to rally them proving futile. our line was now in the air, so to speak, with the persians scuttling like rabbits up towards the entrance to the pass. it was short and bloody work. { } the hants and the ghurkas had now to bear the brunt of the attack. the turks, reinforced, came on in surging waves and flowed over their trenches. both units made a gallant but ineffectual fight, and were forced back up the pass, suffering considerable losses. the enemy followed up his advantage and stormed the pass itself. a last stand was made at the summit to cover the retreat of the guns. here hants and turks fought hand to hand with bayonet and clubbed rifle, until the sadly diminished remnant of this brave battalion, after losing their gallant sergeant-major, were literally pushed over the crest and down the reverse slope. but they had stood their ground long enough to save the guns from capture. the worcesters, who had been in reserve on the southern slope, now came doubling into action to the assistance of the hard-pressed hants. taking shelter behind the boulders which are plentiful on both sides of the roadway, they covered the retirement, driving the turkish snipers off the summit of the pass and arresting any immediate pursuit on the part of the enemy. the caravanserai at the kizil uzun bridge, where colonel matthews had his headquarters, being now untenable, he withdrew with his remaining force across the baleshkent pass to jamalabad on the road to zinjan. as for the runaway levies, some of them did not halt until they had placed a good twenty miles between themselves and the scene of the kuflan kuh fighting. { } the turks pursued us to jamalabad, but it was the last kick. their offensive spent itself here, thanks to a new factor which had entered into the game. this was the armoured car sections, light and heavy, under colonel crawford and lieutenant-colonel smiles, which, when our position was indeed precarious, had been rushed up from kasvin and zinjan in support of our retiring column. the turks got a bad peppering at jamalabad, and a few miles farther south at sarcham where the cars were in action. the enemy had no liking for this sort of fighting, and troubled us no more. they withdrew from jamalabad and, in anticipation of a counter-offensive on our part, proceeded to fortify themselves on the kuflan kuh. a week after the fight at the kuflan kuh two men of the hants who had been captured by the turks arrived in our lines, clothed in nothing save a handkerchief apiece. while their captors were squabbling amongst themselves as to the distribution of the worldly possessions of the prisoners, the latter had slipped away unperceived and gained jamalabad. there they were waylaid by persian thieves, badly beaten, stripped of their clothing, and left for dead on the roadside. still, they were a plucky pair, for, recovering, they set out afresh, and, completing a fifty-mile tramp in the blazing sun without food or raiment, rejoined their unit. the crawford armoured cars and the matthews column slowly fell back on zinjan, and there { } ended the military activities of the tabriz expedition. my strictures on the fighting value of the persian may appear unduly severe. i fully realize that one had no right to expect very much from a mass of raw, undisciplined material. the men were hastily recruited, and their training, necessarily circumscribed by the exigencies of time, could not have been anything but perfunctory and imperfect in the circumstances. but i am tilting rather at the theory prevalent in certain quarters at the inception of the tabriz expedition that one had only to send british officers into the highways and byways of azerbaijan and that they would find there "ready-made" soldiers endowed with a fine fighting spirit, hardly inferior in quality to our own superb infantry, men who would stand up to trained and efficient soldiers like the turks. having once got the half-trained levies into the trenches, their british officers were expected to hold them by sheer force of will-power, and to hypnotize them into taking aim at an enemy without shutting both eyes. now the bubble of persian fighting efficiency has been pricked, and we have a more just appreciation of the virtues and shortcomings of the persians as a unit in a modern army. { } chapter xviii crushing a plot anti-british activities--headquarters at hamadan--plans to seize ringleaders--midnight arrests--how the governor was entrapped. back in hamadan, the fierce political enmity of the democrats, which had been quiet for some time, broke into fresh activity after the removal of dunsterville headquarters to kasvin at the end of may. general byron, who was in charge at hamadan, speedily discovered through his intelligence officers that the local democrats were bent on making things merry for the british, if they possibly could. previous rebuffs had taught the democrats the value of silence and a more complete method of organization. their defects in these directions were now to some extent remedied. turkish gold, too, was forthcoming, and the democrats of hamadan became a secret political organization--a sort of persian mafia or camorra--which was hatching a political conspiracy against the british. it was the ittahad-i-islam again at work. this organization, while outwardly making common cause with the islamic malcontents of hamadan and elsewhere, was in secret working strenuously for turkey and the turkish cause, and the democrats { } who were caught in its net were but a means to that end. one thing, however, soon became clear--that a vast network of turkish espionage, with ramifications through persia, had its headquarters in hamadan. for many weeks the organization was allowed to have free rein in the carrying out of its "holy work." its propaganda mills worked long and late; its agents came and went; turkish emissaries slipped into hamadan and out again without any difficulty, and the leaders of the hamadan movement, which aimed at our overthrow by a _tour de force_, must have often chuckled to themselves at our apparent simplicity and at the ease with which we had been outmatched by oriental cunning. while feigning blindness, the british were very watchful indeed. it was like the story of the faithful retainer of the samurai noble in feudal japan who set out to avenge his lord's death. his enemies were powerful and vigilant, but in the end his carefully simulated indifference threw them completely off their guard, and he triumphed. so it was in hamadan, where sharp wits were pitted against sharp wits. in time the chiefs of the inner ring of the hamadan combination grew careless. little by little, their secret signs and passwords, their working programme, their membership roll, and even full details of the turkish system of espionage in persia generally, passed into our hands. there was little more to wait for. it was time to strike. { } but a fresh difficulty immediately presented itself. the plotters, in co-operation with kuchik khan, had fixed the date for an armed revolt against british occupation; and what afterwards happened in egypt, was, in june of , deliberately and carefully planned to take place in hamadan. there were practically no troops in the town at the time, and the torch of revolt once lighted and the work of our extermination begun, ten or twelve officers with a couple of dozen of n.c.o's. of dunsterforce could not for long have resisted the determined onslaught of a fanatical and arrack-incited population of , . to arrest the leaders openly in daylight would assuredly have precipitated a disaster, and led to bloodshed, and probably to our own undoing. the inner council of the conspiracy consisted of fifteen members, and included the persian governor and a number of local notables. secrecy and surprise were essential; so the plan hit upon was a night descent simultaneously on the whole band, an officer and two n.c.o's. being detailed for each arrest. the procedure in the following case may be taken as typical of the others: in the early hours of the morning a persian batman in the employ of a british officer was directed to deliver a sealed envelope marked "from o.c. hamadan" at the house of one of the plotters. the messenger, hammering at the door, aroused the sleepy watchman within, and told him { } that he had an important letter to deliver from the british general. "come back in the morning," would reply the watchman, "my master is in bed and asleep." the messenger, duly coached, would reply, "that is impossible. open the door. the letter, i know, is important, for i have been given ten krans to deliver it safely." the watchman, while wary and inclined to be suspicious of belated callers, was also avaricious, and was not going to let slip any chance of netting a few krans. as had been anticipated, his greed overcame his caution. he opened the door in order to claim his share of the late letter delivery fee. as soon as he did so, a couple of stalwart british sergeants, springing out of the darkness, seized, bound, and gagged him. once within the high-walled courtyard of the house, the rest was easy. it was but a few steps to the sleeping apartments, and the proscribed conspirator as a rule woke up to find the chilly muzzle of a british service revolver pressing against his temple. he was gagged to prevent his raising an alarm; his hands were bound; and, thus helpless, he was carried off and dumped into a covered motor lorry, where an armed guard saw that he came to no harm. but the persian governor himself was the most difficult of the whole band to surprise and arrest. his residence was in a big walled serai at the extreme end of hamadan, and, in accordance with persian custom, and by reason of his official position, he lived surrounded by a guard of about fifty men. to { } deal with him tact and finesse were necessarily called into play. the task of securing the governor quietly and without unnecessary fuss fell to the lot of a colonel who had learned something of native ways in rhodesia and east africa. he was an irishman possessing a glib tongue, a knowledge of persian, and all the suavity of his race. he also had the advantage of being known to the governor and his entourage. so, when he knocked at the door of the governor's residence at an hour long after midnight, the watchman admitted him without hesitation. the guard turned out and eyed the intruder suspiciously, but, finding it was the sartip sahib (colonel) from the british mission who was making inquiries about the state of the governor's health, they yawned sleepily and betook themselves to the shelter of their blankets, vowing inwardly that the eccentricities of this strange race called english who paid ceremonious visits in the middle of the night were beyond the comprehension of any oriental mind. "there has come wonderful news from teheran, and the governor must be told at once," said the visitor, flourishing a big envelope with many red seals attached thereto. "good," replied the janitor deferentially, "the governor is enjoying sweet repose, but if it is the wish of the colonel sahib, i will take him the paper." "alas, that it should be so!" interposed the caller gravely, "but into his own hands alone am i permitted { } to deliver this precious letter. go, faithful one! summon your illustrious master, the protector of the poor, and the friend of the oppressed! i will remain on guard by the open door, and none shall enter in your absence." the ruse succeeded. the servitor departed on his errand, and in a few minutes returned with the governor clad in a dressing-gown and slippers. he greeted the colonel, who handed him the envelope which contained a blank sheet of paper. it was dark on the threshold where the governor stood tearing open the missive, so the colonel proffered the aid of his electric torch. presently the governor, divining that something was amiss, looked up with a start, and found himself covered with a revolver. "come with me," said the officer tersely, "and, above all, do not resist or attempt to summon help!" the trapped official obeyed with docility, and followed his captor to a waiting automobile, into which he was bundled and placed in charge of a british guard. two sentries at the guardroom door kept the persian guard within in subjection while the governor's papers were being seized. these latter proved to the hilt his complicity in the plot that was being hatched to destroy british lives in hamadan. the deposed official--accompanied by copies of the incriminating documents--was sent as a present to the teheran cabinet, with a polite request for an explanation of the gross treachery of their unfaithful servant. { } the coup had succeeded without the firing of a shot, and the back of the conspiracy was broken, for it was left impotent and leaderless. before sunrise all the captives, with the exception of the governor, were on their way to bagdad and an internment camp. an amusing sidelight on the affair was the attitude of the persian police in hamadan. hearing of the arrests, they assumed the worst. they bolted, taking refuge in the neighbouring cornfields, where they remained a whole day under the impression that they were the sole survivors of a "general massacre" of inhabitants carried out by the british. { } chapter xix the first expedition to baku kuchik khan bars the road--turk and russian movements--kuchik khan's force broken up--bicherakoff reaches baku--british armoured car crews in russian uniforms--fighting around baku--baku abandoned--captain crossing charges six-inch guns. in a previous chapter i pointed out that kuchik khan was in military possession of the manjil-resht road, and that the russians under bicherakoff were concentrating at kasvin preparatory to trying conclusions with this amiable bandit--the cat's-paw of turkish-german intrigue--who was barring bicherakoff's route to the caspian and to russia. at the end of may, in order to bring about a more effectual co-operation between his own force and that of the russian commander, general dunsterville transferred his headquarters from hamadan to kasvin. the original purpose of the dunsterville mission, it will be recollected, was to fight bolshevism by the organizing of armenians and georgians and, if possible, tartars, in the southern caucasus. this had now become difficult of realization, owing to { } the series of bewildering and kaleidoscopic changes in transcaucasia which had profoundly affected the entire political and military situation. for example, the virus of bolshevism had infected the russian troops in baku; the germans had landed at batum and, by making peace with the georgians, were placed in possession of tiflis. the turks had arranged a peace pact with the armenians which left their armies free to invade north-west persia, prosecute a vigorous campaign against the nestorians of urumia, and, finally, overrun the caucasus as a preliminary to co-operating with the germans in their contemplated advance on baku. now the bolshevik leaders in baku refused to recognize the right of either of the rival belligerent groups--the central powers or the entente--to spoil the flavour of their military hotch-potch in any way. it suited the blasé russian palate, and that should be sufficient. the bolsheviks, at all events, were consistent to the extent that, while they opposed the advance of the germans and turks towards baku, they more than once resolutely refused to accept the proposed aid of british troops to help them in overcoming the forces of the central powers. [illustration: drilling armenians at baku.] negotiations with kuchik khan had ended abortively. the leader of the jungalis was quite prepared to permit russian troops to withdraw from persia if they wished, and to pass through his "occupied territory" to their port of embarkation on the caspian. but british, "no!" they had no business { } in persia at all, he argued, and if they were desirous of going to russia, they would have to find some other road. the haughty tone of this communication angered the russian general, and he sent kuchik khan an ultimatum, calling upon him to evacuate the manjil position with all his followers, or be prepared to take the consequences. as kuchik ignored this, a combined russian-british force was sent against him on june th. two of the british armoured cars which the year previously had formed part of the locker-lampson unit in russia proper, were present at the attack. after a brief bombardment, a white flag was hoisted on the manjil bridge position, and two german officers issued from the trenches to parley. they offered, on behalf of kuchik khan, to come to terms with the russians and allow them to pass, provided a similar concession was not demanded by the british. bicherakoff's reply was to dismiss the impudent _parliamentaires_, and to intimate that kuchik khan and his whole force could have fifteen minutes in which to lay down their arms and surrender. nothing happened, so at the end of the stipulated period the advance was ordered, and the russians and british stormed the enemy trenches and speedily disposed of the jungalis holding them. kuchik and a portion of his army, with his two german military advisers, escaped for the time; but, after another drubbing had been administered to him, the crestfallen jungali leader was glad to make { } peace, dismiss his german staff officers and drill instructors and release mclaren and oakshott, two englishmen, who had spent months in captivity. the road to resht and enzeli was open at last, and bicherakoff moved to the caspian without delay and set about embarking his command for baku. as a leader, bicherakoff was popular amongst his men; and in the caucasus he enjoyed deserved prestige as a soldier. he was pro-russian--that is to say, anti-bolshevik; and it was felt that his own personal influence, no less than the presence of his troops at baku, would serve as a powerful antidote to bolshevik activity in southern caucasia. bicherakoff's contingent embarked at enzeli on july rd. a british armoured car battery accompanied the russians, and, in order not to ruffle unduly the susceptibilities of the bolsheviks, british officers and men wore russian uniforms. but these they discarded on landing at baku. bicherakoff, who made a favourable impression locally and was well received by the inhabitants of the great oil centre, lost no time in seeking out and engaging the turks, who were menacing baku from two sides. a good deal of heavy fighting went on during the middle of july, and the british armoured cars rendered signal services, being engaged almost daily in close-quarter fighting with the turks, enfilading their infantry and breaking up their threatened attacks, and, on another occasion, repulsing a cavalry charge with heavy loss to the enemy. { } bicherakoff, however, soon found that the local troops were not to be relied on, even when they professed their readiness to fight under his flag and against the turks. on july th the turks, who seemed bent on getting possession of baku at any cost, succeeded in capturing adji-kabul station, a short distance south-west of baku. using this as a pivot, they swung northwards in order to complete the envelopment of baku. the russian commander now became anxious for his own safety. realizing his powerlessness to carry on an effective offensive, and fearing lest he should be shut up in baku when the turkish encircling movement became complete, he hurriedly abandoned the town, and with his british armoured car auxiliaries went off north by rail towards derbend and petrovsk, to operate against the bolsheviks and dageshani tartars who were terrorizing the country bordering on the caspian. in the attack on petrovsk, the armoured car unit led under the command of captain crossing. their fire threw the bolshevik troops into confusion, and, when the latter broke, the cars pursued them through the town, capturing several hundred of their number. a battery of six-inch guns which had subjected the attacking force to an annoying fire was with extraordinary temerity engaged by the armoured cars and put out of action by the simple, but dare-devil expedient of dashing up within range and shooting all the gunners. this splendid and heroic deed won { } for captain crossing--"the super-brave crossing," as bicherakoff designated him--the cross of st. george, and the order of st. vladimir for lieutenant wallace; nor in the distribution of awards for gallantry were the men who accompanied the two officers in the armoured car charge against the guns forgotten by the grateful russian commander. { } chapter xx the new dash to baku treachery in the town--jungalis attack resht--armoured cars in street-fighting--baku tires of bolshevism--british summoned to the rescue--dunsterville sets out--position at baku on arrival--british officers' advice ignored--turkish attacks--pressing through the defences--baku again evacuated. we were soon to discover that we had not cut the claws of the jungali tiger, and that he was yet capable of giving us serious trouble. there had been a good deal of unrest amongst the disbanded followers of kuchik khan. men had gone back to their villages to brood over their reverse of fortune. the hotheads amongst them were not at all satisfied at the easy way in which they had been beaten out of their entrenchments on the manjil road. various pretexts were put forward with a view of explaining away the sharp reverse they suffered on that occasion. further, there was a recrudescence of propaganda activity amongst them, carried on by turkish agents and sympathizers who came and went in the jungle country on the shores of the caspian. bicherakoff and his russians had gone off to baku, and a small force of british alone was holding { } resht. admirable for the jungalis' plan, thought their leaders! this time they would be able to settle their account with the british without any intervening russian mixing himself up in the business. early on july th a large force of jungalis made a surprise attack on resht. aided by armed partisans within who, once the attack developed, brought hitherto concealed rifles into play from window and roof-top, the enemy achieved a distinct measure of success. the street fighting was desperate and severe. the attacking force fought with great bravery, determination, and skill. they dug themselves in, and threw up barricades the better to aid them to hold ground they had won. but, although the greater part of resht passed into their hands, following their first impetuous dash, the jungalis were never able to make themselves masters of the south-western section of the town which was held by british troops. they knocked their heads against this in vain. it was left to the armoured cars, moreover, once more to demonstrate their great value in street fighting. the heavy cars of the brigade and the th light armoured-motor battery were rushed into action, and although the streets had been dug up by the enemy in order to impair the mobility of the brigade, the latter made short work of the jungalis, driving them from point to point, and from street to street, until the town was once more in our possession. the enemy found themselves at a complete disadvantage { } when facing armour-plated fighting machines. the moral effect of these alone, apart from their fire efficiency, proved disastrous to jungali nerves, and spread panic and disorganization in the ranks of the foe. profiting by the bitter example of treachery that the jungali attack had furnished, the british this time were less lenient when it came to imposing terms upon the beaten enemy. towards the end of july signs of dissension showed themselves amongst the bolshevik militants who controlled the political and military destinies of baku, a matter of which i wrote in the previous chapter. the turks were without the gates. bicherakoff had gone north, and the bolshevik military machine had helplessly broken down. it could neither organize any scheme of defence, nor evolve any offensive plan for relieving the city from the gradually tightening grip of the turk. the people of baku found that mediocrity and mendacity were but poor and unsatisfactory weapons with which to attempt to arrest the march of a modern army, and these were about all the bolsheviks possessed in their mental arsenal. above the chaos and welter of discordant opinion arose the murmurings of a discontented, fear-stricken people. they had suffered much from bolshevik oppression and from bolshevik ineptitude, and clamoured for a new set of _dramatis personæ_ and the recasting of the principal roles in the baku tragedy. so these political _farceurs_, the bolsheviks, were figuratively hissed off the boards, and disappeared { } down the stage trap-door to an oblivion which, alas! was but temporary. they were baffled, but not beaten. their places were taken by men holding saner and less violent political views. one of the first official acts of the new baku government was to summon the british to their aid. it was the chance for which dunsterville had lived and waited, and he lost no time in grasping it. at enzeli he embarked a mixed force of about two thousand, made up of unattached imperial and dominion officers of the original dunsterforce, a battalion or so of the north staffords, a detachment of hants, howitzer and field gun sections, two armoured cars, two sections of the motor machine-gun company, and other sundry units and details which had been commandeered from resht for the move upon baku. the advanced guard disembarked at the caspian oil port on august th, and the remainder speedily followed. the position in baku was not one to inspire confidence. there were bolshevik troops in the town who did not attempt to conceal their displeasure at the arrival of the british. the "red committee," too, was gathering fresh strength and planning the overthrow of its successors in office--the government that had invited dunsterville to baku. muddle and confusion prevailed everywhere. jealousy, distrust, and bickering were rife amongst the heterogeneous, { } ill-disciplined mass of russians and armenians which passed for an army in baku. it was computed that there were about , russians of various political hues, ranging from bright bolshevik red to sober imperial grey, in and around the town, while the number of armenian auxiliaries was estimated at , . yet the brunt of the fighting had to be borne by the british infantry, chiefly the north staffords, for it was rarely that over , of our more than doubtful allies could be rounded up to assist in holding the far-flung defensive line of baku. despite the stiffening of british troops in the front line, the moral encouragement of british officers, and the active material support of british artillery and british armoured cars, it was found impossible to infuse any real or lasting enthusiasm into the baku army. it had its own ethics of fighting and stuck to them. war, it was felt, was a job not to be taken too seriously, and must never be allowed to interfere with one's customary distractions, nor with one's business or social engagements. russians and armenians would leave a "back to-morrow" message, and casually stroll out of the front-line trenches, whenever they felt in the mood, to go off to attend some political meeting in baku, or seek refreshment and questionable enjoyment at some of the local cafés. the position of the unattached british officers was a difficult one in baku. they were there in an { } advisory capacity chiefly, but their counsel and presence were alike resented by all parties, political and military. suggestions for a more efficient co-operation between infantry and artillery, for the filling up of dangerous gaps in the line, the better siting of trenches, or the establishing of observation posts and the employment of "spotters," were usually received in silence and with a disdainful shrug of the shoulders. while striving to beat off the turk outside, the british, too, had to sit on the head of the rabid bolshevik within, and prevent his regaining his feet and running amuck once more. the economic situation was also serious. food supplies were lamentably short, and the available stock was running low. a super-commercial instinct had been developed, and gross profiteering was widely practised. it was true that the pre-war standard value of the paper rouble had suffered a heavy depreciation, but this hardly justified the exorbitant tariff of some of the baku restaurants. it was no uncommon thing for them to exact five roubles for the bread eaten at meals, and about seventy roubles for the very indifferent meal itself. colonel keyworth, r.h.a., was appointed to the command of the troops in the baku area. his heavy duties confined him a good deal to the port itself, and he was unable to see very much of the defensive perimeter; but he had excellent coadjutors in colonel matthews of the hants, and in colonel { } stokes of the intelligence department, an officer who had been for many years british military attaché in teheran. then, too, there was lieutenant-colonel warden, a blunt, straight-spoken canadian, and a very keen and efficient infantry soldier whose permanent telegraphic address in flanders had been "vimy ridge." warden was generally an optimist, but the baku problem was responsible for his passing sleepless, unhappy nights; and finally he gave up attempting to instil martial ardour into the non-receptive mind of the baku soldier. in his own racy speech, redolent, of his native prairie, he summed up his efforts in this direction as being as futile as trying to flog a dead horse back to life. i am not so much concerned with describing the military operations in detail as i am with laying stress upon the many difficulties that beset the path of the british during their first and short-lived occupation of baku. the wonder is that, instead of giving in after a few days, they were able to cling to the position for weeks. on august th, the turks, who had been preparing for days, delivered a heavy attack against the griazni-vulkan sector. their advance took place under cover of destructive artillery fire which caused many casualties. the section of the line where the turks struck first was held by about one hundred and fifty of the north staffords, supported by four machine-guns of the armoured car brigade. despite severe losses, the turks, being reinforced, pressed { } home the attack, and the auxiliary troops on the right flank were flung back and forced to retire. at this point two of the machine-guns failed to hear the order to retreat, and fought the turks until their crew were surrounded and cut off. the other machine-gun section, under lieutenant titterington, stuck it to the last, and when they withdrew the turks were already firing upon them from the rear. but the surviving members of the gun crews managed to "shoot" their way through the ranks of the foe. the enemy, who had suffered very heavily in the attack of the th, resumed the offensive on the st, when he bit another slice out of the thinly held line and captured the position known as vinigradi hill. after this the turk advanced from success to success, slowly driving back the garrison on the inner defensive line. [illustration: group of the staffords, whose heroic attempt to recover the situation following the armenian retirement will always be remembered at baku. the scene was at baladadar station.] his crowning victory was the storming of the voltchi vorota sector on the morning of september th. an arab officer who deserted two days previously furnished full particulars of the impending attack, but his information was regarded with suspicion. it proved, however, to be absolutely correct, for the enemy made a feigned attack on the neighbouring baladjari sector and delivered his main blow against voltchi vorota. he got home at once, driving out the russian troops, who retreated in some confusion. an armoured car, however, intervened between the retiring troops and the oncoming enemy, and, although heavily shelled by the turkish batteries, { } it manoeuvred adroitly, paralyzing the advance by its deadly fire and allowing the broken russians time to reform with a leavening of british bayonets. the turks later in the day converted the feigned into a real attack, and broke through at baladjari. this series of reverses contracted the daily shrinking perimeter still more. it was now clear to dunsterville that his troubled occupancy of baku had come to an end, and orders were issued for an immediate evacuation. the bolsheviks had got the upper hand again. their attitude was doubtful and, in the first instance, they had objected to the troops being withdrawn, threatening to use the caspian fleet of gunboats to fire on the laden transports should the latter attempt to sail. it was not exactly altruism, nor the promptings of a generous nature, that led them to do this. on the contrary, it was rather a tender regard for their own cowardly skins. should the victorious enemy storm the town the british would serve as a useful chopping-block upon which the turks might expend their fury; and, if the worst came to the worst, and there was no other way out of a disagreeable dilemma, grace and favour might be won from the osmanli by uniting with him in administering the _coup de grâce_ to the trapped and betrayed remnant of dunsterville's army of occupation. although the town lay defenceless and at their mercy, the turks--victims probably of their periodical inertia--did not follow up their advantage. the { } bolsheviks hesitated to strike, and, after the motor-cars, stores, and transport had been destroyed, the evacuation was successfully carried out under the menacing guns of the caspian fleet. captain suttor, an australian officer, and two sergeants, were overlooked in the hurry of embarkation. but they escaped and, boarding a steamer full of bolshevik fugitives, induced the captain to land them at krasnovodsk on the eastern shore of the caspian and the terminus of the trans-caspian railway. suttor knew that a british military post had been established there. of this the bolsheviks were ignorant, and their fury and amazement were great when they found themselves marched off as prisoners. [illustration: six-inch howitzer in action at baku with a detachment of dunsterforce gunners.] the day after the british evacuation of baku the turks entered, and for two days the town was given over to pillage, many of the armenian irregulars being killed in cold blood by the enemy. { } chapter xxi the turks and the christian tribes guerrilla warfare--who the nestorian and other christian tribes are--turkish massacres--russian withdrawal and its effect--british intervention. the nestorians, jelus, and other racially connected christian groups who, in the region around lake urumia, had been carrying on a guerrilla warfare against the turks, at the beginning of july were reduced to very sore straits indeed by losses in the field, disease, and famine. as already related in a previous chapter, lieutenant pennington, a british aviator, flew into urumia in the first week in july, carrying general dunsterville's assurance of speedy help. the leaders of these christian peoples, in full accord with the british, decided that after evacuating urumia an attempt should be made to break through to the south in the direction of sain kaleh and bijar, in order to get in touch with the british relieving column which was marching north from hamadan bringing ammunition and food supplies. for the better understanding of this narrative, some explanation is due to the reader as to who and { } what are the nestorians and their kindred christian clans who were now about to run the gauntlet of the turkish army operating in the lake urumia district. the nestorians are the followers of the patriarch of constantinople who was condemned for heresy in the year a.d. . they inhabit kurdistan and north-western persia, are also known as assyrians, and are indeed often loosely referred to as syrians. they live in that portion of the country which the bible has familiarized to us as assyria, and are confusedly termed syrians, not because they come from syria proper on the mediterranean littoral, with its cities of antioch, aleppo, and damascus, but rather because their rubric and sacred writings are in ancient syriac, while the language of the people themselves is modern syriac. hundreds of years ago the seat of the nestorian or assyrian patriarchate was near ctesiphon on the tigris, a short distance below bagdad. but the turkish conquerors persecuted the christians, the patriarch was forced to flee, and finally took refuge at qudshanis, in the highlands of kurdistan. the present spiritual head of the assyrians, who is ecclesiastically designated mar shimun, is said to be the one hundred and thirty-eighth catholicos, or patriarch, of the nestorian church. at the outbreak of the european war there were three distinguishable main groups of assyrian christians. one inhabited the upper tigris valley beyond { } mesul and the hilly country towards lake van; a second was to be found on the salmas-urumia plateau and in the mountainous country bordering on the persian-turkish frontier; the third group lived on the turkish side of the frontier between lake van and urumia. roughly they may be classified as highlanders and lowlanders, with various tribal subdivisions, of which one of the better known is the jelu group. urumia itself is the scene of considerable foreign missionary activity, and is the headquarters of the anglican, american, french, and russian religious missions to the assyrian christians. each had its own well-defined sphere of influence, and worked in the broadest spirit of christian tolerance. when war burst upon this unhappy land, anything in the nature of sectarian rivalry and proselytizing zeal vanished, to give place to a united effort to aid and materially comfort the victims of turkish fury. the retreat of the russians from urumia, at the beginning of january, , left some thousands of urumia christians who were unable to accompany them at the mercy of the turks and their savage auxiliaries, the kurds; and the usual massacre followed. the christians, though poorly armed, defended themselves as best they could, and the survivors were driven to seek sanctuary in the american mission compound. those who surrendered and gave up their arms to the turks were put to death without mercy. at the beginning of may, , the { } army of halil bey, operating in north-western persia, was routed by the russians, who reoccupied urumia. but the beaten turks in their retreat westwards killed every christian tribesman they could find. a second russian evacuation of urumia in august, , led to a fresh exodus of the able-bodied assyrian fighting men, and to another massacre of those who remained behind. from then until they had endured all the horrors and vicissitudes of war, with its fluctuations of victory and defeat. the christian army had put up a brave fight against the turks after the final russian withdrawal from north-western persia. now, hemmed in and suffering from hunger, they were about to attempt a third exodus, this time towards the south into the british lines. during the last week in july the christian army--probably about , fighting men, but with its ranks swelled to , by women and children refugees--withdrew from urumia and marched southwards. the turks gave pursuit and much harried their rearguard, which they subjected to artillery fire, inflicting severe losses. ultimately the retreat under turkish pressure degenerated into a rout, during which the mass of fugitives was severely cut up. in the course of the panic which prevailed, the nestorian army lost its artillery and its remaining supplies, while many of the women and children were abandoned in the general _sauve qui pent_, and fell into the hands of the enemy. { } the turks reoccupied urumia on august st, and vented their displeasure upon the defenceless people in the customary turkish way. the aged were killed, and young girls were carried off and subjected to a fate worse than death. mgr. sontag, the head of the french lazarist mission, a saintly man who was revered even by the local moslems amongst whom he had lived for many years, was one of those who fell victims to the blind fury of the turkish soldiery when they found themselves once more masters of urumia. at sain kaleh and takan teppeh, to the north-west of bijar, the british were able to intervene between pursuers and pursued. the nestorians, a sadly diminished band, were drafted back to bijar and thence south to hamadan. harbouring vindictive feelings against moslems in general as a result of the atrocities perpetuated upon them by the turks, it is not perhaps surprising that they in their turn made an onslaught upon the inhabitants of the persian villages encountered _en route_, and left them in much the same condition as the man who, going down from jerusalem to jericho, fell among thieves. mar shimun, the spiritual head, and agha petros, the recognized military leader, accompanied the nestorians from urumia. the survivors of the exodus were put in a concentration camp at hamadan with their women and children. the able-bodied and healthy amongst the men were subsequently drafted out and sent to bakuba near bagdad, where { } an attempt was made by the british to organize and train them into fighting units. they received good pay and rations, but proved very difficult material to handle. their wild, free lives had apparently unfitted them for a régime of discipline and ordered restraint. a large contingent refused to sign attestation papers lest they should be sent to fight overseas. it was useless attempting to reassure them on this point, and to tell them that all the military service they were expected to render in return for british pay and british rations was that of defending their own country against the common enemy, the turk. it may be that their physical sufferings had demoralized them, but the irregulars of agha petros were incapable of attaining an ordinary degree of military efficiency as judged by british standards. they were a perpetual source of embarrassment to the british officers entrusted with their training. the experiment proved a failure, and at last, on the turks suing for an armistice, the men of agha petros' command were disbanded and sent back to their own country. { } chapter xxii in kurdistan the last phase--dunsterforce ceases to exist--the end of turkish opposition--off to bijar--the kurdish tribes--raids on bijar--moved on by a policeman--governor and poet. it was in south-western kurdistan that i saw the last phase of the war between the turks and ourselves. at the end of september, dunsterforce had ceased to exist, at any rate under that name. dunsterville himself had gone down to bagdad to discuss the whole caucasian and north persian situation with general headquarters, and the officers of dunsterforce had either gone back to their units in france, salonika, and egypt, or had been absorbed by the north persian force which was concentrating under general thompson at enzeli for a fresh smack at the turk in baku. after his capture of the oilfields' port, the enemy seemed to have reached the last stages of physical exhaustion, and to be incapable of further effort. his push through from tabriz towards zinjan and kasvin had been finally arrested, and he had been driven back to his entrenchments on the kuflan kuh pass, where he was well content to sit down to { } a peaceful, inoffensive life, smoke his hubble-bubble, nurse his blistered feet lacerated by long marches on unfriendly persian roads, and, in general, by his exemplary behaviour earn "good conduct" marks from the inhabitants of the zone of occupation. but in the country to the west of mianeh and south of lake urumia the enemy was still inclined to spasmodic activity. it was in this region that he had harried the nestorian army as it was fighting its way to the south and to safety. at the beginning of october, , the turks held sauj bulagh, the local capital of the kurds of azerbaijan, sakiz, sain kaleh, and takan teppeh, all of which were in more or less precarious touch with kowanduz on the western slopes of the kurdistan range, and thence with the main and sole surviving turkish mesopotamian army which was clinging tenaciously to mosul. their occupation of these several strategic points on the persian side of the frontier enabled the turks to threaten the british post at bijar, on the confines of south-western kurdistan, and in a sense to menace the british occupation of hamadan. [illustration: general view of the scene following the armenian retirement.] but allenby's smashing blow at the turk in palestine had its repercussion in the remote highlands of persia and in the remoter region of the caspian sea. its effect was instantaneous. it broke the turkish grip on baku and appreciably loosened his hold on azerbaijan. he withdrew from mianeh and made ready to evacuate tabriz and retire into his own territory in an eleventh-hour effort to { } buttress up his remaining asiatic provinces which, one after the other, were tottering beneath the sledgehammer blows of the british. early in october the wheel of fate and the illness of a brother officer led to my being transferred from caspian headquarters to bijar, as assistant political officer and intelligence officer. i looked it up on the map and started. it was a long and interesting zigzag trek across persia, first south-west to hamadan, then north-west to bijar and the wild country of the kurdish tribes. few europeans can lay claim to any intimate knowledge of kurdistan and its predatory but fascinating people. it is distinctly remote from the beaten tourist track. russian and german travellers and scholars have nibbled at the ethnological and philological problems which it presents, and, much more recently, our own major soane in his remarkable book, "through kurdistan in disguise," draws aside the veil a little, and we are able to take a peep at kurdish life and manners naturally portrayed. kurdistan cannot be said to possess either natural or political boundaries, for it embraces both persian and turkish territory, and in it live people who are not racially kurds. broadly speaking, it may be said to stretch from turkish armenia on the north to the luristan mountains on the south, and the turkish-persian frontier cuts it into two longitudinal sections. persian kurdistan, then, is bounded by azerbaijan on the north, the turkish frontier on the { } west, kermanshah on the south, and khamseh and hamadan on the east. its old administrative capital is sinneh. its geographical outline is one of bold and rugged mountains which in winter are covered deep in snow. narrow valleys run far into the flank of the towering hills, and it is here, taking advantage of these natural barriers, that the villages cluster and the inhabitants attempt to keep warm during the long, bitter, and often fireless, winter months. a nonsense rhymester who evidently knew something of the proclivities of the kurds once scored a palpable bull's-eye on the target of truth when he wrote: "the hippo's a dull but honest old bird; i wish i could say the same of the kurd." the kurds themselves have more traducers than friends outside their own country. as the great majority of them are sunni moslems, it has been pointed out, and with a certain element of truth, that the root of the persian-kurdish question is the religious hatred between sunni and shi'ah, just as the root of the turkish problem is the undying hatred between moslems and christians. kurmanji, the main kurdish language, has been incorrectly described as a corrupt dialect of persian, whereas it is really a distinct philological entity, tracing an unbroken descent from the ancient medic or avestic tongue of iran. i had a good deal to do officially with several of { } the principal kurdish tribes, such as the mukhri, mandumi, and galbaghi, while i was stationed at bijar, and i cannot agree with the generally accepted estimate of their character as "a lazy, good-for-nothing set of thieves." they are admittedly fierce and intractable, of noted predatory habits, and ready to prey with equal impartiality upon persian or christian neighbour. on the other hand, i found that they were neither cruel nor treacherous; they are never lacking in courage, and possess a rude, but well-defined sense of hospitality and chivalry. unarmed, save for a riding-crop, and accompanied only by a few sowars, i have gone into their villages in search of raiders--not always a pleasant task amongst asiatic hill tribes--and the inhabitants would be amiability itself. here one saw the happier side of these wild, free people who, revelling in the unrestrained life and the health-giving ozone of their native mountains, find the trammelling yoke of modern civilization about as irksome and fearful an infliction as a bit and saddle are to an unbroken colt. what i liked about the kurds was their habit--the common inheritance of most free men--of looking their interlocutor straight in the face. their women, many possessing great physical beauty, and glorious creatures all, would crowd round to do the honours to those visiting their village. amongst the kurds the women are allowed a great deal of freedom. they shoot and ride like so many amazons. it is true they are the hewers of wood and the drawers of { } water in the village or community, but, save for lacking parliamentary enfranchisement, they do not seem to have many grievances against the masculine portion of the kurdish world. they always go unveiled, are not a bit "man-shy," and, unlike their moslem sisters in turkey and persia, do not consider themselves spiritually defiled when their faces are gazed upon by some infidel whom chance has thrown across their path. from this i do not wish it to be inferred that the kurdish women are immodest in conduct, or of what might be described as "flighty morals." far from it. these self-same tribesmen who received us so hospitably in their villages, and gave us entertainment of their best--treating us in friendly fashion according to their laws, because we had come trusting to their honour in the guise of friends and without hostile intent--would, when they took the "war path" and raided a british post, put up a spirited fight, fully bent on killing or being killed. persian kurds are largely pastoral and nomadic. there are the sedentary tribes who are the tillers of the soil and never move very far away from home. the nomads, on the other hand, roam with their flocks and herds and womenfolk from winter to summer quarters and vice versa, and it is during these periodical migrations that the inherited predatory instincts of the kurds are given free rein. many are the armed forays made on a peaceful { } persian neighbour's stock. often there is resistance, and occasionally an attempt at reprisals; so a respectably-sized persian-kurdish hill-war may have had as its origin the theft of half a dozen goats by kurdish robbers. stray bands of brigands who had made life more than usually interesting for some persian village or other, if pursuit became too vigorous and they were threatened with capture, were always able to escape the consequences of their depredations by slipping over the frontier and seeking bast (sanctuary) in turkish territory. whether the kurds are, or are not, the descendants of those first-class fighting men of long ago who opposed the retreat of the ten thousand through the bleak mountain passes of kurdistan, they undeniably are imbued with a certain pride of ancestry which manifests itself in various little ways. no pure nomadic kurd will ever engage in manual labour, which he looks upon as a disgrace, and a job fit only for helots, nor will he become a charvadar (muleteer). the kurd undoubtedly possesses an unenviable reputation for lawlessness amongst the more law-abiding persians and turks of this wild and turbulent frontier land. he is handicapped, perhaps, to this extent, that, being an alien to the turk in language, and to the persian in religion, he is looked upon as a pariah, and the hand of both is ever raised against him. being resentful and overbearing, if not arrogant, in manner, and knowing no legal code beyond that which a rifle imposes, he seeks to enforce his { } own arbitrary ready-made justice, to call it by that name. so the merry game goes on, and up amongst the snows of kurdistan persian and kurd and turk kill each other on the slightest pretext, and often for no ascertainable cause. the kurd is always well armed, and usually well mounted--often at the expense of some lowland persian villager. he invariably affects the national costume, which is an abbreviated coat and enormous baggy trousers, with a capacious kamarband of coloured silk in which he carries pipe, knife, and odds and ends. ten armed kurds riding into bijar, a town of , inhabitants, would start a panic in the bazaar. shutters would go up and shopkeepers would vanish as if by magic, while the small force of persian police in the place, who were usually suffering from the combined effects of malnutrition and arrears of pay, would discreetly go to cover, and not be seen again until the visitors had departed. usually a british military policeman, armed with a stout stick, would be sent to handle the delicate situation, to see that there was no looting, and that the king's peace was preserved inviolate by these quarrel-seeking, pilfering rascals from beyond the hills. bijar itself, unhappily for the peace of mind and pocket of its shopkeeper-citizens and wealthy agriculturists, is unhealthily near the "bad man's land" of the nomad kurds. it is built in a cup-shaped { } hollow surrounded by barren peaks, and its altitude ( , feet) gives it a rigorous winter climate. the enclosed gardens which usually lend a touch of picturesque embellishment even to the meanest and dirtiest of persian towns are lacking at bijar. it grows wheat and corn in abundance on the long, wide plateau which stretches unbrokenly for miles between the bare, rugged hills. the arable land is so fertile, and its acreage so abundant, that but one-third is cultivated yearly. the average wheat yield is enormous, yet the people are always hovering on the border-line of starvation, the result of mismanagement, misappropriation, and all the other evils which may be grouped together under the head of persian official maladministration. when the british marched into bijar in the summer of anarchy and disorder were paramount. the persian government is supposed to keep a garrison here, but the oldest inhabitants had never seen it. if it did exist, it was carefully hidden away and not allowed to meddle in such troublesome affairs as kurdish forays. the turks during their occupancy looted bijar very thoroughly, and roving kurds, too, when short of supplies--and that was often--never forgot to extend their unwelcome patronage to the local bazaars, on the principle of "blessed is he that taketh, for he shall not want." the governor was a local resident, and his office an unpaid one as far as the persian treasury was concerned; but his power was great and his rule { } arbitrary, and the post brought him considerable emoluments. he was a timid and vacillating but well-meaning individual, who always trembled at the knees when brought face to face with the unusual. the mere brandishing of a loaded pistol anywhere in his immediate vicinity would throw him into a paroxysm of terror. he spoke halting french, and was afflicted with the prevailing persian mania for verse-writing. still, he never allowed his literary pursuits to clash with or nullify his keen commercial instincts; and he grew daily in affluence. but even a persian peasant has his limits of endurance when he finds himself being ground to fine powder in the mill of oppression and corruption. those of the bijar district were no exception. after having been systematically looted all round, by turk, kurd, and dishonest local officials, they rose in revolt when a demand was made upon them for the payment of the government maliat, or grain tribute. they followed up an emphatic refusal by threatening to duck the governor and his coadjutor, the tax-collector, in the local horsepond. the latter fled the town, while as for the terrified governor, he promptly shut himself up, seeking bast (sanctuary) with an ill-armed following within the sacred precincts of his serai. from the roof, one of his retinue, using his hands for a megaphone, sent out an urgent s.o.s. call to the british, with the result that a compromise was effected; the governor was rescued from his undignified plight, and the angry peasants { } were appeased by his promise that the collection of the unpopular tax would rest in abeyance until teheran gave its decision on the subject. our job in sitting down in bijar was to hold the place against the turks and prevent their coming back, to instil a little wholesome respect for law and order into the minds of the plunder-loving kurds, and to stop them from eating up the smaller and unprotected persian fry. to keep the turk at bay and hold the kurd in awe, we had approximately a couple of squadrons of the th hussars, under colonel bridges, a detachment of the gloucesters in charge of captain stephenson, machine-gun and mountain battery sections, and a couple of hundred of persian levies who were commanded by captain williams, an australian officer. colonel bridges was in command of the whole force. the total certainly did not err on the side of numerical superiority. the day after i reached bijar the governor arrived to pay an official call. after the usual formalities as laid down by persian etiquette for ceremonies of this kind had been safely negotiated, he begged my acceptance of a manuscript copy of his poems, and incidentally hinted that, as the district was in the throes of famine, he would have no objection to collaborating in the purchasing of wheat with british money in order to alleviate the prevailing distress. { } chapter xxiii the end of hostilities types of empire defenders--local feeling--dealing with kurdish raiders--an embarrassing offer of marriage--prestige by aeroplane--anniversary of hossain the martyr--news of the armistice--local waverers come down on our side of the fence--releasing civil prisoners--farewell of bijar--down country to the sea and home. i have often wondered if the british who stayed at home, through force of circumstances rather than any reluctance to participate in the great war, can have had any conception of the varying types of men who helped to uphold british interests in this remote and little-known corner of the asiatic continent. here, then, are a few of them taken at random! there was hooper, an australian captain, who in civil life was a farmer on a rock-girt island off the tasmanian coast, and had been through more than one big push in france. williams, also an australian officer, was a rhodes scholar from the university of adelaide. he commanded persian levies, made a hobby of dialects, and was always eager to try his growing wisdom teeth on such abstruse problems as "how the camel got his hump," or, "why jonah gave the whale indigestion." but he was a good { } lad, was this youthful pedant, a fearless soldier, and an untiring worker who, in a few months, gained a surprising knowledge of colloquial persian. then there was seddon, a government land surveyor from new zealand, who also had looked on red war in flanders. in cold weather, of all times, he was always shedding surplus garments, until there was a positive danger of his arriving at the stage of the "altogether." seddon was fiercely intractable on the subject of hygiene as applied to clothing, and would hear of no compromise where his cherished principles were concerned. it was said that he was wont to lie awake at night planning new curtailments in his winter kit. still, there must have been some wisdom in his methods, for, although thinly clad during the early winter months, he was always in perfect health, and escaped the pulmonary maladies which proved fatal to so many others who looked askance at him and his hygienic, minimum-clothing theory. we had gordon wilson who came from the argentine to enlist at the outbreak of the war and attempted to leap the age-limit barrier. his ardour was somewhat damped on being refused by the home authorities. but, nothing daunted, he went to france, joined the foreign legion, and saw a good deal of fighting. he was afterwards transferred to a british field battery and given a commission, and lost no time in winning the m.c. in the th hussars was a lieutenant named voigt, { } an afrikander born, who had gone through the south african campaign. one day, riding with voigt and his troop of hussars in a "punitive" expedition against raiding kurds, i asked him casually--and quite forgetful of the momentous past--with whom he had served in south africa. he replied with the flicker of a smile on his broad, sun-tanned face, "i was with louis botha's commando." and such is the material out of which has been woven our thrilling island story! up to the moment of the turkish collapse, towards the end of october, many of the notables of bijar were inclined to be dubious concerning our possibility of success. these cautious individuals shaped their conduct accordingly. they "hedged" very carefully, to use a sporting phrase, and, in order to avoid all risks, backed both sides. one wealthy persian resident whom i particularly remember was lavish of lip-service. he would call round to the mission headquarters at least twice a week to assure us of his ever-enduring devotion, and of his hopes of success for british arms. about the same time he would be sending off a courier to the turkish commander in our front telling him that he was his devoted servitor and that it would be a blessed day for all true believers when the infidel british were driven out of persian kurdistan. so much for persian duplicity. our "friend" was a confirmed "pulophile," which is an impromptu perso-greek expression for "money-lover," and, while awaiting { } our military downfall, he had no conscientious objections to seeking to rob us right and left in wheat transactions. on the whole the various kurdish chiefs kept their peace pact with the british, and for a time strove hard to walk in the path of honesty and to cease from annexing their neighbours' flocks and herds. but occasionally temptation proved too strong to be resisted, and there would come a recrudescence of pillaging and violence. the mandumis and the galbaghis were the chief offenders. their subtle imagination was never at a loss for a plausible pretext to condone their lawlessness. once, when mandumi tribesmen attacked a british post at an outlying village called nadari, a certain mustafa khan, the chief of the guilty raiders, sent a very apologetic letter pleading for forgiveness, and pointing out that the regrettable occurrence arose through a "misunderstanding" on the part of his tribesmen who possessed an inordinate love of well-conditioned sheep. times were hard, and if the poor kurds were not to be allowed to replenish their larders by the time-honoured method of pilfering, then, in the name of allah, he asked, what was to become of them? this curious and essentially kurdish plea of "extenuating circumstances" was backed up by a letter from the tribal mujtahid, or priest, who wrote that he was a simple man of god saying his prayers regularly and knowing little of secular affairs. his tribesmen had evidently been maligned by their { } enemies--"may the evil one pluck their beards!" he had always exhorted his people to remain friendly with the british, and would continue to do so. on this occasion mustafa khan escaped with a fine and a reprimand, but he was obviously looking for trouble, and it soon overtook him. he became very insolent. some of his men stopped and robbed the british native courier, and the chief sent a message that he would soon come and raid bijar itself. there was nothing to do except to teach mustafa khan a much-needed lesson. however, before the salutary drubbing could be administered, mustafa and his men, throwing discretion to the winds, and forgetful of their oft-repeated promises to be of good behaviour, got completely out of hand, cleaned out several persian villages, and indulged in a veritable orgy of lawlessness. then mustafa, with consummate skill, having no case of his own, set about abusing the other side. he blamed the hapless villagers, and accused them of having killed two of his sowars who had gone into the persian village to "purchase" corn. the villagers in question, he remarked, were liars, and the sons of the father of lies--"may perdition be their lot!" but this time his defence of provocation was found to be unjustifiable; a richly deserved punishment was meted out to him, and for long afterwards he led an exemplary life. nabi khan was another kurdish freebooter who gave considerable trouble before he was finally { } subdued and made to see the error of his ways. from the point of view of stature and general physique he was one of the finest looking men i have ever seen. he stood a good feet inches in his socks, belying the prevailing idea that the kurds are of small stature. in an evil moment for himself, he threw in his lot with the turks, and for a brief period made things right merry for the british. he fought like an enraged tiger in defence of his village stronghold, but was put to flight after suffering severe loss. he thought the thing out for a couple of weeks, and then, like the old sportsman that he was, came in and surrendered, saying that he had lost, and was ready to pay the full price. it is easy to be generous to a chivalrous foe, and nabi had been all that, so he found that he had not thrown himself upon our mercy in vain. i well remember the morning that nabi surrendered. his name and his fame had preceded him to bijar, and, as he strode down the bazaar with a belt full of lethal weapons, his very appearance inspired terror in the breasts of the pusillanimous persian traders, and they bolted for cover like so many scared animals. in addition to his stature, nabi was a man of handsome appearance. he had a bold, open countenance, and was brief and blunt of speech. brushing past the startled persian janitor, whom he disdained to notice, he made a dramatic entry into the political office at bijar. flinging his weapons on the table, he exclaimed, "i have been { } foolish; aye, misguided by evil counsellors; i have lost, and am here to pay the price. do with me what you will. but you may tell your shah that i regret the past and am willing to make amends." peace was arranged with nabi khan, and the pact he kept very faithfully, becoming one of our most ardent partisans in the difficult country and amongst the turbulent folk over whom he held sway. he policed his district, and did it very thoroughly, proving a veritable terror to evildoers; and he suppressed turkish propaganda with a vigour that demonstrated his real earnestness in the british cause. after the manner of his kind, as a further evidence of his good faith, and in order to set a time-enduring seal upon his treaty of friendship, he was anxious to negotiate a kurdish-british matrimonial alliance. after a good deal of preliminary verbal manoeuvring, he definitely broached the project, and suggested the giving in marriage of his daughter, a very comely damsel, to the political officer. the latter was completely taken aback and, not being a moslem, had visions of all sorts of unpleasant legal complications should he ever set foot in england with a supplementary wife. however, he faced the trying situation with commendable fortitude, and cast about for a means whereby he might be enabled to retreat with honour, and without offending kurdish susceptibilities. nabi was tactfully informed that, while the offer was much appreciated, the acceptance { } of a kurdish bride would entail no end of complications for at least one of the parties concerned, as an unsympathetic british law had long set its face against bigamy. in fact, isolated enthusiasts in khaki who, as a relief from the tedium of trench life, had sought to popularize plural marriages in england had been rewarded by a term of imprisonment. this was news indeed for the benevolent-minded nabi, but he did not insist further, and the incident terminated happily. the kurds are in many respects as simple as european children of tender age. they had heard much about the wonderful flying machines of faringistan, and, never having seen an aeroplane, were inclined to be sceptical, and to treat reputed aerial adventures as so many "travellers' tales." a kurdish chief came to call on me one day seeking enlightenment. he had seen automobiles, and admitted that they puzzled his primitive brain. "why," he asked honestly enough, "is the horse put inside the box, and why does this strange creature prefer petrol to barley by way of food?" it took a long time to knock into his head some primitive notion of motor traction. then he inquired, "is it true that in faringistan, as currently reported, men make themselves into birds and soar in the air like eagles?" the reply, as they say in parliament, was in the affirmative, but the kurdish seeker for knowledge remained frankly incredulous. a few days after the conversation, a youthful scottish aviator, who was { } familiarly known as "little willie mckay," arrived by air from hamadan in order to give bijar and the kurdistan hill-folk a taste of his quality. it was a day of days, and inaugurated a new era in the local mohammedan calendar, for it marked the flight of the terror-stricken faithful towards a place of safety away from the aerial monster that, appearing from out of a clear sunlight sky, swooped down on the town. the youthful mckay was a noted aerial stunt artist, and he executed an extensive and varied programme for the edification of those of the astonished onlookers who had steeled their courage to the point of sticking it out. the houses are flat-roofed, and here the spectators assembled to watch the show. as the aviator nose-dived occasionally, it was amusing to see the celerity with which they dropped flat on their faces, fearing lest they should be caught by the talons of the "man-bird" and carried off heaven knew where. later on, at the local aerodrome, the people came, timidly enough at first, to peep at the monster; but they did their sightseeing cautiously from a respectful distance, and it was only necessary for the engine to throb once or twice fretfully, and for the propeller to revolve, to bring about an instantaneous stampede. thenceforth no one ever doubted that the british were miracle workers, and had at their disposal an unlimited supply of magic to assist in the overthrowing of their enemies. the moharran, or anniversary of the death of { } hossain the martyr, is an occasion for the display of great religious fervour by the shi'ite moslems. it fell on october th, and the bijar bazaar was closed and the houses draped in mourning. it is perhaps the only day in the year when the average persian looks in deadly earnest, and when his fanaticism is aroused to such a pitch as to make him at all dangerous to persons of other creeds. there was a procession through the streets, and the chief incidents of the martyrdom were re-enacted by a devoted band of shias. the "body" of the sainted one was carried on a bier and, in order that the finishing touch of realism should not be lacking, the covering of the bier was plentifully bedaubed with blood, while the head of the "corpse" was enveloped in gory bandages. the _mise en scène_ was completed by the addition of a local troupe representing hossain's wives and adherents who, according to legend, were also put to death by the hated rival sect, the sunnis. the followers in the procession, in a burst of religious frenzy, gashed their faces or bodies with swords or knives, and, with blood streaming from the self-inflicted wounds, were not exactly a pleasant spectacle to look upon. a persian youth employed at the british headquarters was one of those who achieved religious merit and local distinction on the occasion. having volunteered for the role of follower, he had his head cut open by a local barber, and off he went to join in the quasi-religious ceremony. in the afternoon he was back at his job { } with his poor damaged head swathed in bandages and feeling very proud indeed of his exploit. bijar was very excited by the intelligence that arrived on november st. we received an official notification that an armistice had been concluded with turkey, at the request of the latter power, and that hostilities were to cease at once. the governor made an official call to offer his felicitations, and to congratulate the british on their triumph over another of their enemies. he dissimulated his real feelings with great artfulness, for while openly professing joy at our victory he was sorrowing in secret that a moslem power should have been overthrown by an infidel. still, he made the best of it, and candidly told some of his intimates who were inclined to be tearful because their religious pride had been wounded by the success of our arms, that the british, after all, had shown more real humanity and compassion in dealing with the oppressed persians than ever had their coreligionists, the turks. the governor having set the example in offering his congratulations, all the local notables were quick to follow, and they told us what, curiously enough we had never realized before--that throughout the long-drawn-out war they had always ardently wished for the complete triumph of the british. we accepted their assurances, although finding it difficult to reconcile them with many of their actions when our military fortunes were not of the brightest. an official communication was sent off by messenger { } to the turkish commander, informing him of the armistice, and inquiring if he were prepared to abide by its conditions and order a cessation of hostilities on his side. but the enemy had evidently had the news as soon as we had, and decided to end the war then and there. when our messenger reached the turkish position, it was only to find the place abandoned, the commander and every man having gone, leaving no address. the messenger trekked after them for a day, but their haste was so great that he was unable even to come up with their rearguard, so he returned to bijar with the letter undelivered. and that was the last we heard of the turk in the region of southern kurdistan. everybody in bijar was now our sincere friend and well-wisher. the bazaar was beflagged in honour of our victory. ours was the winning side, of that there could be no doubt. the governor was more assiduous than ever in his professions of undying devotion, and he was always planning fresh schemes for manifesting his goodwill and friendship. he even hit upon the expedient of declaring an amnesty for persians incarcerated in the local gaol. at his urgent solicitation, i visited the prison to decide upon the offenders who were to benefit by this generosity. it was a filthy, evil-smelling hole. lying upon a stone floor were about a dozen offenders, all huddled together and chained like so many wild beasts. there was a jew who had been arrested for debt. he wore round his neck a heavy iron collar { } like the joug of the scottish pillory. he speedily divined my mission, and was clamorously insistent that he should be the first to be set free. chained to him were two persians, one of whom had been arrested for manslaughter and the other for petty larceny. in this foetid den, and near the trio already mentioned, was a young persian girl of attractive appearance--an unregenerate magdalene, as it turned out, who had been put in chains for a breach of the somewhat elastic persian law governing public morality. she alone made no protestation of innocence and no appeal for release. perhaps that was why i suggested she should be the first to have her fetters struck off and be set free. she seemed dumbfounded at first, but on realizing that liberty awaited her, she burst into tears, and showed her gratitude by kissing my hand. it seemed a pity to leave the other poor wretches, however guilty they might have been, to rot in this terrible dungeon; so i availed myself to the full of the privilege of the amnesty and asked that all should be liberated, including the loquacious jew debtor. this was done, and the poor, dazed creatures walked out of the prison doors and once more breathed the purer air of freedom. with the granting of the armistice to austria came the welcome orders for the british force to evacuate bijar and retire to hamadan. on news of austria's defection from the side of her german ally becoming known, the governor arrived to offer fresh felicitations. { } but a shadow clouded his beaming self-satisfied countenance when he learned that the british were to withdraw immediately. he became greatly perturbed at the news, for he feared the ever-present menace of kurdish incursions, and trembled for the safety of bijar and the wealth of its bazaar. "what will become of us all?" he asked in despair. "when the british go, the kurds will come, and then----" he made a significant gesture across his throat. the governor returned next day with a deputation of the inhabitants to ask that a british garrison might be left behind to carry out the duty which really devolved upon the persian government, that of protecting its subjects against acts of lawlessness. he pleaded hard and earnestly. they would find fuel, food, and quarters free for the soldiers who were to remain. first he suggested twenty, then a dozen, and finally he said, "take pity on us, and send a message by the lightning-flash (wireless) to the british king asking him to permit three of his soldiers to remain here to protect the people. then the kurds will never bother us at all." it was certainly a tribute to our worth and fighting value. gently but firmly the governor had to be led to understand that it was impossible. the soldiers had homes and wives in far-off faringistan across the black water; their duty was done, and home they must go. the deputation set off with bowed heads and { } sorrowing hearts. it was kismet, and the decree of destiny could not be set aside. the wealthier inhabitants, however, made every effort to save themselves and their worldly possessions. all available transport was bought up at enhanced prices, and an exodus from bijar preceded the british evacuation. on november th colonel bridges and his column bade farewell to bijar. the inhabitants, or at least those of them who were too poor to take flight, turned out _en masse_ to speed the parting troops. they had got to know and to admire the splendid british soldier who is always a gentleman, who had fought the battle of the persian people against kurdish brigand and turkish regular, and whose ofttimes scanty ration he was always ready to share with any roadside starveling who crossed his path. the governor and a numerous retinue rode for two miles with the head of the column. on a bare plateau, exposed to a keen, biting wind, and under a lowering sky, the last farewells were cordially exchanged. the governor told us that the british had left behind an ineffaceable record for justice and generosity. i think it was sincerely meant and devoid of any exaggeration. [illustration: harvesting in persia.] it took seven days to reach hamadan. the snow overtook us on the second day out, and the bitter kurdistan winter set in with extreme severity. the indian transport camels, unaccustomed to extreme cold, and not possessing the thick fur coating of their { } afghan brother, died in numbers, and the indian charvadars followed their example. from hamadan there was the long trek down-country and over the snow-clad asadabad pass. but the weather grew milder and brighter as we steadily dropped down from the high altitudes, neared the warmer plains of mesopotamia, and left persia behind us. at last came the day when our long overland journey was to end, and xenophon's war-worn soldiers never cried more exultingly "thalatta!" "thalatta!" at the sight of the sea, than we did on reaching the shores of the persian gulf. { } appendix the work of the dunsterforce armoured car brigade i am giving the following account of the work of the armoured car brigade with general dunsterville's mission, not only because the brigade deserves fuller mention than i have been able to give elsewhere in this book, but because some description of their operations will give a better idea of the difficulties of transport, stores, etc., with which the whole force had to deal. for my facts in this instance i have been allowed access to an official report by the men who actually did the work. the brigade, commanded by colonel j. d. crawford, was organized in squadrons of eight cars each. in addition it had a mobile hospital of fifty beds, and the usual supply column. the brigade had originally been known as the locker-lampson armoured car unit, and its work in russia in the earlier stages of the war is one of the most stirring stories of the whole campaign. for its present work, it began to mobilize in england during the latter months of . the personnel was obtained by the transfer from the r.n.a.s. of officers and men who had been serving in the armoured car unit in russia. { } owing to the internal conditions of russia, the personnel arrived in small parties at long intervals, the last party leaving russia as late as march, . the unit was made up to strength by the enlistment of personnel from motor and other munition works in england. the cars and material were all to be provided from england, and the necessary orders for their manufacture were issued without delay. the armoured cars were of austin make, and mounted two machine-guns in twin turrets. a demand for the early presence of some cars with the mission necessitated the despatch of an advanced party, the last draft of which landed in may, . this party consisted of officers, other ranks, with armoured cars, lorries, touring cars, ford box vans, motor-cycles, and other stores and equipment. that it was impossible to concentrate and fully equip the unit in england before despatch overseas was unavoidable, but unfortunate from the point of view of organization. the delay in the despatch of the remainder of the unit was a further misfortune. the absence of many of the specialist personnel and much of the essential equipment increased the difficulties with which the brigade was faced. some of the personnel and considerable equipment never reached the brigade until it was withdrawn from persia. of the personnel that did arrive nearly per cent. had only joined the army in january, , were { } devoid of all training, and had often no mechanical knowledge. by may th the advanced party, together with such cars and personnel as arrived later, were concentrated at hinaidi, and preparations for the move into persia were rapidly pushed forward. on may th a start was made to establish petrol dumps at tak-i-garra, kermanshah, and hamadan, and by may th these were sufficiently stocked to permit of the move of "a" squadron, which left hinaidi on may th. in connection with the establishment of these dumps it is worthy of note that the brigade peerless lorries were the first heavy lorries to cross the pai tak and asadabad passes, in spite of expert opinion that the road was impassable for heavy lorries. it will be simpler to follow the actual operations of the brigade if each series of operations, although concurrent, are dealt with separately: . operations against the jungalis. . operations with general bicherakoff's force in the caucasus. . operations at baku. . operations at zinjan. operations against the jungalis. "a" squadron arrived at hamadan on june th. at this time general bicherakoff's troops were concentrating at manjil. the jungalis under kuchik { } khan were prepared to permit the russian forces to continue their withdrawal to russia, but were opposed to the passage of any british troops through their territory to enzeli, a port on the caspian. general bicherakoff refused to sever his connection with the british, and prepared to attack the jungalis who were entrenched covering manjil bridge. he applied to general dunsterville for such assistance as he could give. orders were received by the brigade on june th for all cars to proceed to kasvin, to take part in these operations. the cars were much in need of overhaul after their long trip from bagdad, and the work of getting them ready for the road was pushed forward as fast as possible, cars as they became ready being sent forward. one battery left hamadan on june th, and the whole squadron was on the road by june th. at this point the rubberine tyres with which the cars were fitted gave considerable trouble, and failed to stand the wear necessitated by running over metalled roads. the average mileage per tyre worked out at instead of miles, and spares were soon used up. to obtain further supplies from railhead miles distant necessitated a delay of at least ten days. by stripping some cars it was possible to maintain the others on the road, but by june th only two cars were mobile. as regards the failure of rubberines, it must be remembered that these tyres are solely intended for { } work in action, and not for long-distance running. however, pneumatic tyres had not been sent from england, and efforts to supply the deficiency by local purchase failed. some tyres were purchased, but it was not possible to get the necessary fittings to enable warland rims to be efficiently converted to take the pneumatics. as soon as the abnormal expenditure of rubberines was experienced, arrangements were made to maintain a sufficient supply, and the cars were not off the road again on this account, although they consumed in one month per cent. of the estimated year's supply. considering that a single rubberine tyre weighs pounds, the strain imposed on the transport of the brigade in maintaining a sufficient supply was considerable. from june th to july th the cars were mainly employed on convoy duties, and for defensive purposes at resht and manjil. on june th one armoured car was in action along the kasmar road, supporting infantry who were attempting the rescue of an a.s.c. officer who had been captured by the jungalis. captain j. macky was wounded in this engagement. on july th the jungalis made a determined attack on resht, which they occupied. they, however, failed to drive back the british troops camped on the south-west outskirts of the town. both the armoured cars of the brigade and those of the th l.a.m. battery took a prominent part in the fighting, { } and later in the relief of isolated parties cut off in the town. the street fighting was heavy and difficult. trenches were dug across the road and barricades erected, but the armoured cars thoroughly proved their suitability for street fighting. their moral effect materially assisted in clearing the enemy out of the town a few days later. captain g. n. gawler was wounded during the fighting. on july th, to relieve the pressure at resht, and to make troops available to assist in the defence of baku, the brigade offered to organize a motor machine-gun company from the personnel of "b" and "c" squadrons then training at hamadan, awaiting the arrival of their cars from england. the offer was accepted, and the company, consisting of sixteen machine-guns (with crews), left hamadan on july th. the machine-guns and ammunition were carried in sixteen ford vans, and the personnel in the brigade peerless lorries. it was decided that half the company should remain at resht until the situation there improved, the other half proceeding to enzeli to be in readiness to embark for baku should the situation there permit. operations with general bicherakoff's forces in the caucasus. general bicherakoff.s troops embarked at enzeli on july rd. no. battery, "a" squadron, was ordered to accompany them. in order to avoid { } possible trouble with the bolsheviks, they wore russian uniform, but later were ordered to discard it. the force landed at aliyat, south of baku, on july th, and proceeded by rail to kurdamir, which was reached at midnight, july - th. the cars were immediately detrained, and by a.m. two cars were in action on the russian right, near kara sakal, and remained in action all day against the turkish advanced troops. two reconnaissances were successfully carried out in this area under cover of darkness, during the night, july - th, and the turkish outposts engaged. a reconnaissance at dawn, . a.m., on july th, met with heavy machine-gun and rifle fire. the turks attacked the village of kara sakal at a.m. their advance was greatly hampered by fire from the cars which covered throughout the day the withdrawal of the russian troops in this sector to kurdamir. on two occasions, the turks having deployed in the proximity to the road, the cars ran right up into the opposing lines of infantry, which they enfiladed, forcing the turks to withdraw. on july th the russians, after a reconnaissance by the armoured cars, attacked, but failed to reach their objective. an enemy counter-attack was repulsed by the armoured cars, which eventually covered the withdrawal of the infantry to karrar. a determined attack on the rearguard by enemy cavalry was repulsed by one armoured car, with heavy loss to the enemy. { } the battery withdrew to sagiri on the llth, and was employed continuously in reconnaissance from july th to th. owing to the defection of the troops protecting general bicherakoff's right, he was compelled to retire to ballajari, which was reached without incident on july rd. the armoured cars formed a portion of the rearguard and carried out one reconnaissance at kara su, without, however, meeting any enemy troops. on july th one armoured car was ordered to carry out a reconnaissance along shemaka-baku road. this car failed to return. a force sent out to look for it found two bodies, which were identified as the driver of a ford touring car, and a batman, both of whom were travelling in captain hull's touring car. unofficial reports have been received that a british officer and four men were prisoners at elizabetpol. no details as to what actually happened are available. on july th the turks took adji-kabul station, to the south-west of baku, and began an encircling movement to the north. general bicherakoff, not wishing to be shut up in baku, withdrew northwards. the armoured cars acted as rearguard, kirdalana being reached at . p.m. from hereon the armoured cars travelled by rail to hatcmas, which was reached on august th. although the force was continually harassed by tartars, the armoured cars took no part in the fighting. { } on august th the cars were sent forward by rail to kudat, to operate against the tartars. the country being impassable for armoured cars, they returned to hatcmas. on august th a general advance was made on derbend, but the cars still travelled by rail. the bolsheviks retired from derbend after desultory fighting, and the town was occupied on august th at . a.m. the train on which the armoured cars were travelling was smashed in a collision south of derbend, and the armoured car personnel were responsible for the rescue of many men, under conditions calling for gallantry and endurance. two n.c.o's. received the m.s.m. for their gallant behaviour on this occasion. the armoured cars were not in action again until the attack on petrovsk on september rd. the armoured cars preceded the infantry at . p.m., and, driving in the bolshevik troops, engaged a battery of -inch guns at close range, driving the gunners off the guns and capturing them. they pursued the bolshevik troops through the town, driving some of them into the hands of the cossacks, who had got round to the north of the town. one armoured car was now immobile, owing to back-axle trouble, and was out of action until september th, when necessary spare parts were received from baku. { } the cars remained at petrovsk till september th for overhaul, every facility and excellent workshops being placed at their disposal by general bicherakoff. on september llth the cars were sent to temi-khan shuna, thirty miles south of petrovsk, to co-operate in operations being carried out at that place against a mixed force of turks and , dageshani tartars. the operations fell through owing to an armistice being arranged on the th. the cars remained at temi-khan shuna to maintain order until the th. on september th three russian armoured cars, which had been under the orders of the brigade at baku, and had proceeded to petrovsk when the evacuation took place, were attached to no. battery. on september th two armoured cars (one d.a.c. brigade and one russian) were ordered to embark to join colonel sleseneff at briansk. the cars were disembarked at starri terechnaya by a.m. on the th, and left for alexandrisk, which was reached at p.m. the same evening, moving to marinova on october nd. here touch was gained with general alexieff by aeroplane. the advance was continued, seri brakovka being reached on the rd. the cars moved to breedeekin on october th, reporting to the headquarters of the force (general mestoulov), on the outskirts of kislyar, at . a.m. on { } the th. an attack on kislyar was ordered for the th. one armoured car was ordered to precede the infantry attack, and clear the enemy trenches at noon, after a preliminary bombardment. the car was driven forward until the wheels rested on the parapet, and the trenches were enfiladed, and the bolshevik infantry fled. the car, whilst returning to bring forward the russian infantry, was hit by a direct shell, which killed three of the crew and wounded captain crossing and the driver. at this point the russian infantry panicked, and, failing to restore order, a general withdrawal was ordered to breedeekin. the personnel of the british armoured car was withdrawn to petrovsk, which was reached on september th. on october th no. battery, which had served with general bicherakoff since july rd, was ordered to return to enzeli to rejoin the brigade. during the whole period, captain barratt, r.a.m.c., was mainly responsible for the medical work with general bicherakoff's force, and received the th class of the order of st. vladimir for his work. captain crossing, d.s.c., who had commanded this battery, received the st. george's cross for gallantry, and also the th class of the order of st. vladimir. lieutenant e. w. wallace also received the th class of the order of st vladimir, and several st. george's crosses were awarded to the men. { } operations at baku. at the end of july the new government in baku asked for british assistance. one section of no. battery (two cars) and two sections of the motor machine-gun company embarked at enzeli, arriving at baku august th. the remaining section of no. battery and two sections of the machine-gun company were withdrawn from resht on august th, embarking the same evening for baku, which was reached on august th. owing to the presence of bolshevik troops in the town, the armoured cars and machine-gun company did not proceed to the line. there were constant threats that the bolsheviks intended to attempt to turn out the new government by a _coup de main_. the armoured cars "stood to" every night, whilst machine-guns were located in various buildings commanding the streets leading to the quarter of the town in which the british troops were billeted. in order to stiffen and encourage the local forces, british troops were sent into the line on august th. one section of the motor machine-gun company took up positions at voltchi vorota on the left of the line, co-operating with detachments of the staffords. efforts were also made to organize the russian machine-guns in this section of the line, with some success. (the organization of the russian machine-guns was later handed over to major vandenberg.) on the same date two armoured cars and one and { } a half sections of the motor machine-gun company were sent to zabrat, to take part in operations being carried out against mashtagi. these two cars were constantly in action, handling very severely about turks who were found sitting and lying about behind a hedge. the machine-guns took up positions in the armenian lines. these machine-guns were taken forward, and then covered the advance of the armenians. no serious attack on mashtagi was, however, at any time made by the local forces. one incident in this area is worth recording. at the request of headquarters a brigade vauxhall staff car was lent for the purpose of taking tartar delegates to the front line, from whence it was intended that the delegates should make their way behind the turkish lines and arrange terms with the local tartars. through some error, the car, also containing in addition to the delegates two sergeants of the brigade, was sent on through the lines and captured by the turks. sergeant miks was captured on this occasion. russian born, he was a local linguist, and had gone through some remarkable adventures, whilst keeping under observation the movements of the bolsheviks in baku. on august th one section of guns took up a position in the line at the foot of griazni vulkan, to the north-east of baladjari station. the next few days were fully occupied in the construction of machine-gun emplacements. two armoured cars { } and a half-section of the motor machine-gun company were retained in baku in reserve to maintain order in the town. on august th one of these armoured cars proceeded to griazni vulkan, where it remained in support of the line. on august th the turkish attack, the imminence of which was evident from the daily reconnaissance reports, materialized against griazni vulkan. the advance took place under cover of heavy and destructive artillery fire, which caused considerable casualties. the line at the point of the attack was held by staffords and four machine-guns of the brigade motor machine-gun company. the attack was three times brought to a halt, the machine-guns doing great execution. one gun's crew withdrew their gun from its emplacement, which had overhead cover, and remounted it on top in order to obtain a greater field of fire. enemy reinforcements coming up about p.m. caused the troops on the right flank to fall back. the two machine-guns in this area, however, remained at their posts, and were last seen still firing, although completely surrounded. the remainder of the infantry were forced to withdraw, but this order did not reach the remaining two guns, which only left their positions when they found small parties of enemy in rear of them. fifty per cent. of the crews became casualties whilst withdrawing. lieutenant titterington, who was in charge, was compelled to use his revolver. the armoured car in this sector, which, owing to { } the impossible nature of the ground, had not previously been able to come into action, now covered the withdrawal of the remnants. these were reorganized by major ruston, a new line formed, and a further withdrawal carried out in good order to a line some , yards to the east. fresh gun crews were immediately organized from batmen and other employed men of the brigade, and sent forward to man the two guns that were left. on august th the section of the machine-gun company was withdrawn from voltchi vorota, and received orders to report to the o.c. th brigade, who took over charge of the baladjari sector on the evening of august th. the new line ran from baladjari to vinagradi. two guns were placed in position at baladjari and two on vinagradi hill. the turks had suffered so heavily on the th that they waited till the st before resuming their attack. during the interval reorganization was carried out, and, owing to heavy casualties, crews were only available for two sections of machine-guns and three armoured cars. one armoured car was immobile owing to magneto trouble, and did not come again into action whilst at baku. the turks attacked vinagradi hill on august st, and, as the flanks of the infantry were too exposed to permit of sustained resistance, they withdrew shortly after the attack developed. orders again did not reach the two machine-guns in this sector, who maintained their position single-handed for an hour and a half, { } inflicting considerable casualties before they were forced to withdraw, owing to enemy fire, from the rear. they took up a fresh position on the railway-line east of baladjari. during the whole of the period of fighting two armoured cars and six machine-guns (reduced to four after august th) remained inactive in the mashtagi area. the capture of dighiya on september st endangered the security of the force in front of mashtagi, which accordingly withdrew. the armoured cars and machine-guns took up a position about , yards south of balakhani. the turkish success made the evacuation of baku advisable, and orders were issued for evacuation to take place in the evening. these were later cancelled owing to the attitude of the local authorities and caspian fleet, and orders issued for a last stand to be made on the inner defensive line. the next few days were spent in building the necessary defences. on september st the russian armoured car section, consisting of two heavy cars mounting -pounders, and two light cars with maxims, under the command of lieutenant-colonel the marquis albrizzi, were placed under the orders of the brigade. they were mainly employed supporting attacks against tartar villages on the right flank, which never materialized. between september st and th a general { } concentration of the turks was noticed south-west of baladjari. on the evening of the th an arab officer deserter gave full details of the expected turkish attack, which was to take place during the early hours of the morning on the th against the voltchi vorota sector, a feint being made to hold the troops at baladjari. the attack developed as stated at a.m. on the th. the feint attack in front of baladjari was heavily handled by our machine-guns and rapidly brought to a standstill. the main attack, however, against the local troops, progressed satisfactorily. the two armoured cars from baladjari were withdrawn to the seliansky barracks at the north-west corner of the town at a.m. their departure opened up the left flank of the position at baladjari. this, together with the danger of being cut off by the main attack, forced the baladjari detachment to withdraw at . p.m. they were covered by the machine-guns, which retired successfully, the last gun only leaving when the turks were within yards of their position, three members of the crew being wounded during the withdrawal. they took up a fresh position on the top of a ridge some yards to the rear. at a.m. one armoured car was ordered out along the voltchi vorota road. it here engaged the enemy single-handed for two and a half hours, and though shelled intensively, managed to escape destruction by continuously moving in a figure of { } eight in the very small space available for manoeuvre. this checking of the main attack allowed the russian forces to be re-formed in rear and stiffened up with british troops. the remaining two armoured cars from baladjari were ordered into action along the baladjari road, with orders to prevent the troops withdrawing from baladjari from being cut off. they were in action in this area the whole day, running up among the turkish troops and inflicting very heavy casualties, destroying three enemy machine-guns and dispersing in panic some turkish cavalry which were massing for the attack. at a.m. the machine-gun section from the balakhani road was withdrawn, and remained in reserve throughout the afternoon near seliansky barracks. at p.m. orders for the evacuation of baku were received, the armoured cars being disposed as follows, to cover the withdrawal of the infantry: car on the dighiyar road. " " " baladjari road. " " " voltchi vorota road. the withdrawal commenced at p.m. and was carried out without incident, the last car arriving at the embarkation point at p.m. owing to the still doubtful attitude of the local authorities and caspian fleet, it was considered inadvisable to delay whilst the armoured cars were embarked, and orders were issued for their destruction, as well as for the destruction of the motor { } transport which had accompanied the brigade, and which had done most useful work in rationing the brigade and other british troops in the line. the following cars were consequently destroyed: austin armoureds. vauxhall tenders. ford touring cars. ford ambulances. ford vans. ford van (belonging to wireless section). kazian was reached on september th. during the fighting leading to the evacuation the russians' cars under the marquis albrizzi rendered valuable assistance, and covered the withdrawal of the local troops in the early morning of the th, and were eventually evacuated with general bicherakoff's detachment to petrovsk, where they were attached to no. battery of the brigade. operations at zinjan. during the fighting at baku a considerable concentration of troops at tabriz enabled the turks to advance towards zinjan, driving our outposts at mianeh across the kufian kuh. eight more armoured cars from england arrived at hamadan on september st. in spite of the fact that the majority of the personnel for these cars had been taken to form the machine-gun company, the balance of personnel was rapidly organized and "e" squadron formed. the cars needed considerable { } attention mechanically, and this was rapidly carried out, cars as they were fit for the road being despatched to zinjan. the serious threat to the main communications to enzeli by this turkish advance necessitated the consideration of a general withdrawal to hamadan on september llth. in spite of mechanical difficulties, the brigade offered to get the whole squadron to zinjan immediately, and, further, to organize from batmen and cooks sufficient crews to man four machine-guns, the whole being carried in a peerless lorry. this squadron and machine-gun section were concentrated at zinjan by september th, and their addition to the small force justified a stand being made north of that place, and the orders for the evacuation being held in abeyance. reconnaissances, in which one section th l.a.m. battery played a considerable part, were pushed out as far as jamalabad, where turkish cavalry were engaged. "e" squadron had considerable trouble from back axles giving. the presence of armoured cars undoubtedly checked the advance of the turkish troops beyond jamalabad. an additional twelve armoured cars left bagdad on august th, arriving at hamadan on september st. these cars also needed overhauling, and in view of the back-axle trouble experienced by "e" squadron it was considered desirable to take down all back axles and thoroughly overhaul them. in the meantime the personnel of "d" squadron was collected, { } organized, and trained. this squadron was stationed at hamadan, for fear of any possible advance of turkish troops from urumia via bijar. a road reconnaissance towards bijar was carried out by two armoured cars on october rd. these reported that the road was impassable, and the country unsuitable for armoured cars some sixty miles north of hamadan. on the formation of norperforce on september th, it was pointed out that persia did not offer opportunity for the employment of a large number of armoured cars, whilst there was great difficulty in obtaining the requisite petrol to keep the brigade mobile. it was considered that the armoured-car work could be carried out by eight cars, especially as the approach of winter would make movement impossible. much of the work would be in the nature of patrol work, and previous experience had shown that this was very expensive in rubberine tyres. the pneumatic tyres for the cars had not up till that date arrived from england. accordingly, on october nd the withdrawal to mesopotamia commenced. there are one or two features of interest as regards the rationing worthy of record. owing to the heat and the rapidity with which fresh meat went bad, considerable difficulty was experienced in rationing convoys, which might be absent several days from main rationing bases. no tinned meat was available, and after several experiments { } a successful method of dry-salting and sun-drying mutton was found. meat thus treated proved very palatable when soaked and cooked, and kept even in the hottest weather for several weeks. jam was made from fruit purchased locally, and stored in earthenware jars, a jam ration being issued to the men the whole time they were in persia. crushed wheat proved excellent for porridge. this excellent result was mainly due to the initiative and hard work of the brigade quartermaster, captain lefroy and his staff. to sum up, the brigade, in addition to entirely supporting its own personnel in rations, munitions, and stores of all kinds, afforded very considerable assistance in transport to dunsterforce. it maintained all armoured cars which had arrived from england, working over , miles from railhead, and had all available personnel in the fighting-line as a machine-gun company at baku, some miles from railhead. the whole time it was solely dependent on its own efforts. the work was entirely due to the magnificent body of officers and men forming the unit, who have worked throughout unsparingly in whatever duty they have been called upon to perform. the gallantry shown by the men of the machine-gun company in the fight of august th, when they stayed with their guns to the last, is enhanced by the fact that practically all these men had under eight months' service in the army. { } ndx index adji-kabul, afshar tribesmen, , agre petros, akhbar, lieutenant, , , , , , alexandria, ali akhbar khan, , aliullahis, - ali elizan pasha, allen, mr., alvand mountains, amarah, - american presbyterian mission, , , , amory, captain, ardabil, armoured cars, , , , , , , _et seq._ ashar, assadabad pass, , azarbaijan, , , bagdad, - baku, , , , , , , , , baleshkent pass, , baqubah, baratof, general, basra, , , , , , , batum, benik suma, bicherakoff, general, , , , , bijar, , , bisitun, bolshevik activities, , , , , , , , , , bray, captain, bridges, colonel, byron, brigadier-general, , , , , , , , , cachagli pass, , , , calthorpe, sergeant, cannibalism, , caspian sea, , , , caucasus, chesney, general, chihar zabar pass, cinema, native interest in, cochrane, captain basil, , cooper, captain, cowden, miss, crawford, colonel, crossing, captain, derhend, dervishes, diala river, donnan, colonel, , , dunsterville force, , _et seq._, , , , , , dunsterville, general, , , , , , , , , , , , edwards, mr., enzeli, , , eve, captain george, , , , famine, scenes and relief work, , , , , _et seq._ football, native enthusiasm for, , funk, dr., gamasiab, german activities, , , , , gilan, goldberg, captain, goupil, lieutenant, gow, lieutenant, haji agha, hale, mr., hamadan, , , _et seq._, , hampshire regiment, , , , , , , , harunabad, heathcote, captain, hinaida camp, hooper, captain, , hussars ( th), , , , , jamalabad, , japanese naval escort, , , jelus, , , , john, captain, jones, lieutenant, julfa, jungalis, , , , , , kalhur kurds, kangavar, kara river, karachaman, , karangu river, karasf, , kasr-i-shirin, kasvin, , , , kazemain, , kellik (native raft), kennion, colonel, kerbela, kermanshah, , , , , keyworth, colonel, khaniquin, , , khaseki, mosque of, khazal khan, khorsabad, kirind, , kizil robat, kizil uzun river, , koweit, , krasnovodsk, kuchik khan, , , , , , , , , kufa (native boat), , kuflan kuh pass, , kurdistan, kurds, , , kut, , , l.c.c. steamers on the tigris, lincoln, mr., mcdouell, mr., mckay, "willie," mcmunn, major-general sir george, mcmurray, mr. and mrs., , mahidast, , makina, _malwa_ (p. and o. liner), , mandali, manjil, marjanieh mosque, marling, sir charles, marriage ceremonies (persian), _et seq._ mar shimon, matthews, colonel, , , maude, sir stanley, mazandaran, mianeh, , , , , , milman, the "amphibious purser", , mohammerah, sheikh of, mussick (native raft), mustafa khan, nabi khan, nadari, nestorians, , newcombe, major, , niebuhr, nikhbeg, orenburg, osborne, captain, , , , , , pai tak pass, parisva, pennington, lieutenant, persians at cinema, persians at football, persian marriage ceremony, _et seq._ persian native levies, , , , , , , petrovsk, pierpoint, lieutenant, , , poidebard, lieutenant, pope, captain, poti, presbyterian mission, american, , , , resht, , , , , rifle thieves, , roberts, captain, robertson, general sir william, russia, effect of fall of, on persian affairs, , russian movements, (_see also_ bicherakoff, general) samarkand, sarab, , sarcham, saunders, sergeant, seddon, lieutenant, senjabi tribesmen, , shahsavan tribesmen, sharaf khane, shatt el arab, , , shibley pass, shi'ite sect, , smiles, colonel, , soane, major, staffordshire (north) regiment, , stead, mr. and mrs., stokes, colonel, surkhidizeh, surma khanin, suttor, captain, sweeney, lieutenant, tabriz, , , , , , , taranto, , tasbandi, teheran, thompson, general, , tiflis, , tigris, river, , , , , tigris river flotilla, , tikmadash, , titterington, lieutenant, townshend, general, - trott, captain, turkmanchai, , , turkish activities, , , , , urumia, , van, lake, , voigt, lieutenant, "volunteers of islam," wagstaff, major, , , , , , , wallace, lieutenant, warden, colonel, , williams, captain, wilson, gordon, worcestershire regiment, "young persia" movement, , , zinjan, , endx billing and sons, ltd., printers, guildford, england (https://archive.org/details/americana) note: images of the original pages are available through internet archive/americn libraries. see https://archive.org/details/sketchesofpersia malc sketches of persia. by sir john malcolm, author of 'history of persia,' 'history of india,' etc., etc. new edition. london: john murray, albemarle street. . london: printed by w. clowes and sons, stamford street, and charing cross. to john fleming, esq., m.d., f.r.s., &c., late president of the medical board of calcutta, by his most sincere and attached friend, the author. contents. page introduction xi chapter i. voyage from bombay to the persian gulf chapter ii. muscat chapter iii. the persian gulf and abusheher chapter iv. camp at abusheher--horses--abdûlla aga--anecdote of an arab chapter v. hunting and hawking--entertainment of the shaikh--tollemache--mirage--nadir shâh and turkish ambassador chapter vi. elchee's lectures--mehmandar's journal--arab nurse--blue-beard--persian ceremony--king's picture chapter vii. mountaineers--valley of kazeroon--virtue of nitric acid--rizâ kooli khan's loss of eyes--extraordinary birds--beautiful valley of desht-e-arjun--mahomet rizâ khan byat--irish patriotism--persian squire chapter viii. principal characters of the mission--mahomed hoosein khan--jaffier ali khan--meerzâ aga meer--mahomed hoosein--hajee hoosein--candidates for the elchee's favour chapter ix. importance of forms--description of those used at visits in persia--difficulties on this subject--happy termination of a battle of ceremonies between the first mission and the petty court of shiraz--persian society--fables and apologues chapter x. fable of the two cats--preamble to persian treaty--apologues from sâdee--letter from nizâm-ool-moolk to mahomed shâh--death of yezdijird chapter xi. shiraz--shaikh-ool-islûm, or chief judge--story of ald-ool-kadir--entertainments--derveesh seffer--story of abdûlla of khorassan--persian poet chapter xii. persian servants--departure from shiraz--persepolis--tale of the labours of roostem--anecdote of a sportsman chapter xiii. travellers and antiquaries--wild ass--hawking--mâder-e-sûlimân--akleed--mirrors--mehdee khan--isfahan--persian citizens and peasantry--shâh abbas the great--hâroon-oor-rasheed--nethenz chapter xiv. cashan--scorpions--câshânee youth--village of sinsin--plundering expeditions of the tûrkâmâns--account of that tribe--wandering tribes--visit to the dwelling of mihrâb khan--afshâr--account of his family and adherents--anecdote of kerreem khan chapter xv. arrival at koom--mahomedan ladies--their rights and privileges after marriage--divorces--story of hajee salâh, the cross-grained chapter xvi. departure from koom--poolee-dellâk--deryâ-e-kebeer--valley of the shadow of death--story of a ghool--remarks on persian poetry chapter xvii. distant view of teheran--demavend--rhe--entrance into the capital--hajee ibrahim--zâl khan--terms of courtesy chapter xviii. terms of reception at court--second visit--delivery of presents--king's grant--private interviews--king's ancestors--crown jewels--king's love of a joke--mode of passing his time--harem--royal meals--hajee ibrahim--his character and death chapter xix. progress of the russians--buonaparte--second visit to tullanea--king abbas meerzâ--reflections--electrifying machine--phantasmagoria--ministers of the persian court--mahomed hoosein khan mervee introduction. once upon a time this island of great britain had some spots where men and women and little children dwelt, or were believed to dwell, in innocence, ignorance, and content. travellers seldom visited them; poets saw them in their dreams, and novelists told stories of them: but these days are now past. thanks to steam-boats and stagecoaches, there is not a spot to which an ignorant or sage human being can retire, where his eye will not be delighted or offended by a dark column of smoke, or his ear gratified or grated by the rattling wheels of a carriage. it is perhaps a consequence of this invasion of retirement that all are tempted from their homes, and that while one half of the population is on the highways, the other half is on the narrow seas. this love of travel, however, is in the vast majority limited to the neighbouring countries of europe; but the ardour of curiosity, and an ambitious desire of escaping from the beaten track, has of late years induced not a few scientific and enterprising travellers to overrun the renowned lands of greece and egypt, whose inhabitants stare with astonishment at men flying with impatience from town to town, exploring ruins; measuring pyramids; groping in dark caverns; analyzing the various properties of earth, air, and water; carrying off mutilated gods and goddesses; packing up common stones and pebbles, as if they were rubies and diamonds; and even bearing away the carcases of the dead, strangely preferring the withered frame of a female mummy, which has been mouldering for four thousand years in its sepulchre, to the loveliest specimens of living and animated beauty. the uniformed natives of these countries, whose condition is much to be deplored, are not aware that the great samuel johnson has said, that "whatever raises the past, the distant, and the future, above the present, exalts us in the dignity of human beings;" which is an unanswerably good reason for the preference given to mummies over every living object, however fascinating. the rage of the present day for mummies and other delectable reliques of antiquity has deluged egypt with itinerant men of science and research, who have quite exhausted that land of wonders; and those who have lately visited it have been reduced, from actual want of other aliment, to the necessity of preying upon their predecessors, many of whom have been cruelly mangled, and some wholly devoured. these wandering tribes of writers, who are, in a certain degree, subject to the same motives which force the hordes of tartary to change their places of abode, have recently begun to migrate into syria, asia minor, and some have actually penetrated as far as persia. this has given me no small alarm, for i have long had designs upon that country myself: i had seen something of it, and had indulged a hope that i might, at my leisure, gratify the public by allowing them to participate in my stock of information; but being of an indolent disposition, i deferred the execution of this, my favourite plan, until that anticipated period of repose, the prospect of which, however distant, has always cheered a life of vicissitude and labour. nothing that had hitherto appeared respecting persia at all frightened me. i am no historian, therefore i did not tremble at sir john malcolm's ponderous quartos; i am no tourist, mr. morier's journeys gave me no uneasiness; the learned researches of sir william ouseley were enough to terrify an antiquarian, but that was not my trade; and, as i happen to have clumsy, untaught fingers, and little if any taste for the picturesque, i viewed without alarm the splendid volumes of sir robert ker porter. far different, however, was the case when that rogue hajji bâbâ made his appearance. i perused him with anxiety, but was consoled by finding that, though he approached the very borders of my province, he had made no serious inroads. i was roused, however, into action, and determined instantly to rummage those trunks into which my sketches had been thrown as they were finished, and where many of them had slumbered undisturbed for nearly thirty years. i must warn the reader that the trunks here spoken of bear no resemblance whatever to those imaginary boxes which it has lately been the fashion to discover, filled with mss. unaccountably deposited in them by some strange and mysterious wight; mine are all real, well-made, strong, iron-clamped boxes, which i had prepared with great care, in order that they might preserve the papers i from time to time intrusted to them. i am well aware that this plain and true statement of the fact will, with many, diminish the interest of these pages; but with others it will increase it; for they will be gratified to find in them sketches taken on the spot, while the facts and the feelings to which they relate were fresh and warm before me; and i can truly affirm, that the sense, the nonsense, the anecdotes, the fables, and the tales,--all, in short, which these volumes contain, with the exception of a few sage reflections of my own, do actually belong to the good people amongst whom they profess to have been collected. yet, partial as i was to my secret hoard, it was long before i could make up my mind to publish. while i was one day musing upon the subject, my attention was accidentally drawn to a volume of persian poetry that was lying on the table. a fâl or lot, i exclaimed, shall put an end to my indecision! saying which, according to the usage of my persian friends in like cases, i shut my eyes, opened the book, and counting seven pages back, read the first four lines, as follows: "her kih sefer kerdeh pesendeedeh sheved z'âeena-e-noor kemâl-esh deedeh sheved pâkeezeter ez âb nebâshed cheezee her jâh kih kooned mekâm gendeedeh sheved." "whoever has travelled shall be approved; his perfections shall be reflected as from a mirror of light. there can be nothing more pure than water; but wherever it stagnates it becomes offensive." my delight was excessive, and i despatched my manuscripts forthwith to the bookseller; who has been desired to keep me minutely informed of the success of these volumes; and a hint has been given him, that if they meet with encouragement, the contents of the boxes before mentioned are far from being exhausted. note to the reader. the usual orthography of some proper names has been altered, with a view of rendering them more conformable to the pronunciation and the grammar of the languages to which they belong. for instance, our old friend and favourite, the caliph haroun-al-raschid of the arabian tales, appears under his arabic name of hâroon-oor-rasheed. the critical reader will also discover that a few of the eastern words have not always been spelled exactly alike. this unintentional typographical inaccuracy was caused by the peculiar circumstances under which these volumes were printed. sketches of persia. chapter i. voyage from bombay to the persian gulf. there is a monotony in a long sea-voyage, particularly to passengers, which those who have never traversed the wide ocean cannot well understand. a fair or contrary wind, a calm or a storm, a man overboard, a strange sail, or the hooking of a shark, are events which rouse for the moment; but the passenger soon sinks again into his listless, restless life, sitting half an hour below, walking another half hour on deck, holding on by the rigging when the ship rolls, looking over the gangway when the sea is smooth, watching the man casting the log, and waiting with anxiety to hear the latitude announced at twelve o'clock. his little incidents are, being in the way of the officer of the watch when upon deck, and when below disturbing the captain's calculations of the longitude, by laughing or talking with other idlers; for that is the class in which he is registered in the muster-roll of the crew. with me, however, there is a pursuit which helps to beguile a long voyage. i am always on the lookout for odd characters, and these abound at sea; from which circumstance, i suppose, we have our common phrase of calling an out-of-the-way person "an odd fish," alluding to the element where he is generally found. such a one i met on board the frigate in which we sailed for persia, and i shall give a sketch of him as taken at the moment. this man, whose name was peterson, was what he appeared to be, a blunt sailor: his experience in the indian seas recommended him to the situation he now occupied, as acting master of a frigate: he was a figure to play falstaff, being very stout, and nearly six feet high. he wore his clothes loose, and, when he came on board, a sailor, struck with his appearance, turning his quid as he eyed him, exclaimed, "we shall never be in distress for canvass; our new master wears a spare set of sails." i shall give peterson's history in his own words, as related after dinner the day he came on board. "i have been," said he, "thirty-two years at sea, and have seen both calms and storms. when a young man, i was stuck full of arrows by some savage americans; and but for a tobacco-box, which stopped one that hit upon a vital part, i should have gone to davy's locker at that time. since i came to this country, twenty-eight years ago, i have had many ups and downs, but weathered them all pretty tolerably till three years since, when coming to bombay in a small sloop, i was laid on board by some pirates belonging to bate.[ ] we fought as well as we could, but the rascals were too many for us, and while we were defending one part of the vessel they sprung on board at another, giving a fire at the same time, which killed my owner close beside me. a passenger then jumped overboard, for which, thought i, 'you are a fool;' for let the worst come to the worst, a man may do that at any time. one of these fellows looking at me cried 'mar haramee,' which means, 'kill the rascal.' 'mut mar,' 'don't kill him,' said a soft-hearted looking fellow, and defended me from the blow; so they did not kill me, but stripped and bound me to the capstan, and away they took us to bate. when we came there, the chief or head fellow came on board, and i fully expected we should be sent ashore and hanged. when this chap sent for me, i was a pretty figure; i had not been shaved for three weeks, and i was wrapped round with a top-gallant studding sail. 'what are you?' said the fellow. 'an englishman,' said i. 'very well; i won't kill you.' 'faith,' thinks i, 'i'm very glad of that.' 'my people,' says he, 'are all big thieves.' 'egad,' thinks i, 'you are the biggest of the gang.' he then asked me what money or property i had; and i thought at one time he looked as if he would have given it back; so i tells him all, even to my gold watch. the whole was about five thousand rupees. 'well, well,' says he, 'it shall be taken care of;' and i suppose it was, for i never saw a rap of it, only five rupees that the villain gave me, in a present, as he called it, to bear my expenses when he sent me and my crew to bombay. "i left bate, notwithstanding my losses, as happy as could be, to get out of their clutches alive; and after some days we reached bombay in a pretty pickle; my feet were swelled, i had not shaved since my capture, and i had only a few ragged clothes on. two rupees were left out of the five, and with them i went to a tavern and ordered breakfast; when it was over i told one of the servants to call his master. in came an english waiter, with his head all powdered, shuffling and mincing, saying, as he entered the room, 'do you want me, sir?' 'yes,' says i, 'i want you: i have been plundered, and have got no cash, and will thank you to lend me twenty or thirty rupees.' 'what are you--a common sailor?' 'not quite,' says i; 'but i want the money to get a few clothes, and then i can go to my friends.' 'i am not master of this house,' said this gentleman, and out he skips. i saw no more of him or his twenty rupees; and when i told a servant to get me a tiffin, he said i had not paid for my breakfast. as i was jawing with this fellow, a parsee[ ] came in, and asked me if i had not better go to the bazar, and borrow some clothes, and then go to my friends. well, god knows, i had not much heart to do any thing; for the unkindness of my countryman, after all i had suffered, cut me just as if i had been cut with a knife; but i thought i might as well follow the parsee, who was one of those fellows that go about bombay trying what they can make of every body they meet. i goes first to one shop, and tries things on; and when they fit, i says, 'i will pay you to-morrow;' but the fellow says, 'no; ready money.' well, i was obliged to strip again: this happened at four shops, and i was quite tired, when a good fellow, who keeps no. , of the great bazar, said i might fit myself, and pay when i could. i then got rigged, and stood away for mr. adamson, whom i had before known. i met him at the door of his house, and he did not know me; but when i told him my story--'oh!' says he, quite pitiful, 'are you the poor fellow who has suffered so much? i will get you a berth in another ship--and take this.' so saying, he gives me one hundred rupees. well, i thanked him; and next goes to captain phillips, and got from him a present of two gold mohurs, and six suits of good clothes, from top to toe. he made me report and write three or four sheets about bate, and how i had been used; and then sent me to the governor, mr. duncan, who gets all the long story from me again, and then gave me one hundred rupees. i had now two hundred and thirty rupees and clean rigging. i goes again to the tavern, and sings out lustily for tiffin. well, they look and sees i am quite a different thing from before, and so become mighty civil and attentive. the waiter begs my pardon--says he was mistaken--and that he had twenty rupees ready, and would give me any aid i liked. 'd----n your aid,' says i; 'you are very ready to give it to any person who does not want it.' it was a great treat to me to serve him as i did: i eat my tiffin, paid for it on the table, and left the house. "well," said peterson, "to make a long story short, i went in a china ship, and last year got the command of a vessel belonging to a persian merchant, who trades to the gulf. he was a bad owner, had no credit, and, what with that and the fear of the arabs, i had a troublesome time of it. we parted; and he has got another captain, rather black to be sure, but he likes him all the better, i suppose, from being nearer his own vile colour than i was; and i, by this means, being along shore, having no money or credit, am glad to come as acting-master of this here ship. i thank god i have good health, and don't complain; many are worse off than i am." such was our master's[ ] history. in a conversation i had with him, as we were walking the deck, the day we arrived at muscat, i asked him if he had a wife? "no;" said he. "you were never married, then?" "i didn't say so," he replied. "i beg your pardon," said i. "oh! no harm, no harm! the honest truth never need be hid: i was married: but taking a long voyage, being away seven years, and my letters (of which, by the by, i wrote but few) miscarrying, what does my wife do, but marries again. this i heard when i got home to england." "and what did you do?" said i; "did you inquire after her?" "indeed i did not," said peterson with great indifference; "i didn't think her worth so much trouble; she was glad, i suppose, to get rid of me, and, god knows, i was not sorry to be shot of her." the vicissitudes to which sailors are subject train them to bear what are termed the ups and downs of life better than any other men in the world. they appear, when afloat, not only to leave all their cares on shore, but to forget the hardships incident to their condition. a remarkable instance of this was given by our captain, who told us that he went one day to see a tender, on board which there was a great number of men who had just been pressed, and who, though strictly confined in their floating prison, were, nevertheless, joining in the chorus of one of our patriotic airs, and singing with great glee the old song:-- "who are so free as we sons of the waves?" footnotes: [ ] the island of bate is situated at the north-western extremity of the gulf of cutch. [ ] parsee is the name of the descendants of the ancient persians, who still retain the usages and religion of their forefathers. there are many of these followers of zoroaster at bombay, where they form, if not the most numerous, the most respectable part of the native community. [ ] this old sailor is now no more. he continued unlucky till he found a generous patron at bombay, whose active benevolence gave repose and comfort to his latter days. chapter ii. muscat. "land from the mast-head!" "what does it look like?" "high land, sir, on the larboard bow, stretching away to the north-west." "can you see land to starboard?" "no." "then," says the captain, with some little swell, "we have just hit it; the watch is a good one; and three or four hours of this will bring us into muscat." the prediction proved correct. now, if i understood perspective and retrospective, how i would delight my readers by contrasting the barren rocky hills of arabia, where not a trace of vegetable nature is to be found, with the shaded shores of ceylon, and the dark forests that clothe the lofty mountains of malabar! but i am not a picturesque traveller; suffice it therefore to say, the arid hills we were now contemplating protect, by almost encircling it, a cove, at the extremity of which is a small plain, crowded with high houses, which form the city of muscat. this emporium to the trade of the persian gulf is defended by batteries which command its narrow entrance, as well as by fortifications that cover every part of the uneven and mis-shapen hills and crags around it. muscat is governed by a prince whose title is imâm, and whose authority, like that of many chiefs in arabia, is more of a patriarchal than despotic character. though he has large fleets, including some fine frigates, and a considerable army to garrison his possessions on the coast of africa, the shores of arabia, and the islands of the persian gulf, he must attend to the summons of any inhabitant of muscat who calls him to a court of justice. your sceptics who deny the existence of any just administration of power, except in the commonwealth of europe, may call this a mere form. be it so: yet the knowledge that such a form was observed went far, in my mind, to mark the character of this petty government. but it is the eye, the disposition, and the judgment of the observer, more than what is actually seen, that stamps the condition of distant nations with those who have to form their opinions at second-hand; and the generality of readers, who have their happiness grounded on a natural prejudice in favour of their own ways and usages, lean toward such as minister to their pride and patriotism, by throwing a dark shade on all they meet different from old england, or some of those countries in its vicinity, for which their good climate, cheap viands, and well flavoured wines have created a predilection. the eastern hemisphere continues to have a certain venerable air with old men from a belief that the star of knowledge first enlightened its horizon: children delight in it from its containing the enchanting tales of the "thousand and one nights;" ladies admire its flowered muslins, rich shawls, pure pearls, and brilliant diamonds; merchants view it as a source of commercial wealth; the naturalist, the botanist, and the geologist, search its plains, its forests, and its mountains, for unicorns, spikenard, splendid specimens of zeolite, and grand basaltic formations; the english soldier looks to its fields for a harvest of reputation; while pious missionaries sally forth with more than military zeal, to reclaim the millions of the east from their errors, and direct them in the path of life. almost all these, however different their objects, concur in one sentiment, that the rulers of the east are despots, and their subjects slaves; that the former are cruel, the latter degraded and miserable, and both equally ignorant. i had seen the father of the present imâm of muscat when i accompanied a former mission to persia; we had been introduced to him on board the ganjava, his flag ship, of a thousand tons burthen, and carrying forty guns. we found him, though surrounded with some state, very simply attired; he had a shawl rolled round his head as a turban, and the arab cloak, which hung over his plain robes, was of white broadcloth, no way ornamented; he wore no jewels, and had no arms, not even a dagger, about his person; his manner was plain and manly, and marked his active enterprising character. the eyes of his crew (arabs, nubians, and abyssinians), who were upon or near the quarter-deck, though they wandered now and then among his visitors, were usually fixed on their prince; but their countenance indicated affection, not fear; and i could not but observe that he never looked at or spoke to any of them but with kindness. during this visit, while we were sitting under the awning spread over the deck, several captains of his largest vessels, who had just arrived from bussorah, came on board. the imâm was in the cabin with the envoy, and before he came out, i was pleased to see the hearty manner in which these commanders saluted and were received by almost all on board. "salâm alicum!" (peace be with you!) was heard from all, while every one who met a friend took his right hand, and, after shaking it, raised it as high as his breast. what appeared singular, was the extent of this cordial and familiar greeting; it was not limited by those rules which are found necessary in more civilised societies. the arab sailor, however low his occupation, exhibited an ease and independence in addressing the commanders, which showed that, as far as the intercourse between man and man was concerned, he deemed himself his equal. i asked a person sitting near me, if this familiarity did not now and then interfere with discipline? "no," he answered; "the line is well understood, and in cases of deviation there is a severe punishment; for with us, arabs, the right of addressing our superiors, as you have now seen, is our proudest privilege, and its loss, which would be the consequence of the abuse of it, would be deeply felt, both as a privation and a disgrace." the above scene was interrupted by the opening of the cabin door, and every one fell into his place as the imâm came upon deck. he stood while the commanders, who had returned from their voyage, advanced in their turns, according to their rank, and, taking his extended right hand in both theirs, pressed it, at the same time bending their bodies in a low bow, after which they raised their right hand in salutation to their head, then placing it on their heart, retired backwards. the imâm, after this ceremony was ended, seated himself, desiring us and all his principal officers to do the same. we had a dinner prepared on board, of which the whole party partook; and when we came away, i was struck, as we passed under the stern of the vessel, by seeing some of the imâm's ladies, among whom was his favourite wife, unveiled, looking at us with eager curiosity. they appeared much pleased, which we imputed to the notice the envoy had taken of the imâm's sons, two fine boys, each of whom was gratified with appropriate presents. the view i had taken of the imâm's court--the intercourse we had with him, his sons, and chief officers--the security which i observed merchants and other inhabitants, both mahomedan and hindu, enjoying at muscat, gave me a very pleasing impression of that place, and i had made a sketch of the manners and customs of the people, no way unfavourable. this i showed one day to a friend, who was a captain in the navy, who, rather to my surprise, burst into a fit of laughter, and said, he could show me a very opposite picture of the same scene. "there is an order from the admiralty," said he, "that the officers of a man-of-war, when they visit a port little known, should describe the manners and customs of the inhabitants. i have a blunt fellow of a master, an excellent seaman, but who troubles himself very little with matters on shore. curious to have his observations, and knowing that he had two or three times visited the town of muscat, i insisted on his complying with orders, and filling up the column of his journal. he evaded this duty as long as he could: at last, in despair, he went to his cabin, and returning with his book, said, 'there, sir, i have obeyed orders, and you will find all i could write about these black fellows, and all they deserve.' i took the journal and read, 'inhabitants of muscat. 'as to manners they have none; and their customs are very beastly.'" this picture of the good master will no doubt be deemed by many truer than mine; and travellers who limit their observations to the busy beach, crowded with slaves, covered with packages of dates, blackened with flies, and scented with putrid salt fish, will be certain to prefer this laconic description of this rude and dirty people; or, supposing them to enter the vile narrow streets of the town, and see (as they may) strings of slaves walking, with a man following and calling out their prices as he exhibits them in this ambulatory auction:--"number one--handsome young man, five hundred piastres; number two--a little older, but very healthy and strong, four hundred piastres;" and so on till he describes his whole string of unhappy bipeds:--who would not turn with indignation and disgust from such filth and abomination! if, however, we have nerve enough to look a little farther into the scene which has been described, we shall find that the reason why houses are crowded upon each other, till cleanliness becomes impossible, is because men and their property are protected at this port against injustice and oppression; and our disgust at the effect will in a great degree be removed by contemplating the cause. even with regard to the sale of slaves, of which muscat is the great mart, though the mode of disposing of them appears to justify the master's designation of the inhabitants as "beastly in their customs," yet when we take a comparative view of the fate of the victims of this commerce, from the stain of which our own country is hardly yet purified, and which is still carried on, openly or clandestinely, by almost every power of civilised europe, we shall be compelled to acknowledge the superior humanity of asiatic nations. the slave in eastern countries, after he is trained to service, attains the condition of a favoured domestic; his adoption of the religion of his master is usually the first step which conciliates the latter. except at a few sea-ports, he is seldom put to hard labour. in asia there are no fields tilled by slaves, no manufactories in which they are doomed to toil; their occupations are all of a domestic nature, and good behaviour is rewarded by kindness and confidence, which raises them in the community to which they belong. the term gholam, or slave, in mahomedan countries, is not one of opprobrium, nor does it even convey the idea of a degraded condition. the georgians, nubians, and abyssinians, and even the seedee, or caffree, as the woolly-headed africans are called, are usually married, and their children, who are termed house-born,[ ] become, in a manner, part of their master's family. they are deemed the most attached of his adherents: they often inherit a considerable portion of his wealth; and not unfrequently (with the exception of the woolly-headed caffree) lose, by a marriage in his family, or by some other equally respectable connexion, all trace of their origin. according to the mahomedan law, the state of slavery is divided into two conditions--the perfect and absolute, or imperfect and privileged. those who belong to the first class are, with all their property, at the disposal of their masters. the second, though they cannot, before emancipation, inherit or acquire property, have many privileges, and cannot be sold or transferred. a female, who has a child to her master, belongs to the privileged class; as does a slave to whom his master has promised his liberty, on the payment of a certain sum, or on his death. the greatest encouragement is given in the koran,[ ] and by all commentaries on that volume, to the manumission of slaves. mahomed has said, "unto such of your slaves as desire a written instrument, allowing them to redeem themselves, on paying a certain sum, write one, if ye know good in them, and give them of the riches of god, which he hath given you." it is in obedience to this precept that pious mahomedans often grant small pieces of land to a slave, or teach him a profession, that he may, through industry and frugality, attain the means of paying for his freedom, at the same time that he acquires habits which render him worthy of the great gift. mahomedans are also encouraged to manumit their slaves by the law, which gives them a title, as residuary heir, to any property which the person to whom they may have granted freedom dies possessed. on one point the slaves in mahomedan countries are on a footing with free females: they are only liable, for any crimes they commit, to suffer half the punishment to which a free man would be subject. this law proceeds on the ground of their not being supposed on a par, as to knowledge or social ties, with other parts of the community. the application, however, of this principle of justice to cases where the law awards death or amputation, has puzzled the wise moullahs, or doctors, who have resorted to the usual remedy, of writing ponderous volumes upon the subject; but i do not learn that they have yet discovered a plan by which an offending woman or slave can be punished with the loss of half a life; or an operation be performed, which will leave them with a half-amputated limb. to return to muscat: i had visited it at all seasons; it was now winter, and the climate was pleasant; in summer, the heat is intolerable. shut out by the hills from every breeze, except that which blows directly into the narrow entrance of the cove, there is seldom a breath of air; and the reflection of the sun, from the bare rocks and white fortifications which overhang the town and harbour, produces a temperature, which is described by a persian poet as giving to a panting sinner a lively anticipation of his future destiny! the young imâm, syed sayed, was absent on an expedition; but i regretted this the less as i had seen his father, who was, in simplicity of manners, good sense, and courage, the equal of his deserving son. among the first who came on board, i was pleased to see my old friend, mahomed gholoum. being a good seaman, he had, on the former mission, in the year , acted as our pilot from muscat to ormus. he was now advanced to be a pilot of the state, being one of the principal ministers of the young imâm, of whose character he spoke in high praise. "his father," said he, "was a brave man; he was killed in battle; and if his son goes on exposing himself everywhere, he will be killed also. he will regret much not seeing the envoy, of whose kindness to him when a boy he retains a grateful recollection; for he preserves with great care the model of a seventy-four gun ship, with which he was presented by him." mahomed gholoum was not changed by his prosperity, but retained all the frankness and manliness of an arab sailor. we had many old stories, and at one, in which he was a prominent actor, he laughed very heartily. he had wished to take our vessel, the bombay frigate, to the southward of ormus; but as we neared that island, the wind headed us, as the sailors call it, at the same time that it increased to a gale, and our pilot told the captain we had nothing left but to run for the harbour we desired to make, by steering between the island and the persian shore. we did so; the weather became worse--it blew a hurricane; the channel, which is narrow, was missed, and we touched on a mud-bank, where the ship settled for a moment, and the waves dashed over her. the captain ordered more sail, to try and force her through the mud, exclaiming at the same time, "i would rather give a lac of rupees than lose the company's ship." "never mind the company's ship," said a passenger, "so you land us safe." the seaman in the chains kept heaving the lead, and calling "quarter less three." "what is the use of your quarter less three," said an impatient landsman, "when the ship is aground?" "that's the captain's business, not mine," said the unconcerned jack, and again he hove, and again he called "quarter less three." at this moment my attention was drawn to my friend mahomed gholoum, who was appalled by an irish officer's exclaiming, "i do not understand your vile lingo; but i will cut your throat, (and he sawed with his finger across his windpipe to make him comprehend what he meant,) i will cut your throat, you ignoramus, for drowning of gentlemen in this rascally sea." as these scenes were passing, the press of sail which had been put upon our vessel forced her over the bank: a few minutes more saw us safe in the harbour of ormus, and all our danger forgotten. mahomed gholoum, quite exhausted, had, soon after we anchored, fallen asleep on a couch in the captain's cabin; but he was dreaming of past events, and when i shook him, to make him rise to partake of supper, he started up, and with a wild look called out, "how many fathom have you?" we told him to take his seat, and we would teach him, mahomedan as he was, to fathom a bowl. soon after our arrival at muscat, we were visited by men of all nations and colours. i was principally attracted by the appearance and manners of some arabs from the interior, who were brought on board by their countrymen to see an english ship of war. their figures were light and elastic, their countenances expressed quickness and energy. the most remarkable of their features were their dark rolling eyes, which perhaps struck me more from their wandering rapidly from one object to another, glistening with wonder at all they saw. a good telescope happened to be placed so as to give a complete view of one of the farthest fortifications. i called an arab to look through it, and he did so for about a minute, then gazed with the most eager attention at me, and, without saying a word, dashed over the ship's side. when the boat he was in got to a little distance, he exclaimed, "you are magicians, and i now see how you take towns; that thing (pointing to the telescope), be they ever so far off, brings them as near as you like." we were much amused with his simplicity, but no arguments could prevail on him to return and receive such a lesson on optics as might dispel his delusion in supposing us to be adepts in the black art. the arabs at muscat gave a luxuriant description of some beautiful valleys about twenty miles from that town; but the result of minute inquiry forced us to conclude that the green meadows and clear streams they described owed much of their value to their rarity, and that the title of arabia the happy is rather founded on the barrenness of the far greater part of this renowned land, than on anything wonderful either in the climate or productions of the tract to which it is applied. footnotes: [ ] khâna-zâdeh. [ ] vide sale's koran, vol. ii, p. . chapter iii. the persian gulf and abusheher. when we had fairly entered the persian gulf i found myself on classic ground, where all the wonderful adventures of sinbad the sailor were, what a genuine yankee would call located. i sent for an arabian servant called khudâdâd, and asked him who were the inhabitants of the barren shore of arabia that we saw. he answered, with apparent alarm--"they are of the sect of wahâbees, and are called jouassimee; but god preserve us from them, for they are monsters. their occupation is piracy, and their delight murder; and to make it worse, they give you the most pious reasons for every villainy they commit. they abide by the letter of the sacred volume, rejecting all commentaries and traditions. if you are their captive, and offer all you possess to save your life, they say 'no! it is written in the koran that it is unlawful to plunder the living, but we are not prohibited in that sacred work from stripping the dead;' so saying, they knock you on the head. but then," continued khudâdâd, "that is not so much their fault, for they are descended from a houl, or monster, and they act according to their nature." i begged he would inform me about their descent. he seemed surprised at my ignorance, and said it was a story that he thought was known to every one in the world, but proceeded to comply with my request. "an arab fisherman," said he, "who lived in a village on the persian gulf, not far from gombroon, being one day busy at his usual occupation, found his net so heavy that he could hardly drag it on shore. exulting in his good fortune, he exerted all his strength: but judge of his astonishment, when, instead of a shoal of fish, he saw in his net an animal of the shape of a man, but covered with hair. he approached it with caution; but finding it harmless, carried it to his house, where it soon became a favourite; for, though it could speak no language, and utter no sound except 'houl, houl,' (from whence it took its name,) it was extremely docile and intelligent; and the fisherman, who possessed some property, employed it to guard his flocks. "it happened one day that a hundred persian horsemen, clothed in complete armour, came from the interior, and began to drive away the sheep. the houl, who was alone, and had no arms but a club, made signs for them to desist; but they only scoffed at his unnatural appearance, till he slew one or two who approached too near him. they now attacked him in a body; but his courage and strength were surpassed by his activity, and while all fell who came within his reach, he eluded every blow of his enemies; and they fled, after losing half their numbers. "the fisherman and his neighbours, when they heard of the battle, hastened to the aid of the faithful houl, whom they found in possession of the horses, clothes, and arms of the vanquished persians. an arab of the village, struck with his valour, and casting an eye of cupidity at the wealth he had acquired, offered him the hand of his daughter, who was very beautiful, and she, preferring good qualities to outward appearance, showed no reluctance to become the bride of this kind and gallant monster. their marriage was celebrated with more pomp than was ever before known in the village; and the houl, who was dressed in one of the richest suits of the persians he had slain, and mounted on one of their finest horses, looked surprisingly well. he was quite beside himself with joy, playing such antics, and exhibiting such good humour, strength, and agility, that his bride, who had at first been pitied, became the envy of every fisherman's daughter. she would have been more so, could they have foreseen the fame to which she was destined. she had four sons, from whom are descended the four tribes of ben jouassim, ben ahmed, ben nasir, and ben saboohil, who are to this day known by the general name of ben houl, or the children of houl. they are all fishermen, boatmen, and pirates, and live chiefly at sea, inheriting, it is believed, the amphibious nature of their common ancestor." after this tale was concluded, i asked khudâdâd what kind of men inhabited those high mountains which we saw rising on the persian shores of the gulf. delighted at this second opportunity of showing his knowledge, he replied, "they also are robbers, but they are not so bad as the jouassimee. they refer their first settlement in these mountains to the devil; but then they are the children of men, and their nature is not diabolical, though their deeds are sometimes very like it." on questioning khudâdâd further, i found he had the popular story taken from firdousee,[ ] and that he kept pretty near to his text; but i shall give it in his own words. "you have heard of zohâk, prince of arabia?" i said i had. "well then," he continued, "you know he was a very wicked man. he conquered jemsheed, king of persia, who was in those days deemed the most glorious monarch on earth. after this great success zohâk was tempted by the devil, who allured him, under the shape of a venerable old man, to kill his father, that he might become king of arabia as well as persia. in those days men lived on vegetable diet; but the devil, anxious to destroy as many of the human race as he could, tempted zohâk with some new roasted eggs, and perceiving him to relish his food, proposed to cook him a dish of partridges and quails, with the flavour of which the prince was so delighted that he bade his friend ask any favour he liked. the wily old man said all he wished was to kiss the shoulders of his beloved monarch. they were bared for that purpose; but no sooner had the infernal lips touched them than out sprang from each a ravenous serpent, and at the same time the venerable old man changed to his natural shape, and disappeared in a thunder-storm, exclaiming that human brains alone would satisfy the monsters he had created, and that their death would be followed by that of zohâk. "it fell out as the devil foretold: the serpents refused all other food, and, for a period, two victims were daily slain to satisfy them. those charged with the preparation of this horrid repast, seeing the devil's design, determined on frustrating it; and while they paraded before zohâk and his serpents the persons who were doomed to death, they substituted the brains of sheep, and sent their supposed human victims to the mountains of kerman and lauristan, where they increased, and became a great people, and their descendants still inhabit these hills. there can be no doubt," said khudâdâd, gravely, "of the truth of what i have told you; for it is all written in a book, and a fine poem made upon it, which is called the shâh-nâmeh, or book of kings." having acquired this correct information about the shores of the gulf, i landed at abusheher,[ ] a persian sea-port, celebrated as the mart of chintzes and long-ells, of dates and asafoetida. we were met on the beach by the whole population of the town. what appeared to excite most admiration was the light company of his majesty's th regiment, whose uniform appearance caused no slight wonder. struck with their similarity of look, one man exclaimed, "these fellows must all have had the same father and mother!" "that cannot be," said another, "for they must all have been born on the same day." "they are proper devils, i'll warrant them," said an old woman, who had been looking at them very attentively. they had now received the order to march; and the regularity with which their feet moved was a new subject of surprise. an old merchant, called hajee ismael, whose life had been spent amongst his accounts, and who delighted in everything that was regular, stood at a corner as they passed in files, and kept saying, as he noted them with his fingers, "correct,[ ] correct, correct." take it all in all, our landing seemed to give great pleasure to the men, women, and children of the port of abusheher. we had not been on shore a week before two events occurred, one of which showed what the persians thought of us, and the other taught us what we should think of them. before the year no political mission from an european nation had visited the court of persia for a century; but the english, though only known in that kingdom as merchants, had fame as soldiers, from the report of their deeds in india. an officer of one of the frigates, who had gone ashore to visit the envoy, when mounted on a spirited horse, afforded no small entertainment to the persians by his bad horsemanship. the next day the man who supplied the ship with vegetables, and who spoke a little english, met him on board, and said, "don't be ashamed, sir, nobody knows you: bad rider! i tell them, you, like all english, ride well, but that time they see you, very drunk!" we were much amused at this conception of our national character. the persian thought it would have been a reproach for a man of a warlike nation not to ride well, but none for an european to get drunk. the other occurrence was still more characteristic. the envoy or elchee,[ ] as the persians called him, had, among other plans for doing good, one for the introduction of potatoes. among those who listened to him, and applauded his disinterested intentions to benefit persia, was a fat, smooth-faced young merchant, who obtained a promise of a considerable quantity of potatoes for seed, having (according to his own report) rented a large piece of ground, that he might be an humble instrument in the hands of the british representative for doing good. the latter, pleased with his zeal, honoured this excellent man with such particular attention, that, conceiving himself a prime favourite, he ventured one day to suggest that "as the season was too far advanced for the potatoe-garden that year, it would not be unworthy of the elchee's wonted liberality to commute his intended present for a pair of pistols, or a piece of british broadcloth." this premature disclosure of the real object of this professed improver of the soil produced no little ridicule, in which his countrymen, who were jealous of the favour he had enjoyed, joined most heartily. he was known till the day of his death, which happened three years ago, by the name of potatoes. it is satisfactory to add, that the plan for introducing this valuable root did not fail: they were found to flourish at abusheher, where they are called "malcolm's[ ] plum," after the elchee, who looks to the accident which gave his name to a useful vegetable as one of his best chances of enduring fame. the english factory, which had long been at gombroon, had been removed some years before to abusheher. all the old servants had accompanied it, and one, of the name of suffer, had recently died, of whom i was delighted to hear, from the best authority, an anecdote, which did credit to the kindness of our countrymen, while it showed that even in this soil, good usage will generate strong and lasting attachment. when poor suffer, who had been fifty years a servant in the factory, was on his death-bed, the english doctor ordered him a glass of wine. he at first refused it, saying, "i cannot take it; it is forbidden in the koran." but after a few moments he begged the doctor to give it him, saying, as he raised himself in his bed, "give me the wine; for it is written in the same volume, that all you unbelievers will be excluded from paradise; and the experience of fifty years teaches me to prefer your society in the other world, to any place unto which i can be advanced with my own countrymen." he died a few hours after this sally, which i was glad to observe proved of value to his son, a rough-looking lad named derveish, who was introduced by the resident to the envoy, at the time the former told the story of the father's attachment. derveish was taken into service, and i have watched his gradual advancement till he has become the proprietor of a large boat, which is the ne plus ultra of the ambition of an abusheheree. the natives of this place are almost all of arab race, and fond of the sea; a propensity the more remarkable, as it is in such strong contrast with the disposition of the persians, of whom all classes have an unconquerable antipathy to that element. but this is not the only characteristic distinction between these classes of men, who appear to agree in nothing but in dwelling in the same town. the persians, who have been tempted by the hope of gain to exchange the fine climate of the elevated plains of the interior, for the sea-ports on the edge of the sultry desert, which forms the shores of the gulf, retain all the smooth pliant manners of their country; and they look with disgust on what they deem the rude barbarous habits of the arabians, who are the great body of the inhabitants of this track, and who can scarcely be distinguished, either in look or sentiment, from their kindred on the opposite shore. a remarkable instance of the difference of character, between the lower orders of these two classes, occurred one morning, when the envoy was preparing a match, to be run by a beautiful english greyhound called venus, and a strong arabian dog named kessâb, or the butcher. he was giving directions to his master of the chase, hyder, and expressing his sanguine hopes of venus's success: mahomed beg, a tall well-dressed persian groom, assented to all his anticipations, saying, "what pretensions can that arab dog have to run with the beautiful greyhound of the elchee?" others joined in the same language, and the opinion appeared general, when an arab, called gherreeba,[ ] whose pay was only four piastres[ ] a month, whose chequered turban and cloth round his middle were not worth one, and whose occupation was sitting all day exposed to the sun, watering some grass screens that were placed against the door of the house to exclude the heat--darted up, and, with an eye of fire and the most marked energy, exclaimed, "by the all-powerful god, the arab dog will triumph."[ ] gherreeba was for the moment the representative of the feelings of his country. the parasites around stood watching the elchee, and were not a little mortified when they heard him applaud the honest warmth and manly independence of the poor arab, who was invited to witness the trial. it ended, like most similar trials, in each party being convinced that their own favourite was, or ought to have been, the winner. the dogs ran as usual beautifully: venus was by far the fleetest; but the chase, which was after a half-grown antelope, proved long, and the strength of the butcher prevailed towards the close. it is however, justice to the deer species, while we are praising the canine, to add, that the antelope beat them both. footnotes: [ ] firdousee is the first of the epic poets of persia, and few countries can boast of a greater genius. his chief work, the shâh-nâmeh, or book of kings, contains, mixed with allegory and fable, almost all the persians know of their ancient history. [ ] abusheher is the proper name, but it is better known to europeans by the abbreviated appellation of bushire. [ ] "hissab," the persian word, literally means an account; metaphorically, "correct, or according to a just account." [ ] elchee means ambassador, or representative of a foreign nation. [ ] alou, e, malcolm. [ ] gherreeb means poor--this man was really so; but it is not unusual to meet mahomedans, who are remarkable for their rank, pride, or wealth, with names of similar character, that have been given by their mothers in a spirit of religious humility. [ ] the value of a piastre is about twenty pence. [ ] billâh il azeem yadhfar al arab. chapter iv. camp at abusheher--horses--abdûlla aga--anecdote of arab. soon after we arrived at abusheher our camp looked like a fair for horses and mules. it was necessary to mount, not only the elchee and his suite, but his escort of english and indian cavalry, and all the servants, public and private; for in persia nobody walks. to suit the different persons of our party, animals of different descriptions were wanted; from the coarse persian galloway[ ] to the arabian of pure strain,[ ] many of which are bred on the persian shore, with as much attention to preserve the original blood, as imported from arabia, as could be shown in the first race-studs in england. hyder, the elchee's master of the chase, was the person who imparted knowledge to me on all subjects relating to arabian horses. he would descant by the hour on the qualities of a colt that was yet untried, but which, he concluded, must possess all the perfections of its sire and dam, with whose histories, and that of their progenitors, he was well acquainted. hyder had shares in five or six famous brood mares; and he told me a mare was sometimes divided amongst ten or twelve arabs, which accounted for the groups of half-naked fellows whom i saw watching, with anxiety, the progress made by their managing partner in a bargain for one of the produce. they often displayed, on these occasions, no small violence of temper; and i have more than once observed a party leading off their ragged colt in a perfect fury, at the blood of daghee or shumehtee, or some renowned sire or grandsire, being depreciated by an inadequate offer, from an ignorant indian or european. the arabs place still more value on their mares than on their horses; but even the latter are sometimes esteemed beyond all price. when the envoy, returning from his former mission, was encamped near bagdad, an arab rode a bright bay horse, of extraordinary shape and beauty, before his tent, till he attracted his notice. on being asked if he would sell him--"what will you give me?" said he. "it depends upon his age; i suppose he is past five?" "guess again," was the reply. "four?" "look at his mouth," said the arab, with a smile. on examination he was found rising three; this, from his size and perfect symmetry, greatly enhanced his value. the envoy said, "i will give you fifty tomans."[ ] "a little more, if you please," said the fellow, apparently entertained. "eighty! a hundred!" he shook his head and smiled. the offer came at last to two hundred tomans! "well," said the arab, seemingly quite satisfied, "you need not tempt me any farther--it is of no use; you are a fine elchee; you have fine horses, camels, and mules, and i am told you have loads of silver and gold: now," added he, "you want my colt, but you shall not have him for all you have got." so saying he rode off to the desert, whence he had come, and where he, no doubt, amused his brethren with an account of what had passed between him and the european envoy. inquiry was made of some officers of the pasha of bagdad respecting this young man; they did not know him, but conjectured that, notwithstanding his homely appearance, he was the son or brother of a chief, or perhaps himself the head of a family; and such arabs, they said, when in comparative affluence, no money could bribe to sell a horse like the one described. i was one day relating the above story to abdûlla aga, the former governor of bussorah, who was at abusheher, having been obliged to fly from turkey. he told me that, when in authority, he several times had great trouble in adjusting disputes among arab tribes regarding a horse or mare which had been carried off by one of them from another; not on account of the value of the animals, that having been often offered ten-fold, but from jealousy of their neighbour's becoming possessed of a breed of horses which they desired to remain exclusively in their own tribe. an arab shaikh or chief, he told me, who lived within fifty miles of bussorah, had a favourite breed of horses. he lost one of his best mares, and could not for a long time discover whether she was stolen or had strayed. some time afterwards, a young man of a different tribe, who had long wished to marry his daughter, but had always been rejected by the shaikh, obtained the lady's consent and eloped with her. the shaikh and his followers pursued; but the lover and his mistress, mounted on the same horse, made a wonderful march, and escaped. the old chief swore that the fellow was either mounted upon the devil or the favourite mare he had lost. after his return he found, on inquiry, the latter was the case; that the lover was the thief of his mare as well as of his daughter, and that he had stolen the one for the purpose of carrying off the other. he was quite gratified to think he had not been beaten by a horse of another breed, and was easily reconciled to the young man, in order that he might recover the mare, which appeared an object about which he was more solicitous than his daughter. abdûlla aga is a man in whose company i take great pleasure. his understanding is vigorous and strong, and he has sufficient knowledge of the english character to speak his sentiments with freedom and confidence. i shall give the substance of a conversation i had with him about two weeks after my arrival, regarding the present condition of persia and turkey, with the resources and character of both which states he is intimately acquainted. speaking of turkey, he said he had no idea of its having the power to resist the slightest attack; and he believed, if left alone, it would soon fall to pieces of itself.--"i am myself a turk, and know my countrymen well: from the grand signior to the lowest peasant in the empire, they are alike devoid of public virtue and patriotism; and that spirit of religion, which has long been the only bond of union that has kept this unwieldy state together, is every day becoming fainter; and while the wahâbees are making converts of the inhabitants of arabia and syria, the provinces of turkey in europe are relaxing from their religious zeal, and becoming every day more ripe for the rule of those christian nations, under whose power they must soon fall." i could not help saying, i thought he drew an overcharged picture of the weak and distracted state of his country. "you will soon see," he said, "whether i am right or wrong. no man, whatever may be his rank, looks beyond his beard in turkey: if he can find any expedient that gives him a prospect of its growing grey in quiet, he is content; and where all are so decidedly selfish in their views, who is to provide for the safety of the state, to guard which there must be some common sentiment of union?" "what think you of persia?" i asked. "why, twenty times worse than of turkey," replied he; "because they are to the full as devoid of every public principle, and much more ignorant. believe me, you will soon be satisfied that they deserve this character. can there be a doubt, at the present moment, how they ought to act between you and the french? and yet you will be able to settle nothing with them that is in the least satisfactory, without heavy bribes or harsh measures. the latter," he added, "will be the wisest in the present instance; for to feed their cupidity is only to whet their appetite, and to encourage them in a course that will, in its result, prove as injurious to these short-sighted fools as to the interests of the english government." "the elchee's intentions are so friendly," i observed in reply, "and his wishes so correspond with their true interests, that they must, i think, meet them, when all the advantages are explained." "before you anticipate success from such an explanation, you should be certain that those to whom you speak have sense to comprehend you, which the persians certainly have not. they think of nothing at this moment but the russians, with whom they have discovered they are not able to contend. the french pretend to relieve them from this formidable danger, which they have not themselves the courage to face; and they cling to this promise without ever considering how far those who make it have the means of performing it. they neither understand the nature or distance of the resources of england or france, and are consequently incapable of forming a correct idea of the comparative power which those states possess of aiding or injuring them. they know that bombay is within a month's sail, madras six weeks, and calcutta two months; and they believe you have some ships at these places; but even of these they have no clear idea; and as to europe, they are as ignorant as an abyssinian." "assuredly," said i, "you underrate their knowledge." "i do not," said abdûlla; "they are worse than i have painted them, and their ignorance is so fortified by pride, that there is no hope of their amendment. why (said he, with animation), what can you expect from men who are ignorant of the surface of the globe? there," said he, pointing to a rude turkish book on geography, which lay near him, and appeared to be a translation from an old geographical grammar--"there is the only source of my knowledge, which does not place me on a par with one of your schoolboys of twelve years of age; and yet i am a wonder among these fools, who are astonished at the extent of my information in this branch of science." though i think it is a very deep and wise observation of that arch politician machiavel, that the report of a man who has fled his country should not be implicitly trusted, as there must be a bias in his mind to depreciate what he has been obliged to abandon: still there is much truth in the picture which abdûlla drew of turkey, and his description of the persians was not greatly exaggerated. the knowledge of that nation is limited to what they see before them, and their ideas of other states are very indistinct and confused, and consequently liable to frequent fluctuations and changes. all ranks in persia are brought up to admire show and parade; and they are more likely to act from the dictates of imagination and vanity, than of reason and judgment. their character was well drawn by mahomed nubbee khan, the late ambassador to india. "if you wish my countrymen to understand you, speak to their eyes, not their ears." my conversation with abdûlla aga was interrupted by the arrival of a medical gentleman, who had long resided at abusheher, and who was not more remarkable for skill in his profession than a kindness of heart, which led him to devote his time to the poor inhabitants of the country who sought his aid. he had just been setting the broken leg of an arab, of whom he gave us a very characteristic anecdote. "the patient," the doctor said, "complained more of the accident which had befallen him than i thought becoming in one of his tribe. this i remarked to him, and his answer was truly amusing. 'do not think, doctor, i should have uttered one word of complaint if my own high-bred colt, in a playful kick, had broke both my legs; but to have a bone broken by a brute of a jackass is too bad, and i will complain.'" this distinction of feeling, as to the mode in which bones are broken, is not confined to the arabs. i once met an artilleryman, after an action in india, with his arm shattered, who was loudly lamenting his bad fortune. i pointed, in an upbraiding manner, to some fine fellows on the ground, whose luck had been worse. "it is not the wound, sir," he retorted, in a passion, "of which i complain: had i lost a limb by a cannon-ball, i should not have said a word; but to lose one by a rascally rocket would make any one mad!" footnotes: [ ] yaboo. [ ] _regee pak_, the term by which these high-bred animals are distinguished, means literally "pure veins." [ ] a toman is a nominal coin, nearly the value of a pound sterling. chapter v. hunting and hawking--entertainment of the shaikh--tollemache--mirage--nadir shâh and turkish ambassador. we were kept several weeks at abusheher; and among other amusements by which we beguiled the tedium of our sojourn at this dull sea-port, were those of hunting and hawking; which, according to the nimrods of our party, are nowhere found in greater perfection: but as the mode of killing the game differs essentially from that of other countries, i shall describe it, that such sportsmen as can read may judge of its merits. the huntsmen proceed to a large plain, or rather desert, near the sea-side: they have hawks and greyhounds; the former carried in the usual manner, on the hand of the huntsman; the latter led in a leash by a horseman, generally the same who carries the hawk. when the antelope is seen, they endeavour to get as near as possible; but the animal, the moment it observes them, goes off at a rate that seems swifter than the wind; the horsemen are instantly at full speed, having slipped the dogs. if it is a single deer, they at the time fly the hawks; but if a herd, they wait till the dogs have fixed on a particular antelope. the hawks, skimming along near the ground, soon reach the deer, at whose head they pounce in succession, and sometimes with a violence that knocks it over. at all events, they confuse the animal so much as to stop its speed in such a degree that the dogs can come up; and in an instant men, horses, dogs, and hawks, surround the unfortunate deer, against which their united efforts have been combined. the part of the chase that surprised me most was the extraordinary combination of the hawks and the dogs, which throughout seemed to look to each other for aid. this, i was told, was the result of long and skilful training. the antelope is supposed to be the fleetest quadruped on earth, and the rapidity of the first burst of the chase i have described is astonishing. the run seldom exceeds three or four miles, and often is not half so much. a fawn is an easy victory; the doe often runs a good chase, and the buck is seldom taken. the arabs are, indeed, afraid to fly their hawks at the latter, as these fine birds, in pouncing, frequently impale themselves on its sharp horns. the hawks used in this sport are of a species that i have never seen in any other country. this breed, which is called cherkh, is not large, but of great beauty and symmetry. another mode of running down the antelope is practised here, and still more in the interior of persia. persons of the highest rank lead their own greyhounds in a long silken leash, which passes through the collar, and is ready to slip the moment the huntsman chooses. the well-trained dog goes alongside the horse, and keeps clear of him when at full speed, and in all kinds of country. when a herd of antelopes is seen, a consultation is held, and the most experienced determine the point towards which they are to be driven. the field (as an english sportsman would term it) then disperse, and while some drive the herd in the desired direction, those with the dogs take their post on the same line, at the distance of about a mile from each other; one of the worst dogs is then slipped at the herd, and from the moment he singles out an antelope the whole body are in motion. the object of the horsemen who have greyhounds is to intercept its course, and to slip fresh dogs, in succession, at the fatigued animal. in rare instances the second dog kills. it is generally the third or fourth; and even these, when the deer is strong, and the ground favourable, often fail. this sport, which is very exhilarating, was the delight of the late king of persia, aga mahomed khan, whose taste is inherited by the present sovereign. the novelty of these amusements interested me, and i was pleased, on accompanying a party to a village, about twenty miles from abusheher, to see a species of hawking, peculiar, i believe, to the sandy plains of persia, on which the hubara,[ ] a noble species of bustard is found on almost bare plains, where it has no shelter but a small shrub called geetuck. when we went in quest of them we had a party of about twenty, all well mounted. two kinds of hawks are necessary for this sport; the first, the cherkh (the same which is flown at the antelope), attacks them on the ground, but will not follow them on the wing; for this reason, the bhyree, a hawk well known in india, is flown the moment the hubara rises. as we rode along in an extended line, the men who carried the cherkhs every now and then unhooded and held them up, that they might look over the plain. the first hubara we found afforded us a proof the astonishing quickness of sight of one of the hawks; he fluttered to be loose, and the man who held him gave a whoop, as he threw him off his hand, and set off at full speed. we all did the same. at first we only saw our hawk skimming over the plain, but soon perceived, at a distance of more than a mile the beautiful speckled hubara, with his head erect, and wings outspread, running forward to meet his adversary. the cherkh made several unsuccessful pounces, which were either evaded or repelled by the beak or wings of the hubara, which at last found an opportunity of rising, when a bhyree was instantly flown, and the whole party were again at full gallop. we had a flight of more than a mile, when the hubara alighted, and was killed by another cherkh, who attacked him on the ground. this bird weighed ten pounds. we killed several others, but were not always successful, having seen our hawks twice completely beaten during the two days we followed this fine sport. the inhabitants of the country over which we hunted are all arabs. they live, like their brethren in other parts, almost entirely on camels' milk and dates. their care appears limited to the preservation of the animal and the propagation of the tree, which yield what they account the best of this world's luxuries; and these not only furnish this lively race of men with food, but with almost all the metaphors in which their language abounds. of this we had an amusing instance: amongst others who accompanied the elchee on this sporting expedition was a young officer, who measured six feet seven inches: he, like others, had lain down to take an hour's repose, between our morning and evening hunt. an old arab who was desired to awake him, smiling, said to his servant, "entreat your date-tree to rise." we had a hearty laugh at our friend, who was not at first quite reconciled to this comparison of his commanding stature to the pride of the desert. if we were amused by the field-diversions of the persians and arabs, they were equally so with our mode of hunting. the elchee had brought a few couples of english fox-hounds, intending them as a present to the heir-apparent, abbas meerzâ. with this small pack we had several excellent runs. one morning we killed a fox, after a very hard chase; and while the rest of the party were exulting in their success, cutting off poor reynard's brush, praising the hounds, adding some two feet to a wall their horses had cleared, laughing at those who had got tumbles, and recounting many a hair-breadth escape, i was entertained by listening to an arab peasant, who, with animated gestures, was narrating to a group of his countrymen all he had seen of this noble hunt. "there went the fox," said he, pointing with a crooked stick to a clump of date-trees; "there he went at a great rate; i hallooed, and hallooed, but nobody heard me, and i thought he must get away; but when he was quite out of sight, up came a large spotted dog, and then another and another; they all had their noses on the ground, and gave tongue, whow, whow, whow, so loud that i was frightened:--away went these devils, who soon found the poor animal; after them galloped the faringees[ ], shouting and trying to make a noise louder than the dogs: no wonder they killed the fox among them; but it is certainly fine sport. our shaikh has no dogs like these." this last remark was assented to by all present, and the possession of a breed of dogs, which their shaikh had not, added not a little, in the eyes of those peasants, to the character of the mission. we were now busy preparing to leave abusheher. before we took our departure, the shaikh gave the elchee and his suite an entertainment. among other subjects of conversation at this feast, the name of the derveish abdûlla, who had some years before visited that port, and sailed for india, was mentioned. i smiled as they related stories of his sanctity and learning, and still more as i found different parties, a turk, a persian, and an arab, contending for the honour their country derived from his belonging to it. "you have only to hear him speak, and repeat poetry," said hajee ismael, "to be certain he is a persian." "it is his recital of passages of the koran that convinces me he is an arab," said the shaikh. "you may say what you like," said abdûlla aga, "but no man but a native of turkey ever spoke turkish like derveish abdûlla." at this part of the conversation i put in my word, and said, "really, gentlemen, you are all mistaken; the far-famed derveish you mention is a frenchman, his real name is tollemache, and i know him well." it was not a mere smile of incredulity with which they listened. the remark i had made, while it received not the least credit, excited unpleasant feelings, and a friend near me whispered that it was better to abstain from the subject. the following is a short history of this remarkable individual, who has attained such a perfection in the languages and manners of the natives of asia as to deceive the most learned. mons. tollemache, the son of a dragoman at constantinople, was many years ago recommended to mr. warren hastings, who patronised him; but a quarrel, in which he was involved, at calcutta, led to his leaving that city and going to the north-western part of india, from whence he went into the countries of cabool, khorassan, and persia, and was lost trace of by his european friends for twelve years. his latter name in persia was the derveish abdûlla, under which he became renowned for his piety and learning. he had officiated as first reader of prayers[ ] before the late king, who honoured him with his favour. he came to abusheher, from whence he went to surat, where, after his overtures of service to the english government had been refused, he proceeded to the isle of france, and is mentioned in lord wellesley's notes as the person employed there with tippoo sultan's ambassadors. on proceeding afterwards to the red sea he was made prisoner by admiral blanket, and sent to bombay, where i became acquainted with him at the house of a friend with whom he resided. the memory of tollemache was stored with rare persian poems and songs: his conversation was, from his various knowledge, very entertaining. of his power to assume any asiatic character, the following anecdote will suffice. he had been dilating on his success in deceiving natives of the countries through which he passed, and observed me to be rather incredulous. i had not remarked his leaving the room some minutes before i did, but, when driving out of the gate, i was so annoyed by the importunities of a mahomedan mendicant, who was almost naked, that i abused him, and threatened to use my whip, if he did not desist, when the fellow burst into a fit of laughter, and asked me if i so soon forgot my acquaintances? i could hardly credit my eyes and ears on recognising tollemache; and the recollection of this occurrence prevented me saying more to my friends at the shaikh's party, whom i left in the belief that the holy abdûlla was a saint upon earth. the first march from abusheher we had to pass over a desert plain of considerable extent, on which i amused myself by watching narrowly the various changes, as we were near or remote from it, of that singular vapour, called by the french mirage, and by the arabs and persians sirab. the influence of this vapour in changing the figure of objects is very extraordinary; it sometimes gives to those seen through it the most fantastical shapes; and, as a general effect, i think it always appears to elevate and make objects seem much taller than they really are. a man, for instance, seen through it at the distance of a mile and a half upon the level plain appears to be almost as tall as a date tree. its resemblance to water is complete, and justifies all the metaphors of poets, and their tales of thirsty and deluded travellers. the most singular quality of this vapour is its power of reflection. when a near observer is a little elevated, as on horseback, he will see trees and other objects reflected as from the surface of a lake. the vapour, when seen at a distance of six or seven miles, appears to lie upon the earth like an opaque mass; and it certainly does not rise many feet above the ground, for i observed, that while the lower part of the town of abusheher was hid from the view, some of the more elevated buildings, and the tops of a few date trees, were distinctly visible. among the presents for his majesty of persia were two light field-pieces, to which were attached a select detachment of horse-artillery. great care was taken to equip this party in the best style; and as they had a difficult march to perform, they were sent in advance, under the tall officer who has been already mentioned. our third stage to dalkhee was so rough and stony, that we were alarmed lest we should hear bad accounts of their progress; but our fears were all dissipated by the reports of the villagers. "their fathers," they said "had never seen such guns, nor such a young man as their officer." "why," said an old moullah, "i have often seen our guns; they move only a few yards in an hour, though dragged by a hundred oxen and a hundred men, and at every step the air resounds with 'yâ allah! yâ allah!' (o god! o god!) my countrymen being obliged to invoke heaven to help them in their heavy work; but your young officer (who is himself a wonder in size) jumps upon his horse and cries 'tap, tap,' and away trot the guns like feathers. we all came to look at him and his guns, and stared till we were tired; and every one expressed his admiration. as for me, i have commenced a poem upon the party." the elchee, who had been laughing, looked grave at this threat of a kesseda or ode; for he is already overwhelmed with such compositions: every man in persia who can make two lines rhyme in praise of the mission being anxious to change, so soon as possible, the product of his imagination into solid piastres. all our baggage and camp equipage was carried upon mules; and no country can boast of finer animals of this description than persia. they carry heavy burdens, and travel great distances, at a rate of better than four miles an hour. they go in strings; and i was amused to see them, when at the end of the march and unloaded, tied in circles, going after each other, at their usual pace, till they were cool. the khater-bashee, or master of the mules, is a person of the greatest importance. this class of men are generally known by the strength of their frame, and, above all, of their lungs, which are continually exercised in consigning man and beast to every species of torment and evil, both in this world and the next. on the first mission to persia we had a mule-driver called hajee hâshem, who, from his strength and temper, was the terror of caravans. this man, on our second day's march, anxious to unload his mules, refused to pay any attention to the injunctions of peter, the elchee's steward, and carelessly cast a box containing glass upon some loose stones, at the hazard of breaking its contents. peter, who had been educated on board a man-of-war, and was a very stout fellow, irritated beyond bearing at this treatment of his pantry ware, seized hajee by the waist, and before he had time to make an effort, cast him over the animal he had so rudely unloaded; and while the astonished mule-driver lay sprawling, and not yet knowing whether his bones were broken, peter, calling his interpreter, a persian servant, who had learned a little english at bombay--"tell that fellow," he said, in a voice which showed his rage was only half expended, "it is lucky for him that his bones are not so brittle as my glass, of which he will take better care another time." having witnessed this scene, i anticipated a complaint to the elchee; but what was my surprise to learn, that hajee hâshem had petitioned to be exclusively attached, with his mules, to peter's department! he was so; they continued always the best of friends; and no disappointment could be greater than that of the old hajee, when he came to furnish cattle for the second mission, at finding his ally peter was not of the party. the ground of hajee hâshem's attachment to his friend may be deemed extraordinary; but had the master muleteer been a historian, he might have pleaded high authority in his own country, for valuing another for superiority in the rough qualities in which he himself excelled. the emperor of constantinople, mahmood the fifth, the great rival of nadir shâh, desiring to humble the vanity of that conqueror, and knowing he valued himself more on his superior bodily power and stentorian voice that on any other qualities selected, as an envoy to persia, a porter, of extraordinary personal strength and most powerful lungs. the envoy had merely charge of a letter, which he was told to deliver in person to the king, to require an answer, and return. the fame of this remarkable diplomatist preceded him; and nadir was advised not to receive him, as his deputation was deemed an insult. but curiosity overcame all other considerations, and he was introduced one day that there was a very full court. when the turk approached the throne, nadir, assuming his fiercest look, and exerting his voice to the utmost, said, "what do you desire of me?" almost all started, and the hall vibrated to the sound; but the envoy, with an undaunted air, and in a voice of thunder which made nadir's appear like the treble of a child, exclaimed, "take that letter, and give me an answer, that i may return to my master." the court were in amazement; all eyes were turned on nadir, whose frowning countenance gradually relaxed into a smile, and, turning to his courtiers, he said, "after all, the fellow certainly has merit." he was outdone, but he could not help, like hajee hâshem, respecting in another the qualities he valued in himself. nadir is stated to have retorted the intended insult, by saying to the envoy, when he gave him leave to depart, "tell mahmood i am glad to find he has one man in his dominions, and has had the good sense to send him here, that we may be satisfied of the fact." footnotes: [ ] the hubara usually weighs from seven to eleven pounds. on its head is a tuft of black and white feathers; the back of the head and neck are spotted black; the side of the head and throat are white, as well as the under part of the body; the breast is slate-coloured; the feathers of the wing are greenish brown, speckled with black; the bill of a very dark grey; and on each side of the neck is a large and handsome tuft of feathers, black and white alternately. [ ] faringee, which is a corruption of frank is the name given to an european over all asia. [ ] paish namaz. chapter vi. elchee's lectures--mehmandar's journal--arab nurse--blue-beard--persian ceremony--king's picture. the elchee, from the moment we landed in persia, has been lecturing us on the importance of the conduct of every individual, as connected with a just impression of the national character. "these persians," said he to us one day, "have no knowledge beyond their country; they understand no language but their own and arabic; and though all the better classes read, the books to which they have access afford them little if any information, except of asia. europe, in fact, is only known by name, and by general and confused accounts of the fame of its nations, and their comparative greatness. they are, however," he added, "a very keen and observing people, and full of curiosity. in the absence of books, they will peruse us, and from what they hear and see, form their opinion of our country. let us take care, therefore, that nothing is found in the page but what is for the honour of england; and believe me that, with such a people, more depends upon personal impressions than treaties." with these sentiments, every word and act was shaped by him, and, so far as he could command and influence them, by others, to raise the english character. it was not enough that we were to give an example of all kinds of good qualities, but we were to be active and capable of fatigue, to show the persians we were soldiers. the envoy or elchee, as they called him, happened to have a robust form, and a passion for shooting and hunting. it was, therefore, nothing more than an amusement to him to ride fifty or sixty miles of a morning, that he might surpass his mehmandar or entertainer in his own line, but it was far otherwise to many of his suite. i did not like it; and a near relation of his, who was rather weak, and, like me, of sedentary habits, used to inveigh bitterly against these "political rides," as he scoffingly termed them. there was, however, some sense in the elchee's proceedings, as i discovered, when an intimacy with our old mehmandar, mahomed sheriff khan, a burgashattee,[ ] led to his showing me a journal he had written for the information of the court by whom he was deputed, in order to enable them to judge, by the aid of his observations, what kind of a person and nation they had to deal with. i shall transcribe the passage, which was literally as follows:-- "the elchee and the english gentlemen with him, rise at dawn of day; they mount their horses and ride for two or three hours, when they come home and breakfast. from that time till four o'clock, when they dine, the elchee is either looking at horses, conversing, reading, or writing; he never lies down, and, if he has nothing else to do, he walks backwards and forwards before his tent-door, or within it. he sits but a short time at dinner, mounts his horse again in the evening, and when returned from his ride, takes tea, after which he converses, or plays at cards till ten o'clock, when he retires to rest; and next day pursues nearly the same course. "what i chiefly remark is, that neither he nor any of the gentlemen sleep during the day, nor do they ever, when the weather is warm, recline upon carpets as we do. they are certainly very restless persons; but when it is considered that these habits cause their employing so much more time every day in business, and in acquiring knowledge, than his majesty's subjects, it is evident that at the end of a year they must have some advantage. i can understand, from what i see, better than i could before, how this extraordinary people conquered india. my office is very fatiguing, for the elchee, though a good-natured man, has no love of quiet, and it is my duty to be delighted with all he does, and to attend him on all occasions." this journal was written upon observations made before we left abusheher. the poor old mehmandar was compelled, soon after we marched, to slack in his constant attendance; for, as the elchee's duty and inclination coincided, he was seldom satisfied with a stage of twenty or thirty miles, but usually went out in the evening of the same day to hunt, which, no doubt, made the desired impression, and led the persians in his suite to think, if the english, in very sport, so harassed their friends, what would become of their enemies? my friend, mahomed sheriff khan, was, as appears from his journal, a keen observer. he had the reputation of being a good soldier; but his distinguishing feature was pride in his condition as the chief of a tribe, and as representing, in his person, a portion of the authority of the king of kings! this pride, however, which often flamed forth in real or assumed rage, was much regulated in its action by a regard for his own interests. he was always civil to the elchee, and those with him, but to all upon whom his office gave him claims his demeanour was haughty and overbearing, till soothed by concession or bribes. i met the mehmandar one morning, with a man leading a beautiful arab colt, to which he pointed, saying, "that old scoundrel, shaikh nasser (governor of abusheher), had very nearly deprived me of that animal." "what!" said i, "could he venture to take him from you?" "no," said he; "the horse was his; but he had concealed him so carefully that i was near going away without getting him. i heard of him before i left shiraz, and have been on the search ever since i came to abusheher. i have just found him, hidden in an inner room, covered with dirt: and then to hear how the old fool whined about this colt of his favourite daghee,[ ] as he called him. he meant him, he said, to mount his son, a puny wretch, who was standing by, entreating me to listen to his father's prayer, and not to take away their only favourite; to save which, they offered several useless animals and some money. but i laughed out loud," concluded mahomed sheriff khan, stroking his grizzly beard, "and said, they knew little of an old wolf like me, if they thought i was to be moved by their bleating, or tricked by their cunning. 'go,' said i to the old shaikh, 'and build a boat for that hopeful heir of yours; it will befit him better than a horse like this, which is only suited for a son of mine to ride upon.'" i soon afterwards saw old shaikh nasser moving slowly along, muttering his usual phrase, "there's no harm done:[ ] persian scoundrels, arab fools, all will go to hell together! god is just!--well, well, there's no harm done." i spoke to him--he took no notice, but went to his usual seat to superintend some carpenters, who were building a vessel which had been on the stocks about seventy years; there his smothered passion found vent in the most virulent abuse of all his tribe who approached him. when i spoke to him some time afterwards, he seemed in better humour. "this ship," said he, pointing to the ribs of the rude vessel, "will be finished some day or other, and she will hold us all: there is no harm done." mahomed sheriff khan used to laugh at his own habits, which he deemed less personal than belonging to his condition. one day, when riding through the streets, he observed me looking significantly at his tûrkûman horse stretching his long neck to seize some greens, which a man was carrying in a basket on his head--"he has learnt it,"[ ] said my friend, with a smile. when i looked on the desert arid plains which lie between abusheher and the mountains, and saw the ignorant, half-naked, swarthy men and women broiling under a burning sun, with hardly any food but dates, my bosom swelled with pity for their condition, and i felt the dignity of the human species degraded by their contented looks. "surely," said i to khojah arratoon, an armenian (known in the mission by the name of blue-beard),[ ] "these people cannot be so foolish as to be happy in this miserable and uninstructed state. they appear a lively, intelligent race--can they be insensible to their comparatively wretched condition? do they not hear of other countries? have they no envy, no desire for improvement?" the good old armenian smiled, and said, "no; they are a very happy race of people, and so far from envying the condition of others, they pity them. but," added he, seeing my surprise, "i will give you an anecdote which will explain the ground of this feeling. "some time since, an arab woman, an inhabitant of abusheher, went to england[ ] with the children of a mr. beauman. she remained in your country four years. when she returned, all gathered round her to gratify their curiosity about england. 'what did you find there? is it a fine country? are the people rich? are they happy?' she answered, 'the country was like a garden; the people were rich, had fine clothes, fine houses, fine horses, fine carriages, and were said to be very wise and happy.' her audience were filled with envy of the english, and a gloom spread over them, which showed discontent at their own condition. they were departing with this sentiment, when the woman happened to say, 'england certainly wants one thing.' 'what is that?' said the arabs eagerly. 'there is not a single date tree in the whole country!' 'are you sure?' was the general exclamation. 'positive,' said the old nurse; 'i looked for nothing else all the time i was there, but i looked in vain.' this information produced an instantaneous change of feeling among the arabs: it was pity, not envy, that now filled their breasts; and they went away, wondering how men could live in a country where there were no date trees!" this anecdote was told me as i was jogging on the road, alongside my friend blue-beard, on our first march from abusheher. i rode the remainder of the way (ten good miles) without speaking a word, but pondering on the seeming contradiction between the wisdom of providence and the wisdom of man. i even went so far as to doubt the soundness of many admirable speeches and some able pamphlets i had read, regarding the rapid diffusion of knowledge. i changed to a calculating mood, and began to think it was not quite honest, even admitting it was wise, to take away what men possessed, of content and happiness, until you could give them an equal or greater amount of the same articles. before leaving abusheher we had received many proofs of the favour of the prince regent of shiraz. soon after our arrival at that place, a favourite officer of his guards brought a present of twelve mule loads of fruit. when this young man came to pay his respects to the elchee, khojah arratoon desired to withdraw. when asked the reason: "why," said he, "the person who is deputed by the prince is a georgian, the son of my next door neighbour in teflis. when aga mahomed khan plundered that city, in , he was made a prisoner, with twenty or thirty thousand young persons of both sexes; and having since been compelled to become a mahomedan, and now enjoying high rank, he may be embarrassed at seeing me." the envoy said, "it does not signify; you are my treasurer, and must be present at the visit of ceremony: depend upon it he will not notice you." it was as predicted; the bearer of the present, a very handsome young man, superbly dressed, and of finished manners, appeared to have no knowledge of arratoon, though his eye rested on him once or twice. when the visit was over, the good armenian could not contain himself: "the vile mahomedan wretch!" he exclaimed, "he has lost sight and feeling, as well as religion and virtue. have i given him sweetmeats so often, to be stared at as a stranger? i should like to know who was his father, that he should look down upon me. it will be a mournful tale," he concluded, "that i shall have to write to his mother, who is in great distress, and who, poor deluded creature! lives in hopes that there is still some good in this dog of a son of hers." there was a mixture of wounded pride, of disappointment, and humanity, in blue-beard's sentiments, that made them at once amusing, and affecting. he came, however, early next morning to the envoy with a very different countenance, and evidently deeply affected. "what injustice have i not done," said he, "to that excellent young man! he sent a secret messenger to me last night; and when we met, ran to embrace me, and after telling me the short tale of his captivity, sufferings, and subsequent advancement, inquired in the most earnest manner after his mother. he has not only given a hundred tomans to relieve her immediate wants, but has settled that i am to be the agent for future remittances. he informed me that he recognised the friend of his youth, and never had more difficulty than in the effort to appear a stranger; but he explained his reasons for being so cautious: he is not only a mahomedan, but has married into a respectable family, and is a great favourite with the prince, and must, therefore, avoid any conduct that could bring the least shade of suspicion on the sincerity of his faith or allegiance. i shall make his mother very happy," continued blue-beard, who was evidently quite flattered by the personal attention of the young georgian, and the confidence reposed in him; "for i will, when i send her the tomans, tell her my conviction, that her son, whatever he may profess, is a christian in his heart. indeed he must be so; for if he had been a true mahomedan he would have acted like one, and have disowned, not supported, his mother, whom he must consider an infidel." the prince regent of fars, or persia proper, sent, soon after our arrival at abusheher, a young nobleman of his own tribe, hassan khan kajir, to attend the elchee as mehmandar. my intimacy, from old acquaintance, with jaffier khan, governor of abusheher, led to his showing me the letter he had received from his brother, the prince's vizier, regarding the reception of this personage. it is so good a specimen of the minute attention the persians give to forms that i translated it. its contents were as follows:-- "my dear brother, "hassan khan kajir, who is appointed mehmandar to general malcolm, is a nobleman of the first rank and family. he will keep you informed of his progress. when he arrives at dalkhee[ ] he will send on this letter, and write you on the subject of his waiting upon the general, the day he comes to camp. you will proceed to meet him, with all the garrison of abusheher, as far as the date trees on the border of the desert. you will accompany him to general malcolm's tent, and, when he leaves it, you will proceed with him to his own tent, which must be pitched as the general desires, on the right or left of his encampment. if hassan khan kajir arrives in the morning, you will stay and breakfast with him; if in the evening, you will dine with him. your future attention will be regulated by your politeness and good sense, and you will always consider him as a noble guest, who should be entertained in a manner suitable to his rank and the distinguished situation to which he is appointed, of mehmandar to general malcolm." the mehmandar wrote a letter with this, in which he explained to the governor, as modestly as the subject would admit, his own expectations. the governor was anxious to know how the envoy would receive him; and when told that two officers would meet him at a short distance from the camp, and that the escort would be drawn up before the tent at which he alighted to salute him, his mind was at rest, as he was sure such attention would be gratifying to this sixteenth cousin of majesty. hassan khan made his appearance next day, and proved to be a fine young man, about twenty-six years of age, of excellent manners and handsome in person, with grey eyes, and a very pleasing expression of countenance. at this visit he was profuse in professions of the regard in which the king and prince held the elchee, both of whom, he said, were anxious for the advance of the mission. it is not only in attention to persons, deputed by kings and princes in persia, that respect for royalty is shown; it extends to the reception of letters, dresses, and presents, and every inanimate thing with which their name is associated. the object is to impart to all ranks a reverence and awe for the sovereign and those to whom he delegates power. in short, no means are neglected that can keep alive, or impress more deeply, the duty of implicit obedience. some time before we landed at abusheher, the envoys of scind had been at that port on their return from teheran. they carried, among other presents to their prince, a picture of his majesty, fatteh ali shâh. this painting was carefully packed in a deal box; but the inclosed image of royalty could not be allowed to pass through his dominions without receiving marks of respect hardly short of those that would have been shown to the sovereign himself. the governor and inhabitants of abusheher went a stage to meet it: they all made their obeisance at a respectful distance. on its entering the gates of the city a royal salute was fired; and when the envoys who had charge of it embarked, the same ceremonies were repeated, and not a little offence was taken at the british resident because he declined taking a part in this mummery. footnotes: [ ] burgashattee is the name of a small turkish tribe, of which this old nobleman was chief. [ ] a celebrated stud-horse of shaikh nasser. [ ] _aibee na dared_, which is literally translated in the text, was a phrase used by this old chief on every occasion. [ ] _amookhta ast._ [ ] the nick-name of blue-beard was given by some of the young men of our party to our treasurer, khojah arratoon, from that colour being one day predominant in the dye he had used to ornament his beard. this excellent man is now no more. [ ] this story has been told by sir john malcolm, in his history, in illustration of some of his facts or opinions; but he has taken this, and many other equally good things, from me, without ever acknowledging them; i shall, therefore, stand on no ceremony when it suits my purpose to reclaim my property. [ ] fifty miles from bushire. chapter vii. mountaineers--valley of kazeroon--virtue of nitric acid--rizâ kooli khan's loss of eyes--extraordinary birds--beautiful valley of dusht-e-arjun--mahomed rizâ khan byat--irish patriotism--persian squire. nothing can be more striking than the change from the gurmaseer, or hot region, as they term the arid track on the shores of the persian gulf, to the fine climate and rich soil of the elevated plains of the interior of that country. after travelling fifty-five miles, we reached the mountains. from the village of dalkhee, famous for its date plantations and streams impregnated with naphtha, and which lies at the foot of the first range, we proceeded by narrow paths, which wound along the face of the rugged and steep mountain we were ascending. when near its summit, we were met by the chiefs of the tribes and villages in the vicinity. these, with their principal adherents, on horseback, were drawn up on the crest of the mountain, while their other followers sprang from rock to rock, firing their matchlocks in honour of the strangers. their ragged clothing, their robust forms, their rapid evolutions (which, though apparently in disorder, were all by signal), amid precipices, where it seemed dangerous to walk, the reports of their fire-arms, reverberating from the surrounding hills, gave an interest to these scenes which a fine writer might dwell on for pages, but i shall content myself with the fact, that we passed in security the two great ranges of mountains that intervene between the sea-shore and the valley of kazeroon; on entering which, our eyes were not only cheered by rich fields, but also with wild myrtle, blackberry bushes, and willows. the latter, shadowing small but clear rivulets, gave me and others a feeling of home, which he who has not travelled in a far distant land can never understand. those of our party who had not been in persia before were quite delighted at the change of scene, and began to give us credit for the roses and nightingales which we promised them on its still happier plains. what they had seen of the inhabitants of the mountains we had passed inclined them to believe the marvellous tales we told of the tribe of mama sunee, who boast of having preserved their name and habits unaltered from the time of alexander the great. we had good reason, when on the first mission, to remember this tribe, who, in conformity to one of their most ancient usages, had plundered a part of our baggage that was unfortunately left without a guard in our rear. the loss would have been greater but for a curious incident. among the camels left behind was one loaded with bottles containing nitric acid, which had been furnished in considerable quantities to us at bombay. the able physician[ ] who discovered its virtues was solicitous that its efficacy should have a fair trial in persia; and it certainly proved a sovereign remedy in an extreme case, but one in which he had not anticipated its effects. the robbers, after plundering several camel loads, came to that with the nitric acid. they cast it from the back of the animal upon the ground. the bottles broke, and the smoke and smell of their contents so alarmed the ignorant and superstitious mama sunees, that they fled in dismay, fully satisfied that a pent-up genie of the faringees had been let loose, and would take ample vengeance on them for their misdeeds. the truth of this was proved by the testimonies of the camel drivers, the subsequent confession of some of the thieves, and the circumstance of several of the loads which were near the nitric acid being untouched. the city of kazeroon is situated near the ancient shapoor, with whose ruins antiquarians are delighted, and whose deserted fields were equally prized by our sportsmen, from their abounding with game. i was myself much amused with a hunt of black partridges[ ] at this place, on which we were accompanied by thirty or forty horsemen. they scattered themselves over a grassy plain, and the moment a partridge was flushed, the man nearest it gave a shout, while such as were in the direction in which it flew rode over the bird, which was hardly allowed to touch the ground before it was raised again, and hunted as before. its flights became shorter; and after three or four, when quite exhausted, it was picked up by one of the horsemen, several of whom had little dogs called "scenters," to aid them in finding the partridge when it took shelter in the long grass or bushes. we caught about twenty brace of birds the first morning that i partook in this sport. rizâ kooli khan, the governor of kazeroon, came to pay the elchee a visit. this old nobleman had a silk band over his eye-sockets, having had his eyes put out during the late contest between the zend and kajir families for the throne of persia. he began, soon after he was seated, to relate his misfortunes, and the tears actually came to my eyes at the thoughts of the old man's sufferings; when judge of my surprise to find it was to entertain, not to distress us, he was giving the narration, and that, in spite of the revolting subject, i was compelled to smile at a tale, which in any country except persia would have been deemed a subject for a tragedy: but as poisons may by use become aliment, so misfortunes, however dreadful, when they are of daily occurrence, appear like common events of life. but it was the manner and feelings of the narrator that, in this instance, gave the comic effect to the tragedy of which he was the hero. "i had been too active a partisan," said rizâ kooli khan, "of the kajir family, to expect much mercy when i fell into the hands of the rascally tribe of zend. i looked for death, and was rather surprised at the lenity which only condemned me to lose my eyes. a stout fellow of a ferash[ ] came as executioner of the sentence; he had in his hand a large blunt knife, which he meant to make his instrument: i offered him twenty tomans if he would use a penknife i showed him. he refused in the most brutal manner, called me a merciless villain, asserting that i had slain his brother, and that he had solicited the present office to gratify his revenge, adding, his only regret was not being allowed to put me to death. "seeing," continued rizâ kooli, "that i had no tenderness to look for from this fellow, i pretended submission, and laid myself on my back; he seemed quite pleased, tucked up his sleeves, brandished his knife, and very composedly put one knee on my chest, and was proceeding to his butchering work, as if i had been a stupid innocent lamb, that was quite content to let him do what he chose. observing him, from this impression, off his guard, i raised one of my feet, and planting it on the pit of his stomach, sent him heels over head in a way that would have made you laugh (imitating with his foot the action he described, and laughing heartily himself at the recollection of it). i sprung up; so did my enemy; we had a short tussle--but he was the stronger; and having knocked me down, succeeded in taking out my eyes. "the pain at the moment," said the old khan, "was lessened by the warmth occasioned by the struggle. the wounds soon healed; and when the kajirs obtained the undisputed sovereignty of persia, i was rewarded for my suffering in their cause. all my sons have been promoted, and i am governor of this town and province. here i am in affluence, and enjoying a repose to which men who can see are in this country perfect strangers. if there is a deficiency of revenue, or any real or alleged cause for which another governor would be removed, beaten, or put to death, the king says, 'never mind, it is poor blind rizâ kooli; let him alone:' so you observe, elchee, that i have no reason to complain, being in fact better defended from misfortune by the loss of my two eyes, than i could be by the possession of twenty of the clearest in persia:" and he laughed again at this second joke. meerzâ aga meer, the persian secretary, when commenting upon rizâ kooli khan's story, said that his grounds of consolation were substantial; for that a stronger contrast could not exist between his condition, as he had described it, and that of others who are employed as revenue officers under the present administration of fars. "i cannot better," said he, "illustrate this fact than by the witty and bold answer given a short time since by one of the nobles to the prince regent at shiraz. the prince asked of his advisers what punishment was great enough for a very heinous offender who was brought before him; 'make him a collector of revenue,' said an old favourite nobleman; 'there can be no crime for which such an appointment will not soon bring a very sufficient punishment.'" we had an amusing account of an adventure which had occurred at kazeroon to two gentlemen of the mission, who had been sent some months before to shiraz. one of these, a relation of the elchee, i have before mentioned as particularly averse to what he deemed unnecessary fatigue of body. but he and his companion had their curiosity so much raised by the accounts they received of two strange creatures, that were said to be in a house at the distance of fifteen miles, that in spite of the severity of the weather (for it was winter), and the difficulties of the road, they determined to go and see them. in answer to their inquiries, one man said, "these creatures are very like birds, for they have feathers and two legs; but then their head is bare and has a fleshy look, and one of them has a long black beard on its breast." but the chief point on which they dwelt was the singularity of their voice, which was altogether unlike that of any other bird they had ever heard of or seen. an old man, who had gone from kazeroon to see them, declared it was a guttural sound very like arabic, but confessed that though he had listened with great attention, he had not been able to make out one word they uttered. when the party arrived, very fatigued, at the end of their journey, the inhabitants of the small village where the objects of curiosity were kept came out to meet them. being conducted to the house where the birds were shut up, the door was opened, and out marched--a turkey-cock and hen! the former, rejoicing in his release from confinement, immediately commenced his arabic. the persians who came from kazeroon were lost in astonishment, while our two friends looked at each other with that expression of countenance which indicates a doubt, between an inclination to laugh or to be angry; the former feeling however prevailed. their merriment surprised the persians, who, on being informed of its cause, seemed disappointed to hear that the birds which appeared so strange to them were very common both in india and england. from the account given by the possessor of the turkeys, it appeared that they had been saved from the wreck of a vessel in the gulf, and had gradually come to the part of the interior where they then were. from kazeroon to dusht-e-arjun is but a short distance, but the ascent is great; and pleased as we had been with kazeroon, we found all nature with a different aspect in this small but delightful valley, which is encircled by mountains, down whose rugged sides a hundred rills contribute their waters to form the lake in its centre. the beauty of these streams, some of which fall in a succession of cascades from hills covered with vines; the lake itself, in whose clear bosom is reflected the image of the mountains by which it is overhung; the rich fields on its margin; and the roses, hyacinths, and almost every species of flower that grow in wild luxuriance on its borders, made us gaze with admiration on this charming scene; while the persians, who enjoyed our looks and expressions of delight, kept exclaiming, "iran hemeen ast!--iran hemeen ast!" this is persia!--this is persia! i was rejoiced on this day's march to meet my old friend mahomed rizâ khan byat, who had come from shiraz to compliment the elchee. he galloped up to me like a boy, calling out "you are welcome." i could hardly believe my eyes on finding him look younger and brisker than he did when i left him ten years before, at the age of sixty-eight, eating, every day, a quantity of opium that was enough, according to the calculation of our doctor, to poison thirty persons unaccustomed to that drug. my regard for the old gentleman had led to my taking no small pains to break him of a habit that i was persuaded would destroy him; and the doctor, from the same impression, was my zealous auxiliary. for him my friend inquired the moment he had welcomed me; when told he was in india, he replied, laughing, "i am sorry he is not here; i would show him that christian doctors, though they can, according to our belief, through the aid and influence of their messiah, work miracles, as he did, by curing the blind and the lame, are not all true prophets. he told me i should die if i did not diminish my allowance of opium; i have increased it four-fold since he in his wisdom predicted my demise, and here i am, near fourscore, as young and as active as any of them:" so saying, he pushed his horse to speed, and turning his body quite round, according to the habit of the ancient parthians with the bow, and the modern persians with the matchlock, fired a ball at a mark in the opposite direction to that in which he was galloping. riding up to me, he first stroked his beard, which was too well dyed to discover a single white hair, and then taking out a box i had given him ten years before, opened it, and literally cast down his throat a handful of opium pills, repeating, "i wish my friend the doctor had been here!" i rode along with mahomed rizâ the remainder of the march; and, according to his account, the condition of persia was greatly improved. indeed the internal peace it had enjoyed since the full establishment of the power of the late king aga mahomed khan, must of itself have produced that effect; for nature has been so bountiful to this country in climate, soil, and in every animal and vegetable production, that man, spoilt as he is by her indulgence, cannot, without great and continued efforts, destroy the blessings by which he is surrounded. i was more pleased at my friend dwelling with a calm and contented mind on this great change, from a knowledge of his history. his father, sâlah khan, was one of the chief omrâhs, or nobles, at the court of nadir shâh when that conqueror was murdered. on that event kings started up in every province. sâlah khan among others entered the lists. he seized upon shiraz, the fortifications of which he extended and improved; but his enjoyment of a royal name was short; he was made prisoner, and put to death by kerreem khan. his son, whose character is marked by the absence of ambition, has passed through life with respect as the chief of a tribe, but without enjoying, or perhaps desiring, any station of consequence. he is of a happy and contented frame of mind, and speaks of the latter part of his father's life as a brilliant but troubled dream of power, to which he was very fortunate not to succeed. the prince and great men of shiraz, on our approaching that city, so loaded the elchee with presents of ice-creams, sweetmeats, preserves, and delicious fruits, that all in camp, down to the keepers of the dogs, were busied in devouring these luxuries. a lion's share was always allotted to a party of the th dragoons, which forms part of the escort. i heard these fine fellows, who were all (with the exception of one man) from ireland, discussing, as they were eating their ices, their preserves, their grapes, and nectarines, the merits of persia. "it is a jewel of a country," says one. "it would be," said a second, "if there were more christians in it." "i don't so much mind the christians," observed his companion, "if i could see a bog now and then, instead of these eternal rocks and valleys, as they call them." "fine though it be," concluded corporal corragan, "i would not give a potatoe-garden in little ireland for a dozen of it, and all that it contains to boot." this patriotic sentiment, which appeared to meet with general concurrence, closed the discussion. the morning we left dusht-e-arjun, i rode a short way with an old reis or squire, who is a proprietor of a considerable part of the valley. "how happy you are," i said, "in possessing a tract so fertile, so beautiful, and with such rich verdure." the old man shook his head: "that verdure you so much admire," said he, "is our ruin; our valley is the best grazing land in persia, and the consequence is, princes and nobles send their mules here to fatten; and while our fields of grain and our gardens are trampled by these animals, we have to endure the insolence, and often the oppression, of their servants; and these fellows in our country (i don't know what they are in yours) are always ten times worse than their masters." footnotes: [ ] the late dr. helenus scott. [ ] the derraj, or black partridge, takes its name from its breast, which is of that colour; the rest of its body is very much variegated. its throat and legs are red, as also the under parts of its tail; its head is black, arched with spotted brown and white feathers, and one spot of white below its eye. this beautiful bird is found in the higher latitudes of india and in persia; it is very common on the banks of the tigris. [ ] ferash is a menial servant employed in a house to keep it clean and take care of the furniture. he also pitches tents, spreads carpets, &c. &c. chapter viii. principal characters of the mission--mahomed hoosein khan--jaffier ali khan--meerzâ aga meer--mahomed hoosein--hajee hoosein--candidates for the elchee's favour. before i proceed further on my journey, i must introduce my reader to some of the principal characters, indian and persian, with whom i associated. these were my companions every where; and i owed much of the information and amusement i derived on my visit to persia to their remarks and communications. no persons could differ more from each other than my friends. this resulted, in part, from their dispositions, but more from the opposite scenes in which they had passed their lives. but a short account of them will best exhibit their respective characters. the first, mahomed hoosein khan, is a person who is attached to the mission, more as a companion to the envoy, than in any specific employment. he is my particular friend, and is one of almost every party in which i mix; rides with me, talks nonsense with me, besides cutting jokes, writing epigrams, and telling stories; therefore i must give a short sketch of him, otherwise he will never be understood. khan sâhib, or "my lord," is the name by which my friend is usually known, though he has a right, from his inheritance, to the higher title of nabob. he is about five feet three inches high; his face, though plain, has an expression which marks quickness and intelligence, and the lively turn of his mind has its effect heightened from an impression of gravity, conveyed by a pair of large spectacles, which, being short-sighted, he always wears. his frame is not robust, and his whole appearance indicates the over-care that has been bestowed upon his childhood, and the enervating pleasures in which his youth, according to the usage of mahomedans of quality, has been passed. he has, however, notwithstanding early habits of luxury, if not of dissipation, received an excellent education. he is a tolerable arabic scholar, and has few superiors in persian; he writes that language with the greatest elegance, and is no mean composer, either in prose or verse. add to these qualifications a cheerful disposition, an excellent memory, with a ready wit, and you have my little friend. the father of khan sâhib was a persian, who went, in early life, to improve his fortunes in india. he succeeded in recommending himself to mr. duncan at benares, and, after that gentleman became governor of bombay, he appointed his persian friend resident at abusheher, and in sent him on a mission to the court of persia. this preferment naturally excited ambitious views: and, among other means by which he sought to ennoble his family, was the marriage of his eldest son, my friend, to the daughter of an ex-prince of the zend family, who being in exile, and poor, was glad that his falling star (to use an asiatic figure) should come in conjunction with one that he thought was in the ascendant. but the father died soon after he had grafted his son on this branch of a decayed tree of royalty, leaving the latter what he often laughingly calls "the sad inheritance of poverty and rank combined with a most dignified wife," who, if he is to be believed, not unfrequently reminds him of her high birth, and is rather wont to dwell upon her condescension in allying herself to him. "i could," he added, the other day, "have given her some reasons for that act of prudence, but it would only have made her worse, and god knows what her violence might have prompted, so i kept quiet." here khan sâhib betrayed his foible, which is certainly extreme prudence. he is in the habit of wearing yellow boots with high heels, loose red cloth trowsers, which are half displayed by a tunic tucked up, like that of the most valiant among the horsemen of persia. his high lamb's-wool cap has, when he is equipped for a march, the true military pinch; two small pistols and a dagger are stuck in his girdle, and to a waistbelt is fastened a powder-flask and a bag of bullets; a large sabre hangs by an embroidered cross-belt, while a shorter sword, for close quarters, is fastened to his saddle; to the front of which is attached a pair of holsters that contain two large horse-pistols. in spite of all these indications of desperate courage, aided by an upright and imposing seat on horseback, and sufficient boldness in galloping to and fro on a smooth plain, there is some want of that forward valour which depends more upon itself than the arsenal of great and small arms it carries for its defence. my friend is quite sensible of this deficiency, and is at times very happy in his allusions to the fact, and can very wittily philosophise upon the causes.--want of stamina--coddled infancy--indulged youth--fear of his father--and terror of his royal wife, form the principal items in the list. "but," he is wont to add, "if i have, from a combination of causes, lost that strength of nerve which constitutes brute courage, i trust i have a manly spirit, the result of reflection, which, on proper occasions, you will always see me exert." this is, no doubt, the case; but i never happened to be present on any of these "proper occasions," and i was one of a party, where we were almost diverted from thinking of danger by his ludicrous behaviour at its approach. the elchee having particular business when we were lying in abusheher roads, had determined to land; though the sea was rough, and the waves ran very high on the bar at the mouth of the harbour. the khan, who had recently been attached to the mission, insisted on going, though advised not: he was very courageous till we came on the bar, where the waves that chased each other seemed at every moment as if they would overwhelm our little bark. to each of these, as they rose and pursued us with their foaming crests, khan sâhib addressed a rapid invocation--"allah, allah, allah!" (god, god, god!) and the moment we were safe from its fury, he, in a still more hurried way, repeated his gratitude; "shooker, shooker, shooker!" (thanks, thanks, thanks!) these invocations and thanksgivings were repeated with great volubility and wonderful earnestness; allah, allah, allah! and shooker, shooker, shooker! continued to sound in our ears for a quarter of an hour; when "al hamd ulillah!" (praise be to god!) pronounced in a slow and composed tone, proclaimed we were in smooth water. i rallied my friend[ ] on the little composure he showed on this occasion; but he defended himself stoutly, saying, he always prayed twice as much at sea as on shore. this i believe; but he is on shore even an indifferent observer of the rites of his religion, and is suspected by some of the orthodox of our party of being a sooffee, or philosophical deist, which seems to me a general name, that includes all, from the saint who raves about divine love, to the sinner who scoffs at the rites of the worship of his country. the next personage is jaffier ali khan, brother to the nabob of masulipatam. this indian mahomedan is a man high in rank though of limited income, and has been from boyhood an intimate friend of the elchee. having married into a persian family, he now resides at shiraz, where he has been for some time employed as an agent. jaffier ali is a tolerable english scholar, but writes that language with more facility than correctness. he was, in his earlier years, extravagant from love of dissipation, and is now imprudent from irresolution. he has acquired a good deal of knowledge, but wants firmness of judgment. the consequence is, that both in conducting his own affairs and those of others, he becomes the dupe of rogues, with whom such a character is sure always to be surrounded. nevertheless, there is such a redeeming simplicity of manner, and such kindness of heart, about poor jaffier ali, that it is impossible for any one to keep up that indignation which his folly often produces. "my friend is not the honest man i thought him," said he one day to me, speaking of a fellow who had duped him; "i have been more foolish than i could have believed, but i will take care another time: yet," he added, with a sympathy for his own weakness, "it is very difficult to deal with these persians, they are so pleasing in their speech and manner, and most of all when they have cheating intentions." mahomed hoosein, who is also an indian, has served the elchee as moonshee, or instructor in the persian language, since the latter was an ensign of eighteen, and has gradually risen with his master, whose confidence he enjoys and merits. he is a modest man, speaks little, but always to the purpose. it is not the habit of the elchee to bring any man in his station prominently forward, and this practice appears exactly to suit the character of the moonshee, which it has perhaps formed. he never goes to the elchee but when he is sent for, and never stays when not wanted; is pleased with any mark of flattering attention, but never appears, like others, to make that his object. with this happy temper, and an honesty that has stood the test of great temptation for more than twenty years, he passes a comparatively still life, amidst all the bustle with which he is surrounded. when not busy writing letters he is employed reading some persian book, chiefly works on the theological disputes between the soonees and the sheas. he holds the tenets of the former; and, with all due reverence to ali, the nephew and son-in-law of the prophet, he thinks, with the turks and arabs, that abubeker, omar, and osman, were true men and good caliphs, and not as the persians, in their enthusiasm for ali, term them, base caitiffs and vile usurpers. the moonshee said to me one day, when i was joking him on his studies, "i do not want to dispute with these red-headed[ ] doctors, but i must fortify myself in my own belief;" and he added, in a low tone of voice, "how can the faith of men be right, whose practice is so wrong? did you ever see or hear such a set of swaggerers and story-tellers? i rejoice my master has seen so much of them; he will think better than he has ever yet done of us poor indians." the next person with whom i must make my readers acquainted is meerzâ aga meer; he is a syed, that is one of the tribe of mahomed, and enjoys great respect among his countrymen, from being a lineal descendant of a holy man, the ameer hemza, whose tomb is at shiraz, and is esteemed one of the most sacred shrines of that city. aga meer is a fine penman, and an uncommonly good writer of letters, which is his occupation. he is of mild and unassuming manners, slow in word and action; his even temper and good sense appear always directed to the object of keeping himself clear of all taint from the scene of cupidity and intrigue in which all around him are engaged. the very opposite of the generality of his countrymen, he endeavours to shun all employment not in his own line; and, though a great favourite with the elchee, he takes nothing on himself, and will, indeed, do nothing without a specific order. aga meer is sometimes ashamed of his countrymen; but he is usually satisfied with showing his feeling by a shrug of his shoulders, and sometimes by averting his head, and is evidently disinclined to inform against or condemn them, when he can avoid such a course without a breach of duty; but whenever duty is in question, this good and honest man is firm and temperate in its fulfilment. i have before mentioned khojah arratoon, the armenian treasurer. this sensible and honest man has the characteristic reserve of his tribe, who, from living in a country where they are subject to oppression, become, from early habit, most guarded in their words and actions. this good man is fond of a joke, but he whispers it to you as if it was a state secret. we call him, as i have stated, blue-beard, from the circumstance of this dye being one day predominant in the colour he had given to this ornament of his face, of the size and form of which he is, and not without reason, proud. he told me his vanity was once not a little flattered by the abuse of a persian, who after exhausting all other topics, concluded by saying, "and then what business has a dog of an unbeliever like you with such a beard?" the most prominent among the lower servants is old hajee hoosein, the head of the personal attendants; he assumes a superiority over his fellow-servants on the ground of his having visited foreign countries; and he boasts that from every one of them he has brought away some advantage or attainment. he has added to a taste for poetry and the marvellous (which he tells me was born with him in persia) a love of antiquities, acquired at bagdad--a knowledge of arab horses, picked up at bussorah--skill in traffic in small wares, learnt at muscat--some theology, and the holy and useful name of hajee or pilgrim, gained by a visit to the prophet's tomb at mecca; and a small but profitable acquaintance with the machinery of clocks and watches, obtained by a short apprenticeship with an eminent horologist at calcutta. this travelled and very accomplished person, though he condescends to hand the elchee his kellian, and to distribute coffee to visitors, is in great request throughout our camp, and with none more than me; and i am rather flattered by the partiality he shows for my society, owing, i suspect, to my having early declared my admiration of his various talents, and in particular of his skill as a watchmaker, on his having succeeded in making an old watch of mine, that had stopped for a twelvemonth, go for nearly one whole day. the above personages are our principal characters; minor gentlemen will speak for themselves when they come upon the stage. besides these attached to our camp, we have numbers who, from frequent visits and dealings, are almost considered as belonging to it. but our mode of proceeding is now understood, and the elchee is not compelled, as he was on his first mission, to guard against attempts of individuals to establish an exclusive influence. two of these, made by very opposite characters, deserve to be recorded. the first was a specious young man of some ability, whose name was hajee abd-ool-hameed, who came from shiraz with a complimentary letter from the minister, cherâgh ali khan, to whom he had promised to discover the real object of the mission, while to others he had professed his intention of making himself the sole medium of communication and intercourse between the english representative and the persian government. he pursued his design with some address; but the elchee seeing him linger at abusheher, and very assiduous in his court, suspected his motives, and one day plainly asked him whether he had any further business, or entertained any expectations of employment? though at first disconcerted by these direct queries, he confessed he had no business except that of recommending himself; and he then represented how impossible it would be to carry on any concerns in persia without a qualified native as an agent, stating at the same time that he himself was exactly the man required. the elchee thanked him for his kind intentions, but informed him that such assistance was not at that moment necessary. if ever it was, he assured abd-ool-hameed his disinterestedness in coming so far to afford it, should not be forgotten. the manner more than the substance of this observation was death to the cherished hopes of the persian expectant. two days afterwards he left the camp and returned to shiraz, where he became actively hostile to the mission, considering himself, by a selfish but common perversion of human reasoning, not merely slighted, but robbed of all the benefits he had anticipated. the rejection of this gentleman's services no doubt prevented many speculators for favour making the efforts they might have intended. but we learned from shiraz, that aga ibrahim, a native of cazveen, who had been long settled as a merchant at shiraz, and was a candidate for the contract for making up tents and other articles wanted for our outfit, ridiculed abd-ool-hameed and his plan, and boasted that he would show them all the way to win a faringee elchee. the intelligence of his intentions, which was written by the moonshee, mahomed hoosein, who had been sent in advance with letters to the prince regent of fars and the king, made us anxious to see this formidable personage. when we were a stage from dusht-e-arjun, he made his appearance. he seemed a merry open-hearted fellow, and, according to his own communications, fond of the good things of this world. he was not over-scrupulous, he said, as to a glass or two of good liquor, and he boasted of having been a boon companion to the king, when his majesty was prince regent at shiraz, before dread of his uncle, aga mahomed and the moollâhs, made him publicly renounce his wicked ways, and march round the city to break all the vessels which contained wine, in order that young and old should be aware of the sincere repentance of the heir apparent of the throne of persia. "i had no uncle with a crown on his head," said aga ibrahim. "i care nothing for priests, and have never yet felt the slightest disposition to alter my ways, except when the liquor was bad; but i take care," said he, with a significant nod to the elchee, "to have it always of the best." this conversation occurred during the day. in the evening, aga ibrahim desired a private interview with the elchee; and after being some time with him, he returned to our party evidently disappointed. we soon discovered the reason: he had caused two loaded camels to be taken to the elchee's tent by a back road, and, after a short preamble, had begged he would accept of both, with their burdens, as a "paish-kesh, or first-offering." one of the camels was loaded with russian brandy, and the panniers which the other carried were (according to his report) two young and beautiful female georgian slaves! the liquor and the ladies had both been politely declined, with many thanks for his intended kindness. our friend, aga ibrahim, was a very different character from abd-ool-hameed. a few glasses of wine which we gave him restored his spirits. "my plan was a good one," he said, "and would, i thought, have won the heart of any faringee. this elchee must have some deep designs on persia, or he could never have resisted such temptations." aga ibrahim had been a great trafficker in the slaves, male and female, which the army of aga mahomed brought from georgia in his irruption into that country in . he had retained one in his own family, of whom he appeared dotingly fond. the more wine he took, the more he spoke of his favourite mariamne. "i have often," said he, "offered to marry her, if she would only become a mahomedan, but all in vain; and really, when she is on her knees praying before her cross, or chanting hymns to the virgin mary, she looks so beautiful, and sings so sweetly, that i have twenty times been tempted to turn christian myself. besides, i can hardly think of paradise as delightful without mariamne!" our jolly good-natured friend went back to shiraz next day with his camels, neither out of humour with us nor himself. he had failed, it was true; but he remained satisfied that it was some mysterious cause, against which human wisdom could not provide, that had defeated his excellent scheme for gaining the heart of a faringee elchee. aga ibrahim was consoled for his first disappointment by having a good share of the employment he desired; and, in all his dealings, he was found as honest as other persian merchants. footnotes: [ ] it is with great regret i state that the witty and accomplished khan sâhib, like many others mentioned in these pages, has paid the debt of nature. he continued in india as in persia to accompany his friend the elchee till , when he fell a victim to the cholera. [ ] kezzelbash, or red-headed, is the appellation by which the persians are known over asia. it is said to have arisen from their wearing red cloth tops to their black lambs'-wool caps. chapter ix. importance of forms--description of those used at visits in persia--difficulties on this subject--happy termination of a battle of ceremonies between the first mission and the petty court of shiraz--persian society--fables and apologues. when we arrived at the garden of shâh cherâgh, within a few miles of the city of shiraz, a halt was ordered for the purpose of settling the forms of our reception. these were easily arranged, as the elchee, though his military rank, from the period of his first mission to the present, had advanced from that of captain to general, claimed only the same respect and attention he had before insisted upon as the representative of a great and powerful government. ceremonies and forms have, and merit, consideration in all countries, but particularly among asiatic nations. with these the intercourse of private as well as public life is much regulated by their observance. from the spirit and decision of a public envoy upon such points, the persians very generally form their opinion of the character of the country he represents. this fact i had read in books, and all i saw convinced me of its truth. fortunately the elchee had resided at some of the principal courts of india, whose usages are very similar. he was, therefore, deeply versed in that important science denominated "kâida-e-nishest-oo-berkhâst" (or the art of sitting and rising), in which is included a knowledge of the forms and manners of good society, and particularly those of asiatic kings and their courts. he was quite aware, on his first arrival in persia, of the consequence of every step he took on such delicate points; he was, therefore, anxious to fight all his battles regarding ceremonies before he came near the footstool of royalty. we were consequently plagued, from the moment we landed at abusheher, till we reached shiraz, with daily, almost hourly drilling, that we might be perfect in our demeanour at all places, and under all circumstances. we were carefully instructed where to ride in a procession, where to stand or sit within-doors, when to rise from our seats, how far to advance to meet a visitor, and to what part of the tent or house we were to follow him when he departed, if he was of sufficient rank to make us stir a step. the regulations of our risings and standings, and movings and reseatings, were, however, of comparatively less importance than the time and manner of smoking our kelliâns and taking our coffee. it is quite astonishing how much depends upon coffee and tobacco in persia. men are gratified or offended, according to the mode in which these favourite refreshments are offered. you welcome a visitor, or send him off, by the way in which you call for a pipe or a cup of coffee. then you mark, in the most minute manner, every shade of attention and consideration, by the mode in which he is treated. if he be above you, you present these refreshments yourself, and do not partake till commanded: if equal, you exchange pipes, and present him with coffee, taking the next cup yourself: if a little below you, and you wish to pay him attention, you leave him to smoke his own pipe, but the servant gives him, according to your condescending nod, the first cup of coffee: if much inferior, you keep your distance and maintain your rank, by taking the first cup of coffee yourself, and then directing the servant, by a wave of the hand, to help the guest. when a visitor arrives, the coffee and pipe are called for to welcome him; a second call for these articles announces that he may depart; but this part of the ceremony varies according to the relative rank or intimacy of the parties. these matters may appear light to those with whom observances of this character are habits, not rules; but in this country they are of primary consideration, a man's importance with himself and with others depending on them. from the hour the first mission reached persia, servants, merchants, governors of towns, chiefs, and high public officers, presuming upon our ignorance, made constant attempts to trespass upon our dignity, and though repelled at all points, they continued their efforts, till a battle royal at shiraz put the question to rest, by establishing our reputation, as to a just sense of our own pretensions, upon a basis which was never afterwards shaken. but this memorable event merits a particular description. the first mission arrived at shiraz on the th of june, . the king of persia was at this time in khorassan, and the province of fars, of which shiraz is the capital, was nominally ruled by one of his sons, called hoosein ali meerzâ, a boy of twelve years of age. he was under the tuition of his mother, a clever woman, and a minister called cherâgh ali khan. with the latter redoubtable personage there had been many fights upon minor ceremonies, but all were merged in a consideration of those forms which were to be observed on our visit to the young prince. according to persian usage, hoosein ali meerzâ was seated on a nemmed, or thick felt, which was laid on the carpet, and went half across the upper end of the room in which he received the mission. two slips of felt, lower by two or three inches than that of the prince, extended down each side of the apartment. on one of these sat the ministers and nobles of the petty court, while the other was allotted to the elchee and suite; but according to a written "destoor-ool-amal," (or program) to which a plan of the apartment was annexed, the elchee was not only to sit at the top of our slip, but his right thigh was to rest on the prince's nemmed. the elchee, on entering this apartment, saluted the prince, and then walked up to his appointed seat; but the master of the ceremonies[ ] pointed to one lower, and on seeing the elchee took no notice of his signal, he interposed his person between him and the place stated in the program. here he kept his position, fixed as a statue, and in his turn paid no attention to the elchee, who waved his hand for him to go on one side. this was the crisis of the battle. the elchee looked to the minister; but he stood mute, with his hands crossed before his body, looking down on the carpet. the young prince, who had hitherto been as silent and dignified as the others, now requested the elchee to be seated; which the latter, making a low bow to him, and looking with no slight indignation at the minister, complied with. coffee and pipes were handed round; but as soon as that ceremony was over, and before the second course of refreshments were called for, the elchee requested the prince to give him leave to depart; and, without waiting a reply, arose and retired. the minister seeing matters were wrong, and being repulsed in an advance he made to an explanation, sent mahomed shereef khan, the mehmandar, to speak to the elchee; but he was told to return, and tell cherâgh ali khan "that the british representative would not wait at shiraz to receive a second insult. say to him," he added, "that regard for the king, who is absent from his dominions, prevented my showing disrespect to his son, who is a mere child; i therefore seated myself for a moment; but i have no such consideration for his minister, who has shown himself alike ignorant of what is due to the honour of his sovereign and his country, by breaking his agreement with a foreign envoy." the elchee mounted his horse, after delivering this message, which he did in a loud and indignant tone, and rode away apparently in a great rage. it was amusing to see the confusion to which his strong sense of the indignity put upon him threw those, who a moment before were pluming themselves on the clever manner by which they had compelled him to seat himself fully two feet lower on the carpet than he had bargained for. meerzâs and omrâhs came galloping one after another, praying different persons of his suite to try and pacify him. the latter shook their heads; but those who solicited them appeared to indulge hopes, till they heard the orders given for the immediate movement of the english camp. all was then dismay; message after message was brought deprecating the elchee's wrath. he was accused of giving too much importance to a trifle; it was a mistake of my lord of the ceremonies; would his disgrace--his punishment--the bastinado--putting his eyes out--cutting off his head, satisfy or gratify the offended elchee?--to all such evasions and propositions the envoy returned but one answer:--"let cherâgh ali khan write an acknowledgment that he has broken his agreement, and that he entreats my forgiveness: if such a paper is brought me, i remain; if not, i march from shiraz." every effort was tried in vain to alter this resolution, and the minister, seeing no escape, at last gave way, and sent the required apology, adding, if ever it reached his majesty's ear that the elchee was offended, no punishment would be deemed too severe for those who had ruffled his excellency's temper or hurt his feelings. the reply was, the explanation was ample and satisfactory, and that the elchee would not for worlds be the cause of injury to the meanest person in persia, much less to his dear friend cherâgh ali khan; and a sentence was added to this letter by particular desire of meerzâ aga meer, who penned it, stating, "that everything disagreeable was erased from the tablet of the elchee's memory, on which nothing was now written but the golden letters of amity and concord." the day after this affair was settled, the minister paid the elchee a long visit, and insisted upon his going again to see the prince. we went--but what a difference in our reception: all parties were attentive; the master of the ceremonies bent almost to the ground; and though the elchee only desired to take his appointed seat, that would neither satisfy the prince nor the minister, who insisted that, instead of his placing one thigh on the nemmed, which was before unapproachable, he should sit altogether on its edge! this was "miherbânee, ser-afrâzee," (favour, exaltation), and we were all favoured and exalted. such is the history of this battle of ceremony, which was the only one of any consequence there was occasion to fight in persia; for in wars of this kind, as in other wars, if you once establish your fame for skill and courage, victory follows as a matter of course. it must not be supposed from what has been stated, that the persians are all grave formal persons. they are the most cheerful people in the world; and they delight in familiar conversation; and every sort of recreation appears, like that of children, increased by those occasional restraints to which their customs condemn them. they contrive every means to add to the pleasures of their social hours; and as far as society can be agreeable, divested of its chief ornament, females, it is to be met with in this country. princes, chiefs, and officers of state, while they pride themselves, and with justice, on their superior manners, use their utmost efforts to make themselves pleasant companions. poets, historians, astrologers, wits, and reciters of stories and fables, who have acquired eminence, are not only admitted into the first circles, but honoured. it is not uncommon to see a nobleman of high rank give precedence to a man of wit or of letters, who is expected to amuse or instruct the company; and the latter, confident in those acquirements to which he owes his distinction, shows, by his manner and observations, that usage has given him a right to the place he occupies. i heard, before i mixed in it, very different accounts of persian society. with one class of persons it was an infliction, to another a delight. i soon found that its enjoyment depended upon a certain preparation; and from the moment i landed in the country, i devoted a portion of my time to their most popular works in verse and prose. i made translations, not only of history and poetry, but of fables and tales, being satisfied that this occupation, while it improved me in the knowledge of the language, gave me a better idea of the manners and mode of thinking of this people than i could derive from any other source. besides, it is a species of literature with which almost every man in persia is acquainted; and allusions to works of fancy and fiction are so common in conversation, that you can never enjoy their society if ignorant of such familiar topics. i have formerly alluded to the cause which leads all ranks in persia to blend fables and apologues in their discourse, but this subject merits a more particular notice. there has been a serious and protracted discussion among the learned in europe as to the original country of those tales which have delighted and continue to delight successive generations. one or two facts connected with this abstruse question are admitted by all.--first, that the said tales are not the native produce of our western clime. they are decidedly exotics, though we have improved upon the original stock by careful culture, by grafting, and other expedients, so as to render them more suited to the soil into which they have been transplanted. the next admission is, that some of our best fables and tales came with the sun from the east, that genial clime, where nature pours forth her stores with so liberal a hand that she spoils by her indulgence those on whom she bestows her choicest gifts. in that favoured land the imagination of authors grows and flourishes, like their own evergreens, in unpruned luxuriance. this exuberance is condemned by the fastidious critics of the west. as for myself, though an admirer of art, i like to contemplate nature in all her forms; and it is amidst her varied scenes that i have observed how much man takes his shape and pursuits from the character of the land in which he is born. our admirable and philosophic poet, after asserting the command which the uncircumscribed soul, when it chooses to exert itself, has over both the frigid and torrid zones, beautifully and truly adds-- "not but the human fabric from its birth imbibes a flavour of its parent earth; as various tracts enforce a various toil, the manners speak the idiom of the soil." the warmth of the climate of the east, the ever-teeming abundance of the earth, while it fosters lively imaginations and strong passions, disposes the frame to the enjoyment of that luxurious ease which is adverse to freedom. that noblest of all plants which ever flourished on earth has, from the creation to the present day, been unknown in the east. this being the case, the fathers of families, the chiefs of tribes, and the sovereigns of kingdoms, are, within their separate circles, alike despotic; their children, followers, and subjects are consequently compelled to address these dreaded superiors in apologues, parables, fables, and tales, lest the plain truth, spoken in plain language, should offend; and the person who made a complaint or offered advice should receive the bastinado, or have his head struck off on the first impulse of passion, and before his mighty master had time to reflect on the reasonableness of such prompt punishment. to avoid such unpleasant results, every bird that flies, every beast that walks, and even fish that swim, have received the gift of speech, and have been made to represent kings, queens, ministers, courtiers, soldiers, wise men, foolish men, old women, and little children, in order, as a persian author says, "that the ear of authority may be safely approached by the tongue of wisdom." there is another reason why tales and fables continue so popular in the east; we observe how pleasing and useful they are as a medium of conveying instruction in childhood: a great proportion of the men and women of the countries of which we speak are, in point of general knowledge, but children; and while they learn, through allegories and apologues, interspersed with maxims, to appreciate the merits of their superiors, the latter are, in their turn, taught by the same means lessons of humanity, generosity, and justice. "have you no laws," said i one day to aga meer, "but the koran, and the traditions upon that volume?" "we have," said he, gravely, "the maxims of sâdee." were i to judge from my own observations, i should say, that these stories and maxims, which are known to all, from the king to the peasant, have fully as great an effect, in restraining the arbitrary and unjust exercise of power as the laws of the prophet. it is through allegories and fables that we receive the earliest accounts we have of all nations, but particularly those of the eastern hemisphere. we may, in these days in which exactness is so much valued, deplore this medium as liable to mislead; but must recollect, that if we had not their ancient records in this form we should have them in none. one of the wisest men in the west, francis bacon, has truly said, "fiction gives to mankind what history denies, and in some measure satisfies the mind with shadows when it cannot enjoy the substance." those who rank highest amongst the eastern nations for genius have employed their talents in works of fiction; and they have added to the moral lessons they desired to convey so much of grace and ornament, that their volumes have found currency in every nation of the world. the great influx of them into europe may be dated from the crusades; and if that quarter of the globe derived no other benefits from these holy wars, the enthusiastic admirers of such narrations may consider the tales of boccaccio and similar works as sufficient to compensate all the blood and treasure expended in that memorable contest! england has benefited largely from these tales of the east. amongst other boons from that land of imagination, we have the groundwork on which shakspeare has founded his inimitable play of the merchant of venice. the story of the mahomedan and the jew has been found in several books of eastern tales. in one persian version love is made to mix with avarice in the breast of the israelite, who had cast the eye of desire upon the wife of the mahomedan, and expected, when he came to exact his bond, the lady would make any sacrifice to save her husband. at the close of this tale, when the parties come before the judge, the jew puts forth his claim to the forfeited security of a pound of flesh. "how answerest thou?" said the judge, turning to the mahomedan. "it is so," replied the latter; "the money is due by me, but i am unable to pay it." "then," continued the judge, "since thou hast failed in payment, thou must give the pledge; go, bring a sharp knife." when that was brought, the judge turned to the jew, and said, "arise, and separate one pound of flesh from his body, so that there be not a grain more or less; for if there is, the governor shall be informed, and thou shalt be put to death." "i cannot," said the jew, "cut off one pound exactly; there will be a little more or less." but the judge persisted that it should be the precise weight. on this the jew said he would give up his claim and depart. this was not allowed, and the jew being compelled to take his bond with all its hazards, or pay a fine for a vexatious prosecution, he preferred the latter, and returned home a disappointed usurer. admitting that the inhabitants of europe received these tales and apologues from the saracens, the next question is, where did they get them? mahomed and his immediate successors, while they proscribed all such false and wicked lies and inventions, accuse the persians of being the possessors and propagators of those delusive tales, which were, according to them, preferred by many of their followers to the koran. but in the course of time caliphs became less rigid. the taste for poetry and fiction revived, and persian stories and arabian tales deluged the land. for some centuries the above countries were the supposed sources of this branch of literature, but, since the sacred language of the hindus has become more generally known, the persians are discovered to have been not only the plunderers of their real goods and chattels, but also of their works of imagination. these we, in our ignorance, long believed to belong to the nations from whom we obtained them; but now that orientalists abound, who are deeply read in sanscrit, pràcrit, marhatta, guzerattee, canarese, syamese, chinese, talingana, tamil, and a hundred other languages, unknown to our ignorant ancestors, the said persians and arabians have been tried and convicted, not only of robbing the poor hindus of their tales and fables, but of an attempt to disguise their plagiarisms, by the alteration of names, and by introducing, in place of the gods and goddesses of the hindu pantheon, the magi, and all the spirits of the heaven and the earth, which peculiarly belong to the followers of zoroaster. nothing, however, can impose upon the present enlightened age, and our antiquaries have long been and are still occupied in detecting thefts committed twenty centuries ago. in spite of the persian and arabian cloaks in which tales and fables have been enveloped, the trace of their hindu origin has been discovered in the various customs and usages referred to, and it has been decided that almost all the ancient tales are taken from the hitôpadêsa, and that still more famous work, the pancha-tantra, or more properly the panchôpâkhyân, or five tales; while many of the more modern are stolen from the kathâ-sarit-sâgar, or ocean of the stream of narration, a well-known work, which was compiled about the middle of the twelfth century by order of that equally well-known prince sree hertha of cashmere! i have sometimes had doubts whether it was quite fair to rake up the ashes of the long-departed pehlevee writers; more particularly as there does not now exist one solitary book in their language which we could compare with the hindu mss., of which we have lately become enamoured; but reverence for the learning of those who have decided this question, and dread of their hard words, with the very spelling of which i am always puzzled, has kept me silent. as i am, however, rather partial to my persian friends, i must vindicate them from this general charge of robbery and fraud. they certainly acquired one of their most celebrated works of imagination from india, under circumstances that do equal honour to the just king noosheerwân, his wise minister boozoorchimihr, and the learned doctor barzooyeh. the work to which i refer is the kartaka-damnaka of the brahmins, the kalîla-wa-damna of the arabians, and the fables of pilpay of europe. this book, originally written in the sanscrit, was first translated into pehlevee, from that into arabic, and next into persian. so many learned oriental critics, french and english, have given the names and dates of the translations, that i shall not repeat them, but give a short account of the first introduction of these famous fables into persia, with some facts of the life and opinions of the wise and disinterested man through whose efforts his native country became possessed of this treasure. noosheerwân, deservedly styled the just, who governed persia in the beginning of the seventh century, hearing of the fame of a work which a brahmin of ceylon had composed, employed the celebrated physician named barzooyeh to obtain for him a copy of this production. this was a delicate and hazardous enterprise, for the work, ever since the reign of a certain indian king, named dabshileem, for whom it was written, had been guarded with great care and jealousy, lest the profane should learn the wisdom that ought only to appertain to the wise and holy. barzooyeh, confident in knowledge and strong in allegiance, undertook to fulfil the commands of his sovereign. he proceeded towards india, furnished with money and every thing that could forward the objects of his journey. when he arrived at the indian capital, he pretended that the motive which induced him to visit it was the improvement of his mind, by communication with the wise men for which it was at that period renowned. amongst those whose society he courted, he early discovered one brahmin, who appeared to him the very model of wisdom. his efforts were directed to gain his friendship, and believing he had succeeded, he resolved to intrust him with his real design. "i have a secret to confide to you," said he, one day to his friend: "and you know, 'a sign to the wise is enough.'" "i know what you mean," said the penetrating brahmin, "without your sign; you came to rob us of our knowledge, that you might with it enrich persia. your purpose is deceit; but you have conducted yourself with such consummate address and ability that i cannot help entertaining a regard for you. i have," continued the indian, "observed in you the eight qualities which must combine to form a perfect man: forbearance, self-knowledge, true allegiance, judgment in placing confidence, secrecy, power to obtain respect at court, self-command, and a reserve, both as to speech in general society and intermeddling with the affairs of others. now you have those qualities, and though your object in seeking my friendship is not pure but interested, nevertheless i have such an esteem for you that i will incur all hazards to forward your object of stealing our wisdom." the brahmin obtained the far-sought book, and by his aid and connivance a copy was soon completed. noosheerwân, who had been informed of the success of his literary envoy, was impatient for his return; and when he arrived at the frontier, he was met by some of the most favoured courtiers sent by the monarch to conduct him to the capital. he was welcomed with joy, particularly by noosheerwân; a great court was held, at which all who were dignified or learned in the kingdom were present. barzooyeh was commanded to read from the volume he had brought: he did so; and the admiration of its contents was universal. "open my treasury!" said the grateful noosheerwân; "and let the man who has conferred such a benefit on his country enter, and take what he finds most valuable." "i desire neither jewels nor precious metals," said barzooyeh; "i have laboured not for them but for the favour of my sovereign; and that i have succeeded is rather to be referred to his auspices, than to my humble efforts. but i have," said he, "a request to make: the king has directed his able minister, boozoorchimihr, to translate this work into pehlevee; let him be further instructed that mention be made of me in some part of the book, and that he particularly specify my family, my profession, and my faith. let all this be written, so that my name may go down to future ages, and the fame of my sovereign be spread throughout the world." the king was delighted with this further proof of the elevated mind of barzooyeh; all present applauded his perfect wisdom, and joined in supplicating that his request might be granted. noosheerwân, addressing the assembly, said--"you have witnessed the noble disinterestedness of this man, you know how faithfully he has discharged his duty, and what difficulties and dangers he has encountered and overcome in my service. i desired to enrich him with jewels and money, but such rewards have no value in his mind, his generous heart is above them; he has only asked that his name shall have a separate mention, and that his life up to this date shall be faithfully written. let it," said the monarch, turning to boozoorchimihr, "have a place at the very commencement of that book of wisdom which he has procured for his country." the above is the substance of the story, as given in the persian translation of this work, made by aboo'l-fazl, and called eiyâr-e-dânish, or the touchstone of wisdom; and we have in the same volume some particulars of the religious tenets, or rather doubts, of the philosophic barzooyeh, which merit a short mention. the wise doctor, who is made to speak in his own person, expresses himself to this effect:--"the questions regarding the attributes of the creator, and the nature of futurity, have been sources of never-ending doubt and discussion. every one deems his own opinions regarding these important subjects as the only true ones, and his life is wasted in efforts to raise his own sect and to disparage others; but how many of these persons are mere self-worshippers, in whom there is not a trace of real religion, or of the knowledge of god! "how deeply do i regret that time which i myself lost in pursuit of these vain imaginations, searching every path, but never finding the true way, and never even discovering a guide. i have consulted the wise and learned of all religions as to the origin of that faith in which they believed; but i have found them only busied with propping up their own notions, and trying to overset those of others. "at last, finding no medicine for the sickness of my heart, and no balm for the wounds of my soul, i came to a conclusion, that the foundation of all these sects was self-conceit. i had heard nothing that a wise man could approve; and i thought that if i gave my faith to their creed, i should be as foolish as the poor thief who, by an unmeaning word, was deluded to his destruction. "some thieves mounted to the top of a rich man's house; but he, hearing their footsteps, and guessing their object, waked his wife, to whom he whispered what had occurred. 'i shall feign sleep,' said he to her; 'do you pretend to awake me, and commence a conversation, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the thieves. demand of me with great earnestness how i amassed my wealth; and, notwithstanding my refusal, urge me to a confession.' "the woman did as she was desired, but the husband replied, 'do forbear such questions; perhaps if i give you true answers somebody may hear, and i may be exposed to disagreeable consequences.' "this denial to gratify her curiosity only made the lady more earnestly repeat her interrogatories. apparently wearied with her importunities, the husband said, 'if i comply with your wishes, it will be contrary to the maxim of the wise, who have said, 'never tell a secret to a woman.'" "'who,' said the irritated lady, 'do you take me for? am not i the cherished wife of your bosom?' 'well, well,' said the man, 'be patient, for god's sake; as you are my true and confidential friend, i suppose i must tell you all; but never reveal to any one what you shall now hear.' she made a thousand protestations that his secret should never pass her lips. the husband appearing quite satisfied, proceeded to state as follows: "'learn, my dear wife, that all my wealth is plunder. i was possessed of a mysterious charm, by which, when standing on moonlight nights near the walls of the houses of the rich, i could, by repeating the word sholim, sholim, sholim, seven times, and at the same time laying my hand on a moonbeam, vault on the terrace; when there, i again exclaimed, sholim, sholim, sholim, seven times, and with the utmost ease jumped down into the house, and again pronouncing sholim, sholim, sholim, seven times, all the riches in the house were brought to my view. i took what i liked best, and for the last time calling out sholim, sholim, sholim, i sprung through the window with my booty; and through the blessing of this charm, i was not only invisible, but preserved from even the suspicion of guilt. "'this is the mode in which i have accumulated that great wealth with which you are surrounded. but beware and reveal not this secret; let no mortal know it, or the consequences may be fatal to us all.' "the robbers, who had anxiously listened to this conversation, treasured up with delight the magic words. some time afterwards the leader of the band, believing all in the house asleep, and having got upon the window, called out sholim, sholim, sholim, seven times, and springing forward fell headlong into the room. the master of the dwelling, who was awake, expecting this result, instantly seized the fellow, and began to soften[ ] his shoulders with a cudgel, saying, 'have i all my life been plaguing mankind in acquiring wealth just to enable a fellow like you to tie it up in a bundle and carry it away; but now tell me who you are?' the thief replied, 'i am that senseless blockhead that a breath of yours has consigned to dust. the proverb,' said the wretched man, 'is completely verified in my fate; i have spread my carpet for prayer on the surface of the waters.' but the measure of my misfortune is full; i have only one request to make, that you now put a handful of earth over me.' "in fine," adds barzooyeh, "i came to the conclusion, that if, without better proof than delusive words, i were to follow any of the modes of faith which i have described, my final condition would be no better than that of the fool in this tale, who trusted to sholim, sholim, sholim. "i said therefore to my soul, if i run once more after these pursuits, a life would not be sufficient; my end approaches, and if i continue in the maze of worldly concerns i shall lose that opportunity i now possess, and be unprepared for the great journey which awaits me. "as my desire was righteous, and my search after truth honest, my mind was favoured with the conviction that it was better to devote myself to those actions which all faiths approve, and which all who are wise and good applaud. "by the blessing of god, after i was released from such a state of distraction, i commenced my efforts; i endeavoured to the utmost of my power to do good, and to cease from causing pain to animals, or injury to men." the wise physician adds in this passage a list of all the virtues after which he sought, and all the vices he shunned. this list is long, and appears to me to include the whole catalogue of human virtues and vices. suffice it here to say, that his biographer assures us that his latter end was blessed, and that he left behind him a name as celebrated for virtue as it was for wisdom. footnotes: [ ] ashkakas bâshee. [ ] this is a literal translation. chapter x. fable of the two cats--preamble to persian treaty--apologues from sâdee---letter from nizâm-ool-moolk to mahomed shâh--death of yezdijird. the preceding chapter concluded with an episode upon the life and opinions of the favoured physician of noosheerwân. i must in this return to my subject, the elucidation of the rise and progress of apologues and fables. it will be admitted by all, that the persians, in the luxuriance of their imaginations, have embellished wonderfully the less artificial writings of the hindus. the lowest animal they introduce into a fable speaks a language which would do honour to a king. all nature contributes to adorn the metaphorical sentence; but their perfection in that part of composition called the ibâret-e-rengeen, or florid style, can only be shown by example, and for that purpose i have made a literal translation of the fable of the "two cats;" from which i suspect we have borrowed ours, of the "town and country mouse." "in former days there was an old woman, who lived in a hut more confined than the minds of the ignorant, and more dark than the tombs of misers. her companion was a cat, from the mirror of whose imagination the appearance of bread had never been reflected, nor had she from friends or strangers ever heard its name. it was enough that she now and then scented a mouse, or observed the print of its feet on the floor; when, blessed by favouring stars, or benignant fortune, one fell into her claws, 'she became like a beggar who discovers a treasure of gold; her cheeks glowed with rapture, and past grief was consumed by present joy.'[ ] this feast would last for a week or more; and while enjoying it she was wont to exclaim-- 'am i, o god! when i contemplate this, in a dream or awake? am i to experience such prosperity after such adversity?' "but as the dwelling of the old woman was in general the mansion of famine to this cat, she was always complaining, and forming extravagant and fanciful schemes. one day, when reduced to extreme weakness, she with much exertion reached the top of the hut; when there, she observed a cat stalking on the wall of a neighbour's house, which, like a fierce tiger, advanced with measured steps, and was so loaded with flesh that she could hardly raise her feet. the old woman's friend was amazed to see one of her own species so fat and sleek, and broke out into the following exclamation: 'your stately strides have brought you here at last; pray tell me from whence you come? from whence have you arrived with so lovely an appearance? you look as if from the banquet of the khan of khatâi. where have you acquired such a comeliness? and how came you by that glorious strength?' the other answered, 'i am the sultan's crum-eater. each morning, when they spread the convivial table, i attend at the palace, and there exhibit my address and courage. from among the rich meats and wheat-cakes i cull a few choice morsels; i then retire and pass my time till next day in delightful indolence.' "the old dame's cat requested to know what rich meat was, and what taste wheat-cakes had? 'as for me,' she added, in a melancholy tone, 'during my life, i have neither eat nor seen any thing but the old woman's gruel and the flesh of mice.' the other, smiling, said, 'this accounts for the difficulty i find in distinguishing you from a spider. your shape and stature is such as must make the whole generation of cats blush; and we must ever feel ashamed while you carry so miserable an appearance abroad. 'you certainly have the ears and tail of a cat, but in other respects you are a complete spider.' were you to see the sultan's palace, and to smell his delicious viands, most undoubtedly those withered bones would be restored; you would receive new life; you would come from behind the curtain of invisibility into the plain of observation: 'when the perfume of his beloved passes over the tomb of a lover, is it wonderful that his putrid bones should be re-animated?' "the old woman's cat addressed the other in the most supplicating manner: 'oh, my sister!' she exclaimed, 'have i not the sacred claims of a neighbour upon you; are we not linked in the ties of kindred? what prevents your giving a proof of friendship, by taking me with you when next you visit the palace? perhaps from your favour plenty may flow to me, and from your patronage i may attain dignity and honour. 'withdraw not from the friendship of the honourable; abandon not the support of the elect.' "the heart of the sultan's crum-eater was melted by this pathetic address; she promised her new friend should accompany her on the next visit to the palace. the latter overjoyed went down immediately from the terrace, and communicated every particular to the old woman, who addressed her with the following counsel: "'be not deceived, my dearest friend, with the worldly language you have listened to; abandon not your corner of content, for the cup of the covetous is only to be filled by the dust of the grave; and the eye of cupidity and hope can only be closed by the needle of mortality and the thread of fate. 'it is content that makes men rich; mark this, ye avaricious, who traverse the world: he neither knows nor pays adoration to his god, who is dissatisfied with his condition and fortune.' but the expected feast had taken such possession of poor puss's imagination that the medicinal counsel of the old woman was thrown away. 'the good advice of all the world is like wind in a cage, or water in a sieve, when bestowed on the headstrong.' "to conclude, next day, accompanied by her companion, the half-starved cat hobbled to the sultan's palace. before this unfortunate wretch came, as it is decreed that the covetous shall be disappointed, an extraordinary event had occurred, and, owing to her evil destiny, the water of disappointment was poured on the flame of her immature ambition. the case was this; a whole legion of cats had, the day before, surrounded the feast, and made so much noise, that they disturbed the guests, and in consequence the sultan had ordered that some archers, armed with bows from tartary, should, on this day, be concealed, and that whatever cat advanced into the field of valour, covered with the shield of audacity, should, on eating the first morsel, be overtaken with their arrows. the old dame's puss was not aware of this order. the moment the flavour of the viands reached her, she flew, like an eagle to the place of her prey. "scarcely had the weight of a mouthful been placed in the scale to balance her hunger, when a heart-dividing arrow pierced her breast. 'a stream of blood rushed from the wound. she fled, in dread of death, after having exclaimed, should i escape from this terrific archer, i will be satisfied with my mouse and the miserable hut of my old mistress. my soul rejects the honey if accompanied by the sting. content, with the most frugal fare, is preferable.'" this fable is a fair specimen of the style of such compositions; but it is in the deebâchehs, or introductions to letters or books, that "the fiery steed of the two-tongued pen" (meaning a split reed) is allowed to run wild amidst the rich pasture of the verdant field of imagination. a better proof of the latitude taken on such occasions cannot be given than in the preamble to the treaty concluded by the elchee on his first mission to persia, of which the following is a literal translation:-- "after the voice is raised to the praise and glory of the god of the world, and the brain is perfumed with the scent of the saints and prophets, to whom be health and glory; whose rare perfections are perpetually chanted by birds[ ] of melodious notes, furnished with two, three, and four pairs of wings; and to the highest, seated in the heavens, for whom good has been predestinated; and the perfume mixed with musk, which scenteth the celestial mansions of those that sing hymns in the ethereal sphere, and to the light of the flame of the most high, which gives radiant splendour to the collected view of those who dwell in the heavenly regions; the clear meaning of the treaty, which has been established on a solid basis, is fully explained on this page; and as it is fixed as a principle of law, that, in this world of existence and trouble, in this universe of creation and concord, there is no action among those of mankind which tends more to the perfection of the human race, or to answer the end of their being and existence, than that of cementing friendship, and of establishing intercourse, communication, and connexion betwixt each other. the image reflected from the mirror of accomplishment is a tree fruitful and abundant, and one that produces good both now and hereafter. to illustrate the allusions that it has been proper to make, and explain these metaphors, worthy of exposition at this happy period of auspicious aspect, a treaty has been concluded between the high in dignity, the exalted in station, attended by fortune, of great and splendid power, the greatest among the high viziers in whom confidence is placed, the faithful of the powerful government, the adorned with greatness, power, glory, splendour, and fortune, hajee ibrahim khan; on being granted leave, and vested with authority from the porte of the high king, whose court is like that of solomon; the asylum of the world; the sign of the power of god; the jewel in the ring of kings; the ornament in the cheek of eternal empire; the grace of the beauty of sovereignty and royalty; the king of the universe, like caherman; the mansion of mercy and justice; the phoenix of good fortune; the eminence of never-fading prosperity; the king powerful as alexander, who has no equal among the princes, exalted to majesty by the heavens on this globe; a shade from the shade of the most high; a khoosroo, whose saddle is the moon, and whose stirrup is the new moon; a prince of great rank, before whom the sun is concealed. * * * * * * * and the high in dignity; the great and mighty in power; the ornament of those acquainted with manners ******; delegated from the sublime quarter of the high in power seated on a throne; the asylum of the world; the chief jewel in the crown of royalty and sovereignty; the anchor of the vessel of victory and fortune; the ship on the sea of glory and empire; the blazing sun in the sky of greatness and glory; lord of the countries of england and india; may god strengthen his territories, and establish his glory and command upon the seas, in the manner explained in his credentials! which are sealed with the seal of the most powerful, and most glorious, possessing fortune, the origin of rank, splendour, and nobility; the ornament of the world; the accomplisher of the works of mankind; the governor-general of india!" this preamble is not less remarkable for its flowery diction than for the art by which it saves the dignity of the king of persia from the appearance of treating with any one below the rank of a monarch. it is also curious to observe, that after introducing the king of england, how skilfully he is limited to an undisputed sovereignty of the seas, that his power may not clash with that of the mighty khoosroo of the day, "whose saddle is the moon, and whose stirrup is the new moon," in his dominion over the earth! speaking on the above subjects to aga meer, i asked him if their monarchs were as much delighted with this hyperbolical style as the meerzâs or secretaries. "not at all," said he: "the late king, aga mahomed, who was remarkable for his hatred of ornament and show in every form, when his secretaries began with their flattering introductions, used to lose all temper, and exclaim, 'to the contents, you scoundrel.'"[ ] "flowery introductions," said the meer, "if he had lived long enough, would have gone out of fashion; but the present king prides himself upon being a fine writer, both in prose and verse, and the consequence is, as you see in the preamble of this treaty, a composition which i know was honoured by his particular approbation." it is but justice to some of the most distinguished persian authors to add, that there are many exceptions to this redundant style of composition. in the pages of their greatest poets, firdousee, nizâmee, sâdee, and anwerree, we meet with many passages as remarkable for the beauty and simplicity of the expression, as the truth and elevation of the sentiments; and many of their historians have given us plain narrations of facts, unencumbered with those ornaments and metaphors which are so popular with the generality of their countrymen. how simply and beautifully has sâdee depicted the benefit of good society in the following well-known apologue! "one day as i was in the bath, a friend of mine put into my hand a piece of scented clay. i took it, and said to it, 'art thou musk or ambergris, for i am charmed with thy perfume?' it answered, 'i was a despicable piece of clay, but i was some time in the company of the rose; the sweet quality of my companion was communicated to me, otherwise i should be only a bit of clay, as i appear to be!'" and in another[ ] he has given, with equal force and simplicity, the character of true affection:-- "there was an affectionate and amiable youth who was betrothed to a beautiful girl. i have read, that as they were sailing in the great sea they fell together into a whirlpool: when a mariner went to the young man, that he might catch his hand, and save him from perishing in that unhappy juncture, he called aloud, and pointed to his mistress from the midst of the waves: 'leave me, and save my beloved!' the whole world admired him for that speech; and when expiring, he was heard to say--'learn not the tale of love from that wretch who forgets his beloved in the hour of danger.'" we often meet with persian letters written in a style at once clear and nervous. of these there cannot be a better example than that addressed by nizâm-ool-moolk, the predecessor of the present soobâh, or ruler of the deccan, to mahomed shâh, the weak and luxurious emperor of delhi. this letter, besides the merit of its style, possesses that of conveying a just idea of what mahomedans conceive to be the duties and pursuits of a good and great monarch, a character which is with them invariably associated with that of a military conqueror. the following extracts from this well-known production are very literal: "it is the duty of princes to see that the laws are strictly obeyed; that the honour of their subjects be preserved inviolate; that justice be rendered to all men; and that loyal nobles and ancient pillars of the state, whose claims to reward are established and acknowledged, be distinguished according to their merits. it is their duty, too, to seek for pleasure in woods and deserts;[ ] to labour unremittingly in the chastisement of the seditious and refractory; to watch over the rights and happiness of the lower order of their subjects; to shun the society of the mean, and to abstain from all prohibited practices, to the end that none of their people may be able to transgress against the precepts of religion or morality. "it is also the duty of princes to be constantly employed in enlarging their dominions, and in encouraging and rewarding their soldiery; it being in the seat of his saddle alone that a king can properly repose. it was in conformity to this opinion the ancestors[ ] of your majesty established it as a domestic rule, that their wives should be delivered on their saddle-cloths, although the moment of child-birth is of all others the one wherein convenience and comfort are most consulted. and they ordained that this usage should invariably be observed by their descendants, to the end that these might never forget the hardy and manly character of their progenitors, or give themselves up to the slothful and enervating luxury of palaces. "it is not in the melodious notes of the musician, or the soft tones of the mimic singer, that true and delightful harmony consists; but it is in the clash of arms, the thunder of cannon, and in the piercing sound of the trumpet, which assembles together the ranks in the field of battle. it is not by decking out the charms of a favourite female that power and dominion are to be maintained, but by manfully wielding the sword; nor is it in celebrating the hoolee[ ] with base eunuchs, that men of real spirit are seen to sprinkle each other with red, but it is in the conflict of heroes with intrepid enemies. "it being solely with the view of correcting the errors of your majesty's government, and of restoring its ancient splendour, that the meanest of your servants has been moved, by the warmth of his zeal and attachment, to impart his sentiments to your majesty, he has made up his mind to the consequences of this well-meant freedom, and will cheerfully submit to his fate; being in the mean time, however, determined (god willing) to persevere in the design which he has formed, of endeavouring to re-establish the affairs of the empire by every means that may be consistent with his duty and with propriety." the affecting death of yezdijird, the last of the kaiânian race of kings, affords a fair specimen of that plain and distinct style in which some of the best histories of persia are written. it is as follows: "when the inhabitants of merv heard that yezdijird had fled from persia, and was within their territory, they were anxious to apprehend and destroy him. they accordingly addressed a letter to tanjtâkh, the king of tartary, stating, 'the king of persia has fled from the arabs and taken refuge with us; we are not inclined to be his adherents, we are more favourably inclined towards you, whose approach we desire, that we may be freed from him, and place ourselves under your protection.' "as soon as tanjtâkh received this letter he desired to gain possession of merv, and marched with a considerable army towards that city. yezdijird, hearing of his near approach, and of the force by which he was accompanied, departed from the câravânserâi where he had alighted, at midnight, unattended and undetermined where to go. as he walked straight forward, he saw a light on the side of a stream, to which he directed his footsteps. he found a miller engaged in the labours of his mill, to whom he said, 'i am a man in desperate circumstances, and have an enemy whom i have every reason to dread; afford me an asylum for this one night; to-morrow i will give you what may make you easy for life.' the miller replied, 'enter that mill, and remain there.' yezdijird went into the mill, and laying sorrow aside, went composedly to sleep. when the miller's servants observed that he was gone to rest, and entirely off his guard, they armed themselves with clubs, and falling upon him slew him. having done this they stripped the body of the gold and silver ornaments, the imperial robe, and the crown: then taking the corpse by the feet, they dragged it along, and threw it into the mill-dam. "next day tanjtâkh arrived at merv, and the inhabitants sought yezdijird in every direction. by chance the miller being met, was interrogated. he denied having any knowledge of him; but one of his servants, who was dressed in a woollen garment, having come before them, they, discovering that he smelt strongly of perfume, tore open his garment, and found yezdijird's imperial robe, scented with ottar and other essences, hid in his bosom. they now examined all the other servants, and found that each had some article secreted about his person; and after being put to the torture they confessed the whole transaction. "tanjtâkh immediately sent people to search the mill-dam for the body, which they soon found and laid before him. when he saw the corpse of the king he wept bitterly, and ordered it to be embalmed with spices and perfumes; and he further directed, that after it was wrapt, according to the usage of the kaiânian monarchs, in a shroud, and placed in a coffin, it should be sent to persia to be interred in the same place, and with the same ceremonies, as other sovereigns of the race of kaiân. "tanjtâkh also commanded that the miller and his servants should be put to death." what has been said in this chapter, and the examples of the various styles with which my opinions have been illustrated, will satisfy the reader that the mine of persian literature contains every substance, from the dazzling diamond to the useful granite, and that its materials may be employed with equal success to build castles in the air or upon the earth. my prejudices are, i confess, in favour of the former fabrics, which in the east are constructed with a magnificence unknown to the graver spirits of our western hemisphere. footnotes: [ ] this, with some other verses in the fable, are from persian poets of celebrity, whose stanzas it is an invariable usage to introduce in such compositions. [ ] a metaphorical name for angels. [ ] be-mezmoon badbakht. [ ] both these apologues have been translated by sir w. jones. [ ] alluding to hunting and other field sports. [ ] the princes of tartary. the country we term tartary is by the asiatics called tûrkistan. we have given the name of a small tribe of moghuls to the whole region inhabited by that and other races, in the same manner as the oriental nations called europe faringastân, or the country of the franks, because they first became acquainted with the people of france. [ ] a remarkable festival held in india to celebrate the commencement of the new year, in which they fling red powder at one another: it commences at the vernal equinox. chapter xi. shiraz--shaikh-ool-islâm, or chief judge--story of abd-ool-kâdir--entertainments--derveesh seffer--story of abdûlla of khorassan--persian poet. our only occupation at shiraz was feasting, visiting, and giving and receiving presents. the cupidity of the persians exceeded all bounds, and ministers, courtiers, merchants, wits, and poets, were running a race for the elchee's favour, which was often accompanied by a watch, a piece of chintz, or of broadcloth. their conduct confirmed me in a belief i had imbibed at abusheher, that all the persians were crafty and rapacious rogues. i like to decide quickly; it saves trouble; and when once decided, i am particularly averse to believe my judgment is not infallible. the envoy had hired, as before noticed, for his persian secretary, a mild moderate man, who appeared to have both good sense and good principle: but although some time had elapsed, and i had watched him narrowly without discerning a flaw, i attributed this to his art, and i therefore gave little heed to his reasoning when he used to plead for his countrymen, urging (as he often did), that, from our being strangers, and from our reputation for wealth, generosity, and inexperience, we were naturally exposed to the attacks of the cunning and designing, from whose conduct we drew general inferences, which were not quite fair. "we are not all so bad as you think us," the good aga meer used to say, with a smile; "we have some redeeming characters; these may be rare, but still they exist; but that, you english will as yet hardly believe." he used frequently to mention to me, as one, a relation of his own, the shaikh-ool-islâm, or chief judge and priest of shiraz: "he was," he said, "a person who combined sense and information with piety and humility. he has never come," added he, "like these greedy nobles and hungry poets, to prey upon the munificence of the elchee; and when the latter, hearing that his sight was weak, sent him a pair of spectacles beautifully mounted in silver, he returned them, requesting a pair set in common tortoise-shell." though i heard the account of this paraded humility with a smile, i was very happy to find we were to meet this paragon of modest merit at a breakfast, to which mahomed hoosein khan, the son of the minister hajee ibrahim, had invited the envoy. the party assembled at the garden of sâdee, and we were seated near a fountain close to the tomb of the persian moralist. there was some punctilio in taking our places: but the elchee, though a stickler for rank with the temporal lords, insisted upon giving the highest seat to the shaikh-ool-islâm, who at last consented to take it, observing, the compliment, he felt, was not personal, but meant to his situation as a minister of religion. i sat near, and listened attentively to his conversation, in the hope of detecting the persian, but was not successful. "you must," he said to the envoy, "believe me to be void of rational curiosity, and a man who affects humility, because i have not only never been to pay my respects, but when you sent me these costly and beautiful spectacles, i solicited a cheaper and less showy pair. in both instances, however, i acted against my personal inclinations from an imperative sense of duty. my passion," said the shaikh, "is to hear the history, the manners, and usages of foreign countries; and where could i have such an opportunity of gratifying my curiosity as in your society? i was particularly pleased with the silver spectacles; the glasses suited my eyes; and others in my house besides myself," said he, smiling, "thought they were very becoming. but i was forced in both cases to practise self-denial. the poor have no shield between them and despotic power, but persons in my condition; and they naturally watch our conduct with great vigilance and jealousy: had i, for my own gratification, visited you, and displayed on my person the proofs of your liberality, they would have thought their judge was like others, and have lost some portion of their confidence in my best efforts to protect them. besides, ministers and courtiers would have rejoiced in my departure from those rigid rules, the observance of which enables us expounders of the koran to be some check upon them. these were my motives," concluded the shaikh-ool-islâm, "for a conduct which must have seemed almost rude; but you will now understand it, and not condemn me." the envoy was evidently delighted with his new friend, and their conversation was protracted for several hours. the shaikh-ool-islâm endeavoured to impress him with a favourable opinion of the law of which he was an organ, and illustrated his arguments with anecdotes of religious and learned men, of which i shall give those that struck me as the happiest. the celebrated aboo yûsuph, he said, who was chief judge of bagdad in the reign of the caliph hâdee, was a very remarkable instance of that humility which distinguishes true wisdom. his sense of his own deficiencies often led him to entertain doubts, where men of less knowledge and more presumption were decided. "it is related of this judge," said the shaikh-ool-islâm, "that on one occasion, after a very patient investigation of facts, he declared that his knowledge was not competent to decide upon the case before him." "pray, do you expect," said a pert courtier, who heard this declaration, "that the caliph is to pay your ignorance?" "i do not," was the mild reply; "the caliph pays me, and well, for what i do know; if he were to attempt to pay me for what i do not know, the treasures of his empire would not suffice." the orthodox shaikh spoke with more toleration than i expected of the soofees, who, from the wild and visionary doctrines which they profess, are in general held up by the mahomedan priests as objects of execration. "there were," he observed, "many good and most exemplary men included in this sect, merely because they were enthusiasts in religion. besides," said the shaikh, "both our poets, hâfiz and sâdee, but particularly the former, were soofees; and what native of shiraz can pass a harsh sentence upon them? we must," he continued, "lament the errors of soofees in consideration of their virtues; and even in their wildest wanderings they convey the most important lessons--for instance, how simply and beautifully has abd-ool-kâdir of ghilan impressed us with the love of truth in a story of his childhood."[ ] after stating the vision which made him entreat of his mother to allow him to go to bagdad and devote himself to god, he thus proceeds. "i informed her of what i had seen, and she wept: then taking out eighty dinars, she told me that as i had a brother, half of that was all my inheritance; she made me swear, when she gave it me, never to tell a lie, and afterwards bade me farewell, exclaiming, 'go, my son, i consign thee to god; we shall not meet again till the day of judgment.' i went on well," he adds, "till i came near to hamadân, when our kâfillah was plundered by sixty horsemen: one fellow asked me, 'what i had got?' 'forty dinars,' said i, 'are sewed under my garments.' the fellow laughed, thinking, no doubt, i was joking with him. 'what have you got?' said another; i gave him the same answer. when they were dividing the spoil, i was called to an eminence where the chief stood: 'what property have you got my little fellow?' said he. 'i have told two of your people already,' i replied, 'i have forty dinars sewed up carefully in my clothes!' he ordered them to be ript open, and found my money.--'and how came you,' said he, with surprise, 'to declare so openly, what has been so carefully hidden?' 'because,' i replied, 'i will not be false to my mother, to whom i have promised that i will never tell a lie,' 'child,' said the robber, 'hast thou such a sense of thy duty to thy mother at thy years, and am i insensible, at my age, of the duty i owe to my god? give me thy hand, innocent boy,' he continued, 'that i may swear repentance upon it.' he did so--his followers were all alike struck with the scene. 'you have been our leader in guilt,' said they to their chief, 'be the same in the path of virtue;' and they instantly, at his order, made restitution of their spoil, and vowed repentance on my hand." the elchee, before this party separated, endeavoured to persuade the high priest to allow him the pleasure of a more frequent intercourse; but his kind invitations were declined in a manner and for reasons which satisfied me i had at least met with one good persian. while at shiraz, we were entertained by the prince, his ministers, and some of the principal inhabitants. a breakfast was given to the elchee, at a beautiful spot near the hazâr bâgh, or thousand gardens, in the vicinity of shiraz; and we were surprised and delighted to find that we were to enjoy this meal on a stack of roses. on this a carpet was laid, and we sat cross-legged like the natives. the stack, which was as large as a common one of hay in england, had been formed without much trouble from the heaps or cocks of rose-leaves, collected before they were sent into the city to be distilled. we were told our party was the first to which such a compliment had been paid. whether this was the case or not, our mount of roses, added to the fine climate, verdant gardens, and clear rills, gave a character of singular luxuriance to this rural banquet. we were at several evening parties. the dinner given by the minister, mahomed nebbee khan, was the most magnificent. he has been in india; and some english usages, to please and accommodate us, were grafted on the persian. we went at five o'clock in the evening, and were received in his state hall. in the court-yard, in front of the room in which we sat, were assembled rope-dancers, wrestlers, musicians, lions, bears, and monkeys, all of which exhibited their different feats till sunset; when, after being regaled with coffee, kelliâns, and sweetmeats, we were conducted to another apartment, where we found a dessert of fruit very elegantly laid out in the english style. after sitting in this room for about an hour, we returned to the state hall, which we had no sooner entered than the fireworks commenced; and though the space where they were exhibited was very confined, they were the best i ever saw. the rockets were let off from a frame which kept them together, and produced a beautiful effect. there was another sort called zembooreh, or swivels, which made a report like a twelve pounder, and added great spirit and effect to this exhibition. after it was over we had a most sumptuous repast of fine pelaws, &c., and iced sherbets. the day before we left shiraz, derveesh seffer, my old acquaintance, paid the elchee a visit. this remarkable man, who has charge of the shrines[ ] (including those of sâdee and hâfiz) near shiraz, is esteemed one of the best reciters of poetry and tellers of tales in persia; and there is no country in the world where more value is placed upon such talents; he who possesses them in an eminent degree is as certain of fortune and fame as the first actors in europe. derveesh seffer, who is honoured by the royal favour, has a very melodious voice, over which he has such power as to be able to imitate every sound, from that of the softest feminine to the harshest masculine voice. the varied expression of his countenance is quite as astonishing as his voice, and his action is remarkably graceful, and always suited to his subject. his memory is not only furnished with an infinite variety of stories, but with all the poetry of his country; this enables him to give interest and effect to the most meagre tale, by apt quotations from the first authors of persia. those told by persons like him usually blend religious feeling with entertainment, and are meant to recommend charity; but i cannot better conclude this account of my friend the derveesh than by giving a tale which he recited to the envoy, with a view no doubt of impressing him with a belief that worldly success might be promoted by munificence, in any shape, to shrines like those of which he had charge. the derveesh having seated himself in a proper position, commenced with a fine passage from the poet nizâmee in praise of those who, possessing the talent of recitation, give currency and effect to the noble thoughts of departed genius. after a short pause he began his tale. "in a sequestered vale of the fruitful province of khorassan there lived a peasant called abdûlla. he had married a person in his own rank of life, who, though very plain in her appearance, had received from her fond father the fine name of zeebâ, or the beautiful; to which act of parental folly the good woman owed the few seeds of vanity that mixed in her homely character. it was this feeling that led her to name her two children yûsuph and fatima, conceiving, no doubt, that the fortunate name of the son of yâcoob, the vizier of far'oun, and fascinator of zuleikhâ,[ ] would aid the boy in his progress through life; while there could be no doubt of her little girl receiving equal advantages from being named after the daughter of the prophet, and the wife of the renowned ali. "with all these family pretensions from high names, no man's means could be more humble, or views more limited, than those of abdûlla; but he was content and happy: he was strong and healthy, and laboured for the reis or squire, who owned the land on which his cottage stood--he had done so from youth, and had never left, nor ever desired to leave, his native valley. the wages of his labour were paid in grain and cloth, sufficient for the food and clothing of his family and himself; with money he was unacquainted except by name. "it happened, however, one day, that the reis was so well pleased with abdûlla's exertions that he made him a present of ten piastres. abdûlla could hardly express his thanks, he was so surprised and overjoyed at this sudden influx of wealth. the moment he could get away from his daily labour he ran home to his wife:--'there, my zeebâ,' said he, 'there are riches for you!' and he spread the money before her. the astonishment and delight of the good woman was little less than that of her husband, and the children were called to share in the joy of their parents. 'well,' said abdûlla, still looking at the money, 'the next thing to consider is what is to be done with this vast sum. the reis has given me to-morrow as a holiday, and i do think, my dear wife, if you approve, i will go to the famous city of meshed; i never saw it, but it is not above six or seven fersekhs distant. i will pay my devotions at the shrine of the holy imâm mehdee, upon whom be god's blessing, and like a good mahomedan deposit there two piastres--one fifth of my wealth--and then i will go to the great bazar, of which i have heard so much, and purchase with the remainder every thing you, my dear wife and children, can wish; tell me what you would like best. "'i will be moderate,' said zeebâ; 'i want nothing but a piece of handsome silk for a dress; i think it would be becoming and as she said so, all the associations to which her father had given birth when he gave her a name shot across her mind. 'bring me,' said the sturdy little yûsuph, 'a nice horse and a sword.' 'and me,' said his sister, in a softer tone, 'an indian handkerchief and a pair of golden slippers.' 'every one of these articles shall be here to-morrow evening,' said abdûlla, as he kissed his happy family; and early next morning, taking a stout staff in his hand, he commenced his journey towards meshed. "when abdûlla approached the holy city his attention was first attracted by the cluster of splendid domes and minarets, which encircled the tomb of the holy imâm mehdee, whose roofs glittered with gold. he gazed with wonder at a sight which appeared to him more like those which the faithful are promised in heaven, than any thing he ever expected to see on this earth. passing through the streets which led to such magnificent buildings, he could look at nothing but them. when arrived at the gate of the sacred shrine, he stopped for a moment in silent awe, and asked a venerable priest, who was reading the koran, if he might proceed, explaining at the same time his object. 'enter, my brother,' said the old man; 'bestow your alms, and you shall be rewarded; for one of the most pious of the caliphs has said--'prayer takes a man half way to paradise; fasting brings him to its portals; but these are only opened to him who is charitable." "having deposited, like a good and pious mussulman, the fifth[ ] of his treasure on the shrine of the holy imâm, abdûlla went to the great bazar; on entering which his senses were quite confounded by the novel sight of the pedestrian crowd hurrying to and fro; the richly caparisoned horses, the splendid trains of the nobles, and the loaded camels and mules, which filled the space between rich shops, where every ware of europe, india, china, tartary, and persia was displayed. he gazed with open mouth at every thing he saw, and felt for the first time what an ignorant and insignificant being he had hitherto been. though pushed from side to side by those on foot, and often nearly run over by those on horseback, it was some time before he became aware of the dangers to which his wonder exposed him. these accidents however soon put him out of humour with the bustle he had at first so much admired, and determined him to finish his business and return to his quiet home. "entering a shop where there was a number of silks, such as he had seen worn by the family of the reis, he inquired for their finest pieces. the shopman looked at him, and observing from his dress that he was from the country, concluded he was one of those rich farmers, who, notwithstanding the wealth they have acquired, maintain the plain habits of the peasantry, to whom they have a pride in belonging. he, consequently, thought he had a good customer; that is, a man who added to riches but little knowledge of the article he desired to purchase. with this impression he tossed and tumbled over every piece of silk in his shop. abdûlla was so bewildered by their beauty and variety, that it was long before he could decide; at last he fixed upon one, which was purple with a rich embroidered border. 'i will take this,' he said, wrapping it up, and putting it under his arm; 'what is the price?'--'i shall only ask you, who are a new customer,' said the man, 'two hundred piastres; i should ask any one else three or four hundred for so exquisite a specimen of manufacture, but i wish to tempt you back again, when you leave your beautiful lands in the country to honour our busy town with your presence.' abdûlla stared, replaced the silk, and repeated in amazement--'two--hundred--piastres! you must be mistaken; do you mean such piastres as these?' taking one out of the eight he had left in his pocket, and holding it up to the gaze of the astonished shopkeeper. 'certainly i do,' said the latter; 'and it is very cheap at that price.' 'poor zeebâ!' said abdûlla, with a sigh at the thoughts of her disappointment. 'poor who?' said the silk-mercer. 'my wife,' said abdûlla. 'what have i to do with your wife?' said the man, whose tone altered as his chance of sale diminished. 'why,' said abdûlla, 'i will tell you all: i have worked hard for the reis of our village ever since i was a boy; i never saw money till yesterday, when he gave me ten piastres. i came to meshed, where i had never been before. i had given, like a good mussulman, a fifth of my wealth to the imâm mehdee, the holy descendant of our blessed prophet, and with the eight remaining piastres i intend to buy a piece of embroidered silk for my good wife, a horse and sword for my little boy, and an indian handkerchief and a pair of golden slippers for my darling daughter; and here you ask me two hundred piastres for one piece of silk how am i to pay you, and with what money am i to buy the other articles? tell me that,' said abdûlla, in a reproachful tone. 'get out of my shop!' said the enraged vender of silks; 'here have i been wasting my valuable time, and rumpling my choicest goods, for a fool and a madman! go along to your zeebâ and your booby children; buy stale cakes and black sugar for them, and do not trouble me any more.' so saying he thrust his new and valued customer out of the door. "abdûlla muttered to himself as he went away, 'no doubt this is a rascal, but there may be honest men in meshed; i will try amongst the horse-dealers; and having inquired where these were to be found, he hastened to get a handsome pony for yûsuph. no sooner had he arrived at the horse market, and made his wishes known, than twenty were exhibited. as he was admiring one that pranced along delightfully, a friend, whom he had never seen before, whispered him to beware, that the animal, though he went very well when heated, was dead lame when cool. he had nearly made up his mind to purchase another, when the same man significantly pointed to the hand of the owner, which was one finger short, and then champing with his mouth and looking at the admired horse, gave abdûlla to understand that his beloved boy might incur some hazard from such a purchase. the very thought alarmed him; and he turned to his kind friend, and asked if he could not recommend a suitable animal? the man said, his brother had one, which, if he could be prevailed upon to part with, would just answer, but he doubted whether he would sell him; yet as his son, who used to ride this horse, was gone to school, he thought he might. abdûlla was all gratitude, and begged him to exert his influence. this was promised and done; and in a few minutes a smart little grey horse, with head and tail in the air, cantered up. the delighted peasant conceived yûsuph on his back, and, in a hurry to realize his vision, demanded the price. 'any other person but yourself,' said the man, 'should not have him for one piastre less than two hundred; but as i trust to make a friend as well as a bargain, i have persuaded my brother to take only one hundred and fifty.' the astonished abdûlla stepped back--'why you horse-dealers,' said he, 'whom i thought were such good men, are as bad as the silk-mercers!' he then recapitulated to his friend the rise of his present fortune, and all that had occurred since he entered meshed. the man had hardly patience to hear him to a close; 'and have i,' said he, 'been throwing away my friendship, and hazarding a quarrel with my brethren, by an over-zealous honesty to please a fool of a bumpkin! get along to your zeebâ, and your yûsuph, and your fatima, and buy for your young hopeful the sixteenth share of a jackass! the smallest portion of that animal is more suited to your means and your mind, than a hair of the tail of the fine horses you have presumed to look at!' "so saying, he went away in a rage, leaving abdûlla in perfect dismay. he thought, however, he might still succeed in obtaining some of the lesser articles; he, however, met with nothing but disappointment: the lowest priced sword was thirty piastres, the golden slippers were twenty, and a small indian handkerchief was twelve, being four piastres more than all he possessed. "disgusted with the whole scene, the good man turned his steps towards home. as he was passing through the suburbs he met a holy mendicant exclaiming, 'charity, charity! he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the lord; and he that lendeth to the lord shall be repaid a hundred-fold.' 'what is that you say?' said abdûlla. the beggar repeated his exclamation. 'you are the only person i can deal with,' said the good but simple peasant; 'there are eight piastres--all i possess; take them, and use them in the name of the almighty, but take care that i am hereafter paid a hundred-fold, for without it i shall never be able to gratify my dear wife and children.' and in the simplicity of his heart he repeated to the mendicant all which had occurred, that he might exactly understand the situation in which he was placed. "the holy man, scarcely able to suppress a smile as he carefully folded up the eight piastres, bade abdûlla to be of good heart, and rely upon a sure return. he then left him, exclaiming as before, 'charity, charity! he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the lord; and he that lendeth to the lord shall be repaid a hundred-fold.' "when abdûlla came within sight of his cottage, they all ran to meet him. the breathless yûsuph was the first who reached his father: 'where is my horse and my sword?' 'and my indian handkerchief and golden slippers?' said little fatima, who had now come up. 'and my silk vest?' said zeebâ, who was close behind her daughter. 'but wealth has changed your disposition, my dear abdûlla!' said the good woman: 'you have become grave, and no doubt,' she added with a smile, 'so dignified, that you could not be burdened, but have hired a servant to bring home the horse and to carry the presents for your family. well, children, be patient; we shall see every thing in a few minutes.' abdûlla shook his head, but would not speak a word till he entered his dwelling. he then seated himself on his coarse mat, and repeated all his adventures, every part of which was heard with temper till his last act, that of giving his piastres to the mendicant. zeebâ, who had a little more knowledge of the world than her husband, and whose mind was ruffled by disappointment, loudly reproached him with his stupidity and folly in thus throwing away the money he had obtained by the liberality of the reis, to whom she immediately went and gave information of all that had occurred. the enraged squire sent for abdûlla: 'you blockhead,' said he, 'what have you been about? i, who am a man of substance, never give more than a copper coin[ ] to these vagabond rascals who go about asking charity; and here you have given one of them eight piastres; enough to spoil the whole generation; but he promised you a hundred-fold, and you shall have it to prevent future folly. here,' said he to the servants near him, 'seize the fellow, and give him a hundred stripes!' the order was obeyed as soon as given, and poor abdûlla went home on the night of the day following that which had dawned upon his wealth, sore from a beating, without a coin in his pocket, out of temper with silk-mercers, horse-dealers, cutlers, slipper-makers, mendicants, squires, wives, himself, and all the world. "early next morning abdûlla was awakened by a message, that the reis wanted him. before he went he had forgiven his wife, who was much grieved at the punishment which her indiscretion had brought upon her husband. he also kissed his children, and bid them be of good heart, for he might yet, through god's favour, make amends for the disappointment he had caused them. when he came to the reis, the latter said, 'i have found a job for you, abdûlla, that will bring you to your senses: here, in this dry soil, i mean to dig for water, and you must toil day after day till it is found.' so saying, he went away, leaving abdûlla to his own sad reflections and hard labour he made little progress the first two days; but on the third, when about six cubits below the surface, he came upon a brass vessel: on looking into which, he found it full of round white stones, which were beautiful from their smoothness and fine lustre. he tried to break one with his teeth, but could not. 'well,' said he, 'this is no doubt some of the rice belonging to the squire which has been turned into stones: i am glad of it--he is a cruel master; i will, however, take them home--they are very pretty; and now i recollect i saw some very like them at meshed for sale. but what can this be? said abdûlla to himself, disengaging another pot from the earth--'oho! these are darker, they must have been wheat--but they are very beautiful; and here!' cried he, 'these shining pieces of glass are finer and brighter than all the rest; but i will try if they are glass;' and he put one of them between two stones, but could not break it. "pleased with this discovery, and believing he had got something valuable, but ignorant what it was, he dug out all he could find, and putting them into a bag carefully concealed it even from his wife. his plan was, to obtain a day's leave from his master, and go again to meshed, where he had hopes of selling the pretty stones of various colours for as much money as would purchase the silk vest, the horse, the sword, the slippers, and the handkerchief. his mind dwelt with satisfaction on the pleasing surprise it would be to those he loved, to see him return home, mounted on the horse, and loaded with the other articles. but while the pious abdûlla indulged in this dream, he always resolved that the imâm mehdee should receive a fifth of whatever wealth he obtained. "after some weeks' hard labour at the well, water was found. the reis was in good humour, and the boon of a holiday was granted. abdûlla departed before daylight, that no one might see the bag which he carried; when close to meshed, he concealed it near the root of a tree, having first taken out two handfuls of the pretty stones, to try what kind of a market he could make of them. he went to a shop where he had seen some like them. he asked the man, pointing to those in the shop, if he would buy any such articles? 'certainly,' said the jeweller, for such he was; 'have you one to sell?' 'one!' said abdûlla, 'i have plenty.' 'plenty!' repeated the man. 'yes: a bag-full.' 'common pebbles, i suppose; can you show me any?' 'look here!' said abdûlla, taking out a handful, which so surprised the jeweller that it was some time before he could speak. 'will you remain here, honest man,' said he, 'for a moment,' trembling as he spoke, 'and i will return instantly.' so saying, he left the shop, but reappeared in a few minutes with the chief magistrate and some of his attendants. 'there is the man,' said he; 'i am innocent of all dealings with him: he has found the long lost treasure of khoosroo:[ ] his pockets are filled with diamonds, rubies, and pearls, in price and lustre far beyond any existing; and he says he has a bag-full.' the magistrate ordered abdûlla to be searched, and the jewels which had been described were found. he was then desired to show where he had deposited the bag, which he did; all were carefully sealed, and carried with abdûlla to the governor, by whom he was strictly examined. he told his whole history from first to last: the receiving of ten piastres; his charity at the shrine of the imâm; his intended purchases; the conduct of the mercer, the horse-dealer, the cutler, the slipper-maker; the promises of the mendicant; the disappointment and anger of his wife; the cruelty of the reis; the digging of the well; the discovery of the pretty stones; the plan formed for disposing of them, with the reserve for further charity: all this was narrated with a clearness and simplicity that stamped its truth, which was confirmed by the testimony of his wife and children, who were brought to meshed. but notwithstanding this, abdûlla, his family, and the treasures he had found, were a few days afterwards despatched for isfahan, under a guard of five hundred horsemen. express couriers were sent before to advise the ministers of the great abbas of the discovery which had been made, and of all that had been done. "during these proceedings at meshed, extraordinary events occurred at isfahan. shâh abbas the great saw one night in a dream the holy imâm mehdee, clothed in green robes. the saint, after looking steadfastly at the monarch, exclaimed, 'abbas, protect and favour my friend!' the king was much troubled at this dream, and desired his astrologers and wise men to expound it: but they could not. on the two following nights the same vision appeared, and the same words were pronounced. the monarch lost all temper, and threatened the chief astrologer and others with death, unless they relieved the anxiety of his mind before the evening of the same day. while preparations were making for their execution, the couriers from the governor of meshed arrived, and the vizier, after perusing the letters, hastened to the king. 'let the mind of the refuge[ ] of the world be at repose,' he said: 'for the dream of our monarch is explained. the peasant abdûlla of khorassan, who, though ignorant and poor, is pious and charitable, and who has become the chosen instrument of providence for discovering the treasures of khoosroo, is the revealed friend of the holy imâm mehdee, who has commanded that this good and humble man be honoured by the protection and favour of the king of kings.' "shâh abbas listened to the particulars which were written from meshed with delight: his mind was quite relieved, and he ordered all his nobles and his army to accompany him a day's march from isfahan to meet the friend of the holy imâm. when the approach of the party was announced, the king walked from his tent a short distance to meet them. first came one hundred horsemen; next abdûlla, with his arms bound, sitting on a camel; after him, on another, his wife zeebâ, and followed by their children, yûsuph and fatima, riding together on a third. behind the prisoners was the treasure. a hundred horsemen guarded each flank, and two hundred covered the rear. shâh abbas made the camels which carried abdûlla and his family kneel close to him, and aided, with his royal hands, to untie the cords by which the good man was bound, while others released his wife and children. a suit of the king's own robes were directed to be put upon abdûlla, and the monarch led him to a seat close to his throne: but before he would consent to be seated, he thus addressed his majesty. "'o king of the universe, i am a poor man, but i was contented with my lot, and happy in my family, till i first knew wealth. from that day my life has been a series of misfortunes: folly and ambition have made me entertain wishes out of my sphere, and i have brought disappointment and misfortune on those i loved best; but now that my death is near, and it pleases your majesty to amuse yourself with a mock-honour to your slave, he is satisfied, if your royal clemency will only spare the lives of that kind woman and these dear children. let them be restored to the peace and innocence of their native valley, and deal with me according to your royal pleasure.' "on uttering these words, abdûlla, overcome by his feelings, burst into tears. abbas was himself greatly moved. 'good and pious man,' he said, 'i intend to honour, not to slay thee. thy humble and sincere prayers, and thy charitable offerings at the shrine of the holy mehdee, have been approved and accepted. he has commanded me to protect and favour thee. thou shalt stay a few days at my capital, to recover from thy fatigues, and return as governor of that province from which thou hast come a prisoner. a wise minister, versed in the forms of office, shall attend thee; but in thy piety and honesty of character i shall find the best qualities for him who is destined to rule over others. thy good wife zeebâ has already received the silk vest she so anxiously expected; and it shall be my charge,' continued the gracious monarch, with a smile, 'to see yûsuph provided with a horse and sword, and that little fatima shall have her handkerchief and golden slippers.' "the manner as well as the expressions of the king dispelled all abdûlla's fears, and filled his heart with boundless gratitude. he was soon after nominated governor of khorassan, and became famous over the country for his humanity and justice. he repaired, beautified, and richly endowed the shrine of the holy imâm, to whose guardian care he ever ascribed his advancement. yûsuph became a favourite of abbas, and was distinguished by his skill in horsemanship, and by his gallantry. fatima was married to one of the principal nobles, and the good zeebâ had the satisfaction through life of being sole mistress in her family, and having no rival in the affection of her husband, who continued to cherish, in his exalted situation, those ties and feelings which had formed his happiness in humble life." such is the story of abdûlla of khorassan, as given by my friend derveesh seffer; but the difference between perusing it and hearing him tell it, is that between reading a play and seeing it acted by the first performers. i had heard him tell this tale ten years before, when a curious incident occured. two gentlemen rose to leave the party when he was commencing: he asked the cause of their departure. "they do not understand persian," i said. "that is of no consequence," he replied; "entreat them to stay, and they will soon find that their ignorance of the language does not place them beyond my power." his wishes were explained, and the result proved he was correct; they were nearly as much entertained as others, and had their feelings almost equally excited; such was his admirable expression of countenance, and so varied the intonations of his voice. i was pleased to see my friend derveesh seffer treated with liberality by the elchee. such conduct towards persons of his character and profession makes useful impressions. but here, as elsewhere, much depends upon the selection of proper objects of notice; and it is no easy matter to resist the constant attempts which are made to obtain money or presents. a poet of shiraz, named moollâh adam, had gone a stage from that city to present an ode to the elchee, whom he had in this long and laboured production compared to roostem, the hero of persia, for valour; to peerân-weeseh, the solomon of tartary, for wisdom; and to hâtim-tâi, the most munificent of arabian princes, for generosity. he had been rewarded for his trouble, but was not satisfied, and his genius was taxed to obtain something more. while we were sitting in the room, at the gateway of the beautiful garden of jehân-noomâ, looking at the mules carrying our baggage towards isfahan, this votary of the muses made his appearance: his professed object was to take leave; his real purpose was to read an epigram of four lines,[ ] the concluding one of which was-- "moollâh adam neek sâ'et yâft." this line, from sâ'et signifying hour or watch, might either be translated, "moollâh adam chose a good (or propitious) hour," or, "moollâh adam got a good watch." the animals, laden with the most valuable articles, were at the moment on the road below the window where we were seated, and the elchee, pointing to them, said, "sâ'et goozesht," the hour is past, or, the watch is gone. the countenance of the poet, which had, on reading his last line, glistened with expectation, changed for a moment, but was soon covered with forced smiles, and he declared that he would rather carry the elchee's happy reply into the city than ten watches. i trembled lest this flattery should succeed: it did not; and he departed apparently in good humour, but inwardly, no doubt, much disappointed. footnotes: [ ] this story is given in the history of persia, vol. ii. p. . [ ] tekkeyahs. [ ] the frail wife of potiphar, according to the mahomedans. [ ] the mahomedan law only requires a small deduction on account of charity from what is necessary for subsistence; but of all superfluous wealth (and such abdûlla deemed his ten piastres) true believers were expected to give one-fifth to the poor. [ ] "pool-e-siyâh," literally, black coin. [ ] cyrus. there is a common belief in persia that an immense treasure was buried by this monarch. [ ] jehân-penâh. [ ] roobâi or quatrain. chapter xii. persian servants--departure from shiraz--persepolis--tale of the labours of roostem--anecdote of a sportsman. the formation of the elchee's establishment, which had commenced at abusheher, was completed at shiraz. servants of every description were hired; and in all cases the preference was given to those who had been on our first mission; when such were dead, that was transferred to their brothers, sons, or near relations. the persians are more than good-looking, they are a handsome race of men. all the public and private servants of the mission were dressed in silk and cloth tunics, with new lamb's-wool caps, many with silk and some with shawl waistbands; besides, they were all clean, and had their beards well-trimmed for the occasion, knowing that, to those who pretend to figure in the train of an elchee, personal appearance is of no slight consequence. thus attended, we proceeded towards the footstool of royalty. nine splendidly dressed jelloodârs or grooms, under the direction of a meer-akhoor, or master of the horse, led nine beautiful horses, richly caparisoned, with saddles and bridles finely ornamented with gold and silver. next came eight shâtirs, or running footmen, dressed in tunics of yellow cloth, trimmed with silver; and then the elchee and suite, followed by a large escort of cavalry, with kettle-drums and trumpets. on the flanks of this state-line of march were all kinds of meerzâs,[ ] or secretaries, and attendants. amongst the most essential of the latter were the paish-khidmets, or personal servants, who prepared kelliâns, or pipes for the elchee and the gentlemen of his train. these were mounted, and carried before them, fixed like holsters, two large cases which contained their kelliâns, and all the implements thereunto appertaining. the most extraordinary part of their equipment was two small iron chafing-dishes filled with charcoal, which hung by chains, dangling below their stirrups. from these grates they lighted the kelliân, which they held in their hands, presenting their masters with the end of a long pliant tube, through which the latter smoked, while the paish-khidmets rode a few paces in the rear. our cavalcade always preserved the same order even during our long night-marches, the tediousness of which suggested that our party wanted a minstrel to shorten the distance by tales of wonder. this want was no sooner hinted, than an old groom, called joozee beg, came forward and offered his services. he belonged, he said, to the zend tribe, and when its chiefs were kings of persia he was not neglected. "moorâd ali khan, and lootf ali khan, that miracle of valour," said old joozee beg, "have listened to my voice, when it was exerted to animate[ ] their followers to battle; but these days are gone; a turkish family wears the crown of iran;[ ] i am, like others of my race, in indigence and obscurity, and now recite verses, which princes loved to hear, to men like myself of low degree; but if the elchee desires, i will repeat some lines fit for a soldier to listen to, from the shâh-nâmeh of firdousee." this prelude gave more pleasure, from its near resemblance to that of our well-known northern minstrel: "no longer courted and caressed, high placed in hall, a welcome guest, he poured, to lord and lady gay, the unpremeditated lay.-- old times are past, old manners gone, a stranger filled the stuart's throne. a wandering harper, scorned and poor, he begged his bread from door to door, and tuned, to please a peasant's ear, the harp a king had loved to hear." joozee beg was told his offer was accepted, and after giving the horse he led to another, and taking his place in the front of the running footmen, he began as follows. "it is hardly necessary to explain to one with such great knowledge as the elchee, and to men of such enlightened understandings as those by whom he is surrounded, that siyâvesh, son of ky-kâoos, king of persia, fled into tartary, and took refuge with afrâsiâb, king of that country, who first gave him his beautiful daughter feringhees in marriage, and then put him to death. the widow of the unfortunate prince was left, with her infant son, the celebrated ky-khoosroo,[ ] to the persecution of her tyrannical father, whose conduct provoked the vengeance of the king and nobles of persia; but you shall now hear the first battle, in which the persians were commanded by that hero roostem, and the turks by their king afrâsiâb." after this prelude, joozee beg cleared his throat, and began to recite in a voice which, though loud and at times almost deafening, was not without melody. the following is a literal translation of the fight as given by our minstrel. "hearken to the sound of the drum from two quarters; the restless warriors are impatient of delay; the trumpet's bray is heard afar; and the cymbals, clarions, and fifes of india and china join in the clang of war; the shout of battle reaches the clouds, and the earth vibrates to the neighing of steeds. when the noise of the approaching army was heard upon the plain, the report was conveyed to roostem, the avenger.[ ] they told him the force of afrâsiâb was near; that his great army rode over the plain as a proud ship rides upon the seas; that his troops were in number like ants and locusts, and covered from the eye of the beholder the mountains, plains, and woods. when roostem heard that the army of the king of turan[ ] was in sight, he placed himself in the centre of his force; zevâreh, his brother, was posted in the rear; ferâmerz, his son, was stationed in front; toos, with his band, was placed on the right. they were many in number, but one in heart.[ ] feribooz, the son of ky-kâoos,[ ] was on the left, surrounded by a family of valiant men; gooderz covered the rear with his relations, who were all free and independent[ ] heroes. the air was darkened with the swords of the brave, when the glorious standard of gâveh[ ] was unfurled. "the leaders of the army of turan now arrange their shields. bahamân commanded their wing: he was surrounded by men as powerful as they were valiant. the left was led by rahrem the renowned, and the centre by king afrâsiâb in person. the earth from the hoofs of the horses became of the colour of an elephant, the air was spotted with lances like the skin of the leopard. the world had the appearance of a mountain of iron with a crest of steel. the war-horses neighed, and the standards fluttered, while the dark-edged swords scattered heads upon the plain. peelsem[ ] rushed from the centre of the army; his heart was filled with rage, and his visage covered with frowns. he exclaimed aloud to the heroes of iran, 'where is roostem? they tell me he is a dragon in the day of battle.' at this instant a shout was heard from roostem, which shook all around. he said to his troops, 'move not forward from the spot on which you now are. i go to silence this peelsem, whose heart burns with rage, and whose visage is covered with frowns.' roostem, foaming with passion, rushed to the front of the battle; he couched his strong lance, fixed himself in his seat, and raising his shield to his head, he exclaimed, 'o peelsem, thou celebrated warrior, hast thou called me forth that thou mightest consume me with thy breath?' thus saying, he struck his lance through peelsem's body, and raised him on its point from his saddle, like a light ball. he continued his charge to the centre of the army of turan, and casting the body from the point of his spear, exclaimed, 'clothe this corpse of your friend in a pale[ ] shroud, for the dark dust has soiled it.' now the shout of heroes and the blows of maces are heard, and the voice of the trumpets shakes the earth. the deep drum sounds from the back of the elephant to the distance of many miles:[ ] the earth was wearied by the tread of horses. each pool became like a sea with blood, and each plain like a mountain from the slain, and every stone was turned into coral. many were the proud who were laid low on that day. heaven seemed to call for blood, and the breast of a father was devoid of mercy for his son. from the dark flights of the eagle-feathered arrows, with their steely points, the air was deprived of the space it occupied: the clashing of swords reached the skies, and blood flowed from the boundary of india to the oxus. the flashing of scimitars and spears, seen through the thick clouds of dust, appeared like the forked lightning amid the dark clouds of the firmament. the day was made by death, black, like the face of an ethiopian. the numbers of the slain filled the roads, and the plains were strewed with helmets and shields, and heads were seen as if lamenting for each other. the hearts of the army of the king of turan were broken, and the field of battle became dark in their sight. 'our good fortune,' exclaimed afrâsiâb to his troops, 'is no longer awake, but sleepeth.' they left the field covered with iron, silver, and gold; with helmets, lances, and bucklers. the poorest in the army of iran became that day a man of wealth, from the quantity of ornaments and jewels. "'whosoever desireth to succeed, and to avoid trouble and danger, will not wander in the path of the wicked.'"[ ] here our bard ended his battle, which differs in some stanzas from my copy of firdousee; but that is not surprising, as i never knew two copies of this celebrated work that did not differ in a hundred places. the attendants of the mission, particularly those who were of the ancient persian tribes, and who hate the tartars, were delighted with joozee beg's battle. we all expressed our satisfaction, and were assured by the minstrel that we were kaderdâns, judges of merit. but his delight appeared incomplete, until he heard the elchee add to his thanks an order for a present of a few piastres. he then said he was "happy--he was honoured;" that he had often heard of the fame of the english nation, but was now, from personal observation, quite satisfied they were the first people upon earth. the journey from shiraz to isfahan abounds with remains of the former glory of persia. the greatest is the far-famed persepolis of the greeks, the elemais of the hebrews, and the istakhar of the persians. every traveller has described these magnificent ruins, which the natives of the country distinguish by the name of chehl-menâr (forty[ ] pillars), and tekht-e-jemsheed (throne of jemsheed). some conjecture that it was formerly a palace, others are quite positive it must have been a temple. i am much too wise to venture on speculations which have bewildered so many learned men. my reader must therefore be satisfied with a conversation i had upon this abstruse subject with some of my fellow-travellers, when i visited these monuments of ancient grandeur. "this building," said aga meer, "was the house of solomon, at least so i have read in the history of shiraz." "and what did the foolish writer of that book know about solomon?" said mahomed hoosein khan; "but the author, i suppose, concluded, that because solomon was the wisest of men, he must choose persia as his residence; and every persian will agree in such a conclusion." "no doubt," said the mild aga meer, either not understanding the little nabob's sarcasm at the vanity of his countrymen, or not wishing to enter into farther discussion. "people are divided," said the khan, pleased with his own sally, "whether this was a palace or a temple; if it was built and inhabited by jemsheed, it was probably both; for he says, in the shâh-nâmeh, 'by the divine favour, i am both a sovereign and a priest;'[ ] and if this first and most wonderful man of persia studied his ease and convenience half as much as his countrymen now do, it is most probable, that, to save himself trouble, he would join his palace and his temple together." "you europeans," continued khan sâhib, turning to me, "believe that alexander, to please a beautiful lady, set fire to this palace in a spirit of mischief; we mahomedans have the consolation to think this proud abode of unbelievers was destroyed when our first caliphs conquered persia, through a spirit of holiness. it was a rule," said he, smiling, "of the first pious propagators of our religion, always to give to infidels an earnest in this world of what they were to expect in the next; so they and their profane works were included in one common sentence of destruction." though neither the indian moonshee, mahomed hoosein, nor the persian meerzâ, liked the levity with which my little friend treated such a serious subject; they saw he was in too lively a vein to expect to check him, but they looked grave. this, he observed, and to change the subject, asked me what i thought was the meaning of a figure, to which he pointed, half of whose body appeared rising out of a circle, and to which wings were attached? i told him, he could not apply to one who was more ignorant of such subjects than myself, but i would tell him what the learned of europe had conjectured regarding this mystical figure. the detail was long, and embraced a variety of opinions; but i concluded by observing, that the figure was believed to be that of a ferooher, or spirit, which, according to the doctrine of zoroaster, is an associate of an existing being, with whose soul or spiritual part it is united before birth and after death. "these feroohers," said i, "were sometimes invoked as guardian angels: they were male and female, and were not, in their connection with this earth, limited to human creatures; some of the race belonged to the vegetable world. trees had their feroohers." i was becoming more than learned, i was mystical, and on the point of showing some striking analogies between these aerial spirits of the ancient persians, and the sylphs, the dryads, and the hamadryads of the greeks, when khan sâhib, anxious to make amends with his mahomedan friends, for the slight which he saw they supposed he had put upon the first caliphs, interrupted me by saying-- "well, god knows! however we may question the humanity, if not the policy, of extirpating whole races of men, because they did not believe exactly as we do, assuredly the founders of our holy religion have merit in putting an end to feroohers, and all such trumpery as you have been talking about. there is enough of wicked flesh and blood in this world to give an honest man trouble and alarm, without his being scared in a wood, or frightened in his sleep by ghosts, spirits, and demons. the glorious volume,[ ] thank heaven, has put an end to all these gentry. but, after all, i really wish (looking round at the ruins) that while it conferred this benefit upon us, and gave us more space in the world, by the removal of some incorrigible infidels, it had spared some of their best works, if it were only as specimens of their folly and pride." as he was concluding this sentence, hajee hoosein came from the elchee with pipes and coffee for our refreshment. "you were speaking of good works," said the hajee. "i was speaking of works," said the khan. "it is all the same," replied the hajee, determined not to lose an opportunity of showing his reading: "works are everything in this world, as sâdee says--'alas, for him that's gone, and done no work! the drum of departure has beat, and his burden is not made up.'"[ ] the admiration given to the expression and sentiment of the moralist of persia did not prevent a laugh at the manner in which it was applied. the hajee, however, was not displeased with our mirth; he was too full of sâdee's apophthegms and stanzas, and too eager to mix in conversation, to be particular as to the time or place in which he gave utterance to his recollections; and their want of application often rendered them more entertaining. we returned to our tents with a resolution of completing our knowledge of the wonders of this place, by a visit to the famous rocks in the vicinity of persepolis, which are called "the sculptures of roostem."[ ] though there can be little doubt, from the similarity of these figures to those on the sassanian coins, that they have been made to perpetuate the glory of the first sovereigns of that family; yet, when i on the ensuing day mentioned this conjecture to my persian friends, i found i was regarded as an envious frank, who wanted to detract from their hero roostem, with whose fame all that is valiant, powerful, or wonderful in this country is associated: and whose name has been given to this, as it has been to all other sculptures representing any warlike deeds, of which the precise history is unknown. in order to make amends for the errors of my knowledge, i commenced a panegyric on their favourite warrior. "we have," i said, "an account from the greeks of a celebrated hero of theirs called hercules, whom they have deified, and whom many of our learned confound with roostem; but this hercules was, in my opinion, hardly fit to carry the slippers of your hero." "the greeks talk of the club of hercules, but what was his club to the bull-headed mace with which roostem destroyed whole armies? hercules, when an infant, crushed a couple of serpents; but roostem, when a child, brained a furious elephant: hercules shot his enemy, ephialtes, in one eye; but roostem did twice as much, for with a forked arrow he sealed in eternal darkness both eyes of the prince esfendiâr: hercules wore a lion's hide; roostem had, according to firdousee, a vest made of the skins of several lions. both heroes had supernatural aid, but roostem seldom required it; for he was endowed with the strength of one hundred and twenty elephants;[ ] and out of fifty thousand horses one only, the celebrated reksh, was found capable of bearing his weight. "hercules," i continued, "we are told by the greeks (who, however, are great romancers), accomplished twelve labours; but what are these compared to the heft kh'ân, or seven stages of roostem? besides, it is doubted whether hercules could ride--he certainly had no horse of any fame; whereas reksh excelled all horses as much as his rider did all men." this moderate and just tribute to the hero of persia quite restored me to the good graces of my friends, who concurred with me in requesting our old minstrel, who had charge of the horses of some of our party, to recount to us the story of the heft kh'ân, or seven stages of roostem. he could not, he said, recite these great events as written in the page of the immortal firdousee; but if we would be satisfied, he could give us the tale in prose, as he had heard it read from the shemsheer-khânee.[ ] being assured that what he recollected of the story would be quite enough, and his audience having seated themselves beneath the sculptured rocks, he began as follows: "persia was at peace, and prosperous; but its king, ky-kâoos, could never remain at rest. a favourite singer gave him one day an animated account of the beauties of the neighbouring kingdom of mazenderan;[ ] its ever blooming roses, its melodious nightingales, its verdant plains, its mountains shaded with lofty trees, and adorned to their summits with flowers which perfumed the air, its clear murmuring rivulets, and, above all, its lovely damsels and valiant warriors. "all these were described to the sovereign in such glowing colours, that he quite lost his reason, and declared he should never be happy till his power extended over a country so favoured by nature. it was in vain that his wisest ministers and most attached nobles dissuaded him from so hazardous an enterprise as that of invading a region, which had, besides other defenders, a number of deevs, or demons, who, acting under their renowned chief deev-e-seffeed, or the white demon, had hitherto defeated all enemies." "is the deev-e-seffeed," said i, stopping the narrator, and turning to aga meer, "believed by modern persians to have been a supernatural being, as his name implies? or is this deemed a poetical fiction of firdousee to describe a formidable warrior, perhaps a more northern prince, and therefore of a fairer complexion?" "why," said the meer, "it is with us almost a crime to refuse belief to a single line firdousee has written; but though there is no doubt he has given the account of these deevs as he found it, in the public records from which he composed his great historical poem; we find in some of our best dictionaries, such as the jehângeeree, and boorhân-e-kâtih, the word deev rendered 'a valiant warrior,' which shows that the learned authors of these works entertained the same notion as you do." "if i had written a dictionary," said mahomed hoosein khan, "i should have solved the difficulty by explaining, that deev was a man who fought like a devil." this little sally finished our grave disquisition; and joozee beg, who seemed not a little impatient at the interruption, resumed his narration. "ky-kâoos," as i said before, "would not listen to his nobles, who in despair sent for old zâl, the father of roostem, and prince of seestan. zâl came and used all his efforts, but in vain; the monarch was involved in clouds of pride, and closed a discussion he had with zâl, by exclaiming, 'the creator of the world is my friend; the chief of the deevs is my prey.'[ ] this impious boasting satisfied zâl he could do no good; and he even refused to become regent of persia in the absence of ky-kâoos, but promised to aid with his counsel. "the king departed to anticipated conquest; but the prince of mazenderan summoned his forces, and above all the deev-e-seffeed and his band. they came at his call: a great battle[ ] ensued, in which the persians were completely defeated. ky-kâoos was made prisoner and confined in a strong fortress under the guard of a hundred deevs, commanded by arjeng, who was instructed to ask the persian monarch every morning how he liked the roses, nightingales, flowers, trees, verdant meadows, shady mountains, clear streams, beautiful damsels, and valiant warriors of mazenderan? "the news of this disaster soon spread over persia, and notwithstanding the disgust of old zâl at the headstrong folly of his monarch, he was deeply afflicted at the tale of his misfortune and disgrace. he sent for roostem, to whom he said, 'go, my son, and with thy single arm, and thy good horse, reksh, release our sovereign.' roostem instantly obeyed. there were two roads, but he chose the nearest, though it was reported to be by far the most difficult and dangerous. now," said joozee beg, "it would occupy the whole day if i was to relate at length the adventures of the heft khân: a short account of the obstacles which the hero overcame at each will suffice. "fatigued with his first day's journey, roostem lay down to sleep, having turned reksh loose to graze in a neighbouring meadow, where he was attacked by a furious lion; but this wonderful horse, after a short contest, struck his antagonist to the ground with a blow from his fore-hoof, and completed the victory by seizing the throat of the royal animal with his teeth. when roostem awoke, he was surprised and enraged. he desired reksh never again to attempt, unaided, such an encounter. 'hadst thou been slain,' asked he of the intelligent brute, 'how should i have accomplished my enterprise?' "at the second stage roostem had nearly died of thirst, but his prayers to the almighty were heard: a fawn appeared, as if to be his guide, and following it, he was conducted to a clear fountain, where, after regaling on the flesh of a wild ass,[ ] which he had killed with his bow, he lay down to sleep. in the middle of the night a monstrous serpent, seventy yards in length, came out of its hiding-place, and made at the hero, who was awaked by the neighing of reksh; but the serpent had crept back to his hiding-place, and roostem seeing no danger, abused his faithful horse for disturbing his repose. another attempt of the serpent was defeated in the same way; but as the monster had again concealed himself, roostem lost all patience with reksh, whom he threatened to put to death if he again awaked him by any such unseasonable noises. the faithful steed, fearing his master's rage, but strong in his attachment, instead of neighing when the serpent again made his appearance, sprung upon it, and commenced a furious contest! roostem, hearing the noise, started up and joined in the combat. the serpent darted at him, but he avoided it; and, while his noble horse seized their enemy by the back, the hero cut off its head with his sword. "when the serpent was slain, roostem contemplated its enormous size with amazement, and, with that piety which always distinguished him, returned thanks to the almighty for his miraculous escape. "next day, as roostem sat by a fountain, he saw a beautiful damsel regaling herself with wine. he approached her, accepted her invitation to partake of the beverage, and clasped her in his arms as if she had been an angel. it happened, in the course of their conversation, that the persian hero mentioned the name of the great god he adored. at the sound of that sacred word the fair features and shape of the female changed, and she became black, ugly, and deformed. the astonished roostem seized her, and, after binding her hands, bid her declare who she was. 'i am a sorceress,' was the reply, 'and have been employed by the evil-spirit aharman for thy destruction: but save my life, and i am powerful to do thee service.' 'i make no compact with the devil or his agents,' said the hero, and cut her in twain. he again poured forth his soul in thanksgiving to god for his deliverance. "on his fourth stage roostem lost his way. while wandering about he came to a clear rivulet, on the banks of which he lay down to take some repose, having first turned reksh loose into a field of grain. a gardener who had charge of it came and awoke the hero, telling him, in an insolent tone, that he would soon suffer for his temerity, as the field in which his horse was feeding belonged to a pehloovân, or warrior, called oulâd. roostem, always irascible, but particularly so when disturbed in his slumbers, jumped up, tore off the gardener's ears, and gave him a blow with his fist that broke his nose and teeth. 'take these marks of my temper to your master,' he said, 'and tell him to come here, and he shall have a similar welcome.' "oulâd, when informed of what had passed, was excited to fury, and prepared to assail the persian hero, who, expecting him, had put on his armour, and mounted reksh. his appearance so dismayed oulâd, that he dared not venture on the combat till he had summoned his adherents. they all fell upon roostem at once; but the base-born caitiffs were scattered like chaff before the wind: many were slain, others fled, among whom was their chief. him roostem came up with at the fifth stage, and having thrown his noose[ ] over him, took him prisoner. oulâd, in order to save his life, not only gave him full information of the place where his sovereign was confined, and of the strength of the deev-e-seffeed, but offered to give the hero every aid in the accomplishment of his perilous enterprise. this offer was accepted, and he proved a most useful auxiliary. "on the sixth day they saw in the distance the city of mazenderan, near which the deev-e-seffeed resided. two chieftains, with numerous attendants, met them; and one had the audacity to ride up to roostem, and seize him by the belt. that chief's fury at this insolence was unbounded; he disdained, however, to use his arms against such an enemy, but seizing the miscreant's head, wrenched it from the body, and hurled it at his companions, who fled in terror and dismay at this terrible proof of the hero's prowess. "roostem proceeded, after this action, with his guide to the castle where the king was confined. the deevs who guarded it were asleep, and ky-kâoos was found in a solitary cell, chained to the ground. he recognised roostem, and bursting into tears, pressed his deliverer to his bosom. roostem immediately began to knock off his chains: the noise occasioned by this awoke the deevs, whose leader, beedâr-reng, advanced to seize roostem; but the appearance and threats of the latter so overawed him, that he consented to purchase his own safety by the instant release of the persian king and all his followers. "after this achievement roostem proceeded to the last and greatest of his labours, the attack of the deev-e-seffeed. oulâd told him, that the deevs watched and feasted during the night, but slept during the heat of the day, hating (according to our narrator) the sun-beams. roostem, as he advanced, saw an immense army drawn out: he thought it better, before he attacked them, to refresh himself by some repose. having laid himself down, he soon fell into a sound sleep, and at daylight he awoke quite refreshed. as soon as the sun became warm, he rushed into the camp. the heavy blows of his mace soon awoke the surprised and slumbering guards of the deev-e-seffeed: they collected in myriads, hoping to impede his progress; but all in vain. the rout became general, and none escaped but those who fled from the field of battle. "when this army was dispersed roostem went in search of the deev-e-seffeed, who, ignorant of the fate of his followers, slumbered in the recess of a cavern, the entrance to which looked so dark and gloomy, that the persian hero hesitated whether he should advance, but the noise of his approach had roused his enemy, who came forth, clothed in complete armour. his appearance was terrible; but roostem, recommending his soul to god, struck a desperate blow, which separated the leg of the deev from his body. this," said joozee beg, "would on common occasions have terminated the contest, but far different was the result on the present. irritated to madness by the loss of a limb, the monster seized his enemy in his arms, and endeavoured to throw him down. the struggle was for some time doubtful; but roostem, collecting all his strength, by a wondrous effort dashed his foe to the ground, and seizing him by one of the horns, unsheathed his dagger, and stabbed him to the heart.[ ] the deev-e-seffeed instantly expired; and roostem, on looking round to the entrance of the cavern, from whence the moment before he had seen numberless deevs issuing to the aid of their lord, perceived they were all dead. oulâd, who stood at a prudent distance from the scene of combat, now advanced and informed the hero, that the lives of all the deevs depended upon that of their chief: when he was slain, the spell which created and preserved this band was broken, and they all expired. "roostem," said our narrator, "found little difficulty, after these seven days of toil, of danger, and of glory, in compelling mazenderan to submit to persia. the king of the country was slain, and oulâd was appointed its governor as a reward for his fidelity. "it would weary you," said joozee beg, "were i to detail all the misfortunes and distresses into which ky-kâoos subsequently brought himself, by a pride and folly which were only equalled by the wisdom and valour of zâl and his son roostem; but one instance will suffice." hajee hoosein, who was in attendance, whispered to me, "it is true, as sâdee says, 'a wise man does not always know when to begin, but a fool never knows when to stop.'" i smiled, but shook my head, and joozee proceeded. "the event i am about to narrate," said he, "appears so wonderful, that i should doubt its truth, if i did not know it was written in the book i before told you of. "the success of his arms had raised ky-kâoos to the very plenitude of power; not only men but deevs obeyed his mandates. the latter he employed in building palaces of crystal, emeralds, and rubies, till at last they became quite tired of their toil and abject condition. they sought, therefore, to destroy him; and to effect this they consulted with the devil, who, to forward the object, instructed a deev, called dizjkheem, to go to ky-kâoos, and raise in his mind a passion for astronomy, and to promise him a nearer view of the celestial bodies than had ever yet been enjoyed by mortal eyes. the deev fulfilled his commission with such success, that the king became quite wild with a desire to attain perfection in this sublime science. the devil then instructed dizjkheem to train some young vultures to carry a throne upwards: this was done by placing spears round the throne, on the points of which pieces of flesh were fixed in view of the vultures who were fastened at the bottom. these voracious birds, in their efforts to reach the meat, raised the throne--" joozee beg here stopt, seeing me hardly able to suppress a laugh. "you do not credit this story," he said. "you mistake," i replied; "i am only struck with a remarkable coincidence. in a sister kingdom of england, called ireland, the natives, according to a learned author, trick their horses into a trot, by binding a wisp of hay to the end of a pole to which they are harnessed, and, like your vultures, they constantly strive but never attain their desire: their efforts to reach the food fulfil the object of the ingenious author of this useful invention. he was only a mortal, however, and could do no more than impel a vehicle along the earth; the scheme of the devil is more sublime, and we shall, i trust, hear of ky-kâoos reaching the seventh heaven!" "he was not so fortunate," said joozee beg; "for though he mounted rapidly for some time, the vultures became exhausted, and finding their efforts to reach the meat hopeless, discontinued them; this altered the direction and equilibrium of the machine, and it tossed to and fro. ky-kâoos would have been cast headlong and killed had he not clung to it. the vultures not being able to disengage themselves, flew an immense way, and at last landed the affrighted monarch in one of the woods of china. armies marched in every direction to discover and release the sovereign, who, it was believed, had again fallen into the hands of deevs. he was at last found, and restored to his capital. roostem, we are told, upbraided his folly, saying 'have you managed your affairs so well on earth that you must needs try your hand in those of heaven?'"[ ] here the tale of wonder ceased, and a learned dissertation commenced upon the genius and writings of firdousee. it is only justice to this great poet to observe, that the exuberance of his fertile imagination, though it led him to amplify and adorn his subject, never made him false to the task he had undertaken--that of embodying in his great work all that remained of the fabulous and historical traditions and writings of his country. we cannot have a stronger proof of his adherence to this principle than his passing over, almost in silence, the four centuries which elapsed between the death of alexander the great and the rise of ardesheer or artaxerxes, the founder of the sassanian dynasty. adverting to the history of the parthian kings, he observes, "when both their root and branches ceased to flourish, their deeds remained unrecorded by any experienced historian; and nothing but their names have i either heard or perused in the annals of the kings of persia." i mentioned to my friends, as we were leaving the ruins, the reflections which occurred to me on these points, anticipating their approbation of the justice i did firdousee, but i was disappointed. mahomed hoosein, the indian moonshee, alone seemed to concur. "it is very just," was pronounced by him in an under tone. meerzâ aga meer said faintly, "perhaps you are right." khan sâhib had a half-suppressed smile at the scrape he saw i was in, from my qualified praise of the popular historian, as well as poet, of persia; while almost all the natives of that country, and there were many of the party, evidently considered my criticism as bordering on want of faith in an author whom they had almost worshipped from infancy. i overheard hajee hoosein, to whom all the lesser persons in the mission listen as to an oracle, whisper to one of his friends, "sâdee says, 'a wise man does not bring a candle to light the sun.'" i left persepolis with regret that my visit was so short; but the same ardent desire to examine this celebrated ruin was not felt by all our party. one of my companions, now no more, a gallant soldier and most devoted sportsman, was induced, by the game he found on the neighbouring plain, to delay his inspection of the palace of jemsheed to the last day of our stay. on the morning we went to bid farewell to these remains of ancient grandeur, he promised to follow, but never came. when we interrogated him as to the cause, he answered, with that simplicity which belonged to his manly character, "i could not help it: i was on the way, but found a fine duck in the stream that runs from the mountain; it flew in a contrary direction, and i had to follow it several miles before i got a shot. there it is," said he, pointing to the bird which lay beside his gun, in a corner of the tent. footnotes: [ ] the word meerzâ, when prefixed to a name, implies a secretary or civilian; when it follows, it designates a prince. [ ] it has long been the custom in persia for persons to recite animating verses, from the shâh-nâmeh, at the commencement of, and during a battle. the late king, aga mahomed, was particularly fond of this usage, and bestowed marks of his favour on such minstrels. [ ] iran is the ancient name of persia, as turan is of tartary. [ ] the celebrated ky-khoosroo of the persians is the cyrus of the greeks. [ ] roostem keeneh-kh'âh. the hero has this epithet as he was desirous of avenging the death of siyâvesh, murdered by afrâsiâb. [ ] tartary. [ ] "their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one."--lochiel's warning. [ ] kâoos was at this time king of iran or persia. [ ] the term in the original is "azâdigân," which means men free or independent, that are not subject to the authority of others: heroes who went more with the cause than the leader. [ ] this famous standard was a blacksmith's apron set in jewels, and was long the imperial standard of persia. gâveh was a blacksmith; he overthrew the cruel tyrant zohâk, and placed feridoon on the throne of persia. when collecting followers, he carried his apron as the standard of revolt against zohâk. this apron remained the standard of the empire till taken by saad-ben-wakâs, who commanded the mahomedan army that conquered persia. [ ] the brother of peerân-weeseh, the favourite vizier and counsellor of afrâsiâb. [ ] the word means pale or yellow, and has an allusion to fear, of which that colour is the emblem in persia. [ ] the word "meel" in persian, is nearly our mile. [ ] this last stanza is a reflection of the poet, referring to the injustice of the cause of the tartars. [ ] forty, both in india and persia, is used to express an indefinite number or quantity. [ ] men-em gooft bâ-ferra-e-eezidee be-hem sheheryâree be-hem moobidee. [ ] mes'hef-e-mejeed, a pious allusion to the koran. [ ] "heif', ber ân kih reft oo kâr ne-sâkht koos-e-rihlet zed oo bâr ne-sâkht!" [ ] neksha-e-roostem. [ ] this, in the present _vapouring_ age, would be called a hundred and twenty elephant-power; but i dare not take a liberty with my text when recording facts. [ ] the shemsheer-khânee is a prose abridgment of the shâh-nâmeh, into which are introduced some of the finest passages of firdousee's poetry. [ ] the ancient hyrcania. [ ] "jehân-âfireenendeh yâr-e-men est ser-e-nereh deevân shikâr-e-men est." [ ] it was in this battle that the armies were, according to firdousee, enveloped in sudden darkness, as had been foretold by a magician. the mention of this fact proves it to be the same action during which, herodotus tells us, a total eclipse of the sun took place, as had been foretold by thales the milesian.--vide hist of persia, vol. i. p. . [ ] goor. [ ] the kemend or noose of the ancient persians appears to be the lasso of the modern south americans, and was employed to snare prisoners as well as wild cattle. it is well known and often used in india by some tribes of robbers and murderers of that country, who cast it over the head of the unwary traveller with an expertness that would do credit to a native of the pampas. [ ] a representation of this combat is given in dibdin's decameron, vol. iii, p. . [ ] "too kâr-e-zemeen-râ nikoo sakktee kih ber kâr-e-âsmân-neez perdâkhtee." chapter xiii. travellers and antiquaries--wild ass--hawking--mâder-e-sûlimân--akleed--mirrors--mehdee khan--isfahan--persian citizens and peasantry--shâh abbas the great--hâroon-oor-rasheed--nethenz. the love of travel, visiting the remains of former grandeur, and of tracing the history of ancient nations, which is so common in europe, causes wonder in the asiatics, amongst whom there is little or no spirit of curiosity or speculation. men who live in ill-governed and unquiet communities can spare no time for such objects from the active occupations incident to their place in society. in better regulated and more settled governments, the state, by divesting men of all immediate care respecting life and property, almost compels those of its subjects whose minds are active, and whose time is at their own disposal, to provide for themselves such a portion of vicissitude and trouble as shall overcome that apathy and inertness into which they might otherwise fall. from these motives they court toil and care, and sometimes danger, to make them relish the feast of existence. some gentlemen had accompanied the mission whose chief object was to see persepolis and other remains of ancient splendour. these motives were unintelligible to the persians. the day we left the ruins, aga meer, as we were riding together, expressed his surprise at men devoting their time to such pursuits. "what can be the use," said he, "of travelling so far and running so many risks to look at ruined houses and palaces, when they might stay so comfortably at home?" i replied, with some feeling of contempt for my friend's love of quiet, "if the state of a man's circumstances, or that of his country, does not find him work, he must find it for himself, or go to sleep and be good for nothing. antiquaries," i continued, "to whose praiseworthy researches you allude, by directing, through their labours and talents, our attention to the great names and magnificent monuments of former days, aid in improving the sentiments and taste of a nation. besides, though no antiquary myself, i must ever admire a study which carries man beyond self. i love those elevating thoughts that lead me to dwell with delight on the past, and to look forward with happy anticipations to the future. we are told by some that such feelings are mere allusions, and the cold practical philosopher may, on the ground of their inutility, desire to remove them from men's minds, to make way for his own machinery; but he could as soon argue me out of my existence as take from me the internal proof which such feelings convey, both as to my origin and destination." "there goes a goor-kher" (wild ass), said mahomed beg, the jelloodâr,[ ] who was riding close behind; and away he galloped. away i galloped also, leaving unfinished one of the finest speeches about the past and the future that was ever commenced. we pursued the goor-kher several miles, when we gave up the chase as hopeless. on our return, however, we found plenty of other game; five hares were killed by our dogs and three by hawks. when at shiraz, the elchee had received a present of a very fine shâh-bâz, or royal falcon. before going out i had been amused at seeing nutee beg, our head falconer, a man of great experience in his department, put upon this bird a pair of leathers, which he fitted to its thighs with as much care as if he had been the tailor of a fashionable horseman. i inquired the reason of so unusual a proceeding. "you will learn that," said the consequential master of the hawks, "when you see our sport:" and i was convinced, at the period he predicted, of the old fellow's knowledge of his business. the first hare seized by the falcon was very strong, and the ground rough. while the bird kept the claws of one foot fastened in the back of its prey, the other was dragged along the ground till it had an opportunity to lay hold of a tuft of grass, by which it was enabled to stop the course of the hare, whose efforts to escape, i do think, would have torn the hawk asunder, if it had not been provided with the leathern defences which have been mentioned. the next time the falcon was flown gave us a proof of that extraordinary courage which its whole appearance, and particularly its eye, denoted. it had stopt and quite disabled the second hare by the first pounce, when two greyhounds, which had been slipped by mistake, came up, and endeavoured to seize it. they were, however, repulsed by the falcon, whose boldness and celerity in attacking the dogs and securing its prey excited our admiration and astonishment. we had some excellent sport with smaller hawks and partridges. i was particularly pleased with one bird which kept hovering over our heads till the game was sprung, and then descending like a shot, struck its prey to the ground. we made three marches from persepolis before we came to any remarkable place; we then reached some ruins called mâder-e-sûlimân, or the mother of solomon. these have been almost as much dwelt upon by travellers as those of persepolis, and conjectures are equally various. many insist that this is the tomb of bathsheba, the wife of uriah, the wife of david, and mother of solomon. to this the only objection is, the belief or fact that neither solomon nor his mother were ever within a thousand miles of this spot while living, and therefore it was unlikely to be chosen as the burial-place of the latter when dead. another account states it to be the tomb of sûlimân, the tenth caliph of the race of ali; but against this conclusion there is decisive evidence in the very ancient style of the architecture and the inscriptions, which are in the arrow-headed character. some antiquaries, puzzled by these objections, have gone back to remote ages, and determined it to be pasargadæ the resting-place of cyrus. i could only stay a few hours at this tomb, otherwise this very important question might have been decided. the next place on our route meriting notice is the village of akleed, where the first mission halted for some days. it is situated in a beautiful valley, surrounded by hills and watered by clear rivulets. the gardens and groves in this town and its vicinity give it an inviting appearance to a traveller in persia, which, with the exception of mazenderan,[ ] and other provinces on the caspian, may generally be described as an arid country, without one great river, and with few perennial streams.[ ] if the report of the inhabitants of akleed is to be believed, disease is almost unknown. a man upwards of eighty, who was praising the place to me, said, "we die of old age, but seldom from other causes. then look round and see what a charming place it is. i have heard a moollâh assert," he added, "that our town is called akleed or kaleed (the key), and, on account of its beauty and salubrity, is considered as a key to paradise." "but you suffer from oppression like others?" "why," said he, "we are not exempt from troubles, but these come only now and then, whilst we always enjoy our pleasant habitations. we were in terrible alarm," he continued, "when we first heard of your approach; we were told that the elchee was carrying a number of pier-glasses of immense[ ] dimensions, as a present to the king; and that the inhabitants of the country, between abusheher and shiraz, were not only seized and compelled to carry these mirrors, but that all the principal men in the villages through which they had passed were to be sent to teheran and punished, because some of them had been broken. "this you may suppose occasioned no small fright, particularly as we knew the elchee's mehmandar would take advantage of the pretext of carrying these presents to commit every species of extortion. you may therefore consider our joy to hear that the elchee, to save the inhabitants from such sufferings, had resolved to have the mirrors carried by mules. we were, however, not quite relieved from our fears till the whole passed through this place some days ago. every mirror in its case was like a tekht-e-revân (or travelling litter), with shafts before and behind for the mules, by which it was carried. then, besides twenty or thirty ferrâshes to take care of these precious glasses, there was a party of horse to protect them; and the elchee's head carpenter, randall beg,[ ] dressed like one of us, and with a fine beard, rode at the head of the cavalcade." the story of the old chronicler of akleed was perfectly correct; and what was more uncommon in a persian narration, no way exaggerated. the elchee, though he incurred considerable expense in providing for the carriage of these unwieldy but valuable articles, acquired more popularity, by the relief he gave to the poorer inhabitants on his route by this act, and by insisting on paying for the soorât, or provisions furnished to the mission, than by any others during his residence in persia. we passed several large camps of eelyâts in our march between persepolis and isfahan. i had formerly seen enough of this race to satisfy me, that even the lowest of them were not only in a condition which freed them from want, but that they enjoyed a consideration in the community, or rather family, to which they belonged, that could not but contribute to their happiness. their union and their bold character gives to this class of the population of persia great security; and even when the tribe happens from political motives to be divided, which is often the case, the spirit of individuals remains unbroken; and if they are of a race which has reputation for courage and attachment, it is not unfrequent to see them in the service of those by whom they have been subdued; nor do they in such case conceal the hostile feelings they still cherish against their conquerors, who are usually indifferent to the sentiments they entertain or express, while in their service, trusting for their fidelity to certain ties and principles, which, as connected with personal honour, are seldom violated by men of this description. these reflections forcibly recurred to my mind, from a conversation i had, the day we left akleed, with an old soldier of the tribe of mâaffee, who was in the service of our mehmandar. "i have seen," said he to me, "nearly the whole of the contest between the families of zend and kajir. i belong to a tribe firmly attached to the former. i fought for them. our princes were heroes in action, but they wanted judgment; besides fortune deserted them, and favoured these cruel kajirs." i looked round; and observing my surprise, he instantly exclaimed, "what do i care who knows my sentiments? was ever man more cruel than aga mahomed khan? did not his wanton atrocities exceed all belief? i will tell you one," he added, "that i myself witnessed. "after the last and bravest of our princes, lootf ali khan, was betrayed and barbarously put to death, his meerzâ, a respectable syed of the family of the prophet, was brought before aga mahomed. 'why did you dare,' said the enraged monarch, 'to write me fermâns?'[ ] 'i did so,' said the meerzâ, 'because the fear of lootf ali khan, who was near me, was at the moment greater than of you, who were distant; but i trust to your clemency for pardon.' 'cut off his hands and put out his eyes!' was the savage mandate, which was immediately obeyed. "next morning this meerzâ's son was brought a prisoner to camp. he was sent for by the king, who addressing him, said, 'go to your father; tell him the prophet has reproached me for my injustice to him; i will do what i can to make amends: what does he want?' 'to go and pass the remainder of his life at the tomb of the holy ali at kerbela,' said the youth. 'let him depart,' replied the king, 'as soon as his wounds will permit: give him from me these three hundred tomans, and say that horses, mules, and tents will be provided for his accommodation. inform him, i have repented of my inconsiderate violence, and ask him to pray for me.' "now," said my friend, the mâaffee, "many think aga mahomed was sincere in his remorse; but i believe he was only cunning. he saw that every one was shocked at his horrible treatment of a holy syed, and he was anxious to regain their good opinion. nobody knew so well as that wily fox how to manage men. but after all," he concluded, "bad as he was in other respects, he was the soldier's friend, and so far better than his nephew and successor." "assuredly," said i, "you cannot accuse the present king of cruelty; he appears to me remarkable for his lenity." "what is the use of his lenity, if he neither gives his soldiers money himself, nor allows them to take it from others? these kajirs," he continued, in no under tone, and with fifty people within hearing, "are a sad set, and we shall never have good times again while they keep the throne." next day i spoke privately to this old soldier, and told him i was afraid he might do himself injury by the manner in which he had so openly expressed himself. "do not be alarmed," he said; "there is now no prince of the zend family in persia to compete for the crown. the kajirs and their adherents, therefore, take little heed of language that can do no harm; besides, the king is, as you say, a merciful man, and he has the good sense to know he cannot alter the feelings of tribes like ours. he knows, also, that however we may talk, we shall prove true to those we serve, provided we are treated with confidence and consideration." the first mission had halted at the village of taaghoon, within a short distance of isfahan, where we met a chief called meerzâ mehdee khan, who had served under lord clive in bengal. he spoke in raptures of that great man; from whom, as well as from general carnac and others, he produced testimonials highly honourable to his character. he had retired, with the fortune he made in india, to this, his native village. i was particularly pleased with this old gentleman, and on our second mission, i inquired for him, but regretted to find he had been dead two years. his son had succeeded to his property and situation as head of taaghoon, and appeared, from his conduct, to have inherited his father's sentiments of regard for the english. nothing can exceed in beauty and fertility, the country in the vicinity of isfahan, and the first appearance of that city is very imposing. all that is noble meets the eye: the groves, avenues, and spreading orchards, with which it abounds, concealing the ruins of this once famed capital. a nearer view, however, dispels the illusion; but still much remains of wealth, if not of splendour, and were i so disposed, i might write a volume on its beautiful environs; its palaces, splendid even in decay, its college, with massy gates of silver, its magnificent bridges, its baths, its arched bazars, its fountains, its far-famed river zindehrood, and the gardens on its banks, shaded with lofty sycamores, and filled with every flower and fruit of the temperate zone. when the patience of the reader was exhausted by a minute description of all the beauties and bounties which art and nature have lavished on isfahan, there would still remain to be described its two hundred thousand inhabitants, more than half of whom poured forth in their gayest attire to the istikbâl, or meeting with the elchee, the day we entered this renowned city. a few days after our arrival the governor gave the elchee an entertainment, which began, as usual, with sweetmeats and fruit; and after pipes, coffee, tumbling, wrestling, and fireworks, a sumptuous dinner was served up. another day we were invited to breakfast with my old friend hajee ibrahim kâledoonee, who gave us milk prepared in seventy-two different ways, being, as hajee hoosein whispered me, in accordance with the seventy-two sects in the religion of mahomed. whether there was such a design or not i cannot say, but the fare was admirable, and i was delighted to find my friend, who is, besides being an extensive farmer, a ketkhûdâ, or magistrate, of the ward of kâledoon in isfahan, the same plain-dressed, plain-spoken, humorous person we had left him ten years before. he took us, as he had formerly done, to the wonder of his quarter, the shaking minarets.[ ] when a person mounts to the top of one of these, and moves his body, it vibrates, and the vibration is imparted to the other, though at a distance of about forty feet, the width of the mosque to which they belong. while my companions were trying this experiment, and wondering at the cause, i remained on the terrace conversing with hajee ibrahim. i noticed a small village about a mile distant which seemed deserted. "is that oppression?" said i. "no," said the hajee, "worse." "why," said i, "the tûrkûmâns cannot have carried their inroads so near the town." "they could not have done the work so complete," said my friend, smiling. "who has done it?" i asked. "a doctor," replied he; "a proper fellow, who acquired great reputation, and he deserved it, from the heirs of his patients at least. that village literally perished under his hands in five years. now he is gone i know not where, but good luck attend him, so he comes not again to our neighbourhood." i went with some of our party to several of the principal hemmâms or baths of isfahan. that of khoosroo aga i think one of the best i have seen. when the first mission came to persia, doubts were entertained whether we could be permitted this luxury. fortunately for us the point was deemed one, not merely connected with comfort, but with that respect which it was desirous we should receive from the natives of the country; and viewing it in this light, the elchee, by a well-timed liberality, converted impure infidels into favoured guests, who, instead of being excluded, were, at every town, solicited to honour with their presence the public baths. the inhabitants of isfahan are reputed quick and intelligent. they, like those of other large cities in persia, differ much, both in appearance and character, from the peasantry who dwell in the villages. the latter, though i saw none in actual poverty, seemed from their appearance rarely to have any superabundance of even the necessaries of life. though neither so well lodged, clothed, nor fed as the citizens of large towns, and perhaps occasionally subjected to more oppression, i always found, when i talked to them, that they preferred their actual condition; and though often loud and bold in their complaints of their superiors, they appear a cheerful and robust race.[ ] the food of the eelyâts is derived principally from their flocks, and they eat, with their cheese and curds, hard black bread made from barley and rye. the villagers in the cultivated plains have less animal food, but more of wheaten bread, fowls, eggs, vegetables, and fruits. both these classes are equally uninstructed; the wandering tribes despise learning, and the inhabitants of hamlets and villages have seldom an opportunity of acquiring it. in the larger towns, and particularly those in which there are manufactories, the case is very different; the inhabitants are generally well clothed, and their whole appearance indicates that they live in comfort. there are in all such towns numerous schools, and in the principal ones colleges. at isfahan almost every man above the very lowest order can read and write, and artisans and shopkeepers are often as familiar as those of the higher ranks with the works of their favourite poets. the love of such learning seems, in some of the youth of this city, to degenerate into a disease. these tâlib-ool-ilm, or seekers of science, as the students are called, may be seen in crowds round the gates, or within the walls of its college, reciting stanzas, or discussing obscure dogmas or doctrines in their works on philosophy or religion, and they often become, from such habits, unfitted for every other pursuit in life. the population of isfahan, notwithstanding such exceptions, may be described as an active industrious people. they are considered the best manufacturers and the worst soldiers in persia. but whatever may be their department in the field of battle, they are remarkable for the boldness of their language in the field of argument, and have great confidence in their ready wit and talent for repartee. some years ago, this city was governed by a brother of the celebrated hajee ibrahim, whose family at that time held several of the first offices in the kingdom; and i heard that minister tell the elchee the following anecdote: a shopkeeper, he said, went to his brother to represent that he could not pay an impost. "you must pay it, like others," said the governor, or leave the city." "where can i go?" asked the man. "to shiraz or cashan." "your nephew rules the one city, and your brother the other." "go to the king and complain, if you like." "your brother the hajee is prime minister." "then go to hell," said the enraged governor. "hajee merhoom, the pious pilgrim, your father, is dead--" retorted the undaunted isfahânee. "my friend," said the governor, bursting into a laugh, "i will pay the impost myself, since you declare my family keeps you from all redress, both in this world and the next." the merchants of persia form a distinct class. i had now seen those of abusheher, shiraz, and isfahan, and found their general character nearly the same. so long as they have no concern with state affairs, and accept of no employment from government, they enjoy considerable security. the plunder of a merchant, without some pretext, would shake all confidence, and be fatal to that commerce from which a great proportion of the public revenue is derived; the most tyrannical monarchs therefore have seldom committed so impolitic an act of injustice. but this class have suffered so severely in the late revolutions of the country that they continue to act with great caution. they are not only very circumspect in their dealings, but, like wary diplomatists, every merchant has a cipher, known only to himself and his correspondents. by this means they receive and convey that intelligence which is essential to give safety to their speculations. some few make a display of their wealth; but in general their habits are not merely frugal, but penurious. this disposition often increases with age to a degree that would hardly be credited if we had not similar instances in our own country. the popular impression is so strong on this subject, that they relate the following story as a fact, to exemplify it: a merchant who had lately died at isfahan, and left a large sum of money, was so great a niggard, that for many years he denied himself and his son, a young boy, every support, except a crust of coarse bread. he was, however, one day tempted by the description a friend gave of the flavour of cheese to buy a small piece; but before he got home he began to reproach himself with extravagance, and instead of eating the cheese he put it into a bottle, and contented himself, and obliged his child to do the same, with rubbing the crust against the bottle, enjoying the cheese in imagination. one day that he returned home later than usual, he found his son eating his crust, and rubbing it against the door. "what are you about, you fool?" was his exclamation. "it is dinnertime, father; you have the key, so i could not open the door;--i was rubbing my bread against it, because i could not get to the bottle." "cannot you go without cheese one day, you luxurious little rascal? you'll never be rich!" added the angry miser, as he kicked the poor boy for not being able to deny himself the ideal gratification. our stay at isfahan was short. i regretted this the less, as i had, on the former mission, full time to trace those remains of the splendour of the seffavean kings, which are still to be found at this their favourite capital. the names of almost all these monarchs are now forgotten, excepting that of shâh abbas the great, who, in persia, is not only the builder of all bridges, cârâvânserâis, and palaces, but his name is associated with all good sayings, liberal acts, and deeds of arms. i was really quite tired with hearing of this most gallant, most sage, most witty, and most munificent monarch, at his seat of glory; and when sixty miles to the northward of that city, we were entering the delightful little town of nethenz, which lies in a narrow valley between two high mountains, i said to myself, "well, we are now, thank god, clear of abbas and his grand palaces; this scene of repose abounds in beauties for which he had no taste." hajee hoosein, who was riding near me, said, as if he had read my thoughts, "this is a charming place, and the inhabitants are remarkable for their wit, as well as for their pears, peaches, and pretty ladies. when abbas the great"--i pulled up my horse, and looked at him with a countenance that indicated any thing but anxiety for his story; but not observing, or not choosing to observe, he continued:--"when abbas the great was hunting in this valley, he met, one morning as the day dawned, an uncommonly ugly man, at the sight of whom his horse started. being nearly dismounted, and deeming it a bad omen, he called out in a rage to have his head struck off. the poor peasant whom they had seized, and were on the point of executing, prayed that he might be informed of his crime:--'your crime,' said the king, 'is your unlucky countenance, which is the first object i saw this morning, and which had nearly caused me to fall from my horse.' 'alas!' said the man, 'by this reckoning, what term must i apply to your majesty's countenance, which was the first object my eyes met this morning, and which is to cause my death?' the king smiled at the wit of the reply, ordered the man to be released, and gave him a present instead of taking off his head." "well," said i, when the hajee had finished, "i am glad i have heard this story, for it proves your abbas was, with all his fine qualities, a capricious and cruel tyrant." "no doubt he was," said my friend, "like other men in his condition, spoilt by the exercise of despotic power. he had violent bursts of passion, but these were not frequent; and then he used to be very sorry for what he did when in one of his paroxysms; and what more could be expected from a shâhin-shâh, or king of kings? there," said he, as we entered nethenz,--"there is an instance of the truth of what i say; you see that little dome on the summit of the hill which overhangs the town. it is called goom-bez-e-bâz, or the dome of the hawk. it happened one day that this monarch, fatigued with hunting, had sat down on the top of that hill with a favourite hawk on his hand; he called for some water, and a cup was brought from a neighbouring spring; the hawk dashed the cup from the king's hand as he was about to drink; another was sent for, but the bird managed to spill it likewise; a third and a fourth shared the same fate. the monarch, in a rage, killed the hawk. before he had time to take another cup, one of his attendants noticed that the water was discoloured. this gave rise to suspicions; and the spring was found to have been poisoned with the venom of a snake or some plant. shâh abbas, inconsolable at his rashness in destroying the bird which had saved his life, built this dome to its memory, and is said to have often visited it." after hearing this story, i was obliged, lest i should have more anecdotes of this mighty monarch, to confess that, though not a character exactly suited to my notions, there must be some merit in a human being who, in spite of his ordering a man to be slain because he had an ugly face that frightened a horse, and killing a hawk for spilling a cup of water, had contrived to raise his country to such a pitch of prosperity, that he was beloved, as well as feared, when alive, and spoken of for centuries after his decease as the author of all improvements. the caliph hâroon-oor-rasheed occupies the same place in the stories of the arabians which shâh abbas does among the persians; but the "arabian nights" have made the english reader familiar with the celebrated commander of the faithful, which no similar work has done for the sovereign of persia. the fame of the latter, even in his native country, has not excluded hâroon, whom i have always found in works on the wisdom, moderation, and justice of monarchs, to occupy a very prominent place in persian literature. aga meer brought me one day a small tract, containing an account of a visit of hâroon to the tomb of noosheerwân, which was, he said, from the lessons it conveyed, given to the youth of persia to study. i perused it with pleasure; and shall give a translation of a part of its contents, as a specimen both of the moral maxims of this country and the mode in which a knowledge of them is imparted. "the caliph hâroon-oor-rasheed," says the author, "went to visit the tomb of the celebrated noosheerwân, the most famous of all the monarchs who ever governed persia. before the tomb was a curtain of gold cloth, which, when hâroon touched it, fell to pieces. the walls of the tomb were covered with gold and jewels, whose splendour illumined its darkness. the body was placed in a sitting posture on a throne enchased with jewels, and had so much the appearance of life, that, on the first impulse, the commander of the faithful bent to the ground, and saluted the remains of the just noosheerwân. "though the face of the departed monarch was like that of a living man, and the whole of the body in a state of preservation, which showed the admirable skill of those who embalmed it; yet when the caliph touched the garments they mouldered into dust. hâroon upon this took his own rich robes and threw them over the corpse: he also hung up a new curtain richer than that he had destroyed, and perfumed the whole tomb with camphor, and other sweet scents. "it was remarked that no change was perceptible in the body of noosheerwân, except that the ears had become white. the whole scene affected the caliph greatly; he burst into tears, and repeated from the koran--'what i have seen is a warning to those who have eyes.' he observed some writing upon the throne, which he ordered the moobids,[ ] who were learned in the pehlevee language, to read and explain. they did so: it was as follows: 'this world remains not; the man who thinks least of it is the wisest. 'enjoy this world before thou becomest its prey. 'bestow the same favour on those below thee, as thou desirest to receive from those above thee. 'if thou shouldst conquer the whole world, death will at last conquer thee. 'be careful that thou are not the dupe of thine own fortune. 'thou shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done; no more, no less.' "the caliph observed a dark ruby-ring on the finger of noosheerwân, on which was written, 'avoid cruelty, study good, and never be precipitate in action. 'if thou shouldst live for a hundred years, never for one moment forget death. 'value above all things the society of the wise.' "around the right arm of noosheerwân was a clasp of gold, on which was engraved, 'on a certain year, on the th day of the month erdebehisht,[ ] a caliph of the race of adean, professing the faith of mahomed, accompanied by four good men, and one bad, shall visit my tomb.' "below this sentence were the names of the forefathers of the caliph. another prophecy was added concerning hâroon's pilgrimage to noosheerwân's tomb. 'this prince will honour me, and do good unto me, though i have no claim upon him; and he will clothe me in a new vest, and besprinkle my tomb with sweet-scented essences, and then depart unto his home. but the bad man who accompanies him shall act treacherously towards me. i pray that god may send one of my race to repay the great favours of the caliph, and to take vengeance on his unworthy companion. there is, under my throne, an inscription, which the caliph must read and contemplate. its contents will remind him of me, and make him pardon my inability to give him more.' "the caliph, on hearing this, put his hand under the throne, and found the inscription, which consisted of some lines, inscribed on a ruby as large as the palm of the hand. the moobids read this also. it contained information where would be found concealed a treasure of gold and arms, with some caskets of rich jewels: under this was written, 'these i give to the caliph in return for the good he has done me; let him take them and be happy.' "when hâroon-oor-rasheed was about to leave the tomb, hoosein-ben-sâhil his vizier said to him, 'o lord of the faithful, what is the use of all these precious gems which ornament the abode of the dead, and are of no benefit to the living? allow me to take some of them.' the caliph replied with indignation, 'such a wish is more worthy of a thief than of a great or wise man.' hoosein was ashamed of his speech, and said to the servant who had been placed at the entrance of the tomb, 'go thou and worship the holy shrine within.' the man went into the tomb; he was above a hundred years old, but he had never seen such a blaze of wealth. he felt inclined to plunder some of it, but was at first afraid: at last, summoning all his courage, he took a ring from the finger of noosheerwân, and came away. "hâroon saw this man come out, and observing him alarmed, he at once conjectured what he had been doing. addressing those around him, he said, 'do not you now see the extent of the knowledge of noosheerwân? he prophesied that there should be one unworthy man with me; it is this fellow: what have you taken?' said he, in an angry tone. 'nothing,' said the man. 'search him,' said the caliph. it was done, and the ring of noosheerwân was found. this the caliph immediately took, and entering the tomb, replaced it on the cold finger of the deceased monarch. when he returned, a terrible sound, like that of loud thunder, was heard. "hâroon came down from the mountain on which the tomb stood, and ordered the road to be made inaccessible to future curiosity. he searched for, and found, in the place described, the gold, the arms, and the jewels bequeathed to him by noosheerwân, and sent them to bagdad. "among the rich articles found was a golden crown, which had five sides, and was richly ornamented with precious stones. on every side a number of admirable lessons were written. the most remarkable were as follows. first side. 'give my regards to those who know themselves. 'consider the end before you begin, and before you advance provide a retreat. 'give not unnecessary pain to any man, but study the happiness of all. 'ground not your dignity upon your power to hurt others.' second side. 'take counsel before you commence any measure, and never trust its execution to the inexperienced. 'sacrifice your property for your life, and your life for your religion. 'spend your time in establishing a good name; and if you desire fortune, learn contentment.' third side. 'grieve not for that which is broken, stolen, burnt, or lost. 'never give orders in another man's house; and accustom yourself to eat your bread at your own table. 'make not yourself the captive of women.' fourth side. 'take not a wife from a bad family, and seat not thyself with those who have no shame. 'keep thyself at a distance from those who are incorrigible in bad habits, and hold no intercourse with that man who is insensible to kindness. 'covet not the goods of others. 'be guarded with monarchs, for they are like fire, which blazeth but destroyeth. 'be sensible to your own value; estimate justly the worth of others; and war not with those who are far above thee in fortune.' fifth side. 'fear kings, women, and poets. 'be envious of no man, and habituate not thyself to search after the faults of others. 'make it a habit to be happy, and avoid being out of temper, or thy life will pass in misery. 'respect and protect the females of thy family. 'be not the slave of anger; and in thy contests always leave open the door of conciliation. 'never let your expenses exceed your income. 'plant a young tree, or you cannot expect to cut down an old one. 'stretch your legs no farther than the size of your carpet.' "the caliph hâroon-oor-rasheed was more pleased with the admirable maxims inscribed on this crown than with all the treasures he had found. 'write these precepts,' he exclaimed, 'in a book, that the faithful may eat of the fruit of wisdom.' when he returned to bagdad, he related to his favourite vizier, jaffier bermekee, and his other chief officers, all that had passed: and the shade of noosheerwân was propitiated by the disgrace of hoosein-ben-sâhil (who had recommended despoiling his tomb), and the exemplary punishment of the servant who had committed the sacrilegious act of taking the ring from the finger of the departed monarch." hâroon-oor-rasheed, with all his fame for clemency, generosity, and justice, appears from the very pages written to raise his fame, to have had, like shâh abbas, his unlucky moments, when all his virtues were obscured by acts of violent and cruel injustice. witness his putting to death the celebrated vizier, jaffier bermekee, and his vain efforts to rob the memory of that virtuous and great minister of his just fame. aga meer related to me, after we had finished our translation, the following story, which i must add, though i hate dwelling long upon any of these eastern characters, however wonderful. "hâroon-oor-rasheed," said the good meerzâ, "when he had put to death the celebrated jaffier bermekee, not contented with this cruelty, wished to deprive him of those encomiums which the extraordinary virtues of that minister had merited; and he published an order making it death for any of the preachers or public speakers to mention the name of jaffier. this did not deter an old arab from descanting with great eloquence on the virtues of the deceased; he was warned of his danger, but despised it; and on being taken and carried to the place of execution, all he asked was to see the caliph for a few minutes. this was granted. the monarch asked him how he came to disregard his laws. 'had i not praised jaffier,' said the fearless arab, 'i should have been a monster of ingratitude, and unworthy the protection of any laws.' 'why?' said the caliph. 'i came,' replied the arab, 'poor and friendless to bagdad. i lodged in a ruin in the skirts of the town, where jaffier discovered me. pleased, as he afterwards told me, with my conversation, he paid me frequent visits. one night i was seized and hurried away i knew not whither. in the morning i found myself in a magnificent hemmâm, and after bathing, was dressed by men in fine robes, who called themselves my slaves. i was then mounted on a horse with costly trappings, and conducted to an elegant palace, where attendants, richly attired, welcomed me as their lord. recovered from my astonishment, i asked what all this meant. 'the habitation of a fakeer,'[ ] said i, 'suits me better than this place; not a corner of one of its saloons but is sufficient for my lodging; besides, i could not remain happy, even in paradise, if absent from my dear wife and children.' 'your lordship's family,' said one of the servants, 'are in the inner apartments.' i was conveyed to them, and found their adventures had been similar to mine. they were surrounded by female slaves. "while we were expressing our mutual astonishment, jaffier was announced, and i found my old visitor in the ruin, and jaffier the vizier of the great caliph, one and the same person. i endeavoured to make him change his resolution of raising me to a rank for which i had no desire, and thought my character unsuited: he was however inflexible. 'you conquered me in an argument,' said he, 'on happiness being increased with the increased power a virtuous man possesses of doing good. you shall now have an opportunity of putting in practice all those plans of beneficence to others which have hitherto only employed your imagination.' 'i have ever since,' said the arab, 'lived in affluence; my friendship with jaffier only ended with his life: to him i owe all i possess; and was it possible for me to be deterred by death itself from doing justice to his memory?' "though the caliph's pride was hurt, he could not withhold his esteem from a man of such courageous virtue. instead of ordering him to be executed, he endeavoured to gain his admiration by more splendid generosity than jaffier. 'take that,' said he, giving him his sceptre, which was virgin gold, studded with rich jewels. 'i take it,' said the grateful and undaunted arab; 'but this, also, commander of the faithful, is from bermekee.'" before quitting nethenz i accompanied the elchee in a ride through its streets and gardens, which are so intermingled as to give it a singular and pleasing appearance: you can scarcely tell whether you are in the town or the country. we saw plenty of the pears and peaches, for which my friend told me it was famous. as to its pretty ladies, they saw us, no doubt, through the trellis-work of their dark veils, while we could only dwell upon their beauties with the eyes of our imagination. i complained to my friend, khan sâhib, of the privation of the innocent pleasure of gazing upon the features of a lovely female; and then i added, "what a mortification must it be for the lady to have her charms denied that tribute of admiration which is their due!" "true," answered my little friend; "it is very hard upon a few, but then think how much numbers owe to that veil, which conceals age and ugliness, as well as youth and beauty. i once," he observed, "fell violently in love with one of these veiled ladies, whom i saw sometimes at a window, and sometimes gliding like a phantom through the streets. she continued, for a month, to occupy all my waking thoughts, and the image of her beauties disturbed my rest. i first cast love-tokens into her windows, in the shape of nosegays; then i persuaded an old woman to pour out all the raptures of my soul at the feet of the object of my devotion. to make a long story short, i was at last promised an interview. i waited with impatience for the moment of anticipated delight. when admitted into the presence of my fair i became wild with joy; i praised her shape, the sweetness of her melodious voice, the captivating graces of her manner, and, above all, her beautiful face. she long resisted my entreaties to remove her veil. this i deplored in the words of hâfiz, exclaiming, 'o alas![ ] o alas! and o alas! that such a moon should be concealed behind a cloud.' "what with prose, poetry, and flattery," added khan sâhib, "i succeeded at last. would to god i had not! but perhaps it has done me good: for what i saw of my imaginary angel has reconciled me for life to veils and clouds." as we were talking we arrived at a citadel which was the residence of the old hâkim, or governor hajee abd-ool-câsim, to whom the elchee paid a visit. we were received in a room at the top of one of the highest turrets, from whence we had a commanding view of the surrounding scenery. nothing could be more singular or beautiful. the valley of nethenz, which is inclosed by mountains, is itself a succession of eminences and small hills. the fruitful gardens, which occupied every spot where there were no houses, extended eight miles. seldom above one, and never more than two of these gardens, were upon the same level; they either appeared in a circle, converging towards the common centre of an eminence that rose above the others, or were seen sloping in flights along the hills that bordered upon the mountains. rows of lofty sycamores and spreading walnuts marked the lines of the streets and the divisions of the gardens; and the latter were fenced round with thick mulberry hedges, whose leaves, the hâkim informed us, fed innumerable silk-worms, the produce of which formed the finest of the silk manufactured at the cities of cashan and isfahan. the sun was shining bright as we gazed upon this enchanting scene, and its beauty was greatly increased by numerous clear streams, which, pouring from the neighbouring hills, either flowed or were conducted among the gardens and orchards, where they appeared lost, till seen glistening through those parts where the foliage was lighter or wholly removed. the elchee was quite delighted with the prospect. after remaining for some time abstracted in contemplating its beauties, he turned round to the governor, and with assumed gravity proposed to change stations with him. "i should," said the old hajee, with a faint smile, "make a bad elchee; and the pleasure you have enjoyed in looking at this town from that window is the greatest you would ever know if you were its hâkim." when making this last observation, he shook his head in a manner too plainly indicating that the scene of abundance with which he was surrounded, was to him the source of more trouble than enjoyment. i mentioned my suspicions to my friend hajee hoosein, as he came to me with an evening kelliân. "ah!" said he, imitating the exclamation of his countrymen on entering the charming vale of desht-e-arjun, "irân hemeen-est! irân hemeen-est! this is persia! this is persia! but god is just, as sâdee says: he gives fertile fields, roses, and nightingales, with wicked men, to one country, and deserts and screech-owls, with righteous men, to another; and again he tells us, 'it is not the silk-worm but he that wears the silk vest that is to be envied.'" i was quite satisfied with the meaning and moral of my friend's quotations, though i confess i have looked in vain over the pages of sâdee to discover them in his volumes. but the hajee, like many of his countrymen, has such a deference for that inimitable author, that he ascribes all sentiments that appear just to him, as the sole source of human wisdom. footnotes: [ ] persian groom. [ ] the ancient hyrcania. [ ] in persia the term rood-khâneh, or the bed of a stream, is the common word for a river--an idiom which has probably arisen from the fact stated. [ ] some of these mirrors exceeded eight feet in length. [ ] mr. randall, who is here alluded to, was a very ingenious carpenter, who had been in an english man-of-war employed in discoveries. he had been in the habit of mixing with the natives of the places he visited and was on this occasion of great use; for the persian artizans, employed under his directions, worked with more zeal and readiness from his dressing like them and living amongst them. [ ] fermân means a command, signifies here a letter or mandate addressed by a superior to an inferior. [ ] the minarets of the mahomedan mosques are, like the steeples of our churches, of all sizes; those we visited were of ordinary dimensions. [ ] i have been informed by one who had personal means of making the comparison, that he considered the general condition of the persian peasantry to be fully equal if not superior to that of the same class in russia or poland. [ ] moobid is the persian term for a priest of the fire-worshippers. [ ] the name of one of the months in the ancient persian calendar. [ ] religious mendicant. [ ] ei dereeghâ, ei dereeghâ, oo ei dereegh! kih hem-choo mâh pinhân shoodzeer-e-meegh. chapter xiv. cashan--scorpions--câshânee youth--village of sinsin--plundering expeditions of the tûrkûmâns--account of that tribe--wandering tribes--visit to the dwelling of mihrâb khan afshâr--account of his family and adherents--anecdote of kerreem khan. cashan, to which we went from nethenz, is situated on the verge of a desert, and no city can present a more uninviting aspect. we were, however, accommodated in the bâgh-e-fin, an excellent house and garden, through which there is a clear stream, which, while it refreshes the latter, gives an ample supply of water to the marble-baths belonging to the small but delightful royal residence. "may you be stung by a scorpion of cashan," is a common malediction in persia; and all are agreed that this city is famous for producing the largest and most venomous species of this reptile. we were however assured, that, partaking of that spirit of hospitality which distinguishes the persian nation, they never sting a stranger. "this fact," said agar meer to me, "is asserted by ameen râzee, a respectable writer, and the author of a famous work called the heft akleem, or 'seven climates.'" "the same respectable writer," said khan sâhib, "compares the mud houses and narrow streets of cashan, to the angelic cheeks of the resplendent hoorees of paradise, whose smiles are promised to the faithful. i could almost wish," he added, "to be stung by one of his scorpions, that my mind might be satisfied there was no truth in his comparison; otherwise my dreams of futurity will never be realised." agar meer, who disliked wit when it ridiculed religion, gravely replied to this sally, "ameen râzee's facts may be correct, though his metaphors are extravagant." "that may be true," said my hindustânnee friend, mahomed hoosein, "but, according to the fable of the scorpion and tortoise, the former has no power over his nature." "i have read," said the good moonshee, "that a tortoise and a scorpion travelled the same road for a considerable distance in good fellowship. the latter, on the ground of this new friendship, asked the former to carry him over a deep stream. the tortoise complied; but what was his surprise to find his companion endeavouring with all his might to sting him! when he had placed him safe on the opposite shore, he turned to him and said, 'are not you the most wicked and ungrateful of reptiles? but for me you must either have given up your journey, or have been drowned in that stream, and what is my reward? if it had not been for the armour which god has given me, i should have been stung to death.' 'blame me not,' said the scorpion, in a supplicatory tone, 'it is not my fault; it is that of my nature; it is a constitutional habit[ ] i have of stinging!'" "now," said mahomed hoosein, not wishing to offend his brother of the pen, "this fable certainly applies to scorpions in general; those of cashan may be different: they may have that regard for strangers which aga meer has stated them to have, on the authority of ameen râzee." "it may be so,"[ ] i remarked; and this phrase of doubtful assent put an end (as in persia it is always meant to do) to all further discussion on the subject. we left cashan without any of our party being stung, which is a negative proof in favour of ameen râzee and other authors who have eulogized its scorpions; but the point cannot yet be considered as determined. it will no doubt therefore continue to receive, as it has hitherto, the attention of all travellers who possess learning, and are curious in their research after facts of natural history. the inhabitants of cashan, like those of isfahan, are more celebrated as silk weavers than warriors. when nadir shâh returned from india he published a proclamation, permitting the followers of his army to return to their homes. it is narrated that thirty thousand of those who belonged to cashan and isfahan applied to this monarch for a guard of a hundred musketeers to escort them safe to their wives and children. "cowards!" exclaimed he, in a fury; "would i were a robber again for the sake of waylaying and plundering you all. is not my success a miracle," said he to those around him, "with such a set of dastards in my camp!" this story and many others were told us as we were sitting in one of the cool rooms of the palace of fin, commenting on the qualities of the câshânees. my old friend mahomed shereef khan burgshattee told me he had once a convincing proof that a câshânee might be a brave man. "on returning," said he, "from the pursuit of a small party of plundering tûrkûmâns, i found that ten of my men had surrounded a fine looking youth, who was on a dry spot in a morass, where not more than two could approach him at a time. he had only a sword and a spear, but refused to yield; inviting his opponents to use their fire-arms, since they durst not fight him on equal terms. struck with his appearance and courage, i solicited him to surrender, and assured him he should be well treated. 'i know better,' said he, 'than to regard the promises of a faithless persian, who the moment i was unarmed would maltreat and murder me.' i ordered my men to withdraw to a distance, and after making a vow he should be well used, and leaving my arms on the ground, i rode forward, saying, 'i will confide in you, though you dare not trust me.' the youth, subdued by this action, sprung from his horse, threw down his spear and sword, and hastened to kiss my stirrup; offering at the same time his services, which i accepted. "i desired him to remount," continued mahomed shereef khan, "and we rejoined my astonished followers. after complimenting him on his courage, i asked where he was born? 'at cashan,' he said. 'you a câshânee!' i replied with surprise. 'i am,' said he; 'my father was a silk weaver, and i had just begun to learn his business, being about twelve years of age, when having gone with some companions to amuse ourselves at a distance from the town, we were surprised and carried off by a party of tûrkûmâns. i was adopted into the family of one of their chiefs, who carefully instructed me in horsemanship and the use of arms. i have ever since accompanied him in his plundering incursions into persia and other countries.' "now," said the old mehmandar, "this man continued twenty years with me; he only died about a twelvemonth ago, and maintained till the day of his death the character he had established at our first meeting. this example," he concluded, "satisfies me that it is possible the son of a weaver, if properly brought up, may be a brave man. nevertheless, there can be no doubt these silk manufactories give bad habits, and spoil many a good soldier." our first march from cashan was to the câravânserâi of sinsin. we found the village, which had been very flourishing thirty years ago, a complete ruin, with only a few inhabitants. amongst these was an old man, who gave me an account of the incursions of parties of savage tûrkûmâns, who year after year laid waste their fields, plundered their dwellings, and carried their wives and children into slavery. i asked him if no means had been taken to prevent these inroads. "alas!" said he, "our own country, at the period of which i speak, was in too distracted a state to admit of any such precautions, and we were too weak to defend ourselves against such daring and ferocious men. besides, they came and vanished in a moment. thirty or forty mounted robbers and twenty led horses used to surprise us at daylight: all the spoil they could carry, together with women and children, were fastened on the led horses, and in an hour or two they were in full march to their homes, on the eastern shores of the caspian sea. "if we attempted resistance," continued the narrator of this sad tale, "as we sometimes did, they became furious; our houses were burnt, the old and helpless massacred, and all the property they could not bear away was destroyed. look here," said he, pointing to some scars, "look at these; i got them in attempting to save my little brother and two sisters from the merciless grasp of these ruthless spoilers. i was left for dead, while my poor father, who was wounded also, had only sufficient life left to reach cashan, where he expired, after giving intelligence of our fate. some horsemen were sent in pursuit, but their pampered animals, kept to parade in squares and market-places, could never overtake the trained horses of the plunderers, who used to come two hundred fersekhs[ ] and return in ten days. "but, thank god," he concluded, "if the kajirs who now fill the throne of persia have done us no other good, it is no slight blessing to be freed from the ravages of these terrible yamoots; that is the name of the tribe who made the inroads upon us. they dwell in the plains near astrabad, and are friends of our royal family, who are natives of that place: besides, now that persia is settled, they find there is more profit, and less danger, in breeding and selling horses, than in plundering and murdering their neighbours." i had ten years before seen a good deal of some tûrkûmâns at teheran. their character, and what i learnt of their habits, quite prepared me to believe the melancholy tale which was told me by the old villager, towards whom i showed a sympathy that surprised him; for scenes like these are so common in persia, that they attract little attention. the fact is, the tûrkûmâns are only a shade more savage than those tribes of persian and tartar origin, who form the military class of this nation, and who, though restrained in some degree of order, when the government is strong, cherish their lawless habits, and are ready at a moment to show them, when invited to do so, by the weakness or distraction of the state. the tûrkûmâns[ ] have long been familiar to persian history as depredators. this race of tartars has small eyes, high cheek bones, thin beards, and robust frames. the women, though with softer features, and some with good complexions, are seldom beauties; and they are generally more valued for their capability of enduring fatigue, and for giving birth to, and bringing up stout children, than for any of those charms and accomplishments which are so highly prized in more civilized society. during the last century the limits of persia have been more confined than formerly, and these tûrkûmân tribes may now be considered more as borderers to that country than as forming part of its population. they appear indeed to have cultivated and fostered all the qualities which might be expected to belong to a race so situated, and have become, in virtue of usage, entitled alternately to claim the privilege of being protected by, or the right of plundering, the kingdoms they divide. the tûrkûmâns trace their descent to the great moghul monarch aghooz khan, the son of kara khan, the son of moghul khan, the son of the lord knows who. their great progenitor was famous for his five sons, his bow, and his three golden arrows! at his death he divided the bow, which is the type of power, between the two elder, to whom he consigned his great empire. to each of the three younger he gave an arrow, signifying by that bequest that they and their descendants were to obey their elder brethren; to be chiefs, generals, and embassadors, and to fly at command, as an arrow when directed from the bow. the tûrkûmâns belong to one of the junior branches of this great family, but they have not hitherto been remarkable for any of the dispositions or qualities likely to render them useful or obedient servants. i had the account of their origin, as well as many other facts connected with their history, from an old tûrkûmân called rahmân beg, of whom i bought some horses. a short anecdote will give his character. i was anxious to buy a very fine animal he had, but i delayed the purchase from an objection to his head, which was large and ugly. one day as i was commenting on this unsightly member, my friend lost all patience, "what the devil," said he, "do they ride on the head of a horse in your country, that you are so particular as to its size and beauty?" this rude, but intelligent barbarian, though he could neither read nor write, and had the utmost contempt for moollâhs (a term which, with him, included all priests and scholars), was as familiar with the history of his own tribe as mirkhond, or any of the best eastern historians. "you have, no doubt," said he to me, "read of the famous seljûkian prince sanjar. that sovereign, not content with an annual tribute of twenty-four thousand sheep which we gave him, wanted to increase the number, and to send one of his own officers to choose from our flocks, instead of trusting to the honour of our chiefs. this we could never put up with; so we fought him, destroyed his army, and took him prisoner. he was for some years set upon a throne every day, and confined in a cage every night; but at last he made his escape; and being a soft-hearted, foolish blockhead, died of grief, from seeing the state of desolation to which we had reduced his favourite province of khorassan! after this," continued he, "we became the terror of the world, and the name of tûrkûmân, which had long been despised, was dreaded everywhere. who has not heard," said he exultingly, "of our princes and chiefs who subdued kingdoms, and plundered empires, under the glorious banners of the white and the black sheep? but these days of sovereignty did not last long; we separated, and have never since done any thing worthy of mention. the tribe of yamoot," continued my old friend, "to which i belong, remained long unsubdued, and made famous annual inroads into persia; but the late king, aga mahomed khan, who was a cruel, wily, old rogue, spoiled all that sport. being well acquainted with our haunts, he made a sudden incursion into our country, slew numbers, and brought away many captives, the majority of whom were women and children." "the possession of our families," said rahmân beg, as he concluded this short history of his tribe, "compelled our chiefs to enter into a compact not to plunder, and they have been obliged to give their children as hostages for its faithful performance. the present king has improved upon the policy of his uncle: a colony of our tribe is established at teheran; some are in service, and the others, though strictly watched, are permitted to trade. if matters go on in this way our sons will become a set of blackguard horse-dealers, instead of gallant warriors, and their children will be instructed in the art of cheating unwary citizens, instead of the more manly occupation of plundering a rich traveller. we shall have no more fine persian girls to keep our tents clean, and dress our victuals, nor active fellows to rub our horses, or attend our flocks! what a sad change! and as to our profits in breeding and selling horses, i have known more money given in one day for the ransom of a nobleman or a wealthy merchant, than our whole tribe can now make by trafficking in cattle for a twelvemonth!" i asked rahmân beg, how he, as a mahomedan, could reconcile himself to make slaves of persons of the same religion? "what," said he, "do you count these rascally sheâhs, the persians, who deny the first four caliphs, to be of the same religion as we soonees?--they are vile schismatics." "then," i observed, "when you made soonees captives, you did not make them slaves?" "why! i don't know; i think," he added, laughing, "we should in such case have been compelled to become sheâhs ourselves; for slaves we must have." the tûrkûmâns, of whom rahmân beg is a fair specimen, pay little if any regard to religion beyond a few ceremonies. the rites observed at their births, funerals, and marriages, are not essentially different from those of the other wandering tribes in persia. the courage of this tribe is proverbial, and both the persians and afghâns admit their extraordinary prowess. they use bows and arrows, and some few have fire-arms, but the weapon on which they place most dependence is the spear. this is in general from ten to twelve feet long, rudely formed, and with a short piece of steel at the point. as we were one day looking at a party of the king's guards,[ ] each of whom was armed with a sword, a spear, a pair of pistols, and a dagger, rahmân beg tossed up his head in contempt, exclaiming, "what is the good of all that arsenal? what can a soldier want beyond a spear and a heart?"[ ] the tûrkûmâns are fond of music and dancing. the celebrated song of "koor ogloo," or the son of the blind man, is chanted when they go to battle, and is said to have a wonderful effect in exciting the courage of this rude race. i asked rahmân beg to give me a copy of this song; he could not, but gave me its general purport, and repeated some lines with great animation. the burthen of the song is the wonderful deeds of the son of a poor blind old man, who employed himself in plundering travellers and caravans, while his father dwelt in the recesses of a wood which lay between two great cities. the prowess of the single arm of the "son of the blind man" was so great, that hundreds could not withstand it; and when thousands were sent against him, his fleet horse kerât carried him to a place of security. the praises of the hero and his horse, the prodigies of valour of the one, the wonderful fleetness of the other, with the descriptions of rich plunder, and beautiful damsels, which abound throughout this song, are quite congenial to the habits of a tûurkûmân; and i could believe all the feelings, that i was told its recitation produced, from the effect the mere account of it that he gave me had on rahmân beg. "others of the tartar blood," said my old friend, "admire this fine composition; but a set of fellows who live as they do, are not worthy of such verses; and we also," he added, "if we go on as we are now doing, shall soon be ashamed to hear them sung by our minstrels; who may well cherish these old strains, for we no longer supply them with deeds for new songs of battle!" i was very anxious to learn all i could of the breed and management of the tûrkûmân horses, which are so highly valued in persia. they are of good size, being from fifteen to sixteen hands high, of excellent temper, and of a shape, like that of the highest bred english carriage-horses, lengthy and strong limbed; and often showing a great deal of blood. the tûrkûmâns trace all their best horses to arabian sires; and they believe that the race degenerates, after three or four descents, unless it is, what they term, "refreshed." this makes them most anxious to obtain fine arabian horses. rahmân beg and his brother offered the elchee a large sum for a very fine animal he had brought from abusheher, and they seemed greatly disappointed that he would not part with him. the size of the horses is attributed to the fine pasture lands on which they are reared; and the extraordinary capability of bearing fatigue to their blood, and the manner in which they are trained. they ride them with snaffles, and allow them to go slouching along with their necks loose. they speak with contempt of horsemen who rein up their horses, and throw them on their haunches. "it is taking the animal," said rahmân beg to me, "off his natural position; and for what? to get a little readiness[ ] in the plain; and for this power of skirmishing, you hurt, if you do not altogether lose, the long walk, trot, and gallop, to which we trust in our forays!"[ ] these plunderers train their horses, as much as we do our racers or hunters. before they begin their expeditions, they put them into complete condition, and the marches they perform are astonishing. according to their own accounts, some have gone forty fersekhs ( miles) within twenty-four hours; and it was ascertained on most minute inquiry, that parties of them, in their predatory inroads, were in the habit of marching from twenty to thirty fersekhs (from to miles) for twelve or fifteen days together, without a halt. before proceeding on a foray they knead a number of small hard balls of barley-meal, which, when wanted, they soak in water, and this serves as food to both themselves and their horses. it is a frequent practice with them in crossing deserts, where no water is to be found, to open a vein in the shoulder of the horse, and to drink a little of his blood; which, according to their opinion, benefits, rather than injures the animal, while it refreshes the rider. on my appearing to doubt this fact, rahmân beg showed me several old horses, on which there were numerous marks of having been bled; and he assured me they never had recourse to phlebotomy but on such occasions as have been stated. the eelyâts, or wandering tribes in persia, are like the tûrkûmâns, but somewhat less barbarous. they have been often described, and one good picture of this race serves for all, for they are little subject to change; and while every tradition and every work on the ancient history of persia proves that many of its more southern inhabitants, particularly those of the mountains of kerman and lauristan, have been nomades, or wandering tribes, from time immemorial, we find in the turkish eelyâts who have overrun the northern provinces, the language, the habits, and the appearance of the tartar race to which they belong. the qualities most prized amongst these tribes are courage in men, and chastity in women. the females who dwell in tents wear no veils. they welcome strangers, are very hospitable, and their manner, though confident, is by no means immodest. the elchee on his return from the first mission, when riding one day near a small encampment of afshâr families, expressed doubts to his mehmandar, a persian nobleman, as to the reported boldness and skill in horsemanship of their females. the mehmandar immediately called to a young woman of handsome appearance, and asked her in turkish if she was a soldier's daughter? she said she was. "and you expect to be a mother of soldiers," was the next observation. she smiled. "mount that horse," said he, pointing to one with a bridle, but without a saddle, "and show this european elchee the difference between a girl of a tribe and a citizen's daughter." she instantly sprung upon the animal, and setting off at full speed, did not stop till she had reached the summit of a small hill in the vicinity, which was covered with loose stones. when there, she waved her hand over her head, and came down the hill at the same rate at which she had ascended it. nothing could be more dangerous than the ground over which she galloped; but she appeared quite fearless, and seemed delighted at having an opportunity of vindicating the females of her tribe from the reproach of being like the ladies of cities.[ ] the wives and daughters of the chiefs, who accompany their relations to cities and towns, have in some degree adopted the customs of citizens; but neither such changes of manners in the ladies, nor the habits acquired by the men, are suffered to dissolve their ties with followers, whose devoted attachment and readiness to adopt their cause, or to revenge their death, constitute their strength and safeguard, amidst all the hazards with which they are surrounded. the habits and sentiments of this class of people interested me exceedingly; and my anxiety to observe as much as i could of their domestic arrangements, made me delighted on hearing that the elchee intended a visit to the house of his mehmandar, mihrâb khan afshâr, a man of high family, and who holds an office at court. the day before we arrived at his house i met him on the march, having a letter in his hand, with the contents of which he appeared highly offended. "i hope you have no unpleasant news," i said. "nothing," was his reply; "except that i am directed in this mandate from his majesty's minister, to be most careful in protecting the villages and grounds we have to pass, and not take a blade of grass from them. the chief of the tribe to which these lands belong," he added in a rage, "has obtained this order. the scoundrel! but this is another item to the account which i shall some day settle with compound interest." "you must know," said mihrâb khan, seeing i did not quite comprehend him, "this tribe and mine have a long-continued feud. our lands adjoin; the government is too strong at present to admit of attacking each other openly like brave men; so we endeavour, like sneaking rascals, to do each other all the mischief we can by intrigues and plots at court. they are at present in great favour, and have recently obtained the transfer of a small tribe, whose tents you have just passed, and who were formerly our peasants." "who are these peasants?" i asked. "oh," said the turkish chief, "they belong to one of the old persian tribes, which it is the policy of the king to break, and so he parcels them amongst us turks; but that has nothing to do with his taking them from us, and giving them to our enemies." during this conversation we had reached the summit of an eminence, from which mihrâb khan, his eyes glistening with joy, pointed out the ruins of a village. "look there," said he, "it is twenty-five years since i accompanied my uncle hâshem khan to an attack of that village; we completely sacked and destroyed it. the rascals had no shâhin-shâh (king of kings) to protect them then. but there is one consolation, these stupid times cannot last for ever; and if i live long enough to give these vagabonds another sound drubbing, i shall die contented!" the morning after this conversation, we arrived at the fort of hâshem,[ ] a name given to this castle, after the founder, the uncle of our mehmandar. we were met by four nephews of the latter, several of his relations, a troop of his followers, and his little son shâhverdee, who, though only eight years of age, paid his compliments to the elchee in a most formal style, and managed with great address a large and spirited horse. when we entered the fort, we found it completely dismantled, and two of the bastions thrown down. this was done, we were informed, by the jealousy of the king, who disapproved of his nobles having strongholds. we had no sooner finished a very plentiful breakfast, than our host retired to his inner apartment, and returned, leading in his hand a stout, chubby, red-cheeked boy, between three and four years of age. of this little fellow, he seemed very proud; there could not be a finer child: he, also, was well trained, and made his obeisance to the elchee, like a high bred young gentleman, and took his seat near his father. we however managed, though not without some difficulty, to discompose his gravity, and soon discovered, that he was, as his father had described him, a proper young pickle. in introducing me to his relations mihrâb khan gave me a short history of his family. "my father," said he, "had two brothers, one older and one younger than himself. here (pointing to them) are four young men, the grandsons of my eldest uncle, who was head of the family. their eldest brother is with the king, commanding a body of horse, all of the tribe of afshâr, and this (turning to an elderly person) is my cousin, the son of my younger uncle. "my family," said the khan, "consists of six children, of whom you have seen two: they are all (except one) by the same mother, my wife, the daughter of fatteh ali khan afshâr, a famous chief, who, on the death of nadir shâh (whom you know was of our tribe) aspired to the throne. my good father-in-law, however, lost his life in the attempt to become a king, and i married his orphan daughter, an excellent woman, but who carries her head rather high, as no doubt she has a right to do, from recollection of her father's pretensions! look!" said he, speaking softly, for the apartment we were in was within hearing of the interior; "look at that youngster at the other end of the room: he is my son. his mother was the daughter of a jeweller at isfahan, an uncommonly pretty girl. he is a fine lad, but i dare hardly notice him; and he is, you will observe, not allowed to sit within ten yards of the grandsons of fatteh ali khan afshâr! this is all very proper," he added; "it is attention to the dam, as well as the sire, that keeps the breed good. besides, the influence of females amongst us eelyâts is very great, and if we did not treat them with respect, matters would not long be right." mihrâb khan next gave me an account of the mode in which their family lands were allotted, and how the disbursements of the respective branches of the family were made. "my father and his brothers lived together," said he, "and we do the same. our inheritance was equal, and each of the three branches is charged a day's expenditure, successively. entertainments and imposts are paid in equal shares. we seek by intermarriages to strengthen those ties, which are our only defence against oppression and destruction. "we are turks," he concluded, laughing, "and consequently, you may suppose, have often violent quarrels, but the necessity of our condition soon reconciles us again; and we are at present, and will i trust long continue, an united family!" i remarked in the followers of mihrâb khan, as i had done in other tribes, an attachment to their chief approaching to a perfect devotion. it was a love and duty, of inheritance, strengthened by the feelings of twenty generations. though the superior in general repaid this feeling with regard and protection, i saw many instances of its being considered as much a property as the land, and the inanimate goods and chattels, which he who received it had inherited from his father. there are few countries which can boast of more examples of devoted allegiance of chiefs to their sovereign, as well as of followers to their chiefs, than persia: but this will not recommend them to many of my readers. we live in a refined and artificial age, and, vain of our condition, we laugh to scorn feelings which were the pride of our ancestors, and which at this moment form the only ties that preserve order over nine-tenths of the universe. allegiance of any description is, according to some philosophers, a folly if not a crime, and quite beneath the dignity of human beings. others admit that from being a cherished prejudice, it may in some cases have a salutary action; but those who view man as formed by his creator, and who contemplate the origin of those motives by which he is actuated, will find that the feeling of dependence with which allegiance is associated, and which in the silence of reason often leads to a line of action beneficial to the community as well as the individual, is not the less valuable from being grafted on his weakness; a part of his nature, by the by, requiring much more the care and attention of philosophers than his strength, for that can take care of itself. allegiance is the duty a child owes to its parent, for birth, nourishment, and protection. it is that which collected families owe to a chief of their tribe, who is their point of union, and consequently of their security; and in its climax it is that which chiefs and their followers owe to a sovereign, their concentrated attachment to whom is the ground of their safety and their glory as a nation. this feeling gains strength by becoming hereditary. it is associated with the fame of individuals, of families, of tribes, and of empires; it is conservative, it is destructive; but even in its most dreadful action it has in it an ennobling principle, for it is congenial with the most natural, as well as the highest and noblest feelings of the human mind. the wandering tribes in persia are not more remarkable for attachment to their chiefs than for the affection relations bear to each other, and the strength of those ties by which every individual is bound to the community of which he is a part. a persian friend of mine related to me in illustration of this fact, an authentic and affecting anecdote of the conduct of an old man of one of those tribes during the reign of kerreem khan zend. twelve men had been robbed and murdered under the walls of shiraz. the perpetrators of this atrocious act could not for a long period be discovered, but kerreem khan deeming this occurrence so deeply injurious to that impression of security and justice which it was the labour of his life to establish, commanded the officers of justice to persevere in their search till the offenders were detected, threatening them, and others who had heard the cries of the murdered men with vengeance, unless they effected a discovery, which he considered essential to his own reputation. after some months had elapsed, it was discovered by accident that a small branch of kerreem khan's own tribe of zend, at that time encamped near shiraz, were the murderers. their guilt was clearly proved, and all who had been actually engaged in the murder were sentenced to death. powerful intercession was made that some at least should be pardoned, but the prince had vowed that every man should suffer, and their being of his own favoured tribe made him more inexorable. they had, he said, brought disgrace on him as their sovereign and as their chief, and could not be forgiven. when the prisoners were brought before him to receive sentence, there was amongst them a youth of twenty years of age, whose appearance interested every spectator; but their anxiety was increased to pain when they saw the father of this young man rush forward, and demand, before they proceeded to the execution, to speak to the prince. permission was granted, and he addressed him as follows: "kerreem khan, you have sworn that these guilty men shall die, and it is just; but i, who am not guilty, come here to demand a boon of my chief. my son is young, he has been deluded into crime; his life is forfeited, but he has hardly tasted the sweets of life; he is just betrothed in marriage; i come to die in his stead: be merciful! let an old worn out old man perish, and spare a youth, who may long be useful to his tribe; let him live to drink of the waters, and till the ground of his ancestors!" kerreem khan is stated to have been greatly moved by the old man's appeal: he could not pardon the offence, having sworn on the koran that all concerned should be put to death; and with feelings very different from our ideas of justice, but congenial to those of the chief of a tribe, he granted the father's prayer, and the old man went exultingly to meet his fate. while all around were filled with pity, his son, wild and distracted with grief, was loud in imploring the prince to reverse his decree, to inflict on him that death which he merited, and to save the more valuable life of his aged, devoted, and innocent parent. footnotes: [ ] neeyet-e-naish zedden. [ ] boodeh-bâshed. [ ] the standard fersekh of persia is royal yards (gez-e-shâh), which is somewhat more than three miles and a half. this measure, however, varies in different provinces of that kingdom. [ ] many persian authors assert that the word tûrkûmân is from the compound term tûrk-mânend, or turk-like; and the conclusion made from this is, that they are a tribe of tartars who, having become inhabitants of the north-eastern part of persia, were subsequently designated by a name which marked their origin. persian writers, however, are generally bad etymologists, and i am a worse; i must, therefore, leave this important question in doubt. [ ] gholam-e-shâh. [ ] een kârkhâneh cheh fâideh; berâe sipâhee cheh zeroor sewâe neezeh wa dil? [ ] hâzir mydânee. [ ] chappau. [ ] history of persia, vol. ii. p. . [ ] kella-e-hâshem khan. chapter xv. arrival at koom--mahomedan ladies--their rights and privileges after marriage--divorces--story of hajee sâlah, the cross-grained. we went from cashan to koom, a very ancient and once populous city, but the greater part of it is now in ruins. several of the seffavean monarchs, and many celebrated and pious persons are interred at this place; but notwithstanding the tombs of learned priests and great monarchs, with which it is honoured, its present fame and sanctity are chiefly derived from its containing the mortal remains of fatima the immaculate,[ ] who was the sister of the imâm mehdee. the city of koom was given sometime ago by the king as an estate to his mother, a pious liberal old lady, who expended considerable sums in restoring it to prosperity. she bestowed especial care in ornamenting the shrine of the female saint, the dome of which being gilt has a splendid appearance. this is a sanctuary even for murderers. whatever ignorant europeans may say of the exclusion of females from the mahomedan paradise, the ladies who profess that religion have the consolation to know, that not only in this instance, but that of fatima, the daughter of the prophet, and in many others, they receive a homage which proves their title to the adoration of man, as saints in heaven, as well as angels upon earth. i have had frequent discussions with my persian friends upon the general condition of the female sex in this country; and cannot better illustrate the subject than by relating what passed on an occasion when i made a violent attack on their usages in this particular, and brought them into strong contrast with those of the civilized nations of europe. i began by stating, that, by making slaves of one half of the creation they made tyrants of the other. "i am only surprised," i said, "how your females can bear the subjection and confinement to which they are doomed. how our christian ladies would scorn such restraints! their minds are cultivated as carefully as those of their fathers, brothers, or husbands, who trust for their good conduct to their sense of virtue and religion, rather than to strong doors and high walls. we desire," i added, "that those who share our pleasures and our toils should be acquainted with the world in which they live, that we may possess not only an affectionate wife, but an intelligent friend. "your mahomedan ladies, on the contrary, are shut up like wild animals: whilst moving from one inclosure to another they travel in a curtained carriage; or, if walking, they are enveloped in robes which merely admit of their breathing and seeing their way through small eye-windows. besides, they are not allowed to have any communication but with their husbands, children, or slaves. what with flattering one, coaxing another, beating a third, and fighting a fourth, these ladies must have a fine time of it in this world; and as to the next, though they are not denied paradise, as we europeans often erroneously believe, they are only promised, as a reward for the most pious life, half those blessings which await the virtuous of the male part of the creation! "your females," i said, "are married while mere children, and the consequence is, they are old women at twenty-five. this furnishes you with an excuse for forming other connexions, and treating your first wives with neglect." this attack was listened to with symptoms of impatience; every one seemed anxious to answer, but precedence was given to jaffier ali khan, and the ladies of his country could not have had a better advocate. "really, sir, you form a very erroneous judgment of the condition of our women. in this, as in many other instances, where our religion or our customs are concerned, vulgar errors pass from one to another till they are believed by all. many persons in england imagine that a pigeon was taught to pick peas from the ears of the prophet, who thought he might succeed by this device in persuading the ignorant that the pigeon was a celestial messenger. they also say that his tomb at mecca is supported between heaven and earth by means of a loadstone. if true, it would be a miracle; but it is not true: nevertheless people believe it, and the more readily, because it is wonderful. now," said jaffier, "it is the same with half the stories about our women. why, i am told, it is a common belief with you that mahomed has declared women have no souls! if you read the koran you will find that our prophet not only ranks women with men as true believers, but particularly ordains that they shall be well treated and respected by their husbands; he has indeed secured that by establishing their right to dowers as well as to claims of inheritance. he also has put it out of the power of a husband to hurt the reputation of his wife, unless he can produce four witnesses of her guilt; and should he have witnessed that himself, he must swear four times to the fact, and then by a fifth oath imprecate the wrath of god if he is a liar. even after this, if the wife goes through the same ceremony, and imprecates the wrath of god upon her head if her husband does not swear falsely, her punishment is averted; or if she is divorced, her whole dower must be paid to her, though it involve the husband in ruin. what protection can be more effectual than this? "then a woman who is divorced may marry again after four months, which is believed to be soon enough. these widows, i assure you, sir, when they have a good dower, are remarkable for consulting their own judgment as to a second choice; they are not like young giddy girls, who are guided by their parents or the reports of old nurses or match-makers." "but how do they see or hear," said i, "sufficient to direct them in their choice?" "why," said jaffier ali, "they see and hear much more than you imagine. besides the liberty they enjoy of going abroad, some of the rooms in the merdâneh, or man's apartments, are only divided by a curtain or skreen from the zenâneh, or female apartment; and the ladies can, when they choose, both see and hear through that as much as they desire." "but what is the use of those peeps and chance meetings to your young ladies, if they have not the liberty of choice with regard to their husbands?" "why, sir," said my friend, "our daughters are usually betrothed when children, and married when very young; the husband is commonly selected from equality of condition and age. all this is settled by the parents, whose regard for their children, it is supposed, will make them take every means to promote their happiness. it must be confessed, however, that worldly motives often lead to youth and age being united; but this, i am told, occurs even in england. you will say an english father cannot force his daughter to marry, but he can no doubt use such means as may oblige her to marry a man for whom she has an aversion, or she may run away from her parents with some person of whom they disapprove. "so you see," said jaffier, "this liberty of choice which your forward, though inexperienced, young ladies exercise, has bad as well as good effects. now our daughters never run away; and as they have seldom ever seen their destined husbands, if they have no love for them, neither have they any dislike. the change from the condition of a girl under the strict subjection of her mother to that of a wife at the head of her own part of the household is so agreeable, that they are too happy to adopt it. "you english take your ideas of the situation of females in asia from what you hear and read of the harems of kings, rulers, and chiefs, who being absolute over both the men and women of their territories, indulge in a plurality of wives and mistresses. these, undoubtedly, are immured within high walls, and are kept during life like slaves; but you ought to recollect, that the great and powerful, who have such establishments, are not in the proportion of one to ten thousand of the population of the country. if a person of inferior rank marry a woman of respectable connexions, she becomes mistress of his family; and should he have only one house, he cannot place another on an equality without a certainty of involving himself in endless trouble and vexation, if not disgrace. the dower usually settled upon such a lady, added to other privileges, and an unlimited authority over her children and servants, give her much importance; and she is supported by her relations in the assertion of every right with which custom has invested her. "with regard to liberty, such a lady can not only go to the public bath, but she visits for one or two days, as she chooses, at the house of her father, brother, sister, or son. she not only goes to all these places unattended, but her husband's following her would be deemed an unpardonable intrusion. then she has visitors at home; friends, musicians, and dancers; the husband cannot enter the lady's part of the house without giving notice. i only wish," said jaffier ali, laughing, "you could see the bold blustering gentleman of the merdâneh in the ladies' apartment; you would hardly believe him to be the same person. the moment his foot crosses the threshold, every thing reminds him he is no longer lord and master; children, servants, and slaves look alone to the lady. in short, her authority is paramount: when she is in good humour, everything goes on well; and when in bad, nothing goes right. it is very well for grandees, who, besides power and wealth, have separate houses and establishments, and are above all regard for law and usage, to have harems, and wives, and female slaves; but for others, though they may try the experiment, it can never answer;" and he shook his head, apparently with that sincere conviction which is the result of experience. hajee hoosein, who had brought our evening kelliâns, and was listening to this defence of mahomedan ladies with great attention, exclaimed at this last sentence, "sâdee says very truly, 'two dervishes can sleep on one carpet, but two kings cannot rest in one kingdom.'" "very true, hajee," said jaffier ali, "nor can two mistresses be at peace in one house." "why, then," said i, "did your prophet permit polygamy, and set so bad an example? for while he limited his followers to four wives, he obtained a peculiar dispensation to have nine himself, besides 'slaves of his right hand.'"[ ] meerzâ aga meer, who is a holy syed, and consequently of the prophet's family, took the word, as he is wont to do upon all occasions when he hears a name so sacred irreverently treated. "the reasons of mahomed (on whom be the blessing of god)," said the meerzâ, calmly, "are inscrutable; but as far as his acts can be judged by erring mortals, or considered otherwise than as proceeding from divine authority, we may believe that in permitting polygamy, he only followed the custom of the jews; in whose prophet, moses, you christians, as well as we musselmans, believe. the limitation to four legitimate wives was intended as a check, no doubt, upon those habits of sensual indulgence, into which not only the affluent of the jews, but the pagan arabs, had fallen; and it was the enormity of their vices which led our prophet to denounce such severe punishment now and hereafter upon those who continued to follow wicked courses. "there is no doubt," said aga meer, "that the custom to which you have alluded, of very early marriages, and the effects of climate and sedentary habits, bring on a premature old age in many of our females. but after all, the number who take advantage of the license to have a plurality of wives is not near so great as you imagine. take a thousand persians and you will not find ten with more than two wives, and not thirty with more than one. who can afford it? the expense of a marriage, the maintenance of females, and, above all, the dower which is required, and which remaining at the lady's sole disposal, is independent of that inheritance to which she and her children are entitled from the remainder of the husband's property, are insuperable objections. "you speak," said he, addressing himself to me, "as if your pity were limited to our ladies; if you were more intimately acquainted with the condition of us husbands, we should have some share of your sympathy. jaffier ali has already explained to you some of the rights and privileges of our ladies, which are usually supported by a host of relations, but he has not enumerated one half. we may, it is true, escape from one wife by marrying another; but if we are not rich, such a proceeding involves the giving up most of our comforts in life. what i have said applies to men of moderate means; and as to the great mass of the population who live by their labour, few can support two wives. if you have any doubts respecting the equality of condition of their partners, do but listen now and then near their houses, and you will hear a shrill and sharp voice rating the supposed lord and master in a manner which will instantly relieve your mind from any anxiety you may now feel for the rights of the softer sex in persia." this sally of the good meer produced the more mirth, from its being unusual for him to depart from his gravity. but resuming his serious air, he continued; "mahomedan women have never real power until they have offspring. mâder, or the mother, is, from the prince to the peasant, the chief object of affection and respect. on her not only domestic concerns, but the making of marriages usually depends. the care and indulgence she bestows upon her children is often in strong contrast to the neglect and harshness of the father, which deepens the impression of gratitude they entertain for her during life. this sentiment is so general, that nothing causes such complete loss of character as want of love and duty towards a mother. "have you studied our law," said meerzâ aga meer to me, "particularly that part of it which relates to property and inheritance?" i confesssed i had not given the subject that attention it merited. "i thought so," said the meer, "or you would not have judged so lightly of the condition of our females." "it is," said the meer, "the possession of property, and the right of inheriting and using it, which gives respect and consequence to persons with others as well as themselves. now you will find, both by the koran, which is the fountain of our law, and by the commentaries, which are streams from that sacred source, that females have equal rights with males to use property; and their claim to inheritance, though somewhat smaller, as is the case in other countries, is on a scale that shows the light in which they are held by our laws and institutions." the meerzâ supported his argument by more quotations from the book of mahomed, from traditions, and commentaries by learned doctors, than i shall repeat. the sum of it, however, was to this effect, that a woman who has property of her own, which includes her dower, has full command of it during her life. at her death the husband has half if there are no children, and a fourth if there are. the remainder is divided among them equally, females having the same share as males. when the husband dies, his wife or wives (legally married) inherit one fourth of his property, if there are no children; if there are, the wife or wives have only one eighth: but this is always independent of the dower or settlement made at the period of marriage. if a man leave an only daughter or grand-daughter, she has the half of his estate; if two or more, they have two-thirds. if he leave a son and daughters, the son has the share of two females, besides becoming, after the shares are allotted, the heir-general or residuary legatee. the daughters born in wedlock have their allotted shares of inheritance, but in no case can they become heirs to any property beyond that amount, except to their manumitted slave. on the death of such a person they have a right to share as a relation, and can inherit as heirs. "the following text of the koran is curious," said the meer, "and merits to be quoted: 'there is not among women any heiress except her who kindly freed the enslaved neck.'" "all you have said," i observed, "is very well. i understand the rights of your legitimate wives and daughters; but what becomes of the numerous progeny of slaves and others of the harem?" "what becomes of your illegitimate children in england?" replied the meer, with more asperity than was usual to him; but my attack had roused him. "if," he continued, "the book which was written by meerzâ aboo tâlib, who travelled in your country, is at all true, a great proportion of your females and their offspring are in a much more miserable and degraded state than any in our country! but perhaps," said he, in a milder tone, "aboo tâlib has exaggerated, which travellers are in the habit of doing." i made no answer, for i thought of the parable of the "mote and the beam," and turned the conversation from this part of the subject by asking whether a man or woman could not bequeath their property, "i am no moollâh," said aga meer, "to give a precise answer to such a question; but i know this, they can bestow it during life, and i believe that though, according to the strict interpretation of the koran, pious or charitable bequests are alone legal, others are attended to by the judges when not very injurious or improper. i conclude this is the case, by my knowledge that wills are frequently made; but i am," he repeated, "no moollâh." "that you are not a moollâh, i am very glad," said jaffier ali, "for i never can understand these doctors of our law; they have always so many reasons to state on both sides of every question, that they quite confuse me, and i really believe that wise and learned as they are, they often confuse themselves." "there is nothing, i can assure you, sir," said jaffier ali to me "that these moollâhs like better than advocating the cause of our ladies, who, what with their aid, and that of other supporters, as well as their own spirit, have, i think, more than an equal share of power and authority." "but why," said i, "if they have this power, and such rights of property, are they cooped up, and never allowed to stir abroad without veils? with such usages how can they attain that knowledge of the world which is necessary to enable them to perform their duties?" "as to cooping up," said aga meer, who here resumed the contest, "jaffier ali has already explained the indulgences they have, in going abroad, and seeing their friends at home; and with respect to wearing veils, what you deem a punishment they consider a distinction, and look down with pity on the women of the eelyât tribes and others, who do not follow this custom. "i do not exactly know," said he, "what you mean by a knowledge of the world; nor do i distinctly understand the benefits you expect them to derive from such knowledge. "we," he added, smiling, "consider that loving and obeying their husbands, giving proper attention to their children, and their domestic duties, are the best occupations for females." "that is," i replied, "your females are either the slaves of your pleasures, or drudges to perform the work of your house. this is their lot in the present world, and in the next, though you do not exclude them from heaven, you only allow, even to the most virtuous, as i said before, half the joys which are destined for a good man. they are in fact neither treated nor instructed in a manner that can elevate them to the rank which god meant them to hold, as the companions and friends of man; and, in the condition in which your laws and usages place them, they never can have that respect for themselves, nor receive it from others, which is essential to form a civilized community." "but," said the meer, "we are not a civilized community, such as you allude to; some of our ladies, whose husbands or fathers are learned men, have considerable knowledge, and many of these have received an excellent education." "this," said i, "is a fact of which i am aware; my friend jaffier ali, who married the daughter of a physician, informed me how well the mind of his consort had been cultivated by her wise and pious father, and i have seen a small volume of poems copied by her, which he means to present to the elchee; but i consider her, and some others with similar endowments, as exceptions to the general rule." "very fortunately," replied aga meer, "they are exceptions: if the majority of our females were so well instructed, they would be far before their fathers and husbands, and that would never do. changes must begin with the men or we shall have all in confusion. "with respect to the difference of rewards and punishments between the male and female sex, it has been considered," said the meer, "that as the latter have not the same opportunities of acquiring knowledge, their responsibility should be less, and it is decreed that they shall only receive for any crime half the punishment that would be inflicted upon a man. the same principle, in reference to their good actions, has led to their being only deemed entitled to half the enjoyment that a man can attain in the next world. but this is a point," said the meer, "that i do not well comprehend. it has puzzled many of our wisest moollâhs, and volumes upon volumes of contradictory opinions have been written by the expounders of the koran, upon the duties, rewards, and punishments of women here and hereafter; god alone knows who is right and who is wrong." "i know as little as you or the moollâhs either," said jaffier ali, "of what will be the lot of our ladies in the next world, but i am positive they enjoy plenty of power in this. really, my good friend," said he, addressing me, "if you could get a peep behind the curtain, you would find that from the palace of the king to the hut of the peasant, some personage, either in the shape of a wife or a mother, secretly or openly rules the whole household, the master not excepted. some men, in the hope of preserving their authority, marry a woman of low connexions, or a slave, who cannot claim a dower. such wives, being pennyless and unsupported by relations, will, they expect, continue mild and submissive, and neither give themselves airs nor leave the house in a pet. these wary gentlemen, however, are often disappointed; for if the partners they select are handsome and beloved, they too become tyrants and tormentors." "that may be," said mahomed hoosein khan, who had hitherto listened to our discussion with much more patience than i had expected, "but in such a case a man becomes a slave of his own passions, which is far better than selling himself, as many do, to be the slave of those of an arrogant woman, who, from superior birth or great wealth, considers herself as the ruler of him she has condescended to espouse." hajee hoosein, on hearing this remark, eagerly exclaimed, "how exactly that was the case with sâdee! 'my termagant of a wife,' (said that wise man), 'with whom, after my release from the christians at tripoli,[ ] i had received a dower of a hundred dinars, one day addressed me in a reproachful tone, and asked, 'are not you the contemptible wretch whom my father ransomed from the slavery of the franks at the cost of ten dinars?' 'yes,' i replied, 'i am the same wretch whom he delivered from the infidels for ten dinars, and enslaved to you for one hundred!'" "poor sâdee!" said khan sâhib, with a half sigh that indicated fellow-feeling: "but," added he, "there is a possibility of escape from such a condition. i will tell you a story of an acquaintance of mine, who had the good fortune to terrify one of these high-born shrews into good behaviour, but his success, as you will hear, was of no benefit to his friends. "sâdik beg was of good family, handsome in person, and possessed of both sense and courage; but he was poor, having no property but his sword and his horse, with which he served as a gentleman retainer of a nabob. the latter, satisfied of the purity of sâdik's descent, and entertaining a respect for his character, determined to make him the husband of his daughter hooseinee, who, though beautiful, as her name implied, was remarkable for her haughty manner and ungovernable temper. "giving a husband of the condition of sâdik beg to a lady of hooseinee's rank was, according to usage in such unequal matches, like giving her a slave, and as she heard a good report of his personal qualities, she offered no objections to the marriage, which was celebrated soon after it was proposed, and apartments were assigned to the happy couple in the nabob's palace. "some of sâdik beg's friends rejoiced in his good fortune; as they saw, in the connexion he had formed, a sure prospect of his advancement. others mourned the fate of so fine and promising a young man, now condemned to bear through life all the humours of a proud and capricious woman; but one of his friends, a little man called merdek, who was completely henpecked, was particularly rejoiced, and quite chuckled at the thought of seeing another in the same condition with himself. "about a month after the nuptials merdek met his friend, and with malicious pleasure wished him joy of his marriage. 'most sincerely do i congratulate you, sâdik,' said he, 'on this happy event!' 'thank you, my good fellow, i am very happy indeed, and rendered more so by the joy i perceive it gives my friends.' 'do you really mean to say you are happy?' said merdek, with a smile. 'i really am so,' replied sâdik. 'nonsense,' said his friend; 'do we not all know to what a termagant you are united? and her temper and high rank combined must no doubt make her a sweet companion.' here he burst into a loud laugh, and the little man actually strutted with a feeling of superiority over the bridegroom. "sâdik, who knew his situation and feelings, was amused instead of being angry. 'my friend,' said he, 'i quite understand the grounds of your apprehension for my happiness. before i was married i had heard the same reports as you have done of my beloved bride's disposition; but i am happy to say i have found it quite otherwise: she is a most docile and obedient wife.' 'but how has this miraculous change been wrought?' 'why,' said sâdik, 'i believe i have some merit in effecting it, but you shall hear. "'after the ceremonies of our nuptials were over, i went in my military dress, and with my sword by my side, to the apartment of hooseinee. she was sitting in a most dignified posture to receive me, and her looks were anything but inviting. as i entered the room a beautiful cat, evidently a great favourite, came purring up to me. i deliberately drew my sword, struck its head off, and taking that in one hand and the body in the other, threw them out of the window. i then very unconcernedly turned to the lady, who appeared in some alarm: she, however, made no observations, but was in every way kind and submissive, and has continued so ever since.' "'thank you, my dear fellow,' said little merdek, with a significant shake of the head--'a word to the wise;' and away he capered, obviously quite rejoiced. "it was near evening when this conversation took place; soon after, when the dark cloak of night had enveloped the bright radiance of day, merdek entered the chamber of his spouse, with something of a martial swagger, armed with a scimitar. the unsuspecting cat came forward to welcome the husband of her mistress, but in an instant her head was divided from her body by a blow from the hand which had so often caressed her. merdek having proceeded so far courageously, stooped to take up the dissevered members of the cat, but before he could effect this, a blow upon the side of the head from his incensed lady laid him sprawling on the floor. "the tattle and scandal of the day spreads from zenâneh to zenâneh with surprising rapidity, and the wife of merdek saw in a moment whose example it was that he imitated. 'take that,' said she, as she gave him another cuff, 'take that, you paltry wretch; you should,' she added, laughing him to scorn, 'have killed the cat on the wedding day.'" we were all highly entertained with khan sâhib's story, which closed the discussion upon the rights, privileges, and usages of persian ladies; but though i left the party satisfied that these were greater than i imagined, i continued unchanged in my opinion that the civilization of mahomedan countries must ever be retarded by the condition assigned to the female sex by their prophet, who, though he neither denies that they have souls, nor shuts the gates of paradise against them, yet gives them only half the responsibility, half the punishment, and half the enjoyments assigned here and hereafter to the lords of the creation. some days after our discussion concerning the rights of mahomedan ladies, i had a long conversation with aga meer as to divorces. these, he told me, were very rare in persia, it being deemed a greater scandal for a man to put away his wife than for a woman to be divorced. the usual ground of such a proceeding is a sudden fit of passion or jealousy. that is followed by repentance, and the lady is taken back. "but here," he added, "the law has interposed to prevent the abuse of this indulgence by capricious husbands. if a man pronounces three divorces against a free woman, or two against a slave,[ ] he can lawfully wed neither of them again unless they have been espoused by another, and this second husband dies, or shall divorce them." when it happens that a husband wishes to recover his wife whom he had divorced in a passion, a convenient husband is sought; but the law forbids a mockery being made of such marriages. they may be short in duration, but the parties must live during the period they are united as man and wife. the consequence of this law is, that none but those who add to caprice and passion, doting fondness for the lady, will ever seek a re-union that is attended with such indelicacy and shame. nevertheless, this proceeding sometimes takes place, and no doubt often gives rise to extraordinary incidents. these become the groundwork of many an amusing tale, in which the imagination of the narrator has ample range for exaggeration without exceeding the bounds of possibility. in all the stories i ever heard, grounded on divorces, the lady is always young and beautiful, the husband old, ugly, rich, and passionate; and the person chosen to be the medium of regaining the wife is, though apparently in such distress that a few piastres will tempt him to act the part required, usually a lover in disguise, or one who becomes, like the cymon of our great poet, animated by love of the object with whom he is united, to a degree that transforms the supposed clod into a perfect hero of romance, who rather than give up the fair lady, who prefers him, to her old mate, suffers every hardship, and braves every danger in pursuance of her plans and intrigues to prevent their separation. the framing of the plot is invariably given to the female, and it is often such as to do honour to the genius of the sex. in the arabian tales on this subject hâroon-oor-rasheed, and his vizier bermekee, are employed to aid the lovers in their night wanderings in bagdad. in persia shâh abbas the great, and his minister, act the part of the caliph and his vizier, and both parties are described as promoting by their advice, generosity, and power, the happiness of the new married couple, and bringing to shame the old hunks of a husband and the corrupt ministers of justice, whom his wealth had bribed to lend their endeavours to compel the lovers by all kinds of threats and punishments to consent to a separation. the stories on this subject are of infinite variety, nor will a well practised story-teller give any tale twice in the same words, or with the same incidents. moollâh adeenah, the story-teller to his majesty, of whom i shall have occasion to speak hereafter, told me, that he considered it as much as his head was worth to tell a tale twice without variations to the king of kings. "besides my own invention," said he, "i have a great book, containing anecdotes on all subjects, and an infinite quantity of amusing matter, which i select at pleasure, and adapt my story to the circumstances of the moment, and to the characters of those who form my audience." there are no tales in persia that undergo more changes than those which relate to divorces. the different sects of mahomedans hold different doctrines on this head, and the story-teller must not offend any of his auditors. besides, there is often a fear of personal allusions, which compels him to remove his characters from one country to another, to keep them out of harm's way; as my uncle toby advised trim to do with his giants, in that best of all good stories, "the king of bohemia and his seven castles." i have heard a celebrated story of a merchant called hajee sâlah kej-khoolk, the cross-grained, told in four or five different ways, and particularly that incident in his life relating to his having, in one of those bursts of passion to which he was liable, divorced, for the third time, a beautiful young female of high rank, whose parents this old, ugly, ill-humoured, wealthy man, had bribed, by settling a large dowry upon her. according to the edition of this tale, which will serve as a specimen of those grounded on divorces, the old hajee was at the town of nishâpoor in khorassan, when in a violent fit of rage he pronounced the last divorce upon the lady, whose name was maidee. she immediately left his house and went to her parents. they, though moved at first by the tears with which she implored them to assist her in resisting all proposals for a re-union with a husband whom she abhorred, soon gave way to the worldly motives which induced them to desire her return to a person who was continually making them presents, and who was now more generous than ever, in the hope of inducing them to promote his interests with one of whom, notwithstanding his conduct, he was distractedly fond. maidee seeing no other opportunity of escape from the continued importunities to which she was exposed, listened to the proposals made through the old nurse, of a youth of the name of omar, who, though poor, was of a respectable family, and whose sister was one of the wives of the governor of the town. this sister had seen maidee at the public bath, and it was the account which she gave of her surprising beauty and great dower that determined omar to try every means to make her his wife. the good nurse, who was attached to the family of omar, painted his personal appearance and qualities to maidee in such colours, that she was quite willing to allow him to be the instrument of her deliverance. the plot was soon settled; maidee, with affected reluctance, consented to the proposals of hajee sâlah for a re-union, provided the person chosen to be her husband for twenty-four hours was of respectable family and good appearance. these conditions she insisted upon as indispensable to her reputation. besides she now also pretended that absence had revived her regard for the old hajee, and she desired the merit of showing (by the sacrifice of a husband whom many might prefer to him) that her attachment was sincere. the old merchant, in raptures at the prospect of repossessing his favourite, agreed to all she proposed. an agent was immediately appointed to look out for a person of the description she desired, but whose circumstances were such as to make him consent to act the discreditable part of a convenient husband. omar threw himself in the way of this agent, and contrived to utter in his hearing boastings of his family, complaints of his relatives, and of the consequent poverty and despair to which he was reduced. "if i had been a dishonourable fellow," said he (speaking to a companion, but loud enough for the agent to hear), "and one that could have consented to break my pledged word, i might have made my fortune; but, thank god, i am not such a man: i would embrace ruin, and encounter death a thousand times before i would depart from or violate any promise i had made. i have made up my mind to leave nishâpoor; why should i remain? i know not that i shall have a morsel to eat to-morrow." so saying he abruptly quitted his friend, and walked down the street. he was followed by the agent, who saw, in the respectability of his family, his poverty, and above all his determined adherence to his word, the very person of whom he was in search. omar stopped under some trees at the skirts of the town, where the agent came up to him. "a fine evening," said the latter. "i am indifferent as to the state of the weather," replied the apparently agitated omar. "you seem to have some distress of mind?" "that cannot concern you," said the youth. "you know not," said the wily agent; "aid often comes through means the least expected: if you confide your griefs to me, humble as i appear, i may be able to administer relief." this and some more soothing speeches led omar with apparent reluctance to open his heart and relate his story. he was, he told the agent, the youngest son of a tûrkûmân chief, well known in the plains of kipchâk. he had lately offended his father, by refusing to reveal the place of concealment of a man to whom he had promised protection, and was therefore banished from his presence. he had made an offer of his services at nishâpoor; but after these were accepted, he had been compelled to abandon this prospect, and to part with his horse, his sword, and all he possessed in the world, rather than violate a pledge he had given to an unfortunate friend, whose debts he had just paid by expending the last dinar he had in the world. "but," he added, "to-morrow's sun will not find me in nishâpoor; i shall trust my stars to guide me to some land where i may be more fortunate." the agent praised his high sense of honour; and, after much circumlocution, proposed to present him with a hundred tomans, provided he would consent to marry the beautiful maidee one day, divorce her the next, and instantly quit the country never to return. omar pretended at first to be highly indignant at a proposal which he thought derogatory to his honour: but his scruples were gradually removed, and he at length took the money and pledged that word and honour, which had hitherto been his ruin, that he would do everything which was required. no time was lost in preparing the contract of marriage; the nuptials were celebrated with all due ceremony, and the new-married couple remained alone in a house in a retired part of the town, which had been prepared for them. when maidee was unveiled, her beauty far exceeded all that the imagination of omar had dared to depict her. he was in raptures, and she was equally enchanted with him. they mutually vowed that whatever was the success of their plan, no power should ever separate them. the dawn of the following morning found hajee sâlah at the door, anxious to abridge the happiness of the lovers as much as the law would permit. he had knocked several times and called to the inmates without receiving any answer, when he was nearly stunned by a blow on the head, and turning round, saw a savage looking tûrkûmân mounted on a large horse, armed with a long spear, with the shaft of which he had inflicted the blow. "hold my horse," said the fellow as he dismounted, "while i go into the house." "you have two hands, you old rascal," said another savage, giving him a second blow, and making him hold the horse on which he rode. before the poor hajee could recover from his surprise, a party of twenty tûrkûmâns, with their chief, were around him. he showed an intention of escaping, but that only produced an order for his being put to death if he attempted to move from the spot. "where is the darling boy?" exclaimed the chief; "i have forgiven him all: i long to clasp him in my arms!" "renowned kâdir beg," said one of his followers, who had just come out of the house, "you have more to forgive than you are aware of; your son is married." "married!" exclaimed the old chief. "is the blood of the first race on the plains of kipchâk contaminated? has he married the daughter of a citizen of nishâpoor?" "no," said the man, "she belongs to a family of rank; she is beautiful as the full moon, and has besides a rich dower; having been divorced, in a fit of passion, by an ill-tempered wealthy old merchant, who was wholly unworthy of her, but who threatens to take this inestimable pearl from your highness's son omar beg." "where is the old villain," said the chief, "that dares to claim any one whom i protect?" and he struck his spear on the ground in a rage that made hajee sâlah tremble for his life; "but let me see and embrace my long lost boy." he went into the house, but soon returning, directed two of his finest led horses to be brought to the door, on one of which omar was mounted, and on the other his bride; and away they rode at full speed. three men were left behind; two remained in the house; and the third guarded hajee sâlah, who stood trembling and holding the two horses, inwardly cursing himself and his agent for selecting a wild tûrkûmân as a convenient bridegroom to a beautiful persian lady. after a delay of some hours the tûrkûmâns followed their companions. the house at which this scene occurred had been so cautiously selected by hajee sâlah to avoid observation, that nobody observed what was passing. the moment he was relieved he ran to the palace of the governor, calling aloud for justice. the governor had gone a hunting, and was not expected till night. when he returned he was so fatigued that he could not be seen till next day. then so many proofs were required, and so many delays took place, that the hajee began to suspect the ruler of the city was in league with the tûrkûmân chief. but when he afterwards learnt that the whole was a contrivance, that omar's sister was the wife of the governor, and that the parents of maidee had been reconciled to the marriage, all hope of redress vanished, and he immediately left nishâpoor, amid the laughter of high and low, for all seemed equally delighted at what had happened to hajee sâlah, the cross-grained. his name has ever since been recorded in story, as an example of the fate which awaits age and ill temper when they aspire to possess youth and beauty, without knowing how to appreciate and guard such blessings, when they have obtained them. footnotes: [ ] fatima-ool-masoomah. [ ] this phrase is applied to those slaves acquired in wars with infidels. [ ] tripoli in syria: the christians must have been some of the crusaders. [ ] the same principle which subjects slaves to only half punishment for crimes, renders them liable to less suffering from the caprice of the man who marries them. the husband should, strictly speaking, only have the power to pronounce one divorce and a half on a slave: but the fraction puzzled the doctors of the law, and they have agreed it should be two divorces. chapter xvi. departure from koom--pool-e-dellâk--deryâ-e-kebeer--valley of the shadow of death--story of a ghool--remarks on persian poetry. from the city of koom we proceeded to sooltâneah, where the king was encamped; but i cannot allow my reader to arrive at that place before he has accompanied me to teheran with the first mission, and heard the account of its reception, and a description of fettih ali shâh and his court, before these became familiar with envoys and travellers from calcutta, london, paris, and st. petersburgh. our first stage towards teheran was to a place called pool-e-dellâk, or the barber's bridge; which, according to the tale of those who lived at the village in the vicinity, was built by the barber of shâh abbas the great, to save others from a danger which he himself narrowly escaped, of being drowned when crossing this river. this munificent barber, we were informed, was very wealthy, as many of his profession are in persia. their skill in shaving the heads and trimming the beards of kings and nobles, though highly prized, is subordinate to that which they display as attendants at the warm bath. it is on their superior address in rubbing, pinching, joint-cracking, and cleansing the human frame at the hummums that their fame is established. the luxury of the bath in persia is enjoyed by all, from the highest to the lowest. these baths are always good, and often splendid buildings. they are sought by the lower classes as essential to health in persons who seldom wear, and when they do, seldomer change their under garments. the higher ranks indulge in them to still greater excess, and in their progress through the various apartments of graduated heat, from the outer saloon to the houz or fountain of the inner bath, they are waited upon by different domestics, who, besides aiding to undress and dress them, serve them with every species of refreshment. among these attendants the man of most consequence is the dellâk or barber. for he who has the honour to bathe and shave a king must not only be perfect in his art, but also a man altogether trustworthy; and confidence amongst eastern rulers is usually followed by favour, and with favour comes fortune. this accounts for barbers building bridges in persia! i was one day speaking to my friend meerzâ aga of the munificence of the barber of the great abbas, in a manner which implied doubt of the fact. he observed he knew not whether the barbers of the seffavean monarchs built bridges, but "i do know," he said, "that the khâsterâsh (literally personal shaver) of our present sovereign has, in the abundance of his wealth, built a palace for himself close to the royal bath at teheran. then," said the good meerzâ, "he is entitled to riches, for he is a man of pre-eminent excellence in his art, and has had for a long period under his special care the magnificent beard of his majesty, which is at this moment, and has been for years, the pride of persia." "well," i replied, "if your personal shaver has built such a mansion, i will no longer doubt the wealth of the barber of shâh abbas, for that monarch, though he wore no beard, had, we are told by travellers, and observe from paintings, a noble pair of mustachoes, of which he is said to have been very proud; and the trimmer of which no doubt was, as he deserved to be, a great favourite." this conversation led to a long dissertation on mustachoes and beards, upon which subject my travels to countries that my persian friends had never seen enabled me to give them much useful information. i told them many stories about the sikhs, a nation dwelling between the territories of cabool and india, who, devoting their beards and whiskers to the goddess of destruction, are always prompt to destroy any one who meddles with them; and who, from a combined feeling of religion and honour, look upon the preservation of life itself as slight in comparison with the preservation of a hair of their beards. i next informed them how beards, whiskers, and mustachoes were once honoured in europe. i told them an anecdote of the great john de castro, a former governor of goa, the capital of the portuguese possessions in india. he being in want of a considerable loan from the citizens of goa for a military expedition, was at a loss for an adequate security[ ]. his first intention was to pledge the bones of his gallant son don fernando, who had recently fallen in battle; but finding, on opening the grave, that the carcass was putrid, he offered, as next dear to his personal honour, a lock of his cherished mustachoes. this security was accepted, but immediately returned with more than the amount required; young and old vying with each other who should show most respect to so valuable a pledge. the persians of my audience twisted their mustachoes with a combined feeling of pleasure and pride on hearing this testimony to the value of that ornament of the visage; and khan sâhib, who was one of the party, said to me with a smile, "you gentlemen with the mission wear mustachoes in compliance with the prejudices of the persians; but is it true that many officers of your cavalry now wear them, and that they are again likely to become popular in england?" i said, perhaps they might; adding, i had no doubt that would be the case, if there appeared the slightest chance of their ever turning to account in the money-market, like those of john de castro. but i must quit this curious and interesting subject to proceed with my narration. at pool-e-dellâk the elchee received letters from the prime minister hajee ibrahim, congratulating him upon his near approach to the capital. "my house," the hajee wrote, "is assigned for your residence; and i am to be honoured by having you as my guest as long as you remain at the abode of sovereignty." the minister also addressed letters to the mehmandar and to the secretaries of the elchee, to inquire the exact time of his intended entry into teheran, and to learn the hours at which he took his meals, the dishes of which he was fondest, and every other minute particular that could enable him to perform the task he had undertaken to his own satisfaction and that of the king, whom he represented as very anxious that every thing should be done to honour and please the british representatives. from the barber's bridge to our next stage was nearly fifty miles. we crossed a salt desert,[ ] which hajee hoosein informed me, as he handed me the long snake of the kelliân, was once a sea; but at the birth of mahomed it dried up, and thus became one of the many miracles to testify the importance to the world of that auspicious event. the change of surface, from a crust of white clay impregnated with salt, to a stony plain, indicated that we had passed the desert. we immediately afterwards came to a rugged and broken road, through the most frightful precipices and ravines i had ever seen. "i wish these ravines had been made smooth at your prophet's birth," i said to my friend the hajee, who continued riding along with me. "here also," said he, in a half alarmed voice, "a miracle was effected, but it was not completed. this dreadful place is called the 'valley of the angel of death.'[ ] that terrific minister of god's wrath, according to tradition, has resting-places upon the earth, and this is one of his favourite abodes. he is surrounded by ghools, horrid beings, who, when he takes away life, feast upon the carcasses. "the natural shape of these monsters," said hajee hoosein, "is terrible; but they can assume those of animals, such as cows or camels, or whatever they choose, often appearing to men as their relations or friends, and then they do not only transform their shapes, but their voices also are altered. the frightful screams and yells, which are often heard amid these dreaded ravines, are changed for the softest and most melodious notes; unwary travellers, deluded by the appearance of friends, or captivated by the forms, and charmed by the music, of these demons, are allured from their path, and after feasting for a few hours on every luxury, are consigned to destruction. "the number of these ghools," said the hajee, "has greatly decreased since the birth of the prophet, and they have no power to hurt those who pronounce his name in sincerity of faith. but, what is that?" said he, spurring his horse, and upsetting the top of the kullean which he had in his hand, while he repeated aloud the name of mahomet, which now resounded through the line. i was myself not a little startled at seeing a camel, which is one of the shapes the ghools take, but found, on recovering from my momentary alarm, that it was one of our own, which, trying to pass a little to the right of our path, had fallen over a precipice with its load. when the hajee rejoined me, he was far from being convinced that the camel which had fallen was the same he had at first seen. "it was probable," he said, "that a ghool, by the shape he assumed, had enticed our animal to follow him, and the latter would certainly have been lost but for my presence of mind and timely exclamations. these creatures," he added, "are the very lowest of the supernatural world, and, besides being timid, are extremely stupid, and consequently often imposed upon by artful men. i will recount you," he said, "a story that is well authenticated, to prove that what i say is just." i told him i was all attention, and he commenced his tale. "you know," said he, "that the natives of isfahan, though not brave, are the most crafty and acute people upon earth, and often supply the want of courage by their address. an inhabitant of that city was once compelled to travel alone at night through this dreadful valley. he was a man of ready wit, and fond of adventures, and, though no lion, had great confidence in his cunning, which had brought him through a hundred scrapes and perils that would have embarrassed or destroyed your simple man of valour. "this man, whose name was ameen beg, had heard many stories of the ghools of the 'valley of the angel of death,' and thought it likely he might meet one. he prepared accordingly, by putting an egg and a lump of salt in his pocket. he had not gone far amidst the rocks we have just passed, when he heard a voice crying 'holloa, ameen beg isfahânee! you are going the wrong road, you will lose yourself; come this way; i am your friend kerreem beg; i know your father, old kerbela beg, and the street in which you were born.' ameen knew well the power the ghools had of assuming the shape of any person they choose; and he also knew their skill as genealogists, and their knowledge of towns as well as families; he had therefore little doubt this was one of those creatures alluring him to destruction. he, however, determined to encounter him, and trust to his art for his escape. "'stop, my friend, till i come near you,' was his reply. when ameen came close to the ghool, he said, 'you are not my friend kerreem, you are a lying demon, but you are just the being i desired to meet. i have tried my strength against all the men and all the beasts which exist in the natural world, and i can find nothing that is a match for me. i came therefore to this valley in the hope of encountering a ghool, that i might prove my prowess upon him.' "the ghool, astonished at being addressed in this manner, looked keenly at him, and said, 'son of adam, you do not appear so strong.' 'appearances are deceitful,' replied ameen, 'but i will give you a proof of my strength. there,' said he, picking up a stone from a rivulet, 'this contains a fluid; try if you can so squeeze it, that it will flow out.' the ghool took the stone, but after a short attempt returned it, saying 'the thing is impossible.' 'quite easy,' said the isfahânee, taking the stone and placing it in the hand in which he had before put the egg: 'look there!' and the astonished ghool, while he heard what he took for the breaking of the stone, saw the liquid run from between ameen's fingers, and this apparently without any effort. "ameen, aided by the darkness, placed the stone upon the ground while he picked up another of a darker hue. 'this,' said he, 'i can see contains salt, as you will find if you can crumble it between your fingers;' but the ghool looking at it confessed he had neither knowledge to discover its qualities, nor strength to break it. 'give it me,' said his companion impatiently, and having put it into the same hand with the piece of salt, he instantly gave the latter all crushed to the ghool, who seeing it reduced to powder, tasted it, and remained in stupid astonishment at the skill and strength of this wonderful man. neither was he without alarm lest his strength should be exerted against himself, and he saw no safety in resorting to the shape of a beast, for ameen had warned him, that if he commenced any such unfair dealing, he would instantly slay him; for ghools, though long-lived, are not immortal. "under such circumstances he thought his best plan was to conciliate the friendship of his new companion, till he found an opportunity of destroying him. "'most wonderful man,' he said, 'will you honour my abode with your presence; it is quite at hand: there you will find every refreshment; and after a comfortable night's rest you can resume your journey.' "'i have no objection, friend ghool, to accept your offer; but mark me, i am, in the first place, very passionate, and must not be provoked by any expressions which are in the least disrespectful; and in the second, i am full of penetration, and can see through your designs as clearly as i saw into that hard stone in which i discovered salt; so take care you entertain none that are wicked, or you shall suffer.' "the ghool declared that the ear of his guest should be pained by no expression to which it did not befit his dignity to listen; and he swore by the head of his liege lord, the angel of death, that he would faithfully respect the rights of hospitality and friendship. "thus satisfied, ameen followed the ghool through a number of crooked paths, rugged cliffs, and deep ravines, till they came to a large cave, which was dimly lighted. 'here,' said the ghool, 'i dwell, and here my friend will find all he can want for refreshment and repose.' so saying, he led him to various apartments, in which were hoarded every species of grain, and all kinds of merchandise, plundered from travellers who had been deluded to this den, and of whose fate ameen was too well informed by the bones over which he now and then stumbled, and by the putrid smell produced by some half consumed carcasses. "'this will be sufficient for your supper, i hope,' said the ghool, taking up a large bag of rice; 'a man of your prowess must have a tolerable appetite.' 'true,' said ameen, 'but i eat a sheep and as much rice as you have there before i proceeded on my journey. i am, consequently, not hungry, but will take a little lest i offend your hospitality.' 'i must boil it for you,' said the demon; 'you do not eat grain and meat raw, as we do. here is a kettle,' said he, taking up one lying amongst the plundered property. 'i will go and get wood for a fire, while you fetch water with that,' pointing to a bag made of the hides of six oxen. "ameen waited till he saw his host leave the cave for the wood, and then with great difficulty he dragged the enormous bag to the bank of a dark stream which issued from the rocks at the other end of the cavern, and after being visible for a few yards disappeared under ground. "how shall i, thought ameen, prevent my weakness being discovered; this bag i could hardly manage when empty, when full it would require twenty strong men to carry it; what shall i do? i shall certainly be eaten up by this cannibal ghool, who is now only kept in order by the impression of my great strength. after some minutes' reflection, the isfahânee thought of a scheme, and began digging a small channel from the stream, towards the place where his supper was preparing. "'what are you doing?' vociferated the ghool, as he advanced towards him; 'i sent you for water to boil a little rice and you have been an hour about it. cannot you fill the bag and bring it away?' 'certainly i can,' said ameen. 'if i were content, after all your kindness, to show my gratitude merely by feats of brute strength, i could lift your stream if you had a bag large enough to hold it; but here,' said he, pointing to the channel he had begun, 'here is the commencement of a work in which the mind of a man is employed to lessen the labour of his body. this canal, small as it may appear, will carry a stream to the other end of the cave, in which i will construct a dam that you can open and shut at pleasure, and thereby save yourself infinite trouble in fetching water. but pray let me alone till it is finished,' and he began to dig. 'nonsense,' said the ghool, seizing the bag and filling it; 'i will carry the water myself, and i advise you to leave off your canal, as you call it, and follow me, that you may eat your supper and go to sleep; you may finish this fine work if you like it to-morrow morning.' "ameen congratulated himself on this escape, and was not slow in taking the advice of his host. after having eat heartily of the supper that was prepared, he went to repose on a bed made of the richest coverlets and pillows, which were taken from one of the store-rooms of plundered goods. the ghool, whose bed was also in the cave, had no sooner laid down than he fell into a sound sleep. the anxiety of ameen's mind prevented him from following his example: he rose gently, and having stuffed a long pillow into the middle of this bed, to make it appear as if he were still there, he retired to a concealed place in the cavern to watch the proceedings of the ghool. the latter awoke a short time before daylight, and rising, went, without making any noise, towards ameen's bed, where not observing the least stir, he was satisfied that his guest was in a deep sleep, so he took up one of his walking sticks, which was in size like the trunk of a tree, and struck a terrible blow at what he supposed to be ameen's head. he smiled not to hear a groan, thinking he had deprived him of life; but to make sure of his work, he repeated the blow seven times. he then returned to rest, but had hardly settled himself to sleep, when ameen, who had crept into the bed, raised his head above the clothes and exclaimed, 'friend ghool, what insect could it be that has disturbed me by its tapping? i counted the flap of its little wings seven times on the coverlet. these vermin are very annoying, for though they cannot hurt a man, they disturb his rest!' "the ghool's dismay on hearing ameen speak at all was great, but that was increased to perfect fright when he heard him describe seven blows, any one of which would have felled an elephant, as seven flaps of an insect's wing. there was no safety, he thought, near so wonderful a man, and he soon afterwards arose and fled from the cave, leaving the isfahânee its sole master. "when ameen found his host gone, he was at no loss to conjecture the cause, and immediately began to survey the treasures with which he was surrounded, and to contrive means for removing them to his home. "after examining the contents of the cave, and arming himself with a matchlock, which had belonged to some victim of the ghool, he proceeded to survey the road. he had, however only gone a short distance when he saw the ghool returning with a large club in his hand, and accompanied by a fox. ameen's knowledge of the cunning animal instantly led him to suspect that it had undeceived his enemy, but his presence of mind did not forsake him. 'take that,' said he to the fox, aiming a ball at him from his matchlock, and shooting him through the head; 'take that for your not performing my orders. that brute,' said he, 'promised to bring me seven ghools, that i might chain them, and carry them to isfahan, and here he has only brought you, who are already my slave.' so saying, he advanced towards the ghool; but the latter had already taken to flight, and by the aid of his club bounded so rapidly over rocks and precipices, that he was soon out of sight. "ameen having well marked the path from the cavern to the road, went to the nearest town and hired camels and mules to remove the property he had acquired. after making restitution to all who remained alive to prove their goods, he became, from what was unclaimed, a man of wealth, all of which was owing to that wit and art which ever overcome brute strength and courage." i was pleased with this tale, first as it bore so near a resemblance to some parts of my earliest favourite, jack the giant killer; and next as the last incident of the fox bringing back the ghool was an exact copy of the story of the goat and the lion in the celebrated hindu work, the pancha tantra. the goat, according to the hindu tale, took shelter during a storm in the den of a lion; when he saw no chance of escape, he terrified the king of the beasts by boasting of a celestial origin, and telling him he had been condemned before he could return to heaven to eat ten elephants, ten tigers, and ten lions. he had, he said, eaten every kind of animal but the lion; and saying this, he marched up to the astonished monster, who fled by a back way from his den. the lion in his flight met a fox, and described to him the appearance of the goat (an animal he had never seen before), his horns, his strange beard, and above all, his boasting language. the fox laughed, and told his majesty how he had been tricked. they went back together, and met the goat at the entrance of the den. the latter at once saw his danger, but his wits did not forsake him. "what conduct is this, you scoundrel?" said he to the fox: "i commanded you to get ten lions, and here you have only brought me one;" so saying, he advanced boldly, and the lion, again frightened by his words and actions, fled in terror, allowing the goat to return quietly to his home. i narrated this story to my persian friend, saying, "this proves to me what i have long conjectured, that the greater part of your tales are taken literally from the hindus." "is it not as likely they have been stolen from us?" was his reply. "no," said i; "for their works in which these tales are written are much older than any you have." "that may be," said he, "but they are not older than keiomerth, housheng, or jemsheed. these were the glorious days of persia, and no doubt it was in their time the wily hindus stole our stories; and if our conquering swords have since made us masters of india, and we have plundered a few tales along with other articles, why we have only recovered our own." khan sâhib, who had been riding along with us, smoking his kelliân, but who had not as yet spoken a word, now, with much gravity, took up the conversation. "i have listened," said he, "with great attention to hajee hoosein's most wonderful tale of the ghool, and," addressing me, "to your supplement about a goat, a fox, and a lion. i shall store what i have heard in my memory for the benefit of my excellent grandmother, whom it is my duty to amuse. these tales shall also be given word for word to my little children, who will no doubt be as much delighted as i have been, to hear how a stupid monster was outwitted by a lying rogue, and how an impudent goat frightened a valiant lion." "the dispute," said khan sâhib, "regarding the invention of such sublime productions, no doubt involves matter deeply associated with the fame of the renowned empires of india and persia; and, in the present dearth of that article, i do think they are right in claiming all they can for their ancestors." "i quite understand, my good friend," said i, "the contempt you bestow upon the nursery tales with which the hajee and i have been entertaining each other; but, believe me, he who desires to be well acquainted with a people will not reject their popular stories or local superstitions. depend upon it, that man is too far advanced into an artificial state of society who is a stranger to the effects which tales and stories like these have upon the feelings of a nation; and his opinions of its character are never likely to be more erroneous than when, in the pride of reason, he despises such means of forming his judgment." "well, well," said khan sâhib, "there may be some truth in what you say; and i am the more inclined to believe it, as all the learning and philosophy which my good father endeavoured to instil into me never wholly eradicated my early predilection for such stories. i wish not to dispute the claim of our indian neighbours to the merit of inventing those maxims of wisdom, which have been delivered to posterity through the mouths of cats, monkeys, goats, parrots, foxes, jackalls, and lions. but," added he, "as far as the reputation of the creative genius of persia is concerned, i shall remain content with the wonders of the shâh-nâmeh, told as they are in the language of the immortal firdousee." though i could not give up my fondness for fables, i was quite ready to concur with my friend in his admiration of firdousee, and nothing more was necessary to make him dilate upon this favourite work. his memory is extraordinary; and while i listened with pleasure to his recitation of several of the most ancient, and at the same time most beautiful passages of persian poetry, i was instructed by his critical remarks, for he combines, with a knowledge of the european taste for simplicity, a love for asiatic splendour of diction; and is particularly versed in those allusions in which their poetry abounds. he recited to me, from the shâh-nâmeh, the greater part of the episode of the combats between roostem and his unknown son soohrâb. this episode, in the first lines of which the poet tells his reader, "it is a tale full of the waters of the eye,"[ ] is perhaps one of the greatest efforts of firdousee's genius; and he rises even above himself in the relation of the death of soohrâb and the insanity of his distracted mother. the effect produced on the unhappy princess by the account of her son's death is instantaneous. she sets fire to her palace, desiring, when he who constituted her sole object in life was gone, to perish amid that splendour, which she salued on his account alone. torn from the flames by her attendants, she commanded them to bring the body of her son, his horse, his arms, and his clothes. "she kissed the horse's forehead, she bathed its hoofs with her tears; she clothed herself in the blood-stained garments of her son, she drew his bow, she wielded his lance, his sword, and his mace; and these fond and frantic actions were continued till nature was overpowered, and the distracted mother departed to join her beloved soohrâb." no translation in verse can convey to the mere english reader any just impression of the whole poem of the shâh-nâmeh. the idiom in which it is written, and the allusions and metaphors with which it abounds, are too foreign to our language and taste to admit of success in such an undertaking; but a prose translation of this great work is a desideratum, and select passages might bear a poetical form. he, however, who attempts such a task, will not be successful unless possessed of a genius that raises him above the mechanical effort of a versifier. if ever such a translator devote himself to the beauties of this poem, he will find much to gratify himself and others. i have before given a specimen of firdousee's power in describing a battle; but though this is a species of composition in which the persians consider him to excel, i have been more pleased with him when he strikes a softer and more harmonious note. his tales of love are often delightful, and nothing can exceed some of his descriptions of scenery. i had long entertained this opinion, but was confirmed in it by a passage which khan sâhib recited to me, after concluding the story of soohrâb. it was an account of the events which took place when siyâvesh was nominated by afrâsiâb to govern the empire of cheen. the young prince, anxious to enjoy with his beautiful bride feeringheesh every luxury which this world could afford, sent persons in every direction over his extensive territories, to select the most agreeable and salubrious spot, that he might there fix his residence. the choice fell upon the city of kung, which is represented to be a perfect terrestrial paradise. one line in the description of this favoured spot struck me as an instance of the power of a poet to seize the finest shades of distinction that belong to language, and to convey by such terms the most correct idea to the mind. speaking of the climate of kung, firdousee says, "its warmth was not heat, and its coolness was not cold."[ ] i expressed to khan sâhib my admiration of this line, adding my regret that a poet who could write with such simplicity and beauty should indulge so often in forced metaphor, and hyperbolical phrases. "why," said my little friend, "i really think your quarrelling with firdousee, because he wrote according to the taste of the nation to which he belonged, is something like finding fault with the persians because they do not wear cocked hats and tight pantaloons, instead of lamb's-wool caps and loose trowsers. they delight, and ever have done, in those conceits and images which offend you." "but yet," said i, "sâdee is a great favourite, and he is almost always simple and clear in his style." "sâdee," said khan sâhib, "has, as you state, a great reputation in persia, but it is rather as a wise man and a moralist, than a poet. he seeks by fiction to adorn, not encumber truth; and the admiration of his reader is invariably given to the sentiment more than to the language in which it is clothed. "as a proof," continued my friend, "that this is just, let us take two stanzas. in the first of these sâdee thus describes himself: 'the snows of age rest upon my head, yet my disposition still makes me young.'[ ] in these lines, marked as they are by simplicity and beauty, the thought, not the expression, is what we most admire. in the second, when addressing sovereigns, he says, 'be merciful, and learn to conquer without an army seize upon the hearts of mankind, and be acknowledged the world's conqueror.'[ ] the boldness and sublimity of the lesson conveyed in this couplet predominates over the poetry, and this is the case throughout the works of sâdee. how different are the sweet and musical strains of hâfiz! whose whole fame rests upon the creative fancy of his imagination, and the easy flow of his numbers. he delights us by the very scorn with which he rejects all sobriety of thought, and all continuity of subject. as a poet he is one of the first favourites of his countrymen, whose enthusiastic admiration is given to passages in his works that your taste would condemn; for instance, when referring to the fiction which relates that the tulip first sprung up in the soil which was moistened with the blood of ferhâd, the celebrated lover of sheereen, he says, 'perhaps the tulip feared the evils of destiny, thence, while it lives, it bears the wine-goblet on its stalk.'[ ] "no conceit can be more fanciful, and you will perhaps add, more extravagant; but this stanza is most particularly admired by the persians, much more so than a succeeding one in the same ode, where the poet, with a simplicity and feeling that will delight you, gives the reason for not having left his native place. 'they will not allow me to proceed upon my travels, those gentle gales of moselláy, that limpid stream of rooknâbâd.'[ ] "hâfiz," said khan sâhib, "has the singular good fortune of being alike praised by saints and sinners. his odes are sung by the young and the joyous, who, by taking them in the literal sense, find nothing but an excitement to pass the spring of life in the enjoyment of the world's luxuries; while the contemplative sage, considering this poet as a religious enthusiast, attaches a mystical meaning to every line, and repeats his odes as he would an orison. at the time of his death," continued my friend, "there were many who deemed his works sinful and impious. these went so far as to arrest the procession of his funeral. the dispute rose high, and the parties were likely to come to blows, when it was agreed that a fâl, or lot, should be taken from his book. if that were favourable to religion, his friends were to proceed; but if calculated to promote vice, they promised not to carry his body to the sacred ground appropriated for its reception. "the volume of odes was produced, and it was opened by a person whose eyes were bound, seven pages were counted back, when the heaven-directed finger pointed to one of his inspired stanzas, 'withdraw not your steps from the obsequies of hâfiz: though immersed in sin he will rise into paradise.'[ ] "the admirers of the poet shouted with delight, and those who had doubted joined in carrying his remains to a shrine near shiraz, where, from that day to this, his tomb is visited by pilgrims of all classes and ages." i found my friend khan sâhib, however partial from his habits to a literal interpretation of many passages, dwelt upon others that he deemed mystical with all the rapture of a soofee. i asked him if he considered hâfiz equal in this description of poetry to the celebrated author of the mesnevee, who is usually called the moollâh of room?[ ] "certainly not," was his reply; "there is a depth and sublimity in the mesnevee, which is equalled by no poet of this class. but i will repeat, in answer to your question, the observation of a famous persian critic. "a friend asked him how it happened that the two most celebrated persian soofee poets should differ so much in their description of love? hâfiz, in the commencement of his work, observes: 'love at first sight appeared easy, but afterwards full of difficulties.'[ ] the author of the mesnevee, in exact opposition, says, 'love at first resembles a bloody murderer, that he may alarm all who are without his pale.'[ ] "'poor hâfiz,' said the critic, shaking his head, 'did not find out till the last, what the wiser moollâh saw at a glance.'" i was proceeding to make some further observations, when the sound of music and the appearance of the neighbouring villagers with their chiefs announced that we were near our encampment, and both khan sâhib and myself were obliged to take our places in the order of march, which was always formed when we met such parties. footnotes: [ ] these facts are mentioned in the introduction to mickle's translation of the lusiad. [ ] this desert is called, where we crossed it, deryâ-e-kebeer, or kemeen which signifies a desert; and the term deryâ, which means the ocean, being prefixed, is a proof of the truth of the popular belief of this having been once a sea. [ ] melek-ool-mout derrat. [ ] "yekee dâstân poor ab-e-cheshem." [ ] gherm-esh ne-ghermee bood, oo serd-esh ne-serd [ ] berf-e-peeree meenesheened ber sêr-em hem-choon-ân teba-em jevânee kooned. [ ] rehim koon oo bee fouj der teskeen bâsh dilhâ-e-âlem gheer oo shâh-e-âlem-gheer bâsh. [ ] meger kih lâleh be-dânist bee-wefâ-e-deher kih tâ be-zâd oo be-shood jâm-e-mei z' kef-ne-nihâd. [ ] ne meedihend ijâzet me-ra be-seir-oo-sefer neseem-e-bâd-e-moosellâ we âb-e-rooknâbâd. [ ] kedem dereegh medâr ez jinâza-e-hâfiz. kih ger-chih gherek-e-goonâh est meereved be-bihisht. [ ] turkey. [ ] kih ishk âsân nemood avvel welee ooftâd mooshkil-hâ. [ ] ishk avvel choo ser-khoonee booved, tâ be-tersend her kih beeroonee booved. chapter xvii. distant view of teheran--demavend--rhe--entrance into the capital--hajee ibrahim--zâl khan--terms of courtesy. the first distant view we had of teheran, the modern capital of persia, was very imposing. it is situated near the foot of elboorz, a mountain of the great range which stretches from europe to the utmost limits of asia. this range would appear high, were it not for demavend, whose lofty peak, rising above the clouds, and covered with eternal snow, gives a diminutive appearance to every thing in its vicinity. we had seen demavend at the distance of one hundred miles from its base, but it increased in magnificence as we advanced; and those amongst us who delighted in the pages of firdousee now planned an early visit to this remarkable mountain, whose summit that poet describes as "far from the abode of man, and near to heaven." a persian of our party, called meerzâ ibrahim, who had been at demavend, increased our curiosity by a detail of the wonders we should see when we visited that place. "amongst others," said he, "is the cave that was once the habitation of the deev-e-seffeed, who was slain by roostem; and if fortunate," he added, "you may catch a glimpse of the deev's daughter, whose dwelling is on the point of an inaccessible rock, at the edge of which she now and then appears; and is reported, notwithstanding her age, which cannot be less than two thousand four hundred years, to be as active with her distaff, and looking as well as ever. "higher up the mountain," continued our informant, "amid rocks and snow, which forbid all mortal approach, dwells zohâk, the most wicked of kings, surrounded by a court of magicians and sorcerers; this at least is the belief of the worshippers of fire. but it has been considered as unworthy of credit by the mahomedan historians of persia, who, however, do not treat so lightly the record which asserts, that in ancient times, when menoo-cheher made peace with afrâsiâb,[ ] one of the articles of the treaty was, that persia was to have all the country in a north-east direction, over which an arrow could be shot from demavend. a hero, called arish, ascended to the top of the mountain, and such was his miraculous prowess that he sent an arrow to the banks of the oxus, a distance of between five and six hundred miles. monarchs in these days," said meerzâ ibrahim, "we are assured were very particular in performing their treaties, and the country was faithfully ceded." "i have read all the discussions upon this subject," said meerzâ aga meer, who here joined in the conversation. "one persian historian, who relates this fact, admits that it is incomprehensible, but at the same time adds, that he deems it his duty to give it as received from former writers, who state, that the arrow which was discharged at sunrise did not fall till noon. "another author of high reputation informs us, that the 'festival of the arrow,'[ ] on the th of october,[ ] which is still kept by the followers of zoroaster, is in commemoration of this event. "the arrow about which so much has been said and written," added aga meer, "is admitted by almost all to have been of gold. some philosophers, however, have conjectured that it contained quicksilver and other substances, which, when heated by the sun, added to its projectile force; and we are informed, that the great 'boo-ali-seenâ[ ] did not consider this feat beyond the compass of human ingenuity." i concluded this discussion about the wonderful arrow by observing, that some sceptical commentators on this passage of ancient history had given their opinion, that the story of the golden arrow, flying from demavend to the oxus, was nothing more than a bold metaphor, to express that the persians conquered that extent of country by their skill in archery; "but the opinions of such writers," i said, "are rejected by all who prefer plain facts to far-fetched metaphors." at a short distance from our camp we observed several mounds of earth and ruined walls, which we were told was all that remained of the once famous ragas of tobit--the rhages of the greeks, and the rhe of the persians. while all who had imagination and a love of antiquity dwelt with delight on the prospect of ascending demavend, and visiting the ruins of rhe, the men of business looked only to teheran, which appeared to me to offer little to the view which was either grand or pleasing. one palace alone attracted any portion of my admiration. it stood near the base of the mountain elboorz, on a commanding site, and was every way suited for a royal residence. we were called from our plans and prospects to prepare for the entry of the mission into the capital; but the ceremonies of the procession were not yet fully arranged. letters and notes passed every minute; secretaries and confidential messengers went to and fro without intermission. these communications and messages chiefly related to the forms of our reception. the period of entering teheran had been long fixed by the elchee, who had consulted an eminent astrologer at isfahan upon this subject. the wise man, after casting his nativity, and comparing what he found written in the book of his destiny with the object of his mission, which he had been told was the establishment of friendly intercourse with persia, declared, by a paper given under his hand, for which he was no doubt well fee'd, "that, provided the elchee entered the gate of teheran at forty-five minutes past two o'clock, p.m. on the th of november, , success would attend his negotiation, and he would accomplish all his wishes." meerzâ aga meer, who, like the most enlightened of his countrymen, believed firmly in the occult science of astrology, had the best chronometer in our party intrusted to his care. it was given him because his situation enabled him to ride in the procession sufficiently near the elchee to prompt him when to go a little faster or slower, in order that the gate of the capital might be entered at the exact moment, a point to which the astrologer had attached the greatest importance. the party who came out some miles to welcome the elchee consisted of several noblemen, the chief of whom was nou rôz khan kajir, the lord of requests and commander of the king's guard. about six hundred horse, principally royal guards, accompanied this chief. we prepared for their reception by sounding the trumpets and beating the drums of our cavalry and infantry, and putting all the suite, european and native, in regular array. when the parties were within twenty yards of each other they halted, and nou rôz khan prepared to dismount. the elchee did the same. the latter poised himself a moment in the stirrup, lest his foot should be on the ground before that of the persian nobleman, which would have marked inferiority. but the soldier-like movements of nou rôz khan showed at once he was a manly fellow, and no stickler about ceremonies. he not only dismounted with expedition, but hastened, before the elchee had time to quit his horse, to come forward and welcome the guest of his sovereign. we had all dismounted at the instant the elchee did, and after mutual introduction the whole party were again on their march, the elchee and nou rôz khan riding exactly parallel, and their attendants a little in the rear, nearer or more remote, according to their respective ranks. on the plain which we passed, before coming to the capital, some of the guards of the king displayed their skill in horsemanship. they threw the jerreed[ ] at each other with excellent aim; and it was often only avoided by extraordinary activity, the horseman sometimes to all appearance throwing himself from his horse, while the jerreed whizzed over him. another exercise, called the doghela-bâzee, is performed by the rider holding a stick little more than a yard long in his hand, one end of which he throws with great force on the ground, on the near side of the horse when at full gallop; the direction given by this stroke causes it to rebound over the horse's head, and the rider catches it while yet whirling round in the air. but of all these exhibitions, that which pleased me most was the skill they displayed as marksmen. when at full speed, the rider throws a lemon over his head, and twisting his body completely round to the left, fires at it from the off-flank of the horse,[ ] almost always with good aim, and often hitting it. this appeared to me, as combining the different motions of the horse, the rider, and the lemon, quite wonderful, but, like other surprising feats, it is the result of constant practice; for the child in persia commences this exercise at six or seven years of age, and it is never abandoned, while there is strength left to sit upon a horse and to pull a trigger. the crowds of people we now saw announced that we were in the suburbs of teheran. i heard aga meer whisper the elchee, "you have yet ten minutes,--a little slower." "quicker!" was afterwards pronounced in an under tone. again i heard "slower!" then "now!" and the charger of the elchee put his foot over the threshold of the gate of teheran. "al hamd-ool-illâh! thanks be to god!" said the meer, with a delighted countenance; "it was the very moment,--how fortunate!" this joy, and the expression of it, told all to nou rôz khan, who evidently deemed the proceeding as a matter of course; and when he heard the name of the astrologer who was consulted at isfahan, he seemed to think, after such a happy moment of arrival, there could be no doubt of the fulfilment of his predictions. this sentiment was general among the persians in our suite. some of them might have doubted the sincerity of the elchee's belief in the occult sciences, but even these were pleased at the consideration given to what he deemed their prejudices. one day after the treaties were concluded, i heard the prime minister say, with a smile, to the elchee, "you see, with all your european knowledge, of what consequence it is to attend to a persian astrologer, who instructs you to fight us with our own weapons, the stars and planets." on entering teheran, we were conducted through the streets to the house of the prime minister, hajee ibrahim. here nou rôz khan left us; but we were welcomed at the gate of the dwelling by several of the friends and principal members of the minister's family, and we had hardly seated ourselves, when the hajee was announced as coming to visit his guests. my curiosity to see this extraordinary man was very great. "there must," i thought, "be something wonderful in the appearance as well as in the mind of that human being, who, by the mere force of his character, has raised himself from the rank of an humble magistrate in the city of shiraz, to be a 'puller-down and setter-up of kings;' who, without any pretensions to military talent, and without learning sufficient to write a note or read three lines, has overcome heroes, has established sovereigns on the throne of persia, and by his firmness and wisdom has given a peace and tranquillity to his native land beyond what it has known for a century." the persians are a handsome race of men, and fond of decorating their persons. i expected therefore to see hajee ibrahim enter elegantly dressed, with a dignified if not an elastic step, with a commanding figure, a clear animated countenance, with features expressive of his superior character: and, above all, with two piercing eyes, distinguished perhaps by that restless wandering from object to object, which indicates the care and anxiety of a man who held power and life by so precarious a tenure as a prime minister of persia. we all arose as he was announced, and the elchee went forward to meet him. judge of my surprise when i saw, instead of the magnificent personage of my imagination, a heavy-looking man, dressed in very plain clothes, enter the room, and proceed towards his seat, with a rolling of the body that almost approached to a waddle. his features were rather coarse, and his eyes, though clear, had nothing of the piercing or searching qualities i had anticipated. as to his manners, they did not appear to have changed with his condition, but to be still those of a respectable citizen of shiraz. i was, i must confess, quite disappointed; but before the half hour expired, which he passed in conversation with the elchee, my mind had undergone another change, for there was in all he said a good sense, a sincerity, and a strength, that quite convinced me of the justice of the fame he had acquired. the hajee's brother, abd-ool-raheem khan, came the day after our arrival to pay his respects to the elchee. an attempt was made by the steward of the minister's household to obtain more deference for this person than he was from his rank entitled to. "the hajee," said the politic major-domo, "always gives the seat of honour to abd-ool-raheem khan, who is his elder brother!" "he is right in so doing," said the elchee; "but this gentleman is not my elder brother." the reply indicated a knowledge of the relations on which precedence was to be given or refused, which terminated the discussion. in came abd-ool-raheem khan, a very fat and dull man, whose merit appeared limited to that of being brother to a prime minister. he took his seat very contentedly; staid half an hour; spoke half a sentence--and retired. the first night i passed at hajee ibrahim's, i was disturbed by a continued mumbling and confused noise in the next apartment, which, upon inquiry, i found proceeded from the extreme piety of its inmate, zâl khan of khisht. this remarkable man had established a great name in his native mountains, betwixt abusheher and shiraz; and he was long distinguished as one of the bravest and most attached followers of the zend family. when the death of lootf ali khan terminated its power, he, along with the other governors of provinces and districts in fars, submitted to aga mahomed khan. that cautious and cruel monarch, dreading the ability, and doubtful of the allegiance of this chief, ordered his eyes to be put out: an appeal for the recall of the sentence being treated with disdain, zâl khan loaded the tyrant with curses. "cut out his tongue," was the second order. this mandate was imperfectly executed; and the loss of half this member deprived him of speech. being afterwards persuaded that its being cut close to the root would enable him to speak so as to be understood, he submitted to the operation, and the effect has been, that his voice, though indistinct and thick, is yet intelligible to persons accustomed to converse with him. this i experienced from daily intercourse. he often spoke to me of his sufferings, and of the humanity of the present king, who had restored him to his situation as head of his tribe, and governor of khisht. i am not an anatomist, and cannot therefore give a reason why a man, who could not articulate with half a tongue, should speak when he had none at all; but the facts are as stated, and i had them from the very best authority, old zâl khan himself. some points of no small consequence underwent discussion the day after we reached teheran. the persian language is very copious, and has many terms which, though signifying in substance the same, have a shade of difference in the application, which enables those versed in such matters to use them so as to denote the rank and respective relations of the parties who hold intercourse with each other. for instance, the word friendship may be expressed by three or four terms, which imply superiority, equality, or inferiority. the speaker may, by the manner in which he introduces the expression "i have a regard for you"--"i esteem your friendship"--"my duty always attends you"--or, "my service is at your command," mark the respect or relation in which he holds him whom he addresses. these are in persia, as with us, expressions of courtesy; but in that country the subject meets much more attention than we give it, and especially in all communications with a foreign envoy. both the elchee and his host, hajee ibrahim, might have smiled inwardly at the trifling nature of such forms, but the relation in which they stood towards each made it necessary to observe them; and as the terms they used in conversation were likely to serve as a standard to others, it was judged necessary to have a congress of meerzâs or secretaries, skilled in such niceties, to settle this important point. two very formal men were deputed by the minister; and aga meer and mahomed hoosein, the indian moonshee, attended on the part of the elchee. the negotiation was opened on the admitted basis of perfect equality of rank between the parties. notwithstanding the apparent simplicity of the subject, much discussion ensued. my indian friend gave me a full account of it. "the minister's meerzâs," said he, "endeavoured to establish points which, though seemingly trivial, would have given a shade of superiority to their master which i would not admit: they rather alarmed aga meer, who, being a persian, could not be expected to stand up against them, at the hazard of giving offence to those of his country who were in power: but what did i care," said mahomed hoosein, swelling with the part he had acted at this conference, "for their prime ministers? i know no superiors but my master and the english government. "they told me," he added, "that by giving now and then a term of respect to hajee ibrahim, more than he received, the elchee would add to the consequence of that minister, and not diminish his own, as they were informed that people in england cared little about such matters. i told them, however, that the elchee, in all he did or said, considered the impressions he was to make in persia, not in england, and that he would abandon no claims to respect, even in matters of the slightest word or form, which tended in any manner to affect his representative character with the nation to which he was sent. "seeing," said the good moonshee,[ ] "that nothing was to be gained from me, they came at last to an amicable arrangement." the word friendship, which implies perfect equality, may be used in common conversation; but occasionally the terms, "my duty waits upon you," or, "my service is at your command," are to be introduced, with this express provision, that whenever one party in the excess of his politeness uses them, the other is to take the earliest opportunity of doing the same. this rule is also to be particularly observed in the important phrases of "you represented," "you said," or, "you commanded." "you said," is settled as the term of equality; but "you commanded," it is agreed, may be frequently interchanged, as tending to show the great respect the parties entertain for each other. possessed of this information, i watched the first interview of those for whom this arrangement was made with no little interest. i noticed that the elchee replied immediately to the first concession made by hajee ibrahim by a similar expression: but when he himself made one some time afterwards, which did not meet with so prompt a return, i was amused to see him retreat upon his terms of equality. this had the desired effect. no more encroachments were made upon his dignity; and from his conduct on this occasion, and others of similar importance, he was no doubt considered by the persians as a most accomplished diplomatist! the termination of this battle of words at teheran, added to that of forms at shiraz, were happy preparations for the discussions regarding the ceremonies of presentation to the king; but these will be noticed in the next chapter. footnotes: [ ] the sovereign of tartary. [ ] teer-gah. [ ] the month of october, in the ancient persian calendar, is called teer or the arrow. [ ] avicenna. [ ] a wooden javelin. [ ] the modern persian horseman has changed the bow of his ancestors for a matchlock, but the mode of using his arms is the same. the parthians are described, in their successful contests with the disciplined legions of rome, as carrying on their attacks, not against the army but the supplies by which it was supported. "the mode in which the parthian warrior took his unerring aim, while his horse was carrying him from his enemy," says the author of the history of persia, "may be viewed as a personification of the system of warfare by which his nation, during this era of its history, maintained its independence. the system was suited to the soil, to the man, and to the fleet and robust animal on which he was mounted; and its success was so certain, that the bravest veterans of rome murmured when their leaders talked of a parthian war."--history of persia, vol. i. p. . [ ] this excellent man is living on a small estate in his native country, the northern circars, granted for his services in persia and other quarters. he accompanied his old master, the elchee, in the campaign in india of - ; and in consideration of this further service to the public, his estate has been settled upon his children. chapter xviii. terms of reception at court--second visit--delivery of presents--king's grant--private interviews--king's ancestors--crown jewels--king's love of a joke--mode of passing his time--harem--royal meals--hajee ibrahim--his character and death. the elchee's reputation as a man conversant with forms, and much alive to their importance in all diplomatic proceedings, smoothed the way for the settlement he had to make regarding his reception at court. there were still, however, many minor points to be arranged which required much grave discussion. one presented itself on the very threshold of this negotiation, with which we were all highly amused. many observations had been made on our dress at shiraz, but no records existed at the provincial capital, which could authorise the minister of the prince to object to the elchee's being presented in his uniform. the outward appearance of our heads, the hair of which had been recently cropped, obtained us high compliments, at the expense of our friends the russians. that nation had some years before invaded the territory of persia, and its troops were then threatening another attack. the consequence was a very hostile feeling towards it amongst the courtiers and ministers of the king of kings. chirâgh ali khan, when we were at shiraz, dilated on our habits as much more cleanly than our christian brethren of the north. "they delight in nothing," said he, "but strong liquor and hogs' flesh; and, would you believe it?" addressing himself to the elchee, "they are so fond of the vile animal on which they live, that they actually tie their hair in a form which resembles its tail." the elchee looked as if incredulous of this last usage, though it was, to my knowledge, not more than a twelvemonth since his own head had been shorn of the ornament held in such abomination. from what had passed, we thought that we were safe on the point of dress; but we were mistaken. two days after our arrival at isfahan, a meerzâ came on the part of hajee ibrahim, to speak to the elchee on this subject. after many apologies and explanations regarding the minute attention to ceremonies at the persian court, he observed, that it even related to dress; and as the elchee was to be presented to the king, it was expected he would put on garments suited to the occasion. the elchee replied, he did not know what was meant, but that he could wear no dress except that of his country; and being a soldier, he wore the uniform belonging to his station in the army. the meerzâ smiled, and said they were better informed upon such subjects than the elchee imagined. he then produced a parcel; and after opening a number of envelopes, he showed several small pictures of ambassadors who had visited persia two centuries ago. one, which was called the painting of the english representative, and believed to be sir anthony shirley, was dressed in the full costume of the time of queen elizabeth. "this," said the meerzâ, "is the pattern which it is hoped you will adopt, as his majesty desires to follow in all points the usages of the seffavean kings, since they well understood what was due to the dignity of the throne of persia." the elchee could not help smiling at this proposition; but seeing the meerzâ look grave, he begged pardon, and told him, that when he saw hajee ibrahim he would satisfy him fully on this subject. the minister came soon afterwards into the room, and was much entertained at the account of the changes which fashion had made in our dress, since the days of good queen bess. "well, well," said he, in his short but forcible manner, "our habits are so different from yours on this point that the mistake is not surprising; and though i do not altogether like a usage which makes children laugh at the garments of their grandfathers, every country has a right to its own customs, and to these its representatives should adhere. i must," he said in a whisper, "plague you a little on such points, for i have a bad name, from not being a stickler for forms; and i shall trust," he added, "to your good nature to allow me to establish my character." the marching with fixed bayonets, drawn swords, and trumpets sounding, to the great gate of the palace, the spot where he was to dismount--the manner in which he was to approach the king, and the place where he was to sit, were all settled to the satisfaction of the elchee. an objection was at first made to the suite being seated, but numerous books as well as pictures were produced, to prove the usage of the seffavean monarchs on this head, and the point was conceded. there was much and serious discussion as to the rank of the person to be appointed to meet the elchee at the entrance room, where, according to etiquette, he must remain till his majesty was announced as ready to receive him. sûlimân khan kajir, first cousin and son-in-law of the king, and who had at one period aspired to the throne, was the person fixed upon to act this part of the drama. no compliment could be greater to the embassy than its being assigned to him; but there was one drawback--it was urged, that the said sûlimân khan was of too high rank to rise from his seat to receive any man upon earth, except the king, or a prince of the blood-royal; he was besides lord of the court,[ ] an office which gave him the place of majesty itself when the king was absent. notwithstanding these pretensions, it was agreed that he should make a slight movement, or a half rise, when the elchee entered the room, and that the latter should seat himself on the carpet on a footing of equality. everything being arranged, we proceeded towards the "threshold of the world's glory," on the morning of the sixteenth of november, in the year of our lord eighteen hundred! we were all dressed in our best attire. a crowd had assembled near the house of hajee ibrahim, and the streets were filled with gazers at the strangers. the infantry part of the escort, with their drum and fifes, and all the hindustânnee public servants in scarlet and gold, preceded the elchee, who rode a beautiful arabian horse richly caparisoned, but entirely in the english style; he was followed by the gentlemen of his suite and his escort of cavalry. when we came within half a mile of the palace all was silence and order: it was the state of asia with the discipline of europe. we passed through rows of men and horses; and even the latter appeared as if afraid to shake their heads. many persons whom we saw in the first square of the citadel, before we entered the palace, were richly dressed, and some of the horses were decked out with bridles, saddles, and trappings of great value; but it was not until we passed the last gate of the palace, and came into the garden in front of the king's hall of audience, a highly ornamented and spacious building, that we could form any idea of the splendour of the persian court. a canal flowed in the centre of a garden, which supplied a number of fountains, to the right and left of which were broad paved walks, and beyond these were rows of trees. between the trees and the high wall encircling the palace files of matchlock-men were drawn up; and within the avenues, from the gate to the hall of audience, all the princes, nobles, courtiers, and officers of state, were marshalled in separate lines, according to their rank, from the lowest officer of the king's guard, who occupied the place nearest the entrance, to the heir apparent, abbas meerzâ, who stood on the right of his brothers, and within a few paces of the throne. there was not one person in all this array who had not a gold-hilted sword, a cashmere shawl round his cap, and another round his waist. many of the princes and nobles were magnificently dressed, but all was forgotten as soon as the eye rested upon the king. he appeared to be above the middle size, his age little more than thirty, his complexion rather fair; his features were regular and fine, with an expression denoting quickness and intelligence. his beard attracted much of our attention; it was full, black, and glossy, and flowed to his middle. his dress baffled all description. the ground of his robes was white; but he was so covered with jewels of an extraordinary size, and their splendour, from his being seated where the rays of the sun played upon them, was so dazzling, that it was impossible to distinguish the minute parts which combined to give such amazing brilliancy to his whole figure. the two chief officers of ceremonies, who carried golden sticks, stopped twice, as they advanced towards the throne, to make a low obeisance, and the elchee at the same time took off his hat. when near the entrance of the hall the procession stopped, and the lord of requests said, "captain john malcolm is come, as envoy from the governor-general of india to your majesty." the king, looking to the elchee, said, in a pleasing and manly voice, "you are welcome."[ ] we then ascended the steps of the hall, and were seated, as had been previously arranged. the letter from the governor-general, which had been carried in the procession on a golden tray, was opened and read. his majesty inquired after the health of the king of england and of the ruler of india. he desired particularly to know how the elchee had been treated in his dominions, and whether he liked what he had seen of persia? to all these questions appropriate answers were returned; and we left his majesty, after being seated about twenty minutes, very much gratified by our reception, and with an assurance from our mehmandar,[ ] which was afterwards confirmed by the prime minister, that the king of kings was highly pleased with the mission, the state and splendour of which he could not but feel added to his reputation, and gave him fame and popularity with his own subjects. several days passed before our second visit to court, when the elchee carried the presents from the governor-general, some of which were very valuable, particularly the pier-glasses, which have been already mentioned. a change was made in this second visit; we were not stopped as before at the room, where we were met by sûlimân khan kajir, that chief having failed in showing the elchee proper respect, by not rising when he went in or out of the apartment; and to prevent further disputes, the ceremony of stopping, in our progress towards the throne, was altogether dispensed with. the court was still more fully attended than before, and the king, if possible, more magnificently dressed. after we had been seated a short time, the presents were announced. i was a little anxious when one of the ministers began to read the list. there had been a great desire to give them a name which denoted inferiority of rank on the part of the person from whom they were sent; but the elchee would not allow of any such term being used, and he told the prime minister, that if any attempt of the kind were made, he would, notwithstanding the strict etiquette of the persian court, instantly address the king, and tell him, that the presents he brought were neither tribute nor offerings, as his secretary had from inadvertence called them, but rarities and curiosities sent from the british ruler of india, in token of his regard and friendship for the king of persia. this communication had the desired effect; our presents were termed rarities, and the high rank of the governor-general, as a person intrusted with sovereign functions, was on this occasion upheld. this visit was at its commencement very formal, but the king, evidently desirous to give it another character, said to the elchee, "i have heard a report which i cannot believe, that your king has only one wife." "no christian prince can have more," said the elchee. "o, i know that! but he may have a little lady."[ ] "our gracious king, george the third," replied the envoy, "is an example to his subjects of attention to morality and religion in this respect, as in every other." "this may all be very proper," concluded his majesty of persia, laughing, "but i certainly should not like to be king of such a country." a curious incident occurred as we left the palace. the king's giant, a man above eight feet high, and stout in proportion, was placed against one of the walls of the gate through which we were to retire, and he had in his hand a club of enormous dimensions. it was expected that the elchee, on seeing him, would start with astonishment if not alarm; but he passed without taking any notice of this redoubtable personage, except by a slight glance. the fact was, as he afterwards confessed, it never entered into his imagination that it was a human being. paintings of roostem and his club (which the giant was dressed to imitate) are very common in persia, and in the hurry of passing he took this to be one. he was first made sensible of his mistake by the praises of his mehmandar. "admirable!" said the latter to him: "nothing could be better: the fools wished to try to startle you with giants and clubs stuck up against a wall. they are rightly served; your eye hardly rested on him for a moment, evidently not thinking him worthy of your notice. i shall tell them," he added, with a feeling that showed he considered his honour was associated with that of the person of whom he had charge, "that such men are quite common in your country, and that this giant would hardly be tall enough for one of the guards of the king of england." before we left teheran the envoy had several interviews with the king, at all of which his majesty was gracious; and at some, which were private, he spoke a great deal, and was very inquisitive into the habits and usages of england, and the character of its government. speaking of the empire of india, he asked, if it were true that ten ships were sent every year from that country to england loaded with gold and silver? the elchee said it was very rare any bullion was sent from our territories in the east to england; that whatever went was in merchandise. "what a lie," said his majesty, "the envoy[ ] who preceded you told me; but," (seeing the elchee annoyed,) "do not vex yourself, it is not your shame but ours; your predecessor was a persian, and we all exaggerate--you speak truth. but why did you send a persian to my court? i suppose," continuing to answer himself, "it was to find out what kind of a being i was, and whether my country was settled, before you deputed one of your own nation." "are the french," he asked, "a powerful people?" "certainly," replied the envoy; "they would not otherwise deserve to be mentioned as the enemies of the english." "there again," said the king, turning to his ministers, "you know we were told that the french were a weak and contemptible nation, which was incredible: the elchee, by telling the truth, has done them justice, and raised his own country at the same time." after a number of questions on the mines of south america, and the arts and manufactures of europe, the king said, "all this is astonishing! persia has nothing but steel." "steel well managed," said the elchee, "has, from the beginning of the world to the present day, commanded all other riches." "very true," said the king, quite pleased with this compliment; "that is a very just observation; therefore we must not complain, but continue to be contented, as our ancestors have been, with our swords and our lances." the king had learned that the elchee, in his conversation with the minister, had displayed considerable acquaintance with the past history of his family at asterabad, and his curiosity being excited, he sent to desire his attendance. we were received in a private apartment, in which there were only a few courtiers, but there were several kajir chiefs, and four or five elders[ ] of that tribe. the interrogation began; and as the elchee derived his knowledge from that minute and truth-telling traveller, jonas hanway, his answers quite surprised all present; and when he informed them, not only of the events which happened fifty-six[ ] years before, but gave them accounts of the personal appearance, the dispositions, the connections, and the characters of the different chiefs, the astonishment of the elders was expressed by the frequent repetition of "yâ ali," an ejaculation that, in the mouth of a persian, attends all sudden emotions of wonder. the king was more than pleased, he was delighted; he evidently believed, from the elchee's knowledge of the history of his family, that their fame had reached europe, and that it was as well known to the nations of that quarter of the globe as to the tûrkûmâns of goorgân, or the natives of mazenderan. the elchee on this occasion told the truth, but not the whole truth. the character of the court in which he was giving evidence did not perhaps require the latter, and it might have lessened the pleasure imparted, to have spoken of the plundered bales of cloth, and the dread of being made over to the tûrkûmâns, which had so fixed the recollection of his majesty's family in the mind of poor jonas hanway. as it was, the king was delighted, and conversed familiarly on various subjects. amongst others, he inquired very particularly into the frame of the english government. the elchee explained it to him as well as he could. when he spoke of the liberty of the subject, his majesty was puzzled to understand what it meant; but on being told it implied, that no man was so high in england as to be able to do anything contrary to the law of the land; and no man so low, but that he might do everything not contrary to that law, he appeared to comprehend this, as well as the other points which had been explained to him. "i understand all you have said," he observed; and after some reflection, he added--"your king is, i see, only the first magistrate of the country."[ ] "your majesty," said the elchee, "has exactly defined his situation." "such a condition of power," said he, smiling, "has permanence, but it has no enjoyment: mine is enjoyment. there you see sûlimân khan kajir, and several other of the first chiefs of the kingdom--i can cut all their heads off: can i not?" said he, addressing them. "assuredly, 'point of adoration of the world,'[ ] if it is your pleasure." "that is real power," said the king; "but then it has no permanence. when i am gone, my sons will fight for the crown, and all will be confusion: there is, however, one consolation, persia will be governed by a soldier." the king, at this visit, appeared in great good humour with the elchee, and gratified the latter by showing him his richest jewels, amongst which was the "sea of light,"[ ] which is deemed one of the purest and most valuable diamonds in the world. many of the others were surprisingly splendid. on the evening after this visit, my excellent friend, whom i have before mentioned as preferring a shot at a duck to a view of the ruins of persepolis, said he would like to be king of persia. knowing that inordinate ambition had no place in his mind, i asked him what he would do if he attained that station: "run away with my crown," was the prompt answer. we had a hearty laugh at the genuine simplicity of this expression. it is perhaps the first time sovereignty was ever desired for such a purpose; but, considering all that attends, in persia, the wearing of the article he wished for, it would perhaps be the best mode of converting to real advantage so dangerous and precarious a possession. the condition of fatteh ali shâh, at the time i first saw him, was deemed, by his mahomedan subjects, as fortunate as could be attained by any human being in this world. he added to youth and personal endowments, four wives, more ladies than i will venture to name, and nearly one hundred children, the possession of a splendid throne, and the prospect of living long to enjoy it, for his cruel but able uncle, aga mahomed, had destroyed all who were likely to dispute his possession of the crown. "he had," to use his own words, "raised a royal palace, and cemented it with blood, that the boy bâbâ khan (the name he always gave his nephew) might sleep within its walls in peace." the king has elegant manners and many accomplishments. among others, he is a poet, and has written a book of odes, of the merits of which the critics of persia speak in perfect raptures. i only wish i had the same power that he possesses of disarming severity and propitiating favour. what a magnifying glass would then be applied to these pages, now doomed, i fear, to be viewed through a reversed telescope, which will make them appear so diminutive as hardly to be worth the trouble of perusing. but to return to his majesty of persia. i made all the inquiries i could into his usual habits and mode of passing his time. he is very regular in the execution of his public duties; and being a king of persia is no sinecure. he must have two courts every day; one public, and another private. he receives at the first the salutations of all his sons, nobles, ministers, and public officers; and at this public levee strangers are presented. at the second, in which his ministers and favourites only attend, business is transacted. the present king, like many of the same age and temperament, makes up, by the employment of his leisure moments, for the forms and restraints which usage imposes upon him when before the eye of the public. he pursues with great ardour the sports of the field, is an excellent horseman, and a good shot. being fond of his fame as a literary man, he devotes some time to the society of the learned, and enjoys hearing poetry and entertaining stories recited. he has, however, i am told, more boyish amusements, in which those of his favourite attendants and domestics, who join, are admitted to great familiarity. the age and character of hajee ibrahim have naturally inspired the king with some awe; and it is not an uncommon joke, when his majesty is at high romps, for some privileged person to exclaim, "hajee! hajee!" as if the minister were seen approaching: the word is certain to act as a talisman; all are grave and in their places in a moment, till a laugh from the successful wit proclaims that it is only a jest. i had an opportunity of observing that the king is very fond of having a laugh at the expense of his gravest ministers and highest nobles; and hajee ibrahim assured me, he had never seen him more delighted than by the opportunity of indulging in this vein, afforded by two occurrences connected with our party. sûlimân khan kajir, of whose unbending dignity i have already spoken, feeling himself unwell, sent to request that the surgeon of the english mission might attend him. that gentleman went; but as he could not speak persian, he was accompanied by the relation of the elchee before noticed. this cherished friend of mine (who is now, alas! no more) was, from his knowledge of the language and his pleasing manners, a general favourite at court, and was distinguished by the mahomedan appellation of feiz-ali, which had been given from its resemblance, in their ears, to his english name. the persian chief received and treated him and the doctor with such repulsive coldness and pride, that when he desired a second visit they were unwilling to return; but the elchee, anxious to pay every attention to so near a relation of the king, insisted upon their going. their reception this time was exactly opposite to what it was before. sûlimân khan insisted upon their sitting near him, treated him with sweetmeats and coffee, and laughed at the doctor, whom he desired to cure a bad eye he had with the touch of his finger; and on his being answered with a declaration of inability, said he was rejoiced to find that european physicians had not that magical power with which his countrymen in their ignorance vested them. the two gentlemen returned just as we were on the point of sitting down to dinner with hajee ibrahim. "well," said the minister, addressing the elchee's relation, "how did you find sûlimân khan?" all that had passed was repeated. "why," said the hajee, "the khan must have been drunk." "very possibly," replied my friend; "all i can say is, he was very polite and very pleasant, and i regret much that he was not drunk at the first visit we paid him." the hajee was highly diverted with this reply, which he repeated to the king the same evening; and we learnt that his majesty next day rallied his relation with great effect, telling him feiz-ali had said he was "a pleasant companion, and a very polite gentleman, when he was drunk!" the other occurrence occasioned still more mirth to the "king of kings." a number of the first nobles and ministers solicited, and were permitted, to give dinners to the elchee. amongst these was a near relation of his majesty, called mahomed hoosein khan. it was expected that this nobleman would visit the elchee; but he did not pay this mark of respect. the consequence was, the elchee wrote to decline the honour of waiting upon him. this caused the greatest confusion: hajee ibrahim was sent for several times by the king, and at last brought a message, intimating, that if the elchee would give way on this occasion, his majesty would deem it a personal favour, and would take care he should never again be placed in such a situation. the hajee added his own entreaties, saying, "if you do not go, the indignity put upon this proud kajir chief will be exclusively ascribed to my advice." consideration for the minister weighed more with the elchee than all other motives, and he agreed to recall his excuse, stating, that he did so at the express desire of the king. the elchee, when he entered the dinner apartment, though he must have known his host by the dignified distance at which he sat from his guests, nevertheless, choosing to mark the absurdity of going to dine with a man with whose person he was unacquainted, turned to the mehmandar, and said, "which of these omrâhs is mahomed hoosein khan doodâkee?" the poor mehmandar was so confounded that he could only answer by pointing to the personage inquired after, who now advanced with an air of offended pride, while the whole assembly looked astounded. notwithstanding this bad beginning, the party went off very well, chiefly owing to the pleasant manners and information of the minister, rizâ koolee khan, who exerted himself not a little to promote good humour. we were not aware, till we returned home, of one cause of the surprise which the interrogation, addressed to the mehmandar, had occasioned. the elchee, who understood persian, was wholly ignorant of turkish, and consequently did not know that the title of doodâkee, which he gave to his host, from having heard him so called, was not one of honour, but a nick-name, signifying "thick-lip," which he had received from the conformation of that feature, and which was useful in distinguishing him from a hundred other mahomed hoosein khans belonging to the turkish tribe of kajir. the king, we were informed, was delighted with this story, and used sometime afterward, when our host was standing amongst other chiefs near the throne, to exclaim, "which of all these omrâhs is mahomed hoosein khan doodâkee?" the king passes some hours of every day in the seraglio, or ladies' apartments. if the character of my little work permitted, i could here give the rein to my imagination, and create scenes, which however unreal might still please and interest many of my readers. i could paint circassians and georgians of surpassing beauty--clothe them in robes and jewels of unparalleled splendour--give to some the fond but unavailing regrets of past but not unforgotten early attachments--and to others the pangs of jealousy, and a torturing sense of love changed for neglect. i could devise well-planned intrigues, hair-breadth escapes, and hint at murders committed, where no eye could see, and no tongue could tell the tale of horror; but all these exciting subjects are forbidden me, by a stupid rule i have laid down, which compels me, in all that i personally relate, to limit myself to facts. from what i have heard of the seraglio of the king of persia, many forms observed in it are the same as in the outer apartments. the king, like all good mahomedans, rises early, as the first prayer must be said at dawn of day; he is aided in his toilet by female attendants. after he is dressed he holds a levee, at which more than three hundred ladies of different ranks are present: each, according to her rank or favour, standing nearer or farther from the throne. two only, i am informed, have the privilege of being seated-the mother of the heir-apparent, and the daughter of ibrahim khan of sheesha. there are in the seraglio female officers of every description. a lady of requests, a lady of the ceremonies, and my lady chief constable. one duty of the first is to introduce the young strangers to the notice of their lord and sovereign; the second marshals all in their station, according to their dignity or consideration; and the third is armed with an authority which, if fame speaks true, is not unfrequently called into action. the influence of many of the ladies is very great. the mothers of the princes who are employed in distant provinces usually accompany their sons, and contrive, by intrigue, to preserve that power which their charms once gave them: almost all these pay the king annual visits. there are bands of singers and dancers, drolls and mimics, within the walls of the inner apartments, who contribute both to his majesty's amusement and that of his ladies. there are also females who traffic in different wares, and many of these have the privilege of going out and coming in at pleasure. the king of persia can only, according to law, marry four wives: these are selected from considerations of policy, not of affection. they are upon a very different footing from any of the other ladies in the seraglio; they have separate establishments, and are always objects of attention and respect, though seldom perhaps of affection. but real love can hardly be imagined to have ever found a dwelling amid such scenes as have been described; yet i was told a short but affecting tale, with so many circumstances to confirm its truth, that i could hardly doubt but the king of kings once knew the meaning of this sacred word. a young dancing-girl from shiraz, named tootee,[ ] was raised from a humble rank to a place in the royal seraglio. tootee, who from her profession must in her earliest years have been seen by many, is said to have been of an elegant and delicate form, with a fine voice, and a face that indicated feeling and intelligence. she gained the heart of her royal lover, and, according to fame, gave him all her own in return. while she lived, others were neglected; but this fair flower soon drooped and died. the grief of the king was excessive. he directed her to be interred near the shrine of the holy shâh abd-ool-azeem, which is within five miles of the capital. his visits to this shrine have, since this event, become much more frequent than before; whether they are from respect to the remains of the saint, or from fond regret of his beloved tootee, cannot be determined; but he is often observed to sit upon her tomb, in the apparent enjoyment of a melancholy pleasure. notwithstanding the habits of his condition, and the severe and cruel acts to which that has often led him, there is naturally a kind disposition in the present king of persia, which has made me always regard him as deserving of estimation, and i cannot but take an interest in all that personally concerns him. it is from such feelings, that the short history and fate of tootee have ever interested me. i have been gratified to think, that the mind of one i desired to hold in regard was not so completely corrupted and polluted by sensual indulgence and luxury, as to be a stranger to a passion which, in any shape that approaches to purity, softens and ennobles man, far beyond all other sentiments that are associated with his happiness in this world. the king leaves his inner apartments at eight o'clock. an hour or two before breakfast is passed with his favourite companions, of whom mahomed hoosein khan mervee is, as he merits to be, the most distinguished, both from his rank and superior qualities. the breakfast for his majesty is served in great state, and the dishes are of pure gold: this meal is usually at ten in the morning, and dinner at eight in the evening. the trays which contain the royal meals are sealed up by the head of the household, an office of great trust; and while this precaution is taken against poison, a physician attends lest the royal appetite should be indulged to an excess that might injure health. i fear, however, this wise man is not so successful in enforcing abstemiousness as he who watched over the renowned sovereign of barrataria! no person is allowed to eat with the king, but he has generally one or two of his youngest sons near him, to whom he gives of the dishes which he thinks they like best; he also, at times, as a mark of great favour, sends victuals dressed for himself to others. the elchee was often honoured with presents of bread, rice, and pillaw. these specimens of culinary art satisfied me, that his majesty's cooks merited all the praises i had heard bestowed on them. when the first mission took its departure from teheran, the king was most gracious. we all received fine dresses from his majesty: that given to the elchee was most splendid; and he had besides a handsome horse, and a dagger richly set with jewels. there was much anxiety that he should dress in these robes; but though he expressed himself willing to wear any of them which could be put over his own clothes, he could not, he said, put off any part of his uniform. the king, very good-humouredly, alluded to his tenacity in this particular, at our last visit: "you were unjust to your own appearance, elchee," said he; "had you put on the cap i sent, you would have looked one of the tallest men in persia." the leave we took of hajee ibrahim was marked by some circumstances which made it truly affecting. this extraordinary man had become very intimate with the elchee, to whom he communicated his anticipation of being soon put to death. "the king and his ministers," said he, "are all anxious to destroy me. your arrival has delayed for a time the execution of their designs, but it is only for a short period. i could easily save myself; but persia would again be plunged in warfare. my object," he continued, "has been to give my country one king; i cared not whether he was a zend or a kajir, so that there was an end of internal distraction. i have seen enough of these scenes of blood; i will be concerned in no more of them. i hope i have made my peace with god, and shall therefore die contented." the elchee, who had succeeded in effecting an outward reconciliation between hajee ibrahim and the other ministers, meerzâ seffee and meerzâ rizâ koolee, took this opportunity of beseeching his friend to treat these personages with more consideration and respect. he also earnestly exhorted him to bear with more temper than he did the occasional fits of ill-humour and violence of the king. "i cannot alter my nature," said the hajee; "it is plain and downright: besides, the conduct you recommend would be of no use; it would only precipitate my fate. the fears of my enemies would lead them to conclude that it covered some deep design." this conversation passed two days before our departure; and the day on which it occurred the hajee appeared very melancholy. the elchee had been in the habit of taking great notice of, and playing with, the minister's youngest son, a fine boy of five years of age. the child, who was well trained in persian etiquette, had remained quiet till he saw the elchee move towards the door; he then ran after him, and in trying to lay hold of his clothes, fell on his face, and burst into tears. the hajee, forgetting all forms in parental feeling, ran forward also, and taking his son in his arms, said--"thou hast a heart, my child! thou hast a heart;[ ] but god," said he, in a lower tone, to the elchee, "has informed him he is soon to lose his father, and taught him where to look for a friend." the anticipations of the minister proved just: though his fate was delayed for two years, chiefly from the influence of the king's mother, who well knew the value of such a servant as hajee ibrahim. her death left the field open to his enemies, who fabricated every accusation that could work upon either the pride or fears of the king, to make him destroy one whom they at once dreaded and hated. their arts were but too successful; and the high and disdainful manner in which this truly great man repelled the charges brought against him caused his being put to a cruel death. his brothers and sons were, according to the barbarous usage in persia, included in his sentence. these, though residing in different parts of the kingdom, were all seized (so well arranged was the plan) on the same day, and the same hour. some were put to death, others lost their eyes; all their property was confiscated. indeed the plunder of the accumulated wealth of the family who had so long enjoyed power probably tended, with other motives, in producing this melancholy termination to its fame and fortune. it is stated, that though the king endeavours to persuade himself hajee ibrahim meant to rebel, and that his throne was endangered by the existence of this powerful subject, he is often visited with remorse at his own conduct towards him. on occasions of emergency to the state he has been frequently known to reproach his present ministers with the loss to persia which their arts and jealousies had caused, exclaiming, "where is hajee ibrahim? he alone was fit to give counsel to a monarch." it may perhaps be received as a proof of the king's sentiments upon this subject, that, being aware of the affecting scene which had taken place with the youngest son of hajee ibrahim on the elchee's leaving teheran in , he directed, on his second mission to persia, that the sightless youth, who had enjoyed such favour as a child, might meet us on our advance, and receive, as he did in the notice and sympathy of his early friend, all the consolation which could be administered to one in his melancholy condition. footnotes: [ ] deevân-beg. [ ] khoosh-amedee. [ ] fatteh ali khan noovee. [ ] "amma keneezekee," the expression used by his majesty, means literally--but a little lady. [ ] mehdee ali khan, a persian gentleman, who had been deputed the year before to persia by mr. duncan, governor of bombay. [ ] "reesh-e-seffeed," literally grey-beard, is the persian term for an elder. [ ] jonas hanway was at astrabad in , during the rebellion of the ancestor of the present king. [ ] "ket-khûdâ-e-avvel." [ ] "kibla-e-alem," is the universal term his subjects apply when speaking to the king of persia. kibla is the point to which mahomedans turn when they pray: alem signifies the world. [ ] the deriâ-e-noor, or sea of light, weighs carats, and is considered to be the diamond of the finest lustre in the world. the tâj-e-mâh, or "crown of the moon," is also a splendid diamond; it weighs carats. these two are the principal in a pair of bracelets, valued at near a million sterling. those in the crown are also of extraordinary size and value. [ ] "tootee," is the persian word for a parrot, a bird which is prominent in persian tales for its knowledge and habits of attachment. [ ] dil dâree tifl, dil dâree. chapter xix. progress of the russians--buonaparte--second visit to tullanca--king abbas meerzâ--reflections--electrifying machine--phantasmagoria--ministers of the persian court--mahomed hoosein khan mervee. ten years had elapsed since my first visit to the court of persia, and many changes had occurred, both in men and measures. the russians, within this short period, had advanced their frontier from the north of the caucasus to the banks of the araxes, a space of above four hundred miles. buonaparte had laid his plans for chaining the bear of russia and the lion of persia, with the design of harnessing them to the his war-chariot, that he might drive in triumph over the rich plains of india. his name was familiar to numbers in persia, and some few understood the character of his power. among these was my shrewd old friend aga mahomed câsim-wâlâ,[ ] of isfahan, who is at once a professor, a poet, a philosopher, and a very inquisitive politician. "this buonaparte," said he to me one morning, when i paid him a visit in his apartment at the college, "is a wonderful man; he wields empires as if they were clubs. after he has settled with turkey, he will, unless our king shapes his policy to his liking, give persia a knock on the head with russia, and then make use of both to overthrow your power in india. happen what will," said old aga mahomed, "he is a magnificent fellow, a perfect faringee chenghiz khan."[ ] i am treading on forbidden ground; i have nothing to say to politics: if i had, this chapter might be more amusing. i could tell of french and english schemes for harlequin-changes, which were to leave my persian friends no remains of barbarism but their beards! of mahomedan princes trained to be reformers, of the sudden introduction of the fine arts, and of the roving tribes of tartary and the wild mountaineers of fars becoming, by the proper use of a few cabalistical phrases, disciplined regiments. these, and many similar transformations, were meant to prove that we lived in an age when any instructed or enlightened man might, if furnished with the necessary implements of pen, ink, and paper, effect any given change, on any given nation, in a few months. this was not the first time that such experiments had been tried in persia; for, besides a knowledge of the civil and military arts of europe, efforts had been made to teach the seffavean monarchs and their nobles to understand the laws, institutions, and governments of the more civilized world. the sarcastic and penetrating gibbon, when speaking of the attempt, observes, "chardin says that european travellers have diffused among the persians some ideas of the freedom and mildness of our governments: they have done them a very ill office." this may be too severe; but if instruction is of a character to diminish happiness, without furthering improvement, he would be bold who should call it a blessing. a medicine may be excellent in itself, yet, from the peculiar habits and constitution of the patient, it may act as a poison. these and many similar sentences of wisdom i have now and then uttered, when talking about the proposed sudden regeneration of the eastern world, but i never could obtain a hearing. my plans of slow and almost imperceptible change, which were not confined to the teaching half a dozen individuals, but embraced a whole people in their operation, have been ridiculed as proving nothing but the sluggishness of my understanding. when i have pleaded experience, i have been accused of giving that name to prejudice; my toleration of systems out of my power to alter, and interwoven with every feeling, habit, and enjoyment of the communities in which they prevail, has been referred to my narrow views; and all my pretensions to discernment and judgment have been called in question because i have persuaded myself, and tried to persuade others, that asiatics, though they are not so fair as we are, though they are of a different religion, speak a different language, and have neither made the same advances in science nor in civilization, are, notwithstanding these disadvantages, not altogether destitute of good and great qualities, both of head and heart. liable as i am to such accusations, i must cautiously limit myself to facts, which i know from observation, or have heard from persons worthy of credit; but should my reader detect me in the sin of taking a more favourable view of human nature than its merits, i shall hope to be forgiven; while i pray that the stranger, who visits the land of my nativity, may come to it with a mind disposed rather to dwell on its green and fertile valleys, than upon its rugged rocks and bleak mountains. may he find enough of sound and good feeling among its inhabitants to make him look with indulgence on their failings and excesses. if he quarrels with that luxury and refinement, which, by supplying, multiply the wants of men; if he doubts the good of many of the laws and institutions which belong to an artificial society, the frame and workings of which the labour of a life would not enable him to comprehend, may he contemplate it in a spirit of humility, which rather leads him to question the correctness of his own judgment, than to pronounce, on a superficial glance, that every thing is wrong, which does not accord with his own habits and feelings. when the second mission reached his court, the king of persia was encamped at his summer-quarters of sooltâneah, an extensive plain, whose elevation gives it a pleasant temperature during the hot season. the elchee was welcomed, on his approach to the camp, by his old friend nou rôz khan, whose personal appearance was unchanged by the ten years which had intervened since our last meeting. his manner, as usual, was cordial and frank; and he seemed particularly delighted to inform the elchee of the king's continued favour. "his majesty," said nou rôz khan, "desires me to say that he will be delighted to see you, and bids me assure you, that if you have met with any obstacles or difficulties on this mission,[ ] they have not been occasioned by him." the ceremonies of our approach to court, and of our visit to the king, prince, and ministers, were exactly the same as on the first mission. the king was, if possible, more friendly and gracious. among other proofs of personal favour, he insisted on bestowing a distinguished mark of his regard on the elchee, and the order of the lion and sun (the arms of persia) was created for that purpose.[ ] the investiture of this order took place on our visit of leave. dresses of honour were sent for the elchee and his suite. when we came to the tent at the entrance into the king's pavilion, we were met by one of the chief ministers, and a fermân or royal mandate was read, conferring on the elchee the title of khan or lord, with the rank of sipâh-silâr or general. this fermân was then placed in his hat, it being the custom for a persian noble, on receiving any honorary title from his king, to wear the patent of creation in his cap when he goes to court to return thanks. after we were seated, his majesty congratulated the elchee on his accession of rank. "when you came here first," he said, "you were a captain; you are now a general in your own country; i have made you a khan and sipâh-silâr in mine. at your next visit, which must be soon, i shall expect you to be a fermân-fermâee or ruler: but approach nearer." the elchee rose, and went up to the throne, on which the king was seated; and his majesty, taking up a diamond-star, began to pin it on the elchee's coat. it was evidently the first time the royal hands had been so employed. "the king"--a title by which he often speaks of himself--"the king," said he, "does not understand this kind of business;" and he laughed heartily at his own awkwardness. however, he would not allow any one to help him, and having at length accomplished the task, he again congratulated the elchee, saying, "you are now confirmed in my service; i can show no higher favour than this. and that star on your breast will convince all the world of the regard in which the king holds you." nothing was wanting to render this farewell audience kind and gracious. his majesty, on our rising to take leave, expressed his hope of seeing the elchee again, saying, "every second has a third;"[ ] and when we were fifty yards from the throne, and making our last bow, departing from all usage, he exclaimed in a loud voice, to the elchee, "once more may god preserve you." the courtiers looked amazed at this deviation from established form; and the prime minister told the elchee he ought to value it far beyond all the honours conferred upon him. enough has been said of the king: it remains to speak of the heir-apparent. i one day accompanied the elchee to a review of some regular infantry, to which abbas meerzâ had invited him, and at which his highness commanded in person, and put the troops through all their manoeuvres. when this review was over, he requested to see the elchee's escort, consisting of a select party of english dragoons, some native cavalry from india, and a brigade of horse-artillery. he expressed great admiration of the manner in which this small body went through their evolutions, and said, with such models he trusted soon to have a fine army. this hope the elchee's answer did not encourage. on a subsequent visit to the prince the topic was renewed; and i was somewhat surprised to find the elchee so little of a courtier as to express the same sentiments to a prince, whose ears, it was evident, had long been soothed by far different language. abbas meerzâ listened with great patience, but his uneasy feelings were evident. "why, from what you state," he observed, with much emotion, "i shall be an old man before i can make any progress with my present plans; and after all, they are likely to come to nothing." the elchee said he was bound by his regard for his highness to speak the truth. "i am much obliged to you," answered the prince; "you think, i perceive, that the irregular horse of persia are the best defence of our country; but they can never do what regular troops and cannon can." "but they can do much that regular troops and cannon cannot," replied the elchee. "that is true," said the prince; and here ended the conversation. neither party seemed convinced; abbas meerzâ continuing firm in his resolution to follow up his plans of improvement, and the elchee appearing equally satisfied that these plans were nowise suited either to the present condition of persia or the character of its people. abbas meerzâ was, at this time, a young prince of engaging manners, handsome in person, and gifted with quickness and discernment. owing to his intercourse with europeans, he had thrown off many of those habits of state and ceremony which are so punctiliously observed by persons of high rank in persia. he was now exercising his battalions, and he rode along the lines without an attendant. after the review, seeing the elchee's curricle with a pair of fine arab horses, he desired to have a drive. it was the first carriage of the kind he had ever been in, and he was quite delighted. as the horses trotted along the road to teheran, he ordered his attendants to return. "go," said he, laughing, "and tell my father i am on my way to his capital with the elchee." the curricle which had so delighted the prince was afterwards given to the king, who was equally pleased with it; and still more with the rapid movements and quick firing of two pieces of horse-artillery, which were presented to him. "these," he said, "will destroy all my enemies." the elchee stated that what he had brought were only models, which the ingenuity of his majesty's subjects would soon copy; and suggested that it would be necessary to make roads for wheel carriages; and roads, he added, if generally introduced, would be found alike useful for pleasure, for commerce, and for war. the wisdom which prompted this advice was lauded to the skies. roads were admitted to be a great and obvious improvement, at once ornamental and profitable to persia. plans for making and keeping them in repair were required and furnished. the royal mandate, the elchee was told, should be issued immediately: and he was much pleased at the thought of having given rise to a measure so good, and which he considered as preparing the way for the permanent improvement of the country. but, aware of the difficulties likely to obstruct the plan, he begged the minister of finance, ameen-ood-douleh, to confine the first attempt to the communication between sooltâneah, teheran, and tebreez; and advised that the results of this experiment should determine the further prosecution of the scheme. the minister of finance, who was as remarkable for his plain manners as for his plain sense, acknowledged the justice of this suggestion. "but you know persia," was his concluding significant remark; which sufficiently informed the elchee that his project of road-making, however easy of execution, from the nature of the country and climate, would share the fate of other schemes, which it was then the fashion at the court of persia to adopt, commence, and abandon. these highways required labour; which labour, political economists would have told the king, must be paid for by money, by provisions, or by the remission of other exactions. but this information would have been of little benefit, for i never knew a man, who, with all his good qualities, would listen with so little patience to political economists, as the king of kings, fatteh ali shâh; for that monarch, besides the habits and prejudices of his condition, has personally an insurmountable objection to all measures which include disbursement. time may do much with my persian friends, but we must not expect to hurry that tardy-paced worker of miracles. we may inspire a few with that thirst for real glory, which desires to create, not to destroy; others may be instructed in science; but even in those whom we may elevate above their countrymen, early habits and national prejudices will still be too strong for us. their speeches and their writings may exhibit enlightened minds; but their actions will follow their established usages and ordinary habits; and their conduct will too often be what it was formerly. like the lady-cat in the fable, they will be apt to spring from the board we have spread for them, whenever a mouse shows itself. when the first mission was at teheran, we found a chief there, called ali mahomed khan, who had been compelled, by some political revolutions, to quit cabool, and take refuge in persia. he was a man of rank, and had been received and treated with hospitality and distinction by the king, who signified to the elchee his wish, that he should take this nobleman to india, whither he was desirous of going. this request was the more readily complied with, as the elchee had found ali mahomed a pleasant, and apparently a sensible man. i became very intimate with him; and when we arrived at calcutta, i took great pleasure in showing him that splendid capital of the british dominions in the east. i pointed out the crowded shipping in its noble river; the elegant streets thronged with carriages; the newly-erected palace of its ruler; its college; the magnificent abodes of public officers and wealthy merchants; all, in short, that could impress him with an idea of the happy results of civilization. seeing my friend quite delighted with the contemplation of this rich scene, i asked him, with some exultation, what he thought of it? "a wonderful place to plunder!"[ ] was his reply; and his eyes glistened as he made it, with anticipated enjoyment. i mentioned this anecdote to my christian friend, khojah arratoon, our treasurer. "ay, ay," said the old man, "nature will come out. what you have related verifies our armenian proverb: they were preaching the gospel over the head of a wolf--'stop!' said he; 'i see a flock of sheep passing.'" i do not mean, in what i have here said, to condemn national efforts to spread knowledge, nor to deny that such endeavours may in due season produce happy effects; but such results will be retarded, not accelerated, by all attempts at rapid and premature changes. in endeavouring to effect these, we are often as absurd in our admiration of individuals, to whom a few of our own favourite lights have been imparted, as in our condemnation of those whom we conceive to remain in their primitive darkness. we altogether forget that it is from the general condition of the country that the character of the population is chiefly formed. hereditary and undisputed succession to the throne, though it may not diminish the frequency of foreign wars, nor prevent the shedding of human blood, gives an internal security, which leads to the introduction of a system that enables such a state to have efficient and permanent civil and military establishments; and it also gives, to a great proportion of its subjects, a valuable leisure to pursue science and literature, which gradually lead to further improvements in society. but in countries like persia all government is personal; institutions and establishments rise and fall with the caprice of a sovereign; and supposing him steady in his objects, still the probability is, that they prosper and die with their founder; and while their basis is so unstable, and their duration so uncertain, they cannot be permanently efficient or useful. revolutions of such a nature as we desire will work themselves into form, when time changes men's sentiment, and ripens a nation for them; but we too often, in the foolish pride of our knowledge, rush towards the end, with little or no consideration about the means. in our precocious plans, we cast the blame from that on which it ought to rest, upon those we desire to reform. because men continue, like their ancestors, to live under an arbitrary monarch, and have not the precise qualities upon which we value ourselves, we hasten to the conclusion that they are slaves and barbarians, whom the force of habit and prejudice alone saves from being as miserable as they are degraded. viewing them in this light, we waste a pity upon them which they neither value nor understand; nor has it, if we analyze its grounds, any just foundation. though unacquainted with political freedom, though superficial in science, and unlearned in greek or latin, they are not without defences against injustice or despotism; and the very condition of their society gives them, on all points affecting themselves, their families, or friends, an intuitive quickness and clearness of perception, which appears wonderful to men rendered dull, as it were, by civilization. neither are such nations deficient in those arts, which are subservient to the subsistence, and promote the enjoyments of man; and they are perhaps more alive than we improved beings to those passions whence so much of our happiness and misery flow. i have travelled much, but have found little difference in the aggregate of human felicity. my pride and patriotism have often been flattered by the complaints and comparisons of the discontented; but i have never met any considerable number of a tribe or nation, who would have exchanged their condition for that of any other people upon the earth. when i have succeeded, as i often did, in raising admiration and envy, by dwelling upon the advantages of the british government, i have invariably found that these feelings vanished, when i explained more specifically the sacrifices of personal liberty, the restraints of the law, and the burden of taxation, by which these advantages are purchased. it was the old story of the arab nurse, who could not endure england because there were no date trees; and the king of persia, who, though feeling all the insecurity of his own crown, could not for a moment tolerate the thoughts of wearing that of england, which would have reduced him to only one wife! such observations should have made me humble; but they did not. i continued to value myself on my superiority; and when in persia, was as eager as any of our party to parade my knowledge, particularly in science (which, by-the-bye, was my weak point), and to enjoy the wonder which its display produced. one of the chief means of astonishing our persian friends, on the first mission, was an electrifying machine, with the effects of which we surprised and alarmed all, from majesty itself to the lowest peasant. when it was exhibiting at shiraz, for the gratification of cherâgh ali khan, who had come to pay the elchee a visit, this formal minister expressed himself satisfied with the sparks he saw elicited, and the slight shocks which were given to others. he declined receiving one himself, though he expressed a conviction that he was above being startled, like those upon whom he had seen the experiment tried. this great man, having very condescendingly taken a walk into the garden to give his attendants an opportunity of seeing the effects of the wonderful machine, returned while they were encircling the operator (our doctor) and holding each other's hands in expectation of the shock. it is, in persia, deemed very indecorous for any one to have his back turned when a man of rank enters the apartment; but for domestics to behave in this manner is an almost inexpiable offence. the good people of whom i speak were, however, in too breathless a state of expectation to observe the approach of their lord, who, enraged by this apparent rudeness, seized, with a most indignant air, the shoulder of one of them, to take him to task. at this moment, whether by accident or design has never yet been discovered, the shock was given. each quitted the hold of his neighbour, and started back; while cherâgh ali khan, who felt it the more from its being unexpected, staggered against the wall, and looked the very picture of terror. the elchee, who had entered the room with him, could not repress his mirth. this was the signal for all; and even the lowest of the domestics went away tittering at what had befallen their magnificent master, who, after a short pause, during which dignity had a struggle with good sense, allowed the latter to gain the victory, and laughed like others at what had occurred. at isfahan all were delighted with the electric machine, except one renowned doctor and lecturer of the college, who, envious of the popularity gained by this display of our superior science, contended publicly, that the effects produced were moral, not physical--that it was the mummery we practised, and the state of nervous agitation we excited, which produced an ideal shock: but he expressed his conviction, that a man of true firmness of mind would stand unmoved by all we could produce out of our glass bottle, as he scoffingly termed our machine. he was invited to the experiment, and declared his readiness to attend at the next visit the begler-beg paid the elchee. the day appointed soon arrived. the begler-beg came with a numerous retinue, and amongst others the doctor, whom we used to call "red stockings," from his usually wearing scarlet hose. he was, we found, notwithstanding his learning and reputed science, often made an object of mirth in the circles of the great and wealthy at isfahan, to whom he furnished constant matter of amusement, from the pertinacity with which he maintained his dogmas. he had nearly, we were told, lost his life the year before, by marching up to a large buck-antelope, which was known to be vicious, but which, according to the theory of the philosopher, was to be overawed by the erect dignity of man, provided he was fearlessly approached. the consequence of this experiment was different from what the theorist expected. the wild animal very unceremoniously butted the doctor into a deep dry ditch in the field where he was grazing, and the learned man was confined to his bed nearly three months, during which, he had ample time to consider the causes of this unlooked-for event. though the above and similar instances might afford reason for concluding, that red stockings, with all his philosophy, was not overwise, i discovered that he maintained his ground in the first society, by means common in persia as in other countries. he was, in fact, "a little of the fool,[ ] and not too much of the honest." this impression of his character, combined with his presumption, made us less scrupulous in our preparations to render him an example for all who might hereafter doubt the effects of our boasted electricity; and indeed our persian visitors seemed anxious that the effect should be such as to satisfy the man who had dared us to the trial, that it was physical, not moral. the philosopher, notwithstanding various warnings, came boldly up, took hold of the chain with both hands, planted his feet firmly, shut his teeth, and evidently called forth all his resolution to resist the shock. it was given; and poor red stockings dropt on the floor as if he had been shot. there was a momentary alarm: but on his almost instant recovery, and the elchee explaining that the effect had been increased by the determination to resist it, all gave way to one burst of laughter. the good-natured philosopher took no offence. he muttered something about the re-action of the feelings after being over-strained, but admitted there was more in the glass-bottle than he had anticipated. as the persians had become acquainted with electrical machines, by their increased intercourse with europeans, the elchee, when on his second mission, did not choose again to trust to one of them for the entertainment of his friends. he purchased, therefore, for this purpose, a large and excellent phantasmagoria, which was furnished with numerous glasses; on these were painted spectres, with shapes monstrous beyond what the poet's fancy ever bodied forth. with our phantasmagoria, old and young, rich and poor, were in raptures. the prince at shiraz was the first person of royal blood to whom it was exhibited, and he declared his wonder and delight at this extraordinary invention. persons were instructed to exhibit it to his ladies, who, we learned, were enchanted with its effects; and his mother,[ ] an able princess, who had long exercised supreme authority over him and the province of fars, declaring herself gratified beyond measure at the wonders she had seen. what rendered the phantasmagoria more attractive, was the ingenuity and talent of a young man from india,[ ] who had charge of it. besides being an adept in exhibiting it, he made frames, and painted, as occasion required, the glass he placed in them, with all kinds of persian figures; and part of the story told in the day was sometimes exhibited at the elchee's evening entertainments, which were often attended by dignified persons, who had before withheld their presence from regard to punctilious ceremony, but could not resist their curiosity. thus our phantasmagoria became an important implement of diplomacy. the prince of persia was anxious to possess this treasure, but as its fame had preceded the mission, it was not judged politic to disappoint the excited expectations of majesty; our magical box therefore accompanied us, and produced equal effects at the great court assembled at sooltâneah, as it had at that of shiraz. the elchee took particular pleasure, in the astonishment produced by his phantasmagoria. i one day suggested that wise and grave men, filling high stations, might expose themselves to ridicule from being amused by such trifles, and employing them as means of amusing and gratifying others. his quick reply was, "the man who is always wise, is a fool! and he, above all others, is most foolish, who, entrenched in forms and observances, neglects to use every honest means with which human nature supplies him, to promote fair and honourable objects. besides," he added, "this amuses me, as much as any grown-up child in persia, and it is from my keen-sighted guests observing that my enjoyment is real, that they are so much delighted. were i to parade my superiority, by denying myself this, and other gratifications, which may be deemed trifling by men of measured manners, they would also be reserved and dignified, and we should become a group of those formalists, whom our great philosopher[ ] has described, as always using shifts and perspectives, to make superficies seem body that hath depth and bulk." after this answer, in which those that know him as well as i do will discover that the elchee had succeeded in persuading himself, that his natural love of amusement was a valuable diplomatic quality; i, as a true follower of a mission, found it necessary to acquiesce in his reasoning, and must, therefore, recommend phantasmagorias, or something similar, as of essential importance to the success of all future embassies to persia! i found, on this second mission, that the duties of hajee ibrahim had, at his death, been divided amongst several ministers. my old friend, hajee mahomed hoosein, who had been so kind to us on the first mission, when he was begler-beg of isfahan, was now, under the title of ameen-ood-douleh,[ ] at the head of the finance and revenue department. he had risen from a low origin, that of a small shopkeeper in isfahan. the persians, who delight in the wonderful, spoke of his riches as immense, and they referred the origin of that wealth (which enabled him to preserve the favour of the king, by satisfying his cupidity) to his having obtained part of the royal treasure, which was lost at isfahan by jaffier khan zend, when he fled, in the year , in such confusion from that city, that not only his baggage and treasures, but the ensigns of royalty, were plundered by its inhabitants. this account may have some foundation, but inquiry and observation satisfied me, that the wealth of this sensible minister arises out of those more honourable sources which his industry and good management have created. suffice it, as a proof of this fact, to state, that every province under him is prosperous; and the city of isfahan has more than doubled its inhabitants, and quadrupled its manufacture of rich silk and brocade, during the twenty years that he has been its governor. hajee mahomed hoosein[ ] is a man of great simplicity of manners, and neither has, nor pretends to, any of that wit, or brilliancy in conversation, for which many of the persians are so distinguished. he is rather dull in company, and appears what he really is, a plain man of business. a friend of mine one day breakfasting with him, was surprised to hear him say to a poor man, who brought a pair of slippers to sell, "sit down my honest friend, and take your breakfast; we will bargain about the slippers afterwards." this admission of inferiors to their society at meals is not, however, uncommon with men of rank in persia. it arises out of a sense of the sacred duties of hospitality, and out of parade, if they have not the reality of that humility so strongly inculcated in the koran. besides, their character and condition often disposes them to relax with those beneath them, and even with menial servants, whom they admit to a familiarity which at first view appears contradictory to those impressions we have of their haughty character. i was one day almost reproached by aga meer, on account of the difference which he observed in our behaviour to those of our countrymen, who were below us in condition. "you speak of your consideration for inferiors," said he to me, "but you keep them at a much greater distance than we do. is this your boasted freedom?" i told him that it was exactly our boasted freedom, which compelled us to the conduct we observed. "you are so classified in persia," said i, "that you can descend from your condition as you like; a man below you will never presume on your familiarity so far as to think himself, for a moment, on the same level with those, who are so entirely distinct from his class in the community. in england we are all equal in the eye of the law, the rights of every man are the same; the differences which exist are merely those of fortune, which place us in the relation of master and servant; but where there is no other distinction, we are obliged to preserve that with care, or all forms and respects would soon be lost." the good meerzâ admitted that there might be some truth in what i stated. "but yours is a strange country," he said; "i shall never quite understand its ways and usages." meerzâ sheffee,[ ] who styles himself premier, may be called the minister of the court; he is a veteran in all its arts, intrigues, and corruptions. good-humoured, quick, and flexible, he has managed to steer his crooked course through a long life, and still retains his head and his eyes, though both have, no doubt, been often in danger. the king is attached to him, as an old servant of the family. rizâ koolee is also an old servant of the kajir princes. he is a man of talent; his manners are peculiarly pleasing, and he is one of the most eloquent persons i have heard in persia. i had not the same opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with this minister, as with others; but, if common report is to be believed, he has few superiors in good sense or good feeling. he has evinced none of that precocious ambition which is so common with his countrymen. he is reputed to be a modest as well as a deserving man, and the favour and fortune he has attained have not been acquired by means which could make him enemies. by not pressing into the front rank, he has long combined safety with advancement.[ ] these are the principal ministers of the king; but meerzâ boozoorg, who has long presided, under the title of kâim mekâm, over the councils of the heir-apparent, may be said to have much more influence than any of them in the political department. he has greater experience, and understands the foreign interests of his country, better than any other minister; and joins to an equal temper, a thorough knowledge of the nature of his own situation, and the characters of those it is his duty to serve and obey. he amused me one day, by telling me the rule by which he had hitherto escaped, and trusted he should continue to escape, the common fate of persian ministers. "i never," said he, "accumulate money or property; i have a small inheritance in land, which has been in my family for centuries; this cannot, in accordance with usage, be confiscated: and as to every thing else, i spend it as i get it. this principle is known; and the king," he added, "often laughs, and says, 'i should not gain one piastre by the death and plunder of that extravagant fellow, meerzâ boozoorg.'"[ ] i must not forget in this place to mention meerzâ abd-ool-wahhâb, who has long been, and still continues, the moonshee-ool-memâlik, or chief letter-writer of the state; and well he merits his eminence. i recognised his talent for the sublime, from the difficulty i had in discovering his meaning, amidst the clouds of tropes and metaphors with which it is always enveloped. that, however, is the taste of his country; and the man must have merit, who stands acknowledged to be the first in an art, in which all persians of liberal education strive to excel. his character, in other respects, is that of a very sensible and respectable man; though an old moollâh, a friend of mind, shook his head when i praised him, and whispered, "all you say may be true, but he is an inveterate soofee." among the acquaintances i formed at this second visit, there was none that interested me in any degree so much as mahomed hoosein khan of merv, from whom i heard a short but affecting account of the vicissitudes of his eventful life. the facts he narrated exhibit so much of asiatic character in its best and worst lights, that they must be acceptable to the reader. of their correctness there can be no doubt, being alike confirmed by the internal evidence of their truth, the corroborating statements of contemporaries, and the high character of the narrator of his own extraordinary adventures. the city of merv,[ ] during the reign of the seffavean monarchs, was considered the most important frontier post of persia; and in the reign of tâmâsp the second, its defence was intrusted to the valour of a branch of the tribe of kajir. as the strength of the nation decayed, the chiefs of this tribe were left, almost unsupported, to resist the attacks of the tartar tribes on the oxus, who made annual inroads upon them. they received for some years casual aid from the afghâns of cabool; but that government also fell into confusion; and byrâm ali khan, the father of mahomed hoosein, had for several years to contend against that extraordinary bigot, beggee jân,[ ] who had, by an union of fanaticism and wisdom, consolidated the divided tribes of this part of tartary into one government, of which bokhara was the capital. the actions of byrâm ali, though given on the most authentic records, appear more like a romance than a history. suffice it here to say, he closed, on the banks of the oxus, a life marked by the most gallant achievements, leaving his son the city and walls of merv (for all its fields were desolate), and the name and example of a father almost worshipped by his soldiers, and as much praised when dead, as dreaded while living, by the enemies of his country. mahomed hoosein khan, though quite a youth, defended what remained of his inheritance with an unsubdued spirit; which obtained from every one an acknowledgment, that the son was worthy of his renowned sire. but all his struggles were unavailing, against the overwhelming numbers of the oosbegs, who at last reduced the city to such a state of famine and distress, that its inhabitants insisted upon their chief surrendering to a power which it was hopeless any longer to oppose. he was carried with all his family to bokhara. i shall give the remainder of his story in his own words, as nearly as they can be recollected from his plain but minute relation. "beggee jân was anxious i should adopt his creed, that of a soofee, and abandon what he deemed the errors of the sheäh faith. circumstances compelled me so far to conform, that he expected my conversion, and for some time treated me and my family with respect, and even kindness. "during a period of some years, having no other employment, i applied myself to literature, and read all the histories i could find. i should have continued to spend a contented, if not a happy life, in such pursuits, had this tranquillity not been interrupted by the flight of my nephew, bâkir khan, to the king of persia. i was considered as the contriver of his escape, and from that moment was looked upon as an enemy of beggee jân. "being aware of the suspicions he entertained, i one day addressed him in open court. i reminded him of his having sworn to treat me and mine with kindness, and of the peculiar obligations which an oath should impose upon a man of his sanctity. i bade him dismiss his suspicions, and act as he had hitherto done; or confirm them by an examination of facts, and to treat me as a criminal if he found that i had in any way acted contrary to my word, or to that honour which belonged to me as the chief of a tribe, and a native of merv, whose inhabitants had ever been celebrated for strict regard to their pledged faith. "seeing the manly openness of this address had an effect upon his nobles and attendants, the old hypocrite arose from his seat, came forward, and kissed my forehead, while he thanked me for speaking to him as i had done, and promised to dismiss from his mind every suspicion regarding me. he was, however, most insincere, and had no wish but to destroy me. "it would be tiresome," said mahomed hoosein, "to repeat all the artifices beggee jân used, to enable him to effect this object without loss of character. finding, however, that i was on my guard, and that i pursued a line of conduct which gave him no hopes of entangling me in his toils, he determined to seize and put me to death. it was long before i could bring myself to think that a person of his wary character would have recourse to unjustifiable violence; nor was it until his guards had surrounded my house, and were bursting open the gates, that i could believe he would proceed to such extremities. my followers, when this occurred, entreated leave to resist the attack. 'let us at least die in warm blood,' they said. i forbade them to stir, adding, that it was perhaps only my life he sought, and my family and friends might be spared. at this moment the voice of beggee jân was heard, exclaiming, 'bring me the head of mahomed hoosein khan.' satisfied of his object, i gave way to the earnest entreaties of all around me, and fled through a small back gate of the house, accompanied only by my nephew, ibrahim beg. i took this step, not so much from the hope of saving my own life, as that my escape would prevent further outrage to my family. it had the desired effect; for on its being stated that i was gone, and a strict search confirming the assertion, the troops were withdrawn, and sent with others in pursuit of one against whom their sovereign had now become perfectly furious. "the detail of my journeys and sufferings, from the hour of my escape, till i found refuge in persia, would fill volumes. i shall make it as short as possible; for though i dwell on some parts of the scene with pleasing recollections, there are others which i cannot think of without horror. however, god's will be done; let his glorious name be praised for all he does; it is not for blind mortals to complain." after these pious ejaculations the khan proceeded with his narration. "i had only three friends in the town on whom i could depend. i proceeded to the door of one, but he was asleep, and i durst not make the noise necessary to awake him. when i came to the house of the second, i learnt that beggee jân had sent for him: and the third, i was informed by his domestics, having heard of my situation, had hastened to the scene, in the expectation of contributing to my escape. "hopeless and wearied, i wandered all that night about the streets of bokhara, and a hundred times heard it proclaimed that ten thousand pieces of gold should be the reward of him who brought me to beggee jân. "it was towards morning when i went out of the gate of the city, accompanied only by my nephew. we concealed ourselves in a corn field till the evening, and then, though worn out with hunger, anxiety, and fatigue, we took the road leading to sheher-sebz.[ ] i was bare-footed, and unaccustomed to walk; but my situation gave me a power of exertion beyond what i could have believed; and after a most distressing and dangerous journey we arrived at that city, the ruler of which, niyâz ali, moved by the account of my sufferings, treated me with kindness and distinction. "i remained six months at sheher-sebz, with a heart painfully anxious for my family; but knowing that i was pursued by the rancorous hatred of beggee jân, and being satisfied that though niyâz ali had not the means to defend me, he would never be so base as to give me up, i chose to relieve him from the embarrassment my presence created. when i intimated my intention to leave him, he expressed much regret, as he feared that my powerful enemy might succeed in seizing me. he suggested, as the best chance of escape, that i should go to narbotta beg, the prince of ourat teppah, which i accordingly did. "soon after my departure, beggee jân attacked sheher-sebz, and demanded that i should be given up; but the generous niyâz ali concealed my having left him, till he heard of my safe arrival at ourat teppah, when he announced my flight, and the attack of his city was abandoned. "after remaining some months at ourat teppah, i desired to leave it, but the prince would not consent, until he heard that my enemy was secretly employing agents to murder his guest. his knowledge of the devotion of the oosbegs to their sovereign made him have the most serious fears for my life and his own honour, if i continued within reach of these assassins. to save both, he had recourse to an extraordinary expedient. "he took my nephew and me with him on one of his hunting parties, and privately asked me in what direction i wished to proceed. i told him i desired to visit the court of zemân shâh. he immediately (without informing any one) placed us in two large trunks, which were put on camels and sent away as merchandise on the road towards thibet.[ ] "after we were beyond the reach of beggee jân we visited many towns in tartary; but on our arrival at thibet, i learnt that abdûlla khan, governor of cashmere, had rebelled, and the country was consequently in a state of confusion. i was therefore compelled to take the road of bedekshan, and the mountains of siyâh posh,[ ] dressed as a fakeer; and under this disguise i arrived safe at cabool, after having encountered a thousand distresses and dangers. "when i arrived at this city i did not deem it prudent to reveal myself. zemân shâh and his vizier were gone to herat, and fatteh ali shâh, king of persia, was at meshed. i continued a poor wandering mendicant for some time in cabool. i often saw noblemen of high rank, with whom i was well acquainted, without their having the slightest recollection of their former friend. at this period i had almost died from want of food; and my distresses were increased by my nephew being afflicted with worms in his feet, which disabled him from walking. i had to support him along from place to place, when i was myself sinking with hunger and fatigue. i one day went to the house of an old friend to ask relief, but he was not at home. his servants directed me to the câravânserâi of aga mahomed of koom. i went thither, and stopped near the room in which was lodged hajee hoosein abeer, a merchant whom i had formerly employed and favoured. i stayed there some time, till, mistaking me for a beggar, he bade me go away, saying he had nothing to give me. i thought he recognized, but would not acknowledge me in my distress, and i went away with a heavy but proud heart from the door of a man whom, i immediately afterwards found, was at the very time disbursing large sums on agents, whom he had sent in different directions to ascertain my fate, in order to contribute to my relief. "having seated myself at some distance from the câravânserâi, a native of meshed passed, who had long been in my service. he no sooner cast his eyes upon me, than he recognized his old master in spite of my disguise, and threw himself at my feet. the moment he arose, he hastened to the room of hajee hoosein abeer, who instantly returned with him; and after thanking god for this accidental discovery of one to whom he owed such benefits, he begged me to accompany him to his apartment. from that moment my sufferings were at an end. i was provided with clothes, horses, and every thing that i required, and proceeded towards candahar in the character of a merchant; having strictly enjoined those who knew me, not to disclose my name or rank. "i thought at first of waiting at candahar till zemân shâh reached that city, and of trying what could be effected through his aid. i heard, however, that he had proceeded from herat to cabool, by the upper road, through the country of the hazarrah. "as i observed, from the way in which affairs were conducted that the government of this prince had no stability, i resolved on proceeding to the court of teheran; but not wishing to give the court of cabool any just ground of offence, i wrote to the vizier wefâ-dâr khan, and gave him a particular account of all that had befallen me from the time of my escape from bokhara till that moment. zemân shâh commanded his minister to desire me to stay at candahar until his arrival. but i learnt the disposition of the court by the first two words of the vizier's answer: these were, "hookm-e-alee," or (it is) the high command; a style of address suited only to an inferior. the instant i read this expression i determined to leave a country where my reduced condition made men presume to treat me with such arrogance. "when preparing to quit candahar, the road was shut by the advance of the prince mahmood, who took the city, and i was plundered of all i had brought from cabool, as were also the merchants with whom i associated. i remained at that city a short time after this event; but seeing nothing in the character of mahmood that gave me confidence, i did not discover myself to him, but set out as soon as i could with some merchants, and, travelling through seestan, arrived at the fort of khyn in khorassan, where i was kindly and hospitably treated by its chief, who was an old friend of my family. he appointed a mehmandar to see me safe to teheran, and sent an express to announce my arrival to the king of persia, who instantly invited me to his court. "before i arrived at teheran, i learnt that the cruel tyrant of bokhara, enraged at my escape, had first imprisoned my family in wells,[ ] and afterwards put every one of them to death,[ ] upbraiding them with my having taken refuge in persia, a country towards which he ever entertained a spirit of the most inveterate hostility. "i proceeded," said the khan, hardly able to conclude his narration, "with a broken heart, to the capital of persia, where the noble and generous conduct of this king affords me all the consolation i can receive in this world, in which i am, though apparently surrounded with every luxury and every honour, a wretched and desolate man." the forlorn and fugitive chief of merv was received at the court of persia with every mark of regard and honour to which he would have been entitled as lord of that once famous city and in the full zenith of his power. the king went into mourning for his family, and every omrah of the kajir tribe was ordered to pay him a visit of condolence; and even abbas meerzâ was desired by his father to wait upon and console the afflicted stranger and guest. on the death of hajee ibrahim, the king is said to have desired to raise mahomed hoosein khan to the rank of prime minister, but he declined the dangerous dignity, declaring he had made a vow never again to enter upon affairs of state, unless an opportunity was afforded him of wreaking his vengeance on the merciless ruler of bokhara, by sacking that capital. mahomed hoosein khan continues his habits of study, which, added to the information he has acquired in his travels, renders his conversation at once agreeable and instructive. his conduct, since he came into persia, has obtained him great respect from all classes. there are some few who accuse him of intriguing, and assert, that notwithstanding his professed vow, he secretly mixes in matters of state: but such suspicions and accusations are probably the consequence of his continuing to enjoy so great a share of the royal favour. his ostensible station is that of the nedeem, or chosen companion of the sovereign, and as such he is almost in constant attendance upon the king's person, whose whole conduct towards this unfortunate chief does equal honour to his head and heart.[ ] footnotes: [ ] my old friend câsim-wâlâ died about five years after this interview. among other occupations of his latter years was that of preparing for himself a place of interment in the chehâr-bâgh of isfahan. he built a small but handsome mausoleum, with a tomb in the centre, for the top of which a fine marble slab was obtained from yezd; and he not only wrote his own epitaph on this stone, but had it engraved, and every way finished, with the exception of the date of his death. near the mausoleum he made a fountain and flower garden, with bowers and seats; and a gentleman who saw him a short time before he died, tells me this spot became his favourite resort, where he delighted to receive and converse with his friends and disciples. [ ] faringee, as has been before remarked, implies european. [ ] this observation alluded to some embarrassments that had arisen in consequence of two british envoys, one from england, and the other india, meeting at the court of persia. [ ] nothing can be more curious than the fact of mahomedan princes creating honours of knighthood to confer distinction on christians. the usage commenced with the court of constantinople, and was followed by that of teheran. the king of persia created the order of the sun for general gardanne, the ambassador from buonaparte. this order was offered to sir harford jones, envoy from the king of england, but was declined on account of the circumstances attending its origin. it was subsequently pressed upon the acceptance of the elchee, but he deemed it proper to follow the example of the envoy of the king of england. the king of persia determined, however, as he said, that his first european friend should wear an order of his creation, and instituted that of the lion and sun, which have been from very ancient times the arms of persia. [ ] the number three is deemed fortunate in persia as elsewhere. [ ] "ajeb jâhee berâee chappau!" literally, a wonderful place for a foray! [ ] "_poco di matto_" is deemed by the italians an essential quality in a great man's companion. [ ] this remarkable lady, who for a long period might be said to govern fars, died three years ago of the cholera. [ ] mr. sundt, an anglo-indian. [ ] bacon. [ ] this title means, the security of the state. [ ] this minister died three years ago. [ ] this minister is dead since the journal was written from which this is taken. [ ] since this journal was written he fell into disgrace and died, after being some time minister to the prince regent of fars. [ ] this old and able minister died lately of the cholera. [ ] merv is the ancient antiochia margiana. it was founded by alexander and became the capital of one of his successors, antiochus nicator. [ ] for an account of this remarkable ruler, see history of persia, vol. ii. p. . [ ] sheher-sebz means the verdant city, a name given by timoor to the ancient city of kesh, which was the place of his birth. it lies about miles direct east of bokhara. [ ] hajee mahomed hoosein khan has written an account of this extraordinary journey, and of the countries he passed through. [ ] for an account of this remarkable people, see elphinstone's cabool. [ ] imprisonment in dry wells is very common in some parts of tartary. [ ] thirty-eight persons were put to death, of whom eleven were sons, brothers, and nephews. such of the women of his family as were not killed were given away to persons of inferior condition; a brutal and degrading usage practised in persia, as well as tartary, in cases where it is desired to disgrace as well as punish men of high rank. [ ] mahomed hoosein khan of merv has finished his earthly career since this was written. chapter xx. departure from sooltâneah--tebreez--climate--lake of oormeah--ahmed the cobbler. though delighted to turn towards home, the joy at our departure from the royal camp was not unmingled with regret, at taking leave, probably for the last time, of many of our persian friends. the king's attention to the elchee had been most flattering, and we had all participated in the royal favour. fatteh ali shâh had, indeed, with all due allowances for other motives, evinced on this occasion sentiments and feelings which did him honour as a man as well as a sovereign. we went from sooltâneah to tebreez, which has for many years been the residence of the heir-apparent, abbas meerzâ. tebreez is celebrated as one of the most healthy cities in persia, and it is on this ground alone that we can account for its being so often rebuilt, after its repeated demolition by earthquakes. it is seldom free, even for a twelvemonth, from slight shocks; and it is little more than thirty years since it was levelled with the ground, by one of these terrible convulsions of nature. i was more surprised at the salubrity of this town, from knowing the great extremes of heat and cold to which it is subject, having obtained from a friend who had resided there during the whole of the preceding year, a most accurate diary of the various changes of its climate. from this it appeared, that on the twentieth of october there was a heavy fall of snow, which did not however remain long upon the ground; the weather again became mild, and there was no excessive cold until the middle of december, from which period till the end of january fahrenheit's thermometer, when exposed to the air at night, never rose above zero, and in the house, at mid-day, it was seldom above °. january was by far the coldest month; during it, the water is described as becoming almost instantaneously solid in the tumblers upon the dining table, and the ink often freezing in the inkstand, although the table was quite close to the fire. for at least a fortnight not an egg was to be had, all being split by the cold. some bottles of wine froze, although covered with straw, and many of the copper ewers were split by the expansion of the water when frozen in them. according to this diary, the weather became comparatively mild towards the end of february; but it appears that here, as in england, a "lingering winter chills the lap of may;" for on the first of that month there was a heavy fall of snow, with such cold, that all the promise of the spring was destroyed. of the heat that ensued, and the sudden and great changes to which tebreez is subject, we had abundant proof; in the month of june, the range of the thermometer being usually, within the twenty-four hours, from ° to °, a difference of °. the extreme heat of summer causes most of the houses in tebreez to be built so as to admit the air during that season; but the architects of persia fall far short of their brethren in europe, in forming plans by which the cool air can be admitted in summer and excluded in winter. this partly accounts for the effects of the cold to which i have alluded; but the city of tebreez, and many other parts of aderbejan, and still more of the neighbouring province of kûrdistan, though nowhere beyond the fortieth degree of latitude, are, from their great elevation, subject to extreme cold. in the latter country i found, on the morning of the seventeenth of august, ice half an inch thick on a basin of water standing in my tent. during the few days we remained at tebreez i was in continual attendance upon the elchee, who was engaged in inspecting the state and equipment of the newly-formed regular troops of persia. the day before our departure he had had a long interview with abbas meerzâ, who appeared to expect that what he had seen of his military improvements would alter his sentiments as to the policy of the change. this, however, was not the case; the arguments before urged were repeated: and, though every credit was given to the young and ardent prince for the surprising progress he had made, the elchee still contended that it must be dangerous for a country to make its armies more tangible to an enemy, until certain of being his equal in the field of battle. in the course of their conversation upon this subject, the elchee related to the prince what the late minister, hajee ibrahim,[ ] had told him, of the sentiments and designs of that able monarch, aga mahomed khan, when a large army of russians, under valerian zuboff, crossed the araxes, and encamped on the plain of mogam, in the month of november, . notwithstanding the severity of the season, aga mahomed khan made every preparation to resist the threatened invasion. he assembled the leaders of his army, and told them that the russians had presumed, during his absence in khorassan, to invade the opposite frontier of his dominions. "but my valiant warriors," he added, "shall be led against them, and we will, by the blessing of god, charge their celebrated lines of infantry and batteries of cannon, and cut them to pieces with our conquering swords." the chiefs applauded the heroic resolution of their sovereign, and promised to support him with their lives. when they were gone, the monarch directed hajee ibrahim to approach, and asked him if he had heard what he said to the military commanders. the minister said he had. "and do you think," said he, "i will do what i have told them?" "undoubtedly, if it is your majesty's pleasure," was the reply. "hajee," said aga mahomed khan, half angry, "have i been mistaken? are you also a fool? can a man of your wisdom believe i will ever run my head against their walls of steel, and expose my irregular army to be destroyed by their cannon and disciplined troops? i know better. their shot shall never reach me; but they shall possess no country beyond its range. they shall not know sleep; and, let them march where they choose, i will surround them with a desert." from tebreez, our first march of fifteen miles was to khoosroo-shâh, a village situated in a beautiful valley, where we remained for a day, admiring the scenery, and enjoying the cool shade of the surrounding groves and gardens. in one of the latter our mehmandar gave us a sumptuous breakfast. our second day's journey brought us in sight of the lake of oormeah, which is of considerable extent. we examined a marble quarry near its shore, which had not been worked since the time of nadir shâh. the persians wished us to believe that the peculiar quality of the water of the lake, by mixing with the soil, formed the marble, which they declared was soft when first cut, but became hard from exposure to the sun. one of our party, who was a geologist, endeavoured to prove to them that this belief was quite erroneous, by explaining the nature of the strata of this quarry, as well as the composition of the marble; but his knowledge was evidently most unpopular with the audience he had gathered round him, and they continued as completely satisfied as they had been before his scientific demonstrations, that the marble was formed in the manner related by their fathers. the lake of oormeah is computed to be three hundred miles in circumference. it is very clear, but salt, and has a sulphureous smell. we were assured that no fish or any living creature is to be found in this great expanse of water, which one of the learned men of our mission informed me was the spauto of strabo, and the marcianus of ptolemy. from our encampment near the shore of this famous lake to the city of mârâgâ is eighteen miles: we made this march at night. moollâh adeenah, the story-teller of his majesty, was one of our party. the elchee asked him to beguile the weariness of our road with a tale. "how many fersekhs long do you wish it?" was his reply. "at least five," was the answer. "i can exactly suit you," said the moollâh; "you shall have ahmed the cobbler." i could not help laughing at this mode of measuring a tale; but i was assured it was a common custom, arising out of the calculation professed story-tellers were compelled to make of the leisure of their hearers. all further remarks upon this usage were put an end to, by moollâh adeenah desiring us to be silent and attentive: his wish being complied with, he commenced as follows: "in the great city of isfahan lived ahmed the cobbler, an honest and industrious man, whose wish was to pass through life quietly; and he might have done so, had he not married a handsome wife, who, although she had condescended to accept of him as a husband, was far from being contented with his humble sphere of life. "sittâra, such was the name of ahmed's wife, was ever forming foolish schemes of riches and grandeur: and though ahmed never encouraged them, he was too fond a husband to quarrel with what gave her pleasure: an incredulous smile or a shake of the head, was his only answer to her often-told daydreams; and she continued to persuade herself, that she was certainly destined to great fortune. "it happened one evening, while in this temper of mind, that she went to the hemmâm, where she saw a lady retiring dressed in a magnificent robe, covered with jewels, and surrounded by slaves. this was the very condition sittâra had always longed for, and she eagerly inquired the name of the happy person, who had so many attendants and such fine jewels. she learned it was the wife of the chief astrologer to the king. with this information she returned home. her husband met her at the door, but was received with a frown; nor could all his caresses obtain a smile or a word; for several hours she continued silent, and in apparent misery; at length she said: "'cease your caresses; unless you are ready to give me a proof that you do really and sincerely love me.' "'what proof of love,' exclaimed poor ahmed, 'can you desire, which i will not give?' "'give over cobbling; it is a vile, low trade, and never yields more than ten or twelve dinars a day. turn astrologer! your fortune will be made, and i shall have all i wish, and be happy.' "'astrologer!' cried ahmed, 'astrologer! have you forgotten who i am--a cobbler, without any learning--that you want me to engage in a profession which requires so much skill and knowledge?' "'i neither think nor care about your qualifications,' said the enraged wife: 'all i know is, that if you do not turn astrologer immediately, i will be divorced from you to-morrow.' "the cobbler remonstrated, but in vain. the figure of the astrologer's wife, with her jewels and her slaves, had taken complete possession of sittâra's imagination. all night it haunted her; she dreamt of nothing else, and on awaking declared she would leave the house, if her husband did not comply with her wishes. what could poor ahmed do? he was no astrologer, but he was dotingly fond of his wife, and he could not bear the idea of losing her. he promised to obey; and having sold his little stock, bought an astrolabe, an astronomical almanac, and a table of the twelve signs of the zodiac. furnished with these he went to the market-place, crying 'i am an astrologer! i know the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the twelve signs of the zodiac; i can calculate nativities; i can foretel every thing that is to happen!' "no man was better known than ahmed the cobbler. a crowd soon gathered round him. 'what, friend ahmed,' said one, 'have you worked till your head is turned?' 'are you tired of looking down at your last,' cried another, 'that you are now looking up at the planets?' these and a thousand other jokes assailed the ears of the poor cobbler, who notwithstanding continued to exclaim that he was an astrologer, having resolved on doing what he could to please his beautiful wife. "it so happened that the king's jeweller was passing by. he was in great distress, having lost the richest ruby belonging to the crown. every search had been made to recover this inestimable jewel, but to no purpose; and as the jeweller knew he could no longer conceal its loss from the king, he looked forward to death as inevitable. in this hopeless state, while wandering about the town, he reached the crowd around ahmed, and asked what was the matter. 'don't you know ahmed the cobbler?' said one of the bystanders, laughing; 'he has been inspired, and is become an astrologer.' "a drowning man will catch at a broken reed: the jeweller no sooner heard the sound of the word astrologer, than he went up to ahmed, told him what had happened, and said, 'if you understand your art, you must be able to discover the king's ruby. do so, and i will give you two hundred pieces of gold. but if you do not succeed within six hours, i will use all my influence at court to have you put to death as an impostor.' "poor ahmed was thunderstruck. he stood long without being able to move or speak, reflecting on his misfortunes and grieving, above all, that his wife, whom he so loved, had, by her envy and selfishness, brought him to such a fearful alternative. full of these sad thoughts, he exclaimed aloud, 'oh woman, woman! thou art more baneful to the happiness of man than the poisonous dragon of the desert!' "the lost ruby had been secreted by the jeweller's wife, who, disquieted by those alarms which ever attend guilt, sent one of her female slaves to watch her husband. this slave, on seeing her master speak to the astrologer, drew near; and when she heard ahmed, after some moments of apparent abstraction, compare a woman to a poisonous dragon, she was satisfied that he must know every thing. she ran to her mistress, and, breathless with fear, cried, 'you are discovered, my dear mistress, you are discovered by a vile astrologer. before six hours are past the whole story will be known, and you will become infamous, if you are even so fortunate as to escape with life, unless you can find some way of prevailing on him to be merciful.' she then related what she had seen and heard; and ahmed's exclamation carried as complete conviction to the mind of the terrified mistress as it had done to that of her slave. "the jeweller's wife, hastily throwing on her veil, went in search of the dreaded astrologer. when she found him, she threw herself at his feet, crying, 'spare my honour and my life, and i will confess everything!' "'what can you have to confess to me?' exclaimed ahmed, in amazement. "'oh nothing! nothing with which you are not already acquainted. you know too well that i stole the ruby from the king's crown. i did so to punish my husband, who uses me most cruelly; and i thought by this means to obtain riches for myself, and to have him put to death. but you, most wonderful man, from whom nothing is hidden, have discovered and defeated my wicked plan. i beg only for mercy, and will do whatever you command me.' "an angel from heaven could not have brought more consolation to ahmed than did the jeweller's wife. he assumed all the dignified solemnity that became his new character, and said, 'woman! i know all thou hast done, and it is fortunate for thee that thou hast come to confess thy sin, and beg for mercy before it was too late. return to thy house, put the ruby under the pillow of the couch on which thy husband sleeps; let it be laid on the side farthest from the door; and be satisfied thy guilt shall never be even suspected.' "the jeweller's wife returned home, and did as she was desired. in an hour ahmed followed her, and told the jeweller he had made his calculations, and found by the aspect of the sun and moon, and by the configuration of the stars, that the ruby was at that moment lying under the pillow of his couch, on the side farthest from the door. the jeweller thought ahmed must be crazy: but as a ray of hope is like a ray from heaven to the wretched, he ran to his couch, and there, to his joy and wonder, found the ruby in the very place described. he came back to ahmed, embraced him, called him his dearest friend and the preserver of his life, gave him the two hundred pieces of gold, declaring that he was the first astrologer of the age. "these praises conveyed no joy to the poor cobbler, who returned home more thankful to god for his preservation than elated by his good fortune. the moment he entered the door, his wife ran up to him, and exclaimed, 'well, my dear astrologer! what success?' "'there!' said ahmed, very gravely, 'there are two hundred pieces of gold: i hope you will be satisfied now, and not ask me again to hazard my life, as i have done this morning.' he then related all that had passed. but the recital made a very different impression on the lady from what these occurrences had made on ahmed. sittâra saw nothing but the gold, which would enable her to vie with the chief astrologer's wife at the hemmâm. 'courage!' she said, 'courage! my dearest husband. this is only your first labour in your new and noble profession. go on, and prosper; and we shall become rich and happy.' "in vain ahmed remonstrated, and represented the danger; she burst into tears, and accused him of not loving her, ending with her usual threat of insisting upon a divorce. "ahmed's heart melted, and he agreed to make another trial. accordingly, next morning he sallied forth with his astrolabe, his twelve signs of the zodiac, and his almanac exclaiming, as before, 'i am an astrologer! i know the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the twelve signs of the zodiac; i can calculate nativities; i can foretel everything that is to happen!' a crowd again gathered round him, but it was now with wonder, and not ridicule; for the story of the ruby had gone abroad, and the voice of fame had converted the poor cobbler ahmed into the ablest and most learned astrologer that was ever seen at isfahan. "while everybody was gazing at him, a lady passed by veiled. she was the wife of one of the richest merchants in the city, and had just been at the hemmâm, where she had lost a valuable necklace and earrings. she was now returning home in great alarm, lest her husband should suspect her of having given her jewels to a lover. seeing the crowd around ahmed, she asked the reason of their assembling, and was informed of the whole story of the famous astrologer: how he had been a cobbler, was inspired with supernatural knowledge, and could, with the help of his astrolabe, his twelve signs of the zodiac, and his almanac, discover all that ever had, or ever would happen in the world. the story of the jeweller and the king's ruby was then told her, accompanied by a thousand wonderful circumstances which had never occurred. the lady, quite satisfied of his skill, went up to ahmed, and mentioned her loss; saying, 'a man of your knowledge and penetration will easily discover my jewels: find them, and i will give you fifty pieces of gold.' "the poor cobbler was quite confounded, and looked down, thinking only how to escape without a public exposure of his ignorance. the lady, in pressing through the crowd, had torn the lower part of her veil. ahmed's downcast eyes noticed this; and wishing to inform her of it in a delicate manner, before it was observed by others, he whispered to her, 'lady, look down at the rent.' the lady's head was full of her loss, and she was at that moment endeavouring to recollect how it could have occurred. ahmed's speech brought it at once to her mind, and she exclaimed in delighted surprise, 'stay here a few moments, thou great astrologer. i will return immediately with the reward thou so well deservest.' saying this, she left him, and soon returned, carrying in one hand the necklace and earrings, and in the other, a purse with the fifty pieces of gold. 'there is gold for thee,' she said, 'thou wonderful man! to whom all the secrets of nature are revealed. i had quite forgotten where i laid the jewels, and without thee should never have found them. but when thou desiredst me to look at the rent below, i instantly recollected the rent near the bottom of the wall in the bath-room, where, before undressing, i had hid them. i can now go home in peace and comfort; and it is all owing to thee, thou wisest of men!' "after these words she walked away, and ahmed returned to his home, thankful to providence for his preservation, and fully resolved never again to tempt it. his handsome wife, however, could not yet rival the chief astrologer's lady in her appearance at the hemmâm, so she renewed her entreaties and threats, to make her fond husband continue his career as an astrologer. "about this time it happened that the king's treasury was robbed of forty chests of gold and jewels, forming the greater part of the wealth of the kingdom. the high treasurer and other officers of state used all diligence to find the thieves, but in vain. the king sent for his astrologer, and declared, that if the robbers were not detected by a stated time, he, as well as the principal ministers, should be put to death. only one day of the short period given them remained. all their search had proved fruitless, and the chief astrologer, who had made his calculations and exhausted his art to no purpose, had quite resigned himself to his fate, when one of his friends advised him to send for the wonderful cobbler, who had become so famous for his extraordinary discoveries. two slaves were immediately dispatched for ahmed, whom they commanded to go with them to their master. 'you see the effects of your ambition,' said the poor cobbler to his wife; 'i am going to my death. the king's astrologer has heard of my presumption, and is determined to have me executed as an impostor.' "on entering the palace of the chief astrologer, he was surprised to see that dignified person come forward to receive him, and lead him to the seat of honour, and not less so to hear himself thus addressed: 'the ways of heaven, most learned and excellent ahmed, are unsearchable. the high are often cast down and the low are lifted up. the whole world depends upon fate and fortune. it is my turn now to be depressed by fate; it is thine to be exalted by fortune.' "his speech was here interrupted by a messenger from the king, who, having heard of the cobbler's fame, desired his attendance. poor ahmed now concluded that it was all over with him, and followed the king's messenger, praying to god that he would deliver him from this peril. when he came into the king's presence, he bent his body to the ground, and wished his majesty long life and prosperity. 'tell me, ahmed,' said the king, 'who has stolen my treasure?' "'it was not one man,' answered ahmed, after some consideration; 'there were forty thieves concerned in the robbery.' "'very well,' said the king: 'but who were they? and what have they done with my gold and jewels?' "'these questions,' said ahmed, 'i cannot now answer; but i hope to satisfy your majesty, if you will grant me forty days to make my calculations.' "'i grant you forty days,' said the king; 'but when they are past, if my treasure is not found, your life shall pay the forfeit.' "ahmed returned to his house well pleased; for he resolved to take advantage of the time allowed him to fly from a city where his fame was likely to be his ruin. 'well, ahmed,' said his wife, as he entered, 'what news at court?' "'no news at all,' said he, 'except that i am to be put to death at the end of forty days, unless i find forty chests of gold and jewels, which have been stolen from the royal treasury.' "'but you will discover the thieves.' "'how? by what means am i to find them?' "'by the same art which discovered the ruby and the lady's necklace.' "'the same art!' replied ahmed. 'foolish woman! thou knowest that i have no art, and that i have only pretended to it for the sake of pleasing thee. but i have had sufficient skill to gain forty days, during which time we may easily escape to some other city, and, with the money i now possess, and the aid of my former occupation, we may still obtain an honest livelihood.' "'an honest livelihood!' repeated his lady, with scorn. 'will thy cobbling, thou mean, spiritless wretch! ever enable me to go to the hemmân like the wife of the chief astrologer? hear me, ahmed! think only of discovering the king's treasure. thou hast just as good a chance of doing so as thou hadst of finding the ruby, and the necklace and earrings. at all events, i am determined thou shalt not escape; and shouldst thou attempt to run away, i will inform the king's officers, and have thee taken up and put to death, even before the forty days are expired. thou knowest me too well, ahmed, to doubt my keeping my word. so take courage, and endeavour to make thy fortune, and to place me in that rank of life to which my beauty entitles me.' "the poor cobbler was dismayed at this speech; but knowing there was no hope of changing his wife's resolution, he resigned himself to his fate. 'well,' said he, 'your will shall be obeyed. all i desire is to pass the few remaining days of my life as comfortably as i can. you know i am no scholar, and have little skill in reckoning; so there are forty dates: give me one of them every night after i have said my prayers, that i may put them in a jar, and, by counting them, may always see how many of the few days i have to live are gone.' "the lady pleased, at carrying her point, took the dates, and promised to be punctual in doing what her husband desired. "meanwhile the thieves who had stolen the king's treasure, having been kept from leaving the city by fear of detection and pursuit, had received accurate information of every measure taken to discover them. one of them was among the crowd before the palace on the day the king sent for ahmed; and hearing that the cobbler had immediately declared their exact number, he ran in a fright to his comrades, and exclaimed, 'we are all found out! ahmed, the new astrologer, has told the king that there are forty of us.' "'there needed no astrologer to tell that,' said the captain of the gang. 'this ahmed, with all his simple good-nature, is a shrewd fellow. forty chests having been stolen, he naturally guessed that there must be forty thieves; and he has made a good hit, that is all: still it is prudent to watch him; for he certainly has made some strange discoveries. one of us must go to-night, after dark, to the terrace of this cobbler's house, and listen to his conversation with his handsome wife; for he is said to be very fond of her, and will, no doubt, tell her what success he has had in his endeavours to detect us.' "every body approved of this scheme; and soon after nightfall one of the thieves repaired to the terrace. he arrived there just as the cobbler had finished his evening prayers, and his wife was giving him the first date. 'ah,' said ahmed, as he took it, 'there is one of the forty.' "the thief, hearing these words, hastened, in consternation, to the gang, and told them that the moment he took his post he had been perceived by the supernatural knowledge of ahmed, who immediately told his wife that one of them was there. the spy's tale was not believed by his hardened companions; something was imputed to his fears; he might have been mistaken; in short, it was determined to send two men the next night at the same hour. they reached the house just as ahmed, having finished his prayers, had received the second date, and heard him exclaim, 'my dear wife, to-night there are two of them!' "the astonished thieves fled, and told their still incredulous comrades what they had heard. three men were consequently sent the third night, four the fourth, and so on. being afraid of venturing during the day, they always came as evening closed in, and just as ahmed was receiving his date: hence they all in turn heard him say that which convinced them he was aware of their presence. on the last night they all went, and ahmed exclaimed aloud, 'the number is complete! to-night the whole forty are here!' "all doubts were now removed. it was impossible that ahmed should have discovered them by any natural means. how could he ascertain their exact number? and night after night, without ever once being mistaken? he must have learnt it by his skill in astrology. even the captain now yielded, in spite of his incredulity, and declared his opinion that it was hopeless to elude a man thus gifted; he therefore advised that they should make a friend of the cobbler, by confessing every thing to him, and bribing him to secrecy by a share of the booty. "his advice was approved of; and an hour before dawn they knocked at ahmed's door. the poor man jumped out of bed, and, supposing the soldiers were come to lead him to execution, cried out, 'have patience! i know what you are come for. it is a very unjust and wicked deed.' "'most wonderful man!' said the captain, as the door was opened, 'we are fully convinced that thou knowest why we are come, nor do we mean to justify the action of which thou speakest. here are two thousand pieces of gold, which we will give thee, provided thou wilt swear to say nothing more about the matter.' "'say nothing about it!' said ahmed. 'do you think it possible i can suffer such gross wrong and injustice without complaining, and making it known to all the world?' "'have mercy upon us!' exclaimed the thieves, falling on their knees; 'only spare our lives, and we will restore the royal treasure.' "the cobbler started, rubbed his eyes to see if he were asleep or awake; and being satisfied that he was awake, and that the men before him were really the thieves, he assumed a solemn tone, and said--'guilty men! ye are persuaded that ye cannot escape from my penetration, which reaches unto the sun and moon, and knows the position and aspect of every star in the heavens. your timely repentance has saved you. but ye must immediately restore all that ye have stolen. go straightway, and carry the forty chests exactly as ye found them, and bury them a foot deep under the southern wall of the old ruined hemmâm, beyond the king's palace. if ye do this punctually, your lives are spared; but if ye fail in the slightest degree, destruction will fall upon you and your families.' "the thieves promised obedience to his commands, and departed. ahmed then fell on his knees, and returned thanks to god for this signal mark of his favour. about two hours after the royal guards came, and desired ahmed to follow them. he said he would attend them as soon as he had taken leave of his wife, to whom he determined not to impart what had occurred until he saw the result. he bade her farewell very affectionately; she supported herself with great fortitude on this trying occasion, exhorting her husband to be of good cheer, and said a few words about the goodness of providence. but the fact was, sittâra fancied, that if god took the worthy cobbler to himself, her beauty might attract some rich lover, who would enable her to go to the hemmâm with as much splendour as the astrologer's lady, whose image, adorned with jewels and fine clothes, and surrounded by slaves, still haunted her imagination. "the decrees of heaven are just: a reward suited to their merits awaited ahmed and his wife. the good man stood with a cheerful countenance before the king, who was impatient for his arrival, and immediately said, 'ahmed, thy looks are promising; hast thou discovered my treasure?' "'does your majesty require the thieves or the treasure? the stars will only grant one or the other,' said ahmed, looking at his table of astrological calculations. 'your majesty must make your choice. i can deliver up either, but not both.' "'i should be sorry not to punish the thieves,' answered the king; 'but if it must be so, i choose the treasure.' "'and you give the thieves a full and free pardon?' "'i do, provided i find my treasure untouched.' "'then,' said ahmed, 'if your majesty will follow me, the treasure shall be restored to you.' "the king and all his nobles followed the cobbler to the ruins of the old hemmâm. there, casting his eyes towards heaven, ahmed muttered some sounds, which were supposed by the spectators to be magical conjurations, but which were in reality the prayers and thanksgivings of a sincere and pious heart to god, for his wonderful deliverance. when his prayer was finished, he pointed to the southern wall, and requested that his majesty would order his attendants to dig there. the work was hardly begun, when the whole forty chests were found in the same state as when stolen, with the treasurer's seal upon them still unbroken. "the king's joy knew no bounds: he embraced ahmed, and immediately appointed him his chief astrologer, assigned to him an apartment in the palace, and declared that he should marry his only daughter,[ ] as it was his duty to promote the man whom god had so singularly favoured, and had made instrumental in restoring the treasures of his kingdom. the young princess, who was more beautiful than the moon, was not dissatisfied with her father's choice; for her mind was stored with religion and virtue, and she had learnt to value beyond all earthly qualities that piety and learning which she believed ahmed to possess. the royal will was carried into execution as soon as formed. the wheel of fortune had taken a complete turn. the morning had found ahmed in a wretched hovel, rising from a sorry bed, in the expectation of losing his life: in the evening he was the lord of a rich palace, and married to the only daughter of a powerful king. but this change did not alter his character. as he had been meek and humble in adversity, he was modest and gentle in prosperity. conscious of his own ignorance, he continued to ascribe his good fortune solely to the favour of providence. he became daily more attached to the beautiful and virtuous princess whom he had married; and he could not help contrasting her character with that of his former wife, whom he had ceased to love, and of whose unreasonable and unfeeling vanity he was now fully sensible. "as ahmed did not return to his house, sittâra only heard of his elevation from common rumour. she saw with despair that her wishes for his advancement had been more than accomplished, but that all her own desires had been entirely frustrated. her husband was chief astrologer--the very situation she had set her heart on; he was rich enough to enable his wife to surpass all the ladies of isfahan, in the number of her slaves, and the finery of her clothes and jewels, whenever she went to the hemmâm: but he had married a princess; and his former wife, according to custom, was banished from his house, and condemned to live on whatever pittance she might receive from a man whose love and esteem she had for ever forfeited. these thoughts distracted her mind: her envy was excited by the accounts she daily heard of ahmed's happiness, and of the beauty of the princess; and she now became anxious only for his destruction, looking on him as the sole cause of her disappointment. "an opportunity of indulging her revengeful feelings was not long wanting. the king of seestan had sent an emerald of extraordinary size and brilliancy as a present to the king of irak. it was carefully enclosed in a box, to which there were three keys, and one of them was given in charge to each of the three confidential servants employed to convey it. when they reached isfahan, the box was opened, but the emerald was gone. nothing could exceed their consternation; each accused the other: as the lock was not broken, it was evident one of them must be the thief. they consulted what was to be done; to conceal what had happened was impossible; the very attempt would have brought death on them all. it was resolved, therefore, to lay the whole matter before the king, and beg that by his great wisdom he would detect the culprit, and that he would show mercy to the other two. "the king heard the story with astonishment, but was unable to find any clue by which he might ascertain the truth. he summoned his vizier and all the wisest men of his court; but they were as much at a loss as their master. the report spread through the city; and sittâra thought she had now the means of working her husband's ruin. she solicited a private audience of his majesty, on the plea of having a communication of importance to make. her request was granted. on entering the royal presence she threw herself at his feet, exclaiming, 'pardon, o king! my having so long concealed the guilt of my husband ahmed, whose alliance is a disgrace to the royal blood. he is no astrologer, but an associate of thieves, and by that means alone did he discover the royal treasure. if any doubts are entertained of my speaking the truth, let his majesty command ahmed to recover the emerald which the servants of the king of seestan have stolen. surely the man who by his wonderful art ascertained where all the treasure of the kingdom was concealed, will find it an easy matter to discover a single precious stone.' "the king, who loved his son-in-law, was grieved by this information. still, as the honour of his family was concerned, he resolved to put ahmed to the test; and, if he found him an impostor, to vindicate the royal dignity by his condign punishment. he therefore sent for ahmed, told him what had happened, and added, 'i give you twenty days to discover who stole the emerald. if you succeed, you shall be raised to the highest honours of the state. if not, you shall suffer death for having deceived me.' "poor ahmed quitted the presence quite disconsolate. the princess, perceiving his affliction, inquired the cause. ahmed was by nature as sincere as he was pious and humble. he related, without concealment or disguise, every event of his past life; and concluded with these words: 'you must see, from what i have said, how incapable i am of doing what your father enjoins. my life must answer for it; and my only consolation is, that i shall, in twenty days, relieve you from a husband, whom from this time you must despise.' "'i only love you the better, my dear ahmed, for your sincerity and truth,' said the princess. 'one, who has been so favoured by heaven, must be dear to every pious heart. be of good cheer; i will turn astrologer this time, and see whether i can find out the thief. all i require is, that you endeavour to be composed, while i consult the stars and make my calculations.' "ahmed, delighted with this proof of affection, and reassured of the confidence of her manner, promised to be obedient; and said he would only venture to assist her exertions by his earnest prayers to that power which had never deserted him. "the princess immediately invited the messengers from the king of seestan to her palace. they were surprised at the invitation, and still more at their reception. 'you are strangers,' she said to them, 'and come from a powerful king: it is my wish to show you every attention. as to the lost emerald, think no more of it; it is a mere trifle. i will intercede with the king, my father, to give himself no further concern on the subject, being convinced that it has been lost by one of those strange accidents for which it is impossible to account.' "the princess entertained the strangers for several days, and during that time the emerald seemed to be forgotten. she conversed with them freely, inquiring particularly of seestan, and the countries they had seen on their travels. flattered by her condescension, they became confident of their safety; and were delighted with their royal patroness. the princess, seeing them completely off their guard, turned the conversation one evening on wonderful occurrences; and after each had related his story, said, 'i will now recount to you some events of my own life, which you will, i think, deem more extraordinary than any you have ever heard. "'i am my father's only child, and have therefore been a favourite from my birth. i was brought up in the belief that i could command whatever this world can afford; and was taught that unbounded liberality is the first and most princely of virtues. i early resolved to surpass every former example of generosity. i thought my power of doing good, and making every body happy, was as unlimited as my wish to do so; and i could not conceive the existence of misery beyond my power to relieve. when i was eighteen i was betrothed to my cousin, a young prince, who excelled all others in beauty of person and nobleness of mind; and i fancied myself at the summit of happiness. it chanced, however, that on the morning of my nuptials i went to walk in a garden near the palace, where i had been accustomed to spend some hours daily from my childhood. the old gardener, with whose cheerfulness i had often been amused, met me. seeing him look very miserable, i asked him what was the matter? he evaded a direct answer; but i insisted upon his disclosing the cause of his grief, declaring at the same time my determination to remove it. "''you cannot relieve me,' said the old man, with a deep sigh; 'it is out of your power, my beloved princess, to heal the wound of which i am dying.' "'my pride was roused, and i exclaimed, 'i swear--' "''do not swear!' said the gardener, seizing my hand. "''i do swear!' i repeated, irritated by the opposition. 'i will stop at nothing to make you happy; and i further swear, that i will not leave this spot until you reveal the grief which preys upon you.' "'the old man, seeing my resolution, spake with tremulous emotion as follows: 'princess, you know not what you have done. behold a man who has dared for these two years to look upon you with an eye of admiration; his love has at length reached such a pitch, that without you he must be wretched for ever; and unless you consent to meet him in the garden to-night, and become his bride instead of that of the prince, he must die.' "'shocked by this unforeseen declaration, and trembling at the thought of my oath, i tried to reason with the old gardener, and offered him all the wealth i possessed. 'i told you,' he replied, 'beautiful princess, that you could not make me happy; i endeavoured to prevent your rash vow; and nothing but that should have drawn from me the secret of my heart. death, i know, is my fate; for i cannot live and see you the wife of another. leave me to die. go to your husband; go to the enjoyment of your pomp and riches; but never again pretend to the exercise of a power which depends upon a thousand circumstances that no human being can regulate or control.' "'this speech conveyed a bitter reproach. i would have sacrificed my life a hundred times, sooner than stain my honour by marrying this man; but i had made a vow in the face of heaven, and to break it seemed sacrilege. besides, i earnestly wished to die undeceived in my favourite notion, that i could make all who came near me happy. under the struggle of these different feelings, i told the gardener his desire should be granted, and that i would be in the garden an hour before midnight. after this assurance i went away, resolved in my own mind not to outlive the disgrace to which i had doomed myself. "'i passed the day in the deepest melancholy. a little before midnight i contrived to dismiss my attendants, and, arrayed in my bridal apparel, which was covered with the richest jewels, i went towards the garden. i had not proceeded many yards, when i was met by a thief, who, seizing me, said, 'let me strip you, madam, of these unnecessary ornaments: if you make the least noise, instant death awaits you.' in my state of mind such threats frightened me little. i wished to die, but i wished, before i died, to fulfil my vow. i told my story to the thief, beseeching him to let me pass, and pledging my word to return, that he might not be disappointed of his booty. after some hesitation, he allowed me to proceed. "'i had not gone many steps, when i encountered a furious lion, which had broken loose from my father's menagerie. knowing the merciful nature of this animal towards the weak and defenceless, i dropped on my knees, repeated my story, and assured him, if he would let me fulfil my vow, i would come back to him as ready to be destroyed as he could be to make me his prey. the lion stepped aside, and i went into the garden. "'i found the old gardener all impatience for my arrival. he flew to meet me, exclaiming i was an angel. i told him i was resigned to my engagement, but had not long to live. he started, and asked what i meant. i gave him an account of my meeting with the thief and the lion. 'wretch that i am!' cried the gardener; 'how much misery have i caused! but bad as i am, i am not worse than a thief, or a beast of prey; which i should be, did i not absolve you from your vow, and assure you the only way in which you can now make me happy, is by forgiving my wicked presumption.' "'i was completely relieved by these words, and granted the forgiveness desired; but having determined in spite of the gardener's remonstrances, to keep my promises to the thief and the lion, i refused to accept his protection. on leaving the garden, the lion met me. 'noble lion,' i said, 'i am come, as i promised you.' i then related to him how the gardener had absolved me from my vow, and i expressed a hope that the king of beasts would not belie his renown for generosity. the lion again stepped aside, and i proceeded to the thief, who was still standing where i left him. i told him i was now in his power, but that, before he stripped me, i must relate to him what had happened since our last meeting. having heard me, he turned away, saying, 'i am not meaner than a poor gardener, nor more cruel than a hungry lion: i will not injure what they have respected.' "'delighted with my escapes, i returned to my father's palace, where i was united to my cousin, with whom i lived happily till his death; persuaded, however, that the power of human beings to do good is very limited, and that when they leave the narrow path marked out for them by their maker, they not only lose their object, but often wander far into error and guilt, by attempting more than it is possible to perform.' "the princess paused, and was glad to see her guests so enchanted with her story, that it had banished every other thought from their minds. after a few moments she turned to one of them, and asked, 'now which, think you, showed the greatest virtue in his forbearance--the gardener, the thief, or the lion?' "'the gardener assuredly,' was his answer; 'to abandon so lovely a prize, when so nearly his own.' "'and what is your opinion?' said the princess to his neighbour. "'i think the lion was the most generous,' he replied; 'he must have been very hungry, and in such a state it was great forbearance to abstain from devouring so delicate a morsel.' "'you both seem to me to be quite wrong,' said the third, impatiently; 'the thief had by far the most merit. gracious heavens! to have within his grasp such wealth, and to refrain from taking it! i could not have believed it possible, unless the princess herself had assured us of the fact.' "the princess now, assuming an air of dignity, said to the first who spoke, 'you, i perceive, are an admirer of the ladies;' to the second, 'you are an epicure;' and then turning to the third, who was already pale with fright, 'you, my friend, have the emerald in your possession. you have betrayed yourself, and nothing but an immediate confession can save your life.' "the guilty man's countenance removed all doubt; and when the princess renewed her assurances of safety, he threw himself at her feet, acknowledged his offence, and gave her the emerald, which he carried concealed about him. the princess rose, went to her husband, and said, 'there, ahmed, what do you think of the success of my calculations?' she then related the whole circumstance, and bade him carry the jewel to her father, adding, 'i trust he will feel a greater admiration than ever for my husband, the wonderful astrologer!' "ahmed took the emerald in silent astonishment, and went with it to the king, of whom he requested a private audience. on its being granted, he presented the emerald. the king, dazzled by its brilliancy and size, loaded his son-in-law with the most extravagant praises, extolling him as superior to any astrologer who had ever been seen in the world. poor ahmed, conscious how little he deserved such praise, threw himself at the king's feet, and begged that he might be allowed to speak the truth, as he was readier to die than to continue imposing on his majesty's goodness. 'you impose on me!' said the king, 'that is impossible. did you not recover my treasure? have you not brought me this emerald?' "'true, o king!' said ahmed, 'i have done so, but without possessing that science for which i have gained a reputation.' he then told his history from first to last with perfect sincerity. the king showed great displeasure while listening to his earlier adventures, but when ahmed related the story of the emerald, intermingling his tale with fervent expressions of admiration for the wonderful wisdom and virtue of the princess, he heard him with delight. after he had finished, the king summoned his vizier and chief counsellors, and desired that his daughter also might attend, and when they were all assembled, he spake as follows; 'daughter, i have learnt the history of thy husband from his own lips. i have also heard much in confirmation of the belief i have long entertained, that thy knowledge and goodness are even greater than thy beauty. they prove that thou wert born to rule; and i only obey the will of heaven, and consult the happiness of my people, when i resign my power into thy hands, being resolved to seek that repose which my declining years require. as to thy husband, thou wilt dispose of him as it pleases thee. his birth, i always knew, was low, but i thought that his wisdom and learning raised him to a level with the highest rank; these, it now appears, he does not possess. if thou deemest his alliance a disgrace, divorce him. if, on the other hand, thou art willing to keep him as thy husband, do so, and give him such share as thou thinkest fit in the authority which i now commit to thee.' "the princess knelt to kiss her father's hand, and answered, 'may my father's life and reign be prolonged for his daughter's happiness, and for that of his subjects! i am a weak woman, altogether unequal to the task which his too fond love would impose on me. if my humble counsel is listened to, my father will continue to govern his people, whose gratitude and veneration will make obedience light, and rule easy. as to ahmed, i love and esteem him; he is sensible, sincere, and pious, and i deem myself fortunate in having for my husband a man so peculiarly favoured and protected by heaven. what, my dear father, are high rank or brilliant talents without religion and virtue? they are as plants which bear gaudy blossoms, but yield no fruit.' "the king was delighted with his daughter's wisdom and affection. 'your advice,' he said, 'my beloved daughter, shall be followed. i will continue to govern my kingdom, while you and ahmed shall assist me with your counsels.' "the good cobbler was soon afterwards nominated vizier; and the same virtue and piety, which had obtained him respect in the humblest sphere of life, caused him to be loved and esteemed in the high station to which he was elevated. "the designs of sittâra were discovered, but her guilt was pardoned. she was left with a mere subsistence, a prey to disappointment; for she continued to the last to sigh for that splendour she had seen displayed by the chief astrologer's wife at the hemmâm; thereby affording a salutary lesson to those who admit envy into their bosoms, and endeavour to attain their ends by unreasonable and unjustifiable means." footnotes: [ ] this occurrence was told the elchee by hajee ibrahim in , scarcely four years after the event to which it referred. vide hist. persia, vol. ii. p. . [ ] it is very common in the east for the daughters of monarchs to be married to men eminent for piety or learning, however low their origin. chapter xxi. mârâgâ--naser-ood-deen--persian servants--jaghatty river--kûrdistan--robbery--arrival at sennah--ardelan--conclusion. mârâgâ, where we halted some days, is a beautiful town, famous in eastern history as the place where hoolakoo, the grandson of chenghiz, relaxed from his warlike toils, and assembled round him men of the first genius of the age; who have commemorated his love of science, and given him more fame as its munificent patron than he acquired by all his conquests. amongst these was naser-ood-deen, who, in the thirteenth century formed his celebrated astronomical tables. we approached our encampment by a range of low hills, the top of which had been levelled to aid naser-ood-deen, and other astronomers, in making their observations. we traced distinctly the foundations of the observatory, which had been constructed for the favourite philosopher of the tartar prince. in this observatory there was, according to one of the best mahomedan works,[ ] a species of apparatus to represent the celestial sphere, with the signs of the zodiac, the conjunctions, transits, and revolutions of the heavenly bodies. through a perforation in the dome, the rays of the sun were admitted, so as to strike upon certain lines on the pavement in a way to indicate, in degrees and minutes, the altitude and declination of that luminary during every season, and to mark the time and hour of the day throughout the year. it was further supplied with a map of the terrestrial globe, in all its climates or zones, exhibiting the several regions of the habitable world, as well as a general outline of the ocean, with the numerous islands contained in its bosom; and, according to the mahomedan author, all these were so perspicuously arranged and delineated, as at once to remove, by the clearest demonstration, every doubt from the mind of the student! after contemplating for some time what remained of a work, which had been dedicated to celestial objects, amidst scenes of rapine and bloodshed, we were reminded that we had terrestrial occupations to attend to, being called to breakfast at our tents. these were pitched on the green banks of the river that flows past mârâgâ, and over which are two admirable bridges of six elliptical arches each, built by the present governor, ahmed khan, a nobleman of high rank and influence. on approaching the tents we were met by fishermen with some trout carried on willow branches, which were passed through their gills, exactly in the same manner as is customary in scotland. those of our mission, and amongst them the elchee, who belonged to that country, loudly expressed their delight with the willows, the fish, and the clear stream from which they were taken. we had the trout fried for breakfast; and during that meal, persia, its kings, princes, astronomers, armies--all were forgotten, and nothing was talked of but the esk, the ewis, the liddle, and the teviot; important rivers no doubt to the natives of eskdale, ewisdale, liddisdale, and teviotdale, but probably as little known to many of my english readers, as to the inhabitants of aderbejan. i visited a small tomb whilst at mârâgâ, in which, according to common report, the remains of hoolakoo are interred, as also those of his christian queen delghooz khâtoon. to this lady, even mahomedan writers ascribe some of the most munificent actions of her moghul lord, who was attached to her in a very extraordinary degree. she is reputed to have been a great proficient in science, and to have honoured with her peculiar patronage and favour the celebrated naser-ood-deen, of whom i have already spoken. the reputation of this great man had nearly proved his ruin. a young chief, of a gloomy disposition, belonging to the dreaded sect of hoosein, who dwelt in the north-western mountains of persia, having heard of his fame, and thinking to profit by his wisdom, commanded that he should be brought to his presence. the mandate was instantly obeyed; for his followers gave a devoted obedience to their chief, being fanatics of the same sect as the subjects of the old man of the mountain,[ ] whose history is familiar to all readers of the wars of the crusades. a few men were sent in disguise to bokhara, and naser-ood-deen was seized and carried off while walking in his garden. he was made over from one party to another, till he found himself at the "eagle's nest:" so the residence of the young prince, on the top of a high mountain, was called. his value, we are told, was fully appreciated at this barbarous court. while, however, they honoured him with every attention, they took precautions to prevent all possibility of escape. it was during this confinement that he wrote the celebrated treatise on ethics,[ ] which has raised his fame as high for philosophy as for astronomy. the desire of liberating a genius of whom his country was justly proud, was, we are told, one of the principal motives which led hoolakoo to attack and destroy this abode of dreaded assassins;[ ] and when their boasted eagle's nest was taken, the emperor rejoiced less in its capture, than in having released naser-ood-deen, who was immediately invested with a dress of honour, and promoted to high employment. but it was to the favour and patronage of the christian princess delghooz khâtoon, that this philosopher owed the opportunities he enjoyed at mârâgâ, of making his name coeval with that of oriental science. no less than five of my friends, who had been long absent on their travels, joined us at mârâgâ. four of them i could hardly recognize, being dressed in persian clothes, and having large whiskers and long beards. they told us wondrous tales of seestan, balochistan, hamadân, and other countries in which they had been. we were now a party of fourteen, but we did not remain long together: some were detached to drill persian soldiers, while others were sent to survey and report upon the soil and population of different districts of this once famous kingdom. the elchee had returned from his first mission by the route of hamadân: he now determined to go to bagdad by that of kûrdistan, the ancient carduchia, a province to which the sword and the pen of xenophon have given celebrity. i was delighted at the prospect of visiting this country, which i found, by a persian history[ ] belonging to the elchee, had a particular claim to the attention of the christian world. it was the birthplace of the famous saladin,[ ] whose sword arrested the progress of the conquerors of palestine. according to my author, shadi ben mirvan, a native of kûrdistan, was kutwal or magistrate of tekreet.[ ] in this office he was succeeded by his eldest son, nizâm-ood-deen ayoob, who was compelled to leave the country in consequence of his younger brother, assad-ood-deen, having, in defence of an injured female, killed a man of a powerful family. the governor of the province is said to have admired the spirit and humanity which prompted this deed; but being unable to protect the brothers against the relations of the deceased, he recommended and aided their flight. they went first to moosul,[ ] and thence to balbec, the prince of which, noor-ood-deen, was an intimate ally of azad ismael, the waly of egypt, who was then warring, according to the mahomedan writer, against the accursed infidels of europe! noor-ood-deen, pleased with the bold, manly character of assad-ood-deen, sent him in command of his forces to egypt; where, our eastern author tells us, he rose so high in the favour of the waly, that he employed him to put to death his vizier, and rewarded him with the vacant office! he died soon after,[ ] and his high station devolved upon his nephew saladin, son of nizâm-ood-deen ayoob. the young saladin is described by this author in glowing colours. his qualities were of the highest order; even in youth he soon outstript all competitors. he became the sole manager of affairs in egypt under the title of mallik nasser: he wrote to the prince of balbec to permit his father to join him, and on the twenty-fourth day of rejib, in the year of the hegira , the old man, who a few years before had considered himself and his family ruined, on being compelled to abandon the office of a petty magistrate, was met and welcomed at some distance from his son's palace by the waly of egypt; for that prince thought he could not too highly honour the parent of the man, to whom he ascribed the safety and glory of his country. saladin wished to make over his station to his father; but the latter declined the offer, and continued, during the three years he lived, without any public employment. the waly of egypt having died, saladin, already in possession of the power, succeeded to the name of sovereign of that kingdom. the riches of which he became possessed are minutely described by the persian author. amongst them was a staff of emeralds of extraordinary value, and a library of one hundred thousand select volumes. noor-ood-deen, the prince of balbec, who had raised this family, becoming jealous of saladin's power, endeavoured to destroy him; but all his efforts were defeated, and at his death syria was added to egypt. thus originated the power of the celebrated saladin. his recovery of jerusalem, the siege of ascalon, and his wars with those who are termed infidels, are given at great length, and the boldest of the christian heroes are often represented as flying before his victorious sword. i looked through this volume, for an account of the wonderful achievements of our gallant richard, and some mention of his fair sister matilda; but i looked in vain, and the omission produced no favourable impression of an author who could pass over subjects so dear to every english reader of the wars of palestine. the day before we left mârâgâ, our muleteers mutinied. they refused to proceed through kûrdistan, alleging that the inhabitants were all robbers and murderers, and delighted in nothing more than plundering and putting to death persians, from whom most of the tribes of that rugged country differ as much in habits as in religion, being half savages and of the sect of soonees. the elchee was only able to quiet them by promising to replace any mules which might be stolen, and to defend them if attacked. the temper of the elchee, which had been ruffled by this occurrence, was still more so by the conduct of one of his principal servants, feridoon beg, who, besides receiving handsome pay, bore a gold stick, and took precedence of all the state servants on occasions of ceremony. this man having been sent with two hundred piastres to the servants of the chief of mârâgâ, kept back twenty. being detected, his only defence was, that the fellows had cheated him and others, by intercepting part of a present from their master to the domestics of the elchee. the excuse was not admitted. feridoon was degraded, and being a favourite, had little sympathy. one of his companions, approving of the indignation his conduct had excited, said, "what a mean rascal! to behave as he has done; and all for twenty piastres!" this speech increased the elchee's passion, who reprobated the man for looking at the amount of the sum taken, not at the immorality of the action. "you, no doubt," said he, "when you begin, will be a rogue on a large scale." he proceeded in his anger from individuals to communities, and finished by declaring, that there was neither truth nor honesty to be found in persia. this was so much the general impression, that we were delighted to find the elchee's eyes at length opened; but in the evening, when some of us expressed concurrence in his opinions, what was our surprise to find that these had been completely changed by a few hours of reflection! "i was," he said, "very unreasonable this morning, and am quite ashamed of myself. what could you expect?" said he to a gentleman who had mentioned some instances of being cheated in the purchase of horses and mules, as well as by servants; "what, i ask, could you expect to happen to an envoy from persia, who landed at hull, with the reputation of having plenty of money; and proceeded to the court of st. james's, furnishing himself and suite with horses, bought without experience, and hiring a numerous train of servants, with little if any inquiry as to their character? do you think our laws would secure his being supplied in yorkshire with horses worth what he gave for them, or prevent his being cheated and robbed, by men who hang loose on society, and who consequently would crowd to such a master? "now what is our situation in persia? we fit out a mission at abusheher, buy such horses as are offered, and hire every good-looking fellow who presents himself. we are in fact compelled to do so; for in a country where religious prejudices are so strong, none but those who cannot get bread elsewhere would come to serve faringees, unless tempted by the hopes of great gain, through fair or unfair means. "this, if you reflect, must be particularly the case in a country where laws have little force, but where, whatever of morality there is in the lower orders, chiefly depends upon their religious sentiments, or feelings of allegiance and attachment to superiors; and amongst equals, on the ties which subsist in families and tribes. their religious prejudices are all against us, and we neither have, nor can have, any claim on their allegiance or attachment, nor the benefit of family ties to guard us in our occasional visits to this country; and we should not therefore wonder that we are sometimes cheated; far less should we proceed, as i did this morning, to condemn a whole nation because we discover such crimes in those around us. we ought, in justice to the persians, to refer much of what has occurred to our peculiar situation in their country, and not write them all down rogues, unless we ascertain that they are, as a people, in the habit of behaving towards each other, as we have found a few of them behave towards us." such was the elchee's doctrine, to which there neither was any expression of assent or dissent. some probably believed there was reason in what he stated, while others thought there was no use in arguing with him on a subject, on which he was known to be very prejudiced and impatient. two more marches brought us to the banks of the river jaghattee, which rising among the mountains of kûrdistan, after fertilizing several valleys in that country, and in the province of aderbejan, flows into the lake of oormeah. we halted here some days; and were so delighted with the fishing, shooting, and hunting, near our encampment, that we should have remained longer, but for a report that the plague was in a neighbouring village. this determined the elchee to move; nor could he be induced to remain by the assurance of some kûrds, that this village was the utmost limit to which the scourge had ever been known to extend in this quarter. it would fill a volume, were i to relate the amusing and interesting accounts we received from our enterprising friends; who had not only visited many of the least known parts of persia, but had penetrated into the wide and barbarous countries between that kingdom and india. their travels, if ever noticed, must belong to a future work; none of them excited my curiosity more than those of a gallant and valued friend, who has since died the death of a soldier. he had traversed the arid plains of seestan, and visited the famous cities of mushed and yezd in khorassan. as he knew yezd was the chief residence of the few guebres, or worshippers of fire, who still remain in persia, and who live there, under the protection of their chief, who is one of the principal magistrates of the town, he had furnished himself with letters from the parsees or guebres at bombay, to their friends at yezd. among these was one from khoosroo, a well known poet, who, like many others, is more famous for the quantity than the quality of his rhymes. my friend had kept a copy of this singular production, which was in verse. after informing the chief to whom this letter was addressed that the person who would present it was endowed with many qualities, khoosroo terms him the vakeel or agent of the elchee, whom he describes as a man "who never took rest for one moment, in one place."[ ] this characteristic hit made us all laugh. the elchee, while he joined in our mirth, defended himself against this charge of perpetual motion as well as he could. "laugh away, gentlemen," said he, "but recollect one thing--i have never changed my abode, but by the orders of my superiors." we went from the banks of the jaghattee to a village called koozlee. ascending to the top of a hill, we had a fine view of kûrdistan, which appeared, far as the eye could reach, an interminable cluster of hills. a few scattered huts, and several small encampments, were all we could see of human dwellings; and their distance from each other indicated that stage of civilization which precedes the congregating of men into villages and towns. the impressions this prospect made upon our minds, as to the character of the people on whose rugged land we were now entering, were confirmed the ensuing morning at three o'clock, by the cry of "robbers, robbers! murder, murder!" all was instantly in confusion; trumpets sounded, drums beat to arms; boots destined for the right leg were put on the left, while we huddled on our clothes, and ran to our posts. it was too dark to see ten yards; but we soon discovered that there were no assailants in the camp. many of our party who had gone in front came back, and every one had a more alarming tale than the other. according to them, several men were killed, and a hundred mules plundered. while listening to these accounts, a portuguese servant came galloping into camp, exclaiming, "they are murdering all the christians! may the lord preserve us!" the pious ejaculations of the affrighted joseph caused much merriment; for, as he was the only christian who had been in danger, it was evident that his alarm, whatever character he desired to give it, was all for himself. the elchee halted till daylight, and then proceeded towards the village; where he found his mehmandar, two kûrdish chiefs, and three or four principal men of the country, consulting what was to be done. they entreated him to allow them to trace the robbers, and recover what had been plundered, which was now found to amount to five mule loads; but circumstances led to a suspicion that some of those who gave this advice were concerned in the robbery, and the elchee was consequently in no temper to listen to their counsel. he told them not to speak to him, as he neither wanted their advice nor aid: being resolved to deter the natives of kûrdistan from ever again meddling with an european envoy. they endeavoured, but in vain, to pacify him; he ordered the infantry and baggage to proceed to the next stage, twelve miles distant, and with the cavalry, divided into three parties, swept the country for eight miles, in the direction in which the mules had been carried off. three mules and some of the plundered articles were found; and as a security for the remainder, nine head persons of hamlets and petty tribes were seized, and taken to our encampment. the mehmandar and some kûrdish chiefs entreated for their release, and crowds of women and children followed us imploring mercy; but all received the same answer; "when every article which has been taken is restored or what cannot be found is paid for, then, and not a moment before, shall these men be released." the elchee either was or pretended to be in a great rage. the mehmandar, who was a favourite, and used to joke with him, became alarmed: "i now see," said he, "what i had before heard, but could not believe, that you faringees, when in a passion, are as great savages as we are, or even as the kûrds." when we reached our encampment, the hostages were placed in strict confinement, and not allowed to communicate with any of their families or tribes. the consequence was what we anticipated. the lost mules and the greater part of the baggage were brought back. nothing remained unaccounted for, but some clothes belonging to the elchee and his personal servants. these were valued at seven hundred and twenty piastres; which, seeing no abatement would be allowed, were at last paid by the collector of the district.[ ] some hours after the elchee sent for this officer, and returned him three hundred and twenty piastres, the amount of his personal loss. this unexpected consideration put the collector in good humour. the prisoners, who had been alarmed for their lives, were not only released but feasted; and the elchee made small, but valued, presents of coloured handkerchiefs, knives, and scissors, to several of their wives and children, who had followed them to our camp. in short, a gloomy morning was succeeded by a sunshiny evening, and our kûrd friends left us, declaring they would never again plunder any of our tribe; a promise they will probably keep or break, according as they think they can measure strength with those of our race who may visit their country. the elchee having become not only calm, but in high spirits with his success, was visited by the mehmandar and others, who assured him the news of these transactions would soon spread, and protect his camp against all further attempts of plunderers; and certain it is, we were never again assailed during our residence in kûrdistan. our march for several days was over a very rugged country, in which there was little cultivation. the pasture appeared excellent, and the valleys were watered by small but clear streams. the great want in kûrdistan, as in many other parts of persia, is wood. my indian friend, soobadar syed hoosein,[ ] when riding with me, remarked the great difference in this particular between the provinces we had travelled through, and his native land. "these proud persians," said he, "boast of their country; but they have neither shade to protect them from the heat of summer, nor fuel to save them from the cold of winter." the day he made this observation, the good soobadar had reason to complain of the want of the latter article; for, as winter was yet distant, it being only the th of august, none was furnished, and the cold proved excessive; the water in our tents was frozen, and fahrenheit's thermometer stood at ° at six in the morning. as we approached sennah, the capital of the province of ardelan, the soil improved, and, if cultivated, would, no doubt, produce abundance of grain; but its rude inhabitants prefer a pastoral life. they are, if we may judge from what we saw, an uncommonly robust race, and appear unchanged in their manners and customs by the twenty-three centuries which have elapsed since the days of xenophon, who would have no difficulty, if permitted to return from the elysian fields, to recognize the descendants of the enemies he encountered amidst these wilds. i made this observation to baharâm meerzâ, who had been sent by the waly of sennah to welcome the elchee, and remarked, at the same time, the little care or knowledge they had about religion, though all professed that of mahomed. "it is all very true," he said, "but two or three days will bring you to sennah, and you will then see that though we are kûrds, and have a pride in being so, we are not all barbarians." the evening before we went to sennah, i read the introductory pages of the history of the kûrds. it is written by a native; and, according to this patriotic author, all the virtue and courage this world has ever known was nurtured amid the wilds and mountains of kûrdistan. its inhabitants, he affirms, attained great glory in former ages, and would have subjected the universe, but for the caution of the prophet mahomed, who, struck by the fierce look and gigantic form of a kûrd ambasssador, prayed to god that this formidable race might never be united. this prayer was heard, adds my author; and the warriors of kûrdistan have ever since been at variance with each other. sennah is so surrounded by hills that the town is not seen till you are close to the suburbs. we were pleased with its appearance: the houses are well built; and the gardens and cultivation in its vicinity came in strong and pleasing contrast with the rugged lands through which we had travelled for the last eight days. two sons of aman ollâh khan, the waly, or prince, came with three hundred horse to meet, and welcome us to the court of their father. i was delighted with the eldest of these boys. though only ten years of age, he rode and managed a very spirited charger with great address. in his conversation he was free and unembarrassed, mixing the simplicity of the child with the information of the man. he had, he said, been in all parts of his father's territories, and appeared well acquainted with the various tribes by which they were inhabited, answering every question put to him by the elchee on this subject with remarkable clearness and correctness. the day after our arrival, we went to visit the waly, who received us in a magnificent style. we found him attended by his principal officers; and the two boys, who had come to meet us, were standing close to their father. the elchee wished them to be seated; but that, he was informed, was against the etiquette of this petty court. that etiquette however was disturbed. a man came into the room, and spoke to the waly in the kûrdish dialect. the prince laughed; and on the elchee asking what was the matter--"nothing," said he, "except that a spoilt child of mine, not four years of age, declares he will put himself to death, unless allowed to see you as well as his brothers." the elchee entreated he might make his appearance, saying he was fond of children, and much flattered by the boy's anxiety to see him. soon after, in marched this desperate little kûrd, loaded with fine clothes. he was tolerably bold at first, but took alarm when pressed by the elchee to sit near him; he appeared particularly startled by the cocked hat and high feather. the elchee, observing this, took out the feather and gave it him to play with. this act of conciliation was completely successful. after amusing himself with the feather for some time, the little fellow ventured to take up the hat, examined it, and other parts of our dress, and in a few minutes began to chatter in a manner which delighted the father, who seemed much pleased with the attention paid to his favourite. the waly having returned the elchee's visit, and invited us to dine with him, we went to his palace, a small but handsome building. the hall in which we were received was forty feet long, twenty-four broad, and thirty high. a facing of white marble covered the walls of this apartment to the height of eight feet, above that it was painted and richly gilt. the chequered gilding of the roof had an appearance like mosaic, which produced a good effect. adjoining to this hall, and one step more elevated, was a room twenty-four feet by eighteen, connected with the interior of the palace by folding-doors, so admirably finished, and the gilding of which so exactly corresponded with the other ornaments of the apartment, that when shut it was difficult to discover them. the front of the hall was supported by four richly carved and gilt pillars, and opened on a terrace commanding a view of the town. on this terrace was a fountain, adapted to its size and that of the building. persia is famous for its carpets; but none i had ever seen surpassed in beauty that on which the waly and his guests were seated in this hall of his fathers. he appeared to have great pride in introducing the elchee to the persons by whom he was surrounded. none of them, he said, counted less than eight or nine generations in the service of his family, and some had been its firm and attached adherents during a period of four centuries. "my country," he concluded, "is above two hundred miles in length, and nearly as much in breadth. we owe and pay allegiance to the kings of persia, but we are exempted from that severity of rule which often ruins our neighbours, who possess rich plains and wealthy cities. ardelan presents little temptation to an invader. it abounds in nothing," he added, smiling, "but brave men and hardy horses." the waly was pleased to find we had, from perusing the history of kûrdistan, become acquainted with all the great families of that country, and were familiar with the names and actions of some of the most renowned of his ancestors. he had a copy of the same history, but it wanted some passages which were in that of the elchee, which he borrowed to have them transcribed. the elchee was pleased, when his volume was returned, to find an addition, which brought up the history of the walies of ardelan to the present date, with a most flattering and highly coloured account of the arrival of the british mission at sennah; an event which the author, in a truly eastern style, predicted would henceforward be deemed an epoch in the annals of that principality. the town of sennah, which lies in n. lat. ° ', enjoys a fine climate; the small valley in which it is situated being protected from the severity of the winters in this elevated country, by the hills around it. the prince and his chiefs live in great luxury, and the inhabitants have all the appearance of enjoying competence, if not affluence. among them were forty families of nestorian christians, the heads of which, with their pastor, visited the elchee. there were many of the same sect, the good priest informed us, in kûrdistan, who had resided there ever since its separation from the greek church, a period of thirteen centuries. as for himself and his little flock, he added, they had a small church at sennah, and were, as their fathers had been, not only tolerated, but protected by the princes of ardelan. this may in part be ascribed to their being industrious and useful citizens, as they are almost all either artizans or manufacturers. from subsequent conversations which the elchee had with the waly, it appeared that though the kings of persia had never attempted to establish their own authority over ardelan, or to interfere with its internal administration, they have often disturbed its quiet, by fomenting discord in the family of its ruler; and more than once have obtained a temporary influence and power, by aiding a discontented or revolted prince, to overthrow the direct line of succession. the contrast between the inhabitants of sennah and of the neighbouring hills is singularly striking. the first are little different in their habits from citizens in persia, while the latter are even more rude than the wandering tribes of that country. you meet them, watching their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, within five or six miles of the small but luxurious capital, and are surprised to find that it is with pity, not envy, they regard its inhabitants. they glory in the state and splendour of the prince and chiefs to whom they owe hereditary allegiance, but look with contempt on the unwarlike, but more civilized community, with whom those they obey are immediately surrounded. hamadân, the ancient ecbatana, kermen shâh, once the residence of the mighty khoosroo; bagdad and its caliphs, the renowned port of balsorah, and the southern shores of the persian gulph, are all before me. but here these volumes must close. my efforts to amuse, and perhaps inform my readers, are interrupted by circumstances, which, though they forbid promise, warrant a hope, that if we are pleased with each other we may meet again. footnotes: [ ] the writer of the hubeeb-ul-syur is the authority quoted by major price, from whose history of the mahomedans this account is taken. according to this work, an extraordinary difference was found in the sun's altitude and declination, at corresponding periods, between what was exhibited in the tables now framed by naser-ood-deen, and in those formerly established; and an error of surprising magnitude was detected in the mode that had hitherto been observed for adjusting the commencement of the new year. [ ] the first who established this sect in persia was hoosein subah. his followers hold the same tenets as those of ismael in egypt.--vid. hist. persia, vol. i. p. . [ ] this treatise is called the akhlâk-e-nâsiree, and is deemed one of the most valuable works which the mahomedans possess on moral philosophy. [ ] the english word assassin is said to be derived from the term hooseinee, by which this sect was known. [ ] this work is called tarikh akrâd, or the history of the kûrds. it was given to the elchee by the kûrd chief of mohezzee. [ ] the mahomedan name of this hero is sallâh-ood-deen. [ ] this fort was taken from the turks by timoor, after a memorable siege. vide hist. persia, vol. i. p. . [ ] the ancient nineveh. [ ] assad-ood-deen's death took place in the year of the hegira . [ ] "kih yek dem na geered be-jahee kerrâ." [ ] zabiteh. [ ] soobadar is the highest rank a native can attain in the indian army. this gallant soldier is now soobadar major of the body guard of the governor of madras. london: w. clowes & sons, duke street, stamford street. * * * * * * transcriber's note: obvious errors of punctuation were corrected. inconsistent hyphenation and diacritics were made consistent. p. : reecital of passages -> recital of passages. p. : sweatmeats -> sweetmeats. p. : celebrated physican -> celebrated physician. p. : seach after truth -> search after truth. p. : prince of the the zend family -> prince of the zend family. p. : venemous species -> venomous species. p. : as to to its size -> as to its size. p. : two dervises -> two dervishes. p. : being unusal for him -> being unusual for him. p. : banished his presence -> banished from his presence. p. : frighful precipices -> frightful precipices. p. : embassadors -> ambassadors. p. : beeen compelled -> been compelled. p. : let me me fulfil my vow -> let me fulfil my vow. p. : the present governer -> the present governor.